Leg Strength and Endurance - A Killer Squat Workout Using Plastic Water Bottle Caps!

If you have read any of my previous articles you know that I am a big proponent of utilizing your own body-weight to achieve mind-blowing fitness and conditioning. The key to doing this without the use of equipment is being innovative with how you distribute, move, and manipulate your own body-weight.

I want to describe one way, like above, to optimize your leg-strength and endurance in the convenience of your living room. All you need to do is collect 10 different plastic bottle caps. If you can't do bottle caps then coins, game piece checkers, or just about anything you can easily fit into the palm of your hand will work. Next, all you have to do is make sure that you have a straight uninterrupted stretch of floor space. From here just line up all 10 caps in a straight line with about 8 inches of space between them. From here you will execute a series of squats. Walk up to the first cap and straddle it with your feet shoulder-width distance apart. Now squat and pick up the first cap. Next, walk up to the 2nd cap and squat to put down the 1st cap. Immediately squat again to pick up the first cap followed by another squat to get the 2nd one. Then walk to the 3rd cap and once again put down each of the 2 caps one at a time to turn around and pick all 3 back up one at a time. Continue this pattern all the way to the end of the caps.

You will develop astounding leg-strength and endurance from doing these squats. As you get better don't be afraid to jump to doing 20 or 30 caps!

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

Squats - 2 Types of Squats to Give You Beach-Body Worthy Legs and Glutes!

If you want to be quick on your way to having that "beach-body" you need to participate in trying to master squats. This exercise has many benefits that all contribute to nothing less than obtaining total-body fitness. There are many variations of squats, but this article will give you 2 types that will surely give you the foundation that you are looking for.

1. Rhythm Squats: This exercise is a lower-body blast that will give you tremendous definition in your leg muscles and are also great for conditioning purposes. You can do these either free-standing or with an added load. Begin by standing with your feet about shoulder-width distance like a normal squat position. Next execute 10 normal squats. Immediately after you do the 10 normal squats execute 10 more squats, but this time pop-up onto your toes after the squat. You should execute each squat by starting flat footed as usual only coming up on the balls of the feet at the end of each squat and returning to a flat-footed position. Alternate the normal with the popping-up on the balls of your feet back and forth 10 reps at a time until you do 50 total reps!

2. Rhythm Squats with a Vertical Jump: Just like the ones described above these are even more effective and slightly more advanced. Here you want to start just like I described above. Execute the 10 normal squats immediately doing 10 pop-ups on the balls of the feet, and thirdly complete a squat jump for the final 10 repetitions. Alternate each type of squat every 10 reps until you get to 60 full repetitions! All squat jumps should be done in nonstop succession. This is some seriously big fitness my friends!

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

True Strength - The Second Definition - It Goes Beyond Muscles!

I want to touch on the other definition of strength. I know that I have defined it in terms of the muscles and the importance of tension, but I want to talk about the mental attitude of strength.

Strength is something that goes beyond muscles. I want to say that as a business owner and strength and conditioning specialist that mental attitude is the true powerhouse of your life and your success as it develops both in and out of the weight-room. If I have learned one thing about being successful in anything in life it has everything to do about your attitude. I believe that life is about 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it. I also believe that these reactions to life can be heavily influenced by how proactive you can be with how you pursue it. Life is relatively short and time is always an issue. Whether you are pursuing a fit body or a successful business I believe you have to do it with a high level of planning and efficiency! By doing this you can execute many small goals at a time that eventually get you to the BIG ONE. Just like working-out I believe that you have to have goals and a well-structured plan to get to those goals.

The strength is going to come from you not giving up and aggressively getting back up to continue fighting even if you fall. Don't be soft!

The second definition of strength goes beyond muscles. This is your mental toughness and attitude. React with your goals in mind.

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

Stair Fitness - 2 Insanely Great Exercises to Execute Using Stairs!

In this era of hustle and bustle I find that people are constantly looking for a convenient way to get a quality workout. The time crunch is always a major concern for people when it comes to fitting in time to fine tune the body. I have found that stair training has been a great fat-blasting workout for me to get into tremendous shape in a relatively short period of time. The following 2 exercises are great for everything that I just mentioned.

Stair Exercise 1: (The Stair Lunge) This is the exercise that will blast your glutes and hamstrings more than just about anything that I can think of. You need to make sure that the stairs you are using are relatively high like something you would find in a stadium at a high school or college. If you don't have access to either type of facility then you can look at your local park or if you have stairs of relative height at home you can make it work by simply doing more reps. To start, begin your lunges from the bottom of the stairs. One round or set is counted by going all the way to the top and back down. To lunge you want to step by taking a big enough stride to cover 2 to 3 steps at a time. Lengthen your stride and simply climb.

Stair Exercise 2: (Quick Sprint) This is an intense exercise that is a sure way to blast your legs and get your heart rate up just about as quick as anything. Like the lunge you start at the bottom and sprint to the top by making sure that you hit every single step along the way. The key to this one is to not skip any steps and keep a fast intense pace all the way to the top. This will add to your leg power, conditioning, and give you tremendous quick feet.

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

Athletic Development - A True Misconception About How the Athlete Should Build Strength!

I am here to tell you the truth about off-season strength training and total-body conditioning to maximize your performance for the next upcoming season of your sport. You don't need the fully-stocked weight-room to achieve optimal performance. The following philosophy is a proven fact and translates over ALL boundaries to ALL sports!

So you are thinking "what is he talking about?" Well the truth about building strength is easy, but you have to have a definite logical plan in your approach for your optimal performance development. You see the only way to truly get stronger is to maximize muscular tension. Tension is what builds absolute body strength. This is achieved best by engaging in lifts of 3 dimensional movements. Now when I say lifts I don't necessarily mean weights, I mean lifts that create resistance! You should always try to master different ways of handling a load rather than just handling a different load of weight. For instance, I may be able to deadlift 500 lbs as a football player, but to truly get stronger should I continue to increase the poundage to maybe do 550 lbs? The answer to this is no. Rather than trying to improve the poundage of the DEADLIFT I would better OPTIMIZE my strength by changing to do snatches, cleans, jerks, lifting rocks, sandbags, variation animal walks, and a engaging in an arsenal of plyometric drills.

Now what I have mentioned so far can all be varied by utilizing alternative tools to traditional weights found in a weight-room. To name a few examples: your own body-weight, rocks, sandbags, buckets of water, swinging a sledgehammer, tires, and throwing heavy objects! Creativity is underrated. Any multi-planar movement will stimulate your neuromuscular system to not only adapt to a heavy load, but to adapt to MOVING that heavy load therefore giving you OPTIMAL performance!

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

The Kettlebell - My First Experience With This Tool of Fat Destruction and Muscle Construction

I have about as much of a qualified past as anyone when it comes to me lending my two-cents about anything that pertains to fitness or strength training. I am an ex-athlete and have always been very active in terms of training my body to pass the "eyeball test" ,as well as, being able to perform. I had the fortunate opportunity to serve on the football strength and conditioning staff at UGA under an outstanding program with great overall leadership. No, that is not a dig at other programs outside of UGA, but it is the truth.

With my athletic background I have always considered myself to be fairly fit and strong, but that was all quickly progressed even further when I got introduced to the kettlebell. The first one that I ever purchased was a 20kg (44lbs). I quickly learned how to execute the infamous "swing." I have always been able to execute Olympic style lifts but with the bell I had to continue to use my hips to snap and generate momentum to keep the bell moving. I quickly realized how exhausting this single lift was in my first attempt. From here it was all big progress!

I quickly moved on to the 24kg (53lbs) and further executed more intense lifts like the single-arm overhead snatch. My heart felt like it would beat out of my chest after executing 20-30 reps of these at one time. The conditioning was almost overwhelming and so was my excitement. I got even more fired up when I started doing one-arm push-ups and eventually one-arm one-legged push-ups! Now like athletes my body has a lot to do with my work, but I had not done things like this since I was in high school. Even being a strength specialist I still got impressed with this device quicker than anything else I have ever included in my personal programs.

Just like you it was all new to me at one time. I really wished that I could have had access to this gruesome tool when I was a teenager.

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

The Kettlebell Swing - Giant Cardio With a Single Exercise!

So do you want to know a simple method to train the body in order to gain serious fitness, conditioning, and huge cardiovascular benefit? Notice that I said that the method is simple, not the training!

The swing is one of the most, if not the most basic lift to execute with the kettlebell. This movement is one that you will figure out in a hurry involves about 75-80% of your body and hundreds of muscles! That is a workout my friends. If you don't believe me then do a couple of hundred continuous swings with the bell and you will find out really fast that there are really no areas of the body left untouched from this hard hitting exercise. As a matter of fact, you can really concentrate on tightening up your body for every repetition and you will notice that getting exhausted comes fast. Focus on every repetition by keeping a firm tight grip, tight abs, shoulders retracted, and constant hip drive throughout every swing. You can complete an entire workout around this single lift. You will no doubt be efficient with the time it takes to do the workout. You will also noticeably feel all the areas of impact from this single movement.

So if the idea is to make a time efficient workout with tremendous cardiovascular results then the swing should be your lift of choice. You will achieve a giant cardiovascular effect while optimizing your skeletal muscles for either rock hard fitness, performance, or to be resilient enough for athletic competition of any kind!

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!