The Zero Cardio Diet - Intro.

I have received a lot of questions from people on how to lose weight, gain weight, build muscles mass, tone legs and booty, etc. In every case I give very sound advice and in some cases, I write entire workouts for my clients. None of my advice or workouts ever include a ton of cardio. To many of you reading this, it is obvious why a cardio-free regimen would work for someone whose goal is to gain weight, but you can't wrap your head around how someone can possibly lose weight without running their asses off... literally.

Think about this... back in 1977 a book was published entitled The Complete Book of Running by Jim Fixx. This book quickly became the best selling non-fiction book in history at the time and single handedly began the cardio craze. Personal Trainers, dietitians, and physicians from that point forward began preaching, and prescribing cardio heavy workouts to lose weight and get healthy. Treadmill sales soared and continue to increase and American's are lighter and healthier now than ever before. Wait a minute... American's are actually fatter and more disease ridden than ever before. What??? But that dosen't make sense!!

In this new, multi-part series, I am going to explain exactly why you should AVOID cardio to lose weight and shape your body into the figure you desire. 

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Do THIS to Cure a Hangover

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Relax your hangover away. You earned it baby!

The skin is your body's largest organ, and one of it's main jobs is to excrete toxins from the body. It does this through sweat, and the sauna is a great way to get a sweat on. I first became interested in saunas when I was playing football in college in Connecticut. Practices were extremely cold towards the end of the season, so to warm back up, I made it a habbit of going in the sauna until I got the feeling back in my fingers and toes. Perhaps to further justify this practice of going in the sauna, I researched the health benefits and I was pleased to find that there were many. My reasoning for going into the sauna was no longer solely because I was a wimp who hated the cold New England winters.

On to the title of this post... the #HangoverCure! When you go into a sauna your heart rate increases to that of a brisk walk as your sweat glands kick into actions. Sweating then mobilizes toxins (alcohol is a toxin, believe it or not!) that are stored in your fat cell and enhances their elimination. So why not just exercise to to start sweating? Well, after a heavy night of drinking it isn't good for your heart to raise your heart rate as high as jogging or high intensity training would raise it. So when you're feeling hungover, just relax, sit in the sauna, and sweat your toxins out. From personal experience, this is the best cure for a hangover. Of course, detox is one part of the puzzle, the other piece is re-hydration. So drink plenty of water! Especially in the sauna. Bring a bottle with you and down the whole thing either in the sauna or right after you get out, before starting your next 15 minute cycle. Let your body tell you when you are fully detoxed and your hangover is cured. I suggest spending less time detoxing if you are new to the whole sauna thing. Like everything fitness related, you should build up to it over time as opposed to just jumping in head first. 

If you're really looking to detox your body for the long haul, not just for one day to kick your hangover's ass, you're going to want to read this paragraph. Several researchers have looked at the effect of sauna on the body's toxic burden. the best studied is the Hubbard Sauna Detoxification Program. This protocol involves daily exercise followed by sitting in a sauna for 2.5 to 5 hours a day, with breaks for cooling down and rehydrating. Participants in this program also take niacin to stimulate circulation and fat mobilization, as well as multivitamins and polyunsaturated oils. 

Bring in a bottle of water with you and don't stay in longer than
15 minutes continuously.

Try out the sauna next time you're hungover and let me know what you think. Feel free to leave any other proven hangover cures that you've had success with in the comments below. 

Again, this is all just advice... you can do whatever the hell you want to do!

Free Weights vs. Machines, Which is Better?

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Many people wonder whether they should use free weights or machines during their lifting programs. If you ask one person they'll tell you free weights, but if you ask another person they'll give you a great argument for using machines. So which one do I recommend?

This machine forces isolation of your bicep muscles but takes
the place of your stabilizers.

Answer: It depends on what your goals are.

I personally use free weights as I do mainly Olympic lifts during my workouts, but I'm not going to sit here and say that it's my way or the highway. My goals for lifting are to increase functionality and athleticism. If your goals are different, I wouldn't put you on the same lifting program as me. If, for example, you are into bodybuilding, I would definitely incorporate more machine weights into your program. Why? Because machine weights are great for forming and shaping individual muscles. They isolate the targeted muscle very well, which is very important if your goal is to simply look good and symmetrical for aesthetic purposes. So, if this is your goal (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!) then use machine weights all you want. You WILL have success.

The squat is an excellent example of an exercise that
strengthens your prime movers as well as your stabilizers
and core.

Now, if your goal is gain increase your athleticism and strength, machine weights are not the way to go. Football players and all other athletes... I'm talking to you, regardless of what you think your goals are. You see, machine weights train your neuromuscular system to move and use your muscles without recruiting your stabilizers. This makes you extremely vulnerable to injuries. If your muscles are trained to work without using stabilizers, they might be big and strong looking, but they're one wrong move, one quick jerk away from popping. Additionally, while your muscles get big and strong and are able to lift heavier weights, your joints and stabilizers remain weak and unable to handle the same amount of weight as your muscles. I'm convinced that this is why I suffered so many injuries throughout my life in football, baseball, and wrestling. I was a machine weight whore for many years. It wasn't until I started using free weights nearly exclusively that I went from getting injured multiple times a season, to almost never getting hurt despite the size and skill level of my competition increasing. If your goal is athleticism and functionality, you want to stick to lifts that simulate natural movements. These lifts recruit the same stabilizers that you are apt to use both while playing sports, and in every day life. In almost no real-life situation will you have a machine available to take the place of your stabilizing muscles as you try to pick something up or move around.

As always...this is just advice! You can do whatever you want. You know yourself and your body better than anyone else, so if in your experience you've had success with machine weights and have correlated that success with athletic prowess, then by all means keep using them. I'm just giving you another way to look at things and inviting you to try something new.

If you want me to hook you up with a lifting program, send an email to strengthbymatt@gmail.com and I'll hook you up! 

Too Busy to Workout? Try This!

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So many people talk about being too busy to workout... but are they?

I currently balance raising a 4 year old and a newborn, being an Active Duty service member working 50+ hours per week, my fitness blog, and studying for my GRE and Personal Training certification... and I workout 4-5 times per week. I'm not saying this to brag at all. I'm saying this to let you know that is definitely possible to workout no matter how much you have going on in your life. All you need to do is sit down for 20 minutes and create a Time Budget for yourself. This is much easier to do than a Financial Budget, trust me. 

Think about it this... there are 168 hours in a week. Lets take out 40 hours for work, now were down to 128 hours. now lets say you spend 2 hours per night cooking and cleaning up from dinner. We're now down to 114 hours. Next we'll say you take 1 hour per night reading and we're down to 107 hours left. 7 hours a night of sleep takes us to 58 hours. Okay so now you have a family and you spend 5 hours a day doing things like commuting, errands, quality time with family a friends, etc... and we're left with 23 hours. 23 hours of free time. A quality workout only takes 45 minutes to an hour, just 4-5 days per week. So of those 23 hours we have left, you need 5 max! Which still leaves you 16 hours per week (over 2 hours a day) to sit on your ass and do absolutely nothing! 

I just re-read that paragraph and found it hard to follow myself... so here's a linear method of reading it. Should be easier to follow.

 168 (Total Hours in a week)

-49   (Sleeping)

-40  (Work Hours)

-2    (Cooking/eating/cleaning Dinner)

-7    (Reading)

-35  (Misc.)

__

23  (Hours per week you have left over to use for doing whatever you want)

Everyone's Time Budget will look different and some people will have more free time left over than others. But I can guarantee you, you'll be able to find free time for working out. 

Working out is extremely important to your overall health and quality of life. Making time for it will impact so many areas of your life in a positive manner.  

This is just advice though. You can do whatever you want! Share your comments below!

F*ck Crossfit

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Q: How do you know someone does Crossfit?
A: They'll tell you.

I'll start this off by saying that I think the Crossfit concept is a good one and that it definitely has it's place in the fitness realm. I also have a lot of respect for those that do it and do it well. It requires you to push yourself beyond your limits, challenges you mentally and physically, and turns athletes into better, more ripped versions of themselves. My beef doesn't lie with those who excel at "the sport of working out." My beef lies with the sport itself... and what it's become.

I started thinking more into this whole Crossfit bullshit when I was watching the Crossfit games on ESPN2 at like 3am one day. During one of the 100yd. hand stand walk event, the announcer actually said "This event is one of my favorites because it takes so much strength and balance... it is complete destruction on the shoulder joint!" SERIOUSLY?? Why are people engaging in workouts- you know... those things we do to make ourselves healthier and stronger- that straight up destroy their joints??

Some Crossfitters require tape jobs like this to get
 through a workout. Bad Ass, Bro!

Now you see huge groups of people in these Crossfit gyms (or taking up the entire workout area of a regular gym!) all working out at the same time doing a WOD... which is Crossfit talk for Work Out of the Day. In a lot of cases these groups consist of 20 or more people all of different ages, experience levels, and athletic ability... and their doing the same damn workout! Meanwhile the trainer is either talking it up with the hot chicks in the group or working out themselves. Where's the supervision?? Where's the 1 on 1 instruction to make sure people are using proper form to prevent injury and promote good technique?? What this has become is a money making machine... think about it. As a personal trainer getting paid by the hour on a per client basis, you only get 1 person at a time. As a Crossfit guru though you get 20 people paying you in that same amount of time. It's genius for the trainer but horrible for the trainee.

And another thing... as you workout out and push yourself to the limit during a Crossfit session, you begin to fatigue both mentally and physically. Consequently, your form goes away. Now your slinging up weight (dosen't have to be heavy to hurt you!) without engaging your stabilizers and without the proper technique. That's an injury waiting to happen. There are 2 types of people who do Crossfit... those who are injured and those who are soon to be injured. That's why every habitual Crossfitter has their knees and shoulders bandaged up.

Crossfit is meant for elite athletes, not for the everyday person, or even the average high school athlete for that matter. It will not get an out of shape person into shape because they will get injured before that happens. And if it does happen, they will get injured afterwards and lose most of their gains. For the same reason, it is not meant for overweight people to lose weight either. And finally, it will not turn a non-athlete into an good athlete... it just won't.

Rant over.

Leave comments below... especially you Crossfit people reading this. Defend your "sport"!

Enjoy the video... it's funny cuz it's true!

VIDEO: My 48" Box Jump Progression

Box jumps are excellent for increasing the strength, power, and explosiveness in your legs. Land with your feet flat and even on the platform. Use plates, as I do in this video, to increase the height of your platform. Hit me up in the comments section with any questions!

VIDEO: Protein Supplements are a WASTE of Money!

Women's Health: Keys to a Sexy Booty, Thighs, and Hips - Part III

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Nutrition is essential to accomplishing any fitness goal that you set for yourself. You can workout as much as you want, but if you don't give your body the proper fuel, you will have very little success. In this part of my Keys to a Sexy Booty, Hips, and Thighs series, I am going to give you some tips on what you need to put into your body to tone your ass up... pun intended.

First and foremost, you are going to have to burn more calories than you take in. It is physically impossible to lose weight if you don't do this. I recommend downloading the My Fitness Pal app on your tablet or smart phone to help you track your calorie intake and to get some great fitness tips as well. Now, if you're already skinny and are looking to just put on muscle to achieve a more shapely figure, you're going to want to take in more calories than you burn. In doing this, you will gain weight. As long as you follow a good workout routine, you will gain mass in all the right places as you burn fat and increase muscle. I can give you a perfect one for just $5/week...email me directly at strengthbymatt@gmail.com if you're interested. The next part of this series will cover workout principles to guide you as you work to achieve a better looking booty, thighs, and hips.

Second tip has to do with carb intake. YOU NEED TO EAT CARBS! Carbohydrates are your body's primary source of energy. If you don't eat carbs, you're muscles will not have the proper fuel to work which means the quality of your workouts will suffe, which means you wont burn as many calories. Carbs are not fattening. What you cook carbs in and what you put on carbs is what make them fattening. Use olive oil instead of butter on your bread and use tomato sauce instead of alfredo sauce on your spaghetti. Also, make sure your getting high quality carbs from sources like whole wheat bread as opposed to white bread or brown rice as opposed to white rice. And the best source of carbs if you're trying to lose weight: vegetables! Stay away from excessive amounts of fruit though if you want to cut down on fats. Fruits are high in sugar so despite they're high vitamin concentrations, your body will turn that sugar into fat just as easy as it would the powdered sugar on top of a funnel cake.

Eat lean meats for protein sources. Fish is a great source of a low fat protein. So is chicken in most cases. When buying steak make sure to get lean cuts. And try out turkey burgers as opposed to hamburgers. Other great sources of protein include yogurt, milk, egg whites, beans, nuts, and peanut butter sandwiches. You're going to want to eat 0.7g of protein per pound of bodyweight. So for a 120lb woman, this is 84g of protein daily. Watch my YouTube video for even more information on protein!

Meal timing is also going to be crucial for toning up your ass, hips and thighs. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. I'll write a whole post on this topic in the near future, but let me repeat that thought... breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Do not skip this meal! Oatmeal with fruit mixed in, yogurt with granola, whole wheat cereal (especially FiberOne or Frosted Mini-Wheats), or a whole grain bagel with peanut butter are great, healthy, satiating choices. For lunch break it into two meals, preferably at 10am (more accurately referred to as a mid-morning snack) and 2pm. To give you an idea of the size of these lunches, a peanut butter sandwich and a banana counts as as a meal. Dinner, then should be eaten around 6 or 7pm with a small snack in between to prevent you from over indulging in this late evening meal when you don't have much time fterwards to burn off any of the calories that you take in. For those visual folks out there, your meal schedule should look like this:

6am: Breakfast
10am: First Lunch/mid-morning snack
2pm: Second Lunch
4pm: Healthy Snack
6pm: Dinner
*Note: If you're hungry before bed, grab yourself a bowl of whole wheat cereal or some yogurt. You'll sleep better!

Women's Health: Keys to a Sexy Booty, Thighs, and Hips - Part II

To achieve that perfect booty you're going to have to work your ass off. Get it? I always like to start with a joke...

Here is a list of exercises that you should do to get yourself into a Sir Mix A Lot music video:

Squats
Box Squats
Single Leg Squats
Box Jumps
Dumbbell Lunges
Hamstring Curls on a Swiss Ball
Hamstring Curls on a Machine
Box Step-ups
Lateral Box Step-ups
SPRINTS
Single Leg Lunges with Back Foot on Bench
Sitting in the Sauna
Yoga (especially hot Yoga)
Pilates
BAR Fitness

For a detailed workout regimen including proper order, sets, and repetitions of each of exercise and instructions on how to do them, send me an email at strengthbymatt@gmail.com. $5 charge for a 1 week, kick ass workout with guaranteed results or your money back. Subsequent weeks will be an additional $5... well worth the investment and much cheaper than hiring a personal trainer!

Here are some basic principles

1. The lower you go when doing leg exercises, the more you target your butt.
2. Cardio, such as jogging, will burn some fat, but not as effectively as lifting weights. It will also only speed your metabolism up for the day that you jog. Which means if you take a day off your metabolism slows right back down. Weight lifting speeds your metabolism up for days at a time as your body works to repair the tiny abrasions in your muscles that result from a lifting session.
3. Weight lifting burns through your glycogen (carbohydrate) stores and begins burning through your glycerol (fat) stores much faster than moderate cardio such as jogging.
4. Sprints are the way to go to ensure you get your cardio workout in while simultaneously burning fat in an efficient manner.
5. Everyone's body naturally stores fat in certain areas. For women, the most common trouble areas are the butt, hips, thighs, and lower stomach. If you burn through the fat in these areas while neglecting all the other parts of your body, your body will pull the fat from the neglected areas and push them right into your trouble areas. This is why it is imperative to lift every muscle group and to do some form of cardio. 

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VIDEO: Deadlifting 405 Raw at 165lbs

Amino Acids... Explained!!

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A pretty hot topic in the fitness world right now is the importance of amino acids in building muscle. We covered this topic pretty extensively in my Nutrition class and I've done a lot of independent research on it, so I'm going to break it down for you in an easy to follow manner. This should save you the trouble of going all over the internet looking for answers...

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and protein is the main component of muscle (next to water, of course). There are 21 amino acids and they are broken down into 2 groups: essential and non-essential. In all, there are 9 essential amino acids and 12 non-essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are named as such because your body cannot create these amino acids on its own which means it is essential for them to be included in your diet. Without both essential and non-essential amino acids, your body will not be able to synthesize protein, which means less gains from the weight room... which means severe depression and an overwhelming sense of failure. Just kidding... but seriously.

So where can you get your hands on these amino acids? The best source is through animal protein because animal protein contains all 9 essential amino acids. That is why we call animal protein "complete" protein sources. Examples are beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. If you want to get big... eat animals.

Plant protein is called "incomplete" protein because, you guessed it, it does not contain all 9 essential amino acids. People on a plant based diet (vegetarians and vegans) must be sure to mix and match their sources of protein to ensure they are getting all their amino acids. This means eating different kinds of beans, nuts, and grains, and varied colors of vegetables. Scientists and nutritionists are not sure which plants contain which types of amino acids, but it has been proven that if you just eat a variety of plant based protein sources you will get all 9 essential amino acids from your diet. Which means that even on a vegetarian diet, you can still see big gains.

I do NOT recommend it, but a third source of amino acids is through BCAA supplements. These are expensive! but have been proven to work (I just read a double blind, placebo controlled government study that showed positive results from BCAA supplements). However, long term ingestion of BCAA supplements could result in dependency... which means your body could slowly lose the ability to process amino acids from natural sources (plants and animals). And, as with ALL supplements nowadays, YOU HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING ALL OF THE INGREDIENTS THAT THE MANUFACTURER PUT IN THE PRODUCT. For more info on the dangers of supplements, read my post on pre-workout supplements. Again, BCAA supplements work, but are NOT necessary if you follow a proper diet.

Protein powders also claim to have amino acids in them. This is probably true, especially for Whey protein powders since Whey is made from milk, but again, not necessary if you follow a proper diet. If for some dumb ass reason your main source of protein is protein powder, I do recommend buying a powder that contains essential amino acids, or BCAAs. Before you buy your next jug of powder though, watch my YouTube video on Protein Powders (and subscribe to my channel!) to find out why this is a bonehead decision.

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