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Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet: Living The CrossFit Life, Episode 2

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Main | Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4

Most of us can find at least a couple gym buddies who can push us to get better. But because Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet is part of such an elite club of high-level athletes in the CrossFit world, she must rely on herself for competition. “It’s really hard, at my level, to find someone who can push me,” she says. “The person who can push me is in Europe or the United States.”

Camille trains—by herself, most of the time—in Quebec City, Canada. Yet flying solo doesn’t appear to be hurting her chances of success. “I love training by myself,” she says. “I don’t know if I’m slowing down or not, and often I’m pushing harder by myself than I would with someone there. I just go as hard as I can. It’s nice to have people to push you, but you also need to know how to push by yourself.”

The CrossFit Lifestyle Episode 2
Watch The Video – 4:29

Camille has tried a lot of diets and tinkered with her macros, putting protein, carbohydrates and fats into different arrays. The mix that seems to work best for her is heavy on the carbohydrates.

“I feel like the most successful I’ve been is by eating carbohydrates,” she says. “But, that doesn’t mean I purely eat simple sugars. It means I eat good, high-quality carbohydrates. I want those glycogen stores full. When you hit the wall, that’s when your body needs energy. I want to make sure I can push further than the wall.”

So what’s a good carb capable of filling up her glycogen stores? Camille favors sweet potatoes. “The sweet potato takes a little longer to get out of your system and you don’t have as much of an insulin spike,” she explains.



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CrossFit Workouts: 5 Killer CrossFit WODs

Love it or hate it, CrossFit has found its place in the fitness world. Not sure what you think about it? Before you decide, try one of these workouts.

CrossFit Workout: Heather Welsh’s High-Intensity Interval Mountain Workout

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Burn Up To 300 Calories In Minutes

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When it comes to fat loss, the biggest part of the equation is making sure you burn more calories each day than you take in through your nutritional choices.

Many people fail to reach their goals, not because they aren’t putting in the effort at the gym, but because they lead a sedentary lifestyle. Many think that as long as they go to the gym, they can relax the rest of the day knowing they’ve done the work that needs to be completed.

Not so.

People who are most active in their day-to-day lives often burn more calories than regular gym-goers. Hitting the gym is great and definitely a part of the weight-loss and muscle-building process, but you need to keep active when you’re not in the gym as well.

To give you an idea of where to start, here’s a list of 10 activities that burn 100, 200, and 300 calories each. This way, you can pick the level of boost you want and add to your day accordingly.

If you don’t consume any additional foods, you could burn off a full pound just by adding a single 100-calorie activity every day for a month. Pick a 200-burn activity and you’ll double that, and go for a 300-calories activity for more almost three extra pounds of fat melted from your body over the course of a month. Remember, the actual number of calories you burn depends on your weight, degree of muscle mass and how well you perform each activity; they’re based on a 135-pound individual for our purposes here.

BURN 100

The 100-calorie burn level is good for individuals with a short amount of time—just string several together over the course of a day—or individuals with a low level of fitness. These aren’t too taxing, so don’t worry about impeding your recovery from your usual workout sessions.

1 Power walk upon waking

There’s nothing like a brisk walk first thing in the morning to rev your metabolism and increase your energy for the day ahead. “Make sure you drink ample water and throw in some BCAAs like Gaspari Nutrition’s AMINOLAST to help give you energy and prevent muscle loss,” recommends physique competitor Collin Wasiak, 24, who hails from Detroit.

“There’s nothing like a brisk walk first thing in the morning to rev your metabolism and increase your energy for the day ahead.”

2 Dance with your significant other on a Friday evening

Take your partner out for an evening of dancing to kill the work-week stress and boost your fitness at the same time.

3 Perform stretching and calisthenics while watching TV
in the evening

Watching TV is the lowest calorie-burning activity you could do. Rev your burn by focusing on your flexibility-boosting exercises instead. Add a few crunches and push-ups to push up the overall calories expended.

4 Reduce your rest periods from 60 to 30 seconds

By reducing your rest periods between the sets during your workout session, you’ll increase your post-workout calorie burn (called EPOC) for up to 48 hours. The level of boost you’ll get depends on the intensity of exercises you choose to perform; stick with multi-joint moves with moderate weights.

5 Take the stairs rather than the elevator during the work day

Taking the stairs not only burns calories but boosts your energy since it gets blood flowing while strengthening your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.


6 Park and Walk

“One of the best ways to up your daily calorie burn is to simply walk more often.”

“One of the best ways to up your daily calorie burn is to simply walk more often. Rather than finding the closest parking spot you can, park a distance away and walk the rest,” recommends Wasiak.

“You might even invest in a pedometer to wear throughout the day so you can keep trying to beat your previous day’s total step count,” explains Ohio’s Ashley Kaltwasser, 2013 Ms. Bikini Olympia.

7 Rake your front lawn

Raking is a good household chore for gaining upper-body strength and burning calories quickly. Lunge into the movement to work the lower body as well.

8 Cook a healthy dinner meal
for your family

Take the time out on a low-key weeknight to make something special for your family. Cooking for just a half an hour will burn up 100 calories—helping you keep your evening calorie intake in check.


9 Go window shopping with a friend

“Rather than sitting for coffee and burning negligible calories, go window shopping and keep on the move. It’s the fit way to socialize,” says Kaltwasser.

10 Flex Your Forearm at Your Desk

Here’s one from fitness competitor Wasiak: A great way to burn calories and boost strength is to bring a forearm grip to work and whenever you have a moment, perform a set of 40-50 squeezes. Do this 5-6 times per day and you’ll have dramatically improved grip strength, which also means better gym performance.


BURN 200

Incinerating 200 calories requires a little more effort but still not so much that you shouldn’t be able to easily fit these into your day.

1 Go for a bike ride with your family

Cycling is a great way to improve your lower-body strength while improving your cardiovascular fitness. Hit the pavement for a bike ride after dinner.

2 Do supersets in the gym

Instead of doing your usual straight-set workout protocol, consider supersetting two exercises back-to-back, resting only after you complete both moves. “I increase my calories in the gym by supersetting body parts like chest and back, while resting very little between sets,” explains former competitive bodybuilder and supplement CEO Rich Gaspari on how he gets lean. He adds that for a real challenge you can also do a superset by combining a multi-joint and a single-joint move working the same muscle group, such as doing dumbbell presses for chest followed by dumbbell flys.

“Instead of doing your usual straight-set workout protocol, consider supersetting two exercises back-to-back, resting only after you complete both moves.”

3 Scrub the floors

OK, we didn’t say they’d all be fun. But washing floors is an excellent way to work your core, upper and lower body and will help you quickly add more activity to your day. And your floors will finally be clean.

4 Mow the front and back lawn

Cutting your lawn each week is a great way to build lifestyle fitness into your protocol. Use a push mower and you’ll burn 200 calories in just over 30 minutes. Writing a check to the gardener just doesn’t cut it, here at least.


5 Play a game of tennis

Tennis is a fast-paced game that’ll not only burn calories, but boost your hand-eye coordination and strengthen your core, lower body, and arms all at the same time.

6 Hit a park trail and walk your dog

Your pet needs fitness, too! Take your dog out for a walk each evening after dinner and watch your fat burn increase.

7 Head out of the office for lunch

“Instead of eating at your desk for lunch, eat before or after and use that time to head out for a walk or jog,” recommends Wasiak. The fresh air will not only energize you, you’ll be more prepared to work hard when you return. In the winter, the extra sunlight will also be good for your mood.

8 Bowl three games

Bowling is a great leisurely activity to do with friends while you burn calories all at the same time.

9 Play a game of beach volleyball

Beach volleyball is an especially great lower-body workout; the sand is harder to push against. It’s a perfect hot-weather calorie-burning activity.


10 Skip rope outside

Skipping rope is fun and it burns more calories than running because your upper arms are so heavily involved. If you need a break from your usual cardio routine, this is a great choice.

BURN 300

For those of you who want to triple your calories burned and make a concerted effort to lose fat, here are 10 more activities to choose from. Most of these are nearly full workouts in themselves, so try to plan them for an off day from your strength-training sessions.

1 Go cross-country skiing

Few activities burn as many calories as cross-country skiing. This activity works your legs, core, and arms while making you break a sweat during the cold weather. And since you’ll be going for longer than just 18 minutes, you’re really going to burn some blubber.

“Cross-country skiing works your legs, core, and arms while making you break a sweat during the cold weather.”

2 Rollerblade on a sunny day

Meanwhile on warmer days, rollerblading is a great way to get your heart rate up, work your quads and glutes to the extreme, and help you torch calories quickly. Before starting, just make sure you know how to stop.

3 Take a rock climbing class

If you’re looking for a challenge, a rock climbing class might just be the perfect fit. You’ll strengthen all the upper-body muscles while ensuring that you boost your core strength as well.


4 Play a game of ultimate Frisbee

Ultimate Frisbee is a game to be enjoyed as a group, so it’s perfect for larger barbecues or get-togethers. Burn calories quickly! Keep up the pace!

5 Invest in a Standing Desk

One of the hot trends right now is the standing or even walking desk, which allows you to stand or walk all day long rather than sit. “This is a great way to burn additional calories throughout the day and reduce the adverse health effects of prolonged sitting,” explains Wasiak. For the office worker, this can be a win-win solution.

6 Clear your walk and driveways of snow

Shovelling snow is not just one of the best wintertime calorie-burning activities you can do, it clears your path for you and your family. To stress your muscles properly while preventing back pain, make sure to bend from your knees, not your back.

7 Go for an afternoon kayak

Kayaking is another great activity you can do in a short afternoon to work the upper body and core. If you’ve never done this activity before, prepare to be challenged.

8 Play a game of baseball

Baseball is a great summertime league sport that’ll add fun and camaraderie, especially when you least feel like hitting the gym for cardio.

9 Go for a walk along the beach

If you’re lucky enough to live near a beach, take advantage by going for walks on a regular basis. In sand instead of on the pavement, you work the calves and lower-body muscles to a greater degree.


10 Wash your car inside and out

Keep your car clean as part of your active lifestyle. Washing both the outside and inside of your car can easily burn up to 300 calories.



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Burn Up To 300 Calories In Minutes

Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet: Living The CrossFit Life, Episode 3

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Main | Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4

We all know how easy it is to dismiss our weakness. Training what we’re best at makes us feel like we’ve crushed our workout, while doing movements we’re less skilled at can leave us feeling defeated. But when you’re one of the top-rated CrossFit athletes in the world, bypassing your least favorite workout isn’t an option. Not even close. “I need to win my strength, and I need to not be bad at my weakness,” Camille says. “Those are pretty much the two things I work on constantly, all the time.”

Camille tackles her areas for improvement methodically. She takes them on one at a time, and never lets training in one area zap her overall power. “I’ll pick a new thing, set a goal, and practice it for maybe a month,” she says. “But I don’t forget everything else just for one thing because then everything goes downhill and you’re not good at anything anymore.”

The CrossFit Lifestyle Episode 3
Watch The Video – 4:34

When it comes to nutrition, protein reigns supreme. Although Camille has tried many variations of her diet, altering her protein intake has had the biggest impact. “This year, we realized that I need to take in around 200 grams of protein a day,” she says. “I remember being like ‘Oh, God. How am I going to do that and is it even helpful?” An increase in protein made all the difference.

Camille breaks her daily allotment into five meals spread throughout the day. “I’m not going to eat 10 chicken breasts,” she says. A breakfast of five eggs, a lunch of 20-30 grams of lean protein, and a dinner that rounds out her macros accompany two protein shakes, which are perhaps the most important part of supplementation. “Those shakes save my day because they have lots of protein and are easy to make,” Camille says. “That’s when I perform best,” she adds. It’s part of the nutrition that fuels her workouts. “They help insure that I’m not losing any muscle and that I’m still gaining strength. Protein is super important.”



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CrossFit Q&A: Your Guide To Starting CrossFit

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CrossFit Workouts: 5 Killer CrossFit WODs

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CrossFit Workout: Heather Welsh’s High-Intensity Interval Mountain Workout

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3 Healthy Fat-Loss Recipes That Will Help You Get Lean And Mean

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Summer is in full swing, and that means most of us meatheads are dieting hard! Hopefully you spent the fall and winter eating up and gaining quality mass, but even the cleanest bulk results in a little unwanted weight. Now it’s time to cut the fat. Unless you have god-like genetics, you’re going to have to cut calories.

Don’t run away yet. Cutting diets don’t have to be dry, bland, or boring. You may not be able to enjoy the tasty treats you allow yourself during a bulk, but there are more than enough ways to spice up your lower-carb and lower-fat meals.

Here are three of my favorite recipes for getting lean and mean!

1 Mexican Frittata

If you’ve never had frittata, your life is about to get a lot better. It’s kind of like a cross between an omelet and a quiche. It comes out in the shape of a pie, and you can slice it like a pie, but there’s no crust—just eggs, egg whites, veggies, and maybe a little cheese if your macros allow. It’s one of the perfect cutting foods for a low-carb diet!

While the name frittata is Italian, this version has a Mexican twist. Most dieters avoid Mexican food altogether since so many restaurant dishes contain chips, tortillas, tons of oil, and lots and lots of cheese. But, with this recipe, you can enjoy your favorite Mexican flavors without screwing up your diet.

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Heat a large, non-stick, oven-safe saute pan on high.
  3. Saute bell pepper and onion in olive oil until soft. Gradually add spices.
  4. Remove from heat.
  5. In a separate bowl, mix eggs and egg whites and then pour on top of pepper and onion mixture.
  6. Sprinkle diced tomatoes.
  7. Put pan into preheated oven.
  8. Cook for 10-12 minutes.
  9. If your diet allows for some extra fats, you can top the frittata with some guacamole, jack cheese, or both. You can also top with your favorite hot sauce or salsa.

Nutrition Facts
Recipe Makes: 2 servings

Amount per serving

Calories 302

Total Fat16.3g

Total Carbs14g

Protein26.5g

Mexican Frittata PDF (239 KB)

2 Ginger Basil Chicken and Rice

This easy recipe is perfect for a post-workout meal. Chicken and rice is one of the most common bodybuilding diet meals, but most guys make it boring and bland as hell. Fortunately, just a few additions can make it into a meal that tastes almost like a delicious restaurant stir-fry, just without all the oil, cornstarch, and sugar.

  1. Cook peppers, carrots, and broccoli in olive oil until desired doneness.
  2. Once veggies are cooked, add chicken breast slices, and cook until chicken is just about done.
  3. Add garlic, ginger, and soy sauce.
  4. Remove from heat and mix in chopped basil leaves.
  5. Mix with white rice.
  6. If desired, add honey, cilantro, green onions, and lime juice.

Nutrition Facts

Amount per serving

Calories 487

Total Fat17.1g

Total Carbs24.1g

Protein59.2g

Ginger Basil Chicken and Rice PDF (239 KB)

3 Pumpkin Protein “Ice Cream”

This last recipe is a low-cal, filling treat for those of you with a sweet tooth. It’s not really ice cream, but the taste and texture are certainly close enough! Plus, the addition of pumpkin adds lots of volume without too many extra calories—a perfect trick for the dieting, hungry bodybuilder.

One difference between this “ice cream” and regular homemade ice cream is that you do not want to let it firm up in the freezer. Since it hardly has any sugar or fat —just a lot of water content—it will end up more like an ice block than ice cream. Eat it right out of the ice cream maker like soft serve.

  1. Blend pumpkin, yogurt, milk, sweetener, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
  2. Pour into ice cream maker and churn until frozen.
  3. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts
Recipe makes: 2 servings

Amount per serving

Calories 308

Total Fat12g

Total Carbs27g

Protein23g

Pumpkin Protein “Ice Cream” PDF (237 KB)


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About The Author

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3 Healthy Fat-Loss Recipes That Will Help You Get Lean And Mean

Arm Workout for Men

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This fantastic application collects the best video tutorials to learn how to apply Arm workouts fat burning, tips, tricks. including Arm workout to lose weight, chest and back exercise, leg and buttock training etc.We understand you are busy. And that is why we have created a arm muscle Workout plan that spend you only 9 minutes every training day! Train with your Device and get your personal trainer for free.The best arm muscle Workout app is coming with its unique design and powerful function.This is free and lite version of application. Your child will be happy to sing with us. Our App consists of popular collection of muscle building workout to lose weight fat burning tutorial:Check out these amazing workout tutorials videos for both beginners and advanced levels. choose your style and learn how to apply Arm workout to lose weight fat burning, workout and many more.BICEP TRICEP Dumbbell Super Set WorkoutDumbbell Bicep Workout RoutineBicep Preacher Curls Done RightDumbbell Hammer Curls On The Preacher Curl BenchTRICEP Extension Machine WorkoutKneeling Tricep Rope Extensions Gironda Rope PullBuild Bigger Biceps Peak with Single Arm Cable CurlsTricep Push Up Exercise Atomic Triceps BlasterTricep Push Downs the Right Way for Big ArmsJungle Muscle BICEP Workout Blast Your BicepsAdvanced Bicep Blasting Tri Set WorkoutTricep Workout Decline Bench Skull CrushersNEGATIVE Reps Workout For Bigger BicepsHow To Build Big Arms Hybrid Tricep Extension PressStraight Barbell Curls vs EZ Bar Curlsmore…Arm Workout for Men : Want Popeye arms without joining a gym? Let personal trainer Brett Azar demonstrate the exercises that will give you buff biceps and ripped triceps in no time at all. The fact that they can be done on your own schedule in the comfort of your own home gives you no excuse not to try this arm workout for men.It’s a real personal trainer and a building body cool. Our application not only allows you to count the number of workout you are doing, but also record every exercise you have done and makes the training plan based on your daily training. Fitness and health ! What we all are looking for is a perfect body with perfect body shape. Some may look for well build chest, strong legs, six pack abs or 6 pack, arms with powerful bicep and triceps, massive shoulders, thigh, breast, firm breast and great calf muscles. Are you having a lean legs, or weight loss, or to burn calories Don’t worry we are here with an exercise app for women where you can find exercise whole body free with exercise to gain muscle, exercise to slim tone, exercise to flatten stomach, exercise to grow taller, exercise for body building etc.Get our app “Bodybuilding Workout plans” full version app for multiple workouts including ab, best bicep workouts, leg and full-body routines, arm, triceps exercises, butt, cardio. Daily Workouts now also has stretch, biceps exercises, kettlebell, forearm workouts, Pilates and ball workouts, and more…Content rating: Medium Maturity

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Arm Workout for Men

Climate Change: 2014 Hottest Yet, Oceans Threatened, Solar Trees, and More!

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Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.

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OO 2014 Breaks World Heat Record – both NOAA and NASA, federal US science agencies, agree it is the hottest year our planet has experienced since 1880, when records began.

New Record is Remarkable in that previous global heat records were helped by the effects of the El Nino climate cycle; scientists say this new record is fueled primarily by global warming from fossil fuel burning.

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Just one of the colorful amazing – and yes, valuable – sealife threatened by humans, the harlequin shrimp.
Source: animaltheory.blogspot.com

Ocean Life Faces Mass Extinction, Broad Study Says reports Carl Zimmer at the New York Times. Analyzing data from hundreds of sources, scientists conclude that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and ocean life through habitat destruction, pollution and climate change.

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Climate Change Undermines Democracy, say science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway via their new novel, The Collapse of Western Civilization since it leads, unchecked, to an increasingly catastrophic environment that threatens civilization and favors autocratic nations, which can act far faster and coherently to safeguard populations – assuming, that is, the autocratic leaders are intelligent, responsible and compassionate.

But if you’re looking to change peoples’ minds with a more gripping piece of science-based fiction, check out Nature’s End by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka. Although written in 1987, the reviews of it make it sound eerily prescient of where our world is headed today… and more likely to grab those who are sitting on the fence.

SOLAR KEEPS DANCING

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Flickr

OO A Solar Power System Is Installed in America Every 2.5 Minutes – the high rate in 2014 was the result of $15 billion of investment.

OO Solar Accounted for Nearly Half of 2014 Global Clean Energy Investments – China’s solar industry boosted total investment figures.

OO A Cheap Solar Cell, Perovskite, Reaches 18.4% Record Efficiency – made from cheap materials, it promises to bring down solar power even further.

2015-01-19-StrawberryTreeBlackfreesolarchargingforeveryone3fficient.comccr260.jpg

Strawberry Tree Black is a public structure already in place in eastern Europe, and spreading. It offers free wifi and charging for mobiles 24/7. Is this something your community can use?

OO Strawberry Tree, World’s First Public Solar Mobile Charger, Also Offers Free Wifi – and works 24/7; 3fficient Company is set to bring this to the US. Let your community in on the action! More info here.

OO US Company Supplies the World’s Biggest Privately Owned Battery – to a citizen in Hawaii, a market ripe for solar-plus-storage as grid disruptor.

OO Four Of The Top 10 US Residential Solar Installers Now Offer Energy Storage

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AP photo, Jerry McBride

OO Florida: Republicans Lead Ballot Initiative to Boost Solar Power – Conservatives For Energy Freedom wants to increase access to solar power on the principles of free market and consumer choice.

OO Pakistan Approves a National Net Metering Policy including grid-connected solar energy, rooftop solar installations and mortgage financing for home solar panels to boost uptake of clean energy.

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Check it out here, right now!

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GOOD CLEAN NEWS

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OO California: Groundbreaking Marks Beginning Of High-Speed Rail In America

OO Boston-Power Aims to Rival Tesla With Gigawatt Battery Factories

OO Massachusetts Awards $18 Million for Microgrids, Energy Resiliency – microgrid money starts to snowball in the US Northeast.

2015-01-19-chevyboltconcept2015EVelectricvehiclew200michargeslate.comccr260.jpg
Source: slate.com

OO General Motors Is Taking On Tesla With $30K Chevy Bolt EV – coming to market in 2017.

OO How Georgia Became the Biggest Electric Vehicle Market in the U.S. – tax incentives, carpool lane access, and cheap electricity helped.

2015-01-19-smartglassbuildingCreditViewastartupccr260.jpg

Smart glass changes to 4 different tints, depending on incoming sunlight, to reduce glare and heat, thereby saving energy on lighting and cooling in buildings. Credit: View

OO US Company, View, Raises Another $75 Million for Smart Windows – which can greatly reduce energy use in buildings.

OO South Korea Launches World’s Second-Largest Carbon Trading Market – second only to the European Union’s cap-and-trade program.

OO Iceland’s Verne Global Lands $98 Million for Efficient Data Centers – plenty of clean geothermal power, a cool place for hot computers: Iceland is a natural data center hot spot.

OO Denmark Sets World Record For Wind Power Production – in 2014 when it got nearly 40% of its overall electricity from wind.

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WHAT WORKS

Speaking Out:

OO Majority Of U.S Coal, Canadian Tar Sands Must Stay Underground To Meet Climate Goals says a new analysis.
“One lesson of this work is unmistakably obvious: when you’re in a hole, stop digging.” Says activist Bill McKibben

OO Stanford Professors Urge Withdrawal From Fossil Fuel Investments

Informed Leadership:

OO US President Obama Will Veto Keystone XL Legislation

OO EPA Moves to Count Methane Emissions from Fracking – proposes a new rule to require energy companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions from their fracking and natural gas operations.

OO EPA to Create CO2-Slashing Plan for States That Won’t

OO Florida: Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Ban Fracking
Citing Health And Environmental Concerns

2013-12-08-smog659pxBeijing_Forbidden_City_SmogacreditBrianJeffreyBeggerlyviawikimedia_resize.jpg

Smog over the Forbidden City in Beijing, China . Credit Brian Jeffrey Beggerly via wikimedia commons.

OO China Says It Will Make It Easier To Sue Polluters – for environmental groups, a big step given how bad pollution is there.

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WHAT DOESN’T WORK

Fossil Fuel Follies:

OO Shell Agrees To Pay $83 Million For Devastating Nigerian Oil Spill – The original offer was as low as $6,000.

OO A First: Scientists Prove Fracking Caused A Sizeable Earthquake – enough to be felt by people.

Robbing Taxpayers:

OO Coal Companies Sell Coal To Themselves To Get More Govt Subsidies – it’s being described as a fundamental shift in how the coal industry does business. Oh, really?

Dirty Habits:

OO When Temperatures Plummet, Greenhouse Gases Rise -
Especially When You Idle Your Car
– According to the Energy Information Agency, cold weather was the main reason carbon dioxide emissions rose by 2.5 % domestically in 2013.

Rising Greenhouse Gases:

OO 2015 Begins With CO2 Above 400 PPM Mark – 50 parts higher than is considered safe to avoid catastrophic climate change.

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Islands As Harbingers show another dark side of overpopulation, report Paul and Anne Ehrlich at MAHB.

“Humanity is rapidly remodeling all of Earth toward the island model… converting most natural habitats into mere islands in seas of human activity.”

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The orange bellied parrot of Tasmania: one of many species nearing extinction. Credit: Paul Ehrlich

And even those “islands” have been modified by us. With less habitat, populations of most species are declining in both numbers and size.

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Nearly extinct species. As populations blink out, so do the ecosystem services they supply to humanity: the climate-regulating, freshwater supplying, pollinating, pest-controlling kinds of services.

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But beyond the services mentioned above, are “the ethical and esthetic services that are important to the psychological survival of many of us.” Public-domain-image.com

What Can You Do? Support organizations that promote family planning and women’s reproductive rights in the US and worldwide.

Practice family planning.
Discuss the topic with your family, friends.
Make it a voting priority.
Get involved.

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YOU CAN ACT
Act Local, Vote Global

OO Obama’s Keystone Veto: Proof That Climate Activism Works says Bill McKibben.

** Let’s make 2015 the year the world vows to leave fossil fuels in the ground for good.
Institutions and individuals have already divested $50 billion from the fossil fuel industry. The US conversation around the future of fossil fuels is changing dramatically A new study confirmed that around 80% of fossil fuels do indeed need to stay underground. Will you help keep them there?

It’s clear that fossil fuels are history – be part of that history:
Join Global Divestment Days, February 13th-14th.

Click here to find an event near you or start your own. It’s going to be beautiful, powerful, and not a moment too soon. Take a look:

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*** Rejecting Climate Change Facts Is Denial, Not Skepticism:Tell the Media

Scientists should practice and promote scientific skepticism.
But those who reject the facts on climate change are not skeptics — they’re deniers.

You can join scientists in telling the media here to stop misleading the public: stop referring to deniers as skeptics. They are not.

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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS

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Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Jan 18, 2015

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is “caused” by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, most of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues to prevent much rain from reaching California, sending it into further drought.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures – not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.

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AP photo/Jae C Hong

Expect More Damaging Extreme Weather for Central US Farming says a new analysis in the Journal of Geophysical Research. It’s not so much a change in the total amount of precipitation, but how it will be delivered: more intense rainstorms with longer, hotter and drier periods in between.

And that, says study author and scientist Keith Harding to meteorologist Paul Douglas , will make it more difficult for soils to retain enough moisture.

OO Climate Change Messing with Mother Nature’s Timetable

OO US Is On A Hot Streak : 18 Years of Above Average Temperatures – despite the cold snaps that have visited parts of the US each winter.

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Just because the northeast US is cold, doesn’t mean the rest of us are…

While the US Northeast Freezes, Much of the World Fries reports Brian Kahn at Climate Central. The US West, Canada, Australia, and a huge chunk of Eurasia, from the Mideast through central Russia, are experiencing abnormally warm temperatures, which add to the overall trend of record-breaking hot years and spots around the globe.

Related headline:

OO Yes, It’s Cold. Global Warming Is Still Real.
The most meaningful thing that this U.S. cold snap proves is that it is winter.

OO Hotter, Unfriendly Skies Could Decrease, Delay Flights

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Miami Beach seaside mansion: the next Atlantis? Florida, New Orleans, New York, and other coastal areas will sustain trillions of dollars in damage as rising sea levels flood infrastructure.
Ines Hegedus-Garcia at Flickr.

OO 10 Riskiest Spots to Build Your Seaside Home

OO Prepare For Rising Migration Driven By Climate Change, governments were told by Norwegian Refugee Council, which monitors refugee levels worldwide.

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KEEPING CARBON STORED: FORESTS UPDATE
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon

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Deforestation in Indonesia. Credit Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com

OO Indonesia: Half Of Deforestation Occurs Outside Legal Areas – good conservation need good government enforcement to stop the ongoing high loss of forests.

OO Flores, Indonesia: Coffee Farmers Help Protect Forest

OO Indonesia: Traditional Farming Technique Preserves Soil, Forest

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When palm oil plantations replace forests, orangutans die. Credit Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com

OO Indonesia: Palm Oil Threatens Community Forest in Borneo

OO Indonesia: Borneo Community Maps Forest To Thwart Timber Companies

OO Indonesia To Weaken Peatlands Protection To Support Plantations – bad news for the world, since peat stores vast amount of carbon.

There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I’ve compiled, “Climate Change News Resources,” at WordPress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by these wild flowers I photographed recently. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you’d like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It’s our way of letting Congress know there’s a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

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Climate Change: 2014 Hottest Yet, Oceans Threatened, Solar Trees, and More!

Why It’s Taking The U.S. So Long To Make Fusion Energy Work

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A researcher examines the National Spherical Torus Experiment.

PLAINSBORO, N.J. — Hidden in the woods two miles from Princeton University’s main campus sits a drab white building easily mistakable for a warehouse. Inside is one of the Ivy League school’s most expensive experiments: a 22-foot-tall metal spheroid surrounded by Crayola-colored magnets. About half a dozen blue beams ring the sphere horizontally, while another set, painted red, rise vertically from the floor to wrap the contraption, like fingers clutching a ball.

Last fall, construction workers hustled to finish an upgrade to yet another magnet, this one jutting through the center of the sphere like a Roman column. On a recent November afternoon, Michael Williams, the lab’s head of engineering, weaved his way through workers and up a stainless steel scaffolding to get a better view.

“Fusion is an expensive science, because you’re trying to build a sun in a bottle,” Williams said.

This endeavor in the New Jersey woods, known as the National Spherical Torus Experiment, was created to study the physics of plasma, in the hopes that one day humans will be able to harness a new source of energy based on the reactions that power stars. The project has been shut down for two years to undergo an upgrade that will double its power. The improvement costs $94 million, and is paid for — like the rest of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab — by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Impressive as it may appear, this experiment is small compared to what once stood there. Earlier in the day, while walking over to the site from his office, Williams pointed out a sign on the National Spherical Torus Experiment building that read “TFTR.” The abbreviation stands for Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, a bigger, more promising fusion experiment that was scrapped in the mid-1990s.

“I keep telling them to take that down,” he said.

The history of the U.S. Department of Energy’s magnetic fusion program is littered with half-completed experiments and never-realized ideas. Currently, the most ambitious project in all of fusion work is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, a collaborative scientific effort backed by the European Union and six other nations, including the United States. Once it’s built in southern France, ITER will be largest fusion reactor ever. The plans for this project dwarf the three similar U.S. fusion experiments, including the one at Princeton, in both scale and expense.

But ITER is sputtering with delayed construction and ballooning costs, and U.S. physicists are increasingly worried that their work at home, such as the National Spherical Torus Experiment, will be sidelined to fund the international project. They see the domestic research as crucial to understanding the nature of the plasma used in certain fusion reactions — crucial, even, to getting facilities like ITER built in the first place. Meanwhile, critics view magnetic fusion research as a money-wasting boondoggle that will never be able to produce energy as cheaply as methods like solar and wind power.

After the visit to the facility, Williams returned to his office and I met with his boss, Stewart Prager, the head of the Princeton lab. Sitting in a tidy glass-paneled office overlooking the woods, he recalled an old joke about fusion — it was “30 years away 30 years ago, and it’s 30 years away now” — and explained why the quip has taken hold.

“The true pioneers in the field didn’t fully appreciate how hard a scientific problem it would be,” he said.

But then he added: “Even having said that, if you look back at documents from the past, they laid out how much it would cost. That amount of money was never nearly delivered.”

The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in 1989. (Photo via Princeton)

Fusion scientists make an incredible proposition: We can power our cities, they say, with miniature, vacuum-sealed stars. According to those who study it, the benefits of fusion power, if it ever came to fruition, would be enormous. It requires no carbon drawn from the ground. Its fuel — hydrogen harvested from seawater — is inexhaustible. It emits no gases that warm the planet. And unlike its cousin fission, which is currently used in nuclear power plants, fusion produces little radioactive waste, and what it does produce can be recycled by the reactor.

The only hurdle, as many U.S. physicists tell it, is the billions of dollars needed before the first commercially viable watt of power is produced. Researchers lament the fact that the U.S. hasn’t articulated a date for when it hopes to have fusion go online, while China and South Korea have set timetables to put fusion online in the 2040s.

A so-called magnetic confinement fusion reactor would work by spinning a cloud of hydrogen until it reaches several hundred million degrees Celsius — at which point it would be so hot that no known material could contain it. Instead, high-powered magnets in a vacuum would envelop the ring of hydrogen plasma.

Spun with enough heat and pressure, the positively charged hydrogen atoms, stripped of their electrons, would begin to overcome their usual tendency to stay apart. They would fuse into helium, spitting out an extra neutron. When those neutrons embed into a surrounding blanket of lithium, they would warm it enough to boil water, spin a turbine and make electricity. The long-term goal is to create a self-sustaining reaction that produces more energy than is put in.

The oil shortages of the 1970s kick-started federally funded fusion research. When petroleum-pumping nations in Middle East turned off the spigot in 1973 and then again in 1979, much of the world, including the U.S., was rattled by gas shortages and high prices. With Americans waiting in mile-long lines to fill up their tanks, there was a keen national interest in finding any fuel to replace oil.

The crises prompted Congress and President Jimmy Carter to create the Department of Energy, which immediately began to channel funding into alternative energy programs, including fusion. By the end of the ’70s, experimental reactors were being built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Princeton — including the latter’s Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, the “TFTR” whose outdated sign Michael Williams now walks past.

Adjusted for inflation, the U.S. was spending over $1 billion per year on magnetic confinement fusion research by 1977, according to Department of Energy figures collected by Fusion Power Associates, a nonprofit that promotes fusion research. But by the time Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, gas prices had dropped. Eyeing cuts to government spending, Reagan and his Republican colleagues in Congress tightened funding for research into fusion and other alternative energy sources.

“The Republicans hated the Department of Energy because they were messing around with the private sector energy business,” said Steve Dean, a former Department of Energy official who oversaw fusion experiments in the 1970s and now runs Fusion Power Associates.

In 1984, however, as the Cold War thawed, Reagan inked a deal with the Soviet Union, along with Europe and Japan, to fund and build what would become ITER. India, China and South Korea would eventually sign up as well. And even with the downturn in U.S. funding, investments made in the ’70s started paying off. In 1994, Princeton’s TFTR produced what was then a record-breaking 10 megawatts, enough energy to keep 3,000 homes lit for… well, for nearly a second.

Actually, less than one second of power is a bigger deal than it might at first seem. Fusion research can only advance in baby steps across generations of scientists, say experts. First, their goal is to build a multimillion-dollar reactor capable of sustaining plasma for a second. Then, perhaps within a decade of achieving that, their goal is to construct yet another reactor that keeps the plasma going for a minute. It’s all part of a painstaking march toward creating a self-sustaining reaction that lasts indefinitely.

“One would have expected these ground breaking results to lead to an upsurge on fusion funding in the U.S.,” said Dale Meade, the former deputy director of the Princeton lab, in an email to HuffPost. “It didn’t.”

Several months later, in Washington, D.C., then-Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) gaveled in his first session as Speaker of the House. The GOP-led Congress soon slashed spending yet again in order to balance the federal budget.

“It was a lot of people losing their jobs and being knocked out of the field,” said Raymond Fonck, an experimental fusion physicist at the University of Wisconsin who did some work on TFTR. “Some people left the field out of disgust.”

Overnight, funding for magnetic fusion research fell by 33 percent — some $173 million in today’s dollars. Princeton’s TFTR was shut down. Plans for a new machine to be built where TFTR stood were postponed indefinitely. (Today, the National Spherical Torus Experiment stands on that site.) And the U.S. pulled out of its agreement to help fund ITER, citing cost concerns — only to rejoin a few years later.

The magnetic fusion program “never really recovered from that budget cut,” said Meade.

Data source: Department of Energy via Fusion Power Associates.

With less money available, the Department of Energy went ahead and funded a less expensive experiment at Princeton that became the National Spherical Torus Experiment, which began operating in 1999. All the while, Europe maintained its magnetic fusion program, and China and South Korea each started programs of their own. (In fact, designs for the scrapped U.S. experiment were eventually incorporated into reactors built in both countries.)

Magnetic fusion researchers received $505 million from the federal government for the 2014 fiscal year — about half of what they used to get, when adjusted for inflation. About $200 million of that pot went overseas to help build ITER.

And even with the downturn since the 1980s, critics still say the program receives too much funding given that it has yet to build an economically viable reactor.

“The magnetic fusion energy program is one of these programs that gets a steady flow of money like clockwork, although it may not receive on a constant dollar basis what it used to,” said Robert Alvarez, a former senior policy adviser for the Energy Department who now works at the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington think tank. “But it still commands a great deal of money in the energy research and development portfolio. You’ve got to ask yourself: When is it time to fish or cut bait on this?”

Alvarez and other skeptics believe that magnetic fusion will never be inexpensive enough to compete with other sustainable energy sources, because new fusion reactors require billions of dollars to build and decades to complete.

“At $10 to $20 billion a pop, it just doesn’t lend itself to innovation like wind or solar,” said Thomas Cochran, a consultant with the Natural Resources Defense Council. He added that the “people who are closest to the technology” are unable to see the dead ends.

While money for magnetic fusion was cut during the ’90s, funding for an alternate form of fusion, called inertial confinement fusion, took a dramatic leap. After the U.S. signed a treaty banning nuclear weapons testing, Congress paid for the construction of the world’s largest laser 40 miles east of San Francisco, designed to compress a pellet of hydrogen with enough heat and pressure for its atoms to fuse into helium.

The laser-based approach to fusion is meant to offer both a potential new energy source and a way to develop hydrogen bombs without actually blowing anything up. Its early years, however, have not been entirely trouble-free. After falling five years behind schedule, going three times over budget and failing to achieve its 2012 goal of producing a self-sustaining reaction, the laser was labeled a fiasco by critics. Finally, though, the lab was able to produce its first significant fusion reaction in 2013.

The newly installed center stack for Princeton’s National Spherical Torus Experiment. (Photo by Elle Starkman via Princeton Plasma Physics Lab)

Although magnetic fusion is further along, the stumbles of inertial confinement may have given all of fusion research a black eye. With magnetic fusion, the Department of Energy is under yet another budgetary constraint today. Eleven years behind schedule and crippled by decentralized management, ITER is becoming increasingly expensive. The U.S. is obligated to fund about 9 percent of the project, and what was once a $1 billion commitment is swelling beyond the $4 billion mark.

With Congress gridlocked, the money must come from within the department. In October, a Department of Energy advisory committee floated the idea of shutting down the fusion reactor at MIT, and, if necessary, shutting down one of the two other experimental reactors in the U.S. (the one at Princeton or another at General Atomics in San Diego). Even though the resolution was non-binding, the decision drew the ire of many fusion physicists. Fifty experts signed an emphatic letter to the department saying that the “underlying strategic vision that guides this report is flawed.”

“The DOE is committed to creating opportunities for its fusion researchers to assert strong leadership in the next decade and beyond,” said Ed Synakowski, the associate director at the Department of Energy who oversees fusion funding. He said that while the department has proposed closing the MIT lab, it would close one of the other two reactors only under dire budgetary conditions.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration slated the reactor at MIT for closure. An aggressive lobbying effort by Massachusetts politicians was the only thing that kept it open.

The possible closures have put the fusion community on edge. But what some find more worrying is the idea that the young scientific minds needed to tackle this multi-generational problem will instead look for careers in disciplines that are better funded and more stable.

“The older generation,” said Fonck, “we get concerned that the younger generation will say, ‘Well, there’s no jobs in this field.'”

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Why It’s Taking The U.S. So Long To Make Fusion Energy Work

Teen Starts Company To Make Low-Cost Printers To Help Blind People

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — In Silicon Valley, it’s never too early to become an entrepreneur. Just ask 13-year-old Shubham Banerjee.

The California eighth-grader has launched a company to develop low-cost machines to print Braille, the tactile writing system for the visually impaired. Tech giant Intel Corp. recently invested in his startup, Braigo Labs.

shubham banerjee

Shubham built a Braille printer with a Lego robotics kit as a school science fair project last year after he asked his parents a simple question: How do blind people read? “Google it,” they told him.

Shubham then did some online research and was shocked to learn that Braille printers, also called embossers, cost at least $2,000 — too expensive for most blind readers, especially in developing countries.

shubham banerjee

“I just thought that price should not be there. I know that there is a simpler way to do this,” said Shubham, who demonstrated how his printer works at the kitchen table where he spent many late nights building it with a Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit.

Shubham wants to develop a desktop Braille printer that costs around $350 and weighs just a few pounds, compared with current models that can weigh more than 20 pounds. The machine could be used to print Braille reading materials on paper, using raised dots instead of ink, from a personal computer or electronic device.

shubham banerjee

“My end goal would probably be having most of the blind people … using my Braille printer,” said Shubham, who lives in the Silicon Valley suburb of Santa Clara, just minutes away from Intel headquarters.

After the “Braigo” — a name that combines Braille and Lego — won numerous awards and enthusiastic support from the blind community, Banerjee started Braigo Labs last summer with an initial $35,000 investment from his dad.

“We as parents started to get involved more, thinking that he’s on to something and this innovation process has to continue,” said his father, Niloy Banerjee, an engineer who works for Intel.

Shubham used the money to build a more sophisticated version of his Lego-based printer using an off-the-shelf desktop printer and a newly released Intel computer chip. The new model, Braigo 2.0, can translate electronic text into Braille before printing.

Intel executives were so impressed with Shubham’s printer that in November they invested an undisclosed sum in his startup. Intel officials believe he’s the youngest entrepreneur to receive venture capital, money invested in exchange for a financial stake in the company.

“He’s solving a real problem, and he wants to go off and disrupt an existing industry. And that’s really what it’s all about,” said Edward Ross, director of Inventor Platforms at Intel.

Braigo Labs is using the money to hire professional engineers and advisers to help design and build Braille printers based on Shubham’s ideas.

The company aims to have a prototype ready for blind organizations to test this summer and have a Braigo printer on the market later this year, Niloy Banerjee said.

“This Braille printer is a great way for people around the world who really don’t have many resources at all to learn Braille and to use it practically,” said Henry Wedler, who is blind and working on a doctorate in chemistry at the University of California, Davis. Wedler has become an adviser to Braigo Labs.

An affordable printer would allow the visually impaired readers to print out letters, household labels, shopping lists and short reading materials on paper in Braille, said Lisamaria Martinez, community services director at the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind, a nonprofit center that serves the visually impaired and prints Braille materials for public agencies.

“I love the fact that a young person is thinking about a community that is often not thought about,” said Martinez, who is visually impaired.

Shubham is too young to be CEO of his own company, so his mother has taken the job, though she admits she wasn’t too supportive when he started the project.

“I’m really proud of Shubham. What he has thought, I think most adults should have thought about it,” Malini Banerjee said. “And coming out of my 13-year-old, I do feel very proud.”

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The Most Important Thing You Can Do If You Really Want to Change

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Isn’t what you might think.

It’s not deciding what to change or apologizing to those you’ve wronged for past grievous errors. And, it’s not listening to ideas or thanking those who suggest changes you can make to become better.

What is the most important thing you can do if you really want to change? It’s follow-up. Follow-up is the #1 difference maker in the whole change process. Here’s why.

1) Follow-up is how you measure your progress.
2) Follow- up is how you remind people that you’re making an effort to change, and that they are helping you.
3) Follow-up is how your efforts eventually get imprinted on your colleagues’ minds.
4) Follow-up is how you erase your coworkers’ skepticism that you can change.
5) Follow-up is how you acknowledge to yourself and to others that getting better is an ongoing process, not a temporary religious conversion.
6) And, more than anything else, follow-up makes you change. It gives you the momentum, even the courage, to go beyond understanding what you need to do to change and actually do it, because in engaging in the follow-up process, we are changing.

That’s all great you say, but why does follow-up work?

First a confession: I didn’t start out knowing the importance of follow-up. Many years ago, a VP participant of a training session I facilitated asked me the perfectly reasonable question, “Does anyone who goes to one of these leadership development programs ever really change?”

I thought about it. Then answered sheepishly, “I don’t know.” I had worked with some of the best companies in the world and no one had ever asked me this question. Worse still, until that moment, this question had never crossed my mind!

From that moment, I set out to discover the answer to the question: “Does anyone ever really change?” I’m excited to report that many years later I outlined the complete methodology, statistical results, companies involved, and my conclusions about follow-up in an article entitled, “Leadership Is a Contact Sport” written with Howard Morgan and published in Strategy+Business, Fall 2004. Ten years later, we’ve expanded this study to 248,000 respondents from 31 different companies from around the world. And the conclusion is the same: follow-up is the key to successful behavioral change.

From this study, its participants and their teams, I’ve drawn three important conclusions:
1) Not everyone responds to executive development, at least not in the way the organization desires or intends. In other words, some people are trainable, some people are not. I ask participants at the end of each session if they intend to go back to their jobs and apply what they’ve learned. Almost 100 percent say yes! A year later, when I ask their direct reports if their bosses have applied the lessons learned on the job, about 70% say yes and 30% say no. Why would people go through a training, promise to implement what he/she had learned, and then not do it? Simply because they were too busy! This realization led to my second conclusion.
2) There is an enormous disconnect between understanding and doing. Most leadership development revolves around the false assumption that if people understand they will do. In truth, most of us understand, we just don’t do. But this didn’t really answer my question. So, I rewired my objectives and began measuring people to see not only if they got better but why. My hunch about follow-up being the difference maker paid off. The results were astonishingly consistent. Those who do little or no follow-up with people have little or no perceived change in effectiveness. The perception of the effectiveness of those who do follow-up jumps dramatically. This led to a swift and unequivocal third conclusion.
3) People don’t get better without follow-up! If nothing else, this study shows that leaders who ask for input on a regular basis are seen as increasing in effectiveness. Leaders who don’t follow up are not necessarily bad leaders. They are just not perceived as getting better. The reasons for this are: follow-up shows that you care about getting better, that you value people’s opinions, that you are taking the change process seriously, and that you are not ignoring your coworkers’ input. That’s an important part of follow-up. After all, a leader who sought input from her coworkers but ignored it or did not follow up on it would be perceived as someone who did not care very much about becoming a better leader.

All of this led me to a fourth and final conclusion. Becoming a better leader (or a better person) is a process, not an event. Nobody ever changed just by going to a training session. They got better by doing what they learned in the program. And that “doing,” by definition, involves follow-up. Follow-up turns changing for the better into an ongoing process–not only for you but for everyone involved. When you involve others in your continuing progress, you are virtually guaranteeing your continued success!

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Please view the Marshall Goldsmith Thinkers50 Video Blog. The next video in the series Leadership Is a Contact Sport: Research Update accompanies this article. I’ll post these blogs once a week for 50 weeks. The series will incorporate learnings from my 38 years of experience with top executives, as well as material from my previous research, articles and books, including What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, MOJO, Coaching for Leadership, and Succession: Are You Ready? The blogs will also include material from my exciting new research on engagement and my upcoming book Triggers (to be published by Crown in 2015).

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The Most Important Thing You Can Do If You Really Want to Change

High, Wide Sand Dunes Worked During Hurricane Sandy, Report Finds

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High, Wide Sand Dunes Worked During Hurricane Sandy, Report Finds

101-Year-Old Vet Who Personally Wrote To Families Of Soldiers Killed In Pearl Harbor To Be Honored At SOTU

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The 2015 State of the Union address will be attended by many prominent individuals, including this veteran with a heroic story.

Retired Navy Lt. Jim Downing of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the oldest known surviving veteran of the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. To honor his service and bravery, the 101-year-old has been invited to attend President Obama’s annual address by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), according to ABC News.

Lt. Downing is a hero who has lived an incredible life,” Bennet said of his decision to bring the Pearl Harbor survivor to the address, according to the Gazette, a Colorado Springs paper. “Our nation is indebted to him and his fellow sailors for their service in defense of our country.”

The veteran, who was 28 at the time of the attack, was responsible for incredible acts of compassion back in 1941.

As I saw these bodies lying around [after the attack] I felt their parents would never know what happened so I started memorizing names on the name tags so I could write their folks a letter,” he told KRDO.com.

Downing wrote to as many families of the dead as he could, delivering the news of the tragedy.

It was just something you do,” he told the Denver Post.

Downing, who served in the Navy for 24 years, will attend this year’s annual address with his daughter, Marobeth. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) gave his office’s only ticket to Marobeth, according to Sen. Bennet’s website.

“I am excited for the opportunity to attend the State of the Union address and look forward to the visit to the Capitol,” he said in a statement, the Gazette reported. “My daughter and I are particularly thankful to Senators Bennet and Schatz for making attendance at this event possible.”

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9 Secrets Of The Super Fit

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It’s Monday morning. You silence your alarm, hop out of bed, lace up your kicks, and head to the gym. Once inside, you make a bee-line for the weights, rep out a few upper-body exercises—after all, it’s International Chest Day—and then head over to the cardio machines for 30 minutes of steady state. It’s a body-part split that’s worked like clockwork for years.

Only now, the results have begun to slow.

Most of us, even weight room veterans, struggle to maintain muscle, grow, and break plateaus. That’s where a little help from the experts comes in. These tips will help rekindle your love of fitness and add a bit of spark to your routine while reinforcing the basics of proper training.

James Grage

1 Discomfort Is An Essential
Part Of Success

“The word ‘work’ is the root word of ‘working out,'” notes James. “Results require hard work. Nobody can do it for you. If you want results, you have to put in the effort.” You can’t be afraid of discomfort. Remember the phrase ‘No Pain No Gain’? Instill a healthy work ethic and push though. “Getting your arm cut off with a dull knife is pain. A little bit of lactic acid, sweat, and effort is just part of working out,” James adds. “You have to force your body to change, and that requires you getting out of your comfort zone.”

“You have to force your body to change, and that requires you getting out of your comfort zone.”

2 Quality Beats Quantity In The Gym

Time spent in the gym doesn’t mean anything in itself. “It’s not about how long you’re there; it’s about how productive you are during that time,” says James. “My weight training sessions are never more than 40 minutes long, but I kill it during that time. There’s no talking and no resting.” Save the chatter for post-workout water-cooler talk.

3 Excellence Should Not Be Compromised

“Good enough is the enemy of excellence,” says James. “The average person will say that 98 percent is good enough. Very few will go that extra 2 percent. This is what separates average from excellence.” This applies to everything, too—your discipline, effort and consistency with your training, nutrition, and supplementation.

Whitney Reid


4 A Partner Can Help You Reach New Heights

“Focus on your training and the work at hand.”

Train with a training partner who will push you and hold you accountable. Set new goals together and monitor your results so you know you’re making progress. Also, make sure you’re always prepared. “I always keep a bag packed with my belt, lifting straps, a few Vortex sample packs , shorts, and T-shirt in my car,” says Whitney Reid. “Sometimes your daily plans will change, so it’s good to always be prepared so you don’t have any excuses.”

5 Moving Your Jaw Won’t
Do Much For Your Body

Whitney’s advice: Keep all the socializing for post-workout. “Don’t get me wrong,” he says, “I’ll talk between sets, but I keep it to a minimum. All serious conversations are put on hold until I finish training.” Bottom line: Focus on your training and the work at hand.

6 When You’re In A Rut, A Change
Of Scenery May Be All You Need

“At least once a month I try out a new gym,” Whitney says. “I know it seems like a pain to change from your normally scheduled plans, but it will breathe life back into your training. Going to a different gym, feeding off the new energy, and using equipment you aren’t accustomed to can lead to a great workout.”

Barbara Bolotte,

7 Self-Talk Has A Profound Impact On Your Success

Never underestimate the power of the messages you tell yourself throughout your day and in the gym. Negative self-talk can make or break you in terms of progress and fortitude in your training routing.

“Having a positive, open mind and a little self-belief can be the difference between a 70 and 100 percent success rate.”

“Don’t let your mental state of mind overcome the physical,” says Barbara Bolotte. “Many times we can talk ourselves out of a workout. If you start letting negative thoughts take over, you can set yourself back in a big way!”

Instead, try looking on the bright side. Having a positive, open mind and a little self-belief can be the difference between a 70 and 100 percent success rate. Practice journaling in order to have a physical record of the good things you do. Pat yourself on the back for little victories. Practice positive affirmations daily and watch how much more successful you are with your training and diet routines.

8 A Little Change Be A Big Help
With Your Training

Think back to the last time you made a change. It’s impossible to stay interested in your training routine if you haven’t done anything new in months or years. You probably should not be doing the same workout this coming Wednesday that you were doing in 2011.

“Don’t get stuck on a cyclical pattern,” says Barbara. “When you get into a training program, it’s easy to get stuck on the same amount of reps you are doing for every exercise.”

Try mixing up your number of sets or spicing things up with reps of 15 ,12, or 10 so that your body doesn’t get used to the same old training routine. Make some changes and see how much more your body and mind respond. You may experience a renewed sense of purpose.

9 You Can’t Out-Train a Bad Diet

Don’t live in diet denial. Have you ever tried to trick yourself into thinking a great workout will offset a bad diet? People often underestimate the power of clean eating and how vital it is to their progress.

“If you’re not seeing the results you want in the gym, chances are you aren’t being honest with yourself about your diet,” says Barbara. To curb this problem and keep yourself in check, Barbara recommends using progress pictures. That will help ensure there’s no wiggle-room for justifications and excuses.

Try Barbara’s method: “Snap a before pic of yourself, and then take seven days to really get strict with your eating. That means prepping, portioning and not cheating! Drink plenty of water throughout these seven days. Once they’re up, snap an after shot. If you’re true to your diet, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with your results.”



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Awesome Arms Workout: Arms By Labrada

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You clicked on this article because you wanted to know how to grow your biceps and triceps. We want to show you how to do it. Let’s go get pumped!

For this workout, we’re going to be focusing on intensity. We’re not training legs or any other huge body part, so the lifts themselves aren’t really taxing. But we’re going to increase the intensity by keeping the rest periods short.

We rest just as long for the other to complete the set, and then we get right back on the lift. We do this for a reason! You get more blood flow and a greater pump.

Although we’re different people and are from different eras, we share some common philosophies in our training: We don’t like to really lock out our movements so we can keep tension on the muscles, we like to use heavy weights and go to failure, and we like to keep our rest periods to a minimum.

Although they seem like small things, they’re important and will make all the difference in your pump, and more importantly, your results.

This workout can help you build muscle, but it won’t work unless you give your body enough calories to increase lean mass. Your body can’t build without a surplus, so eat up for gains!

Are you ready to get started? Let’s go!

Arms By Labrada
Watch The Video – 09:59

Exercise 1
1 warm-up set of 12-15 reps
4 working sets of 12-15 reps
Rest 60 seconds between sets

To warm up, grab some lighter weight and knock out a warm-up set of 12-15 reps. Your hands should be lined up with the start of the knurling. Try not to lock out the joints at the top of the movement.

Whenever you’re locked out, it puts the stress on the joints, not on the muscles. By keeping your joints bent, you’ll keep constant stress on your triceps, which makes the exercise much harder.


Close-grip Bench Press

We keep the weight a little lighter so we can do more reps and then get more blood into our triceps.

Exercise 2
4 sets of 10-12 reps

We use the E-Z bar to take a little stress off of your wrists. It’s really important that you keep your elbows tucked and the movement slow and controlled. If your elbows are out, you’ll use your shoulders instead of your triceps and set yourself up for an injury.


E-Z Bar Skullcrusher

Exercise 3
3 sets of 12-15 reps

The focus of the workout is going to change a little bit now. Instead of going to failure, we focus on increasing the blood flow to the muscle and increasing the pump.


Single-Arm Cable Push-Down

Do cable push-downs without the handle because it mimics the side triceps pose we do in competitions. You get some serious blood flow to your triceps and reinforce how to pose properly.

Exercise 4
3 sets of 15-20 reps

We want you to really exhaust the muscles during this exercise so you can get as much blood into them as you can before we move onto biceps. Turn your hands out at the end so you can get a really good contraction.


Triceps Push-Down

Exercise 5
4 sets of 10-12 reps

Do these properly: keep your elbows back and curl with your hands slightly out. We want your brachialis to contract as much as possible. Although we use dumbbells, try to curl with both hands at the same time. When you get too fatigued to curl with both hands at once, switch to alternating.


Standing Hammer Curls

Exercise 6
4 sets of 10-12 reps

You get the most benefit out this exercise by doing it properly. If that means you have to lower the weight a little bit, do it. You’ll get stronger in the exercise more quickly, likely stay injury-free, and it’ll be a lot better for you in terms of results. Rotate your hands so they’re supinated at the top of the exercise.


Seated Alternating Dumbbell Curls

Exercise 7
3 sets of 12-15 reps

Normal preacher bench can hyperextend your elbows, which can cause injuries. So, we want to do this exercise on an incline bench. The pad of the bench actually acts as a safety stop, much like the safety bars on a squat rack.


Preacher Curl

Exercise 8
3 sets of 12-15 reps

Keep your elbows back and really squeeze at the top. You want to feel the contraction when your biceps are at the peak of the exercise. It will make a world of difference in your pump and the soreness you’ll feel in the days after the workout.


EZ-Bar Curls

Bonus Tip

Workouts like this will lend themselves to putting on mass, but the most important thing you can do is eat enough calories to support your muscle-building goals. You have to take in more calories than you expend every day. The only way to put on weight is to eat a surplus.


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Awesome Arms Workout: Arms By Labrada

The Rock's Epic Journey To Hercules

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When Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson decides to dive into a role, he doesn’t half ass it. This is especially when that role is the ultimate hero—the demi-god who shed his mortal skin and ascended to Olympus, and inspired some of history’s most famous sculptures along the way.

But when he took on the role of Hercules, Johnson didn’t want to be a run-of-the-mill, baby-oil-slathered beefcake traipsing around in just another swords-and-sandals spectacle. Hell no, he didn’t. “Once I committed to becoming Hercules, it was on,” Johnson says. “I wanted to create a look and movie that hopefully, redefines the story of Hercules.”

Hercules
Watch The Video – 02:31

Of course, the gods weren’t going to allow it to be easy. Six weeks before shooting started, Johnson tore two tendons off of his pelvis while battling with John Cena at WrestleMania 29. All of a sudden, he had a task ahead of him as formidable as Hercules’ legendary 12 labors.

He could have backed out. He could have had surgery, seethed in a hospital bed for days, and tried to get shooting postponed. But instead, he just gritted his teeth, made a plan, and did the work to achieve it.

Are you ready to smash past your limits and find your inner Hercules? Then follow Johnson’s five-step game plan that took him from the doctor’s office to the big screen. It won’t be easy, but if you make it to the other side, you’ll earn your place among the gods and inspire stories for years to come.

STEP 1

One of the hallmarks of Johnson’s physique through the years has been the way he managed to stay both smooth and defined, like a marble sculpture come to life. Perfect for Hercules, right? Not for the one that Johnson and director Brett Ratner had in mind.

“The overall goal for the physique of Hercules was to come in with a grainy, dense, ‘scarred and survived,’ muscularity that can only come to a physique after decades of hard training,” Johnson said. Once he’d determined the physique that he thought would best reflect the inner character, history, and journey of the legendary hero, he had to set about bringing it to life.

“The overall goal for the physique of Hercules was to come in with a grainy, dense, ‘scarred and survived,’ muscularity that can only come to a physique after decades of hard training.”

Do it: What’s your goal? No—your real goal. The big one. If you don’t have one, how do you plan to reach it? Answer: you won’t. Stop throwing darts into the ocean with unstructured workouts, sets, and reps that don’t matter, and effort that keeps not adding up to anything. Generate a goal that is worthy of defining an entire period of your life. You want to be talking about this when you’re old!

STEP 2

Having spent his entire adult life as a performer, entertainer, athlete, and singular physical specimen, Johnson brought ample experience and knowledge to the task at hand. This gave him a clear idea of what was ahead of him. “In one sense, it’s ‘easier’ due to the experience I’ve gained over the last 14 years of being an actor,” he said. “The 50,000-foot strategy becomes clearer for me because of my experience.”

But even he knew that big vision wasn’t enough turn strategy into success. “To achieve it, I put together a phenomenal team of top notch coaches—my diet coach, George Farah and my strength and conditioning coach, Dave Rienzi,” he recalled. Once Johnson and his team had the road map that would transform him into the ideal physique he’d envisioned for the role, the process of transformation really began.

Do it: If you had to drive somewhere a long distance from your home, what would happen if you got in the car and just started driving? You might get there—if you were lucky. But you’d get there faster with directions. Take time to map it out at a high level—from 50,000 feet, as Johnson describes it—and use all your tools—your coach or trainer, or the plan of the athlete who inspires you—to fill in every turn along the way.

STEP 3

To get the results he needed, Johnson knew it would take more than his normal gym time and watching his diet. “We started prepping roughly six months out from shooting and continued the all-out assault for an additional five months while actually shooting,” he explained. But even that would only be enough if he didn’t also make it hard.

Luckily, Johnson’s internal throttle doesn’t know what easy is. “One of the greatest lessons I learned playing for the University of Miami the year we won the national championship was to always outwork your competition,” he said. “I also learned how to slam tequila like a man, but that’s for another time.”

Do it: Dwayne Johnson makes looking like a complete and total specimen appear to be easy, because he’s an actor, performer, and entertainer. But it takes his complete and total dedication to achieve his monstrous results. If you want to get results, there’s no getting around doing hard work. How hard is hard enough? A little bit harder than you think is possible. Push yourself every time you set foot in the gym or pick up a weight. Go to a mentally and physically uncomfortable place in your training. That’s where you’ll find out who you are and unlock the biggest results you’ve ever gotten.

“Push yourself every time you set foot in the gym or pick up a weight.”

STEP 4

After his injury at WrestleMania 29, Johnson and his doctors elected to skip surgery. Instead, as he tweeted at the time, “Rehab starts in 3…2… #bringit.” Sounds aggressive, right? Well, Johnson discovered just how aggressive the plan was the next time he stepped into the gym to perform one of his “daily fun pain” routines of heavy lifting, functional training, and stunt work. His original tweet needed an update.

This was where this legendary athlete’s true labors began. “I trained and dieted for months and months like an animal for the role, cause at the end of the day, I always knew we had just one crack at getting this right” he told me. “I’ll push myself to always be the hardest worker in the room. Always.”

Do it: Johnson went beyond all labels and modalities to accomplish his incredible goal. No label—bodybuilding, functional, athletic—can really capture the breadth of the work he did to become Hercules and surmount his injuries. To get the results you want, you must open your mind and be willing to try anything. And you must not expect it to be easy.

STEP 5

Follow The Rock on Instagram

Dwayne Johnson vigilantly tracked his Hercules prep on his Instagram profile. Follow him, and his plan!

You’ve likely seen photos of Johnson with his #legendarycheatday. But don’t let that day’s treat list—a dozen chocolate chip pancakes, four double-dough pizzas, and 21 brownies—make you overlook what he ate for the 150 previous days. In case you needed a reminder, Johnson was more than willing to tweet it out. In fact, he shared his workouts and “12 labors diet” freely online.

Were there times Johnson wanted to take a break or to tear through a pile of warm, fluffy chocolate chip pancakes? Of course. The difference between an aspiring god and a mere human is the ability to ignore those urges and just keep going forward toward a goal, no matter what other impulses you might feel.

“When you have one opportunity—an epic opportunity—you put the blinders on and flat-out focus,” Johnson says. To maintain that focus, he found creative ways to sublimate his urges. “Watch episodes of ‘Man vs Food’ when you’re craving cheat meals,” he advised. “‘Man vs Food’ equals porn when dieting.”

Do it: When it’s time to train, fully dedicate yourself to the task in front of you, and give every ounce of your being to doing it to the best of your ability. When you’re outside of the gym, take your recovery and your diet just as seriously. There will always be temptation. But when you’re ferociously focused your goal, nothing can stop you. Not even an extra-large pepperoni pizza—or four.

“When you’ve made the decision to strip away excuses and start building your own version of Hercules, you’ll need to reset your expectations of what is possible.”

Are you ready to build your legend?

When you’ve made the decision to strip away excuses and start building your own version of Hercules, you’ll need to reset your expectations of what is possible. Epic results take epic effort. But as Johnson showed—and shared freely at every step along way—it can be done.

Just keep in mind Johnson’s parting advice and you’ll get there. “Be prepared to work harder than you ever have before in your life.”



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11 From Heaven: The Top Fitness Snacks!

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It’s 3 p.m., lunch is a distant memory and your stomach is rumbling like a thunderstorm on the Nebraska plains. Sure, you ate lunch, but you’re also putting some serious time on the gym floor training, and your body wants more calories.

Decision time: Graze on too much of the wrong foods (read: the plate of chocolate-chip cookies in the lunch room), and your snack habit could quickly sabotage your buff-to-blubber ratio. Yet if you have the right snacks available, you can curb cravings and provide vital nutrients to support fitness gains.

These overachievers fit the bill!

1 Nut Butter Packets

A number of companies like Justin’s and Nuttzo are now supplying on-the-go single serving packets of nut butters such as almond, hazelnut or peanut. Simply tear open the portion-controlled packet and suck back the creamy goodness that’s rich in healthy fats, protein, and a number of important minerals. Look for options with the least amount of added sugar.

2 Frozen Grapes

These subzero heroes provide a sweet pop in your mouth that helps quell any mid-day sugar cravings. Unlike strawberries, grapes don’t become rock solid when frozen; they’re firm but still easy to bite into with a creamy consistency, similar to a bite-sized grape Popsicle. Simply spread whole grapes in a single layer on a baking sheet, freeze until firm and store in an airtight zip-top bag. Try using red grapes, which are higher in body-friendly antioxidants than their green brethren.

3 Pouched Fish

If you’re on the hunt for a snack that’s nearly pure muscle-friendly protein, look no further than the take-anywhere pouches of fish like salmon and tuna found in the canned fish aisle of most supermarkets. Simply cut open the top and fork up the protein-packed meat to keep muscle growth in full force all day long. Try the single-serve wild albacore tuna pouches from Wild Planet. The forward-thinking company packs only sustainably sourced tuna meat that’s loaded with more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than the competition.

4 Edamame

Edamame is basically an under-ripe green soybean. It provides a stellar mix of protein, slow-digesting carbs and fat to keep your energy levels steady so you’re more likely to hit the gym than the couch after work. These verdant gems are also jam-packed with a range of important nutrients like folate, vitamin K, iron and magnesium. You can find bags of frozen shelled edamame in the freezer section of most supermarkets and prepare them according to package directions. If you’re concerned about genetically modified foods, splurge for edamame that’s certified organic.

“These verdant gems are also jam-packed with a range of important nutrients like folate, vitamin K, iron and magnesium.”

5 In-Shell Pistachios

Pistachios have an impressive nutritional resume: laudable amounts of protein, cholesterol-busting monounsaturated fat, fiber, and energy-boosting B vitamins. But they’re so tasty it’s easy to inhale several handfuls that can quickly send your snack time into calorie overload. After all, a mere ounce delivers about 160 calories. That’s why in-shell pistachios are a near perfect snack option. Scientists at Eastern Illinois University discovered that the extra work of shelling pistachios caused people to consume an average of 41 percent fewer calories than when they snacked on the nuts that were already shelled for them. The extra work (and tender fingers) of shelling the nuts can put the brakes on mindless overeating.

“A mere ounce delivers about 160 calories. That’s why in-shell pistachios are a near perfect snack option.”

6 Hard-Boiled Egg

Not just for breakfast, the white orbs possess an abundance of branched-chain amino acids, which are the most anabolic amino acids in the body. This makes the humble egg a muscle-building power snack to grab hold of. Boil up a carton worth of inexpensive eggs and stash them in your office fridge for times when you feel tempted by the vending machine.

7 Dark Chocolate

If you need a nibble that feels a bit indulgent, look no further than dark chocolate. Dark chocolate—the stuff with at least 60 percent cocoa content—has been linked to reduced heart disease risk and even lower body fat numbers in people who nibble on it more often. The polyphenol antioxidants in chocolate may favorably influence metabolism. Because dark chocolate has a more intense flavor than the sugar-laden milk varieties, you’ll be satisfied with less (say about 1-ounce).

8 Icelandic Yogurt

Move over Greek yogurt, there’s a new deliciously thick cultured dairy worth spooning up. Traditional Icelandic yogurt, called Skyr, typically has even more protein than its Mediterranean counterpart (about 15-20 grams per serving) and a praise-worthy creamy texture that makes it feel more like dessert than a healthy snack. Like Greek yogurt, it’s made by straining away the excess liquid, leaving behind the ultra-thick yogurt that’s laced with gut-friendly probiotic bacteria. To sidestep the added sugars that can blow up your physique, opt for plain versions of Skyr. For a touch of natural sweetness, stir in some berries.

9 Jerky

We’re not jerking you around when we say jerky is one lean, mean snack option that’s good for more than just road trips. With a surprising 10:1 protein-to-fat ratio for most brands, going all Paleo and gnawing on jerky between meals is a perfect way to show your muscles some love. You can’t go wrong with the brand Krave, which has delicious jerky flavors such as chipotle or pineapple orange and eschews any sketchy preservatives like MSG. Beyond beef, also look out for buffalo, pork, turkey, venison, and even salmon jerky options.

“With a surprising 10:1 protein-to-fat ratio for most brands, gnawing on jerky between meals is a perfect way to show your muscles some love.”

10 String Cheese

Not just for your kid’s lunchbox, string cheese is a convenient way to help bolster your intake of protein and bone-building calcium all with little carbohydrate cost. Stash a bag in your fridge for when the munchies strike, but consider choosing reduced-fat versions to keep the snack calories more in your favor. If you’re looking to gain mass, however, the extra calories that full-fat string cheese provides can help in your pursuit of glance-stealing size.


11 Dried Plums

Bathroom jokes aside, dried plums (aka prunes) are an ideal nosh when you need a sweet fix or shot of energy before hitting the weight room. A study in the journal “Appetite” found that subjects who snacked on dried plums experienced a greater degree of satiety than when they ate the same number of calories in the form of low-fat cookies. Why? The researchers discovered that the fiber-rich dried fruit favorably impacts blood sugar and appetite-regulating hormones compared to the nutritionally lackluster cookie. Dried plums are also laced with disease-fighting, muscle-mending antioxidants.



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11 From Heaven: The Top Fitness Snacks!


Ask The Muscle Prof: 'How Should I Use Eccentric Training For Growth?'

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Q I’ve heard the eccentric phase of a lift is really important for growth. Should I slow the eccentric portion of the lift as much as possible to increase muscle mass and bust out of my plateau?

Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been studying skeletal muscle growth. After decade or so, a PhD, and plenty of academic studies later, I can confidently say that scientists have still only scratched the surface as to what makes this elaborate process work. Conversely, they can’t say exactly what causes it to stop working, even though you are still training like you were when it was working.

Luckily, we learn more all the time. We know more than ever about the mechanisms which seem to be responsible for causing individuals to “plateau” when they were previously able to make gains so readily. Specifically, we’re pretty sure it has a lot to do with a type of cell in our body known as satellite cells.

These little growth bombs are ready and waiting in your body right now. I’m going to tell you how you can activate them through optimal eccentric loading, but also why it’s not a good idea to make the eccentric phase of your lifts longer than just a few seconds.

The Benefits of Eccentric Training

As many of you know, there are two active parts to a lift: the concentric (or lifting) phase, and the eccentric (or lowering) phase. Both phases trigger muscle growth, but sometimes they do it through different mechanisms; I discussed the four mechanisms in my Mass Class training article.

For example, when you lift the weight concentrically, you produce greater metabolic stress, which is why I advise people to emphasize the concentric when they are using certain styles of lifting such as blood flow restriction training.1

However, research has also shown that when you lengthen the muscle eccentrically, you can increase protein synthesis more than a concentric contraction.2 Why is this the case? For one, scientists have discovered in recent years that eccentric contractions release a chemical called phosphatidic acid, which encourages protein synthesis.3

There are two active parts to a lift: the concentric (or lifting) phase, and the eccentric (or lowering) phase.

My lab group recently conducted a study where we found that simply bathing muscle cells in phosphatidic acid made them increase in protein synthesis.4 To answer your next question: Yes, we also found that taking supplemental phosphatidic acid increased muscle growth.

But that chemical action is only one of the ways that eccentric training works. Another, as I mentioned earlier, is through the activation of satellite cells. These unique cells are located on the outside of muscles, and they respond to damage in their vicinity by transforming into immature muscle fibers. More specifically, they move to the damaged area and fuse to muscle, becoming a part of it.5

The result is increased muscle fiber size and the addition of the satellite cell’s nucleus to the muscle. The latter step is critical, because the nuclei in the muscle are primarily responsible for stimulating skeletal muscle protein synthesis and growth. The more nuclei you have, the greater your growth potential.

Sounds important, right? Sure enough, research has shown that individuals who plateau in their training can’t adequately activate satellite cells.6,7 To tap into this critical cell population for growth you have to maximize eccentric loading. So let’s get into how you can do that.

Find the Perfect Cadence

Research shows that faster speed eccentric contractions result in a release of more growth factors, more satellite cells, and greater protein synthesis than slow speed eccentric contractions.

Once people learn the growth power of eccentrics, their next step is often to slow the eccentric phase down as much as possible—sometimes 5 seconds or more—in hopes that it will lead to more growth. While this is logical, it actually doesn’t pan out.

Research shows that faster speed eccentric contractions result in a release of more growth factors, more satellite cells, and greater protein synthesis than slow speed eccentric contractions.8,9 Seems shocking but it’s true. Let me explain.

As many of you know, muscle tension occurs when the contractile proteins myosin and actin bind to each other or form what’s known as a “cross-bridge.” The more cross-bridges you utilize, the less tension any one cross-bridge will have to bear—and the lower the muscle damage will be.

The major downfall to slowing down your contractions to emphasize the eccentric contraction is that your body has more time to form cross-bridges. The result is less damage, lower protein synthesis and ultimately growth.

Thus, my advice is to control the eccentric contraction but not to slow it down much. If you are training arms, for example, take no more than 1-3 seconds to lower the weight.

How To Use Eccentric Overload

You may have heard that you’re stronger eccentrically than you can concentrically. It’s a great principle to know. So are you putting it into action?

When studies have tested lifters’ 1RM for concentric contractions and had them lift the same weight eccentrically, they found no differences in muscle growth between the contractions. Some studies indicated an advantage for the concentric contractions under these conditions!2,10

Thus, if you emphasize the eccentric contraction with the same weight you use for concentric contractions, you probably won’t see any added benefit over the concentric contraction. You have to go heavier!


Hamstring Curls

There are a number of ways to increase the eccentric load. The classic method is to use assisted negative reps, where you lift the weight yourself, and on the way down your partner presses down on the weight. A second way is to lift a weight with two limbs and lower it with one.

For example, if you’re doing hamstring curls with two legs on the way up, you can lower with only one leg.

Eccentric Training That Lives Up To The Hype

If all this talk about muscle damage has been enough to make you start feeling preemptive DOMS, you’re on the right track. This is advanced training material, and it’s not right for everybody. And even if it’s right for you, it’s not right all the time. So let’s recap and get your expectations in line.

  1. A major reason plateaus are reached is because individuals no longer are able to activate satellite cells. The inability to activate satellite cells appears to be activated through overloading the eccentric portion of the lift.

  2. In order to overload on the eccentric portion of the lift, use a controlled but relatively short eccentric phase of a lift, like 1-3 seconds maximum. Anything longer may hinder muscle damage and subsequent growth.

  3. Finally, assisted negative repetitions can optimize protein synthesis and muscle growth. However, it’s crucial that you periodize this method, because it will lead to substantial muscle damage. Utilize it no more than once per week for the body part that needs the most work.


References
  1. Yasuda T, et al. Effects of blood flow restricted low-intensity concentric or eccentric training on muscle size and strength. PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e52843.
  2. Eliasson J, et al. Maximal lengthening contractions increase p70 S6 kinase phosphorylation in human skeletal muscle in the absence of nutritional supply. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Dec;291(6):E1197-205.
  3. O’Neil TK, et al. The role of phosphoinositide 3-kinase and phosphatidic acid in the regulation of mammalian target of rapamycin following eccentric contractions. J Physiol. 2009 Jul 15;587(Pt 14):3691-701.
  4. Joy JM, et al. Phosphatidic acid enhances mTOR signaling and resistance exercise induced hypertrophy. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2014 Jun 16;11:29.
  5. Rosenblatt JD, et al. Satellite cell activity is required for hypertrophy of overloaded adult rat muscle. Muscle Nerve. 1994 Jun;17(6):608-13.
  6. Bamman MM, et al. Cluster analysis tests the importance of myogenic gene expression during myofiber hypertrophy in humans. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2007 Jun;102(6):2232-9.
  7. Petrella JK, et al. Potent myofiber hypertrophy during resistance training in humans is associated with satellite cell-mediated myonuclear addition: a cluster analysis. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2008 Jun;104(6):1736-42.
  8. Moore DR, et al. Myofibrillar and collagen protein synthesis in human skeletal muscle in young men after maximal shortening and lengthening contractions. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2005 Jun;288(6):E1153-9.
  9. Shepstone TN, et al. Short-term high- vs. low-velocity isokinetic lengthening training results in greater hypertrophy of the elbow flexors in young men. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2005 May;98(5):1768-76.
  10. Mayhew TP, et al. Muscular adaptation to concentric and eccentric exercise at equal power levels. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1995 Jun;27(6):868-73.

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Fitness 360: Chris Thompson, Supplementation Program

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Because Chris Thompson is in the supplement business, he knows that selected supplements can help him build and maintain his goal physique. But, he also knows that supplementation can help him stay healthy and active for a long time—an important thing when you’re busy, always on the go, and 45 years old.

Here’s Chris’s supplement philosophy and how he uses supps to improve his micros, macros, and performance.

Chris Thompson Fitness 360:
Watch The Video – 09:59

“I’m getting to an age where I’ve started to look at longevity.”

“I’ve got a great macronutrient program that’s going to help me achieve my physical goals,” says Chris, “but that’s really only half the battle. I’m getting to an age where I’ve started to look at longevity. I put my body through an awful lot of physical demand, so getting micronutrients into my body can make a great difference to my overall health and my performance.”

To improve his overall health, Chris utilizes a multivitamin, CoQ10, and things like alpha lipoic acid (ALA). On the performance side, he prioritizes protein. “Sometimes, my turnaround between whatever I’m doing, a meal, and a meeting can literally be 10 minutes. How am I going to get to all of my macronutrients in that amount of time? Sipping on a protein drink is perfect because it doesn’t interfere with anything you’re doing.”

Along with multivitamins and protein powder, Chris likes to supplement with pre-workout products. “I couldn’t live without fat burners, flash stimulants, and pre-workouts,” says Chris.

“The product that put Twinlab on the map, the product that everyone remembers, is Ripped Fuel. Ripped Fuel is a thermogenic stimulant that provides great mental focus. It’s the type of stimulant that I like.”

Chris’s Supp Regimen

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Fitness 360: Chris Thompson, Supplementation Program

Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet: Living The CrossFit Life, Episode 2

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Most of us can find at least a couple gym buddies who can push us to get better. But because Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet is part of such an elite club of high-level athletes in the CrossFit world, she must rely on herself for competition. “It’s really hard, at my level, to find someone who can push me,” she says. “The person who can push me is in Europe or the United States.”

Camille trains—by herself, most of the time—in Quebec City, Canada. Yet flying solo doesn’t appear to be hurting her chances of success. “I love training by myself,” she says. “I don’t know if I’m slowing down or not, and often I’m pushing harder by myself than I would with someone there. I just go as hard as I can. It’s nice to have people to push you, but you also need to know how to push by yourself.”

The CrossFit Lifestyle Episode 2
Watch The Video – 4:29

Camille has tried a lot of diets and tinkered with her macros, putting protein, carbohydrates and fats into different arrays. The mix that seems to work best for her is heavy on the carbohydrates.

“I feel like the most successful I’ve been is by eating carbohydrates,” she says. “But, that doesn’t mean I purely eat simple sugars. It means I eat good, high-quality carbohydrates. I want those glycogen stores full. When you hit the wall, that’s when your body needs energy. I want to make sure I can push further than the wall.”

So what’s a good carb capable of filling up her glycogen stores? Camille favors sweet potatoes. “The sweet potato takes a little longer to get out of your system and you don’t have as much of an insulin spike,” she explains.



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30 Days Out: Craig Capurso's Extreme Cut Trainer Day 18

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Welcome back to the body shop for another day of work on your wheels. Many people fear training legs because of the intense effort and work required, but a solid legs session has the power to impact your entire body and really torch extra overall weight.

I like the way my weight is headed. I think that spin class yesterday was the extra sweat I needed to shave another pound. As of today, I’m 6 pounds away from my temporary goal of 215. Things are moving in the right direction and I’m pumped to hit the gym today.

It’s no secret that motivation waxes and wanes. Pump yourself up with music, pictures, or videos if you’re feeling low on fuel today. If you’re already amped to smash some weight, take advantage and hit the gym with full force.

You ready to attack leg day with me? Let’s get it done!

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Watch The Video – 04:34

Success Tip

I can’t stress enough how important it is to cut the fat off of your meat before you eat it. Trim your chicken, cook your ground turkey and beef so you can remove some of the fat, and always buy the leanest meat you can. It’s really late in the game, so that extra fat just isn’t going to do you any favors.

Ascending Reps: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 reps per leg

Cardio
  • Tier 1 Tabata Option: 8 rounds: 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest
  • Tier 2 Tabata Option: 8 rounds: 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest
  • Steady-State Cardio: 15 minutes
  • Tier 3 Tabata Option: 8 rounds: 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest
Tabata cardio options
Tier 1
  • Treadmill sprint
  • Jump rope
  • Speed row
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Tier 2
  • High knees
  • Side-to-side shuffle
  • Shuttle run
  • Jump lunge
Tier 3
  • Burpee
  • Jump squat
  • Stair sprint
  • Mountain climber
Steady-State Cardio Options
  • Incline treadmill walk
  • Stair mill
  • Elliptical
  • ARC trainer
  • Low-intensity jog
  • Stationary bike
  • Low-intensity row
  • Swimming

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About The Author

Craig Capurso is a Wall St oil trader, IFBB Pro physique competitor, Team Bodybuilding.com spokes model, Cellucor athlete, and fitness model.

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30 Days Out: Craig Capurso's Extreme Cut Trainer Day 18

James Grage's Rewired 9-Week Fitness Trainer – Day 53 Back

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With just over a week left in this trainer, it’s time to take a hard look at your nutrition. The meal plan in the Rewired Trainer is more interpretive than in many other systems. You don’t have a “cheat meal” per se, but rather a ratio, 90-10, and the option of spreading out your 10 percent of indulgence as you see fit.

If you need a refresher on James Grage’s nutrition philosophy, head back to the Rewired nutrition overview page. The upshot is to enjoy food, but not let it get the best of you. Track it like you track your workouts or the weekly challenges you’ve been tackling throughout the trainer. Approach each plate, meal, and temptation consciously and confidently, and you have nothing to fear!

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James Grage is the Co-Founder and Vice President of BPI Sports. He started training at age 15 and built an impressive body for sports.

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James Grage's Rewired 9-Week Fitness Trainer – Day 53 Back

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