Busomjack

This is some of the funniest crap I have ever seen.

I can't even imagine doing anything other than the alternate grip. I have tried and it feels like the bar is going to slip out of my hands. I figure there is a good reason why the NSCA, NASM, ACSM, and ACE ALL recommend the alternate grip.

Alright, so I just took the CSCS exam and realized that I cannot get the exam results back until my college transcripts have arrived. I overnight mailed them my transcripts, called them and they said they cannot predict how long it will take for them to confirm a pass or a fail. Can anyone else who has faced a similar predicament give me any clue of what I face. As for the test content, very hard! The video questions I think I nailed and I think I did pretty well with the nutrition and anatomy questions. Where I stumbled a bit I think are with rest periods when it comes to sprinting, there were several questions that related to rest/work intervals with sprinting and it was confusing because the way I studied it was that shorter sprints mean higher intensity and therefore more rest period but for distances like say 1550 which qualify as neither phosphagen, nor aerobic I was confused about the rest period so I usually went for the middle option. Looking back I know for certain there are at least two questions I screwed up on. One was about appropriate tests for a basketball player. I answered 1 RM power clean and T-test but now that I think about it I know it was 1 RM power clean and 40 meter spring. I wish I reviewed that one but I didn't. Oh well, got to hope for the best. One of the questions I really friggin hated was "which of these exercises burns the most calories?" The choices were A)Front Squat B)Snatch C)Hang Clean D)Dead lift. I figured the answer would be which exercise utilizes the most muscles, problem is ALL of those exercises are very compound so I ended up choosing Hang Clean since it incorporates elements of the dead lift and front squat. You don't need as much power for the Snatch so I ruled that out. What do you guys think? Another question. If a person is performing a pike Jump, what reccomendation would you give. Two of the answers were obvious bs but the other two both seemed right. First one was to keep knees straight and the other was a 10 second rest between reps. The 10 second rep between reps DOES seem appropriate being that it is a high intensity plyometric drill but the keeping the leg straight option seemed more specific towards the actual drill so I ended up answering that one. Hard hard friggin test. The way I see it is I believe I probably passed the scientific portion of the test and I have about 50/50 chance on the applied/practical. My only saving grace is that more questions means I can get away with screwing up more answers and no doubt I screwed up on some. Some that I shouldn't have even. I REALLY REALLY hope I get my results back soon, I am paralyzed in fear. I can't go to the gym and work out, I can't rest, I can't even eat. This is psychological torture. Anyone who is taking the CSCS exam, MAKE ABSOLUTE SURE you submit your transcripts BEFORE taking the exam, preferably several weeks before hand. That was the mistake I made.

The NSCA's essentials of strength and conditioning has a great chapter about periodization and program design for all sorts of different goals including bodybuilding. The book is to teach you how to better train your clients but it is also extremely useful for expanding your knowledge on how to better train yourself.

The local Whole Foods has been selling Flax Milk. Really good stuff that I have been drinking along with my flaxseed oil. Been noticing a lot less inflammation as a result of my high omega-3 fatty acid intake.

Swimming is an excellent form of cardio and has the lowest chance of injury since you weigh so much less underwater. Like all cardio though it can be catabolic. You should probably limit duration to 20 minutes per session and if you have a heart rate monitor, try to keep it around 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. Swimming is interesting because it's a sport where you don't want to have an excessively low body fat since your body fat actually adds buoyancy.

Heh, I'll do bicep curls only if I'm about to go out on a date and want that pumped up look on my arms. I think bicep curls are probably one of the first exercises most of us did when we first walked into a gym and that's fine. Anyone who does it in a squat rack though deserves a kick in the nuts.

I'm NSCA certified although I have the lesser known NSCA-CPT certification which isn't as reputable as the NSCA-CSCS. Still, it seems to be pretty well respected in the industry and you only need a high school diploma and CPR certification to be eligible for it. I've never seen the CSCS certification but from what I have understand the NSCA-CPT is basically an easier, less specialized version of the CSCS, it's good if you're planning on working with the general population rather than training just athletes.

I think the one I hate the most is the clamshell ab crunch machine. Every time I go to the gym I will always see some overweight guy or gal spend most if not their entire duration at the gym doing nothing but high volume/low intensity reps. It's frustrating because it indicates to me that these people are buying into the myth of spot reduction, the belief that they can target areas of the body to reduce fat such as doing crunches in order to remove body fat which is of course complete bullshit. Crunches burn hardly any calories and they don't even do much for building core strength, how can people expect to build core strength doing exercises where you're sitting down? It doesn't make any sense. They'd be much better off doing a resistance exercise that actually does burn a lot of calories like front squats/back squats, hip sled, lunges, etc... I live in Kentucky so I know a lot of fat people who come to the gym and they look the same years later. Their routine is always the stupid clamshell crunch machine, maybe some other crunch varients, and then an hour or more walking 2 miles per hour like a zombie around the track or on the treadmill. I couldn't imagine staying motivated with a routine that is so boring and ineffective. Also, people should realize that while working out can help you lose weight, it's not nearly as important as diet. These people I see working out I'll see walking to the gym carrying bags of KFC and other diseased processed meat they pollute their bodies with.

Squats are great. Just remember that if you want to activate the hip extensors, the glutes primarily then you need to at least squat until your knees and your ass are parallel. I see almost nobody do squats properly at the gym. They'll just bend their knees a little bit and that's it, then they'll act like they're such badasses because they can squat 315 but only go down like 6 inches.

No it's not worth it. Exercise should be about improving and maintaining good health, it doesn't make sense to compromise your health while exercising.

The prowler is also a great way to punish a client who complains you're not training them hard enough. That and burpees.

Yeah, it seems that way. I must be using more muscles for the backsquat otherwise I wouldn't be lifting as much. It does however seem that my core gets a better workout doing the front squats though.

Go for the Vega brand protein shakes. 25 grams of complete protein per scoop, low carbohydrate, no artificial sweetners. All plant based protein, good stuff.

Yeah, for me it's the snatch I have a bit of trouble with. The clean and jerk I love though. No doubt about learning proper technique. I've heard that people who want to learn them should go for the USAW certification and avoid Crossfit. Even though Crossfit includes olympic lifts in their routine they focus way too much on volume and often don't teach the lifts correctly. Explosive lifts like the clean and jerk really should never require more than 4-6 reps or preferably fewer. I've seen crossfitter doing like 30 reps of the clean though. I figure if you're doing 30 reps of anything then it's time to increase the damn weight.