@dangarnernutrition is a human performance specialist and one of the sharpest minds in sports nutrition. He's also a successful coach and experienced bodybuilder. But with bandwidth stretched to breaking point and a travel schedule that could kill a roadie, Dan asked me to take the reigns to offload the big-picture decision-making of diet and training for 4+ months. Suffice to say: Training was...

Are you doing everything right but still struggling to build muscle? Chances are it’s one of two things: 1. You're not training "hard" enough, and 2. You're not recovering sufficiently to grow. Now of course, hard is subjective—so we’ll clear that one up in a minute. But first, let’s check you ARE doing everything right. The foundation of all hypertrophy is PROGRESSION—doing a little more every...

Some people need strict and specific eating directions. It's not always a knowledge or experience thing. They just do better when things are laid out in VERY black and white terms. i.e. "8 oz grilled or baked chicken or turkey breast." On the other hand, some respond much better to looser, no-counting type recommendations like "a palm sized portion of lean meat or fish." Now, you can make...

I wanna look like that. A prospective client completed my coaching application, and the follow-up call got me thinking. He sent pics of a handsome physique model and said he wanted THAT end result. Which, to me, read like he wanted to look like him—right down to skin tone and waist-shoulder ratio. Now, it’s reasonable to say, “This physique inspires me,” or even, “I have a similar frame, I’d...

People tweak their fat-loss diets WAY too often. ‘Cause provided your plan was sensible to begin with—and the issue isn't compliance—the best response to a week of "zero progress" is to repeat it another week. It’s an inconvenient truth, but sometimes results just take longer to manifest than we’d like. And frankly, your body doesn’t give a hoot about your personal timetable. But the main reason...

Examples of great training programs can be found anywhere. But a program is only great if it matches the needs, goals, and lifestyle of the trainee, and that’s a constantly moving target. Sounds complicated? Not at all. A while back, my friend and nutrition expert, @drjohnberardi (JB), hired me to handle his programming. I knew before putting pencil to paper (I’m old school) that it was going to...