WARNING — The information you’re about to receive has been classified and is completely confidential. I have no idea how long this will be posted, but rest assured, “they” will come after me for exposing it.
Fat loss? There are secrets for how the pros do it and for losing maximum fat in only a few short weeks.
Building muscle? There are secrets for adding slabs of sexy muscle to your body without every stagnating or reaching a plateau. And, again, you can definitely expect jaw-dropping results in only a few short weeks.
Getting crazy strong? Yep, there are plenty of secrets to building super (S)hero strength. (ability to fly, scale tall buildings, read peoples’ minds, or immortality are not included.)
With all of these amazing, life altering secrets floating around, I’m going to take the task upon myself to present many of them to you here, right now, for FREE. You won’t even have to give me your email address.
O. M. G.
I know what you’re thinking. Mind = blown.
Hunker down and prepare to discover some of the hottest most sizzling secrets, EVER, when it comes to building a better body.
The Fat Loss Secrets
Super Secret #1) Keep it simple. It’s easy to over complicate fat loss, but it’s unnecessary. And let’s face it; there’s always a bright and shiny new workout program or diet that comes along promising to make your dreams come true.
Don’t fall for the gimmicks or fad diets and don’t search for quick fixes that won’t last.
Keep it Sane and Simple and you’ll do well.
Super Secret #2) Strength train. Strength train with the goal of being more awesome (and not focusing on fat loss; check out that guide for me details and sample workout programs). Strength training is an excellent way to lose fat and build a “toned” physique. You can even sprinkle in some interval training or finishers at the end of your workouts for an extra fat loss boost.
Super Secret #3) Have some fun. Find fun and enjoyable ways to be more active. Don’t do more structured exercise and waste hours on a machine. Get involved in activities you actually enjoy. Discovering ways to be active in a fun way is definitely a secret to losing fat and keeping it off.
I asked my good friend and fat loss expert, Jill Coleman, to chime in and share her bestestest (yes, that’s a word; the internet said so) fat loss secrets of all time and here’s what she had to say:
When I think about fat loss, I try to pare down the amount of “rules” to only a few key ones that move the dial the most for people. I believe fat loss involves an interplay of mindset change and actual to-do’s.
1) The first order of business is getting your mind right and get into the right mental space to make a lifestyle change. Fat loss is only significant when it is sustained over time, and that involves creating HABITS around healthy behaviors. The ones who are the most successful at losing fat and keeping it off have committed to living a lean lifestyle for months and years, not going on a crash diet for 12 weeks. Anyone can lose 20 pounds of transient fat by cutting calories to ridiculous levels. But those pounds always come back unless the person starts living like a lean person, which involves a mindset shift and a new set of habits. My first step is to build your resiliency. Don’t let one poor meal or bad day of eating derail your efforts. Move on as quickly as possible. You are always one meal away from being right back in fat-burning mode. No one gets fat from a single day of poor eating. But likewise, you have to be patient and consistent over time too, because one week of good eating doesn’t make a body either 🙂
2) In terms of actual to-do’s, I’ve had the most success in my clinical experience with getting women to eat more protein, up to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. This is a safe level for most people (with the exeption of those with compromised kidney function), but more importantly, protein serves to help us preserve muscle, build muscle and increases satiety. When you prioritize protein, you stay fuller for longer and are more satified (especially if the protein contains some fat like red meat or salmon). This single switch can make a big difference.
There are many more tips, tricks and techniques of course, but this industry is too full of information! Not implementation 🙂 I’d advise sticking with one tool for 4-6 weeks, practice it until you get good at it and it becomes effortless, then move on to the next thing.
Jill pretty much nailed it there. Keep it simple and take action.
For more mind blowing fat loss secrets be sure to check out the free Simple Fat Loss Tutorial.
The Muscle Building Secrets
Super Secret #1) Caloric surplus. Bottom line, if you want to build muscle you need to be in a caloric surplus. I don’t suggest scarfing down anything and everything in sight including high calorie junk foods. Actually, I encourage trainees to use their appetite as a guide. If they’re following a challenging muscle sculpting workout program then their appetite generally increases naturally.
Track the results (I prefer using pictures and measurements such as the waist, hips, thighs, and chest) every 6 weeks or so. If things are moving in the right direction, then keep on going. If you’re not getting results, make an effort to eat a bit more and then track again. Keep it simple.
Finally, I don’t suggest a “high” or “low” anything diet. When you’re trying to build muscle eat a wide variety of foods including protein, fat, and carbs.
Super Secret #2) Embrace the effectiveness of periodization. As Brad Schoenfeld explained in an interview with Nick Tumminello, “Based on my experience, periodization is the best way to ensure consistent gains without becoming overtrained and hitting a plateau. For those who don’t know, periodization refers to the manipulation of training variables (such as reps, sets, and rest intervals), which are varied over time to optimize a training effect.” Brad has an excellent book, The MAX Muscle Plan, that he wrote after years of research and experience that utilizes periodization.
Super Secret #3) Improve your performance with a focus on big, compound exercises. If you wanna build muscle, you’ve gotta improve your performance over time with some big, compound exercises. Strive to add weight to bar, perform more reps, increase the volume, or use more challenging exercise variations.
There’s a place for isolation exercises, but make sure you’re getting stronger on the big movements, which we’ll discuss more in a moment.
I asked my friend, Bret Contreras, to weigh in on the muscle building discussion. Here’s what Bret had to say along with his three best “super duper top secrets” for sculpting muscle.
1. Master Proper Form
This requires sufficient levels of joint mobility, joint stability, proper muscle activation and timing, and coordination. Proper form lays the foundation for progressive overload. You won’t get much stronger if you’re always getting injured and taking two steps backward. Master proper form so you distribute the load evenly across the various joints during compound movements, which will allow you to train pain and injury free.
2. Get Markedly Stronger on the Primary Exercises
Once your form is sound, start increasing the reps and piling on the plates (gradually, of course). You want to be very strong at exercises such as:
- squats, front squats, reverse lunges, and/or Bulgarian split squats
- deadlifts, RDLs, sumo deadlifts, and/or trap bar deadlifts
- hip thrusts and/or barbell glute bridges
- bench press, incline presses, close grip bench, and/or overhead presses
- chins, pull-ups, and/or rows
This will ensure that you’re maximally taxing the muscles for growth purposes.
3. Adhere to a Sound Nutritional Plan
How many meals per day or when you eat isn’t nearly as important as what and how much you eat. You want to consume the right amount of calories along with the proper blend of macronutrients per day. Make sure you’re consuming adequate protein and the right combination of carbs and fats. This will give your body the fuel to continue to gain strength, increase muscle mass, and decrease fat mass.
I also believe it’s important to play with higher frequency training, increasing training volume over time, and manipulating intensity as discussed in Muscle Sculpting Workout Tips Part 1 and Muscle Sculpting Workout Tips Part 2.
The Secrets of Strength
Super Secret #1) Grease the groove. This is my favorite tip for boosting strength. “Grease the groove” simply means to practice an exercise/movement frequently. The more frequently you perform the exercise, the easier it will become.
This is especially a useful method for bodyweight exercises and I use it in the Get Strong! Beautiful Badass Bodyweight Workout Program. In my experience, especially with bodyweight exercises, few things are more effective than simple practice.
You can easily apply this tip to barbell exercises as well. For example, if a client wants to boost their deadlift, then I have them deadlift with every workout. Specifically, I have them do a few sets — usually about 5 sets of 2 reps — during their warm-up. They use a weight they can easily pull for 10 or so reps, but they focus on dominating the bar and acting as if it’s a heavy 3 rep max.
By deadlifting a few times per week, even with a light weight, they increase their neural efficiency and “grease the groove” for deadlift performance.
So if you want to boost your strength on a certain exercise, grease the groove with some lighter weights a few times per week.
Super Secret #2) Stay away from failure. If you wanna get strong, I encourage you to stay away from failure. Grinding out reps leads to CNS fatigue which can take a while to recover from. If you want to get strong your goal should be to train as frequently as possible while being as fresh as possible.
As a general rule when training for maximum strength, finish each set strong knowing you could do 1-2 more additional reps.
Even if you’re doing heavy singles, doubles, and triples, you should still perform every set with confidence and dominate every single rep.
I also asked my friend, David Dellanave, to share his greatest secrets for getting crazy strong. And, trust me, David is crazy strong.
1) Do more variations of the lifts you want to improve. Want a bigger deadlift? Conventional, sumo, trap bar, suitcase, one hand, rack pull. I could go on and on. Using different variations will make you much stronger than a hyper focus on a single movement. They will all carry over to your goal lift, but you’ll be building a broader foundation of strength at the same time. Don’t use this as an excuse to jump from one thing to another without any way of knowing if you are moving forward though. Which brings me to my next secret:
2) Put results above everything. I don’t believe that you should have to wait 6 weeks to find out if a program is working or not. You can, and should measure results from one workout to the next. If something isn’t working, ditch it. If it is working, see if you can refine it to make it work better. Hold no guru, or workout program, or ideology above your results. Remember this: literally nothing else matters other than what works for you. It doesn’t matter how well something works for your friend or training partner, if it doesn’t give you great results then it’s worthless. It should go without saying that it’s crucial that you keep track of your training.
3) Work within your limits. I can’t stress this enough. You can reach incredible levels of strength by gradually expanding your limits and growing your abilities. You can also quickly reach excruciating levels of pain and frustration when you try to push your limits. It can certainly be tempting to push through pain, or force something when it doesn’t feel right. Your body will slow your roll, and it will win every every time. On the other hand, you can make your training easy, work within your limits, and in my experience make limitless progress.
For more information about the ideas David discussed above, including exactly how to track workouts properly and how to know where your limits are, then check out his completely free Gym Movement eCourse.
Let’s merge onward and wrap up this super-secret-exposing article with a few more secrets . . .
There are No Shortcuts
Sure, you could go on a crazy crash diet and drop a bunch of weight (there’s a difference between weight loss and fat loss) relatively quickly, but 99% of the time that weight is regained, usually with interest, when you return to normal eating habits.
We all want immediate results; it’s just human nature. I think that’s one of the reasons people train for fatigue or assume they must be sore after every strength training session. Fatigue and soreness are immediate markers that we did something challenging, and so we assume we “did it right” if we’re worn out or have trouble sitting on the toilet the next morning.
Don’t buy into the “You can get all of the results you want in only 7 days!” mumbo jumbo and learn to have a long(er) term perspective and enjoy the process.
Simplicity Reigns Supreme
Yes, I admit that the information presented above isn’t “revolutionary or ground-breaking”, but, and here’s the most important thing — it works.
Huge exciting promises like “finally lose stubborn fat for good with this one super amazing secret and unique ab exercise!” tugs at your emotions and makes you think, “Ok, maybe this really is the answer.” But, those promises rarely, if ever, actually produce results.
Nothing will ever trump the tried and true basics of fat loss, building muscle, and getting strong. Nutrition and strength training regimens should be judged solely on the results they produce, and not how “unique and innovative” they appear to be.
Keep it simple, no matter what goal you have.
Apply and master the basics.
Be consistent.
Enjoy the journey.
You’ll achieve your goals.
The Final Secret
Individuality.
How in the world is “individuality” a secret to success?
Because no two people are exactly the same. You can’t give two people an identical training and nutrition regimen and expect both to achieve the same results. Too many other variables can effect the outcome such as stress, sleep quality and quantity, previous or current injuries, limb and torso length, personal reactions to certain foods, just to name a few.
You must learn to listen to your body and the feedback it provides. This is something I stress in Sane and Simple Nutrition, and I’m going to discuss the importance of listening to your body in regards to strength training much more in the near future.
Listen to your body and track your results, and tweak as necessary.
You Have the Power!
You’re officially armed with some of the most confidential secrets in the entire fitness industry.
The power is in your hands.
And remember — with great power comes great responsibility.
Now go get the results you’re after.
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