Time-tested strategies for building muscle, burning fat and optimizing health

If you flick on the news for more than 30 seconds, you’re sure to hear a lot of hype and scare tactics about the
“killer” flu that’s been going around.

Jack Lalanne knows the secrets of keeping yourself fit and healthy

A while back it was the bird flu. Now it’s the swine flu. And I’m sure there will be yet another deadly flu scare next year.

While scientists rush to develop the latest modern flu shots, you can actually take a note from the old time trainers and
significantly reduce your odds of ever catching the flu just by following these “old wives” tales for flu prevention.

Much of this advice is routinely ignored by the mainstream media. But that doesn’t diminish the effectiveness of this simple regimen.

So without further ado, here are a few simple steps you can take to dramatically reduce your liklihood of catching the flu this year:
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Health and fitness news from the week of Sept. 28th, 2009

Here’s the latest health & fitness news from around the internet:

* If you’re a Sports Center junkie (like me), you’ve no doubt seen the story about USC tailback Stafon Johnson. While bench pressing, a barbell with 275lbs slipped out of Johnson’s hand and crushed his throat. After a 7 hour surgery, he’s listed in stable condition.

This is purely speculation on my part, but I suspect he may have been using a “thumb-less” or “suicide” grip on the barbell. Personally, I’m not a fan of this grip. So if you’ve been using this grip, perhaps it’s time to switch back to regular “thumbs-around” grip.

You could be next.

* A study done on Oxford rowers found that rowers were able to handle more pain when rowing with teammates as opposed to rowing alone.

This explains why training with a partner may yield more productive workouts. If you train alone (like me), then you’re out of luck. Or (like me) you can just imagine that Reg Park, Arnold and John Grimek are working out with you, cheering you on.

* Looks like I’m not the only one who hates The Biggest Loser. Mark Sisson does a fine job of carving up this “reality” weight loss show.

* Did you know that Casey Butt (owner of the long-standing “Weightrainer” website) has a blog? Neither did I. Check it out here. Good stuff from a life-long natural trainer.

* The Fall Issue of “Classic Physique Builder” has just been released. If you haven’t seen this free online magazine and blog, you can check it out here.

* Finally, a new website burst onto the internet recently and I for one and loving it. “70’s Big” is all about how to get big and strong like the guys in the 1970’s did.

That’s it for this week. Happy reading.

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5BX: The Canadian Fitness Plan

In the 1950’s, the Royal Canadian Air Force asked scientist Bill Orban to create a fitness plan for their pilots. (At the time, a whopping 33% of Royal Canadian Air Force pilots were considered “unfit” for flight.)

Orban was given two requirements: First, the plan must only take a few minutes a day. And second, since many of these pilots were stationed on remote bases, the plan must NOT require any equipment.

Mr. Orban went to work. During his research, he noticed that long periods of exercise did not show any significant advantage over short periods of exercise. Armed with this knowledge, Orban decided that intensity was more important than the duration of time spent exercising.

With that in mind, he created a simple daily exercise program known as “5BX”. The 5BX was eventually released to the public program sold over 23 million copies worldwide.

(Orban received zero money from this worldwide best seller. I guess that’s the pitfall of working with the government.)

The 5BX plan itself is very simple. You can see it for yourself here.

But it got me thinking: What could I recommend if somebody LITERALLY only had 5 minutes a day to get fit and had NO equipment?

Here’s what I came up with:

The Five Minute Fitness Plan

20 Bodyweight Squats
10 Push-ups.

Repeat for as many rounds as you can get within 5 minutes.

Looks incredibly simple, right?

Try it.

Not only will it get your heart racing, but it works almost every muscle in your body with just two simple, no-equipment-needed exercises.

(Note: The bodyweight squats should be done to proper depth — hips below the knee. If you cut off the squats and make them half or quarter squats, this routine becomes incredibly easy and, by extension, far less effective.)

With the inclusion of one more exercise, the plan gets even better.

20 Bodyweight Squats
10 Push-Ups
5 Pull-ups.

I realize not everyone will have access to a pull-up bar so I left it out of the original program. But if you can find a place to pull yourself up, you’re in business. A tree branch, door ledge, I-beam… anything will do in a pinch.

Obviously, a program like this won’t give you 20-inch biceps or the endurance capabilities to run a marathon in under 3 hours.

But this simple program, combined with a smart, healthy eating plan will give you a good-looking physique and a good “base-level” of fitness.

Next time you’re running low on time… or if you’re stuck out in the wilderness somewhere… give this routine a shot.

P.S. This program would work great for college students stuck in tiny dorm rooms.

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Do muscles slow you down? Conan thinks not.

Some myths just won’t go away. And sometimes I’m surprised how even the “experts” still get this stuff wrong.

Case in point:

For my last blog post, I was looking up some stats about Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.

During my research, I stumbled across an article detailing how this ultra-strong and ultra-fast running back almost got “tricked” into gaining 10lbs of muscle.

You can read the article here.

For this post, I’ll provide quick recap:

Peterson was hanging out during the off-season and a few veterans convinced him that he’d be even better if he gained 10lbs of muscle. Peterson was convinced but before he set out to accomplish his goal he consulted with a few “experts” (his coach and his father). The “experts” explained that Peterson had been duped by the wiley veterans and that he should NOT sacrifice his blazing speed in the pursuit of an additional 10lbs of muscle.

But this is the part I don’t get: Why do these experts still believe that muscle makes you slower? Would an extra 10lbs of muscle actually make Adrian Peterson slower?

Not likely. In fact, you could even make the argument that the reason Peterson is so fast already is because he carries so much muscle mass.

Using the same logic espoused by the “experts” above, Peterson could actually get even faster if he LOST 10lbs of muscle. We know that doesn’t make much sense, so why would it make any sense that gaining muscle will make you slower?

But unfortunately, people are still confused by this. Yes, added muscle increases your bodyweight. But that doesn’t automatically make you slower. Strength coach Mark Rippetoe talks about this in the terms of adding a bigger engine to your car. Does the bigger engine increase the overall weight of the vehicle?

Of course.

Does a bigger engine make the car slower? Not by a long shot.

So I’ll open this up for comments. What do you think? Do you believe that gaining lean muscle mass slows you down? If you think that’s just a myth, why do you think this myth still persists, even at the highest levels of athletics?

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Sorry for the lack of posts lately.

Here’s a little something to tide you over.

Believe it or not, I’m actually going to link to a t-nation article.
(Something inside of me just died).

While the guys at t-nation catch a lot of flack (and deservedly so), occasionally they do good.

Like when they run articles by Dan John.

Today’s article was especially good and I recommend you read it now.

Soak up the wisdom of the article and do your best to shield your eyes from the ridiculous bodybuilder photos.

Oh and one more thing: Enjoy the holiday weekend.

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