Tag: Bodybuilding
Wellness Bodybuilder Odalis Santos Mena Dies At 23 Years Old During Surgery To Stop Sweating
Odalis Santos Mena had a poor reaction to anesthesia which led to her death at 23 years old.
Odalis Santos Mena was an up-and-coming name in the bodybuilding world and had already established herself on social media. On July 7, the famous Instagram influencer underwent an operation to fix constant sweating. As reported by the New York Post, a complication with the anesthesia, Mena passed away at the age of 23.
Odalis Santos Mena was a well-known social media presence with 150,000 followers on Instagram. She has landed many endorsement deals and that includes the SkinPiel clinic in Guadalajara. This was to promote an antiperspirant treatment called MiraDry.
This procedure uses heat energy to remove sweat glands from underarms and this controls armpit hair which will lead to less sweat and body odor. Mena was prepared to undergo the operation but went into cardiac arrest after being put under anesthesia. The clinic was unable to revive Mena after performing CPR.
Mena was seen on Instagram promoting the procedure as “safe and effective” after agreeing to a deal. Police have began an investigation on the clinic after hearing that the anesthesia might have been administered by an employee who was not trained to do so. The cause of death was revealed as a poor reaction from the anesthesia paired with a steroid that Mena was currently taking. SkinPiel has claimed that they were unaware of this substance.
Odalis Santos Mena was already established on Instagram and a potential star in the bodybuilding game. She frequently competed in competitions and that was going to continue as she built her brand. Mena picked up victories in the 2019 Miss and Mr. Hercules competition along with the Wellness Fitness Juvenile contest.
Mena frequently posted pictures and videos to show off her progress. This catapulted her to fame as an influencer and was going to go a long way in her quest as a competitor.
Victor Gomez Carreno shared a heartfelt message on his private Instagram account following the news.
“‘Your actions in life, echo in eternity,” he wrote. “I will take you with me forever short, it makes no sense to write here what I feel in my heart @odalis_sm, I love you.”
This procedure is relatively unknown and could have long-term risks. More information on the police investigation will be released as they found out more about the botched operation.
Generation Iron send out condolences to the friends and family of Odalis Santos Mena during this tragic time. For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Jerry Brainum Full Interview | The Truth Behind Body Fat, Biggest Physique Mistakes, & More
Jerry Brainum has been a science writer, researcher and lecturer for more than 30 years in the bodybuilding industry. Throughout those 30 years he’s amassed a superset of knowledge. He’s shared that knowledge in our original series Straight Facts in the past and continues to do so with his Applied Metabolics newsletter.
That’s why we reconnected with Jerry Brainum this past year for a new video interview to discuss the science behind bodybuilding. Jerry Brainum helps shed some light and debunk some myths on bodybuilding training, diets, and trends in the sport.
Over the past few months we’ve released multiple GI Exclusive segments from our interview with Jerry Brainum. Now we’re releasing the full length interview including topics such as the reality behind body fat percentages, the biggest mistake that makes bodybuilders look flat, and the best physiques of all time.
Listen To Our Jerry Brainum Interview On The Generation Iron Podcast
Our full length interviews are now also in podcast form! Subscribe to the Generation Iron Podcast for candid, full length interviews with the biggest names in bodybuilding, fitness, combat, and strength sports.
Listen to the full Jerry Brainum interview here:
The Realities Behind Bodybuilder Body Fat Percentage & Cutting Weight
Brainum claims that the usual body fat percentage of a pro bodybuilder falls around 5%-7%. In some extreme cases, a bodybuilder might be able to go down to 3% overall body fat percentage. He stresses that this is extremely rare. He also stresses that any bodybuilder that claims to have less than 3% is lying. Brainum states that it’s humanly impossible to achieve that low of number.
Jerry Brainum also discusses just how vital genetics plays a roll in how a person can gain or lose weight. The unfortunate truth is – some bodybuilders will have to struggle a lot more to bring their body fat percentage low enough to compete successfully. Every body is genetically different. But in a world of bodybuilding where physiques need to all match the same standard, some competitors will struggle much more than others.
Jerry Brainum details the specific genes that determine such fate for bodybuilders (and any person really). He also spends some time debunking popular weight loss tactics such as fat freezing and liposuction. The overall truth is one many probably don’t want to hear. These medical procedures don’t always work. They can also damage your cells permanently. Ultimately, there is no easy way to lose weight. If you are someone who struggles to lose weight – you just have to work harder on good nutrition and exercise.
The Biggest Mistake That Makes Bodybuilder Muscle Look Flat
Jerry Brainum points out that muscle tissue is made of 72% water. So when bodybuilders deplete themselves in the final “hell week” before a show, if they go too far they actually lose the fullness of their muscle. Even furthermore, some competitive bodybuilders don’t even realize that drinking water is in itself a diuretic. Water flushes out a lot of extra minerals in your body the more you drink it. Thinks like sodium. Too much sodium can make you retain more water – which is a big problem for bodybuilders.
So the biggest mistake that bodybuilders make is by often drinking too much water, not drinking any at all, or taking too many diuretics in the final week before the show. With one fell swoop, it can destroy a year’s worth of work. The hard part of course, is to know how much is too much. Each body is different – but the key is for athletes to recognize this is part of the problem first. Then they can start learning their body and how to fix it.
It’s a delicate balance. It’s what makes this sport so challenging. It’s what makes the legends that much more impressive. Never underestimate “hell week” and start taking depletion seriously in order to present the best bodybuilding physique on stage.
Wrap Up
Jerry Brainum is a man who can provide rare in-depth knowledge on all things bodybuilding from a scientific perspective. He has always ensured that his statements are backed by rigorous research and not “broscience” or anecdotal experiences. That’s why our latest uncut interview is essential viewing for anyone looking to take their physique to the next level.
You can watch our full uncut GI Exclusive interview with Jerry Brainum above.
The Best Way To Lose Weight – Fast
The Guaranteed Way To Lose Body Fat
Many people get a gym membership to lose body fat but most of them quit after their high hopes die down. If losing fat was as easy as joining a gym, almost no one would have excess fat on their bodies.
A lot is said about weight loss, and most of what you hear from the bro-scientists is probably wrong. With this article, our goal is to break all the myths around fat loss so that you are empowered with the right knowledge.
Have A Goal
Most people make the mistake of not having a specific weight goal when they start on their weight loss journey. All they know is they want to lose fat. You need to have a specific goal if you’re serious about achieving your dream physique.
Without a specific goal, you can’t design a diet plan for yourself as you wouldn’t know how much weight you need to lose every week. Your daily caloric intake is dependent on your current and goal body weight.
With the amount of weight you want to lose, you should also set a time goal for yourself. Doing so will help fasten up the process, keep you on the timeline and will make you accountable.
Fix Your Calorie and Macro Goals
To be honest, weight loss isn’t as intimidating as many people make it. Your diet, training, and recovery are all you need to take care of. Setting a daily calorie goal is the first step towards cutting away your body fat.
Once you have your daily calorie goal, you can set your macronutrients goal as per your needs. If you don’t have the proper knowledge and skills to design your own diet, you should consult a professional to save yourself time and effort.
If you’re not losing the right amount of weight every week, you can make adjustments to your daily calorie and macronutrient intake goals. Hitting the right calorie goal for yourself can take some trial and error and you should be willing to experiment with different food.
A basic thing you should know is that you need to cut down 500 calories from your current daily calorie intake to lose 1lb of fat in a week. Make sure you don’t go crazy and keep the calorie deficit between 500-1000 calories a week.
Never Skip Cardio
We wish losing body fat was as easy as fixing what you ate. You can’t take cardio out of the equation when it comes to losing weight. If you want to lose weight fast, you should consider doing two cardio sessions in a day.
The first cardio session should be a 30-45 minute LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State training) session which you should ideally perform on an empty stomach. HIIT should be the second cardio session which should last anywhere between 10-20 minutes.
Avoid Starting A Fancy Diet
Many people make the mistake of starting a fancy diet when they want to lose weight. You should look to change your lifestyle so that the weight loss is sustainable and the weight doesn’t come back when you stop the specialized diet.
While IIFYM, Keto, IF, etc. might all sound like great ways to lose weight, you shouldn’t get too excited about trying them. Making adjustments to your lifestyle will pay better dividends in the long run as compared to experimenting with new diet plans.
Header image courtesy of Envato Elements
Which is your weakest muscle group? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Gunter Schlierkamp: Women’s Bodybuilding Is Impressive But Not Enjoyable To Look At
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Gunter Schlierkamp shares his personal feelings on Women’s Bodybuilding.
For a short while, Women’s Bodybuilding looked to be dead. It was no longer included in the Olympia weekend and only appeared in a very small handful of shows. All of that changed in 2020, with the Ms. Olympia returning and seemingly on track to stay in the future. Compared to other female divisions, Women’s Bodybuilding has often been controversial due to the massive size of the competitors. The battle for “femininity” in the sport has plagued the division since its inception. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Gunter Schlierkamp tries to find balance between the impressive accomplishments of Women’s Bodybuilding vs his personal taste in women physiques.
Gunter Schlierkamp has made his opinions on Women’s Bodybuilding clear in the past. He’s admitted that he doesn’t find the mass monster physiques on Women’s Bodybuilders attractive. That’s why during our recent interview, we wanted to follow up with Schlierkamp about those comments. Does he still feel that way since the division’s comeback? And could he go into more detail about what exactly he meant?
Gunter Schlierkamp doubles down on his original statement. For him, the Women’s Bodybuilding division is just too big and doesn’t have enough femininity. In fact, he believes the division has the same problem that Men’s Open currently has. Namely, that the athletes are putting on too much size and muscle for their frame.
For Women’s Bodybuilding, this increase in mass monster culture combines with Gunter Schlierkamp’s personal taste on women’s physiques. He simply believes they should not be as muscular as men. It’s not something he’s attracted to.
It’s at this point that Vlad Yudin chimes in to point out that an athletic sport is about achievement and not personal taste. A women’s division in a sport should aim to accomplish the same athletic feats as the men’s division counterpart. Gunter Schlierkamp agrees and reframes his initial comments.
Shclierkamp admits that he finds Women’s Bodybuilding extremely impressive. He believes that what the female athletes accomplish in terms of muscle and conditioning is awe-inspiring as the male athletes. He doesn’t want to take away from what they accomplish. That being said, as a fan of the sport and from the perspective of a spectator – he simply doesn’t find Women’s Bodybuilding enjoyable to watch. He doesn’t find it appealing to his personal taste.
“If a woman does it for competing and just placing and winning shows. Is that impressive the work she puts in there? Hell yeah,” Gunter Schlierkamp states in our interview. He continues:
“I mean, it’s ridiculous, it’s insane, it’s dedication, it’s awesome for that. But do I like it for me personally to loo at? I have to say no. That’s not what I like. So how about I say it like that.”
Do you agree or disagree with Gunter Schlierkamp’s separation of personal taste vs achievement in athletic sport? Check out his full comments in our GI Exclusive interview segment above and decide for yourself!
Follow This Guaranteed Way of Developing Your Upper Chest
Develop Your Upper Pecs With These Steps
If you’re like most people, your upper chest will be one of your weakest muscle groups. The upper chest can be one of the most stubborn muscle groups to develop. You’ll need much more than a vanilla chest workout program to develop your upper pecs.
Making a single adjustment will not be enough to see positive progress. You’ll need to make a series of modifications to ignite new muscle growth and make your upper pecs show improvement.
Train Your Upper Pecs At The Beginning of Your Chest Workout
Most people train their upper pecs later in their chest workout when the fatigue starts to kicks in. You should make it a point to train your weaker muscle groups at the beginning of your workouts while you’re fresh and full of energy.
Depleting ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) stores can reduce the overall effect of the exercises on your upper pecs. If you train your upper pecs later in your workouts, you might not have the best mind-muscle connection and the resulting pump.
Use Advanced Training Principles
Many people stick to the stock training programs of 3 sets of 12-10-8 repetitions. If you follow this workout for too long, your body will get accustomed to it and will stop showing progress.
You should include at least one advanced training principle like the drop-sets, super-sets, intra-set stretching, BFR training, etc. in your workouts. You need to keep your muscles guessing in order for them to grow bigger and stronger.
Thanks to the advancement in exercise science, there are enough advance training principles that you can employ a new one in your workouts every week for a long period of time.
Show Your Upper Chest Some Love on Shoulder Day
It’s common practice amongst gym-goers to train their weaker muscle groups twice a week. For instance, if an individual has weaker biceps, he might train his biceps on Monday with his triceps and on Thursday with his back.
Most people don’t follow the same approach with their chest and reserve their pec training to a single day. If you have a lagging upper chest, you should do a few sets of incline bench work on your shoulder day.
You could do some incline bench presses, dumbbell flyes at the end of a shoulder workout or modify your military shoulder presses to target your upper pecs by using a 75-80-degree incline bench. You’ll be destroying two targets with a single arrow with the second approach.
Change Your Rep Tempo
You need to constantly shock your muscles into growing and changing your rep tempos is one of the best ways of doing it. Most people follow the vanilla (1:1:1:1) rep tempo where they take one second each to lower the weight, pause at the bottom, elevate and pause at the top respectively.
Modifying the rep tempo and following something like (4:2:1:2) can change the entire dynamics of your workouts and wake your upper pecs from hibernation. There can be a million combinations of the rep tempos and you should keep experimenting with them.
Header image courtesy of Envato Elements
Which is your weakest muscle group? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Why Bulgarian Split Squats Are Fantastic For Leg Growth
Considered the king of leg exercises, the Bulgarian split squat should absolutely be in your leg day cycle in order to enhance leg strength and a host of other benefits.
While leg day may not be your favorite lifting day, we all know how important it is to have in the workout regimen. Most of us hit the gym, stack up plates on the barbell, and get to squatting. While the squat, both front and back, are phenomenal exercises for leg growth, there is one exercise to at least consider to maximize your true lower body potential. So much time is wasted hitting various machines like the leg extension, leg curls, and hip abductors, and while those isolation exercises are good, the Bulgarian split squat will cover all of those with one mean lower body exercise that encompasses a single leg squat in the Bulgarian split squat.
Bulgarians may be difficult to do, for much of it requires strength, balance, coordination, and sheer will to even get started. But the nice part is, by adding these to your routine, all of the above listed concerns will get better with time. You’re not only focusing on one group of muscles, or one added benefit, but a host of very solid reasons why split squats should be in your workout.
The Bulgarian split squat is easy to learn and provides a good alternative to the traditional squat to relieve your body of the stress put on by that exercise. There is no need to scratch your favorite leg workouts, but just be aware that the Bulgarian split squat is one with many benefits that could save you time and is an effective single leg squat.
Let’s dive into what makes the Bulgarian split squat so special, the benefits around this exercise, and how to properly perform it to alleviate any pain or injury. When done right, this exercise has the ability to seriously enhance all of your goals and gains whether it be strength, weight loss, power, or a little bit of everything. You can perform this exercise with equipment, like a barbell, or keep it solely just your bodyweight.
Lower Body Growth In Strength, Balance, & Power
While performing any leg exercise repeatedly is bound to improve growth, we all want those results as quickly and efficiently as possible. The squat can remain the staple exercise in your leg day training session, but the benefit of splitting your squat into a unilateral movement offers diversity in your workouts, as well as offering relief to certain areas to avoid overworking and injury.
The Bulgarian split squat allows for a deeper range of movement (1) and works to strengthen the stabilizer muscles to support that deeper squat. The deeper you can fall into that squat, the more time under tension you endure. More tension results in increased growth and your gains will truly start to show.
Bulgarians target much of the lower body, including your quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, abductors, and adductors. Much of this is a result of the demanding balance it requires to do this exercise. You can start with just your bodyweight, but as your balance, movement, and confidence improve, you will be able to add more weight to the exercise.
Pairing the Bulgarian split squat and the traditional squat together in your workout cycle is advantageous for your overall growth (2). The benefit this will have on your traditional squat will start to show as well and the leg growth from this often-overlooked exercise will shock you from a body workout.
Explosivity and power are two amazing benefits attached to leg growth and depending on your respective sport, this may be something to really aid in your training and overall performance, even with the variations. The ability to really buckle down on form and enhance your explosive power and help with any type of movement like jumping, pivoting, sprinting, and a host of others is incredibly important to propelling you to the next level.
Even if your sport doesn’t necessarily require blatant explosive power, having that enhanced muscle and ability to perform however you need to will prove to be very beneficial come the long run.
Something that this exercise can really help you with is to enhance those big lifts that are often stunted by one leg being stronger than the other. Something like a barbell squat, which is often times easy to plateau on, can be crushed by adding this exercise into your training.
Since these work each leg differently, you can target your weaker leg with more reps or more weight to isolate one over the other in order to break any plateaus, muscle imbalances, and muscular differences to make those two leg workouts reach huge growth and improved form and your best work.
Other Benefits Of This Exercise
Improved Balance & Posture
The Bulgarian split squat will be a great boost to increasing your balance. Those stabilizer muscles that can be hard to reach but all get action with this exercise and provide for better stabilization and balance. Your core will also feel this and that strong core provides a solid foundation for good balance. Good balance is also a solid way to enhance posture and fix any postural issues that may arise, especially those with a weak core.
The imbalances occur with the unfamiliarity of doing a bilateral movement. This exercise will make you focus more on keeping good form, thus increasing flexibility (3) and mind-muscle connection. Once you nail down balance, your weight load will increase and those gains will grow even more. Agility is also attached to the increased level of balance which can be beneficial for your overall growth and gains when it comes to this exercise.
Reduced Lower Back Pain
A traditional squat tends to put quite a lot of load on your lower back, which can lead to unfortunate injury and keep you out of the gym. One benefit to the Bulgarian split squat is that it limits the amount of strain on the low back.
By putting more emphasis on strengthening your legs, this exercise will largely remove the lower back from the picture and allow recovery time to avoid serious injury (4). Keep the traditional squat in mind, but the Bulgarian split squat is an additional exercise to offer some relief for your low back while not sacrificing the gains of your lower body no matter the rep or amount of sets.
Burn Calories & Shed Fat
This exercise, like every exercise, really works to get your heart rate elevated so you start to see that calorie count decrease and that unwanted fat melt off. When paired with a healthy diet and strategically placed in a training session, this exercise can seriously enhance any gains you have when it comes to weight loss and seeing that shredded physique come to life.
Convenient To Do Wherever, Whenever
This is exercise is incredibly convenient and can be done anywhere with no equipment needed. The nice part is that you can add a kettlebell or a dumbbell if you would like to add extra weight, but for most of the time, you can increase your reps and really work to target those missed areas with just your bodyweight.
No spotter is needed making this a safe and efficient workout to perform no matter wherever or whenever you need it to. As a great way to reduce your risk of injury, this exercise just what you need to stay healthy and fit overall with the convenience of doing these anywhere, very similar to a lunge.
How This Exercise Is Done
The Bulgarian split squat can be done with multiple variations, but for this we will focus on a bodyweight Bulgarian split squat. Your starting position will begin with one foot of your back leg elevated on a bench while keeping a forward position with your front foot. Hold your hands in front of you or wherever is most comfortable.
With a tight core and your torso upright, gently lower yourself into a lunge position with your foot still elevated. Make sure to keep your front knee in line with your front foot while your other foot on the bench stays put. Once at the bottom of the squat, drive your heel into the ground and push with that front leg through your front foot until it is extended again. Feel free to repeat for any desired number of reps and change legs so your opposite leg is now your front foot.
For added weight, you can use a dumbbell, kettlebell, or barbell and this can be done with trial and error. All will provide great benefit to your leg growth and squat position and the amount of weight can be easily modified.
A resistance band is also a good alternative to add tension to this exercise without dealing with weights. For a more unstable surface and increased focus on balance and strength (5), make sure you can try a Bulgarian split squat on an exercise ball and make that additional challenge for yourself.
Wrap Up
It can be difficult to will ourselves to do leg day. By boring ourselves with the same exercises, the monotony can be enough to call it a day and head to the bench press. But don’t sacrifice valuable gains by not efficiently maximizing your true leg day potential.
Adding the Bulgarian split squat to your workout routine will provide solid results and you will reach those big gains in your leg growth as a result of increased range of movement and more time under tension. By improving balance and taking added strain off your lower back and core, you increase your chances to succeed with other workouts and substantially limit your risk of injury with even more reps. Try the bodyweight Bulgarian split squat or use any other single leg exercises associated with it to really get the most out of your leg gains and athletic performance.
Let us know what you think in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
*Images courtesy of Envato
References
Drinkwater, Eric J.; Moore, Norman R.; Bird, Stephen P. (2012). “Effects of Changing from Full Range of Motion to Partial Range of Motion on Squat Kinetics”. (source)
Andersen, Vidar; Fimland, Marius Steiro; Brennset, O.; Haslestad, Lars Rune (2014). “Muscle Activation and Strength in Squat and Bulgarian Squat on Stable and Unstable Surface”. (source)
Daneshjoo, Abdolhamid; Rahnama, Nader; Mokhtar, Abdul Halim; Yusof, Ashril (2013). “Bilateral and Unilateral Asymmetries of Isokinetic Strength and Flexibility in Male Young Professional Soccer Players”. (source)
Kong, Pui Wah. “Strengthen Leg Muscles to Relieve Low Back Pain”. (source)
Aguilera-Castells, Joan; Busca, Bernat; Morales, Jose; Solana-Tramunt, Monica; Fort-Vanmeerhaeghe, Azahara; Rey-Abella, Fernando; Bantula, Jaume; Pena, Javier (2019). “Muscle activity of Bulgarian squat. Effects of additional vibration, suspension and unstable surface”. (source)
Chris Bumstead Details 5,000-Calorie Diet During Bulking Phase
Chris Bumstead took viewers through an average day of meals during his bulking phase of training.
The 2021 Mr. Olympia is about three months away. The competition will take place from Oct. 5-10 Orlando and participants are beginning preparation. For Chris Bumstead, he has finished his bulking phase and decided to give us an inside look at his diet during this period.
Bumstead posted a video on YouTube giving viewers and fans an inside look at his day-to-day meals during this bulking phase.
Chris Bumstead is the reigning two-time Classic Physique champion at Mr. Olympia. He is going for his third in a row and feels like he has a great chance.
“This is the final full day of eating,” Bumstead said at the end of the video. “Prep starting soon. This is the biggest, strongest I’ve been going into a prep. I’m feeling really good, really excited. Probably going to start prep a bit earlier this year because I’m in such a good spot. Trying to get ahead of the game and get after that three-peat.”
Chris Bumstead gave a full insight to his daily preparation. After a morning stretch and drinking water, Bumstead begins with his vitamins. In the morning, he begins with lipids for heart, liver and kidney health followed by Omega K2 D3 vitamins. This is when Bumstead took to the scale to give a live weigh-in where he checked in at 264.6 pounds.
According to Bumstead, this is a bit higher than usual.
“264.6. Not going to, that’s actually a lot heavier than I thought I was going to be today. The highest I’ve been is 263, so lucky me, the morning vlog is a new morning high.”
After all of his normal morning rituals, Chris Bumstead was ready to get his meals going for the day. Below is a full breakdown of his insane calorie intake consumed during his bulking period.
Meal One (920 Calories)
1.5 scoops of Jacked Factory protein powder (FYI, it’s chocolate peanut butter)
1 scoop UltraInflamX protein
90 grams Oats
Half of a banana
Protein Bar
Meal Two (737 Calories)
575 grams raw sweet potato
160 grand ground turkey
Meal Three (661 Calories)
160 grams chicken breast
280 grams white rice
80 grams avocado
Meal Four (678 calories)
190 grams white fish
300 grams white rice
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Meal Five (1,101 calories)
150 grams raw weight pasta
250ml pasta sauce
177 grams ground turkey
6 ounces cherry tart juice
Meal Six (934 calories)
1.5 scoops iso whey protein powder
2 bagels
1.5 tablespoons ghee butter
2 prunes
For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Melvin Anthony: The Ultimate List Of The Best Bodybuilding Posers Of All Time
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Melvin Anthony was one of the greatest posers in bodybuilding history. Here’s his picks for the top 5 best posers of all time.
Melvin Anthony is a bodybuilder who was active during the 90s and 2000s and best known for his incredible posing routines. In the prime of his career, he often placed in the top six at Mr. Olympia. A lot has changed over the past few decades in bodybuilding – that’s why we connected with Anthony to discuss his revolutionary posing routines and his thoughts on posing in the modern era of bodybuilding. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Melvin Anthony breaks down the top five best bodybuilding posers of all time.
It’s often been said that posing has fallen to the wayside in bodybuilding. What was once an art form in and of itself – has now been a simple set of mandatory moves for the judges. While there are some who still value creativity in posing, it’s almost become secondary in today’s era of bodybuilding.
Arnold Schwarzenegger himself warned of this change and urged the Arnold Classic to instate a score for posing as part of the overall results. The change was made and is still active in the Arnold Classic competitions to this day. It has yet to expand to other major competitions such as the Mr. Olympia.
We connected with Melvin Anthony via video chat to reflect on his career and the inspiration behind his posing routines. There really aren’t many bodybuilding posers out there like Anthony. Melvin was meticulous with his prep and practiced each and every move. His goal was for each posing routine to be flawless.
While the focus on posing has dwindled over the years – there is still hope in the form of select bodybuilders with incredible posing routines. That’s why we asked Melvin Anthony to list his picks for the best bodybuilding posers of all time. He mentions younger bodybuilders like Terrence Ruffin – but the biggest standout to him is Kai Greene.
Fans of bodybuilding are no stranger to Kai Greene’s sometimes bizarre but often beautiful posing routines. He would wear costumes and masks (for guest posing) and incorporate interpretive dance into his routine alongside mandatory poses. His entire persona was based in this art. His interviews are often poetic, just like his posing. He has always seen bodybuilding as pure art. This explains his skill and passion behind painting and his recent line of comic books.
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Watch Kai Greene’s posing routine in Brooklyn in this clip from Generation Iron above!
So was Kai Greene the second coming of Melvin Anthony? Was he influenced by Anthony’s career? Anthony will be the first to admit that Kai Greene is one of the greatest, if not the number one greatest, poser of all time. But their styles are very different. Anthony details how his posing came from his street background. He would incorporate hip hop and breakdance style into his routines. Kai Greene feels more like abstract poetry. Two very different forms – but both dedicating to evolving the routine into something more.
Ultimately, Melvin Anthony struggles to come up with even five names for the best posers of all time (he eventually locks a solid five names). This is an example of just how few and far between true elevated posing is in the sport.
You can watch Melvin Anthony go into detail about his posing routines and the best bodybuilding posers of all time in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!
7 Fitness Habits You Need To Break Today
7 Fitness Habits You Need To Break Today
Human nature pushes us to figure out the easiest way of doing a task. We form routines around them that make us work in an “overdrive” mode. Fitness habits are no different. Many people try to find the easiest way of milking the fitness cow as soon as they step inside a gym.
You might even have come across a quote that is widely attributed to Bill Gates:
“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
Sadly, this hack will not get you anywhere in the gym.
Pain, exhaustion, and sweat are a few indicators that tell you if you’re doing the right things in the gym. When most people join a gym, they follow their friendly neighborhood gym bro’s advice without questioning the status quo.
A pro fitness athlete would tell you that gym bros aren’t the best place to get your advice from. Performing hundreds of repetitions of the wrong advice can reinforce habits that will take a lot of time to fix. Luckily, habits can change, whether the habit is biting your nails or decrying your genetics when you can’t seem to make any gains.
Worst Fitness Habits That You Need To Fix
1. Believing Everything You Hear
Almost every person who has ever stepped foot inside a gym forms strong opinions about lifting weights. Before handing out fitness advice, some people even discount the fact that they have only been to a gym once in their life.
And then there are people on the other end of the spectrum who take advice from just about anyone. The latter group of people becomes soft targets for the gym bros.
Interestingly, most of the advice that does the rounds in the fitness circles is nothing more than folklore. Some of the most common fitness myths are:
a) Working out on an empty stomach will help burn fat.
Research has found that while training in a fasted state could burn more calories from fat, it could also cause the body to break down muscle tissues to burn protein as fuel.
b) Women will get bulky if they lift weights.
This is one myth that refuses to die even after several studies have proven that women don’t produce enough testosterone to build as much muscle mass as their male counterparts.
2. Over Keen
Every gym has a group of people who are too eager to achieve their dream physique. For them, the amount of time they spend in the iron paradise is directly proportional to the gains they can make in a single day.
Switching programs too often, trying new advanced training principles, and making unhealthy changes to their diet program to speed up their transformation are trademarks of impatient lifters. If you make drastic changes to your lifestyle in the first week of joining a gym, you are setting yourself up for failure. Your goal should be to slowly build fitness habits that will help you successfully implement lifestyle changes.
3. Zero Accountability
Fitness is turning from an individual’s sport into a team sport. Most people fail in their transformation journey because they are not accountable to anyone. Failing in secrecy makes no difference as there are no consequences because no one will know any different.
Gone are the days when people used to work in dark and gloomy gyms.
The rise of Instagram and YouTube has made sharing transformation progress cool. By sharing your fitness online, you’ll not only be keeping yourself accountable, but you might also inspire others to join you.
Even if you don’t want to share your goals and progress online, you should share them with your friends and family so that you’re at least answerable to someone. It might feel like a small ask, but the psychological benefits of this approach alone will pay dividends in the long run.
4. Skipping Warm-Ups
Many people reach for the dumbbells as soon as they step inside a weight room. They consider warming up a waste of time and prefer lifting lighter weights for the first couple of sets as an alternative warm-up.
Although you might be saving 10-15 minutes by skipping the warm-up, dodging the pre-workout warm-up increases the chances of an injury during an intense workout. A warm-up routine should either consist of 5-10 minutes of cardio or some form of dynamic stretching.
5. No Game Plan
If you don’t have a detailed plan of how you’re going to achieve your dream physique, your odds of failing are relatively high. Vague goals like “I want to get fit”, “I want to lose weight”, or “I want to put on muscle mass” do not cut it.
You need to set a timeline for yourself. The next step after designing a transformation program is to devise a tracking and feedback mechanism. You should have weekly reviews to assess your progress and make necessary changes if and when needed.
A solid game plan has the following things built in:
Tweaking training and nutrition programs when the effort to reward proportion turns unfavorable. If you’re getting too comfortable with your training routine, it’s a sign you need to switch things up.
Staying away from vanilla training programs. Don’t bother following what is working for other people because everyone’s body is different and what might be working for them might not do the trick for you.
Plan all your workouts in advance. Everything from the exercises you will be doing, weights you will be lifting to the clothes you will be wearing should be dialed in.
Know your limits. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin by trying to do more than you’re capable of.
6. Not Using Gear
No, not that gear. Please put the syringes away.
Most people leave gains on the table by not using lifting accessories. Accessories like weightlifting belts, straps, wrist wraps can take your workouts to the next level.
Not only do the training accessories help in better recruitment of the muscles, but they also reduce the probability of injuries when working with heavier weights. Leave lifting raw to the powerlifting pros and speed up your transformation by using lifting accessories.
7. Recovery? What’s That?
No matter how hard you work in the gym, you will not see results until you give your muscles ample time to recover after your workouts. Remember: you break down muscle tissues in the gym. They grow back bigger and stronger when you’re following a good nutrition and recovery program.
You should be sleeping anywhere between 7-8 hours every night for optimal recovery. Some fitness habits to speed up recovery include:
Drinking at least a gallon of water every day.
Eating a high-protein post-workout snack.
Cooling-down after workouts.
Self-myofascial release.
Cold showers.
Are you a victim to any of these bad fitness habits? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
George Farah Warns Bodybuilders: Stop Old School Bulking And Cutting
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George Farah favors building muscle slowly rather than old school bulking and cutting and warns of dire consequences.
George Farah is a legendary bodybuilding coach. He has also been much more vocal in the past decade about how his perception is changing as to what a pro bodybuilder needs to succeed. In fact, Farah believes that as bodybuilding culture changes – the training and dieting has not caught up and it’s endangering athlete health. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, George Farah warns against old school bulking and cutting in bodybuilding. He fears it will raise high blood pressure and lead to damage to kidneys and the liver.
Heart health and high blood pressure has been a topic we’ve discussed previously during our GI Exclusive interviews. That’s why we decided to turn to the bodybuilding guru himself – George Farah – for his take on how to avoid high blood pressure as a mass monster bodybuilder. His answer expands past blood pressure and also into liver and kidney health as well.
George Farah worries that the current culture of bodybuilding is leading to more health risks than necessary for athletes. Much like other individuals we have interviewed recently, Farah believes mass monster culture is leading to younger bodybuilder getting too big, too fast. More specifically, be believes that the old school method of bulking and cutting is no longer the best way to prep as a pro bodybuilder.
Bulking and cutting has been a very common way for pro bodybuilders to train and diet for decades. In short, in involves eating more to bulk up muscle in the off season and then cutting down during competition prep. This allows for a shredded and conditioned look after adding some significant size.
This is of course not the only way to prepare. Bodybuilders like Dexter Jackson have long since focused on staying lean all year and building muscle slowly rather than going through bulking cycles. While bulking itself can be done clean – there are many who will dirty bulk to put on as much weight as possible. Not all of it is muscle and the cutting phase becomes more challenging.
George Farah believes that with the changes in bodybuilding today – bulking has become more dangerous. Especially dirty bulking. There are more powerful supplements and drugs being taken by bodybuilders. Not only that – but the overall size of bodybuilders has increased since the golden age of the sport. This makes the bulking and cutting phase much more dangerous.
The mass amounts of food needed to eat during bulking will inevitably lead to health problems. High blood pressure and possible future heart issues is just one of them. All of the food and ingredients a person eats needs to be processed through the liver and kidneys. During consistent bulking every year – this can over time do some serious damage to both organs.
In our previous segment with George Farah, he claimed that if a bodybuilder can’t see his or her abs during the off season – then they are doing something wrong. This same mentality goes into his view on bodybuilder health. In the chase for building as much muscle as fast as possible – unnecessary risks are being taken. These risks won’t show the true significance of the damage until many years down the road. It’s easy for young people to avoid thinking about it. Life seems long and possible danger is so far away.
It’s just like cigarettes – consistent use in the long term can lead to serious health issues. But millions of people smoke every year. It’s short sighted. It’s focusing on the short term benefits over the long term losses. George Farah has had enough of it. Much like our past few videos – he desperately warns the new generation to actually think ahead. “There is life after bodybuilding,” Farah says multiple times in this video. He can’t stop repeating it. He hopes it eventually starts changing the culture.
You can watch George Farah go into detail about blood pressure in bodybuilding, bulking, and cutting in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above.