Losing Fat Is Simple, Just Not Easy
Losing fat is very simple. Just not easy. The mechanics of fat loss can be taught in under an hour (sustaining a calorie deficit, eating enough protein, regular weight training), and yet it's still so damn hard for most people to pull off consistently. The basics, like figuring out your diet numbers and planning some meals. aren't that tough. Nor is shopping, cooking, prepping, and especially...
Muscle Growth Incentive
Muscle needs “incentive” to grow. Asking it to do the same work it's successfully done before won’t cut it. You gotta ask for more — lift more weight, do more reps with a given weight, do more (productive) sets — for your muscles to wake up and lay down some new tissue. Adding weight/reps at the expense of technique isn't progression. Improving technique with no increase in weight/reps IS...
“Don’t celebrate special occasions with food”
Approaching what's usually a sunny long weekend filled with food and family, I wanna take aim at some “health advice” I truly hate: “Don’t celebrate special occasions with food. You’ll just build unhealthy associations between the day and eating too many calories.” Yeah, cause that’s such a horrible thing. Nothing worse than occasionally relaxing and having fun and enjoying simple pleasures like...
Against Diet Challenges
I'm not a fan of the zillions of diet challenges you see all over social media. I get the reasoning behind them from a marketing perspective, but I'm more a case-by-case, individualization-is-numero-uno kinda guy. Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates wouldn't keep junk food in the house when dieting. So the most focused, driven bodybuilder of all time didn't want to unnecessarily test his willpower when...
Pain, “Strength,” and Father’s Day
Happy Father's Day. But I'll get to that later. First, a lot of people in the fitness space are in pain. Not just physical but emotional and psychological. Some hide it well, under a steely facade of ego and a bit of bluster, to make it through the day. Others are more transparent and almost wear their pain like a uniform, perhaps to attract people in a similar situation for companionship or to...
Maverick
Last weekend I went for a walk with Maverick and Goose on a gorgeous spring morning. I wore my prized green Turbo J’s so I grabbed a photo. This is now the last picture I have of Maverick alive: He suffered a heart attack around 15 mins into the walk. I noticed he wasn’t keeping up and was breathing heavily. I quickly took him off-leash and he collapsed. I asked a lady watering her lawn for...
Bringing up weak body parts with the 10-second rule
There are many programming tweaks and tricks you can try to address a weak bodypart. However, since genetic structure is such a key factor, much of the voodoo you read will achieve — for you — sub-par results at best. As for things that DO appear to work? It can be hard to pinpoint what really happened: maybe you followed a really neat specialization routine but you also increased calories...