BW Barbell

Information on health and fitness

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What should I eat to be healthy?

The thorn in everybody’s side when they start to get healthy is their diet. If you ask people to plan their day filled with food from their favorite restauran

Do you need help understanding how to eat to reach your goal. Here’s some information that I think will help.

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This classic strongman movement will get you superhuman strength.

There's nothing that says "strongman" more than lifting something over your head. Tune into ESPN and watch the World's Strongest Man and you'll see an over

There's nothing that says "strongman" more than lifting something over your head. Tune into ESPN and watch the World's Strongest Man and you'll see an overhead event for sure. And I would bet a steak dinner that that is the event the separates the men from the boys. This move is a lot harder than it looks, but the return (aka gains) are well worth it. With all the variations of this exercise, it can (and should) fit into everyone's workout routine. And of done correctly, you'll wonder if you were run over by a semi truck after a good pressing workout. In this article I'll break down the movement's form, its variations and what muscles get worked as a result. I'll also have a short video showing you how it all comes together. The following is a list of the most popular variations of the overhead press. They all have slight variations and as a result put the emphasis on different muscles:

Standing Military Press

Seated Military Press

DB Military Press

Arnold Press

Real Military Press (seated or standing)

Each of the movements above put a slightly different emphasis on the muscles you use for the exercise. Regardless of the movement you choose, these are the muscles that are used to complete the movement.

Delts

Triceps

Upper chest

Traps

Abs

Rhomboids

Each movement starts with the weight in the rack position. Keep your chest high and abs tight. The bar (if used) is in the palms of your hands and if flexibility allows, its sitting on your anterior delts. Squeeze the bar tight and tuck your chin. Push the bar up past your chin and complete the movement overhead. Lock out your triceps and push your head through. To complete the movement, Tuck your chin and return the bar (under control) to the rack position. A full range of motion is important (as it is for all exercises). You really don't need any special equipment to do the exercise. But once you good at it and start moving a considerable amount of weight, You might need these items to keep you safe and confident (which is very important in the gym):

Belt

Wrist Wraps

Elbow Sleeves

Start your workout with a 5x5 rep scheme (working sets) if you want to work on strength or 5X10 if you are focused on hypertrophy. You can have one workout focus on the press and another focused on bench press and use the press as a supplemental movement. This way you can use 2 different variations and rep schemes in the same week. Hitting your delts from different angles and different rep schemes makes for a better developed muscle. Here's a video showing some examples of different pressing movements:  

https://youtu.be/yh8QXtHQgSQ

There is no question that this movement should be in your workout. With all the variations, it can fit into anyone's program. As long as you keep good form, you should have no issues moving some serious weight and getting huge!! Happy lifting.

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CTE T-Shirt Giveaway

Never forget what's in your next meal.

Click the link to sign up for my free T-shirt giveaway. One winner will be chosen at random. Share this post with others! Thanks!!

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I've been out of the gym for a while. I got whatever was going around. I just wanted to get back into the swing of things with this workout. www.bwbarbell.com Sign up for updates on my new ebook and get a free pdf: "The top 10 reasons you should start going to the gym." http://eepurl.com/c3IL2T

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Check out the new video. #blog #vlog #youtube https://youtu.be/HKEquJ7sTsI

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Listen to Lady dies from protein overdose? by Andres Paniagua #np on #SoundCloud

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Doing research for something I'm working on. #questionoftheday #SelfImprovement

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I did it!

Today I made a big step toward accomplishing a big goal. I finally purchased my own coffee roaster. It's a 3kg North coffee roaster from Mill City Roasters. We have been planning this for about 9 months and we finally pulled the trigger. We are expecting delivery around the middle of August 2017. Once we get it, our business will be in full swing. We'll be able to make samples to hand out to prospective customers and roast our own coffee for online coffee sales. This totally makes this whole thing real. For the past 9 months, we've been planning a business that had nothing behind it. I really had nothing to motivate me. It wasn't real to me. Now it is. There's a great scene in The Hunt for Red October where captain Ramius says: "When he reached the New World, Cortez burned his ships. As a result his men were well motivated." That's what I just did. Over the past year my wife and I have changed the way we view our life together. We no longer want our success and happiness tied to anyone or anything else. We've come to the conclusion that our jobs aren't the reason we have all we do. WE are the reason. Don't sell yourself short. Most of the time people are afraid to follow their dreams because they're afraid to lose all the have. Or they don't think they have what it takes to accomplish them. Neither of these us true. We are all programmed to survive. You will not starve. When you find your passion and make a plan, once you burn your ships you'll have all the motivation you'll need. All the skills you thought you didn't have will rise to the occasion. All the stuff you thought you'd lose won't mean as much. And if you do end up losing them, you'll be able to get them back. So follow your passion and believe in yourself...who knows, maybe we'll move to Montana and raise rabbits.

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Treat The Illness, Not The Symptoms

Today at work I helped my coworker change a gas bottle. We've done it before many times. We knew we could potentially have an issue beca...

Check out my new blog post.

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Make Another Pot of Coffee

I was in the coffee room (they call it a kitchen but all we make is coffee in there) at work and two people were in there talking. One had a full mug of coffee and the other was looking around for something. They were both standing in the way of the coffee pots so I had to wait a little to get my cup of coffee. They finally left and there was enough coffee in the TWO carafes for one cup of coffee (barely). So i filled my cup with every shingle drop of coffee and made a fresh pot.

It's actions (or in this case, inactions) like these that remind me how inconsiderate we're become as a society. It took me 2 minutes to make another pot of coffee for the next person that wanted a cup. I doubt that these two people are so busy that they can't spare 2 minutes to help someone else.

Now I'm not perfect by any means. I'm working on improving how much and what I give back. I volunteer my time at church and we give to a few organizations. Acts of kindness of this sort take a lot more effort that making a pot of coffee. This isn't an attempt at tooting my own horn, I just want to emphasize how little effort is needed to help someone.

So next time you see an opportunity to make someones day, do it! It'' give you something to talk about while you're waiting around in the coffee room.

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Our Friend the Crow

On Saturday afternoon I noticed a crow sitting on the hood of my wife's car. This was totally weird because they usually stick to sitting in the trees around our house. I opened to front door and as usual, my one year old raced to the door to go out with me. We kept getting closer and closer to the bird but it wouldn't fly away. I noticed that it didn't look right. Its feathers weren't shiny and it looked skinny. We made it all the way yo the car and it finally hopped off and landed in the mulch. The baby didn't want to explore any more so we headed back inside. All the rest of the family came out to take a look and after a while it flew away as best it could.

Later on that evening, my wife went out to water her roses. I was sitting in the living room trying to stay awake. All of a sudden she raced inside with her "I saw a bug" face. The crow was back and landed next to the garden spigot. She thought is was dead. I grabbed my work gloved and headed out to dispose of the body. When I got closer I saw it move its head. It was getting dark and I could barely make out that it was blinking. By this time is was soaking wet but was too weak to move. We decided to leave it alone and let it hide in the bushes (we have cats, raccoons and possums in the neighborhood). As is usual, everyone wanted to save it but nobody wanted to take care of it.

Morning came and I got up to head to church. I noticed the bird at the end of our drive way. I shooed it away so I could back out. It had survived the night and was drinking the water that had collected in the gutter. When I came back from church, it was still around. My wife had a container of meal worms (don't know why) so we decided to give it some. When I got too close, the other crows that had been looking over it got mad. One buzzed me and another tried to poop on me. I out the worms in the street and backed away.

When we went on our evening walk, the crow was still around. It didn't touch the worms so I spread them out more. The other crows were still around taking care of it. This morning when I got up he had a friend hanging out with him/her.

It's amazing how animals can show compassion. We sometimes think that we are the only species that can. It's also amazing how some people think that animals have no feelings at all. Hopefully the little guy makes it. Him and his friends showed me a lot this past weekend. Helping other is something that I have to work on. Thanks Heckle...or Jeckle. I could never tell them apart.

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Getting ready for some burgers. #moderntimesbeer #belgianstylebeer #beer

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I used to think that I could learn anything on YouTube. I was wrong. Some things are better left to the professionals.

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Everyone needs a pick me up before an early morning workout. What do you use? #preworkout #cafetresestrellas #coffee

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Buy Me A One Way Ticket

We've been slowly fixing up our house. We recently got it painted and now we're getting a roof. I "jokingly" mentioned to my wife that we should sell it now and move away. A few neighbors have asked if we're fixing it up to move. Maybe we should???

I've lived in the same city since I was born. I used to think that it was cool. Not so much any more. Especially now that we want to start a business. California is not the place to do that.

Unfortunately, my wife and kids love it where we are. Don't get me wrong, California is great. We live in a nice area. Weather is cool and it's very quiet. The kids have all their activities planned out and my wife loves her house.

It's hard for them to see the big picture right now. Maybe I just have to get a U-haul and show up in front of the house one day....

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You Can Never Be Too Careful

On my way home yesterday I got a call from my wife. She said the my 9 year old daughter had an accident. She caught her foot on her swim bag when she got out of the car. She was OK but had a bad scrape on her knee and a pretty good shiner. No swim practice, so I headed home.

When I got home, Katherine was on the couch with a cold soda can on her eye. I asked her if she remembers what happened and she said yes and that she didn't lose consciousness. I huddled the troops together and told them again how important it was to be careful. I told them that accidents can happen when you least expect them and that being in a hurry only makes them more likely to happen. I reiterated the rule we recently made about getting out of the car before an adult. Katherine has a habit of jumping out of the car as soon as it stops.

I understand that they're kids and that this won't be the last time we have this conversation. None the less, as a parent my number one job is to make sure they are OK and don't hurt themselves. I'm a pretty careful guy. I always make sure I'm aware of my surroundings and what's going on so that I don't get hurt. I might have jinxed myself my saying that. I understand that if I get hurt, I won't be able to take care of my family.

I don't remember what that changed. When did I go from a care free to a careful person? I see people who jump out of planes and bungee jump and think "do they have anyone to take care of at home?" Maybe I'm too cautious? Either way, my job right now is to  make sure my kids don't jump out of planes. It's a lot harder than you think.

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Rowing after back day = cramp city. #concept2 #backday #rowing