I Am Physically Prepared: Reasons Why I Stay in Shape Year ‘Round

Life of a personal trainer.

It’s funny, between the ages of 18-22 years old, I didn’t really value my fitness. The fitness that I did have was a byproduct of being an athlete in a sport that places high demand on conditioning and the ability to repeat those high intensity efforts, therefore I really didn’t know anything else. Having strength and being conditioned was a part of life, as it is for so many athletes.

When you play a college sport, you quickly find that you have to stay in shape damn near year ‘round. For hockey, there is a period of down time between the end of the competitive season and the beginning of off-season training, but it is quite short. Maybe a week or two at the most.

When you’re not on the ice, building aerobic/anaerobic capacity along with hockey specific skills, you’re in the gym building qualities like strength and power. The efforts put forth in the gym are designed to boost to on-ice performance, as is any off-season training program for any sport.

After I graduated from college, the byproduct of fitness that I had enjoyed from athletics also left. Training was no longer mandatory for the rest of my life, it was optional. Many of you know what this feels like. It’s strange, because everything is so regimented for so many years, and all of the sudden it just stops. I no longer needed to keep myself even remotely close to the sort of shape that I did when playing, however I chose to keep up with it.

I trained smarter once I was done with college than I did when I was under the supervision of a full-time paid strength coach at the University.

I learned that there was a whole other world of training methods available that we athletes had not be exposed to. It’s still frustrating to think that our programs were a tweaked variation of the basketball or football team’s strength and conditioning program, but in reflection doing something in the gym was better than doing nothing.

Fast forward a few years, about six to be exact, and I still train hard 3-5 days per week. My training frequency (days per week) varies depending on my professional career schedule and other activities, but for the most part I am able to workout as much as I would like.

I love it. I am grateful that I have taken care of myself post-college athletics. It has allowed me to run races with buddies or skate with current college hockey players without stressing about my physical abilities. If you think this sounds silly, I would bet that many of you have turned down the opportunity to run a race or play a sport because you thought that you weren’t fit enough, saving yourself some sort of embarrassment. I’ve pulled that one myself.

I call it being “physically prepared”.

Being physically prepared is nothing special. In a recent post about aerobic conditioning, I shared a pie chart showing how my workouts are divided up between strength, aerobic and anaerobic interval training.

The chart is accurate at the present time. But if for example, a friend called me up and asked if I wanted to pedal a Century Ride (100 miles) with him, I feel confident that I could do it with very little additional training.

Why? Because I am physically prepared.

If I travel to Colorado to join a buddy in climbing a 14’er (14,000 ft mountain) I am confident that I can handle it no problem.

Why? Because I am physically prepared.

I think you get the point.

For most of the year, my training has no other purpose than to:

1) Keep my body capable of handling short or no notice physical stress.

2) Keep me lean and mentally self-confident (there is a large mental component to why we workout in the first place).

3) Keep pushing myself to avoid giving in to the stereotypical activity levels that supposedly come with adulthood, career and family.

4) Make a small time commitment for a large ROI with my day-to-day health and ability to fight off sickness throughout the year.

Subconsciously, I also train with the motivation to do my best to avoid Orthopedic issues later in life. I don’t want to find myself lying on the operating room table (having a joint replacement) because I was lazy. That’s an expensive mistake that will hit you hard financially and physically. Our bodies are sophisticated but at the same time we are also a bunch of pulleys and levers, and keeping the right amount of tension on each pulley and lever will help avoid going under the knife.

I also never want to be a statistic on the nightly news that shows deaths from completely preventable disease. I won’t be that person either.

Bottom line: You’ve to strengthen and condition yourself with the future in mind. Always in mind.

Yikes.

All of us are going to have a different opinion about the amount of fitness that we should keep.

Constantly making an effort to improve your strength and power, cardiovascular capabilities, joint range of motion and stability in those joints will keep you moving for the long-term.

Fitness should be tailored to each individual. You should maintain a fitness level needed to successfully move through life pain-free and safe-guarded against injury while meeting the physical demands of day-to-day life without worry or hesitation.

But in my own case (and many others I am finding) keeping a lifestyle that is full of movement whenever and wherever makes the journey a lot more exciting, and I call it being physically prepared.

Cheers to joining the physically prepared!

Why You’re Not Fit: We’re All Busy, We All Have A Lot of Things That We’d Love to Do, Movement is Optional

Quick Tips

I love to study the psychology behind why we humans do or don’t do the simplest of things to propel ourselves to better situations in life.

This post is easy for me to write because I write it as a person that ISN’T EVEN CLOSE TO PERFECT. I’m not. I have a lot of personal growing to do, habits to establish and higher levels of work ethic that I could stand to settle into. It’s an uncomfortable feeling knowing that you can push it way harder than you are, but at the same time it’s exciting because you know that taking your efforts to the next level is going to reward you in even bigger ways.

Exceptional effort will always bring about exceptional rewards.

It’s funny how it seems that the only people who are truly holding us back from greatness (whatever greatness means to you), is ourselves. There is rarely an instance where someone else is to blame for our problems, shortcomings or disbelief in our abilities. It’s nearly all in our head.

We created the barriers. Amazing to think about.

The thoughts circulating around inside of our skulls will either catapult us to great achievements, or drag us down for the rest of our life, leaving all of our potential on the table, unused.

There’s another truth that I would like to talk about today- it’s more of an observational statement- and it goes a little something like this:

We are all busy with work, family, chores, other responsibilities and we all have a lot of things that we would sure love to do.

Now, I am going to be the first to step up and say that I have leaned pretty hard on this excuse myself. I have. I still catch myself saying it or thinking it almost daily. I’ve figured out that life shouldn’t be all work and no play, but if I find myself mindlessly watching TV, getting sucked into the black hole that is Facebook or reading ignorant YouTube comments, well, than I am wasting my own time and I could be focusing that time on something that I love to do.

Something valuable like writing more and pushing myself through the growing pains of finding my voice and tone.

How about you?

As it relates to fitness and achieving a higher state of fitness, are you really too busy?

I have found that if I say that I want to achieve something, I shouldn’t talk about it unless I am dead fucking serious about achieving it. It’s so easy to just “kinda” want to achieve a goal. Soooooooo easy. Everyone just “kinda” wants to own their own business, or just “kinda” wants to travel more or just “kinda” wants to learn that second language or develop that other skill.

“Kinda”. Because that’s what it really is. It’s a half ass effort that we put forth to trick ourselves into thinking that we are really “going for it”.

–> Leading by poor example

3 years ago I tricked myself into thinking that I could write the book I had always wanted to write because I felt like I had so much to say as it pertains to building performance and getting people back on track with smart strength and conditioning interventions. I felt like I had a unique voice that people could relate to because my writing style wasn’t filled with science heavy jargon terminology to make myself sound intelligent.

Shit, little did I know, I was right. My old blog was growing in popularity faster than I ever thought it would. I actually had a fan base. I was contacted by a few fitness companies- who had products that I used and wrote about using- to set up some fees for advertising on the site. But I just “kinda” wanted it to happen, I hadn’t reached a level of maturity inside of my head that was willing to sacrifice anything to achieve it. I wasn’t even close. It just seemed like a good idea. I wasn’t ALL IN.

Belief systems control what happens to you.

So I will ask you again… if you say that you want to build fitness or eat healthier… are you really too busy to make it happen? Or does it just seem like a good idea in the present moment. Are you just saying it?

Are you convincing yourself that you’re too busy?

Stop selling yourself the bullshit.

We are all too busy to pursue higher levels of fitness. We are all too busy to block off a few minutes to cook that nutritious meal that we consciously know will do some good for our health. We would all love to be frolicking around on Miami Beach in the sun sipping on Pina Coladas and building sand castles.

Yes, I want to be there too, frolicking.

You can’t go half-way and expect anything to happen. That’s the reason you’re not fit.

You tricked yourself. Trust me, I am just one voice among millions on the internet. If you found me on here, well thank you for sticking with me, but I am a needle in a haystack.

Just for shits and giggles, go and type “Best Workouts for Fat Loss” into the Google search bar and see how many hits you come up with:

12,500,000 results for the search of “Best Fat Loss Workouts”.

Most of this information is free and if it isn’t free, you can find enough free information from that search to throw together a pretty decent little program. This is what the professionals will never recommend to you. You can make your own programs, and if you spent about 30-60 minutes researching what exercises to include, I bet you wouldn’t be too far off from an effective workout.

At the very least, you’d be taking action, which is more than you did yesterday, right?

Are you too busy to workout today? Too busy to learn how to prepare a decent breakfast that will help you lose fat and get some nutrients into your system?

You aren’t. I know you aren’t.

You just haven’t made it a priority yet.

Cheers to ruffling feathers and crushing excuses!

How to Build Bodyweight Strength: 1-Arm Push Ups and Pistols

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Almost 8 years ago now, I stumbled onto Pavel Psatsouline’s bodyweight strength based book, “The Naked Warrior”.

It was the Summer between my freshman and Sophomore year of college, and I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in strength and conditioning.

I became fascinated with bodyweight training. One quick Google search led me to Pavel’s book, and I think I read it cover to cover in two days time.

The sad part, I didn’t act on any of his strategies. It took me a couple of years to finally pick the book back up and re-absorb his methods. I regret that big time.

Now that I think about it, reading through Pavel’s book was the first time that I was introduced to kettlebells. They are featured throughout the book as effective loading progressions to make the exercises more difficult. I didn’t actively pursue kettlebell training for another two years.

Damn.

Hindsight is always 20/20, right?

The Naked Warrior, provides a much needed look at how to develop raw strength through two simple (but not easy) movements:

1-Arm Push Up
Pistol

I can remember reading reviews on the “The Naked Warrior, where customers were angry because the entire Naked Warrior book is based off of only two exercises. I felt the opposite. I thought it was extremely refreshing to read a book that was so focused. One upper body movement and one lower body movement. Both have tremendous carry-over into the real world and athletics.

Here is a great snapshot of Pavel executing the mother of all upper body pressing exercises, the 1-Arm Push Up…

1-Arm Push Up

Here is a still shot of the what I believe is one of the greatest lower body movements known to man…

The Pistol (aka: Single Leg Unsupported Squat)

Both movements require a large muscular contraction, body tension and zen-like focus for completion with great technique.

Pavel’s teachings provide an extremely valuable lesson on methods to build high level strength.

The road to executing these two movements require large amounts of body tension and muscular contraction. It’s simple and brilliant.

Here I am executing 1-arm pushups and pistols…

Training with 1 leg or arm at a time is a great way to uncover imbalance in strength, stability and mobility. You might be able to notice, but my left arm is the weaker of the two.

I used to think that drills like the 1-Arm Push Ups and Pistols should be reserved for like circus performers and stuntmen. Or, maybe they were just something you show off to your friends after a few beers. But that’s because I didn’t fully understand their value.

Now I understand their value and incorporate these movements into my own training regularly while advocating their use in the training programs of others. Pistols and 1-Arm Push Ups building tremendous strength while teaching the trainee methods that can be used squeeze more out of their training.

Progression is the key here, as it is always the key to success in building a body that is strong, lean and able to move freely.

Not many people can drop down and perform a full bodyweight single limb movement on a whim. There’s usually a fair amount of ramping up that needs to take place prior. I understand this completely. Both of these moves provide amazing bang for you buck, but they are advanced movements. ADVANCED.

How do you move yourself into the advanced category? Keep training, that’s how. Keep working at it daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.

In a future post, I will give you a road map to executing your first 1-Arm Push Up or Pistol. It’s a lot more simple than you might think. Successful completion of both requires dedication and consistency. You just have to keep working at it.

—> No mention of fitness? Not even once?

You probably noticed that this post never mentioned fitness until right now. In my opinion, fitness is nothing without the presence of strength. Strong is the new skinny. Spend time working hard building up your strength and your body shape will follow suit.

Cheers to harnessing your body to build crazy strength…

How Fast Can You Complete the 100 Burpee Challenge?

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The Burpee.

I’ve been obsessed with work capacity style workouts for quite sometime now, and I have a love/hate relationship with burpees. Burpees have been a main ingredient in many of these workouts, and for damn good reason.

Burpees are one of the greatest work total body conditioning exercises known to man.

Transitioning from a standing position down into a pushup then immediately back into a full squat jump is fatiguing as all heck. Incredibly fatiguing.

If someone gave me the choice between burpees, kettlebell swings, Schwinn Airdyne sprints or hill sprints as a work capacity conditioning session, I am going to choose all three of the latter before I choose burpees. Sorry burpees. Sometimes the best exercises are the ones that we dread the most. This is one of those cases for me and many others out there.

However, since this is a love/hate relationship, I have to admit that the burpee can drastically improve a person’s cardiovascular conditioning while accelerating body composition changes.

In other words, if you keep working at burpees and get really good at them, you’re going to put yourself into a state of great physical shape and see some serious changes in the mirror.

I wouldn’t never build an entire program around burpees alone- or any exercise- but I would build an entire workout or a solid “finisher” around the burpees. “Finishers” are sequences of exercises grouped together at the end of a workout to elicit a large metabolic training effect. They are designed to test your mind and your body, and well, finish you.

If you enjoy leaving the gym feeling highly fatigued- and lets face it most of us do- the 100 burpee for time finisher is a fantastic challenge.

Here is how it works:

—> The Rules for the 100 Burpee AFAP (as fast as possible) <—

Full burpees only (push up and squat jump included).
Take breaks as needed but remember you’re racing the clock.
Stop if you experience nausea or dizziness.

That’s it. Set the clock and get to work.

Now, I know that not everyone is at a fitness level to perform burpees for the full 100 reps. You may not be able to finish 20 reps. If this is the case, adjust the challenge to fit you.

Here are some general guidelines for different fitness levels:

If you’ve never performed a single rep of burpees, you’re a beginner in my book. Sorry, but you are. You might be physically fit but you’ve never experienced a single burpee. Nothing wrong with that. Never a better time to start implementing the burpee.

What I really like about this challenge is that it requires zero equipment, can be performed anywhere and can serve as a conditioning test that you can continue to re-test to see improvements in fitness. It’s no different than testing how fast you can run 2-miles.

One of the keys to work capacity style workouts and finishers is to avoid letting your mind cash checks that your body can’t cash.

The best work capacity workouts keep the trainee in complete control of their body and the weight being used. Of course, it’s every person’s responsibility to pull the plug at his or her own discretion. You’ve got a brain, don’t be afraid to use it, even if it means swallowing your pride and falling short of your goals for the training session.

If reps get sloppy, stop the set and regroup. Grab a drink, take a breather, gather yourself. If you still cannot finish the set after a break in the action, stop. Done. Finished.

Don’t be afraid to pull the plug.

Grinding out one more rep with horrific form isn’t worth the torn rotator cuff, slipped disc in the lower back or tweaked ankle. There’s no glory in it. None.

I’d like to think that much of what I advocate on this blog is high tempo, yet safe. There will be no circus tricks done for high reps just to burn you out and get you fatigued. Safety is a real concern here.

Push it hard and to the limit, but in a safe manner. If you keep that balance, you’ll be able to sustain a life full of physical activity, not just a few years of glory until ligaments and tendons start giving out.

Building your fitness and preserve your body. It’s a balance.

Give this challenge a real shot, either as workout in and of itself or as a finisher after a strength training session.

Submit your time in the comments section!

Cheers to 100 beautiful burpees in a row…

3 Time Efficient Methods To Squeezing in a Workout While Building a Career

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One thing that I have learned about writing and consulting on topics related to fitness is this: Not everyone thinks about training, eating and health as much as I do.

Not everyone cares about how great a kettlebell swing is, how bear crawling can restore function or jumping rope is 10x better for conditioning than a recumbent bike.

I think sometimes as professionals we forget that we care about fitness far more than any other people on the planet. Hell, we made a career out of it.

One issue with training that comes up time and time again is time, or lack their off.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I completely understand the time issue. I currently have a full-time career, write, train and am currently building an internet based fitness company/culture to help transition out of my existing career. Time is short, just as it is for so many other career professionals. I am in your shoes, which is why I feel so at home writing on this blog. You and I are in the same boat.

We’ve got to find solutions to working out when time is really tight.

Here are a few ideas that can put you back on track for working out around a career…

1) Strength-Cardio Circuits

Interval training using strength based movements are amazing for building adequate levels of strength and power while stripping fat. These workouts leverage our body’s natural ability to continue to burn fat for hours after the training session has ended. Strength cardio circuits, sometimes referred to as metabolic training, involve short burst efforts and minimal rest periods between movements. You’ll want the training session to be a total body experience, alternating exercises between upper body and lower body to increase performance by avoiding fatigue. By alternating movements, you’ll be able to hit more muscles in less time without sacrificing exercise technique.

Although the amount of time designated for work and rest during a strength-cardio workout will vary depending on your fitness and skill level, you should be able to find a sweet spot for yourself.

Here is a simple table to reference:

Choose from these simple movements…

2) Train on the weekends.

Nothing ground breaking here, but I just want you to start thinking about where you can fit in a training session. The weekend usually provides some relief from the time commitments of the workweek, so look toward Saturday and Sunday for squeezing in a couple solid training sessions. This will work wonders for your attitude as you enter into Monday and Tuesday. You’ll have the confidence knowing that you put forth a solid physical effort that you can leverage for 24-48 hours.

I train on the weekends all of the time. During this time, I feel no need to rush through the workout like I do during the week. The training session becomes enjoyable. Often times, I will spend a significant amount of time working on my mobility and addressing any muscles that feel overactive with knots. It’s a time for training aggressively and regenerating my body.

3) Two Sessions Per Day

This might sound crazy, but incorporating two smaller training sessions into your day might provide some relief to your training efforts. Rather than spend 60-90 minutes exercising once a day, try splitting the day into two smaller training sessions that last anywhere from 15-20 minutes. The smaller window of time will keep you focused on moving forward throughout the workout and also motivate you to do more in less time. Stoking your metabolism twice a day will work wonders.

Check out this recent post about that would help you coordinate a couple short training sessions:

—> Time Based Training

Having a career and committing to a life of physical fitness should be able to coexist with each other. They have to. Wealth without health is completely pointless, just as health without any wealth is stressful. Find the balance that fits your situation, integrate the suggestions above and make an effort to not only maintain your body, but improve it. Succeeding in career and physical performance will elevate your attitude and take your confidence to new heights.

Cheers to earning the $$$ and engineering a high functioning body in the process…

Crawling to Improve Core Stability and Performance

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Animal movement is getting a lot of attention from forward thinking fitness professionals these days.

I predict that Men’s Health will jump on this bandwagon soon enough. You’ll probably see a headline that screams:

“Burn Fat and Build An Athletic Body Like True Animal!”

Men’s Health has mastered the art of the headline and how to attract to attention. That’s cool. I am slightly jealous, but then again, I would rather have the freedom to write with my own authentic voice and tone, not what they think people want to read. That would get old real quick. You lose your identity as a person, what makes you uniquely you, when you start working for the man.

My blog articles wouldn’t be authentic if I didn’t get a bit lost here and there, so let’s get back to the business of discussing animal-like exercises, and where they might fit in a workout program.

—>Bear crawling is an awesome therapeutic movement…

First, let me say that I understand movement, however, I am not an “animal movement”, I simply see it as a methodology that can provide some great benefit while keeping your training session fresh.

Crawling for a better body…

I have used crawling off and on for quite some time now, both in my own training and in the training of my general and athlete clients.

Actually, I have used the supine and prone versions of crawling for about 7 years. Here is what I mean when I use the anatomical terms supine and prone:

Crawling was valuable part of our warm up when I worked with my younger athletes. I have to admit however that I really only used crawling movements with the younger population, mostly between the ages 9-12 yrs. Reflecting back, I wish I would have programmed more crawling with my elite athletes and corporate personal training clients.

Babies crab and bear crawl all of the time. It is essential for their movement and development into the early walking stages of life… Check out these videos for proof….

The Crab Crawl and Variations

The crab crawl is the supine version of crawling. The front of the body faces the ceiling and back faces the floor.

Here is a simple variation of a supine crab crawl called the Table Top Pull Through. You’ll understand why it’s named this way once you click on the video. Great warm up movement…

With the younger athletes, I mostly used the crab crawl (supine). I saw (and still do see) tremendous value in the upper body and lower body connection that a supine (crab crawl) provides. When working with younger athletes, it’s important to keep the balance of entertaining them (keeping them engaged in what you’re coaching) and teaching them how to use their bodies. It’s quite an interesting process working with younger kids, I deeply respect any coach or trainer that is successful at it.

Here is what a full crab crawl looks like:

I would ask my athletes and clients to crawl forward like you see in the video above until I verbally cued “hips up!”, at which time they would stop, raise their hips and form that human table top that you viewed in the first video. The backside muscles of the body light up during this static hold, as does the torso. While the backside activates you’re simultaneously lengthening the anterior (front side) aspect of the shoulders/pecs.

This is such a fantastic movement for people who sit all day long. It really helps to unwind some of the structural changes that as a result of sitting for extended periods of time. Unwinding and reversing these changes is really important to avoid unnecessary injury and malfunction.

It was great, but most of all, it was fun for the kids and adults alike. It’s one of those movements that doesn’t feel like a “workout”, yet has tremendous bang for your buck.

Shortly after incorporating the crab crawl, I started playing around with the bear crawl. This is essentially the flipped over version of the crab crawl, with the participants face and belly facing the floor.

You’ll notice that it is quite easy to “butcher” crawling movements and cheat. However, if you take your time, align your body and move as if you were trying to stay as soft and quiet as possible, there is an incredible amount of motor control, timing and recruitment that takes place to make it all happen.

Sidenote: I have found the “soft and quiet” idea to be quite effective for working to perfect movements related to crawling and Turkish Get Ups. Staying soft and quiet asks the person to stabilize and activate muscular in a timely manner in order to be graceful. In a fitness world that seems to drool over “harder, faster, aggressive, yeah!!!!”… moving with grace is a nice breath of fresh air. Think yoga-like grace.

Now, the bear crawl, just like any other movement, can be performed at different speeds. My recommendation is to prove that you can perform the slow motion bear crawl before you start racing around with horrible technique. I’ve seen some videos of bear crawl racing on YouTube.

Not where you should be starting…

If you can’t go slow with expert like technique, why should you go fast?

It’s almost hard to say “technique” when talking about bear crawls, because I don’t know if anyone has actually established what ideal technique should look like. It’s open for interpretation and varies depending on who you are talking to.

Keeping the mid-section still and some sort of rhythm is key however. Picture a glass of water balancing on your back as you crawl, avoid spilling any of the water during the movement.

—> Keep the bear crawls training effect in perspective…

1) The bear crawl is a demanding exercise that has progressions, just like any other exercise. If you can’t hold a satisfactory plank or properly activate your abdominal musculature, bear crawling might be a little further down on the needs list for you. You may have to fix some other things first, than work into the full bear crawl.

2) Start slow and perfect the movement. Move with control over speed. It’s not a race.

3) Don’t expect anything extreme to come from the bear crawl. You’re not going to develop a six pack (abs are made in the kitchen), burn crazy fat, or become super human by incorporating the bear crawl into your workouts. It’s a tool, treat it as a small but important piece of the whole picture.

4) Integrate the bear crawl into your warm-up. It’s a fantastic upper/lower body activating exercise that will prepare your joints for the demands of the workout.

I have to admit, I am fascinated with animal movements and how they can and should fit into a training program. It’s an old idea that is creeping back into workout programming for forward thinking coaches. I value animal movements, but I wouldn’t be the first to base an entire program off of them. As I mentioned earlier, they are tools and puzzle pieces that help create a complete program.

Definitely worth messing around with in your own training however. I can say that for sure.

—> People will think you are a weird for sure…

You’ll get some weird looks if you’re doing bear crawls in a public place or at your local gym, but remember, who cares? People don’t think much about anything, so just do it. You’ll have a blast and create some positive training effects from it. If you’re at the gym and people roll their eyes, let them. You’re ahead of the game by incorporating crawling movements into your training regimen. Keep yourself away from stale training programs.

Cheers to humans crawling around like bears and crabs…

A Time Based Bodyweight Workout for Boosting Fitness and Fat Loss

Quick Tips

Let’s face it, time is a commodity. It’s our most precious commodity. The clock will continue to tick no matter what we do.

I used to think that people who claimed that they “have no time to work out” were just dishing out lame excuses. I might be conditioned though. I have heard this time and time again from people who ask me for fitness advice. Once I give them a rough outline of what they need to be doing in the gym or at home workout-wise, they raise their eyebrows and throw out the “I have no time for that” card.

What did you expect? Hahaha. It makes me laugh every time.

Enter: Time based training.

What follows is a simple time based workout program that is an immediate solution for anyone leery of investing decent time in a workout or for people who are legitimately short on time (because I know that you are out there folks).

You’ll be able to progress this training plan for about four weeks while avoiding stagnation and adaptation. The body tends to get really efficient at activities that we repetitively engage in, so don’t be silly and try to ride this program out for a year or something crazy like that.

Building fitness demands that you constantly keep tweaking the variables.

Here you go…

Essentially you are increasing the volume of your training sessions by adding one minute per week for four weeks straight. I like workouts like this for beginners or advanced individuals alike because everyone can move at a pace that is appropriate to them. Beginners can grab a breather and some water if need be, and advanced trainees can whiz through at break neck pace to get their training effect from the workout.

Best of all? You can do this type of workout anywhere.

Worst of all? No pulling and no hip hinging movements. Without equipment, it’s really hard to work upper body pulling movements into a workout. Suspension trainers like the Jungle Gym XT really help this issue.

Hip hinging is the motion you’d make if you were butt bumping a car door shut. You’re hinging at your hips. Without weight, it’s hard to train this movement pattern, which really sucks because hip hinging is one of the most beneficial movement patterns that we humans can train.

You’ll find that every style of training sacrifices something. Nothing is perfect.

The key with short workouts like this is leveraging the training effect of the session. Short training sessions like this need to be high tempo since you are cramming a lot into short duration.

If you’re not willing to buckle down on your eating habits, well, prepare to be awfully disappointed by every workout program ever created. Physical activity is a supplement to eating food worthy of fat loss. The changes that take place post-workout are just as important if not more important than what takes place during the workout.

Sure, you can reduce body fat and increase performance without any dietary intervention (yes it is possible), but you’ll sell yourself short in the long run. Sooner or later you’ll reach a plateau. Eating crap food and training like a crazy person only gives off the perception of health. Food is the key to the body aesthetic universe and long-term health and wellness.

Any honest personal trainer or fitness advocate in the world will tell you that nutrition makes up the bulk of the foundation of any athletic or fit-looking body. We cannot train hard enough or long enough to offset poor eating habits. Unless you are an Iron Man athlete, in which case you are training for 3-5+ hours per day, almost daily and you have no real world career other than your sport.

Less than 1% of us fit that description, so lets just be big boys and girls and eat nutrient rich foods. Ok? Make the food that enters your pie hole primarily veggies and plants mixed with some animal protein and nuts. Perfect little diet solution that will work wonders.

Plus, it would be so stressful to think about having to workout so ridiculously hard to combat all of the junk food eaten.

If the food grew from the earth or has a mother, eat it. That’s your checklist to decipher through the food trickery that has saturated our restaurants and supermarkets.

Rock this workout plan for at least 2 weeks. Training for any period of time shorter than that isn’t even worth lacing up your shoes for the first training session, and it really shows that you aren’t prioritizing to make some changes. Stay committed and trust yourself and your program.

All in good time.

Cheers to leveraging our body’s natural ability to burn fat…

Kyle

Are You Deserving of Fat or Weight Loss?

Quick Tips

I am not trying to be a buzz kill people, so you’ve been warned right away.

I’d also like to mention that the most important part of this article is probably the very last paragraph located underneath my typical “Cheers to…” sign off. Make sure you get all of the way through to that point, ok? It will give you the full effect. 🙂

The title of this post was meant to be an attention grabber. I do in fact… have a heart and it is big and the people near and dear to me know that I care about them.

Ahemmm… moving on… ahemmm…

However, inspired by a classic sales book that I was paging through last night while lying in bed, I thought that I would put my own spin on classic topic related body restoration, fat loss, weight loss… whatever you choose to reclaiming ownership of your health as.

I want you to think about one thing for a quick second:

Do you?

I truly wish a long life that is filled with love and happiness and achievements for every single person.

Time on earth is short, live it up.

If you are one of the rare few people who have gained weight or unwanted fat due to unavoidable natural causes, well, this article may not pertain to you so much. But that doesn’t change the fact that you folks can put some interventions into motion yourself.

HOWEVER, for the rest of you, considering that a large majority of people are doing very little if anything to help themselves live a long life that is disease free (from preventable metabolic disease that is), you should really stop for a minute and evaluate what it is that you keep “thinking” that you want to achieve.

If you are someone who wants to trim down, build some strength, endurance, decrease the circumference of your waistline, eat better, drink more water, etc… well.. do it. Enough thinking and pondering and researching… just do it (there is that Nike slogan again!).

It’s not enough to “think” about how bad you want to restore your body to that teenager or mid-20’s physique that you once donned. You’ve got to do the work. So many think about thinks until they nearly spontaneously combust it’s nuts!

This article might be the same old song and dance, but hey, if it is received by as little at 1% of the readers stopping by the blog… well… I impacted someone. I can live with that.

The Sales to Body Analogy:

In the sales book I was reading last night (Integrity Selling), the author was sharing why sales professionals who have exhibit good character and work with their customers to service them to the best of their abilities deserve to earn mountains of money. Theses sales people shouldn’t feel bad about asking for business from new customers or asking existing customers for more business. They are selling with integrity. If the sales person can go to bed every night knowing that they provided a high value to their accounts, they deserve every stinking penny.

Why? Because these salesmen and women are EARNING their income. They aren’t being handed an income, they are earning it by exhibiting good character (doing the right things whether someone is looking or not- my definition) while accommodating their customer’s every need. The successful salesperson sets goals (goal clarity) and then works to achieve them night and day. Achievement is awarded to those who selflessly serve their customers night and day.

What about regaining control of your body?

The pursuit of fitness, whether you call it weight loss, body restoration or trimming fat around the edges, demands that you go to bed knowing that you put forth a worthy effort each and every day. It’s tough to feel sorry for an individual that wants the world in hand yet sacrifices nothing. You have got to put forth an effort of some kind and be relentless in your approach.

The beauty of moving more and eating well is that it takes very little tweaking for the average individual to start experiencing positive shifts in their appearance, energy levels, health markers, etc. Very little I tell you.

But, in the same breath, I will tell you that it takes one things always:

The willingness to start followed by the willingness to endure.

Just as the salesperson has to be emotionally courageous (emotional intelligence) and willing to get kicked in the crouch without taking it personally, folding up and heading home with their tail between their legs… so does the person seeking physical self-improvement.

Peaks and valleys. Thus is life. Those who stick it out long enough will see reward.

We had an old saying in hockey that I have come to appreciate more and more as the years pass. It always seems to put things into a manageable perspective for me:

Never allow yourself to get to high during the good times, never get to low during the frustrating times.

Keep the balance.

Endure.

Cheers from the icy streets of Eau Claire, WI…

[You made it! This article might stir up some emotions for some of you. You might feel guilty, irritated, motivated, or “called out”. My aim was not to make you feel bad about yourself. If you begin to feel emotions like motivation and irritation, good! Especially irritation. Getting irritated gets things done. It’s the point where you say to yourself, “Bullshit with this, I am going to take care of business from here on out”. Irritation can set things in motion faster than anything sometimes. It’s the “I told you so” attitude where you now want to prove the world wrong. Me personally, irritation makes me accomplish tasks at break neck speed. I get pissed because I observe myself becoming complacent in my position (whatever position that may be) Embrace these emotions and leverage them to make positive change.]

Dr. Oz… And Here Comes the BackLash

Quick Tips

I always perk up when I hear or see popular figures like Dr. Oz on television.

Why?

Because I know that he has won the hearts of so many television watching addicts that are in search of “the next great tip”.

Last night’s piece on NBC Sunday Night programming surely didn’t disappoint.

I have to admit that his advice last night was decent. But it’s the same old song and dance for me and many others…

– Eat more vegetables.

– Stop eating processed junk.

– Exercise moderately for no more than 30 min a day.

– Include the walk into the Mall, place of work or grocery store as part of that 30 minutes.

Huh? Re-read the last two points that he made about exercise.

Now, one might say, “Kyle, these are great points, anyone can start with this!” You’re right and you’re also missing a much more important point.

You’re right in the fact that advocating people to just get up and move in some way shape or form is a really positive tip. You should move whenever possible, no doubt about that. Add a little bit more everyday and the accumulation will equate to big things. You know the drill… take the stairs, park farther from the front door, take a short walk in the morning or after dinner.

But understand that this is the absolute bare minimum needed to get by. These are recreational activities. This is not “exercise” in my opinion. Walking is a skill that an able-bodied human should be able to do for miles upon miles, not just for the minimum 50 yards from the car to the front door of the area shopping mall.

I have seen the studies showing the correlation between minimal amounts of moderately intense exercise (roughly 30 min per day) and its positive effect on life. I get it. I read it and I get it.

While this information is definitely interesting, how about we demand a little bit more from ourselves? Walking for 30 minutes a day is great, but let’s get serious about changing or improving our physical abilities, trading unhealthy tissue for healthy tissue, increasing range of motion at important joints, etc.

Set some goals… Aim to run a 5K or a 10K. Squat your bodyweight on the barbell. Swing a kettlebell for 20-30 minutes. Slam a medicine ball. Go to war with some battling ropes or try to improve the maximum number of push ups or pull-ups that you can do in a 5 minute time-frame.

Become an athlete later in life, that’s something worth pursuing.

As I mention in my training book(s), we have become a nation afraid of work. I am talking about legitimate physical labor. The kind that fatigues your body quickly from effort, causes sweat pour down your face and eventually soak into your shirt. The kind that causes your lungs to “burn” from a short and intense bout of conditioning.

We always seek the path of least resistance. Our joints do it, our muscles do it and now our brains are doing it. We crave what is easy. We scour the internet, magazines and newspapers for the quickest possible route to health glory while enduring the least amount of physical agony.

Let me tell you something… resolving to dominate your training sessions, whether you are a beginner just learning or an advanced trainee seeking a new path, builds character that spills over into all other areas in your life. If you can do it physically, you can do it mentally.

Back to the backlash…

I predict a massive backlash from Dr. Oz’s comments, even though I think that he is very intelligent and probably didn’t intend for his comments to be twisted the way that they inevitably will.

It was funny to listen to him talk. He said that he has to choose his words so carefully when he talks about health concepts and strategies because: “People will hear what they want to hear”. I respect that comment.

What he is means is that people are always going to take his advice and twist it to fit their situation. Some will use common sense and add his tips to the greater whole (exercise and nutrition), but most won’t. They want the least painful quick fix.

If he says that raspberry ketones are a great supplement for helping to initiate weight-loss, consumers are going to be buying mass quantities of raspberry ketones and consuming at an alarming rate. When no weight is lost because all that person did was over-dose on raspberry ketones, they render that intervention useless and ineffective.

I also respected his comments about NEVER endorsing a product. That’s cool. He said that anything on the shelves that mentions his name or shows his picture is a scam. That particular company has chosen to use his fame as leverage to sell their product.

Beware of this. The supplement industry is a billion dollar industry with so many horrible scams out there. It is difficult to regulate the supplement industry and even more difficult to identify the supplements that are worth taking. You’re spending your hard-earned cash on these products and most of them don’t work! Ouch.

Anyways, prepare yourself for the backlash. Don’t be afraid to push yourself into new realms of fitness. I don’t care if you’re interested in kettlebell training, powerlifting or endurance-related activities. Go after something and be WAY MORE THAN AVERAGE in doing so.

Make it happen this week, alright? I will do the same.

Cheers on this Monday…

Back in the New York Groove!

Quick Tips

Hola!

So I took a leave of absence from writing on the blog for a little while, but it doesn’t mean that I was sitting on my ass the entire time. I have been trying to find my way through this whole “writing a book” process.

I have found two things:

1) I have enough thoughts to write 10-15 books.

2) All of those thoughts swirl and end up paralyzing my efforts quite often.

It’s funny how my brain works. I am finding that the thoughts don’t flow fast enough that I can talk into a tape recorder or use talk-to-type technology, but yet when I type (and I do consider myself a decent typer) my fingers can’t keep up with my brain and I get distracted by the next thought. It’s a constant battle.

I seem to be caught in the middle somewhere.

Luckily, I never write alone…

Gus!

I was peeling through some old emails this morning and came across an email that was originally sent by the marketing gal over at LifeLine Fitness. If you are unfamiliar with LifeLine, I would highly encourage you to check out their product lines. Most of it is geared toward individuals that want to break free from commercial gyms, move into bodyweight style training, or are looking for a more portable way to stay fit.

All of their products I stand behind, including their line of stretchy bands (resistance bands if you will).

I have to admit, I still struggle with the use of resistance bands. I just think that it is such a mistake to base an entire program around bands. I have never been a fan I don’t think.

The resistance is not consistent throughout the range of motion, which basically makes an exercise easy from the start position and gradually more difficult as the joints reach full extension.

I could see why a more advanced trainee would like bands, especially if you were trying to improve your lockouts on movements like squats, push ups or deadlifts, but using bands as a replacement to more traditional tools like dumbbells or barbells seems inferior still.

Again, maybe there is something I am missing here.

Segue…

Last Sunday night I suffered what is my 5th diagnosed concussion of my life. I say “diagnosed” because anyone that plays or has played a contact sport of any kind know that getting your bell rung is common and often unannounced to medical professionals after it happens. I think that science and testimonials from recent years shows that hiding concussion-like symptoms is a major mistake.

Anyways, I am about 5 days out from my Sunday night head impact and my head still feels cloudy. It is hard to explain really. I don’t want people to know that I smashed my head because it inevitably will lead a long lecture on taking care of yourself, which at this point, I cannot take any more of. It’s also extremely frustrating because my cognitive processes are slowed. Not painstakingly slow, but I just don’t feel as sharp as I did pre-impact.

I know that this dissipates over time. Head trauma is a little more fragile than other parts of the body, but it still requires a decent amount of rest and recovery. Limiting TV, bright lights, ahhemm… computers (shit), and anything that makes the eyes twitch or taxes the brain. Exercise or exertion of any kind is out of the question. I know this very well from my collegiate hockey playing days.

When I was in college, I really brushed off concussions like they were nothing. Now I a much deeper respect for the healing process. It’s my goddamn brain I am dealing with. I only get one, and if I mess it up, I am screwed. It really puts things into perspective when you think about it for a minute.

All in all, my projects are moving in the right direction. I will definitely be adding more blog posts in the coming days, weeks and months. Blogging is such a great release and provides time to put out information in an uncensored fashion, which I love.

Cheers to a great weekend… Keep moving…

M(eaux)tion Fitness

Fuel Your Fitness Journey

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3 Time Efficient Methods To Squeezing in a Workout While Building a Career

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A Time Based Bodyweight Workout for Boosting Fitness and Fat Loss

Are You Deserving of Fat or Weight Loss?

Dr. Oz… And Here Comes the BackLash

Back in the New York Groove!

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