TEN MINUTES OF HELL WOULD DO YOU WELL

  You just got done slaying your workout.  PR's were hit, weights were demolished, and in your wake lay crumbled hunks of iron an shreds of callused skin that where lost in battle. Your shins bleed from a deadlift that would make any normal man cry. As you hacked your way through set after relentless set, your pride...your inner beast grow stronger and stronger. That beast is thirsty for more. One glance into the mirror reveals this inner monster. He stares back at you coldly laughing at your bodies pain. So you nod... "Ok, one more set". But you and the beast both know that this phrase will be repeated over and over again... It is the mantra that pushes you forward, at times it grabs you by the collar and drags you across the workout floor..."One more set". The beast is lying to you, we both know he has no intention of allowing you to leave this dungeon walking upright..."Just one more set" he says, more like 100.

 Finally this antagonist grows bored of your suffering and releases his grip. For the moment your payment of sweat and blood have appeased his thirst. Or so you thought.

"Shit"... you forgot about the treadmills you must crawl past on your way out of this place.

"No I'm good, I did enough". You plead to this menace. But his voice grows louder and louder...Eventually, its thundering through your mind bouncing off the walls of your skull..."What about the cardio fat boy"?

You've got to be kidding yourself if you think you're going to mail in some half assed jog at this point. I mean look at the ferocity we just attacked those weights with. Besides, the beast is too smart for that game. He knows thirty minutes of cardio will only undo everything he just forced out of you.

"So what the hell do you want me to do"?

Silently you stand there gripping the wall for support awaiting his reply.

"Ten minutes". He answers. 

Ten minutes of heart pounding ballistic nitro charged war. So what do you do? You stair across the cardio floor scanning the equipment. 

"Just pick one"! He demands. "I don't care which one you pick...bike, step mill, tread mill, rowing machine". 

So you climb onto a bike, set your Tabata timer and crank the intensity all the way up. Soon you are blasting through 20 sec bouts of all out effort followed by 10 sec of rest to catch your breath. 

Before you know it the ten minutes is up. And the best part... "you know who"...is silent, he has nothing more to say. Time to go home and start the recovery process. 

THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS...

 Ten minute finishers at the end of workouts are AWESOME and you should be doing them!  Especially if you have limited time for cardio and would like to preserve your hard earned muscle!

Just think about it, say your in the gym lifting weights four days per week. Adding a 10 minute finisher to the end of each of these workouts adds 40 more minutes of cardio to your week! For those striving for the ultimate fat loss this could be the tipping point when coupled with your regular cardio program (regular cardio should be performed separate of heavy weight training).

If the ultimate muscle mass is your goal 10 min finishers are perfect for you too! They don't carry the extra baggage of run of the mill steady state cardio such as...adrenal fatigue, and muscle loss. What they do carry is increased anaerobic capacity (that means more strength, speed, and power) and your body will stay leaner while building that coveted mass!    

Here is an example:

Grab your Tabata timer (there are a ton of free Tabata apps).

Tabata rounds last 4 minutes, which consist of 20 sec work followed by 10 sec rest.

So for a 10 min finisher you will complete 2 1/2 rounds.

The most important part is that your 20 sec work periods MUST be 100% everything you've got!

Work: 20 sec max effort

Rest: 10 sec recover

And repeat for 10 min (2 1/2 4min Tabatas)

So go ahead get creative apply it to biking, sprinting, battle rope, weights or anything else you can think of!

NOW GO OUT AND SLAY THE BEAST!

GOBBLE GOBBLE LET'S DRINK A BUCKET OF GRAVY!

  It's that time of year again, two of the biggest food oriented holidays are upon us! But before you get all excited I must warn you of a highly annoying and obnoxious practice perpetrated by...
"fitness professionals".

  This band of fun hating, soul sucking self loathers (of course I'm excluded from this group, I'm in a much more progressive group of awesomeness) will deal out some of their worst advice of the year, every year, right about now.

  What is this Titanically stupid fitness gospel? It is the majority of the fitness industries stance that you should not stuff yourself until your eyeballs are swimming in gravy, that you should find more healthy alternatives to you prized holiday treats, that everything on your plate is expected to be low fat and sugar free. "Don't go back for seconds" they say.

  Already I can hear the nails on a chalk board dinner conversation about how "I can't eat that, I'm on a Paleo diet". Please do the world a favor... If you hear that last phrase uttered this holiday season, take off your shoe and throw it at the appropriate persons head!

"Why all the hostility Spartacore"?!

  Let me ask you this. How many times have you heard one of these supposed fitness gurus regurgitating statements like "You didn't gain the weight in one day, so don't expect to lose it in one day".

Despite my earlier brow beating, I totally agree with the last statement.

"Bah bah bah duh duh what"?! "You say they are stupid and that you disagree with them, and now you are agreeing with them"?!
        
 I said I agree that you didn't gain the weight in one day and you won't lose it that way either. However I disagree with their belief that thanksgiving should consist of some vegetables thrown in a Jack Lalanne juicer followed by crying yourself to sleep because your family revolted against your ridiculous idea of "self control".

  Just think about it...We are talking about two days. By their own admission these professionals will tell you that no diet was ever won or lost in one day. So why the hell would you torture over a couple scheduled "free meals" during your year? The mental anguish people put themselves through over a few days of good times with family is far more detrimental to your overall health in my estimation. If a couple meals are going to completely derail your entire fitness program, you've got way bigger issues you need to address, so if you are in that boat, I would suggest some serious soul searching my friend.

My one irrefutable rule...

  If you should decide that you are of strong resolve and that you can tackle a pile of potatoes and gravy, rolls, cakes and pies...There is one thing you must know. This doesn't give you a license to eat processed, chemical laden, hormone injected, anti biotic slathered crap! It is never ok to eat garbage!!! If you are going to eat, eat well. meaning? Organic, grass fed, non GMO, no preservatives or ingredients you can't pronounce, and lastly make it yourself!

 Now obviously if you treat every day like thanksgiving...This advice is not for you. But for the rest of us lets roll up our sleeves, forget about fat and sugar and dig in! 

   For those of you not cooking your meals this year, this will be a bit more tricky to get high quality food on your plate. After all, most people don't realize how broken the American food system is. Most still believe that the FDA is vigilantly screening all foods and food additives for safety...Well I'm sorry to tell you that they are not. So for you this will be a delicate operation. You must find a way, without being an obnoxious blow hard to help those who are doing the cooking to get the best ingredients. Offer to buy some items for this culinary extravaganza (I love that word...just say it...extravaganza). 

  If all of this is still not possible, if there's no way to avoid radio active food...Sit down, shut up, say thank you, and eat. You can spend the other 363 days of the year eating food perfection, and maybe next year you can cook or offer to buy the magical holiday bounty yourself.

  Alright I'm done...I must prepare to drink a five gallon bucket of gravy (organic non GMO homemade of course)...there might be some mashed potatoes in there somewhere. 

Cheers!

     
  

MASTER THE ART OF FAILURE!!

  Without a doubt, one of the most precious skills you could ever hope to acquire is mastering the art of failure.

"But Aaron! You have to be a winner to be successful"! 

No you don't. 

"Yes you do"! 

NO...YOU...DON'T!!

  To illustrate that things are almost never what they seem, allow me to introduce to you the sneakiest chef of all time! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our friend the common North American beaver (we will call him Steve). Ok fine beavers don't cook, however they have a lot to do with yummy sweet ice cream, candies and a hole slew of baked goods.

Enter castoreum....

  What is our friend beaver Steve's contribution to all of the aforementioned treats? Vanilla. Yes vanilla, or when derived from the castor sacks of beavers (which are located in the beavers anus), castoreum. 

"Whaaaaaaaaat"?!

  Yep, they use beavers anal juices in vanilla flavoring in some of your scrumptious goodies! 

  Now before the fact check police come beating down my door, understand that I did not say all vanilla flavoring is made this way. I said some vanilla flavoring is made from castoreum...don't believe me? Look it up! 

  The point of all of this is that much like you'd never think juices from a beavers butt have any place in things that taste oh so delicious...Most never stop to realize the value a bitter taste like failure has, thus never realize, that when combined with other ingredients, failure is necessary in the sweet taste of victory and success.

  Don't act like you're not impressed...I mean seriously...connecting achieving goals and beaver butt juice! You're welcome!

  Moving on. I invite you to go research some of the great figures throughout history. Most of these powerful men and women where not thought of as winners at first. Thus the reason I believe being a winner is an end result, not a tool used on your journey to success. What you will find with almost all of them, is a big fat pile of stinking failures on top of failures till they finally reached something absolutely amazing! Take Thomas Edison for example, (who didn't invent the light bulb, but greatly improved it and made it possible to use in homes). Now depending on where you look there will be some discrepancy in how many attempts it actually took Edison to make a successful bulb. However the number always seems to be in the thousands! 

  When was the last time you EVER tried something a thousand times and kept going failure after failure? Probably NEVER! So what the hell goes through the mind of a guy who fails a thousand times? one things for sure...IT AIN'T F@#KING QUITTING!!

The last absolute I will give you is this...

FAILING ISN'T QUITTING, AND QUITTERS SUCK!

  Let me make this real clear. To quit means to renounce or abandon.  Its not that quitters cant, its that they wont...they refuse to try again.

  To fail means you didn't achieve a goal. What you do next is what separates whining stinking quitters from those destined for greatness. The great ones learn from failure. It is a tool to be used..."where did I go wrong? what can I do better next time"? Einstein once said, "You can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it". This questioning gives birth to the snarling beast of desire! "We don't care what it takes, WE ARE GONNA MAKE THIS SH!T HAPPEN DAMMIT"!
 
And when you do have your victory, how much sweeter is it made by all the blood sweat and tears you poured into it. I mean think about it...walking up a flight of stairs isn't exactly a "Rocky moment". but drag your ass up the side of mount Everest in a wheel chair after five failed attempts, dragging your Sher pa's behind you and...THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD WILL KNOW YOUR NAME.

NOW THAT IS THE KIND OF FAILURE I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW!!

FA LA LA LA LAL INTO STRESS AND MISERY!

    No I'm not a scrooge, on the contrary! I happen to love Christmas! So whats with the tittle? Besides being a diabolical eye catching headline, that has so cleverly trapped you in my web of deception?  Well, it does tie nicely into one of my key points...You are currently working yourself to death to buy garbage! All of this working, buying, and gifting is leaving no time for you!

  Yes you read that correctly, and no, it wasn't sarcasm. Taking time for ones self is rejuvenating and without doing so, you will inevitably burn out, and be of no use to anyone!

  In our crazy fast paced lives it seems that we have become 24 hour creatures. Everything is now now now! We hold those who work endlessly in high regard, believing that's what we all should be doing. We have entire cities who have coined phrases like, "The city that never sleeps".

A quick stroll through the Internet will turn up a billion workout memes with things like..."I will win because I'm in the gym for 24 hours a day, 365 days per year". Or..."When you are sleeping I'm training". 

  This is a completely self destructive outlook on life and will only serve to further destroy life as we know it, (the current state of living in a western culture). Maybe that's a good thing.

 We should not be working, slaving, beating ourselves, and then repeating day after day! 

 So ask yourself, where did this type of thinking come from? In a society built on the back of cheaper, faster, now...I would say look somewhere near the top. In other words, this is something that has been taught to the labor force by greedy bosses and owners trying to squeeze every last drip of productivity out of their workers to increase profits...Eventually this thinking leached it's way into all aspects of life rendering us all robots that literally work from sun up to sun down. 

STOP! JUST STOP!!

Some of the smartest, brightest, and happiest individuals in the world spend hours per day doing things like meditating. How in the hell could that be? The powers that be would call this a worthless practice, a waste of time! After all, your just sitting there doing nothing...or are you??

  I think by now most of us can agree that you don't grow in the gym, you grow at rest. The same applies to your mind and spirit or life force or whatever you want to call it. Constant stimulation and busyness leads to break down. And that ever present enemy of progress...dare I say it...sleep and relaxation, is the only way to heal from this bombardment. 

  Do you want to know what all this 24 hour soul churning back breaking work produces? It produces crap like WalMart. How do you think the goods in there are so cheap? Because they where blasted out of a machine at a million miles per hour by some poor bastard probably working 16 hours per day for a couple bucks. And then shipped all over the place while you sleep, because man they gotta sell it cheap and fast to make a buck! And you need a new pair of shoes because you only have 50 pairs right now. Besides, how are we suppose to buy armloads of presents for everyone we know if things aren't so cheap? 

  Yes it looks as though I've gotten a bit off track with all of this crazy conspiracy ranting however, what I just described, IS what this "work till your dead mindset breeds". It breeds poor quality results in and out of the gym. 

  Our lives where not meant to be spent working 90% of the time followed by gasping for breath for a few short moments, and then repeating, just so we can buy some cheap garbage we don't need. 

  Ok, ok, I'll get to my point now.

Facilitating more rest for you!

1. Stop buying things you don't need!

Why? Because if you aren't wasting all of your money of sh!t, then you don't have to work so damn much, which equals more rest for you. Plus now you will have more time to do what you love!

2. Meditate

Meditating calms the body and mind, reduces stress and helps give you a better outlook in general. You don't need a bunch of statistics and pie charts to figure this one out...TRY IT! And if it doesn't work, send me an angry email. I recommend about 20-30 min of meditation right before bed. Believe me you will sleep like a baby! Furthermore, in the interest of time, (because that's what this whole article is about, and who am I not to streamline this bad boy for all of my patient readers) try combining meditation and stretching. I think ill call it "Streditation". Get it?! Its the words stretch and meditation put together! (crickets) Eeeeeeeeeh ok that was dumb. Some yogi out there is probably screaming at his computer right now while reading my article saying, "You cant stretch and meditate at the same time! that's not how you do it"! Yah well that's how I do it, so deal with it bro!

So put on some meditation music and get into some deep stretching for as long as you like!

3. Stop doing steady state cardio! 

Countless studies have shown that steady state cardio (running or biking) is ineffective at burning fat, tears down muscle, doesn't add to your lifting routine, is bad for your joints, and it takes up a lot of time! Do HIIT ( high intensity interval training) for 15 to 20 min instead. Oh man! I just saved you several hours per week with this tip alone! Yay! More time for you to heel, stretch and de-stress! 

4. Consider a two or three day split for lifting.

If all of the other awesomeness I have bestowed upon you doesn't have you feeling rejuvenated...(as long as your being honest with yourself and are actually taking your rest seriously) consider lifting weights fewer days per week. I have personally had great success lifting as few as two days per week! That being said a program of two days per week will involve only the most gruesome of exercises, scrapping all the fluff and giving every rep hell! Anything that's not a compound movement goes out the window!

5. Tell your friends to shut up!

This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine...I don't care if it's your lifting partner, the front desk person at the gym you frequent, or just people at the gym in general...Tell them to shut up! The gym is not the place for socialization. If it was, it would look like a party....cuz that's what parties are for, Socializing! When was the last time you went to a party and said, "man who put this squat rack in the middle of our party? Oh well, I guess I'll lean against this and talk to my friends". I guarantee if you do make a habit of this kind of behavior in your gym, there's an angry gorilla staring you down from a corner, that probably wants to kill you for taking up equipment, while he tries to work around you and your buddy who can't seem to shut up and workout.

Yes I went a little crazy there for a second, but it needed to be said, and it does involve our subject matter...Creating more time for you. How? Because if you'd shut up and workout more efficiently your workouts would be FAR shorter. That means much more time for all the above mentioned tips that you have probably been rolling your eyes at saying, "Who has time for all this stretching and quiet soul searching"?! Answer: YOU DO! NOW THAT I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DE CLUTTERED YOUR SCHEDULE!

6. Have an outlet

  Maybe you should write an angry blog about stuff that pisses you off, while delivering comic relief combined with some exceptional advice....

  Oooooh man I'm feeling relaxed and stress free!

 I know Steve...I'm some kind of time wizard, magically zapping time back into my readers days...spreading rest and happiness throughout the interwebs!

THERE IS A MURDEROUS CLOWN AFTER US ALL

  Why is it that bad food tastes so damn good? And why, even after knowing that a particular food is completely devoid of nutrition and could actually be harming them, do people continue to eat it?
Well there are a lot of different reasons for this conundrum, but just a few of them are...

Brand loyalty 

Some very devious add campaigns

Flashy packaging

Food additives and Chemicals

Feel good memories

The highly adapted master of survival that is the human body



  "This is a really weird list bro! I thought we where talking about food here"?

Oh Steve Steve Steve...

  For starters, have you ever noticed that the worst offenders in the flavortastic excito-matronic (hell yah I just made those words up!) food industry often have a cartoon character as their spokes person?
Who do you think they are trying to appeal to? Companies spend countless dollars on ad campaigns and gimmick's directly targeting your kids, because they know if they get em young, they have a much higher chance of having them for life!

  Now this wouldn't be so evil if the foods they were pedaling to poor little Timmy could actually be called food, and not some money hungry morally bankrupt companies science experiment made to look like food, that probably has a longer list of chemicals than real food ingredients. Some people will call this conspiracy theory, but many of those ingredients are in there BECAUSE THEY ARE ADDICTIVE.

  "Why the hell can you not get enough of this stuff, even when it doesn't particularly taste good"? Answer. Enough clever food additives and chemicals to make a meth cook jealous! If you want to do some fun reading just look up MSG. 
  

IF YOU SEE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING AT A PLACE YOU ARE ABOUT TO DINE, IT'S PROBABLY THE WORK OF A MURDEROUS CLOWN...

Play structures

Toys in meals

Flashy magical colors and characters, that look like they belong on your favorite Saturday morning cartoons.

You don't even have to leave your vehicle to get the food


 Yes folks, all those fond memories of eating piles of golden delicious fries, and ice cold swirly frozen concoctions, is a clever construct of these companies and their clever ad campaigns, play structures, and toys which create those fuzzy feelings you will no doubt have when you think of them as an adult. So where do you think you'll go when your hungry, not having a good day, or life's got you down? To the places you felt good as a kid is a pretty safe bet.

  So now that this ruthless maniacal clown has cooked up some goo in a beaker, and created a flashy oh so exciting dining experience with enough fun and magic to make Walt Disney envious...what does he do next?? He makes it sooo easy to get it! You don't even have to leave your vehicle. Just drive up to a window and order, and within minutes it's passed to you while you sit comfortably in your car!!  For many people, in a time when we have no time, choosing the quick option is very enticing. I mean your off work late, there's a couple hungry kids waiting for you at home, and who wants to spend an hour in the kitchen after a full day of work? These companies have told everyone for years that "cooking is a drag, you don't have time, and we'll serve it up hot and fresh for you! Just sit back and eat eat eat! And BT Dubs... we'll even give your little one a toy"!

CALORIES = SURVIVAL!!!

If all of this careful plotting against you wasn't enough, it will really piss you off to find out that your body is in on the conspiracy!
"OMG, what are you talking about"! Your body is a highly adapted survival machine with more bells and whistles than a Swiss army knife! How does that have anything to do with fast food? These convenience foods are packed with calories. To survive the human body recognizes calorically dense foods and says, "holy crap mouth! you found some serious calories here! eat up man"! Now I know what you are thinking right now..."Oh yah smart guy, if your body is trying to get the best foods wouldn't it consider things like kale to taste better since it is far more nutrient packed"?! No! And here's why. Calories or lack thereof, are far more immediately detrimental to survival than nutrient deficiencies, which will take years to rear their ugly heads. A cheese burger is more calorically dense than kale. If you have no calories, you're dead much quicker. Once again your body is smarter than you! 

CALORIE DENSE/ NUTRITIONALLY SPARSE = OVER FED /UNDER NOURISHED. 

  Piled high on top of this mountain of sabotage, is the fact that while convenience foods are calorically dense, as I stated before, they are not nutrient dense. This means that no matter how much you eat these foods, you will never feel satiated from them. Because your body is still seeking out the nutrients they are lacking, and that can lead to some serious over eating.

  "Thanks a lot yah jerk! you ruined my childhood memories, told me I'm being pursued by a freakin creepy clown, and that my body is purposely making me fat"!

  Calm down Steve, after all knowledge is power. Now that you know all of this, you can combat the forces of evil!

WORDS TO LIVE BY

  If its fast, its not food! Stop being so dammed lazy! You aren't the only busy person on the planet! Nobody has "time" to workout or eat right. The people who do, make time for these things by sacrificing because they see the value in them.

  An added benefit of preparing your own food is that it will make you much more conscientious of what goes into it!

  So go ahead... dust off the apron grab the kids and go on a culinary journey in your own kitchen. Hell, you might even find that you enjoy cooking...once the brainwashing of a fast food nation wares off. But remember, the microwave isn't the only appliance in there.

 Buy one item foods (apple, lettuce, and beef). Food manufacturers can't hide ingredients in huge labels on whole foods.
 
  Lastly, when you go out shopping for food to shove food into your pie hole, please seek out the best food available to you. Buy organic! It's not just for hippies anymore! Besides, if you are what you eat...then your food is what it ate, and if you ate your food, then you ate what it ate. Trust me you don't want your food eating pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, and things they were not meant to eat (cows eating grains), or being altered (GMO or Genetically Modified Organism). Seriously, if you're going to spend extra money on anything, shouldn't it be on what you put in your body?! 

    

YOUR SHOES BELONG ON AN EPISODE OF STAR TREK...

Let's talk appropriate shoes for their respective activities. Are you a one shoe fits all kinda person? The kind of person who goes on a run, crawls under a heavy squat, and strolls through Disney Land all in the same pair of asphalt pounders (running shoes)?

  I know, I know...they are so squishy and comfortable, it's like strapping the snuggle soft bear to your feet and going about your business. Mmmm, pillowy gooey goodness with every step! That may be well and good for leisurely strolls but those shoes have no place in the weight room! Yet what do I see all too often as I march into the gym ready to smash the crap out of any weight that stands between me and a PR (personal record)? To my horror, there will inevitably be some dude with some kind of "go big or go home" sloganed T duck under the squat bar with 3x the weight he should be doing, and...you guessed it...a shoe akin to footwear from an episode of Star Trek with little shocks and straps and enough cushioning to provide ride comfort for a Sherman tank. "More cushion more gooder"! (For those of you who haven't met him...that was my ridiculously stupid friend Steve). 

Ok Steve let me see if I can guide you through this one. In the weight room, when it comes to your shoes, LESS IS MORE! You want as little cushion between your foot and the ground. That means a very basic flat bottom hard sole shoe. Why? Because of a few things...

Stability

Your ability to apply force 

Ground reaction force

 First off, how stable do you think you will be with a 400lb bar on your back and pillows strapped to your feel? You need to be able to feel the weight and the ground. 

  Ok what about applying force? Think about this for a second. Is it easier to move a heavy rigid object or a heavy yet very soft object? A rigid object has no give so all of your force is applied to move said object. On the other hand, with a soft object you must first fully compress the object before your force can be exerted on actually moving it. So a lot of energy is wasted in that compressing portion. Apply that same principle to your shoes. It may not seem like much but that wasted energy can add up a lot less weight being moved. The weight that is being moved isn't being controlled very well, and this can lead to crap form.

  How bout ground reaction forces? A simple demonstration if you will...

Imagine you are trying to execute a deadlift in the sand. Immediately upon trying to ascend into your PR record book, you are met with our friend ground reaction force (who is nowhere near as dumb as Steve). In this case your force is absorbed into the sand until the sand is compressed enough to push back (GRF). 

  "Again oh mighty wielder of the keyboard, you've talked yourself in circles and none of us understand you"! Wow guys! that was kind of rude! but fine...I will spell it out.
The cushion in your shoes is acting like a shock absorber and soaking up all of the force you are trying to generate to move the weight, and also acting to dampen the force of the ground pushing back at you. There, are you happy?

  So... here's what you do...go to your closet, look way in the back, somewhere in there you should be able to find the perfect shoe. describe it? Most commonly it is black with a white sole and toe cap, and it has a little star on the side. Yep a pair of "Chucks"  (Converse Chuck Taylors). Just look at any power lifting competition and you will see the vast majority of these competitors wearing Chucks.
They have a stable flat hard sole and the best part is...they are cheap! And if you are a hipster, you have like twenty pairs of these sitting by your front door right now!

  Its time to go lift! So throw the Star Trek shoes in the garbage and grab your Chucks! 

WHY WE TRAIN

Why do we train? Why endure the physical pain? Day after day, year after year? What is the point? If you have to ask these questions...you'd probably never understand the answer. 

We train BECAUSE it's hard. We live in the challenge. In the moments when most would give in...that is where we thrive. We invite the pain. Pain is strength, knowledge, perseverance. The will to be better nips at our heels like a pack of ravenous wolves driving us forward. We do this because we are not ok with sleeping our lives away. We want to see how far we can go. Where is the limit? You can be damn sure we will push it every day! When people say "you can't", that only makes us try harder. Because sitting in front of the TV is death. We are out there living. We refuse to let things like average, good enough, normal describe us. We do it because we don't want to have to ask ourselves "what if"? We do it because we want to look in the mirror and be proud of the person staring back at us. 

WROGNESS ABOUT OH SO MANY THINGS

  How often do you hear these statements... "I'm bulking up or "I'm just trying to get toned, I don't want too get bulky". Are these people after completely different things? In a word... NO. Both desire lean muscular bodies. If these two parties got together and compared notes, they'd really have all the ingredients for some solid progress.

Wrongness

   Men and women seeking the "toned look" often fear the evil bulk monsters of the universe, that apparently lurk around every corner just waiting to throw tons of hulking bulky mounds of muscle all over unsuspecting gym goers who dare venture too far into the free weight area..."Oh no! not the free weight area"! Yes the free weight area. That doesn't mean the machines! It means exactly what it sounds like...weights that are free, or not attached to anything but the bar they rest on. So they resign themselves to hours of boredom doing steady state cardio with the hopes of muscle definition. Or they mail in a half assed attempt at a weight circuit, believing that they just need to throw the weights around for a couple minutes, and run back to their beloved treadmill. ENDLESS MILES OF RUNNING DOES NOT MAKE YOU LEAN AND TONED.  

   At first venturing out into the free weight area may seem scary, you're like a trembling antelope separated from its pack on the African Savannah. But trust me, the only thing you need fear in this weight wonderland, is a few unsavory characters that inevitably wonder the floors of every gym. Don't worry about that though...After all this is about you.Besides, this is where we can really begin to burn fat.

"Whaaaaaaaat! burn fat? with free weights"? Dammit Steve! I swear I've explained this to you like a million times! PAY ATTENTION! Muscle burns fat...so it would stand to reason that if your goal is fat burning, you would want more of it. Also we can do some amazing intervals with weights!

  Does anyone have any questions? Yes you ma am? "But I don't want too get bulky". Holy crap! Are you related to Steve?! If I hear this statement one more time...ok breath, calm down...remember the steps...ehem...Well miss you wont have to worry about that because women produce about 20 times less testosterone (hormone largely responsible for muscle growth) than their male counterparts. And most men will struggle to put on size even with this great hormonal advantage. One more thing miss, gaining bulk is largely a product of overeating combined with weight training. So you see, as long as you aren't eating like mad, fairly heavy weight training will only help your goal of being "toned". Which really, is low body fat combined with larger muscle underneath.

  "What about higher reps, like 15-20? that's how you tone muscle right"? No not really, though I don't blame you for this misconception, as its uttered daily across workout floors, company lunch rooms, and just about anywhere a workout conversation is taking place. The reason high reps don't work...When people resign themselves to a nightmarish 20 grueling reps, they often back off the weight too far in order to make their magical "fat burning rep range". I"ll help you out here... If you can complete another 3 or more reps after your set is done, you've missed the boat completely, no muscle building is going on here. There wasn't enough stimulus to produce ANY type of adaptation, and further, you're probably going to rest WAY too long between your marathon sets to produce any fat burning results either.

   Does anyone else have any nuggets of brotastic science?  "ooh ooh me, pick me"! Wow sir I love your enthusiasm! Surely you have something amazing to add to the conversation! "Well I run 6 miles 3 days per week to stay in shape, that's the best way". Somebody get me a hammer there is one last nail in this steady state cardio for fat burning coffin that needs a couple taps...Steady state cardio is the last thing you should be doing if fat burning is the goal. If there are any pissed off avid runners out there, please understand that I am speaking from a fat burning standpoint...If you for some reason enjoy running, by all means have at it. For everyone else, LETS DO SOME HIIT!

  Ok I'm kinda scared to ask at this point but would anyone else like to speak up? Um you sir? (I can tell this one is gonna be painful)..."Ok, so like I'm bulking right now, so I don't want to do cardio, because i don't want to like loose all of my muscle bro". If you could only see the look on my face right now...Where to start with this one?  HIIT (high intensity interval training) improves muscle's lactate threshold, reducing acidosis within the muscle (acidosis causes muscular failure). This basically means your muscles can handle stress longer and that means more overload, which leads to muscular hypertrophy (muscular growth). Tabata has been shown to increase anaerobic capacity (energy system used in short intense bouts of exercise like weight lifting) by 28%! That means lifting more weight for longer!...Why are you staring at me like that Steve? (Steve expressionless, motionless)  Dammit! It means your going to get bigger! (Steve happy!)


  Now that I've bludgeoned many of these myths, let me show you the way I train myself and others with the best results.

 Weights

There is a definite sweet spot for building muscle at about 3-4 working sets of 8-10 reps

Rest intervals should be between 30-60sec

Hit full body twice per week

Use compound lifts (multi joint movements like deadlift, squats, rows, and presses)

This one sounds counter intuitive, however always going to failure wont get you more muscle! Always leave one rep in the tank. Pro bodybuilders can go to failure and beyond because they are on steroids. The rules don't apply to them, they grow in-spite of their training good or bad. Grinding out that very last rep just fries your nervous system.

Cardio

   Yes I am majorly biased toward HIIT (high intensity interval training) rather than running for endless miles. Why? Because that is what has worked the best for me and the clients I train. So what should a HIIT session look like? 

Tabata: An HIIT system of 20sec of MAXIMUM effort followed by 10sec rest for a total of 4min. I like to link 4-5 Tabats together for a total of 16-20min. Trust me THIS WILL BURN A CRAZY AMOUNT OF CALORIES!


HIIT: A general HIIT is somewhat like Tabata but the work/rest intervals are not set. These can be applied to weights, sprints or anything else you can think of. the mane thing is that your rest intervals are shorter than your work intervals, for example: warm up for 10 min and then 1min work followed by 30sec rest. I don't take HIIT past 20-30min. 

Even while adding muscle size, I still perform HIIT workouts 3 times per week.

  So you see, whether you want to be "toned" or "bulk up" we are actually talking about the same thing. Nobody wants to look like skeletor, which is what you will look like with low body fat and scrawny muscles (think the "heroine sheik"  modeling era). Likewise, men!

The perpetual bulk has got to stop! You don't look good with a bunch of fat hiding all of your hard work. 

  In conclusion, girls! The free weight area was not designed as an obstacle course that you must run through as fast as possible in order to get to the treadmill. Do yourself a favor and start lifting more weight! Trust me lifting heavy ain't just for guys!

  Guys! Dudes! Bros! Do I have your attention? Stretching won't make you girly! Neither will some good HIIT! And it's about time you clean up your damn diet! No more hiding behind your crap "I'm bulking" excuse!

So boys and girls the lesson here? Let's have a powwow of sorts, barrow the best of each others routines and actually start seeing results! "Brilliant"! Thanks Steve, your not so dumb after all! 


If you would like to be in front of the line when the new Spartacore training manual is out...send me your email!!

  



 

HOW TO FIGHT DRAGONS

  What drives you? What pushes you further when pain, distractions, and excuses start pouring in? Sure we all start out with what seems like an unstoppable drive to do what needs to be done. But then inevitably, if no planning has been done, if no clear goals exist, if there is no route from point A to point B, if you just showed up at the gym one day with a fire in your belly and a head full of dreams to look like the images plastered across muscle mags...you are doomed. Don't get me wrong, I applaud your newly found desire to workout and sculpt your physique. However, an absence of the aforementioned points will have you wondering blindly in the dark.

  With this type of blind searching you'll be lucky just to stay healthy and injury free...so what about your results? At first, if you've never lifted weights, you'll probably make some ok gains even with a bad program. This is because you introduced a new stimulus (weight lifting) to your body. What happens when you see those gains? Your on cloud nine of course! You feel as though you could fight rhinos and arm wrestle gorillas!! THIS IS SPARTA!!! kind of stuff. Now time for that poor planning and bad routine to bare their ugly side like Brittney Spears with an umbrella...PLATEAU. The wasteland of sadness and despair most gym goers will never progress past. But why?! Because most never dig deep enough through the garbage dump of useless bro science and muscle mag BS to figure out "the law of specificity". This is the fundamental principle behind ANY good routine. "What is it?! Tell me tell me"! Whoa there captain impatient...the law of specificity states..."the body will adapt specifically to imposed demands". So if you don't introduce new demands or manipulate your variables, your body has absolutely no reason to change. It's like your cranky neighbor with the 1981 Buick..."I don't need to change! This baby gets me from point A to B just fine". Sooo what to do? Make the old crankster haul wood. "Oh man! My poor Buick can't haul wood...I need a truck"! So instead of getting pissed and arguing with captain angry, we introduced a reason for him to change out of necessity. What does this look like for you body?

Change:

The amount of weight lifted

Sets and reps

Rest time between sets

Training frequency

Exercises

Duration of workout

The tempo of your reps

  I don't mean change all of these at once, this is simply a list of variables that you can tweak when your training gets stagnant. I may at some later date tackle the subject of training variables more extensively. However the goal here is to help you understand how important variables are and that you need to learn how to manipulate them, to get RESULTS. All of this needed to be explained because THE KING OF MOTIVATION IS RESULTS, and results come from goal setting, planning, knowledge of what you're doing and why, and consistency... not some mystery powder you bought online.

  So what's next? An unbreakable diamond crushing WILL. A strong will isn't something you are just born with, it is a skill that must be exercised to make it stronger. After years of careful honing of this prized skill you will be able to do things you thought you couldn't. It will give you the courage to do things other people say you shouldn't. The most powerful will is one fueled by bigger and bigger successes. Go out right now and test yourself...set a goal, a clear goal that is black and white (either you made it or you didn't). Now destroy that challenge as though it was a fiery dragon, hell bent on incinerating you with its liquid hot magma breath! Now as you look down at the lifeless carcass of this mythical bringer of destruction, that once was an obstacle in your way...just try and tell me you don't feel like you can do anything in this moment. That feeling is your confidence, that your will created, built by your result of slaying the dragon. You are unstoppable now my friend. 

  Now you know how people who achieve amazing physical success feel every day! The mirror is a constant reminder of how their hard work is rewarded. I'm telling you, you start seeing results and you'll look at a cupcake a hole lot different than you did before! 

  Now you know why most people fail where you will succeed...you know the secret. When all the New Year's resolutions start dropping like flies, you will stand the test of time. So get ready for your results and all the motivation you could ever hope for! You got this!

"Now wait just a minute! Where the hell is Steve"?! I'm sorry but my imaginary friend Steve that just so happens to be the perfect example for every one of my stories, took the week off.

 

RUNNING IS THE ANTI-CHRIST!

  Distance running is one of the most monotonous destructive drudgery's ever invented...EVER! Not only does it take countless hours to perform this low quality cardio evil, but it's boring, and worst of all, it's a complete disregard for the Health of your body. However, most people think of running as healthy. And if you're stuck in the 80's, you believe this is the only effective form of cardio training.

Myths, lies, and the cumulative injury cycle.

 Now I'm not going to get into statistics on this because if you are an avid runner, or know someone who is an avid runner...you have been, or know someone who has had a running injury...don't shake your head...I know you have. The other ridiculous portion of this whole plague is that most people that do it don't even enjoy it, they do it because they feel they have to do it to be in shape.  Ready for the most mind blowing idea of all time?!  If you are running for an end goal and not the enjoyment of running....STOP! There are far more effective means of achieving your dream body...trust me I know, I regularly train clients that are burning 900 to a 1000 cal in one hour! verses about 600 cal per hour from a medium to fast slog on the treadmill or your nearest pavement jungle...and all without taking a single knee obliterating stride! After all, every one of those endless steps is exerting a crushing 2.5 to 3 times your body weight sending a shockwave of destruction up through your feet and into your knees! Ok...maybe I was being a little dramatic on that last part, but still... Do that over and over and over... and you can see where this is going. Lets estimate the average 150lb runner has 400 steps in a mile. that would be 60 to 90 tons of force in a mile!

The other major problem with running, is that people believe you just go out and do it. Contrary to popular belief, running is a very technical exercise, it must be done properly to prevent injuries. There are an endless amount of mechanical variables in running (stride length, foot strike, and knee angle) and if just one of these is off it leads to injury. 

  Yet another misconception, is that you just run as much as possible to get better. But as with any other form of exercise, you must have a well thought out training program that allows for a rotating schedule of intensity vs distance.

  Now this next isn't isolated to just running, but most fitness routines...it's the lack of soft tissue rehab. You can't just go to the gym or run, pound the hell out of yourself, and then go home and sit on the couch. It doesn't work that way! You need to help your body heal from your bouts of exercise properly. Meaning??

  A good foam rolling (SMR) routine is a great start when it comes to soft tissue health, this will break up adhesion's in the fascia and release tension in the underlying muscle, restoring proper length and elasticity of tissues. For a simple SMR/Stretching routine here is my video: http://youtu.be/oYl86_ZpDyQ

  Know when to ice and when to heat! Ice should be applied to acute injuries (fast onset pain that is normally linked to a specific injury) and post exercise. Heat should only be applied prior to exercise or if you are suffering from a chronic injury (slow onset injury that may come and go with no 

pinpointable traumatic event). 

  Also, stretch and give your body proper nutrition.

  The last problem id like to bring to your attention... running is very repetitive by nature, soooooo it very commonly leads to overuse injuries. Imagine that, doing something non stop over and over again overuses body systems involved. I hope you could sense my sarcasm there:) Trying to get an avid runner to stop doing their activity once they have said injury, is like trying to keaster stash a thanksgiving turkey inside a prison inmate. "What the hell was that?!". Oh nothing...What I mean is that its next to impossible, so they inevitably go right back to running without proper rest and rehab, and you guessed it, FURTHER INJURE THEMSELVES. That's why its called a cycle (cumulative injury cycle), because once you start it, the pattern of injury is hard to break without intensive care.

Are you starting to see why I detest running?

A better way...

  "Awe great, now I cant run and I'm going to get fat and everyone will hate me because now I cant burn calories". Ok now you're just being silly. Let me show how to burn those evil little fat producing bastards! One word...SPRINT. "But you just said I couldn't run!". Shut up Steve! and start paying attention! I said that long bouts of steady state running are bad and worthless to the calorie conscious folks out there! However, a well structured sprint workout with proper warm ups, stretching, and no jack rabbit starts is a FAT BURNING INFERNO!!! As I said before, running is a highly technical exercise. If you would like to take advantage of this great fat burning tool, learn how to do it properly! There are plenty of video resources out on the Internet...Go forth my son and watch the sprinting techniques sent forth from heaven via your computer or mobile device!! One of the simplest sprint workouts out there is: Go to a track and sprint the straights and walk the curves. when I say simple, I mean in explanation...not in execution.

   Now if you don't want to sprint, apply the interval model to something else. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) can be applied to any form of exercise, from sprints to weightlifting. If its an exercise, there's a way to make it an interval.

  My personal favorite calorie incinerating workout though, would have to go to a good down and dirty battle rope workout!  I LOVE these workouts! They are quick (16-20 min) and hard. It's like all out war between you and the rope...maybe that's the reason for the name. 

 

  Ok, now that I have given you your new cardio spark...its time for you to do some further investigating and find some cardio you actually enjoy! And thanks for reading!


P.S.  If you are also needing some diet advice, I highly recommend you read "The Renegade Diet". While I cant prescribe this diet to you, this is the program I personally follow. I absolutely LOVE this system!!! Here's a link: http://spartacore.rbc31f.hop.clickbank.net





 

 

TRAIN LIKE A GIRL TO LOOK LIKE A BEAST!

Without a doubt, the most flawed workout routine trophy has to go to the guys. I say this because of how imbalanced and non holistically most guys approach their training plan. What should be a well thought out routine looks more like, well...I think it's best if you imagine a caveman voice here..."must lift weights, cardio bad, stretching for girls". Rarely will you see one of these knuckle draggers warm up, do any sort of cardio, and there isn't a cool down in sight. After all, that stuff is useless right? All you need is to lift heavy weights to get big right? Defiantly not!

Let's dissect this a little...

Why your crap routine won't get you bigger.

1. The warm up

Without a proper warm up, your body isn't ready and optimized to pickup heavy S#?t. Imagine me coming to your cave (you are a caveman) and ripping the woolly mammoth hide off of you as you dream of hunting tera dactyls, throwing a rock into your hands (there are no barbells yet...remember your a caveman)

and expecting you to perform rep after rep of rock military presses. This would suck and I guarantee, you wouldn't be at your best...but that's what you are asking your body to do when you don't properly warm up. You won't be able to consistently add weight or give your working sets total focus. so you don't get bigger or stronger.

2. Stretching

Somewhere along the way some idiot decided that stretching was girly and annoying, and passed this idea to all of his buddies. What does stretching have to do with building muscle? Besides preventing injury...it helps restore tight muscles to their proper length. This is important because of reciprocal inhibition. What the hell is that? Your muscles work together to produce movement in the body. When one muscle is contracting, it causes the opposing muscle to relax (reciprocal imhibition). When a muscle is shortened from over use and a lack of stretching it causes what's know as an altered length tension relationship. Oh man this is getting way too sciencey...calm down, I'll give you a simple illustration. Imagine this conversation between the biceps and triceps:

Biceps- "Hey triceps, would you mind chillin out for awhile? I'm trying to work here".

Triceps- "Sure thing biceps...I'll just go take a nap, let me know when you're done".

Except here's the problem, the Triceps will always think the biceps is still working because the biceps is shortened and in a constant state of semi contraction  due to over use and lack of stretching. This leads to terrible performance and poor strength. 

Now do you see why stretching will make you stronger??

3. Cardio

Yes cardio. Even if your goal is to get huge and as strong as possible...you need to do cardio. Cardio will help you recover quicker from sets, make your body better at using nutrients and help optimize hormones in your body, IF you do the right cardio...get familiar with this acronym HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). HIIT can be performed with any kind of traditional routine, you just have to make a few tweaks. Generally HIIT sessions are no longer than 20 minutes, and are a series of short bursts of maximum effort (maybe 1 min) followed by a short break (something like 30 sec). The work and rest intervals should evolve with your fitness level. Get it? I said evolve and this hole time I've been talking about cavemen...oh never mind...

4. Cool down

Ok Grug (your name is Grug because you're a caveman remember? And besides I can't call you Steve...that's a ridiculous name for a caveman) you're all done with your last set, drop the rocks (weights) and wander back to your cave right? No way man...I just spent several minutes telling you all about shortening muscles from over work and lack of stretch remember? You just spent an hour pounding your muscles into submission, now it's time to get everybody (muscles) back where they belong at their proper length. Optimally you would spend 30min or so just stretching and foam rolling but most people don't have the time for that. Here is what I normally do...After I workout I spend about 5 min cooling down and another 5 min stretching and foam rolling.  Then I take 30 min before bed to really get some time in stretching and foam rolling. Now I'm not going to get into how to stretch or foam roll...that's a hole other article by it self and there are plenty of videos out there at your finger tips. I would suggest checking out Elliott Hulse he has what seems like an endless supply of you tube videos. 

Here is an overview of what your program would look like.

• Warm up about ten to fifteen min, including stretching.

• Now it's time to lift weights

• Cool down 10-15 min, include stretching and foam rolling

• I prefer to do cardio separate from my weight lifting because that way, I can give it 100% effort. 

• 30 min before bed stretch and foam roll. Do this every night if possible. 

So the reason you need to lift like a girl to become a beast? Because girls more commonly incorporate warm ups, cardio, stretching, and cool downs as part of their routine. And if you apply these same methods with a solid weight program, you will separate  yourself from all the other guys at your gym that look the same as the day they walked in.

YOUR LACK OF SQUAT RUINING YOUR ABILITY TO SQUAT (ON THE TOILET)

Before you read this article, you may want to go watch National Geographic for a minute. Or just dig through your memory bank of really old indigenous guys squatted around a camp fire. Where am I going with this? Just picture him (we will call him Steve...a very indigenous name, I know) squatted down with his ass resting on his heels. Do you think every time he gets up he goes "oh man my knees are killing me...I gotta stop sitting like this". I don't think so! Because if it was causing him pain, I seriously doubt he would do it day after campfire sitting day. And how do you think Steve goes to the bathroom?? I'll give you a hint...he doesn't grab the Sunday paper and stroll off to the bathroom where he sits with a 90 degree bend in his legs on a toilet. So what does Steve do?? He wanders off into the jungle and finds a nice place to squat...again with his glutenous Maximus resting against or somewhere near his heels. Again you ask, "WHERE are you going with this"? I'm sure you know someone who has said this or maybe you've uttered this sacrilege..."I don't do squats man, those ruin you knees", or "you should never go below parallel when squatting". If you believe this, you probably also believe that the world is flat. These statements are complete bro science, spoken by guys with terrible muscular imbalances, bad technique and I doubt a good stretching and soft tissue rehab routine is part of their gym time. So I've already established that deep squats are natural and safe. Let's move forward to the next question...

Why should you be doing squats?

1. If you have any interest in building muscle, strength, better athletic performance, weight loss or better posture. YOU SHOULD BE SQUATTING! 

2. There is a much greater hormonal response from compound movements (squats, deadlifts, bench press, barbell rows) which creates a better environment in your body for muscle building, strength and fat loss.

3. With compound movements the whole muscular system is involved in the movement, this not only produces much more natural movements but is also way more time efficient that wandering from machine to machine, slogging away at one muscle at a time for hours on end.

4. Possibly one of the most overlooked and the reason for the title of this article is, squats help you physiologically. When you you get down into that deep squat, that we have all but abandoned in modern life, it helps facilitate Imbibition which is essentially your thighs massaging your Colon allowing water and nutrients to be extracted from your poop. Yes I just said poop...let's all giggle. But seriously, if you value digestion you need to squat deep. Our modern style of living wreaks all kinds of havoc on the digestive system and this is just a small part of that, but trust me, it is effecting your digestion. Shallow squats don't work for taking a dump and they don't work for building muscle either!

Now don't get me wrong...if you have knee problems, muscular imbalances or injuries that are preventing you from squatting, YOU SHOULD NOT just dive into deep squats haphazardly, YOU WILL INJURE YOURSELF FURTHER! You need the help of a qualified professional who can assist in your rehabilitation.

If you are already squatting, but doing those silly little 1/4 squats and not going anywhere near parallel...pull a lot of weight off the bar...I'm talking 50% of what you normally squat or more, and start really going deep, I'm talkin Steve sitting around the camp fire deep!

In conclusion, squat deep, squat frequently and don't listen to anyone who says otherwise.

TAKE YOUR SCALE AND SMASH IN WITH A HAMMER!

What is your relationship like with your scale? How often do you find yourself crawling on top of that platform of misery, only to be disappointed by the number staring back at you? Twice per week? Once per day? I'm telling you right now, JUST STOP IT! This kind of obsessive behavior is not only depressing when you don't see the number you want... it's also completely counter productive to achieving your goals. You see, that measuring device that so coldly deals out its judgments to every soul who dares heft themselves upon its cold, sleek exterior, paints a very bleary and deceptive picture of what is actually going on. Let me illustrate... Meet Steve, my imaginary volunteer for this topic. Steve gets on the scale to decide his fitness level, health, and generally how good he looks. The scale reads 225 lbs. with no other information, is Steve overweight, just right, or a muscle bound bodybuilder? After all, 225lbs at 7% body fat is a hell of a lot different than 225lbs at 25% body fat". "but that's easy" you say... "I could tell by looking at him which one he is." Awe but you see most people are determining their health, self image, social ranking, and fitness level completely on this one device...their body image is skewed when they look in the mirror because all they can think about are the numbers, and most people will never take the time to have a proper body fat analysis done or do circumference measurements. The scale is a tool that is meant to be used in conjunction with other forms of measurement, it's a very small piece of the puzzle when it comes to knowing where you are at, and deciding where you want to go. The other major flaw in weighing one's self too often is that body weight can fluctuate several pounds in a 24 hour period, causing people to take drastic measures when they see an extra pound or two...they start exercising like mad or cutting calories to such levels that it slows their metabolism to a crawl. If that weren't enough, the mental stress of all of this wreaks havoc throughout the body leading to more fat gain. So what can you do?

1. Weigh yourself to get a baseline of where you are at. After that, weigh in a maximum of ONCE
     per week.

2. Have your body fat measured. The water displacement test is the most accurate, however a 
    qualified professional will get you pretty close with skin fold calipers.
    Most of scales that say they can measure body fat% aren't reliable, so don't waste your time
    with them.

3. Take some good pictures of yourself that you can compare at a later date.

4. Pay attention to how your clothes fit. This is often one of the first things you'll notice.

5. If you are in need of some diet help, here is the meal plan I follow.
    http://spartacore.rbc31f.hop.clickbank.net/

So after you have read this, if you think you may be a scale abuser and you don't think you can control your dysfunctional scale relationship...SMASH THAT SCALE WITH A HAMMER!