Building muscle with a solid foundation
"I want to build muscle but I keep reading that I should get lean first or it won't work. Is that just BS?" Sorta. It depends on the physical state of the person (how fat they are), their goals, and even some non-physical factors. The internet gurus say you have to be lean before you assertively eat to add muscle, even giving hard targets like "under 10% body fat, otherwise you need to lose fat...
The Silverback Summit
Wanna hang out at the end of October? I have to chop down a dying tree in my yard so my neighbour, The Angry Lawyer, stops giving me the stink-eye over the fence. But if that’s not your game, how about joining October 27-29 in beautiful Palm Beach Gardens, Florida for something a lot more fun: the first ever Silverback Summit — the ultimate men’s health + fitness education experience. The...
About Charlie and the fight of his life
I love martial arts. It’s the perfect complement to strength training. The most intense and rewarding fight training I’ve experienced was at a Krav Maga school in New York City. I’ll spare you any contrived tough-guy war stories because this story isn’t about fighting or training or even me. It's about my friend Charlie. I was the most "jacked" guy in class but the worst fighter, especially when...
When you have a goal, and you really want it… but things aren’t going well
A new client set a goal to be photo-lean by the end of September. And, well, things aren't going well. Now, I hate saying "I told you so," but in this instance I sure wanted to—because way back on Day 1, when we were discussing her end-of-September goal, she added, "I'm also traveling to Europe for vacation, but I'll be sticking to my plan." My first words were, "That's gonna be tough." Sadly, I...
Gaining and losing the same 10 lbs.
Great question from a 40-something guy with a very common problem: “I wanna get a bit bigger, just not too fat in the process. But whenever I try the cut/bulk cycle, it just seems like I gain and lose the same 10 pounds of fat. What do I do?” Here’s the deal: bulking & cutting works REALLY well… if it works for you. You need to be in a net weekly calorie surplus to gain weight, just as you...
“Should I cycle calories or eat more on training days?”
Here's a question I get often: "Is it better to eat the same calorie level every day, or eat more on training days vs. off days or days I'm really busy?" Short answer is, well, it depends. I know: that answer sucks. But the good news is it depends on YOU, and mainly what you like doing. Whether you gain or lose weight is determined by your calorie intake over a 24 hour period, i.e., if you're in...
Putting a big red X through your weekends, weddings, and nights out
So a coaching client reached out with a good-bad problem. They have some really cool social events to look forward to, in the form of weddings and weekends away and nights out with friends. But they also have fat loss and fitness goals, which is what had prompted them to hire me. And considering they're less the “pack Tupperware and pretend to be happy" type and more the “next round is on me"...