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 […]
Today is August 1st, which for those of you who didn’t pay attention in European History 101 (did anyone?) is the day Switzerland was created after the three states Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden shook off the rule of the evil Austrians and declared themselves independent by swearing an oath on the Ruethli lawn. Legend has […]
A while back, I went to see Bill Cosby perform live in New York City. While the first half hour was so-so, he did deliver some pearls of wisdom. One that I liked in particular was about some guy named Phil in Pennsylvania who apparently makes the best Thanksgiving stuffing on the face of the […]
Today’s date is an excellent opportunity to write about beliefs and convictions. On July 20th, 1944, Claus Schenck Graf von Stauffenberg famously tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler in his headquarters in East Prussia. The plot failed, Hitler survived and the conspirators were arrested and murdered. Aside from personal bravery, these men and what they did […]
When it comes to cardio and fat loss, it really is a case of the blind leading the blind. Most trainees have been made to believe that cardio burns only fat and that weight lifting only builds muscles, hence the combination of the two would create the perfect physique. Wrong! Weight lifting is very similar […]