A Very True Poem

“Down the road, in a gym far away
A young man was heard to say

“No matter what I do, my legs won’t grow!”

He tried leg extensions, leg curls, leg presses too
Trying to cheat, these sissy workouts he’d do!

 From the corner of the gym where the big guys train
Through a cloud of chalk and the midst of pain

 Where the big iron rides high, and threatens lives
Where the noise is made with big forty-fives

 A deep voice bellowed as he wrapped his knees
A very big man with legs like trees

 Laughing as he snatched another plate from the stack
Chalked his hands and monstrous back

 Said, “Boy, stop lying and don’t say you’ve forgotten!
Trouble with you is you ain’t been SQUATTIN’!”
- Jeff “MADDOG” Madden

Such True Advice, now go train hard, heavy and smart.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

A quick one for the guys

When I was a kid these were the images of a Man for us, these were the images of a Hero:

Sly, from Rambo First Blood Part 2, looking Awesome
 

The Austrian Oak, no need to say any more
 

Van Damme looking chiseled
 

Franco Columbo, strength personified

big Lou, Anyone need to question why he was both the Hulk and Hercules

And we tried our damndest to emulate them. We worked our asses off and we grew up strong fit and healthy.

Now a days things have changed dramatically.

It scares me that I've seen the medical and scientific studies that show that the average 20 somethings have the testosterone levels of 60+ year olds. And no one seems to care.

I've actually heard guys now a days that have actually said, "I don't want to train heavy, because I don't want to get bulky."

Now, even though that's a mis-informed and untrue statement when women make it, I can at least see where they are coming from.

However, coming from a guy it's just plain insane.

Why would any self-respecting man not want to have muscle?

I don't get it.

Hmmmmm.....Maybe if we look at the "hero's" of the day.......

Really Brad, come on you can do better

fist of all, Robert, shower. Then gain about 60 pounds of muscle

Really Justin, I know you're only 18, but come on. You can do better than that

You're a cool guy Adam, but I've actually heard people say this is buff. Really?




Now, I know that some of you will say, "yeah they might not be big, but they have abs."

 

That's great, but abs on someone that skinny is kind of like boobs on an obese woman, they're there but they really don't count.

 

Come on guys, we can do so much better. I know we can. Grow a pair of testes, get under the bar and start squatting, and eat some good steak. Get your testosterone levels back to what your folks had when they were your age and become men. Get rid of this manish, boychild yet kind of girly thing and step up.

 

I know we can reclaim manhood again. How do I know, because I can see glimmers of our greatness in certain individuals like....

 

Dwayne Johnson

Hugh Jackman

Georges St. Pierre

And more. Men who want to be men. Who enjoy being fit and strong, healthy and lean, jacked and bad ass.

 

 

Claim your spot with these guys and let's see a resurgence of men on this planet.

 

Now, go train smart, hard and heavy and I'll see you under the squat bar.

 

Yours in strength and health,

Brett Stepan



 

A Quick Post For The Ladies

Alright Ladies,

I figured a Great way to get you all pulled in and ready to read was to post a little Shemar F'ing Moore shirtless, with promises of more. So, here you go.

Now, as a straight man I'll be the first to admit it. He is delicious to look at, and seems like a great guy to boot, so we'll give you some more Shemar later. But for now we have to have a little tete a tete.

First of all, let's set the record straight.

Ladies, I know that there is a huge societal pressure out there for you to look a certain way. I get it. It sucks.

But ladies, that societal pressure ain't coming from us guys. And before you leave me a million different hate comments at the end of this blog please continue to read the rest of this post.

I know that you ladies think that us guys want you ubber thin with a small backside, thighs that don't touch, no hips and all of that jazz. But it isn't anywhere near the truth.

I don't know a single guy who watches an ubber thin bag of bones lady walk buy and thinks to themselves, "yeah, I'd like to hit that." It ain't happening.

Ladies, us guys love your curves. We love a good ass. We love good thighs. We love hips. We love breasts. We love every curve on your body. So it's not us that is trying to make you get rid of them.

Want some proof.

Let's take a look at a few examples.

Here's Marilyn Monroe, someone that has stood as the personification of beauty since the 1960's and notice, her thighs touch. She has hips. She has a booty. She has boobs. She has curves and shape. There's not a guy around that doesn't find her attractive.

How about Jayne Mansfield. Again there are hips, thighs, a booty and boobs. Curves galore and yet no guy would ever say, "man she needs to lose weight."

How about Sophia Loren. Widely considered one of the great beauties of all time. She has boobs, hips, booty, thighs, and wonderful curves.

And, since I know you're all saying, "whatever Brett. Don't you have any proof from the last few years, not from 50 years ago?"

Yes, I do.

How about J-Lo. She's famous for her booty and thighs, and she has a great rack. Not a waif by any means.

What about Beyoncé. The girl has curves galore. Great thighs, great booty, great hips, great body.

How about Salma? She isn't tiny either. Great booty, great hips, curves for day. I don't know anyone that doesn't find her stunning. Do you?

What about Sophia? The woman's hot. Yet she still has curves galore.

And what about my girl, Gina. The woman's gorgeous. She also has a booty, thighs, hips, shoulders, abs, arms, and more. She's strong and tough, yet no man would ever kick her out of the sack.

So, ladies. I think that pretty much proves my point. Us guys love curves. We're not looking for you to have your knees being the biggest part of your legs. we're not looking for your elbows to be the biggest part of your arms. We're not looking for you to lose your butt or your thighs. We're not looking to see all of your ribs. We like the curves that god and nature gave you.

Now, it's your turn to embrace them, also. Curves are healthy. In fact, if you want your hormones to ever be optimized, you need your curves. And all of us guys support you keeping them.

Now, to keep my promise, here's a little more Shemar:

And don't worry ladies. I'll be picking on my own gender in the next post.

Until then, keep training hard, smart and heavy and I'll talk with you all later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett

3 Special Seminars Coming Soon!

Hey Y'all,


Just wanted to let you know about three very special seminars that will be coming up soon. I'm offering a registration fee of only $10 to each of them. Email me at bolerobrett@aol.com for more info.

Saturday, June 1:  Surviving a Real World Ground Fight

Saturday, June 8: Self-Protection 101

Saturday, June 15: Surviving a Real World Knife Attack

Again, feel free to email me for more info.

Yours in peace,
Brett Stepan

How Deep Is Your Squat?

If you know anything about fitness, strength or health you know that the squat is the king of the exercises. Not only does it involve every part of your lower body plus your lower back, sides and tummy; it also creates wonderful hormonal changes that lead to burning body fat and increasing muscle mass, bone strength and good connective tissues. Along with that, squatting hard and heavy strengthens your immune system and your lymphatic system, slows the aging process and has direct links to preventing heart disease, diabetes ad various forms of cancer. It also has a strong carryover to pretty much any other type of physical activity, athletic or not. And more. So, I'm not here to try to sell you on the value of hard and heavy squatting, you already know how great of an exercise it is. I'm here instead to ask you how deep is your squat?

When you look at squatting as a whole, the deeper that you go down, the better off your results will be. How deep should you go? Let's take a look at Olympic Great Anatoly Pisarenko and see:

Now, that is pretty much squatting perfection. High bar, feet close, back straight and ass to the ground. Even if you're not an Olympic lifter and prefer to go more powerlifting style, you still have to admire this one.

Now, go out and make your squats just as good, or even better.

I'll talk with you more later

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

Just added an important post

Just wanted to let you all know that I just added an important post over at www.brettsrealdefense.blogspot.com.

It covers the B.S. knife defense shown in the movie, "Red Belt" and also covers some of the bad training habits that most martial artists use when training for knife attacks.

Go check it out.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

Front Planks and Front Planches

It's funny that many times when I'll bring up working on a front planche many people will mistakenly think that I'm talking about a front plank. And nothing could be further from the truth.

Let's take a quick look at the two:

The Front Plank

And

The Front Planche

Now, I know that both of them are in a kind-sort-of top push-up position, but that's where the similarities end.

The Front Plank is a great beginner's movement to start realizing how to use your abdominal structure and how to integrate your upper and lower half together. But, after a few weeks of training it, you'll out grow it.

Now, I know that most people start with the balancing on the elbows version and then graduate from to the balancing on the palms with straight arms version. And that does take adaptation time. And I know that you can always make the plank harder by adding full co-contraction of the entire body, changing the leverage points, making it a 1-arm a 1-leg or a 1-arm/1-leg movement, adding weight, elevating the legs, performing it on the rings or on ropes; and that's all well and good.

However, the front planche is a whole different animal. in order to perform it correctly you'll need to have incredible full body strength and muscle control. You'll use literally every muscle from your neck to your toes in order to hold this one. And that's just the beginning. After you master the basic tucked planche you'll probably have a body that looks like it's carved out of granite. And then you move on to the tucked planche with a straight back, the partial planche, the straddle planche, and then the full planche that you see above. By the time you reach that baby, you'll know that you are indeed strong, fit, coordinated and capable of just about anything.

From there, feel free to add planche push-ups, moving from a planche into a handstand or from a handstand into a planche, and more variations.

So, if you want a true "core" workout, start working on your planche today.

I'll talk with you more later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

Also, feel free to check out the other blogs at:
www.brettsmartialarts,blogspot.com
www.brettsrealdefense.blogspot.com