In my last post, I talked about my friend and client Josh, and his amazing success story. Josh had the worst possible “body type” (skinny, fat and weak) imaginable for achieving the goals of gaining lean muscle, increasing strength and losing body fat.
Yet, against the odds, he achieved all three simultaneously. How did he pull it off? Well, first of all, Josh refused to give up on himself. He was disciplined, motivated and passionate about overcoming the physical limitations that his DNA had so graciously “blessed” him with.
However, all the discipline and motivation in the world won’t do a single thing for you if you don’t have the right nutritional protocol and training program to back you up. That’s where I came in!
So in this post, I’d like to go a little more in depth on what I did to help Josh pull off the impossible. Let’s start with his training protocol:
Training volume- In most cases, alternating phases of high and…… …continue reading.
This past weekend, I spent some time with my old friend and former training partner, Mike. He was one of the best training partners I ever had. He showed up early, he was strong and he was always ready to bring it. I loved training with him. His passion, dedication, consistency (and borderline lunacy) was exactly what I needed in my early twenties.
Eventually our schedules conflicted and we were forced to train on our own. Sharing a relentless pursuit of strength and muscular size/definition, we mercilessly continued to pound the iron four days per week. Then the day came when I felt myself slip from the state of indestructible youth. Let me explain.
For years, I had benched between 365-425 lbs each and every week, depending on the rep range being utilized. Then one particular Monday, while I was grinding out a heavy rep, I felt something tear in my shoulder. I took an immediate trip to the orthopedist, and the MRI he gave…… …continue reading.
How many times have you heard the statement, “You can’t be too healthy”? Although I can appreciate the intention behind this assertion, I happen to disagree with it wholeheartedly. In fact, I believe that trying to be too healthy can actually be unhealthy. Sound counterintuitive? Let me explain…
For over 20 years now, I have read, discussed and experimented with just about every nutritional protocol out there. When I say “every”, I mean everything from the popular, mainstream nutritional plans to the most obscure and underground dietary theories.
While my clients often become my very brave test subjects, I always begin every experiment on yours truly. I have literally studied, dissected and applied all of the “best of the best” nutritional protocols to myself. Given my obsession with uncovering every possible way to be “healthy”, you would think that I would be superman by now.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Trying to be “too healthy” actually landed me in the emergency room recently. Even worse, my dreadful visit to…… …continue reading.
In my last post, you learned about the oh-so-popular cardio exercise you should totally avoid. Now (because Johnny Al never leaves you hanging!), I will share with you some cardio options that you should NOT avoid. These exercises are some of my favorites; they are great for both fat loss and conditioning.
The truth is that the cardio exercise that is best for one individual may not be the most effective for another trainee. That’s because the ideal exercise choice depends on many factors. Some of these factors are your specific goal, injury history, bodyweight, and equipment access, to name a few.
Instead of boring you with an explanation and recommendation for each and every possible scenario, I will simply hook you up with my five favorite cardio options for dramatically improving your conditioning levels while burning fat as fast as possible. These options are for those with no current injures, no coordination issues, and no fear of hard work.
Alright, if you’re still reading,…… …continue reading.
Those of you who know me know that I’m not a huge fan of machines. Thus, it’s logical to assume that this post will consist of me bashing the elliptical, stationary bike, stair stepper and treadmill.
But contrary to this seemingly obvious presumption, the cardio workout that I want you to avoid has nothing to do with a machine. Instead, I’m going to condemn what is perhaps the most popular bodyweight exercise of all time for fat loss and conditioning.
The sacred exercise that I’m referring to is…jogging! On paper, jogging seems to be quite good. It burns calories, raises heart rate and requires no equipment or skill. But there is a dark side to jogging.
In my 19 years in the biz, I have yet to come across a cardio activity that leads to more soft tissue injuries and degenerative changes in the joints of the lower body than jogging. Injuries to the feet, knees and hips are all too common amongst distance runners.
Here’s why:
1) The jogging stride is actually more like a shuffling of the feet. There is a very…… …continue reading.
The Marine’s boot camp is extremely challenging both physically and mentally. I have a lot of admiration for the men and women who make it through that program, and often times, I wish I had experienced boot camp for myself when I was a young lad (plus I certainly could have used some non-negotiable discipline back then!).
Because boot camp has the reputation of whipping cadets into shape quickly, many civilian fitness “boot camps” have been popping up all over the place. Although I’m generally not a big trend guy, I have to admit that I am fascinated by this development — so much so, in fact, that I recently decided to check out nine different and unaffiliated boot camps. What I observed was nothing short of comical.
There was no cool and effective military style training going on. I’m talking 0 for 9 here. After all the recent “boot camp” hype, I was expecting to see nine kick ass programs that challenged people both physically…… …continue reading.
Those of you who know me know that I am very goal orientated. I like having clear goals, developing a roadmap to achieve them and following the plan with tenacity. This is true in most aspects of my life and it is definitely true when it comes to training.
I can say with certainty that most of my training success was made possible by the fact that I always had a crystal clear plan of what I wanted to accomplish and how I intended to accomplish it.
But I am not alone. In fact, I have found that just about everyone who actually achieves a noteworthy training related goal — whatever that goal may be — has a specific plan of attack in place before they even begin. People who tend to “wing it” without a vision or a plan usually end up getting nowhere…and fast.
Here is a seldom asked yet very important question: Why put your time and hard work into an endeavor…… …continue reading.
A good set of stairs has always represented something magical to me. Due to my lifelong obsession with Rocky, running up a steep flight of stairs has always symbolized overcoming an intimidating and overwhelmingly difficult life-obstacle.
Throughout my childhood, I ran up and down a local (and oh-so memorable) set of stadium stairs quite often, and drew a lot of inspiration and self-confidence from it. Little did I know that I was engaging in one of the best fat burning exercises and also one of the best conditioning drills in existence.
Believe me, after 20 years of being in the biz, I have tirelessly experimented with every possible fat loss/conditioning protocol imaginable, yet regardless of what I try, a good stair running workout still reigns supreme.
Now, before you go out and start sprinting up the nearest staircase, read on to discover how to best perform a stair running workout. Don’t get me wrong, just simply running up and down a good flight of stairs…… …continue reading.
“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.” “Don’t eat after 7:00 pm if you want to lose fat.” Blah blah blah. This well-known approach is recommended and adhered to by just about every dieter and fitness expert out there.
The fascination with this eating plan is based on the belief that eating late at night can make you fat. Why would eating late at night make a person fat, you ask? Here are some of the more popular reasons:
1) Since you’re less active at night, you’ll be less likely to burn the calories you just ate. This will lead to a greater percentage of these calories being converted to body fat.
2) Food choices usually get worse in the evening.
3) Eating at night can disturb sleep patterns, thus leading to poor recovery and regeneration.
4) Your digestive system slows down at night, so any food eaten then will not be fully absorbed.
5) And last but…… …continue reading.
Well, it appears that the Krill Oil vs. Fish Oil debate has officially begun. For those of you who don’t know, these oils contain the beloved Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.
It is an undisputed fact that we need to get these fatty acids through our diets. Every expert will agree on that, and for good reason.
Omega-3’s have been shown to display a host of benefits: promoting fat loss, improving insulin metabolism, decreasing inflammation in the body, decreasing triglycerides, increasing good (HDL) cholesterol, easing depression, etc. The list of benefits is impressive and well documented.
For years now, fish oil has been the gold standard for omega-3 supplementation. But now, recent research is suggesting that krill oil may be a superior alternative. Is this true?
Unfortunately, you can’t believe most of what you read on this topic. The majority of the literature is created by marketers cleverly disguising themselves as doctors, nutritionists, or fitness experts.
I assure you that I have NO affiliation…… …continue reading.
