Given the popularity of combat sports, I think it makes sense that guys will try to emulate what they see on TV. In mixed martial arts (MMA) or football, it’s not enough for a guy to be strong – he must also be big and powerful. Sure, a guy doesn’t need to look like an extra in Gladiator to excel at his sport, but every athlete wants to. Not only is a big, strong, lean body typically more powerful (ie, better at sports), but it’s also more lucrative for landing a big endorsement deal.

In other words, a bigger, leaner, more powerful body = more money. And there’s no better motivation than the almighty dollar.

So, the future of training will consist of programs that build muscle, strength, and power – at the same time. A training trifecta that will metamorphose an average Joe into a muscular warrior. This type of training will help athletes perform better at their sport, and it’ll help non-athletes look like they’re, well, a combat athlete!

The question, of course, is: How can you pull off that trifecta without overtraining?

First, let’s start with the training component. I’ll break up the training parameters into three categories: strength, muscle, and power. The exercises you use are vastly important for getting results in record time. To build strength, you need total body exercises that work your upper body, lower body, and core at the same time. For muscle, compound exercises such as dips, pull-ups, and single leg squats are awesome. And for power, nothing beats pushing a sled, carrying a sandbag, and tossing a medicine ball.

Here’s how it all breaks down.

Strength
Exercises: power clean, power snatch, deadlift, push press, etc.
Total reps: 15 per exercise
Load: a weight you can lift a maximum of 3 times for the first set

Muscle
Exercises: dip, cable chest press or push-up with a weighted vest, chin-up/pull-up, row, Bulgarian split squat, single leg deadlift with dumbbells, single leg hop, etc.
Total reps: 25 per exercise
Load: a weight you can lift a maximum of 6 times for the first set

When training for total body strength or size, I don’t use a typical set/rep sequence such as 5 sets of 5 reps (5×5). Instead, my clients start with a specific load (say, a weight they can lift no more than 6 times for the first set) and they continue using that load for all sets until they reach a target number of reps (eg, 25). That way, they never miss a rep, the load is always right, and they’ll only do as many reps in a set as their body is capable of at that moment. This is the system I devised for my book, Huge in a Hurry.

For power training, however, I use a different approach. Since power exercises consist of complex exercises that force you to work in different planes of movement, it’s difficult to find a true repetition maximum like you could for a deadlift or squat. Furthermore, this type of training depends on explosive, total body movements in order to build speed, increase mobility, and burn fat. The load for power training should be moderately heavy – a weight that challenges you, but still allows you to move explosively.

So instead of focusing on a target number of reps, I have my clients train with all-out effort for a specific timeframe (say, 20 seconds) before they take a quick breather and move to another exercise.

Power
Exercises: sled dragging/pushing, sandbag or heavy medicine ball carry/toss/slam, burpee with a weighted vest, etc.
Duration of each set: 10-30 seconds

There are two ways you can arrange this type of warrior training. First, is to perform a workout for each category. I like to use a 3 on/1 off cycle like this:

Monday: strength
Tuesday: power
Wednesday: muscle
Thursday: off
Friday: repeat the 4-day cycle

The other way is to combine all three categories into one workout. This, of course, is very demanding and only recommended for advanced athletes. However, if you can pull it off, the results can be mind-blowing:

Sample Hybrid Workout

Strength
Deadlift
Push press

Muscle
Pull-up
Dip
Bulgarian split squat

Power
Sled pushing
Overhead medicine ball toss

When you combine strength, muscle and power training into one workout, you must limit the number of exercises you do for each category. When you separate the workouts into different days (first example), you can, and should perform more exercises in each session.

Getting plenty of high quality calories, especially in the hour or two after training, is paramount to your success. This type of training is tough, and you’ll get overtrained in no time, unless you constantly feed your body.

Give this type of training a shot, and let me know what you think.

Stay focused,
CW

Now, it’s safe to say that most people don’t fall into this category. Three or four decent workouts per week is all you probably have time to fit in your hectic schedule. For you, it makes more sense to lower calories in order to create the deficit that’s needed to force your body to use fat for fuel.

This, however, is where it gets tricky. If you start dropping meals or snacks, you won’t lose fat. You must eat less, while still feeding your body 5-6 times per day.

Here are three effective ways to ensure that you don’t overeat. These tips are best performed before your three main meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No need to eat less at snack time.

1. Take Fiber 30 Minutes Before Your Meals: virtually none of us eat enough fiber. That’s a travesty because it’s nature’s blood sugar stabilizer. It’s essential to keep your blood sugar from swinging up and down in order to control: cravings, fat burning hormones, and limit the amount of calories you eat in one meal. Plus, digestive health is key to staying lean and healthy. There’s no easier way to do it than with more fiber. Think of fiber as a natural “fat burner.”

One simple trick I have my clients use is with fiber capsules. Companies such as NOW and Country Life make inexpensive fiber supplements in pill form (I like Daily FibeRx by Country Life). Just take 2 capsules 30 minutes before each meal and you’ll boost fiber, minimize overeating, and improve digestive health.

2. Drink Room Temperature Water 10 Minutes Before You Eat: just like fiber, most of us don’t drink enough water. Put another way, most of us don’t drink water at strategic times throughout the day. If you simply wait until you’re thirsty, you’re already behind since our nervous system isn’t good at letting us know in advance that we need water.

Water can also curb your cravings. Ten minutes before your three main meals, drink 16 ounces of room temperature water. Why not iced water? Because room temperature water, for whatever reason, curbs hunger more. It could be due to the fact that our digestive tract doesn’t like the shock of cold water. In fact, Chinese medicine cautions against drinking iced beverages since it can put a strain on digestion.

3. Eat a High Fiber, High Water Food First. When you sit down to eat your brain and digestive enzymes are already prepared for a meal. However, the signals between each other (the signal from your stomach to tell your brain that it’s getting full) is pretty slow. If you start eating dense, high calorie foods right away it’s likely that you’ll eat more than your body needs before your brain gets the memo.

An effective strategy is to start your meals with a food that’s high in fiber and water content, and relatively low in calories. This will allow your digestive system time to gauge where your caloric needs really are once you get to your normal foods. In other words, it will keep you from overeating.

Start your three main meals with a salad, a few stalks of celery, or an apple. All of these foods are high in water and low in calories, and that will keep you from stuffing too many calories in your body.

Looking for an ideal fat loss training and nutrition plan for your wife, girlfriend, or sister? Just click here.

Stay Focused,
CW

So, I asked him to share some of his insight with my readers. After all, getting bigger, stronger muscles is a big part of my business, too. Thanks to Ferruggia, I’m always learning something new.

CW: Let’s get straight to the point, Jay. What are the most important training components for building muscle?

JF: I believe the two keys to effective hypertrophy training are overload and frequency. You have to consistently add weight to the bar and you have to train muscle groups often (2-3 times per week). He who makes the greatest strength gains (in a hypertrophy rep range) over a given time period, while training the muscles as frequently as possible, will make the greatest size gains. The key is to do just enough to stimulate a hypertrophy response then get out and start recovering so that you can get back to the gym as soon as possible and stimulate that muscle group again.

CW: I agree. There’s a point of diminishing returns when it comes to training volume. If more was always better, a guy could gain an inch on his arms from doing 100 sets of curls in one day. But it doesn’t work that way. In science and practice, frequency is key.

JF: Yep, as long as you keep the volume relatively low and the duration of your workouts at 45 minutes or less, the frequency can remain high and you can make consistent strength gains. If the weights are going up you know you are not over trained. Soreness is not an indicator of whether a muscle is ready to be trained again or not; performance is.

Like Lee Haney often said, “Stimulate; don’t annihilate.” No matter how many sets you do, the majority of people will not require a full seven days of recovery between body parts. BUT when you do a ton of sets you create the need for that amount of time between workouts because each session would take three hours if you hit more than one or two muscle groups on a typical high volume bodybuilding program.

That may be fine if you are inhumanly strong and 260 pounds of steroid soaked muscle. But for the average guy, he is going to detrain and actually start to lose size if he waits that long. It’s essentially two steps forward, two steps back. With lower volume and higher frequency you can actually take one smaller step forward, but remain there with no steps back. This allows you to provide each body part with a hypertrophy stimulus two to three times more often than the traditional bodybuilders routine. This is the optimal plan for the average, drug free trainee and helps you to make consistent, sustainable progress for the long haul.

CW: Thanks Jay, it’s always a pleasure.

Today through Thursday, Ferruggia is having an awesome SALE and offering 3 Free Bonuses with his outstanding muscle-gaining system. Check it out here.

Stay Focused,
CW

Here’s a situation I’ll bet you’ve experienced many times.

You run into an old friend. That friend recently started working out again and he or she is looking more fit. So you ask your friend how things are going with the exercise program and he or she replies, “It was going great. But now I have this shoulder pain that I can’t get rid of.”

Or maybe it’s a neck, knee, or low back problem?

More importantly, maybe that “friend” is you?

The truth is, virtually everyone will eventually suffer with some type of joint pain or physical limitation. And I really mean everyone.

In the spring of 2007, Debbie Siebers, a worldwide fitness expert who’s been featured on The Swan and the creator of the immensely successful Slim in 6, hired me to help her correct some nagging injuries. Her right shoulder and upper back were bugging her, and she suffered with occasional back twinges and zingers that just wouldn’t go away. (Yep, even fitness experts can throw things out of whack.) She tried everything: chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy, massage, and acupuncture, just to name a few. She got some temporary relief, but only for a few hours, or if she was lucky, a day. In the end, nothing ultimately worked.

Debbie heard about the success I’ve had working in Los Angeles with everyone from elite athletes to the average Joe and Jane. Even though I’m known in many circles for helping people build size and strength, joint rehabilitation takes up most of my time these days. Yes, joint problems are more prevalent than ever.

So I put Debbie on a program comprised of movement drills that she could do at home. Within 30 days, she restored mobility, gained strength, and was pain-free. She was so pleased with her results that she asked me to help her bring a training-based joint therapy program to the masses. I, of course, agreed that such a product is long overdue.

Before I go any further, let me explain why the other types of therapy she tried didn’t work.

Most joint pain is due to a lack of mobility, a lack of endurance strength, or both. Mobility is the ability to move freely. So if you’ve ever felt restricted while picking up a bag of groceries or chasing your kids around the park, it’s probably because you lost mobility. Endurance strength is simply defined as your ability to maintain muscle contractions for an extended period of time. I’m sure you’ve felt strain and pain in your low back while hunched over at your computer, or working in your garden, or just standing in line at the movies.

Stretching isn’t enough because it doesn’t restore movement, it just restores passive range of motion. Lifting heavy weights won’t help either. Research has demonstrated that people who lack endurance strength are more likely to experience low back pain. Even if you’re strong enough to lift the back-end of a minivan, you could still suffer from back pain. Why? Because heavy weight training doesn’t build endurance strength. Plus, you need a balance of strength around your joints, not just on one side.

Getting cracked by a chiropractor, poked by an acupuncturist, or rubbed by a masseuse is akin to putting a band-aid on the problem. You must restore mobility and enhance endurance strength to solve the problem. Up to this point, no one has effectively tackled both of those limitations with one, simple, do-it-yourself system.

To take control of your life and restore knee, low back, shoulder, or neck health without training gadgets just click HERE

Stay focused,
CW

Ketosis is a good example of a dieting idea gone wrong. You see, just a few short years ago many fat loss gurus claimed that entering into ketosis (a metabolic state that forces your body to use ketones, by-products of fatty acid metabolism, for energy) was necessary for fat loss. This is accomplished by severely restricting all carbs, as close to zero as possible.

There are two problems with seeking ketosis. First, you’re depriving your body of many fruits and vegetables that contain healthy, metabolism-boosting nutrients. Second, ketosis makes you feel like crap because your brain functions better when some carbs and their corresponding nutrients are present. Many figured it was necessary for fast fat loss, but it proved to be a lesson in futility. To the contrary, simply reducing your carbohydrate intake is often sufficient to get that fat burning.

With that in mind, here are the five steps you should take to boost fat burning, fast! No suffering or calorie counting required.

1. Big Breakfast: Most people skip breakfast, have a medium-sized lunch, then gorge themselves at night. This is a sure-fire recipe for fat gain. Your first meal of the day should be the largest, highest calorie meal. Research has demonstrated that people who front-load their calories have a higher metabolism and burn more fat than those who back-load their calories.

2. Limit Carbs in the PM: Your body works better when moderate amounts of carbs are available for neurotransmitter production and glycogen replenishment, just to name a few. Start your day by eating one piece of fruit with breakfast (this is a simple way to boost your calories). An organic apple is my favorite, but any will work. For the rest of the morning hours consume any form of berries as your fruit source. For the second half of the day focus on fibrous vegetables with each meal. This step helps control the insulin, the fat-storing hormone.

3. Start with a Salad: One of the simplest ways to control your hunger is to eat a salad before your meals. This is especially effective at night when most people want to pig out. You’ll eat less, and feel satisfied, because it takes time to chew, and it allows for your brain to process feedback information about satiety. Research has demonstrated that those who eat a salad before a meal end up eating fewer calories before they feel full.

4. Stay Hydrated: Water is essential to metabolic processes. Research indicates that those who drink more water burn more calories. Your urine should always be clear. If it’s not, you need to drink more water. A good trick is to drink 2-3 glasses of water as soon as you wake up. This jumpstarts your hydration for the day. Plus, when people drink enough water they often look leaner and feel less bloated.

5. Exercise 5 Hours per Week: I can’t make up a fat loss list without mentioning exercise. Most people already go the gym around three times per week, for an hour at a time. This is a good start. Simply find time on the weekend for another hour, and throw a few 20-30 minute workouts into your week and you’re good to go.

Here’s a simple solution for an extra few workouts: two days each week go to bed 30 minutes earlier and wake up 30 minutes earlier. Spend that extra 30 minutes in the morning doing some sort of exercise that gets you sweating.

As a rule of thumb, it’s recommended to break up the five hours into three hours of resistance training and two hours of energy systems training. For the energy systems work, you don’t need to run on a treadmill, and you definitely shouldn’t sit on an exercise bike. Perform fun, challenging activities that require you to constantly move in different directions. Soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, racquetball, etc. are all excellent options.

On a different note, for any of you who are suffering from joint pain, I’ve got an awesome DVD that’s coming out in a few days. I’ll keep you posted.

Here are my two latest articles:

3 Reasons to Lift Explosively for T-nation. Click here to read.

Build a Death Grip in Men’s Fitness, October 2008 issue.

Stay focused,
CW

I’d say that 99% of the people out there want to lose fat. And what percentage actually do it? Specifically, what percentage actually reach their goal of ideal leanness? Not many.

The first problem with saying you simply want to “lose fat” is that it’s way too general. An essential key to success is setting specific goals: the more specific, the better. Generalized goals lead to subpar results. Instead of saying you want to lose fat you should say, for example: I want to lose 3 inches off my waist. Now you have a specific, measurable goal.

But that’s not enough. Instead of saying you “want” something, you should outline specific steps you’ll take to reach that goal. In essence, “I want to lose 3 inches off my waist” should metamorphose into a series of steps that you follow every day. Here’s an example:

Goal
Lose 3 Inches Off My Waist

Action Plan
1. I will consume no more than 50 grams of carbs per day.
2. I will eat 6 small meals per day.
3. I will consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight.
4. I will jump rope for 10 minutes per day.

…and so on.

First, be specific with your goals. Second, put an action plan in place. Merely wishing for fat loss will not cause it to happen. In order to reach your goals you must put a specific action plan in motion that coincides with your goal.

Seems simple enough, right? But do you do it?

If not, start today.

I’d say that 99% of the people out there want to lose fat. And what percentage actually do it? Specifically, what percentage actually reach their goal of ideal leanness? Not many.

The first problem with saying you simply want to “lose fat” is that it’s way too general. An essential key to success is setting specific goals: the more specific, the better. Generalized goals lead to subpar results. Instead of saying you want to lose fat you should say, for example: I want to lose 3 inches off my waist. Now you have a specific, measurable goal.

But that’s not enough. Instead of saying you “want” something, you should outline specific steps you’ll take to reach that goal. In essence, “I want to lose 3 inches off my waist” should metamorphose into a series of steps that you follow every day. Here’s an example:

Goal
Lose 3 Inches Off My Waist

Action Plan
1. I will consume no more than 50 grams of carbs per day.
2. I will eat 6 small meals per day.
3. I will consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight.
4. I will jump rope for 10 minutes per day.

…and so on.

First, be specific with your goals. Second, put an action plan in place. Merely wishing for fat loss will not cause it to happen. In order to reach your goals you must put a specific action plan in motion that coincides with your goal.

Seems simple enough, right? But do you do it?

If not, start today.

1. How to design a program to fit the person’s goal.
2. How to design a program to fit the person’s goal.

When I say “program,” I’m not simply referring to sets and reps because those variables don’t constitute a program. A “program” is the complete package: strength training, nutrition, mobility work, and energy systems training. Miss any one of those and it ain’t a complete program.

The problem, if I can be so blunt, is that many of the people who send me program design questions haven’t read my book, Muscle Revolution. And given that I can’t address all program design elements in every email (unless I sold my bed and replaced it with an office chair and computer) it’s nearly impossible to give answers that will make a significant impact and get you closer to your goals.

The good news is that for around $40 you can gain a lifetime worth of program design knowledge. My goal is to empower you.

All you need to do is click here.

Stay Focused,
CW

Time for my two cents.

As I thought about my inaugural blog, I figured it would only make sense to write about what I consider the most important component of success, health, and fitness. So I’m here to tell you what I think it is…wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me do what any writer should do and build up the story from the beginning.

Here’s the question that’s been asked by a few intelligent people who, more often than not, developed very lucrative careers: Do successful people think different than unsuccessful people?

Before I get to the nuts and bolts of it all, let me qualify my discussion by saying that “success” can be defined any way you want. I simply define it as the place in life you want to be, relative to where you are now (assuming there’s a difference between those two places). Of course, I’m being figurative when I mention the word “place” since it’s not so much a physical location as it is a mental location.

Do successful people think different than unsuccessful people?

Many experts, books, and seminars have attempted to answer that question. The “answer” keeps resurfacing in many different forms. You could go back to Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” or you could read T. Harv Elder’s “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” or you could reference the latest text that attempts to answer this question by picking up a copy of “The Secret.” If you believe the answer that’s been exposed by Dale Carnegie, T. Harv Elder, or The Secret, there’s something that super successful people understand that the rest of us don’t. Put another way, it seems that their state of mind is what really makes them unique.

Since I’m a neuro guy I always feel vindicated whenever the solution to a puzzle points directly back to the brain, especially when we’re talking about enhancing our success. Indeed, our mind is our most powerful tool, no matter how cliche it sounds. So let’s look at some unique pieces of research that gives a glimpse into the power of what lies between our ears.

One of my favorite pieces of research was based on imagined contractions. Let me explain.

In 1992, the lab of two scientists, Yue and Cole, performed a study to demonstrate the power that our mind has over our muscles. The studied consisted of two groups of people. The first group performed a strength training exercise for the pinky finger, five times per week, for four weeks. The second group imagined performing the same exercise for the same frequency and time-frame. In essence, the group that imagined the contractions sat quietly and didn’t move a muscle. And to make sure they didn’t move a muscle the lab hooked up their pinky muscle to an EMG to make sure no contractions took place.

At the end of the study, the group that performed the actual strength training improved their strength by 30%. What about the group that simply imagined the strength training exercise? They improved their strength by 22%!

I still get chills when I think about that study.

Another demonstration was with the classic study that Sigmund Freud performed way back in the day when he convinced one of his hypnotized patients that he was holding a burning cigarette in his hand (little did Freud’s patient know, but the burning “cigarette” was actually a piece of chalk). When Freud touched the piece of chalk to his patient’s arm, a welt appeared as if he’d been burned by a cigarette.

From here, I could talk ad nauseam about the power of the placebo effect. I spend a lot of time reading research papers, and most of them are about as entertaining to read as the ingredients on a shampoo bottle. But I always get a kick out of the results that are demonstrated by the group that got the sugar pill. Indeed, sometimes the sugar pill group get results that are comparable to the drug group!

A few times each year, it seems that another fly-by-night company comes along and puts out a hair regrowth package replete with pills, massage techniques, and some goopy crap to smear all over your scalp. Everyone knows this stuff doesn’t regrow hair. Well, everyone except for those who don’t have hair. So these poor, bald saps plop down a hundred bucks to buy the “new and improved” hair regrowth formula. And you know what? I bet many of the follicle-challenged fellas out there do regrow some hair because they’re so damn convinced that the product works. After all, if none of these hair regrowth products ever did anything, they wouldn’t reappear with every new season.

And all of this supports my position that the mind is really more powerful than we’ll probably ever understand. So it stands to reason that if you can imagine an exercise and get stronger; if you can develop a scar from a inocuous piece of chalk; if you can regrow hair with a concoction that consists of nothing more than filtered water and a few herbs, well, you can surely harness that power to improve your body, health, and wealth, right?

So, it’s my assertion that successful people became successful because they focused on goals, no matter how unattainable, that rewired their neural circuits to attain those goals.

Well, that’s what this blog is for: to help you reach a new level of success, whether it’s building more muscle, losing fat, living a pain-free life, or rewiring your brain to achieve everything you want out of life.