I hate diets. I hate people who talk and teach about diets even more. If you can't tell, I'm a bit angry and confused. For thousands upon thousands of years we as a race of humans have walked the earth in extraordinary health living WITH nature and sharing of her abundance. No diets, just eating.

Instinctual Eating

Food, water and shelter were all provided by her... all our needs were met. We were rugged, intelligent and extremely vital well into our older age. A strong example of this reality are the Hunzakut people of the Himalayas. This "lost race" of people, when interviewed by Renee Taylor in the 1906's were found to:

· Live to 100 and 120 years of age in almost perfect physical condition and mental health... no weak and worthless elderly, like we find today.

· 100-year-old men were fathering children and held down strenuous full-time jobs... like moving 700 lb. boulders that have fallen from the mountains out of the road.

· Woman of almost 80 looked younger, felt better and are far more active than the average western woman of 40! I'm moving there for retirement! (4)

OK, I can hear you now... "But Elliott, I am not a primal man and aren't we far better off today due to medical advances".

My short answers are: Yes, you are a primal man. Today, our bodies are an exact expression of what our ancestors were over 100,000 years ago (2). It is believed that it takes about 100,000 years for the human genome to change 0.001 percent, so you and "Primal Man" are essentially the same (3).

And: No, we are not better off today with our so-called medical advances. There hasn't been a cure discovered that doesn't pose the same or worse risk by taking it, than the disease itself. Just listen to the list of side effects listed when you are watching the commercial with the old guys who urinate on themselves, as if wetting the bed is a disease!

Eat Guts and Grease

For too long we have been told by the "dietary dictocracts" and "poly-unsaturated puppets" to stay away from saturated fats, animal products and cholesterol. Today I am setting you free to stuff your face with the same "artery clogging" diet that Native American's ate prior to The White Man landing on Plymouth Rock with bags of white flour and sugar. These 'men of the land' were rugged, super strong and vital... and ate tons of Guts and Grease.

The late Dr. Weston A. Price has documented the most comprehensive study ever, of the primal man and his diet / lifestyle in his groundbreaking book Nutrition & Physical Degeneration (1)

A short history... Dr. Price was a dentist in the late 1930's, he began to notice that an increasing number of his patients were contracting dental maladies such as cavities and rotting teeth... don't we all? And most notably, his younger patients were being born with what Dr. Price called "facial deformities".

These 'facial deformities' have become commonplace since the 1930's, they include: crowding of the teeth, crowding of facial features and, a narrowing of the palate and jaw. As well, Dr. Priced noticed an increased susceptibility to illness when these 'deformities' were present. (1)

Not only did Dr. Price notice that the physical structure of man was deteriorating but he also noted that the function of the mind and the body was wasting away.

"That modern man has been declining in physical fitness has been emphasized by many eminent sociologists and other scientists. That the rate of degeneration is progressively accelerating constitutes a cause for great alarm, particularly since this is taking place in spite of the advance that is being made in modern science along many lines of investigation." (1)

So, like any sane, wealthy, doctor of the time... he set out to find groups of isolated "primitive" peoples through the world. Dr. Price wanted to discover what "Man" was truly intended to eat and how "Man" was truly intended to live.
In his travels not only did Dr. Price discover that "primitive peoples" were happier, healthier and more disease resistant but they were as tough as nails...

He was once observing a group of "primitive kids" playing in a stream of water in the middle of the winter while he and his colleges were freezing their butts off with their big winter parkas on!

The Native American's lived for thousands of years completely isolated from "The White Man". These folks have adapted to their given environments and have learned how to live WITH the land, not just on it.

The Indians of Canada and the Northern Regions

These folks lived in some cold weather! It was seventy below at some points. This meant that they were definitely not farmers and if you told them that you had to eat 7-12 servings of grains a day (food pyramid) they would put a hex on you!

They ate meat, meat and meat with some meat on the side. Every part of the animal was eaten. Of greatest importance were the organs of the animals that they ate. These wise people knew that it was in the organs that all of the potent nutrition resided... not in the lean meat. In fact if the meat wasn't fatty enough it was fed to the dogs! (1)

Think about that the next time some puppet tells you to eat only lean meats and chicken breast.

There was no Colon Cancer observed amongst these people ... so out the window goes the Meat = Colon Cancer Theory.

These were rugged and intelligent people.

"They lived in a country in which grizzly bears were common. Their pelts were highly prized and they captured many of them with baited pitfalls. Their knowledge of the use of the different organs and tissues of the animals for providing a defense against certain of the affections of the body which we speak of a degenerative diseases was surprising." (1)

Their "Fad Diet" consisted of:

· Wild Animals Of The Chase - Bear, Moose, Deer, Caribou etc. These people were strong because the animals that they ate were strong. The wild game that served as a staple in the Native American's diet were respected for their life-giving properties and lived off of the organic land before being sacrificed for human consumption. I wonder where that chicken nugget you had for lunch came from?

· Animal Organs - From the Rooter to the Tooter! The Natives knew that the most nutritionally potent parts of the animal meal were the organs. In fact when a kill was made, our savvy ancestors would immediately cut it open and eat the adrenal glands, liver, pancreas and heart first. All the other meat was either stored for later or given to the dogs... especially the despised lean-meat.

· Veggies - If they were in the stomach of the animal. Why waste valuable time and energy looking for veggies and cooking them when our friendly animals will do all the work for us. The animals are so kind that they were even willing to predigest the plant food for us. Primal man knew that meat was much more nutrient dense than grains and greens so he ate the animals who condensed all of the plant nutrition into tasty little bites.
· Sea Food - Fish, Fish Eggs and Sea Weed. Today our oceans are so polluted that it is nearly impossible to get your hands on some clean, untainted fish. So I don't suggest dining out for sushi every evening. Fish oil is essential and should be a part of every man's diet. Today our best bet is to consume a high quality Cod Liver Oil supplement.

These, like all of the people that Dr. Price studied were very healthy until they came into contact with "modernized" peoples. It has been noted that medical care and surgeries were almost unheard of amongst the folks living traditional lives but, were rampant among those who adopted the "White Man's Ways".

For you to regain your Primal Edge, and avoid sickness and surgeries, take a lesson from these people... Eat Real Food. I don't care if your favorite athlete tells you that it will make you run faster, get bigger or hydrate you better than water, if it wasn't here 10,000 years ago- don't eat it. Powders and pills are for p*ssies, eat like a man!

References:
1. Price, Weston A. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. San Diego, CA: Price-Pottenger Foundation Inc., 1937, 1970, 2000.
2. Constable, George. TimeFrame: The Human Dawn. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1990.
3. Sibley CG, Ahlquist JE. 1984. The phylogeny of the hominoid primates as indicated by DNA-DNA hybridization. J Mol Evol 20: 22-25.
4. Taylor, Renee Hunza Health Secrets. Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Inc., 1964.

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Tags: Grease, Increased, Strength, Vitality

Regardless of your body type or the type of training that your body responds to best, hybrid muscle training is all around, the most effective way to build muscle and get lean. Often times, guys ask me how hybrid training carries over into sports. Well, regardless of the sport, hybrid muscle training can help you be at the top of your game.

But did you know that there are also sports that by their very nature help you develop hybrid muscle? Actually, any sport that simultaneously incorporates resistance and cardio can be considered a hybrid activity. There are a number of sports that do this-let's talk about some of them now.

Football: This is a phenomenal sport that incorporates hybrid muscle training. The heavy pads provide resistance and with the all the cardio that is involved in the sport, it helps build type III or hybrid muscle. Other aspects of football that involve hybrid training include blocking and training with sleds during practice. All of these are activities that require endurance (the cardio part) and the muscles to deliver sustained strength (the resistance part).

If you have any doubt that football is an awesome hybrid training technique that can build a powerful, muscular physique just look at guys like Adrian Peterson, Terrell Owens or retired stars like Herschel Walker. All three have amazing physiques-and it all is the result of hybrid muscle training.

Strongman: This is really is all about hybrid muscle training. Unlike say powerlifting where the goal is to achieve your one-rep max, strongman training simultaneously requires both strength and endurance. And as you know, the best way to develop these qualities is through hybrid training. Examples of hybrid training activities that you see in strongman competitions include the tire flip, log carrying, truck pulling and the keg toss, among others.

And if you have any doubt that strongman training won't build a powerful, muscular physique, just take one look at Mariusz Pudzianowski and believe me, you'll eat your words.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA): This one also incorporates hybrid muscle training-in fact, it's essential. Look at the guys fighting in the UFC. Do you think jogging ten miles a day carries over into the octagon and is going to help a guy get in shape for fight? No-two minutes into the match and he'll be winded.

Why? Because the successful fighters have developed hybrid type III muscle that has strength, power and endurance. They need to develop long, sustainable strength. You don't get that from ordinary training. When these guys train they have to mimic the moves they'll be doing in the octagon-grappling, pulling and other things that go on in a real fight. Guys like Ken Shamrock, Matt Hughes and Randy Couture all have developed hybrid, type III muscle.

Highland games: Seriously, this is about as hybrid as it gets. Have you ever seen these events? Some of the hybrid training activities you'll encounter in Highland games include the 56-pound shot put, the hammer throw with a 22-pound round metal ball attached to a handle, or the caber toss. This would have to be the signature event for the Highland games. The caber is a tapered log or pole that varies in height (roughly 19'-22') and weight (100-130 pounds). They lift it, run with it and then heave it.

Lumberjack games: You've probably seen these on TV before. These games require participants to carry out feats of strength and endurance using extremely large and heavy logs. This one is 100% hybrid.

Arm wrestling: Your probably wouldn't have thought of this one but yes, arm wrestling is most definitely a sport that incorporates hybrid activities. After all, it does require long-or sustained strength-and the only way to get that is through hybrid training.

Track & field: Besides the running, you've also got activities like the shot put and the javelin throw. Both of these are activities that require both strength and endurance.

Kettlebell competitions: Kettlebells have been around a long time. Their shape and handles make them ideal for hybrid training. Some of the activities you'll see here that require long strength include the clean and snatch or the one- or two-armed kettlebell swing, among others.

CrossFit Competitions: These are the kinds of routines that are often touted as the "military" workouts so you'll often see military and law enforcement guys participating in these events. Nearly all of the activities require strength and endurance.

So there you have my response to the question about how hybrid muscle training carries over into sports. As you can see, not only does hybrid training and the development of type III muscle fibers enhance your athletic performance in many sports some sports are even hybrid in their nature.

Get my free report entitled, The Warrior Physique - Building The Super Hybrid Muscle. Click to learn how you can rapidly build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight training magazine.

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Tags: Hybrid, Muscle, Sports, Training

You know, going to the gym and working out isn't the only way to get strong. There's actually a huge difference between being gym strong versus real-life strong. It's completely possible to be in good shape and strong-and I mean really strong-without ever having stepped inside a gym.

How is this possible? Are these guys just genetic freaks? Let me tell you that it is possible and no, you do not have to be a genetic anomaly to be in great shape and what I like to call "real-life strong."

My own dad is a great example of a guy who is really strong but yet he's never worked out a day in his life. He did however, do a lot of manual labor. He was always working on things outside in the yard, building stuff, working with wood or any number of other things. On the flip side is me-I have been working out since I was in high school in Connecticut.

I really started to get serious about training when I finally started growing and getting stronger. By the time I hit my senior year and was playing football I was able to bench 275 pounds and was really proud of myself.

It all got put into perspective though one day when my dad needed my help to get rid of some large rocks sticking out of the grass. The area where we lived in Connecticut was kind of mountainous with these huge rocks just about everywhere. Around our yard, they seemed to even multiply so every now and then we'd have to dig them up and haul them away in a wheelbarrow.

One year, my dad wanted to get rid of some especially big rocks on the property so we got to work digging.

Once the dirt was removed I went in to move the boulders. Knowing how strong I had been getting I figured I could take care of the bulk of it by myself. I was shocked though to find out that I could hardly even budge them. But my dad-the guy who had never worked out a day in his life-was able to move them all by himself.

I was shocked. I could not believe that this "old man," who I knew I could beat on any machine in the weight room, was still "stronger" than me when it came to real life. I started to refer to it as "old man strength."

Today, I'm older, a bit wiser and I realize that my dad hadn't developed "old man strength" but he had actually developed "hybrid strength" without even trying. Those activities that he did around the house just about every day gave him a physical edge that is very difficult to duplicate in a gym.

Most ordinary training routines isolate individual muscles, which is not how our bodies are really designed to work. The kinds of things my dad did though recruited multiple muscle groups simultaneously and even more important-would have required both strength and endurance, just like a hybrid workout.

And what he did in the process of doing these activities was to develop hybrid type III muscles, which is really the "optimal" muscle fiber because not only does it produce strength, but it's also able to sustain that strength for extended periods. Ordinary type I or type II fibers just can't do that-they basically sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Typical gym workouts focus on developing the type I, type IIa and type IIb fibers-not developing hybrid muscle. And because my dad was developing type III muscle fibers, he had a lot more real life strength than I did. Sure I could have beat the snot out of him at the gym, but in the real world, there was no competition-I was licked.

Of course my dad isn't the only example of someone who either by accident or by design, was engaging in hybrid muscle training and in the process, developing hybrid type III muscle.

The movie Rocky IV provides another great example of the superiority of real world strength versus gym strength. In the movie, Rocky trains in the mountains focusing on building his real world strength-in reality doing hybrid workouts and developing hybrid type III muscle.

Conversely, the Russian guy trains in this futuristic high-tech gym using scientifically-designed treadmills and exercise equipment. Yeah, the guy looked pretty muscular but when it came time to fight, his gym-engineered muscles were no match for the real-world strength of Rocky.

So you see, although science has tried to come up with all sorts of interesting ways for guys to get bigger, stronger and leaner, when it comes down to actual results, basic functionality and real-world strength still triumph every time.

Get my free report entitled, The Warrior Physique - Building The Super Hybrid Muscle. Click to learn how you can rapidly build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight training magazine.

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Tags: Strength, There, Thing

Weightlifting movements (cleans, jerks, and snatches) have finally been accepted as a valuable training method for both athletes and those training for fitness. This acceptance is based largely on a number of key reasons:

The high power output that occurs when performing these movements.The biomechanical similarity between the weightlifting movements and those that occur frequently in sport.The high caloric expenditure that occurs when performing these exercises due to the multiple muscle groups required to perform them.

Typically, when we think of weightlifting movements (commonly referred to as the Olympic lifts), we think of the lifts being performed on a platform with a barbell and bumpers. However, it's also possible to perform all these movements safely and effectively with dumbbells.

Dumbbells are often underused in most weight-rooms, used only to perform biceps curls, flyes, or the occasional dumbbell bench press. Many trainees have the mistaken notion that best increases in strength can only occur through barbell training; however, the key to increasing strength is not the mode of training but the intensity – and you can train with as much intensity with dumbbells as you can with any other method of training, including barbells.

Having worked as a strength and conditioning coach at the collegiate and Olympic Training Center level for 20 years, I can assure you there are some unique benefits to performing these lifts with dumbbells.

Some of the benefits are more practical in nature. For example, performing these movements with dumbbells doesn't require any specialized equipment (e.g., high quality weightlifting bar, bumpers, platform) and for most, the movements tend to be easier learned with dumbbells than with barbells.

On the other hand, some of the benefits of using dumbbells to perform the weightlifting movements are more technical in nature. For example, training with dumbbells demands that the lifter control two independent implements simultaneously, requiring a high degree of motor skill.

Further, dumbbells allow movements to be performed with either alternating arms or one arm at a time, rather than having to always use both arms simultaneously. For some athletes, this single arm action more closely matches what occurs in their sport (e.g., throwing a ball, swinging a racquet, fighting off a blocker while tackling a running back).

For those not involved in athletics, performing alternating or single-arm movements increases training variation, eliminating the need to perform the same exercises with the same technique each workout.

As mentioned, the weightlifting movements consist of cleans, jerks (performed as a clean and jerk in competition), and snatches. There are numerous variations and associated training exercises that can be performed based on those three exercises, especially when using dumbbells.

Below is a list of exercises and the technique associated with each exercise.

In a shoulder-width stance, hold the dumbbells so the back ends of the dumbbells are on the shoulders.

Reach back at the hips and drop to a normal jump depth while keeping the heels on the floor.

Quickly extend the hips to full extension, transferring the momentum from the lower body through the core to the upper body. This jumping action will cause the dumbbells to rise off the shoulders briefly.

From there, press the dumbbells to full extension. The movement can be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

Using the same movement pattern as the push press (but with more speed and quickness), drop to a jump position.

Quickly extend the hips and throw the dumbbells from the shoulders to a fully extended position overhead.

There's no pressing action involved; the dumbbells are thrown from the shoulders to a fully extending position in one explosive effort. The movement can also be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

Using the same movement pattern as the push press (but with more speed and quickness) drop to a jump position.

Quickly extend the hips and throw the dumbbells from the shoulders to a fully extended position overhead in one explosive effort.

As the dumbbells are being extended, simultaneously split the feet front to back in what can be thought of as a high lunge position. In the catch position the front knee will be slightly bent, and the knee of the rear leg will be unlocked.

While keeping the arms fully extended, recover the legs from the split position by taking a half step up and a half step back until the feet are squared up in a shoulder-width stance.

Once the feet are squared up, lower the dumbbells back to the shoulders. The movement can be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

Identical to the split position described above, however, the lifter will alternate the feet in the split position each repetition, splitting the right foot forward on one repetition and the left foot forward on the following repetition.

For the athlete this is important because it teaches them to be strong, balanced, and in control with either foot forward. For those training for fitness it provides an additional training variation. The movement can be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

As in the previous description, the lifter alternates their feet in the split position each repetition.

The lifter is also performing the movement one arm at a time, first jerking with the right arm and then with the left on the next repetition.

The movement is performed opposite arm opposite leg, so that when the right arm is jerking the dumbbell, the left leg is being split forward and visa versa. This is a complex movement pattern. As a result, strength and power are being enhanced along with coordination and movement skills.

The movement is performed with the handles of the dumbbells centered laterally on the knee joint.

The feet are in a shoulder width stance, back arched, head up, and the shoulders forward of the dumbbell.

From this start position the hips are extended, as in a jumping action.

At the top of the jump the shoulders are shrugged quickly and straight up, and the dumbbells pulled up along the side of the rib cage to a position just under the armpits. The dumbbells continue to be oriented front to back.

At the top of the pull the hips are moved back into a semi-squat position, the heels are down, and the arm/dumbbell unit is brought up around quickly so that the elbows are high and pointed across the room and the rear of the dumbbells are caught high on the shoulders.

The movement can be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

This is identical to the dumbbell hang power clean described above except the start position is changed from a hang position to a start position that mimics the start position of performing the movement from the floor with a barbell.

This places the dumbbells at about mid-shin position, maintaining the front to back orientation previously discussed.

The dumbbells are caught in the power position rather than a squat position. The movement can also be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

The adjustment here is that rather than performing a power clean (caught in a semi squat position), you perform a full clean from the hang position, dropping into a parallel or lower squat position.

Because the dumbbells are caught in a lower position than in the power clean, generally more weight can be used in this exercise than when performing the power clean. The movement can be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

The start position moves from the hang position to the mid-shin position previously discussed. You then perform a full clean from that mid-shin start position.

Because of the longer range of motion to develop momentum on the dumbbells, and the low catch position; generally the greatest amount of weight can be used when performing this variation. The movement can also be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

The movement is performed with the handles of the dumbbells centered laterally on the knee joint.

The feet are in a shoulder width stance, back arched, the head up, and the shoulders are forward of the dumbbell.

From this start position the hips are extended, as in a jumping action. At the top of the jump the shoulders are shrugged quickly and straight up.

At the top of the shrug the dumbbells are pulled up along the side of the rib cage to a position just under the arm pits, past the shoulders and straight up past the ears and caught with the arms fully extended directly over the shoulders. The dumbbells continue to be oriented front to back.

At the top of the pull the hips move back into a semi-squat position, the heels are down, and the arms/dumbbell unit is brought up and around quickly so that the dumbbells are caught with the arms fully extended over head in one motion. The movement can be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

Identical to the dumbbell hang power snatch described above except the start position is changed from a hang position to a start position that mimics performing the movement from the floor with a barbell.

This places the dumbbells at about mid-shin position, maintaining the front to back orientation previously discussed.

The dumbbells are caught in the power position rather than a squat position. The movement can also be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

The adjustment here is that rather than performing a power snatch (caught in a semi-squat position), you perform a full snatch from the hang position, dropping into a split position. In the catch position the front knee will be slightly bent, the knee will be unlocked in the rear leg.

While keeping the arms fully extended, recover the legs from the split position by taking a half step up and a half step back until the feet are squared up in a shoulder width stance.

Alternate the split position each repetition. Once the feet are squared up, lower the dumbbells back to the shoulders.

Because the dumbbells are caught in a lower position than in the power snatch, generally more weight can be used in this exercise than when performing the power snatch. The movement can be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

The start position moves from the hang position to the mid-shin position previously discussed. You then perform a full snatch from that mid-shin start position, dropping into a split position. In the catch position, the front knee will be slightly bent, the knee will be unlocked in the rear leg.

While keeping the arms fully extended recover the legs from the split position by taking a half step up and a half step back until the feet are squared up in a shoulder-width stance.

Because of the longer range of motion to develop momentum on the dumbbells and the split position, this variation generally allows for the greatest amount of weight to be used. The movement can also be performed one arm at a time or with alternating arms.

There are numerous advantages to performing the weightlifting movements with dumbbells. These advantages warrant their inclusion into the training programs of both athletes and those training for fitness.

Just be sure to emphasize great technique when performing them because, much like the barbell lifts, they're a skill and must be respected as such.

Best of luck with your training!

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Tags: Dumbbells, Lifts, Olympic

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have no doubt heard of Metroflex Gym.

Shortly before Ronnie Coleman won his first Olympia, I visited the Arlington, Texas gym to spend four days alongside the Big Nasty as he prepped to become the greatest bodybuilder of the current age. While there, I interviewed Metroflex Gym owner Brian Dobson because the gym struck me as suck a throwback to everything I love about gyms and everything that is lost in the current age of corporate fitness centers.

Twelve years later, Metroflex is known as a hardcore haven, listed alongside Westside Barbell, Body Builders Gym in Akron, Dorian Yates’ Temple Gym, Quads Gym in Chicago and Rick Hussey’s Big Iron Gym as one of the few truly hardcore gyms around.

Fortunately, there seems to be a resurgence in hardcore gyms these days, with a number of Metroflex Gyms taking the position of the Gold’s and World Gyms before they self-castrated and went mainstream.

Now with locations in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and new locations opening in Colorado Springs, Metroflex is on the rise. Best of all, these gyms are owned by top bodybuilders or fans of serious lifting. Greg McCoy, the owner of the Metroflex-Plano location is no exception.

To show his appreciation for serious bodybuilding, he runs twice a year promotional/customer appreciation events which consist of seminars, lift-offs and lots of freebies handed out to the crowd. He also held a seminar with National Level Bodybuilder and Top Level Trainer Jeff Dwelle, National Level Bodybuilder and Record Holding Power Lifter Justin Harris, and National Level Competitor and Metroflex Plano Member Steve Kuclo.

In the seminar Jeff, Steve and Justin answer questions regarding training, diet, and the lifestyle required to be successful as a bodybuilder or power lifter.

I am going to share some of the interesting info quotes below and also review the DVD:

Justin Harris: “That’s really the difference between being a guy that works out and being a bodybuilder. Being the guy that works out means going to the gym an hour or an hour-and-a-half, a couple days a week. Being a bodybuilder is not one hour a day. It’s literally ALL day long.”

“Every two hours when you eat you have a chance to make yourself a better bodybuilder or make yourself a worse bodybuilder.”

Steve Kuclo: “Bodybuilding is a twenty-four hour, 365 type of lifestyle. The guy that slacks over his off-season is the guy that not necessarily going to win. Consistency and dedication are the two key words applied to bodybuilding.”

Jeff Dwelle: “Bodybuilding shows are not won on the day of the show. They are won in the months or the years leading up to that show in the time in the training in the gym and the getting your food with the consistency.”

Justin Harris: “There is a point of overtraining but the fact that people walk around worrying that they are going to work TOO HARD to get big is a bit absurd if you think about it. I think about other sports, ‘I could have been a great basketball player but I worked too hard…’ Over training is probably, on the list of things to worry about, towards the bottom.”

Jeff Dwelle: “The only instances where I’ve seen it [overtraining] become an issue is in a diet situation, where you have some stress (low calories, lot of cardio). Outside stressors can definitely inhibit your ability to recover and get the benefit from training.”

Justin Harris: “If you decide to compete, you have to decide to compete. It is all-or-nothing. There is no worse feeling the being on stage and looking like shit… being on stage and being embarrassed to be up there.”

Justin Harris: “There’s a million different diets that work: the keto diet, carb cycling… they all work. The one thing that will never work is trying a million different things during the course of your diet.”

Jeff Dwelle: “For me as a trainer, what I ask my clients or prospective clients is, ‘Do you have the money…?’ because [contest prep] is a very expensive undertaking, no matter what. ‘Do you have the time’ and ‘Are you committed to winning?.’ Those are the three questions I would ask because it is a commitment you have to make on all fronts.”

Steve Kuclo: “I like cooking in bulk; not one meal at a time, if I cook, I cook for like three days so I have a container full of chicken at home and a container full of rice. I have it portioned out for the day and throw it in a baggy to go and eat. Cooking in bulk is huge in order to keep up with your eating schedule.”

Justin Harris: “We were meant to walk for four to six hours hunting before we got a piece of meat. The way we were designed… think thousands of years ago… the women would gather fruits and nuts and the men would go hunt all day for one single meal of meat. Obviously it is different being a top bodybuilding from being a skinny guy in a hunter/gatherer society but people get a little too worried that walking on a treadmill at a couple miles an hour is going to make muscle fall off.”

“Look at Ronnie Coleman. In one of his videos, he’s in the off-season and we see him squatting 800-pounds then two hours later he is doing an hour on the Stepmill. If Ronnie Coleman, at three-hundred pounds, can do 45-minutes on the Stepmill, which is high-intensity cardio, and he was not exactly lacking in leg muscle.”

Justin Harris: “This is the first time he [Steve Kuclo’s Nationals prep] has ever gotten that lean.  Those last fat cells, those stubborn fat cells that are bound to an estrogen receptor that have never been gone before have been shrunk down…. Now that he has got there, his body will remember that.”

National Level Bodybuilder and Record Holding Power Lifter Justin Harris

Jeff Dwelle: “You can thin out your skin on a keto diet, there is no doubt, and you can lose bodyfat. I do think it comes as a trade at some level, depending on how long you can maintain glycogen and how long you can handle the dieting. It was difficult for me to train, to be honest. I was doing two hours of cardio a day and not really eating anything and subsisting on shakes and some protein. I really didn’t get much done… I think you need to find the right system for you and that can be different for everyone.”

Steve Kuclo: “This year was my first year experiencing keto and a lot of it boils down to your genetics. Keto isn’t for everybody. Is it something to try out? It is. A running keto is what I did. For two weeks I would hit keto and then I’d bring some carbs back into my diet. Did it get me really lean? Yeah, I got lean really fast but then I sacrificed some muscle and energy levels are just really in the dirt. When you are about seven days into it, you just really are pretty much running on fumes. Some people can handle it and some people can’t. For me, personally, a keto diet would be a last resort type of deal.”

Jeff Dwelle: “In my own personal circumstance, I make it really easy. I bookend my meals with eggs or egg whites. I’m at home for my first meal and I’m at home for my last meal so that knocks out two. I’ve got meat for two meals and some sort of carbs, so that gets me to four. I have some sort of protein shake and nuts, almonds or peanut butter for two and that gets me to six [meals]. That’s basic.”

Jeff Dwelle: “I was a steakaholic for a long time too. I’ve done a couple of diets just on pure steak. Different people will have different opinions on that. I happen to mix my protein sources so I don’t have steak at every meal, but I might have steak, when I’m contest dieting, twice a day. It does seem to satiate me a bit more than the white meats do. If I’m dieting and making progress well, I am going to stay on steak. If I’m not, I may go to white fish for a little while or mix them back and forth. I do think steak, for whatever reason, seems to be more substantial for me when I’m dieting.”

Steve Kuclo: “Personally, I have only pretty much dieted on chicken… just because of ease and cost. It’s pretty affordable. It’s going to boil down to calorie and fat content between the two [chicken and steak]. Obviously, if you are on track and eating steak, and you’re making progress, then there is no reason to change it. If you need to cut some calories out from fat go [from steak] to chicken or white fish, that way you are going to cut maybe fifty calories out a meal by just reducing the amount of fat.”

Justin Harris: “Steak generally has generally higher calories. It has saturated fat which gets converted to cholesterol, which gets converted to androstenediol, which gets converted to testosterone. For some competitors, natural competitors, that’s very important. But the other thing with steak… steak has a slightly lower bioavailability than chicken but the protein ratio is better for raising iron levels. If you can increase the iron level , it increases your hematocrit (the amount of red blood cells in your blood, which) you can increase your blood volume, which can give you a fuller look. You look at your bicep and only about 30% of your bicep is actual contractile tissue, actual actin and myosin. If you dehydrated it out… look at beef jerky. That’s the actual amount of actual tissue in the area. The rest of it is water, glycogen. If you can double the amount of blood vessels and double the amount of blood going through those blood vessels in your bicep, that’s going to add size to your bicep, and that’s something [a benefit] of the iron from steak.”

Steve Kuclo: “I’m a big fan of feeding a muscle as fast as you can after a workout. If you can [eat post-workout] the sooner the better, if it’s a meal or a shake. If you can afford a specialized shake, your branched-chain and glutamine ratio is going to be higher in a lot of those shakes because of the specialized amino acid profiles.”

Jeff Dwelle: “I will have a shake, usually whey protein, some carbs; probably because I just like the way it tastes and its simple and it digests quickly. I have that immediately after training. And then I will eat a whole [food] meal sixty-to ninety minutes after that.”

These are just a fraction of the wisdom shared. I recommend that you purchase the DVD of the entire seminar, which I have conveniently reviewed below

As a voracious reader and gluttonous consumer of info products, I like to share my finds with like-minded lifters. There are some impressive products out there but, with every nutrition expert, guru, strength coach or national contender waving a product in the air, our Paypal accounts can only be spread so thin and we have to discriminate where we are going to send our hard-earned dollars.

This is therefore a REAL REVIEW. What you commonly read in the magazines are not actually product reviews, they are press releases reprinted as part of an advertising package.

For those of you not familiar with me, I have a reputation for journalistic integrity unmatched in our industry (which means I’ve taken the moral high ground and paid for it) and that’s not something I intend to ever cash in.

So consider this a completely unbiased review:

This hour-long seminar DVD was put together by Greg McCoy, the owner of Metroflex Gym in Plano, Texas. The seminar features Justin Harris, Steve Kuclo and Jeff Dwelle. Justin Harris is known as one of the smartest power bodybuilders and nutritional theorists in the industry. He understands both the science of bodybuilding nutrition and the reality of a 600-pound deadlift. Steve Kuclo (at 24-years old) is a bit less seasoned but is the rising star of the group, expected to break through at the national level in the next few years. I was not familiar with the third speaker, Jeff Dwelle, who is a Texas-based competitor and contest prep coach. He was a great addition to the roundtable with some insightful views and a gift for boiling topics down to useable strategies.

The seminar was a Q&A roundtable, which is one of my personal pet peeves. No offense to the three speakers here or the seminar promoter, that’s just the way bodybuilding seminars are done these days , which I think is why they have dwindled in attendance from the crowd they would pull two decades ago.

I would have preferred thirty-minute focused and prepared segments of, for example: 1) Justin Harris on setting up a carb rotation diet, 2) Steve Kuclo explaining training strategies, and Jeff Dwelle discussing pre-contest dieting, and  4) a wrap-up Q & A segment. Of course, the fact that I wanted the seminar to be longer in length says that the content was exceptionally good.

If a couple experts at the level of these three showed up with a polished, entertaining presentation (overhead projector presentation, handouts, etc.), they would help elevate the seminar concept and make it a viable money-making avenue once again. So the responsibility for good content is shifted to the attendees to ask decent questions, which almost never really happens.

Fortunately, these three speakers have a lot of insights (as you will see above) so quality came out regardless.  And this is just a smattering of the info that these three experts share.

While the production value is nothing special (but certainly not bad), Greg is offering the DVD at an incredibly affordable price (just $10.00 plus shipping), which to be honest, is pretty much giving it away. I assume he just wants to get the word out about his new Metroflex, which I hear is a great place to train.

With most similar DVDs selling for three to four times this cost, you owe it to yourself to add this to your library. Even if you just pick up a couple ideas (or have a good idea reinforced) it is well worth the price and thats why I have given it an official rating of four out of five plates.

.

Discuss, comment or ask a question

If you have a comment, question or would like to discuss anything raised in this article, please do so in the following discussion thread on the Wannabebig Forums - The Best Bits & Review of the Metroflex Bodybuilding Seminar discussion thread.

About Steve Colescott

Known as the Guerrilla Journalist, Steve Colescott has written over a hundred published articles for many major bodybuilding publications, including Peak Training Journal, the innovative and well-respected magazine in which he served as Publishing Editor.

He is currently a staff writer for WannaBeBig.com and has been a consultant to a number of top sports nutrition companies.

With his company, Colescott Metabolic Solutions, he has transformed the physiques of scores of average businesspeople, weekend athletes and housewives beyond their wildest expectations. Steve lives in Akron, Ohio and trains at the ultra-hardcore Body Builders Gym, an Ohio musclehead landmark.

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Tags: Bodybuilding, Metroflex, Review, Seminar

This topic of strength training as it pertains to youth athletes (age 10-14) is of special interest to me, mainly because I hear all sorts of lies, myths, and simple false facts that strength training will hurt a young athlete’s growth potential. This is no more than an urban legend and something that really has never been proven and/or validated.

Simply put, if a young child can participate in high-impact, high-collision sports (football, soccer, lacrosse, etc) then they are fully capable of participating in a structured and supervised resistance training program. The risk of injury is MUCH higher in a contact team sport due to the nature of contact, constant change of direction, and the violent nature of the game itself. 

I coach youth football and have seen kids in the ages of 8-13 years old hurt ankles, knees, backs, shoulders, necks, hands, fingers, as well as numerous other contact related injuries i.e. concussions, joint sprains, and muscle strains. How many times have I seen any of these types of injuries occur in the weight room under supervision and structure? NOT ONCE.  Yet, there’s not one ounce of hesitation to sign up young children for a game that involves running full speed at each other and colliding over and over again. 

I am ALL for playing sports and encourage young athletes to participate in as many sports as possible to develop into a well-rounded athlete. But to discount and disregard weight training for athletes is not only foolish, but it is severely limiting an athletes potential as well as increasing their risk of injury in sport. Cone drills, ladders, parachutes, bands, and all these other crazy gimmicks and tools will NEVER accomplish this and may actually become a hindrance to an athlete who is already experiencing TONS of agility and speed work at their sport practice without even knowing it. The last thing we need to do for these young athletes is subject them to MORE of what they are already doing at practice.

By getting an athlete stronger (through various means, just because they are involved in resistance training DOES NOT mean they are lifting HEAVY folks!), they will have greater potential to display force, which in turn means they will have a higher output of power and speed. It’s simple; just like adding more horsepower to an engine of a car, the same applies to the human organism.

My main point is this: young athletes CAN and SHOULD be involved in a resistance training program that emphasizes LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT. There is no such thing as a QUICK FIX for young athletes; look long-term and you will find success not only in the short-term, but moreso the appreciation of what strength training can do for athletes, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Please leave me your thoughts and comments below; I’d love to hear your input on this topic!

In strength,

John Cortese

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Tags: Athletes, Strength, Training, Young

You might disagree, but hear me out on this... as an ex-college football player and currently as a strength coach, I have found the utilization and teaching of Olympic lifts to be tedious, inefficient and down-right boring.

As a college athlete I hardly found the patience to learn the correct lifting technique for the power clean. Although I held the St. John's University power clean record my freshman season, muscling 335 lbs. (152 kg) off the platform - my technique was completely flawed and the attempt looked more like an Axle C&P in Strongman than the smooth pull of an Olympic Weightlifter.

After undergrad I studied Exercise Science at the graduate level. The director of the Masters program was an avid Olympic Weightlifting coach and ex-competitor. He spent hours with the students teaching us the finer points and intricacies of how to perform a proper Clean & Jerk. Once we were proficient enough at performing these lifts we were granted permission to then coach the university's athletes on how to use these lifts to better their sports performance.

I remember the very first day that I was given the "OK" to start coaching the athletes; I was assigned to the football team. Since I had been a former college football player myself, I felt that I would instantly be greeted with fellowship and amity. This was NOT the case! In fact, there were a few of the kids who hated the fact that I was there. I sensed their apprehension in allowing me to coach them, and they especially hated it when I taught them how to Olympic lift.

As it happened, many of the more "meat head-ish" type football players confided in me that they wanted to, "lift heavier weights and stop wasting time with this BS." It turned out, it was during the off-season prior to my debut that these athletes were first exposed to the technicalities of OL. It was also the first time that they were coached in the weight room by graduate students instead of their sports coach. They have previously been using a power lifting model that yielded great size and strength gains.

I do believe that including power cleans and other Olympic lifts into a Strength and Conditioning Program for football players is beneficial. But, I also believe that - the less an athlete has to "think" about a movement, the more ATTITUDE he can bring to its accomplishment. Also, I am a big advocate for saving time. I hate nothing more than "getting things RIGHT before getting them going". It is a personal philosophy of mine that 'success is more a product of attitude... than of technique' (granted, that you're not taking foolish risks and causing injury).

Consider for a moment - when you are coaching a player on the Kick-Off Team do you tell him...

"Look Johnny, you've gotta sprint down there with your elbows at a 90 degree angle, your jaw relaxed, hands in a loose fist and be sure to breathe through pursed lips. Now, when you get to the first blocker take a short inhalation and hold your breath, brace your abdominals and furrow your brow and your dip your hips, lower your shoulder and explode though him by extending your ankles, knees and hips in a simultaneous manner."

If this sounds crazy to you, consider that this is the way that Olympic lifts are typically taught. Instead of letting the athlete "do his thing", we spend hours 'breaking down' and analyzing the movement for them. These valuable hours spent "teaching" could very well be used for building real strength and speed in a timely fashion.

In the same manner that you coach your athletes to go "balls to the wall" on the football field, you can coach them to go "balls to the wall" in the weight room as well. Also, besides getting bigger, faster and stronger by training like a maniac, these kids will then bring this type of ATTITUDE to the field more often. Like they say, "you play the way you practice."

Training in the weight room should be just as intense and as fun as training on the field. When athletes learn to "attack" an exercise in the gym like they attack a tackling dummy, they will develop size, strength, speed and, ATTITUDE faster than ever before. Also, for weight training to become a REAL part of your schools program, you've got to promote it as a benefit of being on the team, not just a necessity. I remember looking at a few small colleges when I graduated high school and one of the most important questions I asked was, "what kind of strength and conditioning program do you have?"

So, what the heck do you do if Olympic Lifts are not working?

Train like the World's Strongest Men! Not only are Strongmen great examples of brute strength, they are also well conditioned, and possess great speed and power. Strongman exercises build functional strength, speed, power and most importantly ATTITUDE! Besides the performance benefits of flipping tires and loading sandbags, Strongman training is FUN and easy to teach.

In Part 2 I will give you my list of the best Strongman Exercises for building explosive strength, speed , size and attitude.

Who the heck is Elliott Hulse?

I am a Certified Strength And Conditioning Specialist and owner of Strength Camp, a Sports Performance service in St. Petersburg Florida. I train athletes to get incredibly strong and lightening fast in a "warehouse gym" with about $1000 worth of equipment.

Lean more about me plus my Top 10 Gym Exercises For Explosive Football Speed: http://www.footballstrengthprogram.com/

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1. Is there really such thing as type III muscle fiber?

A Type III muscle fiber is just a cool name for a hybrid type II muscle fiber that takes on traits of a type I fiber.

It's nothing new. It's just something a lot of people haven't heard about. Early adapters of this theory included Dr. Len Schwartz who in 1995 coined the phrase "Long Strength". Dr. Schwartz describes Long strength as "the ability to exert significant strength for an extended period of time."

John Parrillo-the second proponent of long strength-began having his bodybuilders doing really high intensity cardio. He claimed that doing this actually altered the muscle composition. He called this form a resistance training the "100 rep extended set," saying that it helped the body to construct more mitochondria-the muscles' "cellular blast furnaces." He also says that this increases muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways that provide nourishment to the muscles.

Ori Hofmekler is the third early adopter of the long strength concept. Ori developed a weight training system that he called, "Controlled Fatigue Training." According to Ori, this type of training was specifically designed to develop these super hybrid muscles-ones that were capable of generating and sustaining strength for extended periods.

2. Why do we want a type 3 super muscle?

We know that Type 1 fibers have a higher mitochondrial density than type 2 thus they are more fuel efficient. Simply put, they burn fat for energy better than the type 2 fibers.

Type 2 fibers usually have a thicker diameter... they are bigger fibers. When they begin adopting the behavior of type 1 fibers by gradually increasing their mitochondrial density they ultimately become even BIGGER in size as well a better at burning fat for energy.

So if you want muscles that are BIGGER, STRONGER, have more ENDURANCE, and are better at FAT BURNING than you'll want to develop these muscles.

3. How do we get them?

By combining cardio and resistance activities it causes the composition of muscles to transform from predominately type II or type IIb into Type III. By doing this, we are able to push "beyond our genetic limits," much like the ancient Spartans, Gladiators and Vikings did.

Having more mitochondria in the muscle cells means that more nutrients can be processed, giving the muscles the ability to work considerably harder for longer periods. They're also able to grow larger and are able to resist getting tired for longer periods.

Knowing this, we can see that the goal of cardio combined with resistance-sometimes known as hybrid cardio is to push our muscles to undergo a reconfiguration and increase the number of mitochondria in the cells.

4. Should I eat for size or fat loss during this program?

The answer to that is...it depends. Sometimes you'll eat more calories and sometimes you'll eat less. However nutrient timing is just one aspect of gaining muscle and burning fat.

Nutrition would be such an easy topic to practice and discuss if human beings were as simple as a mathematical equation.

You know... 10 - 3 = 7

But when it comes to the dynamic hormonal and nervous system fluctuations present in the human body... often times

10 - 3 = 478!!

With such various reactions to a broad spectrum of stimuli, the simple notion that calories in vs. calories out determines your fat loss or muscle building results, is a completely ineffective means for determining fitness results.

For example, when exposed to the harsh and threatening demands of prison life, many inmates continue to build thick, lean muscles despite the lack of access to high quality foods, proteins and supplements.

This is due to the highly anabolic state that their bodies are able to maintain when in such a testosterone driven environment. Also, have you ever met a fat person that barely eats? They consume very little calories yet they are obese! This is also due to a hormonal response. It also destroys the notion that lower calories equal less body fat.

Fat loss and muscle building are the result of several lifestyle and nutrition modifications, none more important than the other. All of our daily choices have an impact on our fitness results, not simply how much food we eat.

5. Can I continue my current workout and add Resistance Cardio at the end of my workouts for 20-30 minutes?

Yes that's a great idea. That's a hybrid workout in itself. Continue to train with weights for strength, muscle growth and toning. Than instead of doing 30-minutes of traditional cardio on a treadmill or stationary bike add some resistance cardio to your workout to start developing the Type III muscle fiber.

To do hybrid cardio all you need to is combine aerobic and anaerobic (resistance) activities. You can do this by adding dumbbells to your cardio workout.

If you want to go jogging, try wearing a weight vest while doing it. If you want to do something low impact, pick up some kettlebells or dumbbells and walk up a flights of stairs. Interval hybrid cardio using your bodyweight is another good option.

Another idea is to set up a circuit of pull-ups, squats, box jumps and push-ups. Alternate exercises every 20-30 seconds and keep moving. Keep going for 20-minutes. I guarantee you a bodyweight circuit like this will be faster, burn more calories and keep you more entertained. You can mix things up even more by holding each position for five to ten seconds-up for pull-ups and push-ups, down for lunges and squats.

Once the bodyweight cardio exercises aren't challenging enough you can try a few of these sample Metabolic Resistance Cardio workouts to do at the end of your normal workouts. They are all full body workouts, so feel free to rotate through them, it doesn't matter which one you pick.

Remember your muscles will already be somewhat fatigued from the weight training session you just performed so you'll want to use a much lighter weight when doing this kind of resistance cardio after a weight training session.

When you buy the Lean Hybrid Muscle program you get hybrid cardio templates that you can add to the end of your workouts. Like we mentioned this is great if you want to spice up your boring cardio sessions but stay with the current lifting program you're currently doing.

To learn more about the Type III muscle fiber visit this page:
http://www.leanhybridmuscle.com/build-muscle.html. Get my free report entitled, The Warrior Physique - Building The Super Hybrid Muscle. Click to learn how you can rapidly build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight training magazine.

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In order to be powerful, you must be strong.

Developing huge levels of muscle force takes a lot of maximal strength, but it's only after you enhance your ability to quickly reach that peak level of force that you achieve head-turning power.

Power is defined as work divided by time (P=W/T), so in order to become more powerful you must decrease the amount of time it takes you to perform a certain amount of work. Let's say two guys can achieve the same level of peak force. The guy who can reach that peak force faster is more powerful.

The typical way a strength coach will build a power athlete is with a combination of speed and maximal strength training.

Speed training uses submaximal loads with fast tempos. For example, you'll put a load on the bar you could lift 10 times but you'll only perform three super-fast reps.

The goal of speed training isn't to enhance your peak force, but instead to enhance your ability to reach that peak force in less time. Put another way – speed training won't increase your maximal strength and this can be problematic for most power athletes.

For the purposes of this discussion, a power athlete is someone whose sport mandates lightning fast movements. Think of a MMA fighter or a running back.

Ironically, the only sport with the word "power" in the description – powerlifting – doesn't mandate fast movements. Whether it takes you two seconds or eight seconds to lock out the deadlift doesn't matter; either is acceptable in that sport. Nevertheless, speed work is important in powerlifting. There are two reasons.

First, speed work enhances your ability to reach peak levels of force. The inability to reach max force can cause you to miss the lift. The second reason is because, in most cases, powerlifters aren't doing anything outside of the gym that challenges their speed. They need to train for speed in their workouts because they're not getting it anywhere else.

You must be able to tap into your peak force very fast to get bigger and stronger. But this article isn't an overview of how to train for speed. Eric Cressey already did an excellent job covering that in Training Speed to Get Strong.

Powerlifters aside, most power athletes don't need additional speed work. They need to develop more maximal strength. That's the focus of this article.

Maximal strength is your ability to produce the highest level of force possible. Based on motor unit physiology, your ability to maintain maximum continuous force decreases at the 10-second mark. So any set or exercise that lasts longer than 10 seconds of continuous tension isn't directly training maximal strength.

There are two different ways to increase maximal strength. The first is with those big, compound exercises that you love to do in the gym because you can load plenty of plates on the bar. I'm talking about the deadlift and back squat, among others. You lift heavy, you keep the reps low, and you keep the rest periods long.

The other way to build maximal strength is with high-tension exercises. These exercises don't require much external load but they're brutally tough. Heck, in some cases you don't need any external load before you have to stop.

Two examples include the iron cross on the rings or a body weight glute-ham raise. Most strong athletes can't complete a single, full range of motion rep of either. So even though there's no external load, it's still maximal strength training since you can't maintain muscle tension for more than 10 seconds.

There's no new way to build pure strength. You need to lift heavy and use high-tension exercises. Thirty years ago a professional football player would practice to build his game and lift heavy in the gym to build his maximal strength. But then something changed.

By the 1990's, sport specific training became the rage. The concept was simple – try to mimic in the weight room what you're doing in the sport. That way, what you develop in the gym will directly correlate with an increase in sport-specific performance.

Take a 100-meter sprinter, for example, whose replay video shows a high knee kick throughout the race. His strength coach has him perform a bunch of high knee kicks with a resistance band to build strength in that movement pattern because, well, that's what the sport shows.

Yet, this type of sport specific training didn't help. What proof do I have? Well, the progressive strength coaches who ended up removing those crazy exercises out of their athlete's programs saw no loss in sport performance. In many cases, the athletes actually improved their speed and strength once those fatigue-inducing exercises were put on the shelf.

I was reminded of this fact when I recently met up with sprint strength coach savant, Barry Ross, to talk shop. He's a guy who's known for having his athletes perform an extremely basic strength-building program; I mean, really basic. His strength program focuses on building the deadlift and not much else.

A deadlift-focused program for sprinters seems about as far from sport-specific as training can be. Yet Ross consistently produces some of the fastest sprinters in the world.

He doesn't have his sprinters perform a high knee kick against resistance because he figured out that the high kick was merely a rebound effect from the huge amount of force his sprinters were able to pound into the ground from their monstrous deadlifts.

Another example – back in 1997 I was fortunate to spend time around another legend in the world of strength training, Tim Grover. He's the guy who trained Michael Jordan throughout his career, in addition to many other top NBA players.

One really smart thing Tim did was measure his players' average heart rate on the basketball court. He wanted to see it decrease over time as they got further into the off-season strength and conditioning program he set up for them.

Tim didn't have Jordan or Pippen run up and down the court wearing a weighted vest with ankle weights while shooting a 20-pound basketball. He used basic strength exercises to get them stronger. Grover knew that making his basketball players stronger would allow them to perform jump shots with less effort. This kept their heart rate down and, by default, increased their endurance.

I mention Barry Ross and Tim Grover for a reason. Ross' athletes only need to run in a straight line for a very short amount of time. Grover's athletes had to run in multiple directions for a long period of time. Yet both focused on a basic maximal strength-building program to improve their athlete's performance, and both are hugely successful with their methods. They didn't fall victim to the sport-specific training nonsense.

The problem with the sport specific training craze is that the exercises weren't nearly as effective as training the sport itself. Those exercises just accumulated fatigue that kept athletes from practicing at their peak on the field or in the ring.

The idea of taking any sprint, punch or kick and adding resistance to it in order to build sport specific endurance is akin to prescribing a 4/0/2 tempo for the step-up. Both approaches set the strength and conditioning industry back 20 years.

Fatigue is the number one enemy of any athlete. Anyone who's a fighter, or trains fighters, has a clear understanding of how detrimental fatigue can be.

Look, if you're a running back, fatigue will decrease your agility so you're more likely to get tackled. That's not good. However, for MMA fighters, the inability to maintain their reflexes at the end of a fight could be a career ender.

It's this respect for my fighter's safety at the end of a fight that made me put such a large emphasis on speed training and sport-specific endurance development when I first started working with them. In those days, half of our training would be speed with endurance work, while the other half was maximal strength training.

But I wasn't satisfied with their maximal strength development. I knew the problem – they were doing too much overall training throughout the week to recover. So I started tapering off the amount of speed work I had them do. Of course, their maximal strength went up.

And their endurance and explosive strength also went up!

I determined an increase in endurance by their ability to maintain a lower average heart rate while they were sparring. The explosive strength enhancement was determined by an increase in their broad jump score.

Of course, training for nothing but maximal strength won't make you an endurance athlete. However, when I cut out the speed/endurance exercises, they were able to put more energy into their kickboxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, and boxing.

In other words, they had the extra energy outside of our strength workouts to literally build sport specific endurance by practicing their sport more frequently and with greater intensity. And remember that having higher levels of maximal strength means you can perform the sport with less effort.

The only type of sport specific training worth doing is the sport itself. I like battling ropes for MMA athletes as much as the next guy, but it's still inferior to letting them spend that energy on actual striking.

1. If you train a MMA fighter, sprinter, running back, or any other similar athlete you probably don't need speed work in their training sessions because their sport is the speed work. Focus on building nothing but maximal strength with high load and high-tension exercises.

Use the deadlift as the ultimate measure of high-load training strength with being able to pull at least a raw double body weight lift with an unmixed grip as the goal. Focus on building the glute-ham raise, iron cross, muscle-up, and handstand push-up from rings for body weight high-tension exercises.

A key with maximal strength training is to rest at least three minutes before repeating an exercise. This doesn't mean you need to sit around for three minutes, though. Here's a sample sequence I like for developing the core and posterior chain.

Pallof press-hold for 10 seconds* with heaviest load possible
** for as many reps as possible

Repeat 1A-1C four more times.

2. Monitor their endurance with a heart rate monitor while sparring. Their average heart rate should decrease over time. If it doesn't decrease, I would encourage them to spend more time practicing their fighting style.

If that doesn't work, add battling ropes, sled work, sprints or something similar into the program, one at a time. Make sure whatever you add in is improving their sparring endurance.

3. Monitor their explosive strength with one of the simplest ways to measure rate of force development (RFD), the broad jump. Here are the details:

The broad jump is a versatile tool in athletic settings. Not only is it an accurate way to test your potential increase in RFD, but it's also a good measure of which young athlete might be genetically predisposed to being a great power athlete.

The kid with the longest broad jump is often the one chosen by an Olympic coach who's looking to build his resume.

In science, all possible variables must be kept consistent through subsequent trials or the data will be skewed. This need for accuracy, of course, is just as important when testing athletes. The biomechanics of the broad jump must be as consistent as possible.

In subsequent trials, if the athlete uses a wider or narrower foot placement, if he's wearing different shoes, or if he's jumping from a different surface, you won't get an accurate measure of his changes in performance.

Testing Surface: Ideally you'll jump from a hard surface and land on a slightly softer one. Think of a basketball court floor for takeoff and a hard rubber surface like you see in gyms for landing. A surface that's too soft, however, isn't helpful either since it's difficult for the athlete to land solid. It's not imperative that you land on a softer surface, but if one is available, use it.

Footwear: I usually have my athletes perform the broad jump with bare feet. Any shoe with minimal cushioning will work, too. Avoid testing athletes who are wearing shoes with thick, cushioned soles.

Foot placement: When the athlete is ready to perform a broad jump, measure the distance between the inside of his heels and place two marks on the floor with tape so his heels are the exact same width with each subsequent attempt.  Whichever foot placement feels most powerful is what you want to test. That stance width will be slightly different for everyone.

Attempts, Measuring and Calculations: Perform three broad jumps with three minutes of rest between each attempt. If the athlete loses his balance on the landing, it doesn't count. Wait three minutes and perform another attempt.

Measure from the front of his toes at takeoff to the back of his heel at landing. Measure to the heel that's closest to the takeoff line if the feet aren't perfectly even. The longest jump is the one that counts in your data.

Testing frequency: Test the broad jump every four weeks. Ideally, you'll test it on the same day at the same time with the same warm-up, if you choose to use a warm-up (as little as 10 jumping jacks one minute before the first jump is usually sufficient). The key is to keep whatever warm-up you're doing consistent over time.

Now, in a perfect world the athlete would refrain from any heavy weight training for two days before testing the broad jump. If you test the broad jump two days after a heavy deadlift the first week, and retest it one day after a heavy deadlift the fourth week, you're going to skew your data. Be smart with your timing of the broad jump test and try to keep all variables as consistent as possible.

It would be easy to get into a scholarly discussion over what constitutes an ideal broad jump distance. But that doesn't really matter. What matters is that your broad jump is consistently increasing over time. Once it stops increasing, add speed exercises into your training program if you feel that's what's lacking.

This article isn't a slam on speed training. It has its place. If you're an avid lifter who doesn't compete in any sport and wants to get bigger and stronger, traditional speed training should be a part of your program.

However, if you're a power athlete it's important to remember that your sport probably gives you all the speed training you need, if you practice it enough.

What you'll most likely get the greatest benefit from is maximal strength training. This is especially true if your goal is to be the next MMA champion!

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Tags: Strength

by Eric Auciello – 4/05/2012

Trainees are increasingly gravitating towards what I call hard effort training. Housewives and military-operators alike are embracing hard effort in an attempt to develop a superior state of general physical preparedness (GPP).

A nice byproduct of this type of training is improved body composition, making it easy to understand why it's so popular.

Keep in mind, when I say "hard effort," I'm not referring to high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT protocols are dependent upon intensity – but since intensity and volume have an inverse relationship, you can't train high intensity while also using high volume. Most hard effort workouts have a moderate to high amount of volume in place, naturally limiting intensity.

The hard effort approach is best described with the following equation: high impact + high volume = hard effort.

The hard effort paradigm shift can be attributed to increasingly busy lifestyles, shorter attention spans, and the need for instant gratification. To that end, it's no wonder that these short duration, hard-effort sessions have gained traction – they produce aesthetic results and, in some cases, performance gains.

This is a result of hard effort training's effect on the production of Testosterone and human growth hormone, a potent cocktail that aids in building muscle and reducing body fat. Plus, lets face it, it's more entertaining than walking on a treadmill.

Let's first put aesthetics aside and look at the performance end of the spectrum. Individuals who see massive performance gains while using hard effort training are often experiencing a novice training effect.

For example, a 42-year-old soccer mom may have an actual training age of 17. An athlete like this is ripe for the potent stimulus of "hard effort" and that's what leads her to huge performance jumps.

In this scenario, any stimulus would've lead to similar results, if applied liberally and regularly. It goes to show that these result don't necessarily prove hard efforts' efficacy with trained athletes.

My next point of contention is that hard effort trainees often claim to be training "cardio." Unfortunately, by training just with hard effort, these athletes are training everything except "cardio." They're throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater!

The main issue is that hard effort is primarily glycolytic, which leads to an energy imbalance when abused. This effect lies in direct opposition to the stated goal of developing a superior state of GPP, which is dependent upon energy system homeostasis.

A well rounded GPP athlete would be able to go long and slow or short and fast from a performance standpoint, which leads the biggest training flaw with hard efforts: a lack of purely oxidative aerobic training.

There's nothing wrong with training hard. In fact, most people need to train harder. However, it's important to recognize that chronic overuse of any type of training can have deleterious effects on mental and physical health.

Unceasing daily use of hard-effort training protocols may eventually result in an unbalanced energy system, systemic inflammation, adrenal problems, chronic tendonitis, and potentially serious orthopedic injuries.

These outcomes, coupled with the potential negative effects that chronic long-term inflammation (caused by anaerobic processes) has on our heart, is troubling. Unfortunately, there's very little data available to assess the long-term affects this type of training has on an aging population.

With this in mind, I err on the side of caution and encourage clients to use a hybrid approach, one that blends hard efforts with low to moderate intensity efforts. This creates a healthy, effective, and sustainable form of GPP.

Many use aerobic conditioning for body recomposition purposes. This makes sense, because when trained properly, the body burns fat for fuel, which helps improve aesthetics.

Steady state, low-intensity aerobic activity also acts as a powerful recovery tool. Aerobic efforts help the body process inflammation and leads to the release of restorative hormones (cortisone) that aid in connective tissue repair.

Unfortunately, there's a misunderstanding of what aerobic activity is and how we should train it. This confusion can be attributed to mainstream misinformation relating to how the body produces energy aerobically.

I see this type of confusion often with athletes who've been training their cardio with hard efforts. In this scenario, there's often a large deficiency in the athlete's ability to produce energy aerobically.

This deficiency lies in direct opposition to their goal of developing overall badassery. You can't be a well-rounded athlete if your aerobic energy system is garbage.

How do I know it's garbage? I test it!

The test requires you to run one mile. The tricky part is that you must keep your heart rate below your Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) for the entire mile.

To determine your MAF score, simply subtract your age from 180 (example:180-37=143 BPM). If you're a highly trained athlete, you can add 3 BPM. If you're a de-conditioned athlete, subtract 3 BPM. This metric provides a baseline to continually monitor progress and physiological change.

Now that you've determined your MAF, strap on a heart rate monitor and go for a run. Remember, you can't allow your heart rate to exceed your MAF score. For many this will be a problem. Some of you may have to walk, some may crawl.

Regardless of your outcome, heart rate must be kept below your MAF score or the test is useless. If heart rate spikes, walk and let it drop below your MAF before starting the run.

Upon completion of your one-mile run or walk, review your time. If you can run the mile in seven minutes you've got a well-trained aerobic system. If your mile time was 13 minutes, your aerobic energy-system is poor.

So, what do you do if your aerobic energy pathway is junk? You train it!

Before addressing the specifics on how to train your aerobic energy system, let's take a quick look at how anaerobic and aerobic energy is produced.

Most are familiar with the anaerobic energy system. It's used to jump, sprint, and lift. The anaerobic energy system is limited in that it only produces 6-10 seconds of immediate energy using stored ATP and creatine phosphate.

On the other hand, the aerobic energy system is a powerful hybrid system that can produce energy virtually indefinitely. This system uses oxygen, glucose, and fat metabolism.

Think of the aerobic system as a million little hybrid engines (mitochondria) within our muscles. These hybrid engines are your fat burning engines and are highly efficient at producing energy. They run all day long on little added fuel (food). This phenomenon is primarily due to our ability to metabolize fat on the mitochondrial level.

Now let's look at the hard effort addict's training regimen. These athletes are simply training too hard to develop their hybrid engines. A true hard effort can only be sustained from 1 to 15 minutes when an athlete is above their anaerobic threshold.

This type of hard effort training primarily uses the glycolytic anaerobic system, where muscle glycogen and lactate is used to produce fuel. An unfortunate byproduct of this type of exercise is the accumulation of hydrogen ionic waste, which leads to toxic acidosis and the systemic micro trauma of tissues.

These failures cause cellular damage (DOMS anyone?) making it extremely difficult to recover from the anaerobic training stimulus, possibly costing the athlete a valuable training session. This activity is really sub-maximal when we consider glycolytic energy production only produces two ATP per each molecule of glucose.(1)

This leads back to my original point: the hard effort crowd is not training their fat-burning engines. Their daily efforts are constantly using and replenishing the easily accessed glycogen stores and blood glucose, not fat.

This is a problem because when our blood glucose levels drop, we crash. The human body senses an overwhelming fatigue and begins attempting to top off the tank by shunting blood from the gut to our limbs, often leading to unpleasant side effects like vomiting. This is one of the many unhealthy aspects of hard-effort training.

The hard-effort addiction to glycogen is problematic from both a health and performance standpoint. I experimented with this type of training in preparation for an ultra-marathon event. Without a properly trained oxidative system, I was unable to tap into my fat stores for fuel when I needed it. This led to a dependence on food just to maintain the glycogen I needed for energy production – not a good thing when you're in the middle of the woods, 30 miles from the nearest convenience store.

However, had I just lowered my pace a bit, I'd be in an oxygen-using zone where I could produce 36-38 ATP per molecule of glucose. This would've been more efficient because the body can store enough glycogen and blood glucose to produce approximately 90 minutes of activity. The problem was that 90 minutes didn't cut it as I was on the trail for over six hours.

Now, if I'd taken it one step further and slowed down even more, I'd have been training below my MAF, and could've developed the mitochondrial machinery needed to break down fat into energy. Had I taken this approach, my energy production efficiency would've jumped exponentially to 460 ATP per fat molecule!

In this example, hard effort training caused me to miss out on two thirds of my potential energy production. This outcome stands in direct conflict to what Yuri Verkoshansky's defined as GPP: "The general ability of the body as a machine to produce work of different intensity and duration using the appropriate energy system of the body."

In my work with the military, I've been asked to prepare soldiers for a "worst day scenario." This request led me to my own question: What if the "worst day" is three days long?

This forced me to address the inherent weaknesses present in most GPP plans, leading me to embrace a more balanced approach to GPP-style training.

The system I use with clients is called Homeostatic Performance Training (HPT). The HPT approach is a blend of periodization techniques, dedicated strength, power elements, and energy system training. It's a complicated but effective system, one heavily influenced by Supertraining.

HPT uses a two-part approach to develop multi-modal anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. This is intended to achieve an optimal training effect while mitigating the negative byproducts and training scars associated with either glycolytic or oxidative training. Achieving a homeostatic balance is the ultimate objective in my system.

The first step in the HPT approach is establishing your baseline oxidative energy system using the MAF formula discussed earlier. The 180-age formula should be used while training the aerobic energy system.

For you folks with fitness ADD, you can still use kettlebells, barbell complexes, plyometrics, and gymnastics when training this system.

However, load, volume, and rep schemes may need to be manipulated to keep your heart rate under your MAF benchmark. I like to maintain a balance in clients' prescribed high intensity (glycolytic) and low/moderate intensity (oxidative) work. The minimum homeostatic work ratio of 1:1 is required to prevent injury, maintain health, and ensure client progress.

If a trainee has difficulty recovering due to an inordinate amount of stress outside the gym and/or has difficulty managing training stress, this ratio may increase.

For example, if a client is over 35 years of age, has nervous tension and a poorly trained oxidative pathway (1 mile @ 180-age = 10:00+.), the ratio can be increased from 1:1 to 1:2.

These ratios are calculated on a weekly basis dependent upon total training volume.

The first integer in the ratios relates to the cumulative time a trainee spends training hard efforts each week (excluding dedicated strength training).

Hard effort workouts are powerful stressors that cause systemic disruption on a cellular level. These disruptions can be managed by offsetting these hard efforts with MAF based-active rest and recovery workouts.

MAF type workouts are best used as active recovery the day after a hard effort. Part of the effectiveness of this type of training is in its ability to mitigate the effects of hard effort training, which allows trainees to train more frequently.

Some of the MAF workouts I use look like this:

30-60 minute max rounds:
1 Barbell complex of:

5 Stiff leg deadlifts
5 Bent over rows
5 Power cleans
5 Front squats
5 Push presses

5 Sandbag get-ups

.5 mile Airdyne

The weights on this workout are subjective due to your level of aerobic conditioning. I used 65 pounds on the barbell complex and a 60-pound sandbag – 40 minutes was more than enough for me!

30-60 minute max rounds

4 Prowler pushes
8 Kettlebell swings
12 Sit-ups
24 Step-ups

30-60 minute max rounds:

Barbell complex (Barbell complex = 4 Romanian deadlift, 4 Squat clean, 4 Press)

4 Walks. One walk = a power clean with an 80-pound sandbag, place it on a shoulder, and pick up a 55-pound dumbbell in the other hand. Now walk 45 feet and drop the sand bag and place the dumbbell on the deck. Repeat on opposite shoulder and hand.

4 Strict pull-ups

Row 500m

These sessions are a shadowy reflection of many of the hard effort programs out there today. However, the methodology here is novel due to the scientific methods used to determine exactly what we're training at a given time.

This element is what separates HPT from all other run of the mill programs. I've experienced a much higher client compliance rate and zero serious injuries since implementing these procedures. This has led to overall performance gains that have been superior to the stand-alone hard effort training programs previously used.

While this is only one facet of the HPT program, it could provide you with a powerful tool to combat overtraining, coupled with potential improvements in cardiorespiratory endurance.

At the very least it should help some athletes manage their training volume and intensity in a healthy and sustainable fashion.

1) Eberle, Suzanne Girard, Endurance Sports Nutrition, Second Edition.

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Tags: Cardio, Makes, Sense

BCAA (branched chain amino acids) are in short the three essential amino acids - leucine, isoleucine and valine literally. The BCAA are different from the other 17 amino acids in that they are primarily metabolized in skeletal muscle (Layman, 2003) and metabolized at a much lower rate in the liver (Norton, 2005). The rate limiting enzyme in BCAA catabolism is Branched Chain Keto Acid Dehydrogenase, w
hich is much more active in skeletal muscle than in the liver (Norton, 2005). The idea of supplementing with extra branch-chained amino acids (BCAA) in addition to ones protein intake has been around for quite some time. But with all the 'magic elixirs' and 'pump potions' on the market today, BCAA supplementation has never gained popularity outside of the hardcore (as in elite athletes) circles.

One reason for this oversight on BCAA may be that people feel supplementing with additional BCAA on top of an already high protein diet will not be beneficial. Others may simply be uninformed about BCAA.

Because BCAA serve as a "fuel" for skeletal muscle, supplementing with additional BCAA to improve sports performance and to treat various diseases and aliments as been suggested. BCAA have many other roles besides being just a fuel for skeletal muscle.

The Metabolic Roles Of The BCAA Include:

    * Substrate for energy production
* Substrate for protein synthesis
* Precursor for the formation of other amino acids
* Metabolic signals (Primarily Leucine)

Supplementing With BCAA

What is interesting about the BCAA is their ability to participate in the above metabolic processes, energy substrates, substrates for protein synthesis, precursors for alanine and glutamine, and modulators of protein synthesis, is governed by their availability.
Research suggests that first and foremost the BCAA are used for the synthesis of protein structures (Layman, 2003).
Research on leucine shows that once the minimum requirement of leucine for protein synthesis is met leucine can then be used as a precursor for alanine and glutamine or to activate various signaling pathways (Layman, 2003), such as the mTOR pathway. It may sound like leucine is free to exert its powerful effect of mTOR activation, but one must remember that protein breakdown and synthesis is occurring throughout the entire body; the body's protein stores are in a constant state of flux.
The constant body protein flux plus the increased leucine oxidation caused by exercise means that leucine is in high demand and therefore may not be able to participate in muscle growth at its full potential. This is where supplementing with additional BCAA comes into play and importance.
Due to leucine's metabolic properties, many people focus solely on leucine and not the other two BCAAs valine and isoleucine.

Research has shown that leucine-rich diets or administration of leucine alone lead to decreases in valine and isoleucine plasma concentrations and a BCAA imbalance (Shirmomura et al., 2004). While it may be cheaper to supplement with leucine alone instead of all three BCAA, one should supplement with all three BCAA so not to create a BCAA imbalance.
The main question or argument with BCAA supplementation people have is whether additional BCAA supplementation on top of an already high protein intake will produce any benefits, specifically enough benefits justify to the cost of the BCAA. Research and anecdotal findings would definitely suggest yes.
The benefits of free-form BCAA lie in their ability to quickly flood the blood stream and amino acid pools with high amounts of BCAA, specifically leucine. While whey protein is absorbed quickly, ingestion of 10 grams of BCAA from whey does not create the same metabolic response as the ingestion of 10 grams of free-form BCAA.

Once whey protein reaches the gut, it takes about 45 minutes before the amino acids start to be extracted and are absorbed and can be used. This lower absorption means the amino acid pools are not "flooded" with large amounts of BCAA.
the BCAA ability to be utilized in various pathways is governed by their availability. It is my belief that delivering large amounts of BCAA to muscle and keeping BCAA levels elevated will cause a strong and sustained activation of mTOR, leading to skeletal muscle hypertrophy.

The current research available clearly displays that the BCAA (specifically leucine) are very potent stimulators of protein synthesis and have many other beneficial effects to athletes.
In Summary,
The Metabolic Roles Of The BCAA Include:
* Substrate for energy production
* Substrate for protein synthesis
* Precursor for the formation of other amino acids       
* Metabolic signals (Primarily Leucine)
What all this means is ingesting BCAA primes your body for growth (protein synthesis). All of these actions are beneficial to an athlete and should not be overlooked. There is endless research backing BCAA supplementation.

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Tags: BCAAs, their