Author: Eric Wong

TRXercise: 1-arm Power ROWtation

The weather is getting nice which means I’ll start doing some more outdoor workouts.

So I’ll be toting my TRX around and banging out a bunch of these:

As I mentioned in the video, this trains something called the Posterior Sling system.

Here’s a diagram showing you how it works:

As you can see, the glute is attached fascially to the opposite lat.

When you reach forward with your arm and opposite knee like when you run, it stretches this system and allows you to take advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle so when your foot lands and you drive off the ground, you can drive with more power.

For punching, you can take advantage of this in the second punch of a combo, for example, you throw the left hook then follow up with the right cross, stretching the left lat during the left hook, then ripping the arm back to unleash the full power when you throw the right cross.

Just another way to think to help you develop more power in your strikes.

Got a Q or comment? Hit me up below.

April 1, 2013
Easiest Weight Cut EVER

While my digestive system has returned to full power following my 1 week in the Dominican Republic, unfortunately, my Inbox has NOT.

I was buried under a lot of emails.

Bills. A bunch of questions. Back and forth between software developers working on powerDOJO features and upgrades. Numerous requests from a Russian girl named Olga who wants to be my friend.

I should get back to her.

And there was some really cool stuff, like this email I got from Donavin Hawkey, a mixed martial artist from South Africa:

Good morning Eric

I have been a bit skeptical regarding training programs in the past as I have always battled with weight cuts for fights due to the walk around weight being too high and my body just not adapting to diets. I’ve tried various diets and programs and to be honest none have got the results that I did with the 8 week Ripped program. I started prepping 2nd Jan for an event in march and implemented the program in my second week of training.

My starting weight was 97kg (214pnds) with my goal weight being 89kg (195pnds) 1 week prior to weigh in, leaving a final cut (water cut) of 5kg (11pnds) for the final week.

1st 2 weeks I was down to 93kg (205pnds) which I maintained for a further 2 weeks. Weeks 4-6 I dropped down to 88kg (194 pnds) which was my initial target weight.

I was left with the option of simply allowing my weight to alter accordingly or increase my intake to maintain. I went with simply allowing my weight to alter accordingly.

Final week soon approached and my weight was sitting at 86kg (189pnds) which meant a simple salt bath on the day of weigh in and probably the easiest cut I have ever done.

By far the best program I have been through and definitely 1 I will repeat in future.

Total weight loss in 8 weeks = 30pnds

Many thanks for the awesome program.

Donavin Hawkey, MMA Fighter

Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Awesome stuff Donavin!

He was also cool enough to send me this pic (I added the Before and After text, as any good internet fitness gUrU should):

.

This is great and Donavin’s results are on the more successful end of the range, but not out of the ordinary…

But if you’ve been hanging around here, listening to me rap about MMA and S&C and all that jazz, you know that I’m more about performance than anything else…

So I emailed him back asking about his performance results.

Peep our conversation:

—–Original Message—–

From: Eric Wong [mailto:xxx@xxxxxx.xx]

Sent: 14 March 2013 04:45 PM

To: Donavin Hawkey

Subject: RE: MMA Ripped update.

DUDE – awesome results and thanks for sharing!

I’m wondering if you’d mind me emailing out about your results?

And if you could share any of the fitness results that’d be awesome.

And how did the fight go? Do you have a video?

I’d love to see it, win or lose.

Thanks for the feedback Donavin.

——————————

Eric

Yeah Cool no problem at all.

Resting heart Rate 60bpm down to 48bpm

Body fat 17% down to 9%.

Video are available on www.EFCAfrica.com . Fights will be premiering on CSI Sports in the States soon.

Fight went well but unfortunately opponent had superior Jits and I got caught with a reverse arm bar. Strength was definitely at another level and was evident in the clinch.

Deadlift Max 2 reps @ 418pnds to 4 reps @ 460pnds

Bench Max 2 Reps @ 260pnds to 2 reps @ 308pnds

Because I’m a Chinese, let me mathematically break down a few of Donavin’s performance #’s for you because, well, I can’t help myself.

Hold on a sec while I bust out my abacus…

OK let’s do this:

Resting Heart Rate Reached 48 bpm (Down 12)

This means he surpassed the resting HR ‘Pro level’ I specify in the CAGE Cardio PDF.

Brilliant.

Cardio?

Check.

Body Fat Down 8%

That’s 1% a week, which is awesome.

But this is even awesome-r:

214 lbs x 17% = 36.4 lbs of fat and 177.6 lbs of lean muscle

189 lbs (because he cut 4 lbs of water) x 9% = 17 lbs of fat and 172 lbs of lean muscle

36.4 – 17 lbs = 19.4 lbs of fat dropped

177.6 – 172.6 lbs = 5 lbs of lean muscle dropped

Waaaait a minute – he lost muscle mass? That’s not good!

From the calculations, it looks as though this were true.

Now this might be worrisome, but it must be taken in context, specifically, the context of strength and cardio:

Deadlift Max 2 reps @ 418 lbs to 4 reps @ 460 lbs

Bench Max 2 Reps @ 260 lbs to 2 reps @ 308 lbs

He was already strong, but check out how much more strength he gained in 8 weeks!

Plus with the Resting HR improvement, it’s clear that that he improved both his strength AND cardio at the same time.

Last but not least, MMA is a relative strength sport, so improved strength combined with decreased weight is a GOOD THING, regardless of where that weight comes from.

No point in hanging on to muscle if it’s not going to do anything for you and just use energy.

The other thing to note about body fat calculations is that they’re not always 100% accurate, so the calculation could’ve over-estimated his starting lean mass, while under-estimating his ending lean mass. I’m guessing that happened.

This is the important lesson…

When you’re tracking your progress, whether you’re a fighter or you’re just interested in having a lean, ripped and athletic physique, you must take various measures.

Don’t put all your Easter eggs in one basket, you silly wa-bbit.

Measure your body composition.

Measure your strength.

Measure your cardio.

These are all important factors to both health AND performance.

And these are all things I show you how to measure in the MMA Ripped program.

We go through it all and I walk you through the process step-by-step.

But I don’t just show you how to measure these things. I show you how to take them to the next level.

Like I said, Donavin’s results are on the higher end of the scale, but they’re not out of the ordinary.

Even if you achieve 50% of what he did, think about how much farther along you’ll be?

Exactly.

So get off the fence and join Donavin and the hundreds of others like him who have completed the 8 Week MMA Ripped Training Camp.

In 8 weeks, you’ll emerge a NEW, stronger, better conditioned, and leaner man.

March 19, 2013
Do the Deadlift the WONG Way

There are exercises for strength and there are exercises for 3D movement. You cannot expect to maximize both within a single exercise.

We all know and love the Deadlift. Come on, who doesn’t like lifting heavy-ass weights off the floor and putting them back down again. It’s obviously to develop strength.

But the Deadlift is a sagittal plane exercise only, meaning it works in one dimension.

And then there’s the 1-leg Stiff-leg Deadlift. You know about this exercise if you’ve followed any of my programs before.

THROWBACK video of the week lol!

They’re a staple in my programs because they’re so good at improving single leg balance as well as muscular balance in the hips.

Plus, it trains your body to work in three dimensions: the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes, placing a unique load on the neuromuscular system and results in the creation of new neural pathways.

Now, one is not better than the other and both can be used together to produce superior results.

It’s all about SYNERGY.

Yes, Strength is important. But so is symmetry.

Like my rhyme?

Those who say that all you need are Squats and Deadlifts for the lower body have never had to fight a guy off while hopping around on one leg to defend a single leg takedown attempt.

That’s why if you’re into MMA or another combat sport or you want your body to be developed like an MMA fighter, you can’t just listen to the powerlifters or bodybuilders for training advice – their goals are different and incomplete (or excessive) for the needs of the combat athlete.

I was playing around in the gym and tried a variation of the 1-leg SLD out that really helped my single leg balance, as well as the springiness in my feet.

I noticed it most when playing ice hockey – I’d always had trouble crossing my left leg over my right – it never felt as solid as the other way.

But after a few weeks of doing the 1-leg SLD the WONG way, it improved.

This is a problem I’ve had since I started playing hockey when I was 9 years old. Amazing! Super! Fantastic!

This exercise increases both the transverse and frontal plane loads, which increases the need for the deep hip stabilizers to work, as well as the tibialis posterior.

Notice how contraction of this muscle raises your arch.

I name the tibialis posterior muscle not to sound smart but to make the point that this muscle is important in creating the arch on your feet, and is important for having quick feet as it gives you the spring.

This is also important for power.

Anyway, check out this video, give it a try, then feel the benefits of improved single leg balance and perhaps cure your flat feet:

Do this exercise twice a week, at the end of your workout, for 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps.

Each rep takes about 6-10 seconds, and you want to go slow to groove the proper motor pattern.

What do you think about doing the 1-leg SLD the WONG way?

Hit me up below with a ‘Like’ or Comment.

Would love to hear how it goes for you.

March 13, 2013
Metabolic Workout Syndrome: The Cancer of Modern Fitness
“Don’t strain yourself Rick. You don’t want to hurt yourself.”

Pic of me and Mom from my wedding. Figured I might as well use it here – I paid enough for the damn thing!

Words oft spoke to me by my Mom when she used to come down to check on me in the basement after hearing grunts and groans while straining under a heavy lift.

Heavy being relative – back in my early lifting days a 155 pound Bench Press was massive…

I’d reply, with slight annoyance, “Don’t worry, I’m fine. This is what working out is all about.”

With a mildly concerned look on her face, she’d return upstairs while I finished my workout.

Despite her lack of a fancy personal training certification or accreditation, my Mom would probably be able to help a lot of fighters out with her over-protective and conservative attitude towards training.

You see, in this day and age, science is taking a back seat to marketing and hype.

“Metabolic <cough, vomit, cough> workouts” dominate the landscape and are promoted as the cure-all for your strength, power, fat loss, muscle building and uninspiring erectile performance needs.

If there were a manual for being a Metabolic Workout Coach^TM, it would read like this:
1. Pick 4-20 exercises (on the spot at random is fine).
2. Perform each exercise until form breaks down, then continue with the same exercise for another 30 seconds before moving on.
3. Keep rest between (death) circuits as short as possible by yell at your (torture) subject to start again.
4. Repeat for the duration that you are paid for then say to your subject, “Great workout eh? I bet you’ll feel it tomorrow!”
Just because you read on a website about a (shitty) study talking about something called EPOC and how it helps you burn calories for 432 days after you finish your workout, allowing you to feel good as you sit on the couch chewing on Funyuns, doesn’t mean it’s true, no matter how badly you want to believe it.

Now I’m not saying that these types of workouts are all bad.

But the way they’re designed mostly sucks.

There’s often little to no thought behind them, or the thinking is on a very elementary level ie. what exercise order will be most painful.

And for fighters, if all you’re doing are “metabolic workouts” to improve your conditioning, you’re impeding the progression of both your fitness and technical fighting skills.

We come from a world of “no pain, no gain” and because these types of workouts suck ass, we figure they’re good.

Well sometimes they are.

The way that most “metabolic workouts” are performed are heavily draining on both the nervous system and local metabolic pathways.

This in turn, limits your ability to drill and learn your MMA skills.

Your body can’t learn new skills, whether that skill is strength, power or a new combo, when it’s spending its energy on recovery.

And done to excess and without proper recovery can result in a new disease that I’m calling Metabolic Workout Syndrome.

Here are some of the symptoms of MWS:
- Injuries, especially those ending in ‘itis’
- Trouble falling asleep
- Trouble waking up
- Muscles that are constantly sore
- Low motivation/drive to train
- Irritability
- Strength loss
- Muscle loss
- Difficulty learning new skills and frustrated coaches
- Feeling of working hard but going nowhere
I’m sure there are more.

But when your nervous system is drained and your muscles are overtrained and not recovered, you’ll experience at least a few of the above.

So what’s the cure?

TAKE YOUR DAMN REST!

Rest periods are becoming the bastard child of the training variables.

We’re manipulating exercise order, reps and sets, but we’ve totally thrown poor rest out the window.

I’m not going to give you any specific recommendations in this article.

I’ve created both free and premium programs that address this by outlining just how much “metabolic” training you should do.

I also scientifically describe my workouts instead of using the catch-all term metabolic.

My goal with this article was simply as a reminder to those who have already followed my teachings, and to open the eyes of those new to my world to the dangers of MWS.

We’ve got to fight this “more is better” mentality.

Instead, let’s adopt the mindset of “less is more”.

The less you can do to get your desired result, the better.
March 11, 2013
The Turkish Getup
Guest Article by Grant Lofthouse, RKC

If you checked out Eric’s recent post The 6 Fundamental Movement Patterns you learnt that it’s not about training the muscles in isolation but rather focusing on movements to develop athletic potential. Or in words – ‘moving with flow’ as opposed to a robot.

If you think about the typical common exercises such as the squat, bench and deadlift, it’s very one dimensional a.k.a robot like.

Squat – sit down, stand up.

Bench Press – pull bar to chest, push it away.

Deadlift – stand up with the bar.

All these common movements are performed in the sagittal plane which is only moving forward and back.

However there are 2 other planes of motion that also occur in human movement and they are…
- Frontal plane – moving from side to side (like a lateral lunge)
- Transverse plane – rotational movement; think or Eric’s one arm plank he performed in this video:
In MMA all movements in all 3 planes of motion occur so it would be handy to be strong in all three planes and not just one. That being, just sagittal.

If you follow Eric’s recommendations in his book – The Ultimate MMA Strength and Conditioning Masters Manual you would know that you should only strength train 2 times a week to allow for optimal recovery due to also having to handle work, life and mat training.

So if you only strength train 2 times a week you will want to get the most bang for your buck correct?

Now I’m not a fan of sport specific stuff however, this exercise that I’m about to introduce to is about as close to “sport specific” you can ever get.

It’s called the Turkish Get Up – and once you do it you’ll soon find out why it is so effective.

So let’s do a Get Up…
1. Start in the fetal position with the kettlebell on your side. Pierce your hand through the handle, hug it to your lower ribs and roll back.
2. Use both hands to press the bell up and only take the other hand away once you have stabilised the bell and you’re confident.
3. If you have the bell in your left hand you will have you left knee bent and slightly outside the line of your body. Your right hand will be down on a 45 degree angle and in line with your hip.
4. Push off with your left heel and roll in the same direction as your right hand and post up onto the elbow. Once you are posted – stabilise, suck your shoulders together and make sure the right shoulder is packed (down away from your ear).
5. “Squash the spider” with your right palm and extend the elbow until straight. Once you are posted – stabilise, suck your shoulders together and make sure the right shoulder is packed (down away from your ear).
6. Take your right foot and drag it over to your left. Now drag your right knee over towards your right hand.
7. Bring your torso up so that you are in a lunge position.
8. Straight the front and back leg up, push off the back leg and stand up with feet in a squat stance.
9. Congrats, you’re half way there!
10. Take a big step back with your right leg (think of a reverse lunge) and touch the knee on the ground gently.
11. Windscreen wipe the back right leg and fold at the hips whilst placing your right hand back on the ground.
12. Swing your right leg through and sit down. Check that your right shoulder is still packed.
13. “Unsquish the spider” and fold back down onto the elbow. Check that your right shoulder is still packed.
14. Lye back down onto your back gracefully. Place both hands onto of the kettlebell and bring it back down to your chest.
15. Roll to the same side you got it from and place the bell on the ground.
That’s one!

As you can see there are so many exercises in one it’s a really great ‘bang for your buck’ movement. Also you’ll notice that because you’re in so many different positions during the get up, the shoulders become strong and stable which is great news if your shoulder is ever forced into a nasty position i.e. an arm bar.

So there you have it. Now you have an exercise that covers all movements, stabilises and strengthens not only the shoulders but the entire body AND a great time efficient exercise.

It is truly the best exercise for MMA. Give it a go and post your comments or questions below.

Grant Lofthouse is an RKC and the founder of Cardio Haters Training. He specializes in getting people sexy without cardio and has a current mission to help 100,000 cardio haters set themselves free from the treadmill grind. Grant has been featured in Australia’s Women’s Health & Fitness, Muscle & Fitness and Oxygen magazine. For more info visit www.CardioHaters.com.

Eric’s Comments…

The TGU is a great exercise, although I’m not one to call any exercise “the best” for anything, as there’s no such thing. That being said, it’s a great movement to incorporate into your training that I feel provides the biggest benefit in terms of shoulder stability. It’s one that I have as a Fitness Skill requirement in powerDOJO once you get to the Orange Belt level.

Throw it in more near the end of a workout as opposed to the front because you don’t want to tax your shoulder stabilizers before any heavy lifting. I like 2-3 sets of 2-3 reps per side.

Thanks goes out to Grant for the great breakdown of proper technique for the TGU!
February 27, 2013
They Myth of WILLPOWER
College students were recruited to participate in a food perception study.

The students were told to come to the lab a bit hungry and not eat at least 3 hours before.

They were led to a room which smelled of delicious freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

In the room were two bowls:
1. Chocolates + chocolate chip cookies
2. A bunch of radishes
Which would you find more tempting?

Duh.

Half of the students were asked to eat 2-3 cookies and some chocolates, but no radishes.

The other half were asked to eat 2-3 radishes, but no cookies.

While the students ate, the researchers left the room, intending to tempt the students who ate the radishes with the yummy cookies and chocolates.

Despite the temptation, the radish eaters showed their willpower and didn’t sneak any cookies.

Oh and the students who were allowed to eat the cookies didn’t sneak any radishes.

Must’ve been tough. 😛

At this point, the students were told that this taste test study was over and they could leave.

But then, by design, another group of researchers entered the room and asked if they wanted to participate in another, supposedly unrelated study.

Many of the students agreed.

In this second study, the students were presented with puzzles that required them to trace a complicated geometric shape without retracing any lines or lifting their pencils. They were given multiple sheets to try over and over.

The thing is, the puzzles were designed so that they couldn’t be completed to frustrate the (poor) students to measure their persistence (aka willpower).

This is where it gets interesting…

The students who ate the cookies spent 19 minutes on the task and made 34 attempts.

However, the students that ate the radishes gave up after only 8 minutes and 19 attempts!

The radish eaters, who had earlier exhibited their willpower by not sneaking any cookies or chocolates, quit in less than half the time simply because they ran out of self-control, say the researchers.

And it’s not just this one study showing this phenomenon – many others have been done that show self-control is an exhaustible resource.

If you’ve ever experienced the frustration of having been on a diet, losing weight, then gaining it all back, you’ve just proved that self-control is in fact limited.

If it wasn’t, you would’ve kept the weight off because that’s what you really want and all that would’ve been required was a little bit of willpower to keep doing what you already know works.

It makes sense that willpower and self-control are limited resources.

They require energy and we all know that energy is a limited resource.

So if your goal is to lose fat and keep it off, what can you do?

Remove the requirement for willpower.

Got any strategies to do that?

I’ll share mine in the newsletter next week. Make sure you’re signed up because every Monday we’ll be talking nutrition.

Let me know in the comments below.
February 4, 2013
The 6 Fundamental Movement Patterns

These are the 6 major movement patterns that athletes should focus on developing vs. thinking about muscles.

Yes, some of the exercises will be the same as if you’re training focused on muscles.

But it’s the mindset that makes the difference when it comes to program design.

Thinking “movement patterns” not “muscles” is going to be old hat for those of you who have followed any of my programs.

But a refresher never hurts, plus I give some other details here and there that might help you move better.

Check it out:

When you look at sport (or life) as a series of movements, you can see how these movement patterns apply.

So instead of thinking about walking up stairs as using your glutes, quads, calves and hamstrings, in which case you’re missing a whole shit load of stabilizer muscles working when you’re balancing on one foot, you simply see it as a Lunge movement pattern.

Minimalism at its best.

Sure there are times when thinking about muscles is necessary. I’m not saying throw it out.

For example – if you sit on your butt all day, your glutes are likely in a coma.

So, activation exercises specifically for your sleepy glutes is a great idea, especially as part of your warmup before any lower body work.

But for the most part, thinking movements, not muscles, is going to be more beneficial for you.

Good to go?

Hit me up with a ‘Like’ to let me know.

Muchas gracias, mi amigo.

January 29, 2013
3 Foods as Addictive as CRACK

A bit fatter than you like?

You may be a victim of 1 or all of these 3 foods.

I know I’ve been.

It usually happens when I watch MMA with my buddies.

You see, it’s Saturday night. I’m in a good mood hanging out with my pals, shootin’ the shit. It’s my night to let loose, so I’m drinkin’ some beers and catchin’ jokes. I’m watching MMA – a sport I love – and I’m generally just having a great fuckin’ time.

And there are always snacks around: chips, cookies, random little sweet colourful things.

And I go off.

I devour entire bags to myself.

Now, these binges haven’t brought to the point of fatness.

But they do temporarily turn me into a MONSTER.

Just like CRACK turns people into monsters.

Even people as wholesome and virtuous as Danny from Full House:

Addiction to crack and other illicit drugs has been studied in-depth.

Not just to help those addicted, but more likely, to make some BANK for the pharmaceutical companies to turn the most powerful illegal drugs into some super drug that cures everything from back pain to snoring to gonorrhea.

Regardless of who or why, great insights have been revealed about the addiction processes.

And it all starts in your BRAIN.

Just a note – I’m going to simplify it all for you here for the sake of seeing the BIG PICTURE as opposed to the details. If you want to know the details, go ask my friend Google – he’s like the modern day Cliff Clavin.

In your brain you have these things called neurotransmitters.

Basically, neurotransmitters carry (transmit) signals throughout your brain (neuro).

You also have an area called your Reward Centre (RC), which responds to things you find pleasurable.

Anything you find in life really pleasurable, the RC responds to.

When you perform (or in anticipation) of this event, a neurotransmitter called Dopamine (cool name, I would’ve said “dope name” but puns and I don’t get along) gets released and stimulates your reward centre.

This is your brain on dopamine.

The more dopamine, the more pleasure.

Drugs are great at firing up the RC. So is gambling.

Also good things like listening to your favourite tune. Sex. And exercise.

But it’s drugs like CRACK that cause your RC to fire up like crazy, which is why you get HIGH.

But like all things in life, super stimulation results in de-sensitization.

The dopamine receptors become de-sensitized and you need more of whatever substance to get the same effect, whether that be crack or the natural neurotransmitter dopamine.

Drugs are the most powerful at this.

Thing is, there are a lot of foods, especially manufactured foods, that also hyper-stimulate your brain’s RC.

Especially these 3 foods, which, in my opinion and for the wrong person, can be just as powerful as CRACK:

CrACk Head Food #1 – Potato Chips

Sad. But oh so common.

While I’m watching two guys pound each other out, my hand might go in and out of a chip bag a hundred times.

I don’t want it to happen. It just happens. I’m not aware of it consciously.

To me, chips are the most intensely crack-y food in the world.

The crunch. The saltiness. The grease.

I’m more of a plain chip kinda guy, but sometimes I’ll get into sour cream and onion or when I’m really jonesing, Doritos.

Food science is an industry that basically manufactures bags of drugs you can buy in any store for a buck.

This to me is insane, because chips act on the reward centre just like crack does. It’s been proven through studies on the brain.

Maybe not to the same level as crack, but to some of the softer drugs out there.

But there are things you can do.

Just like the nicotine patch, which, apparently, doesn’t really work all that well, instead of chips, you could substitute a natural, home made version that eliminates one of the ingredients that unnaturally fire up your RC: Kale Chips.

My friend Flavia Del Monte (my boy Vince’s lovely wife) has a great recipe on her blog here. Check it out, but don’t gawk too long at her revealing pics – or Vince will come to your house and pose you to death.

NOTE: my wife has also made Kale Chips for us with olive oil. It works great too, in case you don’t have grapeseed.

Here’s another crack-like food to be aware of:

CrACk Head Food #2 – Candy Bars

Oh Mr. Big.

Yes, you’ve gotten smaller over the years.

But don’t fret – you’re still a big boy.

You’re still too big for me to handle all at once.

So why do you force your entire self into me?

Why won’t you listen when I say, “STOP”?!?

Well, because you and I both know that I secretly want it.

That sounded really gay.

SORRY.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Mr. Big has been created with the same devious intent as chips – but this time, substituting chewiness and sweet for crunchiness and salt. They even throw some caramel in there to really fire up your reward centre and then have the balls to cover it all in milk chocolate.

It’s these different combinations of chemicals, textures, fats, flavours and even sounds that make our RC light up like fireworks on the 4th of July.

And that’s why, just like a junkie, you crash.

And when you crash, you need more.

And it’s this cycle of addiction that sucks you in.

And there’s one more food that can really get you.

It combines some of the most powerful elements of both chips and candy bars.

CrACk Head Food #3 – Cookies

Cookies provide the sweet, the crunch and sometimes, as in the case of peanut butter cookies, a subtle saltiness that can have you devour row after row before coming up for air.

Mr. Christie, you make good crack.

“Give it to me. GIVE IT TO ME!”

I’ve been known to be a cookie monster once in a while.

Sometimes it starts out innocently playing cards with my parents.

A game called KALOOKI (sp?). I think it’s a Jamaican Chinese game or something.

We’ll be drinking some tea and my Dad will bust out a pile of cookies.

I’ll dip. And dip. And dip.

Until my tea is a sludge of flour, sugar and margarine.

But I can’t seem to stop?

Even when I know better.

If this has happened to you, or if it happens to you regularly, stop trying to use willpower.

I’ll be revealing more research about this next Monday (remember – Monday’s are Nutrition/Motivation in 2013 on my newsletter so signup today – it’s free), but just know that willpower WILL NOT WORK LONG-TERM.

Especially if you’re a food addict.

So start with some obvious and simple things.

An alcoholic wouldn’t keep booze in the house if he were trying to quit. So get rid of the foods you have no control with.

An alcoholic recognizes certain ‘triggers’ – it could be watching football on Sundays. So make sure you set yourself up for success by having some type of substitute. Cut up veggies. Real food like chicken wings or chili. Anything to avoid the manufactured, processed drugs keeping you addicted. [If you’re a cookie fiend, you need this. Seriously. It will change your life.]

And most hardcore alcoholics have nothing to live for (or so they think).

So think hard about how your ~~choices~~ addiction is impacting the important THINGS and PEOPLE in your life.

And keep them in mind everytime you get the urge.

PEACE

January 28, 2013
Exercise to Help You Escape the Mount

This exercise is a simple and powerful one that you can use to develop strength and power in a similar movement pattern that you use when trying to escape the mount.

Obviously, escaping the mount is more than just strength and power.

You’ve got to know the proper technique.

Can anyone direct me to this gym. I’d like to do some, uhhh, tutorials.

But even more so, you’ve got to make your opponent think you’re doing something else before you try to escape, to throw him off.

LOL

You sneaky devil, you.

So you could crank his neck down so he postures up then bridge and shrimp out.Or you could fake going for a kimura then when he goes to defend his arm with his other arm, you could bridge him off.

Those are just two simple ideas that you can try.

Whatever you do, don’t telegraph your move.

Be relaxed, then BAM – explode with your escape attempt.

With this exercise, when you’re on the ground, relax everything, including your arm. Just let it rest on your body.

Then BAM – explode up.

This will train the exact movement pattern and relaxation-activation you need to surprise opponents to escape their mount.

And now, the exercise you’ve been waiting for. I call it the Hip Thrust + Press:

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PEACE

January 23, 2013
The Fat Loss Plateau ‘Double Whammy’
I’m writing this post to you from the lounge at Billy Bishop airport in downtown Toronto. My wife and I are waiting to board a plane to Mont Tremblant for a short snowboard trip. If you’re ever flying out of Toronto and can use this airport, do it – it’s so convenient to downtown and the lounge rules.

In the lounge, the airline Porter hooks you up with free cappuccinos, nuts and other tasty snacks. Naturally, I like to come early to take advantage of the freebies. You can take the man out of China, but you can’t take the Chinese out of the man…

It’s about 15 degrees Celsius here in Toronto, but our destination is hovering around zero, so hopefully the snow doesn’t all melt. Either way, it’s a trip, which is always a good mental break from the daily grind.

I’ve been working closely with a female boxer prepping for a provincial championship tournament, which is a qualifying tournament to fight for the chance to represent Canada.

She’s a highly skilled athlete, tough as nails and can push herself as hard as anyone I’ve trained.

The biggest thing we’ve got to work on right now is cutting weight. Like most elite fighters I’ve worked with, when she puts her mind to it, she can achieve amazing things. And what makes her put her mind to it is an impending competition.

But the world is Yin and Yang. While she has the tenacity to do this, the mental focus, energy and sheer willpower it takes to train and diet like an animal for months on end leading into a tournament is draining and can lead to losing control when the big bout is over. In fact, that’s what’s happened before, which has lead us to entering this vicious cycle again.

Perhaps you’ve had this experience, too?

You set your mind to a goal that is achievable but requires you to really be on point, you achieve it, then you say to yourself, “Man, that was great. I achieve my goal. Now, I just want to relax. I deserve it”

And then, the old habits that forced you to summon the powerful focus to achieve your goal come back with a vengeance and quickly, you find yourself back at square one (or worse).

This, my friends, is a stressful way to live, both mentally and physiologically. The more you do this, the harder it becomes to do it again in the future.

So this is what I’ve been planning for, this time. Breaking out of this cycle.

My boxer is a young athlete and has a long career ahead of her. All she needs to do is stay healthy and stay on point and she’ll be able to build and build until she’s untouchable, as opposed to having to fight her way to get back to her previous peak.

This is the concept – stop fighting yourself. Stop fighting just to get back to what you’ve already achieved.

Be more patient.

Get there in flow and you will be able to stay there and build.

Now, here are some ‘insiders’ tips for you to put into practice or just contemplate to help you to achieve your goal AND remove yourself from this draining cycle so that when you do achieve your goal, you can redirect your focus and energy to keeping it and building upon it.

Tip #1 – Don’t Try to Be ‘Perfect’

If you try to stick to a diet 100%, you’re only restricting yourself and setting yourself up to rebound and binge like a starving wolf unleashed at a Chinese buffet.

I’ve found the most successful people with diets don’t eat perfectly. The ones that do eat perfectly (for a period of time, say prepping for a fight or competition) ALWAYS go bonkers after the fight.

My wife has been doing a lot of research on this in the scientific literature and it’s not just my opinion – it’s scientific fact that restrictive dieting leads to binge eating.

And in university, my room mate was a competitive mountain biker and he was pretty tight with his diet. But sometimes, when I felt like it, I’d buy some ice cream. It’d be in the freezer for a while as I don’t eat a lot or very often. Until…

When he saw it, he’d destroy the whole 2 liters or whatever was left because he just couldn’t control himself. Being so restrictive caused him to binge. [I’d get pissed at him, but it was kinda funny at the same time]

Allow ‘cheat’ meals into your schedule. You can do this by following the 90% rule – if you’re eating 5 meals a day for example, that’s 35 meals per week (5 meals x 7 days), so allow yourself to eat foods that aren’t on your plan 3 or 4 times. You can plan them in, like if you’ve got a party to go to, or you can just let them happen and keep track.

That could be one breakfast of Captain Crunch, a burger and fries for lunch and a big serving of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and maybe a dessert thrown in there somewhere.

Or you can do a cheat day, which you just dedicate one day a week to eating whatever.

Either route you choose, because you know you’re eating this and planning for it, you can better control your portions, vs. when your willpower breaks and you just go nuts.

Or if you’re a pro athlete, you might want to do what I’ve done with my boxer and specifically plan macronutrients to strategically up-regulate fat burning hormones such as leptin and replenish glycogen stores for better training.

For example, the liver holds anywhere from 50-100 grams of glycogen, so on a low carb diet, replenishing this would take around 2-3 servings of fruit for the fructose that goes straight to the liver.

The rest of your body can hold anywhere from 200-400 grams of glycogen so we can get some good starchy carbs and glucose that will help to replenish this, say a cup of oats, a cup of rice and a sweet potato, should do the trick, depending on your size of course.

NOTE: your glycogen stores don’t totally empty out on a low carb diet, as your body converts protein to glycogen when carb intake is low.

Of course, what I’ve just shared is getting a little more scientific and technical than most of you will need, so for those of you, just stick to the 90% rule or Cheat Day and you’ll be good to go and you won’t need to stress out about what you’re eating.

Tip #2 – Don’t Expect Linear Results

In the ideal world, our results would perfectly match our efforts and would be 100% predictable.

But I hate to break it to ya – we don’t live in an ideal world and expecting to lose exactly 1 pound of fat per week when taking in 1800 calories per day and burning exactly 2300 calories per day is a pipe dream, at best.

I’ve always been wary of calorie counting as food and preparation methods are so variable.

And calculating calorie expenditure is another dubious notion, as it’s impossible to factor in all of the variables that go into how much energy one burns (lean muscle mass, resting metabolism, hours of sleep, exercise intensity, % of muscle mass used during any particular exercise, etc).

Make a plan, stick to it, and as long as you’re moving in the right direction, be happy. Sure you may not hit your goal by your target date, but if you’re on the way, that’s an indication your actions are good, so just keep them up.

If you’re not going in the right direction after 2 weeks of sticking to your plan (that includes the 10% of not being an anal-retentive diet nazi), try something different and assess your progress again after 2 weeks.

But whatever you do, don’t do this:

Tip #3 – Avoid the Fat Loss Plateau ‘Double Whammy’

The fat loss plateau double whammy is something that so many people do to break through fat loss plateaus that makes logical sense, but screws up your body and is actually counterproductive to you achieving lasting results.

The fat loss plateau double whammy is when you hit a plateau, you decide to simultaneously cut calorie (and/or carb) intake and exercise more and/or harder.

If you’re already following a low-ish calorie/carb plan (which is generally what works best for fat loss), cutting calories or carbs further will not help. It will only go to further screw up your hormonal profile, keeping the fat burning hormone leptin low, while increasing the hormone cortisol, which leads to fat storage (and other problems, such as getting sick).

And, on top of this, if you’re of the ‘more is better’ mentality and you try to exercise more and/or harder, you’re going to further increase cortisol, while increasing recovery demands, which will NOT be met, since you’re not taking in the calories needed to support those demands.

So avoid the fat loss plateau double whammy, and instead, try one of these ideas to successfully kickstart stalled progress:
- Have a higher carb/calorie day, which is also relatively lower in fat. So replace some fat calories with carbs and add some more. Keep protein more or less the same, or even a bit more.
- Follow this with a lower carb/calorie day and some good training. You’re carbed up and now -it’s a good time to fast, either until lunch (eating after your workout would be best) or dinner (train in the morning when you’ve got more energy and take some BCAA’s before and after to avoid muscle breakdown).
- Decrease volume of exercise for a week while maintaining or increasing intensity. If you know you need more recovery, decrease volume while maintaining, otherwise, decrease volume while increasing intensity, which could lead to a surge in the anabolic hormones that support fat loss.
These are just a few tips that you can try that are far superior to the fat loss double whammy.

OK, my flight is about to board and I don’t want to miss it.

I hope this has been an insightful and useful article for you and I hope it helps you achieve and KEEP your goals.

Wish me luck on the slopes. I’m gonna be a bit rusty.

PEACE
January 14, 2013