RealJock on the Punching Bag DAY 2

3 Steps to Improve Your Bench Press Max...

Improve your bench press max

1. Bench press negatives
If you don’t know what a negative is, it’s the lowering phase of an exercise. In the case of the bench press, it’s lowering the weight to your chest. Negative training involves very heavy weights (up to 1.5 times your 1 rep max) and simply lowering the weight slowly down to your chest and having 2 assistants lift it back up for you. Negative training is highly underestimated and can have a dramatic effect on your upper body strength and your 1 rep max.

2. Power up your triceps
Tricep strength has an enormous impact on your bench press performance. You need to hit your triceps hard with big exercises like close grip bench press and skullcrushers. Don’t waste your time with cable machines, stick to heavy dumbbells and barbells.

3. Eat like there’s no tomorrow
If you want to get bigger and stronger you have to eat like you have the appetite of Ronnie Coleman! You should eat up to 7 meals per day and each meal should contain a good serving of protein (in various forms) and complex carbohydrates. This is essential for increasing your bench press. If you’re not eating enough calories per day, don’t expect to do any additional pounds on your bench press.

4 Delicious Post-Workout Snacks For Recovery

Post workout is an ideal time to eat a small meal with both protein and carbohydrates to help repair and build muscles and replenish your energy stores, respectively. It’s best to eat within 60 minutes of finishing a workout because that’s when your muscles are most receptive.

Chocolate Milk

Chocolate milk is an awesome post-workout snack and it’s delicious, too. I like Organic Valley chocolate milk served ice cold after I go for a long run or do a power Vinyasa class. I pour it over a large glass of ice and savor it as I cool off. Research also shows that drinking chocolate milk after a strenuous workout may help lessen muscle damage and aid in recovery.

Strawberries and Cream

The cream is healthy Greek yogurt sweetened with stevia. I love Fage 2% Greek yogurt mixed with a small dash of stevia (or sweetener of your choice) topped with sliced strawberries. Or you can make a dip and swirl each strawberry in it. Greek yogurt is loaded with protein—between 15 and 20 grams per container depending on the brand and size—and strawberries have antioxidants that can also protect your cells against damage.

Banana Smoothie

Bananas are chock full of potassium which helps keep your muscles from cramping. Potassium is the main electrolyte that powers muscles and adding it to a whey protein shake makes for an amazing recovery drink. Whey’s amino acids are quickly absorbed by muscles boosting recovery and growth. I make mine with 1 scoop of whey protein powder, 1 frozen banana, ice, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Strong & Kind Roasted Jalapeno Bar

This new bar from Kind has 10 grams of protein and it’s made with 100% whole ingredients: almonds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, pea crisps (made with pea protein isolate), and spices. The jalapeno flavor has a great kick to it and there’s no weird, chalky artificial taste like some protein bars have. Almonds are a good source of vitamin E and antioxidants which can help fight damage caused by inflammation. I find this bar is perfect after a strength-training workout as I always crave something savory after a good sweat. Great for when you’re on the road and need to pack something with you easily.

INFO-GRAPHIC: The Ultimate Guide to Workout Nutrition

Get health and fitness tips at Greatist.com

The 5 Biggest Myth's in the Gym Today...

Make the Most of Your Workout
Some things are beyond question—planetary motion, LeBron James's defense. But when it comes to weight-lifting advice, it pays to be a skeptic. "The gym is filled with false information," says strength and conditioning coach Josh Henkin, C.S.C.S. Here are five weightlifting myths that might be holding you back, and the fast fixes that will have you seeing results again.


MYTH 1: GOOD FORM IS EVERYTHING IN THE GYM

The claim: Performing exercises the way they're intended will maximize results.

The truth: Sometimes cheating can boost your gains. Using a bit of momentum in the lateral raise, for example, increases the torque of your shoulder joint, helping you raise a heavier weight to the point at which your deltoids take over, notes a study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. "You can achieve a similar effect with biceps curls," says sports biomechanist Bret Contreras, C.S.C.S. Just keep the body English to a minimum.

MYTH 2: SLOW LIFTING BUILDS HUGE MUSCLES

The claim: Deliberate, controlled lifts ensure proper form and accelerate muscular gains.

The truth: Slow and steady is a smart strategy for lowering a weight, but lifting it quickly activates more type II muscle fibers, which have the greatest growth potential. 
Bottom line: "Vary your lifting speed," says Henkin. "In the bench press, for example, pause every 5 inches on the way down, and then push up explosively." Varying your pace will fatigue you faster, so start doing this on the last reps of your final set. (Want more ways secrets to size and strength? Try the Maximum Mass workout to get bigger, faster.)

MYTH 3: IF YOU WANT TO GROW BIG, YOU HAVE TO LIFT BIG

The claim: Heavy weights and low reps (5 or fewer) trigger the greatest increase in muscle mass.

The truth: The sweet spot is 6 to 15 reps, says Brad Schoenfeld, C.S.C.S., author of The MAX Muscle Plan. Lifting a moderate weight in that rep range creates an optimal balance of muscular tension and metabolic stress. That in turn maximizes your protein production after exercise as well as the number of contracting mechanisms within a muscle cell. The result: serious gains in size, strength, and force production.

MYTH 4: RESTING BETWEEN SETS IS CRITICAL

The claim: Giving your muscles a break lets you put your all into every set.

The truth: Staying active between sets boosts performance. "Doing low-intensity, noncompeting moves, called fillers, between sets enhances mind-muscle communication without compromising recovery," says Mike Wunsch, C.S.C.S., director of programming at Results Fitness. Try lateral band walks between lower-body sets and I-raises between upper-body sets.

MYTH 5: POST-WORKOUT SHAKES BOOST MUSCLE GROWTH

The claim: There's a window of opportunity after a workout when muscles are primed to respond to protein.

The truth: That idea is based on a small number of short-term studies that evaluated people who trained after fasting overnight, says Alan Aragon, M.S., a Men's Health nutrition advisor. Your focus should be on total daily protein. "Shoot for 1 gram per pound of body weight a day," he says. Falling short? Down a protein shake whenever it's most convenient for you. (Store-bought shakes can often times be over-priced and low on protein)

The Most Over-rated Piece of Gym Equipment that exists

Are you still using the leg-curl machine? Then you should know this: "It's not the best way to work your hamstrings," says Alwyn Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., Men's Health fitness adviser and co-owner of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, California. "In fact, it's not even close."

Lying face down on the Leg Curl Machine 

The QUICK EXPLANATION: 

The leg-curl machine targets your hamstrings because it requires you to flex your knees against a resistance. This is called knee flexion. (Get it?) Knee flexion is certainly one of the jobs of your hamstrings -- but it's not the most important one. At least not in terms of why you need your hamstrings to be strong in the real world.


You perform hip extension in plenty of exercises -- the stepup, deadlift, Romanian deadlift, hip raise, and even the squat, to name a few. So if you want to strengthen your hamstrings, these exercises are all better choices than the leg-curl machine. After all, you rarely have to flex your knees against a resistance in every day life.


That said, if your knee flexion is weak, it’s certainly smart to strengthen this function of your hamstrings. However, there’s an even better exercise for this than the leg-curl machine. It’s called the Swiss-ball hip raise and leg curl. This movement actually requires both knee flexion and hip extension. So it works two of your hamstring functions at once. "It doesn't matter that you aren't 'isolating' knee flexion," says Cosgrove. "With this exercise, the weakest link automatically gets the best training effect.”


"The main function of your hamstrings is to extend your hips," says Cosgrove. If you need a visual, think of the movement you use when you thrust your hips. An example: When you sprint, you forcefully thrust -- or extend -- your hips each time you push off the ground with your foot. This helps you propel your body forward. And though you may think it's a simple movement, few people in the gym get this exercise right.

Check out the hyperlink video below to learn how to do a Swiss-ball hip raise and leg curl with PERFECT form. Oh, and a note to those who feel this exercise is too easy. 

Remember: You can always use progressions to make an exercise harder. In this case, you can perform the same movement, but with just one leg on the ball instead of two (you hold the other in the air). That's tough by anyone's standards.

Click here to watch this 2-min video clip that shows you a more challenging approach to working out your hamstrings with a Swiss ball (aka Stability ball).






The Most Overrated Gym Machine | ThePostGame