15 Extreme Celebrity Fitness Transformations
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'Raw' Recap: Roman Reigns Gets Ambushed by Braun Strowman
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Braun Strowman isn't used to losing. So it's no surprise he wasn't too happy about getting powerslammed by Roman Reigns and his “Shield” teammates last week. On this week's episode of Raw, Reigns immediately called Strowman out, mocking him for his lack of WWE championships. He then taunted Strowman to cash in his Money in the Bank contract. But Strowman didn't bite. Instead of having to deal with another assault at the hands of “The Shield,” he told Roman he'd face him in one place where Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins can't help him: Inside a steel cage at Hell in a Cell next month. The two came to an agreement and shook on it. Shortly afterward, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre showed up in the ring, claiming that they needed new competition after their constant bouts with Seth Rollins. Strowman and Reigns formed a temporary alliance to take on Ziggler and McIntyre—or so it seemed. When the match started later on in the night, it appeared to be a fairly typical tag-team match. Ziggler and McIntyre seemed to have an upper hand against Reigns, who finally tried to tag in Strowman. And that's where everything went off the rails.
Instead of helping Reigns, Strowman refused to be tagged in and let Ziggler and McIntyre beat on him, causing the match to end in disqualification. When Ambrose and Rollins ran in to help their comrade, Ziggler and McIntyre came to Strowman's aid to dispose of the entire “Shield.” Only time will tell if Strowman's alliance with Ziggler and McIntyre is as temporary as his team-up with Reigns—but one thing's for sure: Strowman knows how to get even with his opponents.
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4 Tips for Your First Strongman Competition
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The Tao of Eating - One Size Doesn't Fit All
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J, who I commonly use as my guinea pig in the gym is a vegetarian. He originally was, like me, an omnivore. Culture playing a large role in dietary choice, the West Indies provided fertile ground for a wide variety of foods; animal and plant alike. Once J’s son was born, however, the once convenient omnivorous lifestyle needed to be discarded; his son had a laundry list of food allergies. As a supportive and proactive father, he changed his nutrition to an ovo-lacto vegetarian one. However, as he progressed in his fitness journey he hit a plateau that wasn’t remedied by a change in mechanical stimulus (namely resistance training).
In this article, I will detail out what nutrition is and isn’t, things that contribute to nutrition, resources that will assist your decisions, and how being a more adaptive eater and feeder may impact your training.
Please keep in mind that my intention in writing this article is not to change any viewpoints regarding nutrition with respect to religious values, moral and ethical codes. This is purely informational in intent and application.
What Is Nutrition?Nutrition, according to the World Health Organization is: “the intake of food, considered in relation to the body’s dietary needs. Good nutrition–an adequate, well-balanced diet combined with regular physical activity–is a cornerstone of good health. Poor nutrition can lead to reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development, and reduced productivity.”
So, from this understanding nutrition is the what, where, how, and why with regard to ingestion of nutrients. Nutrients are: “any substance that plants or animals need to grow.” Why you eat should be based on the nutrients your body needs to survive and thrive, in whatever environment it exists in for the sake of a healthy lifestyle. Nutrition, by this definition, should be adaptive. The what, how, and where is based on what foods are available to you in your community.
The Role of MacronutrientsTo preface this conversation, I will talk about the calorie as Dan Benardot, PhD, RD, FACS would. “In physics, the calorie is a measurement of energy, with 1 calorie representing the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. In nutrition, the term calorie is 1,000 times this amount, so it is referred to as a kilocalorie (kcal).” Which, for the sake of this article, we will talk about caloric intake and values with respect to kcals.
Macronutrients are essential nutrients that must be obtained from food and have a large daily minimum requirement. These are proteins, carbohydrates, fat, and water. Macronutrients have subunits with respective calorie count which are as follows:
The Role of MicronutrientsMicronutrients are essential nutrients that are needed in lesser amounts than their big brother macro counterparts, however, despite the lower amount needed, they play as much a vital role to biochemical processes in the body. This isn’t school, so I won’t detail out every process they partake in, but, I will list the nutrients and their key role in the body. For as we all know, without them you eventually can die.
Vitamins - Fat Soluble You need fatty tissue and the liver to absorb them, yes, your 10% body fat has a use.
1. Vitamin A - Retinol, Carotenoids
2. Vitamin D - Cholecalciferol
3. Vitamin E - Tocopherol
4. Vitamin K - Phylloquinone, Menaquinones
Vitamins- Water Soluble 1. Vitamin C- Ascorbic Acid
2. Vitamins B1, 2, 6, 12
3. Folate - Folic Acid
Major Minerals 1. Sulfur
2. Magnesium
3. Calcium
Minor Minerals
Obtain these nutrients from food, as much as you can. Take powders and pills if you have deficiencies and or have difficulty absorbing and or retaining certain vitamins and minerals, getting sufficient protein, etc.
The unfortunate truth is that most of our food is stripped of its nutrients (Okinawan rice versus American rice as an example), and so the multivitamin industry can make lots of money as a result. Like any supplement industry, it preys on the lack of information that people have and makes their products appetizing. What people do not realize is that these synthetic goods can tax the liver and kidneys because it’s not being broken down through proper chemical processes and often it is excreted in urine.
Factors That Contribute to Nutrition
The Psychology of EatingAccording to Ellyn Satter: “1) positive attitudes about eating and about food, 2) food acceptance skills that support eating an ever-increasing variety of the available food, 3) internal regulation skills that allow intuitively consuming enough food to give energy and stamina and to support stable body weight, and 4) skills and resources for managing the food context and orchestrating family meals.”
I believe people underestimate the value of separating these distinct concepts. Eating to live means to eat foods that are nutrient dense and satisfy the metabolic needs of the body in addition to its health needs. Health needs include, but are not limited to, recommended daily intake within the parameters of your food sensitivities or disease-specific meal plans.
Living to eat is, mindless eating and lacking a regulation in eating. Not only must one be mindful of the food they eat, they must be fully present in eating. Instead of eating in rapid succession to complete another bowl, wait a few minutes between having another serving to determine if you’re hungry. Savor food and enjoy it.
Nutrition for Competition and AthleticsEating to prepare one’s body for the rigor of a competition such as bodybuilding, everything matters. One can become so ingrained in the thought process of calculations that sometimes we forget to enjoy the process of eating—it shouldn’t become a chore. It shouldn’t be defined as “junk versus clean” but often this is the common sentiment among athletes. This play on nutrient timing, nutrient profiles, and the like may provide scholarly information but can (unless checked) cause obsessive-compulsive behaviors which can interfere with everyday sociability.
Athletics emphasizes being an optimal body weight and body composition for a role in a sport. This lends itself to each athlete having an individualized meal plan. This also allows us to understand how individual plans yield necessary and unique results. Adaptive eating yields the greatest rewards and does not have much (if any) psychological damage to the person. When we eat, dopamine and serotonin, amongst other hormones, are released. Our hippocampus remembers the feeling that we have of enjoying certain foods and when. Next time you’re with your friends or with your teammates, learn to love being cognizant of what you eat and take time to be present at the table.
Why Diet?Dieting is, in a nutshell, a form of restrictive eating that serves a specific purpose. The purposes may include but are not limited to, weight loss, weight gain, competition, reversing disease, etc.
Some pros to dieting may include ease of regulation and or supervision of caloric intake, regulating body composition, regulating metabolism, decreasing or increasing hormonal activity, the motivation to try new foods.
On the other hand, cons to dieting include restriction of macro and micronutrients, capacity for obsession, creating food sensitivities due to prolonged absence of certain food groups, emotional eating, metabolic yo-yoing, unintentional weight loss or weight gain, amongst other things.
Types of DietsYou name it there is a diet that describes what you’re doing right now. Unfortunately, most (not all) diets are bullshit. Like the idea of muscle confusion being unwarranted, dietary confusion needn’t be added to the mix.
Dieting is a choice, nothing more. If you’re healthy you needn’t follow a diet especially if your goal isn’t specific or addresses a problem. Diets cannot and should not be sustained for the remainder of your life. In the first scenario, stagnation and plateaux occur, your body no longer responds in a way that best benefits your current goals. Instead of turning back to food, its most common to turn to supplementation without a thorough understanding of what they do.
Nutrition reigns supreme were dieting does not. Adapt as your body does.
Nutritional Impacts on TrainingGiven that we learned the importance of food, how it affects us and the ways to eat. The important take away here will be how to apply it to training.
Exercise without excess is beneficial. It stresses the body mechanically and biochemically. As far as nutrition is concerned cortisol, the stress hormone, is released. The longer we exercise the longer it has an effect metabolically. Cortisol breaks down fat, protein, and glycogen to produce glucose for active tissues.
It begs the question, that if we do not have enough resources to fuel our work out what occurs? If our resources are specific, how do we adapt to meet our bodies demands?
Adaptive eating isn’t some new fad or craze that I’m trying to employ. We do it every day when we are limited to the foods in our community or something that requires less prep time, yet yields exactly what the body needs.
When it comes to training, we need to consider things such as:
For example, on a typical day, J works 9 to 6 and chooses to head to the gym after work. He is vegetarian, therefore his protein sources are more limited, and furthermore, he is carbohydrate sensitive so having foods low on the glycemic index scale is important. In addition, there is a great need to sustain him throughout the day until his post-workout meal, so we also need to consider slower digesting carbs such as brown rice, dark chocolate, or beans. Combining them with protein to give an even slower release as he works a labor-intensive job, but adding faster-digesting carbs when his day picks up such as an egg sandwich with avocado and white bread.
We need to consider his protein need. As a 90kg guy who trains four times a week, the grams of protein needed per kg of body weight is different from a person who is sedentary or does not workout at all. We have a rule of thumb for your average person at 0.8g/kg whereas the more athletic you are it can bump up to 1.5g/kg so that’s already 135g protein per day. However, this slows down carbs and as he gets closer to his gym-time he should be getting something easier to digest so his stomach is virtually empty by his warm up set.
Males in comparison to females have a urethra that is longer thus urine has a longer travel time and the bladder can store urine for longer periods of time (not including urinary and or prostate issues). Therefore, the water need is slightly greater in men than in women. For men, 3.7L is what is recommended per day in comparison to 2.7L in women. However, some people have a tolerable level of water per day which is physiological and psychological response to water loading. J loves drinking a gallon a day so no problems here. In so far as training, however, the notorious water belly, is something we need to pay attention to as this disturbs the ability to create intraabdominal pressure during a lift.
J doesn’t enjoy caffeinated products, but if he did, caffeine has a role of being a diuretic and a major vasodilator so maintaining, that high volume of water as he’s sweating throughout the day becomes a game of sensitivity to caffeine. If he has a high sensitivity, this means it will linger in his system and have a longer lasting diuretic effect. In so far as blood pressure, higher amounts of caffeine during a workout can be beneficial to shunting blood to active tissues, but in persons with cardiac issues it should be avoided, luckily J is not one of these people.
Post workout nutrition plays a key role in gaining muscle, its retention, and/or loss. Some may need a higher antioxidant and electrolyte demand in addition to carb load and protein load. Understanding how this plays a role in muscle anabolism or muscle building will provide a much greater outcome for the long term.
Learn How to Balance Your CaloriesBeing able to calculate your basal metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure makes caloric balancing so much easier. Body Mass Index (BMI) is also important with regard to making sure you stay healthy. However, performance, immediate changes in body composition, how you feel from training session to the next, taking stock of stress levels, and the like qualitatively present a better indicator of progress than just your BMI alone.
Training intensity, which is expressed as the taxation on the nervous system, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and respiratory system along with length of time determine the energy need of your body. Understanding that larger muscle groups require more energy to move and grow (amongst other things), will help with detailing out a meal plan.
Adapting based on these parameters will allow you to customize how you nourish your body.
Fitness via Breaking Muscle https://ift.tt/1GxgPEe August 28, 2018 at 09:40AM
Dave Bautista’s Top 10 WWE Moments
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 28, 2018 at 08:51AM
The New CrossFit Games - What About the Dottirs?
https://ift.tt/2PMPUlp One thing we know about the new CrossFit Games restructuring is that we know very little. There has been a single article posted in The Morning Chalk Up that quotes Greg Glassman and presents his new vision for how the Games will be structured henceforth.
It’s not clear when the conversation took place, to whom it was provided, and other than “Glassman said in a call earlier today,” we don’t know if this is official policy, 2019 rulebook law, or Glassman’s off-the-cuff remarks in an interview that was supposed to be about other things.
We’ve not heard from Dave Castro, and as of this writing, his Instagram account appears to be offline. There’s been no official statement from the CrossFit Games, no mention of it on the CrossFit website, nothing.
So really, the massive buzz that is floating about on the various social media channels is - at this moment in time - much ado about nothing. Relax everybody!
Let’s ImagineFor the sake of discussion, however, let’s assume that the details of the article are essentially correct. Let’s consider the Open and the Games will be ostensibly the same.
Apparently, every country who has an affiliate will crown “Fittest In Country.” Whoever is the fittest in any given country after the 5-week Open will go to the Crossfit Games.
Let that sink in folks. After a 5-week online qualifier, every country will have a fittest male and female, and those people will get an invitation to the Games. At the moment, CrossFit has affiliates in roughly 162 countries. What this means is that after the Open, 324 people, one male and one female from each country, will get an invite to the CrossFit Games?
This model is rife with holes. First off, the CrossFit Games purports to want to find the fittest person on earth. As such, it seems necessary to have a continuously narrowing funnel - brackets if you will - through which each successive chapter of events narrows the field.
The Open/Regionals/Games process has done that fairly well - as is evidenced by the fairly similar top 10 males and females who’ve finished at games level in the past three years. Narrow it to one per country, however - now you have one Dottir, either Toomey or Saunders but not both, but more than that - there is one affiliate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
So the USA is going to send one male and one female to the Games, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is, as well. There is a single affiliate there. So will the affiliate's coaches be the CrossFit Games representatives?
I get that this has more of an Olympics kind of flavor to it, but the Olympics is not seeking to crown the fittest on earth. If this system is initiated, there will be lots, and I mean lots, of CrossFit games athletes who couldn’t even win a local competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, let alone a regional competition.
What About Tonga?The main issue here is simply the data points being tested. You can’t have a conclusive result without repeated tests of the data. The Open in the Congo with one affiliate is a single data point that is now going to be given the same weight as the data coming out of the US where there are thousands of affiliates, and the results will rumors the same. Bad idea.
As a result, the data will be skewed going in. The pool will be polluted if the sample sizes are too small to produce meaningful data.
But much worse will be the cheating. We know that bro-reps and long-shot video angles can be pervasive in the Open, but heretofore, those bad reps only got you over a bubble and any embarrassing weaknesses where exposed at regionals. If it means a games berth, forget-about-it.
And, since CFHQ in their infinite wisdom handed Brooke Wells a mulligan on her handstand push-up video, how on earth are they going to start holding winners to standard now that they have set the bar at “capacity to do work” instead of “actual work performed?” And if you think it’s not possible to game HSPU lines, camera angles, editing, filtering and much more, you are mistaken.
In addition to that, the question then needs to be asked:
The Open will occur in February, according to the news, for the 2019 Games, then repeat in October. Which leads to:
RegionalsFrom the sound of it, Regionals are gone. In their place, CrossFit will effectively co-opt 16 of the world’s leading functional fitness competitions like Wodapalooza, The Granite Games, and some of the other big competitions that have remained in place.
Ironic, in a way, because CFHQ has adamantly disavowed these competitions quite heartily for years - “Don’t call them CrossFit competitions. CrossFit has nothing to do with the OC Throwdown.” - now it is set to provide oversight, staffing and more so that the winners of these competitions can also get an invite.
In other words - did you miss the women’s top Open spot by two points in Albania? No problem! Register for Wodapalooza, win that, and you get to go to the games. There’s your regional competition.
However, it is doubtful that all of these competitions will have the same format - some two days, some three, some barbell heavy, some gymnastics heavy. Some cardio focused, others skill focused.
Oy. Talk about your data points being skewed. Now you have a CrossFit Game made up of athletes who’ve all taken different tests. That’s all well and good, but again, it pollutes your pool and essentially renders the title “Fittest on Earth” rather flat.
It appears as though the opportunities will still be plentiful, but the value of the Games-level competitors may be diluted.
I Get It.I understand where CFHQ is coming from on this. I know they want to focus on health, not the .01% that makes up the CrossFit Games athlete pool. But I hate to break it to them - the reason they have the outrageous growth is due to the games. I was there when it was a garage, underground, cultish program, and I watched as the games transitioned from the Aromas to The Stub Hub center - as ESPN picked it up, as the media grew more savvy, as the prize money raised, as the production grew, ad infinitum. I can assure you that the explosion in growth of affiliates is directly correlated to the popularity and associated marketing benefit of the Games.
Everybody wanted to be like them. So CFHQ should at least gauge the pulse of what has fed its explosive growth and give credit where credit is due. While I understand that Greg Glassman wants to cure sickness and ill health, he has his enormous platform in part because Dave Castro delivers a hell of a show.
The Games may lose money - true - but we call that a loss-leader in business.
Does This Take the Gloss Off?In a way, up to this point, if you earned your way to the CrossFit Games through a grueling year of training, putting yourself through hell in the Open, traveling to Regionals, getting on the podium, and making it to the Games, you were part of an elite class of athletes. You earned it. You were the 1%. That had value.
Now, if you show up at the Games and you’re amongst some guy from Bavaria where an affiliate just opened who are sending their two best athletes who just learned kipping pull-ups. Can this be real? I can’t imagine this is how it’s going to be, but it appears so. In that case, is it really that exciting anymore?
Do you want to qualify for the games by winning the Wodapalooza? I don’t know. It seems...cheaper.
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Sylvester Stallone Is Fitter Than Ever During 'Rambo 5' Training
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officialslystallone / Instagram
Sylvester Stallone has been a fitness icon for decades, and he doesn't plan on slowing down any time soon. His Instagram feed is full of workout videos and motivational posts, and he's been going harder than ever in preparation for the next installment in the Rambo franchise. Stallone will reprise his role as seasoned Vietnam War veteran John Rambo in the much-anticipated film, and he's been training with celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson to get in top shape for the action flick. In a recent post, he shared a video of himself flipping a tire during a workout with Brad Siskind, a trainer at Peterson's gym. "Getting ready for Rambo," Stallone captioned the post. "Also just because you’ve REACHED a certain age doesn’t mean you have to FEEL that age! Keep pumping, keep punching!" At 72, the longtime action-movie star is in killer shape, and he makes throwing a 250-pound tire around look like no big deal. No matter your age, that's an impressive move to master. Stallone also took to Instagram on Sunday to share a throwback from his Rambo 2 training days, reminding everyone why he's been such a physique inspiration for so long.
If the old-school bodybuilding training equipment and Sly's ridiculously jacked arms don't make you want to hit the gym today, we don't know what will. Follow Stallone on Instagram at @officialslystallone. [RELATED1]
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 27, 2018 at 12:34PM
9 Foods That Make You Bloated
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UFC Welterweight Champ Tyron Woodley's Title-Card Workout
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Per Bernal
Tyron Woodley has spent the past decade becoming one of the top draws in mixed martial arts—first as an up-and-coming rookie in 2005, then as a UFC contender in 2013, and since 2016, as UFC welterweight champion. Early on, T-Wood kept fans on the edge of their seats. His versatility, jaw-dropping athleticism, and knockout power put asses in chairs and opponents to the canvas. At press time, he had an 18-3 record, with 11 finishes (submission, knockout, technical knockout), but he began losing favor with fans after claiming UFC gold last year. MMA fans don’t pony up to watch boring fighters, and the UFC doesn’t put together fight cards that generate lackluster ticket sales or pay-per-view buy rates. This, unfortunately, connects to Woodley because the past three title defenses have been certified duds. At his last fight, at UFC 214 last July, he and Demian Maia set a record for least amount of strikes thrown in a championship bout with a measly 86. Post-fight, outspoken UFC president Dana White opined: “Who would pay to see Tyron Woodley fight?” [RELATED2] At UFC 228 on Sept. 8, Woodley is set to fight undefeated Darren “the Gorilla” Till (17-0)—a brawler 11 years his junior and arguably the most hyped this side of Conor McGregor. It’ll be T-Wood’s first bout since having a partially torn labrum on his right shoulder repaired 14 months ago. Whether ring rust will be an issue has yet to be seen, but even more important is whether a young, hungry contender will spoil his comeback. “Shit, I’m that older fighter now,” Woodley says. “I have to channel that young punk and remember what he was willing to do and sacrifice to get to where I am now.” In truth, a Till win does more than unseat the champ; it catapults him into a new tier of fighter, with the opportunity to snatch much bigger purses. On the other hand, a Woodley win secures the title but doesn’t strengthen his case “to solidify myself as the greatest welterweight of all time.” What will do that now is a string of high-profile victories. However, what could have accomplished that already was a win over MMA legend Georges St-Pierre. When GSP came out of retirement in 2017 to fight for (and win) the middleweight belt, rumors of a GSP-Woodley matchup circulated. Ultimately, the fight would never happen, since “Rush” was forced to vacate his title to deal with medical complications due to ulcerative colitis, and there’s no guarantee he’ll make another return. So after Woodley’s last snooze of a fight, he had the surgery and spent the better part of 2018 recovering, which included a rigorous physical therapy regimen, stem cell injections, and even platelet-rich plasma (PRP) shots—the latter two being methods to speed up the rebuilding process of skeletal muscle to accelerate healing. During this time he stayed visible to fans, appearing on Fox as an analyst for UFC Tonight. He also took on an acting gig in Escape Plan 2 and even tried stand-up comedy. Whether those things became a distraction and whether his right hand still packs the same punch are up for debate, but Woodley remains upbeat. “I have to be confident,” he says. “My right hand is my moneymaker.” [RELATED1] Though it seems as if the champion is backed up against the wall and fighting to stay relevant in a young man’s game, it’d be unwise to count Woodley out. Along with being a world-class wrestler with a whip-fast right hand and a savvy fight IQ, he’s also in familiar territory, because he’s been fighting his entire life. Woodley wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth or golden gloves on his hands. He and his 12 siblings were raised by a single mom in a high-crime, drug-riddled neighborhood in Ferguson, MO. Despite those pitfalls, Woodley never allowed his environment to dictate his path. He instead relied on hard work and dedication and fought his way to becoming an All-American high school and collegiate wrestler and the first-ever Big 12 wrestling champ while attending the University of Missouri. In 2005, he began his MMA career, and by the time he made his UFC debut in 2013, Woodley had a 12-1 record, with eight wins coming by way of knockout or submission. In the big leagues, he made his presence known with first-round knockout wins over Jay Heiron, Josh Koscheck, Dong Hyun Kim, and then–welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. At UFC 228, the end result will likely set up one of two scenarios for Woodley: help him to reestablish himself as the premier welterweight, or force an aging fighter to reestablish himself as a contender. Judging by the past, smart money would bet on the former, because despite his moniker of “the Chosen One,” greatness was never left to chance for Tyron Woodley—it was a choice. [RELATED3] Snapshot
Woodley's Training RegimenWoodley has come a long way since his days as a wrestler at the University of Missouri, where he worked out with one goal in mind: to move as much weight as possible. “When I first got to Mizzou, everyone did the same football lifts—Olympic lifts, squats, bench presses, and deadlifts,” Woodley says. For those of you wondering, yes, T-Wood is as strong as he looks. At 165 pounds, he squatted 425 pounds for five reps, benched 365 for five, and deadlifted “600 or 605...something crazy.” An elite athlete to boot, he also boasted a 43-inch vertical jump. Those days are long in the past. Now Woodley forgoes heavy weights altogether and focuses on his agility—with ladder and band work—and conditioning. “Now I don’t need to be underneath anything more than 185 to 200 pounds,” he explains. “I don’t need more muscle. I need endurance. I need explosion. I need quick feet. So that’s why I’m hitting the agility ladder, pushing a sled, doing sprints, and slamming the medicine ball. These are the things that I can do and still perform at 100 percent.” Below is one of the full-body workouts Woodley used to prep for UFC 228. Win or lose, he no doubt was in the best damn shape he’s ever been in. Woodley's Title-Card WorkoutPerform exercises marked with the same number back-to-back, with no rest in between. After each circuit/superset is complete, adhere to the prescribed rest time.
Rest 45 sec.
Rest 45 sec.
Rest 45 sec.
Rest 60 sec.
Rest 45 sec. *Begin each set with a 5-second isometric hold at the top. **Perform 20 lateral raises, then 20 front raises, then 20 more lateral raises with light dumbbells. (Woodley uses 10 to 15 pounds.) [RELATED4]
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 27, 2018 at 10:26AM
I Trained Like a Strongman for Four Months. Here’s What Happened
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Erica Schultz
My descent from fit to flabby started after I met a woman in late 2016 named Thirsty (obviously that’s not her Christian name). Though fun and funny, outgoing and erudite, she never hit the gym and dined out nightly—and regularly encouraged me to do the same. I quickly found myself adopting those habits as a result of sticking with her and lost myself in the process. Well, I gained some things, too—an empty wallet and about 30 pounds. After about six months of off-and-on again chaos, I broke it off. But losing the girl didn’t lose the weight, and I didn’t ditch the bad habits right away, either. In the aftermath of the breakup, the weight gain and my inability to snap out of bad habits began to pile onto my psyche and take its toll. My focus at work—and in general—faded. I stayed home more and more, neglecting the gym, sleeping too much, watching YouTube, and lying in bed staring at the ceiling. I stopped returning texts and calls to my buddies. My drinking became less social. I felt stuck. It wasn’t until last September in LaGuardia Airport, as I was waiting to board a plane for Las Vegas to cover the Olympia Weekend (think Comic-Con for the uber-fit) that I impulsively made the decision to force myself out of my rut. I was chowing down on a bacon, egg, and cheese, feeling my waistband expand with every grease-drenched bite. Bloated, tired, and mildly depressed, I scoured the internet for local Strongman events in or around NYC. I found one scheduled for January 20 and signed up before I had a chance to talk myself out of it or process what I had just gotten myself into. Naturally, I knew training for the event would involve lifting heavy stuff, but as I’d come to find out, it’s way more involved (and expensive) than that. SLOVENLY TO STRONGThe realization that I had just four months to go from pudgy to powerful hit me hard, so I wasted no time and turned to my two friends, Ian Engel and Andrew Triana, both of whom are strength coaches and competitive Strongmen. Engel would handle all of my training, and Triana took care of my nutrition and lifestyle changes. But before I could dive into my Strongman-focused training, Engel suggested that I build up my base strength before really digging in—yes, I was that out of shape. [RELATED1] There are three main strength sports. Powerlifting, where lifters test their absolute strength by maxing out their bench press, squat, and deadlift. Then there are Olympic weightlifters, who train to be supremely powerful as they have to drive weight from the floor to overhead in the clean and jerk and snatch. Strongman, on the other hand, requires a more diverse arsenal of assets, including conditioning and coordination. In any given contest—which consists of five events—you may have to work up to a one-rep max deadlift, then press a 200-plus pound log overhead for as many reps as possible in a minute, and then load five increasingly heavy stones to different height platforms in succession for time. In other words, you have to be both athletic and strong. And I had barely seen the inside of a gym in months. To get my strength up to par, I followed the Hepburn Method, performing only the bench press, front squat, deadlift, and overhead press for two months. No cardio and no accessory work. Here’s how the program works: I’d perform six sets of two reps and two sets of three reps with 85% of my one-rep-max (1RM). Afterward, I’d reduce the load to 60% of my 1RM and perform three sets of seven. Each week, I’d add one rep to two of my main sets until I was performing eight sets of three with the same weight, and then one rep to my lighter sets until I was doing three sets of eight. Out of the gym, Triana implemented a series of guidelines I was to follow:
After two months my weight stayed the same, but I resembled the letter O a little less. I felt mentally clearer, was sleeping like a damn baby, and had a regimen that forced structure—something I realized my life before was lacking. Of course, complete change doesn’t happen overnight, and I’d be remiss not to mention that I occasionally caved and chowed-down on junk food and imbibed on a few brews. Once Engel gave me the nod of approval, I started his program, which you can find here. My back felt like it was walloped by a baseball bat the day after my first session, but shit didn’t get real until I started training my actual Strongman events. For me, those were the max deadlift, max clean and press reps with a log, a farmer carry and duck walk medley (for time), a max hussafel carry (for distance), and keg over bar (for reps). Unsure what most of that means? I was, too. To get acquainted with these foreign objects, I hauled my ass to Mt. Vernon New York once per week for eight weeks to train at Mount Vernon Barbell. Between the travel and the gym fee ($10), JUST training events over the course of eight weeks cost me $208 and 32 hours of time. It was a real kick in the Atlas stones. After my first day of loading kegs over a bar, pressing a log, and performing all sorts of brutal loaded carries, I was toast. [RELATED2] The next day I learned that Strongman brings on a different type of pain. I woke to find my inner arms covered in deep, painful purple bruises, and that my shins and ankles were cut up from the dangling plates of the duck walk. Bonus injuries: Both my Achilles tendons hurt to the point that I walked funny, I felt unrelenting pressure in my lower back, and my nose was banged up from pushing the log too close to my face when I drove it overhead. Concerned, I consulted Engel. His response: “Dude, it’s Strongman. Stop bitching about it.” Cool. Despite my initial concern, I’ll admit that the attention I got from co-workers and friends regarding my battered physique made me feel badass. To me, it was the first sign that I was shedding my soft, weak exterior and budding into an actual competitor. After that first day in Mt. Vernon, I couldn’t get enough—it was love at first bruise. JUDGMENT DAYThe rest of the training passed pretty quickly, and before I knew it I was in the musty basement of a convention center in White Plains, NY waiting for my competition--NY Strong-est Man & Woman 5— to start. Excited, full of egg sandwiches (what goes around comes around), and wearing more spandex than should be acceptable, I warmed up for my first event: the max deadlift. For my third and final attempt, I gave 485 a go, which was 50 pounds heavier than my all-time best. Hyped up by the atmosphere and the presence of my friends and family, I managed to move the bar. As it ascended closer to the lockout position, the pressure in my head was so great that I felt as though I was going to pass out—I couldn’t see a foot in front of me. The lift was good and enough for fifth place (out of 21 competitors). I failed to get the 205-pound log overhead, but I did go on to place top five again in the farmer carry (250-pound per hand)/duck walk (300 pounds) medley, moving both implements 120ft in 21 seconds. Better than two top-five placings, though, were the people I was competing with. All of my fellow competitors were altruistic dudes who were happy for me when I did well, always down to offer form pointers, and supportive as hell when I underperformed. Case in point: I bombed during the hussafel carry, which had me lugging a 250-pound steel coffin-shaped implement back and forth until failure, first place going to whoever covered the most distance. Pissed off and caught up in wanting to crack the top three, I stomped around in a bad mood until one of the other guys slapped me on the back and offered me some constructive criticism along with a handful of gummy bears.
Erica Schultz
After that, I was ready to tackle my last event—keg over bar. I’ll keep it short: I placed in the middle of the pack and ended up in 13th place. I wasn’t thrilled. But on the bright side, I set personal records in every event, made a few new friends, turned my dad—who initially thought this whole venture was a big waste of time—into a fan of Strongman, and unearthed a passion for competing that, honestly, I never thought was in me. I’ll admit that diving headfirst into this challenge scared the crap out of me. I was worried that, in giving up happy hours and my nights out with friends, I’d lose what I perceived to be my freedom to have fun. Committing to the process, though, made me realize that the things I associated with fun were the very things that stopped me from experiencing growth—both physically and as a budding adult. The reality is that indulging in those “fun” events only brought short-term enjoyment. And in the long term, they brought on a dwindling bank account and a growing gut. Both of which weighed heavily on my mind, and, as a result, I lost sleep. I lost friends. I lost sight of who I was. Now I’m in the midst of preparing for the same show but a year later, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve lost even more weight, strengthened my friendships with my fellow strongmen, and found balance in my life. And if you’re wondering—yeah, I still hit up the occasional happy hour or throw back some brews with my buddies. The only difference is that now I’m strong enough to handle it.
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 27, 2018 at 08:39AM |
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November 2020
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