If you get enough sleep, a pre workout is unnecessary for the most part. If you need a pick me up, a little caffeine should work fine. Pre-workouts do work, and I use them, but I try to keep it sparing (i.e. only on nights where I am completely exhausted and really need a pick me up, or on nights when I know I'm…

Also, minor pedantic quibble - squats and deadlifts ARE free weight exercises. Do you mean you're just doing dumbbells?

The deadlift is really a lower body exercise. Yes, there are some upper body muscles involved, but the legs are the prime movers. Looked at another way, if you're doing any compound movement correctly, it's a whole body exercise. When you bench in a powerlifting style, you drive your heels down towards the ground…

Great article, but I just want to add - no gloves, never wear gloves.

And to add to this, video taping yourself is the best way to analyze form on the squat and deadlift. Watching yourself in the mirror will only mess you up because the proper positioning for those lifts does not comport with where your head/neck/eyes would be when looking in the mirror. Mirror is totally fine for…

Get stronger first. When you can max over 300 in each, then start using a weight belt. And only for your top sets.

I would say it all depends on your goals and the "trainer" you choose. If you want to be strong, follow a powerlifting program. If you want to be aesthetic, following a bodybuilding program. But, unless you really want to compete as a bodybuilder, you probably don't need to follow a traditional bodybuilding "split,"…

This is generally good advice. However, there are some very good diet plans (for weight training) that involve the strategic use of simple sugars and junk carbohydrates to fuel up for or replenish after a training session (flexible dieting/IIFYM, carb cycling and carb backloading). John Kiefer, Krissy Mae Cagney and…

Did you read the article? It doesn't assume the prior relationship ended poorly or that the target audience is despondent. It's just practical advice on how to handle discussions/questions that may come up. Don't like the content? Just stop reading and move on.

Then use the word "mentally ill" or identify the illness. In all cases, refrain from use of the word "crazy."

I pretty much discounted everything that came after the word "piece."

Gotcha. I was holding out hope for some kind of twist. Since the "real" Spartacus's body was never found, I thought maybe he would survive. A friend and I also came up with the perfect ending we thought might occur. Crassus was killed in real life during a parley with the Parthians in Syria. So we thought, during…

Vengeance was probably the weakest season (still great, though, IMO). But how could you speak ill of War of the Damned?? The tragedy of it all, combined with the epic strategic battle between Sparty and Crassus, made it an incredible season.

Cannot second this enough. I came for the gore and nudity, stayed for the epic, compelling story. Seriously, after the first few episodes, I was barely hanging on, but it ended up being probably my favorite TV show ever (not saying it's objectively the best I've ever seen (although it's up there), just my personal…

You lost me at "Syfy." I so badly want to like everything they put out, but anything I've watched has been middling (Defiance) to terrible (Ascension). I want to watch Twelve Monkeys and (maybe) Helix, but I'm already semi-committed to Defiance and Dominion (I'm hanging by a thread on both, but just enough to keep…

Couldn't bring myself to read the Maze Runner. I did read the wiki entry, and yea, it sounds terrible. On a semi-related note of awful YA fiction that's derivative of much better work, anyone read the Mortal Instruments series? I could barely slog through the first book. Good lord that was terrible (and, like I…

And the answers are frankly pretty stupid.

I read the series too. They made for enjoyable reading, but good lord, the underlying premise/reasoning as to the creation of the faction system, etc. was just ridiculous.

Fair enough. To be honest, I'm mostly familiar with powerlifting programming (and don't know much about marathon training, aside from bits and pieces from a friends that has run a few). There's some wiggle room, but if your program calls for a lighter day (i.e. speed work or rep work) or specific percentage work,…

It also depends on the lift I think. If you're deadlifting, anger can be a big plus - for the most part, you just need to grip it and rip it. Provided you already have good motor patterns ingrained, your form will probably be fine. For a lift like the squat, which is more technical, and requires staying tight and…