7 Diet Mistakes That Cause Weight Gain
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8 Natural Beauty Products for Flawless Skin
https://ift.tt/2L3f3rm Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 29, 2019 at 01:24PM
Olympia Weekend Announces Record Prize Money, Expanded Expo, and Celebrity Appearances!
https://ift.tt/2ZwWHat The fitness industry’s most celebrated tradition returns to Las Vegas September 12-15 with the world’s most prestigious physique titles on the line. Olympia Weekend is set to award more than $1.4 million in prize money, eclipsing its previous mark and making this year’s event the most lucrative bodybuilding and fitness championship of all time. In addition to a $400,000 prize to the Mr. Olympia winner, the event has increased prize money in several other divisions, including all four Olympia women’s competitions. Chief Olympia Officer Dan Solomon explains, “Despite constant changes in the global fitness community, we’ve remained laser focused, growing the Olympia in every way possible, with increases in overall sponsorships, expo attractions, prize money, and stage production.” When American Media took over management of Olympia Weekend in 2004, the lineup included a total of 63 competitors. Here, in 2019, the event will include 176 professional competitors, each receiving flights, hotels, meal allowances, and the chance to compete for their sport’s most lucrative title at the Orleans Arena. In addition to the Friday and Saturday evening arena production, more than 65,000 fitness enthusiasts will attend the Olympia Fitness & Performance Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center, featuring many of the fitness industry’s most innovative brands, product giveaways and celebrity appearances, including a confirmed appearance by Mark Wahlberg at the Weider booth. “Olympia Weekend is an incredible tradition,” says Wahlberg. “If you attend the Olympia, you’ll leave with enough inspiration and energy to fuel an entire year of workouts, and I’m excited to showcase my brands there. The Olympia has grown into something really special.” This year marks the 55th edition of the Mr. Olympia contest. VIP Packages and floor seating at the arena have sold out, but good seats are still available at MrOlympia.com. Expo passes can also be purchased in advance at MrOlympia.com, as well as upon arrival at the convention center. The main expo stage features the preliminary judging for the Olympia competitions, plus a series of events including the OG Pole Fitness Championship, Wheelchair Olympia, a celebration of female bodybuilding presented by Wings of Strength, and the highly anticipated release of the new book by bodybuilding legend Ronnie Coleman. This year’s expo also marks the arrival of a Fit Fashion show, Spartan Race, and the Performix Pro Skateboarding Showdown along with the return of several martial arts, strength, and endurance events taking place throughout the two-day expo. It all gets underway on September 12th as Trifecta Presents Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend, brought to you by Wings of Strength. For more information, including updated schedules and tickets, visit MrOlympia.com. [RELATED1]
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 29, 2019 at 12:34PM
Kai Greene Is Going to Star in an Indian Movie
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Jason Breeze / M+F Magazine
Kai Greene—Bollywood star? Although he’s still a huge figure in the fitness industry, it’s been a while since the legend has been seen in the bodybuilding world. Hundreds urged him to return to this year’s Mr. Olympia, but it looks like Mr. Getting it Done is exchanging the bodybuilding theater for the movie theater, at least for now. Greene will reportedly play the villain in Pogaru, an Indian movie that will star Indian actor Dhruva Sarja, known there as the “Action Prince.” The movie’s IMDB page offers no hints of its plot—and Sarja is the only star listed—but the Predator did tease in a recent Instagram video: “If you believe in legends and myths this story is for YOU. (Bro, it’s a true story and only rookies are nonbelievers).” Check out Greene, standing on what has to be the world’s strongest plastic chair, to squeeze into a group photo with his costars: There’s also a teaser for the movie, and from the looks of things there’s bound to be plenty of action. Take a look: We're not sure when the movie will be released, but the general consensus seems to be sometime next year. Prior reports had it pegged for August 2019, but obviously that won’t be happening as it's still filming. Greene recently took a break from the cameras to share a moment with his costar, Sarja.
Greene has been forging a special relationship with India recently. In June, he celebrated the launch of Dynamik Gyms in the country. Here's hoping we get an English version of the movie in the United States. Either way, we're psyched to see Greene on the big screen.
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 29, 2019 at 12:13PM
Specificity Versus Transference In Powerlifting
https://ift.tt/30TZg3y Specificity is a core principle in sport science. It’s the degree of association between training and performance outcomes.1 If you’re a powerlifter this means that the training you do should be focused at getting you better at squatting, benching, and deadlifting. But this is where the disconnect occurs with coaches; between the principle and its application.
Specificity exists on a spectrum—100% specificity as a powerlifter means your training would consist exclusively of competing in actual meets. However, no one does this and for obvious reasons.
So, a less specific but more appropriate application of the principle is to do the competition lifts or a close variation more frequently at submaximal loads with a progressive structure that guides the program.
This is the distinction between specificity and transference. Specific training generally has the highest transference. Individual circumstances may influence the application of specificity resulting in a less specific approach yielding better performance metrics.
Specificity Doesn't Exist In a VacuumThe main point here is that specificity does not exist in a vacuum, and the interaction between specificity and other variables like fatigue management, injury, variation, and overload need to be considered when designing a program. Let's go one step further and look at scenarios where less specific training protocols would actually yield a higher transference to sports performance.
One such example is injury. I had tendonitis in both knees which caused a lot of pain while squatting. Unsurprisingly, this impeded my performance and my results suffered. The protocol I chose to fix this was high volume eccentric leg extensions to strengthen the tendons.2 This worked exceptionally well and removed the pain as well as any apprehension signals so I could squat unimpeded. My performance improved immediately as did my result at the end of my cycle.
Leg extension did not increase my force output, they simply removed an obstruction that allowed me to accumulate more overloading sessions of higher quality which made me stronger. Less specific, but it allowed for a higher transference to sports performance. Assuming an athlete needs to gain 20lb to fill out his ideal weight class his training would necessarily be less specific.
It may include longer hypertrophy blocks and even reflect a slight preference to hypertrophy during the strength phases. If you took a snapshot of this athlete's program, it would appear to be less specific. In fact, had he done less hypertrophy it’s possible he may have had a slightly better strength outcome at the end of a single training cycle.
However, when you extend this timeline out several years, the athlete develops much more strength as a direct result of increased muscle cross-sectional area. His new muscle has also extended his strength potential beyond what he could have reached at his previous weight.3
Exercise variation can decrease staleness of a program and boost the athlete's desire to train. Variation is also a critical aspect of fatigue management and prevention of overuse injuries.4 One form of variation is exercise alteration—changing grip width, squat stance, doing floor press instead of competition bench press, etc.
Yield Your Best Long Term ResultsNow, I want to be clear, I’m not diminishing the principle of specificity. Nor am I saying that because there are instances where less specific training yields better results then the principle of specificity is wrong.
In the examples above (which are real case studies) higher specificity would have produced a lesser transference to performance outcomes. This is an application issue, not an issue with the principle itself. Your ability as an athlete to move up and down the spectrum of specificity based on what will yield the best long term results is a critical skill that must be developed over time.
Avoid excessive rigidity in your understanding of these fundamental principles. This will help you apply them more effectively in your own training and ultimately produce better results.
Lift big.
References: 1. William B. McCafferty & Steven M. Horvath (1977) "Specificity of Exercise and Specificity of Training: A Subcellular Review." Research Quarterly. American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 48:2, 358-371, DOI: 10.1080/10671315.1977.10615433. 2. Öhberg L, Lorentzon R, Alfredson H, "Eccentric training in patients with chronic Achilles tendinosis: normalised tendon structure and decreased thickness at follow up." British Journal of Sports Medicine 2004;38:8-11. 3. Higbie, Elizabeth J., Kirk J. Cureton, Gordon L. Warren, and Barry M. Prior. "Effects of Concentric and Eccentric Training on Muscle Strength, Cross-sectional Area, and Neural Activation." Journal of Applied Physiology 81, no. 5 (1996): 2173-181. doi:10.1152/jappl.1996.81.5.2173. 4. Renström, Per, and Robert J. Johnson. "Overuse Injuries in Sports A Review." Sports Medicine 2, no. 5 (1985): 316-33. doi:10.2165/00007256-198502050-00002.? Fitness via Breaking Muscle https://ift.tt/1GxgPEe August 29, 2019 at 08:38AM
YouTuber Gets Chris Hemsworth's Body in 90 Days
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Instagram / @erikconover
Who doesn't want a Greek god-like physique? So it's understandable why YouTuber Erik Conover would wanna train like Chris Hemsworth. Thor's jacked! But after catching the Aussie A-lister's attention on social, Conover got a chance to work out with Hemsworth himself. Back up to when Conover, while on vacation in the Philippines with his girlfriend, got so sick from food poisoning he landed in the hospital for a week and lost 15 pounds. When Conover decided to whip himself back into shape, he downloaded Centr—Chris Hemsworth's new fitness app that offers workouts, meal plans, and meditation exercises from the actor's inner circle of experts. These include wife Elsa Pataky, special ops trainer Joseph "Da Rulk" Sakoda, and celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson. A month into the program, Conover was so amazed with his results that he posted his progress on his YouTube channel. The video went viral (over 5 million views) and somehow made its way to Chris Hemsworth. And because Hemsworth is a real-life superhero, he replied with a video message of his own: "Erik, what’s up mate, it’s Chris Hemsworth here. I saw your transformation, buddy. I'm in New York for a premiere and thought, you know what—we should have a workout." True to his word, Hemsworth hooked up with Convoer on Day 60 for a "short but efficient" circuit that had the duo dripping in sweat. Their workout:
Conover and Hemsworth performed the circuit four times with a 2-minute rest in between. Motivated by his training sesh with Thor, Conover continued to mix up his routine with high-intensity training, kettlebells, and jump rope. By day 90, Conover was actually at his heaviest—213 pounds of pure muscle.
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 28, 2019 at 04:57PM
5 Foods That Will Sneakily Derail Your Nutritional Goals
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Four-Time World's Strongest Man Brian Shaw Is on a Weight-Loss Journey
https://ift.tt/2ZlwL2k Four-time World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw set out on a mission to take his mountain-sized musculature from Denali to Mount Royal and drop about 40 pounds starting back in June. We totally support Shaw’s weight loss, which will, without a doubt, help him stay healthy in the long run. In a recent YouTube video, Shaw humble-bragged, stating, “I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but I’m starting to look pretty good.” He won't be on the Olympia stage any time soon and he’s a ways away from looking like fellow WSM winner Eddie Hall post-weight loss, but he's working on it. A few minutes later, Shaw films a discussion between him and a doctor who was sent to scan his body fat. But Shaw is literally too big to fit into the machine. So far, Shaw is down to 415 pounds, which is 15 pounds off from where he wants to be. He's still got a bit to go, and losing 40 pounds is no small feat, even for a big guy. Whether this decline in size signals the start of his retirement (like Hall), we're not sure. From a competitive standpoint, this was one of Shaw's worst years to date. He placed sixth at the 2019 World's Strongest Man in June, with his worst showing before that being fourth place in 2012. And in March 2019, he had to drop out of the Arnold Strongman Classic due to a torn hamstring. At 37, Shaw is no spring chicken compared to the 2019 WSM, 28-year old Martins Licis, and the 2019 Arnold Classic Champion, Hafthor Bjornsson, 30. But for now, all we know is that Shaw is on track to giving Hall a run for his money as the most ripped Strongman around—down the line, that is.
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 28, 2019 at 04:21PM
Can Electrical Stimulation Help You Put on More Muscle?
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Microgen / Shutterstock
Using electrical muscle stimulation, also known as EMS or e-stim, for rehabilitation, pain management, or performance isn’t a new concept—Bruce Lee was an early adapter. But its use has picked up in the last few years as high-tech methodologies have found their way into homes, gyms, rehab centers, and sports performance labs. During EMS, a trainer (or more likely for most people, a physical therapist) sticks small pads called electrodes onto an athlete's skin. The electrodes, which are wired to an e-stim machine, stimulate muscles with low-level electrical currents and force them to contract. The sensation depends on how high the machine is set, but it can range from a light tingling and hardly any muscle movement to some pretty significant discomfort and full-on twitching. If you've never had the pleasure of trying it during a workout, let us set the scene. Your trainer tapes some electrodes to your back. With scant warning, he or she twiddles a dial and sends 100 milliamps of electricity into your lats. Wincing visibly, you stagger to the pulldown station, grab the bar, and pull with everything you’ve got. After 30 seconds, you can practically smell your back muscles cooking. [RELATED3] But the burning question for bodybuilding enthusiasts is will EMS put you on the fast track toward a bigger, stronger, leaner physique? The answer: possibly. One point is clear, however: EMS can’t replace iron. According to Garrett Salpeter, CEO of leading EMS manufacturer Neufit, if you’re using EMS for hypertrophy, you need to lift while you zap. So you still can’t skip leg day—sorry That said, devotees of the technology—a cohort that includes beasts like 212 bodybuilding star Derek Lunsford and 2008 Mr. Olympia Dexter Jackson—believe that the device has two advantages over just lifting weights: reduced injury risk and more complete activation of working muscles. Early signs point to EMS as a potentially promising—though not fail-safe—enhancer of traditional strength training. “You’re getting a similar recruitment effect to what you’d see with heavier weights,” says Salpeter, “but with less chance of injury, and less wear and tear on the ligaments and tendons.” That’s potentially big news. The bigger and stronger you get, the heavier the weights you need to keep growing. But as your training poundages increase, so does your risk of tendinitis, muscle tears, and other injuries. So for experienced lifters seeking ways to stimulate growth without the need for Ronnie-Coleman-esque weights every workout, EMS could be a huge boon. [RELATED2] Faster fiber recruitment could also reduce workout time—another benefit for the time-crunched lifter. According to a 2005 study published in the journal Sports Medicine, EMS “reverses the order of recruitment of motor units.” Theoretically, that means that your largest, strongest muscle fibers, which have the most potential for growth, kick in earlier than usual, leading to more growth-inducing reps in each set ;and less time in the gym. The jury is still out on whether EMS can build muscle better than a traditional approach. Some studies show little advantage over traditional strength training, but others point to significant changes—including one 2012 review study in which trained and elite athletes saw measurable improvements in sprint speed and vertical jump height in just six weeks. Not bad for non-newbies. For now, the primary stumbling blocks are practical. At some facilities, trainers trail their clients with a wheeled cart, re-moistening and re-taping electrodes whenever they switch to a new muscle group. At others, users wear a cumbersome full-body suit. Both methods make training solo a challenge, so for now, any EMS workout you do has to be facilitated by a trainer in a boutique-style facility—a service that runs $100-$125 an hour. Whether or not all that is worth it to you is a choice only you can make. Because of the expense and inconvenience, EMS is probably better suited to the advanced trainee looking for an edge rather than the average dude trying to look a little better by summer. But hey—if you can handle the inconvenience and you’re advanced enough that you think your workouts could use a little extra shock to the system—go for it. [RELATED1]
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Fitness via Muscle & Fitness https://ift.tt/2zjtGBz August 28, 2019 at 04:14PM
Coach Derek Hansen Shares His Tips and Workout to Make You Faster
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areebarbar / M+F Magazine
If there’s one thing Derek Hansen knows, it’s how to help athletes oppose gravity. No, he’s not showing them how to float in midair. But the top sprint coach has been helping elite competitors in the NFL, NBA, and NCAA oppose the natural force for three decades--all in the name of getting faster. “Gravity pulls us to the ground, so my job is to oppose it in the best way possible by limiting friction,” he says. He likens it to an inflated ball. One that’s full of air will fly and bounce farther, while a deflated ball won’t move as efficiently. “[When sprinting], you need to put a lot of force into the ground but also be elastic and bouncy to get back off the ground as quickly as possible,” Hansen adds. To train this gravity-defying elasticity into his athletes, Hansen hammers home the importance of sprint mechanics. He notes that you want to get your knees up to just below the hip joint so that you can drive your feet into the ground as hard as possible. Such acceleration is necessary to create that coveted bounce effect. Your arm pump should match the action of your legs to counterbalance your body. This will help to ensure that your stride is smooth and synced. Finding that balance takes work. That’s why Hansen puts runners through technical drills like skipping and high knee marches, and often has them work at sub-maximal intensities. “You can't just go out and run as hard as you can all the time,” he says. “Once everything looks good technically, then you can bring up the intensity. You need to build up, otherwise you'll get hurt.” Most of that training takes place on the track, but Hansen notes the importance of resistance training and plyometrics to increase strength and explosiveness—particularly for sprinters. It’s less vital for endurance runners, who must consider how gaining muscle and adding bodyweight will slow them down over time. Either way, he warns that hitting the weight rack won’t help your speed if you don’t know how to run properly. "Lifting heavy weights when you don’t have the [sprinting] mechanics down is like putting a huge engine into a car without addressing the transmission, steering, and spark plugs,” he says. “You won't get good results, and you might blow something out." [RELATED1]
Train Like a SprinterTry this Hansen-approved workout incorporating sprint drills and weights. Once you've built a strong base, he says you can increase weight and decrease reps. Just be sure to taper off before competition.
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