Tip of the week tip: Use box breathing to regain your focus

Here's something you can learn from Strongmen competitors that you can apply to the rest of your life.

Don't dwell on events from the past

If you did poorly at your last competition, then you need to put that behind you. We all have times when things don't go the way we would like them to. If you messed up something you expected to excel at, it's easy to get angry or feel sorry for yourself. The problem with this in a strongman competition is that you have to prepare for other events during the same competition. If you get stuck on this one bad performance and keep coming back to it, then it is completely impossible to clear your head and look ahead.

The longer you carry this burden around with you, the more exhausted and stressed you will become. None of this will help you perform at your best for the rest of the day.

Of course, you should not treat your failure as if nothing has happened. Get angry, shout if you have to, stamp your feet and berate yourself. But then let it go. You'll have plenty of time to deal with it when the day is over, but now is not the time. Do what you need to do and then go back to being professional. You will never move forward and make progress if you don't change this pattern of behavior immediately.

Do the following instead: Box Breathing

The next time something goes wrong, take a few minutes to vent your anger, but do it alone. Then take 5 slow breaths in this way:

1. Breathe the air slowly through your nose into your belly while counting "one thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three" in your mind.
2. Hold the air in for as long as you inhaled.
3. Breathe out slowly through your mouth for the same amount of time.
4. Pause for another 3 seconds before breathing in again.
5. Repeat the whole thing three times.

This may sound like hippie nonsense, but this breathing technique is used by many people from professional football players to Navy Seals and corporate executives to moms stressed out by their screaming babies. This type of breathing will lower your heart rate and blood pressure and shift your focus to two things you can control: Your breathing and your mindset.

You messed up? Take it in your stride. Don't let it control you. The sooner you bring your emotions back down and start turning that negative energy into positive focus on your next challenge, the better you'll perform.

Tip: Find out if you are insulin sensitive

Control this hormone to ensure you stay lean and only build muscle

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-find-out-if-youre-insulin-sensitive

By John Berardi, PhD

Insulin is a very anabolic hormone. It's the hormone responsible for delivering carbohydrates and amino acids to muscles for recovery and growth. So you need insulin, but you need to control it.

Insulin sensitivity appears to be the most important factor dictating how the body deals with carbohydrates. A chronic increase in insulin levels can increase the rate of transport of fat and carbohydrates into fat cells. Even though insulin initially transports nutrients into muscle cells, a chronic increase in insulin levels will cause your muscles to become insulin resistant and refuse to absorb nutrients. However, fat tissue will continue to greedily absorb nutrients at a high rate.

In people with good insulin sensitivity, the body responds to carbohydrate intake with small insulin surges. Even though these insulin surges are tiny, the cells are very sensitive to small amounts of insulin, resulting in an anabolic environment. Since a lot of insulin can inhibit fat loss, the ideal scenario is to develop high insulin sensitivity so that only small amounts of insulin are needed for anabolism and these small amounts do not inhibit fat loss.

Some experts use very simplistic recommendations for insulin sensitivity testing - methods with which I disagree. For example, I have heard that if you have an apple-shaped body or get tired after a high-carb meal, you are insulin resistant. These recommendations are too unspecific and tell you very little about your nutritional needs or whether you are making progress. I recommend methods that are objective, even if they are more time consuming.

Objective tests

The first test is an oral glucose tolerance test. For this you will need a blood glucose meter, some glucose test strips and a standard glucose drink (ask your pharmacist as this is a specific mixture. Coke will not work). Once you have all these things available, schedule your test.

After you have not exercised for at least 24 hours (so it's best to do this test after a non-exercise day), take a blood sample from your fingertip in the morning after you have not eaten for at least 12 hours. Write down the blood glucose value. Then drink the glucose drink and measure your blood sugar level 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes later. Write down all these values.

Insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance

The following table gives you an indication of how you can interpret your values:

	Normal	Excellent
Fasting blood glucose	<100mg/dl	<70mg/dl
Maximum blood glucose level	<180mg/dl	<130mg/dl
Time to maximum blood glucose level	30-60 min.	15-30 min.
Time to reach the fasting blood glucose value	30-60 min.	60-90 min.

Fasting blood glucose and insulin levels

The second test is a fasting blood glucose and insulin level test. For this test, you need your doctor to take a blood sample while you are fasting and send it to a laboratory to measure your blood sugar and insulin levels.

Using the following equations, you can determine a value for insulin sensitivity and the responsiveness of your pancreas:

Insulin sensitivity =

• Fasting insulin level (mU/L) / 22.5 x E to X e-ln(Fasting blood glucose level (mmol/L))
• or
• Fasting insulin level (pmol/L) x (fasting blood glucose level (mmol/L) / 135)

Beta cell function of the pancreas =

• (20 x fasting insulin level (mU/L)) / (fasting blood glucose level (mmol/L)-3.5)
• or
• (3.33 x fasting insulin level (pmol/L) / (fasting blood glucose level (mmol/L)-3.5)

If these calculations are too complicated for you, then ask your doctor to calculate these values. If you have these values, you can estimate them as follows:

Insulin sensitivity:

- The lower the value, the better the insulin sensitivity
- Normal insulin sensitivity: the value should be below 2
- Excellent insulin sensitivity: a value in the range of 0.5

Beta cell function of the pancreas:

- The higher the value, the better the pancreatic function and insulin secretion
- Normal pancreatic function: the value should be around 100
- Excellent insulin sensitivity: a value above 200.

Once you have these values, you will have a better idea of the type of diet you should be eating. Do these tests at least once every few months to see how your training and diet are affecting your insulin sensitivity.

Improve your insulin sensitivity

Let's assume that you have done this test and are not satisfied with the results. You are insulin resistant and you don't like it at all. Well, instead of resigning yourself to your flabby midsection for the rest of your life, there are a few things you can do to improve your insulin sensitivity.

Both aerobic exercise and training with weights can significantly improve your insulin sensitivity through a number of mechanisms. So include both types of training in your program. I have seen a tremendous improvement in insulin sensitivity with three to four weight training sessions of 60 to 90 minutes per week. These workouts should be accompanied by at least three or four 30-minute aerobic workouts per week. To really improve your insulin sensitivity, you should perform aerobic training and resistance training separately.

In addition to this, supplements such as omega-3 fatty acids, alpha-lipoic acid and chromium can also improve insulin sensitivity. Start with 600 mg of alpha-lipoic acid and 6 to 10 grams of EPA and DHA (the active omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil) per day.

On the other hand, stimulants such as ephedrine and caffeine can reduce insulin sensitivity due to their effects on metabolism. Low carbohydrate and high fat diets can also reduce insulin sensitivity.

Tip: Build up your pecs with bands and iron

This will really hurt, but you'll love the results you'll see in growing pecs and triceps.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-build-your-chest-with-bands-iron

Michael Warren

Barbell bench presses have their place in your training program, but dumbbell bench presses have a few advantages over barbell bench presses. Dumbbell bench presses allow you to work your stabilizing muscles that are ignored in barbell bench presses. The dumbbell variation gives you the opportunity to work your chest muscles hard at the highest point of each repetition with the help of certain variations. Do you really want to increase the intensity of dumbbell bench presses? Then use bands.

Dumbbell bench press with bands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4YmxaHB2Eo

Use this variation to overcome strength plateaus. Your triceps and chest muscles will experience a heavy load, as the tension on the bands will increase with every centimeter of the upward movement.

Dumbbell bench press with bands anchored to the right and left of the bench

https://youtu.be/Le-6hJDD8OM

In regular dumbbell bench presses, the pectoralis major acts against the weight to move the humerus closer to the center of the body. The weight acts vertically to the pectoral, triceps and shoulder system.

In the variation described here, we add a force vector that acts diagonally, pulling the arms and dumbbells away from the center of the body. As you can imagine, this force will force you to struggle to keep the dumbbells on their vertical path, which will challenge your muscle coordination more, especially when you push the dumbbells against each other at the highest point of the movement.

Tip: Set yourself two squat challenges

Two types of squats, 20 reps, some pain and a lot of gains. Are you ready for this?

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-take-the-two-squat-challenge

By Ben Bruno

This is a new variation of the classic 20 squat method that combines front squats and classic squats.

1. Choose a weight with which you can perform 8 to 10 repetitions of front squats.
2. Perform as many front squats as you can before putting the weight down briefly to assume the position for classic squats.
3. Now the fun begins. Perform as many repetitions of classic squats as you can until you have completed a total of 20 repetitions of squats. For example, if you have completed 8 repetitions of front squats, you must perform 12 repetitions of classic squats.

Squat combo for 20 repetitions

The weight will be lower than the weight you'd use for 20 classic squats, but this combo is at least as brutal and you'll feel it more in your quadriceps without the painful pump in your lower back.

With heavy squats, the lower back tends to be the limiting factor and the squats tend to degenerate more towards good mornings. However, if you've already exhausted your quadriceps with front squats, it will be easier to maintain good exercise form and you'll feel the squats more where you want to feel them - and less where you don't want to feel them.

Tip: Perform deadlifts with a squat stand

Is conventional deadlift or sumo deadlift better? For most of us, a combination of both is best.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-squat-stance-deadlift

By Joel Seedman, PhD

Squat deadlifts combine the best elements of conventional deadlifts and sumo deadlifts. This variation has no so-called "sticking point". And unlike the other two deadlift styles, this variation maintains tension throughout the entire range of motion.

This deadlift style also has a carryover to squats. Every time you train deadlifts in this way, you are also training squats. Squat deadlifts are also therapeutic in nature. It promotes optimal movement while helping to eliminate dysfunction.

Here's a quick tutorial:

Deadlift with a squat stand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKVw0y4OxRo

1. Keep your feet relatively straight. This position will produce the greatest strength gains.
2. Use a position that is somewhere between a normal squat stance (about shoulder width) and 20% further than a normal squat stance.
3. Similar to sumo deadlifts, your arms and grip should be between your legs. It should feel like the bar is between your feet and your legs instead of in front of them.
4. Your lower body mechanics should be almost identical to low bar squats. Focus on pushing the knees out and keeping the hips as far back as possible while still keeping the chest up. Your back should have a natural, non-excessive flexion of the spine and your head should be in a neutral position.
5. After you have shifted the muscles by loosely pulling on the bar and pretensioning them, you should focus on keeping the spine in position by tensing your latissimus hard.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-use-box-breathing-to-regain-focus

By Brian Alsruhe