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Tag: Bodybuilding

Two is One and One is None

April 13, 2022
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| Health and Wellness

Two is one and one is none is a concept used by Navy Seals that simply means to have a backup plan.  It means having one of something is like having none and that having two of anything is the same as having one. This important concept is not only extremely valuable on the battlefield and in outdoor survival but in everyday life. Taking it a step further, I like to also apply this to healthy eating and exercise.

Exercise and eating healthy are the two key components of living a healthy lifestyle. Yet too many people leave these two important components to chance. Then when something causes your day or week to go sideways, without a backup plan your initial plan for diet and exercise goes off the rails.

This leads to inconsistency, frustration, and overwhelm. All of which makes it much easier to get discouraged and just say screw it. I’ll try again tomorrow or next week. For some people, it can mean they may just give up all together.

Fortunately, this problem has an easy solution.

An ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure. The best way to avoid all the problems listed above is to create back up systems and have them in place. In life it is not if something will go wrong but when.

Here are some ideas to help you create your own back-up plan for your diet and exercise routine.

  1. Schedule your workouts for each week in advance. If something is on the schedule you are more likely to get it done.
  2. Always have 2-3 backup workout programs that you can do if something pops up and you cannot get your planned workout in for that day. EG. Go for a walk or run. Do a shorter 10–15-minute or 15-30 minute workout or yoga flow.
  3. Shop and prep food ahead of time so the ingredients are ready to go at a moment’s notice to throw together something tasty and healthy.
  4. Have healthy food readily available. Keep healthy bars, snacks, and protein powder in your car, pocketbook, backpack, at work, and at home.
  5. Have an emergency meal plan. Simply keep a set of ingredients that will allow you to throw together a healthy meal if you run late from work or the kids practice or game runs over. Instead of grabbing fast food. Quickly whip up a healthy tasty dinner.

A quick caveat. Having a backup doesn’t always mean having the exact same thing that may become lost or broken but something in place that can do a similar job when the SHTF.

Sure, the workout you may end up doing isn’t the exact one you had planned but you still got a workout in. This is better than nothing. Sometimes this can even work out better than the original. Getting something done keeps you consistent and keeps your momentum going. These are two key variables for long-term success.

The old saying of failing to plan is planning to fail always holds true.

Don’t overcomplicate the plan. Take a little time now and create 1-2 backup workout options, backup snacks, and backup last-minute meal ideas. Then save the workouts on your phone and go buy the ingredients for your meals so you have them on hand.

Once again, a plan without a backup plan is like having no plan at all. Incorporating these easy-to-apply techniques can assure that you won’t get caught with your pants down the next time life goes sideways.

To your health,

Kevin

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Do What You Can Do

November 3, 2021
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Do you have any nagging holding you back? A chronically sprained ankle, shoulder pain, back pain, knee pain, etc.? Have these injuries set back your training, activity, and quality of life? If you are lucky enough to not have any health or orthopedic issues now, then enjoy every second of it because sooner or later all of us will suffer from an injury and/or illness. This isn’t being pessimistic. It’s being real. It happens to the best of us, and it will happen again no matter what precautions you take. This doesn’t mean not take precautions. As I said above, it’s just being real. The fortunate thing is that there is a way to not let injury or sickness totally derail your training, fat loss, health, etc. Read on to find out how.

Recently I aggravated a back issue that I have. Bulging disks in my L-3-L5. If you have ever had your “back, go out” then you can relate to how painful and debilitating it can be. I was down for the count for a week and still suffering pain and limited mobility over a week later. I have done a lot of things to my body over the years. Some of it happened from accidents and others happened from doing stupid shit. Either way, it happened and now as a 48-year-old man with a lot of miles on him my body reminds me daily. The important thing to do first is address the injury and get it taken care of by seeing a doctor, chiropractor, therapist, energy worker, self-care etc. (for more information on self-care stay tuned for my next blog post, Self-maintenance). The next thing is to realize that although you cannot do exactly what you were doing before the injury there is always something that you can do. 

Working as a personal trainer and strength coach for 30 years I have seen and heard it all. One of the things I see most is when someone suffers an injury, they just completely quit their training. For example, they have a shoulder injury, and they totally stop training. How about training your core, back, or legs? Maybe they have a knee injury, and they stop training. How about your whole upper body? You get the idea. The answer is do what you CAN do. 

Below are some great ideas to help you continue training when you are injured or sick.

  1. Train the rest of your body that is healthy around your injury.
  2. Train a weak or lagging body part that you have been neglecting and wouldn’t have made the time to train otherwise. This is a perfect time to bring it up to par.
  3. Cross-train. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, bike. If you can’t bike, use a bike ergometer. Swimming can also be a great alternative especially for lower body injuries. Try to find an activity that doesn’t aggravate the injured area and focus in that for the time being.
  4. Modify or find an alternative exercise that you can do. Using different hand and foot positions can oftentimes help alleviate pain and take pressure off the injured area. Different exercise can also be better than others. For eg.  low step-ups instead of lunges if you have a knee issue. Split squats or step ups holding dumbbells if you have a back injury. You can also try using a partial range of motion that doesn’t cause pain or isometrics.
  5. Do less but do it more often. You can decrease the load you are using and use a lighter weight but perform the workout more often. The same goes for distance. If you normally run 5 miles 3 times per week Try running one or two miles 5x a week if it doesn’t hurt.
  6. Go lighter and use tempo. By performing reps at a slower tempo with a lighter weight you are taking pressure off of the joint or injured muscles, but the slower tempo allows you to create more tension in the muscle being worked giving it a greater stimulus.
  7. Use machines. Machines can be more stable. They are also great if you have a hand or wrist injury and cannot support a barbell, dumbbell, etc.
  8. Do some yoga. Most people, especially weightlifters or people that sit all day for work can use the extra mobility work.

There you have it. Although there are even more ways to train around injuries it is important to be cautious and ideally be supervised by a professional trainer, doctor or therapist to assure that you don’t make the injury worse. Furthermore, once the injury is almost fully healed it is important to make sure that you do the proper rehabilitation and post rehabilitation therapy to make sure the injured area is properly strengthened and balanced so that you decrease the risk of reinjuring it.

Lastly, and possibly the most important thing is to realize that there is always something you can do. It may not be exactly what you want to do now but by continuing to train you can avoid falling into a rut, depression, and regression losing all your previous progress. So, pick yourself up, seek the advice a professional, keep a positive mindset and just do what you can do.

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How to Lose Fat With Hill Sprints

June 27, 2021
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| Workouts

No time to get to the gym? No problem. Just head for the hills. One of the best ways to get in shape and lose fat is to do hill sprints. Not only is this method of training super effective but it takes a very short amount of time to perform and doesn’t cost a thing. Below is a basic hill sprint workout that you can perform on any hill in your local neighborhood. So if your ready for an ass kicking, fat burning, lung bleeding good time please read onward.

Your first job it to scout out a hill in your area. The hill doesn’t have to be too steep. The steeper it is the harder it will be so find one that is just enough to really challenge you. The hill should also have about 30-40 yards of length to sprint up. Now when I say sprint up, I mean SPRINT up! This means 80-90% intensity. You should be out of breath when you get to the top. There is no lollygagging here or the program will not work.

The Warm-up:

Start with a light dynamic warm-up which should take about 8-10 minutes. Here is a sample of one of the warm-ups we use. Start with 2 minutes of jumping rope, light jogging, jumping jacks etc. Then perform the warm-up in the video below. Once you finish the warm-up below do one sprint at about 50% effort. Rest 1-2 minutes. Do another sprint at 75% effort. Rest 3-4 minutes and begin the workout. 

The Workout:

If you are new to hill sprints or haven/t done them in awhile then start with 6 sprints (if you can) and build up from there every 2 workouts.

Set 1: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 2: Immediately Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 3: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 4: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 5: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 6: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Curse me out then lay there and have a conversation with God as you try to catch your breath.

Important notes:

  1. It is imperative that you sprint 80-90 %maximum effort. This is not a fast jog.
  2. As soon as you reach the top immediately begin to walk back to the bottom
  3. As soon as you reach the bottom IMMEDIATELY sprint back up
  4. If you are not able to maintain this pace then take slightly longer rest intervals and/or start with less sets, 3-4 hill sprints for example. 

It is important not to worry about getting all 6 sets but that the intensity is 1000%

Once you reach 6 sets in a workout do the workout again for 6 sets 2-5 days later and then move up to 7 sets the workout after that. Continue to do the same thing until you reach 12 sets.

Once you finish your last set try to gradually cool down by walking around and doing some light static stretching until your heart rate comes down.

The total workout time should only take a maximum of about 30 minutes including warm-up, workout and cool down. Any longer and you were not doing it right.

This workout is really tough, Please be sure to consult your health care professional before starting and/or trying a new workout program. 

To summarize, if you are trying to lose fat, get in better shape or improve your running speed and endurance than hill sprints can help. Give this workout a go and let me know what you think in the comments? Until next time go kick some ass! 

Yours in health.

Kevin

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Small Steps, Big Changes

March 29, 2021
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| Health and Wellness

One of the hardest things about falling off the health and fitness wagon is getting started again. Many people will be on a roll for a while and getting great results and then life kicks you in your junk and knocks you down. The truth is that this happens to even the most dedicated people from time to time. This post was written to help you get back up and get back at it. If you are having trouble getting motivated to start exercising and eating healthy, please keep reading.

It’s not if life gets in the way and derails your training and nutrition program but when. The trick is get going again. Fortunately, it is not as hard as you think. A common problem is once someone falls off for a while, they get frustrated and oftentimes depressed. Part of the reason for this is that people feel like if they are not able to do as well as they were doing before then it is not worth doing at all. The other reason is that people tend to look at the big picture of everything they have to do to get back to where they were and get intimidated and scared. The trick is to not even think about what you were doing before or all if the things you “should” or “have” to do but focus on one small action step towards your goal that you can do now. Less thinking, more doing.

Depending on how long you have been out of the training and nutrition game you may be very out of shape, feel weak, tight, aches and pains etc. The key is to keep your action step as simple as possible. Do not make it more overwhelming than it already seems to be. Do not try to go from zero to 100 in a week. Simply pick something small that you feel 100% confident that you can do.  For example, set out your gym clothes for the next day’s workout and then walk 10 minutes. Do 10 squats and 10 push-ups 2-3 times per week. If you want to start eating healthier and you have been eating ice cream every night, then starting by not eating ice cream for one night. Sure, you may be thinking “what is that little bit of exercise or dietary change going to do for me?” The answer is to build momentum and confidence. Contrary to what many believe motivation does not lead to action. Action leads to motivation. This approach works for everything in life. The key is that once you start getting some small wins you feel better. You feel accomplished you get into a flow. Then over time you begin to want to do more and more and before you know it you are back at it full swing and kicking ass.

If you have been stuck for awhile or unmotivated to exercise or eat healthy then pick something easy. Even if it is just a small step towards your goal and start by doing that step each day. Then build on it from there. Every great journey began with a first step. Make you first step small and easy and in a short time you will look back and say to yourself ‘Wow, look how far I have come?”

Yours in health,

Kevin

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Choose Your Identity

March 24, 2021
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| Health and Wellness, Uncategorized

Decisions, decisions. Everyday there are numerous important choices that we must make. Such as, what am I going to have for breakfast? Should I wear a button down or a polo? Should I wear deodorant or go au natural? Just kidding, I wear deodorant and just kidding, those are not important choices. One really important choice however, is am I going to take care of myself and be healthy, fit and feel great or am I going to let myself deteriorate, get out of shape, sick and fat?

Choose your identity?

Having trained hundreds of clients for over 25 years, one of the most important common denominators of my most successful clients comes down to this one simple question. Who am I?

The most successful clients choose working out, eating healthier and exercising as a lifestyle. This lifestyle is part of who they are. It is as important to them as brushing their teeth and applying deodorant! Not sure what my fascination with deodorant is today but let us continue, shall we?

People that are not successful being in shape, healthy, lean still have not decided. From time to time they may decide to join a gym, start an exercise program or a new diet. The problem with this approach is that they have not chosen to make that a part of who they are. They have one foot in and one foot out.  Sure, they decided to act which is great, and I applaud them for that first step. Unfortunately, once things get hard or life gets in the way they go right back to square one. Why? Because they did not take on the new identity of who they wanted to become. A fitter, healthier, better version of themselves.

There are many reasons we humans do this. Most of the time it is fear. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of change etc. A great piece of advice I heard from Jaimie Foxx on  a Tim Ferris Podcast is “What’s on the other side of fear?” the answer is “nothing.” And he’s absolutely right. There is nothing on the other side of fear.

Many of us worry about what might happen, about the worst case scenarios and what can go wrong but rarely do they ever happen that way. And even if they do, it would still be a really good experience, a life lesson for you to learn and grow from.

What are your goals? Take a moment and write them down in detail. Then ask yourself is this who I want to become. If the answer is yes, then you must make this part of your being. It must be who you are. If you want to be fit, look, and feel your best then you must do the actions necessary to be that way. It must be a priority. No negotiations. Plan your meals, shop for your food, prep your meals, schedule your training sessions, take your supplements. Show up each day. I am not going to lie. It will be hard in the beginning. The trick is to stick with it. Day in and day out and in no time at all it will become a habit. A beautiful healthy habit. Just like brushing your teeth and putting deodorant on.

To your health.

Kevin

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Old School Water Jug Workouts

March 14, 2021
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Some of my favorite workouts are the most basic and true to life. Big basic movements using everyday heavy objects doing everyday things. This was the inspiration for this post and I hope it inspires you. 

My family has some property upstate in the Catskill Mountains. We use the house year-round but over the winter we have to shut off the water and drain all the pipes, so they don’t freeze and break. This means that when we go up to the house during the winter months, we must bring large jugs of water to wash up, flush the toilet, brush our teeth, etc. Although carrying 4+ 7-gallon containers of water 2 at a time back and forth or 40 yards down the driveway through snow sometimes can be rough, it is also a killer workout. The primal part of me loves this and hopefully, you will too.

 

For this workout you will need two 5- or 7-gallon water jugs, I like the Reliance brand Aquatainers. They are sturdy and have comfortable handles. You can also get the Jerry can version which is a little narrower making it a bit easier to deadlift and carry them. This also makes it a bit more difficult to do push-ups on the handles. A third option if you are looking for something lighter and a bit smaller you can get the 4-gallon containers. These work better for shorter and/or smaller frame individuals. 

The 7-gallon containers weigh 2 pounds each empty. Full they are 60 pounds apiece. The cool thing is that you can adjust the weight by adjusting how much you fill them. Another added benefit is that when they are not full the water movers around a lot more. This makes lifting and carrying them more challenging and can provide a different and perhaps harder stimulus to your muscles.

Below is the weight of water in relation to gallons.

1 gallon of water weighs 8.33 lbs.

2 gallons of water weigh 16.66 lbs.

3 gallons of water weigh 24.99 lbs.

4 gallons of water weigh 33.32 lbs.

5 gallons of water weigh 41.64 lbs.

6 gallons of water weigh 49.97 lbs.

7 gallons of water weigh 58.3 lbs.

Add the weight of the container you are using, and you will have the weight of each container for your workout.

Below are two awesome total body workouts that take less than 30 minutes using water containers. 

Before you begin working out be sure to do a dynamic warm-up to get your body ready for the workout and to help prevent injuries.

Workout 1:

10 Deadlifts.

25–40-yard farmers carry.

10 push-ups using the container handles.

Rest 60-90 seconds and repeat.

Perform 3-7 rounds depending on you your goals and fitness level.

Workout 2:

10 Bent over Rows.

10 Triceps Dips or Push-ups using container handles.

Farmers Carry the containers up and down a set of stairs 1-2 times OR do 8-10 step-ups for each leg.

Rest 60-90 seconds and repeat.

Perform 3-7 rounds depending on you your goals and fitness level.

So now you have two “fun” and challenging workouts that you can do outside with minimal equipment. Use your imagination for other exercises! You can also do a higher number of reps or additional sets as you get more advanced. One last added bonus is these containers are great to have for extra fresh water during emergencies.

Give this workout a go and let me know what you think.

To your health,

Kevin

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Killing Two Birds With One Foam Roller

March 10, 2021
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| Health and Wellness

I hate birds. I mean really. All they do is make noise, fly around and crap on everything. Who needs that? LOL. Before P.E.T.A. loses it on me I am totally kidding. I love animals of all shapes and sizes. What this post is referring to is the  old saying “we can kill two birds with one stone” or we can accomplish two things at once. These two things are killing stress and anxiety and killing bad posture, back, shoulder and neck pain. There is a third benefit. If you do this before you work out it can increase your performance a small percentage. So, what do you have to do to receive these awesome benefits? Your gonna have to read on if you want to find out. 

Most people use foam rollers to painfully work on tight muscles and adhesions. I am not a big believer in this for most conditions, but that is for another post. One thing foam rollers are useful for however, is to decompress and align the spine a bit and to help improve posture. I learned this trick from my late great mentor Charles Poliquin many moons ago. He liked to use it with his athletes before a workout to improve strength during the workout. 

To do this this exercise simply lie on a foam roller lengthwise (Use a 36″ foam roller). Keep your feet flat on the floor and your arms next to your body relaxed with palms up and elbows slightly bent. Lie there for 10 to 15 minutes. You most likely will notice that when you first lie down your neck is hyperextended, and your lumber (lower back) will have a large arch. Over the course of the 10-15 minutes however your spine and the muscles in the anterior (front) of your upper body (pecs, deltoids, scalenes, pec minor, biceps, etc.) will relax and gently stretch due to gravity. This leads to decompression of the spine and allows your spine to align more naturally. This can help decrease pain, improve posture and performance. Today this is more important than ever with so many people working at a computer all day, sitting too much, and looking at their phones, and tablets. 

To make this awesome and easy exercise even better I decided to combine it with another beneficial activity. I thought “well I have to lay here for 10-15 minutes which can be kind of boring” So. I decided to “kill two birds with one stone” and add my daily guided meditation practice while I am lying on the foam roller. I love the apps Calm and Headspace. I like to switch back and forth from time to time but you can choose whatever works for you. Doing this not only gives me benefits to my physical body but also my mental capacity by decreasing stress, anxiety and improving focus, relaxation and performance. A super win-win. 

I love to do this either as part of my morning or bedtime routine. Feel free to experiment and find whatever works best for you. I cannot recommend this enough. Please give it a try and let me know what you think?

To your health,

Kevin

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Get Out of Your Own Way

February 15, 2021
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My First Post "Get Out of Your Own Way"

We have lift off. Welcome to my new vlog/blog/website. My name is Kevin. I am formerly the owner and head honcho of K-Strength Sports Training. I say formerly because a lot of shit went down in 2020 and so did my business. So here I am starting anew.

“Every day is a chance for a new beginning.”

Truth be told, as much as I love all the clients I work or have worked with, and my gym, I was starting to get burned out trying to run a gym and manage all that it entails. Long hours on the floor. Not much time with the family. No vacations. Not enough time to do more of the parts of my job  that I love and wanted to spend more time doing.

As brutal as it was having to pull the plug on my business. My creation. Over 10 years of hard work, sweat, laughter and tears. Having to say goodbye to seeing so many amazing people who have become like a second family, a part of me is relieved. Not because of parting with them. But because of  connecting with myself.

Like many people we get so caught up with the day to day and everyone else we often lose touch with ourselves. When we do this, an important part inside of us is slowly dying because we are cheating on someone we love. Ourselves.

Interestingly, as soon as I closed and mourned a bit. I was excited to get going doing what I “didn’t have time for” before. I started laying out a plan and setting things up and then proceeded to do everything and anything not to start. Sure, I did a lot of work setting things up, but the most important parts were always pushed back. It is like the one important phone call that you do not want to make but you know you have to. You procrastinate by creating other things that make you feel like you are being productive such as, organizing your desktop. clearing out you’re inbox, washing dishes, etc. You do everything you can except the things you need to be doing. I kept doing this and pushing it off until finally I would say I will just do it tomorrow. Then the next day and on and on.

For such a long time I bitched and moaned that I did not have time. Now when I have time and no excuse, I sabotage myself. I bring this up because as I stepped back and looked at my situation an important question came to my mind.

Was not having time, or having too many other things to do before the reason I was  unable to do what I really wanted? Or was it just me all along?

I am now sure that it was always just me.

What is it that you want to do? What are you passionate about? What do you do to sabotage yourself? What excuses do you make?

Think about it and when you find your answer stop making excuses, create a plan and just do IT.

This is my “IT”. This is my new beginning.

To your health,

Kevin

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