How LISS Cardio Changed My Life

Look, this is not going to be some post about the amazing amount of fat you can burn by doing this type of training. I still haven't changed my opinion on the vast majority of cardio as it relates to fat loss. I still thinks there are things that are much more important to changing your body other than hours of slaving away on the treadmill. In fact, this post isn't really going to be about the fat loss benefits of LISS at all, but the benefits I've received in other areas of my life since I started doing it.

Although that will be the case, I still want to give you some insight into what I've been doing. Low Intensity Steady State Cardio (LISS) is a form of cardiovascular training that is extremely beneficial but is very underrated. It is pretty much exactly what it sounds like; maintaining a low heart rate for an extended period of time in an attempt to use as much body fat for fuel as possible. It's simple, it's boring, but it might be the best type of cardio to lose body fat. The other super important aspect of LISS from this perspective is to do it fasted, which is usually the easiest first things in the morning. Here is exactly what I've been doing for my fasted LISS every morning.

• Wake up.
• Drink a glass of water and a cup of black coffee.
• Go to the gym and walked 30-60 minutes while keeping my heart rate between 90-110 BPM.
• Walk at 3 mph and increase the incline to get my HR to where it needs to be. Typically I start at 5 incline and increase as needed.
• I cycle my time by day to prevent burnout. So Monday and Thursday is 60 minutes, Tuesday and Friday is 45 minutes, and Wednesday and Saturday is 30 minutes, Sunday I take off. 

So the first question you may have from this is "Why low intensity? Doesn't higher heart rate burn more calories?". Well yes, a higher heart rate will burn more calories but we need to look at where those calories are coming from. The higher your heart rate gets, your body uses a higher percentage of carbohydrates to fuel the exercise. In lower heart rates, your body uses a greater percentage of fat. So while you're still going to use some fat for fuel at higher heart rates, the total amount you use will be less. 

The second question you may have from this is "Why fasted?". Long story short, because of the lack of insulin present increases the amount of body fat you will use for fuel because it becomes the most available fuel source. When you pair this with lower intensity exercise like walking, you maximize the potential to use stored body fat as fuel. 

Question three is usually "Can I do something other than walk?". The answer to that is yes, but you need to be careful about keeping your heart rate down in the lower range. It's pretty easy to get your heart rate too high with something like a bike or an elliptical, but it is an option you can use if walking is not a option for you. I choose to walk because I can, and because I am a human being who was literally designed to walk (also it's really helped me build up my calves).

So that's a quick rundown on what I've been doing and why I'm doing it. It's definitely not the entire story so if you do have additional questions then please let me know. Although I have lost some body fat from everything I've been doing lately (check that out here), that is not even close to the best benefit I've gotten from doing this cardio. The best benefit has been so much more important but we need to switch gears really quick to explain. 

Raise your hand if you listen to music when you do cardio. Don't lie because I know most of you do! But guess what, you're wasting some unbelievable potential by listening to music and not using that time to improve yourself. I was introduced to personal development 6 years ago about the time I started Grad School and I really haven't taken a day off of it since them. Every day I either read a book, listen to a podcast, listen to an audiobook, or watch a video about something that I want to improve on in my life. This is usually related to exercise, business, marketing, or leadership and I can never fully explain to you how much this has changed my life. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that I've learned more about exercise and nutrition AFTER I graduated Grad School than I did when I was there. That's not meant to say anything bad about my education, but just to show how much info there really is out there to learn (usually for free).

This is where LISS comes back in. That 30-60 minutes every day is 30-60 minutes of time you could be learning, improving, thinking, or building your ideas, career or business. It is impossible to explain to you how many ideas I've come up with (including this post), how much clarity I've gotten in my goals, and how motivated I've become just from the this time spent every morning. It's actually crazy how your brain just start to go. You usually latch on to a topic or sentence from what you're listening to and your brain just goes on it's own. You zone out and crazy things happen. But here's the thing, I also listen to the same programs on my 60 minutes of driving every day, but I don't get anywhere near the same number and quality of ideas that I do when I walk. There is something about listening and moment together that helps you get into a flow state where the combination of the two is more powerful than either separately. This has lead me to not only tolerate cardio every day, but actually look forward to it! I promise you that's not something that I ever thought I would say!

To finish up, I just wanted to give you a quick list of some of the podcasts (my go to lately) that I've been listening too when I walk.

1. The MFCEO Project by Andy Frisella
2. Empire Podcast Show with Bedros Keuilin and Craig Ballantyne
3. Renegade Radio by Jason Ferruggia 
4. The Mike Dolce Show

Again, these are typically more in the area of fitness, nutrition, and business but I would still recommend them to anyone, as they are all created for the every day person. You can chose to take my advice or not, because I know there still may be a weird stigma around "personal development" that can push some people away. But I promise that it won't take very long for you to understand exactly what I mean if you just decide to give it a shot.

The 8 Things I Did to Melt Off Body Fat

Before the move back to Cleveland in late March, I knew my body fat was the highest it had been in a long time. For the first time, probably ever, I didn't like to have my shirt off around people and I really didn't like what I saw in the mirror in the morning. I knew I had let myself go with the stress of managing a team, less emphasis on my workouts, and eating like an absolute asshole. The change of pace in my life that came after the move was the perfect opportunity to refocus on losing fat, getting shredded, and getting confidence back.

I not only decided that I was going to lose fat, but that I was going to use EVERYTHING I knew about fat loss all at once and see how fast I could get shredded. I put those things into a list in a general order of importance for you all. Number 1 is the most important and can get you some results and number 7 will do damn near NOTHING if you don't have the rest of the list down. There can be some leeway in the order but overall it sits pretty well. Bottom line is make sure you start at the top of the list and, once you've got that one down, work your way down. As for my results so far, I started this 2 weeks before I got to Cleveland but did not do my body fat. My first week a Life Time the Inbody put me at 15.1% and yesterday it put me at 11.6% which is a 3.5% decrease in 4 weeks. The goal is under 10% on the Inbody ASAP. Now to the list. 

1.Eat real food

This is the obvious place to start. Stop eating garbage and start eating things that are actual food. Clearly we all know this, but when it really hit home for me was when I was listening to a podcast with Mike Dolce (you'll probably hear that name a lot in this post) and he said "Stop poisoning yourself with synthetic chemicals, artificial sweeteners, and artificial colors. Just stop poisoning yourself". At that time, my meal prep wasn't super existent and I was living off of protein bars and Bang at work. It struck a cord with me and I catch myself saying it in my head multiple times a day. Another great and simple way to think about it is this; eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meat, healthy fat and whole grains in the most natural and minimally processed forms are you can. Stick to this and you will be lean and healthy, guaranteed.

Some of the swaps I personally made were to be a real adult and cook some meals, switch my post workout Gatorade powder for OJ and cranberry juice, cut out most protein bars in favor of food, and vastly reduce my energy drink consumption for black coffee and green tea.

2. Eat enough real food to start, then decrease over time

Once you've made this switch to actual food, now we need to look at amounts. Notice I don't start right away with "Eat less!' but simply "Eat enough". As crazy as it sounds, most people spend most days not eating enough total calories and their metabolisms take a beating from that (especially when those same people overeat on the weekends). So we need to get your food up to a decent baseline to start before we can cut the amount down. One of the biggest complaints I hear from extremely successful weight loss programs like the Renaissance Periodization templates or Mike Docle's "3 Weeks to Shredded" is that there is so much food at the beginning that people can't even eat it all! I do the same thing with my clients to make sure their eating up to a caloric neutral before they start to cut.

Once you're there (bodyweight should be maintaining or decreasing) then simply make small changes in the amount of food you eat each day. Based on your body type and preference, I would reduce either carbs or fat. I would definitely not reduce protein so keep that as high as ever. Make a change then give it some time. Once progress slows then reduce a little more. You really do not need to over complicate it.

The decreases I have been making have been to reduce the rice and sweet potatoes in my meal preps, and removing some of my post-cardio, pre-lifting OJ and fruit. Next week will be almost no rice in my prepped meals (probably 1/4 cup) as my next decrease.

3. Drink a lot of water

I shouldn't need to spend a lot of time on this. Water is important so drink it! Plus, when you finally give your body the amount of water it wants, you'll actually reduce your bloating and water weight because your body won't feel the need to hold on to as much. That alone can make you look leaner! I usually recommend 1 gallon a day to most people so buy a reusable water bottle (preferably not plastic, I don't care if it says "BPA Free") and math it out to see how many you need to drink a day. Don't forget to add extra for workouts and more is not always better so you don't need to be putting away 2-3 gallons a day.

4. Progressive overload based resistance training 

Notice that this is ahead of cardio of a list about fat loss. Weight training will not only build more muscle to help you burn more calories, but it will also give your body better signals about storing and burning fat, as well as have powerful hormonal effects to get and keep you lean. Ideally, you should start a program that uses a lot of compound movements, has varying rep ranges, utilizes tempo time-under-tension techniques, and follows progressive overload. If you want all of that in one then keep and eye out for the release date of the Herceg Size Cycle 2.0 coming in the next few weeks. It has all of the above plus more! Fill out that annoying pop-up you probably clicked away from if you want access to a copy for yourself.

5. Fasting morning LISS

For a long time I thought fasted cardio was useless. Not that it was bad, just not any more effective than fed cardio. This opinion was based on people I trust and a meta-analysis of a ton of studies on both forms of cardio. BUT, when enough of the majorly influential fitness people in your life say they use it with everyone who wants to get lean, you set your ego aside and take a listen. Primarily, those two people were Jason Ferruggia and Mike Dolce, who I know you've seen pop up a few times in my blogs and posts. Check them both out for some awesome info. 

Long story short, Low Intensity Steady State Cardio (LISS) in a fasted state can be beneficial for fat loss. The LOW intensity part is super important and I think where most people mess this up. At lower heart rates, your body is more likely to use fat as a fuel source. Combine that with a fasted state (thus a lack of insulin) and your body is in the best state to burn fat. Again, more is not better so aim for a heart rate between 90 and 110 BPM. Too much higher and your body will begin to use carbs to fuel your workout. 

I have been cycling my LISS to prevent burnout so mine looks like this.

Monday: 60 minutes

Tuesday: 45 minutes

Wednesday: 30 minutes

Thursday: 60 minutes

Friday: 45 minutes

Saturday: 30 minutes

Sunday: off

I do 3 miles per hour and adjust the incline to what I need to keep my heart rate in that zone. This cycle also pairs perfectly with my weight lifting program and gives me a ton of time to listen to podcast and learn. It was actually where I came up with the idea for this post as well as a lot of other cool things to come!

6. Carb cycling based on activity

This is what Precision Nutrition would call a "Level 2 strategy" and something that most people shouldn't need to worry about. But since I want to get stupid lean this year I added it in. Basically, carbs are your main fuel source for your workouts so some days require more than others. Simply, you eat more carbs on the days where your workouts take more energy and less carbs on the days your workouts take less energy. I eat the most carbs on Mondays (Squats, legs, and core) and the least carbs on Thursday, and Sundays (off days). The other days stay pretty even as they are all about the same energy expenditure.

7. Supplements

Sometimes, this is the first thing people default to and skip aaaaalll these other steps above. Really, any fat loss supplements will not do very much and will do damn near nothing if steps 1-6 are not in check. If you have every one of these other steps down, there are some products I like by the company 1st Phorm that you can try. I started this cut with the DB-Overdrive Fastpack and since have gone back to a stack I've used in the past, the Royal 21 King System. Both are similar but the DB comes with a greens powder which is cool, and the 21 King comes with a sleep supplement that I personally love. Both seem good so far but the DB is a newer product are probably more potent.

8. Green tea

Last thing on this list is green tea. Clearly the least important (could be swapped with 7) but it is something I added recently so I wanted to talk about it. This is another Dolce recommendation which he mentioned in a podcast and added to his "3 Weeks to Shredded" book. Basically, I added green tea to my meals 3 times a day. Green tea and green tea extract (found in many fat burners) has been said to have some thermogenic properties and can aid in some fat loss. According to Mr. Dolce 1 cup is good, 2 is better, but 3 is where you start to see some real fat loss benefits. 

Outside of that, green tea is just genuinely healthy and most people can benefit from it. I bought Salada organic green tea for a good price on sale and have been drinking that. 

So there you have it! Everything I've been doing to melt off body fat so I was able to regain my confidence and get ready for summer! Give these a try and don't forget to start from the top of the list!

Top 5 Tips for Every Aspect of Fitness

What's up y'all? First post back since my 84 day trek. I'll be posting about once or twice a week now just to keep getting you guys good info and working on different types of posts outside of just blogging. I've definitely been using Instagram more, mostly because of the increased post engagement vs Facebook, so make sure you're following me on there if you're not you can find me at

@Greg.the.Trainer

Today I wanted to do something basic and important and give you my top 5 tips for every aspect of fitness; Nutrition, Resistance Training, Cardiovascular Training, and Lifestyle. If I had to give someone a 5 minute breakdown of the most important aspects of each one this is what I would tell them. I'll post in list form for convenience then go into a small bit of detail in each one.

Nutrition

• Eat real food most of the time: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, lean meats, and healthy fats. This is healthy nutrition in it's most simple form. EAT REAL FOOD! That basically covers it. It's ok to stray sometimes but the vast majority of the time should be spent eating real, nutritious foods.
• Eat protein and veggies first and at each meal. This should be your priority each meal, regardless of goals. If you don't directly track macros then a good goal is 1-2 palm sized servings of protein and 1-2 cups of veggies each meal. 
• Eat slowly and pay attention to your food. This is a great way to eat less food, just eat slower. If you've ever eaten with chop sticks you'll know exactly what I mean. You can also try putting your fork down in between bites. Also, practice eating without any distractions (phone, tv, computer) and think about the food you're eating. 
• Eat based on your workout each day. If you have a harder workout, eat more carbs, if you don't workout, don't eat so many carbs. The harder the workout, the more carbs you get because you need to fuel your workouts. 
• Start tracking your food but learn not to have to. Tracking your food is important when you're just starting and is great for learning portion size and daily intake. Although I recommend everyone do this as the beginning, tracking should be something you wean off of as you actually learn portions and good habits. 

Resistance Training

• Focus on compound, multi-joint exercises. Squat, deadlift, push, pull, carry, rotate. These things should make up most of your program with some accessory work following. Perfect these exercises to the best of your ability and do them often.
• Try to get as strong as possible. Strong people live longer and strength is the most important controllable factor in longevity. You should be trying to get as strong as you can in the movement patterns listed above. 
• Try to build muscle, even if you're trying to lose fat. Muscle is extremely healthy and increasing muscle mass is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. Not to mention it makes you look awesome. 
• Keep workouts short and intense. Don't waste your time on 12 different chest exercises and 8 different bicep curls. Try to keep workouts around an hour using mostly the movement patterns listed above. 
• Lift 3-5 times per week. This will cover it for most people. Lifting more will not mean better progress and you need time to let yourself recover. Rest days are when your muscles heal and get bigger so make sure you have a few each week. That doesn't mean don't exercise, just don't have a hard lift. 

Cardiovascular Training

• Some days do low intensity, some days do moderate intensity, some days to high intensity. Variability is key here and no one form of cardio is terribly superior to the others. Walking is underrated as a form of cardio and is one of my favorites, but so is High Intensity Interval Training. To get the best results use a variety. 
• Cardio is great for health and performance but not great fat loss. This is one thing I need to try and break so many people of: you can't just do more cardio and expect to lose fat, as overall research shows it doesn't do much. This doesn't mean you should skip cardio, but just go into it with the right intentions. Cardio is great for increasing heart and lung strength as well as increasing recovery ability from resistance training. 
• Do it separately or the same day as lifting. For longer sessions you might want to do it on it's own day, which makes a good active recovery day, but shorter sessions can be don in conjunction with lifting. Do it before or after lifting, whichever you prefer. 
• Get outside sometimes. Don't spend all your time in a gym! Get outside for a walk, run, bike ride or water sport and get into nature, you'll be happier and healthier the more often you do this. 
• Do what you enjoy and stick to it. It doesn't matter what the "best" or "most effective" workout is if you're not going to do it. There's 1,000 different ways to do cardio so find what you enjoy because that's what you're going to stick with. 

Lifestyle 

• Reduce stress as much as possible. Stress, the bad kind, will make you fat. I have a full post planned for this but for now know that you should be trying to reduce stress as much as you can. Breathing exercises and daily meditation or two great ways that I do this.
• Sleep 7-9 hours every night. Not sleeping will also make you fat and it will kill you. Everyone has their excuses for not getting sleep but I don't want to hear it, I'm up at 4am every week day and still get my hours in. Want some good news? Naps count towards this. There's research showing that daily total hours is more important than just overnight hours. 
• Focus on building good habits, not quick progress. Health is a lifelong goal, not a short term sprint. Although everyone wants to lose weight right now, you need to think about building good, healthy habits that will keep you strong and healthy forever. 
• Get outside. Yes this is on here twice because it's important. Even if you're not working out outside you still should get some sun every day. One recommendation I liks is 20 minutes of sun and outdoors each and every day. 
• Move as much as possible. This one is big, maybe the biggest, at least from a health standpoint. Not moving will also make you fat and kill you and you need to try to move as much as possible. Just hitting a 1 hour workout a few times a week won't do much of anything is you're spending the other 23 hours a day sitting on your butt. Get up and move as much as possible each and every day. 

If you embrace each of these things you're setting yourself up for a long and healthy life, not to mention a hot body. Work your way through the list and see what you can do for each one. If you need help of have questions please reach out to me as I would love to help you. There's so much garbage information out there so I'll help you sort through it and find the good stuff.

The Real Benefits of Cardio 76/84

When people think cardio what's the first thing that usually comes to mind? Weight loss. Second is probably something like running a 5K or just being miserable. When you tell someone you want to lose weights what's usually the first thing you're going to hear? "You have to do more cardio!" Like it's the only thing to do to make yourself leaner.

In reality (yes I'm going to keep saying this) any kind of cardio doesn't have a major effect on fat loss. Yes there is some, but it's not what people expect. This is the same throughout any type of cardio wether it's steady state, high intensity intervals, sprint intervals, or low intensity. They all have about the same effect on fat loss and it's nothing to write home about.

So if fat loss isn't the point then what is? Do you even need to do cardio at all? What are the other benefits? To start off with, yes you still need to do cardio. It still plays a big roll in overall health and needs to be added into any exercise program in some fashion. So what is it good for?

1. Cardiovascular strength

Obviously this in the name, cardio helps build cardiovascular strength i.e. how strong your heart and lungs are. In an older post about predictors on how long you will live, I mentioned VO2max as the #2 predictor of longevity. You need to do cardio to be able to build that. Usually, for increasing VO2max, sprinting and HIIT will do more than steady state (because you're much closer to your max).

2. Increased recovery

When you do cardio, you start to develop more capillaries, which are the very ends in your veins and arteries that connect to the muscles. When you have more capillaries, your body can get nutrient to your muscles more efficiently. When you can do that, you will recover from workouts and heal faster.

3. Increased athletic performance

If you're trying to play any kind of sport at all, having a good aerobic (cardiovascular)  base will help you play better and longer. Even if your sport is mostly anaerobic like volleyball, having a better base will help you recovery between plays and allow you to express your full anaerobic abilities for longer.

Obviously there are many more benefits, especially in the health field, but these are usually the ones I discuss most with clients. So just keep in mind, just doing more cardio or conditioning without making dietary changes will not help you lose weight but there are still good benefits of doing cardio. No matter your goal you should always keep it in your training program, at least a a minimum

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

Barbell Complexes For Fat Loss 40/84

Cardio is not fun. It's boring and it hurts. Not, like, hurts for a little bit then goes away, just hurts for a long time. I've posted in the past about how I like intervals and circuits for a different conditioning option, but here's other one you can add to the list.

Barbell Complexes are a great way to get a lot of work done in a small amount of time while still getting your heart rate up. You don't have to just go for a run or slug away on an elliptical to get your heart rate higher and get the cardiovascular benefits of cardio. Also, since you're still lifting weights, you don't have to worry nearly as much about the potential muscle loss from doing it. I want to keep this one quick so I will to post a couple of complexes that I have been using with my clients during their fat loss phases. Typically, if we're doing two sessions a week, one will be a complex and the other will be some kind of circuit. These, of course, will be paired with other lifting exercises and I'll often has client do other cardio and conditioning on their own.

Here's a really simple complex you can use to get started. Pick a bar weight and use the same bar for all exercises. Do 10 reps of each exercise, repeat for 5 rounds, and rest about a minute between rounds

1. RDL
2. Bent Over Row
3. Front Squat
4. Push Press

This is very similar to one that I like to start people with and it can also be done with dumbbells or kettlebells if that is more convenient for you.

As we progress through a fat loss phase (usually programmed for about 3 months at a time), I start to add exercises and change the parameters around a bit. This next one can be considered and intermediate complex. Only do 5 reps of each exercise and focus on adding weight to the bar each week. Repeat 6-8 rounds

1. RDL
2. Row
3. Hang Power Clean
4. Push Jerk
5. Back Squat

I don't often use Olympic lifts with my clients because they usually aren't worth the time it takes to teach people. But, I do like to add in a hang power clean because it's simply a transition from holding the bar in your hands to holding it in a front rack. This skill comes in handy whenever we need to do presses with a bar on the floor or go through a complex like this.

This last one I like a lot but I can't take credit for it. It's called the Cosgrove Complex and I first saw it on Testosterone Nation. It consists of 8 exericses and you start by doing 6 reps of each. Do 6 of all of the exercises the first round, then do 5, then 4, then 3 ect down to 1. It is prescribed with 90 seconds of rest but I like to do a 1:1 work to rest ratio, meaning you time how long the round took you then rest for that long between rounds. Here are the exercises,

1. Deadlift
2. RDL
3. Row
4. Power Clean
5. Front Squat
6. Push Press
7. Back Squat
8. Goodmorning

This 6-1 rep scheme is great mentally, because after the round of 5 you're already past half way done! I only make one real change to this and it's usually to omit the goodmorings at the end. Deadlifts, RDLs, and Cleans are enough posterior chain volume and people usually have a good pump in their lower back by the time the goodmornings come around.

So there you go, something new to try on your next conditioning day that will keep you much more involved and get you out of the gym much faster than the elliptical. Hopefully you guys are getting some good information from these posts and we're getting close to the halfway point on my daily posts! If you want to stay up to date on everything, get some free stuff including my Top Fat Loss and Top Muscle Building Tips,  nutrition plan, and access to my private Facebook group, fill out the pop up window on here to become a subscriber. Subscribers will also be the first people I go to for workout testing and free programs so don't wait! As always, if you have any questions at all, or feel like you need some help with this whole fitness thing, reach out to me and I'll do whatever I can to help!

See you tomorrow!

Facebook: Greg Herceg - Personal Trainer
Instagram: @Greg.the.Trainer
Email: gsherceg@gmail.com

How to Get Started 33/84

Ok so I'll be honest, I probably should have put up a post like this at the very beginning of this endeavor, but I also didn't really have a plan or quite know what I was doing yet. Even now that I'm over a month in, this post is just as important because new people are seeing these posts every single day. Even people who have been following for a bit will be able to take away something from this. I'll break this post down into four part; resistance training, nutrition, cardio, and supplements and talk about where I recommend someone who is brand new start on each one. Even if you have been in the game for a while but don't do some of these things, I would take a step back and make sure you have the basics covered before you proceed much further.

Resistance Training

First off, resistance training covers a lot of different things; lifting weights, using machines, bodyweight exercises, and resistance bands, to name a few. The benefits of resistance training include building muscle on a bulk, maintaining muscle on a cut, increasing strength, increasing mobility, lowering blood pressure, decreased risk of mortality and a ton of other things. The idea that lifting is just for meathead bodybuilders or athletes is long gone. Everyone, and I mean everyone, can benefit from some form a resistance training.

When you're just starting, I would recommend you do mostly full body workouts and do them 2-3 times per week. You're going to be pretty sore that first week so don't go crazy. Start with the basics and learn some exercises to squat, hinge, push, pull, and carry. These are the fundamentals that everyone should be able to do. You can add couple exercises for biceps or pecs or whatever, but the majority of your program should revolve around those five basic movements.

I usually recommend free weights and bodyweight exercises to most people, but if you have no experience at all, then machines can have some benefit. Your muscles are still working and you can still get stronger. I would definitely not rely on machines for too long, but they can help you get started.

My normal recommendation for sets and reps is 2-4 sets of 8-12 reps on most exercises. This is the perfect place to beginners. 8 reps being the lowest makes it so you can go too heavy and 12 being the highest will reduce some of the total volume that you do. You also only need 1-2 exercises per muscle group, per workout to get great starting results.

Lastly, don't be afraid to go and use the equipment and the free weights! I'm dead serious when I say that no one is actually watching you or cares what you're doing. Don't be worried that you look silly or that people are judging you, they're really not. One way to help get over this fear is to have a good program that tells you what exercises to do, that way you know that you're doing exactly what you should be.

Nutrition

This is always such a tough one to start doing. Not only is it extremely important, but most people either already have a terrible relationship with food or have no idea what eating healthy really is. The first thing I would do is to just take some time and become more aware of what you're eating. Turn off the T.V,  put your phone down, and actually focus on your food. See how it tastes, see how it makes you feel, realize how much food really satisfies you. You also need to make a baseline of how much you're eating right now. This could be tracking macros or not, just have some reference point. I would also start consciously making healthier choices each day. You don't have to be 100% for each meal every single day, especially when just starting out, though. The point here is to build good, lifelong habits, not starve and deprive yourself.

Here's the basic food types to focus on; fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, and healthy fats. If the majority of your meals consist of these things, you're way ahead of almost everyone. Try to eat these things as often as possible and you'll make great progress. You should also increase the protein you eat (via lean meats usually) because most people are not currently getting enough protein in their diet. For my meals, I eat my protein and my veggies first before I even touch my carbs or fats. If you can fill up mostly on those, you'll eat less total food and be less hungry throughout the day.

Cardio

Since I've began posting on this blog, I've been getting a few questions about whether I actually think cardio is a waste of time, so I want to set that straight here. Cardio and conditioning are both really important from the health perspective. They help with blood pressure, resting heart rate, heart and lung health, and help with recovery from sport and exercise. BUT, with that being said, no form of cardio really has much of an effect on fat loss. This has been proven time and time again by research, most recently in a meta analysis of hundreds of different studies on the topic. It's very clear that diet has, by far, the biggest effect on fat loss, but you still need to do some cardio and conditioning.

I would start by building your base with some basic workouts. I love a 2-mile walk at an incline as well as something easy like a 30 minute bike ride. Depending on where you're starting, a walk/jog interval workout can be a good starting point as well. Eventually, I like to work people into sprint intervals but you need to build that base first. 1-2 cardio sessions a week is all you need for that. Things like playing games and sports are another great way to get some cardio in as well,

Supplements

I'll start with this; you need to get you diet together, at least mostly, before you even worry about supplements. Supplements are exactly for that, supplementing your food, not replace it. With that being said, the two main purposes for supps are to fill in any nutritional gaps that are missing from your diet and for convenience in certain situations. I don't care how perfect you diet is, there is still an extremely high chance that you are deficient in something. The only way to really know is to get blood work done, but that is definitely NOT where I would start.

The basics I would recommend are a multivitamin or greens drink, fish oil or other Omega-3, and a protein powder for you intra/post workout. Some people talk down on multi-v's but I think they are a good place to start if you have one that's actually good. Fish oil, on the other hand, is well proven to be extremely good for joint, skin, heart, and brain health. It's seriously amazing and important. Protein powder fits in to the "convenience" category and it not essential. But it is easier and faster to drink a shake during your workout instead of eating a chicken breast. And yes, I do recommend sipping 1/2 your shake during your workout and drinking the rest after. I also mix mine with some carbohydrates to increase the speed that it is absorbed. I do 1 scoop of Gatorade powder and 2 scoops of protein.



Hopefully these tips can get you up and moving and give you a place to start.  I know a lot of this can be overwhelming so please reach out if you need help. I will help you, and if I can't I'll send you to someone who can.  Finally, My Free Fat Loss and Free Muscle Gaining Tips are done! And I have to say that they're looking pretty awesome and I'll be emailing the to all of my subscribers soon. Those will be free to anyone who subscribes here. Right now you'll also get a free copy of the Nutrition Template that I use for myself and my clients. Subscribing will also let you join the private Facebook group that I just opened (I fixed the link). This group will allow for much more engagement with each other than my Facebook page so I can make sure you guys are getting all of the info you need.

See you tomorrow!

Facebook: Greg Herceg - Personal Trainer
Instagram: @Greg.the.Trainer
Email: gsherceg@gmail.com