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All we do is win, win, win no matter what,
Got fitness on my mind; I can’t ever get enough,
Each Friday I drop a brand new email,
And everybody’s hands go UP (up, up)… AND THEY STAY THERE!”
-DJ Khaled (probably)
Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.
Each Friday’s N.W.A. Newsletter will have 3 parts:
- A Nutritional Tip to help make your diet healthier and easier to stick to.
- A Workout Tip to help make your training sessions more effective and fun.
- An Attitude/Mindset tip to help you strengthen your greatest asset – your mental toughness.
I will also give you my single favorite piece of social media content from AF over the past week and link to it on either Instagram or Twitter.
Without any further ado… let’s get started, shall we?
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N.W.A. Nutrition Tip Of The Week:
The time between when you finish eating dinner to when you go to bed is the toughest time to stay on track with your diet for most people.
During the day, we’re busy with tasks and we’re on the move and easily distracted from food.
But when we get home and settle in for a bit of relaxation before the new work week begins, we often turn to a bag of chips, handfuls of candy, or other junk food nonsense to take away some of the stress of our daily lives.
I’ve dubbed the time dinner to bedtime the “Danger Zone” with our clients.
It’s a rocky time to navigate even for myself, who’s been doing this fitness thing for the better part of a decade now.
There’s a few tricks I employ to help me make it until bed time without chowing down, but easily my favorite strategy is always keeping fizzy, fruity flavored zero calorie beverages on hand to placate my sweet tooth.
My daughters call them “Dad’s Bougie Pops” and they know not to drink any of them or face the wrath of a hangry Father.
Apparently any soda that isn’t Coke or Pepsi is considered “bougie” to 11 and 9 year olds. 🙂
I actually do go into the “craft soda” section of our local grocer, so maybe there’s some truth to it.
Many craft sodas are smaller, local companies, but I’ll give you a few options I absolutely love and perhaps you can find them in your area and try them out.
Easily my favorite Bougie Pop is Cock n’ Bull Diet Ginger Ale.
The taste is clean and crisp and this ginger ale is most definitely not a simple Vernor’s.
The spice level of off the charts, and for zero calories, that’s exactly what you want when you’re trying to refrain from snacking: Good taste, lots of flavor, bubbles to fill your belly, and zero calories.
If ginger ale isn’t your thing, Boyland Diet Cola is off the charts with its flavor profile.
The first time I tried Boyland Diet Cola, I honestly couldn’t believe it was cola.
It was so much better than the Diet Cokes and Diet Pepsis out there, I was shocked.
Most stores around me carry Boyland soda, but their diet soda specfically is a bit of a unicorn, though, as I’ve only seen it in one, single store over the years.
(The above links are not affiliate links – they are simply links to the sodas if you wish to purchase, nothing more)
Of course there are hundreds of options out there for zero calorie, fizzy drinks.
Some may scoff at some artificial sweeteners – if you’re nervous about those, then by all means, stick to water with a wedge of lemon in it.
For me personally, I’m not overly concerned with a few artificial sweeteners from time to time.
In the world of ‘vices’, that’s a pretty darn tame one in my opinion.
And if the sweet, bubbly taste of a low calorie beverage in the evening helps you stick to your gameplan, by all means that’s a very good thing.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
If you’ve been training for years on a proper program, you’re likely well past the days of ‘noob gains’.
The first 2-3 years are glorious for a new strength trainee – especially that first year.
The muscle and strength gains are higher than they’ll ever be, and you’re making gains rapidly.
Until one day… all of a sudden… screeeeeeeeeee!
The gains slow down to a crawl.
And you start to wonder how you’ll continue to make progress at this point.
This is completely natural – you’re not going to add 5 pounds to every lift forever or the world would be teeming with 2,000 pound deadlifters.
But the question remains – what are some ways to spark progress and growth when the noob gains have been milked and you have to fight tooth and nail for every ounce of new muscle you create?
One of my favorite tactics to sprinkle into clients’ training programs is the “Century Set”.
Century Sets are quite simple to execute.
First – the Century Set isn’t actually one set; it’s 4 sets.
You have up to 4 sets to get 100 reps of a specific exercise.
You’re allowed to take up to 3 *strict* rest breaks of 30 seconds in order to complete the 100 reps.
So, you begin on Set 1 knowing you’re going to need to do 100 reps of an exercise in short order.
Yikes.
Said another way: This shit’s gonna burn!
Completing a Century Set is super fun (if you’re a sadist like myself, anyways).
After you give them a shot, you’ll realize quickly you can’t just aim for 4 sets of 25. You’ll become burned out way too quickly and you won’t come close to getting 100 reps in total over 4 sets.
You want to aim for 45-55 reps in Set 1.
From my experience, if you can hit 50 reps in Set 1, you should be able to hit roughly 20 in Set 2 and then split the remaining 30 reps between the last 2 sets effectively.
Anything under 50 reps in the first set is going to be a real struggle to complete in full.
Like I said in the last paragraph… yeah… this is gonna burn… badly!
There are a few caveats to Century Sets.
First, if you’re a rank beginner and you haven’t developed a solid base of strength, you shouldn’t be doing them.
Focus on getting stronger in the compound, barbell movements and save the tricks and tactics for when you have some experience (and you need some advanced tactics to spur growth).
Second, never do a Century Set with a barbell – it’s much too risky.
In fact, I would even stay away from dumbbell work for Century Sets unless you’re extremely careful and you have impeccable form.
Machines and/or bodyweight movements are totally fine – and they’re what Century Sets are intended for.
Some of my favorite Century Sets to perform:
- EZ Curl Bar Preacher Curls
- Cable Rope Tricep Extensions
- Calf Raises
- Lateral Raises
- Bent Over Lateral Flyes
- Chest Supported Machine Rows
- Machine Chest Fly/Pec Deck Machine
- Hammer Strength Chest Press
- Wide Grip Neutral Pulldowns
- Bodyweight Squats
If you’re looking for something new that’s bound to push the limits of pain (in a good way, of course), give Century Sets a try at your next training session.
Just don’t blame me if you have issues raising your hands up to wash your hair after you do them! 😉
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
Fitness is the only domain on earth you can win with nothing more than hard work and consistency.
There are a lot of domains out there which require much more than just that – domains where either high intelligence, education, a bit of luck, or some help from someone ‘in the know’ is a near requirement for success.
But not fitness… nope, not fitness…
In reality, fitness is also free.
It literally costs you nothing, unless you should choose to purchase equipment or a gym membership.
Walking is free.
Running is free.
Sprinting is free.
Push-ups are free, pull-ups are free, and bodyweight squats are free.
If you didn’t have a penny to your name, and each day, you decided you would perform 5 sets of push-ups, 5 sets of pull-ups, and 5 sets of bodyweight squats, all to failure, and you followed it up with a 30 minute walk, you would be in incredible shape within 6 months.
You might have to watch your diet a bit and be sure you’re eating healthy, whole foods in order to recover properly and make progress, but that would be more than enough to get you into tip top shape.
So, why don’t more people do that then?
It has everything to do with instant gratification and not putting The Future You first and foremost in your life.
“The Future You” is coming.
He/she isn’t here yet, but he/she’s coming soon.
Time is the Great Equalizer – the time is going to pass no matter what we do.
And when you meet Future You, how do you think they’re going to react to their health?
Are they going to look back at The Past You – the you that’s reading this letter – and give them a fist bump?
Or no?
Will they instead be disgusted at The Past You for your lack of initiative?
So, what you have is a domain – fitness – where every single human on earth possesses all the skills required to be incredible at it.
It costs next to nothing and all it requires is your daily and focused attention and hard work.
And yet, very few of us manage to stay at a reasonable weight throughout our adult lives.
It’s the most straight forward, simplest, and most beneficial thing we could possibly do to improve our quality of life exponentially.
There’s a little part of me that wishes each time you ate a package of Oreos, you immediately witnessed a pound of fat get placed directly onto your midsection.
That way, eating those Oreos wouldn’t affect The Future You, it would affect The Current You.
Do you think you would still chow down on those Oreos if you immediately watched your scale weight go up and your clothes get tighter?
I know I sure wouldn’t…
But that’s how we behave when the ‘bad’ of the situation doesn’t happen right away… it happens a bit down the line instead.
The Future You is depending on The Current You.
If you’d like to feel the satisfaction that comes with being in excellent shape, it’s time to start paying close attention to what the Future You requires out of The Current You.
That’s the funny part about having a true fitness transformation.
You have to act like the person you wish to be for a long time – and one day, you’ll wake up and come to the realization that you ARE, in fact, that person.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
20 year old me:
“Are you kidding me – WALKING?
How lame – anyone who thinks ‘walking’ is a good workout is a total p*ssy.
40 year old me:
“A 30 minute walk in the sun each day is one of the best things you can do for your health.”
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I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Anyman Fitness N.W.A. Newsletter.
I’ll be back next week.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best,
Snoop-A-Loop-Coach-J
Anyman Fitness
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