The Corona Body Blast Workout Routine

 home workout that does not need gym equipment and builds muscle!   Straight body weight workouts but not just your normal body weight workouts.   There are some tweeks in how to do them that will make a huge difference.  Come out of quarantine with a ripped physique!

Roughly 1 hour workouts, 6 days a week.

Day 1 – Chest and Triceps w/ upper core
Day 2 – Back and Biceps w/ lower core
Day 3 – Legs w/ full core
Day 4 – Chest and Triceps w/ upper core
Day 5 – Back and Biceps w/ lower core
Day 6 – Legs w/ full core
Day 7 – Rest.

I call these “skill” body weight workouts.  The reason these are different from your normal body weight workouts is what you do to make them do more damage to your muscles.  For example, a push up.  Hands about shoulder width apart, full up then down to almost touching the ground and back up.  BUT, with “Skill” Push Ups, EACH set gets more challenging and each set adds a new dynamic to the workout:

Set 1, Push Up – Basic Push Up (warm up)
Set 2, Push Up – Slow motion.  Do the same motion, but really slow.  Go down, very slow and back up, very slow.
Set 3, Push Up – Slower motion.  Now, go even slower than your last set.
Set 4, Push Up – Slow motion and Pause.  Do a slow mo push up, but once you get to your down position, pause for a few seconds and hold it.   Then, slowly return.
Set 5, Push Up – Slow motion, pause, until failure.  Do set 4, but continually do it until you hit muscle failure.

Now, apply this “Skill Set” principle with all the workouts.

Set 1 – Basic movement, like a warm up set.
Set 2 – Slow Motion 1.  Slow the movement down.
Set 3 – Slow Motion 2.  Go even slower than the previous set.
Set 4 – Slow Mo and Pause.  Same as Set 3, but in the half completed position, before return to starting position, pause for a few seconds.
Set 5 – Same as set 4, but do it until muscle failure.

Now, to raise the intensity of the workout, between each set, you will do a core super set, roughly 60 seconds of activity.

Day  1, 4:  CHEST & TRICEPS with Upper Core

1. Basic Push Up
   1. Crunches
2. Wide Push Up
   1. Oblique Crunches
3. Incline Push Up
   1. Sky Reaches
4. Decline Push Up
   1. Crunches
5. Diamond Push Up (or Single Handed Push Ups)
   1. Oblique Crunches
6. Chair Dips
   1. Sky Reaches
7. Body Ups.

Day 2, 5:  BACK & BICEPS with Lower Core

1. Pull Up
   1. Reverse Crunches
2. Wide Grip Pull Up
   1. Flutter Kicks
3. Between Chair Elbow Rows
   1. Leg Tuck and Twists
4. Supermans
   1. Reverse Crunches
5. Hammer Grip Pull Ups
   1. Flutter Kicks
6. Chin Ups

Day 3, 6:  LEG DAY with Total Core

1. Deep Sumo Squats
   1. Full Sit Up
2. Bulgarian Lunges
   1. Russian Twist
3. Side Lunges
   1. Bicycles
4. Single Leg Hip Thrusters
   1. Plank
5. Pistol Squats
   1. V-Ups
6. Single Leg Calf Raises

Following this routine will work every primary muscle group at least twice a week and give your core a constant workout.  With the “skill” adjustments, these simple body weight workouts will do more stimulating muscle growth.

Keep in mind though, without a constant solid healthy diet, you may be able to build some muscle, but recovery may be slower, and you won’t see any viable results.   By incorporating a healthy high protein fresh foods diet while maintaining a calorie deficit, you will get some serious results, strength, size, and toning!

So when the government says you can have your freedoms back, and tell you what you can and can’t do with your body by where you’re allowed to go, and allow you go exit your house and allow businesses (that haven’t gone out of business due to the forced closures) reopen, you will have a more strong toned body to show off, right before summer too.

Bare Essentials of an Effective Routine

If you are looking to get back into working out after a long time off, or getting into shape for the first time, these are the bare basic essentials for any and all effective routines.

There are two areas that must work together for any routine and regiment to work.  Having a healthy diet regiment along with an active workout routine.  One plays off the other and helps the other have a greater impact and effect.

Freedom Fighter Workout Routine

With governments imposing more unjust laws and more freedom restrictions, rallies and protests are inevitable.  As police departments becoming less focused on individual rights and defending the constitution, they are being weaponized to enforce the unjust laws and  freedom restrictions.  This routine keeps you in shape and ready for whatever may happen at a rights rally and protest.

Have you noticed the fitness level of average police and national guard?  LOL.

Most of those sad guys couldn’t even pass the simplest army 2 mile run in under 16 minutes.  A lot of those guys should be getting chaptered for failing their APFT, to be honest.  With that said, this routine will give you the physical advantage over those guys, who will be used to violate their rights and oppress you at at rallies and protests.  Hell, this routine will even get you prepped for any sort of physical confirmation with counter protesters.  This routine is perfectly supplemented with Judo for any sort of physical confrontation preparation.

Considering what you may have to do during a protest and rally, such as a lot of walking, sudden bursts of running, physical upper body strength for breaking away from someone trying to subdue you, and lower body strength for carrying any gear or assisting in helping someone else break away from a physical confrontation.

There are couple of things to consider, some gear to obtain, before conducting this workout.

Gear

1.  You want to wear something that restricts your breathing.  Some sort of mask.  This simulates wearing a “gas mask” of some sort.
2. You want to wear a weighted vest or weighted backpack during the workout.  This simulates any sort of gear you may be carrying.
3. Carry a 15 pound weight/metal rod with you throughout the circuit to simulate carrying a rifle or any other items at the rally or protest.

The Workout, 1 circuit:

1.  1 mile warmup jog/power walk. (no break)
2.  T-Push Ups – 1 minute. (no break)
3.  Russian Twists – 1 minute.(no break)
4.  Drop gear and do Bent-over Rows with your gear – 2 minutes. (no break)
5.  Bicycle Kicks – 1 minute. (2 minute break)
6.  10,20,30,40,50 yard suicides. (no break)
7.  Mountain Climbers – 1 minute (no break)
8.  Alternating Jumping Lunges – 30 seconds. (no break)
9.  Jump Squats – 30 seconds (no break)
10.  1 mile run/sprint. (5 minute break)

35 minutes with a 5 minute break at the end of the circuit.

Only do two circuits.

All done while wearing a mask or oxygen restriction devise and a weight best or weighted backpack.

Track your total completion time and how many reps you do for your weakest events/workouts.  Then, try to beat your time and increase your reps.

Do this continuously, three times a week, starting 45 days before a major rally or protest and you’ll be ready!

Spice it up.

You can also do various of these workouts depressing on where you need to improve the most.

• T-Push Up -> Diamond Push Ups, Basic Push UPs, Staggered Push Ups, Incline, decline…
• Any core workout can be switched out for planks and just about any other core workout.
• Bent-over Rows -> Pull Ups, Chin Ups (wearing gear).
• Add Some Spice to Your Basic Workouts

Why?

So, to visualize the workouts and the order of them helps us understand why we are doing them and what sort of situation it prepares us for.

#1 is like the beginning of the rally, march, protest.

Then as you begin #2-5 you are assisting the rally organizers or attendees, marching, yelling, protesting.

But then, shit hits the fan, police move in with tear gas or counter protesters start throwing punches.

#6-9 gets your cardio and legs ready for anything.  Needing to flee the scene, you’ll be ready.  Needing to run and help a fellow protester break away from being subdued or assaulted, you’ll be there in no time, not even tired, full of energy.

#10 is when it is clear the rally and protest is forcefully over and you get need to leave the area ASAP.

The Vanity Beach Body Workout Routine

So, with this covid-19 winding down and our mommy and daddy governments giving us permission to live free again and go out, let’s not forget it is just about SUMMER TIME!  Beach body season!  And THIS is the Vanity Beach Body Routine to get those bods into shape for beach fun!  It’s simple, and combines all the necessary elements for bodily success!

First we need to get our diet in order.  For this, we will just seek to maintain a Calorie Deficit or around 500 to 300 under what we burn daily.  In other words, if i burn 2,500 calories that day, I only want to intake 2,000 calories.  This will require you to track your calories burned and calorie intake.  Then, we want to have NO MORE than 30% carbs.  Last we want to intake AT LEAST our body weight in protein grams.  So if you weight 200 lbs, you want at least 200g of protein.

DIET DAILY GOALS:

1. Calorie Deficit of 500 to 300.
2. No more than 30% of carbs.
3. Body weight in protein grams.

Second we may need to make some lifestyle adjustments.  We want to make sure we get at least and around 8 hours of sleep a night.  Go to bed early if needed.  We will then want to take a break from smoking, vaping, and drinking alcohol.  These interfere with our bodies use of any hydration, nutrients, and hormones for fat burning and muscle growth.  Then, drink coffee in the morning and Green Tea throughout the day.  Studies have shown these two have major impacts on fat burning and body fat reduction.

LIFE STYLE GOALS:

1. Get around 8 hours of sleep, nightly.
2. Stop smoking/vaping.
3. Stop drinking alcohol.
4. Start drinking coffee in the mornings.
5. Start drinking Green Tea during the day.

Third, supplements are like liquid motivation and the jet fuel for your bodies engines.  You want a three phase approach.  Phase One is Pre-workout.  This will give you a massive boost for working out and will up the amount of energy expended during a workout (and burn more calories).  Find one that you like and do test doses before taking the recommended dosage on the packaging.  You can also add some Soluble Fiber (1 tbsp) and MCTs (Coconut Oil) (1 tbsp) in your pre-workout for healthy sources of energy and to keep you from feeling nauseous.  Phase Two is Intra-workout.  This can consist of BCAAs, EAAs, Electrolytes, and Creatine.  Phase Three is your Post-workout.  This is where most of your protein,BCAAs, EAAs, and even Keytone supplements should come from.

SUPPLEMENT GOALS:

1. Pre-workout; energy, more calorie burning.  Add Soluable Fiber and MCT.
2. Intra-workout; sustained energy and recovery prep with Creatine.
3. Post-workout; protein grams and amino acids.

EQUIPMENT:

You will need to spend some money to look good.  You will need to buy some supplements AND some equipment to speed up your body transformation.  Some resistances bands;  10lb, 4x 20lb, 2x 30lb, 50lb, 100lb bands.  A door stopper and door anchor, and cut up a sock to slide the bands between to protect them from whatever they may rub against.  And a door mount pull up bar.

Now that you have your Diet, lifestyle, Supplement, and gear all in order; you can now begin your workout routine.

The Routine:

Day 1, 5:  Chest & Upper core
Day 2, 6:  Biceps (Men), Cardio (Women) & Lower core
Day 3, 7:  Legs, Glutes, & Total Core.
Day 4: Rest.

Repeat.

Chest Workouts for Day 1: 

• Single Handed Push Up.
  • Upper core super set:  Crunches (1 minutes worth)
• Basic, slow-mo and Pause, Push Up
  • Upper core super set:  Side to Side Crunch (1 minutes worth)
• Wide, slow-mo and pause, Push Up
  • Upper core super set:  Sky reaches (1 minutes worth)
• Diamond Push up.

5 Sets, no more than 20 reps.  If you can do more than 20, than you are not going slow enough and not taking long enough pauses.  Make it hurt.

Chest Workouts for Day 5:

• Single handed Push Up.
• Resistance Band Chest Press.
• Resistance Band Chest Flys.
• Wide, slow-mo and pause, Push Up
• Same Upper Core super sets as Day 1.

5 sets, no more than 15 reps.  If you can do more than 15, you need to increase the resistance.

Men’s Biceps Day 2 & 6:

• Single Bicep curl
  • Lower core super set:  Reverse crunches
• Single Hammer curl.
  • Lower core Super set:  Flutter kicks
• Chin Ups, close grip.
  • Lower core super set:  V-Ups

5 sets, no more than 15 reps.  If you can do more than 15, you need to increase the resistance.  If you can do more than 15 consecutive Chin Ups, then consider adding weight to your ankles or doing Single Hand Chin Ups.

Legs and Glutes Day 3 & 7:

• Deep squats with Resistance bands.
  • Full core super set: Russian Twists
• Bulgarian Split Squats (lunges)
  • Full core super set: Bicycle
• Resistance Band Kick backs or Donkey Kicks
  • Single Leg, Calf Raises super set.

Women’s Cardio Day 2 & 6:

• Mountain Climber twists.
  • Lower core super set:  Reverse crunches
• Plank-to-knee taps.
  • Lower core Super set:  Flutter kicks
• Burpees
  • Lower core super set:  V-Ups
• Jumping Lunges (or Squats)

These are more timed.  Do 5 sets of around 1 to 2 minutes straight.  Count how many you do, then just keep beating that number.

Q & A

Why not workout other body parts?

Working your chest will also work your Triceps.  The Chin Ups will work your back.  But the goal is really to increase the tone and size of the most noticeable muscle groups, your chest, biceps, and butt.  As you workout, eat right, and hit your daily goals, your abs will come through and you’ll have that 8 pack and “v” too.

Why is there a different day 2 for men and women?

We have discussed this with men and women.  Quite frankly, most women don’t want bigger biceps and men do.  So, this is for both men and women’s different goals and desires.  If you are a women, and want bigger biceps, by all means, do the “mens” workout, you do you.  Same with men, if you want to burn more calories and fat, do the “womens” day workout.

Also check out:

• The Corona Body Blast Home Workout
• Appetite Suppression
• How Fat-Burning Works and How To Do IT!
• What does science say about the best way to building muscle?
• Nuke that belly fat hiding your abs!
• How to boost your Testosterone, naturally!
• Understanding The Various Types of Sets and Reps
• Carb TimingPortion Control
• Block those excess carbs and sugars!

Getting Started.

Once you have all your goals set up, diet, lifestyle changes, supplements, and equipment; the very first thing you want to do is weight yourself and take your measurements.  Either use a scale that calculates your body fat for you can use the measurements to do the same.  From here you can track any size increases, an increase in Lean Mass (muscle), or even areas where you need to improve.  If you see an uptick in body fat, may need to reevaluate your diet or make sure your not over training (doing too many reps) and burning muscle.  Do weekly weigh-ins and measurements to see those micro changes for motivation.

Stick with it for 30 days.  If you get results.  Do it again for another 30 days.  Then, its summer  and it’s time to show off.

Isometric Muscle Building

Who would have thought pushing against an immovable object for an extended period of time would be of any benefit.  A skinny guy trying his hardest to lift a literal ton, exerting effort for 30 seconds before taking a break.   What if I told you that studies have shown that, that builds muscle, almost as much as lifting movable weight?  I’ll explain:

“Isometric training” or “static holds” are positions that require and exertion of effort for an extended period of time.   A plank is a “passive” Isometric workout.   It is considered “passive” when you are essentially just holding your body weight and not exerting any force.  “Active” Isometric training is where the money is at.  This is where you are active in your efforts, like attempting to lift and immovable object for a short period of time.  An example is a simple home workout called Towel Curls.  Where you extended the max length of the towel, and then from there, try to curl the towel more, at max length.  You continue to try and curl the towel at max length for about 20 seconds.  Sounds too good to be true, hu?  Well, let’s get into the studies behind this.

The History

In the 1950s, researchers Hettinger and Muller found a single daily effort of 66% of a person’s 1MR exerted for six seconds at a time for ten weeks increased strength about 5% per week.

Isometrics was the brainchild of York Barbell Club owner Bob Hoffman and USA weight lifting team physician Dr. John Ziegler.  But when he got all caught up on steroids, that also socially discredited his inclusion of Isometrics too.

The Nerds

Chad Waterbury, D.P.T., an L.A.-based physical therapist and trainer, uses with his clients target the stabilizing muscles in their hips. The holds are quite effective for relief of back or knee pain. But to Waterbury’s surprise, he also found that they could increase glute size.  This benefit, he realized, didn’t come from occasional practice. Frequency was key: His clients did three isometric holds a day, most days. The holds he uses most successfully—two for the glutes and one each for chest and calves.

And static holds have been shown to elevate time under tension, hypoxia (this kicks off metabolic stress) and muscle damage too, in numerous studies.  Research shows a clear relationship between the two.  Static holds for given periods of time do get you strong. BUT static holds only make you stronger at the joint angle you perform the lift at, plus or minus around 10% either side, so you want to consider doing more than one holding position.

After 9 weeks of training, the increase in isokinetic strength was similar in both legs (pooled data from three velocities: dynamically trained leg, 10.7%; isometrically trained leg, 10.5%). Isometric strength increases were significantly greater for the isometrically trained leg (pooled data from four angles: dynamically trained leg, 13.1%; isometrically trained leg, 18.0%) (1. Strength training: isometric training at a range of joint angles versus dynamic training).

At the mid-point of the training, the HF group had 50% greater gains in isometric strength, although this was not significant (4.5 weeks: HF, 13.3 (4.4)%; LF, 8.9 (3.6)%). This rate of increase was not sustained by the HF group, and after nine weeks of training all the strength measurements showed similar improvements for both groups (isometric strength: HF, 18.2 (3.9)%; LF, 14.5 (4.0)%) (2.  Fatigue is not a necessary stimulus for strength gains during resistance training)

A recent study comparing the level of muscle activation during isometric, concentric, and eccentric muscle actions found that a person can recruit over 5% more motor-units/muscle fibers during a maximal isometric muscle action than during either a maximal eccentric (lowering) or maximal concentric (lifting) action; that’s 95.2% for isometric compared to 88.3% for the eccentric and 89.7% for the concentric. (9,10)

A study by Kanchisa et al. (2002) found an average muscle cross-sectional area (size) improvement of 12.4% for maximal isometric contraction training and of 5.3% for isometric training at 60% of maximum contraction after a training period of ten weeks (10).

The Details

• Option 1:  Post-Fatigue Isometric workout – where you conduct the static hold as the last set of the workout of that muscle group.
• Option 2:  Per Isometric workout, you do static holds in three different positions.  For example, a bicep curl.  1st hold, almost fully extended; 2nd hold, 45 degrees up; 3rd hold, 90 degrees up.
• 9 weeks of Isometric training.  After 9 weeks, the results from Isometric training fades (11).
• 3 times a week.
• 75-90% of 1MR.
• Hold for 20-60 seconds = 1 set.
• Short rests between “sets.”

There are a lot of benefits to incorporating Isometric training into your workout regiment.

sources:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16195033
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12351337
3. https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/which-is-better-isometrics-or-weight-training
4. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/isometric-exercises/faq-20058186
5. https://spotmebro.com/training/do-static-holds-build-muscle-mass/
6. https://www.active.com/fitness/articles/7-isometric-exercises-for-a-full-body-workout
7. https://www.t-nation.com/training/isometrics-for-mass
8. Babault et al. 2001.
9. Allen et al. 1995, Allen et al. 1998, Belanger and McComas 1981, De Serres and Enoka 1998, Gandevia et al. 1998, Gandevia and McKenzie 1988, Merton 1954, Newham et al. 1991, Yue et al. 2000.
10. Kanchisa et al. 2002.
11. Medvedyev 1986.

Body Weight Prep and Endurance Routine

This is a routine I will do for 30 days after taking a long time off from working out.  Kinda of preps my body, mind, and muscles for hitting the weights again.  It increases muscular endurance and blood flow to the muscles.  A critical factor when weight lifting or doing more intense muscle driven workouts.

• Type:  Muscle Endurance.
• Location: At home.
• Tools:  Body-weight (a weight vest, ankle and wrist weights if desired.)
• Frequency: 6 days a week; 1 day off.
• Length of Workout:  45-60 min.
• Schedule:  Alternate between complete upper body one day, complete lower body the next.
• Goals:  You will do 90% of your max reps each workout AND you want to always beat your previous rep count each workout.
• Prep:  You will need a sturdy chair, long beach towel, doorway pull up bar, and a journal or spreadsheet to track data.
• Possible Results:  In 30 days, doing this 6 days a week, you should be able to loss 3-7 pounds of weight, 1-2% body fat, and increase your muscle endurance by 15-35%.  BUT it depends on YOUR level of intensity and drive.

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Day 1:  Weigh your self and take a selfie.  Essentially it is like your “max day.”  but instead of maxing on weights, you are doing as many reps as possible until you hit muscle failure; for each workout.  This is an important number that will determine how many reps you will do.  Upper body maxes.

Day 2: Lower body maxes.

Every Workout:  As you workout or after every workout day, record your reps and note how you felt during that workout.  If you have a smart watch, track your calories burned.

End of Week 2:  Weigh your self.  Do a self audit of all the data you have collected.  See which workouts are improving the most and which are not, that way you can focus more intensity where you need it.

End of the 30 Days:  Weigh your self, take a selfie, and see if your body weight and or fat has improved.  Do a final calculation on which muscle groups have improved the most and calculate your overall improvement.

The Upper Body Workouts:

Chest

Push Ups – normal push up.

Push Up wide – hands wider than normal.

Push Up Diamonds – thumbs and index finger touching.

Staggered Push Up – Left hand high, right hand low, and alternate.

Back

Pull Up (need a door pull up bar)

Chin Up (need a door pull up bar)

Elbow Ups – Laying on your back, push your elbows into the ground lifting your body off the ground.

Body Drag – Literally using only your arms to drag your body forward.

Bicep

Towel Chin ups (need a long towel and doorway pull up bar) – Hold on to the towel wrapped around the doorway pull up bar, and pull yourself up.

Chin up Holds – do chin ups, but hold once reaching the top.

Towel Curls (need a long towel) – Wrap the towel around your foot and pull up your foot/leg in a curl motion working your bicep.

Triceps

Chair Dips (need a firm chair)

Deep Diamond Pushup – rest your chest on your hands in the diamond push up position and do push ups.

Shoulders

Pike Push up – Arch your back up, were you are doing push ups.

High to Low pushup – As you do push ups, as you extend up, move your body forward, then as you come back down, bend your knees and move your body backward without moving your hands.

Core

Crunches

Reverse Crunches (leg lifts)

Heal touches

V-Ups

Russian Twists

The Lower Body Workouts

Knee Highs – from a lunge stance, bring your most rear leg up and knee to your chest.

Donkey Kicks – in a prone position, kick your leg back and bring your knee to your chest.

Towel Quad Curls – wrap a towel around your foot, pulled back in a quad stretching position, and then move your leg forward at your knee to activate your quad.

Towel Hamstring Curls – wrap a towel around your ankle, then bring your leg back to your glute, pivoting at your knee.

Single leg Calf Raises – Rest one foot on the heal of the other

Sumo Squats (deep squats) legs more spread

Lunges

Side Lunges – lunge and squat to each side.

Jump Squats

Alternating Jump Lunges

Calf Springs

*Because leg day may be shorter, doing JUMP ROPE or HALF JACKS for a long period of time with short breaks would be very beneficial.

Finding Your Inner Motivation

With out GENUINE motivation all your hard work at the gym, and the goals you set wont mean a thing.  Eventually you will fade and give up.  To prevent fading and giving up motivation is key!

Each of us are motivated in different ways; you have to find what motivates you.  There are a few ways to start searching.  Ask your self WHY.

Why do you want to even get fit?  Don’t BS your self and say something lame like “because I want to be healthy“.  No kidding you want to be healthy but that answer doesn’t get you any closer to finding GENUINE motivation.

There are 2 kinds, Inside and Outside; but there are some that seem to be motivations but aren’t (pseudo-motivation).

Inside Genuine Motivation:

Follow the process of logic to hit the source of your desire.

For example if your ultimate desire is to lose 10 pounds; the next question is why do you want to lose 10 pounds?  Then you follow up that with something like “because I am over weight“.  Next question you would ask your self would be “why does it matter if your over weight?”  This starts getting close to the heart of your desire for the goal.

An answer that starts to cut deep in the heart would be something like “because I want to see my daughter get married and healthy enough to walk her down the isle.” AND BOOM following the line of logic getting deeper and deeper to the heart of your desire you find your ultimate GENUINE motivation.

For me it was because I was skinny, felt weak, was weak, and wasn’t happy with myself because of it.  That sounds shallow but believe it or not, and like it or not, our over all fitness does and can effect all other aspects of our lives.

Inside Genuine Motivation are things like ability to perform hobbies and how your health and fitness effects your most important aspects of your personal life.

But what do you do when you reach your goal and achieve your genuine motivation?  You dig for a new one or what you achieved could be lost.  You may have lost all that weight so you could walk your daughter down the isle at her wedding, but what happens when you gain all that weight back after the fact?  Some times finding outside sources for motivation is needed.

Outside Genuine Motivation:

Sometimes there are people who touch our hearts in such a way that it lights a fire for self change.  We might see a picture of an athlete or celebrity and it lights a fire to achieve that physique.  Competition in results  between friends can spark genuine motivation.  Even disdain or anger toward someone can spark a powerful desire to achieve goals and this is also genuine motivation.

Pseudo Motivation:

This kind of feeling seems like a motivating will but unlike genuine motivations, these fade faster and don’t really last or burn as hard because of their false sense of self.  One of the biggest false motivators are for the approval of others.  To get all fit and sexy for other people to look at you and make you ‘cooler‘.  Because this is based on the standards of other people and not your self.  This was also addressed in the article “Who Are You Doing This For?”

The TO-DO for Genuine Motivation:

1. Weigh yourself every day! The scale won’t lie to you and will hold you accountable like it or not.
2. Tell your friends and Family! Making it public will effect you mentally and even your friends and family might make jokes (secret truth) when you mess up to put you back on track.
3. Reflect, Think, and Remind your self ONLY positive thoughts.  Be your best cheerleader!
4. Keep at Fitness diary.  Track what you do, how you did it, and the results your getting from doing it.
5. Look in the mirror every day! Just like the scale, the mirror will never lie.
6. Take a weekly picture.  This picture will prove and validate your effort.
7. Immerse your self with your goals and anything related to your goals.  Watch fitness/weight loss programs, read goal related magazines, websites, videos.
8. Change your wardrobe.  If you want to lose weight, donate your big cloths and buy small cloths that forces you to fit in them.

Losing Weight Quick Isn’t Always a Good Thing

Some people want and need to lose weight, in some cases, a lot of weight.  Their over all health and future health depends on it.  But then there are some who are so obsessed with losing weight, even when they don’t need too.

Some people want to be ripped so bad that they are willing to sacrifice lean mass/muscle to get what they think is lean and ripped. This is kinda touched on in the article “Anorexic Ripped is not the same as Swoll Ripped“. But here I am going to talk more directly about the goal of weight loss, not getting ‘ripped’.

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Losing weight can be good OR BAD.  Burning fat-weight is good, burning muscle-weight (when you only weigh 150lbs) is not good.  To cheer on a victorious goal of losing weight of fat and muscle when you are already skinny is idiotic.  Ya it might make your ego feel better, but you are less healthy not more.

Losing muscle can come in a few ways.  Poor diet, and or amped up cardio where your calorie deficit is constantly minus 500, are usually the causes for this. If your goal is to lose weight and get lean and ripped. why in the heck would you ever want to lose the muscle that you want to keep?  That is idiotic.  Some times this way of thinking also comes from “Who are you doing this for?”

Also sacrificing muscle mass to “look more ripped” is dumb in the fact the the more lean muscle you have, the more calories and fat you will naturally burn in the first place.  Build more muscle and that will naturally lead to more fat burning; and thus, becoming more ripped without sacrificing muscle.

If your losing weight, including muscle, yet you want to be ripped; my nephew is 8 years old and according to that logic, he is ripped.  If you want to keep the muscle you have, your routine or diet has to change!  If your eating regularly and even simi-healthy, chances are your workout routine is the problem.

1. Focus on your diet: up the carbs and eat regularly but maintain a slight calorie deficit.
2. Change your workout routine: use different resistance, or workout styles or routines.

OR Become “ripped anorexic” and lose lean muscle.

Apps to Track Progress and Results

I am a data nerd!  I track every data point possible so I see trends and spot inefficiencies.  Last thing I want to do is waste my time.  Personally, I use Google Sheets to track everything but, if your not as nerdy as me, there are a couple of phone apps that can be just as useful for your journey.

The Strong fitness app is super simple and perfect for creating and tracking workout routines.  So customizable its awesome.  You can pick from pre-made workouts or create your own.  Then create your own routines.

MyFitnessPal, by Underarmor is top notch calorie and macro tracker.  This is key for low carb diets.  There is a subscription fee for more features, but it is cheap and worth it.  You can scan barcodes and create the sum calorie content of whatever meal you make.

Last you will NEED at least one of the three apps, depending on what device you are using.

Apple health, Fitbit, or Samsung Health.

Currently, Google Fit sucks.  Garmin is working their way up and I probably should have added them but I have yet to deal with them.

Also, Fitbit are still pretty nazish with allowing cross syncing with Apple Health, Samsung Health, and others.  They don’t allow it and provide punk answers as to why.  But, since they defined the standard of fit tracking and track everything you really need in once place, for now they are still being recommended.

With all these apps combined, you can track:

• Weight lifting progress.
• Rep progress.
• Routine scheduling.
• Calories.
• Macros.
• Diet scheduling.
• Calories burned during workout.
• Calories burned all day.
• Heat rate during workouts and all day.
• Miles ran with GPS tracking.
• Sleep quality.

AND MORE.

All the data you need to make the most informed decision about your fit life!

Do Wrist Wraps Work?

We see all sorts of people wearing wrist wraps while they work out. Some big guys lifting big weight with few reps and some small guys lifting a lot of small weights with a lot of reps, and everyone in between; all wearing wrist wraps. But, do they need to, and are they necessary?

There are two primary factors to help us understand the importance of wrist wraps (“WW”). 1) Form, and 2) weight. Proper form keeps from putting unnecessary stress on the fragile wrist, but, depending on the weight, sometimes the wrist can only take so much resistance despite proper form. Wrist sprains are more common than you think. And if you sprain your wrist, you could jeopardize your workout program or injury your wrist further putting a stop to your program all together. It’s kinda hard to do your best bicep curls, chest presses, and all those weird CrossFit workouts, when your wrist is all jacked up.

Wrist WRAPS are different from wrist STRAPS. One is designed to support your wrist, the other is designed to support your grip by wrapping a strap around the bar to better hold heavier weight longer. We are only talking about wrist WRAPS here.

What do WW claim to do?

It’s essentially a lighter form of a wrist brace. The idea is to provide support to the wrist. It helps to stabilize the wrist during quick movements or heavy lifting. If your wrist is sore from a previous strenuous workout, the WW may even provide just enough support to keep from injuring your wrist any further and may allow you to continue to work out.

When to use them:

So, you do not ALWAYS want to use them. You WANT your wrist to get stronger as you get stronger. Always using your wraps may weaken or keep your wrist strength the same as your body gets stronger, which can lead to problems later as your weight increases. In theory, you want to use them when you are going for a Personal Record (PR), 1MR, and doing a high repetition workout where your form gets compromised as you get tired. Another time to consider using them is when you are lifting over 60% of your 1MR.

How to use them:

You want to wrap where your wrist bends, to support the joint and prevent hyper-extension. So, you don’t want to wrap them too low. You also don’t want to wrap them too high and impede on your grip of the weight/bar/machine. Too high or too low will not provide very much support on the joint anyway. Don’t make them too tight either. Your hand needs blood flow for proper muscular grip functions, but too loose and they won’t provide any kind of support. You want them mildly tight and snug around your joint, centered over and where your wrist bends.

Is using wrist wraps cheating?

Some pricks say it’s cheating, but they need to mind their damn business. Cheating, against who? A lot of them are just jealous that you are getting more gains than they are, I guess. That’s the same as a runner, who only runs barefoot (all natural) arguing that using the best kind of running shoe to train for a race, is cheating. Are lifting belts cheating too? What about knee wraps? Gloves? STFU. It’s probably those same losers that bitch about people grunting while they workout. Measures to prevent injury and improve performance, isn’t inherently cheating. You want to improve yourself, do you whatever you need to do to achieve YOUR goals, f*ck everyone else and their opinions. And tell those nazi pricks to mind their business and do whatever it is they want to do to make themselves feel better about themselves.

The Actual Resistance of Resistance Bands

Feel like a boss curling 50lbs resistance bands don’t you? Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s far from actually 50lbs. So don’t run off to the gym and try to curl a 50lbs dumb bell, you may hurt yourself. But, there is a way to estimate how much ACTUAL resistance you are curling.

At “max” stretch, or at 3x stretch, the resistance bands are given their “resistance” or weight equivalency.

Not all workouts need or use the “max stretch” or 3x stretch. Doing bicep curls, for example, may not require a long enough stretch to reach the bands weighted equivalency. Keep this in mind because it will become part of the calculations.

We will use bicep curls as our example. If at the starting position, the band is not stretched, that means, from the start, there is 0 lbs of resistance. Just like any workout from the starting position. As you begin the curl, you’ll notice that it is easy. So, half way up curling, you’ll notice it getting more difficult. This is the resistance increasing as the band stretches. As you complete the curl, the resistance will be at its most difficult. Then, as you lower, the resistance begins to decrease.

That means, curling a 50lbs resistance band, is not actually curling 50lbs. So, how much are you actually curling?

The first thing you need to determine is whether or not you are “fully” stretching the band at the completion of the workout. Observe the length of the band at the completion of the workout. Has it been stretched 3x more? If no, then you need to estimate how much of the 3x length it was stretched, because 3x stretch = 50lbs; therefore anything less than 3x stretch is less than 50lbs. Use percentages. If at the completion it has been stretched by 2x, then we can estimate that 33lbs of resistance were met. 2x stretch is 66% of a 3x stretch, so 50lbs x 66% = 33lbs. So your peak weight /resistance at the completion of the curl is ~33lbs.

But, you didn’t curl 33lbs of resistance the whole time. In fact, it was easier to get it up to competition, and easier to lower back to the starting position. Unlike curling a 50lbs dumb bell, you weren’t lifting 50lbs the whole time. With a dumb bell, it’s the same weighted resistance from start to finish. Half way up, you’ve barely stretched the band. That’s only 50% of the 33lbs, making the moment you are curling half way up, about 16.5lbs. Then, after completing the curl, half way back down is again only 16.5lbs. Therefore, you weren’t even curling 33lbs the whole time; more like 22lbs, averaged, of a 50lbs Resistance Band.

Now, there are workouts that do or could use the max 3x stretch, such as door mounted chest press/flies, even Squats depending on how tall you are and what you use to attach/mount the bands to.

Here us a universal formula to help determine how much actual resistance / weight equivalency you are working:

(( BW x S% ) + ₁(( BW x S% ) /2) + ₂(( BW x S% ) /2)) /3

Actual estimate of weighted equivalent resistance

BW = band weight
S% = Stretch % of Max
Sub script 1 and 2 = half up way, half way down

If you are starting out with the band already stretched, just add the additional percentage estimate of workout max stretch for sub script 1 and 2.

The real difficulty becomes trying to get the actual resistance to be the same as the weight you can actually lift. Let’s say you can curl a 35 lb dumb bell, and you want your average constant resistance to be 35 lbs too. That means you may need to use an 80lb rated resistance band. But that puts your estimated peak resistance around 50lbs just to get that 35lb average, which may be too difficult to peak. And if you can’t peak at that resistance, than your actual average is lowered.

So a rule of thumb is to find a resistance that you CAN peak with, that you can complete the workout. A estimated weight that you only need to hit for a second or so. Similar to a 1MR, one max rep, with actual weights. This “max” peak resistance can be an indicator if you are doing too much, too little, or just right.

ALSO depending on the quality, thickness, make of the band, the “max” stretch may be reached in a shorter distance of stretching. This is something YOU have to estimate and incorporate into your calculations.

Want Perkier Boobs?

This is a struggle for some women.  Some women lose a lot of weight and it causes their boobs to look saggy.  For other women, their boobs are just large, which over time, begins to sag.  There are workouts for that.  Workouts that naturally lift your boobs and makes them more perky.

The Bench Press Arch Debate

For some reason there are all kinds of people who debate about the proper form of how to do the chest Bench Press the best.  Seen some pretty odd videos with some weird forms and everyone attempts to justify everything.  BUT, let’s look at the actual science and studies behind the proper bench press form.

Here’s Why Doing Cardio without Dieting is Less Effective

A lot of people think that if they just do a lot of cardio with the goal of losing weight, without evaluating their dietary habits, they will lose weight.  Most of those people end of giving up after a few weeks anyway.  Why doing cardio without dieting is less effective.

The Bare Essentials of an Effective Routine

If you are looking to get back into working out after a long time off, or getting into shape for the first time, these are the bare basic essentials for any and all effective routines.

The Freedom Fighter Workout Routine

With governments imposing more unjust laws and more freedom restrictions, rallies and protests are inevitable.  As police departments becoming less focused on individual rights and defending the constitution, they are being weaponized to enforce the unjust laws and  freedom restrictions.  This routine keeps you in shape and ready for whatever may happen at a rights rally and protest.

The Health Benefits of Sexual Activity

We are not discussing the moral or ethical related issues of sexual activity.  We are looking at the biology and science concerning people who do some foreplay, mess around, have sex, or do anything sexual that leads to an orgasm; what are the actual, biological health benefits?

The Vanity Beach Body Routine

So, with this covid-19 winding down and our mommy and daddy governments giving us permission to live free again and go out, let’s not forget it is just about SUMMER TIME!  Beach body season!  And THIS is the Vanity Beach Body Routine to get those bods into shape for beach fun!  It’s simple, and combines all the necessary elements for bodily success!

Only You Can Prevent – Muscle Loss

Losing muscle leads to the loss of strength, mobility, performance, and other negative health issues.  Sometimes you can workout too hardcore, that your body breaks down muscle for energy.  You think your doing so good losing all this weight but your really losing muscle and making your body less healthy.  What are things we can do to prevent this or slow it?  How can you maintain muscle mass?

Dear Women, Building Muscle Does Not Make You Look Bulky; It Makes You Toned

A lot of women don’t want to lift weights or build muscle because they think it will make them get all big and bulky like Ms. Olympia Body Builders; this is not entirely true.  Yes, woman can strive to build so much muscle that they can look like female Olympian Body Builders BUT, 99% of women who build muscle become more lean and toned.  Here’s why: