As with all things, we want the best return of investment in our activities, and exercise should be no exception.  Most individual’s goals can be summarized into the following: losing bodyfat, keeping or gaining muscle and strength, as well as being healthy.  The following information is applicable and necessary to do all of these things.

The first consideration is to ensure you are doing both resistance training and cardiovascular activity.  Resistance training is defined as contracting your muscles against a resisting force.  Examples are lifting weights, machines or resistance bands.  The reason for incorporating resistance is that it gives the body a reason to maintain or increase muscle mass, which for most, starts to decrease after age 25.  Not only is muscle loss not good for pure appearance and strength, but muscle is the “furnace” of your metabolism.  Muscle burns calories and when you increase or gain muscle, your metabolism is running faster.  If you lose muscle, your metabolism goes down which leads to an increase in bodyfat.

The second type of exercise you want to include is cardiovascular (cardio).  Cardio is defined as using oxygen as a source of energy (or aerobic activity).  This is important to include for many reasons.  One is that it improves your cardiovascular rate, which can be simply explained as the efficiency of your heart and lungs working together.  Another reason is that cardio burns calories.  If you want to maintain an athletic, toned physique, you need to not only have proper nutrition habits, but also burn adequate calories throughout the day to keep bodyfat from accumulating (or to lose it).

The proper way to structure these two activities are crucial.  First, with resistance training, make sure you hit all body parts (especially legs).  This will optimize all the factors mentioned above in addition to ensuring you don’t have any imbalances or weaknesses (that can lead to injury).  Additionally, make sure the resistance is heavy enough to do what it’s supposed to do.  Pick a weight that allows you to do at least 8 repetitions but no more than 12.  This is optimal for muscle stimulation.  Three sets and 2-3 exercises per body part are sufficient.  I am currently doing four days per week.  A common myth is doing higher reps to burn fat, not true.  This is what nutrition and cardio are for.

Regarding cardio, I define 3 basic types: fat loss, efficiency and metabolic.  The first is what I refer to as “steady state or SS” cardio.  This is low intensity, keeping your heart rate in the 60-65% range of your max HR.  Your body burns fatty acids most effectively here; recovery is improved and is great for those who aren’t conditioned to do the higher intensity forms (yet).  However, once you cease SS cardio, the metabolism goes back to baseline.  Efficiency cardio is what I like to call the type that endurance athletes focus on as a general rule.  This is being able to improve performance in endurance events (such as a 5k road race or triathlon).  Certainly this boosts the metabolism and burns calories, but carbohydrates (glycogen) are a main source of energy (verses fatty acids).  Finally, metabolic cardio is going to cause your body to raise its metabolism for hours after you have competed it.  This is high intensity interval training (HIIT) such as sprints.  I recommend 15-20 seconds of maximum effort followed by 45 seconds of recovery.  Do these about 10 times, then a 10 min cool down.  Twice a week on your non-lifting days is plenty on HIIT as its taxing on the body.  If you do cardio on the days you lift (I prefer to do it on non-lifting days), lift first then do cardio to take advantage of more fat loss.

If I can summarize this entire article in one word it would be consistency.  Consistency in your exercise and nutrition is the key to success in the quest to be your absolute best.  Remember, effort in equals results out, make everyday, every workout and every meal count!

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The main goals of an effective pre-workout are increasing blood flow, reduce fatigue, increased energy and mental focus.  In the video below, Ryan Irwin demonstrates what he does for his pre-workout formula.

Again, don’t neglect your recovery supplements (as most do) since they are more important than a performance aid, but if you have this covered, give a pre-workout a test for your next training session.

As Mike Beiter explains in the video below, by strengthening the lats you will increase your bench press and other pressing exercises.  The lying cable pullovers are a unique and effective way to train this muscle which is has a great carry over affect to the bench press.  Not only that, it is a great exercise to isolate the lats which can trigger muscle growth and that coveted “V-taper”.

Throw this in on either your bench press or your back training session for an effective accessory exercise.

For more information on this or other supplements, nutrition coaching or personal training, email mike@nutrisportFPT.com or visit either our Clive or Altoona locations, where you want to go for results and not a sales pitch!

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Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141

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1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona (next to Hairy’s Day Spa)
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As we’ve discussed before, you want carbohydrates and protein immediately post workout.  In the video below, Ryan Irwin demonstrates a variation to the typical recovery shake and shares his post training power cereal goodness recipe.

Important to note that this or any recovery shake/meal should be injested within 30 minutes after training to optimize uptake.  As I mention in the video, I will alternate items such as creatine, beta alanine, DAA and other supplements as well as amounts of macro nutrients but the base of carbs and protein is always there.

For more information on this or other supplements, nutrition coaching or personal training, email ryan@nutrisportFPT.com or visit either our Clive or Altoona locations, where you want to go for results and not a sales pitch!

“Like” us on Facebook here

Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141

Nutri-Sport Altoona
1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona (next to Hairy’s Day Spa)
Altoona, IA 50009
515.266.2225

Ideally you want a warm up that gets the tissue activated and ready to fire, blood flowing and limber.  What you don’t want is to exhaust yourself during the warm up or do anything that is proven to reduce performance (such as stretching a cold muscle).

In the video below, Mike Beiter demonstrates a warm up sequence for the lower body.  This is done prior to touching any weights and is repeated if there are still areas of tightness.  Once lifting has begun, we start out with an empty bar with the goal of being able to have a full range of motion prior to adding weight.

Similar to the shoulder warm up you can view here, do this prior to any lower body work.  If you have areas of extreme tightness or are wanting increased mobility, this sequence can be performed daily.

It's always good to have a reliable training partner on leg day!

For more information on this or other supplements, nutrition coaching or personal training, email mike@nutrisportFPT.com or visit either our Clive or Altoona locations, where you want to go for results and not a sales pitch!

“Like” us on Facebook here

Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141

Nutri-Sport Altoona
1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona (next to Hairy’s Day Spa)
Altoona, IA 50009
515.266.2225

In the video below, Mike Beiter demonstrates the cable pull through, which is a great exercise to strengthen this area, not too mention a great shaping exercise for the glutes.

Put this exercise in your program during your next leg or back session.

Next time you want to kick up your fat loss and performance up a notch, begin incorporating this in your cardio routine.

For more information on this or other supplements, nutrition coaching or personal training, email mike@nutrisportFPT.com or visit either our Clive or Altoona locations, where you want to go for results and not a sales pitch!

“Like” us on Facebook here

Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141

Nutri-Sport Altoona
1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona (next to Hairy’s Day Spa)
Altoona, IA 50009
515.266.2225

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT for short) has been shown in many research studies to be an effective way to not only reduce bodyfat but also increase muscle.  As Mike Beiter explains in the video below, by doing short bursts of effort, one can maximize their fat loss and also improve their power, hormones and stamina.

Key points is that this should not be done too frequently throughout the week as your body needs to recover properly. Also, those doing a very low carb (keto) diet would likely break more muscle down in this sort of training and usually miss out of the benefits of HIIT.

Next time you want to kick up your fat loss and performance up a notch, begin incorporating this in your cardio routine.

For more information on this or other supplements, nutrition coaching or personal training, email mike@nutrisportFPT.com or visit either our Clive or Altoona locations, where you want to go for results and not a sales pitch!

“Like” us on Facebook here

Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141

Nutri-Sport Altoona
1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona (next to Hairy’s Day Spa)
Altoona, IA 50009
515.266.2225

However after a good showing at the 2012 Arnold by placing 3rd, I have reassessed my goals and have decided to continue to compete in powerlifting for another solid year, then go back to the pro natural bodybuilding stage in 2013.  Then next contest I am planning on is the USAPL Raw Nationals, held at TX in August.  This is the qualifier for the Team USA, which competes in the IPF World Raw Championships, held in Sweden this year.

Top 3 in 74K weight class at NAPF Raw Challenge

My love and passion for natural bodybuilding is unchanged, and am prepping to put on the NANBF Nutri-Sport Natural Iowa on May 12 this year.  But I want to see how far I can go with powerlifting in the next year, with continuing to increase in strength without dieting down for a pre contest prep.

As usual, my training will still have a bodybuilding “flavor” but will continue to focus on improving my strength.  Currently I am going to do the Smolov squat program, which is a very intense squat training cycle, and has been shown to increase one’s squats significantly.  This is the lift out of the squat, bench press and deadlift I have the most area for improvement.  I will continue to send updates on my training log.

My immediate focus is to help my training partner, Mike Beiter and members of Team FPT to prepare for the next meet, which is the NASA State Championships in Des Moines on April 21st.

Goals are critical for motivation and to have check points to access progress.

For more information on this or other supplements, nutrition coaching or personal training, email ryan@nutrisportFPT.com or visit either our Clive or Altoona locations, where you want to go for results and not a sales pitch!

“Like” us on Facebook here

Nutri-Sport and Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
www.nutrisportfpt.com
515.331.2141

Nutri-Sport Altoona
1003 8th St SW, STE K in Altoona (next to Hairy’s Day Spa)
Altoona, IA 50009
515.266.2225