There’s More to Life Than Six Pack Abs

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Men’s magazines are filled with exercise and workout routines designed to give you a chiseled physique. The glossy ads in the magazine showcase the desired result of all this work: a chiseled and ripped body. But what is the end goal of the pursuit of all

this muscle? Some men work out for the health benefits, for pleasure, and to generally stay in shape. This is reasonable and desirable. Every man should want to be fit and healthy. But some men develop an unhealthy obsession with getting a ripped physique. Steroid use has become common, not just for athletes, but also for average joes who don’t want to be so average. But to what end? To attract the ladies? To meet some idealized image of the male body? Such a pursuit is a huge waste of time. Here are some reasons why:

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Streamline Your Next Camping Trip

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Last week we encouraged men to spend time in the great outdoors. It’s a thought that surely has occurred to many of you before, but it seems most of us can’t find the time to do it. According to a recent study, Americans are spending 25% less time in the outdoors than they did in the 1980’s. People are glued to their
The great thing about camping is that it is the most economical way to get away from it all, and even a weekend can do wonders for your spirit. But just planning for a weekend trip seems like too big of a hassle sometimes. In truth, it always seems like a bigger hassle in your head than it turns out to be. And there are several things you can do to make camping trips easier, and consequently more frequent. Here are 5 ways to streamline your camping trip and keep it hassle free:

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4 Ways Nature Restores Your Manly Vigor

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul. Keep close to Nature’s heart…and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.~ John Muir

To care for their health and well-being, many men carefully watch their diet, take supplements, exercise, and go for regular check-ups at the dentist and the doctor. Some even supplement this routine with visits to a masseuse or a therapist. But many men are skipping out on something essential to their manly vigor-spending time in the great outdoors.

Great men from Theodore Roosevelt to Ralph Waldo Emerson loved to tear out into nature. Yet today men see activities like hiking, fishing, hunting, and camping as hobbies to be enjoyed by some and not by others. They’ve become just another recreational opportunity: you can take it or leave it.

But spending time in the outdoors is essential for every man. It will strip off the stale, sissified patina that civilization has covered you in and renew your soul in 5 crucial ways:

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Knock Out Depression With Exercise

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“A brisk 30-minute walk or jog around the track three times a week may be just as effective in relieving the symptoms of major depression as the standard treatment of anti-depressant medications, according to the results of a Duke University Medical Center study.”

Quite the exciting headline, no? This news will probably be all over the front pages of newspapers and magazines. Only it won’t. And it wasn’t.

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5 Ways Strength Training Will Make You Man Up

Brett asked me to make an article about strength training and how it relates to manliness. Great topic, because strength training is all about that. Here are 5 ways strength training will make you man up.

1. Confidence. The stronger you are, the more muscles you’ll have. The more muscles you have, the more calories you’ll burn. Strength training will build muscle while lowering your body fat. You’ll look & feel better.

What you achieve will inspire you in other areas of your life. Success breeds success. You’ll feel more confident about yourself & what you can do. And that’s the number one personality trait that defines men: confidence.

2. Testosterone. Strength training & weight lifting increases your testosterone levels. Increased testosterone means more muscles, a lower body fat and an increased libido. Testosterone is the Man hormone.

No need to buy fancy supplements to increase your testosterone levels. Just go to the gym & do a simple 3×30mins/week routine like StrongLifts 5×5.

3. Responsibility. You want money: work. You want girls: approach them. You want to build muscle & lose fat: pay your dues at the gym. Strength training teaches you to be responsible for your own future.

4. Hobby. Smoking pot, drinking beer, playing video games, … Those can all be fun, but they’re not rewarding in the long-term. Get a real hobby. Lift weights, build muscle, lose the belly, get stronger.

5. Cave-man.

Exercise is substitute cave-man activity. - Mark Rippetoe.

Once you’re doing heavy sets of Squats & Deadlifts you’ll understand what Rippetoe means. Strength training will wake up something inside you. Something that in many people lies dormant: being a man.

This post was submitted by Mehdi of StrongLifts.com. Check out his site for more info about the Bench Press, Barbell Row, Pull-ups & building a home gym.

If you liked this article, please bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Mehdi would appreciate it.

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Get Bigger & Stronger with Stronglifts.com

The market is saturated with materials on exercise and fitness. Books, magazines, and videos all promise that they have the newest and most effective workouts that will turn you from a chump to a champ. Unfortunately, most of the stuff is crap and it makes your life more complicated than it needs to be.

Thankfully, there is a site dedicated to promoting a no frills workout that produces results. StrongLifts.com is authored by a guy named Mehdi from Belgium.

Every week, Mehdi offers great advice on strength training, nutrition, and motivation. However, the core of StrongLifts.com is the StrongLifts 5×5 workout. The routine consists of simple exercises that are designed to increase your strength, increase your muscle, and reduce your body fat.

Why every man should use the StrongLifts 5×5 Workout

1. You don’t need much equipment for the StrongLifts workout. Just a gym that has some barbells, plates, a bench, a power rack (for squats), and pull up and dip bars. That’s it. No machines, no girly rubber balls, and no elastic cables.

2. Moreover, the exercises themselves are simple. You’re doing basic strength training lifts like the squat, bench press, and deadlift. You won’t be doing any complicated or awkward moves. Just the tried and true exercises that have been proven to work for decades. And the set and reps formula is elementary: 5X5=5 sets of 5 reps each.

3. Each workout works your whole body and consists of compound exercises that hit multiple muscles at the same time. This is the best and most efficient way to lift weights. Many men’s magazines show you exercises designed to isolate a specific muscle. This is inefficient and a waste of time. The more muscles you activate in a workout, the stronger you will get and the more fat you will burn.

4. You get results. The workout is designed so you can push yourself and get stronger and leaner each week. Each workout out you’ll be adding a small amount of weight. Before you know it, you’ll be bench pressing cars over your head. Because strength training increases muscles and muscle burns more fat, you’ll also get leaner. After a couple of months with this workout and a proper diet, you can kiss your belly and man boobs goodbye.

My Results Using the StrongLifts 5×5

To give you an idea how effective the workout is, here are my results after doing the StrongLifts 5×5 for four weeks:

• My body weight has stayed the same (190 lbs), but my body fat percentage has gone down 4%
• I’ve increased my bench press 5×5: 155 lbs to 5×5: 190 lbs. An increase of 35 lbs.
• I’ve increased my squat from 5×5: 190 lbs to 5×5: 245 lbs. An increase of 55 lbs.
• I’ve gone from being able to do 1 stinking pull-up to being able to do 6.

The last time I was putting up weight like this was seven years ago when I played high school football. The way things are going now, I’m confident I can surpass what I lifted back then. My entire body is also toning up in general. Despite not doing any isolated exercises, my body is getting bigger and more defined.

Time to get crackin’

Are you ready to man up your workout routine? Head on over to StrongLifts.com right now. Yes, right now. Subscribe to their RSS feed or email updates, so you’ll get their latest strength training tips and, best of all, their FREE ebook on How to Build Muscle & Lose Fat Through Strength Training. It’s 55 pages full of useful information.

Every Man, Every Day Should Do These Exercises

Men are busier than ever today. Our society has created a non-stop culture that often leaves little time for exercise. Thankfully, Charles Atlas shared a simple 10 minute exercise routine in a 1936 Physical Culture Magazine. While 10 minutes is not enough to give to your health, it’s better than nothing and can help keep you from getting soft. What’s great about this routine is it doesn’t require any weights. Ready to get started? Let’s get ripped!

Spine stretching. This exercise helps maintain flexibility in your back. Stand up straight and clasp your hands behind your head. Bend down quickly and touch your elbows to your knees. Rise, repeat 12 times.

Deep knee bends. Deep knee bends are great for working your quads, butt, and hip flexors. Stand shoulder width apart hands on waist. Squat all the way down. Rise, repeat until failure.

Calf raises. This exercise works your calves. Stand with feet a little less than shoulder width apart. Rise up on your toes and lower yourself down. Repeat until failure. To add a challenge, perform the exercise with your toes on a phone book.

Push-ups. Place your hands on the ground about shoulder width apart. Lower yourself to the ground and rise. Repeat until failure. Mix up the muscles you work by widening and narrowing your hand position.

Dips. Sit on the ground. Elevate your feet by placing them on a chair or bed. Lift and lower yourself with your arms until failure.

Leg raises. This exercise works your abs. Sit on the floor with your hands behind you, propping you up and your legs straight out and close together. Quickly lift your legs up until your body forms a “v” shape. Lower, repeat until failure.

Bicycle crunch. This is a great ab exercise that hits all the muscles in your stomach. Lie flat on the floor with your lower back pressed to the ground. Put your hands beside your head. Bring knees up to about a 45-degree angle and slowly go through a bicycle pedal motion. Touch your left elbow to your right knee, then your right elbow to your left knee.

If you liked this article, please bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. I’d appreciate it.

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