Move more –bad food + good food = Dieting success

Let’s break down this equation into its component parts:

Move More – if you burn more calories than you currently do, you will lose weight, plain and simple.

If you don’t walk around the block, take a walk around the block

If you currently walk around the block then, add intervals of sprints

If you currently walk and do intervals then, weight train

If you currently walk, do intervals and weight train then, decrease the rest periods between sets

Do you see where this is going?  Take what you currently do and add more movement / decrease rest and you will burn more calories which will cause you to lose weight.

Get off the couch and move!!!

Subtract bad food – I am always fascinated when someone is given a diet and you see what is prescribed.  Eat these carbs but not these carbs, eat these fats but not these, avoid red meat and eat lean protein.  All of these may be sensible recommendations, but have you looked at what the person is currently doing?  If someone currently drinks a 4 cans of soda per day, why not move them down to 3 cans and then slowly reduce from there?  If someone eats a bowl of ice cream every night before bed, have them do it every other night and slowly reduce from there.  Dieting occurs in stages when it is successful and if you have someone who eats like crap and you try to get them to eat like a World Class Athlete, you will fail every time.  Let’s face it, we don’t like change.  Considering that fact, implementing MASSIVE change is not going to work.  Small changes do work and they add up to a big change over time.

He didn't get that way by eating spinach!!!

Add good food – if you ask any doctor worth their salt about diet, they will tell you to eat more fruits and vegetables, we have heard this forever and guess what?  IT IS CORRECT!  Increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables will increase the amount of vitamins and minerals you get which will help your body function better and more efficiently.  Also, fruits and vegetables contain fiber which helps jettison fat out of the body.  Unlike most processed foods, fruits and vegetables are NOT calorically dense and they are vitamin RICH so, they will fill you up without adding to your waistline.  I always love when someone with a crummy diet hears the words fruits and vegetables as if it is some horrific thing.  If I have the choice of a lollipop or a ripe peach, I will take the peach all day long.  All goodness aside, it tastes BETTER!!!

Eat good food that is natural not processed, like a peach

Don’t overcomplicate things, keep it simple!!!

What would we do if doctors did not want to share information with one another?  Research would come to a halt, innovation would cease and diseases like mumps and polio would run rampant.  Sounds like a pretty cruel scenario, but thankfully this is not the reality for the medical community.  Unfortunately, it IS the reality in the fitness community.  The more I talk to trainers, the more I scratch my head.  There are many who think that there is some “secret formula” to achieve goals and obtain results.

Trainer 1: “I do back and shoulders with my clients.”
Trainer 2: “Oh, wow (Trainer 1 is an idiot)…I do back and biceps with my clients.”

Unless both of these morons are training people for the 2020 Mr. Olympia then, they are both WRONG!!!  How about I blow the roof off of the entire fitness industry!?!?!?!

Here is the SECRET way to get ANYONE in shape, no matter what their goal is:
1)      Move around
2)      Train in all planes of motion
3)      Push / pull, rotate and move sideways

Stop overcomplicating everything!!!  I don’t give a crap about bosu balls, agility ladders, dots, cones or any other gimmicks, they are IRRELEVANT!!!

Sorry, this is NOT going to get you into great shape, maybe a trip to the hospital.

Upper Body
Vertical (Above Shoulder): Push (overhead press), Pull (Chin up)
Vertical (Below Shoulder): Push (dips), Pull (Deadlift)
Horizontal: Push (Bench Press), Pull (Back Row)

Lower Body
Push (Back/Front/Hack Squat), Pull (Hip Press)

What about lateral movement?!?!?!  Do some side shuffles, run around, play sports.

This applies to 99.9% of the population.  Maybe if you are an Olympic athlete or you are a professional athlete, you need something more in depth, I agree 100%, but for everyone else, it is not more complicated than that.

"Why are we doing this? I don't know, just smile and keep pressing!"

One of my good buddies and fellow strength coaches, Kyle Newell of Newell Strength was talking to me a few weeks ago and we spoke about how he and his athletes / clients never perform direct arm work and instead perform lifts which have a systemic effect on the body, like the Barbell Back Squat.  Do you want big arms?  Do squats and Chin Ups!  Wait a sec, no concentration curls or barbell curls with an arm blaster?!?!?  Nope, the squat will have a greater anabolic effect on your entire body than any isolation movement!!!

The squat will grow your arms better than any arm isolation exercise

What is YOUR goal in the gym?  How can you achieve it as simply as possible?  I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people in the gym for HOURS when they can spend minutes instead.  Either they are slaves for pain, don’t know any better (most likely) or simply think that’s what they NEED to do.  Don’t just go to the gym, do stuff for an hour and pat yourself on the back because you sweat, set goals and achieve them.

Here is my advice:

1)      Put down the newsstand magazine which is written for the average guy and average girl

2)      Find someone with experience who has what you want or knows what you want to know, ask them how they achieved it

3)      If their advice is simple then, implement it, if it is not simple, then keep asking around until someone with experience has given you a simple and effective answer

One more thing, don’t confuse simple with EASY!!!  Becoming a millionaire may be simple in concept, but it is also difficult in implementation.  Losing body fat is simple in terms of what needs to be done, but it is very difficult to actually do it.  Go for it, set a goal, make a plan to achieve and go crush it!!!

I have noticed a recurring theme with women who want to lose weight.  Women will come to me asking about losing weight, body fat in particular, and the first question I ask is, “What do you eat?”  The typical response is, “I don’t eat that much so, I don’t understand why I don’t lose weight!”  If someone is morbidly obese because they eat thousands of calories per day then, they need to REDUCE the number of calories they consume in order to lose weight.  On the flip side, if someone is moderately overweight and they have drastically reduced their calories for a prolonged period of time, they actually need to INCREASE the amount of food they eat in order to lose weight.

You have to eat in order to lose weight!!!

In a normal example, these equations hold true:
If calories consumed < calories burned = lose weight
If calories consumed > calories burned = gain weight

The only problem with those equations is that our body tries to maintain homeostasis as a protective mechanism so, each situation depends on where you are right now.  Your body screws up the equation by changing the calories burned based on the calories consumed.  So, if the calories your body burns changes, you also need to change your calorie consumption to have any effect.

Body temperature is a great example of homeostasis

A great example of homeostasis at work is with body temperature.  Our body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.  If you walk outside and it is very hot, you sweat which acts as a cooling mechanism so that your body temperature will remain at 98.6 degrees.  If you walk outside and it is very cold, you shiver which creates movement to make you warm which is also in an effort to keep your body temperature at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you are a little overweight and eat “barely anything” and you want to lose weight, here’s what to do:

1)      Multiply your current weight by 10 and that is the number of calories you will eat (For example, let’s say you are 200LBS, you would eat 2000 calories)

2)      Increase your protein intake, eat more vegetables and drink more water

3)      Weigh yourself then, consume the amount of calories for one week from step 1 (2000 cals) and re-weigh yourself.  If you weigh more or the same then, reduce your calories by 300 per day (i.e. eat 1700 cals per day instead of 2,000).  If you weigh less then, stay at that level of calories until you stop losing weight and start all over again

There you have it, simple yet effective!!!

Smitty commented that 95% of the questions he saw on EliteFTS related to pain.  As he dug a bit deeper, he and Joe realized that weaknesses and mobility were topics that received lots of hits.  The two of them decided to fill this gap by creating the AMPED Warm-Up system.  I have the AMPED system and I highly recommend it whether you train athletes, general population or you train alone and want to feel and perform better.

Lax ball, resistance band and foam roller...the weapons in your warm-up arsenal!!!

There are 4 parts to a proper warm-up: 
1)      Soft Tissue Work – use a foam roller and / or a lacrosse ball to massage and loosen up the muscles

2)      Mobility Work – consists of various movements to loosen up the muscles and ensure flexibility through a full range of motion

3)      Central Nervous System (CNS) Activation – priming the body and gearing it up to be ready for the work ahead.  This essentially wakes the body up and gets you ready to lift.

4)      Muscle Activation – warming up of the muscles which will be worked that day so they are ready for the session of work ahead

The order is not set in stone and it can be blended.  If in the midst of training, the individual does not feel 100%, they can continue to incorporate these techniques in between sets or in between exercises.  Doing some foam rolling and mobility work between exercises can serve to loosen up muscles that are really tight and will improve performance and recovery.

Joe and Smitty both use auto-regulation to determine the status of their clients.  Auto-regulation can be described simply as “how do you feel?” and it is a matter of determining how the body is responding to stimuli.  If after a full warm-up, the client still seems like they are not at 100% or that they are overtrained from a previous session, Joe and Smitty would rather send someone home than push them when their body is not ready.  Some telltale signs of overtraining are red palms, a feeling that the weights are cold to the touch and an elevated resting heart beat (i.e. heart is beating fast when you are not doing anything).  It is better to be safe than sorry and you will be better served in the long-run by listening to your body when it is not ready to train.

Morning Session of the Seminar
Smitty started out by having us put one hand on our chest and the other on our stomach and telling us to breathe.  Most people, including me, have their chest rise when they breathe.  Smitty stressed diaphragmatic breathing (breathing from the stomach, not the chest) because it stabilizes the core, promotes good posture and is more efficient.

After this, we got down to business and did soft tissue work by rolling with a foam roller and lacrosse balls.  We split into groups of 2 and I had the good fortune of having the lacrosse balls in my hands to start off with and I was seeing stars as I lay on top of them and rolled them up and down my spine.  The best way to describe how this feels is to imagine a circus clown pedaling a unicycle back and forth on your spine!!!  We started with the upper body going through the thoracic spine, upper back, lats and shoulders.  The upper body warm-up concluded with Face pulls, Lat & Shoulder stretches with bands and several variations of the Roll Over and Stretch.

After the upper body was ready to rock, we foam rolled the lower body, including the piriformis, glutes, quads, IT bands and hamstrings.  Joe DeFranco showed us how he uses the lacrosse ball to loosen up the Achilles and the calves.  He also had us lie face down with the lacrosse ball above our knee on our quad and we flexed the knee; this really loosened up the quad.  The lower body warm-up concluded with loosening up the hips.  We hooked a band up to the squat rack and put our leg through it so the band was near the top of our leg and then got on all fours facing away from the rack and flexed & extended the hip (backwards & forwards) and then we adducted & abducted the hip (side to side).  This did an incredible job loosening up the hips.

Worth the Price of Admission #1
In the midst of Foam rolling, Smitty said that when you reach a tough spot, stay on it and move your limbs.  So, when rolling on your back, find a tough spot, stop on it and move each arm in a sweeping motion overhead then, move both arms overhead and back to the sides.  This really helps with hard to reach areas around the shoulder blades where knots tend to form.

Worth the Price of Admission #2
Move that saved Joe DeFranco’s shoulder:  Lie on your side, have your shoulder tucked with your upper arm (triceps) on the ground perpendicular to your body.  Place a lacrosse ball under your armpit, flex your lower arm at the elbow until your forearm is perpendicular to the ground and slowly push your hand down to the ground, stop and hold for a count of 3 to 5, push further and hold for a count of 3 to 5 and continue until your palm is flat on the ground.  Do both shoulders.  Be careful and move SLOWLY since you are in a very vulnerable position here.  These small muscles (Infraspinatus, Supraspinatus, Teres minor, etc.) tighten up very easily so, this exercise will work wonders in loosening up the shoulders.

Worth the Price of Admission #3
I had the chance during breaks to pull Smitty and Joe D aside separately and ask them about 2 issues:

1)      Tight Hamstrings – I can stretch all I want to, but I can never touch my toes.  I have legs that are longer than my torso so, that makes it a little more difficult, but I can even remember not being able to touch my toes when I was very young. 

Smitty – “It isn’t your hamstrings; you have tight hips, guaranteed.  Loosen up your hip flexors and you will get more mobility.  Your hamstrings are tight as a compensation for your hips.”

Joe D. – “We have tons of athletes with tight hamstrings and knock on wood we haven’t had any hamstring pulls.  The key is loosening up the hips and the glutes.  When those 2 areas are locked up then, your range of motion will be compromised.  Loosen them up and you will be fine.”

2)      Patellar Tendonitis in my right knee – I had a chance to ask Smitty about this and it came back to the hips.  Tight hips and the associated lack of range of motion are resulting in pressure being placed on the patella.

There is a very interesting takeaway here…the area where you are having an issue is where the problem is being REALIZED, but typically the issue ORIGINATES elsewhere.  The body compensates for our weaknesses in areas other than where the problem is so, treating the symptom (tight hamstrings) is not going to address the problem (tight hips / glutes).

This is a pic of the crew who attended the Seminar

Afternoon Session of the Seminar
After eating some great food from Muscle Maker Grille, we were ready for the afternoon portion which consisted of Mobility & Activation.  Joe DeFranco led us through this portion and we did Jumping Jacks, Seal Jacks, Cossack Squats, Bodyweight Squats and Lunges (forward & backward), Wideouts, Sprinting in place, Skips, Side Shuffles and Hip Rotator Skips (skipped backwards by externally rotating one hip at a time).  After this, we were ready to train!!!

We broke up into groups where we went to one of five stations:
1)      Box Squat – push hips and glutes back, push knees out to the side NOT forward, touch the box and explode upward.

2)      400LB Tire Flip – get in a deadlift position with hands under the tire, lift the tire up with hands underneath and once you get it to 45 degrees, kick it up with your knee and push forward with your hands until the tire hits the ground.  You can turn it into a complex by jumping onto the tire or jumping into the tire and through.  If you have a sledgehammer, you can hammer the tire after flipping it.

3)      Box Jump – this was the station that Joe DeFranco was at.  There was a 36 inch box set up but it had padding to prevent injury.  The first round, we squatted down and used our arms to explode upward and land softly on the box.  The second round, we held two 10LB dumbbells and jumped upward and upon landing, dropped the dumbbells and jumped up again.  Joe explained that your brain and motor neurons still think you are holding the dumbbells after you have dropped them so, more muscle is recruited and you jump higher.

4)      25 LB Med Ball Throw – this happened on the turf.  We squatted down while holding the med ball and exploded upward with the legs and arms and launched the ball as far as we could.

5)      Prowler loaded with 90 LBS – there was a rope attached to the Prowler and we pulled it 50 feet towards us and once it got to us, we grabbed the handles and pushed it 50 feet back to the starting position.

Jim "Smitty" Smith (left) and Joe DeFranco (right) finished with a great Q&A session

Joe and Smitty finished up with a Q&A which was really helpful.

Q: “What do you recommend for recovery the night of the workout and the next day if it is an off day?”

Smitty: “Get some rest and some food after the workout.  We have our athletes do foam rolling the night of the workout and then on the day off they come in, do the full warm-up and go home.”

Joe: “After the workout we make sure our guys get some food in their body.  That night, we have our athletes do mobility work and take an ice bath for soreness.  We have 2 or 3 warm-up sheets posted on any given day and the athletes take a picture of it on their phone and do the mobility portion.”

Q: “How can you tell if someone is overtrained and their nervous system is fried?”

Joe: “Watch the warm up and you can tell how they are feeling.  I have found that the best way to tell is the vertical jump.  If a guy is a 31 inch vertical jumper and he does 26 then, he is off and I will have him go home and come back the next day when he has recovered.”

Smitty: “Red hands are a big indicator for me.  That is something I have noticed over the years.  A high resting heart rate and the weights feeling cold to the touch are also indications that they are fatigued.

Q: “Do either of you use PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) Stretching?”

Smitty: “We use it sparingly.”

Joe: “We use it when needed.  If I am working with some NFL guys and I can tell that they are tight, I will do some PNF stretching on them myself.”

Q: “What do you guys use to evaluate new clients?”

BOTH: “A bodyweight squat is a great exercise which will tell you a lot.  Does the back round? Do the knees collapse? Are the heels coming up?  Have them perform a push-up, do their hips sag?  Other good exercises to assess with are the plank and the overhead reach.  Mix it up, do static positions and dynamic movements, try the same exercise loaded versus unloaded.  Sometimes imbalances show up when an exercise is loaded, but not unloaded and vice-versa.”

Joe: “Sprinting is a great assessment.  By watching someone move you can see many different things, including whether their hip flexors are tight.”

Q: “What do you do when you see asymmetry in an athlete?  How do you develop a program for them?”

Joe: “I have always found that the best method is to create a balanced program.  Whatever the person normally does (e.g. offensive lineman = pushing), train them to do the opposite (e.g. rows, pulls, etc.).  A Balanced athlete is going to last longer, perform better and have fewer injuries.”

Joe then mentioned that the next product he and Smitty are coming out with is about developing power for athletes.  Power is strength x speed so, the more powerful you are, the more athletic you will be.  To this end, Joe said that if he could go back and do something over again, he would have incorporated med balls much sooner.  Whether it is throwing, chest passing or overhead tosses, med ball work is most transferable to athletics because there is no deceleration, there is acceleration and power throughout the entire movement.  Joe mentioned an All-Pro offensive lineman who plays for the NY Giants which he trains and how he brought in one of their new rookies who is a huge offensive lineman.  Both guys had a similar huge bench, but the difference maker was in their power.  The veteran can launch the med ball, but the rookie cannot.  It goes to show that barbell exercises are not the be-all end-all and a power movement like a med ball throw is more transferable to the field than a big squat or big bench.

So, there you have it!  The inaugural AMPED Seminar was a MASSIVE success and I learned a ton of stuff that will help me and the people I train.  Joe DeFranco and Smitty are not just at the top of their game, but both of these guys are gentlemen who were humble and more than happy to answer any and all questions.  I would highly recommend checking out the next AMPED Seminar and learning how you can improve your results and the results of those whom you train.  Reading and seeing how to do the warm-ups is not the same as doing them, especially when you are learning from the best!!!  Thanks Joe and Smitty!!!

To see Joe DeFranco’s gym: click here
To see Smitty and the Diesel Crew: click here
To check out the AMPED Warm-Up System: click here

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- Napoleon Hill

We have all heard the following expressions, “Play until the final whistle blows”, “As long as there is time on the clock, we haven’t lost”, “Play all 27 outs”, “Play all 60 minutes”, “It’s not over until it’s over”, etc.  Most people misconstrue these statements as relating to time, they do not.  All relate to the fact that no matter how badly you are losing, you only lose once you have accepted the loss in your mind.  If you never quit, then you never lose.  Once you quit, it is over, all the talent and ability in the world is not enough to overcome that.  Quitting is a choice that you make in your MIND.  Achievement is no different.  It is in your mind that you achieve your goals before you achieve them in reality.  Everyone who has ever won any major Championship has pictured themselves winning it before it actually occurred.  That all sounds nice, but what does it have to do with you?  What does it have to do with you getting into great shape, getting more muscle, getting stronger?  EVERYTHING!!!

Last week, I was doing heavy squats and on the first set I was struggling.  It started creeping into my mind that maybe the weight was too heavy and I should take a little off or maybe I should do fewer reps.  As a survival mechanism, your body is always trying to protect you so, it is natural to think about backing off when you are about to accomplish a very heavy lift.  You have to fight through that natural instinct in order to succeed.  As I stood there resting between sets, I said to myself, “WTF are you doing, you can lift this weight, explode out of the bottom, YOU’VE GOT THIS!!!”  Then, I closed my eyes and pictured myself doing the squat successfully.  The next set with the same weight felt EASY!!!  Not only that, but 3 sets later, on my last set, I did 40 LBS heavier than I did the first set!!!  Was I stronger than I was during the first set?  Did I take some magic supplement?  NO and NO!!!  I used mental imagery or visualization and self-talk to propel my success. 

Let’s do a simple exercise on mental imagery…however you direct your mind is what you are going to think about, positive or negative and whatever you say, you will think about.  Try this:  DO NOT THINK ABOUT PINK ELEPHANTS!!!  I bet you just had a picture of a pink elephant in your mind, LOL!!!  So, our mind will think about whatever we feed it.  Hence, if you want to be successful, think of success.  If you want to be in great shape, have 6 pack abs or be a MASSIVE FREAK then, think about that image and it will drive you towards achieving that goal.  As the great Earl Nightingale said in The Strangest Secret, “We become what we think about.”  The mind always moves you toward your current dominant thought.  Research shows that self-talk and visualization works. 

Stop thinking about me!!!

Self-talk refers to statements individuals address to themselves for specific purposes, such as increasing motivation or enhancing skill execution (1).  Tod et al. (2) found that “…healthy, active individuals may enhance the display of muscular power via the use of instructional and motivational self-talk… self-talk may lead to an increase in muscular power by alterations in movement kinematics. The use of self-talk may contribute to improved performance in sports requiring power-based skills.”  Hatzigeorgiadis et al. (3) found that motivational self-talk led to improved distance in the water polo throw.  Self-talk is promoted as a way to enhance sport and exercise performance (4).  As you can see, giving yourself verbal cues, whether instructional or motivational, does correlate to success. 

Research proves that mental imagery is an effective tool as well.  Silbernagel et al. (5) found “Athletes who used imagery more often were more confident.  There was also a positive relationship between imagery use and imagery effectiveness and confidence in the weight room. Thus, it seems as though imagery is a source of confidence in the weight room, just as it is a source of confidence in sports and other domains.”  Woolfolk et al. (6) used positive and negative imagery with the task of putting a golf ball and the results were significant.  “In the positive imagery group, subjects imagined the ball going into the cup, while subjects using negative imagery visualized the ball narrowly missing the cup. Subjects in the control group putted without instructions. On each of 6 consecutive days a 10-putt trial was conducted for each subject.  Post hoc analyses showed significant differences among all groups, with positive imagery producing the most improvement, the control condition producing less, and negative imagery resulting in performance deterioration.”  Some of the most successful athletes and some of the most memorable performances have been the result of using positive mental imagery.

Arnold Schwarzenegger – 7-time Mr. Olympia

Look at Arnold “chiseling” his mountainous arms

Arnold’s entire Bodybuilding career was the result of his use of mental imagery.  He imagined moving to America and becoming a Champion Bodybuilder ever since he was a little boy.  A great example of Arnold’s use of mental imagery was with his biceps, one of his most impressive physical attributes.  He said, “I was constantly playing tricks on my mind. This is why I began to think of my biceps as mountains, instead of flesh and blood. Thinking of my biceps as mountains made my arms grow faster and bigger than if I’d seen them only as muscles.  When you think of biceps as merely muscles, you subconsciously have a limit in your mind, which for biceps is something in the area of 20″ or 21″. When you limit yourself to that measurement, it is very hard to get to that level and, needless to say, impossible to get past it. But when you think about mountains, there is no limit to biceps growth, and therefore you have a chance of going beyond normal mental barriers.”  Arnold went on to say, “Whether it’s muscle or money, you have to make it with your mind.” That is such an incredibly powerful and true statement!!!

Billy Mills – 1964 Gold Medalist 10,000 meter run

View this video to see one of the most improbable victories in Olympic history:

Billy Mills was the first American to ever win Gold in the 10,000 meter run and no American has won the event since.  The favorite in the 1964 Olympics for the 10,000 meter run was Ron Clarke of Australia who held the World Record.  Mills’ time in the preliminaries was a full minute slower than Clarke.  Mills, a believer in visualization or “imagery,” did not permit a negative thought to enter his head as he worked toward the biggest race of his life.  Mills said, “The subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between reality or imagination.”  He elaborated, “You focus for 4 years, dozens of times a day, visualizing, reliving the moment the way you want it to be and then you win.  That one fleeting moment, you know, you’re the very best in the world.”  What an incredible story, visualizing his victory day in day out for four years and when given the one opportunity to run the biggest race of his life, he achieved in reality what he had envisioned in his mind hundreds of times before.

Jack Nicklaus – won a record 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour

Jack Nicklaus winning his final major, the 1986 Masters.

Jack Nicklaus, “The Golden Bear”, is the most prolific golfer in PGA history amassing an incredible 18 major championships over the span of 24 years.  It is no surprise that one of the greatest golfers ever used the power of mental imagery to forge his success.  In his words, “I never hit a shot even in practice without having a sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie. First, I “see” the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I “see” the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there’s a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality only at the end of this short private Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.”  What an incredible of vivid use of mental imagery!!!

Michael Jordan – 6-time NBA Champion & One of the Greatest Basketball Players Ever

Growing up, I had the privilege of seeing Michael Jordan play.  I say privilege because he was one of a few players who could single-handedly take over an entire game.  He had the ability to overcome double teams with ease and still score 50 or 60 plus points.  When asked about athletic skills versus mental skills, Michael Jordan said, “The mental part is the hardest part, and I think that’s the part that separates the good players from the great players.”  In terms of mental imagery, Jordan said, “I visualized where I wanted to be, what kind of player I wanted to become. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.”   Yet another legend who used mental imagery!!!

As we saw above, mental imagery or visualization is a technique employed by some of the most successful athletes of all time.  While we may not have the same physical gifts that they had, any of us can employ the technique of visualization to achieve tremendous success in our physique, business and in life.  As with anything in life, visualization takes practice and what works for one person may not work for another so, find out what works for you and go with it.  You can call upon these images of success whenever you need them and the more you use mental imagery, the more confident and successful you will become.  Focus your mental images on achieving success rather than avoiding failure, only focus on positive thoughts and close your eyes and repeat a message to yourself until the image becomes very vivid and clear.  See yourself achieving your goals, getting the physique you desire and living the life that you deserve.  Do this continuously and one day, you won’t need to close your eyes anymore because those dreams will become a reality!!! 

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References:

1) Hardy, J. Speaking clearly: a critical review of the self-talk literature.  Psychol Sport Exerc 7: 81–97, 2006.

2) Tod, DA, Thatcher, R, McGuigan, M, and Thatcher, J. Effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on the vertical jump. J Strength Cond Res 23(1): 196–202, 2009

3) Hatzigeorgiadis, A, Theodorakis, Y, and Zourbanos, N. Self-talk in the swimming pool: the effects of self-talk on thought content and performance on water-polo tasks. J Appl Sport Psychol 16: 138–150, 2004.

4) Zinsser, N, Bunker, L, and Williams, JM. Cognitive techniques for building confidence and enhancing performance. In: Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance. J.M. Williams, ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006. pp. 349–381

5) Silbernagel, M.S., S.E. Short, and L.C. Ross-Stewart. Athletes’ use of exercise imagery during weight training. J. Strength Cond. Res. 21(4):1077–1081. 2007

6) Robert L. Woolfolk, Mark W. Parrish and Shane M. Murphy. The effects of positive and negative imagery on motor skill performance. Cognitive Therapy and Research . Volume 9, Number 3, 1985, pgs. 335-341

-  Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac

In many ways, Ben Franklin was a man ahead of his time.  Getting plenty of sleep makes you more aware, helps you perform better, allows you to maintain a healthy weight, helps your body repair and it is during sleep when Growth Hormone and Testosterone help our muscles grow.  There are certain things which we know are GOOD for us to do…eat fruits and vegetables, get plenty of exercise, get plenty of sleep, etc. and there are dozens, sometimes even hundreds of studies which validate these good habits over and over.  Every so often a study comes out validating something you already know, but does so in such a way that it slaps you in the face.  That was what I felt when I read the following, “This study found that skipping sleep reduces a young man’s testosterone levels by the same amount as aging 10 to 15 years.”  Say what?  Of course I had to read more after seeing that.  I figured that it must have been the result of chronic sleep deprivation as in someone who has insomnia, but when I read the time frame, my jaw dropped…ONE WEEK!!!  One week of not getting enough sleep can reduce your Testosterone levels the same as aging 10-15 years!!!  Wow, Ben Franklin is right again!!! 

The study I am referring to is, “Effect of 1 Week of Sleep Restriction on Testosterone Levels in Young Healthy Men” and it appeared in the June 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  Some of the highlights of the study are as follows:  At least 15% of the adult working population in the United States gets less than 5 hours of sleep a night.  Testosterone deficiency is associated with low energy, reduced libido, poor concentration, and fatigue.  The study’s subjects were an average of 24 years old, lean and in good health.  They passed a rigorous battery of tests to screen for endocrine or psychiatric disorders and sleep problems.  For the study, they spent three nights in the laboratory sleeping for up to ten hours, and then eight nights sleeping less than five hours. Their blood was sampled every 15 to 30 minutes for 24 hours during the last day of the ten-hour sleep phase and the last day of the five-hour sleep phase.  The effects of sleep loss on testosterone levels were apparent after just one week of short sleep.  Men who slept less than five hours a night for one week had significantly lower levels of testosterone than when they had a full night’s sleep.  Five hours of sleep decreased their testosterone levels by 10% to 15%.  Testosterone levels in men decline by 1% to 2% a year as they age so, this study found that skipping sleep reduces a young man’s testosterone levels by the same amount as aging 10 to 15 years.

In order to LOOK and FEEL younger, get plenty of sleep!!!

Do you feel like you just got slapped in the face?  If that doesn’t make you get more sleep, I don’t know what will.  Trust me, I know how crazy life can be.  Work, family, lifting and fitting in a little fun doesn’t leave much time for sleep, but if you want to be strong and healthy, you have to get plenty of sleep.  The goal is 8 hours per night and you should make it a point to be in bed by 10PM.  Remove anything that makes noise, get the room as dark as possible and have the temperature be comfortable to cool (68 degrees Fahrenheit).  Get your 8 hours and you will be happier, healthier, stronger and feel younger!!!

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References:

R. Leproult, E. Van Cauter. “Effect of 1 Week of Sleep Restriction on Testosterone Levels in Young Healthy Men”. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2011; 305 (21): 2173 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2011.710.  ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 4, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/05/110531162142.htm

Situation: Reminding a client that there is one set left…
Excuse: “I can’t, I’m too tired”

Situation: Giving someone a nutrition plan and they respond with…
Excuse: “I NEED carbs…can’t I have more than that?” (Note: Nobody NEEDS carbs.  Carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that we do not NEED to obtain from our diet.  There are Essential Amino Acids (Protein) and Essential Fats which must be obtained from our diet, but our body can convert Fat or Protein into fuel)).

Sorry ladies, you don't "NEED" carbs.

Situation: Not showing up to the gym to train
Excuse: “I am too busy, too tired, my spouse needs me to do something, etc.”

While those aforementioned excuses are fairly common, one of the most depressing excuses is, “I can’t because I am too old”.  Age is something that we cannot stop and its negative effects range from decreases in testosterone, muscle mass and bone density to memory loss.  Though many folks use age as an excuse, there are those out there who put people half their age to shame.  Here are 3 men who NEVER use age as an excuse:

Jack LaLanne

Jack LaLanne is a legend.  Back in the day, he got many people off of their butts and into the gym by showing the benefits of smart nutrition and exercise.  He practiced what he preached and recently passed away at the age of 96 in late January 2011.  His family said that he continued to perform his daily workout routine until the day before his death.  Jack LaLanne’s daily workout wasn’t a walk around the block; he continued to do push-ups, pull-ups, dips and other muscle-building total body exercises. 

Dr. Charles Eugster

A retired Dentist from England, Dr. Eugster was a self-professed couch potato until his 50’s.  He realized that if he wanted to live a long life that he would have to get active and that is exactly what he did.  Dr. Eugster became a World Champion rower, winning dozens of medals.  He began adding heavy weights into his training at the age of 87 (yes, you read that right), after which he noticed dramatic improvements in his rowing performance.  In 2010, at the age of 91, Dr. Eugster scored the highest number of points ever in a Strenflex competition with a winning performance which included doing 57 dips, 61 chin-ups, 50 push-ups and 48 abdominal crunches, each in 45 seconds!!!  Most people one quarter his age could not accomplish that!!!

Louie Simmons

Louie Simmons is the epitome of Unstoppable Strength.  Anyone and everyone in the iron game knows Louie and his legendary gym, Westside Barbell.  Louie’s bio from the Westside Barbell website: “One of only six lifters to total Elite in five weight classes, Louie Simmons is no stranger to the lifting community. For the last 27 years Louie Simmons has totaled Elite in various lifting organizations. He is the only lifter over 50 years of age to squat 920 and total 2100. Ranked 4th nationally in 2000 in the open division, Louie has squatted 920, benched 600 (at age 50), and deadlifted 722.”  At 62 years old, Louie is stronger than most College Football Players (yes, you read that correctly).  Louie is a personal hero of mine and his contributions to the world of strength are second to none.  He has produced “25 world and national champions, 28 800+ squatters, ten 900+ squatters, and three 1000+ squatters”, enough said.

I know what you are thinking, these guys are the exception to the rule, I am not going to benefit from Strength Training because I am starting too late, I am too old, etc.  When someone above the age of 55 who had never trained previously gave me the excuse, “I’m too old for that”, I would not push because I didn’t want them to get injured, but then I read a study which COMPLETELY changed my mindset about the role of age in strength training…the fountain of youth is made of IRON!!!

In the February 2011 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, there was an eye-opening study conducted by Candow, et al. entitled “Short-term heavy resistance training eliminates age-related deficits in muscle mass and strength in healthy older males”.  The following is a synopsis of the study⁽¹⁾.

Objective:  To determine whether short-term heavy resistance training in healthy older men could eliminate deficits in muscle mass and strength compared with healthy younger men.  

Methodology:  Seventeen older men (60–71 yr) performed supervised resistance training for 22 weeks. Before and after resistance training, measurements were made for lean tissue mass, muscle thickness, and strength (measured by leg and bench press 1 repetition maximum) and were compared with values of younger men (18–31 yr). Before training, older men had significantly lower lean tissue mass, muscle thickness, and strength compared with younger men.

Findings:  All deficits were eliminated after 22 weeks of resistance training.

Conclusion:  Short-term, heavy resistance training in healthy older men is sufficient to overcome deficits in muscle mass and strength when compared with healthy younger men.  The practical application from this research is that healthy older men can be prescribed a whole body heavy resistance training program to substantially increase muscle mass and strength to levels similar to young, active individuals.

What did we learn?
1)      You CAN train heavy even if you are older.
2)      You CAN gain benefits from heavy strength training when you are older.  Amazingly, even in old age, you can return to levels of strength and muscle mass seen in healthy younger adults.
3)      It is NEVER too late to start strength training.

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References:
1) Candow, DG, Chilibeck, PD, Abeysekara, S, and Zello, GA.  “Short-term heavy resistance training eliminates age-related deficits in muscle mass and strength in healthy older males”.  Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. February 2011 Vol. 25 No. 2 pgs. 326–333

The sign of success or failure?

When I first started working right after college, I got a job on Wall Street.  The massive buildings, the hustle and bustle, I really thought that I had made it.  What I made in money was far surpassed by what I gained in knowledge of human behavior.  Within the first few weeks of working 7 days and 100 or more hours each week, my mentor grabbed me and pulled me into a conference room.  I had not slept more than 4 hours over the course of the past 10 days and I was exhausted.  Fortunately, he was here to offer me some words of wisdom and I will never forget what he told me as long as I live… “Do you want to know how to make it here?”, he said.  “Of course!”, I responded happily.  He said, “Work hard, keep your head down and keep your mouth shut and hopefully, you will make it through the downturns.”  This was the verbal equivalent of kicking me in the groin and asking me “what’s wrong?” as I roll back and forth on the ground.  While Knute Rockne and Vince Lombardi were busy rolling over in their graves at the complete and total lack of motivation those words provided, I sat there staring into my cup of coffee completely mystified.  I worked my ass off in school to try to get the toughest job I could get so I could be successful and this is what I got?  Lesson #1:  Success is a journey NOT a destination.

Rockne & Lombardi knew the secret of success

Whenever I think about what my mentor said, it is more reminiscent of how to survive being held hostage rather than advice on becoming successful.  Did Arnold ever say to anyone, “Lift weights, eat well and hopefully if you hang around long enough you will win a bodybuilding competition.”  HELL NO!!!   THIS is Arnold: “For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”  If Arnold had been in the conference room, he would have flipped the table over after hearing what my mentor had said!!!  Arnold had a WINNER mentality, but that is not enough…he also SURROUNDED himself with the best.  Think about it, everyone that Arnold trained with finished at the top of the Mr. Olympia competition and they were all World Class Bodybuilders.  In fact, Arnold’s training partner Franco Columbu won 2 Mr. Olympia titles and finished in the top 5 overall when he and Arnold competed together.  So, the easiest way to stop being a failure and start being a winner is to SURROUND YOURSELF WITH WINNERS!!!

Arnold & Franco surrounded themselves with success!

If you want to become good at basketball, don’t play against little kids and dunk on an 8 foot rim.  Play against guys who are bigger, better and tougher and your level of play will increase.   The same goes for lifting, don’t train with people who are below you, train with those who you want to emulate.  When you want to lose weight and all of your friends are out of shape, you are going to find yourself at fast food joints and you will have to deal with getting hassled when you choose to eat a salad or pass on dessert.  Who needs that?  Yet, if you want to lose weight and you hang out with people who are in good shape and whom you want to be like, you will find yourself eating better.  No matter whether it is sports, fitness, diet, or anything else, if you surround yourself with those who are more accomplished than you, you will reap the benefits of their experience and you will catapult ahead of your peers and achieve tremendous success much faster than you would alone.  This is one of the easiest things you can do to better yourself in any area of life, yet so few people do it. 

So, this all sounds great, but where do I go from here?  Well, what is your goal and who has achieved what you want to achieve?  Once you determine the answers to those 2 questions, seek out the people who you want to be like and read everything that they write and learn as much as you possibly can from them.  The most important thing is to ask questions and LISTEN.  I read everything I can get my hands on related to success, fitness, entrepreneurship and I seek out those who know more than me and ask them questions.  The vast majority of people love talking about themselves so, it is not hard to get them to tell you about their favorite subject.  Go ahead, surround yourself with successful people, learn from them, reap the rewards and become a winner!!!  BE UNSTOPPABLE!!!

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The most common mistake which I see is people who do Bodybuilding routines though their goal is fat loss.  Not only that, but they will do Bodybuilding routines with a set / rep scheme that is more indicative of a Strength routine.  At the gym, I often see skinny guys trying to lift as much weight as they possibly can while doing a single joint exercise such as bicep curls or triceps kickbacks.  My goal is Hypertrophy so, these same skinny morons will look over me and the weight that I am lifting and they will smile thinking, “Ha, I am stronger than that guy; look at that weight he is using!!!”  While there is merit to lifting heavy weights in order to gain muscle, that only follows if you are ensuring progressive resistance, increasing the weight each workout and doing enough repetitions to induce sufficient stress to the muscle that it responds to the stress by repairing and growing in order to handle greater stress.  So, what is the SECRET to getting the PERFECT body???  First you must define your goal (i.e. what is “perfect” to you) and then, you must map out a plan to achieve that goal.  I am going to assume that the vast majority of people reading this have one of three goals: 1) Gain Muscle 2) Get Stronger 3) Lose Fat.

Who do you want to look like?

The variables that we are going to work with are reps, weight and rest.  

Gain Muscle

This happens to be my goal and it can be achieved with varying rep ranges, but the ideal rep range for hypertrophy is 6-12 reps using a weight which is 67-85% of your One-Rep Max (1RM)⁽¹⁾.  When I first started training, I had the good fortune of having a family member who was a Bodybuilder back in the 80’s and he gave me a super simple routine which was very successful for me.  3 sets of 8-12 reps, 3 exercises per session, Monday through Friday (Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders, Arms).  I did that routine for 12 months and went from 178LBS to 228LBS!!!  Truth be told, some of that was adipose tissue, but I gained a great deal of muscle and saw tremendous gains in strength and size.  His recommendation was simple: “Go to failure every set and once you fail at 12 reps, increase the weight and start again at 8 reps and continue the process.”  For someone starting out, I would focus on Multi-joint exercises (i.e. Deadlift, Bench Press, Back Squat, etc.) and then work in single-joint exercises (e.g. Biceps curls, Triceps kickbacks, Seated Leg Raises, etc.) to increase work performed later on.  Multi-joint exercises induce a greater hormonal response and allow you to perform greater work capacity in less time.  As a quick example, a Deadlift set of 225LBS for 10 reps is 2,250 LBS of total work whereas Biceps Concentration Curls with a 40LB Dumbbell for 10 reps for each arm is 800 LBS of total work.  The Deadlift results in nearly 3 times more work performed and has an impact on many different muscle groups, not just the arms.  Here is the routine and some examples of exercises which I did as a beginner with the goal of gaining muscle:

Get Stronger

A lot of times people confuse gaining muscle and getting stronger.  While a Strength-focused routine will also get you more muscular and a Hypertrophy-focused routine will also get you stronger, to optimize each goal individually requires a different set/rep scheme.  The ideal rep range for Strength is less than 6 reps using a weight which is >85% of your One-Rep Max (1RM)⁽¹⁾.  The prime example of someone focused exclusively on getting stronger is a Powerlifter.  In competition, a Powerlifter will perform the Bench Press, Barbell Back Squat and Deadlift and the sum total of the 3 highest weights lifted is their total for the competition.  The goal of a Powerlifter is to continually increase their PR (personal record) in each of the 3 lifts (Bench, Squat and Deadlift).  As I mentioned earlier, you will gain muscle with a Strength routine, but there are many examples of incredibly strong people who are not all that big and in many cases, guys want to be the Strongest in a particular weight class so they will want to become stronger without getting bigger.  Personally, I find Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 Routine to be incredibly effective if your goal is to Get Stronger.  I used the 5/3/1 Routine and it is very simple and effective.  I increased my PR’s in the Bench, Squat and Deadlift and don’t know of anyone who has not had success with this routine. 

The premise of 5/3/1 is this:

1) Basic multi-joint lifts – The routine is built around 4 core lifts, the bench press, back squat, deadlift, and standing barbell press.

2) Start light – starting light allows for more room to progress going forward.

3) Progress slowly – it takes time to make significant progress and by starting light and progressing slowly you will make greater gains in the long run. 

4) Break personal records – the program allows you to break PR’s throughout the course of a year.  This is more geared towards rep records and not one rep max.  If you go from lifting 300LBS for 6 reps to 300LBS for 10 reps, you are stronger.

In 5/3/1, you train three or four days a week with each workout centered around one of the 4 core lifts (bench, squat, deadlift or press).  The percentages below are multiplied by 90% of your 1RM, each training cycle lasts four weeks, the fourth week is a de-load week and the following are the set-rep goals for each major lift:

Then you start the next cycle, using slightly heavier weights on the core lifts and you continue to get Stronger and progress forward, simple yet effective.  Let’s use a simple example with the Shoulder Press.  If your 1RM is 110LBS then 90% of that is about 100LBS.  That is the number which the percentages will be multiplied by throughout:

At the end of Week 4, you increase each of the weights in the table and continue to progress forward.  Follow this process with each of the 4 lifts (e.g.  Monday = Deadlift, Tuesday = Bench, Thursday = Squat, Friday = Shoulder Press)

Lose Fat

In order to lose fat, you need to maximize the amount of work done in a small amount of time.  The surest way to accomplish that is to decrease the rest periods between sets.  In order to burn fat, you need to cause your body to require so much energy that ATP and glycogen are completely used up and then fat stores are targeted.  Incomplete recovery, as a result of little rest, will ensure that you utilize fat stores for energy because you generate EPOC.  EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) is an increased rate of oxygen intake after performing very demanding or strenuous activity (e.g. tabata protocol, interval training or complexes) to erase the oxygen debt and return the body back to where it was at rest before the exercise was performed.  EPOC increases the body’s demand for fuel so, fat stores are broken down and released into the blood, hence, EPOC = fat loss.

My current routine is geared towards fat loss; it is a metabolic routine which focuses on compound movements with only 45 seconds of rest between sets.  The weights that you use will come down, but by the end of the workout, you WILL be CRUSHED!!!

To optimize the achievement of any one of these three goals, you need to make sure that you get enough sleep.  My best results, regardless of my goal, have occurred when I have gotten plenty of sound restful sleep (7-9 hours).  Follow my advice and Muscular, Strong or Lean will one day describe YOU!!!

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References:

1)      Baechle, Thomas R and Earle, Roger W. “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” 3rd Edition. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics. 2008. Pgs. 401-408.