Mid Life Fitness

Easter has caused a change in tone this week. One of the notable things this week is the promotion of http://www.liftstrong.com/ in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Alywn, aside from promoting LiftStrong becuase of his own past fight with cancer, talks about the benefits of training with the TRX system and debates the benefits of training on unstable surfaces

Read Alwyns blog here

Elliott Hulse discusses the use of kettlebells for deloading training



and giving away a free nutrition report. He pours scorn on those who think that you shouldn’t squat below parallel and explains the secret behind his strongman training.

Jason Ferruggia gives some help on how to get started on chins and pullups by using a resistance band and lays the law down on skinny guys who aren’t eating enough to make the most of the effort they are putting in with the exercise. He rounds off with an explanation of inflammatory foods.

Read Jasons blog here

Craig Ballentyne is giving his usual high volume of advice, mostly in the form of workouts which are heavily interspersed with with his expert knowledge about training and nutrition.

Zach is also hammering out the articles this week coving a wide range of subjects from jump training, through launching his new Lost Secrets of Strength Seminar to talking about favourite bodybuilding routines.

Today marks the end of my four week training cycle, well OK actually it was only three weeks because I’d finished doing the testing I wanted to do on how the program ‘felt’ in use. It served it’s purpose and now I’m changing the interval training system.

The main program is based on some traditional muscle and strength building systems. I’ve used some elements from Stronglifts and blended them with an EDT base. Now that is something that neither of the two system originators would probably approve of, but then my goal in training is not theirs.

The interval system that I’m trying out is from the Dane of Pain, Olympic wrestling coach Kenneth Jay. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy running, I need it to overcome the asthma, but the shin splints are a pain. So I’m going to work on his system instead.

So why intervals? It isn’t something you see too many bodybuilders out doing. Well simply put, the more oxygen your body can take in and the better your body is at processing the lactate products from exercise, the more work you can do, the heavier weights you can shift and of course, the bigger your muscles get.

But the real question is? Where are you on your workout? Are you making progress? Adding weight on the bar? What are the issues that face you? Whats stopping you from moving on and making progess? Or haven’t you even started? Something holding you back?

Everybody is angry this week! Personally I blame Vince…

Zach Evan Esh gives us an example of one of his own training routines and explains how his Underground Strength Coach certification is going underground for a time before he relaunches it bigger and better than ever. You can also find a video on how to develop full body power and six pack abs by as he says being a big believer in carrying heavy shit. He also gives us another video of training with sandbags and explains some of the mistakes he made when he was learning about the right ways to train.

Coach Zachs blog

Vince Delmonte announced the winner, who gets a free copy of his new No-Nonsense Muscle Building & Six Pack DVD Series and shared his experience with skydiving in Denver. He was angry with the the supplement, diet and bodybuilding industry for exploiting peoples dreams to make a buck. He teased us with promises of a poolside workout video, giving us instead a video of the people who were there. The workout video will be a part of his launch of that new DVD series, of which only 480 copies are going to be available in the first pressing. Since he has 17,000 people queuing up in his early bird VIP list, I guess those DVDs are going to last about five seconds after he opens the door. I predict server crash….

Vinces Blog

Craig Ballantyne has been as busy as ever with the camera, this time though he has taken a light hearted view of how impossible it is to out train a poor diet with his pizza vs running machine video. As ever Craig churns out the advice this week giving us a classic bench press workout and revealing the truth about protein. He also reveals the goal program which has resulted in much of his success.

Craigs Blog

Jason Ferruggia talks about the reasons why you need to obliterate stress if you want to add muscle, gives a video promo of his gym and shows you the risks of getting involved with the battling ropes of death!

Jasons Blog

When you start out, building muscle seems such a challenge, such a huge obstacle that I doubt few ever consider that one day they might be too successful.

I was reading the blog of Jason Ferruggia about his recovery from injury and his decision to regain all of the weight that he lost.

Once you’d got the building bug, how do you know when enough is enough? Gaining muscle can be addictive, especially if you developed complexes about not having it in the first place.

Body image is something that is hard to judge, hard to be realistic about. I made the decision not to build too much because for me lightness and agility count for at least as much as brute force.

Do you really understand what it is that drives you into the obsession that is building muscle? Will you know when enough is enough?