Welcome back to Sunday Coffee - and thanks a ton for your patience last week!
Unfortunately, I lost a family member - but on the bright side of things, they lived a long and wonderful life.
ROTW: Protein Brownies
Put on your chef’s hat - this is the first baked goods Recipe of the Week we’ve had.
All credit goes to Arman Liew @ The Big Man’s World for this one (linked in the resources section).
Ingredients:
1 cup banana measured as mashed
1/2 cup peanut butter, cashew butter or a nut butter alternative
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup protein powder
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line an 8 x 8-inch pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In a high speed blender or mixing bowl, combine all your ingredients and blend or mix until smooth.
Transfer the brownie batter to the lined pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are firm.
Remove the brownies from the oven and gently press down on the tops to form a crackly top. Let them cool completely before slicing and serving.
MOTW: Dumbbell Pullovers
Pullovers are a unique movement that’s all about control.
Mainly working your lats, shoulders, and serratus anterior (rib cage muscle), these are great for:
improving shoulder flexibility and mobility
promoting better posture by working the muscles that stabilize the shoulder blades and spine
strengthening your core, and helping to define your stomach (the serratus anterior is right next to your abs, so it can help to accentuate them)
The serratus anterior is a fan-shaped muscle in the chest that connects the shoulder blade, or scapula, to the rib cage. It's also known as the "boxer's muscle" or "big swing muscle" because of its role in throwing a punch.
Here’s how to perform them, again focus on controlling the weight all the way through and feeling the stretch in your ribcage and shoulders:
TOTW: Getting Stronger by adding a Recovery Phase
Back when I was bodybuilding about 7 years ago, I trained myself. Lots of bodybuilders have coaches to help them with…
Writing and phasing out training plans
Posing
Nutrition, etc.
But I was broke and in college, so I decided to coach myself. Overall this worked pretty well, but after several years of going nonstop, my body started to fall apart.
I suffered from several injuries that forced me to stop training all together for a few months. Tennis elbow in my right arm, a high ankle sprain on my right foot, and swimmers shoulder in both shoulders made lifting painful - and it sucked. It took all the joy out of it for me.
After a long period of rest and recalibration, I was able to start working my way back into training. But the sad part is - it should have NEVER gotten to this point.
THIS is why you should work in a recovery phase to your training every single year.
lightbulb moment
Lasting anywhere from 4-16 weeks, with a heavy focus on prehab training and active recovery, these phases:
allow the body to repair and rebuild muscles from more intense training timeframes
prevent overtraining and injury long term
restore energy reserves
and most importantly, enhance long-term performance by ensuring that the body is ready to adapt and grow from more intense training as you progress forward
Take it from the training legend Ross Edgley himself:
The focus is on ‘active recovery’ where both the volume and intensity of training is kept low, allowing the mind and body time to rest. Scheduling sleep is critical during this time, as well as understanding ancient and modern sports rehabilitation practices and the power of strength training and theories in evolutionary medicine to rebuild the durability of the joints, muscles and tendons.
TLDR: your body can’t train @ 110% all the time without falling apart. This is why you need to work in a recovery phase 1-2 times per year to allow your body time to heal and recover.
