It’s Thanksgiving in the United States, but there’s no reason everyone around the world can’t be thankful.

I just wanted to make a quick post explaining how thankful I am for those of you who have supported me, even from the beginning when no one really believed in me.

I love fitness and nothing makes me happy to learn something new and share it with you. So I just wanted to say “Thanks”.

I’ve got a long weekend off from work so I will be up late every night working on some cool gifts for you guys.

Actually… I was up until 4:30am last night working on something BIG and I’ve got a few other projects that I will be working on for the next few days and guess what? they’re all absolutely free. Just my way of saying “Thanks”.

What Are You Thankful For?

P.S — Since this is a fitness site I should probably say something about eating healthy and not gaining holiday weight right? For many people, the opportunity to spend time with friends and family only happens once or twice a year. Enjoy yourselves, just don’t overdo it.

P.S #2 — If you’re seriously concerned about holiday weight gain, I’m not the guy to talk to. Joel Marion Is. His “Cheat Your Way Thin” Program is all about losing weight over the Holidays rather than gaining weight over the holidays. The best thing is, hes offering a special discount for the next 10 hours that gives you more than 50% off. Sorry I didn’t tell you guys about this sooner, but the product is so big and there are so many people who have success with it that I wouldn’t mind paying the full price. If it sounds like a fit for you, I highly recommend you check it out:
Joel Marion’s Cheat Your Way Thin

Have a great thanks giving! I’m headed out with some friends and family. Don’t forget to tell me what you’re thankful for.

This post was inspired by the incredible muscle soreness I experienced this week after an insane back workout.

The dead lifts the trick.

Muscle soreness is a big issue for fitness beginner’s. Luckily for you, I’ve got a few tips and tricks for muscle soreness relief.

But… before we get into that, let’s take a look at what muscle soreness is, why do our muscles get sore?, is muscle soreness a good sign? and finally

how the hell to get get rid of it.

Why Do Our Muscles Get Sore?

It is commonly believed that muscle soreness is a result of built up lactic acid in your muscles. However, that is untrue! Muscle soreness is a very simple concept… when you workout, you damage muscle fibers. The damage muscle fibers become fatigued and weakened. As a result you will experience stiff and sore muscles until your body has done it’s magic and repaired the damaged muscle fibers.

Is Muscle Soreness A Good Sign?

When you get a kick ass workout in the next day you may be sore or you may not be sore. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, after a hard back workout with heavy dead lifts my entire body was aching. Was this a good sign? Not necessarily. It very well could have been a bad sign telling me that I over trained. However, I know my body and I knew it was just a result of a hard workout. I knew it wasn’t a bad sign and I didn’t injure myself. My body was extra sore simply because I had not done deadlifts in a while and my body was not used to doing them. That is when you will experience the most muscle soreness… when you do something that your body isn’t familiar with.

I know this is getting confusing… but the answer is simple; No. Muscle soreness is not an effective indicator of whether or not you got a good workout in. It’s simply your bodies way of telling you “Hey, I’m not used to that! What the hell is going on?”

I have had plenty of really great workouts where I did not feel sore the next day. And to be quite honest, I’ve had some really terrible workouts where I was sore the next day. I think the whole “If I’m sore it means I got an awesome workout in” is just a guy thing.

How To Get Rid of Muscle Soreness

1. Stretching - Post workout stretching is the simplest way to prevent next day muscle soreness and let’s be honest, most people don’t stretch nearly as much as they should. Try it out. If you’re anything like me your legs are killing the next day. Make sure to stretch your calves especially or you will be walking on your tippy toes.

2. Massage – If you’re married or in a relationship you’re in luck. You’ve got your own personal masseuses Seriously though, massages are a great way to releive sore muscles

3. Hot Showers/Baths - If you’ve never laid in a hot bath the night of a hard workout you’re missing out. Guys, baths aren’t only for women, but if you can’t get over the macho-syndrome then a hot shower will do. Better yet, do you have access to a hot tub? I wish I did.

4. Work it out – Gently work out your sore muscle and it will begin to relieve itself of any soreness. For me, calves are the worse muscle to get sore. I can barley walk… so what do I do? I walk… It gets the blood flowing and naturally stretches the sore muscle. Of course, I do it gently and start off slowly.

5. Work Out More - Remember when I said that your body is more likely to become sore when you perform unfamiliar exercises? If you familiarize your body with exercise and fitness what do you think is going to happen? In a few months you will not be half as sore as you used to be. When I first started training I remember my entire body aching when I was only working out 2-3 times each week. Now, I train 4-5x a week and soreness is not nearly as common as it used to be. To be perfectly honest, I only have to worry about muscle soreness when I train legs or when I decide to throw a curve ball at my body and do something unfamiliar or an exercise I haven’t done in a while (like the dead lifts)

That’s all I’ve got for relieving muscle soreness.

If you have got any muscle soreness relief tips or tricks I’d appreciate you letting me and all of the other readers know by leaving a comment. Thanks.

I’ve been being a bit selfish lately and posting a lot of muscle building / guy stuff. No disrespect was meant ladies!

This post a little more generic… it applies to anybody and everybody. What I’m talking about is fat burning tips and in this post I’m going to give you 14 of ‘em.

Check it out and post a comment letting me know what you think.

1. Burn more calories than you consume. – It’s the only way to effectively approach fat loss.
2. Exercise Daily – For at least 30 minutes every day you should perform some type of exercise. Everyone needs their rest days, but you should still get out of the house and at least go for a walk. Basically, don’t just sit on your ass.
3. Rest! I know it sounds contradicting, right? Well most people just don’t get enough rest. Sleep 8 solid hours and you’ll be 10 steps ahead of the competition.
4. Do cardio first thing in the morning. Your glycogen stores are at their lowest and your body will tap into fat stores for energy.
5. Train with weights and build more muscle… after all, nothing beats the hell out of fat like muscle
6. Drink plenty of water. Your body is 75% water… if you’re not taking in enough water, your body won’t be happy!
7. Do Not Starve Yourself! Ladies, this applies to you most of all. Most guys have no problem stuffing their faces… Our problem is we usually stuff it with the wrong foods. I know too many girls who think the fastest way to fat loss is through starvation. Not True! When you starve yourself your body goes starvation mode! This means your body actually preserves fat and sacrifices muscle. This is the opposite of what you are trying to do.
8. Learn how to read nutrition labels. Most people don’t know how.
9. Do not be afraid of fat… Well, healthy fats that is. Yes, there are healthy fats.
10. Eat 5 meals a day.
11. Eat in order from big to small. Breakfast should be your biggest meal and every meal after should get smaller. This is probably a shocker to some of you since most people don’t eat breakfast at all.
12. Avoid sugar, salt, desserts and anything else that you know is bad for you.
13. Download my free fitness report here: “The Better Body Formula“

There you have it. 13 quick, simple and easy to apply fat burning tips. I didn’t want to bore you with this post.

If you’re still having trouble burning fat or if you have any other fat burning tips we can add to this list let us know in the comments!

In the last post I mentioned how my friends want shoulders like Dwight Howard.

Problem is, I went off into a rant about traps and lost focus on the shoulders… Today, I’m making up for that.

First of all, if you don’t know Dwight Howard and his enormous shoulders… check out the image below.

Okay, so SOMEBODY may have edited that image in Photoshop and exaggerated a bit, but still… his shoulders are pretty damn big.

So you want big shoulders like Dwight Howard, but you don’t know how to get them. Right?

It’s just a matter of the exercises you do, how you do them and how often you switch them up.

Here are the big, big shoulder building exercises:

Barbell Military Press

Clean and Press

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Here are the little, big shoulder building exercises

Front Dumbbell Raises

Side Lateral Dumbbell Raises

Seated, Bent Over, Side Lateral Dumbbell Raises

Front Cable Shoulder Raises

Side Lateral Cable Raises

One Arm Lateral Dumbbell Raises

One Arm Front Dumbbell Raises

One Arm Front Cable Raises

Post Shoulder Workout Burnouts

1.) Grab a light set of dumbbells, 5lbs or so. Raise the dumbbells to the top portion of a side lateral dumbbell raise. Once you get to the top, STOP. Hold the dumbbells straight out at the top for as long as possible. Once you have hit failure drop the dumbbells and you’re done. You can repeat this shoulder burnout as many times as you like. I usually do this 2 or 3 times at the end of some of my shoulder workouts.

2.) Again, use a light set of dumbbells, 10-15lbs or so. Perform 1 rep of front dumbbell raises. Perform 1 rep of side lateral dumbbell raise. Repeat for 15 reps.

The Key To Great Weight Training Results Is Variation and it couldn’t be more true when it comes to shoulder training. When I train a body part like legs I don’t have to switch up my routine nearly as often as I have to switch up my shoulder routine. I can get away with sticking to the same leg routine much longer for some reason. My secret weapon for big shoulders is shoulder training with extreme variation. I literally do something different for shoulders each and every time I train shoulders.

Here is what you do…

Every time you are training shoulders choose (1) big shoulder exercise and (2) little shoulder exercises from the list of shoulder exercises above. This will ensure you have a fresh routine each and every time you train shoulders. No one shoulder workout should be the same. You may be able to get away with doing the same 2 little shoulder exercises for a couple of shoulder workouts, but the 1 big shoulder exercise needs to be swapped out and refreshed with something new EVERY shoulder workout. Perform 6-8 reps with the (1) big shoulder exercise for a total of three sets. Perform 10-12 reps with the (2) little shoulder exercises for a total of three sets each. Make sure the two smaller exercises are hitting your shoulders from different angles. For example, you wouldn’t want both of your smaller exercises to be a variation of front raises.

*Optional* – You can choose to perform one of the shoulder burnout routines at the end of your shoulder workout. If you do not commit to doing this every shoulder workout, don’t worry. I usually do the burnouts every other shoulder workout and sometimes less than that. However, my shoulders feel awesome after one of my workouts where I include the burnout.

Do you guys think you’ve got what it takes to build big Dwight Howard shoulders now?

Let me know in the comments!

I’ve got several friends and a few buddies on facebook who have told me how much they like Dwight Howard’s Shoulders.

In fact, this post was inspired by one of my facebook friends A.J. who wanted to know the answer to that exact question… but before we

get into big shoulders, let’s take a look at what guys really want.

When someone tells me “I want big shoulders” they usually don’t want big shoulders at all. They want big traps (trapezius)

Traps are one of those impressive muscles like your chest, arms, or abs that demand attention. A guy with big traps looks like some sort of intimidating not-to-be-messed-with football player.

So how do you get them? We’ll get into that… but first, what are traps?

Traps (trapezius), are not apart of your shoulder. In fact, your traps are apart of your BACK. However, many guys, including myself include their trap workout as apart of their shoulder training. For me, it’s just a comfort thing. I try to hit back pretty hard and by the time I’m done with a hard back workout  doing shrugs is the last thing I want to do. Your back is a big muscle, your traps are not so big. By working my traps and back out on separate days I allow myself to concentrate more on my back workout. Shoulders are also a relatively small muscle. It doesn’t take much to get an effective shoulder workout, so when I am done training shoulders there is plenty of time and energy available to workout traps.

Yes, I know that is not a football player and not the professional basketball player Dwight Howard. However, Terrel Owens has one of the best male bodies in my opinion and a killer set of traps. This was the perfect picture to use to get you guys to understand the difference between traps and shoulders.

Highly Effective Trap Exercises

Barbell Shrug -

1. Load the barbell with a moderate amount of weight
2. Approach the barbell and stand with at shoulder width
3. Grip the barbell with a medium, shoulder width grip
4. Raise your shoulders towards your ears as if you were a
young child in kindergarten saying “I dunno”

Dumbbell Shrug -

Same procedure as the barbell shrug, but holding dumbbells.

Barbell Upright Row –

1. Load barbell with light to medium amount of weight. This isn’t something

you’ll be able to do with a large amount of weight, but it’s very effective.
2. Approach the barbell and stand with a shoulder width stance.
3. Grasp the barbell with a medium, shoulder width grip.
4. Pull the bar up towards your neck with your elbows leading. Allow your wrists
to flex as the bar raises.

Dwight Howard definitely does have big shoulders, but when someone tells me I want big shoulders… I really think it’s traps they’re looking for. And I just needed to make it clear that traps and shoulders should not get confused. One is apart apart of your back, a completely different area of your body than the other. What do you think? Do you have any tricks or tips that helped you get big shoulders or traps? Let’s hear it… Leave a comment!