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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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!

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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