You might be wondering why any sane person would want to try winter camping. The apparent negatives are myriad: It’s cold, wet, snowy, windy, and miserable. Why would you want to experience that? Well, the positives are also that it’s cold, wet, snowy, windy, and miserable. The positives are the negatives.
Everyone’s been on a vacation that was “ruined” by bad weather or crazy bad luck befalling them, only to have it become one of the most vivid, best memories of their lives because it was so intense, difficult, and out of the ordinary. It becomes a story you can tell for years after. Even though it’s “bad” in the moment, it’s a source of joy for the rest of your life.
There are more reasons to winter camp, of course:
To harden yourself. Rather than wait for them to happen, we should prepare for difficult situations before they’re thrust upon you. Consensual hardship, like camping in the winter, prepares you for the unforeseen.
To improve your metabolic health. Cold weather exposure is beneficial in its own right, increasing metabolically-active brown fat deposits, improving your cold tolerance, and boosting mitochondrial function.
To learn how to enjoy all seasons. It’s not as easy as warm weather camping, but winter camping is a way to appreciate and treasure three months of the year that most people write off. If you can appreciate winter camping, that’s extra time you get to spend out in nature. That’s three more months of living.
Winter camping is not the same as winter backpacking. There is some overlap, but camping implies access to a car, while backpacking implies severe weight limitations. This post is about winter camping—so it assumes you have a little more room to pack things.
What to Remember When Winter Camping
Accept that you will be cold and uncomfortable
To begin with, the most important part of winter camping is to prepare yourself for the physical reality of being outside in the cold. It’s going to be cold and possibly wet, but you are prepared for it. You can handle it. It will not break you. You have to know what you’re signing up for. Accept the climactic realities, and you’ll be able to focus on transcending them and having fun.
Stay active
You can’t just sit around in the cold and hope to have a nice time. You must be active. You have to be hiking, snow-shoeing, cross country skiing, skiing or snowboarding or sledding. You should be having snowball fights and building snow forts. Staying active keeps your body temperature up and makes meals all that much more satisfying.
Keep calorie intake up
If you stay active like you should, this will take care of itself, but maintaining a higher calorie intake will help you maintain body temperature and cold tolerance.
Know how to build a fire in the snow
With a large enough fire you can handle any amount of cold weather. If you’re lucky, your campsite will come with a fire ring. If you’re not, you’ll have to build a fire directly in the snow. You can’t just start the fire right on the snow. It’ll melt and put out the fire. Instead, spend some time stomping down the snow until it’s compressed and flat, then lay down a piece of sheet metal or create a “floor” of heavy logs upon which you can build the fire.
If you didn’t bring your own wood, you’ll have to find it in the area. To identify burnable wood in winter, keep these tips in mind:
Smaller branches or twigs should snap cleanly and audibly when bent.
Larger logs should be “light” for their size and have long vertical cracks.
Standing dead trees will usually be dry and burnable (that’s where your axe and saw come in).
Ground should be flat and sturdy, so you may have to pack down snow until it’s level and compact. You should have a windbreak, either natural (large trees, rocks, etc) or manmade (build your own out of snow) to minimize the amount of wind hitting your tent.
Avoid camping under dying or rotting trees that look liable to break off in high winds or drop a 20 foot branch on you. Get a spot with ample views of the sunrise. Nothing like our sun’s rays to cheer you up on a cold morning.
Cover your extremities
If you can only cover one thing with warm fabric, focus on the extremities. Keeping your head, hands, and feet warm and dry are the most important part of surviving winter camping. You could be in a T-shirt and shorts and as long as your extremities are warm and dry (and you’re staying active), you’ll feel fine.
Use synthetics sparingly, but using them
Synthetic water repellant gear is extremely helpful when layered over more natural materials. So get the plastic rain jacket, but layer wool underneath it. You’ll also want the most synthetic rain fly for your tent you can find.
Winter Camping Essentials
Pack basic tools
You’ll want a few things on hand to survive and thrive in the winter:
Shovel: for moving snow, digging into (and out of) it, preparing campsite
If there’s no snow or just a few inches, you can get around just fine in boots. I’d recommend sticking to minimalist waterproof boots; look here for a discussion of the best ones.
If there’s a lot of snow, my absolute favorite way of getting around is on snowshoes.
Wear wool
Wool was designed by the hand of natural selection across millions of years to provide breathable protection against cold weather. Then humans take that raw, near-perfect substrate and make it even more perfect by turning it into fabric. If you want to survive cold weather, wear wool clothing, wool socks, shirts, gloves, and sweaters. Use wool blankets. Use wool insoles.
A four season tent has sturdier poles (to withstand wind), thicker material (to keep out the cold and keep in the warmth), and better/more extensive water and snow resistance than three season tents. This is a solid choice I’ve heard good things about: the REI co-op basecamp tent.
To really live it up, splurge for the “glamping” tent, complete with a heat-resistant jack for a wood stove. Go Hemingway-on-safari style.
Use two sleeping pads
Start with one foam pad directly on the ground with an inflatable on top of that. This minimizes body heat loss to the cold ground.
Indoor-safe propane heaters can extend your ability to camp into even bitterly cold winters. This one is nice—it’s a good price, it’s reliable, has great reviews, and it has instant shut-off when knocked over.
Get the right cook stove
You’ll want the ability to cook reliably on a stove in case the fire isn’t working out. The Trangia from Sweden is very well-regarded. Glue some aluminum foil to a piece of plywood and use that to cook on.
Most importantly, enjoy yourself. You come from a long line of ancestors who braved cold weather and even lived outside in the cold their entire lives. You can handle a weekend camping in the snow.
How do you guys like camping in the snow? What are your best tips and tricks?
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Sean Hayes has developed a reputation for impeccable strength when it comes to deadlifts of all variations. The athlete can now add another achievement to his running laundry list.
On October 30, 2022, Hayes shared an Instagram clip of himself capturing an Axle Deadlift of 474 kilograms (1,045 pounds) during a training session. According to the caption of his post, Hayes’ pull is a new Canadian record, breaking his own mark. Hayes wore a lifting suit and a lifting belt and utilized lifting straps to help him with his feat.
In his Instagram post, Hayes wrote that he initially had loftier ambitions with this Axle Deadlift. Hayes had planned to surpass Mexican strongman Gabriel Peña’s World Record Axle Deadlift of 500 kilograms (1,102.3 pounds) from the 2021 Static Monsters Worldwide (SMW) contest.
(Note: Strongmen such as former World’s Strongest Man (WSM) champions like Eddie Hall and Hafthor Björnsson have deadlifted at least 500 kilograms, but Peña is the only athlete to do it on the Axle deadlift variation, which uses a stiffer, thicker bar and is pulled from 18-inches off the floor.)
Unfortunately for Hayes, even with the extension of his Canadian record, his attempt to exceed Peña came at a health cost.
“[The] goal on the day was [Gabriel Peña’s] World Record, loaded up 500.5 kilograms/1,103 pounds,” Hayes wrote. “The strength was there for it, but the body was not. My left sacroiliac joint popped out badly. I couldn’t walk for 30 minutes …bad-bad back injury. [I’m] gonna see how I wake up, but it’s rough.”
At the time of this writing, there is no further word on Hayes’ injury. At least, for his sake, he didn’t leave the session empty-handed without a record.
According to Strongman Archives, the athlete took home respective fourth-place results at the 2022 Canada’s Strongest Man (CSM) and the 2022 Shaw Classic (Open portion). In early April 2022, he was in temporary possession of the Silver Dollar deadlift World Record with a pull of 560 kilograms (1,235 pounds) from the 2022 Strongman Corporation Canada King & Queen Of The Throne. (Note: Rauno Heinla is the current record holder with a Silver Dollar pull of 579.7 Kilograms (1,278 Pounds) at the 2022 Silver Dollar Deadlift Estonian Championship.)
Hayes hasn’t alluded to his upcoming plans. Based on his recent precedent, it’ll likely be a milestone or competitive result worth writing home about.
Back when I was competing at an elite level of marathon and triathlon, we paid lip service to rest and recovery, but recovery looked mostly like lying on the couch for hours on end with a gallon of ice cream resting on my chest. I poured all my energy into training sessions such that I had nothing left in the tank on off days. Even basic household chores were a big ask.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have made more of an effort to move on my off days, incorporating more active recovery instead of the passive, frankly slothful recovery I favored at the time.
I suspect even the average fitness buff now understands that thereal fitness gains don’t happen in the gym or on the track; they happen during the recovery period. You get stronger, fitter, faster thanks to the processes the body undertakes to repair damage caused by exercise and to prepare for your next bout. However, I still see athletes at all levels from general fitness enthusiasts to weekend warrior endurance athletes to high-level competitors resisting recovery. They feel guilty on days they don’t train. When they’re too busy to hit the gym, or accumulated soreness or fatigue forces them to take a day off, they worry that they’re losing all their hard-won gains.
So they’re usually happy to learn that taking days totally off isn’t necessary, or even ideal, for optimizing recovery and long-term performance. It’s usually better to keep moving on recovery days. You can and should hit the gym or hop on your bike between workouts, provided you move at a far lower intensity.
What is Active Recovery
When people extol the virtues of active recovery, they are actually referring to three different things:
Recovering between sets or reps within a single workout. Think walking between sprint repetitions to bring your heart rate down instead of sitting down on the track.
Recovering at the end of a workout, as in an extended cooldown. For example, doing an easy spin on a stationary bike and a few minutes of dynamic stretching to end your sprint session.
Using movement on your off days—days you don’t have a formal training session planned—to enhance recovery.
We’ll focus on the latter today, but the goal of all three is fundamentally the same. Exercise creates tissue damage and burns through fuel, including intramuscular glycogen. That physical damage and the process of cellular metabolism create byproducts like lactate in the muscles and bloodstream and lead to inflammation, DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and fatigue. Active recovery increases circulation to working tissues (delivering nutrients and speeding up the clearance of waste products), reduces soreness, and improves perceptions of fatigue so athletes are ready to hit their next training session with more vigor.
Active recovery workouts also provide a welcome break from narrowly focused training regimens. Most athletes complain that they don’t have time to do all the “other stuff” they know they should be doing—cross-training, foam rolling, mobility work. Active recovery days are made for these kinds of activities. They also let you take a mental break from focusing on rep schemes, progressive overload, threshold pacing, and all the other intricacies of training.
As you’ll see, even calling them “workouts” is something of a misnomer, depending on the types of activities you choose. By and large, active recovery just means you avoid being sedentary on your off days. Almost any low-intensity, low-stress movement goes. As long as you make a point of moving your body beyond the tasks of daily living, you’re probably checking the active recovery box.
How Often Should You Participate in Active Recovery?
Serious athletes probably have coaches programming weekly or monthly training blocks for them, hopefully with active rest days built in, along with dedicated deload weeks and periods of reduced training intensity throughout the year. For everyone else, consider all your “non-training” days dedicated to active recovery.
The Primal Blueprint Fitness recommendations are two, maybe three, dedicated resistance workouts (lifting heavy things) a week, plus one sprint session every seven to ten days. You might do a long hike on the weekend or throw a couple rucks into the mix. All the other days would be active recovery days.
Don’t overthink it. I’ve never been a fan of rigid weekly schedules for Primal folks anyway, not even Primal endurance athletes. It’s far better to go by intuition. Open up the throttle when you’re feeling highly motivated, but otherwise simply commit to avoiding sedentary lifestyle patterns. This only works, though, if you let go of ego attachment and reject the prevailing “go hard or go home” fitness mentality. You have to be willing to say, “Yeah, I know my race was five days ago, but I’m still feeling achy and tired, so I’m going to take another active recovery day,” instead of, “I should be better by now, time to hit the gym.”
Active Recovery Workouts
The general recommendation for active recovery workouts is to keep your recovery workouts at a low to moderate intensity, going no harder than 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate. I don’t find max heart rate targets particularly useful because few people know their true max heart rate, but you can use RPE (rate of perceived exertion) as a proxy. Keep your effort at or below a 7, and you’ll be good. Lower is fine, too. Some of these activities will barely get you above a 1 or 2 RPE.
Walking
It won’t surprise you to learn that walking is my number one active recovery priority. Just get as many steps in as you can. Try a walking workout on days when you have a little more to give. Pause periodically during your walk to do some step-ups on a park bench, hang from a tree branch, or do a set of ass-to-grass squats.
Easy cardio
Light cardio such as easy jogging, swimming, biking, or using a machine at the gym can be great for active recovery. Just monitor your intensity.
You have two options here. One, you can target the muscles you most recently worked. For example, you could jog the day after doing hard mile repeats or hitting the squat rack. Or, you can use this time for cross-training (runners might swim, for example). Both have their merits. It just depends on your goal for a given session.
Tai chi, qigong, yoga
Gentle movement practices are ideal for moving your body through a wide range of motion, connecting to your breath, and working on balance, both literally and figuratively. They improve vagal tone, meaning you get greater activation of the parasympathetic “rest-digest-repair” nervous system. Most of us run around in a state of high stress and high alert such that the sympathetic (“fight-flight-freeze”) nervous system predominates. Chronic exercise patterns contribute to sympathetic (over)activation. Gentle movement can help restore homeostasis and bring us back to a state of calm readiness.
Dynamic stretching
This is one you can do every day whether or not you have a heavy workout planned. Be like my pal Brad Kearns and start your day with a dynamic morning stretching routine. He does this every single morning to loosen up stiff tissues and get the blood flowing.
Self-myofascial release
Use a foam roller or other massage tool to target areas of stiffness or soreness. I particularly like to combine self-myofascial release with dynamic stretching.
Light resistance training
An active recovery day is a good time to target areas of weakness or poor mobility. Runners often have disproportionately weak glutes relative to their quads and hamstrings, for example. Folks who work at a computer have tight pectoral muscles and exhibit so-called tech neck, so they benefit from releasing and strengthening the upper back.
I like resistance bands and minibands for this. Light dumbbells, kettlebells, and bodyweight exercises like the Primal Essential Movements are also good choices. You can do a short workout session, again watching the RPE, or drop in microworkouts throughout the day. You may be tempted to avoid areas that you worked the day before, but targeting those muscles increases circulation and enhances recovery. Pick a lighter weight and focus on range of motion, going as slowly as you need to nail the quality of your movements.
Tempo intervals
This is a technique that I learned from Joel Jamieson of 8 Weeks Out.1 Tempo intervals involve 10 seconds of moderate-intensity (RPE 7, no more) work followed by one minute of easy recovery. You can do this on a stationary bike, elliptical machine, jogging, jumping rope, jumping jacks—any kind of exercise where you can control your effort. I’ll do eight to ten reps, followed by some stretching and maybe a dip in my cold plunge or a sauna session.
Does This Mean You Should Never Take Total Rest Days?
It’s great to give yourself time to rest (passive recovery) and enjoy total leisure sometimes. However, if you’re working out so hard on your exercise days that you can barely drag yourself off the couch on rest days, I’m going to suggest that you’re overdoing it. That’s how I operated back in my competitive days, and it darn near broke me. This “push yourself to the brink, then crash” cycle is still glorified in the conventional sport and fitness worlds, but unless you’re getting paid to compete, you don’t need to be putting your body through all that.
It’s rare that I have a day where I don’t move much at all, not even going for a morning walk on the beach or hopping on my fat tire bike for 30 minutes in the afternoon to give myself time to ideate on a post. And I don’t think most people need to intentionally build in passive recovery days, either. The exception is people who are flirting with—or deep in the throes of—overtraining or burnout. If you’ve already crossed the line into true burnout, you may need weeks or even months of complete rest before slowly getting back to exercising.
As long as your exercise stays on the right side of healthy, though, you generally don’t need total rest days. That said, even “reasonable” levels of exercise can drain you if you’re close to running on empty due to significant life stress, other health issues, or poor sleep. The best course of action is always to listen to your body.
A Final Word Caution
Don’t let the concept of active recovery become a way of sneaking in more exercise and avoiding rest! “Today is an active recovery day, so I’ll just do a 60-minute power yoga class at 5 AM and then ruck a few miles after work. But no running!” Fitness culture has created a real phobia of taking days off, but you can’t go go go all the time. Don’t cheat yourself here. If your recovery workouts leave you feeling tired or depleted, you’re not managing effort effectively. Dial it back even more. You should feel more energized after active recovery workouts, not less.
Lastly, it should go without saying that all of these active recovery techniques will work better if you support your efforts with good nutrition, hydration, and sleep.
All right, lay it on me. Tell me your favorite recovery protocols, tools, and activities.
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“Don’t skip leg day” has almost become a meme in the gym, warning dedicated lifters to give lower body training as much emphasis, intensity, and attention as their upper body.
That’s all well and good, but even when it comes to “leg day,” many lifters still end up skipping a relatively large portion of their lower body. Not even addressing the flamingo-legged elephant in the room that is calf training. The more urgent body part that deserves your attention is the hamstrings.
Credit: Microgen / Shutterstock
Whether it’s for athletic performance, total-body power, or a complete and well-developed set of legs, here are some must-do movements to target the backs of your thighs.
While the conventional deadlift is known for building serious power and size in the entire posterior chain (lower back, glutes, and hamstrings), the Romanian deadlift zones in even further on that growth stimulus by adjusting the range of motion and body positioning.
By keeping your legs very slightly bent, put your hamstrings into a longer stretched position while also forcing them to contract harder during hip extension, which both contribute to greater growth.(1)
How to Do the Romanian Deadlift
Stand holding a barbell with a slightly wider than shoulder-width, overhand grip. Pull your shoulder blades back and raise your chest. Slightly bend your knees and push your glutes toward the wall behind you.
Focus on feeling your hamstrings stretch as you “reach” your tailbone to the wall. When the bar reaches as low as possible without rounding your back, drive your heels “through” the ground and push your hips forward to return upright.
Benefits of the Romanian Deadlift
As a barbell movement, the Romanian deadlift allows the use of potentially heavy weights, which contributes to strength gains.
This movement puts the target muscle through a long range of motion with a deep stretch, which benefits muscle growth.
Split-Stance Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Single-leg training can be highly beneficial for strength, power, and muscle growth.(2) However, many lifters struggle with balance to the detriment of any single-leg exercise. Taking a staggered or split-stance drastically reduces the balance demands while maintaining the single-leg emphasis.
The split-stance dumbbell Romanian deadlift allows you to focus on working the hamstrings of your lead leg, while your rear leg provides just enough stability to stay steady. Using dumbbells instead of a barbell allows a longer range of motion while reducing lower back strain.
How to Do the Split-Stance Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Stand with a dumbbell in each hand by your sides. Take a shoulder-width stance with the toes of one foot in line with the heel of the lead foot. Keep your back straight while pushing your hips and glutes behind you. Allow your hands to face each other as the weights lower toward your front foot. Pull with your front leg, not the rear foot, to stand upright. Perform all reps on one leg before switching sides.
Benefits of the Split-Stance Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
This movement pairs the benefits of single-leg training with the stability of a bilateral (two-legged) exercise.
The split-stance dumbbell Romanian deadlift allows a significant muscle-building stimulus from relatively light weights, due to the stance and leverage.
Single-Leg Single-Arm Romanian Deadlift
The single-leg, single-arm Romanian deadlift might look, or even sound, more like a circus trick than a serious training exercise. But it’s a top-level choice for muscle-building tension and high-performance athleticism.
By requiring one leg to provide stability and the opposite arm to carry the weight, you’re creating a total-body movement that hits your legs, core, and back like nothing else.
How to Do the Single-Leg Single-Arm Romanian Deadlift
Stand with a dumbbell in your left hand, by your side with your palm facing your body. Slightly bend your right knee, lean forward at your hips, and let your left leg raise into the air as the weight moves toward the ground. Avoid twisting your shoulders or rounding your spine. Move slowly to control the weight and maintain balance. When you’re reached as far as your mobility allows, slowly return to the starting position. Perform all reps on one side before switching hands and legs.
Benefits of the Single-Leg Single-Arm Romanian Deadlift
This comprehensive exercise works the “posterior oblique sling” — a series of muscles which play a key role in posture, especially when walking and moving.
The single-leg, single arm Romanian deadlift strongly works the oblique muscles of the abs and core.
Stabilizer muscles in the ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders are recruited, making the exercise an efficient way to improve joint health.(3)
Standing Leg Curl
The standing leg curl machine can be found in several different but similar varieties. Some allow your non-working foot to be planted firmly on the ground in a fully standing position while other machines, sometimes called “kneeling leg curls” have a specialized pad to support your non-working leg in a bent position. The overall result and performance is the same with either.
Standing leg curls allow you to emphasize knee flexion (bending your leg), a key function of the hamstring muscle. An added benefit of the standing machine is performing the work unilaterally, targeting each leg on its own.
How to Do the Standing Leg Curl
Setup in the machine with the curl pad placed just above the ankle of the working leg. Secure your torso in position using any available handles. Brace your core and squeeze the heel of your leg toward your glutes. Achieve a complete range of motion. Lower the weight under control until your leg is fully straightened. Perform all reps on one side before switching legs.
Benefits of the Standing Leg Curl
The standing leg curl applies constant tension to the target muscle, unlike free weight movements which apply varying levels of resistance due to gravity.
Unilateral (single-leg) training can help to address and correct muscular imbalances between sides.
The design of the machine limits your ability to reduce muscle activation by using full-body momentum to swing the weight.
Seated Leg Curl
The seated leg curl, like many machines, requires some individualized setup for the most productive training experience. Most machines have an adjustable back pad, thigh support, and ankle pad which must be correctly set in place to keep your body in the most efficient position. Most people, however, skip this crucial step.
This strict movement can provide an intense hamstring contraction with little to no contribution from other body parts, making it an ideal muscle-builder.
How to Do the Seated Leg Curl
Adjust the back pad to position your knee joint in line with the pivoting leg attachment. Set the thigh pad to secure against the tops of your quadriceps. Adjust the ankle pad to sit just above your heel. Brace your core and drive through your heels to reach a full contraction, with your feet well-under the seat of the machine. Straighten your legs under control.
Benefits of the Seated Leg Curl
The seated leg curl puts the body in nearly identical positioning as the quadriceps-focused leg extension while training the direct opposite muscle group, making the two movements an ideal superset.
This machine provides significant support which eliminates momentum and removes your ability to lift the weight using anything but strict hamstring activation, leading to a greater muscle-building stimulus.
The seated position changes the stretch on your hamstring muscles, which may contribute to greater growth compared to a lying leg curl.(4)
Lying Leg Curl
The lying leg curl may be the most popular hamstring exercise, but it’s also one often done incorrectly. Many lifters hike their hips off the pad as they curl, which shifts focus away from their hamstrings and onto their glutes and hip flexors.
To maximize hamstring recruitment, it’s essential to keep your hips pinned to the pad throughout the entire repetition. Some lifters find it necessary to raise their upper body onto their forearms, or even hold themselves up using straight arms, to keep their hips in position.
How to Do the Lying Leg Curl
Lie face down on the machine with the pad resting above your ankles. Flex your abs to ensure a stable upper body. Steadily bring your heels as close as possible to your glutes. Ideally, they should be able to touch briefly. Lower the weight under control.
Benefits of the Lying Leg Curl
The lying position puts your hamstrings into a long stretched position, which can help improve hamstring flexibility and growth.
The lying leg curl allows for a strong peak contraction, which can contribute to building strength and muscle.
High Leg Press
The leg press is a common and effective exercise for quadriceps growth, but a slight foot adjustment can shift muscle recruitment and emphasize your hamstrings.
Setting your feet relatively higher on the pressing platform than in the traditional leg press will emphasize the hamstrings (and glutes) more than the quadriceps.(5) This turns the exercise into a highly effective hamstring movement which also allows relatively heavy weights.
How to Do the High Leg Press
Sit in a leg press machine and place your feet shoulder-width apart with your toes near the top of the foot platform. Keep your feet flat as you lower the weight as far as your mobility allows. Your lower back should remain in contact with the pad at all times. From the bottom position, straighten your legs to near lockout.
Benefits of the High Leg Press
The high leg press allows you to work the hamstrings using heavy weights, which contributes to muscle growth and strength gains.
This leg press variation can be performed toward the end of a hamstring-focused workout, to fully exhaust the fatigued muscle, or at the beginning of a hamstring workout to overload the target muscle with heavy weights.
Unlike many exercises in the gym, the kettlebell swing primarily emphasizes the concentric (lifting) phase of each repetition with relatively less emphasis on the eccentric (lowering) phase. This helps to improve power output while also stimulating muscle growth.
How to Do the Kettlebell Swing
Stand with your feet well-beyond shoulder-width apart, with a kettlebell on the ground several inches in front of your toes. Bend your legs slightly and drive your hips back as you grab the top handle of the kettlebell using a palm-down grip with both hands. Pull the kettlebell back toward your body, letting it swing just behind your legs. Brace your core and keep your back straight as you contract your lower body to bring the weight near chest-height using the hip drive, not actively lifting with your arms. Allow the weight to fall back along its path just behind your legs and repeat.
Benefits of the Kettlebell Swing
The kettlebell swing is shown to improve overall strength and explosive power.(6)
This dynamic movement builds grip strength, core strength, cardiovascular conditioning, and metabolic stress for a muscle-building stimulus.
Because it requires minimal equipment and limited space, the swing is a convenient and space-efficient way to train your lower body. This makes it ideal for home gyms or those with limited access to weights.
Slider Leg Curl
If your home gym doesn’t have a pair of furniture sliders, you’re missing out on an extremely effective addition that opens up plenty of new exercises for the entire body. For your leg workouts, specifically, they’re a perfect alternative to any leg curl machine.
The sliders allow you to perform knee flexion on nearly any surface (rug, tile, gym flooring, etc.). Because they’re designed to literally slide on the ground, they also require increased core engagement, so your abs and hips will be working harder than during any machine-based curl.
How to Do the Slider Leg Curl
Lie on the ground with your legs straight and a slider under each heel. Keep your head and shoulders on the ground as you curl your feet toward your glutes while driving your hips up. Imagine a steel rod running from your chest to your knees — don’t allow your body to bend at the waist. Pause briefly and control both feet as you return to the starting position.
Benefits of the Slider Leg Curl
The slider leg curl is one of the only hamstring curl options in a home gym without a dedicated leg curl machine.
The instability of the sliders increases the core stability demands of the exercise.
The slider leg curl can be progressed like other bodyweight movements using added load, changes in rep speed, or using a single-leg.
Seated Resistance Band Curl
Resistance bands are more commonly associated with upper body exercises, but this lower body alternative is another highly effective machine alternative when you’re in a home gym or traveling.
With the seated resistance band curl, you only need a band, a stationary object to serve as anchor point, and a bench, box, or chair to sit on. This delivers a high-tension exercise targeting the hamstrings with little to no help from other muscles.
How to Do the Seated Resistance Band Curl
Attach a resistance band to an immovable object several feet in front of a box, bench, or chair. Sit on the box with the band behind your ankles and your torso upright. Brace your upper body and extend your legs until they’re nearly straight. Keep your feet close to the ground as you drive your heels back under your body as far as possible. Don’t allow your upper legs to rise, which would take tension off your hamstrings. Hold the contraction for one second before straightening your legs and repeating.
Benefits of the Seated Resistance Band Curl
The seated resistance band curl is an efficient hamstring exercise when training with limited equipment.
Resistance bands offer “accommodating resistance” — more challenging as the band is stretched farther and relatively less challenging in the stretched position— which can reduce strain on the knee joint.
Nordic Hamstring Curl
The Nordic hamstring curl is a relatively advanced exercise because it is, essentially, a leg curl performed with your own bodyweight. However, simple modifications and adjustments can be made so lifters of any experience and strength level can benefit from this powerful movement/
The Nordic hamstring curl is also supported by a significant amount of research showing its benefits for reducing the risk of hamstring injuries in athletes in a number of sports.(7)
How to Do the Nordic Hamstring Curl
Kneel on the ground with your heels locked into position under an immovable object, such as a Smith machine on a very low setting or a heavily loaded barbell. Begin in a “tall kneeling position”, sitting upright with your shins on the ground and a straight line from your knees through your torso to your neck. Maintain a stiff body position as you slowly lower yourself forward to the ground. Keep your hands up and ready to catch yourself. Focus on feeling tension in your hamstrings. When you feel tension reducing, Pull yourself back to an upright position. Alternatively,
Benefits of the Nordic Hamstring Curl
The Nordic hamstring curl is supported by research to help reduce the risk of hamstring injuries in athletes.
Because this movement emphasizes the eccentric (lowering) portion of the range of motion, it creates a significant growth stimulus. However, be aware that any eccentric emphasis can also lead to significant post-exercise muscle soreness.(8)
This is one of the few bodyweight exercises to particularly target the hamstrings with knee flexion (curling), making it effective for exercise variety.
SHELC
The supine hip extension leg curl, or SHELC, is a thorough bodyweight exercise targeting the hamstrings and glutes. It is typically done on an exercise ball, but a similar movement can be done on a large foam roller.
The general movement is similar to the slider leg curl, however, the SHELC is performed through a longer range of motion. The “softness” of the exercise ball also makes the exercise more unstable and recruits more stabilizer muscles in the core, hips, and ankles.
How to Do the SHELC
Lie on the ground with your calves on an exercise ball. Keep your head, shoulders, and elbows flat on the ground throughout the exercise. Press your lower legs into the ball as you raise your hips to the ceiling. Keep a straight line through your entire body as you pull your feet toward your body. Pause briefly at the peak contraction. Slowly straighten your legs and briefly pause, supporting your body in a straight line before repeating the next repetition. Keep your hips elevated until the end of the set.
Benefits of the SHELC
This bodyweight exercise works the hamstrings during hip extension as well as knee flexion, the two key functions of the muscle, which can lead to a greater growth stimulus compared to other exercises.
The instability of the exercise ball increases core stability requirements, as well as recruitment of smaller lower body muscles, which can help improve joint health.
The Hamstring Muscles
While certain “hamstring exercises” isolate and emphasize the specific hamstring muscles, other movements will recruit other leg muscles including the glutes, quadriceps, and calves.
Hamstrings
Your hamstrings, on the backs of your thighs, are a collection of several similar-functioning muscles including the biceps femoris, on the outer portion of the leg, and the semitendinosus and semimembranosus, both along the inner part of the leg.
Credit: Svitlana Hulko / Shutterstock
Your hamstrings are worked during two primary types of movements. They’re recruited during hip extension — moving your thigh from in front of your body in line under your torso — which is performed during Romanian deadlift variations. The hamstrings are also responsible for knee flexion, or bending your leg, during any type of leg curl.
Glutes
The glutes are a relatively strong muscle involved primarily in hip flexion. They will be recruited to assist during many hamstring movements, particularly hip extension exercises performed with a straight or relatively straight leg. The glutes are minimally involved during leg flexion, making those leg curl variations a higher priority when you want to emphasize the hamstrings over the glutes.
Quadriceps
The muscles on the front of the thigh — the quadriceps — are anatomically opposite from the hamstrings. Not only are they located on the opposite side of the upper leg bone, but they work in an opposite (or antagonistic) role for knee extension or straightening the leg.
However, in certain multi-joint exercises like the high leg press, the quadriceps are recruited to help extend the leg and lift the weight. Similarly, your quads are recruited in exercises like the slider leg curl to control your descent as you straighten your leg and stretch your hamstrings.
Calves
The calf muscles on the back of your lower legs are primarily responsible for flexing and extending your feet. However, part of the calf muscle extends over the knee joint and is recruited during hip flexion. This is why, on certain exercises performed with straight or nearly straight legs, you may feel tension in the back of your knees or your calves.
How Often Should You Train the Hamstrings
In an ideal training scenario, hamstring training would receive as much attention as quadriceps training. However, in reality, many lifters tack on one or two hamstring exercises after a large number of quad-focused movements.
Credit: Maridav / Shutterstock
An effective solution to this less-than-attentive approach to hamstring training is to simply separate the quadriceps and hamstrings into two workouts. Rather than having “leg day,” design a quadriceps workout including squat and lunge variations and perform a separate workout focused on the types of exercises listed above.
While each session will be relatively shorter and can be paired with another body part depending on your training split, attacking each side of your thigh with more focus allows greater training intensity, relatively more volume, and it decreases the chances of “forgetting” to train them.
Whether you’re addressing them directly on their own or as part of a more comprehensive lower body workout, directly training your hamstrings once or twice per week can be an effective way to build muscle and strength while recovering sufficiently.
How to Progress Your Hamstring Training
No matter how often you’re targeting your hamstrings, it’s important to use a variety of exercises which address both functions of the muscle. In any workout, be sure to include Romanian deadlift variations which train hip flexion, as well as performing leg curl variations to work knee flexion.
To prioritize hamstrings during any workout, use several sets of any leg curl as the very first exercise of the day. This pre-exhaust technique fatigues your hamstrings and makes them more likely to reach muscular failure before other body parts trained in additional movements.
This helps to emphasize the hamstrings during exercises in which other muscle groups may receive relatively greater attention (such as the high leg press or even during the traditional squat) and helps to ensure optimal recruitment of the hamstrings.
How to Warm-Up Your Hamstrings
“Hamstring tear” is a phrase that can strike fear into any experienced lifter or athlete. Not only can a hamstring injury require significant recovery time, but it may potentially become a recurring issue requiring ongoing attention and adaptation.
Properly warming up your hamstring muscles, glutes, hips, knees, and ankles can allow for more training intensity with a reduced risk of injury. Beginning each hamstring workout with a simple, low-intensity series of bodyweight squats, unweighted single-leg Romanian deadlifts (modified toe touches), and classic standing leg swings (side to side as well as front to back) can go a long way toward preparing your muscles and joints for more intense training.
No Back Seat for the Hammies
Just because you can’t flex your hamstrings and see them in the mirror is no excuse to pretend they’re not there, literally supporting every step you take and (almost) every move you make in the gym. It’s well-past time to put the back of your thighs front and center, and give your leg development, lower body strength, and athletic power a real kick in the pants.
References
Van Every, D. W., Coleman, M., Rosa, A., Zambrano, H., Plotkin, D., Torres, X., Mercado, M., De Souza, E. O., Alto, A., Oberlin, D. J., Vigotsky, A. D., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2022). Loaded inter-set stretch may selectively enhance muscular adaptations of the plantar flexors. PloS one, 17(9), e0273451. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273451
Speirs, Derrick E.1,2; Bennett, Mark A.3; Finn, Charlotte V.4; Turner, Anthony P.2. Unilateral vs. Bilateral Squat Training for Strength, Sprints, and Agility in Academy Rugby Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: February 2016 – Volume 30 – Issue 2 – p 386-392 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001096
Vleeming, A., Pool-Goudzwaard, A. L., Stoeckart, R., van Wingerden, J. P., & Snijders, C. J. (1995). The posterior layer of the thoracolumbar fascia. Its function in load transfer from spine to legs. Spine, 20(7), 753–758.
Maeo, S., Huang, M., Wu, Y., Sakurai, H., Kusagawa, Y., Sugiyama, T., Kanehisa, H., & Isaka, T. (2021). Greater Hamstrings Muscle Hypertrophy but Similar Damage Protection after Training at Long versus Short Muscle Lengths. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 53(4), 825–837. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000002523
Escamilla, R. F., Fleisig, G. S., Zheng, N., Lander, J. E., Barrentine, S. W., Andrews, J. R., Bergemann, B. W., & Moorman, C. T., 3rd (2001). Effects of technique variations on knee biomechanics during the squat and leg press. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 33(9), 1552–1566. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005768-200109000-00020
Lake, Jason P.; Lauder, Mike A.. Kettlebell Swing Training Improves Maximal and Explosive Strength. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: August 2012 – Volume 26 – Issue 8 – p 2228-2233 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31825c2c9b
van Dyk, N., Behan, F. P., & Whiteley, R. (2019). Including the Nordic hamstring exercise in injury prevention programmes halves the rate of hamstring injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 8459 athletes. British journal of sports medicine, 53(21), 1362–1370. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-100045
Hody, S., Croisier, J. L., Bury, T., Rogister, B., & Leprince, P. (2019). Eccentric Muscle Contractions: Risks and Benefits. Frontiers in physiology, 10, 536. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00536
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
Oleksii Novikov is the champion of the 2022 Strongman Rogue Invitational. This variation of the strength sports contest took place from Oct. 28-30, 2022, in Austin, TX. Novikov’s victory continues an impressive run where the athlete has finished on the podium in 17 of his last 19 contests dating back to September 2020. That same stellar run includes seven victories, perhaps most notably the 2020 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) title.
Trey Mitchell (second place) and Mitchell Hooper (third place) joined Novikov on the podium. Mitchell’s top-two performance is his immediate follow-up to a win at the 2022 Shaw Classic. Meanwhile, Hooper has yet another podium result in his young career after winning each of the recent 2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals and 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic UK competitions. To date, Hooper has failed to qualify for the top three on just one occasion — his debut at the 2022 WSM, where he came in eighth place overall.
Here are the final standings from the 2022 Strongman Rogue Invitational:
To win a major strongman contest, an athlete generally has to be a versatile Swiss Army Knife. Or, in this case, a Ukrainian Army Knife. Novikov won just one event at the 2022 Rogue Invitational, but thanks to an impeccable consistency built around strength and overall conditioning, he finished in the top three in all but one event. Such output is why he eventually stood on top of the podium in Austin, TX.
Here’s an overview of Novikov’s complete performance over six events that helped him capture his first Rogue Invitational title.
Yoke Carry-Overhead Log Lift Medley — Fourth place
Stones Over Hitching Post — Third place
Novikov’s first Rogue title is the latest in a long line of achievements for the strongman superstar. Most might understandably point to his 2020 WSM title as the crowning moment of his career thus far, but the athlete is also a four-time Ukraine’s Strongest Man (2016-2019). He even won Europe’s Strongest Man for the first time in March 2022. Throw in a Hummer Tire Deadlift World Record from the 2022 Shaw Classic, and it’s been quite the competitive run lately for the Ukrainian athlete.
Novikov’s victory at the 2022 Rogue Invitational made for a lucrative prize. The win gave the athlete $114,125 in prize money, the most awarded of any strongman contest in the 2022 calendar year.
In a post on his Instagram, Novikov dedicated a “great end” to his competitive season to his countrypeople in Ukraine, who have been fighting off an invasion from the Russian army since February 2022.
“Like all the victories this year, this one is also dedicated to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people; I love you; you are unsurpassed,” Novikov wrote. “Thank you to everyone who put a hand in the fact that I can train in Ukraine, and as a Ukrainian, a bow to everyone who defends my country. We once again proved in the sports arena that we are the strongest.”
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
After a four-day contest from Oct. 27-30, 2022, in Austin, TX, Laura Horvath and Justin Medeiros are the Individual champions of the 2022 CrossFit Rogue Invitational. For Medeiros, he successfully defended his Men’s title from last year’s Rogue competition. It’s the latest achievement for the two-time reigning Fittest Man on Earth®. Meanwhile, after a solid third-place finish at the 2022 CrossFit Games, Horvath dominated to capture the Women’s title.
Chandler Smith and Jeffrey Adler joined Medeiros on the Men’s podium in second and third place, respectively. On the Women’s side, former two-time CrossFit Games champion Annie Thorisdottir (second) and 2022 CrossFit Games Rookie of the Year Emma Lawson (third) finished just behind Horvath.
Between 10 different events, the CrossFitters at the 2022 Rogue Invitational had quite the strength and conditioning gauntlet to work through throughout the Austin, TX, weekend. Here’s an overview of how Horvath and Medeiros fared from event to event as they captured their respective victories.
Laura Horvath 2022 Rogue Invitational Event by Event Performance
After a slow start, Horvath stormed ahead of the rest of the field when she won four straight events. Horvath performed so well that she had a 75-point cushion entering the final day of the contest and clinched the Women’s Rogue Invitational title with a pair of top-10 performances at the end for the clincher.
Texas Trail — Ninth place
Ski Bar — 14th place
Back Attack — First place
DT With a Spin — First place
The Turtle — First place
The Duel II — First place
Texas Oak — Second place
Snatch and Press — 19th place
The Goblet — Seventh place
Heavy Grace — Third place
Justin Medeiros 2022 Rogue Invitational Event by Event Performance
Medeiros’ output at the 2022 Rogue Invitational was largely in line with his usual path to success. The athlete maintained a sterling record of consistency, finishing out of the top 10 in two events just twice while notching top-five results in six separate events.
Aside from the general acclaim and prestige of winning a major contest like the Rogue Invitational, Horvath and Medeiros’ exploits earned them quite the lucrative equal cash prize. Both athletes took home $218,868 for their victories. It isn’t the end of the 2022 CrossFit season, but if Horvath and Medeiros wanted to hang up their kettlebells until the 2023 campaign, they’ve certainly earned the right to bask for the time being.
Today I’m going to teach how you to appear more confident.
Why? Because confidence is one of the most important skills in life that you can acquire (other than learning to use the Force, obviously).
I know how important even a little bit of confidence can be in everyday situations, whether it’s negotiating with your boss for a raise, buying a car, giving a presentation, or meeting your fiance’s parents.
We’re naturally attracted to and will have our opinions swayed by those who have (or appear to have) a lot of confidence.
Nerds usually get the short end of the stick in the “naturally confident” department, but that doesn’t mean we can’t acquire it like a new skill, Matrix-style!
So today we’ll discuss five steps that you can take to start seeing a difference in self-confidence immediately.
Wanna know something interesting? Many of our coaching clients report “increased confidence” as a consequence of our program. It’s because once you’ve changed your nutrition strategy, lost some weight, and learned to pick up a barbell, you start to understand what you’re truly capable of. That’s a huge confidence boost!
If you’d like to learn if our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program would be a good fit for you, you can click on the image below for more info:
#1) Stop slouching
If you can develop good posture (a trait that can bypass us nerds), you’ll appear approximately 145% more confident within seconds.
I definitely made up that stat, by the way.
I used to have awful posture throughout most of my life (which caused lots of lower back pain). It wasn’t until I made a conscious effort to focus on standing up straight and strengthening my lower back that the pain went away.
In order to stay on target, I actually hung a “POSTURE!” post-it on my bedroom door so I wouldn’t forget each morning.
Here’s how you can improve your posture:
Stand up as TALL as you can, like you’re a puppet and somebody just pulled the string that’s attached to the top of your noggin.
Pull your shoulder blades down and back as far as possible – This will feel really weird if you spend a lot of time hunched over a desk.
Pick your chin up and look straight ahead – stop looking down while walking around, there’s a whole world out there for you to see.
So not this:
If you have trouble pulling your shoulder blades back, a couple of back exercises might help.
#1) Lat Pull-Downs:
#2) Dumbbell Rows:
This will build up the muscles in your upper back and allow you to actually pull those shoulder blades back together.
Want something easier?
Try standing with your heels, butt, and head against a wall, and then pull your shoulder blades back until they’re touching the wall too. Do this daily and increase the length of the stretch each time.
If you spend all day in a chair, try this: sit down in your chair, and then stand back up WITHOUT having to rock forward. If you have to lean forward even slightly, you’re doing it wrong.
Sit straight up like you’re always ready to stand without having to lean forward. Your lower back will probably get tired as hell sitting like this because it’s not used to the new position – work on it.
Do planks every other day (working your way up to two minutes), and you’ll have a rock-solid core and incredibly strong lower back.
This is probably the hardest step of all, as many of us have spent years and years developing poor posture without even thinking about it. But if we spend a month making a concerted effort to have better posture, we’ll be well on our way to a more confident appearance. Pretty soon we won’t even have to think about it!
I mentioned earlier that back exercises like pull-ups and inverted rows can help a lot with posture. If you have no clue where to start on your strength training journey, make sure you download our guide: Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know.
It walks you through every aspect of starting a strength training practice, from equipment, and specific workouts, and how to know when you should progress to lifting more weight. You can grab it for free when you join the Rebellion below!
Download our comprehensive guideSTRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
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#2) Slow down
I am terrified of public speaking. Seriously, I hate being in front of even a small crowd. However, you would never know this, given all the speeches I’ve presented over the years.
You know how I did it?
By taking a deep breath, slowing down, and practicing. I still get nervous, but I’ve learned to manage it so well that nobody notices.
What’s the importance of slowing down? When you get nervous, your voice tends to go up a few notes and you’ll talk faster than you realize. These are two dead ringers for “scaredy cat.”
It’s a lesson I learned in wayyy back in college while presenting my senior business proposal.
It’s now time for a flashback…
About thirty seconds into my college presentation – which I thought was going well – I noticed my friend Deepa in the back of the room frantically waving her arms at me, mouthing “SLOOOWWW DOWNNNN.”
I quickly readjusted my speech, talked WAY slower than I thought I needed to, and took long breaths between sentences. She later told me that she couldn’t understand the beginning at all but the rest of it came out perfectly.
The rest of that class was molded by that presentation, so thanks Deepa for saving me!
If you get nervous in front of people no matter how big or small the group, talk slower than you think you need to, and don’t forget to breathe. In your head, it might seem way too slow, but out loud it’s just right.
#3) Smile
People don’t smile enough these days, so we’re bringing it back.
When dealing with any situation or scenario where we’re uncomfortable, it’s easy to get caught up in our heads. We might be frowning without even realizing it.
The solution: smile.
Not a fake smile, not a creepy smile, but a genuine smile.
We’ll work on it.
Don’t know how to smile correctly? Stand in front of a mirror, close your eyes, and look down. Look up, smile, and open your eyes at the same time.
See that smile right there?
THAT’S a genuine smile.
#4) Win the staring contest
Many of us now work from home, hanging out in our underwear and only interacting with our dogs (or maybe this is just me).
But we’ll still come across people like:
The person behind the counter at CVS.
Your waitress at lunch.
Random strangers that you pass on the street.
When was the last time you looked somebody in the eye until THEY looked away first? If you’re like me, you’ve probably always been the first to “flinch.”
I’m not very good at staring contests:
I say no more!
Starting right now, we’re going to be the person that doesn’t look away.
Think of each interaction as a mini-battle – our eyes against theirs.
As long as we’re smiling and blinking, it’ll come across as friendly and warming.
If we’ve always been shy, the first few times doing this will be absolutely nerve-wracking. Try and power through it.
When practicing, you’ll find that lots of folks will ignore your welcoming glance. They’re probably just nervous too.
#5) Get out of your head
If you feel out of place in a situation, remember this: everybody around you probably does too. We all have our own insecurities; just some of us can exist outside of our brains and project confidence.
As a fellow nerd and chronic over-thinker, I know this is tough to do: stop thinking so dang much and just go for it.
Here are some tips for getting out of your head in a social setting:
Once you spot somebody you’re interested in, don’t give yourself more than three seconds before approaching them. Anything beyond that will cause you to over-analyze the situation in your head and probably end up doing nothing. You’ll quickly learn that “if you don’t ask, the answer is always no,” so you have nothing to lose.
Introduce yourself immediately to strangers at a party – get the awkwardness out of the way immediately, and you’ll come across as cool and collected.
Once you have your speech or presentation prepared, don’t give yourself hours to get nervous – concentrate on something else to occupy your mind until it’s time to present. Don’t overthink, just follow the plan and talk slowly.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said:
He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.
I bet those three things listed above seem scary to 95% of the population (they all scare the bejeezus out of me, which is precisely why I force myself to do them).
Part of building confidence is taking risks and having the ability (and the guts) to do stuff that scares you. Around here we call it “20 Seconds of Courage.”
Your mission: Build Confidence Today
As you follow these five steps, you’ll start to appear more confident. That can make some of your encounters more successful…which will instill more confidence in you. Then this will make even MORE of your encounters successful. And so on.
Think of your confidence like a giant snowball with lots of inertia – tough to get started, but once it’s rolling the momentum will take over.
Your homework – while walking down the street with your head held high, shoulders back, and a big smile on your face, make direct eye contact with at least five strangers that walk by and give them a simple “hi.” Remember, they have to be the ones to look away first, not you.
The first few times will feel really awkward, but who cares – you’ll probably never see them again. As you get more “missions” under your belt, you can progress to other more challenging objectives, like striking up a conversation with a stranger, giving a speech, robbing a bank, etc.
One last thing: with great power comes great responsibility.
There is a fine line between having confidence and being cocky – nobody likes the cocky person who is full of themselves. Remember to be humble.
If you’re trying to figure out how to develop true confidence and apply it to your life, I’d check out Mark Manson’s The Confidence Conundrum:
Confidence is not necessarily linked to any external marker. Rather, our confidence is rooted in our perception of ourselves regardless of any tangible external reality.
The obvious and most common answer to the confidence conundrum is to simply believe that you lack nothing. That you already have, or at least deserve, whatever you feel you would need to make you confident.
In other words: Don’t change what you are, just learn to be more confident in who you are.
So, what tips did I miss or mess up? Any other words of wisdom to pass along? Us nerds need all the help we can get!
-Steve
PS: If you’re looking to boost your confidence, I’ll again remind you of our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. We work with busy nerds just like you to complete life overhauls, from adjusting nutrition strategies for weight loss to learning how to strength train.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
Hunter Labrada has a lot to live up to as a bodybuilder. As the son of a bodybuilding legend, the 1985 Mr. Universe Lee Labrada, the bar of excellence is already set. With relatively high expectations, the younger Labrada is currently locked in on showing out at the 2022 Mr. Olympia. He certainly seems to be on the right track.
On Oct. 26, 2022, Labrada posted a video to his Instagram feed where he ran through a short amount of poses to share where his physique and training currently stand. In the process, he revealed that he weighed a massive 280 pounds the morning he filmed the clip.
Labrada is trying to build on an exemplary result from the 2021 Olympia. According to NPC News Online, this specific iteration of the contest was just Labrada’s second try at bodybuilding’s tentpole contest, and he went from eighth place in 2020 to a fourth-place result in a matter of a year. Based on such a precedent, it wouldn’t be a far cry to see Labrada shine and perhaps even stand on top of the podium in Las Vegas, NV, on Dec. 16-18, 2022.
That said, there’s still plenty of work to do before Labrada can potentially earn the crowning achievement of his career. Between his Instagram feed and YouTube channel, Labrada regularly shares advice about proper training, mass-building, and optimal ways to exercise in manners that he seemingly apply to his own preparation. That should make it no surprise he only focused on prep for competing in the 2022 Olympia, foregoing all other potential contests in the calendar year.
To stand on the top of the bodybuilding mountain, it appears that the same mountain is the only thing in Labrada’s crosshairs.
Here’s an overview of Labrada’s complete career results:
Hunter Labrada | Complete Career Results
2016 National Physique Committee (NPC) Branch Warren Classic (Heavyweight) — First place
2016 NPC San Antonio Extravaganza (Super Heavyweight) — First place
2017 NPC Europa Dallas (Super Heavyweight) — First place
2018 NPC Junior USA Championships (Super Heavyweight) — First place
2018 NPC National Championships (Super Heavyweight) — First place | Earned Pro Card
Thanks to a cadre of elite peers, it’ll be no small task for Labrada to improve upon his top-four result from 2021. Among other big names, two-time reigning Mr. Olympia Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay is vying for a three-peat, while a fellow ascending star in Nick Walker is also looking to topple Big Ramy.
It’s a doozy of a field on paper and one that Labrada looks to be pulling out all the stops for.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
It seems strength, fitness, and a commitment to excellence in the gym run deep in the Hall family. James Hall, the brother of 2017 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) champion Eddie Hall, has shown off his own unique athleticism for years. A former professional rugby player, most notably for the Bristol Bears in Bristol, England, James Hall now coaches and trains strength sports athletes. If that weren’t enough, he has a new World Record to his name, too.
On Oct. 28, 2022, Hall posted a video to his Instagram channel of himself capturing the 1,000-meter row World Record with a time of two minutes and 39.3 seconds. The mark surpasses the figure of Australian Olympian rower Samuel Loch, who recorded a time of two minutes and 39.5 seconds in July 2016.
Hall has had his sights set on this World record 1,000-meter row milestone for a little while. Much of his recent social media clips feature the athlete training his proficiency on the rowing machine in preparation for an eventual record attempt. With that work having now paid off, Hall seemed overwhelmed with gratitude in his Instagram post while outlining his long journey.
“This time last year, I tried to go sub 2.40 on the SkiErg,” Hall started. “I fell just short, but the training and lessons I learned helped me achieve this today.”
As Hall made his return to rowing on the machine, he soon found he had plenty in the tank and pushed himself accordingly.
“When I started rowing back in August, I had the sole goal of going sub-six,” Hall explained. “My fitness soon came back, and I was able to improve my technique enough to achieve this in a short amount of time. What I discovered was that I was able to hold a similar pace but with less perceived effort.”
The comments of Hall’s post feature a familiar face offering hearty congratulations — his brother Eddie.
“Well done, bro, World Records run in the family,” Eddie Hall wrote in reaction.
As for what the future holds, James Hall seems to be in a place where he can carve his own path as he pleases. With rugby out of the picture, Hall appears to be taking on any new fitness goals as they come on a regular basis. Yet, as this World Record shows, he’s not limiting himself in his ambitions. After all, he is the brother of a strongman legend, and that means he has to build his own great strength legacy by comparison.
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You might be wondering why any sane person would want to try winter camping. The apparent negatives are myriad: It’s cold, wet, snowy, windy, and miserable. Why would you want to experience that? Well, the positives are also that it’s cold, wet, snowy, windy, and miserable. The positives are the negatives.
Back when I was competing at an elite level of marathon and triathlon, we paid lip service to rest and recovery, but recovery looked mostly like lying on the couch for hours on end with a gallon of ice cream resting on my chest. I poured all my energy into training sessions such that I had nothing left in the tank on off days. Even basic household chores were a big ask. 
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
Book your class NOW!
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