Getting Back In The Game

Well getting back is hard.
Full Body Routine three times a week.
Overhead Press 3x5
Squats 3x5
Deadlift 3x5
Alternating Arms/Shoulders/Back/Abs whatever your favourite exercies are.

Good Luck.
Don't hurt yourself.

Gymnastics And Ring Training

Hey guys,

i guess even "older" guys like me can't get themselves away from the new trends.
I personally never believed Crossfit and the like will get you big muscles or anything like that, but if that is what it takes to get you to train, please do it!
Nothing is more important than your personal health, and if the group and timing mentality of Crossfit is what it takes, go ahead!
I dabble in bodyweight training myself sometimes and can only recommend training with gymnastic rings. But beware, it's hard. Really hard. I consider myself a well trained individual but damn my muscles aches are real, and i'm pretty sure any 8 year old with a bit of training would laugh at me.

So get out and get a cheap pair of gym rings. Hang them from a tree and start doing some pull ups!

I'm Back!

 Muscle Tip: Keep Goin'

 

Yes, you heard it here first. Keep Goin'.
Don't stop training. Ever. Even if you can go just one time a week. Do it. In a few years you will definitely see why. You will always grow. 
Continuity is the most important thing in training. Nothing will make you look better.
 

Gaining Muscle 101: Blasting Shoulders!

You want those nice cannonball delts?

Shoulders is a hard muscle to train. If you don't give it your all nothing will grow.

You can divide the shoulder muscle (M. deltoideus) in three functional parts, the front delt, the side delt and the rear delt. To train your shoulder right you have to stimulate all three parts.

Easiest to train is probably the front delt, since every shoulder press will mainly use the front delt.
So we actually won't focus much on that part. Much more important, especially for shoulder health is the rear deltoid.

But let's begin our shoulder workout:

Exercise 1: Standing Overhead Barbell Press. This one is a classic it works your whole body and is in my opinion the best upper body exercise in existance! You probably need to start with low weight but that's totally fine. Keep a straight back, if needed use a belt. Do the OHP heavy, 3 sets 5 reps.

Exercise 2: Sitting Machine Side Lateral raise. Machine because form is king for this exercise, and the machine enables you to concentrate 100% on the form. Squeeze hard at the top and go real slow to the bottom again. 4 sets 8-12 reps.

Exercise 3: Face Pulls. My favorite exercise. Targets the rear delts and will keep your shoulder heavy. Not much sense talking about when you have a great video to show how it's done.

4 sets 8-12 reps

Exercise 4: Sitting Dumbbell Shoulder Press. Another pressing movement, fairly easy to execute. Use a decently heavy weight. Squeeze on every rep, never lose tension in your shoulders! 4 sets 8-12 reps.

Exercise 5: Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Fly. 

4 sets 8-12 reps.

Now if you can still handle it.

Bonus Exercise: Heavy Shrugs. Doesn't matter which variation, dumbbell, barbell, trap-bar or kettlebell. Important is a squeeze and hold for 2 seconds on top and a slow negative.

Try it as a shoulder day! 

Gaining Muscle: Time Management

Managing your time isn't always easy. Finding time for the gym sometimes is even harder.
Be it studying, family or work. Life has it's own ways of interfering with our pursuit of muscle.

When i find myself stripped of time for an expanded period my go to strategy is HIT (High Intensity Training).

When doing HIT you are doing a much smaller amount of volume per workout and muscle. When i'm training HIT i usually do just one or two sets per muscle group, two for the big muscles like the lats and one for the biceps for example. 
But the set you are doing is super-intense extremly slow reps to absolute failure. I usually train with a 3-1-4-1 cadence which means for example on the leg press: 3 seconds pressing the weight, 1 second of squeezing, 4 seconds slow negative rep and 1 second break between reps. With that much intensity you will be sweating in no time.

A typical HIT workout for me looks like this:

1 sets leg press
1 sets incline dumbbell bench press
1 sets lat pulldown
1 set face pulls
1 set machine lateral raise
1 set biceps curls (any variation)
1 set triceps pushdown

All in a real slow cadence but not much rest between exercises and sets.

Should take you less than an hour and really helps breaking down those muscle fibers.

Sometimes You Need Some Motivation

Now get your ass to the gym!

Saturday Product Review! Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey

I know, i know it's sunday already, but well we all know it, saturdays can sometimes be really busy!

Today i'd like to present a new category: Muscle Gaining Product Reviews!
We start with one of the most important ones: Whey.
Namely: Optimum Nutritions Gold Standard 100% Whey.

Whey is one of the staples of every athlete in the pursuit of muscle. It's quick absorbing easily digestable protein. Perfect in a post-workout shake for example. It's also very rich in branch-chain amino acids.
This study demonstrates on a rat model that post-exercise whey supplementation might induce a greater increase in muscle protein synthesis than a just carbohydrates solution, or carbohydrate mixed with amino acids.

Let's get to the Gold Standard, it's got a whooping 5,5g bcaas per scoop also over 4 grams of glutamine and precursors. There is a reason it's one of the best selling protein supplements in the market. All in all it has: 

• 23 grams of protein
• 2-3 grams of carbohydrates 
• 1.5 grams of fat

It mixes great with either water or milk, no clumps nothing. It's even mixable with a spoon if You don't own a  shaker. 

Taste. Let me tell you about the taste. If i've got the option of a real nice thick chocolate milk and the Double Rich Chocolate Gold Standard, i'd probably take the chocolate milk. But i would have to think real hard about it. And i love my chocolate milk.
The taste is amazing, especially Double Rich Chocolate mix it with milk and you got a real healthy chocolate milk all of the sudden. 
In this price range and with that low amount of carbs there is no whey protein which tastes better.

If you don't have a protein supplement yet, i'd really suggest starting with this one. 

What's Your favorite Whey Protein? Just write me in the comment section!