The debate between isolation and command exercises is starting to rage once again within our fitness culture. So this week, I wanted to take a fundamental approach to get to the bottom of the isolation vs command debate for building muscle and strength once and for all. Live Feed Q&A: Thoughts on Overcoming-Yielding Isometrics 12:31 “I need to work on …
My Final Word On How Many Set You Really Need to Build Muscle
Asking how many sets you need to do to build muscle, especially with calisthenics, can trap you into an infinite number of rabbit holes. Every expert and their mom seems to have their thoughts on the subject, and everyone is sighting research and empirical evidence to back up their claims. Despite all of these “answers” you’re still left with the …
The Courageous Transformation of Jake Gay
Jake gay has gone through quite a few transformations in his fitness career. His calisthenics transformation video is one of his all-time most popular videos and has been seen by close to 1 million people. But while abs and broader shoulders are great, the most impressive transformations in fitness aren’t the ones that make for an instagram post. The most …
Cycling in Cold Weather: A Guide
Image Credit Temperatures may be dropping, but it doesn’t have to mean you need to store your bike away or stop your cycling hobby altogether. In this short guide, we’ll help you fully prepare and stay motivated for cycling in the changing weather conditions. Wear Correct Clothing Like with any exercise, your body will naturally warm up when you cycle. …
Calisthenics Training Mistakes w/ Lee Downing Keet
Lee Downing Keet and I had a chance to chat and talk about some of the biggest calisthenics training mistakes we’ve made, and mistakes we’ve noticed other make. We’ll also be tackling your questions like, how to do more pull-ups, the best ab exercises we prefer and how to use visualization to break past training plateaus.
How to Know For Sure if An Exercise Will Build Muscle
It seems like everyone and their Mom is trying to think outside the box an be a “innovator” in the world of fitness these days. This especially goes for creating new exercises and variations that promise to be the next best thing in building muscle and strength. Loads of experts are cooking up new ideas in an effort to hack …
Toxic Fitness Beliefs That Are Killing Your Gains
Toxic fitness beliefs can make it almost impossible for you to build muscle and get lean. Whenever I come accross someone who’s “tried everything” and still struggle to make progress I know there’s a toxic belief at the heart of the problem. Some of the most common toxic beliefs attack your very sense of self. The erode your confidence and …
Cali-Talk; Our Top Calisthenics Muscle Building Tip
Welcome to the first edition of Cali-Talk where Lee Downing Keat and I discuss our best calisthenics training tips and answer your burning questions. We’ll be discussing building muscle, diet, calisthenics programing and more. Listen now down below:
Stuck For Workout Motivation? Try These Alternative Sports!
Source One of the absolute hardest things when it comes to working out is trying to maintain the necessary levels of motivation. There are a lot of reasons for this but one of them is that many of the standard workout options are just not all that interesting. Sure, there’s something pleasant and meditative about wracking up the reps on …
How to Put a Dent in the On-Line Fitness Universe w/ Al Kavadlo
Al Kavadlo has just released his latest project, his Fitness Pro Master Class which is all about helping fitness professionals establish a credible foot-hold on the internet.
The Biggest Body-Transforming Mistake I See People Make Everyday
Building muscle and losing weight to improve your physique is one of the most difficult things you can do in fitness, it’s not impossible. One of the biggest mistakes I often see people make is they fail to take a influential approach where they employ multiple strategies. They hop from one diet or workout plan to the next, only to …
Why Changing Your Physique is So Hard and How You Can Make it Easier Part 1
Contrary to what the media and advertisers would have you believe, changing the aesthetic appearance of your body is an incredibly difficult thing to do. I would even go so far as to claim it’s one of the hardest things you can do in fitness.
Why You Can’t Learn Your Way to Results
In this age of information wealth, you would think that learning would have a great track record for helping people get in shape. And yet, here we are, surrounded by a ton of diet and exercise information but people are still struggling to successfully make their diet and exericse habits stick. Information, data, and facts are important, but they are …
3 Micro Workout Strategies for Building Muscle
Building muscle doesn’t require long and tedious workouts. In fact, you can create quite the muscle building stimulus in around 5-10 minutes with the simple strategies I outline in this week’s episode of the RDP Podcast:
Exercise & Cancer: 3 Things You Need To Know
Image Credit (CC0 License) You don’t need to be a medical professional to know that exercise is incredibly beneficial for your body and mind. There are so many different benefits of exercise that extend beyond the obvious ones of losing weight and improving your fitness. For example, did you know that exercise has many benefits that are directly linked to …
How to Make Micro Workouts More Effective
Micro workouts are small workouts that add up over time to produce big results. Many will claim that a short 5-10 minute workout can’t be effective, and they are right. Many short workouts aren’t effective, but then again, neither are many full-length workout either. The key to making your micro workouts effective is the same way you make any workout …
4 Ways to Help Combat Covid-19
Our physical fitness can play a key part in keeping us healthy and reduces the risk of becoming severely ill, should we contract Covid-19. Less fit people who suffer from medical conditions are five times more likely to have a worse outcome from Covid-19 – with smokers being particularly at risk. We can all do our best to reduce our …
How to Build Game-Changing Self Confidence for Stronger Results
Self-confidence and self-reliance are essential characteristics of fitness. This is especially the case when it comes to building muscle and losing weight. A lack of self-confidence is also why many people fail to achieve independence and the results they want. They’ve bought into the idea that they aren’t worthy of the body they desire and let others call the shots …
5 Everyday Activities That Count as Exercise
Guest Post By Maria Ivanov Source We don’t always look forward to the day-to-day activities in our lives. It may help to know that some of these tasks do double duty and qualify as exercise. They can also save money because, unlike a gym membership or workout equipment, they’re free! Here are five everyday activities that also count as exercise. …
2019 R.D.P Highlights
2019 was a banner year for the R.D.P and the development of the Grind-Style Calisthenics Training Method. This was actually the 10-year anniversary of the R.D.P and this year had more break-through lessons than in all of the nine years combined! Check out some of the biggest highlights in this week’s episode the R.D.P podcast plus a sneak preview of …
How to Control Your Emotional Subconscious for Success in Fitness
Most of your success in fitness comes from your deep-seated emotional subconscious. How you feel about the goals you’re chasing or the methods your using has far more influence on your success than your actual workout or diet plan. This is crucial to understand because if you don’t change how you feel on an emotional level, you probably won’t get …
What Makes Your Workout Effective?
An effective workout depends on a lot more than just using the optimal exercises and rep range. Details like that are important, but the true essence of an effective workout depends on something much more subliminal and subjective. Neuromuscular proficiency is essentially the skillful use of your own muscles, and it alone can make or break the effectiveness of your …
What is Grind Style Calisthenics?
Grind style calisthenics (GSC) is bodyweight training with an emphasis on building strength and muscle. It’s essentially the calisthenics variation of bodybuilding or powerlifting. This is in contrast to endurance or met-con style calisthenics which uses fast circuit style workouts for conditioning. It’s also different from the sport of calisthenics which uses explosive techniques for power and athleticism. All that is …
How Long Should It Take to Get Results?
How long should it take to get results? It’s one of the most common questions I’m asked on the R.D.P YouTube channel and Instagram. People want to know if they are making enough progress or if they are not making progress fast enough. It would be nice if I could give a concise answer to this question, but everyone’s timetable …
The Real Reason Calisthenics Practice Makes You Stronger
They say practice makes perfect, but is that really true? I can tell you from years of personal experience that practice in and of itself doesn’t guarantee results. I would even say that most of my practice in Taekwon-Do, cycling, and calisthenics hasn’t moved me forward very much. Not that those years of practice time didn’t help me get better, they …
What Calisthenics Program is Best For You?
Any calisthenics program can work, but the real question is which will work best for you? One of the most important factors is how much programming assistance you need. Programming assistance is essentially the amount of structure you have within a given calisthenics program. Having more structure means there’s less guesswork on your end since the program lays out most …
Top Tips On Setting up Your Fitness Environment for Success
All humans are products of their environment. Disciple and work ethic is important, but far too many people struggle with their fitness goals due to environmental misalignment. Losing weight, building muscle and improving performance is incredibly difficult when your environment is working against you. The solution is pretty simple, improving your environmental alignment can make reaching your fitness goals much easier. It also …
Tension is The Best Medicine
Muscle tension is the best medicine in the world. It’s more potent than any drug, safer than any organic food and almost every side effect is an added bonus. Best of all, you don’t need a prescription for it, it’s available wherever you are and it won’t jack up your health insurance premiums. It may even decrease your premiums while …
Do Weight Lifting Methods Work with Calisthenics?
Weight lifting and calisthenics are not as different as some people may think. They both use progressive resistance to make your muscles bigger and stronger. The biggest difference between the two is in how you progress the resistance. With weight lifting, you maintain a fairly consistent technique while adjusting the weight you lift. Calisthenics does the opposite where you adjust …
Solving the Biggest Fitness Mysteries of Our Time
Modern society has presented us with some pretty big fitness mysteries. Why can’t we create a diet that helps anyone reliably lose weight? How can two people do the same workout program, yet experience different results? Why can’t well-educated experts ever agree on the best method for, well, anything? The answer lies in the vast and complicated nature of fitness …
Getting Strong With Al Kavadlo
Celebrated Coach, author, and teacher, Al Kavadlo, is back to share more of his calisthenics wisdom in this episode of the RDP Podcast. It’s been far too long since I’ve had the chance to sit down and chat with Al. Since our last meeting, he’s unleashed a couple of valuable resources upon the calisthenics world. The first is his latest book, Get …
The Source of An Effective Workout
What makes for an effective workout? Is the fitness tracker your wrist? How about the routine you follow? Or maybe it’s the equipment you use or the pre-workout you take beforehand. There are a lot of products and services out there promising to make your workouts more effective, but the truth is, many of these things are what truly make …
How to Begin Playground Workouts
Playground workouts are an excellent way to get outside and breath new life into your stale workouts. Nothing is better than getting out in the sunshine and fresh air while unleashing your creative nature with some workouts you may not practice in a commercial gym. While a playground workout may seem simple enough, I’ve learned a few things over the years regarding …
5 Tips To Lose Weight and Build Muscle Fast
This week’s topic is all about helping you lose weight or build muscle as fast as possible. Quickly changing your physical body is a unique challenge. As I mentioned in my book, Fitness Independence, you can get big results, easy results, and fast results. The catch is you just can’t have all three at once. That’s why I’m a big …
3 Big Muscle Building Advantages Of Getting Older
They say you can’t build muscle when you’re older. HA!!! That’s total Bullshivick! In fact, there are 3 massive muscle building advantages that can only come with age. These aren’t just any a few minor advantages either. I’m talking super-massive black hole size muscle building advantages that can make all the difference in the world! The best thing is, these …
Best Training & Diet Habits For Your Body Type
Your body type is a big influence on which training and diet habits are best for you. Sometimes, the advice to eat and train a certain way can be scientifically sound, but it doesn’t work for you because of your body type. It’s not that some advice is right or wrong, but more along the lines that it’s not a …
4 Myths About Workout Progression
Workout progression is the key to building muscle, strength and performance. All of the other stuff, like your routine, exercises and equipment you use are merely details. It’s the progression of your exercises and routine that gets you what you want. There are a number of myths surrounding workout progression that I wanted to address today. These myths can create …
Is Fitness Success More About Hard Work or Luck?
Fitness success comes in many forms, from champion athletes and cover models to someone successfully coming off of medication. Anyone can achieve at least some degree of success, but the question of the day is how much of success comes down to hard work or just blind luck? The case for hard work Hard work undoubtedly plays a very important …
How Many Sets Are Best for Building Muscle?
I get a lot of questions regarding how many sets are best for building muscle working on skills or losing weight. A lot of these questions come from reading a lot of conflicting recommendations from various experts. Some advocate doing no more than 1-2 sets. Other’s claim high volume is the key to build muscle and strength. With so many …
Using Calisthenics to Get Jacked with Adorian Moldovan
Adrian Moldovan is the man when it comes to building muscle, especially with calisthenics training. His practical down-to-earth strategies are effective as hell and a refreshing dose of muscle building reality in a world of fads, hype, and dogma. I recently had the honor of sitting down with Adorian over Skype so I could pick his brain over some of his …
How to Be Fit and 50 With Laurence Codd
Have I got a treat for you this week! I just finished sitting down with Mr. Fit and 50 himself, Laurence Codd. For those who don’t know, Laurence is the man when it comes to real-world practical information for staying in shape past your 20s, 30s and even 40s. In fact, Laurence got his start in fitness fairly late in life …
Are You Hurting Your Training Progress?
I receive a lot of questions about training progress, especially when it comes to calisthenics. People want to know if, and or ready they are ready for the next step and how they would know when they are ready. The truth is, your training progress is a creative process and like all disciplines of creation, there is never absolute certainty in where you’re …
Build More Muscle and Strength With a Multi-Faceted Approach
Last week, I discussed how you can lose weight faster, and keep it off by using a multi-faceted approach. This week, I’m going to show you how to share with you seven strategies you can use to build more muscle. Focusing on many things can make it a lot easier to build, and maintain your gains compared to if you …
Lose Weight Faster and Keep it Off With a Multi-Faceted Approach
I highly recommend using a multi-faceted approach to weight loss if you’re looking to shed some body fat. While it’s not the most common approach, it does offer several big advantages that make it easier to not only lose more weight but to keep it off as well. What is a multi-faceted approach? A multi-faceted approach is where you combine …
Which Muscle Group Helps You Look Your Best?
This week, I’m exploring which muscles help you look your best for the beach or the bedroom. In a world of functional and athletic training, working out for the sake of appearance is still important. Don’t let the nay-sayers say it’s vain or shallow to desire a good looking body. It’s perfectly understandable, and reasonable to want to look your …
6 Common Misconceptions About Convict Conditioning
I’ve been reading and applying the lessons in Convict Conditioning for over 7 years now and I couldn’t be happier with the results. That’s why I continue to recommend it to anyone who’s interested in building muscle and strength through bodyweight training. Over the years, I’ve noticed a few common misconceptions about Convict Conditioning that pop up within our fitness culture. …
Building Self Confidence for Fitness Success
Building self-confidence is a crucial ingredient for fitness success. Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle or improve performance, a healthy belief in your ability to accomplish your goals will help you more than any supplement or program. But what if you’re lacking in the self-confidence and self-esteem department? Facing that sort of situation is kind of a catch-22 because …
Overcoming Diet and Exercise Resistance
Diet and exercise resistance can make achieving your fitness goals very difficult, if not impossible. It’s just like riding a bike with the brakes rubbing. It makes you work much harder while gaining little benefit. This week’s episode fo the R.D.P Podcast is all about the 3 biggest sources of resistance that can hold your potential in check. The first …
The Link Between Your Muscle and Health
Muscle and health go together like peanut butter and chocolate. In many ways, it’s very hard to have much of one without the other. However, a recent comment on my YouTube channel got me thinking that the two may not always be linked. In some ways, the artificial pursuit of muscle could be even an unhealthy pursuit through the abusive use …
How Technical Erosion Effects Your Muscle Growth
Technical erosion is the process when the quality of your technique breaks down as you train. It could be a shift in body position, a decrease in range of motion or even how you apply tension in your muscles. In either case, the quality of your technique is slowly eroding like a sandcastle in the surf. In some cases, this …
Training for Your Body Type
Training and eating for your body type can make it easier for you to achieve the results you want. On the other hand, losing weight and building muscle can be very difficult if you use methods that don’t work for your type. If you’ve ever felt like a particular diet or workout wasn’t a good fit, there’s a good chance it …
Training For Stength vs Building Muscle
All forms of strength training are great for both building muscle and growing strength, Despite the similarities between the two goals, building muscle and improving strength (or any other aspect of performance) actually require different training methods. In this week’s podcast, I discuss some of the major differences between building muscle vs building strength as per Coach Paul Wades advice …
3 Things Every Effective Workout Must Have
An effective workout needs just 3 things to help you lose weight, build muscle and improve performance. Anyone can acquire all three with relative ease but very few ever do which is why most people fail to achieve the results they want from their workouts. In this week’s podcast I discuss each of these three things in detail. I also …
How to Gain Personal Trainer Benefits While Training Alone
Nothing beats working with a personal trainer or coach. They help keep you accountable, provide motivation and teach how to make your workouts more effective. What if you don’t have access to a trainer or coach? How can you gain some of the benefits without the expertise? Flying fully solo in your workouts is seldom the best way to go, …
Is Your Workout Effective or a Waste of Time?
I received a great question on the RDP YouTube channel the other day asking “how do you know if your workout is effective?” This is a very important question because it calls for brutal honesty in understanding if your workout is really effective. Chances are if you can’t say for sure that your workout is effective it probably isn’t. If it …
Does Muscle Fatigue Really Make You Grow?
The recent science seems to suggest that muscle fatigue is the primary stimulus for muscle growth. reputable sources like strongerbyscience.com and even Paul Wade’s C-Mass, point to muscle fatigue as the primary reason why a muscle grows. The evidence is compelling. It seems that as long as you bring a muscle to a high state of fatigue then it will grow …
Improve Your Physical Performance in Anything
Your physical performance is the foundation of your workout. Whether you want to burn fat, build muscle or Just move better, your physical performance is the key to making those things happen. That’s why it’ important to strive for better performance even if you’re not a competitive athlete. This week’s podcast is all about how to train for better …
This is Why You’re Struggling to Build Muscle
Many hard-working athletes are struggling to build muscle for a variety of reasons. Some may not be eating very well or sleeping enough. Stress is also a factor that can slow down muscle growth. Most of the time, the struggle to build muscle comes from inconsistent training. Changing up your routine or workout too often can send mixed signals to …
Do You Really Need a Workout Routine?
A workout routine is a staple in the diet and exercise world, but how important is it to the calisthenics athlete? Do you even need a strict routine at all? Some folks claim you must have a routine and that doing random exercises will only produce random, and inconsistent results. Other’s seem to have a bit more of a freestyle …
Switching from Weights to Calisthenics 4 Things You Need to Know
So for whatever reason, you may be thinking about making a switch from weights to calisthenics based workouts. Maybe you’re looking for something new, or perhaps life isn’t allowing you to get to the gym. Whatever the reason, the pull-up bar is calling your name and the barbell feels like it’s less appealing each week. Despite the allure of not needing …
How Stress Makes You Fat and What To Do About it
Stress and fat are best friends. Where you find one, you usually find the other. This is why many of the best weight loss strategies are just as much about controlling stress as they are about controlling fat. The link between stress and fat Both mental and physical stress can influence how your body functions which in turn can alter …
Understanding the Source of Fitness Stress
Dogmas are the biggest source of fitness stress. They restrict your ability to make the best diet and exercise choices for your body and lifestyle. In other words, they prevent you from doing what’s best for you while forcing you to adhere to rules that place stress on your body, mind, and lifestyle. Like with all things in life, overcoming …
The Myth of the Muscle Building Rep Range
The muscle building rep range is hallowed ground for anyone looking to get jacked. If you want to get bigger that coveted 8-12 reps is home base for your workouts. Heaven knows I’ve spent most of my time there, and the results have been great. Lately, I’ve been putting some pieces together and it’s making me question if the existence of …
Use Peak Set Training to Know How Many Sets You Should Do
There’s a lot of debate regarding how many sets you should do to build muscle. On one hand, you have examples like Mike Metzer and Dorian Yates who endorse using only one or two work sets. On the other, you have guys like Arnold who embrace volume training and grind out many sets. Science and empirical evidence have shown that both …
How Chronic Fitness Stress Kills Your Progress
Fitness stress is the #1 enemy in your quest to build muscle, burn fat and improve performance. It erodes emotional motivation while beating up your body. Almost every challenge you face in fitness is due to stressful diet and exercise habits. Wait, isn’t some fitness stress necessary for progress? Yes, some types of fitness stress are important. You won’t …
Should You Always Train To Your Limit?
Physical change requires hard work, but do you always need to train to your limit in each workout? I always believed the body only changed when you pushed it right to the edge of what it can do. Holding back, even a little bit, would fail to stimulate any change. This sentiment has been echoed in internet memes and social media …
Circuit Training for Muscle and Strength
Circuit training is very popular these days and for good reason. It’s very efficient which makes it easier to fit into a busy schedule plus it provides a variety of benefits including strength, endurance, and mental stamina. But what if you want to focus on building muscle and strength? While circuit training can build those qualities, it usually isn’t done in a …
How to Change Your Fitness Set Points
Fitness set points can seem pretty scary. The idea that your fitness destiny is predetermined by your genetics threatens the promise of making positive changes. What’s the point of even trying to lose weight or build muscle when your own body will default to the same set point? While there is some debate over whether such set points exist, it’s hard …
How to Achieve Infinite Calisthenics Progress
Calisthenics progress is often perceived as something that’s very limited. Even well-educated fitness experts will claim that, while calisthenics is a sound training method, it can only take you so far. This perception is one of the reasons why many people don’t want to devote their time and energy to calisthenics. Why invest yourself in a limited system? The reality …
The Cure for Long Workouts
Is your workout swollen and bloated? Is it growing painful to fit into your busy schedule? Well, I have the cure for your long workouts right here my friend. Like a long shower or meal with family, long workouts are great for an occasional luxury but stressful when they are a necessity. In our busy modern world, it’s difficult to …
Get Smart About Fitness Information
We live in the age of enlightenment. Fitness information is everywhere and more is being created every day. Even this post is a good example of that. Despite the value of learning, I’ve come to question if swimming in all of this fitness information is all that great. There are several problems that can come from overloading on it. The …
Is Your Healthy Lifestyle too Stressful?
The Red Delta Project was created from the belief that a healthy lifestyle should improve your quality of life rather than compromise it. Unfortunately, the common belief is that you must adopt stressful diet and exercise habits to get in shape. There are a lot of memes out there portraying the idea that you’re supposed to suffer for your results. it’s …
5 Fitness Beliefs Holding You back
Your fitness beliefs hold the key to your success as I explained in last week’s podcast. Some beliefs lurk in your subconscious sabotaging your fitness at every turn without you even knowing it. They can handicap your weight loss, muscle building, and performance regardless of how your diet or exercise plans. While you may be able to temporarily achieve some success, your deeply held beliefs …
The Unstoppable Power of Fitness Beliefs
Your fitness beliefs make or break your success in everything from weight loss to building muscle. Even though the Henry Ford Quote about “whether you think you can or can’t your right” is becoming a bit old hat, it’s absolutely true. Your success hinges more on what you believe than what you may know. In this information age, we’re told the key …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …