The cold days are here and it is almost an East Coast bodybuilding tradition to use the winter to “make weight” or “pack on mass”. While there is nothing wrong with that idea (you have to get bigger, after all), I still would like to point out a few things I deem important. 1. Bigger […]
First off, I love this town! It is so vibrant, alive, and exciting! Being a history geek, I did of course visit every piece of Prussia’s glory days. Following these visits, it occurred to me how the picture of this state has been distorted by Hollywood and mainstream literature. Despite popular belief, Prussia was not […]
Today’s post deals with Acai berries, which over the last few months we’ve seen a huge influx of shakes, powders, diet pills, etc. containing this “miracle fruit”. The berry apparently does everything from burning fat (fat is oxidized, not burned, by the way), improving your mental state, fixing the federal deficit, and building a high […]
Sunday morning. Today is back day, which means 490+ lbs. of deadlifts, countless pull-ups, 250 lbs. seated rows, and some rope rows to finish up. After that comes a boring meal consisting of chicken or buffalo with rice. Not exactly the mainstream idea of fun, huh? Bodybuilding, like any other sport, asks for 24/7 dedication. […]
As some of my readers may know, Loki Schmidt passed away last Thursday night. For those that don’t know her, she was he wife of Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany from 1974-1982. This made Loki the first lady, but let me tell you, she was always so much more. She was what all first […]
Attention: rant mode on! After last week’s post on kettle bells, it is time to deal with another widely popular gym phenomenon, particularly among bad trainer: doing exercises while standing on one foot. Now before the “functional” crowd is being let loose and starts to devour this post, let me make one thing clear: I […]
For the last couple of years, kettle bells have stormed the gym scene. Almost everywhere you look, you see classes with trainers using them. Kettle bells stem from the former Soviet Union where they were widely used amongst the Speznaz elite troops. It is from there that I want to start my criticism. 20 something, […]
This is a question that most people never ask themselves while motioning through their scheduled workouts. But it is certainly worth taking a minute to reflect on. Is it a sport? Hard to say since it is just a presentation of a physique on stage without any athletic elements. Is it an art form? Closer, […]
The topic of genetics is hotly debated in bodybuilding since it provides such a great excuse for one’s own shortcomings. Together with hormones, genetics get blamed for 99% of all failures in the quest for a better physique (“It’s not my atrocious eating! I just have the fat genetics!”). On August 9th, “Der Spiegel” had […]
“Quaeldich, du sau!” or in English, “Make yourself suffer, you piglet!”, was spoken by Udo Bolts to his teammate Jan Ullrich during the 1997 Tour de France. The roles between the two of them were pretty clear: Ullrich was the captain of Team Telekom, and Bolts his assistant, was in charge of getting him over […]