 I want to introduce you to this new drug going around. It’s some great stuff. Maybe you’ve heard of it, or have some friends that dabble with it. Some kids on the college campus might be in on it. Or a few of your co-workers at the office get down on it a few times a week after work. Ready for it? It’s called “GAINS”. It’s quite extraordinary. Gains are everywhere these days, and the best part is- you make these so called “gains” all on your own! But I got to tell you, it’s quite addicting. You’ll get hooked on making gains. Before you know it, you’ll be all about the gains. So how do we make these so called “Gains?” All kidding aside, making gains isn’t rocket science. But it is a science. A lot of progress has been made in sports and exercise science over the last decade on what it really takes to build lean muscle mass. Up until this point, a lot of “what works” has been anecdotal evidence and what we know as “bro science.” Guys have been getting big and jacked without the “science” behind it for years , but now we’re starting to understand the reasons for exactly why their methods were working. It’s been proven that there are quite a few essential requirements needed to see an improvement in your physique and weight training, a lot that can go unrecognized. But what are these requirements? Well lets’ lay out these requirements and you can see what it takes to really optimize your muscle building quest and start making some gains! 7 Key Requirements to Optimize Muscle Growth |
 | If you want to make REAL improvements to your body composition, you need to stop "working out" and start TRAINING. |
A major issue I've recently noticed about people is they often manage to confuse ACTIVITY with ACCOMPLISHMENT.
This is in regards to all aspects of life you can imagine.
Especially in the health and fitness realm.
Maybe it's due to this current social phenomena of "something for nothing", "instant gratification", and "feeling entitled for no reason whatsoever" mentalities that seem to be plaguing my current generation.
Lately I've observed people thinking they're accomplishing something big, a goal or task, just by simplying DOING.
This, my friends, should never be the case.
DOING something is always important and a vital step in the right direction for accomplishment. After all, something is always better than nothing.
But it order to accomplish, there has to be direction involved.
This is where I see SO many people making huge mistakes on the quest to attain better health and better bodies.
They feel "just exercising" is all that's needed to accomplish their goals.
When in reality, they really need to be TRAINING if they want to improve their progress.
You’re probably thinking, “Wait, what?? Isn’t exercise ‘training’??”
Sure, I guess you can consider exercise to be a form of training BUT there is a major difference between an individual who “trains” vs. someone who “exercises”
1. The difference between exercising and training is having a point. Exercise is done to waste energy , burn calories , or to “blow off steam,” excess mental and physical energy, and tension.
Training is done in order to improve something : strength, endurance, neuromuscular control, and all that jazz. Exercise is a singular event with an immediate goal.
2. The success of training can only be judged by changes over time in performance. Exercise doesn’t have a point beyond the immediate session.
if you leave the gym a sweaty mess, it was a good exercise session or “workout.” If you show up every day and breathe hard and get tired and sweaty, you may consider yourself to be successful at exercise (cough CROSSFIT cough).
By contrast, training can only be judged as a success if it works; that is, if after an appropriate amount of time you can clearly show improved capacity for physical work.
You may show up every day and push and pull and grunt and sweat and even limp to your car; but be terribly unsuccessful at training.
If over time you are not getting any stronger, faster, leaner, more agile, better at your chosen sport, or whatever it is you do.
My Definitions for Both and My Opinions
Training is simple.
Create a goal.
Train for the goal.
Complete the goal.
How you go about doing that relies with your program-design.
Goals can be ANYTHING! Weight, body fat, bench press max, vertical jump, 40 yard dash, marathon, are all areas where you can set goals. So, what’s yours??
As long as you have a goal, start, and finish i would consider that training with purpose. How you go about training is where we could argue and debate BUT as long as you have goals with a finish line you are OK in my book.
“Exercise” is showing up to merely sweat, grind, max, and burn.
These are the fitness nuts, and they really make me wonder sometimes.
They keep chiropractors in good business. Just stack lots of weight on the leg press and start pumping until it burns, then sprint the stairs, throw a weight vest on and do box jumps until they crumble.
No rhythm, no reason.
As long as it burns like hell they will love it.
I see this EVERYWHERE I look, whether I'm in a gym or out on the street. People have the desire and motivation to make the changes needed in their life to improve their bodies, but don't have the proper direction to make it happen.
They're DOING just to DO, in hopes that they'll wake up more fit tomorrow.
Phsyically speaking, it doesn't happen that way.
It's a lot like the whole "clean eating" thing, where people feel as if they "eat clean foods", they'll somehow lose weight and become healthier.
It's never that simple, but the matter of "clean eating" is a topic for another day, but in my experience, its almost always the "exercisers" who are the "clean eaters" and vise versa.
There's some correlative anecdotal evidence for ya.
But this is all simply my opinion.
It reflects in how I train, and how I train my clients.
I am not saying my workouts are not challenging, but their purpose is not designed to make you tap out.
The "Workout of the Day (WOD)" is a prime example of exercising. Random workouts from day to day
Quantify Your Progress
I like numbers.
I work with them essentially all day, everyday.
Numbers tell a story and will never lie to you.
Exercising has no direct destination, so how do you know when you've ever arrived?
By following a TRAINING PROGRAM (i recommend weight training), that is per-iodized and set up to help you reach milestones every certain amound of days, weeks, workouts, etc, then you can track your progress accordingly and eventually reach a set goal.
Once that initial goal has been reached, all you have to do is re-cycle that program with different training loads and/or volumes or start a different program that prioritizes different movements, rep ranges, etc.
Really, the possibilities are endless when it comes to programming and following PROVEN training programs.
Training Programs
If you don't know where to start, then you clearly haven't been using the internet long.
It's as simple as looking up a few related to your desired goals, and PICKING A PROGRAM.
That's it. Just start doing it.
Most programs are designed in 4-6 week blocks, and if you follow them to the T, you'll make progress.
Granted, there are a lot of different variables such as diet, training experience, and the loads you're working with, but most designed programs will work on the basis of consistency and progression.
Some may not be as optimal as others, but that's where trial and error comes in. If for some reason you don't get the desired results from your current program, then you simply pick another one.
At most, you've lost 8 weeks out of your life, which is nothing in the scope of life-long training. And realisticly, you haven't "lost" anything, as the program you completed still probably yielded decent results.
At worst your strenght and body composition stayed the same!
So stop haphazardly wandering in the gym and performing needless workouts in hopes of achieving an improved body composition.
Find yourself a program that's within your capabilities and STICK TO IT.
Let me just say there's nothing wrong with "just exercising" and "working out", it's always going to be better than not being active at all, but if you're looking to make REAL gains in strength, lean muscle, fat loss, and overall body composition, then you need to be TRAINING, and not just EXERCISING.
If you're looking for an actual program to get you to your desired body composition, contact me and I can set you up with both nutritional and weight training programs! I'd be more than happy to set you in the right direction, or design customized programs for whatever your goal.
I like numbers.
I work with them essentially all day, everyday.
Numbers tell a story and will never lie to you.
Exercising has no direct destination, so how do you know when you've ever arrived?
By following a TRAINING PROGRAM (i recommend weight training), that is per-iodized and set up to help you reach milestones every certain amound of days, weeks, workouts, etc, then you can track your progress accordingly and eventually reach a set goal.
Once that initial goal has been reached, all you have to do is re-cycle that program with different training loads and/or volumes or start a different program that prioritizes different movements, rep ranges, etc.
Really, the possibilities are endless when it comes to programming and following PROVEN training programs.
Training Programs
If you don't know where to start, then you clearly haven't been using the internet long.
It's as simple as looking up a few related to your desired goals, and PICKING A PROGRAM.
That's it. Just start doing it.
Most programs are designed in 4-6 week blocks, and if you follow them to the T, you'll make progress.
Granted, there are a lot of different variables such as diet, training experience, and the loads you're working with, but most designed programs will work on the basis of consistency and progression.
Some may not be as optimal as others, but that's where trial and error comes in. If for some reason you don't get the desired results from your current program, then you simply pick another one.
At most, you've lost 8 weeks out of your life, which is nothing in the scope of life-long training. And realisticly, you haven't "lost" anything, as the program you completed still probably yielded decent results.
At worst your strenght and body composition stayed the same!
So stop haphazardly wandering in the gym and performing needless workouts in hopes of achieving an improved body composition.
Find yourself a program that's within your capabilities and STICK TO IT.
Let me just say there's nothing wrong with "just exercising" and "working out", it's always going to be better than not being active at all, but if you're looking to make REAL gains in strength, lean muscle, fat loss, and overall body composition, then you need to be TRAINING, and not just EXERCISING.
If you're looking for an actual program to get you to your desired body composition, contact me and I can set you up with both nutritional and weight training programs! I'd be more than happy to set you in the right direction, or design customized programs for whatever your goal.
8 reasons? Who comes up with a number like 8, Craven?
Why not a good solid number like 10?
Because 8 seemed like an underused number for these list-type articles that have become so popular all over internet fitness sites, and I didn’t want to drag this out into a laundry list of things most people don’t’ do right. I just wanted to hit on the few major problems.
But enough intro fluff (and god knows I love me some fluff), let’s get right to these reasons you’re not seeing a loss in body fat.
Why not a good solid number like 10?
Because 8 seemed like an underused number for these list-type articles that have become so popular all over internet fitness sites, and I didn’t want to drag this out into a laundry list of things most people don’t’ do right. I just wanted to hit on the few major problems.
But enough intro fluff (and god knows I love me some fluff), let’s get right to these reasons you’re not seeing a loss in body fat.
1. You’re UNKNOWINGLY consuming too many calories
This might seem like a pretty obvious point for most people, but for some reason there’s a whole lot of folks that seem to think “calories don’t matter”, as long as you “eat fewer carbs.” Sure, as if it’s the carbs that are making you fat.
But actually, this couldn’t be any less true. It always comes down to the fact that you just need to eat less in general, not just carbs. It’s that simple. End of story.
If you’re eating roughly 10 to 12 calories for every pound of bodyweight then it should not be that difficult for your body to lose fat. People typically stuff their faces every 3 hours or so to “jack up their metabolism” or “stoke the metabolic fire” and as a result, inadvertently end up eating waaay more calories than they actually need.
This is why it’s important to track your macros/calories, or at the very least keep a mindful tab on the quantities of foods you’re eating every day.
Eating less can be difficult. It can be challenging. Consuming 2000 calories a day requires some structure, discipline, motivation, and a bit of sacrifice.
But I ask you, what doesn’t require all of that in this life that is worthwhile that you would like to accomplish?
This might seem like a pretty obvious point for most people, but for some reason there’s a whole lot of folks that seem to think “calories don’t matter”, as long as you “eat fewer carbs.” Sure, as if it’s the carbs that are making you fat.
But actually, this couldn’t be any less true. It always comes down to the fact that you just need to eat less in general, not just carbs. It’s that simple. End of story.
If you’re eating roughly 10 to 12 calories for every pound of bodyweight then it should not be that difficult for your body to lose fat. People typically stuff their faces every 3 hours or so to “jack up their metabolism” or “stoke the metabolic fire” and as a result, inadvertently end up eating waaay more calories than they actually need.
This is why it’s important to track your macros/calories, or at the very least keep a mindful tab on the quantities of foods you’re eating every day.
Eating less can be difficult. It can be challenging. Consuming 2000 calories a day requires some structure, discipline, motivation, and a bit of sacrifice.
But I ask you, what doesn’t require all of that in this life that is worthwhile that you would like to accomplish?
2. You’ve jumped on the Latest Celebrity Diet or Quick Fix Bandwagon Diet
You didn’t get fat overnight. You didn’t wake up one morning with an extra 20 pounds of body fat. Whether you know it or not, it took a lot of time and effort on your part to get your body in an overweight and underactive state.
The harsh reality of fat loss is it’s going to take some time. As long as it took you to put the weight on, you can expect that same amount of time to get the weight off.
There are no quick fixes here. No magic powders or elixirs. No amount of detox smoothies or liquid diets will get you lean in a matter of weeks.
The best method that works is continually working to improve your eating and exercise.
For a lot of people, I always recommend a Flexible Dieting approach to make fat loss plans sustainable for a lifetime.
Oh, and accepting the fact that it’s going to take some fucking hard work.
3. You’re Eating way too much “Good Fat”
Since we’re talking about trendy diets…
Some people really buy into the no carb/low carb/carbs are the devil/gluten in carbs will burn a whole in your soul fad.
Carbs aren’t the enemy. Fat isn’t the enemy. Neither one is inherently bad.
Let me repeat this so it sinks in.
CARBS ARE NOT THE ENEMY.
DIETARY FAT IS NOT THE ENEMY.
It’s a matter of quantity of each of those macros that affects your body composition.
Folks reduce their carbs, or cut them out completely and assume they don’t have to worry about anything else.
For a lot of people this will initially work on the basis that they are EATING LESS THAT THEY WERE with carbs.
But body adaptations happen or they carried away eating cheese covered bacon and unknowingly consume more calories than they need. Refer back to point #1.
You can’t just eat pounds of bacon and mayonnaise with reckless abandon and think that you’ll magically end up ripped.
Fat contains 9 calories per gram. Calories will always still matter at the end of the day, and if you’re consuming more calories from dietary fat than you burn, you’re never going to shed body fat.
I’m not trying to say low fat/higher carb diets are better, what I’m saying is there needs to be a structured value and balance of both dietary fats and carbs in your diet.
And as always, you need to keep a handle on total calories.
So stop with all the “carbs are fattening” nonsense while putting down spoonfuls of coconut oil just because you’ve been told they’re loaded with “good fats.” Fats are still fats, and will always be 9 calories per gram, so remember that next time you’re chomping down an entire avocado.
I’m not trying to say low fat/higher carb diets are better, what I’m saying is there needs to be a structured value and balance of both dietary fats and carbs in your diet.
And as always, you need to keep a handle on total calories.
So stop with all the “carbs are fattening” nonsense while putting down spoonfuls of coconut oil just because you’ve been told they’re loaded with “good fats.” Fats are still fats, and will always be 9 calories per gram, so remember that next time you’re chomping down an entire avocado.
4. You’re going Nuts Eating Nuts
Nuts are one of those acclaimed “healthy foods” in disguise.
They get a lot of play in the media as a healthy snack because of all the “carbs are bad” fear mongering going but. They can be a good snack choice, but the caveat is they contain a lot of calories due to their high fat content and they add up extremely quickly.
It’s terribly easy to mindlessly dip into a bag of nuts and go through half the bag without even looking away from your Instagram feed.
For most nuts, a single serving recommend on the nutrition facts is anywhere between 7 and 14 nuts, which is around 13-15 grams of fat PER SERVING.
Who do you know only has 7 nuts at a time?? It’s always at least a handful, where the number can easily be up to 20 nuts.
I typically don’t recommend nuts to my clients.
I like to suggest more voluminous foods such as green vegetable and meat proteins that are nutritionally dense that will fill you up and not pack on a lot of calories.
5. You’re Not Training Heavy Enough
The first inclination people have when trying to lose body fat is to jack up the reps they’re doing and lower the weight to “burn some fat”.
This couldn’t be worse advice for a fat loss phase, especially if you’re trying to maintain some lean muscle tissue and the shape of your muscles.
Your muscle didn’t get bigger and stronger doing 30 reps with pink dumbells, so why should you expect your hard earned muscle to stick around in a stressful time such as a diet phase if you’re not giving them the same intensity of training you use to get them big and strong?
When you diet, the primary role of strength training is to maintain, and in some instances even build lean muscle mass.
That’s the most important thing. If your nutrition is in check (more calories burned that consume) the fat loss with happen. Just make sure you’re maintaining that hard earned lean muscle.
Nuts are one of those acclaimed “healthy foods” in disguise.
They get a lot of play in the media as a healthy snack because of all the “carbs are bad” fear mongering going but. They can be a good snack choice, but the caveat is they contain a lot of calories due to their high fat content and they add up extremely quickly.
It’s terribly easy to mindlessly dip into a bag of nuts and go through half the bag without even looking away from your Instagram feed.
For most nuts, a single serving recommend on the nutrition facts is anywhere between 7 and 14 nuts, which is around 13-15 grams of fat PER SERVING.
Who do you know only has 7 nuts at a time?? It’s always at least a handful, where the number can easily be up to 20 nuts.
I typically don’t recommend nuts to my clients.
I like to suggest more voluminous foods such as green vegetable and meat proteins that are nutritionally dense that will fill you up and not pack on a lot of calories.
5. You’re Not Training Heavy Enough
The first inclination people have when trying to lose body fat is to jack up the reps they’re doing and lower the weight to “burn some fat”.
This couldn’t be worse advice for a fat loss phase, especially if you’re trying to maintain some lean muscle tissue and the shape of your muscles.
Your muscle didn’t get bigger and stronger doing 30 reps with pink dumbells, so why should you expect your hard earned muscle to stick around in a stressful time such as a diet phase if you’re not giving them the same intensity of training you use to get them big and strong?
When you diet, the primary role of strength training is to maintain, and in some instances even build lean muscle mass.
That’s the most important thing. If your nutrition is in check (more calories burned that consume) the fat loss with happen. Just make sure you’re maintaining that hard earned lean muscle.
6. You’re Overdoing the Cardio
I’ve said it many times before, and god knows I’ll continue to say it for the rest of my life.
Traditional forms of cardio are useless for fat loss if you’re NOT in a calorie deficit.
But you know what, useless can be okay if it’s something that you truly enjoy; it’s when the cardio starts to become counterproductive is when there’s a real problem.
Excessive amounts of cardio can lead to an overproduction of cortisol that can lead to water retention and increase the size and growth rate of certain fat cells.
One of the best and most useful forms of cardio is taking a long walk. If you start walking a half mile to a mile a day, you’ll be surprised at how your recovery will improve and the changes in your body composition that will occur.
7. You’re Not Being Consistent
All good things take time, and fat not is no exception to this.
If you’re training frequently, eating wholesome foods in a calorie deficit, and getting adequate rest, the fat loss IS HAPPENING.
The issue is it may not always manifest itself on the scale or even if your clothes (especially if you’re a female), but it’s happening.
Fat loss can often be masked by water retention, bloating, and a fluctuation in hormones which makes it seem like the scales not moving, but the physiology of it would say otherwise.
After a week or 2 of not seeing the numbers on the scale change, people often jump ship to a different “fad” program or supplement, or completely abandon their fat loss efforts all together and say they tried and it just wasn’t for them because they’re bodies special and doesn’t abide by the laws of physics or something stupid like that.
Trust me, you’re not that special where physics doesn’t apply to you.
Just stay the course and stay consistent, progress will be inevitable as long as you’re in a calorie deficit.
6. You’re Overdoing the Cardio
I’ve said it many times before, and god knows I’ll continue to say it for the rest of my life.
Traditional forms of cardio are useless for fat loss if you’re NOT in a calorie deficit.
But you know what, useless can be okay if it’s something that you truly enjoy; it’s when the cardio starts to become counterproductive is when there’s a real problem.
Excessive amounts of cardio can lead to an overproduction of cortisol that can lead to water retention and increase the size and growth rate of certain fat cells.
One of the best and most useful forms of cardio is taking a long walk. If you start walking a half mile to a mile a day, you’ll be surprised at how your recovery will improve and the changes in your body composition that will occur.
7. You’re Not Being Consistent
All good things take time, and fat not is no exception to this.
If you’re training frequently, eating wholesome foods in a calorie deficit, and getting adequate rest, the fat loss IS HAPPENING.
The issue is it may not always manifest itself on the scale or even if your clothes (especially if you’re a female), but it’s happening.
Fat loss can often be masked by water retention, bloating, and a fluctuation in hormones which makes it seem like the scales not moving, but the physiology of it would say otherwise.
After a week or 2 of not seeing the numbers on the scale change, people often jump ship to a different “fad” program or supplement, or completely abandon their fat loss efforts all together and say they tried and it just wasn’t for them because they’re bodies special and doesn’t abide by the laws of physics or something stupid like that.
Trust me, you’re not that special where physics doesn’t apply to you.
Just stay the course and stay consistent, progress will be inevitable as long as you’re in a calorie deficit.
8. You’re Not Managing Stress Properly
I saved the best and most important point for last.
Stress is important. It’s a vital part of life. It’s what gets you up in the morning and keeps you tentative and alive. It’s when you’re in an unnecessarily overly stressed state that causes issues.
When in a state of stress, the body produces a hormone known as cortisol. Cortisol has gotten a bad rep over the last few decades, but it’s a vital hormone that has many benefits in keeping you healthy and alive.
Like stated above, it’s the hormone that gets you up in the morning.
I saved the best and most important point for last.
Stress is important. It’s a vital part of life. It’s what gets you up in the morning and keeps you tentative and alive. It’s when you’re in an unnecessarily overly stressed state that causes issues.
When in a state of stress, the body produces a hormone known as cortisol. Cortisol has gotten a bad rep over the last few decades, but it’s a vital hormone that has many benefits in keeping you healthy and alive.
Like stated above, it’s the hormone that gets you up in the morning.
Is it possible?
No…but this article will tell you how to get close!
By the end of this Marvel-themed post you’ll know how to increase your strength, recover faster and even live longer - just like Wolvie.
Who doesn't want to live forever?!
Just close your eyes for a second and imagine Wolverine pumping iron in a gym...
Training with this kind of savage intensity would lead to incredible gains. If you trained with wolverine-like energy and aggression, it'd only be a matter of time before you got JACKED and developed immense strength.
In this article we'll take a look at Wolverine's superhuman characteristics and how we can attain similar attributes in real-life...
No…but this article will tell you how to get close!
By the end of this Marvel-themed post you’ll know how to increase your strength, recover faster and even live longer - just like Wolvie.
Who doesn't want to live forever?!
Just close your eyes for a second and imagine Wolverine pumping iron in a gym...
Training with this kind of savage intensity would lead to incredible gains. If you trained with wolverine-like energy and aggression, it'd only be a matter of time before you got JACKED and developed immense strength.
In this article we'll take a look at Wolverine's superhuman characteristics and how we can attain similar attributes in real-life...
Regenerative Healing Factor
Wolverine has an accelerated healing factor.
Although you won't be able to fully restore muscle tissue in a matter of seconds like Wolverine can, you do have the potential to significantly speed up your recovery time.
The quality of your nutrition will correlate with how fast you recover. Sticking to natural unrefined food sources will reduce fatigue and speed up recovery. Consuming refined carbohydrate sources regularly will wreak havoc with your insulin and send your blood sugar levels crashing.
Fatigue and tiredness is the consequence of low blood sugar levels. Cortisol levels should also be minimized during the recovery period. Cortisol is a stress hormone, which when high can decrease your ability to recovery quickly after intense workouts.
Supplementing with vitamin c, at a dose of 1000mg, has shown to slash cortisol levels significantly.
Wolverine has an accelerated healing factor.
Although you won't be able to fully restore muscle tissue in a matter of seconds like Wolverine can, you do have the potential to significantly speed up your recovery time.
The quality of your nutrition will correlate with how fast you recover. Sticking to natural unrefined food sources will reduce fatigue and speed up recovery. Consuming refined carbohydrate sources regularly will wreak havoc with your insulin and send your blood sugar levels crashing.
Fatigue and tiredness is the consequence of low blood sugar levels. Cortisol levels should also be minimized during the recovery period. Cortisol is a stress hormone, which when high can decrease your ability to recovery quickly after intense workouts.
Supplementing with vitamin c, at a dose of 1000mg, has shown to slash cortisol levels significantly.
Unrivalled Testosterone Levels
Wolverine is the alpha of alphas.
You don't have to be a doctor to know that this wild beast has exceptionally high testosterone levels.
Raging aggression, superhuman strength, dominance, super-confident...and he isn't short of body hair!
Testosterone will not only allow you to recover and pack on muscle faster. But T will also give you a surge of energy during your workouts, as it also has energy-boosting qualities. Other ways to maximize your Testosterone is to abstain from masturbation for as much as 1 week at a time. Chinese researchers (J Zhejiang Univ Sci. 2003) concluded that abstaining from masturbation can increase T levels by a whopping 50% (present on the seventh consecutive day).
Eating a high fat diet is a sensible approach for maxing out your natty testosterone levels, as fat is the macronutrient that administers T production.
Alcohol should be avoided due to its estrogenic nature. As the female sex hormone rises, testosterone plummets.
Other sources of estrogen that should be minimized are soy, milk, tofu and flax seeds. Fat stores also convert testosterone to estrogen, meaning the higher body fat % you have, the less testosterone you will produce.
...It's no coincidence that Logan's ripped to shreds.
Sleep is also crucial in achieving high test levels. The University of Chicago backed this up, concluding that 5 hours of sleep (or less) is enough to cause T levels to decrease by 10-15%.
Superhuman Strength
Wolverine has demonstrated many acts of superhuman strength such as tearing steel chains and lifting various men up with one hand and throwing them through walls.
The old swedish name for wolverine was filfras, derived from the German word "Vilefrass". This can be translated as "the one that eats a lot".
This is particularly applicable to the gym, as we know that eating in a calorie surplus is one of the best ways to build muscle/increase strength.
Wolverine has demonstrated many acts of superhuman strength such as tearing steel chains and lifting various men up with one hand and throwing them through walls.
The old swedish name for wolverine was filfras, derived from the German word "Vilefrass". This can be translated as "the one that eats a lot".
This is particularly applicable to the gym, as we know that eating in a calorie surplus is one of the best ways to build muscle/increase strength.
Extended Lifespan
Due to Wolverine's regenerative healing factor, he has a vastly extended lifespan. You also have the power to boost your immunity and live a longer life.
Doing so will mean less sick days (being away from the gym). And when you are in there, you'll be able to lift with more vigor.
Due to Wolverine's regenerative healing factor, he has a vastly extended lifespan. You also have the power to boost your immunity and live a longer life.
Doing so will mean less sick days (being away from the gym). And when you are in there, you'll be able to lift with more vigor.
So, how can you boost your immune system?
We have already discussed several ways to boost your immunity, such as supplementing with vitamin c, boosting testosterone, getting adequate sleep etc. Here are a few more that can come in handy next time you visit your local supermarket.
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage, helps strengthen your liver's ability to flush out toxins that can be destructive to your health. Berries are another superfood that are high in antioxidants. Antioxidants work by removing free radicals in the body, which can damage the bodies cells by causing cellular damage.
Such damage can eventually lead to serious conditions including: cancer, stroke or heart disease.
Now you know how to improve your regenerative healing factor, max-out your testosterone levels, develop superhuman strength AND extend your lifespan...just like Logan.
Not only will replicating Wolvie's DNA help you smash any plateau that gets in your way...but you'll also transform into the coolest creature of all time.
By my next article I'll have:
Peace.
We have already discussed several ways to boost your immunity, such as supplementing with vitamin c, boosting testosterone, getting adequate sleep etc. Here are a few more that can come in handy next time you visit your local supermarket.
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage, helps strengthen your liver's ability to flush out toxins that can be destructive to your health. Berries are another superfood that are high in antioxidants. Antioxidants work by removing free radicals in the body, which can damage the bodies cells by causing cellular damage.
Such damage can eventually lead to serious conditions including: cancer, stroke or heart disease.
Now you know how to improve your regenerative healing factor, max-out your testosterone levels, develop superhuman strength AND extend your lifespan...just like Logan.
Not only will replicating Wolvie's DNA help you smash any plateau that gets in your way...but you'll also transform into the coolest creature of all time.
By my next article I'll have:
- Sideburns
- Traded my car for a motorbike
- Bought the coolest leather jacket known to man.
Peace.
About The Author
Erny is the owner of www.jackednatural.com where his goal is to help skinny dudes unlock their genetic potential; transforming them from betas into alphas (like Wolverine).
Erny is the owner of www.jackednatural.com where his goal is to help skinny dudes unlock their genetic potential; transforming them from betas into alphas (like Wolverine).
This is a piece I feel has been long overdue, and one I should have been put out long ago for multiple reasons; reasons such as:
-I’m trying to spread as much accurate and helpful information as humanly possible, and all these guys do an excellent job of doing just that.
-Every guy on this list has inspired or influenced to some degree.
-Almost all of the scientific aspects and background I built my foundation on have come from most of these guys doing the leg work in the lab and putting in the time writing published research.
-Every single guy on this list understands the importance of calories, energy balance, macronutrients, and how a well-built physique and overall healthy body can be attained once these fundamentals are understood.
- And of course, they give me some leverage and credibility.
Just so you all know, this list is in NO particular order.
While I do have some “favorites” and there’s a couple of guys on the list who I’ve been a fan of for years, there’s no way I’d be able to rate and rank these guys.
It’s like asking a parent to rank their children, it’s just not going to happen.
There’s also about 20 other guys who could have easily made this list, and I apologize to any of my buds that I may have forgotten.
By no means are these guys materialistic, in it for the money, shove a gimmicky product down your throat type of guys. Every single one of these guys has a blog that they keep up regularly and/or put out informative videos on YouTube. They're out there hustling doing the REAL work.
But anyway, I highly recommend everyone reading this check out the attached links and check out all of the content these guys pump out, you’ll definitely find some gems that’ll help you improve your life.
So let’s hop into it.
Dr. Layne Norton www.BioLayne.com
First and foremost on the list, is the infamous Dr. Layne Norton. Layne is arguably the greatest thing to happen to the fitness industry, ever. He’s been on a crusade to eliminate the “broscience” and dogmatic bad information that has been plaguing the fitness industry for decades. He’s a major proponent of Flexible Dieting and has proven you can still get shredded eating foods you enjoy. I was able to lose over 60 lbs just watching Layne on Youtube and reading some of the great content he putout over 5 years ago. He’s got a lot of great scientific information out there and I highly recommend you start to follow him.
Alain Gonzales www.MuscleMonsters.com
One of my favorite fitness pros at the moment, Alain is on a mission to help over 1 million skinny guys build muscle to achieve a physique they never thought possible. He offers simple, science based training and nutrition advice for anyone who’s struggled to pack on some masss. His message really resonates with me being a former scrawny kid and I love the way he presents information to his audience. Even being an advanced trainee for over 15 years, I still find helpful information about training in Alain’s content. So if you’re looking to become a true muscle monster, or you just need a bit of fine tuning to your training and diet, check out Alain’s work.
One of my favorite fitness pros at the moment, Alain is on a mission to help over 1 million skinny guys build muscle to achieve a physique they never thought possible. He offers simple, science based training and nutrition advice for anyone who’s struggled to pack on some masss. His message really resonates with me being a former scrawny kid and I love the way he presents information to his audience. Even being an advanced trainee for over 15 years, I still find helpful information about training in Alain’s content. So if you’re looking to become a true muscle monster, or you just need a bit of fine tuning to your training and diet, check out Alain’s work.
Nick Sorrell www.nicksorrelltraining.com
Here’s a guy who motivates the fuck out of me. Nick’s a fantastic writer and is like the Tony Robbins of fitness. He’s helped hundreds of people transform their lives as a personal trainer and probably thousands more through his online content. He fully understands and preaches the importances of calories and energy balance and presents this information in a way his clients can fully grasp and utilize to make life long changes. Be sure to give Nick a follow and expect a lot of great things from this guy in 2017.
Here’s a guy who motivates the fuck out of me. Nick’s a fantastic writer and is like the Tony Robbins of fitness. He’s helped hundreds of people transform their lives as a personal trainer and probably thousands more through his online content. He fully understands and preaches the importances of calories and energy balance and presents this information in a way his clients can fully grasp and utilize to make life long changes. Be sure to give Nick a follow and expect a lot of great things from this guy in 2017.
Lyle McDonald www.bodyrecomposition.com
Lyle’s one of those guys you either hate or love. He’s made all kinds of fact based, scientific contributions to fitness and has put out some great fat loss books, including being a pioneer on the topic of flexble diet with his book “The Flexible Diet.” He’s not a flashy guy and tells it like it is, so if you’re in need of some great information on fat loss, building muscle, and training, check him out.
Lyle’s one of those guys you either hate or love. He’s made all kinds of fact based, scientific contributions to fitness and has put out some great fat loss books, including being a pioneer on the topic of flexble diet with his book “The Flexible Diet.” He’s not a flashy guy and tells it like it is, so if you’re in need of some great information on fat loss, building muscle, and training, check him out.
Jason Maxwell www.jmaxfitness.com
I got to give it to this guy, because without Jason, there would be no WhatAreYouCraven. Period. I came across Jason about 3 and a half years ago and his site immediately resonated with me because he was an engineering student who would hit the books by day and then immerse himself in all things fitness and bodybuilding by night. And at the time, this was exactly what I was doing. I’d read his blogs and learn a few things about nutrition and training, but more importantly I saw how he took a left turn from his engineering career to pursue what he loved and help as many people as he could. He also “put me on” so to speak by publishing a few of my articles on his site, which I am very grateful for. JMax is still hustling and putting out great content, so I highly encourage you all to check him out!
I got to give it to this guy, because without Jason, there would be no WhatAreYouCraven. Period. I came across Jason about 3 and a half years ago and his site immediately resonated with me because he was an engineering student who would hit the books by day and then immerse himself in all things fitness and bodybuilding by night. And at the time, this was exactly what I was doing. I’d read his blogs and learn a few things about nutrition and training, but more importantly I saw how he took a left turn from his engineering career to pursue what he loved and help as many people as he could. He also “put me on” so to speak by publishing a few of my articles on his site, which I am very grateful for. JMax is still hustling and putting out great content, so I highly encourage you all to check him out!
Erny Peibst jackednatrual.com
I’ve only been acquainted with Erny for about a week now, but all ready I love what he’s about. A skinny kid with poor genetics like myself, Erny was able to transform his physique with quality information that he’s happy to share on his site. He’s a real hustler and works hard everyday to grow his site and pump out quality info and reach as many people as he can. An awesome guy to say the least, check out his site for some awesome content.
I’ve only been acquainted with Erny for about a week now, but all ready I love what he’s about. A skinny kid with poor genetics like myself, Erny was able to transform his physique with quality information that he’s happy to share on his site. He’s a real hustler and works hard everyday to grow his site and pump out quality info and reach as many people as he can. An awesome guy to say the least, check out his site for some awesome content.
Alan Aragon www.AlanAragon.com
This guy is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to smashing bro science and bringing quality information about dieting and training to light. Aragon is a nutrition researcher and educator with over 20 years of success in the field. He is known as one of the most influential figures in the fitness industry’s movement towards evidence-based information. If you want real, accurate info, he’s the guy to look into.
This guy is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to smashing bro science and bringing quality information about dieting and training to light. Aragon is a nutrition researcher and educator with over 20 years of success in the field. He is known as one of the most influential figures in the fitness industry’s movement towards evidence-based information. If you want real, accurate info, he’s the guy to look into.
Mike Vacanti www.OnTheRegimen.com
Mike has been so influential in helping me become an all around better coach, trainer, trainee, and person in general. He’s a huge proponent of flexible dieting and tracking macros, he even has a calorie/macro app you should check out. He puts out lots of great content on his site, including incredible videos on fitness and general motivation. The really cool thing about his is he was Gary Vaynerchuck’s full time personal trainer for the last 2 years, and the wisdom and knowledge GaryVee shared with him is passed through his work. If I had to list a top 3 of my favorite fitness pros, Mike Vacanti is certainly in there.
Mike has been so influential in helping me become an all around better coach, trainer, trainee, and person in general. He’s a huge proponent of flexible dieting and tracking macros, he even has a calorie/macro app you should check out. He puts out lots of great content on his site, including incredible videos on fitness and general motivation. The really cool thing about his is he was Gary Vaynerchuck’s full time personal trainer for the last 2 years, and the wisdom and knowledge GaryVee shared with him is passed through his work. If I had to list a top 3 of my favorite fitness pros, Mike Vacanti is certainly in there.
Mike Samuels www.HealthyLivingHeavyLifting.com
I like Mike’s story, because it’s very similar to mine. A skinny kid who wanted to become jacked and became deluded with eating “clean bro foods” and ended up just become heavy and “skinny-fat.” Until he was introduced to tracking macro-nutrients. But Mike is more than that, he’s a great writer on all things nutrition and training and has joined the crusade of getting as many people as he can to enjoy their foods and dieting by tracking their macros. He’s got great content on his site and around the web. Definitely give him a follow.
I like Mike’s story, because it’s very similar to mine. A skinny kid who wanted to become jacked and became deluded with eating “clean bro foods” and ended up just become heavy and “skinny-fat.” Until he was introduced to tracking macro-nutrients. But Mike is more than that, he’s a great writer on all things nutrition and training and has joined the crusade of getting as many people as he can to enjoy their foods and dieting by tracking their macros. He’s got great content on his site and around the web. Definitely give him a follow.
Eric Helms muscleandstrengthpyramids.com
There aren't many guys out there working harder than Eric Helms right now. Found of 3D Muscle Journey, Eric is all about the science of effective and efficient dieting and training when it comes to natural competitive bodybuilding. Eric has been involved in the fitness industry since the early 2000’s. For the better part of his career he’s been a coach at 3D Muscle Journey, working with drug free strength and physique competitors at all levels. A competitive athlete himself, he has pro status with the Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association and competes with the IPF at the international level as an unequipped powerlifter.
There aren't many guys out there working harder than Eric Helms right now. Found of 3D Muscle Journey, Eric is all about the science of effective and efficient dieting and training when it comes to natural competitive bodybuilding. Eric has been involved in the fitness industry since the early 2000’s. For the better part of his career he’s been a coach at 3D Muscle Journey, working with drug free strength and physique competitors at all levels. A competitive athlete himself, he has pro status with the Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association and competes with the IPF at the international level as an unequipped powerlifter.
Chris "Yucky" Lavado www.CoachYuck.com
If you're in need of an experienced, down to earth online trainer, Chris Lavado is your guy. He'll also give you some good laughs when you're on your way to getting shredded, brah! Yucky first emerged onto the scene in a big way as half of the Legends of Aesthetics duo that swept the industry with the unprecedented "IF IT FITS YOUR MACROS" movement. Since then he's coached thousands of clients in person and online to get into the best shape of their lives using flexible dieting techniques. Check out some of the Yucksters work online, and be sure to follow him on SnapChat @YuckyLavado
If you're in need of an experienced, down to earth online trainer, Chris Lavado is your guy. He'll also give you some good laughs when you're on your way to getting shredded, brah! Yucky first emerged onto the scene in a big way as half of the Legends of Aesthetics duo that swept the industry with the unprecedented "IF IT FITS YOUR MACROS" movement. Since then he's coached thousands of clients in person and online to get into the best shape of their lives using flexible dieting techniques. Check out some of the Yucksters work online, and be sure to follow him on SnapChat @YuckyLavado
1/17/2017
Day of the Shred VII: Why I’m not ‘Bulking’, Motivation vs. Execution, and Leaving Texas?
Read Now
It’s been a cold minute (that’s right, not hot) since I’ve done an actual blog. In fact, it’s been sometime since I’ve posted any new content on this site, but that’s all fixing to change, and I’ll talk about why that is here in a minute.
I’ve really grown to like writing these blogs. I’ve been meaning to put one up recently because it can provide an insight look at what goes on with my training and diet. I’ve been doing a lot more talking than writing lately, but I am to change that.
So enough dilly-dallying, right now I’m gonna tell you why I’m not actively trying to gain body mass, or “bulk” as it’s commonly referred to, this winter.
First off, people who bulk and start eating to gain mass are all ready fucking up, in my humble opinion. Not EVERYBODY, but most people. And the reason is they don’t have a real plan. Once swimsuit season is over, guys (and an increasingly large amount of girls) throw their diets out the window and just start eating…everything, with the justification of “OH IT’S COOL, I’M BULKING.” Shit, it sounds fun to say, right. But the reality is you’ll probably end up consuming a shit ton more calories than you really need to increase muscle mass and improve yourself.
I’m not saying bulking is useless, but it needs to be methodical. Lets put some numbers to the process. To actively gain 1 lb of body mass, you’d need to consume an extra 3500 calories, which isn’t a whole lot. This can be done in Sunday afternoon watching football and pounding 20 chicken wings and a few beers. There’s also the fact that this weight you’re gaining is not strictly muscle mass. A lot of it is FAT, stored glycogen, and water. Probably about 90% of that weight is honestly. There’s also the rate at which you are gaining weigh that needs to be considered. If you’re pounding back the Micky D’s burgers and fries and you see the scale increase 2-3 pounds a week, you sure as hell aren’t packing on muscle mass there, Slim. For those who do bulk, a rate of MAYBE 1 pound a week will yield the most optimal muscle to fat ratio, and that’s pushing it.
So the ill effects of packing on that much body mass during a bulk can be pretty severe in terms of body composition. If you’re someone who worked really hard dieting and training to lean out and looked pretty decent, why would you throw it all away just to eat and convince your own self that you’re “doing it for the gains”?? If you do decide to bulk, BE FUCKING SMART. Do it very, very, very slowly with only a slight calorie surplus, otherwise you’re gonna get real fluffy, real fast.
Which leads me to myself. I’m not approaching a full on bulk. In fact, I’ve been attempting to reduce a bit of body fat WHILE increasing muscle mass over the last few months, and I’ll say I’ve done a pretty good job at it.
You might be thinking, “THAT’S WICHCRAFT! SORCERY! Craven, you always say it’s almost impossible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time if you’re not a newbee!”
What I’m doing is known as a Body Recomposition, and while it may not be the most optimal way to either lose fat or build muscle, it’s perfect for what I’m looking to accomplish right now, which is just improve upon my current physique slowly.
I’ve been relatively lean for a while now, and while so many people would say “you just gotta bulk up to add muscle mass now”, I say NO WAY JOSE.
I really enjoy being lean, because I’ve been at the other end before at over 20% bodyfat. And I’ll tell you, it’s not that much fun. You may be stronger and thicker, but it does not look as aesthetic and girls don’t give a fuck about how strong you are.
There’s also the fact that a lot of what I do as a coach as an “online fitness entity” revolves around how I look. I hate to say it, but there’s a certain image people expect to see from someone who boasts fitness and nutrition and advice for a living. This isn’t to say that adding a bit more body fat to my frame is horrible for business, but when I tend to be in front of some sort of camera most days, there’s a certain look that people find most appealing; which is a leaner look.
Also, chicks dig it more. And finally, I just LIKE the look. So yeah, that’s why I’m not going to jump up to 190 lbs in the next 2 months.
I’ve really grown to like writing these blogs. I’ve been meaning to put one up recently because it can provide an insight look at what goes on with my training and diet. I’ve been doing a lot more talking than writing lately, but I am to change that.
So enough dilly-dallying, right now I’m gonna tell you why I’m not actively trying to gain body mass, or “bulk” as it’s commonly referred to, this winter.
First off, people who bulk and start eating to gain mass are all ready fucking up, in my humble opinion. Not EVERYBODY, but most people. And the reason is they don’t have a real plan. Once swimsuit season is over, guys (and an increasingly large amount of girls) throw their diets out the window and just start eating…everything, with the justification of “OH IT’S COOL, I’M BULKING.” Shit, it sounds fun to say, right. But the reality is you’ll probably end up consuming a shit ton more calories than you really need to increase muscle mass and improve yourself.
I’m not saying bulking is useless, but it needs to be methodical. Lets put some numbers to the process. To actively gain 1 lb of body mass, you’d need to consume an extra 3500 calories, which isn’t a whole lot. This can be done in Sunday afternoon watching football and pounding 20 chicken wings and a few beers. There’s also the fact that this weight you’re gaining is not strictly muscle mass. A lot of it is FAT, stored glycogen, and water. Probably about 90% of that weight is honestly. There’s also the rate at which you are gaining weigh that needs to be considered. If you’re pounding back the Micky D’s burgers and fries and you see the scale increase 2-3 pounds a week, you sure as hell aren’t packing on muscle mass there, Slim. For those who do bulk, a rate of MAYBE 1 pound a week will yield the most optimal muscle to fat ratio, and that’s pushing it.
So the ill effects of packing on that much body mass during a bulk can be pretty severe in terms of body composition. If you’re someone who worked really hard dieting and training to lean out and looked pretty decent, why would you throw it all away just to eat and convince your own self that you’re “doing it for the gains”?? If you do decide to bulk, BE FUCKING SMART. Do it very, very, very slowly with only a slight calorie surplus, otherwise you’re gonna get real fluffy, real fast.
Which leads me to myself. I’m not approaching a full on bulk. In fact, I’ve been attempting to reduce a bit of body fat WHILE increasing muscle mass over the last few months, and I’ll say I’ve done a pretty good job at it.
You might be thinking, “THAT’S WICHCRAFT! SORCERY! Craven, you always say it’s almost impossible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time if you’re not a newbee!”
What I’m doing is known as a Body Recomposition, and while it may not be the most optimal way to either lose fat or build muscle, it’s perfect for what I’m looking to accomplish right now, which is just improve upon my current physique slowly.
I’ve been relatively lean for a while now, and while so many people would say “you just gotta bulk up to add muscle mass now”, I say NO WAY JOSE.
I really enjoy being lean, because I’ve been at the other end before at over 20% bodyfat. And I’ll tell you, it’s not that much fun. You may be stronger and thicker, but it does not look as aesthetic and girls don’t give a fuck about how strong you are.
There’s also the fact that a lot of what I do as a coach as an “online fitness entity” revolves around how I look. I hate to say it, but there’s a certain image people expect to see from someone who boasts fitness and nutrition and advice for a living. This isn’t to say that adding a bit more body fat to my frame is horrible for business, but when I tend to be in front of some sort of camera most days, there’s a certain look that people find most appealing; which is a leaner look.
Also, chicks dig it more. And finally, I just LIKE the look. So yeah, that’s why I’m not going to jump up to 190 lbs in the next 2 months.
Currently hovering around 162 lbs with increased muscle mass and decreased body fat. AKA Body Recomposition.
Motivation vs. Execution
Motivation is simple. Anyone can instantly become motivated. Don’t believe me? Go to YouTube right now and pull up a Tony Robbins video, I guarantee that man will get you motivated. The problem here is EXECUTION. Actually making moves to get where you want to be or accomplish whatever it is you want to do. There’s so much motivation on social media everywhere you look, it’s almost sickening. From the insta-models with their provocative poses laden with their daily motivational posts, to your company’s facebook page telling you to keep on pushing forward for the team. It’s ubiquitous. And honestly, all of that is just noise. We all know how to get motivated, we just don’t know how to execute. And honestly, there is no easy secret here, and there’s not a whole lot to be said here other than you just gotta shut out the fear, anxiety, and the little voice in your head that says you can’t do it and just go for it.
Leaving Texas
So I started writing this blog a few weeks back when I was in transition between San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California. And as many of you may know by now, Yes I did move to San Diego. Permanently. Or at least that’s what I’ve planned. As sudden of a move as it seemed, it wasn’t something I just thought of overnight. Since I graduated college last year, my life in San Antonio had become increasingly dull. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I wasn’t doing everything I could to make it all it could be. I had a nice part time job as a bartender at an upscale resort while I pursued my coaching and other business ventures. Everything was cool, but something felt like it was missing. I can’t even explain what it was, but I know I wasn’t exactly truly happy. So I thought I’d finally shake things up and make my move to the west coast. Now after being here for almost 2 weeks, I can honestly admit it’s not exactly easy being here. While I love the location, the activities, and the opportunity out here, it’s scary. Scary to think that so much of what I found comfort in back in Texas is no longer there for me. Scary to think that I have to start all over again- make new friends, find a place to live, and make a living for myself, all in a new city. But as scary as it is, it’s also exciting because I know I’m capable of doing all of those things and more. I’ve planned to make this my life and my home for as long as I can imagine, and I’ll do my best to follow through with it.
By now I’m sure it’s safe to say everyone knows what calories are.
They’re those pesky little critters that sneak into your closet at night while you’re asleep and sew your clothes tighter.
You think that sounds absurd, but it’s not too far fetched for how most people associate calories with their lives.
The truth is, everyone keeps hearing about how you should count calories and how that they’re important, but nobody can even explain what they are or how they work.
So that’s what I’m here to do, and I promise I’ll keep it simple, short, and sweet as humanly possible.
They’re those pesky little critters that sneak into your closet at night while you’re asleep and sew your clothes tighter.
You think that sounds absurd, but it’s not too far fetched for how most people associate calories with their lives.
The truth is, everyone keeps hearing about how you should count calories and how that they’re important, but nobody can even explain what they are or how they work.
So that’s what I’m here to do, and I promise I’ll keep it simple, short, and sweet as humanly possible.
First off, What is a Calorie?
A calorie is a unit of energy. Calories are typically associated with food in the United States, but they apply to any physical system that contains or uses physical energy. For example, a gallon of gasoline contains 31,000,000 calories. That sounds odd, right? Using calorie units of energy when not referring to foods, but it’s just as interchangeable as using Joules (units of energy) that most mechanical systems use.
Some background info on calories for those who may be truly interested, a calorie (or any unit of energy) is the amount of energy or heat required to produce physical work. Calories are measured by how much heat it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. One calorie is equal to 4.184 Joules, if you’re keeping score at home.
What Exactly do Calories Do?
Now you’re probably thinking, “Okay Craven, enough of the physics lesson, just tell me what calories actually do to your body.”
You got it, slim.
We’re humans, which means we’re dynamic mechanical organisms, and like all mechanical systems, we need energy to work, and because we’re organisms, this means survive. Survival as in breathe, move, pump blood, think, and overall just not die.
So where do we get this energy needed to survive? I hope you guessed food because if you didn’t you’re not paying attention and probably need to start over.
The amount of calories in foods is the measurement of how much potential energy the food has.
Foods are comprised of only THREE MACRONUTRIENTS, and have a caloric load associated with them.
These are not some made up values, but if you remember, they’re derived from how much energy each macronutrient requires to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius; which means food is an actual physical fuel source.
If you know how many carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are in any given food (this is stupid easy to do) you know how many calories, or how much energy, that food contains.
You’ve probably noticed nutritional labels on the back of food packaging and thought of it as some cryptic code that you’ll never decipher, but let me hit you with some knowledge.
Below is a nutrition label for a slice of banana bread. The total calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein values are all highlighted. This is the ONLY information that is truly important on these nutrition labels, so don’t pay any attention to the % values or anything else as they are not relevant to what we need.
If you know how many carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are in any given food (this is stupid easy to do) you know how many calories, or how much energy, that food contains.
You’ve probably noticed nutritional labels on the back of food packaging and thought of it as some cryptic code that you’ll never decipher, but let me hit you with some knowledge.
Below is a nutrition label for a slice of banana bread. The total calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein values are all highlighted. This is the ONLY information that is truly important on these nutrition labels, so don’t pay any attention to the % values or anything else as they are not relevant to what we need.
This particular slice of banana bread has 190 calories. What this means is if we were to light a slice on fire and get it to burn completely (which is actually very difficult to accomplish) the physical reaction would produce 190 calories.
If we consider the macronutrients, fats, carbs, proteins, you’ll notice the bread has 4.5 grams, 35 grams, and 2 grams, respectively. Of the 190 calories, 41 come from fat (4.5 cal x 9g), 140 come from carbs (35 cal x 4g), and 8 come from protein (2cal x 4g).
Our bodies “burn” the calories in the slice of bread through digestion and the metabolic process to break the carbohydrates into glucose and other sugars, the fats into glycerol and fatty acids, and the proteins into amino acids. These broken down particles are then transported through the bloodstream to the body’s cells where they are either absorbed from immediate use or sent to the last state of the metabolic process where they are reactied with oxygen to release their stored energy.
If we consider the macronutrients, fats, carbs, proteins, you’ll notice the bread has 4.5 grams, 35 grams, and 2 grams, respectively. Of the 190 calories, 41 come from fat (4.5 cal x 9g), 140 come from carbs (35 cal x 4g), and 8 come from protein (2cal x 4g).
Our bodies “burn” the calories in the slice of bread through digestion and the metabolic process to break the carbohydrates into glucose and other sugars, the fats into glycerol and fatty acids, and the proteins into amino acids. These broken down particles are then transported through the bloodstream to the body’s cells where they are either absorbed from immediate use or sent to the last state of the metabolic process where they are reactied with oxygen to release their stored energy.
So How Many Calories are Needed to Function?
This answer varies for every person due to individual height, weight, gender, age, current body composition, and activity levels. There are three main factors that are involved when calculating the amount of calories your body needs.
-Basal Metabolic Rate
-Physical Activity Level
-Thermic Effect of Food
Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy your body needs to function in a resting state. Not exercising, not working, but just sitting there. Staying alive requires between 60 and 70 percent of calories burned in a day which includes keeping your heart beating, lungs breathing, and kidneys functioning. Men will almost always have a higher BMR than women due to higher levels of muscle and body mass. If you’d like to calculate your own BMR, here’s one of the simplest and most effective methods to do so using the Harris Benedict formula:
After your resting metabolic rate, physical activity uses the second most amount of calories. Physical activity is anything and everything you do throughout the day, from brushing your teeth to doing your laundry. People with higher amount of body mass will have a higher energy expenditure than people who are slimmer or have less body mass. This may seem backwards, but bigger bodies consume more energy and have more stored potential energy.
Lastly, the thermic effect of food is another way your body consumes calories. This thermic effect of food is the amount of energy your body uses to digest and metabolize the food you eat. The more food you eat in a given day, the higher your TEF will be. This doesn’t mean the TEF of eating more food offsets the increased calories you’re consuming, but when coupled with increased physical activity and an improved body composition, it can be very beneficial towards allowing you to eat more food and increase your maintenance calorie level, which is never a bad thing.
Lastly, the thermic effect of food is another way your body consumes calories. This thermic effect of food is the amount of energy your body uses to digest and metabolize the food you eat. The more food you eat in a given day, the higher your TEF will be. This doesn’t mean the TEF of eating more food offsets the increased calories you’re consuming, but when coupled with increased physical activity and an improved body composition, it can be very beneficial towards allowing you to eat more food and increase your maintenance calorie level, which is never a bad thing.
Energy Balance
Here’s where this talk about energy gets important, so make sure you’re paying attention as I do my best to explain this as clearly and concisely as possible.
If you take in MORE calories than your body burns, this will create an energy surplus which means an increased store of energy in the body, which will almost always lead to an INCREASE IN BODY FAT. The rate of fat increase is dependent on how large this calorie surplus is, so don’t expect to get fat overnight after a few large meals, but over a long enough period in a large enough surplus, this can lead to a lot of fat gain.
Conversely, if you take in FEWER calories than your body burns, this will create an energy deficit which means a decrease in stored energy in the body, resulting in fat loss. Once again, don’t expect to become super lean after a few days of restricting calories. Dramatic fat loss is a result of a good sized calorie deficit over time.
A surplus of 3500 calories stored in the body is manifested as 1 pound of body fat, and you guess it, a deficit of 3500 calories results in a loss of 1 pound of body fat.
There’s no simpler way to explain energy balance, and I hope it makes sense because it’s so incredibly important to grasp. With this information you can change your body composition essentially on demand.
Does it Matter where the Calories Come From?
Yes. And No. A surplus or deficit of calories will create fat gain or fat loss respectively, period. In regards to nutrition and aiming to create an improved body composition, it actually does matter where these calories are coming from. And when I say “where they come from” I mean either from protein, fat, or carbs, not some mystical type of nutrient that has yet to be discovered or something like that.
To achieve an improved body composition, meaning a slimmer, more toned physique, it’s imperative to consume adequate amounts of protein from meat. Yes, I know you have a friend who has a cousin whos vegan and swears it’s improved her life and she’s all healthy and all that jazz, but I promise you it’s not just from eliminating animal proteins. Especially if you’re working out and training with weights, protein should be your go-to nutrient at every meal.
Followed by protein are carbohydrates, which come in all types of shapes, forms, and foods. Carbs are an excellent energy source and have a more difficult time being converted and stored as fat when in a calorie surplus, as opposed to dietary fat. Vegetables are excellent carb sources for most people as they are extremely low in calories for the amount of volume they provide, so be sure to include veggies, especially green veggies, in most of your meals.
Fats are often villainized because it’s always thought that “eating fat makes you fat”, but as you should know by now, that’s only the case when you’re consuming fat in a calorie surplus. Fats are an essential macronutrient that the body needs to function optimally. The caveat of dietary fat is the amount of calories packed in such a small amount of volume. If you’ll remember, there’s 9 calories per gram of dietary fat, which means it’s exceptionally easy to over eat fat. Do this for a long enough time and you’ll see a spike in your weight on the bathroom scale.
Food, friends, family, and of course, more food.
It’s what the holiday season is all about.
In the upcoming weeks you’ll no doubt find yourself bombarded with all you can eat smorgasbords and probably tell yourself something like “I’ll get back to my diet and eating right after the holidays.”
In a way, submitting to your “fate of fatness” as if you have no control over the upcoming onslaught of decadent deserts and holiday parties.
Studies do show that people tend to gain a majority (over 80%) of their weight over the year during the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean you have to be just another statistic.
If you’re busted your ass losing weight and improving your body composition over the last 10 months, there’s no need to relegate yourself to adding some holiday fluff just because it’s the ‘thing to do’ and unavoidable.
With some proper planning, you can mitigate any fat gain, and even shed a few pounds if you take the proper course of action starting NOW.
Not the day before Thanksgiving. Not the day after. But now, as in TODAY.
So here’s a short action item list of what you can do to ensure you’re not packing on the pounds this holiday season and how you can still have your cake (or pie) and eat it too.
It’s what the holiday season is all about.
In the upcoming weeks you’ll no doubt find yourself bombarded with all you can eat smorgasbords and probably tell yourself something like “I’ll get back to my diet and eating right after the holidays.”
In a way, submitting to your “fate of fatness” as if you have no control over the upcoming onslaught of decadent deserts and holiday parties.
Studies do show that people tend to gain a majority (over 80%) of their weight over the year during the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean you have to be just another statistic.
If you’re busted your ass losing weight and improving your body composition over the last 10 months, there’s no need to relegate yourself to adding some holiday fluff just because it’s the ‘thing to do’ and unavoidable.
With some proper planning, you can mitigate any fat gain, and even shed a few pounds if you take the proper course of action starting NOW.
Not the day before Thanksgiving. Not the day after. But now, as in TODAY.
So here’s a short action item list of what you can do to ensure you’re not packing on the pounds this holiday season and how you can still have your cake (or pie) and eat it too.
Start Lifting Weights
If you’re not all ready training with weights, now is the perfect time to start doing so. There are so many health benefits to getting in the gym and lifting free weights and using resistance machines, but for the sake of time and to stay within the scope of this piece, I’ll just go over the direct benefits of preventing any holiday fat gain.
-Improved nutrient partitioning: What does this mean exactly? The awesome thing about training consistently with weights is how your body’s metabolism adapts to this new stimulus and changes how your body uses and stores protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In most untrained individuals, they have a poor muscle to fat portioning ratio, meaning a surplus of carbs and fats will more than likely be stored as body fat as opposed to muscle mass. By incorporating weight lifting a few days a week, this portioning improves and favors lean muscle mass rather than body fat.
If you’re not all ready training with weights, now is the perfect time to start doing so. There are so many health benefits to getting in the gym and lifting free weights and using resistance machines, but for the sake of time and to stay within the scope of this piece, I’ll just go over the direct benefits of preventing any holiday fat gain.
-Improved nutrient partitioning: What does this mean exactly? The awesome thing about training consistently with weights is how your body’s metabolism adapts to this new stimulus and changes how your body uses and stores protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In most untrained individuals, they have a poor muscle to fat portioning ratio, meaning a surplus of carbs and fats will more than likely be stored as body fat as opposed to muscle mass. By incorporating weight lifting a few days a week, this portioning improves and favors lean muscle mass rather than body fat.
Reduce the Number of Meals You Have During the Day
You’ve probably heard somewhere down the line that eating 5-6 meals a day is the best way to lose weight and “stoke your metabolism”. The truth is out, and this is definitely not true. There is no increased benefit to eating more meals throughout the day, period. Fat loss is based on a energy (calorie) balance, which means the only way to lose weight is to expend more energy daily than you consume. Period. So whether you’re eating ONE meal a day or SEVERAL, it makes no difference to fat loss unless your calories are in order. Folks who arbitrarily eat more 4+ meals a day, who don’t track their calories, tend to eat more food through the course of the day than people who eat 2-3 larger meals during the day. One way to reduce the amount of food you’re eating is to eliminate a meal, usually breakfast. Contrary to what you’ve also been told, there is NOTHING wrong or unhealthy with holding off a few hours after you wake up to eat. Instead of scarfing down some food as soon as you’re awake or before you jet out the door, have a cup of coffee and hold off on your first meal until lunch. You may think you “need” breakfast because you’ve conditioned yourself to eating an early meal probably your whole life, but after a few days of holding off until lunch you’ll be feeling more energetic and start seeing more benefits from “skipping breakfast.”
You’ve probably heard somewhere down the line that eating 5-6 meals a day is the best way to lose weight and “stoke your metabolism”. The truth is out, and this is definitely not true. There is no increased benefit to eating more meals throughout the day, period. Fat loss is based on a energy (calorie) balance, which means the only way to lose weight is to expend more energy daily than you consume. Period. So whether you’re eating ONE meal a day or SEVERAL, it makes no difference to fat loss unless your calories are in order. Folks who arbitrarily eat more 4+ meals a day, who don’t track their calories, tend to eat more food through the course of the day than people who eat 2-3 larger meals during the day. One way to reduce the amount of food you’re eating is to eliminate a meal, usually breakfast. Contrary to what you’ve also been told, there is NOTHING wrong or unhealthy with holding off a few hours after you wake up to eat. Instead of scarfing down some food as soon as you’re awake or before you jet out the door, have a cup of coffee and hold off on your first meal until lunch. You may think you “need” breakfast because you’ve conditioned yourself to eating an early meal probably your whole life, but after a few days of holding off until lunch you’ll be feeling more energetic and start seeing more benefits from “skipping breakfast.”
Reduce your Carbohydrate Intake
You’re going to load up on carbs during Thanksgiving dinner, I don’t care what you may think. It’s going to happen. But we can use this day of carb loading to our advantage. By reducing the amount of carbs you are currently eating now, we can use the impending carbpocolypse that is Thanksgiving dinner to super-compensate our muscle cells and glycogen (carb) stores that have been depleted due to the reduced carbs over the last few weeks. So devise the plan for yourself to eat as FEW carbs as possible from here on out until your thanksgiving meal. When coupled with weight training, low carb dieting will tremendously reduce your glycogen (carbs) stored in your muscle cells and organs which will allow them to soak up the carbs like a holiday super sponge and really mitigate any fat gain you might see otherwise.
Be More Active NOW
Say NO to the elevator and start taking the stairs as often as you can. Stop searching for that upfront parking spot and walk your happy ass from the end of the parking lot. Make it a point to get out of your desk chair every hour at work to walk around for a few minutes. These things may seem insignificant right now but they have a HUGE impact on your daily energy expenditure. It’s the little things like this that add up to make a big difference.
Say NO to the elevator and start taking the stairs as often as you can. Stop searching for that upfront parking spot and walk your happy ass from the end of the parking lot. Make it a point to get out of your desk chair every hour at work to walk around for a few minutes. These things may seem insignificant right now but they have a HUGE impact on your daily energy expenditure. It’s the little things like this that add up to make a big difference.
Be Sure to Do ALL OF THESE THINGS the Day of Your Feast.
You’ll benefit most if you start doing all of these things today, but the next best thing to do is make sure you adhere to these tips Thanksgiving day. I know it’s going to be tempting to wake up and have a large breakfast before your thanksgiving dinner (people really do this???) but you’re going to have to put that on hold. Wake up, abstain from eating breakfast, hit the gym for a full body weight training session, drink lots of water, and when it’s time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with your family, then have at it!
The idea behind this mini series of articles entitled “Engineering a Better Body” is all about identifying problems, approaching the problem from all angles, and providing the most effective solution possible.
That, my friends, is what engineering is all about.
The results of all the hard work and time required to pack on lean muscle mass or trim some unwanted body fat are clearly visible on the outside, but how well we accomplish these goals are determined on the inside.
In order to optimally build a healthy, strong, and lean body it’s imperative to understand the most important hormones in your body, what they do, and how we can effectively utilize them to help us build a better and healthier life.
To most people, hormones are these confusing little chemicals that reside in us and are responsible for puberty and why we do stupid things when we’re attracted to someone.
While that’s partially true, it’s just the tip of the hormone iceberg.
The human body is a symphony of hundreds of hormones working in harmony to ensure our well being and survival.
For the sake of time, we’ll only discuss the most important hormones that are relevant to building a stronger and healthier body.
So let’s make like ranch dressing and dip into this.
That, my friends, is what engineering is all about.
The results of all the hard work and time required to pack on lean muscle mass or trim some unwanted body fat are clearly visible on the outside, but how well we accomplish these goals are determined on the inside.
In order to optimally build a healthy, strong, and lean body it’s imperative to understand the most important hormones in your body, what they do, and how we can effectively utilize them to help us build a better and healthier life.
To most people, hormones are these confusing little chemicals that reside in us and are responsible for puberty and why we do stupid things when we’re attracted to someone.
While that’s partially true, it’s just the tip of the hormone iceberg.
The human body is a symphony of hundreds of hormones working in harmony to ensure our well being and survival.
For the sake of time, we’ll only discuss the most important hormones that are relevant to building a stronger and healthier body.
So let’s make like ranch dressing and dip into this.
Testosterone
Straight up, testosterone is what makes you a man. And if you’re a woman reading this, we’ll address why testosterone is still important and vital to your health.
Testosterone is the hormone that allows you to build muscle and burn fat. It’s what makes men attractive to women, powers sex drive, and helps you recover from your workouts.
And for women, it’s also important to have a healthy testosterone (in much smaller amounts of course) for those reasons mentioned.
Over the last 20 years men have seen the average testosterone level drop about 20-30%, mostly due to our more sedentary lifestyles and crappy diets.
So you can probably all ready infer how important it is to make the most of our natural testosterone production.
The point here is not to become big and bulky by optimizing our testosterone, but to rather enhance the characteristics that are associated with healthy testosterone to help you build a healthy, functional body.
There’s also the added benefit of men with average to higher levels of natural testosterone live longer, have lower incidences of heart disease, spend less money on health care.
One sure fire way to help produce natural testosterone production is to eliminate some body fat because that beer belly you’ve been hauling around has been hindering your body of making some health gains.
Higher levels of body fat in men cause testosterone that’s been produced to convert aromatize (convert) into estrogen (not what we want here.)
Higher levels of estrogen will make you look soft, in every sense of the word possible.
By cutting down your body fat you’ll have he greatest impact on ensuring that you continue to produce more testosterone and stay more youthful as long as possible.
Here’s a short cheat sheet on how to increase your body’s natural testosterone levels.
Straight up, testosterone is what makes you a man. And if you’re a woman reading this, we’ll address why testosterone is still important and vital to your health.
Testosterone is the hormone that allows you to build muscle and burn fat. It’s what makes men attractive to women, powers sex drive, and helps you recover from your workouts.
And for women, it’s also important to have a healthy testosterone (in much smaller amounts of course) for those reasons mentioned.
Over the last 20 years men have seen the average testosterone level drop about 20-30%, mostly due to our more sedentary lifestyles and crappy diets.
So you can probably all ready infer how important it is to make the most of our natural testosterone production.
The point here is not to become big and bulky by optimizing our testosterone, but to rather enhance the characteristics that are associated with healthy testosterone to help you build a healthy, functional body.
There’s also the added benefit of men with average to higher levels of natural testosterone live longer, have lower incidences of heart disease, spend less money on health care.
One sure fire way to help produce natural testosterone production is to eliminate some body fat because that beer belly you’ve been hauling around has been hindering your body of making some health gains.
Higher levels of body fat in men cause testosterone that’s been produced to convert aromatize (convert) into estrogen (not what we want here.)
Higher levels of estrogen will make you look soft, in every sense of the word possible.
By cutting down your body fat you’ll have he greatest impact on ensuring that you continue to produce more testosterone and stay more youthful as long as possible.
Here’s a short cheat sheet on how to increase your body’s natural testosterone levels.
Growth Hormone
Growth hormone is the Robin to Testosterone’s Batman.
Growth hormone has a direct impact on physical factos such as increasing your bodie’s natural ability to burn fat and increase your longevity.
Healthy levels of growth hormone also increase your body’s ability to get quality sleep and recover outside of the gym.
Just like it’s name implies, growth hormone improves the growth of your cells- this means help to grow lean muscle mass, strengthen your bones, reduce the stress on your liver, and also protect your immune system.
Here’s a few ways you can naturally increase your body’s growth hormone.
Growth hormone is the Robin to Testosterone’s Batman.
Growth hormone has a direct impact on physical factos such as increasing your bodie’s natural ability to burn fat and increase your longevity.
Healthy levels of growth hormone also increase your body’s ability to get quality sleep and recover outside of the gym.
Just like it’s name implies, growth hormone improves the growth of your cells- this means help to grow lean muscle mass, strengthen your bones, reduce the stress on your liver, and also protect your immune system.
Here’s a few ways you can naturally increase your body’s growth hormone.
Leptin
Now we’re getting into some lesser known hormones that play a major role.
Leptin is a hormone that is produced in your fat cells; which means the more fat you have the more leptin you can produce.
Here’s why leptin is so important: leptin is one the master hormones that regulate the metabolism and thyroid hormones.
When leptin production is high, these other thyroid hormones will be high as well, which is a good thing for fat burning and higher energy levels.
But when leptin levels drop, these other functions like metabolism and thyroid function drop as well.
Leptin is something of a double edged sword.
When calorie consumption is higher, we’re producing more leptin which is good for fat loss.
Conversely, when we’re eating less in order to drop body fat, leptin levels diminish.
Seems like some kind of whacky paradox, right?
Leptin is a type of “anti-starvation” hormone which means your body will start to slow its metabolism when energy intake is being reduced and you won’t feel that hunger sensation.
This is a great mechanism for survival, but a catch-22 for fat loss; you need to eat less to burn fat, but eating less compromises your body’s ability to produce leptin.
And the less leptin you produce, the hungrier you become and the more likely you are to eat more than you need.
So how do we keep leptin levels up so that we continue to make progress?
Now we’re getting into some lesser known hormones that play a major role.
Leptin is a hormone that is produced in your fat cells; which means the more fat you have the more leptin you can produce.
Here’s why leptin is so important: leptin is one the master hormones that regulate the metabolism and thyroid hormones.
When leptin production is high, these other thyroid hormones will be high as well, which is a good thing for fat burning and higher energy levels.
But when leptin levels drop, these other functions like metabolism and thyroid function drop as well.
Leptin is something of a double edged sword.
When calorie consumption is higher, we’re producing more leptin which is good for fat loss.
Conversely, when we’re eating less in order to drop body fat, leptin levels diminish.
Seems like some kind of whacky paradox, right?
Leptin is a type of “anti-starvation” hormone which means your body will start to slow its metabolism when energy intake is being reduced and you won’t feel that hunger sensation.
This is a great mechanism for survival, but a catch-22 for fat loss; you need to eat less to burn fat, but eating less compromises your body’s ability to produce leptin.
And the less leptin you produce, the hungrier you become and the more likely you are to eat more than you need.
So how do we keep leptin levels up so that we continue to make progress?
Ghrelin
This weird little hormone is known as the “hunger” hormone and is produced in your brain, specifically the hypothalamus, as well as your kidneys, and pituitary gland.
But that’s not the only place it’s produced. Most ghrelin is synthesized in the stomach and released in the stomach as well.
It’s released in a pulsing manner during the night and reaches its peak when you wake up.
No matter where in the body ghrelin is produced or what time it is, the end result is the same: SNACK ATTACK.
Ghrelin not only induces hunger but is also secreted by it.
Your stomach will produce ghrelin when its feeling empty.
Here’s the trick to understand ghrelin and controlling it: it’s largely based on your eating schedule and eating habbits.
In other words, you’ve condited yourself to feeling hungry at certain times and feeling hungry at specific times throughout the day.
Ghrelin is definitely a hormone that we can consider a “trainable” hormone.
This is one of the reasons why the multiple meal hypothesis (eating 6 small meals a day) is flawed.
Eating small meals often is designed to make and keep you hungry.
So if losing weight and becoming leaner are your goals, training your body to eat less frequently, while still feeling full, is a more sustainable and enjoyable approach to eating without feeling frustrated or constantly hungry.
A better meal schedule can help you balance your ghrelin levels, as will a better sleep schedule.
Here’s what happens when you don’t get enough sleep:
- Your cortisol levels (stress hormone) rise which will make you crave food.
- Your body will produce more ghrelin and it will become harder to decrease these levels, making you hungrier more often.
- The lack of sleep and higher levels of ghrelin will more than likely lead you to grab calorie dense snacks out of impulse.
Estrogen
You may all ready be familiar with estrogen as an important female hormone, but what you may not know is it’s an important hormone for men as well (in the right amounts.)
If a man’s estrogen level is too high in can reak havoc on the male body that include an increase in body fat, decreased libido, depression, and the growth of man boobs.
If a man’s body fat level becomes too high, a conversion process happens to testorone: it will become estrogen due to aromatizing. This is something we definitely do not want.
Here are some easy ways to avoid the conversion of testosterone to estrogren and keep estrogen levels under control:
You may all ready be familiar with estrogen as an important female hormone, but what you may not know is it’s an important hormone for men as well (in the right amounts.)
If a man’s estrogen level is too high in can reak havoc on the male body that include an increase in body fat, decreased libido, depression, and the growth of man boobs.
If a man’s body fat level becomes too high, a conversion process happens to testorone: it will become estrogen due to aromatizing. This is something we definitely do not want.
Here are some easy ways to avoid the conversion of testosterone to estrogren and keep estrogen levels under control:
Insulin
The carb hormone, right? Well, kind of.
Insulin controls everything from how quickly your body can drop body fat and gain muscle, and whether the food you eat will make you crash or give you ample energy.
Insulin is produced in the pancreas and responsible for the uptake of nutrients into cells in your liver, muscles, and stored fat.
When insulin is working properly in your body then your cells are primed for the storage of nutrients.
Mastering insulin timing isn’t as simple as a lot of people and programs make it out to be, so rather than try to master the timing of when insulin spikes, it will be more beneficial to become more sensitive to insulin.
When insulin sensitivity is high your body needs less insulin to get the same effect. Having a higher insulin sensitivity is a good way to ensure you’ll gain more muscle than fat when eating surplus amounts of carbohydrates.
The modern American diet is made up of carb-laden foods that are constantly spiking insulin levels in a way that confuses the body and de-sensitizes it to insulin.
Chronically high levels of insulin will result in something known as insulin resistance, or more commonly known as diabetes.
This means your body uses insulin less effectively so you’ll need to produce more in order to digest and utilize carbohydrates effectively. This is NOT something we desire.
You do NOT want more insulin pumping through your body, but rather just enough to shuttle the nutrients from food you consume in an advantageous way.
When you become insulin resistant your blood sugar levels stay elevated for longer periods of time which is definitely not a good thing.
Additionally, when insulin levels are elevated, fat burning and energy utilization is non-existent and muscle building is not a top priority.
The top priority for your body has become reducing the elevated sugar levels in the bloodstream by increasing the production of insulin to do so.
If not addressed in a healthy manner, Insulin can create a vicious cycle where more carbohydrates (blood sugar) are needed to increase the production of insulin to shuttle and clear the sugar in the blood stream.
Ultimately this will lead to a point where your body will not produce enough insulin to decrease blood sugar levels and medication will be required to help lower blood sugar (i.e. diabetes.)
The takeaway point here with insulin is to be smart about your carbohydrate consumption and train with weights.
Weight training increases your body’s sensitivity to carbohydrates and you’ll be able to handle more carbs in your diet and require less insulin to clear your elevated blood sugar levels.
Cortisol
Cortisol often gets a bad rap as a “fattening” hormone brought on by excess stress, when in reality it’s an extremely crucial and vital hormone required for survival.
In excess is when cortisol becomes a problem.
Cortisol is a hormone produced by stress, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s cortisol that is responsible for waking us up in the morning and providing bouts of adrenaline when necessary, and is responsible for burning fat when released in short bouts.
Prolonged elevation of cortisol becomes a problem as its highly catabolic, which means it’s used to breakdown organic tissue, including muscle mass. Additionally higher levels of cortisol are correlated with increased storage of body fat in the mid-section.
So how do we make cortisol work best for us?
Adequate sleep and rest. Stressing less about things we can’t control. Getting proper amounts of exercise and activity throughout the week.
Walk into any gym and take a look at most of the guys in there lifting weights and try to see what they all have in common.
Most people who are new to lifting weights, and even some who have been lifting for a while, are convinced that the only way to increase their muscle mass is to get stronger and lift the heaviest weights they possibly can.
While there is SOME correlation between strong muscles and bigger muscles, it is definitely not a direct causation.
Now, for most beginner to intermediate lifters, you definitely want to increase your strength.
The first year or so of lifting will yield the greatest increases in strength and muscle size that you’ll probably see in your lifting career, so you want to take full advantage of this time.
But there’s a point in every lifters career where the strength gains may be steadily improving, but the lean muscle gains have come to a screeching halt.
Ah yes, the dreaded “plateau” we all encounter at one point or another.
You see, getting stronger and getting bigger can work independently from one another.
The reason everyone continues to add weight to the bar on most lifts, such as bench press, squats, and deadlifts is not exactly because of a direct increase in strength, but rather becoming more efficient throughout the move they’re performing.
Practice something with enough repetition and you’ll notice how much smoother and less effort it takes to perform the task optimally.
This is exactly what’s happening when you “get stronger” at a compound lift.
So what do you do when you’re getting better at your lifts, but not seeing those sought after muscle gains?
Most people who are new to lifting weights, and even some who have been lifting for a while, are convinced that the only way to increase their muscle mass is to get stronger and lift the heaviest weights they possibly can.
While there is SOME correlation between strong muscles and bigger muscles, it is definitely not a direct causation.
Now, for most beginner to intermediate lifters, you definitely want to increase your strength.
The first year or so of lifting will yield the greatest increases in strength and muscle size that you’ll probably see in your lifting career, so you want to take full advantage of this time.
But there’s a point in every lifters career where the strength gains may be steadily improving, but the lean muscle gains have come to a screeching halt.
Ah yes, the dreaded “plateau” we all encounter at one point or another.
You see, getting stronger and getting bigger can work independently from one another.
The reason everyone continues to add weight to the bar on most lifts, such as bench press, squats, and deadlifts is not exactly because of a direct increase in strength, but rather becoming more efficient throughout the move they’re performing.
Practice something with enough repetition and you’ll notice how much smoother and less effort it takes to perform the task optimally.
This is exactly what’s happening when you “get stronger” at a compound lift.
So what do you do when you’re getting better at your lifts, but not seeing those sought after muscle gains?
Here’s what You Need to Know- To make those muscles grow!
Muscles respond best when undergoing these 3 processes:
-Mechanical Tension: This is the tightness in the muscle when contracted when placed under a load. Picture what your biceps are like when you are curling a dumbbell, or how your legs feel during a leg press move.
-Metabolic stress: This is what’s happening to your muscles when you perform rep after rep. The more work and reps you’re doing, the higher the metabolic stress. This Is also known as “the pump.”
-Muscular Damage: This is partially created by forcing your body to work harder than it has in the past. Pushing your body to do more will cause them to be momentarily damaged, which is what we’re aiming for, but we also want our bodies to repair the tissue and become bigger and stronger to handle what may be coming next.
So with these very important 3 variables, how do we maximize this information to get bigger muscles?
Muscles respond best when undergoing these 3 processes:
-Mechanical Tension: This is the tightness in the muscle when contracted when placed under a load. Picture what your biceps are like when you are curling a dumbbell, or how your legs feel during a leg press move.
-Metabolic stress: This is what’s happening to your muscles when you perform rep after rep. The more work and reps you’re doing, the higher the metabolic stress. This Is also known as “the pump.”
-Muscular Damage: This is partially created by forcing your body to work harder than it has in the past. Pushing your body to do more will cause them to be momentarily damaged, which is what we’re aiming for, but we also want our bodies to repair the tissue and become bigger and stronger to handle what may be coming next.
So with these very important 3 variables, how do we maximize this information to get bigger muscles?
Keep tension in the muscle at all times during a lift- Instead of focusing on moving heavy weight through space in the shortest amount of time possible, think of the weight as a tool to produce maximum muscular contraction. This means lower the weight, perform more reps, and be sure to squeeze and contract the muscle you’re working to get the most out of it.
Be aware of the lock out phase of the movement as you want to maintain tension in the muscle and not lose that tension.
Use higher rep ranges to CHASE THE PUMP!- You’ve probably heard that rep ranges of 8-12 are best for hypertrophy (increasing muscle size), but reps in the 15,20,and even higher ranges have been proven effective in muscle building. What’s important to focus on here is how close you can get to muscular failure, not exactly the weight you’re lifting.
Isolation moves can require 20, 50, or even 100 reps for people who have been training for some time.
Track your workouts and keep on getting better!- Even when chasing the pump in these higher rep ranges, you want to be sure you’re increasing the weight you’re using over time.
This is the progressive overload principle that is required for muscles to grow. While you’re technically getting stronger, the key here is that you’re adding more volume to your reps which will increase mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscular damage; the perfect muscle building cocktail.
Flashback 15 years.
At this time in my life, I was a scrawny, lanky, and timid 14 year old who desperately wanted to change the way I felt, the way I looked, and the way people looked at me.
Little did I know at this time that lifting weights would quickly become my life’s longest passion.
So after doing what I could with a few dumbbells and weights in my garage at home, I thought I’d take my weight training pursuits to the big show: The YMCA gym.
Oh yeah, it was getting serious now.
Day after day I’d make my way to the YMCA “Pump Palace” as it was known, and fly under the radar going about my amateur workouts as I’d watch guys with what seemed to be god-like physiques heave big weight around like it was nothing.
There were these 2 guys that worked at the gym and also worked out there who were a few years older than me, but had physiques that were light years ahead of my own.
I’d watch them. Study their workouts. Analyze their techniques.
But observation can only do so much.
So one day I did something uncharacteristic of me at the time and went up to these guys.
I might as well have been talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger himself as intimidated as thinking about what I was going to say.
At this time in my life, I was a scrawny, lanky, and timid 14 year old who desperately wanted to change the way I felt, the way I looked, and the way people looked at me.
Little did I know at this time that lifting weights would quickly become my life’s longest passion.
So after doing what I could with a few dumbbells and weights in my garage at home, I thought I’d take my weight training pursuits to the big show: The YMCA gym.
Oh yeah, it was getting serious now.
Day after day I’d make my way to the YMCA “Pump Palace” as it was known, and fly under the radar going about my amateur workouts as I’d watch guys with what seemed to be god-like physiques heave big weight around like it was nothing.
There were these 2 guys that worked at the gym and also worked out there who were a few years older than me, but had physiques that were light years ahead of my own.
I’d watch them. Study their workouts. Analyze their techniques.
But observation can only do so much.
So one day I did something uncharacteristic of me at the time and went up to these guys.
I might as well have been talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger himself as intimidated as thinking about what I was going to say.
But I managed to somehow put a statement together something along the lines of “Hey guys, I’m John and I think you guys are jacked. How did you do that? I want to build muscles like that. Can you tell me how you do it?”
A look came over these guys like I’ve never experienced before.
They both looked as if they got paid a million dollar compliment and if they died at that very moment they’d be utterly content with how their lives played out.
They were truly flattered, an emotion I had never instilled in anyone before in my life. They both smiled from ear to ear and said “Hey thanks a lot man! It means a lot to hear that, we’d be happy to share what we know with you.”
I became close friends with these guys in my time working out at the YMCA, and we managed to keep in touch more than a decade later.
One of the guys, Jerome, still reminds me of our first encounter and told me the way it made him feel.
A look came over these guys like I’ve never experienced before.
They both looked as if they got paid a million dollar compliment and if they died at that very moment they’d be utterly content with how their lives played out.
They were truly flattered, an emotion I had never instilled in anyone before in my life. They both smiled from ear to ear and said “Hey thanks a lot man! It means a lot to hear that, we’d be happy to share what we know with you.”
I became close friends with these guys in my time working out at the YMCA, and we managed to keep in touch more than a decade later.
One of the guys, Jerome, still reminds me of our first encounter and told me the way it made him feel.
He told me it felt great to be “noticed” and “acknowledged.” Even though he wasn’t the biggest or strongest guy in the world, the compliment I paid him would lead you to believe otherwise.
He was just a regular guy who worked in a gym at a point in his life where it’s easy to go un-noticed and just blend in to the backdrop, but he said it was such an inspiring and motivating feeling to know that somebody looked up to him.
This was the first of many people I’d look up to in my life and put me on the road to have people look up to me, whether I knew it or not.
Fast forward from this point 15 years.
There’s a lot in my life that I’ve accomplished, both in and out of the gym.
My physique has come a long way, but still nowhere where I’d like it to be.
But that’s the game us bodybuilders play.
Some days I can look at myself and ask, “bro, do you even lift?”
I’ll say this to myself on most days actually.
I’ll also have conversations with myself about my business as WhatAreYouCraven that go something like, “yeah, you help a good amount of people, but is it really making a difference?
Is this really worth your time and energy?
Maybe you should quit and go get a boring 9-5 engineering job and stop wasting your time trying to make a difference.”
He was just a regular guy who worked in a gym at a point in his life where it’s easy to go un-noticed and just blend in to the backdrop, but he said it was such an inspiring and motivating feeling to know that somebody looked up to him.
This was the first of many people I’d look up to in my life and put me on the road to have people look up to me, whether I knew it or not.
Fast forward from this point 15 years.
There’s a lot in my life that I’ve accomplished, both in and out of the gym.
My physique has come a long way, but still nowhere where I’d like it to be.
But that’s the game us bodybuilders play.
Some days I can look at myself and ask, “bro, do you even lift?”
I’ll say this to myself on most days actually.
I’ll also have conversations with myself about my business as WhatAreYouCraven that go something like, “yeah, you help a good amount of people, but is it really making a difference?
Is this really worth your time and energy?
Maybe you should quit and go get a boring 9-5 engineering job and stop wasting your time trying to make a difference.”
I get down on myself. We all do from time to time.
But the other night I was out late at by myself at this little sushi joint I like to hit up every week.
I was greeted, took my seat, and visited by my server; a young, timid, 20 something year old.
Nice kid, pretty quiet, and very polite.
After paying my check and getting ready to head out, he came up to me and said something I’ll remember for a long time.
“Hi Sir, I just wanted to say that you look great and have an awesome physique. Could you tell me what kind of workouts you do?”
I’ve heard things like this before, and it’s always humbling and flattering, but the sincerity in the way this kid said it made me feel like I could die at that moment and be content with my life.
The kid and I had spoken maybe 12 words to each other before he said that, but he looked up to me.
Honestly, it’s remarkable what a few sincere and genuine words can do to change your entire disposition.
I had gone into that restaurant thinking about how “stuck” I was with my gym progress, my businesses, and where I was in life.
I’ll sometimes compare myself and my progress to others (something I KNOW I should NEVER do, but it happens) and feel like their success trumps mine tenfold.
But those words made me leave that sushi joint rejuvenated and feeling the way I once did when I was just starting my business and passionate about my workouts.
It made me think about the other similar encounters I’ve had over the years where somebody paid me an endearing and genuine compliment.
But the other night I was out late at by myself at this little sushi joint I like to hit up every week.
I was greeted, took my seat, and visited by my server; a young, timid, 20 something year old.
Nice kid, pretty quiet, and very polite.
After paying my check and getting ready to head out, he came up to me and said something I’ll remember for a long time.
“Hi Sir, I just wanted to say that you look great and have an awesome physique. Could you tell me what kind of workouts you do?”
I’ve heard things like this before, and it’s always humbling and flattering, but the sincerity in the way this kid said it made me feel like I could die at that moment and be content with my life.
The kid and I had spoken maybe 12 words to each other before he said that, but he looked up to me.
Honestly, it’s remarkable what a few sincere and genuine words can do to change your entire disposition.
I had gone into that restaurant thinking about how “stuck” I was with my gym progress, my businesses, and where I was in life.
I’ll sometimes compare myself and my progress to others (something I KNOW I should NEVER do, but it happens) and feel like their success trumps mine tenfold.
But those words made me leave that sushi joint rejuvenated and feeling the way I once did when I was just starting my business and passionate about my workouts.
It made me think about the other similar encounters I’ve had over the years where somebody paid me an endearing and genuine compliment.
And also the numerous emails and messages I get on my articles and videos alone about how I help inspire and improve people’s lives.
That’s the best type of motivation there is.
I don’t want to come across as having some sort of superiority complex or put myself on a pedestal, but I often forget there are people who look up to me.
And I can guarantee you, no matter where you are or aren’t in your life, there’s somebody who looks up to you and what you’ve accomplished.
Even on your worst days, there’s somebody who would trade their life for yours.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is to keep on going.
Keep on hustling.
Keep on creating.
Keep on pushing the envelope.
Keep on doing the right thing.
There’s people watching you.
And sure, unfortunately there are some people watching you hoping you fail and fall flat on your face.
But for as many people there are hating on you, there’s probably 10 times as many people in your corner, rooting for you, and hoping you’ll do great things.
They’re out there, and you might never know their names.
But I promise you, they’re there.
That’s the best type of motivation there is.
I don’t want to come across as having some sort of superiority complex or put myself on a pedestal, but I often forget there are people who look up to me.
And I can guarantee you, no matter where you are or aren’t in your life, there’s somebody who looks up to you and what you’ve accomplished.
Even on your worst days, there’s somebody who would trade their life for yours.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is to keep on going.
Keep on hustling.
Keep on creating.
Keep on pushing the envelope.
Keep on doing the right thing.
There’s people watching you.
And sure, unfortunately there are some people watching you hoping you fail and fall flat on your face.
But for as many people there are hating on you, there’s probably 10 times as many people in your corner, rooting for you, and hoping you’ll do great things.
They’re out there, and you might never know their names.
But I promise you, they’re there.
We live in the information age, where finding info on anything you could possibly imagine is just a Google search and lighting quick .0078 seconds away.
With so much information at our disposal, you would think everyone would be a little bit better informed about everything in the world, right?
To some extent, most people are, even though most still lack some common sense at times, but we’re still somewhat resourceful.
Want to know how to better handle your finances? Google it. Want to learn everything you need to know last minute for that upcoming test? Watch a Youtube video.
But with this vast and ever expanding universe of information at our fingertips, there’s also something known as an information paradox happening.
The information paradox means that with so much available information based on different sources, opinions, and studies, deciding on ONE single thing is virtually impossible.
The old adage of less is more” definitely holds true here.
And a prime example of this information paradox is fitness; more specifically, how to build quality muscle.
You may read one web article saying you’ve got to consume 300 grams of protein to build any kind of muscle, then an hour later the huge guy at the gym tells you to only eat 1 gram of protein per body weight.
Your friends may say train with a traditional “bro bodybuilding split” while your co-workers tell you crossfitt’s the only way to train. Then there’s the media bombarding you with endless “tips, tricks, and hacks” and how to finally get the muscle tone and body you’ve been longing for.
Everyone’s going to have a different spin and opinion on the subject, and sometimes they may work, the hard part is knowing what’s actually important and what isn’t.
Some of the “myths” I discuss in this article weren’t just fabricated and pulled out of thin air because they sounded good, but most likely based on actual scientific evidence that was available at the time.
Data, research, and the general knowledge about human physiology and building muscle change so rapidly that a lot of these old methods have become outdated and propagated as “myths” today in light of newer studies.
So these myths may have had some validity to them in the past, my point here is to show you that there is a more effective way to build some quality muscle mass and help keep you from spinning your wheels when you’re not seeing the progress you hoped for.
With so much information at our disposal, you would think everyone would be a little bit better informed about everything in the world, right?
To some extent, most people are, even though most still lack some common sense at times, but we’re still somewhat resourceful.
Want to know how to better handle your finances? Google it. Want to learn everything you need to know last minute for that upcoming test? Watch a Youtube video.
But with this vast and ever expanding universe of information at our fingertips, there’s also something known as an information paradox happening.
The information paradox means that with so much available information based on different sources, opinions, and studies, deciding on ONE single thing is virtually impossible.
The old adage of less is more” definitely holds true here.
And a prime example of this information paradox is fitness; more specifically, how to build quality muscle.
You may read one web article saying you’ve got to consume 300 grams of protein to build any kind of muscle, then an hour later the huge guy at the gym tells you to only eat 1 gram of protein per body weight.
Your friends may say train with a traditional “bro bodybuilding split” while your co-workers tell you crossfitt’s the only way to train. Then there’s the media bombarding you with endless “tips, tricks, and hacks” and how to finally get the muscle tone and body you’ve been longing for.
Everyone’s going to have a different spin and opinion on the subject, and sometimes they may work, the hard part is knowing what’s actually important and what isn’t.
Some of the “myths” I discuss in this article weren’t just fabricated and pulled out of thin air because they sounded good, but most likely based on actual scientific evidence that was available at the time.
Data, research, and the general knowledge about human physiology and building muscle change so rapidly that a lot of these old methods have become outdated and propagated as “myths” today in light of newer studies.
So these myths may have had some validity to them in the past, my point here is to show you that there is a more effective way to build some quality muscle mass and help keep you from spinning your wheels when you’re not seeing the progress you hoped for.
Myth: Confuse the muscles by constantly switching up workouts to make them grow
Reality: Excel at a handful of quality movements and exercises and continually get better at them
I don’t really know where the idea of “confusing the muscle” came from, and it’s a bit baffling to think how it ever gained momentum.
I mean, muscles don’t think or have brains, how the hell are you going to confuse them?
Muscles are responsive and adapt to stimulus, that’s all they know.
Okay, maybe I can see how if you do barbell bench presses with the same weight and rep scheme for 2 weeks then switch over to doing dumbbell presses for another 2 weeks to confuse the muscle.
You want to shake things up and keep the muscle guessing, hitting them with a left hook when they were expecting a soft right jab.
But constantly jumping from exercise to exercise in hopes that your muscles won’t catch on isn’t the way to do this.
The body is extremely adaptive and will get used to an applied stimulus in order to cope. It’s the main reason we as a species have made it this far in existence.
We want our muscles to adapt to the training to become proficient at the movements and also grow and become stronger, but we also want to make sure the stimulus is increased to ensure adaptation continues.
The best way to do this is through progressive overload. Progressive overload is applying more load (weight, reps, total volume) to an exercise overtime.
Every time you train you need to place the body’s muscles under a stress beyond what it is typically used to.
By progressively increasing the weight, reps, or total volume through the same exercise, your body will be forced to adapt and grow with the stimulus.
Reality: Excel at a handful of quality movements and exercises and continually get better at them
I don’t really know where the idea of “confusing the muscle” came from, and it’s a bit baffling to think how it ever gained momentum.
I mean, muscles don’t think or have brains, how the hell are you going to confuse them?
Muscles are responsive and adapt to stimulus, that’s all they know.
Okay, maybe I can see how if you do barbell bench presses with the same weight and rep scheme for 2 weeks then switch over to doing dumbbell presses for another 2 weeks to confuse the muscle.
You want to shake things up and keep the muscle guessing, hitting them with a left hook when they were expecting a soft right jab.
But constantly jumping from exercise to exercise in hopes that your muscles won’t catch on isn’t the way to do this.
The body is extremely adaptive and will get used to an applied stimulus in order to cope. It’s the main reason we as a species have made it this far in existence.
We want our muscles to adapt to the training to become proficient at the movements and also grow and become stronger, but we also want to make sure the stimulus is increased to ensure adaptation continues.
The best way to do this is through progressive overload. Progressive overload is applying more load (weight, reps, total volume) to an exercise overtime.
Every time you train you need to place the body’s muscles under a stress beyond what it is typically used to.
By progressively increasing the weight, reps, or total volume through the same exercise, your body will be forced to adapt and grow with the stimulus.
Myth: Bigger muscles are stronger muscles. There’s a direct correlation between strength and muscle size
Reality: This can be true *SOMETIMES, but not always the case.
But Craven, you just told me to get stronger if I wanted to get bigger muscles??
Yes I did, but please allow me to explain.
While there is some correlation between getting stronger and getting bigger, being stronger is not a direct cause of muscle growth.
Stronger muscles will benefit you in a way that will allow you to lift heavier loads witch will directly apply more stress to the muscles you’re working and trying to grow.
Guys who have great muscle development will always be “strong”, but strong is such a relative term.
Powerlifters are some of the strongest guys on the planet, but because they do not train for direct muscle growth, they often hardly look like they even lift weights and definitely don’t have physiques that are magazine cover material.
Most of the time “getting stronger” at a lift isn’t even your muscles getting stronger.
If you’ve been lifting and performing an exercise for a while, your body’s neural efficiency is improved and the mechanics of the lift become smoother.
This means by being more efficient through a lift, you waste less energy and can lift more weight. So it isn’t because you got stronger, but that you became ‘better’ at the lift, just FYI.
Muscles grow by a wide range of variables, one of which is strength, but mostly through a principle known as “time under tension.” When you train with weight to become stronger, you typically dabble in the rep ranges of 1-4 reps. You’re just trying to move weight through space as fast as possible, which is known as power. So yeah, that’s where the term powerlifting comes from.
But to follow the time under tension principle, 1-3 reps isn’t going to cut it. Applying direct stimulus to the muscle for a longer time period, which is typically expressed as repetitions anywhere from 8-20 is the best way to force the muscles to adapt and grow (provided you’re consuming adequate calories through protein and carbs for this to happen, but we’ll get to that in a second.)
There’s also the fact that muscles don’t grow overnight, unless you’re a beginner or you’ve hopped on the sauce (steroids.) Building muscle is a long and arduous process that isn’t based on only getting stronger, but by applying quality stimulus through time under tension.
Reality: This can be true *SOMETIMES, but not always the case.
But Craven, you just told me to get stronger if I wanted to get bigger muscles??
Yes I did, but please allow me to explain.
While there is some correlation between getting stronger and getting bigger, being stronger is not a direct cause of muscle growth.
Stronger muscles will benefit you in a way that will allow you to lift heavier loads witch will directly apply more stress to the muscles you’re working and trying to grow.
Guys who have great muscle development will always be “strong”, but strong is such a relative term.
Powerlifters are some of the strongest guys on the planet, but because they do not train for direct muscle growth, they often hardly look like they even lift weights and definitely don’t have physiques that are magazine cover material.
Most of the time “getting stronger” at a lift isn’t even your muscles getting stronger.
If you’ve been lifting and performing an exercise for a while, your body’s neural efficiency is improved and the mechanics of the lift become smoother.
This means by being more efficient through a lift, you waste less energy and can lift more weight. So it isn’t because you got stronger, but that you became ‘better’ at the lift, just FYI.
Muscles grow by a wide range of variables, one of which is strength, but mostly through a principle known as “time under tension.” When you train with weight to become stronger, you typically dabble in the rep ranges of 1-4 reps. You’re just trying to move weight through space as fast as possible, which is known as power. So yeah, that’s where the term powerlifting comes from.
But to follow the time under tension principle, 1-3 reps isn’t going to cut it. Applying direct stimulus to the muscle for a longer time period, which is typically expressed as repetitions anywhere from 8-20 is the best way to force the muscles to adapt and grow (provided you’re consuming adequate calories through protein and carbs for this to happen, but we’ll get to that in a second.)
There’s also the fact that muscles don’t grow overnight, unless you’re a beginner or you’ve hopped on the sauce (steroids.) Building muscle is a long and arduous process that isn’t based on only getting stronger, but by applying quality stimulus through time under tension.
Myth: I have to have a post-workout shake or my workout will be a waste. I also have to make sure I’m eating my 6 meals a day because that’s the only way to make muscle gains!
Reality: Energy in the form of calories is what matters most when building muscle or losing bodyfat
The idea of eating 6 meals a day doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, even though it’s been debunked and deemed unnecessary for both building muscle and dropping body fat.
I still see this concept floating around as I watch guys hauling around huge coolers of food day to day in hopes that they’ll one day be jacked and tan by eating every 2.5 hours during the day, or that they have to rush to their gym bag immediately after their last rep and slam 50 grams of protein and 70 grams in order to get their muscles to recover from their workout.
This one hits home the most, because I was once one of these bros. I was explicitly (and wrongly) informed that if I did this and ate nothing but “clean” foods constantly throughout the day I would gain the body of the gods.
Long story short: these meals left me feeling unsatisfied after I ate them but also made me over-eat at the same time. I did this for such a long time that I did put on a good amount of bodymass, however my bodyfat went through the rough.
I got fat.
Yes, I got fat eating CLEAN foods.
It happens when you don’t know anything about calories and how to eat properly for your exact goals.
To save on a long winded explanation of why energy balance, which is calories in versus calories out, is the determining factor on building muscle or losing bodyfat, I’ll lay out a short example.
Let’s say you’re somebody who’s been training with weights for sometime and still looking to add some quality lean muscle mass, you’re going to have to hit around 3200 calories a day to be in a calorie surplus (this is just for this example, not an absolute rule).
So maybe you have some eggs and oats for breakfast, a large chicken salad for lunch, you slam your protein shake with 50 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein after your training session, and you go home and have a nice dinner of steak and potatoes.
This may sound like the perfect plan to tack on some quality mass, but when you count up all of the calories behind these foods, you’ll see that combined they only add up to about 2400 calories.
Since your goal is to add body mass in the form of lean muscle tissue, it’s not going to happen if you’re only consuming 2400 calories when you should be consuming 3200 calories. It just won’t.
Conversely, the opposite is true. If you’re looking to cut down on some body fat, eat the same foods listed above but you need to be eating 2200 calories per day to see significant fat loss, it’s just not going to happen if you’re consuming 2400 calories a day and over eating by those 200 calories.
It just won’t happen.
This is precisely why the net effect of calories in versus calories out matter. It’s the deciding factor of whether your body is going to get bigger, get smaller, or stay the same.
The number of meals you eat in a day is not going to have a direct effect on your body composition (although eating small meals more often may leave you feeling hungrier, and fewer larger meals may make you feel too full and unproductive), it’s just a matter of finding what works best for your life and your schedule, and ultimately what you’re most comfortable with.
So are the calories all that matters here?
Well yes and no.
Ultimately, the overall energy consumption of calories will determine a change in size, but there’s also the macronutrients that need to be accounted for too.
Macronutrients, which are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, should be consumed in a ratio that suits your direct goals.
Which for almost everybody who’s reading this, means protein should be the main emphasis of your nutrition. The carbs and fats and key players too, but the amount you eat will vary on your training, current body composition, and physique goals.
There’s no absolute definitive rule on what and how much you should eat of each macronutrient, or calories for that matter, as everybody is different.
At this point for you reading this, the best I can say is to not neglect your protein, and invest some time in learning how to set up and track your macros for your individual goals.
Reality: Energy in the form of calories is what matters most when building muscle or losing bodyfat
The idea of eating 6 meals a day doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, even though it’s been debunked and deemed unnecessary for both building muscle and dropping body fat.
I still see this concept floating around as I watch guys hauling around huge coolers of food day to day in hopes that they’ll one day be jacked and tan by eating every 2.5 hours during the day, or that they have to rush to their gym bag immediately after their last rep and slam 50 grams of protein and 70 grams in order to get their muscles to recover from their workout.
This one hits home the most, because I was once one of these bros. I was explicitly (and wrongly) informed that if I did this and ate nothing but “clean” foods constantly throughout the day I would gain the body of the gods.
Long story short: these meals left me feeling unsatisfied after I ate them but also made me over-eat at the same time. I did this for such a long time that I did put on a good amount of bodymass, however my bodyfat went through the rough.
I got fat.
Yes, I got fat eating CLEAN foods.
It happens when you don’t know anything about calories and how to eat properly for your exact goals.
To save on a long winded explanation of why energy balance, which is calories in versus calories out, is the determining factor on building muscle or losing bodyfat, I’ll lay out a short example.
Let’s say you’re somebody who’s been training with weights for sometime and still looking to add some quality lean muscle mass, you’re going to have to hit around 3200 calories a day to be in a calorie surplus (this is just for this example, not an absolute rule).
So maybe you have some eggs and oats for breakfast, a large chicken salad for lunch, you slam your protein shake with 50 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein after your training session, and you go home and have a nice dinner of steak and potatoes.
This may sound like the perfect plan to tack on some quality mass, but when you count up all of the calories behind these foods, you’ll see that combined they only add up to about 2400 calories.
Since your goal is to add body mass in the form of lean muscle tissue, it’s not going to happen if you’re only consuming 2400 calories when you should be consuming 3200 calories. It just won’t.
Conversely, the opposite is true. If you’re looking to cut down on some body fat, eat the same foods listed above but you need to be eating 2200 calories per day to see significant fat loss, it’s just not going to happen if you’re consuming 2400 calories a day and over eating by those 200 calories.
It just won’t happen.
This is precisely why the net effect of calories in versus calories out matter. It’s the deciding factor of whether your body is going to get bigger, get smaller, or stay the same.
The number of meals you eat in a day is not going to have a direct effect on your body composition (although eating small meals more often may leave you feeling hungrier, and fewer larger meals may make you feel too full and unproductive), it’s just a matter of finding what works best for your life and your schedule, and ultimately what you’re most comfortable with.
So are the calories all that matters here?
Well yes and no.
Ultimately, the overall energy consumption of calories will determine a change in size, but there’s also the macronutrients that need to be accounted for too.
Macronutrients, which are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, should be consumed in a ratio that suits your direct goals.
Which for almost everybody who’s reading this, means protein should be the main emphasis of your nutrition. The carbs and fats and key players too, but the amount you eat will vary on your training, current body composition, and physique goals.
There’s no absolute definitive rule on what and how much you should eat of each macronutrient, or calories for that matter, as everybody is different.
At this point for you reading this, the best I can say is to not neglect your protein, and invest some time in learning how to set up and track your macros for your individual goals.
Myth: You can only gain quality muscle eating “clean, healthy foods.”
Reality: There is no such thing as “healthy” food, it’s all a matter of context. Food is food.
To piggy back on the previous section about tracking macros, people will still tell you that “healthy food” is the only food to eat to build muscle.
But what does healthy even mean?
There’s no black and white way to label food as bad or good, healthy or unhealthy. Sure, wholesome foods like fresh vegetables and fresh meats will always be your better option for foods to eat, but the label of “good or bad” is determine by the quantity of what you’re eating.
Like I stated before, it’s very possible to get fat eating chicken and brown rice, I know this because it happened to me.
Conversely, it’s also very possible to lose weight eating pizza and ice cream every day (I don’t recommend you make a habit of this because you may not FEEL great eating that way for extended periods) as long as you’re consuming fewer calories than your bodies maintenance calories are.
Reality: There is no such thing as “healthy” food, it’s all a matter of context. Food is food.
To piggy back on the previous section about tracking macros, people will still tell you that “healthy food” is the only food to eat to build muscle.
But what does healthy even mean?
There’s no black and white way to label food as bad or good, healthy or unhealthy. Sure, wholesome foods like fresh vegetables and fresh meats will always be your better option for foods to eat, but the label of “good or bad” is determine by the quantity of what you’re eating.
Like I stated before, it’s very possible to get fat eating chicken and brown rice, I know this because it happened to me.
Conversely, it’s also very possible to lose weight eating pizza and ice cream every day (I don’t recommend you make a habit of this because you may not FEEL great eating that way for extended periods) as long as you’re consuming fewer calories than your bodies maintenance calories are.
WATCH MY VIDEO ON CALORIES HERE
What’s most important to remember is that food can only be protein, carbs, and fats.
That’s it.
Worrying about the processed stuff, chemicals, and whether it’s organic, vegan, or gluten free is not going to impact if you gain or lose weight.
It just won’t. Food is food.
At a smaller level, there’s the issue of micronutrients which are vitamins and minerals in food.
These are definitely important, but if you’re eating wholesome foods like fresh vegetables and meats pretty often, they’re not a major concern.
It’s always important to remember the big picture, and not get bogged down in the minor details until you have the larger plan in motion.
That’s it.
Worrying about the processed stuff, chemicals, and whether it’s organic, vegan, or gluten free is not going to impact if you gain or lose weight.
It just won’t. Food is food.
At a smaller level, there’s the issue of micronutrients which are vitamins and minerals in food.
These are definitely important, but if you’re eating wholesome foods like fresh vegetables and meats pretty often, they’re not a major concern.
It’s always important to remember the big picture, and not get bogged down in the minor details until you have the larger plan in motion.
Myth: You have to bench, squat, and deadlift to build muscle
Reality: These lifts CAN be beneficial, but you don’t have to do them. The key to growth is progressive overload and consistency.
Someone you know probably tells you all about how much they can squat, bench, or deadlift and how they’re getting bigger and stronger because of it.
If you remember the principle of progressive overload from the first paragraph, then that’s all you need to know about making your muscles grow.
While benching, squatting, and deadlifting can be beneficial movements, there’s nothing magical about them. In fact, there are some better exercises you could be focusing on if your main priority is making your muscles bigger.
Being good at a squat is only beneficial if your main goal is to be good at the squat. That’s it. Leg exercises like leg extensions, hamstring curls, and other movements that prioritize the leg muscles performed with a good amount of volume in the hypertrophy range (remember 8-20 reps) can provide better stimulus than sets of heavy squats.
Squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are not for everyone, especially those who have suffered injuries and cannot perform them safely.
But for most people, I do recommend you learn how to perform all of these lifts adequately.
There’s no need to try and become a professional powerlifter performing these lifts, but they teach you a lot about balance, control, and how to conduct your body when doing compound movements with a barbell.
So yes, go ahead and do them if you can, but don’t worry about making them a major priority in your routine if they’re movements you can’t perform comfortable or safely.
Reality: These lifts CAN be beneficial, but you don’t have to do them. The key to growth is progressive overload and consistency.
Someone you know probably tells you all about how much they can squat, bench, or deadlift and how they’re getting bigger and stronger because of it.
If you remember the principle of progressive overload from the first paragraph, then that’s all you need to know about making your muscles grow.
While benching, squatting, and deadlifting can be beneficial movements, there’s nothing magical about them. In fact, there are some better exercises you could be focusing on if your main priority is making your muscles bigger.
Being good at a squat is only beneficial if your main goal is to be good at the squat. That’s it. Leg exercises like leg extensions, hamstring curls, and other movements that prioritize the leg muscles performed with a good amount of volume in the hypertrophy range (remember 8-20 reps) can provide better stimulus than sets of heavy squats.
Squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are not for everyone, especially those who have suffered injuries and cannot perform them safely.
But for most people, I do recommend you learn how to perform all of these lifts adequately.
There’s no need to try and become a professional powerlifter performing these lifts, but they teach you a lot about balance, control, and how to conduct your body when doing compound movements with a barbell.
So yes, go ahead and do them if you can, but don’t worry about making them a major priority in your routine if they’re movements you can’t perform comfortable or safely.
8/27/2016
30 Tips to Stop Being Ordinary and Start Being Extraordinary…Or at Least Above Average
Read Now
Self-improvement is one of those things in life that is similar to taking the stairs; it’s easy to do, but it’s also easy NOT to do.
You may think, “eh, it’s only this one time and it’s only one flight of stairs.”
But do this long enough over a period of time and those flights of stairs you missed out on start to compound very quickly.
The same concept goes for improving your own personal qualities, habits, ethics, and all that other good stuff that makes you YOU.
I am by no means some self-improvement expert or professional motivational speaker, though I do have my moments.
I also like to take a little bit of pride in the progress I have made in improving my own life using almost every one of these small tips every day.
After you read this, take a small audit of your own life and honestly ask yourself if you’re doing everything possible to make yourself a better person? How about doing everything possible to help the people around you?
Chances are you’re probably slacking. I know this because I’m slacking, too. We can always do more, but we all have to start somewhere.
So stop being ordinary. Stop feeling so mundane and average, and start feeling better about yourself and where you are in your life.
Lez go.
You may think, “eh, it’s only this one time and it’s only one flight of stairs.”
But do this long enough over a period of time and those flights of stairs you missed out on start to compound very quickly.
The same concept goes for improving your own personal qualities, habits, ethics, and all that other good stuff that makes you YOU.
I am by no means some self-improvement expert or professional motivational speaker, though I do have my moments.
I also like to take a little bit of pride in the progress I have made in improving my own life using almost every one of these small tips every day.
After you read this, take a small audit of your own life and honestly ask yourself if you’re doing everything possible to make yourself a better person? How about doing everything possible to help the people around you?
Chances are you’re probably slacking. I know this because I’m slacking, too. We can always do more, but we all have to start somewhere.
So stop being ordinary. Stop feeling so mundane and average, and start feeling better about yourself and where you are in your life.
Lez go.
1. Watch Less TV. No doubt you’ve heard this one before, and it’s probably the easiest thing to NOT do. How many hours of your life are you wasting away sitting infront of a TV. And don’t tell me you don’t watch any TV because you don’t have cable and only watch Netflix, because that’s kinda the same thing. If you want to watch a show or series, set a number of shows you’re going to watch and move on. Don’t sit mindlessly infront of the screen for hours on end.
2. Remember people’s names when you meet them and repeat them back. Everyone likes to hear the sound of their own name. When you meet somebody for the first time, repeat their name back to them. If you can even remember their name at the end of the conversation, or even at your next encounter, they’ll be pretty flattered and impressed that you cared enough to remember who they were.
3. Eat more vegetables. Again, easy to do, easy not to do. You don’t have to be a full on vegetarian, but be sure to get a couple servings of vegetables in every day. Your digestion and over-all well being will thank you.
4. Drink lots of water. I can tell you right now you’re not drinking enough. Drink more. Now. Go.
5. Stop staying up late dicking around. Stop laying in bed restlessly looking at your phone before you go to bed, or staying up watching Netflix. Set a time when the electronics are off and let your body unwind so you get some quality sleep throughout the night.
2. Remember people’s names when you meet them and repeat them back. Everyone likes to hear the sound of their own name. When you meet somebody for the first time, repeat their name back to them. If you can even remember their name at the end of the conversation, or even at your next encounter, they’ll be pretty flattered and impressed that you cared enough to remember who they were.
3. Eat more vegetables. Again, easy to do, easy not to do. You don’t have to be a full on vegetarian, but be sure to get a couple servings of vegetables in every day. Your digestion and over-all well being will thank you.
4. Drink lots of water. I can tell you right now you’re not drinking enough. Drink more. Now. Go.
5. Stop staying up late dicking around. Stop laying in bed restlessly looking at your phone before you go to bed, or staying up watching Netflix. Set a time when the electronics are off and let your body unwind so you get some quality sleep throughout the night.
6. Brush your teeth more. Having a clean mouth is such a satisfying feeling. Who wants to talk to people and feel good about themselves when you have a mouth that feels gross? Brushing more than just twice a day will help keep your teeth whiter and breath fresher, which is a great confidence booster. So go brush. Now.
7. Read more books. You can never read too much. Fiction, non-fiction, it’s up to you. Just read. And not newspapers or magazines either. Real books
8. Say please and thank you more than anyone you know. A little courtesy and gratitude go a long way. Genuinelly saying ‘thank you’ to others will make them feel a sense of worth. Say please and thank you every chance you get.
9. If you see something beautiful in someone, say it. Everyone has beautiful qualities to them and they often don’t even know it. So if you see something stunning in someone, let them know, whether it’s physical, emotional, or intellectual. A simple compliment can change someone’s day.
10. Eat More Protein-Chances are your protein intake is probably slacking. The American diet has become primarily carbs and fats, which are easy to overeat and calorie dense. Protein like chicken, beef, and fish will do a better job at filling you up and keep you from overeating. Not to mention is beneficial for muscle repair and body maintenance.
11. Lift Weights- There is truly no down side to lifting weights. You’ll increase your strength, add some lean muscle mass, and just feel better about yourself overall. It’s a great way to improve your health and boost your own self confidence in the process.
12. Stop overthinking so much and just take action- Hesitation and procrastination will cripple you. If there’s something you want to do, or better yet, NEED to do, just go ahead and do it. Don’t overthink it because chances are you won’t take action. Pull the trigger.
13. Avoid debt at all costs- The way we all handle money is so misunderstood. Having money is having freedom and control, while having debt is a prison. Do what you can to avoid unnecessary debt at all costs.
14. Stop looking for “hacks” and “quick fixes”- Anything worth doing is going to be challenging and take some time. Period. Fitness, business, relationships. They’re all going to test you and take some time to truly develop. Put the work in, be patient, and trust the process.
15. Ask for forgiveness instead of permission- Asking for permission is weakness. If there’s something you feel needs to be done, take action. If you’re in the wrong, you’ll find out afterward and you can always ask for forgiveness. But you’ll never know if the plan or idea you had if people keep turning you down, so take initiative and do whatever it is you need to do.
16. Smile more- Everyone seems to walk around looking like someone just pissed in their cheerios. Cheer up, smile more, and smile at everyone you meet. In fact, smile even when you answer the phone and you’ll notice how the person at the other end instantly becomes more open to conversing. Smiling’s my favorite.
17. Seek mentors and instructors- Stop taking advice from people you wouldn’t trade places. It’s baffling to see so many people listen to information from bosses, teachers, and parents who never lived up to their own full potentials. Find someone who is somewhere you’d like to be and ask them how they got there, I guarantee they’d be more than happy to share their wisdom and even show you some guidance.
18. Detach yourself from material items- Things are just things. Sure some things you own may have sentimental value, but cherish the memory of them, not the actual items. Clothes you no longer wear, that flashy car you’re paying for but really can’t afford, those random boxes of nick-nacks and doo-dads stashed in your garage. Eliminate some of the unnecessary material items in your life and you’ll find more freedom in your life.
12. Stop overthinking so much and just take action- Hesitation and procrastination will cripple you. If there’s something you want to do, or better yet, NEED to do, just go ahead and do it. Don’t overthink it because chances are you won’t take action. Pull the trigger.
13. Avoid debt at all costs- The way we all handle money is so misunderstood. Having money is having freedom and control, while having debt is a prison. Do what you can to avoid unnecessary debt at all costs.
14. Stop looking for “hacks” and “quick fixes”- Anything worth doing is going to be challenging and take some time. Period. Fitness, business, relationships. They’re all going to test you and take some time to truly develop. Put the work in, be patient, and trust the process.
15. Ask for forgiveness instead of permission- Asking for permission is weakness. If there’s something you feel needs to be done, take action. If you’re in the wrong, you’ll find out afterward and you can always ask for forgiveness. But you’ll never know if the plan or idea you had if people keep turning you down, so take initiative and do whatever it is you need to do.
16. Smile more- Everyone seems to walk around looking like someone just pissed in their cheerios. Cheer up, smile more, and smile at everyone you meet. In fact, smile even when you answer the phone and you’ll notice how the person at the other end instantly becomes more open to conversing. Smiling’s my favorite.
17. Seek mentors and instructors- Stop taking advice from people you wouldn’t trade places. It’s baffling to see so many people listen to information from bosses, teachers, and parents who never lived up to their own full potentials. Find someone who is somewhere you’d like to be and ask them how they got there, I guarantee they’d be more than happy to share their wisdom and even show you some guidance.
18. Detach yourself from material items- Things are just things. Sure some things you own may have sentimental value, but cherish the memory of them, not the actual items. Clothes you no longer wear, that flashy car you’re paying for but really can’t afford, those random boxes of nick-nacks and doo-dads stashed in your garage. Eliminate some of the unnecessary material items in your life and you’ll find more freedom in your life.
19. Nobody cares how much money you make- Firstly, stop talking about how much money you make. Nobody cares. Secondly, stop thinking people are judging you based on your income or net wealth. If your life is based on chasing money and status, I promise you you’ll never be fulfilled.
20. Seek more life experiences instead of money- Travel more. Spend more time with friends and loved ones. Make life long memories with a handful of important people. This is way more valuable than working your ass off to buy shit you don’t need to impress people you don’t know.
21. Don’t multitask- “If you try to chase 2 rabbits, you’re going to lose them both.” No great work is ever accomplished when multitasked. Sure, shit might get done, but it’s hardly adequate. If you want to complete something great, focus only on that task. Devote a set amount of time to that task and give it the time and attention it deserves. Then move onto the next task. Seriously, multitasking is lowering your quality of work.
22. Learn how to count calories and track macros- Try this for at least 3 weeks. It will change your life for the better. You will learn SO much about food and how the weight loss/weight gain process actually works. If you do one thing on this list, make it this. Please. It will blow your mind. Do this and I’ll never both you again.
23. Wear clothes that FIT- Big fashion secret: you don’t have to drop thousands of dollars on designer labels to look good. What makes clothes look good is HOW THEY FIT. Drop the baggy, oversized pants and shirts and find cloths that compliment your body type. You’ll be surprised how good a $6 dollar t-shirt can make you look if it fits well.
24. Speak up every chance you get- At your weekly work meetings. At city events. At any place where opinions are voiced. Don’t be afraid of looking stupid or scared of being judged. If you have something to say, be sure to say it when you can.
25. Stop snoozing your alarm- When it buzzes, you get up. Period. Those extra 15 minutes of shitty sleep are hindering your performance and wasting your life. Do this for a couple of consecutive days and it will become habit.
26. Take the stairs- If you want to win at life, start by taking the stairs every chance you get. Stop being lazy and hoof it up that single flight of stairs to the next floor. How you do one thing is how you do everything.
27. Put your phone away when meeting new people- People like people who are genuinely interested in what they have to say. If you’re glancing at your phone every 9 seconds when meeting new people, you’re not going to be very well received. Show a little respect and courtesy and keep the phone put away for a few minutes.
28. Cut the negative people out of your life- The haters. The pessimist. The ones who say you can’t do it. These people are everywhere, and yes they can even be family members and loved ones. You don’t need people like this in your life, so make it a point to limit interaction with them if you truly want to do something remarkable.
29. Don’t ever be jealous or envious. EVER- This is the fast route to being bitter, unhappy, depressed, and unsuccessful. Don’t compare yourself or what you have to others. That’s a game you’ll never win. If somebody has something you don’t or you want, be happy for them.
30. Do something nice for someone else daily- Go out of your way just a little bit each day to make someone else's day that much better. The feeling the other person gets from knowing someone else cares is remarkable, and the feeling you get knowing you helped someone else is priceless. Do this as often as possible.
27. Put your phone away when meeting new people- People like people who are genuinely interested in what they have to say. If you’re glancing at your phone every 9 seconds when meeting new people, you’re not going to be very well received. Show a little respect and courtesy and keep the phone put away for a few minutes.
28. Cut the negative people out of your life- The haters. The pessimist. The ones who say you can’t do it. These people are everywhere, and yes they can even be family members and loved ones. You don’t need people like this in your life, so make it a point to limit interaction with them if you truly want to do something remarkable.
29. Don’t ever be jealous or envious. EVER- This is the fast route to being bitter, unhappy, depressed, and unsuccessful. Don’t compare yourself or what you have to others. That’s a game you’ll never win. If somebody has something you don’t or you want, be happy for them.
30. Do something nice for someone else daily- Go out of your way just a little bit each day to make someone else's day that much better. The feeling the other person gets from knowing someone else cares is remarkable, and the feeling you get knowing you helped someone else is priceless. Do this as often as possible.
Guest post by Lisa Elaine
Prepping for a NPC fitness show has been challenging. (Check out my experience through prep so far here) The preps are long with strict diet and work out plans, so I ask, is it worth the work leading up to the ONE big day? The answer is one only the competitor can decide for their self. Anything worth having is going to have sacrifices and it really comes down to how much your willing to put in and give up.
When you’re on a competition prep your social life suffers. During prep, your schedule revolves around your gym sessions and meal plan. Going out to eat is difficult because even if you’re ordering chicken and rice, you don’t know for certain how much is being served and the sodium level you’re about to intake. I guess you could have a food scale on hand at all times, but I chose not to! Going out to eat doesn’t happen often because trust me, when everyone else is eating the foods of their choice and you have a plastic container in front of you filled with what you’ve had the past month everyday, the will power to not cheat becomes a little more intense. I could manage not cheating at home where there were no cheat foods to temp me, but being out was a different story.
Even when I did have some extra time to make plans, all I wanted to do was relax.
Your energy levels hit all time lows.
You’re at a calorie deficit and working your body into overtime.
I was exhausted at times and questioned if I would be able to do this another day. There were days I was hungry, so completely hungry. I was craving and non stop thinking about food and questioned at those moments then alone, is this worth it? I had break downs during work outs and had break downs emotionally because, well, prep is difficult.
So the question remains, was it worth it to me?
Yes.
I have grown so much physically, but most important mentally. I learned to push even when I wanted to sit down. It taught me to keep going when I had zero motivation. Motivation you get from the outside will only last a temporary amount of time. I learned to dig down deep and pull out the passion and find the reason I started this journey in the first place. Prep taught me how to manage my thoughts and the power of the mind. What you believe and think will take over. It taught me patience. I am a instant gratification type person. When you are trying to alter your body and mold it, you have to learn to enjoy the small changes.
I learned to love the process not just the final product.
It taught me control. If you can control what you eat, you can control pretty much anything else that comes your way.
Lastly, it taught me that winning isn’t everything. I am a very competitive person and it drives me to be the very best at anything I decide to pursue. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” are words I live by. I don’t mind starting or ending my journey not being the best, but I can guarantee you I won’t be outworked. For me, this prep started out with a trophy in mind and as much as I still want to place, I am so proud of myself for not quitting and not slacking during this 12 week prep. I haven’t stepped on stage yet and I feel like I won so much already.
-Lisa Elaine
About The Author
Lisa Elaine is the author of the Positive Lifestyle Blog which brings readers insight on life lessons, fitness, inspiration and more. Lisa is a high school teacher, former dancer for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, NPC competitor, volunteer for mission work, and blogger. Be sure to visit her site at Positivelifestylelc.com and follow her on Instagram
It’s become such a regular thing for both people that I know and people who find me online to ask something along the lines of “I get the concept of tracking macros, but how do I get started?”
Getting started doing something is often the hardest part when you want to tackle something new.
Starting something new is “hard” because it’s unfamiliar and takes some effort and can sometimes make us feel unsure about what we’re diving into, or even worse, make us feel dumb.
I want to get as many people as I can to start tracking macros and counting calories at some level, but trying to talk people into counting calories and counting macros by making it seem like it’s a miracle program isn’t what I’m about. I put the information out there and those who are willing to take the first step and decide they want to make a really positive change to their lives will seek more information, or hopefully approach me about it.
And that’s what I’m here to do with this article.
This is going to be a short and sweet crash course tutorial about what you need to know about tracking macros and how the process works.
For those reading who may not know too much about tracking macros, it’s also referred to as “flexible dieting” and “if it fits your macros” dieting.
In my opinion, those names seem to give the concept of tracking macros a gimmicky feel and it can get categorized as a fad diet with the likes of Paleo diets, Adkins diets, low carb diets, and cleanses.
Here’s the fact of the matter: It’s a truly scientific approach.
Science.
Yup, actual science. I’m not going to get you all bogged down on the technical details of it, but I will explain how the laws of physics impact your body and the way you look and feel.
Getting started doing something is often the hardest part when you want to tackle something new.
Starting something new is “hard” because it’s unfamiliar and takes some effort and can sometimes make us feel unsure about what we’re diving into, or even worse, make us feel dumb.
I want to get as many people as I can to start tracking macros and counting calories at some level, but trying to talk people into counting calories and counting macros by making it seem like it’s a miracle program isn’t what I’m about. I put the information out there and those who are willing to take the first step and decide they want to make a really positive change to their lives will seek more information, or hopefully approach me about it.
And that’s what I’m here to do with this article.
This is going to be a short and sweet crash course tutorial about what you need to know about tracking macros and how the process works.
For those reading who may not know too much about tracking macros, it’s also referred to as “flexible dieting” and “if it fits your macros” dieting.
In my opinion, those names seem to give the concept of tracking macros a gimmicky feel and it can get categorized as a fad diet with the likes of Paleo diets, Adkins diets, low carb diets, and cleanses.
Here’s the fact of the matter: It’s a truly scientific approach.
Science.
Yup, actual science. I’m not going to get you all bogged down on the technical details of it, but I will explain how the laws of physics impact your body and the way you look and feel.
You know, physics and stuff.
Everything in this universe abides by the laws of physics and the energy balance equation, there’s no arguing that.
Trying to say the energy balance equation isn’t real goes along the lines of saying gravity isn’t real.
If you want to argue any of these facts then you have no business reading the rest of the post, and honestly you have no business reproducing on this planet. Sorry to come off a bit harsh here but it’s for the sake of the survival of the human race.
So continuing on, the human body is a highly mechanical machine with hundreds, if not thousands of individually working systems that provide second to second feedback and adaptations. That’s about as deep as I’ll go into that.
In order for our body to function on a daily basis it needs energy.
And as I hope you all may know, energy cannot just be created or destroyed (physical law of thermodynamic), hence the human body needs an external source of energy to be put in.
Where does this energy come from then?
You may be thinking there’s energy stored within the body, and that’s true, but it didn’t just magically appear. It’s energy from food sources, also known as calories.
What’s important to know here is that your body is constantly in a process of gaining and losing energy at any given time. Even as you sit here reading this, you’re in a state of energy loss because your body is consuming stored energy to help you breathe, see, think, etc.
Everything in this universe abides by the laws of physics and the energy balance equation, there’s no arguing that.
Trying to say the energy balance equation isn’t real goes along the lines of saying gravity isn’t real.
If you want to argue any of these facts then you have no business reading the rest of the post, and honestly you have no business reproducing on this planet. Sorry to come off a bit harsh here but it’s for the sake of the survival of the human race.
So continuing on, the human body is a highly mechanical machine with hundreds, if not thousands of individually working systems that provide second to second feedback and adaptations. That’s about as deep as I’ll go into that.
In order for our body to function on a daily basis it needs energy.
And as I hope you all may know, energy cannot just be created or destroyed (physical law of thermodynamic), hence the human body needs an external source of energy to be put in.
Where does this energy come from then?
You may be thinking there’s energy stored within the body, and that’s true, but it didn’t just magically appear. It’s energy from food sources, also known as calories.
What’s important to know here is that your body is constantly in a process of gaining and losing energy at any given time. Even as you sit here reading this, you’re in a state of energy loss because your body is consuming stored energy to help you breathe, see, think, etc.
Conversely, the times you are eating and digesting food (calories) your body is in a state of gaining by storing the energy coming in for a later period.
I’m going to try and be as clear as I can with this next part, because it’s the fundamental physical law that will determine whether you’re gaining (body weight, mass, fat, etc) or losing.
If you consume more energy than your body expends in a given period, you will gain. This can also be expressed as if you expend less energy than you consume, you will gain.
The opposite of this is if you expend more energy than you consume in a given time frame, you will lose body mass. Another way to express it would be if you consume less energy than you expend you will lose body mass.
So what does this mean exactly?
This means that CALORIES COUNT.
If you’ve followed the logic to this point, then there’s no arguing this fact.
There’s the logical flow chart.
But even with the logic laid out, there will still be a camp out there that strongly believes that “if you only eat clean and healthy foods, you’ll lose weight because they’re healthy.”
And of course you know the success stories of people who only ate a certain way and lost 20 to 50 pounds because of the magical benefits of their certain diet or food choices.
But their success did not come directly from these food choices or restricting certain foods, eating at certain times, or working out a certain way.
Whether they know it or not, they were adhering to the principles of physics and the energy balance equation.
By restricting foods and eating only certain types of foods, they were consuming less energy than what they’re body has been adapted to.
Everybody has what’s known as a “maintenance calories” set point, and everybody’s is different. When calories are met at a maintained level, there is no increase or decrease in body mass (weight).
Once you begin to eat below this maintenance calorie level, you will see a decrease in body mass; depending on how severe this deficit is between the maintenance level and the calories that are being consumed.
So THIS is exactly why people who find success without counting calories or tracking macros actually have that success.
Because the calories matter.
So what do macros have to do with Calories?
Well, thank you for asking, and here’s where this stuff gets fun.
The term Macro is short for Macro-Nutrient. So what are macros exactly?
There are only 3 major macronutrients which are protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Technically, alcohol is a 4th macronutrient but that’s beyond the scope of what we’re trying to cover today.
Each of these macronutrients have stored energy within them and are utilized by the body for physical energy.
The calorie content of each macronutrient has been tested and proven to be as such:
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
This is how we can determine calories from macronutrients and vice versa.
Again, this isn’t me making up some arbitrary point system and attributing energy values to macros to develop a gimmicky program- this is physical energy.
Being in an energy deficit or surplus will change the stored energy within the body, and as I hope you can infer by now that if you’re in a deficit you’ll lose body mass, and if you’re in a calorie surplus you’ll gain body mass. It’s a simple principle but there’s more to it.
If you only consumed 2000 calories worth of carbohydrate, your results and body composition would be different than if you consumed 2000 calories of protein exclusively.
I’ll explain why right now.
Let’s talk about the Macros
Protein- Protein is primarily used in the body for repair and maintenance of muscle and other organic tissue. It’s comprised of amino acids which your body uses for said maintenance. It’s not a first source of mechanical energy for the body, but can be used for this when other energy sources (carbs, fats) are extremely low or non-existent.
Carbs- While not the preferred energy source by the body, carbs do provide adequate energy by being broken down into glucose during digestion and stored in the body’s muscles and organs as glycogen for readily available energy when necessary. When this glycogen is low in the body and you remain below maintenance calories, there’s NO problem with consuming carbohydrates because they will be utilized and stored in the body appropriately. Carbs will only “make you fat” if your glycogen levels are at capacity and you’re consuming calories above your maintenance level. I’ll repeat that. You have no reason to be afraid to eat carbs. They don’t instantly make you fat and they are a great source of energy. I’ll leave it at that for now.
Fat- Dietary fat is the primary energy source that the body prefers to use. The human body doesn’t need carbohydrate to survive, but it does require dietary fat for survival. Fat often gets a bad rap because people seem to think that eating dietary fat will make you gain body fat. This isn’t true. There’s no such thing as eating any type of macro nutrient or type of food that will instantaneously make you fat. This only happens when calories exceed a maintenance level.
Protein- Protein is primarily used in the body for repair and maintenance of muscle and other organic tissue. It’s comprised of amino acids which your body uses for said maintenance. It’s not a first source of mechanical energy for the body, but can be used for this when other energy sources (carbs, fats) are extremely low or non-existent.
Carbs- While not the preferred energy source by the body, carbs do provide adequate energy by being broken down into glucose during digestion and stored in the body’s muscles and organs as glycogen for readily available energy when necessary. When this glycogen is low in the body and you remain below maintenance calories, there’s NO problem with consuming carbohydrates because they will be utilized and stored in the body appropriately. Carbs will only “make you fat” if your glycogen levels are at capacity and you’re consuming calories above your maintenance level. I’ll repeat that. You have no reason to be afraid to eat carbs. They don’t instantly make you fat and they are a great source of energy. I’ll leave it at that for now.
Fat- Dietary fat is the primary energy source that the body prefers to use. The human body doesn’t need carbohydrate to survive, but it does require dietary fat for survival. Fat often gets a bad rap because people seem to think that eating dietary fat will make you gain body fat. This isn’t true. There’s no such thing as eating any type of macro nutrient or type of food that will instantaneously make you fat. This only happens when calories exceed a maintenance level.
How to break down Macros into percentages
As I stated earlier, even if you abide by the energy balance and consume your maintenance calories, your body composition will be drastically different if you consumed strictly protein versus strictly carbs or fats.
For further clarification, protein is predominantly used for muscle maintenance and repair, while carbs and fat are energy. Repeat that to yourself so it sticks.
A lot of the popular fad diets want you to restrict an entire group of macronutrients, often villainizing them as foods that make unhealthy or make you fat.
Here’s the key to a successful diet, are you ready?
A successful diet is one that is sustainable and that you can adhere to indefinitely. If you can’t see yourself eating a certain way continuously for 2 years, then the diet will fail you.
All diets will work when you restrict calories below maintenance level, that’s not the issue. The issue is what happens when the diet is over and you go back to eating the way you used to.
You’re going to regain all of that weight and then some.
It’s unrealistic to think you can go your whole life without eating carbs, or eating fast food, or eating only protein or whatever some of these diets want you to do.
The best plan is to incorporate protein, carbs, and fat into a diet plan based on total calories
What this means is diving up your total daily calories amongst the 3 macros.
Some plans that use macros may advise basing these macros on a percent basis, but there’s a major flaw there. When total calories begin to be increased or reduced, the percentages will become skewed so it’s best just to assign individual values for each macro and increase or decrease accordingly.
I’ll lay out a quick example, and remember its ONLY AN EXAMPLE. Don’t try to take these values and apply them to yourself because your body composition is completely different from what I’m basing this on. The concept would be the same, but the numerical values would be different.
There’s also the fact that the percentages and/or values change depending on the goal. The macros would be different for the same person when trying to lose body fat versus trying to add lean muscle mass.
So let’s say we have a young male who’s trying to increase his lean muscle mass while limiting as much fat gain as possible (sidenote: when in a calorie surplus you will gain bodyfat along with muscle mass. We’ll get more into this down the line)
This young male has trained with weights for about a year and made some decent “noobie” gains, but now feels it’s time to up the ante.
Based on his training level and current body composition including overall body weight, body fat, and final goal composition, we can figure out his total daily maintenance calories.
There’s several different ways to do this, but for the sake of time I’ll just provide the numbers. If you’d like to find out how to set your own calories, there’s lots of information online to do this. One method I like to use the Kache-McCardle equation.
So for this example, this young man’s daily calories to maintain his current physique are 2900 calories.
Because he wants to see an increase in lean muscle mass, we need to put him in a calorie surplus.
This means increasing these daily calories by 500, so we’re looking at a daily calorie intake of 3400 calories.
The reason we increased by 500 calories was to make sure he doesn’t gain body mass at a substantial rate, because although he will increase lean muscle, the likelihood of increasing body fat is higher when more calories are consumed.
Anything less than 500 might not be enough to see considerable improvement.
Now let’s figure out these macros based on the calories.
One rule of thumb when gaining lean muscle mass or “bulking” is to set your protein value to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. For most trainees, this is a safe bet.
So this young man weights 180 lbs, so his protein will be set at 180 grams. Easy, right.
Now we multiply 180 x 4 , which gives us 720 calories.
Subtract these 720 from 3400 and we’re left with 2680 calories.
We’ll get back to these remaining calories in a minute, but right now let’s figure out this person’s fat intake.
During a gaining phase or “bulk” carbohydrates will be emphasized the most, but fat is still crucial, but because carbs will be set a bit higher, then the fat can be set to a lower value to compensate.
SO in ithis instance, about 90 grams of fat will be sufficient.
Now we multiply this 90 grams by 9 (remember, fat is 9 calories per gram) and we get 810 calories.
Subtract this 810 calories from 2680 and we’re left with 1870 caloires.
Here is where we can figure out the remaining carbohydrates that must be consumed to meet this surplus calorie value.
Here is where we’ll take the remaining 1870 calories and divide them by 4 calories/gram of carbs, and this gives us 467 grams of carbohydrates.
And that is how it’s done.
In this instance, this person’s macros will look like this:
Protein= 180 grams
Fat= 90 grams
Carbohydrate= 467 grams
Total Calories= 3400
Please remember that is a loose example just to demonstrate how to calculate macronutrients from calories. A persons maintenance calories and macronutrient values/ratios will all be based on that person’s individual body type and goals.
Specific Body Composition Goals
Everybody has their own idea how how they ideally want to look, and that’s perfectly fine. The problem here is that a lot of people attempt to reach these goals with the wrong information.
People tyring to add lean muscle mass will have a very hard time doing so if they don’t include carbohydrates in their diet. So if you want to pump up a bit, it’s not going to happen eating a low calorie paleo diet.
The same goes for losing body fat. It’s not going to happen if your protein consumption isn’t adequate and your piling down loads of fruits and whole grains because you’ve been told they’re “healthy.”
Quantifying these macros and having a metric to base them on is the best course of action, trust me on this.
Very briefly, I’ll explain a few different macronutrient breakdowns that can be utlitized for specific goals.
Purely Fat Loss- Fat loss ins’t complicated. I hope you can see that all it takes is a calorie deficit and you’ll begin to lose body mass, which we want to be almost 100% body fat. Being in this calorie deficit will instill fat loss, but we want to preserve lean muscle mass along the way to help the body function it’s best and to also look good as well. The best way to do this is to make sure you’re getting adequate protein DAILY. This means a minimum of 1 gram per body weight, and in more aggressive fat loss cases, protein should be increased to 1.5 grams per body weight. Fat should be kept at a moderate amount, usually around 30% of total calories. This is not an absolute! But it’s a pretty solid recommendation if you need a jumping off point. The last part to configure would be the carbohydrates, which can either be figured out like we did in the example above, or be set initially around 40% to 50% of total defecit calories.
Increase Lean Muscle Mass- This will look very similar to the example outlined above. Because calories will be at a surplus to increase body mass, protein does not need to be extremely high, but adequate amoutns are required. This means around 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. To mitigate an increase in bodyfat while being in a surplus, dietary fat consumption doesn’t need to be extremely high. Around 35-40% of total daily calories is usually adequate, or around 70-90 grams of fat for most people. And as you can probably infer by now, carbohydrates will be figured from the remaining calories after computing the protein and fat calories from macros.
Increasing lean body mass while losing body fat- This is what’s known as a body re-composition, and this is a tricky scenario. It’s not impossible to do both simultaneously, but it’s often not realistic. For most people who are new to weight training and dieting, they will be very capable of doing both…for a while. The body will ultimaly adapt to the training and dieting and progress will slow. For most people who have been training for several years won’t have much success with this approach. The rate of fat loss will be quite slow and the rate of an increase of lean muscle mass will be even slower. While progress might occur, it won’t be visible for quite some time. The best bet is to either be in a calorie surplus to add an increase in muscle mass, OR be in a calorie deficit to lose body fat while retaining lean muscle mass. Typically there is some type of calorie and/or carbohydrate cycling that goes along with this type of plan. This might mean eating lower calories during the week to be in a deficit and ensure fat loss, and then eating higher calories on the weekend (mostly carbohydrates) to be in a short surplus and ensure proper muscle recovery and muscle growth. It’s tricky, but not impossible.
Everybody has their own idea how how they ideally want to look, and that’s perfectly fine. The problem here is that a lot of people attempt to reach these goals with the wrong information.
People tyring to add lean muscle mass will have a very hard time doing so if they don’t include carbohydrates in their diet. So if you want to pump up a bit, it’s not going to happen eating a low calorie paleo diet.
The same goes for losing body fat. It’s not going to happen if your protein consumption isn’t adequate and your piling down loads of fruits and whole grains because you’ve been told they’re “healthy.”
Quantifying these macros and having a metric to base them on is the best course of action, trust me on this.
Very briefly, I’ll explain a few different macronutrient breakdowns that can be utlitized for specific goals.
Purely Fat Loss- Fat loss ins’t complicated. I hope you can see that all it takes is a calorie deficit and you’ll begin to lose body mass, which we want to be almost 100% body fat. Being in this calorie deficit will instill fat loss, but we want to preserve lean muscle mass along the way to help the body function it’s best and to also look good as well. The best way to do this is to make sure you’re getting adequate protein DAILY. This means a minimum of 1 gram per body weight, and in more aggressive fat loss cases, protein should be increased to 1.5 grams per body weight. Fat should be kept at a moderate amount, usually around 30% of total calories. This is not an absolute! But it’s a pretty solid recommendation if you need a jumping off point. The last part to configure would be the carbohydrates, which can either be figured out like we did in the example above, or be set initially around 40% to 50% of total defecit calories.
Increase Lean Muscle Mass- This will look very similar to the example outlined above. Because calories will be at a surplus to increase body mass, protein does not need to be extremely high, but adequate amoutns are required. This means around 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. To mitigate an increase in bodyfat while being in a surplus, dietary fat consumption doesn’t need to be extremely high. Around 35-40% of total daily calories is usually adequate, or around 70-90 grams of fat for most people. And as you can probably infer by now, carbohydrates will be figured from the remaining calories after computing the protein and fat calories from macros.
Increasing lean body mass while losing body fat- This is what’s known as a body re-composition, and this is a tricky scenario. It’s not impossible to do both simultaneously, but it’s often not realistic. For most people who are new to weight training and dieting, they will be very capable of doing both…for a while. The body will ultimaly adapt to the training and dieting and progress will slow. For most people who have been training for several years won’t have much success with this approach. The rate of fat loss will be quite slow and the rate of an increase of lean muscle mass will be even slower. While progress might occur, it won’t be visible for quite some time. The best bet is to either be in a calorie surplus to add an increase in muscle mass, OR be in a calorie deficit to lose body fat while retaining lean muscle mass. Typically there is some type of calorie and/or carbohydrate cycling that goes along with this type of plan. This might mean eating lower calories during the week to be in a deficit and ensure fat loss, and then eating higher calories on the weekend (mostly carbohydrates) to be in a short surplus and ensure proper muscle recovery and muscle growth. It’s tricky, but not impossible.
There really are no “healthy” or “unhealthy” foods. Only macronutrients and micronutrients.
This is the part that about flexible dieting and counting macros that tends to rub people the wrong way, and I’m going to hit you with some actual truth right here so prepare to be just a little bit offended.
There are no clean, healthy, unhealthy, dirty, magical, or super foods. There’s only foods, and there’s only macros. To a lesser degree, there are micronutrients as well, but I’ll touch on that here in a bit.
To offend you a little bit more, all of those “healthy, clean, gluten free, and organic” types of foods you’re always hearing about are marketing gimmicks made up to get you to pay a premium to think you’re eating something that will make you healthier and lose weight.
But it just doesn’t happen like that. At this point you should know that losing weight comes down to a reduction in energy consumption and/or a increase in energy expenditure, not some crazy awesome avocado salad with super acai berry wrapped in the remanence of a cloth Jesus supposedly once touched.
With that said, is it okay to eat nothing but McDonald’s everyday? Probably not. But it doesn’t mean eating a burger every now and then will make you gain body fat, get sick, and contract cancer overnight.
Now, with that said, I’ll discuss micronutrients.
Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that are found in foods and utilized by the body mostly for metabolism purposes and general maintenance. They’re found in all foods. Yes, even donuts and ice cream have micronutrients.
But micronutrients are more abundant in wholesome foods like fresh produce and fresh cut meats.
If you’re eating food, you’re getting micros. Period. But it’s always going to be better to get those micronutrients from more wholesome and nutritious produce and meats.
Again, this doesn’t mean fast foods and sweet are dirty and evil, it just means there’s not as much nutritional value to them.
Wholesome produce and meats also have the advantage of generally being more filling because their unit volume is higher per calorie serving.
This means the serving sizes of 30 grams of carbs from veggies are going to be bigger than 30 grams of carbs found in a donut.
Both are equal on an energy level, but the donut may not leave you full and satisfied while the veggies will be a larger serving and will most likely leave you feeling more full.
I’m not here now to tell you what to eat, that’s strictly up to. If you’re a grown up, make grown up food choices, but there’s no harm in living a little and enjoying the foods you love and making them fit into your life.
This is the part that about flexible dieting and counting macros that tends to rub people the wrong way, and I’m going to hit you with some actual truth right here so prepare to be just a little bit offended.
There are no clean, healthy, unhealthy, dirty, magical, or super foods. There’s only foods, and there’s only macros. To a lesser degree, there are micronutrients as well, but I’ll touch on that here in a bit.
To offend you a little bit more, all of those “healthy, clean, gluten free, and organic” types of foods you’re always hearing about are marketing gimmicks made up to get you to pay a premium to think you’re eating something that will make you healthier and lose weight.
But it just doesn’t happen like that. At this point you should know that losing weight comes down to a reduction in energy consumption and/or a increase in energy expenditure, not some crazy awesome avocado salad with super acai berry wrapped in the remanence of a cloth Jesus supposedly once touched.
With that said, is it okay to eat nothing but McDonald’s everyday? Probably not. But it doesn’t mean eating a burger every now and then will make you gain body fat, get sick, and contract cancer overnight.
Now, with that said, I’ll discuss micronutrients.
Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that are found in foods and utilized by the body mostly for metabolism purposes and general maintenance. They’re found in all foods. Yes, even donuts and ice cream have micronutrients.
But micronutrients are more abundant in wholesome foods like fresh produce and fresh cut meats.
If you’re eating food, you’re getting micros. Period. But it’s always going to be better to get those micronutrients from more wholesome and nutritious produce and meats.
Again, this doesn’t mean fast foods and sweet are dirty and evil, it just means there’s not as much nutritional value to them.
Wholesome produce and meats also have the advantage of generally being more filling because their unit volume is higher per calorie serving.
This means the serving sizes of 30 grams of carbs from veggies are going to be bigger than 30 grams of carbs found in a donut.
Both are equal on an energy level, but the donut may not leave you full and satisfied while the veggies will be a larger serving and will most likely leave you feeling more full.
I’m not here now to tell you what to eat, that’s strictly up to. If you’re a grown up, make grown up food choices, but there’s no harm in living a little and enjoying the foods you love and making them fit into your life.
What About Tracking Macros When Eating Out?
Another great question here. Restaurants almost always have their full menu listed with nutrition information including serving sizes, total calories, and the macros of each item. Since you’re reading this, I’m pretty certain you have access to the internet, so there’s no reason you cannot look up the macros when you’re at a restaurant. An even better idea is to plan ahead if you know you’re going to be dining at a restaurant and decide what you want to order before you even get to the restaurant to make sure it fits within your daily macros.
In my experience I’ve realized it’s often easier and more convenient for me to eat out often, but when macro information isn’t available online for certain restaurants, a good idea is to learn how to weigh and measure food on your own at home.
Here's another short example how this would look with nutrition info taken from a restaurant site.
Now Go Do It!
So there you have it folks!
As i hope you can see, tracking macros and counting calories isn't a terribly difficult task, but it is skill that needs to be developed, and with enough practice it will become second nature.
I hope this has been helpful for those of you looking to get into tracking macros. It can seem like a bit much at first, but do not feel overwhelmed.
Like everything it just takes some practice, and the more you do it, the more proficient you’ll become.
So there you have it folks!
As i hope you can see, tracking macros and counting calories isn't a terribly difficult task, but it is skill that needs to be developed, and with enough practice it will become second nature.
I hope this has been helpful for those of you looking to get into tracking macros. It can seem like a bit much at first, but do not feel overwhelmed.
Like everything it just takes some practice, and the more you do it, the more proficient you’ll become.
7/24/2016
Day of the Shred VI: Why I don’t get a “real” job, EngineersWhoLift™, and fighting uphill battles against miss-information.
Read Now
If you read my previous blog Day of the Shred V, you probably know I’m not a huge fan of writing blogs about myself. My feelings on blogs have changed a bit since then because I got so much positive feedback from you guys which has prompted this blog here. I’m not writing this to pump up my ego and let you know how great I am and how awesome my life is (that’s actually the opposite of what I want), but to better improve my connection with you all who take the time to read the information I put out. There’s also the fact that my last blog was the most transparent and honest I’ve been about myself in any of my work, and it felt exceptional to know there are people out there in my corner and who actually give a damn. But enough of this preface stuff, I got some stuff I wanna say. So here we go.
Why Don’t You Get a “Real Job”?
Since you’re reading this, I’m sure it’s safe to assume you know I’ve really made a push for myself in the fitness industry as a strength and nutrition coach and as a freelance writer for multiple websites. I love doing what I do and I wake up (most days) happy to know I’ve come this far. But this is only a piece of the Craven puzzle. A lot of people don’t know I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and worked on a few projects. Even more people don’t know that I have a job working banquet events at a resort in San Antonio, Texas. When people find out that my primary sources of income and what I spend most of my time doing have nothing to do with my degree, I’m met with a look of confusion. Whether they say it straight up or imply it in a more subtle way, they’ll usually blurt “don’t you want a good job?” Or “when are you going to get a real job?”
Here’s the deal about working at a restaurant last year and now working banquet events: I have a GOOD, REAL, job. Honestly, it’s a great job. It’s a job so many people in the world wish they had, and not a day goes by I don’t take it for granted. It gives me the opportunity to pursue my personal goals as a writer and coach, but also bring in some easy cash. Every day is something different when I show up for work and it creates an exceptional opportunity to meet people from all walks of life, especially working banquet events. You don’t get that kind of life experience working in a cubicle. Never do I feel discouraged or slighted when people think I should be doing something else, but sometimes I’ll be offended- Not on my behalf, because as you guys know I don’t give a shit what people think, but on behalf of my co-workers. People might think folks working in service or hospitality are below them. There’s dignity in every job, guys, and I don’t give a fuck if you’re the CEO of a company or the janitor who sweeps up at night, but you’ll always get the same respect across the board from me. And I hope you reading this feel the same as I do. And I have to say, I respect the hell out of everyone I’ve ever worked with at a restaurant or working banquets. If you’ve ever done any of this type of work you know these people are always willing to work hard, and they’re genuinely some awesome and straight up badass people; and if someone ever spoke bad about any of them in front of me I’d be the first to step up and throw hands for them. I made a lot of friends in college and became close with a few mostly because we had to share a challenging experience with each other, but the friendships I made at work were like none other I’ve had, and I appreciate all of them dearly.
When I was bar tending at a restaurant last year these dudes would make some fast cash during the day and have no problems with spending half of that on us later that night at the bar. They’d be happy to do it, and happy to do it again the next day. Is this the most responsible way to live forever? Probably not. But it showed me there’s more to life than “having a plan at all times” and sticking to the script. Because before I started working in this industry my life was conditioned to staying on a set track at all times. Honestly, it sucked. I was being groomed to be a square peg to fit a square hole. Conditioned to keep my head down, shut up, and sit at my desk. And that’s what a 9-5 job is. You show up, do a task, and clock out. Every day. Over and over. That’s not a life for me, man. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a little bit different my whole life. I’ve never followed trends or did what was cool. I had questions that people felt uncomfortable to answer because it wasn’t “part of the plan.” I’ve learned you don’t have to follow the crowd and there's always another way if you're willing to put in the work.
And then there’s the question of “don’t you want to make a lot of money?”
No. No I don’t. Not for the sake of just making money anyway. I’ve recently realized that money won’t make me happy, and it won’t make you happy either despite what you tell yourself. Of course money is important to an extent, but I’m not going to sell 1/3 of my life doing work I don’t enjoy just to buy flashy things that won’t fulfill me. I’ve tried this and it left me feeling hollow. I know so many people who play this game and always lose. It sucks to watch my friends and family fall into this trap and it sucks to see so much wasted potential. If I’m going to make a lot of money it’s going to come from providing value to those who really want it, which is why I’ll continue to keep on coaching and keep on writing for as long as I can.
Does this mean I’ll never go into the engineering industry? Absolutely not. It just means I’m not going to blindly jump into a job I have no passion for just because it’s something I feel like society expects me to do. I’ve turned down a handful of jobs as an engineer this past year because I don’t feel the job is worthy of my abilities. I’m not saying I’m some prodigy engineer because I’m not, but I’m confident in my abilities to provide a fuck ton of value to whoever is writing my checks. If you’re going to pay me $75,000 for my work then that means my net value to your company is at least $225,000. Work hard and make a lot of money for some faceless entity then only get a third of it? Hm, seems like a raw deal to me. With that said I love being an engineer, I love solving problems, and I love finding out how things work. You see that? That’s passion. I guess this is a good segue into the next part of this blog.
Since you’re reading this, I’m sure it’s safe to assume you know I’ve really made a push for myself in the fitness industry as a strength and nutrition coach and as a freelance writer for multiple websites. I love doing what I do and I wake up (most days) happy to know I’ve come this far. But this is only a piece of the Craven puzzle. A lot of people don’t know I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and worked on a few projects. Even more people don’t know that I have a job working banquet events at a resort in San Antonio, Texas. When people find out that my primary sources of income and what I spend most of my time doing have nothing to do with my degree, I’m met with a look of confusion. Whether they say it straight up or imply it in a more subtle way, they’ll usually blurt “don’t you want a good job?” Or “when are you going to get a real job?”
Here’s the deal about working at a restaurant last year and now working banquet events: I have a GOOD, REAL, job. Honestly, it’s a great job. It’s a job so many people in the world wish they had, and not a day goes by I don’t take it for granted. It gives me the opportunity to pursue my personal goals as a writer and coach, but also bring in some easy cash. Every day is something different when I show up for work and it creates an exceptional opportunity to meet people from all walks of life, especially working banquet events. You don’t get that kind of life experience working in a cubicle. Never do I feel discouraged or slighted when people think I should be doing something else, but sometimes I’ll be offended- Not on my behalf, because as you guys know I don’t give a shit what people think, but on behalf of my co-workers. People might think folks working in service or hospitality are below them. There’s dignity in every job, guys, and I don’t give a fuck if you’re the CEO of a company or the janitor who sweeps up at night, but you’ll always get the same respect across the board from me. And I hope you reading this feel the same as I do. And I have to say, I respect the hell out of everyone I’ve ever worked with at a restaurant or working banquets. If you’ve ever done any of this type of work you know these people are always willing to work hard, and they’re genuinely some awesome and straight up badass people; and if someone ever spoke bad about any of them in front of me I’d be the first to step up and throw hands for them. I made a lot of friends in college and became close with a few mostly because we had to share a challenging experience with each other, but the friendships I made at work were like none other I’ve had, and I appreciate all of them dearly.
When I was bar tending at a restaurant last year these dudes would make some fast cash during the day and have no problems with spending half of that on us later that night at the bar. They’d be happy to do it, and happy to do it again the next day. Is this the most responsible way to live forever? Probably not. But it showed me there’s more to life than “having a plan at all times” and sticking to the script. Because before I started working in this industry my life was conditioned to staying on a set track at all times. Honestly, it sucked. I was being groomed to be a square peg to fit a square hole. Conditioned to keep my head down, shut up, and sit at my desk. And that’s what a 9-5 job is. You show up, do a task, and clock out. Every day. Over and over. That’s not a life for me, man. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a little bit different my whole life. I’ve never followed trends or did what was cool. I had questions that people felt uncomfortable to answer because it wasn’t “part of the plan.” I’ve learned you don’t have to follow the crowd and there's always another way if you're willing to put in the work.
And then there’s the question of “don’t you want to make a lot of money?”
No. No I don’t. Not for the sake of just making money anyway. I’ve recently realized that money won’t make me happy, and it won’t make you happy either despite what you tell yourself. Of course money is important to an extent, but I’m not going to sell 1/3 of my life doing work I don’t enjoy just to buy flashy things that won’t fulfill me. I’ve tried this and it left me feeling hollow. I know so many people who play this game and always lose. It sucks to watch my friends and family fall into this trap and it sucks to see so much wasted potential. If I’m going to make a lot of money it’s going to come from providing value to those who really want it, which is why I’ll continue to keep on coaching and keep on writing for as long as I can.
Does this mean I’ll never go into the engineering industry? Absolutely not. It just means I’m not going to blindly jump into a job I have no passion for just because it’s something I feel like society expects me to do. I’ve turned down a handful of jobs as an engineer this past year because I don’t feel the job is worthy of my abilities. I’m not saying I’m some prodigy engineer because I’m not, but I’m confident in my abilities to provide a fuck ton of value to whoever is writing my checks. If you’re going to pay me $75,000 for my work then that means my net value to your company is at least $225,000. Work hard and make a lot of money for some faceless entity then only get a third of it? Hm, seems like a raw deal to me. With that said I love being an engineer, I love solving problems, and I love finding out how things work. You see that? That’s passion. I guess this is a good segue into the next part of this blog.
EngineersWhoLift™
Short story here about how this became a thing. A few months ago I took some of my engineering buddies out to dinner at the restaurant I was working at. These were the guys who not only liked to study as much as I did, but who also enjoyed lifting weights and working out, so of course we’d become friends. So these 5 meat-head looking dudes walk into the restaurant side by side taking up the entire doorway and probably frightening a few small children and elderly people on our way to the host stand. My manager GinoCasino walks up to greet me and ask who my friends are, so I let him know they’re a bunch of my engineering buds. He takes a look at these big guys standing around and says “it’s been a while since I was in school, but in my day engineers were a bunch of scrawny looking poindexters, not a bunch of guys with muscles!”
But he wasn’t wrong to say that. Me and these 4 others guys were the exception. In a class of 200 people we were the only ones who enjoyed lifting weights when not getting crushed by projects and tests. Actually there were a few dozen more who did workout, but we were the only 5 who really had any success to speak of when it came to developing some decent physiques. This always puzzled me because to really excel as a bodybuilder or in any type of physical activity, knowledge is power. The more information you apply, the better your results will be. A bunch of my peers would look to me for some guidance and tips to help them find success in the gym, and it baffled me because these are the type of people who could easily spend 10 hours working on a single problem and use every resource possible to figure something out, but didn’t know how to translate that ability to improving their gym performance. I’ve noticed anyone who studies engineering usually has an inherent ability to seek solutions by any means necessary. These guys could find solutions on mechanical stresses, heat transfer, and dynamic equations, but can’t find out how to set up a basic training routine and nutrition plan? There’s a huge disconnect here, and I wanted to find a solution for it.
So EngineersWhoLift™ was born. It’s a developmental project aimed at helping provide proper information on training and nutrition for engineers in the professional industry. A lot of people are turned off when you start reciting fitness and nutrition fundamentals because it’s not the most exciting thing in the world to sit and listen to. By making the content more relate able to engineers by providing a scientific foundation, we’re hoping to increase the participation of recreational weight lifting by engineers. When it comes to desk jobs, you know how I feel about them. But there are some people who may actually enjoy them, but most will just tolerate them. Most people spend a majority of the day sitting on their ass at work, then come home to do more sitting. Couple that with the aging process and you’ll be in for a sudden surprise when you take a look at yourself in a few years. This is my attempt to provide a solution and help people who need information. This is what I do.
Short story here about how this became a thing. A few months ago I took some of my engineering buddies out to dinner at the restaurant I was working at. These were the guys who not only liked to study as much as I did, but who also enjoyed lifting weights and working out, so of course we’d become friends. So these 5 meat-head looking dudes walk into the restaurant side by side taking up the entire doorway and probably frightening a few small children and elderly people on our way to the host stand. My manager GinoCasino walks up to greet me and ask who my friends are, so I let him know they’re a bunch of my engineering buds. He takes a look at these big guys standing around and says “it’s been a while since I was in school, but in my day engineers were a bunch of scrawny looking poindexters, not a bunch of guys with muscles!”
But he wasn’t wrong to say that. Me and these 4 others guys were the exception. In a class of 200 people we were the only ones who enjoyed lifting weights when not getting crushed by projects and tests. Actually there were a few dozen more who did workout, but we were the only 5 who really had any success to speak of when it came to developing some decent physiques. This always puzzled me because to really excel as a bodybuilder or in any type of physical activity, knowledge is power. The more information you apply, the better your results will be. A bunch of my peers would look to me for some guidance and tips to help them find success in the gym, and it baffled me because these are the type of people who could easily spend 10 hours working on a single problem and use every resource possible to figure something out, but didn’t know how to translate that ability to improving their gym performance. I’ve noticed anyone who studies engineering usually has an inherent ability to seek solutions by any means necessary. These guys could find solutions on mechanical stresses, heat transfer, and dynamic equations, but can’t find out how to set up a basic training routine and nutrition plan? There’s a huge disconnect here, and I wanted to find a solution for it.
So EngineersWhoLift™ was born. It’s a developmental project aimed at helping provide proper information on training and nutrition for engineers in the professional industry. A lot of people are turned off when you start reciting fitness and nutrition fundamentals because it’s not the most exciting thing in the world to sit and listen to. By making the content more relate able to engineers by providing a scientific foundation, we’re hoping to increase the participation of recreational weight lifting by engineers. When it comes to desk jobs, you know how I feel about them. But there are some people who may actually enjoy them, but most will just tolerate them. Most people spend a majority of the day sitting on their ass at work, then come home to do more sitting. Couple that with the aging process and you’ll be in for a sudden surprise when you take a look at yourself in a few years. This is my attempt to provide a solution and help people who need information. This is what I do.
Fighting an uphill battle against miss-information
The other day while working a banquet event I overheard a lady say eating Brussel sprouts makes you fat. Actually, her exact words were “Brussel sprouts are the most fattening vegetable”. My immediate thoughts were “what the fuck lady, really? Did you not just hear the words that came out of your mouth?” Her statement is wrong on so many different levels, but the most frustrating part is that she’s not the only one who believes this! I’m certain she got this information from some daytime TV doctor or some tabloid type website, so that means there’s probably thousands of other people who believe it too. This type of wrong information has to stop. It’s propagated by fear and shock value to get people to buy what they’re selling, I promise you. It’s unethical and down right dangerous. People who need real helpful information are being lied to, and it’s sickening. This is a big nasty rabbit hole to do down, so I’ll try and keep it short. But the biggest lie I hear is that calories don’t matter as long as you eat healthy foods. Everyone who comes to me still holds on to some sentiment that there are somehow inherently GOOD and BAD foods. An example would be strawberries=good. Sugar=bad. But it’s not like that. It’s not so black and white. It’s all relative and a matter of context! I promise you 60 grams of carbs from strawberries has the same effect as 60 grams of carbs from sugar. I’m not saying you can get away eating bags of sugar and thrive, but stop being so blind and do a bit of research. If the goal is fat loss, calories and energy balance will always be top priority. You just don’t lose fat eating more calories than you expend. That is physically impossible. And for those who do say they lose fat eating whatever they want, they’re actually eating less than their maintenance calories are, otherwise they wouldn’t be losing fat. On top of this “calories don’t matter, eat clean foods” thing is that there are some superfoods that can do no wrong. A big one right now is coconut oil. I’m not exaggerating when I say people are taking this stuff by the spoonful daily because they’ve been told it has some special fat burning properties and is a superfood. While there CAN be a few benefits to it, a huge fact being overlooked is that the fat in coconut oil still has 9 calories per gram. If you’re trying to lose fat and you’re shoveling down spoonfuls of this stuff daily, you won’t get very far. ::face palm:: There is just so much wrong information being spewed everywhere that it makes my head spin. The medical industry isn’t much help either. If you go to your doctor for diet or fitness advice, you’ll be met with the same old “eat healthy, get exercise” song and dance. Most (except a few) doctors don’t know shit about properly losing weight, but people will take their word over someone like me every time because they’re doctors. I’m not saying I have all of the right answers all the time, but I have plenty of accurate information that WILL be beneficial when applied correctly. It’s an uphill battle, and the more progress I feel I make, the more resistance I’m met with. But that’s just the game I get. There are guys in the fitness industry who are my mentors that have thousands of people follow them and impact even more. But these guys are met with so much hate and opposition, I have no idea how they continue to push on. I’m sorry if this has come down to me sounding like I’m complaining, but It’s more of a plea asking you to open your eyes a bit. Do your research and don’t blindly swallow information because it sounds good. Question it. Don’t even believe everything I say, I want you to go out and find out on your own. Test it. Test me. Test yourself. I love helping people and I love what I do, but some days are harder than others when you’re facing so much bad information. All I can do is keep putting out content and hope that I can truly help a few people in the process. So for all you guys who do pick up what I put down and have stuck with me through my uphill battles, I sincerely thank you.
The other day while working a banquet event I overheard a lady say eating Brussel sprouts makes you fat. Actually, her exact words were “Brussel sprouts are the most fattening vegetable”. My immediate thoughts were “what the fuck lady, really? Did you not just hear the words that came out of your mouth?” Her statement is wrong on so many different levels, but the most frustrating part is that she’s not the only one who believes this! I’m certain she got this information from some daytime TV doctor or some tabloid type website, so that means there’s probably thousands of other people who believe it too. This type of wrong information has to stop. It’s propagated by fear and shock value to get people to buy what they’re selling, I promise you. It’s unethical and down right dangerous. People who need real helpful information are being lied to, and it’s sickening. This is a big nasty rabbit hole to do down, so I’ll try and keep it short. But the biggest lie I hear is that calories don’t matter as long as you eat healthy foods. Everyone who comes to me still holds on to some sentiment that there are somehow inherently GOOD and BAD foods. An example would be strawberries=good. Sugar=bad. But it’s not like that. It’s not so black and white. It’s all relative and a matter of context! I promise you 60 grams of carbs from strawberries has the same effect as 60 grams of carbs from sugar. I’m not saying you can get away eating bags of sugar and thrive, but stop being so blind and do a bit of research. If the goal is fat loss, calories and energy balance will always be top priority. You just don’t lose fat eating more calories than you expend. That is physically impossible. And for those who do say they lose fat eating whatever they want, they’re actually eating less than their maintenance calories are, otherwise they wouldn’t be losing fat. On top of this “calories don’t matter, eat clean foods” thing is that there are some superfoods that can do no wrong. A big one right now is coconut oil. I’m not exaggerating when I say people are taking this stuff by the spoonful daily because they’ve been told it has some special fat burning properties and is a superfood. While there CAN be a few benefits to it, a huge fact being overlooked is that the fat in coconut oil still has 9 calories per gram. If you’re trying to lose fat and you’re shoveling down spoonfuls of this stuff daily, you won’t get very far. ::face palm:: There is just so much wrong information being spewed everywhere that it makes my head spin. The medical industry isn’t much help either. If you go to your doctor for diet or fitness advice, you’ll be met with the same old “eat healthy, get exercise” song and dance. Most (except a few) doctors don’t know shit about properly losing weight, but people will take their word over someone like me every time because they’re doctors. I’m not saying I have all of the right answers all the time, but I have plenty of accurate information that WILL be beneficial when applied correctly. It’s an uphill battle, and the more progress I feel I make, the more resistance I’m met with. But that’s just the game I get. There are guys in the fitness industry who are my mentors that have thousands of people follow them and impact even more. But these guys are met with so much hate and opposition, I have no idea how they continue to push on. I’m sorry if this has come down to me sounding like I’m complaining, but It’s more of a plea asking you to open your eyes a bit. Do your research and don’t blindly swallow information because it sounds good. Question it. Don’t even believe everything I say, I want you to go out and find out on your own. Test it. Test me. Test yourself. I love helping people and I love what I do, but some days are harder than others when you’re facing so much bad information. All I can do is keep putting out content and hope that I can truly help a few people in the process. So for all you guys who do pick up what I put down and have stuck with me through my uphill battles, I sincerely thank you.
And if you made it through this blog in its entirety, I thank you for that! I don’t know how frequently I’ll put out these blogs, but if you like it, hate it, or don’t care, it’s always great to hear some feedback. As always, thank you guys for all your support. Craven out.
7/14/2016
Day of the Shred 5: Why I don’t meal prep, transitions, lack of motivation, falling in love with weights again, and training chicks, bro!
Read Now
Sometimes I forget that the work I do on this site makes a connection with people. I get caught up in trying to put out helpful, quality content that I sometimes overlook the fact the number of views on my site aren’t just random statistics, but actual people. People who matter. People who are looking for direction. I’m hoping this post will help me revive that interpersonal connection feeling as this is going to be more of a ‘shoot from the hip’ type of post.
I’m not too big on journal or “blog” styles of writing, mostly because I find it a bit self-involved and narcissistic. That’s actually the same reason I haven’t transitioned into making YouTube videos and vlogs (but maybe I will?)
But today I thought I’d try something a little different and go with an actual blog post.
*Disclaimer- it’s going to be all about me, so if you don’t find me interesting and appealing at all then go ahead and hit that little X button at the top right of your screen. Otherwise, sit back and be enthralled about the wonderful and exciting life that is Craven’s! (But for real, it’s really nothing glamorous or exciting ha.)
Excuse the randomness of topics that are going to be discussed in this blog, but fuck it, its shit I want to talk about right now. And if you see a little bit more swearing and F-bombs in this, it’s because I’m typing this the way I would talk, and sometimes when I start talking I get a lil bit over excited and words just come out. So let’s fucking continue.
I’m not too big on journal or “blog” styles of writing, mostly because I find it a bit self-involved and narcissistic. That’s actually the same reason I haven’t transitioned into making YouTube videos and vlogs (but maybe I will?)
But today I thought I’d try something a little different and go with an actual blog post.
*Disclaimer- it’s going to be all about me, so if you don’t find me interesting and appealing at all then go ahead and hit that little X button at the top right of your screen. Otherwise, sit back and be enthralled about the wonderful and exciting life that is Craven’s! (But for real, it’s really nothing glamorous or exciting ha.)
Excuse the randomness of topics that are going to be discussed in this blog, but fuck it, its shit I want to talk about right now. And if you see a little bit more swearing and F-bombs in this, it’s because I’m typing this the way I would talk, and sometimes when I start talking I get a lil bit over excited and words just come out. So let’s fucking continue.
WHY I DON’T MEAL PREP
I’m going to paint a little picture of my life for you from about 9 years back up until about 2 years ago. Most mornings I was up at 6am just so I could scarf down a meal of eggs and oats that I didn’t even enjoy, prepare and pack up my 8 meals for the day, then bounce out the door with my 3 big ass bags in hand. My neighbors probably thought I was going out of town every god damn morning.
If you see something like this, you might think “fuck that guys doing what’s necessary to be a good bodybuilder.” But the truth is, it doesn’t make you any better. It may look “hardcore”, but it’s actually a lot more trouble than it’s worth. Because looking back on it, I didn’t even look fantastic. Hell, I didn’t even look above average.
This was a time before I knew anything about calories and tracking macros. I just thought “well if I eat all this clean food, it’ll make me look better. It’s part of the game and I’ll do what’s necessary to win.”
And honestly dudes, I wasted soooo much of my life living this way. I remember I passed on hanging out with friends, traveling and taking trips, and probably making some memorable life experiences because I was too concerned about not having the proper foods around whenever I got to where I was going. My life was plagued with anxiety. And it all stemmed from this need to look better, which is a completely different rabbit hole to go down sometime.
So that’s partially why I don’t bother doing the whole meal prep game. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t. It can help you save some cash if you want to avoid eating out and it helps you stay on track when you’re new to dieting. It has its benefits. But just know when you’re taking it too far and it starts to become more of a burden than a blessing.
And while I’m on the subject of eating 8 meals a day, there really was no need for that. I was naïve and thought that’s what was necessary. The truth is you can have 3 meals or 14 meals a day if you’d like. It’s about personal preference and making sure you’re within your calorie ranges. Obviously 14 meals a day will be some pretty fucking small meals and it would be pretty miserable, but 3 tends to work well with more people’s schedules. Even 2 larger meals is pretty adequate for most. You get to eat more at those meals and it keeps you full for longer periods. That’s my take on that.
So what’s my plan now? I track calories and macros. No, I don’t do it obsessively. But I do keep a running tab of what I put in my face most days. And honestly, most days I eat the same meals which makes it stupidly easy to track and count. This allows me to eat when I’m not home, enjoy a variety of foods If I feel like it, and not having to lug around an arsenal of Tupperware. I won’t make my pitch on why you should make tracking calories a life-skill, but I’ll tell you it really does help simplify your life tremendously.
So why don’t I meal prep? Because I got more important things to do, dammit.
2010 vs 2016
TRANSITIONS
Moving on is never easy, but it’s something we all have to deal with. When you find a groove and you’re comfortable coasting through it you feel safe and secure. But that shit doesn’t last forever man. And it’s scary. It’s scary to think about what you’re next move might be. It’s scary to think about what may happen if something goes wrong. But there’s a really fine line between scary and exciting. It’s a matter of perspective. I’m only mentioning transitions because I’m in a major one of my own. It’s a time I like to refer to as the snow globe: someone just came and shook the fuck out of it and now shit’s different. How eloquent, right? Things can’t stay the same forever, though. Change is inevitable. Changes are happening every second. Change will happen. But progress is a choice. I can sit here and pout about how shit’s changed so rapidly, and I have, or I can choose to go with the flow and make some progress in my life. I think I’ll take the latter right now.
Moving on is never easy, but it’s something we all have to deal with. When you find a groove and you’re comfortable coasting through it you feel safe and secure. But that shit doesn’t last forever man. And it’s scary. It’s scary to think about what you’re next move might be. It’s scary to think about what may happen if something goes wrong. But there’s a really fine line between scary and exciting. It’s a matter of perspective. I’m only mentioning transitions because I’m in a major one of my own. It’s a time I like to refer to as the snow globe: someone just came and shook the fuck out of it and now shit’s different. How eloquent, right? Things can’t stay the same forever, though. Change is inevitable. Changes are happening every second. Change will happen. But progress is a choice. I can sit here and pout about how shit’s changed so rapidly, and I have, or I can choose to go with the flow and make some progress in my life. I think I’ll take the latter right now.
" It’s a time I like to refer to as the snow globe: someone just came and shook the fuck out of it and now shit’s different. "
A LACK OF MOTIVATION
Some days you just don’t feel like doing shit. I’ve had a lot of these lately. And it’s so uncharacteristic of me because the last year I’ve made some remarkable progress in staying motivated and motivating everyone around me. I saw a lot of my friends go out and achieve lots of great things after sitting down and having a few motivational chats. That made me feel pretty damn phenomenal. But lately I haven’t felt this way. The one thing I know about motivation is it isn’t permanent. It’s a lot like bathing, you gotta do it pretty frequently. Maybe it’s because there’s no end goal at the moment? Not a specific one anyway. The goals always going to be “be successful, help a lot of people, make some cash.” But that’s so general. The question now is HOW am I going to do all of those things? And that’s what I’ve kind of lost sight of. A lot of it has to do with this transitional period I’m in. A lot of my friends have moved on, are engulfed in their jobs, or are married with kids. All of that confuses me haha. But they’ve moved on, and I need to as well. The motivations coming back. Believe me, it took a hell of a lot of motivation to sit down and type this shit out. Hopefully that builds some momentum. Momentum is key. I’ll be sure to remember that.
FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE WEIGHTS, AGAIN.
Contradictory to what the previous 2 sections were about not wanting to do much and feeling a bit lost, I’ve actually re-kindled my love for weight training. I guess when things are a bit turbulent, the weights provide a sense of comfort because I know they’ll always be there. When I was 16 years old is the first time I fell in love with weight training, and it’s been a long time since I’ve remembered how that felt. I hated being a scrawny kid man. I got teased for it and I made it a point to do everything in my power to not be a scrawny guy. I had an agenda, and somewhere within the first few weeks of being consistent with my training, I was infatuated with lifting weights. It was an escape from reality. Not that I ever had a rough life or anything, but the weights were just always there for me. Since then I’ve had my flings with the weights on and off, and there’s been times where my heart just really wasn’t in it but I’d push on through. I’d still enjoy lifting weights, but sometimes it seemed more like a chore and something I had to do rather than what I wanted to do. But now it’s different. Now I WANT to be in the gym everyday moving weight. Its my one constant in life that I can go to when everything else seems to be a cluster-fuck of confusion, transitions, and emotion. Fuck I sound like a 15 year old girl sometimes. But right now I love training my clients, but I love training myself even more. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, if anything I’ve done that all ready. Now it’s for me, again.
Contradictory to what the previous 2 sections were about not wanting to do much and feeling a bit lost, I’ve actually re-kindled my love for weight training. I guess when things are a bit turbulent, the weights provide a sense of comfort because I know they’ll always be there. When I was 16 years old is the first time I fell in love with weight training, and it’s been a long time since I’ve remembered how that felt. I hated being a scrawny kid man. I got teased for it and I made it a point to do everything in my power to not be a scrawny guy. I had an agenda, and somewhere within the first few weeks of being consistent with my training, I was infatuated with lifting weights. It was an escape from reality. Not that I ever had a rough life or anything, but the weights were just always there for me. Since then I’ve had my flings with the weights on and off, and there’s been times where my heart just really wasn’t in it but I’d push on through. I’d still enjoy lifting weights, but sometimes it seemed more like a chore and something I had to do rather than what I wanted to do. But now it’s different. Now I WANT to be in the gym everyday moving weight. Its my one constant in life that I can go to when everything else seems to be a cluster-fuck of confusion, transitions, and emotion. Fuck I sound like a 15 year old girl sometimes. But right now I love training my clients, but I love training myself even more. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, if anything I’ve done that all ready. Now it’s for me, again.
TRAINING CHICKS, BRO!
Chicks. I dig em. Who doesn’t, right? Even chicks dig chicks! Working with dozens of different young ladies as clients over the last year has given me some insight into the female perspective on training. Guys, if you’re reading this and you want to get your girl involved in training or you’re training female clients, take my advice- don’t put them through your workouts. They’re not little versions of men and they probably won’t enjoy doing 4 sets of 10-12 reps on bench press. Some might. Most won’t. If you want to take your girl through a workout, specialize it for her. Show her how to perform a good squat, proper deadlifts, and lots of leg and booty work and do it in a way that’s fun. Once she’s found it enjoyable, add some structure to the workouts so she can really make some physical progress. Girls also have the ability to work really hard in the gym. In my experience, harder than most guys. I won’t pretend to act like I know why, but they do. That’s a great trait to harness and apply. This all might sound pretty obvious, but it surprises me how often I see “professional trainers” at the gym put their female clients through workouts that don’t compliment their physiques or will help them reach their goals. Sure, it’s activity and they’re getting off the couch. But don’t confuse activity with accomplishment. 3 sets of hip thrusts to build the booty will feel way more rewarding than 3 sets of bench press. So just remember, chicks aren’t bros, bros.
Chicks. I dig em. Who doesn’t, right? Even chicks dig chicks! Working with dozens of different young ladies as clients over the last year has given me some insight into the female perspective on training. Guys, if you’re reading this and you want to get your girl involved in training or you’re training female clients, take my advice- don’t put them through your workouts. They’re not little versions of men and they probably won’t enjoy doing 4 sets of 10-12 reps on bench press. Some might. Most won’t. If you want to take your girl through a workout, specialize it for her. Show her how to perform a good squat, proper deadlifts, and lots of leg and booty work and do it in a way that’s fun. Once she’s found it enjoyable, add some structure to the workouts so she can really make some physical progress. Girls also have the ability to work really hard in the gym. In my experience, harder than most guys. I won’t pretend to act like I know why, but they do. That’s a great trait to harness and apply. This all might sound pretty obvious, but it surprises me how often I see “professional trainers” at the gym put their female clients through workouts that don’t compliment their physiques or will help them reach their goals. Sure, it’s activity and they’re getting off the couch. But don’t confuse activity with accomplishment. 3 sets of hip thrusts to build the booty will feel way more rewarding than 3 sets of bench press. So just remember, chicks aren’t bros, bros.
And well…that’s all I have to say about that right now.
If you made it through all my whining and are still here with me, thanks for the time and the support. I’ve made it a point to connect more with the people I’m looking to help, so I hope this will show you that I’m human too and not some automated workout dude who’s always on the grind.
Sometimes I’m lost, sometimes I screw up, sometimes I don’t have it all figured out. But I’m working on that. Everyday. Even on the days I feel like not doing it, I’ll do it.
Happy living, guys. Craven out.
If you made it through all my whining and are still here with me, thanks for the time and the support. I’ve made it a point to connect more with the people I’m looking to help, so I hope this will show you that I’m human too and not some automated workout dude who’s always on the grind.
Sometimes I’m lost, sometimes I screw up, sometimes I don’t have it all figured out. But I’m working on that. Everyday. Even on the days I feel like not doing it, I’ll do it.
Happy living, guys. Craven out.
Unless you've been living in a cave the last 10 years, you’ve probably heard some of the “unwritten rules” about all this whole nutrient timing thing.
Rules such as:
Only eat carbs around your workout.
Don’t eat carbs after 6 pm.
ONLY eat carbs after 6 pm (carb backloading)
Always consume your post-workout protein shake within half an hour after your workout.
Eat in the morning to boost the metabolism and “stoke the metabolic fire.”
And there’s countless others I’d prefer not to list.
Before we dive deeper into this rabbit hole, let’s take a quick look at what nutrient timing exactly is.
“Nutrient Timing” essentially means consuming specific types of nutrients (such as proteins, carbs, and fats) in specific amounts, at specific times (such as post workouts, pre workout, before bed, in the morning etc.)
Really insightful description there, huh?
Scientists and sports nutritionists first examined the effects of specific nutrients at certain times in the late 1990’s in search of a way to improve sports performance and physical activity.
The data yielded from all of this research seemed to be conclusive and spread through the fitness and nutrition industries like wildfire.
But after decades of further research on the topic, it’s recently been concluded that nutrient timing may not be as important as once thought.
So is nutrient timing imperative for a healthy and aesthetic physique?
No.
Well is nutrient timing ineffective and worthless?
Definitely not.
In certain situations for certain individuals, it can be quite effective over an extended period of time.
Let’s take a further look at some of these situations and see how and if they benefit your specific goals.
Rules such as:
Only eat carbs around your workout.
Don’t eat carbs after 6 pm.
ONLY eat carbs after 6 pm (carb backloading)
Always consume your post-workout protein shake within half an hour after your workout.
Eat in the morning to boost the metabolism and “stoke the metabolic fire.”
And there’s countless others I’d prefer not to list.
Before we dive deeper into this rabbit hole, let’s take a quick look at what nutrient timing exactly is.
“Nutrient Timing” essentially means consuming specific types of nutrients (such as proteins, carbs, and fats) in specific amounts, at specific times (such as post workouts, pre workout, before bed, in the morning etc.)
Really insightful description there, huh?
Scientists and sports nutritionists first examined the effects of specific nutrients at certain times in the late 1990’s in search of a way to improve sports performance and physical activity.
The data yielded from all of this research seemed to be conclusive and spread through the fitness and nutrition industries like wildfire.
But after decades of further research on the topic, it’s recently been concluded that nutrient timing may not be as important as once thought.
So is nutrient timing imperative for a healthy and aesthetic physique?
No.
Well is nutrient timing ineffective and worthless?
Definitely not.
In certain situations for certain individuals, it can be quite effective over an extended period of time.
Let’s take a further look at some of these situations and see how and if they benefit your specific goals.
The Post Workout Anabolic Window
No doubt you’ve heard this one before.
“Bro, be sure to slam your post workout shake of protein and cabs or you’ll lose all your gains!”
The basic idea of the post workout protein shake spawned from the notion that after bouts of intense exercise such as weight training, the body would need immediate replenishment in order to recover and prevent muscle loss.
During intense training, such as sprints and weight training, your body turns into a glucose burning powerhouse in order to sustain energy for training.
Some studies (falsely) proved that not slamming a protein shake within 45 minutes after training would negate all of the effects from that day’s training.
After hearing this shock-tactic information, the golden rule of training now became focused on the post workout shake.
This post workout shake nutrition then snowballed into including not just protein, but also a hefty dose of carbohydrates in order to provide an insulin spike to help shuttle nutrients into our muscles which have been depleted and were thought to soak up any incoming nutrients like a sponge.
This theory was then extended to the pre-workout period, because if one shake is good after training, then one before training will be beneficial too, right?
The cold hard facts of this matter have proven that this “anabolic window” after training actually extends a lot longer than the pre determined 45 minutes after training that was initially conceived.
Instead of some pin-hole sized opening of opportunity to get your post workout recovery optimized, it’s actually more like a wide open barn door.
This means you actually have a few HOURS after your training to maximize your recovery.
So no more shoving people out of your way in the gym so you can rush to your loaded protein shaker and slam your post-workout shake faster than a frat boy slams a jager bomb.
NUMBER OF MEALS AND MEAL TIMING
“What’s the best time to eat” is always a popular question.
I can see why it’s a good question to ask as many people have been spoon-fed this notion that there’s some better times to eat than others.
For decades, most nutrition gurus told people to eat the majority of their calories in the early part of the day and to keep calories (especially carbs) lower later in the evening.
Then suddenly, a host of new gurus came in and proposed the exact opposite, saying we should eat the majority of our calories in the evening as opposed to the morning.
To save time on a long winded explanation about which camp is correct, here’s the reality:
For most average people looking to either lose body fat or increase lean muscle mass while limiting an increase in body fat, there’s no difference.
The key here is energy balance.
Energy balance is the first law of thermodynamics that your body (and everything else in this universe) abides by on a physical level.
What this means is if you consume more calories than your body expends (daily functions, exercise, etc) your body mass (whether fat, muscle, fluids) will increase.
Conversely, if you’re expending more calories than you’re consuming, your body will experience a reduction in lean body mass (fat/weight loss).
This fact cannot be argued, but of course people try.
They’ll make a case for saying “you can eat as much (insert fad super food here) as you want and you won’t get fat. Trust me it works for me.”
For these people, they may see their method work, but they’re overlooking what’s going on behind the label of the “superfood.”
Without evening knowing it, these people are expending more calories than they’re consuming. The energy balance that they’re abiding by is just being masked by the “magical benefits” of their superfood diets.
“What’s the best time to eat” is always a popular question.
I can see why it’s a good question to ask as many people have been spoon-fed this notion that there’s some better times to eat than others.
For decades, most nutrition gurus told people to eat the majority of their calories in the early part of the day and to keep calories (especially carbs) lower later in the evening.
Then suddenly, a host of new gurus came in and proposed the exact opposite, saying we should eat the majority of our calories in the evening as opposed to the morning.
To save time on a long winded explanation about which camp is correct, here’s the reality:
For most average people looking to either lose body fat or increase lean muscle mass while limiting an increase in body fat, there’s no difference.
The key here is energy balance.
Energy balance is the first law of thermodynamics that your body (and everything else in this universe) abides by on a physical level.
What this means is if you consume more calories than your body expends (daily functions, exercise, etc) your body mass (whether fat, muscle, fluids) will increase.
Conversely, if you’re expending more calories than you’re consuming, your body will experience a reduction in lean body mass (fat/weight loss).
This fact cannot be argued, but of course people try.
They’ll make a case for saying “you can eat as much (insert fad super food here) as you want and you won’t get fat. Trust me it works for me.”
For these people, they may see their method work, but they’re overlooking what’s going on behind the label of the “superfood.”
Without evening knowing it, these people are expending more calories than they’re consuming. The energy balance that they’re abiding by is just being masked by the “magical benefits” of their superfood diets.
BREAKFAST IS IMPORTANT…OR IS IT?
Breakfast is a hot topic.
Almost everyone still seems to think its “the most important meal of the day.”
This idea is built on the notion that after being asleep for 8 hours, your body is starving and won’t be able to function without a heaping serving of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
Again, in the sake of time, here’s the truth:
Some people enjoy eating breakfast. Others just aren’t hungry and prefer to skip out on it.
But there’s no magical health benefit to eating breakfast.
Eating breakfast won’t make you lose fat. In fact, in can have the opposite effect if you’re not conscious of your calorie intake because you’ll be eating more meals and more overall food throughout the day.
Eating breakfast won’t make you stronger. It can if you’re training regularly and maintain a calorie surplus over time.
Eating breakfast won’t make you smarter. This one is person to person, but some people tend to become sluggish and lethargic after a morning meal.
Some people who skip breakfast often experience better cognitive functions and feel sharper until the lunch hour.
It all comes down to personal preference.
If you don’t like having to wake up an extra half hour early to scarf down a bowl of oats you’re not even going to enjoy because you’re not hungry, then pass on breakfast and have your first meal of the day a bit later on.
If you enjoy having a large breakfast before you leave the house each day because it makes you feel better and its enjoyable, then by all means have at it.
Just remember your specific fitness goals when you decide to include or exclude breakfast.
Calories count.
If you’re looking to lose body fat, you’ll need to be in a caloric deficit.
If you’re looking to add body mass, calories will need to be at a surplus.
Breakfast is a hot topic.
Almost everyone still seems to think its “the most important meal of the day.”
This idea is built on the notion that after being asleep for 8 hours, your body is starving and won’t be able to function without a heaping serving of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.
Again, in the sake of time, here’s the truth:
Some people enjoy eating breakfast. Others just aren’t hungry and prefer to skip out on it.
But there’s no magical health benefit to eating breakfast.
Eating breakfast won’t make you lose fat. In fact, in can have the opposite effect if you’re not conscious of your calorie intake because you’ll be eating more meals and more overall food throughout the day.
Eating breakfast won’t make you stronger. It can if you’re training regularly and maintain a calorie surplus over time.
Eating breakfast won’t make you smarter. This one is person to person, but some people tend to become sluggish and lethargic after a morning meal.
Some people who skip breakfast often experience better cognitive functions and feel sharper until the lunch hour.
It all comes down to personal preference.
If you don’t like having to wake up an extra half hour early to scarf down a bowl of oats you’re not even going to enjoy because you’re not hungry, then pass on breakfast and have your first meal of the day a bit later on.
If you enjoy having a large breakfast before you leave the house each day because it makes you feel better and its enjoyable, then by all means have at it.
Just remember your specific fitness goals when you decide to include or exclude breakfast.
Calories count.
If you’re looking to lose body fat, you’ll need to be in a caloric deficit.
If you’re looking to add body mass, calories will need to be at a surplus.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD I EAT?
Firstly, let’s dispel the “eat 7 small meals throughout the day” for increased health benefits idea.
Does anyone really enjoy eating that often? Probably not. If you do, then by all means have at it.
I’ll admit I there once was a period in my life where I did eat 7 times a day. Everyday. For years. I didn’t enjoy it at all, I just thought it was necessary to reach my physique goals.
Looking back at that now, I wish I knew everything I knew now because I wasted so much time stressing over meals and lugging around coolers full of food everywhere I went.
I was all about that Tupperware life you could say. And that’s no way to live.
There was a time when research suggested that eating small meals throughout the day proved to be beneficial for fat loss and health, but that was only in the short term studies.
Evidence now proves that whether you eat 7 small meals that equate to 2500 calories or 3 larger meals that equal the same 2500 calories, there is no difference is health or body composition.
Why is that?
If you guessed energy balance, then you would be correct.
There’s just no getting around this fundamental physics fact.
As long as we eat the right foods, in the right amounts, the number of meals you eat is solely based on personal preference.
NUTRIENT TIMING HAS ITS PLACE
Nutrient timing is a pretty complex topic and by no means is it black and white, yes or no, 1 or zero. It would probably take a whole 200 page book to cover it completely.
So is nutrient timing really not important at all?
Absolutely not.
For most elite level athletes and physique competitors, nutrient timing can make a slight difference, which can mean the difference from performing to win and performing to come in second.
If you’re a novice trainer or someone just looking to make a few changes to lose some weight and improve your health, worrying about meal timing is something you don’t need to be doing.
IT’s the small fundamentals that will yield the greatest benefit. Small things like reducing the amount of excess calories from junk food you’re eating every day, getting a bit more activity by being more active and less sedentary, and making more wholesome food choices.
Instead of worrying about “those potatos you ate at 9 pm last night”, think about the snacks you’re having in between meals that you’re having because you’re bored and not really dying from famine.
Here’s a nutritional hierarchy to follow.
- How much are you eating?
(Recommendation: Eat until satisfied, instead of stuffed - How you are eating?
(Recommendation: Eat slowly and mindfully, without distraction.) - Why are you eating?
(Hungry, bored, stressed, following peer pressure, social cues, triggered by hyper-rewarding foods?) - What are you eating?
(Recommendation: Minimally processed proteins, veggies, fruits, healthy starches, and healthy fats.) - Are you doing #1 to #4 properly, consistently?
(Recommendation: Shoot for 80 percent consistency with these items before moving on.)
6 .When are you eating?
(Now you can consider breakfast, late-night, during your workout, etc.)
Don’t Stress Nutrition Timing
The graphic above dictates how much you should really emphasize nutrition timing.
For most peope, it really isn’t a huge priority, so there’s no point in stressing yourself out about when you’re eating.
Life is stressful enough, don’t add to your stress levels by worrying about when to eat.
Just remember to focus on HOW MUCH you’re eating and the quality of your foods you’re consuming.
Remember, if you’re overweight or out of shape, you didn’t get there overnight. It took some time.
It’ll also take some time to reverse where you are currently at, so be patient and trust the process.
It’s the small everyday choices we make that will add to the bigger picture.
So get up, stay up, be active, and use that 8 pound thinking machine rolling around in your head to make the best decisions possible for your well being.
Sometimes I wonder if there’s any integrity and authenticity left in the supplement industry.
I’m an optimistic guy, maybe sometimes too optimistic at times, and I like to think maybe there’s still a little bit of honesty in this ever expanding business.
Before I go off on some ethical tangent, I’ll get my point across very quickly.
Don’t waste your money on so called “cleanses and detoxes.”
I’m sure you probably know at least a handful of people who swear by these products because they’ve been told it will “rid their body of all the nasty toxins that build up and reduce the aging process” and all that magical marketing they shove down your throat.
And if you’ve ever done a cleanse or detox, I can see why.
They sound awesome and life changing.
They’re branded and marketed to be a sort of miracle experience.
But the reality is, you’re being lied to.
Straight up hoodwinked.
All in the name of making a quick buck.
You see, supplement companies take notice of what the average population does.
It’s a huge demographic and they realized they could make some fat cash by going after this more sedentary and “less healthy” population.
Supplement companies have capitalized on the fear mongering of “chemicals in foods”, “unhealthy diets” and “the dangers of fast foods,” all which are complete nonsense by the way.
But by making folks think that there’s something inherently wrong and unhealthy by eating processed foods and drinks, these companies also have the “magical elixir” that will remedy all of these un-natural things going on in your body and cure what ails ya.
NO.
Just, NO.
I’m an optimistic guy, maybe sometimes too optimistic at times, and I like to think maybe there’s still a little bit of honesty in this ever expanding business.
Before I go off on some ethical tangent, I’ll get my point across very quickly.
Don’t waste your money on so called “cleanses and detoxes.”
I’m sure you probably know at least a handful of people who swear by these products because they’ve been told it will “rid their body of all the nasty toxins that build up and reduce the aging process” and all that magical marketing they shove down your throat.
And if you’ve ever done a cleanse or detox, I can see why.
They sound awesome and life changing.
They’re branded and marketed to be a sort of miracle experience.
But the reality is, you’re being lied to.
Straight up hoodwinked.
All in the name of making a quick buck.
You see, supplement companies take notice of what the average population does.
It’s a huge demographic and they realized they could make some fat cash by going after this more sedentary and “less healthy” population.
Supplement companies have capitalized on the fear mongering of “chemicals in foods”, “unhealthy diets” and “the dangers of fast foods,” all which are complete nonsense by the way.
But by making folks think that there’s something inherently wrong and unhealthy by eating processed foods and drinks, these companies also have the “magical elixir” that will remedy all of these un-natural things going on in your body and cure what ails ya.
NO.
Just, NO.
Here’s some reality for you.
Unless you’re cracking open batteries and slurping down the alkaline battery acid everyday, there’s no dangerous chemicals being put into your body.
In fact, any kind of severe chemical build up in your body is almost impossible because you’re not ingesting industrial waste size amounts of harsh chemicals.
If you’re eating food (yes, even processed fast food and all that “unnatural” stuff they say not to eat” you’re perfectly safe.
The idea that all these bad foods and chemicals we’re putting in our bodies is slowly killing us doesn’t have a whole lot of merit to it.
It has some merit as we’ve seen with cancers and other delayed on set diseases, but they’re not a direct result of eating and ingesting these types of food.
Besides, even if for some reason there was some kind of dangerous chemical build up in your body, drinking some magical elixir made from water, citrus juices, and herbs will no way “clean you out.”
Unless you’re talking about a dirty kitchen top, there’s no way something like a cleanse can clean much of anything.
This is akin to something like pouring water into your cars fuel system when it’s not running properly.
It’s not going to do a damn thing.
Your body is an unbelievably complex system.
Just drinking a whole bunch of herbs and spices won’t be able to clean out all the chemical deposits in your fat cells, muscle cells, and organs.
THE REAL DETOX
So what’s the best way to detox and cleanse your body?
The old fashioned natural way of letting your major organs like the liver and kidneys do their job.
The liver and kidneys do a phenomenal job of ridding your body of any build up and keeping your health on track.
So instead of the quick fix method of using of gimmicky detox tea, be proactive in taking care of your body first.
How is this done?
The three simple ways are:
Balanced Diet: Eating wholesome, nutritious foods most of the time will support detoxification processes in your major organs.
Regular exercise: This is a very potent supporter of making sure the organs are working well and working at full capacity.
Proper hydration: This one doesn’t mean drinking a bunch of weird gimmicky potions and juices. It just means drinking adequate amounts of water throughout the day and making sure you’re urinating frequently and in healthy, voluminous amounts.
That’s it.
So what’s the best way to detox and cleanse your body?
The old fashioned natural way of letting your major organs like the liver and kidneys do their job.
The liver and kidneys do a phenomenal job of ridding your body of any build up and keeping your health on track.
So instead of the quick fix method of using of gimmicky detox tea, be proactive in taking care of your body first.
How is this done?
The three simple ways are:
Balanced Diet: Eating wholesome, nutritious foods most of the time will support detoxification processes in your major organs.
Regular exercise: This is a very potent supporter of making sure the organs are working well and working at full capacity.
Proper hydration: This one doesn’t mean drinking a bunch of weird gimmicky potions and juices. It just means drinking adequate amounts of water throughout the day and making sure you’re urinating frequently and in healthy, voluminous amounts.
That’s it.
THERE’S NO QUICK FIX
The major selling point for cleanses and detoxes is the underlying fact that you can eat or drink whatever you want and not take care of yourself and these detoxes and cleanses will almost magically give you a clean, healthy system.
It’s an illusion they like to propagate, and will no doubt continue to do for as long as people believe the marketing.
If you’re truly serious about making your body a healthy, vibrant machine, then it’s important to start with the basics and stick with the basics.
The basics being living a healthy life and taking care of yourself every day with proper eating habits, hydration, and rest.
Let your body use it’s machinery and do what it’s meant to do and don’t be suckered by these “insta-health” gimmicks that do nothing but clean out your wallet.
The major selling point for cleanses and detoxes is the underlying fact that you can eat or drink whatever you want and not take care of yourself and these detoxes and cleanses will almost magically give you a clean, healthy system.
It’s an illusion they like to propagate, and will no doubt continue to do for as long as people believe the marketing.
If you’re truly serious about making your body a healthy, vibrant machine, then it’s important to start with the basics and stick with the basics.
The basics being living a healthy life and taking care of yourself every day with proper eating habits, hydration, and rest.
Let your body use it’s machinery and do what it’s meant to do and don’t be suckered by these “insta-health” gimmicks that do nothing but clean out your wallet.
"It depends."
Don’t you just hate hearing that as an answer to your question?
You’re there thinking about a question you’re wanting to ask, and when you finally articulate what you’re wanting to say, the brilliant insight and information you’re expecting is nothing but a lame and disappointing answer like “it depends.”
As a strength coach and nutrition adviser, I probably like responding to questions I’m asked with “it depends” as much as you like hearing it.
But the truth of the matter is, it really does depend. Everything depends on something in this game.
Sometimes I wish there were easy, one size-fits all type answers for the questions I’m asked daily about training and nutrition.
Questions like:
How many calories do you have to eat to lose weight?
Which foods are bad?
Which foods are healthy?
What type of workouts should I do?
When’s the best time to eat?
What’s the best number of reps to do?
How long until I see results?
And literally hundreds more of those type of questions.
As you may have inferred, all of these questions are going to be answered with a “well, it depends,” and I hope you can see why.
With such open ended questions and little information provided along with the question, it’s almost impossible to provide an accurate answer for the unique individual asking the question.
Now the beauty of the “it depends” answer doesn’t come with the answer alone (because it’s such a deflating thing to hear initially), but the information that comes along after.
If you’re truly looking for accurate information, and not some half-assed response to make you feel good or satisfy your quest for info temporarily, your questions about training and nutrition should always be followed up with some questions from the person you are asking.
If you ask a trainer or coach a question about your OWN UNIQUE nutrition and training and you’re met with a cookie cutter simple one sentence answer, then turn around and walk away.
There is no way this person knows enough information about you in a single question like “what’s the best workout for me” to form an accurate response.
Your best answer would be, yup you guessed it: IT DEPENDS.
Before you ask these questions, or any question like them, take a short inventory of yourself and where you are in your own personal fitness journey.
Are you an advanced lifter, or someone just starting out?
Do you have 40 pounds to lose, or 2 pounds to lose?
Are you looking to build muscle, or burn fat?
Take any and all information you know about yourself and use it to build context for the question.
An easy example for the “how many calories to lose weight” question would be something along the lines of:
“I’m a 30 year old male who exercises 3 times a week. I’ve only been training for a few months. I currently weight 210 pounds and would like to lose 30 pounds through diet and weight training. This is what I’m currently eating right now (insert your usual diet) HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD I BE EATING EACH DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT?
Providing such a little bit more information about yourself can allow the person you're asking to give you a hell of a lot more useful information.
We've all got questions, and we all want helpful, useful answers.
So ff you’re looking for the right answers, just remember that they’re going to come from asking the right questions.
You’re there thinking about a question you’re wanting to ask, and when you finally articulate what you’re wanting to say, the brilliant insight and information you’re expecting is nothing but a lame and disappointing answer like “it depends.”
As a strength coach and nutrition adviser, I probably like responding to questions I’m asked with “it depends” as much as you like hearing it.
But the truth of the matter is, it really does depend. Everything depends on something in this game.
Sometimes I wish there were easy, one size-fits all type answers for the questions I’m asked daily about training and nutrition.
Questions like:
How many calories do you have to eat to lose weight?
Which foods are bad?
Which foods are healthy?
What type of workouts should I do?
When’s the best time to eat?
What’s the best number of reps to do?
How long until I see results?
And literally hundreds more of those type of questions.
As you may have inferred, all of these questions are going to be answered with a “well, it depends,” and I hope you can see why.
With such open ended questions and little information provided along with the question, it’s almost impossible to provide an accurate answer for the unique individual asking the question.
Now the beauty of the “it depends” answer doesn’t come with the answer alone (because it’s such a deflating thing to hear initially), but the information that comes along after.
If you’re truly looking for accurate information, and not some half-assed response to make you feel good or satisfy your quest for info temporarily, your questions about training and nutrition should always be followed up with some questions from the person you are asking.
If you ask a trainer or coach a question about your OWN UNIQUE nutrition and training and you’re met with a cookie cutter simple one sentence answer, then turn around and walk away.
There is no way this person knows enough information about you in a single question like “what’s the best workout for me” to form an accurate response.
Your best answer would be, yup you guessed it: IT DEPENDS.
Before you ask these questions, or any question like them, take a short inventory of yourself and where you are in your own personal fitness journey.
Are you an advanced lifter, or someone just starting out?
Do you have 40 pounds to lose, or 2 pounds to lose?
Are you looking to build muscle, or burn fat?
Take any and all information you know about yourself and use it to build context for the question.
An easy example for the “how many calories to lose weight” question would be something along the lines of:
“I’m a 30 year old male who exercises 3 times a week. I’ve only been training for a few months. I currently weight 210 pounds and would like to lose 30 pounds through diet and weight training. This is what I’m currently eating right now (insert your usual diet) HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD I BE EATING EACH DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT?
Providing such a little bit more information about yourself can allow the person you're asking to give you a hell of a lot more useful information.
We've all got questions, and we all want helpful, useful answers.
So ff you’re looking for the right answers, just remember that they’re going to come from asking the right questions.
“John at the bar he’s a friend of mine, he gets me my drinks for free. He’s quick with a joke, and he’ll light up your smoke…”
My favorite line from Billy Joel’s classic “The Piano Man”, mostly because I like to think he’s talking about me.
The rest of that verse ends in “but there’s some place that he’d rather be.”
I prefer to sing my own version and sub in “there’s no place that he’d rather be.”
Over the past year I’ve done my share of bar tending a few evenings a night at a restaurant and a resort, and I can candidly tell you I’ve enjoyed the experience for multiple reasons.
Reasons such as:
It gets me out of the house. Most of my days are spent cooped up indoors sitting in front of the computer doing some writing, working on client programs, and video conferencing and replying to emails.
But more importantly, it’s given me a priceless opportunity to connect with the normal American population.
And by “normal”, I mean people who aren’t immersed in the fitness game. People who usually don’t spend 5+ days in the gym. People who enjoy eating out multiple times a week, and of course, people who enjoy having a few drinks.
For the last 8 years, and possibly longer, my day to day interactions have been with people who do not make up even a small fraction of the population. People like young, fit college kids who get away with eating and drinking almost anything, fitness professionals, and folks at the gym who enjoy spending their time lifting heavy things and putting them down.
Not being exposed to much outside of this perception, I kind of thought these were the kinds of people the world was made up of.
Pretty lame, right?
After slanging drinks for a few weeks and chatting up hundreds of “normal, everyday people”, I realized how much of a priority fitness was, or wasn’t, to people.
I’m not going to sit here and make up some statistic of how many people care about their health and how many don’t for shock value.
But the generalization I can make on the matter is: everybody cares, to some extent.
Really groundbreaking, insightful stuff, right?
Stick with me here.
My favorite line from Billy Joel’s classic “The Piano Man”, mostly because I like to think he’s talking about me.
The rest of that verse ends in “but there’s some place that he’d rather be.”
I prefer to sing my own version and sub in “there’s no place that he’d rather be.”
Over the past year I’ve done my share of bar tending a few evenings a night at a restaurant and a resort, and I can candidly tell you I’ve enjoyed the experience for multiple reasons.
Reasons such as:
It gets me out of the house. Most of my days are spent cooped up indoors sitting in front of the computer doing some writing, working on client programs, and video conferencing and replying to emails.
But more importantly, it’s given me a priceless opportunity to connect with the normal American population.
And by “normal”, I mean people who aren’t immersed in the fitness game. People who usually don’t spend 5+ days in the gym. People who enjoy eating out multiple times a week, and of course, people who enjoy having a few drinks.
For the last 8 years, and possibly longer, my day to day interactions have been with people who do not make up even a small fraction of the population. People like young, fit college kids who get away with eating and drinking almost anything, fitness professionals, and folks at the gym who enjoy spending their time lifting heavy things and putting them down.
Not being exposed to much outside of this perception, I kind of thought these were the kinds of people the world was made up of.
Pretty lame, right?
After slanging drinks for a few weeks and chatting up hundreds of “normal, everyday people”, I realized how much of a priority fitness was, or wasn’t, to people.
I’m not going to sit here and make up some statistic of how many people care about their health and how many don’t for shock value.
But the generalization I can make on the matter is: everybody cares, to some extent.
Really groundbreaking, insightful stuff, right?
Stick with me here.
THEY KNOW WHAT TO DO, BUT THEY DON’T EXECUTE
Just about everybody I would talk to about getting in shape, improving their health, or making changes to get on the right track, always said the same thing.
“I know how to lose weight and get healthy.”
And for the most part, they do know the basics. Get more activity, stop eating so much garbage.
For the average person just looking to drop a few pounds, this is really all they need at first.
Cutting out the sugary drinks, opting for a salad instead of a burger at lunch, and taking the stairs and parking your car a little bit further will make a dramatic difference. Trust me.
These things are easy to do.
Which makes them easy NOT to do.
So most people don’t.
They have the plan. They just fail to execute.
“I know how to lose weight and get healthy.”
And for the most part, they do know the basics. Get more activity, stop eating so much garbage.
For the average person just looking to drop a few pounds, this is really all they need at first.
Cutting out the sugary drinks, opting for a salad instead of a burger at lunch, and taking the stairs and parking your car a little bit further will make a dramatic difference. Trust me.
These things are easy to do.
Which makes them easy NOT to do.
So most people don’t.
They have the plan. They just fail to execute.
MISINFORMATION IS RAMPANT
This one is hands down the most frustrating to me.
Getting your nutrition and fitness advice from mainstream media is not a good idea.
I’m not going to say that all of it is wrong, but most of it is extremely mis-guided and deceptive.
Fad diets like Adkits, Paleo diets, superfood diets, every other flavor of the month plans pushed by celebrities aren’t magical.
Even worse are the “quick fix” solutions to losing weight and improving your health like detox teas, juice cleanses, and super supplements that promote instant health and improved body compositions.
Well its mainstream information, so it has to be correct, right?
No. Not necessarily.
Almost all of the information you might come across on shows like Dr. Oz, Oprah, and on the news and magazines is there to sell you something.
I promise you, somebody is providing skewed data to make a case for whatever is they want to sell.
And unfortunately, this information is everywhere.
If you shout something often enough and loud enough, chances are people will start to believe it.
For the folks looking to improve their health, this isn’t their fault at all.
I mean, what else are they supposed to believe?
It’s hard to find accurate, helpful information. But it’s not impossible.
It takes a little digging and a little effort on your half to go out and find science based information that you can apply to your own life.
But that takes time and effort, something everybody seems to be short on these days.
Which is the perfect segue into the bottom line:
Getting your nutrition and fitness advice from mainstream media is not a good idea.
I’m not going to say that all of it is wrong, but most of it is extremely mis-guided and deceptive.
Fad diets like Adkits, Paleo diets, superfood diets, every other flavor of the month plans pushed by celebrities aren’t magical.
Even worse are the “quick fix” solutions to losing weight and improving your health like detox teas, juice cleanses, and super supplements that promote instant health and improved body compositions.
Well its mainstream information, so it has to be correct, right?
No. Not necessarily.
Almost all of the information you might come across on shows like Dr. Oz, Oprah, and on the news and magazines is there to sell you something.
I promise you, somebody is providing skewed data to make a case for whatever is they want to sell.
And unfortunately, this information is everywhere.
If you shout something often enough and loud enough, chances are people will start to believe it.
For the folks looking to improve their health, this isn’t their fault at all.
I mean, what else are they supposed to believe?
It’s hard to find accurate, helpful information. But it’s not impossible.
It takes a little digging and a little effort on your half to go out and find science based information that you can apply to your own life.
But that takes time and effort, something everybody seems to be short on these days.
Which is the perfect segue into the bottom line:
WE'RE LAZY
We are. Every single one of us. Myself included.
But maybe “lazy” isn’t the proper term here.
Perhaps the better way to put it is we’ve been conditioned to expect instant gratification.
If we don’t see results the day before yesterday, then clearly it’s a waste of time, right?
Society’s advertising and marketing is based on this.
Amazon prime that guarantees delivery by tomorrow. Bank transfers that happen in less than a second. Email confirmations and information that travels at the speed of light.
We expect everything fast.
So when something is placed infront of us that requires just a little bit more time and effort to accomplish, the task seems unworthy of our time and not worth the investment.
Fitness is that task.
It’s been plopped right in your lap, and it’s a problem that’s never going to be solved overnight. Or in a week. Or a year.
It’s a process that will continually take time.
And that seems to be very off-putting, even scary to most people.
This goes back to the previous points made about quick fix diets and detoxes that promise results.
Just NO.
What YOU Can DO
People like to joke that bartenders are the poor man’s counselor and therapist, so here’s me putting on my bartender cap as I sit here at my desk and type this out.
Anytime I’d solicit advice to those who ask, I would never make it a prescription. Just some friendly information that could help these folks get on the right path to taking control of their fitness.
And the same goes for this post here.
The best thing I could ever tell anyone is to BE PATIENT.
Do your homework folks, the RIGHT information is out there. Talk to trainers who have had success with clients. Ask your friends who have made stellar progress over the last few years.
Take it all in and keep an open mind.
Dogmatic practices of “carbs are bad”, “fat is bad”, “vegan is best,” “gluten is the devil”, really don’t have a place in an a well-balanced life.
Trust me, I’ve been there.
But maybe “lazy” isn’t the proper term here.
Perhaps the better way to put it is we’ve been conditioned to expect instant gratification.
If we don’t see results the day before yesterday, then clearly it’s a waste of time, right?
Society’s advertising and marketing is based on this.
Amazon prime that guarantees delivery by tomorrow. Bank transfers that happen in less than a second. Email confirmations and information that travels at the speed of light.
We expect everything fast.
So when something is placed infront of us that requires just a little bit more time and effort to accomplish, the task seems unworthy of our time and not worth the investment.
Fitness is that task.
It’s been plopped right in your lap, and it’s a problem that’s never going to be solved overnight. Or in a week. Or a year.
It’s a process that will continually take time.
And that seems to be very off-putting, even scary to most people.
This goes back to the previous points made about quick fix diets and detoxes that promise results.
Just NO.
What YOU Can DO
People like to joke that bartenders are the poor man’s counselor and therapist, so here’s me putting on my bartender cap as I sit here at my desk and type this out.
Anytime I’d solicit advice to those who ask, I would never make it a prescription. Just some friendly information that could help these folks get on the right path to taking control of their fitness.
And the same goes for this post here.
The best thing I could ever tell anyone is to BE PATIENT.
Do your homework folks, the RIGHT information is out there. Talk to trainers who have had success with clients. Ask your friends who have made stellar progress over the last few years.
Take it all in and keep an open mind.
Dogmatic practices of “carbs are bad”, “fat is bad”, “vegan is best,” “gluten is the devil”, really don’t have a place in an a well-balanced life.
Trust me, I’ve been there.
Balance is key
So if you’re someone who’s just starting out on your fitness journey, it’s imperative to be realistic.
The media might promise you is normal to lose 20 pounds in 2 months thanks to shows like The Biggest Loser and all that other overly-hyped stuff on TV, but real life doesn’t happen like that.
If you have more than 30 pounds to lose to really get fit, just know it’s going to take some time.
Enjoy the process and celebrate the little milestones.
Hell, celebrate the day-to-day victories.
Take pride in your discipline to eat a light salad instead of a huge plate of tacos for lunch, and your decision to take the stairs everyday for a week.
And most importantly, don’t let the process consume you, because you WILL burnout.
I’ve seen it happen so many times, both in myself and in clients.
We expect results to happen so fast and we hit the throttle and ramp up to 100 so fast that when results start to slow (and they will at some point), we get discouraged and fall off the wagon.
Life is more than just looking good, but you HAVE to be healthy in order to enjoy life.
Your health will ultimately come down to how happy you are at home spending time with your friends and family.
This is the stuff that really matters here, folks.
So take it from the bartender; EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY, folks.
But remember to make time for your fitness and continually work towards bettering yourself physically.
Trust the process, be patient, give a damn, and I guarantee you’ll see the results you’re after.
So if you’re someone who’s just starting out on your fitness journey, it’s imperative to be realistic.
The media might promise you is normal to lose 20 pounds in 2 months thanks to shows like The Biggest Loser and all that other overly-hyped stuff on TV, but real life doesn’t happen like that.
If you have more than 30 pounds to lose to really get fit, just know it’s going to take some time.
Enjoy the process and celebrate the little milestones.
Hell, celebrate the day-to-day victories.
Take pride in your discipline to eat a light salad instead of a huge plate of tacos for lunch, and your decision to take the stairs everyday for a week.
And most importantly, don’t let the process consume you, because you WILL burnout.
I’ve seen it happen so many times, both in myself and in clients.
We expect results to happen so fast and we hit the throttle and ramp up to 100 so fast that when results start to slow (and they will at some point), we get discouraged and fall off the wagon.
Life is more than just looking good, but you HAVE to be healthy in order to enjoy life.
Your health will ultimately come down to how happy you are at home spending time with your friends and family.
This is the stuff that really matters here, folks.
So take it from the bartender; EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY, folks.
But remember to make time for your fitness and continually work towards bettering yourself physically.
Trust the process, be patient, give a damn, and I guarantee you’ll see the results you’re after.
Guest Post by Coach David D. Archer, BESS, CPT, CSN, Pn1
Everyone knows a fit chick or gym bro who has made amazing gains over the years. These individuals seem to drop fat or add lean mass more easily than the rest of us. Often we too quickly blame genetics or special supplements that are known to accelerate the fat loss/muscle gaining process.
So, what gives? What’s their secret? Do they eat different foods or have a two-a-day training split? Maybe it’s an unknown training system on which only the elite are bestowed. Seems highly unlikely. The secret is in this simple thing we all have control over. However, only few display mastery. In this article I’m going to shed some light on the most overlooked training system mainstream fitness media consistently misses the mark on and I’m willing to bet it’s not what you think.
Now, consider this. With all the training, nutrition, supplemental strategies ongoing research and sport specific protocols isn’t it possible that there are other aspects that can influence how efficiently we achieve our fitness goals? Let’s look at the field of sport psychology. For decades it has been common knowledge that a trained and resilient mentality can play a significant role in the winning process for any athlete. Heck, even one of the most viewed Saturday morning cartoons of the mid 80’s had it right. “ Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.” - G.I. Joe
Think again on the fit chick or gym bro I alluded to earlier. For many avid fitness enthusiasts the road to glory narrows to a dead end long before we anticipate. The question is why? Why does our potential often end mired in mediocrity? The answer is in the day-to-day details. It’s not magical. It isn’t sexy. It comes down to simple strategy. Nonetheless, I can tell you that training your mental state will allow your mind to grow just as you train your chest or legs to grow. It can be uncomfortable initially but over time you will most certainly see how these positive changes ultimately expedite those gains.
Too many go down this lonely road searching for the lifestyle plus physique combination only training once a day on their physique. While training your body is the most obvious aspect to achieving that ultimate physique and lifestyle you have to remember that it is only one piece of the bigger pie. Your daily routine dictates exactly how successful you will be each week, month and season. Most importantly, it begins the moment you open your eyes in the morning. Practicing the suggested techniques is as critical to reaching your goals as taking the chance when opportunity knocks at the door.
The Handbook of Sports Medicine and Science: Sport Psychology, edited by Britton W. Brewer PhD, suggests that these mental conditioning modalities allow for success in an individuals zone of optimal functioning (IZOF) of course but also planned failures. In a practice setting this can promote the crucial mental strengthening that can prove critical during high-pressure situations.
“ … research has shown that athletes have certain idiosyncratic patterns of emotions that are associated with best performance. When they experience these emotions within an optimal range, superior performance results. However, when athletes or teams are out of their zone of optimal functioning, subpar performance results. “
What does this mean for you? I’m glad you asked. Think of this as fuel for why it is so important for you to check in with yourself first every morning. Find out why you get out of bed and do what you do each day. Further, the text indicates the necessary value of practicing loss prior to an event.
“ For instance, by its very nature, practice has numerous failures and mistakes built into it. An athlete can use these challenges to develop and practice refocusing strategies when frustrated by making mistakes (e.g., take a deep breath and visualize flushing the mistake out of the system, stop negative thoughts, and replace them with more positive ones.) “
So how do you train three times a day? Let’s get right into it. First, entertain these few questions. If you answer yes to any of these questions then there is good news. You have room to grow and the gains will continue to stack up.
“ For instance, by its very nature, practice has numerous failures and mistakes built into it. An athlete can use these challenges to develop and practice refocusing strategies when frustrated by making mistakes (e.g., take a deep breath and visualize flushing the mistake out of the system, stop negative thoughts, and replace them with more positive ones.) “
So how do you train three times a day? Let’s get right into it. First, entertain these few questions. If you answer yes to any of these questions then there is good news. You have room to grow and the gains will continue to stack up.
- Do you often feel like you are drifting through this fitness journey with no definitive direction?
- Do you go after what others say is best for you?
- Over time has your progress been good but not great?
- Despite your fitness successes do you somehow continue to feel unhappy?
- Have you noticed a lack of grit and frequently search for inspiration from external sources such as music, motivational videos, movies, others’ fitness stories, etc.?
It’s all about the process.
You’ve got to give yourself permission to go through the rhythms of each day before you can expect to see what will ultimately yield the best result possible. Below you will see a rudimentary outline of some of these modalities listed. Get a pen and paper. Put your mobile device down, texting notes into your memo app simply will not make the connection here. You’ve got to write it down.
Okay, ready? Are you committed? Good. Here it is. My simple 3 step process to help you maximize those gains by training three times per day.
Okay, ready? Are you committed? Good. Here it is. My simple 3 step process to help you maximize those gains by training three times per day.
Here is what training three times a day looks like.
Session One: Get your mental lift on.
(NO EMAIL, TEXT OR SOCIAL MEDIA. The world can wait!)
Session Two: Peak your physique
Session Three: Good night gratitude
(NO EMAIL, TEXT OR SOCIAL MEDIA. The world can wait!)
- Answer your why?
- What lights your fire and how can you catch it today?
- Devise a plan (Daily optimization sheet or list of action items)
Session Two: Peak your physique
- What do you train for?
- Have your plan in mind or handy if you need to look at it.
- Leave no room for doubt that you did what was needed.
Session Three: Good night gratitude
- Did you fulfill or come closer to your best self today?
- Say goodbye to the day and let go of any unfinished work.
- What are you thankful for (express that anyway that feels right)
My challenge to you is this. Put this simple strategy into practice. Give yourself permission to be part of the process. If you can do this each week then I can promise you that it will change the way your perceive your fitness journey for the rest of your life. Best wishes!
About the Author
A former collegiate athlete and lover of all things creative, David has a fervent passion for a health-centric approach to nutrition, training and mental conditioning. Having seen too many bikini and bodybuilding competitors suffer from the poor guidance of show-centric cookie cutter diet and training systems, David made it his mission to show stage athletes and avid fitness enthusiasts that the way to achieve the elite physique doesn’t come just through focusing on the physique. As a contest prep specialist, David relies on evidence based strategies that have allowed more than 91% of his athletes to place top 5 in all competitions and keep their health intact.
“Booty, booty, booty, rockin’ everywhere!”
I think this expression accurately sums up what society is all about right now.
Everyone’s all about the booty right now, in every capacity imaginable.
If you don’t believe me, get on your Instagram and tell me what you’re looking it.
I can guarantee you one of the first things you’ll see is some chick posing in a picture that’s focused entirely on her scantily clad bottom half with a caption that reads, “OMG You guys! Check out this amazing new phone case I got!”
And we’re all like, “calm down chick, you just wanna show off those well-developed glutes you got..which are actually quite nice. Damn. Good job.”
The point here is: Butts are big right now. ::Pun intended::
Never before have I seen so many women take an interest in weight lifting to get in shape, become healthy, and acquire a shapely bottom half that brings all the boys to the yard.
And I couldn’t be happier for multiple reasons.
I think this expression accurately sums up what society is all about right now.
Everyone’s all about the booty right now, in every capacity imaginable.
If you don’t believe me, get on your Instagram and tell me what you’re looking it.
I can guarantee you one of the first things you’ll see is some chick posing in a picture that’s focused entirely on her scantily clad bottom half with a caption that reads, “OMG You guys! Check out this amazing new phone case I got!”
And we’re all like, “calm down chick, you just wanna show off those well-developed glutes you got..which are actually quite nice. Damn. Good job.”
The point here is: Butts are big right now. ::Pun intended::
Never before have I seen so many women take an interest in weight lifting to get in shape, become healthy, and acquire a shapely bottom half that brings all the boys to the yard.
And I couldn’t be happier for multiple reasons.
A reason such as…I’m a guy.
A second reason, is I like seeing women take control of their health and fitness by taking to the weights.
Girls are finally understanding the notion that lifting weights won’t make you “bulky, manly, or huge”, but instead will make them leaner, more toned, and help develop a more feminine physique.
I know it’s sometimes hard for women to find accurate and helpful information on weight training.
Women are not just versions of “little men” and therefore should not train like men. Yes, there is some carry-over from men’s training methods, but women are WOMEN, and should be training to accentuate their assets. ::another lame pun::
So for all you ladies taking to the squat racks, and those who want to start developing some glutes you can be proud of, this one’s for you.
This article will be a straight forward, all-you-need-to-know breakdown for building an impressive bottom half and how to make some apple bottom gains in the gym.
A second reason, is I like seeing women take control of their health and fitness by taking to the weights.
Girls are finally understanding the notion that lifting weights won’t make you “bulky, manly, or huge”, but instead will make them leaner, more toned, and help develop a more feminine physique.
I know it’s sometimes hard for women to find accurate and helpful information on weight training.
Women are not just versions of “little men” and therefore should not train like men. Yes, there is some carry-over from men’s training methods, but women are WOMEN, and should be training to accentuate their assets. ::another lame pun::
So for all you ladies taking to the squat racks, and those who want to start developing some glutes you can be proud of, this one’s for you.
This article will be a straight forward, all-you-need-to-know breakdown for building an impressive bottom half and how to make some apple bottom gains in the gym.
GLUTE TRAINING
Weight lifting can seem quite intimidating and challenging at first, especially for those who haven’t spent much time under a barbell doing squats.
Before we get into some of the details, here’s what’s going to be covered.
So let’s get into it.
Weight lifting can seem quite intimidating and challenging at first, especially for those who haven’t spent much time under a barbell doing squats.
Before we get into some of the details, here’s what’s going to be covered.
- Exercise Selction- which exercises work best for developing great glutes
- Exercise Technique-how to perform the movements to get the most out of them
- Rep Ranges- How many reps you should be doing for optimal results
- Volume Ranges- How many sets you should be doing for optimal results
- Frequencies- How often you should train your glutes
- Progression- Increases in strength should be considered
- Prioritizing Glutes
- Nutrition For Glutes
So let’s get into it.
Exercise Selection
I think right now, we all know squats are important. And they are. Almost all of the stimulus needed to develop glutes will come from doing deep squats. Squatting is a very natural movement, but might take some time to fully feel comfortable with added weight. The major key to making sure you’re getting the most out of your squats is to use a weight that’s manageable and go as low as you can to feel a stretch in your glutes.
Here’s a short list of other glute-oriented exercises that SHOULD be done along with squats.
If you’re unfamiliar with what these exercises are or how to perform them properly, make use of the Google Machines to find out a little bit more.
I think right now, we all know squats are important. And they are. Almost all of the stimulus needed to develop glutes will come from doing deep squats. Squatting is a very natural movement, but might take some time to fully feel comfortable with added weight. The major key to making sure you’re getting the most out of your squats is to use a weight that’s manageable and go as low as you can to feel a stretch in your glutes.
Here’s a short list of other glute-oriented exercises that SHOULD be done along with squats.
If you’re unfamiliar with what these exercises are or how to perform them properly, make use of the Google Machines to find out a little bit more.
Lunges (barbell behind the neck or holding dumbbells to the side)
Glute Bridges
Sumo Squats
Sumo Deadlifts
Glute Machine Kickbacks
Glute-Ham Raises
Images from bodybuilding.com
Exercise Technique
To get the most bang for your buck on these movements, especially squats and deadlifts, you want to go AS LOW AS POSSIBLE. This is because the glutes get the most activation and stimulus at the bottom of the movement. For the other movements mentioned, always be sure to go through the full range of motion and get a good squeeze and contraction at the top for a split second. You really want to feel the glutes working, and not just feel like you’re heaving weight around.
To get the most bang for your buck on these movements, especially squats and deadlifts, you want to go AS LOW AS POSSIBLE. This is because the glutes get the most activation and stimulus at the bottom of the movement. For the other movements mentioned, always be sure to go through the full range of motion and get a good squeeze and contraction at the top for a split second. You really want to feel the glutes working, and not just feel like you’re heaving weight around.
Rep Ranges
6-15 reps per set is going to be your sweet spot. This recommendation is not an absolute, but seems to work best for most trainees. Your heavier sets should be towards the lower end while lighter sets should be towards the higher end. While lifting heavier weights is important, it’s not the end game we’re looking for here. We want to maximize activation in the glutes to get them to grow (known as hypertrophy) and this works best with this rep range.
6-15 reps per set is going to be your sweet spot. This recommendation is not an absolute, but seems to work best for most trainees. Your heavier sets should be towards the lower end while lighter sets should be towards the higher end. While lifting heavier weights is important, it’s not the end game we’re looking for here. We want to maximize activation in the glutes to get them to grow (known as hypertrophy) and this works best with this rep range.
Training Frequency
Your butt is big. Even if it’s not, it is. And what I mean by this is it’s a large muscle group and needs some time to recover between workouts. The glutes comprise a large part of your lower body and are used extensively when you’re not sitting on them. They’re being used with every step you take during the day, as well as being activated in other exercises like when training your back or during other body part sessions. The best recommendation for DIRECT glue training (using the exercises mentioned above) is usually 2 or 3 times a week. But lucky for you ladies- you all seem to respond quite well to leg training and recover quicker than guys, so you all can get away with training them a bit more often.
Your butt is big. Even if it’s not, it is. And what I mean by this is it’s a large muscle group and needs some time to recover between workouts. The glutes comprise a large part of your lower body and are used extensively when you’re not sitting on them. They’re being used with every step you take during the day, as well as being activated in other exercises like when training your back or during other body part sessions. The best recommendation for DIRECT glue training (using the exercises mentioned above) is usually 2 or 3 times a week. But lucky for you ladies- you all seem to respond quite well to leg training and recover quicker than guys, so you all can get away with training them a bit more often.
Total Volume
Your training volume is the total amount of work you’re doing for a body part over the course of time; a week in this instance. 10 to 15 TOTAL sets for EACH exercise will be more than adequate. So if you’re hitting squats 3 times per week, 5 sets of squats per workout would be plenty. So however you choose to split up your workout routine, keep in mind your total overall volume for each exercise. More is not better here. Better is better, so remember to focus on technique and use proper rep ranges.
Your training volume is the total amount of work you’re doing for a body part over the course of time; a week in this instance. 10 to 15 TOTAL sets for EACH exercise will be more than adequate. So if you’re hitting squats 3 times per week, 5 sets of squats per workout would be plenty. So however you choose to split up your workout routine, keep in mind your total overall volume for each exercise. More is not better here. Better is better, so remember to focus on technique and use proper rep ranges.
Progression
Making progress in the gym by adding more weight to your exercises is PARAMOUNT. This is how you’ll start seeing changes in your body. If you start squatting and you never increase your weights or the amount of reps you’re doing, you won’t grow (and if you’re not eating enough). If you’re new to weight training, you’ll be surprised at how fast you make progress. For exercises like squats and deadlifts, you should aim to add 5-20 pounds (depending on your progress) to your exercises each week within the sweet spot rep ranges of 6-15. Don’t be afraid to push yourself here, ladies. I guarantee you’ll surprise yourself at how much you can actually accomplish.
Making progress in the gym by adding more weight to your exercises is PARAMOUNT. This is how you’ll start seeing changes in your body. If you start squatting and you never increase your weights or the amount of reps you’re doing, you won’t grow (and if you’re not eating enough). If you’re new to weight training, you’ll be surprised at how fast you make progress. For exercises like squats and deadlifts, you should aim to add 5-20 pounds (depending on your progress) to your exercises each week within the sweet spot rep ranges of 6-15. Don’t be afraid to push yourself here, ladies. I guarantee you’ll surprise yourself at how much you can actually accomplish.
Prioritizing Glutes
You’re reading this because you want a great butt. You know it. I Know it. Instagram knows it. Be sure to make glutes a high priority muscle part if you haven’t already done so. Everyone is different, so some girls can train glutes once a week and make crazy gains, while others might need to work a little hard and apply some more direct glute work. IF your glutes become too dominant (can this even be a bad thing?) in your physique, reduce the frequency and amount of volume you’re doing in the week and focus more on hamstrings, quads, and your upper body to balance out our physique. Believe me when I say balance is key and you do not want overly dominant glutes that take away from the rest of your lower body. With time you’ll see which approaches work for you to develop a toned, sleek, and developed lower half.
Eating for Booty Gains
You didn’t think I’d wrap this up without a lil’ sum-sum on nutrition, did you? This is where girls tend to run into a lot of confusion, or see stalls in their progress. If you’re someone who is brand new to weight training, your body will respond very quickly and you’ll start seeing gains relatively easily without changes in your diet. For you other girls who have been training for a while and are still looking to improve your booty gains, read this carefully- If you want your butt to grow, you’re going to have to eat. Lean body mass like muscle just doesn’t appear out of nowhere, even if you are working out properly. Gains are built on a calorie surplus. The key here is to keep your surplus light and not go overboard. For most females, eating a bit more protein or supplementing with protein shakes will be extremely beneficial. A few extra Carbohydrates will also be beneficial to fuel your training intensity and fill out of your muscle. If you’re not into tracking macros or counting calories, that’s perfectly fine, as long as you’re not going off the deep end with pizza and margaritas and making smart food choices, your slight calorie surplus should be enough to increase lean muscle mass while minimizing or preventing any increases in body fat. And girls, don’t be scared of a little body fat. If you’re lifting weights, small increases in body fat will add to your curves and accentuate your figure in all the right places ;-)
You didn’t think I’d wrap this up without a lil’ sum-sum on nutrition, did you? This is where girls tend to run into a lot of confusion, or see stalls in their progress. If you’re someone who is brand new to weight training, your body will respond very quickly and you’ll start seeing gains relatively easily without changes in your diet. For you other girls who have been training for a while and are still looking to improve your booty gains, read this carefully- If you want your butt to grow, you’re going to have to eat. Lean body mass like muscle just doesn’t appear out of nowhere, even if you are working out properly. Gains are built on a calorie surplus. The key here is to keep your surplus light and not go overboard. For most females, eating a bit more protein or supplementing with protein shakes will be extremely beneficial. A few extra Carbohydrates will also be beneficial to fuel your training intensity and fill out of your muscle. If you’re not into tracking macros or counting calories, that’s perfectly fine, as long as you’re not going off the deep end with pizza and margaritas and making smart food choices, your slight calorie surplus should be enough to increase lean muscle mass while minimizing or preventing any increases in body fat. And girls, don’t be scared of a little body fat. If you’re lifting weights, small increases in body fat will add to your curves and accentuate your figure in all the right places ;-)
