Strength/resistance training is not the end-all/be-all of exercise. Cardio and strength training both have a wide variety of different benefits, and from my research, they are both just as important. No matter what your goals are, you are missing large benefits if you train one way and ignore the other.

That being said, until I started strength training, I didn't know what I was missing. When I start my day with resistance training, I notice enormous improvements to my mood and energy for the rest of the day and I feel like I'm ready to tackle whatever decides to come at me.

Even though most of my posts dig deeper into optimizing your training/nutrition, what is more important is the individuality - why it is important to you and what keeps you motivated to come back to the gym day after day.

For this post, I decided to ask the following question in a Facebook Group and I want to share the wonderful anecdotes that I received...

Here are several different of the answers that I received:

1. Anti-depressant and good mental health benefits.
2. To be happier when looking in the mirror.
3. After having a serious intervention with my doctor, I decided this was the best course of action.
4. To step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself.
5. To lose weight.
6. To reduce chances of injury in other sports.
7. To overcome an injury.
8. To look good naked and get more attention from the opposite sex.
9. To build confidence.
10. To build the strength to work through physically demanding tasks and not be wiped out
11. Because getting stronger feels magnificent.
12. To relieve stress and anger.
13. To help motivate me to stop smoking.
14. To slow/counter the aging process.
15. To be healthier for my children; being able to join in family activities later in life.
16. It makes me feel alive.
17. And of course, "GAINZZZZZZZZZ."

These are all answers from one Facebook Group. I'm sure there are hundreds of unique reasons.

If you lift and you would like to add your reason to the list, take a minute and comment on this post!

I love getting these answers and I hope these reactions "wow" you like they did for me. Whether you are male or female, 15 or 50+ years old, you are bound to reap the benefits, both physical and mental.

If you have any questions/comments, comment below! Also, if you enjoyed this post, please go to the Contact page and subscribe to get notified of new posts.

This book review is actually on two separate books but they are bought together and they are meant to be read together as well. They are also meant to be read in that order - The Art of Lifting goes through what Greg Nuckols and Omar Isuf believe what should be general knowledge for  coaches and everyone who lifts weights while The Science of Lifting goes into the research that less people are likely to be aware of if they have not gone through any courses or read any textbooks on Exercise Science. Both Omar and Greg are popular strength coaches that have helped hundreds of thousands of people through Omar's YouTube Channel and Greg's website, StrongerByScience.com (where these books are sold).

​The thing that these books do best is covering so many topics and getting right to the point. I've read multiple health and fitness books that repeat information over and over as if they're trying to brainwash you into accepting their theory as truth. Greg and Omar went completely counter to that - for instance, The Art of Lifting is only 108 pages but each of its 31 chapters has great nuggets of information for lifters. The Science of Lifting has slightly longer chapters but that is because they are explaining the science behind their suggestions.

They also make it clear that the suggestions they give in these books are just that. They are providing what works for most people, most of the time but every individual is a bit different. You and your coach should be working to find what works best for you.

This book is broken up into two sections - "Stuff That Matters" and "Stuff That Doesn't Matter". Essentially, this "Stuff That Matters" are concepts that give you enough to get you 90% of your maximum results from training, covering topics like volume, intensity, sleep, individuality, and goals. For the "Stuff that Doesn't Matter," these are things that are talked about a lot in the fitness space but may only be beneficial if you want to be at the top of your game and you make your money by being a professional athlete, covering topics like clean eating, supplements, and optimizing your training.

Here are some of what I found to be Greg and Omar's key tips found in this book:

• To improve your lifts, focus on cues. For instance, when bench pressing it is helpful to think "rip the bar in half," which will get you to grip the bar as hard as possible. And for squatting, "spread the floor" or "screw your feet into the ground" will improve your strength and form (p. 19).
•  To improve your numbers in bench press, squat, and deadlift, the best way to do it (for most people) is to work with at least 75-80% of your max and to train each lift 2 to 3 times per week (p. 20)
• "Calories in, calories out" is no longer up for debate and your calorie count will be 90-95% accurate when looking at gaining or losing weight (p. 46).
• "Before embarking on a serious diet for either losing a lot of fat or gaining a lot of muscle, you should first have a healthy relationship with food (p.92)". They suggest that restrictive diets create unhealthy relationships with foods and advise to simply focus on eating fiber-rich, nutrient-dense foods (p. 53).
• Fix your diet and training before looking to supplements. Protein powder, creatine, and caffeine are really the only supplements proven to make a little bit of a difference (p. 97).

This book goes deep into several topics including meal frequency, training frequency, what positively affects gains (genetic factors, steroids), what negatively affects gains (outside stress), peaking fitness and performance, nutrition, and more. By using research and graphs to help explain, The Science of Lifting spells out what effects your strength and performance in the gym, and by just how much.

Here are some of the nuggets that Greg and Omar included in this book:

• "...getting 8 hours of sleep instead of 5.5 hours of sleep can have a substantial impact on you ability to lose fat and gain muscle (p. 12)."
• Lifting above 60% of your max has been shown to be necessary for "robust gains in hypertrophy" but by lifting above 85% regularly, "benefits start decreasing (p. 20)."
• Lifting at an RPE of 8 (stopping each set while you still have 2-3 reps in you) maximizes your fitness while minimizing fatigue (p. 46). Lifting at an RPE of 9 (stopping each set with 1 rep left in you) is best for teaching yourself the mechanical skills of completing heavy lifts (p. 51).
• "...fiber type distribution doesn't influence how much you can lift very much at all (p. 66)."
• "The loftier your goals and expectations, the more effort is required - there are no shortcuts." If you just want to lift for general health, you only need the minimum effective dose. If you want to "get huge enough to scare small children," you will need to find your maximum tolerable dose. Most of us want something in the middle (p. 94-97).

These books are filled with valuable information are definitely worth reading, whether you are a beginner or intermediate-level lifter. With short chapters and lots of figures, they are easy to read and the knowledge that Greg and Omar share will help you figure out what is important for hypertrophy and strength gains.

This book pairs well with Mike Matthew's Bigger Leaner Stronger or Thinner Leaner Stronger. If you are thinking about getting into lifting, I strongly suggest reading BLS or TLS to get your way into a good program and then use The Art & Science of Lifting when/if you decide to make tweaks and improve your gains even more.

The Art & Science of Lifting currently only comes as an e-book, and comes in a set for roughly $30. It is sold here.

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Protein is, and I'm sure will always be, a hot topic in people who live any sort of active lifestyle - whether you are a weightlifter, bodybuilder, or a triathlete, you want to make sure you're getting the correct amount. Well, as much as people like to over-complicate it, experts who follow science as well as have decades of experience coaching have similar suggestions that are very simple.

​Let's break it down...

When you are bulking, extra benefits are rare above 0.8g/lb of bodyweight per day. For an easy target. shoot for 1g/lb or 2g/kg per day (Greg Nuckols, Mike Matthews, Ben Greenfield).

When you are dieting, experts recommend that you get a little more protein - to aim for 1.1-1.3g/lb of bodyweight. This is just an extra 15-60g if you're between 150-200lb or 70-90kg (Greg Nuckols, Mike Matthews).

The expert that I am currently studying is Greg Nuckols. Greg is a well-known, record-breaking powerlifter who is not only a trusted strength coach but also a great resource through his website, strongerbyscience.com, where he shares advice on strength training through with his articles, books, podcast, and his monthly subscription, Monthly Applications in Strength Sport (MASS), where him and his colleagues share what they find from deep-diving into the scientific research on specific topics. Greg has done over 100 interviews for other podcasts and also has done several seminars. Impressive is an understatement for not even hitting 30 years old and having this large of a resume while also recently obtaining his Master's in Exercise Science. 

This post is to go over some great tips that he shares in one of his podcast episodes on The Stronger by Science Podcast. This podcast can be found here as well as places like Spotify and the Apple Podcast app.

This tip is interesting coming from a record-breaking powerlifter. He advises that if you are training for physique rather than competition, that there are better tools than the conventional barbell bench press, deadlift, and back squat. Here are his suggestions...

Alternatives to the Back Squat:

• Safety Bar Squat due to lower injury risk.
• Front Squat due to lower injury risk.

Alternative to the Bench Press:

• First, make sure you can do 10-15 solid bodyweight push-ups. Then, move to resisted push-ups with bands. Once you can do several resisted/weighted push-ups, then the bench press is an okay exercise. Push-ups are just less dangerous and more of a natural movement.

Alternatives to the Barbell Deadlift:

• Trap Bar Deadlifts due to less of a worry about spinal flexion, more freedom of movement, and more of a natural movement.
  
• Romanian Deadlifts due to an increase in comfort, range of motion, and hamstring hypertrophy.
  
• Low Block Pulls due to less spinal flexion.
  

Other great exercises/aternatives:

• He suggests substituting the strict press with the push press because of a "more athletic" range of motion.
• He suggests pull-ups (preferably with rings) as a great exercise in general.
• He suggests cheaty barbell rows as a great exercise in general.

If you work an office job or are mostly sedentary, planks are a great way to warm-up before a workout to get the core tight and spine ready. Side planks, especially.

For someone who wants to be a trainer, he gives basic tips on how to be a knowledgeable coach:

1. For certifications, find what gym you want to work at and ask them what certifications they require. Simple as that.
2. The best experience is hands-on experience. Find a coach who you can gain knowledge from and learn what you can from them.
3. He strongly recommends everyone reads at least and Intro to Anatomy and Physiology textbook and an Exercise Physiology textbook. Although this is expensive and time consuming, he states that it is well-worth the investment.

Greg gives multiple tips on how to improve your test-taking abilities and how to retain information that you study.

1. Just because you can recall information once, that does not mean you've learned it. He compares it to practicing music - just because you can play a song through once, does not mean you can perform it right a week later. BUT, going through the song twenty times dramatically improves the likelihood that you will be able to perform it at 100% a week later. Don't think you are perfect just because you could perform/recall information once. Go over it several times to have it down pat and so when it is time, you're ready.
2. Many people think tests are not a true test of knowledge but science begs to differ. Test-taking as part of the learning process has been shown to be one of the best ways to study effectively and efficiently. Find an old test or quiz, use it, and when you are done, use it to find which areas you need to study more.

I wanted to share this episode because of the sheer amount and variety of great information. Greg is full of science research info and knowledge on training. I personally love the Big Three but I am going to take his lifting considerations and work more with resisted push-ups and the front squat. If I plan on giving any coaching advice myself rather than referencing experts, I will be sure to read the textbooks he suggested as well.

If you want to hear more advice from Greg, check out his website, strongerbyscience.com. The Stronger By Science Podcast and his monthly subscription, MASS, are both great resources for people interested in the science behind strength training.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, please subscribe on my Contact page.

Just like a guitar gets out of tune after a while, so do we with our goals. Personally, I seem to cling to 2 or 3 goals and lose sight of the others after a few months. I would not say they are more important; some goals need more attention and daily commitment so they are on my mind every day.

This post is to take information from Michael Hyatt's book Your Best Year Ever along with Warren Buffet's 5/25 Rule, which seem to compliment each other. If you do not know Warren Buffet's method and you have never written your goals down, my post Setting Goals (Warren Buffet, Jordan Pederson) is more for you. Michael Hyatt's method of revising/assessing goals compliments Warren Buffet's method nicely. Hyatt recommends realigning your goals every quarter and either rejoicing, recommitting, revising, removing, or replacing your past goals.

To be honest, yesterday was the first time I tuned my goals since July of last year but I feel Hyatt gave me the tools to do this the right way so I would like to share it with you:

Even if you have them written down somewhere else, write them down again. As you write them down, you will start assessing in your head how you've progressed on that goal, especially if it is a goal that was not being addressed daily.

This is possibly the most crucial step. Take each goal that you listed in Step 1 and evaluate in a short paragraph whether you reached your goal, still making good progress, if that goal is still an important one to you, etc. Maybe that goal is no longer even relevant. This step will get you thinking on what you can adjust - maybe you need to take things up a notch or maybe that goal was unrealistic.

This is the most exciting part, at least for me, and there are many ways to go about this. As I mentioned before, I take Warren Buffet's 5/25 and Michael Hyatt's method and throw them in a blender. The biggest difference is that Buffet's method has 5 different categories (health and fitness, career, lifestyle, relationship, and education while Hyatt uses 10. They are similar, Hyatt's categories are just more specific.

So yesterday, I started by using Hyatt's LifeScore Assessment. This 5-10 minute quiz is a great way he created to help you realize what areas of your life you are doing well in and what areas need improvement. Here is what mine looks like (ignore the Parental section, I purposely failed because I am not currently a parent and so it does not apply to me).

I took this information and realized that I should be working on the Avocational (hobbies), Social, and Spiritual areas of my life and brainstormed ideas for how I can bring improvement to those areas. For example, one goal idea was to find a gym that I enjoy going to or a club that includes one of my hobbies - this would improve both Avocational and Social. For Spiritual, one idea was to add more reflection to my morning ritual. Currently, I read the daily reading from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday but I could add a minute or two to reflect afterward.

This is where you take Step 2 and Step 3 to compile your new goals. Write down all your revised goals and all your new goals in one list. My full list included 9 goals. Half of these goals have a deadline (like the end of this year) and the rest are things that I could work on in general like re-establishing old relationships and improving the relationships I currently have (this is generalizing, my goals are more specific than that).

It's important to take a seriously look at the list you created in Step 4 and figuring out what goals matter most. I wish that I could accomplish all 9 goals but some I had to say "maybe next year" to. Experts advise not spreading yourself too thin - personally, having 5 or 6 goals is plenty for me.

This overall process took me approximately 2 hours to complete yesterday but it was time well spent. I plan to take Michael Hyatt's advice of assessing goals quarterly - I may just do Step 1 and 2 if things are going well and I don't see myself setting new goals and do this full process at least once per year. I also decided to write down my finalized list of goals and place it in the book I read each morning so that I spend a minute to look at all of my goals each morning and think of what I can do that day to get closer to reaching them.

If you find this approach helpful, please let me know in the comments! With the COVID-19 situation we have currently, this is a fantastic time for reflecting and setting goals for your future. 

Thank you all for reading and if you enjoyed this post, please share it and sign up for my email list through the Contact page.