by Tom Venuto

Physique athletes (bodybuilding, fitness, fitness model, figure and bikini competitors) eat and train differently. In fact, a lot of what they do to develop the leanest, most muscular, most aesthetically pleasing bodies in the world is the exact opposite of how most people do it. For more than 20 years (more than 10 years online), I’ve been teaching men and women the physique athlete (bodybuilder’s) method to fat loss. I often sum it up as “eat more, burn more.” The “burn more” part includes cardio, and in today’s post, I take a reader question that clears up the misconceptions about the role of cardio, what this philosophy means and how it’s possible that you can eat more and get leaner and more muscular doing it…

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by Charles Poliquin

Larry ScottIf you watch the typical teenage bodybuilder train their arms, they’ll be doing virtually endless sets of standing barbell and dumbbell curls. Sure, a beginner can make progress on a program like that, but it’s not the smartest way to train. With the same amount of effort on better workouts, they will develop larger arms and will achieve them faster. One person who would agree with me is the first Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott.

Scott won the Mr. Olympia title in 1965 and 1966, weighing 205 and with arms that reportedly measured over 20 inches at his height of just 5 feet 8. Scott paid his dues to achieve these results, making many mistakes along the way. Here are 7 tips you can learn from his success.

1. Choose your mentors carefully. Many beginning bodybuilders fail due to information overload, by trying routines that are too optimistic for their conditioning level. When Scott started his training at a local Y in his Idaho hometown, he followed the advice of a boxer, who told him to perform a circuit training system that consisted of doing one set of each exercise for each major body part, and then repeating the circuit two more times. For the biceps, Scott would do one set of 10 reps of standing barbell curls, then a set of one-arm concentration curls, then a set of Zottman dumbbell curls. This type of program might have been fine for a boxer seeking to improve muscular endurance, but not for building the muscles of a bodybuilder.

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by Mike Arnold

These days, the use of Aromatase Inhibitors has become commonplace and with good reason. As a whole, they are a potent category of drugs, capable of effectively managing systematic estrogen levels even when using excessive amounts of aromatizable steroids. Prior to the advent of anastrozole (Arimidex) about 15 years ago, most BB’r relied primarily on the S.E.R.M, Nolvadex, in order to keep estrogenic side effects at bay. Its main function was the prevention of gynecomastia, of which it did a marvelous job (an application for which it is still prized today), but its limited scope of action made it entirely inept at combating many of the estrogenic side effects we face as BB’rs. This includes water retention, female fat pattern distribution, sexual dysfunction, and elevated blood pressure, to name a few.

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by Charles Poliquin

Training with Shoulder PainAlthough knee injuries seem to attract the most attention from the media, shoulder injuries are just as common – and are especially frustrating to resolve. Among the most common injuries are collarbone fractures, frozen shoulders, labral tears, rotator cuff impingement and tears, and shoulder dislocations and separations. Many shoulder injuries are a result of accidents, some due to overuse, and some are simply a result of poorly designed workouts. Case in point: the bench press.

There is no question that the bench press is the most popular weight training exercise. Yes, the squat is king, but if you compare the number of trainees working out on their own who perform bench presses and the number who perform squats, you’ll find it’s no contest. The bench press is so popular that many trainees perform the exercise several days a week, year-round. And whenever there is a lack of variety, overuse injuries are likely to result.

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by Mike Arnold

Out of all the side effects a steroid user could potentially experience, gynecomastia (aka bitch tits) is one of the worst…and it certainly tops the list when it comes to cosmetic side effects. Being heavily associated with womanhood, the very nature of this side effect is an affront to our masculinity. Not only is it embarrassing, but in some cases it can destroy the entire appearance of one’s physique. We have all seen pictures of the more extreme cases, where the BB’r literally looks like he has grown a small pair of tits on an otherwise normal body. The severity of this condition can range from only slight swelling, which is often imperceptible from a visual standpoint, to the more extreme cases, as mentioned above Fortunately, gynecomastia does not develop over night and its progression is easily halted and reversed if the proper steps are taken in a timely fashion. There really isn’t any good excuse for a steroid user to experience permanent, visible breast tissue growth. Those that do either don’t care or rather (and much more likely), they weren’t prepared and/or educated to deal with this side effect ahead of time. While there are numerous potential causes of this condition, the BB’r generally only has to worry about a few of them and the available treatment options are simple in their application. Through minimal self-education and a small financial investment we have all the tools we need to keep this side effect at bay.

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by Charles Poliquin

The Truth About Sit UpsStrength coaches and personal trainers have had a love/hate relationship with sit-ups for a long time. In the early years of physical culture these exercises were staples of any fitness program. At one point, people began worrying that sit-ups could cause back problems, and so the exercise was replaced with crunches, then Swiss ball crunches. Then came the generation of personal trainers and strength coaches who tried to bring back variations of sit-ups as part of their “core training” workouts. What is the truth? Do sit-ups cause more harm than good?

First, consider that an individual’s body proportions influence sit-up performance. A person with a long torso and relatively short legs has a much more difficult time performing sit-ups than someone with a relatively short torso and long legs. This could explain why some individuals can perform sit-ups with relatively no discomfort, while others continually experience problems from performing the exercise.

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by Nia Shanks

Every woman should train for strength and improved performance no matter what her primary goal may be. Yep. Even if you just want to look great naked, you should still train with the goal of getting stronger and improving your performance. Brace yourself for four indisputable reasons why you should focus solely on getting stronger and why doing so will produce the best body transforming results, plus a couple of additional awesome perks.

#1 Training for Strength is More Motivating and Actually More Fun than what? Than the way most people workout.

Many trainees go to the gym with two goals in mind – to burn as many calories as possible and to achieve a total state of fatigue.

After all, if you don’t workout for at least 60 minutes and end up lying on the floor writhing in agony on the verge of puking, you must not have worked out hard enough. Right?

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by Charles Poliquin

The squat is one of the best exercises for athletes and the general population. Everyone should be doing some form of squats because they work the whole body, and studies show squatting to increase lower body strength can produce the following benefits:

• Better functional mobility and faster walking speed
• Greater bone mineral density and less chance of breaking a bone
• Stronger core musculature to prevent lower back pain and injury
• Faster running speed at short and long distances
• Greater vertical jump height
• Better sports performance on the court or field

The squat is such a great exercise that I’d like to wax lyrical about them but since you probably don’t come to my site to read poetry, I’ll use this space to give you six excellent reasons you should do squats.

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