My Training Plan

This is the training program I have designed to get me ready for my first competition. Unlike many strength based training programs I incorporate many bodybuilding principles into my training protocol. A bigger muscle is a stronger muscle. I not only train the four big lifts (bench press, squat, deadlift, overhead press) and events (farmers walk, axel clean and press, medleys, etc) but also each body part. Here is how it breaks down.

Sunday Or Monday
Main Lift- Bench Press
Bodyparts- Chest/Triceps

Example
Bench Press- Work up to a 5 rep max.
Bench Press- Drop set, as many reps with 225 then 205, and finally 185.
Close Grip Bench Press- 4 x 5-8 reps
Dumbbell Flys- 4 x 8 reps
Triceps Extensions with Dumbbells- 4 x 8 reps
Triceps Pressdowns with Rope- 4 x 8 reps with last set being a 5 x drop set.

Monday or Tuesday
Main Lift- Deadlift
Bodyparts- Back/Biceps

Example
Deadlift- Ramping up in weight until finally doing as many reps as possible with 495
Bent Over Barbell Rows- 3 x 8 reps
Wide Grip Pulldowns- 3 x 8 reps
Close Grip Underhand Pulldowns- 3 x 8 with last set being a triple drop set
Seated Rows- 3 x 8 reps
45 Degree Back Raises- 3 x 8 reps
Dumbbell Curls- 4 x 8 reps
Barbell Curls- 4 x 8 reps done in an explosive fashion

Tuesday (if I trained Sunday and Monday)
Light Leg Day
Leg Press 5 x 8 reps
Hack Squat 3 x 8 reps with last set being a triple drop set
Leg Extensions 4 x 12 reps
Leg Curls 4 x 8 reps

Wednesday- Off Day

Thurdays
Main Lift- Overhead Press
Body Parts- Shoulders and Upper Back

Example
Strict Press- 4 x 8 reps
Push Press- Work up to a 3 rep max
Behind the Neck Press- 3 x 8 reps
Lateral Raises- 3 x 8 reps
Wide Grip Upright Rows- 3 x 8 reps
Bent Lateral Raises- 3 x 8 reps
Thumbless Shrugs- 4 x 8 reps
Farmers Walk Handle Shrugs- 4 x 8 reps

Friday or Saturday
Main Lift- Squats
Bodyparts- :Legs and Calves
Squats- work up to a max single
Squats- back off sets of 12 reps (number of sets varies)
Leg Press- work up to 1000 pounds and hit as many reps as I can.
Lunges- 3 x 8 reps
Calf Raises Standing- 3 x 12
Seated Calf Raises- 3 x 12

Later in the Day
Events Training
Farmers Walk
Axel Clean and Press
Viking Press using my hack squat machine
Medley
Stone lifting
Keg Carries

I will also be doing 45-60 minutes of cardio  x 3 days a week first thing in the morning. I may also do some conditioning work in the evening if I need more work using lighter strongman events like sled drags or farmers walk.

Keep in mind my example training sessions are subject to change. I may only do the main lift for that day or I might drop the main lift altogether and just do the bodybuilding training if I need a light day. It all depends on where I am at and what I need work on.

As I progress thru the off season I will likely add at least one event training lift to each session.

Right now my focus is on fixing my weaknesses. I have identified the following areas I need work on.

Pressing Strength- I have never had strong shoulders. While they have gotten stronger I still need a lot of work in this area. I also need to work on my core to keep better stabilized with the weight overhead.

Grip Strength- I have never really had to train my grip before. Specifically I need to work on grip endurance. Farmers walks, dumbbell pinch holds, thumb-shrugs, and axel bar work will be my plan of attack to improve my grip.

My weight- I will not be able to outdo some of the other competitors with limit strength (in the press and squat) so I need to focus on being faster. I am not a fast person but I am fast under a heavy load (no snickers please). Medleys (along with deadlifts) have proven to be one of my strongest events. Being lighter will allow me to move faster and not get winded as quick.

Power Out of the Hole on Squats- I need to build explosive power out of the bottom of the squat. Paused hack sqauts and deep Olympic style squats will help to improve this area. Box jumps will also be utilized to help in this area.

Getting used to the events- I have little experience training the strongman events. That is probably my biggest weakness at the moment. As I progress I will be doing more and more event training.

The Education of a Strongman

Well I went and did it again. I set my deep-set eyes on a lofty goal and this time nothing will stand in my way. I am going to make a run at Strongman competition. You may not be intimately familiar with the sport but you have almost certainly seen it on television. The big scary guys who flip over giant tires, press logs overhead, and deadlift cars. What many people do not know is that strongman competition is a world wide sport that has hundreds if not thousands of competitions a year from local amateurs all the way up to the professionals. While you only see the hulking behemoths on television, there are actually weight divisions for smaller competitors as well as women, teens, and masters (people over the age of 50 I believe).

This will not be my first foray into strength athletics. I began training (seriously) in 2008. My main focus was on powerlifting at the time. I will be the first to tell anyone that despite being a big man I was not a natural at the sport. I struggled for quite a bit of time to work up to respectable weights. Finally in 2010 I competed in two powerlifting competitions. Aside from the people there and Missy, I have not told anyone about that before. I kept it a secret because I was honestly not sure how well I would do and didn't want the added pressure of my friends and family knowing. I didn't do great but I didn't do horrible either. My first competition my nerves got to me and I bombed out on the squats by cutting them too high. My second competition I hit depth but lacked the confidence to use bigger weights to really make a good showing. I had really just winged things going into the competition. I was training on my own and no longer with the powerlifting team I had been training with.

I vowed to reorganize my training and take things seriously and hit a meet in 2011 and really make a top showing. An injury and two surgeries forced me to sideline those plans, among other things. While I returned to training full time in late 2011 I never really looked to compete again. I briefly tossed around the notion that I could try for Olympic Lifting but it quickly fizzled out. While I have all the respect in the world for Olympic lifters I just couldn't continue training with the light loads required to master the lifts. I love being strong. I love lifting heavy ass things. I love the strain. I like looking strong.

Starting in the summer of 2012 I wanted to do something in the field of strength athletics. My first idea was to organize a strength competition among my circle of friends. Many of them are hardcore lifters and I thought it would be a fantastic thing. Unfortunately getting a level of commitment from people proved impossible. Everyone talks a good game but when it comes down to it most people fizzle out really fast.

My 34th birthday is in exactly five days. I know that I don't have an eternity to try and make a mark. I really feel though that I am entering into my prime. I am stronger now than ever before. In the past week I have hit personal records (PR) in the big three lifts, bench press, squat, and deadlift. Hopefully today I will hit a pr in the overhead press. My endurance is getting better and better and I am sticking with and following through with all my plans regarding cardio/conditioning.

The iron is hot and I plan to strike. The strongman season unofficially goes from May to October. There are still some competitions in between but the main ones are during those months. That gives me an off-season of 5 months to prepare for my first competition (possible longer depending on the schedule of events). In January there is an event an hour or so away that I plan on attending. It will give me a good idea of the competition I can expect to face locally and it will let me see what events I might do well in and what I might struggle in. Then I can work on fixing my weaknesses and perfecting my strengths.

I will make another entry to detail my actual training program I plan on using and how I plan to address my obvious weaknesses.

Legs 10-14-13

Leg Extensions 3 x 12 reps
Leg Presses 4 x 8-10 reps
Hack Squats 4 x 8 reps*
Leg Curls 4 x 8 reps

*This was a triple drop set.

45 minutes of cardio

No squats or stiff leg deadlifts today. It is vacation week and just trying to get in and get in some quality training.

10-15-13

Did some bench pressing just to get in the gym and move around a bit. Hitting more chest work tomorrow with my back training. No cardio today. Going to hit an hour tomorrow.

Arms and Calves 10-13-13

Biceps-
Alternating Dumbbell Curls 4 x 8 reps
Supersetted with
Cable Hammer Curls 4 x 8 reps
Barbell Curls- 4 x 8 reps
Cable Curls to Forehead- 4 x 8 reps

Triceps-
Gall Presses- 4 x 8 reps
Dumbbell Skullcrushers- 4 x 8 reps
Rope Pressdowns- 4 x 8 reps*
*last set was a quadruple drop set

Calves-
Seated Calf Raises- 4 x 8 reps
Standing Calf Raises- 4 x 8 reps

Cardio- 45 on stationary bike

Notes- Nothing makes my triceps "pop-out" more than rope pressdowns. The last drop set especially really hits  them hard. I feel for overall triceps width this is one of the best movements. On the other hand because of a metal plate and screws in my right hand barbell curls are proving to be very ineffective for me. To use any real weight it ends up hitting my upper forearms more than my biceps. Dumbbell Curls on the other hand are very effective because I can control the movement of my wrist and use heavier weights comparatively.

Delts 10-12-13

Note-We were slated to train our calves with our delts but Missy has suffered a back injury so she could not train her shoulders so I decided to hold off on calves until the following day when we train our arms.

Military Press- 4 x 8 reps then I worked up until I hit a 2 rep max pr.
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raises- 4 x 8 reps
One Arm Side Lateral Raises- 4 x 8 reps
Bent Over Rear Lateral Raises- 4 x 8 reps
Barbell Shrugs- 4 x 8 reps


The military press pr was pretty awesome because I hit 2 reps with 20 MORE pounds than my previous best 1 rep max. I haven't been performing much heavy overhead pressing work as I have been focusing primarily on side and rear deltoid development. This was quite dumb thing for me to do honestly because while side and rear lateral work is good  nothing beats heavy overhead pressing. It makes up one what I consider the 5 fundamental lifts in weight training (the others being squat, bench press, deadlift, and bent over barbell row).

It is a good thing Missy skipped this training session. I tweaked my mid back slightly during the session. It feels fine now but it would have really aggravated her existing injury if she had done the same.

Leg Training 10-9-13

When we train our legs we are referring to primarily the quads and hamstrings. While it is almost impossible to train the upper legs without indirectly working the calves, we do our actual calf training when we train our shoulders. We do this because generally we are so "drained" after training our legs that calves were being done as an after thought. We would end either just doing a couple of lazy sets or not doing them at all. By training them on a separate day we can really work them hard which is a necessity when it comes to calves. Everyday every step we take hits the the calves directly so they are used to high volume stimulus with a relatively heavy weight (bodyweight). Doing a few lazy sets of calf work on a seated calf machine will do not a damn thing for them. Instead you have to really push the heavy weights with big lifts like standing calf raise machine and calf raises on a leg press machine.

But enough about calves, last night was all about building big upper legs.

DEEP Squats- 4 x 6-8 reps
Hack Squats- 4 x 8 reps*
Leg Presses- 4 x 8 reps
Leg Curls- 4 x 8 reps
Lunges**

*The last set was a triple drop set. This was super intense and really smoked my legs.

**I am including this lift in here even though we did not perform it. We both went VERY heavy this session after having not gone (too) heavy for the past month. Both of our legs were like noodles by the end. Trying to do lunges would of been damn near impossible because of balancing issues with our legs so fatigued after the three big compound lifts.

This serves to prove a point that doing an endless amount of lifts is not necessary. As you notice I did not perform leg extensions. While leg extensions are a nice isolation exercise for the quadriceps, what really builds big quads is squats and leg presses. Sometimes you need to drop the small stuff and really focus on moving some heavy ass weight on the big stuff. Trust me if you are really pushing the poundages and doing a drop set or two, a few compound leg exercises is all you need to think you are on the stairway to heaven (or the highway to hell).

Back Training 10-8-13

Last night we trained our backs along with hitting our biceps for a couple sets. We train our arms on a separate day but like to hit them with a few sets earlier in the week (Triceps with Chest and Biceps with Back as they already play a big role in training those bodyparts).

Warmup
Wide Grip Pulldowns/Chins - 3 x 8 reps

Close Grip Underhand Pulldowns - 4 x 8 reps
Seated Rows with V-Grip-  4 x 8 reps
One Arm Rows- 2 x 8 reps*
Barbell Bent Over Rows- 4 x 8 reps
T-Bar Rows- 4 x 8 reps
Dumbbell Pullovers- 4 x 8 reps
Cable Curls to Forehead- 4 x 8 reps

*I tried a new setup on these and I simply did not like it. I could not get a good contraction in my lats so I decided to just move on to the barbell rows.

Missy did the same minus the bent rows and tbar rows because she has been fighting a back injury the past week. Instead of the barbell rows she did a pulldown where you place an incline bench away from the pulldown machine and lay back on it to perform the lift. I will look up the name later.

Special Note- I rotate deadlifts in our training. Week 1 is no deadlifts at all but heavy barbell rows and tbar rows. Week 2 we do deadlifts for 4 x 5-8 reps and go lighter on the barbell rows and tbar rows. On Week 3 we max out on deadlifts and drop the barbell and tbar rows altogether but instead perform back raises. 

Chest Training 10-8-13

We are starting a new 12 week training cycle so I thought I might post up some sample training sessions. For myself it means training 6 days a week (each week I hit one bodypart twice a week) and 6 days of cardio as well. Yesterday was chest training. We also usually hit one or two triceps exercises with chest.

Bench Press- 5 sets of 5-10 reps plus a final drop set.
Incline Bench Press- 4 sets of 8 reps
Dumbbell Flys- 4 sets of 8 reps
Cable Crossovers- 4 sets of 8 reps
Rope Pressdowns- 4 sets of 8 reps*

*last set was a drop set.

Missy performed the same training but did Gall Presses instead of the rope pressdowns.

I then did 30 minutes of cardio on stationary bike.

On bench presses I worked up to a new 5 rep max so I was pretty happy. I actually almost got it for 6 reps. It was so close. I had it maybe 3 inches from lockout and held it there for what felt like an entirety. I still think if I had been a little tighter on my setup I could of made that 6th rep easily.

Tonight's training is back with one or two bicep lifts as well. I can't wait.

QFS Healthy Recipe Series- Eggs and Grits

This recipe is a personal favorite of mine. It is my go-to meal because of its versatility. It is both easy to make (10-15 minutes tops) and quick and easy to eat. The ingredients can easily be modified to fit your goals whether they be to shed some body fat or to pack on some quality mass.

Ingredients-

Large Eggs
100% Liquid Egg Whites

Grits

*Optional (but highly recommended)
Spices

I am going to post up how I prepare them. Keep in mind I am on a cutting phase. Depending on your current goals you can adjust the ratios of each ingredient.


1 Cup of Liquid Egg Whites
2 Whole Eggs
1/4 Cup Dry Measurement of Grits
Spices to Taste*

*Just a fair warning. A (VERY) little bit of the California seasoning goes a long way. If you plan on wanting sex for the next three days limit the use.

I start by spraying a non-stick pan with no-stick cooking spray. I then set the stove to just over medium heat and let it heat up.

I then measure out the grits and place it into a medium sized microwave safe bowl like the one below-

I mix in the three spices above at this point (I also use them later as well). I then add water. How much you use is up to you but I tend to use more than they recommend on the carton. For 1/4 cup of dry grits they recommend 3/4 cup of water but I use twice that. This may be because I microwave it rather than prepare it on the stove.

I stir the mixture together and then place it in the microwave for 4 minutes, then I stir it again and place it in there for another 2-3 minutes. Sometimes it cooks faster than others for whatever reason.

While the grits are cooking I break two whole eggs into a bowl and whisk them. I then pour in the liquid egg whites and add some the spices to this mixture as well. I whisk again.

This is about how it looks. Again do not use too much of the California seasoning unless you want bitched at for how much it stinks up the house. Trust me.

When the pan is nice and hot I pour in the egg mixture. I like for mine to cook fast. I am not going to explain how I cook the eggs because I fucking suck at it and usually burn them so don't listen to me. Missy does a fantastic job but I try to do them myself since she prepares so many of our other meals.

So shortly after the grits are done the eggs should be done as well. I will take the eggs and place them directly in the bowl of grits.

Next comes the very complicated step of mixing the eggs and grits together. At this point I take a taste and decide if I need to add more spices. If I feel like making people really uncomfortable I add more California seasoning so that my breath proceeds me by about 15 feet.

After it is all said and done it looks like this.

The way that I prepare it has the following nutritional profile.

Calories-     395
Carbs-        29g
Protein-      40g
Fats-          11g

As I said depending on your goals you can easily adjust the amount of eggs, egg whites, and/or grits to get the desired nutritional profile. For instance if I wanted to maintain weight I might utilize the following.

1/2 cup of grits
2 whole eggs
2 cups of egg whites

Which would yield

Calories-   650
carbs-       58g
Protein-    68g
fats-         11g


The possibilities are endless.

My favorite Back Routine

This is my personal favorite back routine. Sometimes the sets and reps will change but I like this group of lifts. Tend to hit the entire back very well.

Deadlifts- 6 sets x 1-8 reps
Bent Over Barbell Rows- 5 sets x 6-10 reps
Close Grip Pulldowns- 5 x 8-15 reps
Seated Rows- 5 x 10-15 reps
One Arm Pulldowns- 5 x 8-12 reps

I usually cycle the deadlifts on a 4 week wave.

Week 1- Moderate weight for rep ranges of 5-8.
Week 2- Perform singles working up to a one rep max.
Week 3 and 4- No deadlifts. Instead I go heavier on the bent over rows.I will then do heavy bent over dumbbell rows as well.

If I do deadlifts I might only go up to 225 or 255 on bent over rows. On weeks 3 and 4 I will work up to 315 or more. Then for the bent over dumbbell rows I will go very heavy on week 3 to say 180 to 200 and then on week 4 I will do then with very strict form two arms at once with a lighter weight.

I am a big believer in the one arm pulldowns. They are a great finisher for the back.

My Favorite Training Splits

If you have been following this blog or my previous training blog you will know that we change up our training split every so often. Sometimes we do this because we want to experiment with new methods. Recently we felt that training our legs one day a week was not enough. We decided to do two training sessions a week. One of the days would focus on more quad dominant lifts while the other day would focus on more hamstring dominant lifts. We will try this new method for a few months and see how it works. Sometimes we change things up simply to keep things fresh. The human body has a tendency to adapt to stimulus after repeated exposure. Small adjustments made to your routine might be just the thing you need to break through a plateau. Below is a list of some of our favorite routines.

Current Routine-
Sunday- Chest
Monday- Quad Dominant Leg Day
Tuesday- Shoulders/Arms
Wednesday- Back
Thursday- Hamstring Dominant Leg Day
Friday- Arms
Saturday- Off

Sometimes we will do some light back work on chest day and some light chest work on back day. It just depends on how we feel that week.

3 Days On and 1 Day Off
Day 1- Chest and Back
Day 2- Shoulders and Arms
Day 3- Legs
Day 4- Off
Then Repeat

This is a good split if you are a big fan of supersets utilizing opposing body parts. The chest and back work well in this regard.  5 Supersets of bench press with wide grip chin ups will really get you're heart rate up. This split pairs a pushing muscle group (quads, chest, triceps, etc.) with a pulling muscle group (lats, biceps, hamstrings, etc.). A variation would be pairing all your upper body pushing muscles on day 1, all your upper body pulling muscles on day 2, and your legs on day 3.

Day 1- Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Day 2- Back and Biceps
Day 3- Legs

The theory behind this is that when you train say your back you're biceps will also come into play quite a bit so it would make sense to train the biceps on that day as well. While in theory this works well a lot of people find that the first muscle group trained that day will be hit hard but the rest become an after thought. This can be quite true. Say on day 1 you train your chest first and hit it really hard with a lot of bench pressing movements. During those lifts the shoulders and triceps will be heavily utilized during the lifts fatiguing them. You may find that by time you start training your shoulders they are too taxed to really work them hard.

Another split we like is the two heavy and two light days a week split based around the 3 powerlifts  (bench press, squat, deadlift). It might look like this.

Sunday- Heavy Bench Press Day followed by chest, shoulder, and triceps work.
Monday- Off
Tuesday- Light Squat/Heavy Deadlift Day followed by leg, back, and biceps work.
Wednesday- Off
Thursday- Light Bench Press Day followed by chest, shoulder, and triceps work
Friday- Heavy Squats/Light Deadlifts followed by leg, back, and biceps work.
Saturday- Off

The benefits of this routine is that it allows for ample days for recovery (3), hits each bodypart twice a week, and never has two back to back heavy training sessions. This is a great layout for those looking to really build some strength while packing on some mass. I like to alternate between this layout and the one we are currently doing. Spending four months on each split before switching.

If you really want to push your training to a higher level you can do the 3 days on 1 day off double split routine.

Day 1 AM- Chest  PM- Arms
Day 2 AM- Back   PM- Shoulders
Day 3 AM- Quads PM- Hamstrings
Day 4- Off
Repeat

This means 12 training sessions a week. It would be hard for most people to make it to the gym twice a day 6 days a week but for those who live in the gym like we do, it can be a good alternative.

An even tougher split would be the one favored by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Monday AM- Legs   PM- Chest and Back
Tuesday - Shoulders and Arms
Wednesday AM- Legs PM- Chest and Back
Thursday- Shoulders and Arms
Friday AM- Legs    PM- Chest and Back
Saturday- Shoulders and Arms
Sunday- Off

All I will say that this kind of split is not for the faint of heart. I am running out of time right now, but I will expand upon some of these double split high volume routines in a later entry.

Do you have what it takes?????

-Note this entry is not in relation to the personal training service. This entry is about finding people who want to train with the Deadlifter's Fortress Team. If you are interested in Quickstrike Fitness Solutions and personal training do not let this entry scare you off. This only applies to people wanting to train in a hardcore atmosphere and style.-


So do you have what it takes? The Deadlifter's Fortress is looking for some new blood who want to be a part of the "team". Being a part of the team includes training in a hardcore gym atmosphere and getting pushed to limits you thought weren't possible. You also will get a nice team shirt and a custom gym bag after a year. But before you get too excited you need to know what will be expected of you.

1. We have four main training sessions a week. I usually train 6 days a week sometimes more than once a day. If you are interested in training more than by all means train more. The main sessions are currently Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. These are not set in stone per se in that we can work to accommodate everyone's schedule.

And when I say we have four main training sessions a week, that means your ass is there for all four. Being tired or sore doesn't mean a damn thing at the Deadlifter's Fortress. We do understand there are things like work and family obligations that can arise but if you regularly miss training sessions your ass will be bounced off the team before you can say "but wait." I have no use for you if you are not there in the gym pushing yourself. And if you claim you can't make a training session because you have work and some other excuse and I find out you are lying you are gone no matter what. There's no place for lying.

2. You must be ready to train harder than you ever have in your entire life. Call it a personality disorder or maybe a sick fetish, but I will try my hardest to break you. I will do everything in my power to make you quit. I will have you grind out set after set past the point of exhaustion. There is a reason we keep a big bucket in the gym, it is because you will throw up at some point. It is not unusual for me to do 50-100 set training sessions at times.

I will not yell at you. I will not be mean. I am not some wannabe drill instructor. Instead I will just smile and say "ready to stop?" I will pester you. I will tell you that you are getting tired. I might even say "man I am beat, maybe we should cut this short." It is a trick though. I want you to fold up. You will go home and I will be back in the gym an hour later grinding out more sets. Do this once and I will give you another chance. Do it a second time and I might warn you. But if you fold up like a pretzel 3 times, well then you might want to go join Planet Fitness or some other place more accepting of losers.

I won't do this forever. It is kind of like a hazing period. I want to make sure you have what it takes to keep me going if I ever start to fold up.

3. You have to respect the equipment. I have worked my ass off, borrowed, begged, bartered, and done vile things to get our equipment. It is not complete but it does contain everything you need to bodybuild or powerlift. I am constantly looking for new equipment and constantly adding to what we have.

We also ask for a small donation each month to help with the upkeep of the gym and equipment. I will not post the amount on here but trust me, it is so minor that it is not a factor.

4. Be prepared for getting out of your comfort zone. There is no air conditioning in the gym. It does get hotter than hell in the summer. But you are here to train right? So if this is at all a concern for you than you are definitely not cut out for this.

That is really the only rules we have. Basically if you come prepared to work harder than you ever have, won't give up, won't miss sessions, respect the equipment and owners, than you have a place here. We offer you the same things we expect of you. Cursing, grunting, screaming, loud music, chalk, blood, and sweat are all encouraged in our gym. We do not have any requirements for competing but we do like to hold informal gym competitions and we do expect participation in that.

If you think you have what it takes then contact us via Email or on Facebook.

Legend of Physical Culture: Don Reinhoudt

Don Reinhoudt

What can I say about this man? Pretty much his records speak for themselves. He currently holds the highest raw (without the use of squat suits or bench shirts) powerlifting total (combination of your bench press, deadlift, and squat) in history. He made this historic total in 1975 with a bench press of 610 lbs, squat of 931 lbs, and a deadlift of 850 lbs. He is the only man to win the International Powerlifting Federation's World Superheavyweight Championship 4 years in a row. He set and broke over 40 powerlifting records during his lifting career and still holds the record for the highest raw squat without knee wraps of 934 lbs. 

To really add to his legendary status he also was the 1979 Worlds Strongest Man champion, as well as a runner up in the 1978 championship. In 1979 he beat out a young Bill Kazmaier, a man who would go on to win the competition 3 years in a row. He competed in the 1980 event but suffered a career ending bicep and hamstring tear during one of the early events. 

Big Don Getting Ready For A Big Bench Press

Born in Brocton, New York in 1945 Don was a standout basketball player, football player, and shot putter at Fredonia High School. He started lifting weights at age 18 while attending college. Initially he competed in weightlifting before switching over to powerlifting in 1969. Despite his imposing stature (being 6'3" and competing at 375 lbs.) Big Don was one of the kindest people you would ever meet. 

I believe this photo was taken during a car lift competition at the WSM

One of the things I find most interesting about Big Don is that his coach and training partner were the same person, his wife. This is taken from an article written by Terry Todd in 1978-

"And while I'm on the subject of the various things which helped big Don set 20 world records and dominate the superheavies for the last four years, I want to be sure to give the proper credit where credit is due, because he didn't do it alone. He couldn't have done it without his coach. He couldn't have done it without his longtime training partner, and he couldn't have done it without his masseuse. Fortunately for Don and fortunately for lifting, his wife not only isn't jealous of these close relationships, she couldn't be jealous of them because they were with her. You see, Don's wife coaches him, lifts with him, and when she has a couple of hours to kill, rubs him down. (Rubbing him down would be rather like painting the Titanic, I'd imagine.)

For years, Don and Cindy have trained together, coaching one another in their basement gym as well as on the platforms of the world in international competition. In my time I've seen many close personal relationships in lifting, but I've never seen one as close as theirs."

My wife, Missy, and I have been training together since November of 2011. She has been by far the best training partner and now coach that I have ever had. I rely on her feedback constantly to let me know if I am heading in the right direction. I know that I can trust her judgment and I also know that I can rely on her to be consistent in training. 

Here is what I could glean about Big Don's training style. He trained four main sessions a week, 2 for his lower body (squat and deadlift) and 2 for his upper body (bench press). This is quite common among powerlifters allowing for one heavy and one light training session a week for each of the main lifts. Unusual for a powerlifter, he almost always wore straps when deadlifting and never trained his grip separately. Like most powerlifters in his day he would run through 12 week cycles, starting with lower weights and working up to higher weights. He is an example of how he cycled his squats and deadlifts in the five weeks leading up to one meet. 

First Week:
Squat -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
805 x 3
865 x 1

Deadlift -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
805 x 3


Second Week:
Squat -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
810 x 3
875 x 1

Deadlift -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
810 x 3


Third Week:
Squat -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
815 x 3
885 x 1

Deadlift -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
820 x 1


Fourth Week:
Squat -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
820 x 3
900 x 1

Deadlift -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
860 x 1


Fifth Week:
Squat -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x2
760 x 2
825 x 3
920 x 1

Deadlift -
245 x 5
445 x 2
645 x 2
760 x 2
880 x 1

I really admire this man a lot. It says something when you hold a record for almost 40 years. Raw powerlifting in gaining in popularity so I am sure at some point his record might fall but there will never be another Big Don. A true legend and all around great guy. Still very active in helping out the strength community. 

Legends of Physical Culture: Bruce Wilhelm

Note- the Legends of Physical Culture is a new series I am writing for this blog that details important people in the history of strength based athletics. It will cover people who have competed in bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, strongman, throwing sports, and even sports such as football. I feel it is important that we look back to the early pioneers of these competitions so we know how they were shaped. When the information is available I will also post the way that they trained (often times this is based more on hearsay than facts so keep that in mind). Many of these men competed in multiple fields of strength based sport. This first entry in the series covers Bruce Wilhelm, a shot and discus thrower, Olympic weightlifter, and winner of the first and second World's Strongest Man Competition.

Bruce Wilhelm

Born in Sunnyvale, California in 1945, Bruce Wilhelm would become a track and field star athlete for his high school. In 1963 Bruce won the California Interscholastic Federation's California State Meet shot put championship and was a runner up in the discus competition. He would go on to attend Stanford University competing in shot, discus and wrestling. He finished the 1965 season undefeated in wrestling with 21 victories. 

He placed in the top 10 US Men's shot rankings for 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973, and still holds #251 on the All-time World Shotput Records. After the 1972 Olympics Bruce committed himself to the sport of weightlifting. Wilhelm became a weightlifter, and was the US National AAU Super Heavyweight Weightlifting Champion for both 1975 and 1976. He won a silver medal for the United States at the 1975 Pan-American Games in the +110 kg division, and placed 5th at the 1976 Olympic Games.

Much of this information is courtesy of Wikipedia

Big Bruce Getting Ready for a Lift

Billed as 6'2" in height and 320 pounds, Bruce Wilhelm was a big man with a big personality as seen in his victories at the first and second World's Strongest Man competitions(1977 and 1978). These first few World's Strongest Man competitions were much different than what they have later become. They were largely contested by Americans and included powerlifters, weightlifters, throwers, pro-wrestlers, football players, and even arm wrestling champions. For the first few events the winner would be determined by a one on one tug of war match at the end. For the 1978 finals Bruce Wilhelm was pitted against legendary powerlifter (and eventual 1979 WSM champion) Don Reinhoudt. 

 

There was some legitimate animosity between the two competitors. Don Reinhoudt was a very humble and likeable man and Bruce was a bit of a loudmouth and cocky person. He kept calling Don Reinhoudt a fat boy and seemed to not respect him as an athlete. For his part, Don had a lot of respect for Bruce but did not like the attitude Bruce had towards their fellow competitors. For most of the even Don was beating Bruce though by the last even Bruce had regained the lead. Having watched the even myself, there is no doubt that Don was the much stronger of the two men but Bruce was likely the much better overall athlete. 

Rather than describe the actual tug of war match I will simply post a link to a youtube video of the event. I would highly recommend taking the six of so minutes to check out the video. It is a great back and forth battle. 

It would seem that after 1978 Bruce Wilhelm retired from competing but has remained very active in the strength athletics world. He has written numerous books and articles on training. I am going to post up a few tidbits from things he has written over the years. 

This is a routine he said he used in preparation for the World's Strongest Man.

Tuesday
Power Snatch – up to 330 or 352 x 1.
Snatch Grip Hi-Pull – up to 396 for 2 sets of 3 reps.
Stiff-leg Deadlift – 474 x 10.
Back Squat – 683 for 2 sets of 3.

Thursday
Bent-Leg Good Morning – to 396 x 5.
Push Press – 462 x 3.

Saturday
Power Clean and Jerk – to 452 x 1.
Clean Grip Hi-Pull – 507 x 2 sets of 3.
Back Squat – 485 x 5 sets of 3.

 Now this was posted in an article he wrote on deadlift training so I am not sure if this is simply what he did for his deadlift and his complete training regime. There is only one upper body lift but the majority of the early strongman events focused solely on lower body strength. He did say that doing heavy bent leg good mornings really improved his deadlift and I have found the same to be true for me. My deadlift has never been stronger than when I did very heavy good mornings. Unfortunately for me I have found that good mornings tend to bring about upper back spasms so I have had to avoid them (and my deadlift has suffered as a result). 

 I would highly recommend looking into more things that Bruce Wilhelm has written. He is a pioneer of strength athletics and holds a wealth of information. 

Coming Next- Bruce Wilhelm's rival, Don Reinhoudt.

 

4-4-13 Diet and Training Log

Diet

Pretty much the same. I had chicken and potatoes for meal 3 rather than having egg whites and oatmeal. For dinner I had tilapia and rice. Calories and macronutrients are staying consistent each day.

Trained Shoulders and Light Arms- (light meaning we did one biceps and one triceps exercise- our main arm day is Friday).

Dumbbell Shoulder Presses-         5 x 8-12 reps
Side Lateral Raises-                     4 x 8 reps
Bent Over Rear Lateral Raises-    4 x 8 reps
Wide Grip Upright Rows-            5 x 6-10 reps
Barbell Curls-                              5 x 6-8 reps
Rope Pressdowns-                      5 x 10 reps

I took it (somewhat) easy on the shoulders today. Things got screwed up last week so I ended up training my shoulders really heavy on Friday. Sunday I trained chest and that hit the shoulders again pretty well. I am hesitant to say it was easy though because both Missy and I went really heavy on each lift and really pushed ourselves hard. Hitting all bodyparts twice a week now. Once a week a very thorough training session and the other time it is just an exercise or two to get some blood to the area. So tomorrow we train our backs and I will probably throw in some dumbbell bench presses and some flys. Or will I????

4-3-13 Diet and Training Log

6:00 AM- 1 cup of egg whites. 1/2 Cup of Oatmeal.
9:00 AM- 1 cup of 1% milk, 1 Scoop of Protein Powder. 1 Slice of Ezekiel Bread.
12:00 PM- 1 cup of egg whites. 1 Whole Egg. 1/2 Cup of Oatmeal.
3:00 PM- 1 Cup of 1% milk. 1 Scoop of Protein Powder. 2 Slices of Ezekiel bread with no sugar jelly and natural peanut butter.
6:00 PM- 3 Rice Cakes. 1 Scoop of Protein Powder.
8:30 PM- 6 ounces of Chicken Breasts. 6 ounces of Red potatoes.

Trained Legs Today (Quad Dominant)-

Leg Presses-            5 x 8-18 reps
Leg Extensions-       5 x 12 reps
Front Squats-          2 x 8 reps
Hack Squats-          3 x 8 reps
Lunges-                   4 x 8 reps

We will killed it today. I posted a video on my facebook account of my last set of leg presses.

Diet and Training Log

A daily log of my diet and training routine will be a permanent feature of this blog.

Meal 1 6:00 A.M. - 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 cup of liquid egg whites.
Meal 2 9:00 A.M. - 1 cup of 1% milk mixed, 1 Scoop of protein powder, 1 slice of Ezekiel bread.
Meal 3 12:00 P.M. - 1 cup of egg whites and one whole egg scrambled together with mushrooms and          spinach. 1/2 cup of oatmeal.
Meal 4 3:00 P.M. - 2 slices Ezekiel bread, 1 tbs no sugar jelly, 1 tsp peanut butter, 1 scoop protein powder
Meal 5 5:30 P.M. - 1 Scoop of Protein Powder and 3 rice cakes.
Meal 6 8:00 P.M. - 1 cup of rice and 8 ounces of tilapia.

Chest Training

Bench Press                              5 x 6-10 reps
Dumbbell Flyes                         4 x 6-10 reps
Incline Dumbbell Presses           4 x 6-15 reps
Incline Dumbbell Flyes               7 x 12 reps*

Back Training**
V-Grip Pulldowns                      4 x 10-15 reps
Seated Underhand Rows           4 x 10-12 reps


Forearm Training***
Wrist Curls                                5 x 10-20 reps
Reverse Wrist Curls                   5 x 10-20 reps 

*During my bench presses I felt my left shoulder bicep tie-in get kind of tight. During the incline dumbbell flyes I felt a lot of pressure in that area so I stopped after 3 sets.
** We missed back training last week so we three in these two lifts. We will be hitting our back again on Wednesday as scheduled.
*** I will be throwing in some sets for my forearms 3 to 4 times a week to help bring them up to par with my upper arms.

 

New Training Split and Diet Breakdown

We continuously make small updates to our training split every few weeks. The body can sometimes quickly adapt to stimuli applied to it. Our training always revolves around basic principles, what we change our the peripherals. Think of it like a car. We might add a new muffler or change a part in the engine but is still the same car at its heart. There is also times we find that something we are doing is just not working.

This latest update to our training split is mostly due to the latter. We have found that by training our quads and hamstrings together we have been short changing our hamstrings. So we decided to split our leg training into two sessions a week. The first leg day will be more quad dominant and the second training session will be more hamstring dominant.

This is the split we have been using.

Sunday-           Chest
Monday-          Legs
Tuesday-          Shoulders
Wednesday-     Back
Thursday-        Arms
Friday-            Shoulders
Saturday-        Off

Here is the new split.

Sunday-          Chest
Monday-        Quad Dominant Leg Day
Tuesday-         Shoulders/Arms
Wednesday-    Back
Thursday-        Hamstring Dominant Leg Day
Friday-            Arms
Saturday-        Off

Here is an example of a quad dominant leg day.

Leg Extensions
Leg Presses 
Hack Squats Supersetted with Front Squats
Lunges

*Sets and Reps vary but generally 4-5 sets of 6-12 reps

Here is an example of a hamstring day.

Squats
Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Leg Presses with High Foot Placement
Leg Curls
Pull Thrus

As you can see both the quads and hamstrings will be hit on each day, just one will get harder than the other.

The shoulder/Arms day will be mostly shoulders with just one lift done for triceps and one for biceps to get them some extra work.

As far as diet. I am upping my daily carbs to match my protein intake. Right around a marconutrient split of 40/40/20. So roughly 200-250 grams of carbs and protein a day with around 45 grams of fat a day. I will be hitting cardio first thing in the morning (fasted) 3-4 times a week for 30-40 minutes.

My Typical Day

A lot of people wonder how I can manage to pull down a full time job,  run a successful personal training business, and train for a couple of hours a day and still manage to live a life. Well actually, no one wonders. No one ever asks how I am doing. I don't think a single person in my family has ever called me, unless they needed something from me, since my dad died. Maybe once or twice they dialed my number on accident and had to wing it real quick, but for the most part no one calls me. When I am actually around Missy and see her sister, brother, cousins, and aunts all calling her just to talk I am in utter shock. Families actually do that? Hell, I can't even get a Facebook reply half the time.

And lets be honest, running a successful personal training business would be a very difficult thing. Luckily that is all in Missy's hands. I just write silly entries when I get inspiration and leave her to do all the leg work. And its not like we have some huge client base or anything. The truth is that the business is still in its tiniest seedling stage. If our business was a baby, well lets just say the parents have fucked and the egg is impregnated, but it still looks like a pinto bean.

But that is not going to stop me from posting up a typical day for me.

5:00 AM- Alarm goes off. If Missy is lucky I wake up. If she is unlucky, I hit a button and go back to sleep and the alarm goes off again in five minutes (this can sometimes keep repeating for a half hour). If she is really unlucky, I get up but hit the wrong button and leave my phone in the room. Then in five minutes it goes off but I am not there to stop it. And since I am such a heavy sleeper the alarm is set to as loud as it can go so one way or another her ass is waking up. She has insomnia at times and this is usually right around the time she has finally fallen into a deep sleep.

5:15 AM- I am not a morning person so I am usually moving pretty slow. Lucky, powerful and violent morning gas bursts propel me forward. It is kind of like nitrous for a car. 

5:30 AM- I have my first meal. This tends to be egg whites with a few yolks plus some type of carb source. Because I am a jackass I tend to bang the pots and pans around so if Missy was lucky enough to have fallen back asleep, she is woken up again. I inevitably overcook my eggs every time and stink up the whole fucking house.

5:45 AM- I eat my first meal, drink some coffee, and answer emails. This is a really relaxing and easy part to my day since no one emails me.

6:00 AM- I listen to epic movie trailers on YouTube really loudly to psyche myself up for my work day. 

6:15 AM- I leave for work.

6:20 AM- I make a beeline back to my house because I have to take a wicked shit.

6:40 AM- I leave my house again.

7:00 AM- I get to my office just in the nick of time. This usually involves weaving in and out of traffic and nearly running down half a dozen kids waiting on the bus.

7:00 AM - 7:30 AM - I get my paperwork at my office and people talk to me. I look at them, nod my head, and say, "No problem, I will get it done", even though I haven't heard a fucking word they said to me. I then head out to get my work day started.

8:00 AM- I stop at my normal Speedway spot. I have a terrible friend who is usually at the same spot at the same time every morning. We shoot the shit for a bit talking about our training and how much we hate our jobs. He is one of the few people I know in my private life that takes training as serious as I do. Because of that I try my best to give him bad advice because I want to be the best. Maybe that's why I don't have many friends???

8:30 AM - I have my second meal of the day. Usually some protein shake concoction for convenience.

8:30 AM - 11:30 AM- I actually get some work done.

11:30 AM- I come home to take my lunch. I live in my work area so that is perfectly fine. Missy usually has some lean meat and carb source ready for me or cooks some up real quick. Around ten minutes after I eat my food I get a raging boner and will generally knock one out since I am too dirty from work for anything else. This makes me tired and I will usually take a quick power nap to finish my lunch.

12:30 - 4:00 PM- Finish my work day. Have meal four. Talk myself out of committing suicide over depression from my job. I will usually have a Tourettes fit during that time as well.

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM- I come home and relax for a bit. Have a pre-workout drink or some coffee. I go over our training for the day and tweak some things if need be. If I missed the morning missile launch I may go during this time because the pre-workout drink.

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM - We train and then I do cardio.

7:00 PM- I recover from training and again answer emails. Again this is a very easy time of day because yet again, my inbox is empty. During this time my sister pocket dials me on accident. I can hear her in the background as she is driving her kids around. They pass by a homeless man and one of her daughter's say, "It's uncle Jason!", and they all have a good laugh while my sister adds in, "yeah what a loser he is." I am hoping she is talking about the homeless guy but I know deep down who she is talking about.

7:30 PM- I eat dinner. Again about ten minutes after this I get a nice rager. At this point I declare I am taking a shower so I can get something on the better side of a lunch time jack and nap.

*************CENSORED**********************'

10:00 PM- We watch some television shows at this point. Maybe play an Xbox game. On work nights I generally pass out around some point and time. This is the second time of day that I tend to blast some ass. Since I have been eating all day, this is much worse than earlier. This is the kind of gas that just sits there. Kind of like, "fuck you guys, I ain't going no where!" Sometimes it stays so long that the smell morphs from one horrid type to a different horrid type. Sometimes it is in pockets. So you might be okay sitting on one side of the room but say your phone is in the far corner and you go get it and bam, you get hit with the funk from a half hour ago.

Also at this time we usually get about ten calls in a row from our drunk sister. No voicemails, just call after call after call. Sometimes, on rare occasion, I will text my friend something crazy like, "do you believe in god?" or "You're thinking about my penis right now aren't you?" or who knows what. But for the most part I simply pass out.

That's a typical day for me.

How to Attract the Opposite Sex Part 9

Well originally I was supposed to have written this entry back on the 7th. I wouldn't go as far to say that that statement was a lie, but it certainly did not end up being true. I had also said that this entry would be about specific exercises women should do to improve the all too important waist to hip ratio. You are going to find out that that statement is also not going to end up being true. At the time I said those two statements I did in fact believe them to be true, just somewhere along the way things kind of fell apart.

I am not sure I can pin point where things went wrong. I know that our training lately has been very intense and that has left me fairly drained most nights. The best of intentions can quickly be washed away once you plop down on the sofa after a very tough training session. On top of the training the grass has been growing like a wild fire. We have a decently sized yard and between the rain and warm weather the grass has been out of control. I have been doing my best to keep it mowed down. I knew in the middle of the week that the weather channel was calling for rain over the weekend and I couldn't afford to put mowing off any longer. It only takes a few days of build up and the grass will be too thick for my mower to handle.

Of course mowing on its own is not that big of a deal, but when you combine that with tough training it becomes a factor in not getting other things done. To finish things off my daily nine to five job (not that I work nine to five but you get the meaning) has been jumping off lately as well. Not only do I have to work a full time job but I am also putting in hours on our personal training business and gym. Okay, hours might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I certainly do devote a lot of my time to get these businesses up and running.

So things have taken longer than I would like. Since I don't get paid to make blog entries I don't have to give a flying fuck. Yet I do give a flying fuck. What the hell even is a flying fuck? Is it the word fuck flying through the air? Is it just referencing the act of fucking while flying in the air? I have no fucking idea to be honest but I would like to know one day. Back to my point, yes I do really care about getting these entries out. I hope that, despite their offbeat entertaining nature, people can get some tidbits of useful information out of them. At the very least I hope I can inspire a few people to look at things a bit differently than they did before.

So I think I have covered why I didn't full fill my promise of writing this entry on the 7th. Now as far as why I am not writing about the specific exercises that women can use to improve their all too important waist to hip ratio, well honestly I did kind of lie about that one. I never really intended to make this entry about that. Sure, at some point I will cover that topic but it will be brief and to the point. No offense but if you want details then you can email us and we can set up a consultation. I feel like it would be a disservice to just shill out information that may not apply to you, your history, your body type, and your lifestyle.

Lifestyle you ask? Well hell I don't know what I meant by that! Fuck it, I will give it a stab any ways. Say you are a straight woman but have bi-curious tendencies. Well then I would say that instead of doing 30 minutes of cardio in the morning just find a nice looking woman and go down on her for 30 minutes instead. That way you can satisfy your bi-curious ambitions while also getting a nice sweat going. Killing two birds with one stone. Not only are you meeting two goals but you are also practicing time management! That is what I am talking about when I say that not only do we train you to build a better body but we also train you to be a better you.

So if this entry is not going to be about specific exercises than what is it going to be about? Give me a damn minute and I will get to it. I am a Sagittarius, I can't just come right out and get to the point. I have to hear myself talk for a good half hour before I can even approach the point. Okay I think I have met that criteria now. I am quite a few paragraphs in. So without further adieu here is what this entry is going to be about.

This entry is going to be about the most important time in a man's life. This isn't an abstract concept like puberty, middle age, etc, but a specific time of day. That is the time between taking a shower at night and the time that you have sex with your wife. Obviously if you are not married than you are not dealing with this time of the day so you have a leg up on us married men. Though it does apply to men in long term relationships as well as married men. Why is this time so damn important? Because that is the one time of day that you can't afford to have gas, at least not if you want to get laid. Any woman worth a damn is not going to want something inside her that has just been lacquered with noxious gas.

Yes I know, you don't have gas right? Well if you are serious about training then that means you are going to be consuming a lot of protein. When you consume a lot of protein you have gas. Sorry, but its the way the world works. During the day this is no big deal. Usually you are off working or whatever so your wife won't even know you are doing it. Even when she is around you can still play it off as "protein gas" by announcing very loudly every time you have gas, "protein fart!" Sometimes though the gas is so loud and powerful that it needs no announcement at all. You just sit there and proclaim that it is the price you (your wife) has to pay for being with a real man.

That is all well and good but then there is that time between the shower and sex and that is when having gas is off limits. I refer to this time as "the crucible". I have no idea why I call it that so don't ask me. I don't even know what the fuck a crucible is. It just kind of sounds like a cool name. All I know is that is the one time of the day that I cannot afford to have gas. This isn't always that big a deal to be honest. Sometimes you just don't have to and things work out great. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Luckily there are some methods you can use to help deal with these moments.

The great news is that usually you don't have that large of a window of time to worry about. The best method for dealing with this problem is to simply have sex as soon as possible after finishing the shower. That way you can completely relax afterwards. Who cares if you blast her with gas so hard that she shoots out of the bed and gets smashed against the wall, you have at least gotten what you wanted for the night. Actually that is not cool and it might get you Travis Alexander'd if you are not careful. And if you lift a lot of weights then your wife will be able to convincingly say it was self defense. So its best not to give her a reason to shank you in your sleep.

Sometimes you can't just jump right in to the fun stuff. She might have to take a shower as well or maybe something is interesting on television or maybe you actually have to build up some interest. Women are not horses after all, sometimes it takes a little more than just mounting them to make things interesting. Seriously I should just shut the fuck up. I am too much of a damn Sagittarius and my mouth always gets me into trouble. Thankfully I am not really like this in my life. I am actually a very down to earth and mild mannered man who shows the utmost respect to his wife.

Actually that is not entirely true. I do show her the utmost respect, but I say just as outrageous things in real life as I do on this blog. Shock and awe baby! Okay so the scenario is you are gassy as hell and know that there will be a gap in time between showering and sex. One thing you can do is try to get your monies worth while showering. The great thing about a hot shower is that it quickly dissipates any smell. And believe me, if you eat a lot of egg whites there will be a really pungent smell. I have had the equivalent of over 50 egg whites in one day at times, and let me tell you that your gas will cease to smell like gas at some point throughout the day. Instead it will smell like sewage. This can work if you are outside because your wife will not even blame you for the smell because she will have no idea you can even have gas that smells like that. Obviously in the house though there is no way to play it off like there is a sewage back up. So have your gas in the shower. Rip away like there is no tomorrow. If you have one of those shower heads with a flex hose you can then get it down there and spray down your ass just to be on the safe side.

While that method can work sometimes it is not enough. Sometimes no matter what, you just have to have gas during the crucible. You have one of two choices here. You can just rip it out like a boss and resign yourself to a sexless night, or you can have ninja gas. This is a very tricky method and takes practice to perfect. Even a master like me still makes mistakes sometimes. The key to ninja gas is to clench your ass as tight as possible. Imagine like someone wants to assfuck you. I bet that fucker is air tight now. Now here is where the magic comes in. You have to ever so slightly "open the valve" but only barely. This requires a mastery of your ass muscles so don't be frustrated if you don't succeed at first. Once you have it partially open don't breath easy because that was the easy part. The hard part is that you have to release the gas. This is difficult because you have to apply just enough pressure for a very slow leak. There has to be absolutely no sound and little to no odor for this to work. That means just tiny amounts slowly leaking out over time.

The reason why this is so hard is because if you don't get the pressure right you will have a disaster on your hands. Imagine a water hose. What happens when you turn on the water pressure? It just kind of lazily comes out. Now use your thumb and partially cover the opening of the hose and turn the water pressure to full blast and what happens? That water shoots out with a powerful stream. With your ass clenched hard and only a partial opening you have created a potentially volatile situation. Apply too much pressure and you will have some of the most violently vibrating gas of your life. At that point don't even worry about having sex. Hell count yourself lucky that you just didn't shit your pants. There is no way any woman with any self respect will have sex with you after you blast her with that hurricane strength gas pressure. At the point just have as much gas as you want because you have ruined yourself for the night.

But if done right, no can defend. You have just had some crazy gas, but done it like a ninja and no one will be the wiser.

Well I have done my good deed for the day. Stay tuned for my next entry due tomorrow.

How to Effectively Train the Back

I am taking another small break from my, 'How To Attract the Opposite Sex' series to go over effective back training. I feel this is a very important topic. If you don't believe me, take a look around the gym next time you are there. One glaring thing you will notice is an almost complete lack of back development. You will see plenty of decent chests and biceps, maybe even some nice shoulders and in rare occasions, even some quads and triceps, but rarely if ever will you see a decently developed back.

A lot of people try to explain this away. They say that since the back is behind you that people simply just do not put much emphasis on it, kind of like the hamstrings and calves. Actually, I see a lot of people working the calves but I think that is because it is such an easy thing to do. Much like training the traps, the calves require a tiny range or motion and people can use a huge amount of weight. I crack up seeing guys heave up 400 + pound shrugs but they cannot even deadlift 315. The same goes for goes working the whole stack on a calf raise machine but then cannot even squat 225 to proper depth. Of course! The squat and deadlift are the two hardest exercises to perform. They require a level of muscular activation that far exceeds all the other lifts. Most people simply don't do them.

If you look around the gym you usually find that most people use lat pulldowns, dumbbell rows, and maybe t-bar rows to build their backs up. While these three lifts are great for building a nice back they are just the beginning of a good back program, not the end. I am sorry but I have never seen anyone with a great back who does not deadlift and do bent over barbell rows with very heavy weights. In bodybuilding there are three men who stand out to me as having amazing backs. They are Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, and Franco Columbo. They are all three did very heavy bent rows and could deadlift some huge weights. To be fair, Dorian did his deadlifts at the end of his back training so he wouldn't have to go extremely heavy, but both Franco and Ronnie wear known for having huge deadlifts. I believe Franco pulled 700+ pounds at a bodyweight of around 170 lbs. and Ronnie Coleman has done 800+ pound deadlifts for reps. There is an obvious correlation to a well developed back and a big focus on heavy deadlifts and bent over rows. \

This doesn't mean that all you need are those two lifts to develop a great back. The back is a large area that encompasses several different distinct areas. Here is a (very) basic diagram of the muscle groups that make up the back.

As you can see, the back is a very complex grouping of muscles. To develop a great back program you have to make sure to fully develop the lower, middle, and upper portions of the back. Sometimes all three regions will be trained together on the same day, and sometimes they will be broken up and trained with other body parts.

The region generally referred to as the lower back is the erector spinae (spinal erectors). When these muscles are fully developed and you have a low body fat percentage they will appear to look like a Christmas tree. This region is most often trained with deadlifts (all varieties), good mornings, and back raises. As you can see there is some overlap between the lower and middle back regions, so lifts that target one area will generally hit the other area to some degree as well. If I train my hamstrings and quads together on the same day I will train my lower back along with the middle back. If I train my hamstrings and quads on separate days I will train the low back with the hamstrings. This is because most of the lifts that target the hamstrings (stiff leg deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, good mornings, back raises, and pullthroughs) all hit the lower back really hard as well. Basically any motion that makes you bend over at the waist will use the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back to straighten back up. When using very heavy weights your body will naturally use the muscles that are strongest to perform the lift. If using lighter weights you can have better control over which of the muscles does the majority of the work during the lift. If I am doing stiff leg deadlifts for my hamstrings I make sure to squeeze the hamstrings hard and do not worry about locking out the lift where the glutes and low back are working the hardest.

The region of the middle back is largely dominated by the latissimus dorsi (the lats, wings). These are the largest muscle group of the back and play a role in most lifts to one degree or another. The lats are best hit with pulldowns of all varieties, all varieties of chins, rows of all types, and pullover movements. Most exericses that work the lats will also work the biceps and upper back as well. Depending on my training split, I will sometimes train my biceps on the sameday that I train my lats because of this overlap. To better hit the lats during pulldowns and chin ups it is better to utilize a closer grip. The wide grip versions of those exercises stress the upper back more than the middle back. With bent over rows you should be bringing the bar into your waist line and not pulling straight up into your chest. Pullovers, especially performed with a cable or machine are really the only way to isolate your lats so I always through them into my training. One important thing to remember when doing pulldowns is to focus on pulling from the back of your elbows and not your hands. You should think of your hands and forearms simply as hooks. This stresses the lats more and puts less stress on the biceps. As far as overhand or underhand grips, I say use both. I mostly perform close grip pulldowns with an underhand grip and wide grip pulldowns with an overhand grip.

The upper back is comprised of many smaller muscles. The rhomboids, teres major and minor, infraspinatus, trapezius, and postier deltoid head all make up the upper back region. The majority of trainees work their rear deltoids along with the rest of their delts. Traps are generally viewed as a separate muscle group as well. This leads some people to training their upper back and traps along with their shoulders. Others will train their shoulders on back day because of the overlap. I usually just train my back all to itself and know that there will be some overlap. The truth is there is always going to be overlap whenever you train a muscle. The back comes into play with every lift. Even while bench pressing you utilize your lats heavily. The lats are how you unrack the bar and set it in place over your chest. Your lats also control the descent of the bar and play a small roll in at the bottom of the lift. Pulldowns, chins, shrugs, rows, cleans, and bent over lateral raises all hit the upper back. With pulldowns and chins, taking a wider grip will put more stress upon the upper back. With rows (whether seated or standing bent over) bringing the bar up to the chest region rather than the waistline will also stress the upper back.

Shrugs are probably one of the most overused exercises in the gym. Because it has an extremely limited range of motion and you can use very heavy weights, every douche in the gym does them. And they generally use so much body heaving it is actually more of a half assed 1/12th deadlift than a shrug even. People love easy lifts. That is why you see hardly any bent over rows and deadlifts but tons of pulldowns and shrugs. Don't fall into this trap. Do the things that you dread because those are the things that will make you better. I am not saying to ignore shrugs, just keep them relegated to small part of your training. Trap development is largely determined by your genetics due to insertion points and muscle bellly size. I naturally have big traps so I do not directly train them. If you lack back development and focus on your traps too much it will make you look narrow and ruin your sense of symmetry and completely fuck up your v-taper. If you have been following my How to Attract the Opposite Sex series then you know that the v-taper is all too critical for women to find men attractive. So blasting away those shrugs might attract some dorks at the gym but while you are busy doing that men like me who deadlift and do heavy bent rows are sleeping with beautiful women (in my case my wife). Damn that hurts doesn't it. Ouch!

So don't be douche. Do you shrugs but when you want to load up the plates make sure it is for deadlifts and rows and not shrugs.

So in review-

1. The back can be broken down into three main regions, the lower, middle, and upper back.

2. Hit the lower back with deadlifts and back raises.

3. Hit the middle back with close grip chins and pulldowns, pullovers, and with heavy rows pulled to the waist.

4. Hit the upper back with wide grip chins and rows along with rows to the chest. Add in some shrugs if your traps are lacking in size.

5. You can train your back all on the same day or break up the three regions and train them with other muscle groups.


Here is a sample of my back training from the other day.

Straight Arm Cable Pullovers- 5 x 10-12 reps
Wide Grip Pulldowns- 4 x 8-12 reps.
Bent Over Barbell Rows- 4 x 6-12 reps*
Close Grip Pulldowns- 4 x 8-12 reps
T-bar Rows- 4 x 6-12 reps*
Seated Rows using the Triceps Rope- 4 x 10-12 reps
Back Raises- 4 sets of 10 reps

* On both of these lifts I worked up to the heaviest weight I could handle for 6-8 rep range. I do deadlifts every other week rather than every week because of how taxing it is.

As you can see we hit our backs from top to bottom. This might seem like a lot of volume but as I said the back is a very large and diverse area so it requires more exercises than say the chest to properly hit it.

How to Attract the Opposite Sex Part 8

I think that I need to clear some things up before I proceed. Over the course of this series I may have used some terms that could be deemed as offensive towards our target audience. My use of words like fat, fatty, fat ass should be kept in context. I am certainly not trying to belittle or insult anyone. I use words like that as a term of endearment. I often refer to myself as a big fat ass, a fat bastard, and a magnificent bastard. When I use those terms to describe myself I am not doing it with malice but rather with cuteness.

I often call my wife a "Crazy Fucking Mexican". She is neither crazy nor a Mexican, at least as far as I know. I just love the way the words roll off my tongue. She often responds by calling me a gypsy because I tan quite easily. She also calls me a slob when she walks into the bathroom and steps into a puddle of my urine. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why I would rim the toilet when taking a piss but we recently figured it out. I attempt to sign my name every time I go piss. The cursive form of the letter "J" makes my stream go wide. Often I hit the edge of the toilet bowl and it ricochets off the side and onto the floor. I am not sure why this bothers her. Check it out, I took a mundane task like going to the bathroom and turned it into an adventure. Now every time she goes in the bathroom she has to nimbly dodge my little puddles. Sometimes she makes it and sometimes she has a wet sock when she is done. Hey women like surprises right?

It has also been brought to my attention that I might have offended some people when I listed what men and women find most attractive in the opposite sex. In regards to this I have to emphatically and positively say take your offense and shove it up your ass. No I am just kidding. No, but really, go fuck yourself. Why am I being so harsh? Because I did nothing wrong. I stated at the beginning of both entries that these were not my personal opinions. Nor were they the opinions of people I know. Everything I listed was based upon peer reviewed research. Even then I refused to list multiple things that I thought might be offensive to people. The only things I went into any details about were things that we have some sort of control over in a non-surgical manner.

I flat out said that one of the biggest factors in determining how attractive a woman would rate a man is the chest/shoulder to waist ratio. I also stated that I do not possess big broad shoulders naturally and that I easily carry fat around my waist. Part of this is out of my control, it is the structure that I was born with. The part in my control, eliminating body fat and developing the rear and side deltoids, are things that I actively work on to improve my physique. Sure I could dwell on having not been dealt the best genetics but that will get me no where. Instead I work my ass off to be the best version of me that I can be.

If anything I said hurt your feelings, instead of being angry at me do something about it. No I am not saying kick my ass. Lord knows I don't want a bunch of fat women out to get me. What I mean is, make a real effort to change the things about you that you don't like. I am not saying you have to change anything though. There are people who have all different tastes. Some people like pizza and others burritos. Some people love both! I know some men who love women that are rail thin and look like preteen boys. I know other men who love women who are quite a bit overweight. Some men I know love everything in between.

If you are overweight, happy with yourself, and content with your body image then by all means I am happy for you. I really mean that. It is not for anyone else to decide how you should look. While there are health concerns with being grossly overweight, there are plenty of average sized people who have health issues as well. But if you suffer from depression, lack of confidence, and/or low self esteem because of your physique then you damn sure better get off your butt and do something about it. If you are unsure what to do then drop us an email. We offer plenty of advice for free. We also offer the best prices you will find on in depth personal training, along with a private training facility for you to train at to help meet your goals.

My business partner, my wife Missy, will soon be writing articles on this blog as well to add a woman's perspective. She has helped me build this business from the ground up. At the present time we are still at the tiniest little seedling stage but have already accomplished so much. She remains my voice of reason, keeping my crazier ideas at bay. Luckily for me she is a very tolerant person.

Seriously I am really fucking lucky she is forgiving. I remember one time my balls were really sweaty. As a young man I never had to deal with that issue. My wife loves to remind me that I am not a spring chicken anymore. I can shower in the morning but give me 9 hours of working outside and my balls get a nice musky funk going on. Anyways, this time I am thinking about my balls were really sweaty and moist. My first thing was to slyly work a hand down there and do a quick finger swipe of the region. When I knew she wasn't looking I then did a sniff check on the finger. This step is very important. There is no sense is wiping down the balls if that musky smell is too overwhelming. At that point you simply have no choice but to take a shower.

Luckily this time my ball odor was in check. Just a slight hint of musk along with a tiny aroma of some hickory farms smoked sausage. Not too bad. So at this point I knew I didn't have to hit the shower quite yet. So I figured I would just do a good wipe down. I went to the kitchen to grab a wad of paper towels and it turned out Missy was in there getting a drink of juice. I grabbed the paper towels and took 'the stance'. Legs out wide and crouched down a bit. Imagine if you will, riding an imaginary horse. I then dropped my shorts enough to release the goods. With my right hand full of paper towels I went down there and began swiping up and down. This wasn't a subtle movement mind you. Rather I was jerking my entire upper body up and down as I got an intense wipe/scratch. As my balls flopped back and forth Missy blurted out "Honey!!" with a shocked look on her face. To be honest I was so in the zone I didn't even fucking hear her. I just kept on furiously wiping up and down like a man possessed. Then she screamed out "HONEY!!!!!!"

Finally it dawned on me what I was doing. In the middle of her kitchen I was flopping my balls all over the place. Why on Earth this seemed like an okay thing for me to do I will never know. Seriously what kind of fucking thought process could lead me to such an action. She probably should of ran for the hills at that point. Mind you this was before she married me. So she is that much of a kind and forgiving person that she overlooked that incident and still said I do.

So I am very much looking forward to adding her content to this blog. She has made fantastic progress in her training in the last year and a half. She is kind of like Darth Vader. She was but the learner but now she is the master. She keeps pace with me and has slogged through all of these insane training sessions we do day in and day out. Along the way she has picked up so much knowledge and expertise that I know will shine through in her articles.

Thankfully she is sleeping right now because I just ripped some nasty ass. I hope it dissipates soon but I am worried it might linger around. like that uncle who stays later than everyone else at a family gathering. If you want to be a powerlifter or bodybuilder than you will need to learn how to rip some stealth ass. The high protein diet we consume means it can be rather foul so you have to learn how to manage it properly. I prefer to hold back until we are in a public place like a grocery store and then let loose. That way I can blame it on other people and even act very offended that they would do such a thing. Just be forewarned that that tactic can sometimes bite you in the ass (pun intended). If it is a lingerer then eventually your significant other will catch on that the smell is following you guys.

Well I think I am going to wrap up this entry. Next entry I am going to focus on specific exercises for women to improve their all too important waist to hip ratio.