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.

We Did It! 84/84

Well it looks like I made it. 85 days ago I posted a survey on Facebook asking people what kind of content they were interested in hearing about. In total, 84 total answers were given which prompted me to commit to 84 posts in 84 straight days, every day with no excuses. When I started, I wrote out a list of everything I could think of to talk about and it wasn't even close to 84. I knew that I would have to learn a ton as I went and if definitely wasn't going to be easy. Most days, especially towards the end here, I laid in bed at 10:00 at night trying to figure out something worth your time to post about. I wanted to give up more times then I know but every comment left and everyone who randomly told me they loved my posts kept me going.

Two weeks ago I told my wife, Emily, that I wanted to stop. It was late one night and I hadn't put anything up yet. I thought no one was paying attention and wouldn't even realize if I stopped. She talked me into posting and told me I would be so mad at myself if I quit. The next morning, a comment on that post showed me that people were still listening, and still holding me to my promise.

"Can you see the light at the end of the tunnel? Only twelve more posts before you've held up your promise. Definitely awesome reading all this though! We don't know each other very well but I've learned a lot from your posts 1000 miles away haha"

That comment was from a friend named Ryan, someone who I believe I haven't talked to years, but someone who's been paying attention. So Ryan, if you're reading this, thank you for that. Seriously. It gave me a new spark to make sure to finish this.

I'm learned a ton through this process, I've had to to make sure I had something to post about. Often times I'd pull from an event from that day or a piece of info from a podcast I'd listened too, which forced me to look into topics I may not have known a ton about. I definitely didn't have a plan but I made it work. It's like what Grant Cardone talks about in "The 10x Rule"' commit first then figure it out later. You don't always need a plan, you just have to act.

Hopefully you guys learned a lot too. My goal was to try to increase my influence and increase the number of people I had contact with. I also had the goal to post free content that was better than what other guys make you pay for. I think I accomplished this goal based on the number of questions I got, free programs I sent out, and phone calls I made with old friends. I loved (and will continue to love) every second that I get to help someone. These topics change lives and I'm blessed to be able to bring that info to people.

Also, wether directly or indirectly, these months of me posting have been the most successful months of my entire career with Xperience Fitness. I don't know if it was the forced extra effort, the increase influence, or something else. It could just be correlation and not causation but regardless, something happened and I owe it to you guys.

Obviously I still plan on posting, but definitely not every day. Instead, it'll probably be more like 1-2 a week if I hear something good on a podcast or have a new program I want to post. I also plan on doing some book reviews for a few books I have lined up. Here's a few to look forward too.

- The sick bench press program I'm on right now that is blowing up my bench
- A review of "Unplugged", the book I'm currently reading
- A full review of "Estrogeneration" which is next on my book list and will go into more detail than my first post about it.
- Breathing techniques that can change your life

I'm being honest when I say I've posted basically everything I know and can conceptualize about health and fitness for you guys. Pretty much any question I could answer for you exists within the last 3 months of posting so please reference them when you need. I need to go back through and categorize everything and it should be easier to find info at that point. Regardless, please feel free to reach out if you have questions. I love getting on the phone with people, especially those who I haven't talked to in a long time. If you need help please ask, even if we don't talk, because I can probably help you. If I cant then I'll at least be able to point you in the right direction.

I appreciate everyone who's liked, commented, and shared any one of my posts and I'm going to ask you to do it one more time. You may not realize how that simple act could have affected someone's life so if you're reading this, please at least hit the Like button when you're done or, if you feel inclined, comment or even share it. Let's make this my biggest post yet and see how many people we can reach. The more people who can see these the better because that increases the amount of people we can help together. Some of my posts have been pretty popular but I want this one to blow them out of the water.

So one more time, thank you all, seriously, if you read even a single one of my posts. There's nowhere to go but to keep going up and I plan of delivering you guys the best free content that I possibly can.

Top Kettlebell Exercises You Should Add Today! 83/84

In the eyes of most hardcore lifters the barbell is the king of equipment. Since it generally allows you to use the most load through a variety of exercises, it's no wonder that it's become so popular. You can argue pros and cons forever but there's no doubting that barbells will make you big and strong. But there is another option that often times gets overlooked. Although kettlebells have become increasingly popular in recent years through the help of CrossFit and Kettlebell only gyms, they still don't get the attention the deserve in my opinion. I love them and I use them every day with damn near every one of my clients. On my long list of certifications I plan to get, the RKC (Russian Kettlebell Challenge, considered by many to be the top notch cert for kettlebells on the planet) is definitely towards the top of the list.

Basically, you can do just about everything with a Kettlebell that you  can with a dumbbell but there are a few exercises where the Kettlebell has a slight advantage. Here are a few of my favorites.

- Swing

Duh. Obviously on top of the list. I primarily use a traditional swing and haven't messed the the American swing (all the way overhead) much since I left the CF world. It's an amazing exercise for working hip hinge and developing fast and explosive glutes and hamstring as well as core and grip strength. It also burns a ton of calories and jacks up your heart rate. You can even build some high level strength with swings if the bells get heavy enough. Just remember, the swing is a hinge, not a squat. There isn't a ton of knee flexion involved and most of the movement comes from hip flexion and extension.

- Goblet Squat

If you've read my post about squat progressions then this shouldn't be a surprise. The goblet squat is where you hold the Kettlebell by the horns up at your chest and use it to add load to your squat. It's the first weighted squat I do with people because it allows them to get into a better squat position then back loading like a back squat.

- Front Rack Carry

If you have been following for a bit (or are a client) you know that I love weighted carries. The front rack carry is unique to the Kettlebell and it is when you're holding a bell in each hand up and your chest. Your hands are together in a prayer-type position and the bell sits in a little space created by your pec, forearm, and upper arm. Once in this front rack you simply walk and try to stay upright. Your shoulders and upper back will be on fire and your core muscle will light up.

- Snatch

The swing is the basis for many Kettlebell exercises and the snatch is one of those for sure, along with the clean. To do a Kettlebell snatch, you start with a basic single hand swing but then drive the weight vertically overhead until it's locked out with a straight arm. One huge mistake people make with these is that they flip the bell over their hand at the top, effectively smashing their forearm with a canon ball. Instead, learn to drive the elbow back and rotate the bell around your arm so that you make contact early. This is one that definitely requires a visual and most likely someone to coach you through.

- Turkish Get-Up

Do you want healthy, stable shoulders, a strong core, and overall great mobility? Then you should do get-ups. I'm definitely not going to attempt the explain a Turkish Get-Up in detail here but basically you start lying on your back with a Kettlebell in your hand and proceed through a series of steps the stand straight up, then get back down to the starting position. They're super fun and extremely beneficially. They can also be pretty scary when you get heavy so be careful. I clearly remember the first time I did a 100# bell and thinking that I could very easily crush my skull.

- Bottoms-Up Press

Shoulder health awesomeness part 2. The bottoms-up press is when you hold the bell upside down so that the main weight is "floating" over your hand. This creates an amazingly unstable exercise that forces your shoulder to work overtime. This is usually done standing with an overhead press but can be done as a floor press or bench press variation as well. Again, just be sure not to crack your skull open.

If your gym offers kettlebells then try adding some of these to your program, if not then find a new gym! Barbells are great and dumbbells obviously have their place but the are certain exercises where the kettlebell is definitely king.

What Works for You Doesn't Work for Everyond 82/84

I just wanted to write up a quick post to remind everyone of something; what works for you will not necessarily work for everyone, and whats working for you right how will not necessarily work forever. This can be about diet or exercise, both of which will change often during our lives. This goes back to my post a few days ago about the 3 goals of nutrition. Goals change and how you respond to stimuli changes, you must be ready to accept these changes and have a plan for when they come.

This thought also should raise up a big red flag to any quick fixes or blanket diets/ programs that spout off about how well they work.  Obviously, just because they worked for whoever is selling them doesn't mean they will work for you. This should also raise an even bigger flag to people who promote diets/ programs that they did and say you can get results like them if you use it!

Everyone is going to respond to things differently and that means that professionals like myself need to be ready to adapt with their clients. You need to have multiple nutrition programs that work as well as multiple exercise program options. And you need to be able to move through these fluidly and adjust to your clients needs so you can serve them the best. Have knowledge of keto, vegan, Paleo, IF, and traditional diets as well as having knowledge of bodybuilding, CrossFit, powerlifting, and endurance sports. You don't have to be an expert in each but you need to know enough to find what's best for you and your clients.

How I Lost 20 Pounds Without Cardio 81/84

It's about that time of year again and everyone knows it. The days are getting longer, the weather is warming up, and the amount of clothing you're going to wear on a daily basis is getting less and less. As you start to pack up the winter clothes and unpack your favorite summer attire, you start to notice something that concerns you.

Your favorite shirt is just a bit tighter than you like. You have just a little bit of something hanging over your favorite shorts. Your favorite summer dress just doesn't seem to sit right. You're starting to realize that you've added a couple more pounds than you had anticipated and you can no longer hid that fact under your baggy winter sweats.

So what do you do about that? You know you want to get beach ready but you don't know where to start. You probably just need to hammer out endless hours or cardio, right? Or go on some crazy restrictive diet, right? Keto, you probably have to do Keto... Right?

EDIT: I went back and made some changes to this post to reflect what I've been doing in my most recent cut. Those will be in bold just like this. The main points of the post stay the same but I felt it was good to add some new insight to this topic.

Back in March 2018, I decided that I was tired of not having all of my abs and that it was time for me to go through I cut to drop my body fat down again. At that point, I was on a maintenance phase after massing up to over 250lbs while keeping my body fat relatively low, just over 10% or so. Through that maintenance phase I started to get pretty lax on my diet and my body fat started to go up, just enough to bug me. For years I was super lean, getting down as low as 4.9% body fat in college, and maintaining that through CrossFit for a long time. I was very used to being lean, I prided myself on it,  and I wanted to get down back where I was. I also wanted to prove a point, actually a couple.

Those two points were these; that I wouldn't need to do cardio to lose fat, and that I didn't need to count my macros and track my food. I greatly dislike cardio, as most people do, and I wanted to see what kind of damage I could do to my body fat without it. Through these last few months, not counting playing volleyball, I did probably 2-3 bouts of actually cardio, and usually just to get my last few MYZONE MEPs for the month to stay on track. It's safe to say that what little I did did not really contribute much to my weight loss. Main edit number 1, this cut I added in fasted walking 5-6 times a week to my fat loss journey. In the past, I was not a fan of fasted cardio and, based on the research I read, it was no more beneficial than fed cardio, and neither of them did a ton for overall fat loss. But when two of your most followed and most respected mentors in this field can effectively explain how and why they use fasted cardio for their clients, you can give it a chance. Simply enough, all I did was 30-60 minutes of low intensity stead state (LISS) walking each morning, keeping my heart rate between 90 and 120 bpm. I have done very little moderate or HIIT conditioning outside of this so far. 

As for point number two, there's absolutely nothing wrong with tracking food, I think everyone needs to do it in some fashion until they can learn what good portion sizes are and how to eat without it. You see, that's the end goal, you should be able to live your life without having to keep track of everything you eat. And you should be able to stay lean and healthy without it. At the point where I was, I had been tracking my food a lot prior, for years, and had a very good idea of how much protein, carbs, and fat to eat each meal. I also had an idea built into my head of how I was going to reduce calories throughout my cut, starting with decreasing fat intake and then in to decreasing carbs when I needed to. Main edit number two, I absolutely prioritized real food in every meal. My goal is to eat as much whole and minimally processed food as possible while still fitting in the general guidelines in the rest of this post. Real food needs to be the goal ALWAYS. Examples would be swapping out Gatorade powder for orange and cranberry juice, and reducing my absolute reliance on energy drinks and protein bars. I still use protein powder a couple times a day for convenience sake for now. 

Those were to two experiments I wanted to do but that's not all that went into it. As you guys probably know, I love intermittent fasting so I was obviously going to use that to help me. I extend the time of my fast so I basically ate when I was finished with my morning clients, which usually got me home and eating around 12-1. I also added a ton more veggies into my meals and prioritized them along with protein. I started each meal by eating my protein and veggies first, then eating my carbs and fats. Main edit number three is that I did not use intermittent fasting this time around. Due to my new schedule in Cleveland, IF didn't make sense as I had to workout earlier in the day. I simply added some steel cut oats, fruit, protein, greens, and juice after my cardio and before my lift. 

For my workouts I did an average of 4 strength training days per week. Nothing crazy, just basic bodybuilding and strength training sessions to help me maintain muscle. The intensity wasn't even as high as you would expect and some sessions were only about 45 minute long. Generally, I went 2 upper body and 1-2 lower body days working up to only 2-3 heavy top end sets.

Here was my plan written out in list form

- Extend fast to 12-1:00pm
- Eat more veggies and make them a priority  (1-2 cups per meal)
- Eat enough protein
- Eat some fat but reduce the amount as cut progresses
- Eat slightly less carbs than I was, usually 1-2 servings of fruit and 1 serving whole grains
- Very little cardio
- Lifting workouts focused on maintaining muscle and building up problem areas
- Strategic cheats days later in Cut
- Daily weigh-in when I got to work each morning

That's what I stuck to for about 4 months to drop about 20 pounds from my highest at 256 to my lowest at 236. Now I've been sitting around 238 on average and I'm pretty happy here. In fact, I'm happier with the way I look now than I have been in a long time. The best part about this is that I didn't do anything that anyone reading this post can't do. There is no magic to what I did to lose that weight and get my body and confidence back. It's not too late for you to do the same but you need to start TODAY if you want to be ready for summer. Sign up for that gym, stop poisoning yourself, get a Coach. There's still time to get beach ready but don't wait any longer! If you have any questions about this process of my experience, or if you want any help with your own weight loss journey then please let me know! I'm always happy to help.

CrossFitters, You Need to Eat More Carbs 80/84

CrossFit and Paleo go together like peanut butter and jelly, or so people think. They probably go together more like peanut butter and mustard. There's absolutely nothing wrong with going Paleo if you want to, and it if works for you then great. But at its core, it is probably not the best way to fuel yourself if your idea of a good time is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensities.

Years ago, Paleo seemed to be the #1 recommended diet plan for CrossFit to the point where we had Games athletes, who usually train 3+ hours a day, claiming that they live on fruit, sweet potatoes and a ton of fat to fuel them through that. Now I'm not saying that that's not possible I'm just saying that it seemed a little fishy. The nature of the Paleo diet is to only eat fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and meat (nit bad by any means). It excludes grains of any kind (probably not bad) and often times potatoes. Similar to a Ketogenic diet, most of the energy source is from fat, which is fine if your goal is health based (see my last post), but that's definitely not the best plan if competing in CrossFit is your end game. CrossFit conditioning can range from 1-60+ minutes in duration but average around 8-12 minutes or so. There is also a ton of strength and power exercise added in and both of those things are extremely important to the sport. These things together add up to carbohydrates being SUPER important to, not only people looking to compete, but also to anyone who doesn't want to fry themselves out after a few months. Low carb plus high intensity workouts are one of the most common causes of adrenal fatigue, which can take a good amount of time to recover from.

Now I'm not trying to be unfair and call out Paleo, there are plenty of other low carb diets, but it is just the most popular in this space.
Plus, it's still perfectly ok to eat a Paleo style diet while training CrossFit BUT you really need to be conscious of your carb intake. Eat what fruit you can, eat tons of veggies and go hard on some sweet potatoes. I would also say that white and red potatoes are totally fine, especially given the situation, because that gives you a ton more options to pick from when you eat. I would recommend you aim for 1.0-2.0g of carbs per pound of your weight for most CrossFit workouts depending on how hard they are. You can back off on off days down to .5g/lb but keep it higher on the days you're working hard.

If you have questions about nutrition then please feel free to reach out. It is usually the #1 thing holding people back and I know I can really help you

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.