Are You Eating Nutritionally, Or Recreationally?

If you’re doing real work in your workout, you want the best fuel for muscle building afterward, right? So why sabotage your efforts by overindulging in foods that will not take you to your goal?

I understand wanting to reward yourself. I understand comfort eating. I even understand lack of planning ahead leading to poor food choices due to starving. But all these issues are within your control.

If you are a newbie and don’t know what the best muscle-building foods are, google it. The greater percentage of your food intake that consists of muscle-building foods as opposed to snack food and empty-calorie food, the faster you will see results.

Is the 5-minute pleasure of a Snickers bar worth the 24-hour-a-day feelings of impatience or frustration you feel at not attaining washboard abs or jacked arms? Only you can answer that question. What it comes down to is, which do you want more?

What Is It You Were Complaining About Again?

A preposterous and pathetic example are those people, male and female, who recently online have professed that (get ready for this one) simply LOOKING at a photo of another human with a beautiful body makes them feel terrible about themselves. Such a bizarre nadir of low self esteem as feeling diminished by viewing another person’s photo is an absolute marker for seeking intensive psychotherapy immediately.

For decades now I have witnessed men and women in wheelchairs working out at the gym. Also, due to Prince Harry’s association, most people have become aware of the Invictus Games which celebrate those military who have lost mobility, yet excel athletically in spite of this. From the waist down or otherwise, these participants’ bodies no longer work as intended due to injury or illness. Yet from the waist up they have built beautiful, powerful, fit physiques. Search Google Images with the phrase “Invictus Games” and “wheelchair bodybuilders” to be awed…or ashamed, as the case may be.

Despite having no mobility in their legs, despite living their life in a chair, despite the overwhelming obstacles in their way, despite the extreme lengths to which they must go to get themselves out of the house and to the gym, and then navigate through a maze of machines and equipment and people in order to get through their workout or athletic routine, they not only do it, but they excel.

No wonder fat and unfit people are enraged. Fat and unfit people’s legs work. Fat and unfit disability is a volunteer disability. Fat and unfit people work harder at achieving their goals of disability, making excuses and compromising their own health than the handicapped people work to achieve the exact opposite. How humiliating. How utterly wasted and underachieving and pathetic fat people and unfit people feel witnessing excellence among the disabled.

The self loathing and anger that the fat and the unfit unleash online and on women's talk shows is apparent in the outrage exhibited whenever confronted with the stark results, photographic or otherwise, of their food, fitness, ingestion and inhalation choices.

What Is “Natty” Bodybuilder Exactly?

Richard Sullivan @ age 52

According to online buffoons, “natty” refers to those who do not use steroids, testosterone, or human growth hormone. Other know-it-alls additionally claim such things as testosterone “boosters” are not allowed (as if they believe they get to write the rules for everyone else), even though they can’t even define what a testosterone booster is exactly.

Truly, most of this argumentative rhetoric comes from losers who have failed at getting themselves into the gym, ending up drooling over images of successful people online, then looking for an excuse to explain their failure.

A  “natty” or “natural bodybuilder” would have to be strictly  defined as one who utilzes nothing but his or her own bodyweight to work out—no dumbbells, no machines, no exercise bands. Bodyweight exercises only. Also, they could use no supplements—no protein bars or powder, vitamins, BCAAs, energy drinks. No Red Bull, No Monster, no coffee. They could eat no foods that are not completely organic and chemical free in their farming, manufacture and processing. You get the picture: "natty" means natural, and natural means NATURAL. Nothing less.

Those representing themselves as some moral authority are informing the rest of us that they are nothing of the kind. These trolls do not get to redefine the historic definitions of words to suit their own pathetic ends, or make rules for others to follow. They don’t get to denigrate or accuse others to solely boost their own feelings of diminished self-worth. They don’t get to tell YOU how to go about achieving your dreams so as not to threaten their fragile egos—or businesses. 

Recognize, then reject these losers and their self-serving preachings.

Brooklyn Beckham: Workout Your Body, Not Your Ego.

Watch the video: click this link:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZMjiqTDir3/?taken-by=brooklynbeckham

The foundation of your workout routine should be governed by exercising your body rather tthan exercising your ego.

Your primary goal—if you expect lifelong fitness and mobility—is safety. That means no Jackass stunts. No crazy crossfit moves you are physically unprepared and incapable of executing. No preposterously heavy weights. No macho assholes egging you on to exceed your physical limits. 

A recent video on Instagram of David Beckham’s 17 year old son performing squats is a great example. Two older male voices are heard off camera, barking instructions as Beckham peforms apparently very heavy squats with no safety and no spotter. If either of these voices is a paid trainer, Brooklyn needs to fire them, STAT. Why Brooklyn Beckham is working out in a gym that doesn’t have a squat cage or rack with safety stops is the first important question. I assume in watching this video he’s relying on “older” and “more experienced” males to guide/instruct/train him. In the end he loses his balance, and with no safety apparatus to catch the barbell, he could well have injured himself badly. I was also suspicious that a young man with undeveloped quads could—or should—be squatting with what appears to be over 300 lbs.

Ego is the primary enemy of fitness progress and gym safety.

Your Elbow Joints Are Nothing More Than Hinges

Arnold

An online trainer on YouTube who I otherwise respect talks about performing triceps exercises by advising that people begin their triceps routine with pushdowns “in order to maintain elbow health.” Triceps exercises properly performed pose  no challenge to elbow health. This tells me he is hyperextending and/or locking out during his triceps exercises, that is, he is unnecessarily challenging his elbow JOINT in what is a MUSCLE-challenging exercise.

You should never challenge your joints. Joints are not designed to be challenged, to bear weight, or to move in opposition of their intended arc or range.

To make progress it is essential that you earn to isolate your individual muscles— your pecs, calves, lateral deltoids, etc. Learning to isolate, to put any given muscle in gear right before performing the exercise just as you do your motor vehicle, is the key to muscle growth and joint injury advoidance.

Guard your joints, especially your elbows, shoulders and knees. They are not muscles. They are not designed to bear weight:  They are NOT shock absorbers. Those things are what your muscles are designed for. Your muscles that surround the joint bear the weight and stress and absorb shock, ensuring that the joint can safely bend or rotate well into old age. Our joints are merely hinges — that’s all they are.

Here We Go Again.

The New York Times is on a desperate mission to absolve overeaters from any responsibility for their poor physical condition. In the last year alone a spate of mindless articles have been published colluding with the fat and the unfit to reinforce what they’re always telling anybody who’ll listen: “It’s not my fault!”

So here we go again. Now it’s our gut bacteria that’s keeping people from doing what they damn well know they have to be doing in order to stay mobile, balanced, energetic, healthy, attractive, youthful, etc., etc..

The shopping baskets, kitchen cupboards and refrigerators of overweight people tell the true tale, always.  Overweight people consume more calories than they burn. This simple fact being a ridiculously easy thing to fix, people instead complicate the issue extraordinarily so as to justify their choice not to.

Hey NYT—who exactly does this article and others like the aforementioned serve anyway? No articles showing studies that reinforce the life-enhancing benefits of eating nutritionally rather than recreationally and a challenging exercise routine exercise appear as regularly or on such a high profile manner in your newspaper. Obviously there are a lot of overweight, not-my-fault people on your staff—and an army of readers in denial you're kowtowing to.

Here's the article.

FOOD: Feeling Deprived?

Photo: Hamburger Hamlet, Sherman Oaks CA

Feeling deprived that you can’t have the exact kind of food you desire in the exact quantity and at the exact moment you crave it?

Poor baby! Here’s a radical thought:

How about feeling deprived of the strength you need to rescue yourself or your children from a sinking automobile, a house fire or a violent attacker? How about feeling deprived because you can’t run two blocks to save your life, can’t find flattering clothes, don’t get the respect or opportunities from others you feel should rightfully receive? How about feeling deprived about your lack of stamina between the sheets? Nobody seems to express angst or deprivation about any of that stuff!

How about feeling deprived instead that you don’t enjoy the exact level of health, the range of mobility, or the beautiful body hidden underneath all that fat and unchallenged muscle awaiting your getting off your ass to do something about it?

Yeah, sure, go right ahead and keep making FOOD a top priority, along with everything else people choose to  medicate with: cigarets, drugs and booze, for starters.

I have no investment in what others choose to do. Keep right on volunteering for diminished capacity, premature aging and physical degradation, day after day, year after year. But please, just stop whining about it.

How Long Should My Workouts Last?

Richard Sullivan @ age 56

Q: How Long Should My Workouts Last?  

A: One online trainer whose advice I usually think is fantastic recently stated that a workout should last no longer than one hour—with 40 minutes being “ideal.” Wait—what?

Another stated, offering no proof other than his hubristic opinion, that “your” muscles no longer respond to your workout exercises after an hour, you know,  because he’s acquainted with you personally—not.

My workout lasts two hours or more, because I really like working out. I love all the benefits. It zaps away daily stresses. I think of nothing else but the workout during those 2 hours. Whatever was bothering me when I walked into the gym is no longer bothering me when I walk out. Even on the cusp of age 70 I build new muscle and bone. That feels good and looks good and is literally anti-aging, as most people at age 70 are deteriorating, especially their muscle and bone, totally needlessly. I can’t stop the aging process but I can stop certain aspects of it. Lastly, nobody, even those offering “scientific proof” ever infuence me when my own personal experience tells me they don’t know what they’re talking about.

So, my advice to you is work out as long as you feel like. Slow down your workout so as to make every rep a deliberate mindful movement, concentrating as much on the negative portion of the exercise as the positive. People who think a workout is something to zoom through just get it out of the way will find their results minimal.

You get out of it what you put into it.

Gwyneth Paltrow Knows What's Best For You, So Shut Up And Get Out Of The Way.

Watch the woman who thinks she knows what's best for you

put her own daughter's life on the line.

My previous post cautioned about signing on to someone’s bullshit based on their sheer brazen hubris: the know-it-all personality.

The Atlantic Magazine presented a clear-headed piece on actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her crazily-popular goop website (here.)

It doesn’t take a surplus of brain cells to figure that Paltrow is no authority on things medical, much less health-related. But she thinks she is:

Featherheaded women in droves are attracted to this Hollywood celebrity's website dispensing new age advice and selling magical potions at sky-high prices—and they're clamoring to buy.

He Said, He Said: Who To Believe?

Richard Sullivan @ age 53

Conflicting advice from so-called “experts” drives people crazy. Whether it’s about food, exercise, supplements, or mothers-in-law, we’re being bombarded from all sides: youtube, internet news sites, celebrity blogs, Instagram stars, loud-mouths at the gym, etc.

After viewing some  blow-hards’ videos on youtube I cringe at commenters who thank or praise the author for their views or advice, my experience telling me the advice is bogus, thoughtless, naive, dangerous, or all four.

Fact is, only you and your brain can decide whose advice to follow and whose to reject. Our personal  worldview has a lot to do with that decision, as we tend to follow or listen to those who we feel share our values or are more like us.

Are there bad foods we should avoid? of course. Are there bad exercises we should never do at the gym, bad machines we should never use at the gym? Well, not so fast there. Some youtube exercise/fitness “gurus” who I agree with most of the time have stated nonsense with regard to “bad exercises” or machines which were only bad in their case because these gurus were demonstrating their own poor form in performing these exercises.

The root of this problem lies with the public's looking for quick fixes or some antidote to the complicated decision-making  process. To these people I say “slow down,” and then do your homework. Watch comparative videos—and lots of them—and proceed cautiously with anyone advising you to go to extremes, such as “work through the pain” (never do that), or lift more weight than you know you can handle. Attention-seekers go to extremes to attract attention, so don’t be so easily led. Be skeptical. Do your homework. Devote yourself to learning your craft. Finally, understand that because someone claims something outlandish or extreme  worked for them does not translate it will work for you.

There’s No Cure For Stupid.

Circa 1915: Abe Boshes was American President Woodrow Wilson's

personal trainer from 1917-1924.

Ignorance is one's lack of knowledge; stupidity is one's rejection of knowledge. 

And there’s no changing the minds of those non-achievers who scream “steroids!” at everyone who's ever excelled at what they themselves have failed at.

Virtually every fitness and bodybuilding video online is deluged with disparaging comments from losers who are crying big girlie tears because they cannot summon the slightest motivation to get their asses to the gym or to work out at home.

Hundreds of photos—called “cabinet cards” in days of yore—can be viewed online of spectacularly built men from the 1800s and early 1900s, long before steroids existed. However, supplying such “proof” to this subgroup of desperate deniers changes nothing in their eyes, because hanging on to their self-serving worldview overwhelms all else. To hell with facts, right?

Not to ignore either the obvious obsession of many of these same males who spend hours searching for and watching videos of men with beautiful bodies. Like the schoolboy who pulls the hair of the schoolgirl he has a crush on so as to disguise his attraction to her—lest his friends rag on him about it—these commenters leave disparaging comments about their crushes to cover for their attraction to these men. It’s called Psychology 101. Hey, don’t blame the messenger for seeing so clearly what these Sad Sacks think they’re hiding—after all, that's why they're called stupid.

Add to this the smorgasbord of insecurities that most men are trying to hide, and you end up with a whole lot of nasty, volatile, violent guys who feel justified in their anger.

Steroids are the miracle fountain of youth everyone’s been searching for, and thus serve nicely as the main go-to excuse for losers who need some way to justify their failure at something so ridiculously simple as building muscle, you know, because they're "morally superior."

To hide the fact you take steroids under a doctor's supervision is ridiculous. To believe you need steroids to build impressive muscle is wrong. To demonize steroids as your personal excuse for failing to achieve the body you've always wanted is to embarrass yourself.

How A Protein Powder Tastes Is The Least Of It.

What does it say about people when overwhelmingly their reviews for all protein powders focus on taste?

Go to any site that sells protein powders and marvel at how few, if any, customers have anything to say about efficacy or quality.

True, for the average person, determining how effective a protein powder is at building muscle is difficult as few are willing to keep the necessary daily records to support their claim.

There is a high level of trust given the company LabDoor, which independently tests all kinds of supplements for both quality and price.

Go to labdoor.com and see how your chosen supplements rate. How your protein powder tastes should be the least of your concerns, especially since all you have to do is add flavorings or sweeteners to please your palate.

The ONLY Thing In Life We Can Control Is Our Own Body

Except for our own body, we control nothing.

Everything else in life that is meaningful requires the cooperation of other people. We need other people to agree to any sort of relationship with us. We need other people to hire us, promote us, buy our products or services, to provide aid and inclusion, to grow our food, to make shelter available to us.

When it comes to health, fitness and well-being, great emotion surrounds these issues because despite denial and arguments to the contrary, only we get to decide—and when it’s clear we decided wrong, we are angry and ashamed. And as hard as we may try, there is no one else to blame.

Blaming or justifying does not turn back the clock, but changing our ways certainly can. People, especially older people, have two choices: either call a dead stop your bullshit or continue driving toward the cliff.

I have no personal investment in others’ choices, but when self destructive people experiencing the results of their bad decisions demand accommodation from me, I get angry, especially when the powers that be agree with them and take away from those who made the right decision so as to provide accommodations for those who did not. But I personally cannot control that, as it is the way a delinquent society works. The vast majority of society's members  do not work committedly toward good health, either physical or mental. The great majority—as evidenced by the ridiculous obesity statistics—intentionally pursue a self-destructive path. But there will be no winners among them, as we all die alone with our regrets. There is no comfort at the end of their lives for those self-destructive people whose last months or years are spent in physical pain and mental anguish.

In a world in which we have little power, taking control of the ONLY area of power we do have makes all the difference in our quality of life and our sense of well-being. Tick-tock.

This is GQ Magazine's Idea Of "Most Stylish." No, I'm Not Kidding.

It's been a while since I ragged on "GQ" (apparently "GQ" is the polar opposite of "IQ") magazine for their staff's unending absurdity, so there's this:

The GQ slideshow is titled "How New York’s Most Stylish Men Dress Right Now" and these poor guys as well as others like them have the distinction of a men's "fashion" magazine elevating them to Style God status.

They did not ask to be photographed as they walked down the street, so they can dress any way they wish. But when a periodical is so disconnected from its readership — not to mention reality — as to highlight sloppiness and ill-fitting garb as an example of "most stylish," then enough said.

In a society with way too much unemployment it's troubling to realize people are actually being paid to disseminate this sort of mindless garbage online.

"Start Something New": Are You Volunteering For Old Age?

95 year old Dr. Charles Eugster

No matter how old you are, if you’re not actively building and strengthening bone and muscle, you’re losing bone and muscle. It’s your choice.

Seeing old people a decade or more younger than myself limping and unbalanced, looking ready to topple over, is a powerful image in that these people for the most part invited this condition into their lives. Human nature of course requires most to deny they had anything to do with it or could have prevented it.

Even so, when people realize their mobility has been compromised and they are fast going downhill they still do nothing about the problem other than spend money on pills or powders they convince themselves will reverse the damage.

We can either choose to be among this sorry group or we can maintain ourselves physically to extend our youthful abilities indefinitely. Or we can be like 95 year old Dr. Charles Eugster and try something we've never tried before. 

Those who argue vehemently against this fact are the very people who refuse to take responsibility for what they have already lost.