A Better Way to Get Strong 79/84

Are you looking to hit new heights and break records with your strength? Then there's a programming technique that you're probably missing out on. Even if strength is not your main goal, this program can make you more durable and help prevent injury. The program is called Triphasic Training and it was invented by a man named Cal Dietz. Cal is the head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Minnesota and one of the smartest dudes around. The full details of the program are listed in his book "Triphasic Training" but I will to over the basics and show you how you can add it to your program.

Triphasic Training gets its name from the three phases of a muscle contraction during a lift. These are the concentric, isometric, and eccentric contractions. The concentric is the shortening of the muscle, the part when you're doing the work and lifting the weight. Think of standing up in a squat. The isometric is when you're not moving and transitioning from eccentric to concentric. Think of the bottoms of a squat. And the eccentric is the lengthening or lowering portion of the lift, or going down into a squat. Most training focuses primarily on the concentric, but Cal realized that if you take time to train each phase then you can see crazy gains in strength and durability.

The process to this is actually surprisingly simple. Here's what Cal recommends and what I've used a number of times now

2 weeks of slow eccentric training (go down slow)
2 weeks of isometric training (pause after you go down)
Continue with normal concentric training

That's it, that's all you have to change to see massive strength gains. 2 weeks of slow Hell and 2 weeks of pauses on your main lifts. Cal started using these for things like squats, RDLs, bench, rows, and pull-ups but eventually realized you can make even more gains by doing it with every exercise. If you're an beginner, I would not recommend  jumping right into eccentric training, but to get through an adaptation phase first where you're learning the basics. If you're an intermediate or advanced lifter then this technique can help you bust plateaus and hit new PRs. I've even taken it and added it to the Herceg Strength Cycle to make it even more effective that it was before.

As far as injury prevention, Cal has reported that some teams boast about a 70% decrease in injury after this type of training. Although that is not common, it has happened. The reason that Triphasic Training helps prevent injury is because it helps build the strength on the connective tissue just as much as the strength of the muscle. This means that, unlike most training programs, the muscle strength is not developing at a rate that the ligaments and tendons can't keep up with.

If you're someone who's prone to injury or has a certain issue that needs addressed like a knee problem then Triphasic can have a real benefit for you. Abs of course, if you just want to get stupid string then this is definitely a program to look in to.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

Running A Successful Bulking Phase Part 1 46/84

I'm not going to lie, bulking is way more fun than cutting. I don't think this would be news to anyone, especially because of the look on their face when I tell my weight loss clients that I'm trying to gain weight. With that being said, it's not the free-for-all that people think it is, and so many people do it way wrong. Bulking is not about eating all the food and getting as big as possible as fast as possible. That mentality is a really good way to get fat. Bulking is about gaining quality muscle mass while maintaining as much of the leanness you worked so hard for on your cut. The process should be slow, just like weight loss, and it needs to be just as well planned. In this post, I'll go over the nutrition points you need to focus on when bulking and in Part 2 I'll go over the workouts.

During a bulk, your goal should be to gain about 1 pound per week for men and closer to .5 for women. Any more than that and you are probably not gaining quite as much lean muscle as you can. Obviously, you're going to get a little bit of body fat while you're bulking but the goal is to try and keep it to a minimum while still gaining a good amount of muscle. There are a few main points that you should spend most of your time focusing on. I'll go through those as bullet points to make it easy.

Nutrition

Whether you're bulking or cutting, nutrition is going to be super important to making sure you actually make progress. Here are some basic recommendations that I live by when bulking

- Find your baseline then eat a little more. If your weight is stable right now then all you need to do is add a little more food and you'll start gaining weight. If you want to get more precise there are some macronutrient recommendations you can use.

- Aim for .8-1.0 grams of protein per pound that you weigh. Most people don't get enough protein each day and this might be all the extra calories you need to hit point 1. This mean a guy weighing 180 pound would need between 145 and 180 grams per day.

- Aim for .5-2.0 grams of carbs per pound that you weigh. Yes, I know this is a broad range but it depends on the volume and intensity of your workout for the day. On days you do workouts that are higher volume, you should eat more carbs and days you do less you should eat less cars. most workout days will be closer to .8-1.5 grams per pound. Conditioning days will be on the lower end, even if the "feel harder".

- Fill in the rest of your calories with healthy fats. If you are tracking calories and macros this will just make up the remainder if you daily calories.

- As you progress through your bulk, carbs and protein stay about the same but fat increases. There is a number of reasons for this; protein and carbs have optimal ranges that they should be consumed in but fat doesn't, and fat has the most calories per gram meaning you need to eat less to get more. Want to make this simple? Add a scoop of peanut butter to the end of each meal.

- Still focus on getting protein and veggies with each meal and spread you carbs and fats pretty evenly across your day. Make sure you still eat about 1 cup of veggies per meal, you're going to want the fiber with all the food you'll be eating.

- Make sure you're getting you intra-workout shake each workout. Not only will this help you get more calories in each day but it'll help prevent any potential muscle loss from workouts

- Get protein and fat right before bed. This will help you recover faster and prevent muscle loss when sleeping, I like to blend 2 scoops on whey with peanut butter but if you can get casein protein that will be much better.

- Once you stop gaining weight, increase fat by a couple servings a day and maintain that until you stop gaining again.

- Just like cutting, you'll need to take a maintenance phase about every 3 months to get your body used to your new weight. If you don't you'll quickly lose the weight you worked so hard to put on.

If you can get good at these things and combine them with the workout blueprint I'll be posting tomorrow then you're definitely going to have a successful bulk. Remember to take is slow and enjoy the process, don't just try to rush to the end. Finally, if you want to see what it's like to work with me for totally free then subscribe here and you can join the group of workout testers that I'll be starting with this Monday. You can read about the workout HERE and see the post I but up about it on Facebook HERE. Anyone is free to join so let me know!

See you tomorrow!

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

Training Every Day for Gains 41/84

This is an interesting topic that hasn't come into the spotlight until recently. If you have been following along with me for a bit, you'll see that I have posted in the past about how I think some people train way too often and that they think that more is better. I've posted about how training too much can actually hurt progress in the long run and that training less frequently may be a better option. I've even cut my own training down to only 3 or 3.5 days of lifting per week. Although I feel that this has been working really well for me recently, this entire conversation all comes back to the "do what works best for you" principle that I preach more often than anything. This is where training every single day can actually be pretty beneficial for a lot of people. In this post, I want to get into how to train every day, what the benefits can be, and who could really benefit from this. Then, tomorrow, at the half way point of my promised 84 straight days of posting, I'm going to write up a free workout, based on this plan, that you guys will have access to.

So why the change of heart? After talking so much about training less, why am I now saying that it might be better for some people to train even more? Like I said in the intro, you need to find what's going to work best for you and hammer that. I'm not necessarily changing my opinion, just giving you more options. If it is better for you and your schedule to make it a habit of getting to the gym every day, at the same time, and running through a quick workout, then do that! The first time I was ever exposed to a workout like this was from a book called "Easy Strength" co-authored by Dan John and Pavel about 5 years ago. This workout was essentially doing the same 5 exercises every single day with next to no volume and almost no weight. Then slowly, almost immeasurably, increasing the volume each week until the point where you're way stronger than you were at the beginning. It's a super weird concept but apparently it works, especially since those two are two of the more established strength coaches in the world. More recently, one of my favorite coaches, Jason Ferruggia, discussed in a podcast about how he tried this for 3 months with great success. That's really were I got the idea to do this because I started thinking about the clients that I already work with that could benefit from it.


The biggest argument for training less often is that less volume is going to allow you to make sure that you're recovering super well from each workout. So what if you can take a 3 day a week workout, cut each day in half, and make it a 6 day a week workout? What if you take the exact same volume you did in 3 days and just do it over 6 days? Yes, your workouts would be shorter, probably around half the time, but that's really the point. And that's exactly what I plan to do. I started out with a workout that I would normally program for 3 days a week and I cut it in half so that each workout could be done in a short time each day. The total amount of work you do each day will be low, probably way lower than any of you are used to. But if you feel like this is something that can be beneficial for you then I encourage you to try it.

The biggest benefit of a workout like this the ability to build a habit around exercise. If you get used to going to the gym at the same time every day and just make it part of your daily routine, then it will be easier to make it a habit and make going to the gym something that you actually do. Although you're not doing that much each day, during the week you're still getting the same total volume that you would be getting if you were doing 3 longer workouts during the week. This mean that, not only will you not miss out on any strength gains, but you actually may get stronger because of it. And since the volume is so low each day, you don't need to worry about being able to recover from day today. Sure, the first week you may be a little sore, but you'll adjust and be able to make a good habit of it. In the long term, since you'll be able to make it to the gym so regularly, you may actually start to see some progress that you've been missing out on for years.

There are a few different types of people that this can be beneficial for so hopefully you can fit into one of these. A high frequency workout like this is great for people who have a hard time with sticking with the gym. Especially if they are also a person who loves to run their lives off of a routine. Having the same work hours each day and working off of the same schedule each day is going to be the perfect placement to add in a quick 20-30 minute workout each day. Get in, get out, get it done, and go back to work (or go eat). Something like a lunch break is a great place to add a quick workout like this. You can also add it in super quick before or after you go to work. On the other hand, if you're someone who has a different day to day schedule, or doesn't have trouble getting to the gym, you may not need to worry about a workout like this. Although it still can be beneficial if you want to try it.

So I'm going to cut it short there because I'll explain the rest tomorrow when I post the workout. But here's the trick, the only people who will receive the workout of my subscribers. So if you're already subscribed to this blog then great! You'll get a fresh new workout in your email tomorrow. But if you're not yet subscribed then make sure to do that! You can do it via the pop-up window on here. Also, when you subscribe, you'll get a copy of the nutrition plan I use with my clients as well as a couple sweet infographics about my favorite muscle building and fat loss tips (seriously they're super cool). So don't wait! Subscribe now and get a bunch of free stuff, plus a new workout tomorrow and more free stuff in the future.

See you tomorrow!

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

Top Body Weight Exercises For Each Muscle Group 34/84

A couple weeks ago,  I did a post on the top exercise that I like to use for each muscle group. Today, I'm going to expand on that and  do one specifically for body weight only exercises. There will still be some equipment necessary for some of them but that really just comes down to a pull-up bar and some kind of suspension strap like a TRX or rings. Sine it's friday night we'll just get right into it!

Neck

Neck bridges will be your best bet for this one from a body weight perspective. Note that that these are more advanced exercises and you should have some prior neck training under your belt before you try these. They can be pretty dangerous and there are better neck training options, but for a body weight exercise it's an option. I do these from the front and from the back and never, ever go to failure.

Shoulders

Handstand holds and handstand pushups are the best bodyweight shoulder builders. Start with isometric handstand holds against a wall before you try to do pushups and just working on holding it for an extended time. Unless you are a competitive CrossFit athlete, you have absolutely no use for kipping handstand pushups so don't even worry about those. That even goes for people who workout at CrossFit gyms but don't plan on competing. Build up you strength and don't try to progress too fast.

Chest

The ring pushup is still my pick for this one. The rings adds an extra stability factor which lights your pecs up and the rings also increase the potential range of motion to get a huge stretch in the pec. Just be careful not to go too low and put too much stress on the shoulder joint. Just like any exercise, focus in squeezing the muscles that you're trying to work the whole time. If you want to add even more tension, turn your palms forward at the top of the pushup.

Back

I'm gonna go with 2 here; pull-ups for vertical pulling and an inverted row for horizontal pulling. Obviously, the inverted row will be much easier for most people and it is important to build up proficiency in those before you attempt pullups. The rows can be done on a bar, smith machine, rings, or TRX Straps. If you want a good progression to help you get your first pullup you can look HERE

Biceps

We're limited here but my favorite is the TRX curl. Stand facing the TRX with your arms out in front of you. Keep your elbows high as you curl your hands up towards your face. Having your arms out in front of you will give you a great contraction in the bicep and you'll really feel these if you do them right, Be sure not to let your elbows drop as you go through the motion.

Triceps

You can get a ton of stimulus in your triceps withthe HSPUs and Ring Pushups but if you want more isolation then a TRX tricep extension is a good one to try. Start face down with the handles in front of you like a pushup position. Instead of bringing your hands down to your chest, let your arms come over your head and bend at the elbow. Use you triceps to pull you back up into the starting position.

Abs

I love leg raises! They allow you to work the abs and obliques like situp and other trunk flexion exercises but I like them better because you spine doesn't actually move. You can do these lying flat, in an ab tower, or hanging from a bar. I'll also add side planks to the mix here because I think they're an amazing exercise to build everything on your lateral chains like shoulders, lats, obliques, and hips.

Quads

My go-to lately has been the front foot elevated split squat. It give you all of the benefits of a rear foot elevated one but people seem to have an easier time with the balance here. You only need to raise your front foot up about six inches to really feel the stretch and work. Make sure you touch your back knee all the way to the ground each rep

Hamstrings

Two here as well; the TRX hamstring curl and the single leg RDL. I did one for knee flexion and one for hip extension to give you a couple options. You can also substitute the TRX for an exercise ball and get just as good of a stimulus. There is a good progression here that you can learn and I'll do a video on it pretty soon that will take you from the easiest to the hardest versions of this exercise.

When doing the single leg RDL, make sure not to let you back hip raise (that would be the leg that is going back). Keep your hips square and you'll really feel your glutes light up as well. The motion is the same as a regular RDL where you keep your knees soft and focus on pushing your hips backwards

Glutes

Glute bridges are where it's at here. For bodyweight you'll want to do higher reps to still get a good burn but these are a great butt builder when you add a barbell or band. Do them on one leg to increase difficulty. You can also raise your shoulders up onto a box to increase the range of motion.

Calves

Sprinting wins here. Calves raises aren't my favorite but have their place. If you really want to light you calves up with no added weight then sprint you butt up a hill and I guarantee you feel it tomorrow!

I'm planning on writing up a bodyweight only program to give to you guys but this one is only for subscribers. Follow the pop-up prompt and join the Facebook group to get access to this program! Finally, My Free Fat Loss and Free Muscle Gaining Tips are done! And I have to say that they're looking pretty awesome. Those will be free to anyone who subscribes here. Subscribing will also let you join the private Facebook group that will give you the ability to see this new program. 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

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

My Go-To Squat Progression 32/84

This is kind of a part 2 from yesterday's post about squat variations and progressions for people with knee problems. I wanted to go more in depth about the actually progression that I use when I start with new people to get them from 0 to squatting like a pro.

For most people, this will begin with the progression that I outlined yesterday of squatting onto a box, tapping the box, then squatting without the box. This brings us to a point where I feel that someone can sit down into a squat with enough competency to start to add some weight. Once I feel they are ready, I always start with a Goblet Squat, which is where you squat while holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at chest height. I do this for a number of reason; the weight can start super low if i need it to, there are easy increases and decreases with  5 pound dumbbell jumps, and more importantly this squat is a front-loaded squat. That means that the extra weight is on the front of the body, which allows the person to sit slightly deeper into the squat than if it is back-loaded like a barbell back squat. This promotes better squat technique and allows for a greater range of motion. We stick with a goblet squat for a long time with a lot of my clients. We have dumbbells up to 125 pounds so theoretically I could keep them there until they are strong enough to handle that, but I usually go more off of how good their squat looks.

Once a client can go a picture perfect Goblet Squat with at least 45 pounds then I start to work them into doing front squats. I go to the front squat next because it too is a front loaded exercise (duh) meaning that we can still sit lower and be more upright. For most, this means we start front squats with an  arms crossed grip. The reason I do this is because a traditional front rack grip requires upper body mobility that most people don't have. Obviously, up until this point I have been drilling front rack mobility with them, but some people will still look better with a arms crossed grip. I will maintain this grip for as long as we need to until the mobility in the front rack is good enough that we can switch over. I prefer the traditional front rack because it allows you to move more weight and can lead us into cleans if the client wants to.

It's not until the person can do a near perfect front squat that we even start to work on back squats. Because back squats are a back loaded exercise, it requires more lower body mobility to be able to sit all the way down into the bottom of a squat. I want to make sure that we can build up the mobility for a long time so we don't have to worry about squat depth. Think about it this way, most people can take a dumbbell and squat down into a nice deep squat, but as soon as you put the bar on their back, their form goes to crap and they can't hit depth nearly as well. Don't get me wrong, I love back squats, but I just don't think they are something we need to jump right into and there are better exercises we can do with people who are just starting out.

At this point, I may start to introduce Overhead Squats into the equation because they require (more so than any other exercise) a tremendous amount of full body mobility. It's a long process but now that I am no longer coaching CrossFit athletes there's not a ton of need for my clients to be able to overhead squat.

In tomorrows post, I'll go into more detail on the progression of exercises I take once squatting without a box has been achieved. 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