I don’t know if you’re like me, but when I train at the gym I have one intention. It’s to build more muscles. I’m sure this is the same for you.

As a fitness coach and personal trainer I need to answer this question all the time:

How can I get bigger?

It’s easy if you follow some simple rules. You will be able to increase your muscles mass without increasing your body fat!

Heavy Lift

First rule on the list is you need to lift heavy weights to increase your muscle mass. When you challenge your muscles enough, you damage the tiny micro-fibers of the muscle. With the right nutrition and enough rest you repair the damage, and with this repair your muscles slowly grow. To get good results, make sure you challenge your muscles with intensity in your workout. If you take too long of a rest in between sets, your muscles will not get the intensity they need to be really challenged. I suggest taking only just enough time to catch your breath (around 30 to 45 sec.) and then start another set right away.

By the way if you have never tried Super Charge before a workout…go for it! You will see a whole different you at the gym! (more…)

So you’ve been making great progress on your diet, when all of sudden… you stop. Your weight is not budging the scale to go down, your abs are not getting more clearly defined, and all of the happy moments of the prior weeks seem to be evaporating.

What to do? (more…)

With so much emphasis being placed on what foods to eat and exercises to perform, a topic that does not get discussed very often is the one of food seasonings. At one time or the other, we have all indulged in some type of food that has been loaded with seasoning to make it taste great! The question now remains, are these seasonings good or bad for you?

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One of the biggest things that bother me when it comes to eating healthy and helping others decrease body fat are deceptive food labels. I cannot begin to describe to you how many people have fallen for the evil tricks that the weight loss industry has set up for them.

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As I was walking around the grocery store the other day I saw several food labels that said fat free, sugar free, reduced calories and 97% fat free.  While someone may initially think they are making a good choice, they may be wrong! 

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A new study reports that low carb and high carb diets work equally well for maintaining weightloss.  What the study does not address is body composition, which may be more important for long term weight maintenance than body weight alone.  It is a well documented fact that the higher your lean body mass (muscle tissue),  the more calories you burn. Muscle takes a lot of calories to support. An added benefit of muscle is that it gives men a stronger, more masculine look, and in women, firmer curves. Higher protein diets have gotten a bad rap as they are commonly lumped into the category of “low carb” diets, such as the once popular Atkins diet. However, a diet that is high in protein, i.e., 30% by calories or higher, combined with the controlled intake of complex carbs, e.g., yams, rice, beans, oatmeal, etc., and restricted in fat (less than 25% of calories) is a very healthful diet that will not only aid in lowering total bodyweight, but aid in maintaining  bodyweight and favorable body composition for the long term.  Higher protein diets are made easier by incorporating a shake such as Lean Body into your daily diet. Here’s the full article: (more…)

Typically, when a bodybuilder reaches 10% body fat, in order to keep going down in body fat percentage, we need to use some metabolic trickery.  While at this point, the instinct of many bodybuilders is to eliminate carbs from their bodybuilding diet and go on a ketogenic diet, this is not the best strategy in my opinion. (more…)

How many times have you said to yourself “I’ll start (over) on Monday because…”?

The stuff that comes after “because” is an excuse, and we simply have to accept that.  I intentionally say “we” because I’m prone to the same tendency.  Contrary to popular belief, being an “expert” does not make dieting or training any easier.  I’m one of you.

Our tendency is to think that since we blew it with a bad meal or a bad day that we should just start over at a later date when we can be perfect.  If you let yourself do this, you’ll be in a perpetual state of starting over.  And that will get you nowhere.  Would you turn around in your car at the first sign of traffic?  Of course not, because then you’d never get to your destination. (more…)