My good buddy Adam Glass has a great video below that shows you 5 ways to use lifting straps.

If you are using them just to hold on to the bar, check out these alternatives

Adam Glass Showing You 5 Cool Options With Lifting Straps

My notes

I am not a big fan of a false grip on the bench press unless you are in a rack that is set appropriately. Adam shows you a better way to do this if you still want to use a false/thumbless grip.

Looking for a new squat variation? Chin up variation or even deadlift variations? They are all in the video above.

Summary

Lifting straps can serve many purposes and I would agree with Adam that they are not useless. I do feel that if you use them ALL the time, that is not ideal and variety is a good thing in the quest to get stronger.

Rock on
Mike N

Wow, Derek is insane! Check this out

Making a 400 lb log look like nothing!

WOW! Pretty crazy stuff. I need to go lift something now……

Summary

The goal is to be the best YOU can be. If you look at Derek’s performance over time, you will see that he gets better and better every year. Better is the goal

Rock on
Mike N

PS–I have tons of great new articles and information over at my new site at www.miketnelson.com so go check it out!

It is May here in Minnesota and the temperature is 2 rat’s hairs above freezing.  This type of weather has me questioning why I live here in the frozen tundra.   Penguins are running around laughing at me…..ok, so it is not that bad YET!

As luck would have it, my furnace went out this past Thursday.   I was hoping to wait for a bit due  to summer, but perhaps that is not the best idea now as I have my long  underwear on and I need to keep my hands moving so they don’t freeze  off.   Good thing for you as that means another article!

Loco Loco

I am not right in the head as I did not make time to have someone look at my furnace this past weekend (you know what they charge you on a weekend?  yikes) so that I can help out at the Movement’s Biomechanics of Physique Enhancement.  It was another amazing certification with excellent teaching (hat’s off to Frankie Faires) and more amazing Movement candidates that came from all over the country.  Seeing the Movement grow and people busting plateaus warms my heart (which is good since it is freaking cold in here now).

The Problem: Progress Has Stalled

One core concept it is EXPECTED to make PERPETUAL PROGRESS.

Yes, you read that right.  Continual progress towards your physique and performance goals.

Sounds nutty doesn’t it?

Are you stuck at a never ending plateau?  Have your lifts not gone up since Obama became president?  Since Bush?  Since Hillary did not look like a wax caricature?  Palin said something intelligent?  (ok that is a really long time)

Are you trying harder and harder only for little to no results and a visit from the pain monster?   Elbows creaky like the tin man?

I’ve been there too and it sucks large moose balls.  Not any fun.

You try harder and harder, only to see very slow progress.

I am here to help you out with 3 key things that will make a massive difference.   Unfortunately these took me years to learn (read: steal from others) and I don’t want you to go through the same process (read: I am a nice guy).

1) Test Your Movements

Everything you do is either making you better or worse

You get to decide which one.

Do more movements that make you better.

Pretty simple, eh?

You can determine if a movement is good for you by measuring  your range of motion (ROM) before and after an exercise.

More ROM = good exercise (green light)

Less ROM = not so good exercise (red light)

You can use a toe touch, arm raise, any ROM can work.   Just stop at the first sign of any tension and measure the distance.  Do an exercise and remeasure.  It will either be a green or red light.

Go for the greens!

2) Stop Trying So Hard!

If it was only as easy as trying harder, you would not be stuck at a plateau and everyone in Planet Fitness across the world would be making scary progress.

I too was convinced that trying hard(er) was the key.

Heck, I paid several top coaches who confirmed this “fact”!

My result?

Very little difference in muscle, strength and more pain.   A lot more pain.

At one point, washing my face in the sink was an exercise in mobility to get my feet far apart enough and to slowly lower my face to the sink without causing any low back pain.

I was up to over an hour of foam rolling, static stretching, dynamic mobility work and joint mobility just to start at a very low weight and go up to my working weight over 3-8 sets.

Yes, all of this BEFORE I really “started” to exercise.

My typical gym session was 2.5 hours.

Finally I said enough was enough and opted to try a different path.   I could no longer look at my results (or lack there of) and justify it as “progress.”

At the time I was working with Z-Health and decided to try that approach full stop since I did not have anything to lose.

I remember sitting a dinner with Dr. Cobb of Z-Health and I asked him point blank  “If you were me, and you know my issues, what would you do?”

His response was “fire your coach and try this!”

So, being the wise man that I was, I decided to do just that.  The main thing I did differently in the gym was to stop all sets as soon as breathing or tension is increased.

At first this seemed really foreign.   I FELT like I was not doing anything. It felt too easy.

But, I was determined to keep going forward and despite not pulling any heavy deadlifts, I added 25 lbs to my max deadlift in 5 months.  Previous to this, I was stuck at the same weight for well over a year, despite keeping it as my main goal!

Stop trying so hard and you will thank me later.    Try has nothing to do with it.  Test it.

3) Progressive Overload

Unfortunately, while I made great progress during that phase, I forgot to keep in overload!  The only type of overload I was using consistently was intensity based—the heaviest weight I could lift for a single rep.

While this is good, we all know that you can’t add weight to the bar every session or every week forever.

If we could, there would be people pulling double to triple bodyweightdeadlifts at every gym.  Heck, most gyms you can’t even find someone lifting anything off the ground, period.    Oh, and Planet Fitness will kick you out for that too since, yikes, we don’t want people progress too fast and scare other members.

Pleeeezeee…..

The key is PROGRESSIVE overload.

Work to add 1) more volume (weight x sets x reps)

2) density (volume / time) and 3) intensity.

This may not happen all in the same session, but EACH one of those is a form of overload.

Your body will respond to it.  As my buddy Frankie says “Adaptation has no off switch”

The typical progression that I see for exercises and overload is Volume, volume, volume, density, intensity.

You will probably  be different, but that is a rough starting point.

Summary

Follow these 3 key factors and I can guarantee you will be adding more muscle, strength and dropping fat too in record time, all with less pain

No more Tin man for you!

While this is not an exhaustive list, it is a great starting point; so time for action.

Comments.

Give me 10 comments by tomorrow, Wed May 4 at 5pm, and I will be back with 2 more huge tips for you then.    Just place a comment below right now and let me know what you think on this!

Rock on

Mike N

PS

If you want me to personally guide you to more muscle, strength and less fat and pain; I have only a few spots left for much much less than I normally charge.  Go to this link now Click HERE for Guaranteed Results (time sensitive)

Will, I hear that you dropped a bunch of weight in a few weeks.  How much exactly?

With consistent weigh ins on the Omiron brand electronic scale with body fat reading, I went from 259.2 pounds on March 3rd to 234.6 pounds on April 5th.

Holy crap man, that is a loss of 25 lbs in about 4 weeks!  Did you lose any muscle during that time period?

It does not appear so.  My January 3rd weigh in was 242.2 lbs. and lean, feeling strong and loving life, PR’ing in everything I tested and enjoying the concept of Met-Flex.  After my neck injury from 2001 made a resurgence, loss of sleep due to pain and stress wrecked me for about 6 weeks and I gained 17 pounds of undesirable weight.  Now, at just over/under 235lbs, I feel better than I did at 235 in September.

Will Williams After Picture

Awesome work man to not let a set back permanently stop your progress!  What were the big keys for you?

As I mentioned before, the concept of Metabolic Flexibility was working nicely for me and one variable [which would prove to be a huge player this time] that I did not factor in was developing a numbered caloric compliance window.  Or, I did not assign a low-compliant or non-compliant limit to my desired daily caloric intake, as my desire was to add some muscle.  I do not need to look at total calories too closely to add muscle.  In fact, I may be one of those people who add lean muscle just by typing it! (editor’s note, I hate you Will)

After attending Adam Glass’ Physique Transformation lecture at The Movement Minneapolis’ and coming back to Philly armed with your work with for the science and Adam’s “on the ground” concept for me, I developed, tracked, and tested the following five factors:

1. Desired caloric intake of 2100 calories [not to include veggies] with a 20% over & under window of compliance.

2. Tracking my macronutrient ratio and recording the effects of consuming 1 gram of protein for each pound of lean mass [no problem!].

3. Tracking and recording the effects of experiments involving days where I eat any available combination of High-Medium-Low quantities of meal;

Frequency-Intensity-Density.

4.  Not freaking out if I drank a whole bottle of wine or ate way more calories than 2100 on days where my body said to me “Hey, how ’bout a little more, eh?”

5.  Applying pain resolution techniques to my body in order to facilitate a higher quality of movement so that I could train better, faster, and smarter.

Future plans?

Heck yeah! I noticed that after the last few weeks of training in a state of reduced pain, when speed training tests well for me using the Gym Movement Protocol, I am hungry like the wolf.  So, in another 5 or so days, when I recalibrate my 100% compliance ratio based off another Body-fat & lean mass reading, I will continue to record the correlation between when I move fast and when I eat the most calories.

I am not kidding when I say that last Sunday I tested well and trained for speed and ate 3 AhI tuna steaks, 4 16oz tubs of whole milk cottage cheese, 2 cans of beans, and a bushel of veggies over the 9 hours that followed my session.  And the next day I woke up and felt like dy-no-mite.

Thanks for the science that proves that we are capable of running our own experiments.  Over and out.   Will Williams,  Authentic Strength. Philly, PA

Summary

Kudos to Will for taking the knowledge that he learned and applied it pronto for MASSIVE results.   Dropping 25 pounds without a loss of strength in about 4 weeks is insane!  While these results are not normal, and yes before I get tons of hate mail I know that some of that was water and glycogen perhaps so it was not 100% fat.   The take away is that crazy results can happen with the correct action!

You can drop a ton of fat without losing muscle if it is done right. The key is to learn to listen to your body, apply some testing to see what is best for YOU, and monitor the massive results.

If you are in the Philly, PA area, I highly recommend you get out to see Will at Authentic Strength..  It will be well worth your time.

If you are not near the Philly area, I have a few spots open in my E-class where I will personally lead you step by step to determine what is best for YOUR body for more muscle, strength and less fat.  I guarantee you will see massive results and be even more awesome!

Check it out here before it is full  E-Class for Massive Fat Loss and Muscle Gain in 5 Weeks

Rock on

Mike N

PS -The E-class will fill up fast, so I apologize if you sign up and find it to be full.   Due to the very personal nature of this course, I can only fit 25 people at one time and I don’t plan to ever offer it again at this price!  Don’t miss out!

E-Class for Massive Fat Loss and Muscle Gain in 5 Weeks

This is such an insane deadlift by Magnusson!

Big Tip: Notice that he makes it LOOK easy!

This is a new World Record, but it LOOKS easy.   Notice the bar speed!

The key is to literally train your brain that it IS easy.

Why are most people (nobody here though) making everything in the gym look hard?

Slow moving weights with a horrible looking sour puss face = it is hard.

They are telling their bodies it IS hard.

How much more output will their body want to do?

How much of easy can you get done vs. hard?

Teach your body it IS easy.

Note: this does NOT mean never lift anything heavy, only use pink 5 lbs dumbbells and only a 22 lb kettlebell like the Kettleworx guy says.

Work to get more quality overload by lifting 1) more weight 2) more volume 3) better density

Notice, I did not say that it has to FEEL hard.

Overload is key. The body HAS to respond in a positive direction with more muscle, strength and less fat.

Stop your sets when your breathing changes, you add excess tension, or your form changes (this is normally not the first sign).

if you are not sure which exercise to do, test it out (I show you how in this video for free for more muscle and strength).

Make it easy and add up more overload.

Action time!

Rock on
Mike N