Layton's Life Choice

     Today I had a workout set up alongside Brandon McConnell, who is into strength training and powerlifting as well. I love pushing my body to its limits. But I was scared, or maybe I should say, my anxiety was a little high. I knew it would be different than the normal routine of just working up progressively to a set of reps or a certain amount of weight and then just finish out with some assistance exercises.  I knew I was stepping out of my "comfort zone".  That is a lot of our problems as people, we are too afraid to step out of that said comfort zone and grow (and Im not just talking about muscles growing.) We become too content on being complacent and this stagnates our ability to adapt to new things. (I still struggle with it to this day).      As I said, I knew I was stepping outside of my comfort zone and was a bit apprehensive when I got there. The gentleman and his wife were nice to both my brother and I and were very knowled...

         Going to the gym and having the proper mental approach is vital for making progress and strength gains. But what you do outside the gym is just as important, if not more so. (rest, recovery, sleep, etc). But what you put into your body food wise is the key to helping with your gains.  You can not eat junk food and expect to help you gain solid or lean muscle mass or get huge strength gains. You need proper foods that have good protein such as eggs, chicken, tuna, whey protein, red meat and foods with excellent carbohydrates, oats, whole wheat, orange juice, etc.        This also takes a lot of mental approach. I myself am not a huge eater, but I try to have a little something every 2-3 hours (namely what I listed above).  I was in a facebook group for motivational powerlifting and asked the people besides the lifting aspect itself, how many calories, protein, and carbs do they intake a day. A lot of people were g...

Just finished my 10 week program and added 45lbs. to my max. Im pretty happy. Will use the next week to recover and then try to a 5 sets of 3 program for 6-8 weeks. Want to change it up a bit. But I will definitely come back to this 10 week program and figure out the percentages.

     I already posted a piece on what exercises are my least favorite for each body part (which you can read here  http://laytonslifechoice.blogspot.com/2018/05/my-least-favorite-exercises-for-each.html  )  Now I am going to post my favorite exercises for each body part. Here we go!      Chest- Incline Bench.       This was a tough one because I also like dumbbell flyes, but ultimately I like the mass you are able to produce with Incline Presses and the thickness that comes with it.      Legs-  Squats       Very easy as to why. Squatting puts your body in an anabolic state which will help with overall muscle growth. I always enjoyed seeing the results from squats not just in my legs, but my body as a whole after its response to squats.      Back-  Deadlift      While Deadlifts are considered a full body exercise, there is no denyi...

      Hey everyone! I wanted to discuss something that I think is very important for all lifters to know and understand and that is the eccentric part of a lift. I made a video below explaining the benefits and hopefully getting anyone anywhere from a beginner to a more advanced lifter on why the eccentric part of a lift will help with muscle growth! Check it out, share it with others and let me know what you think!                    Why The Eccentric Part Of A Lift Is Important 10 Things you must know about eccentric training  http://main.poliquingroup.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/1575/Ten_Things_You_MUST_Know_About_Eccentric_Training_.aspx

     Just like with anything in life, when you are trying to benefit from something, it can have both a pro and con. And with lifting, wrist straps are the same way. I never used them (mainly because I could never get them to wrap tightly and it just felt unnatural and weird for me) but wanted to share what I believe are both good and the downside of them.      The upside to using them is that your muscles can be focused on more. For example when doing deadlifts or something else such as barbell shrugs you can force out a few more reps which therefore would cause more muscle stimulation, hence allowing for more growth. Another exercise where I once read where you can benefit from using straps is lat pull downs. Basically any exercise that can and will benefit from this will be a pulling movement. Here comes the downside, which Im sure any and all readers will see as obvious, it can weaken your grip strength.      As I said I...