Archive for the ‘AMC’ Category

For the first several years of my training I literally refused to wear wrist straps. I thought that only “girly (non-Alpha!)-men” wore them because they were too weak and lazy to take a good, solid grip on the bar. However, as I began to get stronger, primarily on back exercises, I started to notice that no matter how hard I tried, my grip would give out more quickly than the muscle(s) I was targeting. And that my friends a definite is a no-no! Thus, I reluctantly decided to give wrist straps a try and I was amazed at how much more weight I could lift and how much more productive so many exercises quickly became. In other words, NOT wearing wrist straps was hindering my overall muscle and strength development by limiting my intensity on several essential, basic movements such as bent rows, weighted pull-ups, deadlifts, upright rows, seated rows and DB rows. After just a few short months of implementing the use of lifting straps I absolutely noticed new width and thickness throughout my entire back, which changed my opinion that it is not “girly-men” that use straps, but “burly (True Alpha!)-men!” That said, I should point out that I use them primarily for pulling exercises and only for my heaviest sets. I do enjoy having a powerful grip, so I do not rely on straps for each and every working set. In addition I must mention that utilizing straps properly and efficiently takes some getting used to. There is a definite technique involved when securing wrist straps around a bar and feeling comfortable with them in your hand. Just do not give up and soon enough using straps will become second nature.

So there you have it my fellow Alpha Males (and females too!)…”just say YES to wrist straps!”

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http://www.alphamaleadvancedworkouts.com/

**Note: Interested affiliates for the AMAW E-Book can sign up right here:

http://www.alphamaleadvancedworkouts.com/affiliates.html

Could thinking about eating your favorite foods, likely ones which aren’t good for you, be the key to resisting them?

Check out this latest story:

http://www.healthnews.com/nutrition-diet/weight-loss/daily-diet-think-yourself-thin-4604.html

Sleep is a rarely considered piece to the total fitness puzzle, but is one of THE most important aspects of becoming a muscular, lean, mean, fit machine! Going to the gym and putting in intense, gut-busting workouts day after day acts only as the stimulus for gains in muscle size, strength, and power, as well as decreases in body fat. Proper nutritional intake is then necessary to provide you the building blocks needed to actually create new lean tissue and melt ugly adipose. However, all of this will be meaningless if you do not allow your body the time and opportunity to “work” this magical process. When does your body do 99% of its building and repair work? WHEN YOU SLEEP! During sleep all other body processes slow down and an intense recovery period takes place. The conscious mind is allowed to “chill” while the subconscious keeps us entertained. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Winter is upon us, you’re probably starting to think ahead to Spring, and all of those warm fuzzy, please get here soon to-do’s! You’re ready to shed those bulky winter clothes and slip into shorts and swimsuits, right? But you quickly realize that you still have several months before that’s happening. There’s no better time to get that butt in shape than now!

Here are some tips for you men and women who are not interested in hibernating this winter! Read the rest of this entry »

New fossil research conducted by British and Canadian scientists suggests that our cave-dwelling ancestors had far higher testosterone levels than guys today.  The study focused on finger length ratios, a known correlate to testosterone exposure in the womb, to estimate the testosterone levels of fossilized specimens of ape-like early hominids, Neanderthals, and an early modern human of 70,000 years ago.  The results, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indicate that tens of thousands of years of evolution have lowered our “he hormone.”  Score one for the cavemen. Read the rest of this entry »

The title, “The Weight Loss Obsession”, was an original title for a piece I wrote in one of my books, over a decade ago. It was during a time when we, the experts, were pretty confident that the combat against fat was being fought and being won. Here we are, over a decade later, and not only have we Americans been beaten down by obesity, but it seems to be beating the entire world and it’s not about to stop its bullying anytime in the foreseeable future.

Do you know why this is? How could it be, that we, one of the most advanced, high tech and savvy countries in the world have now become known as the fattest country in the world? I believe it’s because we are also our own worst enemies! We Americans are non-stop and many of us unfortunately take little time to exercise and even less time to think about what we’re putting in our mouths. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s no doubt that diet and exercise are the best path to major changes in your body composition — from flab to fab!  But the popular demand for an effort-free “magic bullet” solution to a better body will always keep medical researchers busy, as two recent news stories demonstrate.

First the bad news: after about a dozen years of effort and $1 billion of investment, Arena Pharmaceuticals announced that the FDA had rejected its application to market a new “anti-obesity” drug based upon “marginal” effectiveness in clinical trials and concerns over studies showing extremely high doses were linked to increased cancer rates in rats.  So, for the time being, lorcaserin (Lorqess) won’t be an option for the 1 out of 3 Americans currently categorized as obese.  Given the side effects historically associated with other weight loss drugs (e.g., fen-phen, rimonabant, sibutramine), I think the smart approach to transforming your body is a sound eating plan and exercise prescription like the one we created in Alpha Male Challenge.

Now … what could be good news for those who’ve reached fairly lean condition with diet and exercise but have a little bit of stubborn fat in a problem area they just can’t get rid of: FDA has just approved a non-invasive procedure to literally freeze away your fat cells! Read the rest of this entry »

Just over a year ago, I began training a 38 year old male who weighed 310 pounds. When I met him in person, I could see that he was hungry to make positive changes in his life. He had gotten to a point in his life, where he was clearly not happy about the way he looked and felt. 

This was obviously having a major impact on both his personal life and his career. Although I saw his desire to change, I still wasn’t sure that he’s  have the ability to truly buy in to the True Alpha program. I pull no punches and I expect my clients to give me their all. I wasn’t sure that he could give that to me.

Well, we began the program and as I expected, it was slow going for the first week. He had been sedentary for a while and I certainly didn’t want to rush into things, as I didn’t want to do any physical harm to my client by rushing the process.
 
We started off and again, Read the rest of this entry »

The September 27^th issue of Newsweek features an article by writers Andrew Romano and Tony Dokoupil entitled, “Men’s Lib.”  “What’s the matter with men?” the authors ask.  “For years, the media have delivered the direst of prognoses.  Men are ‘in decline.’  Guys are getting ‘stiffed.’  The ‘war on boys’ has begun.  And so on.”  They cite Hanna Rosin’s declaration about “The End of Men” in The Atlantic (fiercely dissected in this blog not long ago).

Without doubt, there’s a lot of confusion today about what a guy needs to do and be.  Romano and Dokoupil criticize what they call displays of “throwback masculinity” such as rich urbanites strutting around in hunting gear.  They’re right: we can’t retreat into the woods in deference to “some musty script” of manliness.  The man for our times must be a man of our times, and changing gender roles can’t be ignored.  We need to look forward, to evolve, to redefine our gender.  But in ultimately suggesting that the solution lies only in embracing “girly jobs and dirty diapers,” the authors miss the point.  Sure, men with children should strive to be good breadwinners and good parents.  I can’t agree more!  But so should women.  Gender roles have neutralized in many ways and nobody should be afraid to change a diaper or do the carpooling.  But that doesn’t help us define what masculinity is.  If anything, by focusing on genderlessness, it just tells us what it’s not. Read the rest of this entry »

John was pretty shocked when he stood on the scale this morning: 201.6 lbs. He was stuck on a plateau (206+ lbs.) when he started the Spartan Diet two weeks ago, but dropping practically all extraneous carbs enabled him to peel off nearly 5 additional pounds. It wasn’t easy for him – he was running mostly on “impulse power” – but it paid off.

Now that the Spartan Diet phase is nearly over, John’s looking forward to a real treat… adding fruit and the occasional glass of vin ordinaire back to his diet. He’ll follow the “Handshake Diet” for one more week (’till the official end of the program) and then will raise his cals back up to a maintenance level for several weeks. And that’s a true maintenance level, I might add… his goals are to continue with the habits acquired during the Challenge (perform more at-work physical activity; limit grains; keep portion sizes down) and avoid rebound fat gains.

Read the rest of this entry »