The Rock Lied
Responding to questions with nothing more than "it doesn't matter" has to STOP. “How many reps should I do?” Doesn't matter. Just work to near failure. "Should I eat toast or oatmeal?" Doesn't matter. A carb is a carb. Often it DOES matter. Sure, it's born out of good intentions. Folks are easily distracted and spend way too much bandwidth on stuff that might add 20% to their progress (the...
Punch the clock
A big problem with the health and fitness industry is a proclivity to strip all nuance from complex topics to make everything a neat, shareable soundbite. This perpetuates a one-size-fits-all fallacy that fails to consider individual circumstances, leading to poor advice and unrealistic expectations. Take progress, for example. Yes, you "should" try to lift more weight or do more reps each...
IT’S TIME WE MEET IN PERSON
As much as I love being an online fitness coach, the fact that I rarely see my clients and colleagues in person can be a real drag. It's why I always loved continuing-ed seminars. Not only are they fun and informative getaways, they allow me to meet up with clients and friends and network with other like-minded professionals. Plus I always return home with my batteries fully charged (though...
Muscle needs an incentive to grow
You gotta ask for more to get your muscles to wake up and lay down new tissue: * Lift more weight * Complete more reps at the same weight * Add more working sets Otherwise, your triceps are perfectly content to sit back and relax as you fart around in front of the dumbbell rack doing 8 sets of kickbacks with 5 reps in reserve. However, there is more to progression than just, well, MORE. And this...
Is dieting difficult?
Maybe you need to rewrite your story. No, not revise your history—there’s more than enough “truth massaging" in this field already. I’m talking about changing how you think about and describe your relationship with food. For example, one of my clients always says he loves to eat BIG. But he’s also in the midst of a fat-loss phase right now and routinely responds to any drop in calories with...
How far do you go?
A long-term client of mine has come a LONG way on his fat loss journey. He's basically in the top 5% of real-life 40-year-old physiques. Now they’re asking about pushing things to the next level—i.e. a visible 6 pack, veins, all that good stuff. And my response? "I wouldn't go there right now." Because he was finally at the point. "The point" is when you’ve lost the extra fat, added muscle,...
Overwhelm is the killer of progress
Overwhelm is the killer of progress—especially with diet. And nothing adds more complexity and sucks the joy out of eating faster than tracking, particularly when you're all-in on the scale. So how do you positively influence calories and improve your macros while keeping the tracking overhead as low as possible? TRACK PROTEIN ONLY. Now, if you are sitting there with your hand up, mumbling,...