🏋️‍♀️ how gross is your protein shaker bottle?

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Before you clock out on this wonderful Friday, check out the stories we’ve got on deck:

• How to clean your protein shaker bottle the right way.

• Should you arch your back during the bench press?

• A breakdown of the CrossFit workout “Nancy.”

Health

Get the Funk Out

If you’re a serious fitness enthusiast, your shaker bottle likely occupies a position inside your circle of trust equivalent to a long-time training partner — maybe even more so. Your training buddy isn’t always timely with their spots and affirmations as you might prefer. But, your shaker delivers exactly 40 grams of protein to your fatigued, enervated muscles at exactly 8:00 p.m. every evening, like clockwork.

Much like your flesh-and-blood training partner, though, your shaker bottle also isn’t immune to emitting a foul odor after going through the day-in, day-out grind with you.

Luckily, there’s an easy fix to that — you’ve just gotta clean the thing regularly. Of course, there’s more to it than just running your bottle under some soapy water and calling it a day. No, to ensure your shaker bottle is truly free from all the odor-causing bacteria, you’ll need to understand the science behind the smell.

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Exercise Tips

Arch Debate

You’ve seen it before: a powerlifter sets up to perform a bench press, and they arch their back in a way that would make McDonald’s jealous. You ask yourself, “What the heck are they doing?” and then shrug it off as some weird form. Well, the bench press arch is a legitimate technique that lifters — especially powerlifters — use to move more weight and reduce the potential risk of a back injury.

Wherever there’s a video of someone bench-pressing with an exaggerated arch, it’s usually accompanied by folks crying “cheater” or “injury risk.” We look beyond the hot takes to discuss the pros and cons of the bench press arch below.

CrossFit

Nancy Reagains

You didn’t sign up for your local CrossFit gym just so you could go running. CrossFit is about diverse training styles and techniques, not just pounding the pavement. But just because this sport isn’t about running doesn’t mean you’ll never run in CrossFit. On the contrary: a lot of the toughest CrossFit WODs require you to get a move on.

The CrossFit Nancy workout requires only two movements: a 400-meter run and the overhead squat. On their own, both of these exercises are deceptively simple. But Nancy combines them, sandwiching sets of 15 overhead squats in between 400-meter runs.

If that sounds like your type of workout, you’ll learn everything you need to complete your first Nancy below.

Everything Else

A Pallof Press Primer

• The half-kneeling Pallof press is a challenging, progressive core exercise derived from the basic standing Pallof press. Here’s how it can transform your workouts.

• Four-time Classic Physique Olympia champ Chris Bumstead has gains on the brain, so he connected with the “Hypertrophy Coach” himself, Joe Bennett, to learn a few new tricks to grow his legs.

• The all-time raw squat world record in the men’s 125-kilogram weight class has once again been toppled. Watch powerlifter Reece Fullwood take the crown.