Mention the term "muscle tone" on many of the major bodybuilding forums and prepare to get flamed. I don't spend much time over on those sites unless I notice a surge of traffic coming from a forum to this blog. Typically I upset someone for challenging their locked in notion of getting in shape. A member of one of those forums will then post something inflammatory about a particular post of mine. Then I get a few dozen homophobic and sexist comments sent my way (the owners of those forums must be proud). This post will address the term "muscle tone" and why I use it on a regular basis, despite being a pet peeve of the bodybuilding forums.

[Just another creative photo for you. Mannequins can be kind of creepy, but that is what gives them their charm.]

Thank God for Mark Rippetoe and His Book!
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Tags: Muscle Tone Strategies, aerobic exercise, bodybuilding, getting stronger, low body fat, muscle tone, nervous system, Pavel Tsatsouline, power to the people, strength training

I want to start this post off and say that I love free thinkers and people who question things. I don't even care if I agree with 100% of what the person is talking about. Rebels make the world more exciting. I have spent the past hour over on Free the Animal and have been sucked in to Richard Nikoley's fantastic writing style. He has several great articles talking about a similar subject: That all successful diets are high fat diets. You will see exactly what he means by this in a second.

[I tried to find an appropriate photo for the topic of "high fat diets", but those were all brutally boring. A ghost lady wearing a bikini instead? Someone needs to make a B movie with this theme!]

How Can a Low Fat Diet be Considered High in Fat?
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Tags: Dieting for Fat Loss

Life is too short to work your butt off year-round. I am a firm believer in spurts of effort and then backing way off on those efforts and just enjoying life. Is your goal to workout as much as possible or to look and feel good? You can go periods of 3-4 months on a skeleton workout schedule and maintain an amazing physique, if you plan it out properly. After those 3-4 months you will need to put in more time, then you can go back to maintenance mode. I'll talk more about how to do this in this post.

[I like the idea of working hard towards a goal, like a two week tropical vacation. Kick butt in your career, get in amazing shape, and then stop and smell the roses...or in this case the coconut scent of your sunblock and the lime in your beer.]

What I've Learned from Watching the TV Show "Survivor".
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Tags: Life Outside of the Gym, beer, calories per day, HIIT, maintenance mode, metabolism, muscle tone, steady state cardio, vacation body, vacation body blueprint

I felt the need to discuss muscle recovery here, because I think many people get this part wrong in their training. Many magazine and sites would have you believe that the more experienced you are, the better your levels of recovery. That is true to an extent but as a trainee gets stronger, the training stress increases as well. In fact, the closer you get to your genetic potential the tougher and heavier you must lift to see a change in strength (or muscle size if you are trying to increase muscle mass). Advanced lifters have a much greater need to cycle intensity than beginners. A beginner can gain strength each and every workout, with less time in between sessions.

[I always appreciate good photos even if they don't relate to the topic. 2010 has just begun and I think this will be know as the decade of neon! Old retro 80's stuff is coming back big which means neon is going to make a comeback. Back in the mid-to-late 80's black lights were very common place...great for making your teeth look white...bad if you forgot to use a lint roller.]

Advanced Trainees Need Bigger "Stresses" to the Body
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Tags: Muscle Building, body fat, gain strength, gaining strength, getting stronger, GQ, muscle definition, muscle mass, periodization, strength gain, strength training, vacation body blueprint

I typically don't make new year's resolutions, but one thing I would love to be able to do is the one arm push up. When I first started lifting the big goal was to bench press 225 pounds for reps (because I thought it looked cool to have two 45 pound plates on each side of the bar). I reached that goal in a short period of time and it felt good, but it is not even close to impressive as doing full-range one arm push ups. In fact, I would guess there are more guys who can bench press 315 pounds (three 45's per side) than men or women who can do 5 full-range one arm push ups. I want to become one of those people.

[We will talk about steps to progressively build up strength to be able to do one arm push ups. One of the steps is close grip push ups. The guy in this picture is demonstrating decent hand positioning for close grip push ups.]

The Lost Art of "Progressive Calisthenics"
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Tags: Body Weight Training, bench press, body weight circuits, calisthenics, get stronger, obliques, one arm push ups, progressive calisthenics, push ups, pushups, renegade rows, vacation body blueprint

Most people, myself included, spend about 3-4 weeks eating higher calories than normal during the holidays. I am not just talking about on the actual day of the holiday. I had at least 10-12 days in December where I really just sat back and enjoyed a large quantity of really good food. Don't feel bad if you did the same. This is what December is all about. Heck, if I could go back in time I would probably try and eat a little more of my Aunt's cookies on Christmas. You live once and in my opinion, this is the time to reflect and enjoy good friends, family, and great food. So let's talk about a strategy to lose body fat in a short time frame.

[No worries if you gained a bit of fat in November and December. It just meant you stopped and smelled the roses a bit. Now it is time to step away from the roses and obliterate that body fat.]

Your Body is Primed for an Aggressive Diet After the Holidays
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Tags: Dieting for Fat Loss, calorie deficit, cardio, fat loss, lose body fat, lyle mcdonald, rapid fat loss, rice vinegar, the rapid fat loss handbook

Two guys gain the same amount of muscle over a 6 month period of time. Both guys are exactly 6'3", 190 pounds and both are at the exact same body fat level. They both put on 6 pounds of muscle in 6 months, yet one guy looks outstanding and the other looks almost visibly the same as he did 6 months earlier. How can this be? How can two guys be at the same low body fat level and put on the same amount of muscle and look drastically different?

[Here is an outstanding example of muscle density. Notice how this athlete has compact, dense and an angular look to his muscles? This is much different that the typical rounded puffy bodybuilding look. This angular compact look is much more impressive than big and bulky.]

Gaining Muscle "Where You Want it" Matters Most
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Tags: Muscle Building, bodybuilding, building muscle, free weights, gain muscle, hammer strength, muscle groups, techno, upper chest, vacation body blueprint, weak muscle group

Up until recently, the last time I did a back bridge was in a junior high PE class. This winter I am doing a routine that incorporates a mild version of the back bridge, called the hip bridge. As soon as I added in hip bridges, I knew this is the exact exercise that my body was looking for. My back has been injured for 20 years and my lower spine has a tendency to lose the healthy natural curve and flex forward a bit. Things like sitting at a desk for a lot of the day just add to the problem. This past week I have been researching back bridges and possibly incorporating this exercise into my routine permanently. But they are kind of controversial.

[This picture doesn't have a lot to do with this post, but people keep telling me that Rain from Ninja Assassins got in great condition for this movie. Yeah, the guy looks pretty darn ripped.]

My Experience With Hip Bridges
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Tags: Main, barbell, bridge exercise, flexibility, gymnast, hip bridge exercise, hip flexors, planks, Stuart McGill

Mark Sisson, over at one of my favorite sites, recently wrote a post called Grok Tag. It is so well written because his description of recess is "spot on". I lived for recess back in Elementary School! It was a blast. I remember basically doing all activities full throttle and having fun no matter what we were doing. This article is not a tip or anything like that. I just wanted to back Mark's message from his recent post.

[I will never be too old to enjoy a great rope swing! I need to find a great one this summer...and a good place for cliff diving. This stuff never gets old!]

I Have a Love-Hate Relationship With Technology!
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Tags: Main, HGH, HGH flush, mark sisson, marks daily apple, Video Games, workout

If you have watched any TV or logged into a computer the past couple of weeks, you have probably seen or heard of Taylor Lautner. This past Friday, I took my girlfriend, her 14 year old daughter and 14 year old niece to see New Moon (opening night). I realize that this movie isn't aimed at my demographic, but actually enjoyed the movie. Taylor Lautner, the guy who plays Jacob Black, got in outstanding condition for this role. What really struck me was the reaction of many of the teenage guys and girls in the theater. Every time there was a shirtless scene with Taylor Lautner you could hear a bit of whispering back and forth. Then it struck me: This could possibly be the first time this generation has had a blockbuster movie written for them, with an incredibly fit actor they can relate to.

[New Moon was shot just a few hours from where I live in various parts of the rain forest near the Washington and Oregon coast. Yes it rains like crazy, so as a bonus, they probably didn't need to bring in any props to generate fake rain.]

I Predict Taylor Lautner Will Create A HUGE Impact in Fitness
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Tags: Main, brad pitt, cam gigandet, Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, jessica biel, muscle tone, taylor lautner, working out, workout

Have you ever noticed that there are two entirely different health movements with very little crossover? There is the group of organic whole foods consumers and the group of people who buy health and fitness supplements. I used to be much more familiar with the typical GNC type of supplements, but didn't know squat about things like Kombucha, Cod Liver Oil, Spirulina, etc. I think both groups have some positive things to offer and I would like to explore that in this post. Note: I was going to name this article "Whole Food Stores vs Supplement Stores", but how boring is that? Plus, then I couldn't put up this sweet pic! (said in the voice of Napoleon Dynamite).

["Hey Man, check out this mean batch of Homemade Hummus!" ... "Bro, how many more sets you got left on the bench?"]

I Was GNC's Best Customer at the Age of 17
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Tags: Diet Tips, bova, fitness, healthy foods, immune system, mark sisson, organic food, protein shake, protein shakes, spartan health

Today I would like to post an exclusive guest post by Anna Dornier from Path to Fat Loss. Anna was recently certified as a Russian Kettlebell Instructor by Pavel Tsatsouline himself. This is like the Navy Seals of personal training, in my opinion. Not easy at all! This certainly peaked my interest. Kettlebell workouts are tough, but getting certified at Pavel's school is a whole different deal. In this guest post, Anna is going to address whether a woman should train like a man. So many people have various opinions on this, that I predict some serious discussions in the comment section. Bring it on!

[I think most women want to be fit while still looking feminine. The argument is on what type of training to achieve that look.]

Should Women Do the Same Type of Workouts as Men?
-by Anna Dornier RKC; NASM, CPT
http://www.pathtofatloss.com

Let me start out by defining how men typically train. Most men tend to train their chest and biceps (I call these the mirror-muscles) and then maybe perform a couple of deadlifts and a set of squats. In other words, a typical male workout is usually not well rounded in terms of exercise choices.
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Tags: Fitness Blogs, bodyweight exercises, core exercises, dumbbell, dumbbells, jessica biel, kettlebells, Pavel Tsatsouline, pushups, steady state cardio, strength training

The problem with many body weight exercises like push ups is that once you get strong, low reps stop challenging the muscle. I am a firm believer in including a decent amount of high-tension lifting to maximize muscle definition. Typically, high-tension is achieved by doing heavy weights for low reps. The problem with body weight exercise is that there isn't really a practical way to add weight to your body. What if I told you there was a way to achieve super-high tension in any body weight exercise, allowing you to build muscle density and increased definition over time? Well that is exactly the tip I would like to talk about today!

[I figured a nice autumn picture with a "Human Female Chameleon" would be appropriate for this article. Better than some guy doing push ups...yawn.]

Giving Credit to the Guys I Learned This From…
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Tags: Body Weight Training, adam steer, body weight exercises, body weight training, building muscle, burning body fat, HIIT, Interval Training, lactic acid, muscle definition, oxygen debt, push ups

I actually don't believe in the term fitness expert. I don't consider myself an expert. I am a student of fitness. I consider the other bloggers, readers, people who comment, and product owners as one big mastermind. I soak up knowledge, look at and consider the newest philosophies and fine-tune my approach over time. What I recommend today is slightly different than what I would have recommended 2 years ago. Two years from now, it will be slightly different than today.

[I can easily understand how someone could be completely thrown off by all the conflicting advice online. With the Internet, this becomes even more confusing. There has never been so much information available at the click of a button.]

Almost an Unlimited Amount of Approaches Will Work
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Tags: Main, body weight circuits, brad pilon, craig ballantyne, fitness experts, fitness sites, john barban, lyle mcdonald, mark sisson, muscle definition, steady state cardio

Your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories your body burns, not including calories burned from daily activity. I realize that calorie counting and knowing your BMR may seem like an "old school" approach to dropping body fat, but an understanding of these numbers will help if you are stuck. I want to discuss your BMR and why many people simply eat too many calories per day when trying to lose weight. We will also discuss the fact that people overestimate the effect that adding muscle has on increasing the BMR.

[I wasn't planning on throwing in another Halloween photo, but this picture was too good to pass up.]

Understanding BMR Is Going to Help You Get Lean Quickly
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Tags: Dieting for Fat Loss, basal metabolic rate, BMR, calories per day, ese, fat loss, john barban, lose body fat, lose weight, metabolism, personal trainer, slow metabolism