Tip: Best Deadlift For Leg Size & Back Health

You’ll need a dual-adjustable cable machine like the one in the video. Something like a Cybex Functional Trainer or a Keiser Functional Trainer would work. You’ll also need a bar-style cable attachment. (If you don’t have one of these attachments, you’ll see a workaround below.) The attachment should be set just off the floor. Pick it up and step back a foot or two, which will change the angle of pull from the cable. Engage your lats, push your hips back, and allow the bar to travel in toward the cable machine. Once your hamstrings have gone as far as they can handle, return to the start position. Just think of it as a traditional RDL, but you’ll be forced into a slightly different movement to compensate for the direction of the cable. If you don’t have access to the type of cable attachment shown, here’s an effective way to do it using a barbell. Combo Hamstring RDL Here’s a closer look at how the cable is attached to the barbell using a common handle. (Ankle attachments will also work.) When using the combo (cable and barbell) version you’ll also need to account for the extra weight of the bar. This adds another element to the exercise, where on top of the more horizontal cable load you’ll also be adding to the vertical. You can add weight to the bar here, but keep in mind how this’ll affect the overall profile of the exercise. There are some merits to doing this, but for now let’s stick to the exercise in question where the majority of weight is coming via the cable stack (two cable stacks, technically). Why They Work Due to the cable angle, the exercise is designed so that your hamstrings are likely to give out well before your back does. Your hamstrings are taken into a fully lengthened position under load, while your low back will feel like it’s on vacation. Theoretically, there’s very little sheer or compressive force coming through your lumbar region, while there might even be a little traction of the spine as you reach into the bottom position (depending on the height of the cable). These Romanian deadlifts are anything but an ego lift. They prioritize tension through the targeted muscle. This is good news if size is your priority. When it comes to hypertrophy, your muscles don’t give a damn how much your ego is lifting. Tucked away by layers of connective tissue and skin, they’re blind to what goes on outside. They do recognize tension though – and you’ll get plenty of it with this exercise. You’ll also notice that as your toes get pulled into the floor (resisting dorsiflexion), your calves will become more active. This co-contraction of the gastrocnemius adds to the effect and will make things even harder for your hamstrings. Programming Try these in place of your regular deadlifts as a way to vary the training stimulus or work around a tricky back. They’re also a useful alternative to exercises such as 45-degree back extensions, reverse-hypers, pull-throughs and the like. Sets and reps should be
Origin: Tip: Best Deadlift For Leg Size & Back Health

Tip: The Best Foods for Sexual Health

The Manliest Meal Here’s a scenario for you female types: You meet someone you kinda-sorta like at the gym and you agree to meet him at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. You, the bench-pressing, deadlifting, 100% woman that you are, order the Melbourne Porterhouse, cooked so rare you can put your ear to it and hear the sounds of the Australian prairie. But instead of asking for some equally bovine entrée, your date just orders the salad and nothing else: a plate full of lettuce, radishes, and carrots, accompanied with some small grouping of blueberries and strawberries. Now be honest. Didn’t your thighs suddenly clench tightly together? Didn’t an old, weather-worn sign proclaiming that “This here billabong has gone completely dry” suddenly pop up in front of your female parts? There’s no way you’d sleep with this, this… herbivore, right? He’s obviously a low-testosterone hamster, or rather, since you’re eating “Aussie” food, a gerbil, right? Well, get ready to be served a big Bloomin’ Onion of irony, missy, because a new study shows that your fruit-salad munching friend is more likely to be able to achieve and sustain a strong erection than the steak-eating guy who skimps on the plant food. Blue Berries Inversely Related to Blue Balls Researchers from the University of East Anglia and Harvard recently published the results of a large, population-based study in which they monitored over 50,000 men over the course of 30 years. The men were periodically asked about their ability to achieve and maintain an erection, tracking back to 1986. The study found that those who regularly ate foods rich in certain polyphenols (e.g., anthocyanins, flavanones, and flavones) had improved sexual function and were far less likely to suffer from any kind of erectile dysfunction. Foods that contain these particular polyphenols and that were prevalent in the diets of strong-erection men include blueberries, cherries, blackberries, and radishes. Encouragingly, the results were seen from eating what lead researcher Aedin Cassidy described as “just a few portions a week.” Strong Heart, Strong Penis It’s well known that certain polyphenols – anthocyanins and flavonoids in particular – are associated with a reduced incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and generally speaking, a good heart equals a good erection. After all, it’s all about hydraulics. So it stands to reason that if dietary polyphenols prevent or slow down the development of these diseases, you ipso facto get better erections. Of course, there are likely other mechanisms involved, too. Certain anthocyanins can activate the enzyme AMPK, which affects nitrous oxide systems, which in turn control the intensity and duration of erections. How to Use This Info It’s clear that ingesting certain polyphenols, most notably those found in blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, radishes, red wine, apples, pears, and citrus products, can improve erections and help prevent erectile dysfunction. Exactly how much you’d have to eat requires further study, but it looks like you could easily duplicate the benefits experienced by the men in this study by adding a handful of blueberries to your cereal or protein shake a few times a week. Alternately, you could go the supplement route to make things even easier. Indigo-3G® is an anthocyanin product that was designed to increase insulin sensitivity, but it’s also about the most concentrated form of the anthocyanins available and should go a long way in fortifying sexual function. Likewise, the product Superfood, which is a freeze-dried preparation consisting of 18 different fruits and vegetables, contains abundant amounts of the polyphenols singled out in the erection study. Oh, one more thing, and it goes back to the beef-tongue-in-cheek opening of the article: Steak eaters would have at least one turgid leg up over people who only ate polyphenol-rich foods and not animal flesh. The meat eaters get lots more vitamin B12 than non-animal flesh eaters in general, and B-12 is essential to strong erections. The take-to-bed message regarding erections is this, though: A strong and hale erection is indicative of overall health. It’s the flaccid canary in a coalmine, and if your canary is dead, failing, or flailing, start by shoring up your nutrition with polyphenols (and maybe even some more animal
Origin: Tip: The Best Foods for Sexual Health

Tip: 10 Supplements for Overall Health & Longevity

There are plenty of good supplements for building muscle, but what about the other stuff, like general health? There are thousands available, so let’s narrow down the list and focus on the most important ones for longevity and feeling good. 1 – Certain Chelated Minerals If you’re an athlete, you sweat and thus you’re likely deficient in zinc, which, along with selenium, maintains high testosterone levels and the immune system. If you’re a plain old human, you’re also likely deficient in magnesium, and magnesium alone is responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions in the human body, ranging from muscle and nerve function to protein synthesis. Likewise, certain minerals like chromium and vanadium help maintain regular blood sugar levels and insulin, the importance of which would take another 10,000 words to explain. Suffice it to say that these particular minerals are often in short supply and athletes would do well to take them, preferably in chelated form. Elitepro™ Minerals is the best source. 2 – Vitamin D3 If you’re able to spend between 15 and 30 minutes in the sun, pretty much naked, every day, without getting skin cancer or looking like an old catcher’s mitt, skip the vitamin D3 supplements. Otherwise, take 1,000 to 2,000 IU every day to enjoy increased cognition and better immune health and bone health while reducing the risks of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. 3 – Coenzyme Q10 CoQ10 is what’s known as a pseudovitamin in that it’s essential for life, but it’s not essential to life that you supplement with it. Nevertheless, consider taking 90 to 200 mg. a day, with food, to reduce plaque in the arteries and to feed mitochondria. 4 – Resveratrol It can protect us from insulin resistance and heart disease, along with working as a potent estrogen antagaonist and aromatase inhibitor. Take about 1800 mg. per day. Rez-V™ is the top choice. 5 – Cyandin 3-Glucoside This substance regulates the chemical master switch called AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase). This master switch plays a huge role in determining not only how fat you are, but how long you live. Take 2400 to 3600 mg. per day before meals. Indigo-3G® is the most potent. 6 – Omega-3 Fatty Acids We live in an omega-6 world and it’s killing us. Nature intended for us to have a two-to-one or three-to-one ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in our body, but because of our fast-food, snack-food, meal-in-a-box way of life, this ratio is now more like 20 to 1 in favor of the omega-6s. Inflammation is thus running rampant through our bodies and the best way to stop it is to cut down on the omega-6’s and to start swallowing those beautiful amber fish oil gelcaps. Take up to 12,000 milligrams of a combined DHA/EPA formulation such as Flameout® once a day. 7 – CLA Conjugated linoleic acid is a fatty acid found in high quantities in grass-fed beef. Since most of us don’t get much grass-fed beef, we’re likely deficient in this important fatty acid. Numerous studies have shown it to be a potent cancer fighter, as well as playing a role in normalizing blood pressure, fighting cardiovascular disease in general, and helping with osteoporosis, inflammation, and even body composition. Take about 1,000 mg. a day. Products, like Flameout®, that contain the two isomers of CLA are the best. 8 – Curcumin Curcumin is one of those supplements that sometimes seems too good to be true because the stuff does everything. It helps enhance cardiovascular health, reduces body fat, relieves pain, kills multiple types of cancer cells, and reduces estrogen levels, among other things. Take about 1,000 mg. a day for general health, more, as needed, to alleviate pain. Make sure you use a formula that’s employing additional food technology to make it more absorbable, though. 9 – Superfood This product is the thinking man’s alternative to multivitamins. It consists solely of 18 nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables that have been desiccated, pulverized, and stored in a pouch. As such, Superfood contains all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals intrinsic to the fruits and vegetables it’s made from. Take two scoops a day. 10 – Saw Palmetto The research behind saw palmetto as a prostate savior isn’t conclusive. We’re not sure that it relieves symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia or that it lowers levels of prostate specific antigen. However, we’re fairly certain that it does lower levels of DHT while increasing levels of testosterone. The latter achievements, and the possibility that it does help with the former, convince us that it merits inclusion in your health prescription. Make sure you buy a product that was manufactured using the “supercritical C02” method. Take between 160 and 320 mg. a
Origin: Tip: 10 Supplements for Overall Health & Longevity