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How to Build Muscle and Bulk on a Budget

There are three things that make Fall the best season ever. First, there’s pumpkin spice. Then there’s that sweet smell of badassness that massages your nostrils when you take your leather jacket out of storage. Thirdly, and best of all, bulking season.

  With the warmth of Summer gone, it’s time to toss out that swimsuit and get ready for prime muscle building season.

  Of course, bulking means more food. But more food translates to increased grocery bills. And after your Summer of recklessness, you promised yourself you’d be more financially conscious in the Fall.

  Cost-conscious bulkers like myself know that adding more muscle mass doesn’t need to equate to higher grocery bills. In fact, if you do it right, you can save tons of dough while you stuff your face.

  The Bulk of Your Nutrition Stays the Same

What’s the difference between gaining muscle and fat loss? Honestly? Not much.

  Fat Loss: driven by nutrition; supported by workouts

Muscle Gain: driven by workouts; supported by nutrition

  Protein is still important. Though you don’t need as much as you might while cutting. So keep protein intake to around .82g-1g per pound of body weight.

  Fats can be a lot lower. Since you’re going to be in a surplus the lower you keep fats, the less unnecessary fat you’ll likely gain. Keep fats to around .3g per pound of body weight.

  Carbs, well, this is where you get to increase things. Once you have your fats and protein established, the rest of your calories should come from carbs. Carbs will fuel your training, which you should be doing more of to promote more muscle growth.

  Plus, someone needs to eat all that gluten-laden bread or it’s gonna go to waste. And it might as well be you, right?

Bulk Your Muscles, Bulk Your Groceries

Ask older bodybuilders what their staple foods are, they’ll likely tell you:

oats

rice

potatoes

chicken

beef

protein powder

legumes, and

healthy fat sources like olive/coconut oil, fattier cuts of meat, and nuts.

They don’t have crazy meal plans. And these foods above are often some of the cheapest foods to buy if you need to bulk on a budget.

  America has a ton of wholesale stores like Costco, BJ’s, and Sam’s Club. Wholesale stores sale gargantuan quantities of foods like rice, oats, meats, beans, and oils. All for much less than what you’d pay at your typical grocery store.

  Of course, these stores require some sort of membership fee to join. Sam’s Club charges $45 a year. But that $45 pays for itself the same day. 8 pounds of oats cost around $10. A 50-pound bag of Jasmine rice is less than $15. And 16 cans of beans (each with 3.5 servings) costs less than $9.

  Oats, rice, and beans are my go-to carb sources when I bulk. But you can also pick up massive boxes of cereal; huge containers of peanut butter; hefty bags of potatoes; and they also carry larger quantities of your favorite bread/bagels/tortillas/pasta that you’ll find in your local grocer, but for far less money per serving.

What does BJ stand for?

Quality vs Quantity

“But Robbie, what about quality?”

  Here’s the thing: if you care about quality, you’re gonna pay more money for food, period. If you’re looking to save as money as possible, and grass-fed or organic foods aren’t necessary for you, you can lower your quality standards a bit to buy more.

  Now, if quality is super important for you, here are a few things you can do to make sure you continue consuming quality food.

Shop Around

The town I live in has three major grocery stores. These stores release a new circular every week listing all the food(s) they have on sale for the next week. It’s rare that the same items will be on sale at two different locations—suppliers do their best to not let that happen as it irks the grocery chains—but you’ll usually find better quality products at big chains grocery stores v.s. wholesale stores.

  Now, that means you’re gonna have to (possibly) visit more than one grocery store to get all your food for the week. This can become a bit of a time suck. But if you’ve got the time, and if saving money is important to you, then spend your time shopping the sales.

  Secret Revealed: here’s a grocery store secret: buy one get one free items, and coupons in general, usually rotate on a 6-week basis. That means that when you see items you can save money on or that are buy-one-get-one-free, you should stock up for the next 6 weeks.

Go to Your Local Butcher

If you’re lucky enough to know a local butcher, you can get high quality meat from them; sometimes for less than the grocery store. Search for a local butcher on Google. Go by their shop, ask questions, and see if they have meat they need to get rid of and would sell to you at a discount.

  Discounted meat doesn’t mean that it’s tainted. It’s usually about to expire, and per the law they cannot sell said meat. This is a win-win for you and for the butcher, especially, if you can get the meat at cost.

  You can also find discounted or soon to be tossed meat at your local grocery store as well.

Fattier Cuts of Meat

What if quality isn’t something that keeps you up at night? Well, one thing you can do as you shop around your local grocers is to buy more lardaceous cuts of meats.

  Meats like:

Chicken Thighs

80/20 Ground Beef

Pork Shoulder/Loin (the whole shoulder can be pricey, but per serving it’s cheap)

Ground Turkey

Chuck Roast

Whole Chickens (this is enough meat for 1-2 days; where I live a whole chicken is less than $12)

These cuts of meat are usually on sale more often. And if you have more than a couple of grocery stores in a 10-mile radius of where you live, it’ll be super easy to shop sales and stock up on meat.

Bulk on a Budget with These Helpful Tools:

Crock Pot: is your time precious? Do you hate spending an hour cooking food? Um, if that’s the case, why don’t you own a crockpot? You can cook an entire week’s worth of food without lifting a hand. Toss in your meat, throw in some rice, add some veggies and spices, top it off with a little water and, voila! Meals for the week are cooked while you play Red Dead Redemption 2.

  Rice Cooker: if you want to keep your rice separate instead of tossing it into a crockpot, a rice cooker can make 3-4 days worth of rice in a matter of minutes. And if you love sticky rice, this is the way to go.

  Food Scale/Measuring Cups: Yep, you’re gonna need these. Just because you’re in a surplus doesn’t mean you “should” guess what amount of food you’re eating. Your body won’t store excess protein as fat, but it will store excess fat calories in your adipose tissue. So if you’re eating peanut butter, make sure you weigh it out.

  Plastic containers: if you’re making a bunch of meals for the week, you need somewhere to store it. Plastic containers are the most crucial tool for any gym bro.

  *Optional* Greens Powder: I haven’t mentioned veggies at all in this article. If you’re trying to save money and bulk on a budget, skipping veggies is something you may want to consider. I still urge you to buy the biggest bags of frozen broccoli or mixed veggies you can. But hey, you’re gonna be eating enough that you probably won’t need veggies to keep you filled.

  “But Robbie, what about your micronutrients? And all that healthy gut bacteria that come from veggies and fruit consumption?”

  You can counteract skipping your greens that by picking up a greens powder or probiotics. Use a website like LabDoor to help you find a greens powder/probiotic that is high quality and within your price range. Many of these powders can be super pricey. But, they can help keep your gut and immune system happy.

  The Best and Cheapest Crush Your Macros When You Bulk on a Budget

Those who keep it simple succeed. So don’t spend money on fancy foods. Keep it simple for bulking.

  For carbs, stick with:

rice

pasta

potatoes (getting them in bags and not by the pound)

beans

oatmeal, and

frozen/dried fruit

When it comes to protein, stick with:

chicken breast

chicken thighs

cottage cheese

eggs or egg whites

protein powder

canned tuna — though you’ll want only eat this once a week due to higher levels of mercury

For healthy fats, stick with:

oil

butter

nut butters

fattier cuts of meat

cheese

Cost-Conscious Consumer Super Strategies

Those are the basics. But here are some super simple solutions for shaving your costs even further. Do not implement this strategy if you have a sweet tooth or if you’re picky about what you eat. If you want to get down to the nitty-gritty and save stacks and stacks of Benjamins, this is how you do it.

Eat the Same Meals All the Time

Stock up on Protein Powder

Kill Your Own Game

Two of the three I’ve done for years. Eating the same meals every day cuts down on your food costs significantly. Buying protein powder to supplement the cost of meat saves you tons in the long run. Optimum Nutrition sells 10-pound bags of protein, which nets you over 140 servings. At 2 scoops per day, that’ll last you more than 2 months at a cost of less than 64 cents per serving. Mix it with water, and that’s 40g of protein for less than $1.30.

  If you’re a hunter, you’ll save tons by killing your own game. The average-sized buck can yield 25-50 pounds of meat depending on its size.

  Your only cost here would be to have it processed if you don’t know how to do it yourself. But even that cost would be worth it for 40 pounds of lean, succulent, protein-rich meat.

  Most people, however, will need to stick with options 1 and 2 for longterm savings.

All About Dem Gainz

If you do this right, you can save hundreds of dollars while you bulk on a budget this winter. And then you can use those savings for new clothes or a pilgrimage to bodybuilding’s Mecca.

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New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on https://sidequestfitness.com/macros-vs-calories/

How to and Why You Should Count Macros vs Calories

Imagine with me for a moment that you’re a 200-pound man, and you decide to start your day with breakfast at Starbucks.

You’re supposed to eat ~2,000 calories a day. And Starbucks seems like a better bet than McDonald’s, right? So you pull up to the buck of stars, pick out what you want to eat, and plug all that info into MyFitnessPal — the tracking app you’re using to record what you eat each day.

This morning you chose a medium Vanilla latte and a breakfast sandwich — the latte is 340 calories, and the breakfast sandwich is 400 calories.

For your first meal of the day you’re about to consume a breakfast that totals 740 calories. Subtract that from the 2,000 you’re supposed to eat all day, and you’re left with 1,260 calories. Ideally, that would leave you with 630 calories for lunch and dinner; that doesn’t count any “snacks” you might eat later in the day either.

BUT WHAT ABOUT MACROS?

Macro(s) is short for macronutrients. And macronutrients are protein, fats, carbs. Macros are what your body uses for fuel to keep you alive. And nearly everything you eat is made up of 1,2, or all 3 macronutrients.

In the case of your Starbucks order, here’s a rough estimate of what the macros would look like:

Vanilla Latte:

8 grams of fat 24 grams of carbs 12 grams of protein

Breakfast Sandwich:

14 grams of fat 43 grams of carbs 17 grams of protein

And each gram of protein, fats, and carbs have a certain number of calories in them.

1g of protein = 4 calories 1g of carb = 4 calories 1g of fat = 9 calories

So you can do some math and determine the number of calories in food based off of how many grams of carbs, fat, and protein it has. (This is how companies determine the calories on their nutrition labels.)

Basically: calories are determined off of the macronutrient makeup of the food you consume.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO COUNT MACROS?

Counting macros makes it easier for you to eat more protein.

Protein builds and repairs the muscles of your body.

Along with building muscle, protein is vital in:

• repairing cells; • helping you feel full; • hormone production; and, • helps you burn more calories through its thermogenic effect on digestion

After eating a big, juicy, protein-packed steak, you feel full for hours. And when you’re eating in a calorie deficit, filling full for longer helps make dieting a lot less painful.

Protein’s real superpower, however, comes from what is known as the thermogenic effect. After we eat, our bodies have to digest our meal.

The digestion process requires our bodies to burn calories for this process. This is what smarty pants people call the “Thermic Effect Of Food.” Fats, carbs, and protein produce different thermic effects during their processing.

Protein gets broken down into amino acids (the building blocks of life) for our body to use. Breaking protein down into amino acids burns extra calories. Simply put: if you eat more protein you help your body burn more calories.

Macros > Calories

Here’s the thing: if you count ONLY calories, it’s super easy to come well below the optimal protein you need.

By counting macros and having a set number of protein, carbs, and fat to eat each day, you make it easier to give your body the right amount of fuel it needs to build and repair muscle, keep you feeling fuller for longer, and to provide your body with the proper nutrition it needs to feel your best.

Science has shown that for WEIGHT LOSS, calories are king. You can lose weight by eating a certain caloric goal while consuming nothing but Twinkies.

However, if you want to change your body composition by building more lean muscle and giving your body the right amount of carbs, fat, and protein that it needs, counting macros is a far better option.

And before you ask, here’s how you can determine a starting point for macros:

Take your bodyweight, multiply by 10, that is your starting calorie goal.

If you weigh 180 pounds or less, consume 150g of protein per day; if you weigh 200 pounds or more, consume 185g of protein a day; you would then take that protein number, multiply by 4 (for the calories per gram of protein), and subtract that number for your calorie goal.

After subtracting your protein calories from your TOTAL calorie goal, the number you have left is what you can use to determine your carbs and fats

Carbs and fats can be more flexible; if you love bacon, eat more fat and lower (but not lower than 150g) carbs; if you love bagels, eat more carbs and less fat (but not lower than 50g)

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New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on https://sidequestfitness.com/alternative-exercises-for-bench-pressing/

Alternative Exercises for Bench Pressing that Build Size and Strength

I’m gonna need you to take your hands and put them under your ass right now. Because what I’m about to say is going to make you want to slap the shit out of your computer and make you question why you even clicked on this link.

The barbell bench press is the most overrated exercise in the history of the universe.

What? Oh my God, did he just say that? Did this nerdy ginger douche-canoe just blaspheme the almighty bench press? Yes, yes I did. And if the Gods of Gains feel the need to smite me, may they do it swiftly.

Those PS2 graphics don’t age well.

Since they have not thrown lightning bolts at me as of hitting publish on this article, I’m gonna assume I’m safe. And now I shall enlighten you with the reasons as to why the bench press won’t give you that deity-esque chest you’ve always dreamed of.

When it comes to building a larger and stronger chest the barbell bench press is considered sacrosanct. And for decades, every bro who’s ever stepped foot in a gym undoubtedly heads to the bench press to prove to the rest of the pack that he’s worthy of being in their space. Unless you’re a competitive powerlifter, the barbell bench press is only useful as a dick measuring contest.

Now, if your goal isn’t to swing your dick around like some mindless Neanderthal and you want to build a chest that would make Captain America jealous, keep reading. Because here’re a handful of exercises that will make your chesticles pop off your chest and damn near out of your shirt.

The 5 Best Alternative Exercises for Bench Pressing

*Before we dive into the best exercises for your chest, do you even know how to feel your chest? And I don’t mean feeling it when you touch yourself. I mean, can you feel your pecs engage when do a bench press? Or do you feel it more in your shoulders?

So first up, make sure you understand how to isolate your chest while bench pressing. Toss a few of those exercises into your warm-up to engage more of your pecs. Because the more pecs you engage, the more muscle you’ll build long-term in yo’ titties. Now onto the fun stuff.

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

One of my online coaching clients asked me why I wasn’t programming flat barbell bench press in his program. One of my goals as an online coach is to educate my clients on what they’re doing so that someday in the future, like a little baby bird, they can fly off on their own. My client who happens to be a basketball player, and I explained to him that one of the biggest pitfalls of the barbell bench press is that it places a ton of strain on your shoulder.

Instead of the flat barbell bench press, I what I consider one of the best alternative exercises for bench pressing, the incline bench press. Here’s why you should prioritize incline bench pressing over flat:

Superior Range of Motion – you get a better stretch on your pecs and thus more potential for gains.

Better Upper Chest Development – Chris Evans made thousands of dudes rush to the gym after Captain America in hopes to build a body like Cap. And his physique dropped jaws due in part to his ridiculous upper chest development. Incline bench pressing is what creates that 3D-pop-off-your-clavicle look.

Less Strain on Your Front Delts – this is the main problem with flat bench pressing: too much deltoid recruitment. And for an overhead athlete like my client, bench pressing isn’t always ideal as he already uses his shoulders more than most of us. But incline bench pressing helps you to lock your shoulders down and back and into the bench, thus allowing you more use of your pecs.

It seems so ridiculous that in an article about the best alternative exercises for bench pressing that the first option is, in fact, a bench press. But incline pressing helps to take more pressure off your shoulders and places that tension on your pecs. And if you want to build a 3D chest that damn near pops off your body, of all the alternative exercises for bench pressing you could choose, the incline bench press should be number one.

*There is one more muscle you need to train to improve your bench press and shoulder health as well.*

Dumbbell Floor Press

Shoulder injuries are the most common reported mishap with bench pressing. But the floor press damn near eliminates that issue. By laying on your back, you limit your range of motion and you place a bit more emphasis on your triceps with this variation. However, with a wee tweak to this exercise, you can hit more of your inner chest than you can with a barbell bench press.

Lie on the ground between two dumbbells. Your knees should remain bent with your feet flat on the floor. Grab the dumbbells and move them into the starting position, they should be shoulder width apart with your palms facing inward, and your elbows bent.

Now, extend your arms, pressing the weight over your chest. But as you get to the top of the motion, think about shoving your elbow join into your opposing armpit. You’ll feel a massive squeeze in your inner pecs. Pause for 1-2 seconds, and then slowly lower the weight back down until your triceps are flush with the floor.

Perform three to four sets of eight to 12 repetitions of floor presses.

Off-Set Push-Ups

Ah, push-ups. For some, they’re a goal they work hard towards achieving. For others, hammering out 20 push-ups is as easy as walking to the mailbox. Push-ups are the original bench press. Except, in this case, the bench is the Earth. But push-ups are one of the best ways to build strength and size in your chest.

So if you’re looking for alternative exercises for bench pressing, don’t overlook the classic push-up. But there are a couple of tweaks you’ll want to make to your push-ups to make them more effective than the bench press.

Have you ever increased your range of motion with push-ups by using handles or dumbbells? Did you know you can do that one side at a time? Off-set push-ups will challenge your body in ways you’ve never imagined, mostly because you’ll be doing reps on each side. That means you’ll essentially be doubling up on your push-up reps. Did someone say DOMS?

The other minor tweak you can use to make push-ups harder is changing the positions of your hands. The wider your hand placement, the more you challenge your pecs. And the more narrow your hand placement, the more intense the movement is for your triceps.

Or you can change the angle of your push-ups. Decline push-ups will challenge even the most seasoned lifter. And if you can’t perform a regular push-up or even knee push-ups, incline push-ups are an excellent substitution for building upper body strength.

Crossbody Single Arm Chest Press

If your gym has a Hammer Strength Machine, you’ve got one of the best alternative exercises for bench pressing in the world. Hammer Strength Machines replicate the natural motion of your body. But they can also be used to isolate your pecs in a way that bench pressing can’t accomplish.

From a seated position, grab the machines handles with one hand. These handles may be angled or parallel. Whatever the angle of the handles, your hand should remain around chest height. From this position, press the handle across the midline of your body, extending your arms as far as you can. Once you’ve reached the end of your range of motion, slowly lower the weight stack back to the starting position.

Perform three to four sets of 8-10 reps per side.

Dips

If you are new to the gym or have not trained consistently for at least a year, you do not need to attempt dips. To perform them properly, you need sufficient scapular (shoulder blades) mobility, stability, and strength. Without it, you could be increasing your risk of injury.

That being said, my favorite bodybuilder of all time (sorry Arnold) is the legendary Vince Gironda. And Vince hated the bench press. So when it came to alternative exercises for bench pressing, Vince had one exercise he considered supreme above all: dips.

Vince was a stickler for how dips should be performed. Your gym probably has parallel dip bars. But that’s no how Vince performed them. Gironda wanted your hands 32 inches apart. He believed this was the best distance for engaging and recruiting the most of your pecs. And if you look at his barrel chest, I’d venture to say he had a point.

Dips are a phenomenal chest building exercise. And in regards to alternative exercises for bench pressing, dips are my second favorite behind incline pressing. And since dips also recruit your triceps and shoulders, this an all-around great exercise for building upper body strength and size.

To maximize this exercise, perform dips at the beginning of your workout and perform 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. Don’t leave these for the end as you’ll want to be at your freshest for these.

If you’re a powerlifter, you need to bench. It’s a basic component of your sport. But if you’re goal is to build more upper body strength and add more lean muscle to your chesticles, leave the bench press alone. In fact, you could stop bench pressing entirely. Use the exercises above for the rest of your life and watch your shoulders stay happier and healthier, and see your chest grow to proportions you never thought possible.

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New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on https://sidequestfitness.com/how-to-build-more-muscle-with-angles/

How to Build More Muscle (the Angry Birds way)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the basics of a game like Angry Birds. Anyone from the age of four to ninety can pick up the basic gameplay mechanics:

Aim the bird

Pull back on the bird

Release, and watch it destroy its target

As a lifelong gamer, I caught on to the deeper strategies behind Angry Birds pretty quickly. But my nephew is a different story. He got the basics. But what he couldn’t grasp at his young age prevented him from getting the highest score(s) possible, which limited his ability to advance to the next level.

What didn’t he understand about a seemingly simple mobile game?

He didn’t understand the role that angles play in getting the best shot possible. And because of this, his progress stalled. After a while, he got fed up with the game and quit. Does that storyline sound familiar to you?

Have you ever started something that seemed really simple at first, but then found yourself quitting weeks later because it felt like you were getting nowhere?

When you start hitting the gym, you think that it will be simple. You lift some weights, make some gains, chug on some protein, and BAM!, you’re gonna be stronger and leaner and sexier than ever. And if you’re relentlessly focused on the basics — squat, deadlift, press (bench or overhead), rows, and farmers carries — you’ll witness some pretty damn good results.

But understanding the basics of how the game works will only get you so far.

Like every game ever made, and in life in general, you need to level up your knowledge and attack your goal from a different angle to keep winning. So how do you build more muscle? You do it by targeting your muscles from different angles. And if you’re not, then you’re leaving precious gains on the table.

The Art of Angles

Your muscles have one primate function: they move your bones. In the terms of Angry Birds, your skeleton is the slingshot, and the rubber band you pull back to release the bird(s) are your muscles.

So when you change the angle that your bones move, you alter the muscles, or parts of the muscle used to move your skeleton. Similar to Angry Birds, this leads to more damage. And the more muscle damage you create, the more points you’ll gain. And more points means you build more muscle.

You don’t need massive angle changes, either. Small changes, even a few degrees or so, can alter the tension and the range of motion you put your muscles through. These changes can come from something as simple as turning your wrists from a pronated to supinated position to raising your heels in a squat or raising your toes in a Romanian Deadlift.

Squat

Altering the angle of the squat is simple. And this small change in the angle of your ankles leads to greater recruitment of your quads. All you need to do is place your heels on a 2.5 or 5-pound plate. By elevating your heels, you increase the range of motion at your knee. The main reason to do this is that you’ll increase the neural drive of your central nervous system. When this happens, your CNS tells your quads to recruit more muscle fibers.

The more muscle fibers you work, the more damage you do to your quads, which means you build more muscle in your legs.

Raising your ankles isn’t the only way to alter the angle of your squat. Taking a wider stance with your squat has a drastic effect as well. Wide-stance Squats change the angle that your femurs and hip move weight on the bar. If you suffer from knee issues, a wider-stance produces less stress on the knee by recruiting more of your glutes. But it also keeps your shins vertical, and if you have poor ankle mobility wide-stance squats make squatting suck less.

Of course, there’s one other angle you can hit your quads from that’s far more beneficial. Changing out the typical back squat for front squats completely changes the entire squatting experience. The anterior load from the bar takes pressure off your lower lumbar spine, which for older lifters or lifters with long femurs is far more manageable.

Front squats also recruit more muscle fibers in your quads and glutes. That’s right. If you want to build more muscle in your legs and glutes while putting less pressure on your spine, change the angle you squat from the back to the front.

Deadlifts

Similar to squats, placing your feet on a weight plate changes the angle that you hit your hamstrings and glutes. But instead of elevating your heels you’ll be jacking up the height of your toes here. This increased stretch on your hamstrings ratchets up the tension, and tension is the key if you want to build more muscle.

If you really wanna change the angle with deadlifts, try the staggered stance deadlift. By sliding one foot back five to six-inches into a staggered stance, you force your front leg to work a little harder than the rear leg.

Like squats, wide-stance deadlifts, or sumo deadlifts, change the angle that your hips initiate the movement. Using a sumo stance with your RDLs or cable pull-throughs adds increased tension to your hamstrings.

Bench Press

Fact: your body will be stronger (or weaker) at certain joint angles. This is a good thing. High incline bench pressing targets more of the clavicle insertion of your pecs. You won’t be as strong here as you might be in a flat bench press, but inclined bench pressing helps build the part of your pecs that makes your chest look like it’s popping off your body.

And if you’re someone who struggles with overhead movements, high incline bench pressing allows you to still recruit your front delts, while hammering more of your pecs than a seated (or standing) overhead press would.

What about the sternal part of your pecs? If you’re after better cleavage, then the decline bench press should be your go-to here. Decline bench pressing disengages a large portion of your shoulders and requires your pecs to work harder. This was Dorian Yate’s favorite way to build more muscle in his chest. And that small angle change can help you target more of your pecs and less of your shoulder.

Shoulders

Speaking of shoulders, there are numerous ways you can change angles and hit your shoulders in different ways. Here’s the thing about the shoulders: the small stabilizer muscles of your shoulder girdle, the ones that assist your deltoids—I’m looking at you supraspinatus—steal tons of tension from your delts.

The front and the rear delts are important (the latter more so in my opinion), but when people look at your shoulders, what they often see is the lateral delts bulging out. But lateral raises have one major drawback: the first 15-30 degrees of the movement recruit your supraspinatus and not your lateral deltoid. That means you’re getting less time under tension with your lateral deltoid.

So how do you eliminate the supraspinatus and create more tension for your lateral deltoids? By changing the angle of how you raise the dumbbell, duh. Leaning lateral raises isolate and hammer more of your lateral deltoid than the standing version.

To perform this exercise: Grab a dumbbell and a stable post, you can use a pole or the leg of a squat rack/cable machine. Place your hand around shoulder height and lean away until your arm is fully extended. Perform a side lateral raise the same way you would while standing.

Perform these at the end of your workout. Aim for sets of 3 with 8-12 reps per set.

Rows

Pulling motions happen both vertical and horizontal—pull-ups/chin-ups, barbell rows, dumbbell rows. You can use angles to change the pulling motion of rows as well with lifts like incline rows and seal rows. Or you can do something even more simple and change the position of your hand.

Turning your wrist from a pronated position (palms facing down) to a supinated position (palms facing up) changes how your biceps assist your lats in pulling weight toward your body; but with the right tweaks, they can also fire different parts of your lats as well.

Of course, if you’re some variation of horizontal and vertical pulling, you’re already using angles to build more muscle in your back. And with all of those exercises, you can change the position of your palms to change the angles that your muscles pull.

But there’s one pulling exercise where angles play a major role in what muscles get worked the most: the face pull.

Face Pulls are the most beneficial exercise you can perform for long-term shoulder health, increased upper body strength, and improved posture. Most people use this exercise to target their rear delts—a weak point for many desk jockeys and strength athletes. But face pulls also engage your traps. And you’ll target different parts of your traps by changing the angle of your face pulls.

The standard face pull—executed at eye level—recruits an even amount of your rear delts and traps. But, what happens if you place the resistance higher and pull it down towards your face? When you do that you activate more of your lower traps. Then if you flip that around and sit on the ground and perform a low-to-high cable face pull, you engage more of your upper traps.

Of course, we can’t forget the most important exercise of them all—curls. Curls are the greatest thing ever invented. I love hammer curls, concentration curls, and barbell 21s. But if you want to build more muscle in those saggy arms of yours, you need to use angles.

Incline curls place your arms behind your body—this increases the stretch of the long head of your biceps that runs over your shoulder joint. This increased stretch on your biceps creates massive amounts of tension that builds the peak of your arms.

Keep the weight light. Control the eccentric, and squeeze as hard as you can at the top of each rep. Perform 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps.

How to Build More Muscle and Win The Game of Gains

Leveling up in the gym isn’t always about lifting more weight. Sometimes the best stimulus you need to build more muscle is to perform an exercise you already know from a different angle. Angles create new stimulus (read: tension). And like Angry Birds, they allow you to gain a higher score and unlock next level muscle growth.

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7 Physique Altering Unilateral Exercises that Build More Muscle & Improve Your Life

Do you feel like one side of your body is weaker than the other? Wouldn’t it be great as well if you could address those weaker body parts while also burning a few extra calories?

When it comes to building strength in your lagging body parts while also challenging your energy systems in new and profound ways, the only way to accomplish these goals is by doing more unilateral exercises.

Unilateral exercises burn a ton of calories while balancing strength on your dominant and nondominant sides. More importantly, they help you achieve the real goal of the gym. Which, as much as we want to believe the ultimate goal is to look better naked, lifting weights (and fitness in general) is about increasing your overall quality of life.

Things you do every day like walking, pushing a door shut, pulling a door open, walking upstairs, or bending down to tie your shoe are unilateral movements. So why do you exclusively train bilaterally?

Unilateral exercises are the key to increasing stability in your knees and hips, as well as improving core strength while correcting strength imbalances that can stave off your chance of getting injured.

The NFL Lineman Row

The first unilateral exercise everyone who ever steps foot in a gym does is the one arm dumbbell row. But the single arm dumbbell row is one of the most butchered exercises I see people performing in the gym.

A better and more effective row variation that fixes the common one arm dumbbell row mistakes — rounded shoulders, non-neutral spine, and pulling the dumbbell beyond the body — that every day in the gym is the 3-Point Dumbbell Row.

Why is it so freaking kick ass?

The 3-point Dumbbell Row forces your core to resist rotation in your torso as you row the weight into your body, meaning you get more activation out of your obliques. But that doesn’t mean you should be pulling heavy weight from day one. In fact, to get the most out of the 3-Point Dumbbell Row pick a weight that allows you to pause with at the top of the movement — where your elbow is touching your hip — so that you don’t swing the weight or use momentum to get the dumbbell up. This will allow you to create more tension in your muscles and thus elicit more growth.

I Am Groot

Single arm rows don’t require a massive amount of mechanical know-how in order to perform them. Unilateral exercises with your legs is a completely different story. When you venture into unilateral leg training, you’re about to enter the Thunderdome of technical demands. But once you mastered and increased your mechanical abilities to perform these exercises, they have more direct carry over to your daily activities like walking up stairs, running, getting up off the floor, etc.

Unilateral exercies ultimately accomplish one goal: improving your quality of life. And who doesn’t want to walk more efficiently, climb stairs like a graceful gazelle, or have better coordination and balance?

Single leg training will do all of that while making you scream to the heavens above how much you hate life. But hey, it also demands more energy out of your body. And since calories are the energy source for the body, that means you’ll burn more calories. So, yea. Stop being a wuss and grow some Groot-sized thighs with these single leg exercises.

Bulgarian Split Squat

Fun fact: if you want to make an exercise sound more badass, just give it the name of an Eastern European country and you immediately increase the badassery of the exercise 100 fold.

Okay, you don’t. But when it comes to building sublime thighs and glutes that salute, there’s no exercise more dope than the Bulgarian Split Squat.

Standing in front of a bench, with dumbbells in your hands — or using your bodyweight — extend your leg back, placing the top of your foot on a bench. This is your starting position.

Begin the movement by squatting towards the floor, flexing your forward knee to ninety degrees; attempting to bring the knee of your rear leg in contact with the floor.

Return to the starting position by extending your hip and knee of the forward leg. Complete one set then switch to the opposite leg. Perform 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps per side.

The set-up for the BSS can be a pain in the ass. Sure, it sounds easy to stand on one foot while placing the other foot on a bench or raised platform, but then your balance kicks in and laughs at you and you’re left flapping your dumbbell-filled arms around like a wounded bird.

So take a peek at the video below to see the best way to set up for the BSS.

Booty Booty Booty Rockin’ E’rywhere

The magic of the BSS is that with a wee tweak, you can target your quads if you keep your torso upright, or you can set your glutes on fire by hinging ever so slightly into the movement. And as great as a pair of strong and sexy legs are, nothing—and I mean nothing—will make you look sexier than ever and perform better in your life than a strong, rock hard ass.

When it comes to building glutes that salute, mastering movements that focus on hinging your hips are how it’s done. Deadlifts, cable pull-throughs, and hip thrusts are my go-to ways to build bigger and better glutes for my online coaching clients.

Fact: Single leg deadlifts and single leg hip thrusts will take your ass from voluptuous to scrumdiddlyumptious.

The single leg deadlift can be a difficult and very technical exercise to perform with a kettlebell or dumbbell and even your bodyweight. But for some reason, and I’m sure there’s a fancy smancy science reason why but I don’t know it, the landmine single leg deadlift works much better and can allow you to load the exercise from day one.

Single Hip Thrust

A couple of tips on the single leg hip thrust.

Keep your chin tucked into your chest

Squeeze your glutes at the top; you should feel this there and not in your low back

Play with the position of your foot to hit different parts of your glutes

Take this movement slow and don’t hump the air like you’re a drunk frat boy banging away as fast as he can for 30 seconds.

There is one more exercise that I use with my clients to help them build bigger and better glutes. And like the hip thrust, it’s a bodyweight exercise that looks simple but will leave your booty screaming.

The Step Down

Deck Out Yo’ Pecs

Have you ever felt like one side of your chest is weaker than the other? The bench press is one of those movements where imbalances become clear pretty quickly. And if your goal is to lift more weight off your chest with the bench press, you’re not gonna go as far as you could if you one pec is weaker than the other.

One-arm dumbbell bench presses bring up your weak points in your pecs, triceps, and shoulders by allowing you to train one side at a time. Oh, and bro, the best part about single arm bench presses is that by pressing with one arm, your abs are forced to stabilize your body so you don’t roll off the bench like some knucklehead. Chest plus abs, now that’s a formula for sexiness if I’ve ever seen one.

My personal favorite that hits your pecs and crushes your triceps harder than baseball bat smacking its target, is the landmine floor press. Floor presses are the best exercise for guys who suffer from shoulder issues. By reducing the range of motion, floor presses take pressure off your shoulder and can help you re-discover how to connect your mind to what your pecs are doing. And because the range of motion is decreased, it also hits your triceps hard.

Unilateral Exercises for a Better Life

If there’s one overall reason why unilateral is bees knees, it’s that it increases your proprioceptive awareness of your body, taps into more of your motor units which in turn cranks up your muscle activation, while also fixing total body balance and stabilization.

Athletes use unilateral exercises to skyrocket their strength levels while developing mind-shattering power and finesse that can often be the determining factor between winning or losing. For everyone else who isn’t an NFL running back or professional basketball player, unilateral exercises will help prepare you to live a more kick ass life.

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How to Age Well: 6 Timeless Strategies for Looking and Feeling Your Best, No Matter Your Age

What do David Boreanaz and John Stamos have in common?

It’s not their debonair demeanor or their striking eyes. No, it’s something you’ve noticed but never quite put your finger on. Wait a minute! Holy crap, John and David are both Time Lords.

Seriously. It’s like the aging process went, “Oh, you guys are too pretty. Let’s skip over John and David. Everyone else, you’re screwed.” And these days it feels like age pounced on you like a cat on a mouse. One day you’re feeling vibrant and young, and the next your hips ache, you discover lines under your eyes, and your knees snap, crackle, and pop like they’re made of Rice Krispies.

Getting older sucks. But staying healthy and fit as you age doesn’t require a magic potion from Professor Slughorn, either. Science has shown us time and time again that exercise helps you live longer. And exercise combined with not eating like an asshole can help you prevent issues like heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and injury.

But isn’t there more that you can do to make sure that you’re staying tip-top shape as you get older?

1. Maintain (or Build) Strength

Have you ever helped an older family member who needed assistance to get out of a chair? Or have you known someone who had a hip or knee replaced?

According to The National Osteoporosis Foundation, 1 in 2 women over the age of 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis. Strength training, however, can help your body maintain – and build – stronger bones as you age, preventing or blunting the effects of osteoporosis.

In fact, a review of dozens of studies found that heavy resistance training is better than the traditional pharmaceutical or nutritional approaches for improving bone density, strength, balance, and muscle mass.

So get to lifting now before you get so old and frail and have the strength of wet dollar store toilet paper.

2. Sleep: Your Body Needs that Shit

Americans sleep less, drink more coffee, and push ourselves to the brink of exhaustion. Sure, you can do that in the short term. But over time, that will derail and screw up your health worse than a Kanye West Twitter rant.

Here’s a shocking, kick-in-the-dick stat for you: the CDC estimates that 35% of Americans get less than 7 hours of sleep a night. Why is that bad?

Because depriving yourself of sleep:

raises your risk of hypertension and weight gain;

weakens your immune system; and,

can turn you into a raving lunatic who has no friends because none of them want to be around your irritable ass.

Sleep is where your body recovers and rebuilds the lean tissue that you’ve been trying so hard to build in the gym. Sleep keeps you mentally strong and alert and helps in maintaining good hormone health.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults over the age of 26 should get 7-9 hours of sleep a night. And though exercise is one of the suggested activities that experts recommend to improve your sleep, there are other things you can do to get more shut-eye.

I created this nifty acronym, because I’m cool like that, that you can use to help get more and better sleep. Follow the acronym SLEEP.

Sleep in a cold room Leave yourself 30 minutes to of no screen time before bed End any caffeine consumption before 3 PM Establish a relaxation ritual to wind down your mind before bed Pursue the Robbie Farlow rule: the bedroom is for sex and sleep. Keep all electronics — phone, computer, tablets — out of your bedroom. It is a sacred space that should never be breached by attention-demanding electronics.

Do you want better mental, physical, and emotional health? Hell yea you do. Then you need to do what that kids book that’s read by Sam Jackson says, and go the fuck to sleep.

3. Do More Fun Shit

As a kid, thanks to the movie Twister, there was a brief stint in my young life where I aspired to chase tornadoes. But then that morphed into a desire to play college basketball at North Carolina, and then the NBA.

There was one problem with that dream: I was a lazy “husky” kid who fell in love with video games and Star Wars.

Needless to say, my days in the NBA never happened, but I never fell out of love playing basketball. And if there were one way I could stay active outside of lifting heavy, it would be playing basketball.

Are you staying active with activities you love? Do you:

Take hikes

Bike

Dance in your underwear (or naked)

Play ultimate frisbee or disc golf (or actual golf, golf)

Swim

The science is clear on that lifting weights can help you live longer. But exercise doesn’t have to be a punishment that you’re required to perform in order to pay for your malfeasance(s). You don’t need science to tell you that if you hate something, you’re more likely to stop doing said activity (read: calculus).

One of the best ways to stay active as you age is to do stuff you love. Do physical things that make you happy. All exercise should improve your quality of life—period. And if it’s not making your life better, why the hell are you doing it?

4. Show Up or Shut Up

“Walking into the gym is half the battle. Once you’re there, you just do the work.”

That’s what a 63-year-old man said to me at a gym I once worked at while he pounded out some one arm rows. But showing up doesn’t mean you need to go into a blind rage and attempt to lift heavy every time you’re in the gym.

Life — no matter how much you love your job, family, or friends — will throw stress at you when you least expect it. And those stressors all affect you in numerous ways. Sometimes it affects you and you don’t even know it. So listen to your body.

Showing up is what’s important. But how you show up, and what that means to do that day, that’s the most important thing to think about as you age.

Find different ways to challenge yourself with intensity — it doesn’t have to always be about pushing heavier loads. Try slowing your movement down and focusing more on your mind-muscle connection and feeling the squeeze of each rep or decrease your rest time by 30 seconds, that will challenge in a completely different way.

5. Listen to Ancient Wisdom

To Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician who’s considered the father of modern medicine, it was the most important medicine known to man:

“Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food.”

Hippocrates was the first human being (that we know of) who believed lifestyle modifications like diet and exercise were the best options for treating most diseases. And as you get older, nutrition becomes even more paramount.

Remember how you feel the next day after eating an entire pizza – lethargic, bloated and, if you do make it to the gym to work up a sweat, your entire body reeks of pizza grease. And no, the sweat doesn’t taste like grease. It tastes like the sad memories of every poor life choice you’ve ever made. Which tastes kind of like what it feels like to wake up and realize you didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas.

Here are some good tips to follow no matter your age:

Feast on More Fiber: Your body requires more fiber as you age. Don’t run and grab Metamucil or Fiber One just yet. Add in a few servings of berries, replace that quick morning breakfast sandwich with oats, and make sure you’re eating at least 3-5 servings of green leafy veggies a day.

Keep Protein High: Protein is important for recovery, muscle building, and keeping hunger at bay. But protein remains important for all of those reasons as you age. Protein also helps prevent muscle loss. And after the age of 30, if you’re inactive, you can lose anywhere from 3-5% of your muscle mass each decade. After 50 it can even be 0.5-1% of muscle mass lost per year. Resistance training can keep this at bay, but adequate protein intake will help you continue to build and retain muscle as you age and exercise.

Monitor Alcohol Consumption: You mentally (or literally) just gave me the middle finger with this one, didn’t you? I love booze, and I know you do too. But, if you’ve ever had a hangover after 30, you know that they last for 2 days. Alcohol provides no real nutritional value whatsoever. Monitor that shit.

Taste the Rainbow (Eat a Wider Variety of Foods): You need to give your body more micronutrients as you age. So make sure you’re eating a wide array of veggies, fruits, and even different grains. This way you get all the vitamins and minerals you need without popping pills.

Gut Bacteria: The gut biome is the newest craze in the health industry these days. And there’s a ton of research being done on why it might be one of the most important parts of our overall health. Healthy gut bacteria makes digestion easier, especially as you age. It also helps your body absorb nutrients better, and that will keep you performing at higher levels. So add some greek yogurt to your shake, or make sauerkraut to go with dinner, or give Kombucha a try.

6. Do More Foreplay

Remember the days when you didn’t need foreplay? You were ready to get it on whenever and wherever you wanted. (Foreplay be damned!) Well, warm-ups are like foreplay: you need more as you age.

Warming up doesn’t mean stretching. In fact, stretching cold muscles can actually decrease the power of your muscles and prevent you from lifting more weight. Dynamic stretching, on the other hand, helps raise your heart rate while targeting the muscles you’ll be using in a more specific manner to the exercises you’re doing that day.

If you’re bench pressing or deadlifting, warm up your chest with light dumbbells or crank out some practice reps with the bar and slowly add a few pounds to get your muscles ready for the main portion of your lifting.

If you wanna know more about how to warm up properly before you lift, check out this article from my hetero lifemate and Tanner Baze. I would write my own article on this, but Tanner’s is so good (like OOOOOOOOOOO so good) that there’s no point in me trying.

7. Get to Know Your Family Medical History

My Mom’s father dropped dead from a bad heart valve that he’d carried since birth. My Dad’s father died of stomach cancer. As a kid, I was told I had been tested and cleared of the heart valve issue. (phew)

But my Dad’s mom opted to forego finding out what kind of cancer my other grandfather had died from. Selfishly, I’ve been a bit miffed at my grandma since. What if it could be genetic? What if I could get said stomach cancer and die from it? Some stomach cancers can grow undetected for years. I need to know if this is something that I need to keep on my radar.

When it comes to your family health history, there are probably things you need to put on your radar as well.

All the stuff you do in the gym and at home in the kitchen goes a long way in helping you live longer. But we can’t escape our genetics. And shit still happens. Getting a yearly physical is great. But if you had a grandma die of breast cancer and you’re a woman, make sure you’re scheduling mammograms and giving yourself a self-examination once a month.

Same applies to any other cancer: colon, lung (especially if you smoked at any point), liver, etc.

Men, that goes for you too. Even if you don’t have a history of testicular cancer, check your balls once a month anyway. And then after 40, keep an eye on your prostate health and colon. And take care of your heart – heart disease is the number one killer of men in the US.

There is one part of health that our society seems to skip over: mental health.

We know that cancer, heart disease, strokes, and a ton of other diseases kill millions of people every year. But we cannot skip over mental health. This is just as important as any other aspect of health. So please, explore that side of your family history as well: depression, anxiety, dementia, bipolar disorder, etc.

Make sure that if that is a part of your family history that you are on the lookout for symptoms or seeking professional medical help if you suffer from any of these issues.

With my family history, I’m going to keep an eye on stomach cancer and any heart issues (then again, stress was likely the culprit of at least one of my grandfathers’ deaths, so I gotta get a hang of that one.) But my mom also suffers from depression, and as much as I take pride in being an “emo kid,” I have to keep an eye on that as well.

Point is, even if your grandpa smoked two packs of cigarettes a day until he died at 85, there could still be genetic issues you need to have examined.

Thankfully, science has come a long way in the last few decades. And now there are startups like 23andMe who will send you a test kit that analyzes your DNA and can tell you all kinds of aspects about your health and family history.

Make Those Golden Years More Golden

When it comes to maintaining and staying on top of your health, the only person that can hold you back is yourself. Age should never keep you down. So stay active, stay strong, make diet a priority, and keep an eye on these other important aspects of your health.

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How to Get Superhero Strong: 4 Heroic Strategies for Serious Lifters

Strength training is the fountain of youth. That’s not hyperbole, either. It’s science. Over an 18 year period, researchers studied 8,762 men aged 20-80 and found that those men who built and retained strength throughout their lives lived longer. If living longer isn’t enough of a reason for you to get in the gym and hoist some heavy ass weight, then you need to examine your life choices, bro.

But you’re also not as young as you once were. And though you want to go to the gym and wave your dick around like you’re 20 again, lifting with that mentality isn’t good for long-term health. Grinding out reps can lead to injuries. And the frustrations that come with not seeing the results you “think” you should see leads many to give up and quit.

The truth is, you don’t need to lift at 100% every single day to build strength. In fact, there’re ways that don’t lead to physical and mental burn out. And following these strategies can help you get superhero strong while building more muscle and improving your quality of life.

(Ride the) Wave Loading

Some people like the smell of napalm in the morning. While some get dick-hard at the smell of money. But if you love to lift weights, there’s nothing more exciting than that surge you feel in your veins before you lift. Hell, you probably feel the buzz building all day while you’re at work.

Remember this badass game?

But since you’re now wiser than you were in your 20s — aka: you’re not a neophyte numbskull who loads the bar and goes from 0-60 without warming up — you know you need to “prime” your nervous system to be ready for your lifts. So you take five or ten minutes and do some dynamic warm-ups or rep out a few practice “reps” with the barbell and super lightweight.

Warming up is great; I’d never suggest skipping it. But sometimes the best way to get your body warmed is to lift some “heavyish” weight. Wave loading is one of the more superior strategies for initiating a physiological response known as post-tetanic potentiation. PTP works by helping your body prepare for the heaviest loads by recruiting more of your high functioning motor units.

This isn’t a strategy for noobs. Wave loading is a killer way to increase strength, explosiveness, and work capacity. But it’s also something that needs to be used by those who have at least 12-18 months of consistent training under their belt.

Here’s a quick example of what your first wave “could” look like:

Set 1: 7 reps at 185 pounds Set 2: 4 reps at 215 pounds Set 3: 2 reps at 240 pounds

Now, after lifting the first wave you’d perform 1-2 more waves. But each subsequent wave’s load would be heavier than the last. For example, you could make your second wave of 7 reps the same as your 2nd set of wave 1 — 215 pounds for 7 reps. Or you could be a bit more conservative and opt to add 5 extra pounds. Whatever weight you choose for the beginning of your next wave, you’re gonna notice that this next wave feels a lot lighter. Why? Because wave loading creates two muscular effects: potentiation and recruitment.

According to studies, post-activation potentiation is a physiological phenomenon that induces a high degree of central nervous system stimulation. What does that mean for you? Well, the more motor units your body recruits, the more muscle you’re able to use, which increases the force you can produce, and that means you’ll be able to push more weight.

But here’s why this strategy is so freaking kick ass. Because wave loading helps you recruit and activate more muscle fibers and motor units, it allows you to progress your gains without blowing out your CNS (central nervous system).

Choosing the optimal amount of reps depends on your goals: if you’re looking for hypertrophy, keep the waves a bit higher in reps, 9, 7, 5; if you’re looking for raw strength, stick with 3, 2, 1; if you want a mix of both, try reps of 5, 3, 1.

When it comes to wave loading, start with two waves at first. As you become more proficient or are in need of a bit more volume, you can add an additional wave. Fewer total waves, though, will allow your CNS to recover more effectively. And by limiting CNS fatigue, you’ll be able to progress faster in your pursuit of superhero strength.

Are You Down with DUP? (Daily Undulated Periodization)

Fact: the more you force your muscles to adapt, the more they’ll grow. But most dudes think they need to hit each muscle group once a week. But if you look at old-school bodybuilders like Arnold—who was a beast in terms of strength as well—they trained each muscle group 2-3 times a week.

Now, they weren’t idiots who trained at the same level every day. Their intensities varied. But Arnold and his crew knew that if they wanted to grow and increase strength and size, they needed to train their (main) muscles more than once a week.

This is where DUP comes into play. Daily Undulated Periodization focuses on the big three — squat, bench, and deadlift — and allows you to hit those three lifts multiple times per week without over fatiguing your muscles. Yes, you’ll train those lifts every other day (M, W, F for example), but each of those days undulates the intensity.

For example, Monday you’d hit squats for 5 sets of 5 reps of heavy ass weight. Then you’d train bench in the more traditional hypertrophy range of 4 sets of 8 reps. And you’d finish by focusing on developing more power with deadlifts for 6 sets of 3 reps.

On Wednesday, you’d move deadlifts from training for power to strength, squats to hypertrophy, and bench to power; you’d then undulate those lifts again on Friday and finish with the whatever power/strength/hypertrophy block you’d not accomplished yet.

Three Letters for Powerful Results

DUP allows you to train the big strength movements more often, which leads to greater strength and muscular gains. But you don’t have to perform the powerlifting big three here either. You can apply DUP methods to rows, overhead presses, front squats, etc.

As always, your goal should be to add (at least) 5 pounds to each lift every week. And if your recovery is on point, and you’re limiting your accessory work, which it’s suggested that you limit accessory work to one day a week, then you’ll set yourself up for massive strength gains following DUP.

Here’s an example of what a week of using DUP would look like:

Monday

Strength Squat 5×5

Hypertrophy Bench 4×8

Power Deadlift 6×3

Wednesday

Strength Bench 5×5

Hypertrophy Deadlift 4×8

Power Squat 6×3

Friday

Strength Deadlift 5×5

Hypertrophy Squat 4×8

Power Bench 6×3

Accessory Day

Dips 4×10

Barbell Rows 4×10

Arm work of your choice; calves

The Eccentric Effect

The concentric portion of any lift — where the muscle shortens — is where your body is the weakest. And on the flip side, your body is the strongest in the eccentric portion — where the muscle lengthens — of a lift. According to some studies, your body can handle around 1.75x more weight eccentrically. Are the light bulbs going off yet?

One study found that eccentric training increased muscle hypertrophy more than concentric training. And the more muscle you can pack on your frame means you’re increasing your overall strength potential. But there’s one more benefit to eccentric training. It’s been shown to help improve your technical skills with whatever lift you’re using it on.

Since you’re forced to lower the weight more slowly in the eccentric, your technical proficiency of the lift has to improve. Eccentric training forces you to consciously create and maintain more tension in the targeted muscle.

And this creates an optimal environment for growth.

If you’ve been training in the gym for less than 24 months, you don’t need to even think about attempting eccentric training. Controlling the weight in both the eccentric and concentric portion of the lift will suffice. If you’re cleared the two-year hump — and I mean you’ve trained consistently for two years, not that you’ve had a gym membership for two years that you periodically use — then you’re ready to get down with some eccentric training.

To start: grab a spotter to assist you on a specific lift. Perform that lift to concentric failure, and then execute 2-3 forced reps of that lift eccentrically; lowering for a count of no less than four seconds. Once that becomes easy for you, you can add 10-20% more weight for the eccentric portion of your chosen lift. The stronger you become, the higher percentage of weight you can add eccentrically.

Eccentric lifting isn’t something you need to do all the time. Sprinkle it in during your off-season or after a hypertrophy phase to maximize your strength potential.

Unilateral Movements

The vast majority of men (and women) start lifting weights because they want to look better naked. And as great as it is to look great with your clothes off, the real goal of improving your health and fitness comes down to increasing your overall quality of life.

Your daily activities probably have little to do with what you do in the gym. Except for in one area: unilateral movements. Much of what you do to live your life is done with one limb at a time. So why do you only train bilaterally?

If you’re looking to improve your overall physical performance, increase hip/knee and core stability, and correct strength imbalances, you need to do more unilateral (single limb) training.

Don’t get ahead of yourself. Unilateral movement won’t directly increase your bilateral strength; squatting 500 pounds with a barbell doesn’t translate to 200-plus pound single leg squats. But increased stability in the knees and hips, as well as improved core stability, will carry over to everything else that you do in the gym with two limbs.

Single limb training is demanding on the technical side of things. But it’s the best way to target and strengthen smaller muscles within the major muscle groups. And when you examine the movements you make every day — climbing stairs, running, walking, etc — many of these movements are performed one leg at a time. That means the stronger your legs are individually, the larger improvement you’ll see in your quality of life.

You’ll walk more efficiently, climb stairs with ease and grace, and you will even notice an overall improvement in coordination and balance.

Single limb training also increases your proprioceptive awareness, motor unit recruitment and muscle activation, while improving balance and stabilization. For sports that require high outputs of power like sprinting, increasing strength and power of a single limb could be the determining factor between winning or losing. Unless you’re a competitive sprinter, unilateral training just prepares you to better hurdle the obstacles of everyday life.

Get Superhero Strong

Strength training isn’t just how much weight you can push or pull. As you get older, you need to use strategies that allow you to lift intelligently and intensely, but that won’t suck the life out of your CNS. Getting stronger is great. But you also want to keep your body and mind running at their peak, you have enough stressors in your life to deal with every day as is. Use these strategies to build superhero strength while keeping fatigue in check.

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How to Improve Your Front Rack Position

If you’re skipping front squats because the position hurts, I would love to tell you to stop being a baby and get comfortable with that discomfort because it goes away after time. But I won’t be that douche bag. Well, I kind of already was by typing that sentence I guess. So, yea. Stop being a baby.

Front squats are a hundred times better than back squats. And I’ve covered what that’s the case before, here.

But the reason the front squat is hard for you is because you struggle to master the rack position. Now, it’s likely not entirely your fault. If you work at a desk all day, then you’re likely hunched over and internally rotated, so externally rotating your shoulders is no easy feat.

Adding in some more rear delt work will help open your shoulders up, but there are two other factors that affect your ability to hold the bar in the rack position.

So What is The Front Rack?

The front rack is the position where the barbell sits while performing front squats or where you catch the bar during power cleans.

Front Rack: bar across clavicle, elbows pointed high to the sky, wrist bent backward with fingers slightly holding the bar.

Proper rack positioning places the bar across your collarbone and shoulders. Your elbows should be pointed towards the sky, (and if you have proper thoracic mobility) your chest should be high, back tight, with a couple of your fingers wrapped around the bar. When you first attempt front squats, this position may be painful and difficult to get into.

In today’s modern computerized world, you— and even fitness writers like myself—spend far too much time hunched over computers with rounded shoulders. This position causes your pec minor and major to become shortened and tight, while muscles like your traps, rhomboids, lats, and rear deltoids lengthen and weaken.

The reason the rack position hurts is you have:

Poor thoracic mobility

Weak upper back strength

Thoracic Mobility for a Better Front Rack

Thoracic mobility can be improved by adding these two stretches to your warm-up routine. What makes these even more awesome is that these stretches can be performed on a break at the office or during a Netflix binge at home.

Quadruped Thoracic Rotation

Begin this stretch by getting onto your hands and knees. Place one hand behind your head and without rotating from your hips, reach with your elbow underneath the stationary hand, then rotate back through the starting position and take your elbow to the sky—reaching as far as you comfortably can without pain (tip, follow your elbow with your eyes).

Thoracic Spine Opening on Foam Roller

Place a foam roller just under your shoulder blades. Lean back until your head touches the floor, bending your upper back without moving the rest of your body. If you lack the mobility this will be hard at first but don’t push yourself into pain, take it slow and each time work to get a little further.

Your Weak Back is Hurting Your Rack

Thoracic mobility can hurt your ability to get your elbows and wrists in the proper position. But the biggest set back to having a strong front rack is you’re weak as fuck in terms of back strength. A weak upper back leads to bailing and upper back rounding, which you don’t want either of those to happen.

Of course, the best way to build a stronger and more stable front rack is to train your back more than once a weak. Implement a 2:1 ratio with chest and back exercises. Meaning, for every chest exercise you perform you must do two back exercises. This will help you gain more muscle and strength in your upper back and lats.

Dumbbell based exercises like the 3-point row, incline chest supported dumbbell rows, Batwing rows, Pendlay rows, shrugs, or cable-based exercises like face-pulls, stiff-arm lat pulldowns, or rear delt flyes are great ways to strengthen the traps, rhomboids, and upper back muscles that will improve your posture.

There’s no reason to avoid the front squat. It develops total body strength, hits your glutes and quads and core more effectively than back squats, and it’s safer on your spine. But if you need to develop your front rack position, work on improving your thoracic mobility and upper back strength. If you can master the rack position and make it your friend, you’ll completely change the game of building muscle.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

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The Best Damn Bodyweight Workout (That You'll Never Do Because Bodyweight Exercises F*cking Suck)

Your vacation is finally here. All that time you’ve spent dieting to lose that unsightly belly fat and all those hours you invested into the gym to chisel out your rock hard muscle is about to pay off. You’re gonna rip your shirt off on the beach and a choir of angels will sing to your heavenly glory.

But with all that time you’ve invested in the gym, you’ve come to love working out. Thinking about not hoisting heavy ass weight while you’re at the beach or sipping drinks by the pool leaves you feeling a bit sad.

Sure, the hotel you’re staying at has a gym, if you can call it that. All they have is a treadmill, an elliptical, and the loneliest medicine ball you’ve ever seen. So how are you supposed to get a pump before you hit the beach if you don’t have dumbbells?

It looks like the only tool you’re going to have is your own body weight. Luckily, the same principles you use every day in the gym apply to any bodyweight workout. You can use the exact same principles in your hotel room as you do in the gym to get your pump on. These principles include:

Circuits

Barbell or dumbbell circuits are great for ramping up your heart rate and increasing fat loss. But the advantage of bodyweight circuits is that they make transitioning from one exercise to the next seamless.

Moving from a push-up to mountain climbers and finishing with a forearm plank means you never have to stop and prepare for the next movement. That seamless transition will keep your heart rate pounding and the sweat pouring.

Explosive movements

Explosive exercises require your body to swiftly contract your muscles into action. This forces your nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers that you’d otherwise leave on the sidelines.

Unilateral Movements

Unilateral movements burn a ton of calories. Bulgarian Split Squats, single leg RDLs, or pistol squats increase your core activation and recruit additional stabilizer muscles to keep you balanced and aligned.

And because you’re working one side at a time, you’ll improve the pump in the targeted muscle.

Angles

Treat bodyweight training like sex: use multiple positions (or angles) to get the job done.

Change the positioning of your hands and feet during push-ups, hip thrusts, lunges, or glute bridges. Small changes like hand or feet positioning not only adds some spice to your workout, but they also allow for increased range of motion and muscle recruitment.

These The Rules, Bruh

You don’t need to be complicated when it comes to crafting a bodyweight workout. Like all things in life, follow the Keep it Simple, Stupid (KISS) principle. All you need are the six exercises below combined with the principles above to create the best damn bodyweight workout ever.

Push-Ups

Squats

Lunges

Single Leg RDLs

Glute Bridges

Planks

The one rule you need to follow is that all of the exercises you choose must be performed in a circuit. You’re looking to get 1) get a pump for the beach and 2) you ain’t got time for an hour-long workout.

Always start your circuit with an explosive movement like jump squats, star jumps, plyo push-ups, or lunge jumps. Then quickly move into a unilateral movement like Bulgarian split squats, single leg hip thrusts, single leg Romanian deadlifts, or pistol squats.

Once your heart rate is up and you’ve felt those first few drops of sweat cascade down your forehead, now you’re ready to have fun by adding a couple angled movements.

Play with your hand placement during push-ups or tinker with the angle at which you perform the push-up—decline or incline.

Lunges that Made Ganondorf Cry

When it comes to getting a pump in your lower body, the best way to accomplish hitting all angles is to do a set of what I call “Hyrulian Lunges.” They’re walking lunges where you’ll do a set of long stride lunges, followed by normal stride, and then narrow stride.

Longer stride lunges ignite your gluteus maximus, while shorter strides torch your quads. Add in the core activation and all the stabilizer muscles that fire during this sequence and it’s a party for your whole lower body.

Finish it all off with 60 seconds of planking. Rest for 90 seconds and complete all your exercises in the circuit four to six more times.

Now that I’ve given you general tips on how to create a bodyweight workout, let me bestow upon you the two best damn bodyweight workouts, ever.

The Best Damn Upper Body Hotel Workout Ever

Star Jumps – 15 reps

Single Leg RDL – 12 reps per side

Wide Grip Push-Up – 12 reps

Bodyweight Renegade Row – 12 reps

Pike Push-Ups – 12 reps

Diamond Push-Up – 12 reps

Air Curls – AMRAP

Plank – 60 seconds

Perform all exercises with little to no rest between. Rest for 90 seconds between circuits. Perform 4-6 circuits.

The Best Damn Lower Body Hotel Workout Ever

Plyo Push-Ups – 10-15 reps

Pistol Squats – 10 reps per side (you can do these to a chair)

Single Leg Hip Thrusts – 15 reps per side

Hyrulian Lunges – 12 reps per side & per stride

Glute Bridge with Feet Elevated – 12 reps

Spiderman Planks – 12 reps per side

Perform all exercises with little to no rest between. Rest for 2 minutes between circuits. Perform 3-4 circuits.

Using a bodyweight workout won’t give you the same massive boner that pushing 225 pounds off your chest or ripping 500 pounds off the floor will. But implementing the same principles you use in the gym with your own body weight gives you a way to get a pre-beach pump on.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on http://sidequestfitness.com/best-ways-to-workout-while-traveling/

The 3 Best Ways to Workout While Traveling

9 inches x 14 inches x 22 inches. Anything larger than that and airlines require that you check your luggage. But for most trips, you don’t need much more than a carry-on and one personal item while traveling. If you’re a frequent flyer, you have the necessities of what to bring with you pretty much nailed down.

For a few of my clients, however, traveling is part of their job.

Take my client Jon for instance. He works backstage for a production company that takes hit Broadway musicals to cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Naples, and Detroit. He’s traveling to a new city (nearly) every week, and there are times that the gym his company provides for the week is either

A) miles from where he is staying, or

B) the hotel gym where he is staying only has treadmills.

When this happens, Jon emails me and I set up some bodyweight routines for him during that week. (This is one of the best things about online coaching, you take your coach with you on the road. It’s a Gameboy for Fitness.)

If you don’t have a coach to help set up some workouts for you on the road, there are a few tools you can stuff in your carry-on luggage (or in your personal item) that will help you stay fit while traveling.

Exercise Bands

In the words of Han Solo, “they don’t look like much, but they’ve got it where it counts.” Bands allow you to keep constant tension on your muscles and are a great solution for frequent travelers who value exercise in their life.

Tension is what stimulates muscle growth. And holy crap do these things help you get a massive skin-splitting pump. Now, you won’t be pushing your muscles to the max, but you can still burn a ton of calories if you keep your rest periods short and reps high. Plus, all the same exercises you know and love can be done with bands. So there’s no need to learn anything new to use these elastic tubes.

Here’s a quick workout you can do with bands while you’re traveling.

Perform 5 rounds of all exercises, with no rest between. Rest for 45 seconds after the last exercise. Then start the circuit all over again.

Resistance Band Bent-Over Row – 12-15 reps

Resistance Band Shoulder Press – 12-15 reps

Resistance Band Squat – 12-15 reps

Resistance Band Reverse Fly – 12-15 reps

Resistance Band Curls – 12-15 reps

Jump Rope

A jump rope is the easiest piece of fitness equipment—besides your own body—to stow away in your luggage. Personally, I am the worst jump roper in history. But if you have better coordination than this ginger douche, then a jump rope is the best way to stay fit while you travel. And if you happen to be a next level jump roper, you can up your level of difficulty by grabbing weighted jump ropes.

You’ll jack your heart rate up and burn a ton of calories with a jump rope in only 10-15 minutes. And you can do this while you’re in your hotel room or out on the lawn at your grandma’s house.

Suspension Trainers

Suspension trainers develop strength, balance, and core stability all at once. Not to mention, they’re extremely portable and durable. They can attach to door frames, fence posts, or any stable surface. Plus, they’re a great way for you to improve and intensify bodyweight training.

Here is a killer suspension trainer workout I use with clients.

Single Leg Squat – 12 reps

Rows – 12 reps

Hamstring Pull In – 12 reps

Chest Press – 12 reps

Bicep Curl – 12 reps

Jump Squats – 12 reps

*BONUS TOOL*

Can’t pack any of these tools when you’re traveling? It’s a good thing you’re already taking a tool with you: your suitcase. Check the video out below to see how you can use your luggage for a great workout while on vacation.

Road Fitness

Whether you’re traveling the world or taking a long weekend away doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your workouts. Pack these awesome tools in your luggage and stay fit on your next trip. Safe travels, my friend.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

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3 Super-Simple Tips for Keeping Hunger at Bay

Good God, it took long enough. But at long last, the scale is FINALLY moving in the right direction—you’re losing weight. And it’s about damn time, too.

You’ve spent weeks of hitting the gym with the consistency of a well-oiled machine.

Sacrificed precious Sunday afternoon hours when you could have been catching up on the latest season of Jessica Jones on Netflix.

And you’ve been getting 7-8 hours of sleep instead of mindlessly scrolling Facebook before bed.

But then it hits you like a bolt of Force Lightning and for the first time since you decided to start losing a few pounds, you feel hungry. And these aren’t small hunger pangs. No, these are ravenous, starved Rancor-like cravings.

Anyone who has ever tried to lose a few pounds has been there. Standing in your kitchen, staring down that pint of ice cream, that bag of salty, greasy potato chip goodness, or that container of peanut butter…God, you haven’t been this aroused since the first time you saw Princess Leia in a metal bikini.

But you’re on a “diet,” you’re trying to get leaner. And this time you’re committed to doing it right; a “cheat day” is out of the question, and you can’t fit your temptation into your macros. So what the hell are you supposed to do? How do you fight these cravings and win the battle against hunger?

1: Hydrate, Yo

I’m assuming you don’t live on an arid planet like Tatooine. So you have easy access to water whenever you want it. And if you want your body to lose body fat more efficiently while keeping hunger at bay, you need to stay hydrated. Those hunger pangs you’re feeling might actually be your body trying to tell you that you’re dehydrated. Why does this happen?

Because nature hates you, that’s why.

The same part of your brain that tells you that you’re hungry is also responsible for sending out thirst signals. Your damned brain can’t tell the difference and send you mixed messages.

You hear, “Bro, let’s eat some ice cream.” When what your brain is trying to communicate is, “Bro, I’m thirsty but I don’t know how to tell you that, so you should definitely polish off that pint of Chunky Monkey.” And since your body can’t tell the difference, it’s always best to err on the side of thirst first. If you’re wrong and still hungry after 20 minutes, go ahead and eat something. (But make sure it fits your macros.)

One more thing, water is physically filling. When your stomach is full of water, it sends signals to your brain that it’s full and doesn’t need anything (or needs less). That doesn’t mean ONLY drink water all day and skip food. But, when those cravings come knocking and try to burst in…open the door and throw some water in its face.

My point, bro: drink water. Lots of it. The standard rule of thumb is to aim for half your body weight in ounces per day. So if you weight 200 pounds, guzzle down 100 ounces of agua.

2: Distract Yo’self Before You Wreck Yo’self

If I tell you NOT to picture a pink elephant right now, guess what happens?

Your brain conjures up the most beautiful fucking pink elephant the world has ever seen.

What does a pink elephant have to do with hunger? Well, replace “pink elephant” with donuts, muffins, or bacon cheese fries. And guess what? Now you’re thinking about good.

Screaming to the heavens about how hungry you are will only make things worse. Master Broda (read: me) said it best:

Boredom leads to eating, eating leads to too many calories, too many calories leads to unhappiness.

Think about it. How many times have you sat in front of the TV binging Netflix, when suddenly your brain (because it has nothing else to do) decides its hungry. Five minutes later, you’re mindlessly munching on cookies, ice cream, peanuts, and washing it down with a few beers. A few episodes later, you’ve consumed more food than a Wookie at a wedding.

So here’s what you do instead: distract yourself. If your brain is preoccupied, it won’t be consumed with thoughts of how much you think you need to be stuffing your face.

Go for a walk. (exercise + distraction for your brain = double win)

Fire up your amp and dust off that guitar in the corner

Hell, read that book you’ve been putting off for a while now

When cravings come at you, find a fun and creative activity that will distract your mind from the food.In short, do ANYTHING ELSE besides open that fridge.

3: Get Better Sleep

There is one time you’re guaranteed to not be eating: bedtime. Sleep is a vital factor when it comes to burning body fat and building muscle. And the better your sleep, the less hunger you’ll feel during the day.

There are two hormones that play a major role in hunger — leptin and ghrelin. Both of these hormones increase or decrease production based on your sleep. Leptin is a powerful appetite suppressant, while ghrelin is the hormone responsible for increasing your appetite. And if either of those gets out of whack due to your poor sleep habits, you’re in for a world of issues.

Have you ever noticed how it’s harder to fight cravings on days where you have less sleep? Well, yeah. You’re fighting both hormones, fatigue, diminished willpower, and, on top of everything, you look like shit because you’ve got heavy bags under your eyes.

Follow these simple tips to get more (and better) sleep:

Set a bedtime and stick to it. You may not be twelve years old anymore, but if you’re still eating like you are, you’re also going to need a bedtime.

Cool the room. Ideal sleep temperatures are between 64-68 degrees, use a fan if you find yourself too warm. Sleep with as little clothing as possible – bonus: if things get steamy with your partner, you’re already ahead of the game there.

Make everything as black as my emo heart. The darker it is, the more your body gets trained for sleep.

No screens, caffeine, workouts, or food close to bedtime. All of these things can work against your quest for a solid block of sleepy goodness

Force Choke Your Hunger

If your goal is to lose body fat, you will, at some point, encounter hunger. It’s a part of the process. And anyone who tells you that they never feel hungry on a diet is lying to you. So when you’re attacked by those pesky pangs of hunger, remember, they’re normal.

And fighting them back is sometimes as simple as drinking more water, distracting your brain, and getting more sleep. If you equip yourself with these three tips, you’re going to be much more successful at losing belly fat, eating better, and becoming the sexiest mofo you know.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

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4 Protein Packed, Fat Burning Taco Recipes for Summer

Fact: tacos have existed for close to three millennia.

Traditionally comprised of three ingredients—corn tortilla, filling, and salsa—the taco has become an international symbol of Mexican cuisine. Sadly, when I first got into fitness, I assumed I had to say goodbye to my favorite food to achieve my fat loss goals.

But here’s what I didn’t realize. Tacos are the one food that can provide you all the nutrients you need to fuel your workouts and build more lean muscle. They’re the most versatile form of food on Earth—perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even dessert.

More importantly, tacos are perfect no matter your goals: fat loss, muscle gain, and every other day of the year when you’re “gaintaining.” So here are four high-protein, delicious taco recipes you can make while you get shredded for summer.

Bacon Pineapple BBQ Chicken Tacos

Warmer weather means it’s time to fire up the grill. And when it comes to putting more taste in your mouth, nothing beats BBQ grilled chicken. But if you want to give your taste buds boners add some grilled pineapple and bacon to it and tell me what happens in your mouth.

These are hands down the best tacos I’ve ever made. The saltiness of the bacon, the tanginess of the BBQ sauce, and the sweetness from the grilled pineapple provides all the deliciousness you crave while dieting.

Here’s what you need:

Bacon

6 ounces of chicken breast

BBQ sauce

Pineapple

Tortillas

Jalapenos

1 ounce Cheddar Cheese

Red Cabbage

Marinate the chicken in the BBQ sauce for 30-60 minutes; or for the most flavor, overnight.

Chop and then dice the red cabbage. Then dice the jalapenos. Shred the cheese. Leave the veggies and cheese to side until you’re done. (If you don’t like super spicy things, discard the jalapeno seeds. But since you’re not a wuss, so leave the seeds for some fire.)

After the chicken has marinated for 30-60 minutes, cook it on your grill 3-4 minutes per side. At the same time, add the pineapple to the grill and let it cook for 10 minutes, rotating as needed. Once the pineapple is soft, it’s done.

While the chicken and pineapple grill, cook the bacon on your stove on a low-medium heat; this will provide you time to run out and flip the chicken and pineapple a few more times. Once the bacon is done, chop it up.

Once the chicken and pineapple are finished, bring them inside and chop them up into bite-sized pieces. Now add the chicken, bacon, pineapple, and diced jalapeno and red cabbage to the tortilla. Top with the cheese. And then prepare your taste buds for awesomeness.

Aquaman Avocado Tuna Tacos

The Summer comes with one horrible problem: ass sweat. And I’m not talking about the kind that happens when you workout. I’m talking about the cascading torrent of grossness that flows out of your butthole and soils your underwear and shorts.

When it comes to food on a god-awful hot day, do you really want to stand in front of a grill while it’s 90 plus degrees outside? Nope. On days like this, you need to chomp down on this perfect protein-packed perspiration preventative provision.

This burrito combines the cool, delicious taste of avocado with protein-rich tuna. Plus, they’re packed with vital nutrients like Vitamin K, Potassium, Vitamin B5, Vitamin E, and more importantly, avocados provide a cool your taste buds even under the hot summer sun.

For these tacos, you need:

1-2 Cans of tuna (depending on your protein requirements)

Lettuce

Olive Oil

Cheddar Cheese

Red Onion

Cucumber

Celery

Tortillas* (carbs may vary depending on the type of tortillas you buy)

Black Pepper

Lemon Juice

Sea Salt

Chop the cucumber, red onion, and celery. Dice half the avocado into small ¼ inch pieces. Then drain the tuna—opt for the tuna in water and not in oil—and place it in a bowl.

Add the veggies and avocado to the tuna. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then mash and mix all the ingredients together.

Spoon the mixture into the tortillas, top with shredded cheese, and add lettuce as a garnish.

Prepare as described, and you’ll chomp down 45g of protein, 29g of healthy fats, and 42g* of carbs. *carbs may vary depending on the type of tortilla you use*

Peach Prosciutto Burrito

Let’s keep it on both the light and fresh side (and the sweet and salty). This burrito won’t’ weigh your stomach down, and it’s light and fresh taste will keep you from feeling sluggish while you spend a day on the beach.

This burrito is well balanced in terms of macros, too. It’s packed with a moderate amount of healthy fats (26g), less than 60g of carbs—perfect for those staying low-carb while getting shredded—and packed with 48g of delicious muscle building and energy-sustaining protein.

What you need:

3-4 ounces of prosciutto

1 Peach

1 Large Tortilla shell

½ cup of reduced fat mozzarella

A handful of fresh basil

1 Teaspoon Olive Oil

1 Teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar

Slice the peaches into ¼ inch slices. Place peaches in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar; mix the peaches, coating them with oil/vinegar.

Grill the peaches for 2-3 minutes on each side. Place warm peaches on the tortilla and cover with mozzarella. Place the prosciutto over the cheese/peaches, then top with basil. Roll the burrito up and grill until both sides are brown.*

*Grilling is optional for both the burrito and peaches. But it does help lock in more of the flavors.*

The Beast Breakfast Tacos

With longer days and warmer nights, winding down after a day of fun in the sun usually involves a few drinks. And I’m not telling you something you don’t already know: hangovers effing suck.

Now, we all know the best way to soak up excess booze is by chowing down on a good bacon cheeseburger. But you’re getting lean and don’t want to pound down a greasy bacon cheeseburger the morning after you turned into Frank the Tank with the tequila. (Don’t worry. You didn’t go streaking, I promise. *snickers* you totally did *snickers*)

Besides begging your friends to delete any embarrassing photos/videos that they may, or may not, have taken last night during your drunken streaking escapades, you need quick help in erasing the headache you have this morning.

And I have the perfect protein-packed taco prescription that will cure that debilitating hangover.

The Beast Tacos clock in at under 500 calories but comes packed with 36g of protein. The protein you need to re-ignite your fat-burning furnace. These tacos are just what the doctor ordered.

What you need:

Bacon

4 ounces of 90/10 Lean Ground Beef

1 Scrambled Egg

2-3 tortillas

¼ of reduced fat cheese *optional*

Beat the egg and leave it to the side. Cook the bacon on medium heat; then cook the beef in the leftover bacon grease over medium-high heat.

Once both the bacon and the beef are done, wipe the pan and spray the pan with non-stick spray. Turn the pan to medium and cook the eggs. Take them off the heat right before they’re done, they’ll continue to cook as they cool.

Spoon the beef into the tortilla, add the egg, top with the bacon. Kill your hangover.

Eat More Broitto’s

Dieting during Summer doesn’t have to mean you eat boring ass foods. During the hottest months of the year, heavy meals are the last thing you want to ingest. Summer is meant to be filled with plenty of sun and fun. And these tacos will keep you feeling your best, while also providing your taste buds with the fun flavors it wants the most.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on http://sidequestfitness.com/front-squats-last-jedi-fitness-world/

The Last Jedi of the Fitness World: Front Squats

Here’s the thing: people either love The Last Jedi or the vehemently hate everything about it and want to burn Disney to the goddamn ground.

Now look, I get that in today’s world of the Internet it’s “totally cool” to be a hater; why else do you think 85% of Reddit and 4chan exists?

People love to “hate.”

Everyone has a right to their opinion. It’s an unalienable human right.

But I also have a right to tell you that your opinion is stupid and point out to you why The Last Jedi is, in fact, one of the best Star Wars movies ever created.

Is it perfect?

No. But it sure as shit is better than Episodes 1-3.

Rian Johnson took risks. And that is exactly what Star Wars needed. Risks, not safety.

  1. The Last Jedi makes The Force, The Force Again

As a lover of all things myth, one of the biggest problems in our society today is that we have killed our myths.

I love science. It’s important and we need it. But we’ve tried to explain everything with science and killed the mystery of humanity; myths have been the cornerstone of our storytelling since the dawn of time.

Why do you think superhero movies and Star Wars break the box office every single time a new film is released?

Humans want hero stories.

We thrive on looking at the example of the Hero and saying to ourselves, “Gee, if so and so can do this and be a better human being, then I can too.

My problems are oddly similar to his/hers. Maybe if I look at my problems like Captain America/Wonder Woman/Batman, maybe I too can conquer my greatest enemies/fears.”

But Lucas decided that he needed to give us a scientific reason for The Force with midichlorians.

George. You were influenced by Joseph Campbell. How do you demystify the thing that made us all want to live in a galaxy far far away?

Rian Johnson brought The Force back to what it always was meant to be: a mysterious mythological feeling that can’t “exactly” be explained with science.

He made The Force great again.

2. Leia is a Badass and if You Hate that Scene You Don’t Know Shit about Leia

Look, killing off Carrie Fisher probably would have been a wise decision. But when she died the film was completed.

So is Rian Johnson supposed to go back and re-write a good portion of the movie so he can kill Carrie Fisher off in the first 25 minutes of the film?

If he does that, which he could have, it completely changes how he had to write Luke and what ends up happening to Luke.

So now he has to basically re-write and re-shoot the whole film.

From that perspective, it was absolutely necessary that he not kill off Leia.

“But Robbie, Leia “Supermanning” across the screen was so dumb.”

WRONG. You are wrong. So wrong.

In case you’re not a super nerd, which is cool and all totally you’re prerogative, Leia is like a million times more powerful than Luke.

That has been referenced numerous times in both the books and comics of The Expanded Universe.

Luke is pretty powerful, sure. But Leia is more badass than that whiny farm boy from Tatooine could ever imagine he could be.

And Rian Johnson shows us this in that one moment.

Leia is more powerful than Jedi Master Skywalker and people can’t handle the fact that a badass woman can “superman” herself through space to NOT die.

She was the one who saved Luke and Han and Chewie from getting backed into the corner in the detention block in A New Hope.

Luke got pissed off that he failed as a Jedi and reclused himself to an island on some far away planet, while Leia kept fighting The First Order.

Guys: Leia is a badass and this scene just furthers that point. Deal with it.

3. Kylo Ren is the Sith We Needed

Anakin Skywalker should have been what Kylo Ren is.

Darth Vader should have been more conflicted throughout all of his time as a Jedi.

His turn in Revenge of the Sith comes out of nowhere. There is no conflict for the choice he makes. He just kills Mace Windu. Why?

Palpatine didn’t “really” give him any secret to save Padme.

And not even 10 minutes before he attacks Windu, Anakin discovers that Palpatine is the Sith Lord they’ve been looking for, and he nearly arrests him then.

And then he tells the Jedi what he finds out, only to then save Palpy? What?

George, there has to be a greater conflict here.

Kylo, on the other hand, is conflicted on numerous levels.

His uncle tried to kill him

He’s angry at his parents

He wants to live up to the legacy of his grandfather

And he probably got picked on as a kid and never dealt with his shit so he’s lashing out

Point being: if Anakin had looked anything like Kylo on screen, I would have felt like Anakin’s turn to Vader was 100x more impactful.

I loved The Last Jedi. But I’ve realized that arguing about The Last Jedi with people who hate it like arguing with people who hate front squats.

Front squats are 100x better than back squats.

More glute activation

More quad recruitment

Increased anterior core recruitment

No loading on your spine

Increased upper back activation (i.e, you’ll build bigger legs and back muscles)

But people hate front squats because it hurts their wrists or it feels awkward laying across your shoulders/clavicle.

Sure, it takes some getting used to, but in the long run front squats will help you build more muscle mass, keep your low back healthier, and people who front squat are usually the strongest (and sometimes most athletic) people you’ll ever see.

Hate them all you want. But if you spend some time getting used to the bar resting on your shoulders, you’ll find that front squats are far superior to back squats.

I mean lots of people hated The Empire Strikes Back when it came out.

But over time, and with more viewings, people began to realize that it was the superior Star Wars film.

That will happen with The Last Jedi as well. And it will happen for you too when you spend more time front squatting than back squatting.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on http://sidequestfitness.com/get-long-term-results-planet-fitness/

How to Get (Long-term) Results at Planet Fitness

Let’s talk Planet Fitness for a minute. And no, I’m not here to lambaste the company.

(I mean I do find it extremely hypocritical that they claim they’re “judgment free” and yet they won’t allow tank tops or the occasional “grunt” from lifting heavy, but that’s for another day.)

Anywho, Planet Fitness doesn’t stock tons of dumbbells. The highest weight they go up to is about 60 pounds.

Now, that means that you’re going to be a bit limited in terms of your potential strength gains. With 60 pounds being the ceiling, how are you supposed to continue increasing strength so you can burn more fat and build more muscle?

The principles I’m about to bestow upon you don’t apply to only Planet Fitness. In fact, you can use these principles anywhere.

But if you happen to be limited on the weight you can use — as you would at Planet Fitness or even in a hotel gym — these strategies can help you continue pushing yourself to the next level.

4 Way to Advance Your Strength and Muscle Gains at Planet Fitness

1. Eccentrics

Whatever weight you’re using, keep the lowering portion of the weight slow and controlled.

Use a tempo of 4 seconds down, 1 second at the bottom, explode the weight up, and then pause for 1-2 seconds at the top and squeeze your muscles hard AF.

You’re stronger in the eccentric portion of a lift.

But when you increase the amount of time you’re in the eccentric portion, you’ll demand more energy from your body. Those 60’s that you could rep out for 12-15 reps, will start to feel a lot heavier when you slow the movement down.

2. Change Your Angle

Maxed out the flat bench dumbbells at PF?

Cool. Play with the incline of the bench. Try a low incline. A 45-degree incline. Or even a high, nearly straight up, incline.

This works for Rows as well.

Change the angle of your hips, and hinge more or less and let your lats really stretch.

For squats or deadlifts, change the position of your feet: move them wider or more narrow and you’ll hit your quads and hammies differently.

3. Use Rest Pause Sets

Note: this is a bit of a more intermediate/advanced protocol. So until you can rep out 60-pounds at 15 reps with a slow eccentric—smoothly—do not advance to this.

Rest Pause works like this: rep out 15 reps of a weight; Rest for 10 seconds, and then rep out 5 more; continue these 5 reps until you cannot complete 3 straight, good reps.

4. Unilateral Training

Maxed out ginger squats and/or bench press?

Have you tried using one arm/leg at a time? You’re strong with two limbs working.

But what about one?

This is where single arm bench pressing can completely change the game for you. It will challenge your core and your pecs like never before.

And single leg training? Well. That my friend is the BEST way to turn your metabolism into the fires of Mount Doom.

Split squats

Bulgarian Split squats

Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts

Pistol squats

All of these will challenge your body in a way you’ve never imagined. And they can continue pushing your strength to new heights.

If you’re at Planet Fitness, remember these tips so that you can continue gaining strength and pushing yourself toward achieving your highest level.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on http://sidequestfitness.com/kick-ass-lessons-learned-37-different-books-2017/

The Kick Ass Lessons I Learned from 37 Different Books in 2017

In 2016, I read more books in a single year than I had probably read my entire life.

That sentence is about 42% hyperbole.

Now that I think about it, it is possible that I read more than 26 books in the first thirty years I lived, but I’m pretty sure the true number isn’t too far off from that calculation.

My goal for 2017 was to read far more than 26 books; by the end of the first month, I was on pace to read roughly 60 books.

And by the time of the publishing of this article, I ended up finishing 37 different books from all sorts of genres.

That’s an average of three books a month, an increase of one book per month versus my 2016 average.

Most of these were fiction. Because as much as I love self-help books, the biggest and most impactful lessons you’ll ever discover about life are not in a Tony Robbins book—they’re found in fiction.

So, here’s a rundown of what I’ve read over the last year with a brief sentence or two about what I learned from each book. I highly suggest picking any of these up for 2018. And yes, the links to do that are below.

*Note: some of what I learned are sentences directly taken from said books because the author said it better than I could summarize.*

I’m a Book Slut, So What?

Being decisive is a choice. Decisiveness is a way of behaving, not an inherited trait. It allows us to make brave and confident choices, not because we know we’ll be right but because it’s better to try and fail than to delay and regret.

Jimmy V is great. And his ESPY speech is one of the five things that will unequivocally cause every man to cry. But this book gave a massive handjob to Coach K and needed to focus more on the great Dean Smith. (Fuck Coach K)

People with OCD sometimes feel like they can’t escape the spinning tornado they find themselves trapped in.

  102 letters and wicked awesome imagination are all you need sometimes to tell an amazing story.

  Courage is a vital piece of a well-lived life.

You can love yourself no matter what expectations society tries to place on you.

Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendships, relationships, sex, and work.

[Confession: this is the first King book I ever read. (oops)]

Technology has made the ability to remember things irrelevant.

If you want to take over the world, learn these crucial 48 laws and slowly implement them in your arsenal. (Or at least learn them and then be able to understand when someone is trying to manipulate you.)

Concise language is best.

The bad guy is more intriguing to me, not because they have a better story, but because I’m afraid I am a villainous person.

…..if you live long enough, it’s probably impossible to avoid seeming crazy

I’m probably more racist than I want to believe or even realize. So, I need to work on that.

Choose to be true to yourself, that’s the only way to live an authentic and happy life.

Batman has been one of the most symbolic figures of the time and place our lives reside in and nearly no one (Glen Weldon did) has noticed it.

Everyone who is married or single or dating should read this. Because it could save your relationship when the hard times come rolling.

(PS: if you’re like me and your love language is the opposite of your spouse, learn some goddamn patience and take a course [this book] on how to speak their language better.)

Men: go get your testosterone levels checked. Then buy this book and keep it as a resource.

[And yes, someday I will go on TRT because I refuse to live a sub-par life due to my T-levels.]

What turned around crime in NYC in the 80s? Washing away all the graffiti on subway cars. After that was done, crime decreased. So it’s not the BIG things that we usually need to tackle, it’s the little things that make a huge difference.

This dude loves colons as much as I do. And the story is good, but I like him as a songwriter better. (Darnielle is the lead singer of The Mountain Goats)

This is the non-video game version of The Last of Us. But with higher stakes.

I’m glad that one time I went deep seas fishing that I had a rod that could bring the fish in.

Some endings need to be crafted thirty plus times to be just right.

Math can be used to show you many truths. But the truth is only true if the math is right.

Get your clients on the phone, shut the fuck up, and listen to them. Then change their lives.

Stop being dumb. Eat carbs.

There’s always more to a story about an abortion than what any politically charged article or Facebook status will tell you. And there are thousands of voices who remain silent who’ve had abortions and don’t regret them, but still don’t know how to deal with the all the emotions that come before, during, and after the procedure.

Leia and Han got it on in real life pretty much during all of A New Hope.

Listening is better than speaking when someone you know or love is going through something terrible. So, uh, shut up and let them talk.

Embracing our fears and vulnerability is what will allow us to live the life we want to live; don’t be afraid to talk about the things people say you shouldn’t talk about.

We can’t give people what we don’t have. Who we are matters immeasurably more than what we know or who we want to be.

Liars are people who think they are telling the truth, but who really have no idea what the truth is. Football allows the intellectual part of my brain to evolve, and the it allows the emotional part to remain unchanged.

We (human beings) don’t connect, we compete to connect.

Life is an adventure, and I hope someday to have a tale like Kvothe’s to tell.

This is still canon and Luke still married Mara Jade. The end. Fuck off, Disney.

Getting jacked can still be done with this book. There’s a reason it’s called The Bible.

If you’re gonna read about marathons, make sure it’s a book written by a writer from The Simpsons; then interview him on your podcast.

The words in this book will touch a place in your soul that hasn’t been touched since the days we were but a shard of stardust erupting from genesis of time. (And that’s why I’m reading it a second time this year to close out 2017.)

And since Amazon allows me to build lists, if you wanna pick up any of these books—and you totally should—you can check out my list with all these books here: Robbie’s 2017 Books He Suggests You Read in 2018.

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on http://sidequestfitness.com/brandon-ridner-losing-20-pounds/

Brandon Ridner on Losing Over 20+ pounds of fat, Gaining 10+ Pounds of Lean Muscle, & How Lifting Improved His Quality of Life.

In January of 2017, Brandon Ridner reached out to me about coaching. He had just lost a ton of weight via a weight loss competition at work, but he was weak; he had lost his way around the weight room.

His goal: lose enough body fat, and building enough lean muscle so that he’d have the confidence to rip his shirt off on stage and strip. (As a character he calls “The Cock Knight.”)

So Brandon applied for coaching, began his journey, and since January, he’s:

Lost more than 20 pounds of fat;

Gained over 10 pounds of lean muscle;

Added more than 2 inches to his shoulders; and,

Erased 5.5 inches off his waist

But more importantly than all that, Brandon has found a passion for fitness. So much so that he has toyed with the idea of getting certified to be a trainer. And, he even bought The Bible, aka, Arnold’s The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.

Over the last year, Brandon Ridner has gained massive amounts of strength as well. But he’s also discovered that this journey has taught him to be easier on himself; to not be his own worst critic.

In this episode, we discuss:

What life was like before joining my coaching program

How lifting has helped his quality of life as he ages

steps he’s taken to heal injuries and prevent fear from taking over & stopping him from exercising

Why he stuck with it this time, and recognized his own faults

Staying dedicated to the cause

The story of Cock Knight

Being his own worst critic

What he would tell his past self

What he loved most about online training

Living that life and what it means to him

How getting in shape has helped his quality of life

What he would tell anyone about online training

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on http://sidequestfitness.com/greek-gods-secrets/

The Secret the Greek Gods Didn't Want You to Know

Why You’re Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon All Wrapped into One

In the Summer of 2000, the third single off Vertical Horizon’s hit album, Everything You Want, was released on the radio.

After their second single spent 26 weeks cruising to #1 on the Billboard Charts, the band hoped their third release would send them further up the ladder of stardom. Sadly, the third track petered out at #23. And after that, they all but disappeared from the music scene.

But their third single, “You’re a God,” is the only Vertical Horizon song that eeks out of the ether and plants itself in my mind every so often. The only theory I have for why this happens is due to my fascination with godliness.

A Man of the Cloth

Here’s something you may not know about me: Years before I wanted to be the next Kevin Spacey, and decades before I changed my life via fitness and became a coach, I thought I was going to be a minister.

The notion of “being a god,” or at least, “being more godly,” has always intrigued me. It possibly explains why I love superheroes as much as I do, and why I’ve always wanted to live on top of a mountain where I could watch the world carry on below me as if I were an Olympian perched atop Mount Olympus.

But I was raised to believe in Judeo-Christian ideals. And the stories of Ancient Greece were just that: stories. Still, there was something visceral about The Olympians. The daily life of the Greek gods read more like a script of The Real World than the stories that involved Jesus preaching or roaming through the desert.

Plus, instead of one god in three forms, the Greeks believed in dozens of gods, each dedicated to their own sphere of expertise. Ares was the god of war; Artemis the goddess of the hunt; Athena the goddess of reason, intelligence, and battle strategy; Dionysus the god of wine and ecstasy (not the drug, but I’m sure he’d love Molly). Presiding over them all, of course, was the king of the gods himself—who in most stories spent his time thrusting his thunderbolt into attractive Greek women—Zeus.

Now: unless you had your head stuck up your ass for all of grade school, I’m going to assume you know who Zeus is. If you don’t, I hate you, and don’t want dumb people reading my site.

But here’s the thing about Zeus: (most of) history has been looking at Zeus in the wrong way. And I only realized there was another, far more interesting way to view Zeus while listening to Dr. Jordan Peterson’s lecture series on The Bible.

Toys for the Gods

In the mind of the Ancient Greeks, human beings were the playthings of the gods. Humanity, to the Hellenes, was beholden to the whims of the spirits that sat atop Mount Olympus. They were wild, unpredictable, and when left to their own devices, caused great suffering.

We know more today about how our world works than our Greek ancestors. But there’s still so much we don’t know of our own world. But what if there is another layer to Greek Mythology? What if you viewed The Olympians through the realm of psychology?

How do these gods change if you view them as an anthropomorphized version of our most basic human emotions?

Dramatized stories have been used since the dawn of time to teach all of humanity important lessons about how to live a good life. Greek Mythology was no different. And if you examine The Olympians as representations of our most basic human emotions, you’ll begin to see that Vertical Horizon was right: you are a god.

As Above, So Below

What’s it like when you lose control of how you feel? Does it feel like you’ve been swept away into a part of you that you can’t control? Do you feel like you’ve “possessed” by a spirit?

Or put another way, how many times have you:

Been so angry but had no idea why and blacked out, then said or did something you regret?

Have you ever loved so intensely that it leads you to do really stupid things?

Or have you ever felt so drunk on an emotion or passion that you lost yourself in pure ecstasy for a moment?

Individually, our emotions (or gods) can cause us to slip back into our most basic animal instincts. At their core, these emotions are savage. And raw emotion is untamed; wild, and unhinged. If left to their own devices, these god-emotions will do the only thing they’re designed to do.

But consciousness forces us to recognize our choices and actions. It demands that we take responsibility. It requires us to look at these god-emotions, determine what the hell they’re freaking out about, and keep them in line so that we can make good decisions about our circumstances.

Our conscious mind operates as the king of the gods; making Zeus, the king of the sky (read: mind) and the keeper of law and order, the representation of our conscious self.

Ride the Lightning

Have you ever been struck by an idea out of nowhere? Like it felt as if a light had gone off in your head? The Ancient Greeks had a word for this: enelysion. It meant, “struck by lightning.” (The word later evolved to “Elysium,” a part of the Underworld—The Elysian Fields—where the souls of the heroic and virtuous spent eternity.)

When you become consciously aware of your thoughts, actions, feelings about a situation, or your emotional state: it’s as if you’ve been blessed by Zeus and struck by lightning with (t)his revelation.

  Unconscious behavior, the kind you blame on “unruly spirits,” is you being ruled by your god-emotions. Conscious behavior, on the other hand, is you using your Zeus-mind to maintain law and order over your god-emotions.

Once you become conscious of a problem, and bring it to light with Zeus’s lightning bolt, only then do you have the capacity to make your situation better.

But when we let the gods run amuck, we become their playthings. And when one god gets rambunctious in our lives, we (can) bring about discord and disorder:

Too much spirit, and you become drunk on that which brings you ecstasy. (Dionysus)

Too much love and lust can leave you blind to the actions of those around you. (Aphrodite)

Do you find that you’re quick to anger and easily turn into a hot-headed douchebag? (Ares)

In a Glass Cage of Emotion

Myths of the ancient world may have been considered fact by those in that time, but their true intention was to help humanity understand it’s place in the world. Our ancestors created these stories so that they could explain the seasons, the rising of the sun, fertility/infertility, earthquakes, floods, violence, etc.

Now, thanks to science, we know how/why earthquakes occur, we know why the sun rises and seasons change, and science has shown us how our brains work in terms of emotions.

But how can you increase consciousness? How can you take more control over your god-emotions and live a better life?

5 Ways to Become More Conscious

Take Care of Your Body

Exercise increases your cognitive function, increases the size of your hippocampus (the area responsible for memory), and has been shown to have dramatic epigenetic effects on how your genes express themselves.

Increase Your Inner Knowledge of Yourself (Journal or write in some capacity)

“You can’t solve a problem unless you know what it is.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson. Journaling has been proving to help those with mental health issues better cope with their disease because it helps you become conscious of your problems, fears, and worries. Writing helps you shape your mind. It can show you how you perceive the world, and show you how you respond to your emotions, and how you can better deal with them.

Appreciation (Gratitude)

One of the things I love about The 5 Minute Journal that I bought my wife is that it asks her what she’s grateful for every night. We’ve now carried that over our own relationship by telling each other 3 things we appreciate about one another from that day.

Desire (Set Goals)

Humans are goal driven creatures. Having a lofty goal to aspire to gives our lives meaning. And when you’re conscious of where you want to go, and working towards that goal, your life feels more meaningful.

Attention (Meditation or Nature)

Put the phone down, pick your ass up off the couch, and pause the video games for a few minutes each day. Take a walk in nature and observe the world around you. Or meditate. But find a way to quiet your mind so that you can connect to your mind.

We’re Animals at Heart

Charles Darwin was one of the first scientists to theorize that our emotions evolved over time in the same way as our inherited genetic traits. Our ancestors needed these emotions to survive in the wild. And no matter how much we try and fight it: we’re still animals at our core. There’s still a “lizard brain” that operates and controls much of our day to day life. Our emotions are still as savage as ever.

We’ve civilized as a species. We’ve built cities, honed fine metals, discovered the building blocks of the universe, set foot on the moon, and flown to the heavens. Our ancestors would consider us gods if they could see what we’ve accomplished.

But we still carry around the same god-emotions they did. (So we’re not complete deities.)

Civilized Savagery: Balancing Your Inner Greek gods

Freud believed that we needed to civilize those emotions—or spirits—so that we could live together in harmony with others. Our emotions can possess our minds, and our conscious being becomes beholden to their whims. To resist, we need to be conscious of what they want, and what actions these gods are demanding transpire.

And then, like Zeus, our conscious minds—the rational and thoughtful and just part of our brain—must take control. But the only way to keep your gods in line is to make sure that you’re Zeus-mind is constantly conscious of what’s happening. To live a right and just life, you must civilize your most savage emotions and become the god of your mind. Or something my friend Nick Sorrell referred to as “civilized savagery.”

Our god-emotions are part of us, they’ve helped us survive as a species and avoid dangerous situations. But left unbridled, they can cause great harm; they’re necessary, yes, but our conscious mind must also civilize these basic instincts so that we can live a good life.

Like a god who can see from the highest heights of Olympus, you need to examine, ask yourself questions, and better understand what your god-emotions are doing. Why are they trying to wreck havoc right now? What has spurred them to take over and come forth?

By doing that, you bring consciousness to your thoughts and feelings. Because as Vertical Horizon so clearly stated: you are a god, and you just don’t know it.