Breakfast is one of, if not the most important meals of the day. You come out of a fasted state due to several hours of sleep and your body is most receptive to nutrients upon waking. Replenishing these nutrients is vital to blunt high levels of cortisol (which will cause muscle breakdown). Here’s a delicious pancake recipe that will fuel the early waking hours of your day!

Protein Power Pancakes

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of flax seeds
• 1/3 cup of dry oatmeal
• 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 cup of ground up almonds or pecans
• 1/3 cup of favorite protein powder (vanilla flavors usually work best)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

  Mix all of dry ingredients together.
  
  Liquid Ingredients:

• 2 whole Omega-3 eggs
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 3 tbsp cottage cheese
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup of blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries (or mix ‘em all!)

  Mix all liquid and dry ingredients until smooth. Pour batter on skillet at medium heat and flip after 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 1-2 servings.

  Throw in Cary’s® Sugar Free Syrup as a healthier alternative to regular maple syrup.

1. Motivation. With an expert in your grille, you’re guaranteed to hop off your butt and hit the weights.
2. Consistency. A good trainer will hold you accountable and keep you regular.
3. Individualization. Having a personalized program based upon your goals is a sure-fire way to success.
4. Time Management. You’ll get everything going in less time with more results than you would on your own.
5. Accessible Knowledgebase. Hey, you’ve got a anatomical dictionary, a corrective, strength, and cardiovascular exercise database, and a nutrition plan, all in the form of a living, breathing human being.
6. A Great Jumpstart. For a novice to the fitness world, it’s a great way to ensure you get off the blocks as quickly as possible.
7. Safety. With a good trainer, you won’t be deep squatting atop a stability ball, all while balanced on one foot.
8. Plateau Buster. Advanced trainees that hit the wall full speed will benefit with a second opinion and a different point of view.
9. Privacy. The best personal trainers don’t work in a gym- they have their own facilities. Many trainers will actually come out to your house too.
10. A Wise Investment. Think about it. If you could add ten extra years of life to spend with family, friends, and things you enjoy doing, wouldn’t you invest a small fee? Life is priceless!

Come to think of it, steroids are quite the rage in sports and the media. A hot topic, so to speak. Some regard it as a form of cheating, while others say it’s nothing more than an aesthetic aid for peak physical development. Some believe it is abhorred and deathly; others believe it’s the next best thing since sliced bread.

Here’s the synopsis for Bigger, Stronger, Faster:

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. We reward speed, size and above all else: winning – at sport, at business and at war. Metaphorically we are a nation on steroids. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs?

From the producers of Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 comes a new film that unflinchingly explores our win-at-all-cost culture through the lens of a personal journey. Blending comedy and pathos, BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER* is a collision of pop culture and first-person narrative, with a diverse cast including US Congressmen, professional athletes, medical experts and everyday gym rats.

At its heart, this is the story of director Christopher Bell and his two brothers, who grew up idolizing muscular giants like Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and who went on to become members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream. When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes?

My question is, where do you stand on this issue? Is the negative attention unjustified or is it on target?

The Rest-Pause Technique:

I’ve outlined an entire routine for rest-pausing for strength and size gains in a previous post. Here’s the general consensus of the rest-pause technique: Lift a weight at 70-80% of your 1 RM for 1 or 2 reps at a time and then rack it. Assume a very short rest (enough to catch your head and your breath) and get back to the weight. Continue single reps and racking the weight until you can’t get 1 rep yourself.

Most Beneficial for: Strength gains (but strength can also precede size, so hypertrophy is definitely possible).

Best Performed During: The beginning of your workout (or your entire workout).

X-Reps:

X-Reps are intense in nature and may be difficult for beginning lifters. Much neuromuscular connection is needed to successfully perform this technique. X-Reps are used as a finisher for a work set. Basically, the x-rep is a partial rep performed in a pulsating manner - it’s very rapid in tempo. For instance, when you are on bench press, you would perform full range reps (full extension in lifting and full contraction in the lowering phase), followed by partial reps (performed at the bottom position of the bench press up to the mid-range) - just shy of half a rep. This is supposed to activate additional motor units, thereby stimulating more than the typical Type-II fibers. For more information on x-reps and the physiological descriptions behind it, visit the official X-Reps website.

Most Beneficial for: Hypertrophy.

Best Performed During: The end of a work set.

Static Holds

This one is easier said than done. While it is really only a static (non-moving) contraction, it will really fatigue the muscle and induce micro-tears (great for additional muscle growth). Perform a typical work set on the exercise of your choice and when you finish the last rep, hold the weight for 10-20 seconds in full extension or near full extension. Get ready to scream!

Most Beneficial for: Strength and Hypertrophy.

Best Performed During: The end of a work set.

One and a Half Reps

I wrote a guest article for Israel at Fat Man Unleashed for One and a Half Squats. This deals with one and a half reps, the basis behind the squatting technique, except you can apply it to additional muscle groups and exercises. Here’s how it works: You’ll take the weight through the eccentric (lowering) phase, fire the weight up mid-way, lower it through the eccentric again, and the fire it up through the concentric (lifting) phase. That’s rep number one. This is best done in a smith machine so you don’t end up looking like the pancake you ate this morning.

Most Beneficial for: Hypertrophy

Best Performed During: your first full set. It’s too hard to perform this in a pre-exhausted state! Start this one fresh!

Super Sets

You’ve probably heard of a super set before. In case you haven’t, you’re really missing out! A super set is a super way to induce size gains and a great way to break a plateau. Pick two exercises for the target muscle and as soon as you finish one set on the first exercise, bounce to the next without rest. Continue for two or three total sets.

Most Beneficial for: Hypertrophy and Fat Loss! (due to natural stimulation of growth hormone and the induction of lactic acid, which will positively affect body composition).

Best Performed During: The entire workout or the end of the workout.

Weight loss can be a real drag. Boring. Uninspiring. Anti-social. Between the calorie cutting and hour-long treadmill sessions, it just plain sucks. Isn’t there a better way to go about shedding the globs of fat that you have accumulated over the years?

You bet. You see, I’ve got the ultimate formula for blasting fat off of your body in record time.

My new e-book, Fat Loss Inferno, encompasses the following:

• The real way you can lose body fat and keep it off, in less time.
• Exercises that will shred you up.
• Recomposition- the new way to build lean mass and reduce fat!
• Why traditional cardio methods are obsolete. (The truth will shock you!)
• An easy-to-understand nutrition primer that will show you how to eat the right way, without starving yourself or screwing up your metabolism!
• Sixteen full weeks of pre-planned fat loss routines and meals. That’s four whole months!
• Custom Food and Workout Logs to keep track of your progress.

I’d tell you more, but I don’t want to spoil it for you! Just keep your eyes peeled and remember to subscribe to our RSS feeds, so I can update you on when Fat Loss Inferno becomes available. I’ll also tell you how you can win a free copy of the e-book!

After some time following standard body splits and run-of-the-mill routines, you’ll eventually hit a wall with your gains in muscle mass and strength. Now, for those of you who are used to workouts with greater volume, this might feel awkward. Don’t give it too much thought and just do it!

With this technique, you will be reducing the volume (number of sets and exercises) of your workout to one total set and turning up the intensity dial. It’s essentially the opposite approach. You will also have a hard time grasping how one true “work set” can promote progressive strength and size gains at first, but you’ll soon discover its’ worth when you move around like a zombie in the days following your workout.

Here’s the basis of this workout:

• The routine lasts three days a week. M-W-F or T-TH-SAT, your choice.
• Body part splits are as follows:
  • A - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
  • B - Back, Legs, Biceps
• You alternate between A and B on workout days (i.e. Monday is Group A, Wednesday is Group B, Friday is Group A, the following Monday is Group B, etc)
• One work set at a weight that is between 70-80% of your 1 RM (single rep max)
• Only one exercise per body part
• Compound, multi-joint exercises only (Bench Press, Shoulder Press, Squats, Deadlifts, Barbell Curls, etc)
• Perform abs twice a week on days of your choice. Be sure to spread them apart to ensure sufficient recovery.

By using a tri-split (three muscle groups), we are able to use pre-exhaustion as a technique to slightly increase volume and overload. When you are working bench press, you exhaust your shoulders and triceps secondarily. The same with back and biceps - you inadvertently work your biceps when you perform back exercises, thus eliminating the need for more than one set per body part. And because we only have two groups, we are able to attack the muscles with more intensity and frequency. You’ll be able to recover quickly and hit the muscles more times per week, and that means more strength and greater muscle mass!

Here’s a standard template that I follow :

Group A

• Chest - Incline Bench Press - 1 Rest-Pause Set
• Shoulders - Barbell Shoulder Press - 1 Rest-Pause Set
• Triceps - Close-Grip Bench Press - 1 Rest-Pause Set

Group B

• Back - Deadlift - 1 Rest-Pause Set (perform a set of pull-ups to failure following this for lats)
• Legs - Back Squat and Front Squat* (2 x 10, 8 for Back Squat, 2 x 10, 8 Front Squat)
• Biceps - Barbell Curls - 1 Rest-Pause Set

* Legs are the only exception to the rule - rest-pausing with legs can be dangerous, so more exercises are performed with slightly less weight.

How Rest-Pausing Works:

Rest-Pausing is quite simple. You choose a weight that is 70-80% of your 1 RM and you try to lift it until personal failure - if you can’t get the next rep alone, rack the weight. Rest 20-25 seconds. Again, lift for as many reps as you can before failure - don’t go beyond it. Rest another 20-25 seconds. Once again, lift for as many reps as you can on your own. The trick here is lifting it without assistance, but keep a spotter handy so you don’t kill yourself (in the absence of a spotter, perform those lifts on a smith machine with hooks and guide rails). The rep progression is usually 6-8 reps on round one, 3-4 on round two, and 1-3 on round three. If you go beyond 15 reps, add 5 pounds to your next workout. Also, remember that this was your “work set” so you are done with this exercise and body part. Time to move on to the next muscle group!

I’d perform this routine for at least four to six weeks, and when you feel like you are nearing a plateau in particular exercises, change that exercise to another multi-joint exercise. Bring a log book too so you can remember your weight and reps performed.

Have fun!

There’s too many diets. Way too many.

Take a look for yourself:

1. 100-Mile Diet control
2. Abs Diet
3. Alkaline diet
4. Atkins diet
5. Best Bet Diet
6. Blood Type diet
7. Body for Life
8. Breatharian diet
9. Buddhist diet
10. Cabbage soup diet
11. The Cambridge Diet
12. Candida control diet
13. Cretan diet
14. CRON-diet
15. Detox diet
16. Diabetic diet
17. Diet for a New America by John Robbins
18. The Diet Smart Plan
19. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or the DASH Diet
20. Dr. Hay diet
21. The Fat Resistance Diet
22. Feingold diet
23. Fit for Life diet
24. Flexitarian diet
25. Food combining diet
26. Fruitarian diet
27. Gerson diet
28. Gluten-free, casein-free diet
29. Glycemic Index diet
30. The Graham Diet
31. Grapefruit diet
32. Hacker’s diet
33. Halal diet
34. Hallelujah diet
35. High protein diet
36. Jenny Craig
37. Joel Fuhrman diet
38. Junk food diet
39. Kosher diet
40. KimKins Diet
41. Lacto vegetarianism
42. Living foods diet
43. Low-carbohydrate diet
44. Low-protein diet
45. Macrobiotic diet
46. Master Cleanse
47. Mediterranean diet
48. Montignac diet
49. Natural Foods Diet
50. Negative calorie diet
51. No-Grain Diet
52. Okinawa diet
53. The Optimal Diet
54. Organic food diet
55. Ornish Diet
56. Ovo-lacto vegetarian diet
57. Paleolithic diet
58. Perricone diet
59. Pescetarian diet
60. Plant-based diet
61. Pollotarian diet
62. Prison loaf
63. Pritikin diet
64. Rastafarian diet
65. Raw foodism
66. Rice Diet
67. Scarsdale Diet
68. Sex Diet
69. Shangri-La Diet
70. Slimming World diet
71. Sonoma diet
72. South Beach diet
73. Stillman diet
74. Subway diet
75. Vegan diet
76. Vegetarian diet
77. Very low calorie diet
78. Weigh Down diet
79. Weight Watchers
80. Western pattern diet
81. Zone Diet

That’s 81 different diets. And that’s just skimming the surface.

So the question is, how in the world could one possibly decide which diet is the best to follow? How could there be such great variances when it comes to nutrition? It’s simple. There’s a lot of quackery and “get-rich-quickers” out there. Each author, or should I say “dietary expert,” claims why their’s is superior to the next. Who to believe?

To give you an idea on just how easy it is for anyone to create a diet, here’s a little story. You may have heard about it on the news a while back.

Enter the Kimkins Diet:

This diet was created by a woman who went by the name of Kimmer. In essence, the diet she “created” is very low in calories, fat, carbs and fiber. Basically, it’s just a fork off of the earliest version of the Atkin’s Diet, so it makes me wonder how she didn’t get busted for copyright infringement anyway.

What’s funny is when this lady was summoned to be interviewed by the media, she refused. When nutritional experts and scientists examined the diet, they were startled. What they found was that the diet extremely hazardous for the health. Calling it the Starvation Diet or the Anorexia Diet seems much more fitting. To make matters worse, she had no credentials either- she was neither a nutritionist nor a healthcare professional. Experts continued to ask where her claims were coming from, but she would not speak up. I believe they even quizzed her on her understanding of basic nutrition, which she was lacking.

It wasn’t uncommon for the followers of her diet to experience extreme constipation, hair loss, chronic eating disorders, metabolic disorders, and more unsightly problems.

And to think she was charging $80 to folks that were completely oblivious of what they were getting in to!

Listen, there’s a whole host of diets out there just like this with absolutely no scientific basis. This is why I, along with many nutritional experts, personal trainers, and doctors, recommend that you drop the diet mentality altogether. These diets may bring good results at first, but in the long-run, you’ll end up worse off than before. The best way to solve the question of what’s best is to refute all but proven methods. Even our government has made this readily available. There’s a wealth of general nutrition tips and information out there that hold much truth, and more importantly, safety and effectiveness. It just takes a little research!