Tessa Gurley, Author at T NATION

Tip: The Mineral for Chronic Muscle Soreness

Tessa Gurley — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Inflammation Is Your Frenemy Chronic inflammation will kill you. It's the root cause of just about every disease or illness you can name. At the very least, it contributes to or exacerbates hundreds of different aliments, from cancer and depression, to diabetes, baldness, and obesity. But without some acute (not chronic) inflammation, you wouldn't gain

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Tip: Fix Your Stiff Neck in 5 Minutes

Tessa Gurley — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 15:00:00 +0000

Do You Have Duck Neck? You know the story. Too much sitting around and staring at phone and computer screens can lead to poor posture (duck neck), headaches, and pain in your shoulders and upper back. Working on your posture will help, but right now you just need some quick relief. Luckily, all you need

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Tip: The Easiest Hip Flexor Stretch

Tessa Gurley — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 17:00:00 +0000

If you're like the average American, you sit 7.7 hours per day. This causes your hip flexors to become short, tight, and angry. The result? Low back issues, glute dysfunction and even breathing problems since your hip flexors overlap with your diaphragm. Many of the stretches and mobility techniques out there are hard to get

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Tip: Eat Dirty, Smell Dirty

Tessa Gurley — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 17:00:00 +0000

You've heard the phrase, "You can't out-train a bad diet." Turns out that you also can't out-cologne a bad diet either. In a new study, researchers wanted to see if women preferred men who ate cleaner diets over those who ate "dirty." Turns out, they really could sniff out the difference. In fact, the ladies

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Tip: Pop Your Sacrum to Squat Better

Tessa Gurley — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 17:00:00 +0000

When Half of Your Butt Won't Work If you've spend a decent amount of time in the squat rack, you've probably had a couple of workouts where one of your glutes just didn't seem to be pulling its weight. It's like your right glute woke up that morning, but your left glute is still snoozing.

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Tip: The Core Strength Party Trick

Tessa Gurley — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Do you think you have a strong core? Then try this. It's called the crow pose, and mastering it will take your core strength to new heights. Why It Works This move teaches sustained, deep core activation by forcing you into a position that tests your balance and strength simultaneously. Crow not only challenges your

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Tip: The Protein Supplement for Knee Pain

Tessa Gurley — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 11:00:00 +0000

"My Knees Can't Handle That Anymore." One in five people have some kind of knee complaint according to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, and that's probably higher in the weight lifting population. Knee pain can have many causes: IT band issues, osteoarthritis, misalignment, recovering from an ACL injury, etc. Whatever the cause, it can

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Tip: How to Really Stretch Your Groin

Tessa Gurley — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 11:00:00 +0000

You've probably seen that guy at the gym awkwardly stroking his groin or inner thigh. No, he's not being a creeper. He just pulled a groin muscle and is attempting to look nonchalant, even though he's most likely thinking, "Shit, I hope this isn't serious." Why Your Groin Might Be Tight Groin muscles can be

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Tip: Ball-Freezing Ice Baths: Worth It?

Tessa Gurley — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 17:00:00 +0000

Freeze Your Balls Off to Recover Faster? The idea of taking an ice bath sounds about as appealing as chewing razorblades. But it's not as bad as it sounds. After all, you kind of go numb after about two minutes anyway. Ice baths have been around forever. Hippocrates was a fan. Egyptian emperors were fans.

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Tip: Hit the Deep Core Muscles

Tessa Gurley — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 15:00:00 +0000

Arnold took a few ballet lessons to see what he could learn. Let's take a cue from him and see what lifters can learn from alignment yoga, like deep and sustained core engagement which can complement your training. The moves below can teach you how to engage all areas of your abs, separately or in

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