Go Fit Yourself

      When it comes to training, one of the things that holds too many people back is pain. Whether it is the low-level, constant inflammation of arthritis, or the acute, sharp pain of an injury, this is a very common excuse for not training. One of the things you MUST ask yourself: "Would I rather be in pain and weak, or would I rather be in pain and strong?"      The clear answer is you would rather be strong. If you are suffering from a nerve condition or arthritis, it can be frustrating and make training uncomfortable, but regular strength training will ONLY make the conditions better if it is properly performed and prescribed ( https://arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13075-018-1624-x).       If you have an acute injury in a small muscle that you can not train around, the goal of training would be to strengthen the surrounding tissues. If you have a knee that won't stop hurting, getting your quadriceps, ha...

      I want to take you back, once again, to a point in history where the military wanted to study low calorie diets to see what would happen to healthy young soldiers. I want to say it was sometime in the 50's, but don't quote me on that. It was a massive undertaking where soldiers were kept in a controlled environment and ate only what the researchers provided.      They were placed on a 1200 calorie diet consisting of vegetables, fruit, and protein (a typical "balanced" diet). Throughout the course of the study, the soldiers lost weight for about the first 2-4 weeks, around 10-15 lbs each. Then all weight loss stopped for the rest of the study. The soldiers went mad with hunger, chewing 27 pieces of gum per day and trying to steal each other's food whenever possible just to stave off the hunger pangs.      By the end of it, their muscles and brains had shrunk, their moods could best be described as "depressed", and they were finding ...

      I am going to start this post with some simple definitions. For our purposes, "volume" regards the amount of time a weight is lifted. "Intensity", on the other hand, refers to the heaviness of the weight lifted. IN GENERAL, you can manipulate one or the other to make progress without getting overtrained or injured. It is extremely difficult to increase both at the same time. In my opinion, and it has been backed up by YEARS of strength and hypertrophy coaching, intensity is the single most important variable when it comes to gaining real, solid muscle.      Volume training is where most people start, this is not a terrible idea because it will help to build connective tissue, which takes much longer to adapt to strength training than muscle tissue does. The classics: 3 sets of 5 reps routines, 5 sets of 5 rep, 3 sets of 10 rep are all fine for a rote beginner that is trying to perfect their form and stay uninjured as they gain neuromuscular control of...

      When it comes to changing your lifestyle, you MUST account for failure. I hate to say it, but unless you have a strong enough "why", it makes everything about changing that much harder. If you let your guard down or are unprepared for roadblocks, you will fall off the wagon and end up back at square one every time.      Every night I want you to pack your gym bag, whether you are going to the gym or not. Place it next to the front door, right next to your training shoes. Every time you leave the house, put it in your backseat or your trunk. Now you don't have the old "I don't have my workout clothes" excuse to skip the gym. Always have some pre-workout or a scoop of protein ready in a shaker bottle, now you don't have the old "I'm too tired/hungry" excuse to skip the gym.      Your gym bag should contain everything for a kick ass workout and some other sundries to be ready to hit the showers and get on with life. This means a change o...

     While I might talk about the weight loss and muscle sparing benefits of the Go Fit Yourself Diet, which is virtually unlimited animal protein and fats, plus the occasional piece of fruit if you're so inclined, the benefits are insane whether you are fat, thin, old, or young. In this article I am going to go over my favorites, and how the diet works to get you feeling like a million bucks.  1. ANTI-INFLAMMATION - This is THE least inflammatory diet you can embark on, besides water fasting. Inflammation has been linked to pretty much every negative health outcome you can think of, and quite a few of the other maladies on this list. In the first few days after you start this diet, when you are peeing your brains out, you are letting go of YEARS of inflammation.  2. ARTHRITIS - Arthritis is an autoimmune condition that usually attacks your system at the joints and causes extreme pain and discomfort in your hands, knees, shoulders, hips, even your back. The Go F...

      Testosterone is what makes a man, a "man". It is responsible for controlling a man's libido, hair growth, voice deepening and testicle size. A boy that has low testosterone at puberty might not fully develop into a "man" if testosterone levels are low enough.           Testosterone is responsible for bone density, muscle gaining, fat burning, cognitive function, emotional control (once you get your testosterone in check, things just don't bother you anymore), and controlling depression and anxiety. It serves so many positive functions in the male body, it might be the most important hormone to live a good life as a male.      The problem is that our testosterone levels, as a species, have been dropping drastically for many years. The men that fought and died in WWI and WWII had natural testosterone levels that we can only dream of today. It was not unheard of for the average male test levels to be in the 700-800 range. To...

      This is a post for anyone 55+. If you have been strength training for months or years, you know just how important it is for health and longevity. But what are some good markers that indicate you will live a long, happy life?      1. Grip strength - The stronger your grip, your longer your life. You should be able to hang from a chin      up bar for 45-60 seconds. This is a great indicator of longevity.      2. Strong bones - Your doc has not told you to start worrying about osteoporosis. No worthless calcium      supplements, no pills or potions, just strong bones from loading the skeleton in a heavy, methodical way. If you lift heavy and your bones are still trending toward osteoporosis, increase vitamin d3 and k2 intake and stop eating sugar and vegetables right away.       3. Moving better than your peers - It is a sad state of affairs for our elderly out there. The lack of focus ...

      So you want to start strength training. That's amazing! You have decided to increase the strength and size of your muscles, bones, and connective tissue. You will also prolong your life and add GOOD years to the end of it. BUT, you aren't sure where to start. So many doctors have their advice, and the bros and broettes have their advice, it can be hard to know where to start.      You have come to the right place, for a visual example of this workout, check out episode 3 of the Go Fit Yourself podcast, the last 10 minutes cover my absolute beginner, never seen the inside of a gym workout.      This workout will cover real, functional human movement in a safe, controlled environment that if done properly will help you gain muscle and increase your metabolism. This workout is fine for anyone with bad knees, bad hips, bad shoulders, no time, and/or no money. This will eliminate every excuse you think you have for not working out....

      I wanted to use "rude" language to grab your attention. Fat has become an "empowered" word. I don't know if you have cruised "body positivity" Tik Tok or Instagram lately, but fat activists have decided to take that word back. There are now all sorts of categories you can be lumped into: small fat, medium fat, large fat, and super fat. All of these can be boiled down to one word: obese.      No one wants to say the word obese, because it is clinical and sounds scary. Well, it should sound scary, every day that a person is obese or morbidly obese is another day closer to an early death. THAT is why I am trying to reach obese people, or even skinny fat people (these people have no muscle mass and appear skinny but have a very high bodyfat percentage). Anyone with a bodyfat percentage over 30% is doing a HUGE disservice to their health and longevity.      I am NOT saying that an obese person is not beautiful, is not a kind soul, is not hil...

      The barbell deadlift has been maligned as an "ego lift" because of the huge poundage and bad form used by most gym goers. People will tell you it is unnecessary and that it is not "functional". Well I am here to tell you, it is one of the most functional lifts on the planet.      The deadlift is one of the most functional movements in our world, the act of picking something heavy up off the ground without destroying your back or knees is a skill that must be practiced. Let's say hypothetically you need to get a washing machine (the heaviest appliance I can think of) into the bed of a truck. If you and your buddy that is helping you out have never trained a deadlift, you might not know how to brace your core properly to keep your spine safe. You might not have the grip strength to keep your side stable of the machine stable, you might be sore for days afterwards because you have never trained your body to pick something heavy up off the ground....

    I am going to take you all the way back to 1910, when a group of Russian scientists decided to see what happens when you feed rabbits large amounts of cholesterol to determine whether high serum cholesterol levels caused  atherosclerosis (the build up of "plaque" on arterial walls).       They force fed rabbits cholesterol and saw an insane jump in heart attacks and atherosclerosis, well case closed, that's a slam dunk right? Cholesterol is bad for you and will kill you with a heart attack. Boom, the "lipid hypothesis" was born, this led to the demonization of saturated fats and cholesterol.      The only problem is RABBITS DO NOT EAT ANY FOODS THAT CONTAIN CHOLESTEROL, like, at all. Rabbits do not make the proper enzymes to digest and assimilate these fatty acids properly. The ONLY thing this study proved is that if you ingest a diet that is not appropriate for your species (looking at you veganism), bad things happen.  ...