It’s February. If you’ve already begun to focus on getting that great beach body, you’re ahead of the game. Most women leave their diet and exercise plans by the wayside until April or May. If you wait that long, it’s usually a scramble to undo all the damage from the long months of eating comfort food and hibernating from the cold.

Building the body you want takes a lot of time and effort. To ensure you’re not wasting days and energy, you need to do more than walk on the treadmill a couple times per week.

Early motivation will help you succeed; but there are other key aspects to fitness that can be the difference between three months of hard work and three months of hard work that lead to a successful transformation! In addition to taking advantage of your awesome self-motivation and drive, be sure to do these six things:

1 / Remove All Processed Foods

Ditch all the packaged snack foods, frozen dinner meals, and pints of ice cream sitting in your freezer. Even that container of fruit-flavored yogurt needs to go. As painful as this process may be, it will make the world of difference in your diet and, by extension, your appearance.

Limit your diet to foods that come from nature. The right nutrition for your beach-ready body does not include bags of chips or cans of soda.

2 / Get Serious About Sleep

If you often burn the midnight oil, you need to change your habits. Finish your school and work projects earlier, and say “good night” to your favorite late television show.

People who don’t sleep enough are at a higher risk of accumulating body fat. Dr. Michael Breus explains that “if you are sleep deprived … your metabolism will not function properly.”¹ Furthermore, it’s likely that your lack of sleep won’t help you fight the craving for a late-night snack run.

3 / Supplement with Protein Powder

Most women don’t take in enough protein. If you want to build muscle—and burn more fat—eat about one gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you can’t get that much protein with whole food, try supplementing with whey protein powder. Mix up a shake before and after your workouts.

Including more protein in your diet also helps defeat those carb cravings! Put down that bag of pretzels and pick up a protein shake.

4 / Track Your Calories

Tracking calories can feel like a burden, but if you want to see excellent progress, it’s a must. It’s much easier than it was in the past, though. Today, you can simply install an app on your phone, tablet, or computer and enter what you eat. By keeping tabs on your calories and macronutrients, you’ll be able to tell when you need to make adjustments to your diet and training. If you’re not sure what you put into your body, there’s no way of knowing what your diet does or does not lack.

5 / Cardio the Smart Way

Many women use the “more is better” approach to cardio training. Don’t fall into this trap! Never ending sessions on the treadmill are not the best way to burn body fat.

Instead, add short, super-intense sessions of cardio to your regimen. Alternate 30 seconds of intense work with 60 seconds of reduced work and repeat the sequence 8-10 times. You can do interval training anywhere-on a treadmill, on a bike, on the elliptical, or on a rowing machine. Mix it up! You’ll find better results with shorter bursts of high-intensity work (HIIT) than you will from long bouts of lower-intensity work. Plus it’s more fun.

6 / Lift Weights

Strength training is the best way to change how your body looks. It will boost your muscle mass and definition, and increase your strength, balance, and agility. It’ll also shift your metabolism into high gear by building muscle, your most metabolically active tissue.

Not sure what workout will work best for this goal? The following workouts can be done, one after the other, on the same day. The first portion will test your strength and the second will challenge your cardiovascular fitness. As you fatigue, don’t let your form stray. If you must stop and rest at some point, don’t be afraid to do so.

Aim to complete these workouts at least 2-3 times per week. Make sure you leave a day of rest between sessions.

As always, make sure you do at least a five-minute warm-up before you train and cool down when you’re done.

by Jason Ferruggia

1. Have a clearly defined goal.
You can’t put 50 pounds on your squat, lose 50 pounds of fat and gain 50 pounds of muscle at the same time, while simultaneously training for a bodybuilding contest and a world record in the hammer throw.

2. Train for performance, first and foremost.
It’s very hard to see size gains or even fat loss gains from day to day but you can see performance improvements on a regular basis, if you train properly.

3. Set at least one new PR per month.
It could be on a big lift, a gymnastics hold or how many double unders you can do with the jump rope. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect to see any significant changes. Setting PR’s (personal records) ensures results and fun.

4. But know when to back off.
There will be workouts when you can’t improve on anything. That’s perfectly normal. Don’t freak out about it. Deload weeks should also be taken after 3-12 weeks of intense training.

5. Don’t be a program hopper.
ADD is a very bad thing. These days it’s why most people fail. Pick the most productive exercises and methods and get good at them. It’s the best way to make long term progress. You can’t change things randomly every week and expect to get anywhere.

6. Foam roll before training.
Hit the hams, IT bands, glutes, inner thighs, calves, and back. Even better than the foam roller is the Rumble Roller.

7. Static stretch first.
If you are going to static stretch because you need to in order to get into certain positions, the best time to do it is after you foam roll and before you start your dynamic warm up.

8. Use a lacrosse ball on your piriformis, pecs and upper back.
You’ll hate me at the time but will thank me later.

9. Do some type of dynamic warm up for 5-10 minutes before you start lifting heavy.
This should include low intensity hopping drills, leg swings, isometric bridging exercises, activation drills, etc.

10. Do hurdle mobility drills.
Hip mobility is very important and goes quickly as you age. If you have good hip mobility your likelihood of having lower back problems will be reduced.

11. Jump or throw something after your warm up and before you start your main lift.
It fires up your CNS and better prepares you to move some heavy shit. Explosiveness is another quality that disappears with age. Don’t lose it.

12. Be explosive on every rep.
Even your warm ups (to a point, you don’t have to explode the empty bar so excessively that you dislocate your shoulder). This fires up your CNS and fast twitch fibers.

13. Don’t cause excessive fatigue on your warm up sets.
But don’t rush them or neglect them either. Keep the reps low to moderate and find the balance.

14. Make smaller jumps en route to your top end set.
When working up to a heavy triple, double or single it’s best to use smaller jumps and take about 8-12 sets to get to your max. You will find that your top end sets feel lighter when you do this versus if you just jumped right into them after only a few warm up sets.

15. Squat.
It’s an essential human movement pattern. Do it with a bar in front or back, goblet style, with kettlebells, or with weight overhead. Just do it. That’s all that matters.

16. Always squeeze the bar as hard as you can.
Trying to crush it, on every lift you do. This will ensure tightness.

17. Squeeze your glutes tightly and brace your abs on every standing exercise.
This will help protect your spine and elicit more full body tension. Tension equals strength.

18. Always maintain optimal posture throughout your sets.
Never let your shoulders slouch forward or your lower back round out.

19. Do more moving and supporting on your hands.
Practice handstands against the wall, do Power Wheel hand walks, lateral hand walks, alligator pushups, partner assisted wheel barrow walks, etc. This is great for building up strength and stability in the shoulders.

20. Use thick handles or Fat Gripz as often as possible.
This will strengthen the hands/grip and build up bigger forearms. It also alleviates elbow and shoulder stress.

21. An awesome workout template goes like this:
Some type of jump or throw for power development, big barbell lift for maximal strength development, bodyweight exercises for assistance work, strongman finisher. Try it.

22. Don’t train to failure.
This fries your CNS, increases the likelihood of injury and makes it harder to recover from one workout tot he next.

23. Incorporate more static gymnastic holds.
Front levers, back levers, handstands, planche work and l-sits are all essentials in Renegade programs. They build insane levels of strength and athleticism that can’t be duplicated with other methods.

24. Don’t use less than 60% of your max on any exercise (unless you’re training for speed).
The resistance won’t be enough to stimulate any size or strength gains and will serve very little purpose. (There are some exceptions but this is a pretty good rule to follow)

25. Jump rope.
Doing so will improve your foot speed and conditioning.

26. Do more exercises standing than sitting or lying down.
You sit or lie down to relax; not to train.

27.  Pick heavy shit up off the ground.
This is a basic fundamental law of being strong.

28. Carry heavy shit.
Exercises like farmers walks simultaneously strengthen the traps, lower back, grip, hips, knees and ankles. They’re tough to beat.

29. Press, support or carry heavy shit overhead more often.
The more overhead work you do the more you will bulletproof your shoulders against injury. Most people do too much horizontal pressing and not even vertical.

30. Do more pushups.
Though often overlooked, pushups are still one of the greatest exercises in the world and always will be. If you are beyond the beginner level figure out creative ways to load them (weight vests, plates on back, chains, bands) or make them harder (steep incline, 1 arm, modified planche, divebomber, on rings, etc.).

For God’s sake, people, stay in shape!”
– Louie Simmons

31. Decrease your rest periods.
Heed Louie’s words. One of the ways to do so is cut your rest periods.

32. Do something active at least 5 days per week.
Three or four 45 minute heavy lifting sessions will get you strong, but you won’t necessarily be well conditioned or healthy. You want to have all three covered. The body is meant to move everyday. It’s how we evolved. If you only strength train three days you should definitely be out doing something active another two or three days.

33. Take one day completely off.
The body needs a break once in a while.

34. Don’t train for more than an hour.
Your testosterone levels will drop and cortisol levels will start climbing.

35. Run, jump, climb and crawl.
It’s what your body was designed to do. Simply lifting weights is not enough. You have to MOVE!

36. Minimize loaded spinal flexion.
Your spine will thank you later. That’s not to say you can’t do some. But if you’re injury prone I’d heed the overwhelming body of evidence telling us that this can be dangerous.

37.  Listen to your body.
When you have nagging pains it’s almost always better to train around them than through them. Trust me.

38. Take a week off when your body needs it.
For most people a deload week is actually better than a week off. But if you’re over 35-40 you will probably benefit more from a complete week off every 12-16 weeks.

39. Reps get you swole ONLY IF…
You’re not a beginner anymore and have built up a good foundation of strength. If you’re relying on pump work as someone who is tiny and weak you will probably remain that way. Get strong first then hit the rep work.

40. Play.
We forget to do this as we get older.

41. Get at least 20 minutes of sunlight per day.
Vitamin D is critically important to your health and performance and natural sunlight is the best source. During the winter you need to supplement with it.

42. Do hill sprints.
They shred bodyfat, crank up your conditioning and toughen you up. Plus Walter Payton did them which makes them awesome.

43.    Go to bed by 10:30 every night. Eleven at the latest.
That means turn the TV and computer off and do your body some good.

44. Get 8-9 hours of sleep.
It’s very difficult to get bigger, faster, stronger or leaner on minimal amounts of sleep.

45. Get up at the same time every day.
This will help ensure optimal/consistent hormonal balance and performance levels.

46. Take naps.
It’s an awesome way to boost recovery and get a little surge of growth hormone.

47. Get Active Release done.
This will make a world of difference in your recovery.

48. Take contrast baths or showers after training.
Hot as you can handle for 1-3 minutes. Cold as you can handle for 30-60 seconds. Repeat for 10 minutes.

49. Get massages.
Being dedicated to this on a regular basis over the last few years has made a tremendous difference in how I feel. The key is to find a really good masseuse who really knows what’s up.

50. Train outside from time to time.
Bring a bunch of stuff outside and get after it. Or just go to the park and do a bunch of bodyweight stuff on the monkey bars alternated with some kettlebell swings.  But do something.

51.  Meditate.
It’s a great stress reducer. Excess stress makes us fatter. Then it kills us. I use and highly recommend Holosync.

fitter happier

(Cliff notes available at bottom of article)

As I mentioned in my first post, one of my personal prerequisites for starting a fitness blog is having something new to contribute. I also mentioned a bit of a background in nutrition research. For this post, I was to discuss what I call “The Clean Foods Paradox,” a paradox I picked up on while involved with my first research project.

The project involved having subjects follow the guidelines that many Paleo dieters follow (food choices were restricted to meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, eggs, and nuts, with no cereal grains, dairy, or legumes allowed). I will hold off on discussing the details of that project until our data finds a home in a peer-reviewed journal. I will, however, discuss the aforementioned “paradox” that I stumbled upon, since it does not divulge any details pertinent to our hypothesis or conclusions. If you really want a sneak peak at our data, come check out my poster at the ACSM Annual Meeting this year.

What is “Clean”?

Before going forward, let’s establish a working definition for “clean.” The term itself is rather ambiguous and open to interpretation, but we all know the foods that are commonly considered clean. They’re the bodybuilding staples: Brown rice, sweet potatoes, oats, chicken breast, fish, vegetables (especially broccoli and asparagus), and so on. They tend to be foods with high micronutrient density and relatively low energy density. The carbohydrate sources tend to be complex, low on the glycemic index (which I believe to be unnecessary), and high in fiber. Refined carbohydrates and simple sugars are largely avoided by “clean eaters.” Paleo takes this loose definition a step further, eliminating all dairy, cereal grains, and legumes.

The subjects in our study were exclusively consuming “Paleo-approved” foods, which tended to be packed with micronutrients. Virtually all sources of “empty” calories were off limits. This is where the paradox part comes into play. As I entered their dietary information into nutrition analysis software, I noticed a rather counterintuitive trend: These subjects, eating a diet almost exclusively composed of micronutrient-dense foods, were coming far short of the RDI for a number of micronutrients. How could this be?

Inclusion dieting vs. Exclusion Dieting

If you stop by any bodybuilding-related forum or Facebook group, a war is raging on: “Clean” dieting vs. IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros). A quick Google search will reveal thousands of forum arguments on the topic, but I’ll summarize it for any outsiders who are unfamiliar. The old-school, “clean” dieters advocate strictly sticking with clean foods (particularly the bodybuilding staple foods listed above). The IIFYM crowd advocates a more flexible approach, allowing virtually any foods that fit within one’s target macronutrient intakes for the day.

I feel as if there are two ways to approach dieting— as you might have guessed from the bolded heading above, they are inclusion dieting and exclusion dieting. These approaches are characterized by distinctly different mindsets.

The inclusion dieter approaches food selection with the following mindset: “I will include food X in my diet, because it provides me with nutrients Y and Z.”

The exclusion dieter approaches food selection with a markedly different mindset: “I will exclude food X from my diet, because it hurts my dieting by providing Y and Z.”

(Note: One issue with the exclusion approach is its poor chances of long-term adherence. It forces you to decide that as long as you are dieting, you will avoid whatever “junk” foods you tend to crave (everybody has at least one— some, myself included, have several). As soon as you “break” and decide to satisfy that craving, you are officially off of your diet, which may cause you to take a long-term break from dieting, or may lower your confidence in your own ability to successfully diet in the future)

Bringing it all together

In my opinion, the Paleo diet, and diets focused on “clean” food sources in general, are inherently flawed. While there is certainly nothing wrong with the food sources they promote, their primary shortcoming is that they are predicated on exclusion dieting. Rather than selecting food choices that contribute the nutrients they need, these dieters focus more on avoiding things they perceive to be “bad.” The result is often superfluous intakes of some micronutrients, along with deficient intakes of others. This explains “The Clean Foods Paradox,” and why our subjects were eating micronutrient-dense foods all day and still falling short of recommended intakes for certain nutrients.

Having said that, I’m not letting the IIFYM crowd off the hook without some criticism. The idea was originally to allow some flexibility in the choice of food sources, giving the dieter the freedom to choose foods that fit their preferences for taste and convenience. This should increase the dieter’s self-efficacy, along with increasing the chances of long-term diet adherence. Unfortunately, it sometimes seems as if IIFYM has become a competition in which dieters try to fit as much ice cream and pop tarts into their diet as possible, often at the expense of fruits and vegetables (and the beneficial micronutrients and phytochemicals that come with them).

Conclusion

So what is the best way to diet? As is the case with most things in life, I believe moderation is key. When it comes to body composition, the most important factor of the diet (by far) is daily macronutrient intakes. My personal belief is that one should aim to satisfy their daily macronutrient targets (and their target for fiber intake) by choosing an overwhelming majority of micronutrient-dense foods, including plenty of fruits and vegetables. Although I take a multivitamin as a bit of “insurance,” I personally aim to achieve the RDI of all micronutrients from my whole food sources.

While the majority of foods should be nutrient-dense, I also believe there is nothing wrong with including other foods that would typically be considered “junk food,” as long as micronutrient needs are met and the foods fit within your macronutrient targets for the day. Incorporating such foods in this context will not disrupt your diet in any way, and taking such an approach provides a much higher chance for long-term diet adherence.

So the take home point is to set appropriate macronutrient targets and use whatever foods you want to hit those targets, as long as daily micronutrient and fiber needs are met. For most people, satisfying these micronutrient and fiber requirements will demand that the majority of food choices will be “cleaner” food sources by default. Once micronutrient and fiber needs are met, knock yourselves out with the elaborate (and very impressive) ice cream and pastry-laden concoctions. And share the recipe.

Cliff Notes:

• Eating “clean” or Paleo foods does not necessarily predispose someone to deficient micronutrient intakes. However, sticking to these micronutrient-dense foods does not automatically ensure adequate intakes of all micronutrients (i.e., you may have a surplus of some, with a deficiency in others).

• A very small percentage of IIFYM dieters do not focus enough attention on their micronutrient and fiber intakes. Although this is only a small percentage, I feel it is worth mentioning. The vast majority of well-informed IIFYMers are sure to hit their micronutrient and fiber targets every single day.

• All dieters, regardless of their “style” of dieting (Paleo, “Clean,” IIFYM, and so on), should be sure to hit their daily targets for macronutrients, micronutrients, and fiber. If you choose to hit these targets with only “clean” foods or Paleo foods, that is completely acceptable, but not entirely necessary.

• The promotion of inclusion dieting should encourage dieters to seek out foods that provide the nutrients they need, rather than demonizing certain foods or food groups. I believe this is a more psychologically healthy relationship with food, and it promotes more dietary flexibility while providing a greater chance for long-term adherence and success.