Leg Raises are becoming the gold standard for my core and abdominal training. The more I learn about them the stronger my abs get. Recently, I’ve been playing with adding a lot more tension in my arms and upper back while doing them from a hanging position. While the muscles in my back don’t lift my legs, they do play …
Calorie Balance vs Calorie Counting for Weight Loss
The debate over calorie balance is a common example of how many people mistake a principle of fitness for a fitness method. Those who argue against calorie balance point out that counting calories or severe calorie restriction do not work very well. I agree that calorie counting and calorie restriction are not very good methods for long-term weight loss. However, …
Maxick’s Muscle Building Wisdom
Maxick’s book, Muscle Control, is filled with muscle building wisdom. In it, he makes a strong case for improving muscle control to enhance the effectiveness of exercise. One of the biggest points he mentions is the importance of focusing on using your muscle as opposed to just getting the work done. Maxick spent time working in manual labor and he observed how many …
The Simple Truth About Abs
Building up your abs and core strength isn’t very complicated yet a lot of experts seem hell bent to make it seem like it is. Each year there are new books, products, and gadgets that turn a simple process into a complicated mess. Some of these myths are half-truths that have been warped by time and bro-science. The old adage …
The Practice & Benefits of Micro-Workouts
I predict the next big thing in fitness will be the use of shorter, yet more frequent workouts. You might look back and think “I can’t believe we use to workout for over an hour 2-3 times a week!” There are many reasons why daily 15-20 minute workouts might work best for you. Easier to fit into a busy schedule. Not …
The Truth About Deep Squats & Knee Pain
I know, I’ve heard it before too. The notion that deep squats cause too much stress on the knees and that you shouldn’t bend your knees more than 90 degrees. It’s well-intended advice, and might even help, but is there more to the story? Are deep squats and lunges really bad, or are they only bad in certain circumstances? More …
How to Improve Muscle Tension in Your Lats
Your muscle building potential depends largely on how well you can direct tension through your muscles. If your mind-muscle connection isn’t strong you’ll struggle to make progress regardless of how you train or what equipment you use. The good news is improving your muscle tension skills will improve your results even if your routine isn’t perfect or you’re using old equipment. In this …
How to Find Reliable Fitness Information
Despite having more diet and exercise information than you’ll need in 10 lifetimes, it can be pretty hard to find reliable fitness information on the internet. Even simple questions like how much protein you should consume or the difference between split and full body routines can lead you down an endless rabbit hole of debate. How are you supposed to comb …
Do You Need Sore Muscles to Make Gains?
Nothing beats waking up and feeling a little stiff and sore from your workout. It lets you know that you really pushed yourself and maybe even stimulated some muscle growth. As satisfying as a little DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is, it can be quite elusive. You can crush a workout and not feel a thing the next day. Other …
How to Build Strength & Muscle in the Same Workout
Your strength and muscle size are closely correlated to one another, but you improve each through slightly different means. Strength is more about how many motor units, and thus muscle fibers, you’re contracting during a unit of time. Muscle size is caused more by how much of the chemical energy you use in the muscle fibers themselves. This causes you …
How Much Protein Do You Really Need?
There’s far too much confusion and debate out there regarding protein consumption. It’s so easy to feel lost when trying to figure out how much protein you should eat to build muscle or lose weight. Looking for numbers doesn’t usually help because one expert’s answer is another experts criticism. It’s almost impossible to find solid answers these days. That’s why …
The Freedom of Exploratory Progression
Most calisthenics methods use a method of progression that’s like those old-school video games that progress from point A to point B. They work in levels with the idea that you ascend in a number of steps. It’s a good method, but it sometimes forces you to fit a square peg into a round hole. progression requires improving many skills …
5 Reasons Why I Don’t Use Steroids
I was asked the other day why I don’t take steroids. After all, I am in the muscle and strength business so wouldn’t it make sense to be at least a little tempted to juice up once in a while? Well, I don’t have a single good reason to avoid taking steroids; I have 5 and here they are. #1 …
The Root of a Healthy Diet
The source of a healthy diet goes much deeper than what you eat. While what’s on your plate is important, what’s most important to why that food is on your plate, to begin with. Your food choices depend less on what the latest research says about nutrition and more about the emotions you literally bringing to the table. A cookie is …
How to Do Leg Raises on a Doorway Pullup Bar
Doorway pull up bars are great. They are cheap, easy to set up and turn any doorway into a bodyweight gym. The only downside is they are a bit low to the ground for most people. This means you won’t be able to get a full body hanging stretch without your feet resting on the floor. It’s not a deal …
How to Make Junk food Healthy
Junk food doesn’t automatically have to be unhealthy. A certain food isn’t always bad for you just because it falls on the wrong side of some experts black and white dietary dogma. It is most certainly possible to include supposed junk food in your diet, and be better off for it. A lot of the potential benefit of a food depends not …
My Quick Ab and Core Workout
You don’t need a long abdominal workout to get great results. You don’t even need a lot of exercises done for countless reps either. All you need is one, maybe two, exercise that you do for a few super hard sets. Take my latest core workout for example. It only uses one primary exercise (leg raises) for a few hard sets followed …
Harder Pullups Without Weight
There are many ways you can increase the resistance of your pull-ups. You can add extra weight to your body with weight vests or a dip belt. You can also progress your technique as explained in Convict Conditioning. Both of these methods are effective, but they also each have a drawback. Adding weight to your body can place more stress …
2 Muscle Building Rep Strategies
Building muscle goes far beyond how many sets and reps you do. It’s not always about the numbers on a spreadsheet, but what the reps are doing to your muscles. You can do the same number of reps and sets, yet cause different levels of muscle stimulation. Take for example the following strategies: One involves going all out and pushing …
Are Dead Hang Pull Ups Good or Bad?
Dead hang pull ups are a point of debate in the world of progressive calisthenics. Some people say they are great and make pull ups harder and more effective. Other’s say they are bad for the joints and might even make pull ups less effective. As usual, the truth is somewhere in between. There are pros and cons to doing dead …
Is There a Perfect Workout Routine?
I’ve never been a big follower of following a specific workout routine. You won’t find me staying up at night researching the latest science on what ingredients go into a great workout routine. I’ve always taken a much more liberal approach towards workout structure. Sometimes, I’ve been a little too carefree and my workouts have lacked the structure to produce …
Why Diets Always Work
Despite the plethora of diets that spring up every year, many nutrition, weight loss and fitness experts claim that diets don’t work. It’s a popular claim, but it’s just not true. Every diet has worked perfectly well for every single person who’s used it. It’s true. I challenge you to find any example when any diet has ever failed anyone. …
Is Sitting Destroying Your Knees?
Sitting just may be creating the modern plague of something called neuromuscular amnesia. In simple terms, when you don’t make a habit of putting tension through a muscle, your mind starts to “forget” how to use it. Then, when you do need to use it, in an exercise or activity, you can’t use it as nature intended. The result is …
The Table of Progressive Elements
One of my goals in writing book 2 of the Red Delta Project (check out book 1 here) is to make progressive bodyweight training simpler and easier to understand. Currently, there are many techniques and countless variations of each. It can seem next to impossible to understand how they all fit together, let alone how to apply them. This is why …
Staying Fit & Sane During the Holidays
It’s that time of year again! It’s time to trim and decorate, not to mention slack off and over indulge. Or at least that’s the general consensus among folks this time of year. But what do you do when you’re a fitness minded individual? The holiday season can create a tug of war between enjoying the holiday season and staying in shape. …
Advance Your Calisthenics w/ Leverage
Leverage is one of the most powerful ways you can advance your bodyweight training. It can instantly load very high amounts of resistance on your muscles while keeping joint stress to a minimum. The best thing about using leverage is you can adjust the tension on the fly. You don’t need to stop a set or adjust equipment to change your …
The Trap of Over Qualifying Exercise
Over qualifying exercise is one of the biggest reasons why you may be struggling to get the results you want and it’s easy to fall into this trap. At first, you learn about the “best exercises” to reach your goals. Then a buddy tells you about the “optimal rep range for muscle growth.” Then the pro body builder in the …
Advanced Centerline Calisthenics
The centerline of your body holds the key to building muscle, blinding performance and even fat loss. Examples of the potential of the centerline have been a secret performance enhancer for centuries. Ancient forms fo martial arts, dance and even manual labor have long used the centerline as a guiding principle for power and control. Using your centerline involves more …
How Much Muscle Can You Build?
Muscle building potential can vary greatly from one person to the next. Some people can build a lot of muscle fairly easily. Other’s are going to have a hard time putting on just a little bit. So the big question is, how much can you hope to gain? More importantly, how much can you also hope to maintain? Also, …
Advance Your Bodyweight Training w/ ROM
You can improve performance, burn fat and build muscle by increasing the range of motion (ROM) in your bodyweight training. Even adding as little as half and inch can make a large difference. Increasing your range of motion can improve performance goes beyond flexibility. The old time strength athletes used to talk about “subtle strength” which is not only processing …
Advancing Bodyweight Training w/ Time
Time is a crucial element in the progression of your bodyweight training. You can use it to burn fat, improve performance and burn fat. Check out these simple ways you can change the time you train to influence the 3 key principles of exercise science. #1 Progressing S.A.I.D for better skill and performance Learning skills and being able to perform …
The 4 Big Flaws in Every Diet
These days dieting dogmas are almost a religion. Some of them even originate from religious practices. Diet evangelists preach the virtues of their dietary methods on the internet and in books. They promise salvation from obesity, poor health, and even your own sinful desires. Even though various diets come and go, they are all based on the same basic premise. …
3 Push Up Progressions to Build Muscle
Book 1 of the Red Delta Project is now available so now I’m working on book 2! In this book, I’ll be detailing how you can build muscle, strength and burn fat through bodyweight training. The key to doing this is to use what I call the table of progressive elements. These elements work just like weight plates on a barbell …
Build Muscle With Your Mind
A lot of people who go looking to build muscle and strength never find the results they want. Much of the reason is that they are looking in the wrong places. We’re told that the key to getting bigger and stronger is in the latest routine or the best equipment. Maybe the key is in the diet or the …
Lessons from The History of Dieting
Dieting is a discipline that people have used for hundreds of years. Dietary dogmas have existed ever since people have cared how they looked in their clothes. In the book, Calories and Corsets a History of Dieting over 2,000 Years, Louise Foxcroft takes the reader through the fads and trends over the years. While the information in the book is great, I …
How to Avoid Common Fitness Traps
Traps and snares abound in diet and exercise. These traps lure you into their jaws with promises of results and security, only to snap shut and limit your potential. One of the most common traps is the cardio trap where you find yourself eating a lot because you workout, and you workout because you eat a lot. This creates a …
The Source of Muscular Change
A lot of experts will tell you that the key to building muscle and strength is in having the right routine, doing more reps or adding more weight. While these things are certainly important, they are not the root cause that is in charge of your muscle training. Things like reps, and the equipment you use are influences towards the …
Why Build a Bodyweight Home Gym?
One of the biggest advantages of progressive bodyweight training is you don’t need to join a gym or buy any fancy equipment. You also have the freedom to train anywhere at any time. So why on earth would you want to invest in building a ? Wouldn’t that just negate the freedom of bodyweight training? While the freedom to train anywhere …
Bodyweight Master Review
Many people don’t know this, but long before I was a trainer and YouTuber, I worked for 11 years in the fitness equipment industry. Maybe worked isn’t the right word, as I was absolutely obsessed with finding the best home gym equipment money could buy. I even got rid of my bed and slept on the floor, so I could …
Nutrition is only 25% of a Healthy Diet
When it comes to Healthy Eating, good nutrition is important, but it’s not everything. Not by a long shot actually. As I explain in my book, Fitness Independence, a healthy diet focuses on satisfying 4 primal appetites. Each of these appetites is equally vital to your health and well-being. Nutrition is one of these appetites, but it’s only one. This means …
Do Weighted Calisthenics The Smart Way
Weighted or loaded calisthenics seems simple enough. You just take a classic bodyweight exercise and add some weight to your body to increase the resistance. It seems like a great way to build muscle and strength, but it’s fraught with risk. Part of the reason for this risk is weighted bodyweight training can jeopardize your technical convergence. This is the unique way …
Why You Should Build a Custom Routine
Fail to plan and plan to fail. That’s what they say, and for good reason. You’re not going to get very far without a well thought out diet or exercise plan. Unfortunately, many good plans turn into a rigid dogmatic approach to how you should “eat right” and exercise. While any plan is better than no plan, super strict approaches …
DIY Ultra Portable Suspension Trainer
This suspension trainer is the latest invention to come from the R.D.P Calisthenics Equipment Development Program. A.k.a, by tinkering around in my basement. This new suspension trainer is called the Bowline Trainer because it only uses the bowline knot in its construction. It’s designed to be ultra lightweight, portable and versatile. Unlike the Pruisk Trainer, it lacks the ability to make …
Fitness Plateaus and Progression
A lot of fitness and weight loss plans are built around the idea that you should make consistent progress from one week to the next. Some examples might be that you’re supposed to lose 2 pounds a week or lift 5 more pounds each workout. Expectations like are this are based on a linear model of progression. The idea is …
Easy Fitness Part 4- Fat Loss
Easy is good. I know that’s not what you usually hear when it comes to weight loss, but it’s true. You don’t get results by working your tail off. You get results by how productive you are, and the best way to do that is to make things easier. Of course, anything worth having in life is going to take …
Easy Fitness Part 3 Diet
Diet and nutrition may be one of the hardest things to tackle in a healthy lifestyle, but it doesn’t need to be so. I’m a big believer in the idea that the better your diet becomes the easier it should be to stick to. A diet that constantly stresses you out is not only difficult to maintain, but it’s also …
Easy Fitness Part 2 Exercise
In the last post, I talked about the virtues of seeking the path of least resistance when it comes to diet and exercise. The basic idea is the path of success is forged by finding ways to make the necessary work easier to accomplish. In this post, we discuss strategies on how you can apply this philosophy toward your workouts. …
Easy Fitness Part 1
Easy is not a word commonly associated with a successful diet and exercise program. If anything, many experts will decry the very mention of the word and insist there are no short cuts. I sure used to be such a person, but I’m learning my lesson. Not only is striving for the path of least resistance possible, but it’s also possibly …
Convict Conditioning Tips w/ Brian Byrnes
I recently sat down with my buddy Brian Byrnes who is a practitioner of Convict Conditioning and progressive calisthenics. Brian is one of the few people who truly understand the value of building a solid personalised workout routine. As I explain in my book, Fitness Independence, a lot of people take one of two approaches towards their routine. 1- People pick …
Muscle Building for Hardgainers
Building muscle is tough, especially for those who don’t have the genetics of someone who’s naturally shaped like a super hero. Anyone can build muscle, regardless of your genetics. At the end of the day, your genetics can only limit the shape of your muscles and the limit of how much muscle you an build. Even though you may feel …
Build More Muscle With Calisthenics
I used to be the guy who never bothered with body weight training or calisthenics because I thought you couldn’t build much muscle with them. I figured there wasn’t much muscle building potential unless heavy weight was involved. Of course, that all changed once I discovered Convict Conditioning and progressive calisthenics. At first, I thought, okay maybe there’s some muscle …
Use Your Lats to Build More Muscle
I always used to think of the lats as a narrow muscle group that ran up the sides of the back. I also used to think they were only really used in moves like pull ups and maybe rows. Lately, I’ve been learning a lot more about this incredible muscle and it’s made a massive improvement in almost every exercise I …
Will Cardio Help You Build Muscle?
Like many lifters, I used to believe cardio was a waste of time in the pursuit of building muscle. I even used to spread the idea that doing cardio could even make you lose your gains. Of course, now I know better. Like all things with diet and exercise, the fault usually lies in user error. Don’t blame the tool, blame the …
Muscle Confidence for Muscle Mass
A lot of trainers talk about keeping your muscles guessing and “confused” in order to shock them into growing. While such tactics can work, I propose something that can work much better and produce results that last a lot longer. Rather than seeking muscle confusion, I propose you do exactly the opposite and seek muscle confidence. Muscle confidence is just …
A Simple Move to Improve Your Squat and Lunges
One of the biggest game changes I’ve found in leg training is learning how to pull into the bottom position of squats and lunges. Even though these moves are classically considered a push move, they do require a lot of pulling strength. This helps remove knee pain, improve stability and builds more muscle. Learning how to pull into a squat …
The Missing Ingredient in Your Flexibility Routine
I’ve been trying to improve my flexibility and mobility for most of my life. Most of the classic methods, like stretching and foam rolling, never did anything more than provide a tiny bit of relief that lasted a few moments. Now I’m facing the very real possibility that I’ll be turning 40 in less than 2 years, yet I’m feeling …
How to Improve Every Hanging Exercise
Hanging is a staple in calisthenics. From pull ups, leg raises and even levers require a lot of hanging ability. Unfortunately, we don’t hang from trees or ledges as our primal genetics are designed to do so our hanging muscles are weak. Not only do we have a weak grip, but the muscles that transition tension from the arm to the torso …
Dump the Diet Dogma and Eat Better Than Ever
Diets and nutritional dogmas are everywhere in our fitness culture. Every month there are new ways to “eat right” and force yourself into a nutritional mold someone else created in a lab. These dietary dogmas are often sold as the savior to your health and waistline, but they actually hold you back. In many ways, they run counter to the …
Build More Muscle & Strength with Push Ups
One of the most common reasons why people struggle to build muscle and strength with push ups is the lack of tension directed towards the centerline. As I explain in this Dragon Door article, all tension should be directed towards the centerline of the body. Failure to direct tension inwards can result in a host of issues ranging from poor …
Is it Important to Feel a Muscle Working?
Many experts claim that focusing on how an exercise feels is a waste of time. I used to believe this too. I fell into the idea that the numbers you put in your log and your program was the key to success. After many years of frustration and injury, I started training smarter rather than just harder. This meant the numbers …
Instantly Improve Your Handstand Balance
Balance is the most difficult part of handstand work, but it doesn’t have to be so. There are some people who can just pop up into a handstand, and do other hand balancing work, very easily. As always, the solution is the all in how you use the tension through your muscles. You don’t improve balance just by trying not to fall. …
3 Easy Healthy Eating Tips (Book 3 Preview)
Book 1 of the Red Delta Project, Fitness Independence, is already out and book 2 is in the works. I’m even starting to outline the material for book 3 which focuses on the diet and nutrition aspect of Fitness Independence. In this week’s podcast I give you a super-early sneak peak at some of the stuff I’m working on for …
Use Neutral Tension for More Gain With Less Pain
Muscle tension is the best thing and the worst thing for you. It can break your body and build it up. It can cause muscle growth as well as muscle strains and joint pain. It all depends on how you can manage it within your muscles. Lately, I’ve been using an approach I call Neutral Tension. Simply put, it using …
3 Best Strap Exercises for Bigger Biceps
I love doing biceps exercises on suspension straps. I even preferred them over free weight curls back before I was made the switch to progressive calisthenics. There are many biceps exercises you can do on suspension straps. Over the years, I’ve found 3 moves that work a lot better than all of the others. These include the scoop curl, the …
Advice for the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Athlete
I believe growth and improvement should be a constant companion in your training. Something should be improving for you every week, or at least every month. This week I sat down with Girya Girl, Adrienne Harvey, to discuss the process of growth and development in training along your whole lifespan. We get deep into the most important lessons to learn at the …
Fit After 40 w/ Tommy Rembiszewski
I’m not one of those “age is just a number” kind of guys. Believe me, age and all of it’s demons is a very real threat to your fitness and health. It’s a very serious threat that you’ll have to face sooner or later. That’s why I invited super bad-ass Tommy Rembiszewski bad for another interview so I could pick …
6 Tips for Building More Muscle With Pull Ups
Pull ups are one of the best muscle building exercises ever. It’s a shame more people don’t take advantage of them. Here are 6 simple, anyone-can-do-them tips to help you build more muscle with whatever pull ups you’re doing in Convict Conditioning.
Break Free of Diet & Exercise Dogma for Good
Fitness dogma that dictates how you should eat and exercise is ever prevalent within our fitness culture. Most of the time these dogmas start out as simple ideas but grow into a mini-religion by the time they hit the masses. The issue I take with them is they both limit your freedom of lifestyle and results. It’s like locking both your …
Ring Push Ups vs Floor Push Ups
There are a million ways you can do push ups, which make them a great exercise for everything from building strength to improving flexibility. One possible variation is to do them on rings or suspension straps. While this does require the use of some equipment, there are several advantages to using them. Then again, there are many advantages to doing …
Superset Set Routine for Muscle Growth
Super sets are a great way to improve conditioning, save time and, most importantly, build muscle. They also do a great job of helping you find some of the weak links in your technique while under fatigue. This is my favorite bodyweight super set routine when time is short and I need to make my muscles burn.
Top 6 Suspension Trainer Exercises for Building Muscle
A simple suspension trainer can really help you build muscle with bodyweight exercises. They can mimic nearly any classic gym exercise. They bring more progression and regression to any move, and they can help you set up a “gym” almost anywhere. They can also open a pandora’s box of variety because you can do hundreds of movements on them. Over the …
How to Do Bridges Without Wrist Pain
Bridges are a “golden key” exercise; meaning they open massive doors to potential strength and capability. Pain can keep all of those doors locked up tighter than Fort Knox. A lot of folks suffer from wrist pain when doing bridges which can seriously handicap their results. Fear not my friend because I’ve just made this video to help you bridge for …
How to Burn More Fat & Build More Muscle
While writing my second book (Check out my first book here) I stumbled upon the 3 key principles that govern your success towards any form of exercise. That was pretty powerful in itself, but I’ve learned something even more powerful about these 3 principals. It’s something that can help you unlock a lot of muscle building and fat burning potential. …
3 Keys to a Healthy Meal
I keep to a pretty carefree style of eating. There’s no food that’s really off limits and I don’t follow any of the trends or fads the experts claim are so darn important. That doesn’t mean I don’t have my own rules and guidelines. I have 3 simple things I keep in mind with each meal that helps me ensure …
10 Reasons to Attend an SCC
The SCC (Strength Calisthenics Certification) is the premium one-day workshop held through Dragon Door. It focuses on the “Big Six” bodyweight exercises found in the #1 best-selling title, Convict Conditioning. The purpose of an SCC workshop is to give you expert hands-on instruction so you can achieve uncommon levels of strength and capability. That’s not the only reason to attend an SCC. …
How to Double Your Pistol Squat Balance
Make no mistake about it, pistol squats are a full-on legitimate leg strengthening exercise in their own right. The only thing standing in the way is learning how to be rock-solid through the full range of motion. To accomplish this level of stability, I highly recommend using your glutes. No, not the big muscles you sit in a chair with. …
7 Keys to Building Muscle Without Weights
It’s been nearly 7 years since I’ve last done a weight lifting workout. Since then, I’ve considerably improved every aspect of my fitness including the size and shape of my body. Take a look at this image of when I was a 145# bike racer to the more recent one this spring: Over the years I’ve made a lot of …
Integrated Activity vs Working Out
A super successful businessman once told me; “I don’t want work/life balance. I want work/life integration.” How novel. Wouldn’t it be great it we could do the same with exercise? Instead of having an exercise/life balance we strive for exercise/life integration. I think it’s possible and I’ve been doing just this sort of integration for the past few months. Check …
Street Workout Wisdom w/ Danny Kavadlo
2 wonderful things have happened over the past week. 1) Al and Danny Kavadlo released their latest calisthenics masterpiece, Street Workout and 2) Danny Kavaldo was kind enough to share some of his best thoughts on training and life in the Red Delta Project Podcast. In this podcast Danny covers: 1:00 Danny’s training history. 2:46 The street workout “movement.” 5:00 …
Convict Conditioning w/ Tommy Rembiszewski
My guest today is calisthenics expert and Convict Conditioning disciple, Tommy Rembiszewski. Tommy has been emailing me samples of his workouts and training for almost a year now and he’s been crushing everything. While most people just go through the motions he strives to push everything up to level 11. His approach is both hard-core and smart at the same …
Build Strong Abs With Dip Bar Leg Raises
Hanging leg raises are a staple in Convict Conditioning and progressive calisthenics. They are certainly one of the best core exercises by far. The dip bar leg raise is the second cousin to the hanging variety and it offers some unique challenges. It requires more shoulder and back stability, plus it can engage your pushing chain more than the hanging …
Are Pull Ups Enough to Grow Your Biceps?
Many calisthenics guys claim you don’t need to do curls since pull ups are enough to work your biceps. Gym rats will claim this simply isn’t true and you need to curl as if your gains depended on it. So what’s the story? The answer kind of falls somewhere in the grey area between the two. Pull ups are certainly …
The Quick & Easy Fix to Your Fitness
We’re told there is no quick and easy fix in fitness. That the road is long and hard. That anywhere worth going is going to be one trial after another. Building muscle, losing weight and any fitness related goal is going to have it’s trials for sure, but is the “no easy fix’ idea sending us the wrong message? Can …
What Makes a Workout Routine Effective?
I get asked a lot if I think someone’s workout routine is going to be effective. I’m humbled by the fact that someone trusts me enough to open up to me and ask me what I think. That said, I usually don’t know if it’s going to be an effective routine or not. This is because success in fitness, building …
When Are Diet & Exercise Details Important?
There’s no shortage of detailed information concerning diet and exercise information. It seems everywhere you look some expert is suggesting the smallest details concerning you habits can make or break your success. It can all be very confusing. You can get lost in the maze of details around what to eat after a workout alone. Should you drink a protein …
Build Raw Strength w/ Towel Assist Pull Up
Progressive pull ups are one of the best ways to build more raw strength and muscle in your upper body. The issue is where do you go once you’ve accomplished close pull ups? The answer is to use towel assist pull ups! They may look simple and maybe even a bit easy, but they are a real challenge. Check out …
3 Mental Weight Loss Barriers w/ Catherine Taylor
“75% of Weight Loss is Mental” -Catherine Taylor Catherine Taylor is a master when it comes to the emotional and mental side of fitness and weight loss. Understanding the science behind weight loss is only a small piece of the puzzle, and few people understand this like Catherine. In today’s podcast, I sit down with her talk about 3 of the …
How to Break Free From Your Work Out
Have you ever considered just how artificial and confining a workout is? How about how it seems to require that you put your life on hold so you can go and exercise like it’s some sort of a chore? What if you could break free and never have to “work out” ever again? How would your life be different? It …
How to Make Fitness Simple and Easy
Many of the struggles to build muscle or lose fat come from the needless obstacles we place in front of ourselves. We are making this whole diet and exercise stuff far too complicated and difficult. It’s not supposed to be so difficult it requires a herculean degree of motivation and will power. You also don’t need to become an expert …
Is Workout Fatigue Good or Bad?
Achieving a high degree of fatigue and exhaustion is a polarizing topic. Some folks love to leave everything they have in the gym or on the trail and come home completely spent. Others don’t like to be dead on their feet and avoid pushing their levels of endurance. I’ve been on both sides of this coin. What I’ve learned is that …
Pull Into Your Squats for Stronger Legs
Believe it or not, if you want to improve the quality of your leg training you need to learn how to “pull” into the bottom of your squats and lunges. It’s not complicated, but it can be tricky to learn at first. In this video. I share a simple technique you can use to use every day to improve your …
Control Fatigue for More Muscle Growth
Muscle fatigue is one of the principles of a good muscle building workout. If you want more muscle you simply need to work more muscle and work it into a higher degree of fatigue. The challenge is being able to do just that. It sounds simple enough, just lift until you can’t lift anymore. The problem is, there are a …
How to Balance Out Emotion and Logic Dominance
Most folks are either emotion or logic strong in their philosophy and approach to fitness. You can check out this post to learn about emotion and logic dominance but here are the cliff notes: Logic dominant individuals: Keep looking for the best and latest science and information. Over-rely on knowing the “right” way to do things or the right program …
Side Plank Progressions for Lateral Chain
Side planks are a staple for training the lateral chain. They also do wonders for the hips which is key if you’re looking to improve leg strength or kicking power. The problem is, there’s not a lot out there regarding how to progress or regress side planks. This causes a lot of folks to just plop down on the floor …
Emotion vs Logic Dominant Fitness Habits
Are you working your tail off and sticking to your diet or exercise plan, but not getting the results you want? Is pushing yourself to your limits the extent of your workout plan? Maybe you’re always looking for that one diet or workout program that’s going to work for you. Are perhaps you feel you know what to do but you …
My Best DIY Suspension Trainer Ever
I’ve been making my own suspension trainers since I first got into calisthenics and bodyweight training almost a decade ago. I’ve spent far too much time and money on one design after the next. Each new model was an improvement in some ways, but was lacking in others. Finally, after many years (and far too many attempts) I’ve come up …
Fix Wrist Pain & Stiffness in Calisthenics
You’re only as strong as your hands and wrists. If your hands and wrists are weak or stiff in these areas it’s going to severly compromise your training. Of course, people look for shortcuts. They wear wrist wraps when doing pull ups, and handles when doing push ups and hand stands. These things are nothing more than a Band Aid …
Build Stronger Legs with Triple Flexion
Imbalanced leg muscles abound! Knee pain, poor balance, awkward movement and a host of other ills plague many calisthenics enthusiasts. Hell, it’s even worse for those who use machines and lift weights. Much of the problem is from not enough flexion with squats and other classic leg exercises. Yes, I said flexion, as in working your muscles that pull you …
Tips For Calisthenics and Fitness Excellence
Excellence in calisthenics and fitness is something we all want, but there are a lot of hurdles in making that happen. Some of them are all in your own mind. Some of them are all around you. Make no mistake, you can achieve far greater results than you currently believe are possible. Just imagine what it would be like to …
Pull Up Elbow Pain Cause and Cure
Elbow tendonitis is one of the few injuries calisthenics athletes need to be on guard for. Many people experience it at one point or another, myself included. I used to struggle with it on and off for years. Thankfully, I’ve been able to get rid of it once and for all through Chain Training and this simple technical adjustment. The …