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Question
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powerlifter54: December 01 2005
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re: Let's cut the crap on the steroid issue...a different take
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While i neither endorse nor criticize steroid use, except in a drug tested environment, the issue is entirely based, IMHO, on the very strong tendency of our culture to attack anything masculine.
Take a breath. Get a Coke. It will get worse. While you get the Coke i will unwrap the foil from under my beanie...
On one hand, women can get plastic surgery, take female hormones for youthfull skin or birth control, and can be anything on the scale of extremely feminine to boderline masculinity.
Sensitive, new age men, as long as they are skinny and demure, are embraced for their insight, intelligence, and caring.
However, if a man displays or pursues classic masculine pursuits, he can quickly become the focus of our cultural scorn. Look at Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, WPO Powerlifters, Ted Nugent, even President Bush. Bush, politics aside, is critiqued for cutting wood on his ranch and not reading the New York Times. Porqoui? The others have done nothing against their organizations rules, but are vilified for basically being too masculine, too successfull, and enjoying it too much.
If a woman can take estrogen, which has known side effects, to improve her quality of life, why can't testosterone be made available to men?
I submit it is because our society discourages masculinity.
jmo
jack
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 02 2005
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I agree that our American culture has been overly feminized. However, women are stigmatized and ridiculed for breast implants and plastic surgery all the time. There are entire publications devoted to this ridicule of who has had what procedure; check out the Star the next time you're in line at the supermarket. I see hormone replacement therapy under the guidance of an experienced physician as a viable alternative to suffering many of the debilities of old age. Replacing hormones in men or women is not demonized by society and does not carry the same stigma as athletes looking to get an unfair advantage. Worse yet,is young people that take the drugs unsupervized just to merely look 'nice'.This is what many people object to. Young men who take the drug are playing Russian Roulette. Without knowing what ones blood levels are and being closely monitered by medical proffessionals can reap dire consequences. Once one begins taking testosterone, the bodies own natural production shuts down. Take them long enough and this becomes permanent. That is why the testicles shrivel in steroid users; disuse atrophy. This shutting down of ones own production of testosterone has a cascade effect on other hormones as well. Nature in her wisdom has a careful regulation and balance of the many hormones in the body. Upset the balance by having to much of one can cause serious disease and even death.The immune system becomes impaired and losses it's ability to fight cancer growths. A normal body destroys cancer cells all the time. We have also seen the heart related problems caused by streroids. We have seen this happen so many times among professional athletes.The only safe way for anyone to use them is under a doctors care.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.stevemaxwell.com
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Question
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C. Maxwell: December 08 2005
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Office Work
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My job consists of sitting at a desk all day doing computer work. Do any of you guys have any suggestions for burning calories while doing this type of job. I train in Martial Arts a couple of times a week and also work with kettlebells while at home. I feel like I need to be doing something to assist my efforts to stay in shape while at work, but I don't have any ideas. I can't do pushups because people would think I'm crazy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 08 2005
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The guy was a very busy lawyer who owned his own firm. He went though a spell where he got so busy that he had no time to do much. He barely managed two weekly workouts with me, but he badly needed some daily physical activity.
I got him to put his chair in the corner and sit on a large stability ball instead. His core and abdominal muscles were constantly working to maintain balance while at his desk. While not a big calorie burn, over time it becomes signifigant. He did a lot of telephone work, so he got a good headset and a pedometer. He spread his work out on a high table while he paced back and forth while on the phone.He tried to pace as much as possible. His goal was 10,000 steps per day. He parked his car several blocks away, always took the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator and walked for 20 minutes at lunch. He would have a protein shake at his desk. In this way, he lost 30 lbs. in the course of a year.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.stevemaxwell.com
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Question
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Ivan Drago: December 16 2005
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Steve Maxwell, a few questions
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Which Gracies did you train under? Did you ever train them back with your strength and conditioning methods? How would you fair in a jujitsu match up with some of the top Gracies, even tho you are older than most of them? Me thinks you would probably win :-), but what do I know?!
Thanks for reading, I have many more questions, but I thought that I'd just seach through more of your posts. Last night I had a dream about you training with the Gracies. Im sure it has something to do with watching all four of Sakuraba's fights with the Gracies before I went to bed. Yes I even watched the entire Royce vs Sakuraba fight that lasted almost 2 hours. Anyway when I woke up I just had all these questions! Thanks once again!
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 16 2005
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Ivan,
I had the fortune and opportunity to train with all the son's of Helio Gracie at one time or another. Most of my early training was with Rorion, Royler and Royce. Later I trained with Relson and recieved my blackbelt from him. I also had the great fortune of training under Master Helio Gracie and stayed with him at his farm several times. It would be disrespectful to talk about who can beat who. That should be left on the mat. Let me say this, I do extremely well and have proved myself many times in competition. I did train Royce during his original UFC fights. His wife used to work for me and she and I persuaded him to strength train.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.maxercise.com
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Question
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mettleman: December 19 2005
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How do you do a bootstrapper squat w/a kettlebell? [n/m]
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 20 2005
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I taught a segment on weighted mobility drill utilizing a kettlebell. The bootstarpper squat is an exercise designed to loosen the hamstrings and strengthen the quads. The hamstring passive sufficiency is the resistence for the quads. You use the kettlebell as an anchor to pull yourself forward and keep the body weight on the hands during the movement. Squat down on your toes in front of a kettlebell and grasp the handle with both hands. The knees and feet should be close togther and not spread and the butt should be sitting on the heels. (like a close stance Hindu squat or chair III pose in yoga). Now slowly straighten the legs while pulling the head forward with the kettlebell. You are now in a forward bend with the chest touching the thighs and the head touching the knees (if flexibility will allow). For many, just getting the legs locked and staright will be a chore. It is an outstanding knee strengthener and really loosens the low back, calf and hamstrings. Go for 15 to 30 reps.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.stevemaxwell.com
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Question
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cannavaro: December 21 2005
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Why bodybuilding is like sunbathing...
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You think you look good...
...everyone else thinks you look stupid.
If you cheat (sunbed/steroids) it can be dangerous.
It has no real health benefits, much the opposite for a lot of people.
You stand out in a crowd but not in a good way.
The more you do it the stupider you look.
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 21 2005
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In the old days it was called physical culture. Lifters didn't specialize, but lifted for health, vitality and performance. Almost everyone did some form of ground based lifting, including the competition lifts. In the last two decades, bodybuilding has fallen into the 'freak show'category because of the emphasis on huge muscle size amoung the proffessional competitors.Even with drugs, the average guy is not ever going to get very big. The majority of trainees simply do not have the genetics to get huge. Many body builders are insecure young men that have a need to attract attention with their antics. Some of these people are quite large and can be intimidating to regular built folk. This also causes a lot of intimidation and anxiety among regular men who are not particularly big and in many cases may be a bit envious of their large limbed brothern. It's been my experience after 42 years in the game that name calling, bashing and putting groups of people down ever leads to anything positive. Better to simply ignor borish behavior and stay away from those that you find offensive. I know plenty of really nice bodybuilders and many of them are very athletically gifted, real tough, strong to the extreme and genuine badasses.These same guys built their size and strength sans kettlebells.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.stevemaxwell.com
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Question
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Shawn Baldwin: December 28 2005
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Bill Fox , Mike Mahler....please critique my training
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I am recovering from a hamstring (piris formus ?) injury but have been doing some light squats. I am doing incline db presses, curls, rows, pullups, one arm kb presses, military presses.
I want to get strong and bigger. What rep scheme and what days should I workout? I also walk my dogs an hour every day to get some cardio in. I am trying to lose fat also. I weigh 200lbs. with probably 15 percent bodyfat. I follow a semi low carb body building diet.
Thanks!!!
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 28 2005
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In order to get bigger and stronger, one must include heavy movements that stimulate the growth systems in the body. Squats, deadlifts, benches, dips, chin, pullups, rows and heavy overhead presses. because of your injury, you will be limited in your ability to produce large muscular increases. However, you can get really muscualar, shredded and strong in the upper body by including heavy weighted dips in your routine. Chins and dips are the perfect compliment and hit every muscle in the upper body. Organize a routine involving multiple sets of chins and dips, perhaps based on EDT. Through some presses and curls in the mix plus some savage ab work. For low back, hit the back extensions on the 45' bench or a stability ball. Work the deads and heavy squats back into your routine as soon as you are able.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.stevemaxwell.com
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Question
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bobptz: December 29 2005
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Zatsiorsky and Training to Failure
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"Science and Practice of Strength Training". Page 103, paragraph 2:
"MU that are recruited but not fatigued. If they are not fatigued, they are not trained."
(MU = Motor Units).
From what I understood, fast MU are worked first and ARE fatigued, long before a set is completed. The set is completed by the slow MU, that are fatigue resistant. So the fast MU are trained, but the slow ones aren't. I guess this what the PTP method does.
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 30 2005
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One cannot selectively recruit muscle fiber. The fibers are recruited from slow to fast. The body tries to be as efficient as possible. Only when the the resistence is high enough or the slow/medium fibers have been exhausted do the fast twitch fibers kick in. Check any basic physiology text.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.stevemaxwell.com
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Question
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Ivan Drago: December 29 2005
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Got my CoC trainer today.... gotta say I am somewhat dissapointed...
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I thought it would be much harder. I thought I might struggle to close it once, but I actually closed it quite easily. Oh well, I guess its time for the #1 already. Maybe I'll just train holds with this one for awhile.
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Answer
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Steve Maxwell: December 30 2005
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I have a number of light grippers that work very well for irradition in other movements. Squeese your trainer when doing one arm presses, one arm pushups and one arm body weight rows. It is amazing how much stronger one is while squeezing the gripper. Try squeezing two of them during pistols. At the Naked warrior seminar that Pavel and I conducted, we had people doing pistols for the first time that had previously failed. One such person was a 64 year old grandmother! She completed her first pistol ever while squeezing the grippers. She always lost tension in earlier attempts and would fall over at the bottom. The grippers helped create the proper tension neccessary to succeed. For weighted pistols, hold a kettlebell in the racked position and squeeze the gripper in the other hand at the start of the rep. It makes a big difference. You may want to pick up another even lighter model than the trainer (there are two levels below it) for irradiation purposes. I use two light models for high rep squeezes when I knock out Hindu squats for example. You may find many more things that you can do, like thumb and index finger squeezes etc.
Steve Maxwell
http://www.stevemaxwell.com
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