Seize the Day – There Is No Tomorrow

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

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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.

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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.

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.

This Video Shows A Few Different Ways To Strengthen The Tissues Of The Foot

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

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.

So 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 Because it Is in the Center of the Body

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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.

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

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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 of their whole bodies, but that was what I noticed cause we were wearing basketball shorts.

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

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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. 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 Without a Shirt

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Behavioral Modeling – The 4 Rules of Achieving Your Goals

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.

1. Know Your Outcome

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