How to Not Get Fat and Lazy

I could’ve put a picture of Rocky Marciano here as well. I’m not sure if either him or Jack Dempsey ever took a step back in the ring.

“If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards.”

I’m going to take a break from the “Build the Body Women Want” series and give you guys this article. I’ll be back with the chest and back part to that series later this week.

I think a lot of us look at the low points in our lives as the moments that are going to build our character, and they definitely are, but sometimes it’s those moments when things are going better than ever will ultimately show us more about what kind of person we are.

I’ve mentioned it before but I think it’s a great piece of advice from my Dad who has said it on numerous occasions, “don’t get too low when things are bad or too high when things are going well.” I think a lot of that speaks to what kind of character a person has. They are who they are whether or not they literally can’t lose, or if the shit’s hitting the fan.

You hear it all the time, people changing when they ‘make it’. When they get to where they’ve always wanted to be they feel as though they have to act like someone who has it all, and completely forget about the outlook on life and the values that got them to this successful period in their lives.

This can apply to work, social life, family and yes, training and fitness…

When a lot of us get the body we’ve always wanted, or get in great shape, we figure we’re done, we’re here and now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Or when we begin to see some visible gains, we figure we’re allowed to cheat a bit more because, well, we’ve earned it. Read the rest of this entry »

the Body Women Want: Shoulders

Daniel Craig looked lean and athletic in the Bond movies, without overdoing it.

Part II: Shoulders

In the last article I talked about building a body that women find attractive. It’s not the overdone, muscular freak, nor is it the fat guy or the skinny guy that most women find appealing. It’s the guy who has muscle, is athletic and lean, but looks good not only in a bathing suit but also a suit.

I mentioned the “X” shaped physique which starts with broad, athletic looking shoulders – the topic of our article today. The first thing a girl’s going to see when she looks at a guy, besides his mug, is his shoulders, or his frame. It’s not our arms, abs or butt that will first catch their attention, those are the details. So having broad, athletic looking shoulders are pretty important when it comes to attracting the opposite sex. Read the rest of this entry »

Eating with a Purpose – 6 “Go-to” Meals

What a lot of people fail to realize – myself included in the past – is that getting a great body, or getting in great shape isn’t just going to happen with a few intense workouts a week. It’s a process of changing your whole lifestyle so it helps you reach your goals on a daily basis. Everything you do has to benefit you in some way or another.

It could eating 1000 more ‘good’ calories a day to add lean muscle, or eating healthier, smaller meals to lean out and shed fat. It could also mean having a cheat meal to take care of a craving or packing a lunch to ensure you’re going to have a healthy meal. Whatever your goals may be, it’s important that you take small steps to ensure that your lifestyle is bringing you closer to your goals and not pushing you further away.

For myself this meant having certain “go-to” meals that I could always have if I was in a pinch for time or the ol’ noggin wasn’t coming up with anything special. Me meals are covered from breakfast to dinner with snacks in between. Here are 6 meals/snacks that are healthy, they give my metabolism a boost, they help me burn fat, help my muscle recover, and bring me closer to my goals everyday. Read the rest of this entry »

5 Must-Do Exercises to Build Explosive Muscle

There is such thing as useless muscle as far as sports are concerned. Muscle that’s just for looks and not athleticism. Here are 5 exercises that’ll boost your power, help with the weight you lift in other exercise and improve your athleticism at the same time by working the fast twitch muscle fibers which are often neglected in “bodybuilding circles”. I kept it to exercises done in a gym, but plyometrics are an obvious one to add to the list. Each of these exercises is to be done with as much speed and power as possible.

Sometimes is not the exercise you’re doing, but how you do it. You can perform a slow, steady squat to only build muscle, or blast through the up-phase and both build muscle, power, and explosiveness. Anyways here’s the list, let me know what you’d add to it.

1. Medicine Ball Push-ups

One of my favorite exercises by far. It’s a great explosive pushing exercise that forces you to use a full range of motion with the arm that is on the medicine ball. Focus on exploding in the first few inches of the push-up and get some air between your hands and the ball.

Here’s an example of the proper technique at 1:35 of this video. Read the rest of this entry »