relative strength advantage

by Yavor - January 27, 2009May 30, 2015

Seize the Day – There Is No Tomorrow

Lying on the beach, music and a good book. I take an afternoon like this any day. January comes and it is a time when many people decide that they are going to change their lives. We have all heard it and we have all done it. You know the kind of resolutions I’m talking about. From next year I’m going to train or starting next month I won’t eat junk food anymore. Or how about from next week I will start saving money. Starting tomorrow, I will drink more water. Blah, blah, blah. Well guess what?

There Is No Tomorrow

by Yavor - January 23, 2009May 31, 2015

Building Muscle – Consistency And Intensity Are Key When It Comes To Gaining Muscle Mass

Lots of programs and approaches exist when it comes to gaining muscle. Do this, do that, count tempo, lift fast, train with high volume and no failure, train with low volume to failure, etc. But do you know what the real secret to gaining muscle is? It’s all about consistency and intensity.

Will Smith transformed his body from the skinny teenager in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” to a muscular athlete for his powerful impersonation of the greatest boxer who has ever lived in Ali.

The Worst Workout Program In The World…

by Yavor - January 23, 2009May 30, 2015

Getting That Hot Celebrity Body – If All Else Fails, Go Pro

Some people want to look just sort of OK. Not too fat, not too skinny and with steady energy levels. The problem with this is that when you shoot for a mediocre target, you may not even accomplish this easy goal. Let me explain.

It’s always better to aim a little higher. To overshoot if you will. Even if you don’t get to your targeted body, you will have achieved a physique way better than average. If you go for mediocrity though, you may get something way below that.

Now, the worst thing would be if you didn’t have a goal at all. You see, the mind works in a way that when you give it a goal or a time constraint, it gives its best to fit everything you do within the parameters of that goal or time constraint.

Enter Parkinson’s Law

by Yavor - January 17, 2009May 30, 2015

Building Muscle – Alternate Training for Size and Working for Strength And Never Hit a Plateau Again

There has been a trend in the recent years towards the so-called functional training. It emphasizes training the body so that it performs better in sport activities and life in general. As with many trends sometimes the pendulum swings too far in one direction. What I mean is that after fitness training for decades meant working purely for size and aesthetics with a split training routine, now the completely opposite thing is in style.

The Olden Ways Of Bodybuilding

by Yavor - January 11, 2009May 29, 2015

Who Else Wants Their High School Body Back

People usually look their best in high school. Young women and men are almost always thinner and more athletic than older folks. It’s kind of ironic really, because this is also the period full of the most insecurities and body image issues. Girls don’t feel thin enough or pretty enough while boys feel they don’t have enough muscle.

A Few Years Later…

by Yavor - January 10, 2009May 30, 2015

Building Muscle – Get a Basic Strength Level First

I like to learn and discover stuff. One of the tricks I have stumbled upon for really getting the true nature of things is to borrow from lots of sources and track where their opinions coincide.

Almost all fitness authors talk about the importance of establishing a solid foundation of strength for folks that are new to training. One of the best explanation I’ve read was by Arthur Jones – a talented pioneer of bodybuilding. He revolutionized the way training is perceived by the general public by introducing the Nautilus machine.

This post is inspired by his writings where he advises new trainees to progress as quickly as possible in a simple but solid full body routine. With brief workouts and hard work, within a short few months significant progress is achieved.

by Yavor - January 9, 2009May 30, 2015

Ditch The Hot Party Girls And Go To Bed Before Your Workout

People just sort of hang out and try to get themselves a bigger alcohol buzz. The reality is that at some point the party has got to stop. In this way you can be a trooper the next day.

Nothing Interesting Happens After 2 AM

I once read this book that was talking about socialites and how some people manage to have it all. They work hard and productive and go out to all the parties and have fun.

This was their secret – a power socialite would show up for an event but would soon go to another party and after a few such stops head home early. This was what differentiated pros and wannabes. The amateurs would stay up all night and party. The next day however they would be completely burnt out from exhaustion.

Don’t Disturb Your Natural Ultradian Rhythm

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by Yavor - January 8, 2009May 30, 2015

Ankle Injuries – How to Avoid Spraining Ligaments and Tendons in Your Foot

Basketball is a sport with very high rate of injury. Because the game itself allows limited contact between players, injuries often occur from being elbowed or shoved. But, the most incidents come from ankle spraining due to either switching directions or landing on someone else’ foot after a jump thus twisting the ankle. It is my favorite sport. I have torn ligaments in both my ankles playing ball but I still love the game.

The ankle is made for mobility so restricting that with a high top shoe is going to bring trouble somewhere else. It’s better to injure the ankle than to tear something in your knee. So, the solution is not taping and bracing the ankle, but strengthening the foot’s tissues – muscles, tendons, ligaments in order to prevent spraining.

Video: Ways To Strengthen The Tissues Of The Foot

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by Yavor - January 7, 2009May 30, 2015

Glute Activation – Your Butt May Well Be Your Most Important Athletic Asset

Never hurts to have a pretty girl demonstrate exercises for you. The glutes are the primary movers of the hip joint. First – lets define “glutes.” These are the muscles in your butt. Glutes comes from the Latin name gluteus maximus. To me it sounds like the name of Russel Crowe’s character in the movie Gladiator.

Anyway, the primary role of the glutes is to make your upper leg go in alignment with the spine. In other words if the spine and trunk are vertical – the leg must too. So the thigh is pulled down and back. This extension at the hip is primarily propelled by the muscles you are currently sitting on.

Every Movement Involves the Butt

by Yavor - January 6, 2009May 30, 2015

Building Muscle – The Top 7 Secrets of Gaining Lean Muscle Mass

This is probably the most important thing to do in order to build muscle over time – you have to gradually increase the difficulty of your training. You see, if you don’t change things up, if you don’t make things harder, your body won’t have a reason to adapt. Muscle growth is just an adaptation reaction to the external stress caused by the workout.

LL Cool J, on the photo above, works his ass off and consequently looks more than decent. One thing that can be learned about muscle building from the fit celebrities is their work ethic. It simply takes work to achieve anything worthwhile.

Don’t Miss Workouts

by Yavor - January 5, 2009May 30, 2015

Bulk or Cut? If You Don’t Lose Fat Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later

Even if you know what you are doing and have plenty of time to train, typically it takes a few months to get in top shape. Summer will be here sooner than most people expect it. I’ve seen time and time again people at the gyms going on an endless “bulking” phase. In reality, they stay fat year round, postponing looking good for the indefinite future.

Summer is coming. Might as well get in top shape and play with mermaids at the beach. You know, part of the reason for this is that folks have an unrealistic perception of themselves and what it takes to look muscular. They may think they are not muscled enough when in reality their shoulders or V-taper are hidden under a layer of fat.

Look Good Year Round

Lean people look decent even with limited amounts of muscle. This is the way to go – lose fat first so that you look good year round.

Isn’t it a bit lame of an excuse to say you are fat, this year, because you are on a bulking program? Why not look good all the time?

Leaner People Can Get Away with Eating More Carbs

by Yavor - January 4, 2009May 30, 2015

Calf Workouts – The Secrets of Successfully Training Your Calves

I think I became obsessed with basketball during the freshman year of high school. One thing I noticed was that all the older basketball players had great calf development. Well, they probably had good development of their whole bodies, but that was what I noticed cause we were wearing basketball shorts.

Basketball players have good calf development because of their sport. Or is it that they develop their calves for their sport? Which came first? So anyway, I became a calf training fanatic. I remember I had a classmate who was into bodybuilding and I was asking him all the time about ways to develop my calves for basketball.

Here Is What I Learned

by Yavor - January 3, 2009May 30, 2015

Ja Rule’s Workout – How You Can Build a Body You Can Be Proud Of

The thing about most rappers’ physiques is that they have a natural advantage. They are genetically more suited for athletics. That’s why they have the muscles of the back of the body – the ones responsible for athleticism (calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower and upper back and traps) easily developed.

Ja Rule is not a big guy. He looks good because he has a decent amount of muscle and is naturally very lean. It doesn’t hurt that they have naturally lower levels of body fat. All that is left is to develop the muscles of the front of the body – biceps and chest and you’ve got yourself a beach physique.

Ja Rule is Not a Big Guy, But He Looks Big

by Yavor - January 2, 2009May 29, 2015

Behavioral Modeling – The 4 Rules of Achieving Your Goals

Now that’s not the kind of modeling I’m talking about here. It doesn’t hurt to have a picture of a gorgeous woman though.. Behavioral modeling is a technique developed to replicate the achievements of high level performers. It means observing the technicalities of their competence, creating a model of that behavior and teaching it. For example, if you follow the exact steps someone took to achieve a certain thing, you will achieve it too.

Now the catch is that most pros are at a level of unconscious competence. This means that they know how to do certain things, but neither can break them down in explainable form, nor can they teach them.

Here is an example. A badminton player used to come to the gym where I trained. When we asked her to explain specifics about the way she plays the game, she said that you just do it. The girl declared that we were just unfit to grasp the techniques. Unconscious competence is the reason why many natural athletes are poor coaches.

They never had to analyze and breakdown the technique of their sport. Mediocre athletes on the contrary, often have to dissect things and are thus suited to teach others.

Know Your Outcome

by Yavor - January 1, 2009May 31, 2015

Your Reason Why for Getting a Hot Body… Or Any Other Goal

You need a powerful reason why in order to motivate yourself to do what’s necessary to reach your goals. The more reasons you have the better. Try to vividly imagine what it would be like when you achieve your goal. How will you feel? How will it change your life in different situations?

Beautiful women are a big reason why for most guys.

Because goal achievement comes down to doing small step after small step, you have to be motivated to do these incremental advances towards your goal even though there is no short term or immediate gratification. It is easier to do something fun right now than work hard in order to experience something fantastic a little bit later. This applies everywhere – work, dieting, training, etc. But it shouldn’t be like that.

Strong emotional motivators come into play here. You have to imagine in bright colors and feel with all senses how it would feel to have achieved your goal.

Looking Good at the Beach on Your Vacation

Going for a nice relaxing vacation (or a crazy party trip) will feel that much better if you are super fit. Guys could take their shirts of and show off and girls will feel hot and sexy at the beach in their bikinis. You just can’t lose when you are in top shape at an exotic place.

Nothing like feeling fantastic in your skin for that dream vacation.