Stress control

It's inevitable that so long as you're still breathing and actually living life, that stress is going to be a part of it.  There's a saying that goes "life's a bitch, and then you die."

I don't buy that entirely, as life isn't ALWAYS a bitch but it has some bitchassness moments.

Stress is unavoidable sometimes.  And for those who still adhere to a great diet, and exercise, and say their prayers and take their vitamins, the results of stress can eventually be fatal.

Stress indeed, can kill you.

Yeah there's the people that get trapped under vending machines, get eaten by apex predators, get killed in car wrecks, get machete hacked in third world countries, get set on fire, kill themselves (wait, that's probably stress related), get bitten in the femoral artery by beavers and bleed out in minutes, get bitten by snakes, get ran over by various machinery, have pool tables fall on them from five stories up, drown in their own vomit, get shot to death, get beheaded by ISIS, are eaten by piranha's, burst into flames from spontaneous combustion,  die from dehydration....and starvation, get blown up in their meth lab, are bludgeoned to death, get stomped to death by elephants, do that thing where they try to masturbate while hanging themselves and fuck it all up, etc.

Anyway, lots of ways to die obviously.

But for most of us, stress can indeed play a large part in how we go.

Stress and how we react to it, and create it - 

We all know that one person who doesn't seem to get bent out of shape or stressed out about much of anything.

We also know that person who seems to stress over every single minute thing in their life.  That OCD maniac who can't handle you folding up a road map improperly.

Some people let things slide right off of them and have no trouble letting go rather easily.  Others have more trouble with doing so.

Most of this seems to be genetic.  Some people are more naturally laid back, and other people are uncontrollable maniacs.

The mayo clinic tells us this is what happens when we get stressed the fuck out....

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037

Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.

Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. This complex natural alarm system also communicates with regions of your brain that control mood, motivation and fear.
For the most part, how we react to stress is is driven both from a genetic standpoint, and from an association and experience standpoint.  Stress is also self induced at times based on how we decide to handle a situation.

We can't help the genetic part.  Some of us are going to stress a bit more or less over situations than others.  However the degree to which we decide to stress is entirely up to us.

I used to get very irritable when I had to wait in long lines, or when traffic sucked, or when I felt like I was being terribly inconvenienced by "life".  This kind of stress, is self induced.

Over the last many months I have tried to make a more conscious effort to not let those things irritate me, and ruin my day.

For example....

The other day I was driving through a strip mall and the traffic was incredibly congested.  A new Ikea store had opened near by and people were parking all over to get to it.  This guy in a van was trying to get out of the parking lot and ends up pulling out way too far on the road instead of just waiting for an opening in traffic.  I hold my hands up like "what are you doing?" and he proceeds to flip me off.

Every part of me, in that split moment, wanted to slam on my brakes and get out of the car and put the fear of God in that guy.  And I've done that before.  After all, he disrespected me right?

Nah, not really.  He doesn't know me.  I could only be as disrespected by getting flipped off as I wanted to allow.  He didn't spit in my face, or insult my kids.  He flipped me off.  You know, common traffic sign language for "you suck" or "I don't agree with you right now."

I took a deep breath and told myself "its not worth ruining part of your day over."  Maybe that guy had a really shitty day, and maybe he's been stuck there for a long time and hasn't developed the reasoning I'm talking about here.  To just say "hey, it's traffic, I'll get out at some point."  So instead of making my day worse, and his day worse, I let it slide.  Did it take some work?  Yes.  But in a few minutes I was fine and didn't give a shit.

I made a conscious choice not to create a stressful situation in my life simply by "letting go".  He flipped me off.  Big fucking deal.

Most of us don't realize that we create the greatest amount of stress in our own life.  We decide to be stressed.  We make a choice to.

I once heard a guy say that "90% of the things we worry about never come to fruition."

I'm not sure where he got that statistical information from, but if you really stop and think about it for a moment, it at least "feels" true.

Most of the things we fret about in life don't come to pass.  Yet many of us still sit around and take up valuable time in our life worrying over if it will.

A friend of mine once sent me a flow chart for understanding when to worry.  I still look at it now and then, and it makes me laugh and keep things in perspective.

This flowchart is very logical.  But it does require us to consciously exercise our own ability to let things go.  No different than ol boy flipping me off in traffic.

"Do you have a problem?"

"Well this guy just flipped me off!"

"Is that REALLY a problem?"

".........................no."

"Then don't let it stress you out."

Many of the "problems" or "stresses" we have in our life, we simply create.


The consequences of stress - 

From this article, "stress kills the mind one day at a time"

participants who reported the most negative reactions to stress 10 years earlier were those with the highest incidence of depression and anxiety. In particular, participants who experienced more “bleed over” stress from day to day (in other words, stress from one day continued to fuel negative reactions on subsequent days) were most likely to suffer from depression and anxiety 10 years later.
For my Captain Obvious quote of the day, stress adds up over time, and can destroy your joy and happiness.  And eventually, your life.

The article essentially repeats what I wrote about above.

Aside from reinforcing an intuitive understanding that our reactions to stressful situations can make all the difference, this study makes a strong case for “letting go” of negativity. Everyone is going to experience negative feelings in response to tough situations at work, home or anywhere else, but letting those feelings linger day after day has long-term consequences for our minds.

How personal stress can effect our training - 

Training itself, is a type of stress.  And requires systemic and localized recovery to....errrr, recover from.

If you think of stress as one big factor, then personal stress will indeed impact training in many ways.

From webmd.........

http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms-effects_of-stress-on-the-body

Physical symptoms of stress include:
Low energy
Headaches
Upset stomach, including diarrhea, constipation, and nausea
Aches, pains, and tense muscles
Chest pain and rapid heartbeat
Insomnia
Frequent colds and infections
Loss of sexual desire and/or ability
Nervousness and shaking, ringing in the ear, cold or sweaty hands and feet
Dry mouth and difficulty swallowing
Clenched jaw and grinding teeth

None of these things sound beneficial to optimizing training.  I do know that some people have told me they train better when life is in the shitter, because the gym is an outlet for them, and being pissed off helps.  I'm not one of them.  I tend to train best when life is going best.  And I tend to have shitty training shitty when life seems shitty.  

Regardless of that, remember to limit external gym stress by consciously acknowledging whether or not you should make a choice to let something stress you out.  The lower the stress factor in your personal life, the more "recovery" time you have to grow, and get better in the gym.


Stress association and emotional trauma - 

For those who have suffered traumatic experiences, it can require a lot more than simply making a choice to "let it go."

For those that have experienced terrible childhood trauma or have been in war, it can be far more difficult than making a mental note to "let it go."

According to the department of Veteran's affairs, an average of 22 vets take their own life each day.  That's over 2000 a year.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/how-can-government-battle-a-suicide-epidemic-among-veterans-20140403

We deal with the things we can process in our life, and the parts we can't, get fragmented off because we don't know how.  Those are the pieces that have to be addressed for those suffering from serious  emotional trauma.  If they don't, then generally unhealthy coping mechanisms are formed.  And that's the manifestation of stress, and the inability to deal with said stress.  Things such as drug addiction, alcoholism, and other habits are commonly formed by those suffering from emotional trauma that is left untreated.

For those suffering from severe emotional trauma, professional help is needed.  And will generally be needed for the rest of their life.  It also behooves that person to surround themselves with a strong support system.  That may mean opening up to close friends and family, or finding a good support group to attend meetings with.  If you are suffering from this kind of stress, don't ignore it.  The longer it goes left untreated, the worse the manifestations will become.

For veterans, I urge them to take this seriously.  My father suffered from PTSD from Vietnam and his suffering from it caused great suffering to those around him as well.

If you are a vet, and are struggling check out this link.  If you know a vet that is struggling, or you think needs help, please direct them to this information.......

http://veteranscrisisline.net/

1-800-273-8255 - press 1



In the end... - 

In the end, we all end up in the same place.  How we choose to live our life is for the most part, entirely up to us.  No, we can't choose our parents, and we don't often get to control certain environments.  And life often presents us with situations that we didn't ask for, or were entirely out of our hands.  However, we do get to decide how we are going to react to those situations, and how much we decide we are going to let it effect us, and stress us.

Life is indeed a bitch sometimes.  There's no getting around that.  We do get to decide however, the extent we are going to bitch about it, and act like a bitch about it.  That's entirely up to us.  Or we can say getting flipped off by a dude in a minivan really isn't a big deal in the grand scheme in life, and simple be on our way.

Its your choice.


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Smash weights....hurt feelings close out sale

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"Worthless" movements

I asked a question on the LRB facebook page what everyone thought a "dumb" exercise was.

I gave my response to some of the ones listed.  Here it is.......

First off, I think a movement is only "worthless" based on a few things.

1. If you don't know WHY you're doing it. Doing it because "I saw some jacked/strong dude doing it" is not a reason.

That's really it. So that's not a "few" that's one.

Any movement can be useful, IF you know why you are doing it, i.e. have a specific reason. In other words, to rehab something, bring up a weak bodypart, or to help another movement. That's what all movements really do.

Now this doesn't mean that every movement is "good". There can be movements that would help you more than the one you are doing, even if you know why you are doing it.

So here is my opinion on some of the answers given.

1. Smith machine squats - Bodybuilders have used these for years to bring up weak quads. Dorian Yates stuck with barbell squats for years, and found they never did anything for his quad development. John Meadows also likes smith machine squats for the same reason. If you get your feet out in front of you, you can actually use this movement to really target the quads very effectively. Remember guys, not everyone in the gym is trying to become a youtube champion on squats, deadlifts, and benches. There's a whole other group of people out there that lift weights that compete in you know....bodybuilding.

2. Tricep kickbacks - If you have wrecked elbows you can use these pain free. The drawback with them, as I've mentioned before, is that there is only tension in the very last part of the movement. Nevertheless, if you have great bad elbows, these can at least be an option for tricep work.

3. Throwing punches in the cable crossover machine - Yes, pretty stupid. Punching power actually comes from the torque in your hips. Not from your arms.

4. Weighted side bends holding weight on both sides - Uh yeah, pretty stupid. The whole point is to strengthen the obliques. When you hold weight in both hands, one hand is counteracting the weight in the other hand. So basically, you're not really doing anything.

5. Decline bench - It's just a press. Incline, decline, flat, etc can all be used as pressing alternatives. It's possible that someone can decline bench without pec or shoulder pain if it was sustained in another pressing movement. So it may be an option in that regard. I actually feel more pec contraction in decline pressing, however I don't use it because.....well, I don't.

6. Skull crushers - Will def wreck your elbows over time. I bought into the whole "won't happen to me" thing for a long time. Happened to me too.

7. Leg Press on the smith machine - Can't really get into this or make a case for it. If you don't have a leg press and want to leg press, find a gym with a leg press.

8. Lying cable curls - The only case I can make for this is variety.

9. Rotator cuff exercises - These are great. Everyone should do cuff work.

10. Accommodating resistance for RAW lifters - I know a lot of raw guys do use accommodating resistance but I personally don't see a need for it. Especially bands or reverse band work. In raw lifting, the strength curve is hard at the bottom, and easier at the top. When you add bands you're not making the bottom harder. I can see chains being used more effectively for raw guys. But not bands.

11. Calf machines - Definitely useful for the bodybuilder. If you want to make them "work better", hold the stretch position at the bottom for 5 seconds, and THEN come up. Talk to me after. That's how I built my calves into cows.

12. Dumbbell flyes - Very good movement if used properly. It makes the pec actually perform its primary motion. Which is to bring the humerus across the chest.

13. The good girl bad girl machine at the gym, for inner and outer thighs - Very good machines if used properly. I used the good girl machine to rehab a torn adductor, and stayed with it long enough so that I stopped straining my adductor. The bad girl machine is great at teaching people how to fire their glute medius. It's a similar motion that you perform descending into a squat. For people with knee cave, it means they aren't pushing out and getting the glutes involved enough.

14. Sissy squats - Great at recruiting the VMO. Can be hard on some peoples knees, but if you are lacking in the VMO they will put some teardrop muscle on you quickly. Hard as fuck too.

15. Heavy good mornings - Horrible and stupid. Great way to fuck up your back. And I've never seen a good morning as part of a powerlifting meet or strongman comp. Light good mornings done with an emphasis on stretching the glutes and hams are fantastic. Heavy good morning where there is too much of a hip drop and knee bend are fairly dumb. Just my opinion.

16. Sumo Deadlift High Pulls - Dumb.

17. Kipping pullups - Beyond dumb.

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Why kids are fatter

When I was in my youth, I'm pretty positive we ate all the junk and drank all the coke that most kids eat and drink today.

During summer, I can remember breakfast being cinnamon rolls, then lunch being some gas station sandwich, a snickers, a bag of chips, and a Dr. Pepper. When it got late, I'd go home and eat dinner. Possibly staying up late eating more potato chips and junk as well.

Now don't get me wrong, my mom cooked plenty of healthy meals too. In fact, looking back I realize just how healthy my mom did cook most of the time. Baked chicken, lean cuts of red meat, vegetables, and garden raised vegetables were usually the norm. But my diet was full of junk too.

In the school year, we ate the same shitty cafeteria food that I think most kids get today. That god damn square pizza or hamburgers that surely couldn't have been beef (I believe it was soy burgers). Loaded down with mayo and then an assortment of diabeetus and heart clenching side foods.

Yet, I don't remember having many fat friends. Yeah, we had a fatty here or there in class, but it was few and far between.

The common thinking, from what I have seen fairly often in regards to all of this, is that we need to feed our kids healthier meals.  And I agree with that for the most part.  However, there is probably a bigger culprit here.

Its really as simple as this, in my opinion.  Kids just aren't very active these days.  

See, during those summers when I was shoveling down snickers bars and root beer and Dr. Pepper and staying up late at night eating whole bags of Oreo cookies, I had also spent the entire day riding my bike, climbing trees and water towers (yes, water towers).  Often times, I had rode my bike somewhere to do some other activity.  Like play baseball with my friends, or tackle football (in the South we played tackle without pads all summer because two-hand-touch or flag football was for pussies).  

I also had a trampoline and sometimes we'd jump on that god damn thing for hours on end.  When school rolled around, we played football, and baseball, and basketball.  We still had "PE" (physical education class) where we had to run, and do sit ups, and chin ups, and play dodge ball.  We had long recesses where we'd play kick ball, or see who could swing down the monkey bars the most times without falling off.  

Then when we got out of school, we'd still get on our bikes and go climb shit all day again.  Instead of riding the bus, Barry Poole and I used to walk to school.  It was probably only a mile and a half but add it up.  After a whole day of activity at school, that's three miles of walking.  Sometimes after school you might have been challenged to a good ol fist fight.  And that would burn some calories too because you'd wrestle around and perform some WWE style shit for 10 or 15 minutes before someone FINALLY threw a punch that landed and then the recipient of said punch would be like "ok, bro you win."  And you'd shake hands and be buddies after that. 

We needed that junk and those extra calories to grow.  We needed it because our days were very energy demanding.  

We had video games too.  And when a buddy would stay over, we'd stay up most of the night playing and of course, eating more junk.  But we didn't sit around for 6 hours the next day kicking ass at Mario Brothers.  We were out causing trouble somewhere.  

Listen, this isn't just me having revisionist history about my youth.  This study showed that kids nowadays, on average, are fatter and slower now than my generation was in our youth.  

My own thoughts in this article are backed up in this study. 

"Kids aren't getting enough opportunities to build up that activity over the course of the day," Daniels said. "Many schools, for economic reasons, don't have any physical education at all. Some rely on recess" to provide exercise.

That's right, some school don't have PE AT ALL.  Think about that for a minute.  So kids go to school, sit in class all fucking day, and really don't get to move very much at all.  Then when most of these kids leave school, they go home, play some gaming console for hours on end, or get on social networking sites, or play on their smart phones, and literally don't move most of the day.  Unfortunately, a lot of these kids aren't as lucky as I was in that their parents aren't cooking "healthy meals" either.  I know because my kids tell me about what is served in other houses when they go stay the night with friends.  

Most homes now, if both parents are present (which is another topic all together), both work and often order pizza or grab some fast food for dinner.  If they do cook, it's generally a high fat and high carbohydrate laden meal because hey, that shit tastes good and "that's what my kids like to eat."  

We as a society have changed monumentally since my youth.  And from a health standpoint, not in a good way.  Technology is a fine thing but it's most certainly played a part in "baby sitting" our youth and with an ever increasing pressure to up academic standards, things like "PE" have fallen to the wayside.  

These trend for many continues on into college.  

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20090728/freshman-15-college-weight-gain-is-real

Those who gained at least 5% of their body weight reported less physical activity during their first semester at college than in high school and were more likely to eat breakfast and slept more than those who didn’t gain as much.

LESS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY?

LESS?!?!?

Just taking a guess here, what this may mean is, the kids who were required to perform in physical education class in high school, got to college, did no physical activities, and gained more fat.  

Awesome.

So what's the remedy here?  

Obviously there needs to be a bigger emphasis on physical education in schools again.  There has to be a way to take advantage of all this new technology to get kids more interested in being active again.  Or at least being more active in school.  The problem is, as noted, because of budget issues and funding many schools can't even afford a god damn physical education instructor.  Once again, back full circle, because all of the money goes into academics.  

Schools would have to have a paradigm shift in order to change a lot of this.  They would have to put a bigger emphasis on making sure that these programs do not fall to the wayside due to budget or funding constraints.  And I do believe if they wanted to do that, it would be possible.  Fund raising and finding sponsors for such things are viable options.  The problem is, we also have a generation of adults that are fatter than ever, and often don't see a need for pouring money into such programs.  So they don't get involved.  After all, the obese parents are a part of why the child is obese as well.  

Not only that, the parents themselves would need to grasp the importance of having physically active kids, by simply becoming more active as well.  Taking a walk to the park with their kids, or playing kick ball not only provides for fun family time, but makes being active a lot more enjoyable.  And if the kids enjoy doing something, they will likely want to do it more often.  My Captain Obvious quote in full glory with that last sentence.  

Until we decide that physical fitness and simply "moving more" constantly gets applied to that "eating less" mantra, things won't change a whole lot.  It's not that we are just fatter as a nation, but we are instilling habits in our kids to ensure that their kids will be fatter, and the cycle will continue.  I'm all for education, but our health doesn't and SHOULDN'T take a backseat to it at every turn.  

If you're an adult that has slacking in the physical activity department, then go buy a bike with your kid and ride bikes together.  Buy a football and baseballs and play catch together.  Get involved with your school if there is no physical education program.  I'm lucky enough to live in an area where not only do they emphasize it, but so much so that the kids have options for physical education classes.  

If you're not that lucky then become a part of the solution in some way.  I can't tell you how many stories I've heard from people who lost weight as adults, and talked about how miserable it was to be a fat kid.

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"Experts" and what really matters

I used to dabble in the stock market.

I would do all the shit most people do, and research various stocks and look at projections and keep up with the ebb and flow of the market each day.

I'd win some here, lose a lot there.  You know, the usual shit for a day trader who didn't know his head from his ass.

I have a very solid feeling I'm not alone in that regard.  My guess is, a great majority of guys that have done day trading don't do as well as they would hope, and aren't having their Bentley detailed at this very moment because of their prowess as a day trader.

I never considered myself to be that smart about all that shit.  Despite the fact that I spent hours and hours researching and studying about it.  Mainly because I've always felt like being good at something was proven through the manifestations of that knowledge.  If I were really smart about stocks like say Warren Buffet is, then I'd have made a lot of money.

I had a close friend that fancied himself to be very educated in the stock market.  His knowledge and research surpassed my own by a country mile.  Yet his success in regards to making money in that field didn't look a whole lot different.

That's the funny thing about knowledge isn't it?  Unless you can prove that it's applicable, sustainable, repeatable, and that it flat out "works", what good is it?

There's been a huge shift lately in the strength and physique culture, where guys that are incredibly educated are being put at the forefront as experts in their fields because of studies and research.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against studies at all.  In fact, I read tons of them.  And at times, I do learn a thing here or there.  I'm not knocking science or studies here.  Studies are fine.  Knowledge is always a great thing.

However my issue is, "where is the money to show for how smart they are at trading stocks?"

"Experts" that claim to have all the answers in regards to hypertrophy, that have no appreciable amount visible muscle mass.

"Experts" that talk about their knowledge in strength development, who aren't much stronger than the average gym bro that's curling and benching all week.

"Experts" rocking a greater than 20% bodyfat, that have never been lean a day in their life who can tell you what it takes to "get shredded."

If a virgin told me that he had learned all the secrets of love making and seducing women because he picked the brain of the thousand best love makers in the world I'd still look at him and say "you've still never been laid."  He may "know" that the average woman wants to have sex two to four times a week at 35 minutes a shot (I'm totally making that statistic up) but if he can't perform at those levels because a lack of experience is preventing him from it, then that knowledge isn't doing him a lot of good.  In other words, he can't speak of his experience with that knowledge because he doesn't have it.  Not only that, maybe he finds out that the women he is with want sex more, or less.  Both in frequency and duration, and those studies don't really apply.

Having knowledge is not enough.   There is that massive, massive hands on component that allows you to distinguish between what looks good on paper and what works in reality.  If you don't have that part of it all, and that experience with it...then sorry, but your advice is useless to me.  Some people may not like that but that's really just how it is.

I will give you an example.

A program or routine may get used in a study to show massive hypertrohpy as a result of its use.  But if the majority of the people that use it find it mind numbing boring, most won't stick to it for very long.  A very big part of training for most people is in fact, the enjoyment of it.  After all, people that don't enjoy doing something won't keep doing it for very long most of the time, unless they are totally into self loathing.  A training methodology generally has to resonate with the person using it.  People end up sticking to certain programs or sets and rep schemes because at the most basic level, they like it.  And there's something to be said for that part of training.

A while back I did 100 rep sets of barbell curls.  Well I read that it shouldn't work, and had no merit, and basically that is was "stupid".  You know what?  My arms grew.  And grew fast.  And there were a lot of guys that tried it, but never did it long enough to see the results from it.  You know why?  Because they hated it.  It was painful.  And at times, very monotonous. If a study had been done to show that 100 rep barbell curls were the single most superior way to build big biceps fast, it doesn't mean everyone is going to do it.  More times than not, people gravitate in life and in training to things that speak to them.  Not things proven in studies.

I mean, at some point you have to just lay the fucking studies and text aside and go into the gym and kick your own ass for years on end.  That's where you're going to find your own personal knowledge.

So as not to leave anyone out, I can't just single out the "experts" in their field as the sole violators of this issue.

Message boards are even worse, really.  Full of guys that understand physiology and kinesiology to a degree that would make a well qualified Physical Therapist blush with embarrassment through their master copy/paste skills.  All the while sporting 13" arms and 315 pound max squats, with less than 5 years of training under their belt.

These same neophytes spend their days arguing with or berating guys who are strong, have the experience and the knowledge, but scoff at what they write or say because....well, I honestly don't completely know.  To argue for the sake of arguing, maybe?  Pick apart a single sentence in an entire article?  Their life sucks?  Who knows.  All I know is, if back when I started I had the access to the knowledge those guys do today, I probably wouldn't have spent time arguing on the net with guys that had paid their dues, and understand what works.  But most people don't really want to be educated.  They just want to be "right".

Now let me be clear about the flip side of things as well.  Just because a dude is jacked or strong doesn't mean he's knowledgeable or "wise" either.  I want to be very clear on that.  I have said this many times in the past.  Just because a guy is elite level strong, or pro-bodybuilder level big, doesn't mean he's going to have the keys to the muscular and strength kingdom.  Ronnie Coleman probably isn't going to be able to relate to the guy that busted his ass for 10 years to gain 20 pounds of lean mass.  Ronnie grew from virtually anything he did.  So I'm not sure what he could offer to a guy on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to building muscle mass.  In all honestly, probably not a whole lot.

The guy that can step onto a track, and bust off a 10 second 100 meter the first time he tries it doesn't have some secretive insight as how to run fast.  He just does.

A guy doesn't need to be an elite world record holder in order to know and understand what it takes to get strong, however.  But I do believe that he should have an appreciable level of strength.  And a guy that talks about what it takes to get big, should have an appreciable level of mass.

The fact is, an "expert" in his field needs a bit of all of the things listed above.  Knowledge, experience, application, and the ability to mesh all of those qualities together to really understand the process of what delivers results.  Simply said...he or she simply knows what "works".  After all, isn't knowing what works what REALLY matters?

Guys who know very little tend to believe they know a whole lot.  But argue more than everyone else.  The "expert" probably doesn't consider himself an expert at all.  That's because the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know as much as you thought you did.

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1000 rep arm workout

I did the 1000 rep arm workout that Matt Kroc laid out in T-Nation.  I did a little video of some of it.  Lasted about 2 hours.

Enjoy.