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Good morning, this ain’t Gold’s Gym, but still,
When I walk into the gym, sh*t’s about to get real…
Little is known when I’m in the zone,
Smash those weights, get a walk in, and go home.
– Kanye West (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:
Today’s nutrition tip is simple:
Never trust an activity calorie counter.
Ever.
It doesn’t matter if it’s on a treadmill, an elliptical trainer, an app, or anything else.
If there’s a piece of technology telling you how many calories you burned, do NOT trust it.
It’s wrong nearly every single time.
The human body can’t be broken down into a simple equation.
We are all different heights, weights, and have different amounts of muscle mass.
Because of this, we all vary metabolically, and we all burn calories at a different rate.
Your treadmill is taking a wild guess based on how far you’ve walked/jogged, nothing more.
And it’s likely overestimating your calorie burn by a fair amount.
When tested, most calorie counters overestimate calorie burn by 30% or more.
If you’re taking the numbers on the treadmill at face value, and factoring those numbers back into your diet, that’s a surefire way to become frustrated by your lack of results.
In general, I don’t recommend altering your diet based on activity.
It tends to work better to have a set amount of calorie and macronutrient intake each day, and to adjust those numbers based on your progress, not your activity.
If you’re not losing quickly enough, you lower your intake 5-10% or so, but you don’t do that on a day-to-day basis; instead, you make the change once, use those numbers for 3-4 weeks, take appropriate data, and adjust again if necessary.
In fact, one of the first things I tell clients is to turn off the ‘calories burned’ option on their My Fitness Pal apps and ignore them.
I’ve seen many other fitness coaches say the same thing as well.
If you hit the treadmill, “burn” 500 calories, and then re-eat those 500 calories, you just put yourself into a momentary surplus instead of the deficit you’re aiming for.
If you’ve been estimating calorie burn and using that in your nutritional strategy as an accurate number, you’ve been duped.
It’s always fun to see the numbers climb as you log your cardio.
Just realize it’s just a number, and it’s not something to be taken at face value and you’ll be 100% fine.
N.W.A. Training Tip Of The Week:
One of the best things you can do with a strength training program is to use one program for a long time.
While this can potentially get boring, in my opinion, long term strength training programs are crucial to maximizing your strength and muscle.
When a program works, it works – and if you’re making progress, there’s no reason to stop.
We often get ‘training ADHD’.
Performing the same exercises week after week can become a bit dull.
But consider the same basic strength building exercises should be your staples each time you hit the gym.
You should be doing pushes like bench presses, incline presses, shoulder presses, and push-ups.
You should be doing pulls like lat pulldowns, bent over rows, dumbbell rows, and chin/pull-ups.
You should be doing squats like back squats, front squats, leg presses, lunges, and goblet squats.
You should be doing hip hinges like deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, and kettlebell/dumbbell swings.
These are the exercises that have built classic, aesthetic, and strong physiques for hundreds of years; and the basics never change.
You might tinker with the rep ranges and sets.
You might swap out certain exercises for a variation (dumbbells for barbells, machines for dumbbells, etc).
But if you’re training hard and you’re making progress, one of the worst things you can do is ‘program hop’.
A proper training program will have a progression model telling you when to increase the weight.
If each week, you’re adding weight, or adding reps, you do NOT want to change a thing.
You want to keep going and ‘milk’ the program for all it’s worth.
When I find a good training program, I ride it until it stops working.
I’m currently using our Chad Dad Program and the results have been spectacular:
I started using the Chad Dad Program in January… of 2021!
Yep, I’ve been doing this exact program for the last 17 months, and I have no intention of stopping.
I’m still adding reps, and the occasional 5 pounds.
I’m taking my time, focusing on lifting “better” – controlling the weight more smoothly, being in control of the weight the entire time, slowing down my tempo, and really focusing on the mind-muscle connection.
I’m in no rush; eventually, I’ll change it up, but I have no desire to right now.
And the results speak for themselves.
If you’re constantly re-inventing the wheel, and trying different strength programs each week/month, you’re not allowing your body enough time to adapt to the stimulus.
A good training program can easily last 12 weeks or longer.
And a great training program can last for years, honestly.
If you’re unhappy with your results, and you’ve been doing this, consider a different approach.
Grab the Chad Dad Program above and commit to it for a solid 3 months without varying or altering a thing.
I’m confident you’ll be surprised at how much better your results will be training this way.
N.W.A. Attitude/Mindset Tip Of The Week:
Binary thinking can be a cancer to your progress.
It’s hard to think in terms of the ‘greys’ when everything seems so black and white.
But being able to be flexible is a huge roadblock to consistency.
The world is never black and white, and fitness is the same way.
In the sauna today, a guy started talking to me about “75 Hard”, a new fitness challenge he was doing.
I asked him what the stipulations were. I’ve seen 75 Hard posts on social media, but I’ve never looked into it.
He said, with 75 Hard, you have to:
- Work out twice per day for 45 minutes
- One of those workouts must be outdoors
- Drink 1 gallon of water per day
- Read 10 pages of non-fiction per day
- No alcohol
- No cheat meals
- Take progress pictures daily
I asked him how he was doing with 75 Hard.
It seemed a bit restrictive to me.
He said he did great until the 4th week, when he cracked.
He took a day off and ate an entire cheesecake along with take out pizza.
But then, he assured, me, he got right back at his challenge.
He had to start over from Day 1, though, because any break in the 75 days means you need to reset.
This highlights the issues I have with programs like these.
These “hardcore” programs give you unrealistic parameters to follow, and then make you feel like a failure when you (inevitably) can’t meet the insane standards.
I’ve heard stories of people getting injured with similar programs due to not getting enough rest.
But the main issue with programs like “75 Hard” or “Whole 30” is they don’t teach moderation.
The only teach obsession.
Don’t get me wrong, obsession can be a good thing, and I’ve written about obsession a few times myself.
But obsession is never a long term solution.
With fitness, doubly so.
You never want to risk overtraining, getting injured, or frankly, doing things that wear/beat you down.
For many people, once they stop a hardcore program like this, they totally fall off the wagon and stop eating healthy and exercising.
This is exactly what you want to avoid.
I suggest doing a “365 Hard” instead of a “75 Hard”.
It works like this…
Each week, strive to:
- Get 3-4 strength training sessions in
- Get 3-4 cardio sessions in via walking, elliptical, biking, swimming, or perhaps light jogging
- Drink plenty of water
- Eat lots of protein
- Get your veggies in
- Sleep 7-8 hours per night
Do this “365 Hard” for a full year and watch how your body and mind change – you’ll be shocked.
And here’s the kicker… when you mess up (and you WILL mess up), forget it immediately.
There’s no need to “start over” when you’re using a moderate program that’s intelligent.
You just hop back on the wagon and keep going.
No need to feel like a “failure” for eating some food, or skipping a workout.
It’s exactly this sort of binary thinking that causes issue for many people anyways.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
Dieting doesn’t mean you have to eat less food, it only means you have to eat less calories.
Food volume is your best friend while dieting.
Look for foods that provide a solid amount of volume for the calories – lean meats, vegetables, and fruits are a good place to start.
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 love seeing stuff like this. It’s rare to see a hip hop/rap artist rap about financial responsibility.
Plus, I had a 2002 Honda for 13 years for this exact reason! I feel you, bro! (This one is SAFE for work, too!)