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Lifters don’t grow without gettin’ sleep,
Lift hard, eat, and count some sheep,
Get the heck out after you’re… done…
If you’re out of creatine, make a GNC… run…
– Snoop (probably)
If you wish, you can grab the N.W.A. Newsletter Playlist on Spotify here, all of the songs that have been featured in the newsletter are on the playlist.
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.
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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
When I first started Anyman Fitness in 2013, I made a pact with myself.
It was a bit of a “Hippocratic oath” (only I wasn’t becoming a doctor, it was simply a promise I wanted to keep).
That promise was I would never give someone a program that wouldn’t give them guaranteed results if they followed it.
That may seem obvious, but I get lots of DM’s and email from people who are frustrated.
They’ve stayed consistent and diligent on a fitness program, and they didn’t get the proper results they were after.
I didn’t want that to happen to me and my business – I would be upset if someone joined our coaching program, followed eveything to a “t”, and didn’t make solid progress.
This meant I had to do a few things if I was going to stay true to my word and keep my promise to myself.
First, I had to make our nutritional component science based on the latest and best research.
It had to account for the realities of life, and it had to be sustainable.
I had seen (and tried) countless nutrition programs with a laundry list of rules on what you “could” and “couldn’t” eat.
I was never a fan of rules… if there’s a “rule”, there’s a good chance I’m going to break it.
Restriction just ain’t my bag – perhaps you can relate.
Because of this, I settled on tracking macronutrients, or at least tracking protein and calories.
This is the way I learned how to get into proper shape.
It was the first time dieting felt sustainable.
I got to eat the foods I loved.
I was full and satisfied each day.
I could always account for a splurge or a treat from time to time.
In fact, it never felt like a “diet” as I was losing 85 pounds from 2011 – 2013.
It just felt like a great way to systemize your food intake, and eat healthy.
From 2013 – 2020, as I was running Anyman Fitness, “macros” were all the rage; it seemed like everyone recommended counting and tracking your macros.
But the pendulum of fitness is always changing.
What is popular today won’t be popular tomorrow.
And these days, everyone is preaching “intuitive eating” and calling tracking your calories and macros a “waste of time”.
I tried intuitive eating for years.
It just didn’t work for me.
If I try to eat “intuitively”, I end up smashing a bag of Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar chips by the end of the night.
It was only when I started tracking my intake properly that I was finally full and satisfied by getting a solid blend of each macronutrient into my body.
I don’t track my nutrition any longer.
There’s no need.
I tracked it diligently from 2011 – 2016.
By the end of it, I had done it for so long I had my entire system rock solid and in place.
I knew how much I should eat, when I should eat it, and what foods would fill me up and make me feel great.
I also knew what foods I should generally avoid to not feel like crap.
This is the ultimate goal of tracking your food.
You don’t track your food because you like measuring tablespoons of peanut butter…
You track your food so you NEVER have to track food ever again once you learn how proper nutrition works.
If tracking your food sounds like “hard work”, that’s because it is.
But accomplishing something extraordinary requires extraordinary efforts.
When I was pushing 300 pounds, I was willing to do ANYTHING to get the weight off of me.
Planning my meals in advance and taking 10 minutes to do a bit of middle school math to ensure I was on track seemed like a no-brainer if it guaranteed results.
If you’re ready for the “hard work” and you’d like to see how our affordable, group coaching community – Full Access: Anyman Fitness – can help you reach your goals, tap here – you can have your 1st month of coaching for just 20 bucks (46% off).
N.W.A. Fitness Tip Of The Week
If you aren’t taking long rest periods between sets of compound movements, you’re selling yourself short in the gym.
A compound movement is a movement that requires 2 joints and hits an entire muscle group.
There are 4 main compound movements – pushes, pulls, squats, and hip hinges.
Those movements should always be the “bread and butter” of your strength training program.
A proper training session will have 3-5 compound movements, and maybe a few isolation movements for aesthetics (isolation movements only use 1 joint – examples are bicep curls, tricep extensions, lateral raises, etc.).
We almost always give our clients 3 minutes or more between compound movements.
Occasionally, someone will ask me, “Hey, Coach J, do I need to rest the full 3 minutes? I’ve only been resting for 1 minute, and I’m totally fine.”
It’s always a bit awkward when I respond back…
If you only need 1 minute between a set of compound movements, you aren’t putting forth enough effort, period.
You should be pushing your body within 1-2 reps of failure, at least (I prefer to take most of my sets to total positive failure myself).
If you were truly pushing as hard as you could, and you took your set that close to failure, you would need at least 3 minutes to recover fully.
Studies consistently show longer rest periods translates into better hypertrophy (muscle growth).
The reason why is simple – longer rest periods means better intra-set recovery.
Better intra-set recovery means you’re “fresher” when it’s time to get back at it.
If you’re “fresher” when you start your next set, you’ll be able to push more weight, and ultimately get stronger more quickly.
And boom, that means your results will be better overall.
If you’d like a study to confirm this, consider this one from 2016.
In the study, 21 well trained individuals were split into 2 groups.
1 group used 1 minute rest periods between exercises, and the other group used 3 minute rest periods.
After the study was concluded, both strength and muscle gains from the group who used longer rest periods were much greater than the group who used shorter rest periods.
Anecdotally, I’ve found this to be true as well.
I always have much more efficient workouts if I take my time and fully recover between sets.
There’s a time and a place for higher reps and shorter rest periods, sure, but the fact remains – the vast majority of the time, you should be maximizing your time between sets.
It may be a bit boring to have to wait that long between sets, but getting solid results in the gym is never boring, in my opinion.
N.W.A. Mindset Tip Of The Week
Many people think fitness is about 6 packs and big biceps.
Perhaps that’s your primary goal for getting in shape, and if it is, there’s nothing wrong with that.
But we all need to admit fitness is something that gives you a longer, happier life if you take it seriously.
Have you ever watched a loved one lose their mobility due to being out of shape?
It’s gut wrenching to watch in real time.
We all work hard during our working years; during our retirement years, we should be traveling and enjoying a stress free life.
But that’s often not possible if we don’t take our health seriously in the years prior.
I’d like to take a minute and give some HUGE public props to someone I’m incredibly proud of – my Momma!
(Hi, Mom! I know you read these, thanks for letting me write about you – you’re an inspiration! Love you!)
My Mom has always been up and down with her fitness.
She would go through periods where she was super fit and diligent, and she would go through periods where she struggled.
Last year at this time, the years of ups and downs were catching up to her at the age of 68.
We had a family trip to Disney planned, and we invited all of our daughters’ grandparents to go on the trip with us.
I won’t lie, I was concerned she wouldn’t be able to hack all the walking a 4 day Disney trip requires.
I voiced my concern as carefully as I could.
This wasn’t about “appearances” or anything else – this was about wanting my Mom to be around for a really long time, and to experience life to the fullest.
Selfishly, I wanted this for me, but I also wanted this for my Dad, and my daughters.
They love “Nana” with all their heart, and I know it would be tough for them to watch her mobility and life quality decline before it should.
Well, I have some awesome news – in the spring of last year, my Mom went “all in”.
She started eating better, lifting weights, and getting more steps in.
And in less than 1 year’s time, she’s lost an astonishing 100 pounds.
100 pounds!
It’s just an amazing achievement at any age, let alone 68!
I would guess a tiny fraction of 1% of people her age have made such a remarkable turnaround.
I am thrilled with how seriously she’s taken her fitness.
She recently confided in me her main motivation was going on the Disney trip and being able to enjoy the trip with the rest of our family.
And she did just that!
We went to the Magic Kingdom in December of last year, and she kept up the entire time – no wheelchairs, no scooters, no nothing.
Over 15k steps per day, no sweat! (Okay, maybe a *little* bit of sweat lol…)
I couldn’t be more proud of her!
Here’s a picture of the whole crew at Hollywood Studios (Mom is in front in the blue shirt):
Now, want to see something REALLY cool?
My Dad has always wanted to visit Yellowstone in the winter.
He asked me if I could go with him but sadly, I was unable to make the dates work.
He asked my Mom if she would go with him.
He wanted to do a snowmobiling adventure and visit Old Faithful.
He told her he just needed a travel partner; she didn’t have to go on the trip with him.
But with Mom’s newfound fitness, she said she wanted to go snowmobiling with him.
My Dad was floored!
It was a 60 mile round trip that took 7 hours in the cold and the snow.
He gladly accepted, and in January, they went on the trip of a lifetime.
Here’s a picture of Mom and Dad in the thick of it at Yellowstone:
This just goes to show you, you are NEVER too old to make a change.
The change in my Mom isn’t just physical.
Everything has changed.
She’s more outgoing.
She’s more confident.
She’s clearly happier.
My girls have mentioned how proud they are of Nana; they’re just as tickled as we are.
Thanks for being such an amazing person, and congratulations, Mom.
YOU are an example of what fitness is TRULY all about!
Keep crushing it! <3
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
The best way to not be on a “diet” your entire life is to strength train regularly.
Build your muscle; build your metabolism.
If you want to eat more, and not gain body fat, you’re going to need to lift weights hard.
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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,
Coach J
Anyman Fitness
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