Basic Home Workout for Beginners

Many of the clients I see are starting out with minimal training experience and are working out in their own home. As people progress with their strength and fitness they often prefer to get a gym membership or to purchase exercise equipment for their home gym. I already have videos demonstrating gym workouts as well as how to set up a kick ass home gym, but beginners typically don’t need access to a lot of equipment to get started. In the video below I demonstrate a basic beginner home workout using only one’s body weight, a resistance band, and an exercise ball: […]

2020-08-06T12:06:20-04:00

DrawBacks of a Low Carb Diet

In this post I’d like to share a guest contribution from a good friend and one of my mentors, Joseph Hughes (Fit N Sync). Joe has extensive experience competing in physique competitions as well as coaching many other women and men for physique, figure and bikini contests. He also helps the average individual lose unwanted body fat while following a balanced, sustainable nutrition plan. Joe helped me prepare my nutrition plan for my first Men’s Physique competitions last year, leading me to a first place victory in my Regional contest and 3rd place at the Provincials, qualifying me for the Nationals. We share the same philosophy regarding flexible dieting, also called If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM), which relates to tracking your calories and macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs) and eating a variety of foods while meeting your calorie and macro needs, based on your individual goals. One big aspect of nutrition [...]

2020-06-06T17:13:45-04:00

Fat Burning Ladder SuperSet Workout

What the heck is a Fat Burning Ladder workout? A Ladder Workout is a training technique that I often use, especially with bodyweight / calisthenics workouts. It’s also one of the training methods I will be introducing in my upcoming ebook/ video program, Bodyweight MASS Builder. It’s a high-intensity, high-volume super-set workout that will build muscle, increase muscular endurance, and burn fat. It’s a simple but challenging form of antagonist supersetting that you can apply to almost any exercises, but which I find particularly well suited to body weight exercises. Here’s how you perform this workout protocol: choose two exercises, typically one pushing movement and one pulling movement (antagonist muscle groups), OR a lower body exercise paired up with an upper body exercise, and you super-set these two exercises, moving back and forth between them with minimal rest. But here’s where the ‘ladder’ technique gets interesting: you begin with only ONE repetition on one [...]

2020-06-08T17:04:42-04:00

Why You Shouldn’t Listen to Your Body

Nutrition seems to be one of the most debated topics in the fitness industry. I’ve had numerous discussions or debates with other trainers about the value of tracking your food intake using some form of journal or nutrition diary. I argue in favor of using a journal or a free app like My Fitness Pal to track your calories and macronutrients (protein, fats, and carbs), or to at least have some awareness of portions and approximate macro intake. Those who oppose tracking often recommend just “listening to your body” to determine how much to eat. […]

2020-06-06T17:42:23-04:00

How to Keep the Fat Off after You Lose It

Why the Biggest Losers Regained The Weight A few weeks ago there was a “Biggest Loser Study” that was getting a lot of media attention. It basically showed that 6 years later the majority of the contestants on the show had regained most of their weight. Even worse, it also revealed that their metabolism was slower than it was previously. For more details check out the Research Review of this study on the Precision Nutrition site at www.precisionnutrition.com/the-biggest-loser-study. The unfortunate thing is that this study paints a dismal picture that it’s impossible to sustain fat loss over the long term. Of course, the mainstream media loves these types of stories and they jumped all over it. However, that conclusion is absolutely false. The Biggest Loser Study failed to fully explain why these individuals regained most of the weight. We need to ask the question: “What mistakes are they making on the Biggest Loser program [...]

2020-06-06T17:43:21-04:00

Fat to Fit in 6 Hours? Physique Transformation “Tricks” Revealed

Do you ever wonder if some of those “amazing physique transformation” pics are actually legit? “Before and After” transformation pictures can be very motivational to those who are working on transforming their own physique, and an impressive progress photograph is one of the most powerful testimonials you can have for any given product, supplement, training program or nutrition plan. However, in many cases there is more going on in these pictures than meets the eye. While you can’t just assume that any unbelievable transformation pics are “fake”, IMO it’s also important to realize that most before/after or ‘progress’ photos involve a little tweaking… such as tanning, shaving, optimal lighting, posing, sticking your gut out vs flexing, pumping up, water and carb manipulation, etc. Even just the camera angle or changing your body position can create an “illusion” for the camera. This isn’t even getting into the discussion of whether photoshop [...]

2020-06-08T17:12:36-04:00

4 Proven Benefits of a High Protein Diet

With every new year comes new fad diets promising fast fat loss. These range from low carb, low fat, elimination diets, food timing diets, liquid diets, “clean-eating” diets, and the list goes on. But like I’ve said many times before, the fundamentals of fat loss nutrition remain the same: 1) Caloric deficit – take in less energy than you burn off. 2) Appropriate macronutrient ratios – particularly higher protein and adjust carbs and fats according to calorie goals. 3) Food quality – choose less processed foods, adequate micronutrition and fiber, and consume mostly natural “whole” food. 4) Nutrient timing – consider WHEN you eat, such as meal frequency and timing your carb intake primarily after exercise. Check out my blog post on this topic: => TOP 5 PRIORITIES OF FAT LOSS NUTRITION The one recommendation that I most often see debated is following a High Protein Diet. There is still a lot [...]

2020-06-15T22:14:49-04:00

12 Days of Christmas Fitness

Here's my gift to you: The 12 Days of Fitness (Christmas Workout). I had several of my clients perform variations of this program yesterday... it's a fun way to get in a decent circuit training workout for the holidays. There's 12 rounds of this circuit, each round adding another exercise with one more repetition (up to 12 repetitions for the final exercise, of course). It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to complete, depending on your rep speed and rest intervals. Here's the video tutorial I created for it (you'll be impressed by my angelic singing voice!):

2020-06-15T22:03:09-04:00

The Problem with the Fitness Industry

What the Hell is Wrong with the Weight Loss Industry? I recently watched an excellent video created by Mike Howard of Lean Minded, where he basically throws the entire fitness industry under the bus. The thing is, he makes some important observations, his critique is well-founded, and he provides some great suggestions about what to do about it. His opinion on this topic is very similar to my own, and his advice is right in line with what I’ve been saying for a while now (on my blog, YouTube, and other social media). I shared the video below in this article, and I encourage you to take a few minutes to check it out. He touches on several problems in the fitness industry at present: People seem to believe that everything causes weight gain… except excess calories. People are chasing a quick fix to get short term results for a [...]

2020-06-14T19:53:47-04:00

Top 5 Priorities of Fat Loss Nutrition

One of the things I’ve frequently noticed in interviewing new clients, speaking to other trainers, and communicating with other fitness freaks online, is how many different opinions there are and how much confusion there is related to fat loss nutrition. Some people are just completely clueless, while others are so devoted to a particular way of eating that their diet becomes like their religion! People have some pretty strange ideas about their diet. With so many different fad diets and nutrition protocols out there, it’s no wonder people get confused. For example, you’ve probably heard about: Paleo, Keto, Atkins, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Low Fat, South Beach, The Zone Diet, Volumetrics, Raw Food Diet, Dr. Bernstein, No Carbs After 6:17PM, etc. That’s not even getting into tracking systems (calorie / portion control plans) like Weight Watchers or Nutri-System. Now, I’m not saying that all (or any) of the above nutritional strategies are necessarily [...]

2020-06-15T22:04:43-04:00
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