At one point in my career, I was training as many as 12 to 13 people a day, six days a week—and doing paperwork on the seventh! These were primarily 60-minute, one-on-one sessions. I was going practically non-stop. My wife joked that I was even training people in my sleep! I did that for years…
Wouldn’t it be nice to go back in time—when you lived at home with your parents and had no responsibilities? You could sleep in as long as you wanted, sneak in an afternoon nap, eat all day without missing a meal, and train nearly every day—sometimes multiple times a day—and grow like a weed because…
The two lost commandments that you rarely hear about are:“Thou shall exercise with weights regularly,” and“Thou shall do quality reps.”I follow both religiously! During this morning’s workout, I paired back squats with standing leg curls for 5 sets of 10 reps each, with 3 warm-up sets beforehand. The pace was fairly brisk, and I wrapped…
“John Paul, may I talk to you outside please?” I knew it was about to get uncomfortable as I followed the doctor and his colleague out into the hallway. “Your mother’s disease is progressive and her condition is deteriorating quickly,” he said. “We’ve tried everything we can do, but nothing seems to be working. She…
Some people think the Standing Rope French Press is some kind of specialty coffee. It’s not… it’s an excellent elbow-friendly exercise that emphasizes the long head of the triceps. Make sure to keep your glutes tensed and core braced throughout the set. Get your biceps as close to your ears as possible, and lower the…
This is a great time to increase the number of push-ups you can do. Let’s say your goal is to hit 20 strict push-ups, but right now you can only manage about half that. Try this… Do 4 sets of 5 reps with 3 minutes of rest in between. That should be fairly easy given…
Favor higher reps when performing seated leg extensions. The key is constant tension: use a moderate weight, go up to a soft lock at the top (not a full lockout), and don’t let the weight plates touch at the bottom. Keep the movement smooth and fluid, and push through the burn as much as possible….
I’ve always been an advocate of functional endocrinology first and foremost—before hormone replacement therapy (HRT). If you want to optimize your hormones, start by eating right, sleeping well, exercising intelligently, and using key nutritional supplements. Only then should you consider pharmaceutical intervention. That said, there’s no doubt that HRT can offer benefits. A recent study…
Most gym rats are “pushers,” not “pullers”—and most do too much horizontal pushing and not enough vertical pushing. If you’re able to press 100-pound dumbbells lying flat on your back, then you should be able to press 70-pound dumbbells overhead for the same number of reps. For every pushing pattern you perform, you should also…
Many of you know that my mother has been quite ill, and we’ve been fighting hard to restore her health and independence. One day I’ll sit down and write about the full experience, but today I’ll keep it brief. When I pulled my mother off all her medications on Thursday, September 5, 2019, the first…