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Why You Are Failing To Achieve Your Fitness Goals

March 28, 2016Mindadmin

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This article is inspired by Tony Schober’s article at CoachCalorie.com. Find it here.

If you are one of those people who has tried and failed to get in shape and achieve your fitness goals multiple times, you have to read this.

We often think that the root of the problem is that we are not following the right program, not trying hard enough, or not eating healthily enough. However, maybe you are trying too hard…

STOP TRYING TO RUN STRAIGHT UP THE MOUNTAIN

Let me put this into context…

Imagine your goal is to climb a mountain; a big mountain. Are you going to try and run straight up it? NO. You are going to take the longer and less steep route around the mountain because that is the logical way to reach the top.

Even if you could run up the mountain, it is going to take so much out of you that you are not going to enjoy it one bit and will hate the whole process. On the other hand, you could gently walk up the mountain whilst chatting with friends, enjoying the scenery, and even stopping to have a picnic; you could love the whole journey and want to do it again.

Your fitness goal is the mountain, and should be approached in the same way:

Make changes you know you can keep

Mountain

As Tony states in his article ‘Follow This 1 Rule Before Making Any Changes to Your Diet‘, he tells you to ask yourself two questions when making changes to your diet:

Is the decision I’m about to make going to make me healthier and happier in the long run?
Is the decision I’m about to make going to be around for the rest of my life?

Of course you are not going to be losing weight forever, but these questions are great indicators to see if your decision is right for you.

When we are climbing our fitness mountain, sprinting straight up it is likely not going to make you as happy as taking it slowly, having fun with friends, and enjoying the process. This is the real-life equivalent of trying to go on a raw vegan diet and cutting out alcohol completely when you love meat and going out to bars with friends on a Friday night. Also, the chances that you are actually able to dive in and commit to something like that and see it through is very rare, which is why most of us fail to get in shape.

Loving the process is essential to achieving your goals as fitness is for life; you can’t just get a six pack then go back to your old eating habits and expect your six pack to stay; you have to be able to stick with your changes. This is why I am a strong believer of slow, gradual and consistent change, as this is key to slowly build up your momentum whilst maintaining consistency.

Another point which I feel is often overlooked is that people tend to have an all or nothing approach; either you eat chocolate or you don’t or you exercise or you don’t… change does not have to happen like that.

Instead of cutting out chocolate, why don’t you focus on binning one square once in a while? This will satisfy both our questions; you will feel good as we are taking a step to becoming healthier, yet it is such an easy thing to do that you could maintain doing that for life.

Slowly we can build up on this when the change becomes a habit, and we can continue to accumulate positive habits whilst feeling good about them. We will not be resenting fitness as we are not cutting anything out, but just controlling ourselves a little bit more.

The same applies to exercise; instead of starting to work out for an hour 7 days a week, why don’t you just do 5 minutes of walking once every few days?

If you want a step-by-step guide to slowly and gradually achieve your goals, click here.

I hope this gave you some insight regarding goal setting; it is better for your fitness journey to be easy, maintainable and fun, rather than unsustainable overkill.

-Mike

I would like to extend a big thanks to Tony for the inspiration. Check out coachcalorie.com for great articles.

P.S. Need fitness help? My Fitness Helpline now has a 1-week free trial and a 100% money back guarantee within 30 days of signing up if you are not getting results. Now you really have nothing to lose, right? Join me now to get results here.

The Most Important Message To Learn From Brandon Carter

March 28, 2016Mindadmin

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For those who do not know, Brandon Carter is BEAST. He is a best-selling author on Amazon, has almost 500,000 subscribers on Youtube, 1.5 million fans on Facebook, and is founder and co-owner of BroLaboratories… so yeah, he is a legend.

Brandon Carter had a tough upbringing – he lived in a rough neighborhood, got into fights, had to work two jobs, and failed at becoming a musician after getting signed…

For most of us that would have been the sign that we are not destined to achieve great things, and would have just settled for a typical average 9 to 5 lifestyle, but not Brandon; he pursued fitness and a career in modelling and personal training, before taking over the internet by storm with informative videos on training, workout routines, calisthenics and how to achieve your dream physique.

Big Brandon Carter (BBC) has been a huge inspiration to me and helped me develop the physique I currently have (still a work in progress!). He also introduced me to intermittent fasting, which has worked wonders for me for both getting lean and building muscle.

However, the most important thing that I have learnt from BBC is nothing to do with what specific workouts to do, or exactly what to eat. Instead, he taught me this:

Fitness helps develop an invincible mentality

If you have read my about me page, you will know that I feel invincible thanks to fitness. I honestly feel that I can achieve anything I set my mind to, and Brandon Carter helped me realise this; fitness is not just about looking good or being able to lift heavy shit, but it is also about defining your character and turning yourself into the man you want to be.

I got 8A*s and 2A’s at GCSE, 2A*S and 2A’s and A level, and received offers from the best universities in the UK – I thank this all to fitness.

From 14, fitness has played a key part in my life; it not only gave me confidence as I looked way better, but it helped me realise that seemingly huge challenges were achievable if you are able to break that huge goal down and slowly progressing towards reaching it.

I know what most of you are going to say: ‘Mike, I know that I can achieve something if I REALLY wanted to’ – yes, when you are sitting on your ass it is easy to talk about ‘what ifs’, but it is a hell of a lot harder to actually go about and do it; this is why so many people out there just sit on their asses, moan, talk shit, and carry on living their average life.

Fitness helps you actively learn to achieve these goals. When I first got into fitness I wanted to do a one-armed pushup. At the time I could only do 6 normal pushups… However after a week I could do 8 pushups, and about a month or so later I was able to do decline pushups – this progression felt SO GOOD, and gave me an ‘OH SHIT, if I carry on like this I can actually do a one-arm pushup!’ moment. Eventually, I did a one-arm pushup, and I felt like a god.

It was at this moment where I knew I could achieve anything I set my mind to, and it is why I was able to tell my friends at the start of my A levels that I was going to get 2A*s and 2A’s, 2 years before my exams; I was so confident in myself and my abilities to work hard and stay disciplined that I knew I was going to do well – I honestly thank this all to fitness, and the confidence it gave in myself to be able to progress and achieve results.

Brandon Carter gives an amazing talk about building self-confidence and courage in this 30-minute seminar here.

I believe that success, happiness, and true satisfaction in life is achieved through progression. Setting yourself targets, progressing towards them, and achieving them is so satisfying, however, it is a mindset which has to be developed over time.

For me, fitness is the purest form of self-progression, and it is has been key for me in realising my potential and giving myself the discipline and motivation to be successful in achieving not only fitness goals, but life goals too.

-Mike

P.S. Need fitness help? My Fitness Helpline now has a 1-week free trial and a 100% money back guarantee within 30 days of signing-up if you are not getting results. Now you really have nothing to lose, right? Join me now to get results here.

Russell Orhii – The Ultimate PowerBuilder

March 27, 2016Bodyadmin

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Look at this guy. LOOK AT HIM.

His name is Russel Orhii and he is the definition of a PowerBuilder.

This term is not commonly used but is used to describe someone who is a hybrid between a powerlifter and a bodybuilder, and Russel is the perfect combination of the two – this beast can squat 265kg (585lbs) and bench 140kg (315lbs) for reps… and he looks amazing.

For those who do not know, Russel Orhii is an up and coming Fitness Youtuber who is rising rapidly in popularity. He is an extremely genuine guy who has an inspirational and motivational outlook on life; basically, you need to subscribe and follow him here.

Why you should become a PowerBuilder

Well, this answer is pretty simple… why the hell not?

For some reason the fitness industry tends to portray that you can either be strong or big, but not both. It appears that people tend to forget that size and strength are correlated. The whole natural concept behind being bigger is to be stronger… muscles are not just there to make us look good, they are meant to make us be able to lift heavy shit and grapple lions with bare hands.

Unless I am heavily mistaken about the whole reason why muscles exist, we can safely assume that you can both become huge and strong at the same time, and who does not want that?

Admittedly, PowerBuilding may not be optimal for people who want to purely train for strength, as there may not be any need to become bigger, however, there is a much higher recognition between the cross-over effect of the two, and it may be beneficial to incorporate more hypertrophy-styled training – just check out this 4200 word article from Greg Nuckols on why you should.

From a bodybuilding perspective, incorporating strength training is key to making you bigger too. Just look at Bradley Martyn, another PowerBuilder who is strong as hell and is a beautiful human being aesthetic-wise; as Kinobody stresses, size is a byproduct of strength, and it may be essential in order to build the muscle you desire to look like a Greek God.

How do I become a PowerBuilder

Essentially, becoming a PowerBuilder is pretty simple – instead of being a powerlifter and doing mainly low reps, or a bodybuilder doing fairly higher reps, mix it up. Powerlifters tend to place less focus on accessory muscles like arms and shoulders, however as these are muscles that make us look good we want to focus on them just as much.

Also, we are going to want to incorporate a mixture of rep ranges; lower reps and higher weight tend to be more beneficial for strength gains, whilst higher rep work is more associated with metabolic stress which gives you the ‘pump’. I would like to stress that both contribute to both strength and size, so it is important to have a mixture of both if you want to maximize results.

Here is a sample routine structure:

1 Primary Movements: 3 sets x 1-5 reps
1 Compound Movement: 3 sets x 5-10 reps
4 Secondary Movement: 3 sets x 8 -12 reps

Primary/Compound movements could be: bench press, squat, deadlifts, overhead shoulder press, dumbell shoulder press, dumbell bench, weighted pullups, weighted dips, incline bench etc.

Typically secondary movements are: cable flys, shoulder lateral raises, cable pulldowns, tricep pulldowns, bicep curls, calf raises etc.

In a lot of instances, some exercises can be used as both primary and secondary movements. For example, incline dumbell bench press can effectively be used as a secondary movement – it is more about the rep range that you use. That being said, the primary movments has to be a compound.

If you want a full 4 month PowerBuilder-based program check out my UNIGAINS program here

Check out Russel Orhii’s video here to exactly what he does for PowerBuilding.

So yeah, if you want to become as strong as possible and look as good as possible then follow Russil Orhii’s footsteps and join the PowerBuilding crew!

-Mike

Why The Kinobody Fat Loss Approach Works

March 27, 2016Body, Food, Mindadmin

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There has been an increasing amount of talk about what the best way to lose fat is, whether it is calorie counting, paleo or even going vegan.

Today I will like to talk about how Greg O’Gallagher’s Kinobody program is an effective way to lose fat loss, and why I am a big fan of it.

For those who do not know, Greg is a fitness Youtuber under the name Kinobody, who has had an insanely rapid increase in popularity recently, going from 24k subscribers in April 2015 to 176k a year later…

kinobody

As you can see Greg has gained quite the following, however, he does get his fair share of criticism too. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

What is Kinobody’s Approach?

Greg is a big advocate of intermittent fasting, calorie counting, and training for strength. His approach is very much based on the fact that cutting your favourite foods out, becoming obsessed about meal timings, and spending hours in the gym chasing the ‘pump’ is just plain stupid. This is why Greg advocates intermittent fasting and focusing on key compound movements.

Greg believes that fitness should not take over your life; you should still be able to eat foods you love, and that is why he is a big fan of intermittent fasting. If you want a guide to intermittent fasting then click here.

In regards to exercise, Greg focuses on key compound movements such as weighted pullups and incline bench press as compound movements stimulate your muscles most effectively. Therefore, you will be able to retain the most amount of muscle mass during your cut.

Why I think Greg’s approach is effective

1. Calorie Counting + Intermittent Fasting works

Personally, I believe that if you definitely want to make sure you’re losing weight then you have to calorie count. This way you can make sure that you are aware of exactly what you are eating and how your weight progresses with it.

When you go on a paleo, keto, or any other form of diet which does not involve calorie-counting you do not really know if you are losing weight or not. If done correctly these diets should help you lose weight, however, it is still completely possible to overeat without realising. For example, with the paleo diet it is so easy to overeat by eating too much fruit or nuts, as they can so easily rack up the calories. Little things like these make the diets so much more unpredictable, and calorie counting prevents that.

Calorie counting paired with intermittent fasting is absolutely perfect to balance out your diet and lifestyle; due to the fact that you are not eating breakfast, you have more calories to play around with for lunch and dinner which allows you to eat more and actually have satisfying meals. This results in you being able to go out with friends and eat and drink and have some fun, as you will have those extra calories to consume in the evenings.

Also, I hate feeling hungry after a meal, and having 5 small meals does nothing to me; I have to eat until I am full, or I cannot live. Period. Intermittent fasting lets me eat bigger meals, and that alone is a huge reason why I recommend Greg’s approach.

2. You do not have to cut anything out of your diet

If you have read UNIGAINS at all you will know that I am not a fan of cutting things straight out or making radical changes; I’m all about making slow and consistent changes which you can handle. If you try and cut things out immediately you are most likely going to fail as not only will you likely give in to cravings, but you will also start to deem fitness as a burden and a sacrifice, instead of a motivating and fun journey.

The Kinobody approach allows you to not give up things you love such as chocolate or carbs but instead requires you to balance them with your diet a bit better. Greg clearly points out that some foods will not make you as full and may be bring less health benefits for you, and that if you want them you have got to make space for them – it will be tougher but if it helps satisfy your cravings then it may be essential to help you stay on track.

I’m not hating on paleo (if done properly it can be really good!) but I could not keep it up because I LOVE PIZZA. I honestly love the shit out of pizza and eat it quite a bit. When I gave it up to eat paleo I felt like I lost the love of my life. However, making this sacrifice was not essential to lose weight; with Kinobody’s approach I could make space for it. In fact, the abs below were achieved through eating pizza 3 days a week using Greg’s approach – this is another reason why I vouch for it.

2015-12-02_1449094846

3. Exercising for strength is efficient whilst cutting

You know how when you go for a run you get a huge hunger burst and want to shove your face with a shit-tonne of sugary food? So whose idea was it to do cardio when you are already in a calorie deficit? Personally, it just seems illogical, especially when a 45 minute jog burns the same amount of calories as not eating a donut. Doing cardio is just going to make you more hungry, which will lead to you inevitably eating the calories back or even more – for me it is simply counter-productive.

When it comes to strength training, Greg favours lower reps and higher weight instead of training with higher volume to get that ‘pump’. Again, I personally find the lower rep higher weight better for cutting as the volume is lower; this results in preventing myself from getting into the cardio-like situation above, whilst applying significant stress to my body to maintain as much muscle as possible.

Also, I have found that the higher weight allows me to maintain more of my strength during a cut, which is key for future muscle gain. I 100% completely agree with Greg that size is a by-product of strength, and if you are keeping up your strength as much as possible then not only will your muscle-loss be minimized, but you will be able to pack on size a lot easier when you finish your cut.

Conclusion

I am a big fan of the Kinobody approach and what he preaches, and I have made great results from following his advice.

I would like to stress that I have not bought any of his programs. This is just from me following his advice which he gives out on Youtube. However, it did give me pretty decent results:

Kinobody follows a similar approach to UNIGAINS; keeping it simple, logical, and straightforward.

If you are looking for some more people to follow, then I will definitely advise you add Greg and Kinobody to the list.

-Mike