Why I hate "bootcamp" workouts.

Why I hate "bootcamp" workouts.
As many of you know, I am quite opposed to the bootcamp style of workout. There are many reasons for this but I'll give you the two most important reasons. 
Reason number one is that it is simply not effective. It doesn't work.
Is it a good workout? Yes, I guess. It depends upon what you mean by a good workout and what your goals are. 
If your goals are to get exhausted and pushed to your limits and perhaps test your mental strength, then yes, it's a good workout. 
But if your goals are to get stronger, leaner and achieve a physical transformation then no, it's not a good workout. It's a terrible workout. I say that not only because I disagree with the science, or lack of it, involved in the actual workout design and structure itself but I also say that because I have seen literally thousands of people go to these bootcamp type workouts for months, even years, and not see a physical transformation. 
Many of them have not even lost a pound. These same people also think that they are burning 800 to 1000 calories per workout.
Let me ask you a question. If you were actually burning 1000 calories per workout, don't you think you would be losing weight after a few workouts? Of course you would. You are not burning 1000 calories, no matter what your little FitBit says and trying to lose weight by burning off the calories in that way simply doesn't work anyway. (Ask anyone who has trained for a marathon and has no leaned out at all.)
The second reason that I dislike that style of training is for the emotional and mental aspect of it. What I love about strength training is that my clients leave the gym feeling accomplished, feeling successful, feeling like they kicked ass and took names. When you come in and hit a new personal best on the deadlift, squat or bench and do things that you never thought you would be able to do, you leave the gym pumped and proud and ready to take on the day. Think about a person that comes to see me and accomplishes everything that I put in front of them and more. Think of the confidence that person has, having just lifted more than they ever thought they could. Contrast that to the overweight or unfit person who goes to a bootcamp and is screamed at by their super-fit instructor about how much they need to work harder and how much they have to want it and that person is led to believe that if they're not throwing up or doubled over in a corner that they are not working hard enough. That person leaves the gym with a feeling of failure. That person leaves with the feeling of "I guess I need to work harder if I'm ever going to be fit." They feel that they need to come to the gym more often and more frequently and for longer periods of time to see the results that they want. Ironically, the lean and fit instructor most likely does not do bootcamp or a workout anything remotely like that. That is the ultimate fitness irony, most trainers don't practice what they preach.
You don't have to kill yourself to get results. You don't have to train until you're going to puke. You don't have to train five days a week. 
You have to train hard.
You have to eat properly. 
You have to be consistent.
You have to get stronger.
Is it hard work? 
Yes.
Does it have to be absolutely exhausting?
No.
Should it be?
No. 
Training should make you feel good, not bad.

Exercising doesn't do sh$t.

"I go to the gym 3 times a week."
"I do classes 5 days a week."
"I lift weights 2 times a week."
"I do cardio every day."

What do all of these have in common?

It doesn't matter. 

It doesn't matter if you go to the gym every day or 3 times per week. It doesn't matter how often you do cardio or how many classes you take each week.

None of those things determine your results.

Do you know how many people come to me and say that they don't understand why they are not seeing results when they "go to the gym 3x per week" or insert any of the above phrases?

If you are not being INTENTIONAL about what you actually do at the gym and following a specifically designed training PROGRAM that has a point and a plan then you are just mindlessly EXERCISING.

Mindlessly exercising does not do shit.

Yes, that's right.

Just exercising does not do shit.

I hear that all the time to. "Well, at least I did something." "It's better than nothing."

Well, not really.

What if I just went to a martial arts studio every day? Well, what did I do when I was there?
What if I went and  just start hitting things and kicking things? If I did that every day or twice a week do you think it would make a difference after six months? How about after a year?

Nope.

I still wouldn't know how fight.

Now, what if I went 3x a week and an instructor taught me the basics, then progressed me to harder moves and more advanced techniques and I went from a white belt to a black belt. After 5-10 years I'd be a serious bad dude.

If I just went and randomly started hitting things, I could go every day for 4 hours and after 20 years I still wouldn't be any better than I was on day one.

That's how many people approach their training (it's actually not even training when it's done that way, it's just working out.)

Just exercising or working out doesn't work. You need a specific plan designed for your specific goal and that goal is almost always the same, no matter who you are.

Add a lot of lean muscle and lose a lot of fat. 

That's it.

How do we do that?

Not by running around mindlessly killing ourselves in the gym.

We do it by methodically getting stronger and building lean muscle and by following a nutritional protocol that burns fat. 

The end.

www.GetOnThePROGRAM.com

Don't touch the Christmas cookies.. (just kidding)

As you guys know by now, I'm not the kind of coach who was going to tell you "how to have a healthy Thanksgiving dinner" and to have chicken breast instead of turkey on Thanksgiving.

 I'm not the kind of coach who is going to tell you not to touch single Christmas cookie at your family celebration or not to have a few drinks on New Year's Eve.

Quite the contrary, I want you to give yourself permission to live a little bit and enjoy the holidays. That's what life is all about.

But I want to take a second to clarify something.

 I am also not kind of coach is going to give you permission to fall back into bad habits and the routines that got you into trouble in the first place. I'm not suggesting you throw your goals and your healthy habits out the window for the next two weeks. I'm not suggesting you can eat and drink everything that your heart desires and not undo a lot of the progress you have made.

Even though it is a tough time of year to be disciplined, you can still make forward progress. You can still start 2015 better than you started 2014.

It's not time to give yourself persmission to go back to eating platefulls of refined carbs for your meals. It's not a time to skip your workouts or forget about the importance of healthy snacks and staying hydrated.

 It is simply a time to allow yourselves some room to make mistakes and to be okay with it.

 I know that many of you that I have spoken with, myself included have already gotten the crappy stuff out of our systems. I for one, am getting all of my workouts in and have gotten back to all of my healthy habits (water first thing in the morning, fat/protein snacks, etc.) I know that I will sneak in some cookies and some poor food choices over the next week or two but I'm okay with that.

 But simply getting my workouts in and drinking my water have made a world of difference. Remember, holiday parties are much more fun when you feel good about yourself. Just sayin'...

Happy Holidays!!

This is CRAZY!

This is crazy.

So we are all very familiar with the effect that nutrition has on our energy and our appearance. If you have read The PROGRAM, you also understand how important body chemistry is and how much of a role nutrition plays in our hormones and the various things that control fat-burning and muscle-building.

 

One thing, however, that we often overlook is the importance of the micronutrients and other elements of nutrition. Those are things like vitamins, minerals, and even digestive enzymes. It's not just protein, fat, carbs and calories. Vitamins, minerals and the various micronutrients are essential to good health and for the body's "machinery" to function properly. Sometimes even I forget how important this is and also, how easy it is to have deficiencies with even the healthiest diet. Let me give you an unbelievable example. My daughter is six years old and is a very picky eater.  She is not much different than most kids her age, where there are not a lot of healthy foods that she likes to eat and even when she does eat, it's not a whole lot. I have tried to get her to take various vitamins but it is often a struggle.

 

 Over the past few months my wife and I have commented on how we need to get her eating more healthy but we have not been very successful. Recently she has been extremely moody, had a few low-grade colds and has just generally been rundown. She is also in the process of losing a few teeth and that is a factor as well. One of the teeth is almost all the way out and is literally almost dead. This tooth has been almost gray in color due to the lack of blood and nutrients to the tooth. She has also been complaining of growing pains at night which are aches and discomfort in the upper thighs, commonly associated with the rapid growth of kids this age. The thought is (and I would agree with it) that it has to do with the rapidly going bones and some have suggested the minerals (or lack thereof) associated with this process.

One night it just hit me like a ton of bricks and occurred to me that my daughter is severely deficient in probably numerous vitamins and minerals and I was just standing by and watching it happen!

 

  I immediately went out and found some liquid vitamins and minerals and powdered calcium/magnesium. I bought the additional calcium/magnesium because the multivitamin has very low amounts of magnesium, which is an extremely important nutrient. I'll give you the exact brands and types at the end. What happened next was remarkable and kind of blew my mind.

 

 Less than 24 hours after adding these additional nutrients, my daughter was a different person. Her energy shot through the roof. Her mood literally changed overnight. She was back to the perky, happy and playful child that we had always known. She did not complain of leg aches for days. It still happens occasionally but much less frequently. And the most remarkable thing? Her grey tooth became white again! I know it sounds unbelievable but I watched it happen. And it actually makes sense. 

 

When the body, the bones and teeth (which are essentially bones) are deprived of nutrients they begin to not function properly and even "die". Once given the proper nutrients, the body resumes normal functions. The moral of the story is that nutrients, not just protein, fat, carbs and calories have a massive impact on your health and well-being. A strong reminder on the importance of getting a wide variety of natural foods, particularly lots of vegetables and berries. I would also recommend everyone to take a good quality multivitamin/multimineral and fish oil on a daily basis.  Shown below is what I used with Charlie and I have seen the power of adding this to her diet and it is unbelievable.

 

PS. Calcium and Magnesium and VERY involved with the stress/anxiety system of the body and a deficiency in this area can cause considerable anxiety and a sense of being "unsettled". Adding these minerals has a huge calming effect on those suffering with anxiety. I've had it and this basically eliminated it. 

 

(For kids, the products below are great because you can add them to juice and they will actually drink it. Good edibles are hard to come by and often the kids won't like the taste. For adults, I've found the brand New Chapter's Men's and Women's Multis to be very good.

 

 

It still has to suck a little.

It still has to suck a little.

I have spoken with many people this week who are a little bit
frustrated with their lack of results over the past few weeks or some who may have even taken a step backwards. It is no coincidence that I am getting all of these comments at around the same
time of year, right between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is a difficult time for year for everyone, no matter what workout program or nutrition plan you may follow. There is no nutrition or workout plan that I know of that includes pizza, wine, cake, cupcakes, candy, candied pecans, chips and dips, etc.

This can be a topic for an entire post in itself but I'll summarize by saying this time of year it's all about just getting through and not moving backwards. It's not the best time to expect to make great forward progress. Just survive and enjoy the holidays without doing too much damage. Don't completely bail on The PROGRAM and go back to bed habits but accept a little deviation from the plan. Your only alternative is to be completely miserable and not attend any holiday gatherings and that is obviously not cool.

Now moving on to more important things… As much as I have tried to design The PROGRAM  to be as painless as possible, at the end of the day to get in tremendous shape and to look the way many of us want to look is not easy.

It still has to suck a little bit.

 You don't need to workout CrossFit style or make yourself puke in your workouts to get
results. But at the same time, the workouts have to be hard and they have to be challenging. If they are not challenging or difficult, they are not going to get you where you want to be. The nutrition part is similar. While I don't want you guys to be starving and to be miserable all the time, you also can't expect to be completely satisfied and full and not restricted at all times and still get exceptional results.

As the expression goes, if it were easy everyone would do it. I believe that most people overdo it and suffer too much on traditional diet programs and that is why they have never been successful but again, even our PROGRAM  still has to suck a little bit.

 What I mean by that is even though we are allowed to enjoy many of the foods that
we like and were formerly considered taboo, it is easy to overeat many of these foods. Make no mistake about it, if you overeat these foods, or any foods, you will not get very lean and you may even gain weight.

You can continue to enjoy these great foods but we have to be cognizant of portions and total calories. While I don't like to recommend weighing and measuring foods as that can be extremely time consuming and can get ridiculous, it is important to be aware of how much we are eating and of portion sizes. It is safe to say that if your goal is to lose weight and get leaner, you will need to spend a good portion of the day being slightly hungry. The operative word here is slightly. I don't want you to be starving all day and fantasizing about food, but at the same time you can't be completely satisfied and eating to your heart’s content and expect to get ripped.

When your goal is to get leaner and lose fat, you should eat each meal until you are just shy of being satisfied. So if on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is full, you should stop at 8. I don't want you to be at a 5 and starving but if you are always at a 10 you will not lose weight. I've written this before but it bears repeating. If you eat until you are stuffed, you will likely be gaining weight. If you eat until you are satisfied, you will likely be maintaining weight. If you eat until you are just shy of satisfied, you will likely be losing weight.

 Below is a graphic that shows easy ways to gauge portion sizes for men and women and this is a
good place to start for many of you. But without getting too crazy about the portion sizes, just remember that in order to get leaner, it still has to suck a little bit.

Portion sizes- See below from Precision Nutrition for what they recommend as portion sizes. For our purposes, I’d suggest that most times we are looking at adding an additional portion of fat and vegetables and eliminating the carb dense food portion(s). Yes, they are likely smaller than you thought. ;-)

 Men's Portion Sizes

Women's Portion Sizes

 

Not on my watch.

Not on my watch.

It occurred to me today that there are quite a few things I could use as my personal and PROGRAM mission statement. There are too many to choose just one however, so I decided to consider it more of an idea than a statement.

It all started today when during a conversation with a client, she confided in me that she had
not gone to several social functions recently because she was so unhappy with the way she looked. I knew exactly what she was talking about. I'm sure you've experienced this at some point or another as well.

Many clients have told me about times when they were all ready to go out for the evening but after trying on six or seven outfits they just said f*ck it and stayed home because they were so discouraged with how they looked. That sucks. That really sucks.

Sometimes it’s either that or you decide to go out anyway but you will spend the
entire night in oversize clothing trying to hide your appearance and being totally preoccupied with how you look. Sound familiar? It does to me. This is where I realized one of my "mission statement” ideas.

I can summarize it with the expression "Not on my watch". What I mean by that is, the following are things that I want to change and things that I don't want to see happen on my watch.

I never want to see someone missing out on social events because of how they feel about their appearance. As I have spoken with many of you about, this is not about having a perfect bikini body or becoming a bodybuilder. For some, that may be the case but for most of us, it’s not about that.

Success, in my opinion, is not looking like you are 25 (unless of course, you are 25 lol), but it's about looking good and feeling confident at any age and in any situation.

Success for me would be a world where not one person stays home from a social event because they are self-conscious about their physical appearance.

It would be a world where at any age, we can do whatever it is we like to do and not be
limited by our physical performance or the way that we look.

So along those lines, success for me would also be a world where no one sits out on an activity that they would like to do because of their physical condition. For example, how many times have you heard a mother, father or grandparent tell a young child that they were too tired to
play or to weak to pick them up or carry them? I find this incredibly heartbreaking for both the adult and child. In my perfect world, I'd never see that happen.

We can all cite countless examples of people, maybe our friends, maybe ourselves or maybe our parents, who have not been able to continue with a certain sport or activity that they love because of their physical condition. How sad is that? Often times as we approach our later years of life, we have more free time to do what we want to do but we have lost the physical ability to do any of it.
The result of the loss of strength and physical capacity as we get older is the older adult who can't do anything physical that he enjoys anymore, whether it be skiing, playing basketball or playing with his grandchildren; and he ends up sitting on the couch watching TV all day. There is nothing that is more sad to me than that.

To sum it up, my goal in life and for all of you is a life in which you don't sit anything out.

You don't stay home social functions because you don’t look good in your dress.

You don't sit out the impromptu football game with your kids because your back hurts.

You don't neglect intimate times with your spouse because you are uncomfortable with your clothes off.

Not on my watch.

The 4 Problems with Fitness

Simplify, simplify, simplify. 

This pretty much sums up my approach to the world of health and fitness right now. It is very easy to get confused, overwhelmed and downright discouraged by all of the information out there. In today's day and age, information on nutrition and training is plentiful. But there are 4 problems with fitness information today.

The first problem is that there is too much of it. 

The second problem is that much of it is conflicting. 

The third problem is that some of it actually works, for somebody. 

The fourth problem is that much of it doesn't work, for everybody. 

So what to do?

First off, decide upon one "source" or coach to get your information from. Whether this is your doctor, your trainer, your coach or your chiropractor; you need to find someone who you trust. What do I mean by trust? Someone who you believe knows their stuff. Someone who walks the talk. Most importantly, someone who cares about you and your goals and results above all else. Once you have that person that you trust, listen to them and don't get distracted by all of the other noise.

If you choose me as your coach, here is what I suggest (in a nutshell).

Train with one goal- To get stronger and build muscle. There is not a single person or a single goal that I can think of or that I have ever heard that would not benefit tremendously from building muscle and getting stronger.

Want to lose weight? Lift weights, get stronger and build muscle. 

Want to tone up and lean out?  Lift weights, get stronger and build muscle.

Want to look great naked?  Lift weights, get stronger and build muscle.

Want more energy and stamina to play sports or keep up with your kids?  Lift weights, get stronger and build muscle.

Want to be better in the sack?  Lift weights, get stronger and build muscle (kidding, but actually that's true too..)

Ok so you get the idea. Lift weights and get stronger. Everything else will follow.

Now along the lines of simplifying- The reason I always emphasize the need for a PLAN when you go to the gym is that if you don't have a solid and simple plan of what you need to accomplish at the gym each day, you will flounder around doing what you "feel" like doing each time and that doesn't work.
Training isn't meant to be fun and it doesn't need to be different every time. What it needs to be is progressive, meaning it challenges you more each time and that it makes you stronger over time. That's it.
So keep it to a few great exercises, make sure you push yourself as much as possible on those exercises and get as strong as you possibly can on those exercises. 

Nutrition is similar. Simplify, simplify, simplify. More on that next blog..

Cardio Sucks.

Cardio Sucks. 

Some of you may have heard me say that, many of you probably think the same thing. Let me explain...

Some of you may wonder why I don't recommend cardio, at least for clients who are looking to lose weight/fat. Let me explain why. 

It has been my experience that cardiovascular training is extremely
ineffective for weight loss. Not only have I determined this by observing thousands of clients clients throughout the years but I have also experiment with this for myself and have found it to be true. This short recent example should help explain why. Typically in my training now I do very little if any of what would typically be called "cardio training". My strength training workouts are hard and intense and have a definite cardiovascular benefit but I do almost none of what most people would consider cardio, ie: jogging, biking, etc.  That being said I follow The PROGRAM nutrition
protocol very closely, I'd say 90% of the time, and I can honestly say I am maintaining a level of body fat at 45 years old that is
lower than it has ever been in my life, with the exception of when I
was 18. I credit that entirely to The PROGRAM nutritional protocol and intense strength training. 

Last week while traveling I decided to try a new workout which was basically a high-intensity interval training class. The class was
great and I really enjoyed it. I love getting a good sweat and I
actually enjoyed pushing myself cardiovascularly. It reminded me
very much of the years I spent boxing and playing hockey, etc. I was out of breath for most of the class and I sweat like I haven't sweat in years. I wore a heart rate monitor during the class so the
instructor could keep an eye on my heart rate and calorie burn
throughout the class. When it was all said and done the calorie
counter told me that I burned approximately 500 calories in the class. I am always suspect of these equations that determine calories burned,  as there are many factors that affect that true number, but let's agree for this example that I burned about that seems about right.

 About 30 minutes after the class, when I finally stopped sweating and got my heart rate back to normal, we headed out for something to eat. Typically at this time of the night, about 6:30 PM, I am usually ready to eat a relatively light dinner consisting of about 6 to 8 ounces of protein, some good fats and a large salad of some sort. This time of day is typically fairly easy for me to stick to The PROGRAM nutritional protocol and willpower is never an
issue. Since starting The PROGRAM approximately 2 to 3 years ago, I rarely crave  processed carbohydrates anymore. Well, this particular night was much different... After completing my 500 cal cardio class, I was on the hunt for some refined carbs! As my friend and I walked through Denver looking for restaurants I was drawn to the coal-fired pizza restaurant across the street. Now it's not to say that I don't sometimes eat pizza. Sometimes I will take the kids out for it or we'll order it on a Saturday night. But this particular time was different. I had to have pizza. Like, the "I have to have pizza or I will kill you" kind of had to have it. I could not deny this craving. In fact, I wanted to wash it down with a nice cold
large Coke (which I did not).

 It should be obvious by now that I gave into my craving, went to the pizza restaurant and proceeded to devour what I would guess to be about 900 to 1000 cal worth of pizza in all of it's refined carbohydrate glory. Needless to say I did not feel great about an hour after this indulgence nor did I feel good until for the next 12 hours or so. It took me quite a few PROGRAM- friendly meals to reset my blood sugar levels. Now, think about the average person who does high-intensity cardiovascular training (spin class, running etc.) in an effort to lose weight. At the same time, this person is attempting to follow a reduced-carbohydrate diet (hopefully) and they find it extremely difficult. My example should explain why. 

It is almost impossible to stick to a reduced carbohydrate diet while performing lots of high intensity cardiovascular exercise. Your body simply demands the carbohydrates to replenish it's carbohydrate stores after high-intensity cardio exercise. The solution? Well obviously doing high-intensity cardio exercise and burning 500 cal and replenishing with 1000 cal is no way to lose weight. A better solution is to limit the cardiovascular exercise, focus instead on intense strength-training and muscle building exercise, and maintain your reduced carbohydrate (The PROGRAM) diet. And by the way, if you are worried about "heart-health" and crap like that, the proper resistance training program will have your heart and lungs pumping and healthier more than any "cardio" program. ;-)