The vast majority of nutritional supplements are garbage. They can kinda get away with it... There is no regulation of supplements by any governing body, so as long as the manufacturer pops a little asterisk * and says 'these claims have not been evaluated by the FDA' - they can claim whatever they want. They'll sometimes cite research to attempt to trick people into paying for the supplement, but most of the time the research is highly flawed AND/OR the dosage in the proprietary blend is laughably small compared to what was found useful in the research. I'm not saying that every supplement is ineffective, but I am saying most supplements are PROBABLY ineffective. Here are a few of the supplements that I KNOW work very well. Protein/Carb/Creatine/Vitamin/EFA supplements - I lumped all of these together because they're just food. These things are nutrients you are meant to consume in-complex when eating a full, balanced diet, and honestly, if you sorted your diet out, you wouldn't need to take these anyway. Caffeine - A drug, admittedly, but a well-tested one, with risks most adults are comfortable taking. Caffeine brings a measurable performance-enhancing effect, speeds up metabolism, and can manage hunger. I don't use it, but a lot of people do, and they love it. Every pre-workout that works has caffeine. And.. That's about it. Most every other supplement that was found effective was eventually made difficult to purchase without a prescription or simple made illegal. If you got all your calories every day from red meat, eggs and veggies, you'd never need any supplement.

If you take my courses or listen to me lecture about the technique of the barbell lifts, you will hear hours of discussion about leverage, moment arms, compression, and muscular extension. It may be very confusing for a lot of you without a basic mechanical understanding. However, if you are standing when articulating the bar, then every weird little technical adjustment exists only for a single purpose... To keep the weight (of your body PLUS the barbell) balanced perfectly over the middle of your feet. For a bunch of you, it will simply be enough to imagine a perfectly vertical line passing from the middle of your foot, through the barbell, into the sky. As you move the bar, keep it in the that line, and your form will be incredible. This works for squat, press, deadlift, clean and snatch. Don't get me wrong, all of the other stuff is important, but putting in this context may help it stick better.

It may not sound true to most people, but it's my belief that most cases of obesity and weakness revolve around some kind of nutritional deficiency. Quite frankly, I believe that there are some foods that people don't eat enough of, and are displaced by processed, junk foods that don't do much more for you other than stimulate your hunger and encourage you to eat more. If you were to only make one small step toward a better overall dietary lifestyle to start making dramatic changes in the long term, it would be this: Get 200 grams of animal-based protein a day. That may be more than a lot of you need, but if you're a healthy person there is no unhealthy upper limit of protein, and the extra benefit is that you won't have room in your stomach for a bunch of other crap you don't need.

The bench press is the most dangerous lift most people will ever do in the gym. This is primarily because it is a relatively heavy load that is held and moved above the head and neck, but secondarily because it is a lift most people are familiar with and therefore tend not to treat with the respect that it deserves. With just a little bit of critical examination and preparation, we can turn the bench press into a completely safe way to train the push movement pattern however. Here are some ways to make the bench press safer: 1. Never use a thumbless grip. A thumbless grip is called a 'suicide' grip for very good reasons. Lifters do this in an attempt to articulate the bar over the bottom of the palm, directly over the bones of the wrist and forearm, to eliminate the moment arm at the wrist and the unnecessary wrist extension that may occur. This is an admirable goal, but it's not worth dropping the bar on your neck and killing yourself. Besides, you can achieve the same hand/wrist efficiency with the 'bulldog' grip, a slight interior rotation of the wrist, allowing the fingers to compress the bar into the point over the wrist bones while still allowing the thumb to wrap around the bar. It may take a few days of practice and some stretching, but it's worth it. 2. If you're not 100% sure that you're going to complete the lift, then use a spotter or lift with guards. The possibility of catastrophic failure and losing control of the bar, although rare, is always present. Spotting is a simple process and asking for it takes a few seconds. You can also use rack guards, the same ones that can catch the bar during the squat. These should be set up at a height where, during a correctly arched bench press, the bar can't touch them at the bottom, but were the lifter to relax, the guards would take the bar from the lifter. 3. Unless you have a spotter, some guards, or are not a particular kind of lifter with muscle tremors or weakness, never, ever put clips on the bench press. The clips keep the plates from sliding off the bar during the lift, which sounds like a really good idea until you realize that the only defense a lifter without a spotter has against death by barbell asphyxiation has is to let the plates slide off the bar so the lifter can un-pin him or herself. Lifting with clips and without a spotter has literally killed many athletes.

Just checking in!!! How’s everyone doing? If we started a 30 day weightlifting challenge, who would participate?? Drop a like so we can plan accordingly!