The Importance Of Proper Exercise Form

Many people are under the impression that it’s about quantity, such as how much weight you can lift or the number of reps you can perform.

So walk into any gym and you’re sure to see a myriad of motherfuckers using heavier weight than they should, with them arching their back and contorting their body in all sorts of other fucked up ways to lift the weight that’s too fucking heavy.

Problem?

Besides setting themselves up for serious injury, lifting weights in the described fashion makes the exercise movement less effective because the muscle that’s supposed to be doing the work to lift the weight isn’t. Instead, what’s responsible for moving the weight is momentum.

Now, some of us want to be crippled and possess fake strength. If that’s you, then, by all means, keep doing what you’re doing, baby. We should all have dreams to aspire to!

If, however, handicapped living and continued weakness is not a childhood dream of yours, what on earth are you to do?

Hmmmm… Continue reading The Importance Of Proper Exercise Form

How To: Standing Hammer Curls

Hammer curls are a variation of biceps curls and get their name because…ummmmm…the movement mimics the holding and using of a hammer. This difference helps to not only hit the biceps brachii like traditional curls but it also shifts emphasis to the brachialis and brachioradialis, two overlooked muscles in the arms.

The brachialis is located in the upper arm beneath the biceps brachii and is responsible for flexing the elbow. The brachioradialis is located on the lateral, or radial, side of the forearm and facilitates the bending of the elbow and rotation of the wrist. It’s development of the brachioradialis in particular that can make your forearms the size of Popeye’s and why hammer curls should be included in your arm training.¹Fun Fact: Popeye’s forearms were an exaggerated feature based on a stereotype of sailors at the time, as they had larger forearms than the average population on account of pulling tensioned rope and other rigging work involved on the deck of large sailing ships. Continue reading How To: Standing Hammer Curls

Exercise Gloves

Exercise gloves are made of Velcro, Neoprene padding, and mesh or leather material. As if that weren’t hip enough, they’re also cut off so the digits are exposed, making you look like a total badass out of a 1980s music video.

Beyond showing others how much of a badass you are, lifting gloves serve a few other purposes, the most common being to help against the formation of calluses.¹Like really, who the fuck wants to give off the appearance of working with their hands for a living like they were a peasant or something?!?! Another common reason has to do with grip, with them absorbing moisture if you have sweaty palms, as well as helping you lift more weight by creation of a barrier between your hands and the barbell, dumbbell, cable attachment, or equipment handle, which makes whatever you’re holding thicker and increases the neuromuscular activation of the hand and forearm.

Concerning drawbacks, one is that reliance on gloves can weaken your grip over time because your natural grip strength doesn’t have a chance to develop.²Sorry, but jerking off yourself (or others) more than you already do won’t help offset glove use! Another drawback is more anecdotal than empirical, as the experience of myself and other raw lifters suggests that direct contact of the hand to an object in it allows you to better contract the target muscle to do all, if not most, of the work instead of your hand or forearm picking up some of the slack.

Now given the pros and cons of wearing and not wearing gloves, should or shouldn’t you wear them?

Thankfully, there’s a general rule for this very, very complex question. Continue reading Exercise Gloves

How To Eat Healthy During Thanksgiving

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?

– Erma Bombeck, a humorist who apparently missed her calling as an etymologist

 

Many people will intentionally work out harder or longer on Thanksgiving morning to deserve the right to stuff their face with Thanksgiving goodies later in the day, if not intentionally work out harder or longer the morning after to burn off the meals and desserts from the day before.

If a fucked up relationship with food is what you’re after so exercise becomes a punishment for eating or permission to do so, then sure, go ahead and do a workout Thursday or Friday that strays beyond your norm!

If an eating disorder isn’t on your agenda, then eat in accordance with one of several holiday eating tips out there.

Or, hear me out here… Continue reading How To Eat Healthy During Thanksgiving

Healthy Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe

Turkey is the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner.

No feast is complete without it, but why?

As it turns out, the first Thanksgiving celebration between the Wampanoag people and the illegal immigrants that are lovingly referred to as the “Pilgrims” featured wild fowl. But instead of that “fowl” being in reference to turkey, what was most likely eaten were ducks or geese. As to that first Thanksgiving celebration, it wasn’t regarded as a special occurrence by anyone during the event or after because the act of getting together to give thanks for the autumn harvest was a routine tradition dating back to Europe. With that as context, American colonists weren’t observing the Plymouth settlers when they had their own informal Thanksgiving feasts in subsequent years, by which time turkey was on the menu of the harvest celebrations because the bird had become more prevalent in the New England colonies. It wasn’t until about 240 years later that the idea of officially commemorating the “first Thanksgiving” came along. One of the strongest advocates for Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday was Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor and writer that made turkey into the center of the ideal Thanksgiving meal in some of her works. This reinvention of the Pilgrims’ celebration in Hale’s books and magazine features spread across the expanding country and helped link turkey and Thanksgiving together in the public imagination so that there was already a national mythology formed around the festivity when it was finally declared a national holiday in 1863.¹Here’s a fun fact: Hale isn’t only famous for being the “mother of Thanksgiving” due to her work in popularizing Thanksgiving and getting it recognized as a holiday. Nope, she’s also the author of Mary Had A Little Lamb!

Turkey is a staple of Thanksgiving because of marketing — NOT factual history. And because you’re susceptible to marketing, that’s why you continue having turkey on Thanksgiving day. Now, while turkey has many nutritional qualities that make it ideal for someone who’s mindful of their health and weight, some of the ingredients and methods that are used to prepare it for Thanksgiving can make it a nutritional nightmare via the addition of extra fat and calories. That need not be a concern of yours with this turkey recipe if you’re trying to have a healthy Thanksgiving dinner! Continue reading Healthy Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe