Feelings of not having the skills to start something knew; not having the knowledge to progress our career; not being confident enough to meet new people and make things happen are all too common.

There is always some reason or excuse why we just can’t do that thing.

As a health and fitness professional, the most common excuses I hear on a regular basis are to do with why the latest attempt to get a body that actually resembles a healthy and fit human being, has been derailed!

Most of the time, it is not because of a lack of knowledge on exercise and nutrition or a lack of time, but the lack of the unbreakable mindset.

Here’s how you can build it!

Peeling the onion is your first step.

This technique has many different names but I picked up ‘peeling the onion’ off a good friend and mentor of mine, Dax Moy.

Peeling the onion essentially involves taking time out to uncover why you are really choosing to go for your fitness goals at this moment in time.

Do not think for one minute you know the answer to this!

“I need to lose this bit off here because it’s embarrassing” is NOT the answer.

You may have a fair idea why you have chosen to get a personal trainer or join a new gym class right now, but the truth is, recent events are likely to have just been the finger that finally pulled the trigger on a loaded gun.

On numerous occasions I have had people get very upset during consultations when I began to dig deeper into their emotions for finally deciding they had to get their life in order by first getting healthy.

This is not intentional but an often unavoidable, and strangely productive side-effect of delving into the past and present to discover what effect being fat and unhealthy is having.

Sometimes it might be that a friend, relative or colleague used to make hurtful jokes about your size that you thought you had brushed off but that had in fact remained at the back of your brain, niggling for X amount of months or even years.

When you struggled to get into that dress, it may have been distressing but was in fact only the cherry on top of the cake of emotional pain.

Once you can get the emotions out and begin to understand yourself better, setting goals and sticking to them becomes so much easier as you have a much stronger source of inspiration on a daily basis. 

This stops you scrabbling around in the dark trying to make sense of why you’re never quite motivated to say no to bad food and go exercise when you’re not really in the mood!

Once you’re clearer on exactly why you have found yourself hunting for diets and a personal trainer, and you are willing to pay the prices required to achieve your goals (financial, sacrifice of social time, hard work in the gym etc), it’s time to start programming yourself for the future!

Unfortunately most people live their lives reliving failure.

If you’re one of these people you will find that unintentionally, you are constantly reminding yourself about how this went wrong and how that was a mistake and how you shouldn’t have done that because it resulted in negative consequences.

All this serves to do is to program your mind to believe that, yes, you are in fact a failure.

So why does this stop us progressing with new goals or projects?

In built in every human is what has been referred to as the ‘Creative Mechansim’ which is the part of our brain which causes us to act in certain ways according to what we believe we are supposed to do.

Don’t believe me?

Think about something that worries you.

Every time we have something coming up that we believe has a good chance of going wrong like a presentation, a date with a new guy or girl, a big tennis match etc, it is common to experience feelings of nervousness and anxiety.

But what are we basing these feelings and expectations on?

Imagery!

The future doesn’t exist yet, so these powerful emotions which can cause the sweats, shaking and heart palpitations emerge from little other than images we conjure up of stuttering on stage, saying something embarrassing to our date or serving up loads of double faults.

There is no rational thought behind it because there isn’t really anything to suggest this will happen.

The problem is that your subconscious brain doesn’t know the difference between ‘real’ images that are actually happening, and images you have conjured up simply through irrational, negative thought!

As we all know, this repetition and replaying of images of messing up often lead to the very actions we were scared of in the first place! 

We get nervous, lose concentration and begin to stutter, babble about boring stuff or fail to focus on the placement of the tennis ball that we can do with our eyes shut during practice.

The point is that many people perform ‘successful’ mental programming through imagery with negative thoughts every single day!

The key to achieving your fitness goals is to start using the creative mechanism with positive thoughts which program our brains to believe we are ALREADY a size 8, a champion tennis player, a strapping muscley bloke or whatever else gets you to work hard for your goals!

This requires using imagery on a daily basis until the brain accepts that it is already happening. You will start to see almost immediate changes in how you act.

You will find yourself doing what is required automatically – essentially like any elite athlete who doesn’t have to consciously think about every little action they take but instead make it look effortless!

You won’t be tempted by crap food because your brain will be making you act like a Size 8, sexy woman (obviously not if you’re a guy…)

You won’t have to force yourself to hit the roads because you’ll be acting like a 10km runner automatically.

You’ll do that extra painful repetition without thinking because your brain is convinced you are a ripped bloke with abs you could grate your organic carrots on.

The list goes on!

The point is that you have turned your negative creative mechanism into a powerful goal getting tool by setting aside time each day to intensely visualize what you are going to look like, how it will feel and how life will change as a result!

This MUST be done daily through use of videos of people doing what you want to do, photos of people who have already achieved the fat loss results you have even though they too were very overweight before and through written contracts with yourself.

For example, write down each day what a Size 8 would do such as drinking lots of bottled water, only eating carbohydrates after exercise, saying no to the 8th office bun run that week etc.

This is a written contract with yourself that you are not allowed to break! 

There are three key factors that are essential to make this work.

You’re brain will only accept the messages you want it to absorb about who and what you are (what you want to become) when…

1) The messages come from an authorative source
2) The messages are intense
3) The messages are repeated daily

Part 1 can only be achieved if you either have complete faith in your abilities to achieve your goals and so trust what you are telling yourself, or you hire the services of a top quality health and fitness professional.

If this person has the experience and results with others to give you 100% confidence that you too can do the same, then they become that authorative source who will dish out the messages which your brain will come to accept as the truth.

Random attempts at positive thought are fruitless when they don’t match up with your self-image as there’s too much conflicting information so you need someone who can engender complete belief that you ARE the goal you want.

Part 2 is achieved through taking time out to forget the daily hustle and bustle and stresses and build pictures in your brain which are so detailed you can almost touch them.

See every last detail of being a Size 8 – the dress you’ll wear, when you’ll wear it, the comments people will make about how great you look, the venue, how you’ll feel pulling on the dress and looking in the mirror, the confidence it will give you to talk to that guy you’ve fancied for 2 years etc.

Leave no stone unturned or your brain might slip back into believing you are meant to be a Size 16 like you are now!

Finally Part 3 can be achieved by doing this on a daily basis from every angle possible.

Talk to yourself on the way to work (out loud if no one is around!)

Read books about people who have already achieved your goal.

Eat properly EVERY DAY not just every other day as a token gesture.

Don’t watch TV programs which make it seem okay to be a ‘larger woman’.

Everything in your environment has the potential to program your brain and the more you are exposed to the stimulus the more powerful it becomes.

This is why companies like McDonald’s have adverts in every form of media – wherever you turn, the message they want you to see is there!

Unless you have programmed yourself otherwise, you’ll eventually crack and act in whatever way their marketing has instructed you to!

Constant effort and application are required to make things happen.

Believe me when I say that if you have the above processes in place, they WILL happen.

The human being is a goal getting machine.

It’s just not yet evolved enough to know the difference between what’s good and bad for us when it comes to mental programming! Put negativity in your head and that’s exactly what you’ll get!

You are intelligent enough to make choices, no matter who you are.

You are not the mistakes you have made in the past but capable of whatever you want by thinking rationally about the future.

However, you must take time to develop an unbreakable mindset first or face spinning your wheels and being drawn to the next quick fix answer to your problem even though you know it won’t work long-term.

I wish you well!

Unfortunately there is so much information out there (much of which is very contradictory) that you just don’t know where to start. As a result, you do just that – don’t start!

The truth is that dropping unwanted body fat is in fact very simple but a new perspective is required away from all this rubbish about calorie counting, no-carb diets and periods of dangerously low calories to force fat burning.

Whilst pretty much any diet which restricts your calories to a level below what you burn up each day will lead to reduced body fat in the short-term, you are likely to be doing untold damage to your health and also setting up a rebound effect.

When you finally decide you can’t take starving yourself anymore and increase your calorie intake again, you’ll more than likely end up even fatter than you were before.

What I am about to tell you may seem strange and in direct opposition to what you think you know, but remember this.

I have used these methods to maintain a body fat percentage of 5% on myself, help a lady lose 120lbs in 7 months having tried all the ‘famous’ diets with no success and restore the health of everyone from regular sports fanatics to stressed out business men who were heart attacks waiting to happen!

Also, if you are reading this with excitement at the thought of finally being able to drop body fat, it is clear that what you think you know doesn’t work so listen up!

Here is a list of actions you must start climbing to quickly develop a lean, athletic body and restore your health, dramatically reducing your risk of common ‘affluence diseases’ such as diabetes, heart disease and various cancers which are often non-existent in areas which no access to the Western diet.

The truth is that whilst anyone can drop a few pounds quite quickly, long-term astounding, life-changing results can only be achieved when optimal health is achieved FIRST.

There is too much focus today on missing out this step in search of the quick-fix fat loss method.

You must become aware of the following:

1) The media will glamourize whatever will sell newspapers and magazines regardless of the effect on your health. These journalists have not thoroughly researched studies that often contradict the random advice thrown around about nutrition, and using them as your main reference source for fat loss advice is like getting a dentist to fix your car.

2) The medical profession is controlled by drugs companies and is under so much pressure that those who do want to know and dish ou the truth about nutrition simply do not have the time to offer advice and planning which will truly make a difference to you. It is easier, and unfortunately more profitable in many cases, to simply prescribe another pill or shot of insulin.

3) Often the truth has been covered up in order to protect what are very lucrative industries. The government heavily relies on donations from food and drugs companies and often could not afford to lose the backing of entire industries. The truth mysteriously disappears in a lot of these cases.

This is an express guide to give you something to work from. The three points above should illustrate that there is a huge amount of science and critical issues to consider but as you don’t have time for all that, make sure you do all you can to implement the steps below.

Results will be achieved much quicker if you can work with a health and fitness professional who understands the mechanisms behind these steps so please seek one out as soon as possible.

Build your blood back up

You cannot see the proof of this on screen unless you have your bloods taken as I have by an expert.

However, trust me when I tell you the blood of an average person is an absolute mess and without healthy blood you can never hope to restore sky-high energy levels and minimal body fat!

To begin to feel and operate much better and build a very strong foundation for getting a great looking body back do the following:

- Drink 1 litre of pure, BOTTLED water for every 20-25kg of bodyweight, every day without fail.

- Take 2-3 fish oil tablets 2-3 times per day in order to reduce inflammation and help cleanse your blood.

- Get out of your three caves. Many of us live either in the house, in the car or in the office. Some of us go to cave number four – the gym. Schedule in 2-3 blocks of 45-60 minutes each week where you get outside and oxygenate your blood. This is best done near running water like a canal, or in a woodland or forest, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

This is a video of blood ananlysis and what is probably going on inside you right now if you’re diet doesn’t match what I am detailing in this article.

Heavy Metal Detox

Detox is probably up there with ‘skint’ in the most commonly used words list every January yet few people have any clue what is really required to get rid of toxins in the body.

Simply eating a bit more veg and staying off the booze for 2 weeks will do very little if anything for detoxing your body.

The truth is we are literally swimming in toxins as we get bombarded by everything from tap water (with upwards of 300 chemicals) in and carcinogenic (potentially cancer-causing) chemicals in soaps, shower gel and deodorants to air pollution and the use of plastic food tubs.

One of the first steps you must take if it applies to you is to have all mercury fillings removed.

If you have any of these, every time you swallow you are ingesting more heavy metals which are poisoning your body and can lead to a variety of serious health issues.

In fact, if you have enough fillings (maybe 3-4) and you spit in the toilet, you could be charged with breaking rules on the concentration of heavy metals allowed in municipal dumping – that’s how concentrated your saliva is with mercury!

Another to take with detoxification are to bath in Himalyan crystal salts and add it to a drink or two each day as this will help flush out heavy metals and supply the exact mineral content of a healthy human body.

Finally using iodine supplementation helps counteract the negative effects of too much exposure to flourides, bromides, and chlorides in drinking water, toothpaste, swimming pool water etc.

Unfortunately, your cells ‘receive’ all these chemicals in the same way but iodine (which is important for a high metabolic rate) gets pushed to the back of the queue by its bigger cousins!

Alkalise Your Body

Right now, if you eat lots of ‘carbs’ and meat everyday amongst other food sources, you may well be a walking acid bomb.

This means you’ve created an environment in your body that is very conducive to lethargy, illness, disease and generally feeling awful!

Developing a plant-based diet centred on vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds,will see your energy levels surge, your body fat plummet and your long-term health improve dramatically.

Whilst some would advocate a completely vegetarian diet, my experience is that if you are involved in heavy weight training and intense sport, a degree of meat is required to maintain testosterone levels (yes important for ladies as well) and growth hormone.

If you can stick to a diet which is 90% alkaline and 10% acidic, reducing your consumption of animal proteins to 4-5 times per week, you will see amazing changes to your physical appearance and performance and mental wellbeing.

Rather than regurgitate lots of science, I urge you to read ‘The China Study’ which gathered indisputable evidence from around the world over many years, that diets high in animal proteins (meat, dairy and cheese) dramatically increase the risk of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

By learning to prepare your food you will, as a matter of course, eliminate many of the problematic chemicals that have invaded out food supply in the interests of profit and little else.

In response to these problems, science now focuses on how we can add back individual nutrients as with cereals ‘fortified with iron, calcium etc’. This takes away from the fact that healthy nutrition is not a simple case of isolated nutrients but a complex interaction of natural foods.

Nature knows how things work together and has placed them together in different foods. This is why a varied diet which largely consists of raw food that hasn’t been tampered with, will bring rapid improvements in health and body composition.

As part of this new diet of yours, ensure you adhere to the age-old advice of eating a good breakfast. However, this breakfast must be a highly alkalizing one consisting of ‘greens’ and healthy fats.

This plan involves common sense though and not an obsessive approach so a weekly bowl of nice, warm porridge in the winter (made from rice milk not cow’s milk) is fine and can do wonders for your mood!

Take time to relax, and chew your food to aid digestion, reducing fat storage and helping assimilate important nutrients!

Mental Health

Without your mind in the right place trying to improve your body can often prove rather futile!

Taking time to distress, calm down and enjoy life is critical to giving your body the right environment in which to restore itself back to its healthy, natural, lean state.

Many of us are constantly ‘wired’ as be buzz around getting all our tasks done even if they are relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of a healthy, enjoyable life!

Finding 20 minutes to relax and create intense images which help you envisage a calm, relaxed future in which all your dreams come true is a HUGE step in becoming that person.

This sort of approach used to seem very ‘out there’ to me until I realized that without a programming your subconscious mind to accept that you are capable of whatever you want to achieve, past experiences and failures will always dominate your thoughts and hold you back.

Our brains are funny like that! By creating positive, intense images and repeating them every single day you will increase the feelings that you and noone else are in control of your life.

This will rapidly get rid of feelings of anxiety and a lack of control that is essentially where all stress originates.

The problem with this stress is that it causes hormonal disturbance such as increases in cortisol that is known to contribute to storage of body fat and numerous health issues. Consequently, you can go to the gym every day for two hours and still see no reduction in body fat!

So no matter how busy you are, find a little time to chill out and build those images and mini-movies in your head of what you want to see happen in ‘real life’ in the near and distant future.

You’ll be surprised how you start changing the way you act, moving you closer and closer to making a happy, relaxed, you with a low body fat and a successful lifestyle, reality!

Remember, you could combine this with your ‘oxygenation’ sessions to kill tow birds with one stone!

A final point on relaxation and improving your mood is to do with the sun.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a nice sunny climate, ensure you get regular short doses of ‘high noon’ sunshine to improve your mood and help keep your body in healthy state, primed for fat loss and fitness gains!

If not, have 2-3 sunbeds of around 3 minutes each week to get your dose of life-giving UVB rays. Many taboos surround sunbeds due to fears about skin cancer, but cancers rarely develop or survive unless the terrain (your body) is in a state to allow this.

Creating an alkaline environment before introducing sun beds will greatly reduce any chance of such fears being realized and in fact help PREVENT such diseases.

(Remember keep sun sessions, either outdoors or under sunbed to short doses.)

The same concept applies to illness. The germ becomes largely irrelevant if the environment is highly alkaline and does not permit it to survive or grow.

Food Timing

Once you have the basics of an alkaline diet and healthy lifestyle in place, consider when you eat certain foods.

Whilst a non-carb approach is not recommended, the timing of your carbohydrate intake can make massive differences to your body fat.

By eating carbohydrate-rich food such as oats and rice in the meal after a hard exercise session, you will avoid the well-documented problems of insulin spikes and the likely onset of diabetic conditions eventually.

After hard-exercise your insulin-sensitivity rises naturally meaning that any sugars from carbohydrates (unless the intake is excessive) will be shuttled into your muscles rather than your body fat stores!

The Technology Trap

Whether you believe it or not, your life is likely dominated by technology. Rather than go into whether or not emails and mobile phones have improved our lives or made them even busier, let’s focus on direct health issues!

Constantly being surrounded by electromagnetic waves, wi-fi internet and mobile phone waves is not good for the brain.

Use the speakerphone on your mobile phone whenever you can and even better, try to use email as much as possible. Not only does this reduce the amount of time you have your phone close to your brain but also gives you more control over when you speak to people!

By claiming back control, you can reduce your stress levels significantly.

Also, remove all electrical goods from your bedroom as the electromagnetic waves can severely hamper good sleep. Without lots of deep sleep, we are unable to recover and rest properly, reducing the ability to build muscle and drop body fat through distressing and relaxation.

This includes electrical alarm clocks, radios, mobile phones and televisions.

Conclusion

Wow! Lot’s of changes to make but don’t feel daunted by the whole process. Much of this can be implemented easily and immediately.

The rest should be implemented in small steps and repeated daily until it becomes habit.

If you think you can’t do any of it, you are basing this purely on past experience rather than thinking rationally about what makes sense in terms of healthy human beings from years gone by.

This is all common sense stuff that, whilst it makes a huge difference, has been largely forgotten by the mainstream as self-imposed time constraints and chasing more and more money have come to dominate our modern society.

I can promise you from personal experience and ‘experimentation’ with clients that this will change your life if you choose to live a healthy and happy life from now on.

To work with me personally please email me at jon@stormforcefitness.com.

It can appear a difficult process at first but I can help you implement these changes and other very effective methods for restoring health and low body fat levels and fast as possible but with lasting results.

I have been through the process of doubting how I could ever change my own eating patterns until I researched the health implications. I realized that not only do I want to maintain low body fat and the ability to run around and enjoy life, but also to avoid many of the diseases which have affected most of my own family.

There is plenty more to work with (such as exact food plans) and many ways to explain the processes in more detail but this will give you a great start!

This time there is more focus on strength and power and the physique side of things and a whole new world of nutrition beyond the outdated and overrated protein, carb, fat arguments. This is about performance through health and tough training not body fat composition techniques which leave you feeling like crap!

I’ll be blogging my progress here so keep an eye out for how we’re all doing.

Here’s my starting stats and pics.

Weight – 76kg

Body fat – 5.3%

Girth – Just kidding

Calves – 39.0 and 39.0

Quads – 48.4 / 58.0 and 48.0 and 58.0

Arse – 99.1

Waist – 83.0

Chest – 101.1

Guns – 34.0 and 33.5

Keep yourself accountable in your training and you’ll get MUCH better results – smash it!

Jon

I’m usually in this category, but this year found myself in the freezing valleys of South Wales with the UK’s top strength and conditioning coach Phil Richards who has worked with Glenn Ross (the UK’s strongest man), pro-boxer Amir Kahn, numerous top level Rugby teams and a variety of other athletes from endurance runners to swimmers.

He has also interned with doctors and strength experts like Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell so I knew I was in for some AWESOME information and I wasn’t disappointed.

Phil literally blew my mind with what he has learned and studied, but most importantly, applied on a level where rapid results aren’t a nice surprise every now and then but an absolute must if you want to keep your job. One mistake in program design or nutrition protocols and you’ve got some big-ass hairy rugby playing Samoan brute on your back wanting to know why his contract hasn’t been renewed.

The beauty is that Phil is all about performance, yet takes a stand point of building health first and the results speak for themselves. 

Some of what he talks about you may have heard from one of those airy-fairy yoga types. What I now know  is how to apply these principles  in a strength and conditioning setting so that the overall result is a person who is super healthy but also an animal in training!

Unfortunately many people believe you have to be EITHER a tree hugging yogi or an iron-bending strength freak. Life is much more healthy, productive and enjoyable when you learn to merge what are all great principles.

I’m going to be drip feeding this information to you throughout early 2010 and also getting strong results from the new Intense Conditioning guinea pigs for 12 weeks to prove the theories.

You can still be a guinea pig for the completely revamped 12 week nutrition, strength and conditioning program – check out what to do ——-> Intense Conditioning Guinea Pigs (Its free)

In the meantime here is a very brief version of a small part of what Phil taught me (some of which was already fairly certain in my mind) and how you can apply it straight away.

Please post your thoughts and questions in the comment box below!

In no particular order:

1) There is too much focus on carbs, fat and protein in fitness nutrition with little regard for first getting the body into an alkaline state which is able to fight off disease and illness and, from a performance point of view, give you incredible levels of energy. This is like trying to build a house on quick sand!

Nothing works without healthy, hydrated blood so pay careful attention to eradicating where possible, sources of pollutants in your life and those foods which cause an acidic environment. Failure to do this is what has our bodies literally swimming in toxic waste. This acidity is often mistaken for tiredness

Spend as little time as physically possible on your mobile phone.

Remove all mercury fillings from your mouth which, no matter how hard you train and how much organic food you eat, will pollute your body such that the concentration of heavy metals in your saliva is greater than the legla limit for municipal dumping in the UK. Preferably get a dentist to do this….

Do not, under any circumstances other than life or death, drink tap water.

Eat organic food wherever possible in particular meat to avoid all the steroids and hormones injected and the pesticides eaten by the animal.

Start and end the day by alkalizing your body to counter-act some of the unavoidable nasty effects of modern life such as polluted air and halogen-filled shower and swimming pool water.

This can be done by consuming small, inexpensive amounts of sodium bicarbonate, iodine drops and green drinks.

2) Consume 80% raw foods and keep meat consumption to just 10% of your diet.

Before you start hyperventilating as I nearly did at the thought of such low meat consumption, try it and see how much your energy levels and digestion improve.

Unfortunately in trying to ‘eat like our ancestors did’ many people forget that meat would only have been consumed once per day in the evening after a days hunting and that was only on a good day.

Vegetarians and vegans tend to have sky high energy levels for a reason. However, they may be like a kangaroo on speed but are also often very weak and lack testosterone to push hard in strength training sessions, hence a need to keep a degree of organic meat in your diet.

Fill up your calorie levels with healthy fats if you want size and, as I have said for a long time, restrain carbohydrate consumption to after training only when insulin sensitivity is naturally higher.

3) Commerical protein supplements are largely just sugar in a tub

Supplement with highly recommended amino acids and a pure carbohydrate supplement before, during and after training for animal like training sessions. Avoid all the commercially produced protein shakes and make your own in this way.

If you feel a need for extra protein at other times use a good rice protein isolate and pea protein isolate supplement.

Other supplements are best taken transdermally (through the skin) and have fast effects on cellular metabolism – magnesium being a great example.

4) Don’t forget the sun!

The sun gives us life but modern medicine and villainized it with talk of unhealthy sunbeds.

If you live in a sunny place – make sure you get 15-20 minutes of high noon sun every day to keep you in a good mood and to get the most effective source of Vitamin D which is critical for many processes from cancer prevention to strong bones and teeth.

Phil has had great results with pro athletes who have come from sunny climates to the UK’s soccer and rugby leagues and within months been suffering from depression and inuries. A few short sunbed sessions each week of around 5 minutes did wonders for mental and physical performance so don’t underestimate it. Yes, long doses of sun exposure can be harmful but regular doses of UVB rays are positively beneficial even if they come from a sunbed.

5) If you can’t gain – don’t train.

I love this phrase from Phil and it served as a reminder that often we train for the sake of training with no regard for whether we will actually improve strength or performance. Often we are just compounding fatigue for no benefit. Clearly there are times you need to push hard when you don’t want to, but there is a time and place.

On a more detailed level, don’t fill your sessions with 8-10 exercises just because you feel you should – know exactly what you are doing and why rather than fluffing out your program sheet! If you perform 3-4 exercises with intensity you will see gains in strength and lean muscle within days or weeks.

I’ll be proving this with the Intense Conditioning Guinea Pigs over 12 weeks from January to April!

Phil had me Zercher squatting 115kg (failed at 120kg) which wasn’t very nice.

6) If you are looking to improve strength and power you need to invest enough sets in it!

Phil has found that the nervous system only really starts firing after 7-8 sets so you need to be looking at the best part of 10 sets of deadlifts, box squats, hang cleans or any other ‘big bang’ exercise to see your performance increase week in, week out. This does wonders for mental strength believe me.

7) Random acts of violence are good…

You must know exactly what you’re doing and why in training, but don’t forget the mental and physical benefits derived from occassional random act of slef-inflicted brutality – more on this soon…

Conclusion

There is much, much more I need to teach you on this and other training and nutrition topics but hopefully this will serve as little reminders or sparks in your brain going into 2010. We also need to look at why all this ’say no to cardio’ bull needs reviewing.

Stay tuned and pop any comments or questions in the box below!

Don’t forget if you want to be on the new and improved Intense Conditioning 12 week test check out what you need to do – some of the original applicants have let me down so there’s a few spaces left! I know the Guinea Pigs will see amazing results but I need the testimonials!

Recently I’ve been working hard to improve my leg strength and power using various squatting and lunge methods.

In the last month, these methods have taken my 1RM box squat from 150 to 157.5kg.  This has been achieved whilst doing more (shock horror….) 5k running and cycling in preparation for a sprint distance triathlon next year.

So how does it work?

You may be familiar with the ‘dynamic’ days developed at the famous Westside Barbell which focus on increasing the force of the lift whether it be squats, deadlifts or bench press.

I would never claim to be training as they do (as some do) but the principles can be taken and applied to many types of training, not just powerlifting.

Using a weight of between 50-60% of your 1RM perform 8-10 sets of 2-3 reps focussing on moving the bar as fast as possible in each rep (with great technique of course). Rest 30-60 seconds between sets.

Let’s say you perform the dynamic or speed day on Monday, you would then perform high weight, low rep sets on the  Thursday (72 hours after the dynamic day. The idea is to take the increase in force and neurological ‘firing’ from Session 1 into Session 2 where you improve on pure strength.

In Session 2 my ’strength’ day, I’ll go for 5-8 singles of the Pin Squat (front squat position)

Combined with various lunges, glute-ham raises, jumping and plyometrics and kettlebell swings, there has already been a significant increase in my leg strength and power.

The jumps are performed at the start of each session whilst my CNS is still fresh and this also helps ‘wake up’ the muscles in preparation for the squats to come.

Once the heavy work is done, I’ll do 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps of lunges, heavy swings, GHR’s etc.

As you can see each session consists of power, strength and hypertrophy rep ranges rather than following a linear periodisation model of endurance for a few weeks then strength, then power.

As I move closer to the triathlon I’ll be working more on high rep, power endurance methods but maintaining these strength gains.

Not only does this maintain strength all year round but it’s also makes training much more varied which is an element of training people often forget in order to keep the body stimulated and making gains!

Obviously these methods can be transferred to other lifts. For instance, if you’re overhead press isn’t up to scratch, a kettlebell jerk session and speed presses on dynamic day, followed 72 hours later by a heavy press session will reap rewards in building your pressing strength.

Speed deadlifts and heavy kettlebell swings may be used to increase your pulling strength.

These methods can be used by anyone provided they have the skill and technique to perform near maximal and fast lifts.

For more information on the conjugate periodization model check out the Westside Barbell website

More on this soon!

In the meantime I’ve been hunting down those who have a lot of knowledge and experience with raw foods and alternative supplementation to the world of bodybuilding supplements.

This journey recently led me to Dane Miller of Garage Strength. As an ex-athlete Dane has been through it all in terms of strength training and nutrition and his travels have taught him much which I’d like to pass on to you today. 

He also has something to tell you about the best protein supplement.

Remember as always, research everything further and test it on yourself.

Can you give us a bit about your background and what you do right now?

By my senior year of high school, I had excelled at both shot putting and American football.  During my years at University, I competed in the shot
put and discus for the Pennsylvania State University.  The highlights of my collegiate track career included a trip to the National Championship meet
and numerous placings at the Big Ten Conference championships.  Upon graduation, I decided to train with Dylan Armstrong (4th place shot put 2008
Olympics) and the great Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk in Kamloops, British Columbia.  I trained under Dr. B for a year and then moved home to start my
own business.  I opened Garage Strength as a way to further my training ideologies and better my surrounding community, both athletically and in regards to fitness and food.  Recently, I became certified by Charles Poliquin and am now the only person in the world who has worked with both Dr. Bondarchuk and Charles Poliquin.

Why did you decide you needed to travel to develop yourself?

I traveled throughout Canada in 2006 and loved it.  When the opportunity arose for me to train with Dylan and Dr. Bondarchuk came about, I knew it was a no
brainer.  I love being home in Pennsylvania but I knew for me to get the best training experience I could, I had to go train with Dr. B.  I knew his
achievements, I knew who he worked with and I knew he was the greatest throws coach on the planet.  It would have been a big mistake to not go
train with Dr. B!!!

Did you have a plan or just go where the river took you?!

I had a slight plan.  It wasn’t set in stone but the bare bones were laid down.  I went up there with a set amount of money I saved and the notion that I would have to
train hard and work a job to pay the bills.  When I arrived in Kamloops, I had my car, my little dog and money.  I didn’t have a place to sleep, no
job, no friends, nothing.  It took me a little while to settle down, find a place, get a job and get used to training but otherwise it was a relatively
smooth transition.  When I came back from Canada, I had no money and I had to start making it quick.  I opened my business at my house and got a day
job.  It took me 6-7 months to actually get a decent schedule of clients.  I just have a plan on paper and try to fill in the holes as I progress with my
business!

I’m looking to do something similar. Where should I start as it’s a big old world out there and I don’t like wasting my time!?

Start right away.  Do want you want to do.  If you want to open a business make sure you save a ton of money.  I knew I would have to spend a lot of money to make money but I was not prepared for overall costs.  Fortunately, I kept my day job as long as possible.  I went about 8 months working 16-17 hours a day and that can really run someone into the ground.  Once I realized I could work at the Garage full time, I quit my day job.  Now I live week to week, month to month striving to build a better client base and a better foundation of my knowledge.

What’s your overall philosophy on nutrition?  

As for nutrition….Keep it simple!  Eat whole, real foods.  No processed foods!  The only “processed” foods I consume are fermented food products.  I eat whole meat products, whole dairy products, fermented dairy, fermented vegetables and a lot of leafy green vegetables.  I keep my fruit intake down throughout the year,
except during the fall when the fruits are in season.  I eat what is in season and what is available from the best, most nutritious farms!

How much different is grass-fed beef to your average supermarket steak and what are the advantages of switching in terms of hormones, muscle-building, toxicity etc?  

Much different!!!  You can see it in the color; the grass fed animal is closer to “wild.”  It has more omega 3’s, a little more protein, less omega 6 fats and no hormones.  The grass fed animal also eases the impact on the environment.  On top of that, the animal is MUCH healthier because the animal is outside and consuming its natural diet.  It is quite plausible that the hormones and antibiotics injected into the animals can be found in their meat.  This can have a very negative impact on humans,especially nursing mothers.

Changing to a grass-fed meat only diet is often see as too expensive and difficult to get hold of. Where should we start looking and how can we keep the costs down?  

In the United States, I use  www.eatwild.com .  I also use the www.WestonAPrice.org website and my local farmer’s markets.  The
key is to form relationships with your local farmers.  When I moved home, I got to know everyone that sold me food.  Then I started buying food in bulk
and splitting it with my friends and family.  I eat the highest quality food and it is cheaper than going to the grocery store because I save time, gas
and buy in bulk!

You’re a big bloke and previously competed in the shot put which always requires a lot of strength and power. Does this mean you’re a supplement guzzler?  

NO!  I took supplements while at Penn State but once I fully committed to eating well, I got away from supplements.  The way I supplement my diet now is by using some herbs depending on the time of year and taking fermented Cod Liver Oil.

What’s this talk on your website about the best supplement ever in kefir? What is it, why is so good and where can we get it?

Kefir is incredible.  It has countless amounts of healthy bacteria.  It helps keep your digestive tract healthy and the protein is predigested upon consumption.  Kefir is
also loaded with B vitamins.  I like it right after training because it is easy for my body to absorb the readily available protein and is great for quick recovery from training.  It is an Eastern European food that also has some roots in the likes of Genghis Khan.  Khan conquered countless tribe while consuming kumis, a fermented mare (horse) milk product.

What’s your stance on carbs given that you train like a beast with tyres, sledgehammer, sleds, power bags etc? How do you structure your carb intake for optimal performance, muscle growth and recovery without inhaling carbs at every opportunity?

I am not a huge consumer of carbs.  Luckily, I dislike pasta and most Italian foods (except pizza) so I never ate too many carbs to begin with.  Carbs raise our blood sugar and then we release large amounts of insulin to regulate blood sugar.  I believe this leads to obesity and large amounts of inflammation.  With that being said, the only time I eat carbs is when I finish a workout and when I drink raw milk.  Occasionally, I eat quinoa following a training session or some homemade sourdough bread. Otherwise, my entire carbohydrate intake comes from raw milk.

I believe in training EVERYONE like athletes in that the principles remain the same even though the actual program has to be tailored to the individual. How can we get Joe Public into that mindframe so that they can see their ability to get extraordinary results?

This is right on point with my philosophy.  I believe that athletes have to train in the most efficient manner to become the absolute best athlete and that goes hand in hand with being the most efficient human being.  This has a direct correlation to the average person.  If Joe Public is eating well, moving in biomechanically efficient patterns, sleeping well, etc…he will be healthier in general.  This doesn’t mean squatting 600 pounds or benching 400 pounds, it simply means learning how to use their body efficiently and effectively.

That is the key to being a healthy human being.

What are the five most prominent principles behind your training, and how would you structure a typical session?

Five most prominent…that is a tough one.  Optimal motor unit recruitment, proper positions, maximize force production/absorption, proper nutrition and optimal mental capacity.  The mind is the most underdeveloped aspect in training and the first thing I check in people is their mental capabilities.  As soon as someone enters my gym, the first exercise we do has a significant impact on brain development and control.  Then we utilize an intense training session where rest is brain based with active recovery.  We finish with an extreme situation for training.

The people reading this are largely like ourselves and love a good hiding in training. You’re in the middle of nowhere and you have one medium weight kettlebell, one heavy weight kettlebell, a rope, a tree and a 100m long hill. Give me your best shot with a killer 20 minute training session to smash the entire body.

Well, I absolutely love rope climbing.  Let’s hook the rope around the tree and get to work climbing.  I would go as far as saying climb the rope 15 times as fast a possible!  Get the medium kettlebell and do a set of 15 swings on each arm, sprint backwards up the hill, lunge backward down the hill and then hit 6 snatches with the heavy kettlebell on each side.  So it will go something like this….Climb the rope, swing the medium kettlebell 15 times each, sprint backwards up the hills, lunge backwards down the hill as active rest, snatch the heavy bell for 6 times on each arm.

Can you point us to some good resources (including your blog) to learn more about the methods you use, in particular the nutritional components?

My website is Garage Strength and I have plenty of good articles and videos containing solid nutrition advice with some unique training videos.  I did an interview with Gary Taubes, author of “Good Calories, Bad Calories” that is extremely informative and well worth the $20.  Nutritionally, I recommend reading Taubes’ book and Weston A. Price’s book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.”  In regards to training, I really enjoy R. A. Roman’s book on Olympic weightlifting as well as “Transfer of Training” from my coach, Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk.

Thanks to Dane for answering my questions – more on all these topics soon as I continue to test various methods!

Stay tuned!

I’m going to be relaunching it next year but need some more testimonials and so I’m on the hunt for some more Guinea Pigs.

I’m looking for 5 men and 5 women to start the program on Monday January 4th for 12 weeks. If you are going on holiday for a couple of weeks or are going to email me loads of excuses why you can’t do this and can’t do that, please don’t apply.

Flexibility with programming is built into Intense Conditioning but I do NOT want people who are going to email me every 5 minutes asking if they can change this and change that.

You need access to kettlebells or dumbbells and if you can get to a gym with barbell it’s useful but not necessary unless you’re strong already, and you need to not be averse to doing running intervals of 200-400m plus a nasty little test at the start.

There are rules which MUST be adhered to if you want to be eligible for the competition of winning 6 weeks fitness mentoring from me. 

The winner will get training and nutrition programming from me for 6 weeks which I usually charge £120 for.

Now given that the program is not a ‘build muscle, burn fat’ program it will not only be about who loses the most fat although if you do things properly, this will happen and fast.

The winner will be the one who I judge to have performed best doing the following:

- Improves the most in the tests (although I am aware that it’s not particularly difficult to go easy on the first test!)

- Improves their physique the most (don’t expect massive amounts of muscle gain – it’s not that kind of program although you can expect greater muscle density and minimal body fat)

- Blogs the most and keeps posting notes and links on Facebook and Twitter (there will be guidelines for this)

- Makes the biggest improvements in their attitude to training and goes through the biggest mind shift during the course of the program.

- Makes the most referrals leading to sign ups for the program (I’ll show you how you can actually easily make commissions just by creating simple links on Clickbank and sticking them in your blog posts so you actually get paid to do the program!)

- You must post front and side photos and measurements at the start of the program with the day’s (or day before) newspaper every single week.

If you are not willing to post photos on the internet which I can use for marketing purposes please do not apply to be an Intense Conditioning Guinea Pig!

There are no rules as to who can and can’t do it other than those mentioned above!

This program is not for beginners but similarly you don’t need to be a machine to do it! You will become one over 12 weeks FACT.

You will be pushed beyond what you’ve done before but all with short, intense sessions so you must be willing to work very hard.

You must also be willing to pay attention to deload weeks and technique practice days as Intense Conditioning is not about just drilling yourself into the floor but integrates strength and conditioning for all round athletic ability.

If you are not willing to treat yourself like an athlete and become more like one, then please don’t apply!

If you’re up for this and are willing to stick it out for 12 weeks, following all the rules then please post who you are and why you will make the perfect Guinea Pig below including your email address so I can contact the winners!

Let’s get it on!!!!

Jon

Ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls. Brace yourself for the biggest, the baddest, the most incredible amount of fitness bullshit you’ve ever seen – heading to a town near you in 2010.

Yes it’s nearly that time again when internet fitness experts (many of whom don’t actually train anyone anymore because they make enough money selling untested programs to bother actually helping people in the flesh) will be trying to sell you every program under the sun.

They’ll be preying on your inability to think for yourself and use common sense in your fitness training thus falling for the latest, most insane fat burning system you have EVER seen.

Bollocks to that. I’ll have things on offer but if you would rather be mesmerised by all the photo shopped testimonials and promises of amazing muscle in just 4 weeks then you’re not my lind of person!

That isn’t meant in an elitist kind of way it’s just the truth is I’m bored of talking to certain people who claim they want to look like an athlete but aren’t prepared to think, eat, drink, train and sleep like one!

Look back 12 months when I said the same stuff. How much have your muscle and fat levels really changed after all those hours spent reading forums, buying fat loss programs and marvelling over certain muscle building experts?

I’m bored of them and if you’re reading this the chances are you are too – that makes me and you good friends! So here’s how you can REALLY jack up your results and become more of an athlete – the physique just happens anyway!

1) Train Everything All At Once

The truth is the most famous of those internet fitness marketers never seem to post particularly inspiring videos of themselves training. They talk a lot and have some nice photos because they’ve added 10lbs of muscle and dropped more fat. Great but I’d still pick them last in the playground because they’re no stronger, faster or anything else.

All they do is stick to 3-4 sets of 6-10 and a few supersets and Bob’s your Uncle. Your bigger, a bit leaner but slower and not much stronger.

Start training everything at once.

Start sessions with some power or strength work, then maybe add in some sets of 6-8 for some functional hypertrophy then murder yourself with a 15 minute metabolic finisher.

A lower body session might go like this…

A: Box front squat 5×3

B1: Walking lunges 3×8
B2: Double kettlebell swing 3×8

Finisher: 4 rounds as fast as possible

Tuck jump 10 reps
Sled push / prowler 25m and back
Sprint 25m and back

Core work: Wheel or bar roll outs 3 x 10-15

An upper body session might go like this…

A: Bench press from the rack of a power cage 5 x 3

B1: Chair press with 2 kettlebells 3×8
B2: Weighted chin up 3×8

Finisher: 4 rounds as fast as possible

Pull up (jump if necessary) 10 reps
Tyre pull with rope in seated position Length of rope and back
Alligator walking push ups 20 reps

Core work: Knees to elbows from pull up bar or rings

2) Rotate your nutrition

You do it with training…why not nutrition?

Rotate nutrition programs every 4 weeks or so.

Do 4 weeks just eliminating every single piece of processed food from you diet including caffeine, alcohol and wheat.

Then do 4 weeks of restricting carbs to after your workout.

Then do 4 weeks of one high carb day followed by 2-3 low/no carb days (maybe with a fasting day included). Keep high carb days to your heaviest training days.

Watch your body fat drop!

3) Set athletic based goals

Stop setting body fat goals as an end in itself!

Set goals based on how fast you can run 200-400m, how heavy your squat is, how many presses or snatches you can do with X kg kettlebell, how many rounds of a killer strength circuit you can get donw in 20 minutes etc then smash it.

You will have to add lean, strong muscle and drop excess weight to achieve these goals so the your physique goals will happen as a bonus!

4) Try different training tools

Bring kettlebells, more advanced bodyweight exercises, barbells, tyres, gymnastic rings, ropes, power bags, odd objects and anything else that pushes your body to adapt to new stimuli.

Again this will make changes happen as if by magic. It doesn’t matter if you’re not an advanced ‘hardcore’ trainee! I have ladies who have just started my bootcamps pulling tyres around my studio and they LOVE IT  because it brings the results they want.

Involve as few machines as possible.

Don’t forget dumbbells – kettlebells aren’t some sort of Holy Grail. Again your body will adapt eventually so keep throwing new things at it!

Erm….not quite but nice idea…

5) Try different training environments

People can tolerate more pain in a group so go find one in which the members share your goals.

Go to a new gym, train outside, or just find new people to train with in your current gym – this alone can make a huge difference and push you much, much further. If you struggle to find anyone in your area, make sure you join a quality online forum where you can post progress and compare yourself to others and get motivation and feedback.

NEVER go it alone!

6) Hire a ‘fitness accountant’

Accountants, whilst generally boring your face off and charging too much, are very useful.

They monitor your numbers, tell you how the last year went, tell you how to cleverly get more for your investment by not giving money to the bloodsuckers at the tax office (gym in your case) and tell you where you could look to improve your weak spots.

Get yourself a fitness accountant no matter how good you think you are. An external perspective is very refreshing and will keep you accountable when you shovel too much crap food in your face and wonder why you’re still 15% body fat.

7) Cure your itchy feet and use common sense

There is unlikely to ever be anything truly groundbreaking in health and fitness ever again.

Don’t fall for all the latest greatest programs which bring your best results ever and outshine everyone else, with time limits on purchase etc etc. If they’re that great it would be on the news.

If it sounds too good to be true it is.

Find a stick with a fitness expert / program for long enough to let it work and stop jumping around like all the other fitness sheep who plague forums and Facebook.

Patience is a virtue so understand that no matter how great the program is it will not solve your life’s problems.

Take one step at a time and give every program and nutrition plan 100% conviction and unless it’s written by Ronald McDonald and it’s been tested and proven by a well-respected expert, it will work!

Keep the faith!

If you have any other great ways you use to add some spark back in your training, post them below!

Jon

PS You know Number 8. Proven. Hard Work. Rewarding. Truly Awesome even if I do say so myself….

Click here —–> Intense Conditioning 

A1: 5 x 5 Power push ups with clap behind back
A2: 5 x 10 Lying single arm med ball throw (think front crawl upside down!)

10 ring pull ups
5 renegade push ups with row each side on 2 x 20 kettlebells
5 clean and jerks 2 x 20 kettlebells
2 lengths pulling tyre in seated position with 20kg in tyre.

Total training time – 45 minutes.

Brilliant sessions and been starving all day as a result!

Rock on!

Jon

Below are some clips from a recent lower body training session which went something like this…

Rebound jumps 5×5

Hurdle hops 4×10 on each leg

Box squat building to 95% 1RM (5,5,3,3,1)

I was having trouble finding a way to monitor progress on improving my vertical jump as the plyometric table we have is too easy (even jumping over it rather than on to it!)

In the video you’ll see a great method I came up with using gymnastics rings for incremental increases.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

The second video is just me messing about when we put the rigs on the roof – you’ll see some good ‘abs and core strength’ moves which I’m looking to improve over the coming months as well as building up to the iron cross (that could take a while!)

Enjoy and as always post your comments and any other similar methods you use!

Jon