Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Guest Post: Getting into Shape Without a Gym (II) by Anthony Myers

Here is the second part of Anthony Myer's post on getting into shape without a gym. It contains more great tips, and may help you to save a lot of time and money. Enjoy!

Jump Rope

When I first started working out I was mostly concerned with losing fat. I couldn’t afford a gym membership, and I hated jogging. I’m asthmatic and my chest would be burning and I’d be ready to throw in the towel after only running a block or two. Plus, jogging was just plane boring. I decided to ditch the jogging for a while and get a jump rope.

A jump rope is about the cheapest, but most effective pieces of cardio equipment you can get. I’d opt for a jump rope over a treadmill any day. I started jump roping every morning at 6:30. Not only was jump roping a lot more fun than jogging, but it also seemed a hell of a lot easier. My chest didn’t burn, I didn’t feel like giving up after only a few minutes. The best part? It seemed to be much more effective than jogging. I lost nearly 40lbs and jumping rope was my only source of cardio.


Dips

Here’s another killer bodyweight exercise. Dips will put more mass on your triceps than pretty much any weighted or machine exercise. It’s unfortunate that they are so underrated. There are two ways to do a dip.

Method #1:

Method #2:



If you have access to the right equipment, opt for method #2. It will not only help you build killer triceps, but with a little tweaking you can turn it into one of the best chest exercises ever. Simply lean forward a tad and dip lower than you would when targeting triceps. If you don’t have the access to the right equipment, no worries. The first method pictured is still really effective for building triceps. Plus, you do it almost anywhere. I used to do these with my hands on my bed and my feet on my computer chair!


Hanging Leg Raises

There’s no shortage of expensive and useless exercise equipment. Especially equipment designed to target your abs. Most of the equipment is designed to make the exercise easier, which to me, is absolutely ridiculous. An exercise shouldn’t be made easier. If anything, it should be made tougher by adding more resistance. I’m not going to lie, hanging leg raises are tough. However, they are the ideal exercise for achieving six pack abs. It’s no secret that the bottom two abdominal muscles are the hardest to target. If you’re having a hard time getting them to pop out, start doing hanging leg raises.


Planks

You’ve probably noticed by now that since I started talking about abs I haven’t mentioned sit ups or crunches. Those are OK, but exercises like planks will do much more for you. If you can only hold an abdominal plank for 30 seconds, don’t worry. Keep practicing. Eventually you’ll be able to hit a minute or even more. Also, you can throw side planks into the mix to target your obliques.


Bicycling

I have great calves. I get compliments on my calves more often than any other muscle group. It’s almost weird. Either way, I know for a fact that biking 5+ miles a day is the primary reason for my bad-ass calves. It’s also a great form of cardio. If you’re trying to get abs, you need to lose the fat on your stomach, and riding bikes is a great way to do that.

There you have it, a list of the most effective exercise that require little to no workout equipment. The fact is, most people use an unnecessary amount of machines and equipment. There are plenty of people who use machines and equipment on a regular basis, but if you asked them to do a few sets of pull ups or other exercises in the list above they would be huffing and puffing as if they’d never worked out in their life. Master these exercises and you’ll be well ahead of the “average” guy.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Having a Pain-Free Back

My friend Illuminatus recently reviewed 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back by Esther Gokhale, which seems to be a great book on improving your posture and preventing back pain. I have read his review with great interest, and checked out the freely available YouTube videos.

So, if you spend a large part of your day sitting, then check out the review. It may help. In his review, Illuminatus also draws attention to the fact that attraction and posture are linked, and you tend to view somebody with great posture as more attractive. I know that many people have problems "implementing" some of the absolute basics. Thus, have a look at the review.


Monday, January 23, 2012

AaronSleazy.com and Forum online again!

There were a few hiccups with the move to my new server, but the support crew was very competent and eventually everything worked out fine. Both AaronSleazy.com and my forum are fully operational again.

Thank you for your patience, and look forward to some more substantial posts in the very near future.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

AaronSleazy.com is Moving!

My website AaronSleazy.com is being moved to a different server and thus currently unavailable. It should be back online within 72 hours.

Once the site is back online and running again, you can expect some more posts on my blog as well, and a new piece from Anthony Myers is in the pipeline, too.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Crowd Wisdom and Minimal Game

Collecting user data seems to be all the rage among corporations. Facebook is built around this idea, Google exploits search phrases for advertising, and Amazon has no reservation recording your reading habits. There is a rather creepy feature on Amazon.com called "Popular Highlights." They collect passages users of the Kindle highlight in their books, and if particular phrases are selected by a few customers, they publish them on the respective product page. You could thus say that Amazon is looking over your shoulder as you read.

In the case of Minimal Game, the following is a collection of phrases people found most noteworthy. If you have read Minimal Game, then you'll probably nod approvingly as you go through the list, and if you haven't bought it yet, then maybe you want to check it out afterwards!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Seminar in Frankfurt on 11 February 2012

I'll do a seminar in Frankfurt am Main in Germany on 11 February 2012, together with German dating coach and author Kolja Alexander Bonke. This seminar will be held in German, and thus the announcement is in this language as well. (My English speaking followers may excuse this.)

Here is the full announcement:



Aaron Sleazy & Kolja Alexander Bonke
Dating und Partnersuche Seminar: „Viel Erfolg mit wenig Aufwand“

Am Samstag, den 11. Februar 2012, 11.15 Uhr in Frankfurt am Main

Das Pareto-Prinzip ist auch unter dem Namen 80-20-Regel bekannt: 20 % Aufwand bringen 80 % Ergebnis. Dieser Effekt lässt sich auf Dating und Partnersuche übertragen. In diesem einmalig stattfindenden Seminar lernst du, wie du mit relativ geringem Einsatz deinen Erfolg bei Frauen gewaltig steigern kannst.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Guest Post: Getting into Shape Without a Gym (I) by Anthony Myers

This is the second post by Anthony Myers from MuscleClass.com. He discusses how to get into shape without equipment or access to a gym. Part II of this post will follow in a few days.

In a comment to my introductory post, Don Draper asked:
“Could you also share some good exercises for people who are always traveling, so you can perform the exercises without any instruments (like dumbbells)?”
And that’s exactly what today’s post is about, getting into shape even if you have no access to a gym, or equipment.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Gawker and WSJ on Pickup

One of my readers (thanks, E.!) sent me a link to an article on Gawker with the title How to Talk to Real Live Women. It was easily the most amusing piece on pickup I've read in a while, but check it out yourself:
And she kind of looks at you for a long moment with a quizzical look on her face like she really seriously doesn't know what you're talking about, and kind of smiles politely and says "Okay," and starts to turn back to her other conversation again. And you're like "HI, I'M NICK" (yelling).