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...