If you live a sedentary lifestyle or work a desk job, planning exercise sessions in your weekly routine is absolutely critical to maintaining your health and quality of life. We all know this, but for many, the challenge is finding the time to fit some type of exercise into their schedule on a consistent basis. With

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Body recomposition is the process of lowering your body fat while increasing muscle mass, resulting no net change in your body weight. There are many paths to achieving this, but understanding the common themes will help to make the process as efficient and sustainable as possible.  The following six principles will ensure your body “recomp” is

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This past February, my girlfriend and I went on a 4-week trip around Europe, and our second stop was Ireland. We happened to find a great gym (Inspire Gym, Larne, Northern Ireland), so we took full advantage of it when we weren’t spending time touring the beautiful countryside.  More often than not, I tend to

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Reading time ~20min. To go to the quick summary, click here. The basics of building muscle mass are no secret. Overload. Eat. Recover. If you have just started training seriously and are struggling to gain muscle mass, chances are that you don’t need a more advanced training program, a complicated nutrition plan, or a sophisticated supplement

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The snatch and clean & jerk, as well as their variations (snatch pulls, clean pulls, from the hang, from blocks, from a deficit, power variations) are great exercises to develop strength, power, and muscle mass in the legs, entire back musculature, and shoulders.  With a little creativity, you can develop weightlifting complexes that suit your specific

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Everyone knows that you’re not supposed to round your lower back. “Lift with you legs, not your back.” “Keep a flat back.” “Spinal flexion is BAD.” In an industry that is very divided in regards to training theory, “not rounding the back” is one idea that is widely accepted among personal trainers and strength coaches.

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In no particular order, here are 20 things about training and nutrition I learned (or confirmed) in 2013: 1. Strive to develop strength and flexibility at the same time.  Being strong without having good range of motion is useless. 2. For fast results, multiple training sessions in a day are a must.  Changes in body

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