Step-1: Track everything. Kidding! Sort of. Cause the utopia of achieving and maintaining a healthy, lean, and athletic body composition is to eat "intuitively" without tracking. And it CAN be done. In fact, there are entire eating "systems" dedicated to helping people eat instinctively. Take @drjohnberardi. As the co-founder of Precision Nutrition (PN), John Berardi knows a thing (or three)...

Getting hurt sucks. Perhaps something goes pop in your back mid-rep. Maybe it is a niggling pain in your shoulder that gets progressively worse. (You didn't train through it, right?) Or even a non-workout-related injury that still forces you to hit pause. All of the above suck royally in their own way, and how much they suck depends on many things outside your control. But what you DO control is...

While contest dieting for the Olympia, Dorian Yates would dream he was bingeing on sausages and junk food. He’d wake up panic-stricken, and for a brief moment, he'd think he had just eaten those foods. And then he'd remember—he doesn't keep junk food in the house. So, arguably the most focused bodybuilder of all time wasn’t 100% confident in his willpower. Nor did he feel it wise to test it...

It was cool and rainy and felt more like November than early June. But I suppose that's fitting, as it was the anniversary of Anthony Bourdain’s death. I miss Bourdain. I feel like I knew him, or at least identified with him. A gifted writer with sharp wit and curious mind, who didn’t hit his stride until his forties, when he finally accepted his past demons and went all-in on his talent. That...

NEVER refer to choices you had the luxury of making as a “grind”—especially choices that lead to a better, healthier, and happier life. For many people, the opportunity to pursue self-betterment is, at best, a pipe dream. Do you know what IS a grind? - being a single mom working two jobs to barely make ends meet. - trying to cope with the daily challenges of a crippling disability. - living in a...

With clients approaching the bitter end of a diet—or those on a short-term "mini-cut"— I often advise them to try to forget about it. Not forget about their diet and go crush the local IHOP. But rather forget that they're DIETING at all. In other words, I encourage them to accept that this is "how you eat now." Even pretend they don't have other options—or at least don't care. And I specifically...

There's only one RULE: There are no MUST-DO lifts. You CAN build a strong, lean and muscular body without barbell squats, barbell bench presses, and barbell deadlifts. Or any specific lift for that matter. If you’re performing all the basic movement patterns below then you’re off to a good start—as that means you’re generally hitting all the major muscle groups. * horizontal push * horizontal...