Pulled off 3 sets today of incline presses with 80lb dumbbells. Shoulders felt strong. Reps were in the 5-6 range just where they should be. Felt amazing. In a couple more weeks I should be hitting the 85’s.
Dr. Oz – Im ashamed of you. You actually had the gaul to headline one of your shows with the notion that you can burn that belly fat in only 5 minutes per day. Here are some of the misleading and seductive quotes from the show:
“Taking you from fat belly to flat belly in no time”
“Give me just 5 minutes and I’ll give you the miracles to fight your fat forever.”
“We’ll give you the miracle work outs that will take off 2 inches of fat in 5 minutes and require you to just sit there for 5 minutes”
“I’ve created a work out that’s so easy its harder NOT to do it.”
These kinds of messages are sure to attract those legions of obese lemmings to the screen who expect to get something for nothing and to sell that ad time, but as someone who claims to truly care about peoples health and have the integrity to deliver the truth to those people, I am truly ashamed that I am seeing an increasing trend towards quick fixes, vanity driven surgery, miracle supplements and the latest fad diets. Congratulations, you are now becoming more a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution.
I guess I should’t be surprised to see another person sell their integrity to the devil and get seduced with fame and fortune.
Did a bit of research recently on how to cook steaks like the restaurants. One of the steps really requires a good cast iron skillet. I was always leary of these very heavy cooking pans because of difficult clean-up and food sticking so badly to them. For searing steaks you need high temperatures and cast iron really has no equal in this regard. In my research I discovered that a well seasoned cast iron pan can be very non-stick even for eggs and pancakes. I bought a couple pans yesterday and put them through a 2 hour seasoning ritual in the oven and then cooked some steaks we had marinating for a couple days. Wow, they were very very good. I had to use lower heat for the marinated steaks as apparently restaurants only use light dry seasoning and a little oil when they cook theirs and finish it off in the broiler. The black char in the pans was indeed very hard to clean out though. I will try salt next time as I hear it works good in helping the clean-up. This morning I cooked some eggs to see if I could do it with no sticking as I saw a YouTube video where someone had done it. I put some ghee (indian clarified butter) in the pan and let it heat up. I put a single egg into the pan and let it cook a bit. After about a minute I started to work the spatula under the egg and indeed it was not sticking at all. In fact it was doing better or just as good as my non-stick pans do. I was excited so I did another egg and then eventually a whole scrambled egg breakfast. The pan stayed so clean I didn’t even need to wash it out at the sink. I am now in love with cast iron cooking.
I did 75lb DB Incline presses this last week. It’s a first for me. I was pretty excited and proud of myself. I managed 7 reps which means it’s still a bit light since my ceiling is 6 reps. At these weights the most dangerous part of the lift is hoisting the damn things up into position while not tearing my shoulder all to hell. Spotters will definitely be necessary. It was just a couple months ago when I needed a spotter for 65lb DBs. I love seeing gains like this. Very exciting.
I am absolutely sick and tired of seeing exercise tips on TV and magazines that are recommended on the basis of “problem areas”. You women are constantly given these bogus tips for the backs of the arms, hips and mid section. Tried em yet? Didn’t work, did they? That’s because the real true information all these companies and products fail to tell you is that you can’t spot reduce fat on your body. The reason your arms are flabby and you have big thighs and butt is not because the muscles in those areas are soft or drooping – it’s because there is a large amount of FAT there. Actively recruited muscles burn fat. They do not burn fat from specific areas of your body. Let me say that again…
MUSCLES DO NOT BURN FAT FROM SPECIFIC AREAS OF YOUR BODY.
Let me also state that no muscle group in the body should be focused on at the expense of all the others. ALL the muscles in your body need to be trained. ALL the muscles in your body need to be strong. By focusing on certain areas of the body you put your muscles out of strength balance. You also rob yourself of the greatest possible elevation of your metabolism which is what you need to burn the fat.
However, this fat burning process will only happen if you have a calorie deficit in your body by way of diet (intake) vs activity (output). The more muscles you use in your workouts, the more fat and energy you will use. Strength training will break down the muscles and cause them to adapt to lifting heavier weights. This adaptive recovery process uses energy and burns calories. This process takes place primarily at night while you sleep. So if you want to burn maximum number of calories while you sleep at night then you better be working out with heavy weights (this means a weight you can lift at least 8 times but no more than 12) and using all the major muscle groups in your body. The reason these companies and products keep leading you to believe these lies is because they know it will fail and keep bringing you back to purchase the next product they plan to roll out. So stop listening to all the plastic looking models posing as trainers on TV, and start listening to the facts.