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Question:

I’m a 16, male, have been lifting for about 2 years, i weight about 160lbs and my wrestling season just got over. Before wrestling, started I had about 12% body fat, then I dropped about 8lbs for wrestling. Anyway, I will be a junior in high school next year and I started varsity as a sophomore at linebacker. I hope to play college football at a linebacker, but I need to gain some weight, and I was wondering: -What is the best way to gain a lot of muscle fast? -What muscle will give you best success on the field? -Which ones to work on the most, and are there any supplement’s you would recommend?

Now I feel where you’re coming from because I was in a similar situation in high school. My primary sport was baseball, and it was the sport I wanted to focus on. But, I wrestled from the 6^th grade through my sophomore year in because I liked the sport and the competition. Read the rest of Gain Fast Muscle for football: What to do, what to eat?

Technorati Tags: audio, diet, exercise philosophy, exercise selection, football, hypertrophy, Nutrition, Performance, strength training, supplements, wrestling

Question:

I’m a high school football player and have a potential college career. i want to burn fat and gain muscle. how do i do this. should i take protein shakes concidering i workout 5 days a week. or should i just do tons of cardio. etc. any advice is welcomed. also if i pack on 5 pounds i dont care. as long as its good weight. how do i go about this and would protein shakes help?

Answer:

Before I answer your question I’m going to get a couple of thoughts out of my system.

First of all, if your goal is to play football at the next level, your only concerns should be what you should do in order to get there. One thing I can say without even knowing you is that one of your goals in training is to get stronger (if not, it should be). I’ll assume this is what you mean by gaining muscle, so you’re on the right track here.

As far as losing fat, be careful. Are you looking to lose fat in order to look good for the ladies? Or do you have a weight issue that can hinder your performance on the field? Make sure that if you’re trying to lose any fat, it’s the latter reason.

I’m not sure what your position is, but if you’re a lineman of some type, forget about the 6 pack! Really. Look at your favorite linemen in the NFL. If you get them to take their jerseys off, I guarantee you won’t see any rippling abs. Why not? Because it’s all about PERFORMANCE.

Trust me, I wasn’t in high school all that long ago, and I have to admit that I wanted my mirror muscles to show - chest, abs, and biceps were all that really mattered at times.. But wouldn’t you rather to have the body that allows you to DOMINATE on the field? That’s what’ll really impress the ladies…

Anyway..

If you’re at a skill position, that ripped type of physique is more realistic and should come along with proper training and nutrition, so don’t worry too much about it if you’re a wideout, corner, or even a safety - it’ll come.

Now about your training regimen and nutrition..

Training Regimen

Every time you do something in your training regimen, you need to ask yourself the following question:

“Is this going to make me a better football player?”

Is doing “tons of cardio” going to make you a better football player? Since football is an anaerobic sport (I think the average play is around 7 seconds or so), then the answer is NO. Why train your body like a marathon runner? It makes no sense. You want to be able to perform explosive, powerful movements for short periods of time - And then be able to repeat it over and over throughout the course of the game. So this is how you should train!

Explode. Rest. Explode Rest. Explode Rest… You get the point..

If you find a high level football player running in any 5K races or jogging on the treadmill, let me know, and I’ll give you 20 bucks (it can’t be a kicker).

Right now, you should be just beginning your off season for football. If you’re not playing any other sports, the off season is the perfect time to get stronger, as you don’t have to worry about any grueling practices or important games - It’s your chance to put in your work and show up to practice next summer with a new body.

If you work hard in the off season, you should have build so much muscle, there won’t be much room for fat on your body.

But..

If you still have too much body fat at the end of the day, the problem isn’t in your training–you may want to look at your nutrition–are you eating junk?? If so, stop it.

Nutrition

You are on the right track in knowing that protein is important to build muscle. Before worrying about a protein shake or supplement, make sure you’re eating healthy, staying away from soft drinks, eating vegetables, and including a source of protein in every meal. If you’re already doing all this, a protein supplement can help in that it’s an easy way to fuel your body between meals.

Say you’re between meals, and don’t really have time to cook up a chicken breast or cook up some ground beef. Now’s when a shake comes in handy as it allows you to supply your body with the protein it needs between meals.

It’s not that using the powder is better than eating real food (it’s not). The reason to use the powder is that it’s fast and convenient. It’s a way to get your 40-60 grams in without having to cook up 7 complete meals every day.

If you train hard and eat well consistently, you’ll have a true advantage over your competition.

I hope this information helps, and I wish you the best of luck in your career!

Technorati Tags: fat loss, football training, Nutrition, Performance, sport specific training, strength training, training-philosophy

In Part 1, I wrote my first four ways to increase the difficulty of a push-up. Now I’ll include the next five:

5. Use a narrow grip: This one is simple, but effective. Try putting your hands closer together. This increases the difficulty, while also putting more emphasis on your triceps. A side effect of performing a push-up with a close grip is that it allows you to get more flexion at the elbow join, which automatically increases your range of motion. And we already know from my previous list that a greater range of motion increases the difficulty. That makes the close grip push-up kind a double threat.

6. Elevate your feet. In a conventional push-up, you are lifting about 2/3 of your overall bodyweight. When you elevate your feet, this percentage goes up. Like all bodyweight exercises, the greater percentage of your weight that you’re lifting, the more absolute weight you’re lifting, making the movement more difficult. Start by placing your feet on a something fairly low like an aerobic step. To increase the intensity, slowly add height to the step. As you become more advanced, you’ll progress to placing your feet on a bench. Before progressing to this harder version, make sure that you can keep your legs, torso, and neck in a straight line without letting your hips sink. Once you can perform 10-15 reps with perfect form at a certain height, you can raise your feet to the next level.

7. Place more emphasis on one arm. The one-arm push-up is an extremely difficult variation that most people won’t be able to perform. It requires an extremely strong core along with adequate upper body strength. Until you can do the complete one-arm version, you can progress by simply placing more emphasis one one arm when you go up. An easy way to do this is to come down normally, shift your weight at the bottom so that one hand is supporting a greater percentage of your weight, then come up, pushing mostly with the “working” arm. As you get better, you can put less of your weight on the “non-working” arm.

8. Place only one foot on the ground. This makes the push-up more difficult by narrowing your base of support. This version isn’t going to increase the loading on your upper body, but it will greatly intensify the use of your abs in keeping your body in a straight line. If you’re pressed for time, try this variation is especially useful as you’re killing two birds with one stone in that you’re working your upper body and your core.

9. Place your hand(s) on an unstable surface. It has been shown that placing your hands on an unstable surface during a push-up increases muscular activation. You have a few options here - I suggest starting by using two medicine balls, with your hands at shoulder width. To keep it fun, you can experiment further some more variations. Here are some to get your started:

• Change the width of your grip by putting the balls closer or further apart.

• Place one hand on a med ball and the other on the ground (This puts more emphasis on one arm).

• Place both hands on the same medicine ball in order to get a close grip effect (very challenging).

• Perform explosive push-ups one one ball by exploding from with one hand on the ball with your body on one side, up and over so the hand that was on the ball is now on the ground and your body is on the opposite side.

• Use one or more stability balls instead of a medicine ball.

If you haven’t checked out Part 1, go check out the first four variations there.

Do you have any other push-up exercises that you’ve tried and would like to share? Post a comment and let me here them!

And make sure you check out the podcast below.

Have a specific question about strength training, fat loss, or nutrition? Ask Doug!

Technorati Tags: bodyweight-training, exercise selection, push-ups, pushup progressions, strength training

Think you’ve graduated from using the push-up in your program? You may want to reconsider. There are many benefits of including the push-up in your program including better core stability, upper body strength, and shoulder health.

The reason some lifters think they’ve graduated from this exercise is that the loading just isn’t the same as on the bench press as you’re only lifting 2/3 of your bodyweight.

Not only do these variations take a great exercise and progress it, but they can serve to add variety to your program and keep things interesting. Here are the first four ways to progress the difficulty of the conventional push-up.

1. Explosive Push-up –> Do you remember the clap push-up? From the up position, come down as in a normal push-up and push off the ground fast enough so that you’re upper body comes off the ground, allowing your to clap your hands in mid air. You don’t have to do the clap, and can instead decide to push as hard as possible. These will get you fatigued quickly and are great for upper body power.
2. Use Chains. I see many guys trying to balance plates on their back in an attempt to add external loading. I’ve tried this, and found it to be a pain in the butt. If you have access to chains, you can drape these over your back. You can make them even more difficult by simply adding more chains or moving them closer to your neck. It helps to have a partner help you out with these.
3. Use Bands. Take about a 1 inch band, loop your hands through the ends with the middle of the band behind your back. Get in normal push-up position so that your hands are over the ends of the band, keeping it in place while you perform the push-up.
4. Increase your range of motion. Putting your hands on blocks or using dumbbells will allow you to go down further on your push-ups. You’d be surprised at the difference a few more inches makes in doing your push-ups.

I’ll include the next 5 ways of increasing the difficulty of your push-ups in the next post so stay tuned!

In the mean time, if you’d like to know how to increase the amount of push-ups you can do, be sure to check out my post, How do I increase my push-ups for the military?. It contains a useful link to Bill Hartman’s blog, which goes into some great detail.

P.S. Be sure to check out the audio below.

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Related Posts

9 Ways to Increase the Difficulty of a Push-up (Part 2)

Video Demo of Push-up Variations

How do I increase my push-ups for the military?

Technorati Tags: bodyweight-training, exercise selection, push-up progressions, push-ups, strength training

Question:

What are the 3 major groups to be worked out for upper body? ex. Back+Biceps, i forgot

Answer:

Instead of answering the question directly, I’m going to challenge you to rethink your approach to designing your program. Rather than focusing on body parts (which is actually an outdated method), try focusing on your movements.

The basic movements are:

Upperbody

• Horizontal push (like bench, pushups)
• Horizontal Pull (rows)
• Vertical Push (shoulder press,military)
• Vertical Pull (Pullups, lat pullovers)

• also, elbow flexion, and elbow extension movements

Lower Body

• Bilateral Hip dominant (deadlifts, RDL’s)
• Bilateral Quad Dominant (front squats, back squats, explosive squats)
• Unilateral Hip Dominant (stepups, 1 leg hip extension)
• Unilateral Quad Dominant (Lunges, 1 leg squats, split squats)

and CORE

Any program should include each of these types of movements to be complete. If you include these, the body parts will take care of themselves.

Another good idea is to superset opposing movements- Like a horizontal pull with a horizontal push, etc..

That’s right - no more worrying about which body part to hit when - just include each one of these movements, and you’ll have a complete, balanced program. Depending on your training frequency, you may want to split these movements up throughout the week - but this approach should be a good start for you and to get you thinking differently.

Do you still use body part splits?

Have you had success with movement based splits?

I’d love to hear them so please let your voice be heard. And be sure to click play below and listen to my amateur podcast.

Technorati Tags: body part splits, exercise selection, movement selection, Program Design, strength training

Question:

I do push-ups all day and they’re not getting any easier. I’m about to join the military and have been working out for about 4 months. I’ve lost 30 pounds and feel much better about my physical abilities. At first I couldn’t do 10 good push-ups in a row, now I can do intervals of 25. I’ve been stuck at 25 for a long time and it’s not improving. I feel It would be better if I could do at least 40 or 50 at a time. How do I get there quickly?

Answer:

First, great job losing 30 pounds and going from being able to do only 10 push-ups in a row to sets of 25. That’s a 150% increase in your push-ups!

Second, I feel for you, as the military is very demanding. You have to pass the situp test, the 2 mile test, and the push-up test. This requires you maintain a blend of athletic attributes - Primarily, strength, muscle endurance, and cardiovascular fitness. Not to mention extreme mental toughness..

Focusing on the push-up, there are three main things you’re going to want to address in order to increase this number.

• Stability - Your ability to maintain a good push-up position without your shoulder girdle or core stabilizers becoming fatigued. To improve this, try performing holds in the down position, planks, and side bridges. Also scapular stabilization exercises such the scap push-up and the wall slide will help.

• Maximal Strength - Your ability to lift a heavier loads with fewer reps. To improve this, you can add weight to your push-up in the form of plates or chains and propping your feet in the air. I’m also a big fan of heavy bench pressing (1-6 RM) in order to increase raw strength.
• Strength Endurance - Your ability to lift a lighter load for higher reps. Try performing max push-ups in a certain amount of time (I think the army test is 2:00, right?). Of you can break it up into smaller times intervals and try to set new records with that amount of time. Performing high rep bench presses with lighter weight is also an idea.

In addition the exercises listed above, something simple that may be overlooked is your weight. Especially if it’s mostly FAT.

Think about it…

When performing a military style push-up, you are lifting approximately 2/3 of your body weight. So, if you weigh less, that is automatically going to make the exercise easier and allow your to increase your total number of push-ups.

Simple, huh?

Anyway, if you’re reading this post, your main goal is likely to pass the military basic training test. If you’re really willing to do whatever it takes to get this accomplished, you should invest in some expert help. Or if you’re more of a do-it-your-selfer, you can do the next best thing and invest in a system that works.

In his book, Eric does a great job going through EXACTLY what you need to do in order to get in to military kind of shape.

You can check it out here: Invincible Fitness: Basic Training

Now go get to work! I hope this info helps all you future soldiers out there - I really admire what you all do. Best of luck becoming a push-up machine and making it in the military!

Related Posts

9 Ways to Increase the Difficulty of a Push-up (Part 1)

9 Ways to Increase the Difficulty of a Push-up (Part 2)

Video Demo of Push-up Variations

Technorati Tags: Core Training, hartman, muscle endurance, push-ups, stability, strength training

Question:

Hey, Doug! Whenever I’ve gone to the gym to do high interval training, I usually lift (three of the six days per week). I’m in pretty nice shape (15″ toned biceps, 42″ chest), but I want to take it to the next level. For the last 5 years, I’ve used machines, and they seem to have worked very well. That is, up until now. Is there a point where you can “max out” or should I switch to the more traditional free weights?

Answer:

Great job committing to a regular training plan and sticking to it, and congrats on seeing results in the form of increases in strength and muscle mass.

Before I get directly into your question, I’d like to get in to why I prefer free weights over machines by starting with a question of my own..

When moving an object or your own body in real life, is it on a fixed axis where all you have to do is apply force?

The answer is no–you have to use coordination and balance along with your overall strength in order to perform real life movements.

Machine movements have very little in common with real life movements like picking things up, bending down, lifting stuff over your head, etc. Not only does this type of training not train balance and coordination, but it renders your stabilizer muscles, tendons, and ligaments useless because the axis of the machine is acting in place of these stabilizers.

Imagine for a moment learning to walk as a child. You must go through the steps of the learning process–standing up, taking a step, falling over, trying again, etc. etc..

Now imagine this..

Instead of learning to walk in real life, (which is difficult) you are restricted to using four machines to build up your leg muscles so that you will be strong enough to walk. With one machine, you have to extend your knee, with another machine, you flex your knee , with another machine you extend at the hip, and with the final machine you flex at the hip. You could add resistance (instead of gravity) so that you could build strength in your leg muscles.

What’s going to happen when you take the machine away and try to walk?

You guessed it..

You’re going to fall flat on your face.

Sure, you have built up “strength” in your main leg muscles, but your stabilizers are extremely weak and, more importantly, you don’t have the coordination to carry out such a complex task.

The same principle applies to your strength training.

I’ve read some articles that do a great job explaining the importance of using free weights in much more detail (unfortunately I don’t have them with me), but what I can tell you is it important to be able to move your own bodyweight and other weights without the security of a fixed axis. Using free weights forces you to actually develop the coordination and balance that you need in order to carry over in to the real world movements.

Isn’t that just as important if not more important than training purely for aesthetic purposes? If not, it should be, in my humble opinion.

Also by using free weights, your tendons, ligaments, and stabilizer muscles will develop properly, which will allow you to lift more weight, which will get you stronger and prevent injury, which will actually allow you to develop more muscle and to “look the part”.

So go out and start learning some basic free weight movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, pushups, pullups, and rows. You’ll likely have to begin with lighter weights than you do on your machines until you develop the coordination and appropriate stabilizers to execute these movements safely with more weight–this can be tough to swallow at first, but it will be worth it in the long run. Leave your pride at the door!

To answer your question more directly, in addition to being healthier you’ll definitely have more room to grow in mastering the use of free weights–especially when you’ve implemented an optimal strength or muscle building program.

I hope this helps. As always, questions and comments are encouraged on the blog!

Technorati Tags: bodyweight-training, exercise selection, free weights, functional training, machines, stabilizers, strength training

Question:

I don’t seem to be getting results with my current routine and i have noticed articles online and real life friends only work 1 muscle group a day. Like theyll do biceps monday, chest tuesday, triceps wednesday, back thursday and legs friday and abs everyday at the end of the workout. It just seems fishy to me because your only doing one group per 6 days. Im used to doing every muscle group 2 times a week. So instead of doing 1 muscle a day i did like biceps and back one day then chest and shoulders the next etc etc. what do you guys think? iv been going up in weight and eating more and i still havent seen results.

Answer:

You’re definitely on the right track in noticing that doing only one muscle group every 6 days is “fishy”.

It really only takes about 48-72 hours for your body to recovery from a typical strength session, so why wait 6 days? It makes no sense.

Also, your friend has to lift 5 days a week. It sounds like you might not have that kind of time..

With a 2 day a week program, you’re on the right track in that you’re training your entire body on both training days.

But instead of taking the mentality of hitting each “muscle group”, you need to think more about what MOVEMENTS will get you the most results.

If you’ve ever heard of the 80/20 rule, often applied to business, it means that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.

Well, this principle can be applied to strength training as well..

You’ll see many people in the gym doing “bodypart” exercises like bicep curls, triceps extensions, hamstring curls, and leg extensions.

These are what I would call the 20% exercises. They have their place at times, but if you want results, you need to focus on the 80% that will get you results.

Key Exercises -Deadlift variations (total body) -Squats (hamstrings, quads, glutes, core) -Bench Press (Chest, arms, even some legs) -Pull-ups (Lats, traps) -Rows (Traps, rhomboids, biceps) -Single leg movements (lunges, stepups, pistols)

If you’re going to train total body, stick to these lifts. The other thing that is important for you to actually see results is lift HEAVIER weights.

I’m not sure what kind of intensity you’re lifting at, but make sure that once you get the form figured out and are confident in these movements, that you progress with more weight.

As in 3-5 sets of 1-6 rep max.

If you’re more novice or if hypertrophy (building mass) is more important, using 5-10 rep max weights with only 2-4 sets may be a better option.

I’d also consider bumping it up to three days a week.

A three day per week split would look something like this:

Monday: Total Body–Hit a little bit of everything

Wednesday: Primarily Upper body with a few leg exercises

Friday: Primarily Lower body with a few upper body exercises.

Since the lower body tends to take longer to recover than the upper body, it is placed on Friday, give you two recover days.

I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions, hit me up!

Technorati Tags: exercise selection, Program Design, strength training, total-body-training