Strength and Physique

When it comes to having impressive strength and an impressive looking physique, most people neglect the role of posture. Newbies always overemphasive the bench press and chest. You know what I’m talking about: 5 exercises for chest, but only 2 for the back. I can always spot a newbie, because he’s got a hunched over look as if his genes were crossed between a bulldog and an ape.

Posture is extremely important, because it makes your overall physique look more dignified and impressive. In fact, I devote a whole chapter in my book to postural realignment. Part of the power of posture, is that you look taller.

Did you know that on average, taller men are promoted more and farther up in a company than shorter men? Or how about women? Women are hardwired to go for taller men. Note that I said "taller" men and not "bigger" or "muscular" men. Or how about law enforcement? Did you know that shorter officers meet resistant and combative suspects far more than taller officers?

How you look is how you will be perceived. Poor posture makes you look brutish, introverted and defensive. In fights, you close in your posture to protect yourself and your vital organs, but in every day social interaction, that same look communicates fear and lack of confidence.

Good posture makes one look and feel more confident, and this comes in handy in a multitude of situations, whether you’re speaking to a group, having a one-on-one conversation, or attracting members of the opposite sex. You cannot fix height, but you can certainly fix posture.

For more insights into strength training and bodybuilding, visit my blog: http://www.strengthandphysique.blogspot.com

Preview and purchase “Strength and Physique, Volume One”
http://www.strengthandphysique.com/pb/wp_4bf0c327.html?0.32398064714590224

I come from a very old school of training: focus on strength and everything else follows. It does not matter if your goal is to gain muscle, lose fat, or perform better. If you do not have an underlying base of strength, then you will not achieve anything. When I go to the gym, I really find it quite sad that personal trainers have their clients stand on bosu balls while curling 5-10 pound dumbbells.

It seems like this generation of gym goers are misinformed and misguided, and this is the fault of personal trainers. A lot of these trainers have their clients perform all sorts of crazy "circus" exercises on stabilty balls, resistance bands and cable machines. these personal trainers put their clients through some mobility drills to make things interesting, to make the clients feel like they’re getting a workout. and yet after months of training the physiques of these clients are still the same.

In all honesty, I don’t like calling myself a personal trainer, because it has a very negative connotation among those in the strength and bodybuilding community.

but what is also sad, is that this generation of gym goers lacks discipline and does not want to put in the hard work of training and dieting. In the old days, if you had balls and patience, then you would focus on a handful of compound movements, lift big weights, eat like man, and VOILA! Muscular physique!

nowadays, everybody wants instant results for little effort. most of the disciplined weekend warriors these days don’t do bodybuilding. most of them are into MMA, which doesn’t stress strength as much as skill and cardio. bodybuilding is a dying interest, and much of this bodybuilding knowledge is slowly being lost.

So for the love of God, whether you’re a man or a woman, whether you’re a bodybuilder or not, when you train with weights: train to be strong.

For more insights into strength training and bodybuilding, visit my blog: http://www.strengthandphysique.blogspot.com

Preview and purchase “Strength and Physique, Volume One”
http://www.strengthandphysique.com/pb/wp_4bf0c327.html?0.32398064714590224

Years of heavy unbalanced lifting can incur nagging injuries and joint pain. One thing I’ve found that really helps is trigger point therapy (TPT). TPT is essentially the gentle massaging out of tiny little knots in muscle fibers on various points of your body. A lot of people use foam rollers in their warmups and cool downs to conduct self-myofascial release and massage out adhesions and scar tissue within their muscles.

TPT, however, makes use of a tennis ball or lacrosse ball (I use a tennis ball) to allow you to conduct TPT on yourself. Although I like foam rollers, I prefer to use a tennis ball for self-massage, since your massaging is a lot more focused. With a tennis ball and a wall, you can massage out various trigger points on your back.

Of course, there is more to it than this. The expert on trigger point therapy is a guy named Clair Davies, who’s written a couple of books on the topic, which I highly recommend:

"The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook"

"The Frozen Shoulder Workbook: Trigger Point Therapy for Overcoming Pain & Regaining Range of Motion"

For more insights into strength training and bodybuilding, visit my blog: http://www.strengthandphysique.blogspot.com

Preview and purchase “Strength and Physique, Volume One” http://www.strengthandphysique.com/pb/wp_4bf0c327.html?0.32398064714590224

Merry Christmas y’all!  Hopefully you got what you wanted for Christmas.  If not, then hopefully you’ve given what people wanted or needed.  For us gym rats, equipment for the home gym is always good.  Many clients ask for my advice in setting up a home gym. Working out at a home gym has many advantages over a commercial gym:

1) You save time. For a commercial gym, you have to drive to there and from there. For a home gym, however, your commute time is ZERO.

2) You can workout whenever you please. Whereas most commercial gyms have business hours, your home gym is open to you 24/7. So you have no excuse to miss a workout.

3) You save money. Once you make the initial investment on the home gym equipment, that’s it. No initiation fees. No membership fees. Many commercial gyms require initiation fees, which often cost as much or more than the cost to setup a home gym. By setting up a home gym, you save money in the short term and even more in the long term.

4) You get a better workout. How often have you worked out at a gym and waited for the equipment to be free? Do you think you’re getting a good workout if you have to wait 5-10 minutes between every exercise? In your home gym, you don’t have to wait. You don’t have to put your workout on hold, because some screwball is curling a barbell inside the squat rack.

5) You have no distractions. There are no sweaty, obnoxious people in your home gym (unless you happen to be one).

If setting up a home gym interests you, then let me make some suggestions to help you minimize the cost. First and foremost, always go with free weights. Machines are costly and take up a lot of space. Dumbbells and barbells, however, are versatile and can work every bodypart.

Second, take a look at the amount of space you have available. This factor will determine your equipment purchases much more than price. Here are the equipment plans I usually suggest based on space:

Apartments. If you’re living in a cramped studio apartment, then buy yourself a pair of adjustable dumbbells and a set of resistance bands. You can get a complete full body workout with just these two pieces of equipment and some bodyweight exercises.

Garage or large room (low ceiling). If the gym space you’re using has a low ceiling, then I suggest the following:
- a squat rack with a high/low pulley station (measure the height of the pulley station and make sure it will fit in your room before you purchase it)
- an adjustable bench
- an Olympic barbell
- a pair of adjustable dumbbells
- 300 lbs. of weight (or however much weight you will need)
- a calf block
- rubber matting for the floor

Garage or large room (high ceiling). If the gym space you’re using has a high ceiling, then I suggest the following:
- a power rack for squats and pull-ups
- an adjustable bench
- an Olympic barbell
- a pair of adjustable dumbbells
- 300 lbs. of weight (or however much weight you will need)
- a calf block
- rubber matting for the floor

http://www.strengthandphysique.blogspot.com

Preview and purchase “Strength and Physique, Volume One: The Articles”

http://www.strengthandphysique.com/pb/wp_4bf0c327.html?0.32398064714590224

As a trainer, I’ve come across 4 distinct personalities with regards to workout ethic:

1) The Yeah-But: This is the person who looks for every excuse not to do whatever it is you recommend that he or she do. Trainer says, "To lean down, then you’ll need to diet."

Yeah-But says, "Yeah… but… I want to just exercise the weight off."

I purposely avoid training these people, because they rationalize a way to lose before every battle in their life.

2) The Intellectual Masturbator: This person suffers from analysis paralysis. He would rather learn and yak about the theory of exercise and diet, instead of hitting the gym and pushing his body to its highest potential. Although I always encourage questions and clarifications, the intel masturbator will question everything in order to stall the program. These folks need a beeping countdown timer to make sure they stay on track in their workout.

3) The Balls to the Walls Trainee: This person is the complete opposite to both 1 and 2. He or she will actually do more than is recommended - extra workouts, extra exercises, more reps, more weight, etc.

While this person’s drive is admirable, his foresight and ability to follow directions sucks. The concept of 2 steps forward, 1 step back is foreign to this person. It’s not about how hard you train in the gym, it is whether or not you obtain your physique and strength goals. There are times when you have to pull back in the intensity of your training to allow your body to supercompensate. And that means sticking to the program. No more, no less.

4) The T-man and T-lady: My favorite exercise personality. Once shown, he or she follows the program to a T. This person clarifies any confusing aspects of a program, accepts the expertise of the trainer (if the trainer demonstrates him or herself to be an expert), and just does it.

The T-personality is quite rare in any field.

For more insights into strength training and bodybuilding, visit http://www.strengthandphysique.blogspot.com

For a preview of my book “Strength and Physique, Volume One” go to http://www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID=1353997

I thought I’d share with you my warmup protocol for shoulders. This is a great little warmup that will loosen up your shoulders and increase mobility. It will also fix your posture, so you can kill 2 birds with one stone:

1) Scap pushups (one set, as many reps as possible-AMRAP)

2) Wall slides (one set, AMRAP): If you have really crappy ass posture and you find it hard to flatten yourself against the wall completely, then try it on the floor. Gravity should help flatten you out.

3) Behind the neck band pulldowns (one set, AMRAP): This can be done with a towel or rope attachment as well. Just keep the towel or rope taut throughout the movement.

4) Halos (one set, 8-12 rotations each way): This is one you’ll see in MMA camps. If you watch "The Ultimate Fighter" then you’ve seen it in the opening credits. Take a 25 lb. plate (or whatever poundage you can handle) and circle it around your head at eye level throughout. Do about 8-12 rotations one way, then reverse direction and circle it the other way. Try not to twist your head or contort your body too much. Just let your arms and shoulders move the weight around your noggin.

For videos on how to do scap pushups and behind the neck band pulldowns (and to read a good article), go to this site:

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1406720

Here’s another great article that also shows video on band pulldowns as well as wall slides:

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1546556

Recently I’ve had to resort to outdoor training, because from time to time I train clients outside of the gym. Afterwards, I’ll workout myself.

Believe it or not, outdoor training can actually be far more demanding physically than gym training. As long as you have access to a hill and a pullup station, then you have an abbreviated whole body workout that will turn you into a lean, mean sexy machine (if you’re into that whole "looking hot naked" thing).

This is the program that I use on myself when I workout in the great outdoors. Remember, this is what I do for my needs (the strength and look of a gymnast), not what I give my clients necessarily, because everyone has different goals:

8 sets of pullups, 90 seconds to 2 minutes rest
8 sets of pistols (aka one-legged squats), 1 minute rest
3 sets of diamond pushups, feet elevated, 1 minute rest

With the pullups, I vary the width and grip from set to set. I usually start out with the hardest version (lean away pullups or sternum pullups) and then end up with the easiest (underhand pullups).

With pistols, I do as many reps as possible on my weak side first, walk for about 10 seconds, then do as many reps as I can on the other leg, and rest for a minute before the next set.