How To Get Strong, Build Muscle and Lose Fat With Only A Barbell
December 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I had a subscriber ask this question:
“Is it possible to build muscle, nuke fat, achieve peak condition and get maximum hard-body results if I don’t have a power rack and I only have access to a barbell? Not even an Olympic barbell, but one of those old crappy cement filled barbell sets”
I know exactly the weights this guy is talking about. I think most of us grew up with them right? They were basically cement weights covered in plastic, and over time the plastic busted up and the cement started to get busted underneath remember?
I guess I’m showing my age 
Anyways
YES! You can build strength and power with archaic equipment!
You just need someone to show you how. Luckily you met me. And luckily I just read most of Dan John’s awesome “From the Ground Up”.
In this outstanding little ebook Dan John explains the “Rapid Ascent Program”, which contains three workouts:
1. Pull Move
2. Press Move
3. Squat Move
And here’s how you did the program (from his book):
“The program was very simple. First, groups of four boys were given a bar. The bars were weighted from very lightmaybe 25 poundsup to perhaps close to 100 pounds. Each cohort of boys would lift one at a time, put the bar down, then the next boy would lift. The four would constantly move from lifter to watcherthe bar never stopped. The three sets (explained in just a moment) would not take very longin fact, sometimes it was hard to catch your breath in time for your next set.
The repetitions were incredibly simple
* Set Number 1 — 8 repetitions
* Set Number 2 — 6 repetitions
* Third set: 4 repetitions
The goal was simple: once you got all 18 reps (8+6+4), you added weight. If you started with a bar that was excessively light, the succeeding workout, you would be bumped up to the next weight and a stronger group. (Needless to say, actual variations could include making a whole new group with more weight, tooor whatever necessary to make the group work together).”
Sounds simple doesn’t it?
That’s the upside of this program!
You don’t need lots of equipment to build a hard body with muscles of steel… all while increasing your cardiovascular fitness and knocking out fat.
What you DO need is a little “do or die” perspective. You must make your mind up you surely WANT to reach your fitness goals, then you’ll find a way to utilize whatever equipment you have available to make it happen.
I like this program because it keeps up with the DoubleYourGains’ philosophy of training movement patterns instead of a bunch of exercises. The Rapid Ascent program has a press move (military press), a pull move (power clean), a squat move (front squat) and an explosive/hamstring move (power clean).
How to perform the “Rapid Ascent” program for cardio and fat loss:
Coach Dan points out that you could also get a great cardio workout and burn some fat:
“To “hurry up” the trainingas if it was required, there were times when Mr. Freeman advised bringing together the Power Clean and Military Pressesone clean and one press, repeated for a total of eight reps. This was completed with a lighter weight. One could also execute the Front Squats after the clean and presses, too. I have only done this onceand it was an incredible cardiovascular exercise.”
So if you believe you don’t have enough equipment to get into your best shape and reach your fitness goals you are incorrect. You are incorrect. You are incorrect.
As a matter of fact, you don’t even need a barbell. You can be on your way with the DoubleYourGains’ bodyweight program. You can do pullups on your door frame (for extra strong fingers) or just grab the top of a door and go to town (or a tree limb, anything you can hang from, and all that) Believe me, if THAT workout gets easy for you - you will be a certified STUD.
After that, as soon as you get hold of good Olympic barbell set you can start the DoubleYourGains’ 3-5 Program.
Do you know these 3 simple steps to achieve all your goals?
December 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Did you know that the day after labor day and January 2 are two of the most significant days of the year where people set goals?
It’s right.
As a matter of fact, around this time of year you’re almost certainly going to start keep thinking about how you want your life to be like when January comes around. You may kick off setting some goals. You might want to build a hard body with muscles of steel lose weight or get stronger. Doesn’t matter what you’re goal is really
To reach your entire fitness goals and all that, I’m going to share with you 3 simple steps:
Step #1 - A Specific Idea Of Your Goal
This is basically visualizing what you want your life to be like as soon as you reach your goal. Create a vision of yourself reaching your goal and living it and make it as clear as possible in your mind. For a good book on how to get this done you have to look into Maxwell Maltz’s New Psycho-Cybernetics.
After that you are to remain optimistic, no matter what it takes, and HAVE FAITH that you will accomplish your goal(s).
Here’s a speedy imagining tip. I’ll utilize the example of wanting to grow stronger and lifting additional weight for your subsequent exercise routine…
1. Take a deep breath, calm down and close your eyes
2. Think about the last time you successfully lifted a weight
3. Be aware of all the feeling - the pleasure, the achievement, the fulfillment
4. When your performing this correctly you will be laughing at your success
5. Visualize yourself performing your next lift with success and FEEL those same emotions
6. Go perform your lift!
This is the approach the athletic champs imagine for success. Also you can utilize the same process on virtually any goal: becoming stronger, watching your weight, refraining from smoking, making money, whatever…
Step Number 2 — A Plan To Make It
Once you have a clear picture of where you want to go, you need a plan to get there. Then it’s as simple as keeping the objective in mind while following the plan. As George Foreman said about success it comes down to “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan”.
It was effective for Georgey and I expect it will be successful for you too.
Step #3 - Individuals To Keep You Responsible
This is regularly a disregarded step. You surely need some people in your life to keep you in charge. I hear as far as diets go that Weight Watchers is most useful at getting people to go on a diet because every week you have to update a different person how much weight you’ve lost. And if you don’t well you don’t want to be the guy who didn’t lose weight right?
Front Squat With These 7 Reasons
December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I can nearly guarantee you’re not front squatting enough or to some extent. For some reason, you don’t see several gym goers (mostly bodybuilders) utilizing this time-tested training.
Crossfit has gone a long way towards bringing it back (much like Justin Timberlake brought sexy back), but if you’re not doing crossfit - it’s probably not even on your radar.
This is a shame because if you want to get full body strength build awesome quads sculpt rock-hard abs and save your “tweaked” lower back then you’re going to enjoy the front squat.
Here’s 2 reasons why you must front squat for a stronger, bigger, more powerful body that moves, looks, and feels better than ever:
1. Get Enhanced Quads - The front squat is an EXCELLENT movement to get bigger, stronger quads-most likely the greatest workout there is. Since you’re position is more vertical, it highlights the quads more.
2. Get Stronger, More Cut Abs (Core) - Because you’re holding the weight in front of your body, and you must remain upright your entire core gets a great workout trying to stabilize the weight and keep you upright. If you find you’re leaning forward a lot when you back squat, you’ll quickly get stronger and fix this problem if you switch to front squats for a while.
Front squats aren’t just good for building a better looking body either! They’re also really good at just making you more fit and keeping you more healthy. What good is looking strong if you have to sacrifice your health in the process?
Here’s the five additional reasons why you must Front Squat for better physical condition:
1. Makes Your Other Lifts Better - Because the bar is placed ahead of you, on your shoulders, the front squat is enormously like other exercises and strengthens the “base” of those lifts/presses. Power Cleans, Overhead Presses, Overhead Squats, and so on all share the same “starting” position as the front squat. Getting stronger and more comfortable with Front Squats will help you in those exercises as well.
2. Bad Form Gets Self-Corrected - If you’re back squatting with bad form you can complete the exercise at the expense of causing injury to yourself. The good thing about front squats is the form is self correcting: If you’re not straight enough you’ll drop the bar if you’re not holding the bar right you’ll drop it if you don’t keep your elbows up you’ll drop it. It’s an exercise that pretty much forces your form to be good.
3. Less Weight - All in all, if you can challenge your body with less weight (because you’re doing a harder exercise) then it is safer. Because the Front Squat is harder than Back Squats you won’t be able to lift as much weight. Which means less spinal compression.
4. More Natural Spine Position - You’re more upright with the front squat your spine is in a more nonaligned “straight” position. This combined with the fact you’re lifting a reduced amount of weight is better for your spine at the end of the day.
5. Lower Back Approved - Most people have lower back problems and back squats exacerbate these conditions. But because your upper body is usually vertical (instead of leaning forward like in a back squat) there’s a lesser amount of force on your lower back. I started front squatting after I hurt my lower back.
Why You Should Do Spinal Decompressions
December 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Your backbone is perhaps the most essential structure in your body, hence it is critical to take care of it. Your vertebral column get loads of compression from everyday activities, gravity and general life. Plus the added compression you give it with strength training and you better start decompressing it.
Backbone health is really important, and I’m willing to bet that nearly everyone of you have back trouble presently. I myself hurt my lower back more or less a year ago, and this is one of the methods I utilized to regain it to 99% (yet occasionally gets tight or sore). I’ll do a comprehensive post on why you have back trouble and how to correct it soon. Meanwhile, read this without further ado.
What you want to do is follow a simple decompression method that helps to keep your spine healthy and mobile by helping it decompress to its original length.
Here’s all you need to know…
How To Do Spine Decompressions
You’ll need a pull-up bar to do your decompressions. After you have that piece of equipment, there’s two ways to go about this:
1. Take Gravity Boots: This is the technique that I employ. These are boots that you tie onto your ankles and have hooks on them so you can hang upside down from your pullup bar without harm and let your spinal column to decompress. I utilize Teeter Hang Ups Gravity Boots. An additional bonus is that with these boots I can execute reversed sit ups for my abs and other hip “upside down” exercises.
2. Hang With Your Hands: This is easy. Simply hang from your pull-up bar and relax all your muscles-hold it for as long as possible. The longer you hang the better shoot for at least 5 minutes and build up from there. You probably can’t hang that long, so here’s
How To Hang Longer With Your Hands
The longer you hang the better, though your grip will most likely give out. While I would never suggest making use of lifting straps for your usual lifting, I recommend them for decompressions since it will allow you to grip longer. Prefer nylon-type lifting straps or lifting hook straps since they’re extra strong.
How To Loosen Your Muscles So Your Spinal Column Decompresses
Your muscles need to be comfortable in order for your backbone to decompress (staying tight won’t help). Here’s what to do whether you’re utilizing the gravity boots method or the hanging from your hands method:
* Hang off the pull-up bar
* Take a deep breath and sustain it
* Tighten up your whole body (focus on abs, glutes and make fists)
* Keep your whole body tight for 5 secs
* Let it all out, your breath and all the tension. Relax
When you do this you’ll have a feeling your whole body relaxing and you’ll probably “drop” down a little. You’ll most likely sense your back decompressing, remarkably the first few times.
How Frequent You Must Decompress
Daily is best. I must admit, I don’t do it every day consistently. But you really should try to do it as much as possible. If you get bored hanging upside down you can read a book or something. It’s best to do these right after your strength training sessions, right after your cooldown-think of it as a part of your cooldown.
Exercises Build Muscle In Pools
December 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Pools can be a great way to switch up your exercises, but how to these exercises build muscle?
Well, truth is, you won’t build much muscle fast, however, you will improve your ability to build muscle by strengthening your joints, a slight body workout, and also great flexibility.
Joints in your body are used for many different activities and tasks. Strengthening them is important so you can lift more and withstand more during your workouts. In building your joint muscles, you can expect more strength, room for muscle improvement, and fewer injuries.
Swimming is good for your body and a small workout; however, using it in place of main workouts should not be the case. Adding it once a week into your workout is good. If you use it as a regular workout, the cold water will start making your body distribute your fat differently, with more being sent to your skin for warmth. This will cause you to lose muscle tone. Once or twice a week is still a good workout in the pool, and won’t bring any harm to your muscle program and muscle tone.
Flexibility is also worked on in pools. You may get some flexibility training from stretching or working out, however, you will benefit more from swimming. Having good flexibility will help you in lifting weights and exercising.
One last tip about swimming is it makes your heart race and your breathing rate to increase. It gets your body working in a low stress environment, pumping blood and adding oxygen to your blood. This will help in muscle building, providing more oxygen to your muscles, while also cleaning out your system.
Now you know pool exercises build muscle while also giving you better flexibility and joint strength, so incorporate this into your weekly workout and see the results for yourself.