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Got my workout in and hit the showers,
Didn’t get no looks from the cowards,
‘Cause yesterday them fools were doing cardio,
I tried to tell ’em straight up, that ain’t the way to make gains, bro…
– Ice Cube (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.
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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:
You may have heard the advice to drink a tall glass of water in the morning after you wake up.
I do this myself; it’s an excellent way to rehydrate your body after a night’s sleep.
When we sleep, we perspire, and being sure to get fluids into your body immediately after waking is an excellent idea.
If you already do this, I’d like to suggest a small addition that will pay off big for you: Put some Himalayan pink sea salt into your water as well.
In many countries, this is standard practice.
It’s common in many eastern hemisphere cultures to begin each day with a glass of salt water.
It’s only in the west this practice is seen as strange or different.
Much of this is due to the misguided thought that “salt = bad”, and we should reduce our salt intakes.
When you’re sleeping, you’re not only releasing water, but sodium as well.
Our perspiration has a large amount of sodium in it – we know this already – when we sweat, if a bit gets into our mouths, you can taste the salt.
It’s a wise idea to replenish your sodium stores immediately to restore the proper balance in your body.
There are a multitude of benefits to drinking salt water; rehydration isn’t the only positive effect.
Here are just a few benefits:
- Improved digestion
- Decreased headaches
- Better sleep
- Increased energy levels
- Better workouts (especially if you train in the morning)
- More alertness
Anecdotally, when I drink salt water in the morning before I train, I can clearly feel its effects.
My workouts are better, I’m more intense in the gym, and I just flat out feel better.
If you’re looking for a simple, healthy habit to improve your workouts and energy levels, try adding pink Himalayan sea salt to your morning water, and see for yourself if it helps you.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
Fun Fact: I never do direct abdominal work.
That always surprises some people, especially because I have no issues getting my abs to show properly:
I also don’t program tons of abdominal/core work for my clients, either.
That sometimes throws them for a loop, but there’s a few simple reasons why.
Reason #1: Most people perform crunches and ab work to flatten their stomachs.
That is NOT how that works…
The abdomen is a series of muscles, same as anything else.
Guess what happens when you do loads of bicep curls?
Your biceps get bigger, correct?
The exact same thing happens when you do tons of ab work – your ab muscles will become thicker and more defined.
If that’s what you’re going for, knock yourself out!
But if you’re trying to lean out your midsection, you need to focus on your diet and lose body fat instead of focusing on doing hundreds of crunches per day.
Reason #2: If you’re lifting as hard as you can using compound movements, your abs are already getting hammered…
After every workout, my abs are torched.
My midsection is almost always ‘tight’ from training so hard, even though I don’t perform any direct ab work at all.
Your core is worked isometrically every time you perform a press, a pull, a squat, or a lunge.
“Isometric” means you’re bracing your core hard in order to help your body move the weight.
Intense compound movements are all you need in order to develop the amount of muscle required to see your abs pop through.
You only have so much time in the gym.
If getting a flat midsection is a big goal of yours, it happens from:
1. Lifting heavy using compound movements.
2. Being in a calorie deficit.
Doing crunches, leg raises, and ab wheel rollouts aren’t required for a solid physique, or even a 6 pack.
Be sure you focus on the right things and pour all of your energy into them for the best results.
Always train smarter, not harder.
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
This spring, I want you to start saying “yes” more when friends and/or family ask you to hang out.
I will admit, there are a lot of times where I prefer to be by myself.
I can be a bit of a homebody, and I thrive on routine.
If something throws off my routine a bit, I sometimes feel anxious as a result of it.
Because of this, my default response is usually to say no to things like trips, weekends, or sometimes, even just to hang out.
But I heard it put this way recently, and this really opened my eyes…
Let’s say you have a friend who was once close to you, but now lives a bit farther away.
You’re still good friends, but there’s a few hours (or more) of distance between you, so it’s tough to get together frequently.
Let’s say you get to see this friend once every 3-4 years for a fun trip, a long weekend, etc.
How old are you?
Let’s say you’re 41 like I am.
Let’s also assume you’ll live to be 80 years old (a bit longer than life expectancy, but since you’re on my email list, we’ll give ya a few extra years for ‘good health’).
So, you have 39 years of life left.
And you see your friend every 3-4 years.
That means you’ll see your friend between 10-13 times before you pass away.
And it could be even less if your friend passes away before you do…
When I heard this way of looking at the time you spend with your friends and family, it made me do a double take.
My family lives in Cincinnati and I live in Michigan.
Many of my friends live scattered around the midwest.
Some of my closest friends I might only see every few years.
Thinking about the number of overall “friend visits” I have left immediately made me want to say “YES” every time someone asks me to hang out.
We have a finite time on this big rock.
Let’s be sure we make the most of it.
Our friends, family, and social connections are the most valuable aspects of our life.
Let’s all be sure we understand that and prioritize them in our lives as much as possible.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
Enjoy your weekend, but if you have goals for the summer time, and you let this happen, you won’t reach them:
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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This song will always remind me of 7th grade basketball. We all used to listen to Doggystyle before every game. We were city champs that year – maybe we were onto something… (NSFW – language)