I’ve observed fitness gurus closely over the past several years and I believe I’ve figured out most of their secrets. The good news is that if you want to be a fitness guru, you can achieve this title by following the 25 easy steps I’ve outlined below.

1. Master the Art of Marketing – Who cares if you don’t really know the science or if you haven’t spent time in the trenches? You have money to make and the quickest route from rags to riches is to spend your days studying marketing. Granted, you’ll be pedaling shit because you won’t have anything substantial to market, but the general public is extremely naive about fitness and they’ll believe anything.
2. Make Bold Claims – All gurus are empowered by the boldness of their claims. The bolder, the better. Use words like “always” and “never” as often as possible. Spend a considerable portion of your day trying to think up witty and bold one-liners to post on Facebook.
3. Be Controversial - Your popularity is directly proportional to the level of controversy you create. Find out what’s currently popular and go gunning against it.
4. Pick a Few Exercises and Forms of Exercise to Crucify – Every hero needs a villain and every protagonist needs an antagonist. How will you ever be a hero if there are no villains?
5. Pick a Few Exercises to Hail as King – There are plenty of great movements to choose from; just pick a few and declare them to be superior to all other exercises, and insinuate from time to time that they’re the solution to everything – including cancer.
6. Create Your Own Exercise Naming System – Do not refer to exercises by the same names as everyone else; this makes you just like them. Your system needs to be unique, so come up with a new way to name the movements.
7. Don’t Read Research – Why bother reading research? You need to spend your time studying marketing. While other jackasses are trying to understand the science, you’ll be laughing your way to the bank.
8. Be a User – No guru these days does it on his own; in order for you to reach the pinnacle of success you’ll need help. But why pay good money for this help when there are plenty of suckers out there who will work for minimum wage to make you successful? Find some folks to write your articles, train your clients, and do your dirty work. You belong on the beach or the golf course. And who cares if they’re struggling to pay their bills while you’re living the good life? Convince yourself that you’re helping them. Do not empower them to rise up in their own careers. Feed them a fish or two but don’t dare teach them how to fish for themselves. You need them to stay put.
9. Learn a Bit of Scientific Knowledge then Take Huge Leaps – Read a few book chapters and journal articles per year and use the little knowledge you gained to form a United Theory of Everything. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way on the internet!
10. Build Up an Army – You’ll be much more convincing if you have a team of followers proclaiming you as the God of Fitness. Aim for a young and uneducated army – they’re easier to manipulate.
11. See Things in Black and White – Gurus don’t see things in shades of gray. Things are either black, or they are white. There is no in-between.
12. Don’t Train Many People – If you train a bunch of folks you might realize that your claims aren’t legit, and this is not good for your confidence. It doesn’t matter if you’re right; all that matters is whether you appear right. Training people takes precious time away that could be spent on marketing endeavors.
13. Never Publicly Ask Questions – Asking questions shows weakness, and gurus can’t be weak. If you don’t know the answer to something, don’t reach out to anyone and ask questions, and don’t read up on the topic. You need to spend your time reading marketing topics. There will be some folks who do get off their asses and learn the science, but you can simply out-market them so don’t sweat it.
14. Never Admit that You Don’t Know – Gurus must create the illusion that they know everything. If you don’t know the answer, make something up. Defend your answer at all costs.
15. Be Arrogant and Overly Cocky – Tell people how smart and/or strong you are. Brag relentlessly. Whenever the slightest thing exciting happens in your life, announce it to all of your Facebook and Twitter followers. If you have a strong squat, then you are smarter than everyone who is weaker than you. If you have a good physique, then you are automatically more intelligent than those with inferior builds. People need to know this!
16. Don’t Reply on Social Media – Take the time to create a blog, a Facebook page, a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, and a Youtube account, but don’t reply to any of your fans. You need to appear busy, like you’re training Olympians around the clock. Don’t be bothered by pedestrians!
17. Surround Yourself With Clones and Parrots – Don’t surround yourself with brilliant scientists, physical therapists, biomechanists, or exercise physiologists as they’ll just impair your ability to be cocky when you realize that your theories aren’t so earth-shattering and are lacking in substance. Find some folks who think exactly the way you do and promote each other round the clock. This will help you feel better about yourself.
18. Don’t Credit Others or Acknowledge Competing Theories – You need to appear innovative, but since you don’t train people or read much, this will be quite difficult. Don’t fret; simply steal other people’s ideas without giving them credit. And no matter how great a colleague’s work, do not draw attention to it. You might lose followers. Do not ever promote anyone else’s articles, ideas, or theories unless you’re an affiliate. You are not a teacher. You’re a businessman dammit!
19. Don’t Conduct Research Experiments – To reach guru status you’ll need to come up with some bold theories. Don’t ever try to figure out ways to find answers to the questions your theory formulates. Don’t ever utilize the scientific method. Your theories could in fact be wrong and this would be detrimental to your image. Rather than waste time investigating theories, spend your time creating new theories. Let the researchers waste their time investigating your claims. You need to “stay ahead of the research.”
20. When Research Proves You Wrong, Refute It at All Costs – Your claims will inevitably become popular due to your supreme boldness and the backing of your army. Researchers are bound to start conducting experiments to test your theories. If the researchers’ findings support your theories, then blast this evidence all over cyberspace. But if the researchers’ findings don’t support your theories, what do those skinny geeks know anyway? Refute their claims at all costs and don’t ever falter.
21. Confuse Popularity With Superiority – Who cares if some folks in the field take issue with your claims? Clearly you’re superior to them – you have more followers. While they’re busy training folks, taking courses, conducting experiments, and reading research, you’re on the golf course pretending to train Olympians. Don’t be bothered by folks who care about the science and their petty claims.
22. Resort to Name-Calling and Despise Those Who Disagree with You – When people call you out, just refer to them as “haters,” “contrarians,” “armchair experts,” or “meatheads.”  These people are evil and are trying to get in your way of taking over the fitness world. If another expert disagrees with you then you must find a way to knock him down immediately. Those who disagree are “unbelievers” and do not deserve your respect.
23. Justify and Rationalize – Who cares how annoying you are with your marketing tactics? Caveat emptor, right? Anything to do with health and fitness has to be good for the public even if your flawed logic is readily apparent. Justify and rationalize your actions by telling everyone that you’re “busy helping as many people as possible.”
24. Reinvent Yourself Every Few Years – A quick and easy way to make money is to simply change your mind about a particular topic and do a 180°. Create a new product that discusses your revelation. Your followers will be very happy that they’re finally allowed to perform a banned movement or eat a banned food item and you’ll be exalted.
25. Create a Cult – People long to be part of a group and receive attention. Eventually your army will be large enough to transform into a cult. Create a hierarchy system and use mind control tactics. You do not want to encourage free-thinking as this could backfire on you. You need to intimidate and brain-wash your followers. Use fear tactics and make sure your underlings know that the second they rise up and formulate thoughts of their own they’ll be ousted from the club.

Fitness Guru in the Making

If you choose to go this route, you will not be taken seriously by your peers, as any coach with an appreciation for science will be able to pick you apart. But you will develop one hell of a following.

To be honest, I’ve committed at least 8 of these acts myself. Most of my esteemed colleagues are guilty of several of them as well. The trick is to not commit every single one of them, to have integrity, and to balance marketing and self-promotion with good information and valuable products.

Though this article was written in jest, I feel compelled to advise caution. If I could go back in time, I’d do things a bit differently, as several years ago I was definitely a “guru in the making.” Now I’m slightly embarrassed over some of my former actions. However, such is life and I’m very proud of the path I’m currently pursuing.

If your goal is to be taken seriously in the field, then I recommend taking a different path. In a few days I’ll follow up on this article and post my advice to prospective S&C writers and professionals.

Here are a few random thoughts and links for the week:

1. Hip Mobility Drills

Many people seek improved hip mobility. Personally I don’t do much hip flexibility work as I’ve found that my hip flexion and extension mobility is maintained from deep squatting, Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, and walking lunges. I do believe that I could use a bit more hip internal and external rotation mobility but I’m not so lacking in this ROM that it requires urgent attention.

I got the video below from JC Deen. There are some unique drills in the video which I feel are worthwhile for individuals seeking to increase their hip ROM (for some folks these drills could be problematic so don’t force anything that doesn’t feel right).

Another tip that I always stress in my glute workshops is to squeeze the rear glute when performing lunge-type stretches for the hip flexors as the posterior pelvic tilt adds to the stretch’s efficacy.

2. Strong Female Hip Thrusts!

Here is one of Nick Horton’s clients performing some heavy hip thrusts. Her name is Melanie, she’s a rugby player, and she has some serious hip extension strength!

3. Bridging ROM

Kellie Davis wrote an excellent article on barbell glute bridge ROM. Make sure you’re doing this exercise properly! Many, I repeat MANY, lifters go too heavy and don’t achieve full range on this movement which robs the glutes of maximal activation. Lighten up if you need to and do it right! HERE is the link to her article.

4. Call On Me

I went out the other day with my two good friends (fellow PhD candidates) who just returned from vacation and this song came on. Every time I hear it my mind can’t help but conjure up images from the video! If there were more classes like this then I would commit to an aerobic exercise regimen!

5. The Truth About Sports Science Researchers

I see a lot of articles these days written by strength coaches and personal trainers that attack researchers and I want to set the record straight. I should mention that I’m highly qualified to address this topic as I personally know many of the sports science researchers and am aware of their backgrounds and personalities.

Most of them are former athletes and former strength coaches and most of them are humble and curious about popular training methodology. The problem is that it’s often difficult to attempt to answer questions and many times specific equipment or methods are used. Since coaches tend to assume that researchers have no clue about real-world training they often dismiss the research or researcher which is unfortunate. This is simply not true and I wish coaches were more humble and more interested in research and the scientific method in general.

At any rate, we can all learn tremendously from one another so coaches, trainers, physios, professors, and researchers should work together to keep pushing the envelope and expanding our knowledge of sports science and best training practices.

6. Obese Pets

This really upsets me! A recent study found that 25% of cats and 21% of dogs are obese – which equates to 47 million cats and 41 million dogs. Fat pets are becoming the new “normal.” Folks need to quit feeding their cats and dogs so much and give their dogs more exercise.

7. Antioxidant Supplementation

Brad Schoenfeld wrote an excellent blogpost about antioxidant supplementation in THIS article. I think Brad is the best pure writer in the fitness field as his writing style is always informative and well-constructed.

That’s all my friends in fitness! Have a great weekend. BC

Okay folks, here’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for…the final results of the challenge. First I’d like to thank all of the contestants for participating; this was a very fun week, getting to watch all of the videos and see people’s competitive spirits emerge. Before I post the chart and announce the awards, I’d like to offer some comments/observations.

1. Late Competitors

Many competitors waited patiently as “early competitors” took the challenge which gave them an advantage as they knew what numbers they needed to beat.

2. Early Competitors

Ironically, the early competitors actually got the upper hand on the late competitors as they were able to recover from the first workout and perform the challenge a second time. The second attempt led to an increased score through a combination of improved strategy (exercise order), fitness gains/training adaptations, familiarization, and motivation (knowing what scores they needed to beat). In this case it payed off to be an early competitor as the late competitors couldn’t compete a second-time as they weren’t recovered (except for Derrick who performed the challenge 3 times and ended up besting his score each time).

3. Form

In any challenge the judge is faced with some difficult decisions as form is a slippery slope. I’ve been watching many strong dudes train my whole life and even have dvd’s from various strongmen and bodybuilders. Many of them use a ton of momentum and allow their form to degrade yet are still absolute beasts in terms of muscular hypertrophy, strength and power. It is difficult for these types to understand the judge’s perspective when it comes to contests and challenges because they’re accustomed to hoisting a certain amount of weight and in order to pass strict criteria they have to reduce the loads which nobody likes to do. Often this load reduction is too much to bear for the lifter and he ends up quitting the contest or sport rather than sticking with it. I’ve seen this happen with powerlifters who aren’t quite squatting to depth or allowing for a sufficient pause on the chest during the bench press.

4. The Sole Judge – BC

I don’t like being the only judge here but at the end of the day this is my challenge and I have to make some executive decisions. If no video was provided, then the contestant will be acknowledged but will not receive an award. I should have stated this up front but this is the inaugural year and I learned many lessons that will make this challenge much better next year (I plan on this being a yearly challenge). Moreover, if I felt that form was too erratic then I will not allow for the King or Queen award to be doled out to this individual. Next year I’ll be even more explanatory with rules associated with technique and contestants will learn the true meaning of high-quality form. I hope that the competitors realize that this was all in good fun and take my rulings in stride. Next year we can do it again and those who feel duped have undoubtedly learned a thing or two and can vindicate themselves next time around.

The Chart

Here is a chart of the total competition.

The Awards Along With Honorable Mentions

King Sexy (highest male score) goes to David Dellenave. His total of 152 bested the competition. Honorable mention goes to the following dudes: Jamie Rodriquez  with 146 (you rose the bar for everyone and if you had the chance to perform a second time around I suspect you would have gotten 160), Strini Naidoo with 207 (had you provided a video you most likely would have won as I know first hand that you’re an absolute freaky-beast, but without a vid it’s a no-go, and I’m unsure as to how much drop off you’d have if you used a taller bench for the hip thrusts), Mike Samuels and Dale Lablans with 158 and 164, respectively (I felt that your guys’ form was a little too sloppy to receive the award; some of the chins didn’t reach proper depth and/or height, RDL’s weren’t done with a strict enough arch, a little too much momentum was used, etc. This is not meant to take away from your achievements as my form isn’t all that either and you guys are strong dudes who deserve praise, but as a judge I have to be strict in fairness to all the competitors).

Queen Sexy (highest female score) goes to Jen Sinkler. Her total of 150 bested her competitors. Honorable mention goes to Molly Galbraith with 124 (you rose the bar big time for the competition and your form rocked) and Neghar Fanooni with 115 (excellent technical form).

Dead Sexy (equal to or greater than 100 total reps) goes to Jen Sinkler, David Dellenave, Steve Di Tomaso, Scott Taylor, Clifton Harski, Derrick Blanton, Mike Spiegel, Drew Ragan, Jaime Rodriquez, Danny McLarty, Neghar Fanooni, Molly Galbraith, Doug Balzarini, Andrew Firth, Strini Naidoo, Chris, Mike Samuels, Dale Lablans, and Chris. Getting over 100 reps on this challenge ain’t easy and you guys all rocked it. Be proud!

Sexy All Over (15 reps on each exercise for guys, 10 reps on each exercise for girls) goes to Drew Ragan, Jamie Rodriquez, Melody Schoenfeld, and Neghar Fanooni. Only four of you received this award (with several folks coming close) so this is a huge honor.

Quadzilla (highest front squat) goes to Molly Galbraith with 26 reps. Honorable mention goes to Strini Naidoo with 30 reps (but no video).

Dr. Deadlift (highest RDL) goes to David Dellenave with 73 reps. Honorable mention goes to Mike Samuels with 73 reps as well (but David’s form was better so he won).

Gluteus Magnificus (highest hip thrust) goes to Derrick Blanton with 43 reps. Honorable mention goes to Strini Naidoo (100 reps but no video), Dale Lablans and Chris with 50 reps (form a bit too sloppy), and David Dellenave with 41 reps.

Chisel Chest (highest incline press) goes to Jen Sinkler with 28 reps. Honorable mentions go to Belle Hammond with 25 and Jamie Rodriguez (highest male total with 17).

King Cobra (highest chin up) goes to Doug Balzarini with 22 reps. Honorable mentions go to Scott Taylor with 31 reps (but no video) and Jamie Rodriguez with 22 reps as well (but Doug had slightly better form).

Sexier than BC (greater than 75 reps) goes to Jen Sinkler, David Dellenave, Steve Di Tomaso, Scott Taylor, Clifton Harski, Derrick Blanton, Mike Spiegel, Drew Ragan, Jaime Rodriquez, Danny McLarty, Neghar Fanooni, Molly Galbraith, Doug Balzarini, Andrew Firth, Strini Naidoo, Chris, Mike Samuels, Dale Lablans, Chris, Kellie Davis, Belle Hammond, Scott Taylor, Eric, Jeremy Boyd, Rudy Thomas, Brady, Terrance Lawrence, Jon Camacho, Dan Sigafoos, Shanna, Melody Schoenfeld, Emily Soccolinsky, Brooks Tiller, Marianne Kane, Stefanie, Roger Lawson, Ariel Iasevoli, Alex Ceban, and Miguel Arogoncillo. I suppose that this isn’t something to be that proud of as clearly nearly everyone is sexier than me, but considering I’ve been lifting for 20 years now and you beat me – you deserve a congratulations.

So here’s the breakdown once again:

• King Sexy – David Dellenave
• Queen Sexy – Jen Sinkler
• Quadzilla – Molly Galbraith
• Dr. Deadlift – David Dellenave
• Gluteus Magnificus – Derrick Blanton
• Chisel Chest – Jen Sinkler
• King Cobra – Doug Balzarini

Contest Averages

I averaged all of the exercise totals. Bear in mind that the incline press is skewed as men and women used different relative loads. Here are the results:

• front squat – 12
• RDL – 32
• hip thrust – 24
• incline press – 10
• chin up – 14
• total – 92

This is cool as it depicts what I’ve been saying for years; in terms of strength,

squat < hip thrust < deadlift

It also shows that the average contestant is 17 points sexier than me!

Conclusion and Vids

Once again I want to thank all of the competitors for manning up and performing the challenge. You’re all winners in my book. I’ll leave you with the videos of King Sexy and Queen Sexy.

David Dellenave

Jen Sinkler

And in case you’re in need of even more sexiness today, here’s a picture of Jamie Eason for your viewing pleasure. Take care! BC

Okay folks, there are just several days left in the challenge so get your scores and vids posted.

So far Jen Sinkler is in the lead for females and Jaime Rodriguez is in the lead for males. Only time will tell if they have Queen and King Sexy locked in.

Nine people have currently achieved over 100 reps in the challenge (Dead Sexy Award).

Only two males have achieved 15+ reps on each exercise and only 2 females have achieved 10+ reps on each exercise (Sexy All Over Award).

21 out of 30 (which is almost 70%) contestants have beat my 75 rep total (Sexier than BC Award). So it turns out that being sexier than me doesn’t mean much these days!

121 is the current female record (Queen Sexy Award).

146 is the current male record (King Sexy Award).

Out of the contestants who submitted Youtube videos:

22 is the current front squat record (Quadzilla Award).

61 is the current RDL record (Dr. Deadlift Award).

41 is the current hip thrust record (Gluteus Magnificus Award).

21 is the current incline press record (Chisel Chest Award).

22 is the current chin up record (King Cobra Award).

A couple of these were exceeded by folks who didn’t yet submit vids so if those come in then I’ll update the chart.

If you plan on competing in the challenge make sure you post your results in the next few days.

I’ll announce awards on Sunday. Thanks to all who have competed thus far!

Here is a chart showing the current status:

Here are the videos of the current male and female leaders.

Jaime Rodriguez

Jen Sinkler

Gotta love their post-hip thrust faces haha!

I recently thought up The Sexy Challenge. I cannot take credit for this idea as I totally stole it from my fitness friends who have been tossing around ideas for different challenges throughout the week. Here’s what led me to think up The Sexy Challenge.

How My Idea Came to Be

Several days ago my friend JC Deen threw down the gauntlet with the front squat rep test with bodyweight load. He, along with my fitness friends Roger Lawson and Jen Sinkler, tested themselves to see how many reps they could get. A couple of nights ago I was talking to them on Twitter and they started thinking up other ideas…for example a hip thrust and bench press challenge. In case you don’t know, JC and Rog just started up their own Podcast, and Jen has build up a strong community page on Facebook called Survival of the Fittest. These folks have come up with weekly challenges that they’ll be doing which you can access on Jen’s Survival of the Fittest page, which so far include:

Week of 1/23: Front Squats with bodyweight on the bar for max reps.
Week of 1/30: Chin up negatives for time
Week of 2/6: Back Squats with bodyweight on the bar for max reps
Week of 2/13: Chin ups – max reps
Week of 2/20: Deadlift – double bodyweight for max reps

You can “like” Jen’s site and participate in these challenges if you’d like; right now I believe Brian Tabor and Max Shank tied for the current front squat record with 26 reps at 185 lbs of bodyweight, with Jamie Rodriquez and Fawn Friday tied at second place with 25 reps. Here’s Fawn’s video; this is poetry in motion:

The 5 Best Exercises to Determine Your Level of Sexiness

This got me thinking…what are the 5 best exercises to determine total body strength endurance and sexiness? There are a ton of options here, such as the basic barbell lifts (squat, front squat, deadlift, sumo deadlift, glute bridge, hip thrust, good morning, bench press, close grip bench press, incline press, military press, bent over row), Olympic variations (power clean, hang clean, power snatch, hang snatch, push press) and basic bodyweight exercises (push up, dip, chin up, inverted row, pistol), but I went with the following five:

Front Squat With Barbell Load Equal to Bodyweight

I went with the front squat because it keeps you a bit more honest than the back squat (as reps ensue most people turn the back squat into a good morning) and it’s a great measure of quad strength.

Romanian Deadlift (RDL) With Barbell Load Equal to Bodyweight

The RDL was chosen over the conventional deadlift for the exact same reasons mentioned above; it keeps you a bit more honest (most people round their backs with the deadlift as reps ensue) and it’s a great measure of hamstring strength.

Hip Thrust With Barbell Load Equal to Bodyweight

The hip thrust is a great measure of glute strength and these three lifts (front squat, RDL, and hip thrust) compliment each other quite nicely.

Incline Press With Barbell Load Equal to Bodyweight (50% Bodyweight Loads for Females)

I went with the incline press over the standard bench press or the military press as it keeps folks much more honest (people bounce the bar off their chest and raise their butts off the bench with the bench press and lean backward too much and use momentum in a military press) and it’s a great measure of pec and shoulder strength.

Chin Up With Bodyweight

The chin up was chosen over the bent over row for the same reasons above; it’s much easier to standardize. People tend to incline their torso throughout the set of a bent over row and use momentum, the chin up is easier to ensure strict form is used. The chin up is a great measure of back strength.

The Sexy Challenge

Hopefully you’ll agree that these five exercises do an excellent job of measuring an individual’s total body strength endurance and “sexy factor.” Below is a video of me performing the sexy challenge. If you don’t like listening to me ramble, fast-forward to 3:20 to see me go through the various exercises.

As you can see, I’m not built to press; I’m built to pull. The front squat was very challenging as I’m not a very good squatter. The RDL was a piece of cake. The hip thrust was actually brutal having already done a set of front squats and RDL’s, as my glutes were fatigued (not to mention the bench height was pretty high which increases the difficulty). I had to improvise on the incline press as the gym I was at didn’t have one, so I used a back extension unit and just leaned back against it. I’m not a very good bencher so the incline press was very demanding; had I access to a standard incline bench I think I could have squeaked out another rep. And the chin up was very easy; I thought I was going to get more reps but at around 8 reps all of a sudden fatigue set in. Remember I had surgery on my biceps tendon 9 months ago so cut me some slack. I don’t rep out much when I train so this was a very fun challenge for me. I’m a low repper at heart but it’s always good to test one’s self with higher rep exhibitions.

The Rules

Here are the 8 rules for The Sexy Challenge:

1. All five exercises must be performed in under one hour.
2. Loads for the barbell exercises will be one’s bodyweight rounded down to the nearest 5 pounds (the one exception is with the incline press – women will use 50% bodyweight loads).
3. For the front squat, any grip can be used and the thighs must break parallel.
4. For the RDL, no wrist wraps are worn, bar must go below knees, full lockout must be achieved.
5. For the hip thrust, the bar can’t touch the ground, full hip extension must be reached, and a reasonable bench height must be used (around 14″ is ideal).
6. For the incline press, the bar must touch the chest, full lockout must be achieved, no bouncing off the chest, the butt can’t come off the bench, and the angle of the bench must be at around 45 degrees (remember women use 50% bodyweight loads on this exercise whereas men use 100% bodyweight loads).
7. For the chin up, each rep must start from a dead hang, the bar must touch the upper chest, and no excessive momentum (ex: kipping) can be used.
8. You can determine your own order of exercise performance.

What if You Can’t Get Any Reps on a Particular Test?

Who cares? Do the test anyway. If you can’t perform a chin up, or a front squat with bodyweight load, it’s not the end of the world. Train hard for the year and retest yourself next year to show you got sexier.

The Awards

As you can see I got 75 reps (it helps to be really good at one exercise as 35 of these reps, or 47% of the total, came from the RDL). I suspect that there are some folks out there who will really clean house with this challenge. For example I could see Max Shank and Jamie Rodriguez getting well over 100 reps, and fortunately for all competitors Ben Bruno is on the disabled list as I could see him getting well over 100 reps as well.

Dead Sexy Award If you can perform over 100 reps on this challenge, then you’re dead sexy.

Sexy All Over Award If you’re a man and can perform over 15 reps on each exercise, then you’re sexy all over. If you’re a woman and can perform over 10 reps on each exercise, then you’re sexy all over too.

King Sexy Award Awarded to the man who achieves the greatest total

Queen Sexy Award Awarded to the woman who achieves the greatest total

Quadzilla Award Awarded to the individual who achieves the highest front squat total

Dr. Deadlift Award Awarded to the individual who achieves the greatest Romanian deadlift total

Gluteus Magnificus Award Awarded to the individual who achieves the greatest hip thrust total

Chisel Chest Award Awarded to the individual who achieves the greatest incline press total

King Cobra Award Awarded to the individual who achieves the greatest chin up total

Sexier than BC Award Awarded to anyone who beats me by achieving over 75 total reps in The Sexy Challenge

Now you have ten different opportunities to try to receive an award. Go give it a try. Make sure your form is strict (don’t get disqualified because you were skimping on your range of motion or breaking other rules – keep it real!) and feel free to post your vids/results in the comments below.

What’s Your Sexy Number?

You have the entire week to perform The Sexy Challenge. Next Sunday I’ll post the results and give out awards to the various contestants. Best of luck! BC

Here are some more random thoughts for the week.

1. Lolo Jones Training

Lolo is known as the best female 60 meter hurdler in the world, not to mention one of the best 100 meter hurdlers. I’m very impressed with what I see in this video and find Lola’s work ethic, attitude and confidence to be admirable. Here is an inspiring video of her training:

2. Inspiring Ray Lewis Speech

This LINK will take you to a very inspiring speech that Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens uttered following their loss to the Patriots. Coaches should take notes and offer similar comforting speeches following a good season to their teams.

3. Do Single Joint Exercises Enhance Functional Fitness?

My friend Brad Schoenfeld and I just got another article published in The Strength and Conditioning Journal on the topic of single joint exercises. We provide a great deal of reasons why you shouldn’t write-off single joint exercise and I think you’ll agree with the article if you’re able to check it out. If you have access to the NSCA journals then I recommend that you give the article a read. If you don’t, I’ll give you the cliff notes and provide you with our conclusion:

Exercise selection should not be viewed as an either/or decision. Although the principle of specificity dictates that multijoint movements should comprise the basis of functional training programs, evidence suggests that single-joint exercises can also play an important additive role. Augmenting traditional functional training programs with single-joint exercises can promote synergistic improvements in muscle strength that ultimately transfer into increased performance of daily activities and sports performance, over and above that which can be achieved with multijoint training alone.

4. “Seeing” Glute Activation

Having spent so many thousands of hours training people, testing gluteal EMG activation, palpating people’s glutes while they perform various glute exercises, and learning about biomechanics, I can simply watch somebody lift and tell whether they’re using their glutes. Two cases in point:

A) Konstantin Konstantinovs – Warning – this video will jack your testosterone levels up 35% so beware. Check out his deadlifts at around the 4-minute mark. Konstantin uses his glutes for sure.

B) Marianne Kane – Not to be upstaged by Konstantin’s glutes, here’s Marianne of myomytv performing a glute workout. Watch at around the 5:45 mark where she does kettlebell swings. This is some serious glute power.

What I want to know is, whose accent is cooler – Konstantin’s or Marianne’s?

4. More Hip Thrust Methods

Speaking of the glutes, I’ve been trying to teach my readers various hip thrust methods. I’ve recently shown you the rest-pause method as well as the constant tension method. Here are two more methods; the pause-rep method and the isohold method.

A) Pause-Rep Method – Here I am performing 5 reps with 315 lbs with a 5-second pause up top. This is absolutely brutal!

B) Isohold Method – Here I am performing a 25-second isohold with 405 lbs. Keep those glutes squeezed up top which pushes the hips forward and prevents anterior pelvic tilt.

5) Strength Curves

Some strength training exercises have ascending strength curves, some are more constant, some are bell-shaped, and others have descending strength curves. An exercise with an ascending strength curve means that the exercise gets easier throughout the concentric portion of the repetition which makes the exercise easier up top compared to the bottom portion of the exercise. Here are two videos to demonstrate of the squat exercise which demonstrates this phenomenon.

A) Here’s some strong dude performing a 400 lb squat for 13 reps.

B) Here’s the same guy performing a 1,000 lb squat lockout.

Clearly folks are much stronger at the top of the squat compared to the bottom of the squat. It’s important for lifters and strength coaches to understand the various strength curves provided by different exercises.

That’s all peeps! Have a great weekend. BC