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Formula for Success
“If you take your eyes off the goal, for even a second, doubt will rush your mind like a band of brutal thieves.”
Doubt intends to kill your dreams, destroy your desire, and beat you down with fear. Evidence of this is obvious in the most trying times. When we are hungry, when we are tired, when we are angry, when we are in despair…
Be Hungry
When you are hungry, let that hunger be your purpose. It is a burning reminder in your gut of what you want to accomplish. When you are tired and your eyes grow heavy, don’t be the martyr the world excuses you to be, no one owes you anything. If there is something you want, you stay up one more hour and you go out and get it!
Be Productive
Anger?, rage? Make it productive, and focus the intensity of this moment into success instead of resentment. No one can control your emotions but you. And when you are in complete despair — Stop. Shhhhh. Be still, and listen. You are more than “just being”. You have the potential to be even more than your desires. You have the ability to accomplish things you havent even dreamed of …yet.
One of my favorite quotes of all time comes by way of the late Henry Ford. He reminds us that we can decide what happens next… he said “he who thinks he can, and he who thinks he can’t, are usually both right“.
Go Beyond
“Attaining the goal isn’t success. Success is found in the pursuit, attaining your goals is the icing on this cake we call life.”
Lastly, it isn’t enough to just dream. I love visualization. Wondering what if, thinking just maybe… Hoping, even praying, for that desire of your heart. Instead of praying for “the goal”, pray for the opportunity to make a way for your goal. The satisfaction of accomplishment comes in the effort – the blood, the sweat, the tears, the years, in pursuit of the “goal”. Attaining the goal isn’t success. Success is found in the pursuit, attaining your goals is the icing on this cake we call life.
“Vision without execution is just hallucination” Henry Ford
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #LiveWithFire
How to Get Perfect Abs
I love fundamentals. Fundamentals are the foundation from which more complex and effective derivatives are built upon. So many pro athletes achieve stardom and fame only to eventually fall into a slump and return to the basics. Many coaches and athletes alike will tell you, if you perfect the fundamentals, there may be no need for much else.
My Striking, and grappling skills are continuing to get better. As I get more advanced, I’ve noticed that every class starts with repeating basic drills that I learned from the very first day; and so it is with abdominal work.
You can do V-ups, X-ups, sit ups, roll ups, knee ups, or just about any abdominal exercise you want, and without using basic fundamentals, you will never effectively work the target area. Most ineffective abdominal work is caused from poor set up. If you can accomplish a good starting position and maintain good positioning during the range, your abs will cry sweaty tears of bliss. So, how do we set up to get all the “goody” out of our abdominal training? glad you asked!
1. Lay down on your back with knees bent and feet on the floor
2. Roll your belt line (low back) into the mat or ground (a slight posterior pelvic tilt)
3. Use the hamstrings to lock your pelvis into position. Do this by digging your heels into the ground and pull them toward your buttocks to tighten your hamstrings holding your pelvis in a posterior tilt
4. Place your hands behind your neck holding the base of your noggin (nuchal line) and keep your elbows open and wide.
5. Look straight up keeping your chin off your chest.
6. Pull your naval into your spine AS YOU EXHALE.
7. As you exhale, PULL YOUR TRANSVERSE ABDOMINALS IN, LIFT YOUR SHOULDER BLADES OFF THE FLOOR UNTIL ONLY THE MID BACK (THORACIC REGION) IS TOUCHING
(NOTE: LIFT STRAIGHT UP AS IF YOU HAVE A GLASS OF WATER ON YOUR CHEST… TRY NOT TO ROLL UP IN AN ARC)
Congratulations, you just executed a perfect crunch!
Continue to use these same principals for all abdominal work. These fundamentals will help facilitate and recruit more abdominal musculature durring your workout giving you “perfect abs”.
NOTE: Don’t forget – no matter how great your ab exercises are, you’ll never see them if you don’t diet. Diet is 80% of getting the abs of your dreams!
Tractor Tire Abs
Here is an entire ab & core workout I put together for GNC utilizing a tractor tire. Since many MMA camps and boot camps us tractor tires, I decided to come up with a few exercises to help you make the most of your tractor tire. Don’t have one? You can get a used on free at your local tractor repair store or dealer – or you can use a stability ball or bench.
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.
STEVE EATS: My Meal & Supplement Plan
When it comes to taking your training, performance and physique to a higher level, nutrition, training, rest and supplementation are critical. The amount of information that is available for these “critical” corner stones of fitness is immense. I feel it is important for people who are serious about changing there lives and becoming more fit to have a forum that will share basic principals that are tried and true. No doubt there are many different philosophies on training that actually work. Just like there are many types of diets and nutritional supplements that are proven to bring about results.
What you must do as a “seeker” of a more fit life is look at all these ideals that actually work, and look at everything they have in common. I trust the Beyond Raw line for two reasons. The science behind the products is extensive and sound but, mostly, I trust it because I tried the supplements and they gave the results they boasted. With this in mind I thought I would share my current diet.
This is not an experiment, this is my actual diet I am using as I train for a crazy upcoming schedule of tournaments. Bodybuilding, 1/2 iron man, and a MMA tournament. As I get closer to each event I will tweak the diet, but the core of this eating program will remain the same. The only fluctuation in this that isn’t written below is my coffee intake. Lets just say that it’s absolutely ridiculous. I also included how I would change the intake for a female trying to lean out and maintain muscle mass. Check it out, I hope it is helpful. Feel free to change protein sources, and switch veggies around as long as the nutritional profiles are similar. Enjoy….
NOTE: This is not a prescribed diet. I am not a dietician. I am just sharing with you how I eat to get the results I want for my body.
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.
Iron sharpens Iron
I’ve heard it said, “One of the biggest keys to success, is to surround yourself with like minded people that are successful”. This statement alone, is ambiguous at best. Successful at what, and to what extent, and to what cost? Is it equally important to surround yourself with others that share your feverence for success and the drive to reach the same goals? I think it takes both, and then some. Sometimes this means redefining your belief systems, redefining your self-worth, and sometimes even redefining… you!
Listen to what I’m about to say…. No matter your drive, no matter your will, you will still fail. It isn’t enough to know what you want. It isn’t enough to just know how bad you want it. Even if you believe you can truly achieve it, you WILL still fail - UNLESS…You surround yourself with people who have walked this talk before you, and not only achieved what you strive for, but continue to live it out daily. Take money for instance. Many have achieved wealth, but to what cost. Losing marriages, family, years of life, for this dream of wealth… is that success?
Now for my expertise, health and wellness, many people aim to get fit and change their lives forever but again, to what cost? Are they hating every rep of every exercise? Are they whining at every brussel sprout they swallow? Are they miserable in the pursuit of “happiness”? We must seek out friendships, mentors and teachers that can give us the direction, discipline and accountability we need to stay the course. Allow me to give you a few extreme examples I witnessed first hand.
Reality TV: Formula of Success
In 2oo7 I was the trainer for a summer weight loss reality show called “Fat March” that aired on ABC. A year later I was cast as the trainer for VH1′s “Bridal Boot-camp”, another weight-loss reality show. Working in this “reality genre” game gave me a firsthand look at the lengths production companies will go to making sure the environment created will not only produce results, but sensationalize the outcome. Take other weight loss reality shows into consideration as well. The formula for success is the same, and in all of these shows, the weight loss was truly amazing. Even the production companies, that know absolutely nothing about real weight loss still know, Iron sharpens iron.
The Problem
When the cast was surrounded by people with like-minds, trainers who can help them reach their goals, taken away from temptation, and emerged in accountability 24/7, yes, the outcome was amazing… but so was the complete devastation of seeing it all unravel once they returned home. Except for just a few, the entire cast gained all of their weight back upon returning home.
So what happened? The one thing these “reality shows” do not teach is how to cultivate and control an environment that will perpetuate this new fit lifestyle. These people finally changed their lives forever – or so they thought. Some of them losing almost 200-300 pounds, only to return home and gain it all back again. Tragic! And it could all have been avoided.
If you suddenly quit drinking, would you lose any friends? If you wanted to save money and quit going shopping, would your friends finally quit calling? If you want to lose weight and stopped going out to eat, would your “bro’s” support you? The first problem is giving in… You might go to the bar the first time to hang out, and order water, but eventually your good intentions will fall prey to “just one”… shopping?… “oh it’s just an afternoon and, I haven’t seen my girls in so long”… OR.. “what could it hurt, I’ll go with the gang and just order a salad”.
The Answer
LISTEN TO ME… Surround yourself with like-minded people who understand your drive as much as your weakness, ones who will pull you along just from the momentum they have in their own lives. People who will help you stand and lovingly hold you accountable. People who understand the depth of your commitment means more to you than the instant satisfaction of the moment. It’s the only way.
Whatever it is you are striving for, surround yourself with people who know the depth of your desire and are living it. It will be easier to stay on course and you will be strengthened in the process. You will know you are successful when someone is looking up to you too, the same way you were once looking up to others.
If you Run from the fight, you might miss the Glory!
The temporary pleasure of sin will never out weigh the devastating long term consequences, as the temporary pain of training will never out weigh the amazing long term consequences!
Bonnie and I were both brought up in the south, and for many of us that means that we were in church everytime the doors were open. One of the phrases you hear a lot in the church is “we really hate SIN”. Don’t tune me out, I’m about to make a point. As much as church, Bon and I in our adult lives spent a lot of time in the gym as well. One of the phrases we hear all of time at the gym is “I love my workout”. So “we hate sin and love our workouts” hmmm
Hate Sin? Not at all.
We love sin, its exciting, feels good, it’s attractive, it taste good, it’s a total rush… No we don’t hate sin. What we hate is the consequences of our sin. Sin can lead to drug addiction. divorce, obesity, disease, or even death – not to mention total seperation from the Dude who created you. (another blog, another time). But to say we hate sin, well, that just isn’t true – but to truly hate the devastating affects of sin is such a huge reality it isn’t a lie to say “I hate sin”. Hold on, here it comes…
Love your workout? Not truly…
Right now I am doing 315 pound shruggs. I think I just popped every vertebrae in my back, just ripped a callous, my legs are trembling and I have sweat in my eye and a charlie horse in my calf. Love my workout? …not so much.
HOWEVER, I absolutely love the consequences that I experience from working out. Health, aesthetics, energy, increased self esteem, confidence, the ablility to defend myself and my family against danger, and vitality are all considered bliss – directly related to the suffering and drudgery of the afformentioned workout. Knowing the amazing results of hard training, I can honestly say, “I love my workouts”!
The same way a person who has been caught up in SIN becomes so hurt and disgusted with that lifestyle, another can honestly say they love working out becuase of the amazing results and positive influence, that it can acutally be said, “I love my workout”
In short...The temporary pleasure of sin will never out weigh the devastating long term consequences, as the temporary pain of training will never out weigh the amazing long term consequences!
How do we change our belief system to be able to honestly say… “I love training”?
1. Set goals and BELIEVE you can attain them.
2. Visualize the prize (end game) seeing the goal as if its complete.
3. Make a plan that is realistic and effective to meet your goal.
4. Grow a pair. Dont be afraid to “gut it out”. Know it will be worth it.
5. Start over a million times – but dont quit, not even once!
HOW TO “NOT” START A DIET
So, you wanna start a diet and get skinny. Well hooray for you, good luck with that… nooo, don’t get mad… Just say’n…
OK, I’m sorry. My sarcasm stems from years and years of trying to drive this “how to”, point home. After 3 health clubs, 2 weight loss reality tv shows, thousands of twitter and Facebook friends, and most importantly… my own life, this is what I’ve learned…
ITS HARD AS A “MOFO” TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!!!!!
How do we bear down, draw a line in the sand, and say NO MORE? Wellllll…
The truth is, almost all cold-turkey diets don’t last!
Here is what I mean…
This is what I call “the evolution of a diet”.
1. First, we try purge our house of everything tempting, unhealthy, or non-conducive to a new diet. (most of us now will polish off the rest of our ….fill in the blank… , beer, ice cream, Doritos.. instead of throwing it, or giving it, away)
2. Then we research and grocery shop for the “healthy alternatives”. Try to fill our houses with healthy foods and snacks. (shopping for any and everything that we can eat a dump truck load of and not get fat, instead of realizing, we must learn to eat a little less of everything)
3. Research diets. (Monday, we are going to get a shot of, only god knows what, and eat 500 calories)
4. Join a gym. (We might even hate working out, but all the magazines say we need to workout because lean muscle will burn calories while I sleep)
… Are you getting the point yet? This is a recipe for disaster. Yes, more than likely you will lose weight, maybe even hit your goals, BUT, you will have to change your belief system about food and activity if you ever plan to keep the weight off. 98% of all people, even if they hit their goals, will gain their weight back, and then some.
So what should we do:
Here are some very realistic ways to begin to develop a lifestyle change that will lead to a healthy and successful diet conducive to weight loss and fuelling our performance in or out of the gym.
Week one: Educate and become aware.
As you are eating this week, research your calories; become aware of everything you are putting in your mouth. Decide what really taste good, and decide what you might be able to do without. Also become aware of when you might be eating for taste or actual hunger. Sometimes we just have to suck-it-up-just-be-hungry !
Week two: Purge the naughty.
Only purge the things that you deem a waste. The foods and candies that you know will destroy every attempt at a healthy diet. Continue to research healthy alternatives or substitutions for some of your vices. Try not to binge other foods as a replacement.
Week three: Actual “diet” begins.
I would be surprised if you havn’t noticed a slight change in your waist and a bump in your mood, but even if you havn’t… “STAY THE COURSE” It’s about to get fun… Week three you must begin to look at the amount of food that you are consuming and compare it to what you are burning. This means math… I know I hate math too. The Harris-Benedict Formula will give you an estimate of your Basal Metabolic rate (calories burned at rest).
| BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.76 x age in years ) |
| BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years ) |
Multiply this times our activity level and we can get a close estimate of calories burned per day.
| Little to no exercise | Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.2 |
| Light exercise (1–3 days per week) | Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.375 |
| Moderate exercise (3–5 days per week) | Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.55 |
| Heavy exercise (6–7 days per week) | Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.725 |
| Very heavy exercise (twice per day, extra heavy workouts) | Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.9 |
As long as you eat fewer calories than that number, you will lose weight. Unless you weigh and measure your food (not forever… just until you get a grip on portions and calories) you will never know how many calories you are taking in. After you determine calories out and calories in, you can determine if and how fast you will lose some excess body weight. This is the week you must begin to decrease your portions. Change the way you think! That slight hungry feeling is your body wanting to be skinny, it is the feeling of your beautiful body burning gobs of fat. Please embrace that small hunger feeling, do not chase it away with a burrito.
Week four: proteins, fats, carbs…
now the most delicate part of this “blog Vomit”. How do I make sure I’m losing fat and not muscle? You have to determine where the calories you are eating are coming from. There are a lot of great sites online for this, but you must still know your portions to get correct data. My suggestion for anyone starting a diet and isn’t sure… if you are trying to decide between High protein, or low carb’s, or no fats, let’s just start with equal amounts (in calories) for all of these. In other words, 33% of your calories coming from every substrate except, of course, alcohol… so on a 1200 calorie diet, you could eat 400 calories of protein, 400 calories of carbs, and yes… 400 calories of fats. Don’t make this crazy hard, or what I call majoring-in-the-minors . Its’s just one meal at a time…
Beyond Raw Journal: The 4-Week Mark
I love this challenge before me… To get shredded abs and not lose any lean mass, while becoming faster, stronger, and harder. It reminds me of the intricacies of training and diet.
So often we train and eat off of feelings and moods, only noticing huge unmeasurable changes. Only when those changes push the confines of our “gross” (meaning large and ambiguous) parameters do we stop and take notice.
For instance, instead of doing a body composition to measure my body’s relationship of size, weight, and fat ratio to muscle, I wake up one day and can’t button my jeans, my shirts are tighter (and not in the biceps), or I am huffing and puffing trying to get through a normal cardio workout. So what gives?
Many of us don’t notice phenomenal changes in our bodies, whether good or bad, until they push past whatever limits we measure “our status quo”, by..ie. tight jeans. By the time your clothes become noticeably uncomfortable, you could have gained 15-20 pounds. Sometimes it’s seeing yourself in a picture that a friend just posted on Facebook and itlooks like you are hiding nuts in your mouth for winter. Depositing a little fat here, and a little fat there, begins to creep up on you until the “DAY OF RECKONING”. The day you take a good and honest look at yourself and say “WTflip”
That day for me ,was 4 weeks ago now. As I prepair for FitStudio’s Mexico Body Camp (which by the way you TOTally need to ENTER to WIN), I decided “enough!“. I researched some ideas for diet and training and supplementation and decided to dRAW a line in the sand. I started by going back to a diet that works, Mostly meats (fish, turkey, and chicken) and vegetables with “measured” occasional carbohydrates in the morning for fuel. I also wanted to take my training up a notch, which in turn, would have to be supported by quality supplementation.
For training, I am leaning on slightly more intense strength training, and four days a week of intense BCx (strenuous conditioning program). But what about supplementation? I am getting my fuel, calories, and training squared away, so the biggest piece of the puzzle is rest and RE-building. What we wreck during our training, must be RE-paired. Understand the way we get stronger, fitter, and faster is by punishing and overwhelming our bodies physically, to the point that “forced adaptation” must occur – if your body wants to survive the carnage you have planned in tomorrows workout. If you don’t push your body past the limits you can already accommodate, there is no primal need for any physiological changes to occur, like fat loss and muscle gain. But after a brutal workout, it is imperative that you RE-feed and rest your body on a physiological level. Taking supplements that will drive your cells to RE-pair, RE-store, and adapt. I believe I can say after 4 weeks, and some trial and error, I am really loving the brand new Beyond Raw products coming soon to GNC.
At first I was hoping to see my weight drop drastically. I did not. I was wanting to see my jeans fall off of me after at least a week of starting my diet. They did not. What is happening is even more interesting. My weight has only dropped 5 pounds. I peaked at 203 and I am down to 197.7. My body fat is at 10% which is only down 1.5%, however, this is the leanest I have ever been this close to 200 pounds. I have gained 3 pounds of muscle and lost 3 pounds of fat. I have 6 more weeks to tweak the diet and come down 10 more pounds of fat, and to start to decrease my waist size again. The biggest change I have noticed is my performance in the gym. I turn 42 this year and I am lifting for more reps and heavier weights than I did in my 30′s. During my bouts at BcX, I am keeping up with guys that I out weigh by 30 pounds.
It feels like I have the strength of a 250 pound gorilla and the agility of a 25-year-old athlete. I have seen this improvement over just 4 weeks. 
The next 6 weeks, as I restrict more calories, I (and you too, if I get the cahonies to post a pic) will see me maintain these adapted gains and decrease my bodyweight to show a body fat % of about 6. The goal is to be able to perform and lift with the same intensity at 6% body fat, as I am now at 10%, with no change in strength or energy. So-far the RAW line has not let me down… 6 weeks to go!!!!
MEXICO OR BUST!
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FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
“TRUTH” – A Closer Look at Metabolism
When it comes to metabolism, the health and fitness community has redefined this term from its original definition. This can be both bad and good. Good as long as we all have a good understanding of how the word is being used in regards to transforming our bodies, bad when we use half of a clinical definition and half of the “en vogue slang” definition.. as this leads to using excuses in regards to weight loss.
Clinically, metabolism is defined as the processes in any organism for cell growth, reproduction, response to external stimuli(environment), survival strategy, sustenance, and cellular maintenance. It includes building up of the cell or organism (anabolism), and the breakdown of substances primarily for energy expenditure (catabolism).
By far, the number one excuse I hear when training a client for weight loss is… (drum roll… wait on it… waaaiiiit) yep’ you guessed it… “I just have a slow metabolism)
Let’s Dig In
What they are really saying is “Steve, I’m eating more calories than
I burn”. The words that actually come out of their mouths are, ”I barely eat anything at all, and I still can’t lose weight”… Of course I reply in compassion and love and say “so, if I drop you off on a deserted island with no food, and come back in two weeks, you will be the same weight or even a little heavier?” At this point, If they don’t walk out of my office shooting me a bird then I know I might be making headway.
Allow me to give you a real world look at metabolism. If two people are walking on a treadmill at the same speed and incline, and they weigh exactly the same, the amount of energy required to move their masses is significantly similar regardless of a fast or slow metabolism. The deviation of calories burned would be negligible. You might ask, what about heart rate? I’ve heard many clients say, “the girl next to me burned a thousand calories in spin class and I only burned 250. Is it because I have a slower metabolism?” Of course not. So what is going on?
Heart Rate Monitor vs Calories Burned
Heart rate monitors are being used as calorie counters because heart rate is a decent measure of effort. However, it is only accurate in regards to the law of averages. Heart rate monitors use certain statistical data based on age, weight, sex, height, and heart rate, to give the user an average number of calories expended as compared to other people who are statistically similar. This is not accurate for people with higher than average (tachycardic) or slower than average (bardycardic) heart rates.
For example, if I sit on the couch with my twin brother (hypothetical brother) and we are both the same weight, as we sit, our average caloric expenditure is going to be relatively the same, regardless if I just drank coffee and my heart is beating faster than his. A faster heart rate doesn’t magically make an individual burn more calories. Yes, on a miniscule non-significant scale their will be slight deviations in our basal metabolic rate, but negligible when compared to actual movement, and calories burned. Movement will require the expense of a certain amount of energy, regardless of the “metabolism” of that mass. It takes energy to move, period.
Thyroid Myths
What if I do have a thyroid problem? If that is the case, the amount of calories it takes to move a 200 pound mass still doesn’t change. You may be prone to move your mass slower, or require more rest, but the mass times the distance, still dictates (more or less) the amount of energy required to move. Science doesn’t discriminate. Calculating the metabolic differences in individuals with slower metabolisms is miniscule when looking at the bigger picture.
When a client tells me they have a slow metabolism, knowing it or not, they are usually referring to their basal metabolism. Basal metabolism can clinically be defined as the amount of energy needed to maintain essential body functions, such as respiration, circulation, temperature, peristalsis, and muscle tone., usually while at rest. The “en vogue definition” and the way I see this term abused, has come to mean something entirely different. What is meant by “metabolism” is simply this “metabolism is the measurement of how prone we are to do work”.
Indeed, certain processes in humans exist at different rates. One person’s hair and nails may grow faster than another. Thus, increasing that individual’s metabolism – but this would lead to insignificant variation in caloric expenditure throughout the day. Persons with lower 
metabolisms will burn just as many calories when there bodies are in motion as another. The problem being, people with slower metabolisms are less prone to desire to move, workout, or take part in physical activities. They are more prone to a sedentary lifestyle that leads to even more weight gain.
Even at rest, if someone with a slower basal metabolic rate does not exceed their caloric expenditure, weight gain will not occur. If they eat below their caloric expenditure they will lose weight. It’s just science. So, if you have not lost weight in the last week, (regardless of your math and how great you think you eat) your average consumption has equaled, or exceeded, your expenditure.
Stimulate Your Metabolism
We can alter your metabolism two primary ways. Chemically, with food and drugs, or mechanically, with movement or exercise. Both will produce the breakdown of substrates and cells for energy (catabolism). For instance, after sleeping all night, when you wake, your body is in a fasting state and your metabolism is at an all time low. We need to either break the fast (breakfast) or start moving (morning jog). Either one of these choices are very effective in stimulating your metabolism (being prone to to want to move). If our goal is weight loss, feeding ourselves to increase our metabolism may be counter-productive.
If you are one that is struggling with your metabolism, please just start moving. The best way to stimulate your metabolism is to just get going. Movement is addictive and coupled with eating less, movement is the most effective way to lose weight and change your life style forever. Let’s get going!!!!
Majoring in the Minors
Yesterday I saw this young guy with a completely trashed car that barely ran, and he put at least $2000 dollars worth of “spinner” rims on it? I even saw someone wearing target jeans, and when I looked down they had on $200 dollar shoes?… Okay, bad example, cause I do that… but you get what I mean.. right?
What does this have to do with fitness? (Insert soap box) I can’t tell you the countless times I’ve been at the gym and have seen the meticulous biomechanical strategies that some people come up with to make their lifting routine more effective, or the countless times I’ve listened to people who are extremely overweight, discuss food on a totally microbiological level. Instead of looking at calories, they are “buggn” about if it is free range or not. I am not arguing that biomechanics and microbiology doesn’t have a place in training and nutrition, but by god-man, look at the bigger picture.
I call this “majoring in the minors”. As a trainer, blogger, or just exercise enthusiast, it is so vital that we realize the importance of fundamentals. My back ground is very clinical, but I have never deviated from the application of fundamentals. I am not saying that details are not important, however, $2000 dollars worth of wheels and tires on a $300 dollar car is a waisted investment.
Biomechanics: When you evaluate your body and decide you want to tone and tighten specific areas, start with the basics. There is no need to do complicated movements when your time and energy will be better suited using fundamentals. i.e. you want to tone your glutes. Let’s begin with squats,lunges, and maybe straight leg dead lifts. Why begin with 1 legged Romanian dead lifts or cook hip lifts, when simple basics will reach deep fibers at rich angles and are superior to intricate complicated movements. Do these other exercises have their place?… Of course, but after exhausting the basics!
Take home: When you sit on a machine for the first time, do it as designed. Do not begin to invent your own way or make up a complicated movement to target some erroneous area of musculature.
Nutrition: Many people, in there quest to find the “right diet”, dissect micro-nutrition to a fault. At the end of the day (listen Paleo Freaks) no matter how clean you eat, if your caloric intake exceeds your out put, you are going to store energy. Your body prefers to store energy as fat because, for the same amount in grams stored, your body can yield twice as much energy from fat as glycogen or lean muscle. This my friends is MACRO-nutrition. It is the science of metabolism of four general substrates: Carbohydrates, Proteins, Fats, and Alcohols. If you are eating more calories than you burn, regardless of your “blood type’, “zone”, “points” or any other thing else you measure… LISTEN… YOU WILL GAIN WEIGHT!
Take home: Before you get involved in vitamins and minerals, the ph of your blood, even the glycemic index of foods, first figure out how many calories you burn per day, and eat less than that. It’s just science. Anyone who challenges this statement (Dousch-tard) would be saying, “if you are dropped off on a deserted island for two weeks, with nothing but water, and luckily found, you would have not lost any weight”.
Fitness is simple guys… Our industry makes it complicated. Quit looking for the magic bullet, trying to find the “little pill”, or doing the perfect gluteal exercise for 30 seconds every morning. You give me fundamentals, hard work, and discipline… And I’ll give you your magic bullet!
“The magic bullet IS fundamentals, hard work, and discipline.”
THE SKINNY: Exercise Makes You Fat & Hungry
Before we start, lets just agree to disagree… Dont you dare hit dislike at the bottom of this blog just because I’m not saying what you want to hear. This is what you need to hear.
Over and over I see clients that are in pretty good shape, just over weight, and I’ve seen clients that look fantastic but they practically vomit walking a mile… What gives?
By far, the most asked question I get is either 1.) How many calories should I eat to get in shape? orrr 2.) How much cardio should I do to lose weight? Commercial media has sold us a bunch of schmedge. Dieting will not get you “in shape” and cardio inherently is not the best tool to lose weight. Chill out and keep reading…
What I mean is, “dieting” will not affect important aspects of your physiology, ie: Dieting will not increase VO2 max, peak oxygen uptake or aerobic capacity, nor will diet increase stroke volume, the volume of blood pumped from the left ventricle of the heart with each beat, nor will diet increase your strength or flexibility. Savvy? Likewise, any exercise, including cardio, though it expends calories, is not the means to an end for weight loss. Exercise will increase caloric output which in turn directly increases our appetites to replenish used energy exponentially, so that your body is prepared for more caloric expenditure next time you need it.
Downfalls of diet and exercise:
As soon as we start to decrease our caloric intake, or “diet”, our metabolism will begin to decrease to preserve our energy stores, which in turn makes us less prone to feel energetic. The other bad news; as soon as you begin to exercise, or increase caloric expenditure, your appetite will go through the roof – and you will want to eat everything in sight (again this is in response to your body preserving energy stores). In other words, as soon as you start a diet and exercise program, you will be hungrier and lazier than ever. It’s just primal. However, there are many things we can do to combat this evil problem.
Life vs Looks
Your body, biologically, is more interested in survival than aesthetic appearance. Unfortunately in the commodity of physiology, fat is more valuable than muscle, and muscle requires a hefty luxury tax. Lean muscle is rather useless for your body in the realm of survival… but it looks so so good. So now what?
If you want to lose weight, you are going to have to eat less calories than you expend. If you want to get in shape, physically and physiologically, you are going to have to exercise. But Steeeeeve, you just said that will make me lazy and hungry. 
Yessss Jedi, but the force is strong in you. Here is the good news…
Trick Your System
How can I diet without slowing my metabolism down or losing energy? We must retrain our bodies so that energy is constantly being deposited. If your body will always have dietary energy, small meals being deposited, then your body will have less need to store energy for long periods. This takes work to “trick” your body because energy storage is primal, and it feels so good to indulge. Try eating 5-6 small meals a day. Stay away from foods that will spike your blood sugar and require your pancreas to secrete large amounts of insulin, as this gives your body momentum to store energy for longer periods of time… (as fat). Stay away from foods that are high in carbohydrates, like breads, starches and sugars.
How can I benefit from exercise and not end up eating a horse?
If you pair exercise with decreasing your caloric intake you will be amazed at the response you will have. Diet and exercise together will give you exponential results, and you will find yourself skinnier, toned, and in great physiological shape. But how? “Steve you just said I’d eat more if I exercise”.
The skinny.
In the same fashion you eat when you diet, 5-6 small meals per day, and keeping your food choices responsible, with very little breads, starches and sugars, your body will feel more satisfied more often. Your blood sugar will start to become very stable and less distressed triggering the hypothalamus to request food, or your pancreas to secrete insulin. Eating more often is easier on your digestive system, increases circulation to the brain, and preserves muscles mass just to name a few phenomenal things you can start to expect. So please please, diet to lose weight, exercise to get into shape, but put these two disciplines together and be amazed at how you can look and feel.
