Seems like a good question to ask.

But none of this go-away-to-a-fat-camp B.S.

• A real person.
• With a real job.
• Living a real life.

If they do EVERYTHING RIGHT, with 100% compliance – perfect training, perfect nutrition, and perfect supplementation – how much can their body realistically change in 8 weeks?

Bandana Training + Men’s Fitness wanted to know…

And so begins…

Meet Shaun’s Buddha Belly

Let’s get this party started…

Meet The new Shaun Myers (8 Weeks Later)

New Vitals 

Age: Still 24

Height: Still 5'9"

Weight: 149.4 lbs

Body Fat: 9.7%

• It’s challenging.
• It’s effective. 
• It’s awesome.

By sequencing short, aggressive exercise at uber intensity and repeating multiple times, we accumulate fatigue. This leads to impressive metabolic disturbance. Remember that your metabolism is the sum of all of the chemical reactions required to sustain life. During a MetCon circuit (ie when you’re working your ass off) your metabolism is going ape-shit. Work impressively hard and you literally disturb your metabolism enough that it takes a long time to return to baseline (up to 72 hours long which can account for 100’s of additional calories burned.) 

Impressive metabolic disturbance = Shredville.  

There is no better form of exercise to burn fat while simultaneously maintaining lean muscle development.

WO. That’s powerful. 

You’re damn right it’s powerful. SO powerful, in fact, that MetCon is often overprescribed by eager young trainers, Type-A athletes, and, you know, CrossFit.

Intensity over volume – the MetCon blessing/curse

Intensity and volume are inversely proportionate. Always. You can sprint 40 yards lightning fast (right?) but run a marathon and you’ve gotta slow down. So if we’re going to chart exercise on an intensity/volume graph, at one end of the spectrum would be walking. Forever. Walking a marathon (kill me.) At the other end of the spectrum would be a 1 rep max (*man smile*). 

Back in the day we realized that proportionally, we burn more calories from fat at LOWER intensities. We aptly named this the “fat burning zone.” Get on an old-school piece of cardio equipment and you’ll see that the lower heart rate zone is labeled “fat burning.” But we made a colossal mistake. It’s not that we were wrong, necessarily, it’s that we were looking at the science through a straw. YES – we burn more calories proportionately from fat at lower intensity, but we burn far more calories, period, at higher intensity AND we create a whole hell-of-a-lot more metabolic disturbance at higher intensity. In other words, if you want to burn fat and get shredded, the most effective “fat burning zone” is, oh shit, higher intensity training. 

Now, of course, there’s a sweet spot. A one rep max, for example, while extremely intense (and awesome), isn’t the best way to get you lean, shredded, and sexy. Because you need some volume. 

Smart MetCon (henceforth known as SmetCon) sits at the ideal crossroad of intensity, volume, and technique – which is to say that technique is flawless (always), intensity is rockstar and volume is challenging but reasonable. 

SmetCon – perfect form, incredible intensity, tough volume.  

A Tabata analysis and what it teaches us about MetCon

Let’s take Tabata for example – one of MetCon’s most well known protocols:

Usually performed with one, relatively simple exercise – such as a fan bike:

• 8 rounds
• 20 seconds of work
• 10 seconds of rest 
• at what would equal 170% of your Vo2max 

Do you have any idea how fuckin hard that is? 

Let’s put this in perspective: V02 Max is the maximum amount of oxygen you can consume during intense exercise. It is commonly measured on a treadmill where by you gradually increase the speed/incline until you damn near fall off the machine. THAT’S your Vo2max (ie – 100% of your V02max.) 

Now, of course, oxygen is not the only way the body produces energy. In her infinite wisdom, mother nature gave us another energy system – sans oxygen – that is more powerful but far less resolute, capable of producing shorter bouts of impressive, explosive energy.

Imagine all systems go…the whole kit and caboodle…the baby, the bathwater, and the kitchen sink – producing a max effort at what would equal 170% of your Vo2max. 

That’s powerful. 

Now imagine sustaining that for 20 seconds. 

Not easy.

Now imagine resting for 10 seconds, which by some magical time-warp continuum ends up feeling like 1/10th of a second. And imagine repeating that 7 times.    

THAT’S Tabata.

Everything. You’ve. Got. (In a modality that allows for this type of energy production to be performed safely.)  

Tabata is intense.

And the only way to pull-off that type of intensity is to keep the volume relatively short – again, 8 rounds (4 minutes, start to finish) – which even for an elite athlete is ball busting. (Have I driven that point home yet? MetCon protocols, such as Tabata, are effective because of their intensity?) 

CrossFit built a workout around doing the Tabata protocol for 32 rounds (“Tabata This”). 

The problem with this isn’t that it’s too difficult. Difficult is lovely. I LIVE for difficult. The problem with this is that it takes a training protocol that is effective because of it’s intensity and it dilutes it with volume. This decreases the intensity (did I mention that that’s the best part?) and almost universally leads to a breakdown in technique. CrossFit has effectively made the protocol less effective and more dangerous.

Ain’t that a bitch.

Now I’m all for high intensity training.

Let me rephrase.

I ADORE high intensity training.

And I also respect that CrossFit can construct these workouts as fitness tests, which by nature need to be unreasonably difficult in order to measure the limits of the fittest folks on earth. 

But if you want to approach this type of workout intelligently, first you need impeccable technique across the board. Then you need to chase intensity. Only final phase do you start to crank up volume.   

That’s Smart MetCon – injury-free kick-ass training with a hell-bent emphasis on technique AND intensity and a progressive emphasis on volume. Now that’s a recipe for badassdome.

*This article was originally written for Schwarzenegger.com. Published April 10th, 2013.

Would LOVE to hear your thoughts and/or questions. Let’s chat about MetCon… 

And yet there are reasons (good reasons it seems) why people go the gym, love the gym, can’t seem to operate without their gym time. They literarily train their cabooses off  — whether that’s in the gym, on the pavement, or on the mats/fields/YMCA’s. It seems as though they couldn’t imagine life without exercise. 

- What have they discovered? 
– What motivates them to work so damn hard?
– Why do they suffer through injuries, through misery, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, for their matrimony with sweat?
And…
– What can their love-fest with exercise teach a non-gym goer??

Here you have it…

The Top 5 Reasons You Should Fall in Love with Exercise (compliments of those who have.)

Now, I’m going to go ahead and set “looking better” aside. It’s no wonder that some 103% of gym-goers love to exercise because it makes ‘em look sexy. And, I’m not mad at that. Looking better is a perfectly fine reason to workout and is, without question, a strong motivator. But I want to get at some more powerful convictions. Motivations that are less about exterior influence and more about what’s deep down at the heart chakra of what it means to be human.

Okay, where was I? Oh, that’s right. THE TOP 5 REASONS YOU SHOULD START TO MAKE-A-DA LOVE TO EXERCISE:  

1. You should fall in love with exercise because it makes you happy.

I don’t mean this in an esoteric way. I mean it very literally. You’ll feel awesome after you exercise. Immediately. Intensely. Unequivocally. Study after study confirms the direct relationship between exercise and increased feel-good hormones, including a study that suggests high-intensity exercise modulates the brain in a very similar way to cocaine use. (That’s gotta feel good.) [1] Another recent study confirmed that serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine levels in the hippocampus were significantly increased by exercise, suggesting physical activity can help manage depression [2].

Even in the 1800s Henry David Thoreau knew what was up. “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day,”
he said.   

Both science and great American poets agree: we simply cannot be our happiest without exercise. 

B. You should fall in love with exercise because it makes your life easier.

Being stronger, leaner, happier, and more capable can make for a more manageable life:

- Your boss needs you to get that box? Yes ma’am, you can get that box.  
- Your neighbor needs you to rearrange his furniture? Damn right buddy, you’ll move that couch.  
- Your homeboy needs you to carry him home from the bar? Saddle up, cowboy.

Training increases your capabilities. That’s the law of progressive overload — lift something a lil bit heavier each day, get a lil bit stronger. Run a lil faster each day, get a lil bit, um, faster. A body that is increasingly capable makes for a life that is increasingly manageable (read: awesome).

3. You should fall in love with exercise because it helps you win at life.

Setting and achieving goals inside the weight room helps you set and achieve goals outside the weight room. The goal-setting/goal-accomplishing cycle is a learned trait. From a very early age, winners start to reinforce this idea that if they set their mind to something and tirelessly work towards its accomplishment, the outcome will be positive. 

Archbishop Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens said it well, “Happy are those who dream dreams and pay the price to make those dreams come true.”

Initially, these victories are small. But eventually, the accomplishment (or foundering) of our goals comes to define our life. This same cycle repeats itself on a daily basis with our exercise. For example, if you’d like to be able to be able to do a pull-up you might:

Do seated rows.
Recover.
Do inverted rows. 
Recover.
Do lat-pull downs.
Recover.
Do assisted pull-ups.
Recover.
DO A PULL-UP.

Set-work-achieve-rinse-repeat. The more you reinforce hard work with a positive outcome, the more you think of yourself as a winner. If we get good at winning at exercise, we can be good at winning at anything. 

D. You should fall in love with exercise for your family and friends.

I don’t want to get too froofy-cuddle-muffin (it’ll ruin my street cred) but the people closest to you rely on your love, energy, and compassion. Mismanaging your body is a disservice to them. 

This holds true for young mothers, aging grandparents, or loving husbands. Taking care of your relationship with self is the first step towards taking care of your relationship with others. Making time for exercise is absolutely, positively, in NO WAY an act of selfishness. Quite the opposite: It’s an act of generosity. The people around you deserve your best. The best version of you is a version that is constantly challenged and improved with a kick-ass exercise routine.

5. You should fall in love with exercise because you can.

Initially, it’s easy to view exercise as a chore. Consider this instead: Exercise is a blessing. Not only do you have the knowledge and the means to exercise (how fortunate), but you’ve been given a body that is strong as a friggin’ tank, fast a cheetah, and more agile than a jackrabbit. OK, perhaps that is slightly overstated, but a healthy body is truly a work of art.

Take inventory. If you are fortunate enough, you have…

- Two strong legs that can carry you anywhere you damn well please. 
– Two strong arms that can lift lots of really heavy stuff.
– A strong core and a strong heart and strong hands.
– It all works. Every day. It works really well. In fact, if you stop and think about it, it’s baffling just how impressively well it works.   

Your workout is a celebration of that. 

6. OK, you should fall in love with exercise because it makes you sexy, too.

‘Cause teh ladies like a guy with a little sweat on his brow. And the broski’s like a babski with a little chalk on her hands.

These are only a few of the millions of good reasons to hit the gym. Simply put, awesome exercise makes for an awesome life. 

P.S. Do me a favor and send this to someone who doesn’t workout. They’ll thank you later – (http://www.bandanatraining.com/fall-in-love-with-exercise/)

Something like this article was originally posted for The Greatist on Feb 4th, 2013.    

[1] Behav Brain Res. 2013 Feb 15;239:8-14. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.10.035. Epub 2012 Oct 26. Daily treadmill exercise attenuates cocaine cue-induced reinstatement and cocaine induced locomotor response but increases cocaine-primed reinstatement. Thanos PK, Stamos J, Robison LS, Heyman G, Tucci A, Wang GJ, Robinson JK, Anderson BJ, Volkow ND. Source: Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Behavioral Neuropharmacology and Neuroimaging Lab, Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA; Dept. of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.

[2] Int J Sports Med. 2012 Jul;33(7):525-30. doi: 10.1055/s-0032-1306325. Epub 2012 Apr 13. Exercise intervention may prevent depression. He SB, Tang WG, Tang WJ, Kao XL, Zhang CG, Wong XT. Source: Department of Neurology, Zhoushan Hospital, Zhoushan, China.

I’m curious to hear why YOU love exercise.

Carbs.

Yep. It’s that simple. Okay, that’s a lie. It’s not that simple. It’s nowhere near that simple. However, it is clear that managing our carbohydrate intake goes a long way to help manage our fat accumulation. We, as Americans, need to consume fewer carbs if we want to get our body fat percentage to shredded status. 

But there’s one time of day when our relationship to carbohydrates completely changes. 

Enter exercise.  

We’ve all heard about the importance of exercise when it comes to weight-management. You gotta do it. It’s essential. The body needs it. But most of us tend to think of exercise as cranking up calorie burn. We return to our calories-in-calories-out equation and think that exercise amps up the out-calories and therefore we lose weight. This is absolutely true. Exercise does help balance the calorie math in favor of leanness. However, when we work out there are far more magical things at play. 

Why is exercise a game-changer when it comes to carbs? 

Most of the day, our energy fluxes are moderated by insulin. A quick reminder of our bilingual equation:

Más carbs = Más blood sugar.  

Más blood sugar = Más insulin.  

Más insulin = Más fat storage.  

However, during intense exercise the body doesn’t give a damn about insulin. In fact, despite a significant increase in our need for energy (and specifically glucose), insulin actually decreases (1).

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA. W.T.F.  

But Rob…insulin is the hormone that tells our body to remove sugar from the blood and use it as energy.      

Yep. Except during intense exercise.  

Allow me to formally introduce you to catecholamines.     

Catecholamines are hormones that are produced by the adrenal glands.  You’ve probably heard of the more famous ones – adrenaline (epinephrine), noradrenaline (norepinephrine), and dopamine.  

Catecholamines are released during our primitive fight-or-flight response, but the physiological response during intense exercise is similar (and I do mean intense – a long slow jog isn’t going to make this magic happen – you’ve gotta be working at an 8ish outta 10 on your damn-this-is-tough scale.)  When that happens, our body dumps these hormones into our system and they trump our insulin command.        

The games has changed.  We now have a completely difference coach.  Catecholamines are at the helm calling the shots, regulating our energy influx and outflux with extreme precision.  It’s awesome.     

- We’re working our little tooshes off
- We’re burning a boat-load of calories
- These calories aren’t being regulated by our insulin levels

This is good news because it means we don’t need to carb up before an intense workout. In fact, carbing up an hour before a workout has been shown to reduce liver glucose output and fat oxidation (2) (3). No bueno if we’re trying to get lean. 

But other, even MORE magical things are happening…

Allow me to formally introduce you to Lipoprotein Lipoase.

Simultaneously, during all this good stuff, intense exercise causes our body to shift a little enzyme called Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL.)  These little fellas are the gatekeeper for fat accumulation. It’s an enzyme that hangs out outside cells, sorta like a bouncer. If it’s hanging out outside a muscle cell, it’ll pull fat into the muscle.  If it’s hanging out outside of a fat cell, it’ll pull fat into the, um, fat. (4)    

So, intense exercise shifts LPL activity from fat cells to muscles cells. In other words, our muscles become primed to burn fat. Now to be fair, we don’t burn a whole lot of fat during high intensity exercise. We burn carbs. But, as you can probably imagine, shifting this fat crushing enzyme to our muscles and away from our fat makes a big difference when it comes to helping us get shredded.

OK.  Let’s summarize again…

- We’re working our little tooshes off
- We’re burning a boat-load of calories
- These calories aren’t being regulated by our insulin levels
- We shift our muscles into fat burning mode
- We shift our fat away from fat storing mode

For the record…at this point, we’re definitely winning.  

Okay, okay…what happens next rob?  

Well then….we stop.  ‘Cause hey…you can’t do high intensity exercise forever, right?

Now….

The catecholamines disappear (the half life of these suckers is a few minutes, max.) Insulin becomes the driving force behind our energy flux again. Our muscles are hungry and want to be fed whatever they can eat and our fat storage is basically turned off (4). 

What’s a lovely thing to do at this point??  

Feed your body carbs. 

Yep. Your body is in a perfect place to utilize carbs. You feed those hungry muscles without storing energy as fat. An influx of carbs will spike your insulin which will drive glycogen into your muscles and get you all prepped for your next intense workout. Plus, this carb/insulin spike helps with a cascade effect that returns your hormones to their happy pre-workout state, because while all those higher-stress hormones are great when you’re working out, you don’t want ‘em in your system all day. Ya dig?       

Eating carbs post workout is part of a smart get-shredded nutrition plan. 

A qualifier – this post workout carb window doesn’t last the rest of the day. It last for a few hours. After that, we start to lose out on the benefits of the carbohydrate awesomesauce.   

Another qualifier – The more depleted your muscles, ie the more intense your workout, the more carbs you can afford post workout.  Makes sense right…the more you lose, the more you can replenish.

A summary.  If you want to get lean, avoiding carbs most the day helps (except for veggies, of course…always eat veggies.) But after an intense workout, eating carbs will manage your hormone profile, feed hungry muscles without getting stored as fat, and make you feel swell.  

Win, win, win (again).    

(1) Galbo H: Hormonal and Metabolic Adaptation to Exercise. New York, Thieme-Stratton, 1983

(2) Volek JS. Influence of nutrition on responses to resistance training. Med Scho Sports Exerc 2004;36(4):689-696.

(3) Ivy JL, Res PT, Sprague RC, Widzer MO. Effect of ca carbohydrate-protein supplement on endurance performance during exercsie of varying intesnity. Int. J Sports Nutr Exerc Metab 2003;13:382-295.

(4) Ladu MJ, Kapsas H, Palmer WK. Regulation of lipoprotein lipase in muscle and adipose tissue during exercise. J Appl Physiol. 1991 Aug;71(2):404-9.

(5) Mead JR, Irvine SA, Ramji DP. Lipoprotein lipase: structure, function, regulation, and role in disease. J Mol Med (Berl). 2002 Dec;80(12):753-69. Epub 2002 Oct 24.

This article was originally published on Schwarzenegger.com on Nov 5th, 2012.

If we get 75 comments on this bad boy, I’ll give you my favorite post-workout carb/protein shake recipe.  It’s so delicious, it’s been known to make grown men cry.  I’m not joking.  In fact, my post-workout carb/protein shake brings all the boys to the yard. 

Ugh….I’m sorry I just said that.   

The 1st Law of Thermodynamics:

In any given system, the energy of the system = the energy supplied to the system – the energy expended by the system.

Let me be clear on this point.  This is absolutely TRUE.  It’s one of those laws that has stood the test of time.  But it’s sorta like this:  I walk into a bathroom and see that the bathtub is overflowing with water.  So I ask my girlfriend why the tub is overflowing and she says, “Well Rob…it’s overflowing because more water has entered the bathtub than left the bathtub.”  

No shit Sally.  Thanks for the information.

It’s like repackaging the what into a more complicated form.  I get what’s happening.  I want to know why.

I know this seems almost silly, but I believe the real crux of our massive fat-gain problem is that most of our fitness and nutrition advice is based on this over-complication of the what.  We’ve noticed that calories-in outnumber calories-out so we desperately attempt to re-balance the math in our favor.

Enter, the 100 calorie snack pack.

This nation (and Nabisco) LOVES The 100 calorie snack pack.

Oreo introduced the 100 Calorie Thin Crisp in 2004.  Grocery stores were buzzing with excitement.  

“If I only eat 100 calories of Oreos, I’ll get lean,” everyone seemed to think.    

According a Brandweek article, Kraft Foods (owner of Nabisco) wracked in $75 million from 100 calorie snack packs in its first year (and the sales data didn’t include Walmart). Of course Kellogg and General Mills quickly caught on and introduced their own 100 calorie snack packs the following year (2).  

It didn’t take long for science to proven the ineffectiveness of the mini munchie craze. (3) [If you want the cliff notes, a study from 2008 in The Journal of Consumer Research concluded that 100-calorie snackers ate significantly more than regular-sized-potato-chips-bag-eaters who actually exhibited better portion control. Woops. Additional studies have been conducted which substantiate the results.]  And still the mini munchie crazy prevails…

Just this past weekend while I was enjoying my Saturday afternoon college football, a commercial informed me that KFC is relaunching their Chicken Little sandwiches. The tag line? 

“Little is the new big.” 

It turns out that a recent Facebook poll and overwhelming customer demand brought about KFC’s decision. The people have spoken: “What we eat isn’t a problem, we just need to eat less of it.” *Bows head in shame*

One hundred calorie snack packs and mini chicken sandwiches, of course, aren’t the only thing to blame – it’s just a nice microcosm of our fat accumulation problem.  National magazines, credible nutrition and exercise scientists, and next door neighbors offer advice based upon the calories-in/calories-out equation all the freaking time.  

“Leave 25% of the food on your plate.”

“Take the stairs instead of the elevator.”

“Park the car farthest from the movie theatre.” 

“Wear these shoes (which throw you off balance and make you burn more calories) and you’ll have an amazing butt and thigh in no time.”

But the fact is WE.  JUST.  KEEP.  GETTING.  FATTER.

To understand our nation’s fattness, we need a better answer to a rather simple question….  

Why do we get fat?

Let’s zoom in and take a look at fat accumulation on a cellular level.  To do that, we need to understand what hormones and enzymes regulate our fat tissue.   

Eighth grade biology class taught us that hormones are those little chemical messengers inside the body that allow our cells to talk to one another.  These hormones are a complicated system. A) They’re highly interdependent so a change in one hormone will effect another. B) They all have different agendas and an entire hierarchy so some hormones will trump others. Tre) They can be disrupted by many things in our environment. 4) They’re constantly changing…constantly…right now…they’re changing. This all makes monitoring and understanding them a challenge.  But if we want to talk fat-accumulation, one hormone trumps ‘em all.  

Allow me to formally introduce you to Insulin  

Let’s say you eat a meal that contains carbohydrates (as we too often do.)  These carbs get broken down and into smaller carbs and enter the blood stream in the form of glucose, which is a sugar (aka “blood sugar.”)  The body recognizes this spike in blood sugar and starts producing insulin (to be fair, the body has already started producing insulin…just thinking about eating up-regulates insulin production – awesome, no?)  This insulin is a hormone – the hormone – that tells your body to remove glucose from the blood and store it as fat.  

Más Carbs = Más blood sugar.  
Más blood sugar = Más insulin.  
Más insulin = Más fat storage.  
(That’s right, I’m bilingual.)

Now of course this is an oversimplification of the getting-fat process. Blood sugar isn’t always stored as fat plus protein has an effect on insulin (but it’s markedly less severe.) HOWEVER, as far as oversimplifications go, it’s a pretty useful one.   

We need to eat less carbohydrates, to produce less insulin, to store less fat.  

Let me say that again.  If you want to get lean, you need to eat fewer carbs.

A third time?  Manage your carb intake and you’ll be shredded. 

Let’s look at the other side of the coin:  How do we break fat down?    

Allow me to introduce you to Hormone-Sensitive Lipase

Hormone-Sensitive Lipase (HSL) is an enzyme that hangs out in our fat cells.  Eighth grade biology class taught us that enzymes….you know what, eighth grade biology class didn’t really teach us much about enzymes.  Enzymes are substances inside the body that act as a catalyst to make biochemical reactions occur (4). So this HSL hangs out inside fat cells and breaks down triglycerides (the storage form of fat) into fatty acids (the move-around-the-body form of fat.) This fatty acid can be used directly as energy or be further broken down to create glucose.  Yes, the same glucose as carbohydrates. The body does this (constantly) to provide a sort of energy buffer (5).  

Here’s the real problema.  When insulin levels are elevated, HSL is down-regulated.  If HSL drives fat breakdown, insulin cuts the breaks. It makes sense.  Insulin levels elevate when our blood is full of sugar (in a normal, healthy body.) Our body doesn’t need to mobilize fat tissue when our system is teeming with energy.  When you eat carbs, you breakdown less fat (5).     

Zooming back out, we come to a simple conclusion. Fat accumulation, in a large way, can be blamed on a carbohydrate rich diet because those little (tasty) carbs increase fat storage and decrease fat breakdown. 

Consume a carbohydrate rich diet and your bathtub starts to overflow.

A qualifier – not all carbs are created equally.  Different carbs have different effects on your insulin levels.  Different carbs are also packaged very differently.  Some come with lots of vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients, pH balancing benefits, fiber, and very few insulin effecting calories.  We call these carbs “vegetables.” More specifically, “non-starchy vegetables.” You know, things like broccoli and brussels sprouts. A low-carb diet never, ever means a low-vegetable diet (again, non-starchy).  Vegetables are awesome for you.  Infact, it’s hard to overstate just how awesome vegetables are for the human body.  Never limit your vegetable intake.  Ever.    

Another qualifier – If you’re looking for additional science on the getting-fat process, many books have been written on the subject.  A good place to start – Gary Taubes – Why We Get Fat And What to Do About It.  

A summary.  It’s true – too many calories means we’ll get fat.  But carbohydrates activate this process.  Limit your carbohydrate intake, store less fat, breakdown more fat. Win, win, win.

*This article was originally posted on www.schwarzenegger.com on Sept 26th, 2012. 

(1) Taubes, Gary. Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity. BioSignature Convention. Las Vegas. Sept 2, 2012.

(2) Wong, Elaine, Brandweek. 5/25/2009, Vol. 50 Issue 21, p36

(3) Maura L. Scott, Stephen M. Nowlis, Naomi Mandel, and Andrea C. Morales.  “The Effects of Reduced Food Size and Package Size on the Consumption Behavior of Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters” Journal of Consumer Research: October 2008.

(4) A dictionary. Any dictionary. 

(5) Taubes, Gary. Why We Get Fat And What to Do About It. Anchor Books. New York. 2011.

If we get 50 comments on this bad boy, I’ll talk about how exercise changes our relationship with carbohydrates.

Plyometrics

Plyometrics are an oft misunderstood and oft misutilized facet of training.  Let’s clear up some of the confusion: 

1)  Understanding Plyometrics asked by Tom Riley
What are plyometrics and what’s the point of doing them?

Plyometrics are any movement that utilizes the Stretch-Shortening Cycle (SSC). They’re drills that are aimed at linking strength and speed, especially with fundamental movement patterns like jumping, bounding, and throwing. So think: squat jumps, bounds (1 leg take off, opposite 1 leg landing), hops (1 leg take-off, same 1 leg landing), and med ball throws. 

2) Using Plyos asked by Gregory Moran 
Is plyometric training a sport-specific form of training or are there functional applications to everyday living?

Bandana: Great question. While plyos are definitely paramount for athletes, anyone can benefit from an improved ability to coordinate high speed movements. So, it’s a win for everyone.   

3) Plyometric Progressions asked by This Fit Chick
How do you progress with plyometric training?

Bandana: There are many ways to progress plyo’s.  Here’s my favorite:

You can also move from simple to complex movements (ex: linear jumps to lateral jumps) OR from a stable base to a less stable base (ex: two legs to one leg.) 

What I DON’T love to see is simply adding weight to plyometrics. Initially, there are more intelligent ways to progress. 

4) Details of Plyo Workouts asked by Colin Lane

How many sets, reps should I be doing? How about frequency and when/where in my programming should I include plyometrics?

Bandana: Generally speaking you want quality over quantity. I LOVE plyo’s at the beginning of my workouts as a form of neural activation. Should take about 10 minutes, 2-3 different movements, 5-8 sets, 3-6 reps. Less intelligent in my book – plyo’s at the end of the workout as a form a cardio (technically, you could consider sprinting a form of plyo, and sprinting is teh great cardio, but I consider sprinting sprinting and plyo’s plyo’s.)  

5)  Advantages/Disadvantages asked by Courtney Selig
How do the advantages of plyometrics outweigh the disadvantages when training?

Bandana: Smart question. When executed properly and used in reasonable volume, plyometrics help prevent injury and improve performance. But poor form, misguided progressions, or crazy-ass volume leads to the opposite of that. Any time you start getting fast and explosive, you’ve gotta be thoughtful with your training.  

MAXIMIZING YOUR CARDIO

Bandana Badass James Livsey asks: “What’s the difference between cardio to increase my endurance and cardio to help me shed body fat?”

 Lovely question. It’s really a matter of volume vs. intensity. If you want increase your endurance, your primary training progression should be volume. That means workouts should get longer and longer. If you want to get shredtastic, your primary training progression should be intensity. That means workouts should get more and more Crazysaurace (technical term.) Of course, the relationships aren’t that simple, but that’s a good place to start.

Bandana Badass Shane Wigley asks: How can one person use TABATA wisely??

Bandana: A true Tabata protocol is 20s On/10s off x 8 at SUPER high intensity (what would be comparable to 170% of your VO2 max.) Let’s be clear about this: THAT’S REALLY F’IN HARD. Most people cannot and should not start with Tabata. If you want to use the protocol wisely, modify it to suit your current state of fitness. That means you (probably) need to reduce the work-to-rest ratio to allow you to go balls-out. 8s on/22s off might be a good place to start.

Also, just for the record, you need to pick an appropriate exercise. You can’t do Tabata pushups. You just can’t make ‘em intense enough. You can do 8 sets of pushups for 20s and then rest 10s, but that isn’t Tabata. Sleds/prowler, fan bike, battling ropes, and hill sprints tend to work well.

Bandana Badass Thomas Ginty asks: “Should you still do cardio whilst gaining muscle?”

Bandana: First of all, nice use of “whilst.”  Second of all, no need. If you want to absolutely optimize muscle gain (especially if you’re a hard gainer), stay off the treadmill and use your nutrition to manage body fat.  

Bandana Badass Cone Nueve Once asks: “Let’s get this answered and over with: Fasted Cardio vs. Fed Cardio, which one is better?” 

Bandana: I wish the answer was more straightforward: unfortunately different people respond to fasting differently. Some people feel energized and almost buzzed, others feel like absolutely dogshit. Fasted cardio can be super effective for some (they’ll swear by it and spread the news like it’s gospel.) For others it’s just painful. My recommendation? Try it. If it works for you, stick with it. It it doesn’t, find something else that does.

Bandana Badass Danny Gutierrez asks: “Can powerlifting be considered cardio? i.e.- deadlifts, cleans…I always feel 10 times more winded after these types of exercises.”

Bandana: YES. Absolutely YES. Start thinking outside the treadmill. Anything that challenges your cardiovascular system can be considered, um, cardiovascular training. If you set up resistance training appropriately, it can be very effective cardio. Just ask Charles Poliquin. I’m pretty sure that treadmills actually self-destruct when he walks by them, but he has numerous resistance protocols that elicit very powerful cardiovascular training effects.

DIET STUFF

Protein vs. Fat — asked by John Paitrew 
Is it true that too much protein turns into fat?

“Sure, too much of anything turns into fat—it’s how your body stores energy and your body wants to store energy. But as a general rule, protein isn’t your enemy. In fact, it’s more metabolically costly to digest—which makes it a friend. A good friend. A strong, lean, delicious friend.”

When to Eat — asked by Teri Ryan
Is it better to eat more frequently throughout the day? Why?

Bandana: ”Generally speaking, yes. It controls hunger, manages blood sugar levels, and gives the body a good excuse to be lean. (I can already hear the proponents of IF angrily typing their response.)”

Abolishing Fat — asked by Adam Holand
What happens if I completely remove all fats from my diet? 

Bandana: ”You would donkey-punch your hormone profile, suppress your brain and nervous system function, trample on your ability to manage hunger, become deficient in fat soluble vitamins (and Vitamin D deficiency is already a big problem), and slowly transform into a troll. Okay, I lied about that last part.  But fat is an essential part of a healthy diet. Plus…no more peanut butter? Who wants that?”

Clarifying the Glycemic Index — asked by PJ Khal
How much of an impact does the glycemic index of foods have on my body?

Bandana: ”Glycemic index is a measure of how quickly and significantly a certain food raises your blood sugar. Managing your blood sugar is exceptionally important for healthy, lean, feel-good living. Therefore, understanding and appreciating the GI is definitely a step in the right direction. But the story gets a little more complicated than that for a few reasons. One of which is this: the GI is based on a standardized amount of carbs (50g), not a standardized amount of food. Some foods are very carb dense. It’s easy to eat a lot of carbs from bread for example. Other foods are less carb dense. It’s not as easy to eat a ton of carbs from carrots. Carrots have a relatively high GI, but won’t disturb your blood sugar much because of their lower carb density. To understand this more, read up about Glycemic Load, which is the GI multiplied by the serving size of food and is perhaps a more realistic number.”

Fad Diets — asked by Ravij Nuey
Which “diets” have the most ridiculous claims and lack of evidence?

Bandana: “Lots of diets have some degree of crazy talk. I’ve heard of some juice cleanse program that use salts to induce emesis (vomiting)—it’s pure malarkey. The body has remarkable detoxification mechanisms at work. These can and should be helped along with fiber and antioxidants, but not eating and vomiting your face off for 10 days isn’t a step towards health and vitality in my book.”

FITNESS TRAVEL

Packing Must-Haves - asked by Thomas Fanier
What are some things I should always pack for long trips to keep up with my diet? 

“Nuts travel exceptionally well (there’s a joke in there somewhere) as does fruit. I also bring whey protein powder for post-workout and I get these cute little packages of natural peanut butter (the airport security Nazi’s will take a bigger jar.)”]

Kenji Roberts asks: What are the best pieces of portable training equipment? 

Bandana: ”A lacrosse ball, a TRX, and some running shoes. Soft tissue work + resistance training + energy system training = everything you need.”

Frank Lauden asks: Is it worse to skip a meal or to have a massive cheat meal while on the road? 

Barry Andrews asks: How long does it take for muscle to start breaking down after not working out for a while? How can I delay this process while on-the-go? 

Jon Issacson asks: What are the most mistakes people make when traveling and trying to stay fit? 

IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, ASK AWAY AMIGO and I’ll be happy to answer ‘em below. If it fits an upcoming topic, I’ll even try to get ya featured on MensFitness.com.

(AND IF YOU JUST WANT TO SAY, “YO ROB…GOOD STUFF”…THAT’S COOL TOO.)

Whether or not we want to admit it, genetics plays an important role in our ability to lose weight (and endomorphs have it, teh, rooough.) With round physiques, high body fat, and a sluggish metabolism, the slightest divergence from a clean diet packs on pounds. This makes getting lean a constant, discouraging fuck-it-I’m-just-gonna-have-a-large-pizza struggle. Plus, our modern culture makes weight gain so easy for all of us. With simple sugars and fried foods on every corner, it’s like the world wants us to be fat.

If you’re an endomorph, you need to face facts: you are insulin dominant, your sympathetic nervous system is sluggish, and your carb tolerance is worse than Oprah. You simply do not have the same genes as the skinny dude who has trouble gaining weight.

Alright. Enough sad news. The silver lining of endomorphia is that your body can pack on lean muscle easier than “hard-gainers.” Embrace your genetics by lifting heavy and keeping your rest periods to a minimum in the weightroom. That means step 1) workouts need to be aggressive.   

Step 2) follow a few simple nutrition and supplementation rules to keep your body from storing excess fat and you’ll soon look more like the Jonah Hill from 21 Jump Street and less like Jonah Hill from Moneyball (*knee slap*.)

Bandana Rule #1: Protein is your  friend

It takes a lot more effort for your body to digest protein than fats or carbs—some evidence suggest that as much as 30% more. This means you can eat 100 calories of protein and your body will only have access to 70. Protein is also essential for building lean muscle which is metabolically active and makes your weight-loss goals more manageable. Use this to your advantage by including lean protein EVERY time you eat. That means eggs for breakfast, turkey for lunch, a post workout  protein shake and beef for dinner. Mmmm.

Bandana Rule #2: Fat is also your  friend

I know this may seem counterintuitive, but eating fat will help make you skinny. Up to 40% of your calories should come from fat. Like all food groups, the type of fat is also important. 1/3 of your fat should come from monounsaturated fats (olive oil, nuts and nut butter, avocado), 1/3 of your fat should come from polyunsaturated fats (some nuts, fish, fish oil, flax seeds), and 1/3 of your fat you come from saturated fats (animal fats—egg, meats, butter—and coconut oil). Don’t get too caught up in the percentages. Instead, focus on including more mono- and polyunsaturated fats, which tend to be lacking in our diets. That means adding olive oils, avocados, and fish oil to a diet high in protein and vegetables.

Bandana Rule #3: Carbs are your  enemy

The only time you should eat starchy and/or sugary carbs is immediately after your workouts. Other than that, avoid starchy/sugary carbs all-together (still eat mounds and mounds of vegetables). Carbs are hard on your body because of your relationship with insulin. Insulin is a hormone that tells your body to absorb glucose (sugar) from the blood and use it as energy. Fat and protein both have very little effect on insulin. Carbohydrates, however, have a profound impact on insulin. The problem is, through a combination of genetics and environmental conditioning, your body isn’t efficient at using insulin to lower blood sugars. Make it easy on your body by not giving yourself sugary or starchy carbohydrates that send your blood sugars and insulin levels bonkers.

The only exception to this is post-workout. Because of a physiological cascade of hormones released during exercise, your body is actually in a good place to process carbohydrates after your workout. In fact, an insulin spike post workout helps switch you into recovery mode. This means you can have carbs post workout, but the rest of the day, no dice.

Bandana Rule #4: Take a fish oil and fiber  supplement

The benefits of fish oil and fiber are numerous and well documented. Fiber adds necessary roughage to your system which helps with hunger levels, digestion, and bowel regulation. Fish oil has a positive effect on your insulin sensitivity. It also fights almost every disease known to man, including the big ones that you may be a more prone to like coronaryheart disease, hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome, and diabetes. Fish oil is also great for cell membrane health, it’s anti-inflammatory, it helps with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and it will make you happier by increasing your serotonin levels and reducing stress and adrenal activation, etc, etc, etc. Basically, it’s awesome for you. Most importantly, both fish oil and fiber will make you leaner.

How much to take?  With fiber, you must gradually increase your intake to prevent gastrointenstinal discomfort. I like the 5x5x5 rule. Start with 5g of fiber in the morning. After 5 days, add 5g more until you reach 30g. Once your body is cool with 30g, then you can get into the fiber cycling (which is also important, as your body gets used to the types of fiber as well). As for fish oil, take 1g per % of body fat. If you’re at 25% body fat, that means 25g per day. Yes, that’s a boat-load of fish oil, but it will make a world of difference. As you get leaner, gradually reduce your fish oil intake. For higher dosage fish oil, liquid is both easier to take and more affordable.

Bandana Rule #5: Pay attention to nutrition timing

You need to eat every 3-4 hours. This will continuously give your metabolism a kick-start, plus you’ll never get the point where your body is famished. This allows your brain, not you belly, to make sound nutrition decisions.

Bandana Rule #6: Eat more vegetables

Yes, vegetables have vitamins and minerals. They’re also packed with phytonutrients which are powerful anti-oxidants and have a strong, beneficial influence upon our hormones. They seem to suppress cancer development, protect our cell’s DNA, and stimulate enzymes that help our body fight disease. Vegetables are also important for balancing out our bodies pH. Veggies provide an alkaline load to the blood which helps neutralize the strong acid created from the breakdown of proteins. Too much acid and not enough base means less bone mass and smaller muscles, no bueno. Bottom line: a strong, lean body needs lots and lots of vegetables.

Bandana Rules Reviewed

Since your relationship to insulin is already troubled, avoid starchy and sugary carbs (except post workout), keep your fats healthy and balanced, and eat lots of lean meats and phytonutritent-packed vegetables. Add a fish oil supplement such as this EPA-DHA 720 blend and a fiber supplement such as Primal Fiber to your routine. And before you know it, the lean, muscly physique underneath your body fat will start to be revealed, you’ll have to get your pants taken in and Grandma “won’t even recognize you”. They say that genetics loads the pistol, but our environment fires the gun. We can’t control our genes, but we can certainly control how they are expressed.

Nothing. For a while. You lift. You get stronger. You improve your diet a bit. You get leaner. You look good. Who needs to stretch? “Stretching is for yoga girls and geriatrics.”

Then you wake up one day and you have a slight pain in your lower back. Nothing major. “Damn,” you say, as you roll out of bed. You instinctively try to stretch it out. Maybe you lean over and touch your toes, which, coincidentally are very far from the tips of your fingers. It helps a bit, so you forget about it.

You keep training. In the weight room, you feel unstoppable. Other dudes whisper in the locker room about how animalistic you are. It feels good. But you start to notice that after sitting all day at work, your lower back is aching. You try to stretch it out. Maybe you put your hands on your lower back and do the old man, hips forward stretch with a bustling sigh. But…the pain lingers. Not the biggest deal though, because once you get warmed up at the gym, things feel A-okay. So you forget about it.

You keep lifting. You keep getting stronger. You can now squat a small automobile, which feels good.

Then it happens

One day you’re doing a deep squat and you feel something tweak in your lower back. It’s hard to get the weight racked.  “Damn it,” you say as ease out from under bar. That hurt. You don’t stretch it out this time because it’s hard to breathe. It feels like you need your spine popped back in place. Something’s wrong.

At this point, most guys credit this to an unlucky break. “Shit happens,” they might say. “Injury is a part of sport.” But, contrary to this brilliant guy wisdom, this could have been avoided.

So what happened here?

From a physiological point of view, the body continuously got tighter and stronger until it lost natural movement at the hips.  Sitting all day reinforced tight hip flexors (namely, the iliacus and psoas) that pulled the pelvis into an anterior pelvic tilt. This caused initial back pain.  But a slew of other muscles also tightened, including the calves, the hamstrings and the adductors which pulled the pelvis down with them during a deep squat. This is called a “tuck under” position and it changes the curvature of the spine. Initially posture went to hell in a hand basket and eventually, under heavy load, the lumbar curve was non-existent which lead to a vertebral herniation.

It is a story that is unfolding all too often in the weight room because guys refuse to work on their mobility. Everything seems good, damn good, until it isn’t. And I get it.  ’Cause mobility work is boring. But the fact remains, if you want to stay pain- and injury-free, having a strong body is only part of that battle. Having a mobile body is also essential.

Get Mobile

The best way to get mobility work into your routine is to take a yoga class once a week. I know. I know. “Yoga is for the birds.” Trust me, it’s worth it. An hour per week of mobility work will make a difference. As an added bonus, yoga classes are full of cute, open-minded, extremely flexible yoga girls. Plus, your presence in any yoga studio will be a welcomed dose of testosterone. I hope.

If adding another workout to your week is absolutely out of the question, I also like what I call Mobility/Intervals. Since interval training is already a part of your routine (it is, right?), use your recovery time (especially between series) to stretch your tightest joints. This helps to break up your mobility work into manageable pieces and allows you to utilize what would otherwise be simple passive recovery.

Your glutes, hamstrings, and hip flexors are likely culprits for your lower body. Your thoracic spine and your lats are a good place to start up top.

The bottom line…in order to stay pain-free and continue your progress towards weight room domination, you need to address your mobility.

*Something sorta like this article was originally posted on MensFitness.com on Jan 18th, 2012.

Let’s get 25 comments on this badboy and I’ll post the exact mobility/interval routine I use (you get some solid mobility-improvement techniques AND an interval routine – DOUBLE VICTORY.)

Inch Worm
Mini band – side step
Marching & skipping

Easy jog – 2-3 minutes

Series 1 - Treadmill Sprint – 30 on, 30 off x 5
Mobility Work – Pigeon (Glutes) – 90-second hold (per side)

Series 2 – Incline Treadmill Sprint – 30 on, 30 off x 5
Mobility Work – Hamstring – 90-second hold (per side)

Series 3 – Force Treadmill Sprint – 50 yards on, 1 min off (x 5)
Mobility Work – Hip flexor - 90-second hold (per side)

Series 4 – Fan Bike – 20s on, 40s off (x 5)
Mobility Work – Thoracic Extensions on the Foam Roller – 2 min.

Note: Make sure you’re good to go after your stretches. Sometimes a muscle needs to “wake up” a bit after an intense stretch to be ready for the subsequent interval series. A little marching, skipping or easy jogging will do the trick.

This is by no means a perfect or exhaustive approach to mobility work; it is the absolute minimum (any less than this and you might as well get on your knees and pray to gods of weightlifting for an injury.) But it’s a good way to take advantage of passive recovery time and make mobility happen.

IF YOU TRY IT, PLEASE SHARE AND LEMME KNOW WHATCHA THINK…

A quick reminder on the science of sleep:

Sleep is divided into two major categories: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep (yes, in REM sleep your eyes rapidly move around like you’re watching a sprightly leprechaun do a shuttle run.) You spend most of the night in NREM sleep and gradually work towards REM sleep every 90 minutes or so. In terms of restorative function, the later stages of sleep is more money but you can only get there if you cycle through the initial stages. That’s why sleep quality is as important as sleep quantity.

So why is sleep so damn important?

You produce most of your growth hormone when you sleep. Growth hormone (GH) is aptly named because it is essential for you to grow. But its benefits aren’t limited to bigger and stronger biceps. GH increases your calcium retention (to help maintain your bone mass), it promotes fat loss, it reduces fat storage, it supports your immune system, and it keeps your organs operating smoothly. So much of your health is depended upon optimal levels of GH which means so much of your health is dependent upon sleep.

GH isn’t the only hormone effected by sleep. Ever go to bed hungry? If you have a full nights sleep, you’ll wake up not hungry. During sleepy-time, the body balances two hunger-controlling hormones – ghrelin and leptin. A study in the journal PLoS Medicine showed a strong correlation between limited sleep, high levels of hunger-inducing Ghrelin, low levels of satisfied-inducing Leptin, and obesity. It turns out, lack of sleep will make you fat.

On a hormonal level, sleep is essential to stack the cards in your favor, but this only touches on the benefits of sleep. We’re still learning how sleep mitigates aging, helps reinforce lessons in the brain, and informs our natural circadian rhymths (our 24 hour physiological process). It’s pretty well understood that optimal sleep levels does wonders for all of this, but we’re still working out the details.

 So what are optimal sleep levels?           

Like nutrition, sleep needs are unique to the individual. Eight hours is NOT the perfect amount of sleep for everyone. But 4 hours is not the  perfect amount of sleep for anyone. For males between the ages of 17-35, the national sleep foundation recommends 7-9 hours. Lifestyle and activity levels play a huge factor – the harder you live, the more sleep you need – so you’ll have to figure out your own personal sweet spot.

Let’s troubleshoot the two most common reasons we DON’T get a full nights sleep…

A) “I don’t have the time.”  Our culture tends to overemphasize the importance of “going”. Most of us don’t sleep enough simply because we feel as though we don’t have the time.  In order for you to change your sleep habits, you need to change this perspective. Sleep isn’t when you’re not living.  It’s actually when you’re living better.

B) “I’m not tired at night.”  If you’re wired at night, here are a few things to consider:

1)  Take a look at your sleep environment.  Try reducing ambient light and noise as much as possible (if you wake up in the middle of the night, you shouldn’t be able to see your hand in front of your face).  That means getting some decent blinds and covering up the blinking green lights on your modem.

Dos) Develop a nighttime ritual.  It may sound cheesy, but the body loves repetition.  A half hour before you want to fall asleep, turn the lights down, get into your Superman PJ’s (no? only me?), and read some easy fiction.  It’s a great way to let the worries of the day fade away and prepare the body for sleep.

Drei)  If you can, go to bed every night and wake up every morning at the same time.  You set your inner alarm clock (the aforementioned circadian rhymth).  It really does work like a charm.

Sleep is at the foundation of strong and healthy living.  The more we learn about sleep, the more we understand its importance.  Bandana Training’s take home message – if you want to get shredded, strong, and awesome…keep dreaming my friend.

*Something like this article was originally published on MensFitness.com on Feb 27th, 2012.

Works Cited: Cause I’m legit like that.

Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. “Short Sleep Duration Is Associated with Reduced Leptin, Elevated Ghrelin, and Increased Body Mass Index”. PLoS Med. 1 (3): e62. http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0010062 12 Feb 2012.

“How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?”  National Sleep Foundation.  <http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need> 12 Feb 2012.

Curious about an incredibly powerful all natural supplement that will absolutely knock you out and help you sleep like a baby? I take it every night and it’s fundamentally changed my sleep. IF WE GET 42 COMMENTS ON THIS FELLA, I’LL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT AND WHY IT WORKS.

So often, we allow the mirror to answer this question and dictate our training emphasis—chest, biceps, abs. It’s the “beach workout” and the reason most of us go to the gym—to look good naked. But there are two fundamental problems with this:

ONE) Posture slowly goes to hell in a hand-basket. Overdeveloped mirror-muscles will internally rotate and slouch the shoulders and upper back and you’ll end up looking like a depressed gorilla.

B) The mirror muscles will eventually stop growing. It’s crazy, but the body is smart. So smart, in fact, that it will actually prevent a muscle from developing if the antagonist is too weak. Even if your workout is perfect and your nutrition is perfect, your body won’t grow because it knows that you can’t handle the additional strength. Foiled again by the body’s magnificent survival mechanisms.

Knowing this, here are some exercises that you’ve been neglecting that will help address your posture and help you make progress in the weight room:

External Rotation

Your two primary external rotators are your infraspinatus and your teres minor. These are relatively small muscles that sit on top of your scapula (shoulder blade) and attach to the outside of the humerus (upper arm). When your arm is at your side and you externally rotate, the infraspinatus does most of the work. When your arm is lifted 90 degrees at your side and you externally rotate, the teres minor does most of the work. Both of these muscles are extremely important for shoulder strength and stability as well as continued development of your favorite internal rotators—the good ol’ pecs. If your bench press has hit a plateau, try adding single arm seated external rotations to your routine. Keep your tempo slow and add a pause in the bottom position to make sure you’re properly engaging your external rotators and not throwing the weight up with extraneous movement.

(handsome devil)

Lower Trap

Many of us are upper trap dominant. Check your shoulders right now. I bet they’re elevated. When we sit, when we read, when we’re cold and when we watch M. Night Shyamalan movies our shoulders have a tendency to elevate. It’s a natural protective mechanism. But in order to maintain good posture and at least appear to the world to have some semblance of confidence, we want our chest forward and our shoulders down and back. The lower portion of the trap, sometimes referred to as the Trap 3, needs to be strengthened in order to do this. Add bent over Trap 3 work to your routine to help maintain proper alignment. While leaning over an incline bench, relax your arm to your side, slowly shrug your shoulders up and continue the movement by raising the dumbbell overhead. Like the external rotation, I find that these superset well with an upper body push exercise or a lower body exercise.

(Honestly, that kid is really good looking.)

Neck

Our necks are simply weak. Slouched, forward-head posture is epidemic and, while it has a lot to do with the pelvis, weak necks certainly aren’t helping the issue. Because we sit at a desk all day and lean in towards our computer screens, our neck is very rarely parked in proper alignment. This craned neck is so common that there’s a universally recognized condition called “Computer Neck Syndrome.”

To retain/regain a proper range of motion in your upper back and neck, address your thoracic mobility by foam-rolling your upper back before your workouts. At the end of your workout, add some standing isometric neck work against a wall to maintain your neck strength. Make sure you have perfect alignment by keeping your chin tucked and pressing the back of your head against the wall (not the top of your head). Use a mat or pillow if the wall hurts. Do 3 minutes of total work, divided into as many sets as needed. As you continue to strengthen your neck, you can walk father away from the wall. Eventually you’ll need to move to a physioball, but be sure to progress gradually.

(Yep. …Still a stud muffin.)

We all want to look good in the mirror, no doubt. But you can’t build a temple on a shaky foundation. If you want your pretty-boy muscles to continue to grow and you want to display them on a frame that is aligned and well-postured, be sure to work on your external rotators, lower trap and neck.

*Something sorta like this article was originally published on MensFitness.com on Jan 26th, 2012.

LET’S GET TO 20 COMMENTS AND I’LL UPDATE THIS TO INCLUDE MY NEW FAVORITE AUXILIARY LIFT – WHICH IS A GAME CHANGER WHEN IT COMES TO POSTURE.