Good training shoes!

If you ever get to the point where you want to invest in some training shoes, don't buy overpriced shoes. Get a pair of:

Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars

The benefits are clear:

-Stable

-Cheap

-Flat sole

-Looks good to almost everything

The chucks are affordable and provide stability for the whole foot, but the best part about chucks is the absolute thin flat sole. The only better thing than working out in chucks is working out barefoot. You will look for a flat sole to get a better feeling to the ground while doing excercises like squats and deadlifts.

This boots are getting used since a long time in bodybuilding and powerlifting circles, because of their benefits. Sure you could invest in some 250$ lifting shoes, or invest 80$ in a shoe that provides the same features.

Aesthethic over Function?

It's often discussed if aesthethic training provides a better trained body than functional training, the difference between those training ways are the repititions and the weight lifted. Also the excercises are different since most of the weightlifters won't curl every workout.

But why would you prefer an aesthetic training over an functional training if you can also reach good resulst on a functional routine, while building strength at the same time.

For example:

This is Dave Gulledge, after an injury he started to go on a cut to reduce his bodyfat, resulting in this well trained body.

Favorite Training Meals

CTo give some suggestions on training meals, and on proper diet I would suggest my favorite training meals.

Basically it's high in protein but low in carb.

Chicken Breast, delicious and easy to cook. High in protein and cheap too. Everyone if training or not should eat this often.

Suggestion: Grab some spice and hot sauce so it won't taste the same everytime.

 

A burger, yes. It's basically a nice meal because you can eat veggies, a nice piece of meat and bread at the same time. The problem with burgers is that basically the shit you get a Mc Donalds won't satisfy your body with things it needs for a proper nutrition.

Suggestion: Grab some nice beef burgerpattys, beef is high in protein.

Oats, the mother of proper diet. Oats are high in fibers and provide much protein, also they are able to be combinated in many ways. Look for some recipes on the internet, or just eat them raw with milk.

Suggestion: If you want to flavor your oats use flavored proteinpowder.

Cottage cheese, the perfect snack. The amount of protein per serving is very high for a snack and also it tastes good. If you don't like cottage cheese, I'd suggest to man up, because this snack is the bomb.

Suggestion: If you can't the taste of cottage cheese, try to sweaten it (Honey) or to spice it up (Pepper).

I would also suggest supplements, for example Fish Oil Capsules, they contain a load of Omega-3 which can only be found in fish. It's a cheap alternative to eating fish. I would not suggest medicine, or steroids. If you think you progress too slowly maybe, but in the first 2 years, stay natural. It's the best thing you can do for your body.

A typical day in the gym

Today I want to tell you guys about a typical day in the gym. About my typical day in the gym.

First of all it starts with a good morning, a good morning looks like this:
Wake up due to the beautifu smell of eggs or pancakes my girlfriend made me in the morning. So I eat this perfect breakfast and drink my first proteinshake. I pack my bag, grab my bike, get a nice kiss and ride out of the house.

It should be 11:00am by now and I'm hitting the lockers. Grad my preworkout snack usually a banana, or some cottage cheese. Strap my shoes and get into the lifting room. Usually my gymbuddy is already training, so I simply work in. The casual: Squats.

We are always doing heavy single repitions, my current max weight is 220kg and I'm still working on it. After my singles I get to the deadlift section of my gym and load up the bar, first five repitions, then three, then one heavy single. 270kg, my single weight.

I'm doing some aesthetic work after that, hammercurls, weighted chinups and dips.

After my workout I take my creatine another protein shake and eat a banana. I'll change my clothing get my bike and ride back home.

Sometimes I'll get a massage afterwards which would make a typical day a perfect day.

Motivation: What motivates you to keep on doing what you are doing?

I was wondering what motivates you to go further and further, no matter if it's running, climbing, lifting, gaming.  Leave a comment bellow.

 

The Bench Press: Explanation and Information

"The bench press is an exercise of the upper body. For bodybuilding purposes, it is used to strengthen the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps. While on his or her back, the person performing the bench press lowers a weight to the level of the chest, then pushes it back up until the arm is straight without locking the elbows. The exercise focuses on the development of the pectoralis major muscle as well as other supporting muscles including the anterior deltoids, serratus anterior, coracobrachialis, scapulae fixers, trapezii, and the triceps. The bench press is one of the three lifts in the sport of powerlifting and is used extensively in weight training, bodybuilding, and other types of fitness training to develop the chest."

2 Videos explaining the basic setup of the bench press and the most common mistakes. Work on your form, and you will be able to lift heavy soon!

The Deadlift: Explanation and Information

"The deadlift is a weight training exercise where one lifts a loaded barbell (or, in the case of the trapbar deadlift, a loaded trapbar) off the ground from a stabilized bent-over position. It is one of the three gauges of powerlifting, and is an exercise for overall body development."

2 Videos explaining the setup of the deadlift. Work on your form, and you will be able to lift heavy soon!

The Squat: Explanation and Information

"In strength training, the squat is an exercise that trains primarily the muscles of the thighs, hips and buttocks, hamstrings, as well as strengthening the bones, ligaments and insertion of the tendons throughout the lower body. Squats are considered a vital exercise for increasing the strength and size of the legs and buttocks.
Squats are a competitive lift in powerlifting."

3 Videos explaining how to squat heavy weight properly, you don't need more. Work on your form, and you will be able to lift heavy soon!

Basic Routine: Starting Strength

Since many people are looking forward to an succesful start and not working out for minimal progress, I will tell you something about the ultimate Beginners Routine, Starting Strength. But first of all I'm going to tell you why you should start with Starting Strength (short: SS). If you tried bodybuilding programs with 3 or 4 or 5 days, everyday other bodyparts I have bad news for you, you wasted your time. If you would have tried SS you would have trained your whole body on all 3 days. And if you are finished with SS you can start doing advanced routines since you will see which muscles are lacking. Which is the whole point of bodybuilding you sculpture your body after your desire but first you need to know which muscles are going to be lacking.

The best part about SS is that your lifts will increase. There are 3 lifts which ultimately determine your power: Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift. And you will focus on all 3 lifts in your SS phase. Since these lifts are working your whole body and most of all your bodycore it's necessary to maintain a good form on all 3 excercises. If you increase your weight, and keep a bad form you will fuck up your back. Good form is the key to succes! You can read about good form in the next posts on this blog where I'm going to explain all the SS Excercises and how to do them with proper form.

But let's get into the SS Program:
The program will be a 3-day split, that means you will have to go 3 days a week, decide which days you want to go and keep them. The program is containing 2 training days: A and B. If you decide you want to go on: Monday, Wednesday, Friday you're Trainingsplan would look like this:

Week 1:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

A            -                B                 -               A         -              -                

Week 2:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

B            -                A                 -               B         -              -                

 You will swap between these weeks.

Let's get into the working out part, before every excercise it's important to warm up never forget to warm up. This will affect the muscle and strength gain, it's necessary that your muscles are prepared for the excercise. Here is how you warm up:

Warm Up:

Weight: 20% Reps: 5 Sets: 2

Weigth: 30% Reps: 5 Sets: 1

Weigth: 50% Reps: 3 Sets: 1

Weigth: 80% Reps: 2 Sets: 1

You will do the exercises like this: 3 Sets of 5 Repititions.

60 to 120 Seconds Resttime between Sets

That's it your workout:

Day A:

1. Squat            | 3x5

2. Bench Press | 3x5

3. Deadlift          | 3x5

Day B:

1. Squat            | 3x5

 2. Overhead Press | 3x5

                                          3. Power Clean          | 3x5

Never be scared to increase the weight! You will progress due to increasing the weight, you can stall on one weight for a longer time but try to increase the weight atleast every 2 weeks once. Train insane or stay the same.

The SS Goals are:

Bench Press - 1x Bodyweight

Squat - 1,5x Bodyweight

Deadlift - 2x Bodyweight 

If you reached this goals and are stalling on one weight for a long time, it's alright to say that you are allowed to go into an more advanced routine.

 Powerlifting: Powerlifting is the use of the whole body to lift heavy weights, there are 3 challenges a powerlifter has to face:
 The deadlift, the squat and the bench press. Powerlifters are always giving their maximal power on 1 repitition to set new personal records.

A Powerlifter dedicates his life and body to lifting weights, you can imagine those mens standing on a mountain wrestling bears. The training is hard and will never stop, you life your training. You eat like a powerlifter, you train like a powerlifter, you lift like a powerlifter. You are an Powerlifter.

Fitness - How it all started

(Brad Pitt - Fight Club)

It always starts with the need for improvement, but most of the time you leak motivation to get your ass up and do something. You wait for something to happen, but you can't admit that it's only you who can do something about it.

Until you get motivation due to inspiration, for me it was Brad Pitt in Fight Club. I had a goal, and I knew from one to the next day that I will never give up. I thought to myself: "It's not like that I'm going to live forever, so I will give everything I can to get the most out of myself. There is no place for failure, no time for giving up."

You need Willpower, it was not hard to give up all the fastfood and soda because I know that I won't give up because of things that I desire now instead of the goal that I desire the most.