May 10, 2012 By 27 Comments

A Case for Frequent Squatting

You know, it’s funny. If you were to ask me two years ago about how to improve my squat, I would’ve replied with something like “cycle your intensities,” or “don’t train the movement more than twice per week,” or “drop the movement altogether and replace it with a variation for a short period,” only to return to the movement in hopes of being stronger.

However my views have changed a great deal over the last few years and I have the likes of John Broz, Nicholas Horton, Matt Perryman and Bret Contreras to thank for this.

When building training programs, especially those geared toward strength and muscle gain, I was always weary of taxing the nervous system.  I never wanted my clients to overdo it.

Now, I’m still a believer in rest and recovery, but the old notions of needing a full 3-4 days (or more) of rest before training a movement again have since faded from my psyche.

It began as I experimented last year with frequent full body training.  I was basically doing heavy pulls, squats and presses every other day, no matter what.

Some days were good, some sucked, but I was consistent. Guess what?  I got stronger. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Clients, Muscle Gain
The Accidental Recomp – Mike Fields’ Progress Report
October 15, 2011 By 19 Comments

The Accidental Recomp – Mike Fields’ Progress Report

In the past, I’ve written about ways to recompose our bodies through alternating high and low calorie days.  For more reading, check out Part 1, Part 2 or a more recent piece titled Body Recomposition without Counting Calories?

However, it’s something I rarely advise for my personal clients as it’s a slow, arduous process and likely better to focus on one goal at a time.  Also, most of us find it troublesome as we deal with analysis paralysis and it’s usually better to limit our choices so as not to screw it all up.

Today is a rather interesting scenario of a client who I initially set up on an intermittent fasting plan to drop some body fat, but ended up recomp-ing in the process, and I’m fairly happy with his results thus far.

When Mike came to me, he was fairly lean already as you can see in his before picture on the left.   Truth be told, he tore his ACL late last year and had surgery to repair it in early January 2011.  Prior to the injury, he’d been training fairly regularly and been as heavy as 190lbs, body fat unknown.

After the surgery, he of course lost a good bit of weight and had emailed me mid February asking about how to go about getting back in shape – his main concern was learning about setting up his diet and practicing Intermittent Fasting on his way to his previous state, but in a leaner, stronger fashion.

After I learned it’d only been about 6 weeks since his surgery, I suggested he skip the sub-maintenance eating for now and allow the extra calories to fuel his recovery.  No sense in inhibiting the healing process eating below maintenance.

Fast forward to June – we begin emailing again.  He’d been cleared to lift again and had been in the gym for a while rebuilding his strength.

His starting weight was about 177-178lbs when he got to me. Pre-injury, his strength levels were pretty impressive for his size and age (he’s 20 now) with a previous bench of 335lbs and squat of 365lbs. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Clients Tagged With: ,
Improve Your Fitness by Limiting Your Choices
August 26, 2011 By 34 Comments

Improve Your Fitness by Limiting Your Choices

As I write this, I’m sitting in the living room of my friend’s home about 2 blocks from the famous Hollywood Boulevard.  I’ve been here since the 9th and won’t be home until the 30th.  The plan was to come here for 2 weeks and then return to the south, but I’ve been having too much fun, and actually swapped out my tickets for an even cheaper flight, so I figured I’d stay another week.

My birthday is August 4th, but I always celebrate the entire month (in my house, we call it birthday month).  It’s been the best birthday month yet and a great vacation gift to myself.

Being my first time in Los Angeles, I’m a bit overwhelmed as I’ve never been to such a big place in my life (other than flight layovers).  I’ve had the chance to meet some interesting people, and experience a slightly different culture than the southern living I’m accustomed to.

Regardless of the differences, I’ve fallen in love with the place thus far.  I’ve made some new friends, had some interesting experiences and conversations along the way.

In fact, this article is inspired from a conversation I’ve had most recently with a lady I met through my friend who’s hosting me. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Build Muscle, Clients, Random Thoughts Tagged With: , ,
July 14, 2011 By 18 Comments

From Fluffy to Ripped, Sans the Obsession: Chris Brown’s Transformation

Back in February, I recall getting an email from a guy by the name of Chris Brown who was interested in some fitness consulting.  He found my work through my friend Google, and claimed to have devoured many of my articles since his discovery.

“Ever since I read your No-BS Approach to Looking Great Naked, I’ve been hooked”

is what he said in the opening email.

He went on to explain his experience in athletics growing up, which ultimately led to playing some professional baseball for a short time, before going back to graduate school to further his studies at Salve Regina University.

I knew from the beginning that I’d be able to work with Chris due to his experience in athletics, but his passionate desire to learn and grow he expressed in our email exchange.  I’ll never forget the last line of his first email that read “my work ethic is ridiculous and I love the gym, so I’m ready for the challenge.”

At first, I thought “okay, we’ll see how determined he is” and we continued our conversation which resulted in him starting the official JCDFItness training and diet protocol on Monday, March 7.

I was extremely pleased with his familiarity of the major compound lifts and willingness to let go of the reigns.

While I won’t go into his exact training protocol, I want to highlight a bit of what we did to get the results presented below.  To start off, Chris had been doing the popular Stronglifts 5×5 program.  I was already a fan of this guy – no bro-training to speak of.

Chris’ starting weight was 205lbs and ending weight was 186lbs.  He is right at 6 foot tall.  The time frame in between photos is about 16 weeks.  So on average, he dropped just over 1lb per week.  I think you’ll agree the difference in appearance is fairly drastic.  He transformed from a soft look into a very lean, athletic appearance.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Clients, Goals, Popular
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