Bow wow wow, yippie yo yippie ye,
The sounds of the gym bring me to another day,
Play with my bros and with the bench press you gimmie,
It seems like you’re good for making jokes calling me skinny.
– Snoop Dogg (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 week with the N.W.A. Newsletter, I give you the best Nutrition, Weightlifting, and/or Attitude advice for you to start to use in your life today.
Tens of thousands of people have used this exact newsletter to gain muscle, lose fat, and become a better version of themselves…
Without any further ado, let’s get started..
N.W.A. Tip Of The Week
I had an interesting discussion with a client recently I’d like to tell you about.
My first goal for every client I work with is the same:
Reduce your body fat and get it into the healthy range.
This means roughly 20% body fat for men, and 30% body fat for women.
Once we achieve this goal, the question is – do you want to eventually bulk and work on muscle gain?
Because if you’re a guy, and you do want to bulk, we will need to go a bit further – down to 15% body fat.
20% body fat is the gold standard for health (for men).
At 20% body fat, your resting heart rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose should all be in the normal range.
You are metabolically healthy at this weight.
But bulking means you will be intentionally eating more calories than you need in order to build muscle.
When you do this, if you are natural, you will need to accept some body fat gain.
Yes, I will set things up to minimize the gain, but it will still be there.
It’s virtually impossible to eliminate.
Because of this, it’s better to trim all the way down to 15% body fat (at least) before you start a bulk.
If you will be adding body fat to your frame and you’re already 20% body fat, and we add more body fat… you will be in the unhealthy range quickly.
As a coach, I won’t do that.
Goal #1 is for YOU to be healthy.
Anywho, a client I’m working with trimmed down from about 23% body fat to 15% body fat.
Then, he said he wanted to start bulking.
Sounds good, let’s go!
So, I altered his program accordingly to reflect these new goals.
Over the next 10 weeks, he slowly gained body weight.
Around 0.3-0.5 pounds, on average, per week.
He gained size in his biceps, his quads, and his chest (hell yes).
But he also gained a bit of size in his waist as well…
Less than an inch, but still.
He told me he didn’t like that.
He felt so incredible at 15% body fat.
Lean, strong, and healthy.
And now, he felt… sloppy.
His ab definition was slowly slipping away.
After some back and forth, we decided to pull back on his calories, and slipped back into a (very) mild deficit.
6 more weeks pass.
The inch on his belly disappeared.
His leanness returned.
He told me he felt even better than before.
He had confidence and was getting compliments left and right from his friends.
Then, he asked me, “Okay, so I DO want to gain muscle… but I don’t want to gain any body fat at all… can you please set that up for me, Coach? How do we do that?”
I smiled.
And I asked him if he was willing to take anabolic steroids.
That was a joke, of course, I am not advocating taking PED’s, nor do I advise my clients on taking them.
But if that’s what you want – 100% muscle gain with zero fat gain – that’s literally what you have to do.
You cannot gain muscle naturally past the “noob gains” stage unless you have pharmaceutical help.
Then, I asked him another question.
“So, if you feel amazing, feel confident, feel healthy, and are loving your body… why do you want to bulk? Is there a reason you want to chase a new goal if you feel incredible in your current condition?”
He told me he hadn’t thought about that before.
But all over social media, he was seeing “mass monsters” with giant muscles.
He thought that’s what he should be chasing, since it was all over his timeline.
Listen carefully – those mass monsters you see on your timeline are ALL on steroids.
Or a combination of testosterone and growth hormone at LEAST.
Not only that, but they’ve probably been lifting for 20+ years.
Don’t compare where YOU are to where they are.
Besides, if you want to bulk and gain muscle, great!
It’s a noble endeavor.
But if you don’t want to do that, that’s okay!
There’s nothing wrong with being lean, strong, and healthy, and not chasing huge arms and size.
Full disclosure – the best I ever felt physically isn’t these days, after gaining a bunch of muscle.
The best I ever felt physically was after my first real cut.
I was skinny, but strong.
7.3% body fat, according to the DEXA.
207 pounds at 6’8″.
But I could deadlift 500 and squat 330.
I will tell you what… I could also double pump dunk a basketball (my students were shocked when I did it at a pep rally at the age of 33).
I played softball and I went from hitting 1-2 homers per season to 1-2 homers per week.
I could hit the ball into the gap and fly around the bases at full speed and not be winded.
THAT was the most healthy and athletic I’ve ever been.
It felt really good!
So, why did I decide I wanted to have muscle?
Because I wanted to (LOL).
No other reason.
Plus, I figured if I stacked muscle now, when I was older, I would be less frail, hopefully.
But you don’t have to do that.
At all.
If you look great, feel great, have healthy biomarkers, and are confident in your appearance…
Isn’t that enough?
Don’t let social media dictate your goals.
Only YOU get to decide what’s best for you.
If you’ve been struggling to reach your fitness goals for years, why haven’t you joined my team yet?
Brian took the plunge… he dropped 60 pounds and his wife dropped 30.
I have some spots open on my 1:1 roster if you’d like to chat…
To learn more about this unique, “All In” experience, tap here and fill out this quick form – it will go directly to my email inbox.
Looking forward to speaking with you.
More AF Content From Around the Web:
Continuous glucose monitors are useless unless you have bad blood sugar issues (T1 or T2 diabetes).
For the average person, they amount to nothing more than fear mongering.
You are supposed to have a blood sugar spike after eating carbs.
That’s a sign of a healthy metabolism.
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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I used to listen to this one as I rolled to 7th grade basketball games… (NSFW)