Latest person to go through the BrinkZone Gauntlet, model & competitor Marybeth Paul shows what effective efficient whole body GPP, conditioning, endurance, and metabolic work looks like. No “toning and firming” nonsense here, just hard work that yields results. All the tools used in this vid can be found in the BrinkZone Approved Stuff section of the site BTW. Those are the tools that get best bang for the buck people!
Wanna see more “victims” of the BrinkZone Gauntlet? Click HERE
Latest person to go through the BrinkZone Gauntlet, model & competitor Jennifer Amy shows what effective efficient whole body GPP, conditioning, endurance, and metabolic work looks like. No “toning and firming” nonsense here, just hard work that yields results. 
Wanna see more “victims” of the BrinkZone Gauntlet? Click HERE
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. - Voltaire
Printer friendly pdf, 9 pages, 98 references (right-click to download and save):
Testosterone Replacement Therapy – why is it so controversial?
For reasons that are not readily apparent, there appears to be a conservative political movement that opposes the use of testosterone in older men. This was clearly demonstrated by the report of the Institute of Medicine, which felt that testosterone is not yet ready for prime time and that there is still a need for studies to prove its efficacy 1. Along the same lines, the guidelines of the Endocrine Society on testosterone use in older men seem to be ultra-cautious 2 . But fortunately, there are also other, more liberal guidelines and recommendations 3-5.
Probably no other medical issue has been bombarded by the influx of “expert” views from all walks of life; from endocrinologists and psychiatrists to urological surgeons and gerontologists, from the lay press to the regulatory agencies and from the pharmaceutical to the entertainment industries. The dismal result of all this free-for all cacophony of opinions is a great deal of confusion, erroneous information and significant detriment to patients and physicians alike.
Let’s take an in-depth look at the reasons for the negative attitudes to male testosterone replacement therapy (I will cover post-menopausal testosterone replacement in an upcoming article), and the hard scientific data that refutes it…
Folks, just attended the Iron Master Strongman Challenge, put on by The Weight Room, Newton MA. Here’s my highlight vid. You can also see another vid I made at the Weight Room which focused on the benefits of thick bar training HERE if interested.
As you all can see, a very tough series of event were chosen, but no quitters and a good time had by all!
I know, I know, I’ve written about this a lot. But the subject is deserving of ongoing discussion. After all, periodization is frustrating- on the face of it, the premise is both compelling and logical. Dig a little deeper though, and the problems become evident.
To illustrate, I’m sharing a question that was recently sent to me from a trainer in Australia- I’ll keep his identity private since it’s not germane to the subject at hand:
Cluster Training is an extremely useful method for strength building. It’s essentially a way to mitigate fatigue, allowing you to get more reps with a certain weight than you could with a straight-through set. You perform a small cluster of reps, take a short ret, then another small cluster of reps, then a short rest, then repeat for whatever framework you’re doing overall. Then you take a longer rest, then you can repeat the cluster again.
Recent studies have shown some controversial findings that high-rep training is as effective as the traditional medium rep training for muscle growth. If you missed it, check out my two previous articles:
Training for maximal muscle growth – is heavy low-medium reps really the best way to go?
Muscle growth with high rep training – has time come to challenge our egos?
In this article I will show some examples of how high-rep sets can be implemented in a serious weight lifting program, and look at the results of some studies that have investigated this.
In a previous article I reported the controversial results of a study that compared the muscle (myofibrillar) protein synthetic response of a traditional “bodybuilding” high-load low rep workout (90FAIL) to a higher rep low load workout (30FAIL), both taken to failure 1. If you haven’t read that article, here’s a lowdown:
The workout with higher rep lower load sets (30FAIL) was equally effective in stimulating muscle (myofibrillar) protein synthesis as a workout with low rep high load sets (90FAIL) 1. But more notably, the high-rep low load workout (30FAIL) resulted in a more prolonged muscle protein synthetic response and a greater elevation of muscle protein synthesis rates than the low rep high load workout (90FAIL) 24h after exercise, and also induced a greater stimulation of anabolic signalling pathways 1.
However, this study was an acute study with measurements taken for only 24 hours after one single workout bout. This doesn’t tell us whether higher rep sets would lead to long term increases in muscle mass, which is what we are ultimately interested in. Well, the same research group just published an actual 10 week training study 2 to find the answer to this nerve-itching question….
In this vid, we do some thick bar/thick handle training, which should be part of any program where maximal functional strength is the goal. For more info, also see my write on the topic HERE.
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