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Category Archives: Features

Renew Your Motivation and Take Smart Steps for a Better Body

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PlanB009

By now many New Year’s “resolutionists” have staggered, stumbled and fumbled a bit since that inspired commitment was triggered just a few months ago. Some, okay maybe many, have given up completely on their way to a more muscular, leaner, faster, healthier, sexier specimen.

 

What happened? Summer is staring at us in the face beckoning us to come over and play but our master plan to rule our own world and finally get to the gym, knock out our intense but brutally effective workouts and stick to that genius diet plan has somehow been derailed.

 

Maybe you haven’t quit. Maybe you have simply slacked off on your consistency, drive and focus. Whatever the situation, you have every opportunity to step on the gas and level-up your training and nutrition once again! Here are a few guidelines to help with your renewed commitment. Continue reading →

Why Every Man Should Do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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Brock Passing Guard_web

The following is a guest post from Brock McGoff at The Modest Man… enjoy!

A couple of years ago, I was working in a small company in downtown Washington, DC. Like many other young guys, I was working 8+ hours a day and enjoying at least one happy hour every week. I was also going out on the weekends, drinking sugary lattes every morning and eating out a lot.

I had a gym membership, but I was totally bored with my usual workouts – a warm up on the treadmill, 45 minutes with various machines, some bodyweight exercises, etc.

Side note: This was before I discovered free weights and power lifting, which is WAY more exciting and rewarding than weight machines and ellipticals.

The boredom at the gym, plus the long hours at work and my somewhat busy social schedule, led to my gym time being gradually phased out. Continue reading →

007 Spy Kit: A Training and Diet Plan to Get the Body of James Bond

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Daniel Craig - James Bond 2

 

If you are like me you are fairly stoked for the new James Bond movie Skyfall hitting theaters soon. If you need a little change from the superhero/supervillian, Batman and Avenger stuff then you are ready for an action spy thriller with style, action and the ever so anticipated twisted plot.

Of course this inspired me to think about how a spy like 007 would train and eat when not kicking ass and saving the world and the girl. How would he schedule his time, workouts and meals? What strategy would he put into action to stay in shape (or maybe initially get into that kind of shape in the first place)? Continue reading →

I Built My Avengers Physique! How Jeremy Mills Successfully Became a Superhero

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Before&After

It is always very humbling for me to receive such great feedback like the email below. Jeremy Mills has successfully transformed his physique into areal-life Avenger! Although I get numerous messages telling of successes and gratitude, Jeremy’s stuck out to me as something I felt I needed to pass on and let others see.

Again, a truly humbling message and, as always, I am here to answer any questions and look forward everyday to here from successful people like Jeremy.

So, for now I will shut up and let Jeremy tell his story:

 

Brad,

I really feel like I built an Avengers Physique, not too far from Jeremy Renner’s! Attached are the pictures after finishing the Avengers Workout for the 2nd time yesterday! Continue reading →

Motivation Through Action: Continuing Your Health and Fitness Habits Outside of Your Comfort Zone

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Isaac-gym

Motivation is a fickle beast. Books, seminars, webinars, TV shows, movies, and everything else in between have been resources for improving our ability to increase our personal motivation. The amount of material is endless – and yet it eludes us during some of our most crucial times.

Within this entire plethora of oversaturation are key terms such as discipline, organization, will power, positive mental attitude, hard work, and focus among others. I am not here to redefine or uncover some new and easy technique on how to gain motivation so you can live large with little effort like some early morning infomercial. Hell, I need all the motivation I can get myself sometimes.

If you have ever been bored out of your mind and perused my bio page you would know of my “other” job as a member of the Air National Guard, therefore it goes without saying that I was activated for the response/relief efforts to assist the state of Louisiana during Hurricane Isaac. Continue reading →

Trends, Goals and the Need to Be Unique

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Franco Columbu

When was the last time you tried something for the first time?

As this question can be applied to almost any situation or project you are currently involved with, I am specifically referring to your fitness/health/muscle-building/fat loss goals.

It may not need to get that far. You could ask yourself: When was the last time I tried something different, authentic, unconventional or unique in the gym? Something most, if not all are not doing. Something that goes against the grain of conventional practice but WORKS!

I guess the first question you need to ask is:

Am I making significant gains in the gym? Continue reading →

Insane Like Bane: Add These Unique Lifts and Intensity Tactics to Your Next Workout

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Bane

Tom Hardy put on some serious muscle for the role of Bane in the Dark Knight Rises movie. After all, Bane is an imposing character, physically intimidating and more of a superior physical match for the Caped Crusader. Strong, commanding and powerful his presence speaks for itself.

Couldn’t we all use a little more power and strength in our lives? Does your current routine need a little kick in the butt? Maybe you need a few new moves, techniques and tips to get you growing bigger and stronger again?

The following are some plateau-busting, intensity-amplifying tactics so you can be more like Bane! Continue reading →

Bodybuilding’s Bad Rap

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Jay Cutler

There seems to be an ever-growing trend within fitness/training circles to bash bodybuilding whenever the opportunity even remotely presents itself. Bodybuilding-style training has been relegated to being synonymous with meathead, big-for-nothing, non-functional, vanity-driven training revolving around arm curls and attitudes.

Many among the ranks of the new fitness trends such as Crossfit, group bootcamp classes, kettle bell training and other variations of functional-specific training are the first to tout the benefits of their system while slamming anything that uses the words body or building.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for anyone getting in any type of physical activity for improving themselves and getting healthy, but where did all of this hate come from? I could come up with 99 reasons, but I can think of a few that stand out more than others. Continue reading →

Get Specific for Personal Success

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lou

I recently watched a scene in the documentary Stand Tall, the story of Lou Ferrigno’s comeback to the bodybuilding stage some years ago. In it, Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked about his thoughts on Lou’s decision and how motivation plays into competition.

In a very absolute way, Arnold talked about how some competitors had a very difficult task ahead of them. He went on to say that when you are comfortable, such as Lou was/is with a nice house, a great family and money from a career in show business you tend to not possess the eat or be eaten mentality that is necessary to win.

It is those who have nothing to lose that are able to conjure every ounce of their being and have the drive to accomplish great things and have the opportunity to become a champion. Continue reading →

Regulating Training Volume for More Muscle

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Arnold

The debate over training volume as it relates to adding muscle to your bones has been around, oh, well, forever – at least forever for me. How many sets should you do? Too many and you overtrain, too few and you are not realizing your real muscle-building potential.

I see interesting things in gyms. I have worked out in many all over the world and have seen all walks of life come and go including the old guard of trainers from the old school of thought as well as the confused newbies asking no less than 50 questions each day.

One thing I see, however, is that the thinking behind volume is pretty generic. Most programs go a little something like this: Continue reading →