Tip: Forget Yogurt – This Stuff is Better and Badder

Yogurt’s been using me for years. She seduced me with her smooth, milky white body and delectably fruity bottom, whispering in my ear how good it’s gonna be, baby, when she fills me up with all her beneficial bacteria. I always end up letting her have her way with me and when I wake up in the morning, she’s gone. No note, nothing. I feel so cheap. And what’s worse, the bacteria she gave me are all gone too. That’s the thing with yogurt. Her supposedly beneficial bacteria are more or less transient. They hit our gut, hang around a bit, and then get bored. Then they take the next poop-Uber out of colon town. That’s why I’ve dumped yogurt’s fermented ass and found someone more faithful, someone who gives me a lot more beneficial bacteria than she ever did; bacteria that are faithful and are more likely to stick around. Her name is kefir, and I want to introduce her to both mom and you, in that order. What the Hell is Kefir? Kefir is a milk product made from starter grains of bacteria and yeast. The end product is a slightly sour, slightly fermented beverage that even most lactose intolerant people can drink. While it’s traditionally made from cow, goat, or sheep milk, you can make it from any type of plant-based milk (soy, rice). It can even be made from coconut milk or water to make coconut kefir, which should not be confused with the name of the stripper who lives below you in apartment 2B. The word itself comes from a Turkish word that means “feeling good,” and was traditionally made in skin bags and hung above doorways. Every time someone came through the doorway, they’d make like the bag was an annoying striker from an opposing soccer team and they’d throw a shoulder into it, thereby jostling the contents of the bag and ensuring efficient fermentation. What’s particularly cool about kefir is that it contains between 10 and 34 strains of probiotic, “good” bacteria, whereas yogurt contains only 2 to 7 strains. More importantly, as mentioned, some studies have shown that the kefir bacteria attach to the lining of the gut and form colonies instead of dying off or being excreted. That allows the kefir to change your microbiome for the better and affect all kinds of beneficial changes to your digestion and overall health. What Kefir Can Do For You While kefir doesn’t have a standardized nutritional profile, it’s safe to say that any kefir product is going to be high in calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin B12, vitamin A, biotin, folate, and lots of enzymes. Macronutrient-wise, a typical 8-ounce serving contains roughly the following: 160 calories 10 grams of protein 12 grams of carbs 8 grams of fat This is essentially the same as you’d find in an 8-ounce glass of whole milk, although kefir has a little bit more protein (about 2 grams). Aside from providing you with those nutrients and populating your gut with beneficial bacteria, kefir has the following superpowers: It builds a stronger immune system:Kefir contains an insoluble polysaccharide called kefiran that’s been shown to have antimicrobial properties, in addition to supposedly lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. It builds stronger bones:Okay, any milk product will do this as they all provide calcium and vitamin K2 (which aids in calcium absorption), but it’s worth noting nonetheless. It fights bowel problems and supports digestion in general:Kefir’s friendly and helpful bacteria have been shown to combat Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Likewise, taking it during and after antibiotic therapy can go a long way in preventing the gastrointestinal havoc the drugs often cause. It can fight cancer:Admittedly, it seems that nearly everything falls into one of two camps: Either something causes cancer or it fights cancer, so it probably becomes hard nowadays to accept something as a cancer fighter. Even so, kefir appears to have some special gifts in this area. A study conducted at the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University found that kefir reduced breast cancer cells by 56 percent as opposed to yogurt’s meager 14 percent. What’s It Taste Like? Kefir, like most anything else nowadays, comes in a variety of fruit flavors sweetened with a metric f-ton of cane sugar, but drinking anything else but the plain, unsweetened stuff is for kefir sissies. Besides, you can sweeten it up at home with artificial sweeteners, but the plain, unsweetened kind is by no means unappealing. It’s sour, I’ll give you that, but I think any adult palate can handle it, if not downright appreciate it. When you drink it, it gives the sensation of coating your entire stomach in a soothing embrace. It kind of reminds me of the time Homer Simpson drank melted candle wax to coat his mouth, esophagus, and stomach so that he could win a chili-pepper eating contest, but more nutritious and a lot less dangerous. How to Best Use Kefir I drink one 8-ounce glass of kefir a day, either divided into two servings or all at once. I sometimes
Origin: Tip: Forget Yogurt – This Stuff is Better and Badder

Tip: The Food That Fights Depression

Is She Crazy? Nah, She Just Needs a Steak. Harvard Health Publishing estimates that 1 in 10 adult women in America are taking antidepressants. They’re the pumpkin spice lattes of the drug world – women just love them. Or at least their docs just love prescribing them. Maybe women are more prone to depression. Or maybe men are just too macho to admit they’re having mental health issues. Or maybe (just maybe) women are being prescribed powerful and often unpredictable drugs to combat what could just be a common nutritional deficiency. For example, could some depressive symptoms be “treated” with a couple of juicy sirloin steaks every week? The findings of a new study out of Australia point in that direction. The Study Researchers at Deakin University had themselves a little theory. They believed red meat might be associated with mental health problems, so they conducted a little study to prove it. Boy, were they surprised. They gathered up 1000 Aussie Sheilas (women-folk) and evaluated their mental health and red meat consumption. It’s was all very thorough and utterly boring, so let’s skip to the their conclusion: red meat HALVES the risk of depression in women. The Important Details The women who didn’t eat red meat were twice as likely to have a diagnosed depressive or anxiety disorder. Now, only a few were full-blown vegetarians and some of them didn’t even avoid red meat; they just didn’t eat very much of it. Most of the study participants ate plenty of chicken, fish, pork, and turkey. Now, remember, this was an Australian study. And Down Under the recommended intake of red meat (beef and lamb) is three to four small servings a week. They used that guideline to establish low, normal, and high red meat intake. Another consideration: Most Australian beef and lamb is grass-fed. It’s certainly not the same stuff you’re getting in your Taco Hell Burrito Gordito. The researchers (surprising even themselves) ended up recommending a few servings of lean red meat a week to stave off depression and anxiety. They guessed that the sad, anxious women just weren’t getting enough omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for mental health. On the flip side, they also suggested that eating too much red meat (more than the Aussie standard of 3-4 servings a week) may also lead to mental health issues, though they didn’t explain why. Wait! Did They Miss Something? It’s true that the anti-inflammatory actions of omega-3s may help relieve depression. Grass-fed red meat contains more good-for-ya fatty acids than grain-fed red meat. But is something else going on here? I think so. What the beef-denying women were also missing was IRON. The symptoms of low iron overlap remarkably with some of the common symptoms of depression. Regardless of whether it’s inadequate iron or low omega-3s, it’s clear that women need to be eating red meat, up to a few times per week. Just make some of that grass-fed if you can. If that’s not possible, go the supplement route for both iron and omega-3s. Look, depression can have many causes, and we still don’t understand everything about it. But let’s make damn sure we take care of the nutritional aspects first before we start popping questionable prescription
Origin: Tip: The Food That Fights Depression

Tip: The Best Way to Use Caffeine

It’s rare that PhD-types look at a bunch of studies and come out with some specific recommendations. They could demonstrate how a bunch of cats – when held upside-down from a height of two feet and then dropped – landed on their feet a thousand times in a row, but they still wouldn’t jump to any conclusions about how the 1001st attempt might turn out. Hell, you could waterboard the PhD’s to force a bit of kitty conjecture out of them and the best you could expect is for them to glug out a couple of terms like “sample size!” or “lack of controls!” That’s why this recent paper written by some-time T Nation contributor Dr. Brad Schoenfeld and colleagues seems a bit unusual. They conducted a review of the effects of caffeine supplementation on powerlifters and actually offered some useful, concrete recommendations on dosing, timing, and other factors that could benefit not only powerlifters, but also regular lifters and athletes of all kind. What They Did Caffeine is the popular drug of choice of competitive athletes – not because it’s the best ergogenic drug by any measures, but at least partly because it was dropped from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of within-competition banned substances. Powerlifters especially love it, though. As proof of their love, caffeine levels in urine samples of powerlifters and weightlifters in general have been found to be significantly higher than those of athletes from other sports. It’s no wonder since the drug can improve maximum strength by 3-4%, which, in the powerlifting world, might mean the difference between winning your weight class and being the guy who’s chosen to scrub out any suspicious stains from the other competitors’ singlets. Caffeine’s status and effectiveness obviously piqued the interest of Schoenfeld and his scientist friends as they scoured through nearly every study on the subject and filtered out some amazingly specific and useful advice. Here are some of the highlights from their paper: Caffeine Performance Caffeine may improve maximum strength from 3-4%. The evidence pertains specifically to the squat and bench press, but there’s no reason it wouldn’t apply to the deadlift, too. Caffeine definitely has positive effects on strength, but may also be useful for attenuating any fatigue-induced decline in muscle strength. Caffeine Dosing Optimal dosing is 2-6 mg/kg, although individual experimentation is needed. Repeated dosing may work better for competitions that are longer than two hours. This practice, using smaller doses of caffeine (2 mg. per kilogram) before each event, may maintain steady plasma caffeine levels. Caffeine Timing If using caffeine capsules, take them 60 minutes prior to event. If using cola or coffee, drink it 40 minutes prior to event. If using caffeine chewing gum, take it 10 minutes prior to an event. Caffeine Habituation and Withdrawal Lifters who habitually ingest a lot of caffeine might experience less of a strength boost from pre-competition doses. As such, they might want to consider a dose of at least 3 mg per kilogram or higher before a competition. The ergogenic effects of caffeine seem to attenuate after 20 days of consecutive use. This suggests that powerlifters might think about ingesting caffeine only before highest intensity training sessions or competitions to maximize performance. A common practice among powerlifters to maximize the effects of caffeine is to stop all caffeine consumption one week prior to competition and restart on the day of the competition. Too bad the literature doesn’t support it. Besides, caffeine withdrawal can lead to headache, fatigue, decreased alertness, and a depressed mood. It would work better, on competition day, to use the higher doses suggested above, in addition to limiting caffeine ingestion in general (morning coffee, coffee pick-me-ups) on the day of competition. How to Use This Info While Schoenfeld and the other scientists had powerlifters in mind when they compiled this info, anyone who isn’t restricted by the typical PhD’s unwritten code of silence would probably deduce that the findings probably hold true to lifters of all kinds. Training legs today and hoping to set a new PR in weight or reps? Pop a few pieces of caffeinated gum 10 minutes before your workout. The Military Energy Gum (MEG) sold on Amazon contains 100 mg. per Chicletty-looking piece. That means that a 200-pound lifter would need to pop two pieces before a workout to hit the low end of the scientists’ recommended dosage (2 mg./kilogram). Plasma levels of caffeine would peak quickly (with the gum) but would start to wane within an hour or
Origin: Tip: The Best Way to Use Caffeine

Tip: The No-Eye-Contact Butt Exercise You Need

You’ve heard it before: Don’t make eye contact with anyone when using the abductor machine or doing the hip thrust. It’s just… awkward. Well, here’s another glute exercise where you might want to limit eye contact. It might come across a little “suggestive” but the kneeling thrust is a great high-rep backside builder. You’ll need a high-strength resistance band for this one, or double up some lighter ones. Attach your band to the bottom of a rack or anything that’s sturdy. Use a pad for your knees. Set the bench as far away as you need, depending on your band length and resistance. Once you’re in position, the execution is like a barbell hip thrust, but you’ll be kneeling. You’ll be driving your knees down into the pad while pulling down on the bench – a little like a straight-arm pulldown. The pulling-down part works twofold, both to offer support in front and to engage your anterior core. This affects what happens at your hips and further enhances the glute contraction. The bench assists somewhat. The support from the bench also encourages more of a bowing (hinging) movement. Additionally, you seem to get more “cock up” (posterior pelvic tilt) when there’s something to aim for… another reason to limit eye contact. Because band tension increases as it’s stretched, using a strong resistance band will help load your glutes in their fully shortened position. Here’s another way to do them with a band set inside a power rack: The benefits are the same, but this setup will allow you to double up your resistance band and get more load through your hips. Being positioned like this in a rack might provide you with more support. Where there’s more support, there’s more output. One final way to perform this glute exercise is with a set of cables and a dipping belt: The advantage of using the cable is in the constant load throughout the movement (as opposed to a band where the load is varied). There are merits to both forms of resistance, as well as drawbacks. If you’ve already got a monster-strong ass, the heaviest band available might not suffice. Using a dipping belt in the cables might be more uncomfortable or limit range of motion on the way back (if the belt is too thick). Experiment with different setups and see which one feels best. Programming High reps work best. Do 2-3 sets of 20-30 reps for an intense butt pump towards the backend of your workout. It’s no replacement for the big-daddy, barbell hip thrust, but it’s a great
Origin: Tip: The No-Eye-Contact Butt Exercise You Need

Tip: Fix Your Cranky Neck and Traps

Whether it’s due to explosive Olympic lifting, tons of shrugging, or just straining under the bar, your neck can become irritated due to overactive traps. Although this is a problem in and of itself, it can also lead to worse problems down the road, like tension headaches or migraines. Your upper traps, after all, are attached to the base of the skull. Making things worse, overactive upper traps will “take over” during rows and other pulling exercises which will lead to poorly developed middle and lower traps, rhomboids, and lats. If you’re ready to ditch your neck pain, use these mobility, stretching, and strengthening exercises to loosen your traps and retrain your mid-back. Step 1 – Soft Tissue Work Begin your workout by doing a little soft tissue work on the traps. Releasing your overactive traps first is a must if you want to fix your neck pain. It’s tough to foam roll your traps, so try applying pressure with a barbell. Step 2 – Do Some Light Stretching Once you’ve released your bound-up traps, do the following stretch on your neck/traps to restore your range of motion. Side Tilt Neck Stretch with Shoulder Depression Attach one end of a band to a low anchor and the other end to your wrist to depress one shoulder. Use your other hand to pull your head in the opposite direction. First, bring your chin to your chest, followed by taking your chin toward the ceiling. Stay in the range where you feel the most tension. Step 3 – Strengthen and Activate the Mid-Back The goal here is to both depress and retract your shoulder blades. Strengthening and activating your mid-back will help balance out your upper traps. To make sure your mid-back is doing the work, you’ll want to go much lighter and do more volume than you normally would for these exercises. One-Arm Lat Pulldown Visualize your shoulder blade sliding down your back with each pull. The goal is to pull your traps down by activating your lats. One-Arm Seated Cable Row Visualize squeezing your shoulder blade so that it moves closer to your spine each time you pull the handle towards the bottom of your rib cage. This will keep the shoulder from elevating and the upper traps from taking
Origin: Tip: Fix Your Cranky Neck and Traps

Question of Nutrition 11

Is HGH Worth It? Q: For middle-aged men, is human growth hormone worth the price as an anti-aging or longevity treatment? Is there any way to naturally boost GH? A: This is a great question and currently I’m torn on its use. I’ve prescribed HGH very sparingly in my career, but have enough data to tell you I find its benefit inconsistent in the general population. I don’t use this medication off label, so I can’t give you objective feedback on the use in bodybuilders. I have used it in a couple of elite CrossFit athletes for a time to help speed healing from injuries. Even in this regard, it’s hard to pinpoint if HGH was the major driver of results since I was doing several other interventions as well. At this time, it’s not something I feel too excited about in terms of delivering all of those fountain of youth effects we hear so much about. Human growth hormone levels can also be raised naturally. Quantity and quality sleep, adequate protein, and high volume weight training (the kind that gets the muscles burning and generates that pump) are what I’m talking about. The strain-inducing heavy loads do it as well, but that type of training leans a bit more towards testosterone generation. Start with eight hours of sleep per night. Go to bed by 10:00 and wake early. Take in 30-40% of daily calories as protein, sticking to a smart training cycle with adequate rest and recovery. These are the best proven ways to raise HGH naturally. I’m currently exploring the use of injectable peptides like Ipamorelin in my clinic. Several of my physician colleagues have been reporting good success. This peptide is a GH releasing hormone. You also may want to consider arginine and citrulline supplementation. There’s some indication these MAY have the potential to boost GH. A good starting dose is 5-10g arginine or 3g citrulline each day. One study in 2008 (PMID: 18090659) showed arginine supplementation can boost HGH by 100%. Exercise spiked it 300-500%. I bring this up because supplements always seem to be the way we’d like to do things, yet lifestyle factors often outperform them. One odd finding was that the combination of exercise and arginine supplementation was not synergistic and seemed to blunt the exercise effect to some degree, only enhancing GH by 200%. Who knows what that means for us as individuals. Perhaps on days you’re not in the gym, try the arginine, and days you’re hitting it hard, don’t bother. The Night Eating Habit Q: Is there a scientific reason to avoid snacking right up until bedtime? A: There is. That being said, we have to be careful using research to guide our individual decisions regarding diet and exercise. Remember, research is a tool for averages not individuals. What this means is that scientific “evidence” is going to work for most people, but not all. Spend just one week in a weight loss clinic and you’ll see the futility of using research as the sole guiding influence in your recommendations. You should let research refine your approach, not define it. The individual (you), needs to be the ultimate consideration. By the way, the very fact you’re having a hard time doing the thing may be an indication it’s not a good fit for your metabolic uniqueness, psychological tendencies, and personal preferences. And, at the same time, we all know that very often habitual eating patterns can be retrained and have substantial benefit. Here are a few tips to make this approach work better for you: Let’s say you’re going to eat your last meal at 5:30. If you go to bed around 11:00 you’ll be close to six hours without food. That could mean a late-night burger run for many people. Think about the types of meals that satisfy and satiate the most and the longest. These meals are usually mixed with plenty of protein, fat, and starch. Like the aforementioned burger. Duplicating that type of meal is a good start. A ribeye (plenty of fat and protein), a large baked potato (keep it bland) and a few cups of broccoli are a great start. You also may want to consider the use of a “post load.” Many know the idea of using a preload – having a protein shake before a meal to preempt overeating. The post load is the same idea except applied after the meal if there’s still an itch for a taste of something else. Make plans to do something with your hands and attend to any oral fixation. Some of our eating behaviors are tied to other late-night behaviors like TV watching. Use a relaxing herbal tea, sparkling water, or some other low-calorie beverage to attend to this. Finally, go to bed earlier. This approach is going to work far better if your eating time has been circumvented by your sleeping time. Low Carb, Low Bowel Movements Q: Every time I try a low carb diet, I stop pooping. Is there any way to make this diet work for someone like me? A: This is not an uncommon occurrence with the low carb diet. It’s thought to be related to a change in bacterial populations, a reduction in fiber, a change in enzymatic
Origin: Question of Nutrition 11

Tip: The 10-Minute Mobility Sequence for Lifters

You’re probably sedentary. Yes, you. Sure, you hit the gym often, but your joints remain relatively idle as you sit at work, sit in your car, and sit in front of the TV. Swinging your arms between bench press sets isn’t enough to keep your joints healthy and mobile for a lifetime. Can’t scratch your mid-back anymore? Your mobility has slipped. Here’s why mobility matters: Poor neck and thoracic mobility is a strong predictor of neck and shoulder pain (1). Increasing thoracic spine mobility improves forward head posture even when compared to direct neck exercises (2). Improving ankle mobility reduces knee and hip pain, enhances squat depth, improves squat mechanics, and prevents injuries (3). Improving hip mobility increases muscle strength because your nervous system inhibits force when it senses a lack of mobility (4). Improving mobility doesn’t have to be inconvenient. No need to spend an hour aligning your fairytale chakras in some yoga class taught by a hippie. Here are a few exercises you can do quickly to target the most important areas for lifters: 1. T-Spine Mobility You can do these drills literally anywhere: Kneeling T-Spine Rotation and Lateral Flexion Kneel down and place your fingers around your ears. Focus on keeping your hips facing forward. Rotate your chest/thoracic spine one direction. Slowly flex your spine laterally. Once no more range of motion can be achieved, come back to the starting position. Repeat on the other side. Dynamic Wall T-Spine Extension Place your hands fairly high and wide against a wall, window ledge, or Smith machine. Push your hips back as you lower your chest. Take a deep breath at the bottom as you feel the different segments of your spine arch. Flex your spine as you round your back. 2. Shoulder Mobility This is my favorite shoulder mobility drill. It also stretches the pecs while not allowing the spine to compensate. Dowel Dislocate on Incline Bench Lean against an incline bench while standing while holding a dowel or broomstick across your hips. Slowly move the dowel overhead, going as far back as possible while keeping your elbows relatively straight. Hold wider on the dowel if it’s too difficult and adjust narrower if it’s too easy. 3. Hip Mobility These hip mobility drills won’t leave any stones unturned. Hip Mobility Complex Take a seated position. Start with a hamstring stretch with one leg on your thigh, then transition to a “hugging pigeon.” Bring your hands back and go into both internal and external hip rotation. I also like to rotate my spine before coming back to the starting position. Repeat on the other side. Tactical Frog Get your legs into a frog position and your arms into a plank position. Thrust back and forth as you feel your adductors stretch. Drown out any thoughts of bystanders potentially judging you for humping the floor. 4. Ankle Mobility Both of these are wildly effective: Tripod Ankle/Calf Mobility Get into a tripod position with one foot stacked on the other foot’s heel. Drive your heel back as you stretch your calf, then bend your knee and maintain a dorsiflexed position. Repeat for reps before repeating on the other side. Stepback Weighted Ankle Mobility This exercise is harder than it looks, but it’s the best ankle mobility drill I’ve found. Grab some weights. Take one step back and keep both feet flat. Bend the knee of the back foot while hip hinging the weights down. You should feel your back ankle mobilizing. Repeat for reps on both sides. Programming These exercises can be done in a sequence for 3-10 minutes a day depending on your current mobility. The sequence can be sprinkled in during your warm-up, cooldown, or even between
Origin: Tip: The 10-Minute Mobility Sequence for Lifters

5 Things You Can Train Everyday

I’m a firm believer in frequency when it comes to strength and size gains. It’s not surprising when you look at my personal training background. I started out training for football and our strength coach was a big believer in hitting the big basics three days a week. Our program was essentially the power clean, squat, bench, and pull-up three days a week. After football I transitioned to Olympic lifting where I’d squat, clean, and snatch pretty much every day. The higher frequency regimen worked for those exercises too. The truth is, you can train pretty much everything with a high frequency once technical mastery is accomplished. Of course, you need to plan volume and intensity properly, but it’s possible. Not sold on the idea of squatting every day or snatching every workout? No worries. There are a few things that are less complicated than others to train every day. And they’ll make it pretty easy to fix some of your weak links too. Here are five of them. 1 – Forearms Forearm exercises don’t cause much, if any, muscle damage, especially for exercises with less eccentric loading like the wrist roller or Thor’s hammer (see video). But even wrist flexion and wrist extension will cause little damage. Furthermore, these exercises have a very small impact on the nervous system because they’re very simple and done with light weights. Energy expenditure is low too since it’s a short range of motion and smaller muscles are involved. None of the factors requiring more recovery time are present with forearm training. Unless you go absolutely crazy with the volume there’s no reason you can’t train forearms every day. Why would you want to do that? Because big forearms look cool. Hey, they’re the only thing that’s 100-percent showing in a T-shirt! But having well-developed forearms will do more for you than simply attracting admiration. Bigger and stronger forearms make it easier to build bigger biceps. Coach Charles Poliquin wrote about this phenomenon 20 years ago. The body hasn’t changed since that was written. By building bigger, stronger forearms you’ll be able to handle more weight in both curling and pulling exercises, which will increase the stimulation on the biceps and back muscles. Bigger forearms and a stronger grip also help the bench press. Look at the top bench pressers in the world; they all have thick forearms. To bench heavy weight you need a strong grip. The harder you can squeeze the bar, the less the wrist will tend to cock and get the bar misaligned. (The bar should be directly above the wrist joint. If the wrist is cocked, the bar moves away from that alignment.) On top of that, big forearms create a bigger “body” on which to spread the load of the bar. This can decrease stress on the shoulder joint. There is one caveat: You shouldn’t overdevelop one part of the forearms. For example, the wrist flexors tend to be trained a lot more than the wrist extensors (the flexors are involved a lot when curling and pulling) and the forearms supinators are often dominant over the pronators. Just like any other muscle imbalances in the body, this can lead to problems like tendonitis. So if you want to jack up your forearms and train them every workout (or every day) then work on flexion/extension one workout, do supination/pronation on the next, and do grip work on the third. Then just rotate through that. Since forearm exercises have a short range of motion, you’ll need to do either higher reps or use a slower tempo to create enough fatigue and trigger growth. Sets lasting 30-60 seconds should be your target. I actually don’t count reps when doing forearm work. I put a timer on and keep working until I’ve achieved failure or close to it in the 30-60 second range. But I’ll prescribe a number of reps in a couple of the examples below for the sake of simplicity. Workout A – Flexion/Extension Exercise Sets Reps Rest A1 Wrist Roller 3-4 30-60 sec. 1 min. A2 Wrist Curl 3-4 10-12 90 sec. Workout B – Supination/Pronation Exercise Sets Reps Rest A1 Thor’s Hammer Pronation (4 second negative) 3-4 10-12 1 min. A2 Thor’s Hammer Supination (4 second negative) 3-4 10-12 1 min. Workout C – Grip Exercise Sets Reps Rest A Pinch-Grip Deadlift (Hold 30-60 sec.) 3 90-120 sec. B Fat-Grip Hold (Hold 30-60 sec.) 3 90-120 sec. You can use other exercises if you prefer, but you get the idea. 2 – Abs My strategy for ab training? Using blocks of intense abdominal training where I hit them every day for 4-6 weeks. You can recover rapidly from pretty much any abdominal exercises except those full range GHD sit-ups you see in CrossFit. (This movement creates a powerful stretch of the rectus abdominis – especially when done with the speed they use – which will cause a lot of muscle damage, and require more recovery time.) Daily ab training at an adequate level of intensity is one of the fastest ways of improving abdominal aesthetics, provided you’re lean enough to show them. The “abs
Origin: 5 Things You Can Train Everyday

Tip: Two Rotational Exercises for a Powerful Core

Photo Credit: Bear Fitness Rotational power is the forgotten component of most training programs. Whether you’re hitting, throwing, punching, or kicking, almost every sport requires some sort of rotational explosive ability. Use these medicine ball drills to develop a more powerful midsection. Partner Rotational Throw The person performing this drill should kneel with the knee closest to their partner on the ground and be turned sideways to their partner. Have your buddy perform a medicine ball chest pass to your outstretched arms. Brace your core and resist the rotation as you catch the medicine ball. Use your core to twist your body (keeping your arms relatively straight) and fire the medicine ball back at your partner. Bonus points if you knock him over. Don’t have friends? Try this one: Rotational Wall Throw Place your body to the side of a wall. Using your core, powerfully rotate and throw the ball into the wall. Brace your core and catch the ball as it comes back, resisting rotation. Pro Tip: Make sure the wall is reinforced and not drywall so you don’t piss off your local gym owner. Although these drills can be performed at any point during your workout, I’d recommend doing them before strength training. The force production will get your nervous system fired up and ready to lift
Origin: Tip: Two Rotational Exercises for a Powerful Core

This Stuff is Better Than Whole Food

Nutritional Virtue Signaling You know what chafes me? It’s the mutts who are always tweeting about how they don’t need supplements and that we should instead get all our nutrition from “whole foods.” They think all “processed” things are bad. I’m guessing they also wear underpants made from the natural, un-dyed wool shorn of virgin yaks and their houses are constructed of organic hemp panels glued together with woodpecker spit. They’re paragons of wholesome naturalness. Yeah right. The “whole foods only” cliché is nutritional virtue signaling at its worst, a sad attempt to prove that the people who say it are more nutritionally pious than their peers, but let me smack them across the face with a cold, line-caught herring of truth: While there’s no shortage of crappy supplements and god-awful processed foods, some supplements are great and some processed foods are actually better than whole foods. Biotest’s Superfood is a great example. Granted, it’s only minimally processed – an array of 18 strategically chosen freeze-dried fruits and vegetables – but the whole-food absolutists still paint it with a horsehair brush as a processed food. Fine. Stick with your labels, but I’m here to tell you that Superfood is one food that every human being should be taking to improve their health, longevity, and, to those for who it matters, athletic ability. What’s In Superfood? Take a look at the ingredients: Berries Wild Blueberry (1.5% anthocyanin) Orange (40% vitamin C) Raspberry (20% ellagic acid, 0.7% anthocyanins) Strawberry Acai Berry (1.5% total phenolic acids, 1% anthocyanins) Coffee Berry (50% total phenolic acids) Goji Berry Pomegranate (40% ellagic acid) Vegetables Broccoli Sprout (5000 ppm sulforaphane) Kale Spinach (700 ppm lutein) Wasabi (20% glucosinolates) Wild Yam (20% diosgenin) Green Tea (95% total polyphenols, 65% total catechins, 40% EGCG) Other Fruits Apple Mango Passion fruit Watermelon (1000 ppm lycopene) What’s So Great About Superfood? One of the reasons I’m such a big fan of Superfood is because I’m high on the science of polyphenols, which are plant-derived, bioactive compounds that can repress inflammation by inhibiting damage from free radicals and interacting with the immune system, thereby conveying such health benefits as lowered blood pressure, lessened endothelial dysfunction, reduced cholesterol, lowered risk of type 2 diabetes, lowered risk of cancer, and even improved recovery from training. You know how nearly every other article you read says you should eat, I don’t know, yams or some other vegetable or fruit for this or that benefit? Despite what most novice nutritionists think, it’s not because they contain riboflavin or some other vitamin or mineral. Don’t get me wrong, those vitamins and minerals are super important, but the real magic of vegetables and fruits are in the polyphenols they contain and Superfood is possibly the richest, most diverse, and most condensed source of polyphenols on the planet. There are two really broad classes of these polyphenols – flavonoids and nonflavonoids. The flavonoid group can further be broken down into six dietary groups: Flavones:Found in abundance in citrus fruits, celery, and parsley. Flavonols:Rich sources include broccoli, blueberries, and kale. Flavanones:These are found in citrus fruit and mint, among other places. Isoflavones:Commonly found in vegetables and fruits in general. Flavanols:Apples, grapes, teas, and cocoa are rich sources. Anthocyanidins:Found in abundance in blueberries, blackberries, and eggplant. The non-flavonoid group can also be broken down into three different classes: Stilbenes:The well-known compound resveratrol is a stilbene. It and its cousins are commonly found in red wines, apples, pears, plums, peaches, and other foods. Phenolic Acids:These are found in coffee, teas, cherries, blueberries, and a bunch of other fruits. Lignans:Rich sources include kale, broccoli, berries, and whole grains. All of these classes of polyphenols are present in Superfood. The Biological Effects of Polyphenols Polyphenols are most famous for being general antioxidants. Got a free radical spillage on aisle 3? Send in the polyphenols to mop things up. We measure how potent an antioxidant is by something called the ORAC scale, which is a standardized test used by the USDA to measure the Total Antioxidant Potency of foods and nutritional supplements. The term stands for “Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity,” and the measurement is expressed as ORAC units per 100 grams of a given compound. For instance, the USDA determined an “average serving of fruits and vegetables” has an ORAC rating of between 400 and 500. But all fruits and vegetables aren’t created equal. Some, like coffee berry, acai berry, and goji berry (all of which are in Superfood) are off the chart on the ORAC scale. So just what is the ORAC rating of just one serving (two scoops) of Superfood? 5,315. That means just one teaspoon of Superfood has the
Origin: This Stuff is Better Than Whole Food