After returning from my meditation retreat and then shortly after that from a week long family camping trip, I found it tough to get back into training and pushing myself with challenging workouts. From experience I know that often my clients also go through phases where they need motivation to stay on top of their fitness routine. So here are 5 tips that will help you get motivated to workout: […]
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: […]
I recently interviewed a long-time friend and colleague of mine, Scott Grisewood of Shockwave Therapy Centre in Barrie, Ontario, about the relationship of posture and movement patterns to our hormones, mood and physical performance. Check out the full video interview (including exercise demonstrations and research references) here: […]
An effective warm up can improve your performance in your workout or sporting activity as well as prevent injuries. However, some common methods of warming up may actually increase risk of injury and reduce your strength and performance. For example, many people still perform passive stretches before working out, which can temporarily dampen the nervous system activation of the muscles you stretch and leave them weaker for a couple of hours. This not only reduces performance in your training session but can also lead to joint instability which increases risk of injury. Another popular way to warm up is to run on the treadmill or hop on the bike for a long, slow, low intensity cardio session before hitting the weights. While there may be some benefits to a brief cardiovascular warm up, there is no need to expend a significant amount of energy doing cardio before training. There are [...]
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching it’s time to give that special someone in your life the gift of good loving. Science has proven that physical exercise can improve your sexual performance in a number of ways, so on that note, here are my Top 5 Exercises for Sexual Fitness: 1) Kneeling Rows 2) DiveBomber Pushups 3) Pulsed Squats 4) Hip Thrusters 5) Straddle The Elbow […]
In this article I want to cover a few fundamentals of strength and conditioning for combat sports that I recently shared with my friend Jason from Precision Striking. First I’ll discuss exercises to develop base strength, then move on to power movements and conditioning exercises. But before I get into that, here are some key points related to this topic. […]
GUEST POST from Paul Vandyken With the fitness culture becoming more popular and more people becoming aware of the benefits of working out, a large variety of people from different walks of life are now hitting the gym. Many of these people are looking for effective exercises and routines to train their abs in the hopes of developing a strong core or to get a six pack. Unfortunately, what many don’t realize is that you can potentially injure yourself by performing exercises incorrectly or by choosing the wrong exercises. However, if you know what you’re doing and you do it the right way, you can achieve the result you’re after. […]
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 [...]
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. […]
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 [...]