Relative Strength Advantage

I receive many questions from young guys asking me how they should train. Almost every single one of those emails includes a question about what supplements I would recommend to someone who is trying to build some muscle or burn a bit (or a lot) of fat. Every single time my answer is that you don’t really need supplements. If you even take any, they should be the icing on the cake. What matters when building muscle is that you do the right exercises and that you always, and I mean always seek progressive overload. As for losing fat – no pill will help if you don’t learn the cold hard truth that you need to eat less and exercise more.

[Our lady visitors were starting to complain of too much hot girl coverage and practically no dudes. So here is a fit good looking guy... under another hot girl lol. Ok, I couldn't help it! Can't blame a guy for sneaking in pics of gorgeous girls... Plus, I know most... ok practically ALL guys actually workout because they want to hook up with beautiful women. Just reporting on a fact lol]

I Was Pleasantly Surprized

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The renegade row, developed and named by coach John Davies, is one of the hardest and most effective abdominal exercises. The reason for this is that renegade rows force you to use the primary function of the stomach muscles – stabilization. In other words the exercise teaches you how to keep your body as rigid as possible. You have no other choice but to contract your abs a hard as possible. Otherwise you won’t be able to maintain a rigid body.

1. Technique

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The secret is to use your whole body. Just like in the hollow position, you have to tuck your pelvis forward and squeeze your glutes hard. The harder you can squeeze, the more force you can use from the ground, through your statically flexed quads, through the glutes and up towards the upper body and the bar itself. When your whole body is rock solid from flexing, no force dissipates and you are instantly stronger, without gaining an ounce of muscle.

[Note the tucked in pelvis and the torso shifting forward once the bar gets above head level. The key to the exercise is to keep the weight above your center of gravity - the middle of the foot.]

Here Is How to Military Press Correctly to Get a Strong Upper Body and Wide Shoulders

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Everybody keeps writing that the barbell deadlift is the king of exercises and that no other exercise will task your body so much. I agree and that’s why the exercise has a place in the Beginner Strength Training Full Body Workout. Even so, if you don’t learn to perform the barbell deadlift correctly, two things might happen.

[Here is how to perform the barbell deadlift.]
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The barbell squat is the first exercise in the Beginner Strength Training Full body Workout. In order to progress and avoid injuries, it is imperative that you perform the exercise with correct technique. What the exercise will give you is not big legs, but overall strength throughout the body. To get big legs from squats you have to squat very heavy.

[In the video I did not take the bar from a squat rack, but you should not do it like me. Instead, start the exercise properly from a squat rack.]
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My Story and How I Found about Brad Pilon’s Book

I found out about Brad Pilon’s ebook Eat Stop Eat from Hollywood Look Fitness Expert Rusty Moore from The Fitness Black Book. I had a few weeks before my summer vacation trip and he wrote a post in which he mentioned the book. I decided to get it and was amazed how easy it was to follow the plan. I quickly lost 5-7lbs and kept it off during the vacation even though I ate whatever and whenever I liked there.

[Traditional dieting is too restrictive. Fad diets sometimes advise elimination of whole macro nutrient groups such as carbohydrates or fat. Brad believes it is the amount of food we eat and not the macro-nutrient ratio that is responsible for the obesity epidemic.]
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A fellow trainer, Zach Even-Esh, is holding a world wide web pullup challenge. Basically, film yourself doing pullups. You got one month to train. At the end whoever does the most pullups will win and get lots of cool stuff from Zach. Here is my entry. Did 15 strict pullups.

[I think the Fugees are great. They got the hook for this song from Enya by the way. Sampling music is fun!]

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