Tip of the week Tip: Tip: Do 25 push-ups in a row while clapping your hands
Push-ups with hand claps is a unique exercise that challenges your muscle fibers by requiring rapid, explosive contractions as fatigue builds during sets of longer repetitions. This test will push you through plateaus, build strength and build muscle in the chest, shoulders and triceps.
The execution
Get into a push-up position, lower yourself towards the floor and then push yourself up explosively with maximum force, clapping your hands before landing with your hands on the floor again. Act as if your hands are touching hot coals. Perform the repetitions quickly, starting your next repetition as soon as you reach the lowest position. If you can do 25 reps in a row with good form, you're a tough guy.
How to get better
Not quite there yet? Start with 3 sets of 6 to 10 repetitions before upper body exercises. Then do one set at the end of the training session where you give it your all. If you're struggling with execution, use a less demanding angle by positioning your hands on a flat bench and working on your endurance. Once you can do 10 reps in a row in this position, return to the floor position.
Tip: Know your food intake
Are you not making any gains? This probably has more to do with your diet than your training. Here's a reality check.
By Andrew Heming
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-know-your-food-intake/
In gyms around the world, you may hear the following conversation:
- Scrawny guy: "I can't manage to gain weight."
- Trainer: "You need to eat more."
- Scrawny guy: "But I'm already eating a ton of food!"
At this point, the skinny guy usually ditches the trainer and finds someone else to tell him what he wants to hear: "You just need to find a special, really complicated, super scientific exercise program." Too bad the trainer didn't just ask to see the skinny guy's food diary.
Keep a food diary
In the same way that obese people typically underestimate how much they eat, many so-called hardgainers overestimate how much they actually eat. They may feel like they're eating tons of food, but then when asked for numbers, they realize their food intake is pathetic.
Use a website, an app or an old-fashioned notebook and keep a record of your food intake and keep increasing it until your weight starts to rise. As long as you don't have a tapeworm, you will gain weight.
Food quality comes first
Simply eating more calories is not everything. Even though a calorie is a calorie in the lab, it's not quite so simple when it comes to food and the human body.
What you eat is just as important. Many hardgainers start by stuffing themselves with junk food to increase their calorie intake. Most will be able to build quality weight with a much lower calorie intake. If you only need to eat 4,000 kcal per day to achieve a calorie surplus, then you can get most of those calories in the form of high quality foods.
Whole foods should form the basis of your diet. This base can also include naturally calorie-dense foods such as nuts, nut butters and dried fruit. And then you should also live a little and enjoy a few treats. By getting most of your nutrition in the form of high-quality foods, you'll build up less unwanted fat, have more exercise energy, recover faster after exercise, reduce inflammation and enjoy better health.
Tip: Train better. Think better. Take this amino acid.
This amino acid improves your focus, mood, energy and learning ability. Here's the science behind it.
From TC Luoma
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/tip-lift-better-think-better-take-this-amino-acid/
The nootropic for gains
Serious exercisers have figured out how to use nutrition, supplements and drugs to run faster, jump higher and move more weight. But all of this had to do with physical rather than mental aspects. The best we could do to address the mental aspect was to pop a caffeine pill or drink a strong coffee before training or competing.
But now we are able to do better - thanks to the burgeoning field of nootropics, also known as smart drugs. This allows you to customize your brain function to serve your current needs - be it increased concentration, better memory, improved reaction time or even better social interactions.
One of the most impressive of these nootropics is acetyl-L-carnitine, or ALCAR, which is sometimes referred to as a learning neurotransmitter.
A multifunctional amino acid
ALCAR is a naturally occurring amino acid that can easily cross the blood-brain barrier and reaches its maximum plasma concentration in the brain after 3 hours. The compound is said to have a variety of beneficial effects and there is a lot of research to support this.
Some of the benefits include:
- Increased energy production in the mitochondria, which can increase physical and mental energy for hours.
- Increased "processing speed", improved focus, improved mood and improved memory performance (including long-term memory).
- Improved verbal fluency.
- Increased glucose and creatine levels in the brain (both of which decrease with age).
- Protection of brain cells from damage caused by alcohol.
- Stimulating brain cells and promoting their growth to form connections with other neurons.
- Improved rate of learning.
- Can counteract some forms of depression.
- Can alleviate dysthymia - a depressive disorder.
- May improve learning ability, attention span and face recognition in Alzheimer's patients.
Shine brighter
How ALCAR does all this is still being researched, but it definitely increases levels of norepinephrine and serotonin - neurotransmitters that play an important role in mood and brain function. ALCAR may also work indirectly by improving neuronal signaling through stimulation of synapses or blocking postsynaptic inhibition. In short, ALCAR seems to increase our electrical "power" so that you can "shine" brighter and longer. ALCAR also combines well with other supplements. When you combine it with other nootropics, it has a boosting effect that makes all the compounds in the combination work better.
Tip: Prepare ice cream with just one ingredient
It's easy, it's healthy and yes, there's only one ingredient.
By Chris Shugart
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-make-ice-cream-with-one-ingredient/
It sounds like a brain teaser: how can you make ice cream with just one ingredient? Maybe freeze milk? No, that won't work. Hmmm, how about...give up? The only ingredient is a banana. And once you've tried it, you'll kick yourself for not thinking of this sooner.
Instructions
- Get some bananas that are ready to be stained. Do not use green bananas.
- Put them in the freezer with the peel on until they are completely or almost completely frozen. The. The skin will darken or even turn almost black, but the banana inside is still perfectly fine.
- Allow the bananas to thaw slightly and either slice them lengthwise to remove the peel or cut them into bite-sized slices and enjoy.
How to take the deliciousness further
You can stop at this point or you can add a few more ingredients. Here is my favorite:
Take two frozen bananas and chop them up with a food processor or blender. Add a tablespoon of defatted peanut butter like PB2 or natural nut butter like almond butter. Add a scoop of chocolate or vanilla flavored protein powder and mix well. If necessary, you can add a dash of almond milk.
Tip: drink more green tea
Have you already heard about the fat-burning benefits? Here's how you can increase them further.
From TC Luoma
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-drink-more-green-tea/
Green tea might be the one drink that lives up to its hype - or at least a lot of it. Made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, it is said to have benefits for almost every organ system in the body. It may have heart-protective, liver-protective, artery-cleansing, cancer-fighting, anti-diabetic and even fat-burning properties. Green tea contains a small amount of caffeine, but it also contains the chemical theobromine, which lowers blood pressure, and theophylline, which relaxes the airways and stimulates the heart a little. The end result is a mild stimulant effect that is different and less pronounced than the equivalent effect of caffeine. Even though green tea is stimulating, it also has mild anxiolytic effects, which seems like the perfect combination of effects.
What about burning fat?
Green tea may have carbohydrate-blocking effects, which, combined with its fat-burning, metabolic rate-boosting effects, is why it has long been touted as a moderately effective fat burner. Unfortunately, some of the fat-burning effects may be diminished if you already consume a lot of caffeine. The fat-burning component is epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG. A cup of green tea contains about 50 mg of this, but you need 400 to 500 mg to feel fat-burning effects. Don't want to drink that much green tea? Then use a green tea product that is packed with EGCG.
And to boost the fat-burning response, combine some fish oil with your green tea.
Tip: Want a bigger latissimus? Then train with single-arm barbell rowing
We're not talking about dumbbell rowing here, but barbell rowing with one arm. Read on for the execution of this exercise.
From John Meadows
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-want-lats-do-one-arm-barbell-rows/
Who says barbell means you have to use both hands? Narrow-minded thinking will only translate into a narrow latissimus. This one-arm barbell exercise is brutally effective for latissimus development.
One-arm barbell row
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpBmaLGeJyc
Simply stand next to a loaded barbell, reach down and grab the bar and start rowing. If you expect this to feel like normal barbell rowing, be prepared for a surprise. This type of execution feels unique to say the least. If you perform this exercise correctly, you will feel it from the top of your latissimus to the bottom.
How to perform
- Emphasize the stretch on the way down.
- Use 10 kilo pulleys to increase the range of motion and allow for the greatest possible stretch.
- Raise the hip on the side you are moving the weight higher than the other side of the hip.
Most people perform dumbbell rows with equally high shoulders, which means they miss out on a great pre-stretch and extra range of motion they might otherwise have. Try the exercise as described and you'll understand.
Tip: Muscle burning for more growth
Good news: This hypertrophy training technique works fast. The bad news: It will feel like your muscles are on fire. Give it a try if you dare.
By Christian Thibaudeau
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-burn-until-youre-big/
The technique: a regressive range of motion
This training method can be used by those looking for hypertrophy gains and also by those whose goal is to build both mass and strength. Here's how it works:
- Start an exercise by performing it through the full range of motion. Perform as many repetitions as you can until you are close to the point of muscle failure. Then...
- Reduce the range of motion by half and perform partial repetitions. If you feel that you are about to reach muscle failure in this partial range...
- Reduce the range of motion by half again (quarter repetitions) and continue training until you reach the point of muscle failure. Depending on the exercise selected, the partial repetitions are performed either in the upper or lower part of the range of motion.
For mass gains
Use a weight with which you can perform 8 to 10 complete repetitions before moving on to half and quarter repetitions.
For gains in strength and muscle mass
Use a weight that allows you to complete 4 to 6 full repetitions before progressing to half and quarter repetitions. This method allows you to use a decent amount of weight.
Examples:
- Squats: Full reps, then half reps in the upper half of the range of motion that quarter reps.
- Bench press: Full reps, then half reps in the upper half of the range of motion if you want to focus on triceps and shoulders. Use quarter reps in the lower half of the range of motion if you want to focus more on the chest muscles.
- Leg curls: Full repetitions, then half repetitions in the lower half of the range of motion, then quarter repetitions.
- Bicep cable curls: Complete repetitions, then half repetitions in the lower half of the range of motion, then quarter repetitions.
- Tricep cable press: Complete repetitions, then half repetitions in the lower half of the range of motion, then quarter repetitions.
- Leg presses: Complete repetitions, then half repetitions in the upper half of the range of motion, then quarter repetitions.
- Side raises: Complete repetitions, then half repetitions in the lower half of the range of motion, then quarter repetitions.
This method is particularly effective with multi-joint exercises - especially exercises with a longer range of motion. However, it can also be used successfully with exercises such as Culs (especially cable curls), cable tricep presses, leg curls, leg extensions, Hackenschmidt squats and leg presses. It does not work well with overhead exercises and pulling exercises.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-25-consecutive-clap-push-ups/
By Eric Bach