Inside the Athlete

This is Arnold; he was strong. Yes, we all know that, as we've seen the movies...but where did the big muscles come from? There are many paths to big muscles, but one of Arnold's biggest [not so secret] secrets was his usage of 'supersets', or 'antagonist sets.' A superset is very easy to perform [on paper], takes a lot of effort and mental fortitude, and adds a massive amount of volume to your workout. Arnold often credits his 'pump' to supersetting. Here is [my take] on how you should perform supersets: Key Terms: Antagonist Muscles Antagonist Muscles are polar opposite muscles. Think: biceps - triceps, back - chest, etc. The key to supersetting is to create a high tempo workout. There is essentially zero rest in a superset based workout. Often times you will see people in the gym sitting, chilling in between sets, 'resting'. Supersetting doesn't subscribe to this. A high tempo workout wants to repurpose your rest time into an e...

Meet Ilana Kratysh - Israel's first Olympic Female Wrestler. Claim to fame: Multiple medalist in major international competition. Ilana's story strikes a nerve for two reasons: she has pioneered two rare paths: women's wrestling and Israeli wrestling. Israeli Wrestling The entire focus of this blog is to promote new ground and insights from the fitness world, with a special emphasis placed on Israeli sport and fitness. Israel is finally starting to shine bright athletically, and this blog will serve to highlight Israeli athletic achievement and innovation. Today in Israel, athletics are finally growing at a rapid pace. Wingate Institute is churning out research, athletes, trainers, etc. at an impressive rate, gym culture is developing, and athletes are showing up at prestigious international events. One sport that Israel is finally starting to invest in is Olympic (real) Wrestling. Israelis are starting to appear at international events, in pursuit of the fabled...

Meet Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, Israel's most accomplished runner. Claim to fame: Tokyo Marathon 2020 Gold - 2:17:45 ...Let me put Lonah's accomplishment into perspective for you. For a runner to run 26.2 miles (marathon) in just over 2 and a quarter hours, you would need to run each mile in under 5 and a half minutes. The 'average' runner can run ONE mile in about 6-7 minutes. Once you incorporate a run composed of many miles (5, 10, 21k) that time comes down considerably. An intermediate 5k time is under 25 minutes (sub-8 minute mile average). So how does Lonah [and all of the other elite runners] sustain such an effort?! We can attribute at least some of this success to '5' factors: 1) Vo2max 2) Training 3) Aerobic System 4) Volume 5) Diet Vo2Max Vo2max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption measured during incremental exercise; that is, exercise of increasing intensity. In layman's terms, vo2max is a metric that determines how efficient your ...