"I know how to keep the skin close to the muscle"

Tracy Anderson. God bless her little cotton socks. She came up with the quote in the title in an article in last Saturdays Time magazine and I was reminded of her genius. God knows I've tried hard to forget!

After reading this article, I was compelled to read to the end, I thought I'd check out her website to find out what black magic she uses to suck in all these women to her web of wonder...

Turns out she has a new product, Metamorphosis, which promises amazing results (apparently you can actually transform your muscular structure. Who knew?). If you work out 6 days a week. 2 hours a time. And follow her insane dynamic eating plan...

She has even managed to redefine the body types since endomorphic wasn't specific enough...

Omnicentric - Those who carry their chunk all over,

Abcentric - Those carrying their excess on their stomach,

Hipcentric - Those carrying some extra on their hips, and,

Glutecentric - those with some back fat/ saggy ass issues.

None of these words actually exist, but, I guess they are descriptive enough...

 Each "body type" has a workout that specifically targets the problem area ( at $89 each!), shrinking the offending body part.

Intrigued, I checked out the infomercial -

hmmm....

That didn't really tell much about the type of exercises that you would expect to find, so...

Ahhh! Ok, I get it. This is looking promising. She really sounds like she knows what she is talking about right...

"60, 80 even 100 reps each side is fine."
"..work the accessory muscles which will pull in the larger muscles tight..."
"Its important when doing arm exercises where you are using the arms as their own resistance, its really important you understand the power of the wrist and fingers...because these are the movements that activate the muscles in the arms."
" It's important to change the workouts to avoid overworking the muscle. That causes bulk."
Huh?

Add to the section on her website where she doesn't recommend lifting weights above 3lbs, ever, and the craziness is almost complete. Seriously, 3 lbs! For gods sake, don't go shopping, or if you do, take someone with you to carry anything you buy over 3 lbs home for you. You don't want to get too bulky now!

So, the warmup... 100 plies,  "hip stretches," forward bends, the all important inner thigh stretch.  Comprehensive no?
Into legs with the butt and thigh sequence, and into a quadruped position, working leg externally rotated and some excellent lumbar extension to get that foot up in the air. then some side kicks from the quad position with some excellent lumbar flexion. So much for the neutral spine...

Then we go for abs and arms. Actually, no we don't. I've wasted more than enough of your time and mine on this trash. And I haven't even gotten to the "nutrition" guidelines.I'm not gonna get into that low fat, calorie deficient can of worms, needless to say severe calorie deficit is expected.


So basically if you want to starve yourself, dance about lifting 3lb weights and get down to that teeny tiny point go for it, knock yourself out. You'll probably faint through lack of food anyway so you might  as well knock yourself out and save some time!

Or...

Check these ladies out, eat well, lift heavy and get strong. Lean will come, as will the curves.

Nia Shanks

Jen Grasso

Molly Galbraith

Jen Comas

The Linkz - 25th July 2011

Another week, another list of the best articles around in the past week.

Great article on goal setting from Bojan Kostevski on Fitmarker.com


Alli McKee with a great post on mental toughness, and she met Ray Lewis, awesome!

Jen Comas lifts heavy stuff up, then puts it back down. She sure ain't bulky...

Tony Gentilcore wants to remind you that you are not (probably!) an elite athlete.

Mike Robertson knows deadlifts. Check it out.

Jason Ferruggia knows bodyweight exercises rock,

Scott Dixon manipulates A.S. Prilepins Table for hypertrophy.

Interesting article on correcting deadlifts from the super smart Canadian Dean Somerset eh!

Ben Bruno has some delights for your viewing.

Nia Shanks lifts like a girl. Most guys could learn from her example!

Rick Kaselj on exercises for injuries on back training.

Great article from Kellie Davis on getting ready for a contest without ending up alone.

Lee Boyce on over-rated muscle builders and some excellent alternatives.

John Izzo interviews J.C. Santana.

Jen Grasso makes some pumpkin pie.

Matt Siniscalchi with 4 reasons why your sloppy ass musculature is giving you pain.

Harold Gibbons talks about Fat, sick and nearly dead. Not him, its a documentary.

Thats it, read and enjoy!

TRX adventures

I have to admit, I was late to the TRX party. I was aware of it, but none of the gyms I used had one (1 trainer looked at me like I was talking gibberish when I asked if there was one in the gym)

When the gym I currently in (Pure at Ocean terminal) has a dedicated TRX station, that and the fact that it costs a third of the monthly fee and is better equipped than most gyms in Edinburgh (plus its 24hr opening means I can workout whenever I fancy it!) was the clincher.

Needless to say, other than a few half-hearted bodyweight rows being done, it's pretty much deserted most of the time.

Which is good for me! I've been adding lots of TRX exercises to my training and I love it and now I have bought one of my own, I can get some great workouts done outwith the gym setting, not to mention all the delights my clients get to work on. Mwah hah hah hah hah!

I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of my favourite TRXercises (see what I did there?) with you guys.

Rows:

RFESS:

Suspended hamstring curls:

Fallouts:

Thats just a few of the exercises I've been adding into my training to supplement lifting heavy stuff off the ground and then putting it back down again! 

I'd love to hear any particular options that you guys are using in your training, so you can leave a comment, get me on the Facebook or on the Twitter.

The Linkz 18th July 2011

Here we are once again! Time for a round up of the some of the best articles I've read in the last week...

First up, Ben Brunos guide to one of my favourite exercise. The Glute Ham Raise, aka, the Evil Bas*%$d!

I'm liking Scott Hansens blog, this article is progressions and regressions of the RFESS, another fav of mine. 

Rachel Guy rocks an awesome breakfast!

A profile of Precision Nutritions' John Berardi

No ifs, no butts, a strong butt is a beautiful butt! Marianne Kane guests on Bret Contreras' blog

Eric Cressey knows elbows. Learn and help out charity too, do it, its a great cause!

Harold Gibbons gets you all warm and fuzzy, well, warm anyway before your workout.

Jedd Johnson sets a new world record on the 2 hand pinch. I once saw a guy at my gym deadlift less than this with a belt, wrist straps and the worst form EVER! Made my eyes bleed.

Kelly Starrett unsticks your ankle mobility.

Tony Gentilcore give us something to read while we are bored at work... not that that ever happens right? Right?

Mr Gentilcores review of his weekend at The Peak Training and Diet Program Design seminar.


Zach Moore shares his training log, does a guest blog and supports a good cause.

Enjoy!

The Linkz - 13th July 2011

Hi all! Here we are again, another week another collection of the articles and posts I've enjoyed this past week. Enjoy!

 Dan John, smart dude. Eat like a Warrior King. Nuff said! (Just got his book (U.K)
Never Let Go: A Philosophy of Lifting, Living and Learning (U.S) too, can't wait to read it!)

Andy Bolton deadlifted over 1000Lbs, he knows a thing or 2 about adding pounds to your deadlift!

Some combat fitness training for Military Officer Candidates by Charles Gardner on Elite FTS

Dean Somerset talks Squatology

Tony Gentilcore talks about some programming pairs that don't make sense.

John Romaniello knows its not about where you train, its about how you train.

I linked to Mark Youngs 3 part series on training obese clients in the last Linkz, (you read it, right?) Now he has only gone and added part 4!

Jason Ferruggia on Trap bar v conventional bar deadlifts

Ben Bruno is freaky strong, he knows how to improve your pullups with speed work.

I'm really getting a lot out of Strengthcoach.com and Michael Boyle shares secrets of success here.

Jen Comas is strong, she is not however anything close to "bulky."

Neither is Molly Galbraith.

Enjoy. I'm gonna sit and read some of Never Let Go in the sunshine with a cool drink!

The Linkz - 9th July 2011

I've been slacking. Not posting on here, not reading as much, still training though! I have to admit, waiting for my certification to come through whilst working in a job that I hate (albeit one that pays the bills) is soul destroying. So I had a week or so off from work planned and I've recharged my mental batteries and am ready to go again! Training has continued as normal, being that it is one of the few things that helps keep me sane. Its going pretty well too. I've caught up with my reading and I present to you, a bigger, more packed full of goodness edition of the Linkz!
Enjoy.

Super smart Bret Contreras pushes the pushup on T-Nation

The renegade, Jason Ferruggia on using a full range of motion, parts 1 and 2

Nick Tumminello shows you a great dynamic upper body warmup

John Romaniello with some great bodyweight training

The Glute Guy again with some randomness

A 3 parter form Mark Young on training clients with obesity, part 1 and part 2, and part 3

A great t-spine mobility drill from Scott Hansen

Tight for time? Smitty Diesel shows you how to fit workouts into your busy life 

The Beautiful Badass Nia Shanks wants to know "What are you waiting for?"

Want to lunge deeper? John Izzo shows you 4 easy steps to getting there.

As if there wasn't enough reasons to ditch the "healthy foods" already, Kellie Davis gives you more.

Brad Schoenfeld on high protein diets, turns out they dont have detrimental side effects on your kidneys. Who knew?

Dean Somerset on the best of the best.

I've been doing much more front squatting lately, this is a great article to help fix your front squat issues by Lee Boyce

Joe Dowdell shows how get your delts to catch up with the rest of your physique

Cassandra Forsythe on why you really shouldn't be nuking your plastic containers.

If it hurts, stop doing it! Tony Gentilcore serves up some good advice.

Dean Somerset on multitasking.

Kellie Davis on developing discipline.

Bojan Kostevski on Fitmarker.com on progressing your chinups

John Izzos pet peeves in fitness centres.

Jen Comas with another awesome recipe.

Marianne Kane on getting a booty to be proud of!

Gray Cook on why you don't move well, and what you can do about it.

Jim Wendler with 10 rules. Seriously, would you argue with this guy?

Dean Somerset gets "anti" on ab training

Brad Schoenfeld with 10 of the best blogs you should be reading.

Mike Robertson on picking your deadlift poison.

Alwyn Cosgrove on training a new sport.

Mike Reinold on picking the best shoulder exercises, and knowing why.

Jen comas on discipline. (Follows up Kellie Davis' article further up this list).

Eric Cressey on open vs closed loop exercies.

Patrick Ward on DOMS, pain and performance

Joe Dowdell on fitbusiness insider on pretenders vs professionals

Nia Shanks profiles Kellie Davis

Jason Ferruggia on gaining muscle and weight

There we have it, some awesome stuff that hopefully you have enjoyed and gotten as much out of as I have!