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High Performance Hamstrings: The Top Exercise for Knee Strength and EXPLOSIVENESS

Who knows where it all began?

Most people give credit to Russian elite Olympic athletes for discovering the true benefit of this exercise.

By the 1980’s, the famous mind in sports Dr. Yessis brought the exercise to America.

He called it the…

Glute-Ham-Gastroc Raise.

This exercise remains popular among many advanced athletes who require explosive force to out-perform the competition.

Powerlifters claim that the Glute-Ham Raise have helped them achieve dead lifts off the ground over 700+ pounds.

Basketball players to jump higher…

Soccer players to bulletproof their knees against ACL tears…

And the Gym-Rat to develop the strongest most aesthetic lower body of all the men in his town.

Benefits of The Glute-Ham Raise:

1. Lengthens hamstrings WHILE strengthening.

Understand that many people have tight hamstrings. You may be one of them. The benefit of the Glute-Ham Raise is that you can lengthen the muscle while simultaneously strengthening it. As a result, you decrease the chance of injury during sport.

In Sports-Physiology language…

The [Russian] hamstring curl could potentially be an effective exercise to strengthen the contractility of the hamstring both isometrically and isokinetically. Such a strategy may be able to increase the working range of the muscle in relation to its length-tension curve, and prevent fibers from reaching a length where they are susceptible to tearing. Source.

2. It is a Bodyweight exercise

A worthy definition of strength is being able to move your body through space at multiple angles and leverages. Whether or not you will ever be forced to perform a Russian Leg Curl in day-to-day life, your hamstrings will be ready for any sort of lifting or explosiveness.

3. Helps you Jump Farther/Faster

Pure athletic capability. You’ll be able to fly above your competition.

Female Athlete training on a specialized Glute-Ham Machine (most athletic training facilities will have this machine, while commercial gyms will NOT have this machine)

4. You can pick up greater loads off the ground.

The Glute-Ham does a great job as strengthening the hamstrings around the knee area. As hamstrings and glutes are the primary movers in load lifting activity, there should be a direct carryover with regular practice of this exercise.

5. All athletic activities on foot will be improved, along with Joint Health.

Don’t underestimate the power of a well developed pair of hammies.

A pilot study on the Russian/Nordic Leg Curl showed these beneficial results:

There was a significant increase in vertical jump height (pre=51.0±4.8cm, post=54.4±6.3cm, p=0.04), a significant reduction in quadriceps Peak Torque (pre=204.6±21.9 N.m., post=181.5±19.9 N.m., p=0.01), a significant decrease in hamstring Position of Peak Torque (POS) from full knee extension (pre=32.5±7.4°, post=26.2±8.6°, p=0.01) and a significant hamstring POS difference between limbs (dominant=33.8±9.5°, non-dominant=24.9±6.5°, p=0.01). Source.

6. Hamstring development is aesthetically pleasing.

When your pants fit right, even straight dudes take a peak at your posterior chain. And if you’re female… good luck keeping the men away.

Performing the Glute-Ham Raise / Russian Leg Curl in a typical Commercial Gym

It is possible. The mechanics of the exercise will be different depending which method you utilize. However, all forms will benefit the posterior chain — particularly hamstrings and calves.

It’s taken me quite a while to be able to demonstrate this. This style, on a lat pulldown machine, really emphasizes hamstring and calf development — I can literally see the difference from before I trained this way.

How to Even BEGIN Training this Advanced Exercise…

If you are lucky enough to have access to a Glute-Ham-Raise Machine, you can go ahead and start training on it.

However, both the “Natural” way and the “Lat Pulldown” ways are extremely difficult. If you could do one good rep without any prior experience, I would be greatly impressed.

Various Strategies to Assist You:

1. Focus only on doing the eccentric portion of the exercise (WARNING: You will be sore in places you’ve never been sore before)

2. Use a broomstick to help you get up (saw this in a Youtube video).

3. Have a Partner assist you at the bottom of each rep.

4. Use your hands to Push-Off the Floor to gain momentum to complete the rep.

5. Keep trying trying trying.

If its Good Enough for Elite Athletes, its Good Enough for You.

But are you up to the Challenge of the Russian Leg Curl?

Don’t even try… unless you seek to earn the hamstring development of high performance athletes.

Good luck.

Physical Fitness by Dre
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A SALTY Situation: Did the Feds get their Nutrition Facts right?

This we all share,

…the cravings of Salt.

 

Not this Salt, the food kind!

The taste of salt is one of the basic human tastes.

Most omnivores savor salty meat, when is the last time you enjoyed a hamburger?

Salt is required for life.

The salty components:

Sodium and chloride ions regulate fluid balance in the body. It’s a mechanism of equilibrium.

You have to keep balance.

Too much Salt = National Health Risk

Warning: High salt diet may cause serious disease, use at own risk.

It’s a salty situation because we are programmed to enjoy salt — we require it. The problem is that we enjoy salt a little bit… too much. Just as sugar brings its own sweet temptation, salt is equally desirable.

What to do about it?

How much salt in 2,300 milligrams?

About one teaspoon of salt.

This much salt per DAY… not meal!

Message to Nation: We should limit to only one teaspoon of salt.

The big Salty Offenders!

The worst foods are:

  • Pre-packaged foods
  • Fast Food
  • Most cuisine and restaurants
  • Processed foods
  • Canned foods

Danger Zone!

A single serving is all it takes.

Truthism: Seek a Balance

Equilibrium.

Competing forces which approach the state of optimal function.

I won’t tell you what to do, but maybe just to become more cognizant of the ingredients in your food.

So Stay fresh, my friends.

It’s harder than it looks


Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion
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Do you Know the Secret behind Taco Bell’s “Seasoned Beef”?

¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!” (in fake Mexican accent)

Alright I admit, that burrito-like chihuahua was onto something.

I used to Yo Quiero Taco Bell.

I wanted Taco Bell on school days, I wanted Taco Bell with friends, I even wanted Taco Bell at 1AM not even caring about rear ends.

The Taco Bell lawsuit makes us wonder…

What else is in your Meat, Taco Bell!?

The lawsuit claimed that only 33% of Taco Bell’s seasoned Beef was actually beef. However, Taco Bell responded officially with a higher number. In that statement, they listed their ingredients.

Yeah silly, Why Pay More!

The Taco Bell seasoned beef includes:

  • Beef,
  • water,
  • salt,
  • chili pepper, onion powder,  tomato powder,
  • sugar,
  • garlic powder,  cocoa powder,  natural flavor,
  • oats (gluten included),
  • starch,
  • sugar (listed twice in Taco Bell’s official statement),
  • yeast,
  • citric acid, and
  • “other ingredients that contribute to the quality of our product

When taken in excess, the ingredients in bold contribute to significant immune imbalance in the body.

What do Consumers really Expect?

There is a method of tasting, smelling, and feeling the texture of meals that can assess both Micro-nutrient and Macro-nutrient types and ratios.

The first step always involves the senses.

A bright aroma of citrus makes freshness reign supreme.

Part of it involves knowing what you don’t know.

I say with confidence that American consumers are eaters of the blind persuasion. And I’m not to spare — I have shared my own moments of indulgence.

But I stay true to the real themes of life…

Nutrients, that is what Gives Life

The energy and depth to which we can excel in life is made possible by interacting with essence of whole foods and natural nutrition.

don’t tell anyone I paid $20 per pound on local grass fed beef.

Let me simplify;

  • Whole foods are that which Energize, Heal, and Strengthen. (everything)

You can’t beat nature. If you try, it will push back.

This is your colon on Taco Bell seasoned beef

Poor nutrition (fighting nature) pushes back in the form of disease, obesity, cancer and worse.

What is the real Secret of Health and Wellness?

My friend, you are.

You have the power. If we could mind-meld like Spock in the universe of discovery, you would feel my knowledge. But in the real world, you must seek it first.

This is the modern- day Mind Meld

Thats why you are the secret to Wellness.

If you dedicate 90% to natural whole foods, you will FEEL the power.

It could be in your hands…

Theres the power, but where’s your priorities?

Good luck on the journey, I already see you busting through barriers for which that which you must surpass.

If you learned one lesson today, it should be: Season your own dang Beef!

Best to all, and stay tuned for more.

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion
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A TRUE Voice in Health and Fitness?

Pay to get fat.

Being compelled by desire may be universal, but not everyone gets fat from it.

 

Here’s another way of looking at it.

Dollar Temptation.

Is it chocolate or maybe the buzz from a Fat Burger?

Images of food lust, which penetrate naked eyes, are broad-casted “To infinity … and beyond!”

 

Temptation.

Have you felt it?

Truth is value, it is beyond the way in which money circulates.

You are what you spend?

I purchased $9 of fresh juice today.

Today, I am Beet juice. I am Broccoli. And dammit, I am Kale.

I revel in this nutrient-rich elixir of potency.

Nutrientology, baby.

Nutrients empower to strengthen:

  • consume,
  • circulate,
  • integrate.

Make health a part of you.

Get passionate over nutrients. It’s the circulation that counts.

Money will always be in circulation, but only the heart can truly make a person happy.

Someone once said, nutrients is power.

Power, for me, is the personal will to accept ownership in any situation.

To get fit, you have to seek a little more power than before.

Nutrients allow the body to hear its true inner voice.

If your true voice is nutrient minded, your body will have no choice but to burn fat!

Consider your true values when money impacts results, and how you can realize greatness from those results.

Then keep up the good life, friend.

Nutrition, Immunity, and Digestion Power of the Mind
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Health.com author Reveals the 51 Fastest Fat burners

Does Knowledge Burn Fat?

Like any other tool, it’s how you use it.

A recent article drew my attention, claiming to be sharing 51 Fast Fat Burning Tips.

Here’s some samples:

2. Crank it up early. Working out harder during the first half of your workout and taking it easier during the second burns up to 23 percent more fat than doing the opposite, according to a study from The College of New Jersey.

So focus on the Big Basic exercises (like a squat or pull up) with the most intensity.

This guy knows how to crank it up early

The goal is to improve in the Basic exercises. Focus harder on the early lifts, because you will burn more fat later on.

5 to 7. Lift dumbbells … slowly. More muscle equals mega metabolism boost. Strength training can help you trim major fat, research reveals — and doing super-slow (versus normal speed) reps increases strength by 50 percent.

People with muscle burn more fat on a day to day basis. Lifting slowly helps during a portion of the exercise.

I only do the eccentric portion of the exercise at a slow pace. It helps to gain muscle.

But, for the true strength gains speed is a requirement. A high intensity, an exercise can activate TONS of High Threshold Motor Units.

My own intensity is one of Central Nervous System (CNS) proportions.

I seek to activate it. Nerves, neurons, blood vessels. Fueled by over 70 trace minerals in minute amounts, it is virtually only limited by willpower.

For strength and life, Passion is more than what you think you know.

14 & 15. Lift first, nix the rest. Doing strength training before cardio can torch more fat than cardio alone. And if you do one move after another without pausing, “you’ll see more gains in strength and muscle mass,” says Dr. Pierre Manfroy, M.D., consultant for the book “100 Ways to Supercharge Your Metabolism.”

So true.

Have you noticed certain people suffer from excess cardio syndrome? Bodies tend to atrophy when stressed by long slow steady cardio.

Can you tell which guy lifts weights?

Don’t let it be an ego thing. Focus on the form, and feel the movement.

So get a warm up, hit the weights, then do cardio.

People would be amazed at the results from just a few sets and reps of the Basic exercises prior to cardio.

25. Have an omelet. Eating two eggs for breakfast while dieting will help you trim more weight and body fat than if you ate the same amount of calories noshing on a bagel, scientists say.

Egg.

The Egg is a Vitamin and Mineral powerhouse.

These nutrients promote optimal function of all systems in the body. From the brain, nerves, and lean muscle…

Seek the Egg for nourishment.

48. Go mental. People who visualized themselves training a specific muscle boosted the strength in that muscle group, researchers found.

Going mental is so rewarding. It’s another way of daydreaming.

You imagine a scenario in which you achieve completeness.

I concentrate so deeply. My breathing. Feeling every moment of it.

Using that knowledge

Then I do it.

The brain is a most powerful tool for fitness.

For more, see the full list.

Weightloss Now