I couldn’t believe this when I saw it. About as useful as EMS and slightly less comical than the Shake Weight. Now you can spend $100 a month for a membership to a Virbrational Training studio, where you undergo EMF (electric and magnetic field) treatments. Yes, the same EMF that has been widely reported for decades to be linked to such unhealthy effects as perturbed sleep patterns, altered heart rhythms, and cancer. Think: powerlines, building wiring, microwaves, appliances, and cell phones.
But, what the heck, why not bring back an out-dated fat-loss philosophy from back in the 70’s and 80’s. Remember those vibrational fat loss machines? I’ve met a handful of women who remember standing around in these things at the gym, waiting for their butt-fat to vibrate away into oblivion. Have you see any of these machines in the last 20 years? No? Think there could be a reason for that?
As is the standard with American culture, where we are always looking for greater returns for lesser effort, this is another Less-Time – Less-Effort weight loss / muscle gain strategy. They advertise “10 Minutes = 1 hour at the gym” using “NASA Technology” and an “FDA Approved Medical Device”. Most of the studies conducted involve short treatments, often 10 minutes, once or twice a day. The site and its supporting “research articles” are full of “might”s, “could”s, and “may”s, which is always reassuring.
Do you want to gain mass super fast while staying lean enough to show off your 6-pack abs?
If so, then this Three Step Muscle Gain Plan is for you!
How to Gain More Muscle Fast!
More often than not we see supplements focused on helping people, usually, women, lose weight. But men desire to be healthy and fit just like women, and some men also strive to become big, strong, fast, and powerful.
To that end I want to introduce a potent combination of supplements designed to maximize muscle building and maintain a low level of body fat.
Now I would like to introduce you to N.O. Xplode, Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass, and Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein.
The combination of N.O. and whey protein will help you get the strong, powerful, lean, healthy body that you dream of. Hardgainers can choose the whey protein weight gainer Serious Mass, while mesomorphs and ectomorphs can opt for straight whey protein powder, which has fewer overall calories and carbs.
I have always been a big supporter of eating breakfast and eating frequent, small meals all day long. Both for fat loss and for muscle gain. That is, until a year ago when I started investigating Intermittent Fasting and Martin Berkhan’s Leangains protocol, Jon Pearlstone’s EET, and the ‘Eat. Stop. Eat.’ plan.
Since I started believing in the Intermittent Fasting hype, I have learned so much more about the benefits of IF, and I use the strategy pretty much every day. It is unusual for me to eat before noon or 1pm, and my most productive time of day is pre-meal.
Aside from IF and sporadic gym training, I’m not actively trying to lose weight, yet I’ve lost about 15 pounds in the last year while keeping my strength level. I haven’t decided whether or not IF is best for muscle gain, but you can’t beat it for fat loss.
Here are some links you can check out for more info about Intermittent Fasting:
Willpower is not enough. Food is what fuels your training and performance. Athletes make eating meals a conscious process, and they put knowledge of nutrition and planning into it.
I have found that performance outcomes can differ by seconds, which means the right muscle didn’t get the right fuel. Every bite that you eat counts. In working with athletes and their nutrition needs, I’ve found a few simple rules that help you keep food as fuel at the forefront of your mind and help ensure that you get the proteins, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals and fluids.
The growing health issues like heart issues and obesity can be curbed by keeping your body fit through daily and proper exercises. Getting into a habit of regular exercise can lead you good health and increase your energy levels. It also alleviates your stress level to a large extent keeping you fit and fine.
Ironically, despite all the importance, exercises are still not considered as a must activity in daily schedule since people find it hard and boring. Regardless of the hard and easy thing you see in the exercises, putting into its proper habit is important rather than doing it haphazardly. There are couples of benefits of having a daily exercise schedule. Let’s explore them.
If you’re hosting a Halloween party this year, chances are, you’re serving your guests a few Halloween inspired treats. Typically, the quality of the appetizers gets sacrificed in the name of this fun filled holiday. Why not try something different this year, and opt for a healthier, more refined gourmet foods hors d’oeuvres table.
With domestic prices on gourmet goods at an all time low, you can achieve this without breaking the bank and with these tips, you won’t have to worry about having to skip on any the fun ghoul and goblin spooky flair. Instead of the endless amount of sugar cookies caked with sugar and frosting, why not invite your guests to partake in delicious puff pastries or blinis topped with crème fraîche and orange Salmon roe and black caviar to look like pumpkins. This way, your guests will feel guilt free because they are eating a high protein snack, rather than a fatty cookie.
Keeping with your Halloween gourmet theme, substitute your bagged chips for tasty Crescent Moon inspired toast topped with sour cream or a low fat aioli spread and then topped with black caviar. The caviar will give your moons just the right amount of that Halloween feel.
Nowadays, it seems everyone is after a toned midsection. Some people won’t even stop until they achieve shredded washboard abs. A six pack has come to be an important quest for many persons, however, many are misled as to the method to obtain it.
One common misconception is that cardiovascular exercise is the most important aspect of dialing in a six pack. Another misconception is that doing 1000 crunches a day is most important. Wrong on both accounts! Diet possibly plays the greatest role in obtaining a six pack. Let’s see why.
Transitioning from bulking to cutting can be complicated. Most often, the transition is done improperly and we end up either losing precious muscle mass during a cut or gaining too much fat during a bulk. I’ve been there and so have you, don’t kid yourself.
When switching from cut to bulk, we might overestimate the rate at which we can gain muscle, which results from a lack of knowledge about the human physiological response to dieting. Some inexperienced bodybuilders might make an immediate switch from a strict diet to free eating, which results in the immediate reversal of any recent diet progress.
Of course strategies will differ dependent on the individual, but the basic concept should remain the same. You will have to accept that your first couple attempts at bulking will result in either very little muscle gain or unnecessary fat gain. It is all a matter of trial and error.
Let’s examine a couple different diet transition strategies.
First a quote, then an excerpt from Henry Rollins’ The Iron
“Strength is the product of struggle, you must do what others don’t to achieve what others won’t.”
“Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.
The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.
The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.”
Going to the gym and doing the same workout over and over again is a sure way to prevent progress when it comes on to muscle growth. Repetition is a surefire way to make progress… in moderation. Too much repetition will leave you tired, bored, sore, lazy, and overtrained. Enough emphasis cannot be placed on the necessity of having a properly designed fitness program.
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. Over the past couple years I have published Dr. Berardi’s popular nutrition tips with much success. Today I want to give you a link to his extremely interesting review of the Intermittent Fasting diet protocol.
Basically, Dr. Berardi sets about to lose 20 pounds of fat by following an Intermittent Fasting diet. He tries the following popular IF programs:
Alternate day fasting (ADF) – 36-hour fast/12-hour feed
Eat Stop Eat – 24-hour fast, 1 or 2 times per week
Warrior Diet – 20-hour fast/4-hour feed
Leangains – 16-hour fast/8-hour feed
Random meal skipping
As the experiment spans several months, Berardi logs his meals, moods, workouts, and even 23 health markers including blood glucose, cholesterol, tryglicerides, and testosterone level. You can see his final progress pics as well – check out the back shot, his back is simply shredded at the end of the experiment.
Dr. Berardi ultimately decides that a combination of the different programs works best for him. He liked 5 days of Leangains followed by a Warrior Diet weekend, and he liked Eat Stop Eat with a 1-day per week fast but hated the 2-day per week fast.
Trust me. Read the whole ‘book’. You will learn more than you might think.
How to Drop Weight If You Are Tired of Restrictive Diets
If you’ve had trouble following your current diet plan, you might do well with a diet that is tracked on a weekly basis.
It’s hard to follow a strict diet plan every day. The demands of most popular diets require users to keep a log of everything they consume and keep constant track of calories – and many times, people fail at their diets because they don’t fee like they’re able to keep up with all the details. Constantly monitoring caloric intake is simply too tedious for most individuals.
Strict Diets Often End in Failure
Here’s an illustration: An article published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2007 shared the results of a study of several diet plans with strict calorie tracking requirements. The study gathered 311 overweight females and randomly placed each of them on either the Atkins Diet, the Zone Diet, the Ornish Diet, or the LEARN Diet.
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OK, so the triceps kickbacks are not the king of all triceps exercises, but in a recent study performed by the American Council of Exercise (ACE), triceps kickbacks are ranked 2nd, tied with dips. The very best triceps exercise is the diamond push up.
Don’t underestimate this study just because I grabbed your attention by starting with kickbacks. The study also used legit exercises like close grip bench, dips, and various push downs and extensions. See the table below, and then I’ll explain.
Table 1 Average EMG of the Entire Movement (Concentric and Eccentric)
Triceps Exercise
Combined Means
Long Head
Lateral Head
Triangle Push-up
100
100
100
Kickbacks
87 ± 26.58
88 ± 33.0
87 ± 23.7
Dips
87 ± 19.87
87 ± 21.3
88 ± 20.0
Overhead Triceps Extensions
76 ± 16.09 *
81 ± 21.4 *
72 ± 16.5 *
Rope Pushdowns
74 ± 22.64 *
81 ± 32.3 *
67 ± 15.7 *†
Bar Pushdowns
67 ± 20.48 *
75 ± 29.3 *
59 ± 14.3 *†
Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions
62 ± 16.25 *
70 ± 20.9 *
55 ± 14.1 *†
Close Grip Bench Press
62 ± 15.88 *
61 ± 16.9 *
63 ± 15.5 *
* Significantly lower than the Triangle Push-up (p < 0.05) † Significantly lower than the Long Head (p < 0.05)
For those who still don’t believe Werewolf Muscle Training works, here is more support of my theory that increased frequency combined with stopping short of fatigue, produces equal if not better results that training a muscle once a week for an hour, with a ton of volume, going to failure on most sets.
The central nervous system is extremely important for performance, and should be stimulated aggressively and frequently, but should not often be fatigued. This also helps explain why you can train muscles when they’re sore… it works just as long as the CNS has recovered.
In this video you will find Christian Thibaudeau from T-Nation. He is way stronger than you or I, and he is just about as ripped as I could ever hope to be. A true inspiration.
Editor’s Note: I nearly didn’t publish this guest post, due to the fact that I don’t believe any Project Swole readers want ‘skinny legs’. I am a firm believer in diet and heavy resistance training to lose fat and create hard, dense lower body muscle. But hey, if any of you female Swole readers want toothpick legs, here is some good advice.
As you go about your workout program, one goal that you might have set for yourself is to get skinny legs. For many people, especially women, losing weight in the thigh region does tend to be placed on high priority as this is that one place where females naturally tend to store higher amounts of body fat.
If you want to get skinny legs, there are a number of important things that you should be focused on doing with your workout routine. Implementing the correct strategies will ensure that you’re doing everything possible to reach your end goal.
Let’s look at the main points to consider to help you learn how to get skinny legs.
Avoid Resistance Based Cardio Exercise
The very first thing that you’ll want to make sure you’re doing in order to get skinny legs is avoiding any cardio exercise variations that are going to place a high level of resistance on the muscles. This would include activities such as biking at a high level or uphill walking.
Motivation. It’s the silent workout partner that every successful diet or muscle building program must have to succeed.
When you build a workout plan you probably spend a lot of time deciding what supplements to take and what routines will do you the most good. It is just as important to build a motivation plan to help you power through the plateaus and lulls that are part of reaching fitness goals.
OK, so here’s the deal. I have some fitness books and equipment that I want to get rid of. My options are:
give it to Good Will or some other charity
sell it on eBay or half.com
throw it in the trash
sell it really cheap on Project Swole
Given those options, I’ve decided to attempt to sell them cheap on Project Swole. Here is what we are going to do:
I’ll tell you about the product.
You decide if you want it.
If you want it, place a bid for it.
If no one wants it after 14 days, I’ll give it to Good Will.
If you win it, send me the money via PayPal.
The I’ll send you your new merch.
The starting price will be $5 for books, which covers my shipping and handling costs.
Robert Cheeke – Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness
This is a book about a vegan ‘bodybuilder’, and I use the term loosely because Mr. Cheeke isn’t much of a bodybuilder. However, he is very inspirational to vegan and vegetarian fitness folks. The book itself talks about how and why he became a vegan, with some tidbits here and there about vegan bodybuilding.
I can’t stomach Robert’s ego or storytelling ability, so I couldn’t make it past page 50, but meat-hating dieters might appreciate veganness of it. There are a bunch of reviews on Amazon. The vegan crowd praises this book with 5 star rating, while everyone else pretty much makes fun of Robert’s tiny muscles. You will just have to accept Robert Cheeks for who he is.
