Looking for a powerful and unconventional way to pack on muscle and boost your strength? Enter the kettlebell and sledgehammer workout, a high-impact training method that pairs a sledgehammer perfectly with kettlebell exercises to deliver explosive gains. Combining the raw, primal movements of the sledgehammer with the dynamic versatility of kettlebells, this workout targets multiple muscle groups, enhances functional strength, and takes your conditioning to the next level.
Are you tired of your current routine?
Do you want to increase athletic performance while creating the ideal physique?
In this guide, we’ll break down how to master this smashing combo, provide you with actionable routines, and explain why the sledgehammer workout is a game-changer for anyone serious about building mass and redefining their fitness. Get ready to swing, smash, and sculpt your way to a stronger, more powerful physique!
Overindulging during the Holiday season is all too easy, I know from experience! Even the best intentions can be forgotten among the parties, and generous meal portions and sizes. Holiday weight gain is an inevitability for 99.8% of the US population so those of us who are not competitive bodybuilders need to be ready to combat that added girth come January.
What happens in January when you want to shed those extra pounds? Back to the same old gym routine? Why not start the New Year with a new training philosophy – high-intensity circuit training?
Let’s see how we can battle holiday weight gain with high-intensity circuits.
Interval Training is simply one of the most efficient forms of cardio you can perform, if not the most efficient. You can get pretty much ALL the benefits of longer-duration cardio but without the long duration. Moreover, you don’t get bored, you don’t spend all your time doing it, and you don’t have nearly the risk of overuse injuries.
Let’s take a look at how we can choose from the most efficient forms of cardio to elevate conditioning while working towards strength goals.
Athletes have become bigger and stronger and are in better shape nowadays, and the trend to build endurance through specific training has only accelerated this phenomenon. Athletes are getting leaner and more ‘ripped’ than ever, in nearly every sport.
It used to be that a baseball player, for example, would focus on exercises specifically designed to improve the specific skill set that they needed to succeed on the baseball field. The same sport-specific training was true for every sport. But as people began to see the broad-spectrum benefits that came with endurance training for events like the triathlon, it became evident that an individual with greater strength and endurance in any sport could benefit from a more well-rounded circuit of exercises.
It didn’t take long before regular people started to realize that they could benefit from endurance training, too, and it quickly became more and more popular. Today, its appeal is at an all-time high. Even weekend athletes, as a result of endurance training, are becoming almost indefatigable.
Want thick, dense abs that stand out like a washboard? Want a ripped midsection with veins and shredded striations? No? How about this: Want to look good naked? If you answered yes to any of those, you’ll want to be sure you’re not making any common ab training mistakes.
You will never achieve any of the above goals or personal goals if you train your abs once a week with three sets of crunches for 100 reps, or if you eat like a horse. Avoid these 6 common abdominal training mistakes and your abs will dial in. Whether you are a bodybuilder, an athlete, or a novice, chances are you are making several of these ab training mistakes in your training right now. Take heed!
There are many different lifts that a weightlifter can do to increase their strength, speed, and power. All kind of weightlifting is great for your body, but I prefer to not waste time in the gym lifting with tunnel vision, going from machine to machine and seeing little results from my hard work. This is why it is important to learn how to squat!
Instead, I would rather do 3-4 exercises with maximal intensity to wipe out my whole body in order to reap a maximal anabolic effect. The most well known and most dreaded of these exercises is the squat.
Rules to Remember When Performing a Squat
Keep the lower back straight and mostly flat; do not round your back!
Keep knees pointing out slightly, do not let them creep inwards as you push yourself up.
The bar should rest on the upper trap muscles and the rear heads of the shoulders.
Push from your glutes (butt), not your knees; your hips should raise first and everything else should raise with them.
Fill your stomach with air before descending and keep it tight with your chest out while pushing up.
Push up with your eyes focused 30-45 degrees above normal eye level.
Try to keep your knees behind your toes to avoid injury.
Power Boxing Workouts are a great way to build strength and develop quality striking and self-defense techniques. They’re also a great way to improve cardio, strengthen core muscles, and burn fat.
A power boxing workout will make you feel stronger and more confident when done correctly. Getting stronger, lifting heavier weights, and being able to throw harder can be hugely beneficial for your mental health. Let’s investigate all of the benefits of boxing.
High-Intensity Interval Training, often represented by the acronym HIIT, is really a big deal. HIIT training is the ideal and most effective replacement for underachieving endurance cardio. High-intensity interval training has been regarded for years now as one of the best ways to burn calories and maintain muscle mass while encouraging a long-lasting metabolic effect post-workout.
As a matter of fact, in studies, HIIT is 9x more effective at burning fat than endurance cardio.
More often than not, I have talked about HIIT workouts made up only of interval sprints. Today I would like to discuss HIIT training with resistance machines, but not to be confused with High-Intensity Resistance Training, or HIRT, which I will write about shortly.
HIIT Provides the Following Benefits
Burn more calories than endurance cardio
Burn more fat than endurance cardio
Increase power
Increase speed
Increase muscle density
Improve anaerobic endurance
Improve aerobic endurance
Speed up metabolism for more than a day and a half
Seemingly every month a new workout routine seems to go viral across social media. Recently, the spotlight has been on the 12-3-30 workout. Originally created by Lauren Giraldo, a YouTuber who was dissatisfied with the traditional workout routines commonly found online, this routine aims to be simple, straightforward, and easy to follow. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to decide for yourself if this workout is worth it.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a form of exercise that has become very popular in recent years. It involves short, intense workouts with long recovery periods. This enables you to increase your workout intensity while decreasing the amount of time it takes to get results. During a HIIT workout, you push yourself hard for a short period of time, and then rest while recovering. This is typically a 1:1 or a 2:1 work-to-rest ratio.
Let’s learn a bit more about what HIIT is and how to integrate it into your training.
Many Americans struggle with their health and fitness. Now more than ever, millions of Americans are living a sedentary lifestyle while working from home, and doing all other activities from home. Many have put on extra weight, or developed unhealthy, unsustainable lifestyle habits. While some people may not mind these changes, others may feel as though they are living an unhealthy lifestyle. For some, to live a sedentary lifestyle can feel like wasted potential. When living like this, people often find their sleep schedules disrupted, and their energy levels fluctuate.
Due to the rise of sedentary lifestyles, many people have chosen to take their physical health more seriously through a combination of healthy eating and personal fitness. Doing so, many have started to attend bootcamp classes with reputable instructors to keep them on track. When choosing a bootcamp class, the instructor is one of the most important factors. A great bootcamp instructor can change your life by motivating you, inspiring you, and being a driving force behind the success of your fitness journey.
Every athlete has to be well conditioned to perform well. I don’t care what sport it is or how often you play, but you need to be well-conditioned and in shape either way. In this article, I’m going to go over why you need to condition and how to condition.
Sprinting is the foundation of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and will make your legs big, strong, fast, and powerful. Sprints are great for developing endurance, but also for developing lean muscle mass and speed strength. If you want to develop your writing skills you can visit services like thesishelpers.com, but for sprinting these tips will teach you how to sprint faster.
Ever seen a skinny sprinter? I didn’t think so.
Sure, squats are the almighty kings of the Gym Exercise Kingdom; but sprints are like the kings of the Functional Exercise Kingdom whose jacked-up, super-lean army of massive wheels is constantly trying to overthrow the squat as the #1 top leg exercise.
You think you know how to sprint right, but do you?
Fitness boot camp workouts provide you with an opportunity to build your endurance, strength, and, in many cases, resilience. However, before diving in head-first and signing up for a boot camp experience, you need to know what you are getting into.
These classes help you build your endurance, agility, and strength while ensuring you have the energy and focus on tackling whatever the day sends your way. The question is – are you up to this challenge? Find out by reading the information below.
Update: I found a sweet How to Bench Press video by elite powerlifter Dave Tate today. The video appears about halfway through this post. If you want to bench press for max strength and “think” you have perfect form, you NEED to watch this video. Therefore I am republishing this article today for every Swole Bench Presser’s benefit.
I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.
Generally, I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.
From now on I want to take a more proactive approach to answer Your Health Questions by posting them separately in the blog. This way we can be sure that everyone benefits from the Q & A.
Kyle wrote:
“Hey Steve, OK me and a friend got into an argument about how to bench. I said you should touch your chest and he said you shouldn’t because it can injure your shoulder you should stop like 1 inch away from your chest? What is the right way to bench?”
Response:
So, you want to know how to bench press properly?
The bench press is the most popular exercise in the gym among men. It is the strongest upper body exercise for most people and has been a social gauge (and wrongly so, in my opinion) of male strength and fitness for more than a century. Fortunately, bench presses are the #1 best exercise for building upper body strength and size, and so should be included in nearly all strength training routines.
On the downside, benching is responsible for many weight lifting injuries, especially in the shoulder area. Hopefully, this post will educate you as to how you should be bench pressing to avoid injury.
How to Bench Press
A concept of a bench press is simple:
Start by laying down on a bench. Place your hands on the barbell with your palms facing away from you (this is a pronated grip). Unrack the barbell and hold it straight up over your upper chest. Bend at the elbows to lower the barbell until it touches your mid-chest. Press it back up over your upper chest. That’s a rep.
In reality, using proper form on the bench press can be difficult to master, as you will see when you read this post in its entirety.
Many of us have packed on more weight than we would ideally like, and this is a problem in so many different ways. If you have come down a path that you do not like, and where the ending may be downright frightening, the call to change may be loud and clear.
Luckily, there are some amazing resources that can help you begin to live the life that you have always wanted to live.
The Pain of Today
Do you feel like your life is not going the way you want it to go because of your physique? It is said that two out of every three American adults are overweight or obese, with a third of American adults being in the latter camp. You may very well have a body shape that does not feel comfortable, does not feel like who you really are, and even that causes you physical pain.(more…)
When it comes to cardio, there’s one thing no one can deny: cardio is the ideal stress relief after a hard day of work and stress. Whether you prefer riding the stationary bike or running on the treadmill, cardio can make all your worries go away, at least for some time.
Cardio is also great for your heart, which is how it got its name in the first place. But the reason people most frequently turn to cardio is to burn those pesky calories and excess weight. And while most of the benefits of cardio exercise cannot be denied, there are a lot of myths and false truths that if you believe too blindly might lead to disappointment in the end.
The thing is, there are a variety of different classes and exercises you can enroll in at your local gym, and the best one is usually the one that makes you feel most comfortable. That said, even if you enjoy doing cardio the most, you need to know the truth about these 5 persistent myths if nothing just to adjust your expectations accordingly. (more…)
I started taking pre workout supplements for women after a job change. The only time I could make it to the gym was 5:30am. I’m not a morning person! It was hard to find energy to work out to my full capacity.
For real gains, you’ve got to train hard! Pre workouts helped me do that.
Despite how popular they are, not every woman should take pre supplements. And if you do decide to give yourself that extra boost, you need to make sure you are taking it correctly. To get the best results, make sure you know these 5 facts about pre workouts for women first.
Running can help achieve that fit body you’re aiming for. Today, we will explain to you how running can be good in the battle for weight loss!
Many people strive to have a body that will impress. However, the path going there isn’t a simple battle. Many challenges will hinder you from making progress. The first thing that you should ask yourself is, are you up to the challenge?
Although running sounds like a simple exercise, its benefits will amaze you. Running has many advantages including better health, uplifted emotions, weight loss, and improved focus. (more…)
Yesterday I went for a serious bike ride and it was good. I jumped on my mountain bike with my buddy Kevin and we hit the trails. After all, bike riding is a great cardio and I am in constant need of exercise. Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the best mountain bike in the world – it’s a $200 Walmart special – but it works for me!
The Great Ride
Now, I am not a hardcore mountain biker by any means. In fact, I haven’t been riding at all lately and quite frankly I am out of shape when it comes to my bike. One might say I’m a novice bike rider but sometimes I just like to get out there and act like a warrior.
I sort of knew what I was in store for but refused to admit it, gazing at my bike with a somewhat incredulous stare. The bike held my stare, as it so often does, with its cold, hard, metallic callousness.
