Q: Someone told me that you don’t have to do cardio - that you can just do your workouts fast - especially if they are powerlifing workouts. Is this true? A: I do fast, compound movements for workouts and I shed pounds rapidly. That is the truth and gospel according to me. Now, having said that, I’m not sure that that kind of training is a panacea for all things. In fact, nothing burns fat like real cardio. However, I think what you’re really talking about is rapid training on a regular or semi-regular basis. That is to say, doing pushes, presses, rows and extensions rapidly through a set, then moving to the next exercise station. You can accomplish this by doing 3 x 20 reps in total for workouts. The cool thing about training like this is that ...

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Body building is a very important field of life that many people should think and commit of venturing into. It is an old profession but as the saying goes there is nothing sweet like an old wine and it grows sweeter with ages. Just like other human developments body building has advanced in stages from using the crudest form of exercises and equipments to the current advanced strategies and state of the art machines. Body building has advanced as it is today, using the modern technology, via a series of adaptations by gaining more and more changes per day. A flash back to the old man’s tools show that they had no technology to make body building as easy as it is today. Weight lifts were probably huge stones and other crude forms of exercise instruments. Nowadays, the modern gym has ...

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Still, most people see an acronym and either run, or think, “Here we go with an elementary school lesson!” Automatically, it seems some psychobabble term that a therapist thought of to get you to take steps toward cleaner living. (We all know bodybuilders are not purveyors of cleaner living!) But acronyms are a great way to enact important steps. They may seem sophomoric in their conception, but in fact, they are really great ways to remember important steps in some more important big picture formula. Typically, skipping steps means certain failure in terms of formula, since the formula automatically changes once something alters its path. An acronym helps you to remember each step and take it. In this case, follow each step and you will engage in smart training practices. Okay, so what’s S.M.A.R.T. stand for? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, ...

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Most bodybuilding training involves a fairly straightforward set routine in the gym. You complete a set, you wait 60 to 180 sets, and then you complete another set. This “lift, rest, lift, rest” routine works most of the time. However, as the human body is a highly adaptable organism, over time it does become tougher and tougher to challenge the body into new growth. We can try new exercises, different order of movements, and varying rep ranges. However, after time, even those methods tend to stop delivering results. Because of these limitations, some bodybuilders, many years ago, determined that the basic tenet of the routine, the “lift, rest, lift, rest” pattern could be improved. Instead of completing just a single set, they completed two, three, or four or more sets in a row, AND THEN took ...

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Most bodybuilders follow one of the standard workout routines. They might start the week with chest/triceps day. Next might be back/biceps. Follow that with a shoulder day, then a leg day, and you have the standard workout routine. Follow that workout routine for a few years, and something begins to happen. Think about it. After several years of training chest before triceps (following a rest day) it appears the chest has a lot more resources available for training and growth. It has a full 36-60 hours of complete rest between training. Then it gets to be trained first in the workout. This means triceps are put at a disadvantage. By the time they are trained, you’ve already endured 30 to 45 minutes of intense chest work. Over a period of years, you ...

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Word around the gym is that you and Mr. Smith have been getting awfully cozy lately. You visit him on leg day when you do squats. Then we see you hanging out with him on chest day for incline bench presses. Someone even said they saw you with him on shoulder day while you were completing military presses. I’ve spoken with the gym owner, and he agrees. You need to spend some time apart. You are seriously hampering your own personal development by spending so much time with Mr. Smith. Can you do that? Can you just walk away and train on your own without him? Okay, in case you haven’t caught on yet, Mr. Smith isn’t some suit-wearing, sunglasses-sporting agent from a movie. And he’s not your training partner or ...

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With every muscle group in the body, there are two phases you must sequentially complete in order to fully develop the area: Mass and Detailing. For this article, we will focus upon hitting the triceps, and break down the mass and detailing phases and their movements. There are two phases to making gains when it comes to triceps. The first is mass. Beginner bodybuilders should focus on mass. Period. You shouldn’t even be thinking about “defining your shape” and “bringing out your lines” until you have built up some actual triceps mass. You build triceps mass by completing heavy movements using free weights as your primary tool. Skullcrushers are an excellent mass builder for triceps. Bench dips on parallel benches with a weight on your lap is very useful as well. Close-grip bench ...

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Q:  Every time I finish a heavy leg day, I get weird pressure inside my ‘nads and my sphincter feels like it’s going to drop out in the middle of a set. The last part is really painful at times too.  It’s really worrying me.  The discomfort isn’t exactly mild, and after I’m done training, I don’t feel like doing anything but going home. I’m almost too embarrassed to go to see my doctor about it. I’d rather ask you first. Any ideas? A: So, let me get this straight… You’d rather ask the question in front of several thousand readers, instead of inside an office with one other guy? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You do have to wonder about the logic you’re employing. But I actually do know what you’re saying about a doctor-patient relationship. Sometimes the one on one is the hardest ...

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