How to shop like a Savage (Budget Style)

Maybe this is kind of a random post, but it's my blog and I can do what I want!

It seems like more people than I would expect have a tough time with grocery shopping. It's a "skill" I've had for a long time, so I guess I always took it for granted. Sure, everybody knows how to go to the store and pick stuff up and pay for it; some people even know how to cook! But, it seems that meal planning and shopping is more of an art than a science. Today, I'm going to outline my meal plan for the week and what I bought at the grocery store.

I usually spread my shopping between 2-3 stores: Shaws, Trader Joes, and Whole Paycheck. I spend the least amount of time at Whole Paycheck, because I just can't afford to pay $17.99/pound for organic apples. I buy all of my "big stuff" at Shaws/Stop and Shop just because of the pricing. Trader Joe's is where I head for a few small thing each week; I don't always love their produce and I don't think the pricing on their meat is competitive with the bigger stores.

Without further ado, here is what I bought at Shaw's this week:

4 Packages of Baby Spinach @ $2.99 each
1 Sweet Vidalia Onion @ $1.01
1 Red Pepper @ $2.54
5 Gala Apples @ $5.27
6 Bananas @ $1.95
1.83 pounds of ground beef @ $8.03 ($3 coupon too!)
4.79 pounds of pork cutlets @ $10.97
1 package of bacon @ $3.99
1 gallon of whole milk @ $4.29 (I have a little over 1/2 a gallon in the fridge already.)
2 dozen large brown eggs @ $4.58 (2.29 each)
3 Larabar's @ $1.79 each
1 can of organic pinto beans @ $1.29


Total = $58.25 (with a total of $12.81 in savings with my Shaw's card)

Later, I'll go to Trader Joe's and buy some packages of trail mix, cheese sticks, and chipotle hummus, as well. This will add another $10 or so to my total.

All of this food will translate into meals in this way: The eggs and bacon (plus ham I have in the fridge) will become up to 4 breakfasts (the eggs will be 4 meals, the bacon will last for 2). The Ground beef, onion, pepper and beans (plus garlic, sweet potato, and the aforementioned hummus) will get stir-fried and become a few lunches/post-workout meals. The pork and the baby spinach will get turned into 4 dinners for the week. The apples, bananas, Larabars, cheese sticks and trail mix will join some Metabolic Drive protein shakes (made with the whole milk) as "snacks" whenever needed during the week.

All in all, this is a really good week of shopping for me. The big win for this week is that I'll be eating a leafy green every night for dinner. This is one of those things that I know I'm supposed to do, but always have a tough time doing. If my choice is between spinach or more meat, I usually opt for more meat. So, for the grand total of about $70, I'm able to get 12-15 meals and snacks for the week. Keep in mind, my meals are twice the size of a normal person, and that my snacks usually get up to about 600+ calories.

Shopping isn't so hard; take a look at my list and see how you can tailor it for your needs. I try to keep my grocery shopping costs on the "low" side of things (I could easily spend at least a hundred bucks each week). If you're on a different kind of budget, you may have to alter a few things. I am, in no way, suggesting that my diet is perfect; but it's what works for me. Just make sure you're aware of the meals you NEED to eat each week, and you'll have a good idea of how much food you will really need to buy. Don't over-buy, either; everything I purchased is 100% going to get eaten.

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't wish a happy Valentine's Day to everyone reading. While this may not be my favorite "holiday", it's a good time to tell someone you love them. Love is a rare and special thing, if you really feel that way about someone you should let them know. Even if you know they won't return the sentiment, I think it's always worth telling someone; what if you never got the chance again?

Have a great day everyone, make it a win! Go lift something heavy!

Win Every Play

I recently read something (I actually can't find the source) where Jim Wendler talked about his days playing college football. He said that one of the best pieces of advice he could provide his team with was to forget about winning the game, but to focus on winning each play. If you win each play, the culmination of the efforts will result in a win. Makes total sense, right?

This is something I found that I can apply to my life. I know what my goals in life are, but no matter what I do I can't speed up the process that will get me there. Each day will add up to a week, each week to a month, and each month to a year. I need to focus on winning each day, week and month. If I can gather up more wins in that time frame than losses, I'll have had a successful year.

What "wins" am I referring to? Anything, it doesn't matter. Each day is filled with dozens of little challenges. If I choose to make a healthy breakfast instead of going to Dunks, that's a win. If I can ingest my 200+ grams of protein in a day, that's a win. Every day with a workout is a win. Avoiding people who raise my stress level and spending time with people who make me happy are both wins. Choosing to do something that will make someone else's life a little bit better, that's a huge win.

I can't constantly worry about all of my big-picture / long-term stuff. There is not one single thing I can do right now that will make any of those things happen, some stuff is just out of my control. I can't do something today that will guarantee me the career that I want, the love that I want or the life that I want. I have to take each day as it comes and trust that everything I do will work towards a better future for myself.

What will you do today to start setting yourself up for the big win?

Strong is the new Sexy

I had an epiphany the other night. No, it wasn't just that strong is sexy; I've been aware of that for a while. We all know that women who lift are hot.

I know a lot of people who "work out". I know very few people who train; people who get after it with a purpose and a plan. Two of the women I know who train with a passion (incidentally both current/former Crossfitters) are also the two women I know who I would say have the closest to ideal bodies. They have both spent several years training heavy with compound movements (squats, deadlifts, presses, snatches, cleans) and have achieved pretty respectable strength levels, as well as achieving pretty low body fat percentages through proper nutrition. They also are the only two women I know who never complain about their bodies. I've never heard either one of them complain about their weight, or the size of their calves, or their arms being too bulky for their shirt. The two of them ooze confidence because they know they are strong, capable and sexy.

I had this epiphany when talking to a female friend about training. She kept insisting that she didn't want to get big and bulky (ugh). (Note: TG said the other day that "not lifting so you won't get big and bulky is akin to me saying 'I don't want to sprint today because I don't want to win the 100M gold medal next week'"!! Epic) I showed her a picture of one of my friends who trains (she was doing a rope climb) and she insisted that she looked "too muscular". I nearly reached through the computer to shake her. Here is a woman putting on an amazing display of total body strength and skill by climbing up a rope, and someone else feels the need to judge? Not only that, but the one with the long list of goals is the one judging? Is this bizarro world?

Yes, I know its an upside-down femur. Relax, it's funny!

Isn't todays world all about empowering women to do more? Aren't we supposed to be all about breaking down gender barriers, and "allowing" women to do anything men can do? Why try and knock down a woman has achieved something, then? The F'd up ideals of beauty that society has provided have taken such a strong hold that we can't appreciate the dedication and hard-work that it took a person to get to where they are physically. The funniest thing is that while this girl is sitting here judging another female on her muscularity, 9.5 out of 10 guys would walk by either of my friends on the street and trip over their tongue on the way by. Interesting that the two women who participate in heavy weight training are completely comfortable with their bodies and are free of any insecurities or food disorders.

Enough of this, go lift something heavy. Set a PR today. Eat meat. Be happy!

The Quest for 200

So, as is customary for me, I have a constantly changing set of goals. Other goals continue to stay the same, but I keep adding little things to my list.

All of my goals, thankfully, lend themselves to similar paths of achievement. It's not like I will have to change my whole style of training in order to achieve any of these goals. My current list of strength related goals all stay the same, with a minor difference. I want to attain and maintain a bodyweight of 200 pounds. Currently, I hold steady at 196-197 and easily fluctuate up to 198. I haven't seen my weight drop below 196 in quite some time. The second half of this goal is that I want to get down to, approximately, 8% body fat for the summer time. This will be tough to do, 8% is pretty low. I'm really interested to see what I look like under 10%, and summertime is the time to do it, right?

I know that in order to get to 200, I just need to eat big and lift big. I've been feeding myself a steady diet of huge amounts of food mixed with lots of heavy lifting. Beef, cheese,  eggs, milk, eggs, potatoes, rice, protein, more milk, peanut butter; these are what my days consist of, and it is beautiful. My training partner, Dan, and I have also been subsisting on lots of heavy compound lifts. We decided that the percentage based 5/3/1 programs we both started just weren't going to cut it. The variability of our schedules and how we felt day to day just wasn't going to be a great mix with the percentages. Instead, we are adopting a very simple auto-regulated style of program. We will stick a particular rep scheme week-by-week but will allow ourselves to us whatever weights feel appropriate for that day (while keeping a constant progression in mind). Squats, deads, bench pressing and push pressing are going to be our main lifts.

The other piece of my puzzle is our new-found interest in metabolic conditioning. In an attempt to learn more and better understand CrossFit, we have started to work met-con's into our weekly routines. Once, twice or three times a week we are performing actual CrossFit workouts or similar, highly metabolic, workouts. I am also going to try and get better at rowing on the erg, since my currently I row like old people screw (it's gross). These metabolic conditioning workouts is going to play a big role in my ability to get down to 8% body fat. In terms of the body composition goal, I'm not so concerned about my diet. There are a few carb sources I'll need to cut out, or figure out a better time to eat them, but all in all my diet is what I need. I will, though, be putting some thought towards doing 6 weeks of the Paleo diet leading up to the summer.

Well, that's my update for now. Have a great day, and please go lift something heavy!

UPDATE: I wrote this post sometime last week. As of today, I weighed in at 201 pounds!! This is a fluctuation, and I certainly will bounce back and forth around 200 before it is a solid weight for me. I also hit two PR's (personal records) this week: a 415 pound deadlift and a 200 pound push press. Thrilled!!

Training is fun!

This past Friday, some co-workers and I headed up to Total Performance Sports in Everett, MA for some shits and giggles.

This was my first trip to this gym, and it was a sight to behold. Immediately upon walking in, I got a warm fuzzy feeling; like I was supposed to be there. We strolled around the gym taking it all in, and there was a lot to take in. Over here are elevated lifting platforms, here are our EliteFTS Collegiate Power Rack. There are the atlas stones and some strongman logs. 50 yard turf strip with Prowlers and drag sleds. Every specialty bar you could think of (my first time ever actually seeing a buffalo bar). Farmers walk handles, rickshaws and yokes. Chains, bands (wow, a gym that doesn't make their trainers buy their own bands!), GHR's. That? Oh, no big deal, just two EliteFTS monolifts. They have every single toy that a person could want or need to get bigger, faster, stronger or leaner.

We were there for the strongman equipment, and it was easy to find. The atlas stones were first on our list and the set-up was pretty cool. The stones we found were on a platform that was really just about a foot of rubber mats, so that when you dropped the stones it wasn't too loud (still pretty goddamn loud though). The three stones inside were, I think, 118 lbs, 160 lbs and 230 lbs. This was my first time doing the stones, so my "technique" was sub-optimal. Man Strength was used to lift 118, and 160 took a little bit of muscling around. 230 was a bear and I couldn't get the stone into my lap. Two of the guys with us had experience with stones, so we went to look for heavier ones. We were directed out back to the shed where there was more equipment.

That's right. This gym sent us outside to an un-monitored shed that was filled with atlas stones, tires, farmers walk handles, Prowlers, bars and plates; all intended to be used in the parking lot. This was such a foreign feeling to me. I've spent so much time in my cushy commercial gym lately, where the manager was hesitant to even get kettlebells (an implement he admits to being unfamiliar with) for fear that a member would hurt themselves with them. Yup, you read that correctly. FML.

We quickly got some tunes going in there, affording my coworker the ability to dance to keep her body-temp up, and sorted through the 15 or so stones to find the ones we could use. We played around with them for a while, working on speed and technique with some "light" stones. I believe the heaviest that I was able to get to my chest was 200 pounds. One of the guy's with us proceeded to mash his finger between a stone and the platform, scraping off a LOT of skin. He went inside to get it cleaned up, and the employee's only asked us to make sure we cleaned up any blood. That's right, no one freaked out and told us to stop for fear that we would sue. Just rub some dirt on it and clean up the blood.

When we finished with the stones we moved on to some farmers walks. Lately, loaded carries have been one of my favorite things to do, both with myself and with clients. I think our first walk was about 150 feet with maybe 260 pounds? We went through that twice. We then almost doubled the weight, and cut the distance by half. Dan and I were now doing our carries with, if my math is correct, 500 total pounds. The girls were doing theirs with 275. This weight was actually more than I have ever even deadlifted before. My first attempt to lift it resulted in no movement. I laughed for a second and then was reminded to stop being a pussy. I got serious and completed the lift and the walk, twice.

Covered in smiles and chalk, our crew went inside and spent some time doing log clean-and-presses. This was a pretty easy lift for me to learn, and I worked up to the log + 90 pounds for a few sets of triples. I have no idea what the log weighed, I just lifted it.

To finish up, we used my favorite thing in the world, the Prowler. Dan and I loaded up 270 on the push sled, and 135 (plus our coworker, Jen) on the drag sled. We pushed down and back, and then dragged down and back twice, with ample rest between each set. To say that my quads were blown after this would be the understatement of the century. As we laid around and recovered for a few minutes, I did something foolish and did a half-assed rope climb with my feet on the floor; intended to demonstrate how we could use a rope with our clients at the gym. This spawned a Man Challenge, of course. First was a rope climb from a seated position, then we did a double-rope climb, jumping your grip rather than going hand-over-hand. This is the kind of stupid stuff that competitive people do for no good reason.

All in all, this was one of the most fun workouts I've had in many moons. There was not enough food in the world to go into my body that night, nor enough sleep. I took a nap a few hours after finishing the workout and I woke up already sore. I'm writing this post on Sunday (worked out on Friday) and the soreness I'm experiencing is remarkable. My traps, mid-back and delts are just absolutely smoked. My forearms are covered in abrasions from the stones. My triceps shake when I try to support my own body-weight. I can't wait to do it again.

Try something new. Find a gym near you that has this kind of stuff, start slow but challenge yourself. Lifting heavy shit can be a load of fun!

The Weight Room Disease

There is something going around the weight rooms in this country, and it's bad. It's contagious, its prevalent and it is most certainly present in the gym you're lifting in.

It's weakness. More and more people are showing up in todays commercial gym facilities and just being ok with mediocrity. People today aren't going to the gym to get better, they are going to satisfy some asinine idea that they are supposed to be there. People walk into the facility and seem to think that just being there is going to do something to change their body or their health. The fact that you have to put in the hard work seems to escape people.

How is weakness contagious? If everybody else in the weight room is doing bicep curls and triceps kickbacks, chances are you won't find a gym buddy to help push you. Hell, weakness is so contagious that some gyms have even outlawed doing squats or deadlifts, two of the basic human movement patterns. If you don't know what you're doing in the gym, you probably won't find that role model that many of us had in our younger lifting days; the person who put you on the track to being a Savage. You'll settle for what everyone else is doing, and that sucks. What everyone else is doing obviously isn't working, since our obesity epidemic gets worse and worse with every passing year.

As a country, we have become accepting of sub-par performances. Every kid at tee-ball gets a "participation trophy". Young athletes that are too good are banned from scoring. A high school soccer team celebrates with a dance and has to forfeit the rest of their playoff's. Locally, a Boston high school football player was penalized for raising his hand during a touchdown run, which cost his team the state championship. Mediocrity has become the norm, and we punish those who are so bold as to revel in their success. This pussification of the country has extended into the way we train. The lunk alarm at Planet Fitness has reached  the status of lore. Yup, we even have a gym that prevents people from training (what they deem) to be too hard. Not only that, but they give out free pizza to their members every Friday. I guess that's not so bad because pizza is now considered a vegetable. 

What happened to us? When did it become ok to let your body become a pile of silly putty just so you could try and make more money? Is it really worth spending 60 hours a week at a desk, doing nearly irreparable damage to your body? When did strength become something that only certain people needed? It's one of our basic needs as human. Our ancestors relied on both their brains and their strength in order to succeed. Now more and more people rely on their brains to make a living, so we let our bodies go to shit?

Those people who do go to the gym have their focus on completely asinine ideas of what they want to look like, which is the complete opposite of what the opposite-sex wants. Women think they want to look like frail, skinny-fat super models. Men want women to look like Allison Stokke.

The StokkeShow

Guys in the gym train like they want to look like Ronnie Coleman (oodles of anabolics) or Tyler Durden (basically anorexic), but women want guys who look like Ryan Reynolds in Blade Trinity.

Jeez, dude.

The funny thing is that nobody trains the way that will get them to ANY of these goals, much less their ideal one, and everybody eats like shit. So many people are out there trying to make a buck that we have the whole nation confused. Oxygen, Self, Shape, and Muscle & Fitness shouldn't be your primary exercise resource. Mens and Womens Health, and even Mens Fitness, are close to getting it right, but are still magazines trying to make a buck. 

Keep it simple, folks. Use compound movements that let you lift a lot of weight. Do mobility and flexibility work a few times a week. Keep your bouts of cardio short and intense; use interval training. Get out of your big bulky shoes and get something lightweight and flat. For Christ's sake eat like an adult. Ditch the sugar and processed stuff as much as you can. Learn to cook real food. Lean Cuisine chicken and broccoli is not the equivalent of the same meal cooked by you. You work hard in the office, work hard in the gym. You want to be around to enjoy all that money you're making, right? Why complicate things? Go lift something heavy.

Things I Like

There are a handful of things that I think are necessities for anyone trying to get into better shape. Whether your goal is fat loss, strength gains or simply looking better naked, there are certain tools that will help you get those results more efficiently. What's that you say? What are those tools? Great question!! I took the liberty of compiling a small list for you!

1) A nice solid foam roller. I got a high density 12" roller from Perform Better 3 years ago and it still works perfectly. It hasn't gotten squishy despite heavy usage, and it still makes my IT Band scream. This tool can go with you anywhere and is always useful. Ideally used pre-workout, it's also useful on a day off from the gym when you are at home. You can't underestimate the importance of soft tissue quality!

2) Metabolic Drive Low-Carb from Biotest. This is a great protein supplement that is trusted by many industry professionals. Biotest did a fantastic job making a protein supplement that tastes great and isn't filled with sugars and crap that just add empty calories in the guise of "weight gain". Trainees need to understand that protein supplementation is not just for guys trying to get hyooge. Proper amounts of protein (and carbs and fat, for that matter) play a big role in being able to achieve your body composition goals (more muscle, less fat). 

3) Resistance Bands from Elite FTS. These can come in handy for a thousand different reasons! The original use for superbands was for stretching; there are a ton of mobility and flexibility drills to do with them that can really help you unlock your potential. They are also great for rehab/prehab exercises for your hips, shoulders, thoracic spine and ankles. The most badass way to use them, though, is for accommodating resistance: attaching them to a barbell to change the strength curve. There are two ways to use them (band resisted or band assisted) but the idea stays the same. You change the way a weight feels during one portion of the lift. Example: a band resisted squat. In the hole, the weight will feel like whatever is on the bar (lets' say 225). At the top of the lift, when the bands are stretched, you'll feel the weight of the bar plus the pull of the bands. As the band stretches more, the weight feels heavier. What feels like 225 in the hole could feel like 325 at the top. It's a great way to learn how to accelerate a bar through a lift. It's a fairly advanced technique, but can be useful for many people.

4) The Show and Go Training program by Eric Cressey. I was fortunate enough to be a guinea pig for this program when EC was still fine tuning it. I experienced some pretty good results with it, and I'm confident that just about anybody could see results from it. I added 10 lbs to my body and was able to see my abs. I also added 50 lbs to my deadlift in 4 months. The big benefit to this program is the balance,  Eric is a master at creating balance out of imbalance and this program showcases that ability. Having someone else write a program for you means that you can't skip doing the shit that you hate. Eric works in variations of lifts that you may be awful at. He programs in plenty of mobility filler exercises, so you can make good use of your rest periods. Speed work. A high pull:push ratio. Everything you can think of, this program attacks. If you're a beginner wanting to get into great shape, Show and Go will help. If you've been in the gym for a while and hit some plateaus, Show and Go will help you break them. If you're an athlete getting ready for a season, Show and Go will help bulletproof your body. I highly recommend it!

5) The website liftbigeatbig.com! Gasp! It's a CrossFit blog! Now ask me if I give a damn? The guy who writes it provides some fantastic knowledge about weight training, and is a big supporter of women training properly. He is also a big fan of eating large quantities of real foods like beef, milk and cheese. My kind of guy. It's a great place to go and learn some things about aspects of training you might not be familiar with. LBEB also has an awesome store where they sell some really quality t-shirts and hoodies. I've already bought one for myself and for a friend!

That's a decent little list to get you going. Check some of them out, and see if you can add any of them into your own training. In the meantime, go lift some heavy shit!

Perfection?

I know that I'll never be perfect, but that doesn't mean that I will stop striving for it.

The strength and conditioning world is all about recognizing your flaws, and then formulating the best ways to fix them. Recognizing your flaws as a person is very important, its how we grow. But are we really able to fix all of our flaws? At what point do we say "ok, this is good enough as it is"? We (I) can drive myself crazy trying to fix all of my flaws. In my recent quest for self-improvement I have become hyper-aware of my flaws. Should I just accept them all? Tell myself that some of them are just personality traits that I'm stuck with?

To be honest, I'm unsure where to draw the line. I try to make the best out of every day, but some of these "flaws" are too big for me to ignore. I know they are things that will be self-correcting in time, but I wish they were things that didn't have such a big impact on my life. 

I try and stay positive, but it's hard. One of the good things about my job is that I need to stay positive for my clients, and it carries over to myself. I love what I do, my family is fantastic and supportive, I have clear goals and I know how I need to go about achieving them. I have a roof over my head and food to eat. All in all, things are pretty good. 

So, what is perfection? Is it having no flaws, or is it knowing how to best deal with the ones you have?

A Call to Arms!

Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter. Start doing and believing in the stuff that works, and do it today and forever. You want science and studies? Fuck you, I've got scars and blood and vomit. This is a call to arms for some of you. It is for me too. Stop all the things that make you a pussy and steal your energy. Get your life back. 

                             - Jim Wendler

 Words of wisdom. Cut and dry, no fluff. In the strength and conditioning world, there is a steadfast truth: if something seems too good to be true, then it is. Holding on to a vibrating weight for 15 minutes a day will not make you stronger, it will make you look like a douchebag. The recumbent bike? If you can read a magazine or watch your Ipad while you exercise, its not exercise. Exercise is hard. It's uncomfortable. Nothing worth having ever comes easy.

Yes, I own this t-shirt.

Should your workouts be fun? Yes, for sure! Life is too short to do things that aren't fun. Should they make you hate life? Yes, for sure! You can't evoke any changes in your body without ruffling a few feathers. The discomfort of a workout only lasts for a little while, you'll recover. The discomfort of being 20 pounds over-weight will last quite a bit longer. Suck it up. Do what your trainer tells you to do; you hired them for a reason, didn't you? If you think you know better than they do, you wouldn't need them. You know why you hate the stuff your trainer is making you do? Because it's what you NEED. You don't need to do more biceps curls or bench press; you NEED to get your ass in the rack and squat and deadlift. You NEED to walk around the gym carrying heavy things.

Get out of your comfort zone. Make things hard, thats where all the good stuff happens. Lift some heavy things, please!

I remember my first WOD!

It finally happened...I popped my Crossfit WOD cherry with this bitch of a workout called "Christine".

It sucked. No two ways around it, it was miserable. The workout is a CF Benchmark workout, meaning it's a workout that people can always go back to and test their time or compare against other lifters. The workout consists of 3 rounds of a 500 meter row, 12 deadlifts with your bodyweight on the bar (I went a little heavy with 205 bar weight, at 196 bodyweight) and then 21 box jumps with a 20" box.

I was dreading the row. It's something that I have little experience with, thus I am piss poor at it. The deadlifts were going to be easy, it's one of my stronger exercises and 205 isn't a big deal to me. I thought the box jumps were going to be a breeze, being that I am a jumping athlete. I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't right either. The whole thing sucked the big D.

But you know what? The fact that it was so miserable and metabolically challenging for me means that I need to do more of it. Anything that sucks that bad is a good thing. I'm not suggesting that I'm going to stop reading T-Nation and get some Zensah calf sleeves and board shorts, but I am starting to see how Crossfit can fit into traditional strength training programs. The metabolic effect was amazing, and I can only imagine how long my metabolism was elevated post-workout.

I didn't meet Pukey the Clown, but I did meet "lay on the floor until the world stops spinning and you can breathe again". Good shit, good shit.

Please, go lift something heavy, get out of your comfort zone!

Important Lessons

In this past year, I think I really started to hit my groove as a personal trainer. I learned a lot about the way that I train, and what I can do to get the best results with my clients. I'm in no way saying that I'm the best, though, I realize that I still have a lot to learn and a lot of room for growth.

The 3 Big Lessons:
1) What's good for me isn't necessarily good for my client - Sure, I know what to do with myself to get results. I also know that the ways that I do things might be the most effective and occasionally the most brutal. For a while I thought it was most important to get my clients to want to do those things. That's not the big point, however. My clients are all grown ass folks with lives of their own. Despite their desire to work hard for the 1-4 hours they see me each week, they still have stuff to do outside of the gym. This is my life, not theirs. They want to eat food that's good for them, but not everybody is ok eating chicken breasts with montreal seasoning and sauteed spinach Every. Single. Night. I still encourage them to make good food choices, but at the end of the day I'm happy that they are even thinking about their food.

2) I can only do what you can only do - As I just mentioned, I see some clients for as little as just one hour per week. That leaves them 167 other hours in the week to do whatever they want. Some of them will actually make it into the gym and do the homework I give them, but some will just sit on the couch and watch The Real Housewives of WhoGivesAShit. I understand the importance of thoracic spine mobility and try to push that knowledge onto my clients, but if they aren't going to do their homework, then what can I really do about it? I am able to do whatever I can within those 60 minutes and that is it. My only option is to work around it. If someone isn't going to do their t-spine stuff, then we are going to have to modify some of our choices. If someone won't do their static stretching, then I guess we will always pull deadlifts from an elevated position. If someone won't come in and do their conditioning work, then I guess he won't lose the weight he wants to.

3) My clients are teachers, analysts, therapists and parents; not powerlifters - I've always built my training around the major compound lifts: squats, deadlifts, benching and overhead pressing. My goal used to be to get all of my clients doing these exercises as intended. You know what, though? It doesn't matter. It's fantastic that this guy can pull off the floor, but that doesn't make him a better therapist. Is it more important for us to spend all sorts of time getting him capable of pulling off the floor, or is it just as useful to get him really strong on something like rack pulls or trap bar deads? I want my people to all have proper mobility and full range of motion, but not everyone is going to be able to achieve it. They aren't competitive athletes, but I still need to get results.

They aren't groundbreaking ideas or anything, but they are things that have affected the way I train after this past year. Always moving forward, always getting better!

Now, go lift something heavy!

Good times will be had!

Tomorrow night is a big night for my gym...it's our company holiday party! You know what that means...

This is how holiday parties for fitness professionals usually go: take a bunch of people with healthy lifestyles and fairly low body fat percentages, add in 2 hours of open bar, and multiply by the number of people who are married with kids for whom the party is a "big night out" in the city.

Boom! Shitshow. 

It's a lot of fun, and being that we are a commercial gym, its interesting to see the people who work at our other facilities. It kind of gets that high school dance vibe, though.."oh, that's the staff from that gym". There is also a fair amount of male posturing going on, which is to be expected. You get a bunch of guys who tend to be a little Alpha-ish in a room together and there is bound to be a little of that. I never do such a thing, though. No, for sure not me.

Regardless, everyone always has fun. One of the strangest thing about working in a gym is when you see everyone in "real" clothes. Normal attire at the gym says Under Armour, Nike or LuLuLemon on it. Sometimes Adidas. Seeing these people dressed up can really throw you for a loop.

My direct co-workers and I will end up heading out after and having a few more libations with just our crew, which will be fun.

Hope you all have a great weekend! If you're going to enjoy some refreshments yourself, don't forget to lift some heavy shit before you do it!

Random Thoughts

I'm gonna touch on a few random topics in today's post. I might even just say a lot of words without really talking about much at all. I get to do that, this is my blog!

Nothing to do with anything. Just funny!

The first thing that has been on my mind is how happy I am with my current eating regimen. As of January 2, I will spend a few months on the see-food diet. I see food, and I eat it. My grocery cart on Monday was a thing of beauty: 2 gallons of whole milk, 3 dozen eggs, 4 pounds of beef, cans of tuna, greek yogurt, frozen cherries, and 3 bags of spinach. Beautiful, just beautiful.

I wouldn't say I'm on a bulking program, but during this strength program I want to really give my body what it needs to get stronger. Adding a little size is ok if the appropriate strength gains come along with it.

My training partner, Dan, started a new strength program the same day that I did (Monday). We wrote our programs separately and without really talking to each other about them, and are looking to achieve different goals. We worked out together Monday night and found out the strangest thing: we were both doing front squat workouts, and had programmed basically the same workout.

 We both started off with a speed movement, then did our heavy front squats. Dan chose to do an exercise that I was going to do, but opted out of because I didn't want to overload my CNS too much. We both used a superset of Good mornings with a split squat, except I chose rear-foot elevated split squats (RFESS), and Dan went with Front Foot Elevated split squats (FFESS). We explain this deviation by virtue of who we tend to follow in the industry. Dan is very much a disciple of Coach Poliquin, while I tend to adhere to the tao of Cressey and Gentilcore. The main difference is that Dan stuck to tempo for all of his lifts, while I attacked mine as straight sets and reps.

It'll be interesting to see if the rest of our programs are similar, I think they will be. Two guys who follow pretty different schools of thought ending up with nearly identical programs. Good shit!

Last random note: Tide with Febreeze Sport is the greatest laundry detergent ever. If you're like me and have oodles of gym clothes, you'll appreciate it! It smells sort of like apples and rainbows.

Make 2012 easy on yourself. Don't complicate things.

Eat right, train right, and lift heavy shit!

What's up for 2012?

I hate New Years resolutions. They are usually just bullshit spouted by people that have no real intention of keeping them, but want to keep up the appearance that they will change something about their lives for the next year. This allows them to think that they will really better themselves.

"I'll eat healthy this year!" Arbitrary. Difficult to measure.

"I'm going to go to the gym!" For a week. Then the new season of "Real Housewives of Whatever" will start and you won't see the gym until June.

"I'm going to quit drinking and smoking and coffee!" Horseshit. Some of the hardest things in the world to quit. Plus, why would you want to give up coffee? It's amazing!

All in all, these are great goals. But why are these resolutions already doomed to fail? They are either too arbitrary, too immeasurable or just too damned difficult. Theres no real "goal" in any of those. You signed up for the gym last year, and didn't go. You tried quitting smoking last year, but you're still puffing away.

None of these goals are easy to keep track of. Sure, you can mark on your calendar that you went to the gym every Monday for 4 months. Thats great! I'm very happy that you did that...but what did you accomplish while you were there?

Goals need to be realistic and measurable.  You need to be able to say definitively that you did or did not accomplish said goal. Without further ado, here's a list of my fitness goals for the year of 2012.

1) Deadlift 2.25-2.5 times my bodyweight, which would be 450-500 pounds.
2) Squat 2 times my bodyweight, which is 400 lbs.
3) Bench press 315.
4) Clean 250 pounds.
5) Dunk something. Anything. Just dunk.

Boom. Quick and dirty, just how I like it.

My goals don't have to be your goals. You might not care how much you can squat or pull. But make your goal plausible. Lose 10 pounds is a poor choice; you can't take into account body composition changes. Make your goal to drop 2 pants sizes. Make your goal to be able to do 1 pull-up. Once you have a goal, the fun begins. Figuring out how to get there is where all the adventure is!

Now, go lift something heavy!

Domination

Happy 2012, everybody! I hope everybody enjoyed safe and fun New Year's celebrations and is ready to get back into the weight room today! I know I'm fired up for my new program!

Day 1 is my front squat day, and I'm all sorts of excited to get back to lifting heavy shit. I liked that hypertrophy program, but it just doesn't do it for me in the long run. If I'm not seeing progress on the bar, it's hard for me to quantify what I'm doing. 

I wrote last week that I had tested my 1RM for my snatch grip deadlift and paused bench press, and this past saturday I tested my military press (with fat grip) and my front squat. The numbers came out to be 165 for the military press and 275 for the front squat. Neither of these numbers are ground breaking, but I'm pretty happy with the front squat considering that I just came off of 2 months of lifting sub-maximal weights. This was the first time in 2 months that I'd seen more than 135 on the bar for my front squat. I felt pretty good, and got some videos too!

This was my 1RM attempt at 265. It felt like a grinder, but I knew I had a little more left in the tank.

My last lift, at 275, felt like the world. I felt like I had more in my legs but, as is the case with the front squat, my upper back was the limiting factor. I wasn't in danger of dumping the bar, but it was pretty close.

(Anybody notice the guy in the back doing the explosive barbell curls? Great hip drive!)

I'm going to really try and keep up with videos while I'm on this program. Knowing that my lift is going to be able to viewed by anybody will do a good job of keeping my conscious of form. Plus, being able to see yourself do anything is an AMAZING way to learn what you're doing wrong.

On a separate note, my friend Ali recently got a photo of herself doing one of the most impressive physical feats that I've seen recently, a pistol squat while standing on the handle of a kettlebell!

In terms of random badass physical feats, this one is pretty sick. Great job, Ali!

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a great day, and go lift something heavy!

Back to Basics

Well, that was fun. 2 months on a hypertrophy program was eye-opening for me. I learned some things about what I like and don't like about hypertrophy work, and took away some really useful knowledge. It is something that I can see myself doing every once in a while in order to give my body a chance to rest from lifting heavy stuff and to bring up any weak points that I notice. So, now what's in store for me?

It's game time baby!! Back to lifting heavy shit!!

I'm ready to make my long awaited return to the strength training side of things. I'm talking heavy weights, low reps and lots of testosterone. Adding plates to the bar, instead of endless amounts of volume. I actually did a workout a few weeks ago that ended up being around 500 total reps! That is ridiculous!! I'm ready to get back to doing something that I really love to do!

What will that entail? I'm going to be doing Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 template. It's a training system that is based on 3-4 main lifts. You perform these lifts based on a percentage of your 1RM for each lift. Each month you gradually increase the weights. When done correctly, and with the appropriate assistance lifts, people have seen some really great strength gains off of this template. My four main lifts are going to be Front Squat, Bench press (with a pause), snatch-grip deadlift and strict military press. I chose these lifts based on how much I dislike them. They are variations that tend to be more difficult than their counterparts. Back squats are easier, bouncing the bar off your chest is easier, conventional deads are easier and push presses are way easier. Why do what's easy, though? If I get good at the things I hate, then I'll have bettered myself. Plus, I think the front squat and snatch-grip deadlift will really help my maximal jumping ability!

Today I tested my 1 rep-max on my bench press and snatch grip DL. I ended up pressing 255 on the bench and pulling 375 with the deadlift. Using the pause and the uber-wide grip on the deadlift really changes the dynamics of the lift. I ended up using straps on the max effort sets, since I don't want my grip to be the limiting factor in that lift. From here on out, I will only use straps on my last max-effort set for each deadlift day. 

Since I was smoked after those lifts, I'm going to do my military press and front squat 1RM's this coming Saturday, so that I can start the program fresh on Monday for 2012! That'll be the best way to start my year off right!

I hope you all have a great New Year! Don't forget to lift something heavy!

30 Things

After my workout today, I jumped on Facebook and saw that Neghar Fonooni had posted THIS article. I came across this blog a little while ago, but read a different post. This one is special.

Holy shit. What an amazing list. Frankly, I couldn't have written it better myself. Unless I had thought of it and actually written it myself. A lot of the items on this list are things that I have been personally working on trying to do. A lot of people would look at this list and be overwhelmed, or think it's horse shit. It's not. Take an honest look at yourself, evaluate what's going on. Start to chip away at some of these things, I think it will make a huge difference in your life.

Some of the points that jumped out and punched me in the mouth:

Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place.  Evaluate situations and take decisive action.  You cannot change what you refuse to confront.  Making progress involves risk.  Period!  You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.

I have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad habit of over-thinking and over-analyzing. Getting out of my own head is one of the absolute hardest things for me to do. I know when I'm doing it, and can make myself stop, but it takes legitimate effort on my part. Being inside my own head is a dangerous place for me. This is one of the things I'm really trying to work on.

Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy.  One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time?  Three years?  Five years?”  If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.

For me, this goes hand in hand with the previous thought. If I could get out of my own head, I would be able to enjoy everything a lot more. For me, living in the moment is pretty hard.

Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on.  No, it won’t be easy.  There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them.  We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems.  That’s not how we’re made.  In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall.  Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time.  This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.

This is something that I have recently done a very good job of. I know who I am, and where I am headed. I understand that there are things that I need to address in order to get where I want to go. This particular step takes a lot of balls to do, but you will be pleasantly  happy with the results.

Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.  Yes, help others; but help yourself too.  If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

I love making other people happy. It makes me feel good. I also don't expect anything back. I'm comfortable playing the role of the martyr. I guess this isn't, intrinsically, a bad thing, right? It's really easy, however, for me to forget to do me. I lose myself and suddenly find that I'm doing something that might not be great for me. I'm able to follow my passion, but there are bumps along the road. Any road worth traveling, though, is going to have those bumps.

Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us.  We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past.  But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.  Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

This last one is a big one. What's done is done. You can't un-do it. We've all done and said stupid things that we wish that we hadn't. Things that we wouldn't do again if we had the opportunity. Stop beating yourself up over it. If the opportunity arises again, show that you learned from your mistake. Just move forward.

Hopefully you can find something to take away from this post. Take a look at the list, what jumps out at you? What seems important for your own life?

Figure it out. Then go lift something heavy!

Progress Report

So, it's been a full month since I started this hypertrophy program. Today we started phase 2, and as such I thought it'd be a good time for an update!

So far, I'm happy with my gains. The scale tells me I've put on about 5 pounds of bodyweight, and the calipers tell me that I gained about 1% body fat; up to 13.6%. Shoulders, upper back and chest all appear to be a little bit fuller. I wasn't expecting a miracle within one month, so I'm not disappointed with anything.

Strength levels, interestingly, have not waned TOO much. I was expecting to lose a lot more total strength, and that has yet to happen. Maybe because it has only been a month? After another month or two of this, I will probably be looking forward to lifting some heavy shit, but for now this is a LOT of fun!

That's all for today. Go lift something heavy!

Speechless

In the last week I've had two people provide me with some blog material. In a strange coincidence, they are extremely related and extremely disturbing.

The first topic was sent to me by my friend Brita early in the week. She came across this website, Pinterest, and found the fitness board to be a bit fishy. She is a recent convert to the Tao of Lifting, and immediately recognized this message board as a place promoting the idea of being skinny for the sake of being skinny. The majority of the topics "pinned" to this board suggest that you should be skinny for the stares/jealousy, being skinny to look like "her", as well as providing fitness information suggesting "toning" of arms and butt. There are very few, if any, references to the fact that toning is a myth, and that lifting heavy shit is the fastest and most effective way to the body that you want. All in all, I think this site sends a poor message. It's just regurgitating the fitness propaganda that Oxygen, Self and Shape have been pushing out for years. I'd love to see this site using some more relevant information. However, I understand the "motivational"aspect of the board, and for some people, bad exercise is better than no exercise. I would never send anybody I know to this site for fitness information, but at least the messages tend to stay motivational and positive. 

Fitness: Doing it right.

Then, last night during a session, one of my clients tipped me off to something called "thinspiration". He came across it somehow on tumblr and found it unsettling enough to mention it while we were working out. He said it consisted mostly of pictures of really skinny women, and motivational phrases attached to them. There were lots of "diet tricks" that told you to drink lots of water to feel full. I came home, checked it and was SHOCKED at what I found.

I immediately noticed something wasn't right. Phrases such as "do it for the thigh gap", "so that you can be light enough for someone to pick you up." Diet plans suggesting you partition out 3 apples to make up 6 small meals for the day. Pictures, to make you envious, of a woman's back with no shirt, and very visible shoulder blades.

I couldn't help but think about eating disorders. How this seemed to be an unhealthy obsession with being skinny and frail. I noticed the phrase "pro-ana" several times, and had absolutely no idea what it meant. A quick searched revealed that it stood for "pro-anorexia". Many of these sites were celebrating anorexia as a "lifestyle choice" rather than an illness. Several sites seem to be a non-judgemental place for people to discuss their illness, but it seems that those are the exception and not the rule.

Without realizing it, I've created a little bubble for myself. I'm so wrapped up in the strength and conditioning world, that I lost sight of the grand "fitness" picture. I somehow managed to forget that these illnesses still exist. This sort of stuff should be a serious wake up call to the industry, to start being really strict about the types of information that gets put out there. We need to start celebrating the women in the industry that are sending out positive messages about being fit, strong and beautiful.

Resources:
Nia Shanks
Leigh Peele
Jen Comas Keck
Neghar Foonooni

Please, go lift something heavy. Be happy and be healthy.