Hit “pause” on your diet: Reap the benefits!

Are your efforts to losing fat going to shits?

Has your body stopped responding regardless of you counting every gram of food and training hard?

Perhaps you need a break from die-ting. People take breaks when they feel overworked right? Why not do the same for your diet?

Let’s talk about what dieting does to your body physiologically.

Dieting places hefty stress on the body. When we restrict food to stay in a caloric deficit, your body experiences a phenomenon called the Famine Reaction. This is a predetermined consequence as you get leaner. Your body works incredibly hard to keep you alive, fighting off infection and allowing its systems to protect you from harm and not die basically. As soon as it is not getting the nutrients and calories, it goes into survival mode which induces a stress reaction. In addition to that, your metabolic rate slows down considerably in an attempt to conserve that energy for “survival” reasons. Now, in order to cope with this stress, stress hormones naturally get released to cope with the shortage of food; more specifically cortisol. Cortisol = bad for weight loss. Increased cortisol over a long period of time = bad for life and body.

Dieting has just as much as a heavy toll on the mental aspect as well as the physical aspect. There have been studies demonstrating the negative emotional consequences of dieting which include depression, irritability and anxiety. Any type of deprivation induces negative emotions, plus you are always hungry. Like, painfully hungry. What adds to the stress is having to track your foods, prepping your food, exercising, and also dealing with external stressors such as work, family, finances, and life in general really!

Some of the main benefits of incorportating breaks include enhancing your weight loss efforts as well as maintaining all that lean muscle you worked hard for. In addition to that, taking a diet break facilitates in normalizing hormone levels again and heightens your metabolic rate so that when you resume your diet, your body starts losing fat again. Think of it as a reboot for your system and of course, your MIND! Your personality would reflect less than that of Satan’s, you would have fewer cravings and your energy levels would increase again allowing you to function as a human being and of course train hard again.

I would say it is a fantastic way to ensure sustained weight loss efforts and would also help break through that weight loss plateau. Now there is science to prove it thanks to Doctor Layne Norton. He has recently come out with some groundbeaking science to prove this theory, which is great news!

You can view the study here.
Click here to view the video!

Taking a diet break may leave you wondering if you will gain all this weight you worked so hard to lose. Remember, you only put on fat when you start eating in a caloric surplus so when you raise your calories to maintenance levels, you won’t actually put on fat. This type of dieting style may take weight loss efforts longer however it will make your caloric deficit more “effective” and cortisol levels decrease when you increase calories again.

Is there a right way to do it? Well, not really. There are no studies out there stating what the best protocol is thus trial and error is required. You can experiment with 3 weeks of dieting and 2 off, or 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, or 2 weeks on 1 week off… depends on you. I reckon you must take more diet breaks the leaner you become.  I would loosely track macros during this phase, but no need to be super strict to also take that stress off of counting every gram of food you eat.

Layne and Holly do make an excellent point when increasing calories to maintenance. Your maintenance calories wouldn’t be the same since you are leaner now thanks to metabolic adaptation. Since you are already “lean”, you wouldn’t require that many calories as you would before you started dieting. When you do raise your calories slightly again, you will probably notice a slight raise on the scale due to increase muscle glycogen levels causing you to retain a bit of water, so don’t freak out!

Although incorporating dieting breaks makes sense from a scientific point of view, this could also go horribly, horribly wrong. Do not think of this as a 1-2 week cheat/binge week or else you WILL get fat.

To conclude, incorporating dieting breaks has proven benefits and can assist in keeping your sanity and providing a metabolic boost for long term weight loss success. If you have tried this, share your thoughts and experiences!

Kettlebell Swings: Understanding it and some form tips

Kettlebell swings are one of those exercises that I hold dear to my heart. Not only are they the ultimate fat scorcher but they also help improve power, increase heart rate, increase strength, improve posture, shape your glutes, and can help score a big deadlift. There are many other benefits of course, from a physiological point of view, which is why I love them so much.

The problem is however, even though the benefits are incredible, is that the Kettlebell swing most often gets butchered in terms of technique, which can lead to injury. In addition to that, you won’t reap the benefits if you perform the swings incorrectly.

Learning the movement

The first step to learning how to swing is understanding the movement pattern in it. The fundamental movement used in the Kettlebell swing is called the hip hinge. The hinge movement is hip dominant which requires of you to lean forward pushing your glutes out while keeping shins vertical. Sounds simple right? The problem is, people bend at the hips AND at the knees, which results in a squat. With hinging, you are pushing your glutes out and keeping knees only ever slightly bent. The more you push your glutes out, the more you eccentrically load your hamstrings, which will result in a much more powerful swing. Master the hip hinge, and you will be well on your way to mastering the kettlebell swing.

To get familiar with the movement pattern, practice this in front of a wall. Find a wall and face a away from it, keeping your knees straight but slightly bent, bend at the hips and push your glutes until it touches the wall. Check below!

It’s all about power

The other important factor to know is that it is an explosive exercise, it is not a slow, and controlled movement.

All your power must be generated from your hips and glutes, NOT your arms. The more power generated, the higher the kettlebell will swing, so don’t force the kettlebell up or else you will feel it in your shoulders, which defeats the whole purpose. Often times, I see people going into a squat and then bringing up the kettlebell to shoulder height, then controlling the backswing (downwards movement) back down which is incorrect. Once you have swung the kettlebell up to its maximal height, it will float, so ALLOW it to fall, let gravity do its thing.

Take note! Some more form tips:

1. Keep a neutral stance (feet shouldn’t be spaced too far apart). Your feet should be completely planted onto the ground. 
2. Brace your back throughout the movement, and your neck aligned with your spine, even when the kettlebell is falling back down on the eccentric part.
3. Remain a firm grip on the kettlebell, but not too loose though! Make sure your arms are relaxed too.
4. Pull back your shoulders throughout the movement, the kettlebell will want to pull your forward.
5. Breathe in as the kettlebell falls back between your legs and breathe out when contracting your glutes to swing the kettlebell
6. Keep chest out and brace your core
7. Remember to drive with your heels and “snap” upwards, squeezing your glutes as hard as you can!

Happy swinging!

 

Holiday Eating: What I realized..

Let’s be honest, who diets on holiday? I don’t. In fact nobody should. It is a time to stray away from routine and enjoy precious moments with your family and friends.

The internet conveniently informs us the various ways of avoiding holiday weight gain, what foods you avoid when on holiday, blah blah blah OH MY GOD SHUT UP! The whole POINT of going on holiday IS to let go of your stresses, and stressing about food is well, stressful.

Have you ever tried just eating whatever the fuck you want but eating what truly satisfies you and listening to your body’s needs (this applies to healthy AND junk foods). In other words, eating mindful? So listening to your physical hunger cues, feeding into what your body is wanting on that particular day and NOT constantly obsess about food. I went away on holiday with people who ate intuitively, yep. The concept of meal prep and eating clean all the time was foreign. They ate when they were hungry, ate slowly, enjoyed their foods, and stopped when they were full. I would sit there and ask myself, “why do I find this difficult to do?”. Anyways those are my demons that I am still dealing with but the idea was to throw everything I knew about dieting. The idea scared me at first and wouldn’t know what to do with myself, no prepping meals? No tracking? I was shooketh.

Reflecting on it now made me realize that it was actually refreshing being around people who ate like that. It was refreshing being around people who didn’t give a shit about eating meal 2 at 10:15 am. I tend to overthink EVERYTHING and because I wasn’t able to control how many calories I was eating, sent me over the edge of uneasiness. As I would load my plate, my mind raced so quickly, trying to figure out how many grams of carbs/fats proteins this particular meal could possibly be, breaking it down, what the calories would be like, and how much I had gone over.  At one point, I closed my eyes and I just had to shut that voice up. Shut up. Now. What the fuck is with this obsession even on holiday? I hate it.

Taking a break from the dieting abortion has made me realize a lot of things about my current eating habits, they SUCK. Yes I love food there is no denying that but when does it start becoming an unhealthy obsession? In fact, my eating habits worsen every time I put myself through a strict diet eating phase. I have definitely fallen victim to emotional eating and have so many triggers that can lead to a binge. When I start, I don’t stop.

It has made me wonder as well….have we officially lost ourselves in a world where we are completely devoid of our internal cues? We can MAKE that choice of stopping when we truly know we are full, but why do we ignore it? Why do I ignore it? I know that some of you can connect with this, especially those who go through restrictive eating phases to prep for shoots/shows, or those who have just constantly dieted over the years. Whatever the contributing factors are, it is a certain behavioral pattern that is far more complex than we can ever imagine and will take a long time to change.

My challenge from me to you AND to myself, is to start listening to your body and appreciating your body’s biological wisdom. For example, eating slowly and appreciating your food, listening to your internal cues as opposed to visual cue (for example eating chips in front of you just because they are there), sitting down to eat as opposed to eating on the run, and being kind to yourself.

Let us take a mindful approach to eating, as opposed to a mindless approach.

Here is to better relationships with food, strong connections with yourself and never depriving yourself.

 

No Bake Protein-licious Bars

These DIY bars will help you save money and are healthier alternatives to the commercial bars you find at the store. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy them but it just seems so much more rewarding when you make them yourself. You can make a ton of these at the same time and store them in the freezer!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• ¾ cup oats
• 2 and 1/2 scoops protein powder
• 1 tablespoon of water (to loosen the texture, it goes a long way so don’t add more)
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon of coconut oil

Instructions

1. Melt the peanut butter, cinnamon and honey in a small saucepan over low heat first.
2. Take off the heat, and add in your oats and protein powder. Stir until all is blended, the mixture is going to be very thick so add in that water if need be.
3. Take your mixture and press it down on a glass dish in a square shape.
4. Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil over very low heat in the microwave. Melt for 30 seconds, give it a mix, then melt again for another 30 seconds.
5. Spread the chocolate mix all over the protein bar mixture.
6. Chuck the tray into freezer for about an hour until it sets.
7. Cut into pieces aaaaand voila!

They are a bit rustic looking.. okay they are messy AF. But they have character!

Haha! I hope you guys enjoy!

Pre-exhaustion technique – Is it worth it?

I often find myself thinking about the different types of techniques one implements as an Advanced Trainer. With supersets, tri-sets, giant sets, and a whole others provide tools that you can implement in your current workout regime. The one that I was most fascinated about was the pre-exhaustion method. The pre-exhaustion method is a common method often used by advanced trainers in order to increase training stimuli as well as intensity. It is a rather old-school way of training which the likes of bodybuilders still implement till this day.

Basically this method consists of performing a single jointed exercise followed immediately by a compound movement. For example, let’s say you are training legs today. You would possibly use this technique in a quad dominant set like this:

12 repetitions of leg extensions followed by 12 repetitions doing lunges or squats. You would perform 3 sets of this with 1-2 minutes of rest between sets. Your quadriceps muscle in this case would have already been tired from the leg extensions and are now overloaded again working them till complete failure.

The preconceived idea behind this method is that it would lead to muscle failure which is essential for tearing down the muscle fibres completely. Muscle failure occurs during the lifting phase of a repetition when the muscles can’t produce sufficient force to continue to move the weight upward. By reaching muscular failure, you optimize your chances of tearing the muscles fibers down completely which awakens growth hence leading to bigger, stronger muscles. Makes sense right? A study, however, from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that have proven otherwise that it shows no increased effect on muscle activity when performing quad dominant exercises or exercises involving the pec muscle. It pretty much told us that it isn’t any more effective than any other training technique. Now looking back at what I defined muscle failure as, when muscles aren’t able to produce enough force, usually the muscle activity and level of contractions decrease. Performing compound movements usually produce the most force since more muscles are involved. Wouldn’t it make sense to use the muscle at its full capacity rather than “half assed” especially in a compound movement? I wasn’t that surprised when I found out. Compound movements also tend to be more complex putting you at risk of injury, and so fatiguing the muscle before performing that would put you at an even bigger risk.

So is there a place for pre-exhaustion? Maybe. I personally would use it to increase the QUALITY of the session in a short period of time. But for hopes of building muscle? Not so much. Progressive overload which increases demands and adaptations on your muscular system is key to making muscle gains as well as strength gains!

 

 

 

My Cheeky Protein Cheesecake

Over the years I have grown super fond of cheesecake. What is not there to love about it? It’s creamy, pleasing, rich, and delectable…. all of the factors that make for a yummy dessert. It actually makes my soul do a little dance. The best part about it is, it is so easy to make. Ok I was a bit nervous about this one because I hadn’t baked in a while..it looks a tad messy but this tasted reaaaaaaally good

I only had chocolate whey, so I turned the whole thing into a chocolate cheesecake. Now even though it is supposed to be a “healthy” cheesecake, I decided to put a naughty twist to it. I’ve noticed that the oreo cookie base is trending, and the thought of using that as a base seduced me. Yes.

I must admit, the original recipe didn’t have a crust and I was like, WHYYYYYYYY. Listen, honey, if you are going to cheat, let’s cheat in style then. The protein powder is obviously there for a protein kick.

Go on, get them cheat gainz.

• 340 grams Fat Free Cream Cheese (make sure it is at room temperature before using)
• 280 grams Plain Greek Yogurt
• 2 Whole Eggs
• 1-2 Tbsp Stevia (liquid)
• ¼ Cup Milk
• 2 Scoops Whey Protein (I used SSN Whey protein chocolate)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• Oreo cookies crushed (24)
• Butter (1/4 cup, melted)
• Dash Salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius.
2. Finely crush the Oreo cookies by placing in a bag and bashing the shit out of it.
3. Mix in the butter.
4. Press onto the pan.
5. Soften cream cheese in a large mixing bowl by pressing down with a spoon.
6. Add eggs and stevia and mix using an electric mixer.
7. Add the rest of the ingredients and continue mixing for 2-3min (becareful not to overmix).
8. Pour in baking pan lined with parchment paper for best results.
9. Bake in the oven for 25 min then turn down the oven to 140° and continue baking for 45  minutes. When you take it out the oven, it has to have a slight wobble in the center.
10. Let cool in fridge for a couple of hours.
11. Cut a piece and drizzle with chocolate sauce if you want.
12. Eat.
13. Orgasm.

Weight loss Journey – Your quick guide

Anyone who has lost a tremendous amount of weight and managed to keep it off will probably tell you that it wasn’t an overnight success. It could have taken months, and even years to reach that specific goal.

But I really feel that weight loss isn’t about the number…it is about your behavior. Your behavior changes will dictate the choices that you make on a daily basis that will either make you crash or will allow you to take that one step closer to your goals. I have put together a guide and a few tips on what to expect:

• First thing you want to ask yourself..are you ready to deal with the setbacks? Because guess what? Life happens. Shit happens. This isn’t a negative connotation at all, but more of a realistic point of view based on my experience and observations. When you are setting your goals in the first place, perhaps explore some of the possible setbacks or obstacles you may encounter and write down how you would want to deal with it. And how will you get back on track to taking the necessary actions that will lead you one step closer to your goals.

• Weight loss is never linear. Your weight may fluctuate here and there (which will make you despondent if you have a bad habit of weighing yourself everyday), and your weight will plateau. Will you feel defeated? Yes. So when this happens you need to change one variable; either your training or your diet and you need to pick yourself up again and push through it. As you start getting leaner, your body fat will be harder to come off hence progress will be slow because your body wouldn’t require that much energy anymore to maintain bodily functioning.

• Quit the scale – Weighing yourself every single waking of the day is a horrible idea. You become addicted to it and you allow it to define you. NO! Stop it! This will make your journey a miserable one. Your body weight will naturally fluctuate up and down, plus if you are dieting, the scale doesn’t tell you if you if you have lost fat or water. The moral of the story is that the scale doesn’t give any indication of your body mass and how much body fat you are holding as well, so rather turn to alternative ways of measuring your body composition as opposed to just your weight.

• Accept the fact that you need to put in the work. Whether you want to increase your strength, put on muscle, lose fat; it is going to be hard work. Did anyone say it was going to be easy? I will certainly tell you, it’s not. You are going to sweat, gasp for air, puke, perhaps shit yourself, and your muscles are going to hurt, but the results are well worth it. Your body will never adapt if you stay within your comfort zone; step out of it and push yourself! There are also going to be days where you are going to feel really lazy, you’re going to feel tired, you don’t feel like prepping your meals, and you are tempted on skipping your workout. There are going to be days when you feel like you should be losing more weight but you aren’t, and the little voices in your head are going to constantly bombard you with doubt and frustration. Ignore those stupid voices.

• Human beings stress; it’s completely normal and can benefit you in some ways because it helps increase focus, make you more productive, and boost your brain power. However when stress turns ugly, it can hurt your weight loss efforts so it is vital to learn how to control your stress levels! Bad stress makes you fat as it can cause hormonal imbalances and raise cortisol levels. It also increases the rate at which you store fat. WOOOOSAAAAAAAAAAAH.

• SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP! I cannot stress this enough! Sleep deprivation stimulates ghrelin levels and decreases leptin levels, which increases hunger and stimulates your appetite. So when you go around looking for food, you are more than likely to grab the most convenient thing and eat it which will most likely be high in calories. Getting enough sleep also increases secretion of growth hormone which can assist you with your weight loss goals. Growth hormone is vital in terms of rebuilding all cells and tissues including your muscles. It also releases free fatty acids which equates to fat loss. The last point I would like to make is that getting less than 6 hours of sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity and impair carbohydrate tolerance which isn’t ideal in terms of fat loss.

Remember guys, and I will keep telling you this until the day I die, but your weight loss journey should be ENJOYED, embrace the process and BE PATIENT!

Full body blast workout (using ankle weights)

If you have no time to get to the gym, how about grabbing some ankle weights? Using these are probably the most effective ways of “jujing” up any exercise.

You can perform this workout absolutely anywhere!

Perform about 4 sets, 15 repetitions with a 30 second rest interval between sets. Perform the high knees for 1 minute.

Aaaaaand go!

Jump Squats

1. Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
2. Bend at the hips and lower yourself down into a squat position.
3. Extend arms backward to prepare for the jump.
4. Explode upwards extending both legs, using your arms to propel you upwards.
5. Land back down into a squat.

Single Leg Stiff Legged Deadlift

1. Stand with your feet just slightly narrower than shoulder width apart.
2. Keeping your chest out and your back straight, hinge at the hips and keep leg extended behind you while keeping the other knee stationary.
3. Finish your reps on the one side, and then switch to the other side.
   

   

Walking Lunges with Hip Extension

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands on your hips.
2. Keeping an upright position, take one big step forward bending at the front knee, lowering yourself down. Make sure the rear leg doesn’t touch the floor.
3. As you shift the weight onto your forefoot to extend back up again, pick up your rear leg and extend as far up as you can, while squeezing at the top.
4. Perform the same movement on the other side and continue to walk until repetitions have been completed.
   

   

High Knees

1. Jump from one foot to the other, bringing your knee as high up as you can. Perform this for about 1 minute.

Spiderman Push ups

1. Assume the push up position. Your hands should be in line with your shoulders, and spaced shoulder width apart. Legs fully extended.
2. As you bend your elbows and lower yourself down, bring your one knee towards your elbow.
3. Repeat this movement on the other side. That is one rep.
4. Repeat until all repetitions have been completed.

One legged bridge lift

1. Lie on a mat, with both your knees bent and feet planted firmly on the ground.
2. First, lift your glutes off of the floor, making sure your hips are in line with your spine.
3. Extend your one leg upwards, keeping the other leg bent.
4. Holding that position, use the bent leg to return back down on to the ground and lifting it off of the floor again.
5. Repeat this until repetitions are completed and then repeat on the other leg. That is one set.
   

   

Lying Side Crunch

1. Lie on your side with your bottom leg rested at a bent position. Your bottom arm should be extended and positioned slightly away from you. Bend your arm over your head to prepare.
2. Keep the upper leg extended.
3. Lift your torso off of the floor and bend your upper leg, bringing it towards your elbow.
4. Repeat until all repetitions are completed and then switch sides.
   

   

Bicycle Crunches 

1. Lie down on your back and bend both of your knees, lifting them off of the floor.
2. Interlace your fingers behind your head (not pulling on it), and lift your shoulder blades off of the floor.
3. Extend your right leg and bring your right elbow towards the opposite leg.
4. Switch legs, bringing your left elbow towards the opposite leg. That is one rep.
5. Repeat this movement until all repetitions have been completed.

Crunch to Leg Lift

1. Lie on your mat with your right arm extended behind you. Rest your other arm on the mat.
2. Contract your abs and lift your torso up the ground, making sure your right arm touches the opposite leg (or foot, if you can).
3. Finish your repetitions on the one side and then switch to the other side.

Powerlifting – My journey thus far.

It’s funny when I think about this because I never had dream or aspirations to get into powerlifting. I loved competing on stage. But I did wonder..how else can I really push my body? What is my potential? I was interested in finding out.

I remember being approached by Henk as I was doing my thing, deadlifting, he would occasionally correct my technique… he offered his guidance, and I accepted. I wanted to try something new, something performance based. Here we go, new goals! Soon I plunged into the life of a Barbell Bully, where we all were trained by the best coach in the business! Henk has pushed me more than anyone ever has before and has believed in me since day 1.

I started training and worked my way to competing in the qualifiers for Gauteng. I missed a few of my lifts but managed to qualify to compete in SA Raw Champs in 2015 in the 72 kg division where I placed 4^th out of a few very strong girls.. girls who have been in the game far longer than I have, but I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride standing with the other girls. At the end of it, I had nothing but the most upmost respect for those girls who placed well and won. And believe me, I am a highly competitive individual and I love to win. But hey, I was just the rookie, I walked into it not expecting a win. I competed in a few other things in between as well, which helped me gain more experience on the platform.

(Picture above and below: my first time competing)

 

The overall experience is incredible; there is so much emotion that consumes you. Let me tell you, walking onto the platform where it is just you and the bar, is the most exhilarating thing you will ever experience. It is like you almost get into this state where everything goes blank, you don’t even hear or see the people who are watching you. The atmosphere itself is buzzing, and it isn’t quiet, oh no. People who don’t even know you scream for you to GET YOUR LIFT! It is so awesome. You rack the weight and you go rest before your next attempt, shaking, but you are so happy you got your lift.

Powerlifting isn’t just a physical sport, but it is mental, which has taught me a lot about myself. Within the sport, I have developed a great sense of character from the successes and failures experienced on this journey. There were days where I had amazing sessions, and there were days where I had shit sessions. So shit that I would get waaaay too emotional and cry in the toilets. But over the past year, I had to accept that it was going to happen, you just have to pick yourself up and move on, and get it the next time. Especially during competition, but emotions are at an all time high you can’t help but get emotional.

In 2 weeks time I will be competing again at the SA Unequipped Powerlifting Championships in Potchefstroom and aiming for bigger numbers. Am I nervous? Of course I am. I am shitting myself. But I sure as hell am excited.. and as the day comes closer, I am fired up. Now THIS, this is the time where focus is so important because the voices start creeping into your head. “Are you really ready?” “Will you get your lfits?” I just aim to block out those voices, compete and just have fun with it. In this sport, I was told you got to stay consistent with your training, even if you make small gains, it is a journey where patience is a must, and you just keep working hard at it. It is a long..long process. But trust it. I know I do.

Let’s do this.

I swear by the Deadlift.

If there is one lift that is “totally me”, it would be the deadlift. So I thought it would make sense to write about how magnificent this exercise it. It may look a little bit intimidating, but once you get accustomed to it, your life will change forever. It might even awaken an animal inside of you.

I’ve always loved doing the deadlift. All it is, is lifting the bar off the floor and putting it back down. Who knew this “basic” movement would hit every single muscle fiber in your body this effectively? And may I add that the type of DOMS you get after an insane deadlift session is unreal? I can’t even describe it.

I’d also like to point out that deadlifts are one of the most effective exercises in completely transforming your physique (ladies, this is for you). I deadlifted often as I had gotten into powerlifting type training, and within 3 months, my strength evidently increased but to my surprise, my body started transforming. My back became wider, and the details on my back became more prominent. And no…I didn’t become a man.

The two biggest myths that are still floating around are the following:

• Deadlifting will make your waist bulky

You are working your entire core when deadlifting, so you are naturally stimulating the muscles supporting your trunk but it won’t make you blocky. Look at how small Arnold’s waist was and he deadlifted over 300 kg. My waist has also remained the same size since then.

• Deadlifts are bad for your back

If your technique sucks, sure. But in general, deadlifts actually prevent injury because it strengthens your posterior chain like crazy and builds your back extensors. Your posterior chain includes all muscles on the back of your body as well your rear delts to an extent. Strengthening your posterior chain is not only beneficial for athletes but for everyday functioning. It also gives your body more stability which can help you more resistant to external forces…so in other words…it protects you.

Here are just some of the other reasons why I love it:

• You burn a ton of calories (Multi jointed exercises also increase heart rate as well, who needs cardio right?)
• Your butt blossoms into something beautiful.
• You get crazy strength gains.
• Your functional training capacity increases (It’s easy lifting heavy boxes, moving furniture etc).
• It helps develop grip strength.
• It helps build overall back thickness.
• If you are having a crap day, and you want to eradicate humans, take it out on the deadlift. You will feel much, much better.
• It will help increase athletic performance, making you stronger and faster.

Make sure that you utilize the deadlift as a first priority in your session as it is an exercise that is heavily demanding on your body. I wouldn’t recommend putting it at the end of the workout as you are fatigued by then and you are more likely to end up using poor technique which will place you at a higher risk of injury.

So what are you waiting for?

Go deadlift!