Author: Admin

Sadly, many collagen powders are tainted with lead and other heavy metals, and some may even have non-collagen ingredients in them, called fillers. You should definitely stick to collagen without lead and fillers if you want to be as healthy as possible. The following collagen powders are tested for lead and other heavy metals, and they also are tested for pesticides as well.

Image	Product	Lead	Pesticides	Fillers
	Puori - CP1 Pure Collagen Peptides Powder	None	None	None
	Great Lakes Wellness Collagen Peptides Powder	None	No Glyphosate	None
	Sports Research Collagen Powder	Minor	No Glyphosate	None
	Perfect Supplements – Perfect Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder	Minor	No Glyphosate	None

Collagen and lead contamination

If you want the best collagen without lead and fillers, you should insist on lab testing from the brand you choose. Many of the top collagen brands have been tested for heavy metals like lead and arsenic. We’ve recommended only brands with good results on these tests. Here are their heavy metals results, plus their pesticide results:

Puori Collagen

• No heavy metals detected (lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium)
• No pesticides or BPA detected

(source: Clean Label Project)

Great Lakes Collagen

• No glyphosate (source)
• 0 mcg lead
• 0 mcg cadmium
• 0 mcg mercury
• 0.6 mcg arsenic

(source for heavy metals: https://www.organicconsumers.org/sites/default/files/collagen_white_paper.pdf )

Perfect Supplements Collagen

Keep in mind these are still better results than much of the competition!

• 0.495 mcg Arsenic
• 0.077 mcg Cadmium
• 0.143 mcg Mercury
• 0.308 mcg Lead

(source)

• No glyphosate (source)

Pesticide residue in collagen powder

Collagen powder has a pesticide problem. The collagen is made from cows, usually, and the cows were given feed that is covered in pesticide residue. Then that pesticide gets into your collagen powder. No good! Fortunately, organic, grass-fed cows don’t really have this problem. In addition to being better for your health, it’s also much nicer to the cow. And we have proof that certain collagen powders don’t have pesticides in them, since they are independently lab tested to be free of pesticides. We have recommended collagen powders that have made their pesticide and lead tests both visible, ideally with independent certification.

Avoiding fillers in your collagen powder

Lead and fillers could both be problems in collagen powder. Make sure to read the side of the label and don’t get anything that advertises extra junk that isn’t collagen. Fillers are a big issue in the protein powder industry, so you should be careful of your collagen brand. You don’t want any unnecessary fillers. The brands we recommend have done a great job being transparent and ethical about delivering a good quality collagen product, so we are pretty confident they won’t lie to us about using fillers either.

The bottom line

Tons of people use collagen powder to help their skin, their joints, and their digestive systems. It would be a shame if they were ingesting lead and fillers in their collagen powder all this time. So make sure to get a collagen powder that you can trust to be free of these things!

Unfortunately a lot of protein powders are contaminated with pesticide residue, especially glyphosate. The following are the best protein powders without glyphosate, proven by lab results and independently certified in many cases. Our favorite protein powder is also certified to be free of all 200+ pesticides that they tested for (that included atrazine too).

Image	Name	Metals?	Glyphosate?	Additives?	Organic/Grass-Fed?
	Puori Whey Protein Powder - Bourbon Vanilla - PW1 Pasture Raised, Grass-Fed & Non-GMO	No	No (no other pesticides either)	I guess not (does have "natural flavor" and a gum)	Pasture-raised
	Puori Vegan Plant Protein Enhancer Powder	No	No (no other pesticides either)	No (unless you count rapeseed oil)	No
	Zego - Purity Verified Plant Protein, Organic, Vegan (Sacha Inchi)	No	No	No	organic
	Organifi: Complete Protein Vanilla Flavor - Organic Vegan Plant Based Protein Powder	a little lead and arsenic, and a bit more of cadmium - i think its fairly good overall though	No	i guess not (theres various flavors but they're all natural)	Organic
	Pounamu Natural Whey Protein Concentrate Powder	it's tested and they say it has no more than is naturally in the milk	No	mostly - has lecithin but thats it	grass-fed, free range
	PEScience Select Vegan Plant Based Protein Powder, Vanilla, 27 Serving, Pea and Brown Rice Blend	No - but i wonder, since its brown rice	No	gums	No

Clean protein powder means no pesticides, heavy metals, or additives

We’re pretty careful about what we put into our bodies. Nothing unnatural! So we are only recommending protein powder that has also been tested to have zero or minimal heavy metals in it. We also are avoiding unnatural additives (like dyes or artificial flavoring).

The dangers of pesticides in your protein powder

Sadly, pesticides get into all sorts of food products. Protein powders are pretty commonly contaminated with glyphosate and other pesticides, since they are frequently either pea protein, which gets sprayed a lot usually, or they are cow-based products and factory-farmed cows are usually exposed to a great deal of pesticide too. But we want protein powder without pesticide residue in it, because pesticide is so bad for our health. (the factory farm system is also cruel to the cows, which is important to stop too.)

• Glyphosate (most common pesticide in America) is an endocrine disruptor – it lowers your testosterone
• Many pesticides are neurotoxins
• Glyphosate is carcinogenic
• Atrazine (another common pesticide) is linked to birth defects

Protein powders without pesticide do exist

All in all, you really want to use a pesticide free protein powder. We only recommend products where we are pretty certain it really is free of glyphosate, or (ideally ) all pesticides. We know that when the company posts lab results showing no glyphosate in their protein powder. The best is when these lab results are independently certified. Two organizations that are doing great work independently certifying foods to be pesticide-free are the Clean Label Project and the Detox Project.

We only recommend collagen that’s free of pesticides, chemicals, and heavy metals. From that list, we’ve identified collagen without zinc as well. Some people don’t want zinc in their collagen powder.

All the following collagen powders have no zinc:

Image	Product	Zinc	Heavy Metals	Pesticides
	Puori - CP1 Pure Collagen Peptides Powder	None	None	None
	Perfect Supplements – Perfect Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder	None	Minor	No Glyphosate
	Great Lakes Wellness Collagen Peptides Powder	None	Minor	No Glyphosate
	Sports Research Collagen Powder	None	Minor	No Glyphosate

As you can see they are also free of pesticides and heavy metals. They all have lab data to prove it, or we wouldn’t be recommending them.

How to choose a good collagen powder

It’s not hard to find collagen without zinc. What is hard however, is finding collagen that isn’t contaminated with bad stuff, like chemicals or lead. We’ve done the work to find these for you, to protect your health and vitality!

Keep the heavy metals in the factory, not the collagen

One problem that collagen powders are prone to is heavy metal contamination. It seems to be the norm, according to independent testing, to find some amount of heavy metals in the collagen. Lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury were the ones tested and found in many collagen brands. Puori brand collagen, our favorite, has been tested to have zero heavy metals in it.

Puori – CP1 Pure Collagen Peptides Powder

The other brands only have minor contamination, which is a lot better than the norm. And none of the collagen has zinc in it.

Pesticide-free collagen without zinc

Collagen is a major risk for pesticide consumption, most likely. Pesticide in a cow’s diet gets stored in the parts that your collagen powder is made from. Industrial agriculture cows have something like 100 micrograms of glyphosate (a very nasty pesticide) per kilogram of their collagen. (Source) If you want to avoid eating that, you should stick to collagen powders that are independently certified to be glyphosate-free. The ones we listed here also have no zinc either.

To avoid pesticides, we advise Puori brand again, since it is lab tested for more than 200 pesticides on a regular basis. It has no glyphosate or atrazine in it. (the two big pesticides in the USA) The other collagen brands are also glyphosate-free.

All the lab results for these collagen powders

Here are the results showing that these collagen powders have no glyphosate and minimal heavy metals in them. The ingredients list on the side of each product shows that the collagen has no zinc in it either.

Puori – CP1 Pure Collagen Peptides Powder

• Free of BPA
• Zero heavy metals
• Over 200 pesticides tested, and all were found to be absent.

The Clean Label Project has the lab results for all this here.

Perfect Supplements – Perfect Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder

• Fairly minor amounts of heavy metals according to their lab results which they very honestly post on their site (a good sign!)
• No glyphosate (source)
• No phtalates (source)

Great Lakes Wellness Collagen Peptides Powder Supplement

• No glyphosate (source)
• No lead, cadmium, or mercury. and only a little bit of arsenic. (source)

Sports Research Collagen Powder Supplement

• No mercury or cadmium, and a pretty minor amount of arsenic and lead. (source)
• No glyphosate (source)

In conclusion

Finding collagen without zinc is pretty easy. All you have to do is look on the side of can. The products here all have no zinc. But it’s very important for your health to not consume chemicals and metals on a daily basis. That’s why these collagen prodcuts are not only zinc-free, they also are free of nasty chemicals like glyphosate and harmful metals like lead.

We found the best collagen without pesticides. Each of these products is certified free of glyphosate, the most common pesticide used in the USA, and a highly dangerous chemical. Disturbingly high levels of glyphosate are found in many collagen powders, but not in these ones we recommend! This article contains detailed info and lab testing results showing no glyphosate in the collagen products we selected.

If you just want our recommendation for the absolute best collagen without pesticides though, we advise Puori collagen which has no glyphosate, atrazine, or any other pesticide from a list of over 200.

Image	Product	Heavy Metals	Pesticides	Additives
	Puori - CP1 Pure Collagen Peptides Powder	None	None	None
	Perfect Supplements – Perfect Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder	Minor	No Glyphosate	None
	Great Lakes Wellness Collagen Peptides Powder	Minor	No Glyphosate	None
	Sports Research Collagen Powder	Minor	No Glyphosate	None

The dangers of pesticides in collagen

Pesticides are a menace. They contaminate all kinds of food, and collagen is no exception. In fact, collagen probably is one of the more dangerous sources of glyphosate exposure, because glyphosate pesticide in a cow’s feed accumulates in the parts of the cow that become your collagen powder. There are 2.2 micrograms of glyphosate in 20 grams of factory farmed collagen (Calculations from data in this study). That’s why we have to go looking for good brands and all-natural sources to find collagen without glyphosate. We don’t want any pesticide in our collagen, or any other food, but glyphosate is one of the very worst pesticides due to its carcinogenic, and brain harming effects. It’s also a nasty endocrine disruptor, which means that glyphosate lowers testosterone.

Collagen powder without pesticides or heavy metals is finally available!

The first collagen powder we’ll look at is Puori brand. This collagen has no lead or other heavy metals as well as being free of glyphosate. It also has no BPA in it (a nasty plastic-manufacturing chemical that damages your hormones). You can enjoy collagen’s well known effects on skin, joints, hair, and health without the slightest worry of getting poisoned by pesticide, mercury, or other nasty chemicals.

Puori is certified by the Clean Label Project, and transparent with their excellent lab results.

Lab Results

• No glyphosate, atrazine, or other pesticides detected. (Tested for 200+ pesticides, as listed here)
• No heavy metals detected (lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium)
• No BPA or BPS detected

All these lab results can be seen here at the independent Clean Label Project, updated frequently.

Puori – CP1 Pure Collagen Peptides Powder

No collagen powder was as good as Puori in our opinion. This brand is really admirable for insisting on ZERO contamination by any unnatural, weird chemical or harmful heavy metal. But there are some other collagen brands that were very, very good too! (By the way, none of these collagen products have any additive ingredients in them.)

Perfection? Almost!

The next contender was the collagen from Perfect Supplements. This collagen is also free of glyphosate and very nearly free from heavy metals. You can get great results for your skin, digestion, and health with this collagen powder, with barely any exposure to the nasty stuff. We are big fans of Perfect Supplements for openly and truthfully sharing their great lab results.

Lab Results

• Certified glyphosate free by the Detox Project – here’s a lab test they had done just two months ago, before we wrote this.
• Independent tests by the Clean Label Project and the Organic Consumers Association found no lead, no mercury, no cadmium, but 0.2 micrograms of arsenic (you should know that this is far less than many other brands) – Lab results posted more recently on Perfect Supplements site show a bit higher amounts of the heavy metals, but it is still a lot better than most of the competition.
• No phtalates detected. Tested by another website here.

Perfect Supplements – Perfect Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder

Setting sail towards great skin and no pesticide exposure

Another good collagen powder without pesticides is available from Great Lakes. It is almost as good as the brand above, but testing found just a little bit more arsenic. It’s still far better than the typical collagen product and you can definitely use this collagen powder with an easy mind. Most importantly, Great Lakes collagen has no glyphosate in it.

Here’s their labs:

• No glyphosate (source)
• No lead, cadmium, or mercury. 0.6 micrograms of arsenic, a fairly minor amount. (source of the data)

Great Lakes Wellness Collagen Peptides Powder Supplement

Another great collagen product

Sports Research makes the final collagen powder on our list. We want to make it clear that this is a very good product too! There are hundreds of collagen products on the market, and many of them are contaminated with pesticides like glyphosate. Many of the others have heavy metals in them like lead. The Sports Research collagen powder has no glyphosate, no additives, and only a trace amount of heavy metals. It’s much better than most of the other products out there.

Lab results for Sports Research collagen powder:

• No glyphosate (source)
• No mercury or cadmium, but 0.5 micrograms arsenic, and 0.12 micrograms lead. (source) Again, these are pretty minor compared to the competition.

Sports Research Collagen Powder Supplement

Other ways to avoid pesticides

Making sure you get collagen without pesticides in it isn’t the only thing you can do to minimize pesticide exposure. We believe that it’s also just about essential to have a good water filter that removes pesticides. You don’t want to be drinking glyphosate water! You should also make sure to eat organic, pesticide-free food whenever you can. If you are tight on funds and can only eat organic in certain areas, make it grains, legumes, rice, and similar foods. These are often the most contaminated with glyphosate. More info on which foods are tested to be glyphosate free can be found in this excellent report.

1. Squeeze the bar as hard as you can from the moment you unrack the bar until you finish the lift. This causes all your muscles to contract harder through the irradiation principle.
2. Powerlifters advise squeezing your shoulder blades together. This shortens the range of motion allowing you to lift more. They say it’s safer for your shoulders, but others say the opposite. Some people also believe it increases the activation of the pecs.
3. Take a big breath of air into your chest before you unrack the bar. This will keep you stable on the bench.
4. Make sure the bar is at the base of your hand, right above your wrist. If the bar is high up in your hand, you will lose strength. Don’t let your hand flop backwards and never use a thumbless grip. It’s dangerous and you won’t lift as much.
5. Twist your hands against the bar like you’re trying to snap it in half. Your hands won’t actually move, but this will still cause stabilizing muscles in your shoulders to contract, giving your more strength.
6. Do more warmup sets, but don’t do as many reps in the sets. A good warmup should never fatigue you; it should amp you up to lift big weights! For example, if your max bench is 275, a good warmup would look like this: 45 x 10, 95 x 10, 135 x 6, 165 x 3, 195 x 3, 225 x 2, 245 x 1, 265 x 1, 285 x 1 (10 lb more than your max!)
7. Squeeze your abs and glutes while you lift, this allows force to transfer through your body better.
8. Dig your feet into the floor and drive with them like you’re doing a leg extension against the floor. Believe it or not, this can add quite a bit to your bench press.
9. Imagine that your are pushing yourself down into the bench, instead of pushing the bar up off your chest. This tricks your brain and often makes the bench press feel way stronger.
10. Lower the bar down to your nipples or slightly below. Lowering the bar high up on your chest is bad for your shoulders and is much weaker.
11. Now go set a new bench press max!!

Monday

Dumbbell Snatch – 4 sets of 8 reps with 10 lb

This will get your stabilizer shoulder muscles operating at peak performance.

Exercise demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDRiPLPzUVg

Plyometric Pushup – 4 sets of 5 reps

This is a regular pushup except you push yourself up so explosively that your hands actually leave the ground at the end of the rep. You should get more powerful every set.

You are now ready to bench with maximum performance.

Close Grip Bench Press – Sets of 5 reps, starting with 45 and adding 20 lb each set, until you get to a weight where you can’t get all 5 reps, even when you strain as hard as possible. Make sure you have a spotter!

Grab the bar with your hands just touching the smooth center portion of the bar. Lower the bar all the way down to your chest. This exercise will help you with your weak point at the top of the bench press.

Flat Dumbbell Press – 4 sets of 6-10 reps, Pick a weight where you can just barely get all 10 reps. Try your hardest to get at least 8 reps every set.

Dumbbell Tate Press – 4 sets of 8-12 reps, Pick a weight where you can just barely get all 12 reps. Try your hardest to get at least 10 reps every set.

This exercise is going to help you especially, so focus hard on it!

Exercise demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr1jQX6Fnz0

Dumbbell Front Raise – 4 sets of 10-15 reps, Pick a weight where you can just barely get all 15 reps. Try your hardest to get at least 12 reps every set.

Thursday

Speed Bench Press – After warming up, do 8 sets of 3 reps starting with 45. Add 5-10 lb each set.

Lift as FAST as you can, but only if you can use perfect technique. This is not a time to get sloppy, in fact you should use this time to practice great bench technique! Remember, FAST and perfect.

Dumbbell Row – 4 sets of 6-10 reps, Pick a weight where you can just barely get all 10 reps. Try your hardest to get at least 8 reps every set.

Lat Pulldown – 4 sets of 8-12 reps, Pick a weight where you can just barely get all 12 reps. Try your hardest to get at least 10 reps every set.

Hammer Curl – 4 sets of 10-15 reps, Pick a weight where you can just barely get all 15 reps. Try your hardest to get at least 12 reps every set.

This exercise is actually key to getting a big bench, especially for people like you who have trouble locking out their bench press reps. Hammer curls train the brachialis muscle in addition to the biceps, this often over-looked muscle is key to driving force through the elbow joint into the bar.

Face pull – 4 sets of 20 reps, Pick a fairly light weight and pump out the reps. This is critical for keeping your shoulders in balance. We’re putting a lot of stress on our shoulders with the bench press, so it’s important to keep the shoulders strong and injury-free. A healthy, balanced shoulder is a strong shoulder, so don’t skip the face pulls!

Exercise demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEfFE2AAmAA

Good luck with this program, if you stick with it and train hard, you are likely to get results!

Be sure to check out our top 10 bench press form tips as well.

Note: This workout is for intermediate lifters who have maxed out their beginner gains from a basic linear progression program. Beginners would get better results from a program such as Starting Strength or the Greyskull Linear Progression.

Why Strongman?

If you’re on the lookout for something new to throw in your workout to kickstart weight loss, look no further than strongman. Strongman training is fun and extremely effective. You can do it practically anywhere and get great results in a surprisingly short period of time. Strongman is exceptionally good for fat loss for a whole bunch of different reasons. In this article, I’ll explain why Strongman works so well and then give you some brutal and effective strongman routines that you can try for yourself either at the gym or at home.

Strongman is Perfect for Fat Loss

Strongman training is made up of intense, heavy interval training. Believe it or not, anaerobic training like this is actually better for burning fat than aerobic endurance training because it forces the body to burn fat as fuel instead of muscle. Anaerobic training also releases growth hormone (HGH) which is a huge part of the body’s fat storage system. Aerobic training, in contrast, burns through the carbohydrates in your bloodstream and then immediately starts eating into your muscle. Aerobic training increases production of cortisol, a stress hormone that leads to fast muscle loss.

Anaerobic interval training works so much better than aerobic training because it forces the metabolism to adapt—in order to sustain the level of intensity needed, your body must burn fat. It also keeps the metabolism raging for 24 hours or more after your workout, which has been shown to have a dramatic effect on fat loss, especially from the belly region. (See Is Aerobic or Anaerobic Training Best for Getting Rid of Belly Fat? by Charles Poliquin)

This means that strongman trainers are burning more fat during their workouts and they actually continue to burn fat for over 24 hours after their workouts are finished! Strongman training increases Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) meaning that you keep on burning fat long after your workout is finished. A 2006 study showed that anaerobic workouts like strongman training produce higher EPOC values than long distance aerobic training because the muscles are forced by the intensity of the effort needed to restore nutrients expended by the cells; in other words they used a ton of energy. This is terrific for fat loss since it means your metabolism is getting jacked up like crazy. Lose fat while eating more, who doesn’t want that!

Another aspect of strongman training that accelerates fat loss is the use of uneven and oddly shaped objects. Typical strongman equipment like sleds, ropes, stones, sand bags, not only makes training exciting, but also makes it harder for you develop a perfectly efficient technique while you lift. While great technical efficiency is great for performance, a less efficient athlete is actually working much harder than an efficient one. This is bad for competition, but terrific for fat loss because of all the calories being burned by this inefficient movement. Efficiency is developed when your Central Nervous System “learns” which muscles should be activated and which ones should be relaxed for the best coordination of effort. However, when the balance point of the odd object you’re lifting is constantly moving around, your nervous system can never quite figure out how to adapt. The efficiency process becomes much harder and you will have to use every muscle in your body just to hold onto the weight. The more muscles you use, the more energy is expended and the more energy expended, the greater the fat loss results.

Get Motivated, Stay Motivated

One of the biggest challenges for fat loss is the motivation required. Strongman trainers are constantly motivated for their workouts because of the challenge and uniqueness of the movements. Every week they train something new and exciting. Not only does this sort of training increase your lean muscle mass, it also develops real-world strength and even helps improve poor posture and joint instability. Strongman training definitely improves mental toughness, as anyone can tell you who has done a heavy sled workout, flipped a tire for high reps, or loaded heavy atlas stones.

Check out our list of the best strongman exercises as well as these two great strongman workout programs you can do at home or at the gym.

Diet Is Most Important For Fat Loss

No matter what workout you do, it won’t work unless your diet is on target. If you eat junk all the time, you won’t lose fat. In our opinion, the two most important dietary elements to lose fat are:

1. Calorie Deficit
2. Avoiding seed oils in junk food

Calorie deficit is easy. Just setup a diet where you are eating something like 500 calories less than you would need to maintain your weight. You can use this helpful calculator for that.

Avoiding seed oils is very important. Seed oils are the junk processed vegetable oils that most low quality food is made with, like soybean oil, canola oil, and peanut oil. These will slow your metabolism and promote obesity. This is too big a topic to go into here, but you can read a full guide to avoiding seed oils and eating natural fat sources instead here.

If you eat clean foods instead of seed oil containing greasy junk, and you keep your calories to where they should be, you will definitely lose fat. The strongman workouts will just be the cherry on top! Good Luck!

The best thing about strongman is the ease with which you can train. All you need is some awkward heavy objects and you’re set. You can even do these in your backyard while you do yard work. There is no need for an expensive gym membership or fancy machines, although you can certainly do strongman training in the gym too.

The best strongman exercises require you to hold or move a heavy load over a 30 second – 2 minute period of time. Here’s some favorites:

• Atlas stone loading
• Ground-to-shoulder with a sandbag
• Sled pushing or dragging – push from the low bars, drag from the loading pins, pull it with a rope hand-over-hand, etc.
• One Arm Dumbbell Push Press (also called a circus dumbbell press)
• Battle Ropes
• Farmer’s Walk – can be done one arm at a time for added core training
• Overhead carry
• Sandbag lunges
• Carry rocks, cinderblocks, or anything heavy back and forth in your yard
• Carry and throw hay bails
• Push a wheelbarrow loaded with rocks
• Truck pull with a rope
• Truck push
• Yoke carry – can be done with a barbell or even with a person, fireman’s carry style

Choose 3-5 of these exercises for each workout. Try to pick a variety of exercises to cover all kinds of different movement patterns like pulling, carrying, pushing, lifting off the ground, explosive movement, etc. Keep rest times minimal for the best fat loss effect. Always move as fast and hard as possible while keeping proper, safe form in mind at all times. Most people won’t be able to keep this pace up for more than 30 minutes, so plan accordingly!

Five circuits with two minutes rest after each circuit:

Sandbag (or a bag of dirt/mulch) Toss (into the wheelbarrow!) x 5 bags
Rest 15 seconds
Wheelbarrow Push x 60 yards
Rest 15 seconds
Sandbag Zercher Squat x 25 reps

You can incorporate this one into a landscaping or gardening project. This is a great way to fit an intense weight loss workout right into your daily routine.