Happy Wednesday!

I’ll start off with a quick story that amuses me, and you too, hopefully.

I had an early morning training appointment, and before I started working there at the club, I ran over to the local Jiffy store (for those of you that aren’t Jacksonville natives, “Jiffy” store is what we call all convenience stores, regardless of what it actually is, like how all soda is just “coke” to Southerners) to grab some Dunkin Doughnuts coffee.

I see a guy in there that just came from the gym; this guy has been a member at the club for almost as long as we’ve been open, and he doesn’t look any different now than he did 2 1/2 years ago. Anyhow, this guy’s a real douchebag; one of these cats that aboslutley knows everything, including knowing yoru business & what you do better than you do. We’ve had a few run-ins where he’s tried to give me a “piece of his mind,” and I’ve had to give it back to him b/c he doesn’t have enough to spare to be giving it away like that.

So I see this joker at the doughnut stand; buys a whole box of Dunkin Doughnuts, right after leaving Every BODY Fitness from his workout!

Hahahaha! I just wish I had my camera with me, with the time & date stamp so I could post that in the club: 7:05a.m., working out hard at Every BODY Fitness, tryin’ to get my sweat on & lose this beer gut I can’t seem to get rid of. 7:10a.m., breakfast as usual from Dunkin Doughnuts! Hahaha!

EBF Member Eating Post-Workout Doughnut (author's rendering)

People never cease to amaze me.

Anyhow……

Straight to it…..

Dynamic Warm-up

The usual (see below)

Workout

3 sets, minimal rest between exercises or sets

*Barbell over-head squats 12-15

*Incline D.B. Bench Press 21’s (7 top half reps, 7 bottom half reps, 7 full reps)

*Cross fit ring alternating 1-arm chest flye 8-12 reps (each arm)

*D.B. Split Squats 10 reps (each leg)

*Barbell Deadlift 6-8 reps

*1-Arm D.B. Swings 6-8 reps (each arm)

*Cable Curls 21’s

*Rope Tricep Pushdowns 21’s

And that’s all I had today.  It’s already been a long week for me!

Stay focused, stay fit!

ZAY

P.S. If you want to know what you SHOULD be having post-workout, just check this out Post-Workout Shake

What up?!

So I just got finished working out about 30 minutes ago at the premier health club in St Augustine, Every BODY Fitness; once again I amaze myself at how I keep coming up with new ways to kick the shit outta myself! Hahaha!
Peep the workout below!

Oh yeah, afater I got finished working out, one of my members came up to me and said when she first saw me doing squat jumps, she thought I was on a trampoline, but when she came to look  she realized I was just jumping off the floor! Hahaha! Yeah, I still got some hops!

Dynamic Warm-up

3 sets, 10 reps each, no rest

*Prisoner Squats
*Jumping Jacks
*Seal Jacks
*Mountain Climbers

Weight Training Circuit

3 Sets, Minimal Rest between exercises or sets

*Hang Clean/Front Squat/Push Press 6-8 reps

*Single-Leg Squat (Pistol Squats) 8 reps each leg

*Wide-grip Pullups 8-12 reps

*Hanging Leg Raises 10-15 reps

Bodyweight Cardio Circuit

2 sets, minimal rest between exercises, 2 minute rest between sets

*Jump Squats 20 reps

*Spider-man pushups 10 reps each side

*Split Squats 10 reps each leg

*1-Arm Kettlebell Swings 10 reps each side

*Bicycles 20 total reps

So that’s it!

Try it out, and let me know what you think!

Stay focused, stay fit

ZAY

Make sure you always follow up your workout with a great post-workout shake like Prograde’s Workout or something with a similar carb to protein ratio! You’re wasting your time if you don’t!

Hello!

I had another awesome full body cirucit workout yesterday at Every BODY Fitness, St Agustine’s premier health club!

Yesterday’s workout was focused a little bit more on strength….check it out below!

ZAY’s Sunday Workout

Workout
Repeated 3 times
8-15 Reps with each, minimal rest between each set
2 minutes rest between each circuit

*B.B. Squat
*Flat D.B. Bench Press
*Walking D.B. Lunges
*Close-Grip Chin-ups
*1-Arm D.B. Snatch (Both sides)
*Lying D.B. Skullcrushers
*Seated D.B. Curls

That’s what I did!

Remember, you can modify this workout for your fitness level by increasing reps & decreasing weight, increasing rest time between exercises, etc.

Stay focused, Stay fit!

ZAY

P.S. Make sure you check out the best boot camp in the St Augustine Jacksonville area, Look Better NAKED Boot Camps, if you live in North Florida. Go the site now to register for a FREE 1-week trial membership! http://www.lookbetternakedjax.com

So,

As you know, I own & instruct (on occasion) Look Better NAKED Boot Camps, the best St Augustine boot camp program. One of my Every BODY Fitness employees, Kelly Luedke, is actually my partner in this endeavor, and she teaches most of our boot camps.

I’ve never actually taken one of Kelly’s Boot Camps, although she has trained me a few times, and I’ve gotta say “Holy shit!”

No wonder all of her clients see such great results!

It was definitely a great workout, and challenging for me! I honestly didn’t expect it to be that tough, considering I do try to challenge myself in each one of my workouts, both with resistance (weight) and cardiovascularly.

We did a high-intensity, full body circuit workout, which I’ve listed below

ZAY’s Saturday Workout

*Dynamic Warm-up, repeated 2x:
Prisoner squats  10 reps
Jumping Jacks    10 reps
Seal Jacks              10 reps
Mountain Climbers  10 reps

I believe we were doing 30 seconds “ON” of each exercise, but I don’t think she was quite giving us 30 seconds off!

Everyone started at a different station and we rotated, but I’ll just start with the exercise I started on and go through the circuit as best as I remember!

• Medicine Ball Crunches (Feet straight up in the air)
• Resistance Band Front Squat
• Kettlebell Swings
• Bodyweight Rows (Using the cross-fit style training rings)
• Resistance Band Rear Dealt Rows
• Bicycle Crunches
• Resistance Band Alternating Shoulder Presses
• Kettlebell sumo squat to upright row
• Seated Medicine ball rotation (feet off the ground)
• Alternating Staggered grip pushups (with hands on sliders)
• Resistance Band Stiff Leg Deadlift
• Resistance Band front shoulder raises
• Reverse Lunge with foot on slider (slide back foot out, lunge, slide foot forward, repeat)
• Resistance Band Bent over rows (both arms)
• Medicine Ball Reverse Crunch w/ hip raise (squeeze a MB between your knees, reverse crunch then lift your hips in the air)
• Bench Dips (On step)

Now, here’s the kicker. Between each exercise, we were doing 30 seconds of either jumping jacks, pop squats, hip thrusts (squat down, extend your legs as into a pushup position, bring legs back underneath you, jump), or mountain climbers!

I was worn out after just going through that circuit once! We weren’t going to have time to repeat the circuit, so we did a few other exercises, but I don’t remember all of those. Needless to say, I was pretty gassed!

Anyhow, if I were doing this workout on my own, I would have repeated the circuit twice, and that would have been good!

So that’s my workout of the day!

Stay focused, stay fit!

ZAY

P.S. As always, and this is super important to remember following any resistance workout, I followed the workout up with a post-workout shake of whey protein with strawberries & a banana. If you don’t like fruit, or blending, and just want a great pre-made post workout powder, try Prograde Nutrition’s Workout.

So I’m trying something new….feel free to let me know what you think!

I’m constantly having friends from home, friends from college friends of friends, ask me to write them workouts, and as much as I would like to take the time to consult each and everyone of them and write them an individual workout program (for free, BTW), I simply don’t have the time any more. I’m running two businesses, about to start a third, I’m still studying for my C.S.C.S. certification, I write on & post videos for two blogs, I write articles for a local women’s magazine, I’m studying online marketing constantly, and oh yeah, I have a 19 month old daughter to look after!!

So I’m going to start posting my own workouts on here every day; sometimes I’ll post videos if I have someone there that can film for me, but I’ll at least write what I did. I physically write or type into my phone my workouts each day, or I do workouts that I’ve written previously.

I train with a hybrid approach; I don’t limit myself to bodybuilding style training like many guys do, I don’t just do functional training, I don’t only do kettlebell training, not just strength training, not just body weight training, and I certainly don’t limit myself to just cardio!!

Ok, so for today, as an “off” day, I did what I call an “alternative cardio” workout with one of my long-time clients & friends, Heidi. I used to come in and do long, slow, boring pointless cardio on my “off” days, but I always hated that shit, and then I learned how counterproductive it is too. So, here’s my alternative cardio workout of the day.

Alt Cardio Workout of the day

30 seconds “ON” 30 seconds “Off”
Repeated circuit three times for a total of 24 minutes

*Resistance Band back pedal
*Resistance Band side-shuffle
*Resistance Band side-shuffle (opposite side)
*Resistance Band bear crawl (those sucked!)
*Step-ups
*Bench Hops
*Mountain Climbers
*Lateral Hops

So that’s it! It kicked the shit outta me! Great workout!

Til next time, Stay focused, stay fit

ZAY

Ok,

I’ve posted an email below that I got from a friend of mine. He is getting ready for his upcoming wedding this summer, and he has been busting it working out, losing fat, building muscle. He looks great! Looks like a totally different person than he was a year ago.
He’s always asking me questions about how to step up his training, take it to the next level, or avoid plateauing.

I’ve posted the exact email below, as well as my response to him, b/c this goes to show how even “personal trainers” can mis-inform people, and I think a lot of folks are still caught up on the low-carb thing, even though that fad passed about four years ago.

Friend’s email
“Hey bro,

What do you think of the Keto diet? I had a trainer at the gym recommend it to me. So, I of course did some research and it sounds legit. Amp, the trainer, keeps saying “you gotta get your body to burn fat for energy, and not carbs.” This diet sounds like the way to do that. I have concluded that I am an endomorph, and from my understanding, that means I have a degree of insulin resistance. I am thinking of giving this a shot but wanted to get your opinion. I have included one of the articles I read on it.

Zay’s Friend

[I've omitted the links to the articles, b/c the people that write on this particular site are idiots, and I would never want to direct you there.]

As for cardio, I began it again this week. On off days I am going to go first thing in the morning and do 15-20 minutes of HIIT and then lift in the evenings. On working days I will mix up whether I lift or do cardio when I get off.”

My Response

OK,

First off, that “trainer” is an idiot. You can tell him I said so, and give him my phone number if he wants to learn something about nutrition and the way the body actually works. (I don’t get information reading muscular development & muscle & fitness, so I’m probably a little advanced for his education level). If he wants to argue with me, then don’t give him my number.

Secondly, do keto diets (low-carb) diets work? Simple answer: Yes.

Should you go on one? No. Unless you are preparing for some kind of competition, i.e. bodybuilding, where you are trying to lose a certain amount of weight/bodyfat, dehydrate your body and are fully prepared to regain all the weight that you’ve lost on said diet once you start eating normally again.

A little lesson in metaphor on what carbs actually do in and for the body. Carbohydrates are your body’s primary fuel source. Think about them like logs for a fire. If you are doing cardio, high intensity interval cardio (as you should always be doing) or doing resistance training, your body will use any & all available carbohydrates as an energy source. This is not a bad thing. In order to get the fire (your metabolism) to burn hotter, you have to add logs, right? You can’t take logs out of a fire and expect it to get bigger and burn hotter.

Same thing with your body. You should be eating slow-digesting, unrefined, unprocessed carbs as much as possible, and things with little to no sugar in your diet. What having these types of carbs in your diet will do is make your body have to digest longer throughout the day between each meal. You burn calories digesting food, so the longer your body is digesting something the better, b/c that means you’re burning more calories.

Let me back up. If you’re not eating something at least every three hours regularly already, don’t even bother messing with any thing else. That should be your primary focus. Just switching from three meals per day to 5 or 6 meals per day will jack your metabolism up enough to get you through any plateau you may be at.

Anyways, if you’re eating those types of carbs in each meal, or most meals, you’re body is going to have to work that much more all day long, burning calories as it goes. Then, when you’re ready for activity, i.e. weight lifting or interval cardio, your body has an ample fuel source to allow you to perform those workouts intensely.

I shouldn’t be so harsh on that trainer, he’s just coming from a fundamentally flawed perspective, probably from reading to many muscular development magazines. See, some people like your boy think that the primary goal of exercising and doing cardio is to burn fat!

Bullshit!!!!!!!

The primary goal of cardio and working out is to build muscle tissue and burn as many calories in the process, regardless of what type of calories your body uses!

MUSCLE BURNS FAT. PERIOD.

Not cardio, not weightlifting, not caffeine or ephedrine, not anything else save for the possible exception of growth hormone (need more scientific studies to definitely prove) can directly burn fat in your body.

That’s it!

So with that in mind, what should be your main goal? To build, maintain & fuel muscle tissue, right? One of the best selling e-books of all time says everything you need to know in the title of the book: “Burn the fat, feed the muscle.”

The calories you burn and the muscle you are breaking down while in the gym don’t mean shit compared to what you do to rebuild and fuel those muscles. Muscle tissue burns fat all day, every day so that it can survive.

Focus on this, and think about everything else from this perspective from reading from here on out. Your main two goals are ALWAYS, whether in the gym or walking around daily life are:
1) Build, maintain and fuel muscle tissue
2) Burn as many calories as possible

So with our corrected perspective, let’s look at what happens to your body on a low-carb diet. That’s all a “keto” diet is. When you’re body is deprived of carbohydrates it goes into what is called a ketogenic state.

I’m drawing on all of this from years of reading and researching (scientific shit like journal articles, lit reviews and real certifications, not Men’s Health, Muscle & Fitness & an I.S.S.A certification) as well as my own personal experiences and those of my clients.

OK. First, your workouts.
Your muscular and cardiovascular systems need carbohydrates to work properly, efficiently and intensely. Throw out the carbs, throw out intense workouts, b/c that’s what’s going to happen. “But you’re body will be burning fat, though! Woo-Hoo!”
Nope, sorry slick, it won’t.

When you do long, slow boring cardio at an extremely low pace for 30 minutes to an hour, and there are not carbohyrdates available in your system, the body can use fat as a fuel source. The only problem is, you burn so few calories, it doesn’t fucking matter! And you don’t burn any additional calories after the cardio session either.What’s the goal?! Burn as many CALORIES as possible. So throw that kind of bodybuilder cardio crap out the window; don’t even bother with it unless you have a broken leg.

High intensity interval cardio actually goes into the same category that resistance training does in regards to what your body does during and after the workout, so I’ll speak about them as the same thing.

When you workout and your body does not have carbohydrates available as fuel (as in a low-carb diet), your body CAN NOT UTILIZE FAT AS AN ALTERNATE FUEL.

What it does do, however, is break muscle protein down into amino acids and converts them into a “type” of carbohydrate through a process called, actually you don’t care, sorry, to the point! Two problems with this: one, the “type” of carb that it creates sucks as a fuel source. It’s like putting kerosene in your car’s gas tank; it will work, but not nearly as efficiently or like it’s supposed to. Two, it doesn’t “break down muscle tissue” like you do when you’re doing resistance training, it destroys it. Like, it’s gone, you wasted the time you spent getting it. This is contradictory to our main goal, which is to build, maintain and fuel muscle, right?
Ever hear or read any bodybuilders complaining about “losing too much muscle” while prepping for a show? That’s why. They really are losing muscle.

Two, your everyday life.
Your energy level is gonna hit the shits. You’re going to be aggravated constantly, in a pissy mood with everyone, you’re going to be constantly tired, and you’re going to be hungry. Additionally, with all of the muscle you’ll be losing from your workouts, combined with & because of your lack of carbs, your testosterone level is going to drop and your estrogen level will increase. Sounds exciting, right?

Yeah, decreased sex drive, decreased ambition, slower metabolism, and mood swings like a bitch sounds like the way to go for me.
Trust me on this one, low-carbing makes your everyday life suck, not to mention you hate going to the gym too b/c your workouts suck so bad b/c you have no energy, and you still look like shit.

So there’s the problem with keto or low-carb diets. Will you lose weight & bodyfat? Yes for a little while, but it is counterproductive to what your main goals are, and I guarantee you will gain back (and usually plus some) all of the weight you lose while on the diet. I promise.

So what’s the answer?

1) Eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, for 5 to 6 small meals per day
2) Train intensely during your resistance training workouts, whether doing full body circutis or doing bodypart super-sets, tri-sets and giant sets. Never stop to talk & bullshit during a workout.
3) High intensity interval training cardio. If you don’t feel like you just went 13 rounds with Rocky Balboa after cardio, you didn’t hit it hard enough.

See, numbers 2 and 3 help you accomplish your #2 goal, which is to burn as many calories as possible during workouts & throughout the day. (So does #1, but that’s pretty obvious, so I’m just gonna focus on 2 & 3).
EPOC (Exercise post-oxygen Consumption) is a measure of how elevated your metabolism (the calories you’re burning) is after a workout. Studies have shown that with both high intensity interval training cardio and intense resistance training, EPOC will stay elevated for up to 48 hours after a workout session. This is why folks that I train don’t have to workout 6 to 7 days per week like clients of trainers who train their clients like bodybuilders.
Their metabolism (calorie burning) is elevated over a normal level for up to four days after our workouts!

With doing long, slow, boring cardio, EPOC does not increase at all. Ever. The calories you burn during that time are all the calories you burn, and then your metabolism returns to normal.
Resistance training when you are carb depleted inhibits you from being able to train intensely enough to raise your EPOC enough to make the difference you are looking for.

Regarding your body type.
Will you be able to lose bodyfat while eating 500 grams of carbohydrates per day like an ectomorph? Yes, but you’d have to be having some severely kick-ass workouts regularly to do it. This isn’t practical, as it increases fatigue, decreases rest & recovery time, and increases risk for injury.
It’s a little more practical to keep your carbohydrates in a moderate range (as long as they’re healthy, clean carbs), like in the 150 to 300 grams per day range.
Insulin resistant? Not likely. But you can go and get tested by an endocrinologist or an internal medicine DR to find out for sure.

One other super-common myth that your trainer boy has probably said or will say in response to some of the stuff I’ve told you. “You can’t lose fat & build muscle tissue at the same time.”
Here’s a little secret: That’s not true. But, that would be another hour long email, and I’ve got shit to do!

In conclusion, I would not recommend low-carbing unless you decide you want to be a bodybuilder. Period.
Just eat clean, eat frequently, and kick the shit out of yourself during workouts, and you’ll lose bodyfat, I promise.

Oh yeah, and if you are planning on doing high intensity interval training cardio in the mornings, make sure you eat some carbs before you go do it. Remember, your body can’t burn fat doing that type of cardio, so it’s gonna drain your blood sugar level first before it starts breaking down the muscle protein, and that will make you light-headed and nauseated, not a good combo when doing that type of cardio.

ZAY”

Hopefully I’ve shed some raw light on keto or low-carb diets for you.

Stay focused, stay fit

Isaiah