The more daily rituals you have, the easier it is to relax and execute at a high level. Examples might be: * Regular sleep/wake times * The morning dog walk * Making the same breakfast * Consistent workout times * Bedtime reading with the kid It’s not really WHAT you do that matters—it’s having a set cadence of tasks that establish a rhythm. The cool thing is, over time, you’ll find you have...

So you want to build muscle, but keep hearing that you should get lean first. Is that BS? Not really, but there's nuance behind the practice. Gurus often say you have to be lean before you try to add muscle. Some even give targets, like under 10% body fat. Why? Broadly speaking, the leaner you get, the more insulin-sensitive you are. This leads to better nutrition partitioning with surplus...

"Health Washing" is a pet peeve for many health advocates. It's when marketers try to position highly processed packaged foods as "healthy" by slapping irrelevant or dubious nutritional claims on the label such as "100% natural, gluten-free, fortified, made with real food, etc." It’s an underhand practice that preys on people’s desire to improve the quality of the foods they eat. Although I pity...

Progress photos aren't a requirement to lose fat. Sure, they help. But a great coach can get a good idea of what’s going on just by monitoring how well you nail the daily process, combined with a few basic measurements and feedback on how well your clothes are fitting. But if you do take photos—excluding someone VERY lean and/or preparing for a physique contest—MORE frequent is seldom better....

Barbells, plates, dumbbells, benches, etc. have been around for 100 years. Jack LaLanne, the first fitness influencer, invented the cable pulley machine in the 1950s. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if some yoked Soviet lumberjack beat him to it. There’s a reason these things have remained staples in the gym: They work. Many machines, gadgets, and doohickies have appeared since. And some did...

Changing your training program every 4 weeks is very popular. It's also one of the dumbest things you can do. Much of the “gains” you experience in the first few weeks of a new program are neural, i.e., your nervous system getting used to the workout and the exercises. It's not until after this break-in period that any increases in strength are more likely due to gains in muscle tissue. By...

At some point, everyone I've coached has had to deal with a "life curveball." People get sick. Accidents happen. Tragedy strikes. And overnight, five small, healthy meals a day becomes picking at hospital food in a crowded waiting room. These events await all of us. No one is exempt. And worrying about falling off your plan or "losing your gains" only adds more stress to a difficult situation....