Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Health Nut Blueberry Muffins
An awesome healthy alternative to the usual blueberry muffin.
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup oat bran
- ¼ cup quick cooking oats
- ¼ cup wheat germ
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup blueberries
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 banana, mashed
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Phil Sabatini performs the Olympic Lifts and Their Derivatives Clean and Jerk
Setup: The clean and jerk starts off like a deadlift but with two key differences: the lifter’s shoulders are directly above the bar rather than in front of it, and the lifter’s hips are parallel to the knees rather than slightly higher than them.
Execution: From that starting position, the lifter uses momentum generated mainly by the legs, hips and lower back to propel the bar high enough to essentially “jump” underneath it, landing in the bottom of a front squat. After squatting the weight up with the bar resting on his front delts and his elbows pointing straight forward, the lifter then dips and drives the weight up just enough to get back under it, this time in a spilt stance with the arms locked out overhead. The lift is complete once the lifter rises out of the split stance by carefully walking each leg in toward a stable standing position.
Snatch
Setup: The start of the snatch is similar to that of the clean, but the overhand grip will be far wider — long-limbed lifters may even hold the bar with their hands flush against the sleeves at either end — resulting in an even lower hip position relative to the knees.
Execution: From there, the lifter uses the same leg, hip and lower-back drive — all while maintaining an upright torso — to propel the bar high enough to explosively jump beneath it with the arms locked out, and the lift is complete once the lifter rises out of the bottom position with what’s essentially an overhead squat. Whereas the clean and jerk incorporates two separate steps, the snatch is one fluid, lightning-quick movement.
Front Squat
Setup: Load a barbell at sternum height — if you’re new to the front squat, start considerably lighter — and step beneath it with your palms facing up, your elbows pointing forward and the bar resting on your front delts and fingertips. (In Olympic lifting, this position is called the “rack.”) Step back and place your feet slightly outside of hip-width apart with your toes angled outward about 20–35 degrees.
Execution: With an upright torso, push your hips backward as you lower to a full-depth position between your heels. Be sure to maintain an exaggerated lordotic (lower spine) arch to combat the natural lumbar flexion (rounding) that occurs in the bottom of a deep squat. From the bottom position, simultaneously extend your knees and hips to rise back to the starting position. Your torso should remain erect throughout.
Expert’s Advice: To ensure that your thighs run parallel to the angle of your feet, force your knees outward as you squat. An overly wide stance will make this thigh angle difficult, and will place unnecessary strain on the inflexible tendons and tissues of the knees.
Overhead Squat
Setup: Place the barbell on your traps as though you’re setting up for a back squat, and take an extremely wide grip, wrapping your thumbs around the bar. If you lack shoulder flexibility, a wider grip will make the move easier, but it will further limit the weight you can use. As with the front squat, your feet should be slightly outside hip width and your toes should be angled slightly outward. Press the bar to an arms-locked position — dip your knees and use some hip drive if the weight’s too heavy — and shrug your shoulders toward your ears.
Execution: Maintaining “active” (shrugged) shoulders and locked elbows throughout the motion, push your hips back and down toward your heels while keeping your thighs in-line with the angle of your feet. Keep an exaggerated spinal arch in the bottom to prevent your back from curving, and press back out of the hole by simultaneously extending your knees and hips. Your torso should remain upright throughout the motion, and the bar should travel in a vertical path directly above the middle of your foot.
Power Clean
Setup: To start from the ground, take a fairly close stance with your heels almost directly beneath your hips and your toes angled outward 5–15 degrees. The bar should be over the balls of your feet and in contact with your shins. Take an overhand grip half a fist width (or slightly more) outside of your shoulders. Maintain an upright torso and straight arms, and lower your hips until they’re parallel to your knees.
Execution: With your torso as erect as possible, explode upward, driving from your quads and hips and keeping the bar as close to your legs as possible. When the bar reaches mid-thigh, violently extend your hips forward and jump from the balls of your feet, propelling the bar to chest level. Once the bar reaches its peak height, receive it by dipping slightly at the knees to get under it, landing in a slightly wider bent-leg stance and catching the bar on your front delts with your palms turned upward. Your gaze should remain straight forward throughout the movement.
Muscle Snatch (from Mid-Hang)
Setup: Stand tall with your feet slightly outside of hip-width apart and your toes angled slightly outward. Hold the bar with a wide-enough overhand grip that it rests at the crease of your thighs when your arms are straight. Keep your arms loose and your elbows turned out from your sides.
Execution: With an arched back, bend slightly forward at your hips before exploding upward onto the balls of your feet, using the drive from your hips to propel the bar above your head. Lead with your elbows, keeping the bar’s path close to your body. As the bar nears your face, flip your writs and rotate your forearms to turn your palms upward. At the top of the motion, retract your shoulder blades, shrug your shoulders and lock out your elbows to secure the bar in the top position.
Push Press
Setup: Stand tall with your heels directly beneath your hips and your feet rotated slightly outward. With a grip just outside shoulder width, hold a barbell across your front delts in the same “rack” position as the front squat, but ensure that it’s firmer in your palms rather than resting in your fingertips. Make sure your shoulder blades are fully retracted.
Execution: While maintaining an erect torso and a forward gaze, dip slightly at your knees and then explode upward, forcefully pressing the bar in a perfectly straight path above your head. Quickly move your head out of the bar’s path and then push it through the “window” created by your locked-out arms in the top position so that the bar is in perfect alignment with your head, shoulders, hips and the center of your feet.
High Pull (from Mid-Hang)
Setup: Stand with an upright torso and take the same heels-under-hips, toes-angled-outward stance as the power clean and muscle snatch. Hold the bar with an overhand grip slightly outside of shoulder width. Like the clean and snatch, this movement can be performed from the floor, the low-hang (shins) or mid-hang (thighs).
Execution: With an arched back, lean slightly forward and dip slightly at your knees before exploding through your hips onto the balls of your feet, brushing your hips with the bar as it travels. Shrug your shoulders forcefully toward your ears as you pull the bar upward along your body to chest height, leading with your elbows.
Execution: From that starting position, the lifter uses momentum generated mainly by the legs, hips and lower back to propel the bar high enough to essentially “jump” underneath it, landing in the bottom of a front squat. After squatting the weight up with the bar resting on his front delts and his elbows pointing straight forward, the lifter then dips and drives the weight up just enough to get back under it, this time in a spilt stance with the arms locked out overhead. The lift is complete once the lifter rises out of the split stance by carefully walking each leg in toward a stable standing position.
Snatch
Setup: The start of the snatch is similar to that of the clean, but the overhand grip will be far wider — long-limbed lifters may even hold the bar with their hands flush against the sleeves at either end — resulting in an even lower hip position relative to the knees.
Execution: From there, the lifter uses the same leg, hip and lower-back drive — all while maintaining an upright torso — to propel the bar high enough to explosively jump beneath it with the arms locked out, and the lift is complete once the lifter rises out of the bottom position with what’s essentially an overhead squat. Whereas the clean and jerk incorporates two separate steps, the snatch is one fluid, lightning-quick movement.
Front Squat
Setup: Load a barbell at sternum height — if you’re new to the front squat, start considerably lighter — and step beneath it with your palms facing up, your elbows pointing forward and the bar resting on your front delts and fingertips. (In Olympic lifting, this position is called the “rack.”) Step back and place your feet slightly outside of hip-width apart with your toes angled outward about 20–35 degrees.
Execution: With an upright torso, push your hips backward as you lower to a full-depth position between your heels. Be sure to maintain an exaggerated lordotic (lower spine) arch to combat the natural lumbar flexion (rounding) that occurs in the bottom of a deep squat. From the bottom position, simultaneously extend your knees and hips to rise back to the starting position. Your torso should remain erect throughout.
Expert’s Advice: To ensure that your thighs run parallel to the angle of your feet, force your knees outward as you squat. An overly wide stance will make this thigh angle difficult, and will place unnecessary strain on the inflexible tendons and tissues of the knees.
Overhead Squat
Setup: Place the barbell on your traps as though you’re setting up for a back squat, and take an extremely wide grip, wrapping your thumbs around the bar. If you lack shoulder flexibility, a wider grip will make the move easier, but it will further limit the weight you can use. As with the front squat, your feet should be slightly outside hip width and your toes should be angled slightly outward. Press the bar to an arms-locked position — dip your knees and use some hip drive if the weight’s too heavy — and shrug your shoulders toward your ears.
Execution: Maintaining “active” (shrugged) shoulders and locked elbows throughout the motion, push your hips back and down toward your heels while keeping your thighs in-line with the angle of your feet. Keep an exaggerated spinal arch in the bottom to prevent your back from curving, and press back out of the hole by simultaneously extending your knees and hips. Your torso should remain upright throughout the motion, and the bar should travel in a vertical path directly above the middle of your foot.
Power Clean
Setup: To start from the ground, take a fairly close stance with your heels almost directly beneath your hips and your toes angled outward 5–15 degrees. The bar should be over the balls of your feet and in contact with your shins. Take an overhand grip half a fist width (or slightly more) outside of your shoulders. Maintain an upright torso and straight arms, and lower your hips until they’re parallel to your knees.
Execution: With your torso as erect as possible, explode upward, driving from your quads and hips and keeping the bar as close to your legs as possible. When the bar reaches mid-thigh, violently extend your hips forward and jump from the balls of your feet, propelling the bar to chest level. Once the bar reaches its peak height, receive it by dipping slightly at the knees to get under it, landing in a slightly wider bent-leg stance and catching the bar on your front delts with your palms turned upward. Your gaze should remain straight forward throughout the movement.
Muscle Snatch (from Mid-Hang)
Setup: Stand tall with your feet slightly outside of hip-width apart and your toes angled slightly outward. Hold the bar with a wide-enough overhand grip that it rests at the crease of your thighs when your arms are straight. Keep your arms loose and your elbows turned out from your sides.
Execution: With an arched back, bend slightly forward at your hips before exploding upward onto the balls of your feet, using the drive from your hips to propel the bar above your head. Lead with your elbows, keeping the bar’s path close to your body. As the bar nears your face, flip your writs and rotate your forearms to turn your palms upward. At the top of the motion, retract your shoulder blades, shrug your shoulders and lock out your elbows to secure the bar in the top position.
Push Press
Setup: Stand tall with your heels directly beneath your hips and your feet rotated slightly outward. With a grip just outside shoulder width, hold a barbell across your front delts in the same “rack” position as the front squat, but ensure that it’s firmer in your palms rather than resting in your fingertips. Make sure your shoulder blades are fully retracted.
Execution: While maintaining an erect torso and a forward gaze, dip slightly at your knees and then explode upward, forcefully pressing the bar in a perfectly straight path above your head. Quickly move your head out of the bar’s path and then push it through the “window” created by your locked-out arms in the top position so that the bar is in perfect alignment with your head, shoulders, hips and the center of your feet.
High Pull (from Mid-Hang)
Setup: Stand with an upright torso and take the same heels-under-hips, toes-angled-outward stance as the power clean and muscle snatch. Hold the bar with an overhand grip slightly outside of shoulder width. Like the clean and snatch, this movement can be performed from the floor, the low-hang (shins) or mid-hang (thighs).
Execution: With an arched back, lean slightly forward and dip slightly at your knees before exploding through your hips onto the balls of your feet, brushing your hips with the bar as it travels. Shrug your shoulders forcefully toward your ears as you pull the bar upward along your body to chest height, leading with your elbows.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Brian Stann's Muscle Building Program
|
TERMS YOU'LL NEED TO KNOW | |
|
Day 1:
- Morning:
- Grappling (90 minutes)
- Striking drills and bag work (90 minutes)
Day 2:
- Morning:
- No-Gi Grappling (90 minutes)
- Warmup: Plyometrics
- Triset:
Power Cleans: 3 sets to failure
Neck Resistance: 3 sets to failure
Twists: 3 sets to failure - Triset:
Weighted Pull-Ups: 3 sets to failure
Isometric Bench Press: 3 sets of 15-25 second holds followed by an explosive press
Single-Leg Squat: 3 sets to failure - Giant Set:
Walking Lunges: 3 sets to failure
Front Squats: 3 sets to failure
Standing Military Press: 3 sets to failure
Weighted Squat Jumps: 3 sets to failure
Get A Printable Log Of The Day 2 Strength And Conditioning Workout. |
Day 3:
- Morning:
- Wrestling
- Striking drills and grappling
Day 4:
- Morning:
- MMA training and grappling with strikes
- Striking bag work
Day 5:
- Morning: Strength and conditioning:
- Warmup: Plyometrics
- Triset:
Single-Arm Snatch: 3 sets to failure
Neck Resistance: 3 sets to failure
Medicine Ball Throws: 3 sets to failure - Triset:
Weighted Pull-Ups: 3 sets to failure
Weighted Push-Ups: 3 sets to failure
Split Squats: 3 sets to failure - Triset:
Walking Lunges: 3 sets to failure
Weighted Pull-Ups: 3 sets to failure
Core Exercises: 3 sets to failure - Wrestling
Get A Printable Log Of The Day 5 Strength And Conditioning Workout. |
Day 6:
- Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training focusing on submissions (120 minutes)
Day 7:
- Off
Supplementation:
Morning
Taken with peanut butter immediately in the morning
Taken with breakfast
Post-Workout
2 scoops post-workout
1 scoop post-workout
Afternoon
Taken with lunch
Evening
Taken before bed
Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!
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| Gaspari Nutrition AminoMax 8000 Designed for Advanced Athletes and Bodybuilders! Learn More! |
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Lemon-Scented Chicken Soup with Parsley-Sage Matzo Balls
The chicken and vegetables are strained out for a clear soup. If you’d like, save some chicken and vegetables to serve along with the matzo balls in the soup.
- 1 4½- to 5-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, rinsed well, excess skin and fat cut away and discarded
- Boiling water
- 5 quarts cold water
- 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
- 1 pound onions, quartered
- 1 1-pound yam (red-skinned sweet potato), peeled, cut in half crosswise
- ¾ pound carrots, peeled, thickly sliced
- ½ pound parsnips, peeled, thickly sliced
- 4 large celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces
viewed: 159 times
yields: Makes 8 servings
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
No More Excuses! Set Goals And Get What You Want!
When taking it to the next level in our bodybuilding efforts, it is important to set the right goals... Find success and get what you want without excuses. Learn more. By: Connor LaVallie
It seems like everybody's got one these days... no matter how you look at it, consciously or subconsciously there is a self-serving bias at work aiming to appease us in various times of rejection. When you were focused on achieving something, maybe in your career... you might have even had a plan to go about getting a big promotion, and come to find that the top spot was awarded to someone else... how could this be? You did everything you were supposed to do, put in the work, and this guy took the top spot? If this situation sounds familiar then you are not alone. It is a biological defense mechanism built in that calms us in times of utter disbelief. It is self-serving because it is a way to mentally block out the topical pain and attribute our failures to something that was seemingly outside our control. Every single person thinks they are working hard for what they want but your idea of "hard work" may be a walk in the park compared to the guy standing next to you. Since we create our own realities, we are also subject to live in a world that is directly related to the standards we set for ourselves. Therefore, if we want to take it to the next level, our standards must be in line with what we are trying make a reality. The man or woman who goes the extra mile will remember your name when he meets you for the first time, he will usually be mindful of what he wants in every situation he comes across... and he will know why he wants it. There is no motivation like having prime reasons for what you want... that way there will be power in the motive to change. Endless Excuses
When We Fail Our Self-Serving Bias Will Imput Our Failure To A Cause Beyond Our Control. Life Is A Journey
The Impact Of Your Goals
Conclusion Always work as hard as humanly possible during the experience so you won't be one of those poor souls who feel the chills of regret, but understand this: you will not feel as fulfilled as you first imagine, which is OK! It is normal to feel this way because there is always a higher level to get to, another goal to grasp... no matter where you are in your diet and training. That is the fun part, the temporary security that comes with achievement, and the reality that sets in to get us excited... to take the next step toward a higher level in the journey called life. |
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