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Coach Green’s St. Patrick’s Day Hangover Workout

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner I wanted to set my readers up with a training and nutrition plan to help off-set the potentially unwanted effects of this inebriation celebration. I knew just the man for the job… I contacted an old friend of mine, Coach Green, to put together a quick but challenging program for us. It doesn’t require any equipment aside from a chin up bar… and a bucket. Here is Coach Green’s 4 Leaf Clover Hangover Workout (Warning- I can’t be held responsible for Coach Green’s conduct … viewer discretion advised):   Here is an outline of the full program: […]

2013-03-16T00:32:53-04:00
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How to Induce Hypertrophy

So you want to gain some lean muscle?  You’re looking to get “swole” but you’re getting confused by all the different training recommendations? Well, you’re in luck. My friend and colleague Jay Horn has shared this guest post detailing the key causes of hypertrophy. If you follow his suggestions and make sure your nutrition is on point (you are consuming adequate calories and macro-nutrients), you will grow. Let’s take a closer look: How to Induce Hypertrophy By Jay Horn Hypertrophy is a multifactorial process – this includes: Inroad (weakening of muscle) Increased progressive tension Accumulated fatigue (hormonal response) Microtrauma (tearing of muscle fibers where repair and growth can occur) No matter what the muscles MUST undergo a progressive tension stimulus. There are different training protocols out there that produce results, but nonetheless this is the most important factor: Progressive tension. This means one must load the muscle efficiently and have [...]

2012-12-28T00:00:42-05:00
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I Want Fitness 4 Christmas

Santa’s job isn’t easy. He spends an entire year preparing to deliver BILLIONS of presents all over the planet… all in one night.  This requires him to run a full time toy factory, manage a staff of dozens of elves, and keep up a reindeer farm. Plus he has to answer millions of personal letters from his fans, do thousands of “mall gigs”, collect money for charities, and appear on hundreds of commercials, TV shows, and movies every year.  Sometimes it seems like he has to be in two or more places at the same time. Can you imagine the stress he must be under? Talk about cortisol production! And he manages this on a diet of almost exclusively cookies, milk, and candy. […]

2012-12-21T00:43:42-05:00
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Quick Fat-Blasting Exercise “Complex” Workouts

An exercise “complex” routine is basically a series of exercises performed in sequence using a single barbell or set of dumbbells. You will perform the entire series of exercises back to back with minimal (if any) rest using the same bar or dumbbells. But don’t mistake complex training as being the same thing as circuit training… with a complex routine you are using several compound exercises that flow together smoothly transitioning from one to the next without rest; this delivers a cardiovascular conditioning effect as well as metabolic conditioning (blasting your fat stores!). […]

2012-11-19T02:56:20-05:00
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Fit Women CAN do Pull Ups with Correct Training

A recent study suggested that even fit women can’t do pull ups (or chin ups), and it went on to explain why. Although it’s obviously more challenging for women to perform pull ups than it is for men (due to differences in muscle mass and leverage), I do have some concerns with how this poorly designed study was conducted.  First of all, according to the New York Times, here is the basic outline of the study: “The Dayton researchers recruited 17 women of normal weight who were unable to perform a single pull-up. They then trained them for three months, prescribing exercises to strengthen their upper bodies, improve their aerobic fitness and lower their body fat. All that training produced results: the women’s upper-body strength increased by 36 per cent and their body fat was reduced by 2 per cent. But they failed to produce the main result researchers were [...]

2012-11-06T17:52:48-05:00
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Gold Medal Bodies Parallettes One Program

If you’ve been following my blog for the last few months, you know that I’ve been pursuing bodyweight training / calisthenics for a while now. I’m very pleased that I’m able to perform several exercises that I could never do in the past, such as muscle ups, handstand pushups (on the wall), pistol squats, and standing ab wheel rollouts. I’m also close to mastering the front lever and human flag. The set of exercises that I’ve been having the greatest difficulty with have been the parallette skills. Planche and press progressions on the parallettes KILL me! Thankfully I was referred by a friend of mine who is really into this stuff to check out Gold Medal Bodies. The GMB crew are experts at coaching this type of gymnastics / bodyweight type training, and offer a broad selection of awesome programs (for rings, parallettes, handstands, flexibility, floor work, and more). I [...]

2012-09-16T20:35:04-04:00
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Stay Fit on Vacation using Body Weight Training

I just returned from Florida for a relaxing 10 days of vacation with family.  I got some much needed rest, sunshine, food, and ‘entertainment’, but I also got in some great workouts!  I’ve always found that during a vacation is a perfect time to step up my fitness routine. However, it’s common for many people to fall off track with their health and fitness goals while on vacation.  Their regular routine is disrupted, the exercise facilities are less than adequate, and there is probably an abundance of food and alcohol available.  It’s no wonder a lot of people tend to gain a little body fat on their holiday travels. But by following some basic exercise and nutrition tips, and by looking at your vacation ‘free time’ from a different perspective, you can come back from your trip in better shape than when you left. […]

2012-08-15T02:23:50-04:00
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The #1 Muscle Building Problem SOLVED

Ben Pakulski Guest Post, creator of Mass Intentions 40   Question: Ben, please identify the number one training mistake that would be preventing individuals from achieving maximal muscle gains. Answer: Mistake number one is never knowing what the right amount of exhaustion is Have you ever left the gym wondering if you could have done more?  If you should have done more? I know I have. Heck, there has even been days when I comtemplated going back in the gym because I just didn’t KNOW that my muscles were exhausted. That’s a terrible feeling. I don’t know about you, but when I go to the gym I want to KNOW that my time is well spent and im not wasting my days and getting less results than I am after. Here is the next cutting edge intensifier in muscle building: NOS […]

2012-06-09T01:02:03-04:00
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The #1 Factor To Build Muscle

Guest Post from Ben Pakulski Question: Ben, please identify the number one training mistake that would be preventing individuals from achieving maximal muscle gains Answer: Well, we all know “the guy” in the gym that throws a ton of weight on the bar and moves it with terrible form and looks like hes going to hurt himself. He is the root of many of our jokes, and definitely gets a lot of sideways looks from the patrons of the gym. We’ve all asked ourselves “WHAT is he trying to do?” Chances are, he has no clue. He comes in the gym everyday and does the exact same thing week in and week out because he really has NO IDEA what he is trying to do. Therein lies the problem! Guess what, more likely than not, you have all been guilty of doing this too at some point in your life (whether you care to admit it [...]

2012-06-09T00:47:47-04:00
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PakMan’s Top 5 Muscle Building Tips

This is a follow up to my previous post where I shared Ben’s Top 5 Fat Loss Tips, from his seminar Advanced Techniques for Muscular Hypertrophy and Fat Loss. This time I want to discuss his Top 5 Muscle Building Tips. Muscle Building Tip #1: Understand Muscle Function and Train with Focus One of the first things Ben spoke about was how important it was to have a decent understanding of the function of the muscles you are training.  Learn their origins and insertions on your body, what their action is when they contract, understand how to fully shorten the muscle, and focus on creating tension in the target muscles when you are training.  Your muscles don’t know how much weight you are moving… they only respond to how much tension you place on them. Once you understand basic muscle function, you can manipulate your exercises to better target your [...]

2012-06-09T00:28:52-04:00
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