14 Aug
Blog

Get Lean, Get Strong, Get Results

Mario Tomic has successfully brought his natural curiosity and discipline into a successful career as a coach for entrepreneurs and all people in order to get fit and master their development. In today's episode, we discuss the key habits he has developed to help him transition smoothly through his career.

Some of the most important tips we cover are:

  • Protect your time. Mario refers to the complexity tax and how he manages to remove everything unnecessary that stands in the way of the reconciliation of life, work and education, while optimizing the results in each area
  • As a former programmer and gamer, Mario is well prepared to talk about how to take a data-driven approach to decision-making
  • If you want to get the most out of your workouts and be successful, you need to learn how to improve your pain tolerance
  • The benefit of doing things that are hard, like saying no to things that can prevail
  • And the most important productivity hack of all, except knowing that there are no short cuts to success

You can find this too, and all are other Six Pack of Knowledge podcasts (curated discussions with the world's greatest hypertrophy experts).

Find all of our podcasts on the following services: iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, PlayerFM, PodBean

13 Aug
Blog

Get Lean, Get Strong, Get Results

Mario Tomic has successfully brought his natural curiosity and discipline into a successful career as a coach for entrepreneurs and all people in order to get fit and master their development. In today's episode, we discuss the key habits he has developed to help him transition smoothly through his career.

Some of the most important tips we cover are:

  • Protect your time. Mario refers to the complexity tax and how he manages to remove everything unnecessary that stands in the way of the reconciliation of life, work and education, while optimizing the results in each area
  • As a former programmer and gamer, Mario is well prepared to talk about how to take a data-driven approach to decision-making
  • If you want to get the most out of your workouts and be successful, you need to learn how to improve your pain tolerance
  • The benefit of doing things that are hard, like saying no to things that can prevail
  • And the most important productivity hack of all, except knowing that there are no short cuts to success

You can find this too, and all are other Six Pack of Knowledge podcasts (curated discussions with the world's greatest hypertrophy experts).

Find all of our podcasts on the following services: iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, PlayerFM, PodBean

09 Aug
Blog

Build A Strong Back Without a Gym

My first introduction to strength training was in my sophomore year. Every day after my last class, I made my way to the gym and got ready to let off steam. Going to the gym was part of my daily routine – a routine I still follow provided there is less bicep curls.

Now things are different and most, if not all, gyms are closed for the time being. So what are you doing? The possibilities are endless thanks to social media for #athomeworkouts by talented trainers.

Here are some of my favorites:

You don't need fancy setup or equipment to build incredible strength. Since you may not have access to a chin-up bar or free weights, I wanted to share some of my favorite body weight exercises for developing a strong rear chain.

Rocking cues

  • Initiate the movement through the shoulder blades.

  • Keep your arms locked and push through your arms the entire time.

  • Put something soft under your knees to help with discomfort.

Increased rocking cues

  • Raise your knees.

  • Initiate the movement through the shoulder blades.

  • Keep your arms locked and push them through.

  • Move with control all the time.

Baby crawl cues

  • Move with contralateral motion. (The right arm moves with the left leg.)

  • Look straight ahead and keep your back long.

  • Initiate movement through the shoulder blades

Leopard crawl cues

  • Raise your knees

  • Move with contralateral motion. (The right arm moves with the left leg.)

  • Look straight ahead and avoid rounding your lower back.

  • Initiate movement through the shoulder blades

Hollow crawl cues

  • Push yourself off the floor and tuck your tailbone in while focusing on squeezing your shoulders.

  • Move with contralateral motion (the right arm moves with the left leg).

  • Initiate movement through the shoulder blades

  • For added challenge, try balancing with two limbs off the floor

Forearm planks notices

  • Place your forearms on the floor with your shoulders stacked above your elbows.

  • Activate your glutes by squeezing your legs together.

  • Push away from the floor as you pull your shoulder blades into your back pocket.

Keywords

  • Put a pusher or towel under your feet.

  • Place your forearms on the floor with your shoulders stacked above your elbows.

  • Activate your glutes by squeezing your legs together.

  • Push away from the floor as you pull your shoulder blades into your back pocket.

Notes on windshield wipers

  • Keep your shoulder blades in contact with the ground at all times.

  • Squeeze your ankles and knees together throughout your range of motion.

  • As your lower body moves to the right, fold your right palm up. Repeat the process to the left.

Tabletop rock cues

  • Slide through your arms and lift your chest.

  • Drive your hips towards the ceiling.

  • Push through your arms to shift your weight forward.

  • Pull your shoulder blades down to return to your starting position.

3-point bridge information

  • Slide through your arms and lift your chest.

  • Drive your hips towards the ceiling.

  • Bend one arm and glue it to your ribs.

  • Shift your weight back over the support arm.

  • When you feel stable, you can stretch your curved arm over your head.

Bridge pushup cues

  • Keep your feet hip-width apart.

  • As you slide onto the bridge, focus on relaxing the glutes and activating the quadriceps.

  • Slide through your arms and raise your chest.

  • As you push through the quadriceps, you are shifting your weight back into your arms.

Sets and repetitions

You can customize any of these exercises to suit your training needs. I'm a big fan of following timed sets rather than aiming for a specific number of reps. Timed work allows me to focus on the quality of every move while keeping every session short and sweet.

Sample session

Preparation: 5 minutes

Exercise: 5 minutes

Leopard crawl

  • Practice moving with control and take as many breaks as necessary during the 5 minutes.
  • Focus on the quality of the movement over the quantity.

to press: 30 seconds per exercise with a 30 second break after the exercise

goal:: 5 rounds

Think: How did your session go? Were there any moves that challenged you? What is a positive aspect of your training session today?

Try one of these movements on your next workout and reap the benefits of a strong back.

07 Aug
Blog

Build A Strong Back Without a Gym

My first introduction to strength training was in my sophomore year. Every day after my last class, I made my way to the gym and got ready to let off steam. Going to the gym was part of my daily routine – a routine I still follow provided there is less bicep curls.

Now things are different and most, if not all, gyms are closed for the time being. So what are you doing? The possibilities are endless thanks to social media for #athomeworkouts by talented trainers.

Here are some of my favorites:

You don't need fancy setup or equipment to build incredible strength. Since you may not have access to a chin-up bar or free weights, I wanted to share some of my favorite body weight exercises for developing a strong rear chain.

Rocking cues

  • Initiate the movement through the shoulder blades.

  • Keep your arms locked and push through your arms the entire time.

  • Put something soft under your knees to help with discomfort.

Increased rocking cues

  • Raise your knees.

  • Initiate the movement through the shoulder blades.

  • Keep your arms locked and push them through.

  • Move with control all the time.

Baby crawl cues

  • Move with contralateral motion. (The right arm moves with the left leg.)

  • Look straight ahead and keep your back long.

  • Initiate movement through the shoulder blades

Leopard crawl cues

  • Raise your knees

  • Move with contralateral motion. (The right arm moves with the left leg.)

  • Look straight ahead and avoid rounding your lower back.

  • Initiate movement through the shoulder blades

Hollow crawl cues

  • Push yourself off the floor and tuck your tailbone in while focusing on squeezing your shoulders.

  • Move with contralateral motion (the right arm moves with the left leg).

  • Initiate movement through the shoulder blades

  • For added challenge, try balancing with two limbs off the floor

Forearm planks notices

  • Place your forearms on the floor with your shoulders stacked above your elbows.

  • Activate your glutes by squeezing your legs together.

  • Push away from the floor as you pull your shoulder blades into your back pocket.

Keywords

  • Put a pusher or towel under your feet.

  • Place your forearms on the floor with your shoulders stacked above your elbows.

  • Activate your glutes by squeezing your legs together.

  • Push away from the floor as you pull your shoulder blades into your back pocket.

Notes on windshield wipers

  • Keep your shoulder blades in contact with the ground at all times.

  • Squeeze your ankles and knees together throughout your range of motion.

  • As your lower body moves to the right, fold your right palm up. Repeat the process to the left.

Tabletop rock cues

  • Slide through your arms and lift your chest.

  • Drive your hips towards the ceiling.

  • Push through your arms to shift your weight forward.

  • Pull your shoulder blades down to return to your starting position.

3-point bridge information

  • Slide through your arms and lift your chest.

  • Drive your hips towards the ceiling.

  • Bend one arm and glue it to your ribs.

  • Shift your weight back over the support arm.

  • When you feel stable, you can stretch your curved arm over your head.

Bridge pushup cues

  • Keep your feet hip-width apart.

  • As you slide onto the bridge, focus on relaxing the glutes and activating the quadriceps.

  • Slide through your arms and raise your chest.

  • As you push through the quadriceps, you are shifting your weight back into your arms.

Sets and repetitions

You can customize any of these exercises to suit your training needs. I'm a big fan of following timed sets rather than aiming for a specific number of reps. Timed work allows me to focus on the quality of every move while keeping every session short and sweet.

Sample session

Preparation: 5 minutes

Exercise: 5 minutes

Leopard crawl

  • Practice moving with control and take as many breaks as necessary during the 5 minutes.
  • Focus on the quality of the movement over the quantity.

to press: 30 seconds per exercise with a 30 second break after the exercise

goal:: 5 rounds

Think: How did your session go? Were there any moves that challenged you? What is a positive aspect of your training session today?

Try one of these movements on your next workout and reap the benefits of a strong back.

24 Feb
Blog

Strength Routines for Developing a Strong and Healthy Upper Back

Strength routines to develop a strong and healthy upper back - fitness, training, strength training, shoulder, muscle break, back exercises, rows, upper back, pull-ups, pull-ups

A strong upper back is important to minimize injuries to the shoulder joint and shoulder belt. Many athletes and training enthusiasts love the pressure and pressure exercises: bench press, incline press, press down, dips and overhead presses. To balance these movements and improve the stability of the shoulder joint, however, antagonistic pulling exercises should be incorporated. If these movements are neglected, the risk of injury increases.

I understand that train movements are not popular or are controlled by the "I can lift X weight" mentality, so unfortunately they can be neglected. "How much can you close handle pulldown or bowed row?" You never hear that, do you?

In order to strengthen the upper back / shoulder area, minimize the potential for injury and improve your ability to optimally perform your upper body sporting skills, the following exercises for pulling the upper torso should be integrated in order to emphasize the exercises for most trainees to push the upper body counteracting the front body:

  • Pulldown / chin with a wide grip up to the upper chest
  • Close the pulldown / chin to the upper chest
  • Sweater machine
  • High row
  • feature
  • row
  • Low row
  • Upright row
  • Rear delta machine / curved fly
  • External rotation of the rotator cuff

Think of it this way: for each thrust exercise there should be an opposite pulling exercise. Examples:

  • Overhead press – pulldown with wide or narrow handle, machine sweater
  • Tilt press – high row or face pull
  • Breast press – seated / curved row, low row, rear delta / curved bow tie
  • Push / Immerse – reject upright row

Before we go any further, we need to know two things:

  1. It is literally impossible to isolate a particular muscle only when doing an exercise move. For example, if you perform a side elevation to target your delts, both the anterior and medial deltoid muscles are activated along with the clavicle head of the pectoralis major (chest) and the supraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle).
  2. Regarding this point, some front muscles are activated when performing traditional back / pulling exercises. During a pulldown with a tight grip and supinated forearms (the palms facing you), for example, the sternal head of the pectoralis major and the long head of the triceps support the lats, teres major and other posterior / pulling muscles.

And then there is the question of the venerable upright row – where does it belong? It's a pulling exercise, but it works with the deltoid muscles that typically occur in anterior / pressure exercises. What a dilemma. Let's go through a basic tutorial on upper back musculature and kinesiology:

When discussing the upper back muscles, two anatomical points and relevant joint movements must be taken into account: the shoulder blade (shoulder blade) and the humerus (upper arm). Shrug up, down, forwards and backwards. This is your shoulder blade in action. Move your upper arm in several directions. This is your humerus articulating on the glenohumeral joint.

Looking at the development of the upper back, the following table shows the details of the movements and the muscles involved:

Strength routines to develop a strong and healthy upper back - fitness, training, strength training, shoulder, muscle break, back exercises, rows, upper back, pull-ups, pull-ups

Training logs for the muscles of the upper back

There are many ways to develop the upper back muscles using a series of movements / exercises with a variety of overload protocols. I have provided a sample exercise that can be used in individual workouts and some set / rep scripts that can be applied to it.

Exercise movements in the upper back for individual workouts:

  • Large handle pulldown
  • Bowed row
  • Upright row
  • pull ups
  • Low row
  • Face pulls
  • row
  • Pulldown with a tight grip
  • Curl biceps
  • High row
  • Rear delta machine
  • machines sweater

Set / repeat script options that can be applied to them:

  • 2 sets of each exercise in 10-14 and 6-10 repetition ranges
  • 2 sets of each exercise in a range of 8-12
  • 3 sets of each exercise, all in repetition ranges 12-16, 8-12, and 4-8
  • 3 sets of each exercise in a range of 6 to 10 repetitions
  • 1 set of each exercise in a range of 12 to 16 repetitions

Many options work for certain training days. Regardless of whether you exercise two or three days a week with a full body workout or a split routine where your upper body is trained twice a week, you should consider the above-mentioned upper back exercises.

Make sure that you balance all common pushing exercises with pulling exercises in the upper back. Work it as hard as all of your bumps. This approach protects against shoulder injuries, gives you balanced muscles, and improves your ability to perform sporting skills better.

23 Feb
Blog

Strength Routines for Developing a Strong and Healthy Upper Back

Strength routines to develop a strong and healthy upper back - fitness, training, strength training, shoulder, muscle break, back exercises, rows, upper back, pull-ups, pull-ups

A strong upper back is important to minimize injuries to the shoulder joint and shoulder belt. Many athletes and training enthusiasts love the pressure and pressure exercises: bench press, diagonal press, lowering, dips and overhead presses. To balance these movements and improve the stability of the shoulder joint, however, antagonistic pulling exercises should be incorporated. If these movements are neglected, the risk of injury increases.

I understand that train movements are not popular or are controlled by the "I can lift X weight" mentality, so unfortunately they can be neglected. "How much can you close handle pulldown or bowed row?" You never hear that, do you?

In order to strengthen the upper back / shoulder area, minimize the potential for injury and improve your ability to optimally perform your upper body sporting skills, the following exercises for pulling the upper torso should be integrated in order to emphasize the exercises for most trainees to push the upper body counteracting the front body:

  • Pulldown / chin with a wide grip up to the upper chest
  • Close the pulldown / chin to the upper chest
  • Sweater machine
  • High row
  • feature
  • row
  • Low row
  • Upright row
  • Rear delta machine / curved fly
  • External rotation of the rotator cuff

Think of it this way: for each thrust exercise there should be an opposite pulling exercise. Examples:

  • Overhead press – pulldown with wide or narrow handle, machine sweater
  • Tilt press – high row or face pull
  • Breast press – seated / curved row, low row, rear delta / curved bow tie
  • Push / Immerse – reject upright row

Before we go any further, we need to know two things:

  1. It is literally impossible to isolate a particular muscle only when doing an exercise move. For example, if you perform a side elevation to target your delts, both the anterior and medial deltoid muscles are activated, along with the clavicle head of the pectoralis major (chest) and supraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle).
  2. Regarding this point, some front muscles are activated when performing traditional back / pulling exercises. During a pulldown with a tight grip and supinated forearms (the palms facing you), for example, the sternal head of the pectoralis major and the long head of the triceps support the lats, teres major and other posterior / pulling muscles.

And then there is the question of the venerable upright row – where does it belong? It's a pulling exercise, but it works with the deltoid muscles that typically occur during anterior tooth / pressure exercises. What a dilemma. Let's go through a basic tutorial on upper back musculature and kinesiology:

When discussing the upper back muscles, two anatomical points and relevant joint movements must be taken into account: the shoulder blade (shoulder blade) and the humerus (upper arm). Shrug up, down, forwards and backwards. This is your shoulder blade in action. Move your upper arm in several directions. This is your humerus articulating on the glenohumeral joint.

Looking at the development of the upper back, the following table shows the details of the movements and the muscles involved:

Strength routines to develop a strong and healthy upper back - fitness, training, strength training, shoulder, muscle break, back exercises, rows, upper back, pull-ups, pull-ups

Training logs for the muscles of the upper back

There are many ways to develop the upper back muscles using a series of movements / exercises with a variety of overload protocols. I have provided a sample exercise that can be used in individual workouts and some set / rep scripts that can be applied to it.

Exercise movements in the upper back for individual workouts:

  • Large handle pulldown
  • Bowed row
  • Upright row
  • pull ups
  • Low row
  • Face pulls
  • row
  • Pulldown with a tight grip
  • Curl biceps
  • High row
  • Rear delta machine
  • machines sweater

Set / repeat script options that can be applied to them:

  • 2 sets of each exercise in 10-14 and 6-10 repetition ranges
  • 2 sets of each exercise in a range of 8-12
  • 3 sets of each exercise in repetition ranges 12-16, 8-12 and 4-8
  • 3 sets of each exercise in a range of 6 to 10 repetitions
  • 1 set of each exercise in a range of 12 to 16 repetitions

Many options work for certain training days. Regardless of whether you exercise two or three days a week with a full body workout or a split routine where your upper body is trained twice a week, you should consider the above-mentioned upper back exercises.

Make sure that you balance all common pushing exercises with pulling exercises in the upper back. Work it as hard as all of your bumps. This approach protects against shoulder injuries, allows you to maintain balanced muscles and improves your ability to perform sporting skills better.

12