Journals and Blog Posts

The Journals and Blog Posts section has a looser format than the other sections. Here you will find various topics pertaining to my life that don’t fit into the other areas of the blog.

So read on and please leave your questions/comments! To learn more about the services and products I offer, schedule a free, no-commitment training session and consultation with me and I will show you first hand!

Featured Client: Erin Sadler

Welcome to another Featured Client installment, where I showcase the successes of my awesome clients! Today’s featured client is Erin Sadler.

Erin is a hair stylist who came to me originally as a CORE Condition Fitness Camp client, and then transitioned into a combined personal training and fitness camp program. One interesting thing I’ve noticed with my clients who are hair stylists is that they have a lot of issues with their shoulders—a combination of hovering over their clients all day and having to hold hair dryers up for extended periods of time.

As a side note, when Erin first came to me, she had what I would consider to be a significantly-protracted shoulder girdle—that is, her shoulders rounded forward quite a bit. That’s something we really focused on with our training program and I have seen a huge improvement in her posture, ability to breathe correctly and just how she carries herself! Continue Reading Featured Client: Erin Sadler »

Featured Client: Alex Mendez

As you all know, last month I started a new column on the blog called Client of the Month, where I share the experiences and successes of one of my clients each month. This month I’m featuring one of my most successful clients, Alex, who has lost almost 75 pounds and gone from being obese to successfully reaching his healthy weight, which he is now maintaining not only with lots of intense exercise, but with his newfound understanding of nutrition.

Alex is one of my nutritional coaching clients, a program designed to help people lose weight and maintain it for their lifetime. In conjunction with my bootcamp, Alex has surpassed even my highest expectations and has completely blown me away with his results, drive and motivation! Without further ado, here is Alex and his story of success! Continue Reading Featured Client: Alex Mendez »

Featured Client: Monika Iannone

Alright guys, I have to admit something… while it’s no secret that I friggin’ LOVE my clients and am their biggest cheerleader—after all, I have the awesome opportunity to train some of the hardest-working, committed and inspirational people on the planet on a daily basis—I haven’t been sharing their amazing successes as much as I would like to. Every day I am amazed at what can be accomplished by someone who sets their mind to something, follows the right path laid out for them and sticks with it on a consistent basis. I think it’s high time that I began sharing these awesome stories of personal achievement with everyone else so that we can all be inspired to take ownership and control of our health/fitness and really make a difference in our own lives.

As such, I am going to start a monthly article called “Client of the Month”—each month I will showcase one of my clients, their story, their successes and the sometimes bumpy road that it took for them to get to where they are today. Continue Reading Featured Client: Monika Iannone »

8 Weeks to RIPPED, Weeks #7 and #8

Well, the last two weeks of my cutting program have come and gone and the results are in—looks like I came very close to my desired goals and I am very happy with my progress over the past 20 months. While 20 months of hard training and dieting to gain 7 lbs of muscle may seem like an unfair trade-off, it’s actually a pretty good accomplishment for an advanced lifter like me who is approaching his fitness naturally (ie. without steroids). I think it’s clear at this point that I am knowledgable enough about my body that I can predict how certain situations will affect it, which is a very good skill to have for long-term weight management.

Coming out of this cut, I am leaner than I thought I would be, and yet at the same time have continued to have personal records on my lifts at the gym, which is great. Continue Reading 8 Weeks to RIPPED, Weeks #7 and #8 »

8 Weeks to RIPPED, Weeks #5 and #6

The last two weeks have been a success as I am clearly on the path towards my goal and losing fat at a steady, predictable rate now. At this point I plan to keep doing what I’m doing and it’s just a matter of time till I hit my goal, which should be before the deadline. If I am lucky I may even surpass my original goals!

Looking back, this cut cycle has gone pretty smoothly thus far. I don’t think I would change anything if I were to do it over—my body fat has declined without a major loss in muscle tissue, and my strength has continued to increase steadily throughout the process. My energy levels have been all over the board but that is to be expected when I keep interrupting my ketosis cycle on a weekly basis (an unfortunate necessity on a carb cycling program like this). Thankfully, energy has been high during my weekend workout which is the one that matters most for muscle retention so I can’t complain too much. Continue Reading 8 Weeks to RIPPED, Weeks #5 and #6 »

8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #4

As I always say, supplementation should be seen as “extra credit.” Just as you wouldn’t do a terrible job on your homework in school and expect the small effect of extra credit to make up for it, you can’t expect supplementation to take up the slack from a crappy diet. To continue the analogy, just as you could do without extra credit completely if you do well on your homework, you can do without supplementation completely as well, provided your diet is on point. Supplementation simply gives a small edge to those who already have their diet dialed in and want that extra little boost. For the general population, this small increase in results probably doesn’t justify the expense of these supplements.

That being said, for my use, supplements can come in handy for a variety of reasons. Continue Reading 8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #4 »

8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #3

Last week I discussed nutrition as it pertains to my cut; specifically carb-cycling—with the weekdays being extremely low carb days and then a large refeed towards the weekend. Eating in this manner allows me to manipulate the glycogen stores within my muscles (stored sugar for immediate energy usage), which makes my body more anabolic and apt to burn body fat for energy in the beginning of the week, but then preventing metabolic depression and muscle loss by switching to a glycogen-rich environment on the weekend.

However, my nutrition program only works because of the fitness regimen that I perform that goes hand in hand with it. Without either piece of the puzzle (fitness or nutrition), I would get few, if any, results. During the low-carb days of the week, I perform very high repetition workouts along with sessions of cardiovascular exercise in order to completely use up any remaining glycogen from my previous weekend’s refeed. Continue Reading 8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #3 »

8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #2

Allow me to clear up a potential misunderstanding before I begin this week’s journal. For sustainable, healthy weight loss I do not recommend going low carb for an extended period of time. When dealing with a temporary achievement of single-digit, unsustainable body fat levels however, cycling carbohydrates can be very successful. A large issue in the fitness industry is that specialized diets with a very specific purpose (NOT general weight loss) are often misunderstood and adopted by ordinary folks looking for general weight loss, which is ineffective, unsafe and sometimes even counter-productive.

For the general public, by far and large the most important factor to weight loss is the amount of calories being consumed, followed by the macronutrient breakdown and the food choice. Micromanaging nutrient timing, balance and supplementation is a huge waste of time for most people–not only will it fail to provide superior results to regular, healthy eating practices, but in fact may cause more of a hinderance than a help. Continue Reading 8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #2 »

8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #1

Some of you who have been following my blog posts lately might be wondering, “Huh? Weren’t you just on a twelve week effort to GAIN a bunch of weight? Why are you doing a 180 and trying to lose weight now, you idiot?” All jokes aside, alternating phases of “bulking” (putting on muscle mass) and “cutting” (reducing body fat) is the primary way to improve your body as an advanced exerciser, and is the method used by all body builders, fitness models, celebrities, etc who are looking to significantly increase their size over a span of time.

Once your body adapts to the stresses of exercise (after approximately 6 months to a year of consistent training), your results come much slower than before, particularly in the area of lean mass gain. Continue Reading 8 Weeks to RIPPED, Week #1 »

The Road to 215, Week #12

I took a much-needed break from work last week (which included blogging) so my final write-up is a week later than it should be, but the good news is that the results of my bulk were pretty close to what I was originally shooting for.  Since I still had some leeway as far as my body fat percentage was concerned, I decided to significantly increase my caloric intake for the second time since beginning my bulk.

At 4,000 calories per day, I was able to pack on quite a bit more mass per week than in previous weeks, and thanks to my intense lifting regimen, I was able to put a good portion of that weight gain towards lean mass. I ended my bulk only 3 lbs short of my original goal, both in terms of desired lean mass gained and desired total mass gained. Continue Reading The Road to 215, Week #12 »