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It's a Guy Thing
by Mike_D
Easily send invoices, track time, manage expenses, and get paid online. Start for free today!’
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by Mike_D
Get Certified as a Fitness Professional & Save $100.
What you need to know.
Purposeful Training, Not Functional
1. Trap Bar Deadlifts
The basic deadlift is a common favorite, but often physical restrictions stop people from carrying it out effectively.
The trap bar deadlift provides all of the benefits of the deadlift along with the ability to change levers and alter form to utilize the lift effectively, without the associated risks and issued of the regular deadlift.
The trap bar deadlift is a key part of training with purpose, permitting us the maximum benefit of the deadlift without the risk.
This isn’t weak and doesn’t slow you down. It extends your training ability and longevity.
2. Bear Crawls
Bear crawls permit us to practice motor patterns we use while sprinting plus also challenging the core, shoulders and hips to stabilize our body.
Try doing 3 x 20 yards. Try them with dumbbells in both hands. it goes without saying – increase the weight as you can.
3. Rear-Foot Elevated Split Squat
Single-leg training fosters more muscle-growth and greater muscle strength as it works more muscles. It doesn’t just work prime movers, but stabilizers and neutralizers, as well.
Regardless of all that, if you run, play sports, or move recreationally, then it’s important that you jump on one leg and start getting improving.
4. Press-Ups
If you want to maintain your shoulder health in the long term, it makes no sense to focus only on the barbell. A barbell is harsher on the joints than press-ups, regardless of the weight.
Like chin-ups, press-ups done with weight permit for normal movement of your shoulder joint and scapula while still challenging your chest. As an added extra you’re working your core to get stronger at the same time.
Prior to barbells there were press-ups. It’s the exercise that has stood the test of time. Stick it into the routine and reap the benefits.
Do 3 sets of 12, using a weighted vest, weights on your back or resitance bands.
5. Farmer’s Walk
The farmer’s walk is now a staple exercise for core training to deal with real force in motion
An exercise with huge bang for buck, farmer’s walks give an overload to the traps, core, hips, and grip strength, as well as the cardio system.
See how much you can carry for max distance… x2.
by Mike_D
The existence of men has long baffled some scientists. Sexual reproduction is not efficient but the vast majority of species use this method of reproduction. So why do men exist? Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UAE) believe they may have cracked it, postulating that the force known as ‘sexual selection’ carries out a primary role in improving health and protecting a species against extinction.
The study was published in the journal Nature and focussed on Tribolium flour beetles to determine why multicellular organisms rely on physical sex to reproduce. Using controlled conditions, researchers looked at generations of beetles and studied the impact of sexual selection. Sexual selection is the process where males compete to reproduce and females choose which male to reproduce with.
Almost all multicellular species on earth reproduce using sex, but its existence isn’t easy to explain because sex carries big burdens, the most obvious of which is that only half of your offspring—daughters—will actually produce offspring. Why should any species waste all that effort on sons? We wanted to understand how Darwinian selection can allow this widespread and seemingly wasteful reproductive system to persist, when a system where all individuals produce offspring without sex—as in all-female asexual populations—would be a far more effective route to reproduce greater numbers of offspring.
The research found when sexual selection was taken away and beetles were paired up without choice into couples, the population’s health declined quickly and the beetles were gone out by the 10th generation. Wheras beetles that had influence on sexual selection, where intense competition were more resilient to extinction.
“To be good at out-competing rivals and attracting partners in the struggle to reproduce, an individual has to be good at most things, so sexual selection provides an important and effective filter to maintain and improve population genetic health,” said Gage. “Our findings provide direct support for the idea that sex persists as a dominant mode of reproduction because it allows sexual selection to provide these important genetic benefits.”
This study indicates that sexual selection plays a primary role in weeding out dangerous genetic mutations, as the competition means females are unlikely to choose a genetically inferior mate. Even following 20 generations of in-breeding, this study found that the beetles that were strongly focussed towards sexual selection had a higher fitness.
by Mike_D
We know the guidelines of hydration. Drink until your pee is clear, drink before you get thirsty. What if those rules aren’t right? A new statement released suggests that some of these rules may put you at risk of overhydration.
Hyponatremia is what happens when the blood becomes very diluted,” says Dr. James Winger, a sports medicine doctor in Chicago. “In the setting of athletics, people take in more fluid than the body can get rid of, usually in the name of preserving hydration.
By drinking excessive water, the salt in the body becomes diluted, leading to swelling in the bodies cells.
Even though it can happen to any one, hyponatremia is more common with endurance athletes. According to Dr Winger, a study of ultra-marathoners revealed that half of the finishers displayed signs of hyponatremia. Plus – another study of Boston Marathon participants revealed that 13 percent had the condition by the time they finished.
Hyponatremia can be difficult to diagnose.
Symptoms can be very vague and not unlike symptoms one might experience after running a race or performing any athletic event [including] fatigue, even confusion or exhaustion,
Winger says. But he indicates that it’s completely preventable, as long as you don’t follow some common myths regarding hydration.
Some Old School Myths About Hydration
Myth #1: If you feel thirsty then you’re already dehydrated.
Thirst is a good thing. In fact, the panel’s report, published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, suggests that athletes only drink when thirsty to stop overhydration.
If you feel thirsty, your body has already begun to start its own water saving measures. “People think it’s too late; you’re already dehydrated” Winger says, noting that running into serious dehydration problems is tougher than people believe. Drinking only when you feel you need to, instead of making yourself drink at every water station on the course , will keep you hydrated.
Myth #2: Athletic performance will suffer if you’re not totally hydrated.
It’s natural to get a little dehydrated during athletic events.
There’s mounting evidence that mild to moderate dehydration has no effect on performance in many sporting endeavors,” Winger notes. “We need to look at dehydration as a natural part of exercise, not necessarily something to prevent.
Most athletes can safely lose up to three percent of their bodyweight via dehydration before it negatively impacts on performance, Winger says. Drinking when you’re thirsty will stop you from entering danger.
Myth #3: You should drink until your urine is clear.
In general, urine color is a pretty poor marker of specific or exact urine concentration,” Winger says. “If you’re trying to dilute your urine, you’re probably putting yourself into an overhydrated state.
Myth #4: Muscle cramps are a sign of dehydration.
If you cramp up you may think to drink to ease the pain. But recent research indicates that muscle cramps don’t have much to do with hydration, or lack of it.
What’s been demonstrated is that it has a lot more to do with the fatigued state of the muscle, and muscles that are more fatigued are more likely to cramp,” Winger says. “Fatigued states do occur when you’re dehydrated as well, so there’s a definite overlap that leads down this path. Our advice has been to drink when you’re thirsty — that can be a plan, and it’s the easiest plan there could be,” he says. “When you’re done feeling thirsty, stop drinking. It sounds silly, but that’s the simplicity of it and the beauty behind it. We don’t need any sorts of numbers and measurements and weights to tell us how to stay healthy during exercise.
by Mike_D
When the majority of people hear that a person is “assertive,” their first thought is to equate this with being ‘bossy’ or ‘pushy’. But assertive behavior is a fine way to not only get what you want, but determine mutually-beneficial solutions.
The Story:
So I’m am a regular around my college rec center basketball courts as a way to work out. In the area I usually play, there are 3 basketball courts dedicated to full-court play. Often, I walk in to find a game on a court, and about 20 other guys just waiting to play with their team of 5, despite the fact that there are 2 open courts to play on. This is mostly because most guys are not assertive enough to start a game on one of the other courts. As I’m attempting to live assertively, I often organize a game by locating 9 other people who are also waiting to play. Not only does this benefit me, it benefits the others as soon after there’s a waiting line to play on my court.
This story suggests a number of few pieces of advice for how to become more assertive:
If you’re not used to being assertive, you probably won’t find much profit from taking on your bank to eliminate your monthly service charges for your account alone. Start with individuals before institutions. Learn to deal with individual, free-thinking people, before you start trying to change the bureaucracies of institutions. This approach will also start you on the right foot because you will learn how your position appeals to the individual interests of the person, which leads to the second point.
Humans often act in their own interest. If you can determine how to tell a person that what you want is also what they want, you will find success. In the previous example, I want a game of basketball, and my starting a game will stop the other 9 men from waiting for the current game to end. This is mutually-beneficial and is often accomplished as I explain that what I want is in the interest of the others. This can be extrapolated further -“If you drop the price for this item, I’ll get something else as well.” Use human nature in your advantage, and figure out a way to explain how what you want is what the other person(s) want.
The first time you try to carry this out, you might fail, that’s OK. But, if you aren’t consistent in your attempts, you probably are unlikely to find success in abandoning your passivity. Figure out why your assertive approach did not succeed, and next time alter your approach. After a time, your assertive qualities will become routine, making you a better leader and overall more successful man.
by Mike_D
by Mike_D
by Mike_D
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by Mike_D
A short time ago I had no absolutely idea what a ‘dad bod’ was. The ‘dad bod’ is a new infatuation with bodies that state, “I workout in the gym fromtime to time, but I also drink a lot and like to eat ten pieces of pizza at a time.”
It all began with Clemson University’s The Odyssey, via Mackenzie Pearson‘s piece “Why Girls Love The Dad Bod.” The basic premise is a “physique characterized by undefined muscles beneath a light layer of flab, usually topped off with a beer belly.” That effectively means anyone who played sport in school then started eating pizzas for lunch – within reason – and has some chance with girls who like this kind of thing.
The reasons Pearson provided for her attraction to the dad bod were:
It doesn’t intimidate us.
This is always positive, and we’ll take what we can get .
We like being the pretty one.
I haven’t been called pretty…ever. And we’re OK if that don’t change.
“Better cuddling.”
Well Yep…
You know what you’re getting.
Well ok – BUT – guy with dad bods will pack weight on down the line and maybe hit the morbidly obese benchmark. It’s all relative.
It’s interesting to see this online and see a bunch of females (and a large percentage of the net) appreciating this reality of life.
by Mike_D