Lighten Up! Maximize Your Results Through Perfect Form, Not More Weight

With lifting, it's about how, not about how much

We've all seen it, and guys are the worst, wildly swinging huge weights, bodies swaying all over the place, swayed back, half or even quarter reps, then banging the weights down hard, causing everyone in the gym to look over to see if an accident just occurred. 

Yep, we're talking about what I call ego lifters.  These are the guys who boost their self esteem and try to impress others by loading up as much weight as they can lift off the ground or off the rack, and then make a ridiculous mockery of themselves and the exercise they're trying to perform.

Are You Mentally Tough?

Okay, so really, how many of you challenge yourselves in the gym? I see this all of the time where people let fatigue get in their way, where they let their bodies control their minds.

What the heck is fatigue anyway? A rocketing locomotive that's going to vaporize us on contact? No, fatigue is nothing more than a mental perception based on sensory input into the brain.

How we interpret this input and then act on it is what sets people apart, this is the essense of mental toughness.


Simplified, the muscles say to the brain, "okay, I'm tapped, that's it, nothing left, better stop". That's the sensory input.

Muscle Growth with Full Muscle Action Spectrum

We all want to make the most of our workouts, and several techniques can provide help packing tons of benefits into a short period of time in the gym. No single approach, however, provides as much benefit for our time invested as using the full muscle action spectrum.

Good lifting form has many dimensions, and, generally speaking, most people do a crummy job with their form.  Good form, among other things, helps us get the most muscle development from every single rep. And if we're looking to make the most of our gym time, it makes sense that we'd want to get the most from each rep.

One important aspect of good form is fully utilizing the three different actions that muscles produce on every rep, known as the muscle action spectrum. The three actions are as follows:

1) Eccentric Action: lengthening of the muscle while decelerating force
2) Isometric Action: holding muscle contraction equal to the force placed on it
3) Concentric Action: shortening of the muscle while accelerating force

Let's take the standard bicep curl as an example. How many times have you seen someone quickly curl the weight up, then just drop it down to their side? What just happened? Simple, they hit the concentric action and abandoned the isometric and the eccentric actions.

Learning from Bodybuilders

Following is an excerpt from my upcoming book on new fitness paradigms. 

Bodybuilders have a bad rap. We’ve created a stereotype of them as dumb, rude, steroid-gulping knuckleheads to be avoided like the plague. The fitness industry overall doesn’t do a great job to counter this, presumably some think we all want to look like the Incredible Hulk, smashing our fists through walls and doors and crushing people’s car hoods. In truth, a bodybuilder is anyone doing resistance training to improve their physique based on their own personal goals. That’s it. They’re as likely to be your neighbor, your doctor, or the person standing next to you in the checkout line. So let’s dispense with any existing notions or mental images of bodybuilders, we in fact have much to learn from them.

Resistance training – the use of free weights and other resistance equipment – provides the single best and most important form of exercise for just about anyone. No other activity will provide the overall benefit of dramatically improved muscle size, muscle strength, tendon strength, joint strength and stability, and the additional benefit of increased bone density (stronger bones less susceptible to breaks, fractures, and osteoporosis). So who knows the most about this? Traditional bodybuilders, that’s who. These folks have been practicing resistance training for decades and have accumulated untold levels of understanding in this area. No, that doesn’t mean you will look like Arnold, you won’t, but you may be surprised by what you can look like.

And for women it’s totally critical to know that resistance training absolutely will not make you “look like that” - the most common reason why women reject the entire notion of weight lifting and resistance training. Ladies, time to drop this as your excuse to not do resistance training, you won’t look like female version of the Incredible Hulk, but you will look sleek and toned and you will enjoy your body and your life at least 100% more than you do now, I will personally guarantee that!

An unfortunate aspect of resistance training is that an incredibly small minority chooses to use illegal steroids as an artificial means to get ahead in competitive bodybuilding, and it’s just as unfortunate that these people get a majority of the sport’s publicity, it shouldn’t be that way but it is. Don’t let that taint you toward lifting in any way, shape, or form. Resistance training and proper diet provides your path toward a better life, and it’s especially important for women to understand that instead of “looking like that”, you can in fact achieve the most beautifully feminine physique of your life, even after 50!

It's the Diet Stupid!

Looking to lose body fat? If you're counting on relatively low-intensity cardio to get it done you may be counting wrong. While cardio provides many benefits, too many people see cardio as an end-all for body fat loss. To be sure, cardio can create an environment where body fat is burned and also can contribute to creating the all-important calorie deficit required for body fat loss. However, many people fall short of their fat-loss goals by making incorrect assumptions about using cardio, especially assumptions about a cardio-only approach.

Important to note we're talking about mainstream, or low-intensity cardio - the people who trudge away on treadmills at a slow jog for long time periods. High-intensity cardio like going all out for ten sets of 30 seconds isn't suitable for the general population due to conditioning, injury risk and that it's hard and most people just won't stick with it.

Cardio is a great thing; it pumps tons of oxygenated blood through the body, hastens delivery of nutrients to muscles and organs, develops a strong heart and strong lungs, and, at times, can give us a wonderfully euphoric shot of endorphins.  Additionally, cardio requires the body to burn calories, a good thing for fat loss. But here's where some people get badly off track.

Sexuality and Power: Learn 6 Ways Body Image Affects Us

Are you satisfied with your body?

Wow, that question opens a big can of worms. If you're seriously into fitness, the answer "no, I'm not satisfied" may come more easily as most in this category accept constructive criticism as healthy and necessary to goal attainment of a more perfect body.

Others, however, may feel differently and may either shy away from critical physical assessments or may simply say they accept themselves as they are. However, some recent research suggests something much deeper going on.

We judge our bodies mostly by how we think we're viewed by the opposite sex, according to several recent studies. And although several factors contribute to our body self-image, foremost is the desire for power over the opposite sex. Following are six ways body image can affect us according to one survey:

1)  Size - Men perceive large physical size as powerful, while women see being smaller and more petite as better for obtaining power and influence over the opposite sex.

2)  Satisfaction - Men generally are more satisfied with their appearance and see themselves as attractive to women, even when they're not in great shape, while women were generally less satisfied with their appearance and desiring to improve it to gain power over men.

3)  Social Pressure - Women feel social pressure to look attractive in order to gain power more than men do as popular culture tends to focus more on glorification of the perfect female body and appearance.

4)  Motivation - Women are generally more motivated to change their appearance by what men think, while men are more motivated by what they think of themselves, suggesting that men tend to already see themselves with the inherent upper hand.

5)  Height - Both men and women agree that the man should be taller than the woman in a relationship, and that the reverse has a negative impact on the relationship's power structure, i.e. both the taller woman and the shorter man would have less power over the opposite sex.

6)  Physical Standards - Women are generally less concerned about physicality and more concerned about femininity as a power lever over the opposite sex, while men were more concerned a strong physical appearance and overall presence.

Agree or disagree? Post your thoughts below...

Health and Fitness Evangelism - Share the Love

Other people – people you may care deeply about – need you to get them started on their own personal health and fitness journey. As a member of the fitness community you will have an obligation to share the love with others.

In his classic book The Tipping Point on viral networking (a great book, by the way), author Malcolm Gladwell describes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable”. Gladwell leverages the tipping point concept from physics and applies it to how ideas travel and become accepted in a society. In physics, the tipping point describes how a relatively small amount of weight added to a balanced object can cause it to suddenly and completely topple.

We need to completely topple society’s existing paradigms regarding health and fitness, and it starts with each one of us going out among our friends, our families, our neighbors, and our associates and informing them that, regardless of their past or of their current situation, few limitations exist on our ability to realize the greatest levels of health, fitness, and strength that we’ve ever known.

7 Reasons Why Workouts Fail You

While literally millions of people workout, very few realize true workout success. Most dabble in the gym on and off, never getting results. They quit working out, usually under a myriad of excuses along the lines of being too busy or of disappointment that "they're just not seeing results".  Below are seven common reasons why workouts fail:

1) No clear goals - If you can't measure it you can't manage it. Too many people head into the gym with either no thought of what they're trying to accomplish or vague goals of "losing weight" and "toning up".

What to do: Be specific and write it down. If the goal is weight loss or body fat loss, identify how many pounds or the target weight, the time element, and what you'll do every day to make it happen. If it's muscle gain, identify things like desired bicep and chest measurements or one-rep max increases.

2) Motivation is missing - motivation has two key elements: a) possessing a goal that is deeply meaningful to you, and b) feeling mostly in control of the outcome.  If motivation is missing from your workouts, examine these two factors and identify what's missing. Why do you care about your goals? Do you feel you can make them happen or do you need help?

Improve Your Physique with Muscle Balance and Flexibility

We tend to think of our skeletal systems as what keeps us upright and erect, after all they’re the most rigid part of our bodies. But it’s our muscles, not our skeletal system that makes this happen. In fact, our skeletal system is simply the framework that our muscles attach to in order to work.

To be sure, our bone health is critically important, and an added benefit to resistance training is increased bone density, but our skeletons, and thus our bodies, are nothing without a very strong, flexible muscle base.

Yoga instructors often talk about not “settling into your joints” meaning that our muscles should carry our weight, not our joints. This is really a key concept in understanding the importance of a strong muscle base. For most of us, our joints have several decades of use on them, and if our muscle base is allowed to decline then the joints must bear more weight, stress, and wear.

Fitness over Fifty: Three Myths Exploded

The famed baby boomer generation is now aged between 46 and 64, so shortly this entire post-WWII demographic bubble will be over 50. And they're in horrible physical shape.

The luxuries that the baby boomers have created for themselves are mostly their downfall; rich, plentiful calorie and fat-laden diets along with a generally sedentary lifestyle have combined to create an unhealthy populace characterized by extreme physical limitations and multiple diseases.

Diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer are three deadly conditions that can all be directly related to baby boomer's unhealthy lifestyles. These conditions will multiply as the baby boomer generation continues aging, imparting staggering health costs on our already over burdened health system.

Additionally, out-of-shape baby boomers create significant limitations on their ability to enjoy life by lacking muscle and cardiovascular strength and endurance. Their bodies can't act on their desires, and life quality goes down in a self-perpetuating spiral of inactivity and continued physical decline.

Bodybuilding.com - The Fitness Industry's Best Friend

I recently had the privilege of being selected Bodybuilding.com Personal Trainer of the Month, which will probably go up on the site late summer or early fall. I don't take this honor lightly coming from the electronic fitness industry's mecca.

If you're into fitness but not into Bodybuilding.com you should be. People ask me fitness and nutrition related questions all of the time, and when I can't answer their questions with the level of precision I set my standards by, I go to bb.c for my research. With literally tens of thousands of published pages and thousands of videos, no other single source in the world provides more information on fitness and nutrition.

So not only can you get information, you can get great prices and incredible service on supplements, and you can also participate in the world's largest on-line fitness community, bodyspace, where you can interact, network, and build relationships with hundreds of thousands of fitness enthusiasts.  Go to bodyspace and after you create your own profile be sure to check my profile.

As a thanks to my readers and followers at Omni-Fit, here's a sneak preview of the Q&A that will go up for my Bodybuilding.com Trainer of the Month profile:

Refiguring 50: 10 Ways to Stay Young

As a personal trainer and a life-long fitness geek, I get asked a lot about the secrets to "fitness over 50".  While that answer could go on for days, here's a boiled down version of the top seven factors:

1) Think young, be young

Our thoughts become our actions. Taken another step, the vision we have of who we are leads to what we will be.  Think young thoughts. Be unafraid to take chances physically. No, don't do anything stupid, but you can still challenge yourself to be on the edge physically. I recently read about an 87 year old San Antonio man who plays softball and competes in track events, and he's going for the age-group pole vault world record. Do you supposed he thinks of himself as "too old"?  He proves that we can continue pushing ourselves physically well past 50, and it has to start with thinking young.

2) Get ultra-lean:

Lose the body fat. And I don't mean ridiculous stuff like "I want to lose 10 pounds", or "gee, I'd like to be around 20% body fat". No, get serious about it and get ultra-lean, 15% should be the absolute tops, but really more like 10% - 12%. Extra body fat does nothing but slow us down, restrict our movements, and hide all of that beautiful muscle that makes a great physique. 

3) Diet discipline isn't an option:

You could goof-off about your diet when you were younger; you can't anymore. Our bodies need fewer calories after 50, but especially with vigorous exercise we need the right macro and micro nutrients more than ever. This means the only thing passing your lips has been scrutinized and passes the "clean eating". specifically low-fat protein from fish and from chicken, complex, low-glycemic carbohydrates from vegetables and from fruits, and healthy fats from nuts and fish oil. It also means portion-control discipline and not exceeding daily calorie targets.

Great Day at Omni-Fit in Boise

Interesting how we all vary in our daily performance, as a personal trainer at Omni-Fit in Boise http://www.omni-fit.com/ I have the chance to see a lot of people regularly over a long period of time. Invariably I see the ups and downs people have, some days sharp and intense, other days maybe not so sharp.

As personal trainers, a big part of our job is to pump people up and keep them motivated. I think the best way to do this is to constantly remind people of their goals, and to focus on their goals and not on the obstacles. That's a key part of motivation, that people not only believe in the importance of their goals, but also they believe in their own ability to make the goals happen.

Life can be a grind on some days, workouts should be a break from he grind, not a contributor to the grind. People can realize an uplift from their workouts by using it as a life dimension where they feel in control of the outcome, and if their workday or family day didn't go that way, at least their workout can. As personal trainers we must always remind clients of the importance and relevance of their goals along with reminding them that during their hour-long session they are in control. Make it a great day!

Omni-Fit for Personal Training in Boise Idaho

Hey everyone in Boise, Idaho, Omni-Fit is now open for business! We're the place people in Boise go to get fit and to lose weight. We're located in Meridian next to WinCo right off of Main St. You should go check our cool fitness website at http://www.omni-fit.com/.

We train people in small groups that provides a lot of benefits for everyone, including more energy from a small group setting and a much lower cost while still getting the benefits of a persona trainer. We customize your workout program to achieve your fitness goals and also provide diet and nutritional guidance for weight loss.

Check this blog frequently for great information on health, fitness, and weight loss so that you can live a healthier, happier life! Also, come by Omni-Fit in Boise (Meridian) any time,we're at 750 S. Progress in Meridian, Idaho, right off main next to WinCo, or just call us at 208-850-7858. Look forward to some great discussions everyone!

Best Wishes,

John