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At some point during their weight loss journey, a lot of people may ask the question: why am I not losing weight.  What to do to lose weight may seem relatively simple: eat less and exercise more.  While this mantra may hold under ideal scientific conditions, as human beings there are other factors that go into the weight loss equation. Don’t get me wrong, at the end of the day I still think weight loss is driven by how many calories you consume versus how many calories you expend.  Ultimately this comes down to diet and exercise. Diet: One Way to Lose Weight In my opinion, diet should be the key area of focus when it comes to what to do to lose weight.  While most people will just try to eat less calories, I actually think there are 5 separate factors that influence diet: calories, appetite, taste, emotional eating, and nature vs. nurture. Calories This is where it all begins.  For a minute, let’s just forget about the quality of calories you eat....

A couple weeks ago, a colleague asked me about how to increase bench press.  Increasing bench press is something I used to train for a long time ago.  While it’s not one of my current goals, the first question out of a lot of people’s mouths in the gym is: how much do you bench?  However, the first thing you should be asking yourself is: why do you want to increase your bench press?  This question is important because you should adjust your bench press routine based on different end goals.  Below I outline how to increase bench press if your goal is simply increasing your one rep max, increasing muscle mass and strength, or just building a better looking chest. Increase Your Bench Press No matter what your goal, the first recommendation for increasing your bench press is to develop proper form.  A few pointers: Keep your feet flat on the floor, shoulder width apart Grip should be slightly wider than shoulder width Keep your shoulder blades together...

I recently started incorporating kettlebell exercises into my workout routine.  If you want to add a little variety and ramp up fat burning, I’d highly recommend utilizing kettlebell workout routines.  So, why should you start using kettlebells?  Because they’re great for increasing strength, losing body fat, and improving your cardiovascular health.  What more could you want out of a piece of equipment?  Another benefit I’ve found is that one-arm kettlebell exercises have helped me even out the strength between my arms. What is a kettlebell? As you can see from the picture, a kettlebell is a cannonball with a handle.  For some, the initial reaction to kettlebell workout routines is that you can perform the same exercises with dumbbells or a barbell.  In my recent experience, I’ve found the kettlebell provides a slightly different workout than either though.  It lies in the fact that you hold the handle to perform exercises which means the wei...

Have you ever wondered about how to make your strength training workout more time efficient and effective?  Then it’s time to consider a high weight, low reps superset workout routine.  The best way to build strength is by using a heavy weight that you can only lift for a few reps.  Ideally you want to give your muscles plenty of time to rest between sets so that you avoid training to failure.  However, this is terribly inefficient.  This is where superset workout routines can be helpful.  Rather than just resting between sets, you perform a different exercise.  I’ve discussed my preferred way to combine high weight, low rep training with a superset workout in Fitness in a Flash and How to Get a Beach Body but thought it might be worthwhile to provide a little more flavor. High Weight, Low Reps If you’re focused on gaining strength, then I’d highly recommend combining high weight training with low reps.  Muscle fibers experience the most growt...

While I generally think heavy lifting while avoiding failure is the best way to train, every once in a while I like to perform low weight high reps training to failure.  This is primarily used for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy which results in muscle mass gains.  Done strategically, training to failure can actually generate a nice “shrink-wrap effect” as well.  However, over the long term, I think low weight high reps training is best left to bodybuilders. Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy vs. Myofibrillar Hypertrophy Let’s get the technical stuff out of the way.  Low weight high reps training to failure results in sarcoplasmic hypertrophy while high weight low reps training avoiding failure results in myofibrillar hypertrophy.  So what’s the difference?  Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is characterized by bigger muscles.  However, that volume is in the form of sarcoplasmic fluid.  Fluids can’t contract so while sarcoplasmic hypertrophy results in muscles with mor...

Why Gymnastics Training The amazing thing about gymnastics exercises is that you can get immensely strong.  Because gymnastics training is built around bodyweight exercises, a common misconception is that there is more of an endurance focus rather than strength focus.  This stems from the fact that many people can perform high reps of pushups, pull ups, and other bodyweight exercises.  However, gymnastics training can make these exercises significantly more challenging by changing angles and how much leverage you have.  The key to increasing strength is to increase the challenge of a bodyweight exercise to the point where you can only perform a low number of reps. Another argument is that the increased strength from gymnastics training won’t translate into strength in the gym.  In Building the Gymnastics Body, Coach Sommer describes some pretty impressive feats of a student who had only performed gymnastics exercises and had never used weights.  This s...

Over the past couple months, my fitness routine has included many of my favorite strategies to get six pack abs.  Combining a clean diet with ample strength training and cardio has allowed me to significantly reduce my body fat to a level I have never been before.  As such, I’d like to share my six pack abs workout routine and diet plan.  Additionally, I’d like to review some of my preferred six pack abs exercises.  While I can’t guarantee you’ll see the same results as me, I hope that many of these tips will help you learn how to get six pack abs. How to Get Six Pack Abs The fundamental key to getting six pack abs is that your body fat has to be very low.  Everyone is different, but generally for men, you’ll start to see your abs around 10% body fat.  You’ll look completely ripped if you get under 6% body fat.  For women, you’ll start to see a nice six pack when your body fat is around 16%.  Anything under 12% and you’ll have ripped abs. Wh...