The most common fitness related resolution is to lose weight and get “back” in shape. If this is your resolution I really hope you stick with it, please don’t become another new year fitness failure by giving up on your resolution in March.  So while I really hope “this is the year” for you fitness beginners I don’t want to talk about fitness newbies, I want to talk/challenge the workout veterans, the people who don’t need a calendar date to inspire them to go to the gym. I want to challenge the people who already take pride in their health and body composition.

My challenge to the fitness veterans is to “get out of your comfort zone” every once in a while! As you know I am a student of the fitness game. I am constantly trying and learning different fitness methods such as MovNat (the summary of my experience is long over due), CrossFit, Olympic lifting, kettlebells, Gracie Ju Jitsu, Boxing, and triathlon. As a result of all my fitness adventures I have learned many things including:

Final day after a week long MovNat workshop

• Skills do not transfer very well - Trust me you are not as generally prepared as you think! You may be the baddest dude in your yoga class or have the fastest Fran time at your crossfit box but as soon as you do something totally different (out of your comfort zone) you become awkward, out of breath, and maybe even really sore. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that being good at one fitness method does not help, believe me once the Machines become self-aware and we end up in an all out battle of man versus machine, you will be glad that you were not a lazy ass and have been working out on a regular basis. Don’t believe me about skills not transferring very well, remember Michael Jordan’s stint as a baseball player? Considered by many to be the greatest basketball player ever, once removed from his comfort zone was just a mediocre double A baseball player at best. If you don’t try new things often you become more one-dimensioned than you think

Wow! I though this would be easier!

• You become more a more well-rounded human - By trying new things (out of your comfort zone) your strengths and weakness will both be greatly highlighted. Maybe you are not as limber as you thought, maybe you can’t run as fast or as far as you though,or maybe despite being really strong you can’t swim, climb up over a ledge, throw a punch or even defend yourself properly. Trust me getting out of your comfort zone can be a real eye opener!

They coming! Can you help the human resistance? Or are you fat and lazy?

• You become more efficient at working out - For those that know me, you know that I believe in the 80/20 rule (if you don’t know, you better ax some body). With just about every system there are certain exercise or movements that will produce a lot of results rather quickly. The other 20 percent of the results come from years upon years of practice. When you approach something with fresh eye it is fairly easy to see which core movements will give you the most results. You can then take the best movements from each system and apply them to your own workouts.
• It can be both humbling and exciting – Humbling experience are great every now and then. They put you in your place and make you realize you are not as tough, or as strong as you thought. It is an extremely humbling to go from being the best and most popular guy at ______(insert your sport of choice) to being the new guy that does not know what he is doing. But at the same time, and this is where being in shape will help, you will make improvements rather quickly. Remember the 80/20 rule? It is really fun to go from the awkward new guy to being fairly decent at something in a couple of months, meanwhile you are setting PR’s on nearly a daily basis. Because once you get really good at something PR’s are few and far between

So if it has been a long time since you have been the”new guy”, I challenge you to get out of your comfort zone and try a completely different fitness system. The farther from you comfort zone the better. So maybe this is the year you finally:

• Learn how to ski or snowboard
• Join a swim club
• Learn how to rock climb
• Learn how to defend yourself (Boxing, Kickboxing, Ju Jitsu)
• Compete in a triathlon

What is your, “out of my comfort zone” goal this year?

There is a winner!!! Drum roll please……..It is I!!! On December 7th, I finally reached my goal of a 400-lb deadlift. Weighing in at 175-lbs, a 400-lb deadlift is 2.28 x my body weight! It took exactly 3-months to add 100-lbs to my deadlift. For both Jessica and I to add 80-lbs and 100-lbs respectively, to our deadlift, in just three short months is outstanding progress (excuse us while we toot our own horns)! Also for all you ladies out there worried that lifting heavy will make you big and bulky, for the last three months Jessica has been deadlifting more than most guys and did not gain any weight and does not look like a bodybuilder. So if you want to become stronger (who doesn’t) we can help show you how (our 12-week strength plan is just about finished).

400-lbs The weight barely fit on the bar.

Jessica - She lifts really heavy and does not look like a body builder yet women still think that lifting heavy will make them look like a guy on steriods

Now for the topic at hand:

Is your workout boring? Guess what? So is mine…stop complaining and just work!!! One of the most common excuses I hear from people as to why they don’t workout is: “working out is so boring”.  Let me tell you something, because of our sedentary lifestyle working out has now become a necessity, and it is a necessity that does not necessarily have to be fun.

I agree, working out or exercising can become very monotonous and even boring over time no matter your choice of exercise. There are numerous things I would rather be doing than working out such as; sleeping, eating/drinking, or watching TV. But since we no longer hunt/gather our food, sit at a desk all day, do very little physical labor and no-longer walk anywhere, we as a species has become fatter than ever before and working out has become more important then ever before.

Eating at the beach is more fun than working out

Anything you do for a long time can get very monotonous. I have probably ran hundreds of miles, done thousands of squats, push-ups, and pull-ups in my lifetime and I would be lying if I said it was fun. While doing bench press or swimming laps I have never once thought “this is exhilarating, I wish this would never end”. I get a great since of accomplishment after I complete a workout but working out is work, and it is hard work.

Ready to start another boring workout

So while working out maybe “boring”, I will tell you what is fun:

• Having 6-pack abs is a blast
• Being stronger than your peers is awesome
• Feeling/being healthy and strong
• Looking good naked
• Not getting winded going up a flight of stairs
• Finding a new personal best for a certain exercise or competition
• Beating Jessica at the deadlift challenge
• Not being FAT – probably the most important and the most FUN!

What do you enjoy about working out?

The two most common comments for defending this stupid exercise can be summed up as:

1. This is a crossfit video, so you have your usual crossfit crybaby comments.
2. Calling the people that posted the video ignorant for not knowing that the exercise the people in the video are doing is actually a real lift used in strongman competitions called the axle clean & press

I have addressed the crossfit crybabies in the past, so I would like to address the 2nd comment, how ignorant we all are for not knowing this is a strongman lift. The video below shows a “strongman” doing the lift.

First thing to note about the “strongman” doing the lift is that the lift still looks just as stupid and just as unsafe as in the other video. Just because something has a name and is done by a few people does not mean it is OK. Here is an interesting thought, not everything that people do is smart and safe. People do lots of stupid things all the time, that does not mean you should copy them. Using this same logic; there are lots of people using heroine, smoking cigarettes, riding motorcycles without helmets, using the elliptical, or eating a vegan based diet should we be doing that stuff too?

Secondly, what is the point of this lift? To press a lot of weight? How about using a rack and placing the weight in the proper position without throwing your back out!!! Barbell training already has enough risks, and the last thing you need to do is add more danger just because “strongmen” do the lift. Are you competing in a strongman event? I didn’t think so.

This strongman lift looks like an extremely unsafe version of the clean and jerk done with horrible form. Again, can anybody please tell me how this strongman version is better than the traditional clean and jerk done with proper form? Also anyone who has been around the fitness game (barbell lifting) for sometime has heard the saying “if you can’t clean it, you should not be pressing it”, I guarantee that the same people that defended this strongman lift have said that at some point, ironically this strongman lift qualifies as a failed clean attempt, so they should have no business pressing the weight anyway!

Here is what a proper clean and jerk look like:

Now doesn’t that exercise looks much smoother and much safer on the back then the strongman axle clean & press?

So if you have no ambition of being a strongman competitor but want to get stronger leave this axle clean & press non-sense to the strongmen and instead do yourself a favor and learn proper clean and jerk technique.

Thank you!

We are now 12 weeks into the deadlift challenge and our progress has slowed (as expected). I was stuck at 380 for 2 weeks and then was on a much needed rest week over the Thanksgiving holiday. I did manage to get 390 this week and I am kicking myself for not trying to get 400-lbs allowing me to win this challenge! Jessica has also been stuck at 280-lbs and her progress has been slowed due to a sore back. The results after 12 weeks of the challenge are listed below:

• Garett – 390lbs = 2.25 x body weight
• Jessica – 280lbs = 1.95 x body weight

205-lbs (working on form)

Now onto the topic at hand:

Is that your warm-up or your workout? I sure as hell can’t tell. I don’t know when or why it started but for too long, too many people have been doing outrageously hard and really long warm-ups completely exhausting themselves before they even begin their “real” workout. I would love to blame CrossFit (I know, shocker) for this but I have seen this stupid phenomenon happening for many years although CrossFit definitely popularized the saying “your workout is my warm-up”.

I remember back to my crossfit days, we would regularly conducted extremely hard warm-ups, many times the warm-up being much harder then the prescribed Work out Of the Day (WOD).  This is not only very stupid but it also shows a real lack of confidence in programing.  If you are drenched in sweat and can’t catch your breath before you begin your “real” workout you will not be able to give 100%. As I have said before the 100% effort that you were supposed to give for your “real” workout quickly become an 85% effort thus sabotaging your workout! But to be fair to crossfit I have seen many triathletes and runners conduct equally stupid long warm-ups before races.

Only 5 more miles of "warming-up" then I will be "ready" to start the marathon

A warm-up should be just that a WARM-UP. A good warm-up should last no-more than about 10-min and should be preformed at a low to moderate level. The goal is just to get the blood flowing and maybe break a sweat. A warm-up should NOT be hard and should Not exhaust you; it should instead energize you, allowing you to perform the recommended workout with 100% effort.

Examples of a good warm-up are:

• A light jog – 400 meters to 1 mile
• 10-min walk at high incline on treadmill
• 5 to 10 min on a rower
• 2 sets of 10 air squats, 10 push-ups, 10 walking lunges

In my opinion a light jog of 5 to 10 minutes followed by a few dynamic stretches is the best warm-up to conduct before a strength session. Let me give you an example of my last warm-up.

• A quick jog around the block (approximately .75-mile)
• 3 sets of squat holds – about 15 seconds each
• 1 set of 5 reps deadlift with 135-lbs (concentrating on proper form)
• 1 set of 5 reps deadlift with 225-lbs (concentrating on proper form)
• 1 set of 4 reps deadlift with 315-lbs (concentrating on proper form)

I am now warm, feeling strong and ready to begin my deadlift workout. Remember if you want to achieve the best results possible keep your warm-ups light and save your energy and effort for your workout!

I am sure it is just bad genetics...it is not his fault

Sorry to break it too you but I am just your average guy with average genetics. I am not some super-genetic freak who is blessed with a fast metabolism allowing me to burn fat, and build muscle better than you!  Believe me, with my work ethic, if I was blessed with super-genetics I would be some sort of professional athlete instead of a loser desk jockey. I look the way I do because I bust my ass in the gym and the kitchen! You don’t have 6-pack abs because you are constantly stuffing your face with crap.

I bet she eats lots of junk food and never goes to the gym

Would you give your car a complete overhaul, a nice fresh new paint job, update the interior, new sound system, tune-up the engine and then proceed to fill the gas tank with sand? Sounds crazy right? But we do it too our bodies all the time. I just mentioned that 80% of our body composition is composed of what we put in our mouth so that means there is no amount of working out that can make up for bad dietary habits. Until you learn this, you will continue down the path of chronic cardio and you will never lose those last ten pounds.

What should you eat? That’s easy – REAL FOOD! Meat, vegetables,  and some fruit and nuts. Below is a food pyramid (click image for a high-res version) created by Mark Sisson of Marks Daily Apple, that easily explains how to eat properly. Also his blog is probably the best resource for “diet” related issues, if you wanted to know how to eat and could only read one blog this would be it!

Follow this and become ripped like me

Lastly, STOP consuming bread, pasta, juice, sports drinks, protein bars, energy drinks, and sodas (yes even diet). Many people need a “cheat day” so they don’t feel deprived. It is OK to have a cheat day once a week, but make sure it is only once a week.

Do you want abs? Well then start fueling your body properly. Stop blaming/hating others and take charge of your life!

Chocolate Milk Smoothie – This is one of my favorites because it is really simple and it tastes just like chocolate milk and who does not like chocolate milk? Lately I have been adding a spoonful of raw almond butter to the smoothie, the chocolate flavor combined with the almond butter is just amazing!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of unsweetened coconut milk*
• 1/4 cup water
•  1 whole large banana or 2 small bananas
• Optional – Raw Almond Butter (can be found at most health food stores)
• Optional – Unflavored Whey protein powder. This is what I like
• 5-6 ice cubes – I like my smoothies cold. This is where a powerful blender comes in handy!!!
• Blend all ingredients, while items are blending, add Unsweetened Coco-Powder. Be careful a little goes a long way. Add slowly until the liquid turns light brown.
• Enjoy!

Chocolate Milk Smoothie

Berry blast -  The creaminess of the coconut milk combined with the berries is delightful. Their are many ways to make this smoothie but the berries I typically use are blue berries, strawberries, raspberries and/or blackberries. I typically buy frozen organic berries.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of unsweetened coconut milk*
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cup blue berries and 2 whole strawberries (Remember this is where you can get creative I typically use 3/4 to 1 full cup of berries in any combo)
• Optional – Banana
• Optional – Unflavored Whey protein powder.
• 5-6 ice cubes
• Blend all ingredients. If it becomes too thick to blend just add water slowly until it can blend nicely.

Berry Blast Smoothie

Orange-berry – Orange, raspberries, coconut oil, it doesn’t get much more refreshing than this.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 whole orange (pealed obliviously)
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• small spoonful of unrefined coconut oil
• Optional – Unflavored Whey protein powder.
• 5-6 ice cubes
• Blend all ingredients. If it becomes too thick to blend just add water slowly until it can blend nicely.

Orange-berry

* I recommend the coconut milk from the can. Do not buy the “light” version and do not buy the version sold in cartons example the So Delicious brand it is watered down and overpriced. Coconut milk is high in fat but it is good fat (lots of health benefits!!!) and this natural fat not only tastes great it will satisfy your hunger for much longer.

Make sure to shake the can very well before you open it (you should be able to hear the milk moving) because the coconut cream can separate from the coconut water. Store the unused coconut milk in the fridge and try to use with in a few days.

Buy this!

Not This!

Mr.T's baseline measurement is kicking your ass

A fitness baseline is a point of reference, which will be used to measure your progress. Without an established baseline it can be very hard to determine if your new exercise routine is helping or hurting your cause. How do you determine your fitness baseline? Unfortunately you have to determine your own baseline and it should be based on your own fitness/sports related goals. Later in the post I will give you some examples of fitness baselines, which will hopefully help you determine your own baseline. But first I want to talk about my fitness baseline and my recent discovery that CrossFit* was hurting my performance in triathlons.

*Because there are a lot of CrossFit Crybabies out there I feel I have to add a disclaimer, so here goes: I don’t think CrossFit is bad, in-fact, I know many people that love it and have achieved great results. However based on my personal experience it did me more harm than good. I basically followed the CrossFit Endurance programming for 6 months, and the numerous amount of high intensity workouts just made my muscles fatigued. I was training in the gray zone. This mean that you start off giving a 100% but over time (weeks) as the fatigue sets in, your 100% goes down to 95%, then 90%, and before you know it you are only operating at 85% compared to when you started. But without a baseline to measure against it is hard to tell you are only giving 85% because, 85% has become your new 100% (hopefully you can follow that).

Remember this is based on my own experience and goals. I don’t need to hear from the kool-aid drinkers that I was doing it wrong or that I need to stay with it longer. Their is not, nor their will never be a one size fits all fitness program.

Now that I got that out of the way lets continue. I train for two reasons, to look good and for improved athletic performance and my current sport of choice, for the last few years has been triathlon. So my fitness baseline has been cycling power. I have measured my cycling power output 2 different ways:

1. Power meter on spin bikes – I teach a weekly spin class and the bikes we use are outfitted with a power meter. This is very convenient as most power tap systems are really expensive. Anyway I like to test my baseline during the sprinting section of class. At least twice a month, I do a set of 8, 1-minuet sprints, with a 1 minuet rest between sprints. Before crossfit I would average around 250 watts for the 8 sprints. During the 6 months of crossfit training I could only maintain 250 watts for the first two sprints, then my legs would become fatigued, and I would have a hard time maintaining 200 watts for the remaining sprints. Now a month after finishing my crossfit training, I have been using a more systematic strength training routine and my average watts have shot up to 300 and I am able to maintain this power for all 8 sprints.
2. Race performance – This year I noticed my race performance declined slightly, specifically my bike split. I had at least 4 races where I was 2 – 5 minutes slower when compared to last year. Also I have always been a strong climber, which is all power, nobody ever passed me going up a hill, however this year I got passed going up a hill more times than I would like to remember.

Apperently she is a triathlete. Whatever she is nice to look at

Now as promised let’s look at some baseline measurement ideas:

• Weight loss  Body measurement- First let me say weight SHOULD never be used as a baseline measurement!!! If your goal is to “lose weight” take measurements instead. Let me give you a perfect example of why weight should never be used as a measurement. I have been training a client for 3 full months and she has only lost 5-lbs, but she has lost 5.5 inches off her waist. These results have a lot to do with loosing fat while build muscle. Because of this, the number on the scale does not move much but the inches are flying off. She has had to buy a whole new wardrobe and has not looked this great in years but if her baseline was weight the progress does not look too impressive.
• 6 minuet mile – I know people that hate cardio training and all they want to do is lift, but as long as they can stay fairly close to that 6 minuet mile, all is right in the world.
• Squat or Deadlift – Maybe you are an endurance junkie but you want to make sure that you can still squat or deadlift your body weight.
• Standing broad jump – Many strength and conditioning coaches use this measurement to determine if their athlete is becoming more powerful

Standing broad jump is 100% explosive power

A few more ideas:

• Vertical jump
• Cycling power output
• 5K time
• 100-meter sprint time
• Max number of pull-ups
• 200-meter swim time

The bottom line is that you need to decide your own baseline measurement and it should be based on your own fitness related goals. Ask yourself, Why am I working out? What do I want to accomplish? Is this new training plan helping or hurting my goal? Try to keep your baseline measurement as consistent as possible to help reduce the amount of unknowns that can effect your data.

Tell me what baseline methods you are using.

That's what 370-lbs looks like. Sorry the pic is blurry

We are now 7 weeks into the deadlift challenge and we are both getting very close to our respective goals! The results after 7 weeks of the challenge are listed below:

• Garett – 370lbs = 2.13 x body weight
• Jessica – 280lbs = 1.95 x body weight

Something about women deadlifting that I like

It is not looking good for me, I have to make some serious progress in the next couple of weeks if I have any hope to winning this challenge. Jessica is doing awesome!!!

Now I would like to talk about something that drives me crazy! I want to talk about “all work and no exercise” guy. This guy will obnoxiously tell anybody that will listen to him that he works 60 hours a week and he says this as if it is some badge of honor to be proudly displayed. Ironically, this guy isn’t the CEO of some fortune 500 company, best case scenario he is middle management, most likely case, he is just a worker bee.

The problem with this guy is that he is defined by his job, NOT by his lifestyle or experiences. Let’s not forget that most people have a hard enough time staying busy for 40-hours, let alone 60-hours a week. This guy is extremely inefficient and uses his job as a cover for his numerous insecurities, loveless marriage, and/or lack of hobbies. Worst of all, this same guy is usually overweight and will claim he doesn’t have enough time to workout.

Hell, even the President finds time to play hoops

I have an idea for “this guy”, how about you take some of that energy and pride you have for your crappy job and use it to invest in yourself and take care of your health. Trust me no one is impressed that you work 60 hours at Initech doing TSP reports, all we see is that you are an overweight slob that has no life outside of work.

Now with that being said, I am calling out all CF crybabies. These are the people that lose their mind once someone challenges their beloved methodology. Why are you guys so insecure? Man, I hate crybabies, I get enough crying and whining from my soccer team…nothing like a grown man crying, if you play adult league soccer you know what I am talking about. Anyway back to the whinny CrossFitter’s, take for example this article from Men’s Health it is a well written article that address many of the concerns fitness professionals have about CF. Yes, it was obviously written by someone with an agenda but really what isn’t? Look at the comments, the CF crybabies loose their mind because that can’t believe that someone dares challenge their beloved “perfect” fitness system. The same goes for this article. Trust me there are plenty more I am just too lazy to search for them.

CF regularly performs  dangerous movements that can lead to injury such as the Sumo Deadlift High Pull (SDHP), as explained here and this is a well respected site in the CrossFit community! A similar post questioning the use of SDHP in CrossFit can be read here, again the comment section has a bunch of crybabies offended that someone is questioning CrossFit, *bonus* see if you can find my comment. But despite the fact that this information about the SDHP is out there on well read CrossFit “approved” sites you still find this seen below (click on the picture for a high resolution picture):

It ironic because CF does nothing but make fun of, or belittle other people’s exercise routines/methodologies whether it is going to”Globo-gym”, using the elliptical machine (well I am with you on that one), training for “beach muscles”, attending aerobics classes,  or doing endurance sports no system is safe from CF’s wrath. But don’t you dare question CrossFit’s methodology. Don’t even dare bring up the dead hang pull-up versus kipping pull-up debate with a CF crybaby because they are likely going to murder you.

A REAL pull-up is performed from a dead hang with no assistance from momentum. Stop with the dumb argument that it (kipping) is an endurance exercise and requires more muscles, their are smarter and more efficient ways to work endurance while conducting the Workout of the Day (WOD in CrossFit).  Also your endurance is improved by the no-rest “circuit style” workout that has become CrossFit’s calling card not the difference in the amount of pull-ups. Plus anyone who has done both types of pull-ups know that dead hangs are MUCH harder and build more strength. Dead hangs and weight pull-ups are under utilized in CF.

Despite all this believe it or not, I also don’t hate CrossFit. I think the general idea of high intensity workouts that combine strength and endurance training is great and I know many people have achieve great results. If fact I have done CF for the last six months, however I am not going to continue with my CF training because I realized I like a more goal oriented type of training.

There is probably no perfect one size fits all fitness approach. As cheesy as it sounds, the best fitness program is the one that gets you off the couch. All training systems have pro and cons. I have done many great CF workouts and I have done some utterly ridiculously long workouts, where critical form is compromised for speed and/or fatigue and those type of workouts probably do you more harm then good. Remember CrossFit is not perfect and not all the workouts should not be treated as gospel. Not to mention CF’s huge success and easily obtainable certification process, means an explosion of new gyms, many with inexperience or under-qualified coaches.

Look at the end of the day you should be confident in your fitness methodology and no that haters are going to hate. But the second you start whining, the “non-believers” start to think that you may not really be enjoying that Kool-aid after all.

Just about everybody has heard about muscle confusion thanks to CrossFit and P90x. I even believe in the idea but from a much different perspective (I’ll explain later). However, CrossFit seems to take the idea of muscle confusion to the extreme. A lot of times, I feel there is not much thought behind the Workout of the Day (WOD) or that there is even some type of short term goal in mind, a “method behind the madness” if you will, it all just feels very random. Inexperienced and/or lazy coaches can hide behind this idea of muscle confusion. Maybe I am secretly jealous that I did not come up with the idea because it is actually quite brilliant, once you establish the idea of muscle confusion anything goes. Squats everyday for one week, I’ll bet your body did not see that one coming. Power-cleans and muscle-ups once every two months or a rope climb once ever 6 months, man your muscles are confused they don’t know whats coming next and you never have time to get good at anything or make any real measurable progress, never mind that fact that random (thoughtless) programming leads to overuse injuries, you just know that you can do random stuff faster than the new guy.

The myth idea behind muscle confusion is that over time your muscles will adapt to certain movements, thus becoming efficient at these movements and once this happens you no longer make improvements (hitting that dreaded fitness plateau). So in order to stay away from the plateau you must constantly vary your workouts, this means constantly doing different (random) exercises, changing the order of in which you complete the exercises, and changing the amount of reps and sets all in an effort to trick your muscles into getting stronger.

The real problem with this idea of muscle confusion is that it can hamper progress. From a scientific standpoint muscle confusion adds to many variables to the equation. You don’t know what is working and what is not and it is vary hard to track your progress. I know because I have been a victim many times. Let me give you an example; just about every loser gym rat (myself included until I recently) bench presses somewhere between 185-lbs and 225-lbs, usually lifting just slightly over 1 times their body-weight,  and they will stay in this range for years and probably even a lifetime. Why because they constantly change their lifting routine sometimes even on a weekly basis.

It is true your muscles do adapt over time. If you ran a 5K every day at the same speed your muscles would adapt and you would become extremely efficient and thus you would stop seeing any physical benefit from the daily running. Same goes with lifting, if you lift the same weight the same amount of time you will never get stronger. So, as promised I will explain my version on “muscle confusion”. First let me say you can’t confuse your muscles, you either use your muscles or you don’t. You can’t tell you leg muscles to take the day off because you are just going to train upper body today and then quickly run over to the squat rack and start doing squats hoping to catch your legs by surprise. With that said, you “confuse” your muscle by changing the volume load of the exercise, not the exercise itself. This means stressing your muscles by constantly adding weight and/or reps for a specific exercise and taking advantage of supercompensation. It is like they say in triathlons “it never gets easier, you just go faster”, the same is true for lifting you can always add more weight or do one more rep.

Lastly, I am not saying that you have to do the same workout day-in and day-out. This is where short term goals can be used to “spice up” your exercise routine. So basically what I am saying is, if you want to be able to do pull-ups, make pull-ups the focus of your training for the next month or two with a smart, consistent, plan that allows you to track progress by removing the unwanted variables and always remember that proper rest between workouts is a must!

Lastly-er, as I mentioned in a previous post I am creating a 12-week strength training program that will allow you to track progress and make gains in a smart and consistent manner. I hope to get that out soon.