Posts Tagged ‘weight lifting’

How to Double the Size of Your Calves

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Swole Fitness Tips

Double Your Calf Size with These Two Simple Tips

Big Calves
Big Calves

Calves tend to be a bodybuilding problem spot. Even Arnold used to worry about the size of his calves in relation to the rest of his body.

Here is a simple tip to double the size of your calves in no time:

Since your calves are made up of two muscle groups, you will need to train your calves in a standing and seated position. Most calf exercises can be tweaked to include straight-knee and bent-knee variations. Use them both.

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How to Train Your Back Muscles

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Swole Fitness Tips

Trying to build a rippling, powerful, V-shaped back?

Trying to max out rear-view sexiness for bikini season?

If you said “Yes!” then you should use these tips for isolating your back muscles when training with pull-ups, pull-downs, and rows.

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Werewolf Training 2: A Weightlifting Routine to Gain Strength

Thursday, December 31st, 2009


Werewolf Training
Werewolf Training

Gain Strength

Originally posted: 12/31/09
Updated: 1/20/10 (update rest time on HIRT circuits, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs)

This training routine is designed for you to gain strength. That’s it.

So you have already been through two or three Werewolf Training for Muscle Gain cycles. You gained 5-10 pounds of muscle in that time and you got a little stronger. You are psyched about your progress but you’re a little bored with the program.

It is time to change up your training a little bit, but you know you can’t jump right into a strict fat loss phase, or you risk losing most of your new muscle. What to do? What to do?

Use this menu to skip to:

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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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Werewolf Training: A Weightlifting Routine to Gain Muscle

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009


Werewolf Training
Werewolf Training

Gain Muscle

Originally posted: 11/27/09
Updated: 12/15/09 (routine updates), 12/21/09 (supplements), 12/28/09 (recovery and other minor updates), 12/31/09 (minor updates), 1/12/10 (added shrugs to day 13, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs)

This training routine is designed for you to gain muscle. That’s it.

If you’ve come here to lose fat or to learn how to bench 700 lbs, you are better off reading Werewolf Training for Strength Gains. Although, truth to tell, you will probably get significantly stronger following this program.

Use this menu to skip to:

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Conditioning Workouts Do Not Affect Strength Gains

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Need another reason to add either HIIT or HIRT into your workout routine?

A university study has concluded that a combination of cross training and strength training produces the same strength adaptations as strength training alone, while also eliciting the wonderful benefits of cardiovascular conditioning.

Conditioning
Conditioning

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Is There an Age Limit for Weight Lifting?

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
Your Questions
Your Questions

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.

Russel wrote:

“Is there an age limit to starting to do body building or can you start at any age?”

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The Top 5 Best Biceps Exercises

Friday, December 19th, 2008
Arnold Biceps
Arnold Biceps

Biceps. The ultimate show muscle. From age 10 on, every boy, teenager, and man want to have bulging biceps. This is, apparently, a true sign of manliness and strength.

Biceps are among the most famous muscles in the body. When somebody asks you to “make a muscle” or “flex”, they aren’t asking you to flex your hamstrings. They want to see your biceps!

This whole notion of flexing the biceps as a measure of anything, is completely ludicrous to me, but it is a reality. When someone asks me to flex, I ask them if they’d much rather discuss max effort PRs, perhaps dynamic powerlifting strategies, or better yet how to put together the most effective HIIT complexes. Most folks walk away thus. But I digress…

How to Get Big Ass Arms

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The 8 Worst Reasons to Lift Weights

Monday, November 24th, 2008

There are at least 100 good reasons to lift weights. Fat loss, muscle gain, sports specific training, powerlifting, general fat loss, and so much more. These are all great reasons to start weight training.

Have you ever thought there might be some bad reasons to lift weights? I was contemplating this while watching the New England Patriots stomp the Miami Dolphins yesterday, and I decided that the following 8 reasons to lift are probably ill conceived for the most part. What do you think?

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The Top 5 Best Back Exercises

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Arnold T-bar Row
Arnold T-Bar Row

Nothing is more impressive than being able to bang out 30 pull ups in a row or finishing a set of 10 with 90 lbs hanging from a belt. Nothing LOOKS more impressive than being able to hit an impressive front or rear lat spread with confidence. Furthermore, how many women do you know that can finish a set of 10 pull ups? Trust me, there aren’t many.

The reality is that we can accomplish all of these things with intense free weight back training.

Your back muscles comprise the second largest set of muscles, after the legs. Therefore, putting some serious effort into training your back will pay off huge dividends whether you are looking to burn a large number of calories, better fill out your shirts, condition your body for functional strength, or even to fix your posture from focusing too long on chest training.

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