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How to Save Money and Do the AdvoCare 24-Day Challenge Without AdvoCare

2/1/2017

Disclaimer: I'm not being paid to recommend any of the products listed in this post. I've taken all of them myself, and many of my choices to take them were influenced by third party testing from companies such as LabDoor.

I've been thinking about writing this for a long time. I post about it on my social media feeds quite often, and I usually get a decent response when I do, so I figured why not? If some of you who read this sell multi-level marketing (MLM) dietary supplement products and are making a killing at it, good for you. I'm not mad at your success. But I do have a bone to pick with the marketing tactics of these companies as well as the value of what they're selling. So I'm sorry in advance that I'm about to tell everyone why they don't need you...

I understand the MLM appeal. I really do. You went to a meeting where you were told you could make a couple hundred grand a year by selling these amazing dietary supplements. All you need to do is recruit your friends, family, complete strangers, and your neighbor's dog to get under you in the pyramid (yes, it's a pyramid no matter how the recruiter tries to spin it) and you're going to be living the good life in a few short months. Sounds reasonable, right?

Let's jump ahead those few short months. You've contacted, and annoyed, every friend, family member, and person you went to school with and haven't seen in 10 years. A few of them signed up to be on your "team", but most of them have unfollowed you on Facebook after you posted about this "great opportunity" 37 times a day for a month. "All you need to do is try this amazing 24-Day Challenge," you say, "and you'll be sold for life on the magic of AdvoCare. It's only 200 bucks plus shipping. What do you have to lose?!"

The Definition of "Progress" in Your Workout Routine

1/25/2017

In my last blog post (HERE), I made a case for why getting better at the basics will make you a better, faster, stronger person. I gave an example of a workout, and explained that I would do that workout week after week, adding weight to each lift every time I do it. I received a few messages after that blog post asking "is this the only way to measure progress in the gym?" Definitely not. This is but one of many definitions for "progress" when measuring your advancement in your program.

When it comes right down to it, if you're adding more weight, more repetitions, or a combination of both to your chosen exercises, this is progress. If you're a novice or intermediate lifter, progress would be your ability to add at least a few pounds to all your major lifts each week. If you're a bodybuilder, being able to do 15 reps of triceps extensions when you could previously only do 12 with that same weight is progress. Cranking out an extra 10 seconds of all out effort on a sprint is also progress.

Whatever your goal is, whether it be strength, aesthetics, or endurance, you should be progressing and becoming better week after week, month after month, year after year. If you're not, it may be time to re-evaluate your workout program so that you can get back on track. If you don't know how to go about that, then having a knowledgable coach or trainer can make a huge difference. Don't get stuck in a rut. Get help. There's nothing worse than wasted time when it comes to your training.

"The Basics" Might Not Be Fancy, But They WORK

1/23/2017

Supersets, drop sets, giant sets, single leg pistol squats, bosu ball standing shoulder presses, backwards lunges, burpees, handstand pushups, German volume training, blah blah blah! I could go on for an entire blog post just naming all the "fancy" shit I see trainers doing with clients on a daily basis, both in real life and on the internet.

And you know what, I totally get it. People want to be entertained by their workout, and many people think if they're not in the fetal position on the floor at the end of the training session, they've not had a good workout. Workout program ADD and punishment by workout are all the rage these days, and for the life of me I will never understand it.

You want to know the secret to getting really strong and in REALLY good shape? "Bookmark this page and prepare to be blown away by this secret that trainers don't want you to know." Do some form of these exercises, and do them on a regular basis:

Squats
Deadlifts
Bench Press
Overhead Shoulder Press
Chin-ups or Pull-ups (assisted if need be)
Rowing exercises
Heavy carrying exercises
Occasional sprinting, battle rope work, sled pushing, etc.
Walking

There may be a few more I'd add in there if you were an athlete or someone who wanted to do bodybuilding, but if you're a regular person who wants to get lean, have some appreciable muscle, and just be generally awesome, that's pretty much all you need! You don't need to do endless sets of torturous and oftentimes awkward exercises. You need the basics, you need to learn to properly perform the basics, and you need to get stronger at the basics on a weekly/monthly basis.

Should you squat on a balance ball? Hell no, that's dangerous and stupid. Do you need to know how to perform a perfect sumo deadlift? Nope, a regular deadlift will be fine. Do you need to do curls to get bigger biceps? Chin-ups work just as well, and work your back and core in the process. I'm going to keep saying it. YOU JUST NEED TO LEARN THE BASICS.

If you were to go in the gym with me and watch me workout on a typical Monday, my workout would go something like this:

Barbell Squat- 3 sets of 5 at 85% of my maximum weight
Bench Press- 4 sets of 4 at 90% of my maximum weight
Barbell Deadlift- 5 sets of 2 at 95% of my maximum weight
Dumbbell Carry- 3 sets of 50 steps
Walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes

The next week on Monday, I would do that same exact workout, except I would try to add in the neighborhood of 2.5 up to 10 extra pounds on each lift from what I did the last time. I'm not going to be doing endless sets of sit-ups (they're awful for your spine, and heavy barbell lifts work your core just as well). I'm not going to do burpees until I throw up. I'm going to do the basics, I'm going to get stronger at the basics, and I'm going to get in better shape. Period.

If you simply want to exercise, go in the gym and do random exercises that serve no purpose to achieving some kind of end goal. If that's good for you, that's your prerogative and that's just fine. If you want to TRAIN, you go in the gym knowing exactly what you're doing that day, how heavy and how many reps you're going do of it, and improve upon those numbers on a consistent basis. Training can be monotonous, it can be boring at times, and it can be brutally hard. But there are few things more gratifying than training smart and doing things in the gym you never thought you could. Exercise might be entertaining because it's always different, but it only serves to make you sweat, not get better at something. What's the point of that?

If your current gym routine is just "exercise" and you want to learn to do something more measurable and effective, please feel free to visit my services page and fill out a consultation application. One more time, if you can competently perform the basics, they will serve to make you a better, faster, stronger human being every time. Or just keep exercising. I guess that's fine too!

My Favorite Podcasts Part 1

1/20/2017

There are thousands and thousands of podcasts out there for nearly any subject you want to know about. Interested in gardening? Podcast. World War 2? Podcast. Fitness? Well yeah, there are a ton of good ones for that as well. Today I wanted to share with you a few of my personal favorites. In no particular order...

The Starting Strength Podcast

I posted a video from Mark Rippetoe at Starting Strength yesterday because Mark is essentially the godfather of modern strength training. His books and programs have been a major influence on me as a lifter, and his no nonsense style of speaking and sense of humor are very endearing to me. Mark covers a variety of different topics on his show from injury prevention to being a whiskey connoisseur and has many great guest hosts. Check out the podcast HERE.

Muscle for Life

Mike Matthews is the author of a few of the bestselling fitness books on the market. While I find his books to be a bit too thin on specific detail when it comes to weight training, his podcast is essential listening for me. Mike discusses everything from basic nutrition all the way up to bodybuilding contest preparation on his podcast, and has a number of the top minds in the fitness industry on his show. Check out his podcast HERE, then I recommend subscribing on Itunes or Stitcher for an easier listening experience.

The FitCast

The FitCast is one of the original fitness podcasts on the internet. With 420 episodes as of this blog posting, you could spend the next year listening to this thing without running out of episodes. Host Kevin Larrabee has a huge variety of guests on his show discussing topics ranging from sports psychology to video games. There's something for everyone. Click HERE to check out The FitCast

I will sporadically throw out some more podcasts to check out every few months (I listen to a LOT of them), but hopefully these will get you started if you don't know where to look for this kind of content. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

How to Deadlift in 5 Steps

1/19/2017

If you're working out with me, and you're a healthy adult without major joint or spine issues, you WILL be deadlifting. Forget what your doctor or your friend who "broke their back" deadlifting tells you. If you deadlift properly, you will actually strengthen your back and many of your back ailments will go away. I speak from personal experience on this topic because I've hurt my back deadlifting the wrong way before. Once I cleaned up my form, my back has never felt better as an adult. Here's a helpful video from Mark Rippetoe about properly deadlifting in 5 easy steps!

"Looking the part" as a personal trainer...

11/7/2016

I have a confession to make...

I don't currently look anywhere near like I did when I was at my thinnest. My current training goals are more focused towards being the strongest person I can be instead of being very thin like I have been in the past. I look pretty heavy, I am pretty heavy, but I'm also in pretty fantastic shape despite my outward appearance.

However, this has sort of put me off towards seeking new clients because I may not "look the part" of what I know many people think a personal trainer is supposed to look like. Then I saw this post from fitness expert Alex Vlada the other day and it kind of put things into perspective for me...

"The old argument about whether your trainer should "look the part" never seems to die, and never seems to quite nail the point. It's not about appearance, it's about experience and empathy. To teach, one does not have to master the outcome, one has to master the process. The former requires a degree of time, dedication, and single-minded selfishness that may be at odds with instruction of others. The latter shows experience and empathy- an understanding of the challenges- the mental component, the specific struggles and self-doubts, dealing with failure and not only knowing what it takes to then succeed, but implementing it in oneself.

Mastery of the process is, however, hard to define. The ability to demonstrate steady progress and improvement shows understanding of the specific challenges of a task and how to overcome them. The ability to translate and adapt this process to many others shows understanding of the critical variables in training, and how to adjust them among a wide range of trainees.

When this breaks down, however, is when the trainer's own experience with the process is characterized by self-doubt and stagnation. A physique or weight loss coach whose personal experience in the arena resulted in body image issues and eating disorders. A triathlon or ultramarathon coach whose resume includes a string of DFLs and DNFs. A strength sport coach who peaks everywhere BUT competition. These things show a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to the coaching aspect of sport- not simply improving numbers, but understanding the deeper underlying factors that distinguish training/coaching from simple programming. Regardless of how impressive the results may appear in training, the ability to "coach" is simply absent.

A good trainer does not have to be the strongest, or the fastest, or the leanest, or the most successful personally. But they need to be able to show an understanding of the process, and the ability to immerse themselves in the process and avoid pitfalls.

So should a trainer look the part? ....wrong question. The trainer doesn't have to look the part, but the trainer should show he has the ability to look the part, should he decide to shift his focus more to himself."

This has given me a confidence I haven't had in a while to seek new fat loss clients. No, I don't weight 250 currently (which for me is very thin), or anything close to it. That said, I know how to do that if I were to want to look that way again, and I know how to do it with anyone else who walks through the gym doors. In fact, I may know how to do it much better than the personal trainer who was born with abs.

There's certainly a lot more to me than how I look or don't look. All that really matters is that I can get you where you want to go because I've been in the shoes of a morbidly obese person, a very thin person, and now a larger sized but much stronger person. This is the experience I bring into my business, and what I believe makes me invaluable to many of my clients. I'm glad that I read that post from Alex to make me realize that again.

Should I Exercise When I'm Sick?

6/3/2016

Should I Exercise When I'm Sick?

Since I'm under the weather, I figured I'd share the best practices for exercise when you're sick:

If you have a cold or sore throat with no fever, you can exercise, but whether you can exercise is another story unto itself. If you need a box of kleenex with you on the treadmill or are coughing all over the people in the gym, it's probably best to cut it short and get some rest.
If you have a fever/vomiting/nausea etc., skip the gym and get better. Vigorous exercise can weaken the immune system, and that's the last thing you need. Drink lots of fluids, sleep as much as you can, and just generally relax when you're sick. The gym can wait.

I'm going to get myself better this weekend, get back to the gym and regain the ability to taste food, and I will check in with better progress next week. Take care guys. Have some Vitamin C for me!

If You Want Results, You Have to Sleep!

5/26/2016

There is almost nothing worse than a bad night of sleep. Aside from how you feel and your inability to concentrate, a bad night of sleep can impact you in a number of ways:

Weight gain- Figured we'd start there. Lack of sleep messes up your hormones, increases your likelihood to overeat, and is directly linked to weight gain.
Health problems- Aside from weight gain, poor sleeping habits can raise blood pressure and increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and a number of other things you really don't want.
Decreased sex drive- You certainly don't feel frisky when you're excessively tired, and in men, it can lower testosterone levels depending on how severe your sleeping issues are.

That is a very abbreviated list of negative effects from not sleeping well. The good news is, unless you're an insomniac or have sleep apnea (in which case you should be seeing a doctor), there are some relatively painless strategies for getting the recommended 7-9 hours each night:

Cut off the electronics an hour or two before bed. I know a lot of people are glued to phones, tablets, and the television right up until bedtime. If you have trouble sleeping, try to ease up on the use of these devices. The blue light emitted from them decreases your brains release of melatonin, which is a hormone that helps you sleep.
The darker the room the better for a good night's sleep. This all comes back to light messing up your melatonin release. Get some heavy, dark curtains for the windows, and turn your phone over or off to avoid the blinking LED light keeping you awake.
White noise can help some people sleep more soundly (pun intended). I personally can't tell you the last time I slept without a fan in the bedroom, even in the winter time. If a fan isn't your thing, there are a variety of different white noise machines out there that emit comforting sounds.
Avoid caffeine late in the day. Some people have to cut it off before noon. Some people can use it later in the afternoon and have no issues. If you are a caffeine junkie and don't sleep well, try to cut back after noon. This could make a big difference for you.
Exercising vigorously even just a few minutes a day can help you sleep better at night. Your body recovers from exercise during sleep, so the harder the workout, the better you sleep at night. Just ask my clients.
If all else fails, or you're just looking to optimize sleep on a daily basis, supplementing with melatonin (anywhere from 1 to 10mg) and/or magnesium (200-400mg) can help tremendously. Melatonin helps you get sleep, and magnesium can aid with helping you "wind down" after a long day. I personally use both every night before bed, and 99% of the time I sleep quite well.

There are also things like meditation and yoga that can aid with a good night's sleep, but the above tactics should be more than enough to help get you on the right track. If you think there is something more sinister behind your poor sleep habits, it may be beneficial to see your doctor where they could possibly order a sleep study to dig deeper into the problem.

The Scale Only Tells Part of the Story

5/22/2016

The scale isn't the be all end all of health measurements, but I know it's the most important indicator to a lot of people. I'm also fully aware that the expectation among many folks is that they can achieve overnight success with their fitness goals. There's even a book out there I've seen called the Overnight Diet that promises you can expect to lose 11 pounds in a week's time. There's NOTHING good about losing 11 pounds in a week unless you're a couple hundred pounds overweight. It's time for everyone to take their foot off the gas and slow down.

First things first. If you own a scale and obsessively weigh yourself, throw it away, put it somewhere where you won't see it every day, or throw it away. Yes, I said throw it away twice. To a lot of people, the number that comes up on the scale is a sign of success or failure, and stepping on it can become an excessive habit. I've had clients and friends tell me "I lost 2 pounds last night," then turn around and message me the next day saying "I don't know how but I gained 3 pounds last night!" First off, they are a candidate for donating the scale to Goodwill or putting it in the dumpster, and second, you'd have to eat and or burn off several thousand calories in a day to see legitimate negative results like that (this was discussed in my Day 2 post).

Hopefully you've got the scale thing under control. What's next? Next, it's time to face the reality that if you're overweight, even by just a few pounds, it didn't happen overnight. If it didn't happen overnight, why should you expect it to come off overnight? If you read my fad diet post, you will know that not only is losing weight at an accelerated rate a dicey proposition, it actually makes it much harder to continue losing weight and keep it off. All these stupid diets promise you will lose a large amount of weight in just a few short weeks. There are starvation diets, juicing diets, overnight diets, etc etc... As I've said before, all these books amount to are nothing more than a decorative item for your bookshelf, and if you're serious about results, you're going to have to face the reality that it could a significant amount of time to see the results you're looking for.

Don't be deflated because you can't make this happen in two weeks. Almost nothing worth having comes easy. You have to set a plan and put it into motion. That said, having a laid out plan of attack is a great thing, but it needs to be realistic. Saying "I want to have a six-pack in 6 months" is not only a huge goal, but for most people, it's an unrealistic one. When you set goals, make them reasonable. If you have 100 pounds to lose, set 5-10 pound weight loss goals. If you only have 20 pounds lose, 2 pounds is a significant achievement whether you choose to recognize it or not.

Even better than setting weight goals, I recommend setting measurement goals. It's not always a good indicator of success measuring your weight, especially if you're involved in a proper resistance training program. Aside from being in better health after losing weight (the ultimate achievement in my opinion), the scale may not have drastically changed but there's a significant difference in body measurements, how your clothes fit and even how you look in the mirror. This can be due to fat loss and muscle gain. The difference in the makeup of fat and muscle is drastic. This is an accurate depiction of just how drastic.

Fat loss at a reasonable rate will be the fat you lose for life. Fat you lose at a rapid pace will be much more likely to come back. Don't use the scale as your only fat loss measurement, and your mindset will be much better for it. The only reason I'm posting daily scale pictures is because it's an easy measurement to display. In normal life, I weigh myself once a week on the same day, naked, first thing in the morning. This is a good method for just about everyone.

Have a great rest of your weekend. I'm getting ready to go do 40 minutes of light cardio and taking today off from the weight room. I hope you get up and move too! Until tomorrow...

You Must Weigh Your Food (Most of the Time)

5/21/2016

A very big part of counting calories, macros or any other measurements of food is knowing how much you're actually eating. That's why a food scale is probably the most important kitchen gadget you can own. While it may seem like a major inconvenience, knowing the difference between 3 and 5 ounces of meat or how much a serving of peanut butter truly is can make several hundred calories of difference. You can purchase a decent digital food scale at nearly any department store (Target, Walmart, etc.) for around $20. I personally measure every non pre-packaged thing I eat, and if you want to be truly successful, this is something you'll need to start doing as well.