Intermittent fasting has become increasingly popular over the past several years (especially in the fitness industry) and consequently I have been getting more and more questions from clients and readers asking if all the hype is true.  That said, I decided to do my due diligence and research the hell out of IF and even start my own little fasting experiments.

First off, as crazy as fasting sounds it has been around for centuries and implemented by many different cultures in many different ways.  I’m sure most of you are familiar with the observation of such fasting holidays as Ramadan and Lent (there are many more) but fasting has long been used as a method for weight management and hormone optimization dating back to roughly 5th century B.C.!  In fact, the father of all western medicine, Hippocrates, used fasting and exercise as a cure … Read More »

This post comes after a conversation I had with one of my long-term clients (3.5 years) during a goal setting session we had last week.  If you are like like me, or my client for that matter, and have been training fairly consistently for an extended period of time and your body composition and strength are on par with where you want them to be then what is a reasonable goal for all the hard work you put in?  Where do you go next?

This was exactly how our conversation began.  What I presented to him was the notion of kaizen which is Japanese slow continuous progress as a way to approach not only training but life in general.  Many businesses have been using this principle as a way to improve efficiency with their employees for centuries.  If you have ever read The 7 … Read More »

As you all know, I’m a huge proponent of training smart and avoiding all the ridiculousness that you see in most commercial gyms.  Single Leg balancing on BOSU balls, billions of crunches, bicep curls, piss-poor exercise technique and pretty much anything people do with 2lb dumbbells.  Walking into most gyms it takes every ounce of my soul not to repeated slam my face into a brick wall.  

All kidding aside, most of the things I just mentioned will not only waste your time but will probably end up getting you injured in the long run.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s due to god awful exercise technique, poor exercise selection or lack of a decent program you are bound to get injured.  It is kind of like playing Russian roulette.  Some may get injured sooner than others but if you keep playing it is not … Read More »

I really wanted to title this one, “OMG For The Love Of God Stop Wasting Your Time By Doing Things That Yield No Results, Looking For The Next ‘Best Exercise’ And Focus On Things That Will Actually Get You Stronger” but that seemed like a bit of a mouthful.  Unfortunately I’m aware of the fact that this will probably never happen for most people but I REALLY needed to get that off my chest.

This isn’t going to be a soapbox rant but I feel like it is something that needs to be said.  It is always difficult to write a post like this without offending someone so let me start off with a few things:

You are special, but not that special.  Everyone is different, train for your abilities.
Strength training isn’t for everyone.  Neither is fat loss, fitness or being awesome for … Read More »