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Mission Accountability: Weekly Update #1

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Mission Accountability has been going strong, but I have not been getting the accountability I'd like from the people in my social media circles. I even tried running a Mission Accountability contest, but that failed as well. For now I will just go to posting weekly updates here every Sunday. For those who are interested in following my progress, you will be able to do so here and at http://socialmahony.com.

I just entered a new cycle of the TNB Workout. I changed up the workouts quite a bit. While I am not hitting body parts more frequently, I am hitting them now with different exerciss. For instance, I took out flat barbeell bench press and substituted flat dumbbell bench press. I replaced bent over rows with seated cable rows. Each substitution was carefully considered. I selected only exercises that would hit my muscles hard, but in the same order as previous weeks on TNB.

My nutrition was not the best over the 4th of July weekend, so I went into Physique Transformation Momentum Regaining mode. I cut the carbs way down and the calories are fluctuated each day (up and down). I did this for one 5 day cycle. I managed to reignite some fat burning as a result. It is always good to have these types of tools in your tool belt for situations like this. All it takes is some experimentation with your body to see how it reacts.

My cardio wasn't there this week (it never seems to be) but I have an idea for this coming week that will get it to where I want it. Now that I have my nutrition and weight training dialed in, I need to get my cardio training dialed in as well.

I am without my training partner this week as Matty is at CIY (Christ in Youth) with his high school church group. I am very proud of how dedicated he is to that program, but will miss having him to push me this week.

I look forward to another wonderful week of training. What are your goals this week? Leave me a comment to let me know.

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Book Review: The New High Intensity Training

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When reviewing The New High Intensity Training by Ellington Darden, I took into consideration alot of factors. My focus in today's review will be effective background material, effective support of the subject matter and effective training programs.

The New High Intensity Training – Background Given

Dr. Ellington Darden, the author of this book, is one of many people who support the findings of Arthur Jones which ultimately became termed High Intensity Training. Dr. Darden has studied the principles of High Intensity Training and presents them very clearly in this book. His explanations make sense and are easy to understand. The reader will come away with a strong understanding of High Intensity Training.

Dr. Darden explains how Arthur Jones discovered the principles behind High Intensity Training. He examines the efforts of several young bodybuilders as they implemented the principles given by Jones. These real world examples help the reader understand the validity behind the principles Arthur Jones laid out.

The New High Intensity Training – Support of the Principles

To show us that High Intensity Training works, Dr. Darden begins with a story about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Apparently, Arnold was not too impressed with High Intensity Training until he gave it a shot and was humbled by it. This is a great story because Arnold is such a well-known figure in the body building world. He is someone who should be able to handle just about any training method thrown at him, yet High Intensity Training hit him pretty hard.

Dr. Darden goes on to tell the stories of several more body builders, including Mike and Ray Mentzer. The Mentzers became huge proponents of the High Intensity Training principles.

The New High Intensity Training – Training Programs

The training programs presented by Dr. Darden have been seen before in other books he has written. However, the programs still have relevance if this is your initial exposure to High Intensity Training. I personally find it very educational when someone with alot of knowledge lays out a training plan. I like to study their approach to the programming and utilize it in my own programming. I find this to be invaluable.

The New High Intensity Training – The Verdict

If you've read other books by Ellington Darden I would skip this one. If you want to know everything you can about High Intensity Training then this is a must-read book. The content is easy to read and understand. I definitely recommend reading it for students of High Intensity Training.

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Regain Physique Transformation Momentum

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physique transformationWhen executing a physique transformation there are alot of things that can get in your way. While there are strategies to overcome potential derailment, there are also strategies to overcome short forays off the chosen path. I believe the later to be the most important.

Regaining Physique Transformation Momentum

The list of things that can derail you from your physique transformation is long and involved. Among the top items on the list would be holidays, visits from family or friends you have not seen in some time and spur of the moment food decisions. Each of these can be dealt with by the same method. If you make the choice (and it is a choice) to go off your plan, you need to find a way to regain the momentum you previously had. This is important to do as quickly as possible so that you do not continue to stay off your plan.

Short Fast for Physique Transformation Focus Shift

If you go away for a holiday weekend like I just did for the 4th of July and you stray from your plan a bit, a brief fast (1 day) is a great way to let your body recalibrate and get back on your plan. You can stop eating for 24 hours and then resume with your scheduled plan. This enables your body to purge the excess food you took in while keeping you focused on your body and what it needs.

While I am not a big fan of fasting as a regular part of your nutritional plan, I think that short, well-timed fasts can play a role in reestablishing focus on your ultimate physique transformation goal. Your brief one day fast will get your focus back and enable you to continue the path you had previously established.

Meal Replacement Shakes for Physique Transformation Reenergization

If fasting just gets to you and you can't do it, try using protein shakes for a full day just to reconnect with your body and the plan you had for transforming your physique. You will drastically drop calories and especially carbs with this approach. If you are like me and you have overdone the carbs during your holiday, this will get you back on track and fast! At the same time, you will be providing your body with the nourishment it needs. I also add ground flax seeds to the shakes to give myself some fiber and fat content.

React Quickly for Physique Transformation Success

Regardless of what you do, you need to react quickly or run the risk of permanently being derailed. Our minds are interesting things. When we make choices that go against what we planned to do our mind tends to make us feel very badly about those choices. This can tend to make us give up on our plan entirely. This is why a quick reaction to the issue is essential to future success.By jumping on it right away and correcting the problem, you override your mind's tricks. Thus, remember to get back on the plan as soon as you can.

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High Intensity Training for Massive Gains

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When it comes to training there are many different philosophies, but most fall into two categories: high volume or low volume. High volume training would be the typical body part split where you do 4 sets of multiple exercises to blast one part of your body daily. Low volume training would include my personal favorite, High Intensity Training.

High Intensity Training Explained

High Intensity Training's fundamentals involve the concept that exercise should be brief, infrequent and intense. By performing training that uses a high level of effort you stimulate your body to increase in both size and strength. With High Intensity Training, as your strength increases the weight you push will progressively get bigger. Because the intensity is so high in these training sessions, they are kept very short (generally under 45 minutes in total length).

Training in this manner is done full body. There are generally no body part splits utilized (although Mike Mentzer did have some body part split routines that used the HIT principles). When training in this manner you will use one set per exercise and take that set to complete failure. It is thought that by training briefly and infrequently your body will recover better.

Recovery with High Intensity Training

When utilizing the HIT principles of training you are never training on consecutive days. There is always at least 48 hours between training sessions. This gives your body an optimum amount of time to recover. To understand the reasoning behind this you have to understand what happens when you train your muscles.

A typical high volume method will have you blasting away at your muscles with a large number of sets. Each set creates micro tears in your muscles. These must be repaired in order for muscle growth to happen. Now think about creating these tears as being equivalent to digging holes in the ground and then having to fill them. The act of filling the holes back up takes energy. Your body is in the same position with high volume training. There is a huge ditch that must be filled. That is why high volume programs only have you train a particular body part once per week. However, with HIT you are not digging as large a hole, so your body takes less time to fill the hole, giving you the opportunity to hit muscle groups more than once a week.

Progression with High Intensity Training

When doing HIT your goal is to either increase the weight from your previous session or increase the repetitions performed. It is a constant competition wtih the previous training session. This forces progressive overload to happen. The strength gains most people see on HIT are tremendous. This is because the load is increased slowly, but steadily. You force your body to push the weight you are using as hard as possible. If you are aiming for 10 repetitions and are able to complete them, you just keep going to failure. This would then be an indication that it is time to increase the load. You continually do this at each training session.

Famous Advocates of High Intensity Training

There were many famous body builders who utilized the HIT principles. Among the biggest names are Dorian Yates, Mike Mentzer, Ray Mentzer, Lee Labrada, Casey Vitor and Sergio Oliva. These men had tremendous physiques.

If you are tired of pushing out set after set of bicep curls I suggest you give HIT a try. I have yet to meet someone who did not benefit from the principles described in HIT.

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Unconventional Cardio Approaches for Lean Muscle Maintenance

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Last week I wrote an article about Unconventional Cardio. Today I want to take you down a path that will describe the various unconventional cardio methods you can use to lose fat and maintain your lean muscle.

Unconventional Cardio For Fat Loss

The idea behind cardio for fat loss is to increase the number of calories you burn so that you can cause your body to use fat for energy. There are various ways to do this. Some people like the Low Intensity Steady State cardio (LISS). Many will tell you the only way to go is High Intensity Interval Training cardio (HIIT). Others will advocate simple intervals where you run for a certain amount of time and then walk for a certain amount of time to recover. All these methods work, but they are not the only methods that work.

Enter the Prowler

The Prowler is an excellent way to get a cardio workout, but it also helps you to maintain your lean mass. This device literally works every muscle in your body, including your heart. Load up the prowler and push it. You will notice your heart rate climb almost instantly. You can use a lighter load and sprint with it or you can load up more weight and push against the resistance it creates. Either way works.

Short Hard Sprints Do the Job

Another great way to burn fat is to run some short, but hard sprints. Be explosive with your sprints. Make sure your legs knwo they've been worked afterwards. The concept is similar to HIIT where you go all out for a short period of tiem, but with sprints, it is much shorter than in duration.

Medicine Ball Throws Get You Going

The medicine ball can be used in many different ways to get a cardio workout. Here are just a few of them:

Medicine ball slams. You pick up a heavy medicine ball over your head and slam it into the ground as hard as you can. You pick it up and repeat the process.

Medicine ball tosses while doing crunches. You lay down and do a standard crunch, but as you come up a partner tosses you the medicine ball and you catch it, go to the bottom of your crunch, come back up and throw it back to your partner. This is repeated throughout the crunches.

Medicine ball throws. You and a partner stand a few feet apart (5 to 6) and toss a medicine ball back and forth. Don't rest. When you get the ball immediately return it to your partner.

Farmer Carries Will Build Grip and Burn Fat

Carrying around heavy weight is a sure-fire way to get your heart rate up. The Farmer Carry is one way of accomplishing this.  You grab a heavy set of dumbbells or a specially created Farmer Carry bar (with weight loaded on it) and carry the load like a suitcase would be carried. You walk a long distance slowly. This will not only get your heart rate up, but it will improve your overall grip strength as well.

Strongman Style

If your gym happens to have strongman equipment like Metroflex Long Beach, my new gym, you can do some strongman style cardio. This type of cardio involves resistance training as a key component to the cardio workout. An example of this type of cardio session:

10 repetitions of the log press
10 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
9 repetitions of the log press
9 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
8 repetitions of the log press
8 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
7 repetitions of the log press
7 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
6 repetitions of the log press
6 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
5 repetitions of the log press
5 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
4 repetitions of the log press
4 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
3 repetitions of the log press
3 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
2 repetitions of the log press
2 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift
1 repetitions of the log press
1 repetitions of 315 lb. deadlift

These sets are done back to back with no rest at all.

Conclusion

Cardio doesn't have to be boring. You just have to find new and challenging ways to do your cardio. The problem is letting cardio get boring in the first place. You won't do it if it is boring. So, spice up your cardio routine with some of these methods and let me know how it goes.

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