Dynamic warmups are designed to prepare the body for strenuous exercise, sport performance, or other environments where you are moving freely in space. Not only can they help protect against muscle strain, but they can help tune the mind and senses to react to various stimuli inherent to sport. Below, the pieces of an effective dynamic warmup are outlined to help you prep for … [Read more...]
A Scientific Approach to Hamstring Training
Your post-workout quad flex may rack up the likes, but you can't have a set of truly impressive, muscular legs with poor hamstring development. But for most lifters, the hammies tend to be a lagging muscle complex and are dramatically overshadowed by the quads. The end result is an unbalanced appearance to the lower body—and that's saying nothing about the importance of the … [Read more...]
The Science of Muscle Recovery: A New Approach to the Post-Workout Window
When I first started training seriously in the late 90s and early 2000s, the post-workout window was gospel. We all knew that if you didn't drink that recovery shake—with exactly a 1-4 protein-to-carbohydrate ratio—within 15 minutes of your workout, you were losing all the gains. OK, maybe not all of them, but most of them. In recent years, the concept of the "anabolic window" … [Read more...]
Thinking Of Cleansing? Try This Age-Old Approach Instead
It seems like you can't open a fitness mag or go online without some "new" type of fast or cleanse popping up. Each one seems to have a fresh, catchy name and a slightly different spin. In reality, however, fasting isn't new at all. Ritual fasting has existed in numerous cultures throughout human history, and continues to exist today.Some of the more popular fasts … [Read more...]
