Fitness Exposé

Bodybuilding Secrets Exposed

You are here: Home / Blog

My Idea of Great Music for Lifting

By Leave a Comment

playlist

I find that the music I listen to changes the intensity I train with. I react differently to different types of music. For weight training I really like hard and heavy music. People generally don’t believe me when they hear about the music I listen to. The following is an actual playlist on my iPhone’s Spotify account that I use to train with major intensity.

Metal Workout Mix

All Consuming Fire – War of Ages

The Fallen – War of Ages

Stand Your Ground – War of Ages

Duality – Slipknot

Psychosocial – Slipknot

Sulfur – Slipknot

Gematria [The Killing Name] – Slipknot

Disasterpiece – Slipknot

Surfacing – Slipknot

A Message to the Unknown – Bless the Fall

In Division – Underoath

I Would Do Anything – Killswitch Engage

Rusted Embrace – Killswitch Engage

Re-Education – Rise Against

Shattering the Skies Above – Trivium

Master of Puppets – Trivium

These songs just get me completely pumped up. You can get to this playlist on the web. Don’t forget one of the more important tools for your training—music. While it isn’t a piece of equipment, it is definitely a training tool. This past Sunday I was listening to the above playlist when training. During my cardio session I was thinking about cutting cardio a little short when suddenly the playlist repeated from the top. I got to “Stand Your Ground” by War of Ages and knew I had to finish the cardio session in its entirety. I got through it with extra energy to spare.

Thus, my advice is to remember your music the next time you hit the gym.

What music do you like to listen to when you train?

Related Posts:

Everyone Loves the Posedown

By 1 Comment

posedown

The posedown is one of the key moments in every bodybuilding competition. It is a time when the competitors get to show their best stuff. They move around the stage and flex their muscles for the judges. It looks easy to some extent—that is until you try it.

As you know, I am in the middle of Mission Grand Prix. Part of this process is learning to pose properly. I take posing lessons once a week from a coach (Ken Turchek). He has taught me all of the mandatory poses. I have learned a lot during the past month and through my own practice posing sessions. As I have gone through the process I have come up with the following thoughts on posing:

  • Posing is not easy. In order to show the muscles properly you must flex tightly. Even if you are flexing your chest, your legs need to be flexed as well. It is hard work!
  • Posing is not intuitive. There are things about posing that just don’t make a lot of sense until you actually do them. The chest, for instance, pops out differently than you’d expect.
  • Posing can be helped by training. You can improve certain poses by doing certain exercises during your training sessions. To work on the most muscular “crab” pose you can do cable crossovers at the end of a chest training. It will help tremendously.
  • Posing takes practice. You can’t just learn to pose in a short amount of time. My advice to any aspiring bodybuilder is spend time with a coach and then spend even more time practicing on your own.
  • Posing is different for everyone. There are small amounts of leeway when posing that you can use to emphasize strengths and hide weaknesses. You have to know where that leeway is in order to take advantage.
  • Posing reveals your conditioning. When you pose your conditioning is totally exposed. If you have done a good job of conditioning the judges won’t notice much during your posing. At the same time, if you have not conditioned yourself well, the judges will see it in an instant.
  • Posing is tiring. I once did a posing session prior to a shoulder session. I was exhausted and the training session was that much more difficult as a result. I learned to never pose before training.

The takeaway here is that posing is essential to your success as a bodybuilder. Get on it early so that you have time to master it.

Related Posts:

A Real Review of MI40 by Ben Pakulski

By Leave a Comment

mi40banner

I spent the past month going over the MI40 Mass Intentions program from IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski. My intention in this review is to inform you on the content this program provides and advise you as to whether or not it is worth purchasing.

In my opinion, most training programs released on the internet today are just a rehash of someone else’s ideas. They rarely bring something that I have not seen before. I tell you this because I want you to understand what my mindset was going into my review of MI40 by IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski.

What Do You Get?

MI40 is primarily a video program. It has several written components to it, including a training guide, but the meat of the program is the video presentations. I will discuss the quality of the videos later in this review, but I found it interesting that Ben spent so much time on videos.

What Is the Significance of the Term “MI40”?

When IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski uses the term “MI40” he is really telling you a lot about his program. For one, the “MI” stands for Mass Intentions. Mass Intentions is simply a way of tweaking an exercise to recruit maximum muscle fibers. It is difficult to put this into writing, which is why Ben has spent hours on video content with this program. One example I can give of Mass Intentions relates to lying hamstring curls. Ben discusses (and shows in a video) how to make sure that the exercise is really hitting your hamstrings directly. It is a small tweak, but one that seems to work (I’ve tried it).

The “40” part is related to many aspects of the program. It relates to the 40 exercise examples given, the 40 minute length of each workout, the 40 seconds rest between exercises and the 40 days length of the program itself.

Quality or Quantity or Both?

I really enjoyed the videos that were done for this program. They were professional and actually helped to explain the concepts quite well. My complaint is that there is not enough written material. I am the type of person who likes to read over a description and mentally absorb it.  That just isn’t possible with the way this program is designed. It is primarily a video program. I would be happier if the program had a matching manual similar to the way Jeff Anderson does things in his eBooks.

My Opinion on MI40

While a lot of what is contained in MI40 is far from revolutionary, I’d say there is enough here that it is a worthwhile purchase. IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski shares some great tips for activating the muscles in a unique way utilizing angles, tension, etc. For a fan of bodybuilding like me, this is a great program to review because it gives you a glimpse into the training of an IFBB Professional. At the same time, there really wasn’t enough of the revolutionary material if you are an advanced trainee. Ben offers a money back guarantee, so what have you got to lose? Give this program a try. Just be aware of the fact that you will not be able to utilize this (or any program for that matter) continuously without changing it up.

Related Posts:

10 Ways to Increase Your Bench Press

By 2 Comments

Bench Press Tips

The bench press is another of the great exercises for building mass. It is a compound movement and seriously packs on mass when done correctly. The problem is that most people don’t do the bench press correctly. Today we look at 10 articles that teach you what you need to know to bench correctly.

Tips-n-Tricks for Strength and Size This article teaches proper form by explaining how to position various parts of your body.

How to Bench Press Another great article on correct form.

Bench Press 101 A video explaining, in detail, how to bench press

Increasing Your Bench Press – Top 10 Tips An article that delves into 10 ways to improve your bench press

Bench Press Workout Plan A program for increasing your strength on the bench press

23 Bench Press Tips 23 tips for increasing your strength when bench pressing

Bench Press Techniques An entire site dedicated to bench pressing

4 Mental Tricks to Boost Your Bench Press by 20% This article is from Critcal Bench, a popular program for increasing your bench

Essential Tips and Tricks to Increase Your Bench Press An article that explains how to increase the weight you push on your bench press

3 Warm Up Tricks to Increase Your Bench Press An article explaining the role of warming up in increasing your bench

Thus, if you want to increase your bench press numbers, carefully review the above 10 articles. You are guaranteed to find tips that will assist you in your quest. As with any other exercise, you have to study the form and then put the tips into practice. It may seem like such an easy exercise—get under a bar and push—but there is so much more to it and these articles will enlighten you tremendously. Please enjoy your reading.

If you have a bench press tip or an article that was not covered, please share it in the comments.

Related Posts:

Get That Mental Edge Now!

By 3 Comments

mentaledge

Getting a mental edge in sports is critical to success. Most of the time our brain is what defeats us as we charge ahead towards accomplishing a goal. The brain is a powerful ally or a powerful enemy depending up on which you allow to happen. Yes, I said depending upon which you allow to happen. We have control over our mental state at all times. We can be in charge of our mental attitude just like anything else. We give our take away the mental edge portion of the equation.

As I head into the final 10 weeks of preparation for my first bodybuilding competition (Mission Grand Prix), the mental game has become huge for me. I did a video (below) that explains everything in more detail, but basically it is something I am focused on at the moment. I need to win the battle of the brain. I cannot let my brain convince me to take it easy. I have to win every battle from here forward. In doing so I will bring my best physique to the stage on April 14, 2012. I have started this war already and I am planning on winning it in its entirety.

The plan is pretty simple. As my alarm goes off at 3:15 a.m. my brain might tell me I need more sleep. I have a choice to make at that point. I can either give in and get more sleep or I can realize that I set the alarm for 3:15 a.m. for a reason and get up and hit the gym according to plan. That’s the key—sticking to the plan. I use an accountability chart and I only get points if I actually stick to the plan. If I plan to do shoulder training on Sunday morning at 6 a.m. I only get the point for that day if I actually get to the gym that morning. If I postpone it until later in the day I give myself a zero for that category.

Have a listen to the video and then tell me what your thoughts are on mental attitude in the comments section below.

[pro-player width='420′ height='315′ type='video']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRtF5tAvbhE&list=UUE41TmBkF0sXlJMBIHcPGPw&index=1&feature=plcp[/pro-player]

Related Posts:

New eBook!