As you’re reading this right now I am in Winnipeg, Manitoba so if
it take me a couple days to answer you emails, that’s why.

Here’s this week’s edition for you:

- Research has shown that pushups activate the rectus abdominus and
external obliques (your abs) even more then squats and deadlifts.
Pushups will also help prevent shoulder injuries if you do them
right. Craig shows a few examples here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE2AcqxjmL8

- A player came up to me the other day and asked me if he could
‘dipset’. After a good 5 seconds of silence and me starring at him
with a total look of confusion I finally asked, “WHAT?” Apparently
that’s the new lingo these days for “can I leave”.

- quote of the week: “I’ve never looked at another player and said
I have to be better then him. I look at myself and say I have to be
better, Period.” - Danny Wuerfell, University of Florida

- toning doesn’t exist. You can’t ’shape’ your muscles either. It’s
all genetics (unless chemically enhanced) on how your muscles look.
and light weights aren’t going to ‘tone’. You need to build the
muscle to get that ‘toned’ look.

- the 100 calorie snack craze is pretty funny in my opinion. I
know it’s better to eat less of the bad stuff, but we all know that
doesn’t make it any better for you. I’ll actually have a f.r.e.e
100 calorie report for you next week from nutritionist Jayson Hunter,
who is the author of the Carb Rotation Diet.

- blog of the week is Tony Gentilcore’s, who is actually pretty
hilarious about the industry and exercise…I think so anyways.
Here’s his site: http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/entertainment/step_up/

Let me know your thoughts and questions.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

First off, I’d like to give a shout out to Jason Young’s class. Jay Young is a health expert and has told me he’s an avid reader of the blog, so good morning Jason :).

Anyways, my sister emailed me this article and I thought you’d find it to be an interesting read.

http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/savingsdebt/insight/article.aspx?cp-documentid=6972004#toolbar

I’ll be doing quite a bit of travelling starting this Saturday, but I will do my best to keep things up to date on here.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

PS - Remember you can still get Lynn Haraldson-Bering’s interview with me for FREE at www.thefatlosscrew.com

Guest Article by Mike Geary:

Everyone will inadvertently hit a frustrating plateau in their training at one time or another. You’re cruising along for a while, gaining strength, losing fat, looking better, and then all of the sudden it hits. Suddenly, you find yourself even weaker than before on your lifts, or you find that you’ve gained back a couple of pounds. It happens to everyone.

Most of the time, these plateaus occur because people rarely change their training variables over time. Many people stick to the same types of exercises for the same basic sets and reps and rest periods with the same boring cardio routine. Well, I hope to open your mind and bring some creativity to your workouts with this article!

There are many ways that you can strategically modify your training variables to assure that you maximize your fat loss and/or muscle building response to exercise. Most people only think about changing their sets and reps performed, if they even think about changing their routine at all.

However, other variables that can dramatically affect your results are changing the order of exercises (sequence), exercise grouping (super-setting, circuit training, tri-sets, etc.), exercise type (multi-joint or single joint, free-weight or machine based), the number of exercises per workout, the amount of resistance, the base of stability (standing, seated, on stability ball, one-legged, etc.), the volume of work (sets x reps x distance moved), rest periods between sets, repetition speed, range of motion, exercise angle (inclined, flat, declined, bent over, upright, etc), training duration per workout, and training frequency per week.

Sounds like a lot of different training aspects to consider in order to get the best results from your workouts, doesn’t it? Well, that’s where a knowledgeable personal trainer can make sense of all of this for you to make sure that your training doesn’t get stale. Below are a few examples to get your mind working to come up with more creative and result producing workouts.

Most people stick to workouts where they do something along the lines of 3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise, with 2-3 minutes rest between sets. Booooorrrrring!!!! Here are a few examples of different methods to spice up your routine.

Try 10 sets of 3 with a medium weight, resting only 20 seconds between sets.

Try using a heavier weight and complete 6 sets of 6 reps, doing a 3 minute treadmill sprint between each weight lifting set.

Try using a near maximum weight and do 10 sets of 1 rep, with 30 seconds rest between sets.

Try using a lighter than normal weight and do 1 set of 50 reps for each exercise

Try a workout based on only one full body exercise, such as barbell clean & presses or dumbbell squat & presses, and do nothing but that exercise for an intense 20 minutes.

Try a circuit of 12 different exercises covering the entire body without any rest between exercises.

Try that same 12 exercise circuit on your subsequent workout, but do the entire circuit in the reverse order.

Try your usual exercises at a faster repetition speed on one workout and then at a super-slow speed on your next workout.

Try completing five 30 minute workouts one week, followed by three 1-hr workouts the next week.

Try doing drop sets of all of your exercises, where you drop the weight between each set and keep doing repetitions without any rest until complete muscular fatigue (usually about 5-6 sets in a row).

Want more ideas? There are many more ways to continue to change your training variables. This was just a taste of your possibilities. In order to see how to incorporate various strategies into effective routines, give the programs in my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs a try.

Mike’s letting me give you a very special offer where you can get his program for only $4.95, so be sure to check out Truth About Abs at this link.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

Apparently the Thoughts from the Trenches theme is WAY more
popular then I thought.

I got so many emails with ‘YAY’ votes and a lot of emails with
opinions and thoughts on what I’d talked about. That’s pretty
awesome.

I didn’t get any ‘NAY’ votes so they are either still hiding or
I’m really liked (I’m going with the first one).

Here’s this week’s edition:

- why are some people so afraid to change their program even when
their current program isn’t working at all for them?

- IF you’ve been reading my stuff for a while you know I’m not a big
fan of jogging for fat loss. Now I know that you can lose weight by
jogging but you can lose weight by not eating for a week. Does that
mean that not eating for a week should be a recommended fat loss
protocol. Of course not. There’s just way more efficient ways to
lose fat, that’s all I’m saying.

- Trainers can be DANGEROUS to your health. Do your research before
choosing one. You’ll be shocked by this story:
http://bodytransformationcoach.com/blog/why-personal-trainers-can-be-dangerous-to-your-health/

- quote of the week: “Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you
do it.” - Lou Holtz

- life coach Craig Harper from good ole’ Aussie land has in my
opinion the best blog out there (even though, I don’t always tend
to agree with his fitness advice), his thoughts on living a
powerful life are second to none. Check his blog out here:
http://www.craigharper.com.au/

- how frustrating is it when you try to teach kids, but they don’t
really want to listen, even though the stuff you’re telling them
could make them into a better player, person, classmate, student,
etc…and then remember you were probably the exact same way they
were. Kind of makes you feel like a dumbbass for not taking all the
advice people were trying to give you, doesn’t it?

- I don’t know what it is about waterfalls or those little water
fountain things you can put in your home, but I love them for
whatever reason.

- I just finished reading Me and My Dad by former New York Yankee
Paul O’Neill. Great read for any baseball fan. Makes me miss the
days of going in the backyard everynight after school to play catch
with my Dad. Sports were so much more simple back then.

- do kids even play catch with their dad’s still or do they just
play those friggin’ video games?

- I think I’ll save my BOSU ball thoughts for next week and a few more
pretty cool things too.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

PS - Just to let you know that Prograde Nutrition is celebrating
their 1 year anniversary and you can get 10% off anything you want until Thursday
by using the DISCOUNT CODE: oneyear (all one word and small case).
So if you’re interested go HERE

My first experience in the training business was training Division 1 athletes at the University of Northern Iowa. I was in my senior year, and I was an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for my internship. Five days a week for 4 months, I got up at 5 in the morning and walked (no matter what the weather – and we had some bad storms that year in Iowa) to the gym to train.

Now, to some of you that probably doesn’t sound all too bad, but for a college kid who had classes and tests right after training for 4 hours and then having a 4 hour practice after, along with all the fun that goes into homework and studying, I didn’t exactly get a lot of sleep. But I really enjoyed it and learned a lot in the process that has helped me and hopefully can help you.

So I’d like to share with you a few points that may be able to help you out with your fitness goals.

Not All Programs Are Created Equal

Being relatively new to training back then, I never really thought too hard about programming and what types of results they should be giving depending on the design. After a couple months, I started noticing some people doing really well and performing much better in their sport. Other people were having a lot of problems making any type of significant progress.

Same program, but different results. Now this probably doesn’t sound like a revolutionary discovery to you, but I at least found it interesting. I mean, when you think about it, probably about 95 per cent of people do the same type of workout in the gym. Mostly just body part training, right?

To be honest with you, a lot of people aren’t getting the results they are looking for doing that type of training, but that’s the only way a lot of those people know how to exercise in the weight room. That type of workout has worked for some, so is it the go-to workout? No. Is there a better, more efficient workout? Yes.

How do you find out what’s best for you? You can either hire a qualified fitness professional who can teach you a variety of options or you can experiment until you find something that really seems to work well for you.

A couple tweaks and a few changes really helped the athletes not getting great results start to make significant progress in their training and performance.

Not Always Fun, But Always Worth Doing

I’ve done it, the athletes did it and maybe you’ve done it. Six in the morning workouts aren’t exactly always fun. Sometimes you just don’t want to get out of bed. When I was at Northern Iowa, I was a baseball player, and as an athlete along with the athletes I trained, we had no choice. We had to be there no matter what.

You have a choice whether you go or not. Remember that consistency is the key to getting great results. So skipping a workout every once in a while won’t hurt you. It’s when you start making it a habit that is becomes a problem.

You know what I mean. There’s that first day you just skip your workout. Then a couple days later you still don’t really feel like working out, so you tell yourself that skipping two workouts in a week isn’t that bad. Then you actually get to the gym a couple days later, but put in a weak effort. All of a sudden, working out has become a chore and before you know it, your trips to the gym have decreased significantly.

Here’s a tip. Next time you don’t want to go workout, your mission is to still go to the gym, but just sit there in the locker room for 5 to 10 minutes. If you still don’t feel like working out then go home. Most of the time, however, you will workout just because you’re there.

Sufficient Sleep = Biggest Gains

The athletes who got enough sleep were the ones who got the biggest gains. A lot of college kids don’t get enough rest, which is true of most people actually. I started asking some of the athletes who were making great gains in the gym how much rest they got at night on average and almost all of them said at least 7 hours. When I asked the athletes who were always drained and not making very good gains, hardly any of them got over 6 hours of sleep.

Rest makes a huge difference, so you should really do your best to plan on getting at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night.

____________________________________
what it all comes down to

There are always exceptions to the rule, but what it almost always comes down to is hard work. Some people don’t need as much rest as others, but they still have to work hard to get results. Some people love exercise more then other people, but everyone still has to work hard to get great results, whether they like doing it or not. Most quality programs will give you some great results if you work hard enough at them.

Have a question for Dan? Email him at dan (at) thesoko (dot) com.

Have a great day,

Dan Grant,

PS - Remember PROGRADE is offering 10% off everything to celebrate their one year birthday. SPECIAL DISCOUNT code is: oneyear. It ends this Thursday too, so be sure to check it out here.

Hi there,

Just thought I’d let you know that until Thursday, April 24 you can get 10% off your prograde order using the special code below.

You CANNOT buy Prograde in stores.

I use almost all the products on pretty much a daily basis and absolutely love them.

If you’ve been thinking about ordering or haven’t even heard of Prograde yet then check it out before the sale is over.

Check out Prograde Nutrition and use the special discount code:

oneyear

Talk to you soon,

Dan Grant

Last week’s ‘Thoughts from the Trenches’ was so popular with people
that I thought I should do another one, and if people keep enjoying
it then I’ll just keep on doing it.

A lot of people seemed to like it because of the randomness of it.

A little fitness and a little of everything else so I’ll stick with
that formula if it’s enjoyable for everybody.

Here’s a few of my thoughts for the week:

- Ever since I STOPPED doing a lot of ab work did I finally get a
six pack.

- To add to that. Ever since I starting sprinting 2-3 times a week
did that six pack really start showing up.

- Hockey playoffs have started up. Unfortunately I don’t see any of
it being in Virginia, but in retrospect that may be a good thing so I don’t
have to stay depressed about the Maple Leafs not making it….again

- The more I read the Fat Loss Lifestyle the more I like. The 12
week program in it along with the 298 pages of quality info is top
notch and Darin Steen should be extremely proud of the work he’s
done with all of his clients and this book.

- Are we just a bunch of safety freaks these days? I mean, when are
kids going to be allowed to have fun and play real games again?

- my new favorite blog I visit regularly is Nate Green’s…check it
out at http://www.thenategreenexperience.com

- quote of the week: “When making your choice in life, do not
neglect to live.” -Samuel Johnson

- Is fat loss training just becoming more and more complicated
by the day, or is it just me?

- Remember, you can have cheat MEALS, but never do cheat DAYS. Why
work hard for 6 days and just destroy your results on day 7.

- I’ve been guilty of too many cheat meals this week…damn baseball
and hot dogs…

have a great day,

Dan Grant

Here’s a story about the industry.

It’s all true.

I’ve written about it before.

Now these stories are the extreme ones but they happened and unfortunately will probably happen again.

I’ve seen the stupid stuff club trainers do with new clients. It’s ridiculous. They think they are all hardasses and that making a beginner go through an intense workout will show they know what they are doing.

Idiots.

I saw a lady one time with a trainer struggling to almost tears doing one legged (yep…ONE legged) squats with a stability ball between her back and the wall.

The trainer kept saying, “Come on, push through it”. This lady was in pain. I actually walked over and tried to distract the trainer so this lady could stop doing the exercise.

Anyways, before I go totally off, here’s the link to the story.

A lot of people don’t believe me when I say that I can show them how to get certified in less then a day. Well this clip from CBS show’s you how…so now you can believe me.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3991584n

Dan Grant

I’ll be honest.

I’m not a big fan of The Biggest Loser show. I’ve actually written an article about all my thoughts about it so I won’t go off on another tangent.

In that article I did say the Jillian was the only trainer that I would trust in a real world situation. I don’t know, just something about her, I guess.

My thoughts about her as a trainer were further justified this week when she made comments about a program that actually makes sense for every day people who want to lose fat…and it WASN’T her program.

It was Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training program.

I love the program. I’ve tried it out myself before. The reason it’s so successful is because it follows the rules of fat loss. The same rules I teach you in my 5day ecourse: OPERATION: Burn Fat FAST!

So if you’re looking to shed some more pounds before summer hits then I suggest you head over and take a look at what Jillian has to say at Turbulence Training.

Talk to you soon,

Dan Grant

PS - The Fat Loss Crew will also get you ready for summer. Oprah’s guest Lynn Haraldson-Bering’s interview is FREE right now, but only for a limited time. Go to www.thefatlosscrew.com to get it while you can.

here’s a new article I wrote for The Soko:

About a year and a half ago, I started training a kid (we’ll call him Johnny) who was 13 years old. He was around 250 pounds, not very tall and was in need of some help and fast. He looked like a mini obese adult, to be blunt.

He was quiet the first time I met him, but you could tell that this was a kid that really wanted this change to happen, and he would be willing to work extremely hard to get some life changing results. As you would expect, exercise was a struggle for this young man, off the bat, and his nutrition needed some definite tinkering.

Let me explain a couple things he had to deal with (maybe they are issues for you too) and what he did to get down to almost a third of his bodyweight.

“I Did NOT Want to Get Out of Bed This Morning.”

Have you ever said that to someone the day after a tough workout? Well, that’s exactly what he said to me. I hear trainers all the time telling people that they won’t feel sore or shouldn’t feel sore after a workout because it means you went too hard.

Personally, that’s a load of you-know-what. Now, I’m not telling you to sprint until you drop for your first workout ever. I’m just saying, for the first little bit of training, if you’re doing anything productive at all, you’re going to be sore.

So live with it.

The first workout Johnny and I did together consisted of teaching him the proper way to do a bodyweight squat and testing how many knee push-ups he could do in a minute. Grand total was somewhere around 14, I think.

Other than that all we did was the warm-up, where I taught him some functional stretches to get him ready and the cool-down, where he learned some static stretches.

His muscles just weren’t used to working or being stretched, so he was sore. Plain and simple. From my experience I know you just have to push through it for a week or two. Your body is an amazing machine and it knows how to adapt to the newfound stress.

“It Says I Gained a Pound This Week…What’s the Deal?”

Ever have this happen to you? Heartbreaking, isn’t it? When you bust your butt all week and the ‘truth-teller’ (also known as the scale) tells you that you gained.

Yep, it happens. One thing you’ve probably heard before and you will hear a lot from me (so be prepared) is that the scale doesn’t matter.

There are many reasons why the scale might be off a little bit at the moment in time when you decide to weigh yourself.

Johnny gained a little bit of weight the second week of training with me and was a little confused, so he asked me why that happened. Maybe he gained a little muscle, maybe he weighed himself at night and not in the morning, or maybe he was retaining a little extra water because he had been eating some high sodium foods.

Did his pants fit better? Yep.

What are you worried about…your pants fitting better or a silly scale that’s going to tell you if you’ve succeeded this week or not?

He Had a Vision

I have to give a lot of props to Johnny. He made the commitment to change and change he did. He wanted to learn everything from mental training to nutrition.

Now there were workouts that he just wasn’t feeling up to, but he did them anyway. There were times when he really wanted his favourite drink in the world, iced tea, but he didn’t. There were times when he really wanted to sleep in at a friend’s house, but he chose to have me over at 10 a.m. on a Saturday so he could get his workout in.

He knew what he wanted. He had a clear vision of 75 pounds dropping from his body. As I write this, he has achieved around 78 or 79 pounds of weight loss. He now has a 33-inch waist and is finding new things to enjoy with his old friends (and new ones who have started to notice how great a kid Johnny is since his fat loss).

________________________________________
the journey is always worth it

There is always a burst of motivation when you start going after new and exciting goals that are going to change your life. Sometimes the struggles that come along with those new goals make it really hard to stick with them though.

Johnny was sore, tired and frustrated at some points throughout his body transformation, but he made it, and I know he’d tell me he’d go through it all again because the results he got were worth it.

Make a commitment to yourself, learn what you need to do, be prepared for both the ups and downs and look forward to the great results you’re going to be getting from all your hard work.

What are your thoughts? Send me a line at dan (at) thesoko (dot) com.

Dan Grant

PS - The Fat Loss Crew is ‘on fire’. Reviews are coming it on Oprah superstar Lynn Haraldson-Bering’s interview. It’s available for FREE right now…but probably not for a whole lot longer so if you want to hear it go to www.thefatlosscrew.com.