Man Bicep Mom – March to the Beat of Your Own Drum
I’m a big believer in competitive sports for kids. Competing in a sport is a wonderful, character building experience.
Thinking back on my own experiences in ice skating and tennis, I marvel at all the things I learned from competing in a sport.
First off, I had to learn to organize my time. If I wanted to get all my homework done and get good grades, I had to learn to prioritize and use my time efficiently. Since I had a smaller window for doing my homework each evening, I learned to apply myself when I sat down to study. The endless evening of studying (or avoiding it) was not an option.
I had to learn to plan ahead for those weekends when I was out-of-town at skating meets. You didn’t study at a skating meet. I think the need to organize and plan ahead gave me a feeling of control and accomplishment.
And then, of course, there were those days when you just didn’t want to skate or workout or play tennis. I remember doing rain dances, pleading with the skies to open up so I didn’t have to go to a skating workout. But most of the time the workouts happened and I went and practiced hard.
I learned how to push myself. I learned how to push myself in a workout even though I was tired. I learned how to push past the pain in a race to cross the finish line. I learned how to push past the nerves in a tennis match and continue to go for my shots.
Once again I had a feeling of control and accomplishment.
I learned about cheating and confronted the kind of person I wanted to be. In tennis it’s very easy to cheat. Unless you’re a pro you call your own lines and your own score. It’s very easy to call that in ball out when you want it to be out so badly. It’s a big decision to decide that you want to win fairly. It’s a decision that can affect your whole life. Too bad more parents and coaches aren’t helping their young athletes make the right choice. Boy, do I have stories about that…
So I learned how to organize my time and plan ahead and push myself beyond what I thought I could do. I began to define myself as a person and find my moral center. I felt pretty good about myself – mature, accomplished and self-confident. I was busy doing something that I loved.
In talking to friends years later, I realized that I had missed a lot of the sturm und drang of high school. All the social one-upmanship and petty gossip went right past me. I was just too busy to pay any attention and, maybe, had enough confidence in myself to ignore it.
I also had enough confidence to march to my own drummer. I loved my sports, but they often conflicted with parties, social events and dates. I chose the sports – skating meets and tennis tournaments – and have never regretted it. So did Cori. She chose tennis over parties.
I remember having to fill out a questionnaire for Cori’s guidance counsel to help her with her letter of recommendation for Cori for college. I remembering putting down that Cori marched to her own drummer. I watched Cori ignore the mean, popular girls and side-step the drinking and drugs. She played her tennis and got good grades. She stayed focused and determined.
Of course, you can learn a lot of these lessons doing other activities. But mix these lessons with endorphins and a possible lifestyle choice and you have a winning combination.
“Fuckarounditis”
This is an article by a guy that I worship, Martin Berkhan. Ryan sent me this article today and I love it! It is a great article that makes you really think about the way you workout and if it is working.
If you have any of the 25 symptoms (and I know a lot of women who suffer from number 10), you should really rethink your workout program. And Man Bicep can definitely help you with number 10 (You’re afraid of “bulky muscles” and use terms like “toning.”).
I’m pretty sure most of us will find we suffer from at least one. I know Candy and I suffer from number 4 (You’re doing too much shit). We definitely aren’t minimalists with our workouts, which is something we will be working on.
Anyway, check it out! Lean Gains “Fuckarounditis”
Top 10 – Brian’s FAVORITE Upper Body Exercises
So Brian’s FAVORITE (and I mean FAVORITE) thing to work is his chest…and upper body in general. These are his 10 FAVORITE upper body exercises.
1. Bench – Ok who doesn’t love bench!?! Barbell Flat Bench is by far Brian’s favorite. It is a GREAT compound exercise. And as Lisa mentioned, “Strengthening your “man pecs” helps keep the twins perky!” The bench press works your pecs, triceps, shoulders and abs among other things! Here is an article about the flat bench press. You can also vary up your bench press by doing incline barbell or dumbbell variations. There are also other tortuous variations such as pause bench…but that is an exercise for another day.
2. Push ups – Brian thinks push ups are easy…I don’t exactly agree but I do think they are awesome for you! Push ups are one of those exercises that you need to actually DO to get better at. Doing bench and such will help, but to truly get good at push ups…you need to DO push ups. Girls don’t just do push ups from your knees because you are girls!!! Channel your inner man and bust them out from your toes or even attempt a decline push up or two (or 10).
3. Dips – You can do these off a bench or from a dip machine, but DO THEM. I find the ones off the bench much easier than full dips, but both can be good. I feel that the ones on the bench pretty much only tire out my triceps while the full dips from the bars work my chest, lower traps, triceps and my anterior deltoid (the front of your shoulder).
Full, off the bars dips.
4. Wide grip pull ups – I happen to agree with Brian about these….I LOVE PULL UPS! THEY ARE AWESOME! Wide grip are especially awesome because they are hard and they isolate your lats. Regular pull ups tend to use a lot of bicep so these are great to mix in to just work your back!
5. Dumbbell 1 arm row – Brian loves this one because as he said, “You can use heavy weight and it is a good way to build strength and size.” That’s what us Man Bicepers love! 🙂
6. Seated DB Military Press – If you want to improve your bench and push ups, you need to strengthen your shoulders. Military press is a great way to do that. Using dumbbells engages more stabilizer muscles in your core and shoulders. Doing the military press seated instead of standing can also be safer if you aren’t as sure of form – just make sure your back is fully pressed into the back of the seat.
7. Front to Side Raises – Shoulder murder. 1 rep is a front raise and then a side raise.
8. Posterior Deltoid Flyes (with a resistance band) – Brian loves this one because no one works on their posterior deltoids. He says, “They are neglected. People focus on the anterior and medial deltoid.” (Brian also mentioned the fact that Candy has what we jokingly call “monster anterior deltoids.”) Choose a resistance band that you can stretch all the way out while having your hands about shoulder width apart.
9. Straight Bar Bicep Curl – This hits every aspect of the bicep. Don’t cheat – go all the way down and all the way up and DON’T SWING! Stagger the feet if you need to. BUT DON’T CHEAT!
10. Skull Crushers – Please don’t crush your face when you do these. Grab dumbbells and lay flat on a bench or floor. Bending at the elbows and keeping your triceps perpendicular to your body, lower the weights down toward your head. Try to keep your elbows in. Stop before you hit your face and straighten the arms back up without any flexion of the shoulder.
Some others that Candy and I love that weren’t on Brian’s list: Dumbbell pullovers and Iron Cross. Iron cross is also shoulder murder and DB pullovers are a great exercise to work your chest, back and triceps all at the same time! If you do a pullover while holding a glute bridge, you get the added bonus of working your core, glutes and hamstrings.
Some that we hate:
Candy hates pull ups.
I hate Overhead Tricep Extensions…UGH!
We both hate manual tricep pushdowns (which almost made Brian’s list).
Push ups here, push ups there…push ups when you’re almost bare!
Lisa is the ONLY girl doing a push up outside in 31 degree weather in a bathing suit.
Thank you Lisa! We expect a new one from the Santa Speedo Run this year!
Thank you also for this picture from after your run! Nice handstand push up!
She may have bonked her head doing a full push up...but this is AMAZING!
Do I nauseate you?
The answer seems to be…yes.
Candy told me last night that the workout I designed (which ended with Medball Burpee Slams and Sumo Deadlift High Pulls) made her want to barf.
This morning a new client also told me that she felt nauseated. She said she’d never felt like that before during a workout.
So what is it about me and my workouts that make people want to barf?
The workouts are fast paced. The workouts cram as much stuff into as short a time as possible. You usually have very little rest. And I try to incorporate as many full-body exercises as possible so that I fatigue each and every muscle as much as possible. I also love to push you by adding in challenging weights. And I try to add in burpees as often as possible (or as one of my clients calls them…barfies).
Plus I’m always looking to add in more reps and sets than you would normal push yourself to do.
So that is how I make people want to barf. Because I push them to do way more than they would usually do. I force them to challenge their bodies. And because their bodies aren’t used to the challenge (or in Candy and my case because we push ourselves to the point of no return), they feel like they are going to barf…or at least they get light-headed.
Do I take pride in making people want to barf? No…unless it is Candy or me. But I do take pride in the fact that I force people to work hard and even make them enjoy the challenge….at least I figure they like the challenge since they keep purchasing more sessions….
Does all of this make me and anyone else that loves working out till they feel sick a little sadistic? Yes, probably so.
And the Push Ups Continue…
Thank you Nancy for your push up in our lobby!
Look at that decline push up!
News?
So I wasn’t fully awake this morning and wasn’t yet ready to start on the daily accounting package so instead I visited MSN Health to see if there were any interesting articles.
What I found disturbed me.
A video about 10 crazy diets, that was essentially just a list of ten diets, passed as an article! There was nothing informative about the video! Not to mention, the caveman or Paleo diet was on there! 😦
This video was surrounded by other dumb videos like “How to walk your way to a flat stomach” and “Lose weight by training your metabolism.” If it were that easy, why aren’t more people in shape!?!
There was also a video called “Five diet rules you can break.”
BLEH! I hate things like that. Five rules you can break? Then why are they rules?
Half the time articles like that just provide people with excuses to break their diets.
Why are we so worried about informing people about the rules they can break instead of telling them about diets that actually work? Why can’t people just be honest and say, “Look being super sexy is hard! Losing weight and keeping it off may be something you struggle with the rest of your life!”
And instead of just listing ten random diets, why don’t NEWS articles explain the diets and why they are supposedly wrong! Or why don’t they list 10 diets that may work for you?
Come on! Isn’t NEWS supposed to inform the population?
Supplementation
So I went to Vitamin World yesterday to buy some Creatine and protein powder with Ryan. And while we were purchasing these items, who did the salesman talk to? Ryan.
The guy never even asked me if I wanted any help.
Was I being ignored because I was female? Or was it just bad service?
I’m hoping it was just bad service, but it did get me to thinking about women and their comfort level with supplements.
Supplements and weight training go hand in hand. Most of the women think of supplements the same way they think about heavy weight training – both are just something men use to get big. They don’t consider the strength or fat loss benefits of supplements.
I was shy myself about using supplements. I first started by just taking protein powder. I would put it in my smoothies to make them more of a meal. I started doing this when I went on The Abs Diet.
And recently I’ve seen more and more women drinking protein powder. Of course they drink it as a meal replacement (and usually they drink Muscle Milk, which probably is the best tasting protein powder but also the one with the most junk in it).
But using protein is the first step to using supplements.
After becoming more comfortable with protein (and after I got really into gaining more strength and muscle definition), I started experimenting with other supplements. I tried L-Arginine and BCAAs (branch chain amino acids).
I tried L-Arginine because it was a nitric oxide booster. Nitric oxide causes vasodilation, which means the muscles around the blood vessels relax and the blood vessels dilate so that blood can flow more freely. Because the blood vessels are dilated, more blood can reach your muscle tissues, which means the muscles will receive immediate supplies of nutrients. Nitric oxide also helps with stamina and strength and improves performance because muscles are easily receiving required amounts of oxygen from the blood.
L-Arginine also supports the release of growth hormones, which can help repair muscle tissues and aid in muscle growth. It supposedly can also help with fat loss.
I didn’t like L-Arginine that much. It made me feel a little too wired and jittery during the workout. I may give it another shot though at some point because I did feel like I got in really great workouts when I took it.
I took BCAAs (branch chain amino acids) when I tried the Lean Gains intermittent fasting diet. They are the building blocks of protein and when you are fasting, they help you save your muscle tissue. I don’t really feel that they are necessary now that I’m not fasting and getting plenty of protein (from meat, eggs, fish, and protein powder). I do think they are good for you, but I just don’t think I need the extra BCAAs right now.
Now I’m going to try Creatine. Creatine has always intimidated me. Mostly I didn’t want to do it because of the water weight you can retain and the bloated look your muscles can get. BUT it does supposedly help you make strength gains. AND supposedly Creatine Ethyl Ester doesn’t make you retain as much water. We will see though.
For the next 30 days, I will be taking Creatine Ethyl Ester around my workouts. I will also be adding in protein powder (which I didn’t take last month with the slow carb diet). Other than that though the diet will remain the same as last month. With the same diet, I will see if I make greater gains because of the protein powder and creatine. I will also see how much water I retain while taking Creatine.
This should be interesting….We will find out if Creatine is one of Man Bicep’s favorite supplements!
Man Bicep Push Up Craze!!!
Where do you do your push ups!?! Send us a picture for a Man Bicep t-shirt.
One-upping the Planking Craze
So we made good on our vow to do push ups around Boston and start the Man Bicep push up trend! Here are some pictures we took while celebrating Candy’s birthday!
The first one of the day was done by Candy on the MBTA.
Rocking the MB shirt AND receiving compliments about her perfect push up from men on the T.
Next we stopped at a candy shop called Sugar Heaven on Boylston St. Brian wanted to show Candy a shirt he had considered buying for her as a joke.
A nice deep push up right by the M&Ms. Not something they often see in a candy store.
The next one we snapped was not in the most hygienic place….
Don't worry...there was lots of hand scrubbing afterwards.
We then took a nice walk to a bar called Whiskeys. Where I did a nice push up between booths.
A nice wide grip push up. A slight incline so easier than some that we did later.
Candy figured out a way to make the booth push up harder by putting her feet on the back of the booth.
Notice the very impressed guy in the background.
We then had to get our Man Bicep Coach involved. He did a very impressive weighted push up outside of the restaurant.
We got numerous strange looks...
Next we met up with a co-worker who we convinced to do a push up on the street. A homeless woman was so impressed that she walked up and gave Alyson a hug before anyone knew what was going on.
She didn't even falter when Brian through a purse on her.
Our next stop was Rattlesnakes’ roof deck. Candy pulled off a staircase push up.
I think the hardest part of this push up was getting up there.
After leaving the roof deck, we attempted a stacked push up out on the street. We all ended up collapsing so I’m not totally sure this one counts…
Push up pile up.
After that failed push up attempt, I did a decline push up from a bike rack. Brian decided it wasn’t hard enough and push down on my back for added resistance.
Mid push up...on the way back up.
And the last push up of the night….on a pizza shop counter. (We did get permission before we attempted this one. The employees were impressed as you can see!) 🙂
We had a lot of explaining to do to be allowed to do this one!
So now everyone must go out and do push ups in random places!!! We must start the Man Bicep Push up trend! No more stupid planking! haha
Send us a picture of your push up and we will send you a Man Bicep t-shirt!!! 😉
Man Bicep 