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Perhaps you’ve seen a lifter pressing, twisting, or rowing a barbell by rotating it on end. Appropriately named, these landmine exercises produce lethally effective workouts. Landmine training is performed in settings from Division 1 college weight rooms to bodybuilding gyms to injury rehab clinics.

The barbell is used for lever-based resistance — one end pivots on the floor or in a purpose-built sleeve as the lifter moves the loaded end through space. Make no mistake, this is not flashy “training for the ‘Gram” or some gross misuse of equipment.

The landmine provides opportunities for exercises with characteristics distinct from traditional free-weight training. The best part? Landmines offer versatility to train the entire body along with multiple components of fitness. Here, you’ll find the best landmine workouts for building serious upper and lower-body muscle, along with elite-level conditioning. 

Best Landmine Workouts

• For Upper Body Muscle
• For Lower Body Muscle 
• For Conditioning

Benefits of Landmine Training

Landmine training (literally) leverages a simple piece of equipment for a wide range of exercises. Traditional barbell training is already versatile, so why use your barbell as a landmine?

Landmines provide a more predictable bar path than a barbell moving freely through space. In motor learning — the scientific field that studies movement and skill acquisition — this predictable bar path represents a “constraint.” That is, the landmine is constrained to move along an arced path.

This constraint helps a lifter to master the form of technical multi-joint lifts, such as the presses, rows, and cleans used in the workouts below. It also promotes more consistent movement performance. Constant movements, when performed under load, stimulate the target muscles exceptionally effectively. The result is a fast-learning curve and predictable gains in strength and size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The arced bar path also alters exercise form compared to barbell training. Landmine presses keep the shoulder out of end-range flexion, an area of common restriction. Landmine rows encourage ideal shoulder blade movement “down and back.” Landmine squats virtually ensure we sit back into our hips with an upright trunk position, which demands textbook form.

Landmine exercises also appear to stress our joints differently than traditional free weight lifts. (1) Altogether, the landmine may be helpful if you have banged up knees or shoulders. Set your landmine and get ready for a different angle on barbell training. 

Best Landmine Workout for Upper Body Muscle

The upper body landmine workout below is like a multi-course meal — a feast for your muscles. The meat and potatoes are compound exercises followed by isolation movements. 

Compound exercises, or those involving multiple joints, are efficient because they train many muscle groups simultaneously. They’re also very effective for building strength because they allow you to move heavier loads than exercises training a single joint in isolation.

Upper body compound exercises are broadly categorized as either “pushes” or “pulls.” Pushing exercises involve driving a resistance away from the body and training the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Pulling exercises involve drawing a resistance toward the body. These exercises train the back and biceps.

The compound exercises in this workout are structured as a series of push/pull supersets for efficiency. The final two movements are isolation exercises like a satisfying dessert after the main course. They train the glamour muscles that stretch our sleeves and broaden our frame.

Upper Body Training, One Arm at a Time

Due to the lever-based resistance of the landmine, your typical free weight loads and percentages will not be appropriate. It would be best to determine appropriate working weights that result in “hard” sets within the recommended repetition range.

To determine working weight for each exercise, perform two or more progressively heavier “work up” sets. Once you land on a weight that challenges you within the set rep range, stick with that load for your working sets. 

Half-Kneeling Landmine Press

• How to Do it: Assume a “half-kneeling” position with the working-side knee down. Hold the bar above your shoulder, brace your torso, and drive the bar up and forward along the natural arc of the landmine. Lower to the starting position.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-10 per arm.
• Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Meadows Row

• How to Do it: Stand perpendicular to the landmine. Hold the bar sleeve with an overhand grip and brace your non-working arm on your thigh. Lift the bar by driving your elbow out as you squeeze your shoulder blade toward your spine. Lower to full extension until you feel an intense stretch behind your shoulder. Be sure to load the bar with small diameter plates (five, 10, or 25-pound) to allow an extended range of motion.

• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
• Rest time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Standing Landmine Press

• How to Do it: Face the landmine with a staggered stance, keeping your working side leg behind you. Press the bar forward and up until your elbow reaches full extension. Lower with control.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
• Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Landmine Row

• How to Do it: Stand parallel to the barbell. Hinge forward at the hips and grip the barbell just before the sleeve. Pull your shoulder and arm back to row the weight toward the outside of your hip. Lower with control.

• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
• Rest time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Landmine Lateral Raise

• How to Do it: Stand with the end of the barbell just in front of your working side hip, quarter turned toward the landmine. Lift by pushing the bar forward and out until your wrist is higher than shoulder. Lower with control.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16 per arm
• Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Landmine Concentration Curl

• How to Do it: Drop into a wide-stance quarter squat and brace your upper arm against your inner thigh. Grab the end of the bar sleeve. Without moving your upper arm, curl the landmine barbell. Notice how the bar path forces you to keep your palm turned up and out as you curl. This enhances biceps stimulus. (2)(3) Lower with control. 

• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12 per arm.
• Rest time:Rest 90 seconds to two minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Best Landmine Workout for Lower Body Muscle

Wheels, lower extremities, jets, getaway sticks — whatever you call them, most people want strong, muscular legs.

Like the upper body, the basic compound movements of the lower body can be categorized as push and pull or, more commonly, squats and deadlifts, respectively. Squats and squat-derivatives train the glutes, quadriceps, and calf muscles. Deadlifts and deadlift-derivatives train the hamstrings and also hit the glutes.

Leg-Building Landmine Workout

This workout combines heavy, double-legged exercises with single-leg lifts to promote athleticism, and it finishes with a loaded mobility exercise for the commonly-neglected inner thigh muscles.

The landmine provides a small amount of balance assistance, which may allow single-leg variations of squats and deadlifts to be loaded heavier than free-weight single-leg versions.

To ensure adequate recovery, the lower body landmine exercises are structured as straight sets. Take two to three-minute rests to ensure intensity is maintained for maximum strength gains. (4)

Landmine Squat

• How to Do it: Cradle the end of the barbell atop your sternum with your arms pulled in toward your ribs. To account for the arced path of the bar, place your feet farther from the plates so that your body is inclined forward in the top position. Squat down as far as your mobility allows, and return to standing. 

• Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-10
• Rest time: Rest two to three minutes between sets.

Modified Single-Leg Landmine Romanian Deadlift

• How to Do it: Unlike the standard single-leg landmine Romanian deadlift, which is performed facing the landmine, (5) the modified version provides more stability, which lets you lift more weight. Stand perpendicular to the landmine. Hold the sleeve palm-down with your inside hand. Hinge forward at your hips and allow your inside leg to travel behind you, while that foot rises into the air. Keep a slight bend in your standing knee and descend until you feel a strong sense of tension in your hamstring. Return to standing and repeat.

• Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-10 per leg.
• Rest time: Rest 2 to 3 minutes between sets.

Landmine Hack Squat

• How to Do it: Ensure you landmine base is secure and will not slide. Face away from the landmine and rest the sleeve on your upper trapezius, just inside the point of the shoulder. Position your feet well in front of your body. Keep your feet flat as you descend into a deep squat, reaching your hamstrings to your calves if possible. Drive up and back to the starting position. On your next set, rack the landmine on your opposite shoulder.

• Sets and Reps: 2 x 12-16
• Rest time: Rest two to three minutes between sets.

Landmine Cossack Squat

• How to Do it: Face the landmine with a wide stance and hold the landmine in front of your sternum. Sit down and back, sinking into your right hip while allowing your left foot to pivot onto the heel. Push through your right leg to return to center. Perform all repetitions to the right, then repeat to the left.

• Sets and Reps: 2 x 8-10 per side.
• Rest time: Rest two to three minutes between sets.

Landmine Workout for Conditioning

Barbell complexes are commonly used for metabolic conditioning. Complexes are sequences of lifts performed in continuous succession. The lifter finishes all reps of one lift before moving on to the next, using the same piece of equipment and the same weight for all movements.

Complexes can be designed to tax every energy system — the phosphagen system provides quick bursts of power. The glycolytic system becomes prominent as the complex drags on for more than the first few reps. Finally, if you string multiple complexes together in a fashion popularized by many notorious CrossFit workouts, the aerobic system helps you recover.

Every Two-Minute On the Two-Minute Landmine Complex

The landmine is a wonderful tool for complexes. The workout below uses repeated landmine complexes to promote metabolic conditioning. For simplicity, a time-based rest strategy provides most athletes an approximate 1:1 work to rest ratio. Every two minutes, you will start a new complex and complete it as quickly as you can.

• How to Do it: Place a moderate amount of weight on the landmine. First perform the Landmine Hang Clean & Jerk — Stand perpendicular to the bar and hold the sleeve in the hang position (palm down with your hand near your hip). Extend your hips, knees, and ankles as you shrug and pull the bar along its natural arc. As the bar is in motion, pivot to face the landmine and receive the bar with your other hand. Perform a split jerk by dropping down and immediately driving back up with your legs as you extend your elbow and switch your footing. Control the bar back to the hang position with both hands.The next movement is the classic standing Landmine Rotation — Hold the bar with both arms outstretched above you. Lower the bar to the left, allowing your hips to rotate and your feet to pivot. Rotate the landmine back up and across to the right, again allowing your feet and hips to move smoothly.The third and final exercise in this complex is a Landmine Push Press — This exercise begins similar to a shallow landmine squat with a ballistic concentric (“up”) phase. Transfer the energy from your leg drive into both arms as you press the bar up and forward. Repeat the process for for each repetition.

• Sets and Reps: One “set” of the complex consists of 3 reps of each movement — 3 per side landmine hang clean & jerk, 3 rotations in each direction, and 3 push presses. Perform one set every two minutes for a total of 12 to 16 minutes.
• Rest time: Perform one full set and rest the remainder of the two minute block. This rest strategy is a variation on the much more popular EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute), but “E2MO2M” doesn’t have the same ring.

How to Warm-Up for Landmine Workouts

Before you detonate these workouts, perform a high-quality warm-up to ensure your body is primed for performance. Options for effective warm-ups are innumerable, but for those who can’t spare the bandwidth to conjure one up, here’s a simple plan.

Start with five or six minutes of low intensity aerobic exercise (jump rope, bike, or cardio method of choice), then grab a light resistance band and move through the following sequence:

Landmine Workout Warm-Up

• Deep Squat with Trunk Rotations: Drop down into a deep squat. Keep your chest up and reach toward the ground with both arms between your legs. Use one arm to “pry” your same-side thigh outward as you reach up with the other arm. As you reach, keep your eyes on your overhead palm by rotating and extending your trunk. Repeat with the other hand. Perform 8 rotations in each direction, alternating sides each repetition.

• Backstep Lunge to Hip Flexor Stretch: Take a large step backwards and lower your knee to the ground. Squeeze your rear-leg glute muscles to feel a stretch in the front of the hip or thigh. If you are unable to achieve a stretch, attempt to tuck your pelvis under your body by bringing your belt buckle toward your chin. Hold the position momentarily. Return to standing and repeat with the opposite leg. Perform 8 reps per leg.
• Plank to Pike: Assume a tall plank or “top of the push-up position” supporting your body on your palms and forefeet. Move into a pike position by pushing forward with your hands and driving your hips back and up, Keep your spine, arms, and legs straight. Return to the plank position. Perform 8 reps. 
• Dynamic Hug: Wrap a light resistance band around your back just below your shoulder blades. Stand with arms outreached straight ahead at shoulder-height. Reach forward in a “hugging” motion. Imagine you are wrapping your arms around a gigantic tree to maximize the space between your arms as you reach your hands together. Reverse the movement, allowing your shoulder blades to move toward your spine as you open your arms. Perform 8 repetitions.
• Band Pull-Apart: Hold the resistance band straight ahead with your arms in front of your shoulders. Stretch the band by pulling your arms apart without bending your elbows. Initiate the movement by squeezing your shoulder blades toward your spine. When your hands are sideways in-line with your shoulders, return to the starting position. Perform 8 repetitions. 

An Angled Approach to New Gains

The landmine is a fun and versatile tool for training all major muscle groups. Landmine lifts promote a balanced physique while hammering the core, and may actually result in superior gains in on-field or on-court athleticism. (6) Bookmark these landmine workouts and blast your next high-quality training session.

References

1. Collins, K. S., Klawitter, L. A., Waldera, R. W., Mahoney, S. J., & Christensen, B. K. (2021). Differences in muscle activity and kinetics between the goblet squat and landmine squat in men and women. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 35(10), 2661-2668.
2. Murray, W. M., Delp, S. L., Buchanan, T. S. (1995). Variation of muscle moment arms with elbow and forearm position. Journal of Biomechanics, 28(5), 513-525.
3. Kleiber, T., Kunz, L., & Disselhorst-Klug, C. (2015). Muscular coordination of biceps brachii and brachioradialis in elbow flexion with respect to hand position. Frontiers in Physiology, 6, 215.
4. Schoenfeld, B. J., Pope, Z. K., Benik, F. M., et al. (2016). Longer interset rest periods enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 30(7), 1805-1812.
5. Weaver, A. N., & Kerksick, C. M. (2017). Implementing landmine single-leg Romanian deadlift into an athlete’s training program. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 39(1), 85-90.
6. Zweifel, M. (2017). Importance of horizontally loaded movements to sports performance. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 39(1), 21-26.

Featured Image: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube

The post The Best Landmine Workouts for More Muscle and Better Conditioning appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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Who wouldn’t want to be strong like a powerlifter while also being built like a bodybuilder? Maximizing strength and muscle is what drives many people to start lifting weights in the first place, so why not train for the best of both worlds? Powerlifting plus bodybuilding equals powerbuilding.

Although powerbuilding is often considered a specific style of training, it’s really just an overall structure given to any training plan. And it’s a structure that many experienced lifters were doing even before it was given a name.

While there’s no reason to be dogmatic, here are some basic guidelines that can help you decide where to put your focus, what to include and what to leave out, and how to best organize your training to pack on size and strength.

• What is Powerbuilding?
• Who Should Use Powerbuilding?
• Why Train for Powerbuilding?
• How to Plan a Powerbuilding Routine?
• Common Powerbuilding Mistakes
• Sample Powerbuilding Programs

What is Powerbuilding?

Training for powerbuilding means that you focus on increasing strength in big, compound (multi-joint) lifts while also building muscle through more classic bodybuilding-type training with isolation (single-joint) exercises and exercise variations, also called accessory movements.

One example would be starting a workout with sets of deadlifts, followed by accessory exercises concentrated on individual muscle groups such as the back and hamstrings. The main compound lift would be done for lower reps with heavier weights to develop strength and power.

The accessory exercises are done with relatively higher rep ranges in order to develop individual muscles while reducing wear and tear on the joint. That can include anything from single-joint exercises like biceps curls to multi-joint movements like split squats or pull-ups.

An upside to powerbuilding is that you can choose what to prioritize for specific goals. If you eventually decide to enter a powerlifting competition, for example, you could allocate more time to training heavy with the big three powerlifts — back squat, bench press, and deadlift — and minimize some of the bodybuilding work.

Or, when beach season approaches, you might keep the heavy barbell lifts to a minimum and spend most of your training doing muscle-building accessory exercises to build a serious physique while remaining relatively strong.

While powerbuilding gives you flexibility in exercise choice, there are some things to keep in mind for the best results.

Who Should Use Powerbuilding

Powerbuilding is for those who don’t have one singular physique or performance focus, but instead want to be physically well-balanced.

If you want to be strong, muscular, and fit, there’s no reason to get stuck working towards some grandiose weight in a barbell lift, reaching a specific body fat percentage number, or breaking a certain time for an endurance workout.

That’s not to say you won’t still set PRs (personal records), build endurance, and drastically improve your body composition with a more general training powerbuilding approach.

You may not break state lifting records or be shredded enough to step on a bodybuilding stage, but you can still end up stronger and more muscular than people who put all of their training eggs in a single basket.

Powerbuilding training can also be useful for people who compete in other sports or physical hobbies. When you’re approaching a competition, strength and conditioning training does need to be tailored to your specific sport or activity, especially when you’re competing at a very high level.

As long as you’re not in a competitive season, powerbuilding can be a great way to build a broad foundation for novice athletes and it can help experienced athletes remain well-rounded.

Powerbuilding for New Lifters

It’s great that powerlifting-inspired, strength-focused training has become popular in recent years. However, too many people with no lifting background dive headfirst into heavy training after seeing it for the first time.

While powerlifting can build an excellent level of upper and lower-body strength, beginners need to build a foundation using more variety than this type of specialized training can provide. Powerbuilding training is a better alternative for beginners because it builds a much broader base by developing more attributes with more exercise variety.

A beginner starting with a broad base will be in a better position to build on. With powerbuilding, you can steadily improve in big barbell lifts, similar to powerlifting-based training. Those barbell lifts can be markers for you to track your progress — not just in strength, but also in movement quality. Your technique will improve as you progress.

You also have more freedom when choosing  different exercises, variations, and training methods on a powerbuilding program. Powerlifting is exclusively focused on moving the most total weight in the back squat, flat bench press, and deadlift. Powerbuilding lets you focus on different barbell lifts while performing a wide variety of isolation exercises. In the long-term, this leads to better balance, proportion, and overall healthy function throughout your body.

Why Train for Powerbuilding

A Powerbuilding routine is excellent not only for building strength and muscle, but also for developing work capacity and resilience toward injury. This is primarily because powerbuilding allows flexibility to use a variety of exercises and training methods, instead of a relatively smaller handful of goal-specific exercises or methods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Muscles grow bigger and stronger more quickly than the connective tissue that attaches those muscles to bones. If your training routine is excessively focused on building strength, like many powerlifting-based programs, you’re on a potentially dangerous path.

The disproportionate increase in muscular strength may create a condition where your muscles exert levels of force that your connective tissues can’t support. That can lead to the type of injury that keeps nagging for years.

Powerbuilding programs make it simple to incorporate moderate-to-high rep accessory exercises which increase blood supply and metabolic growth factors to tendons and ligaments. This type of training makes the connective tissues thicker and stronger, while increasing the muscles’ ability to withstand fatigue and do more work.

Powerbuilding routines also leave room for hybrid training methods which build muscle and aerobic capacity together, such as “tempo interval circuits” — alternating 20 to 45 seconds of steady state activity (rowing, stationary bike riding, sled dragging, etc.) with 10 to 15 reps of an accessory exercise, repeated for a total of 20 to 60 minutes.

These methods can all be included in powerbuilding programs to build a more well-rounded, highly capable body that’s more resistant to injury. You can still decide to specialize with powerlifting or bodybuilding-focused training later, if it suits your specific goal.

How to Plan a Powerbuilding Routine

While you do have a lot of flexibility when arranging your powerbuilding training plan, there are some important things to consider when designing a program.

Choose Your Main Lifts

First, decide which compound lifts to prioritize. You can use the classic back squat, flat bench press, and deadlift, or you can substitute similar alternatives. For example, you could trade the bench press for the overhead press if overhead strength appeals to you.

To focus on leg strength, you may want to include both the back squat and front squat while leaving out the deadlift for a few months. However, using “overlapping” exercises or very similar movements will require extra attention to planning, explained later.

There are no strict rules regarding which exercises to include, just pick what you like and stick with it. You can choose whatever big compound lifts you prefer, and you can even change them over time.

However, because the main lift is strength-focused, it should be a movement which allows the greatest potential weight to be lifted. This will almost always be a barbell exercise. Plan to use three to five sets of three to six reps with a challenging weight.

Know Your Training Split

Next, decide what order you’ll train your lifts and muscle groups. You can do this by following a push/pull split, an upper/lower split, or a muscle group split.

Push/Pull Split: The push/pull split alternates training days focused on “pushing” muscles and movements (including squat and squat variations, chest and shoulder training, and triceps work) with days focused on “pulling” muscles and movements (including deadlifts and deadlift variations, back exercises like rows and pulldowns, and biceps training).

The most common way to program a push/pull split is to pair a pushing movement main lift with accessory pushing exercises. For example, a workout could begin with heavy squats, followed up with upper and lower-body pushing accessory exercises including hack squats, leg extensions, overhead dumbbell pressing, and skull crushers.

If you’re training with more than one push (or pull) workout per week, you might focus the accessory work to only the muscles used in the main lift. For example, heavy front squats followed by the leg press, Bulgarian split squat, standing calf raise, and ab training.

Upper/Lower Split: This is exactly what it sounds like — each training day is devoted to either upper body or lower body exercises.

On day one, you might bench press and then do the dumbbell overhead press, pulldowns, cable rows, and triceps extensions. Day two could include the deadlift, lunges, hamstring curls, and calf raises. While day three might focus on the barbell row, chin-ups, chest dips, incline pressing, and biceps curls.

This approach can be manipulated to improve overall recovery time by adding rest days to extend the time between workouts. This makes it a very suitable choice for older lifters who may need to carefully monitor the weekly wear and tear on their body.

Muscle Group Split: This is a classic “body part split” seen in most bodybuilding programs, with each training day focused on one or two specific muscle groups. However, the main compound lifts still focus on building strength with that body part as the primary working muscle.

Training days typically work around the chest, back, shoulders, arms (sometimes broken down into a biceps day and a triceps day), and legs. “Leg day” may also be separated into one quadriceps day (with squats) and one hamstring day (with deadlifts).

For example, you might start “quadriceps day” with front squats, and then maximize muscle growth with accessory exercises that specifically work the leg muscles used in a squat — including lunges and leg extensions.

On shoulder day, you may use the push press as a main lift, followed by dumbbell overhead pressing, lateral raises, rear delt flyes, triceps pushdowns.

Choose Your Accessory Exercises

Once you’ve selected your main lifts and training split, you’ll know which accessory movements can be plugged into each day.

Accessory movements should be chosen to build size in muscles that need attention and are appropriate for each training day. If you’re following a push/pull split, you wouldn’t perform leg curls as an accessory movement after bench press; they’re different types of movements and the hamstrings aren’t recruited when benching.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking accessory exercises are a lesser priority than your main lift. Accessory movements are primarily responsible for the “building” part of powerbuilding. They help you pack on size and support strength progression in the main lifts.

When it comes to accessory exercises, work for three to five sets of eight to 15 reps. You may want to include traditional isolation exercises like lateral raises or seated leg extensions, or variations of the main lift such as an incline bench press or dumbbell overhead press.

You could also use alternative exercises like kettlebell swings, farmer’s walks, or sled drags to build the size and conditioning you’re looking for. Accessory movements allow you to focus more on muscle growth than raw strength, so choose the movements based on your individual needs.

Determine Your Training Frequency

The last step to setting up your powerbuilding program is to decide how many days per week you’re going to train. Typically, the longer you’ve been training, the more volume of work you must do to continue to see progress.

This usually means more experienced lifters will need to train more days each week than when they first started. Someone who has been doing powerbuilding training for a year or less can often improve with only two to three workouts a week because the overall stimulus is still relatively new and their body responds well.

Lifters with more than two years experience will probably need to train three to five days per week to achieve the volume and intensity needed to continue seeing results. One or even two workouts per week couldn’t accommodate enough exercises with enough sets and reps, using enough weight, to trigger sufficient muscle and strength gains.

However, you can structure your week to make the most out of fewer training days. Yes, the longer you consistently train, the more work you will need to add overall. But if you appropriately pair your compound lifts and add accessory exercises that fill in any potential gaps, you don’t necessarily need to lift five days a week.

For example, you might follow an upper/lower split three days per week using the bench press and barbell row as main lifts on one upper body day, trap bar deadlifts and squats on a lower body day, and a shoulder press on the next training day.

Common Powerbuilding Mistakes

Powerbuilding can be a relatively straightforward approach to training — lift heavy and then lift a little lighter — but several common mistakes can limit your recovery and reduce results.

Poor Fatigue Management

One of the biggest issues to keep in mind is managing your fatigue throughout the week. You can do this by following a proper training split, grouping main lifts together, and organizing your split to reduce the total training days each week. Each of these were addressed in the planning section above.

You can also manage nervous system fatigue by avoiding excessive overlap with similar exercises. If you were to design a powerbuilding routine with four different squat variations as the main lift four days in a row, you never give your nervous system or squatting muscles a chance to recover. You’ll likely burnout before seeing any significant results.

Instead, you might do back squats and squat cleans on day one, with Zercher squats and front squats on day three or four. This creates a structure that allows you time to recover from the physical and physiological stresses of squatting.

Yes, it may suck to do heavy cleans after heavy squats or front squats after heavy Zerchers, but your body will adapt because it’s given the chance to recover. In the end, the total training plan will be more productive and you will adapt and grow stronger from it.

Overemphasizing Main Lifts or De-emphasizing Accessory Work

Some lifters get so caught up in chasing heavy weights that they overlook accessory work. If they’re in a hurry on a given day, accessory movements might be performed haphazardly, with reduced effort, or even skipped entirely. That’s a one way ticket to plateau city, where strength stalls and muscles remain under-sized.

For optimal gains in both size and strength, the main lift and the accessories should be approached with balanced effort and enthusiasm. If you wouldn’t skip a set of heavy deadlifts, you shouldn’t consider skipping a set of pulldowns or lunges.

If the unexpected happens and you need to trim your time in the gym, don’t simply drop the accessory movements. Take the opportunity to dial up the intensity and use supersets to fit more training sets into a shorter amount of time.

Sample Powerbuilding Routines

Now that you have the general outline for how to structure your training, here’s a sample program putting it all into action.

This adaptable template keeps the main lifts focused on building strength and includes alternative methods to increase work capacity and develop muscle.

Day One

• Back Squat: 4 x 5 (70% one-rep max)
• Overhead Press: 5 x 3 (75% one-rep max)
• Bulgarian Split Squat: 4×10 (each leg)
• Dumbbell Upright Row: 4×10 (superset with previous exercise)

Tempo Interval Circuit — Perform for 20 minutes:

• Sled Push: 30 seconds 
• Feet-Elevated Push-up: 15 reps
• Sled Pull: 30 seconds 
• Lat Pulldown: 10 reps

Day Two

• Deadlift: 2 x 3 (75% one-rep max), 2 x 3 (80% one-rep max)
• Landmine Row: 4 x 6 (each side)
• Romanian Deadlift: 4 x 6
• Cable Pull-Through: 3 x 15
• Two-Arm Dumbbell Row: 4 x 10 (superset with two following exercises)
• Cable Face Pull: 4 x 10 
• Pallof Press: 4 x 6 (each side)

Day Three

• Bench Press: 4 x 5 (70% one-rep max)
• Front Squat: 4 x 3 (75% one-rep max)
• Goblet Squat: 4 x 8
• Lateral Lunge: 3 x 6 (each side)
• Dumbbell Floor Press: 3 x 12 (superset with previous exercise)

Accessory Circuit — As many sets as possible in eight minutes: 

• Inverted Row: 6 reps 
• Chest-Supported Front Raise: 8 reps
• Chest-Supported Rear Raise: 8 reps 
• Seated Hammer Curl: 10 reps 
• Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension: 8 reps 

Building the Best of Both Worlds

Powerbuilding training is not only a great way to build a broad base for beginners, it’s one of the most efficient ways to structure your workouts for becoming stronger, more muscular, leaner, and capable of more than just picking up heavy things or flexing in poses. If you’re motivated to build a well-rounded body, spend some time powerbuilding.

Featured Image: Tom Yau / Shutterstock

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Primal Health Coach Institute is 7 years old, and it’s grown up faster than either one of my kids did. We’ve evolved the curriculum, added more tools and resources, and launched several new courses for aspiring and current coaches and health professionals.

I’m dedicating today’s blog post to PHCI’s latest development because it’s transforming my mission in the very best way. With the joint efforts of Mark’s Daily Apple and our global community of Primal Health Coaches, we’re not too far from reaching my goal of helping 10 million people take control of their health. And given all the success that the broader primal movement has had over the last two decades, perhaps we should, yet again, add another zero to the goal.

I think Primal Health Coach Institute’s newest training programs focused on fitness will get us there.

You’re probably familiar with our flagship health coaching program. It’s a comprehensive certification program that’s equal parts health and wellness education, coaching skills training, and business development. We’ve certified thousands of Primal Health Coaches, and they’re making an impact in 75 countries around the world.

And now, we’re going to do the same with fitness coaches. Because, after several years of development, we’re ready to unveil the Primal Fitness Coach Certification Program.

What Is Primal Fitness?

Before I get into course specifics, I think it’s important to clarify what we mean by primal fitness, and what makes it different from other fitness philosophies.

Throughout my years as a professional athlete and coach to athletes, I’ve seen a common theme and talked about it often—the tendency to push ourselves and each other so far beyond our limits that we chase fitness gains away and invite injury, burnout, and illness.

For people just looking to get fitter, it’s difficult to find a balanced approach to exercise that can be sustained for a lifetime. Moving more becomes stressful when it should be fun, and it’s difficult to get fitness gains to stick.

That’s where primal fitness reshapes the traditional model. It’s a back-to-the-basics fitness philosophy that takes a playful approach to movement and focuses on functional fitness fully integrated with healthy living.

If you’re a regular reader, you’re likely already up to speed with the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws and know I’m a proponent of moving frequently at a comfortable pace, sprinting once in a while, lifting heavy things, and playing. Maybe you’ve watched our videos demonstrating the correct way to do Primal Essential Movements. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Over the past two years, I’ve worked closely with PHCI staff and instructors, as well as other experts with decades of experience as personal trainers and fitness educators, to round out primal fitness so that it now addresses all areas of movement, exercise, and fitness in a holistic manner. It’s the culmination of my life experience in this area, and it includes everything I know about fitness and exercise.

I also want to give a shout-out to Brad Kearns, who was instrumental in developing this program. For those of you who haven’t met him, Brad was my co-author on our bestsellers: Primal Endurance and The Keto Reset Diet. Brad also has a background as a professional triathlete (I used to train him back in the 80s and 90s when he competed on the world circuit), most recently as the Guinness World Record Speedgolfer, and 2020 and 2022 #1-ranked USA Masters age 55-59 high jumper. Together, we made sure the Primal Fitness Coach Certification Program reflects the latest research in exercise and fitness science while also gracefully and strategically honoring what we know about how our primal ancestors moved and lived.

Check out this recent podcast in which I go into greater detail about Primal Fitness and our new certification program: Health Coach Radio Episode | Fitness for Life with Mark Sisson.

What You’ll Learn

We train our students to be well-versed in all primal fitness exercises and principles and prepared to use their knowledge in a variety of personal and professional contexts. When you complete the course, you’ll know how to train clients to be fit for life—to avoid injuries, increase mobility, develop lean muscle mass, protect joints, and optimize metabolic health. This well-rounded functional fitness certification covers best practices for daily movement, strength training and conditioning, HIIT exercises, sprinting, breathing, and more.

It’s a three-part curriculum. It starts with a comprehensive ancestral exercise and fitness education. Enroll in the program to become a functional fitness expert and learn how to nurture health, energize the body, mind, and soul, promote fitness versatility, and protect against avoidable injury and burnout. The fourteen chapters of curricula represent the most comprehensive and detailed education you will get anywhere in the world relating to broad-based functional fitness and integrative lifestyle strategies. That’s a puffy statement considering the many exceptional fitness certifications out there. However, nothing covers as much territory as the Primal Fitness Coach Certification. If you already have high-level experience or certifications in specific modalities like strength training, CrossFit or USA Triathlon coaching, this course will be highly complementary to your specialized knowledge.

After you complete the fitness educational component, you’ll learn how to coach others towards their fitness goals so you can step confidently into your fitness coaching practice. We’ll teach you how to structure coaching sessions, ask questions, and motivate behavior change. We also tackle more advanced coaching techniques to help you connect with the emotional, behavioral, mental, spiritual, and relational issues that your clients will be navigating as they work with you on their fitness goals.

The third part of the program helps you build your business. You’ll complete hands-on activities like building your website and developing your content. These chapters include practical exercises that lay the foundation of the fitness coaching business of your dreams.

Who It’s For

If you love fitness and have a desire to do meaningful work in the world, changing people’s relationship to movement, to their bodies, and to exercise, then this program might be the right next step to take in your life and in your career. You don’t have to be a fitness pro. We’ll turn you into one. You just have to enjoy helping other people and have a passion for fitness and health.

And if you love fitness but don’t necessarily want to be a coach, we’re also offering our new Primal Fitness Expert Certification that is comprised of only the aforementioned first tier–the 14 chapters of fitness education. It’s everything you need to know to become a certified primal expert—just without the coaching and business training. It’s a fraction of the cost of the Primal Fitness Coach Certification and is perfect for the primal enthusiast looking to get fit for life. It’s also a great continuing education option for already certified coaches and health professionals who want to round out their knowledge with primal fitness. This includes existing certified Primal Health Coaches who want to add a fitness dimension to their health coaching knowledge and practice.

Reaching the 100-Million Mark

With these two new endeavors in the mix, we can confidently add another zero to our mission—100 million lives changed is now well within the realm of possibility.

The Primal Health Coach Institute website just got a major design update. Take a look and explore our new primal fitness courses. If you’re inspired, I hope you’ll join the thousands of coaches around the world who are already part of the PHCI community and become one of the first Primal Fitness Coaches on the planet.

The post Introducing the Primal Fitness Coach Certification Program appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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On Aug. 16, 2022, Jonathan Cayco posted a video on his Instagram page wherein he captured a raw back squat of 260 kilograms (573 pounds) for five reps during a training session. According to the powerlifter, who usually competes in the 93-kilogram weight class, the strength mark is his new five-rep personal record (PR). 

Cayco wore a lifting belt, lifting straps, and knee sleeves during his set, which demonstrated his leg power. Watch a video of Cayco’s PR squat session below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Jonathan “Mr.Bench” Cayco (@league_of_lifting)

[Related: How to Do the Goblet Squat for Lower Body Size and Mobility]

According to Open Powerlifting, the 29-year-old Cayco has been competing in some capacity as a powerlifter since September 2015. In that time, Cayco has made a name for himself for his elite-level finishes.

In 14 career contests, most often as a Men’s Open competitor, Cayco has nine wins to his name. He’s missed the podium just twice — both were fourth-place finishes. Arguably the most noteworthy accomplishment of Cayco’s career to date is his victory in the 93-kilogram class at the 2021 International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) World Classic Powerlifting Championships.

Cayco also won the USA Powerlifting (USAPL) raw National Title twice (2019, 2021) and holds the current IPF bench press World Record of 238.5 kilograms (525.8 pounds), which he set at the 2022 IPF World Championships. 

Here’s an overview of some of Cayco’s more notable results to this point:

Jonathan Cayco* | Notable Career Results

• 2016 USAPL Southwest Regionals & Ferrigno Power Classic — First place | First career raw victory
• 2018 USAPL The Arnold SBD Pro American — First place
• 2019 USAPL California State Championships — First place
• 2019/2021 USAPL Raw Nationals — First place
• 2021 IPF World Classic Powerlifting Championships — First place
• 2022 AMP Classic Open Nationals — First Place
• 2022 IPF World Classic Powerlifting Championships — Third place 

*Note: 13 of Cayco’s 14 career appearances in sanctioned competition were as a Raw competitor. Those were all in the Men’s Open category.

Here’s a rundown of Cayco’s top lifts in competitions to date:

Jonathan Cayco | Top Career Lift Stats*

• Squat — 305 kilograms (672.4 pounds)
• Bench Press — 242.5 kilograms (534.6 pounds)
• Deadlift — 347.5 kilograms (766.1 pounds)
• Total — 892.5 kilograms (1,967.6 pounds)

*Note: These figures are all in the raw division.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Jonathan “Mr.Bench” Cayco (@league_of_lifting)

[Related: The Best Sled Workouts for Muscle, Strength, Fat Loss, and Recovery]

Cayco’s Task Ahead

Entering as the defending champion at the 2022 IPF World Championships, Cayco ultimately lost the title thanks to a record-breaking performance by Chance Mitchell. At the time of this writing, Cayco has not confirmed when he will participate next in a sanctioned meet.

If the competition is domestic with the USAPL, Cayco will have to choose a new division between either 90 kilograms or 100 kilograms. USAPL’s change in bodyweight categories occurred in January 2022. If Cayco decides to stay at an international level — particularly with the IPF — the American athlete can continue competing at 93 kilograms. 

Wherever Cayco’s ambitions take him next, it seems clear he’ll return hungry and prepared to take a spot at the top of that podium. 

Featured image: @league_of_lifting on Instagram

The post Jonathan Cayco (93KG) Scores a Stunning 260-Kilogram (573-Pound) 5-Rep Squat PR appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

On Aug. 16, 2022, powerlifter Serena Abweh shared a video of herself on her Instagram page completing a raw deadlift of 161 kilograms (355 pounds) during a training session. It’s a personal record (PR) that surpasses her all-time competition best in the 48-kilogram class at the 2021 United States Powerlifting Association (USPA) New Mexico State Championships by 8.5 kilograms (18.8 pounds). 

The deadlift is also 3.4 times Abweh’s competition body weight. She used a sumo stance, mixed grip, and donned a lifting belt to capture her new deadlift PR. Given the casualness of her pull, it might be fair to assume that Abweh had more in the tank. You can check out footage of the strength feat via her Instagram profile below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Serena Abweh (@rena_serenaa)

[Related: The Best Sled Workouts for Muscle, Strength, Fat Loss, and Recovery]

Abweh is in her early 20s but has already amassed an impressive competitive resume in her approximate four-year career. As primarily a Juniors competitor, Abweh has won six of seven career contests.

Abweh’s lone non-first-place finish was a fifth-overall result in the Juniors 47-kilogram division during the 2020 International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) World Classic Powerlifting Championships. Here’s a rundown of Abweh’s complete resume to date:

Serena Abweh | Competition Resume (Juniors)

• 2018 USPA APEMAN Classic Powerlifting Championships — First place
• 2018 USA Powerlifting (USAPL) Southwest Regional Championships — First place
• 2018 USAPL Raw Nationals — First place
• 2019 IPF World Classic Powerlifting Championships — Fifth place
• 2019 USAPL Raw Nationals — First place
• 2020 USAPL Collegiate Cup and Texas Open — First place
• 2021 USPA New Mexico State Championships — First place

Here’s an overview of Abweh’s all-time competition bests on each of the benchmark lifts in powerlifting:

Serena Abweh* | All-Time Competition Bests

• Squat — 100 kilograms (220.4 pounds)
• Bench Press — 67.5 kilograms (148.8 pounds)
• Deadlift — 152.5 kilograms (336.2 pounds)
• Total — 310 kilograms (683.4 pounds)

*Note: The American athlete has only ever competed raw. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Serena Abweh (@rena_serenaa)

[Related: How to Do the Kettlebell Swing for Explosive Power, Strength, and Conditioning]

Abweh’s Future Outlook

The 2021 USPA New Mexico State Championships was the last time Abweh competed on a sanctioned lifting platform. At the time of this article’s publication, the athlete has not disclosed when she will feature in a contest again. In the past, she’s typically participated in two competitions per year, with only 2022 thus far being an outlier. 

In January 2022, the USA Powerlifting organization reinstated the Women’s 44-kilogram and 48-kilogram divisions while moving past the 47-kilogram category. If Abweh competes internationally, particularly in any IPF contest, she will have the option to stay at 47 kilograms.

Featured image: @rena_serenaa on Instagram

The post Watch Powerlifter Serena Abweh (45KG) Deadlift 3.4 Times Her Bodyweight for a New PR appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

Actor Chris Hemsworth is well known for his strength and ripped physique befitting a fictional interpretation of the mythological Norse God Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). From time to time, Hemsworth shares workouts demonstrating how he builds his physical conditioning.

On Aug. 16, 2022, Hemsworth posted a “minimal equipment” workout via a video on his Instagram page. During the routine, he pushed through functional bodyweight exercises on the deck of a navy ship that was part of the set for the box office hit Top Gun: Maverick. Check it out below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)

[Related: How to Do the Goblet Squat for Lower Body Size and Mobility]

Here’s a rundown of Hemsworth’s bodyweight workout on the navy ship:

Chris Hemsworth’s “Minimal Equipment” Workout

• Squats: 1 x 5 
• Bear crawl: Five meters
• Sit-through: 1 x 10 
• Push-ups: 1 x 10 
• Mountain climber: 1 x 10 on each side 
• Static lunge: 1 x 5 on each leg
• Ice skater lunge: 1 x 5 on each side
• Rest for 60 seconds
• 10 rounds in total

According to Hemsworth, this flexible routine requires limited equipment and can be performed pretty much anywhere. The 38-year-old will share similar workouts in the coming weeks to promote his workout app, Centr.

The Australian actor began the ambitious endeavor to share health advice with people who want to improve their general fitness and nutrition. Per his social media, Centr “has everything you need for your fitness journey.”

This minimal equipment workout is another small sample of Hemsworth’s ongoing project in the growing fitness space. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)

[Related: How to Do the Bulgarian Split Squat for Leg Size, Strength, and Mobility]

Hemsworth’s Profile

Hemsworth has an eclectic performance background but is most famous for his role as the shredded Thor in the MCU. Many of his roles feature some necessary physical exertion, so he must keep up his training throughout the calendar year.

After the recent release of Thor: Love and Thunder in July 2022, Hemsworth does not have any other films scheduled for the rest of the year. However, according to IMDB, some of his future projects in 2023 and 2024 will probably keep him in shape.

For example, there’s the high-octane action film Extraction 2 and Furiosa — a prequel in the explosive Mad Max series. Both pending assignments likely mean the active Tinseltown performer won’t lapse in his top-notch fitness soon. 

Featured image: @chrishemsworth on Instagram

The post Check Out Chris Hemsworth’s Minimal Equipment Workout on a Naval Ship appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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On the surface, lab grown meat is a nice noble story.

Save all those poor defenseless cows from cruel factory farms and inhumane slaughterhouses. Save the environment from all those cow farts, burps, and emissions involved with animal agriculture. Handcraft meat to be healthy, nutritious, and good for the environment. Optimize the fatty acids. Eliminate the chance of animal-borne diseases or antibiotic resistant bacteria. No gross, unhygienic animal manure. No blood or guts. It’s clean, safe, clinical. We can even call it “clean meat” or “cultivated meat“.

Except it’s none of those things. So, what is it?

How is lab-grown meat made?

Lab grown meat starts by extracting stem cells from living animals. To grow “beef” in the lab, they extract cow stem cells. “Chicken,” chicken stem cells. And so on.

The cells are bathed in a growth medium—a mixture of amino acids, glucose, salts (minerals), vitamins, antioxidants, growth factors, hormones and other components necessary for cellular growth, such as buffers for controlling pH balance. The most common viable growth medium has been fetal bovine serum (extracted from pregnant cows), but some companies have developed other growth mediums that apparently don’t involve living animals.

They are placed on “scaffolding” to promote differentiation into fat, muscle, blood and other types of cells. Scaffolding can be based on gelatin, corn starch fiber, fungi, and many other substances.

It’s a really complex undertaking. It’s trying to replicate an organic process that’s constantly in flux. When this happens in an animal, there’s a base level “intelligence” to it. It just kind 0f… happens. It emerges. The lab environment cannot replicate the organic environment. That’s why in vitro studies rarely translate perfectly into in vivo studies: environment matters. Terroir matters.

They might be able to produce something that approximates a piece of beef in the lab, that looks kinda like it and tastes a little like it, but who’s to say what’s lost in translation? Could it be something important? Could it be something vital for the ultimate health effects of eating it?

The most recent one I saw was an Israeli company that managed to grow a 3.67 ounce “steak.” Look at that thing. It’s pathetic, frankly. They’re a long way off. What’s lab grown meat really about?

Lab-grown meat isn’t about health

Lab grown cultured meats are ultimately about control and money. If cultured meat replaces traditional animal husbandry, as is the stated goal, the ability to provide animal protein becomes an intellectual property controlled by the few and the powerful. It becomes an asset, an industry, a technology. Two of the biggest funders of lab grown meat include Tyson and Cargill, some of the largest meat producers in the world. Are they doing it out of the goodness of their hearts or to exert even more control over the ability to produce meat?

What will end up happening is the conversion of one of the most ancient and democratic human technologies—animal husbandry—into a patentable, intellectual property. Previously, if a family had a few goats or a milk cow, they were set. They might not be rich, but they could produce their own food (and sell it at market if they desired). Having animals was freedom and wealth. In fact, some of the most ancient words for wealth or money stem from the word for cattle or livestock. For example, the Latin pecunia (money) derived from the word pecus (cattle).

Plus, animal foods are highly mobile and energy dense. The Indo-European expansions that shaped the course of Europe, South Asia, and Central Asia for millennia to come were made possible by animal husbandry and the mobile milk, meat, and blood it provided. Small but potent bands of nomadic pastoralists swept across grasslands with their horses and herds, laying waste to the sedentary settlements of grain-eating, Neolithic farmers, all because their sustenance was on the hoof. Supply chain? They were the supply chain.

Were those expansions violent and ugly? Of course. That’s history. But the point is that animal foods confer great power. Traditional ways of producing animal foods spread the power and democratize it. You don’t have to be a huge multinational corporation; you can be a homesteader, or a subsistence farmer in a developing country, or a member of a CSA. Or just a consumer at a farmer’s market.

Lab grown cultured animal foods promise to concentrate the power. If meat becomes an intellectual property, someone will own that IP. Someone will own the ability to provide animal protein, and the traditional ways of animal husbandry will be crowded out, regulated out.

Difference between industrial lab meat and other industrial foods

Although I make mayo in a big factory, you can still make your own mayo at home. Nothing’s stopping you. Get a whisk, some oil, a few yolks, some vinegar, and you can do it.

If lab grown meat replaces traditional animal husbandry, you won’t have any options other than buying it. No one but the owners of these companies will have the money to afford the equipment and bypass the regulations. There won’t be backyard lab grown meat. In the proposed lab meat utopia. Instead there’d be 4 or 5 companies controlling the “meat” industry. The technological, financial, and regulatory hurdles to become a lab meat producer would be astronomical.

It’s not a perfect world now by any means, but you can still hit up Craigslist in any town in the United States and find someone willing to sell you a quarter cow within 50 miles. There are hundreds of thousands of beef producers, some large, some small. That would change.

How clean is lab-grown meat?

“Growing” muscle cells creates byproducts, metabolites, many of them toxic. In normal growing animals, these toxins are disposed of in the urine and feces so they don’t concentrate in the tissues and cells themselves. How do lab meats dispose of these toxins? How do they avoid concentration in the very same tissues they’ll be selling as steaks and roasts?

Animals have immune systems to fight bacteria, viruses, fungus. They’re not perfect by any means—that’s why we turn to antibiotics and antiparasitics—but they mount a pretty strong defense. It wouldn’t be pretty without an immune system. Lab meats don’t have immune systems. They’re just cells sitting in a vat.

So what happens in the lab? These are honest questions. Maybe they have answers, but I haven’t seen any.

Can meat really be optimized?

One of the “features” of lab grown meat is that producers can micromanage the nutrient, fatty acid, and vitamin content of their product. They can “optimize” it to be healthier.

If lab grown meat allows producers to micromanage the fatty acid and nutrient content of their product to be healthier, whose idea of “healthy” do you think they’ll follow? Will they follow ancestral health guidelines or USDA guidelines? Just imagine the damage they can do:

• Removing all saturated fat, replacing it with polyunsaturated fat.
• Canola stem cells interspersed with cow stem cells to promote “healthier” fat.
• Infusing the meat with statins.
• Replacing the gelatin in meat with “fiber” to lower your cholesterol.
• Eliminating the heme iron from all cultured red meat.

By most official “expert” accounts, these would all be improvements on traditional red meat. But they would be complete disasters.

The ick factor

I can’t quantify the ick factor. There’s no real science “justifying” it. But it’s there, and it’s likely there for a reason. At least that’s my bias: that instinctual urges and inclinations have evolutionary purposes that we just have to discover. Sometimes we figure out what the purpose was and it no longer applies. Sometimes we figure out the purpose and find that it does.

But you can’t deny that it feels really weird to grow meat in labs. Maybe it doesn’t feel that way to everyone, but it happens in enough people to be notable. We should probably respect that instinct.

If lab grown meat were always just a small oddity, a niche product that people could choose to indulge in, it wouldn’t be a problem. But there are billions of dollars devoted to the industry with the express goal to replace traditional animal agriculture. There’s no compromise allowed here—they don’t want you eating regular meat anymore, they want a “meat-free future”—and I urge you to reject lab meat with your heart, mind, and wallet.

Take care, everyone. I’d love to hear what you think about lab grown meat down below.

The post What is Lab-Grown Meat? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Few bodybuilders have had as stellar debut years as Nick “The Mutant” Walker during the 2021 season. He won the 2021 New York Pro and Arnold Classic. Then, to put a cherry on top of his achievements, the 28-year-old took home fifth place in the Men’s Open at the 2021 Mr. Olympia. Now, the rising International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) star is aiming even higher. 

On August 13, 2022, Walker appeared on the Fouad Abiad Media YouTube channel to discuss the 2022 Olympia contest. Among the more notable tidbits, Walker discussed his chances at potentially dethroning reigning two-time Mr. Olympia Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay and how Walker feels about the contest roughly four months out. Check it out below:

[Related: How to Do the Goblet Squat for Lower Body Size and Mobility]

In just the second year of his IFBB Pro League career, Walker has centered his energy exclusively on competing in the 2022 Mr. Olympia. Naturally, as Big Ramy is the reigning champion, any time he shares an update on his training, it will likely draw some attention from peers like Walker. 

Walker candidly broke down how he felt about a recent massive physique check-in from Big Ramy, where the Egyptian said he weighed 336 pounds. 

“Okay, well, he looks really [expletive] good,” Walker said. “He didn’t train last year that much, and then he showed up at the Olympia not as good as the year before. Now, it seems to me that he’s staying very consistent. If he comes in shredded, he’s probably going to win again. “If he comes in even slightly off, he can be open to anyone.”

When he continued, Walker seemingly left the door open to potentially toppling Big Ramy in his overall reaction. Walker feels great about his chances, given his current physique and recent strength training feats — he weighed 295 pounds in early June 2022, but it appears he has also eclipsed 300 pounds.

“Yeah, I’m in pretty good shape for being 300 [pounds],” Walker said. “Listen, if this is going to go how I think it’s going to go, it’s going to be a good battle between me and [Big Ramy].” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Nick “the Mutant” Walker (@nick_walker39)

[Related: The Best Sled Workouts for Muscle, Strength, Fat Loss, and Recovery]

A Tall Order

Big Ramy will not be the only elite bodybuilder who Walker has to contend with in mid-December. There’s former Mr. Olympia winner Brandon Curry (2019), usual podium finisher Hadi Choopan, and fellow young rising star Hunter Labrada — who finished just ahead of Walker in fourth place at the 2021 Mr. Olympia. 

Overall, the Men’s Open division is stacked. To win the Sandow trophy, Walker has a challenging task ahead of him. Then again, so do his fellow competitors. 

The 2022 Mr. Olympia will take place on December 16-18 in Las Vegas, NV. 

Featured image: @nick_walker39 on Instagram

The post Nick Walker Believes He Can Dethrone Big Ramy at the 2022 Mr. Olympia appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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On August 15, 2022, during a training session posted to Instagram, powerlifter Joe Sullivan completed a 372.4-kilogram (821-pound) raw back squat. In a demonstration of Sullivan’s strength progress in recent years, the figure is just one pound off Sullivan’s former world record in the 100-kilogram division from 2020.

Perhaps even more impressively, it’s just 7.6 kilograms (16.7 pounds) off the current 100-kilogram raw world record — which Sullivan still possesses. The athlete notched that record with a 380-kilogram (837.7-pound) squat at the 2021 World Raw Powerlifting Federation (WRPF) The Bucked Up Showdown.

Sullivan wore a lifting belt, lifting straps, and knee sleeves to achieve this latest showcase of his leg strength. Check it out below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Joe Sullivan (@joesullivan_aod)

[Related: How to Do the Bulgarian Split Squat for Leg Size, Strength, and Mobility]

According to the caption in Sullivan’s Instagram post, this squat training is part of his preparation for the upcoming 2022 United States Powerlifting Association (USPA) Pro Raw Championships. That contest will take place on September 24 in Kansas City, MO. 

As Sullivan explains, he’s excited to reach new heights as a world-class powerlifter. 

“It’s always a matter of execution, and there are many more days between now and the USPA Pro meet on September 24, but I’m in a great position to push that all-time world record higher and solidify my place at the table.”

History in Context

Sullivan has not competed in an official meet since the 2021 WRPF The Bucked Up Showdown last September. Notably, in recent months, the athlete went for the 525-pound squat AMRAP (as many reps as possible) — inspired by 1980 Mr. Universe and bodybuilding legend Tom Platz. (Note: Sullivan’s attempt in early June 2022 fell just short at 24 reps). 

Still, roughly a year later, it appears Sullivan gained more leg power and strength as he prepares to extend his world record squat. For context, here’s how his current raw world record in the 100-kilogram division compares to his peers in the same category:

All-Time Heaviest Raw Squats | Men’s 100KG

1. Joe Sullivan — 380 kilograms (837.7 pounds) | 2021 WRPF The Showdown
2. Amit Sapir — 372.5 kilograms (821.2 pounds) |2015 United Powerlifting Association (UPA) Power Weekend
3. Kevin Oak — 367.5 kilograms (810.2 pounds) | 2016 Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Reebok Record Breakers

At the time of this writing, that means Sullivan holds a 7.5-kilogram (16.5-pound) lead over the next best competitor. Should he successfully break his record next month, that gap may only widen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Joe Sullivan (@joesullivan_aod)

[Related: The Best Sled Workouts for Muscle, Strength, Fat Loss, and Recovery]

A Sterling Resume

To date, Sullivan has won gold in 12 of 18 powerlifting meets during his career. He has missed the podium on just four occasions. With this stellar precedent in mind, it might not be outlandish to suggest excellent upcoming individual results (potentially including a new world record) at his forthcoming competition. 

The 2022 USPA Pro Raw Championships will occur on September 24 in Kansas City, MO. 

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Apple cider vinegar is purported to have a number of impressive benefits. Chief among these is that apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight—allegedly. As I wrote previously, much of the hype around apple cider vinegar benefits is unsubstantiated by the available science. It has some provocative effects on blood sugar and insulin sensitivity that are not to be discounted, but otherwise, apple cider vinegar is not the miracle tonic some would have you believe.

I didn’t cover the question of whether apple cider vinegar can help you lose weight, though, so I’ll dig into that question today. I wouldn’t blame you for being skeptical. You should be. Losing weight is a notorious struggle, especially if one follows conventional diet advice. If a cheap, readily available product could prompt dramatic weight loss, everyone would know about it. Apple cider vinegar would no longer be cheap and readily available because it would be the hottest commodity around.

So I think we all know that it’s not going to “melt the fat away” or any such nonsense. I’m more interested in whether it’s something you could add on top of an otherwise healthy diet and lifestyle to give you a small leg up. And before you roll your eyes and accuse me of buying into some supermarket tabloid headline—One Secret Trick for Losing Weight without Even Trying!—there are some potentially interesting metabolic reasons to think that apple cider vinegar might do something here.

Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Loss

If certain wellness influencers are to be believed, you can just drink apple cider vinegar or chomp down apple cider vinegar gummies or pills and watch the scale drop. Some people even swear that you can lose weight by putting apple cider vinegar on your feet. No, I’m not kidding.

You’ll be shocked to learn that these claims are overblown. They’re based on only two human studies (and a handful of rat studies that are suggestive but… still rats). In one, researchers put 44 adults on a low-calorie diet for 12 weeks.¹ Half the participants also drank two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar each day. The vinegar group lost 4 pounds on average, while the control group lost 2.3 pounds. That’s enough of a difference to be statistically significant, but it’s far from earth-shattering, especially when you consider that these folks dieted for three months to achieve such meager weight loss.

In the other study, 155 Japanese adults with BMIs between 25 and 30 drank zero, one, or two tablespoons of apple vinegar every day for 12 weeks.² The vinegar drinkers ended up losing more body fat, both subcutaneous and the all-important visceral fat, compared to the no-vinegar control group. Weight loss was once again pretty modest: the low-dose (one tablespoon group) lost 2.6 pounds and 1.4 centimeters off their waists in 12 weeks, while the high-dose (two tablespoons) lost 3.7 pounds and 1.9 centimeters.

That’s it. I’d pay it little mind except in the Japanese study, the placebo (no vinegar) group gained a pound, while the vinegar groups both lost weight—even though they made no changes to their diets. All three groups ingested the same number of calories and the same amount of carbohydrates (around 300 grams per day) throughout the study.

That at least piques my interest. I’m not suggesting that everyone who is trying to lose weight should start drinking apple cider vinegar, but it does make me want to dig deeper simply for curiosity’s sake.

Why Apple Cider Vinegar Could Promote Weight Loss

Apple cider vinegar exerts a wide range of effects in the human body that, while not a panacea for weight loss, are pretty interesting. More specifically, the acetic acid in the vinegar has been widely studied, and scientists have developed a number of conjectures about what it does. To name a few:

Satiety: Participants in the first study described above had lower appetite when they drank vinegar. Other studies have found the same.³ The generally accepted explanation is that vinegar delays gastric emptying, meaning that food sits in your stomach for longer.⁴ The alternative, less pleasant, explanation is that vinegar makes you feel nauseous, so you don’t want to eat anything.⁵

AMPK activation: AMPK is part of the body’s energy barometer, helping the brain gauge how much energy you have on board and adjusting energy usage (fat burning versus fat storage, for example) and hunger accordingly. Greater AMPK activation can also suppress appetite and improve insulin sensitivity.⁶

Fat browning: Adipose tissue isn’t just the white globs you probably picture when you think of fat. Some is brown fat, so named because the mitochondria-rich cells take on a brown hue. Compared to white fat, brown fat is more metabolically active, meaning it burns more calories than white fat. When you consume acetic acid, it breaks down to acetate, and acetate has been shown to promote the “browning” of adipose tissue.⁷ This alone wouldn’t lead to massive weight loss, but its effects are non-zero.

Better blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity: Apple cider vinegar can help you get off the blood sugar spike-and-crash roller coaster that contributes to hunger and cravings.⁸

Reduced inflammation: Chronic inflammation plays a role in insulin resistance and obesity, whether as a cause or effect. Probably both. Acetate may have an anti-inflammatory effect by reducing gut permeability.⁹

How to Use Apple Cider Vinegar

Again, I’m not saying anyone should start drinking apple cider vinegar for weight loss or any other reason, although it’s potentially interesting for glycemic control and possibly as an appetite suppressant. If you want to give it a shot, though, start by adding a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar to a glass of water and drink it before a meal. (Swish with plain water after to get any lingering acid off your teeth.) That’s what the typical study protocol is at least. As for whether that’s the best or only way to achieve the benefits, I couldn’t say.

Don’t bother with the foot baths.

What about apple cider vinegar gummies or pills? It’s unclear how they stack up. One small study compared liquid vinegar with vinegar pills containing comparable amounts of acetic acid, and the pills were less effective at managing postprandial blood sugar spikes.¹⁰ That was only 12 participants, so it doesn’t necessarily mean the book is closed on pills or gummies, but it’s all we have to go on. The supplements are also considerably more expensive than grabbing a bottle of vinegar on your next grocery run.

Conclusion

The takeaway here is that apple cider vinegar (or acetic acid) has some interesting properties that lend it a measure of credence as a healthy addition to your diet. As someone who’s perpetually fascinated by the intricacies of the human body, I’ve enjoyed exploring the research here, but I didn’t come away believing that apple cider vinegar is likely to do anything more than give you a nudge in the right direction.

For folks who struggle to manage blood sugar or appetite, working apple cider vinegar into their diets via marinades or salad dressings, or even in a pre-dinner glass of water, probably couldn’t hurt. As a wellness trend, it’s not the silliest by far. Just temper your expectations.

The post Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Loss appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.