http://www.middleyouth.net Attitude is Everything Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:08:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Of all the aspects that impact your success in the gym, your ability to choose which exercises to perform is probably one of the most critical. Furthermore, you need to know how to vary your training in a way that keeps pushing your body to adapt. From a general perspective, the ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/06/20/conquering-the-front-squat/ If I recall correctly, I first heard about this approach for rehabilitating muscle injuries from Dave Draper, but since then I’ve seen it pop up elsewhere as well. It immediately seemed logical, so I’ve used it ever since with good results. It works like this: Immediately after you injure a muscle, ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/05/09/faster-healing-of-muscle-injuries/ Actually, I always used to have a slight problem with the ”For Dummies”-series, since the title seemed to suggest that you're, well, kind of stupid. But since then I've browsed through one or two Dummies-books, and found that they're not all that bad. And anyway, this post isn't really a ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/05/06/hypertrophy-for-dummies/ One of the most important concerns for every athlete – no matter what level of fitness – should be to stay injury free. You are only as strong as your weakest link, and when it comes to strength and conditioning work, your weakest link is often your joints. What is a ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/04/25/building-bulletproof-joints/ A couple of days ago, Middleyouth.net went down, due to a database crash. A support guy from my web hosting company informed me that the database had become corrupted. How does things like that happen, really? Is it a 0 somewhere in the code that suddenly decides it wants to be a 1? One that ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/04/17/middleyouthnet-downtime/ If you have been training for a while, chances are that you from time to time have been overdoing it. I know I have, and sometimes still do. That's just part of the package; the name of the fitness game is progression, and to progress, you continuously need to be ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/04/11/understanding-overtraining/ Despite what you may think, functional training is not about any exercise than can be performed on an unstable surface, such as a stability ball. Actually, most good functional exercises are really basic -- and often surprisingly simple -- using either bodyweight only, or some kind of external resistance. So -- ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/04/04/functional-training-a-new-definition/ 1. Deadlift often. Placing a horse's head in someone's bed without waking them up can be very tough on the lower back. 2. Do explosive movements. Had Luca Brasi moved a little faster, he might have been able to avoid the knife through the hand and the subsequent garrotting. Instead, he's ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/03/28/fitness-lessons-from-the-godfather/ I guess some of you immediately think of the 1966 spaghetti western when reading the title of this post. You know, the Sergio Leone classic starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. So - I remember the movie, but what has this to do with fitness, you might ask? ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/03/19/fitness-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ As Groucho Marx once stated: "These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others." Although in this case, this wouldn't be true. :-) The principles presented in this post have evolved gradually over the years to form the basis of my approach to fitness. Moreover, I have found ... http://www.middleyouth.net/2009/03/09/fitness-manifesto-for-the-young-at-heart/