The bowl and "peeps"

How is everybody? The weather in NYC just turned spectacular, I can not remember such a beautiful Easter in the city since I ve lived here.
Easter is also notorious for Easter candy and a client of mine alerted me to two phenomenons I had no idea that they existed.
Easter phenomenon Nummer 1: peeps. What the ...?? why would anybody think that making something that looks like it could survive a triple Chernobyl blast is a good idea? The coloring alone is reason enough not to eat it, the sugar content will do the rest. I wonder what the shelf life of these things is? 20 years?
If anyone from the food industry is reading this , how about making some whey protein peeps?
EP number 2: the candy bowl which should be called bowls, in this case we have M+M's, skittles, chocolate covered almonds etc all in their separate nests. This set-up is created by the hoarder or forager, an overbearing office worker who feels the need to feed the world (with junk).
Crime scene: almost any office in North America.
This one is interesting on different levels. So on the one side you have the forager who keeps refilling the bowl and keeps even more candy under the desk in case that by rare chance the candy levels drop by a quarter inch.
On the other hand, there are the victims or colleagues who are constantly being lured to the bowl. One of the goals of the forager is increased traffic and more human contact, the bowl serves as a tool for this.
SO this is certainly a noble intention, it would be even better if it was done with pieces of fruit and almonds.
So how to fight the bowl? First, you can try an educational but not condescending approach. You will be amazed by how little people know about food, from there on you can nudge them toward healthier eating.
If that doesn't work, you have to resign yourself to the fact that some people simply don't care about bodybuilding or even worse are trying to sabotage healthy eating habits. Sad but true....For now avoid them, they will see the light at some point.
Happy Easter
Maik

Just clusters- no flakes!

Finally, the food industry showed mercy and created honey bunches "just bunches", no more flakes! Is there anybody who bought it because it contained flakes? I thought so.
Just enjoy the clusters of nuts and honey...
Bodybuilding is pretty much the same, exercises that you don't feel or that hurt you are flakes. Don't do them because someone says so ( unless its Arnold). Move on with the exercises that give you the best mind-muscle connection and leave the rest out. This doesn't mean skip squats for curls, but if the barbell curl hurts your forearms then, by all means, move to the dumbbell curl.
Same with back exercises, I personally never felt single-arm dumbbell rows, but got a great pump doing the same exercise at the cable.
So there you have it, clusters no flakes!
Maik

Moving on up- with a little help from friends!

This past Saturday, it was time to move to a bigger , brighter apartment with a spectacular view! The move itself wasn't as bad as expected due to our friends Davis and Alex, who were so determined to help that they braved the atrocious weather and came all the way to us.
Most of the work was done on Saturday (thankfully, Alex is very handy!) and we all went out to a nice steak dinner. hmmm.... steak
So, in a way, bodybuilding is like moving. You have to grind it out, pack things up, perform very repetitive tasks but in the end, the rewards are yours to keep.
A better physique, higher self esteem and confidence level. Along the ride, it is good to have friends when you need to get the bed frame up another floor or push you through another set of deadlifts.
Keep moving!
Maik

Charity and Recent Reads

One of clients passed me the book "Muscle" by Sam Fussell, an Oxford grad turned bodybuilder who moves to Southern California in his quest for the perfect physique. During his 3-year odyssey not only he learns to train hard but also peers into the abyss of steroids and diuretics. In the end, it is not the danger of the drugs but the perceived futility of his enterprise that makes him stop.
The book is a fascinating read and I highly recommend it. However, as usually, bodybuilding is being portrayed as a drugged-up sport (which is true but so is every other one - bodybuilding is just more open about it) and bodybuilders are described as a bunch of vain idiots who prostitute themselves for steroid money, unless they are dealing themselves.
There is no denying it, competitive bodybuilding has a dark side. But has anyone ever looked into the baseball minor leagues, soccer's regional teams, the actors that didn't make Broadway, failed writers?
Not everyone can achieve his/her goals, which is unfortunate but not unique to bodybuilding. On the plus side, the sport has helped millions of people create better physiques for themselves, heighten their self-esteem, and be happier.
If some already damaged individual (such as the author, who deals with a lot of paternal frustration) chooses bigger muscles to work out these issues, it is most likely not going to happen.
How about a more uplifting story? Let's say there is a guy from rural, post-war Austria, who picks up weights, becomes Mr. Olympia, a movie star, a brand and Governor Of California?
Sounds too outrageous, I know.
Till next time,
Maik
P.S. On a different note, my friend Brian asked me to contribute to his charity auction last Friday, which I gladly did. Together, we raised some good money, because people do want better physiques :-)

Cant see the forest for the trees!

I started working with a new client these past weeks and after an assessment in the weight room, I took a look at him in the locker room without a shirt to what his body looked like.
To my great astonishment, he told me that his previous coaches had never bothered doing so. Instead, they had him perform a mind-numbing amount of tests, none of them really relevant to bodybuilding.
Now, I am not saying the measuring your VO2 max is bad, it depends on your goal. If you are training for an endurance event, it matters. If you want to look good for a 4th of July party , it doesn't.
You simply need a visual impression to see if the client has long limbs, narrow collar bones, small waist or broad etc. In addition, his fat storage will tell you if he his carb sensitive or not ( if not he is one lucky bastard!), whether his cortisol is high or not etc.
Sometimes, trainers make things too complicated which can be a great sales tactic but doesnt accomplish a whole lot. The client gets ll kinds of graphs and charts and feels he is participating in a very scientific program. That's great but: results matter!
In NYC, 99% of all trainees simply want to look good on the beach. Keep that in mind
For that, you need to understand what the client needs. Is he a hardgainer, does he work seated, how is his stress level?
All too often, people are being presented with a generic "beginners program" which often yields little results and , in some cases , even causes injuries.
Pay attention to details as to how the client moves, see if any muscles are too weak or too tight and work from there on.
In this field, nobody holds the whole truth so stay open minded and find out what works for you.
Train Hard
Maik