Nutrition – Weight loss – Body Building

Time once again for my favorite post of the week where I give links to the blogs that I’m loving. . .

Jason Ferruggia is back once again.  Jason is a muscle building expert – and look at all of the damned compound movements on this list!  Love it: Do These Exercises To Get Jacked.

Hey, I’ve played my share of video games so I’m loving this Mario Bros. themed post from Nerd Fitness.  To check it out, click here.

The push up is a timeless, and in my mind, mandatory exercise. . . Take a look at how Yavor breaks down the push up in exquisite detail: Push Up Fitness.

Want to check out a SICK core exercise?  Then take a look at this movement from the Diesel Crew:  Sit Up And Press.

On July 16th, the 2010 CrossFit Games begin.  There will be live webcasts, so be sure to check this out to see some incredible fitness freaks – I dare you, watch it and try not to get inspired: 2010 CrossFit Games.

Enjoy the links and have a great weekend!

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Notice I didn’t say these were the “best”, I said they were my favorite.  Different strokes for different folks as they say. . . and that being said, let me also say that these are in no particular order.

1. Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. You haven’t read this book and you’ve picked up a barbell in the last month?  Stop.  Do not pass Go, do not collect two-hundred dollars.  Go directly to your local book retailer and get Rippetoe’s Starting Strength now!
2. The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain. We can debate diet all damned day.  The Paleo method just makes sense to me and even better, has never failed to give myself or my clients desired results when followed.  Don’t knock it ’til you try it.
3. The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. Yes, Mark leans pretty strongly toward the Paleo nutrition-wise.  But his exercise philosophy is also worth examining.  And yes, I know he owns a supplement company.  I don’t care, I still love his book.
4. The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Look at me – I am in no way a bodybuilder.  But this is one of the first (if not the first) fitness books I ever read and it will forever be dear to me.  There are lessons to be learned in these pages.
5. The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This is probably the book I return to more than any other when my life feels out of whack.  I think the only book I’ve read more times than this one is Fight Club.
6. Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik. I’ll admit, I saw the movie before I read the book.  But I’ve returned to the book and movie time and time again for motivation and the slap in the face that reminds you what life is about.  Read it or watch it – but KNOW it.
7. The Way Of The Superior Man by David Deida. Reading this book made me comfortable with my ambition.  And ladies, I definitely recommend this as a source of insight as to what the hell us guys are thinking most of the time.
8. It’s Not About The Bike: My Journey Back To Life by Lance Armstrong. Is this guy superhuman or what?  I dare you to try to read this and not get inspired.
9. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. When you go to basic training in the United States Army, the only book you are aloud to take with you is one religious text.  The Tao Te Ching is the book I took to basic training.  I also carried a pocket sized version in the lower left shirt-pocket of my BDU’s the whole time I was in the service.  Full of timeless philosophy, the Tao Te Ching is worth a read regardless of your religious inclinations.
10. Living The Martial Way by Forrest Morgan. If you have a martial arts background, this book will speak to your soul.  But even if you’ve never considered the martial arts, you’ll appreciate the discussions on timeless values like honor and discipline.

So there you have it – my top 10 favorite books for fitness, nutrition, health, and life.

What are your favorites?  Let me know in the comments below.

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It’s been a long time since I set foot in one of these places.  With its ocean of machines that scream false promises of cover-model bodies while banking on the fact that over half of its members will not use the place and neglect to cancel their recurring billing.  I’ve often slammed the corporate gym with creative prose, while taking great pride in my windowless facility’s cinder block walls and concrete floors that was once described by a local newspaper reporter as looking like a hidden CIA interrogation room.

But like so many small business pipe dreams, my gym is gone.  And so are the 14 hour work-days I spent trying to keep the doors open.  With too much free time on my hands I needed a reason to get out of the house – so I signed on the recurring billing dotted line for a corporate gym membership.  And the truth is, I’m enjoying my new escape haven.

Sure, it’s not without its flaws.  But overall, I’m finding the good outweighs the bad – and the ugly.

The Good
Barbells:  I’m happy to say I have returned to squatting and deadlifting.  Yes, I have a pretty sweet equipment set up at home but I do not have barbells and plates.  The corporate gym I train at has plenty of barbells, four power racks, and all of the plates I could ever desire in my wildest heavy squat dreams.

Swimming Pool:  I am a terrible swimmer.  I’m not going to drown in the pool or anything, but I usually have to rest after just one 25 meter lap.  I figure my poor technique means I’m expending lots of energy and making for a good workout.   Technique be damned, I’m enjoying my time in the pool and the challenges that come with developing a new skill.

iPod:  I always train alone.  And when my gym was open, I mean ALONE – usually no one else was even in the building.  But even at the huge corporate gym with lots of people milling around, I’m having no problem enjoying some alone time.  I’m wearing an iPod.  The cute girl I’d normally be tempted to strike up a conversation with is wearing an iPod.  Damn near everyone is wearing an iPod.  Modern technology may be ruining communication between people, but I appreciate the iPod assisted “silence” while I’m training.

24 Hour Access:  If I’m having a sleepless night, I like having a place to go that gives me a healthy option instead of watching some crappy movie or eating some junk food out of boredom.  Sure I could just do some push ups in my living room or read a book.  But leaving the house, having a light workout, and then returning home seems to set me up better for sleep.

The Bad
The Locker Room:  I’m more than pleased with the cleanliness of the locker room where I train – that’s not the problem.  What I’m not pleased with are the yelling matches over where Lebron James will end up and the guy who has to spread his entire wardrobe across the bench.  A little common courtesy goes a long way when you have to share space with people you don’t know.  Unfortunately, some people lack common courtesy.

No Circuit Training:  I’m a fan of setting up circuits of multiple exercises for metabolic conditioning.  But stringing together a workout of box jumps, power cleans, pull ups, and push presses will not only be a potential safety hazard in the sea of people aimlessly wandering from machine to machine, it will also make you look like an equipment hog.  I keep my training at the corporate gym focused on strength and muscle building, and save my heart cranking circuit work for my back yard sessions.

Curls In The Rack:  I know it’s cliche, but I’ve seen it more than once already – guys doing barbell curls in the power rack.  That being said, because squats and standing presses aren’t exactly the most popular exercises at this gym, one of the four power racks is always available.  It’s that availability that is keeping the rack-curls in “the bad” and not in “the ugly”.

The Ugly
Personal Trainers:  Even with my iPod blasting and my training face on, I can’t avoid seeing the personal trainer taking what is obviously a weight loss client through a set of lateral raises.  I grit my teeth, avert my gaze, and move to another part of the gym.  But I know several times each week I will see such transgressions and it is an exercise of restraint to keep my mouth shut.

No Training Journals:  I’ve been training at this gym for three weeks now.  I am the ONLY person I’ve seen writing down what they are doing in their training sessions.  Don’t get me wrong, someone who has been training for years and is in maintenance mode can get away with this.  But people who are on a serious fat loss or muscle building quest, especially those who are relatively new to training, are on a path to no-results if they aren’t tracking their training.

Texting:  It’s just a pet peeve of mine and I suppose I should get over it… but why the hell can’t you leave your cell phone in your locker while you’re training?  Oh, you’re a heart surgeon on call that day – my mistake and my apologies.  Oh, you’re an average guy trying to set up a hot date for later that night – put the phone away, make her wait 30 minutes, get some damned focus, and maybe you can put some more weight on that bench press you naturally gravitate towards.

To my surprise, I am enjoying my time in the behemoth corporate gym.  Sure, there are some things that I don’t like – but few things are perfect.

What is your experience in the big corporate facilities?  Do you enjoy training there?  Or are the “bad” and the “ugly” not worth the hassle.  Let me know in the comments below.

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Friday’s are starting to be my favorite posts.  I’m getting a kick out of sharing links to what I feel are some of the best posts in fitness (and sometimes outside of fitness) each week.

Take this post from Jason Ferruggia as an example.  No nonsense, straight to the point, and fun to read: 53 Ways To Build Muscle, Gain Strength, and Be F*cking Awesome.

Nate Green makes an important distinction between promises and goals.  To get where you want to go, in fitness and in life, click here.

Craig Ballantyne gives ten tips to survive the weekend.  Sure, the article addresses last week’s holiday weekend but the tips apply to any weekend:  10 Tips To Survive The Weekend.

Speaking of the holiday weekend, Mike McNeil goes on a little Fourth of July rant.  And we all know how much I love a good rant.  To check out what Mike has to say, click here.

And if you still haven’t watched Scott Sonnon’s free Tacfit videos, click here now.   I’m telling you, submitting your email address to watch the free videos is something you won’t regret.  There are bodyweight exercises in the videos that I had never seen before (and I’ve been around the fitness block for awhile now).  Yes, I might get a commission if you eventually purchase Scott’s program.  But if you’ve been following GymJunkies for any length of time, you know not just anyone gets my endorsement.  So start your weekend off right and check out Tacfit today:  Free Tacfit Videos.

Enjoy the weekend!

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“Magary, get your team together and clean that latrine!”

Ah yes, bathroom cleaning duty in the barracks after a long weekend of drunk soldiers.  But the hard nasty work had already been done.

One of the young privates on my team asked, “Magary, didn’t we already clean the latrine today?  Didn’t we already clean it THREE TIMES today?”

The private was correct.  We were on our fourth trip to the bathroom that day, armed with mops and pine-sol and well aware that the actions we were about to take were unnecessary.

So why were we cleaning so much that day?  For no other reason than our sergeant had nothing better for us to do.  It was busy-work.  What a waste of time.

You can see similar fitness practices in gyms everywhere.  People grinding away at long slow boring cardio on treadmills and elliptical machines because they have nothing better to do.  It’s just busy-work.  It’s work that’s comfortable and comes with the hollow promise of forging a lean and fit body.  What a waste of time.

But you know better.  You know that the key to reaching your fitness goals is to continually push outside of your comfort zone.  You know that if you are not coming close to the red line of intensity, you are not going to get the lean and fit body you desire.

So stay away from the hours on end of the treadmill trot or watching the wheels of the elliptical go round-and-round.  It’s worse than cleaning a bathroom four times in one day.

P.S.  If you really want to push out of your comfort zone, I recommend you take a look at Scott Sonnon’s free Tacfit videos.  To watch the Tacfit videos now, click here.

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Today’s article comes from guest author Cameron Stache.  If you are paying attention to the free WorldFitnessNetwork forums, you have no doubt gotten familiar with Cameron.  But what you might not know is that Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex in Greensboro, NC.  He’s pursuing his Exercise Science degree and plans to use this degree to either work at a large college and be a strength and conditioning coach, or go into ergonomics. If you are interested in brands Cameron supports, check out  http://cstache.qhealthzone.com .

We all have to share.  Sometimes it’s time, sometimes it’s money, and other times it’s just plain space.  It’s for this reason we have rules; although, occasionally they go by another fancy word… “etiquette.”  There are many different types of etiquette; restaurant etiquette, workplace etiquette, and yes there is workout etiquette.

Hey, I’m not going to lie to you, I like our Geico friends “The Cavemen.”  Sometimes it’s even fun to act like one myself.  Society, however, doesn’t feel so kindly about my friends for the most part.  Etiquette ensures that we don’t strangle each other with our socks.

If you read the super fine print on the back of your gym contract then you probably saw some of the common rules on the back.  Most of them aren’t a big secret and are listed on every home page of every bodybuilding/gym website known to man.  There are however, a few little known rules that even the most active gym goer may not know about.  Not only do I work out in a gym but I work and manage at a gym and train people – I know what it’s like, from multiple angles, when people don’t follow these basic rules.  The term “basic” implies that the rule will be found in pretty much every gym.  Some aren’t as clear-cut.  Planet Fitness for example has a “no grunting” policy.  I personally think if you aren’t grunting you aren’t working hard enough.  Whereas in a football training facility, for example, you hear screams.  In that scenario it just depends on location; not quite a “basic” rule then.

I have taken the liberty of enlightening you with most of these rules but, I need to state a few things first.  Not everyone has always been a member of a gym, so I will assume that you are a brand new, first day member of a health club.  Also, I am aware that if you looked you WILL be able to find more things than I point out.  I’m not trying to write a book, just an article.   So if you’ve got some more to add, jump into the Comments section.  And lastly, I know what it’s like to just be told “what” and not “why” so I will give you the point-of-view I have with some of these too.  I understand your reasons, I’ve been there.  Just please don’t take anything personal if you are the person I am describing.  There is no hostility being thrown, so don’t take it as such.  Furthermore, if I DO offend you, it’s probably because you needed to hear it anyways…

Cameron’s Basic Gym Etiquette Rules

(If you see a “more” link, click it to read the rest.)

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“Which ever boat makes it to the other side of the pond first with all of its equipment and personnel in tact gets to eat chow first!”

Those were the only directives given by the Special Forces sergeant as two Zodiac boats full of soldiers were prepared to paddle their asses off to get to the other side of the pond as fast as possible.  I was in the swamps of Louisiana with a select group of soldiers from my Infantry company and we were assigned to a two-week training rotation with a team from the 10th Special Forces Group.  The Green Berets we were training with were a scuba team, and water borne missions were their specialty.

Myself and the guys in my boat started paddling furiously – as did the soldiers in the rival boat.  We were neck-and-neck in our race to the other side as we approached the middle of the pond when my paddle was yanked from my hands.

What the hell happened?  I still wasn’t sure. . .

A moment later I saw the team leader from my boat get snatched into the water by a specter clad in scuba gear.  At that point, we all knew it was on.

The Special Forces team had placed four of its members in the water in scuba gear before the race started with the specific intent of reeking havoc on our mission.  They were dragging unsuspecting soldiers into the water and stealing our equipment.  Mass chaos ensued – we were jumping into each others boats trying to grab equipment that had been stolen by the scuba team and one of our brave young privates jumped in the water to “rescue” our team leader.  And of course the scuba gear clad SF guys eventually capsized both of the boats before we made it to the other side of the pond.  All in all, it was a hell of a lot of fun.

But it was also a hell of a workout.  Forget that wimpy-ass bosu ball – try wrestling a paddle from the hands of a Green Beret while you’re standing in an inflatable boat for some killer core training.  Simulating this kind of real-world exertion can be tough to do in the gym, but I’m pleased to say that I’ve found a methodology that brings the best of combat driven reality to the realm of health and fitness.  I’m talking about Scott Sonnon’s Tacfit Commando.

Scott has worked with first responders and elite combat units the world over.  He is an expert martial artist and understands the difference between being fit to fight and just looking good.  In the free videos available at tacfitcommando.com , I learned bodyweight movements that I had never seen before in all of my years of training.  Scott is the real deal, and so is Tacfit.  To get your free Tacfit Commando instructional videos and training manual click here.

Have you had an experience where the “real world” tested your fitness level?  Let me know in the comments below.

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We start this week’s Friday links post with Mark Sisson.  Am I really that big of a Mark Sisson fan-boy that I have to link to him every Friday?  Ummm, yep.   So take a look at Mark’s article on How To Increase Testosterone Naturally.

Martin Rooney, known for training combat athletes of various disciplines, hosts the most unique Bachelor Party you’ve ever seen!  Check out the Bachelor Party Video.

Rusty from Fitness Black Book is known for his in-depth posts about building a lean and strong “hollywood” body.  Check out this interesting post on Rep Tempo As It Can Relate To Fat Loss.

How to wrap your hands was always an issue for new clients in my kickboxing classes.  To get some guidance from the Art of Manliness (including instructional video), click here.

Enjoy the weekend!

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If you receive my daily emails, you’ve already read the post below.  But the email responses I received from this were so much greater in number than usual, that I thought I should post it to the blog as well.  I’m not sure why this story struck a chord with so many people.  Perhaps we can all relate to enduring (or ignoring) pain and discomfort for the sake of a greater good.  And perhaps we all know that there is a dangerous fine line we walk, where ignoring the damage can eventually lead to permanent injury if we let it linger for too long.  That being said, I hope you enjoy my story of 48 stitches. . .

I stood across the ring from my karate instructor’s top black belt student.  My instructor threw us each a three foot long stick.

“Fight!”

Fight.  That’s all he said.  No details on the level of contact we should use.  No clarity on the rules of engagement.  Just “Fight!”.  I was 17 years old.

I rushed the black belt with a forehand swing of my stick.  He parried easily and we ended up chest to chest – too close to swing the sticks.  I reached up with my off hand and grabbed him by the throat.  He stepped to my inside, dropped his hips, and tossed me through the air with ease.  But we were too close to the trophy case. . .

My left foot smashed through the glass of the trophy case.  I rolled onto the floor and landed on my stomach.  As I looked over my shoulder, I could see the bottom of my foot but not the top of my foot.  And the top of the foot is where all of the damage was.

I remained calm.  I didn’t get a visual on the true extent of my injury, so I didn’t panic.  Everyone in the room either helped apply first aid or reassure me that everything was alright.  We went to the hospital.

I left the hospital with my wound treated and my foot bound in a heap of gauze and bandages.  I still hadn’t seen the damage.  And I was still calm.

The next morning I had to clean my wound.  So I undressed my bandages and here, for the first time, I saw the true extent of my injury.

48 stitches.  My foot was swollen in hues of purple, blue, and green.  The laceration ran from my middle toe to around my big toe.  I was lucky I still had toes.  It looked like the foot of Frankenstein.

I felt light-headed.  I got short of breath.  I panicked.

And then I regained my composure, cleaned the wound, and dealt with reality.  I walked with a cane for several weeks.

Often, we ignore the extent of the damage we have done to ourselves.  Whether that be from poor diet, lack of exercise, drug use, or being a workaholic.  And ignoring the facts serves us – it allows us to soldier on.  It allows us to not panic.  And it allows us to keep going when we really need to stop.

But eventually we have to look at the wounds we have created.  We have to see the harsh reality.  And then we have to get a grip, clean the wound, and deal with it.

No matter how far down the wrong path we have gone, we can always turn back.  It’s never too late to change.  It’s never too late to start cleaning the wounds.

We might need a cane for a while.  But eventually, if we deal with reality and change course for the better, we’ll walk with a spring in our step that we never had before.

We’ll be better than ever.

Train Hard,
Vic

If you enjoyed that story, you can get daily emails from me were I talk about my life as a soldier, lawyer, and pet owner (Coda makes for good story telling), and how the lessons I’ve learned can apply to your fitness challenges.  To register for this email newsletter click here.

How has allowing yourself to temporarily ignore pain or injury served you?  How has it made things worse?  Let me know in the comments below.

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Last week we talked about basic linear periodization.  But over the past decade, several studies have shown the high value of a different form of periodization:  undulating periodization.

For example, see this.

But it’s interesting to note that comparisons of different periodization models for beginners does NOT show undulating periodization to be superior.  (See this.)

I’ve seen evidence of this myself, so I suggest linear periodization for beginners, and even intermediates.

For more advanced lifters, undulating periodicity is quite valuable.  But you have to do it right.

Undulating Periodization

One of the reasons you might not have ever done undulating periodization – or even heard of it – is that it’s much more complicated to do (not to mention hard to pronounce!).  Some people also call in “nonlinear periodization” but undulating is more accurate.

To save on the typing, I’m going to use UP as the abbreviation.

If you are not keeping a training log, forget about UP.  There’s no way you can keep track of it all in your head week after week.

The basic idea with undulating periodicity is that you switch among strength-hypertrophy-conditioning regimens much more frequently than in linear periodization.

Weekly vs. Daily Undulating Periodization

The original studies of UP were weekly.  Meaning, you’d do a week of low-load, high rep lifts, then a week of medium load, medium rep lifts, then a week of high load, low rep lifts.  Let’s call that WUP.

But when I mentioned earlier that UP is a relatively recent development in the history of resistance training, I was referring to the daily variation (DUP) – here you are changing the protocol within each week.

And since then, when most people talk about UP, they mean DUP.

An example of DUP for someone on a full-body routine lifting M, W and F is

Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.

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