Build Muscle Quickly With This Tabata Workout

1. Reap the most benefits​ in the least amount of time

BY ANDREW DAWSON

This fourth workout in our Tabata Makes You Hotta series is a best of both worlds for cardio and strength training from Hannah Eden, owner of Pumpfit in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The hybrid workout offers a creative approach to building muscle and reaping the most benefits in the least amount of time.

For this workout, use moderate weight. The goal is to build your strength endurance so you want weight that is not too heavy but not too light.

If you are a fan of tabatas, don't forget to check out Eden's other workouts in the series: Tabata Makes You Hotta 1, Tabata Makes You Hotta 2, and Tabata Makes You Hotta 3.

Directions: Perform the exercises listed below for 20 seconds each, resting for 10 seconds after each move.

1a. Frog Sprawl Kick

1b. Dumbbell Snatch (right/left)

That's 1 round. Perform 4 rounds. Rest 1 minute before moving to the next pair. Then perform the next two exercises listed below for 20 seconds each, resting for 10 seconds after each move.

2a. Burpee Pullup

2b. Hanging Single Leg Raise

That's 1 round. Perform 4 rounds. Rest 1 minute before moving to the next pair. Then perform the next two exercises listed below for 20 seconds each, resting for 10 seconds after each move.

3a. Side Skater Floor Tap

3b. Kettlebell Squat Clean

That's 1 round. Perform 4 rounds. Rest 1 minute before moving to the next pair. Then perform the next two exercises listed below for 20 seconds each, resting for 10 seconds after each move.

4a. Wall Ball

4b. K2C on Ball

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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The Explosive Speed Workout You Can Do Anywhere

Go faster with 3 simple moves

BY ANDREW DAWSON

As we age, we tend to slow down in training and in our lives. Now, you can regain that quickness with this agility workout from Men’s Health Training Advisor David Jack. The best part: You can do this anywhere, anytime. All you need is your two feet and a little space.

What makes these movements stand out is they hit all three planes of movement, Jack says. You get a forward motion, a back motion, and a side-to-side motion. In the end, you’ll get a total-body workout that zeros in on your hips and core.

You can use this routine as a warmup or work it into a circuit, Jack says.

Directions: Perform the exercises listed below for 20 seconds each, resting for 40 seconds after each move.

1a. Sprinter pop and stick

1b. Sprinter pop and stick with opposite leg

1c. Crossover and stick

Once you master these moves, feel free to mix it up to make the drill even more fun. Once you do the workout 4 to 6 times, shoot for better times, change the set and rest lengths, you can travel with the movement instead of remaining in one spot, and even throw in catching a ball while doing the drill to add hand-eye training to the drill.

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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6 Things I Learned Trying a Boxer's Workout

This hour-long session with former WBO champ Chris Algieri pulled no punches​

BY EBENEZER SAMUEL

I can barely feel my lungs, and I swear, all I’ve really done is bounce around on the balls of my feet.

It’s Monday at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn and Chris Algieri is kicking my ass. The former World Boxing Organization junior welterweight champ, who’s working with Mexican beer company Tecate to help fans get closer to the sport of boxing, is taking a handful of media through an introductory workout. And 15 minutes in, I’m gasping for air, not sure how many more impactful punches I can actually throw.

“And this,” Algieri says later, “isn’t close to how I train.”

But it’s enough to show why boxing training has seen a mini-resurgence among celebrities (Google Adriana Lima’s workout), why Gleason’s is filled with sweat-soaked youngsters, and why this is a perfect changeup to your typical cardio or HIIT routine. Algieri, fresh off serving as nutritionist for Danny Jacobs, is only teaching basics—but the basics will still burn oodles of calories and craft strong legs and a carved midsection.

Here are five things I learned from my first boxing workout:

1) Boxing kills your legs.

Just bouncing around in a boxer’s stance is a decent leg workout. And the stance is the starting point for everything that follows. To find your boxer’s stance, stand straight, and then take a step backwards with your right leg (if you’re right-handed), as far as you can, without turning your hips.

Now, turn that right foot outwards, and shift it a few inches to the right, then lift the heel of that foot off the ground. Center your weight and bend your knees. That's your stance. You’ll maintain this position for much of any boxing workout. Any time you need to dodge, Algieri says, you’ll bend at the knees, just low enough to escape any imaginary punch.

By workout’s end, I’ve done at least 80 uneven squats, enough that my quads and hips are feeling it.

2) Boxing is all old school.

Basketball and football training have grown increasingly scientific, but you won’t find any trace of sports science at Gleason’s. Algieri, who has a master’s degree in clinical nutrition, pushes pomegranate juice and dons a heart-rate monitor when he trains alone, but he’s an outlier in a sport that still views its bell as “high-tech”.

“I think boxing is a little bit of an old-world mentality,” Algieri says. “It’s very antiquated from a sports science aspect.”

Ideas for loosening and priming soft tissues for workouts haven't reached the boxing world just yet; there's not a foam roller or Power Plate in sight. While football coaches are using GPS technology to track the velocity of players and NBA teams have begun vigorously charting player sleep habits, even at elite levels, boxing trainers don't have such discussions, Algieri says.

3) It’s not easy to master the uppercut.

The power for each and every punch is generated by an aggressive and violent rotation through the hips and core. That movement is somewhat easy to learn for simple straight-ahead jabs, but the uppercut isn’t quite as natural. To generate power on an uppercut, you actually need to squat (there it is again!) slightly in a boxer’s stance, then rotate through your hips and drive your fist straight up and forward.

So nuanced is a perfect uppercut that it’s a key reason boxers often tear their biceps tendons and labrums, Algieri says. (Here's what that horrific injury looks like.)

4) Boxing is a core killer.

After shadowboxing long enough to learn all four main punches (left and right jabs, left and right uppercuts), then doing some light work with a partner, Algieri takes us over to the heavy bag for six 30-second intervals of relentless jab-throwing, and it’s here that my core takes a serious pounding.

Delivering each punch with proper hip and core snap generates the power to get the bag moving, but it leaves my abs crying at the end of each interval.

And since we’re trying to build that core strength, Algieri pushes us to more core work afterwards, focusing on off-center planks and feet-elevated Russian twists. On their own, the two movements aren’t that hard, but after all that boxing, they’re shredding my midsection.

5) Boxing doesn’t include “rest periods."

Crossfitters often scale workouts when fatigue sets in, bodybuilders fully rest between sets, and HIIT workouts leave brief rest periods, but there’s never supposed to be true rest here. Boxers often train with no real breather, conditioning themselves for boxing matches that offer just a minute between 3-minute rounds.

Algieri provides a 15-second breather between sets on the heavy bag, but that’s only a break from punching. During that period, we’re told to bounce back and forth in our boxer’s stance or do squats.

“There’s really no time to drop the intensity,” Algieri says. “You’re supposed to fight through.”

6) Boxing is best used as a change-up.

Algieri’s boxing workout burns plenty of calories and gets plenty of muscles firing, but even he admits that it shouldn’t carry a training regimen. Why? Because it allows for no balanced muscle recruitment unless you’re coordinated enough to switch between righty and southpaw stances. (Spoiler alert before you try: You’re not.)

“It’s not a symmetrical sport,” Algieri says. “It’s just not.”

That’s why Algieri supplements his own boxing work with classic weight room work, doing plenty of bench presses, deadlifts and front squats when he’s not prepping for a fight.

“In between,” he says, “I think it’s important to step back from the sport.”

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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Kevin Hart Flaunts His Incredible Abs Transformation On Instagram

The comedian’s fitness journey has come a long way

BY ALISA HRUSTIC

When Kevin Hart isn’t going out of his way to make you laugh, we assume he’s spending a lot of his time in the gym. The former Men’s Health cover star has made a habit of posting his workouts to Instagram, which have included foot drills, pushups, pullups, and one-legged leg presses. And by the looks of it, he’s been focusing on his core, too. Hart recently posted a “Transformation Thursday” photo showing off the results of his dedication.

In the post, Hart writes: “The only time that you look back in life is to see far you’ve come.”

Truer words have never been spoken. We know what it takes to earn six-pack abs—and nothing screams “fit” like a chiseled core. Judging by Hart’s photo, he’s been fully committed to sculpting his stomach.

After Hart gave his trainer Ron “Boss” Everline a shout out for helping him transform his body, he responded with a before and after of Hart’s progress.

Hart just serves as one more example that anyone can create the body they want if they put in the work. Inspired by his progress? You can build a better body in just 21 days with Men’s Health’s.

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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15 Agility Drills You Can Do In 10 Square Feet

No space? No problem. You can do these drills anywhere

BY NAOMI NAZARIO

You won't need a football field to perform these 15 performance-enhancing agility drills from Sean Garner, a trainer at Anatomy 1220 in Miami, Fla.

Agility exercises are a great way to build up quickness and coordination. These benefits carry into sports and other physical activities. They'll also combat the slowing that inevitably comes as we age. As the saying goes, "if you don't use it, you lose it."

Agility drills also provide cardiovascular benefits, making them a great equipment-free option when you don't have access to the gym. Lastly, if you don't want to trip up, you'll have to focus. That's a level of mental stimulus you likely won't get from the elliptical or treadmill. In other words—they're fun!

Want to really jack up the level of intensity? Try these in the sand. A 2013 study showed that training in sand can increase physiological response (as compared to training on a solid surface such as grass) without any additional recovery needs.

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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Build Your Butt with a Rubber Band

Your glutes will feel like they just took twenty lashings

BY BJ GADDOUR

Here at Men's Health we love the hip thrust. We've been featuring this move plus other battle-tested butt-building exercises as part of the #MHGluteProject with Bret "The Glute Guy" Contreras.

The barbell hip thrust is the king of glute exercises. See how to do it here.

But dead weight isn't the only way to light your glutes on fire. Bands, or elastic resistance, are also an amazing ass-sculpting variation to throw into the mix.

The bands offer an ascending resistance that gives you peak tension when the glutes are maximally activated during full hip extension at the top of the movement.

Bands have the added benefit of being a lot easier to setup and provide a more time-efficient workout. Since the hips are the performance powerhouse of the human body, they have the potential to move around a lot of weight.

His glutes are so powerful that he pretty much needs every plate in the gym, and even then he needed bands to secure the plates to the barbell. Ha!

To use loads this heavy, it requires a lot of warmup sets and a whole lot of racking and un-racking the weight plates. With the band option you can quickly switch between levels of resistance and a simple warmup set or two will do the trick.

This isn't a knock on the barbell hip thrust; it's just another great example that every exercise has its pros and cons. That's why Bret and his clients incorporate both options into their glute training and you should too.

Bret is using a specialized piece of equipment he designed called the hip thruster that has band attachments, but you can also mimic this band setup by using a power rack (as shown in the video).

Another good hack according to Contreras is "criss-crossing a pair of heavy dumbbells on each side of you and then anchoring the ends of the band onto the lower dumbbells. When you just have single dumbbells on each side, they roll underneath you. You have to trap them by laying two dumbbells across each other in an X-shape."

Bret recommend 3 sets of 20 reps with as thick of a band as you can use to hit that rep target. The thicker the band, the more resistance it supplies. We recommend bands from ResistanceBandTraining.com.

Besides finding the right band resistance, there are a couple other key points Bret wants you to consider. One, avoid going all the way down on each rep. This prevents you from resting at the bottom and puts more constant tension on the glutes to spur muscle growth via metabolic stress. Two, be sure to squeeze your glutes hard at the top of each rep. And three, as with all hip thrust variations, be sure to tuck your chin and keep your ribs and shoulders down for maximum glute activation and to prevent your lower back from getting involved.

Personally, I love doing pause reps with band hip thrusts, both on two legs and one leg. Hold the top of each rep for 2 to 4 seconds, contracting your glutes as hard as you can. Even a light band will light you up fast with this protocol.

So grab a band and start building a better butt today because #TheThrustIsAMust!

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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This New Google Feature Will Make It Easier Than Ever to Work Out

Your next fitness class is just a search away

BY GUS TURNER

Tech giant and search overlord Google has announced the expansion of their Reserve With Google feature, a tool that allows users to conveniently book fitness classes and appointments right from a search result. So, instead of navigating the different interfaces of various exercise studios, you can now set things up from the familiar confines of Google in just a few clicks.

There are two ways you can use the Reserve tool: Either by visiting its site, or by searching for a specific studio on Google, and then booking your next class within the search result. The site can also provide you with recommendations for other types of classes you may be interested in, and won't take away any of the introductory offers or other benefits you may receive from signing up through the usual route.

It's a handy tool and also further evidence of the all-in-one approach that so many of Silicon Valley's major players are taking these days. This week, Facebook announced its own fundraising feature, which will allow users to set up donations campaigns right on their page, instead of going to platforms like GoFundMe. Who knows what's next for these tech titans? Until we find out, start booking those classes now. (And here are four more helpful Google features you may not know about.)

Coutersy: http://www.menshealth.com

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Three Children Dad Keeps himself Fit, See how?

You will get more and more in a very short time span with only these three workouts

BY BJ GADDOUR

In this episode of the Men's Health SweatCast, fitness director BJ Gaddour interviews fitness expert Jeremy Shore.

Jeremy is the group education director for Matrix Fitness, a fitness equipment company, and a master trainer for ReebokONE, Dynamax Medicine Balls, and Trigger Point Performance. As part of his job with Matrix Fitness, he has to travel all over the country and that can make it really hard for him to stay in shape.

So one of Jeremy's go-to workouts is what he calls Sprint 8, which is a research-proven cardio interval workout that has you go all out for 30 seconds with 90-second recovery periods for 8 total rounds. "You have to go at a speed and level of resistance that makes you want to quit around 20 to 25 seconds in to really make this protocol work," he says. You can use any cardio machine you'd like to perform this routine, which takes only 16 minutes.

Jeremy is also a big fan of metabolic conditioning circuits where you group a bunch of non-competitive moves together (like pushups, squats, lunges, rows, and planks) and hit them back to back with short rest periods between moves. In 30 minutes, you can get a great total-body workout that will build muscle, burn fat, boost metabolism, and bump up your energy levels.

Check out the whole episode to learn more about Jeremy's story. The topics covered include:

• How to stay in shape as a busy dad
• The benefits of medicine ball training
• The benefits of trigger point work
• The "Strength to Serve" mission
• And much more!

And if you have't heard our episode with Cory Gregory, another freakishly fit and successful father, you can listen to that here:

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com 

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The Brutally Honest Story Of What Happened When This Guy Got Transformed

Just see why this is so difficult to carry on weight loss

BY ALISA HRUSTIC

The guy in the first picture above had a weight of 270 pounds. The guy in the second photo never started losing weight with the intention of getting this wastes. When Jimmy Fisher’s girlfriend called off their engagement, he then need to look for something to keep his mind off of their relationship, so he started thinking about the workout for relaxation.

For 7 months, he spent most of his time hammering out forty mins of cardio, after 90 mins of strength training. He banned eating detours through the McDonald’s drive-thru. He controlled the best to tame his sweet teeth, no matter how tempted he was by the carton of ice cream in the freezer. By June 2016, Fisher was 51 pounds lighter, but he was well aware that he needed a meet the toughest target if he need to continue, so he decided to accept the challenge and joined his first physique show, a unique type of body building fantesy that judges competitors based on their leanness and body symmetry, instead of supreme muscle mass.>>

With the guidance and support of his bodybuilding coach and good friend Otis Hooper (runner up in the 2016 Ultimate Men’s Health Guy contest), Fisher got to work. For 18 weeks, he followed a strict eating regimen, taking in roughly 1,800 to 2,400 calories a day, depending on how his coach modified his protein, carb, and fat intake every week.

Breakfast typically consisted of egg whites and oatmeal, lunch was a plate of lean ground turkey and broccoli, and his dinner of tilapia, also served with broccoli, came with a side of almond butter spread upon a piece of Ezekiel bread. For his two to three snacks a day, Fisher typically downed protein shakes, protein bars, sweet potatoes, or chicken. Day in and day out, he ate the same foods.

For someone with a sweet tooth as strong as his, prepping for his physique show was the second hardest thing he had ever done, next to graduating college, he says.

By the end of October 2016—11 months after the before photo above was taken and 18 weeks after starting his physique show training—Fisher lost another 34 pounds, dropped to an estimated 8 to 9 percent body fat, and gained a rippling six-pack for the first time in his life.

“When I walked on stage, there were no nerves,” Fisher recalls. “I was really proud of myself and even if I wasn’t the best looking physique up there, I knew how much work I put into it.”

Unfortunately, the results didn’t last for long: Just two months after that competition, Fisher gained back nearly 50 pounds.

“The physique I achieved and the amount of weight I had to drop to get into “stage shape” isn’t necessarily what I’d call ‘real life,’” Fisher says. “The diet I followed strictly for 18 weeks isn’t something I’d recommend to anyone unless they’re prepping for a bodybuilding show.”

Right after his show, the cravings started to kick in. Fisher went straight back to his old eating habits, treating himself to fast food and pizza and binging on sugar-laden foods like brownies and ice cream.

“Known as the ‘post-show rebound,’ I really struggled with getting back on track and following a proper nutrition plan, in part because I deprived myself of certain foods for so long,” Fisher says.

Here’s why that rebound happens—and why single-digit body fat isn’t always realistic for the average guy.

Why It’s Hard to Maintain Single Digit Body Fat 

When you lose weight, the goal is to try and preserve muscle while losing fat, says Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., an assistant professor in exercise science at Lehman College, who has won numerous national bodybuilding titles. But that’s much easier said than done.

When you lose weight quickly like Fisher did, you actually end up losing muscle and slowing down your metabolism as your body tries to make up for your reduced caloric intake, he says. Your body perceives the weight loss as a threat to your survival, Schoenfeld explains.

According to one theory, everyone has a unique “body fat set point,” or your body’s optimal body fat state. Once you start dipping below that, your body produces less of an appetite-supressing hormone called leptin, which makes you feel hungrier, he says.

Once your body starts to subdue your metabolism, the only way you’re going to maintain that level of lean is by continuously reducing the amount of calories you eat, says Schoenfeld.

And that’s not realistic when all you want to do is slam a cheeseburger.

So you’ll start to struggle mentally as well, says Schoenfeld. If you were prepping for a bodybuilding competition (especially if its your first time), you’ll no longer have a goal to aim for once it’s over. All of a sudden, that strict diet doesn’t feel necessary, and anything that’s not tilapia and broccoli will start looking tempting. (Here are six reasons you tend to overeat.)

The drive to eat becomes so strong that you end up binging, like Fisher did, and all of the weight you worked so hard to lose will pile back on and then some, a phenomenon known as “fat overshooting,” Schoenfeld explains.

The same thing can occur even if you don't make it all the way down to single-digit body fat. Maintaining weight loss can be a battle, especially if you drop the pounds quickly.

If you want to keep your weight loss stable, eating enough protein (about 2 grams per kilogram of lean body mass per day) and doing enough resistance training is crucial, says Schoenfeld. That’s because protein keeps you feeling fuller for longer and has a greater thermic effect, meaning your body burns more calories digesting and processing it, than carbs and fat, he says.

The resistance training preserves, and can even increase, lean mass if you’re cutting calories. Aim for a minimum of three sessions a week, Schoenfeld suggests. (Maximus Body from Men’s Health is full of effective workouts that will help you build lean muscle.)

As for Fisher? He is currently working toward a masters degree in nutrition education. Despite all that he went through during his first competition, he has decided to train for another physique show—just with a new strategy in mind this time around. He now follows a “flexible dieting” plan, something Schoenfeld recommends, and is giving himself 30 weeks to reach his goal weight instead of 18. 

In his new eating plan, Fisher still aims to eat a specific amount of protein, carbs, and fat a day, depending on what his progress is looking like for that week. But now, he eats about 2,800 calories a day and incorporates a wider variety of foods in his daily diet (meaning low-calorie, high-protein ice cream, baked fries, and homemade healthy pizza are now on the list). (For a full diet plan that will help you lose fat and keep it off, check out the Lean Muscle Diet from Men’s Health.)

He has already started losing weight again, but more slowly this time. In the photo above, taken just last week, Fisher weighs 221 pounds—36 pounds heavier than his physique show weight.

“Flexible dieting sometimes gets a bad rap because people assume it means eating nothing but things like donuts, cake, and brownies. Done the right way, flexible dieting can still allow you to get all the necessary macronutrients and micronutrients the body needs to live a healthy lifestyle while still maintaining a nice physique,” Fisher explains.

“As a matter of fact, because I’m still eating healthy as part of my flexible dieting plan and working really hard in the gym, I plan on “beating” the last physique I presented on stage.”

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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This Shoulder Exercise Should Be a Staple In Your Workouts

And you've probably never tried it

BY BJ GADDOUR

I first saw this shoulder-friendly exercise back in the day from trainer Ben Bruno.

It uses what's called a "landmine" setup by placing one end of a barbell into either a specialized landmine post (like you can find here at Rogue Fitness) or into a corner of a wall. Then you grab the other end of the barbell to perform a lateral raise or an endless number of other exercises (click here to see 63 landmine exercises).

What's so great about this move?

The unique arching path of the bar hits all 3 heads of the deltoids: front, side and rear. Plus, it develops the often neglected lower traps, which are responsible for pulling your scapula down. It's also a great way to strengthen the rotator cuff and promote optimum shoulder health and performance.

I recommend 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 15 reps. Use it either as a warmup or for some accessory work after heavier compound exercises like overhead presses and pullups.

Be sure to control the lowering portion to get the most out of this move. And go with just the bar or a lighter bar in the beginning—this exercise is surprisingly difficult.

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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The Best Type of Exercise For Aging Muscles

Max out your gains—even in your golden years

BY BJ GADDOUR

Aging can do a number on your muscles. After you turn 30, you start to slowly lose your bigger fast-twitch muscle fibers that make you lean, defined, and athletic. And your muscles even age at a cellular level with a decline in the number and quality of your mitochondria, the powerhouse of your cells.

But a recent study from Cell Metabolism discovered that certain forms of exercise may increase muscle mass and mitochondrial density, particularly with people 64 and over.

Not surprisingly, resistance training increased muscle mass and strength for all subjects. And cardio HIIT (high intensity interval training) improved the age-related decline in mitochondria. This study validates what we've known along, that it takes a strategic combination of strength and cardio work to maximize your fitness and age like a fine wine.

In fact, we've covered this potent strength and aerobic combination before with The Russian Fat Loss Workout, one of our most popular Men's Health workouts of all-time.

The big takeaway here is that you need to adequately hit your fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers to both maximize muscle growth and fight the aging process.

Studies have shown that when it comes to muscle growth, the best results are achieved by using a mix of low, medium, and high reps. And the same things that build muscle also help slow the loss of it.

But don't get caught in the trap of thinking you can only hit your fast-twitch fibers with heavy strength training and your slow-twitch fibers with cardio. The degree to which you target certain muscle fibers depends on the speed and intensity of the exercise in addition to the rest time between work sets.

Traditionally we've been told that fast-twitch fibers get hit with heavy loads or moderately heavy loads moved explosively with longer rest periods between sets, and slow-twitch fibers get hit with lighter loads at slower speeds and with shorter rest periods between sets. In addition, you will recruit your lower threshold slow-twitch fibers first and the higher threshold fast-twitch fibers then kick in later as needed to keep you moving.

But another recent study shows that no matter the rep range, as long as the effort is there and you are pushing close to muscular failure, the full spectrum of muscle fibers, both fast and slow, will get worked. So you can accomplish your muscle-building goals with heavier loads and lower reps or with lighter loads and higher reps as long you are pushing to the limit.

Now, heavy lifting can be tough on the body as you get older. Your central nervous system takes more time to recover between sessions from heavier loading and your joints can only take so much wear and tear. Plus, heavy lifting doesn't adequately stimulate your mitochondria, which will decline with age and are critical for overall health and performance.

That's why I'm huge believer in what I call "metabolic bodybuilding." It can hit all of your muscle fibers while simultaneously increasing your mitochondria, all while using much lighter loads than normal. Metabolic bodybuilding involves using longer, higher-rep timed sets to stimulate muscle and mitochondrial growth via metabolic stress, or the accumulation of the acidic waste materials from exercise that causes your muscles to swell and burn. In this way, this revolutionary style of training spares your joints, is easier to recover from, and can be done with minimal equipment setups at home or in a hotel gym. In fact, I created a total body transformation system around this style of exercise with my METASHRED EXTREME program from Men's Health.

For example, doing 2-minute time-under-tension sets with resistance training exercises like squats, pushups, or biceps curls using a slow and controlled tempo and with rest periods of 60 seconds or less is one of my favorite ways to boost muscle and mitochondria. Plus, it will get and keep your heart rate up.

The bottom line is that the best exercise for aging muscles is either a combination of strength and interval training, or a fusion of the two with metabolic bodybuilding. Either way, you'll be drinking from the fountain of youth and still getting gains in your golden years.

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com 

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6-Step Plan For Building Your Best Body Ever

The only way to build the muscles you want is to take on challenges that others won't

BY MICHAEL EASTER, BOBBY MAXIMUS

The building in Salt Lake City was all black with no signage. It felt like stepping into an underground club, one where the laws of gods and men don't apply. Once inside, I was immediately overpowered by the smell of sweat and bleach, the screech and thump of punk music, and the whirring of Concept2 rowers.

Eight men cranked on the machines at a suicidal pace. Sweat streamed down their tattooed backs. Spurring them on was one of the largest human beings I had ever seen. "What's causing you to slow down?" he hollered. "Your mind or your body?" The man had the calm confidence of a star athlete and the brick-shithouse physique of someone who fights in a cage for money. Which, I later learned, he used to do in the UFC.

I first heard of Robert "Bobby Maximus" MacDonald while reporting a story for this magazine. In a mass email to some of the best and brightest people I knew in fitness, I'd asked a simple question: Who are the fittest men in the world?

Each respondent named three or four people, most of whom were pro athletes. But the name that popped up most frequently was unfamiliar to me: Bobby Maximus, training director of Gym Jones in Salt Lake City.

This impossibly large Canadian, they said, was not only breaking world records but also helping pro athletes win championships, teaching Special Forces soldiers to attain elite fitness, and turning average guys into superheroes.

So I went to Gym Jones and soon found myself sitting on a rower as Maximus programmed 2,000 meters into its computer. "Try to finish in seven minutes," he said. "If you don't want to quit halfway through, you're not going hard enough. Go!" (This is one of the 7 essential tests Maximus says you must pass before you can be considered truly fit.)

I've been covering fitness for a decade. I've finished in the top 3 percent of half marathons, completed 24-hour endurance challenges, and trained at the best facilities in the country. But nothing prepared me for this.

In the final 500 meters, with Maximus reminding me that fatigue is more mental than physical, I reached a new level of intensity. This was not a workout. It was a revelation.

I've followed his methods ever since, and they've changed me both physically and mentally. I no longer make excuses, and I understand my fatigue. As a result, I can detach from the pain and gain an edge.

I'm hardly unique. Maximus has helped countless people shatter their notion of what their "best" could be.

That's why we wrote the new Men's Health book Maximus Body together. To give you a taste, I asked him to reveal what's most important to reach peak fitness. What follows is Maximus' six-step plan for honing your body, written by him.

STEP 1: GET YOUR MIND RIGHT

People who become supremely fit don't do secret one-of-a-kind exercises, eat "superfoods," or take magic supplements. They just work harder. They don't quit or make excuses or take shortcuts. That kind of discipline comes from the organ between your ears, not the muscles below them. Try these two mind-hardening exercises.

Go Green

Self-doubt poisons performance; "green-light thoughts" are the antidote. If you catch yourself thinking "I'm too tired" or "I need to slow down," reverse it by saying, "I've got this" or "This is easy" or "I feel great."

You can take it a step further. When I was in the UFC, my sports psychologist, Brian Cain, had me put little green stickers over the places I frequented the most—my car's steering wheel, the bathroom mirror, the fridge, the weight rack. Every time I saw a green dot, I told myself one reason I was going to succeed. The very next fight, I won Submission of the Night. You can buy the green dots at an office-supply store. Every time you see one, tell yourself why you'll reach your goal.

Understand the Maximus 130-Hour Rule

Fitness can seem like a journey with no end in sight. Here's a different take on it: 130 hours. In my experience, that's all it takes to get yourself into shape. Train hard for an hour a day, five days a week, and you're there in six months. If you want to get started right now, I put together a 130-hour training plan in my Men’s Health book Maximus Body. It contains the 100 workouts I’ve used to help everyone from A-list celebs to busy accountants get ripped, laid out in a schedule that makes it easy for you to stay on track.

STEP 2: DREAM BIG

People often come to me with goals that are far too easy. Their ceiling should actually be their floor—the least they expect to achieve.

For example, if a guy tells me his goal is to do a marathon, I tell him about Terry Fox. In 1977 Fox was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare cancer, and doctors amputated his leg.

Even with one leg, Fox wanted to run. To him, that meant running across Canada from east to west to raise funds for cancer research, a trek he started in 1980. He averaged a marathon's worth of miles every day (on one real leg and one prosthetic) until the cancer spread and he had to stop after four and a half months and 3,339 miles. Still think a single marathon is a worthwhile goal?

STEP 3: KILL YOUR EXCUSES

Preston Wood, 45, is 5'6" and weighs 158 pounds. He works about 60 hours a week and travels at least a week out of every month. He has a wife and family that he puts above all else, and he lives about 45 minutes from our gym, a 90-minute round trip.

Despite all those built-in excuses, Wood can hit all the fitness standards laid out here, a truly incredible achievement for anyone. That's why I use him as a litmus test for bullshit. When someone tells me he can't achieve his goals because of some limitation, I can say, "Well, Preston did it. Why can't you?"

STEP 4: BE GOOD AT EVERYTHING

Too many people pursue one aspect of fitness at the expense of all others. Lifters won't do cardio because it might limit their gains, while runners won't lift because they fear the extra muscle might slow them down. Those concerns may have some validity, but only at the highest levels of sport. The rest of us can and should achieve high levels of fitness in multiple areas.

Consider Paul Timmons, a 48-year-old gym owner from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Timmons is a prime example of what happens when you vary your training. He looks rather unassuming, and you wouldn't feel intimidated if you ran into him on the street. In fact, if you had to guess what Timmons does for a living, you might peg him as a high school math teacher or maybe an accountant. That's why most people are shocked when I mention that Timmons is one of the fittest men to ever train at Gym Jones. He set a Delaware state powerlifting record, finished the Ironman triathlon in Kona in a blindingly fast 11 hours, and was the top-placing American in his age group at the 2,000-meter World Indoor Rowing Championships.

STEP 5: STRIVE FOR DAILY GAINS

During a challenging workout, your brain holds your body back. To bypass those self-imposed limitations, you need to understand the difference between exercising and training. About a year and a half ago, I met Matt. He was far from a fitness rookie. He had been working out four to five days a week with personal trainers and was in good shape. But Matt was only doing exercise. I showed him how to train.

I worked with him to create a plan with big fitness goals that he thought were unattainable. But he changed his mentality, focusing on performing slightly better each day than the previous day and pushing through pain.

Within just weeks, Matt showed improvement. After months, there was significant physical change. This program allowed him to hit those seemingly impossible performance goals and build more strength than he thought he could.

This incremental approach works for three reasons. First, it forces you to train—that is, to keep specific performance goals in mind. Second, it allows for steady improvement, which builds fitness and psychological resilience. Third, and perhaps most important, it can help you overpower mental roadblocks and teach you the feeling of hard work.

Over time, as the small improvements add up, you understand what hard work feels like, and you find your true limits.

STEP 6: SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF

In theory, if you exercise too hard and too often, your body starts to break down. That's called overtraining. Sure, muscle can literally break down in extreme cases, but the truth is there's no such thing as overtraining; however, it's possible to under-recover.

In 2012 and 2013, I trained Hack's Pack, a six-member squad from Ute CrossFit that competed in the CrossFit Games team series. They trained 15 to 20 hours a week—running, sprinting, rowing, lifting—always at full tilt. Yet they never became overtrained. That's because I hammered this point home: Training your body is just half the battle.

Hard workouts tear up your muscles and impose stress on your system. Fitness improves outside the gym, when your body repairs itself. More efficient recovery allows you to train more often and improve faster.

The Hack's Pack athletes followed the four strategies below, and it paid off in a big way: The squad won the CrossFit Games two years in a row.

1. Get More Sleep

Poor sleep saps your strength, makes you more prone to injury, and messes with your metabolism. When I work with people who need to get ripped quickly, I require them to get at least nine hours of sleep a night. Here are two easy ways to help make that happen: Hang blackout curtains to turn your bedroom into a darkroom, and shut off and stash all your electronics an hour before bedtime.

2. Manage Your Stress

Life stress impairs healing, and your body doesn't have the resources to recover from both life stress and workout stress. There's no single best way to recover from life stress, and we all have our own tricks. Preston Wood meditates for 20 minutes a day. A friend of mine builds Lego sets with his kids. Whatever helps you unwind, do it daily.

3. Walk

A few years ago, I suddenly found myself lifting heavier and running faster. What changed? I'd recently adopted a dog, and I was walking an extra 30 to 60 minutes a day. A daily walk increases bloodflow, helping you recover from tough workouts. It's also a low-impact way to burn a few more calories.

4. Tend Your Muscles

Life and exercise conspire to make some of your muscles tighter than others. Tighter muscles increase your risk of injury. My clients foam-roll and do targeted mobility exercises before workouts for at least 10 minutes. I roll my muscles for 20 minutes each night as my wife and I watch our favorite TV series, Game of Thrones.

Courtesy: http://www.menshealth.com

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