18 Years Old - Stronger Than You

Lately, I've seen a staggering amount of teenage boys come up with excuses for why they aren't bigger, stronger and better athletes. After 5 years of being around the young studs of the sports world, I'm calling this uptick in estrogen filled whining the 'twilight effect'.

It appears that some teenage boys get sucked into the mainstream media's ideal of athletism and think that if they are bigger than 5'10, 135lb Zac Efron then they are HYUUUGE!

Not making varsity at real world high schools.

Frankly, we here at Black Ox have heard enough and felt that some dedicated young athletes should be brought into the limelight. Starting this month Black Ox will be featuring real athletes - 18 years or younger - who take training seriously and have the physique and skills to show for it.

Our first spotlight will be Brad, an 18 year old from Columbus, Ohio.

Next week, we'll talk to Brad about his training, diet and motivation for getting so strong at such a young age.

If you know a young athlete who should be featured, shoot an email to blackoxtraining@gmail.com with a picture and a short explanation of what makes them special.

Ask the Ox: #1 - What is the best cardio for fat loss?

Q: For less conditioned people like myself, do you advise against doing "cardio" (such as a stupid machine) for 30- 40 min after weight training? It seems i've read quite often that one should keep them on separate sessions-or do some quick HIIT instead of long SS cardio.

A: Cardio is for your heart..sometimes we forget that. Cardio is great and important for heart health and conditioning.

Now using SS cardio for fat loss is inefficient for some people. These people would be athletes and people who are already lean and in good shape. If this is you, you would be correct to do HIIT/intervals or something similar.

Then again, writers and "experts" swing so far to one end following trends that they forget to whom they are speaking. The average person WILL lose fat on SS cardio. The average person can't put out the effort to do real HIGH INTENSITY interval training anyway. They can run intervals but they won't burn nearly as many calories as they would have if they had just done the stair climber for 45 minutes.

If you're unconditioned like you say then any kind of SS cardio would probably help you lose fat. Run 2 miles 3 times a week and tell me you're not going to lose fat..see what I'm saying?

PS. Swimming burns more calories than most other forms of cardio and is no/low impact = healthy joints!