web analytics

Posts tagged hampton roads

Summer Body Tip 9/30: Sweetness

May29
2012 1 Comment Written by William

Bet you didn’t know you could train your taste buds to prefer one thing over the other? Don’t believe me? Ask any of the “Body Boot Camp Diet” participants. They found this out real fast.
Random: Did you know that the average American consumes 2-3 pounds of sugar a week? crazy huh?

The key here is getting rid of the things that are bringing your body down the most. Sugar is one of those things that your body really doesn’t need a lot of. Drinks like Red Bull, Monsters, Gatorade, Vitamin Water and sodas are serious weight loss blockers. Yes, there is always that small handful of people who lost 40+ lbs and still drank diet sodas and sugar free red bulls. But these people were probably extremely over weight to begin with so even the smallest change to their diet will yield great results.

What about the people who are trying to drop those last couple pounds? Here is what I want you to do, look down at your stomach and grab that last bit of jelly role you have and shake it…Think of that as a tube of soda..I know that’s weird so just humor me. I’m trying to change your mindset. Cutting out or back heavily on these sugary drinks are going to drastically help you with these last few pounds. I don’t care if its sugar free either. Ever seen the syrup used to make sodas? Well that stuff is bad for you too.

Be sure to scroll back to the top and hit “like” if you got anything from today’s post. Thanks for the support!!

 

Posted in Summer Body Tips, Top 30 Daily Weight Loss Tips, Weight Loss Now! - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

The best training program in the world.

Apr17
2012 2 Comments Written by William

I love it when people post about their current fitness program they are on. It puts things into perspective. Everyone is always wondering what the “Elite” are doing so they can copy them and expect the same results. Health and fitness is not all about “whats new” and the hottest new toys. So many fitness professionals claim that they have the latest and greatest result getting programs which ends up leaving people very misinformed.

One thing that I have learned from my years in the industry both professionally and personally is there are so many ways about going after your goals. Its just a matter of what works for you and who you like to get your information from. You may not follow a particular professional for his/her latest exercise moves alone but for their knowledge, experience, personality and trust. At least that’s what I tend to do.

 

 

Here is my secret: It comes down to programming for maximal results and dialed in nutrition (and/or healthy “outside of the gym” life)


Thinking back, my very first exercise I ever did was a bicep curl. After that workout I was hooked. I knew my passion was to be as strong as possible at every exercise there was. I had that young teenager desire to “be like Arnold”. Thank God my goals are a little different now but my passion is still to lay under that bar and press as much weight as I can. That’s my high. Sure being able to deadlift 315lbs 15+ times is impressive and was very rewarding when I did it but I remember feeling the most accomplished after deadlifting 415lb for a max lift my junior year in college. That was awesome. I hated running long distances and didn’t see the point to building a workout around the end result leaving you face first in a trashcan somewhere. That just wasn’t my style.

My training has come a long way since the day I first started. I have learned to incorporate a lot of different variables into my training to see the results I want. I wanted to give you  the inside scoop.

Check it out….

Weights:

I have gotten back into lifting pretty heavy for size and strength gains. I do a lot more functional movements and mobility work within the workout and on my off days to keep me agile and flexible. For the past 2 years I have done a different workout every time I stepped into the gym. For the next couple of months I am going to be experimenting with the same exercises for 3 weeks (not including a deload/light week). Every week I am going to be increasing some aspect of the program whether its reps, sets, or weight. Something will always change. I will also be writing everything down to keep me honest and my perfectionist state of mind under control.

I have also incorporated a crap ton more body weight exercises and want to get more into odd object lifting when available. Anybody make a home made atlas ball?

Cardio:

How fast can I run up this hill…again..and again…and again

All my cardio will be done on a hill (outside or on a treadmill) or on a set of bleachers/stairs. Any other cardio I do will consists of rounds of heavy bag fights, kbell swings and maybe ropes…I tend to get random with the filler stuff.

Eating/Drinking

I am currently doing a modified version of Jason Ferruggia “Renagade Diet” along with parts of my own “Body Boot Camp Diet“. Eating consists of intermediate fasting, low caffeine and sugar along with tons of lean meats and veggies. I added drinking on here to talk about my caffeine experiments. I feel like my body is already over hyper so drinking coffee tends to chill me out to much. Almost to the point where I am even more tired and dragging my feet. Other then that I am a big coffee fan. Right now I am adding in Green Tea for my morning drink and if I want something else later I get coffee. The affects of Green Tea on my energy have been great. I don’t feel groggy or more tired after drinking it. It also has a lot less caffeine then most cups of coffee.

Supplements:

I am not to big on supplements but I am taking:

  • whey protein
  • omegas
  • complete greens
  • B Complex

Reading: (bonus)

EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey

As much Zig Ziglar stuff that I can get my hands on

 

I don’t consider myself elite by any means but I get asked a lot by people about what I am currently into, so there ya go!

Hope you found something in it you can use!

William

 

 

 

Posted in Body Weight Workouts, Daily Workout, Strength and Endurance, Training - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the biggest growth and performance killers. Part I

Mar25
2012 1 Comment Written by William

Ever wonder what could be keeping your gains to a minimum in the gym. It may not be the protein or carb amounts. Lets think deeper. This hormone alone could be devastating any opportunity you may have to seeing serious muscle development.

This is the unscientific, condensed version…hang around.

Cortisol is probably one of the most over looked hormone when it comes to training and seeing results. Everyone seems to be more worried about their protein, carb and creatine intake then anything else. Believe it or not if you don’t start training from the inside out your gains will be minimal if at all. I don’t care how much you eat or how heavy you lift.

What is it: Cortisol is a hormone produced by your adrenal glands and released by your hypothalamus during times of stress. Not all cortisol is bad but high levels from chronic stress can have a serious affect on your body. Small amounts of cortisol are released during what is known as the “fight or flight” response, these smaller amounts can actually have great benefit such as bursts of energy, strength etc.

What I want to focus more on is the reality of 85% of most lifters. Cortisol is killing you.

Well maybe not killing YOU but its trashing any possibility for serious gains when it comes to your training. You see, due to such high levels of stress these days people are not trying to find ways to deal with and relieve this stress. They just learn to cope with it. Their bodies just keep pumping out this stress hormone that in high amounts and often, can do some serious damage. Long periods of this release can lead to what is known as “Adrenal Fatigue”. This is where your adrenal glands are over stimulated for too long and start to shut down.

This is where your training is affected.

Chronic high levels of Cortisol can have a negative affect on your muscle tissue as well as growth. Cortisol is what is known as a catabolic hormone (this just means its the driving force behind the breakdown of certain nutrients and substances in your body) High levels of cortisol will not only break down muscle tissue but it can blunt the release of growth hormone (the natural get big juice your body puts off). This means the intense workout you just did is worthless. Yes, high levels of cortisol is counterproductive to any gains you want to see in the gym.

Even your style of training can be responsible for the release of high levels of cortisol. If you train at high volume or intensity 99% of the time, odds are you’re trashing your body and killing your chance of recovering properly. So when you add the stress of your daily life, work, lack of sleep and your over achiever workouts….you’re basically wasting your time.

Your goal should not be to trash your body every time you enter the gym. Don’t confuse intensity with results. You need to give yourself weeks of training where you focus more on form and less weight as well as challenging yourself with heavier. Taking every set to maximal failure then having your buddy drag two more reps out for you is also a great way to trash your Central Nervous System (which plays a big role in your growth and recovery as well….we will talk about that another time). If you want to find out your 1RM then a little face redness, shaking and grunting is aloud. After that you want to see how many reps you can bang out under perfect form as heavy as possible…by yourself.

For example: I may be on a bench with a weight I could probably do at least 12 times with some help. I will probably only rep out 10 or 11 depending on how I feel. I do this to save the strength in my CNS for the rest of my workout and recovery. The average person will shoot for 12 or more with the same weight and end up getting a buddy to help squeeze out the last two. This is where your CNS gets over worked.

I don’t want a trashed CNS when I need a fresh one to start pumping out all the muscle building hormones I need to start repairing my body….make sense?

Part II of this article will be on signs of high cortisol levels and ways you can lower them. Stay tuned!!

 

Thanks for reading!! If you got anything from this post please hit “like” and/or share it with any friends you think would dig it! Thanks for all the support

William

 

Posted in Boosting Energy and Focus, Strength and Endurance, Underground Training - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

5 Ways of Thinking That Will Change Your Life

Jan12
2012 Leave a Comment Written by William

I am your average 25 year old living life one day at a time (while being married to the woman of my dreams!!!). I don’t know everything but the success I have achieved in my short time here on earth is partially due to 5 key things that you need to consider. Besides my relationship with Jesus Christ being #1, these 5 things I constantly think about and push myself to do daily. I don’t do them because someone’s blog told me to or I read in some book that gave the secrets to life.  I am passionate about these things and can guarantee success if used properly and consistently.

It’s weird because I am big on research and learning new things about whatever crosses my path but when it comes to personal success it’s like the more experiences you go through the smarter you get (huh mom and dad were right) and the more you tweak your own life to be better the next go around.

These are my 5 tweaked secrets to success:

  1. Don’t Wait: Ask my wife I will be in mid sentence with her and remember that I needed to call or text someone or do something and I will instantly drop what I am doing and do whatever that thing is. I hate putting stuff off. It gets on my nerves when people do that then later when that thing that should have been done comes back up and now its to late. You’re adding so much more chaos and stress to your life then what needs to be there. Train yourself to be the kind of person who just does things right then and there. Learn to face things head on instead of pushing them to the side.
  2. Embrace Struggle: Everyone’s definition of “strugglin” is different. Key thing is to change your way of thinking towards whatever you’re going through. If I have learned anything from the past 2 years is that you have no control over anything. The key is to take your hardships and make them work for you. Ask yourself what can I learn from this situation? Why am I here? Was there something I could have done better? I’m not saying that every bad thing in life comes from your own bad decisions but changing your outlook on those bad events is going to be the difference between it ruling over you and you ruling over it. A wise man once told me “Don’t let your circumstances dictate your future”. I honestly don’t always keep this in the front of my mind but it’s something that I will never forget.  Take hard times as a learning experience. Fine tune areas of your life that are never really brought out until a struggle. I look back now and wonder how the heck I made it through a few of the bumps but I am happy because so many lessons were learned during those times. Lessons that would have never been brought to life without the struggle. Your inner most being is truly revealed when you go through tough times. Make the best of them.
  3. Never Get Comfortable: What happens to food when its just sitting around and not being consumed or used? The stuff starts to go bad, mold begins to grow..its gross. Think of that when it comes to your life. You may have good intentions and have all these big dreams but if your just spinning your wheels and don’t have the guts to step out and get uncomfortable you will begin to rot. You will be stuck in your current situation. If you like the way your life is going congratulations!! If you know you deserve better or have better waiting for you somewhere else then go after it. Lets say your doing great but you know you could do even better. Odds are your getting pretty comfortable where you are. Why not step out and go after whatever it may be? You worked hard to get where you are now so why stop there if you know there is better. My biggest fear is to get to a point in my life where life just floats by. I understand that life is life and you have to do things that you may not like for what seems way to long but when opportunity is there take it. I fear getting so comfortable that I lose my sense of drive and passion to better myself and the people I come in contact with.
  4. Live the code: I am a firm believer that the world revolves around two things. Love and Respect. If you don’t have or show these than your not firing on all cylinders. Whether your a guy or girl your soul graves to be respected and loved in some way. You can get into a discussion about women desiring more love and men more respect and all that but somewhere inside you, you desire both. This has been a long lesson for me being that I desire Respect over anything. It’s almost like you expect it. I have learned that it’s one of those things that if you give more then you EXPECT to receive your going to end up with more than you could ever imagine. Love and Respect work hand in hand. One makes the other come out. If you desire love then work on respecting the people around you more. If you want respect show some love and open up. People respect people who they can relate to and connect with. This whole concept reminds me of the movie “Pay it Forward” It’s a pretty dope movie that has a killer lesson to it. If you haven’t seen it then pick it up ASAP.
  5. Don’t Give Up: Hands down this is probably the most thought about decision in the world. Give Up. Craps hit the fan and times are tough. Give Up. Put in long hours and give everything you have to your one thing and still not see much happen…give up. It’s the easy way out. It’s something that people who were raised to quite or think they have a right to everything they want. It’s crap. There has been many times in my life where quiting was probably the best thing for me to do but I didn’t. Maybe its pride but I have this desire to see everything I lay my hands on succeed. Ill be the first to say that I have failed plenty of times but have gained so much knowledge from it. At the end of the day whether it was a success or not I can sleep well knowing that I gave it my 100% until I was literally forced to step away. The cool thing is the majority of those times where quiting was the best option and I decided not to…things turned around. It was a success. I passed. I won. All the hard work, stress, sweat and tears paid off. Don’t let bumps in the road turn you away from what you know deep down in your heart is right. Keep going until it hurts and when your at your last string and the pain is to much go a little further. There are countless stories about people traveling across the world with nothing but the gas in their car and hope in their pocket and what seemed like an impossible dream turned into something that will change the world around them forever.

I am not a wise old man, just a dude who is passionate about reaching people. This is what has worked for me and what I know would work for you.

William

 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Posted in Fitness Tips, General, Random - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FREE GIFTS!!!

The secrets to one of the most lethal training philosophies ever to be used by some of the biggest in the industry! Bonus: My 12 week MASS DEVELOPMENT program "Elite Gains"

Follow My Tweets!!