Extend Your Sets For Better Results If you’re over 40, doing 3 sets of 8 and going home is no longer going to suffice. It may have worked when you were younger and had testosteroned-up tiger blood flowing through your veins, but not so much when you’ve got a 50/50 blend of tiger blood and prune juice squirting through your plaque-riddled vessels. That’s why damn near every workout should contain an extended set, drop set, or finisher of some kind and if you’re not making an ugly, just-got-burned-by-dragon-fire face at the end of it, you didn’t work hard enough. Do strip sets on leg press or Smith machine squats. Rep out. Pull a plate. Rep out. Pull a plate. Rep out. Pull a plate. Rep out. Collapse into a fetal position. Try Paul Carter’s 10-6-10 method on an exercise or two. That’s a 10-second isometric followed immediately (using the same weight) by 6 full-range-of-motion reps done with a 3-5 second eccentric, followed immediately (again with the same weight) by 10 partial range, little grunt reps. Here’s what it looks like: Or pick a weight that you can do about 10 reps with. Look at the wall clock and note the time. Give yourself 5 minutes to do 50 reps with the same weight, taking little bitty chunks of rest in-between sets to failure. If you actually hit 50, the weight was too light. Mechanical advantage barbell curls like this work well too: A1. Reverse barbell curls for 6 to 8 reps. A2. Drag curls for as many reps as you can. A3. Standing barbell curls for as many reps as you can. You get the idea. It sounds counterintuitive and it smacks of weightlifting heresy, but you’ve got to train harder than when you were younger if you want to stay in the
Origin: Tip: 40-Plus? Do More Work
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Tip: Bench Like a Beast Without Shoulder Pain
Shoulder discomfort when bench pressing is common among experienced bodybuilders and strength athletes. Most just fight through the pain because they’re afraid they’ll lose size and strength if they give it up. While benching isn’t the only way to grow your chest and triceps, it’s certainly a core upper-body exercise. Fortunately, there are ways you can bench press that help alleviate stress from the shoulder joint. Before we get into those, let’s quickly review why your shoulders might be aching: Benching is an internal rotator-dominant exercise. Many lifters are already very internally rotated since they sit for work at a computer and have weak upper-back muscles. Coupling those issues with the bench press further adds to the shoulder stress. Inefficient warm-up and poor mobility. You have to warm up if you’re going to bench, especially if you don’t want your shoulders to suffer from it. Before you even touch the bar, do some mobility drills to help open up your range of motion, and maybe perform some activation exercises with light bands for the shoulders, triceps, and upper back. 3 Shoulder-Friendly Bench Exercises You can tweak the bench press to greatly reduce the stress on the shoulders and keep the tension on the muscles you’re trying to train the first place. If you’re consistent with your warm-up and mobility drills, but still feel some unwanted tension in the shoulders when you bench, try these variations: 1 – Dumbbell Press with External Rotation This puts less stress on the shoulders as opposed to excessive internal rotation. At the top of the motion, your hands will be facing in toward each other with your shoulders externally rotated. You can turn the palms forward at the bottom or keep them neutral during the entire range of motion. 2 – Slight Decline Bench Slap a plate or two under one end of the bench. This will put you on a slight decline angle, allowing you to use the pecs more effectively while taking any unwanted stress off the shoulders. 3 – Floor Press When people are experiencing shoulder pain during the bench press, it’s usually because their mobility is limited and they’re trying to perform the press through a greater range of motion than their shoulders are ready for by bringing the dumbbells down too far. You can eliminate this completely by doing floor presses either with dumbbells or a bar. Pressing from the floor reduces the range of motion your shoulders have to go through and maintains tension on the
Origin: Tip: Bench Like a Beast Without Shoulder Pain
Tip: Ramping Up the Reverse Hyper
The reverse hyper can develop tremendous amounts of strength in the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. Doing them is a great start, but you’re missing out if you haven’t tried them with an isometric hold. Lifters will often load the reverse hyper with multiple 45-pound plates and perform reps with ease, but then load a couple 25 pound plates – if that – and struggle to maintain an isometric hold for longer than 20 seconds. This is a problem because it shows a weak link in their training. It’s understandable that these isometrics often get neglected. They’re boring, difficult, and they might even hurt your ego if going heavy is always the number one priority. But if building more stability and being able to squat, deadlift, and press with more efficiency are important to you, then these need to be a part of your programming. Loading It Up When doing isometrics with reverse hypers there are two ways to add load. The first is how we typically add load, with the use of weight. The second way is to add manual resistance from a partner pressing down on the back of the feet. Using manual resistance can be a very effective method if done properly. It’s far easier to adjust the load – you either press down harder on their feet or release some. Reverse Hyper Isometric Hold – Weight Reverse Hyper Isometric Hold – Manual Resistance Single-Leg Holds You can also do the isometric holds focusing on a single leg. Either specifically one leg at a time or doing switches where you target both legs throughout the set but one leg gets more focused pressure. This is great to use if you have any muscular or strength imbalances in your legs, and can also create a more intense isometric hold. Single-Leg Isometric Hold – Manual Resistance Single-Leg Isometric Hold – Weight Single-Leg Switches – Manual Resistance Other Variations Here are some other variations that’ll intensify the movement and bring up specific weak points of the hips and trunk. Abduction Isometric Hold – Manual Resistance Adduction Isometric Hold – Manual Resistance Anti Rotation Isometric Hold – Manual Resistance Use these once you’ve set the foundation with basic double and single leg isometric holds. If your weak points are your hips, incorporating the reverse hyper isometric hold with hip abduction or adduction is a fantastic warm-up, especially the abduction on days when you have to squat or deadlift where hip abduction from spreading the floor and driving the knees out will be a necessity. Since the tension can be easily adjusted with manual resistance, I believe it’s the most effective means of doing these exercises. Not only is your partner forcing you to either abduct or adduct, they’re also pushing your feet down so you’re still getting all of the benefit of the reverse hyper isometric hold itself. What If You Train Solo? If you train alone and still want to do these exercises, you can do so by using common things in most gyms. For adduction (legs come together), you can put a foam roller or medicine ball between your feet and squeeze it. To perform the hold with a focus on abduction (legs spread out) you can take a small therapy band or double up a resistance band and wrap it around your ankles, driving outward into the band while you hold the reverse hyper position. Ways To Add It Try adding it when you do core work. The lower back and hips are, after all, part of the core. A simple progression of using isometrics could look something like this: Week 1:3×20 seconds Week 2:3×30 seconds Week 3:3×40 seconds Week 4:3×20 seconds (heavier than week 1) Other ways you can progress include adding additional weight every week and keeping the seconds the same, adding an additional set and keeping the load the same, or varying the type of hold. You might also consider keeping the holds shorter rather than longer. If your goal is true stability, a 10-20 second hold is plenty of time to build that strength up, where 40-60 seconds is a little more focused on endurance of the functioning muscles. So if you need to build that bracing strength necessary to handle bigger squats and pulls, then train in a shorter time range, focusing on maximum tension throughout the hold. Using and progressing these movements will build your strength and stability like no other movement. Start slowly and add these to your core work or at the beginning of your session and watch as you feel more stable, stronger, and powerful through your
Origin: Tip: Ramping Up the Reverse Hyper
Tip: The Athlete’s Push-Up
Most athletes need upper body explosive power. In the quest for improved performance, many athletes unfortunately end up injured because they choose high-risk methods and exercises. While exercises like plyometric push-ups (clapping push-ups, box push-ups, etc.) can be great, they can also be harmful. With a background of shoulder injury, doing plyometric push-ups will cause a lot of stress in the landing and deceleration phase. Many add to this stress by dropping from way-too-high boxes, increasing the stress even more. If you’re one of those athletes who has to be smarter about your exercise selection, but you still want to increase your explosive power, go for banded push-ups. To increase explosiveness, you need to do exercises with the intent of being as powerful as possible through the WHOLE range of motion. Ballistic training methods like med-ball throws are perfect for this, but in the world of push-ups, the resistance band does the trick. There are basically two ways to do this exercise: either with a pause in the bottom position, or repeatedly without pause. The former will train explosive starting strength; the latter will improve reactive
Origin: Tip: The Athlete’s Push-Up
Tip: Over 40? Build Your Work Capacity
Conditioning Matters Even More Now I realize there are some differences between 25 and 40, and probably a lot of differences between 25 and 50, but not as many as you might think, especially if you have at least 10 years’ worth of training experience. But you can’t train hard if merely pulling your pants on makes you wheeze. You need to do cardio or metabolic conditioning or whatever term you feel comfortable with. How do you expect to work hard if your lungs don’t have the sass to carry on? Moreover, your cellular batteries – the mitochondria – start to wear out, get lazy, take extended vacations in Cabo, or die as you get older. They need a kick in the pants so they get to multiplying, and that’s what intense exercise provides. Fear not, though, because you don’t have to devote hours and hours to all that tedious, conventional aerobic training stuff where you sit on a stationary bike for an hour as your panini-ed prostate swells up to the size of one of those sand-filled Bulgarian bags. Options That Don’t Suck At least three times a week, get on the treadmill, rower, or yes, stationary bike for a measly 10 minutes for some HIIT-style training. Focus on all-out efforts of 20 seconds, followed by 60 seconds of “active recovery.” On a treadmill, that might mean setting the speed at a leisurely 3 miles per hour and then cranking it up as fast as your little stubby legs allow for about 20 seconds, after which you’d drop the level back down to 3 again for a minute or two before you do another round. You could do the same thing on a stationary bike or rower, or you might prefer short sprints followed by walking-recovery periods. Alternately, you can crank up the incline on the treadmill to the Himalaya setting, or as high as it goes, and trudge uphill, Sherpa like, for 30 to 60 seconds before zeroing out again. This type of training has been shown to increase mitochondria. That, coupled with the increase in endurance you’ll experience, will allow you to lift as hard as you need
Origin: Tip: Over 40? Build Your Work Capacity
Tip: Slow Cook Your Biceps for Growth
Biceps Rotisseries Let’s “slow cook” your biceps, as well as the brachioradialis, via a lot of rotation and change in hand position. The Protocol Dumbbell Reverse Curl:6-8 reps with an estimated 12-rep max weight Dumbbell Hammer Curl:6-8 reps (same weight) Dumbbell Curl:6-8 reps (same weight) Dumbbell Cheat Curl:6-8 reps (same weight) 90-Degree Alternating Pronation/Supination:6-8 reps (after last cheat rep) 90-Degree Isometric Hold:Hold for as long as possible (after last supination and pronation) You’ll use the same weight throughout and there’s no rest between the variations. Rest 90-120 seconds and repeat. You’ll likely have to drop down a set of dumbbells to do a second series. (You’ll only need two “sets” of this at the end of your workout.) Leave your ego at the door for this one. This protocol is straight-up metabolic stress, skin-splitting pump work! If you need to use 15-20 pound dumbbells, then so be it. Now isn’t the time to try and impress the Gym Shark girl next to you with huge weights. Weight Selection is Key on the First Exercise You want to have several reps in reserve. If you go too heavy on the reverse curl and get too close to failure, you won’t last and won’t hit the rep targets on the movements that follow. Trust me, by the third or fourth movement, it’ll get plenty hard. Note on the Cheat Curl You want to hip hinge just a little and “pop” up powerfully. Pause the contraction and then do a very slow and focused
Origin: Tip: Slow Cook Your Biceps for Growth
Tip: Facts On Fat Burning Supplements
The fat burning supplements category is quite broad. Tons of different products are being sold with the claim of helping you lose fat faster and more easily. Fat loss supplements are formulated to do one of the following: Increase metabolic rate or energy expenditure via increased beta adrenergic (adrenaline) activity Increase metabolic rate or energy expenditure via a higher T3 (thyroid hormone) production Increase fat mobilization via inhibition of the alpha-adrenergic receptors Increase fatty acid transport and/or utilization of fat for fuel Improve insulin sensitivity Activate the mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) There might be other mechanisms (like reducing fat absorption) but these are the main ones. So let’s break each of these down. Increased Metabolic Rate Via Beta Adrenergic Stimulation This is done with products often labeled “stimulants” so think ephedrine, synephrine, and the like. Caffeine can even be included here, indirectly. These work, and they do increase energy expenditure which leads to fat loss. But their effect is fairly small. An old study looked at the effect of the ephedrine/caffeine stack. It improved metabolic rate/energy expenditure by 5%. That’s maybe an extra 100 calories per day. It can still have an affect and help get that last bit of fat off when you’re dieting down for a contest, but it’s no miracle. The main reasons stimulants “work” is that they blunt appetite, which makes you eat less and makes it easier to follow a diet. It also gives you more energy when you’re tired from dieting down. If you have more energy, you’ll move more and train harder which will also help you lose fat. But overusing stimulants come at a price. First they lead to an increase in cortisol, and most of us already have too much of that. But more importantly, when you chronically overstimulate, the beta adrenergic receptors can easily become desensitized (they don’t respond well to adrenaline anymore). When that happens it’ll actually become harder to lose fat and you’ll also have less energy and motivation. Ultimately, you’ll start to feel worse and worse. This category of product is best left for losing the last few pounds. I only recommend using them for a few weeks, which is why they need to be the very last thing to add in a regimen. Increased Metabolic Rate/Energy Expenditure Via Higher T3 Production The T3 thyroid hormone is in large part responsible for elevating your metabolic rate. The body produces mostly T4 which is then converted to T3. To boost T3 levels you can either increase overall thyroid hormone production or increase T4 to T3 conversion. To boost overall thyroid production the best thing to do is to provide the body with enough raw material to make these hormones. Specifically iodine and tyrosine. As such, supplements containing both can help a bit with thyroid production. As for T4 to T3 conversion, one of the best things you can do is decrease stress levels. Chronically elevated cortisol can impair that conversion. Zinc deficiency will also be problematic because zinc is required for the conversion to take place. Rhodiola and raspberry ketones, which are in Hot-Rox® Extreme, can indirectly increase that conversion too. Increased Fat Mobilization Via Inhibition of the Alpha-Adrenergic Receptors We have two main types of adrenergic (adrenaline) receptors: the beta and alpha receptors. The beta receptors are the “on” switch. When activated they increase heart rate, CNS activation, energy mobilization (including fat) and muscle strength. These are the receptors being targeted by most stimulants. The alpha receptors are the “off” switch. When activated, they shut down energy/fat mobilization, slow heart rate, decrease CNS activation, etc. Some supplements are antagonists of the alpha adrenergic receptors. This simply means that these supplements block the alpha receptors. If you block them, your body continues mobilizing energy for longer. There’s a theory that stubborn body fat sites (where you have problems losing fat the most) have more alpha and less beta adrenergic receptors, making it much harder to mobilize fat there. Yohimbe HCL/yohimbine, which is also found in Hot-Rox® Extreme, is an antagonist of the alpha receptors. For that reason it can work for increasing fat mobilization, especially in stubborn regions. Just be aware that if you’re overly stressed or planning to do a monster CrossFit-like workout, yohimbe might not be a great idea: even without stimulants these kind of workouts will increase adrenaline so much that you can run into trouble. The best use for a yohimbe-containing product is before steady-state cardio. It’s not a magic pill, but it can help get rid of the stubborn body fat when that’s all you have left. It works WITH exercise – it’ll make the exercise more efficient at mobilizing fat. By itself it will have a small impact, and it’ll be a lot more effective with cardio than weight training. Increased Fatty Acid Transport and/or
Origin: Tip: Facts On Fat Burning Supplements
Tip: 1 Dumbbell, 4 Nasty Finishers
The term “finisher” might bring back memories of Mortal Kombat and Sub Zero freezing opponents solid before punching their heads into tiny ice cubes, but in reality it’s just a short, intense effort at the end of a training session. Finishers are often framed as a great way to build work capacity and torch fat. While that’s not untrue, one of the lesser known benefits of well-designed finishers are their ability to help build muscle. A strategically designed finisher will provide all three of the mechanisms for muscular hypertrophy: mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscular damage to particular muscle groups. People often make two big mistakes when doing finishers: They don’t use exercises with enough loading. This basically leads to a glorified step aerobics session. Or… The movements chosen are too complex or loaded too heavily. The quality goes out the window as the heart rate goes up. When too much fatigue sets in, reps get ugly, range of motion decreases, and things go south. You can avoid those drawbacks with these four finishers. They’re made up of movements that are low on the complexity side, but pack a big punch since you’ll likely be able to handle substantial weights for an extended duration. This systemic stress will challenge your lungs and give you the stimulus needed to build more muscle. 1. Goblet Squat + Goblet Carry + Goblet Squat Grab a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell and knock out 10 goblet squats. Without putting it down, walk with it in the goblet position for 40-60 yards, then finish with 10 more goblet squats. Let your heart stop beating out of your chest, rinse, and repeat 2-3 times. Not only does this punish the legs, but with each round taking 75-90 seconds, the upper back and abs get torched from the duration of the hold. Not a challenge? Increase the weight on the next round. 2. Dips + Goblet Squat Countdown Using a dumbbell that’s half your bodyweight, do 10 goblet squats, then 10 bodyweight dips. Then 9 of each, then 8, and continue down to 1. Rest when needed but keep it to a minimum. When you start a set, try to complete all of the required reps. Holding the dumbbell in the goblet position becomes increasingly challenging as the fatigue in the triceps accumulates from the dips. This adds up to a lot of work (55 reps each of dips and goblet squats) in a relatively short amount of time, with constant stress on the triceps throughout, making it a solid choice if getting bigger arms is on your to-do list. 3. Goblet Squat + Hammer Fist Battling Ropes Set a timer for 10 minutes. Grab a dumbbell or kettlebell that you can hit 12-15 goblet squats with. Do 10 goblet squats and 20 seconds of hard rope waves. Work to get as many rounds in as possible. Your biceps, legs, lungs, and forearms will all be equally smoked. Be sure to keep the speed on the ropes going on each round. As fatigue sets in, you’re going to want to slow it down and just keep it moving. Take rest as necessary so you can keep the output level cranked up. 4. Chin-Up + Goblet Squat Countdown Using a dumbbell that’s half your bodyweight, do 10 goblet squats, then 10 chin-ups. Then 9 of each, then 8, and continue down to 1. Again, rest when needed but keep it to a minimum. When you start a set, try to complete all of the required reps. Use Finishers Wisely While finishers are a great exclamation point at the end of a workout, be frugal in how often you use them. Remember, this is a finisher. It’s done after the meat and potatoes of your strength training, so don’t get carried away with the “more is better” approach. When you push the envelope, you need extra recovery or you’re likely to see your performance impacted negatively in subsequent workouts. Think about adding one of these finishers in your last workout before a few days off, at the end of a training block, or at the very least, put an extra emphasis on sleep and recovery after doing one of
Origin: Tip: 1 Dumbbell, 4 Nasty Finishers
Tip: Are Protein Shakes Really Bad For You?
There it was, on news app after news app on my iPhone, the report about how “drinking muscle-building protein shakes” could threaten your health and reduce your life span. That kind of news gets your attention, especially if you’ve spent a good part of your adult life tapping on the bottom of a protein shake, trying to give gravity an assist in draining the last few rivulets of protein into your mouth. I looked up the study and sure enough, there it was. Scientists from the University of Fredonia recruited 12 bodybuilders. Six were designated as the control group and the other 6 were force-fed 12 gallons of protein shakes, causing all 6 to explode. No, no, no. That wasn’t the real study. I made that up. But the real study, or at least the way the real study was interpreted by the lay press, is just as ridiculous. What The Silly Monkeys Did I won’t bother going into all the minute details of the study that was so widely mischaracterized. What you need to know, though, is that Australian scientists gave several groups of mice a diet of which 18% was protein from casein. One group of mice, however, had about a third of their whole protein replaced with free-form branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). That group started to eat more than the other groups, got fatter, and then died earlier than the other groups. What probably happened is that the large amount of BCAAs in their diet caused a decrease in serotonin production, thereby increasing their appetites and compelling them to overeat. That’s it. You’re probably wondering how the hell anyone could make the deductive leap from mice that overdosed on BCAAs to humans dying from protein shakes. The answer is in the press release from the University of Sydney where the research took place. It made the observation that “BCAAs are included in all sorts of supplements for athletes,” including protein drinks. Got that? Since some protein drinks contain additional BCAAs, then protein drinks in general can supposedly damage an athlete’s health. Never mind that the study itself never said anything at all about protein supplements. Never mind that no human is going to replace about a third of his daily whole-protein intake with BCAAs. Besides, there’s nothing inherently dangerous about BCAAs. The mice were just fed a stupid amount of them and it caused them to overeat. What This Means To You What does this mean to you? Absolutely nothing. Ignore it. Ignore all the articles about it that keep popping up in your health news apps. The truth is, a good protein shake, made from a high-quality protein powder and not made in bargain-basement manufacturing companies in China from ingredients you don’t want to know about, used as a supplement instead of a meal replacement, can do some great things for a body, like: Increase lean body mass (muscle!) Increase levels of growth hormone Increase serum levels of testosterone Reduce body fat percentages Greatly increase insulin sensitivity Improve cholesterol ratios (higher HDL levels). As far as manufacturers adding BCAAs to their general-usage protein powders, it’s often unnecessary except in peri-workout situations, but it certainly won’t shorten your lifespan. Likewise, BCAAs, taken by themselves, can be tremendously effective in building muscle, as long as you don’t replace a good part of your whole protein intake with
Origin: Tip: Are Protein Shakes Really Bad For You?
Tip: Make Metabolic Drive Snickers Bars
The perfect pre-workout snack should be easily digestible, have a good nutrient profile, and ideally promote vasodilation and blood flow. These bars have you covered in all departments. Any pre-exercise snack should also help trigger a positive feedback loop. Basically, the tastier it is, the more positive feelings you’ll associate with your workouts. Every time you eat it, you’ll know what’s about to go down. So let’s get to the recipe, then keep scrolling because I’ll tell you why these make an awesome pre-workout snack. Ingredients 18 Medjool dates, pitted 6 Ounces rolled oats 6 Ounces of dark chocolate bar (70% cocoa or higher) 6 Ounces crunchy peanut butter 3 Scoops (90 grams) vanilla Metabolic Drive® Protein 1/3 teaspoon salt Some chopped peanuts or hazelnuts for topping Directions Soak the dates in warm water for 10 minutes so they plump and soften. In a food processor or blender, mix the oats, salt, and protein powder together until fine. Drain the dates then add to the food processor and blitz until well combined. Save the water from the dates for later just in case. Pour the dry-ish dough into a bowl and mix by hand with the peanut butter. You’re welcome to use the processor for this, although this way keeps the crunchy peanut texture. You should find a dough has formed enough that you can easily roll it in your hands. If it’s a little wet, then add more oats. If it’s a little dry, add some of the drained date water you saved earlier. Get a small to medium cake pan ready. Don’t have one? Use a food prep container instead. Coat it with a little oil so the bars are easier to remove, or line with it with parchment paper. Press the dough to the corners of the container and give it an even thickness. Put the container in the freezer while you prepare the dark chocolate. Chop up the chocolate and melt gradually in the microwave, or if you’re fancy, do it in a glass bowl over boiling water. Bring out the container you just stuck in the freezer. Pour the chocolate evenly over the base, then add a sprinkle of chopped peanuts or hazelnuts over the top. Place in the refrigerator to set. Cut into 18 squares. Keep them stored in the fridge or at room temperature… if they last! Make Them A Pre-Workout Snack The natural caffeine and theobromine in dark chocolate act as mild stimulants, while the theobromine can also be a vasodilator. Dark chocolate also contains certain flavonoids that increase nitric oxide production. These convenient and tasty bars are perfect for any chocolate addict. Metabolic Drive® Protein is the primary source of protein, which you need training for amino acid availability. But what’s more important than the total protein content is the ratio of protein, carbs, and fats. Unlike post-workout where keeping fats to a minimum should be your goal, in the few hours leading to your workout some fats could be a good thing. A 2014 study by Yi et al. showed an almond-based snack actually beat a carbohydrate-heavy snack for maximizing exercise performance. The almonds allowed the subjects (cyclists) to sustain a higher intensity of exercise for longer. Theoretically this was due to the combination of protein and fat. The fat might allow people to sustain the energy obtained from carbs for a longer period of time – a drip-feed effect if you will. The peanuts in this recipe aid that process, whether you’re lifting, cross training, or cycling. The oats and medjool dates in these bars make for a great mix of sustainable energy too, with a little salt helping to maintain electrolyte balance. Calories and Macros Per Square 233 calories 9 grams fat 29 grams carbs 9 grams protein 4 grams
Origin: Tip: Make Metabolic Drive Snickers Bars
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