Hello, T-Nation peckerheads! I'm the Critic. My job in this new article series is to call out various T-Nation contributors and put them on the firing line.
"Bill Hartman is the smartest man I know," Alwyn Cosgrove said recently at a seminar. I don't know about you, but that's pretty esteemed praise, especially from someone like Alwyn who's considered one of the foremost minds in the performance enhancement industry.
You need to know right away that our athletes at the US Air Force Academy don't train as if they're preparing for a strongman competition. The concept of training specificity makes it clear there are few similarities between competing in a strongman competition and competing as a football, basketball, or hockey athlete.
That's me, except it's not a van and it's not down by the river. But yeah, I basically live in my car. You see, I'm a trainer who goes to people's houses all day long to work them out, so instead of having an office as my home base, my car is my home base.
Is it possible to put more stress on certain parts of a muscle?
Bruce Nadler has seen more boobs than you.
Imagine if there were no barriers to strength attainment: we'd all be power cleaning 500, squatting 1000, and benching 600 in no time.
Everything you need to know about the thermic effect of food.
Usually in an exploration of functional foods, one hears a lot about vegetables, fruits, herbs, phytochemicals and such. That's all cool to learn, but most humans are after all omnivorous. That is, man does not generally live by plants alone.
On our way to Montana for the National Weight Pentathlon, my wife Tiffini and I pulled over for a break. It's a beautiful drive, but I drink a lot of coffee and I'm 49, so we have to pull over for a lot of "breaks."
Dr. Roussell weighs in on butter, oatmeal and milk thistle. Check it out.
Everything you need to know about the benefits and the risks of overhead lifts.
The strength and conditioning field is like no other. Coaches have bitter enemies and die-hard devotees – and sometimes a person will qualify as both depending on the day of the week. There are insane egos and there are humble, incredibly bright coaches who go unnoticed. Finally, there are a lot of coaches who people really don't get.
How to get better quality sleep, recover faster, and be ready for the gym. Check out these tips.
A collection of the most masculine terms, phrases, concepts, and miscellaneous tidbits. But read it at your own risk because it may make you spontaneously grow a beard.
Now that I've got your attention with the title, let's try to raise our thinking from the lower centers of bodily function and get more cerebral, shall we? (Admittedly there are those, like a certain editor around here, who can weave <i>both</i> into an entertaining editorial, but I'm not going to attempt that bit of literary stunt pilotry.)
Like everyone else, I've had my role models and mentors who've looked out for me. My mother has taught high school English for over 20 years, so I owe a lot of my writing success to her. My father taught me to tie a tie and to remember to check the oil in my car. My brother, the accountant, is always a phone call away if I need financial advice.
This week, one of the great mentors in my life died. He was Coach Ralph Maughan of Utah State, and he taught me one great lesson.
When it comes to building muscle or performing at your peak athletically, nutrition is 50% of the equation. Or is it 75%? Maybe 90%? Whatever. It's, like, really important, okay?
Low-carbohydrate diets have certainly received their share of attention in recent years. While the popularity of Atkins, South Beach, and other low-carb diets peaked last year, it remains an interesting topic among physique athletes.
If you drop about a roll and a half of Mentos mints into a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke, you'd better run like hell because the Mentos causes the Coke to erupt into a beautiful, 15-foot high, sugary-sweet Coca Cola geyser.
You've heard it before: "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" Or perhaps you've heard it stated in reference to a long night of liver depletion and fasting catabolism: "Break the fast... breakfast!"
In 1993, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences introduced the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), a set of four reference values for nutritional intakes:
Forget anything you've heard about working your calves, and get ready to learn the most productive calf routine I've ever used.
