How To Crush Your Goals In 2018 and Get Where You Want To Be

With 2017 closing in on us, how many of you are where you want to be? Here are a few ways to get you going and to crush your goals in 2018.

You don’t get the body you want by sitting on your ass!

You gotta show up before you can grow! One of the most important things you can do to achieve the goals and body you want is to first consider what you want to achieve, and why it’s important to you, then commit to it, be hungry and keep coming back over and over again.

Start by setting SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals. These goals should motivate and also make you a little nervous. Because nothing great was ever achieved inside your comfort zone, plus it’s the things that make us a little nervous that make us stronger. Writing your goals down will make them feel tangible and more important to you. Then you need have a plan of attack on how you’re going achieve your goals.

Keep yourself honest and if you can’t get someone who will

One thing that helps me stay true to my workouts is scheduling them in advance. Just like anything in life, if it’s not important to you, it isn’t important to anyone else and will be easy to forget about. As we get busy we tell ourselves “I’ll do it later or I’ll do it tomorrow.” That morning cardio session gets bumped to after your evening workout and your evening workout gets bumped to another day.  If you do this, you need a workout partner - either one that has the same goals as you or is willing to workout with you and keep you motivated and accountable. Or you may want to looking into hiring a trainer that will motivate you and keep you accountable, but most importantly train and teach you the correct ways to eat and lift.

Another way that keeps me honest with myself is sharing my goals with others. Share your goals with those that can help you with advice, staying on tack and holding you accountable. A friend, family member or your significant other is a good source as well. They will be more likely to tell you how it is and unafraid to tell you the truth while giving you some tough love when needed.

Social media is a great way to share your goals as well. This is a great way to reach out to others and get support and encouragement from those you normally wouldn’t. With social media, you can connect with others outside of your immediate circle that have the same goals or might be struggling and are looking for motivation and someone like them they can cheer on as they are getting after their own goals.

When I post things on social media it keeps me accountable as I know that everyone now knows what my goals are and if I never post anything more about them people with think I'm a quitter and full of shit! So for me this is a great way to keep myself honest and accountable. As I continue to post updates and progress about my goals, people start to ask me for advice and look to me for motivation. This pushes me to keep going toward my goals and it feels good to know I'm inspiring and helping someone else.

Warm ups do matter!

Listen, I get it. You want to get into the gym and get after it! Warming up is one of the most important thing you can do for yourself. This will get your blood flowing and, most importantly, reduce your risk of injury. This is your time to visualize your workout and get your body ready for what you're about to train. I like to visualize and go through the motions of each exercise and rep in my head before I work out. This allows me think of how and what I am going to do as I practice my form as well as creating the mind-body connection in the muscles I'm about to train.

I like to start my warm up with 5-10 minutes of low intensity cardio, then move on to doing very light resistance work. This is when I work on really visualizing my muscles contracting and working on the mind-muscle connection. I warm up the muscle groups I'm going to train. By going really slow I'm able to concentrate on my mind-muscle connection while going through the full range of motion with each rep. By going slow and concentrating on your form, you're able to effectively increase blood flow to the targeted muscles, which will improve nutrient flow and aid in muscle growth.

Don’t worry about special workout plans, train to what your goals are

Forget all those cookie cutter diets and workouts. What worked for someone else may not work for you. Remember, you want to start with short attainable goals first. After you have come up with your goals, give yourself four weeks of 3-4 days if exercise each week and nothing less than 30 minutes a day. The goal is to get a sweat on and move your body.  Within the first four weeks' work on your form, write down everything you do and what weight you used. As a few workouts go by, you are going to want to push yourself and see what you can do and want to lift heavier ... DON'T! BE PATIENT!!! This goes to everyone, no matter what your skill level or how long you have been lifting. Never increase the weight until you have mastered the proper movement and form and also don’t do so without a spotter. 

Work on the movements and form. If it feels weird and you’re not really feeling it in the muscles you're working on, drop the weight and slow things down. As a trainer, the number one problem I see in the gym is people lifting weights they shouldn’t be. This does nothing but build bad habits, both with bad form and poor attitude. It also greatly increases the risk for injury. A lot of times I see people lifting super fast because they need momentum on their side to get the weight to move. Start slow, use lighter weight and concentrate on your form, targeting the muscle with mind-muscle connection.

You will see results a lot faster as well as an increase in strength. You are not the best person to judge yourself on how your forms look - have someone else watch you as you go through your movements. You can also record yourself and have someone you know that is more advanced give you some pointers. Again, don’t be afraid of what others have to say and the answers they might give you. Yes, the truth hurts sometimes, but its ok. They are only trying to help you and hurt pride is much better than a strained muscle or snapped tendon.

Mind-Muscle Connection

What the hell is mind-muscle connection anyway? Lifting is more than just being physically strong. Hell, anyone can throw some iron around but are they really getting anything out of it? It’s all about how you throw that iron around is what counts. You really want to concentrate on the targeted muscle you are training. As you go through the motions of working on that working muscle you want to visualize it as you are contracting it. You want to feel that pump and feel that muscle grow as you work it. Go slow and control the weight as you concentrate on each rep and demand that muscle to work and grow the way you want it to.  If you don’t feel the muscle contracting then you are lifting to much weight and using too much momentum and your form is all sorts of jacked up, or you are simply just lifting to fast to feel anything and again shitty jacked up form! Go slow and control the weight, don’t let the weight control you. You are in the gym for a reason, be in charge of the weight and your muscles. Move the iron the way you  but with good control and form and make your muscles work the way yyou want and need them too.

Rest Periods Are To Be Taken Seriously

Take your time seriously between sets, no matter how long you have to workout or how long your rest periods are. Your rest period is  your time to drink your water and regather your thoughts and energy. Take this time to about how your last set went. Was it a good set? Ask yourself how it felt , replay it in your head as you go through the motions and see how it felt and if it didn’t go the way you thought, then play your next set in your head as you go through the motions and visualize yourself doing the next set. Could you have done something differently? Again if you felt like that set wasn’t good and you felt like your hands should be placed differently or that your elbows show be in instead of out, then correct as your visualize and go through your next set in your head before you hit your next step. What rep did your start feeling it or at what rep did you stop feeling your muscles contracting, what  was your form like at the rep or reps?

These are all things to think about as you are resting. You want to make sure you are correcting any corrections that need to be made and as your time is coming to a near to start thinking about your next set, get yourself remotivated and  mentally ready to get after it!

Your Diet

You will never out work a shitty diet. You have now decided to make a change in your life and think hitting the gym is going to get you all the result in you are after.  It’s a good start but if you don’t start on your diet and eating habits first then you are going to have hard time getting where you want. I have seen this too many times, where someone comes into the gym and want to make changes to their body and loss weight. So they come in for a a month maybe two, and working out 3-5 times a week, but they are not seeing the result they want, so they start dipping out and then cutting the gym all together because they think it’s too hard to work out and achieve the results that they want. When I find out they are wanting to quit the gym because they are just not getting the results they wanted, I will always ask them, “why they think it is and what are their eating habits are? “  I will always get the dumbfound look of “Oh whatever do you mean my eating habits, I am working out and burning so many calories I figured I could have some extra calories.”  

Remember anyone can push the iron around or go run a treadmill, but if you don’t change your eating habits and focus on what it is going to take to achieve your goals then it doesn’t matter what you can do in the gym because it will all be for nothing. No matter what you need to fuel your body properly for it to work the way you want it to. Just like anything in life you pay for what you get. If you buy a nice car and only give cheap fuel and oil it’s going to run sluggish and not perform the way it was meant to. So why half ass your own body by feeding it shit to only fell like shit afterwards. Whatever your goals may be fuel your body properly to achieve the results you want.

Start by finding out what your resting metabolic rate is then based on your goals adjusts your macros from there. Resting metabolic rate is the energy required by an animal to stay alive with no activity. Your real metabolic rate is always going to be significantly higher than your RMR. Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is one of the main contributing components of energy expenditure (around 70%). Each day, your body must breathe, blink, control body temperature, grow new cells, support brain and nerve activity and contract muscles and all of which your body requires a significant amount of energy (calories) just to function on a daily basis.

Knowing what your BMR is very important no matter if your goals are to lose weight, gain muscle, run and train harder. Knowing what your BMR is the first step to getting an idea of how much fuel you need to keep your body going all day long. Your next step will be determining what healthy meals match up with your training and goals all while leaving you satisfied and energized. As your body fluctuates or you decide to change your exercise routine you are going to want to recalculate your BMR to know whether or not if you should be eating more or less.

For men: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) + 5

For women: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) – 161

When you gain dense, heavier muscle, your BMR will increase, so the more mass you have the more fuel your body needs to sustain larger organs and the rest of your body. When you lose weight, your BMR decreases and you will require fewer calories per day.  Metabolic rate decreases as you age because muscle mass declines by five to 10 percent each decade after the age of 30. Since body composition (ratios of lean muscle, bone and fat) differ between men and women, research shows a woman’s BMR is typically around five to 10 percent lower than a man’s.

Once you know your BMR, you can make a more realistic guess of your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. This reflects the entire amount of calories/energy that your body burns in a 24 hour period while working, exercising, sleeping, and yes even while your body is digesting food. To truly reflect the energy you’re burning, TDEE takes into account two additional aspects.

1. Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA): This is the amount of calories burned while exercising. The more intensely your muscles are working (sprinting during intervals or flexing while lifting weights) the more calories you’ll burn. And if you’ve completed a higher intensity workout, your body will have to work even harder to replenish its oxygen stores, resulting in an afterburn effect known as EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption).

2. Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF): When you digest food and absorb its nutrients, your body uses energy in the form of calories. It’s only roughly three to five percent of your daily calorie needs, proteins and fiber have the highest thermic effect, meaning they require the most amount of calories to digest per calorie consumed.

Drop your ego at the door and be your own competition

Sorry to break your heart, but there is someone better than you. You are always, and I mean always, going to come across someone who is going to be better than you. They will be stronger, faster, better looking than you. They will be better trained and smarter than you and, oh yeah, way better looking than you. And guess what? You will never, and I mean never, be able to avoid that. Now let that sink in for a few minutes ...

We good? Good! Guess what? It’s ok! Because you are not trying to be them and will never be them, no matter how hard you try. But you know what will trump that every time? Being consistent, disciplined, and hungry to be your best. You have your own goals and life to worry about. You should only be in competition with yourself because it’s the person that stares back at you in the mirror every day that wants to kick your ass and that is the person you should be worried about the most. It’s that person that has driven you this far, it is that person that has pushed you to make these changes in your life, it is that person that wants to see you fail and it is that same person that wants you to succeed more than anyone in this life! Be the hero of your own movie and get the fuck after it!

How To Crush Your Goals In 2018 and Get Where You Want To Be

With 2017 closing in on us, how many of you are where you want to be? Here are a few ways to get you going and to crush your goals in 2018.

You don’t get the body you want by sitting on your ass!

You gotta show up before you can grow! One of the most important things you can do to achieve the goals and body you want is to first consider what you want to achieve, and why it’s important to you, then commit to it, be hungry and keep coming back over and over again.

Start by setting SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals. These goals should motivate and also make you a little nervous. Because nothing great was ever achieved inside your comfort zone, plus it’s the things that make us a little nervous that make us stronger. Writing your goals down will make them feel tangible and more important to you. Then you need have a plan of attack on how you’re going achieve your goals.

Keep yourself honest and if you can’t get someone who will

One thing that helps me stay true to my workouts is scheduling them in advance. Just like anything in life, if it’s not important to you, it isn’t important to anyone else and will be easy to forget about. As we get busy we tell ourselves “I’ll do it later or I’ll do it tomorrow.” That morning cardio session gets bumped to after your evening workout and your evening workout gets bumped to another day.  If you do this, you need a workout partner - either one that has the same goals as you or is willing to workout with you and keep you motivated and accountable. Or you may want to looking into hiring a trainer that will motivate you and keep you accountable, but most importantly train and teach you the correct ways to eat and lift.

Another way that keeps me honest with myself is sharing my goals with others. Share your goals with those that can help you with advice, staying on tack and holding you accountable. A friend, family member or your significant other is a good source as well. They will be more likely to tell you how it is and unafraid to tell you the truth while giving you some tough love when needed.

Social media is a great way to share your goals as well. This is a great way to reach out to others and get support and encouragement from those you normally wouldn’t. With social media, you can connect with others outside of your immediate circle that have the same goals or might be struggling and are looking for motivation and someone like them they can cheer on as they are getting after their own goals.

When I post things on social media it keeps me accountable as I know that everyone now knows what my goals are and if I never post anything more about them people with think I'm a quitter and full of shit! So for me this is a great way to keep myself honest and accountable. As I continue to post updates and progress about my goals, people start to ask me for advice and look to me for motivation. This pushes me to keep going toward my goals and it feels good to know I'm inspiring and helping someone else.

Warm ups do matter!

Listen, I get it. You want to get into the gym and get after it! Warming up is one of the most important thing you can do for yourself. This will get your blood flowing and, most importantly, reduce your risk of injury. This is your time to visualize your workout and get your body ready for what you're about to train. I like to visualize and go through the motions of each exercise and rep in my head before I work out. This allows me think of how and what I am going to do as I practice my form as well as creating the mind-body connection in the muscles I'm about to train.

I like to start my warm up with 5-10 minutes of low intensity cardio, then move on to doing very light resistance work. This is when I work on really visualizing my muscles contracting and working on the mind-muscle connection. I warm up the muscle groups I'm going to train. By going really slow I'm able to concentrate on my mind-muscle connection while going through the full range of motion with each rep. By going slow and concentrating on your form, you're able to effectively increase blood flow to the targeted muscles, which will improve nutrient flow and aid in muscle growth.

Don’t worry about special workout plans, train to what your goals are

Forget all those cookie cutter diets and workouts. What worked for someone else may not work for you. Remember, you want to start with short attainable goals first. After you have come up with your goals, give yourself four weeks of 3-4 days if exercise each week and nothing less than 30 minutes a day. The goal is to get a sweat on and move your body.  Within the first four weeks' work on your form, write down everything you do and what weight you used. As a few workouts go by, you are going to want to push yourself and see what you can do and want to lift heavier ... DON'T! BE PATIENT!!! This goes to everyone, no matter what your skill level or how long you have been lifting. Never increase the weight until you have mastered the proper movement and form and also don’t do so without a spotter. 

Work on the movements and form. If it feels weird and you’re not really feeling it in the muscles you're working on, drop the weight and slow things down. As a trainer, the number one problem I see in the gym is people lifting weights they shouldn’t be. This does nothing but build bad habits, both with bad form and poor attitude. It also greatly increases the risk for injury. A lot of times I see people lifting super fast because they need momentum on their side to get the weight to move. Start slow, use lighter weight and concentrate on your form, targeting the muscle with mind-muscle connection.

You will see results a lot faster as well as an increase in strength. You are not the best person to judge yourself on how your forms look - have someone else watch you as you go through your movements. You can also record yourself and have someone you know that is more advanced give you some pointers. Again, don’t be afraid of what others have to say and the answers they might give you. Yes, the truth hurts sometimes, but its ok. They are only trying to help you and hurt pride is much better than a strained muscle or snapped tendon.

Mind-Muscle Connection

What the hell is mind-muscle connection anyway? Lifting is more than just being physically strong. Hell, anyone can throw some iron around but are they really getting anything out of it? It’s all about how you throw that iron around is what counts. You really want to concentrate on the targeted muscle you are training. As you go through the motions of working on that working muscle you want to visualize it as you are contracting it. You want to feel that pump and feel that muscle grow as you work it. Go slow and control the weight as you concentrate on each rep and demand that muscle to work and grow the way you want it to.  If you don’t feel the muscle contracting then you are lifting to much weight and using too much momentum and your form is all sorts of jacked up, or you are simply just lifting to fast to feel anything and again shitty jacked up form! Go slow and control the weight, don’t let the weight control you. You are in the gym for a reason, be in charge of the weight and your muscles. Move the iron the way you  but with good control and form and make your muscles work the way yyou want and need them too.

Rest Periods Are To Be Taken Seriously

Take your time seriously between sets, no matter how long you have to workout or how long your rest periods are. Your rest period is  your time to drink your water and regather your thoughts and energy. Take this time to about how your last set went. Was it a good set? Ask yourself how it felt , replay it in your head as you go through the motions and see how it felt and if it didn’t go the way you thought, then play your next set in your head as you go through the motions and visualize yourself doing the next set. Could you have done something differently? Again if you felt like that set wasn’t good and you felt like your hands should be placed differently or that your elbows show be in instead of out, then correct as your visualize and go through your next set in your head before you hit your next step. What rep did your start feeling it or at what rep did you stop feeling your muscles contracting, what  was your form like at the rep or reps?

These are all things to think about as you are resting. You want to make sure you are correcting any corrections that need to be made and as your time is coming to a near to start thinking about your next set, get yourself remotivated and  mentally ready to get after it!

Your Diet

You will never out work a shitty diet. You have now decided to make a change in your life and think hitting the gym is going to get you all the result in you are after.  It’s a good start but if you don’t start on your diet and eating habits first then you are going to have hard time getting where you want. I have seen this too many times, where someone comes into the gym and want to make changes to their body and loss weight. So they come in for a a month maybe two, and working out 3-5 times a week, but they are not seeing the result they want, so they start dipping out and then cutting the gym all together because they think it’s too hard to work out and achieve the results that they want. When I find out they are wanting to quit the gym because they are just not getting the results they wanted, I will always ask them, “why they think it is and what are their eating habits are? “  I will always get the dumbfound look of “Oh whatever do you mean my eating habits, I am working out and burning so many calories I figured I could have some extra calories.”  

Remember anyone can push the iron around or go run a treadmill, but if you don’t change your eating habits and focus on what it is going to take to achieve your goals then it doesn’t matter what you can do in the gym because it will all be for nothing. No matter what you need to fuel your body properly for it to work the way you want it to. Just like anything in life you pay for what you get. If you buy a nice car and only give cheap fuel and oil it’s going to run sluggish and not perform the way it was meant to. So why half ass your own body by feeding it shit to only fell like shit afterwards. Whatever your goals may be fuel your body properly to achieve the results you want.

Start by finding out what your resting metabolic rate is then based on your goals adjusts your macros from there. Resting metabolic rate is the energy required by an animal to stay alive with no activity. Your real metabolic rate is always going to be significantly higher than your RMR. Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is one of the main contributing components of energy expenditure (around 70%). Each day, your body must breathe, blink, control body temperature, grow new cells, support brain and nerve activity and contract muscles and all of which your body requires a significant amount of energy (calories) just to function on a daily basis.

Knowing what your BMR is very important no matter if your goals are to lose weight, gain muscle, run and train harder. Knowing what your BMR is the first step to getting an idea of how much fuel you need to keep your body going all day long. Your next step will be determining what healthy meals match up with your training and goals all while leaving you satisfied and energized. As your body fluctuates or you decide to change your exercise routine you are going to want to recalculate your BMR to know whether or not if you should be eating more or less.

For men: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) + 5

For women: BMR = 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (years) – 161

When you gain dense, heavier muscle, your BMR will increase, so the more mass you have the more fuel your body needs to sustain larger organs and the rest of your body. When you lose weight, your BMR decreases and you will require fewer calories per day.  Metabolic rate decreases as you age because muscle mass declines by five to 10 percent each decade after the age of 30. Since body composition (ratios of lean muscle, bone and fat) differ between men and women, research shows a woman’s BMR is typically around five to 10 percent lower than a man’s.

Once you know your BMR, you can make a more realistic guess of your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. This reflects the entire amount of calories/energy that your body burns in a 24 hour period while working, exercising, sleeping, and yes even while your body is digesting food. To truly reflect the energy you’re burning, TDEE takes into account two additional aspects.

1. Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA): This is the amount of calories burned while exercising. The more intensely your muscles are working (sprinting during intervals or flexing while lifting weights) the more calories you’ll burn. And if you’ve completed a higher intensity workout, your body will have to work even harder to replenish its oxygen stores, resulting in an afterburn effect known as EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption).

2. Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF): When you digest food and absorb its nutrients, your body uses energy in the form of calories. It’s only roughly three to five percent of your daily calorie needs, proteins and fiber have the highest thermic effect, meaning they require the most amount of calories to digest per calorie consumed.

Drop your ego at the door and be your own competition

Sorry to break your heart, but there is someone better than you. You are always, and I mean always, going to come across someone who is going to be better than you. They will be stronger, faster, better looking than you. They will be better trained and smarter than you and, oh yeah, way better looking than you. And guess what? You will never, and I mean never, be able to avoid that. Now let that sink in for a few minutes ...

We good? Good! Guess what? It’s ok! Because you are not trying to be them and will never be them, no matter how hard you try. But you know what will trump that every time? Being consistent, disciplined, and hungry to be your best. You have your own goals and life to worry about. You should only be in competition with yourself because it’s the person that stares back at you in the mirror every day that wants to kick your ass and that is the person you should be worried about the most. It’s that person that has driven you this far, it is that person that has pushed you to make these changes in your life, it is that person that wants to see you fail and it is that same person that wants you to succeed more than anyone in this life! Be the hero of your own movie and get the fuck after it!