Strength and Physique

Q:  I want to say thanks for those Strength and Physique updates.  Those are nice little nuggets and tips in my inbox. I just got done with my last physical therapy session for my tweaked back. I fucked up my bulging discs back in March and had to go back in for therapy. And then once my back was better, there were OTHER issues they discovered: muscle compensations and imbalances affecting my hip/pelvis alignment.  My back is actually much better now (when I tweaked it doing, of all things, a yoga stretch I had lots of nerve irritation which was scary as it made my legs feel weak) but there are other issues with a rotated pelvis and/or hip misalignment.  But one question I wanted to ask you was what your thoughts are on lifting for those with injured backs? Obviously, I need to always be mindful of my form and if I'm pushing the boundaries, but my physical therapist discouraged me from doing deadlifts anymore. Even my orthopedist didn't want me doing deads, o...

Q:  Hello any advice for me? I am 16 years old and want to build muscle.  -Johan My Answer:  Well, I have a new article at Muscle and Strength titled  Ectomorph Muscle Building: Nutrition And Training Basics For Muscle Growth .  If you're just starting out, then what you want to do is build strength on whole body exercises.  Whole body exercises (such as the clean and press, squat and deadlift) are what I call "anabolic blowtorches."  Done properly, they elicit a huge testosterone response from your body. So if you focus on perfect your form and getting stronger on these 3 exercises, then you can build quite a bit of muscle.  You can add other exercises that target specific muscle groups, but those should be supplementary exercises.  In Strength and Physique: High Tension Exercises for Muscular Growth you'll find a variety of these supplementary exercises that target each muscle group. Q:  Hello, I was just reading an articl...

Q:  I have purchased and greatly enjoyed The Articles of your book series. Things had been going well until I aggravated tendonitis in my right elbow (I'm a classical musician and music teacher). I don't want to stop lifting, nor do I want to be relegated to just cardio.  I have been doing lower body workouts. What do you think of training my upper left side to keep things going? My right arm should be better in a month, and I thought this would give some extra training to my non-dominant arm and side. Thank you, Peter My Answer: It's perfectly fine to focus on unilateral movements for the upper body. In fact, training your left side will lessen the effects of detraining your right side. In other words, you will not lose as much muscle or strength if you train unilaterally. So by all means keep training your left side while your right arm recovers. Q:  Thanks for your  response , but I guess I didn’t ask the question right. I am doing the frequency decom...

"I'm a traditional reservist in the US Air Force. I'm a police officer in the Air Force as well as on the outside here in Fayetteville, NC. The issue I have is roughly 6 months ago I ruptured my left Achilles tendon. I'm making progress with physical therapy, but it's going slow. My question sir is after all is said and done with my rehab, is it likely that I'll be 100%? Really any advice you might have for me would be much appreciated. Sorry I’m being so vague. Just really needing some reassurance or words of wisdom. Thank you so much." –SSGT Michael Murdock My Answer: It depends if you've had surgery or not to repair the ruptured tendon. More likely than not, your doctor would have recommended surgery unless there was a pre-existing condition which would cause complications. If you didn't have the surgery, then obviously you will not be at 100%. Question is will you be at 100% after surgery and physical therapy? Injuries of any sort a...