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(Get a wicked) Pump around…
Pump around…
Pump up, pump up, and get down…
-House Of Pain (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:
One of the first things I do for clients when they team up is get them a proper set of macronutrient targets to aim for for their goals and unique metabolism.
Our clients use ‘flexible dieting’ and they track their macronutrients.
This is a far superior method of tracking than simply tracking your calories.
Each, specific macronutrient is important, and tracking your *macros* ensures there aren’t any ‘holes’ in your diet, so to speak.
In reality, the most important macronutrient is protein, and that’s not up for debate.
Fats and carbs are both important, but if I’m being real with you, the true value of tracking your macronutrients is the fact that you’ll increase your protein intake significantly.
There are many reasons protein is important – it’s the most filling of the 3 macronutrients, it helps provide a metabolic advantage (25% of protein’s calories are used during the digestion process) and it helps to maintain and/or build muscle (pretty important, specifically when dieting).
For the most part, everyone knows how important protein is.
And most people do make at least a half-assed attempt to get “more protein” into their systems each day.
But that’s just so vague… “more protein” isn’t quantifiable or objective.
We need to do better than that if you’re serious about being a healthier version of yourself.
There are a few standards you may have heard regarding protein consumption.
You may have heard somewhere you should be consuming 1 gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight (in pounds).
This is an age-old “bro-science” adage. The old school bodybuilders from the 1980’s coined this phrase as a simple way to know how much protein you need.
While this would certainly work, it’s overkill.
As a Coach, I can’t possibly tell a 300 pound man to eat 300 grams of protein. That’s roughly 3 POUNDS of lean meat per day, and it would be unreasonable to make that request.
As such, the “1 gram per pound of bodyweight” protein target isn’t a good idea for you, most likely (unless you’re underweight and need to gain).
I recommend to take your “dream weight” (in pounds) and eat that many grams of protein per day.
If you’re a 250 pound man, and you think you’d be ripped at 200 pounds, eat 200 grams of protein per day.
If you’re a 200 pound woman, and you think you’d be lean and amazing looking at 130 pounds, eat 130 grams of protein per day.
This is a simple way of getting an easy estimate that works well for the vast majority of the population.
How much protein do you *really* need?
Our male clients range is between 150 – 250 grams depending on their size and genetics.
Our female clients range is between 80 – 120 grams depending on their size and genetics.
Science states you need “0.8 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass”.
This means take your weight, subtract all of the weight from adipose tissue (fat), and eat *that many grams* of protein each day.
If you do the math, you will find you don’t need as much as you probably thought you did.
But that being said, there is no disadvantage to eating more protein than that.
As I stated above, protein helps you stay full, recover from workouts, and it gives a big metabolic boost as well.
This holiday season, ramp up your protein considerably and be strategic with your meals in order to resist the 8 pounds of fat gain the average American experiences during that time frame.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
Training is far superior to simply “working out”.
I would know – I spent 10 years “working out” and didn’t get the results I was truly after until I bit the bullet and started “training” instead.
There’s a big difference between those 2 terms I’d like to explain for you today.
“Working out” is what the vast majority of people do when they exercise.
There are no real performance goals for your sessions.
You simply “exercise” and do a lot of different… “things”, if you will.
Maybe you head into the gym and do a bootcamp or a class.
You then do a few sets of exercises you enjoy and want to do.
And your main “goal” is to simply be tired, sweaty, sore, and feel like you’ve worked out hard.
Contrast this to “training”.
When you’re training, you have a set program you’re doing week after week.
Usually the workouts repeat, and each week, you attempt to improve your performance.
You attempt to lift a bit more weight, do a few more reps, add in an extra set, decrease your rest times, etc.
There is some measure of objectivity when you train.
You are always tracking your performance appropriately and each session, you strive to beat your training log.
But here’s the kicker… when you’re just “working out”, you’ll always be exhausted at the end of every workout.
After all, with no clear performance objectives, the only thing you have to go by is how you feel.
You’re measuring your workouts based on your soreness, your pain, your sweat, or your vomit (yuck)…
But just because you’re exhausted, sore, sweaty, or nauseous *does not* mean you’re improving your strength, your physique, or your athletic performance.
It just means you’re tired.
Nothing more, and nothing less.
There will be times when you’re training and you don’t feel “thrashed” by the end of your workout.
In fact, many times in my career I’ve seen men and women who have never properly trained tell me they aren’t even tired at the end of their sessions with AF.
This tells me one thing:
The person who isn’t tired after a proper training session isn’t used to training with adequate intensity.
When you actually TRAIN and you don’t just “work out”, you must POUR your effort into each set.
After all, every set you are actively attempting to perform at a higher level than you did last session.
That REALLY adds up over time…
Training > Working Out
Especially if you’re serious about your fitness results.
About a decade ago, I stopped “working out” and I started training instead.
It was the one thing I did that made the biggest impact to my physical results.
I highly suggest you try it.
It will force you to work harder, stick to a proper game plan, and your results will be much improved over time.
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
Have you ever read an article about special morning routines of millionaires (or billionaires)?
They usually tell you how the best thing to do is not answer any phones, walk in nature, get a training session in, meditate, use the steam room/sauna/cold plunge, eat a healthy breakfast with no distractions, read… etc, etc, etc.
When I read those articles, I roll my eyes so hard.
They’re not genuine.
They’re click-baity pieces of fluff designed to produce ad revenue for the website.
I would know.
I’m not a rich dude or anything.
But I’ve built up a sizeable (for one man) fitness business.
And I laid the groundwork for the business while I was working full time as a classroom teacher.
Anyman Fitness opened in 2013.
By halfway through 2014, things really started picking up traction.
All of a sudden, my 5-10 clients blossomed into 100+ clients and my days were busier than ever before.
So, what does reality look like when that’s going on?
Here’s an example day for me from 2014 – 2016:
5:00 am – wake, shower, and dress
5:20 am – work on the side gig/fitness site
6:30 am – wake up both daughters, change diapers, feed them, and get them to daycare
7:45 am – drop kids off at daycare, arrive at school
8:00 am – begin my day teaching
12:00 pm – lunchtime – work on the side gig on my laptop through lunch
12:40 pm – resume teaching
3:00 pm – school day ends, head to the gym to train
4:00 pm – head home, work on the side gig
5:30 pm – pick up kids from daycare
6:00 pm – eat dinner, family time, take care of random chores/prep for the next day
7:30 pm – kids’ bedtime
8:00 pm – wife goes to relax, I either grade papers, prepare lesson plans, return fitness client emails, work on the biz, etc
10:30 pm – bed
This went on for 3, full years.
I didn’t watch TV or sports, I didn’t go out socially very often, and I was an absolute man POSSESSED during that timeframe.
I so desperately wanted to leave the rat race and do my own thing that I was willing to do ANYTHING to make it happen.
Obsession is a dirty word.
Sure, it’s true we should have a work life balance.
But ask any successful entrepreneur about their “work life balance” when they were building their empire, and they’ll tell you the same thing I just did.
Their business were built by barely sleeping, existing on coffee and fumes, and relentlessly working on their Dream.
It’s funny, too… I look back at those crazy 3 years with fondness.
I don’t know how I survived it.
But I’m damn glad I made it happen.
If you have similar aspirations and you’d like to build something substantial for yourself or your family, get ready to get after it.
Because obsession is a near-requirement for building something like that.
You can have your work-life balance later on.
These days, I head to the gym at 9 am and don’t sit back down at my computer until roughly noon.
It’s pretty nice, I’m not going to lie.
But if it weren’t for those roughly 1,000 blurry, coffee-fueled, crazy days over the course of 3 years, my “zen mornings” wouldn’t be possible.
The next time you see one of those silly “Best Morning Routines For Millionaries” articles, don’t even give it a click.
Last time I checked, a meditation routine isn’t what creates success.
Going 100% balls-to-the-wall for a short time of your life is a near requirement for doing something truly special in this world.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
For Physique Improvements, here is your Order Of Importance:
Calories > Macros… Macros > “Healthfulness” of Food…
“Healthfulness” of food > Meal Frequency…
Meal Frequency > Meal Timing…
Meal Timing > Supplementation…
Focus accordingly.
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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Public Enemy has always been outspoken about social injustices in the inner cities.
“911 Is A Joke” was their most controversial song.
It highlighted how calling 911 isn’t the same thing in the inner cities as it is in the suburbs.
The video was entertaining as well, with Flava Flav doing his thing in all of his clock-necklace glory.
Here she is. (NSFW – language)