Strength and Physique

Given this pandemic has shut down gyms across the world, many of us are building up our home gyms.  I've written about home gym essentials before, but here are four portable pieces of equipment you can take to a commercial gym, outdoor calisthenics park or add to your home gym.  Gym Paws  are a great alternative to regular lifting gloves.  In fact they're better than gloves. They allow the hands to breathe and allow for a better grip, while saving them from calluses and tears. Very comfortable, very soft and easy to use.  They slip on and off easily when you are changing exercises and don't need them for a set.      Fat Gripz  work by wrapping around the weight handle (of barbells, dumbbells or chin-up bars) and increasing its diameter.  Lifting thick-grip handles recruits more muscle fibers, especially in the biceps and brachialis. Training with thicker diameter handles builds bigger and stronger arms. Sting Ray - Front Squa...

Q:  I did your Hypertrophy Training for the Ectomorph (HTE) program last fall during my first semester of law school. I had lost a ton of weight the year prior and weighed only 170 lbs. despite being 6'3" and normally weighing closer to 200 lbs.. After doing the program all fall and stuffing myself with as much healthy, clean food as possible, I ended the semester weighing 217 pounds when I went home for winter break. I began a different program in the spring and got up to 228 lbs. by the time we had to leave campus for COVID.  I had my body fat tested and found I was lean as all hell at just 10.8%, which was surprising because I felt I was pretty bloated, but I probably overdid it with the creatine and was carrying some extra water weight. Anyway, I loved doing the program and the results speak for themselves. After having to move back home when classes got cancelled this spring, I had no access to weightlifting equipment and decided to focus more on cardio and body weight e...

Q: Hey James, I've recently gotten back into weight lifting, and unfortunately I have a couple of bum shoulders which make it hard to do a good portion of triceps exercises. I know of the most common ones out there and for the most part used to have a good routine.  I've noticed that your triceps have really great size and definition (insert gay joke here), and so I was wondering not really of the exercises out there that I could do, but maybe your routine specifically. Thanks for your help,  T.S. My Answer: I change my program every so often, but these factors always remain constant in my triceps training: I train heavy and rarely go over 6 reps.  I train my triceps with 2 different exercises: a press variation and an extension variation.  I go slow on the negative and explode through the positive portion.  I flex the triceps as hard as I can at the lockout position.  This is the game plan that I follow, and I outline in great detail in...