Unlocking Your Booty...

There has been a lot of talk about gluetal activation, especially for athletes. The glutes are made up of three parts:

1. Gluteus Maximus
2. Gluteus Medius
   
3. Gluteus Minimus
   

These muscles make up a large chunk of the posterior chain, making it crucial that we use them optimally. In hopes of learning more about getting the most out of my butt, I went straight to the source:

Kim Kardashian

After only finding a sitcom-like reality show, I decided to go to the real experts, Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson.

"The fact of the matter is that most athletes are tight in the hamstrings, lower back, and hip flexors. This collection of problems is related to a lack of strength and motor control in the gluteal muscles. When the hip flexors (antagonists to the gluteus maximus) are overactive, the gluteus maximus becomes weak via a mechanism known as reciprocal inhibition."

Okay, so we know that underactive glutes are a problem, and are hurting my performance, so what can I do to turn them on?? Here is a great workout consisting of exercies to get your glutes activated and give them a great workout. Follow this protocol and you'll be filling your apple bottom jeans in no time!

The Protocol

1) Supine Bridge (2 Sets of 10) Squeeze your glutes and lift your butt off the ground thinking about lifting up one vertebrae at a time. Advanced athletes can attempt this on one leg, but do not sacrifice the technique!

2) Donkey Kicks (2 Sets of 10) Kick up and out and squeeze the glutes at the finish

3) Squats with complete hip extension (5 Sets of 3)



4) Split Squats (3 sets of 4 on each leg) Focus on a complete range of motion

5) Glute-Ham Raises (3 Sets of 8)

6) Free-Form Reverse Hyper (3 sets of 5) Squeeze your butt hard at the top!

7) Pull-Throughs (3 sets of 8) The bread and butter of the workout

If this protocol doesn't get your glutes on fire, then there will be only one method left...

Train Hard!

My work outs and shoulder and a new author.

This is what my last couple of days of trainning have looked like:
Wensday the 6th: Upper pull. 4x10 lat pulldowns, Chest supported rows 5x8-10, Cheapo pullups* 6x6, reverse flys 4x10, seated lat raise 4x10 (which I will never do again), Seated pulldowns (some fancy pull machine I like) 5x8, Two bicep workouts which are so miniscule I dont even write down which ones I do. and Farmers hold 100lb DB 3x 30 seconds.
Thursday: boring tempo, run/walk/jog on the tredmill for a total of 15minutes usually 45 seconds jogging 30 seconds waling on and off. Kept heart rate over 160. Then 4x8 GHR's real easy, 4x10 legpress, 4x10 pushups superset with decline abs.
Friday Max deads 3's and 1's which was a pitiful attempt, my heart wasnt really it it, I wasnt feeling it, copped out at 435. GHR's 5x6 45 degree BR 4x8.
Monday the 11th Bench 5x8-10, flys 4x12, knurl bar skull crushers 4x8, standing shoulder press 4x10, straight bar push ups w one band 5x10, tri pulldowns 4x12, and capble cross overs one handed 3x10 each side.
This is the typical work out I've been doing. Tomorrow is friday the 15th and Hopefully it will go a lot better then my max dead attempt and I'll be able to actually squat some weight.
Now Ive been wanting to say something about this for awhile cuase it really fucking irks me hard. I walk around teh weight room and what do I see? I see dickheads decline benching with bands up the asshole wraped around the bench. I see some fucking schmuck with a racket-action belt throw 225 on the bar, rep it out, then throw 405 on the bar rep it out maybe 4 times going the distance of about 6 smal inshces, not extending his elbows, not touching his chest, just moving the bar around space. He does this a few difference times. I see dudes lateral raising with 50 fucking pound dumbbells! and I'm floating through the gym being ever so careful and babying my god forsaken shoulder. What in the fuck is wrong with this picture? Chances are these are teh assholes that pop some protien after thier workout and eat god knows what afterwords thinking thier invinicible cuase "they go to the gym" or even worse, that 405 repper with the chest of titans and legs of a 11 year old girl goes off telling people how he benches so much -And me? I'm fucking stuck rubbing my deltiod, foam rolling, taking contrast showers, avoiding unilateral shoulder suported exercises, and HELLS for certain not benching 405 ever again. I lay down my arms here shameful and embaressed, this is what everything amounts to, my fucking shoulder. And watching dickheads and alchoholics alike out bench me and show off for the faggots. It was never suppose to be a fair trade off when knowledge was passed down to me through those who acutally understand these things, but somtimes I wish I was stuck in ignorance becuase my frustration amounts to a temper tantrum waiting to exhale. -Sigh-
Lastly, I'd like to post that there will be a second contributor to this blog now, a good friend of mine and a bit more of a technical mind who taught me almost everything I know abuot this game we call lookin good naked. watch for his posts.

New Year New Split

First off I'd like to mention my New Years resolution. I really want to fucking -do- tempo on my tempo days. I tend to shrug wensdays off as a "get my h/w done" kind of day. Though this day left ample oppertunity to catch up, it left a blank day in my training were I was just coming up short.
After a holiday which came up short on expectations of trainning, I must now propose my new concept for a trainning plan. I would like to enter a phase which puts emphasis on max lifts -almost-not-so-quite-probably to failure kind of lifts, once a week. rotating that lift on a weekly basis. While my supplementary lifts will be very hypotrophic. I am coming of a training plan which consisted of using mid weights with low reps, a great way to establish a base. Now I"d like to take the next 6 (?) weeks to get hypotrophic, be more serious about my cardio tempo days and lift my balls to the walls once a week. So it should probably look something like this:
Mon: Upper pull
Tue: Lower (not heavy) alternate push/pull
Wen Upper Push
Thur Tempo
Fri -Heavy- alternate push/pull
My upper days will base of bench or pull ups -for volume (reps) all work in the range of 4x10/5x8-10/6x6 that sort of thhang. The lower day that is not upper will be of a similar volume to the upper days. I will probably keep this at 6x6 for sake of ease. But depending on the day/time/business it is subject to change.
The heavy day will be obvious. Max 3's and 1's or just 3's maybe 5's if I am feeling outrageous. But it wil be a max work. Not lifting the load for ease as I was during my 40 day plan. Its time to crank up the CNS and build up some serious strength. The way I want it to work is if I squat on tuesday, I want to deadlift heavy on friday. so one affects the other.
Assistant work: I am limited to what I have time for and access to. But my Upper assistant work looks somthing like: DB floor press, seated shoulder press on the smith machine, forward rasies (really light), iso lateral chest press (If i am desperate), standing skull crushers w. knurl bar, Chest supported row, pull ups (all types of grips and movements), behind my back shrugs with mini straight bar or knurl bar, low rows w. either the rope or a handled long bar, machine flys (muscle beach), reverse flys, db curls, knurl bar curls, and all sorts of abs stuff that I usually skip due to time.
3-4 assistance excersise with each main workout, pending on all sots of stupid stuff that I wish to avoid.
I did not see a purpose to useing a heavy bench upper day. With a bum shoulder and a weak bench I thought this would be a fair time to make up for shape with what I lack in strength for my bench. I could alternate a weekly heavy bench day if need be. However I would encourage input on this topic. I know it is always good to lift heavy, which I intend to do, but maxing on bench is unappealing and does not fit snugly with this plan.
Lastly, I'd like to comment on why I am sticking with push pull, instead of heading back to the ever lasting upper lower split. Two reason (which is probably the more important ones) 1. I like it. I like push pull -a lot. 2. I find it "saves" my shoulder, or is a lot less stressful on my right shoulder. Not in the -I-cannot-touch-my-chest-when-I-bench kind of "hurt my shoulder" more like, this stupid fucking thing limits my intensity when banged up to the max. When experimenting with going back to upper lowerdays a week before my holiday break, my sort of -go fuck around- week after the 40 days were up, a serious increase in shoulder discomfort followed me throughout the week and part of the break (i.e I benched heavy). To avoid this, I thought hitting my shoulder from two seperate ways will ensure that I keep it healthy as it was during my 40 day work out.
Comment, discuss, critque, I am open for chaning this in many ways, but this is the structure I was hoping to follow. Currently I am lacking anything to train for. I am considering a strong man in early spring is possible. So I am hoping this will segway into some intent training weeks miday between now and the date of a potential competition. For now =GFH