A common mistake I see lifters of all levels make is disregarding tempo during their strength training. Tempo is essentially the speed with which you lift and lower the weights. Many lifters pay this no mind, and simply lift and lower the weights as quickly as possible. This is not ideal for a couple of reasons. First of all: it can be dangerous. If we’re simply trying to lift as fast as possible, we aren’t controlling the movement, nor are we focusing on the specific joint action taking place. Lifting too quickly can lead to bad form and excessive strain on our joints, which is the last thing we want in the gym.

“What this means is that through HIIT, not only can you increase your cardiovascular endurance even more effectively than steady state cardio training (like going for a 5 km jog, for example), but you can also increase your muscle endurance and lean muscle mass.” These days, the term HIIT is being thrown around a lot, inside and outside of the gym environment. We often hear people talk about HIIT cardio or how HIIT can help you lose weight, but what is it really, and why is it so effective for fat loss and increased endurance when properly used? While you may have frequently heard this term, you may not know that HIIT actually stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Simply put, this means training by alternating through cycles of intense bursts of activity at maximum heartrate, with cycles of rest in-between. So now that we understand what HITT is, why is it beneficial? While it has been known to have many different advantages for the body, some of the key benefits include increased cardiovascular health, fat loss, and increased muscle endurance. Depending on your own personal goals, and which benefits of HIIT you would like to focus on, there are many different ways to use high intensity interval training. One of the most popular ways to train is what is widely known as the Tabata Method.

"The essential elements of health and wellness can be summed up in four parts: nutrition, resistance training, sleep & stress, and cardiovascular exercise." When tasking yourself with a weight loss mission, it is important to establish some fixed goals you would like to achieve before you get started. Whether it be losing a certain amount of weight or body fat, or simply wanting to become a healthier individual. Creating these goals will help to motivate you and stay consistent during the process. The other key part of changing your body is to produce a complete regime that includes a healthy eating plan and an efficient exercise routine. However, many people do not properly understand the essential elements that are needed for consistent weight/fat loss. Here is what you need to know. The essential elements of health and wellness can be summed up in four parts: nutrition, resistance training, sleep & stress, and cardiovascular exercise. Making sure you include a balance between these elements will provide you with a certain level of dietary stability. But understanding each element and its various complexities is absolutely critical to achieve success.

Everybody wants to lose weight quickly. If you could get in shape fast, wouldn't you want to do that? But I've learned that anything worthwhile takes time. There are no shortcuts. There's just hard work and dedication to get the Real Results that you want.

Can I eat carbs to lose weight? This is a very common question that people ask me, and there are a lot of different opinions out there online. So I think it’s important to take some time to really break this down and put it into context. Let’s start with an example of an average person who might have 10 to 25 pounds to lose. That person hasn't likely been following an optimal nutrition plan, so the first step in their journey is to clean up their diet. In the early stages of that kind of weight loss, I’d generally suggest cutting carbs out of their diet for anywhere between one and four weeks.

Weekend nutrition! This is where so many of us take a wrong turn and over-eat and over-indulge! If you're trying to lead a healthier lifestyle, be fit, and control your weight, throwing everything to the wind on the weekend is NOT the answer!

The number one area where most people fail when it comes to losing weight is nutrition! You can exercise daily, and burn lots of calories, but if you’re in a caloric surplus (or in a massive deficit – i.e. eating too little food), your weight-loss results won’t happen. With all that said, it becomes quite clear fast that we must pay very close attention to our nutrition if we want to succeed with our fat-loss journey! I get questions all the time about what to eat and when, and what diet is the best, and these are all great and important questions. But it's important to remember that even before choosing what to eat and when, a more important topic of discussion needs to be explored, and that is the topic of meal preparation (AKA meal prep). Meal prep takes many forms. Here are 3 classic ways of meal prepping:

Want to drop some bodyweight this month? It’s more possible than you think! Incorporate the following diet secrets into your daily routine to naturally boost your metabolism, automatically lower your daily consumption of calories, and keep your motivation going strong so that you drop excess fat quicker than ever before.

Following some kind of diet to lose weight will fail 9 times out of 10! Why is that? Well, the main reason is because following a diet is basically in essence following a complex system of change. Starting something completely new from what we're used to comes as a shock/radical shift to our lifestyle habits, and ultimately presents too many items to change all at once. The secret to achieving the weight-loss and health goals you desire is to take your time and slow things down. This zen mantra is known as: less is more. By doing less, you'll be able to actually follow and stick to the game-plan. Yes, the journey will take longer, but time is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things [it's really all about achieving and, more importantly, SUSTAINING the goal(s)]. With all that said, check out this video below for 2-key nutrition tips to help you lose weight and have more energy. Enjoy!

It may surprise some of you to find out that, not too long ago, I was nowhere near as fit or healthy as I am today. Just a short 6 years ago, I weighed 270lbs, a full 100lbs heavier than today. I was exercising regularly, but my idea of training was quite at odds with the reality of being healthy and fit. I was focused purely on putting on size, which ultimately led to me being fat and inflamed (not practicing what I was preaching). The journey to become...