GHR FOR THE POSTERIOR CHAIN DEFICIENT

 The GHR is one of the best, if not the best, Hamstring movements you can perform. Problem is, they are harder than shit to do and ALOT of people just cant do them. Ive had people come in and tell me that their Hamstrings are very strong, only to shrivel up on the very first rep. Whether someone is strong enough to do them or not, I feel that they should somehow be doing them anyway. Heres my solution.

By placing my GHD in front of the Functional Trainer, I was able to use it to assist in the movement and make up for any lack of strength my client may have. If you dont have a cable machine, this can also be done with strength bands. So give it a try, whether its for you or the people you train, it shouldnt be left out of a routine simply because someones not strong enough (yet). Enjoy!  

JUST A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE LADIES




Well, now thit ize gotcho tention, read my main mans blog entry!

    I need to help spread some truth! The truth about women training with weights. There is so much confusion about women getting "too big" that it blows me away sometimes, and to be honest, I have no clue where this fear comes from. The only thing I can think of is that one day, a woman saw a female bodybuilder in a magazine and said "I dont wanna look like that!" and BOOM, that spread like crazy. Hopefully after reading this, you will see that there is nothing to be afraid of and you can stop holding yourself back from having a great looking and very functional body.

  Whenever this subject comes up, I always ask the person to bring in a picture of what they consider "too big". For one, what they consider "too big" could be totally different than my view of it. And two, what they are calling "too big" might not be a size issue at all, and they are mistaking super lean for super sized. You see, the women in the magazines look alot bigger when they are in competition shape. The low level of bodyfat they carry at that time shows every detail of their muscles and it makes them look huge, but its all an illusion. The women some call "too big" average about 130 pounds, which is probably lighter than most of their accusers.

  And what about the scary faces you say? Well, there are reasons for that also, and almost all women dont need to worry about those either. Some of the women bodybuilders are so lean during a contest that if they tried to stay that way, they would die. I dont think anyone could take a good picure in that state. The crazy looking rub on tan doesnt help the way they look either. Then there are the steroid abusers. Those are the ones that look very masculine and somewhat deformed. So unless youre doing the things mentioned above, you have nothing to worry about. Check out the pictures below and you can see the difference between women in contest shape and normal, everyday condition. By the way, finding pictures of offseason bodybuilders is not easy!

As you can see, the difference is huge. The funny thing is, she's about 30 pounds heavier in the pictures on the right! Here is another example.

  

 

  Again, huge difference. Their face, their arms, their legs and their shoulders all look completely different. Now, the next picture is probably what most women are afraid of. Its a picture of the second example above standing next to a steroid abuser in contest shape. The two women above do take steroids, make no mistake about that, but nothing compared to the woman below. Unless you are doing crazy amounts of muscle building drugs and are so lean that you have one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana peel, you will never look like that.                                                                                                                                                      

  Hopefully now you have a better understanding of why some bodybuilders look the way that they do. Now on to you! Women for the most part are not capable of building really big muscles without drugs (steroids). They dont produce anywhere near the amount of testosterone that men do and that will limit the amount of muscle that can be built. Where the muscles attatch to the bones make a huge difference in how big a muscle will look also. If a woman had the genetics to get "too big" unintentionally, she would probably look great already, without ever working out once in her life. She would also have a good chance of making a career out of it if she chose to.

  When men build up a good amount of muscle, 99.999 percent of women find that attractive. There is a point though, when the muscles get too big, that most women find them very unattractive. Thats usually a result of steroid abuse but up to that point, most women find them pleasing to look at. The same goes for women. They look great when they have built up a good amount of natural looking muscle. Most women will tell you they just want to be "toned", but what they dont understand is that they have to build the muscle before they can tone it. Plus, your muscles are what give you your overall shape. If you skip the muscle building phase and go straight to leaning out on an Eliptical or some other snooze-fest machine, youre gonna end up with a body that some, including myself, call "skinny-fat". Trust me when I tell you that you will not be happy with that body type.

  Below are some comparison pictures of men and women who compete in the same sports. You would not train a woman any different than you would train a man for a sport they both do. Pretty much all drills, conditioning and strength training would be identical. Plus, some of the women even get punched in the face and still look great!



MMA fighter, Vitor Belfort

MMA fighter, Michele Gutierrez

MMA fighter, Ryan Bader

MMA fighter, Miesha Tate

Tennis player, Rafael Nadal

Tennis player, Caroline Wozniacki



Boxer, Evander Holyfield



Boxer, Mia St. John

Male Pole Vaulter

Female Pole Vaulter

 So next time you go to the gym, get yourself under some real weight and work with some real intensity. I say if a woman trains like a linebacker, she will end up with the body of a fitness model. Not only will you get stronger and do all your daily activities with greater ease, you will start to notice that your body is taking on some very nice feminine curves. And over time, when youve built the body of your dreams, you will also notice that your face is still as pretty as it was when you started!

THE END

  

GYM UPDATE

Finally, my search for equipment is over! After close to two years of constantly hunting down equipment and shotgunning trips all over the state, Im satisfied with my current setup. I have all of the equipment that I wanted when I started this whole thing and its a good thing, because I am all out of room in here! So if youre reading this and are a little curious about my place, feel free to get ahold of me and stop by. Id be more than happy to sit and chat with you a bit.

A NEW TAKE ON BICEP CURLS

  Direct arm training or no direct arm training? Ask ten different coaches or trainers and you're gonna get different answers, most of which now a days are gonna say arm training is unnecessary. With everybody jumping on the "Functional only, No Isolation" bandwagon, lots of useful training tools are being kicked to the curb, and it's kinda stupid really. I too almost fell for that way of thinking and spent a good while without doing any direct arm training at all till something happened, MY ARMS GOT SMALLER!

  My issue with arms, and I'm sure I'm gonna raise some eyebrows with what I'm gonna say next, is that I'm 36 years old and Mexican. And like 99 percent of Mexicans, I naturally have long, smooth looking, undefined arms (Hey, somebody has to be unafraid to speak the truth!), and if I dont do the work to keep size on them, they deflate in a hurry. I personally, and others that are like me physically, need direct arm work if we want to put or keep any size on them at all. CASE CLOSED!

  With me being the type of person that gets bored very fast and a brain that wont ever shut the hell up, I've always messed around with different things and experimented. Since I trained at home most of the time, I was able to do and try all kinds wacky things without anyone looking at me funny or thinking I was an idiot. Over time, if you try enough things, you come across movements that are really effective, so here are a couple Bicep movements I've come up with over the years. I'm not gonna say I invented them and give them names or anything, but I've never seen them done anywhere else. Hopefully you can find a place in your routine for them.



                                      

  This movement was inspired by all the people I've seen doing curls standing on a Bozu Ball. They are always using tiny dumbbells and really fighting to stay on that thing. Its pretty clear that they really arent getting anything accomplished and its probably not a coincidence that they are always either very skinny or overweight. What I really like about this movement is that its trying to throw you around so you get great stability work, but you dont have to worry about falling off of anything because your feet are where theyre supposed to be, on the ground. And I'm sure I dont need to go into the benefits of doing it with a Fat Bar. Next!

  This is a variation of a Hammer Curl I use sometimes. As you go through the movement, the bar swings and adds a good amount of tension at the top. The work you get is alot different than with standard Hammer Curls. Also, if you dont have handles off of a Functional Trainer, towels work just as well. Next!



  OK, now this is where it gets a little crazy, but hear me out on this one. I came up with this movement to work the secondary function of the Bicep, which is to supinate (Face palms upward) the Wrist. This movement has a very unique feel in the Biceps and needs to be tried to know what Im talking about. You set it up by adding no more than 10 extra pounds on the side of the dumbbell that is next to the pinky. You start the movement at the bottom with a neutral grip and supinate your Wrist through the movement. A big key to feeling this is to put alot of the work on the pinky side of the hand, especially at the top, as if youre bending a guitar string. Like i said, it sounds crazy, but you gotta try it for yourself.

  Hopefully you can use the movements I just showed and find a good place for them in your training. If all youre training for is athletic performance, then yeah, you could skip arm training all together and be just fine, but bigger arms are rarely a bad thing. And if some Crossfit or Functional Training dude ever hassle you about training arms, just ignore them and walk away. The truth is that everybody is different, and if youre like me, and someone pissed in your gene pool where arms are concerned, then you need to train them and be aggresive about it. Its a hell of alot better to be critcized for doing what you know you should be doing than to be criticized for having puny arms. Now go get your guns!

J.D. HORROR IS PUTTING ON THE HURT

  I am overly stoked to say that my friend and Juggernaut regular J.D. Horror is now co-main eventing shows! The guy put in his work and shot through the ranks in about a years time. That is what happens when you get after it and kick ass!
  And to those of you who might dismiss it because "Its only Pro Wrestling", I personally will pay for your lesson (As long as I can watch and laugh!) at their academy. Those guys bust their asses and put their safety on the line for YOUR entertainment, and they deserve a ton of respect for their hard work and guts.

FOR A HEALTHIER TUNA SANDWICH,.........

  Ok, I'll make this short so you can get on with your day. Tuna is a great food to have around because of its nutrition, convenience and price. The thing is, the easiest way to make it is to whip it together with Mayo, and I'm sure there are lots of people who are on very strict diets that are totally against that. And with the holidays coming up real soon, most people are gonna be eating way more than they usually do, so Mayo on top of all that is probably gonna get a big "red light" by many.

  I personally love Tuna for all the reasons I listed above, but to make it even more healthy............................

I use Hummus instead of Mayo. My favorite is the Sabra brand with Pine Nuts. I just mix this with a can of Tuna, add a bit of Olive Oil and some pepper. It is far better for you and even tastes better than when made with Mayo. Also, if you have cats, give them the water that you drain from the Tuna can. They go batshit-crazy over that stuff and you wont be able to open a can of anything without them swarming your legs once they taste it! Ok, Im rambling now.
  Make this, youll love it. Tell your friends. Im out!

WORK HARD TO PLAY HARDER (AND DONT SAY STUPID SHIT!)

NO, NO, NO! YOU LOOK GREAT AND ALL, BUT YOURE WORKING WAY TOO HARD!

  Early this morning, someone said something to me that I've heard lots of times before, but never gave much thought to at all. It has sorta become a figure of speech that people throw around quite a bit, which is probably why I never gave it a second thought. It was just a quick interaction with the person, and when we parted ways, they said, "Dont work too hard". Well, as soon as they said that, I came back with the automatic response I've had to that saying for years. I simply told him, almost without even thinking, "I hope I do".
  After I said that, I thought to myself, "Why do I say that every single time someone tells me not to work too hard? What am I, a freakin programmed robot?"(In my head, I didnt say freakin!). But after thinking about it for a minute, the answer to my own question was an easy one. I enjoy working hard, I'm used to working hard and I always have worked hard. Anybody that has known me for a while will tell you the same thing about me. So for someone to say, "Dont work too hard", I just dont get it and I really dont care to.

HEY, LOOKS LIKE SOMEBODYS BEEN WORKING A LITTLE TOO HARD!

  What does that even mean since "too" anything is all subjective? Im sure there are people who could never match everything I do in a months time. It just wouldnt even be possible for them. Does that mean I do too much? I dont think so. Im also sure there are people out there with amazing work ethic and recuperative abilities that would grind me down to nothing if I tried to shadow them. Are they doing too much? Again, nope!
  Im not saying you shouldnt have some down time or recharge your battery at all. There should always be time for that. And if youre a retired person and worked hard all your life, then yeah, relax because you deserve it. Or if youre a business owner who clawed your way to success and now have people to do the hard stuff, then have them do it because you deserve a breather also.
  Now if youre someone who hasnt reached all the goals you've set for yourself, then you can never work too hard. Its also quite possible that youre not working hard enough. The truth is that everybody wants to be "The Man", but very few are willing to work for it. Is that you? I really hope not.

DUDE, WHAT THE HELL DID I TELL YOU? DONT WORK TOO HARD!

  Heres the bottom line, there is nothing that hard work will not have a positive influence on. If you like fishing, bust your ass and buy youself a boat. If you wanna be a great musician, sit in your room for hours everyday and practice. And if youre an athlete, the harder you work in the gym and during practice, the harder and better you can play your sport. 

THERE YOU GO, NOW YOU'RE GETTING IT!

  In the end, when you've kicked ass and left your mark on whatever it is you do, there will not be one person walking around saying that you worked too hard. So work hard, and that will allow you to play even harder, its that simple!