I found a video demonstrating a way to improve upon reverse crunches. Here’s a way to do them without compressing the spine, while adding more resistance to the exercise.

Some tips:

Lying on a bench, have your lower legs hang off the edge.
Grab the sides of the bench for support.
Raise the legs by flexing the hips. There should be a bend at the knees throughout.
The top of the rep is when the upper legs are perpendicular to the floor.
The typical form for reverse crunches is to bring the knees up to the chest. However, going past the point recommended means that the resistance falls off and the exercise becomes ineffective.
The form recommended also involves more range of motion at the bottom. This helps to really involve the lower abs more than traditional reverse crunches.

Read the full on Muscle Hack, by clicking the link below.
Link: Reverse Crunches.
The post A Way to Do Reverse […]

Original post by admin

Health Castle put out an article today which discusses the health benefits of tea in detail. I found out a few interesting things about tea I didn’t know before.

A few important points:

Adding milk to tea blunts the heart health benefits.
Has much less caffeine than coffee.
Most herbal teas lack the health benefits of tea.
Black, green, white, and oolong are all beneficial.
May reduce risk of skin cancer if one consumes 4-6 cups per day.

Link:  Tea 101: Which tea offers the most health benefits?.
The post The Health Benefits of Iced Tea VS Brewed Tea appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

Original post by admin

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Masala Chai” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/masalachai.jpg” alt=”masalachai” width=”320″ height=”212″ /It never ends, does it? Right when you feel like you can settle down into your way of eating, right when you#8217;re about to draw the blanket made of plants, animals, and maybe a little dark chocolate up around your shoulders and drift off to a restful sleep in your pitch black room untainted by artificial lighting, a niggling doubt of a question worms its way into your head: is [insert food or drink that you’ve loved since childhood/wondered about since going Primal/been asked about from curious friends] Primal? And so you toss off the blanket, leap out of bed, throw open your laptop and fire away an email to me asking about the food#8217;s place in the lifestyle. I don#8217;t blame you, because I#8217;m constantly doing the same kind of thing with my own question mark foods./p
pYes, it#8217;s that time […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Believe it or not, your grip strength can be a limiting factor in gaining strength in all lifts. Whenever I’ve stalled in any exercise for an extended period of time, I spend a period of time increasing grip strength. Here’s a great video demonstrating “Around the Worlds”.

These guys are pinching two 45 pound plates while rotating their hands. Make sure and work both clockwise and counterclockwise. The link to the full article below.
Link: Cyber Grip – High Impact Grip Training Drill
The post A Great Exercise for Grip Strength (video) appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

Original post by admin

Health Castle has a really nice free database to use to find the nutritional value of products. They recently just expanded their yogurt category to 85 products. All of these are well known brands.

Make sure and bookmark the database. It allows you to sort by calories per serving, cost, serving size, protein, etc.
Link: Which Yogurt to Choose? Yogurt Comparison.
The post 85 Yogurt Products Compared on This Site appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

Original post by admin

I can’t think of anyone who is more physically fit than Ross Enamait. Watching his videos on Youtube are more inspirational than Rocky Training scenes. Check this one out to see what I mean.

I bet Ross could walk into the CrossFit Games and take first place without any additional training. Check out the link below for the best interview to date with Ross.
Link: Interview with Ross Enamait.
The post Epic Interview & Video With Ross Enamait appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

Original post by admin

I’ve been recommending caffeine before training since the day this blog was born (5+ years ago). What about caffeine before carb back-loading? First here’s a video discussing carb back-loading for those who aren’t familiar with this term.

Here’s a great article explaining why caffeine is good for those who are using a carb back-loading approach.
Does Caffeine Help You Lose Weight?.
Also, if you are new to Carb-Backloading, here is a good introductory article.
Under The Hood: How Carb Back-Loading Works
The post Caffeine, Training and Carb Back-Loading appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

Original post by admin

Nick Tumminello has a solid video demonstrating how to choose the optimal width for chin up grip. You can go wider or narrower, but this will be the width you want to choose most of the time.

Unfortunately, my gym has a strange chin up bar with various grips. My grip ends up being a little narrower than optimal, but it is close to what Nick describes in the video (wish we had a straight chin up bar).
There’s a link below to Nick’s site where he gives a few more tips.
Link: Chin Ups – Best Chin Up Grip Width.
The post Best Chin Up Grip Width for Your Joints (video) appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

Original post by admin

I found a post that makes a pretty compelling argument to include almonds in your diet if weight loss is your goal. This 2 minute video is a good intro to some of the benefits of almonds.

Obviously you will need to stay in a calorie deficit, so don’t overdo it.
Here’s a link to that post I’m referring to. It discusses 4 different studies about almonds and weight loss.
Link: Almonds for Weight Loss.
The post Eating Almonds Can Aid in Weight Loss? appeared first on Fitness Black Book.

Original post by admin