Supersets and Exercise Pairings

I went to visit a client at their gym on the weekend. She was training her bench press, and was really pushing her limits with a 5x5 protocol, so although her first set wasn't an all out effort, by the last few sets, she was definitely seeing stars as she was grinding them out!

I'm there with her, spotting her, and coaching her through her workout, and a guy walks over and introduces himself as a "certified" trainer and proceeds to suggest that her workout would be more efficient if she were to superset a set of bent-over rows in between each set of bench press.

The funniest thing... is that I saw this guy coming from the other side of the gym, and I knew exactly what was going to happen... and I was right.

So first, before I say whether he had a good suggestion, I seriously doubt he could bench press 5x5x125 which is what my client was doing. This guy barely had any facial hair let alone any muscle on his frame.

That said, I can't be upset with him, as I used to do that all the time. Yep.. I was the annoying kid who had to teach everyone everything I learned the moment I learned it.

It all comes down to perspective. When you're young, when you learn something, you think the world should know it, and that they probably don't already know it.

So did he have a good suggestion?

It really depends on the goals of the training session. If "Jill" was doing 5x5x125 and her 1RM was 155, making her 5x5x125 at 80% 1RM, as was the case, then I would say no. But if Jill's 1RM was 175, then she's training at around 70%, which means her 5x5x125 would not be too taxing.

In other words, if the weights you're going to be lifting are going to be close to your limits for a given repetition range, you don't want to superset other exercises in as it will interfere with your ability to give 100% effort to the exercise you're trying to focus on.

High CNS involvement multi-joint-compound movements take way more out of you than other less demanding exercises, so pairing them up isn't always a good idea.

The main key is to decide what your main purpose is for the exercise. If you want your bench to go up.. then you don't want to be supersetting it with another exercise. But if your goal is just general strength and overall conditioning, and getting more weight on that bar Goddamnit.. is NOT the end all be all for you, then you can superset with another exercise.

Good Exercise Pairings

Vertical Push + Vertical Pull

ex: Military Press + Wide Grip Pull-ups

Horizontal Push + Horizontal Pull

ex: Bench Press + Inverted Rows

Vertical Push + Horizontal Pull

ex: 1-DB Push Press + Bent-Over Dumbbell Rows

Horizontal Push + Vertical Pull

ex: Dips + Chin-Ups

For lower body work, since both squats and deadlifts work both quads and hamstrings it would rarely be advised to superset quad/ham. Instead, and only if maximum strength is not your goal, you could superset another non-competing exercise.

Quad Dominant + (Biceps, shoulders)

Squat + DB Curls or dumbbell shoulder press

Hip Dominant + (Chest, shoulders, triceps)

Deadlifts + Pushups, Military Press, DB Tricep Extensions

There are many options, but these are just some.

Always bear in mind your goals, and construct your program with pairings that are suitable if any.

If you have any questions or comments about this post, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below.

Low Back Pain Solution

Is this YOU at any point of your day?

Any solution for low back pain must of course fit the cause of the pain, of which there are many. But a common cause of low back pain is excessive lumbar flexion when bending forward. There are cases where some people have tremendous lumbar flexion without problems, but just because they can, doesn't mean you can or should even try.

Don't Try This

Just Because Some Other Twat Can Do It!

When you have to bend over for whatever reason, you should be trying to get as much movement at your hips, otherwise you your lumbar spine usually takes up the slack.

This is tough for many simply because the mechanics of flexing at the hip are unfamiliar. An excellent exercise to help develop good posterior chain strength and good hip flexion/extension mechanics is the 45 degree back extension.

The 45 degree back extension is also good for those who are not strong enough to do normal flat back extensions.

Key Technique Points:

1. Maintain neutral arch throughout movement.

2. Brace abdominals firmly throughout.

3. Pull into top position with glutes, not lower back.

4. Avoid lumbar flexion on descent.

5. Mental focus should be on maintaining rigid torso through abdominal bracing and moving only at the hips.

Progressions for 45 Degree Back Extensions

1. Add external resistance using dumbbells, barbell across shoulders, or plates at your chest.

2. Use accommodating resistance such as bands or chains.

3. Use one leg only. (this provides additional benefit due to additional torque from rotational forces which must be resisted - this is an advanced technique)

4. Reduce rest between sets.

VIDEO: 45 Degree Back Extensions

Other Considerations:

If your hamstrings are too tight or too short, your range of motion may be very short forcing you to round your back to make much of a descent. If this is the case, resist the urge to go deep, and only do the range of motion possible with the neural lumbar arch. And of course, a good deal of hamstring stretching is on order as well.

If you have any questions or comments about this post, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section!

And as always.. please "LIKE" my video on the YouTube page! Helps with ratings!

Ginger Kills Cancer

So then they invented this...

"Hey mom, yes I'm feeling much better!  I had cancer, but the Doctor made me drink 12L of Ginger-ale and I'm cured!"

Obviously this isn't exactly the case, but pay attention because it is important for your health!

For many, ginger is just a spice used in Thai food or eaten with Sushi.  It has such a strong, distinct taste that it's difficult to add ginger in any significant quantity to most dishes without it becoming the focus flavour of the dish.  

Can you imagine everything tasting like gingerbread?  Yuck!  Sure gingerbread is great, but for me it's a little too intense to think of having it outside of Thai or Sushi.

That said, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that there's something in ginger that's good for us.  It almost tastes like "natural" medicine.

Thankfully this is not mere conjecture.  It's actually backed up by science.  It has long been known to have strong anti-bacterial, anti-viral properties, and anti-inflammatory properties. (2)

But there is also substantial research pointing to the ability of certain substances in ginger to kill cancer cells. (1,3,4,5)

Dr J. Rebecca Liu of the University of Michigan medical school found that ginger kills ovarian cancer cells in lab studies.  Results were presented to the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

Now before you get your pants tied in a knot and run down to the health food store to buy ginger pills, as I've shown you before, it doesn't quite work that way.  You can't harness the power of certain compounds found in foods and put them into pills and get the same benefits as you would if you ate the intact food in it's natural state.

So the big problem is how do you get enough ginger in your diet when it has such a strong and often unwanted flavour.

(Hint: It's not by drinking Ginger-Ale!)

Solution:

Of course you'll think I'm crazy, but this is great!  Trust me!

When you make your morning shake, add some fresh chopped organic ginger (skin and all) into the blender before you blend it all up.  Believe me, that super strong ginger taste turns into a very likeable hint of ginger that you are sure to enjoy.

As an aside, if you think you don't have time for a morning shake it doesn't take long to get it ready.  Check it out: http://tiny.cc/zdxsx (now just imagine me adding some ginger too!)

When we were in Australia in March, staying with some friends, they had a juicer and made us some fresh juice.  I watched as it was being made and I shuddered watching how much ginger was going into the juice.  But knowing how good it is for you, I downed the glass as fast as possible to get it over, expecting my eyes and throat to be burning afterward.  But it never happened.  I was amazed at how the expected sharp pungent bite was much more mellow and tolerable.

The moment we arrived back home I started adding it to my shakes every morning.  Haven't missed a morning yet!

Hope you like it as much as I do!

Supporting Research

1. Katiyar SK, Agarwal R, Mukhtar H. Inhibition of tumor promotion in SENCAR
mouse skin by ethanol extract of Zingiber officinale rhizome. Cancer Res. 1996
Mar 1;56(5):1023-30.

2. Mascolo N, Jain R, Jain SC, Capasso F. Ethnopharmacologic investigation of
ginger (Zingiber officinale). J Ethnopharmacol. 1989 Nov;27(1-2):129-40. 

3. Park KK, Chun KS, Lee JM, Lee SS, Surh YJ. Inhibitory effects of [6]-gingerol,
a major pungent principle of ginger, on phorbol ester-induced inflammation,
epidermal ornithine decarboxylase activity and skin tumor promotion in ICR mice.
Cancer Lett. 1998 Jul 17;129(2):139-44. Erratum in: Cancer Lett 1998 Sep
25;131(2):231.

4. Surh YJ, Lee E, Lee JM. Chemoprotective properties of some pungent ingredients
present in red pepper and ginger. Mutat Res. 1998 Jun 18;402(1-2):259-67.

5. Murakami A, Tanaka T, Lee JY, Surh YJ, Kim HW, Kawabata K, Nakamura Y,
Jiwajinda S, Ohigashi H. Zerumbone, a sesquiterpene in subtropical ginger,
suppresses skin tumor initiation and promotion stages in ICR mice. Int J Cancer.
2004 Jul 1;110(4):481-90.

Psycho-Body-Rocket-Fuel

DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING
YOU HEAR!

As you know, I'm a firm believer in healthy eating habits, over diet tricks, and most nutritional supplements.

As I've mentioned before, as far as supplements go, a basic protein powder, an essential fat supplement, a basic "cover all your bases" multi-vitamin & mineral supplement, and as far as performance enhancement, CREATINE is excellent too.

Other than that, most of what is sold on supplement shelves is totally unnecessary if you have good solid nutrition habits.

So what's this crazy "PSYCHO-BODY-ROCKET-FUEL", I've been blabbing about?

Well, don't worry, I'm not trying to sell you any new supplements...

But I am trying to sell you on something...

Find out what it is below...

CLICK ON THE VIDEO BELOW...




If the video takes too long to load just...

============================
PSYCHO-BODY-ROCKET-FUEL <--- CLICK HERE
============================

Now... you'll have to excuse me, while I was filming the video, I didn't realize that you wouldn't be able to hear my voice at a certain part.

Basically, I was saying that the you have to blend a bit longer to get rid of the chunkiness of the shake. I like it a bit chunky, but most people would probably want a spoon to eat it because it's so thick. So just blend longer.

I also realized after I watched the video that I forgot to add the oats... LOL... I don't have the greatest multi-tasking abilities... "CAN'T TALK AND MAKE SHAKE AT SAME TIME"

To recap on the quantities in my shake:

1250 kcal

64 g PRO (28% of Total Calories)
96 g CHO (42% of Total Calories)
68 g FAT (30% of Total Calories)

To adapt this to your own needs, maintain the approximate ratios of Pro, Carbs, and Fats, but either reduce or increase the quantities.

Example:

If you want a roughly 600 or 300 Calorie shake reduce the quantity of each of the ingredients below by half or a quarter.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Organic 2% milk
1/2 Cup Organic Oats
4 Tbsp Udo's Oil
4 Heaping Tbsp Ground Flaxseed
4 Heaping Tbsp Liberte Organic Plain Yogurt
1 Scoop Protein Powder (30g Protein)
1/2 Cup Frozen Berries (Rasp, Blue, Straw)
1/4 Cup Frozen Cranberries
1 Small-Med Banana


After you try this shake, I'd love to hear what you think about it. Please leave your comments below.

How Not to Start Your Day

WARNING: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ME USE THE WORD "FATSO"... LEAVE NOW!


I won't beat around the bush... I' m not psychic, but I am the man who knows!

And I'll bet my bacon that if you're not feeling full of energy, you probably had a BREAKFAST FAIL!

Maybe I was being a bit misleading with the title of the email I sent you, but I think the way you start your day is one of, if not THE most important things to get right.


WHAT EXACTLY IS A BREAKFAST FAIL?

Here's a few examples...

BREAKFAST FAIL #1

THE FATSO WHO'S "TRYING" BREAKFAST!

Unfortunately this person will always be fat, and will never succeed. Because deep down inside, they know this isn't healthy.

But since they like it, and the yogurt container says, "Heart Healthy Low Fat", and their muffin is low fat also (they think), and they have an apple, they feel safe to not be hounded for eating an even worse breakfast.

If this is your breakfast, you're seeking safety of not having everyone come down on you for eating crap. You feel if anyone notices what you're eating, they'll commend you for at least making an effort right?

Hey.. at least you're not eating a Poutine for breakfast!? Right?

Keep it up, and it's not the only thing that's gonna stay up!


BREAKFAST FAIL #2

THE "LAZY FATSO BREAKFAST"

Give me a fricken break! If you're overweight, and have no energy, the last thing you should be doing is being lazy with your breakfast. Ok, so it's not as bad as BREAKFAST FAIL #3, but come on... you can do better than this.

You've got a bowl of raspberries (good), almonds (good), and GARBAGE CEREAL!

JUST USE OATS!!!

As if you couldn't pop some oats in the microwave for 60 seconds... Jeez!


BREAKFAST FAIL #3

DESTINATION FATSO BREAKFAST

If this is your breakfast, and you're not already fat... you will be! If you already are... WTF are you still eating this crap for?

I know.. you're busy... WE ALL ARE... but skipping breakfast at home for this... is just plain old dumb! Do you have any idea what is in this garbage?

Here's the ingredient list: Fatso, dihydro-fatso, di-hommo-gamma-fatso, di-estryl-tetra-butylene-fatso, di-terephthalylideno-FATSOnic acid, ethylhelxyl-di-decoheptrexynolo-fatso, 1-2-octocryleno-fatso, 4-carbonic-methoxy-cinnamatalic-fatso, 3-4-7-methyl-diesterase-butoxylinamic-fatso...

As the saying goes... YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!


BREAKFAST FAIL #4

DESTINATION QUINTUPLE BYPASS SURGERY BREAKFAST

Ok, I'm sorry, but this is like BREAKFAST FAIL #3 on STEROIDS

If you are eating this as your daily breakfast, then you have a death wish!


BREAKFAST FAIL #5

DESSERT FOR BREAKFAST???

I like dessert, I really do. But I eat it only on occasion. NOT TO START MY DAY!

And honestly.. what the hell is with the sausages? Oh, right, protein. Yes, you need protein at breakfast... but on a daily basis, trust me on this one... sausages is not where you want to get it! Tons of chemicals.

Bone up pal... get some oats, fruit, nuts, milk... what your grandparents ate!


BREAKFAST FAIL #6

BUT MY KIDS WON'T EAT
ANYTHING ELSE BREAKFAST

THEN THEY'LL GROW UP TO BE A FATSO LIKE YOU!!!

Nuff said!



BREAKFAST FAIL #7

ATKINS LOW CARB DIET FAIL

Yes, low carb diets like the Atkins diet work. But they only work if you follow them properly!

What's that? You heard that you can eat all the bacon and eggs you want, and you'll lose fat, clean out your arteries, and avoid cancer and heart disease and live to be 900 years old like Noah?

Without getting into the merits of the Atkins diet in any detail, yes, following this kind of diet can do wonders for your health. But the reason so many people had poor results on the Atkins diet is that it was so restricting of foods people like, that eventually, what was supposed to be eggs, fresh pork, and a variety of vegetables, turned into this plate of food! Note the token tomato and baked beans on top of the ketchup!

Point is... highly restrictive diets don't work... so stay away from them!


Now that you know what constitutes some serious BREAKFAST FAIL... the question is, what should you be eating?

The answer... tomorrow.

Hint... it's called "PSYCHO-BODY-ROCKET-FUEL"...

I've got a great video for you, all ready to show you what it's all about!

And it will make you into a crazy-energy-fiend!

--------------------------------------------------------

My YouTube Channel is set-up, and I'll be slowly adding instructional exercise videos to it. You can check it out at any time here:


===================
COACHSHANEMILLER
===================

Hip Mobility Video - How to Warm up Properly

YOU ARE GOING TO GET INJURED!


It's Just A Matter of Time Before it Gets You!

If you are pushing yourself, what you do (or don't do) will eventually lead to an injury!


It could be something minor such as a grade 1 muscle pull, or something serious like torn quadriceps, ruptured disc, or a torn ACL.


Regardless, they all put the breaks on your training, and that's the last thing you want if you're serious about packing on the beef!


Don't be too alarmed though. By incorporating a proper warm-up into your routine, you'll not only reduce your chances of getting injured, but your posture will improve, and without injuries, you'll be far ahead in your training while everyone else is sitting back watching until they heal up.


Why you need to Warm Up

We are adaptive mechanisms. But whether you like it or not, our ability to adapt -- which evolved over thousands of years, is to help us survive, not look buff.


Strength training produces high levels of mechanical tension in the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Combine these high levels of tension with the goal of building bigger muscles and you have relatively high levels of tension for prolonged periods of time.


What does this give us? Increased size of the contractile proteins (sarcomeric hypertrophy) as well as increased fluid accumulation inside the muscle fibre (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy), improved tendon and ligament strength, along with improved neural efficiency.


So where's the bad?

Even with a completely balanced training program, muscle tissue still loses its extensibility with strength training, developing adhesions, which produces muscle length/tension relationship issues. And at the heart of the problem is shortening and stiffening of soft-tissues.


This happens as I mentioned even WITH a balanced program. But what are most of you doing? Lots of bench press, lots of leg press, lots of leg extensions and leg curls.


You're using less than full-range movements, and very likely not getting your core temperature adequately increased before getting into your training.


Couple all that with any previous mobility limitations, movement compensation patterns, and further increases in training load and volume and eventually you exceed the physiologic limits of the soft-tissues.


Where does that leave you?


Ever see a penguin walk? If that doesn't scare you enough into doing a proper warm up.. maybe the reaction you get from having to ask someone in the gym shower to pick up your soap bar will!


Now that we're on the same page... that is... we don't want an injury... here's what's involved in preventing injury through warm-ups.

General Warm-Up (GWU)
- increases core temperature
- increases peripheral heart blood flow (flow of blood to the heart muscle itself)
- increases production of synovial fluid to lubricate the joints
- improves extensibility of soft tissues

Specific Movement Preparation (SMP)
- soft-tissue work
- dynamic stretching (before exercise)
- activation work (before and after exercise)
- mobility drills (before and after exercise)
- exercise specific warm-up sets (before strength training work sets)
- static stretching (after exercise)


Before strength training or conditioning workouts, you'll have both GWU and SMP work, and after you'll have some SMP work as well. You'll also need to do some daily SMP work as well.


More for you to learn?


Yes!


Think it's a pain in the ass and that you don't have time?


Sorry... but that's a load of crap!


Might it mean you have to stop reading the paper or magazines while you're training and actually engage yourself in your workouts?


Absolutely!


Ask any of my athletes and they'll tell you straight up, the time it takes each week in total is just a little over an hour, but it can save you weeks or months of lost progress that you get from an injury.


When does a proper warm-up NOT apply to you? There are some conditions.

If you do this at the gym...


Or this...


In general, any wearing of cheap knock-offs of expensive designer sunglasses, with headbands, talking on your cellphone and spend more time looking at yourself in the mirror than you do training, then by all means, please ignore all this, and hopefully injuries will keep you out of the gym so the rest of us can train!


Also, if you're out in the spotlight sometime and you ever do this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJTb991H2h0

Forgetting all about the hot girl in your arms in favour of flexing your muscles for the cameras like this guy, then you can forget about doing the warm-ups. You'll probably get hit by a car long before your bad form and lack of warm-ups ever hurts you.


So if you're not making any of THOSE mistakes, then you definitely don't want to screw up on your warm-ups. The consistent use of a comprehensive warm-up including dynamic stretching, activation and mobility exercises prior to and after your strength training sessions will dramatically affect your long-term gains and overall health of your joints as well as very likely helping you put up higher numbers on the bar!


Video Demonstration of proper warm-up for lower body training

Soft Tissue Work
Foam Roller: Quads
Foam Roller: IT Bands
Foam Roller: T-Spine
Foam Roller: Lats (Upper body... but important during Squats)
Tennis Ball: Piriformis
Tennis Ball: Glute Medius
Tennis Ball: Rectus Femoris
Tennis Ball: Tensor Fascia Lata

Pre-Activation Dynamic Stretching
RF & TFL
Quads
Iliopsoas
Rectus Femoris & Tensor Fascia Lata with Reach

Activation Exercises
Glute Bridge Isometric
Glute Bridge Repetitions
Glute Bridge with Twist & Reach

Mobility Exercises
Striders
Striders into Glute Stretch
Squat to Stand
Cossack Squats
Horizontal Adductor
Fire Hydrant into Extension

When I filmed this video, I filmed it as one continuous shot so you could see exactly how long it takes to do it. Unfortunately my Youtube account only allows uploads of 10 minutes, and the video was 11:52 minutes. A few hours later and a fair bit of frustration, I got all the editing done.

Do this to properly warm-up before a lower body workout.


And what would be more cool than anything else would be if you would take a few minutes to sign yourself up for a free Youtube account (which allows you to rate videos), and then if you would rate my video!

5 Stars will bring lots more goodies where this one came from!

Thanks tons!
:)
Shane

Don't Screw It Up Again

Don't screw it up again this year!



Already, millions of people are screwing up on their New Years' Resolutions.


The reason?

You're Doing It Wrong!

They have no PLAN!


They get all fired up over their goals as the new year approaches, but without a plan to make it happen, failure is inevitable.


Goals are great to have, but they don't happen by themselves.




Life throws us curves, and often it's simple things that mess it up. A good example is procrastinating your workout until a "later" opportunity that you think would be better. Only problem... shit happens... and when it does, you'll kick yourself in the ass for not having done it before.




A plan contains specific tasks that fit on a timeline. Today's
tasks need to be completed TODAY!


Not tomorrow. Tomorrow has it has it's own tasks.


If you don't even have a plan, you're flirting with sameness.


Is that how you want to be tomorrow? And the day after? The same?
Always the same?


If so, that's your choice, so be it... but I don't and I won't,
because I have a plan, and it's in action each and every day!


If you don't have a plan... you need one. Don't even bother with
anything else until you have one.



Create Your Plan NOW!


Here's what you need to do to reach your strength and fat loss goals
for 2010:


1. Write out your goals.

e.g. I will gain 15-20 lbs of muscle over the course of the year, and drop 10 lbs of body fat.



2. Break them down into smaller goals.

e.g. I will gain roughly 1-1.5 lbs of muscle each month, and I will drop about 1 lb of body fat per month.



3. Assess whether the goals are realistic.

Not all goals are good ones. If you've been a complete couch potato your whole life, deciding to drop 30 lbs of bodyfat in a month is not too smart. If you actually try, you'll burn out on the way, and even if you succeed, you'll likely regret it later when you regain it all back and then some!


A 1-2 lbs gain of muscle per month is realistic for most people with a serious, focused commitment. And a 1 lb of body fat loss per month is normally not too difficult, but with a goal of 1-2 lbs of muscle gain each month it becomes a bit more difficult, although not impossible.



4. How will you measure progress?

e.g. use scale to track body weight, and use skinfold calipers to measure fat loss, or a scale that does a bioelectric impedance measurement to get a body fat measurement.



5. Get your hands on a good strength and conditioning program and diet advice from a trusted source. If you missed it, I put together a great article on how to build a great strength training program, and you can access it here:

http://spectrumfitness.blogspot.com/2009/11/choosing-right-training- program.html


And my 7-Day Fat Loss Jumpstart Guide contains some of the best nutrition advice you'll find anywhere.


You can access it for free here:

http://spectrumfitness.blogspot.com/2010/01/7-day-fat-loss-jumpstart-guide.html


6. Take action!!



So what's it gonna be?


Is 2010 going to be your year?



Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach,
Shane Miller, CPT, CSN


http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com
http://www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com

7 Day Fat Loss Jumpstart Guide

I wrote this 7 Day Fat Loss Jumpstart Guide last year and it contains some of the best information available anywhere for how to lose body fat. The best part is that it also really tackles the mindset required for success as well.

If you haven't read it before, it should be part of your 2010 plan for success. If you have read it before, but you still haven't really applied it, give it another read over. You may be surprised to learn a few new things you didn't catch the first time.

Day 1: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-1.php

Day 2: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-2.php

Day 3: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-3.php

Day 4: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-4.php

Day 5: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-5.php

Day 6: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-6.php

Day 7: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-7.php

Bonus:

Day 8: http://www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com/7-day-jumpstart/day-8.php

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

It's been an absolute madhouse around here the past few days... we're hosting 16 people for Christmas Eve dinner, which is just about to start.

I've been neglectful of getting out my newsletter on a regular basis over the past few months as I have a couple big projects under way that have been eating up so much time.

But I absolutely refused to let Christmas come and go without a quick (and awful) video of myself, my wife Tanya, and our new daughter Alexava who's almost 11 months old!

So here's the video... don't expect too much, the battery died and my two nieces were screaming at a few points so I had to cut a bunch of stuff out! LOL

Have a wonderful Xmas and I"ll be back with a little post- Xmas goodie for you in time for New Years!

:)
Shane & Tanya & Alexava

How To Do More Chin Ups

Want to know who's serious about getting stronger at the gym? Where do you think you should look? The Bench Press? The Squat Rack? Nope... The people who are the most serious about getting strong at the gym are those who are doing chin-ups.


Of course the bench press and squat are absolute must exercises when it comes to building serious strength, but they're also easy to cheat on. It's pretty easy to pile on more weight, reduce your range of motion, bounce the bar off your chest if you're benching, or do "budgie" squats! So you can't count on finding the most serious strength seekers there. Only at the chin-up bar will you find them.

What's a "budgie" squat? Gee, I thought you'd never ask!

Ever See A Budgie Squat?


Budgie Squat


The problem of course is that with chin-ups (or pull-ups), depending on your starting strength, once most people increase their reps by a few in the first few weeks of training them, they get stuck and most never see any further increase in reps.


This is mostly because of a lack of understanding of how to train for it. Think for a moment about how you train to increase an exercise like dumbbell presses. You do sets of 5, sets of 8, sets of 12 or whatever it may be.


The key is that you employ varied load and volume progression methods. Training to improve your chin-ups is no different. Most people repeatedly try to do more chin-ups each time they train them, but that would be like just trying to squat more every time you squat. It's just not going to happen after your initial period of adaptation.


Additionally, doing more pull-downs won't help, even though you can easily manipulate the load and volume with them. The mechanics of chins and pull-ups are completely different from pull-downs of all varieties, and the effects will only marginally transfer over to chins and pull-ups even if you get stronger on pull-downs.


You'll need to get some bands. They're damn cheap for how effective they are at helping you. So they're a complete must if you're serious about strength training. If you get the Iron Woody Bands, I recommend getting yourself one of each of the mini-band, light-band, and average-band. If you get the Jumpstretch bands, I recommend getting one mini, one monster mini, one light, and one average band. This should be enough to help anyone regardless of your weight get some good volume variations on your chins.


If you live in out in the east end of Ottawa, you should get them from my good buddy Curd Hos from Fitness Warehouse at 613-830-9300. If you live in West or South Ottawa, I recommend getting your bands from my good friend Mike Bade out at The Fit Shop at 613-224-1238.


And if you want to order them online and have them shipped right to you, visit this link: http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?SearchPhrase=bands&x=0&y=0&m=SR


And if that link doesn’t work, just go to www.elitefts.com and use their product search tool, and search for BANDS. EliteFTS only sells the Jumpstretch bands, so once again, you’ll want one each of their average, light, monster mini, and mini. The Jumpstretch bands are slightly different strengths and I recommend getting all four. They’re so cheap though that the difference between omitting the mini-band is only $8. So get them all!



Sample Chin Up Progression Plan

Armed with your new bands, here's a sample of how you might use varied load and volume progressions to increase the number of chin-ups you can do. Let's say you're a 160 lb male who can do 5 chin ups when you're fresh.

Day 1
Chin-ups 3x3
Band-assisted chin-ups 3x8

Day 4
Chin-ups 3x4
Band-assisted chin-ups 2x7, 2x12

Day 6
Chin-ups 5x3
Band-assisted chin-ups 4x8

Day 9
Chin-ups 3x4
Band-assisted chin-ups 3x8, 2x15

Day 11
Chin-ups 2x5, 2x4
Band-assisted chin-ups 2x10

Day 14
Chin-ups 5x4
Band-assisted chin-ups 4x8

Day 16
Chin-ups 7x3
Band-assisted chin-ups 3x10, 2x15

Day 19
Chin-ups 4x5, 3x3
Band-assisted chin-ups 3x8, 3x15

Day 21
Chin-ups 3x3, 3x2

Rest chin-ups 2-3 days then after appropriate warm-up, do one all out set of chins to see what your new max is. Guarantee there's going to be at least 3-5 new reps on there. And this is for someone who was absolutely stuck at 5 reps before.


When employing load and volume manipulations such as those above, it also always pays to look at where your weaknesses are. If you find your weakness is in your forearms, then varying your grips on a lot of your band-assisted work and some of your actual chin-up workouts will be very useful.


Progressions to help include: Wide grip, Over/Under grip, narrow grip, narrow grip pull-ups.

More advanced progressions include towel chins, fat bar chins, 1 towel chins, 1 arm assisted chins.

Another form of progressions with chins can include loaded chins, where you actually add weight, via a waist belt, or isometric holds, and even loaded eccentrics. In a future article we'll use unloaded eccentrics and isometric work to help those of you who can't yet to even one chin-up to get your first chin-up!

Band-Assisted Pull Ups

And further still advanced progressions can include varying the actual movement such as side-side chins, L-Sit Chins, Elbows to Knees Chins, and even Gorilla Chins, and Muscle-ups!


Of course, if you can do a muscle-up, you probably don't need any help doing more chin-up reps as you can probably already do 20 plus chins!


A final key element is keeping a clear and easy to read logbook of all your training plans and current and past logs. Let me ask you this much. Without looking back, can you recall exactly the Day 1-21 outline I provided above? Not likely, so you need to have your plan WITH you at the gym.


Additionally, if you go in with it printed in hand, and you find you can't quite get the numbers I outlined above, what would you do to ensure you still made excellent progress? For starters, if you don't have a logbook that you journal absolutely everything in, you can just forget about it! In fact, I doubt you're even serious about strength training if you don't have a journal. If you ARE serious and don't have a journal.. just get one damnit!@


So now with your journal, if you can't manage the numbers I outlined above, you keep the same relative sets, but drop all your reps to where you can manage and that forms your new starting point. Although chances are if you can't manage those numbers it's because you couldn't correctly do 5 reps with good form.

Which brings me to the last but certainly not least important point...


Exercise technique.

If you've been reading my articles, you know how important it is to use safe and correct technique when you do your exercises. You wouldn't dare go over to the squat rack and try to bust out 5 heavy deep reps with your knees all buckling in and your back hunched over. Nor would you shove your butt up in the air and bounce the bar off your chest to try to get a few more reps on the bench press.


So why would you allow your legs and body to fly all over the place while trying to get more reps in the chin-up? A key point to remember is that when you "cheat", essentially what you're trying to do, is get around your weak link by jerking while in a stronger position. Either generating momentum, or calling on other muscle groups to act prematurely or to keep certain muscles involved longer than they're supposed to.


So when you're struggling to get more chin-ups, remember, your goal is to try to KEEP your weak links working as hard as possible. So cheating is completely pointless.


This isn't to say that some momentum at certain points of certain exercises isn't useful. In fact it is, and it's even a part of some exercises. In the case of Olympic lifts, generating momentum is the whole point. But when it comes to getting stronger and building muscle, when your weak point is holding you back, you need to focus MORE on it, not try to get around it.


There is definitely something primal about chin-ups. Only those who are serious about strength training do them. They pit you against gravity, and while you'll never beat gravity, you can definitely up your chins with sound application of basic load and volume variations.


If you have any comments on this article please leave them in the comments section below.

Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach,

Shane Miller

Finally A Meat That Vegans Can Eat

Scientists have finally done it! They've been at work long hours in their labs, trying to create the perfect meat that vegans can eat. Of course I'm saying this a little tongue in cheek, but in essence this is exactly what researchers from Eindhoven University in the Netherlands have created!

Described best as "soggy pork", the researchers say that what they've created is a sort of "wasted" or very atrophied muscle tissue. One of the things they'll be working on is trying to find ways to "work" the meat.

Can you imagine? A little petrie dish strength training session for a hunk of artificial meat?

Scientists have taken live muscle cells from a live pig, and plopped it into a petrie dish and the cells grew, multiplied and essentially turned into pig muscle.

No one has volunteered yet to taste the meat, but the researchers feel that their pork, could be on sale in as little as five years.

Animal rights groups have had only positive comments so far. Citing that so long as the meat doesn't come from a dead animal, or that no animal was harmed in the production of the meat, then they have no ethical issue with it.

Additionally, considering the continually increasing greenhouse gas emissions from raising animals for slaughter, the idea of growing a steak with zero emissions is definitely interesting.

If the meat is biologically identical to what would come from an animal, is safe and healthy to eat, reduces pollution, and pleases environmental and animal rights groups, then folks, it seems to me like we'll have a winner!

Although it's just in it's discovery stage, since it's not genetically modified or engineered, there would be a guarantee of no pesticides or hormones, and if they say it tastes as good as a pork tenderloin... I may have to try it!

What about you? Would you try it?

Love to get your thoughts on this!

Please leave you comments below.


Source: http://www.sphere.com/article/scientists-create-lab-grown-pork-bacon-industry-unmoved/19262314

Did Tiger Woods Build Muscle With Steroids

I don't know about you, but I've noticed more than a few media releases as of late putting Tiger back in the spotlight about whether he's using or has used steroids to help him build all his muscle.

I've always held the belief that he has never used steroids, as his physique just doesn't seem to have the kind of lean bulging muscularity with a puffy face that steroids tend to give athletes.

Anyone can achieve a physique like this WITHOUT steroids!

I guess in light of Tiger's recent transgressions against his wife and marriage, there is renewed interest into the question of his relatively squeaky clean image. Truth is, even if he comes out and admits to any infidelity, this doesn't necessarily mean that he's lied about using steroids.

Athletes use steroids for a number of reasons. First and foremost, anabolic steroids improve recovery from strenuous training. This is the number one reason why athletes cross the line and use steroids. If they can train harder and still recover effectively, then their sports performance will be enhanced via the increased strength they acquire.

Normally, when someone lifts weights and eats more to build muscle, their muscles will grow, and while their facial muscles may thicken marginally, it would be barely visible. So generally the face doesn't widen to any significant degree no matter how much someone lifts weights. If the amount of food that an athlete such as a powerlifter or bodybuilder needs to eat to build muscle results in an accumulation of body fat, then their face may also appear slightly rounder, but this is due to body fat accumulation.

So when an athlete all of a sudden appears significantly more muscular with the same or relatively lower body fat levels, but their face appears bigger, rounder, or puffier in appearance, this is usually the result of drug use.

Here's a few pro baseball players who've all been alleged to have used steroids. Unless they've admitted it or tested positive for it, then the final jury is all out. But ultimately there should be no real reason other than steroids that a face will appear bigger relative to the body, when bodyfat levels are the same or lower, when muscularity is increased.

Judge for yourself? Steroids or Abnormal Facial Fat Distribution Patterns

Barry Bonds

Mark McGwire

Sammy Sosa Before and After

Another Sammy Sosa Before and After (in this case "after" and "before")

Most professional athletes earn enough money to have their own chef, a great strength and conditioning coach, and typically have enough time to do all the training required to change their body in whichever way would best suit their sport. So it makes sense that PRO baseball players who are good at hitting home runs will want to get as strong and muscular as possible to help them hit more home runs. The same too could be said for Tiger Woods. Anything that makes him stronger is going to help him hit the ball further.

However, Tiger hardly sports a physique that resembles even the PRO baseball players let alone bodybuilders who use steroids, which are the most obvious group of steroid abusing athletes.

In the end, I don't believe Tiger has used performance enhancing drugs.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

I'll be back with a post on how to get better at chin-ups tomorrow!

Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach,

Shane Miller

Kirsten Sardelis - 1st Place Women's Figure Medium - Ottawa Figure Championship

Congratulations to Kirsten Sardelis for her first place finish at the Ottawa Figure Championships held earlier this month. Kirsten placed first out of five women in the Women's Figure Medium Height class.

KIRSTEN SARDELIS

2009 WOMEN'S FIGURE MEDIUM CLASS WINNER
OTTAWA BODYBUILDING AND FIGURE CHAMPIONSHIP

Stay tuned for a detailed post on how we got Kirsten into winning shape in just 9 short weeks!

Choosing The Right Training Program

So you’re heading to the gym and ready to rock it! But what are you going to do?

A full body workout like this:

Bench Press 3x8
Incline Dumbbell Press 3x10
Seated Barbell Press Behind The Neck 3x12
Wide Grip Pulldowns 3x10
Seated Rows 3x8
Shrugs 3x10
Squats 3x10
Leg Extensions 3x15
Leg Curls 3x12
Smith Machine Calf Raises 3x20
Seated Calf Raises 3x20


Or a workout from a body part split routine like this:

Day 1: Chest, Biceps, Triceps
Day 2: Quads, Hams, Calves,
Day 3: Back, Shoulders, Abs
Rest
Repeat


With either, you’re heading down the road to nowhere! A regular full body routine that you do every second day has the advantage of giving you more frequent stimulation to grow and get stronger, but with so many exercises and relatively low intensity you’ll quickly adapt to this workout.


There isn’t really a way to increase the stimulus without increasing the total volume through more sets, reps, or weight… and the volume is already too high to sustain a decent intensity.


Many people figure this much out on their own and progress to a body part split routine. However, the higher frequency of training stimulus afforded by full body training programs generally delivers superior results to split routines except for the most advanced (and usually steroid using) bodybuilders.


With steroids muscles grow even if they’re not being trained, and consequently hitting a body part just once or twice a week is enough stimulation to elicit a growth response.


Body part split routines recruit the lower threshold motor units which have less potential for strength and mass accumulation, although they’ll pump up pretty nice and you’ll look like you’re growing in the mirror. Unfortunately once the pump disappears you’ll be no further ahead.


If your training age is less than a year, on a body part split routine you’ll grow initially, but that growth will quickly taper off except for the genetically gifted who may continue to see gains with this type of routine. But chances are, those folks will grow and get stronger with any routine.


If you insist on using body part split routines, you’ll likely burn out or get injured frequently, precluding any significant accumulation of muscle mass. And if you don’t, then you probably
aren’t training hard enough to grow on any routine.


Enter The Full Body Split Routine

A full body workout involves all muscle groups of the body. But each muscle group can be trained with different movements, and consequently a full body split routine is a program that has multiple training days, and each training day trains the full body but with a different emphasis each time.

Obviously if your goal is to get a huge bench press, and you try to lift heavy on the bench every two days, you’re going to be in for trouble. But substituting overhead presses, pushups, dips, and various other angled pressing movements you can get a serious strength training program each and every time you hit the gym without baking any of your joints.


To set up this type of workout, we pick full body, compound movements. The general template is laid out as follows:


Full Body Split Routine Template

Main Quad or Hip Dominant Lower
(ex: Squat/Deadlift/Cleans)

Main Horizontal or Vertical Push 1
(ex: Bench Press, Military Press, Barbell Press Behind The Neck)

Supplemental Quad or Hip Dominant Lower 2 (optional)
(ex: Step-ups/Split Squats/Good Morings/Romanian Deadlifts)

Main Horizontal or Vertical Pull 1
(ex: Barbell Rows, Pull-Ups)

Horizontal or Vertical Push 2(optional)
(ex: Dips, Dumbbell Military Press, Incline Dumbbell Flyes, Suspended Push-Ups)

Horizontal or Vertical Pull 2 (optional)
(ex: Rope Face Pulls, Dumbbell Pullovers, Straight-Arm Pulldowns)

Hip Abduction or External Rotation (optional)
(ex: Sideways X-Band Walking, Seated Band-Resisted Abduction, Side-Lying Clams)

Core work (static, dynamic, bilateral, unilateral, isolateral)
(ex: Front Plank, Side Plank, Roll-outs, Leg Raises, Floorclimbers, T-Twists)

Shoulder Prehab (external rotations, internal rotations, etc…)
(ex: Side Lying External Rotations, Kneeling Band-Resisted Internal Rotations, Swiss ball IYTWA)


Below I’ve given you a sample program with three workouts, and I’ve listed which exercise each one is from the template above. With a few small exceptions, each workout fits into the template pretty well. The Kettlebell clean and push press and the Suspended Atomic Pushup are both hybrids involving upper and lower or upper and core and the same time.



Day 1 (Monday)

Squats 5x5 (Quad Dominant Lower)
Incline Dumbbell Press 4x6 (Horizontal Push 1)
Glute & Ham Raises 4x8 (Hip Dominant Lower)
Bent-Over Barbell Rows 4x10 (Horizontal Pull 1)
Weighted Side Plank 3xmaxtime (Core static)
Side Lying External Rotations 3x15 (Shoulder external rotations)


Day 2 (Wednesday)

Deadlifts 5x3 (Hip Dominant Lower)
Weighted Pushups 5x10 (Horizontal Push 1)
Split Squats 3x12 (Quad Dominant Lower)
Wide Pull-Ups 5xmax (Vertical Pull 1)
Mountainclimbers 3x20 (Core dynamic, isolateral)


Day 3 (Friday)

Kettlebell Clean & Push Press 4x6 (Hybrid – Hip Dominant Lower & Vertical Push 1)
Front Squats 4x6 (Quad Dominant Lower)
Suspended Inverted Rows 4x12 (Horizontal Pull 1)
Sideways X-Band Walk 3x12 (Hip abduction)
Suspended Atomic Push-up 3x20 (Hybrid – Horizontal Push & Core dynamic, bilateral)


As you see just because it’s in the template, we don’t necessarily do it every time. But over the course of time as you modify your program you drop one and add another. If you try to do everything from the template every single workout, it starts to look like the typical full body training program, similar in many ways to the pretty useless workout I listed at the beginning of this article.



What !? No Arms???

You may notice there’s no direct arm work listed, but if you are training both pushing and pulling exercises three times a week with the higher intensities this type of training allows, you should notice that your arms get all the training they need.

However, if you are gun-hungry, and you insist on training those arms separately, the best way to do it is to incorporate it into the template by substituting a bicep movement in place of your Horizontal or Vertical Pull 2, and substitute a triceps movement in place of your Horizontal or Vertical Push 2. Choose exercises like Dips, Close-Grip Bench Press, Bodyweight Triceps Extensions, or Skull Crushers for best results.

If you need your workouts to be as short as possible, still targeting your whole body, and insist on throwing in arm training, then choose only one horizontal or vertical pushing movement, and then do a biceps exercise in place of a horizontal or vertical pulling movement.

On the subsequent workout you switch it around and do only one horizontal or vertical pulling movement and then substitute a triceps exercise for your horizontal or vertical pushing movement.

This allows you to train push + biceps on one workout, then pull + triceps on the next. While not optimal for over all growth response, it will deliver slightly more biceps/triceps value at the expense of over all size and strength growth.

If you want to include a bit of direct shoulder work such as Incline EZ-Bar Raises or Dumbbell Bent-Over Rear Lateral Raises, substitute them for either the Horiztontal or Vertical Push 2 and the Horizontal or Vertical Pull 2.

And again, if you’re really strapped for time but feel it important to get in some direct deltoid work, make your template modifications like this:

Day 1: Horizontal or Vertical Pull + Incline EZ-Bar Raises
Day 2: Horizontal or Vertical Push + Dumbbell Bent-Over Lateral Raises

Of course you could always keep it all pushing one workout and all pulling the next such as:

Day 1: Horizontal or Vertical Pull + Dumbbell Bent-Over Rear Lateral Raises
Day 2: Horizontal or Vertical Push + Incline EZ-Bar Raises


There is really no limit to how you combine the exercises so long as you generally move from high CNS (compound movements) to lower CNS (isolation movements) throughout, and keep core and rehab work until the end.


As always, your feedback, questions, and comments are most welcome and encouraged, whether in agreement or critical.

You know I love it!.

:)
Shane