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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This site may not function properly in the version of Internet Explorer you are using. Please upgrade to the latest version. Or download the latest version of Firefox or Chrome. by Bret Contreras – 10/29/2012

Gene Lawrence is a 73 year-old powerlifter who stays up-to-date with the writings and recommendations of his favorite strength coaches. Like many lifters, he finds the conflicting advice extolled by the various experts to be downright confusing.

I've been training with Gene for the past several months, watching him bust out 365-pound deadlifts like it ain't no thang. Just recently he said to me, "I really wish someone would just write an article that taught me the rules. What are the things you have to do versus the things that are just nice to do?"

I pondered his question for several days, and came to the conclusion that there are only 8 laws in strength training.

At first I figured there'd be more, but almost every time I thought up a potential law, a refuting argument came to mind.

Now of course, it's difficult to make hard-fast laws due to varying goals and genetics. However, in the end I feel that I was fair with my determinations.

These laws are based on what I've learned both as a lifter and researcher, and they're formed by my current level of scientific understanding, meaning they're malleable and subject to change.

Bear in mind here that I'm assuming that since you read T Nation, you care about both your strength and your physique.

In Part II of this series, I'll give you the 8 laws, but in this article I'll set the stage and present 20 potential laws that got shot down. Many coaches and trainers might determine that some of these are indeed laws, but not me.

The following 20 things are "nice" to do, but not absolutely necessary.

Foam rolling feels good. Ask any foam rolling lifter if it makes them feel better, alleviates pain, or prevents injury, and the resounding answer will be yes.

However, there are millions of lifters who don't foam roll who do just fine. To date, there are only a couple of studies that have been conducted on foam rolling, and to be frank, we really don't know much about it as far as what it does and doesn't do (Miller & Rockey 2006, MacDonald et al. 2012).

Right now we can speculate as to what it does, but at this point it's just that – speculation.

Stretching usually feels good too, and intuitively most lifters feel like it's a good idea. Nobody wants to lose their flexibility, and it's no fun being tight.

However, proper strength training itself involves stretching. Research shows that strength training is as effective as stretching at building flexibility, due to several factors (Aquino et al. 2010, Simao et al. 2010; Morton et al. 2011, Nelson & Bandy 2004).

First, the eccentric component of exercise, along with exercises that place sufficient tension on muscles at long lengths, induces sarcomerogenesis and actually increases flexibility through creating new sarcomeres in series and lengthening muscle (Brughelli & Cronin 2007). So resistance training is a viable form of loaded, active stretching.

Next, passive stretching can indeed decrease stiffness and increase pain tolerance to stretch, but it doesn't regulate muscle length like active stretching does (Weppler & Magnusson 2010, Riley & Van Dyke 2012). If you regularly perform exercises like full squats, Romanian deadlifts (RDL's), lunges, chin-ups, dips, and calf raises with good form through a full range of motion, you'll possess good overall flexibility.

Cardio sounds good in theory. After all, the heart is the most important muscle, right? But what exactly is "cardio?" Doesn't the heart beat quite hard during strength training?

While prolonged low-intensity cardiovascular exercise does indeed have its own merits, strength training – particularly performed intensively close to muscular failure – provides many of the benefits that cardio does (Steele et al. 2012).

As long as you have an active lifestyle and lift weights frequently with sufficient intensity, cardio isn't mandatory. If you've ever performed a set of 20-rep walking barbell lunges with 225 pounds, then you know that resistance training works the cardiovascular system very well.

Over the past decade, exercise scientists have raved about HIIT, pointing out that it leads to greater metabolic expenditure and fat-loss over prolonged periods compared to steady state cardio due to the effects of EPOC (Tremblay 1994, Hazell et al. 2012). However, lifting weights is a form of HIIT, as long as you train intensely.

Recently, it's been shown that lighter weights performed to failure can indeed provide a potent muscle hypertrophy stimulus, perhaps even greater than heavy weights (Mitchell et al. 2012).

It's too early to tell as the studies have relied on beginner subjects, but at the very least the newer research shows that you can certainly build muscle without using heavy weights.

Ever seen Kai Greene train his glutes? He uses light weight for high reps and focuses on feeling the glutes moving the loads. Jay Cutler doesn't go nearly as heavy as he did earlier in his career, but nevertheless he's more muscular due to a shift in focus on muscle contraction.

Few bodybuilders go lower than 6 reps, and for lower body most stick to sets of 10-30 reps. For the most part, Andy Bolton, the first man to deadlift over 1,000 pounds, relies upon Dynamic Effort deadlifts to build his world class deadlifting strength.

Many lifters benefit from the Dynamic Effort method. Explosive lifting increases muscle activation at the start of the lift and allows for morefrequent training due to lighter loads being used.

However, explosive lifting also diminishes muscle activation in the latter half of the lift due to requisite deceleration of the load (Frost et al. 2010).

Most bodybuilders lift semi-explosively, yet they're sure to control the weight through the entire ROM. Many seek to keep more constant tension on the muscles to maximize the pump effect.

Furthermore, many powerlifters have gained plenty of strength having never focused on lighter weight for maximum acceleration. Dynamic Effort work is a great idea for Olympic lifters and athletes, but it's not mandatory for general lifters.

Growing up reading strength training articles, I was led to believe that the last rep of a set was the only one that counted and the only one that built strength. Now I realize that it was hogwash.

You can build incredible strength staying far away from failure. Sure you won't build maximum strength if you don't push the boundaries from time to time, but you can leave a rep or two in the tank and still be quite strong and muscular.

In fact, a recent article showed that maximum muscle activation during a set was reached a few reps prior to failure (Sundstrup et al. 2012). A decent case could be made that by avoiding the increased wear-and-tear on the joints and nervous system induced by going too heavy or too hard might lead to increased progress through decreased stress, pain, and injury, along with increased recovery.

The squat is the king of lower body movements, no doubt. But do you have to squat? Some lifters never seem to dial down their form on squats, and this has much to do with their anthropometry.

Ben Bruno has shown that it's indeed possible to make steady progress with squatting strength through intensive focus on single-leg strength. Research has shown that single-leg strength and power training led to slightly better performance effects than double-leg strength and power training, though the effects weren't significant (McCurdy et al. 2005).

Strength is highly dependent on the movement pattern, so as long as you perform a single-leg squatting movement such as a Bulgarian split squat or a reverse lunge, your strength on the squat won't suffer dramatically.

Let's say that week in and week out you performed a bilateral deadlift or good morning variation along with a single-leg squat variation, yet you never did bilateral squats. Your quads would still be muscular, your spine stable, and your hips strong.

If the squat is the king of lower body movements, the deadlift is the king of total body movements. Therefore you must deadlift to see great results, right?

Westsiders showed long ago that a lifter could build a very strong deadlift without deadlifting. They performed tons of box squats, good mornings, back raises, pull-throughs, reverse hypers, and glute ham raises – and their deadlifts were incredibly strong.

I've found that heavy-ass kettlebell swings can do wonders for building and maintaining deadlift strength. Max Shank can single-leg RDL 315 pounds for reps, which provides a huge training effect for the hip extensors, keeping the deadlift pattern strong while sparing the low back.

In terms of bodybuilding, many lifters prefer the blend of bent-over rows, T-bar rows, and back extensions for their mid and lower back development rather than deadlifts, as they've found that the deadlift just isn't worth the risk to their body.

If your program contained heavy KB swings, box squats, good mornings, bent over rows, T-bar rows, and back raises, your deadlift would be plenty strong, and your back and hip extensors would display impressive muscularity.

Now let's move on to the king of upper body movements, the bench press. The bench press is without a doubt the most popular exercise in the world, but do you have to perform it? Many lifters' shoulders just don't agree with the bench press, and therefore, they need not include it in their programs.

You can build a strong bench press through other pressing movements. For example, a lifter who performed lots of weighted push-ups and/or dumbbell pressing from different angles will have muscular pecs and triceps, not to mention a reasonably strong bench press.

Let's say a lifter only performed squats, leg presses, deadlifts, hip thrusts, back extensions, glute ham raises, bench press, military presses, dips, push-ups, bent-over rows, chins, and barbell curls for his entire lifting career. I think we'd all agree that he'd be incredibly strongand muscular, provided of course that he gets strong on those exercises.

Conversely, let's say a lifter only performed Bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges, single-leg RDL's, sled-pushes, single-leg hip thrusts, single-leg back extensions, single-arm db bench presses, single-arm DB shoulder presses, one-arm DB rows, single-arm pulldowns, and alternating DB curls for his entire lifting career. He'll also be incredibly strong and muscular, provided he gets strong on those exercises.

Free-weight compound exercise does a good job of activating the core musculature. Getting an aesthetically pleasing mid-section has more to do with being lean than possessing muscular abdominals anyway.

If you perform exercises such as chin-ups, push-ups, squats, deadlifts, farmer's walks, military presses, and barbell curls, your core will be plenty strong and muscular. Combine this with proper nutrition and your midsection will look great.

Free weights reign supreme in the strength training world. They allow for natural movement patterns and require real-world stabilization. Therefore they're absolutely necessary, right? Not so fast.

Prime-mover muscle activation can be matched with machine training, and a lifter can gain incredible strength and size this way.

Moreover, there's a big difference between a crummy machine program and an optimal machine program.

For example, if a lifter simply performed leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, pec deck, straight-arm pulldowns, and lateral raises, he probably wouldn't get very far in terms of total body strength and muscularity.

However, if a lifter performed Lever squats, Hammer strength deadlifts, leg presses, lying leg curls, Hammer strength upper body presses and pulls from various angles, and cable curls, he'll be incredibly strong and muscular, provided he gets strong on those exercises.

Earlier in a lifter's career, progressive overload is mandatory. But later on, there are other ways of progressing. For example, you can use better form, emphasize a particular muscle, or exert better control.

Many bodybuilders, in an attempt to spare their joints and decrease the likelihood of injury, actually place heavy squats and/or deadlifts toward the end of the workout so they can achieve a training effect while not relying on such heavy loads.

Let's say you've built your strength up to a 300-pound bench, 400-pound squat, and 500-pound deadlift, and you decide to stay there for a year while improving upon your form and honing in on your diet. You'd look better despite not using progressive overload. Progressive overload is critical, but it's not always mandatory.

Variety is the spice of life. Training can be quite mundane, and it's always nice to spruce your programs up with new exercises, altered stance and grip widths and ranges of motion, or other tweaks such as pause reps or drop sets. Failure to vary your workouts is said to lead to stagnation and "habituation".

However, is variety truly necessary? Plenty of Olympic weightlifters from Bulgaria didn't fall into this trap – they performed around six exercises year-round. And this is the crux of John Broz's system – back squats, front squats, power cleans, power snatches, clean & jerks, and snatches.

Let's say that a certain lifter performed the same five exercises his entire lifting career, and for 30 straight years he only did back squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press, and bent over rows. He'd probably have better strength and development than 90% of lifters.

Variety is nice – we all like it, it breaks up the monotony, and it keeps us interested in going to the gym, but if you don't like change, then you don't have to change in order to see excellent results.

Periodization is essential for lifting success, right? The Russians were all about it, and American sports scientists have gone to great lengths planning detailed cycles of varying lengths. So it has to be mandatory for success, right?

The fact is, periodization is debated in the literature, and studies don't tend to show a huge difference in gains between varying periodization models (Kiely 2012, Issurin 2010).

If you're in tune with your body, you possess ample "common sense", and you know the basics of program design, then you don't really need to "periodize" your training.

But first let me clarify this statement. What is "periodization" anyway? It's "planning". How can any sensible lifter not perform some sort of planning when he trains? Even the biggest fools at the gym know what their "go-to" exercises are for the chest and biceps.

The vast majority of respectable lifters plan their training splits, training frequency, exercise selection, and order. Based on intuition and biofeedback, they tend to vary the intensity and volume on a particular day, but there's some structure and planning to their methods.

Therefore, every single respectable lifter does in fact periodize his training. But do you need to jot down an annual plan full of cycles and phases? The vast majority of bodybuilders don't do this, especially the top dogs.

Furthermore, "life" tends to force you into cycles and phases. Stress, new jobs, vacations, injuries, parties, holidays, work, deadlines, new relationships, and travel force lifters into varying their programming.

Moreover, periodization doesn't allow for "on-the-fly" adjustments and can be too rigid. Chuck Vogelpohl was notorious for maxing out on his Dynamic Effort day; once he got ramped up he couldn't resist going heavy. Are you going to tell him he's not lifting correctly?

As mentioned above, life forces you into fluctuating your training stress. Nevertheless, should you plan recovery weeks? Probably, but what if you're the type of lifter who simply "nails" the optimal training variables each week?

Some lifters lack testicular-fortitude and never overreach. These folks don't need back-off weeks. Some lifters train balls-to-the-wall and are prone to overdoing it. These folks benefit greatly from deloading.

But there are certain lifters who intuitively understand just how hard to push things. They might slightly overreach by Friday, but after taking the weekend off, they're good to go by Monday. They make steady gains despite never taking a week off or even taking a back-off week, due to the fact that they perform just the right amount of frequency, volume, and intensity for their body week in and week out.

I'm a huge fan of HFT. But is it absolutely necessary? Some of the best gains I ever made were from a HIT program. Every five days, I performed a full-body workout consisting of big basic movements such as squats or front squats, deadlifts or sumo deadlifts, bench presses or close grip bench presses, and chins or rows. I got incredibly strong and gained a lot of muscle. Mike Mentzer saw great success from infrequent, full-body, intense training, as have plenty of other strong lifters.

One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that you have to be in the gym all day long in order to see results. If more aspiring lifters knew that they could in fact see incredible gains from lifting just six days per month, they'd probably embark on a resistance training regimen.

The caveat is that you have to do it right – no wimpy isolation lifts allowed. Hammer the big basic movements every five days and you'll see great results.

The vast majority of bodybuilders split their programs. Many powerlifters split things up too. Total body training works for many individuals, but no single system is ideal for every individual and goal.

On the contrary, Olympic lifters don't split their workouts, nor do most strongmen or athletes. There are prisoners who've gotten incredibly jacked from daily full-body workouts. Split training works for many individuals, but no single system is ideal for every individual and goal.

Research clearly shows that multiple sets trump single sets for strength and size (Krieger 2009, Krieger 2010, Rhea et al. 2002). However, think of it this way:

Let's say that a lifter did one exercise per workout and squatted on Monday, benched on Wednesday, and deadlifted on Friday. He performs five sets in each session.

Let's say another lifter did one set of five compound exercises on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They're both doing 15 sets of exercise per week. Do you really think that they'd be much different in terms of strength or size?

Aside from a couple of warm-up sets, Dorian Yates performed one set to failure, and he had one of the best physiques in the history of bodybuilding.

The first set is by far the most important, with each subsequent set being less and less important. And if you end up hitting the muscles from more angles due to more exercises being performed, a case could be made that you can see even better results in terms of hypertrophy with single-set protocols versus multiple-set protocols.

If you don't go all-out every session, you won't progress, right? Maybe not. Many experts feel that overdoing things holds more lifters back than underdoing things. Leaving a rep or two in the tank, choosing less-taxing exercise variations, and performing Dynamic Effort work allows lifters to train more frequently by sparing the nervous system and the joints from heavy pounding.

Pavel Tsatsouline advises lifters to "grease the groove" and quit obsessing about maximal performance on every set of every exercise.

Let's say you train five days per week, never quite going to failure or maxing out on chain close grip bench press, feet-elevated inverted rows, chain front squats, heavy kettlebell swings, and farmer's walks. You'd be very fit, strong, and muscular, and your joints would thank you.

I'm definitely not telling you that you shouldn't do the things mentioned in this article. However, some of the tenets listed will be more or less important for you depending on your particular genetics and goals. Just keep in mind that these 20 items are nice to do, but not absolutely mandatory for success.

In Part 2 of this series I will disclose the things you must do to ensure optimal gains in strength training.

Bret Contreras has a master's degree from ASU and a CSCS certification from the NSCA. He is currently studying to receive his PhD in Sports Science at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ) at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. Visit his blog at www.BretContreras.com and his research review service at www.StrengthandConditioningResearch.com.

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A little compilation/highlight video of a few of our athletes working one of our core lifts and its’ variation, the Deadlift! Not much to say about it that already has been mentioned, but it pretty much kicks major a*s!! Do these with proper technique with consistency and you will build full body strength that no competitor can touch!

Train hard,

- John Cortese

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Tags: Deadlifts, Power, Strength

At some point or another just about every bodybuilder and athlete on the planet is bound injure himself. Luckily, for most of us they're usually minor and don't result in anything more than a slight inconvenience for a few days. Sometimes though-especially if you're a powerlifter, strongman or competitive athlete-they can stretch on for weeks or months and even bring your training to halt. Some strength athletes though, have found lasting relief for formerly debilitating injuries through a technique known as Active Release Techniques (ART).

ART is a soft-tissue chiropractic technique that specifically targets the injured area. Feedback on ART has so far been very positive. Because of the way it's administered some people might say that ART therapy is a "massage," but make no mistake-it's not. ART therapy is a movement-based technique that is actually patented. It was developed in the early- to mid-nineties by a Colorado Chiropractor P. Michael Leahy, DC, CCSP. He developed the technique after observing that his patients' symptoms were apparently related to changes in the soft tissue that he could actually feel with his hand.

Based on that observation he began tracking how the soft tissues (muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves) responded to different types of treatments (soft tissue work). From there he developed the ART program-which is made up of more than 500 different specific moves to treat problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves, back pain, shoulder pain, sciatica, knee problems, tennis elbow and more. Nearly all of these are pains that can be common among strength athletes like strongmen, powerlifters and other competitive athletes.

A lot of these problems are caused by soft tissue injuries that usually occur in one of two ways: acute conditions (pulls, tears, strains, etc.); or accumulation of small tears caused by doing the same movement over and over (micro-trauma). When these things happen, they can cause the body to produce dense scar tissue in the areas affected. The scar tissue builds up and as it does, the impact it has becomes more widespread. As a result, we suffer from a reduced range of motion, a loss of strength and of course, pain.

When these kinds of injuries occur in a strength athlete-especially one who is competing-it can be devastating because our tendency is to "work through the pain." But what happens then is we overcompensate because of the pain and wind up not only exacerbating the original injury but often times, we end up with more than we had in the beginning.

So in these kinds of circumstances, ART therapy can be ideal for the strength athlete. It starts with a comprehensive evaluation by a certified therapist. The evaluation takes about an hour. Its purpose is to pinpoint the injury, determine its severity and then establish the proper therapeutic regimen. ART therapy works by treating the abnormal tissues (scar tissue) by combining precisely-directed tension combined with very specific movements from the patient. The big benefit here is that the treatments can generally alleviate the problem after just a few visits. That means no lengthy down times.

I've read about all kinds of strength athletes-powerlifters and strongmen included, that have had tremendous success alleviating persistent, chronic pains with ART therapy. And in the majority of cases that I've seen, the treatment time has been relatively short-from two to six weeks. After that, they've jumped right back into competition-pain free.

There have been several scientific studies conducted to determine how effective ART therapy actually is in treating injuries relating to the overuse of muscles. Nearly all of the studies show that ART therapy can be very effective in treating these types of injuries. One study conducted at the University of California (San Diego) showed a 71% success rate. Other studies obtained similar results with rates of success ranging from 70% to more than 90%. In these studies, most participants said that the problem was eliminated after 3 to 7 sessions.

Now obviously, a therapy like this is not going to be 100% successful for every person who tries it. Some injuries are more severe than others, are related to other problems or issues, or for some other reason it just doesn't work. But, with research showing that in more than 70% of the cases studied, ART therapy effectively eliminated the problem and enabled these athletes to get back to training, I'd say that this is one technique that is definitely worth investigating if you've got an injury that is holding you back.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight lifting magazine. It hosts the Internet's largest FREE exercise database and is the home of many workout routines including the Critical Bench Program to help you increase your bench press.

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This site may not function properly in the version of Internet Explorer you are using. Please upgrade to the latest version. Or download the latest version of Firefox or Chrome. by Chris Colucci – 7/05/2012

"Good bodybuilders have the same mind, when it comes to sculpting, that a sculptor has. You have to analyze. You look in the mirror and say, 'Okay, I need a little bit more deltoids, a little bit more shoulders to get the proportions right.' So what you do is, you exercise and put those deltoids on." – Arnold in Pumping Iron.

What do Frank Zane, Flex Wheeler, Dexter Jackson, and Phil Heath have in common, other than being four guys you'll probably never get to talk training with over a beer and some wings?

They stood out from the rest of the big guys on stage because of their constant focus on building symmetry rather than simply adding muscle regardless of proportion. They paid deliberate attention to developing each side of the body relative to the other – front, back, left, right, upper, and lower – as well as only building each individual muscle as it relates to "the total package."

Whether we're talking about the delts, arms, calves, or any other bodypart, symmetry and proportion are aspects of bodybuilding that often get overlooked by the recreational lifter. It's considered something only the pros have to be concerned with, or "not important right now because I have to get big before I worry about that detail work." That kind of thinking is as inaccurate as it is shortsighted.

Muscular size without balanced symmetry is like a gym with seven squat racks and only two barbells. The potential for something great is there, but it ends up totally missing the mark because of poor planning.

Not to mention the strength and health benefits of a balanced physique. Healthy joints, surrounded on all sides by well-developed muscle, will be better protected and more resistant to pulls or strains.

As far as using that strength, show me a powerlifter who doesn't think a big, strong back is required for a big bench press and I'll show you a guy who needs to increase his bench.

Let's figure out how we can implement symmetry training into your current plan for even better results.

There are a bunch of examples throughout the body where muscular symmetry, or a lack of it, can be either impressive and noteworthy or laughable and embarrassing.

On a large scale:

Front and back. Take a "big picture" view and compare the chest, abs/waist, and quads to the back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. "Training the mirror muscles" is the common motto to remind lifters that what you can't see does still exist, and it can have a huge effect on your overall look and performance. One of the biggest indicators is your posture. If you're a sloucher, it's a safe bet your training needs fixing.

Left and right. Look at the right arm versus the left, as well as the right and left legs. The majority of people have one limb slightly larger and/or stronger than the other simply by being dominant on that side. It's normal and expected, but for 100% maximal gains, work to minimize any discrepancy in size or performance.

Upper body and lower body. This should be self-explanatory. Let's all do our part to kill the chicken-legged bodybuilder stereotype by the end of the decade. If you know a guy who gives any excuses for avoiding or minimizing leg work, kick him in the nuts and tell him when his legs are bigger than his arms, he can kick you back.

On a relatively smaller but still significant scale:

Calves and arms. The classic bodybuilder's goal is to have the calves measure the same as the upper arms (biceps/triceps) for a balanced look from head to toe. So find the measuring tape, check your arm size, feel a moment of awesomeness, then immediately check your calf size and feel terrible.

Biceps and triceps. Speaking of arms, it's often pointed out that the triceps take up the majority of space on your upper arm. Then why do you see people in the gym doing "arm routines" that use four different types of curls and only one or two types of extensions? Because most people are, well, dumb. Don't be satisfied with big biceps, make sure you're building big arms.

Traps and shoulders. The traps are one of those muscles that can warn people from a distance, "Do not aggravate this dude." However, if we consider the entire shoulder, trap, and neck region, bodybuilders with a keen eye will point out that overwhelmingly high traps will encourage the illusion of narrow shoulders, and nobody wants that.

Deltoid heads. Check out the shoulders around your gym and you're most likely to see overdeveloped front delts, everyone struggling for side delts, and invisible rear delts. In reality, simply reversing the priority – a focus on building rear, side, and front delts, in that order – would practically be a miracle cure for most folks' physiques and their shoulder health.

Triceps heads, lateral, medial, and long. If your tris look less like a horseshoe and more like a half parenthesis, you've got work to do. There's more to triceps training than just straight bar pressdowns, v-bar pressdowns, and rope pressdowns. If you're skipping overhead work, you're missing a big piece of the puzzle and a big piece of your total arm development.

Forearms and upper arms. While you might not expect to see many underdeveloped forearms, they're used to some degree in almost every exercise, from rows and pulldowns to deadlifts and heavy bench presses. If you look around, you'll find plenty of guys who could use more meat between the elbow and wrist. And a stronger grip never hurts, either.

Calves, gastrocnemius and soleus. If you even train calves on a regular basis, congrats, you're in a small club. If you take the time to include straight-leg work and bent-leg work to address both calf heads, you're in an even smaller club, slightly smaller than the number of people who still consider Nicolas Cage a talented actor.

Now admittedly, those last two examples are a type of fine-tune work that only deserves major attention if you're actually closing in on your physique goal. However, the general idea is worth keeping in mind for the long run so you have that much less catch-up work to do when the time comes.

Other multi-headed or "multi-muscle muscles" such as the quads, hamstrings, or biceps don't necessarily require the same particular attention because it's much more difficult to significantly target or prioritize those heads with special exercises or techniques.

Once you've taken a cold, hard, truthful self-examination, we need to figure out how to fix whatever needs fixing. Now that you've analyzed your physique and noticed what's disproportionate, the first step is to try to figuring out why.

Consider the body part and think back to remember how long it's been slacking and then look at how you've been training it recently (the last month, three months, year, whatever). This is why keeping a consistent, detailed training log is so important.

Your thought process should be along the lines of, "Hey, I've almost got a straight line from my ass to my knee. There are supposed to be hamstrings there. Oh, wait, I haven't deadlifted or done a leg curl since Chappelle's Show had new episodes." Ta-da.

If it's an issue of left/right asymmetry, which is probably the most common discrepancy around, that calls for a different plan of attack. If you ask most lifters the best way to address that issue, they'll shoot you the obvious answer, "Just add some extra sets for the smaller side."

This is like telling a 270-pound lady the best way to lose weight is, "Just eat a little less at each meal." Thank you, Sherlock, I truly wish I'd have tried that first. That method might deliver some results in the short term, but it's not the most effective way and it doesn't really solve the problem.

Arbitrarily doing "a few more sets" for the lagging side just doesn't make sense. How many more sets? Should I keep the same rep range? Do I add the sets at the end of the regular workout or do I add a small-side-only training day later in the week?

At best, you're going to waste time and energy putzing around instead of addressing the issue efficiently. At worst, you'll flip the discrepancy because you lost track of the goal and end up with a new dominant, overpowering side.

If your problem is as simple as one underdeveloped muscle (tiny calves, lagging rear delts, etc.), the most direct way to get things back on track is to attack it head-on with a short-term specialization program designed to give the muscle enough time in the spotlight to get where it needs to be.

John Romaniello wrote a pretty solid guide to specialization workouts here. If you're looking to give a significant boost to one bodypart, you can make a big difference with four to six weeks of targeted work if you go after it with 100%.

If you've got more than one bodypart that needs to be evened out, prioritize. By definition, you can only have one "worst" bodypart at a time. Figure out what needs the most work or what will have the biggest overall impact on your physique or strength, and address it. Then, once you're one step closer to being balanced, work on the next issue.

However, remember when I pointed out that left/right asymmetry needs to be corrected differently? Well, the solution is kinda simple and also kinda counter-intuitive. You're going to focus on the lagging side to an extent, while putting the "good" side on maintenance.

Oh no – gasp and double-gasp – the dreaded "M" word. Surely that means wasted time, several weeks when our strong side does next-to-nothing, practically withering away while we go on and on trying to improve the lazy, lagging side? Hardly.

This approach makes the most sense because the lagging side needs the extra attention without the stronger side coming to the rescue. If you're like most people, when you lift with both limbs and there's a noticeable difference in strength, the weaker side will (obviously) fatigue first and the stronger side will compensate enough to let you finish a few more reps.

However, this is the same as doing a barbell bench press, approaching failure, and then lifting your ass a foot off the bench and bouncing the bar off your chest to continue repping out. Yes, technically you're doing more work than if you'd ended the set sooner, but it's much lower quality work that isn't benefiting you in the long run.

To really give the lagging side a chance to catch up, we need to strategically use unilateral exercises that let one limb, and only one limb, do all the work. We also need to let the problem side dictate the weight and reps used, which it likely hasn't been able to do for quite a while.

If your legs need to be evened out pronto, give these workouts a 6-week trial run, working the rest of your body in two or three sessions the rest of the week.

* Hold each peak contraction for a count of "one-one thousand" and, if possible, touch the target muscle with the fingertips of one hand to improve the mind-muscle connection.

Leg Press (high foot position)* Hold each peak contraction for a count of "one-one thousand" and, if possible, touch the target muscle with the fingertips of one hand to improve the mind-muscle connection.

Begin each set of unilateral exercises (the leg extension, lunge, leg curl, and standing calf raise) with the weaker/smaller leg and perform reps until near-failure, then switch to the stronger side and only complete the same number of reps, even though it should seem "too easy."

If your arms are most noticeably uneven, give this twice-a-week plan a shot for a month or so. The rest of your weekly training shouldn't over stress the upper body too much or else you'll dip into the arms' recovery time. Something like legs/chest-shoulders/back or even a basic upper/lower body split would allow the arms enough rest between direct sessions.

One-arm (not alternated) Supinated Dumbbell CurlOne-arm Horizontal Cable Triceps ExtensionSeated Overhead Triceps Extension* Hold each peak contraction for a count of "one-one thousand" and, if possible, touch the target muscle with the fingertips of one hand to improve the mind-muscle connection.

Begin each unilateral set (the one-arm curl and the one-arm triceps extension) with the weaker/smaller arm and perform reps to near-failure, then switch to the stronger arm and only complete the same number of reps, even though it should seem "too easy."

One-arm Thick Rope Triceps PressdownOne-arm Thick Rope Cable Hammer Curl

Perform one set of each exercise with each side before switching. For example: A1 left, then A2 left, then A1 right, then A2 right, then rest.

Again, as with the other arm day, begin each set with the weaker/smaller arm and work to near-failure, and then switch arms and match the same number of reps.

If you haven't learned that balanced bodybuilding is better bodybuilding, you might be a lost cause. Or you might just be forgetting that there's a bit more to building muscle than picking things up, putting them down, and making the scale read higher.

Whether your current goal is massive size, raw strength and power, or super-crazy-deep abs, maintaining an aesthetic eye in your program design will always pay dividends. You'll still get where you want to go, but you'll end up stronger, healthier, and with an even better-balanced physique to show for it.

If you've had luck dealing with a strength or size disparity, let me know what worked for you in the LiveSpill below.

    @Tony: And while you certainly know your wifey better than me, here's an observation I've made about people in general: many don't WANT to train. They want the results, sure, but they do not want to go to the gym, work hard, make time for it, etc. So they look for excuses. Sometimes that excuse is: "Well, I don't like supplements (swallowing pills, drinking things that aren't Dairy Queen Blizzards, whatever), so I can't workout..." Just make sure she actually wants to train.  

When he's not studying early physical culture, experimenting with new training and nutrition theories, or editing articles, Chris can often be found in the T Nation forums where he uses his 10+ years of teaching and coaching experience to help guide beginners towards the best path for their goals.

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Tags: Strength, Symmetry, Training

For almost 30 years, I’ve been a member of Gold’s Gym in Venice as well as the old World Gym owned by Joe Gold. In that time, I’ve seen massively huge people come and go at both places. When I first joined those gyms in the 1980s, I saw guys and gals in their bulking up stages who were bigger than you can ever imagine. I’m not talking about the pros like Tom Platz, Lou Ferrigno, or even Arnold (people that I would see regularly). No, it was the amateurs that I was most impressed with. Some of these guys came out of nowhere and were up to a hundred pounds bigger than the pros. They would make your jaw drop if you saw these exaggerated masses of muscles.

I thought for sure that some of these no-name colossal monsters would be the next world champion bodybuilders. However, to my surprise, only a couple of them ever won anything significant. Some of the hard luck amateurs continued to beef up and train at the gym, but after losing a contest, the majority of them withered away and then disappeared. I would frequently hear stories about how some of these big monsters would shrink back to normal size when they got off the drugs, becoming fat and out of shape and then vanishing from the face of the earth.

Lou Ferrigno staring in awe at Tom Platz’s amazing quadriceps development

I’m not just picking on bodybuilders either. Living for 30 years in Los Angeles, the home of broken dreams, I’ve seen weekend warriors, models, and actors who were great looking and in shape slowly fall apart from constant disappointment and rejection. Some survived and continued to pursue their dreams, but others never recovered from the cruel pain and adversity associated with the pursuit of stardom.

Unfortunately, for those who cannot handle life’s hardships, a long and horrible road to self-destruction can be all too common. It doesn’t matter how big or beautiful you are; if you are mentally weak, you will always be vulnerable to mental collapse. Personally, I refuse to ever be that weak again. Through hard work, discipline, and dedication I have successfully changed my mindset and strengthened my mental and emotional resilience.

An Interesting Journey

I love training and building up my physique. For twenty years, I was extremely dedicated in my goal to get as massive as possible. I was never a bodybuilder…I just trained like one. However, I always felt like something was missing. I could never pinpoint what I was lacking with my lifting, but it definitely seemed as if there was a certain emptiness to it.

Then, about eight years ago, I stumbled upon a book written by Coach John Davies and experienced a deep connection to the “renegade training” philosophy that he created. His system was about more than just lifting or building muscles. The heart of renegade training was about becoming mentally tough, a whole cerebral philosophy built on seeking out challenges and overcoming adversity.

It was then that I finally found what was missing in my twenty years of training: the mental aspect. Coach Davies’ philosophy had a strong impact on me and made me question how and why I was training. I was always physically building muscle and mass, but I had never thought about the psychological aspect of my workouts. I knew my training made me physically more attractive, but other than looking good, I didn’t see how my workouts made me mentally stronger. Training was supposed to make you feel more confident, but being self-assured wasn’t always my strong point. At different stages in my life, I was mentally weak and would give into fear. In other parts of my life, however, I could be a fighter with a very strong sense of will who would stubbornly refuse to quit.

In other words, I was inconsistent in activating my will and desire. I didn’t realize at the time that mental toughness was a skill that one can learn and develop. I soon became obsessed with the work of other mental toughness teachers, such as football coach Vince Lombardi, “Miracle On Ice” coach Herb Brooks, and wrestling great Dan Gable. What I learned was that perserverance can be learned through grueling and challenging work. Mental toughness training is not for everyone, but it should be because it is woefully needed in everyday life, inside and outside of the gym. Without mental toughness you are always vulnerable to breakdown, now matter how big you are or how good you look.

New Goals

Approaching the age of 40, I was overweight and had developed hypertension, but I now had a new goal for my training: to become mentally stronger than ever. In my quest, I started reading about the effectiveness of Crossfit and reluctantly started to incorporate those classes into my workouts at least once a week.

Legendary coach and motivator Vince Lombardi

Most of the Crossfit workouts were heavily cardio-oriented, so I struggled mightily. In all my years of bulking up, I had never done any cardio. The only aerobic exercise I got was reading the sports page while pedaling very slowly on the bike machine. For me at that time, the workouts always seemed like a competitive race and, except for when that pregnant lady was in my class, I was always the last one to finish. Yet I also found that there was something new and exciting about this weekly training adventure.

Many people develop mental toughness by playing a sport, but I wasn’t a very good athlete growing up and had never played much. With Crossfit, however, I experienced real physical competition for the first time and found that I loved it. Haunted by past failures on the playground and reliving the shame in Crossfit classes, I defiantly took a stand: I was tired of getting my ass kicked.

I pushed myself harder that I ever thought my body could take. As physically fatigued as I was during the workout, my mind was not tired; instead, it was stimulated. I pushed my body, striving to be aggressive and relentless in my workouts. I had no idea what the hell I was doing or where I was getting this new level of determination and strength. In retrospect, what I was learning was how to activate my will. I was making the physical connection with my thoughts and letting my mind lead my body. I started to crush my times and finish not only first, but way ahead of everyone else. No one was more shocked than I was at my sudden burst of athleticism in my early 40s. I felt a sense of confidence after the workouts that I never had before (unfortunately, my strut didn’t transfer to the singles bars).

I give Crossfit all the credit for getting me into the best shape of my life by pushing me to a level that I never knew existed. Through all of the suffering, I began to see how vital the mental aspect of training was for me. Everybody else was stronger, faster, and more athletic than I was, but now I felt that I had an advantage…I knew I was mentally stronger than everyone else in the class.

The Greatest Strength of All

The stated goal of Crossfit is to get you in badass shape; it did that job for me and more. However, as with my bodybuilding workouts, I needed something more than just a physical challenge. In my quest for more stimuli to feed my awakened mental hunger, I started to create my own workouts with the priority of first challenging my mind. I didn’t invent a new system. In fact, I went back and did traditional full-body strength workouts and said good-bye to the isolation work that had dominated my first twenty years of training. I continued to do to Crossfit (and also Krav Maga) and kept pushing myself to do things that I hated and sucked at, like running and climbing rope.

Over the past three years, my goal in the gym has been to get physically stronger, but more important, I have also gotten stronger in my personal life. I believe that having the confidence that you can overcome any adversity is the greatest strength of all.

Problems of Teaching Mental Toughness

As a result of my personal growth, I have searched obsessively for more ways to address the mental game. I read as many articles and books as possible, and one deficiency I observed is that most of the literature out there on this topic is aimed at a professional athletes. However, my main criticism of just about all the mental toughness training I’ve seen is the emphasis on lame positive affirmations. Telling yourself that you’re a fighting machine over and over again is just a waste of time and gives you a false sense of security. You can say these positive affirmations until you are blue in the face, but once you have to throw down in an octagon, it’s more than likely you will get your teeth kicked in.

Other techniques in the strange world of mental toughness training include self-hypnosis, subliminal training tapes, and for thousands of dollars, you can also try brain wave-altering machines. I’m not making this stuff up; professional athletes will pay mega dollars to try to improve their mental game.
The harsh reality is that there is no easy way and no shortcuts: mental toughness is not for sale. The only way to get mentally tougher is to earn it through sweat equity in the gym and in the school of hard knocks (a.k.a., “life”). Everyone wants to be mentally strong, but very few are prepared to pay the price for it. The second half of this bad news is that you often have to go through some pretty awful shit to earn it too: it won’t be fun and it’s going to hurt. I wish there were an easier path to toughening up your mind, but only through suffering can one truly learn character issues that cannot be taught any other way. To put it in perspective, as scores of philosophers have observed from ancient times, the wisdom gained is well worth it the pain.

CrossFit gets you in shape!

Tips to Help You Incorporate Mental Toughness Training

The good news in all of this reality check is that you don’t have to give up your current bodybuilding workouts. Adding mental aspects to your training can be very easy, and training your mind and body should go hand in hand. The number one factor that will determine whether you will become psychologically stronger is your determination. For me, I didn’t want it — I needed it. If you understand this statement, then you have what it takes.

Tip #1: You Must Believe That Perseverance is a Skill

As with any skill, perseverance can be practiced, honed and strengthened. Think of perseverance as a muscle: the more you work it, the stronger it will get, and if you don’t use it, it will shrivel up. If this all sounds too elusive, think of perseverance as your will. Your will is the transfer of your desire into behavior and it is powerful. A strong will can lead you to accomplish extraordinary things or can get you out of a terrible situation. Through constant testing and practice, you can gain a better connection with your will.

One of the best ways to practice activating your will is by working out. The more determined your will, the less likely it is that you will give up. Get it involved in your workouts as much as possible. For example, if you’re doing bicep curls and struggling with the last reps, instead of feeling “the pump” of your muscles, focus on engaging your will. See how many more reps you can get by mentally willing yourself to do more. It’s a slight distinction from what you already do; however, you should give more credit to your will for doing the hard stuff than to your body parts.

Tip #2: There is a Direct Relationship Between Your Mental Toughness Training in the Gym and Your Personal Life

Too many people separate how they train or what they do in the gym from how they live. They categorize “strength” as only what they can physically do in the gym. They may be very strong in the bench press, but are pushovers in their relationships and professional lives. They may have huge arms, but are mentally fragile. They don’t see the connection with how physical strength training can improve mental power.

With mental fitness training, you should strive to nuture the connection between what you do in the gym and how you live your life. The strength you feel at the gym should carry over to your inner strength when you have a job interview or a blind date. Your confidence should rise across the board and not only after you bench press.

The reverse is true as well – how you handle getting through an awful ordeal in your personal life should bring out the animal in you the next time you have to do a brutal workout. The goal is to have no separation between the activation of your will and whatever situation you face. Your will is blind and indifferent to the circumstances at hand. It does not discriminate between how much mental strength you must draw on to set a bench press PR and what you must do to get out of a life-threatening situation.

Your will responds by doing the same thing for either situation – it will overcome the challenge with aggression and relentless action. This aggression does not mean that you must become high-strung, violent, or frantic. On the contrary, you must be centered, methodical, and able to focus with complete determination. You are on a mission with only one goal – to get out of the mess that you are in.

You need your will to be available and ready to be called upon immediately, anywhere, at any time. You need to train your will not to care who your opponent is, but only how to whip that opponent with fierce tenacity. This is the aggressive mindset you need when you walk onto the playing field and when you walk out to face the unpredictable and cruelest of these games — life.

Tip #3: You Must Learn To Do What Is Uncomfortable For You

To develop a psychological edge, you must develop extreme discipline in order to leave the comfort zone that you train and live in. Delaying immediate satisfaction is the ultimate sacrifice that all warriors must choose. The feeble mind is all about the immature joys of the now and has no regard for the long term. To develop mental hardness, you must learn to do what the weak general population has not. You must deny the temptation of immediate gratification in favor of the rewards of the long haul. To separate yourself from the pack, you must put yourself into an uncomfortable state, and you must do this often, very often.

Going to the gym is one of the best ways to practice. Challenge your tolerance to physical and mental anguish by doing a high intensity anaerobic workout once a week. The best part about high intensity anaerobic workouts is that each set should last less than two minutes. These workouts also give your testosterone levels a boost, so you’ll also build muscle. The down side of high intensity workouts is that you literally learn what it feels like to almost die.

Twenty-rep squats, extended drops sets, and breathing squats are all classic old-school, brutal, anaerobic workouts that many of today’s lazy gym rats avoid. However, if they want something more hip to kick their asses, Crossfit is the newest trend. One of my favorite Crossfit workouts is called Fran. I like the simplicity of this workout because it combines two compound movements into one metabolic session. You load 95 pounds on a barbell and superset barbell squat to an overhead press with pull-ups, completing three sets of 21-, 15-, and 9-rep schemes in the quickest time possible, which means if you want to be an elite bad ass, you won’t have much time to rest. You can get big and ripped by doing this workout, if you survive the extreme breathlessness. If you want to test your perception of being a bad ass, Fran is good place to start.

Champion powerlifter David Hoff knows how to get intense!

Another simple but brutal anaerobic workout is the Litvonvi workout, created by Dan John based on the methods of a Russian hammer thrower. I highly suggest the Litvonvi for those who fear that cardio work will make them lose muscle. Like Fran, with the Litvonvi, you can gain muscle, increase testosterone and HGH production, and earn mental toughness points if you finish. In this workout, you do six reps of heavy front squats followed by a 400-meter run or 100-yard dash. Three sets and that’s it! It sounds easy, but this workout is extremely vicious. My reaction to the first time I did the Litvinov workout was, “God, help me.” It was by far the hardest workout I’ve ever done.
Now if this all sounds too intimidating, six sets of hill sprints is a fine substitute. As long as the anaerobic workout can wreak havoc on you mentally and physically, it has done its job. The good news is that the effect that you’ll feel isn’t all bad. Physically, you should feel spent, but finishing the gruesome workouts should be emotionally fulfilling. You should feel a great sense of accomplishment after reaching the finish, and mental toughness training is accumulative in that each victory builds upon the others.

A strong will is crucial to getting you through these challenging workouts. If you have no connection with your will, you will falter and fail. The fatigue that your body will feel will be excruciating, but remember, just because your body is fatigued does not mean that your mind is tired. Use your mind to will your body to be aggressive and relentless in the face of exhaustion. Learning to be mentally energetic even when your body is weak is a sign of an indomitable will.

Tip #4: Your Own Worst Enemy

As you begin the journey to empower your mind, you will be constantly tested. Your worst enemy will not be your competition; unfortunately, you will be most often be low-balled by your very own self. Your body will look for an escape route for what seems like the unnecessary pain it has to go through. For me, the actual physical pain wasn’t the most daunting part of the training, but the anticipation of it. Hours before the workout, I would be mentally drained from dreading what was to come.
To relieve myself of this self-imposed psychological torture, my mind would begin to procrastinate and look for excuses. I would always come up with logical reasons or rationalizations as to why I should ditch the workout. This process represents a mental chess game between you and yourself, and it is your job to distinguish between truth and lies. What IS true is that mental toughness training is not easy. You are preparing yourself for the worst-case scenario, and the pain you are feeling in the gym is nothing like the cruelties that life offers us. Feel shitty now so you can be stronger tomorrow; this is the stark logic of those in the mentally tough club.

You will need to learn how to identify and defuse many negative thought patterns during your trial of cerebral improvement. Challenge yourself to change the negative thought patterns into positive self-talk. Instead of saying, “I’ve got three more sets to go. I can’t do this,” say “I’m getting mentally stronger. I did five sets so three more will be easy for me.” Learn to reformulate the negativism to something reachable, specific, and with a possible solution. Instead of saying something cynical like “I’ll never find a job again,” change it to something positive like “If I spend two hours on monster.com, I know I should fill out at least five job applications.” Mental toughness is all about your thought process. Your thoughts can make you do what most would consider unconceivable, and this is what this training is all about.

Mental conditioning and discipline in the gym is only half of the process. Just as you need to face down discomfort in your physical tests, you also have to confront emotional stress and fear in your personal life. Make a list of things you have been avoiding or problems that you have a difficult time dealing with. We avoid confronting these issues because of the pain they cause us. However, the more we deny these negative issues, the more they have the potential to destroy us. We sit back and wish they go away, but they don’t. We become passive due to the fear that we overwhelmingly feel. Fear is an emotional response, sometimes irrational and often blown out of proportion, and life is full of disappointments and letdowns. It’s not easy to get over any shattering experience, but with guts and determination, you can get over any painful ordeal. When we don’t get what we want, the consolation is that we gain experience. This doesn’t seem like a worthwhile prize, but the adversity can enlighten you. It may not be obvious, but take a hard look at any negative experience as an opportunity for personal growth. Take in the life lesson and move on.

Facing your fear is a necessary quality to developing mental strength. By facing fear, you will learn courage. Absence of fear is a misconception; fearlessness is not realistic nor does it provide any benefit to becoming a mentally tough beast. Being threatened by fear is the catalyst for you to change, and confronting fear with brave actions is how you get tough. In summary, whether in the gym or in your personal situation, a tough mental stance will pay off in both places. Your goal is to be mentally invincible regardless of where you are.

Your Journey to Mental Toughness

In conclusion, you work hard in the gym to build a better body and become as physically strong as possible. Becoming mentally tough as well can help to sustain all of the work you put into improving your body and your strength, but more importantly, being mentally tough can improve your quality of life as a whole. It is a very challenging adventure but a worthwhile one. Good luck with your journey.

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Tags: Incorporating, Mental, Psychology, Strength, Toughness, Training

When most people think of kettlebells, they usually think of exercises such as swings, snatches, cleans, and jerks, but the kettlebell can be used for a variety of other moves as well. Kettlebells are a great tool for building work capacity, power, strength, and even endurance using a set of classic exercises. Although all of the previously mentioned exercise are examples of quick power movements, it is important to note that most people can simply begin by focusing on building size and strength before working on speed and power (among other goals). Building muscle is a good first step because, as a wise person once told me, “You can’t flex bone.”

To build size and strength, there is probably no better tool than the barbell. The problem is that many people jump right into heavy barbell training without first adequately mastering proper form and movement patterns. For certain movements, the design of the kettlebell actually forces the body into positions that are better suited to learning basic technique using many of the same exercises that are traditionally done with barbells. The right technique will ensure that the targeted muscles are working optimally from both a muscle-building and strength-building standpoint. By mastering good form, lifters will also be able to train longer and harder and avoid injury. As a result, they will make better gains and improve performance more steadily.

There are many different roads to getting big and strong, but I’ve found that using heavy compound movements are the best way to develop size and strength. Variations of the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press are the keys to developing a strong and powerful physique as well as improving performance in both athletic endeavors and strength competitions. The powerlifting moves essentially challenge every muscle in your body because compound movements use multiple joints and work muscle mass throughout the body, thus making them very effective for building size and strength. Novices and advanced athletes alike can benefit from strength work with kettlebells for the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press in order to build strength as well as reinforce good foundational movement patterns.

KB Goblet Squat

The kettlebell goblet squat, popularized by strength Coach Dan John, is a great way to learn how to squat properly. Two of the biggest problem lifters face when squatting is rounding the lower back and allowing the weight to go too far forward. Being able to hold the kettlebell in front of the body in the goblet position helps combat this problem. The goblet squat drill reinforces proper position in both the upper back and the hips. Holding the weight in front makes this movement feel very similar to a front squat or Zercher squat in that the weight pulls the lifter forward and actually produces a more upright posture. If the lifter bends the spine and rounds the back, there is a very good chance s/he will drop the weight or stumble forward. Strength Coach Zach Even Esh refers to this movement as “the kettlebell Zercher squat”and has used it with his high school and college wrestlers for many years as both an introductory exercise before barbell squats as well as in kettlebell conditioning circuits. Using goblet squats, lifters learn to brace their cores and keep their upper backs tight, techniques that are integral in all variations of squatting.

Another common problem during the squat motion is knees that cave in excessively, and the goblet position can help correct this as well. When performing the goblet squat with a narrower stance, the lifter can use his or her elbows to guide the knees out in order stretch the hips and develop proper position of the knees. I have my younger athletes hold the bottom position for a few seconds and use their elbows to actively “pry” open their hips while to learning the proper depth position. Once they understand how to force the knees out, I eliminate the pause in the bottom position, and we then increase the loads to work on strength.

KB Goblet Box Squat

Another squat problem many lifters have is difficulty in “sitting back”, and this is where I like to use a box to help lifters learn to do this properly. It teaches people to really sit back, which engages more of the glutes and hamstrings and makes the squat not just a pure quad movement. This method also ensures proper position of the knees and can help to prevent injuries. If the lifter is having trouble getting down to a proper depth, I have them squat to a higher box at first and continue to work on form in addition to mobility drills to help open up the hips. As the lifter gets stronger and more mobile, the squat depth should improve dramatically.

KB Double Front Squat

Once the lifter can handle some heavier weight in the goblet position, he or she can start to utilize the double kettlebell front squat to build even more strength. In this movement, the lifter can effectively double the working load by using two bells instead of one. For the double front squat, the lifter assumes the rack position with the elbows pulled down and in toward the body. This is a really tough exercise for core as well because there is a lot of weight working to pull the lifter forward and out of position. Resisting that forward pull really teaches the lifter to brace the core and maintain good positioning while performing deep squats, and this is a great exercise for overall leg development and pure strength.

KB Deadlift

Like the squat, the deadlift is one of the most valuable exercises for gains in both strength and size. On the surface, the deadlift is one of the simplest lifts in the sense that the lifter is just picking up a weight from the floor and putting it back down, but it is much more complex than most people give it credit for. It takes a lot of mobility in the hips as well as stability in the spine to execute a proper deadlift. Working with a kettlebell is a great way to introduce beginners to pulling from the floor as the handle is much higher off the ground than a dumbbell, and thus it is much easier to get into proper position.

As with the goblet squat, the handle of the kettlebell makes the weight very easy to grasp and helps to put the lifter in proper position right from the start. The most common form mistake I see with deadlifts is excessive rounding of the back. By using the handle of the kettlebell, lifters can really “pull” themselves down to the ground using their lats, upper back, and hip flexors while keeping the back flat. The guys at Westside barbell refer to this concept as “pulling the slack out of the bar”.
The second biggest mistake I see with beginning deadlifters is that they want to mimic a squatting motion and use too upright a posture–they try to squat the weight up rather than sit back and pull it up. One easy way to help the lifter sit back is to make sure that the body is in a good position at the start. I encourage my athletes to start off with the kettlebell positioned slightly behind them, or at the very least, with the handle of the kettlebell in line with their ankles at the start of the pull. This positioning makes it much more difficult for the lifter to start in a bad position. With the kettlebell slightly behind the lifter, the arms must be held tight to the body, which helps to engage the lats. Also, if the lifter “squats” down, then the arms actually won’t be able to touch the handle until the lifter reaches back.

Having an athlete work with the back to a wall is a great way to correct a “hip hinge” problem. The athlete should face away from the wall (about a foot away or so) and try to get his or her butt to touch the wall by sitting back. Squatting down will cause the lifter to miss the wall, but the lifter will successfully find the wall if he or she pushes the hips back. If form does not improve, then the lifter can try using the elevated KB deadlift as shown below.

Elevated KB Deadlift

If the lifter cannot reach the kettlebell due to a lack of hip mobility (rather than a lack of technique), then the kettlebell can be placed up on boxes until mobility and range of motion improves. This exercise is similar to a block pull or rack pull because it effectively shortens the range of motion, allowing the lifter to stay in good position within the realistic range. Strength Coach Eric Cressey often starts his athletes out on rack pulls at first if he feels they cannot achieve good position while pulling from the floor.

KB Double Deadlift

As with squats, the deadlift load can be increased simply by using two bells instead of one. The lifter will now have to assume a slightly wider stance in order to accommodate the size of the bell. Therefore, this particular lift will be more similar to a sumo deadlift than a conventional deadlift and thus will work the hips a bit more. Using two bells also helps teach a better lockout position as the lifter can get his or her chest up more effectively at lockout than when holding one bell.

KB One Arm Floor Press

For this exercise, the lifter should start in a side-lying position and grasp the handle firmly with the working hand. The free hand should help to guide the working hand into position at the start of the lift. The one-arm kettlebell floor press is a good way to introduce pressing exercises to young lifters and athletes. For more experienced lifters, this movement can also be a great assistance lift that challenges the core and is a little easier on the shoulders than traditional bench pressing. I suggest using one arm for all of the pressing exercises in this article, mainly because the lifter can then use the free hand to help get into better position to lift. As an added benefit, the unbalanced load also works the core muscles and stabilizers a bit more since the lifter is only working on one side of the body and will need to adjust on the free side.

Many new lifters bench press with the elbows out too far, and they often shrug their shoulders up when pressing as well, which puts the shoulder in a vulnerable position. Older lifters who have beat up shoulders may find this kettlebell exercise more comfortable than a dumbbell floor press because it keeps the elbows closer to the body and forces a much harder “elbow tuck”, which is much easier on the shoulders than pressing with the elbows out to the sides. Working with the kettlebell is a lot different than working with a barbell or dumbbell in pressing exercises because the weight sits behind the athlete’s wrist. This weight actually pulls the lifter out of position, so if the elbows flare out too much, he or she will miss the weight or simply have to dump the weight. The kettlebell actually forces a much more “elbows tucked” position than a traditional floor press. The elbow doesn’t necessarily need to be this close to the side in a traditional barbell bench press or floor press, but this exercise helps to teach the concept of “tucking the elbows” in the bottom of a bench press, as seen frequently in modern day powerlifting meets.

The floor press is also a safer option for beginners; if they do miss a weight or get into trouble during the lift, the weight will simply drop to the floor. Once lifters are comfortable with the correct form and set-up for a floor press, they can progress to the one-arm bench press.

One-arm KB Bench Press

As stated previously, using the kettlebell really teaches the lifter to tuck the elbows in an exaggerated fashion, which will help when learning the powerlifting style of bench press in the future. When setting up for both the floor press and the bench press, it is important to keep the shoulder blades pulled down and back to ensure proper stability as well as safety of the shoulder. The other adjustment to look for is to make sure that the lifter maintains proper alignment in the wrist when pressing. The wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints should be in alignment at lockout for both the floor press and the bench press. The weight of the kettlebell on the outside of the wrist helps to achieve this optional lockout position.
The one-arm bench press will feel slightly less stable than the floor press. This movement really forces the lifter to engage the lats, core, and glutes in order to create a stable platform to press from. If the lifter doesn’t create full body tension, he or she will have a very difficult time pressing the unbalanced weight successfully. This is a great variation of the bench press that can be used to get some extra core work in without directly doing any core exercises.

One-Arm Tall Kneeling KB Overhead Press

The overhead press is not as common as the bench press in most gyms, but it is a highly effective movement for developing both size and strength. I personally like to start athletes out in the tall kneeling position when learning this movement because it ensures proper core activation when using larger loads later on. The lifter should get set with both knees on the floor and try to feel “as tall as possible” by bracing the core and squeezing the glutes. These cues teach the lifter how to stabilize the entire body and create the full body tension required to perform a strict overhead press. If the lifter tries to lean back excessively and press the weight forward (rather than press it directly overhead) or begins to bend to the side, he or she will lose balance and miss the lift. Once lifters understand how to brace the core effectively, then they can move to the standing position as shown below.

One-arm KB Overhead Press

A common problem with lifters is that they have trouble mastering the true overhead position. Most people will initially try to press the weight forward (almost like an incline press) rather than directly overhead. Again, having the weight positioned behind the wrist helps to keep the kettlebell in the proper position. Because the weight is behind the lifter’s hand, the kettlebell works to pull the lifter back into proper position. As the lifter presses the weight up, the wrist, hips, knees, and ankles should all line up in a straight line. It is not possible to achieve this position if the lifter doesn’t get the bell overhead.

Just as with the horizontal pressing variation mentioned earlier, the lifter should use the free hand to help “cheat curl” the bell into proper position at the start. (This is the same rack position that the lifter learned earlier in the double front squat except done with one bell). The rack position helps to reinforce the “elbows in” position when performing pressing exercises and is much easier on the shoulders. The elbows should naturally “tuck and flare” just as in a bench press. This means the elbows will be positioned “in” on the way down and will slowly come “out” as the lifter approaches lockout. This should occur with a very fluid pressing motion and will most likely happen naturally without much coaching due to the bell forcing the lifter into good position.

The squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press done with kettlebells are useful exercises that assist the lifter in learning proper movement patterns for the traditional barbell lifts. Because they target nearly every muscle in the body, they are also great exercises to do as warmups before the main movements or as assistance work for both strength and muscle building. I hope you enjoyed this information on kettlebell lifting and that it speeds you on your journey to becoming a bigger and stronger lifter or an athlete who moves and performs better!

Note: All of the movements outlined in this article can be used as assistance exercises for more advanced lifters or as a main movement for beginner and intermediate lifters. This rule isn’t set in stone obviously, but is just a general guideline for readers to follow. In this way, anyone can start incorporating these movements in their own set routines. For the squats and bench press, I would recommend sticking to the 6-12 rep range, and for the deadlift and overhead press I would suggest the 3-8 rep range for strength and muscle building. I have included two sample training templates below so you can see how these exercises could fit into a training routine.

A sample Novice two-day full body program might look like this:

A2) One-arm tall kneeling overhead press A3) Tall kneeling anti-rotation press B2) Assisted chin-ups with band

A sample Intermediate two-day full body program might look like this:

B3) Supine hip flexion with band

Coach John Gaglione is a Sport Performance Specialist out of Long Island New York. An avid strength sport athlete, John also competes in powerliftering and kettlebell strong sport competitions. If you would like to learn more about John you can reach him at www.gaglionestrength.com or e-mail him at gaglionestrength@gmail.com.

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Tags: Enhance, Kettlebells, Strength, Training

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