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.
So, Mike sat in my front room after a six hour drive from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City and asked a simple question: "Dan, why do people ask you to coach them?"
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.
Bruce Nadler has seen more boobs than you.
A new way to give your body and brain a break and rediscover the idiotic fun of training
Strategies for sets, reps, volume, training, and for getting downright ripped. Find it all here.
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."
A few weeks back, at a small research meeting in Toronto, Ontario, my good friend Dr. Alan Logan handed me a book I hadn't heard of before.
While waiting at the DMV for my moped license renewal form, I decided to kill some time with one of my favorite childhood pastimes. No, not chewing tobacco and throwing rocks at whores. I'm talking about that crazy little word game known as Mad Libs.
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.
Within the realm of training for greater strength, muscle mass, and endurance lies an area of science that remains relatively untapped: Neuroscience. It's indeed the uncharted waters in the vast ocean of the science and practice of resistance training. That's because so little is known about how the nervous system actually works.
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.
Ever notice how two supposedly inviolate principles of resistance training are basically contradictory?
It was a dire situation, a nightmare of indescribable proportions that only Dante could relate to. Every salacious thought I've ever had and every misdeed I ever committed was paid back to me in spades.
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.
They're both assets to my training programs. Indeed, I've used kettlebells for years with success. And Pavel? He's a good guy. I definitely consider him a friend and a juggernaut in the strength and conditioning community.
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:
Creatine is the most studied sports supplement in history. Here’s what we’ve learned about loading, delivery systems, and timing issues.
In four months I'll be a whopping 28 years old. I know a thing or two about training and all that goes into it, but I also respect the fact that there's a hell of a lot I don't know enough about, and other topics I need to know something about that I'm not even aware of!
It's been three weeks since I issued The BIGGER-ARMS Challenge to T-Nation members. More than 100 of you signed up to do 4 workouts – which consisted of unique biceps and triceps cycles – from May 8<sup>th</sup> to May 21<sup>st</sup>.
This article isn't going to overwhelm you with neuroscience or obscure language. Nope, it's going to be bare-bones simple. As I've learned over the years, elementary advice is usually what helps people most, and it tends to work best.
