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 know some of you out there work 60, 70, 80 hour weeks. I know some of you also work 14,16,18 hour days. Hell, I’ve put in 36 hours straight writing computer code day and night to meet a deadline before. We all do it: we work too much!
Experts are finding out now that the best way to increase productivity, is to work less. That’s right, people who work 35-40 hours a week get the most out of their time. After the first 40 hours efficiency, speed, and quality all begin to deteriorate.
Companies that limit their employees’ working hours to 35 a week, typically have to employ less Quality Assurance (QA) testers, because their employees make far fewer mistakes. That is a multi-directional savings plan – save your employees health and save money by getting rid of half your QA staff (or just don’t hire them to begin with).
Update: here’s another blast from the past. Dating back to November 2, 2007, this was one of my first posts on overhead presses and it still rings true.
The four most important exercises for any serious weight lifter to obsess about are the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press. Today, I am going to discuss how to properly perform a standing overhead press (aka shoulder press or military press), and a push press. Both motions are obviously used to push objects overhead. Clearly, overhead pressing is not only extremely functional but is fundamental in helping to build a firm athletic base regardless of your fitness goals.
I am going to be using a barbell in this explanation, but it can be performed with any reasonable object. First of all, load a bar appropriately and bring the weight to the front your shoulders. You can either clean the weight from the floor like an Olympic weightlifter or you can load the bar at the desired height in a squat rack. Read the rest of this entry »
How to Increase Your Squat By 100 Pounds in 10 Weeks
Update: Here is an old post I found about increasing your squat strength. I’m not sure that anyone ever really gave me much positive feedback on it, so I’m posting it again in case anyone wants to take a stab at putting 100 pounds on their squat in 10 weeks.
The squat is arguably the best exercise that any athlete can perform. Overhead press, bench press, and deadlifts rank right up there too, but I digress… No one wants to have a weak squat. To be considered ‘really strong’ you should be able to squat 2x your bodyweight.
Back in college I was regularly squatting 450 or so at a fluctuating bodyweight of 190-210 lbs. I have no genetic gifts when it comes to muscle size and strength. If I can lift 450 anyone can, so man up and put in some effort.
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.
The category, Your Health Questions is a more proactive approach to answering your questions so that everyone can benefit from the Q & A.
Mark asked:
Hi Steve.
My Goal is to bench 500 lbs. Currently pushing 420 Legal Lift raw. Chest work out consists of 1 warm up set of 135 for 20 reps. 1 set of 10 reps @ 315. 3 sets of 3 at 405. then 2 or 3 sets of 10 at 315. Then machine pec flyes to finish.
Program is Day 1 Chest and Bi’s / Day 2 Shoulders and Traps / Day 3 Back and Tri’s / Day 4 Legs
Two rest days that vary.
Supplements are Noxipro Pre-work out. Beast SuperTest and Isopure Protein.
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.
The category, Your Health Questions is a more proactive approach to answering your questions so that everyone can benefit from the Q & A.
Jake asked:
“Hey Steve, First I wanted to say thanks so much for taking the time to make this article. I just had a question. I am 16 and 6’4″ and about 200 LBS. I love doing cardio and used to be extremely overweight but i started running and eating right and it all shed off.
I have been working out on and off for about a year and a half now and I have found it pretty easy to put on muscle as long as I stay dedicated to the workout which is also my biggest problem. I have petty much the opposite body type of Taylor Lauter because I am taller and bigger built were he is shorter and was very skinny when he started. So I would thus like to lean out at the same time as i build muscle to achieve that lean muscle look.
My question is that if i were to take in less calories and carbs than recommeded for me but still took in the right amount of protein to build muscle, could I still bulk up and lose fat at the same time to achieve that leaner muscular look?”
LOSE FAT FAST with the Project Swole Three Step Full Body Weight Loss Plan. Combine the supplement plan with a full body fat loss exercise routine for record breaking fat loss results!
Here is my review of a local dentist from Concord, NH. Dr. Mostafa El Sherif is one of the few dentists in the area to specialize in cosmetic dentistry. He does lots of work on teeth whitening, bridges, implants, caps, veneers, etc… Too bad he’s rude, uncompassionate, and greedy.
Why to Avoid Dr. Mostafa El-Sherif
Dr. Mostafa El-Sherif is a scumbag. All he cares about is the almighty dollar. Let me tell you about a situation wherein Sally, we will call her Sally, had a loose veneer on her front tooth. It started to become so loose that after a while that it would fall out randomly while talking or walking and it caused her great stress while eating.
On the first visit, all Sally wanted was for Dr. El-Sherif to cement the tooth back onto its post while she saved up to pay for a full implant. Dr. El-Sherif refused, saying instead that it would be cheaper, easier, and better for everyone if she could just come back with the money to replace BOTH of her front teeth. Since the second tooth was also a veneer, he wanted to take both teeth out (extractions) and replace them with implants for well-over $10,000. He wouldn’t do a thing for her without that money up front.
Now, Sally has no dental insurance and she sure as hell doesn’t have $10k sitting in the bank. El-Sherif would not help her at all. Instead he left everything alone and refused to do any work until she could come up with the payment in full. All she wanted was to have the veneer cemented back onto the post so that it wouldn’t constantly bug her until she could save up for the implant.
You may have read my post on occlusion training (or Kaatsu training) from a year ago. If not, the basic premise goes something like this:
Occlusion training refers to blood flow restriction (BFR) to small muscle groups like the biceps and triceps, then using single-joint resistance training with 20% of a 1 rep max. The results produced up to a 300% greater increase in strength and up to an 800% greater increase in muscle thickness, over the subjects who used traditional strength training methods.
The initial reported study had noted great results for BFR exercise in small muscle groups using single-joint exercises. For example they measured the results of occlusion training on the biceps after 2 weeks of biceps curls.
At Project Swole, we are more interested in the results on large muscle groups using multi-joint exercises, such as the bench press, squat, or deadlift.
So today’s question remains: does occlusion training increase the strength and size of large muscle groups during multi-joint exercises, when blood flow is restricted from the extremities?
There are plenty of signs be aware of when it comes to your body’s signals about pushing yourself too far. Over training your body will cause you to plateau or worse – regress.
The most common sign of overtraining is the total loss of motivation to train, and exhaustion mixed with some the symptoms listed below. Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry to all Project Swole readers who are waiting to have their comments or emails answered. Sorry also for not posting in about a week. I am swamped, but have about 10 posts in the works.
Soon I will be starting a forum to deal with all these questions so that Swole Readers can also help each other. I will be looking for moderators to help moderate the forum and answer questions. Do I have any volunteers?
The Project Swole Three Step Full Body Detox Plan is the most effective detox and weight loss plan ever. Combine the supplement plan with a full body fat loss exercise routine for record breaking fat loss results!
For fat loss and good health, acai berries are one of the best foods you can eat.
Using an acai berry supplement will help speed up your fat loss considerably as long as you already follow a proper fitness and nutrition plan. Additionally, everyone can use the high concentration of antioxidants in acai to help stay healthy and young as the years pass by.
The shoulder press; also known as the press, overhead press, barbell press, and standing press; is often confused with the military press; and is quite possibly the best upper body exercise known to man.
The bench press gets all the glory, but this is only because it is easier to lift more weight benching than pressing. Shoulder presses can help you build fully developed shoulders, and will keep your shoulders healthy and strong, especially if you spend the majority of time bench pressing.
How to do the Shoulder Press
Add 2-3 sets of shoulder presses into you routine once a week, or at least as often as you bench press. It will keep your shoulders broad and healthy.
Wall Balls is a silly name for an exercise, I know, but that’s what you get when you borrow exercises from Crossfit. In fact, Wall Balls are a great conditioning exercise that builds full body stamina and endurance. It will also make you sweat.
This is an exercise that integrates perfectly into a high intensity interval training (HIRT) circuit, and can also be used to build high intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions, but do not translate that well into Tabata training.
Wall Balls also can be used separately as a full body conditioning exercise by attempting to complete X reps as fast as possible, or by attempting to complete as many reps as possible in a set time limit. Either way, it burns!
Medicine Ball Training
Medicine ball training has been around for a long time, and in fact they were used frequently at gyms back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Ancient (3000+ years ago) wrestlers and other athletes used to train with various sand-filled implements, which evolved over time into the medicine ball.
The standard medicine ball is a weighted rubber ball measuring roughly 14 inches in diameter, although sizes vary greatly nowadays as you can get a medicine ball from the size of your fist to the size of your body.
Used in a wide variety of fitness programs, medicine balls can be benched, rowed, curled, pressed, squatted, tossed, caught, bounced, squished, and generally manhandled all for the sake of fitness.
Among the best exercises for strength, size, speed, and power, are squats – no exceptions. Front squats, jump squats, and overhead squats are all great alternatives to the king of squat exercises – the barbell back squat.
Squatting will help you develop powerful legs and a rigid core, have no doubt, but when we get creative we can mix and match exercises for an even more effective exercise that trains the whole body.
Sometimes we must think about our upper body as well and there is no better way to look and feel jacked, than to build massively strong shoulders. And there is no better way to feel sexy as a female, than to have sleek, strong, healthy shoulders. It is also equally important to build structurally invincible shoulders to proactively protect yourself from injury.
Combine everything together that I’ve just mentioned, and you get the overhead barbell squat. Let’s see how to do them correctly.
I saw this nifty little video on ESPN today about the effect of your grip on the trajectory of a baseball. Nomar Garciaparra gets wired up with electrodes to conduct this experiment. He used to be a pretty good ball player.
Essentially what happens, is this:
Pitcher throws the ball. In this experiment it is a 90 MPH pitch.
Bat comes in contact with the ball. Nomar swings the bat 67 MPH.
Shockwaves from the contact between bat and ball travel down the bat to the hands.
Some shockwaves are reflected and bounce back up the bat towards the ball.
The ball leaves bat before shockwaves bounce back.
Therefore your grip on a bat doesn’t directly influence the trajectory of the ball when hit.
The best exercises for speed, strength, size, and power, are squats – bar none. Back squats, front squats, overhead squats… they are all great, and will help you develop powerful legs and a rigid core.
Front squats are just about the best alternative to back squats, so let’s see how to do them correctly.
Barbell front squats are just about the same as back squats except the bar is placed across the front of your shoulders, using one of the two styles detailed below.
OK, I might be stretching it a little bit with that post title, but the facts are the facts: coffee does have positive health benefits, the most recent being that coffee may cut down the risk of developing head and neck cancer.
The results were pooled from 9 other studies done throughout the years, and scientists feel confident in saying that the risk of developing head and neck cancer was 12 percent lower in people who drank coffee compared with those who didn’t.
In this case more is better, as people who drank more than 4 cups of coffee a day had a 33% less chance of developing the cancer. Now, I’m not trying to drink 5 cups of coffee a day, but I won’t feel too bad if I have 2 or even 3 cups.
Decaffeinated coffee and tea had no measure effect on decreasing the risk of head and neck cancer.
