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When it Gets Real

100%.  What does that mean to you? I found myself asking myself the other day.  I feel like I give about 95%.  Why not 100?  My wife and I were discussing this the other day.  She asked me what I think is holding me back from hitting that other 5%, and I really had to think about it.  I think it’s because I’m comfortable with my workouts.

Comfort should be my first sign that I need to change.  I…

Eat For Your Training

So maybe you are getting into a routine with running, or are starting to get the hang of those weights.  You’ve maybe seen some improvement, or feel stronger, faster etc.  But you want to go further.  Do you train more?  Train harder?  Well both of those are good. But you need to change your diet.

Our bodies can only grow or shrink with what we give it to work with.  It can’t just burn fat by…

Should You Be Taking a Pre-Workout?

The ago old question should you take a pre workout?  Well yes, yes you should.  When you work out your body uses a huge amount of energies.  Your muscles have to have energy to keep up the work.  If they are not fueled they can actually shrink during workouts.

Carbs and Amino Acids (protein) are what fuels your workouts.  If your body doesn’t have enough to fuel your muscles, it will actually…

How many times do you roll out of bed and get to work when you don’t really want to?  I know this feeling.  How many times do you get up and roll out of bed and go workout even when you don’t want to?

Because our workouts don’t actually pay our checks we can tend to take them less seriously.  But in reality our well being, our health and vitality and adding years to our life by staying healthy…

Number one excuse why people don’t work out?  No time.  My job is too hard, my kids wear me out, my college classes are too hard.  I have to go grocery shopping instead.  My favorite show is on.

It’s all excuses.  People are busy.  Very busy.  I am married, I have one child with another on the way, I work full time, I go to school part time, I am a reservist in the military.  It’s rare that I’m…

I was reminded by one of the members of my fitness group on facebook today of the importance of really digging deep.  Digging deep is I think something we tend to shy away from, we usually want the most benefit from the least amount of work, the most bang for our buck, and to a degree the easy way out.

When it comes to fitness, the easy way out is always wrong.  You want to go with the hard…

Getting Past The Voice

Your workout actually starts the second you wake up.  Because every day we are going to be tired at some point, we are going to think to ourselves “maybe I can skip today and make it up tomorrow”.  The workout isn’t the hardest once you are at the gym lifting, or once you are running at the pavement.  The hardest part is convincing yourself to go to these places.

The mind is a powerful thing,…

Have you ever found yourself in the gym wandering around, half looking at everyone else and just copying what other people are doing?  This isn’t necessarily bad.  I’ve learned some things by watching some people at the gym, and have also learned some “what not to-do’s”.

If you are trying to get serious about your workouts you need to go in with a plan.  There are some great resources online,…

I get told all the time from people “I’ve been working out but I just am not losing much weight”.  My first question is always, “What does your diet look like?”  Usually the response is something in regards to they are still eating the same, and eating crap.

Working out without eating right is like putting  a brand new set of tires on car that won’t start.  It’s almost pointless.  Almost.  Now…

Stop Avoiding the Carbs

There seems to be this hatred of carbs, like carbs are the devil or something.  The cause of this is probably some very popular diets that really push “carb free”.  Unless it’s a no fat, no soda, or no sugar diet, you should probably approach it with a lot of caution.  Diets that restrict one kind of food are usually not a good thing.

The key to healthy diets is making sure you eat clean foods,…

Don’t Skip Mondays

So it’s not that I haven’t known this but it hit home and hit real for me last week.  August has been a bad month for me with going to the gym.  We’ve moved, I’d had multiple drills on weekends, College classes have started back up for me, and then throw my family and work into all that, and well I’ve not made it to the gym like I’ve needed to this month.

Last week I missed Monday, and it…

When the Workout Doesn’t Work

If you are working on a project at your job and it doesn’t seem to be working what do you do?  Do you just go in and tell your boss “hey sorry I can’t get it, good luck with that”. Doubt that will end well.

So what do you do?  You try a different approach and go at it again.

So why don’t we approach fitness the same way?  I got in a rut for a little while, things just weren’t clicking for me at…

You’ve probably heard the different methods of lifting weights.  Use light weights and high reps to cut, and low reps with heavy weight to bulk. While there may be a little truth in this, it doesn’t really work like that.  The biggest thing when it comes to bulking or cutting is food.  Food is such a huge part of any kind of workout.  There’s no one exercise that is going to get you shredded if…

You should never be content in your training.  I am always looking at what other bodybuilders are doing, always trying to learn more about what workouts are more effective, or which ones target muscles better.  You can ask my wife, I’m always changing things in my diet, adding or removing calories etc. And you should be too.

If you are new to working out, then yes stick with one thing until you…

When You Get Hurt

So if you lift or run, or workout in general long enough eventually something will get hurt.  A pull, a strain, a sprain.  It’s common.  It happens.

So what do you do in those circumstances?  Do you rest, do you push through the pain?  Well you may want to do both.

It’s easy to automatically think that when you get hurt, you should just stop. But this isn’t necessary nor good.

First off, you…