tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80946444115743878792023-06-20T21:35:23.667-07:00Greg the Trainer Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-79673756753920058612019-05-02T09:51:00.000-07:002019-05-02T09:51:35.932-07:00How LISS Cardio Changed My Life <br />
Look, this is not going to be some post about the amazing amount of fat you can burn by doing this type of training. I still haven't changed my opinion on the vast majority of cardio as it relates to fat loss. I still thinks there are things that are much more important to changing your body other than hours of slaving away on the treadmill. In fact, this post isn't really going to be about the fat loss benefits of LISS at all, but the benefits I've received in other areas of my life since I started doing it.<br />
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Although that will be the case, I still want to give you some insight into what I've been doing. Low Intensity Steady State Cardio (LISS) is a form of cardiovascular training that is extremely beneficial but is very underrated. It is pretty much exactly what it sounds like; maintaining a low heart rate for an extended period of time in an attempt to use as much body fat for fuel as possible. It's simple, it's boring, but it might be the best type of cardio to lose body fat. The other super important aspect of LISS from this perspective is to do it fasted, which is usually the easiest first things in the morning. Here is exactly what I've been doing for my fasted LISS every morning.<br />
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<li>Wake up.</li>
<li>Drink a glass of water and a cup of black coffee.</li>
<li>Go to the gym and walked 30-60 minutes while keeping my heart rate between 90-110 BPM.</li>
<li>Walk at 3 mph and increase the incline to get my HR to where it needs to be. Typically I start at 5 incline and increase as needed.</li>
<li>I cycle my time by day to prevent burnout. So Monday and Thursday is 60 minutes, Tuesday and Friday is 45 minutes, and Wednesday and Saturday is 30 minutes, Sunday I take off. </li>
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So the first question you may have from this is "Why low intensity? Doesn't higher heart rate burn more calories?". Well yes, a higher heart rate will burn more calories but we need to look at where those calories are coming from. The higher your heart rate gets, your body uses a higher percentage of carbohydrates to fuel the exercise. In lower heart rates, your body uses a greater percentage of fat. So while you're still going to use some fat for fuel at higher heart rates, the total amount you use will be less. </div>
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The second question you may have from this is "Why fasted?". Long story short, because of the lack of insulin present increases the amount of body fat you will use for fuel because it becomes the most available fuel source. When you pair this with lower intensity exercise like walking, you maximize the potential to use stored body fat as fuel. </div>
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Question three is usually "Can I do something other than walk?". The answer to that is yes, but you need to be careful about keeping your heart rate down in the lower range. It's pretty easy to get your heart rate too high with something like a bike or an elliptical, but it is an option you can use if walking is not a option for you. I choose to walk because I can, and because I am a human being who was literally designed to walk (also it's really helped me build up my calves).</div>
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So that's a quick rundown on what I've been doing and why I'm doing it. It's definitely not the entire story so if you do have additional questions then please let me know. Although I have lost some body fat from everything I've been doing lately (check that out <a href="https://gregthetrainer.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-8-things-i-did-to-melt-off-body-fat.html">here</a>), that is not even close to the best benefit I've gotten from doing this cardio. The best benefit has been so much more important but we need to switch gears really quick to explain. </div>
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Raise your hand if you listen to music when you do cardio. Don't lie because I know most of you do! But guess what, you're wasting some unbelievable potential by listening to music and not using that time to improve yourself. I was introduced to personal development 6 years ago about the time I started Grad School and I really haven't taken a day off of it since them. Every day I either read a book, listen to a podcast, listen to an audiobook, or watch a video about something that I want to improve on in my life. This is usually related to exercise, business, marketing, or leadership and I can never fully explain to you how much this has changed my life. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that I've learned more about exercise and nutrition AFTER I graduated Grad School than I did when I was there. That's not meant to say anything bad about my education, but just to show how much info there really is out there to learn (usually for free).</div>
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This is where LISS comes back in. That 30-60 minutes every day is 30-60 minutes of time you could be learning, improving, thinking, or building your ideas, career or business. It is impossible to explain to you how many ideas I've come up with (including this post), how much clarity I've gotten in my goals, and how motivated I've become just from the this time spent every morning. It's actually crazy how your brain just start to go. You usually latch on to a topic or sentence from what you're listening to and your brain just goes on it's own. You zone out and crazy things happen. But here's the thing, I also listen to the same programs on my 60 minutes of driving every day, but I don't get anywhere near the same number and quality of ideas that I do when I walk. There is something about listening and moment together that helps you get into a flow state where the combination of the two is more powerful than either separately. This has lead me to not only tolerate cardio every day, but actually look forward to it! I promise you that's not something that I ever thought I would say!</div>
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To finish up, I just wanted to give you a quick list of some of the podcasts (my go to lately) that I've been listening too when I walk.</div>
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<li>The MFCEO Project by Andy Frisella</li>
<li>Empire Podcast Show with Bedros Keuilin and Craig Ballantyne</li>
<li>Renegade Radio by Jason Ferruggia </li>
<li>The Mike Dolce Show</li>
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Again, these are typically more in the area of fitness, nutrition, and business but I would still recommend them to anyone, as they are all created for the every day person. You can chose to take my advice or not, because I know there still may be a weird stigma around "personal development" that can push some people away. But I promise that it won't take very long for you to understand exactly what I mean if you just decide to give it a shot.</div>
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<br />Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-7019068431181302232019-04-19T09:12:00.002-07:002019-04-19T09:13:21.131-07:00The 8 Things I Did to Melt Off Body Fat<br />
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Before the move back to Cleveland in late March, I knew my body fat was the highest it had been in a long time. For the first time, probably ever, I didn't like to have my shirt off around people and I really didn't like what I saw in the mirror in the morning. I knew I had let myself go with the stress of managing a team, less emphasis on my workouts, and eating like an absolute asshole. The change of pace in my life that came after the move was the perfect opportunity to refocus on losing fat, getting shredded, and getting confidence back.</div>
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I not only decided that I was going to lose fat, but that I was going to use EVERYTHING I knew about fat loss all at once and see how fast I could get shredded. I put those things into a list in a general order of importance for you all. Number 1 is the most important and can get you some results and number 7 will do damn near NOTHING if you don't have the rest of the list down. There can be some leeway in the order but overall it sits pretty well. Bottom line is make sure you start at the top of the list and, once you've got that one down, work your way down. As for my results so far, I started this 2 weeks before I got to Cleveland but did not do my body fat. My first week a Life Time the Inbody put me at 15.1% and yesterday it put me at 11.6% which is a 3.5% decrease in 4 weeks. The goal is under 10% on the Inbody ASAP. Now to the list. </div>
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1.Eat real food</div>
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This is the obvious place to start. Stop eating garbage and start eating things that are actual food. Clearly we all know this, but when it really hit home for me was when I was listening to a podcast with Mike Dolce (you'll probably hear that name a lot in this post) and he said "Stop poisoning yourself with synthetic chemicals, artificial sweeteners, and artificial colors. Just stop poisoning yourself". At that time, my meal prep wasn't super existent and I was living off of protein bars and Bang at work. It struck a cord with me and I catch myself saying it in my head multiple times a day. Another great and simple way to think about it is this; eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meat, healthy fat and whole grains in the most natural and minimally processed forms are you can. Stick to this and you will be lean and healthy, guaranteed.</div>
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Some of the swaps I personally made were to be a real adult and cook some meals, switch my post workout Gatorade powder for OJ and cranberry juice, cut out most protein bars in favor of food, and vastly reduce my energy drink consumption for black coffee and green tea.</div>
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2. Eat enough real food to start, then decrease over time</div>
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Once you've made this switch to actual food, now we need to look at amounts. Notice I don't start right away with "Eat less!' but simply "Eat enough". As crazy as it sounds, most people spend most days not eating enough total calories and their metabolisms take a beating from that (especially when those same people overeat on the weekends). So we need to get your food up to a decent baseline to start before we can cut the amount down. One of the biggest complaints I hear from extremely successful weight loss programs like the Renaissance Periodization templates or Mike Docle's "3 Weeks to Shredded" is that there is so much food at the beginning that people can't even eat it all! I do the same thing with my clients to make sure their eating up to a caloric neutral before they start to cut.</div>
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Once you're there (bodyweight should be maintaining or decreasing) then simply make small changes in the amount of food you eat each day. Based on your body type and preference, I would reduce either carbs or fat. I would definitely not reduce protein so keep that as high as ever. Make a change then give it some time. Once progress slows then reduce a little more. You really do not need to over complicate it.</div>
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The decreases I have been making have been to reduce the rice and sweet potatoes in my meal preps, and removing some of my post-cardio, pre-lifting OJ and fruit. Next week will be almost no rice in my prepped meals (probably 1/4 cup) as my next decrease.</div>
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3. Drink a lot of water</div>
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I shouldn't need to spend a lot of time on this. Water is important so drink it! Plus, when you finally give your body the amount of water it wants, you'll actually reduce your bloating and water weight because your body won't feel the need to hold on to as much. That alone can make you look leaner! I usually recommend 1 gallon a day to most people so buy a reusable water bottle (preferably not plastic, I don't care if it says "BPA Free") and math it out to see how many you need to drink a day. Don't forget to add extra for workouts and more is not always better so you don't need to be putting away 2-3 gallons a day.</div>
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4. Progressive overload based resistance training </div>
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Notice that this is ahead of cardio of a list about fat loss. Weight training will not only build more muscle to help you burn more calories, but it will also give your body better signals about storing and burning fat, as well as have powerful hormonal effects to get and keep you lean. Ideally, you should start a program that uses a lot of compound movements, has varying rep ranges, utilizes tempo time-under-tension techniques, and follows progressive overload. If you want all of that in one then keep and eye out for the release date of the Herceg Size Cycle 2.0 coming in the next few weeks. It has all of the above plus more! Fill out that annoying pop-up you probably clicked away from if you want access to a copy for yourself.</div>
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5. Fasting morning LISS</div>
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For a long time I thought fasted cardio was useless. Not that it was bad, just not any more effective than fed cardio. This opinion was based on people I trust and a meta-analysis of a ton of studies on both forms of cardio. BUT, when enough of the majorly influential fitness people in your life say they use it with everyone who wants to get lean, you set your ego aside and take a listen. Primarily, those two people were Jason Ferruggia and Mike Dolce, who I know you've seen pop up a few times in my blogs and posts. Check them both out for some awesome info. </div>
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Long story short, Low Intensity Steady State Cardio (LISS) in a fasted state can be beneficial for fat loss. The LOW intensity part is super important and I think where most people mess this up. At lower heart rates, your body is more likely to use fat as a fuel source. Combine that with a fasted state (thus a lack of insulin) and your body is in the best state to burn fat. Again, more is not better so aim for a heart rate between 90 and 110 BPM. Too much higher and your body will begin to use carbs to fuel your workout. </div>
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I have been cycling my LISS to prevent burnout so mine looks like this.</div>
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Monday: 60 minutes</div>
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Tuesday: 45 minutes</div>
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Wednesday: 30 minutes</div>
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Thursday: 60 minutes</div>
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Friday: 45 minutes</div>
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Saturday: 30 minutes</div>
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Sunday: off</div>
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I do 3 miles per hour and adjust the incline to what I need to keep my heart rate in that zone. This cycle also pairs perfectly with my weight lifting program and gives me a ton of time to listen to podcast and learn. It was actually where I came up with the idea for this post as well as a lot of other cool things to come!</div>
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6. Carb cycling based on activity</div>
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This is what Precision Nutrition would call a "Level 2 strategy" and something that most people shouldn't need to worry about. But since I want to get stupid lean this year I added it in. Basically, carbs are your main fuel source for your workouts so some days require more than others. Simply, you eat more carbs on the days where your workouts take more energy and less carbs on the days your workouts take less energy. I eat the most carbs on Mondays (Squats, legs, and core) and the least carbs on Thursday, and Sundays (off days). The other days stay pretty even as they are all about the same energy expenditure.</div>
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7. Supplements</div>
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Sometimes, this is the first thing people default to and skip aaaaalll these other steps above. Really, any fat loss supplements will not do very much and will do damn near nothing if steps 1-6 are not in check. If you have every one of these other steps down, there are some products I like by the company 1st Phorm that you can try. I started this cut with the DB-Overdrive Fastpack and since have gone back to a stack I've used in the past, the Royal 21 King System. Both are similar but the DB comes with a greens powder which is cool, and the 21 King comes with a sleep supplement that I personally love. Both seem good so far but the DB is a newer product are probably more potent.</div>
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8. Green tea</div>
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Last thing on this list is green tea. Clearly the least important (could be swapped with 7) but it is something I added recently so I wanted to talk about it. This is another Dolce recommendation which he mentioned in a podcast and added to his "3 Weeks to Shredded" book. Basically, I added green tea to my meals 3 times a day. Green tea and green tea extract (found in many fat burners) has been said to have some thermogenic properties and can aid in some fat loss. According to Mr. Dolce 1 cup is good, 2 is better, but 3 is where you start to see some real fat loss benefits. </div>
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Outside of that, green tea is just genuinely healthy and most people can benefit from it. I bought Salada organic green tea for a good price on sale and have been drinking that. </div>
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So there you have it! Everything I've been doing to melt off body fat so I was able to regain my confidence and get ready for summer! Give these a try and don't forget to start from the top of the list!</div>
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<br />Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-6771270076068352742017-12-29T17:20:00.002-08:002017-12-29T17:20:47.832-08:00A Better New Year's Resolution <br />
Hey everyone! It's been a while, I know. I have definitely had to focus on others aspects of this job for the past few months but this seemed like an important time to drop a new post. I was just going to write a Facebook post but that didn't seem as fitting as writing on here.<br />
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The day I'm writing this is December 29th which means that New Years is just a few days away. I'm sure that tons of people are already getting their New Year's Resolutions in their head and deciding how they want to better themselves in 2018. In this post, I want to go over how I feel about Resolutions and how to write a better one so that you won't be like most people this coming year.<br />
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I want to start off with this: New Year's Resolutions are a good thing! A very good thing in my opinion because any time someone is trying to better themselves in any way is great! I'm sure you've already been seeing the memes making fun of "Resolutioners" and how they're never going to stick to their goals and I think that's bullshit. Why are we making fun of anyone who's trying to improve? We should be encouraging anyone and helping them get there instead of contributing to their failure. Of course I'm aware that most people do fail at hitting their new year goal but a lot of that actually has to do with their goal in the first place.<br />
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Take a second and think of a Resolution you've come up with and the past and failed at. It may have been somethings like "I want to get in shape" or "I want to start eating better". The problem with setting goals like that is that they are destined to fail based on the simple fact that there is no actually goal to hit! What constitutes "in shape"? What does "eating better" mean? You need to define these terms and make you resolution a specific goal that can be accomplished.<br />
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So taking from one of those examples you can switch "eating better" to "I want to eat vegetables at one meal per day for 30 days" or "I will only eat out instead of at home 2 times per week instead of 8 for 60 days". Both of those things constitute "eating better" but are changed into something that is actionable and specific.<br />
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Have you ever heard of S.M.A.R.T goals? S.M.A.R.T. is a good starting point for goal setting that you can use to write a better Resolution. S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time Bound and while I don't always use or agree with all of these (having unrealistic goals can be very, very beneficial), it can help a ton in this instance.<br />
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I'll use my NYR as an example. I got the idea last week and I've actually already started doing it (practicing what I preach of course). The idea was to not purchase any energy drinks, protein bars, snacks or anything else from the gym I work at for 60 days. We have a ton of different drinks and preworkouts that I would buy almost every day (sometimes twice a day) and I would use our protein bars and other snacks as an excuse to be unprepared with my own food. This goal will help my life in a couple different ways, specifically saving me a ton of money and helping me rebuild good habits that I have lost in the last few months. Now I'm forced to be more prepared with the food and coffee I bring each day which is a better option for my health anyway. I also picked 60 days as a goal because that is enough time to really cement a new habit. (Here's a tip too, you've probably heard that it takes 21 days to learn a new habit, or maybe 30, but it's probably actually longer. That 21-30 days is actually the most critical time in habit building so losing focus there can be very detrimental).<br />
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So here's my advice, take what you're already thinking and make it more specific, make it something that can be attained in the first few months, or, if it's a longer goal, set short term goals along the way so that you can check up on your progress and stay motivated. For reference, healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week for most people and weight gain should be around .5-1 pound per week. You should definitely set yourself up to succeed but that doesn't mean make it so easy that it won't make a difference in your life. You don't want it to be so small that you get there right away and have nothing change in your life. And, like I mentioned early, don't be afraid to ALSO set unrealistic goals for the long term. It may sound weird but aiming for seemingly impossible goals will help you improve drastically and even if you don't accomplish that goal, you'll be in a much better place than you were before.<br />
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Once you have a specific, measurable, and time bound goal think of a reward to give yourself when you hit it. Make it something you really want and something that will motivate you do get through the hard days when you want to quit. Likewise, don't make it something that will undo any progress you made during that time period. Having a reward in mind will greatly increase the chances of you succeeding and you'll get something cool in the end. Win win.<br />
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If you do have a health or workout based goal and you feel like you need some help then reach out to me and I'll show you how I can help you get there. One of my life goals is to be a household name in the fitness industry and be the first person you think of when you need help or have questions. I am definitely here to help and make sure you succeed this year for, maybe, the first time ever!<br />
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See you next time<br />
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- Greg the Trainer<br />
<br />Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-17728595782634187752017-08-20T17:08:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:32:31.969-07:00Top 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<br />
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@Greg.the.Trainer<br />
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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.<br />
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<b>Nutrition</b><br />
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<li><b>Eat real food most of the time: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, lean meats, and healthy fats. </b>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.</li>
<li><b>Eat protein and veggies first and at each meal. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Eat slowly and pay attention to your food. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Eat based on your workout each day. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Start tracking your food but learn not to have to. </b>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. </li>
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<b>Resistance Training</b><br />
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<li><b>Focus on compound, multi-joint exercises. </b>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.</li>
<li><b>Try to get as strong as possible. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Try to build muscle, even if you're trying to lose fat. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Keep workouts short and intense. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Lift 3-5 times per week. </b>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. </li>
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<b>Cardiovascular Training</b><br />
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<li><b>Some days do low intensity, some days do moderate intensity, some days to high intensity. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Cardio is great for health and performance but not great fat loss. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Do it separately or the same day as lifting.</b> 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. </li>
<li><b>Get outside sometimes. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Do what you enjoy and stick to it. </b>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. </li>
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<b>Lifestyle </b><br />
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<li><b>Reduce stress as much as possible. </b>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.</li>
<li><b>Sleep 7-9 hours every night. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Focus on building good habits, not quick progress. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Get outside. </b>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. </li>
<li><b>Move as much as possible. </b>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. </li>
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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.<br />
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<br />Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-89407415108164042552017-08-12T19:17:00.001-07:002017-11-02T05:30:14.967-07:00We Did It! 84/84Well 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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"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"<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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- The sick bench press program I'm on right now that is blowing up my bench<br />
- A review of "Unplugged", the book I'm currently reading<br />
- A full review of "Estrogeneration" which is next on my book list and will go into more detail than my first post about it.<br />
- Breathing techniques that can change your life <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-83774068240177583112017-08-11T20:29:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:30:26.005-07:00Top Kettlebell Exercises You Should Add Today! 83/84In 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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- Swing<br />
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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. <br />
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- Goblet Squat<br />
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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.<br />
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- Front Rack Carry<br />
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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.<br />
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- Snatch<br />
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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.<br />
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- Turkish Get-Up<br />
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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.<br />
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- Bottoms-Up Press<br />
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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.<br />
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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.Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-73548293364822368592017-08-10T19:05:00.003-07:002017-11-02T05:30:45.033-07:00What Works for You Doesn't Work for Everyond 82/84I 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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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.Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-86083619787094982712017-08-09T19:47:00.001-07:002019-04-14T06:34:11.912-07:00How I Lost 20 Pounds Without Cardio 81/84It'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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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<b>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.</b><br />
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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. <br />
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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. <b>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. </b><br />
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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. <b>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. </b><br />
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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. <b>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. </b><br />
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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.<br />
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Here was my plan written out in list form<br />
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- Extend fast to 12-1:00pm<br />
- Eat more veggies and make them a priority (1-2 cups per meal)<br />
- Eat enough protein<br />
- Eat some fat but reduce the amount as cut progresses<br />
- Eat slightly less carbs than I was, usually 1-2 servings of fruit and 1 serving whole grains<br />
- Very little cardio<br />
- Lifting workouts focused on maintaining muscle and building up problem areas<br />
- Strategic cheats days later in Cut<br />
- Daily weigh-in when I got to work each morning<br />
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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.<br />
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Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-91493426381111444352017-08-08T19:16:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:31:07.381-07:00CrossFitters, You Need to Eat More Carbs 80/84CrossFit 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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. <br />
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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 youGreg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-40648438584406221982017-08-07T19:46:00.001-07:002017-11-02T05:31:28.660-07:00A Better Way to Get Strong 79/84Are 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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The process to this is actually surprisingly simple. Here's what Cal recommends and what I've used a number of times now<br />
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2 weeks of slow eccentric training (go down slow)<br />
2 weeks of isometric training (pause after you go down)<br />
Continue with normal concentric training<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-52053314249961516332017-08-06T19:47:00.001-07:002017-11-02T05:31:42.377-07:00The Three Goals of Dieting 78/84What is your goal with your diet? There are many different outcomes of nutrition but most of them can be categorized into three different goals. Each one of these has their benefits and they all have some crossover with each other but there are definite differences between each one. The three different goals are; body composition, performance, and health/ longevity. Let's take a look at the benefits of each as well as where to start.<br />
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- Body Composition<br />
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This refers to any changes you want to make to body fat and muscle mass. The most important dietary factors here are total calories and macronutrients as these are the two things that have the most effect on body comp. You absolutely have to eat the correct amount of food and have it partitioned in the correct ways to see the best results here. The foods you eat don't make a super huge difference as long as the numbers are hit. That being said I would always aim to get 90% of your food from fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and healthy fats.<br />
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To start with a body comp diet I like to recommend a pretty even diet of moderate to high protein, moderate carbs and moderate fats. From here, changes can be made in carb and fat levels to increase muscle mass or decrease body fat. Usually I will add or subtract fats because they have the most calories per gram, so a small difference in foods makes a bigger difference in total calories. Just like in anything, finding what works did you is important but I would aim to keep protein higher, around .7g per pound to 1.0 grams per pound each day.<br />
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- Performance<br />
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This refers to anyone who wants to increase athletic performance, including strength training and increasing power. This is similar to body comp in that total calories play a major roll as well as macronutrients. I would still aim at the fruits, veggies, etc above but there are some differences in macros here. The biggest thing is that carbs usually need to stay higher to optimize performance. The exception to this is for endurance based athletes who get most of their fuel from fat, but for most athletes higher carbs will be better for them. This includes strength sports and most field sports that require fast burst of energy as well as sustained movement. Moderate to high protein, moderate to high carbs and moderate to low fat works great here.<br />
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- Health and Longevity<br />
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This refers to eating to just be healthy and have a good quality of life. This usually becomes a goal after one of both of the other two have been attempted and the person is ready to focus on the most important piece. Tons of people will go through this transition and it applies to training as well. When a person is younger and mainly focuses on one of the other two goals, health is not the main priority. But once that person has finished their athletic career or gotten to a desired body composition, then priorities switch to making sure that they live a long and healthy life. I feel like this should become just about everyone's goal eventually. Unlike the other two, food composition plays a much bigger role now. Outside of total calories, the foods you eat are the most important factor in increasing health. Again 90% of foods should come from fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and healthy fats but there are some macronutrient changes compared to the other goals. The big one here is that, when performance is not a concern, a low carb or ketogenic diet can be very healthy. This is also true for vegetarian and vegan diets. While I know there are a handful of bodybuilders and pro athlete who are vegans, it's probably not the best option for performance, although it is possible to still be very athletic. From a health standpoint it is extremely good and can always been considered a good option. Ironically, ketogenic diets and vegan diets are basically opposites in practice but both can be very effective for long term health. As for macros, I would still start pretty moderate and adjust to what works. Going vegan for moral reasons makes the choice obvious and trying keto for the hormonal and body composition benefits can be great as well. It all comes back to finding what works for you as an individual and being consistent with it!Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-32449368898211804982017-08-05T20:09:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:31:50.608-07:00Stop Letting the Weekends Ruin Your Progress 77/84I know we've all been there before. You nutrition is on point all week and then as soon as Friday night rolls around you start eating crap and reverting back to all of the bad habits you used to have. You can say whatever you want but weekend calories really do count. And you can't expect to eat great for 5 days and eat garbage for 2 and expect to make any real progress.<br />
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This seems to be a problem for so many people so I like to spend a lot of time trying to figure out why. The biggest thing is that you're out of your routine. We all develop routines throughout the week for when we eat, sleep, and workout. It's based mostly around your work schedule which makes it easy to figure out when you can fit everything in. Now, as soon as we get to the weekend, most people aren't working and that great routine becomes irrelevant. At this point, without a routine, people tend to rely on old tendencies and go back to old bad habits.<br />
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The second big thing is that the weekend has much more of a relaxing and party feel to it, leading people to drinking more alcohol and eating bad food. People go out more, go to lunch or dinner more, and do things like go to the movies more. It all plays into the nature that the weekend are supposed to be your escape from the work week and be time for you to be free and do what you like.<br />
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If you truly care about you progress you can't give into the weekend temptations, you have to make sure that you're just as disciplined as you are during the week. Make sure you have food prepped, make time for workouts, and have a plan for when your friends and family want to go out and do something. No matter your goal, make sure you still live your life, but you need to find ways to be responsible about what you're doing. Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-37756299951159518802017-08-04T20:56:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:32:19.802-07:00The Real Benefits of Cardio 76/84When people think cardio what's the first thing that usually comes to mind? Weight loss. Second is probably something like running a 5K or just being miserable. When you tell someone you want to lose weights what's usually the first thing you're going to hear? "You have to do more cardio!" Like it's the only thing to do to make yourself leaner.<br />
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In reality (yes I'm going to keep saying this) any kind of cardio doesn't have a major effect on fat loss. Yes there is some, but it's not what people expect. This is the same throughout any type of cardio wether it's steady state, high intensity intervals, sprint intervals, or low intensity. They all have about the same effect on fat loss and it's nothing to write home about.<br />
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So if fat loss isn't the point then what is? Do you even need to do cardio at all? What are the other benefits? To start off with, yes you still need to do cardio. It still plays a big roll in overall health and needs to be added into any exercise program in some fashion. So what is it good for?<br />
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1. Cardiovascular strength<br />
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Obviously this in the name, cardio helps build cardiovascular strength i.e. how strong your heart and lungs are. In an older post about predictors on how long you will live, I mentioned VO2max as the #2 predictor of longevity. You need to do cardio to be able to build that. Usually, for increasing VO2max, sprinting and HIIT will do more than steady state (because you're much closer to your max).<br />
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2. Increased recovery<br />
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When you do cardio, you start to develop more capillaries, which are the very ends in your veins and arteries that connect to the muscles. When you have more capillaries, your body can get nutrient to your muscles more efficiently. When you can do that, you will recover from workouts and heal faster.<br />
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3. Increased athletic performance<br />
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If you're trying to play any kind of sport at all, having a good aerobic (cardiovascular) base will help you play better and longer. Even if your sport is mostly anaerobic like volleyball, having a better base will help you recovery between plays and allow you to express your full anaerobic abilities for longer.<br />
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Obviously there are many more benefits, especially in the health field, but these are usually the ones I discuss most with clients. So just keep in mind, just doing more cardio or conditioning without making dietary changes will not help you lose weight but there are still good benefits of doing cardio. No matter your goal you should always keep it in your training program, at least a a minimumGreg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-58515596666577825222017-08-03T19:51:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:32:48.477-07:00Eat More Food and Lose Weight 75/84If you decided you wanted to start on a weight loss journey I bet the first thing you would say is that you needed to start eating less food. There's definitely a chance that this would be correct, but there's also a chance that it's dead wrong. There's a chance that eating less than you are now will actually kill any fat loss progress and prevent you from being able to lose fat for a while.<br />
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I'm not sure where the super-low calories diet deal started exactly, but I know that it's mentally effected just about everyone who wants to lose weight. They think if 1,800 calories means slow, consistent weight loss then 1,000 calories must mean SUPER FAST weight loss! It kind of makes sense initially but our bodies don't always work in ways that make sense to us. Instead of thinking about eating less food, start to think in terms of eating the correct amount of food. Not only will this help you build a better relationship with food, but it will also help you make the best progress overall. Plus, if you can eat more food and still lose sight then why wouldn't you? Why starve yourself more than you need too without getting any extra benefit?<br />
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People usually get pretty a little defensive when they look at the nutrition plan I write and see how much food I suggest. They often say things like "There's no way I can eat that much food", or "won't I gain weight if I eat this much?" Were so hell bent on eating no more than 1,300 calories to lose weight that the very thought of eating more is enough to turn people off. But here's the crazy thing about eating more food, it can totally work! Just under the right circumstance. I've seen this many times recently with my clients and I'll give you and example if one.<br />
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One client came to me after she had already lost a lot of weight but had hit a plateau. This is normal given that most people don't know about maintenance phases, but as we talked more I found out she had only been eating about 1,000-1,200 calories a day. No wonder she was stuck. All we did was slowly start to reintroduce calories back in, about 100 per day each week, and the weight started to fall off quick for her. What happens is that, when you eat too little, you bodies metabolic processes slow down and you burn significantly less calories each day. But, once you start to eat more, your body needs to start working again and you burn more calories. This is the example of the first circumstance when eating more is beneficial to weight loss: when you've been eating too little for too long.<br />
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The second circumstance comes back to the maintenance phase and how you need to start reintroducing calories to be able to cut again in the future. Let's say your calories start at around 1,900 and, over the course of a few months, we slowly cut them down to 1,200. Once we start the maintenance phase, we slowly start to add calories back in until we get to a point we're weight is stable, calories are high again, and we can start the next cut. This should take about the same length of time that it took to cut the weight off in the first place. Obviously you need to closely monitor your weight during this time so you don't put too much back on and you'll be surprised how many calories you can really add without gaining any weight at all.<br />
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So the big take away is this; don't just rely on eating less, make sure you're eating to CORRECT amount of food for you to lose weight consistently. Here's my suggestion in how to do that, either email me and I'll do it for you, or try this. Use an online calculator or go into My Fitness Pal and see how many calories you burn each day. Set you BMR and activity level but when it asked for you desired weight loss per week, start at .5 pounds. Yep, avoid the urge to jump right to 2 pounds per week. Stick with this until weight loss plateaus then switch it to 1. Then 1.5. THEN 2 pounds per week after you've been through the others already. I promise you'll still lose weight but you'll be so much happier with more food and you'll prevent yourself from doing any long term metabolic damage!Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-74776528605537030592017-08-02T19:50:00.003-07:002017-11-02T05:33:04.493-07:00Influencing Your Subconscious 74/84<br />
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Wether you realize it or not, your subconscious is making tons of decisions for you every single day. It can be nothing more than just the smallest blip of a feeling when you're making a decision and all of the sudden your brain has made up your mind for you. You unconsciously make so many decisions every day that, if you can't control it, it can have a pretty devastating effect on your life.<br />
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Have you ever noticed how some people are just positive all of the time while some people are constantly negative? If you pay close enough attention, you'll realize that the positive people usually have more good things happen to them than the negative people do. They are usually more lucky and have more success. Do you ever wonder why that is? Part of the reason is that because they subconscious thoughts are more positive, leading them to more positive decisions and feelings, which in turn leads to even more positivity. Without them even needing to try, their brains automatically think happier thoughts and make them make more decisions that will make them happy. This, in turn, often attracts more luck and more success. No one wants to spend time with a negative person right?<br />
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So what can you do to become one of those people? How can you get your brain to automatically think positively? The biggest ways are to avoid negative things and people and to surround yourself with positivity as often as possible. Even if you start off as someone who is always negatively thinking, enough positivity can start to switch your wiring a bit. The more often you do this, the more you can change your brain to default to positive.<br />
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The other half is to avoid negativity. Think of your brain as a glass of water. When you bring in negative stimulus like the news, tabloids, or you downer coworker, your water gets black and mucky. But when you constantly flush it with clean water from positive reading, thoughts, and people, the nasty water starts to clear out. The more often you can flush the black out with clean water the less effort it will take, and the less time you spend adding muck to your water the easier it is to flush as well.<br />
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Reading personal development books, inspirational videos of stories, and spending time with genuinely positive and upbeat people can really help your brain become and stay positive, and will be one of the most important decisions you make. Remember, you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so make sure you choose those people carefully and ditch anyone who's not going to the same heights as you. Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-69841133242869691892017-08-01T19:29:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:33:14.847-07:00Building New Habits Now 73/84This post won't be as much of an informative post as it is a call to action. Even though most people don't want to hear it, Summer will be coming to an end soon. Today marks the first day of August which means the new school year and new schedules are right around the corner. Often times people use this period an excuse not to start to work out and get healthy because they need to take time to adjust to their new schedule.<br />
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Personally, I find it interesting that said people need so long to adjust when they could have already taken the time to build the good habits in he first place, meaning that they wouldn't need to wait because those good practices would already be instilled in them. What I'm trying to say is that NOW is the time to start working on building those habits, that way you are ready when schedules do change. If you try to wait until then, you're not going to do it. Start it right now so that you can be ready when you need to. All it takes is to make one healthy decision, get a gym membership, or higher a trainer to get you started on the road to a healthier life.<br />
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Needing to wait is just an excuse, plain and simple. If you want to make a change then don't wait. Start right now by doing something that you know will benefit you then build on that. If you need help getting started or are stuck and need something to break you out then let me know. I'll help you with whatever you need and guide you with whatever resources I can. Just make the decision to act and take that first step! Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-24607793912769953332017-07-31T20:00:00.001-07:002017-11-02T05:33:35.084-07:00My Favorite Abs Exercises 72/84People get pretty obsessed with training there's abs, even to a point where they have an entire day at the gym set aside to it (seriously?). Hundreds of reps of crunches, side bends, and leg lifts all for that flat stomach or ever-desired 6-pack. So how much that effort is really wasted and how is actually taking you closer to your goals?<br />
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I've said this 1,000 times and I'll keep saying it; the only way to lose fat is to eat the correct amount of food. No amount of core exercises will ever make a difference in the appearance of your abs if you're still eating way to much to reduce that layer of flub over top of them. So what's the point? Why do so many people spend so much time on it? Honestly, it mostly seems like they're just misinformed, or know better but they're just hoping that somehow all of the science is wrong. Regardless, there's are a few good purposes or training your abs and core and a few exercises that are better than others.<br />
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Purpose 1 - Increasing core strength<br />
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This is the main purpose for what use core work for with myself and my clients. Core strength is essential for every day life as well as hitting big numbers in the gym. You'll never pull a big deadlift or hit a big squat with a weak core, so we spend time on it. It also keeps your body healthy makes sure your posture is good. <br />
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Purpose 2 - Increasing muscle size<br />
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Ok I lied (sort of). This is where core training can actually make your sixpack muscles pop a little more. Doing this won't help you lose belly fat but it will make your muscles more visible by making the muscle bigger. Obviously, for the full effect you need to get you body fat low as well.<br />
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I always recommend people use some of each of these goals in mind when training abs so here are some of my favorite exercises for each one<br />
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Core strength<br />
- Planks. Some people may disagree but I like planks for beginners. They teach you about maintaining a neutral spine and can build some initial strength and endurance. Once you can do a plank for 2 minutes you're probably not getting much benefit from them anymore.<br />
- Farmers Carry or any loaded carry. Maybe one of my favorite exercises period. They build strength everywhere as well as jack up your heart rate. Plus they translate extremely well to daily life i.e. one trip grocery bags.<br />
- Pallof Press. A slightly more unique exercise that catches people off guard. This exercise builds oblique strength and help with anti-rotation<br />
- Supermax Holds. More specific to powerlifters and weightlifters. This entails loading more than 100% of you 1 rep max on a bar and holding it for a few seconds. This gets your core (and your whole body) used to feeling heavier weight. <br />
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Core Muscle Size<br />
- Leg lifts and variations. These build size in your abs and obliques while keeping more of a neutral spine than sit-ups or crunches, making them potentially safer versions. Start with leg lifts on your back and progress to straight leg hanging raises.<br />
- Cable rotations. Parallel, low-to-high, high-to-low, I like them all. I use rotations on the cable machine for help build obliques in a way that is actually important in sport and daily life.<br />
- Full sit-ups. Way better than crunches in my opinion. Although some spinal flexion is involved, the increased range of motion and hip flexion help make it better in my opinion. If you're going to do a movement, do it full ROM<br />
- Weighted Cable Sit-ups. The most "bro" exercise on the list but if can pack on some meat. I prefer the kneeling version when done correctly and you can really load up some weight on this one. <br />
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As you can probably tell, I'm not a huge fan of crazy exercises and variations. I like to stick with and around the basics as often as possible, they're the basics for a reason. Try adding these into your routine if you're not already or contact me and I'll do all the thinking for you. Abs don't forget, if you really want that perfect stomach, you need to focus on foodGreg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-43526985425142561472017-07-30T20:14:00.000-07:002017-11-02T05:33:43.224-07:00How to be Successful at Anything 71/84 What is your goal right now? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to get jacked? Do you have a goal that's not even fitness related? Whatever it is, there are certain things you can do to damn near guarantee that you hit it. No, that doesn't mean it will be easy, but it will make it easier. Try these things out and see how much progress you start making.<br />
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Ok so I shouldn't even have to say this because it should be super obvious but YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DO IT! If you want to accomplish anything you have to believe in yourself enough to make it happen. I know that sounds super cheesy but it's true. Plenty of people will tell you what they want to do but don't actually think they can do it. When you have that negative mindset then guess what happens; you actually become your own biggest obstacle in hitting your goal. Self-sabotage kills more dreams than any other single thing, except maybe not even starting. So many people are their own worst enemy. I'm not sure why this is but I'm sure someone does. I would guess that it has something to do with assuming your going to fail and wanting to do it on your own terms. Regardless of why it happens it still does all of the time. If you can actually convince yourself that you can hit you goal, it makes it 1000x easier for you to do it. So how do you do this? It's as simple as telling yourself you can. The great thing about this is that you don't even need to believe it, not at first at least. But the crazy thing is that once you say it often enough your subconscious starts to change. All of these negative things you've been telling yourself for years start to go away and they start to get replaced by positive thoughts instead. When this happens you'll start to realize that you DO believe you can hit your goals and your whole outlook changes. At this point, your head is in the right spot to conquer anything.<br />
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Another way to guarantee success is to set massive goals. This is epitomized in the book "The 10x Rule" by Grant Cardone, which I would recommend to anyone. Basically, the objective is to set massive, maybe even unrealistic goals, then take the action necessary to hit that goal. Even if you fall short, you probably still did a hell of a lot more than you thought you could. Here's an example.<br />
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- Right now it's almost August 1st so let's say my goal is to make $100,000 by the end of the year. And let's say last year in the same timeframe I made $15,000 (all of these numbers are hypothetical). That means that I would have to make $20,000 per month each month to hit this goal. For most people in most jobs around the world that is rather unrealistic and that's ok. But now I work backward and see what kind of action I would need to take to hit that goal. I make 10 times as many calls and book way more appointments than normal. I start to use alternative means to find clients and work extra hours meeting people. At the end of the year I only made $70,000, well under my goal of $100,000, but guess what, that's still $55,000 more than I made in the same time the year before! I didn't hit my goal but that's still pretty amazing (again, all hypothetical).<br />
In this situation, by setting myself such a huge goal I more than tripled the amount from the year before and, although I fell short of the goal, I still made massive improvements. How can you use this mindset with your goals?<br />
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The last thing I wanted to go over to guarantee success is to take massive action. This came up briefly in my hypothetical example so let's do more detail. If you want to be successful you have to work 10x harder than you think you do, period. You need to go out and take huge action that can set a fire under your butt and start building you some momentum. Massive action is the only want to make any real difference without getting stuck in average and mediocre. Want to lose weight? Massive action. Want to get big? Massive action. Don't just just try to do the minimum, no one ever guaranteed success by doing the minimum. And the worst thing you can do the the expected amount of action. Again you don't want to be average so why do an average amount of work? You need to do the maximum and then do even more. Do tons of research, change you unhealthy lifestyle, higher a personal trainer (!), and be ready to take action!<br />
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If you start to do these things you'll be surprised at the differences you can make. Start to think about these points and figure out how you can use them to help you guarantee success in whatever goal you want.Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-7006015388295131142017-07-29T21:36:00.001-07:002017-11-02T05:33:58.966-07:00Flexibility vs Mobility 70/84Mobility is a topic that has come into the spotlight a ton in the last 5-6 years or so. I believe CrossFit has played a huge roll in that with the popularity of guys like Kelly Starrett and his Supple Leopard book. For hundreds of years before that, people had been talking about things like yoga and the benefits they can have on flexibility. This is obviously still hugely popular today and you can't walk into a gym without seeing someone on a mat stretching out before a workout (which is a terrible idea, don't do that). Things brings up the question in people's mind about what the difference between flexibility and mobility is. Are they same? Are they different? What is the difference if they are? <br />
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If you would have asked me 5 years ago I would have told you that flexibility refers to a muscle and mobility refers to a joint. You've never heard someone say "that's one mobile hamstring you've got there" but they would say "your ankles are very mobile". While I think this is still true I've heard another definition as well. Julien Pineau is the founder of Strongfit and one of the smartest people I've ever come across in this field. He defines mobility as "flexibility under tension" which I like more the more think about it. I can't tell you how often I take someone through an assessment who is super flexible but still can squat below parallel. They may do yoga all the time or stretch every day but that doesn't mean they can get into the right positions and use all of that flexibility when muscular tension is added.<br />
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This is not to say that flexibility is not important, you still need to be able to take a joint through a full range of motion (ROM) and proper stretching can help with this. But, what I like to do more often is to build people's flexibility while doing the exercises they need to be better at. RDLs (Romanian Deadlifts) are a great example of this. RDLs are what's called a "stretch position exercise" which is exactly what I sounds like and it takes the hamstring through a great stretch when you do it. This means it's a great tool for teaching flexibility under tension (mobility) in the hamstrings. Other examples of exercises like this are chest flyes, Incline curls, Jefferson Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, and overhead Tricep extensions. Each on of these exercises takes the muscle through its largest range of motion and give you a chance to work on mobility.<br />
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So basically, instead of spending time in a forward bend to stretch the hamstring, we practice a perfect RDL to increase mobility. Or instead of a side split we do a Jefferson Squat to increase hip mobility. This allows us to increase the length a muscle is allowed to go while also getting us into better positions that will translate to exercise. If you want more examples of those or videos on how to do them, Julien has a great set of videos he calls "openers" that help you work on flexibility under tension in different muscle groups.<br />
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This also brings up a good point about how much range of motion you need to use in exercises. Often times exercise have a prescribed ROM that you're expected to hit like squatting below parallel or touching your chest on a bench. But most exercises really don't have one, so what do you do? I tell people to take a exercise through the largest ROM they can while still keeping tension in the muscle. So say I'm doing a dumbbell bench press, sure I can bring weight down and touch my shoulder each time but what if I lose tension in my pec 4 inches before that? I say it's better to stop when you lose tension on that prime mover instead of going through a full ROM just to do it. You end up dumping tension into connective tissue, which can put you at risk, and you're probably not even getting extra benefit from it. Instead, work through the range you can under tension and try to increase that range as much as you can. If you can't keep pec tension on through the full ROM now, eventually you'll be able to and you'll get the full benefit from the lift. Obviously then, when you go do this, you know that you mobility in that area has increased.<br />
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Give this a try next time your at the gym and see what kind of ROM you can get you body through while still maintaining that tension!Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-17697088904743607462017-07-28T19:15:00.000-07:002017-11-02T05:34:10.039-07:00Drink Coffee, Live Longer 69/84I'm going to keep this one short and sweet; coffee is amazingly healthy for you. Not only is the list of benefits long, but the benefits listed are really important ones that have a massive effect on your life. I'm going to keep this one in list form because everyone loves lists, but you can find more detail on each one of these points and each is actually backed by scientific research. Here's a list of some health benefits of drinking coffee<br />
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I'm going to keep this one short and sweet; coffee is amazingly healthy for you. Not only is the list of benefits long, but the benefits listed are really important ones that have a massive effect on your life. I'm going to keep this one in list form because everyone loves lists, but you can find more detail on each one of these points and each is actually backed by scientific research. Here's a list of some health benefits of drinking coffee<br />
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<li>Improved Energy Level (duh)</li>
<li>Increase Motivation </li>
<li>Minor Burn Fat </li>
<li>Increased Performance </li>
<li>Lower Risk of Diabetes</li>
<li>Protection from Alzheimer's and Dementia</li>
<li>Lower the Risk of Parkinson's </li>
<li>Reduced Liver Disease </li>
<li>Decreased Depression</li>
<li>Decreased Risk of Liver Cancer</li>
<li>Decreased Risk of Colon Cancer</li>
<li>Decreased Risk of Stroke</li>
<li>Decreased Mortality </li>
<li>Super High in Antioxidants </li>
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Pretty important list right? Seems like something I'd want to take advantage of cause living longer is sweet. As far as life expectancy, studies have shown around 18-26% long life span in coffee drinkers. That's rather significant. Most of the recommendations I've seen are somewhere around 4-6 cups of coffee per day. Keep in mind this is fluid cups, not 4-6 coffee mugs worth. The average mug is about 2 cups so you're looking at 2-3 mugs per day for these benefits. Also, this isn't about coffee loaded up with cream and sugar. Black is where it's at and you should give it a try. If you don't like black coffee then you don't actually like coffee. You can try it iced if you don't like it hot and often times cold brew tastes a bit sweeter. One final point, I try to avoid caffeine after 3pm as often as possible even if you're someone who doesn't react a ton to caffeine you should consider this. Even if you fall asleep easily, it has been shown that the QUALITY of sleep can go down quite a bit. And that's arguably more important than quantity.<br />
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So go load up that coffee maker and get ready to smash some brew in the morning. I'm trying to take full advantage of that extra 26% of life. Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-73709784796239934272017-07-27T19:47:00.000-07:002017-11-02T05:34:28.296-07:00Kicking Ass in the Real World: Why Barbells are Not That Functional 68/84I'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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-7121021058878012812017-07-26T19:35:00.002-07:002017-11-02T05:34:40.948-07:00Go Join A Bar League Team 67/84I've talking in the past about how important daily activity is and how it's really the most important exercise for losing fat. This can be anything from walking your dog to going for a bike ride. One other great way to get some weekly exercise is to go join a bar league or rec league sports team. It doesn't really matter what you want to do; volleyball, softball, basketball, soccer, just get out and play. One of the best parts about working out all the time is when you can actually use the fitness you build in the gym in the real world. Not only does it make all that gym time worth it, but if your workout program is any good then you will have a solid advantage over a ton of people you're playing against.<br />
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Outside of the fact that playing sports is just plain fun and it is obviously good exercise, it can also be a great stress reliever and help you get a mental break from the day to day norms. Just that hour or so a week can do wonders for clearing your head and preventing you from getting burnt out. Add that to the social aspect of meeting new people and making connections and you have some great benefits that aren't physical.<br />
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Another one of the great benefits is that being on a team gives you something to train for. Want to lose 10 pounds? Now you have that extra bit of motivation because you know you'll play better. When I got back into playing volleyball after a few years it was perfect timing for me. Since stopping CrossFit I wasn't really sure what goals I wanted to reach for, but playing again gave me something to work on and I was having fun in the gym again. I could focus on getting my vertical back up and healing up my knees to keep playing. It also forced me to drop some weight so I could be more athletic.<br />
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Here's a quick reference list of all of the benefits you can get from playing a sport<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Extra exercise</li>
<li>Fat loss</li>
<li>Increased cardiovascular strength</li>
<li>Injury prevention</li>
<li>Increased training motivation</li>
<li>Decreased mental stress</li>
<li>Meeting new people</li>
<li>Winning free beer</li>
<li>Showing off how awesome you are</li>
</ul>
<div>
Just about everyone played a sport a some time in their life, and if they didn't they probably have one that they love. You might as well get out and try it so you can reap the benefits as well. If you want a program to help you dominate the rec sports world then let me know. Programming for athletes is really a specialty of mine and I would love to get you some help. Shoot me a message or email and we'll get the ball rolling!</div>
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<br />Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-83753551397334922572017-07-25T18:54:00.001-07:002017-11-02T05:35:24.110-07:00Tracking Food Without Tracking Macros 66/84<br />
So bottom line of food tracking, tracking macros works. It just does, assuming you're doing it right and willing to weigh and measure all of your food for the rest of your life. If you want to lose weight tracking macros will help, if you want to gain weight tracking macros will help. I still start all of my new clients out by giving them a macro based plan because if they follow it they will make progress. The issue comes in when you have a client who just hates doing it. Sure, you could tell them to suck it up and just do it, but I think that makes you bad at your job. As a personal trainer, your job is to find a good nutrition and workout plan that your clients enjoy and will STICK TO. If they don't like it they won't do, that's the truth. It doesn't matter how amazing and perfect that plan you wrote is, if they don't like it it's not happening. If this is the case, I always have a backup plan.<br />
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So, you come across someone who hates logging all of their food into a phone app, what do they do? Are they doomed to be fat and unhealthy forever? Of course not, we just need to find a different way to track. Probably the simplest way is just to write your food in a notebook, not amounts or calories, just what you ate and when. This alone can be pretty eye opening for what people are actually eating. Another good way that I love is the "measuring" techniques taught by Precision Nutrition. These techniques involve using your hand as your only measuring tool for you food each meal. I would recommend Googling the pictures to get a visual but I'll obviously explain here (I don't want to post them because they're not mine).<br />
<br />
Protein - Palm sized<br />
Veggies - Fist sized<br />
Carbs - Cupped hand<br />
Fat - Thumb length<br />
<br />
As a starting point, men should aim for 2 of each of those per meal and women should aim for 1 of each. Use this as a baseline then you can adjust as needed throughout a Bulk or a Cut. Just as with macros, I would suggest you start by increasing or decreasing fat as you go. All of the other procedures still apply such as make protein and veggies a priority, get your intraworkout shake and spread your food out evenly.<br />
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The whole point of this post is that there is more than one way to do just about everything in this field. The other point is that we need to be able to learn good habits so that we don't HAVE to relay on things like My Fitness Pal and Fit Bit to tell us what we're doing is right, we just know it. You need to be able to develop the skills needed to be healthy without the over complicated technology. Personally, I've dropped about 20 pounds in the past few months without tracking a single day in my phone. Was my Cut optimal? I don't know, but I've retrained plenty of lean body mass and my body fat is way down, so I'd call it a success.<br />
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<br />Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-7727734543741820612017-07-24T18:22:00.000-07:002017-11-02T05:35:34.951-07:00The Health Benefits of Vitamin D 65/84<br />
We hear often about the potential benefits of different vitamins and minerals. The vitamin industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that moves an incredible amount of product each year. In spite of this, to be honest, most of the products they're moving are absolute crap. Yes, there are definitely good multi-vitamins out there but they are hard to come by. You need to find a GMP certified company and do diligent research to find a good one. With that being said, Vitamin D is one supplement that almost everyone can agree is very beneficial. Actually, Vitamin D isn't even a vitamin, it's a pro-hormone because it can be synthesized in the body from sunlight on the skin. Actual vitamins can't be produced in the body and need to be taken in from food. Although sunlight can be a great source of Vitamin D, there are benefits to supplementing as well, which most people can benefit from. Here is a quick list of some of the benefits<br />
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Live longer<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lower risk of Multiple Sclerosis <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lower risk of fractures <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Lower risk of muscle issues <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Good for immune system<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #231f20; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Regulate insulin</span><span style="background: white; color: #231f20; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> level</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #231f20; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Aid diabetes</span><span style="background: white; color: #231f20; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> management</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #231f20; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Support lung function
and cardiovascular health</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #231f20; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Improved strength and power output</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">These are all hugely amazing benefits that I think everyone can agree would be good for you. One of the best things, like I said, is that Vitamin D is one of the more agreed upon vitamins out there. The other thing people agree on is that there is a </span>huge Vitamin D deficiency in the world. In the Northern Hemisphere, about 50% of the population is deficient, even people who think they get enough sunshine. So how do you know if you're Vitamin D deficient? Honestly, it can be really hard to tell. The easiest way is to get a blood test, which is something I recommend everyone do. Other than that, keep a lookout for decreases in athletic performance or energy. If you realize that your golf game kinda sucks a little worse now, you might be deficient. </div>
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So you find out you are indeed deficient, what do you do? Obviously, try to get out in the sun, you only need about 10 minutes of sun (with no sunscreen) each day to help. You should also start supplementing as well. If you're vitamin level D is low, take 50,000 units once a week for 3 months to get your levels back up. After that, supplement with 2-4,000 units a day to keep levels high enough. Seems like kind of a lot but it's really not. And even so, there are no real reports of Vitamin D toxicity. This means you can't really take too much unless you get to an extreme.<br />
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Personally, I take about 10,000 units a day right now which is just two tiny pills. I get mine from Xperience Fitness where we sell Supplement RX. 200 pills only cost $7.99 so there's definitely no excuse not to start.<br />
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<br />Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8094644411574387879.post-49028074058018570982017-07-23T09:33:00.000-07:002017-11-02T05:35:50.496-07:00How Everyday Products are Making You Sick and Fat 64/84Today I've got a really good one for you guys. This information is all coming from a podcast that I listened to a couple months ago and I've finally had the time to take legit notes and write it up for you. This was from an episode of Renegade Radio with Jason Ferruggia and his guest was a man named Dr. Anthony G. Jay. Dr. Anthony G. Jay is a PhD Scientist who spends his time studying fats, hormones, and cholesterol. In this episode, he goes into detail about artificial estrogen and how it's making the world fat, sick, and infertile. He lists off the top 10 artificial estrogens to avoid and where to find them. He also recently wrote a book called "Estrogeneration" which is just ordered on Amazon. If, after reading this, you want to order it as well you can do so <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Estrogeneration-Estrogenics-Making-Infertile-Chagrin/dp/1946546054/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500825175&sr=8-1&keywords=estrogeneration">HERE</a><br />
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So to start off we need to talk about what estrogen actually is. Estrogen is the female sex hormone, it is responsible for the development of female sex hormones and reproduction. Obviously, estrogen is super important and is necessary for both men and women to function normally. The problem comes when the levels become way to high and start to cause major problems. Normal levels of estrogen for women range between 20-400 nanograms per liter (ng/L) depending on what time of the month it is. The problem that were seeing is estrogen level up to nearly 2,000 ng/L, which are the levels we see in pregnant women and levels in men that are normally where women should be.<br />
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These increase are caused my estrogneic compounds which are compounds that act like estrogen in he body. These things cause estrogen levels to skyrocket and cause some huge problems. So what problems are associated with high estrogen levels<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Fat cell increase - Estrogen makes you put on fat, which makes sense when you look at it from the perspective of pregnancy. Fat has a ton of energy that mothers require to make sure their baby stays alive. It also makes you store fat in the way women typically do like in the hips or breasts</li>
<li>Depression - Artificial estrogen is messing with natural estrogen levels can cause problem with depression and can decreases motivation </li>
<li>Allergies - When women get pregnant is suppresses their immune system so that their body doesn't kill the fetus. High level of estrogen from artificial sources can decrease the immune system and leave you open to illness and allergies </li>
<li>Infertility - Because estrogen is the female sex hormone it can cause some crazy problems in men. The biggest of these is infertility and other reproductive problems </li>
<li>Increased cancer risk - Breast cancer rates are up 250% since 1980 and have increase even more in different parts of the world. High estrogen levels are known to be one of the main causes of this.</li>
</ul>
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So obviously this can all be some pretty terrible stuff, so what do you do about it? Here is Dr. AJ's list of Top 10 Estrogenic Compounds to avoid<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>phytoestrogens </li>
<ol>
<li>This compound is plant hormone that acts like estrogen in our body (just like this whole list)The biggest culprit of these compounds are soy and flax.</li>
</ol>
<li>Micoestrogens </li>
<ol>
<li>This are also called zearalenone and they are a mold estrogen. In the U.S. we have these huge silos where were store grain. This grain starts to mold while it's in there, and it molds quite. The U.S. has no regulation or legal limit on how much mold can be found in our grains so other countries take advantage of that. When the UK gains have too much mold in their grain they ship it over here and we eat it. Isn't that great? As it turns out, non-organic grains are way worse because they are mass produced. Although you might think that organic would be worse, the large numbers result in lots of mold. Corn and wheat are equally bad when it comes to mold levels</li>
</ol>
<li>Atrazine </li>
<ol>
<li>This is the second most used herbicide in the North America and it's totally illegal in European Union. CORN is by far the biggest problem for atrazine. The only real way to avoid it is to get organic corn. Studies have found 200ng/L causes reproductive abnormalities in frogs and cows that are fed with corn can have leves of atrazine of 700,000ng/L!</li>
</ol>
<li>Triclosan/ alkylphenols</li>
<ol>
<li>These two are soap estrogenics (found in our soaps) Triclosan will be listed on label but alkylphenolas will not. Make sure to keep a lookout for these two on your prodcuts. Because so many products have these compound in them, you can see what products Dr. AJ recommends on his website here <a href="http://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/whatiuse.html"> http://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/whatiuse.html</a></li>
</ol>
<li>Oxybenzone/ benzophenone/ 4-methoxybenzophenone</li>
<ol>
<li>These are the sunscreen estrogens and they are found in basically every big name sunscreen we use. Check the above list for good options or just look for organic sunscreen or one that have 20% zinc. By the way, BP is completely illegal in Europe.</li>
</ol>
<li>Red 3 and Red 40</li>
<ol>
<li>These two are obviously food coloring. Red 3 has been brought to FDA over 20 times to make it illegal but they keep getting shut down. These products require massive labels in Europe because they realize they may cause harm in children. A better option is to use beet juice instead.</li>
</ol>
<li>Parabens </li>
<ol>
<li>These are perfumes estrogen and they are used as a preservative in the product. There are many different names and varieties "Methol- Propal- Benzol-" so keep a lookout for differnt ways they try to hide them. An interesting fact about parabens is that they move through blood and you pee them out. This results in public swimming pools have Paraben levels that are "concerning for children". They have also found high levels in Polar Bears because it is circulating in the water. </li>
</ol>
<li>Phthalates</li>
<ol>
<li>This is a plastic additive that companies use to make it more rigid. Plastic #2,4,5 are the "best" ones for you to use by in reality you should try to avoid plastic when you can. Researchers have found up to 15% phthalates even in the better plastics listed above. Phthalates are actually far worse than BPA in this circumstance and products listed as "BPA Free" means they use phthalates instead.</li>
</ol>
<li>BPA</li>
<ol>
<li>This become popular years ago when people started to figure out how bad it was. It's not illegal nationally but the research is clear on how bad it is. There have been over 12,000 research papers starting how harmful it is. Even though it's not illegal nationally, 17 states made it illegal instead in some way or another. To combat that bad press BPA got, companies using BPS instead, which is basically the same thing.</li>
</ol>
<li>Ethinyl estradiol (EE2)</li>
<ol>
<li>This is the artificial estrogen that is found in birth control. Because of the high quantities our country takes birth control, it is found in pretty high qualities in the drinking water, especially in cities. Another big issue is that the human body doesn't break it down, because it is created that way. This means that it sticks around for a long time and creates a ton of problem. </li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div>
Ok I know, lots of super big chemistry words in there. I tried to make it as simple as I could but I also wanted to keep the actual names of the compounds in there. Now that you know the list we'll look at a couple of things you can do to stay away from these things. </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Filter your water, especially in the city.</li>
<li>Check labels if you're worried about this. Look for the crazy names listed above and check the list of good products I posted</li>
<li>Buy things that are fragrance free </li>
<li>Avoid plastic when you can, aim for stainless steel or glass instead.</li>
<li>Avoid non-organic corn and wheat if you can. This also means grass fed beef is going to be a better option. </li>
</ul>
<div>
I also recommend that you listen to the entire podcast yourself so you can hear the info straight from the source. You can always refer back to this list when you're done so that you have everything written out for you. You can find the podcast <a href="http://jasonferruggia.com/excess-estrogen-making-fat/">HERE</a>. </div>
</div>
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Greg the Trainerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830755844810483143noreply@blogger.com0