The Gym Alone Isn't Enough...

Gray Cook says it best... 

“We can’t fix everything with corrective exercise. If somebody’s sleeping 2 hours a night, if they’re dehydrated, or only getting half the protein of their dietary needs, then the things we do in exercise or movement correction probably won’t have the fertile soil to grow anywhere.”

 ⠀ The same goes for regular exercise and with the goal of changing body composition, getting stronger, dropping body fat etc. ⠀ 

    You can’t just put all your eggs in the workout basket and think that’s enough. Exercise alone is amazing for you, but it’s only a very small percentage of the bigger picture. Optimize the rest your lifestyle and reap the benefits. 

⠀ If you’ve been struggling to lose weight, if you’ve been struggling to get lean, build muscle, if you’ve been dealing with nagging injuries or pain then don’t just look at your exercise or rehab alone as the fix. Hit your nutrition targets, your rest targets, and your hydration targets and watch just how great you feel and perform! ⠀

 SOURCE: FMS Level 1 Course Curriculum. 

Progression - 7/12/13 - Where I'm at, what I'm doing? SHOULDERS

Seriously this is my serious face; oh my gawww

I thought I'd take a little time to talk about where I'm at and where I want to be in terms of my physique and fitness goals for once. I'd like to do a show in the future, possibly in 2014, but I have a lot of work ahead of me and I still need to decide if I want to compete in a bodybuilding show, or physique. For those of you who don't know the difference to sum it up pretty quickly physique competitors are a smaller in comparison to bodybuilders, they wear swim trunks and generally go for that aesthetic "beach body" look, or that athletic look; and there is really no posing involved.

regardless of what I decide to do both require a ton of work, constant effort, dedication, and discipline both in and out of the gym and in the kitchen as well. Currently I'm trying to put on size as cleanly as possible (putting on minimal fat); right now I'm at about 210lbs at 6'3" and around ~14% Body fat. I'd like to put on 10-20lbs of clean mass over the next 3-6 months, and I'm also going to start incorporating  a lot of supplements into my regimen to help get me there so stay tuned for the reviews on those...

Having trouble developing my shoulders, we should start to see
some big changes in them very soon!

Right now one of my greatest weak points has got to be my shoulders, in terms of what they look like, I can't develop them to save the life of me. At work a couple of the trainers like to call me "Dove" because my shoulders look like that of a girl's in a Dove soap commercial, soft with no real definition, haha gotta love the people you work with sometimes. Although my shoulders are very strong they never seem to grow; it makes sense though as I hardly ever train them by themselves, and when I do it's only once a week. So for the past 3 weeks I've been hitting them twice a week and have been seeing decent results already!

Over the next couple of months I'll be keeping you guys updated on my overall progression and posting pics; hoping to see this transformation take shape soon!



I know these mirror selfies aren't the best, I'm gonna get a
permanent photographer; cuts the cheesiness in half at the least

Beach'n It!

Even with the crazy and random weather we've been getting here on long island that past couple of weeks this weekend was bright and sunny; so a couple of other trainers and I hit up the beach. While we were there we were challenged to a game of football by some other dudes and after about an hour and a half to no surprise we emerged victorious! The reason why I bring this up though is for the past 2-3 days my entire lower body has been so sore it's pretty much crippling sometimes! Everything from my quads, hammys, glutes, hips, and calves are all fried! You have to understand though that these are all regular body parts that I train in the gym, and I train them hard for that matter and I never get this sore. The reason being why I'm so sore is due to the running and jumping around on the sand. Beach sand is a great proprioceptive (unstable yet controllable) environment, that helps engage and utilize muscles that you rarely ever use just doing regular cardio on the treadmill for instance. By running around on the sand you're working on your stability muscles, which gives you better balance, reaction time, and of course stability. You'll burn a lot more calories doing exercise on the sand because your body uses up more energy always trying to balance and stabilize itself out.

Some simple and easy exercised you can do when you go to the beach are... Sprints, jogging, jumping jacks, lunges, squats, pushups, plyometric pushups, burpees, 1-leg and 2-leg side hops, or even play a little game of volleyball, soccer, or football and work on your juking skills; you'll really feel it the next day! So get out there and enjoy mother nature, and workout those dormant muscles!

CT Fletcher Motivation...WARNING Extreme Profanity!

I recently started following videos of this guy named CT Fletcher on YouTube, and he cracks me up, but at the same time he's pretty damn motivating! I posted just a few of the videos that I have seen below; they're videos of him and some other buddies all training together. Now I know a lot of you probably don't care about lifting heavy weights, but even then you can still appreciate the motivation, intensity, and energy these guys have during their workouts, they give it 110%... They keep it going through their entire workout doing whatever they need to make it through each set; screaming, shouting, cursing. Now I'm not saying that you have to take it as far as to do these things when you train, but all too many times when I'm with a client it's almost like they're scared to make any noise whatsoever. I constantly have to tell some of them to breathe, and to really breathe, and in order to do that you need to be a little loud! Or instead of pushing through those last few reps or seconds of an exercise where they're struggling, instead of pushing through it, grunting, breathing loudly, whatever, they'll just stop because they're scared to standout. Those last few reps or seconds of an exercise where you really have to struggle and push yourself are the most important though. Whether you're trying to lose fat or gain muscle, stopping before you start to struggle will get you nowhere. Don't be self-conscious, remember you're in the gym for you, work your ass off, push yourself, and don't worry about what others are thinking, I guarantee you they aren't thinking about you! Let these videos motivate you, or show you how you can motivate and push yourself...

 WARNING to my readers, if you're sensitive to strong language don't watch these videos!

#1

#2 Motivational Words

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