Lately I’ve been addicted to the Mojave Rattler Low Carb Venom energy drink. I must have purchased about 5 of these things in the last 7 days.
Manufactured by the well-known Dr. Pepper/7-UP Inc., I had initially heard the commercial for this drink on the radio station, WAAF in Boston, maybe 4 or 5 times in the last month. Heard it a couple days in a row and thought to myself, “Venom eh? Sounds like it could be powerful. If I see that stuff in the store I’ll try some.”
So I walk into my local convenience store the other day and there it is at the front of the energy drink section: “VENOM ENERGY: Piercing Energy that Strikes Back”! Score.
Presentation A+
The best part of this drink is the can.
The first thing you see is a big purple angry snake eye surrounded by scales. Above the eye you see Mojave Ratter, and below the eye is the word VENOM printed all spooky to look like fangs.
The can itself is really hard and could probably be used as a small missile. I would feel like a tough guy walking around in public with it, and I would feel safe if I had one during a mugging as it could render some serious damage on my attacker’s cranium.
If you are looking for a pure protein powder, check out Optimum Nutrition. Optimum Nutrition protein powder comes in about 20 different flavors, and is available in 1 lb, 2 lb, 5 lb, and 10 lb containers.
Here are a couple recipes that I’ve been using either for breakfast or for a post workout meal.
Keep the portions small and limit the fats for a tasty, low calorie, high protein meal replacement. The Good Morning Protein Shake is good for as small meal or a snack.
Crank up the healthy fats from flax oil and peanut butter if you are a skinny person trying to bulk up. Drink a couple of these The Good Morning Weight Gainer Shakes a day to really pack on the pounds, but you best be lifting HARD or you will get fat.
Meet halfway in the middle to blend yourself a super healthy, moderate calorie protein shake. Perfect for replacing a whole meal whether you are dieting or just trying to eat healthy. You can choose The Good Morning Peanut Butter Cup or The Good Morning with Flax.
Be sure to add in the cinnamon, since cinnamon helps regulate your blood sugar.
I sure am sorry to hear about Michael Jackson’s death.
I have several of his albums and grew up with Thriller on MTV. Sorry to say I missed out on that whole Jackson 5 scene, but solo Michael was groundbreaking music and his dancing was stupendous. After all, he gave us The Moonwalk!
No matter what you think about Michael Jackson’s controversial personal life, you have to admit that he truly was a good man, especially earlier in his career. He honestly cared about the well-being of children.
So what is the best strategy for flipping tires? Do you deadlift the tire? Is it more of a push? How do you use your legs? How do you position your arms?
I can’t put it any better than Josh puts it in this instructional tire flipping video:
This is what happens when you train your ass off and get real good at flipping tires: a 600 pound tire flip:
I personally am not too sure if I could even move that thing, never mind flip it.
This dude Hannibal (no relation to Lecter) does some pretty sick moves on the bars. There are bunch of videos like this on YouTube, but this one is short and sweet.
Insulin can be a touchy subject when it comes to fat loss, muscle growth, and weight training. It is extremely important that we understand the role of insulin in the body and how the foods we eat affect our health and physiques.
What is Insulin?
First, we must define what insulin is:
Insulin in a peptide hormone composed of 51 amino acid residues, which is produced by the beta cells of the pancreas and released when any of the several stimuli is detected. These stimuli include ingested protein and glucose in the blood, produced from digested food. Insulin has expansive effects on metabolism and other bodily systems.
What Insulin Does in the Body
Let us look at what insulin does when it is present in the body.
When present, insulin causes the uptake of blood sugar (glucose) by the vast majority of bodily cells. These cells include muscle, fatty tissue, and liver cells.
Insulin is primarily responsible for storing glucose as glycogen in the liver and muscles. When insulin is at high concentrations in the body, it prevents the use of fat as an energy source.
Thank you to Amy, the winner of the Zola Acai juice giveaway for her unique Naughty and Nice Oatmeal Acai Cookie recipe that combines some of the healthiest muscle building foods on the planet. (I will contact you shortly about shipping information for your Zola products.)
Anyway, this already seems like a sweet recipe, but I went ahead and Swoled up her recipe to include protein fortified Oatmeal cookies.
You are trying to lose fat and you want that adipose tissue to just melt off your body.
Option #1 is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which uses both anaerobic training to build muscle and elevate the metabolism, and aerobic training to burn fat and increase cardiovascular endurance. This is the option I typically recommend. However, some people are either not able to, or not willing to, even attempt HIIT training.
This then leads us to option #2: cardiovascular endurance training. While I don’t recommend it, I know people will do it, so here’s how to do it right…
I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.
Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.
From now on I want to take a more proactive approach to answering Your Health Questions by posting them separately in the blog. This way we can be sure that everyone benefits from the Q & A.
Atreyuh wrote:
“Hi Steve,
You have given others such wonderful advice and I was wondering if you could do the same for me.
I am a 5’9″ male weighing approximately 159 right now (use to weigh 168). At 168 I was very muscular but not very lean.
My goal has been to drop bodyfat and get ripped. I have been running alot lately but still lifting heavy. I have lost strength but have slimmed down alot as well.
I am currently consuming around 1500 calories a day, 100 grams carbs, 170 protein, and 50 fat.
My goal is to be shredded or at 7% bodyfat. Am I approaching this the right way? I know diet is 80% of the game.”
… and now for your viewing pleasure I am honored to present you with the Cat Workout website.
Cat Workout is a place where you can learn how to exercise with your kitty, provided your kitty doesn’t make you into a human fish fillet when you wrangle him for a set of cat lunges.
It’s not as much fun as LOL Cats and the exercises on the site are about as useful as a 10,000 lb dumbbell, but I do enjoy cats so maybe you will have a laugh if you enjoy cats too.
If you are someone who trains for a month then takes a week off because life gets busy, you are just like me.
If you are someone who normally trains 4 days a week and then can only get in the gym once in a 9 day stretch because life gets busy, you are just like me.
And like you, I put together than occasional plan to commit for a solid 3 months, eat right, train 4-5 times a week, and make some real progress.
We are not lazy, we just get busy or have to deal with family situations. Right?
Excuses, excuses…
Lazy Man – This is not me and it better not be you!
Since the late 1990’s Dr. John Berardi has published 8 scientific abstracts; 15 scientific papers and textbook chapters; presented at nearly 50 scientific, exercise, and nutrition related conferences; and published countless articles online.
His first articles at Testosterone Magazine so many years ago, provided me with the basis for everything I know about nutrition today. Now I will turn some of that knowledge over to you in the form of Nutrition Tips written by Dr. Berardi himself.
I am extending the Zola Acai giveaway contest through the end of today.
This is your last day to get in on it.
You could win 7 free bottles of Zola acai juice and smoothies, a t-shirt, and a Zola acai bracelet, which is actually kind of cool, especially since the proceeds go to a good cause.
Read about the contest at the Zola Acai Juice contest page, and sign up before midnight EST on June 1st 2009.
