A recent culinary fad may also prove to be a new weapon in the battle of the bulge. Acai, the trendy Brazilian fruit, may help reduce obesity and battle the effects of a high-fat diet on the liver—according to a preliminary study on mice, at least.

As detailed in the 2015 paper published in PLOS ONE, mice who consumed a high-fat diet and were given Acai extract didn’t gain weight and showed significantly improved plasma and tissue metabolic profiles. They also maintained liver-fat levels comparable to mice fed a normal diet. The researchers contend that the beneficial effects of acai involve blunting fat formation, increasing cholesterol disposal, and reducing oxidative stress in the liver.

The results still need to be corroborated in humans, of course, but at worst, you have a brand-new tasty ingredient to toss into your next protein shake.

Bleary eyed, pre-dawn bouts on the treadmill before your first meal may not sound like a ton of fun—but science is proving the practice effective.

In a study of multiple studies published in the British Journal Of Nutrition in September 2016, researchers gathered data on 27 trials that compared the metabolic effects of aerobic exercise on those in fasted and “fed” states. Based on measures of plasma concentrations of glucose and insulin in 273 adults, significantly higher fat oxidation—the technical term for “fat burning”—took place in those who were doing cardio on an empty stomach when compared to those with food in their system.

If you’re just not a morning person, you can still put these findings to good use by foregoing food a couple of hours before your workout.

’Tis the season… to train hard and feed your muscles.

By Amanda Burrill, MS

Holiday season checklist of things not to do:

1. Eat too much
2. Drink too much
3. Sleep through a workout or three

So maybe a few of these things are bound to happen, and if ever there were a season to give yourself a bit of a pass, ’tis now. Unlike everything else during the season, this frothy minty concoction will add to the holiday without adding to your body-fat percentage.

These ingredients add up to a familiar yuletide taste but have been craftily conceived to refresh brittle hair and nails, supplement trace minerals you may be lacking, provide a source of good fat, and above all else, deliver protein to those hungry muscles.

I have sweet, chubby memories of plucking candy canes from the tree and gnawing through them like a rabid dog. I heard a rumor that some kids actually unwrap them before eating. Well, no need to hold back here. Joy to the world, let’s chow down!

Ingredients

5 oz unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or favorite milk)

1 small container Greek yogurt (about 5 ounces)

1 tablespoon lecithin

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

1 scoop collagen powder

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 serving trace minerals

A few drops of peppermint extract (be careful, some are stronger than others!)

2 strawberries (I added these for color)

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

Handful ice

Total: 373 calories, 22 g carbs, 50 g protein, 11 g fat, 3 g fiber

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender, beginning with the liquid to avoid sticky protein-powder clumps. Blend until smooth.

SUPERFOOD 101

Lecithin

This is one of nature’s miracle foods that doesn’t get enough love. Lecithin is found in egg yolks and organ meats—things we often bypass. Your body uses choline, which lecithin packs, to produce a substance involved in muscle function, arousal, hormone secretion, and circulation. With all these holiday parties that choline could serve several purposes.

Collagen

You can find collagen in flavorless or vanilla powder or capsule form. Although I love this for its skin, hair, and nail benefits, it’s worth noting that collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. Steel crushers love their protein trivia! It’s everywhere in your body: muscles, bones, skin tendons. Think of it as an essential glue to keep everything healthy and flexible. If you’re hard on your body, collagen becomes all the more important for bouncing back.

Flax Seeds

We’ve sung its praises a million times. This smoothie is already packing serious nutritious heat, which flax also does in and of itself, but I added this mostly for the fiber content. Flax seeds have high levels of mucilage gum, a water-soluble gel-forming fiber that keeps the stomach from emptying too quickly, keeping you feeling nice and full. This slowing process also helps increase nutrient absorption. What good is all this goodness if it just flies through your system? Flax on all the things!

Trace Minerals

Remember the opening credits of Breaking Bad? Okay, go back a little further to chemistry class and learning about the elements. Many minerals gracing the periodic table also grace your sexy body. Multiple chemical and electrical processes are occurring in your body right now, and they need the proper balance of minerals to pull them off successfully. Zinc, magnesium, chromium, sulfate, and lithium. Don’t be a boron. If you sweat, start adding an eyedropper of this on the daily!

For a stunning set of abs, you have to add some weight to your workout

By Eric Broser

In my 27-year career as a trainer and contest prep coach, I have never come across anyone who wasn’t interested in making significant improvements to their midsection. For some that simply means losing belly fat and achieving a flatter tummy. For others greater core strength is the primary goal. However, for most serious gym rats the ultimate achievement is a rock-hard, shredded six-pack. While many “gurus” out there might claim that great abs are not manifested in the gym, but rather via diet and some cardio, let me assure you that in order to present a truly impressive abdominal wall, each “brick” must be built—both thick and deep. With that in mind, here are three of my favorite exercises meant to do just that.

THE MOVEMENTS

Exercise 1: Parallel Bars Straight Leg Raise

Stand in between a set of parallel bars and lift yourself into what would be the starting point for performing dips. While holding your torso locked in this position raise your legs to just above parallel by flexing the hips. Hold at the top for about one second and then slowly lower your legs back down while keeping your abs tight throughout.

Tip: Try your best not to focus on your hip flexors, and think to yourself, “Lift with the abs.”

Exercise 2: Barbell Push Crunch

Sit down on an abdominal incline bench set between 30 and 60 degrees, making sure to secure your feet under the pad before lying back into the starting position. Have someone hand you a moderately weighted barbell, which should be held with an overhand, shoulder-width grip and positioned at arms’ length over the chest. Flex at the waist to raise your torso while keeping your arms locked in position. Do not allow your lower back to rise off the bench. Squeeze your abs hard at the top for a second or two before lowering carefully back to the starting position.

Tip: Pick a spot above you on the ceiling and remain fixated on it throughout the set. Pretend the goal is to touch the barbell to that spot on every rep.

Exercise 3: Cable Twists

With both hands, grasp a stirrup handle set at about shoulder height on a cable pulley. Your far hand should be placed over your other with fingers interlocked. Facing sideways to the weight stack, step away from the pulley until your near arm is both horizontal and straight. With your feet spaced just beyond shoulder-width apart, bend at the knees slightly and lift your near heel off the floor, resting on the ball of your foot. While keeping the arms straight, rotate the torso to the opposite side (across your body) until the cable makes contact with the shoulder. Hold this position for a moment and then return to the starting position.

Tip:  Attempt to initiate the movement by using abdominal power and not by pulling with the arms.

Ab-Etching Workout

1. Parallel Bars Straight Leg Raise: 3 x maximum reps
2. Barbell Push Crunch: 3 x 12-15 reps
3. Cable Twist: 2 x 16-20 reps per side

*This workout can be performed two times per week, with two days’ rest in between.

Why Don’t I Have ABS?

Okay, so your body fat is now in the single digits and you are in the gym hitting abs two to three days per week, but yet, your stomach looks nothing like the dudes in the magazines. Let’s take a quick look at a few possible reasons why.

No Resistance: Abs are muscles just like your delts and triceps, so why not train them in a similar manner? Doing sets of endless reps of leg lifts and crunches are not going to build jaw-dropping abdominals any more than bodyweight push-ups will develop an Arnold-like chest. If you really want some deep “squares” in your midsection, you should not be afraid to perform weighted abdominal exercises that limit you to just 12 to 15 slow and controlled reps.

Quick Choppy Repetitions: If there is any muscle group that should be exercised with slow-paced, meticulously performed reps, it’s the abs. Pay careful attention to achieving a full range of motion from stretch to contraction, and make sure to get an intense squeeze at top. Fast reps will do little to overload the abs and will more likely result in injury or inferior results.

Lack Of Intensity: So many lifters are working under the false notion that all it takes to create a truly outstanding six-pack are a few easy sets of crunches and leg lifts at the end of a workout. But and if you really want to carve bricks into your belly, you have to train them with similar intensity to all of the other muscles on your body.  So don’t leave the gym without putting a serious hurting on your abs!

This relatively painful intensity technique can lead to rapid gains in size.
By Vince Del Monte

This month I want to talk about a technique I’m currently employing inside my eight-week training cycle that has me doing—wait for it—just one all-out set per workout, per bodypart.

The technique is called “mechanical advantage drop sets” or MADS (which is a great acronym I thought I invented until I did a quick Google search). Before diving into MADS, let's define drop sets so we’re on the same page. A drop set is when you perform a given exercise to the point of concentric failure, and then change a variable in a way that allows you to extend the set into what I call “The Hurt Box.”

You are likely familiar with drop sets that include decreasing the weight once you hit fatigue so that you can chase some extra reps with a lighter load. This is a good technique in my opinion, but not a great technique. Drop sets are also known as “strip sets,” and it’s likely one of the first mass-gaining techniques you’ve experimented with during your early days of your muscle-building journey. However, as the years go on, the “gains train” starts to slow down and we start looking for more advanced methods to continue our quest for a bigger and stronger body.

That’s where MADS comes in, and in a moment I’ll give you my own MADS upper-body training program so you can put this bad boy to the test. The “mechanical” in MADS refers to a change in body position, which applies to increasing or decreasing leverage. For instance, you’ve likely noticed it’s easier to do a squat with your feet wider versus narrower. It’s easier to perform a bench press on a decline instead of incline. It’s easier to perform a narrow-grip underhand lat pulldown versus a wide-grip overhand lat pulldown. With each of these examples, muscular leverage changes unfavorably, so the exercise becomes harder.

To set up MADS properly, you would always give yourself the least amount of leverage or “advantage” before fatigue sets it, then you would give your body more leverage and “advantage” to recruit new muscle fibers that weakened in the previous position, further extending beyond the initial point of fatigue.

Here are some examples from my own eight-week training cycle:

Vertical Pull Mechanical Advantage Drop Set:
1. Wide pronated lat pulldown
2. Mid-pronated lat pulldown
3. Narrow supinated lat pulldown

Chest Mechanical Advantage Drop Set:
1. 45-degree incline dumbbell press
2. 30-degree incline dumbbell press
3. Flat dumbbell press

Horizontal Pull Mechanical Advantage Drop Set:
1. Mid-pronated low cable row
2. Mid-supinated low cable row
3. Narrow neutral low cable row

Shoulder Mechanical Advantage Drop Set:
1. Dumbbell lateral raise
2. Bent-over dumbbell lateral raise
3. Dumbbell upright row

Biceps Mechanical Advantage Drop Set:
1. Mid-pronated grip EZ-bar spider curl
2. Mid-supinated grip EZ-bar spider curl
3. Standing EZ-bar curl

Triceps Mechanical Advantage Drop Set:
1. EZ-bar triceps extension to top of head
2. EZ-bar triceps extension to chin
3. EZ-bar close-grip bench press

You may be asking, “Are MADS better than traditional drop sets? In my opinion, for natural lifters, the answer is yes. And this comes back to one word: load.

With traditional drop sets you are decreasing the load, but with MADS, the load stays the same the entire time. In my experience, people get better gains over time when they’re working with challenging loads and avoiding “junk volume” that can occur with lighter weights. With MADS, you’re consistently working with challenging weight and recruiting the maximal amount of muscle fibers with each mechanical drop set.

While this may look easy on paper, it’s actually quite advanced. It hurts, and it’s one of the most efficient and effective way to challenge your body and force it into growth without the excessive volume promoted by drug users with enhanced recovery abilities. Next month I’ll show you how to do MADS for the lower body. IM

Taking Mechanical Advantage

Here is basic eight-week program that incorporates MADS. When you do this workout, you are starting each exercise in the most mechanically advantageous position, which basically means where you are strongest. And although you will take the set to failure, you’ll find more “gas in the tank” when you give yourself a greater mechanical advantage from drop to drop, which is a very efficient and effective way to invest (not spend) your time in the gym. I’ve also found these brief but intense workouts, especially, work wonders for natural athletes who are not chemically enhanced because they stimulate the muscles rather than annihilate them.
Week 1: 1 x 15 + Failure + Failure
Week 2: 1 x 12 + Failure + Failure
Week 3: 1 x 10 + Failure + Failure
Week 4: 1 x 8 + Failure + Failure
Week 5: 1 x 15 + Failure + Failure
Week 6: 1 x 12 + Failure + Failure
Week 7:1 x 10 + Failure + Failure
Week 8: 1 x 8 + Failure + Failure

• Take multiple sets to warm up to find your first work set. To make this low-volume approach work, you must select a load that gets you to failure so that you’re unable to do a 16th rep even if your life depended on it. If you think you can do a second set, then you didn’t go hard enough, I don’t care how tough you are. When this is done properly, you will be thankful there is only one all-out set per bodypart.
• Take 10 seconds in between each position.
• Increase weight every week and use more weight in the last four weeks than you did in the first four weeks.

We found the best gear gifts for the holidays.

By Amanda Burrill, MS

Choosing the right gifts for the gym folk in your life is no easy task. Fitness buffs can be just as picky about their gear as they are about their choice of pre-workout. I tested a ton of stuff and found what I think will make that special someone do the happy dance after tearing through the wrapping paper.

Nothing says “Happy Holidays!” like a well thought out gift that the recipient will actually use. I’m talking some gym classics that directly translate to gainz. I’m no stranger to the “this is for you, but it’s actually for me, too” gifts. You know what I’m talking about, like that Nobu gift card or the cute little see-through negligee. How about a little something that will render your honey even better and hotter than before? Win-win.

Harbinger Flexifit Contour Belt

Cost: $35

Where to buy: harbingerfitness.com

Some folks have the impression that weightlifting belts support your core so that your muscles don’t have to. False. Belts actually help increase the use of your abs and low-back muscles. They stabilize and reduce stress on the spine, help create better mechanics, and thus lead to better performance. Harbinger’s ultralight men’s and women’s Flexifit Contour Belts offer support and stability with a new overlap front panel, rigid central panel for additional abdominal support, and two kidney pockets to enhance comfort around the torso.

Slidez Core Stability Discs

Cost: $30

Where to buy: sklz.com

Supreme overall strength originates from the core. These Slidez are fun and versatile, engaging muscles through a vast array of range of motion and training drills. The super smooth side is built to glide over pretty much any surface so you don’t need any special flooring or footwear. The opposite ergonomic surface keeps hands and feet from slipping while performing the exercises. I’ve been seeing similar items used in gyms for a while now, but bring your own so you don’t have to wait your turn. Another cool feature you won’t find on similar gear: Integrated fasteners clip the Slidez together for bilateral training.

Fat Gripz

Cost: $40

Where to buy: fatgripz.com

I was late to the party on this movement, but this simple technology is taking arm and forearm size and grip strength by storm. By thickening handles and bars with the Fat Gripz, you stimulate more muscle activation. Imagine bench-pressing with a thick bar compared to a standard skinny bar. The thick bar shifts the stress off the joints and onto the muscles, spreading the weight over the larger area of the hand, stimulating all sorts of untouched muscle fiber. Fair warning, you may feel humbled by the amount of weight you’ll lift when first using these. The forearm burn will be insane, but soon everything will catch up and you will be bigger and stronger than ever.

Harbinger BioForm WristWrap Gloves

Cost: $40–$50

Where to buy: harbingerfitness.com

Harbinger has built its reputation over time as a performance-oriented brand for athletes and bodybuilders. Their latest glove additions for both men and women come in all colors and durabilities, but I’ve singled out these particular gloves for two special features. First are the BioForm pads that soften with body heat, molding to hand and bar for excellent grip. Second is the fully adjustable wrist-wrap technology integrated into the glove, reducing wrist fatigue and injury, and increasing capacity to lift heavier weights. It’s a glove and wrap rolled into one.

SKLZ Weighted Vest

Cost:  $90

Where to buy: sklz.com

The holy throne of bodybuilding cardio, the stair climber, is the perfect way to get acquainted with this understated—thank goodness­—nylon mesh vest. This breathable model distributes weight evenly adjusting from one to 10 pounds in half-pound increments, and the weights are soft, allowing it to bend and flex with your movements. I’m taking mine rock climbing to amp my upper-body strength. Another awesome feature are the Velcro belts that adjust to fit almost anyone, making it perfect for swolemates. While he lifts, you stair climb with this, and then switch off.

Crossover Symmetry Shoulder System

Cost: $195

Where to buy: crossoversymmetry.com

The Crossover Symmetry Shoulder System is an evidence-based shoulder-health invention engineered to relieve pain and prevent injury while maximizing the work. It’s all highly adaptable with five programs (Activation, Activation+, Recovery, Strength, and Mobility) that target different aspects of shoulder performance, band-resistance options to fit current strength needs (novice, athletic, and elite), and three attachment options (door belts, wall mounts, and squat rack loops), so you can do it anywhere. Also of note, Crossover Symmetry improved my posture, aided in the neck physical therapy I was involved in, and, best of all, it only took five minutes a day.

Chlorophyll is a name of green pigments that are found in leafy green plants such as spinach, wheatgrass, and forms of algae. A study conducted at the University of Lund in Sweden found a connection between chlorophyll consumption and a significant amount of fat loss. Scientists found that a component of chlorophyll, called thylakoid, boosted the concentration of a hormone called GLP-1 that suppresses appetite. In the study, subjects were given chlorophyll that was derived from spinach. Other good sources include kale, chard, dill, cilantro, parsley, asparagus, and broccoli. Since these are all vegetables you should be eating anyway, it’s worth trying to increase your own intake of chlorophyll and see what happens.

A study published in the International Journal Of Food Sciences And Nutrition examined the role of probiotics, the good bacteria that resides in your gut, on acquiring a lean physique. Scientists pored over the results of 25 different human trials and the impact probiotics have on bodyweight and BMI in healthy adults. They found that probiotics clearly reduced bodyweight when subjects consumed more than one type of probiotic for at least eight weeks, they experienced an even greater increase in weight loss. Probiotics also provide other health benefits and can help boost the immune system. When buying a probiotic supplement, look for a product that contains at least 10 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) per dose.

Many people have said it: You can’t do too much upper-chest work. It’s an area of the body that can almost always be improved. One way to improve it is through push-ups. But not just any push-ups: flexed trunk push-ups. Sports researchers at Inje University in South Korea investigated the difference in muscle activation between standard push-ups and flexed trunk push-ups, when the subject keeps the lower body at a 30-degree angle. Instead of a flat back, the glutes are pushed toward the ceiling in a modest pike position. By measuring the electrical activity in the muscle groups, the scientists found that this variation of push-up elicited far more response in the muscle fibers of the upper chest and serratus anterior than a traditional push-up. Conversely, the traditional push-up created more stimulation in the lower pecs than the flexed-trunk push-up.

How many times can you play hooky from the gym and not lose your gains? It’s a question that comes up every holiday, anniversary, or vacation. A study in the Asian Journal Of Sports Medicine sought to find that magic line of demarcation. The study followed 90 male college students who followed a total-body workout program for 11 weeks. At the end of the program, the results were sorted into three groups based on attendance. The groups who only missed five percent or 15 percent of the workouts made similar progress in how much weight they could bench press. However, the group who missed 25 percent of the workouts made significantly less progress. The leaders of the study theorize that you can miss 20 percent of workouts and not risk losing very much of what you have been able to build.

A mug of coffee or green tea might be the next big thing when it comes to post-workout beverages. A study published in the Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research examined the fat-burning effects of ingesting caffeine and polyphenols (a type of antioxidant) after an intense 30-minute sprint interval workout. In the hours after the workout, the subjects who consumed the combo burned significantly more calories and oxidized more fat stores than the placebo group. It should be noted that the supplement group also experienced elevated blood pressure and heart rate after the workout as well. Coffee is a convenient source of both caffeine and polyphenols, as is green tea, albeit not as strong as coffee. Cocoa powder, dark-red berries, sweet cherries, and plums are also loaded with polyphenols and can be easily tossed into a post-workout shake.

The reasons to take vitamin D just keep adding up. Not only are most Americans deficient in this important nutrient (which is nearly impossible to get from food), but new research shows that the fat-burning effects of high-intensity interval training are increased when combined with vitamin D. Published in the Journal Of Exercise Nutrition And Biochemistry, the experiment examined four groups of subjects: one trained and took vitamin D, another just trained, a third only took the supplement, and a fourth did nothing. After 12 weeks, the two group who exercised both experienced significant fat loss, but the subjects who also supplemented lost more fat off their gut than the other groups. The vitamin D group also saw the greatest improvement in lean body mass, insulin sensitivity, and blood lipid profiles.

You probably know of tryptophan as an essential amino acid that is infamously found in turkey. According to your uncle, it’s the reason why he falls asleep after Thanksgiving dinner every year (that and the two bottles of wine he drinks). In fact, tryptophan is known to improve sleep and boost mood through its ability to elevate serotonin levels in the brain. A recent study seems to shows that it also helps you build muscle and lose fat. Animal research published in the journal Amino Acids described how rats who were given extra tryptophan enjoyed reduced fat deposition and increased oxidation of fatty acids. The scientists also found evidence of increased protein synthesis in the tryptophan group as well as reduced catabolism of dietary amino acids.

There are better things to do between sets than check your Instagram. Scientists in Brazil discovered that when athletes stretched a muscle between sets of weight training, the antagonist muscle group—the muscle group being trained (not stretched)—gets stronger and more muscle fibers are recruited during exercise.

The subjects in the study, which was published in the journal Research In Sports Medicine, were experienced weight lifters who passively stretched their pectoralis muscles for 40 seconds between sets of a 10-rep maximum of a seated row. In the experiment, the group who stretched between sets were able to complete significantly more reps than the group who didn’t stretch.

Delayed onset muscle soreness is an occupational hazard to hard training, especially after some time off from the weights. Bodybuilders and athletes have been mixing weights and Advil for years, but new information suggests that this can actually inhibit hypertrophy.

A literature review published by the Department of Health Sciences at Lehman College, New York, shows that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Advil and Aleve may impair the adaptive response to exercise. NSAIDs work by inhibiting the action of cyclo-oxygenase enzymes, which scientists believe plays an important role in muscle growth. While occasional use doesn’t seem to have any ill effect, eating them like Pez can be detrimental to bigger muscles.

Instead, manage your inflammation with adequate intake of protein and fish oil, proper hydration, and daily self-myofascial release.

A new study published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology indicates that regular use of a melatonin supplement results in a leaner, more muscular body. Long used to improve sleep by regulating circadian rhythms, melatonin has several other health-promoting properties. A group of older subjects was given a small daily dose of melatonin (either one milligram or three milligrams) every day for a year.

At the end of the year they had lost significantly more fat and added slightly more muscle than the control group who did not take the supplement. The group who was given the three-milligram dose lost more fat than those who took one milligram, but both losses were significant. (An average adult dose is usually five milligrams a day.) Scientists believe that the improved body composition is due to melatonin’s ability to improve insulin sensitivity.

New research from France suggests you should start sprinkling cinnamon on more than just your oatmeal. The study, published in PLOS ONE, examined the effects of cinnamon on overweight subjects and the affect the spice exerted on their insulin sensitivity. Subjects were given approximately 460 milligrams of Cinnamomum cassia extract a day for four months. By the end of the four months, the subjects did experience lower blood glucose levels in the morning, but the researchers were surprised to find that they had added, on average, a bit more than two pounds of muscle.

The scientists feel they need more information on different doses and types of cinnamon before declaring it a muscle-building marvel. Since there really is no downside to cinnamon, try adding it to your protein shakes, coffee, and even as part of a dry rub on grilled steaks.

Rutin is a type of antioxidant flavonoid that is found in figs, buckwheat, tea, and apple peels. It’s been known to improve vascular health and appearance and is used to treat varicose veins and even hemorrhoids. Last year a study published in the journal Nutrients described how some scientists have used it to combat fat accumulation in subjects who overeat. In the experiment, rats were fed a high-fat diet and some of them were given supplemental rutin.

After 12 weeks, the animals who were not fed rutin gained twice as much fat as the ones who had consumed the antioxidant. Scientists found that rutin increased the number and expression of mitochondria in the muscle cells. Since rutin supplements are cheap and safe, and mitochondrial health seems more important with every passing day, taking rutin during a bulking phase sounds like a good idea. The human equivalent of the dose used in the study is 425 milligrams a day.

Scientists are discovering that short bouts of intense laziness are almost as bad for you as some sessions of HIIT are good for you. Research presented at the meeting of the Sedentary Behavior Research Network in Sydney, Australia, shows that subjects who sat for five consecutive hours took an immediate hit to their metabolic health.

Circulating insulin and glucose levels were 20 percent higher in those who stayed in their seat for the equivalent of one and half average NFL games, compared to those who got up and took a light walk one to two hours into the couch session. Elevated insulin levels prompt the body to store fat while chronically pumped-up levels of glucose can lead to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and more. The good news is, just three two-minute walks an hour can stop a lot of that metabolic damage.

Bodybuilders and powerlifting perform the same exercises with different style

By Tucker Loken

Training for size and training for strength are two different concepts. Training for size doesn’t mean you’re trying to move the most weight possible, it means you’re trying to use the weight to stimulate the most muscle fibers possible. Training for strength means you’re trying to move the most weight through space and find advantageous leverages that will help you do that. Focusing on blasting one muscle group at a time won’t do much for moving a lot of weight, just like trying to push the most weight won’t do much for getting you as big as you can be. Below are some common differences in the way a bodybuilder and a powerlifter approach the bench press, squat, and deadlift

Squat

Bodybuilding: A bodybuilding squat is generally a “high bar” squat, and the upper body stays upright while the knees are allowed to come fairly far forward. Some powerlifters will squat like this as well, but it’s particularly advantageous for bodybuilders to squat like this, because it engages their quads more. It doesn’t take much weight this way to really feel the quads working, which is why you’ll almost never see a bodybuilder squatting nearly as much weight as a powerlifter.

Powerlifting: The powerlifting stance is typically wider than a bodybuilding squat, but not always. The focus is much more on core and hip strength and using the quads as just part of the movement rather than the most important part. Powerlifters will usually do a “low bar” squat, where the bar placement is farther down their back than the bodybuilder holding the bar up high on the traps. Powerlifters will focus on their hips hinging back and making sure that everything is working as once rather than isolating one muscle group.

Bench Press

Bodybuilding: The biggest difference between a bodybuilding bench press and a powerlifting bench press is flared elbows versus tucked elbows, and a different degree of back muscle engagement. Bodybuilders will flare their elbows more and keep their back flatter on the bench because they are focusing mainly on their chest. The front delts and triceps are only there to help them finish the movement.

Powerlifting: Trained powerlifters will focus heavily on how much their lat muscles are engaging in order to provide stability and explosiveness in the movement. They will tuck their elbows to facilitate this. Powerlifters also focus on having a strong arch and having everything from their toes and legs to glutes and core tight and flexed along with their back and chest. They will arch their backs more to shorten the range of motion so that they don’t have to press the bar as far and will engage their legs and push into the ground as they press upwards to provide acceleration in the movement. The bench press is one of the most technical and difficult powerlifting movements to master, while in bodybuilding it is generally pretty simple.

Deadlift

Bodybuilding: The deadlift is almost a completely powerlifting movement. Few bodybuilders deadlift seriously, because it’s a full-body movement and difficult to isolate a muscle group while you do it. Bodybuilders will usually do half-rack deadlifts to focus on their back muscles, or stiff-leg deadlifts to focus on their hamstrings. There is no specific “bodybuilder deadlift,” but generally bodybuilders will default to trying to use their back muscles to haul the weight up rather than using leg drive and making it a full-body motion.

Powerlifting: The deadlift is arguably the most fun part of a powerlifting meet to watch. There isn’t a better test of strength than simply picking something up off the ground. A standard powerlifter will deadlift with their hip position fairly low, and they will drive their heels into the ground while keeping their back rigid and stiff. If someone does it correctly, the entire posterior chain of hamstrings, glutes, erectors, lats, and traps all engage to haul the weight up.