Amped Training

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I Am Not Serious Because...

Are you serious about getting in shape? Are you serious about training your clients, or coaching your team?

Awesome.

What about the people that are Not Serious? 

Apparently, that is what happens when you don't feel the need to shell out $49.99 (for the next 10 minutes!) for every latest Guru scam-tactic. 

The logic here is that any trainer or coach worth his or her salt would be head over heels about learning new things.

This is true. 

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Happy (Late) New Years

Welcome back folks. Been a little dead around here lately. Hatin' hit a lull around the holidays, but with the new year brings new opportunities to make fun of all the stupid crap people try to pull off. 

Rest assured, 2008 will be chock-full of good solid hatin' and maybe even a little useful tidbits coming through.

Watch this space.  

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Nuggets of Vitriol - November 1, 2007 

Why I Call Bullshit On Things That Work

From time to time (ok, constantly) I catch flak from people for hating on something that has given Person X clear and obvious results. Then Person Y will chime in and say the same. Before you know it, it's a huge e-fight.

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Critical Thinking and Evaluating Information

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Anabolic Steroid Users Are Educated, Older Professionals, Study Says

Recently a new study was released regarding the characteristics of anabolic steroid users.

The conclusions, while shocking to some, are hardly surprising. Most users of anabolic steroids are not elite athletes, nor do they meet the image of the desperate addict to recreational narcotics. They're also not the poor children that have been used to justify the USA's ban on anabolic compounds.

No, in fact, the average steroid user is a different and, to many a surprising, animal: approximately 30 years old, well-educated, earning above average income in white-collar jobs. Most reported that they were not involved in any athletic competition, nor did they use the drugs as teenagers.

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Anabolic Steroids and Drug Prohibition 

Anabolic steroids are a tricky subject.

On the one hand, they're illegal, and most of you have been told your entire lives that these drugs are harmful if not deadly, that they have no value, and only cheaters would use them.

Like it or not, you've been lied to. About the drugs and what they do, about who uses them, about realistic effects (desirable or otherwise).

You've been lied to by a largely uneducated legislature that has given in to the demands of sport.

This has many obvious issues with the foundation of America itself, in the concept of individual liberty so long as it does not infringe on the rights of another.   

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Machines vs. Free Weights: A Problem of Context

This is one of the oldest and most frequently debated subjects in the field of weight training.

As per the status quo in these arguments, you have camps that are polarized on both sides of the issue.

I'll give a little summary of each side, then throw in the Common Sense outlook.

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Adrenal Fatigue: A Quack Disease for the New Millennium

Adrenal fatigue is the new fad for all the quack doctors and fitness trainers of the modern day. Just don't ask anybody with medical training.

Why, you may ask? Well, when this first started cropping up as the Next Big Thing, I did a little checking around on Google, and the top results were from a doctor yes, but not in the way you might think. The results belonged to one Dr. James Wilson. More accurately, his website designed will all the standard Inner Circle Marketing cliches.

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Just to let everyone know that was wondering about it, in lieu of trying to start up and run my own board which is inevitably a pain in the ass, I've paired up with my long-time friend Kyle Coleman to start something new, over at www.strengthmill.com

Some of you might know Kyle better by the screen name Fortified Iron, a former owner/admin of the site by the same name.

We've started up Strength Mill, which is essentially the YouTube of strength and fitness. You create your own account and upload your videos to share.

Since I'm helping to admin the forum there, it's just going to be easier to consider that the AMP Training home.

We've got Mark Rippetoe (author of Starting Strength and Practical Programming, two books you need to own if you don't already) doing a Q&A spot in his own forum, and we're looking to add more to it all the time. 

So go sign up.  Now.

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Block Training for Bodybuilders

For those folks out there that don't know, Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky who is considered one of the fathers of Russian sports science, has a new website up at www.verkhoshansky.com that contains a lot of his articles (some translated, some not). 

This is not exactly light reading, mind you, but if you're a sports science geek (like I am), you'll find it pretty interesting to read through. 

It just happens that he's got a forum up on his site as well, and with the help of his translator, Prof. Verkoshansky has had a lot of interesting things to say.

The big one has been shooting down all the terminology-wankers that are constantly screaming "Westside isn't conjugate!!!!" He clarified that the "conjugate method" used by WSB is not the same thing as the conjugate-sequence system he spoke about, but that it really doesn't matter in the final outcome.