Sunday, April 26, 2009

Accelerated Muscular Development



Sign up for the Youtube page for the BEST in Muscle building exercise's!!

Click here!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

1ST Annual Chad Woodall Grip Challenge



Come out and watch the Grip challenge BIG name guys competing will be and awesome show of strength!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

CoC #2 Close



Another goal for the year down.

NFL Hall-of-Famer




NFL Hall-of Famer Joe DeLamielleure from the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns, is in a transition from spikes to bikes. I had the honor of meeting Joe several years ago and over this time we have become good friends, and business associates in regards to his Joe D Band fitness products and his never-ending pursuit in developing young football players.

Joe will soon begin a journey from the 50-yard line at Michigan State University, to Matamoros, Mexico. On a bike. Joe will be making the 2000 mile trip with Eljay Bowron, Former Director of Secret Service for the United States, for a fundraising project he is participating in with John Shinsky. Shinsky is a former orphan and founder of The City of Children of Matamoros Mexico AC Orphanage, along with his wife Cindy Shinsky. The orphanage is a mission to provide a safe, secure, healthy and nurturing environment for children of Mexico who have been abandoned and do not have food, shelter, or enough clothing to survive within their community. Website: www.shinskyorphanage.com.

Click here to read more.

Twitter

For those of you who use Twitter and was following me my old account was somehow hacked by spamers and got shut down. I lost a lot of followers but I am ready to start fresh, so if you followed me or want to @bill_long1 of course at Twitter.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Gain Muscle Mass Part 2

The Can't-Fail Mass-Gain Triad: Eat Big, Train Big, Sleep Big (Part Two)

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems


In the first installment of this article, I outlined the fundamental components of training big.

As the saying goes however, your training is only as good as your ability to recover from it. That's where big eating and big sleeping come in.

Here then, are your two "hidden" keys to no-fail recovery…

Eating Big

OK, take a deep breath because here comes some more advice you won't like. Eating big means waaaayyy bigger than what you think it means. Literally, you have no idea what it means, because it you did, you wouldn't be reading an article about how to gain weight. If you're the prototypical 18-year old kid weighing say, 140 pounds at a height of 5-11 or so, you're not likely to gain weight until you surpass the 5000-calorie barrier. That's your daily intake by the way, not weekly.

Now aside from your palpable fear about the number I just threw at you, here's another hard reality: you can't do this eating "clean." You'll have to eat a lot of fat, including things like (take a deep breath) butter, mayo, pizza, ice cream, and high-fat meats and dairy products.

In all seriousness, your hourly fat intake will probably exceed the American Heart Association's recommendations for daily fat intake.

Oh, and you'll probably lose your abs (to the 76 percent of the remaining 14 percent of readers who left us earlier in the article- SEE YA!).

For the rest of you who are truly serious about gaining weight, just understand that the loss of visible ab development is part of the price you'll have to pay. Later on, when you weigh 265, you can trim down to 220 or so and have your abs back, But for now, let's just worry about acquiring something to trim in the first place.

Remember, this isn't about lowering your serum cholesterol, looking good in a speedo, or becoming president of your local PETA chapter. It's about laying down some serious muscle. And doing that means tricking mother nature into believing that new muscle won't jeopardize your long-term survival odds.

If you're still looking for specifics, I'll give you a few:

Eat at least 20 calories per pound of bodyweight per day, every day. If you weigh 140, that means 2800 calories per day. More is better.

Consume no less than 1.5 grams of animal source proteins per pound of bodyweight per day. If you weigh 140 pounds, this means 210 grams of protein from meats and/or dairy products every day.

The rest comes from carbs and fats. I'm not terribly concerned about the ratio, but if you pressed me, I'd say limit simple sugars if you can, partly because they're not very healthy, but also because (compared to fats) they're relatively low in calories

Supplements: Sure. Creatine, EFA's, protein powders. All good. You can also do fine without them. So if they help, use them. If they're a pain, don't worry about it.

Getting a lot of calories in means not only bigger meals, but also more frequent meals.

Finally, I'm not a nutritionist, and this is not nutritional advice. It's weight-gain advice. Act accordingly.

Sleep Big

By "sleeping big," what I really mean is getting enough rest and avoiding physical activity that doesn't contribute to lean mass gains. Sleeping at least 8 hours a day is important, and possibly up to 9-10 hours a day, including naps if possible. My grandmother used to preach (and I happen to think she was right) that the hours before midnight are the ones that really count.

As for reducing "non-productive" physical activities, there is no absolute recommendation I can make. You simply have to decide if the calories you burn through skateboarding, playing Frisbee, or whatever it is you like to do is worth the cost in terms of reduced gains in lean mass. Clearly, "non-training" physical activities are not "bad" per se, they just interfere with muscle growth (in your case anyway). Only through careful reflection can you decide if the cost is worth the benefit.


Parting Thoughts

If you're young and skinny with a raging metabolism, the advice I'm dispensing here will seem like a bitter pill to swallow. There is indeed a price to pay for carrying around more muscle than nature deems sensible. But take solace in the fact that those of us with the opposite challenge would love to have your problem!

So if you're tired of being skinny, follow the roadmap I've just provided, and I assure you you'll gain as much muscle as your genetics will allow. Just make sure you enjoy the process along the way!


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About The Author

Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

Click here to visit Charles' site and grab your 5 FREE videos that will show you how to literally FORCE your body to build muscle, lose fat and gain strength with "Escalating Density Training," Charles' revolutionary, time-saving approach to lifting that focuses on performance NOT pain.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

2009 National Collegiate Championships



Check out USAW for further info on were to watch the live feed of this event big lifts will happen here I promise!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

AMD Testimonial



Check out AMD here!

A Diesel Crew lower day



Diesel Crew had a live video stream this weekend that I missed due to being in Iowa with my family. But Joe posted this great video of them hitting some heavy squats and a different look at the deadlift I think you all will like.

Have you seen the latest AMD video? Check it out has proof that it works showing some of my progress after 8 weeks.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Gain Muscle Mass Part 1

The Can't-Fail Mass-Gain Triad: Eat Big, Train Big, Sleep Big (Part One)

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems



If you've heard the expression "eat big, train big, sleep big" before, you've already been exposed to the key components of all successful mass-gaining programs.

If you've taken this advice to heart and acted in it, you've already experienced the synergistic power of reprogramming your metabolism.

If you haven't tasted the Kool-Aid yet, what are you waiting for?

The rationale behind the "Big 3" philosophy is rooted in simple evolutionary biology. If you consider the essential components necessary for successful species-propagation, you arrive at a few inescapable conclusions:

1) In order to pass on your genes to the next generation, you need to survive long enough to reach sexual maturity. This means (among other things) having the ability to create a portable energy supply in the form of excess fat deposits.

2) In order to create an excess layer of bodyfat, you've got to be able to taken in more calories than you need, on a consistent basis.

3) A big part of this equation is carrying a minimum amount of muscle (relative to your survival needs), since muscle is metabolically expensive to create and maintain.

As you flesh through these 3 points, you quickly arrive at the idea physique for survival purposes: "skinny-fat." So first off, congratulations are in order, because I'm guessing (by virtue of the fact that you're reading this article), you've got the perfect physique for surviving to mating age!

OK, I get it- you just want to be bigger.

Been there, done that- at age 18, I weighed 148 pounds at 6'2", and I wasn't particularly lean either (today at age 49 I'm about 213 pound at that same height, and still not particularly lean, but I'm currently carrying about 177 pounds of lean mass, which is more than my total bodyweight was as a skinny 18-year old)

Hopefully I've managed to adequately explain the problem- mother nature doesn't really buy into your plan to get all big and jacked.

Which leads to the solution- you've gotta fool ol' mother nature. And we're going to do that by convincing her that 1) you actually need more muscle in order to survive ("train big"), and that you're taking in plenty of food- on a chronic basis- to justify those muscles ("eat big").

And along the way, we're going to further pacify your survival safeguards by sleeping big, which serves the purposes of reducing your energy expenditure enough to allow even more additional muscle growth.

Let's discuss each component of the "Big 3" equation in more detail…

Training Big

When I speak of training "big," I'm really talking about adhering to a handful of tactics and principles. These concepts are not controversial, cutting-edge, hard to understand or implement. In other words, they're not "sexy." (If you're among the 87% of readers who just closed this browser window- SEE YA!).

For the rest of you, let's explore the tried-and true components of successful mass-gaining programs:


1) Restrict your training to multi-joint movements performed with free weights.

All forms of squats, deadlifts, presses, and pull-ups fulfill this requirement. The "non-approved" list is much larger: any & all forms of exercise machines, including pec dec, leg curl, leg extension, and leg press.

Don't do curls, ab exercises, or calf movements. Also avoid all forms of running, swimming, cycling, aerobics, stretching, and/or dance classes. Refrain from any form of pilates, functional training, spinning, tae-bo, yoga, body pump, and/or any device/method you see on a TV infomercial, including Total Gym, Bowflex, P90X, Hip Hop Abs, The Perfect Pushup, Iron Gym, etc. If I've missed anything (and I have, trust me), simply line up the questionable exercise you're thinking of with the first sentence above: "restrict your training to multi-joint movements performed with free weights."


2) Train 3-4 days per week.

Not 1, 2, 5, 6, or 7, or any number higher than that (no two-a-days, in other words). Can you train 3 days one week and 4 the next? Yes. This should be the most simple recommendation to understand and follow, so I'll move on to the next point…


3) On your "work sets," use weights that are heavy enough to prevent the performance of more than 10 reps in a single effort.

Yes, that means you have a lot of flexibility in the weights you select, and the set/rep brackets you use, all the way from singles with super heavy weights to 10 reps with more moderate weight. There is no single "ideal" set x rep equation- anything in the "10 reps and under" category will prove effective.

What really matters is how many "quality" repetitions you perform in a session. By "quality" I mean reps where you expose large muscles to high tensions. Let's explore that in just a bit more detail…

Creating High Tensions: Load VS Speed

If you load up a bare to a weight that's just slightly less than you can lift, and perform one rep, you'll have exposed your muscles to a very high tension- that's probably obvious. What's less obvious to a lot of people is that you can get similarly high tensions by lifting lighter weights.

The way you do this is with acceleration. Using between say, 65 and 75 percent of a weight you could lift only once, performing sets of maybe 2-5 reps per set, using as much controlled speed as possible on the "positive" (concentric) phase of the lift, creates as much tension as a very heavy weight would.

And it's both safer and more fun to boot. So in your mass-training, use a variety of weights, but always move every rep as fast as possible.


4) Limit (And Time) Your Training Sessions.

Most experts would say that 60 minutes is a maximum ideal length for a weight-training session, but I'll go out on a limb and use 90 minutes instead.

The reason for my recommendation is that if you're using effective exercises (as described earlier), you'll need a relatively large number of warm-up sets before you can tackle your work sets for that exercise. So for example, you don't need to do much of a warm-up for tricep kickbacks or the adductor machine, but you do need a significant warm-up for a deadlift workout or a heavy bench press session. This is especially true once you get stronger- which you will.


5) Limit each training session to no more than 4 exercises.

The reason for this recommendation is dictated by the previous suggestion regarding workout length. If your total session is limited to 90 minutes, and assuming that you're using effective exercises as recommended earlier, you'll only have 22.5 minutes per exercise, and that includes warm-up sets. That's not a lot of time if you're working hard. So remember, the recommendation is no more than 4 exercises- in many cases, 3 is even better, and very often 2 exercises per session is absolutely ideal.

It's not about hitting the muscle from all angles, muscle confusion, or any other bullshit you've picked up on the internet somewhere- it's about picking 1-2, or maybe 3 big, hard movements, and working the piss out of them.


Stay tuned for Part 2!


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About The Author

Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

Click here to visit Charles' site and grab your 5 FREE videos that will show you how to literally FORCE your body to build muscle, lose fat and gain strength with "Escalating Density Training," Charles' revolutionary, time-saving approach to lifting that focuses on performance NOT pain.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Contrast Bath's


If you’re in sports long enough you will eventually become injured in some way, shape, or form. A common treatment for sports injuries, such as a sprained ankle, is contrast baths, other wise termed Hydrotherapy. All of us has seen those big silver tubs in the locker room of our gyms or training areas and wondered what they really were for. Well there is a use for them and it will help you whether you’re injured or not.

Contrast baths are used from high school level athletes to the professional level. They can help reduce the pain caused from a heavy session in the gym or a hard practice on the mat. Some athletes prefer using the contrast bath before they train to get the blood flowing while some prefer to use it after. Either way can work for you. Here is how.

To read the rest of my article head on over to Straight To The Bar.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Strengthen your thumb with Jumper Cables

I was out doing some pinch work today and wanted a pony clamp to work on my thumb strength, but I didn't have one around. Then I started looking around the garage for something to simulate the movement of using a pony clamp. I found a pair of jumper cables and it worked out great! Here is what you do....



Take your cables and wrap a few rubber bands around the head of the clamp, make them tight around it. As you use them you can add more rubber bands to make it harder to close or take some off if it is to hard for you to close and work your way up.



Once you get the bands on the clamp position it in your hand with your thumb on one end and two fingers or more on the other end. I prefer one or two fingers as you can cheat this with more fingers which will make the weight on the thumb diminish.



Then all you need to do is simply close the cable pressing your thumb to your fingers, hold it closed for a second or two and continue. I like to go for 3-4 sets doing 4-8 reps to get the thumb nice and strong. Now you can go train your grip with out having to go buy some other piece of equipment that you may never need or use!

16lb Shot Claw Bounces



Some great Dynamic grip work done here with a Shot.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Strength training for Parkour



I have been watching Parkour video's for a while finding them amazing and sometimes dangerous but fun at the same time this is a good one showing you how some of them "train" for it.

Friday, April 3, 2009