The World’s “Best Results Guaranteed” Fitness Program

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Some time ago, I jokingly mentioned to my fiancé that when I finished my book, I wanted to make a crystal clear statement that those people who followed the guidance in my book are 100% guaranteed to see short-term results, with long-term results pending. I say “pending” because you have to continue to do the work to maintain what you’ve earned.

I also wanted to make another guarantee in the book:

If you act on not a single word on any of the pages within the cover of this book, you’re 100% guaranteed no results whatsoever.

Too harsh?

Or is that pure honesty? Some of us don’t need more sympathy. As I mentioned in a recent post, we have become too sensitive. We crumble when our feathers get ruffled. I am as sensitive as anyone, so I know what it’s like.

Lets stop and ask ourselves, do we really need more people to rub our backs every time we fail to take any significant action toward something that we say that we want? Is that helping us, or hurting us? Is all of that sympathy love making us delusional?

I personally think that it is making us extremely delusional as a society!

I wanted to take down the Christmas tree for nearly 2 weeks now and all I did was walk by it, get riled up that it was still standing there taking up valuable space in our living room. I stewed about it. Almost like I was going to come bouncing downstairs one morning and it was going to magically be gone and cleaned up.

Then, I snapped one day and took some action. It was time consuming removing all of the ornaments and unstringing the lights, throwing hip checks into my 7th month old golden retriever to prevent him from eating candy canes, but I did it. I got the job done and it felt fricking awesome. I took action, and my negative feelings disappeared.

You see, in life, a lot people wake up 10, 15, 20 years down the road in the same exact spot that they were when they started thinking that they wanted some kind of change, some kind of advancement.

I think this post is very easy for me to compose because I am a person that was having my back rubbed. I was that guy, making up stories about how I really wanted to write a book, create an online community, build a legacy, take my life portable via a laptop. I received a lot of support, and also a lot of back rubbing.

While there is no doubt that failing to make any of this come to fruition is certainly a “me problem” first and foremost, I can also say that I should have been mixing it up with people who were willing to call me out. Yes, I needed a heavy dose of “you’re all talk”. I needed more, “what are you going to to about it?”. “What have you done about it?” “Stop talking and start doing!”

Here is a quick synopsis of how it usually went:

Me, “I am going to write a book, sell it, create a membership site that crushes other membership sites on the web, and enjoy the satisfaction that I am getting what I want by helping others get what they want”.

Person I needed to be hanging around, “Ok, do it. Less talk more work Kyle. What steps have you taken thus far? What are your deadlines? Do you have deadlines? Who is holding you to those deadlines? So far, it seems like you’re full of shit, are you really serious about accomplishing all of this?”

The butterflies and then the sudden stomach drop is your inner self getting a splash of cold water and finally waking up. That’s when you finally realize that you’ve been sabotaging your potential. You’ve been dogging it. You’ve gotten comfortable, complacent and lost desire. You’re effectively going through the motions, treading water and doing just enough to get by.

Those are horrible feelings to have, but that can have the potential to initiate the wake up call in all of us.

You may think I am crazy for creating dialogue between myself and an imaginary friend, but I really think that we could all use a heavier dose of reality. I use myself as an example because you can learn from me. Don’t let constructive criticism break your back. Have a spine, develop a posture and an attitude that wants to compete and win. I don’t care if you’re competing against the inner demons that have held you back for years or against real world competition in the marketplace, just compete.

It doesn’t take talent to hustle.

The hardest part about receiving that much needed kick in the ass, is realizing that the only person that you are fooling (or were fooling) is yourself. Everyone else can see your bluff.

Boiling it all down…

If you’ve been trying to lose fat or lose weight for years without any results… you’re doing something wrong.

If you’ve been trying to gain strength for years and are still pushing the same weight… you’re doing something wrong.

If you’ve been trying to make more money at that sales job with no increase in income… you’re doing something wrong.

If I’ve been trying to write a book for years without anything to show for it… I have been doing something wrong.

Don’t be afraid to be honest with someone if you feel they need it. It might be uncomfortable for you to say and for them to hear, but many times it can provide the spark that is needed to create some forward motion. Getting your feathers ruffled can be a good thing.

As it pertains to restoring health, if you find yourself spinning your tires in the same spot for the last few years, you definitely need to make some adjustments. There is something that you are either doing, or not doing, that is keeping you in the same spot. End of story.

Maybe it’s a nibble of junk food here and there. Maybe it’s skipping that workout just every so often. Maybe you are actually making it to the gym or engaging in a home workout but it isn’t what your body is calling for to see change. Whatever it is, it is adding up and it is costing you results.

Check out The Training Effect Facebook Page for a recent post about how easy it is to gain weight without noticing.

The problem isn’t the workout program that you purchased, it’s you. But the author can’t tell you that because they have a business to run which probably feeds their family and keeps the heat on in the Winter months.

But I will tell you that, because we are on the same level right now, you and I. You’re reading and I am writing, and we are here together for the time being. For every 1 finger that you point to redirect blame on someone or something else, there are 10 more fingers pointing back at you.

Whoa, it got kind of heavy there for a second!

Finally, on to fitness related stuff…

The best part about building fitness and leaning out (at least I think), is that we can keep making tweaks to our approach for life. You don’t need to keep the same regimen for the rest of your life. In fact, you shouldn’t because you’ll burn yourself out.

Crank up the intensity of your training sessions for a few weeks. Then, dial it back after a while and create some separation anxiety between you and your workouts. Once you start seeing results, you’re going to want to keep training. However, removing yourself from the workout program can fuel you even harder when you do finally get back into the gym. It’s hard to take time off, but doing so will give your body some much needed rest while motivating your mind.

Starting crawling and handwalking, planking, squatting and then pressing, rowing instead of biking, engage in some yoga, some long duration stretching, foam rolling, quality sleep, hill sprints, some fat loss complexes, etc. Mix it up. Keep it fresh.

Take a small amount of time and make the $$$ investment in learning about nutrition. I HIGHLY recommend investing in the Lean Eating Program that Precision Nutrition has established because they are at the top of their game. They really are. They cover everything, and push for a perfect blend of evidence based eating while considering the real world. They’ve created a system for eating just as a personal trainer creates a system for burning fat off of someones body.

That is powerful. After you make the smart decision to buy into Precision Nutrition Lean Eating system, follow it! I GUARANTEE that you will get results. You will lean out, see worrisome health markers correct themselves, and most of all you will feel confident. You can’t put a price on self-confidence. Self-confidence sets the stage to make even bigger waves in the future.

So, in the end…

… results are guaranteed, but you have to be willing to do something about it first, and then actually do something about it.

Cheers to guaranteeing your results!

KG

Is This Blog Really Being Run Off Of An iPad and Powered by Coffee?

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Every word in that statement is true, except for the fact that my iPAD is being powered by coffee.

I am being powered by coffee. When I write, I drink coffee. A doctor might say that this is a bit of a compulsive need to take every single time I sit down and force myself to write, but for me, it puts me in focus. Plus, in Wisconsin, it’s bitter cold right now and warming up a bit with a cup-o-joe never hurt anyone.

So, yes, the truth is that this blog is now being run from an iPAD. Reason being is I received a Belkin Bluetooth Keyboard for Christmas and yes, it kicks ass. The keys have the same feel as my MacBook Pro, which is great because now I can write anywhere. Lugging a MacBook Pro around can get a little annoying after a while. The iPAD + Belkin combo is much more sleek, and I really don’t mind the WordPress application offered by the App Store.

The truth is that any application works for writing, whether you’re using Word, Scrivener, Pages, or any other writing program, it all works. We’ve become a picky society. It all works just fine. Worst case scenario, you write your thought for the day and then email it to yourself or copy and paste it between programs. Your writing doesn’t improve just because you’re using a fancy program.

Anyways, so back to coffee. Yes, I am powered by coffee because I love coffee. I would say that it is vice of mine, but I can’t. Coffee is full of antioxidants and if you look it up on the “unhealthy list”, it ranks pretty low when compared to just about every item found in the center of the grocery store. Yikes. There are thousands of consumables that are worse than drinking a cup or two of coffee.

Is there caffeine in coffee? Yes, of course there is, and caffeine from time to time has been labeled as the world’s most widely consumed stimulant.

Here is a great article by my friends over at Precision Nutrition: All About Caffeine

As long as you’re not absolutely relying on coffee to roll out of bed and start your day, or it is preventing you from quality sleep, keep on sipping. Beware that no one, and I mean no one, enjoys coffee breath.

If you want a performance boost, drink some coffee before a workout. A cup of coffee pre-workout is one of the only things that I do to help me dial in and get work done when it’s time to train. Coffee doesn’t make me superhuman or anything, but it does give an extra boost of energy, no doubt about that.

If you’re wondering how much coffee is safe for you to drink, start getting in touch with yourself. If you feel fine after a cup or two, well, that means that you’re fine. If you drink a bucket of it and struggle to write a legible personal check, then you may have over-consumed a bit. In that case, dial it back.

It’s easy to let the pendulum swing too far. When this happens, make some simple adjustments. The important part is to recognize that it has happened. Awareness is soooooooo important. If we as a society could just increase our awareness with eating and exercise, we would bring ourselves back to center. Over time, it would happen.

Like our Grandparents are famous for saying: Too much of anything can be a bad thing.

It’s funny how this statement holds up in so many different situations. Too much working out, bad. Too much water, bad. Too much alcohol, bad. Too many calories, bad. Too much coffee, bad. Too much, bad bad bad.

A person could really live a quite healthy life by following old adages. I believe this. Why complicate matters any more than they already are? Some things don’t need to be re-invented, they are fine just the way they are.

Branching out from awareness, self-exploration/experimentation is a lost art.

We read generalized guidelines in newspapers and magazines and automatically think that the suggestions apply to us. Maybe some do, but maybe some don’t. I know that I have personally tried a boat load of health tips found in magazines (who hasn’t?) without any noticeable improvement. It doesn’t mean that the health advice doesn’t work, it means that my mind and body might not be as accepting of it as someone else’s.

Nearly every sleep expert on the planet preaches about 8+ hours of sleep per night, yet why then, do some people function best with less than 6 hours? You can call them outliers, but the point is that not every health tip applies to everyone. We need to stop calling people out, define our goals, find plans to achieve those goals, and keep self-experimenting.

It’s never too late to learn about yourself and refine your techniques.

I listened to Howard Stern comment yesterday (yes I listen to Stern and I am a loyal fan) about how he just got turned on to mind-mapping. He went on to say that it may just be the greatest productivity/organizing tactic he has ever encountered. Of course, this is Howard’s personal opinion, as it might work for crap for someone else. Regardless, mind-mapping has been around for quite some time. I can remember mapping out ideas for a book 5 years ago. The book didn’t happen, but the map that I created really helped bring my ideas into focus. Prior to mapping, I just had a tornado of ideas clogging up my creativity. It crippled me from even starting the project.

Howard is 59 years old, going on 60 this month. Again, it’s never too late to refine your technique. A guy who’s career rivals some of the best that this world has ever known, is busy trying to figure out how to better himself in his free time.

What a lesson that is.

This is the beauty of being unique. There is not one-size-fits-all solution for anything, for anyone. We are all different.

You can read books and get ideas from the trail blazers, but those tactics may not fit your personality. They may not be right for you. One of the toughest lessons that I have had to learn is that I have my own unique personality and delivery that I should feel confident about and harness. I don’t need to write like anyone else, speak like anyone else or act like anyone else. I am me.

Of course, I realize that most things in life have been done before, so there are hacks to many of life’s experiences, and this part I feel I have grasped quite well. I do pick up bits and pieces from people I respect. This happens almost daily. I watch successful people operate and then try to emulate the things that are making them successful.

Sometimes I think that this is the key to success in life. Get around people who make you uncomfortable with their level of success and beg them to allow you to shadow them for a period of time. Doing so would probably open your eyes to a level of work ethic, professionalism, character and class that most people have no idea even exists. Most of the people I know who are very successful in there chosen fields have worked at it relentlessly for some time.

I have learned how to emulate what has made others successful, without losing my identity.

Call it growing up or whatever you want, but it’s been fun the last few years as begin to taste success and hit my stride. Delayed gratification can be frustrating, but it’s important to remember that putting forth ridiculous amounts of work on the front end is often rewarding on the back end. I’m interested in life-long, sustainable solutions. It doesn’t matter what topic… exercise, nutrition or income.

If you’re a flash in the pan, what is the point?

Here is another great tip: If you practice something long enough, it becomes automatic. Your behavior will evolve and your newly acquired habit will become second nature. You adopt it and it becomes a part of the regularly scheduled program. That’s why I encourage people to stay with exercise fight for it if it’s important to them. Hold it sacred. Make time. Find space. Make it a priority and don’t give up on it for anything during the first few weeks and months. Trust me, once you bust through the growing pains, you’ll find that you’ve just successfully acquired a new habit. One that will pay you back a thousand times over, for the duration of your life on earth.

There is no greater thrill than accomplishing something that you once perceived to be out of reach.

The key to that last sentence is “perceived”. We perceive a lot of things in life. We have perceptions of ourselves, our bodies, what we are capable of accomplishing, what kind of colleagues we are, what kind of parents we are, etc. A lot of these perceptions are limited. A limited perception of yourself doesn’t allow for growth. It’s been said, “Dream big, because you’ll never be bigger than your dreams.”

I cherish this quote and protect it daily. It fuels me. You have to protect your dreams because they are yours, no one else’s. It’s ok to have tunnel vision on your dreams because it will allow you to absorb and move passed the 20 foot swells that arise while you are on the path to making your dreams a reality.

So what did we learn from this post?… Drink some coffee, explore yourself, become more aware and consider mapping your mind for increased focus and clarity. Oh, and the Belkin Bluetooth Keyboard kicks ass.

2014 is going to be a great year, I hope that you feel the same way.

Cheers to scratching and clawing and moving closer to a version of your ideal self!

KG

This post brought to you by Racy’s Coffee:)

Deep Down, We Workout For Injury Prevention, Don’t We?

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I’ve never let go of this thought since I entered the physical fitness/strength and conditionining arena, although when you’re working with healthy athletes and able bodied working professionals, it can be easy to forget why we are truly doing any gym work at all.

It’s very easy to lose sight of what matters most.

All of the magazines scream “performance!” or “burn fat!”, but we need to remember that every workout should be treated as a small dose of injury prevention medication.

And you could argue that increasing one’s ability to perform is also contributing to injury prevention, except in instances where training risks outweigh training rewards.

I watched a friend tear a ligament during a bar league hockey game last night. You could, argue that ligamentous injuries of the knee are freak accidents. They commonly do happen on impact, while twisting and turning, etc… but it is also important to remember that there simple (and safe) measures each of us can take to aid in preventing such an injury.

By taking such measures, are we 100% guaranteed to be safeguarded against blowing out a knee if we train diligently?

Absolutely not. There are very few guarantees in life outside of death and taxes.

Working to build a high functioning and resilient body that is capable of expressing adequate levels of strength, power, stability, mobility and resilience to cardiovascular fatigue (in a progressive and scaled way) also carries the benefit of injury prevention.

I’ve seen enough athletics to know that un-trained/de-conditioned bodies are more susceptible to injury during competition. I’ve seen it, I have heard physicians, athletic trainers and physical therapists talk about it. There is a lingering danger to compete or perform any other type of strenuous work in a de-conditioned state.

The guy that blew out his knee last night is an attorney with a wife a kids. He has a professional career that he needs to wake up and get to every morning along with numerous life duties around the house. All of that is now affected dramatically by his knee injury.

Lately, I have found that I am waaaaaaay more mindful about what truly matters in life, and in this case, what truly matters while we engage in our daily “workout”.

Whatever motivates you to keep training hard yet smart, hold on to that. But lets be more mindful that training should be a lifelong process that effectively contributes to preserving our ability to move without pain and restriction. When you’re young, it is far easier to view training as a vehicle to a lean body that performs well. When you’re young, you also think about hurting yourself far less then you do when you age.

But as we age, and you can ask anyone who is between say 40-50 years of age, a workout is mostly an effort to offset the challenges of life. Your priorities change. Sure, you can increase your peformance at any age, but squatting 500lbs or running a sub-10sec 100 meter sprint is pretty low on the totem pole. So is victory at Sunday night bar league hockey at the expense of torn ligaments in a knee.

Six pack abs and dunking basketballs are small peanuts in the grand scheme of things. Especially when we compare it to reducing the likelihood that you blow out a knee while playing pick up hockey with your buddies, where clearly nothing is on the line if you win or lose (despite all of us wanting to win of course). Or maybe preserving your ability to walk in the later stages of life.

I used to see a lot of world famous strength coaches preach about the first golden rule of successful programming: “first, do no harm”. I know that they were talking about their personal duties to each of their athletes/clients, but maybe we should all keep this in the back of our minds while we pursue personal fitness.

Wondering what to do? Here are a few things to consider… (in no particular order)…

1) Slow down.
We rush fitness. It is the trend right now. A lot of programs take a pure run and gun approach, completely neglecting or generalizing baseline starting points. Big name companies tug on our heart strings by promising rapid weight loss, etc. Next time you engage in a warm-up, slow every movement down and reference #2.

Rushing through exercises has never done anything for anyone. Slow down, do it right.

2) Do it right.
Technique is everything. We train muscles to turn on when we need them to, joints to have adequate mobility to prevent other joints from moving when they shouldn’t all while improving our static and dynamic posture. Does it really matter what you squat technique looks like? Yes it does. Does you body alignment matter that much during a plank? Yes it does. Slow down, do it right. Repetition is going to reward one day when you least expect it.

Technique is everything, get detailed and hold yourself accountable to exercise smarter.

3) Assess Risk vs. Reward.
Does the amount of risk involved in your completing the workout challenge, program or individual exercise outweigh the reward? If so, consider taking a different approach. If something hurts while you do it, don’t do it. Avoid that exercise and figure out why you’re hurting. Pain is your body trying to tell you something valuable, whether you choose to listen is completely up to you.

Are you rolling the dice on a certain exercise or protocol? Is it worth injuring yourself over?

4) Justify your actions.
If you can’t justify why you are doing something during a workout, consider not doing it. If you don’t understand because you simply haven’t taken the time to read up on why a movement is beneficial to improving your current situation, get your ass in front of computer screen and read up. Stop going through the motions just because you read that Peyton Manning does it, or because Shaun T. preaches it in his exercise DVDs. Be mindful of each and every decision and action you take during a workout. Justify everything. You should be able to say to yourself, “I am doing _____________ because it will do ____________ for my body, and my life”.

You should have a reason behind every rep, set, and exercise. If not, why are you doing it?

5) Define Your Goals
You’ll struggle to arrive at your goals if you first don’t define them. Goal setting has been beaten to a pulp over the years, but it also seems to have fallen on deaf ears. What do you want to happen as the result of your training efforts? Do you want fat loss to relieve inflammation and pressure on joints? Do you want strength to better handle decelerating forces in athletics? Are your shoulders unstable? Are you extremely stiff and need to improve flexibility? Start asking yourself these questions. It will help you compile a list of what needs to take place in order to achieve these goals.

Goal planning is powerful, so is following through on those goals.

Lastly, don’t let this post turn you into a hypochondriac. Get out and explore you body’s ability to move through space.

It’s not rocket science. Learn a little bit and build out from there. Everyone starts as a beginner. Every workout brings you closer to your ideal self.

Life is meant to be explored with movement.

When the ability to move is taken from you, you’ll never appreciate how precious of a gift it really was.

Cheers to preventing unwanted injuries!

KG

No Matter What, Aim For Results

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With so much information and bantering over fitness minutiae circulating around the internet, it can be rather confusing to decide on which path to follow.

Should you trust the scientifically supported advice?

Should you trust the “reality based” advice?

Should you trust the “I have a million fitness certifications behind my name” advice?

Should you trust the “new trends in fitness” advice? Trends of the past?

I think the honest truth is that each of us should simply put our heads down and just aim for results.

I do enjoy research driven methods, but I also enjoy the reality based approach. I like new trends and older trends. It all works, if you work it.

Whatever vehicle you choose to get you to your destination, execute it to the fullest, and I can just about guarantee you that following the results based approach is going to serve you well. If you find that the results achieved aren less than you had hoped for, evaluate

As I mentioned, there is an awful lot of bantering on the internet, and to be honest, I have disconnected myself from a lot of blogs and websites that I used to read. It’s fatiguing to read negative articles and postings all of the time, and in my ongoing effort to inject more positivity into my life, I had to begin limiting my exposure to such nonsense, nearly removing all of it from my information diet.

Feels good to have a clean slate if I do say so myself.

So the next time that you head to the gym, and you overhear two meatheads or soccer moms arguing over who’s diet is better or what exercises are best for tightening up their buns, take the high road. Put your headphones in and do your own work. Follow your game plan. By the time those two individual finish up their 20 minute argument, you can have worked your way through two total body tri-sets.

It feels good to get simple get things done. Get in, get out, get on with your life.

Execute.

Let others waste their time bantering over the minutiae while you humbly, consistently and aggressively move closer to your ideal physical self.

Keep aiming for results and you’ll be just fine… trust me 🙂

Cheers to results over minutiae!

KG

Morning Confessions

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I was walking around my kitchen this morning, groggy, sucking down water like I just crossed the Sahara.

It suddenly hit me that I was groggy because I consumed too many craft beers last night, chatting it up with good friends. I also stayed up until about 1am watching late night television after consuming those beers. Prior to consuming all of the delicious craft beers, I ate a bunch of fajita at a local Mexican restaurant.

You probably don’t care about any of that, but the point of me sharing this info is to convey that I am completely transparent and honest about my life, as you should be with yours.

I maintain a health related blog and I drink beer and stay up late… there I said it. Can I go now? 🙂

I’m not perfect, nor do I really want to be. I used to feel really bad about the fact that I carry myself around as a die hard ambassador of quality/effective movement , healthy eating freak, beer drinking socialite who enjoys playing hockey, video games and surfing the net for interesting reading or just nothing at all.

It’s not perfect and I obviously am consciously aware that it isn’t, but I have found that if I can identify a healthy balance, I can make it all work. I can balance it all out so that I don’t lose in any one category. It makes me happy, it makes my life enjoyable without being a complacent lazy ass or being a complete stiff.

I don’t want anyone reading this blog to think that I am preaching a perfect lifestyle, because I am not, and I myself don’t lead a perfect lifestyle.

I am healthier than most, sure, but mostly because I have adopted habits that I maintain second nature that are conducive to a life of health. I am deeply fascinated with how movement and nutrition can transform a person’s body into just about anything that they desire. It takes work, but anyone can do it, whenever they want.

On that note, it does get slightly more challenging to change one’s body as we age, but that is life. Don’t ever use age as a crutch, it’s so lame to hear the old, “Wait until you are my age!” remark or the “When I was your age I could do just about anything”.

Honestly, it’s annoying. Save it. I will in fact see how it is when I am older because aging is inevitable, but I won’t ever live in the past. That’s called denial. If you’re older and you’re struggling to make noticeable changes to your body or your performance, please either: a) be realistic with it, or b) re-evaluate your game plan and your execution of that game plan.

While I was consuming those delicious, full calorie, robust and flavorful beers last night with my good friends, we got talking about hockey (naturally) and how even the more simple game plan that is executed to perfection still holds up over the new-age finesse garbage that is being implemented to hockey teams around the country. Play your offense, neutral zone and defensive systems extremely well (right down to the smallest detail) and you will beat teams that have all of the talent in the world but no game plan.

Pure execution of the game plan.

If you’re stagnant and struggling to make forward progress with performance, weight loss or muscle-fat-swap, chances are quite high that you have the wrong game plan for your desired results or you aren’t executing your game plan to the fullest. Both will leave you disappointed in the end.

As long as you’re giving your best effort regardless of your age, that is best practice in my opinion. Don’t go to bed with regret. Regret is your mind telling you that you sold yourself short. Regret- as I have often mentioned on this blog- is a terrible feeling that doesn’t go away quickly. It stays with you until you either make the situation right or you learn to forgive what’s been done.

Taking care of yourself on the front end of life pays massive dividends in the later stages of life.

I often am told that starting a family pursuing a career is going to give me a big gut…

… no, it won’t actually. I have a personal agreement to myself that I refuse to dishonor.

Why? Because I know too much. If I let go of exercise and nutrition now, it would be pure negligence on my part. I would have to have the knowledge of what the positive path is and still choose to go in a different direction. I can’t do that, not at this point. I know way too much. The information has been absorbed and now I leverage it daily.

See what I am saying?

If everyone spent a small amount of time reading 1-2 quality books on both exercise and nutrition, it would open up a whole other world. You’d be consciously aware of what needs to take place. Once you understand and absorb a vital piece (or pieces) of information on how to maintain (or improve from your current point) quality health and also what can destroy it, it now comes down to a personal decision. Once you have that information and you understand what it takes to stay fit, now it’s all on you, not your 5 kids and their hockey tournaments, your wife or your dog or your perceived lack of time or resources.

We are all busy, some more than others, but we all have an equal opportunity to stay healthy. Some people have a ton of time to stay fit and others do not. Some have money and access to a big box gym with fancy equipment and some have no funds and zero equipment.

One thing is for sure… anything that is important to you needs to be held sacred. It needs to become high priority. At some point you might have to put your foot down and fight for what is important to you. If that means having a sit down with your significant other to identify solutions to ensure your daily dose of exercise or a success plan for nutritious family meals, than that is what needs to take place.

Letting go of health projects that you’re giving up and waving the white flag. You’re choosing to follow an easier, less resistive path. It conveys that it just wasn’t quite important enough to you to stay with it.

If you find yourself falling into or at the bottom of this pit, work to be mindful of what is going on by taking small a step back outside of yourself and your situation to re-evaluate and re-motivate yourself. The fire can dim or go out in all of us. If it was easy, everyone would do it. But it obviously isn’t, because the CDC health statistics are still ugly as hell. We have work to do folks.

I have to admit that as much as I want to spread the word of health, I don’t want to project that I am religious about it. I don’t eat and breathe health 24/7… 365. I am human, and I want to enjoy some of the vices that life has to offer.

I cheat meals often. I personally make sure that 35+ out of 40 meals a week are health conscious. When those 5 cheat meals present themselves, I dive in with virtually no regret.

Why? Because I am human. I earned it.

What no one usually sees is how I leverage a hard training session prior to the cheat meal and then also first in the morning after the cheat meal. I cheated, now I go to work. This method has worked for me like a charm. It’s my agreement to myself. I will enjoy what life has to offer, but I will have the discipline to burn it off ASAP, no questions asked.

I also am very consciously aware of what I look like in the mirror, both front and back. In other words, I check myself out. Hahahaha, it sounds funny to admit this and I might regret being so honest, but it’s true. I know what baseline for my body is, and any variance in a positive or negative direction I can easily detect. I am so connected to my body that I can literally palpate my stomach and feel if things are getting a little “loose”. If I am moving in a poor direction, I tighten up everything. By tighten up everything I am typically referring to consuming more water, more sleep and focusing hard on nutrition. Sleep and water are overlooked components to staying lean. Both are vital.

I never weigh myself, mostly because weight doesn’t mean shit. It really doesn’t. A better measurement might be your cardiovascular resilience and what is your muscle to fat ratio? Are you strong? Can you handle your bodyweight? Can you perform hard labor without tapping out in the first 30 minutes? Why aren’t doctors clinic doing physical performance testing and reporting that to the health insurance companies? If more clinic knew how to conduct movement screens and performance tests on patients we could finally stop relying on drugs for artificial health, and move back into genuine health. Natural health.

It won’t happen, but it’s worth discussing.

No, I have to pipe up and make a few more comments… seriously, if you’re composed of a lot more muscle than fat, chances are quite high that you are fairly healthy. Right? I mean, it’s not necessarily that simple but if you eliminate the fat that is suffocating your internal organs, you’re obviously better off.

We need to carry fat to survive, but excess fat is unhealthy. Eat in such a way to keep fat retention to a minimum and improve physical performance. Get purposeful exercise training daily and surround that will low intensity physical activity like biking, walking, etc.

It really doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that does it?

But don’t confuse my statements above… people who are lean, fit and healthy have died from heart attacks, cancer and other unexpected causes. When it is your time, it is your time. But also realize that keeping yourself lean and moving whenever possible gives you the best opportunity at a long life.

Here is another little confession (maybe more of a personal rant): I can’t stand folks who argue against my methods, especially when the words are leaving the mouth of someone that hasn’t moved aggressively in years and eats boxed or fast food for nearly every meal, or read a bogus article slamming resistance training in the local newspaper and wants to have it out with me because they know my lifestyle habits.

I have found that these types of argumentative people are usually in some sort of denial, large or small, or they are close friends or family just looking to get a rise out of me.

If they are the former, they’re tricking themselves, looking to bring other people down to their level so they can see eye to eye. The conversation usually includes a comment about how they “could get back into shape whenever they want because it’s so easy, yet almost a decade has passed with zero improvement”, or they are trapped in their old perception of themselves saying “I used to bench 300+ and could run a sub-6 minute mile, in high school/college”.

Really? Benching, while being an important pattern to develop physically, is kind of a joke really. It used to be the common measurement of a “man”, but no more. It’s a dead statistic to brag about. Running 6 minute miles is impressive, but when those words are leaving the mouth of someone that ran that 6 minute mile about 10 years and 150lbs ago, it’s hard for me to take seriously. These are the same people that have a deep desire to show you their high school letterman’s jacket. Maybe there medals from Little League. You peaked too soon my friends. Waaaaaaayyyyyy too soon.

Again, no offense to anyone overweight, that is not the point here.

If you did take offense, don’t be so sensitive! Harden up!

I used to be pretty vocal, standing up for myself in these situations. Now I politely listen to what they have to say, hearing out their personal opinions and story if they choose to share it with me.

I smile and realize that their punishment fits the crime. Again, it’s mostly denial speaking in these conversations so it’s in one ear and out the other for me. Not really worth my time.

It’s kind of like receiving financial advice from a bankrupt financial advisor.

Ok, so what else can I confess? I think I am pretty well tapped out for now. I am sure that as soon as I hit the “publish” button on this post I will come up with a whole slew of other topics that I could have ranted about, but for now, this works.

Cheers to keeping honesty as your best policy!

KG

“Soft Workouts”: Using Workouts to Recover From Workouts

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“Soft workout” is a name that I gave to movement sessions that follow a more intense movement effort from the previous day.  Ideally a person will find a way to move around every single day, no matter how significant that movement is.  Just find a way to get up and get the blood flowing.

Today, my body is feeling the effects of yesterdays Thanksgiving Day Workout.

I have to admit that besides the high volume, it was a phenomenal training session.  It reminded me of my college hockey days when we would have “bag skate” conditioning sessions.  Your lungs were in your throat and it was hard to bend your knees beyond the lockout position, but finishing the practice strong gave you a sense of accomplishment.

725 reps is an accomplishment (at least I think it is)

Here is how long it took me to finish the workout:

Thanksgiving Day Workout Time

A shade over 24 minutes.  Not bad in my mind.

A few observations things:

  1. Multiple breaks were needed to gather myself and ensure exercise technique was satisfactory.
  2. Vertical Pulling (chin ups) were the weak exercise, which is why I ordered them first in the sequence.
  3. 10 pistols on each leg is draining.
  4. Push Ups were the easiest of the exercises.
  5. Keeping the kettlebell swing rep scheme below 10 reps allowed for focus on aggressive hip extension (“hip snap”).
  6. Push Ups and kettlebell swings felt like filler exercises.
  7. Full burpees will jack up your heart rate as fast as any other exercise on the planet, and all you need is your body and a motivated attitude.
  8. One ascent through the rep scheme is more than enough.
  9. My muscles failed me before my cardiovascular did.
  10. This kind of training is too much to sustain over the long-term, or ever.  Special occasions only.
  11. Hardly any equipment was needed, almost completely portable.

The ascending reps was kick ass.  Early on in the workout I  enjoyed transitioning from movement to movement, turning my mind off to the exercise that I just finished and turning it on to the next exercise.  It kept the session fresh and interesting.

As the reps continued to increase beyond 5+, it began to feel more like a traditional training session where a certain amount of time is spent at a station/exercise before moving on to the next.  By the time  I arrived at 8, 9, 10 reps of pistol squats, my body was showing serious signs of fatigue.  Most of the rest breaks that were taken during pistol squats.

When you’ve accumulated massive amounts of fatigue, the execution of pistol squats (which is takes balance, strength and alignment for successful completion) becomes extremely challenging.  Each rest period last no longer than 15-20 seconds to regain composure and move forward.

All in all, it was a burn out session.  As I mentioned in the previous post, most of my workouts are nothing like yesterday’s massacre.  Typically they are short burst but well managed in the fatigue department.  However, testing will power is also important to me and the human body is capable of withstanding a lot more stress than we think.

I deemed the structure of the workout to be safe for my fitness and technical know-how, so the only thing left was mental will power to keep going despite being wiped.

Now let’s talk “soft workouts” for a second.

For me, soft workouts are sub-maximal physical efforts that are a full body experience with the intent to recover, repair and restore.

Again, they are heavy in taking joints through a full range of motion and contain movements that address all planes of possible movement.  Since stumbling on Ido Portal’s ground based tumbling drills, I tend to crawl around for the majority of these sessions.  Alignment and bodily tension at key points make the drills serve a valuable purpose, not to mention I am typically sore from the previous days effort.

Also, I have to say that low load Turkish Get Ups are amazing the day after a tough workout.  The Turkish Get Up accomplishes so much in one exercise.  It really packs a massive punch.  Joints are taken through a wide range of motion through several planes and the core is constantly under tension and challenged in these same planes of movement.  Low load Turkish Get Ups will give you a chance to focus on technique.  It gives you a chance to slow the drill down and be in the movement, every single segment on the way up to the top and on the way back down to the bottom.

Each phase of the movement can be held for a brief period of time to re-train strength and stability in various positions.  It’s important to be strong and stable throughout a wide range of motion.

Again, I consider low load Turkish Get Ups to be a perfect “soft workout” exercise.

Although you may be sore heading into a “soft workout”, you’ll find that engaging in full range of motion movement will relieve much of this soreness and deliver nutrients where it’s needed.  Nutrient delivery equals repair and recovery.

A soft workout can also include other movements like push ups, dive bombers, bodyweight squats, jump rope, inverted rows, resistance bands training, walking, etc.

If you have a suspension trainer, adjust your body position so that the angles are less vertical to your anchor point, which reduces the amount of load for each rep.  Take each exercise through a full range of motion with this lightened load.

Aerobic activity is also great for “soft workouts”.  I leverage my Schwinn Airdyne all of the time to serve this purpose.  Biking is low impact and mindless.  If you have access to an Airdyne, you get the benefit of dual action upper and lower body engagement.  Now you can flush your upper extremities also as you push and pull the arms.  During an aerobic bike session, my heart rate elevates to a manageable level (as verified by my Polar HR monitor) and I can watch hockey on my iPad while I do spin to pass the time.

What’s better than that?

The only rule is keep the volume and intensity low, which is essentially the opposite of what took place in the previous days workout, right?  Keep the volume and intensity low.  You’re recovering actively so that you can engage yourself in purposeful workouts once again in the coming days.

“Soft workouts” also include a boatload of soft tissue work using the foam roller, lacrosse ball and tiger tail hand massager.  High volume/high intensity workouts can cause significant muscular damage, so working to increase blood flow to these areas will speed up recovery and reduce soreness.

After soft tissue work, I highly suggest a quick session of yoga or static stretching to change the length of the muscle after we worked hard to change the density during massage.  I continue to value static stretching, despite the digital fist fights breaking out all over the internet about it’s effectiveness.  I feel better after long duration static stretching.  At this point post-athletic career, if it makes me feel better, I do it.

If you find value in something, do it.  If it’s important do it every single day.

Unless you’re using athletics to earn your living, static stretching is probably also a good choice for you.  Any reduction in muscular power from holding stretches for longer periods of time will probably go unnoticed in your performance.

If you’re stiff and stretching makes you feel great afterwards, why the hell not?

After a “soft workout” I hydrate like a maniac.  Cold ass water and lots of it.  Actually, let me rephrase that, I hydrate like a maniac before, during and after a “soft workout”.  I also make sure that I consume a protein based shake at some point.  The shakes that I leverage are similar to what Precision Nutrition has designed.

There is a ton of nutrition in these shakes, and quite frankly, I am thankful that I am aware of how effective they are because nutrition is the foundation of all.

If you’re thinking about getting into liquid nutrition, I suggest getting a decent blender.  I prefer mine so thick they are one level before the need to use my teeth to consume.  If they are thick, it feels like they have substance.

I use a Ninja blender, which works great (yes I know it’s an “as seen on tv” product).  A lot of liquid nutrition advocates and professional chefs recommend blending with a Vitamix.  If you have the money, go with the Vitamix.  The Vitamix is industrial strength and will blend anything with ease.  You could probably liquify a Ninja blender inside of a Vitamix if you wanted to.

Bottomline:  If you just want a kick ass blender and need to allocate money elsewhere, buy the Ninja.

“Soft workouts” are an essential piece of the fitness pie.  But they need to remain soft.  It’s important that we don’t take unnecessary steps backward because we seek the adrenaline of insane workouts all of the time.  Give your body a chance to repair itself instead.  Work low load movements and make sure that your nutrition is on point.  You’ll be fine.

Cheers to recovering from 725 reps!

KG

The Best Thanksgiving 2013 Workout… (That I could come up with…)

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Image

I designed this workout to be a gut check burn out training session in honor of Thanksgiving 2013.

I’ll be honest, this workout is a beast.  

Normally, I abide by the “any fool can make another fool tired” motto, but hey, there is nothing wrong with crushing yourself every now and then.  Physically and mentally it feels good to attack a workout like you’re ascending to the peak Everest, just don’t make it an all of the time habit.  

Sustainable training habits, remember? 🙂

The workout is minimalist by design, using primarily bodyweight exercise to induce a massive training effect.  Notice that I offered an alternative to kettlebell swings if you don’t have any kettlebells.  The best part about this workout is that you should be able to execute it in a telephone booth.  In others, no matter where you’re at for this Thanksgiving 2013, this workout is a fully portable, anytime, anywhere workout.  You don’t need much space to kill it with this one.

The workout leverages a brutal ascending rep scheme.  What does that mean exactly?  It means that you’ll start the workout by executing each exercise in order (1-5 from top to bottom) completing 1 rep of each, then 2 reps, then 3 reps, then 4 reps, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9, 10.  When you finish the last set of 10 burpees, you’re done.  Grab a drink, towel off and mop up the pool of sweat on the floor because its time for your recovery nutrition before you (and me too) gorge yourself on all of the Thanksgiving fixings.

As the volume increases by 1 rep for each round, take rest as it is needed.  Ideally, you would work through without rest as much as possible, but since exercise technique is vital, you may need to stop and breathe.  In this case, take a few seconds to gather yourself and push up.  Stay on your feet during this rest, don’t sit down.  Breathe deep and center yourself.  It’s just physical work, you can manage it, right?

If you cannot perform pistol squats or chin ups, remember the exercise regression for each.  Regress to traditional bodyweight squats or rear foot elevated split squats (aka: “Bulgarian Split Squat”).  For chin ups, loop a band around your knees for assistance or use small jumps to help initiate the pull vertically.  If you need more of a challenge, strap on a weight or add weight.  I can’t imagine would need it considering how high the volume is.  

By high volume, I am talking about 145 reps… for each exercise.  145 reps x 5 exercises = 725 reps.  That’s a lot.  That’s the kind of volume that can cause ridiculous muscular soreness in the coming days, and probably reduce you to scheduling rest days to heal your body.  You’ll bounce back.  🙂

Grab a stopwatch and time how long it takes to complete the workout.  If you’re up to it, bookmark this blog and leave your time in the comments section.

I’m sure there are a lot of workouts circulating the internet today, but give this one a shot.  If you can’t make it happen today, give it a shot tomorrow.  Lord knows we will all have plenty of calories banked from all of the feasting that awaits us.

If you’re a loyal reader of this blog, I’d like to offer a sincere thank you.  I appreciate you taking time out of your day to improve yourself physically, leveraging my workouts and other tips to give yourself a physical advantage.  It’s a great journey working to improve yourself physically.  

I’ll be releasing ebooks in 2013-2014 and also transitioning to a custom blog/website design.  Time to turn pro 🙂

 

 

Cheers to Thanksgiving and offsetting the damage with a kick ass workout!

KG

 

The Dental Diet: Nutritional Tactics for Healthy Teeth

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Dental health is highly impacted by the food that we eat.

Again, what we eat plays an important role in the upkeep of our dental health.

Unfortunately, not many of us fully grasp how much food impacts not just the aesthetic appeal of our smile, but also our ability to chew (assuming you lose teeth or experience pain) and early signals of systemic problems such as:

  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Diabetes
  • Sinus infection
  • Alcoholism
  • …etc

To quote a phenomenal article from Precision Nutrition,

“If the eyes are a window to the soul, our teeth and gums are a window to our bodies”.

Pretty powerful statement actually, because keeping your mouth happy is important.  A happy mouth could increase the chances that you have a healthy body.

It’s funny how many warning signals the body gives us before complete self-destruction.

If we over-extend current physical limits or over-do high impact exercise, we often end up aches/pains or even limping to prevent further damage.  Or take the Iron Man competitor who’s body shuts down prior to experiencing internal damage from “system-overload” physical exertion.

The body knows when enough is enough, and it appears that the mouth provides another source of warning signals to keep us in check.

If you’re not giving your body the vitamins and minerals that it needs, or possibly consuming excess sugary or highly process foods, cavities and periodontal disease can be the result.  But I think we all know this right?

Sure, basic tooth care like brushing and flossing is essential to combat any mouth damage, this should go without saying.

So what role do nutrients play in establishing a solid foundation of mouth health (teeth and gums)?

Here is a kick ass chart created that I borrowed from Precision Nutrition:

credit: Precision Nutrition

Credit: Precision Nutrition

You’re probably thinking, “Great, another chart sharing nutrients, but what in the hell do I actually have to eat to leverage the benefits of the above nutrients?”

Well, the answer (minus the jargon) is whole food.  That may come as a disappointment to my readers, but its the hard truth.

Something similar to this picture:

… that plus lean protein.

A diet heavy in veggies and lean protein is the “secret”. (Yes I used the word “secret”).

There are no secrets.  Only information that you know or you don’t know, and actions you take or you don’t take.  Secrets are what people use to lure you into throwing $$$ at products.  But we’ve covered this extensively in other posts haven’t we?

I wouldn’t want to beat a dead horse now, noOOOOOoooooo. 🙂

Referencing the same “Dental Diet” article from Precision Nutrition, author Ryan Andrews goes on to share some of bonus tactics to promote a healthy mouth, which include:

  • Probiotics
  • Cranberries (interesting)
  • Green tea
  • Chewing gum with pycnogenol
  • Soy (I would avoid at this point)
  • Arginine
  • CoQ10
  • Echinacea
  • Fluoride (prevents decalcification)
  • Whole foods

As Ryan comments, it is important to first seek all of the above nutrients from whole foods first.  Supplements should be treated as an addition to the whole.  In other words, supplements can be extremely beneficial for filling any nutritional gaps left by your current diet.  Supplements are plan B when plan A (your diet) isn’t enough.

Ok?

One point from the article that peaked my interest was that certain studies have shown “that the sheer amount of sugar we eat may be less harmful to dental health than the the frequency of consumption”.

So, drinking those 2-3 Mountain Dews daily is giving your teeth an sugary injection that is taking it’s toll on your tooth health.  Too many refined and processed carbohydrate-type foods and you’re heading for tooth decay and gingival inflammation.

Not good.

So what’s the game plan?

  • Brush!
  • Floss!
  • No smoking
  • Sip some tea
  • Whole foods baby
  • Eat raw, crunchy fruits and veggies daily!
  • Limit your sugar intake, especially added sugars.
  • Stay lean… excess body fat can promote poor health
  • Exercise!  (a great defense against periodontal disease)

Good game plan uh?  Notice that this game plan is essentially the same game plan used to help with hundreds of other ailments.  Healthy eating is healthy eating.  You can tailor it to promote dental health, but chances are quite high that the same diet that is going to save your teeth is also going to reduce your body fat, lose unwanted weight and fuel your body during performance based endeavors.

Eating is eating.

If you’re not executing the fundamentals, you’re missing out.  If you don’t know what the fundamentals are, I suggest you hire out and get some solid support to get your understanding of meal timing, essential vitamins and minerals and eating for performance and bodily leanness up to speed.

It’s more simple than you think but it takes practice to become habitual.

 

 

Cheers to the dietary tactics that can preserve and prevent your teeth!

KG

(I reference a lot of information found in this post that came from this article)

Take a Big Juicy Bite of Humble Pie: Progressing Your Workouts

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credit: blisshabits.com

credit: blisshabits.com

Ah, the humble pie.

In life it can be hard to convince yourself to take a delicious bite of humble pie, but sometimes it is absolutely necessary, especially when we begin to dissect our daily workouts.

First off, if you’re finding a way to get to the gym, you’ve put yourself ahead of the curve.  They say much of sales is just showing up, and I firmly believe fitness is very similar.  Getting to the gym is half of the battle.  Once you’re there, small shifts to progress beyond your current training habits will work magic for your body.

For example, if you’ve been killing it on the leg press, pressing a half ton load for endless reps, it’s time to remove yourself from the leg press and enter the world of free weight squatting.  You don’t even need weight.  You could knock your ego back down to earth by mixing in some pistol squats.

A few sets of pistol squats and you’ll figure out what you’ve been missing.  Single leg strength is where it is at.

If you’ve been dominating bicep curls, walk over to the squat rack and load up a set of chin-ups.  Lower yourself slow and explode on the way up.  Vertical pulling strength is a fantastic benchmark for upper body strength.  It’s important to work on handling your own bodyweight (and beyond) during upper body pulling actions.

Too cool for school on the lat pulldown?  Mix in some strict pull-ups using the same tempo as the chin ups.  Pull ups are the king of upper body exercises.  If you find yourself knocking it out of the park with pull ups, I would bet you will find yourself becoming extremely strong.

Still doing cross-words during the treadmill jog?  Take the incline up to 6-8%, turn up the speed and run some 15-20sec sprints.  Aerobic work is great, but shuffling your conditioning to venture into the higher ranges of heart rate BPM has great carryover to leaning out and resistance to fatigue during sport.

Tired of being unsure about how hard you are working?  Buy a heart rate monitor and measure your effort.  There are plenty of brands, colors and features to choose from.  It’s really a solid investment and I highly encourage that everyone leverage a heart monitor to increase the effectiveness of their training habits.

Exercise progression fitness

Improving your workouts is a lot easier than you might think, but it requires turning away from the path of least resistance and toward the path of progression.

Trust me, I know it feels really good to be awesome at certain exercises while simultaneously avoiding the exercises that plague you, but re-adjusting your training plan to include some of the exercises listed above (among others) is a sure-fire way to see quick improvement.

It really doesn’t take much put yourself on the right track for certain progress.  But you have to put yourself on the right track.  You have to progress.  If you don’t progress in some way, you’ll stay the same.

If you desire the next level of results, it will take some effort and an inner strength to consistently (and intelligently) push yourself out of your current comfort zone.  If you remember from an old post the picture below is worth a thousand words.

credit: thinkingmomsrevolution

credit: thinkingmomsrevolution

Progress applies to all aspects of life.  If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always had.

Keep progressing and you’ll keep improving.  It’s a simple concept, but it isn’t always easy.

 

 

Cheers to progressing the workout in small increments!

KG

Progress your nutrition to see results, click the photo to find out how to make it happen.

Progress your nutrition to see results, click the photo to find out how to make it happen.

Chin Up + Kettlebell Swing + Squat + Jump Rope + Push Up… Workout

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I’ve never felt inclined to name any of my workouts.  Thus, I give you the:

Chin Up + Kettlebell Swing + 2KB Squat + Jump Rope + Push Up…

… workout.

There is another organization that names all of their workouts, which isn’t a bad thing,  I just don’t feel like labeling my workouts with someone else’s name.  I could name this one “Brutus” or “Cactus Jack”.  Maybe I should name my workouts after WWF wrestlers past and present.  That would be cool.  Everyone seems to know WWF wrestlers names whether they admit to watching it or not.

I could use a numbering system I suppose, like “Workout #1” or “Level 5”, but maybe I’ll just call it what it is.

I selected the movements listed above because they represent most of the major movement patterns, and also because these exercise could be easily executed with the workout equipment that I had available the other day.

What did I have available?

As I mentioned, I typically only incorporate big movement patterns into circuits.  To be honest, I don’t like wasting time with exercises that hardly stress the prime movers.  Bicep curls and such are desert.  If I have time after I have completed what I often refer to as the “main meal”, I will work in the accessory exercises for fun.

 

I value my time.  Time is a commodity in my life (as I am sure that it is in your’s) so I prefer to get in, get out and get back out to experience other aspects of life.  Sure, I write about working out, structuring workouts, movement and nutrition a great deal, but that doesn’t mean that I am working out 2 hours a day.  Efficiency is the name of the game.  How effective can I make my workouts without taking away from other areas of my life that I also value.

Occasionally I will add an exercise or two that is slightly out of the box, but these movements are usually treated as a filler exercise (active rest) between more demanding exercises, or reserved for before or after the main circuit of the workout.

While I will admit that doing this is my personal preference, I would suspect that most of you will find that your own workouts are immediately enhanced by working in the big movements instead of a series of fillers.  More muscles engaged equals a greater training effective at the end of the workout session.

If you do more work in a smaller time frame, now you’ve primed your body for fat loss + muscle gain.

This is a great scenario, one that we need to keep advocating instead of “weight loss”.  You can lose weight by dehydrating yourself down to a raison in a sauna.  That’s weight loss, right?

Swap the fat tissue for muscle tissue.

Chase muscle and while running away from fat.

So what are the big movements?  In this case, the big movements that I leveraged for a training effect were:

I’m continually amazed at how effective bodyweight strength movements are, especially when organized into a circuit.

I can get the training effect that I desire while minimizing risk of injury and awful soreness in the days that is so commonly associated with resistance based training.   Of course, if you have never performed a push up or a squat, you’re going to be sore in the coming days.  That’s something you can expect with a new training stimulus and re-discovered muscle contraction.

Loading up on bodyweight style training sessions.  This type of training sessions should be heavily considered by anyone that struggles with achy joints, etc.  Bodyweight resistance exercise provides a low load introduction to basic strength drills, easing your body back into the swing of things.

Plus, being able to control your body exhibiting stability, strength and power through a healthy range of motion will do wonders for your performance, whether that performance be for sport or raking the leaves out of your yard.

So what does last weekends workout look like?

The structure looked something like this:

Metabolic Resistance Training Circuit

I loaded up most of the movements and went for 4 rounds, which took slightly over 20 minutes.  20 minutes continues to be the sweet spot for workout duration.  Anything more than that and I lose output, anything less and it seems like it wasn’t enough… as if I left some fuel in the tank.

20 minutes also seems to allow for focus on proper exercise technique (and grooving) while the fatigue continues to snowball.  Technique is important, don’t forget that.

If you take another look at the exercise selection above, I’d like to share a couple of substitutions that you could make.  If you cannot perform a bodyweight chin up, wrap a resistance band around the chin up bar you’re using, and stretch it down around your knee or foot.  This will assist you on the way up and ease you down from the top.

You could swap out standing broad jumps or squat jumps for the kettlebell swings, although there really isn’t a movement to mimic a kettlebell swing.  If you have dumbbells you could use those in a pinch, but again, there is no tool that functions quite like a kettlebell.

If you don’t have a suspension trainer, just do regular old push ups.  If you want a less expensive option that does a decent job of mimicking the push up+knee tuck combination, use furniture sliders or socks on a hard surface.  Both work decently.  I would go the furniture slide route if I had to choose.

If you don’t have kettlebells, dumbbells or a barbell for squats, you can do bodyweight squats just as well.  If bodyweight squats are easy, mix in pistols alternating each leg.  If you squats are too easy and pistols are too hard, use squat jumps.

If you don’t have a jump rope or a bike, run in place.  High knee with simultaneously arm action.  If you’re lucky enough to have a place to run a short distance, figure out how far it takes to run half of a 20 second shuttle run (10 sec out, 10 sec back).

As you can see, there is a progression, regression and alternative to just about every single movement known to man.  Once you know what a level up and a level down from an exercise is, you’re in business. Now you can OWN your workouts.

Replenish and refuel your body with some rock solid recovery nutrition, and you’ve just done your body good.

 

 

Cheers to Chin Ups, Kettlebell Swings, Squats, Jumping Rope and Push Ups!

KG

PS:  Seriously check out the nutritional link that I posted above.  If you want to see dramatic change in your body and performance, nutrition is at the bottom rung of the pyramid.