Carb Free Diets are Bullsh*t!

Before diving into why Carb free diets are bullshit, you must first understand the sources from which your body draws energy:

1. The first source is carbs which are stored in the body as glycogen.

Good carb sources are not fattening. It's what you cook them
in and put on them that make them fattening.

• There are two types of glycogen stores in the body: Muscle glycogen which fuels your muscles directly, and liver glycogen commonly known as blood sugar. Liver glycogen fuels your brain and basically gives you the mental fortitude to push yourself despite being tired. Have you ever gotten to the point in the gym or in sports when you feel great then suddenly WHAM! you can't do another rep or run another ten yards? This is called "bonking" and is a result of depleted liver glycogen stores. It simply means that your brain is not getting the nourishment it needs because your carb stores have been thoroughly depleted. As a result it shut downs and commands your body to do the same.
• Muscle glycogen is a form of carbs that is stored in your muscles as a ready source of energy and it is the first source of energy that your body uses when conducting physical activity.

1. Your body's secondary energy source is fat, which is stored in the body as glycerol. You don't start burning fat as a source of energy until you deplete all of your muscle glycogen stores within a particular muscle.  
2. The third source of energy your body uses is protein. This is only used in extreme circumstances such as marathons or triathlons. When your body is using this form of energy, it is basically eating away your muscles to survive.

*Note: from here on out I am going to refer to glycgogen as carbs and glycerol as fat.*

So here is why including carbs in your diet is actually a good thing for weight loss (no one disputes the fact that it is good for weight gain so I'm not going to go into that explanation here)...

Without carbs, the intensity of your workouts will not be at an optimum level. This in turn will lead to LESS fat being burned, despite the fact that you have to go through your carb stores prior to using up your fat stores. The whole reason why people advocate a carb free diet is to forgo having to burn up your body's carb stores prior to getting into the fat stores. Here's the flip side of that...

If you eat the proper amount of carbs in your daily diet you will be adequately fueling your muscles and, more importantly, your brain. The carbs that fuel your brain will allow you to push through a workout once your muscle carb stores are gone. If you fail to eat the proper amount of carbs in your daily diet, you're putting yourself at a huge disadvantage from the get-go. Unless you use a pre-workout supplement (WHICH IS A HORRIBLY UNHEALTHY DECISION!) to overcome these depleted carb stores, you will already be at your bonking point. You won't have to mental fortitude or muscular endurance to burn through a sufficient amount of fat stores required to change your body's physical appearance. Carbs lead to results, carb-free leads to mediocrity. 

There are ways to overcome the lack of carbs, such as ingesting simple carbs in the form of a supplement just before your workout or taking a pre-workout supplement. These methods really mess with your body's chemical and hormonal balances, cost a lot of money, and are simply not as effective as carbs... aka nature's pre-workout. 

Hey as always though, this is just advice and you can do whatever the HELL you wanna do! 

If you want a good diet to maximize your gains in the gym, send me an email at strengthbymatt@gmail.com. I'll hook you up!!

The ZeroCardio Diet - Part III

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Speed ladder drills have many benefits for mind and body!

In the first two parts of this series, I went over the numerous reasons why, if your goal is athleticism and/or aesthetics, you should stop doing cardio and start lifting weights. In this part, I am going to go into some exercises that you can and should do as part of your ZeroCardio Diet. Just to be clear, this program is meant to harness your athletic prowess as you develop copious amounts of lean, drop dead, mouth-wateringly sexy muscle. So if you want to run marathons or 5Ks or if you just enjoy running to clear your head... DO CARDIO. Just know that cardio WILL destroy your lean muscle gains so for MAXIMUM results, I do not recommend combining weight lifting with cardio.  Once again, cardio is NOT bad for you... it's just not the best for bulking up, trimming down, athleticism, and overall hotness.

When it comes to weight lifting, FORM is paramount...not the amount of weight you push around. Insecure jabronies sacrafice form for weight... don't be a jabroni. Also CrossFit warriors do the same thing. CLICK HERE to read about my OPINION of that "sport." But I digress...

I could go on and on about strength training routines and exercises you could do to BLAST FAT and improve your athleticism and appearance, but I'm not going to do that here. Instead, I invite you to send me an email ( strengthbymatt@gmail.com ) and ask me for a FREE, ZeroCardio strength training regimen. Whatever your goal is, be it body building, athleticism, bulking up, trimming down, or just plain getting a nicer ass! I can create a workout that will help you achieve it. Strength training is nothing without a proper diet though, so you won't be able to just lift right, you'll have to eat right too. I will cover that topic soon too.

Sled pulls are great for your heart and your
muscular development! 

The main concern people have with the ZeroCardio program is that they think that cardio is the only way to improve your CARDIOvascular system. But that thought is simply wrong. Among other things, sprints, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). and super setting your lifts will improve your cardiovascular health. You won't be able to run a mile very fast, nor will you be able to mindlessly watch TV or read a book while doing them, but that dosen't mean your cardiovascular system is unhealthy. The aforementioned exercises create lean, sexy fast twitch muscle fibers while still giving your heart a workout and improving your overall cardiovascular health. I recommend including at least 1 day a week of interval training or sprints in addition to weight lifting. These exercises will not diminish the gains you see from weight lifting, they will actually improve them. Sprints especially are very efficient in burning through your bodies glycogen (carb) stores. When sprinting you use glycogen almost exclusively as an energy source. The faster you blast through that, faster you begin burning through your glycerol (fat) stores. You DO NEED CARBS in your diet though in order to fuel your muscles so that you can have a good strong workout.

My whole goal of creating the Strength By Matt brand is not to rid the world of treadmills and elliptical machines. My goal is to make this world a better place by helping individuals become stronger versions of themselves in the most EFFICIENT manner possible. As you become physically and mentally stronger, not only will your life improve, but so will the lives of those around you and in turn, the world will be a little bit better of place. If you feel the strongest version of yourself is a marathon runner, then the Strength By Matt resistance training program is not for you. Just tune out articles like these and read my posts on nutrition, supplements, mental health, and the like. I really do welcome your feedback and your points of view so keep it coming!

And as always... all of this is just advice.. you can do whatever the HELL you wanna do!

The Zero Cardio Diet - Part II

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As people progress in age past their 20's, and in some cases in their late 20's, they begin to lose a percentage of muscle mass every year. This percentage increases with age. Now here's the kicker: Strength training combats this genetic decline... cardio accelerates it. You see, in order to continue to increase muscle mass as you age, you must create lean, fast twitch muscle fibers. Cardio tends to atrophy (eliminate) fast twitch muscle fibers in favor of less toned, weaker slow twitch fibers. What's that you say? You don't care about your muscle composition because all you want in life is to be skinny? Well, cardio dosen't help that either!

Women who lift trim down instead of bulking up!

Lean, fast twitch muscle fibers require more calories to function then their slow twitch counterparts. So when you run or bike for miles and burn all those calories in the short term, you are actually making it harder for your body to burn calories in the long run. If, instead of running for an hour you chose to lift weights, you would create lean muscle in your body, and as a result every activity you do would require more calories. In other words, lean muscle will increase your basal metabolic rate! This lean muscle also appears to be more firm and more aesthetically pleasing. And you will be able to maintain this appearance into your old age. You simply cannot get this benefit from cardio. 

Most of us find ourselves in this
position for extended periods of time
every day, which is horrible for our
posture! 

Now let's talk about posture, which also tends to degenerate with age. Most of our lives today are anterior centric, or "forward leaning." From driving your car, to sitting at your computer, you spend a large part of your day hunched over with your shoulders rolled forward and your head sticking out forward like a chicken pecking for food. When you bike or run, you force your body to do the same thing only under a greater amount of stress! Just look at the next runner you see in your neighborhood if you want proof. This is horrible for your structural integrity, and for your overall appearance. Strength training, however, can correct this. I'll do a post soon about all the life benefits of good posture, but for now, just take my word for it... good posture is critical for long-term quality of life.

Next topic... let's address the concern that most women bring up to me... 

A lot of females believe that if they strength train they will bulk up like Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is simply impossible. Men have a much higher ability to gain mass and muscle due to their testosterone levels being far higher than those of women. Those "freak" female body builders are almost all on steroids. Women will actually appear thinner, and more trimmed down when they follow a lifting program. If you think you're different, you're not! Lifting weight burns both the fat surrounding your muscles and the fat within your muscles (and yes, there is fat within your muscles in the same way that there is fat in the middle of a nice juicy steak). This results in a trimmed down, toned appearance. Without the use of supplements like steroids and testosterone boosters, women cannot physically bulk up to "disgusting proportions". As long as females follow a healthy, calorie-conscious diet in conjunction with a proper lifting program, they will trim down, tone up and look sexier than they could ever look by doing mass amounts of cardio.

Biking, a form of cardio, is ineffective.

So cut the crap cardio and start getting more bang for your buck... lift weights! 

The Zero Cardio Diet - Part I

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You will only bulk up by lifting if that's your goal.
When it comes to bulking vs.  toning, it's all about what you
eat, not what you lift!

The key to losing weight and getting the lean shapely figure you're looking for is to burn more calories than you take in. To do this, most people think they have to run, bike, swim, hop on the eliptical machine or stair stepper, or row a 10k. WRONG! Cardio is not the answer! The answer is found in resistance training aka weight lifting aka pumping iron aka getting your swoll on. 'Merica.

The amount of calories you burn during a workout is determined by your heartbeat. Essentially, the harder your heart works, the more calories you burn. So here's the conundrum with devoting time to cardio in an effort to burn calories as you stive to achieve your aesthetic goals. As you get better at cardio, your entire cardiovascular system improves (hence the name cardio!) which means it requires less effort for your heart to pump oxygen throughout your body. Consequently, you burn less calories. To overcome that you must increase the duration or intensity of your cardio sessions. Ain't nobody got time for that! Additionally, your body begins to convert your lean, sexy fast twitch muscles into slow twitch muscles in order to adapt to the increased amount of cardio you've been doing. Lean muscle is made primarily of fast twitch fibers and is imperative to achieving the shape and pleasing aesthetic appearance that most people desire (if you show me someone who dosen't desire this, I'll show you a liar). More muscle on the body equals more calories burned in both the resting and active state. Why? Simply put, more muscle fibers are recruited and required during each and every activity that you perform. This means that people with more muscle burn more calories while walking, working, eating, watching tv, working out, and even sleeping than people with less muscle burn. 

To achieve the shape you desire for your body, you must change your body's composition. In other words, you must get rid of fat while simultaneously adding muscle. Cardio will drive you to lose some fat, but it does not allow you to gain muscle. The average overweight woman is pear shaped with more fat in the lower half of their body while the average overweight man tends to be apple shaped with more fat in their mid-section. Doing cardio then would drive these people to become smaller pears and smaller apples because they would lose some fat without adding muscle. Your goal however, should not be to look like pear or apple of any size. It should be to change your body's composition in your upper and lower half and in your core (abs and lower back). This goal can only be accomplished through strength training! 

I'll leave you with this final piece... I dare you to take the Strength By Matt challenge:
       

A not-so-uncommon sight in the cardio room.

Next time you're at the gym look in the cardio section and I'll bet you'll see a dozen or so people who look unhappy, are not losing weight, and are using cardio as an excuse to watch television. This form of exercise will closely resemble the time they spend on their couch! Next, look into the weight room and I'll bet you'll see a group of lean, toned, sexy individuals with great posture and a confident aura. Now answer this question... which group would you rather be a part of?

As always, I'm only giving you advice and inviting you to try something new as you strive to become a stronger version of yourself. You can do whatever the hell you want to do! 

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. 

Follow this blog (click the link in the right hand column in web view) LIKE my Strength by Matt Facebook page to read the posts as they come out!

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!

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 I

Two big things influence a woman's fat content outside of their diet and exercise routine... hormones and genetics.

Women naturally deposit fat in their thighs and buttocks due to a high presence of the hormone estrogen. In fact, a lot of female body builders and physique models actually take estrogen reduction pills in order to prevent fat deposits  in these parts of their bodies.

Sir Mix-a-Lot was right. Males are programmed to like big
butts, and they cannot not lie. This is a sub-conscious
predisposition.

Genetics predispose people to a certain body type. The natural inclination towards a certain body type can be fought against and significantly changed with diet and exercise, but it cannot be totally negated. If you have bigger hips or thighs than the average woman, you need to accept that and embrace your curves! Men like curves more than stick figures anyways. Thicker thighs, buttocks, and hips signify increased estrogen and a child bearing potential. These two things draw on the sub-conscious, primal instincts of the male species and attract them to their female counterparts... so women should work to perfect their curves, not eliminate them!

Alright I'm off my soapbox... moving on now. In order to understand how to lose undesired fat, you must first understand the sources from which your body draws energy:

1. The first source is carbs which are stored in the body as glycogen. If you want to have the best workouts possible, YOU NEED TO EAT CARBS! Carbs will allow you to work harder in the gym and consequently burn more fat. Like a car, your muscles need fuel to run.
2. Your body's secondary energy source is fat, which is stored in the body as glycerol. 
3. The third source of energy your body uses is protein. This is only used in extreme circumstances such as marathons or triathlons. When your body is using this form of energy, it is basically eating away your muscles to survive.
4. So in summary, first you burn carbs, then when that is used up you burn fat, then finally you burn protein as a last resort.

To lose weight and fat you're going to have to create a "calorie deficit" at the end of each day. This means you have to burn more calories than you take in. It's that simple. It is physically impossible to lose weight if you don't do this. I recommend tracking your calories each day by using a calorie counting app on your smart phone. The one I use is called My Fitness Pal, and it's free!

To help you create a calorie deficit, you're going to have to exercise. Light exercise, such as walking, uses fat almost exclusively as an energy source. Shocking right? Now this doesn't mean that walking is the best way to reduce fat (it doesn't contribute enough to that calorie deficit that I told you you need to create), but it certainly helps. Moderate exercise such as jogging burns 40-60% fat and the rest is carbs. And high intensity exercise, weight lifting and sprints, burns through your glycogen stores (carbs) almost exclusively.

The most effective way to burn fat is to walk 15-30 minutes in the morning to get your metabolism going for the day. Next you want to lift weights and do sprints. I'LL LAY OUT A DETAILED WORKOUT PLAN IN PART II of this series. JOGGING IS NOT THE WAY TO GO if you're trying to burn fat. Weight lifting is paramount... as an example, just 3 sets of 8 reps of bicep curls burns through 70% of your glycogen stores (carbs). Once you burn through 100% of the glycogen stores in any muscle group, you begin burning through your fat stores. Weight lifting and high intensity sprints, not jogging on a treadmill, is the fastest way to do this. Additionally, jogging only increases your metabolism for the one day that you do it. So if you skip a day, you're metabolism is not sped up for that day. Weight lifting on the other hand speeds your metabolism up for multiple days afterwards as your body works to repair the small muscle abrasions created during your lifting session.

In short, to burn off that stubborn hip, thigh, and booty fat, you need to create a calorie deficit, lift weights, and run high intensity sprints. Stay tuned for Part II of this series!

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Leave me some comments and topic requests below!

3 Keys to Bulking Up (Beyond Lifting Weights)

                    Increased Portion Sizes, Plus Snacks

     In order to gain weight you need to increase your normal portion sizes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in addition to eating one to two snacks throughout the day. The key to eating snacks is packing them in advance when you are on the go. Put them in your gym bag, book bag, or your locker at school or work. When you know that food will not be readily available, it is up to you to make sure you have the food you need for your diet. In order to get the maximum benefit from your increased calorie intake, your timing needs to be right.
               

                   Timing is Key

     After lifting weights your protein and glycogen synthesis levels are at their peak. In order to take advantage of this and thus maximize the benefits of resistance training, you need to ingest protein within 45 minutes of completing your workout and carbohydrates within 15 minutes. So how much protein and carbohydrates should you take in? Make sure to ingest 10-20g of protein within 45 minutes of completing your workout and you should take in the appropriate amount of carbs within 15 minutes of lifting.  To figure out how many grams of carbohydrates you should eat, simply divide your body weight by 2. 

Example: a 200 pound person needs 100g of carbs (200/2 = 100). They then need to continue to take in 100g of carbs every 30 minutes for the next 4 to 5 hours. 

     The combination of protein and carbohydrate will also reduce cortisol in your body, which is a hormone that breaks down muscle fiber. Studies have shown that athletes who consume protein and carbohydrates immediately before and after their workouts gained more muscle mass than those who did not time their protein and carb intake in this way. Beyond working out, you should aim to eat at least every four hours throughout the day. Break up long gaps between your three main meals with healthful, calorie dense snacks as discussed above.

Perseverance

Weight gain of this nature is going to take patience and increasing your calorie intake this much is going to be hard work. Do not give up. Think of your food as your weight gaining medicine. You will not get over a virus by skipping on your antibiotics the same way you will not gain weight by skimping on your food intake. Your weight gain will not happen overnight, but instead will happen gradually. It will be tempting to take supplements such as protein and weight gaining shakes. These are a waste of money and have not been proven to add any benefit for those who eat correctly. You will reach your goals without supplements by lifting weights and sticking with larger portions of healthful foods for meals and snacks.

For a 3 day healthy, mass gaining meal plan... shoot me an email! strengthbymatt@gmail.com

       Real soon here, I'll highlight a proven, easy to follow weight lifting strategy that'll get ya allllll kinds of gains!