Usenext offers a GREAT service

Just a quickie regarding the Usenext usenet service which gets allot of slagging off from those who know nothing about it and assume the worst in everything!

Usenext is based in Germany and has several servers across the globe which the user's connection runs through while accessing content on the Usenet.

The service costs peanuts. I use the 15gb p/month for 10 Euro's but they do offer 30 & 75gb p/month at a higher cost.

Link to the website is https://www.usenext.de/ where you'll find all the information you will need to sign up for a FREE trial which lasts 14 days, where you get 3gb download volume FREE.

The problem is that if you use a credit card to sign up with, it can get automatically charged straight after this trial .. even if you dont like it and many report that when they pay via this method that they dont get a chance to cancel their membership or change it accordingly so therefore I advise you pay via PAYPAL ... its the best and most secure method as no payment will go through unless YOU SAY SO and thats a fact as I get mailed each month by paypal to either allow or cancel the request, so choose that method.

I think this is where much of the bad vibe regarding Usenext has arisen from but simple common sense will get around this instead many tend to be ignorant and start opening their mouths ... as they say ''The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know, the hotter you get''.

The benefits to using Usenext which is on accessing the Usenet system is that its much FASTER than other methods such as BitTorrent and Limewire, Bearshare etc etc as your downloading from the source server and not another peer like in those applications which is very INSECURE and who wants to download straight from someone you know nothing about in this age of technology anyways? plus many of those p2p systems are illegal and offer links to pirated material whereas Usenext is accessing Usenet which has a large network of groups in many categories and you can talk within those groups with privacy via Usenext unlike the torrent sites which are full of trojans, worms and other crap. They may be free but thats the price you pay, a risk of being infected and/or hacked.

Why else do you think tons of black/block-lists are all over cyberspace from groups who use such services? to protect themselves and others from the insecure software they are using. Keep WELL AWAY from them and dont listen to their poison about UseNext or indeed Usenet as a whole because its been around before the internet was born.

Your maximum download speed will hardly ever be realised via those applications as your relying on the other peers to also have decent speeds. With usenet and in this case Usenext, that is never the case and your download speeds are MUCH faster than they ever were with the other applications and you can easily get to your maximum download speed very frequently.

Many reguler users to usenet which is the service that usenext is providing, access to the usenet database and more on usenet can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet report that they think usenext is too easy and you dont get much bang for your buck, so to speak! However they are regulars to usenet which isnt easy when your new to it, I dont care what they say as I have tried it with various other clients.

If your a newbie to Usenet than UseNext is a very good starting point as it has everything to get you started. Just remember to pay via monthly paypal and you'll be fine and if you get tired of it than you can easily cancel and use your own software for Usenet which are available around cyberspace such as Usenet hosts, Usenet search engines, Usenet downloaders etc.

The advanced users often buy bandwidth, search engine access and a client to do their downloading with. Its often much cheaper than what usenext offers, but why mess about with all this when usenext has it all in one for a few euro's more? If you like to play with settings and download LOTS and LOTS than yeah, it might be worth it but for the average person I dont think it is and like In said prvious its GREAT for Usenet novice's.

Usenext makes it simple. Search engine, servers, forums, many groups to choose from and add to and the client unpacks many of your files that need unpacking or converting on the fly such as when you download a .rar file and its full or .r files titled from say 01 to 99 and you aint a clue what to do with those ... the built in Download wizard will on the fly unpack and convert those into whatever they are supposed to be.

Usenext uses port 119 but has the option to use port 443 should the ISP decide to limit speeds on it. To see more on ports click http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial38.html and visit http://www.dshield.org for a search of port numbers and what they mean.

UseNext now uses port 553 and 53 with the addition of the SSL connection.

In summary I cant call Usenext. The service they offer is very good value for money and I think they get allot of bad press, mainly over the charges to credit cards which makes people assume they are scammers ... they are not, they offer a FAST and RELIABLE service!

The only bad point is that they dont roll-over unused volumes into the next month like many other providers, so what you dont use you will loose but I think they will alter this in the future.

UPDATE: UseNext now uses SSL [Secure socket layer] connections for the ultimate in secure downloading and the price is still the same!

UPDATE: UseNext is now offering more download volume for the same price. The cheapest plan was 15gb's per month for approx 10 Euro's. This has changed to 25gb's per month still at approx 10 Euro's and your getting the SSL protection aswell!

The speed hasnt slowed down either. UseNext continues to offer a superior all in one legal usenet access package.

Its forgotten .... its the Hise shrug

Everyone wants better upperbody strength and size but they fail to appreciate how important and how much size/strength a properly trained trapezius muscle can bring!

Let me introduce you to 'The Hise Shrug'

This exercise is RARELY used if at all by anyone and will be really lucky to see anyone doing it in the gym nowadays, but its more effective than other shrug movements done to work the trapezius muscle or 'traps' as they are commonly referred to as.

See the diagram for a image of the trapezius muscles.



The Hise shrug was invented by a Mr Joseph Curtis Hise, who has been known as 'The father of American weight training'. He also invented the 20 rep deep breathing squat which I will cover in another post sometime.

Now as I said, this movement is forgotten about and many do the barbell shrug, upright rows, dumbbell shrug in each hand, smith machine shrugs or other machine shrugs and they do work, you will gain well useing those methods but the Hise shrug is more effective [From my experience] of isolating the trapezius muscle VS those other methods and thats simply because you aren't useing your arms/hands as the link to lift the weight and many times that link becomes your weak link and you can easily tire them before the traps and stop the set short which is limiting growth .. why take it 50%-80% when you can go the whole way?

To perform the Hise shrug is very simple. You have the barbell placed at a height you would use it for a squat and thats placed behind the shoulders, as in a standard squat. You next simply SHRUG the shoulders upwards and than down .. thats ONE rep of the Hise shrugs. This is why its better than the other methods to work the traps as the weight is on the traps and your shrugging the weight DIRECTLY as apposed to useing the weak link of the arms to get the weight upwards [Shrugged].

Below is a description of the exercise as it was done all them years ago

Originally, rather light weights were thought to be best, but recently very heavy weights have proven to be better. You will, therefore, have to have loading standards for your bar as you may reach 600 or 700 pounds or even more in this exercise. You will start out with rather light weights however, and gradually work up, as there is the possibility of strain if you start out with very heavy weights. Most fellows will do well to start with about 100 pounds until they have learned the correct movements and positions.

You take the weight on the shoulders as if you were doing the regular squat. Then, standing with the feet in solid position you take a deep breath-always striving to breathe into the upper part of the chest, as high as possible while shrugging the shoulders upward as high as you can. You will also tense the front of the neck muscles as this greatly aids in lifting the chest higher, causing you to make quite a face. You will make every effort to breathe as deeply as possible. Then breathe out and sag down, then go through the same procedure again, and so on until you complete 20 repetitions. You will probably, at times, find it helpful to work up to 30 and even 40 repetitions. Most men perform about 3 sets of this exercise. However this will be governed by the amount of energy you have to expend. Some men find that (page 40) they like to rock slightly forward on the toes when performing this exercise, however it is not necessary.

When you reach heavy weights you will find that you are not able to shrug the bar very high. Mr. Hise says that this varies in different people and is not too important as long as you are shrugging it as high as you can. Sometimes it may raise 2 inches, but with others possibly only about a half inch or so.

Today you could go with 1-3 sets of 12-15 reps or whatever you desire as everyone is different and uses different training methods.

I do 2-3 sets of this exercise useing the heaviest weight I can and hold it in the max contracted position until I cant hold it anylonger and have to lower down. This is max contraction training and it works VERY WELL indeed but you use whatever methods you like and feel works best for you.

Give the exercise a fair go and you will notice in the weeks ahead that your traps will grow. I have had decent sized traps but with this it has made them comeout more and allot of this is due to the fact it removes the weak link of the arms and targets the traps directly while also enableing one to use HEAVIER weights than with the arms alone .. REMEMBER THAT as its heavier weights on a proggressive overload basis that increase strength and than size.

Let me know how they work for you.

Special thanks to .....

Rader Master Bodybuilding and Weight Gaining System by Peary Rader as pages 39-40 were used to describe the old way of doing the exercise.

First written in 1946 and updated in 1956.

Thanks to upload.wikipedia.org for the Trapezius image.

True saying by the late Bertrand Russell

I was reading some of Bertrand's material recently [One of my fav philosopher's] and this quote is so true indeed.

The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know, the hotter you get

Sure is!!!

Here's a link to the man at Wikipedia for anyone wanting to know more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell and you can freely download some of his material from Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Stomach Vacuum

Hi,

This exercise has been around for years and was used by the old school bodybuilders such as Arnie with Vince Gironda really appreciating its effectivenes, as he used it extensively in all his ab region work.

The exercise helps those with a distending gut [loose belly hangover from an underdeveloped transversus abdominus] and creates a sexy nice curve in the midsection which we dont see nowadays and especially in bodybuilding, unlike in the early days as this method was widely used but today its forgotten and thats why many just think about getting the 'six pack' and forget they can still work the stomach and create more!

I'm by no means an expert with this exercise but I've been useing it awhile and it works a real treat at what its supposed to do and like all ab training, makesure you have low levels of fat around your abs in the region of 12-15% is acceptable but lower is better as you can see the muscle much more better and hence with other exercises [Not this one] create a six pack!

Firstly a few bits n pieces on the ab region.

The inner and outer Abdominals are composed of internal and external muscles. The external muscles are known as the rectus abdominus and the external obliques.

^ These muscles are worked when we do most other abdominal work such as crunches and twists but what is forgotten about is the REAL INNER abs - the transversus abdominus and lumbar multifidus.

These muscles lie beneath the rectus abdominus, and external obliques.

The transversus abdominus and lumbar multifidus support posture\control deep breathing during power movements and are responsible for back support and hence because they are not trained much they are often weak in many individuals ... lets change that!

When you make these muscles stronger you can limit and relieve back pain, improve posture, create a tighter midsection, and add explosive power to your training.

What are the other benefits?

The stomach vacuum is an isometric contraction of the transversus abdominus. As previously stated, a stronger transversus abdominus can create a stronger valsalva maneuver (the powerful exhale necessary to contract a muscle during an intense workload).

The stomach vacuum is one of the best exercises you can perform to shrink your waistline in a very short amount of time. Many people can knock an inch or two off their midsection in a little as three to four weeks with this technique, provided the prerequisites are met. Also, building this area of the abdominal muscle will help you gain more control over your abs, and assist you better in explosive lifts. Stomach vacuums take practice, but they are extremely effective.

To perform the vacuum is simple.

Stand upright and place your hands on a desk with knees slightly bent with the back humped slightly. Place your chin on your chest and than deeply inhale and exhale sharply.

As you exhale, expand your chest and bring your stomach in as far as possible, and hold it in. Do Not Hold Your Breath! To be blunt, simply suck in your gut. Visualize trying to touch your navel to your backbone.

See the diagram below for a better clue




















How many reps? One contraction of "X" seconds is one repetition. For example, if you suck your stomach in for 10 seconds, that's one repetition. If you do that two more times, that's 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Vince Gironda advised that these be performed 10 sets of 10 reps [10 x 10] twice a day every other day. DO NOT DO THEM EVERY DAY otherwise you will start to overtrain and you wont gain anything positive!

All abdominal work should be done like anyother body part and not in so many reps like we 'think' should be done such as 50-100 reps ... that WILL NOT build abs .. it will smooth out the tissue due to hormone loss from overtraining and you will merely be doing endurance exercise and not targetting the muscles extensively. Keep it Intense, brief and infrequent like anyother body part and you WILL gain.

Here is a routine from Karen Sessions on useing these vacuums and she happens to be a certified personal fitness instructor and specialist in performance nutrition.

Training days for the stomach vacuum are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or every other day. While the abs can be trained more than other muscle groups, they still need their rest. Therefore, doing them daily won't be as effective as you may think it would be.

Week #1 20 Seconds 3 Sets
Week #2 30 Seconds 3 Sets
Week #3 40 Seconds 3 sets

The idea is to keep progressing in seconds (reps) or sets. You can set your own start point and progression phase. Eventually try to work up 4 sets of a full minute.

As an added bonus, you can use the stomach vacuum when doing your regular abdominal work. Focus on pulling in on the transversus abdominus as you do your abdominal work. Simply do this by pulling in your stomach as far as possible and flex your groin muscles, as if you are trying to stop the flow of urine.

I would recommend that 5 x 5 be done on every second day for aslong as you can hold the stomach in for and keep going until you cant do anymore from the pain in the muscle i.e. that burn feeling and in 6-8 weeks of regular usage you will notice a more curvy shape to your stomach and that it isnt as distorted as it once was albeit you have low body fat.

This exercise DOES NOT help the creation of the six pack ... the muscles worked here are the transversus abdominus.

Good Luck

Special thanks to Karen Sessions for her routine and also Vince Gironda with his illustration from the course '6 week abdominal course' by Vince Gironda and sold by NSP Research Nutrition who are linked http://www.nspresearchnutrition.com/

Static contraction applied to the Burlesque bump

Hi,

This is my first real post on the blog and its about a new variation of a portion of an exercise known as the Sissy Squat or 'Monty Wolford' after the gentleman who invented the movement.

A description of the exercise is comming up and was copied from http://www.ironguru.com

The "Monty Wolford" (named after the man who made the exercise popular in America) was a three-phase variation of the squat done with bodyweight only.

In the first phase, place your hands behind the neck, squat down 6 inches, then back up. Ten to 15 reps of these, then on to the second phase, the bottom half of a full squat for another 10-15 reps, starting with glutes practically touching the floor and thrusting hips forward to rise back up to parallel, but no farther than that. The third phase was a full squat for another 10 reps.

The image to the left is from an old cover of Muscle Power with Vince Gironda and Monty Wolford gracing it! Mr Wolford is on the right and you can clearly see his thick lower thich development.


It was however Vince Gironda that made the exercise more famous.
Vince performed it with a barbell across the front of the shoulders, resting under the hands with heels elevated on a platform to isolate the thigh muscle more.

Vince actually SWORE BY THESE for enableing the thigh to become the same measurement at the top and mid-portion [Area a few inches above the knee] and that no other exercise could make the thigh a more uniform shape and size.

I will discuss Vince Gironda in much more depth on a later post but for today we're talking about something I'm experimenting with on an old method.

The Sissy Squat was broken down into three portions, these are as follows.

#1 The Knee Drop [5 reps would be done in this position]
#2 Burlesque bump [5 reps done in this position]
#3 Flush Out[A complete movement of the above two and again for 5 reps]

In total thats 15 reps and one would do 3 sets with 5 being the maximum.

Now the Burlesque Bump portion of the movement and why I'm experimenting with this?

Ok well firstly let me quickly explain static contractions.

Static contractions applied in weight lifting are done usually on compound movements such as squats, bench presse's where many muscle groups are used but I have used them for isolation movements and have used static contractions in my routine for well over a year with fantastic success.

I wont go into too much detail here as again like the Vince Gironda topic, I will go into more detail later sometime.

Static contractions are done in a movements STRONG RANGE OF MOTION so therefore much more weight could be used and hence more stress placed on the muscle in a safer enviroment than when doing full range movements. Usually the last two inches under your reach is where you would start the exercise, so for shrugs it would be two inches above from where your arms have extended completly and with bench press its 2 inches under where your arms are completly extended out, where you would place the weight and ALWAYS in a power rack or smith machine.

Ok now with the bare basics out you can understand this better, I hope! but why this portion of the sissy squat? Well I feel that from my experience useing the sissy squat and many thigh exercises from Zercher squats, frontal squats, standard squats, hack squats, leg curls ......... that this portion of the movement is the most INTENSE thigh stimulation I've received, so I thought how could I make this more effective and productive than simply 'passing through' it in the sissy squat and thats when these static contractions done in this position alone came in.

I'm going to link a video on Youtube of the Sissy Squat being performed and point out where on this the burlesque bump is and where in the movement you want to be at and hold the static contraction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRUZQYh4cEs Ok so at 20 seconds the burlesque bump has started, thats the position where one would start this movement, so take note. See below for this start position.



At 22 seconds you will see that the CGI character hass risen slightly but this IS the position you want to hold when you try this 'static contracted burlesque bump' so again please take note.

You can watch the entire video if you like but for the point of this post, you only need to get yourself used to where you start in the movement, which is at the 20 second mark and how far you need to rise and what that looks like to you in your mind when you do it .. see the 22 second mark.

Ok and now that you have that sorted in your mind, what else do I suggest?
Perform this in a smith machine for best balance and safety reasons and also set the safety catches to where your at in the start of the movement, so when the contraction has ceased you can come down without the fear of injury.

If you have no smith machine than try doing it manuelly with a barbell, but it will be tricky holding it for a duration of time without balance concerns.

Makesure you also place a board 2 x 4 and around 20 inches in length under your heels whenever you perform this movement [You will notice in the video that the CGI has a board under his heels] as it isolates the thigh muscle more than if it were not present and hence makes this more effective at what it does.

The weight I would start with doesnt have to be much ... infact you will find you cant lift hundreads and hundreads of pounds with this static hold as your in a weak portion of movement, and if this was a typical full range squat than this would be many persons weakest range and an area they struggle on, so DO NOT USE a large load.

I use 60 pounds on my first attempt and that was slightly too less and I could have got away with 90lbs or maybe 100lb but its a weight that I'm trying my MAXIMUM strength to hold against and not an easy weight, so bare this in mind!

Dont let your ego dictate to you what weight is used and remember you are ISOLATING the frontal thigh with this static movement like its never been isolated before. I dont care what anyone says regarding full range squats doing the samething, they only touch this area briefly .. so brief it doesnt exist and one needs to maybe perform a typical sissy squat to appreciate this portion of the movement and how productive it is.

So once everything is setup and your ready to go, begin the movement and REMEMBER to thrust the hips forward at the 22 second mark shown in the video and hold that position and count ... if you have a stop watch than great but its easier to count.

See below for a screenshot of the position you need to hold.

When you feel you can no longer hold this anymore, and that should be when you feel the legs shake and/or burn than your legs will lower on their own and you will need to terminate the set.

Its your choice how many sets you perform. I would suggest ONE set of these done with the maximum amount of weight you can handle in that position, so for me that would be around 90-100lbs but we all vary.

If you want to do more sets than its your choice but bare in mind the more you do the more your wind is taken out of your sails and the body needs to recover, compensate than recompensate and finally grow. I would suggest THREE sets at the most, if you must. Infact if this is all you do for your thigh work than that would be fine but if you do other exercises than be careful.

Note down how long you held the weight and when you do this again you will aim for longer times and higher poundages.

If you time held was 1-8 seconds I would recommend that you try the same weight again nextime and AIM for a higher count before moveing up in weight.

If the time held was over 8 seconds than increase the weight by 5/10% on your next encounter with the exercise and do the samething again.

In time you will notice BIGGER frontal thighs and that the taper a few inches above the knee and the area at the top of the thigh become either the same or very similer, which only a handful of men possess in the world ... many have thicker thighs at the top and slimmer towatds the knee which gives them the impression of a shorter body as the legs stop at the hip, but if you get the upper and lower thigh a similer to same taper than the legs appear to tavel upwards to the waist and give the illusion of longer legs and a more asthetically pleasing body.

Try this movement and let me know how it goes. Give it 6-8 weeks and perform it at least once per week in your routine. Have faith and believe, because this will give you results!

I'm currently trying it out myself and I'm noticing my frontal thighs much more fuller and thicker than they were before, and the area above the knee is getting more mass.

A special thank you to the following .....

http://www.ironbody.it/ [The makers of the video clip linked and hence how I obtained screenshots]

http://www.ironguru.com/ [Description of the Sissy squat 'The Monty Wolford']

http://www.youtube.com/ [Hosting the video]

Muscle Power magazine [For the front cover shot of Vince Gironda and Monty Wolford]

Regards