Simply Put, The Greatest of All Time...

I usually spend a good deal of time researching information for whatever particular topic I want to blog about before I post. But today is a little different. A lot different, actually. For today, we mourn the loss of the greatest entertainer of all time, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.



No matter what your background, race, age, or religion, he affected us all. And no matter what one may or may not feel about the man's personal life and decisions, no one can deny his artistry. His music is incomparable and unmistakably one of a kind.

Michael Jackson sold nearly 1 billion solo albums throughout the course of his 40-year career, making him the highest selling music artist ever. These numbers are sure to increase with the learning of his passing, as people rush to their nearest record store to secure a piece of his legacy. I earlier stated to a fellow blogger that, "200 years from now, people will STILL know about Michael Jackson." We call that legendary.

I'm going to Best Buy today to find myself fresh copies of "Thriller", "Off the Wall", and "Bad". My plan is not to listen to them, but to preserve them in their orignal packing and present them as a gift to my 3-year old daughter one day when she's old enough to recognize greatness.

1958 - 2009

Now, what are you going to do?

CAS

The Hardgainer's Guide to Nutrition: EAT!

A fraternity brother of mine recently asked me if I had any advice for him on how he could gain some weight. Like a lot of us, he's a hardgainer: thin bone structure, long limbs, naturally lean body composition, and a naturally high metabolism. For guys like him, losing weight is NOT the problem. It's gaining weight that's the real predicament.


Outside of using a training routine that requires the use of a ton of heavy squatting, pressing, and rowing, there's only one other trick of the trade (that's legal): Eat food. Eat lots of food. And do it often.

This doesn't mean you should eat everything in sight. Try to consume as many calories per day as possible while staying away from refined sugars and fatty foods. Eat too much of the bad stuff and your next question will be, "How do I lose this gut?" To which I'll refer you to this article. You must eat clean in order to ensure that your weight gain is in the form of lean muscle tissue and NOT fat.

Start by setting a benchmark of consuming 2,500 calories per day divided amongst 4-8 meals. You should be eating something about every 2 to 4 hours. Personally, I try to take in approximately 4,000 calories per day. Calories are simply how we measure the body's energy input and output. So in order to gain weight you must take in more calories per day than you put out. (Vice versa for weight loss.) You can't expect to get big when you're burning thousands of calories a day lifting weights, doing cardio, and playing ball. Just eat, lift heavy 3 or 4 times per week, and minimize the cardio (if any at all).

Protein consumption is a key component to gaining lean muscle tissue. For weight gain, you are to eat 1.5 - 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. You read right, fellas. That's a LOT of protein. If you're sure to eat a good quality source of protein at each meal, then this shouldn't be too big of an issue. This is where protein shakes and bars come in handy. Use them as snacks between your regular meals of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You should also drink a high calorie/high carbohydrate protein shake within 30 minutes following your workouts to help with muscular recovery and repair.

Eating correctly, no matter what your goal, can be a little tricky at times. But the trick is to find a good rhythm or routine in order to force it all into becoming a habit. Enough reading. GO EAT SOMETHING!

Now, what are you going to do?

CAS

Finally! Cardio for the Strength Athlete.

So I recently retired from playing minor league football a few weeks short of my 29th birthday. Having played nearly my entire life, I decided that I was finally tired of the bumps, bruises, and injuries that serve as the opportunity cost of playing such a vicious and violent game. Nonetheless, I'll always love the game and it will always be a huge part of me and who I am as a competitor.

Toting the rock in the final game in my hometown

How you doin'?

So now that football is over for me, where in the hell am I going to get my cardio from? If you're a strength athlete like me, then you almost feel allergic to cardiovascular training. However, as we get older the need for cardio becomes more prevalent. Knowing that, I went on a hunt for a few cardiovascular conditioning programs and came across two offseason routines put together by the strength and conditioning coaches for the Houston Texans NFL franchise. Both routines are timed speed intervals with one covering 60 seconds and the other covering 30 seconds. The idea is for the first program to be simulated 400 meter runs and the second program to be 200 meters. (It should be noted that as a athletic performance professional and former football player, I do not advocate running more than 100 yards as a form of football conditioning. Distance running is not functional for the game of football in any way. However, these running programs are great forms of conditioning for other sports that requiring middle distance running and for Joe Blows like you and I.) The programs go as follows:

400's Treadmill Interval Workout

Exercise time: 60 seconds

Rest interval: 2 minutes, 30 seconds

Repetitions: 6

Instructions: Run for 60 seconds, then either dismount the treadmill or slow walk for 2 minutes, 30 seconds. (Always use 2 and half times the running time for recovery) Continue this process until you've finished 6 repetitions. Cool down at 3 mph for 3 minutes. When you can complete all 6 reps at the same speed, increase the speed by 1/2 mph on your next workout. For safety reasons, do NOT exceed 15 mph. Once 15 mph has been acheived, begin to increase the treadmill incline. Workout should take approximately 17 minutes.

200's Treadmill Interval Workout

Exercise Time: 30 seconds

Rest Interval: 1 minute, 15 seconds

Repetitions: 10

Instructions: Same as above, but adjust for 30 second intervals with 1 minute, 15 seconds of recovery time and 10 repetitions.

These programs are designed for the trainee to reach the target heart rate zone of 70-85% of your max heart rate. Working in this target zone is optimal for the conditioning of the cardiorespiratory system. And best of all, each program only takes 17 friggin' minutes! As a strength athlete, you probably don't want to be on the treadmill for 45 minutes to an hour with long distance cardio, as this will have adverse effects towards my strength and muscular gains. (Just think, have you ever seen a big strong marathoner or cyclist? Last time I checked, Lance Armstrong was about 165 lbs...with or without performance enhancers.) In performing these running programs a 2-3 times per week, you can improve your cardiovascular health without sacrifice your strength training too much. Give them a try, and tell me what you think.

Now, what are you going to do?

CAS

Tips for Building Great Bi's & Tri's

Show me a man who says doesn't want or need great looking arms, and I'll show you a f'n' liar. Sleeve-busting biceps and triceps will turn heads anytime, anywhere, no matter who you are or what the rest of you looks like. I mean, we can all use that little bit of ego-stroking extra attetion from time to time, especially if it's coming from the female persuasion. I don't know about you fellas, but it's always nice to walk into a room and immediately get eye-humped by something in a size 2 with big booty and a smile...

(By the way, a wise man once told me to NEVER trust a big booty and a smile. I wholeheartedly trust that advice. You should too.) So I've compiled a list of rules that will put you on the path to building fantastic biceps and triceps so that you can wear your skin one size too small and start getting some of that well-deserved attention.

1. Keep your elbows in. This is HUGE. No matter if you're training biceps or triceps, refrain from allowing your elbows to stick out. For example, while performing standing dumbbell curls, instead of letting your elbows move laterally away from your body as you lift the weight, keep them "glued" to your sides. This allows for better isolation of the biceps due to the strictness of the movement. The same principles apply for all triceps exercises as well.

2. Don't swing or use momentum to lift the weight. This sort of goes hand-in-hand with the tucked elbows rule. How many times have you ever seen the guy in the gym attempting to do heavy barbell curls by swinging his hips forward to give the weight a jumpstart upward? It's as if he's trying to hump the bar! If you've never seen that guy, then you've either never been to a gym or you ARE that guy. Don't be that guy. As said before, strict movements will make for better isolation for the specific muscle or muscle groups that you're trying to emphasize. Remember, it's all about quality, not quantity.

3. Use a full range of motion. This is another common mistake that I see from novice lifters and gym "experts" alike. Stay strict and move the weight with a full range of motion with full extension and full flexion at the elbows. Frankly, this rule should actually be applied to ALL exercises.

4. Build your biceps/triceps training routine around heavy barbell curls and close-grip bench presses. These two exercises should be the meat and potatoes of your arms training. Everything else is just details. Barbell curls should always be performed with a straight bar, and NOT an cambered bar. Straight bars allow for a better, harder contraction of the biceps during full flexion due to the fixed supinated (palms up) hand positioning it forces. Cambered bars put the hands in a near half-supinated position which decreases the stress placed upon the biceps during elbow flexion. Close-grip bench presses are, without question, the backbone exercise for great triceps development. Grip the bar with about 6 to 8 inches between your hands, and remember rule number one--keep your elbows in. Once your elbows move outward, you begin to place more stress on your pecs and less on your triceps. Keep 'em in, and watch your tris blow up! Close-grip bench presses (along with dips) are also one of the best exercises for increasing your bench press one-rep max. And, like always, train heavy.

5. Emphasize triceps over biceps. Another common mistake. All anyone wants to do is bench press and do curls for the girls, because they think that huge biceps are the cornerstone of great arms. But they've got it backwards. If you want some decent guns you've gotta hit the triceps first and foremost. It's common sense, guys: Your triceps take up two-thirds of your upper arms. Just break down the words 'triceps' and 'biceps'. Tri- means three, meaning your triceps have three heads. Meanwhile, bi- means two, meaning your biceps have two heads. Simple mathematics...don't neglect your triceps. Train them first.

These five quick and easy tips for upper arm development will quickly get you moving in the right direction towards turning a few heads and raising a few eyebrows.

Now, what are you going to do?

CAS