http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
All too often, I open the carton of eggs in my fridge only to find just one left. One egg! What can you do with just one egg? Well, while you might not be able to make an omelet, there’s actually a whole lot you can make with a solo egg. From breakfast for one and deep-dish chocolate chip cookies, to easy muffins and spaghetti with meatballs, here are 10 ways to use that remaining egg up.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
If there’s one thing I love more than a really good dessert made from scratch, it’s a really good dessert I can throw together on a weeknight with no fuss and without a sink full of dirty mixing bowls. Turns out it’s not actually such a big ask. Save layer cakes for a day when you’re in the mood for a project and have time on your side. Instead, go for one of these 17 sweet treats that were made with your midweek dessert craving in mind.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Christine Han)
Fajitas have the fun choose-your-own-adventure nature of tacos, with the added appeal of cooking things on one sizzling-hot platter. Too many vegetarian fajitas just skip the meat and cook onions and peppers together, but these fajitas do more, adding roasted sweet potato slices dusted in cumin and smoked paprika to the colorful mix. Stuff them into warm tortillas and drizzle with a tangy yogurt and lime crema and call it dinner. And because we’re in the business of making things smart and delicious, one sheet pan does all the hard work, roasting the sweet potatoes, onions, and bell peppers to complete fajita perfection.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
The oven is the workhorse of the kitchen. It’s the thing that bakes the cookies for your kid’s school functions, warms the soup when you’re sick, and helps you get that casserole on the table in a pinch.
If you’re in the market for a new one, you don’t want to make the wrong decision! There are tons of factors to take into consideration (Do you want gas or electric? Do you want a wall oven, a slide-in, or something else? Do you want stainless steel?), but here, we’re looking at one thing that seems to confuse a lot of people: the convection setting. Do you need your oven to have that feature?
To help you with your oven shopping, we’ve explained exactly what the feature does, and the pros and cons of an oven with and without it.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Christine Han)
Be prepared to fall hard for this cake. If not for its soft-pink hues, then for the moist, tender crumb lightly spiked with Champagne and wells of strawberry syrup. Or maybe it will be the rosé buttercream that really does it for you. What I’m trying to say is that this cake is the whole package — a dessert primed for celebration and yet surprising easy to pull together.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Bridal showers have come a long way since our moms (or maybe even some of us!) got married. These days, the guest list sometimes now includes the groom and all his buddies. Sometimes the gifts don’t even get wrapped (it’s called a display shower). And sometimes there are no gifts at all!
There are all sorts of themes, games, and decoration ideas (thanks, Pinterest!). And we love seeing all the new takes on the traditional event, but there’s one that’s quickly become our favorite: the super-fun — and appropriately named — stock-the-kitchen bridal shower.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
Today’s guest post is offered up by some long-time friends of MDA, Al Kavadlo and Danny Kavadlo. I’m excited to share their expertise with the Primal community here. This year I wrote the foreword for their new book, Get Strong, which was just released.
If you’re into Primal living, chances are you’re a minimalist when it comes to exercise. In our busy world, we all want to make good use of the time we allot to our training. Additionally, we Primal devotees know that many of the fancy machines we may encounter at the local globo-gym are not needed for building real-world strength.
As Mark Sisson accurately says, you need to “lift heavy things” in order to get strong, but there is no need to overcomplicate the issue. Barbells, kettlebells and dumbbells are viable options, but you can keep it even simpler than that and still get very strong. Yes, you need to push your muscles with resistance training in order to affect growth in them, but your own body weight provides all the resistance you’ll ever need. You don’t have to rely on external weights in order to build strength and muscle. Calisthenics exercises generally require nothing more than the floor beneath your feet, a wall, a bench or a bar. Sometimes it seems too simple to be true, but I assure you that one can get extremely strong with nothing but bodyweight training.
Many believe that once you hit double-digit numbers on exercises like push-ups and pull-ups, an external load must be added in order to continue building strength and muscle. This is simply not true. If you know how to manipulate leverage, there is no need to ever add weights to your workouts. Once you understand the underlying principles behind progressive calisthenics, you can build a lifetime of strength with nothing more than your own body weight.
Here are three simple ways you can vary the intensity of any calisthenics exercise without adding weight or requiring the use of a gym.
By adjusting the distribution of your bodyweight, you can increase or decrease the resistance on many calisthenics exercises. To illustrate this, compare a push-up with your feet on an elevated surface to a push-up with all your limbs on the ground. Due to the change in leverage, there is much more weight in the chest, arms and shoulders in the former than in the latter, rendering it more difficult. Conversely, a push-up with the hands elevated (instead of the feet) will place less demand on the muscles of the upper body, making the exercise better suited to beginners.
Furthermore, you can take this principle to the next level when you remove a contact point entirely: A one-legged squat will always require more strength than a squat performed on both legs. By completely eliminating one point of contact, you’ve doubled the weight loaded onto the individual leg. Fortunately, there are many steps in between the two, such as split squats and other asymmetrical squat variations.
Another way to progress bodyweight exercises is to alter the range of motion. One example of this is to progress from a hanging leg raise where your legs end up parallel to the ground, to a hanging leg raise where your toes go all the way to the bar. The increased distance makes it harder.
Additionally, you can regress a movement pattern by using only part of the standard range of motion. For example, practicing the negative phase of a pull-up as a progression toward full pull-ups, or doing half-squats until you are able to perform the entire range of motion.
There are several ways that you can use the principle of self-assistance as a gateway toward more advanced bodyweight exercises. In the case of the one-legged squat, this is often done by sitting back onto a bench, as doing so provides balance and stability in the bottom position, which is one of the most difficult aspects of the exercise.
A self-assist can also be provided from the legs when working certain upper-body movements. If you aren’t strong enough to do a pull-up yet, you can keep one foot on a chair or platform to assist your arms. Put as much of your weight as possible in your arms and use your foot to make up the difference.
Here are a few additional exercises that employ these three principles, which you can begin implementing in your training today—if you’re ready for them!
This is like a straight-leg deadlift performed on only one leg. It’s a great example of altering the weight-to-limb ratio by removing a contact point. Like the single-leg squat, taking one of your legs out of the equation doubles the amount of work performed on the primary leg. Furthermore, a major balance and stability component is added to what would otherwise be only a pure strength exercise. That’s why the drinking bird is surprisingly difficult even with just your bodyweight.
Begin by standing on one foot with your opposite leg hovering just above the ground behind you. From here, lean your upper body forward, bending from your hips and reaching your opposite leg out behind your body. This will not only help you balance, it will also further engage your lower back as well as the leg that’s in the air.
Watch out that you don’t bend your spine on the way down, but rather take the stretch in your hamstrings. The idea is to keep your back flat and pivot from the hips.
This advanced push-up variation is an excellent example of how you can change the weight-to-limb ratio in order to progress an exercise. Begin in a push-up position with a very wide hand placement. From there, keep one arm straight while you bend the other, so your body slides toward the side of the arm that bends. Most of your weight will wind up in the bent arm, making the move substantially harder than a standard push-up.
If you’re unable to perform a full archer push-up, you can start with your hands a bit closer and allow your straight arm to have a small bend in the elbow in order to make the move more manageable. In time, aim to eliminate that bend. Play around with gradually moving your arms farther out to allow for a full range of motion.
The archer push-up is also an example of a self-assist, as it can be used as a progression toward a one-arm push-up. In this case, you can think of it as a regressed one-arm push-up with the secondary arm acting as a kickstand to help provide stability to the rest of the body.
The muscle-up begins like a pull-up, but keeps going until your entire torso winds up above the bar. Grip the bar slightly narrower than you would for a pull-up, then lean back and pull the bar down your body as low as possible. At the top of your pull, reach your chest over the bar and extend your arms.
Though you can think of the muscle-up like a pull-up with a much bigger range of motion, the two movement patterns are subtly different. When you do a muscle-up, you’ll be driving your elbows behind your body, rather than toward your sides as you would in a standard pull-up. This is why a narrower grip tends to work better for the muscle-up. It’s also helpful to think about leaning away from the bar during the pulling phase before pitching forward at the top. This creates a movement pattern that’s more of an “S” shape than a straight line, allowing you to better maneuver your body around the bar. When starting out, we encourage you to use momentum and be explosive. It may take a lot of practice to get a feel for the timing, though if you are solid on your pull-ups, and diligent in your pursuit, the muscle-up will eventually be yours.
For more information on building strength and muscle with bodyweight training, pick up a copy of Al and Danny Kavadlo’s newly released book, Get Strong.
I want to thank Al and Danny Kavadlo for their guest post and the great suggestions today. And thanks to everyone for stopping by the blog. Have questions or thoughts on using progressive calisthenics for your Primal fitness routine? Share them on the comment board. Have a great week.
The post How to Build Strength and Muscle with Progressive Calisthenics appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Twin Peaks, the cult-classic TV series that premiered in 1990 and was canceled (prematurely, if you ask me) after only two seasons, is returning to Showtime on Sunday, May 21. David Lynch is once again bringing us back to the quirky town of Twin Peaks, population 51,201.
The central question of the show — who killed Laura Palmer? — was answered in season two, but these new episodes promise more mystery and intrigue. One thing we can certainly count on? A lot of coffee. And donuts. After rewatching the series (for the … fifth time? Don’t judge me!), I’ve come to the conclusion that Twin Peaks is really just an ode to the glorious world of breakfast foods.
If you’re planning a viewing party for the show’s premiere, this breakfast-focused one, inspired by some of the show’s best food moments, is sure to be a hit. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Dale Cooper would be proud.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
What to get that couple who seems to spend more time abroad or on the road than at home? (You know who we’re talking about: the couple with seemingly unlimited vacation days and frequent flyer miles, and the world’s most interesting Instagram account.) You want to get them something they’ll love, something they’ll use, and something they might not have already picked up on their travels.
Here are 10 ideas that might just get your newly married friends to stay home long enough to make — and eat! — dinner.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
The actual baking of a cake has never intimidated me — it’s the decorating part. I don’t have a knack for anything like fancy piped buttercream flowers, so more often than not I forgo baking a cake altogether in fear of it never looking celebratory enough. The truth is, though, you definitely don’t need professional cake tools to make a cake that rivals the best bakery in town. What you really need is just a bit of ingenuity. These 13 clever cake toppers are not just dead simple — they are also dead gorgeous. (And you probably have many of the supplies already have in your pantry!)
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
Book your class NOW!
click this ==>
