DESIGNING BETTER LIVING THROUGH STRENGTH
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a personal training blog

From the category archives:

Muscle and Strength Gain

Tip#455 – Add 10% To Your Bench Press (or any other exercise)…

November 17, 2007

…by “remembering” the rest of your body.
Typically, when performing an exercise, you’re taught to focus only on the muscles that exercise purports to target. For example, in the bench press, the primary movers are the chest, shoulder, and triceps muscles. So it’s not incorrect to focus on using and feeling these muscle groups [...]

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What’s the Biggest Thing Stopping You From Gaining Muscle?

September 23, 2007

The question I hear most frequently from guys in the Spike TV demographic (18-34) is:
“I’m lifting weights pretty regularly, but I’m not getting any bigger. Why not?”
First off, it’s interesting to see what most guys do in the weight room (*cough curls chest flyes and bench *cough). Knowing that most people lift with the intensity [...]

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Setting The Stage For Muscle.

September 22, 2007

Let’s discuss the three basic “must-haves” for success in a strength training program.
In order for you to experience muscle gain, three conditions need to be fulfilled:
1. You must perform progressive strength training for the entire body.
“Progressive” means that the demands of the training increase over time. Today, you can lift 10 pounds over your head. [...]

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Quick, Efficient Workouts.

June 24, 2007

Above: By following the principles of a quick, efficient workout, Dubya could spend less time in the gym, and more time on his policy-making. Or maybe not.
From old-school HIT to Afterburn to Crossfit, there has been a veritable explosion of workout and exercise regimens pointed at getting you fitter faster. In fact, an [...]

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Which Rep Is Most Important?

June 6, 2007

Above: Bob Peoples (the first athlete to deadlift 700 lbs) knew the importance of a good rep.
This is a more involved question than it looks like at first glance.
One could argue that the first rep of a set is most important because your chance of injury is highest (since you’re capable of generating [...]

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"Down With Redundancy!"

May 15, 2007

Thanks to Mike Hogan for this one.
What does redundancy have to do with strength training?
Plenty. The issue here is retracing your steps when you don’t have to; i.e., multiple sets and exercises for the same muscle groups.
(Note: I’m assuming here that your main goal in going to the gym is looking and feeling better, [...]

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Just ONE More Rep.

March 5, 2007

We know that training can be uncomfortable. We know “the burn” hurts like hell and makes us want to quit.
We also know that a high degree of effort is required to reap the maximal benefit from any exercise modality we choose; this is especially true for strength training. But how do we do [...]

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Spartans are Ripped! 300 and Musings on Hollywood Workouts.

March 2, 2007

I’ve been a big Frank Miller fan ever since my fanboy days in grammar school. I loved Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City (before it got the Hollywood treatment), and Ronin. Hollywood’s latest offering, based on Miller’s graphic novel 300 chronicles the struggle of 300 Spartan warriors as they face [...]

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Steve Maxwell is Awesome.

October 2, 2006

I met Steve Maxwell this past weekend; great guy. He and his wife DC run a fitness studio/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in Philly called Maxercise. Although Steve has moved away from using Superslow as his exercise protocol of choice, I found out he and I share the common professional bond of highly recommending low-carbohydrate [...]

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Babies = Barbells.

May 24, 2006

Now, at some point, if you’ve reared a child or two, you must have wondered about the health benefits of toting your baby around. If you were so inclined, you may even have thought to yourself, “Well, I’m certainly strengthening my arms carrying this baby of mine around!”
But I’m fairly certain you’d never made the [...]

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