Below is a recent review of my book The Sports Supplement Bible as seen in Muscle Insider Magazine. Muscle Insider reminds me a bit of old school Muscle Media with some MuscleMag International influences thrown in, two publication I wrote for many times over the years. Check out their web page and see if you agree. They have a collection of good writers. You can see more reviews of my book HERE if interested.
Here’s my buddy Brian training with the Slayer Barbell at Gold’s Gym Natick MA, one of the best equipped gyms in the area. Some of the fun stuff you see in my vids used the gym like the Slayer Bar, Prowler Sled, Ultimate Sandbags, and others are mine and left for members to use.
When at the Arnold Classic, I’m always on the lookout for something new and interesting for training equipment, and this year didn’t disappoint. People can get a taste of what I got to see in my recent vid from from 2013 Arnold Classic. On the Expo floor, I saw The Kettle Clamp, which grabbed my attention and I investigated. Glad I did! The Kettle Clamp allows you to convert any dumbbell into a Kettlebell, but there’s FAR more that can be done with The Kettle Clamp.
To be honest, I’m not a big kettlebell person. Although I do use them semi regular, they are not a central part of my exercise programs. I could see however The Kettle Clamp would not only allow me to convert the dumbbells I have in my home gym into KBs, there was plenty of other benefits to having a pair of Kettle Clamps in my tool box. Here’s a recent workout I did using The Kettle Clamp:
In this workout, I do a GPP/conditioning workout in two blocks:
Pull ups and farmers walks
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KB swings, grappler press, dead lifts using FatGripz
I took no time between exercises and tried to take less than a minute between rotations.
More info on The Kettle Clamp go HERE
If you have read my articles and seen my vids, you know I’m a fan of thick bar/FatGripz training for anyone interested in improving their grip, arm strength, and overall functional strength for sports such as strongman, MMA, power lifting, and daily life. It’s a “must have” tool in the training tool box in my view. If you need a refresher on the benefits of thick bar/FatGripz training, take a look at the write up and vid I did a while back HERE, then come back to this page. I can wait!
The makers of FatGripz have come out with the FatGripz Extreme. The Extreme model is thicker than the standard FatGripz, getting closer in size to what strong man competitors actually train and compete with. World class power lifter, top coach, and Founder of Elite Fitness had this to say about these new Extreme grips:
“…these are the best grips I have ever used. While they all serve slightly different purposes these Fat Gripz Extremes have more uses than all the others combined.
If you are looking to add variety to your training, work around minor shoulder/elbow aches, and increase neuro-muscular activation, give FAT GRIPZ EXTREME a try!”
I would agree with Dave. While I personally tend to stick with the standard sized FatGripz for most exercises when looking to increase grip width on an exercise – such as chin ups, farmers walks, trap bar dead lifts, etc, – the addition of the new Extreme grips adds yet another dimension.
These grips are not for everyone. If you’re new to thick bar/FatGripz training, I’d recommend the standard sized FatGripz. However, if you have been using standard FatGripz for a while or have had access to thick bars, then the Extreme is a tool in your training tool box you’ll want for sure.
Here’s Dave Tate doing a set transformation curls using three different grips. I have tried these myself and they are killer. I have also tried this technique with chin ups and deadlifts, and it’s brutal!
Standard sized FatGripz can be found HERE
Extreme FatGripz can be found HERE
It’s not often I come across a new piece of training equipment that makes me say “I wanna try that!.” Most of what I see for “new” training equipment is either a rehashed concept, or more a novelty.
The Slayer Barbell is a new design that has merit, so I decided to get my hands on one and try it. I also left it at my gym for other members to use, and it’s quickly become one of the most popular training tools in the gym. Below is a vid I made with a few friends using the Slayer.
Although the “bread and butter” of this bar is arm training, one can do a surprising number of effective exercises with it in a very small footprint as well as a few specialty exercises, such as bridges. See an example of whole body training I did with fitness model Kelly HERE.
As with any training tool, it’s a tool in the tool box. Not going to change your life and make you “a mass monster in 20 days and give you a body of a God” or any such nonsense, but I think it makes a great addition to a home gym or commercial set up. There’s more that can be done with this bar then my simple vids shows.
The manufacturer is currently giving away a copy of my book The Sports Supplement Bible FREE with any purchase of a Slayer Bar for the month of February, so if you’ve been thinking of trying one, you’ll have my book to read! Hit HERE if interested
PS, they liked my video so much they asked permission to use it on their site, so you’ll see the above vid their too 
So I’m at the Arnold Classic recently and saw the FatGripz booth; another one of those “why the hell didn’t I think of this?!” simple products that adds so much potential value to a workout for the cost, it’s a ‘no-brainer’ to own them. While at the booth, I did a few sets of chins ( see minute 3:20 of Arnold Classic Vid) and as usual, I could feel it in my grip, and arms much more so then if doing it without the FatGripz. They are one of those uber simple cost effective products that simply works in an increasingly overly complicated world, but more on that shortly…
Here’s a simple fact of life: if your back and legs can dead-lift 700lb, but your grip ends at 300lbs, your dead-lift is 300 lbs. Thus, your grip is truly the final link in the chain that dictates what you can pull off the ground or what you can hold onto in general, be it a chin up bar, barbell, or other objects. Your grip is your ultimate contact with the weights. For strength athletes, such as power lifters, strongman competitors, and others, grip strength is king. Without it, you are no place. When it comes to strength, you are only as strong as your weakest link and most strength athletes know that fact all too well.
Aches and pains are very common to athletes and people who exercise regularly. The shoulders are a common area for chronic aches and pains. Some times the pain is due to a specific injury which needs to be diagnosed and treated by a medical professional. However, much of the time the aches and pain in the shoulders are due to muscle imbalances in the rotator cuff muscles, which can be stretched and or strengthened to both improve function and reduce pain.
Dr. Chiang covers some useful info on shoulder pain via his write up on shoulder Impingement Syndromes HERE, and there are a number of good articles on this site regarding injury prevention. One simple gizmo I have found very helpful is called The Rotater. It’s a simple yet effective method of both stretching and strengthening the rotator cuff muscles. Watch my short vid below, followed by the examples of using The Rotater for internal and external stretching. If interested in additional information on how The Rotater can be used to strengthen the shoulders, improve function, reduce pain, and so forth, hit the picture below the vids.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to have the inside scoop, the real deal, the down and dirty on any given issue, then Will Brink’s book, “The Skinny on Diet Supplements,” should be on your required reading list for nutritional supplement information. This book is an encyclopedia of dietary
supplements and their role in weight loss, looking at each item in an in-depth and organized way.
Each chapter focuses on a single supplement, cites what it’s supposed to do, and provides details of the science behind the product, including some dissection of that science. The next section looks at the “real world” chatter about the supplement, and that’s followed by the best feature of the book, Will Brink’s recommendations. This last feature is my favorite section in each chapter, because Will is not shy about saying what works and what doesn’t work. He isn’t beholden to any particular supplement or supplement company, so it doesn’t feel like you’re being sold a bill of goods. Rather, he cuts through the falsehoods put forth by the supplement industry, and where evidence supports the use of a product and that product has proven real world results, he tells you so. Where evidence or the real world comes up short, he tells you that.
If you have watched my videos over the years, you know I’m a fan. Here’s why; Sandbag training is some of the most productive “functional” training around. The sandbags Ultimate Sandbag takes sandbag training to another level. They have handles and grips, and are very well made. The number of exercises you can do with the sandbags is virtually endless. A must have for home gyms and those who want to take their functional strength and fitness to the next level! I use them with teams I work with and clients at all levels, and keep a small, medium, and large bag in my home gym. If you watch the various vids on the site here, you will see I use these bags for a large variety of training. I have added additional vids to watch below, and if interested in more info, click HERE
Review by Evan Peck M.D.
The sale of dietary supplements produces over $28 billion annually. In the fitness industry, dietary supplements also represent a large proportion of the marketing effort, as evidenced by brief perusal of most popular exercise magazines or websites. Many training and nutrition articles in the lay press are cleverly-schemed (or thinly-veiled) advertisements for dietary supplements, and essentially all major bodybuilding magazines are owned by dietary supplement companies.
Sports Supplements are used by both athletes, and active populations such as those in the military
Simply put, dietary supplements are big business. And where there’s money to made, integrity is not always found. In The Sports Supplement Bible, Will Brink examines with scrutiny a large collection of popular dietary supplements on the market. Of note, Mr. Brink is a private nutritional and exercise consultant, does not work for any dietary supplement company, and has no conflict of interest with respect to the material contained within this book.
The book organizes dietary supplements into several categories: Amino Acids, Metabolites (e.g., creatine monohydrate), Protein Powders, Essential Elements, Anti-Estrogens, Herbal Testosterone Boosters, Phytochemicals, Adaptogens, and Miscellaneous Compounds. For each supplement, a concise and information-dense chapter is written. The supplement is defined, the purported effects are defined, and then those claims (and any other effects) are examined using the available scientific literature as well as what has been reported anecdotally. The information is then summarized into a general recommendation.
Amazon for Kindle
