Healthy Life Guide

Okay, it’s time to talk about testosterone . Testosterone is typically known as the “male hormone” even though both men and women produce it. Men just happen to produce so much more of it than women that we just decided to refer to it as the male hormone. How… sexist? Anyway… There’s a whole lot of boring stuff I could tell you about testosterone, but I’m going to skip all of it and go straight to the point(s) that the vast majority of people reading this will actually care about. And that is, testosterone is the hormone that plays the largest role in our libido and our ability to build muscle . When it comes to muscle growth, the higher a person’s testosterone levels are, the better/faster that muscle growth will take place. This, of course, explains why people with great genetics typically have naturally above-average testosterone levels, and why some people (e.g. bodybuilders) use various drugs ( steroids ) to unnaturally increase their...

When discussing weight training schedules and splits , one of the things you’re sure to notice is that 99% of the splits I recommend or prescribe in the workout routines I design are based around doing 3 or 4 total weight training workouts per week. Do you think it’s just a coincidence that the most popular and highly proven splits in existence have this in common as well? It’s not. It just so happens that for the majority of the population, this is the maximum that is needed or beneficial. Why Not Do More? Any more than that and various recovery related issues are more likely to arise. And yes… even if the split is perfect in terms of giving your muscles a sufficient amount of days off between sessions, the same recovery problems can still occur just the same. Why? Because it’s not JUST your muscles that need to rest and recover. It’s your entire body as a whole. From your joints, to your tendons, to your central nervous system. Muscles actually...

Close your eyes and imagine this. You did it. You built as much muscle as you wanted to build. You lost as much fat as you wanted to lose. Your body is as (realistically) lean, muscular, strong and awesome as you’ve always hoped it would be. Your long-term goals have all been reached. You’re done. You win. Sounds quite good, right? But um… uhhh… what do you do now? What do you do when you’re completely satisfied with your results and no longer wish to make any additional progress beyond where you’re currently at? And your new goal is to just maintain this state from that point on? Seems like the ideal scenario to be in, does not it? And as rare as this scenario seems, people ask me this question quite a bit. I can only assume the vast majority are just planning ahead. Kinda like imagining all of the cool shit you’d buy if you won the lottery… even though odds are that won’t actually be happening any time soon. Or… you k...

Did you ever hear that it’s important to keep changing your workout routine around often? You know, because you need to “keep your muscles guessing” or “shock your body” into improving or just prevent your body from getting too used to what you’re doing? Basically, that you need to make frequent changes or else your workout routine will stop working. Sound familiar? Cool, because that’s all bullshit . The Myth Of Workout Variety and Constantly Changing Your Routine That whole “change things often!!” concept is nothing but a silly myth that probably first started as a way to sell more magazines (“changing your workout is important, so buy the next issue to get a new workout!!!”). It’s complete nonsense. Granted, there is truth to the idea that your body eventually adapts to a training stimulus at which point that stimulus will stop producing results. HOWEVER, you do not have to CHANGE the stimulus in order to ...

I’ve spent a lot of time over the years looking at the similarities and differences between the most effective workout routines. Why? Well, besides the fact that I just have a nerdy obsession with this sort of thing, it’s because when you start to notice what they all have in common, you start to realize that it’s not the workout routines themselves that are effective… it’s the handful of fundamental principles that they all employ. You know, like a certain ideal frequency , volume and intensity . A certain exercise selection . A certain schedule and way of putting things together. And above all else… a focus on progression . As long as your workout routine gets all of these fundamental principles right (and your diet plan supports it), then it’s quite much guaranteed to work. Well… quite much . The Success Of Your Routine Comes Down To This You see, all of the stuff I just mentioned is what makes your workout routine actually work. ...

I know, I know. A list of exercises that either should or should not be done is nothing new in the weight training world. It’s something you see all the time, actually. But hear me out, because in this case it’s coming from a different perspective. You see, typical lists like this have titles like “10 Exercises You Must Always Do!” or “10 Exercises Everyone Should Avoid At All Costs!” Now take a look at the title of the article you’re reading right now. Notice the difference? But if you’re a regular reader of mine, it should not surprise you. One point I feel like I repeat over and over again is that there are very few absolutes in terms of things everyone must do or not do. Rather, most aspects of diet and training should be adjusted to suit each person’s individual goals, needs, preferences and body. And what you’re about to see now is my own personal example of this involving perfectly good weight training exercises...

The key to getting results from your workout is progressive overload . If you’re not increasing the demands being placed on your body in some form over time, your body won’t be improving. With weight training, the most basic and common way of increasing those demands is by increasing the amount of weight we lift. So once we are capable of lifting 100lbs on some exercise, we go up to 105lbs. At some point after that, 110lbs. This then continues as often as we can ( while keeping good form intact ) and for as long as we can. Or at least for as long as we need to for our desired results to be achieved. If you’ve been a reader of mine long enough, this was already obvious information to you (and that alone instantly makes you smarter than half the people in your gym). But Wait… There’s One Big Catch However, you may have noticed my use of the phrase “ while keeping good form intact .” This is crucial. You do not want to end up sacrificing your f...

No matter what your specific fitness goal is (building muscle, losing fat, etc.), there’s one thing EVERYONE has in common: we all want to know what the best workout routine is to reach that goal. It makes sense, of course. We all want to get the best results as fast as possible, so if we used to best workout routine, we’d obviously get the best results. Right? Yeah, no argument there. I agree completely. The thing is, even though this is a question everyone keeps on asking, it’s a question no one has been able to definitively answer. Just spend some time on any fitness related forum/message board and ask for yourself. One person will always say Workout A is the best. Another will explain why Workout B is way better. A third person will call them both idiots and claim Workout C is the greatest workout in the history of the planet. Within minutes 100 other people will join the conversation and tell you 100 different workouts are better than them all. So, who’s ri...

As I explained last time ( Changing Your Workout Routine Too Often ), one of the worst things you can do is change your workout routine too often. You do not need to “shock your muscles” or “keep your body guessing” or do silly muscle confusion workouts or anything equally dumb. It’s a myth. You also should not be jumping from one program to the next in search of some ultimate magical routine that is going to work unrealistically well/fast. It does not exist. Truth is, just about every workout routine that is not completely terrible will work to some degree as long as you provide the time and consistency needed for it to work. If you keep changing things, that just can not happen. Now, does that mean you should NEVER change your workout routine? Of course not. You most certainly should change things, but only when it truly makes sense to. Making a change before that point is just counterproductive. In order to understand what I mean, we are going to need ...