Moderate training will get you moderate results. It’s as simple as that. In order to truly excel in your fitness goals you need to be constantly taking it to the next level. Taking it to the next level means training heavy. Forget about training for aesthetics for just one moment. Don’t worry about mass or fat loss, worry about getting strong, because that’s how you put on muscle, and that’s how you cut weight.

I get asked all the time: I don’t have any weights, can I get in shape through bodyweight exercise only? The answer is yes, but the problem is progressive intensity. Progressive intensity means that your workouts constantly become harder. Earlier I’ve said that I always fall into a short training stump, where after about two to three weeks of great workouts, I experience a week or two weeks of really bad workouts.

This is partly my fault for not realizing this pattern earlier. But I’ve realized why this happens: my body adapts REALLY fast. I recover REALLY quickly. I can do an intense workout one day, then another intense the next day, whereas someone else may need a day or two off to recover. I think this comes from my old martial arts days. I believe that anyone that has participated in sports in the past, or currently does, is used to intense training and is able to train their body to recover quickly.

Two elements of my martial arts training was progressive intensity and constant change. Thy key is to be able to combine these two elements into your training routines.

Progressive Intensity

Progressive Intensity simply means that you constantly make your workouts more difficult. When it comes to weight training, you can increase repetitions, but that will only work for so long. You will need to go back, lower the reps, and add resistance. Instead of doing that, why not just constantly add resistance?

To make strength gains, you should keep your reps in the 1 to 5-rep range, and to make mass gains, you should keep your reps in the 6-10 rep range. Higher than 10 reps and we’re talking about muscular endurance training, which is beneficial for only certain purposes. In other words, work in the 1-10 rep range, constantly striving to increase your weights.

Constant Change

Constantly changing up your routine is crucial to keep your body guessing, and to avoid boredom. I once stated that you should switch up your routine every 3 to 4 weeks. However, I think that this depends mostly on the athlete. For example, I’m starting to transition into changing up my routine every week, and will probably end up using dramatically different protocols every five days. In other words, instead of using cycles lasting 21 days, I’m now shortening my training cycles to five days.

Don’t worry about what cycle you should work in. Your body will naturally tell you when to change your routine. When the gains stop coming, it’s time to change.

One of the best workouts out there which helps you increase your strength levels through bodyweight and dumbbell training is the Size & Strength workout featured in the Gladiator Body Workout.

Gladiator Body Workout is a set of 6, 4-week programs. Each program targets a particular goal, but once you go through all six programs, you’ll be leaner, stronger, and fitter then when you started out with.

In my opinion, Gladiator Body Workout is the best program out there if you’re looking for consistent progress and wish to train at a high intensity level with bodyweight and dumbbell exercises.

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Why are so many people just missing the boat when it comes to designing an effective bodyweight workout? I mean, it’s not rocket science. What is it that world class trainers know that the average trainee doesn’t?

There are lots of little tips and tricks to make a bodyweight workout more effective at helping you reach your goals. However, there are two main things you need to know: Progression and Consistency.

Yeah, what else is new, right? But wait, what I’m telling you is actually the REASON why people fail at achieving their Continue reading

I’ve been talking about Mental Strength a lot on Tastefully Driven, however I have never actually taken the time to define it. Mental strength is the degree to which your mind can sustain external and internal stress.

Each of us has a particular physical and mental threshold for stress and pain. Some have very little resistance to external stress, and others have an enormous resistance to external stress. One of the primary goals of my training philosophy focuses on increasing onces threshold for external and internal stress. The external stress is developed by the amount of work that I make my athletes perform. The internal stress is the mental battle that plays in one’s mind when the going gets tough. I’ve seen a few of my athletes become conquered by the workout themselves. In fact I myself have experienced this a few times. Something that I should have been able to perform physically I can no longer do because of mental limitations.

There is only one way to increase ones mental strength: Perform workouts that are seemingly impossible, but not so impossible that they risk injury. Constantly challenge yourself.

In daily life, the goal is to push yourselves to points that you uncomfortable. In a sense, jump into the deep end of the pool and learn to swim. However, just as I spend time teaching my athletes how to perform each exercise correctly, you should prepare yourself by studying and practicing before you jump. For example, lets take the swimming example. Before you jump into the deep end of the pool, you probably want to do two things: 1) take some beginner swimming classes and 2) have a life guard nearby.

After about a month of practice, you can now jump into the deep end of the pool and force yourself to swim back to the shallow end. The fear that you will feel when jumping into the deep end will do one of two things to you: 1) make you panic and lose control, setting yourself up for failure, or 2) push you to your extremes, forcing you to succeed. The constant practice of throwing yourself out into the open, trying new things, and facing your fears will slowly train your mind and body to react positively to both internal and external stress.