Monday, July 31, 2017

My Favorite Abs Exercises 72/84

People get pretty obsessed with training there's abs, even to a point where they have an entire day at the gym set aside to it (seriously?). Hundreds of reps of crunches, side bends, and leg lifts all for that flat stomach or ever-desired 6-pack. So how much that effort is really wasted and how is actually taking you closer to your goals?

 I've said this 1,000 times and I'll keep saying it; the only way to lose fat is to eat the correct amount of food. No amount of core exercises will ever make a difference in the appearance of your abs if you're still eating way to much to reduce that layer of flub over top of them. So what's the point? Why do so many people spend so much time on it? Honestly, it mostly seems like they're just misinformed, or know better but they're just hoping that somehow all of the science is wrong. Regardless, there's are a few good purposes or training your abs and core and a few exercises that are better than others.

Purpose 1 - Increasing core strength

This is the main purpose for what use core work for with myself and my clients. Core strength is essential for every day life as well as hitting big numbers in the gym. You'll never pull a big deadlift or hit a big squat with a weak core, so we spend time on it. It also keeps your body healthy makes sure your posture is good.

Purpose 2 - Increasing muscle size

Ok I lied (sort of). This is where core training can actually make your sixpack muscles pop a little more. Doing this won't help you lose belly fat but it will make your muscles more visible by making the muscle bigger. Obviously,  for the full effect you need to get you body fat low as well.

I always recommend people use some of each of these goals in mind when training abs so here are some of my favorite exercises for each one

Core strength
- Planks. Some people may disagree but I like planks for beginners. They teach you about maintaining a neutral spine and can build some initial strength and endurance. Once you can do a plank for 2 minutes you're probably not getting much benefit from them anymore.
- Farmers Carry or any loaded carry. Maybe one of my favorite exercises period. They build strength everywhere as well as jack up your heart rate. Plus they translate extremely well to daily life i.e. one trip grocery bags.
-  Pallof Press. A slightly more unique exercise that catches people off guard. This exercise builds oblique strength and help with anti-rotation
- Supermax Holds. More specific to powerlifters and weightlifters. This entails loading more than 100% of you 1 rep max on a bar and holding  it for a few seconds. This gets your core (and your whole body) used to feeling heavier weight.

Core Muscle Size
- Leg lifts and variations. These build size in your abs and obliques while keeping more of a neutral spine than sit-ups or crunches,  making them potentially safer versions. Start with leg lifts on your back and progress to straight leg hanging raises.
- Cable rotations. Parallel, low-to-high, high-to-low, I like them all. I use rotations on the cable machine for help build obliques in a way that is actually important in sport and daily life.
-  Full sit-ups. Way better than crunches in my opinion. Although some spinal flexion is involved, the increased range of motion and hip flexion help make it better in my opinion. If you're going to do a movement, do it full ROM
- Weighted Cable Sit-ups. The most "bro" exercise on the list but if can pack on some meat. I prefer the kneeling version when done correctly and you can really load up some weight on this one.

As you can probably tell, I'm not a huge fan of crazy exercises and variations. I like to stick with and around the basics as often as possible, they're the basics for a reason. Try adding these into your routine if you're not already or contact me and I'll do all the thinking for you. Abs don't forget, if you really want that perfect stomach, you need to focus on food

Sunday, July 30, 2017

How to be Successful at Anything 71/84

What is your goal right now? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to get jacked? Do you have a goal that's not even fitness related? Whatever it is, there are certain things you can do to damn near guarantee that you hit it. No, that doesn't mean it will be easy, but it will make it easier. Try these things out and see how much progress you start making.

Ok so I shouldn't even have to say this because it should be super obvious but YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DO IT! If you want to accomplish anything you have to believe in yourself enough to make it happen. I know that sounds super cheesy but it's true. Plenty of people will tell you what they want to do but don't actually think they can do it. When you have that negative mindset then guess what happens; you actually become your own biggest obstacle in hitting your goal. Self-sabotage kills more dreams than any other single thing, except maybe not even starting. So many people are their own worst enemy. I'm not sure why this is but I'm sure someone does. I would guess that it has something to do with assuming your going to fail and wanting to do it on your own terms. Regardless of why it happens it still does all of the time. If you can actually convince yourself that you can hit you goal, it makes it 1000x easier for you to do it. So how do you do this? It's as simple as telling yourself you can. The great thing about this is that you don't even need to believe it, not at first at least. But the crazy thing is that once you say it often enough your subconscious starts to change. All of these negative things you've been telling yourself for years start to go away and they start to get replaced by positive thoughts instead. When this happens you'll start to realize that you DO believe you can hit your goals and your whole outlook changes. At this point, your head is in the right spot to conquer anything.

Another way to guarantee success is to set massive goals. This is epitomized in the book "The 10x Rule" by Grant Cardone, which I would recommend to anyone. Basically, the objective is to set massive, maybe even unrealistic goals, then take the action necessary to hit that goal. Even if you fall short, you probably still did a hell of a lot more than you thought you could. Here's an example.

- Right now it's almost August 1st so let's say my goal is to make $100,000 by the end of the year. And let's say last year in the same timeframe I made $15,000 (all of these numbers are hypothetical). That means that I would have to make $20,000 per month each month to hit this goal. For most people in most jobs around the world that is rather unrealistic and that's ok. But now I work backward and see what kind of action I would need to take to hit that goal. I make 10 times as many calls and book way more appointments than normal. I start to use alternative means to find clients and work extra hours meeting people. At the end of the year I only made $70,000, well under my goal of $100,000, but guess what, that's still $55,000 more than I made in the same time the year before! I didn't hit my goal but that's still pretty amazing (again, all hypothetical).
In this situation, by setting myself such a huge goal I more than tripled the amount from the year before and, although I fell short of the goal, I still made massive improvements. How can you use this mindset with your goals?

The last thing I wanted to go over to guarantee success is to take massive action. This came up briefly in my hypothetical example so let's do more detail. If you want to be successful you have to work 10x harder than you think you do, period. You need to go out and take huge  action that can set a fire under your butt and start building you some momentum. Massive action is the only want to make any real difference without getting stuck in average and mediocre. Want to lose weight? Massive action. Want to get big? Massive action. Don't just just try to do the minimum, no one ever guaranteed success by doing the minimum. And the worst thing you can do the the expected amount of action. Again you don't want to be average so why do an average amount of work? You need to do the maximum and then do even more. Do tons of research, change you unhealthy lifestyle, higher a personal trainer (!), and be ready to take action!

If you start to do these things you'll be surprised at the differences you can make. Start to think about these points and figure out how you can use them to help you guarantee success in whatever goal you want.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Flexibility vs Mobility 70/84

Mobility is a topic that has come into the spotlight a ton in the last 5-6 years or so. I believe CrossFit has played a huge roll in that with the popularity of guys like Kelly Starrett and his Supple Leopard book. For hundreds of years before that, people had been talking about things like yoga and the benefits they can have on flexibility. This is obviously still hugely popular today and you can't walk into a gym without seeing someone on a mat stretching out before a workout (which is a terrible idea, don't do that). Things brings up the question in people's mind about what the difference between flexibility and mobility is. Are they same? Are they different? What is the difference if they are?

If you would have asked me 5 years ago I would have told you that flexibility refers to a muscle and mobility refers to a joint. You've never heard someone say "that's one mobile hamstring you've got there" but they would say "your ankles are very mobile". While I think this is still true I've heard another definition as well. Julien Pineau is the founder of Strongfit and one of the smartest people I've ever come across in this field. He defines mobility as "flexibility under tension" which I like more the more think about it. I can't tell you how often I take someone through an assessment who is super flexible but still can squat below parallel. They may do yoga all the time or stretch every day but that doesn't mean they can get into the right positions and use all of that flexibility when muscular tension is added.

This is not to say that flexibility is not important, you still need to be able to take a joint through a full range of motion (ROM) and proper stretching can help with this. But, what I like to do more often is to build people's flexibility while doing the exercises they need to be better at. RDLs (Romanian Deadlifts) are a great example of this. RDLs are what's called a "stretch position exercise" which is exactly what I sounds like and it takes the hamstring through a great stretch when you do it. This means it's a great tool for teaching flexibility under tension (mobility) in the hamstrings. Other examples of exercises like this are chest flyes, Incline curls, Jefferson Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, and overhead Tricep extensions. Each on of these exercises takes the muscle through its largest range of motion and give you a chance to work on mobility.

So basically, instead of spending time in a forward bend to stretch the hamstring, we practice a perfect RDL to increase mobility. Or instead of a side split we do a Jefferson Squat to increase hip mobility. This allows us to increase the length a muscle is allowed to go while also getting us into better positions that will translate to exercise. If you want more examples of those or videos on how to do them, Julien has a great set of videos he calls "openers" that help you work on flexibility under tension in different muscle groups.

This also brings up a good point about how much range of motion you need to use in exercises. Often times exercise have a prescribed ROM  that you're expected to hit like squatting below parallel or touching your chest on a bench. But most exercises really don't have one, so what do you do? I tell people to take a exercise through the largest ROM they can while still keeping tension in the muscle. So say I'm doing a dumbbell bench press, sure I can bring weight down and touch my shoulder each time but what if I lose tension in my pec 4 inches before that? I say it's better to stop when you lose tension on that prime mover instead of going through a full ROM just to do it. You end up dumping tension into connective tissue, which can put you at risk, and you're probably not even getting extra benefit from it. Instead, work through the range you can under tension and try to increase that range as much as you can. If you can't keep pec tension on through the full ROM now, eventually you'll be able to and you'll get the full benefit from the lift. Obviously then, when you go do this, you know that you mobility in that area has increased.

Give this a try next time your at the gym and see what kind of ROM  you can get you body through while still maintaining that tension!

Friday, July 28, 2017

Drink Coffee, Live Longer 69/84

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet; coffee is amazingly healthy for you. Not only is the list of benefits long, but the benefits listed are really important ones that have a massive effect on your life. I'm going to keep this one in list form because everyone loves lists, but you can find more detail on each one of these points and each is actually backed by scientific research. Here's a list of some health benefits of drinking coffee

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet; coffee is amazingly healthy for you. Not only is the list of benefits long, but the benefits listed are really important ones that have a massive effect on your life. I'm going to keep this one in list form because everyone loves lists, but you can find more detail on each one of these points and each is actually backed by scientific research. Here's a list of some health benefits of drinking coffee


  • Improved Energy Level (duh)
  • Increase Motivation 
  • Minor Burn Fat 
  • Increased Performance 
  • Lower Risk of Diabetes
  • Protection from Alzheimer's and Dementia
  • Lower the Risk of Parkinson's 
  • Reduced Liver Disease 
  • Decreased Depression
  • Decreased Risk of Liver Cancer
  • Decreased Risk of Colon Cancer
  • Decreased Risk of Stroke
  • Decreased Mortality 
  • Super High in Antioxidants    


Pretty important list right? Seems like something I'd want to take advantage of cause living longer is sweet. As far as life expectancy, studies have shown around 18-26% long life span in coffee drinkers. That's rather significant. Most of the recommendations I've seen are somewhere around 4-6 cups of coffee per day. Keep in mind this is fluid cups, not 4-6 coffee mugs worth. The average mug is about 2 cups so you're looking at 2-3 mugs per day for these benefits. Also, this isn't about coffee loaded up with cream and sugar. Black is where it's at and you should give it a try. If you don't like black coffee then you don't actually like coffee. You can try it iced if you don't like it hot and often times cold brew tastes a bit sweeter.  One final point, I try to avoid caffeine after 3pm as often as possible even if you're someone who doesn't react a ton to caffeine you should consider this. Even if you fall asleep easily, it has been shown that the QUALITY of sleep can go down quite a bit. And that's arguably more important than quantity.

So go load up that coffee maker and get ready to smash some brew in the morning. I'm trying to take full advantage of that extra 26% of life.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Kicking Ass in the Real World: Why Barbells are Not That Functional 68/84

I'm going to be honest, CrossFit got this one wrong. Generally considered the king of functional training, CrossFit relies way too much on a training tool that barely relates daily life in the least. Very rarely are you going to find an object in nature that has been perfectly proportioned for you to lift it. No, usually it's going to be some weird, unbalanced shape that's going to need to crazy maneuver to pick up. For example, my in-laws live on a small pig farm and one day we were having trouble getting a young pig from the barn to and outdoor pen. I decided the easiest thing to do was for me to lift it into a wheelbarrow and wheel it over. They informed me that the pig weighed about 175 pounds, not much considering I've deadlifted well over 500 before. But you know what? That was damn near one of the heaviest things I've ever needed to lift. The pig was moving, the balance point was weird, I could not lift with a perfectly flat back, and I need to do some crazy one-arm-over-one-arm-under thing to lift it. Plus, something like that is way further from your body and center of gravity than a barbell is, making it feel much heavier. If you have ever done Strongman stone loading then you know exactly what I mean. The bottom line is that you need to focus on way more than barbell training if you really want to be functional.

While CrossFit and other functional training methods spend s lot of time with barbells, they obviously use other tools as well. Kettlebells, medicine balls, body weight, and sometimes Dumbbells (much more now than they used to) are all seen on a daily basis. And while these things are all great, they still may not accomplish the goal of helping with every day living. There are some other great tools that I love and I wish were used more often then you see.

The biggest one of these is sandbags, and I don't mean the ones with convenient handles. These can be a great tool for functional training. They're big, heavy, awkward, and their weight shifts as you lift. This makes them great for learning to move real world object. Lift them, squat then, press them, carry them, just move them in some way. Another great option is atlas stone or any odd shaped stones. Just find a big rock, pick it up, and carry it. This will do wonders for your leg, core, back, and arm strength as well. To be honest, anything you can pick up and carry can be functional to an extent. Yes, this includes barbells (think farmers carry) and pretty much anything else. When we're looking at exercises that are "functional" in terms of relating to every day lifeit's hard to beat pickup something up and carrying it.

The other problem with barbells is the fact that 90+% of exercises are done bilaterally, meaning with both arms or legs at the same time. While this allows you to move the most weight, it limits you in your options. If you want to be truly functional then single arm and single leg exercises are a must for your program. This can show you imbalances, potentials for injury, as well as helping a ton with balance and stability. If this sounds like most of your training, then try adding in some unilateral work and you might be surprised how much stronger one arm or leg is than the other.

The point is to make sure that your training stays carried and doesn't lock you into only a few pieces of equipment. The more variety you're going to do, the better and healthier you're going to be.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Go Join A Bar League Team 67/84

I've talking in the past about how important daily activity is and how it's really the most important exercise for losing fat. This can be anything from walking your dog to going for a bike ride. One other great way to get some weekly exercise is to go join a bar league or rec league sports team. It doesn't really matter what you want to do; volleyball, softball, basketball, soccer, just get out and play. One of the best parts about working out all the time is when you can actually use the fitness you build in the gym in the real world. Not only does it make all that gym time worth it, but if your workout program is any good then you will have a solid advantage over a ton of people you're playing against.

Outside of the fact that playing sports is just plain fun and it is obviously good exercise, it can also be a great stress reliever and help you get a mental break from the day to day norms. Just that hour or so a week can do wonders for clearing your head and preventing you from getting burnt out. Add that to the social aspect of meeting new people and making connections and you have some great benefits that aren't physical.

Another one of the great benefits is that being on a team gives you something to train for. Want to lose 10 pounds? Now you have that extra bit of motivation because you know you'll play better. When I got back into playing volleyball after a few years it was perfect timing for me. Since stopping CrossFit I wasn't really sure what goals I wanted to reach for, but playing again gave me something to work on and I was having fun in the gym again. I could focus on getting my vertical back up and healing up my knees to keep playing. It also forced me to drop some weight so I could be more athletic.

Here's a quick reference list of all of the benefits you can get from playing a sport

  • Extra exercise
  • Fat loss
  • Increased cardiovascular strength
  • Injury prevention
  • Increased training motivation
  • Decreased mental stress
  • Meeting new people
  • Winning free beer
  • Showing off how awesome you are
Just about everyone played a sport a some time in their life, and if they didn't they probably have one that they love. You might as well get out and try it so you can reap the benefits as well. If you want a program to help you dominate the rec sports world then let me know. Programming for athletes is really a specialty of mine and I would love to get you some help. Shoot me a message or email and we'll get the ball rolling!


Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Tracking Food Without Tracking Macros 66/84


So bottom line of food tracking, tracking macros works. It just does, assuming you're doing it right and willing to weigh and measure all of your food for the rest of your life. If you want to lose weight tracking macros will help, if you want to gain weight tracking macros will help. I still start all of my new clients out by giving them a macro based plan because if they follow it they will make progress. The issue comes in when you have a client who just hates doing it. Sure, you could tell them to suck it up and just do it, but I think that makes you bad at your job. As a personal trainer, your job is to find a good nutrition and workout plan that your clients enjoy and will STICK TO. If they don't like it they won't do, that's the truth. It doesn't matter how amazing and perfect that plan you wrote is, if they don't like it it's not happening. If this is the case, I always have a backup plan.

So, you come across someone who hates logging all of their food into a phone app, what do they do? Are they doomed to be fat and unhealthy forever? Of course not, we just need to find a different way to track. Probably the simplest way is just to write your food in a notebook, not amounts or calories, just what you ate and when. This alone can be pretty eye opening for what people are actually eating. Another good way that I love is the "measuring" techniques taught by Precision Nutrition. These techniques involve using your hand as your only measuring tool for you food each meal. I would recommend Googling the pictures to get a visual but I'll obviously explain here (I don't want to post them because they're not mine).

Protein - Palm sized
Veggies - Fist sized
Carbs - Cupped hand
Fat - Thumb length

As a starting point, men should aim for 2 of each of those per meal and women should aim for 1 of each. Use this as a baseline then you can adjust as needed throughout a Bulk or a Cut. Just as with macros, I would suggest you start by increasing or decreasing fat as you go. All of the other procedures still apply such as make protein and veggies a priority, get your intraworkout shake and spread your food out evenly.

The whole point of this post is that there is more than one way to do just about everything in this field. The other point is that we need to be able to learn good habits so that we don't HAVE to relay on things like My Fitness Pal and Fit Bit to tell us what we're doing is right, we just know it. You need to be able to develop the skills needed to be healthy without the over complicated technology. Personally, I've dropped about 20 pounds in the past few months without tracking a single day in my phone. Was my Cut optimal? I don't know, but I've retrained plenty of lean body mass and my body fat is way down, so I'd call it a success.



Monday, July 24, 2017

The Health Benefits of Vitamin D 65/84


We hear often about the potential benefits of different vitamins and minerals. The vitamin industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that moves an incredible amount of product each year. In spite of this, to be honest, most of the products they're moving are absolute crap. Yes, there are definitely good multi-vitamins out there but they are hard to come by. You need to find a GMP certified company and do diligent research to find a good one. With that being said, Vitamin D is one supplement that almost everyone can agree is very beneficial. Actually, Vitamin D isn't even a vitamin, it's a pro-hormone because it can be synthesized in the body from sunlight on the skin. Actual vitamins can't be produced in the body and need to be taken in from food. Although sunlight can be a great source of Vitamin D, there are benefits to supplementing as well, which most people can benefit from. Here is a quick list of some of the benefits
  • Live longer
  • Lower risk of Multiple Sclerosis  
  • Lower risk of fractures 
  • Lower risk of muscle issues 
  • Good for immune system
  • Regulate insulin level
  • Aid diabetes management
  • Support lung function and cardiovascular health
  • Improved strength and power output
These are all hugely amazing benefits that I think everyone can agree would be good for you. One of the best things, like I said, is that Vitamin D is one of the more agreed upon vitamins out there. The other thing people agree on is that there is a huge Vitamin D deficiency in the world. In the Northern Hemisphere, about 50% of the population is deficient, even people who think they get enough sunshine. So how do you know if you're Vitamin D deficient? Honestly, it can be really hard to tell. The easiest way is to get a blood test, which is something I recommend everyone do. Other than that, keep a lookout for decreases in athletic performance or energy. If you realize that your golf game kinda sucks a little worse now, you might be deficient. 

So you find out you are indeed deficient, what do you do? Obviously, try to get out in the sun, you only need about 10 minutes of sun (with no sunscreen) each day to help. You should also start supplementing as well. If you're vitamin level D is low, take 50,000 units once a week for 3 months to get your levels back up. After that, supplement with 2-4,000 units a day to keep levels high enough. Seems like kind of a lot but it's really not. And even so, there are no real reports of  Vitamin D toxicity. This means you can't really take too much unless you get to an extreme.

Personally, I take about 10,000 units a day right now which is just two tiny pills. I get mine from Xperience Fitness where we sell Supplement RX. 200 pills only cost $7.99 so there's definitely no excuse not to start.


Sunday, July 23, 2017

How Everyday Products are Making You Sick and Fat 64/84

Today I've got a really good one for you guys. This information is all coming from a podcast that I listened to a couple months ago and I've finally had the time to take legit notes and write it up for you. This was from an episode of Renegade Radio with Jason Ferruggia and his guest was a man named Dr. Anthony G. Jay. Dr. Anthony G. Jay is a PhD Scientist who spends his time studying fats, hormones, and cholesterol. In this episode, he goes into detail about artificial estrogen and how it's making the world fat, sick, and infertile. He lists off the top 10 artificial estrogens to avoid and where to find them. He also recently wrote a book called "Estrogeneration" which is just ordered on Amazon. If, after reading this, you want to order it as well you can do so HERE

So to start off we need to talk about what estrogen actually is. Estrogen is the female sex hormone, it is responsible for the development of female sex hormones and reproduction. Obviously, estrogen is super important and is necessary for both men and women to function normally. The problem comes when the levels become way to high and start to cause major problems. Normal levels of estrogen for women range between 20-400 nanograms per liter (ng/L) depending on what time of the month it is. The problem that were seeing  is estrogen level up to nearly 2,000 ng/L, which are the levels we see in pregnant women and levels in men that are normally where women should be.

These increase are caused my estrogneic compounds which are compounds that act like estrogen in he body. These things cause estrogen levels to skyrocket and cause some huge problems. So what problems are associated with high estrogen levels

  • Fat cell increase - Estrogen makes you put on fat, which makes sense when you look at it from the perspective of pregnancy. Fat has a ton of energy that mothers require to make sure their baby stays alive. It also makes you store fat in the way women typically do like in the hips or breasts
  • Depression - Artificial estrogen is messing with natural estrogen levels can cause problem with depression and can decreases motivation 
  • Allergies - When women get pregnant is suppresses their immune system so that their body doesn't kill the fetus. High level of estrogen from artificial sources can decrease the immune system and leave you open to illness and allergies 
  • Infertility - Because estrogen is the female sex hormone it can cause some crazy problems in men. The biggest of these is infertility and other reproductive problems 
  • Increased cancer risk - Breast cancer rates are up 250% since 1980 and have increase even more in different parts of the world. High estrogen levels are known to be one of the main causes of this.

So obviously this can all be some pretty terrible stuff, so what do you do about it? Here is Dr. AJ's list of Top 10 Estrogenic Compounds to avoid

  1. phytoestrogens 
    1. This compound is plant hormone that acts like estrogen in our body (just like this whole list)The biggest culprit of these compounds are soy and flax.
  2. Micoestrogens 
    1. This are also called zearalenone and they are a mold estrogen. In the U.S. we have these huge silos where were store grain. This grain starts to mold while it's in there, and it molds quite. The U.S. has no regulation or legal limit on how much mold can be found in our grains so other countries take advantage of that. When the UK gains have too much mold in their grain they ship it over here and we eat it. Isn't that great? As it turns out, non-organic grains are way worse because they are mass produced. Although you might think that organic would be worse, the large numbers result in lots of mold. Corn and wheat are equally bad when it comes to mold levels
  3. Atrazine 
    1. This is the second most used herbicide in the North America and it's totally illegal in European Union. CORN is by far the biggest problem for atrazine. The only real way to avoid it is to get organic corn. Studies have found 200ng/L causes reproductive abnormalities in frogs and cows that are fed with corn can have leves of atrazine of 700,000ng/L!
  4. Triclosan/ alkylphenols
    1. These two are soap estrogenics (found in our soaps) Triclosan will be listed on label but alkylphenolas will not. Make sure to keep a lookout for these two on your prodcuts. Because so many products have these compound in them, you can see what products Dr. AJ recommends on his website here  http://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/whatiuse.html
  5. Oxybenzone/ benzophenone/ 4-methoxybenzophenone
    1. These are the sunscreen estrogens and they are found in basically every big name sunscreen we use. Check the above list for good options or just look for organic sunscreen or one that have 20% zinc. By the way, BP is completely illegal in Europe.
  6. Red 3 and Red 40
    1. These two are obviously food coloring. Red 3 has been brought to FDA over 20 times to make it illegal but they keep getting shut down. These products require massive labels in Europe because they realize they may cause harm in children. A better option is to use beet juice instead.
  7. Parabens 
    1. These are perfumes estrogen and they are used as a preservative in the product. There are many different names and varieties "Methol- Propal- Benzol-" so keep a lookout for differnt ways they try to hide them. An interesting fact about parabens is that they move through blood and you pee them out. This results in public swimming pools have Paraben levels that are "concerning for children". They have also found high levels in Polar Bears because it is circulating in the water. 
  8. Phthalates
    1. This is a plastic additive that companies use to make it more rigid. Plastic #2,4,5 are the "best" ones for you to use by in reality you should try to avoid plastic when you can. Researchers have found up to 15% phthalates even in the better plastics listed above. Phthalates are actually far worse than BPA in this circumstance and products listed as "BPA Free" means they use phthalates instead.
  9. BPA
    1. This become popular years ago when people started to figure out how bad it was. It's not illegal nationally but the research is clear on how bad it is. There have been over 12,000 research papers starting how harmful it is. Even though it's not illegal nationally, 17 states made it illegal instead in some way or another. To combat that bad press BPA got, companies using BPS instead, which is basically the same thing.
  10. Ethinyl estradiol (EE2)
    1. This is the artificial estrogen that is found in birth control. Because of the high quantities our country takes birth control, it is found in pretty high qualities in the drinking water, especially in cities. Another big issue is that the human body doesn't break it down, because it is created that way. This means that it sticks around for a long time and creates a ton of problem.  
Ok I know, lots of super big chemistry words in there. I tried to make it as simple as I could but I also wanted to keep the actual names of the compounds in there. Now that you know the list we'll look at a couple of things you can do to stay away from these things. 
  • Filter your water, especially in the city.
  • Check labels if you're worried about this. Look for the crazy names listed above and check the list of good products I posted
  • Buy things that are  fragrance free 
  • Avoid plastic when you can, aim for stainless steel or glass instead.
  • Avoid non-organic corn and wheat if you can. This also means grass fed beef is going to be a better option. 
I also recommend that you listen to the entire podcast yourself so you can hear the info straight from the source. You can always refer back to this list when you're done so that you have everything written out for you. You can find the podcast HERE

Saturday, July 22, 2017

The 3 Best Predictors of How Long You Will Live 63/84

When we think about health and mortality everyone knows that exercise has it's place, but what we're starting to realize is exactly how important of a place that really is. If I where to ask you what one single factor was going to be the best predictor of mortality what would you say? Seriously, think about that for a second. Maybe family history? Stroke risk? Diabetes risk? They all seem like reasonable answers but they're not even close. Not even in the ballpark.

Most of this information was received by me from a couple of podcasts done on the Barbell Shrugged Podcast years ago. These podcasts featured a guy named Dr. Andy Galpin who, if you have been around with me for a while, you might recognize. Amongst other crazy knowledge bombs that Dr. Galpin always seems to drop, he mentioned the top three factors that predict mortality, and I'm sure they will be surprising to some of you. I'll discuss these top three in reverse order, starting with number three.

3. Lean Body Mass (LBM)

Lean body mass basically means anything in your body that's not fat. Muscle, skin, and bone are all included in this but for our purposes muscle will be the most important to us. For years people were under the assumption that muscle was just dumb tissue that did whatever the nervous system told it to do. Contract, relax, contract, relax over and over and that's it. What Dr. Galpin discusses is that muscle is actually super smart and regulates a
TON of hormone functions in the body. And the more muscle you have, the healthier you are (to an extent obviously). Combine this  with the fact that more muscle means more active and less injury prone in your later years and you can see why it's so high on the list. To increase LBM you simply have to hit the weights and get your muscles bigger so they work well. Stick in the 8-12 range most of the time for some good muscle building.

2. VO2max

Your VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can take in at one time. The higher the VO2max, the healthier your respiratory and cardiovascular systems are and apparently the longer you're going to live. Obviously, if you can keep your heart and lungs strong for a long time, you'll be more active and less prone heart disease. To increase VO2max you need to do a combination on low, moderate, and high intensity cardiovascular training like spring intervals and walking.

1. Leg Strength

Yep, it's true, how strong your legs are is the single best determinant of how long you're going to live. In fact, it was a better predictor than wether or not you've ALREADY had a heart attack! Crazy right? I've heard Dr. Galpin discus that grip strength can be added along with this and I think it's safe to say that strength in general can be included. I assume leg strength was just the strength metric that they tested which came out the highest. This crazy fact could be the result of a few things, but in my professional opinion it can be linked best to 2. First, having stronger legs when you're older most likely means that you had been relatively active throughout your life, meaning you're probably healthier. This is definitely going to lead to a longer life.  Second, stronger legs means reduced chance of falling or getting hurt as well as increase activity, mobility, and independence when you get older. Basically, you can do more stuff on your own for longer and do it better. Sounds pretty great to me. To increase leg strength or strength in general you have to lift. Not only that but you have to lift pretty heavy stuff. The best strength gains come from around 3 reps to around 6 reps with at least 90 seconds rest in between.

So there you have it; lean body mass, VO2max, and leg strength are the three best predictors of his long hours going to live. Now, obviously if you excel in all of these it doesn't guarantee that you're going to love a long life, but it does put the odds in your favor

Friday, July 21, 2017

Working Around Injuries 62/84


So picture this; you're out at the lake on the weekend, enjoying the outdoor activities when you crash off of your jetski and sprain your wrist. It doesn't hurt too bad but I kind of ruins your weekend. You get to the gym on Monday and realize that the injury is way worse than you thought and you can barely use that hand at all. You've been putting in great time at the gym and you don't want to lose everything you've been working on. So what do you do? Take a break? Work around it? Work through it? Let's talk about it.

Depending on the severity of the injury, there's almost always a way for you to continue hitting the gym and making gains without having to lay on the couch and get fat. Pretty much any extremity injury can be worked around, that is most any injury to an arm or a leg. If that's what you're dealing with then, to be frank, it's not an excuse to skip the gym. You may not be able to do some of your favorite exercises but you can still work on other things. The basic rule for this is "if it hurts, don't do it". Avoid things that hurt and do pretty much anything that doesn't. We'll take my recent hamstring injury as an example. A couple Tuesday's ago a had a pretty minor high hamstring pull while playing sand volleyball. I finished the match but knew that it was going to be a bit sore. I also knew that a lot of my normal leg day activities would have to be put on hold. Did I use this as an excuse to skip the gym? Hell no! I just did what I could. I already do two upper body days so those stayed almost exactly the same, then when leg day came I just did things that didn't hurt. The only real pain I got was from hip hinge exercises like deadlifts and RDL's. This left light squatting, and things for my calves, adductors, and abductors, as well as isolation exercises like leg extensions. Was it ideal? No. Is it better than nothing? Of course. Moral is, don't use an extremity injury as an excuse to be lazy.

Now, obviously, there are some exceptions. Back injuries are nothing to mess with. Neither are neck injuries. If it hurts to move, probably don't go exercise. Just follow the same rule "if it hurts, don't do it". In these cases, do whatever you need to do to get well as fast as you can so you can get back to being healthy and getting exercise. Don't do anything stupid to make things worse.

On the topic of injuries, I am not a fan of ice. This is a completely different conversation but I just want to get this out there. Kelly Starett has a couple great videos that can probably explain this a bit better then I can but the basics are that our bodies have developed, over thousands of years, a way to heal ourselves and we're silly to think we can make much of a difference. Also, ice may actually increase the amount time to takes to heal from an injury due to backflow of some of the "garbage" you're body is trying to remove.

Along the same lines, I am a fan of ice baths and, obviously, chryotherapy but that is a much different story than simply putting an ice bag on a sprained ankle in a futile attempt to heal.

Everything here comes down to this; unless your injury prevents you from moving without a ton of pain, you should still be doing whatever you can, without pain, to continue making progress in the gym and keeping your health up as high as you can.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

The Most Important Exercise for Fat Loss 61/84

You've probably seen me post before about how exercise really doesn't play a huge part in fat loss. Actually, it plays almost no part at all. This is due to a variety of factors including the fact that your body may actually slow your metabolism down after exercise to make up for the calories you burn.

Does this mean you should stop working out? Of course not! Exercise has innumerable benefits for your health and longevity that makes it an extremely important part of your life. But from the perspective of fat loss, what you do for an hour in the gym every day doesn't make much of a difference. In reality, what you do the other 23 hours of the day make much more of an impact on your waistline.

From an exercise perspective, daily activity makes a world of difference more for fat loss that other exercise. Basically, it you workout hard for an hour then sit in a chair or lay on your coach the rest of the day, you're never going to be as fit as you can be. Obviously, nutrition is still the most important factor for weight loss, but being active as often as you can will help.

This is one (of many) reasons why desk jobs or so bad for people's health. Things like standing work stations can help with this, but even standing for hours on end is still being sedentary. The best option for people in an office setting would be to move around as much as you are allowed. Sometimes sit, sometimes stand, and get up and walk around as often as you can. When you have a break, try to be active and go for a walk instead of finding somewhere else to sit.

Also, get ahead of the game by being active before and after work as much as possible. Walk often, play sports, and move often in your house. The more you can move around the better.

As weird as it may seem to say, the arbitrary goal of getting 10,000 steps in a day isn't really that bad of an idea. The number doesn't have any real reason behind it but it can still be something to strive for. I've worked with people who only get half of that each day and for those people, making better every day lifestyle choices is just, if not more, important that exercise choices.

Moral of the story, move around as much as you can and try to be sitting and standing still as little as possible. Combine this with good nutritional choices and a well structured workout plan and you'll live a long and healthy life

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

The Herceg Strength Cycle 60/84

Do you want a really simple plan to help you get stronger? This is a time tested program that I have used over and over to PR on basically all of my lifts, as well as the members at the CrossFit gym I worked at. It's simple, to the point, and it works.

When I first started working at The Arsenal in 2013, I told the owner that I would write us a strength program to supplement our conditioning we were doing. I was very adamant that we needed this and pushed hard. He gave the OK and a deadline to get it done. So in typical fashion, an hour before the meeting I had forgotten to do it  and still had nothing. I had an idea for what I wanted to do, just no concrete plan. I wanted to do something basic and progressive that made logical sense and followed a certain pattern. I scrapped this together super quick and took it to him. We tried it with the entire gym and 12 weeks later the amount of PR's was unbelievable. Everyone, left and right, just smashing new personal bests. It worked even better than I had expected, well enough that we did it again a few weeks later. And we'll enough that I did it again, two more times, in my own and hit new bests on every lift involved.

So what makes this plan work so well? Probably the simplicity of it. All I did was take the rep max percentage for a given rep and reduce it by 5%. I know that sounds confusing so I'll explain. Typically a 5 rep max (the most weight you can do for 5 reps) is about 85% of your 1 rep max. So I started the program with working up to 5 reps at 80%, 5% less than the estimated max. I did this week by week, reducing the reps and increasing the percent, and it worked like a dream. Here's what the percentages looked like

5,5,5,5,5 - 60,65,70,75,80%
5,5,4,4,4 - 65,70,75,80,85%
5,4,4,3,3 - 70,75,80,85,90%
4,3,2,2,2 - 75,80,85,90,95%
4,3,2,1,1 - 80,85,90,95,100%

Obviously the left side is the reps and the right side is the perfect of 1RM  for each set. Like I said. The first week works up to 5 reps at 80%. You'll also notice that this is only 5 weeks, but my program took 12 to complete. That's because each week was repeated twice in a row with different exercises before moving onto the next percentages. That gets you 10 weeks plus 2 deload weeks for a total of 12. That looks like this

Wk 1: 5,5,5,5,5 - 60,65,70,75,80%
Wk 2: 5,5,5,5,5 - 60,65,70,75,80%
Wk 3: 5,5,4,4,4 - 65,70,75,80,85%
Wk 4: 5,5,4,4,4 - 65,70,75,80,85%
Wk 5: 5,4,4,3,3 - 70,75,80,85,90%
Wk 6: 5,4,4,3,3 - 70,75,80,85,90%
Wk 7: 4,3,2,2,2 - 75,80,85,90,95%
Wk 8: 4,3,2,2,2 - 75,80,85,90,95%
Wk 9: 4,3,2,1,1 - 80,85,90,95,100%
Wk 10: Testing week

2 deload weeks as needed: 5,5,4,4,4 - 50,55,60,65,70

Now, I don't want to give away all of my secrets here but you can pick any exercises you want and they will fit into this program, and you will get stronger at them. I would pick 3-4 exercises one week and another 3-4 for the second week. You can use whatever you want for powerlifting, weightlifting, CrossFit, or just general strength training but I would stick to the main compound lifts. Accessory work will follow a different plan.

Give this program a try (I would recommend two upper and two lower body days) if you want to get strong. From my last time doing this, I still have my PRs in back squat, bench press, front squat, and sumo deadlift. Also, if you want me to do the work for you, I'll write you a personalized program with this setup guaranteed to get you stronger. Just shoot me a message and we'll get to work

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The Importance of Progress Pictures 59/84


I've talked in the past about using different metrics to track progress outside of just looking at the scale. I love using body fat percentage and circumference measurements to see a little more concrete progress but there's a way that's usually more important to people.

If you ask most people what their goals are they will probably tell you a weight or a pants size they want to fit into. but when you dig a little deeper, you find out the weight doesn't actually matter as much as simply what they look like. They feel that if they hit a certain weight, they will like the way they look, instead of just focusing on the mirror and forgetting the scale. So if people really only care about what they look like why not just use the mirror as their guide? This can be pretty tough because you can't see that much progress that quick day to day, especially if you're not tracking in any way. But, if you're keeping a record of what you look like, it can be an effective way to track progress that actually matters to you.

Obviously, this is where progress pictures come in. Taking pictures often and in the same position can give you a reliable means of seeing whats going on. Have you ever talked to someone who's lost a bunch of weight but they feel like they don't look any different? It happens all the time, and it happens because when all you do is look at yourself each day it makes it much harder to see the small changes over time. For these people, once you show them a picture of them at the start they automatically see a huge difference in the way they look. This is the magic of visual progress, instead of seeing the small changes numerous times each day, you can look back and see massive progress all at once.

Here's what I recommend to my clients when they take their pictures

- Take one from the front, side, and back
- Avoid baggy clothes so you can see the differences, underwear is usually best and remember, no one else needs to see them if you don't want too
- Take a picture each week in each position
- Try to do it in the same place with the same lighting and the same time of day
- Just like the scale, morning is best because your appearance can change drastically throughout the day
- After a month, compare week 1 to week 4 and you might be surprised at the difference.

Again, this is something that I recommend everyone do. If you still do weight and measurements then you may not need to take pics every week. I do mine about once a month because I understand how to use the scale without overthinking it.

I know that this is going to feel weird and super uncomfortable for some people but I promise you're going to love that you had that "before" picture one six months when you love the way you look. If you need help getting started then please reach out to me. I have a number of free programs on my site but sometimes a personalized plan is the best thing for you. I am also on a mission to drastically increase my Instagram following so if you want to help me out please follow me on there. I will be posting there most often for a bit to try and increase that media. You can follow me @Greg.The.Trainer and I wold really appreciate it!

Monday, July 17, 2017

No One is Going to Do It For You 58/84


Losing weight is hard! We all know this by now, it's no secret. Sure gaining muscle can be hard too depending on who you are but it's different. Losing fat means you need to be hungry and that's uncomfortable, plus you have to eat salads and they're gross. But in all seriousness it really is a tough job, if it weren't then everyone would be skinny right? But there are a few things that you really need to understand that can make the process so much easier for you. These fall more on the mental side of things, which in most cases can be much more important. Once you really embrace these, it liberates you and allows you to do what you need to do to see results.

1. Realize that you are in 100% control.

This is your body and your life, no one can make you do anything that you truly don't want to. This can be magical for the fitness world because it allows you to realize that you control everything, and that gives you all of the power. If you don't want to eat something then don't eat it, no one can make you. If you want to go to the gym then go! No one has the right to stop you. Once you embrace this, and stop letting other people try to dictate what you do, you will hit your goals so much faster. Have that hard conversation with someone if you don't feel like they're helping you the way they should, it will be worth it in the end.

2. Start taking 100% responsibility.

This is similar but also the opposite. If you're not taking full responsibility for everything, the losses and the triumphs, then you need to start and see what a difference it can make. If you keep trying to pass the blame to other people then you're never going to get as far as you could. You ate bad because your friends wanted to go out to eat? It's totally fine to go with but did they put the food in your mouth? Of course not, you chose to do it and you need to take responsibility if you want to be truly successful. But, do you know what the great thing about this is? It still means you have all the control. Since you're taking responsibility, you don't to the rely on anyone else (not that that's bad) and can allow yourself to reach your full potential.

Here's the bottom line on these two; it's up to you and no one else. No one will do it for you and no one can stop you. You have to put in the work and you have to make the sacrifices. But you also can't blame other people when things aren't going the best. There will be hard times and when you are able to embrace these two things then it will help you get through them even faster!  Hopefully this didn't come off too harsh, I've never been that kind of trainer and I don't ever expect to be, but sometimes saying the right thing at the right time may be exactly what someone reading this needs to hear!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

No, People At The Gym Are Not Judging You 57/84


What is your mentality when you get to the gym? Are you a stud who walks around like you own the place? Do you hide behind a cardio machine because you don't know how to use the weights? Do you just stick with classes because you like having someone tell you what do to? For most people reading this, I'd be willing to bet it isn't the first one. Most people are too afraid of being judged or stared at to venture out into the heart of the gym and start lifting some weights. But do people really care? Is anyone actually judging you for doing it? These are all questions I will be answering for you.

Hitting the gym can be scary, I get that. I have been going to different gyms for years but to be honest I still get uncomfortable when I go to one that I'm not a regular at. I'm definitely not worried about doing exercises wrong or doing a program that looks silly, but it's still hard for me to walk in somewhere and own it. This let's me realize how excruciatingly hard it must be for someone who doesn't have almost 15 of lifting under their belt. At Xperience, we try to do our best to make sure that new members feel comfortable and know basic exercises and how to use the machines, but it still takes some time for people to really get accustomed to a place without feeling self conscious about being there.

I'm just going to be up front about this, unless you're doing something that is inherently dangerous to others, most people really don't care what you're doing. I'll also let you in on this secret, people are probably not staring at you, and if they are, it's because they are uncomfortable and looking to see what other people are doing! Just like you. 90% of people at the gym are self conscious, even if they don't show it or look like they own the place. Every dude in there is looking at the guys who are bigger then them and every girl is looking at everyone they want to look like, but no one is judging anyone for being there, I promise you that.

Once we realize that everyone is uncomfortable, we can start to get over our fears and start getting stuff done. Everyone is willing to support you and help you, and anyone will give you advice if you ask, just don't be afraid. If you want to get a head start on this, come see me at Xperience Fitness in Appleton or shoot me a message about what program would be the best for you to do based on your goals. Just having a good workout that you can feel confident in can make a big difference in increasing your confidence in the gym. Don't be afraid to ask because I will help you! Also, don't forget to subscribe to my blog while you're hear. You'll get a ton of free stuff like my Top Fat Loss and Muscle Gain Tips, a free macros calculator, and a free 30 minute consultation call with me to make sure that you're on the right track!


Saturday, July 15, 2017

Why You Should Meditate Daily 56/84


For fitness goals everyone always focuses on diet and exercise, which is obviously important. But there are other major factors that people fail to even think about that could make or break your progress. One of those is sleep, which is arguably more important than diet or exercise for fat loss. The other is stress which, when too high, can absolutely kill any progress no matter what your fitness goal.  Here I am referring to the bad type of stress, called distress. Distress can make you fat, kill your gains, and totally wreck your hormones. We want to keep distress down as low as possible and in today's fast paced world it's becoming harder and harder. But there is one thing that can work for you better than anything in reducing stress and increasing mental health.

Normally when people think of meditation they tend to either think yoga or something a little more other-worldly. Most people don't think of it as something you should do each day to make your waistline shrink. While daily meditation won't have a direct effect on your body fat, it can have a very powerful indirect effect.  Meditation has been shown to lower cortisol levels and almost instant reduce stress, with the effects lasting for a decent amount of time. And as I said, lower stress means less fat.

Deep breathing exercises can also have a profound effect on posture and even back pain when done correctly. When you practice deep breathing through your diaphragm (not your chest) you start to relax the other muscle that are connected to it. All of our muscles are connected by a layer of tissue called fascia, and when a muscle is tight, it's fascia can pull on other muscles as well. As it turns out, the fascia of the diaphragm is connected to that of the psoas. Your psoas, which is a main hip flexor, is also connected to your spine. When your psoas is tight it pulls on your spine and can cause back pain, which is actually a rather common cause. This means that if you can learn to relax your diaphragm with deep breathing, you can give some relief to you psoas and thus your back pain. This alone, in my opinion, is reason enough to at least give meditation a try.

So here's where to start. Take 5-10 minutes out of your morning each morning and practice deep diaphragmic breathing. Either lay flat on your back (don't fall asleep) or sit up tall in a comfy chair. I have started sitting on the floor to help with posture. Breath in and out through you stomach, letting your belly rise and fall, and try to focus only on your breathing. Guided meditation can be great too. There are some awesome 10 minute or less videos on YouTube that can guide you through the process depending on what your goals are. Try this and let me know what you think, and keep in mind that mental health is just as important as physical health

Friday, July 14, 2017

7 Tips for Great Glutes 55/84

Ok I'll admit, this one is geared more towards the ladies like my biceps post was geared a little more towards the guys. But still pay attention guys, glutes were voted the #1 muscle women like to see developed on a man. Keep that in mind.

Our pop culture right now is all about the glutes, big butts are definitely "in" and that seems like every ladies goal right now. I bet just about every time you hit the gym some "butt lifting" exercise has found its way into your program. Well I don't think I would be doing my job if I didn't throw my hat into the mix and give you guys some tips I give my clients who want to get that booty poppin'.

- Squeeze your glutes

This one should be obvious but it isn't always. Whenever you do leg exercises make sure you squeeze you butt hard each rep. This will increase the mind-muscle connection and help your muscles grow. You can even just squeeze your butt randomly to help too. Just stand up and squeeze your cheeks together as hard as you can.

-Do some activation drills

Ok let's get this out there; your glutes are not "turned off". Unless you have some neurological disorder then you glutes or always on. But, we can change the amount that they are turned on (as well as any muscle) with activation exercises. I, and other professionals, prefer the terms "up-regulate" and  "down-regulate" in stead of "turn off" and "turn on". That much more accurate.

Anyway, I start any full body or lower body session with one glute exercise and one core exercise to up-regulate them. This can be banded monster walks, squats with a band, glute bridges, or single leg squats. Just a light exercise to get things going

- Lean forward

Want to increase the amount your glutes are working? Try leaning forward. Make sure it's a hinge forward and not flexing your spine, but give it a try, you'll feel it right away. This is great for lunges, monster walks, step ups, and other single leg exercises.

- Work from all angles

You can't just move up and down to get nice glutes, you have to go forward, backward, and to the side too (this is one reason we see a lot of under-developed glutes in CrossFit, but it's getting better)

Try adding side lunges, monster walks, extended ROM side-lying leg lifts, and diagonal walking lunges to get some lateral work in.

- Do single leg exercises

Because you butt muscles also stabilize your pelvis, standing on one leg let's you get even more work done. Single leg RDL's, step ups, lunges, split squats, single leg glute bridges, and single leg squats should all find their way into your program. Don't forget to lean forward!

- Do glute bridges

I've seen some people who are against these but I love them. Bret Contreras aka "The Glute Guy" has talked about getting his athlete some impressive glute development with hardly any squats and deadlifts, focusing on bridge and hip thrust variations.

Do them with on the floor or on a bench, with a barbell, with a band, with a band on your knees, or one leg at a time.

- Sometimes go full ROM, sometimes don't

During a squat, the highest glute activation is at the very bottom below parallel and at the lock out at the top. That's why I find it ironic that so many Instagram "trainers" do all of their squats and eliminate those two areas. I recommend full range of motion like this 95% of the time because it's just good practice  as a human, but that means about 5% of the time it's ago to switch it up. When you don't do full ROM, you keep tension on the muscle longer and as we talked about earlier, more time under tension can lead to more muscle.

Give these a try and get me some feedback. I use all of these with my clients daily and I've gotten some impressive results in the past. Hope full this can help all your #bootygoals come true

Thursday, July 13, 2017

The Top 4 Benefits of Cryotherapy 54/84


My first cryotherpay session was actually years ago in Indianapolis, Indiana at Cryotherapy Indy with my friend Skyler. I was a pretty competitive CrossFit athlete at the time and was working hard towards my goal of snatching 300 pounds. We had used it that day as a means of recovery to get a good satch session in later. When we were done I felt great, the swelling in my hip had gone completely and my legs felt fresher than they had in a long time. Although I didn't hit my snatch goal that day, it did open my eyes to the benefits Cryo can provide.

I just did my second session ever a couple hours ago at Fox Valley Cryotherapy in Appleton, Wisconsin which is conveniently located almost literally right next door to Xperience Fitness where I work. For the past few months I have been dealing with a string of small but annoying volleyball related injuries from my knee, to my shoulder, to my back, my foot, and recently my hamstring. It seems like as soon  as one gets better something new just shows up. I've been going over different recovery options in my head and Cryo seems to be one that I always forget about. I decided to give it a consistent try and see how my body fares after a few go's. I'll get back to you guys with the results in a couple of weeks.

Cryoherapy is basically the process of getting in a chamber (called a Cryosauna) and using liquid nitrogen to cool the body's skin temperature down to 30 to 50 degrees F while cooling the chamber down to -100 to -274 degrees F. Basically it makes the chamber really damn cold and you get cold because of it. I know those temperatures sound extreme but I've found it to be much, much more enjoyable than an icebath, which is did often through high school and college. Although and ice bath temperature is much lower, it feels 100x colder than Cryo does.

This whole thing sounds totally crazy right? There has to be some pretty gnarly benefits to subject yourself to it on the regular. Well it turns out there are, and it can be some pretty good stuff. Here are some potential benefits that my readers can relate to.

- Decreased inflammation and healing time

Because Cryo is so cold, your bodies thermorecpetors freak and and start shuttling all of your blood to your internal organs to keep them warm. This removes any blood or fluid that has been building up  in muscles or joints (inflammation). Once there, the blood cells get loaded up with oxygen and nutrients that your body loves. When you start to warm back up, your body reopens your blood vessels and allows that new blood to come in, bringing the oxygen and nutrients with it. This will decrease the amount of time it can take to recover from injury and your joints can feel a ton better.

- Temporary metabolism increase

In my college anatomy class, we learned that shivering actually burns more calories per minute than any other activity, which makes a lot of sense here. When you do Cryo your skin and core temperature get super low. This means that your body is going to need to use a bunch of energy to heat itself back up over a decently long period of time. This has been reported to results in the burning of around 500-800 calories per session with an even longer after burn to reheat.

NOTE: Please don't be dumb and rely on cryotherpay to lose fat. Although it can have a small effect, there are still no shortcuts and you have to put the work in.

Decreased chronic pain

Cryo has been shown to have benefits for people with chronic pain and fibromyalgia for up to a few hours per treatment. This could lead to a longer benefit over long term use but there has been no research to support this yet. This is a result of the same reasons from point 1.

Like I said, I'll get back to you guys in  a few weeks once a get more sessions under my belt but I have high hopes for how this is going to help. I would definitely recommend this to you guys assuming you're not on the relatively long list of contraindications which you should check out first.


Wednesday, July 12, 2017

8 Tips For Bigger and Better Arms 53/84


Let's be honest here, if you lift weights, you care what your arms look like. I don't care if you're a guy or a girl, trying to lose fat or gain muscle, everyone wants nice arms. To many, this can be too big of a focus and you end up looking super silly with big arms but no upper back or lats. But if you're like most people and want to get a respectable set of pipes then check out these tips to help you out.

- Still focus on compound movements

Big compound movements like rows, pullups, dips and presses are still going to activate that most muscle fibers and cause the most overall stimulus. These should generally take place towards the beginning of your workout so that you can use tons of energy on them. 4-6 sets of 5-10 reps is great for compound movements

- Use a supinated grip

If bigger biceps is the goal, try using a palms up grip for most of your pulling exercises. It's important to incorporate lots of different grips but supinated works the biceps the most. It will give you the best stimulus for compound movements.

- Use a close grip

Now for triceps, try doing most of your pressing with a close grip. This includes bench, incline bench, and overhead pressing. This will give you slightly more triceps involvement resulting in more growth. If you're using dumbbells, keep your elbows in close to your body to simulate a barbell close grip.

- Focus on TUT

Time Under Tension (TUT) is now being considered one of the most important factors in muscle growth. TUT refers to how long the muscle is actually doing work. Ways to increase TUT include higher rep sets, shorter rest periods, and (most importantly) increase the concentric and eccentric time of each rep. Try 2 seconds on the concentric (up) and 2 seconds on the eccentric (down) for each rep. Add a big squeeze and pause for even more growth.

- Utilize the Mind-Muscle Connection

The Mind-Muscle Connection refers to focusing your attention on the muscles you're intending to work. If you're doing a bicep curl, look at your bicep the whole set and focus on squeezing that muscle as hard as you can. This has just recently been proven by research (even though people have unofficially known for years) to increase muscle hypertrophy when compared to not utilizing it.

- Vary your reps

As mentioned, as long as TUT is high, various rep ranges can all cause muscle growth and you should use many of them. I like to do one heavy day (5-8 reps) and one high rep day (10-20 reps) for each group to get a nice mix of both.

- Don't train to failure

If you're on drugs then by all means do that, but if you're natural like 99% of us then training to failure has no real benefits. Outside of certain times (see yesterday's post) all it's going to do is make it harder to recover from you session. Always try to leave 1-2 reps in the tank on each set. This will allow you to recovery better, build more muscle, and save your joints from some pain.

- Don't focus just on getting a pump, except sometimes do

Some people focus too much on the pump, others don't focus enough. It has a time and place and should be used strategically. Getting a huge pump at the beginning of your workout is just going to make all of your other lifts suck, so save it till the end. At the end of your workout, refer again to yesterday's post for some different techniques

Give these a try and let me know how your progress goes! Training smarter can make all the difference in the world. If you feel like you're lost and need a little extra help then I'd love to get on a free 30 minute consultation call with you to start to put a plan together. To do that, simply click on the link below and reserve a time. All I'll need is some basic info and we can really get you moving towards your goals!

Click here to reserve a time!  calendly.com/gsherceg

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Advanced Hypertrophy Techniques 52/84


When a person first starts to try and gain muscle, they can start to put on some size relatively fast. Being new to lifting, your body starts to freak out and adapt super quickly to the stimulus that you're giving it. Anyone who has every tried to get big before has probably experienced this and it's pretty great. You start to see differences really quick and it feels awesome. But, obviously, these quick gains aren't going to last forever and eventually it can even become pretty hard to add even half of what you have already. Honestly, at this point you should heavily consider doing a maintenance phase and then starting over again. It's also probably time to switch up your program and let your body start to get a different stimulus. When you do this, there are a few advanced techniques you can use to break through some of these barriers and start adding muscle again.

Note: These are called advanced for a reason. You have no business trying these unless you have already been lifting hard for a couple years. Yes, you will see other people doing them but that doesn't mean that they are right.

Here are a few things you can try if you feel like you're ready.

Drop Sets

I would hope most people have heard of drop sets by now. They are very popular in the bodybuilding world because they make you look hardcore and they can hurt pretty bad. To do a drop set; pick a weight that you can do for 8-10 reps and do as many as you can under good technique, drop the weight by about 10% and do as many as you can again, then drop one more time and rep to failure. This technique will give you a huge pump and can spark some new growth.

High Rep Sets

Tom Platz is famous for having the best legs in bodybuilding. He is also famous for squatting 225 for 2 minutes straight. High rep sets can be another growth igniter if you use them right. Don't get stuck in the old myth that high reps are only for muscular endurance or toning. The super high time under tension can do some serious damage and create new growth and researchers have seen hypertrophy in sets as high as 100 reps.

Finishers/ Burn Out Sets

This is ending your lift with one all out set to failure on whatever exercise you're doing. Like most of these, you'll want to save this for the end of your workout and give it everything you've got. You can even force or cheat a few more reps out to get every last bit of energy used up.

Technical drop sets

A good example of this would be using a bicep curl and a row. Let's say you're finishing your pulling day with some EZ Bar curls. On your last set you rep to failure then immediately drop down and start doing rows with the same bar. You're basically going from a weaker exercise to a stronger exercise to squeeze whatever you can out of your biceps. You're last and shoulders will take some of the work but your biceps will continue to get fried.

Eccentrics/ Negatives

This one is my favorite and is the one that you don't need to be super advanced to use. I often program slow eccentrics in workouts for my clients who want to get bigger and/or stronger because it can be amazing for both. The eccentric, or lowering portion of the movement, is where almost all of the tissue damage occurs. And when the tissue gets damaged, it must rebuild itself and usually comes back bigger and stronger. For most people who want to get big, I recommend a 2 second eccentric on just about every exercise they do. Sometimes, based on what phase were in, that number can go up to 5 or even 10 seconds if I'm feeling particularly snarky.

I just want to reiterate, outside of the eccentrics you should have a lot of experience with lifting already before you even consider trying these. Most people have no business training to failure on any exercise and even if you do try these you should only do them for a short time. They are meant to spark growth and break plateaus, not become a regular part of your training.

Monday, July 10, 2017

How Your Morning Can Guarantee Success 51/84


I'm currently in the middle of listening to the audio version of a great book that I know is going to make a huge difference in my life. Obviously, because I have no yet finished the book, let alone take any action from it, there are going to have to be a few follow-up posts in the future. The book is called "The Miracle Morning" written by Hal Elrod and it's basically about how he used a daily morning routine to bring him back from 1. literally dying and 2. losing everything he had when the economy crashed in 2008. He goes on to detail the things he did each morning and how he used personal development to bring himself back from near-suicide to being even more successful then he was before the recession.

I was first introduced the Hal 3 years ago when he did an audio interview for Success Magazine. In that interview, he not only talked about how he came back from rock bottom, but also how he relearned how to walk, and overcame massive brain damage from an insane car accident. He said that the most important thing that helped him regain his life was his positive outlook, and he proceeded to say one of my all time favorite quotes ever. Although I was already somewhat practicing this, it was amazing to hear someone say what a huge impact on their life. I'm going to paraphrase because it's been years since I've heard the actual quote (and I can't find it anywhere) but it goes something like 'why would you waste your time and energy trying to change things that are impossible to change.' I love this and it really makes sense to me. Yes, you should be trying to change things in your life that you don't like, but there are some things that are out of your control and you should not waste your time, energy, or emotion trying to change them. Instead, accept the fact that you can't and spend you time changing the things you can.

Having a genuinely positive outlook on life can have an amazing effect on your mental and physical health as well as your relationships. I know this can be hard for some people, as often times people are pretty negative, but there are some strategies you can use to help change you mindset (I'm going to keep talking about this a lot) and make you more positive.

One of the biggest ways you can influence your day is by how you start your morning. This is what "The Miracle Morning" details so I'll give you quick synopsis of what you can try, but I encourage you to check out the book for yourself. Hal recommends things like; prayer/meditation in silence, writing in a journal, exercise, reading, using a dream board, and saying affirmations each morning to set yourself up for success for the rest if the day. All you need to do is spend as little 1 and as much as 20 minutes on each one of these each morning to completely change your day and your life. He mentions many times how this gets people excited to wake up each morning and even people who say they're not morning people start to get up even earlier so that they have more time to spend on their morning routines. I know a lot of this can sound kind of far out and other-worldly but it ties in to a lot of concepts that I have come across from other areas of personal development that I have done over the years and it can definitely be worth a try.

Although this book is meant to be more about being successful, you can adjust all of these things to help you reach your physical goals as well. I'll show you how each one of those pieces of the routine can help get you to your goal.

Silent Meditation: This has been used for centuries to help with physical and mental stress. Not only does it help calm your mind but it reduces mental stress and even blood markers of stress like cortisol. Lower cortisol levels help you workout more, recover better, and prevent you from storing so much body fat.

Journaling: Writing in a journal each morning can help you track progress throughout years of your life and help you express things you may have trouble with any other way. Obviously, keeping a journal of your workouts is a must, but a personal journal can tell you a lot about how you're feeling that day and what to focus on the rest of the day.

Exercise: Getting blood flow in the morning can have tremendous health benefits that last all day. It doesn't need to be long. A couple minutes of jumping jacks or yoga is plenty to get blood pumping.

Dream Board: A dream board is a physical board that has pictures of what you dream of in life. It could be a nice car, a house on the beach, or the body that you've always wanted. Use this board with mental imagery to see yourself being in the body you want and living the life you want.

Affirmations: This is repeatedly saying things out loud that you want to think about yourself, because how you feel about yourself is almost always how you're actually going to end up. Pick something that relates to you goals like "I am lean and healthy" or "I am strong and athletic" and repeat it out loud a number of times. You need to make yourself believe these things are possible if you ever want them to be.

I know some or all of these things can make people uncomfortable but you're never going to change if you keep doing the same things you have been. I plan of starting this tomorrow morning when I wake and I'm going to get back to you guys on how it goes. Until then, I would pick up the book for yourself and start working on your own Miracle Morning.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Why I Quit CrossFit 50/84


50 days in! Holy crap I can't believe I've managed to do this for this long. A lot of great stuff has happened since this started and I'm super excited to see where it will do from here! Anyway, for those of you reading who have known me for years know that I spend about 3 years training, competing, and coaching CrossFit. I did it basically every day without fail and got to the point where I was actually pretty competitive. But now it's been about a year since I've done a WOD and I wanted to write a post about why I made the switch,

I want to start off by saying that I still love CrossFit and even though I don't do it anymore I still have the utmost respect for it. I still closely follow what's going on and some of my best friends still compete, and we talk every day. Also, I use very CrossFitty workouts for most of my weight loss clients and it still works great for them. Although I've adjusted a few things that I feel are normally missing, I run those sessions very similarly to a CrossFit class.

I competed in and coached CrossFit from the time a finished undergrad and volleyball in 2013 until just after the 2016 CrossFit Open. During that time I gained about 30 pounds of solid muscle, added 100+ pounds to my deadlift and snachted 300 pounds, something that only a handful of people in the world will ever do, as well as a ton of other things someone my size has no business doing. I loved CrossFit and my life was all about it. I coached through my 2 years of grad school at The Arsenal (Muncie CrossFit) which is where I learned a ton about about exercise, coaching, mobility, SMR, and how to break the "rules" that exercise science tells us that are necessary for people. Once I moved up to Appleton, Wisconsin, I began helping out and coaching occasionally at CrossFit Appleton. I continued competing for a few months up there until I backed off to compete in a Weightlifting competition. After I won my weigh class for that, I hopped right back in to compete in the 2016 Open. I only trained for about 4 weeks or so but got back to a pretty competitive level. This is about the same time I start working as a trainer again too.

After the Open is over, every year I would take a little while to back off and work on some nagging injuries or imbalances that accumulate during the intensity of training competitively. It just so happened that this year I was working at Xperience Fitness where I had the option to work on powerlifting and bodybuilding outside of a CrossFit gym. This gave me access to different equipment that I didn't really train with for a couple years including dumbbells, machines, and the ability to do curls without judgement. As I began to back off on my programming to recover a bit, I also realized that working out at work was not only convenient but good for business as well. As a personal trainer there, it helped me get to know more members and make more connections that led to more clients. More clients is always better.

This also gave me a chance to reflect and figure out what my real goals were. Honestly, I knew for a long time that my height and size was going to limit me from every getting to where I wanted to go in CrossFit. CrossFit is definitely not a tall man's game and obviously I couldn't get shorter. I also was not willing to lose the weight that I would have needed to to be at a high level in bodyweight and gymnastics movements. I knew that I had to look and think about what I really wanted to work on.

After bouncing between programs and goals and not really knowing what I wanted, I got an opportunity that I hadn't really thought about in years; I started playing volleyball again. Finally! I had something to train for. I focused my program on the goals or getting strong, getting bigger, and being able to play again (basically getting my vertical up again). This worked out well with the program I wrote which already involved a lot of speed work anyway.

During this time I also learned a lot and realized a lot of things that were missing from typical CrossFit programming. There were multiple movement patterns, muscle groups and equipment that could help prevent injury and increase gains for people who are still doing it. The biggest things that I found missing where; horizontal pulling and pushing exercises, anything with a supinated grip, enough single arm/leg exercises, knee flexion, dumbbells, and any rotation or side-to-side movements. Lacking these things can have a pretty big impact on the health and longevity of competitors and adding in just a couple exercises for each can make a huge difference. Missing these elements leads to a lot off underdeveloped lats, pecs, biceps, and glutes (yeah I said it), hamstrings, and obliques. I think going into the details of all of these things would be an entire post in itself which I might need to do. For now, just know that CrossFit coaches really need to expand the movements they are using if they really want to do the most for their members as they can. What I do like recently is the use of the term "functional bodybuilding" (which I have been using for years) and seeing that grow into something that is more popular in the sports. From what I've seen, it address a lot of the issues I mentioned above.

So all in all, the biggest reason I took a step back is because it just didn't fit with my goals anymore. I knew that my success in CrossFit was most likely limited and I needed to figure out what I really wanted to do. Although I still love it and use it with my weight loss clients, CrossFit just no longer fit with the goals that I wanted. But even so, coaching for all of those years led me to where I am today and I would not be the trainer I am without it.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Running a Successful Cutting Phase Part 2 49/84


Hopefully you enjoyed yesterday's post on how to adjust your nutrition when you're trying to cut some weight. I want to reiterate  that that will be much more important to success than changing your workouts and what you do for your workout probably won't make as much if a difference as you thought. Although there are a few things you can do to help speed the process up a bit.

One of the most important things to think about when cutting is that we really need to focus on maintaining muscle mass. Although people often say "lose weight" what they really should mean is "lose fat". The goals shouldn't just be the number on the scale but to have your body fat percentage go down. If you don't do this right and end up losing muscle, you will weigh less but you'll still look soft and just be a smaller version of your previous self. In reality, THIS should be the main focus on your resistance training workouts. Still being strong, still lifting heavy even though you're eating less. Yes, you can and often should, include include fat loss circuits or conditioning but maintaining muscle should be priority #1. Here's a few tips to help with that

- Try full body workouts. Using your whole body each workout can help burn more calories and allows you to utilize killer exercises like Burpees and thrusters. Try 3-4 full body workouts per week
- Still use compound movements. They burn the most calories because they use the most muscles. They will also do the best job of maintaining muscle mass.

- Lift heavy and often. Just because you're cutting that doesn't mean you can get weak. Again, the main goal is muscle mass and you should try to keep as much strength as possible too.

- Shorten rest periods. This is an easy way to increase the intensity of your workout. Stick to 30-45 seconds for smaller movements and go as high as 60 seconds for bigger lifts.

- Turn your accessory work into a circuit. You can take the last point one step further and eliminate some rest periods all together. Take your last 4 accessory exercises and do then back to back with no rest the break about 45 seconds between rounds. This will also help you get out of the gym faster.

- Higher reps don't mean "toning" but can help increase intensity. You don't need to do high reps but they do a decent job of getting your heart rate up. Then again, so does lifting really heavy.

- Avoid long, slow cardio. People still seem to believe that this is super important in weight loss. Going for that long run may be doing more harm than good for your fat loss efforts.  Replace it with something higher intensity and save yourself some time.

- Do HIIT or SIT to save time. See above point. Although, when equalized for total calories, High Intensity Interval Training, Sprint Interval Training, and traditional cardio all burn about the same amount of fat, HIIT and SIT take significantly less for a similar result. They also help maintain more muscle.

- Go for a walk. This is an often underrated form of exercises. Although it somewhat contradicts my HIIT recommendation, walking can burn easy calories while still maintaining muscle better than traditional cardio.

- Get 10,000 steps every day. This should be a minimum for everyone. Daily activity is the most important exercise factor in weight loss. Sure, you could get a great 45 minute workout in but it won't make a difference if your sitting on your butt the other 23 hours and 15 minutes.

So one more time, you don't need to make massive changes in workout from a bulking phase or maintenance phase to a cutting phase but there are a few things you can do. If you take the above points and combine then with the nutrition information from yesterday the  you'll be better off saving your muscle and making sure of those pounds lost are fat!

Friday, July 7, 2017

Running a Successful Cutting Phase Part 1 48/84

Now that I've finished with the post on how to bulk, it's time to get after what it takes to cut successfully.  I think this one will definitely speak to more people than the bulking posts especially since the majority of people want to lose fat. Just like I did earlier, I'll start with nutrition first and then go on into the workouts tomorrow.

I've posted this time after time and I'm going to keep posting it forever because it's really important; nutrition is the single most important factor in weight loss. If you try to eat like crap and just change up your workouts or add some more cardio then you're going to fail. You need to make changes in what you eat each day if you ever actually want to make progress. Here are the biggest things I coach people through

- Just like when bulking, you need to find a baseline first but then eat a little less. You can do this by tracking calories or just base it off of what your body has been doing recently. If your weight have stayed the same then just eat a little less, if you've been gaining weight slowely then you need to eat a lot less

- Still hit 1 gram of protein per pound or body weight. As weird as it might sound, it might actually be MORE important to eat protein when cutting because you want to preserve muscle mass on a calorie deficit.

- Prioritize protein and veggies each meal. Try and get 1-2 palm sized servings on protein and 1-2 fist size servings of veggies per meal and eat them first.

- Pick either low carb or low fat but don't try and do both at the same time. You have to reduce calories some how and it shouldn't be from protein.

- Reduce calories slightly and stay there until weight loss stops, then reduce again until you plateau again. This is how my nutrition programs are set up for you.

- Try super low carb if you need to, but only for a short time. This can work well for a big time hormonal reset and help get some insulin sensitivity back, similarly to intermittent fasting.

- Base carbs off of workout volume for the day. If your workout has more volume than eat more carbs. Less volume equals less carbs, and non workout days should be low carb.

- Aim to lose 1-2 pounds per week. .5 isn't bad either but you don't want to lose any more than that consistently.

- Only cut for 3 months at a time then maintain. I wrote a whole post on this so I don't need to go into detail.

- Maintain for as long as you cut then cut again if needed.

- Have protein or BCAAs during workout and protein before bed. I prefer protein over BCAAs but if you're super calorie restricted the they can be ok to help maintain muscle.

- Try intermittent fasting. Again, whole post on this. Actually 3, so not a lot of detail here.

All in all it comes down to finding what works for you and sticking too it. Consistency is going to be the most important and without it the details don't matter. As long as you are consistently eating less calories than you're burning, being active, and taking maintenance lanes then you will be successful!

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Running a Successful Bulking Phase Part 2 47/84


Now that you guys know how to eat to grow effectively, you'll need to know how to lift to grow too. To be 100% honest there doesn't NEED to be a huge difference between the workouts to get bigger or smaller if your diet is on point. Look at bodybuilders, there's not much of a difference between their bulking workouts and cutting workouts but they still manage to change a ton. With that being said, there are still some things you can do to help the process along and make it as effective as possible.

- Focus on strength first. If you worry about getting stronger then bigger muscles will come. This is, of course, if your workouts are programmed right.

- Get strong with compound movements. No one cares how much you can curl, like, no one. You shouldn't try to go heavy on an exercise like a bicep curl but you should go heavier and exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls that use a lot of muscles. This is the best way to get strong and add quality muscle to your body.

- For these compound movements, keep your reps around 3-8. You can go higher or lower if you like but this is a great range to spend most of your time in.

- Do accessory work second. Once you finish your main lifts then you can move on to your accessory and isolation exercises. These can include exercises for your upper back, chest, glutes, and hamstrings then finish with things like biceps, triceps, neck, and calves.

- For these you'll want to go lower weight than with the compound movements and stick with 8-15+ reps for most. Things like calves, abs, and neck can go even higher as well

- Don't get confused, higher reps do not mean toning and they won't just help with muscular endurance. Not only can they still help build muscle but they're actually important in the process.

I have talked about this in the past but there are a number of ways you can split up your days and still make great progress. I have ones that I prefer and program often but I list a few options for you.

- Full body workouts. Hit the whole body 3 times a week and you're good.

- Upper/ lower. I did this a ton while I did my last bulk. I did 2 upper body and two lower body workouts a week. Sometimes I even added a third upper day just to work on some weak points.

- Push/pull/lower. This is what I'm doing now. I do deadlifts and pulling Monday, pressing Wednesday , and legs Friday. Just like above, sometimes I add a pump day on Saturdays.

- Bodybuilding splits. I'm not a huge fan of these for most people but they still can work. A basic example would be to separate chest/triceps, back/biceps, shoulders, arms, and legs. Abs can be sprinkled in there as well.

Once you decide what kind of split you want then use these guidelines to build your workouts.

Do 1-3  compound exercises
Do 2-5 isolation exercises
And do 1-2 exercises per muscle group

You really don't need a ton more than that once you add in the rep schemes from above. Usually 2-5 sets per exercise is plenty. One thing I often see sf people doing way more volume per muscle group than they need to. You don't need 5 exercises for chest and another 6 for triceps to grow and more is not better.

Hopefully these guidelines can help you build a good workout and let you run a successful bulk. If you cutting then save this for the winter and also stay tuned until tomorrow when I get into the details on how to cut successfully. Finally, I'm still accepting a couple more people for my workout test group. If you're interested in working with me for free for a month then subscribe via the pop-up and you'll get added right in

See you tomorrow

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