Chris Colucci's Blog

Don't Call It A Comeback, I Been Here for Years

2010-07-31T09:03:00.004-05:00

Cue Blog Posting... Take Two

Yeah, so, guess that was a bit of a hiatus. Here's what y'all missed in the last three months or so in no particular order, in 100 words or less, and apparently, with a million and three links:

- I got a Facebook page. Huzzah.

- Organic CSA farming began.

- The Green Faces Diet

- I got a Twitter page. Huzzah again.

- How I Train (okay, not me, but three other awesome coaches).

- I gave s'more blood and signed up to be a bone marrow donor. (Feel free to do likewise, if you're so inclined.)

- I've pretty much decided to train for a bodyweight two-hands anyhow by my next birthday, and I have about 12 weeks to find 65 pounds. I'm thinking it sounds "easier" than it is.

- I decided that this is the funniest film I've seen in years:

Meh, I could've sworn it was a lot busier when it was happening, but looking at it like this seems like I've been shlubbing around eating creamsicles and watching Columbo. But... um... I wasn't. Seriously.

Anyway, now we're up to date and back on track. Catch 'ya later.

Hey Athletes, Don't Just Run. Run Fast!

2010-03-29T14:29:00.001-05:00

Yes, I'm specifically talking to paintball athletes.

But, no, I'm not only talking to paintball athletes.

Long, slow, distance cardio (sometimes appropriately called LSD cardio), has a very limited and often over-rated role in the majority of athletes' training programs.

Whether we're trying to build aerobic or anaerobic cardio endurance or burn calories, LSD cardio (running for multiple miles at a submaximal speed) is, at best, inefficient and, at worst, a waste of precious training time.

Toxic People - Not Just in Tromaville

2010-02-02T11:11:00.010-05:00

I was catching up on the ol' Cyanide and Happiness and I wandered across this comic:

It kinda reminded me of this article about toxic people.

Every once in a while it's worth taking a look at the folks around you, and see who's legitimately trying to help you succeed and who's (consciously or unconsciously) holding you back.

My Book Report: 50/50 by Dean Karnazes

2010-01-14T20:35:00.004-05:00

Believe it or not, you can learn something about building muscle by reading a book about an ultramarathon runner who's all of 160 pounds when he's got a full stomach and a five-pound dumbbell in his hand.

50/50 is a first-hand account written by Dean "Karno" Karnazes and it details his self-imposed challenge of running 50 full marathons (those are 26.2 miles each, in case you forgot), one in each of the 50 states for 50 consecutive days.

Karnazes, who's kind of a big deal in ultramarathon circles, ends up making the experience sound like some kind of a rock tour. His trip is complete with roadies (who created their own 50/50 challenge of getting 50 girls' phone numbers across all the states), a fully-stocked tour bus complete with surly British driver, and a "finish festival" after each race for press meet-and-greets and brief socializing with fellow runners.

There are definitely a few parts of the book that just didn't sit right with me, such as several "screenplay-perfect" moments of drama that included burst blisters on his feet, running with a gruesomely described snot-filled sinus infection, and a spontaneously disappearing tour manager. "Dave had mysteriously vanished while I was running the Montana Marathon, and now he wasn't on the bus." ::cut to Dramatic Chipmunk:: And that all happened before the end of the second week!

Another hard-to-believe "fact" is Karnazes' mention that his family, of Greek origin, is supposedly from the same small town that the Ancient Greek Pheidippides hailed from. Pheidippides, as we all know, is said to have completed the first "marathon" when he ran from Marathon to Athens after a key battle. Convenient, huh?

There's also the point when Karnazes insinuates that he's responsible for giving a shoe designer at Nike the idea to look into barefoot training, which lead to the development of the Nike Free. So you can (maybe) thank Karno next time you lace up your Frees before some heavy deadlifts.

So, with all that said, what can this distance runner possibly have to offer those who lift heavy things? Well, in one section, Karnazes describes his sport:

"Running is a participatory sport, not a fan sport. For this reason, typical runners have only limited interest in sitting back and admiring elite and other well-known runners. Rather, typical runners want to learn from these folks and apply the knowledge to their own performance." (p.63)

Now substitute "bodybuilding" for "running," and "lifters" for "runners," and...voila... we're two sides of the same coin, man. That's deep. Seriously though, for a second, forget that in marathon running there literally is such a thing as "too much muscle."

If somebody is pushing their body farther than it otherwise wants to go, and they're focusing more on willpower than lactic acid build-up, don't you think they deserve at least a nod of respect, even if their total bodyweight is roughly equivalent to your daily protein intake?

More importantly, there's the chance to look at the bigger picture of what Karnazes accomplished. The guy averaged a below-four-hour marathon time throughout his 50 races (which is a decent pace for an inexperienced runner and, while not Karno's best times, some of the 50 runs were closer to a quick-paced three hours) and that was all done on an average of four and a half hours sleep each night.

The 154-pound runner also managed to burn over 160,000 calories during the 50 marathons and lost a grand total of one pound of bodyweight. Granted, Karno is "that runner" you might've heard of who has pizzas delivered to street corners so he can eat a pie during his run. But (technically) it's workout nutrition, any way you cut it.

The big picture here is telling us that, contrary to common belief, it's damn hard to overtrain a well-conditioned Human body through excessive exercise. If you've been lifting for a while and you're the least bit hesitant about increasing your overall training frequency or using an entire training day to decimate one bodypart, just think back to what this little runner might be able to teach you.

Alleged Girlfriend Says Tiger Woods Was Small

2009-12-04T10:31:00.003-05:00

"He told me he was very insecure about the size of his calves. He said, 'I can't grow calves.'"

This is how Jaimee Grubbs, the latest girl claiming to be a part-time Tiger-tamer, is saying the golf phenom felt about his lower legs.

As a 6'1", 185-pound pro golfer at the top of his game, Tiger isn't really expected to sport massive guns or bodybuilder wheels. He's got an above-average physique compared to non-athletes, and his body is probably one of the most "athletic-looking" compared to fellow golfers (pro or recreational).

He also had reconstructive knee surgery just last year, so hamstring, calf, and ankle strength and stability should definitely remain a priority, in addition to his technical game, of course.

But tiny calves can make any guy (except the most delusional) feel self-conscious in beach trunks, and if he did want to invest some time into beefing up his lower legs, he might want have his S&C coach check out my four-week program, Building Fat Guy Calves, designed to build bigger walking sticks.

Or, talk about timing, he could take a look at today's TMUSCLE article, where several coaches gave their best calf training ideas.

P.S. - Was I terrible for deciding this blog's title? Kinda, yeah, but it made me giggle. ;)

The #1 Warm-Up Exercise

2009-11-30T13:03:00.004-05:00

So, I was half-a-bonehead and forgot to post this video here on the blog back when I originally put it up on SocialPaintball.com a few months ago.

Have a look at the reverse lunge with twist, one of the best full-body warm-up exercises around. Pretty easy to learn and it thoroughly prepares the legs, back, abs, and shoulders.

Keep it as only a warm-up movement/mobility drill, rather than a primary exercise, because there's no real way to safely add load and make it progressively more challenging.

And yes, in the video I'm talking within the context of paintball players because, in case you hadn't made the leap, SocialPaintball.com is the best video website aimed specifically at paintball players and I work with many paintball players.

The reverse lunge with twist is still a great movement for almost anyone, and should be a key player in all your weight training warm-ups.

Farm Season's Over

2009-11-25T11:12:00.003-05:00

Back in June, I explained how I signed up for my second season at a local, organic CSA farm. That's meant weekly deliveries of so many fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs, I literally didn't always have a chance to finish them each week. (Anything that ended up wilting before I could get to it was provided to the grateful squirrels in the backyard.)

Well, yesterday was the last delivery of the season, which means I'll be back to foraging for my own produce at Costco, Whole Foods, and Stop & Shop. At least, I will once I actually finish the stuff that came in this last batch.

Clockwise from the bottom left, those are sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, butternut squash, rutabaga, watermelon radish, kohlrabi, broccoli, kale, carrots, and red cabbage.

This is the pretty much the same variety, and amount, that I've been getting every week. As you can imagine, it's been tricky figuring out recipes for some of the funky new things I've never heard of before. (Kohlrabi... really? The stuff looks like a cross-pollination experiment gone wrong, but it's great in a stir fry.)

I eventually settled on some general rules of thumb: If it can be eaten raw, it goes in a salad; if it's greenish, it gets sauteed with EVOO and garlic; if it's solid and tuber- or squash-like, it gets roasted/baked. Mario Batali, I'm not, but these are way better options than just saying, "Nope, never tried that before. I ain't gonna eat it."

So here's a big thank you to Golden Earthworm Farms for doing all the hard work so shmoes like me can have ridiculously-delicious and healthful foods. I'll definitely be signing up again next year.

To find a CSA farm in your area, check LocalHarvest.org

And have a Happy Thanksgiving, all.

30 Things I Think

2009-11-03T17:50:00.007-05:00

Maybe it was my recent birthday, or maybe I just couldn't resist the urge to launch into a semi-random, semi-considerate list of principles, theories, and ideas, but here it goes:

- If you can't do double-digit push-ups and lunges, plus a handful of chin-ups, you're out of shape and at that point, I don't care how much you squat or how many abs are showing.

- "Functional training" isn't a broad generalization, it's always context-specific. Competitive bodybuilders are extremely functional... for their sport... but they suck at MMA, and vice versa.

- In "From The Ground Up, Dan John said, "If all you did was clean and press, you could be awesome." The more often I clean and press, the more I think he might be right.

- Guys, whenever you adjust your junk in a public setting, where people like me can notice, I automatically assume you're so poorly-endowed that you often forget it's there and have to check. If you adjust your junk in the gym during your workout, I think you're a giant tool fiddling with his small tool.

- Joint mobility is important, but it's pretty close to being overemphasized. Unless you have significant pre-existing issues, you'll be fine if you "only" include a few quick, basic mobility drills in each workout; something for the hips and something for the thoracic spine are good "bang for your buck" areas to start with, with an ankle mobility and scapular stability drill coming in next.

- Don't forget where you came from, in family and in business. Biting the hand that feeds (or fed) you is a dirtbag move.

- If you don't know how to get a complete workout, hitting every major muscle group, using only a barbell, you still have learning to do.

- No matter how advanced you are, get a role model, either real or fictional. Find somebody who inspires you be better, train harder, and bolsters your self-discipline, whether it's Conan the Barbarian or your cousin Marty the Marine.

- Get an arch-nemesis, preferably real, but certainly don't feel the need to tell them they're the lucky winner. Having somebody in mind, so you can always think to yourself, "XYZ wouldn't punk out, so why am I?" can be incredibly motivating. Batman had, like, a thousand arch-enemies, and he's pretty badass. Do likewise, gents.

- When in doubt, do less, but do it harder. This applies to weight training and cardio.

- Donate blood. It's one of the least expensive (free, actually) and least time-consuming ways you can help your community. What's the point of building a strong, lean, healthy body and keeping it to yourself? If you're medically-able, donate as often as you can.

- I purposely avoid conversations about politics, religion, and steroids, partly because I'm not 100% knowledgeable on those topics, though I certainly have an informed opinion on each, but also because those conversations are rarely productive and when they end, whoever you're speaking with often views you just a bit differently from that point on. It's a no-win situation.

- If you don't plan on ever using steroids, it makes no sense to train like someone who does, or to use that person's physique and/or strength level as a motivator.

- Metallica's live S & M album is quite possibly the best training music ever created, start to finish. Anything by Disturbed or King Diamond are a close second.

- Want to lose fat? The 3-step plan that never fails is: 1) Eat a little less. 2) Move a little more. 3) Do neither to an extreme. Get those broad strokes in place before sweating the details.

- Whether you're trying to gain muscle or lose fat, there's no reason at all to be drinking plain water while you train. Drink whatever combination of aminos, protein, carbs, or other goodies are best suited your goals. Calories taken in immediately before, during, and immediately after you lift are absolutely crucial to progress.

- There's always more to learn, in lifting, nutrition, and in life, but that doesn't mean things that worked 6, 16, or 60 years ago suddenly stop working. There should be enough room in your brain for the new info to bump into the old info and be like, "Why, hello, fellow idea. Let us live together as harmoniously productive roommates."

- Time management is underrated. Trim your time-wasters (like excessive email-checking) and you'll be surprised how much more you get done in a day.

- If you never plan to step on stage and compete, you're not a bodybuilder, you're just a guy who lifts weights, maybe does cardio, and pays attention to what he eats. If not being able to be labelled "a bodybuilder" upsets you, tough.

If I drive fast and make a lot of left turns, I'm not a NASCAR driver, I'm a guy in my car. If I shoot hoops alone in my driveway seven days a week, I'm not a basketball player, I'm a guy who plays basketball. There's a difference; it may be subtle/borderline semantics, but there is one.

- The only thing that genuinely annoys me in the gym is people who stand too close to the dumbbell rack while they lift (usually doing curls or lateral raises). It's the only time I intentionally stare, waiting for an opportunity to let you know why that's a douchey thing to do. But even then, I have the decency not to interrupt your set to tell you.

- One of the best first steps you can take to improve your overall nutrition is to join a local CSA farm and eat all of the vegetables, usually 2-5 pounds worth, each week.

- If you're a personal trainer and you can't explain any particular concept so that a 12-year old would understand it, you don't really get it.

- Great rule of thumb (should be rule of the wrist?) for fat loss cardio: Be explosive. Whether it's sprinting, medicine ball throws for time, lightweight Olympic lift variations, or ballistic kettlebell exercises.

- Regardless if it works or not, the "pick-up artist" phenomenon of the last few years makes me weep for the recent generation of boy-men.

- I'll say it once again: I don't care what your bodyfat percentage is. Take pictures and track inches gained/lost for a much more accurate, more concrete way to chart progress.

- For most people, eating three solid meals plus your pre/during/post-workout shakes will be pretty close to perfect, regardless of your goal.

- It's a tired, tired cliche, but when it comes to training, everything does work... for about six weeks. People have had results training one set per bodypart every two weeks, and some have had results training 20 sets per bodypart every three days. You'll be lifting for your whole life, so be sure to experiment with everything in between.

- Don't be "too cool" to write down your workouts. Tracking your sessions from week to week and, eventually, year to year will let you see what does and doesn't work. This is what makes long-term progress possible.

- To express frustration, I call people knucklehead, goofball, and bonehead because calling them asshole, motherfucker, and shithead makes them stop listening to whatever else you're saying.

- Becoming a "Jack of all trades, Master of one or two" will turn you into a very valuable and useful person to friends, family, and employers. It also comes in handy when designing your training plan.

That should be 30 things. Unfortunately, since I was only shooting for 30, I couldn't include any more, like how there's no magic rep range that guarantees muscle-building, but if there was, it'd probably be under 8; or how the easiest way to get a better night's sleep is to get darker window curtains, face the alarm clock away from you so it doesn't act as a nightlight, and drink less water at night so you wake up to pee less.

I thought them all through, and they're a few handfuls of things I believe, made just about as succinct as I can make them. Any questions? Let me know.

The Birthday Challenge: Big 3-0 Edition

2009-10-29T12:38:00.002-05:00

Yes, I'm 30 today. Make your jokes, whippersnappers, I'll be in the corner tucking in my t-shirt, hiking up the waist of my pants, and working on my Walt Kowalski impression.

Okay... so, starting last year, I created a little birthday challenge designed to celebrate and test this chronologically-challenged suit of meat, blood, and bones. I welcome you to test yourself with it, either on your birthday or on your merry un-birthday.

Choose one big, basic barbell exercise like the squat, deadlift, power clean, or overhead press, and perform your age in reps using one-half your bodyweight.

Then, pick a bodyweight exercise like the prisoner squat, single-leg deadlift, push-up, or chin-up, and perform double your age in reps.

The key here is that one of the exercises needs to primarily target your upper body and the other exercise has to target your lower body. So, if the barbell lift hits the legs, hips, or glutes, the bodyweight exercise should work the back, chest, shoulders, and/or arms, and vice versa.

This year, as a 215-pound, 30-year old, I went with a barbell deadlift (115 pounds for 30 reps, and yeah, I rounded the weight up to make the math easier for my tired old brain) and 60 reps of Hindu push-ups.

It was a very quick, full-body "workout" that used everything from head to toe as a reminder that, if your body works, you have a job to go to in the morning, friends and family to talk with, and there's a roof over your head and food in the fridge, at the end of the day, things aren't that bad at all.

As George Carlin once said, "Don't sweat the petty stuff, and don't pet the sweaty stuff."

Happy b-day, fellow Scorpios. Have a good one.

It's World Vegetarian Day

2009-10-01T13:08:00.002-05:00

So, I just read on Jason Ferruggia's blog that today is World Vegetarian Day.

Seeing as how I dipped my toe in the herbivore water earlier this year, and was pleasantly surprised and somewhat enlightened, I thought I'd spread the word about this day dedicated to the devouring of delicious delicacies that don't have to die to be digested. (Was that a stretch? I thought I was on a roll.)

To recognize world vegetarian day and the start of vegetarian awareness month (... okay, even I'll admit that one sounds pretty odd), how's about we lean a little more towards meat-free for the next day or two and bump up the vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds in each meal.

Give it an honest shot for, say, the next two or three meals in a row and see how you feel. More energy? Feeling more full on less food? Can't concentrate because you've got barbecued short ribs on your brain? Just find out, because nutrition, like training, will always benefit from an open mind and the occasional experiment.

10 Old School Routines to Get Big

2009-09-28T14:52:00.004-05:00

You know I'm always open to learning how lifting and nutrition was done back in the day, and here's a pretty cool recent blog I read, 10 Bulk Routines That Work.

There were a few things that I noticed about the routines:

1) There were some common themes running throughout most of the programs: Lotsa squats, lotsa food, just a few other exercises, and plenty of rest. Pretty basic stuff, but it bears repeating.

2) The workouts use some higher reps than you might expect for a size-building plan, but as we learned a few months ago, high reps do good things to growing bodies.

3) If you were to find pictures of all the guys who first came up with these plans, you'll notice that, while they did actually get big, they also got pretty "smooth." (That's the diplomatic way of saying that, more often than not, they gained plenty of bodyfat along with their muscle, but they never really cared because added size was added size.)

It's always a personal call, exactly how much bodyfat is acceptable on a bulk. But always remember, those pounds of fat you gain now will be more pounds of fat you'll have to deal with when it comes time to get ripped up again. I'm just sayin'.

Lessons from Sumo

2009-08-16T16:06:00.001-05:00

I've always enjoyed sumo wrestling for a few reasons. It doesn't have to do with the obesity, blood pressure problems, or decreased life expectancy of the average traditional wrestler, and it definitely doesn't have anything to do with the mawashi (those "diaper"-looking outfits).

It has to do with the simplicity of the sport itself. Two wrestlers in a ring, first one out loses. Simple enough, but definitely not easy. It gets even better when you get rare situations like the video above. Hurray for the underdog.

Of all the traditions associated with sumo, there's one that's pretty misunderstood. Their nutrition. Contrary to the idea that "sumo wrestlers eat anything and everything", there's one particular calorie-dense stew, called chanko, that serves as a cornerstone of their nutrition plan.

There was an TMUSCLE article written many moons ago, that explained how to adapt the chanko concept to a muscle-building, mass gaining plan.

For another take on it, here's one recipe for a traditional chanko stew. It explains the general idea, but you can definitely tweak it to your own preferences. I'm guessing that you don't need to avoid beef or fish for superstitious reasons, so go for it.

If you're looking to start adding some serious size, consider breaking out a crock pot and give chanko a chance.

A Vegetarian Hitting Things With a Stick

2009-07-14T10:13:00.004-05:00

To clarify: By "vegetarian", I mean two-time MLB All-Star Prince Fielder. By "things", I mean baseballs, and by "stick", I mean a baseball bat.

Last night, Fielder won the 2009 Home Run Derby knocking out 23 home runs for the night, including a 500-footer. At 260-something pounds, the Milwaukee Brewers' first baseman has maintained solid performance on the field since switching to a vegetarian diet before the 2008 baseball season.

Along the same line of the bodybuilders I wrote about during my own vegetarian experiment, Prince Fielder can be definitively added to "that list" of athletes who've adopted a meat-free nutrition plan with no negative effects on their athletic performance.

Exercise Spotlight: Overhead Press

2009-07-09T09:28:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since the last Exercise Spotlight, but it's back with one of the best, and most basic, upper body lifts - the overhead press.

True, I already put the Spotlight on the push press and I still believe the push press is tremendous for building strength, size, and athleticism, but the overhead press is fundamental and often-overlooked, hence... the Spotlight.

I'm also skipping the usual format for the Exercise Spotlight, because the overhead press was thoroughly explained in my recent TMUSCLE article - The Overhead Press: Bodybuilding's Forgotten Muscle Builder.

That should explain pretty much everything you need to know about what to do, what not to do, how to do it, and why to do it.

Well-built shoulders are where it's at, and the overhead press is one of the best ways there.

100 Years of Muscle

2009-06-19T12:51:00.017-05:00

Here's a look at some of the most popular physiques over the last ten decades. What body type can you relate to? Also, see how well you do at a little game I call, "Guess when steroids made their way into bodybuilding."

1900s - Eugen Sandow, often called "the first bodybuilder."

1910s - Bobby Pandour, Vaudeville entertainer and circus gymnast.

1920s - Angelo Siciliano, won the "World's Most Beautiful Man" contest. Later changed his name to Charles Atlas and created one of the first nation-wide fitness crazes.

1930s - Bert Goodrich, the first Mr. America.

1940s - Clancy Ross, 1945-46 Mr. America. 1948-49 Mr. USA.

1950s - Steve Reeves, 1950 Mr. Universe. The first bodybuilder to become popular in Hollywood.

1960s - Larry Scott, 1962 Mr. America, 1963-64 Mr. Universe. Won the first two Mr. Olympia contests in 1965-66.

1970s - Ken Waller, won Mr. World, Mr. America, Mr. International, and Mr. Universe throughout the '70s. Frequent training partner of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

1980s - Lee Haney, 1984-1991 Mr. Olympia.

1990s - Flex Wheeler, winner of 1993, '97 and '98 Arnold Classic, winner of 1993 and 1995-1998 Ironman Pro Invitational

2000s - Ronnie Coleman, 1998-2005 Mr. Olympia.

Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors

2009-06-11T21:11:00.005-05:00

I've always recognized the value of learning how the bodybuilders of yesteryear did things. (Did I just say "yesteryear"? Yeah, I did.)

So when I had the chance to pick up a copy of Randy Roach's giant text Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors: Volume One, I grabbed it and devoured the info as quickly as possible.

The book discusses the entire concept of Physical Culture, and explains how that lifestyle evolved (some would say devolved) into today's bodybuilding scene. It covers the late 1800's right up to the 1960's, and talks about the guys who defined the lifestyle, how they trained, how they did business, and primarily, how they ate.

Armand Tanny. 1949 Pro Mr. America, 1949-1950 Mr. USA.
Preferred to eat raw meat.

I interviewed Randy for TMUSCLE.com and got him to share some more thoughts about how the book developed, as well as some "behind the scenes" info that he discovered through his research.

Until Volume Two comes out next year (and Volume Three sometime after that), be sure to check out my interview with Randy and pick up a copy of the book.

If weight training and eating right is any part of your lifestyle today, you'll gain an even better appreciation for it once you learn about its roots.

I'm a Farmer, Again

2009-06-05T13:41:00.007-05:00

You might remember my venture into joining a CSA farm last year. Well, I'm back at it again this year. I've signed up for a full membership to help support the Golden Earthworm Organic Farm out in Jamesport.

A CSA, or community-supported agriculture, farm is a throwback to the good old, "Yes Mr. Farmer. I'll pay you cash monies, and in return, you'll give me some of your crops."

I first got the notion to join a CSA after reading Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto which discussed the benefits of a diet based on nutritious whole foods, fruits, and vegetables. I highly recommend that you give the book a read, or at least, read through this great summary, Eat Food. Not Much. Mostly Plants.

I received my first batch of certified-organic vegetables (fruit should start arriving next month), and it looked something like this.

Going clockwise from the lower left corner, that's rhubarb, French breakfast radishes, a head of red lettuce, a head of Boston lettuce, a small bag of arugula, beets, baby bok choi, and white turnips.

You'll notice the greens missing from the beets. That's because I ended up sauteeing them (with some olive oil, shallots, and sea salt) before I remembered to snap the picture. Whoopsy. But it was delicious.

This is all just one week's worth which means I'll be seriously increasing my daily vegetable intake. That's a good thing, and fits right in with what I decided to do after my recent diet experiment.

Another great thing about this farm is the strawberries. Holy crow. If you've never had fresh Long Island strawberries, buddy, you're missing something. The farm just had a "u-pick" strawberry weekend. It was well-worth the three-hour round trip to spend an hour in the field plucking a few quarts of strawberries right off the vine with my own two hands.

Ridiculously red, no preservatives, no chemical pesticides.

So, consider this one more suggestion for you to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet. The more natural, the better. A side of creamed spinach from KFC = not quite natural. Raw spinach that was harvested at 10am and in your kitchen by 2pm = good times.

To find a CSA farm near you, check LocalHarvest.org.

Blood: You've Got Plenty, So Share.

2009-05-26T08:19:00.004-05:00

A few days ago, I spent about 45-minutes dropping off a pint at a local blood drive and earned some apple juice and oatmeal raisin cookies afterwards. That's a fair trade in my book.

The way I see it, it's one of the easiest, least time-involved, least expensive, and most beneficial ways to "do a good thing." And sometimes, doing a good thing a pretty good idea.

Why's it a good idea? Well, for starters, one out of every 10 people admitted into a hospital will need blood; the average red blood cell transfusion is approximately three pints; but under 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, but even less do so on a regular basis.

My favorite part of the whole donation process, aside from the awesome juice and cookies, is after the donation is done and the nurse is wrapping up my arm, they run through the whole "Keep the bandage in place for the next few hours, avoid smoking, blah, blah, blah, and be sure to drink plenty of water for the next 24 hours." I'm always thinking, "Um, in addition to the gallon and a half I usually drink? M'kay, no problem."

I generally skip my workout the day I plan on donating, to avoid any unnecessary fatigue and because I don't want too much strain on my recovery abilities, but I'm right back on schedule the next day. So there, if you're looking for an excuse to miss one workout, now you've got it, with my official permission and everything.

If you're in the New York/New Jersey area, you can find more info about blood drives (including drives in your area) at the New York Blood Center.

If you're not in New York or New Jersey, check out the American Red Cross at GiveLife.org.

Thanks.

If You Believe You Can, You Can

2009-05-11T20:23:00.002-05:00

Tiffara Steward is blind in one eye and partially deaf. She was born three months premature, has scoliosis, and one leg is shorter than the other.

Tiffara Steward is the co-captain of the SUNY Farmingdale Rams basketball team. She averages 6.4 points and 2.5 steals per game. She shoots 38% from three-point range (that's better than NBA pro Carmello Anthony).

Tiffara Steward is 4'6" and 90 pounds, and she's not letting anything slow her down from reaching her goals.

How about you?

Life Without My Meat, Part 2

2009-04-24T10:17:00.002-05:00

Make sure you've first read Life Without My Meat, Part 1 to see the beginning of my vegetarian experiment. We now pick up at the mid-way point...

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And Then I Became a Vegan... But Not Really

To say that I spent a month as a vegan isn't very accurate. It's like saying I did the Velocity Diet, but used grilled chicken breasts instead of Metabolic Drive. I trained DC-style, but skipped those annoying rest-pause sets. I spent the night at Pauline Nordin's house, but we just talked.

It's more accurate to say that I adopted a vegan diet. I still covered up with a down comforter at night and I wore my black leather jacket to Fonzie appreciation night at the diner, but I didn't eat anything that came from an animal source. Every sort of meat and dairy was still, literally, off the table, and now things like honey and butter were off limits too.

My Sample Vegan Menu

Breakfast: 1/2 cup amaranth, 1 apple.

Lunch: 2 slices Ezekiel bread, ghetto guacamole (1 fork-smashed avocado, garlic powder, kosher salt).

Afternoon: 3 scoops rice protein in water with 1 orange.

Dinner: 2 cups of vegan "chili" (black beans, red beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers), 1/4 cup quinoa.

Night: 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds.

The exact definition of a "vegan" still causes confusion and arguments, even between vegans and wannabe-vegans. Is somebody a true vegan if they avoid eating animal products, but still wear the wool sweater their Great-Aunt Martha hand-knitted on her deathbed?

What about a lady who avoids animal foods and products, but has a husband who mercilessly grills steaks with the guys every weekend. If there are dead cow parts in her fridge, can she really be a vegan? These are philosophical issues way beyond the scope of my little experiment.

I had a hard enough time just watching what I ate, and that included double-checking my supplements. Rez-V, which I've taken daily for months, comes in a gelatin capsule. I could either drop it altogether or crack open the cap and apply it transdermally. I went the second route, and didn't notice any changes compared to taking them orally.

And yes, Virginia, there are also vegan bodybuilders. Guys like Joe DeMarco and Alex Dargatz maintain vegan lifestyles while building serious muscle.

Joe DeMarco, 2007 NPC lightweight Master's Nationals Champion

My First Workout as a Vegan

Two days after going vegan, I had my first weight training session, and it sucked. I'm used to having Surge Workout Fuel during my training, but since it includes some milk ingredients, it was a no-go for this month.

During the workout, I decided to drink about 20 ounces of water and 20 ounces of coconut water (not coconut milk, huge difference), for some simple sugars. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing.

Just like Brawndo, coconut water's got electrolytes. It's lacking significant sodium, but it delivers a pretty high dose of potassium. It tastes great, but I suggest you ease into it and don't chug a whole bunch at once. It's sometimes used as a laxative, probably due to it's relatively-high potassium content.

Immediately after training, I had a rice protein shake, and then a solid food meal a while after that. On a related note, Sun Warrior rice protein mixed in water and stirred with a spoon is like drinking spackle. Not fun. A blender and fruit are mandatory.

Why Didn't I Get Jacked or Ripped?

Back in junior high, I remember Mrs. Berman teaching one crucial rule about science experiments: Only change one variable at a time, otherwise you won't know why you get the results you get.

For the past several months, my training has been mostly full-body workouts done three times a week, lifting fairly heavy for low volume and moderate reps... and then I started this diet experiment. If I also changed my workouts, then I couldn't accurately determine the effects of a vegetarian/vegan diet, now, could I?

I started the journey weighing 217 and I was 205 on my last morning as a vegan. Along the way, my strength continued to increase at its usual rate (the same as it did with my standard omni diet), but I "accidentally" lost 12 pounds of scale weight.

Several people said that my face leaned out; my girlfriend actually said my face looked "hollow." I think it was supposed to be a compliment. My t-shirt and jeans also filled out a bit in the shoulders, arms, and thighs, not the waist.

Add all that up — strength gains, reduced scale weight, and visible/tangible changes — and you get positive physique results. I'm not at all saying it was entirely fat loss, but I didn't whither away as some may've expected.

This physique was "built" with nothing but apples, but I wasn't worried of following suit.

Technically-speaking, since my original goal was to maintain my weight, the overall experiment could be called a "failure." However, despite my bodyweight reduction, I do believe that it's possible to be a vegan and build large muscles.

I'd attribute my unintentional weight loss to "newbie diet errors" and calorie miscalculations, as Dr. Berardi inferred were common. That was "my bad," as the kids say.

To see how it can be done right, we should look at folks who really know what they're doing. Mike Mahler and Robert Dos Remedios have each been vegan for nearly two decades, and they're bigger and stronger now than they were back then.

Joe DeMarco and Alex Dargatz stick to a vegan diet and compete as successful bodybuilders. If they can go through off-season and pre-contest conditions, and still beat omni's to win bodybuilding contests, then with some work and attention, Average Joe can be a vegan and get built.

Plus, when you've got things like peanut butter-banana-coconut milk shakes, guacamole by the bowlful, and that Sir Mix-a-Lot classic (red beans and rice), a vegan bulking cycle can deliver plenty of high quality, mass-building calories.

Why Aren't There More Vegetarian Pro Bodybuilders?

Hell if I know, but riddle me this... why aren't there more tattooed bodybuilders? Sure, there are some, but I can't think of any pro bodybuilders with full sleeve tattoos. I want to see a really impressive physique that showcases some fully detailed, shoulder-to-wrist ink.

Okay, so there's at least one.

Maybe the type of person who lifts weights and gets a full sleeve tattoo isn't going to be interested in competing. Maybe the people who get full sleeve tattoos recognize that it might not be ideal to have their tattoos and compete successfully. Or maybe it's just a freaking coincidence and not a sign that tattooed people are incapable of winning bodybuilding competitions.

The bottom line is that there are vegetarians/vegans who compete in bodybuilding, and there are vegetarians/vegans who weigh more than that imaginary 200-pound "barrier." But if you're wondering why there aren't many who compete in bodybuilding competitions while weighing over 200 pounds, you'll have to ask them yourself, because only they could tell you.

What I Learned Afterwards

My before/after fasting cholesterol levels were, respectively:

Total: 168/155
HDL: 43/34
LDL: 125/121
Triglycerides: 151/124

Cholesterol levels aren't exactly an accurate picture of your inner workings, but it's interesting to see that my "good" levels dropped even though I had plenty of quality fats and fiber. However, the decrease in Triglycerides is a great thing for overall heart health.

Because of two major lab SNAFUs, I wasn't able to get my hormone levels before or after. Those would've been much more relevant, but my doctor is a dope.

Call me hopelessly open-minded, but the nutrition world should be big enough for the low-carbers, vegetarians, dirty bulkers, the 40:30:30 crowd, and everyone else to co-exist. It's a waste of time, energy, and breath to debate the "supreme effectiveness" of one method over another, but people still will.

The bottom-line, take-away idea isn't really anything new: add more diverse foods to your diet and don't over-emphasize any one food group. There's really not much more to it than that.

No, you don't have to be a full-fledged vegetarian to build muscle, just like you don't have to be a full-fledged powerlifter to get strong. But if you steal some of the basic concepts and apply them to your own situation, it's only going to be a good thing.

If nothing else, I now have one more reason to strike up a conversation with vegetarian vixens like Natalie Portman, Alyssa Milano, and Shannon Elizabeth, so how'd'ya like them apples?

Life Without My Meat, Part 1

2009-04-23T10:27:00.007-05:00

I'd always known about Mahler, but then I read about Dos Remedios, and then Ferruggia, Berardi, and Alvino. Over the last year or two, I noticed that all of these top guys were removing meat from their diet, and the reports were good.

I finally had to see for myself what it was all about, so I spent a full month as a dedicated vegetarian and another month as a meat-fearing vegan. To get the classic experience, I asked my girlfriend to stop shaving and I called Tommy Chong to score some premium reefer, but they both shot me down, so all I can report is what I went through when I removed animal products from my diet for two months.

Am I Trying to Convert You?

Before I get too far into it, I can already hear people groaning, "I'd never be a vegetarian. Steak's delicious. I love being a carnivore." I hate to break it to you, but you're not a carnivore, dummy. You're an omnivore, and eating a little less meat and some more vegetables will probably be a good thing for your body.

In the meatless community, omnivores (or "omnis" as they're known) are pretty much left to do their own thing. It's not like vegetarians hold meetings to seek new recruits. "Okay Steve, you take the crew and head to the supermarket. Try to hang around the frozen foods section. I want ten new signatures or you get no tofu tonight."

Those soy-marinated, throw-paint-on-the-fur, confrontational vegans are an embarrassment to both sides and nobody wants to be associated with them. The non-meat-eaters I spoke with were pretty much, "It's just food, man. You eat your stuff and I'll eat mine. Let's just get in the gym."

So What Can I Eat?

I lost track of how many times I was asked, "You're a vegetarian now? But you can still eat fish, right?" Nope. Fish, or "sea kittens" as PETA recently tried to rename them, are animals and they're off-limits to vegetarians.

It was actually a pretty small step for me to go from an omni to vegetarian. Over the last year or so, I've seriously reduced the red meat in my diet because I finally recognized that it just runs through my system faster than Usain Bolt on a quintuple espresso.

I began the experiment as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, which allowed eggs, milk and other dairy products, but no animal meat. After two weeks, I dropped the eggs and went strictly lacto-vegetarian, only allowing dairy products (including Metabolic Drive and Surge).

It turns out that this approach is similar to how long-time vegan strength coach Mike Mahler suggests someone adopt the lifestyle. As a vegan for 15 years, Mahler is 6-feet tall and a lean 205 pounds without ever training for hypertrophy, and he treats 88-pound kettlebells like they were made of Styrofoam.

"You want to make the transition over the course of several months to a year, rather than overnight or over the course of a few weeks." He says.

No animals were harmed in the building of this muscle.

"For example, go from eating meat daily to eating it three times per week, and gradually reduce down to one or two times per week. Most veggie burgers and fake meat products are okay as transition foods, but shouldn't be staples because they're too high in sodium and processed junk.

Next, cut out meat completely, but stick with organic cheese and organic free-range eggs. You have to decide what you're comfortable with and how far you want to go. If you want to continue on to being vegan, gradually phase out eggs and dairy the same way that meat was phased out."

Almost as a sign from above, no sooner did I cook dinner on my first night as a vegetarian (roasted eggplant parmesan with whole wheat pasta), then I caught Pulp Fiction on TV. Did you know that Jules' girlfriend is a vegetarian, which pretty much makes him a vegetarian.

I was also reminded of what I'll be missing these next two months with Vincent's declarations, "Bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good." Why do you taunt me, Quentin? Why?

On a related note, when a vegan tells you, "This is the best pseudo-beef jerky I've ever tried," remember that it's probably been a long time since they've had real beef jerky. "Stonewall's Jerquee" received good reviews from several vegan sites, but tasted exactly how I'd imagine cow tongue to taste: rubbery and juicy, with a funky aftertaste.

Doing It The Right Way

One of my goals for this test was to maintain my current bodyweight while improving my performance in the gym (this was also my goal before the experiment, so no point in changing that now). I kept a general eye on my daily calories, and at my current weight and activity level, I need around 3,000 calories to keep the scale steady.

My Sample Lacto-Ovo Menu

Breakfast: 3 whole eggs, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 1Tbsp. butter, 1 cup grapes.

Lunch: 15 blue corn tortilla chips, 1 cup 4% cottage cheese, 1/2 cup salsa.

Afternoon: 1 pear, 1 scoop of Metabolic Drive in about 10 ounces of 1% milk.

Dinner: 2 cups whole wheat pasta, 3 thick slices eggplant, 1 cup shredded whole milk mozzarella, 2 cups chopped tomato.

Night: 2 scoops of Metabolic Drive in water with two tablespoons of sunflower seeds.

Along the way, I discovered that rice milk tastes good, but lacks protein, while hemp milk really does taste like the gym class rope at the end of a hot June day. I never got around to trying almond milk, but it's a popular alternative, even though it contains surprisingly little protein. On a side note, I have a friend who firmly believes that "soy milk" should be more appropriately named "soy juice" since you can't "milk" a soybean. Makes sense to me. You don't see V8 Tomato Milk on the shelves, do you?

I checked with Dr. John Berardi, himself a recent vegetarian experimenter, to get his ideas on a designing a vegetarian muscle-building plan. "If you're training hard, have a calorie surplus, and meet your protein needs — all of which are possible with a plant-based diet — you can build muscle.

Plant-based eaters want to ensure they're getting about one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight from nuts, seeds, protein-rich grains, legumes, and, if necessary, supplements. Nowadays there are a host of nice-tasting, soy-free, vegan protein powders.

I've seen lots of plant-based eaters give up on muscle gain because they figured it was impossible. However, one look at their diet made it clear that they were simply undereating. Once they added calories, and some of them needed a lot of calories, bodyweight went up."

Berardi's advice is right in line with an example I've used before. If a 200-pound guy lifts heavy and consistently while eating 4,500 calories — 300 grams of protein, 500 grams of carbs, and 150 grams of fat — he's going to get bigger and stronger, vegetarian or not.

The Mayo Clinic's lacto-ovo food pyramid is as useful as any other food pyramid. Close, but no cigar.

Because protein is obviously essential for muscle building, Mahler also reminds us, "Make sure that you get complete protein, which can be achieved by combining legumes with nuts and seeds. Some examples include lentils with pumpkin seeds or black beans with hemp seeds.

This also ensures you have a good amount of fat, which ensures that hormone production is optimal. That's essential for creating an optimal muscle-building environment. High quality rice protein or pea protein isolate shakes are also a good idea to assure that your bases are covered."

The Soy Situation

More misunderstood than Eddie Vedder on novocaine, soy has gotten tons of attention over the years. While it's not an essential part of a meatless diet, soy can be eaten in moderation, just like any other foodstuff.

This article from Dr. Berardi and Ryan Andrews is an absolute must-read before you decide to rank soy slightly lower than deep-fried Twinkies on the nutritional food chain.

While I think there are some legitimate issues regarding potential hormone influence, mostly coming from people overdoing it with soy protein powders, the whole topic has been blown out of proportion. If you're going to include soy foods in your diet, keep them as natural as possible, just like you'd do with meat.

The same way you'd lean more towards a ribeye than a hot dog, you should lean more towards raw soybeans or tempeh, rather than soy burgers or super-processed soy protein powders.

Let's Name Names

I'm clearly not the first guy who wanted to lift weights while "saving the animals." Some of the more well-known vegetarian bodybuilders include 1980 Mr. International Andreas Cahling, perennial pro Albert Beckles (or not... more on him later), four-time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl (only one of which was won sans-meat), and 1951 Mr. America Roy Hilligenn.

Lifelong vegetarian Roy Hilligenn weighed less than 180 pounds and had a nearly 400-pound clean and jerk.

Back to Albert Beckles, who, with nearly 30 years of contests, had one of the longest competitive bodybuilding careers. Almost every list of vegetarian athletes claims Beckles as an example, so I got in touch and asked for some advice on how to design a productive vegetarian bodybuilder's diet.

"I get asked this from time to time," he told me. "I don't know where the rumor got started, but I'm not a vegetarian." Curse you, Internet, that's twice you've mislead me. The first time involved an AOL chat room in 1995, but let's not talk about that right now.

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Be sure to read Life Without My Meat, Part 2 for my vegan experience and a wrap-up of this whole journey.

Guinness for Strength

2009-03-17T09:10:00.003-05:00

It is a fine day for a Guinness, isn't it. And since it's the stuff of strength, I figured I'd share a basic plan to build full-body strength (maybe with some help from the dark draught.)

Workout A
Power clean 4x3-5
One-arm dumbbell push press 2x6-8
One-arm dumbbell row 2x4-6
Neutral-grip dumbbell flat bench press 3x4-6

Workout B
Front squat 4x3-5
Two-arm dumbbell swing 3x6-8
Dumbbell step-up 2x4-6
Weighted crunch 3x6-8

Alternate these for three workouts each week (A, B, A one week; B, A, B the next; etc.). The lower overall volume focuses this plan more towards strength, rather than muscle size.

In four to six weeks, you'll be set to switch to something new - either another strength plan or something with higher volume to crank up the hypertrophy. Either way, it should help you to put up some big numbers.

Draper's Guide to Long-term Progress

2009-03-12T15:32:00.004-05:00

I recently spoke with bodybuilding legend Dave Draper to discuss some important keys to goal-setting and progress. His advice, based on nearly 50 years of bodybuilding experience:

"Don't compare yourself to the pros and want, or need, to be like them. Be open to inspiration — seek it, even — but train for yourself. Set realistic goals, but realize and train for the larger vision of training itself.

There's far more to the daily workouts than muscle and might. You're developing character and health of the mind, emotions, and soul at once. There are no secrets, no shortcuts, but there's always the search for another good workout, another stimulating combination of food and exercise.

It's the basics — simple, but not easy. You've got to sensibly blast it. You must love your workouts, though you might hate them. A good workout isn't just an outline of exercises, sets, and reps. It's focus and form, pace and rhythm, exertion and feel, instincts and knowing. That all comes with time, practice, guts, and understanding.

In a word or two, never quit!"

Dave's book, Brother Iron, Sister Steel: A Bodybuilder's Book, is a fantastic and almost-essential read for anyone interested in building muscle. With a combination of workout tips, motivation, and bodybuilding history, it's as useful as it is unique.

Q & A

2009-02-18T11:29:00.002-05:00

Q: How can I prevent aching muscles after lifting weights? Is it all about using the warm-up to prepare the muscles for your workout, or can sore muscles be avoided by other methods?

A: It's a combination of factors. You do want a good warm-up, but that's more to ensure you perform a good workout, and doesn't directly correlate with soreness. Though, if you tear a muscle because you were inadequately warmed up, then I guess it is a pretty direct relation.

The right nutrition during and immediately after the workout will also help to minimize DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). BCAAs, Surge Recovery, or Surge Workout Fuel all help to significantly reduce the soreness felt after training. The sooner you can get those nutrients into your system, the better your chances of minimal soreness.

After you've trained, simple static stretching acts as a good "cooldown" and also loosens things up. Some say that static stretches can interfere in muscle building, but I haven't found that to be the case. After you lift, spending five or ten minutes going through whatever stretches you remember from high school gym class would be a good place to start. Foam rolling and massage are also good alternatives to this.

Also, the way you actually train during the workout plays a big role. If you're a week or two into a new program, you're much more likely to hobble out of the gym. If you've been doing the same type of workout for six or eight weeks, your body won't get as beat up each time... unless...

If you regularly use intense techniques during your workouts like intentionally slow and drawn-out negatives, rest-pause sets, or static holds in various positions, then you're creating so much muscular trauma that wicked soreness is pretty much guaranteed.

- Chris.

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Q: I'm a varsity wrestler in high school and I believe my goals for this year are very realistic with the proper training and nutrition, rest, etc. What do you think?

I want to bench press 325, deadlift 495, squat 450, and power clean 285. My current numbers are bench 265, deadlift 345, squat 400, and power clean 205.

Also, my goal is to weigh 185 pounds with 10% bodyfat. Right now, I weigh 170 at around 12% bodyfat.

Any suggestions?

A: So your goals are to become stronger, bigger, and leaner? Man, there's a novel idea. ;) Go for it, but you've got to prioritize.

Your goals call for adding about 17 pounds of muscle, if my math is right. That, on top of adding 260 pounds to your powerlifting total and 80 pounds to your clean, is one heck of a target.

I suggest you take a more long-term outlook on things (especially since you're still in high school), and use 2009 to focus on getting ridiculously strong. That'll seriously benefit your wrestling, too.

Next year, you can switch gears to focus on building additional muscle, since the strength building you do now will "accidentally" build some anyway.

- Chris.

It's a "Killer" Workout

2009-02-11T16:07:00.006-05:00

I was flipping through Fangoria magazine the other day (yeah, it's something I do. Who would've guessed?), and they had an interview with Derek Mears, the actor/stuntman playing Jason in the Friday the 13th remake.

In the interview, Mears said:

"The new Jason is more functional than bulky, kind of a leaner model, so I said all right and started doing what's called cross-fit training, so I'd look like a guy who got fit from living in the woods."

But what's cross-fit (or more commonly, crossfit) training? Chris Shugart explained that in better detail than I could.

Very, very basically, Crossfit is a method of training that works multiple attributes (endurance, speed, strength, etc.) in almost every workout. It's a pretty good way to become good-but-not-great at several things at once, and it can burn a bunch of calories.

Apparently, Crossfit can improve your leaping machete skill, too.

Mears, standing 6'5" is on the right, with his Friday the 13th co-stars.

Side note: Co-star Jared Padalecki is listed as 6'4" and recently worked with powerlifting beast Scot Mendelson to put on 35 pounds, but that's a story for another day.

Whether or not I agree with Crossfit training (and I sort of do under some conditions, but at face value, I think it's too intense for the majority of people), I'm still going to check out the movie when it opens this weekend because, dude, it's Friday the freakin' 13th!

Exercise Spotlight: Reverse Lunge

2009-01-14T09:40:00.003-05:00

If you were stranded on a desert island without exercise equipment, this would be one of your exercise must-do's. It probably explains how Ginger kept everything perky for the Professor and Skipper.

The How-To: From a fully upright position with the feet together, take a long step backwards with one foot. Once you've landed on the ball of that back foot, bend the front leg to drop the hips down. The knee of the back leg should barely touch the ground, but do not rest your weight on it.

Keep your shoulders back and your torso upright, not overly-leaning forwards to counterbalance. Focus on moving your body up and down, instead of back and forth.

Use the front foot to give 95% of the oomph to return back to standing position. Do all reps with one leg before switching sides.

Main Muscles Involved: Everything below the waist (glutes, hamstrings, quads, some calves.) The smaller stabilizing muscles in the ankles are also brought into play, to keep you from flopping around like an extra in The Legend of Drunken Master.

Common Variations: While the reverse lunge is technically a variation of the stationary lunge (sometimes called a split squat), you can vary the reverse lunge even further by holding a weight overhead, holding a bar in the rack position (at the collarbones), or by elevating the front foot.

Taking a shorter step backwards will engage the quads more. Taking a huge step back will activate more of the glutes and hamstrings. You could also alternate feet with each rep (one left, one right, one left, etc.) to let each leg get a mini-rest between reps. This is more appropriate for higher-rep sets.

Best Suited For: Moderate reps (5-10) for hypertrophy. Higher reps (12+) for conditioning/cardio. Going too heavy with super-low reps can overload the smaller muscles of the ankles before anything else gets a solid workout.

Contraindications/Who Should NOT Perform This Exercise: People with coordination or balance issues, and people who've suffered ankle or knee injuries, shouldn't do reverse lunges without a stable support to hold on to.

Fun Fact: The reverse lunge with twist is a ridiculously effective, full-body warm-up and stretch. 5-8 reps per side, after your general warm-up and before the start of your workout, will prepare the hips, legs, back, shoulders, and abs for whatever have planned.

Instead of reaching up and back, keep your arms straight in front of you, Charlie's Angel-style, and rotate to the side of the front leg (in this picture, he'd rotate to the left).

New Year's Resolutions Solved

2009-01-01T09:43:00.002-05:00

According to USA.gov, the top six resolutions that people have made for the coming year are to lose weight, manage debt, save money, get a better job, get fit, and eat right.

Since most resolutions fizzle and disappear before the first of February, here are some of the best ways to actually get these things done.

- Lose weight: Saying you want to "lose weight" is vague, like saying "I wanna workout". Way to be specific there, chief. I'm going to interpret "lose weight" to really mean "look leaner and more defined."

For guys trying to get this look, Nate Green's new book, Built for Show, is one of the best plans out there. For gals, the 20 for 12 program is a great place to start, and the entire FigureAthlete.com site is a phenomenal resource and motivator.

- Manage debt: The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey is one of the most effective debt-reduction/lifestyle readjustment programs I've seen around. It's a relatively-simple step-by-step guide to eliminating debt and building long-term wealth (okay, that sounds a bit infomercial-ish, but seriously, this is good stuff).

- Save money: GetRichSlowly.org is one of the few non-fitness-related blogs I follow regularly. They have tons of info on money-saving tips; everything from how to choose a savings account for the best return to a reminder of the benefits of cooking at home. Lots of good info, and usually updated a few times a day, so there's always something new to read.

- Get a better job: Dude, sorry, but I don't have any advice on this one. The best I can come up with is a spot-on Mark Twain quote. "What work I have done, I have done because it has been play. If it had been work, I shouldn't have done it."

I'm incredibly, incredibly lucky to be in the position I'm in right now, working full-time for an amazing company at the top of its field. I can only hope you all find yourselves in a similar place.

- Get fit: Again with the vague resolutions. "Getting fit" can mean a hundred different things. If you're not going to narrow it down to something like, "I'm going to improve my pitching speed for the summer softball season", then I'll figure you mean to improve the general quality of life and just feel good all around.

Foam rolling is one of the simplest, least time-involved ways to decrease soreness, improve range of motion, and just feel better from ankles to shoulders.

- Eat right: One more time... you're being vague, and that sucks. Are you eating because you want to build muscle? Lose fat? Reproduce each meal you saw on the first season of Iron Chef America? If we're speaking generally, and not addressing any of those particular nutrition requirements, one of the best things you can do for your health is to eat more high-quality vegetables than you are right now.

You think you already eat a lot? I bet you could squeeze some more in during the day if you gave it half a second's thought. If your daily source of veggies is the lettuce and tomato on your whopper jr., then yeah, work on that, dopey. Even adding a fistful of random veggies to two meals a day is a solid start.

So, whether you have a laundry list of resolutions, or you don't believe in them (because you "don't need them"), here's hoping '09 has us seeing results in the mirror, in the gym, and on the field.

Happy Holidays to Y'all

2008-12-24T09:32:00.003-05:00

One song to sum up my holiday season as a 'lil fella? This is it.

Enjoy the chance to spend time with your loved ones.

It's Okay to Eat on Turkey Day

2008-11-26T11:00:00.003-05:00

"It's not what you eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas that matters most. It's what you eat between Christmas and Thanksgiving that makes the difference."

- Originally unknown, but I'll attribute it to Alwyn Cosgrove since I'm pretty sure I heard it from him first.

Since we're just a few hours away from the one dinner of the year where people seem to want to attempt personal records for "most food shoved from plate into gullet without chewing", I feel the need to remind y'all of one nutrition principle that makes it okay to eat high calories, even if your goal is fat loss.

Dun-dun-dun-dunnnnn... it's G-Flux to the rescue.

To oversimplify it: G-Flux says that you can enjoy a higher food intake while training for muscle size or fat loss, as long as you're getting at least five hours of total exercise time each week.

Now, that doesn't mean you go for a three-hour jog tonight, do two hours of Tae-Bo videos tomorrow morning, and then you can binge like the Cookie Monster just discovered the Keebler Elves' treehouse.

It still requires smart, planned training (weight training and cardio) throughout the week. But you can certainly begin with something today. Knock out a few sets of dumbbell swings tonight or tomorrow, and we'll call it a good start.

Just remember, like Alwyn said in the beginning, it's one thing to temporarily freak out about some big holiday dinners coming up. But that should be a reminder that it's so much more important to pay attention to what you do after the holidays, after the new year, headed into next spring, and then summer...

Anyhow, I hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving together. Enjoy.

Lean Cuisine's 900,000 Chicken Recall

2008-11-18T21:14:00.003-05:00

I just saw that there's a recall on a whole ton (actually, 450 tons) of Lean Cuisine frozen dinners because pieces of blue plastic have found their way into the food.

"So far, the blue plastic has been found in three specific Lean Cuisine dinners -- Cafe Classics Pesto Chicken with Bow Tie Pasta, Spa Cuisine Chicken Mediterranean and Dinnertime Selects Chicken Tuscan."

Not that I've really been a fan of all frozen dinners (hurray convenience, boo sodium and nutrient profile), but this is a pretty big SNAFU.

So, if you know anyone who still relies on these frozen foodstuffs instead of doing some big batch cooking each week (discussed in Point #3 here), be sure to let them know to check the production codes on the side of the package.

Another Victory for Stronger Athletes

2008-11-17T12:15:00.005-05:00

I just read a great blog entry from Jason Ferruggia.

265-pound Brock Lesnar's recent UFC championship sent a loud and hard-to-miss reminder to the athletic world - Beastly strength and raw power, when combined with skill, create a monstrous athlete.

Ferruggia used one particular line that caught my eye. "Like I have always said, a stronger athlete is almost always a better athlete."

I've also said this statement, almost word for word, for a long time. It's a point that gets re-proven time and time again.

To be the most effective, impressive, and successful athlete you can be (regardless of the sport), improving your strength in basic, compound exercises is always going to be a great idea... as long as you don't sacrifice speed, skill, or conditioning/endurance. That's where smart programming becomes critical.

- - - - - - - - - -

In other news, here's a Movember update. Still growing strong.

It's been a long time since I snapped a Myspace-style photo. Be nice.

Welcome to Movember

2008-11-04T11:09:00.003-05:00

My MoSpace (that not a typo, it's a MoSpace.)

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I've decided to use my facial hair-growing powers for good instead of evil. If you know me, you know that facial manscaping is my hobby. Could be a goatee one month, could be a jawbone-length muttonchop the next, whatever.

This month, I'll be rocking a serious moustache to spread the word about men's health issues, specifically the fight against prostate cancer.

To donate to my Mo you can either:

1. Click this link and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account.

or 2. Write a check payable to the "Prostate Cancer Foundation", referencing my Registration Number 1931426 and mail it to:

Prostate Cancer Foundation
Attn: Movember
1250 Fourth St
Santa Monica, CA, 90401

All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The money raised by Movember is donated directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which will use the funds for high-impact research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer. The PCF is a fully recognized charity.

Did you know:

* Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the US with one in six American men developing the disease and more than 28,000 men dying of the disease every year.

* African American men and those with a family history of prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease and should have regular annual testing starting at 45. All other men should commence testing at 50.

* Prostate cancer is 90% curable if detected and treated early.

In previous years, Movember has had a serious impact in prostate cancer cure research. You can check out the details at Fundraising Outcomes. Last year alone, the US Movember teams raised over $740,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Thanks for your support. You can keep an eye on my blog here, or on my MoSpace for weekly updated pics so you know it's really going on.

More information is available at www.Movember.com.

Movember is proudly grown by Canadian Club and Philips Norelco.

Movember is proud to support the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

A Birthday Challenge

2008-10-29T08:00:00.003-05:00

Okay, so it's the 29th and I've just turned 29. Hehe. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm throwing down a little birthday challenge to y'all.

Pick any barbell exercise (squat, deadlift, military press, clean, etc.), and perform your age in reps with one-half your bodyweight.

Next, pick a bodyweight exercise (prisoner squat, lunge, push-up, chin-up, etc.) and perform double your age in reps.

Here's the thing though; one of the exercises must target your upper body and the other exercise must target your lower body. So if you choose a barbell exercise that works the back, chest, shoulders, and/or arms, you'll need to choose a bodyweight exercise that hits the legs, and vice versa.

For example, let's say you're a 210-pound 29 year-old who loves the push press and the lunge. You're going to do the push press for 1x29 with 105 pounds and you'll do 1x58 lunges (and yeah, that would be per leg).

If you need to break up the total reps into smaller sets, that's fine, but try to get through it in as few sets as possible.

This is just a quick little conditioning workout to celebrate this machine that your parents decided to create X years and 9 months ago.

Also, happy birthday to my b'day buddies screen legend Richard Dreyfus, adorable Winona Ryder, and under-rated character actor Ben Foster.

Kevin Smith is Tired of Being Fat

2008-10-22T08:26:00.001-05:00

Films like Clerks, Clerks II, Dogma, and Mallrats have always been among my favorites, but director Kevin Smith is doing something new to gain my attention. He's trying to drop some fat, prompted by an embarrassing experience breaking a porcelain toilet bowl.

Smith isn't the first Hollywood heavyweight director to get fit. Iron Man's Jon Favreau has had his ups and downs over the years, and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson made a noticeable change after dropping a bunch of weight during the filming of King Kong.

Smith has said that he's at an all-time personal high bodyweight, and will begin a diet and exercise plan once the promotion is finished for his recent film. In the past he's tried the Optifast diet, a 12-week all-liquid diet, with minimal success.

If he's even considering an attempt at that type of diet again, he'd be much better off following the Velocity Diet, which actually preserves lean muscle, which further increases the metabolism. I know he has a decent home gym, too, so the workouts better be kickass.

And yeah, I kinda compared Kevin Smith to Peter Jackson. Sorry, sir.

Rated R for language.

The Passing of Ben Weider

2008-10-20T20:47:00.003-05:00

Sadly, one of the pioneers of modern bodybuilding passed away over the weekend. Ben Weider spent decades of his life devoted to bringing the sport of bodybuilding into the public eye.

Regardless of your opinions on professional bodybuilding or mainstream bodybuilding magazines, Ben, and his brother Joe, helped to lay the foundation for everything from sports supplements and commercial gyms to fitness magazines.

For better or worse, the Weider brothers will stand alongside Jack LaLanne, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Eugene Sandow as some of the most influential and wide-reaching figures in the fitness industry.

Ben Weider, at left, was a supporter and organizer of professional bodybuilding for over 60 years.

If you're at all interested in building muscle, the odds are good that you can trace your inspiration straight back to the Weiders, either directly or indirectly.

My thoughts are with the Weider family.

What Do Women Want?

2008-10-13T08:54:00.002-05:00

My good buddy Nate Green took an impromptu survey of several women, to get their thoughts on how a guy should be built. What they said might surprise some of you.

An Ounce of Prevention (or Actually, 5 Grams)

2008-10-07T09:34:00.003-05:00

A recent article in Newsday talked about some research into foods that may help to prevent certain types of cancer, including breast cancer.

However, there was one section of the article that I found incredibly disheartening.

...research into foods that combat breast cancer faces a powerful institutional barrier: money. Consumer advocates point out that conducting studies that follow people for years to see they don't get sick as they eat certain foods is expensive. By comparison, drug approval is more efficient.

"The world is still not ready for prevention as a way to handle the medical problems of an aging population," said Dr. Paul Talalay of Johns Hopkins University, the leader on research that suggests the cancer-thwarting potential of broccoli.

Actually preventing the disease (or any major health issue) isn't profitable enough, when compared to pushing another pharmaceutical drug. That's sad beyond words.

Whether we're talking about cancer, obesity, or a sprained ankle, prevention is going to be more effective at addressing the issue at hand, as well as provide more all-around lifestyle benefits, than simply treating the symptoms after the issue has risen.

The article primarily talked about the research showing the benefits of broccoli, but it also mentioned the potential anti-cancer properties of strawberries, pomegranates, and green tea, among others.

If you're like the majority of people who doesn't regularly eat many fruits and/or vegetable, you might want to consider taking about a teaspoon of Biotest's Superfood everyday. (One teaspoon is about 5 grams. See where I was going with this blog's title?)

It's a super-concentrated powder which contains broccoli, strawberry, pomegranate, green tea, spinach, blueberry, watermelon, and about a dozen other food concentrates that have been shown to have powerful antioxidant effects.

If, for some reason, you're not into stirring up a super juice drink, you've got to at least take a look at the recipe in this article for blueberry cheesecake which uses Superfood. Looks like a pie, tastes like a pie, but it's low on calories and overflowing with fruits and veggies.

Garlic. It's What's For Dinner

2008-09-29T11:47:00.003-05:00

If you remember a few months ago, I told you about my venture into Community-Supported Agriculture. Well this past weekend, the Garden of Eve farm, out in Riverhead, had their 5th Annual Garlic Festival, and it was awesome.

Not only did I get to take a walking tour of the fields that grow the food I've been eating, but the highlight of the day was finally trying garlic ice cream.

This questionably curious culinary creation has been on my mind since first reading about it in a random magazine article years ago. When I arrived at the garlic festival, I made a bee-line right for the table with the bright yellow "Garlic Ice Cream Here" sign.

It was... alright. Imagine a half-cup of rich creamy vanilla ice cream, with a half-clove of raw garlic finely diced and mixed in like something you'd find at a Transylvanian Cold Stone Creamery.

It wasn't pungent or overpowering by any means, and if it weren't for the occasional tiny bit of crunchy raw garlic per spoonful, you almost wouldn't know what it was.

If something that "non-traditional" doesn't quite perk you up, here's a garlic recipe you might want to try instead.

Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 teaspoons flour
salt and pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter

Directions
Flatten chicken slightly. Dust with flour, salt, and pepper. Heat oil on high, cook chicken for 5 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from pan. To pan add broth, garlic, lemon juice, and butter. Cook two minutes. Pour over chicken.

Don't Believe the Hype. HFCS Sucks.

2008-09-26T10:11:00.005-05:00

This tv commercial has been popping up recently. It's some damage control that high fructose corn syrup manufacturers are trying to spread.

The HFCS sellers say: It's made from corn.

So is moonshine. Their point is what, that only healthful and nutritious products can come from corn?

The HFCS sellers say: It has the same calories as sugar or honey.

True enough. But sugar and honey aren't completely manufactured and highly processed like HFCS.

The HFCS sellers say: It's fine in moderation.

Here's a little homework assignment for you. Next time you're in the supermarket, grab a hand basket and go up and down the aisles trying to fill it with food that doesn't list high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient. You'll have a heck of a time.

The stuff is so absurdly prevalent that "moderation" quickly becomes an all-or-none situation. In this case, it's in your best interest to lean towards none.

And, one note for that dopey guy who stammered when he had no comeback regarding "what they say about HFCS."

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study in 2004 which demonstrated a connection between an increased consumption of refined carbohydrates (such as HFCS) and type 2 diabetes.

Neat-o graph #1:

Prevalence of diabetes in the US (the dots) and corn syrup intake (the bars).

Neat-o graph #2:

Intake of processed cereals, which contain HFCS, (the dots) and the prevalence of diabetes in the US (the bars).

There you go, popsicle lady. HFCS is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and obesity. If you still want to share that popsicle, then you really must not love me. I am heartbroken.

A Dose of Motivation

2008-09-23T14:01:00.002-05:00

Whatever you want to do, you can.

Fifty-Plus and Faaaaabulous

2008-09-17T09:36:00.002-05:00

Okay, so maybe that title channeled my inner Carson Kressley, but I just got done reading the second installment of an awesome article series about training and nutrition for ladies in the 50+ age bracket.

Part 1: The Secrets of Fabulously Fit Fifty-Somethings

Part 2: Slim, Strong, Sexy, and Over Fifty: Case Studies

They were written for FigureAthlete.com by Krista Schaus, who's a total rockstar. She's an internationally-successful strength coach, as well as a champion powerlifter, and top-ranked bodybuilder.

If you know a great gal who's trying to "get in shape", do her a favor and send her links to these articles. Her health, fitness, and physique will take a quick turn for the better.

'Ya Don't Gotta Get Fancy

2008-09-12T15:12:00.006-05:00

If you're looking to build muscle or get crazy-strong, you do not need a gym membership or a triple-digit spending spree at the supplement store each month.

For proof of that, turn back your clocks almost a century...

Ernest Cadine - Olympic weightlifter, won the gold medal in 1920.

Alfred Moss - Strongman, bodybuilder, and gymnast from the early 1900's.

Bobby Pandour - Bodybuilder and Vaudeville performer from the early 1900's.

Each of these guys built their bodies before the first GNC ever opened, and before 24-Hour Fitness was around to supply them with treadmills, a leg press, or a cable pulldown machine.

They got strong, large, and lean with consistent, smart training and eating. If any part of you aspires to be big, strong, and ripped, make sure you're doing likewise.

Prioritize a well-designed training program and a nutrition plan based on real food. Gadgets in gyms and supplements-of-the-month can be useful, but they need to be further down your list of concerns.

Exercise Spotlight: Triceps Kickbacks

2008-09-10T11:10:00.010-05:00

If you remember back to my first Exercise Spotlight post, I mentioned that "I'll be explaining, dissecting, (occasionally lambasting), and detailing a variety of exercises to introduce into your workouts." Well, let the lambasting begin.

Triceps kickbacks might be one of the most popular, yet least efficient, movements to ever be performed in the history of recorded exercise. It's got so much going against it, it's a wonder why people still do it on a regular basis.

Actually, strike that, reverse it. It's not so much of a mystery. It's one of the exercises that looks like you're doing a lot of work. You're bent over a bench, with dumbbell in hand, heaving it to and fro.

Maybe you're also doing some grunting or sweating, and the exercise can make you decently sore. And as we all know, you've gotta get sore to get results, right? Um, no, wrong. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

The How-To: The most common method is to kneel with one leg on a flat bench (also place the same side hand on the bench for support). Using the free hand, bring a dumbbell to the "start position" with the arm bent and the elbow in the same plane as the shoulder (the upper arm is parallel to the ground and the forearm is pointed directly down).

From here, keep the palm facing your body and straighten the arm until your wrist is in the same plane as your shoulder, and the entire arm is parallel to the ground. At this point, the triceps are maximally contracted.

Keep the spine straight and flat, not curved or hunched, while also keeping the head and neck neutral (not looking up at the mirror, nor looking back at the dumbbell as it moves).

Return to the start position, bending the arm until the hand is pointed directly down. It's unnecessary to bring the arm any closer to your head. This doesn't work the triceps any better, but 95% of people still do it.

Wrong-o.

Main Muscles Involved: The triceps of the one working arm. That's it.

Common Variations: People sometimes do the exercise while standing completely upright. This warps the exercise even more, makes it even less effective at training the triceps (it's actually closer to being a biceps exercise), and actually exposes the shoulders to unnecessary stress.

Standing Wrong-o

Best Suited For: Moderate to high reps (10-20 reps per set). Going too heavy makes it too tempting to short-change the range of motion and use momentum to move the weight. You end up looking like a total dingbat, like this dude.

Contraindications/Who Should NOT Perform This Exercise: People who are not at least 90% towards their physique goal.

This exercise is so specialized (working the triceps of one arm and nothing else) that if you're not already very close to your goal, it's a waste of precious training time and energy to do this when there are more effective, more versatile exercises you could use instead.

Fun Fact: When I first started lifting weights, many, many moons ago, I was training in my garage with my buddy Sam. Misguided youths that we were, it was arm day and we were doing triceps kickbacks.

Anyhow, I was halfway through my set and Sam was watching my exquisite form when he said, "You know, from this angle, it kinda looks like you're jerking off an elephant when you do that." I nearly dropped the dumbbell on my foot from laughing so hard. And to this day, anytime triceps kickbacks are mentioned, I think of Sam.

The Urban Legend of Net Carbs

2008-09-08T10:29:00.005-05:00

You know how they say that kid Mikey, from the old Life cereal commercials, ate Pop Rocks and drank a Pepsi at the same time, and then his stomach blew up? Well, that didn't really happen.

I heard the real truth... that he ate a low-carb wrap with grilled chicken, but realized that the "net carb" amount listed on the package wasn't accurate, and then his stomach blew up. Honest. At least, that's the story my cousin's girlfriend's roommate's kid brother once told me.

Unfortunately, just like poor 'lil Mikey, most people don't realize that the phrase "net carbs" is 100% marketing, with absolutely no legally-agreed upon definition. Even the Food and Drug Administration recognizes that the reasons for listing a product's "net carbs" can vary from company to company. For years, they've been trying (ever-so-slowly) to change that, and apply some type of universal standards.

As a perfect example, let's check out the O.G. of diet plans, Slim-Fast. They (of course) have hopped on the recent low-carb wave and produce a line of low-carb products, including these bars.

Notice that it states, in bright red and yellow, that the bars have "2 grams of net carbs per serving."

But let's flip the box over and look at the actual nutrition label.

- - - - - - - - - -

Calories per Serving: 120

Total Fat: 4.5

Total Carbohydrates: 21

Dietary Fiber: 1

Sugar: <1

Sugar Alcohols: 18

Other Carbohydrate: 2

Protein: 1

- - - - - - - - - -

I'll give you a second to pick your jaw up off the floor, because you did read that correctly. This "low carb snack" has 21 grams of carbs. That means that nearly 70% of the total calories come from carbohydrates. Are they mothertrucking kidding me? If that qualifies as low carb, I'm a pretty ballerina.

Now, some nutritionists calculate the "net carbs" by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols from the total carb content. In this case, that would be 21 - 1 - 18 = 2. So, with that thought process, the math adds up.

But the problem is that plenty of nutritionists also suggest that you do count the calories from sugar alcohols (and sometimes fiber, too. As with most nutrition theories, it's debatable.) It's just a matter of selective hearing, as far as whose advice Slim-Fast (and other companies) decide to listen to.

The lesson of the day is this... "net carbs" are not an officially-recognized phrase that any decent fitness or diet professional is going to use, it's a phrase used by marketing executives to convince you to open your wallet.

You'd be much better served if you pretended not to even notice that kind of advertising, and instead, evaluate your foods on good, old fashioned label reading.

Now Is The Time To Attack

2008-09-05T14:19:00.005-05:00

"My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack."
- Ferdinand Foch, World War I General

Sometimes, whether we like it our not, our schedules can get busier than a one-legged cat in a litter box. Especially now that school's back in session. Maybe you've got a few hours of classes during the day, or you're transporting the kiddos back and forth to school; maybe your office is hitting the busy season.

There's also the mandatory weekend errands, daily homework, cleaning around the house, food shopping, meal prep, catching the latest episode of Shear Genius, and getting a few hours of sleep.

What's missing from that list? I'll give you a sec to re-read it.

...

...

It rhymes with shmecksersize.

...

...

You got it. Exercise is one of the first pieces of calendar cargo to be jettisoned when things get hairy, but it doesn't need to be. I've touched on this in a previous post, but a smart program, regardless of your goal, doesn't have to take more than 30-40 minutes, three times a week.

For example, most of the workouts that Jason Ferruggia recommends revolve around good old hard work, done briefly and intensely. That's all it takes.

My Back to School workout from the other day is another example of this. Run through that 39-minute workout and you'll whoop your own butt in no time.

As the saying goes, you can train hard or you can train long, but you can't train very hard for very long. If your days and nights are filling up fast, grab the opportunity to begin some brief, but seriously intense, workouts.

For extra incentive, remember that numerous studies have shown the stress-relieving and depression-fighting benefits of regular exercise. So, it'll do you even more good to lift that heavy dumbbell in the gym if you have to deal with too many dumbbells during the day. (Wow that pun was too easy, I just couldn't resist.)

The Back to School Workout

2008-09-03T12:42:00.002-05:00

(PG-13 for Language)

Back in my day, high school classes were 39 minutes long, but I could've sworn that Sequential Math 3 defied the standard laws of space and time and somehow lasted two hours per class.

With that in mind - the 39 minutes, not the torturous math lessons - give this ass-kicking, fat-burning workout a shot. It should take you just under 39 minutes to complete.

Warm-up: Reverse lunge with reach 1x8, plank 1x10, cat/camel 1x5, prisoner squat 1x5

A1) Dumbbell cheat curl and press 4x12

A2) Dumbbell squat 4x12

A3) Bent-over 2-dumbbell row 4x12

A4) Dumbbell Romanian deadlift 4x12

B1) Reverse lunge 3x8

B2) Push-up 3x8

Perform the "A" exercises in immediate sequence, resting about 1 minute at the end of each circuit, and rest 1 minute between each set of "B" exercises.

If you have any questions about the exercises, shoot me an e-mail and I can clarify them.

The End of Summer, The Beginning of What?

2008-09-01T10:36:00.002-05:00

It's Labor Day. The end of summer. Let's have a moment of silence for beach days and barbecues... ... ... ... ... ... okay, then.

If you're like most folks, you probably spent most of the summer trying to get ripped and ready for all those beach trips.

Well, whether your plan worked or not (and if it didn't, you should've e-mailed me sooner, ya dope), it's time to do something a little different.

Strength coach Dan John wrote The Ten Commandments of Fitness, and it's full of great advice. Specifically, I'm referring to tip #1: Adapt your training program to the season of the year.

You can't stick to the exact same workout plan for 52 weeks straight and still be successful. So now's the time to switch gears and maybe try to add some muscle, switch to a different fat loss plan, or maybe even start a new hobby.

If you want to see some serious results by the end of the year, now's the time to choose your next plan of action.

Keep It Simple, Stupid

2008-08-29T06:45:00.002-05:00

I'm all for keeping your nutrition plan simple and effective but, dude, seriously?

Corn is Not a Vegetable

2008-08-27T11:46:00.004-05:00

... it's a grain.

So, in your quest to eat "5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables everyday," keep in mind that corn doesn't count (and neither do potatoes).

It's a murky area, filled with unnecessary politics and false claims, but the long and short of it is that your physique goals and general nutrition will noticeably improve if you ignore the supermarket advertising and remember that corn is a grain.

For more reading with even more in-depth explanations (explained by two guys that are way smarter than me), take a few minutes to check out these articles:

Corn-Fed Blubber

Good Grains, Bad Grains

Q & A

2008-08-25T14:15:00.004-05:00

Q: My 13-year old brother wants to start lifting weights with me. I've read before that this may not be such a good idea, since training with weights at such an age could impede normal growth and development. I don't know if this is true or a myth.

A: It's actually mostly a myth. Smart training, which centers around compound free weight exercises and avoids muscular failure, is absolutely fine.

The "stunting your growth" concept really only comes into question if we're talking about pushing the limits, in regards to reaching muscular failure or poor program design which would include a bunch of machine exercises. Mark Rippetoe also talked a bit about this when I spoke with him recently.

However, I still recommend beginning with a basic bodyweight-only plan to introduce the kiddo to consistent training. My standard recommendation/introduction is a full-body calisthenic workout, aiming for their age in reps on each set.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Squat 2x13 (No weight, keep both feet flat on the floor.)

Push-up 2x13 (On your toes, go until the chest almost touches the floor.)

Lunge 2x13 (Alternate legs, 1 rep left/1 rep right.)

Chin-up 2x13 (Assisted, if needed)

Plank 2x15-count (Hold the top part of a push-up, on the toes/arms straight, keep the whole body straight. Count to 15.)

Squat thrust 2x13

You should supervise the workouts to make sure they use textbook-perfect technique on everything, and make sure they work within their limits (by avoiding muscular failure. Keep one rep "in the tank").

Once this routine is "easy," shoot me an e-mail and we can plan a free weight routine as the next step.

- Chris.

- - - - - - - -

Q: I currently weigh exactly 77kg (at 5'10") and I don't want to gain anymore weight, but I want to get even stronger. I have to stay in this weight class for my sport, so I was wondering if there's any different way I should be training?

A: Keep your set/rep total around 10-20 reps per exercise/movement pattern and you'll be fine. It's the volume, for the most part, that's going to flip your training stimulus from "strength" to "size". 5x3 is especially killer for strength-focused cycles.

Of course, calories are going to be very important to monitor. Maintain your current total calorie intake, and as long as you've got sufficient protein, carbs, and healthy fats, it should be relatively-easy to keep an eye on your bodyweight.

Send me another e-mail when your competition gets closer, and we can go over some more details.

- Chris.

Can You Run On Empty?

2008-08-20T11:29:00.005-05:00

"Genuine strength should include not only momentary strength, as proved by the ability to lift a heavy weight once, but also the far more valuable kind of strength known as strength for endurance...

The man who can miss a night's rest or miss a meal or two without showing any ill effect or without losing any physical power is better entitled to be considered a strong man than the man who is only apparently strong, being possessed of momentary strength, which is, after all, a muscle test pure and simple."

- Arthur Saxon, The Development of Physical Power, written in 1905.

I found myself in an interesting situation the other weekend. I forgot to eat. That might not be uncommon for some people, I'll admit to later-than-ideal breakfasts once in a while, but it was interesting because I didn't forget because of a Guitar Hero marathon (Freebird!!), nope, instead I was doing some serious manual labor.

I rearranged everything in my girlfriend's garage. Picture your own garage for a second... now rotate all your "stuff" 90 degrees, onto an adjacent wall. That's basically what I did. Several fully stocked metal shelving units, lawn mowers, snow blowers, countless tools of all shapes and sizes, not to mention a ton (almost literally) of my exercise equipment.

It was some serious redecorating that took a little over five hours. The day went something like this:

10:00am - Woke-up after having almost 10 hours of sleep. (Hurray for lazy Saturdays).

10:30am - Ate 2 slices of whole wheat toast with peanut butter, and a protein shake with milk.

11:00am - Started cleaning garage.

12:30pm - Had 32 ounces of water.

2:15pm - Noticed a two-inch long spider crawling on my shoulder, screamed like a schoolgirl, and ran half a block down the street.

3:30pm - Finished moving "the big stuff" (shelves, camping equipment, sacks of lawn seed, etc.)

4:30pm - Finished sweeping dust and loose debris. Went inside, cooked ginormous chicken and pasta dinner that probably would've fed a family of five little people.

I wasn't drop-dead starving during the day, but I was kinda hungry and knew I had to do some serious eating to recover from what I just did (I ended up not being terribly sore, and still did some weight training the next day).

I probably could've stopped for a full lunch break, but it would've ended up as more of a hassle stopping, eating, digesting, and then getting back into the swing of it.

Anyway, I'm definitely not suggestion y'all try something similar, and the standard rule of "eat something every few hours" is still one of the most basic nutrition principles around, however, sometimes life gets in the way and it's dopey to try to deny that.

You just have to be as prepared as you can, and do your best to get the job done "without showing any ill effect or without losing any physical power." That's when you know for a fact that all your time in the gym is worth it.

3 Reasons Dara Torres is Awesome

2008-08-12T10:53:00.007-05:00

Michael Phelps might be dominating the water like a man-shark, but the swimmer I'm most looking forward to is Dara Torres. I've got (at least) three reasons why.

#3) She's got a killer resume: She's the mother of a two-year old. Legend has it that she was breast-feeding her baby just minutes before winning a spot at this year's Olympic trials. She's also a "part-time" model, and was the first female athlete to be on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. And she's a (so far) 10-time Olympic medalist, which includes her silver medal just two days ago in the 4x100 relay.

#2) Dara has been trained by sports chiropractor, Master of Fitness Sciences, and owner of NY Strength, Dr. Jack Barnathan... the man I studied under with the International Sports Sciences Association. I know for a fact the Dr. Jack is awesome, which makes Dara awesome (and maybe, by association, me too? Okay, probably not.)

#1) Dara won her first Olympic gold medal in 1984, before some of her competitors in the '08 Olympics could even spell the word g-o-l-d. That's just incredibly awesome.

You can keep track of all the Olympic swimming results at the official NBC Olympic coverage site. Dara's 50 meter freestyle takes place this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Best of luck to her, and all the competitors.

Exercise Spotlight: Squat Thrust

2008-07-31T13:09:00.007-05:00

Sometimes referred to as a burpee, this is a classic bodyweight exercise done in military PT and high school gym classes the world over.

The How-To: From start to finish, one rep is actually a four-step process.

1 - Begin from a standing position, then squat down to a crouched position (both feet and palms flat on floor).

2 - Shift weight onto your hands while jumping/kicking both legs straight backwards, landing on the toes, and ending up in a "push-up position."

3 - Reverse step 2, jumping the feet in towards the chest, landing in a full squat position (feet flat).

4 - Stand upright.

Main Muscles Involved: E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, with stability required in the shoulders, back, and abs, and flexibility required in the hamstrings, calves/ankles, and low back (for the squatting portion).

Common Variations: Add a push-up between steps 2 and 3. Add a high jump immediately after step 4. Hold dumbbells, keeping the arms at your sides and close to the body throughout the movement. Any combination of those three options (adding a push-up and a jump creates one of the most challenging bodyweight-only exercises around.)

Best Suited For: High reps (anything from 20-100, or more if you're crazy... and bored) for conditioning/fat loss workouts. Low to moderate reps (5-10) as part of a general warm-up prior to training.

Another alternative is to go for time, rather than total reps. 30 seconds of non-stop squat thrusts can be a killer part of circuit training. For reference, 40+ basic squat thrusts (no jump, no push-up) per minute is a solid performance.

Contraindications/Who Should NOT Perform This Exercise: Folks with persistent hip, hamstring, and/or lower back inflexibility; especially on the transition from step 1 to step 2 (kicking the legs out and landing in the push-up position), everyone should avoid the tendency to let the back and abs droop towards the ground, as can happen when performing reps quickly.

Fun Fact: If you haven't been doing any cardio training recently, try adding 1 set of half-your-age-in-reps after every few sets of other exercises throughout your next workout. See if it doesn't make you re-evaluate your need for a few cardio sessions.

I'm a Farmer!!

2008-06-30T20:33:00.006-05:00

Yep, summer's here... and I'm a farmer.

A few months ago, I read Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, which discussed, among other things, the benefits of a plant-based diet.

It didn't promote vegetarianism, so much as it promoted a return to good old fashioned healthful eating. One section of the book really brought my attention to community supported agriculture, or CSA, farms. Basically, it's when a collection of local citizens purchases "shares" of a local (usually organic) farm.

In exchange for a yearly fee, the CSA supporters receive weekly deliveries of fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables. For the past few weeks, I've been a member of the Garden of Eve farm, based in Riverhead.

My first CSA vegetable share.

Being able to shake the hand of the guy or gal who planted, tended to, and harvested the food you're eating really gives you a greater appreciation of the whole experience. Plus, the food is more nutritious and flavorful.

My buddy TC Luoma wrote a terrific article discussing Pollan's book. I definitely suggest giving it a read, and then Google CSA farms near you.

Let's Be Frank

2008-05-31T13:24:00.001-05:00

I was sorting through some boxes of old magazines a while ago and I rediscovered my issues of the Frank Zane newsletter I subscribed to a few years back. It was a quarterly mag with some pretty interesting articles.

Anyhow, in the Summer 2000 issue, his "Winning Mr. America" article discussed one particular summer he spent just training. I thought it was pretty interesting:

"There were 2 months of solid training before I started my new job teaching math at a High School in St. Petersburg, some 20 miles away.

It was a simple lifestyle: Up at 7am, have 6 eggs for breakfast and hit the Tampa Bay beach by 10am. After a few hours of sun, get lunch consisting of one pound of fish at the nearby Mullet Inn, go home, take a nap and start my workout by 3:30pm, finishing by 6pm. Dinner was a pound of flank steak with a scoop of cottage cheese and a salad. After reading a few hours I'd go to bed 11pm...

That summer I trained 6 days a week with simple equipment: dumbbells, barbell, squat rack, preacher bench, leg extension/leg curl, lat machine, power rack, dip bars. I did a 2 way split routine: back, biceps, forearms, thighs, calves and abs one day, followed by chest, shoulders, triceps, abs the next. I did no aerobics and once a week would drive to Tampa to train at Smith's Gym.

These workouts were heavy (I was squatting 10 reps with 375 pounds, doing press behind neck with 220, and doing parallel dips with 100 pounds around my waist.)"

Probably not the worst way for a guy to spend his summer, if he has the available time (but that's a big if. A biiiiig if.) Have a big breakfast, rest a while, grab a big lunch, nap, lift a bunch, big dinner, get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Just something to think about.

Frank Zane is one of the most completely developed bodybuilders of all time and his book, Mind, Body, Spirit is also a great read.

Q & A

2008-04-23T14:08:00.003-05:00

Q: I have a question regarding taking days to rest in between workouts. Everyday I do 20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups. I've noticed improvements in my health and strength just from this very brief daily routine. I have not missed one day for 2 months.

My question is does taking a day off from working out, even if the workout doesn't fatigue my muscles or even make me sweat make that big of a difference in the results I will see?

A: The odds are that you'd feel equally perked up from 40 quick reps of any calisthenics. There's nothing extra-special about push-ups and sit-ups.

Chad Waterbury is one of the biggest advocate of high frequency training, and even he recommends at least one day of complete rest each week.

Plus, if you're saying that the workout "doesn't fatigue your muscles" or "even make you sweat", there's not much benefit other than some non-exercise physical activity (NEPA, or basically "moving around a bit more"). Even in that case, it'd be better for you all-around to have some variety in the exercises, not sticking to the same exercises 60 days in a row.

If you really want to do something every single day of the week (even though it's not necessary), mix it up. Something like:

Push-ups and lying leg arcs Monday and Wednesday

Lunges and some kind of row (light dumbbell, with a stuffed backpack, etc) on Tuesday and Thursday

Prisoner squats and pull-ups on Friday and Sunday

Dive-bomber push-ups and squat thrusts on Saturday.

If you have anymore questions about the exercises, shoot me an e-mail at Chris@ColucciTraining.com.

- Chris.

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Q: I've noticed that while I'm lifting and once I finish, I have a short "high." My mood spikes, and then afterwards, I slump into a really low depression and can't seem to get out of it until I lift again.

Is this common, what should I do about it?

A: There's definitely a kind of endorphin rush after a good lifting session, just like long distance runner's can experience. You could just be overly sensitive to it, so you notice when you come down from it more than most people.

Are you new to lifting? Are you healthy otherwise (physically, hormonally, etc.)? Are you taking any supplements?

I wouldn't stress over it too much. Try to remember that lifting is a great thing to be doing, but it shouldn't be "the reason you get out of bed in the morning, so if I'm not lifting today, I'm going to veg out and go blaaaaahhhhhh."

Look, there's more to life than lifting heavy iron. Enjoy it while you're doing it, and look forward to doing it again soon, but if you're moping around just because you're not in the gym, we need to find you something else to be interested in.

If you want to talk about some other options, shoot me an e-mail.

- Chris.

Baseball Started, Have You?

2008-03-31T20:38:00.002-05:00

Summer's gonna be here soon.

Will your body be a home run? Or more of a bunt?

With just under six weeks until the unofficial start of summer, it's still not too late to get started on a serious change. But at this point, you're definitely cutting it short.

If you're a little soft around the middle, you need fat loss, pronto.

If you're on the scrawny side, it's time to slap on some solid muscle.

Or if you're perfectly happy with how you look right now, and you just can't wait to go for a run in the sand with a buddy... well, um... congrats. Chill out, keep doing what you're doing, and enjoy a video.

A Leap Year Workout

2008-02-29T11:48:00.001-05:00

It only comes around once every four years, so if you want to do something memorable, give this workout a shot.

It's from Craig Ballantyne, who creates some of the toughest and most effective bodyweight workouts around.

Like Craig says, if that workout seems "easy", he also has some more challenging variations. Give it a go, and see how you do.

Vegetarian Sports News Update

2008-02-23T09:21:00.003-05:00

Another pro athlete has made the switch to a vegetarian lifestyle. Milwaukee Brewer's first baseman Prince Fielder, at 6'2", 260 pounds, went vegetarian as of February 3 for ethical reasons.

His favorite food so far is the Boca Burger, that soy/gluten pseudo-meat. But he's even commented about those being difficult to tolerate without a ton of ketchup. Compliance could pop up as an issue.

Guess it'll be interesting to see how his season is this year. Fortunately, we'll have some obvious indicators to be on the lookout for. Last year, Fielder racked up 50 homers, but also committed a National League record 14 errors. Let's keep an eye on these stats and see how meat-free works on the MLB. (That rhymes, hehe.)

This is less-than a month after the NFL's Tony Gonzalez adopted a modified vegan diet (only allowing small portions of chicken and fish).

And it's only been a few months since hardcore vegan Mac Danzig dominated The Ultimate Fighter reality show and earned a spot as a pro MMA fighter with the UFC.

Is there something to be said for reducing the amount of animal products in your daily nutrition plan? I think there is, and I'll explain more about it in the near future after some more investigating and self-experimentation. But in the meantime, you know who knows a lot about getting large and strong on a vegetarian-style diet? My buddy Jason Ferruggia.

I Want You... To Get Jacked

2008-02-19T11:07:00.006-05:00

May 26, Memorial Day, is the officially-unofficial start of summer. That means trips to Jones Beach, barbecues with friends, hotter weather, and less clothes.

And that means that right now is the perfect time to start a seriously effective training program.

Jason Ferruggia's Muscle Building Secrets is one of the most effective programs I've seen in a long time, and just for the next three days, he's putting out an incredible offer.

Muscle Gaining Secrets e-book - Valued at $99.95

Beginner Blast Off 26-week Plan - $79.95 Value

Maximum Mass 26-week Plan - $79.95 Value

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The Exercise Database e-book - $29.95 Value

Muscle Building Meal Plans with Dr. Chris Mohr - $99.95 Value

Quick Meals for Fast Muscle e-book - $14.95 Value

The Secrets of Super Strength with Jim Wendler - $19.95 Value

Ironman: How to by Injury-Free with Keith Scott - $19.95 Value

MGS Bodyfat Composition Tracker Software 5000 - $39.95 Value

Uncensored Audio Interview with Jason Ferruggia - $29.95 Value

A Lifetime Membership to the Muscle Gaining Secrets Forum - $199.95 Value

A Lifetime Discount on Supplements - Priceless

Plus if you order between today and Thursday February 21, you'll also get:

Muscle Gaining Secrets Audio Book - $39.95 Value

Maximum Mass 2- Advanced Workout - $79.95 Value

The Complete Abdominal Exercise Index by John Alvino - $39.95 Value

Freak Strength by Zach Even-Esh - $19.95 Value

Advanced Kettlebell Training by The Diesel Crew - $29.95 Value

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Hybrid Training by Nick Nilson - $29.95 Value

Lifetime Updates to the Muscle Gaining Secrets Program - Priceless

Complete Money-Back Guarantee - Priceless

- - - - - -

This is a completely redonkulous package that Jay is offering. I mean, really, for just $67, you're getting well over a year's worth of training and nutrition plans and unlimited live, online support from the MGS forum which Jay checks out daily (and I'm a member of, too).

I'm going to say it flat-out: if you don't invest in Muscle Building Secrets, you're probably not very serious about reaching your goals.

Pick up your copy, read it and start ASAP, and by Memorial Day, you could reasonably add 10-15 pounds of muscle or drop 10-15 pounds of fat, completely revamp your body and start the summer right.

The Top Ten Muscle Building Tips

2008-02-05T17:11:00.000-05:00

Today, I wanted to share a quick list from New Jersey's own Jason Ferruggia. Jay is an incredible trainer and he knows how to slap muscle onto any body.

He's also one of the biggest Giants fans I can think of. So to celebrate Big Blue's incredible Superbowl 42 win, I thought I'd share one of Jay's best articles. Follow his advice and you will get bigger.

- - - - - - - - - -

The Top Ten Muscle Building Tips

By Jason Ferruggia

1. Lift weights for no more than three to four days per week. Doing so is not only unnecessary but can quickly lead to over-training, especially if you are doing other physical activities such as cardio or playing recreational sports on a regular basis.

2. Limit your workouts to 30-45 minutes and 15-20 total sets. If you can't build muscle and gain strength in that time frame then I’d say you are half assing it. You have to remember that results are greatest when energy levels and mental focus are at their highest. That is during the first 30-45 minutes of your workout. Going beyond that point causes both of these to plummet.

3. Use big, compound exercises and lift heavy. Deadlifts, military presses, squats, bench presses, rows and chin ups should always be the main focus of your muscle building workout programs. These have been the best muscle building exercises since the beginning of time and that will never change.

4. Continually try to get stronger and always track your progress with a training journal. Progressive overload is the most basic but often forgotten principle in weight training. It states that to make progress you need to constantly increase the amount of weight you lift. Follow this rule and you will get bigger and stronger. Ignore it and you will get nowhere. If you are benching 225 right now, you better be benching 315 by this time next year if you want to build muscle.

5. Train with a multitude of rep ranges. Doing this allows you to target both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers and maximizes your muscle building capabilities. Reps from 1-20 should be used to target both fast twitch and slow twitch fibers.

6. Always change your weight training program every 3-4 weeks. After 3-4 weeks on the same program you will start to burn out and your results will slow down. To keep your body in a muscle building state, be sure to change your workouts frequently. If you have been lifting for several years, this may need to be done every two weeks because you will adapt more rapidly to the same stimulus.

7. Make a serious commitment to eating. Proper nutrition plays a huge role in your muscle building efforts. Without adequate calories you will never grow optimally. Force feed yourself if you have to and be sure to time your carbs correctly, meaning around training and at breakfast, while cutting them out at night if you want to stay lean while building muscle.

8. Be sure to get at least 8-10 hours of sleep per day and take naps whenever possible. When you are sleeping is when you are building muscle. Sleep is the time when you recover and grow. Without adequate sleep you will never reach your true potential and your muscle building efforts in the gym may be wasted. Do not overlook this important factor.

9. Utilize recovery methods. Training and eating properly are not enough to ensure the fastest muscle building results. You also have to be sure to use whatever recovery methods you can to accelerate your progress. Some of these include taking contrast showers or baths after training, stretching after training and on off days, icing, using foam rollers and whatever else you can think of to help you recover faster.

10. Find a good training partner. While I left this for last on the list it may, in fact, be the most important factor of them all. Without a good training partner your results will always be less than what they could be. It is imperative that you try to find someone to push you and to compete against if you really want to take your muscle building efforts to the next level.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit MuscleGainingSecrets.com.

Exercise, Eat Right, Live Longer... Really?

2008-01-31T11:21:00.000-05:00

Small lifestyle changes can boost longevity.

"People with four healthy lifestyle behaviors -- not smoking, physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption, and eating five servings of fruit or vegetables a day -- live an average of 14 years longer than people with none of those behaviors..."

So in case you needed another reason to quit smoking, start lifting weights, cut back on the booze, and cook up some sauteed spinach with garlic (my new favorite), there ya go.

Get Started

2008-01-03T12:54:00.000-05:00

Happy 2008.

Now get started working towards your goals.

No excuses.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-24T10:07:00.000-05:00

'Tis the season... or something like that. There's one song I've been listening to at least once a day for the past week or so while getting into the holiday spirit. It's called "Christmas in New York".

A local NY Irish pub band called Shilelagh Law wrote it for the Christmas of 2001, three months after September 11. I get goosebumps every single time I hear it, in that "appreciate what's really important"-way.

A homemade video (not made by me):

The lyrics:

There's snow in the air, winter is here.
The wind is blowing, the nights are so clear.
There's presents to wrap and cards to send.
It's Christmas in New York again.

There's somebody singing a holiday song.
You pick up the tune and start singing along.
You learned the words sometime way back when.
It's Christmas in New York again.

Fancy store windows and millions of lights.
Downtown in December, what a fabulous sight.
You spin round and round trying to take it all in.
It's Christmas in New York again.

As you gather round the table with everyone,
You feel that something has been left undone.
The tree is all trimmed, your shopping is through,
But there's one last thing you still have to do.

It's Christmas Eve, eleven PM.
You walk down to the church and you quietly go in.
Kneel down in the last pew, right on the aisle.
And say God I know that it's been a while.

But can you do me a favor on this Christmas Eve?
Can you send out some blessings to people for me?
You know these last few months have been kind of tough,
And we could all use a little love.

So bless New York's finest, our angels in blue.
Giving us hope and helping us through.
And bless New York's bravest, the FDNY.
Giving their sweat and their tears and their lives.

And bless all the medics and our troops overseas,
And the guys in the hardhats removing debris.
Bless the everyday people who answered the call.
Bless those who gave some, and those who gave all.

And bless all the souls who left us this year.
You may be gone, but you'll always be here,
Singing and dancing with family and friends.
It's Christmas in New York again.

There's snow in the air, winter is here.
The wind is blowing, the nights are so clear.
There's presents to wrap and cards to send.
It's Christmas in New York again.

Fa la la-la la la-la la la-la

Fa la la-la la la-la la la-la

Fa la la-la la la-la la la-la

Fa la la-la la la-la la la-la

... And it's Christmas in New York again.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

So yeah, I just wanted to share this with y'all.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Is It Fat and Happy or Fat and Healthy?

2007-12-06T12:58:00.000-05:00

A recent news article reported a study that may indicate the health risks generally connected with being overweight and/or obese may have been inaccurate.

The article states:
Being overweight boosts the risk of dying from diabetes and kidney disease but not cancer or heart disease, and carrying some extra pounds actually appears to protect against a host of other causes of death, federal researchers reported yesterday.

The counterintuitive findings, based on a detailed analysis of decades of government data about more than 39,000 Americans, supports the conclusions of a study the same group did two years ago that suggested the dangers of being overweight may be less dire than experts thought.

"The take-home message is that the relationship between fat and mortality is more complicated than we tend to think," said Katherine M. Flegal, a senior research scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who led the study. "It's not a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all situation, where excess weight just increases your mortality risk for any and all causes of death."

I don't like the possible implications this might have with people using it as an excuse to remain overweight. "Well, that study said fat folks are just as healthy as skinny folks." First of all, no. That's not what the study said, but that's most likely all some people will "hear" from catching a snippet of the story in the news.

Secondly, as you may expect, there are a number of health professionals disputing the results because it's so opposite of... well, it's opposite of what I'd like to call "common sense."

"It's just rubbish," said Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It's just ludicrous to say there is no increased risk of mortality from being overweight. . . . From a health standpoint, it's definitely undesirable to be overweight."

The proportion of flabby Americans has been rising steadily, and two-thirds are now classified as overweight, including about one-third who carry so many extra pounds that they qualify as obese. The trend has triggered widespread warnings of an impending epidemic of diabetes, heart, disease, cancer and other ailments.

The researchers calculated that in 2004, obesity was associated with as many as 112,000 excess deaths from heart disease and more than 45,000 deaths from diabetes and kidney disease. Obesity was not, however, associated with an overall excess in cancer deaths, though it was linked to as many as 19,000 excess deaths from malignancies commonly blamed on fat, including breast, uterine, ovarian, kidney, colon, esophageal and pancreatic cancer.

The most surprising finding was that being overweight but not obese was associated only with excess mortality from diabetes and kidney disease -- not from cancer or heart disease. Moreover, the researchers found an apparent protective effect against all other causes of death, such as tuberculosis, emphysema, pneumonia, Alzheimer's disease and injuries.

An association between excess weight and nearly 16,000 deaths from diabetes and kidney disease was overshadowed by a reduction of as many as 133,000 deaths from all other deaths unrelated to cancer or heart disease. Even moderately obese people appeared less likely to die of those causes.

What's the moral of this whole story? Despite the new research, "they" still seem confused about the how's and why's regarding the results. So just keep eating well, keep training, and sooner or later, we won't even need to concern ourselves with the health/risk concerns of obesity.

Be Nice To Me, I Just Gave Blood.

2007-11-27T09:17:00.000-05:00

Last night I stopped by a local school and donated a pint of the red stuff. I've donated a few times before, and I'll be donating more in the future. It's probably one of the easiest and most genuine ways to do a good deed.

It usually takes about a half-hour from start to finish and when you're done, you get some time at the cookie and juice table. There's nothing like chipping in to save a few lives to make apple juice and oatmeal raisin cookies taste so good.

In case you were wondering, 60% of the population will need blood at some time in their lives, but less than 5% of the population donates on a regular basis. One pint of blood can be broken down into several components, which means that a single donation can save up to three lives.

As a secondary benefit, some studies show that if men give blood three times a year, they can reduce their blood's iron content and lower their own risk of heart attack by as much as 50%. So, yay for that too.

If you're in the New York/New Jersey area, you can find more info about blood drives (including drives in your area) at the New York Blood Center.

If you're not in New York or New Jersey, check out the American Red Cross at givelife.org.

Thanksgiving Math

2007-11-22T10:04:00.000-05:00

Half a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy: 380 calories

Half a plate of stuffing: 470 calories

Half a plate of turkey (3 halves? Hey, it's a big plate): 560 calories

Generous slice of pumpkin pie, with a few cookies on the side: 520 calories

Starting an Afterburn workout program NOW and losing 16-32 pounds of fat in 16 weeks: Priceless (Well okay, it's $59.99, but the life-changing results are priceless. Consider it an early holiday gift to yourself.)

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

How Boring Is Your Food?

2007-11-08T10:56:00.000-05:00

Everyone can appreciate a great meal with bountiful flavors that explode on your palate like taste-bud-sized firecrackers, but unfortunately, some of the most flavorful foods won't always fit into a targeted nutrition plan.

This is especially noticeable when we're reducing calories...the old "cardboard-flavored rice cake syndrome." But everyone can usually figure out at least one meal that they can "tolerate", if not downright enjoy, even when dieting.

Maybe it's scrambled egg whites and turkey in a whole wheat wrap, maybe it's oatmeal and a scoop of chocolate protein powder. For me, it's two whole eggs, 3/4 cup red beans (from a can, thoroughly rinsed), and 1/3 cup grated cheese, all scrambled together. No doubt, I could eat that five times a day. It is yummy for my tummy.

But I digress... or do I? Generally, the more simple you make your nutrition plan, the more likely you are to stick with it.

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek,wrote a great entry in his blog about this topic. I'm not loving the title of his piece, "How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days...Without Doing Any Exercise", but the content is 100% solid.

Ferriss' basic plan...
Rule #1: Avoid “white” carbohydrates.

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again.

Rule #3: Don’t drink calories.

Rule #4: Take one day off per week.

That second rule, especially, can be a great advantage. Figure out one or two meals you love that fit into your program, and make them cornerstones of your daily plan. Read over Tim's blog for more details.

An Interview With Alwyn Cosgrove

2007-10-12T06:44:00.000-05:00

I recently had the opportunity to interview international fitness expert Alwyn Cosgrove and get his thoughts on training for martial artists.

You can check out the interview right here, on MartialArtsPlanet.com.

What did we talk about? We discussed the status of the Lift Strong project, as well as Cosgrove's new book The Secrets of Martial Arts Conditioning.

We got his opinion of the classic, old-school tradition of boxers jogging for miles and miles... "For fighters, there’s not much benefit other than burning a few calories."

And his take on effective stretching... "The hip is the center of the muscular system – start there."

Whether you're into martial arts or not, Alwyn dished out a bunch of useful tips. Give it a read and let me know what you thought.

What Is Strength?

2007-09-21T10:36:00.002-05:00

Strength is lifting 800 pounds off the ground like it was a broomstick.

Get motivated, get amped up, get to work.

Q & A

2007-08-30T11:43:00.000-05:00

Q: My girlfriend used to just use the treadmill and do some yoga stuff at the gym, but recently I got her onto a weight lifting routine. She is thin, maybe 5'6", 110-115 pounds, and she could probably stand to add a bit of muscle.

It's going pretty well but she saw some female bodybuilders in magazines and doesn't want to be 'big' like them. It's kind of silly because she seems to think that after doing 15-pound curls for a few weeks she is going to suddenly get huge and look unfeminine. She says things like "I don't want my arms to get bigger than they are now." and "I don't want to end up looking like THAT."

Is there anything I could show her, or any advice how to deal with it?

A:
This is Gea Johnson, former Olympic weightlifter. That means it was essentially her job to lift extremely heavy weights, and to do so repeatedly throughout her career.

This is also Gea Johnson. In addition to being an Olympic weightlifter, she's had a successful modeling career. She does not look terribly huge nor does she look manly, by any stretch of the imagination.

Ask your girlfriend to checkout the website MuscleWithAttitude.com. The gals there are all about incorporating weight training to build a feminine physique. Also, remind your gal of a quote I once heard from author Chris Shugart: "Lifting weights makes men big. It makes women firm."

It takes months and months of dedicated training for a guy to make significant gains in muscle mass. Because of various hormone issues, especially Testosterone, no woman will be mistaken for a guy unless she resorts to taking illegal anabolic steroids (like the majority of female pro bodybuilders get wrapped up in.) The average gal going to the gym and picking up weights is only headed down the right path to her ideal physique.

Best of luck to her. Keep me in the loop, and if she has any more questions, toss me an e-mail (Chris@ColucciTraining.com).

- Chris.

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Q: What would be a good for me before a martial arts tournament? What should I eat and not eat? Someone said to cut out all the salt from my food the week before tourney. Any suggestions?

A: I wouldn't dream of experimenting with sodium restriction that soon to an event. Your body could respond to it poorly, and you may end up cramping and dehydrating. If you're going to make any kind of changes to your normal diet, and I'm not even sure that cutting out salt would be a good idea, try a test run for a week or so but do it at least one month before the actual competition so you won't be surprised at the last minute.

Are you looking to lose bodyfat to make a certain weight class? If so, the next step depends a lot on how much you need to lose and how long do you have until the event. If you're comfortably set in your weight class, you might not even need to make any changes, as long as you aren't noticing any major problems (sluggishness, unusual soreness, etc.)

As I said above, it's definitely not a good idea to make drastic changes to your nutrition plan immediately before an event. You could easily end up doing more harm than good. Shoot me an e-mail so I can get some more info, and we can figure out some details.

- Chris.

Three Recent Sports Record-Breakers

2007-08-08T11:40:00.000-05:00

Barry Bonds hits career home run 756 and sets a new all-time baseball record.

Ryan Kennelly bench presses 1,036 pounds and sets a new world record.

And from last month...

Joey Chestnut eats 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, defeating the 6-time reigning champ.

Nassau County...Chubby Now, Lean & Mean by 2020

2007-07-31T22:56:00.001-05:00

It's official...Long Islanders, long known for our over-exaggerated accents ('cause we live on Lawn-Guy-Lend) and our under-exaggerated traffic, are getting wider around the waist-line.

This news release explains that a recent study put out by the Department of Health determined that nearly 60% of our local population are overweight or obese (as determined by the Body Mass Index...not my favorite method, since it doesn't account for lean body tissue like muscle, but it's better than nothing.)

Nassau County, New York is home to over 1.3 million people, which means there are nearly 800,000 Long Islanders with an increased risk of hypertension (high blood pressure), osteoarthritis, type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, and some cancers.

County Executive Suozzi's eventual plan is "to make Nassau the healthiest county in the nation by 2020." That's amazingly admirable, and it's something I'm entirely on board with helping work towards. In the coming year, I'll be unveiling some of my own plans along these lines as well, and I'll give you one hint what I'm working on...

For the most long-lasting and dramatic improvements, it's not weight loss or even fat loss that should be the focus. Lean muscle is the bigger picture.

But enough of that for now. Take a quick read through the press release, and see how you stack up to some of the other statistics that were discovered:

* Only 45% of residents reported participating in recommended levels of physical activity.

* Only 25% of residents reported eating recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables.

* Approximately 14% of residents reported binge or heavy drinking within the past 30 days.

* Approximately 15% of residents identified themselves as current smokers.

Where do you fit into these numbers? Is that acceptable to you, or no?

Exercise Spotlight: Push Press

2007-07-02T22:15:00.000-05:00

The How-To:

This is a great video put together by the folks at Crossfit. I suggest viewing it straight through once or twice. It's a textbook lesson on the push press.

The bar starts at collarbone level. Jump upwards as you press overhead. If the feet leave the ground, that's fine. Keep the knees soft as you lockout, but don't re-bend too much; it shouldn't be a quarter-squat, but a slight dip.

Lower the bar under control, not super-fast, and dip the knees to cushion the catch, returning the bar to collarbone level. Try keeping the elbows pointed forwards, rather than straight down, to reduce shoulder and arm fatigue.

Main Muscles Involved: Deltoids, triceps, abs, low back, a little bit of upper back, a bit of chest, some calves.

Common Variations: 2-dumbbell push press, 1-dumbbell push press, kettlebell push press, sandbag push press.

Best Suited For: Lower reps (1-5 per set) for strength/power. Moderate reps (6-12 per set) for hypertrophy. At much heavier weights and lower reps, especially in the 1-3 range, it's tempting to dip the knees a second time as the bar approaches lockout at the top, turning the exercise into a jerk instead of a straight press. Remember to only jump up/bend the legs once on the press and once on the catch.

Contraindications/Who Should NOT Perform This Exercise: Folks with pre-existing knee, low back, or shoulder injuries. People lacking the walking-chewing bubble gum coordination factor (there is some technique involved.)

Fun Fact: The flat bench press may get lots of glory, but for my money, the push press is a much more realistic and effective predictor of athletic success because you're standing without support and making sure a large iron object doesn't fall down onto your head, as opposed to lying "comfortably" on a perfectly balanced, padded bench with a perfectly balanced weight waiting for you to lift it. Wanna kick the other team's ass? Make sure you're push pressing.

My Favorite Stuff: Everlast Round Timer

2007-06-25T12:53:00.001-05:00

If you're training in your home, this little devil is a must-have. Interval cardio is the best of the best for fat loss, and this gadget makes interval training much easier to track - with its designated times for rest and activity, incredibly simple operation, and super-loud bell tone alert.

I picked one up at Sports Authority a few months ago and I've been using it consistently without any problems. The only change I'd like to see would be more variations with the work time/rest time. You can only choose either two or three-minute rounds and either 30 or 60-second rests. In any case, it more than does the job just as is.

If you want to take your interval training from "alright" to "seriously productive", I'd recommend using the timer with the following progression:

Week one: Five rounds - Two-minute rounds, one-minute rests.

Week two: Five rounds - Three-minute rounds, one-minute rests.

Week three: Five rounds - Two-minute rounds, 30-second rests.

Week four: Five rounds - Three-minute rounds, 30-second rests.

Week five: Repeat, starting from week two. Use a different, more challenging form of cardio (kicking a heavy bag, instead of punching, use a slightly heavier dumbbell for cardio complexes, etc.)

Q & A

2007-06-19T09:43:00.000-05:00

Q: How many grams of protein can the body absorb in one hour? I heard people saying it's 30-40 g. per hour, while some say that there isn't any limit. I have a tendency to use 60g. protein shakes once in a while, so i want to know if I'm actually wasting it like that?

A: It's highly debatable. My readings of Dr. John Berardi (a phenomenal nutrition expert) seem to lead towards sticking with around one gram per pound of bodyweight for a daily intake. As for each meal, that's trickier to answer. This article discusses that exact question with Berardi and several other noted nutrition experts. Yet, there's no solid, definitive answer. Sorry.

I believe that, as long as you're generally healthy (especially in terms of healthy kidney function, with no history of kidney stones), it's fine to take in whatever amount you can. It's better to have "extra" protein than to not have enough. Since protein requires more metabolic work than fat or carbohydrates, you won't be as likely to convert a few extra grams of protein into stored bodyfat.

Figure out your daily caloric intake, from there you can derive your aproximate protein/carb/fat intake for the day. A very general rule of thumb is to divide your macronutrient (protein, carb, and fat) intake into 4-6 meals, and eat that much every few hours. But, if you want faster and more efficient results, you need to customize your calorie intake for the activities you plan to do in the next few hours. That is, you'd eat more before a tough workout than you would before going to bed.

However, you could also take the easy, no-math-involved way and not count calories, or protein, or carbs...or fat. Your results will be much less constant, but as long as you stick to a few other basic nutrition rules, you'll be ahead of the Average Joe.

For more info about Dr. Berardi's world-class, expert nutrition info, check out his Precision Nutrition program.

- Chris.

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Q: I'm 15 years old and I'm a three-sport athlete, but despite my generally good eating habits and exercise I still have some unwanted bodyfat. Would it be okay for me to take a fat burning or weight loss supplement? I do realize that exercise and nutrition are most important, and I am very active. Thanks.

A: Setting aside the fact that it would go directly against every label recommendation I've ever read, ("Not for use under the age of 18")...

If you're sleeping at least eight hours a night, seven nights a week; If you're lifting weights at least three days a week; If you're performing at least two "cardio" sessions per week; If you know how many calories you're eating, seven days a week; If you're eating at least five times a day, seven days a week; If you have a specific post-workout drink after every intense exercise session; and If you personally prepare at least 50% of your own meals, then I'd be okay with you considering a fat burning supplement.

Otherwise, ermm...no. There are more essential things to spend your attention, and $40, on. Send me an e-mail (Chris@ColucciTraining.com), and we can figure out the rest of those essentials.

Exercise Spotlight: Two-Arm Dumbbell Swing

2007-06-05T00:12:00.001-05:00

Okay, so here's the first installment of a brand new feature on The Blog...The Exercise Spotlight. I'll be explaining, dissecting, (occasionally lambasting), and detailing a variety of exercises to introduce into your workouts. First up is the two-arm dumbbell swing.

The How-To: Get ready to jump up higher than you've ever jumped before...now go. At its root, that 's the simplest explanation of how to perform a swing. Squat down while scooting your hips and butt backwards, holding the weight with both hands between your legs and keeping all your weight on your heels (balls of the feet practically weightless.) Now, with minimal momentum, explode upwards almost coming off the ground.

By keeping your arms mostly straight (elbows not locked out, but not bent like a hug) the weight will travel in an upward arc, reaching a height anywhere from beltline to eye-level, depending on how much oomph you gave it. Very Important: Do not actively use your arms to lift the weight. They're only going along for the ride. The weight is being lifted by the amount of force you produce when you explode up.

On the descent, after the weight reaches its peak, be sure to bend your legs and "catch" the weight as you transition into the next repetition. Do not simply bend at the hips like you're reaching to tie your shoe. That would be murder on the lower back. We want one rep to flow smoothly into the next.

Fantastic starting position: Hips and butt wayyy back - weight on the heels, not the balls of the feet - ready to explode up.

Finish position: Standing upright - arms mostly straight - hips tucking under.

[My thanks to Mistress Krista over at Stumptuous.com for the pics. Her site is a phenomenal resource with tons of training tips for gals, but the info is definitely applicable to everyone. Actually, she's discussed swings in an article too.]

Main Muscles Involved: Glutes, hamstrings, lower back, upper back, grip.

Common Variations: One-arm swing, kettlebell swing, medicine ball swing, swing to various heights.

Best Suited For: Use higher reps (15-50 per set) with light-to-moderate weight for a killer cardio session; Use heavier weight and lower reps (2-5 per set) for an explosive strength session.

Contraindications/Who Should NOT Perform This Exercise: Those with "delicate" lower backs (prone to injury or recovering from an injury.)

Fun Fact: The dumbbell swing is one of a select group of exercises that can give you a complete, full-body workout all by itself. Having a psycho day and find yourself with only 10 minutes to train? Try doing swings for maximum reps, nearly non-stop, resting only as needed. Problem solved. Not many exercises can do that for you (or to you.)

If It Looks To Good To Be True...

2007-05-23T12:43:00.000-05:00

- Most Likely NSFW -

Consider this your "grain of salt" to keep in mind the next time you or your girlfriend/wife/sister/mother flip open a magazine, point to a celeb or model, and say "Geez, why can't I look like her?"

Just remember that professionals in the Appearance Industry often have tricks, tools, means, and methods at their disposal not available to us everyday folk.

Lift Strong Update

2007-05-07T23:04:00.000-05:00

A little over a month ago, I told y'all about a charity project put together by Alwyn Cosgrove, LiftStrong, to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

I've got some good news, and some slightly-less-than-good news. The good news is that since its release just last month, Lift Strong has raised over $40,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That's great work so far, but...the less-than-good news is that it isn't even half of what Alwyn is hoping to raise. He wants this project to bring in $100,000 for charity. And I completely believe it's possible.

I'm asking everyone who's reading this blog, if you're into the "donating to charity"-thing, please purchase a copy of LiftStrong. I don't make any money if you do it. Alwyn doesn't make any money if you do it. Cancer researchers make money if you do it. It's that simple.

If you're not into the "donating to charity"-thing, that's fine. This is an amazing fitness resource too. I received my copy a few weeks ago and I'm still trying to get through all the information. The articles and e-books (yes, this one cd contains several complete e-books) range from "Fat Loss For Busy Men & Women" and "Pre-Season Basketball Training" to "Acid-Base Nutrition" and "High Octane Cardio" (This last one, by the way, is one of the most effective fat-burning routines I've tried.) Some of the pieces are for slightly advanced trainers, but the vast majority of the info here is golden and applicable to everybody. It's definitely a worthwhile (and worthy) read.

Honestly, the one section of LiftStrong that I'd be willing to purchase as a separate book (even though it's included in this cd) is the compilation of Alwyn's own personal e-mail's, "The Cancer Diaries". It's all of the correspondences that Alwyn sent to his friends and family, some of them even sent from his hospital bed, throughout his treatments. They're probably some of the most powerful words Alwyn's ever written, moreso than any of his myriad training programs or advice I've read from him over the years.

I almost forgot, you may want to check out this audio interview that Alwyn did, discussing the entire Lift Strong project and his reasons for putting it all together.

Also, like I said in my previous announcement, if you send me an e-mail (Chris@ColucciTraining.com) after you purchase your copy of LiftStrong, I'll send you a 6-week fat burning and body re-shaping routine as my own way of saying Thank You. I've gotten a few responses so far, folks, but not nearly as many as I'd hoped for.

So, one more time...Lift Strong...get a copy. Please and thank you. If you already did and you're still in a donating mood, get another and give it to a co-worker, a neighbor, or leave it as a tip for the waitress at the diner. Thanks.

Congratulations Matt Serra (Again)!

2007-04-26T23:12:00.000-05:00

If you're a regular reader here, you might recall UFC pro fighter Matt Serra from way back in November, when I wrote about Matt winning a chance at the UFC welterweight title.

Well, just a few weeks ago on April 7, Matt "The Terror" Serra did fight Georges St. Pierre for the title. And - less than four minutes into the first round - we end up with... ... ...

The New UFC Welterweight Champion, Matt Serra!

I wanted to take the chance to congratulate Matt on the amazing win. It was something straight out of a movie: Underdog dethrones the champ with a first round K.O., in no uncertain terms.

Here are a few videos I found that give some great insight into who Matt really is and the training required to pull off a truly classic underdog victory.

His Thoughts After Winning:

Training with Coach Ray Longo:

Sparring and Fight Prep:

In January, I was lucky enough to actually sit down with him and we talked about MMA training, the future of MMA as a sport, and some interesting life lessons too. You can read that interview here.

And don't forget, if you're in the New York area and want to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with a genuine champion, be sure to check out Matt's school, Serrajitsu.

The Magic 13

2007-04-13T16:11:00.000-05:00

So it's Friday the 13th. Ooooooohhhh, scaaaaryyyyy. While it inspires some people to rub a rabbit's foot, chew on a four-leafed clover, and watch gorefest movie marathons featuring a hockey-masked anti-hero, it reminded me about a terrific nutrition article I once read.

Power Foods: The Magic 13
by TC Luoma

The super-quick summary:
Foods that rule = Broccoli, wild salmon, grass-fed beef, walnuts, olive oil, blueberries, flax seeds, pumpkin, spinach, tomatoes, turkey breast, yogurt, and shiitake mushrooms.

For the details, including why these are nutrition powerhouses (and just how much you need to eat to enjoy the benefits), give the article a quick read.

Lift Strong

2007-04-05T14:09:00.000-05:00

www.liftstrong.com

Alwyn Cosgrove is one of the most influential fitness coaches around today. He's a regular contributor to several leading fitness magazines, and he's worked with Olympic athletes and pro sports figures. He's also survived cancer twice, most recently thanks to a stem cell transplant he received in June '06.

Alwyn's always had a unique, no-nonsense attitude about things. Somebody once commented to him "Congrats on the stem-cell transplant. It sounded pretty brutal, but I'm sure you were laughing in the face of death the whole time."

Without batting an eye, Alwyn replied "Actually I was telling cancer to get fucked."

That's classic Cosgrove. This is also the same attitude that led him to create a tremendous charity project to benefit the Lukemia & Lymphoma society. I'll let Alwyn explain what he did...

"I approached several of my closest friends in this industry and asked them to contribute to a little "book project" that I had in mind - to give me a 3-4 page article.

This little "book project" turned into an 800 page monster! My friends did not disappoint me -- and we have now (to keep costs down - released this product as a CD with all the articles in pdf format on the disc). I have 55 authors who contributed. For less than 50c each - (if that matters to you) - you can read all their articles.

I also included my email diaries when I was going through treatment. This was a "live" in-the-trenches-on-the-frontline account of cancer treatment - everything that went through my head."

All the proceeds from the sale of this product go to
the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

As my own way of saying an extra thank you, if you send me an e-mail (Chris@ColucciTraining.com) once you've ordered your Lift Strong cd, I'll send you a complimentary 6-week fat burning and body re-shaping routine. It's just my little bitty way of chipping in, and hopefully getting a few more donations for a great cause.

So please, check out www.liftstrong.com and invest just a little bit to help fund crucial cancer research. Thanks.

MMA Prodigy or Too Much Too Soon?

2007-03-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this. He's obviously got great skills (especially for a kid his age) but I can't help but think it's another example of youngsters in America specializing too soon in sports activities.

It's my understanding that in most other parts of the world, the youth are encouraged to try a variety of sports and increase their general exposure to athletics. This is an advantage in keeping their interest piqued and it also develops more well-rounded physical attributes. "Jack of all trades, master of none" would be a great motto for all parents of young athletes to adopt, at least during their most formative years.

Nate Green Is More Important Than Metallica.

2007-03-20T19:31:00.000-05:00

I’ve known Nate Green for a couple of years now, and I can honestly say that what he’s done this past week has made me question how much I actually like him. Let's flashback to see where I'm coming from...

It’s 1989 and I've just seen Metallica’s music video for “One.” I instantly develop a craving for more of this serious noise. The band plays heavy, fast, and raw. It is perfect. I spend the next decade and a half using Metallica as my own personal soundtrack. Every situation I come across has a song that fits it perfectly. I stick with them through the haircuts, the music-sharing debacle, members leaving, members arriving, and members reconciling.

And then, it’s 2007 and I get an e-mail from my pal Nate.

“Hey man, here’s some interviews I just did with a bunch of coaches. I call it Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. Let me know what you think.”

What do I think? I think Nate Green is half-a-jerk because he’s assembled one of the most kick ass audio products I’ve ever heard, and now I have to make room on my already overcrowded mp3 player to fit it all.

Nate sat down and interviewed the absolute best of the best fitness professionals. Serious heavy hitters like Alwyn Cosgrove, Craig Ballantyne, Ryan Lee, Mike Boyle, Jim Labadie, Pat Rigsby, Nick Berry, Chris Shugart, Susan Hill, Bill Hartman, and Lou Schuler.

Nate basically asked each of them how they got to where they are. Talk about a shortcut to the top? The info he pulled out of them is practically everything you need to have your most successful training year ever, just add clients (and that’s covered too.)

My dilemma was thus...so much info, so few available KB on the trusty mp3 player. After many hours of meditation (and alternately ruing and praising the day Nate was born) I had only one solution. I had to delete a few albums to make room for all the interviews. ::teardrop, moment of silence::

I could’ve just left Standing on the Shoulders of Giants on my computer, but the interviews were so important, I wanted them portable so I could listen to them in the car, while mowing the lawn, while out on a run, while lifting, where ever I was. So Metallica disappeared, and Nate Green’s Standing on the Shoulders of Giants went in.

If you’re a personal trainer, athletic director, gym manager, or any type of fitness professional, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants was made for you. Hell, no matter what your career, it’s worth a listen. It’s a collection of nearly a dozen experts explaining how they rose to the top of their field. With a bit of creative thinking, you could probably pick out the “morals of the stories” and still benefit tremendously. If you decide not to, that’s your call.

This whole story does have an even happier ending. I’m so convinced that what I’ve learned from Standing on the Shoulders of Giants will make the next six months more profitable for myself (and more productive for my clients), I’ve promised myself a fancy new mp3 player with video and enough space for a bajillion and two songs. So I guess I owe Nate a thank you.

Save The Children.

2007-03-09T20:49:00.000-05:00

Folks, today's kids are in a world of hurt. Athletics and sports participation are supposed to be among the highlights of growing up. I look back and I still wish I played more sports in high school. Alas, it was only the poetry magazine for me, but I digress.

There were a pair of truly frightening health studies published over the last few days. If you have kids or if you know anyone who has kids, please, please let them know about this news. There's no reason not to.

Study #1 regarding our children and eating disorders:

“Teaching teenagers about eating disorders can make them more knowledgeable about the problem, but it may also have some inadvertent effects, a new study suggests.

Yale University researchers found that when they presented female high school students with videos on eating disorders, it met the intended goal of boosting their knowledge about anorexia and bulimia.

However, the team saw that the students didn't necessarily find the results of eating disorders unappealing. Teens who watched a video featuring a woman recovering from an eating disorder became more likely to view girls with eating disorders as "very pretty," and some thought it would be "nice to look like" the woman in the video..."

"It seems intuitively appealing to have recovered patients get up in front of high school or college-aged girls and tell the story of their eating disorder and recovery," lead study author Dr. Marlene B. Schwartz told Reuters Health.

However, she explained, there's also the argument that having an attractive, articulate woman talk about her eating disorder could inadvertently "glamorize" the condition..."

"Overall, the study found, both videos increased the girls' knowledge about anorexia and bulimia, but there were some unforeseen results as well...the girls were more likely to say afterward that "it's not that hard" to recover from an eating disorder. They were also more likely to believe girls with eating disorders have "strong" personalities.

Girls who viewed the video featuring the eating disorder patient were particularly likely to see women with anorexia or bulimia in a positive light."

Study #2 regarding our children and anabolic steroids:

“Participation in sports with real or perceived weight requirements, such as ballet, gymnastics, and wrestling, is strongly associated with unhealthy weight control behaviors and steroid use in teens, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota.

Research published in the March 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found nearly 6% of males between the ages of 12 and 18 who participated in weight-related sports induced vomiting within the week prior to being surveyed, as compared to only 0.9% of males who did not participate in weight- related sports. The use of diuretics within the previous year was reported by 4.2% of males in a weight-related sport, as opposed to 0.8% who did not participate in a weight-related sport.

Steroid use was reported in 6.8% of females who reported participating in weight-related sports, compared to 2.3% of those that weren't active in a weight-related sport. Vomiting and using laxatives were also more likely in girls who were active in weight-related sports.

Researchers conducted the longitudinal study with more than 2,000 adolescents to examine changes in eating patterns, weight, physical activity, and related factors over five years. Participants completed two surveys, one in 1999 and one in 2004, to determine if there were changes in steroid use.

Overall, 1.7% of boys and 1.4% of girls between the ages of 15 and 23 reported steroid use in 2004. Those that reported use early on were 4 to 10 times more likely to use later in life.

Boys who reported wanting a larger body in 1999, as well as those who said they used healthy weight-control behaviors, were more likely to take steroids when they were older. In contrast, girls who were heavier, less satisfied with their weight, and who had limited knowledge of healthy eating and exercise habits were more likely to take steroids as they grew older...”

“100 Smartest Diet Tips Ever” - Oh Yeah?

2007-02-28T00:39:00.000-05:00

There was a news blurb that caught my eye today on Yahoo! News: "100 tips for your toughest diet challenges." But the headline might as well have read “Hey Chris, read this now or we’ll tell all your trainer friends about the Snickers in your freezer.” It’s not mine, really. It’s, um, for next Halloween. Or it’s from last Halloween. Or something. Anyway, I checked out the link ASAP, and I was...confused. It was a mix of some pretty good advice, along with some less-than-good advice.

Right off the bat, their first two tips left me feeling a bit squirmy:
1. Add just one fruit or veggie serving daily. Get comfortable with that, then add an extra serving until you reach 8 to 10 a day.

2. Eat at least two servings of a fruit or veggie at every meal.

I get where they’re coming from with these, but it sounds like we’re adding calories to our daily intake from the get-go. I don’t like this idea much at all. My first step in straightening out a crooked diet plan is usually to incorporate several meals per day. Fruits and veggies are super-important (Captain Obvious strikes again!) but I wouldn’t make them the #1 priority to start with.

They quickly redeemed themselves though:
5. Start eating a big breakfast. It helps you eat fewer total calories throughout the day.

This is pretty much true. During the 1940’s and 50’s, legendary (albeit controversial) American nutritionist Adelle Davis coined the phrase “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” This has remained one of the most consistently effective calorie-management methods in circulation.

Another tidbit I liked from this list:
12. Instead of whole milk, switch to 1 percent. If you drink one 8-oz glass a day, you'll lose 5 lb in a year.

I’d like to rephrase “you’ll lose 5 pounds in a year” to “that’s 5 pounds you won’t be gaining”, but aside from that, this is a great tip and I agree entirely. I hate skim milk. Repeat: I H-A-T-E skim milk. When I was 8 or 9 years old, I remember my pediatrician telling me “You may want to start drinking skim milk with the school lunches, even though it tastes like dirty dish water.” The guy was right. If you find skim milk palatable, more power to you. But I have no problem with you making 1% your dairy beverage of choice.

Another killer tip:
14. Get calories from foods you chew, not beverages. Have fresh fruit instead of fruit juice.

I just sent that first sentence a marriage proposal, because I love it. If you’re drinking something that has a significant calorie content, it better be a high-protein shake. There aren’t many exceptions to this rule.

Unfortunately, the list took a wild left turn next:
16. Follow the Chinese saying: "Eat until you are eight-tenths full."

I’m sure there’s a deeply motivational and powerful meaning in this one. I just have no freaking clue what it is.

After that, wait...I forgot to mention that these 100 tips are divided into a dozen handy, dandy sub-topics. Under the topic heading “What Can I Eat for a Healthy Low-Cal Dinner if I Don't Want to Cook?” They list:
52. Scramble eggs in a nonstick skillet. Pop some asparagus in the microwave, and add whole wheat toast...

Scrambling eggs, microwaving asparagus, and making toast counts as cooking in my book. But call me a nit-picker. (It is a great meal though.)

Okay, I could go on for a while since there really are 100 tips presented. My point is, the American Dietetic Association put out this list of what they’re calling the “100 Smartest Diet Tips Ever.” That’s a mighty bold claim, and I don’t think they quite nailed it. However, there are more hits than misses overall, and there are definitely a dozen or so great ideas that I’ll be stealing, tweaking, and sharing with clients right away. Maybe a few of them are just right for you too.

I Don't Care What Your Bodyfat Is.

2007-02-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

Here’s the thing...if you’ve decided that you want to “lose some weight”, the first thing you need to realize is that you’re wrong. You don’t want to lose weight. You want to lose fat. Losing weight is easy. Go for those long, multi-mile jogs in the morning, have two apples and a hard-boiled egg white for breakfast, and maybe consider snipping off a finger or three. (Hey, they’ve got to be a few ounces each. That’s just about two pounds of deadweight right at your fingertips. Literally.)

If weight loss is all that’s important, if we only care about getting the number on the scale lower, then these methods will work just fine. Losing fat, on the other hand, is what makes a bigger difference both visually and from a heath perspective. Losing fat takes some more concentrated effort. You’ve got to pay more attention to preserving (or actually increasing) your lean muscle tissue, while whittling away bodyfat through targeted nutrition and specific resistance and cardio exercise.

If you read around, you’ll find that women are considered “average” when they have a bodyfat percentage somewhere around 18-22%, and men are “average” around 13-17%. Truth be told, I’d rather we not get hung up on reaching certain numbers.

Wayyyy too often, I’ve seen people (usually younger guys) ask on message boards “Anyone know how I can get down to 7% bodyfat? I think I’m stuck at around 14% right now.” Does this dude seriously think he’s going to look drop-dead awesome if he reaches 7%, but he’ll be disappointed with 8% or 9%? The numbers game is a tricky one, and I just don’t like to play it.

Along those lines, how do you even go about measuring your bodyfat? The majority of scales that give bodyfat readouts use an electrical impulse that can be dramatically different each time you use it depending on how thirsty you are, or even the last thing you ate. Bodyfat calipers can be more accurate, but they require a semi-competent professional to perform the measurements.

Your best bet, and the one that’s been consistently effective with a number of clients, is a two-pronged method. First, pick out something you’d wear to the beach. Whether it’s a two-piece or a one piece for ladies, or long board shorts or Speedos for the guys. Now have four pictures taken of yourself; from the front, left side, back, and right side. We’re not posing for magazines here, just take a deep breath, relax, exhale, and snap the picture.

This is the photo evidence. You can’t lie to a photo you took three weeks ago. It will let you know if you’re on the right track. Be sure to keep these pictures someplace safe, so you can look back on them once you’ve reached your goal. This kind of motivation is irreplaceable.

Second step: Pick out one full outfit, something you’d wear to go out to the diner, but it can’t be super-loose fitting. Some variation of “jeans and a t-shirt” usually work best. Try it on and take a mental note of how it feels. Are the thighs tight? Is the waist loose? Can I tuck the shirt in without anything unpleasant spilling over the belt? Also, look in the mirror. Are things looking good, or not so good. Honesty, with yourself, is key here.

Now choose one day each month to be dress-up day (could be the first of the month, or the 17th. It doesn’t really matter, just keep it the same day each month.) You’ll try this exact same outfit on and you’ll pay attention to how your body is changing, using this outfit as a constant. If you’re trying to gain muscle, you might notice the sleeves getting tighter around your newly muscled arms, or the calves may be getting snug. If you’re trying to lose fat, the waist and thighs should be gradually getting looser.

Physical and visual standards like these are going to have much more real-world impact on your motivation and your goal-setting than any number-based formula. It’s going to be easier to do, and they'll be more tangible and more applicable to you than haphazardly deciding “I need to hit X% bodyfat or I won’t be successful.”

P.S. – The popular Body Mass Index that the media talks about really doesn’t give an accurate depiction of people with any appreciable lean muscle. Because it only factors in height and weight, you’re more likely to be deemed “overweight”, even if you have a relatively low bodyfat percentage and a significant amount of lean muscle tissue. Clothes and pictures are still the best standards to use.

Random Q & A

2007-02-15T18:24:00.000-05:00

Q: Can you help me with a strength building routine that can be done at home (no gym nearby and no equipment at home).

I’m not looking for huge muscles, just some muscle/strength building and a generally healthier life.

I need some advice including exercises, diet changes, and/or supplements (though more cost is a factor).

A: You're willing to buy nutritional supplements, but not a gym membership or some basic home equipment? There's something wrong with those priorities. For the cost of about two month's worth of basic supplements, you can get a home gym setup that will last your lifetime, or longer.

You should be able to find a 300-pound barbell set for about $150 at places like Omni Fitness or Dick’s Sporting Goods. There are also stores like “Play-It Again Sports” that specialize in selling less expensive, used equipment. Don’t forget to check out Ebay.com or your local Craigslist.org to find cheaper used stuff.

But if you still want to train at home on the cheap, no worries. Grab a backpack or duffel bag; There's got to be one laying around your house somewhere. Now stuff it with everything that'll fit. Not sweaters and t-shirts, but heavier things like textbooks, phonebooks, boots, whatever you can cram in there. Congrats, you just built a weight.

Search the web for info on sandbag lifting, and you should be able to do most of the exercises with your new bag. Some of the easiest ones: Bearhug it and walk. Bearhug it and squat or lunge. Press it overhead with one or two arms. Press it overhead and squat. Bend over and row with one or two arms. Swing it to different heights (chest level, eye-level, straight overhead). Basically, take the weight, pick it up somehow or move it somewhere, and repeat for reps or time.

Another great at-home solution is to become very familiar with bodyweight exercises and their variations. Push-ups, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, squat thrusts, things like that. If you search around the web, you can find a few sites that explain the basics. Or shoot me another e-mail at chris@bodyfuelfitness.com for some more specifics.

- Chris.

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Q: I joined a buddy's softball team and it looks to be a pretty competitive league (multiple games per week). I’ve always had a fairly strong throwing arm, but it can’t hurt to get a little more zing in the wing, so to speak.

I have some resistance bands that I was thinking of using for going through the throwing motion. I am looking for your thoughts on improving my throwing arm.

A: Strength Coaches Alwyn Cosgrove, Eric Cressey, and Mike Robertson have all used a similar analogy for this situation; If a baseball player came to them, the first thing they would do is train the opposing throwing muscles (like the biceps and upper back), and the absolute last thing they would do is to mimic the actual throwing motion against resistance. This advice is 100% spot-on.

If you were to work these same muscles in the weight room, they'd quickly get overtrained, and it would only encourage muscle imbalances (which lead to injury). I dare you to keep track of how many "reps" of throws you do during your next practice or game. You'll lose count for sure. Anatomically, the muscles that are supposed to balance these throwing muscles need just as much attention, if not more.

So, unless your league is using an 8-pound softball, there's no point in training the band that way. Use the weight room for building a stronger and faster body, then use time on the field in practice to translate that strength and speed for the game.

Just as important as the rotator cuff/shoulder/scapula area is the hips, abs (core), and grip. A weak point in any of those three, and it doesn't matter if your shoulder is super-healthy.

I'd consider going on a primarily dumbbell routine for about four weeks, with limited barbell exercises, in conjunction with a basic rotator cuff/scapula pre-hab program. Big exercises like dumbbell snatches, the clean and press, step-ups, bent 2-dumbbell rows, and full contact twists (which requires a barbell, but it's awesome and well-worth including), will all be key players. Send me an e-mail at chris@bodyfuelfitness.com, and I can flesh out the details for you after I get some more information.

- Chris.

You Don't Have The Time?!?

2007-02-09T13:50:00.000-05:00

You work 60 hours a week, you’ve got 2 kids at home, and you only sleep for six hours a night. Can you somehow manage to squeeze in a few hours a week to take care of your health? Wait, I forgot to mention that you’re hypertensive, your “bad” LDL cholesterol outnumbers your “good” HDL levels 3:1, and you have some kind of non-specific, chronic pain between your shoulders giving you headaches that kick in right around 3:00 p.m. Can you consider fitting in a quick workout sometime now?

It kills me (no pun intended) that people can so easily let their personal health slip down the list of priorities, while sometimes taking extra steps to place work and errands at the top of the list.

Quick question: Do you give your teeth a brushing at least once or twice a day (even though 2 two-minute sessions are what the ADA recommends)?

Why? Isn’t it because bad things will happen to them if you don’t? Right, thought so. Even though 25 percent of older adults have no natural teeth. Dentures all the way, baby.

Here’s one of my favorite scenarios, and I wish I could remember where I first heard it. If you saw an ad for a part-time job that paid $800 per week and required working one hour a day for four days a week, would you take it? No brainer, right? Unless you’re stupendously well-off, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would turn down that offer.

Now, if you can find the time for four hours a week to do some extra work in exchange for more money, why oh why can’t you find the time for four hours a week (heck, I’ll even start with three) in exchange for better health, a more vigorous and more fit lifestyle, less aches and pains, better fitting clothes, more fun recreational activities, more flirty look from guys and gals (whichever you prefer) at the mall, so many benefits for putting in so little effort.

Yes, workouts make you sweaty. And yes, some workouts might seem tough to get through. And yes again, your schedule might seem overbearing as it already is. But if you wanted to, if you really, sincerely, deep to your core wanted to, you’d find the time. No, actually, you’d make the time. If it was really important to you. But then again, if it isn’t important to you…

Have A Why.

2007-01-25T13:58:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, I spent several hours running, jumping, ducking, and diving while getting shot by paintballs. It was a huge paintball game lasting from 10 a.m. to 3p.m. with over 400 players divided into two teams, and it was a blast! This actually wasn’t the first big game I’ve been in, and it won’t be the last (there’s one scheduled every other month for the rest of the year.)

But why am I telling y’all this? Because I now know that every eight weeks, I’ll be running, jumping, ducking, and diving, and now I have concrete timeframes (mesocycles) to plan my strength training, cardio, and agility workouts.

While I have nothing wrong with the idea of training just for the sake of training, training for something is going to be more motivationally powerful for most people. Maybe you study martial arts twice a week, maybe the boss makes you golf with him once a month, or maybe you’re part of a rec league basketball team that practices Mondays and Wednesdays and has games every Saturday afternoon at 1:30.

You’ll be able to perform any of those sports more safely, more effectively, and more enjoyably if you gear your gym time towards turning yourself into an athlete, instead of “just somebody who plays once in a while”, or worse yet, uses the sport instead of a workout.

Now, I can totally understand having a busy weekly schedule, and maybe you’re just barely finding time to practice your sport. Maybe you’re not even finding enough time to do that. But I’m telling you, there are so many, so many benefits to the combination of sport plus exercise that you really need to make a concerted effort to fit in two or three sessions a week.

They don’t have to be marathon sessions at all. If you’re doing your sport a few days a week, then adding in two or three 45-minute workouts will be plenty to see some impressive results (as long as those precious few workouts are designed efficiently and intelligently.)

P.S. – If you’re not into any sports whatsoever and the sole purpose for working out is to be the hottest bod on the beach, that’s all well and good too. Just remember to smile when us sporty types throw you a whoopin’ in volleyball. ;)

Get Pushin' With The Push-Up

2007-01-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

Alrighty, first post of the Bond year (as in 007, as in 2007, get it? heehee), and we're getting back to basics. We're going to review one of the first exercises that everybody learned way back when. In P.E. class, it you probably did something like jumping jacks, squats, sit-ups, and push-ups as a part of the class. But once we found the iron in the weight room, alot of people tend to forget these first few classics. Fortunately for us, true classics never go out of style.

If exercises were words, the push-up would be the word "the". It's that basic and fundamental. I've taught 4-year olds and 84-year olds how to do a proper push-up, because it's simply an important movement to know.

Strength coach Alwyn Cosgrove has said that his clients have to "earn the right" to use weights by first mastering bodyweight exercises, including push-ups and squats. While I may not be that strict, I do believe that everyone should be able to do a handful of push-ups before getting too involved with free weights or machines.

Five push-ups is a bare minimum. That's just the starting point. A rough guideline I often set for clients is to eventually be able to do their age in repetitions for one set, or for the over-40 crowd, half your age. Sorry 30-somethings, you end up with the most work, but it's worth it.

I actually wrote an article explaining a bunch of push-up how-to's for the women's fitness website f-heit.com, but the information is absolutely applicable to anybody. I covered the basic push-up, the close grip push-up, the 1-leg up push-up, the monster big daddy T-push-up (a.k.a rotating push-up),and for bonus points, I explained the plank. The entire article can be read here.

Where Are You Going?

2006-12-22T00:58:00.000-05:00

For today’s blog entry, I’d like to share with you a section of a recent newsletter I received from my good buddy Nate Green. He’s an amazing personal trainer based up in Montana. And don’t tell him I said this, but somedays he’s a better writer than me, even though I’ve been reading and writing since he was in diapers. Granted, I was only in first grade, but it still counts. ;)

Jokes aside, Nate is top notch trainer who you will absolutely be hearing more from in the future. The guy’s to-do list is longer than most family’s grocery list for the month. Yet he finds time to run a business (he recently relocated to his own official facility. Congrats!), train his clients, train himself, and still make it down to the café to hang with his pals.

This entry from his newsletter (Think of it as my weekly reading homework assignment to you all. I suggest you sign up [for free] right here.) ties in perfectly with my last blog post where we discussed resolutions and goal setting. So, let’s see what Nate has to say…

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Last week I touched on the importance of your most precious commodity, time, and making sure you’re taking action and doing things you want to do every day.

“Determine exactly what you want to accomplish and make sure your actions are in line with your goals,” was the gist of the letter.

Now that’s all well and good, but I know many people may be a bit confused or stuck.
If you’re anything like me, your brain is akin to a sort of twisted war-zone where ideas shoot off like gunfire but fly away faster than, well, really fast fighter planes.

Ok, that was a horrible analogy.

The bottom line is this:

If you don’t know what you want to accomplish how do you ever plan to get there?

Having absolutely no goals is kind of like preparing for a road trip without a map. You may wing it and have fun for awhile but pretty soon you’re going to have to slow down and ask for directions.

And chances are that slack-jawed Buford from that backwoods gas station doesn’t have your best interests in mind with regard to the route that best suits you.

Wouldn’t you rather just get to point A from point B with minimal hassle and maximum adventure and efficiency?

Take a look at some of the most important areas of your life: your health, family, and career for example.

Break them up into three categories and write down five (just 5!) goals that you want to accomplish in the next year. Want to lose that extra 15 lbs of fat? Want to double your income? Want to spend more time with your loved ones?

Well, write it down.

Now, after you have those five things in place, give me three actions you can do every day to take you closer to those goals.

So if you want to lose 15lbs of fat your three actions may be:

1.Cut out sugary sodas, juices, and fast food
2.Exercise for 45 minutes four times per week
3.Drink 8 glasses of water per day

Now they don’t have to be big actions, just a step or two in the right direction.

Start acting out the way you want to live your life right now. You may be surprised on how fast your reach your goals…

Cheers,

NG

PS: My friend Dax Moy developed an absolutely invaluable product called the ‘Magic 100.’ This system has completely turned my life around with regard to taking action every day and living my dream. Check it out at: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=526011

The Resolution Revolution

2006-12-15T17:08:00.000-05:00

There's just over two weeks until New Year’s Eve, and that means only one thing...I'm still not crazy enough to go into Times Square to see the ball drop!! Ha. Actually, New Year's also means a sudden tidal wave of enthusiasm that leads people to develop those pesky New Year’s resolutions. Their plans for attacking 2007 and really making those changes they’ve talked about. Drop those 15 pounds. Find that six pack on their abs. Quit puffing on cancer sticks. Cut back on the partying. Buckle down at work and land that big raise. Whatever hopes they’ve been harboring in the back of their minds are suddenly allowed to come forward. Why? Well, because it’s 12:01 a.m., January 1st. That’s when everyone makes those kinds of changes. Right?

Wrong.

If the brief act of flipping a calendar’s page and singing "Auld Lang Syne" was enough to dramatically change your life around and start really working on your goals, people would sing that kooky song every 30 days and the world would quickly become a much better place. But it just isn’t that simple. For some, maybe. But for the majority? Nope.

Goal setting isn’t something that you need to save up and unleash once a year. Ideally, I’d like to see everyone with a few long term goals, but also several smaller goals that get re-evaluated every few weeks. One method often recommended for this type of long term goal setting is the Yellow Paper method. Grab a sheet of lined yellow paper (studies have shown that notes written on yellow-colored paper are more likely to be remembered. There’s a fun fact for the day.) If possible, use a legal-sized sheet. More space means more lines means more writing means more goals. ;) Next, simply list “stuff you’d like to accomplish.”

Don’t stress much about timeframes and deadlines, that’ll be the next step. What we want right now is to think Big Picture, regardless of where you are now. “Fit size 32 jeans without a belt.” “Wear size 6 sexy black dress.” “Complete 10 pull-ups.” “Hold a full split between two chairs while smiling.” “Run a marathon.” Whatever crosses your mind as something that would just be good to do.

Last step, after you’ve jotted down a few larger goals. Take a few minutes with each one and break it down into several smaller bullet points/baby steps/short term goals that work towards them. For example, if I wanted to fit into a smaller size of clothes, some of the shorter steps would be:
- Learn about, and implement, a specific nutrition plan.
- Build lean muscle tissue and burn bodyfat with a specific training plan.
- Consult a fitness coach to find the most efficient ways to do both of the above.
- Go shopping for new clothes.

Mission accomplished.

Final thought: I recently found out about John Goddard, a man in his mid-70’s who has completed a truly outstanding list of tasks: his Life List . When he was 15 years old, he wrote a list of 127 goals he wanted to achieve. Today, he has less than 20 remaining. Some of the to-do's that were done: Explore the Amazon River, climb Mount Vesuvius, dive in a submarine, and learn to play the flute and the piano. Some of the still-to-do's: climb Mount Everest, visit the North and South Poles, and visit the moon. That, my friends, is goal setting.

Congratulations Matt Serra!

2006-11-15T00:16:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to send a big congrats to Long Island, New York native and UFC pro fighter Matt “The Terror” Serra for pulling off a decision victory over Chris “Lights Out” Lytle this weekend. In the season finale of Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback”, Serra won a hard fought battle standing up, as well as commanding the action on the ground.

Matt and his brother, Nick, run a pair of Brazilian Jiujitsu schools here in New York, in Huntington and East Meadow. In fact, Serra brown belt Pete "Drago" Sell made it to the semi-finals in "The Ultimate Fighter 4 : The Comeback" and Serra student Luke "The Silent Assassin" Cummo made it to the finals in Season Two of "The Ultimate Fighter". Matt is a genuinely down-to-earth guy next door, who just happens to be a black belt MMA fighter with a shot at the welterweight championship title.

Best of luck, Matt. I can't wait to see you bring the belt to the Island.

Eat the Skin to Get Skinny.

2006-10-19T22:53:00.000-05:00

First, please forgive my use of the word "skinny" in the title. While it might be catchy, though somewhat corny, it's definitely on my list of "Top Ten Least Favorite Words To Use When Describing A Fitness Lifestyle." (I'll address them all in a future blog, for sure.) On to today's content...

We all know that fruits are an important part of any nutrition plan. But did you know that some fruits are better than others? Generally speaking, fruits that have edible skins are going to have a better effect on your physique than fruits that you need to peel.

The skin of the fruit is going to provide more vitamins and minerals than skinless or peeling-required choices. More importantly, it's where you'll find the fiber. One regular-sized pear can have five grams of fiber in it. That's as much as one-half cup of oatmeal! Increased dietary fiber can work towards improving cholesterol levels, control blood sugar levels, and decrease appetite between meals. Basically, more fiber is what we want.

So, we're definitely going to lean towards things like apples, pears, and peaches instead of bananas, oranges, and pineapple, for example. Try to get at least three pieces of fruit with skin each day. Maybe add an apple with breakfast, some cut up kiwi with lunch, or sliced peaches with fat-free whipped cream after dinner.

Also following this "skin rule" are various berries. Blueberries in particular, are often referred to as a "magic food" because they're so rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients (extremely beneficial natural chemicals). Consider one handful of berries (or about 1 cup) to be one serving. This is a very easy way to sneak a fruit serving into your meals. Add a handful of raisins in your oatmeal, toss some dried cranberries onto your salad, or put some blueberries into that peaches and whipped cream dessert you've already made. The most important point is...fruit is good, but fruit with skin is better.

Minimize Machines.

2006-10-16T13:46:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in resistance training (and you should be, since it's one of the most effective ways to increase strength and build metabolism-boosting muscle), you want to make sure that most of the exercises you do use free weights, like barbells and dumbbells, instead of machines.

Free weights allow us to move our bodies in the most natural patterns, as opposed to machines which operate on fixed patterns. What this means is that if you have a bad shoulder or a bad knee, for example, free weights allow you to push or pull the weights where you'll feel no discomfort, while a machine tells you "Nope, this is the way your body's going to move." This fixed pattern of movement is responsible for more training-related injuries than anything else.

In terms of exercising at home, you can perform every basic exercise needed to train your entire body with just one barbell (or even just one dumbbell). You'd need at least 5 separate machines, or one large-sized "home gym" unit to do the same job.

So, a general rule of thumb: For every three free weight exercises in your workout, perform no more than one machine exercise, if any at all. Any more than that, and you're most likely taking the long road to your goals. Free weights are definitely the fast track.

Welcome To The Beginning

2006-10-04T00:22:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone. I've made the big entrance into the blogosphere, or whatever
they call it.

This will be where I can address the topics that need addressin', shatter the myths that need shatterin', and spread the fitness advice that needs spreadin'. ;)

I guess I'll wrap up now, having kept things quick and simple. Keep an eye out...this should be fun.