Der Alte-Konrad Adenauer

A client of mine recently brought up Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of West Germany after WW II. That got me thinking that this would be a good topic. For those of my esteemed readers, who don't know him, here is a brief list of his accomplishments: After being incarcerated during the Third Reich he became Mayor of Cologne and was elected Chancellor in 1949. His politics helped to rebuild Germany from the ashes of the war, integrated it into NATO, and he managed to get the last German POW's released from the USSR in 1955.

He was certainly a character, never one to mince words. Not exactly an easy fellow, but the right man for a difficult time. One of the things he said was: "Make yourself unpopular, then you will be taken seriously."

I could not agree more - sometimes political correctness does more harm than good. If you truly want to change things or help others, you will have take an unpopular stance once in a while.

"Adipose tissue " is still fat, a "core class" will not get you shredded and doing "a couple sets of leg extensions" will not build legs. Certain things are just stupid or ineffective and should be called for what they are.

Day in and day out, the fitness industry is overloading people with new hype programs, fads and gimmicks. Don't fall for it, be like Adenauer and stay the course, it pays off the the long run.

Till next time!

Maik

5 things that make me want to eat a 45 lbs plate!

Everybody who has ever set foot into a gym, knows that there are some things people do  that can make you want to imitate that chimp in CT not so long ago.

Here are my top 5 nuisances, in no particular order:

1 . Beginners who curl at the squat rack!! Go away, do you really think someone build this enormous cage so you can curl 45 lbs with your 12" arms?? Try a pull up instead, and eat something.

2. Doing cardio in a fasted state. It makes NO difference in regards to your fat loss, your intensity will drop since you don't have nutrients and you stand a bigger chance of losing muscle. Don't get me started on the fat burning zone. There are fat people finishing the NYC marathon, because cardio is not very effective at burning body fat. But that's another article....

3. People bothering with supplements or steroids after 3 months of training. If you can not even  eat 4 healthy meals in a row, sleep well for 2 consecutive  nights and do a single pull up; do you really believe these substances will make an iota of a difference in your physique?

Try again after 3-4 years of training.

4. Doing 1000s of crunches. In short, you have to be lean. Otherwise you are wasting your time

5. Following a routine from a magazine. Unless you are a pharmaceutical enhanced genetic freak, these routines will do nothing for you. Split routines became popular with the advent of dianabol...hmmmm I wonder. The VAST majority of trainees would look better if they split their workouts in upper/lower body or do whole body workouts altogether.

That's it I guess.

I you feel I have forgotten something, feel free to post or email me

Maik

Flexible dieting or how to eat donuts and still lose weight!

That statement should have gotten everyone's attention. But what does flexible dieting mean?

OK, the donut part was more of a hook to get you to read the following. As we all now, dieters are failing by the millions, due to a number of reasons , the biggest one being a lack of will power.

Some of them are so motivated that they don't stray from their diet for weeks, counting every calorie, eating at the perfect time and then....they implode. Due to stress or worries they fall off the wagon completely and stay off it.

This is where flexible dieting comes in; you need to allow yourself to live. If you are on a mild caloric deficit (400 calories per day or less), schedule a cheat meal once a week, so you can go to dinner without worrying. I would give myself a 4-hour window for this and eat a side of fries or a dessert to your liking.

Athletes who run a more severe deficit and have a competent coach need to have a 2-3 day re-feed every week, combined with a heavy weight training session.

This will allow them to stop the muscle loss and revive their metabolism in order to continue to lose body fat.

Most importantly, it gives you a psychological break and you don't feel that your diet is done for good, if you have a donut...hmmmm donuts.....

It will actually help you to get lean!

Till next time

Maik

Yes you can!

Today, a little experiment on one of my lab rats came to culmination. The premise of the experiment was the following: could a busy executive , who came back from 2 severe injuries over the last 3 years, actually increase his strength and build muscle despite a demanding work and travel schedule?

Lets back track 3 years; the candidate had just rehabilitated his torn rotator cuff when he suffered a lower back injury which made it temporarily impossible to stand up or walk. He also started a new job, which involved 2-3 hours commuting per day.

Not exactly the perfect start, but he was very determined not to be pulled down.

After 10 month of training, he was fully functional again and we started training for muscle gains, with drastically reduced weights (one arm rows with 40s, incline bench with 25s).

During the next two years ( yes, that is 24 months - muscle doesn't grow overnight), he managed to gain a good 5-7 lbs of muscle, mainly on back and shoulders, his formerly weak points.

By sticking to his nutritional plan with some carb cycling, he has gotten continuously leaner since April and is now 4 lbs heavier than last summer, while displaying a better muscularity (he also added one inch to his arms)

In addition, he has recently broken several personal bests such as one arm rows with 100 lbs 2x8, as well as incline bench press with 55s.

Seems like he will have a great August at the beach!

Till next time, train hard!

Maik

Passion

The economic downturn is certainly affecting people in many ways: financially, emotionally and spiritually. Those who are unemployed are uncertain about the future, whereas the ones who are still members of the workforces often clinch to a job they despise, since they can't see themselves anywhere else.

In my humble opinion, this is not a good way to live. Yes , there are economic needs and we must pay bills, but this is also your life. My biggest addictions are soccer as a fan and swimming/ bodybuilding, as an athlete. For both I have traveled extensively, spent thousands of hours and dollars and " je ne regrette rien". These were simply the best moments of my life, full of joy and great memories. If I hadn't been a semi-decent swimmer I would have never met my beloved wife.

By being passionate about something I enriched my life and started my own business which now enables me to reach out to others.

I guess I must consider myself lucky to do what I do, but I also made a choice and chose my passion over security and stability. Don't wait till your passion finds you, you must awake these dreams into reality!

Forward, always forward!

July 3rd

It is not a good day, those that know me will know why. 

But not all days can be great, we have to push through the tough ones as well . On to mid city gym, my trusted escape. setting up military press and chin ups, two tried and true staples. the iron, it feels and moves like an old friend. after a few sets, the world looks better, blood has moved into the muscles. on to dips and rows, nothing fancy but guess what... it works. my body looks now about 3 times better than 30 minutes ago and my outlook on the  world has cleared.I can handle even this day, it wont derail me. forward, always forward...

despite what twitter, tmz and youtube tell you, success comes through work and planning. nobody will give it to you in a cute package, you have to go out and awake your dreams. I am a bodybuilder, a coach, this is my destiny and my fulfilment...what is yours?