Here’s my latest column at The Soko.

Be on the lookout for Inside Fitness Magazine if you’re in Canada. I have a 20 minute workout in there for ya.

 Just Want To Live A Little?

Human beings have fascinating psychological views and actions, in my opinion.  The food we know is not good for us, we still eat.  The workouts we know would help us get back into shape, we decide to not be consistent with them.

Some people realize that their health is what actually keeps them alive, but they’d rather spend their money on a monster television rather than a gym membership or a personal training service.

Why, though?

The typical answer I seem to get when I point out to someone that a chocolate bar isn’t exactly the best kind of snack in the world is this: “Why can’t I just live a little?”

Can We Break That Train of Thought?

I’m guilty of this at times too.  I mean, I’ve already confessed to you my love for hot dogs in a previous article.

My job as a fitness coach is to solve people’s fitness problems.  This whole ‘living a little’ philosophy is a rampant problem with many people, so I have to try and help them with it.

Just to make it clear right now, I’m not going to be telling you to never eat a bad thing ever again in your life.  That’s just stupid.  It’s okay to have cheat meals; you just need to be smarter and more organized about your choices.

I have here a list of a few possible solutions that may help you make better choices more consistently.

Understanding Your Top Priority

If you don’t have your health, you really don’t have anything.  If you’re sick from being drunk the night before, your health suffers, and it’s really hard to enjoy the next day with all the headaches and potential vomiting.  But in today’s society, that’s apparently the ultimate symbol of living a little.

Of course, that’s an example, and yes, I do drink alcohol on some occasions, but never like that.  I’ve realized my priorities on it.  In college I would drink.  When I tore my hamstring that threatened my baseball career, I actually started to drink fairly heavily.  The only priority I had was having fun and trying to run away from my circumstances.  Obviously that kind of attitude didn’t exactly help my recovery from the injury very much, because my health wasn’t my number one priority.

When I finally realized what my top priority should be, I quit drinking for a while.  And it was easy to do, because I had a new set of rules governing my life.

What’s your top priority?  It could be the difference between you buying that monster television or taking the steps to actually getting the body you want.

Surround Yourself With Your Goals

Put them everywhere.  Put them in your bedroom, in your wallet, in your car, on your mirrors, on the fridge, on the television and on your favourite junk food.  Get a bunch of those yellow post-it notes and write your goals on them.

Put them everywhere – literally.  Make sure your goals are always going to be fresh in your mind.  That will help when those ‘live a little’ decisions come your way.

Just ask yourself, “Will this decision HELP me towards my goals, or push me AWAY from my goals?”

Keep Visiting

Keep visiting sites like The Soko to try and find advice or tips that will work for you.  Maybe my stuff makes more sense to you than others, maybe not.

Organize your day so that you can read at least one article that relates to your fitness goals, so that you can learn along the way too.

This strategy can motivate you to keep working hard on your goals and not let those annoying decoys (the living a little decoys) get in the way of your goals and dreams.

________________________________________
living a little or dying a little?

When you buy into the living a little philosophy, which I think we all should do sometimes, are you actually living a little or are you dying a little?  I mean, eating tons of sugary food isn’t good for you, and if you do it enough, you might be on your way to a shorter life when you think about it.

But the key thing here is doing it consistently.  Organize your diet or your life to the point that you can enjoy some cheat meals during the week, or if you really want that monster television, make sure you’ve accomplished conquering your top priority first.  Hell, you might not even want the television anymore with your new body and new-found energy.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

Since my baseball career is back in full swing and being on the
road is now apart of my daily life the emails from me won’t be as
often as they were.

My season is going great so far and going after my dream is making
life super exciting for me.

If you’ve been holding back on any of your dreams, I can’t urge you
enough to go after them. It’s a blast.

But let’s get back to me being ‘away’ for a while. I’m still going
to be sending out emails to you of the latest fitness trends and
my thoughts on them and how to get a great body, but they just won’t
be as often.
 

And since the majority of emails I get is about how to perform time
efficient workouts the timing of this couldn’t be better.
You see, Ryan Lee has created a program called BodyBot.
It’s a program where you can design your own 4 minute workouts.
It’s an amazing program and since it was released last week it’s
gotten incredible reviews. You don’t have to download anything, it’s
all just there ready for you to use. Pretty awesome.
And what’s even better is that his introductory price for the
program is unbelievably low.
 

==> http://tinyurl.com/6lfxtt
I’ve been preaching for a while now about the power of short,
efficient workouts and all my clients have gotten great results by
doing them. They love the fact that they don’t have to spend hours
in the gym - or even go to the gym at all.
I’m also going to do something special for you as well if you
decide to get Ryan’s program. If you order by Wednesday, just email
me the receipt and I’ll give you The Fat Loss Crew interviews for
f.r.e.e.
So because I might not be around on the ‘net as much this summer, I
wanted to make sure you had a program that could give you results
fast and this program was just the thing I needed.
You are in good hands with this program.
 

==> http://tinyurl.com/6lfxtt

Have a great one {!firstname},
Dan Grant
PS - With travelling and playing baseball all summer, time to
workout is very limited and I myself do a bunch of 4 minute
workouts on a regular basis so I can feel fresh even with the grind
of playing pro ball. Ryan’s BodyBot program is away I can just make
up my workout and then go at it.

Just a quick one today.

I’ve been on the road a lot with baseball so that’s why i haven’t posted regularly. I will do my best.

 I was talking with a guy who works at a correction facility for criminals today.

 He said that the people that go there have a choice between jail or their facility.  So obviously I said, “Well I guess you’re pretty busy then since i assume no one would really want jail.”

Surprisingly he said that a lot of people would rather go to jail. 

“Are you serious?”

He said, a lot of people don’t want to come to their facility because they have a mandatory fitness program.

In jail, they can just sit there.

I just don’t understand.

I’m assuming that’s the mentality for a lot of people since the obesity rate continues to climb to stupidly high levels.

 Is there a way to fix that?

I don’t know.

 what do you think?

Dan Grant

I got an overwhelming amount of email this week from people who
sound as fed up as I do about some of the things they see in
commercial gyms.

Thanks for the emails, I love getting them, even if you don’t agree
with me.

Today I’m challenging my own philosophy a bit.

I’ve been called a ‘chronic overthinker’ by some people - ie. mostly
my girlfriend - so obviously I get deep in thought about training
methods.

Maybe a little too much sometimes.

Thoughts for the week (from my overthinking mind):

- Here’s an example of how my head works about decided that interval
training is the way to go.
I hate jogging. Yes.
Does that mean it can’t be uses as a fat loss method? No
If people like jogging and want to lose weight should they jog? Sure.
But what about the loss of lean muscle that comes with jogging? It’s
probably not that big of deal unless you don’t lift weights hard and
really overdue it on the cardio.
So why don’t I teach long cardio? It sucks and I hate it. Actually a lot of
people I talk to hate jogging.

Why do I pump up interval training so much? It’s time efficient,
decreased risk of nagging little injuries by a ton, revs up your
metabolism for longer after your workouts so it will lead to greater
fat loss. It’s been proven in countless research studies to be WAY
better at fat loss results then long cardio, and it’s been proven
in real life with my clients and a lot of other trainers clients I
know and study.
So interval training is better for fat loss? Yes.
Can someone do both? Sure.
Okay. But I’ve seen people who do long cardio and weight training
get some good results.

Why don’t I teach it? Most of those people
don’t know about interval training, their diet is good - what you
eat makes up about 70% of your results, by the way - and usually
their stomach is still a major PROBLEM area to lose a lot of fat.
Interval training has been proven to burn significant amount of
stomach fat.
What about beginners? Can they do Interval Training? Yes.
How? Because the ‘work’ interval is 80-90% of their level. That might
be a fast walk.
So it will still work the same for them? Yes.
So that’s why I teach interval training. Yep.
- So just incase you’ve ever wondered why I teach interval training
or if I just copy some of the big names, I actually go through
quite elaborate thinking about it. Actually a lot more then I actually
just wrote. I didn’t even mention cortisol effect.

But, maybe I’m just overthinking it.
Wait till you hear my continual thoughts on weight training…
Maybe I’ll just save that one till next time.
What are your thoughts on my methods and thoughts?
What do you do to shed the pounds or build the muscle?
Let me know, I’d love to hear from ya.
Have a great one,
Dan Grant

PS - I’m in Sherwood Park, Alberta right now in training. Make sure you visit my blog at http://www.bodytransformationcoach.com where I’ll be updating it frequently with thoughts and training advice.

PPS - Here’s an email I got about one of my articles on The Soko

“I don’t like you anymore…

BUT I LOVE YOU!
I just read your article on weight loss and HIIT
i couldn’t agree more that jogging is a bad BAD thing.. and I am proof…
i am a 25yr old female ,my left ankle was sprained several times. and yet when i thought it recovered i was jogging to burn fat.. the jogging only debilitated the joints and made me go into a 4-6weeks resting period in which i ended up putting more weight than i started with.
so yeah you’re right a short interval training is better than hours running like a fool.
it is nice to know that one of your clients had some disabilities too and managed to lose weight *i always respect people who overcome their chronic injuries like i do. and not make excuses to be fat and lazy*
 
will look forward for more articles from you!
 
thanks..”

PPS- The Fat Loss Crew gives you REAL advice on fat loss because they’ve all done it. Some did it with walking, some intervals. A lot of things can work. Learn from them at http://www.thefatlosscrew.com.

It’s been a week of driving and I FINALLY made it back to Thunder
Bay. I’m only in town for about a week though because I’m going
to head out west to Alberta to try and rekindle one of my dreams.

So as I get ready - and stay really busy - I didn’t really have too
much time for this week’s email or next weeks for that matter, so
if you don’t get an email next week that’s why.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions again this week so I will get back to
you - it might just take a couple days :).

Thoughts for the week:

- I went to a commercial gym for the first time in a few months
the other day. People were working hard - thinking they were
anyways -, but I really don’t know where this industry went
wrong. Maybe it’s the money - actually, it’s probably the money - but
the personal trainers there had people doing some of the most
pointless shit I’ve ever seen.

I think there’s a major LACK is motivation for these trainers. I
mean, if I paid somebody $50 an hour to train me, I wouldn’t be too
impressed if all we did for that hour was chat about life and go
from machine to machine not really challenging my muscles at all.

I think maybe these trainers just think that this is what the people
want maybe - I don’t know.

But when I see people - who are getting professional (kind of)
guidance - I cringe when I see them doing machine twist ab exercises
that are doing nothing but guaranteeing that client a major lower back
problem in the future.

All it takes is a little bit of learning for this industry to realize
that a lot of the machines out there are a waste of time, money, and
whatever else.

If you have a trainer and you haven’t learned AND implement the core
exercises of squats, dead lifts, pull ups, and pushups (variations of
them all too), it’s time to find somebody new.

That’s just my opinion. You may be getting the results now, but you
also may be setting yourself up for injury in the future.

Sorry if that was a little scattered. Just something to consider.

- Why people hate me - find out here.

- I’ve said EPOC quite a bit in the past but I’m not really sure if
I’ve ever explained it - that’s here.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

Here’s my latest column article at The Soko:

Since I now have the honour of writing a column for The Soko, I thought it was about time to have a ‘get to know me’ kind of article. Since it’s baseball season, and since it’s the greatest sport in the world (Sorry hockey fans — I love hockey too, but it’s just not baseball.), I figured I should do a baseball themed article. I’m currently training to play pro baseball this summer, so this article is going to be a lot of fun.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Baseball’s famous song ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ is 100 years old this year. A lot has happened in 100 years, especially regarding nutrition and exercise. Have we learned anything? Of course. Has it made the industry any better at solving problems? Sadly, not really.

Let’s face it. A lot of trainers out there just don’t have a clue. There are many great ones, don’t get me wrong. Unfortunately, you really have to be skeptical these days about personal trainers, since it’s so easy to get certified. If you want to be a personal trainer, there is actually a way to become one in just a couple days. I mean, how scary is that?

In an industry that makes over $100 billion a year, while at the same time the results are actually getting worse, it’s probably time to rethink the strategy. But I guess I could be wrong. Maybe it’s not about the results anymore.

Just remember to keep your eyes open for some of the stupid stuff this industry gives you. A few examples would be any kind of pill that guarantees you significant fat loss, a diet that involves all your favourite foods and still helps you lose 30 pounds in 30 days and any advice Bob from The Biggest Loser gives you (sorry, I had to say it).

My Favourite Food Ever

I grew up playing ball. I played college ball. I’m going to be playing pro ball. I love being at the ballpark. You can’t help but love life when you’re at the ballpark on a sunny day in the afternoon whether you are playing or watching.

But before I get way too sentimental on you, I should probably get to my point. (Note: If you want to keep talking baseball with me just email me…I can talk forever about it). My point is my favourite food.

Hot dogs, of course.

I understand I’m a fitness professional and I shouldn’t be eating hot dogs or telling you it’s okay to eat them, but let’s be honest, they taste amazing. All those ‘trainers’ who tell you that you have to be on a crazy strict diet must be people who get all their meals cooked for them, and they also apparently want you to hate your life as much as they hate theirs.

It’s fine to have a cheat meal. It’s just not okay to have cheat days or cheat buffets. I’m a real person, just like you, and I like to eat some things that I know aren’t the best for me sometimes. Sue me.

I go by the 90 per cent rule. A lot of people can be extremely successful following the 85 per cent rule, meaning 85 per cent of your meals are nutritionally sound and will help you towards your goals. The other 15 per cent of your meals throughout the week can be meals of your choice. So sometimes I have a couple hot dogs, but not all the time. — just every once in a while in the summer.

So next time you’re enjoying watching the boys of summer (potentially me), go ahead and enjoy a dog and a beer…just don’t have one every second inning.

Slumps Are Part of the Game

Baseball players have slumps and so do people trying to get the body of their dreams. Sometimes the process might not seem fun anymore or the results seem to be stuck at a stand still. Maybe you go on a week vacation and you end up being less than healthy about your choices.

The best advice I ever heard when I was in a slump was, “just keep swinging the bat and they’ll start to fall.” I think that’s good advice for exercising too. Just keep working hard at it and the results will come.

Taking a week or two off isn’t going to destroy months and months of hard work. Sometimes going through a little bit of a tough streak gives you more momentum once you break out of it as well as new focus and excitement.

________________________________
persistence will pay off

I’ve had my share of ups and downs in my baseball career. I’m sure you’ve had ups and downs during your mission to get a better body. The only thing that will get you through those down times is persistence. There’s no miracle, quick-fix answer, unfortunately. It just takes a little bit of hard work. Every day is a new day to start or get closer to your dreams. Or as the famous pitcher Bob Feller once said, “Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.”

Want to keep talking baseball with Dan? Email him at dan (at) thesoko (dot) com.

Source:
www.bodytransformationcoach.com
ThinkExist
www.dangrantcoaching.com

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

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

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.