At the end of the day, the only thing I care about is how much I lifted today, and how much I lifted 6 months ago. I want to see if the weights I’m lifting now are heavier, if I’m plateauing, if I’m gaining at a steady rate. I want to see if I’m getting stronger in one muscle and not another. It should be relatively simple - the only data I need is the weight I lifted.

This is why I recently built liftrr.com. It only tracks a few exercises (after a quick survey - I determined these were the ones people cared most about) - but all you need to do is enter the maximum weight you lifted on the site, each time you lift. It takes less than a minute, is easy to do, and gives you some really great charts to visualize your progress.

Whats the real benefit though? Besides the ease of use, and the neato charts - the benefit is charting multiple exercises on one graph and being able to compare your progress across exercises and muscles groups.

This is of course just the beggining of the site however, so I’ll be adding some deeper statistics as I get more data points, but for now its really just about keeping it dead simple.

Also, I’d love to hear any thoughts/feedback etc.

Thanks!

-Nash

First of all, I injured my lower back - how is not important - but lets just say I decided it was a good time to take a week off (a.k.a. deconditioning) and starting up a new workout program. Based on my diet, I’m cutting but I wanted to try something that increases strength and mass anyway, because I can always eat more if I need to.

Rest pause training essentially works like this:

If I can do 1 set of 5 reps of bench press at 275, 3 sets of 5 bench press at 275, or 285, or 295 etc. seems impossible. But, if those sets have 10-15 second pauses (racking the weight) in between each rep - it makes it much more realistic.

The reason for this type of workout, is you can lift much heavier weight, many more times. Yesterday for example I did 275×5 twice, and then 295×5 once. Whereas I used to do 135×10, 225×10, 275×5, 225×8.

With rest pause training you do 1 or 2 exercises per muscle group twice a week - and you want reverse motions (so your muscles are already pumped up and ready to go). So bench press would be followed by rows for example (or the T bar).

Because you’re lifting so much more weight, this workout program should stimulate muscle growth (assuming your diet is on key).

Right now I do chest and back on Monday & Thursday.

Read on for more…

Now because I researched something called super rest pause training, I decided that’d be fun to do as well. So for thats what I use for biceps and triceps.

Super rest pause is like the following:

1 rep - 1 second break

2 reps - 2 second break

3 reps - 3 second break

4 reps - 4 second break

5 reps - 5 second break

6 reps - 6 second break

7 reps - 7 second break

8 reps - 8 second break

9 reps - 9 second break

10 reps - Done

You should be doing 60% of your general weight max for 10 reps. You only do one of these massive reps per exercise (remember its 55 reps - thats about 25 more than most people do per exercise). By set 7 you might be thinking this isn’t so bad, but by 9 and 10 it should be absolute torture. This entire workout takes about 30 minutes because its only 1 set per exercise (I do 5 exercises) but I’m usually in a lot of pain by the time I’m done.

Here is the exercise list:

Close grip bench
Flat Bar Curls
Tricep Flat Bar Extensions
Alternating Dumbell Curls
Dips (weighted if needed)

I do this workout Tuesday and Friday

I’ve really been enjoying combining these workouts because they’re such different feelings, even though they both utilize a rest pause format.

Here is my workout schedule at the end of the week:

Monday: Regular Rest Pause, Chest & Back, 4 Exercises
Tuesday: Super Rest Pause, Biceps & Triceps, 5 Exercises
Wednesday: Regular Rest Pause, Shoulders & Legs, 4 Exercies
Thursday: Regular Rest Pause, Chest & Back, 4 Exercises
Friday: Super Rest Pause, Biceps & Triceps, 5 Exercises
Sunday: Regular Rest Pause, Shoulders & Legs, 4 Exercies

I also like to do Cardio on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and I do Boxing Mon, Wed & Sat.
Abs daily if possible

I’ll only be doing this workout program for 8 weeks, then it’ll be on to something bigger and better, so I’ll post a full review later. Also ab photo is coming soon.

Now, back to reality. I haven’t had time to blog about fitness because I exercise 11 times a week right now. Yes, 11 times a week. I also work full time, 10 hour days, every day. And I’m still building other fitness sites in my free time (more to come on that later). Lucky for everyone (read:nobody) who reads this blog, I have found some time to make a post.

So, working out 11 times a week means: I lift 5 times a week, I do a boxing workout 5 times a week and I do one day of cardio once a week. Yea, that means working out twice a day, quite a few times. As someone who gets shit done - I wonder how people say they don’t have time to workout? If you’re someone who says that, I have a solution for you: sleep less. If you manage your time properly, there is always time to exercise. There is always time for everything you set as a priority. If you’re not ready to seriously commit to exercise, then #1, I don’t know why you’re still reading this post, and #2, don’t ever go to the gym to begin with, because unless you’re going to make a habit out of it, you’re wasting your time.

That said, I have stopped working towards the planche pushup which was recently discussed on yogymbo. I just know its not realistic for me at this time, considering everything else I’m working on. I do however have abs now, and will add the photo later.

As I assumed it all came down to diet, and working out 1000 times a week. What also occurred to me, is that genetics play a big role, and that I fucking hate genetics.

Here is an open letter to people who have natural abs:

come fight me.

Posts to be coming soon:

1. Rest Pause workout training
2. New fitness tool I’m developing
3. Boxing workouts
4. MMA Workouts
5. Dieting while gaining
6. Supplements as maintenance

If anyone has any requests or questions (that they’d like answered in one of those posts) feel free to ask in the comments!

-Nash

It’s basically a normal pushup, except your feet aren’t on the ground ha. The only two contact points your body has with the ground are your hands. If that’s not making any sense, then check out this planche pushup progression video.I just found out about these a couple of weeks ago and they look intense. I think Nash and I are going to try to follow the progression in the above video, or something similar, and see how long before we can actually pull off one of these bad boys.

In order to keep my muscle development balanced, I normally wouldn’t focus on training for one body part, or for only one exercise, but this is a little bit of an exception and will be in addition to my normal workouts and not in place of.

Since the pushup is such a proven and trusted exercise, which really does work many different body parts (especially with different hand positions and foot elevations) I don’t feel bad about training to do a harder version of it, because it almost becomes a full body workout at that point. Every “core” muscle you have is going to be working to balance you and keep your legs elevated. Also, your chest, shoulders, triceps, biceps, forearms, are all going to be getting to killed while trying to push you up and keep you balanced at the same time, your upper back might even get a bit of a workout too.

I just started “training” for this within the past couple of days. The “pseudo pushup” is really a piece of cake, you’re just doing a regular pushup, only your hands are positioned down more towards your waist. This is where your hands are going to need to be positioned if you have any hope of balancing yourself well enough to do a planche, so it’s important to get proper form and technique, and to start getting your muscles used to the new movements and positions.

I dabbled with the second stage of the progression (being a wall-aided planche) and it’s definitely a little awkward. Figuring out where your feet should be, how much you should or shouldn’t rely on the wall, and having your feet slipping and sliding everywhere all take some getting used to.

I’ll continuously post updates as a reach more advanced stages in the progression, but for now I’m opening the door to the yogymbo planche pushup challenge. If you can do them, or want to try them, or have any questions, or anything else for that matter, leave a comment.

One last note…really make sure you work your upper and lower back if you’re going to train for these. That just goes back to making sure you have a balanced workout routine and aren’t neglecting any part of your body.

Let me start by reiterating that fact that I really don’t like cardio, unless it’s for a purpose. I’ll explain. I don’t mind running down field to catch a pass or sprinting down the court for a fast break, I just don’t like doing cardio just to do it. I did run track in high school for a year, not sure what I was thinking - apparently I wasn’t.

In this post I will focus on conditioning for football - I will get into other sports in future posts.

Football Conditioning

To get started, it’s important to make sure you’re running the “proper way.” Form running is a very effective exercise used to help develop or improve your running skills. The workout consists of: high knees (10 yards down and 10 yards back), butt kickers (10 yards down and 10 yards back), high jump skip (10 yards down and 10 yards back), stride outs - just like Deion Sanders which is why this is my favorite (20 yards down and 20 yards back), and lastly put it all together and sprint for 15 yards down and back. This workout is great as it effectively dissects the running motion and allows you to work on each individual aspect of the movement.

Read on for more!

Football is a game where you are constantly changing speed, or gears, as I like to put it. You need to be able to give that extra burst of speed at any given moment. As another conditioning workout, go to a nice open space (track, football field, parking lot) and jog out the first 15 yards, then sprint the next 25 yards, and then jog the last 15 yards. It should end up being roughly 50 yards in total to put it into perspective. Do about 10-20 of these depending on your fitness level. This can also serve as a great HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout.

As a football player, you are responsible to cover a lot of ground - end-zone to end-zone, sideline to sideline. A great conditioning workout to help build your endurance is to run 300 yard shuttles. Again an open space (preferably a football field) would be best. Run out to the 50 yard line, touch the line, turn around and run back to the goal line. Repeat that 2 more times. Try timing yourself and work to beat your previous time. If you aren’t in shape, start off slow - trust me, otherwise do 3 or 4 of these shuttle runs to improve your stamina.

Changing direction is a huge part of football which is why shorter speed shuttles are key. Line up on the 10 yard line facing the sideline. Sprint to your right and touch the 5 yard line, then turn, sprint and touch the 15 yard line. Next, sprint and touch the goal line and finally sprint through the 20 yard line. It’s important to focus on planting your feet, opening up your hips, and accelerating in the opposite direction. These movements are a common denominator in almost any sport. Mastering this will set you apart.

Strengthening your reflexes are an important aspect of football. You need to be able to take a hit, and be able to hop up and make a play. Want to change it up a little bit? Start at the goal line and chop your feet, every time you move up 5 yards, drop and touch your chest to the ground. Jump up and sprint 5 yards. Do this every five yards up and down the field.  I highly recommend a verry light meal before performing this one.

Picture 7:30 am on a summer morning in August, birds chirping, grass still wet from last night’s dew, humidity so thick you could cut it with a knife, andfully strapped with football pads head to toe. You know where I’m going with this. Now picture this. Setup 5 stations all around the field. The stations would be as follows: push ups and sit ups (alternate every 10 reps), sled (hit the padded sled and drive it 10-15 yards), back peddle, shuffle, sprint, karaoke shuffle (all in the shape of a box outlines by cones), weave in and out of agility bags, and lastly run through the high ropes (ropes that are preferably elevated off the ground, otherwise draw boxes with chalk on pavement). Do every station for 2 minutes NONSTOP and a 30 second breather in between stations. Don’t worry, you won’t need to utter a word afterwards - this workout speaks for itself.

In the off-season, you should focus more on building stamina, strength, and endurance, while during the season your main goal should be to maintain that - same goes for weight training. If playing football was easy, everyone would do it.

The first thing this directly relates to is will power. If you don’t have the will power to avoid these foods in your place of work - you probably shouldn’t be on the diet to begin with, as everytime you “cheat” its like taking a step backwards.

I understand that will power isn’t easy, so let me try to make an analogy that you can think about to make things easier for yourself next time:

When you’re driving a car, everytime you step on the gas - you make a purchasing decision. Equally so, everytime you step on the brake you’re also making a purchasing decision. With both motions you’re essentially spending money. Just like with your diet, when you eat healthy food you’re consciously making an exercise & body image decision - which says the same for eating unhealthy food. So its something to consider everytime you’re going have that cookie, slice of cake, etc.

I know what you’re probably thinking now. “Its just not that easy, if I don’t eat the cake or pizza like everyone else - they give me shit. Why aren’t you eating this cake? What you don’t eat cake? Who doesn’t eat cake? What are you a health nut? etc. etc.” Its really easy to fall into these traps and just give in to the shit food. The bottom line is this - nobody feels good about eating the cake if they’re concerned about their health or how its going to help them - but they certainly don’t want to be the only ones doing it. Could you imagine being the only one to eat cake if you were surrounded by health nuts? Of course not! If you and one other person decided to eat the cake, it would seem much more acceptable however.

From my experience, the best thing to do in these situations is just say you don’t like cake, or you’re allergic to something in it, or you can see you’re working towards a fitness goal. You might get some pokes here or there, but if you can’t stomach that level of commitment, maybe you shouldn’t be working out anyway.

One of my common theories about working out & diet is, if you’re going to do it - do it all the way. Half-assing anything doesn’t have the same effect. Do an exercise till failure, don’t cheat more than one day on your diet, and most importantly - don’t be a damn baby.

-Nash

I was always the smallest kid on the field. I used to eat anything and everything in sight and could never put on a pound. I wrestled at the 112 lb weight class my freshman year of high school! Going into my sophomore year of college i recall weighing in at 135 lbs. I packed on some ”bad” weight, I guess you would call it, my freshman year of college. I started lifting during the second semester with little knowledge of working out. I started using a protein supplement and used to watch the exercises the bigger guys were doing. I started to see changes in my physique very quickly. Soon it became addicting and you could find me in the gym 4-5 times a week. I began to feel more confident about myself and had more energy as a whole.

I remember some of my friends coming up to me saying, “Hey Jim, you workin out or what kid?!” I’m not gunna lie, it made me feel good seeing that other people noticed some of the work I was putting in.  At this point I didn’t really have a set routine in terms of a lifting schedule and exercises. I would just go to the gym and just experiment trying different machines and equipment. At first, I felt like an idiot because I didn’t know how to work some of the equipment and wasn’t really sure how much weight I could do, so it was a little embarrassing to say the least.

After freshman year was over, I moved back home for the summer and didn’t have a gym membership. I also didn’t have much money to get one so instead I borrowed some equipment from my cousin. He gave me an old bench which was adjustable (incline, flat, decline), a bunch of plates, a pair of dumbbells and some other random stuff like an ez bar and other old equipment he never used. I worked out of my garage where it would get scorching hot during those summer days. I tried to convince my mom to let me move the equipment into the basement and turn my brother’s room (he moved out) into a weight room…..she was not having it. I used that old equipment every winter break and summer until I graduated college. It wasn’t worth it to get a membership somewhere when I was just going back to school anyway. The toughest was during the winter months. I used to wear hoodies with layers underneath and winter gloves (the barbell would be cold as ice!!!) It was a little ridiculous but I did what i had to do and toughed it out. If I could, I would workout outdoors all the time during the summer - you get a really good burn when it’s warmer out.

I didn’t get realllly serious about weight lifting until I graduated college and came home. Freshman year I weighed in at 135 and when I graduated I weighed 150. I’m proud to say that I put on 15lbs and no it wasn’t the freshman 15….. it was 15lbs of SOLID muscle by the end of my college career. When I got home in December (I graduated early) I decided enough is enough. The old equipment wasn’t doing it for me anymore and it was time to get serious. I joined a gym nearby and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Currently I go to the gym 5 times a week and have a very healthy diet. It’s sooo much easier to eat right when your at home - thanks mom.

So everyone and their momma’s been talkin’ about High Intensity Interval Training(HIIT). What’s so great about it? If you’ve ever seen a sprinter, they don’t look like scrawny long distance runners, they’re usually ripped. This logic applies to HIIT, it effectively helps you keep muscle/pack on lower body muscle while burning fat. In test groups of runners, HIIT vs. steady-cardio, those who train using HIIT burn more calories, lose more body fat, and lose less muscle. So do it to it.

The way HIIT works is by (much like weight-lifting) creating a post-workout state where your body continues to burn calories. As a result, although the 20 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill may look like less calories, the overall effect of the workout is greater. The simple way to put it, what gets you bigger in weight lifting? 800 reps of low low weights or a much lower amount of heavy weight reps? The same applies for running, you push your body to a new max(speed and VO2) when you do interval or sprint training of any kind.

With that being said…it’s time to put some pep in yo step…and let this be said, if you have bad knees, use a bike or a cycling machine.  Elliptical trainers are fine for your steady-cardio, but it may be tough to do any kind of high intensity sprint on them, so i suggest cycling or the treadmill(or swimming) for your interval training. 

Beginners:

So, if you’re not a runner AT ALL, then I suggest beginning at a very low pace walk(3.0 on the treadmill) and gradually speeding it up. For example, if you’re doing a 20 minute run, start at 3.0 and gradually increase your speed so that by the last few minutes your going at a nice running speed(6.0-7.0) and try to give it your all and sprint the last 10-30 seconds(8.0-MAX). As your speed builds up, try to start implementing small sprints throughout, for example every 2-3 minutes doing a 10-30 second sprint.  Depending on you’re dedication levels, you should be able to increase your speed/intensity of these intervals significantly over the course of several weeks to two months.

Intermediate-Experienced Runner

Now that you’ve become somewhat skilled/trained at running at high speeds we will start the actual HIIT. First start with a five minute warm up, followed by a 30-60 second sprint. You will want to sprint full speed for each of these sprints, followed by a 2 minute jog(even if your exhausted you MUST at least walk), continued this for five to ten sprints(depending on your experience levels). Remember, this isn’t a casual workout, this is an all out interval sprint that should push you to absolute exhaustion.

Things To Consider:

A) Hydration

B) Proper pre-workout nutrition(not the time to cut carbs, but don’t binge on junk carbs either)

C) Don’t calorie count. (In regards to how much the treadmill says you burned.)

Let me reiterate, the diet is the most important part.

Firstly, I exercise 7 days a week. It’s easy after the first few weeks and you start to notice results. For me, the best part of my day is the end of my workout - when I can really just feel great about what I’m doing for myself. That is a really intrinsic motivator.

read on for the details…

Anyway, I lift about 4 days a week:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Chest
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: Shoulders/Legs
Friday: Bi’s/Tri’s
Saturday & Sunday: Off

Then for cardio:

Monday: Boxing workout
Tuesday: Boxing workout (after lift)
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Boxing workout (after lift)
Friday: Off
Saturday: Boxing workout
Sunday: Running/Football/etc.

Now I’ll tell you a little bit about the boxing workout:

Warm-up: 10 minutes of jump rope with 25 push-ups in three minute intervals.
Speed bag: I alternate arms and patterns for 5-10 minutes
Jump Squats: 25 reps
Lunges: 25 reps
Shadow boxing: 3×20 reps of different combos (throwing different types of punches)
Heavy bag: 3×20 of shadow boxed combos
Abs: 25 situps, 10 push-ups, 40 bicycles, 10 push-ups, 30 leg raises, 10 push-ups, 25 compound crunches, 10 push ups

The most important part of this workout is no breaks - and try to make it last for 60 min. You should be totally dead when its done. I also switch it up each week. Maybe we’ll get a video up of the different parts of the workout soon.

I’ll also be posting before and after images on my third and final post of this path to six pack abs series, where you can see the changes I went through.

Keep lifting

-Nash

That being said, I always used to tell myself and others - that I had a 6 pack at one time, and that if I really wanted to - I could get one again. Well, the more I thought about it, the more I questioned myself, “could I really commit to that kind of diet and exercise regiment again??” I remember hating it, and never wanting to do it again. And I thought about how much I loved crap food.

Well - as you can guess, I decided to go for it. If you’ve read any of my articles about abs, than you know I had to start with the diet. I know I’ve said it 1000 times already, but you’ll never see abs without a proper diet.

FUEL FOR YOUR BODY

As I worked on my diet, I consulted Team Scivation (which is made up of professional bodybuilders). They put me on a diet which essentially eliminates carbs. One thing I really took away from the diet plan, was they said carbs could be considered “cheap gasoline” while the proper fats could be considered “rocket fuel.”

That one analogy put everything into perspective for me. I cut out the grains and all other obvious carbs.

To get a better idea of my diet:

I eat a lot of chicken, tuna, almonds, avacado, shrimp, (some steak), apples, vegetables, and protein shakes.

And one day I week I eat a lot of disgusting food, and drink a lot of alcohol - i refer to this as my “cheat day.”

As I’ve followed this diet for about a month and half, I’ve gotten down to a four pack, but I’m still slowly trimming away.

After finding an appropriate diet which is working for you - I can’t stress enough, be strict.

In part 2, I’ll discuss my current workout regiment.