Watch: Martial arts legend Sonny Chiba surprises Keanu Reeves at 'John Wick 2' promo
http://ift.tt/2zBiKfL The John Wick franchise has cemented Keanu Reeves as an action movie legend in his own right, but he doesn’t just talk the talk—he does most of his own stunts, too. That dedication to his craft partially comes from Reeves’ love of martial arts movies and the discipline itself. [RELATED1] Reeves trained for months during production on the Matrix and John Wick series to get the fight styles as realistic as possible, and in his first directorial effort in Man of Tai Chi in 2013, Reeves showed off more of that love for martial arts films. That appreciation was front and center again for Reeves when he was in Japan to promote John Wick 2. While doing an interview on a talk show, the conversation turned to martial arts legend Shin'ichi "Sonny" Chiba, who many modern-movie fans know from his appearances in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. [RELATED2] But, like Reeves, many others remember Chiba from his early career when he became one of the first stars to become famous for appearing in martial arts films. Reeves couldn’t hold back his excitement when the TV show brought out Chiba, whom he called the “No.1” martial arts guy in his book: “I can do movie kung fu, but Sonny Chiba can actually do it.” [RELATED3] Here’s the clip:
Want to add some martial arts to your routine? Try these workouts, programs, and tips from Men’s Fitness: [RELATED4] [RELATED5] [RELATED6] Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 01:51PM
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What's the difference between size and strength training?
http://ift.tt/2zDzmUs The science behind fitness and health is wild, crazy, and ever-changing. One minute a study supports a particular claim, then next it's the worst thing you could possibly do to or for yourself. Today, we explain the difference between strength and size training. Are strength and size training related?There is definitely a measure of carryover from strength training to size training, and vice versa. That said, there are also very key distinctions. Making a muscle grow requires a slightly altered approach than it does to make a muscle stronger. We have to remember that training a muscle strictly for the cosmetic—namely, to make it larger—means the emphasis shouldn’t be so closely focused on your performance, or weight lifted; rather it should be on the training effect your workouts have on your muscles. The volume of exercise and completeness of muscle fiber breakdown are directly related to the results you see in the mirror. The idea is to have your muscles work to full exhaustion. In many cases this doesn’t necessarily take much weight in a well-planned isolation workout. More important is the cumulative effect that the workout has on your muscle tissue.
[RELATED1] When it comes to adding strength, the most effective way would come through making the “base” of your exercise routine consist of larger movements. The compound style exercises like squatting, deadlifting, and bench-pressing are great choices to allow the body to recruit many muscle fibers in one shot. That total body exertion, especially under heavy loads, encourages greater hormone release and trains fast-twitch fibers to be more responsive and fire harder. These are keys to gaining strength. Here’s where things differ. Because of the large impact on the hormones, the heavy lifting, and the compound movements, generally speaking, strength training will have a greater impact on the central nervous system. It really takes a beating with repeated maximal efforts, so rest time between sets, and between training days as a whole, needs to be closely monitored so as to avoid adverse effects. Here’s the cool part: With size comes strength. If you ever wondered why powerlifters are all so large and typically carry an appreciable layer of body fat, you’ve now learned the answer. The larger the surface area of the unit, the more force that unit will be able to apply against a resistance. Those big guys wouldn’t be able to bench 700lbs if they only weighed 175. Applying this, building muscle and gaining strength can go hand-in-hand if you train smart. If you’re an intermediate lifter who wants to break a strength plateau, the answer may be to add some more size first. Be careful, however, and make strength training your goal if a basic foundation is what you’re lacking. [RELATED2]
Lee Boyce, CPT is a strength coach based in Toronto, ON. A former Kinesiology Major, Lee competed as a sprinter and long jumper at the National level. His work has been featured in many major magazines including Men's Health, Musclemag, TNATION, and also on national television. For more on Lee, check him out at leeboycetraining.com, @coachleeboyce and Facebook. Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 12:47PM
Groceries: The Final Frontier in Fitness
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Food is fuel and you have a lot of options where you can get it from. Too many options, maybe, and a lot of them should be disqualified on the grounds of their suitability for a healthy lifestyle. You could argue that your best bet is to shop for food at a decent store, try and buy quality over quantity, and it wouldn’t hurt if you prepared your own meals. Unfortunately, we don’t all have the luxury of time to make meals at home, which sounds kind of crazy. However, that’s the reality for a lot of people holding jobs with long commutes or someone who attends college during the day and has a job in the evenings. Sometimes there are a lot of barriers to doing even the simplest stuff.
Buying and making your own meals, and using as fresh as possible ingredients, is the best nutrition choice you can make. You should try to do it as often as you can. For the purposes of this exercise, we decided to try and to save time by doing that shopping online. In this instance, we tried Thrive Market, launched in 2014 out of Southern California, which promises to deliver products that are good for you directly to your doorstep.
Thrive Market DeliversThrive Market is more like an online Costco crossed with a Whole Foods. It has a range of organic products and aims to provide a one-stop solution for people looking for a reliable source of natural and sustainable groceries. It's targeted at people who probably find Whole Foods (now owned by Amazon) a great place to find what they're looking for, but they're also looking to save money and probably like the convenience of shopping online.
To be frank, Thrive is never going to give you the breadth of offerings you’d find on a site like Amazon, but they have tried to take the guesswork out of deciding what you can trust to put in your grocery bag. Thrive likes to promote itself as a company that can make a healthy food lifestyle accessible to a broad range of people with varying incomes, meaning they’re not going to empty your bank account, but you have to do it Thrive’s way. However, becoming a member of Thrive is not going to stand in your way because they have deals going on all the time to try and get new members. You'll probably find that your first experience with Thrive will be pretty easy on the credit card.
When you take into consideration the need to be a Thrive Market member, your membership fee should get you anywhere from 25-50 percent off typical retail prices for Thrive’s branded products. You can also feel pretty good knowing that Thrive has a commitment to offer a free membership to families in need.
My taste test was limited to Thrive's tuna and sardines. These are pretty much basics in my meal plans. Sure, I can get them from the local store, but I have two criteria: it needs to be fish that is caught in the wild and it needs to be clean, which can mean a lot of things. Also because I eat a lot of it, price is important.
The website experience and order processing on Thrive Market is very easy and efficient. The site is modern, designed well, and everything works. The packaging on the order that I received was above average, and it was a good experience overall.
Sardines are not to everyone's taste, but I like them. Thrive's sardines were were a little lighter on the palate than some others I have experienced, meaning I felt like the taste was not overwhelming and the fish were not greasy. The sardines were packed in olive oil, in case you were wondering.
For the tuna (packed in water), I gave a can to one of my friends who has kids that like a particular brand. I asked her to try it out on them because I was curious to see whether the very fussy palate of a child would notice anything different. The kids loved it and ate it all up. You might think that all tuna fish tastes the same when it's mixed in with mayonnaise, but kids have a tendency to notice minuscule changes in texture, smell, or taste. There was, obviously, no problem for me.
*Thrive has a number of offers in place that could help you reduce or lose the cost of membership if you order through them this holiday season. You can try these Thrive Market exclusive deals for the Breaking Muscle community. The company, obviously, is interested in getting more members and if you see they have enough stuff that you want to buy, it pays off the membership fee pretty quickly. I will admit to being skeptical at first when I was given the assignment to test these products, mostly because I didn't really know what to think about trying fish from a start-up company that was kind of new to the grocery world. I wondered if they have everything figured out like companies who only specialize in deliverable groceries and have been doing it for years. I think it's safe to say that Thrive branded groceries don't have to be considered newbies to online shopping. They held up really well compared to what I am comfortable with and used to.
The Price of DeliveryPricing is a trickier issue. I don't think the recommended retail price of the tuna or the sardines available for purchase at Thrive Market is much different to what is available at a local store. However, you have to factor in that with discounts and special offers Thrive is competing pretty nicely. On the plus side, if I can latch on to a good price, I can buy up a bunch of cans and get them shipped to me directly. Okay, that's not any different than doing the same thing on Amazon but, frankly, I am intrigued by Thrive because if they can continue to offer more lines of groceries that consistently meet the requirements of a shopper like me—people who read food labels and know what they should be putting in their bodies—it makes it a lot easier to fill that cart with Thrive products and save yourself the hassle of shopping around or heading out to the store.
Online Grocer Shopping Works on All LevelsUltimately, I think Amazon buying Whole Foods is going to make it easier for consumers to find healthy alternatives to the traditional grocery shopping list. Whereas Whole Foods had the goods in the past, it was always a bear when it came to pricing. Amazon seems to want to change that. That can only mean that companies like Thrive Market will also grow because, some day, everyone will shop and eat this way, not just a select few. So, yeah, grocery shopping is a fitness frontier. There's obviously big changes happening in the market and we, the consumers, should benefit. Non-GMO, organic, clean food is not a fringe market anymore. It's going mainstream. The more competition, the better it should get in terms of availability and pricing.
You can train yourself to prepare and plan clean eating at home and one of the best ways is to take up the 28 Day Clean Eating Challenge. In addition, here are a few recipes you can try for yourself with your Thrive Market tuna and sardines:
Fitness via Breaking Muscle http://ift.tt/1GxgPEe November 30, 2017 at 12:30PM
13 stunning photos of badass 'Vikings' actress Katheryn Winnick
http://ift.tt/2iuCOx8 Playing a legendary Viking shield maiden that can swing an axe better than most men might intimidate some actresses—but not Katheryn Winnick. The Canadian actress stars as Lagertha on the wildy popular History Channel series Vikings, a role that allows her to show off her acting chops and her accomplished martial arts background. She's also been in a number of critically acclaimed films, most recently The Dark Tower alongside Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba. She holds a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a second-degree black belt in Karate, according to IMDb. [RELATED1] Winnick is the definition of a badass—both on- and off-screen—and her already-impressive film and television career is only just starting to heat up. Here are 13 jaw-dropping photos of the fiercely talented Winnick. Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 12:19PM
Chrissy Teigen's 7 hottest Instagram photos
http://ift.tt/2jAIMt4 Chrissy Teigen doesn't just have jaw-dropping good looks—the model, best-selling cookbook author, and television personality also has a killer sense of humor (Teigen is known for her hilarious Twitter account and keeping it real on Instagram). And did we mention unbelievable kitchen skills?! She can make your ultimate cheat day fantasy meal—and then some. She's the total package, and Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter John Legend is insanely lucky to be able to call her his wife. [RELATED1] Here are seven of Teigen's hottest photos on Instagram. Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 12:12PM
Watch: Ravens lineman squats the team kicker and crushes 500 pounds on the bench press
http://ift.tt/2j57bqV Baltimore Ravens lineman Brandon Williams loves working out so much that he’ll even do it on the field. During a game. Using one of his own teammates. Following the Ravens’ win over the Texans on Monday Night Football in Week 12, Williams got so excited that he picked up kicker Justin Tucker and improvised a squat workout. [RELATED1] Tucker served as the equipment for Williams’ impromptu lift. Take a look:
Williams is one of the strongest players on the Ravens, previously hitting 525lbs on the bench press, 400lbs on the overhead shoulder press, and banging out 38 reps of 225lbs on the bench press during his NFL scouting combine workout. [RELATED2] But this is not the first time that Williams has squatted a teammate. Last season, Williams took safety Eric Weddle and used him as his personal squat rack on the sidelines like he did with Tucker:
Want more proof of Williams’ strength? Here’s a look at the nose tackle benching 500lbs when he was training for the NFL Combine: Want to boost your bench press? Try these tips and programs from Men’s Fitness: [RELATED3] [RELATED4] [RELATED5] Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 11:58AM
How Mark Wahlberg stays savagely lean and strong
http://ift.tt/2AJPmIr Mark Wahlberg's always had a dominant physique, but he's walking around with straight-up tree trunks for arms and one hell of a six-pack, as evidenced by Instagram. Wahlberg's been clean-bulking and shredding fat. [RELATED1] He's gotten down to 6.9% body fat—impressive for any guy, let alone one over 45—but Wahlberg's used to transforming his physique. He admits he usually puts on muscle, then leans out. This time he did the opposite: He got ripped, and is now building up solid muscle. To complement a heavy-duty lifting regimen and protein-rich diet, he's stacking creatine and branched-chain amino supplements from his very own line: Performance Inspired. [RELATED2]
[RELATED3] [RELATED4] Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 11:44AM
The gentleman’s guide to dressing timelessly
http://ift.tt/2zEH6Fp First, a confession: There’s no such thing as dressing “timelessly”. If you’ve paid any attention to, say, the way politicians dress vs. the way Tom Brady dresses, or the way Benedict Cumberbatch dresses (or maybe how Cary Grant once did), you’ll know that there’s no single way to dress, because fashion is constantly influencing the clothes that men wear. [RELATED1] Take the above example of politicians vs. people who look better than them, and you’ll quickly see why you can’t just dress the same way forever: eventually you look like an out-of-touch fossil—and perhaps out of touch, not just with fashion, but with society in general. If that’s a bad look for a politico, think how terrible it’ll make anyone else look, too. Still: There’s an art to building a wardrobe with elements you won’t have to replace every season. To learn that art, we asked Bonobos’ Chief Creative Officer Dwight Fenton, a 20-year style veteran who’s also called shots at Patagonia and J. Crew. [RELATED2] Fenton’s main concept: The modern way to consistently dress well is to mix casual pieces with more formal ones. In fact, being just slightly “off-trend” is what timeless dressing is all about. Your sense of style should be about self-expression, not total conformity. Observe the trend without being a slave to the moment. That’s something any guy can do with straightforward, foundational clothing. Here are 10 tips you can use to dress well—and maybe even a little bit “timelessly”. [RELATED3] Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 09:29AM
The gentleman's guide to ordering wine like a pro
http://ift.tt/2iph1H9 Wine in the U.S. is a bit like fashion: We tend to mystify it, rather than demystify it. Nobody knows that quite like wine expert Ken Maguire. As the proprietor of Fox and Hound Wines and Spirits in New Paltz, NY, Maguire knows how the American habit of putting wine on a pedestal can be detrimental to his business. “In the rest of the world, wine is just food—it’s just part of life,” he says. “I was in Argentina visiting a famous winemaker. Before my appointment, a guy pulled around back with a big plastic jug, the [vintner] opened a spigot, and he filled up with wine for the week.” [RELATED1] That said: A little bit of studying wine will translate to a lot of skill and confidence in the wine world. That skill pays off when you’re ordering in a restaurant, pairing a wine with a meal, or bringing a bottle to a friend’s barbecue. But to get from zero to hero, you’ll need a little bit of guidance. To gain that confidence, follow these steps to buying wine like a pro. First: Taste the wineA no-brainer, right? You need to drink wine to understand it. But that’s not always the case. “I go to tastings,” Maguire says, “and too frequently you hear the server tell people, ‘This is going to taste like ripe cherries, licorice,’ and something in there nobody would eat—like road tar!” Don’t let your server lead the witness. Instead, “trust your palate. Your taste buds and mine aren’t the same thing,” he says. While reviews and apps with tasting impressions are useful, begin your education by deciding what you like yourself, he says. The best way to do that, he says, is to look for wine shops that do regular tastings (most decent shops run weekly tastings because it drives business). It’s not a bad idea to take notes, or at least to snap shots of bottles that you like, and to start keeping a catalog in your head of the kinds of qualities you like, and the grape varietals (literally, the kind of grape) that you tend to find appealing. If you know the beer world and you’ve learned that you like (or loathe) IPAs, then congratulations—that’s just the kind of refinement for which you’re aiming with wine. A primer on tasting wineAs with beer, the wine world is just as nerdy, with myriad grape varietals and methods of production, blending, and aging. But Maguire says not to sweat it. Smell the wine before you taste it. This might seem pretentious, but teaching your taste buds begins with your nose, since humans instinctually know when something is spoiled by smell before taste. Then, catalogue what you smelled. Was it floral? Fruity? Were there notes of anything like toasted nuts? Can you refine the aromas in familiar analogues—what kind of flower, what kind of vegetable or fruit? Next, when you taste the wine, note how sweet it seems. Wine is graded on a sugar spectrum, from sweet to “dry”—not tart, per se, but a lack of any sugar taste. Above all, try to think of your own words to describe the wine, because it’ll help you cement your own understanding of that wine, why you do or don’t like what you’re tasting and experiencing. Remember: This is wine school. [RELATED2] Order or buy wine with a strategist’s tasteIf a wine merchant or restaurant sommelier makes you feel uncomfortable about wine, here’s an easy solution: Don’t go back. “They should make you feel good about what you know, even if you know very little,” Maguire says. “If they make you feel intimidated, you should never go there again. Remember: They’re providing a service, and you’re going to spend your money there, so it’s their job to help.” To that end, there are a few good tactics to order wine intelligently, especially if you’re on a date. Do advance research: First, decent restaurants typically have their wine lists online, so you can study what’s there ahead of time. You can even call the restaurant to be sure the wines you research are actually still for sale. This lets you handicap some options ahead of time, and to quiz the restaurant’s sommelier on what she or he might recommend in a specific price range. Take down a few red and white names from the list, depending upon what food your date orders. Order glasses, not bottles: “It lets you and your date taste each other’s wines, and that’s more fun,” Maguire says. Plus, ordering glasses puts less pressure on a single decision. If you’re ordering a few appetizers and a few main courses, the wine list might not offer the ideal match. Bring your own wine: Call ahead and see if the restaurant will let you pay a corkage fee and bring your own bottle, Maguire says. Even higher-end restaurants are usually OK with this, and while you’d still better study the food menu, it lets you recruit your favorite wine merchant to act as sommelier instead. If you really want to step up your research, share the restaurant’s menu with your wine merchant, and let them guide you toward wine that will work with the meal, just as if you were cooking at home. Most decent wine shops also stock a good selection of half bottles, so you could bring two to dinner and food-match that way, as you would by ordering glasses instead of a single, 750-ml bottle. Just ask the sommelier: A good restaurant should have zero problems suggesting wine that matches your food, and should be flexible enough to understand what to do if you say you can’t spend more than $30 on a bottle, or you absolutely don’t want to drink red wine (because, say, you or your date just doesn’t like it). “If their staff is well-trained they can get you in the right direction.” Being honest, even in front of a date, is a good idea, because if you’re trying to pretend you know a lot about wine—or astrophysics—and you don’t, that’s going to get you into trouble eventually. Especially if you’re dating an astrophysicist. [RELATED3] Be adventuresome in your selectionsBecause wine can have a huge variety, it’s not a bad idea to plant a stake in a particular type of wine and then explore that range. Rosé is a good example, Maguire says. Most Americans think of rosé as a light, fruity, summer sip, but rosés with far more backbone are common; Americans are only now catching up to that potential. “Bandol, from France, is made from Mourvedre [a grape more closely associated with heavy reds], and it’s really muscular enough for grilled chicken or fish,” Maguire says. One of our favorite rosés, Argentina’s Crios, is made from Malbec. It’s the perfect halfway point between red and white wine, so it’s incredibly flexible for food pairing. Make a mental note of your favorite wines that pair with lots of foodSome wines are especially versatile, and they give you the flexibility to break the traditional wine-pairing rules. “I have a lovely, light red from Sicily, Frappato, which a restaurant will often serve lightly chilled, and it’s fruity but not sweet,” Maguire says. “It’s a way you could still drink red wine with fish. It goes great with something more casual, like a grilled vegetable appetizer, or a pizza.” Would you know to order a Frappato? Maybe not. (Now you do!). But if you’re open to exploring wine you haven’t tried, a skilled sommelier would know to steer you in that direction. Think about it the way you would trying one those strange sensory deprivation tanks Steph Curry uses: You’re not quite sure what you’ll experience, but it will probably be cool, and if you don’t love it, you still learned something. Technology can helpWe like the Delectable app. Snap a pic of most wine labels, and the app will quickly produce crowdsourced ratings, reviews, and a retail price estimate. We’ll be honest: The tasting notes are snooty. As with Yelp, though, you can read between the lines to understand whether a bottle is for you. Also, once you log tasting notes for bottles you like, Delectable begins to suggest other wines you’ll dig, and it becomes a sort of sommelier in your pocket. That may or may not matter to you, but if you get in the habit of rating bottles you like, it’s invaluable to share that list with a sommelier. When you’re buying wine, dig back into your archive to find the same bottle again. P.S.: At the risk of undermining our next point, referring to an app at a restaurant can look a little cheeseball, depending upon how fancy the place is (and how much you’re trying to impress your date). Lighten the f' up!“People take wine soooo seriously,” says Maguire, rolling his eyes. You don’t have to—and while everyone loves a bon vivant, nobody likes a snob. Also, be patient with yourself. Learning about wine is a great, and an important life skill. “Say you’re in a business situation and your boss or the client wants you to order the wine and hands you the list—it’s great to be able to stare at this giant book of a wine list and not be intimidated.” Gaining that confidence is a fun journey, and you shouldn’t invest too much baggage in it. We’ve never lived in an era with more great wine, even at $10 a bottle. The goal posts are very wide. Shanking a wine order is pretty hard to do these days. The key, Maguire puckishly hints, is to remember that wine is just fermented grapes in fancy bottles. And you can take it as seriously as you want—but the last thing you want to do is get too stressed about getting it “right,” because there’s no such thing. [RELATED4] Fitness via Men's Fitness http://ift.tt/2u0SmvI November 30, 2017 at 09:15AM
Subversive Fitness: Day 248 of 360
http://ift.tt/2i3nSSI Day 248 of 360Back squat: 3 x 10 @ 60% of 2RM Single kettlebell back squat: 3 x 5L, 5R @ as heavy as possible in each set
Rest as needed between sets. If designated/ chosen weight requires interruption, make a minor adjustment and continue. When scheme is listed as “3 x 10”, it always refers to “Sets” x “Reps”.
Reminder: Implement may change, but position and range of motion remain the same.
And then:
2 minutes double kettlebell rack hold (W- 45lb. x 2, M- 62lb. x 2) 50 Push-up 250 Jumprope 50 V-up 2 minutes plank hold (more than 1 interruption = 1 additional minute each)
Short, specific rest is expected during push-up and v-up sets. When needed, keep to 3 breaths (:15 sec.). If position breaks or range fails in either movement, scaling is always a better choice than performing sub-standard reps.
Remember the purpose of the movement being completed, and apply the necessary details to make it worthwhile; reps for the sake of themselves are a dead-end street.
And then, “Time under tension”:
Bar hang + 50 steps walking lunge @ cool-down pace
Bar hang: Today, use any grip you choose, and switch between them as needed. Work to “True” failure (loss of physical positioning) not “Relative” failure (loss of mental endurance).
If time reaches two minutes (in bar hang), you may stop if desired. If time is under two minutes, do it again, and accumulate at least two total minutes.
Lunge: Pace is cool-down, position is detailed and progress-oriented. Knee tracks the foot, heel is firmly planted, and stepping forward does not mean leaning forward; chest stays broad and shoulders drive back as we lunge forward.
Fitness via Breaking Muscle http://ift.tt/1hdUh1E November 30, 2017 at 09:04AM |
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