From the category archives:

Training

Ignore Everybody and Just Enjoy It

May 5, 2010

Since having a 10 day break from strength training while on a vacation I’ve struggled to get back into the positive groove I was in previously. Up until this point I felt this was just because my strength had regressed and it would take a bit of time to get back to where I was. [...]

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5 Tips for Doing Squats with Dumbbells

April 29, 2010

It was until recently that I started attempting squats. I wasn’t unaware of their effectiveness in strength training or anything, but I was fairly content with building the habit of doing pull ups consistently, as well as floor presses if I was in the mood for them.
But squats are such powerful exercises that I recommend [...]

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How to Skip Training Effectively (and On Purpose)

April 21, 2010

As an ectomorph training is a very important component of bulking up, building strength and improving your own well-being. There is a point where it becomes incongruent with your desires however, and it actually becomes more effective to skip a day or two of lifting weights than it would to push on.
Everyone – ectomorphs, mesomorphs, [...]

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Spice Up Your Strength Training with Variety and Personal Challenges

April 9, 2010

It’s important to maintain a relative level of consistency when training for strength and size. If you’re constantly switching between routines and exercises you’re not going to get very far. But variety is important.
As much as I love doing pull ups, and as effective as squats are, doing anything over and over and over and [...]

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How to Get out of a Muscle Building Rut

April 9, 2010

A few days ago I arrived home from a 10 day vacation on the other site of the country. While I spent plenty of time swimming I didn’t dedicated any energy towards strength training because I felt it would give my body a nice rest. In the past I’ve come back better then ever, but [...]

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How To Avoid Injury when Building Muscle

March 29, 2010

Skinny guys are prone to injury and because of cliches like “no pain, no gain,” while there is truth in that statement, the uninformed can take  them to mean working through lasting pain resulting in or from injuries.
That’s not a smart thing to do.
Never overtrain. When you’re an ectomorph you should be training a maximum [...]

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The Dumbbell vs Barbell Debate

March 26, 2010

One of the choices I made early on when choosing to build muscle is to not use a barbell and instead use dumbbell exercises and pull ups.
There were two mains reasons behind this:

I lack the space and I’m not interested in going to the gym
Training with other people isn’t feasible (and training alone with a [...]

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The Hunter-Gatherer Lifestyle

March 18, 2010

Over the past few months I’ve become increasingly interested in the Paleolithic or “caveman” diet and philosophy, promoted by folks like Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple and John Durant, who was somewhat recently interviewed by Stephen Colbert (video above). My understanding of this way of life is still fairly limited (having not lived in [...]

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Should You Train to Failure?

March 3, 2010

Training to failure is the “heroic” approach to training; the act of pushing yourself so far that your muscles genuinely just give way because they cannot support anymore stress. Sounds great doesn’t it? Shouldn’t you strive to be able to push yourself this far?
A few weeks ago I would have answered “Yes” to that question [...]

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Common Pull Up Mistakes Beginners Make (and How to Correct Them)

February 1, 2010

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the pull up.
Not only do I find it fun, and appreciate the fact that it can be done in so many environments, it’s also the most important exercise for the ectomorph. But it’s also an easy exercise to mess up, hindering your gains.
Here are the common [...]

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