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 [...]
Pre-Exhaust Training – Old School Mass Builder
One of my favorite advanced training techniques for hypertrophy (building muscle) is pre-exhaustion. This “old-school” method was used and recommended by some of the great golden-era bodybuilders from back in the day such as Casey Viator, Arthur Jones, and Mike Mentzer. However, I don’t recommend using this training protocol until you have a good foundation getting stronger with the big basic compound movements (such as squats, presses, and pulls). For myself, I [...]
Take charge of your health & appearance with natural solutions (guest post)
In a busy world such as we live in today, it’s not unusual for the day to day stress to reflect in your health as well as in your appearance. You may find it challenging to make time to look after your health as you should, or perhaps you are unsure of the best ways to do so. As life gets busier and work and family are placing larger demands [...]
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!):
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 [...]
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 [...]
Instructor Courses for Teaching Clients Effective Exercises for Fitness
Guest Post from Jenny Richards, Health & Fitness Journalist: If you are a fitness freak and aspire to help others achieve their fitness goals, you may pursue a career in health management, especially personal training. Go for scientific research based accredited personal trainer certifications. These certifications would help you become expert fitness and health professionals. You would be able to deliver personalized fitness programs for your clients so that they [...]
8 Ways to Progress Your Workouts (without Adding Load)
The key to making physical changes with your training program (ie: improving your physique, building muscle, etc) is PROGRESSION. Most people think that means lifting more weight than you did before, which certainly is the primary way to progressively introduce greater muscle tension. But if your goal is to gain muscle, maintain lean tissue while losing fat, or reshape your physique (rather than just to “get stronger” or improve performance) [...]
Which Supplements Are Worth Taking?
If you’re into fitness chances are at some point you’ve considered using supplements to help you reach your goals. The problem is there is so much hype, marketing, and misinformation about supplementation that it makes it really difficult to know which supplements are actually worth taking. As a trainer I get a lot of questions about what supplements to take, and since I became sponsored (by SD Pharmaceuticals) I’ve done a [...]
8 Benefits of Strength Training For Women
I wish all the women who are afraid that lifting weights will “bulk them up” would show me their muscle-building secrets! I’ve been busting my ass for years to gain a few more pounds of muscle mass! Where does this fear come from? Certainly not from personal experience. Men and women need to approach their resistance training program with a similar intensity. Of course there will be small variations in [...]