Eric Cullen Balsamo

Happy Father’s Day to my dad: a family man, a businessman, and the strongest man I’ve ever known.

I love you, I miss you, and thank you for teaching me all you could while you were here with me. I will speak of you to my future children as highly as you spoke of your own father to me.

And now, a few quotes:

“I might be fat and bald, but the world is ruled by fat, bald, rich men.”

“God only made so many perfect heads, the rest he covered with hair.”

“Just remember, no matter how tough you get, you sleep. I don’t.”

“If she likes tall guys just stand on your wallet.”

“Every businessman needs four things: a good pen, a good watch, a good suit, and a good pair of Italian loafers.”

And after giving me my “good pen” for Christmas:

“Write down your dreams, I am certain they will all come true.”

Ok the story got a lot of inquiries so here’s the quick recipe:

HONEY SOY SESAME CHILI SALMON RICE BOWL

1) Rice in rice cooker, cookin

2) Cube your salmon, toss in dry rub of garlic powder, white and black pepper, paprika, and some sort of Asian spicy pepper. Let sit 10-15 mins

3) Pan-sear salmon in butter and sesame oil until all sides are browned and it is cooked through. Remove

4) In same pan, add a little more butter and oil, garlic and scallion, soy sauce, honey, and some chili crunch. Cook down to a sticky sauce. This is what I did but you can follow this process with all sauce concoctions.

5) Add back in salmon and toss until coated. Optional addition of chopped leeks or green onion and sesame seeds

6) Anything you want for other veggies. I did pickled cucumbers and crispy chili soy broccolini.

7) Avengers assemble (your salmon bowl)

Training power is all about looking at the force equation (force = mass x acceleration) from both sides.

Usually, in resistance training, we focus only on the MASS (the weight we use), because the ACCELERATION is already decided by gravity.

We can, however, focus on acceleration by looking at bar speed rather than just bar load. This is what happens with Olympic lifts and standard compound lifts done at lower weights (than strength) and higher speeds.

We can also manipulate force by using accommodating resistance. This means the force required through the movement fluctuates, usually higher at the top and less at the bottom.

Chains, bands, and reverse bands are three options to us with this approach. All three make the load highest at the top and lightest at the bottom, and force you to create more FORCE throughout the concentric portion of the movement. How each affects force (by increasing mass, increasing acceleration, or decreasing acceleration throughout the movement) affects the feel and training adaptations you’ll see from them.

ALMOST* Every Low-Back Exercise
PART 4: Hinge Progression

A hinge is when the pelvis tilts forward, bringing the hip joints into flexion. You come out of a hinge using extension of the hips, working the glutes and hamstrings. Maintaining a strong and stable lower back is essential for all hinge exercises, and progressively harder variations train the lower back more and more in this fashion.

1) Glute Bridge: The quintessential glute exercise. While heavier than most of these hinges, it is first on the list because bar placement and gravity makes the hinging motion most intuitive.

2) 45 Degree Hip Extension: Like the glute bridge, the equipment used makes the hinge more intuitive. Spine rigidity is usually where issues occur.

3) Cable 45 Deg Hip Extension: Possibly an easier variation, because the cable pulls you forward not downward.

4) Romanian Deadlift: The standard hinge. After learning how to hinge, doing it standing should be second nature. Biggest learning curve is holding the weight with rigid spine and shoulders.

5) GHD Hip Extension: Hinge made relatively obvious by equipment pressure into hips, but the extension is far harder than other variations due to angle. Easy to get in, hard to get out. Spine rigidity usually biggest issue.

6) Seated Hinge: In most cases an easier/more intuitive hinging motion than standing, but much harder on the low back stabilization due to weight placement.

7) Decline Seated Hinge: Same as seated hinge but with leverage adding to resistance used and fuller ROM.

8) Harop Curl: The most controlled hinge on the list. Knee bend removes much of the passive hamstring tension, making the movement more difficult than an RDL.

9) Goodmorning: Requires the most lower back stability and is most susceptible to injury. Having a near-perfect hinge and strong lower back are prerequisites.

ALMOST*** EVERY LOW BACK EXERCISE: Part 1

SAFETY: The chances you might get injured if you aren’t strong or mobile enough to perform the exercise correctly

SIMPLICITY: The ease with which quality form is achieved for the exercise

STIMULUS: The extent to which the exercise stimulate adaptation in the target area

SPECIFICITY: The level of isolation to the target area the exercise achieves

Here are 6 of the starter exercises I would pick for those just starting to focus on lower back strength.

4 of these moves are hinges, and thus actually train the glutes and hamstrings. However, this is important because if you cannot access these muscles with a hinge, the low back is forced to bend. Learning how to properly hinge is important to be safe in many exercises, so learning the hinge in controlled exercises helps in establishing that skill.

2 of these exercises actually focus on bending the low back, both forward and sideways. These are the ranges you’d enter if performing other more-stable moves (like hinges) incorrectly. Training these ranges builds strength and durability, protecting from injury when other exercises go wrong.

Just some selfies with me and some of my best friends. Congratulations and and thank you for a wonderful evening

MEALS FROM MY “DIET”

I’m eating in a more focused manner this month while trying to trim some fat and increase my performance in training. I follow a few simple rules when making my meals.

RULE 1: BUILD AROUND PROTEIN
When you’re eating for performance and physical adaptation, your body requires more protein than in maintenance. For most, this falls between .5-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. It’s higher for those who are male, have more muscle/are leaner, train harder/more often, or who consume less calories from other sources. My favorite sources of protein are organic/grass-fed/free range/wild caught meats, nonfat Greek yogurt, eggs, and whey protein.

RULE 2: ADD CARBS THAT WORK
The second most important macro for adaptation, and arguably the most for in-training performance, is carbohydrates. Carbs are our fuel for high intensity activity and must be replenished from workouts. You should pick carbs that work with your protein (you wouldn’t want potatoes with yogurt or berries with chicken). My favorite carb sources are fruit, starchy veggies like potatoes, beans, and whole grains. Juices help if you lack the appetite for the volume that comes with a high carb diet.

RULE 3: CONTROL FAT
Fat is inescapable in most meals. It generally does not need to be pursued when building a meal but rather controlled. You control your fat primarily by picking your proteins intelligently (for less and/or healthier fat) and what you might cook everything with (particularly veggies which soak up oils). My sources of fat are the high quality proteins I eat plus some nuts and a bunch of olive oil for cooking, sometimes a little butter.

RULE 4: EAT THE RAINBOW
Color is a good indicator of nutrients. Vibrant colors from Whole Foods show their freshness and quality, and the specific colors of fruits/veggies indicate concentrations of particular nutrients. “Eating the Rainbow” suggests we should consume from a range of colors for these foods to ensure a varied and balanced nutritional intake. Choose your fruits and veggies by color and get in a full range daily for better energy and health.

I got the blues 😮‍💨
🟦🟦🟦🟦⬛️⬛️🟦





fercu

Thanks to everyone who helped me get here! My mom got me into martial arts at 5 years old. Never really let go of it, I think she’d be proud.

Got my first 3 stripes in BJJ with the help of some amazing professors! 🥋



(not pictured)

One of the best privileges I’ve had in my life was my mother getting me into martial arts at a young age. Without it, I would’ve never gotten into fitness. I’ve taken several hiatuses since 5 years old, with various martial arts, but I’m sticking with this one until the belt gets just a littttttttle darker.

Oss.

If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) 🍔 🍟

IIFYM is a saying that got very popular a few years ago. The idea is that the end-all be-all of body composition is the quantity/balance of the macros you intake.

Obviously this is not accurate. You cannot get 100% of your fat from butter, 100% of your protein from whey, and 100% of your carbs from table sugar and be healthy, or perform/recover optimally. You also need MICROnutrients, which suggests you should eat a variety of Whole Foods to get your macros in.

THAT BEING SAID, I was in a hurry this morning for breakfast. I’m not currently tracking my macros, but my “optimal” meals usually sit at about 40-50g Protein, 50-70g carbs, and 10-20g of fat.

In my rush I got two items:
1) A Protein Naked Smoothie: 30gP, 62gC, and 2gF
2) 5 slices of crispy, patted dry bacon: approximately 10gP, 0gC, 12gF

This combo leaves me with 40g of protein, 62g of carbs, and 12g of fat, which is in my range of “optimal” macro balance for my meals. It’s not my usual eggs, bacon, potatoes, whole wheat bread, and OJ, but it does the job.

Had a little plate today for lunch. My goal was to get in colors with just enough protein to call it a “meal”.

First I made a bruschetta (tomato, red onion, basil, garlic, olive oil) to put on some Dave’s Killer White bread.

Some extra protein provided by the sliced fresh mozzarella (as well as fat). This goes well with bruschetta.

Main protein source (12g, not much) was from my chobani green yogurt.

Some extra color and carbs from some black, seedless grapes.

All in all this meal had about 25-30g of protein (10-15g shy of what I’d call a meal). However, it had a meal’s worth of fat and carbs from healthy sources. Furthermore, it’s all Whole Foods covering all the food groups, so loaded with micronutrients.

Ok so I got a bit carried away in a little thought experiment today 📝 it’s a work in progress so don’t judge lol

THE HYPERTROPHY EQUATION aims to visualize the mental math that goes into writing a muscle growth program and progressing it. It is NOT meant to be accurate, as the numerical values of these variables can’t really be compared. Apples to oranges, or rep ranges to grams of protein.

BUT the idea is that:
1) Hypertrophy = Recovery / Stimulus
2) Recovery = Rest x Nutrition
3) Stimulus = Quality x Volume x Intensity (of training)
4) The relationship between Recovery and Stimulus determines if you gain/lose fat/muscle/weight.
5) Each major variable is affected by smaller variables, which are affected by others, and so forth.

HERE’S THE BIGGEST TAKEAWAY: If ANY of these values hits 0 then the whole equation goes out the window. Form, rest, nutrition, intensity, volume, variety, it all matters and they all affect one another.

For example, when Volume or Intensity goes up, minimum rest and nutrition do as well, putting more pressure on the recovery side of the equation.

Again, not for accuracy, but because I feel some math nerd out there will appreciate this and something might click for them. This stuff runs through my head when I program, so I figured I’d put it on paper for you guys!