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I know this is going to come across as me sounding like a broken record, but I completed and filmed my first presentation for Muscle Imbalances Revealed (Upper Body) last night, and all I have to say is…..it’s pretty baller.

Baller = (Adj)

• Exhibiting those qualitites of a baller; not limited to the description of a person, ‘baller’ may be used to describe any place, thing or situation.

Put another way:

Excellence has been pissed.

Without giving away too many spoilers, the title of the first presentation is Corrective Strategies for Overhead Athletes (and Meatheads, Too), and, as the name implies, I essentially run through some common upper body pathologies that we routinely see in the overhead athlete population, as well as the meathead population to boot.

Moreover, I also touch on some assesment protocols, as well as corrective AND programming strategies with regards to things like shoulder “impingement” and AC joint shenanigans.  While I geeked out to a small degree, covering some functional anatomy and using some big words and stuff (I used the word ‘plethora’ for example); namely, I just wanted to keep the presentation as “conversational” as possible and focused more on the coaching side of things – which is more of my bread and butter anyways.

As such, I included a TON of videos in my presentation, and figured what better way to wet your palate than to showcase one of those videos as an Exercise You Should Be Doing?

What Is It:  Slideboard Miyagi’s

Who Did I Steal It From:  your mom!  Just kidding.  That was mean.  Sorry.  I actually came up with this badboy myself.

What Does It Do:  As I alluded to above, this exercise obviously has some efficacy towards maintaining shoulder health.  Specifically, however, its fantastic at activating the serratus anterior, which, as we all know, assists in upward rotation of the scapulae (as well as “fixes” the scapulae against the rib cage), but also tends to be woefully “weak” and/or inhibited in the vast majority of people who are symptomatic with shoulder pain.

In addition, this exercise is also an excellent core stabilization exercise, as the trainee must “engage” his or her anterior/posterior core musculature to maintain proper spinal positioning throughout.  So, really, it’s a great bang-for-your-training-buck movement.  You should try it sometime (<===== that’s a subtle hint).

Key Coaching Cues:  Using either a slideboard, Val Slides, or those cheap furniture glide whatchamacalits you can purchase at Home Depot, assume a proper push-up position making sure to BRACE the abs while not allowing the hips to sag (lumbar hyperextension) or the head to protrude forward.  Then, as the name implies, you’ll “wax on and wax off” just like Mr. Miyagi instructed Daniel Son to do on his way to pwning some Cobra Kai ass!

You can do this one of two ways:  1) for time, or 2) for a desired # of reps per arm.  I don’t really have any preference which one you choose, either will work just fine.

So, on that note, give it a try and let me know what you think!

I’m swamped (still able to get five post up this week, however) preparing my presentations for Muscles Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body, which, along with Rick Kaselj, Dean Somerset, and Jeff Cubos, I’ll be contributing to, and is slated to be released sometime in early August.

For those curious as to what you can expect, be sure to go HERE to check out the first Muscle Imbalances Revealed DVD which featured the likes of Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman, to name a few.

Anyways, I’m really excited for the opportunity and honored that Rick would ask me to take part; but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous, all the same.  What can I say, it’s in my nature.  I’m sure I’ll be fine, but it’s what I do……worry.

Will the recording software will work?  Will I swear too much?  Will I include too many pictures of hot chicks being hot?  Is that even possible?

This is, of course, my first attempt at releasing any sort of product – I’m still waiting for patent rights on Bodacious Booty Bootcamp with Tony G and Alicia Keys – and it’s been a lot of work trying to stay on top of everything (hence, the short blog post with no real purpose, sorry).

Nonetheless, I’ll be doing TWO presentations – one on corrective exercise and programming for overhead athletes (and meatheads, too), and one that’s just kinda turning into a random “stop doing that, and do this instead” sorta thing –  that I think a lot of fitness professionals out there will find useful (and entertaining).

So, with that being said, I’m going to leave you with this funny video I came across that had me LOL’ing all over the place.

Must be the bike was the wrong color?  His reaction kind of reminded me of what I did last night when Lisa told me I had to take the recycling out.

Have a great weekend everyone.

PS:  Oh, I almost forgot.  I just checked my Alexa ranking recently – in no uncertain terms, your Alexa ranking bascially tells you how awesome you are – and for the first time, it’s dipped below the 400,000 mark.  When you consider than any site that ranks under a million is doing okay for itself, I was pretty ecstatic to see that number.

Not that I’m counting or anything, but it’s at #382,732 (118,811 in the U.S) as of 8:27 this morning.

Basically, the lower your number, the more traffic your site gets.  As an example, Google is #1, and Facebook is #2, respectively.

To that end, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who continue to visit the site everyday and for being so supportive.  It really means a lot that so many people go out of their way to read my ramblings on a daily basis, and can appreciate that as much as I like talking about how to get gunny or the differences betweem extension and flexion based back pain, I also may throw in a Harry Potter reference here and there.  GRYFFINDOR!!!!!!

Again, THANK YOU!!!!!!

As promised from earlier this week, I figured I’d share some more insight on the Peak Training and Diet Program Design seminar I attended last weekend in NYC.

Speaking truthfully, I had been looking forward to this seminar for quite some time because A) I hadn’t been to NYC in like three years, and B) Joe Dowdell offered for me to crash at his place, and I wanted to see for myself just how ridiculous his commute is to and from work everyday. Assuming you hit the light just right on the corner of West 21st and 7th, Joe has roughly a 90 second walk from his apartment to the facility.  As someone who drives 45 minutes (both ways) to and from Cressey Performance everyday, I hate him.

I took Bolt Bus for the first time in my life Friday afternoon from South Station (in Boston) to NYC, and I have to say, it was pretty awesome.  Compared to the $200 I would have spent to ride the train, the $42 I spent (round-trip) to take the bus was well worth the 4-5 hour commute.  Besides, there was free WiFi which was clutch – as it allowed me to be somewhat productive with my time.

Speaking of which, for the record:  opening up an email from a random person sending postural pics in nothing but their underwear on a crowded bus = AWWWWWWWWKWARD.  Whoever the guy was that was sitting next to me – sorry about that!

Anyways, I arrived in the Big Apple a little after 4 o’clock and decided to walk the 1.5 miles from Penn Station to Peak Performance……wearing my Red Sox hat no less.  I was fully expecting to have to go all Snake Plissken on  New York’s ass, but thankfully, I survived the walk unscathed, and knife fight free.  WHEW!

I arrived at Peak, got a quick lift in (deadlifts, of course), talked some shop with Joe as well as a few members of his staff – Matt McGorry and Dan Trink – and afterwards headed back with Joe to his apartment to shower up so that we could meet Dr. Mike Roussell for dinner.

Honestly, having the opportunity to sit there and have dinner with both Joe and the Doc would have made the trip worth it in of itself.  I mean, they’re both cool dudes, and I’ve been friends with them for a while now, but to listen to both of them talk about business, the industry, and life in general, was just awesome.

So, from here I’ll save all the particulars (unless you’re actually curious about how much male product Joe keeps in his bathroom.  HINT:  a lot.  Or just how charismatic John Romaniello is in person.  HINT: the love child of Lady Gaga and Elton John (if that were to happen) wouid come a distant second) and just shed some light on the seminar itself.

Knowledge Bombs Dropped By Joe Dowdell

• As I noted previously, Joe has 17 years of experience in the industry, and he’s literally travelled the world seeking knowledge.  One of the things I respect most about Joe is that he doesn’t necessarily corner himself into one set mantra of how to train people.  He has an insatiable appetite to learn, and he’ll be the first to tell you that he keeps an open mind to just about everything – except for BOSU balls.  Those are just dumb.  He’s not a TRX guy; nor is he a kettlebell guy.  He’s a RESULTS guy, and anyone who walks into Peak Performance immediately understand this because the place is loaded with everything and anything you could ever want.  Olympic platforms, power racks, Prowlers, med balls, ropes, bands, chains, Victoria Secret models – it’s all there.

• Everything starts and ends with a thorough assessment.  All of Joe’s trainers are FMS certified, but he could care less what system you use, so long as you’re using SOMETHING.

• Furthermore, Joe couldn’t stress enough that everything is an assessment.  The second someone walks through the door, the assessment begins.  Watch how they carry themselves:  what’s their gait look like?  What’s their posture look like?  While it may seem trivial, all of this valuable information you need to take notice of.

• Individuality & Variation – don’t be an asshat (my words, not his) and take something out of left field and throw it at your client.  There should absolutely be some sense ot STRUCTURE to your programming, and you should easily be able to explain the rationale for everything you do with your client.

• Joe’s a big Charles Poliquin guy, and believes wholeheartedly that regardless of the person, the first 2-3 weeks of training should be geared towards structural re-balance (posture, imbalances, weaknesses) and addressing work capacity.

• Likewise, with beginners or for those coming off a long-term hiatus, utilizing low-learning curve tools with a high benefit are ideal.  In short, using equipment that elicits a good return on training investment is ideal:  Prowler, Airdyne Bike, Battle Ropes, etc.  All are essentially idiot proof, and get people into shape…..fast.

• Periodization:  General Physical Preparation (GPP), Specific Physical Preparation (SPP), Specific Training Phase (STP), Competition Phase (CP), Transition Phase (TP).  For most trainers and coaches, unless you’re training elite athletes, you’ll rarely (if ever) transition past the SPP phase.

• SPP – can be broken down into two distinct categories:  Accumulation, where the main stressor is volume (strength endurance, hypertrophy, functional hypertrophy), and Intensification, where the the main stressor is intensity (maximal strength, relative strength, speed-strength, strenght-speed).

• Outside of beginners and injured clients, Joe’s not a fan of linear periodization.  I agree.
• Interestingly, regardless of secondary emphasis, Joe noted that you can leave alone and “maintain” certain qualities for “x” number of days with no drop off in performance.  So, for example, if you’re training an MMA fighter and spent the past three weeks building aerobic endurance and then want to switch to a “strength” phase, you don’t have to do a lot of aerobic training to maintain it.  In short, there’s a residual training effect one can maintain.
• Aerobic Endurance = 30 +/- 5 days (meaning you can maintain training effect for 25-35 days with minimal exposure to that same stimulus).  Maximum Strength = 30 +/- 5 days, Anaerobic Endurance = 18 +/- 4 days, Strength Endurance = 15 +/- 5 days, Maximum Speed  = 5 +/- 3 days.

• Joe LOVES talking about energy system training and that’s his bread and butter.  I’d do him a disservice if I even attempted to broach the topic.  Needless to say, you’ll have to wait for the dvd set so you can listen for yourself.  How’s that for a teaser?????

Knowledge Bombs Dropped by Dr. Mike Roussell

• Much like Joe, I’ve been a huge fan of Dr. Roussell for quite some time, and it’s amazing how he can take such complicated information and dumb it down for us minions to comprehend.  Plus, the guy has the will power of an ox.  At dinner the first night, both Joe and I ended with a heaping bowl of gelato.  Dr. Mike?  Didn’t even blink.

• In a shocking statistic, Dr. Mike laid out the top sources of calories in the U.S. Diet.

1. Grain-based desserts:  cake, cookies, pie, cobbler, sweet rolls, donuts
2. Yeast breads:  white bread and rolls, mixed grain breads, bagels
3. Chicken and chicken mixed dishes: FRIED chicken parts, chicken (breaded) patties, stir fries
4. Soda/enery/sports drinks
5. Pizza

• I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know it was THAT bad.
• You’re not going to drive to Florida and then fill up the gas tank at the end of the trip, right?  So why, then, do we feel that we can get away with doing the same thing day in and day out with our bodies?  For many, they’ll skip breakfast and eat sparingly throughout the day, only to gorge themselves at dinner.  We need to make certain to provide fuel to the body ALL day.
• As such, Dr. Mike recommends eating 5-6 meals per day as this seems to equte to better weight loss and weight management
• When it comes to encouraging people to eat less minimally processed foods (without added sugar), one great saying Doc had was “move from barcodes to bags.”  While arduous due to all the “organic masking” (organic Pop Tarts!!! Yay!!!!) going around, essentially when this means is to buy less foods that have a barcode on the box and more foods that you have to place into a bag.  Doing so automatically cleans up the diet and increases the volume of your food, but not necessarily the calories.
• While obvious to most reading this blog, reducing calorie containing beverages is rule #1 when trying to lose weight.  In short, caloric calories don’t even register.  Eat your apples, don’t drink them!

• Also, just as an FYI:  bottled, sweetened tea, you know: the stuff that you’re pounding thinking it’s the bees knees when it comes to staying healthy?  Yeah, well, it’s devoid of ALL anti-oxidants that you would normally get if you drank “real” tea.   Just sayin…..
• Are you wondering what Dr. Mike’s “Core” list of supplements entail?  It’s easy, protein powder, fish oil, greens supplement, multivitamin, vitamin D, and creatine.  That’s it.
• In terms of performance enhancers, he adds BCAAs, Beta Alanine, Caffeine (thank god!), and Citrillune Malate to the mix.

• I could easily keep going.  Dr. Mike also touched on the differences betweem eating for muscle gain and fat loss, and also went into A LOT more detail into his 6 Pillars of Nutrition, but I don’t want to give aay too many secrets.

Honestly, I didn’t even scratch the surface in terms of the amount of material that was covered over the weekend.  In fact, my brain still hurts.  But that could be because Roman, Jim Smith, and Kevin Neeld spent the entire weekend berating me for not having a newsletter on my site.  Point taken fellas!

I hope that gives some idea of how EPIC the weekend was.  For those who attended, it was truely an awesome experience.  For those who didn’t, well, you’ll have to wait for the dvd.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Beef and Red Wine

The Situation and General Douchebaggery

< ==== Kyra Gracie and My Dreams

All of the above, as different as they are, tend to be pairings that make sense.  When you think of one, it’s hard not to think of the other.

Writing programs, however – whether for a deconditioned weekend warrior, a 14 year old freshman in high school, or an elite athlete –  lends itself to a wide variety of pairings that just don’t make any sense.

 

The more programs you write, the better you get (obviously); but in addition to that, and probably of more relevance, the more programs you write, you kind of get a “feel” for what works and what’s utter crap.

Speaking personally, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve programmed something which, in theory, looked good on paper, only to scratch it altogether once I witnessed how much of a walking ball of fail it was trying to implement it with my clients or athletes.

Having said that, below are some random, acute programming variables that in my experience, don’t make a lot of sense.  Are they revolutionary?  Hell no.  But, in the end, I hope they at least get people to start thinking more critically about what they program and WHY.

1.  High Reps and Beginners – I get why most trainers and coaches feel that using high(er) rep protocols are the way to go when working with a newbie.  You want to build tissue tolerance and strengthen the soft tissue – namely tendons and ligaments.  Thing is though, oftentimes, once a beginner gets past the 5-8 rep range, technique usually starts to get a little dicey.  And that’s putting it lightly.

I rarely (if ever) go above the five rep range when teaching a beginner how to squat, bench, or deadlift.  Accessory movements (later in the training session) are completely different, and I’ll definitely go with a higher reps then.  But, all told, when I’m teaching someone a more complex and neurally challenging movement like a deadlift for instance, I want to ensure that every rep is perfect.

And the only way I can ensure that is by keeping the reps (and load) low.

I’m sorry, but having a complete beginner who has the movement quality of a pregnant pig perform 15-20 rep sets is not going to accomplish anything remotely beneficial.  All that’s going to do is engrain piss-poor motor patterns, and in all likelihood, result in something bad happening.

What’s more, and this is a REAL pet peeve of mine:  anyone who calls their program a “strength training” program and it includes 20 rep sets of anything is a complete moron.  That’s really all I have to say on that.  Stop it.  Now.

2.  (Front) Squats and (Horizontal) Pulling Exercises – getting a little more detailed, this is one pairing that I see a lot of trainers make.  Lets say I have someone performing some front squats.  While front squats are a fantastic exercise that targets the lower body, what often gets the shaft is the fact that they’re also hammering the upper back as well.

Because the bar is anteriorly loaded in FRONT of the body (and not the back), there’s a pretty signifcant anti-flexion component that forces that upper back muscles and stabilizers to go into overdrive.

Why, then, would you want to pair this exercise with a pulling exercise (like seated rows) which will only fatigue the upper back muscles even more?

Instead, if you’re going to pair this exercise with anything, I’d do one of the following:

• Push-up variation
• Filler exercise – some sort of low grade mobility or activation drill that they can do while resting.  Something along the lines of a supine bridge with reach perhaps?

Note:  yes, that’s THE Eric Cressey riding a foam rolling pony to tooltown.

3.  Deadlifts and Any Exercise That Challenges Grip  –  Deadlifts (an exercise that requires a lot of grip strength, and is generally the limiting factor for many trainees) paired with another exercise that requires a tremendous amount of grip strength = not very smart.  Granted, with more advanced trainees there’s a little more wiggle room.  But for a beginner?   Not so much.

Much like the example given above, I’m more prone to pair deadlifts with some sort of filler exercise or maybe some core exercise like Pallof Presses or something like prone plate switches:

To be clear, this isn’t to say that pairing two exercises that challenge the grip is wrong – but, in most cases, it’s just not ideal.

4.  Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats – okay, okay, not an exercise pairing, but something that’s perplexing nonetheless.

I don’t get it:  on one end you have a guy who’s a world reknowned record producer and makes more money in his sleep than most people make in a year.  And on the other, you have a “kind of a big deal” strength coach who drives a Hyundai Elantra and can recite the entire dialogue of The Empire Strikes Back…….in Klingon.

Tomato <—-> Tomahto.  Frankly, I don’t get it.  Seems like a clear cut choice to me.

Have any pairings you feel don’t make sense?  Share them below!

Ever have one of those mornings where you suddenly wake up, roll over to look at clock, and while for a split second you hold onto that smidgeon of hope that you’ll have at least another hour to sleep in, that feeling quickly dissipates once you realize the actual time and you can do nothing but resist the urge to throw your clock through the window?

Yeah, I had tha kind oft morning.  And yeah, that was probably a run-on sentence above, but whatever.

So, I took the bus back to Boston from Manhattan last night, Lisa picked me up at the bus station, and once we were home, I essentially catapaulted myself into bed.

What can I say:  I had an AWESOME weekend in New York City attending the Peak Training and Diet Program Design seminar hosted by both Joe Dowdell and Dr. Mike Roussell (what goes on in NYC, stays in NYC, right?).  Two days of straight up knowledge bombs – with Joe discussing everything and anything relating to program design, and Dr. Mike doing much of the same with regards to nutrition.

All told there were roughly 90+ fitness professionals in attendance (the biggest turn-out in Peak Performance history), and I think I can speak for everyone who attended that the Peak staff did an oustanding job at organizing such an outstanding event.

I actually started writing down a few thoughts about the event on my way home last night while on the bus, so rest assured, I’ll be posting that up at some point this week.  But, in the meantime, just know that:

1.  Joe left no stone un-turned with regards to program design.  The guy has read everything and been everywhere (even sharing a story of how he slept on the late Dr. Mel Siff’s basement floor for four days) during the past 17 years of his carreer, and the depth of knowledge he has is freaking impressive!  He’s like the Gandalf of strength and conditioning.  Except, in his case, he has bigger biceps, and dates a Russian model.

Joe Dowdell:  2, Gandalf:  0

I’m not kidding when I say the binder of information he gave all the attendees would rival the phone book of most small U.S cities in terms of thickness.

2.  Likewise, Dr. Mike Roussell, who I’ve been friends with for a while but have never seen speak in person, was just as impressive with his presentations.  In a field that, for lack of a better term, is one major cluster****, he has an uncanny ability to “keep it real” and help people to get their heads out of their ass and step away from the stupid.

3.  John Romaniello is pretty.  And, the guy is an absolute maverick when it comes to internet marketing (done correctly).

Needless to say, I do have A LOT more to say on my experiences over the weekend, but those will have to wait until sometime later this week.  I promise I’ll fill you in on all the details:  stuff I learned, stuff I ate, people I met, and whether or not I got into any knife fights for wearing my Red Sox hat.

But, before I go I have a small favor to ask.

I realize in advance that this is a complete shot in the dark, but I figured I’d try nonetheless.

My girlfriend, Lisa, is in the process of finishing up her dissertation for her PhD in sports psychology.  She’s been working her tail off for the past seven years, and things are coming down to the wire.

In a nutshell, she’s doing her research on inner city, school-aged (14-17), FEMALE athletes and motivation.  Basically, Lisa wants to find out what factors drive that population to either participate (or even stop participating) in sports and/or being physically active.

There’s been very little research done on this demographic and Lisa is trying to be the first!

Thing is, she’s looking to have at least 150 “subjects” fill out surverys, and while she’s in the homestretch, to say that it’s been a slow process would be an understatement.  She needs 40 more.

Sooooooooo, if there happens to be ANYONE in the city of Boston who’s reading this (I know you’re out there) who knows of a summer camp or school that Lisa could contact, could you please, please, please let me know?  You can either leave a comment in the comments section below, or shoot me an email.  Or bust out the Bat Signal.  No worries, I’ll come to you.

Anyways, I’ll be your BFF forever.  And Lisa will make you a meatloaf!  Totally not kidding.  Thanks!

 

Awesome New (to me) Fitness Blog For Women (www.heyjoob.com) – Juliet

As someone who’s constantly fighting the seemingly never ending battle to convince women that it’s not the end of the world to place a barbell on their back and squat it every once in a while – and that they’re more likely to make out with Brad Pitt than end up all “big-n-bulky” because they happen to do a few chin-ups – I’m ecstatic whenever I come across blogs that help to spread the word and help to direct women away from the stupid.

It’s hard, though.

I mean, when you have the likes of Tracy Anderson – someone whom thousands (if not millions) of women consider an authority on fitness – spewing out gems like this (below), referring to her approach to training Kim Kardashian, it’s hard not to want to throw my face into a brick wall…….repeatedly

We don’t want to take away Kim’s amazing curves,” Tracy Anderson, one of Kim’s trainers, says. “We just do specific movements to tighten the skin and to pull the muscles tight against the bone.

This is the same woman who, in her infinite wisdom (note excessive sarcasm), believes that no woman should ever lift a weight above three lbs.  Ever.

Which is why, I want to direct everyone to Juliet’s blog.  Juliet (sorry, I don’t know last name) is a frequent reader of this blog, and someone who goes out of her way to post comments when she feels so inclined.  It’s only been recently that I actually took the time to check out her stuff, and well, I think it’s pretty cool and something I like a lot of fitness enthusiasts will enjoy.  So, show Juliet some love and check it out for yourself!

Power Endurance – Charlie Weingroff

Not that I really have to go out of my way to say so, but Charlie is kinda smart.  Here, he discusses why improving movement quality – as well as utilizing some dedicated time under the bar – can (and will) help improve power endurance to boot.  Contrary to popular belief, improving performance on the court/ice/field/bedroom (bom chicka bom bom), often starts in the gym.

Heart and Stroke Foundation Pushing Video Gaming for Fitness Now? – Yoni Freedhoff

Thanks to my friend, Mark Young, I just started reading Dr. Freedhoff’s blog recently, and I have to say, it freakin rocks.  The Doc writes extensively on obesity research, but along the way, he’ll step on a few toes and basically call “bullshit” when he feels the need to.  This post does exactly that.

I’ve never really bought into this whole “play video games to get fit” trend.  Sure, I get it:  it’s better than nothing and it at least gets people moving.  But, does it really?   According Dr. Freedhoff – not really.

My understanding is that Wii Fit burns negligible amounts of calories, and has never been shown to have any significant impact on “fitness“.

One study comparing Wii Fit Aerobics to treadmill use reported,

“Heart rate during Wii aerobics fell below the recommended intensity for maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness“

Another, looking at Wii Sports and kids reported,

“The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children.“

Furthermore, another recent study demonstrated that video game playing increased food intake in adolescents.

I remember the days when I was a kid and would literally spend the entire day outside riding my bike, playing kickball, baseball, wiffleball, basketball, and swimming.  Shoot, my mom wouldn’t even see me until it was dark outside – and even then, my brother and I would head upstairs and do stupid things like reenact WWF Summer Slam and throw one another through a wall. That really happened!

It’s sad that in today’s society kids are more apt to enter a speed texting competition than play Little League. Moreoever, what does it say when we promote “being active” as standing in front of a television moving your arms around a liittle bit?

I don’t get it.

Q:  So I have 19 days until a big trade show in Vegas. I want to look my best, which means getting as lean as I can in that ime, but I want to protect lean mass. What would you do?

A:  Based off the title of today’s post alone, I know what you’re thinking:  Tony’s gone off the deep end, and he’s resorted to touting some looney fitness product similar to those redunkulous 7-Minute Abs infomercials you see late at night while watching re-runs of Walker: Texas Ranger.

Okay, lets not jump to conclusions.  While I’ll be the first to admit that I may watch my boy Chuck Norris kick ass and take names from time to time, you know better than to think I’d lower myself to promoting some gimmicky, flash-in-the-pan product that’s about as useful as a poop flavored lollypop, right?

Although, to give some credit where credit is due – the Shake Weight has been a god send it terms of never ending jokes.

All joking aside, 19 days isn’t much time – but assuming you’re not a disaster and/or delusional (i.e. you’re not going to go from looking like Chris Farley to Fabio in 19 days), and that you have a decent base to work with from the start, you’d be surprised at how much headway you CAN make.

Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t start any conversation about getting shredded in “x” amount of time without first discussing the nutritional side of things.

I don’t like crash diets.  I think they’re dumb.  And I think they cause more harm than good.  That said, I’m going to assume (again) that you already know the basics, and understand that no matter what, it comes down to calories in vs. calories out.   I say this because for some reason, despite knowing better, some people still think that just because they’re eating “clean” food, that they can still eat a surplus of it, and lose fat.

Wrong

Just to save face, I recommend that you start with a 10 to 20% caloric deficit (given your time constraint, I’d lean more towards the 20ish end of the spectrum), and go from there.  A few key points to note, however:

• Keep it low carb.  Studies have repeatedly shown that, all else being equal, those who follow a low(er) carbohydrate diet will generally lose more bodyfat – given a certain time frame – than those who don’t.

• Keep the “bulk” of your carb intake to AM (breakfast) and/or post-training times only.  Of course, training time will throw a monkey wrench into things, but playing the odds, I’m going to guess you’re a 9-5 guy and most likely train later in the afternoon.  If that’s the case, starchy carbs (oatmeal, sweet potatoes, cereal, pasta, etc) should be saved for POST-TRAINING only.  Veggies and fruit can be used judiciously throughout the day (although, with fruit, I’d be more inclined to stick to breakfast only).

• When in doubt, stress protein.  Have some sort of protein with each and every meal.  This can be anything from dead animal flesh to yogurt.  I don’t care.  Make it happen.
• In addition, outside of post-training, “healthy” fats should be stressed.  Things like fish oil, coconut oil (which is dense in Mid-Chain Triglycerides, which are more readily used for energy by the body), extra virgin olive oil, nuts, (real) butter, so on and so forth are all fair game.
• Honestly, there is no set formula that I can recommend, as they’re all a crap shoot, and just give you an idea of where to begin.  That said, as I noted before, start with a 20% deficit (maybe go with 10% on training days, since you’ll need the calories), and keep protein fairly high – say 1-1.5 grams per lb of LEAN bodyweight.  Keep fat around the same ballpark, and then use carbs as the caloric ballast (whatever is left over).

• Again, it’s a crap shoot.  Is it perfect?  No.  But it’s a start.

• Oh, and let me just say that that whole “you have to eat every 2-3 hours to keep your metabolism going” is bullshit.  If anything, I’d say with the lower kcals you’d be taking, spreading out your calories into LESS meals would be ideal.  I don’t know about you but if I’m only allotted 2000 calories for the day, I’d much rather divide that out over FOUR meals (500 kcals each), than six meals (333 kcals).

Outside of that, one major mistake (I believe) many trainees make when trying to get lean is amping up the training volume.  Going against the grain, I believe that if you want to maintain LBM (and get shredded), I’d still make a concerted effort to lift in the low(er) rep ranges.  Say, in the 3-6 rep range with your compound movements.

As I’ve noted in the past, “what makes muscle, maintains muscle.”  And, since you’re trying to get hella lean in 19 days, and given you’re going to be in a slight caloric deficit (you don’t need to go too crazy), it only makes sense that you’d want to continue to give the body the stimulus it needs to MAINTAIN lean body mass.

You DO NOT need to go bat shit crazy with training volume.  This is a notion that falls on deaf ears for some reason.

In any case, I’d say you want to start each training session with one of the big three movements (squat, DL, bench) – and stick with something like 4 sets of 3-6 reps. From there, you can spend the rest of your session doing “density” or “chaos” type training utilizing tri-set or even quad sets to break a sweat and kick your own ass.

So, for example, one day may look something like this:

A1.  Deadlift 4×3-6 reps
A2.  Some sort of filler exercise like wall hip flexor mobilizations, or Wall Glute ISO holds, or just sit and chill and watch people manually unclench their butt cheeks as they watch you lift heavy things.

B1.  Spiderman Push-Ups (band resisted if necessary) 3×4/leg

B2.  Kettlebell Swings 3×10
B3.  Seated Cable Row 3×8
B4.  ValSlide Bodysaws 3×8

***do in circuit fashion for 3-4 rounds, with 60s rest at the end

C.  Med Ball Circuit – 50 Hits or anything else that will make you hate life for 10 minutes (EDT circuits, Airdyne Bike, battle rope, Prowler etc).

And that’s about it.  I know I was kind of all over the place there, and I certainly wasn’t super thorough, but I hope it at least sets off a few light bulbs and gives you some idea of how I would approach things.  Hope that helps, and good luck!