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3 Tips to Train Around Shoulder Injuries

Are your shoulders jacked up?

Do you struggle to bench press or overhead press?

As someone who struggled with shoulder pain for years, I want to give you three strategies you can use to push hard even though you’re feeling beat up.

You’ve just got to be a little smarter.

If your shoulder is hurting, you’re oftentimes overdeveloped in your glamour muscles (i.e. the muscles you can see in the mirror).

To help pull your shoulders back and take pressure off your chest and anterior delts, it’s time to start adding more pulling exercises to your program.

As a general rule of thumb, you should pull twice as much as you press.

Use exercises like single-arm dumbbell rows, pull ups, inverted rows, lat pulldowns and seated rows more than you use exercises like the barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, push ups and chest flyes.

For example, if you do 12 sets of pushing exercises in a week, you’ll want to do at least 24 sets of pulling exercises.

Even if you’re feeling a little beat up, you can still use a number of pressing exercises to get stronger.

If the barbell bench press isn’t feeling good, you could try a neutral-grip dumbbell bench press.

If a barbell overhead press is hurting, you could do a landmine press or Arnold press and focus on “shrugging” your shoulders at the top to prevent impingement (see videos below).

Leave your ego at the door and start with light weights to really make sure the movement feels good. Once you’re confident with your form, begin slowly increasing the weight.

Remember, progress in the gym is a marathon, not a sprint.

If your goal is to lift the rest of your life, a few workouts of lifting lighter weights won’t kill you.

If you sit a lot during the day, you’re going to be in a “hunched-over” position…a lot.

If you’re constantly in that “hunched-over” position, you’ve got to do something to counteract the sitting.

So do these three mobility exercises every day…

1. T-Spine Extension on Foam Roller

2. Side-Lying Rib Roll

3. Doorway Pec Stretch

Do You Need Cardio to Lose Fat?

Walk into just about any commercial gym, and you’ll find a host of gym-goers sweating their tails off on treadmills, ellipticals and stair climbers in an attempt to re-shape their bodies.

Is what they’re doing effective?

Who knows?

But here’s a better question – do you NEED to do cardio to lose body fat?

As is almost always the answer in the fitness industry, it depends.

In that case, you don’t necessarily need cardio, but it can help.

You don’t necessarily need cardio to lose body fat, but in some cases, it can help.

So how do you lose weight?

To lose weight, you need to create an energy deficit, which will be accomplished primarily from proper resistance training and eating in a calorie deficit.

Lifting weights is highly important for retaining muscle mass as you diet because you’re probably interested in losing mostly fat and not muscle.

Make as much progress as you can from strength training and eating in a calorie deficit. Eventually, though, your progress may stall.

When your progress stalls, you have a couple of options. You can either cut calories or add exercise, usually in the form of cardio.

Now, you’ll reach a point when cutting calories is no longer desirable, so you would be wise at this time to add a bit of additional exercise. However, there’s a limit.

If you add in too much cardio, it can interfere with your gains in strength and muscle growth.

What if you just want to “tone?”

Even if your goal is to “tone,” you still need to limit cardio so you can retain muscle mass. Ultimately, “toning” means stripping away body fat so your muscles show. But if you do too much cardio, you’ll lose muscle mass, and the definition or tone you crave will be even more difficult to achieve.

Now, you can technically get away with no cardio, but after a while of cutting calories, it may be a good idea to create a further energy deficit by adding in some cardio.

Always start with the minimum effective dose. Add the least amount of cardio possible to still see adequate changes. Then, once your progress, stalls, add a little more.

2 Types of Cardio

1. LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State)

With LISS, you move at a slow, steady pace for an extended period of time. Light and easy cardio isn’t a very big stress on the body, so it likely won’t interfere with your muscle and strength improvements. However, the calorie burn is lower with this method, so you would need to do a lot of LISS to notice significant improvements in fat loss.

2. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)

With HIIT, you perform short bursts of high-intensity activity with rest periods in between. This type of exercise is performed at a high intensity, so you’ll burn more calories because of EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption). Also known as the “afterburn” effect, your body will continue to burn calories after the workout is over as it attempts to restore the body to a homeostatic (rest-and-digest) state.

However, you need to be careful with the modality used for HIIT because high impact can cause muscle damage and soreness. You also need to ensure you don’t over-do the number of HIIT sessions you perform per week because they can impact recovery.

Begin with an interval like 30 seconds ON, 60 seconds OFF or 15 seconds ON, 30 seconds OFF.

As a starting point, add one or two of each type of cardio first. Add in 5-8 bouts of HIIT per session and 20-30 minutes of LISS. As your progress stalls, you can either further reduce the calorie deficit by decreasing calories or increasing cardio. However, you don’t want more than a few sessions per week so the cardio doesn’t interfere with your muscle and strength gains.

If you add too much right away, your body will adapt to the higher demands, and you’ll then need to add in ​even more​ cardio to continue to make progress. You’ll need to do an insane amount of cardio, and you’ll likely burn out, get injured or stop making progress because you’re over-stressing your body.

If your goal is to improve your strength or body composition, your cardio should use an implement that is low-impact to reduce the likelihood of injury and soreness. You don’t want cardio to hinder your strength training performance.

Recommended forms of cardio

Elliptical

Rowing machine

Biking

Swimming

Walking

Light resistance-training circuits

Low-impact implements (i.e. tire flips, battle ropes, punching bag and sledgehammer slams)

Not recommended for cardio

Running outside

Running on a treadmill

***note: if you enjoy running and it doesn’t cause injury, keep running, but running with improper form or running too much can wreak havoc on your joints

Let’s sum it up

So you don’t necessarily need cardio to lose body fat, but it can help at certain points during your active fat loss phase.

When you add cardio, add it gradually. Don’t do too much too soon.

And choose a method of cardio that won’t beat up your joints!

4 Ways to Add More Protein to Your Diet

Why Do You Never Reach Your Fitness Goals?

Well, part of the issue could be you’re setting your goals completely wrong.

You may be setting unspecific goals.

When we say things like I want to “tone up” or eat “healthier,” we’re not defining what success means to us.

You could eat a handful of green beans. You just ate “healthier.” But does that mean you’re actually reaching your goals?

It’s similar to setting monetary goals. When you say you want more money, you could get $1 and you’ve achieved your goal. That’s more money than you had.

When we say things like “I want to achieve a 32-inch waist” or “I want to eat five servings of vegetables per day,” we know specifically whether we’re achieving our goals.

Specific goals yield specific results.

Unspecific goals yield unspecific results.

So when you set your goals, figure out exactly what you want, and go for it.

Even if you want to be healthier, you need to define what “healthier” means and what that looks like to you. Otherwise, you’re going to be chasing this never-ending “healthier” lifestyle because you have no idea what you’re chasing.

Plus, when you set specific goals, it makes the task much less daunting because you know exactly what you’re aiming for.

Then, once you set these goals, review them often. Look at them every day. Write them down.

When you determine specifically what you want, you make achieving the goals much easier!

A goal without a plan, and a goal that’s not written down and looked at every single day is pretty much worthless. We’re going to make sure you not only set goals, but actually achieve them.

While we all have lots going on among work, family and our social lives and a lot we want to accomplish, we should pick only a couple of things to focus on at once.

Let’s pick a health/fitness goal we want to achieve over the next three months and actually achieve it using this three-step process.

When setting your goals, you need to make sure they’re specific and realistic. For example, saying you’re going to lose 50 pounds in three months isn’t realistic (if you’re doing it the right way).

An example of a health goal could be to achieve a certain body weight or achieve a certain waist size. It could also be to workout a certain number of days per week or lift a certain amount of weight in a particular exercise.

I will weigh 200 pounds
I will have a 32-inch waist
I will workout 3 days per week
I will lift 200 pounds in the bench press

Goals without meaning are useless. How will achieving these goals make your life better? Take some time to really think about this.

Why is your health goal important? Do you want to reach that goal because you have a family history of a certain disease and you don’t want that to happen to you? Do you want to look good for an upcoming vacation or a class reunion?

You’ve got to find a strong enough reason to achieve your goal. Otherwise, you won’t.

Now that you know your goals, how are you going to make sure you achieve them?

You need to pick action steps you do every day that will bring you closer toward your goals. These should be steps over which you have 100% control of the outcome, and they should be realistic.

So if you have don’t currently exercise and work 60+ hours per week, saying you’re going to workout 7 days per week probably isn’t a good idea.

For example, if you want to have a 32-inch waist, here are three steps you could take to achieve that…

1. Plan your meals each Sunday morning

2. Workout 4 times per week

3. Measure your waist every week

Some of these steps may seem simple and obvious, but it’s important you establish them so they get done.

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Results-Focused

Timely

The goal you set should fit each of these criteria. Here are two examples of SMART goals:

By January 1, I will be 160 pounds using clearly-defined routines so I can set a good example of health for my kids for the new year.

By February 1, I will fit into a size 4 dress following my healthy daily routines so I look amazing for my beach vacation in Mexico.

If you need any help determining your goal, let me know!

3 Steps to Make Exercise Fun

Oh, the gym.

So many people dread the thought of stepping inside it.

They know if they want to lose weight or “get in shape” they need to suffer through some grueling workouts.

We have a real problem in our society today.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 percent of the population in the United States is overweight or obese.

Not surprisingly, we have a similar problem with how much we exercise.

According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive, two-thirds of Americans who make New Year’s Resolutions choose fitness-oriented goals (Harris Interactive, 2012).

Of those people, 73% quit prior to achieving their goal, citing it’s “too difficult to follow a diet or workout regimen,” “too hard to get back on track once they fall off” and “hard to find time.”

For so many, exercise is difficult to enjoy.

When many people think of exercise, they think it involves getting tired, sweaty and sore.

The thought of these three things can be scary.

So how do you make exercise fun and something you’ll do consistently?

Many people treat exercise as an “all-or-nothing” concept. Partially, it’s because people tend to set unrealistic expectations for themselves.

If people have 30 pounds of fat to lose, they think it needs to happen in the next month. If they don’t, rather than trying something different, they give up.

They’re either working out consistently four or five times per week or not at all.

When you begin a routine, start with something you know you can handle. Ask yourself if you can still do your current regimen one year from now. If you can’t, your plan isn’t sustainable and needs to be adjusted.

Begin by working out two times per week, not six.

If you dislike exercise, it’s probably because you associate it with something negative, like feeling sick to your stomach or sore from the workouts.

If that’s the case, don’t start by doing workouts that involve difficult things like running on the treadmill and doing burpees. If those things aren’t fun, don’t do them. I certainly don’t.

No matter how bad you want the outcome, you’re never going to achieve or sustain that outcome if you don’t enjoy the process.

If you don’t like the workouts you’re doing at the gym, you’re not going to want to do them long-term.

Instead, pick an activity you love.

If you hate running on the treadmill, don’t run on the treadmill. If you love riding your bike, do that instead. If you love team sports, start playing pick-up basketball or ultimate frisbee.

Find friends who want to do things with you and make it a social experience. Plus, you’ll have the added accountability.

I personally think everyone should participate in strength training because having a solid base of strength is important for everything you do in your life, including simple things like doing chores around your house.

But adherence is No. 1, and if you don’t love the thought of lifting weights, start by doing something simple like walking.

Walk around the block with a friend or while listening to your favorite podcast.

Just start somewhere. Then, once walking around the block doesn’t seem so overwhelming, walk around the block twice. Then, walk around the block three times.

The process and daily “grind” of working out should be something you enjoy. Only then will the outcome of losing fat or getting in shape happen. While there may be parts you don’t particularly love, you should be OK with most of it.

As a result of you focusing on the process day-in and day-out, you’ll achieve the outcome (looking and feeling better).

When you think of training, you generally think of athletes going through a planned program to reach their long-term goal of making a certain team or reaching a certain level of athleticism.

When you think of exercising, you think of people doing various exercises to “get their heart rate up” and “get sweaty.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but training sounds a whole lot better.

Training is motivated by a “want,” while exercise is motivated by a “need.” If you think of exercise as an obligation, you’re not going to be able to sustain a routine.

When athletes train, they have a plan and focus on getting better over time.

So start small and build up your workout volume. Not only is gradually building up the amount of work you do in your workouts more sustainable from a lifestyle standpoint, but it’s also better to keep your body healthy and un-injured.

Have a plan, focus on setting personal records and keep a journal to track your progress.

If you’re doing a strength training program, start with something simple. Go to the gym two days per week and focus on just a couple of exercises.

You can start doing back squats, bench presses and deadlifts.

Start by doing three sets of five reps of each exercise two times per week. Begin with just the bar on the squats and bench press and a light weight on deadlifts. Then, the next time you’re in the gym, add five pounds to the bar. Repeat the process.

It’s easy and your body and mind will be able to gradually adjust to the program. You’re focusing on competing with yourself because you’re trying to beat what you did last time.

If you want to start biking, start by riding 0.5 miles twice the first week. Then, bump it up to 0.6 miles two times the following week. You’re focusing on beating your own records, but as a result, you’ll probably feel better about your overall progress.

Now that sounds a lot better than doing endless sets of burpees and hill sprints until you puke.

Reference:

Harris Interactive. “New Study Finds 73% Of People Who Set Fitness Goals As New Year’s Resolutions Give Them Up – Bodybuilding.com.”Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com, 28 Dec. 2012. Web. Fat Loss

Complete Guide to Staying Lean While Eating Out

You’ve made it your mission to get leaner.

You fill your home with lots of vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and all your junk food has found its way into the trash can.

You’re committed to eating healthy, but then disaster strikes – a friend or family member asks you out to dinner at a restaurant.

Crap! Well, there goes your diet, right? Wrong.

Believe it or not, you can actually get lean without needing to turn down invitations to eat out at restaurants.

And you can eat some quality and great tasting food while you’re there.

How is that possible? Read on for the step-by-step process to getting and staying lean while eating out at your favorite restaurants.

Read more HERE.

5 Things to Know for Your First Show

Have you ever thought about competing in a physique show, but the thought of dropping carbohydrates extremely low and doing cardio multiple times per day scares you to death?

Competing in a show can seem overwhelming, and you may have no idea what to expect. If you’ve ever considered it, I’m going to share five things I learned from training and competing in my first show that may help you get over the fears that are holding you back.

Read more HERE.

5 Tips to Go from Average Joe to Swole (Plus Workout)

You’re an average Joe or Jane.

You have no desire to ever train for a bodybuilding show or play sports at a highly competitive level.

You have lots of competing demands in your life such as work, family, and social obligations.

You’ve tried following the advice from all the popular health and fitness magazines, and nothing has worked for you.

In other words, you’re among the 99 percent of the population that just wants to lean up, build some muscle, and get stronger.

Now, designing a program for yourself is hard because much of the information you read targets high-level athletes and competitive bodybuilders who are the genetic freaks of the world.

Simply put, you need a different set of rules.

Here are the five laws of training all genetically average lifters must follow and a program that will benefit all beginner lifters.

Read more HERE.