Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

Evasive Maneuvers to Battle the Avalanche of Holiday Sweets

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
Josie Maurer
Josie Maurer

Josie Maurer of YumYucky.com writes today’s guest post. Josie is a woman who eats and then talks about it. She and her “Greedy Taste Testers” tell us all about the different kinds of foods they eat in an attempt to find a way of life that balances fitness and a taste for great cuisine.

Josie wants you to ditch the weight loss gimmicks, deprivation of so-called “forbidden foods”, and severe calorie deprivation, in favor of Moderation, Discipline, Portion Control, and Commitment to exercising and eating healthy.

Visit Yum Yucky or Connect with Josie on Twitter.

The Battle of the (Belly) Bulge

So you’ve been cruising along smooth with your food-eating under control. You’re losing weight and building muscle, and when you glance in the mirror you can’t help but to notice your sexy swagger. But then it happens. A sugary avalanche starts rolling your way and it’s camouflaged real pretty as holiday eating.

How do you escape that office party complete with cookies, cakes and dainty candies? What happens when your neighbor shoves a 5-pound gift can of chocolates into your claws? All this holiday fanfare can obviously threaten to undo your good fitness deeds, so check out these warning signs:

Your heart rate begins to escalate. Sweat droplets of temptation bead across the forehead as your top lip begins to quiver. Your breathing becomes labored and your taste buds salivate with sugary desire…

How are you going to weasel your way out of this one? Do you just cave and eat the damn food, or do you squirm under pressure and tell yourself “no way!” before you eat the damn food anyway?
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Men Have a Distorted View of What Women Find Attractive

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Attention men! This just in: you don’t need to gain 30 pounds of muscle in order for women to find you attractive.

Women Swooning

I found this post from back in the year 2000 about a Harvard study in which college-aged men were asked to pick their ideal body from a group of images. Most men chose the body with 30 pounds more muscle mass than what they currently had.

A group of college females were then asked to choose which of the body images they were most attracted to. The majority of the women picked a body with 15-30 pounds less muscle than the men picked.

What a conundrum!
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The Ultimate Goal: Training Longevity

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
Josh Hanagarne
Josh Hanagarne

Today’s new Swole Content is a guest post by Josh Hanagarne, the World’s Strongest Librarian. Please visit him on his blog where he talks about books, strength training, his fight with Tourette’s Syndrome, and much more.

How to Train for YOUR Future

We hear about weight training goals all the time.

  • I want more muscle.
  • I want less fat.
  • I want to look good naked.
  • I want to deadlift more.
  • I want to bench press 500 pounds.

What about training goals that will actually matter when you spot your first gray hair or when you buy your first pair of bifocals? Granted fat loss is always a concern as you age, but what can we, as dedicated strength athletes, focus on NOW that will help us stay healthy as the years tick by?

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Down Syndrome Kid Scores a Touchdown

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Today’s post can be filed away in the there-is-hope-for-humanity category.

A 17 year old high school student named Ike Ditzenberger has down syndrome. He also plays on the varsity football team.

In late September, the Lake Stevens Vikings were crushing the Snohomish Panthers 35-0 with 10 seconds left in the game. That’s when the Panthers ran their top secret play, The Ike Special.

Ike took the hand off from the Panthers quarterback and proceeded to run 51 yards for a touchdown as the clock expired. Vikings players definitely took the end of that play off, but in this case it mattered way more to everyone on that field for little Ike to score 6 points, than to tackle the poor guy to salvage a shutout.

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The Vikings ended up winning 35-6 and now have a 4-0 record in 2010, but Ike Ditzenberger and his family have a memory they will treasure for the rest of their lives.

And in Pro Football News…

If Ike’s story doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy, then I’ll leave you with this:

The New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins 41-14 last night in Miami on prime time Monday Night Football! Special teams rocked the house for the Pats. How sweet it is.

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How to Stay Motivated to Train

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The best way I have found to stay motivated to train, is to keep track of my stats.

Here are some statistics you can use to measure your progress at the gym:

Motivation
Motivation
  • Pictures of your body.
  • Videos of you posing or training.
  • Measurements using a tape measure:
    • Neck
    • Shoulders
    • Chest/Back
    • Arms
    • Waist at belt level
    • Waist at belly button
    • Hips
    • Quads
    • Hamstrings
    • Calves
  • (more…)

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Weightlifting Tool to Calculate Your 1 Rep Max

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

1 Rep Max Calculator

I had published this post once before, but recently a couple people have asked for such a tool, so I’m busting it out again for all the new Project Swole readers.

There are many strength training programs that involve calculating your 1 rm or 1 repetition maximum. Some programs want you to use a % of your 1 rm, which is sometimes even harder to calculate.

1 Rep Max Calculator
Calculate Your 1 Rep Max

Most of us do not how how to figure out this number without performing the actual rep itself. Use this easy calculator to get a basic idea of how much weight you can lift once.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger Motivational Video

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

The Austrian Oak was the man. If you are feeling lazy you should watch this. It will either depress you or make you go squat 500 lbs.

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What do you think about Arnold?

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YouTube Video: Freestyling on Bars

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

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.

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Swole in Two Months

Monday, June 8th, 2009

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
Lazy Man – This is not me and it better not be you!

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Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Workout for X-Men Origins

Friday, May 15th, 2009

I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine last weekend and it was great. Many a-hole fanboys will hate on this movie because it doesn’t stay 100% true to the comic book origin of Wolverine or Deadpool, but those guys should just go see Star Trek or something, because Wolverine was just awesome.

Hugh Jackman: Wolverine
Hugh Jackman: Wolverine

Standing at 6’3, Hugh Jackman is looking pretty large and jacked these days and I was curious about what he did to prep for the Wolverine role. Here is what I could find out about Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Workout.

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