Reminds me of how Mountain Dog involved his kid in his training videos. As a dad of 2, seeing this is great. Took me awhile to make sure I wasn't just zoned into my training at my home gym, but involved the kids as well. My 6 year old comes and does push up, my 3 year old swings on my gym rings. Its a great way to spend productive time with them and try and set a good example. Initially i would tell them to go away and let me do my training and get frustrated with the interruption, but it's so much better just chilling out a little and enjoying those little moments with them. I try and take a walk with the kids in the early evening for steps.
Those hugs, special moments and I do think about how at some point when he’s all grown up, I’ll miss those little moments. John was a really good man who left a special bbing mark. He’s missed I’m sure.
Balance is something I strive for and has taken years of ups and downs to get somewhat of a stranglehold on. Agree with you, this aspect of real life is talked about enough. Often bbing is preached as if we’re all a bunch of hardcore robots. Appreciate the support.
Wow. What a beast you were in 2009!!! I know you’ve been natty your whole career but that was very impressive. As you still are of course. Very interested to see the plate upright rows near the end of the video and hope to hear more about those at some point. Why do you bend your elbows with the dumbbells doing hypers. Presumably for greater RoM? Does it limit how much you can load do you think? I’ve been using a short EZ bar with straight arms (albeit splayed) and versa grips. Even then I do feel these in my upper lats. Pondering trying my weighted vest for these but my recollection is that’s not great with the vest being inverted at the bottom of the movement. It’s a tricky movement to load. My other observation is to marvel at how expressionless your face stays in all your movements. I know you’re training hard but your face seldom shows it. Thanks so much for this. Great following my number one (and possibly only) bodybuilding hero.
Thanks, appreciate the kindness. ‘09 I was a bit too fluffy as I had to lose quite a bit, but I do enjoy being more of a regular guy in my offseasons. Those aren’t upright rows, but more so a lateral. Watch my elbows and you’ll see how. From the camera angle it appears as an upright row, to keep my shoulders pain free, I raise the plates more in the frontal plane. On the hypers, the bend in the elbows, keeps the load more centered to my hips, therefore keeping the burden off my low back and more in my glutes/hams. Many hold the load higher up the torso and the further the load gets away from the hips, more on the low back. My goal is to bias the glutes/hams. As far as the face, For me personally, when I happen to break form in a set, it’s more often due to losing composure with the final, more challenging reps. Energy that should remain channeled on form starts to get lost and heads towards heightened anxiety, excessive grunting, facial grimacing, and uncontrolled breathing. This is not what I want, as what I’m truly after is efficiency throughout an entire set just. My goal is to resemble what you see when you watch tennis legend Pete Sampras, who serves with flawless mechanics, pristine flow, power and accuracy. Thanks for the continued support!
@@jeffalberts5077 thank you so much for the super informative reply to all my comments and questions. As always you make perfect sense and everything you do has a reason behind it. I’m keen to try all the things you note: the loading nuances for the hypers, the plate delt raise variation and to reduce my facial grimacing at the end of sets 😬. I train at home alone so no one sees me grimacing anyways. It’s definitely wasted energy 😂. Buti never really thought about it the way you explained even though I’ve always noticed it when you show training footage. Thanks again for the very thoughtful reply.
PS. Would love to hear more detail about the plate holding delt exercise at the end of your video at some stage. In particular which muscles you are targeting and form cues. I tried it this morning with dumbbells and to be honest I felt it in all three heads of the deltoids plus some upper back and traps. How wide your hands are seems to impact the muscles targeted. I’m feeling this could be a great exercise for those bored with pure lateral raises and possibly permits more loading. No need to reply again. Family first!! But There’s always gold in your posts and this is just one of many in your last video.
Any reason you don't incorporate the bike with low-mid intensity for shorter time (30 min) vs. walking for longer durations?...is it a matter of muscle sparing or lack of interest in that modality of exercise?
My recumbent bike doesn’t work properly any longer, so I don’t prefer using it as much I used to. With that said, liss/miss is perfectly fine as long as it doesn’t impede with gym performance as that’s highest priority along with a conservative rate of bw loss, .5-1%/week is ideal for hanging onto muscle.
It’s nice to use periodization to structure your training to balance performance/recovery, but one can still create hypertrophy with a more simple approach. Often, planning months of training in advance, doesn’t account for real world environments.
I don’t have a ton of one on one personal training experience. I have over 10 years of experience coaching bbers to the stage and more serious lifters improve their body comp. Not to mention the coaching that I do that extends well past the gym.
