80 days till summer.....

Yes, it is hard to believe, even though one of the biggest snowstorms has just passed NYC we are only a mere 80 days away from Memorial Day. One of my favorite scenes from "Pumping Iron" is when Arnold walks into Gold's Gym and behind the reception desk is a sign : Days till Mr. Olympia :102.
My point being that it is very easy to get sucked into monotony where you just add workout after workout without remembering what you are actually training for.usually , enthusiasm fades quickly and intensity drops. The athlete starts going through the motions without pushing too hard.
So, as I have written before, it is good idea to have an honest friend with a camera phone take a couple pictures of you every 4-6 week to document progress or lack of it. One of my clients was actually surprised how good he looked after I convinced him to take some snap shots.
So even when the weather is dreadful or other cirumstances make it harder to get to the gym, keep your mind focused on what you want to achive. Every rep, every set, every meal matters!
Train hard
Maik

On my birthday-a toast to my clients!

Birthdays are usually a good opportunity to look back and evaluate. So today I was thinking what an amazing turn my life took when I decided to become a trainer. Bodybuilding gave me a chance to meet so many great people and help others to achieve their goals. I am truly fortunate to have such a great clientele so I just want say thanks for sticking with me!
Maik
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Man-Day And Stupid Ads!

So my lovely wife had to leave for London on a family matter, which put me in the admirable situation to have a "dude's day" on Sunday.
Well, what can I say, I love my wife but it was great! In no particular order, I watched Rambo 3 , Terminator 2, the Simpsons, Family Guy, ate red meat 3 (!!) times and went to Gold's Gym to work out with my protege Davis. We did some shoulders, arms and calves - great workout.
After that, I began flipping through muscle magazines, which is only the natural thing to do on man-day and I couldn't help but notice the stupidity of some supplement ads.
So without further ado, my 10 favorites:
10. "Now with real fruit!" Ok, ...what was it before? Unreal fruit??
9. "Our new pre-workout supp will cause skin bursting pumps! "Wow, that would really hurt and definitely put you in the ER.
8. "Burn 400% more body fat. "Than who? Where is the comparison?
7. "Build 20 lbs of muscle!" That is a great one. Aside from the fact, that it would be a difficult feat to achieve even while on steroids, one has to wonder: what if I only weigh 120 lbs? Do I really gain 15 % of my body weight?
6. "Breakthrough technology." Does it get any more vague than this?
5. "Lean muscle mass. "There isn't really any fatty muscle mass, since that would be called adipose tissue or body fat
4. "Steroid-like results." No further comment
3. "Muscles exploding with new growth." That would probably kill you.
2. "Build x lbs of pure muscle." How in the world do you build impure muscle? If you have this much control over your body, you could definitely play in the NFL.
1. "Product x declares death to fat cells." Without getting into the whole leptin discussion, fat cell death (apoptosis) is extremely rare. If all your fat cells were to die, so would you. Fat is also needed to make testosterone so some of it would be helpful.
I understand they are trying to sell us things, but I can't help but wonder if the supplement industry takes all bodybuilders for illiterates who are unable to tie their own shoes.
Rant mode off...
Train hard !
Maik