Check out this very interesting article about how the deluge of information in our lives is actually rewiring your brain. Guys, now you have another excuse when your girlfriend/wife accuses you of being distracted and forgetful: “the Internet is stressing me out!”
Training with Bands and Chains Increases Strength and Power
 Benching with bands |
I recommend training with bands specifically in the Werewolf Training routines, but also in any routine you might currently be following.
Recent studies investigating the effects of training the bench press with added bands and chains, have confirmed that strength and power increased faster by using bands and chains than by using free weights alone.
The Study
In this 13 week study on the effects of training with elastic tension on the bench press, 11 men in their early 20s started with a 1 rep max (RM) baseline strength test.
Some Protein Drinks Can Kill You
So I read a study in Consumer Reports today about the content of heavy metals in protein drinks. The metals of concern are deadly when humans are exposed to them, even is small concentrations, over many years: arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium.
I wouldn’t exactly call the results of the study tragic, but I definitely think Project Swole readers should be aware and should avoid certain products.
Read the report here: What’s in YOUR protein drink?
Berardi’s Law: Junk Your Junk Food
Posted May 28, 2010 in Nutrition Tip 1 Comment »
 John Berardi |
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.
Today’s Topic – Junk Your Junk Food
Why You Shouldn’t Drink Alcohol if You’re Serious About Losing Weight
Posted May 27, 2010 in Healthy Lifestyle 2 Comments »
The following guest article is written by Christine Howell of DNP Programs, a guide to doctor of nursing practice programs and careers.
 |
When you are trying to shed those few extra pounds it is very important to watch what you eat and drink. One thing you should try to avoid, when possible, is the consumption of alcohol beverages. It is said that in moderation alcohol can help to maintain a healthy heart, but when it comes to weight loss efforts, alcohol has many negative effects on your dieting attempts.
Some of these negative effects include:
- Having a direct link to the body’s increased fat levels.
The human body will use the carbohydrates in the alcohol first. This means that the fat from the food that you have consumed is laying in your stomach turning into sugars that are absorbed and deposited as fat.
How to do Kipping Pull Ups
Posted May 25, 2010 in Exercise Technique 3 Comments »
Pull-ups are awesome for developing a strong, hard back. Chin-ups are great too, especially for increasing biceps involvement. Unfortunately, pull-ups are hard. Many new trainees can barely do 1, if any, pull-ups or chin-ups.
 A strong, hard back. |
Sometimes we need a way to do pull-ups when fatigued, or maybe you are looking for a way to include pull-ups in your conditioning routine. There is a way my friends, and it is called the kipping pull-up.
How to Perform Kipping Pull Ups
A “kip” is basically using the drive from hip flexion followed by an explosive hip extension to increase momentum during a pull-up. This is useful for getting your chin up over the damned bar when performing a HIRT or Tabata session that calls for 100s of pull-up in a short period of time. Kipping pull-ups are used extensively in Crossfit workouts, and you can use kipping chin-ups in your workout too.
The types of pull-ups and chin-ups that most of us typically do in a standard weight training routine (unless you train Crossfit), are from a deadhang. Kipping pull-ups and kipping chin-ups are actually completely different exercises, and should not replace the deadhang in a standard weightlifting routine.
How to Make Chin Ups Easier
Posted May 24, 2010 in Fitness Tips 1 Comment »
Here’s a tip I read last week when I was reading about pull-ups and chin-ups. Apparently by using this tip, chin-ups will “feel” easier. Give it a try and let me know if it works for you. Check it out:
Rather than thinking about pulling yourself up when you do chin-ups, imagine pulling your elbows down instead. In theory, this will make the exercise seem “easier”.
Please Help Support Bella Tucker
| The Bella Tucker Fund Please Help |
You think you have it bad? Maybe you do, but I’m sure 99.9% of your stories are not as unfortunate as what has happened to an 8 year old girl from Londonderry, NH named Bella Tucker.
Who is Bella Tucker?
Bella is an 8 year old third grader who was a budding gymnastics star, loved to ride her bike and listen to music, liked going to school and hanging out with her friends, and is now going to be confined to a wheelchair without her own arms and legs for the rest of her life.
A cute little girl with long blond hair, Bella attended South School Elementary in Londonderry, New Hampshire and was a talented member of the Phantom Gymnastics team. Maybe she will do those things again one day, but for now she is confined to a hospital bed at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. She and her family need all the help they can get.
What Happened to Bella Tucker?
 Bella Tucker |
Easter Sunday 2010 was going to be a fun-filled day with egg hunts, jelly beans, and Easter dinner with family. As the day progressed Bella began to feel under the weather; she eventually developed a fever and had the chills.
She went to bed early with what appeared to be flu symptoms, but woke up early in the morning with a fever of 103, complaining that her hands and feet were cold. Bella’s step-dad rushed her to the local emergency room, where doctors said she needed to be transferred by helicopter to Boston Children’s Hospital.
No one could have guessed what would happen next; Bella and her family would never be the same.
Surviving Streptococcus Pneumoniae Sepsis
With a temperature that peaked at a whopping 105.8 degrees, doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital initially figured she might have meningitis. They were wrong. Two days later Bella was diagnosed with streptococcus pneumoniae sepsis, a rare form of pneumonia that had stopped the flow of oxygen to her arms and legs.
With a 10% survival rate for streptococcus pneumoniae sepsis, the future did not look good.
Doctors placed Bella into a drug-induced coma, no one could be sure if she would ever regain consciousness. After 5 days she emerged from her coma, but her body had already sustained severe tissue damage.
How to Meet Proper Fat Intake Recommendations
Posted May 5, 2010 in Nutrition Tip No Comments »
John Berardi |
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.
Today’s Topic – How to Meet Fat Intake Recommendations
How to Avoid Being Bullied
In today’s “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” category, I would like you to read about how bullies target obese kids.
Um… no kidding, Sherlock.
I was bullied as a kid.
From 6th to 9th grade I really didn’t fit in anywhere. I was chubby, had acne, wore glasses, and I wasn’t any good in gym class. They called me names, drew nasty pictures of me, popular girls prank called me, and jocks punched me.
Looking back, I was probably one of the top 10 least popular kids in my class of 120 or so. It wasn’t any fun.
Bullying causes pain, anger, and resentment. So often in today’s society, we see so many acts of bullying the end in violence. Granted, I didn’t knife anyone, shoot anyone, or beat anyone up over it… but some kids do.
We need to educate our children and teach them how to avoid bullies, as well as how to avoid becoming a bully.
More than ever, victims of bullying nowadays tend to either take action against their perpetrators or simply end their own life. Those who don’t take action will go through life hating their junior high or high school peers, dreaming of revenge. You might not believe me if it never happened to do, but trust me: it’s true.
Read the rest of this entry »Vacationing at Disney World
Posted April 28, 2010 in Healthy Lifestyle 5 Comments »
Hi everyone! I realize Project Swole has been lame lately, and I am sorry. I have been real busy with work, family, and Crossfit. This week I am on vacation in Orlando Florida, so I can’t post much since I don’t have a laptop and it is slightly painful to create new blog posts on my Android smartphone. In fact its quite annoying to respond to comments or emails either, so I won’t be doing much of either until I get home next week.
Next up I hope to bust out some great new workouts and training articles. Until then, keep training!
MMA Workouts are Not Just for Men
Posted April 22, 2010 in Martial Arts 5 Comments »
The following guest post was contributed by Alexia Krause, a PR executive who is writing today about MMA Workouts for women.
MMA Workouts are not Just for Men
Mixed martial arts appears to be a male dominated sport, yet the number of women who are becoming part of the MMA community is continually growing.
There are many female MMA fighters (including Kaitlyn Young and Gina Carano), who follow the same rigorous regimens as their male counterparts. These inspiring ladies have broken open the doors to what used to be the “boy’s club” of MMA. They use the same techniques, MMA equipment, and exercises that most fighters would use.
 MMA Training for Women |
MMA training has the ability to help women stay fit while participating in a competitive and exhilarating sport.
How to Improve Foot Speed
Posted April 14, 2010 in Fitness Tips 2 Comments »
This fitness tip is for sports performance. Try this movement to improve your food speed. I’m not 100% sure this will work and it sounds really annoying, but I figured it would be a good tip for you guys to try at least.
How to Flatten Your Gut
Posted April 13, 2010 in Fitness Tips 12 Comments »
Do you see these people walking around all day long, who appear not to be that fat, but whose bellies stick out like they are preggo? This happens because their internal abdominal muscles are weak and loose. Don’t let this happen to you.
The best way to flatten your belly is to work your invisible abdominal muscles. The transverse abdominis lies beneath your rectus abdominus; the rectus abdominus of course being the muscle that most people refer to as “the six-pack”.
When you suck in your stomach and your waist appears to be flatter, the muscle responsible for this is indeed the transverse abdominis. The good news is that the transverse abdominis can be trained with exercise.
Recent Health and Sporting News
Posted April 5, 2010 in News of the Day No Comments »
I’m having a bad day. I missed my Crossfit workout this morning for an emergency meeting with the dentist, now I have dental surgery coming up on Wednesday, and I barely have enough money to cover my bills and expenses this month. Since I really have to work right now, I don’t have time to write a good post today, so I’m going to leave you with some health and sports news.
Why a high fat breakfast is better than a high carb breakfast. Here’s more on that subject: Eating fat for breakfast instead of carbs. You can program your body for the day, depending on what you choose to eat for breakfast.
But then in related news we are also faced with this:
Fatty foods cause a cocaine-like addiction. This one is about mice displaying the same addiction tenancies to fatty food, as they do to exposure to cocaine.
Apparently we should become addicted to eating high-fat meals for breakfast. I don’t know. I just don’t see it. I would choose a bowl of Total Raisin Bran with skim milk or a bowl of oatmeal, over bacon or sausage any day of the week.
In sporting news, the Red Sox barely beat the Yankees last night, but that’s good enough for me.
That snake Tiger Woods will make his comeback today, for whatever that’s worth. Do you really care?
And finally, McNabb goes to the Redskins. I don’t much care about that either, but it will be interesting to see if McNabb improves the Skins, or if playing for the Skins forces McNabb into retirement. I suppose the latter is more likely.
Project Swole Joins Crossfit
 Crossfit NH |
Yes it is true, I have joined my local Crossfit. They call themselves The Savage Society, and they are based out of Manchester, NH.
Why Join Crossfit?
Crossfit is a place we can go to use revolutionary exercise ideals to create an elite level of fitness. This is not so much about strength and size, as it is fitness, which is a goal that I think has been lost to the majority of gym goers nowadays.
Rather than paying $10 a month for access to treadmills, ellipticals, and some free weights, with virtually no help or planning unless you pay $100s for a trainer, Crossfit has a formula to help you attain your personal fitness goals with workouts of the day and special routines to help you. It takes some of the thinking out of designing the perfect routine.
This will definitely be a new, positive experience, and I will probably end up getting Crossfit certified myself some day.
How to Bench Press More Weight Instantly?
Posted March 26, 2010 in Fitness Tips 3 Comments »
I haven’t verified this tip yet, but Charles Staley once said that you can lift more weight if you look at your dominant hand when benching. Although you are not supposed to turn your head at all.
Really, I have no idea if this works, but if you give it a try please let us know what happens. It doesn’t sound like anything I would ever tell anyone to do, but maybe it has a place in max effort training?
I remain skeptical.
A Tip to Improve Your Biceps Training
Posted March 22, 2010 in Fitness Tips 11 Comments »
 Arnold’s Bis |
As most of you know, I am not a huge advocate of biceps training. I think the biceps get worked pretty hard in you train your back correctly using pull ups, chin ups, and various rows. See my post on the top 5 best back exercises.
In reality you probably only like 4-6 total sets of biceps training a week. That would be 2 sets for 2 or 3 exercises a week, spread out over the course of the week. Choose your biceps exercises based on my list of the top 5 best biceps exercises.
At least if you are going to train your bis, whether twice a week or with a dedicated arms day consisting of 8 biceps exercises, let me tell you how to get the most out of each rep.
Blow Up to Slim Down!
Posted March 19, 2010 in Fitness Tips 4 Comments »
Blow It Out, Suck It In
 Blow Out |
When doing crunches, sit ups, or any other abdominal work, you should always blow out forcefully at the top of the movement and suck your abs in for a full contraction.
In order to flex your abs and contract them fully, you need to blow all of the air out of your lungs and abdomen. When you do this your abs will experience maximal contraction and will actually work harder to perform the exercise.
Isometric Contractions
For a slimming isometric exercise simply stand up straight, tighten your abdominals, blow all of the air out of your lungs and abdomen, and hold the contraction for 30 seconds.
Do this for 5 minutes a day every day, and you will actually see results after a couple weeks.
Do this all day every day, and you will actually train your abs to stay tight and flat permanently.
Perfecting the Alignment of Your Spine and Core Muscles
 Strong Core |
Your core is extremely important – so important that the word “core” has become somewhat of a catch phrase in today’s fitness society. Core training is used nowadays as the focus of group exercise classes, 30 minute workout routines, and garners an entire niche in resistance training.
As a unit, the “core” refers to all of the muscles from your hips to your rib cage, front to back. The transverse abdominals, multifidus, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominus, and erector spinae (lower back). The latissimus dorsi, glutes, and trapezius are secondary core muscles.
