Poll Results!

Did you reach your gym goals in 2007?













Of those who took the poll -

26% said yes
18% said no
54% said that 2008 will be the year they reach ultimate buffness!


It was quite good to see so many in 2007 reach their goals and hopefully the rest of the guys and gals will be hitting their targets this year!

Good Luck :p

Body Weight Culture.com

Fed up with standard chins and dips? Need some extra moves to add to your home gym toolbox? Just wanna show off in the gym with one arm dips? (Do not try one arm dips!)

Then check this site / forum out!

Body Weight Culture

Atkins Diet

This is a pretty old article I stumbled across but still worth a nosey. I wonder if anyone still uses this whirlwind diet?


Atkins Diet

Motivation

I might be doing a bit of an article for Mens Health regarding motivation. So what gives you that kick up the arse to get to the gym? Do you need to have an event on the horizon or do you simply love working out? For me I always find progression to be my biggest motivator and I find it amazing that guys can go to the gym daily for years and years and be happy to look the same (if not worse!).

Lets hear your thoughts on motivation - What got you started and what keeps you going!

MMA Competition

So on Sunday (today) I had a go at a Mixed Martial Arts Competition! After chatting to the coach he basically said just to have a rattle to see how it feels to go toe to toe with other guys in the comp situation. I was nursing a shin injury from sparring and pretty sore breasts from pumping iron on the Fri but I thought feck it and had a go. For the first fight I was up against a guy a bit taller and after we traded kicks I got in close and got the takedown. Unfortunately I got caught up in his long legs and he had me in the triangle choke. Doh! As the adrenaline wore off my thumb hurt like feck (I think staved it hitting him with a few body shots.)


Soon I was up against another guy who had won his first fight. Again we swapped kicks and I got the takedown. He tried to get the Guillotine choke as we fell but I popped out and hit him a few times. I tried to get his arm tied up but the sweat on our forearms made this a complete nightmare. It was like trying to massage a fish. We reversed each other a few times and he worked on a rear naked choke. In training I would have tried longer to get out of it but I literally had no air left in my lungs. I shook his hand and headed outside to throw up!

So - why compete?

When you compete - you learn. Those two fights showed me that I need more work on escapes and that I need to resort to technique and not strength. It's funny how the rush can make you forget everything you learn in training and make your lungs the size of a gnats nuts. In full MMA fights and semi pro fights head strikes are permitted but today was more of a grappling comp with head strikes and elbows being taken out so as to minimize injury for us green beginners.

To summarise -

Whatever your sport or hobby - aim to compete at some level. You can see how good you really are in match conditions and walk away knowing how to bring up your weak areas.

On a similar note - Rach is due to lift some serious weights at her next competition in the next few months - I will keep you all posted as per usual!

Train at home!

Wii Fit Video !

Anyone gonna buy this bad boy and Ebay the weights they got for crimbo? Snowboarding and footie looked pretty good. What will they think of next?

Personal Trainers!

Yes I know I work as one but it really gets on my tits when I get tarred with the same brush as every other PT in the industry - Am I the only Diamond in this pile of coal :-) ??

Try this experiment - type ' personal trainer' into Google images and just nosey at what you find.

My results -
1 / Numerous Swiss ball moves.
2 / Trainers look average - no guns of steel or chiseled delts!
3 / Not one power lift such as the mighty Squat Bench or Dead lift - Have they been banned?

Hip Hop Muscle

Mary J Blige is alledgedly one of many rappers on the
'roids' !!

"Grammy-winning singer Mary J. Blige blasted a report Sunday night linking her and other A-list celebrities to doctors and pharmacists targeted in a statewide steroid investigation.

Blige was identified in the Albany Times Union Sunday as being among a handful of entertainers who have allegedly ordered performance-enhancing drugs in recent years."

Hmmm - Full story here

Not Just Pumping Iron

At the end of last year I got back into Mixed Martial Arts and have found myself doing 2 - 5 hours per week. As such, my weights routine is modified to ensure I still improve in the gym. If you play any sort of sport and try to juggle the gym too then this post is for you.

OK - the problems -

When playing a sport outside of the gym you are often tied down to certain times and days which makes the gym routine less than perfect.

For example - Recreational Footballer

Tuesday - footie training
Thursday -5 a side
Saturday - 11 a side match

So the days free are Mon, Wed, Fri and Sun. To train all of these days you could end up burnt out and struggling to recover.

I try to get some MMA in on Tue / Thur and Friday which means I could do some weights on those days but ideally an alternating pattern works best if it fits ie Gym / mma / gym.

To do an old school body part split of say 'chest' one day and 'back' the next would leave the muscles lacking frequency and muscle soreness with this type of training could affect the sport - Imagine trying to play footie after having done a new leg session on the thur or fri.

OK - the solution-

So the body part split is out (dont like it anyways :-) which leaves me with either a full body routine or a good split routine. The full body option is good for guys that play sport or something like MMA because with sport you work the whole body and not just one or two sections of it. I am currently on an upper / lower split but recently I have found it hard to incorporate into my total plan. If I feel a bit burnt out and take a day off then do MMA for two days then I feel it has been too much of a gap between my gym sessions.

The plan then is a full body workout with timed rest periods which means I tick all the boxes-

1 / Muscles hit frequently enough for continued growth and strength.
2 / Conditioning improves with the timed rest periods and sheer amount of muscle used.
3 / A missed workout doesn't mean one muscle group is neglected more than another.

If I do feel busted then I just take a day off. As with many areas of training and dieting this is simply an experience thing - listen to your body and respond accordingly.

I plan to start my new plan on wed so I will let you know what I do and why!

Buff Rhydian

Apparently Rhydian sent this picture to Daniel Craig with the comment "I look better than you in swimming trunks although your ears are the same height"

Discuss . .

Crazy Celeb Diets

It's Jan the gyms are filling up with guys and gals busting to lose the excess pounds. Newbies will be hitting the treadmills while the regulars slip back into their old routines. Then we have the dieting side of it. Lots of guys starting my Diet Plan this week but if that doesn't seem mad enough then why not check out what these crazy celebs do - or at least say they do!


CRAZY CELEB DIETS

Caption Competition !

Looks to me like an off season Jay Cutler has just noticed a steroid side effect!

Leave your best caption in the comments section and the winner will receive the actual pair of undies worn by Jay in this picture. I shit you not.