There’s a ton of evidence to directly support that claim, as well as the more general: exercise makes animals smarter (their brains work better) and more effective at navigating their environments (their bodies work better).

What about specific, practical evidence of this revelation?  Actually, why should it be considered a ‘revolution’?  It’s pretty clear that the mind and body work together.  Until very recently, we relied almost entirely upon our physical prowess for survival in the wild.

Here’s a really easy example from my life:  I fall down a lot less and am generally able to perform both delicate and more brutish placement of objects now than I was before I started training.  In English: I’m better at moving and manipulating objects in space than I was before I started lifting weights.  My numbers in the five main barbell lifts plus dumbbell and kettlebell variations, really every single movement I do now is stronger, and the process of moving these weights has both physically and mentally prepared me to more carefully move (objects) through space.

So lifting heavy shit makes me stronger and more coordinated, both because my body is better capable of holding and moving things, and that my mind goes through a sort of checklist (shoulders tight, thumb over the bar, valsalva, sit back . . . bend over while standing on your left foot, twist your torso over the dryer corner, use the wooden spoon to bat those treats back toward the front).

That last example is a good one, cos it shows that although I’m certain that weight training has been instrumental in this progress, I also realize that by using good form (read: the appropriate amount of full ROM work, which can vary greatly depending on experience) and the mobility work I do every workout has kept me basically injury free (although two of the callouses on my left hand tore off during a record rack pull today).

Then again, my martial arts instructor was impressed with my ability to consistently roll out of throws and fall practice where I appeared to be in major neck-injury-risk territory.  I probably owe that to all the hours I spent in the back yard and my basement wrestling with friends.  But I played literally thousands of hours of basketball in college, and there’s definitely a difference over the past couple of years.  I have studied weight training and nutrition far more than I ever listened to my coaches as a kid, so that probably has something to do with it too.  In effect, weight training has taught me to slow down, organize and prioritize my plan for action, and achieve the goal by adding confidence to my physical performance on par with my intellect.  I sound like a frickin douche bag if you read that wrong, but I hope you understand that I’m a work in progress and this is just a little something I want to pass along to the readers: recognize that the step-by-step processes in weight training can boost your ability in pretty much every single thing you go to do.

More than any other training protocol, technique or exercise, Elite Fitness Systems’ Dave Tate credits accommodating resistance with having “the greatest impact on our training at Westside Barbell in the past five years.”  Whether you, like Dave, squat 900+ or if you’re just shaking the drops off your ears, fresh off completing your Starting Strength progression, accommodating resistance is a great tool for intermediate and advanced trainees who want to get bigger, stronger and faster while adding some fun into your training.

Accommodating resistance is actually a loading protocol that uses several tools to accomplish great things.  It’s also a polysyllabic mouthful that basically means the weight/tension in the lift is adjusted to challenge your stronger ROM more than the weaker parts.  For example, we can load chains on the end of a barbell so that when lowered in a bench press or squat, weight that was supported at the top of the lift is now on the floor, making the bar effectively weigh less at the bottom.

The three main tools that provide accommodating resistance are chains, bands and weight releasers.  Weight releasers have been around for a long time and basically amount to hooks that hang from barbell collars and disengage at the bottom of a lift, stripping the bar of a percentage of its load.  This means that you can go down with, say 405 in the squat, and explode out of the hole with only 315 on your back.  I mention weight releasers first and in brief because they aren’t as common today, they cannot provide accommodating resistance for more than one rep and they do not stress the strongest part of your concentric ROM.

Next up came chains.  I’m not claiming that chains came after weight releasers, though, just that they are from the same era of accommodating resistance.  Chains can be used for nearly every exercise you can think of, just be sure that you keep a couple of things in mind:

1. Be sure to load the chains evenly, not only side to side, but front to back.  Loading them asymmetrically can be used strategically in the squat or deadlift to change the emphasis of the lift, but this must be applied carefully, so that the asymmetry is ‘symmetrical’.  Then again, it’s very hard to set this up and no real track record of it being all that much better than regular chain loading, so for our purposes, let’s just make sure the chains are even
2. Hang the chains sufficiently low.  If you just hook one end of a chain to a bar in a squat rack, so little of it will be resting on the ground that you’re not getting the full advantage of deloading at the bottom.  It’s better to use larger chains that are already partially resting on the floor, hooked to the bar by a thinner ‘feeder’ chain.  For example, the chains that EFS sells are 20lbs each, so you set the feeder such that the entire large chain is deloaded at the bottom of the lift.  This leaves several links of heavy chain on the floor at the top, but you can still record the entire weight of chain as a benchmark so long as you load it the same way every time.

You can also suspend heavy barbells from chains in a sturdy power rack.  Guys do this with good mornings and it's another way to accomplish the bottom position squat (though, why you'd trouble yourself with that, given that your rack has pins, is beyond me).  The thing about reversing chains is that you're not going to get nearly as much out of it as you can with reversing your band setup.

Bands are cool because they’re colourful and they inject a space aged element to our brutal training.  Bands pull the bar down faster on your eccentric and add tension as you lift the bar back through the concentric phase of the lift.  They feel different than chains and seem to be very hard on the joints.  We typically wouldn’t use accommodating resistance for more then 6-8 weeks in a row on any exercise and keep band work to half of that.  Squatting with bands 12 weeks in a row is a good way to learn how to hate having hips.

The last word on chains and bands is a short one: FUN.  It’s hard to grind against weights week after week, trying to beat records.  That’s part of why the Westside template works so well: you get a good amount of variety in the training, not to mention the speed work is actually *useful*.  The same can be said of accommodating resistance.  You can use bands and/or chains for all of your assistance work too.  A good example is the ‘haunted houses’ or lateral raises I used to do with 20lb chains.  My girlfriend remarked that I look like a cartoon ghost, which is awesome because an exercise that makes my shoulders bigger, stronger and more stable than using a simple dumbbell and also makes people watching me want to laugh . . . that’s a good exercise.  In all seriousness, those 20lbs work great for high rep shoulder raises.  I’ve also choked mini bands to a rack and done raises from there.  You can use these on everything from chins to curls to crunches.  Just make sure to cycle off of them pretty regularly to reap the best results.  I follow a Westside-based template with 3 week mini-cycles so I never use them for more than one cycle.

Like I mentioned above, you can invert the bands and use them to pull the weight up out of the bottom.  It's as simple as choking bands to the top of a good power rack and then looping them over the collars of your barbell.  For bench pressing and squatting, the feeling is something like the boost you get from powerlifting gear.  It's really springy at the bottom and you should take care not to use bands too heavy so that the weight is nearly nothing on your chest.  With a deadlift, it helps you get a weight up that normally would be hard to break from the ground, effectively overloading the top part of the lift.

And that's the name of the game with accommodating resistance: make the lockout harder.  Any more questions about why this is going to help you get stronger?  (In all seriousness, though, feel free to ask any questions in a comment )

I apologize for not updating this past week, but I have been busy transitioning InnerLevel.net to its new home here at HOPEisSTRENGTH.com

I will try to get a quality post up later this week, but for now, enjoy this footage of me learning to use the giant cambered bar at my new gym:

A couple weeks back, we discussed a few key points to good posture.  In today’s white collar world, many have found themselves somewhat permanently hunched over.  I say somewhat because with the tips we reviewed, anyone can achieve perfect spinal alignment.  Today, we’ll examine some of the best exercises and mobility drills for those looking to achieve ideal posture.

Shoulder dislocations are one of the best exercises when you want to start fixing your posture. Grab a broomstick, a smallish piece of PVC or an elastic band in both hands, starting with a wider than shoulder-width grip. Keeping your hands on the implement, rotate your arms overhead and behind you. As this gets easier and you do more sets, move your hands in closer.

Band pullaparts are another great exercise, and a good reason to choose a jumpstretch band as your next investment rather than a piece of PVC. Pipes and broomsticks are great, but you can’t pull them apart like you can with these durable elastic bands. Start holding the band just as you were during the dislocations. Bring your arms up, parallel to the ground, and while keeping the elbows straight, pull the arms back until your body makes a ‘t’. You can also pull the band apart overhead. Rotate your arms to point at the ceiling and pull the band apart. With these, try both straight arms, and also perform them like a pulldown or pullup, where you allow your arms to bend. With both overhead pullaparts, focus on keeping your shoulders pulled back and together (retracted).

I do this next exercise every morning shortly after waking.  I got it from a Steve Maxwell DVD, and it's super easy and effective.  Just reach your hands up high overhead.  I like to shrug a little bit to wake my traps up, and then you can let the shoulders come to a more 'relaxed' position with hands overhead.  Rotate your arms as though you were scrubbing the ceiling.  Try 10 rotations one way, then reverse and do 10 more.  Steve recommends that you do as many reps as your age, and judging by his incredible mobility, I bet he's onto something.

My favourite new exercise for shoulder mobility is the ‘no money’. Stand with your arms at your sides, then curl the forearms up as if you were holding a tray in front of you. With your palms facing up and your upper arms staying close to your sides, rotate backwards so that your hands swing around following your thumbs. You can add a band to this to increase resistance. I like to do them up against the corner of a wall or power rack, as the presence of the corner between my shoulder blades adds to my ability to ‘feel’ the movement.

Last but not least (for today, anyway) are ‘scorpions’. Lie on your face with arms outstretched (like a ‘t’, but on the ground). Swing your foot across the other side of your body and reach for the opposite hand. One swing of both feet/legs counts as one rep. You can vary your arm position (make a ‘Y’ or point down in a kind of ‘A’), and you’ll feel the stretch differently. This one’s great for opening up your chest, and I do it before every squat workout.

Start doing these mobility exercises every day for a while. You can do one or two of them when you get up from your desk each hour, and you’ll be amazed by the improvement in your posture. Stick with INNERLEVEL.net and watch your body transform!

A friend of mine asked me a little while back about which gym he should join. He lives amidst an uncontrollable suburban sprawl, and though there are a ton of gyms in the metro area, they all seem somehow compromised. He narrowed his choices to two options, but one is relatively expensive and the other only has one power rack (but it does have three smith machines ). I told him to move, find a home near a gym of a harder core (my recent cross-country move was heavily weighted by the search for a well-equipped powerlifter-friendly gym), but instead he joined the expensive health club.

If you don’t want to be stuck in a place that threatens to kick you out for doing anything resembling getting really strong and muscular, then it might be time to consider equipping the garage or basement with your home gym. In this multipart series starting today, you’ll learn the ins and outs of the dos and don’ts of buying home gym equipment.

When starting from scratch, the first choice for strength training is an easy one: barbells. Barbells allow incremental loading, so you can lift as a beginner and steadily increase the resistance as you move toward mastering the iron sport. A good beginner set should have the following:

One (1) Olympic barbell, 20kg/44lbs (some are 45lbs, and these are fine. In fact, there are some that weigh more than the standard ~45lbs, but we’ll discuss those in the future)

Two (2) spring clips. You need these to keep the plates balanced on the bar (*though home training can present situations where it’s CRITICAL that you DON’T use the clips whilst bench pressing. More on this in next week’s installment). In the absence of weight clips, or if yours break, you can use any kind of clamps that will fit securely on the 2” diameter collars. Just make sure that whatever clips you use, they’re symmetrical.

Four to forty (4-40) 45lb plates. You probably won’t need to load your bar with upwards of 1000 lbs. (and when you do, you’ll probably be using 100lb plates), but you should start with at least four. Four 45s gives you 225lbs including the barbell, which is the bare minimum smaller trainers will need for their novice training programs. Most people should probably get six or eight to start with (always buy weight plates in pairs of identical brand plates), but four can be a good start, especially when you also get:

Two (2) 25lb plates. Most gyms have 35s, but you don’t really need those when you get:

Four (4) 10lb plates. Getting four 10s will save you money by alleviating the need for 35s, plus it allows you to add 20lbs on each side, rather than 25 (10 extra pounds can be a big difference once you start working your way up the strength ladder).

Two (2) 5lb plates. Same as the 10s, but sometimes they’re too heavy.

Two (2) 2.5lb plates. Again, very useful for gradual increases.

Fractional plates. Now, you can buy these, and companies like Iron Woody make very high quality plates in weights as low as a quarter pound. What I did when I trained on the Starting Strength template is buy six (6) 2” internal diameter washers. I read this somewhere online and took my kitchen scale to the local Fastenal. As it turns out, the washers weigh around 10oz each. This is perfect, since adding one on each side allows you to add 1.25lbs. When you’re reaching the limit of your newbie gains on lifts like the overhead press, the ability to add weights as small as 1.25lbs helps you to continue making linear progress. In short: buying fractional plates makes you bigger and stronger, faster. The six washers plus tax only cost me about $12. They might look at you strange at the store, but since you’re confident, it won’t matter. It’s important to weigh them there before you buy, because they can be off by several grams. It’s critical to load barbells symmetrically, so make sure all of them weigh the same amount. I had to go through an entire bin (about 50 washers) to find the 6 that all weighed out identically, but knowing that I was helping to build a balanced, powerful physique made it well worth the effort.

Next week, we’ll discuss the other necessary tools for basic barbell training, plus tips on how to make the most of what you’ve got.

We’ve all seen a guy who practically looks like he left a hanger in his shirt when putting it on. You know, the guy with a perfectly flat upper back, whose clothes all look custom fit. The secret to his swag is something that a lot of us need work on: posture. With most people spending at least a third of their lives hunched over a desk, it can be challenging to stand tall and proud with your chest up. Let’s look at some of the ways that we can go about ending our postural devolution back to cavemen.

1. First off, if you spend 23 hours a day in bad posture, then go to the gym and hope your one hour of power cleans is going to fix everything, you’ve got another thing comin’. However much you can shrug or row, it won’t matter if you spend the remaining 90%+ of your day in a less than advantageous position. So, as simplistic as it seems, the key to maintaining good posture is to . . . maintain good posture!

There are a bunch of ways to help with this, starting with getting an ergonomic chair. Now, you don’t have to buy a fancy Herman Miller or one of those crazy swiss ball chair thingies, but it’s well worth the couple hundred dollars invested in a chair that gives you excellent support. You’ll want something that provides lumbar support, allows your shoulders to stay back, flat against the chair, and maybe something with a pillow for your head. Taller people need to take care with most pillowed chairs, as they’ll find the pillow hitting along the shoulder blades and forcing them to round forward. Instead, look for chairs marked ‘big & tall’, and consider specialty stores.

Now that you’ve got the correct chair, remember to get up and stretch at least once every hour. We’ll be doing an entire article on shoulder alignment exercises and stretches soon, so check back for some more ideas. You might want to set a timer on your computer (Outlook ‘tasks’ can work well for this) to remind you at first, and then it will become natural. Taking five to ten minutes every hour to stretch and refresh your body by moving around and getting away from the screen will make you more productive overall. Another good idea I’ve used is to put coloured stickers around your office and home. Each time you see the sticker, you’ll remember to check your posture and correct it if necessary. Put ‘em on the fridge, beside your mirrors and other places you’re sure to look. Now that we’re more conscious of posture on a continuing basis, let’s consider some other tips and tricks:

2. Practice low bar squats. You already know how to squat, and the low bar form is great for opening the chest and keeping your shoulders back. Some people have a hard time assuming the form at first, because it requires a hard shoulder retraction and good mobility. You can use the low bar position to stretch out your chest and increase your awareness of the upper back. I will frequently load the bar with 100%+ of my 1RM and walk it out of the rack. This provides a nice stretch and helps my body to handle heavier weights whilst squatting. Holding a 1RM+ load for 30 seconds or so will make walking around with good posture feel like a breeze.

3. Balance your back and chest strength. Brahs love to bench, but you gotta keep it in check. Not only will pushing more than you pull leave you hunched over, but it will also stall your process in increasing your bench numbers. Make sure to do one pulling exercise like a barbell row or inverted bodyweight row for every bench/incline press variation so that the front and back stay balanced.

3b. Practice incline shrugs and trap dips. For incline shrugs, get an incline bench at 30 or 45 degrees (you can switch it up), and perform shrugs with dumbbells. Pull the shoulders back rather than up as in a standing shrug. This will strengthen your lower traps and help keep your shoulder blades back by balancing them with your chest strength, as will trap dips. Find dipping bars and hold them with your arms locked out. Keep your arms locked out through the whole set, and practice lowering yourself as much as possible, then shrugging the shoulders back and down hard to push your body weight up.

4. Alternate how you carry your bags. Many of us constantly tow briefcases, laptops and other bags, and this repeated load can result in postural imbalances. The simple answer is alternating sides. If you’re wearing something on both arms/shoulders like a backpack, ensure that your shoulders are in a good position. Get used to the feeling and avoid pulling your shoulders forward to pitch the center of gravity.

Now that we know a little more about how to stay in good posture, keep it locked to INNERLEVEL.net for more tips, including a whole series on shoulder mobility and flexibility.

There is a magic secret to building lean muscle and strength faster than you ever imagined. This secret has been obscured from public view, but now, with the help of modern science and yours truly, the golden bullet will be revealed . . .

OK, I lied. There’s no magical secret to getting bigger, stronger and faster. Because our culture is geared towards immediate results, and because steroids are illegal, potentially dangerous and morally questionable, literally thousands of companies have popped up, purporting to offer the next big thing in muscular science. Not surprisingly, most of them have fallen by the wayside, leaving a few reputable juggernauts to duke it out for market share.

I would also be lying if I told you that ALL supplements are a waste of time and money. It is a fact that a select few have been proven useful through years of use, but another, more alarming fact is that the vast majority of all bodybuilding, fitness and fat loss supplements are about as effective as folding up dollar bills and stuffing them into your air conditioner vents in an attempt to get ripped. Sure, the bottles look cool (my god, has the packaging improved over the last five years!), but when it comes right down to it, most of these products cannot and do not live up to their marketing hype. Most are advertised with what is at best pseudo-science and at worst outright lies. Sandwiched in between pages of Jay Cutler’s massive legs and Dexter Jackson’s amazing abs are the B.S. ads that make up the bulk of an average bodybuilding magazine. Young kids read these things, wanting to get bigger and stronger as fast as possible so they can get laid and impress their friends, but are usually disappointed when they find that there’s really only one way to success in the iron game:

HARD WORK AND DEDICATION!

You’re going to be at this for a while, and if you wanna go anywhere with your strength and size, then you’ll be in the gym regularly, eating well, and getting plenty of rest. Then again, once you have these three pillars of training success well established, there are a few things that you can, and that I’d recommend that you add to the equation. I toyed with the idea of telling you which exact brands I use, but for now, I’m going to stick to the basics. Here is the short list of supplements that I have used and suggest to my clients (yes, even I have been burned by the super nitro booster energy paks of the world, but I finally learned).

• Multivitamin/multimineral. These are among the three most important supplements any athlete can invest in. I’d call them 1a on my list, because even people who don’t train (please, if you don’t train, at least do some walking or running or something active, but I digress) – almost everyone can benefit from multivitamin/multimineral supplements. Even the best of us who strive to eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and grains can find it hard to get enough of these little natural chemicals that are crucial for the body’s growth and maintenance. Some even have extras, like joint support, immune and digestive enzymes, and male or female-specific herbal enhancements. They’ll help you get stronger, faster because they regulate your body’s processes. Plus, you won’t get sick, since you’re getting plenty of the good stuff you need to fend off the constant onslaught of germs and viruses in the environment.

• Fish oil. This is my 1b, because like the multivitamin/multiminerals, they are just as valuable to sedentary folks as highly tuned athletes. Fish oil contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for body processes, but often overlooked in our prepared food-based diet. Supplementing with fish oil will reduce inflammation and soreness. Another interesting benefit is that ingesting this fat actually reduces cholesterol and decreases body fat. Serum cholesterol is dropped because fish oil raises your HDL levels, which effectively cleans out your arteries, while it helps your body burn fat by teaching it how to utilize fatty acids for energy more effectively. Find a fish oil supplement that has a good amount of EPA and DHA, and take 6-12 caps each day. I usually buy them when they’re on sale, buy-one-get-one free at the local drugstore. You can stock up with 10 or more economy sized bottles, then put one in your cups and glasses cabinet. Whenever you go to get something to drink with a meal, take 2 or 3 caps of fish oil as well.

• Whey protein. Though it’s 1c, it’s every bit as important as the other two for succeeding in adding strength and muscle. When you’re lifting weights, you need at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. Some people find that they’re stronger and more energetic with 1.5g or even 2g/lb, so experiment with different levels to see what works best for you. Use whey only after working out (or if you like doing some cardio first thing in the morning, you can have some whey as soon as you wake up so that you’re not totally fasted). Whey digests in less than an hour (more like 45 minutes for whey isolates), so it’s not suitable for meal replacement, but this fast digestion time makes it perfect for post-workout recovery. Shoot for at least .5g protein per pound of bodyweight in your post-workout drink. (For what it’s worth, I’m currently mixing two scoops of protein into 16oz. skim milk, plus an ice cube.)

• Creatine monohydrate. I wrote a paper about this to earn my nutritionist certification, and it’s shocking how many things creatine helps. Most people familiar with the world of bodybuilding and strength training know that creatine can make you bigger and stronger, but did you know it can help repair broken bones, increase brain function in elderly folks and possibly even prevent brain damage from blunt trauma?! There are several different ways to use creatine, and we’ll go into those later. For now, let’s just keep it simple: creatine helps you lift heavier weights or lift the weights more times, or BOTH! It’s also dirt cheap (you can get a kilogram of the stuff for under $20 with a quick search on the web). Perhaps the best testament to the effectiveness of creatine is the fact that you’ll see the cover of bodybuilding magazines ask the question “Is [supplement x] the new creatine?” at least once a year. So far, nothing has topped CM’s magical mix of effectiveness and affordability.

So there you have it. Four supplements that we know work very well for enhancing strength and general health. We’ll delve into each of these in depth later, plus discuss some of the other supplements and why or why not to even consider spending your hard earned money. Stick with HOPEisSTRENGTH and we’ll make you stronger, wiser and wealthier

Training. Nutrition. Rest. These are the three pillars that make up the foundation of your training career. You can lift all you want, but if you don’t eat enough, you aren’t going to get bigger, stronger or faster. The same is true if you don’t sleep enough. Then again, if you eat well and get enough rest, but don’t train, you’re also going nowhere. Having read our articles on exercise form and programming, you already know how to lift correctly, so let’s discuss performance nutrition.

Specifically, let’s look at the post-workout meal. After training, there’s a 30-45 minute window where the body needs nutrients. You need to replenish what was burned during training and provide the blocks for building new muscle.

One of the main debates about post-workout nutrition is, solid food or a shake? In the days before whey protein was readily available at your local strip mall, athletes would opt for a hearty meal. Even today, champion bodybuilders like Jay Cutler and Phil Heath can be seen eating lean meat and rice or other complex carbs after their grueling workouts. We certainly can’t argue with their results, but there might be more than a few reasons to choose a post-workout shake.

We mentioned the ‘window’ after training where the body needs nutrients. During this time, hormonal levels are just right for driving the protein and carbs straight into your muscles. Liquids digest faster than whole foods, so theoretically, a liquid meal could be more effective for repairing and building muscles. Additionally, some athletes, myself included, don’t like the way a full meal feels right after training. In fact, I used to drink my protein shakes immediately after working out, but now wait at least 15 minutes to allow my body to return to a more normal state.

Since I prefer a post-workout drink, it’s important to know what to put in there. Protein is of the utmost importance. Training with weight creates tiny tears in your muscles and uses free amino acids stored within for energy and other processes. Getting a quick, relatively large dose of a fast digesting protein is one of the best ways to mend those tears (which creates bigger, stronger muscles).

This is why so many athletes love whey protein. It digests within an hour, and is one of the cheapest sources of protein available. I have found .25g protein/lb of body weight to be a good number. While I never go below this number, I will sometimes use more. I sometimes add 10g L-leucine to my shakes. Leucine is said to be the limiting factor in muscle growth. It effectively ‘turns on’ the mTOR pathway that creates new muscle tissue, so making sure you have enough can allow you to maximize your growth. I will sometimes also add L-glutamine, which is especially effective after intense workouts (heavy squats and deadlifts, especially).

Next, we need some carbohydrates. Some people swear by the method of using simple sugars to ‘spike’ insulin. Since the body needs protein and carbs to repair, an insulin spike drives these nutrients straight to the muscle, rather than into fat cells as would normally happen. I have used this method, and while I found it successful in the sense that I got stronger and gained lean mass, it also left me feeling queasy and sometimes even dizzy. Now, when I need carbohydrates in my post-workout drink, I use ground oatmeal. It doesn’t spike insulin, but then again, it’s much easier on my digestive system, and I’m still making great progress. I’m also of the mind that it might not be all that great to manipulate insulin, given its ties with diabetes and other disorders. While it’s likely that insulin can be used to facilitate muscle growth, the difference in using a slow burning carb like oatmeal is negligible in my experience. A good number to shoot for is .5g carbs/lb bodyweight. If you’re trying to lose fat or just want to limit your caloric intake, you can lower this figure.

As for fat, we should try to avoid fat as much as possible. Whey protein has a tiny amount of fat, as does oatmeal. I like to use skim milk for my shakes, which has a good amount of protein and carbs, but no fat. Fat slows digestion, and our goal with a post-workout drink is fast absorption.

So .25g protein/lb and .5g carbs/lb is a good start. Play with it and see what works for you. These days, I prefer to use fewer carbs in my shake most days, but then again, I eat a full meal about 60-90 minutes after the shake, which usually has a bunch.

Post your best shake recipes as a comment!

The best training method for new trainees is Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. This simple template will pack on muscle and make new lifters stronger than any other program I’ve witnessed. I wasted plenty of time doing silly routines copied from bodybuilding magazines, only to learn the hard way that those bodypart split systems only work well for dudes with, ah, let’s just say they’re getting a little extra help from the needle. The amazing thing about SS is that even after all that silly training, I still gained size and strength from using its simplified outline.

Despite being an internet legend, or perhaps because of its wiki-fied viral spread, SS is widely misunderstood and misused. Some versions only use the five major barbell exercises Coach Rip devoted a couple hundred pages to describing in his signature witty style. Other ‘versions’ of SS float around the internet. A change here, a change there; soon enough, you’ve got guys doing ‘Ripetows’ that miss many of the key points from the irreproachable original. I’m going to discuss what I feel is the ideal program for new trainers. Those familiar with his work will understand why I’m giving much thanks and a lot of credit to Rip, but you can still learn a thing or two about how to properly utilize SS:

Here’s the basic outline:

Day 1

-------

Squat (5x3)

Bench Press (5x3)

Deadlift (5x1)

Heavy abs (5-15x3)

Day 2

-------

Squat (5x3)

Overhead Press (5x3)

Power Cleans (3x5)

Chinups/pullups (up to 15x3)

First of all, you squat every day. This is because squatting builds more muscle from head to toe than any other exercise (deadlifts being a close second). Unlike deadlifts, which tend to be a little hard on the lower back, beginners can squat three times a week without being overtrained. The low bar squat form works everything from your upper back, all the muscles of the toso, plus the glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and calvesBy doing the hardest exercise first, your body and mind will adapt and learn to push to a new record each workout.

The second exercise is a pressing motion. This alternates between bench press and overhead press. It’s important to keep these two lifts relatively close to one another to keep the shoulders healthy and balance musculature and athletic performance. A good ratio to shoot for is somewhere between 3:2 and 4:3. In other words, your overhead press one rep max (1RM) should be between 66% and 75% of your best bench press. The combination thoroughly works your chest, shoulders, traps and triceps.

The third exercise is a pulling motion. Alternate between one set of deadlifts and five sets of three power cleans. These exercise differ in rep scheme from those above because a) As mentioned above, the deadlift can be hard on the lower back, especially for new lifters, and especially after squatting, and b) the power clean is an explosive movement, so we keep the reps lower to facilitate good form for beginners. Deadlifts build raw strength, while power cleans build the explosive power necessary for moving heavy weights. By training the body to explode, you’re more able to handle heavy loads in the other lifts. In other words, including the power clean makes the other lifts stronger by improving neuromuscular efficiency.

I have a heavy exercise for the abs on Day 1. This can include things like situps on a back extension ‘chair’, decline situps, hanging leg raises, etc. The key thing is to pick something that’s hard enough that you can’t do more than 15 reps for 3 sets. When that starts to feel easy, add weight, make the decline steeper, or do something else to make it harder. When I did SS, I liked to work in a ‘wave’ where I’d do 10x3 one day, 8x3 the next day and 5x5 after that. You can do abs every day, but I left it as an every-other day thing because we don’t want to over work the raw newbies.

The same is true of chinups/pullups. These can be done every day because there are no other exercises in the template that directly work the lats and biceps as much as these vertical pulling motions. I’d recommend working up to being able to do 8-10 chinups for 3 sets. This should translate to about 5 pullups for 3 sets. Continue to work from there, and you can alternate between the two variations if you like. Once you get to 15 reps for 3 sets, add some weight.

Those are the basic DOs, so what kinds of things should we definitely avoid?

NEVER leave out power cleans! Plenty of internet ‘SS’ templates substitute rows for power cleans. This is downright stupid. Not only do they not work the same muscles, but rows don’t offer the explosive advantage conferred by power cleans.

NEVER use machines. This template is for barbells only. You really shouldn’t even use dumbbells here. Barbells are easier to balance, and allow you to move heavier weights, which means more muscle. Dumbbell movements are great exercises, but it’s best to start out with barbells to learn the basic movements first. This will help you to avoid injuries while you’re ‘greasing the groove’. As for machines, they’re mostly useless. With few exceptions, machines lock you into an unnatural range of motion that prevents your stabilizers from working. Sure, you can grow some muscle by using your fancy pec deck, but you won’t necessarily get stronger, and you might increase your chances of injury by neglecting the all important stabilizers.

NEVER forget to squat. Squats are the cornerstone of this program. It’s ok to switch out for front squats in the middle of your three day week once you get up to weights approaching intermediate trainee-levels, but for the most part, let’s stick to low bar back squats. This style of squatting uses the most muscle fibers and therefore allows the most growth and strength development.

NEVER add reps. If you can do your weights for 3 sets of 5 reps (or the other prescribed rep schemes for power cleans, pullups, etc.), then add some weight. It’s always better to keep moving up gradually than to overtax yourself with extra reps or too much weight. It’s a good feeling to know you smoked all three sets of squats, since you’ll be confident about the next time when you add 5-15 lbs to the bar. On the other hand, adding reps takes you out of the strength and muscle building zone we want to be in, and might make you overtrained.

NEVER add isolation exercises. This program is all about compound movements. The body doesn’t use muscles in isolation, and you shouldn’t. While it can be useful to do barbell curls (*in moderation) later in your training career, new trainers will get more out of doing chinups and pullups. It’s common sense to understand that if you’re moving more muscles, you’re going to grow more. Think of how large powerlifters’ legs are, then compare them to their biceps. Even the hugest men have biceps no larger than a softball (the triceps comprise most of the arm’s mass), but their massive legs can easily make up half of their weight. In short: the more muscle you move, the more you’ll grow.

There you go: the DOs and DON’Ts of the best beginner training program in existence. Read this over, review the form articles, and feel free to leave comments if you have questions. It’s all about getting stronger and bigger, so let’s be smarter too.

Big bulging biceps!  They’re the symbol of strength in our culture, yet few have them.  Plenty have tried countless curl variations, only to find that they’re not going anywhere.  Perhaps they should have started with pullups and chinups.  Pull-ups and chin-ups (chins) are one of the best ways to increase your grip, pulling strength and upper body size.  They work your forearms, biceps and lattisimus dorsi (lats), plus chinups work the long head of the triceps.  Having strong lats helps to balance the strength you’ll gain by increasing your bench press, plus strong lats actually help you push the bar off of your chest.
Sure, you could take the easy way out and do cable pulldowns or some other machine exercise.  Our philosophy on strength training carries over to life, and it’s that anything worth doing is probably a little harder than the alternatives, but it probably yields better results.  In the case of pullups or chins vs pulldowns, it’s a unanimous decision in favour of the former.  Pullups and chins require stabilization and move your body through space, whereas pulldowns and machines allow you to avoid this work.  Machines are even worse than cable pulldowns, because they lock you into a range of motion that completely prevents your body from stabilizing itself and it puts you at a greater risk of injury by forcing that path irrespective of your individual anatomy.  Strength built with pullups and chins carries over to pulldowns, but the opposite effect is far less substantial.  Since we’re going to do the more useful exercises, let’s make sure we’re doing them in the best way possible:
1.    Grab the bar at shoulder width.  You want to have the bar closer to your fingers than in the bench and overhead presses (those exercises need the bar to be closer to your palm/wrist).
2.    Take a deep breath in, push your chest up, pull your shoulder blades back.  Your shoulders need to stay back and your chest must stay up for the entire set.
3.    Pull your body up toward the bar by flexing your biceps and lats.  Keep pulling until your chin passes the bar.  It’s even better if you can have the bar touch your chest, but for beginners this will be tough.  Only count reps where your chin clears the bar.
4.    Lower yourself in a slow, controlled manner, all the way to a dead hang.  Your arms should be straight at the bottom, which may require you to keep your knees bent to avoid touching the ground.  As with clearing the bar with your chin, pullup and chinup reps don’t count unless you lower yourself to a dead hang.

That’s it for pullups/chinups.  Pretty simple, right?  We’ll go into depth more later on variations you can use to improve your numbers and strength, including variations on this time-tested classic.  For now, work on getting up to the point where you can do 15 reps with bodyweight.  At that level, you’ll have a fantastic level of relative strength and be ready for all kinds of new techniques.