Not achieving your fitness goals? The scale hasn’t even begun to budge and you’re still squeezing into the same jeans? You’d hoped for some serious results when you began your nutrition and workout program a few months or a few years ago. But unfortunately for you and a lot of other people not so different from you,  those six-pack abs seem as elusive as ever.

     You may even be doing a lot of what’s necessary to make the changes you’d hoped for. You could even be “following” my tried and tested Get Fit, Lean plan or at least fooling yourself into believing that you are. You know that getting your nutrition plan right is 80% of the battle. You’re eating the right number of calories, the right ratio of macronutrients and the right foods from each of the macro groups. You also know that if you don’t get your nutrition right whatever else you do really won’t matter too much.

     You might be getting some cardio training in occasionally. You work up a good sweat once or twice a week, just enough to kid yourself into believing that you “do cardio”. You also know that the most efficient way to trigger your body’s adaptive muscle development response is to do your resistance training to failure.

     All this, yet you’re still not getting results! Why? Take a long hard look in the mirror and ask how consistent you really are. Be honest with yourself. I’m talking about all three critical components of my Get Fit, Lean plan; nutrition, cardio training and resistance training. Are you consistently getting it all in and getting it right? Remember, it’s a lifestyle, not diet. This means it’s on, all the time, not just occasionally. If you hit it hard Monday through Thursday then fall off the wagon Friday through Sunday then don’t expect any real results. If you eat right every other day but chow on whatever junk food you come across the rest of the time don’t expect results. If you hit the snooze button and skip your gym time all but a few days a week then, yeah, that’s right don’t expect results. If this is you, Father Time will catch up with you and you won’t even be maintaining soon enough let alone achieve any results.

     Commitment and dedication starts with consistency. The key to success is staying the course and sticking to the plan all the time. 24/7 it’s on, the secret of those who do reach their goals is CONSISTENCY.

Yours in Fitness,

JD

We all know the regulars who show up everyday or seem to be in the gym every time we’re there. On one hand we admire their dedication, commitment and perseverance. On the other hand we wonder why some of these people look exactly the same as they did a few years ago. Isn’t the reason we go to the gym regularly to improve our bodies?

            Many people are just going through the motions. You may be one of these people. Your goal may be to simply maintain the body and fitness level you already have. Perhaps you frequent the gym for the social aspect or the psychological benefit of regular exercise. In either case if you’re happy with that much only then more power to you. If however you hit the gym on a regular basis because you’d like to loose weight, build lean muscle and change your body composition then you need to change the way you train.

            Us advanced apes have excellent built in adaptive mechanisms. We’ve evolved with the ability to adapt to a wide range on environmental conditions. When we’re not using our muscles our adaptive response is to shrink. Our body thinks that we must not need our muscle mass so it adapts by shrinking. Use it or loose it. We then require less calories because muscle mass is expensive to maintain in terms of calories. You’ve probably heard before that muscle is the furnace that burns calories. This is true.

Conversely, when we do use our muscles they adapt by getting bigger and stronger. Muscle development is simply a hard-wired adaptive response to environmental conditions.  For those of us interested in getting fit and lean our goal is to trigger this adaptive response. Resistance training to simply “get a pump” has minimal effect on muscle development. However, training to failure has the maximum effect of muscle development. If you’re looking for more out of your hard work in the gym then just maintaining your current physique and you’d like to start changing your body composition then you should be after the maximum biological effect.

You can achieve the maximum lean muscle development by putting a load on your muscles that you are unable to lift on your own. Do this by training to failure. Of course correct form and safety are also required. It’s always best to work with a partner or a trainer when going to failure. For each set of each exercise choose a weight that you can get six to twelve reps then keep going to the point where you cannot finish the movement on your own. This is training to failure; it’s a literal interpretation of failure. Doing this will trigger the maximum biological response.

If you’re tired of just going through the motions and truly want to change your body composition then train to failure. It’s an intense way to train however it’s not time intensive. Three to four sets of three to four of your favorite exercise per muscle group is all you need if you finish each set to failure. Once you’ve triggered the adaptive response you’re done. Hit each muscle just one a week, get on a good nutrition plan and get plenty of rest and you will see amazing results. I discuss this and much more in my upcoming book, “Get Fit, Lean, and Keep Your Day Job.” Turn up the intensity and go for the last rep.

Yours in fitness,

JD Griffin

If you were to read the nutrition labels of most processed food products, you might find that refined carbohydrates top the ingredients list more often than not. The problem is, refined carbohydrates, such as pasta, rice and bread made from refined grains, provide little to no nutritional value. In fact, consuming too many refined carbohydrates has been shown in studies to cause obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes. Perhaps a more accurate nutrition label should include a warning: overconsumption of this product may cause multiple health problems.

Fortunately, you have a choice. You can say “no” to the countless nutrition-less “food-like” products and instead choose whole-food energy sources and high quality supplements.

            “Whole foods … provide critical nutrients whereas refined grains are not only void of nutrients, they set your blood sugar on a roller coaster ride.  High quality supplements are important in order to fill the nutritional gap … ” according to Lori Shemek, PhD, CNC and author of Fire Up Your Fat Burn.

Programmed for Survival

 

Humans are not biologically hardwired to deal with refined carbohydrates. We are however, perfectly designed to digest and extract nutrients from whole-food energy sources, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

“We have been genetically programmed to consume whole foods because whole foods deliver micronutrients that are critical for keeping the body alive and healthy with sustained energy,” says Shemek. “Evolution has hardwired us for survival … storing energy … our body breaks down food into glucose then … stores whatever is not immediately burned as fat.

            “In the case of chronic sugar consumption … the body doesn’t recognize insulin,” according to Shemek. “The sugar keeps circulating resulting in insulin resistance and inflammation, the core cause of most disease, illness, weight gain and faster aging. However, when we eat whole foods there is a gradual release of glucose due to the fiber and micronutrient compounds. Eating whole foods helps to minimize inflammatory health issues,” says Shemek.

Nutrients Lost

Probably the greatest health issue facing modern humans is obesity. More people are overweight than ever before as the consumption of increasingly common processed foods continues to grow.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, the highest percentage in our history.

So how did this get started; why is this happening? A large contributor to the problem is our gradual and continuing shift from whole grains to refined flour. “Humans have been refining grains since at least the Industrial Revolution, favoring white flour and white rice even at the price of lost nutrients,” according to Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Foods. “Refining grains extends their shelf life (precisely because it renders them less nutritious to pests) and makes them easier to digest, by removing the fiber that ordinarily slows the release of their sugars.”

The fiber that would otherwise slow sugar absorption is destroyed as a byproduct of food processing. For example refining corn into sweetener makes it instantly digestible. High fructose corn syrup effectively becomes glucose, predigested food, how stomach turning is that? Eating bread made with refined flour or drinking a cola is just a small step away from injecting glucose straight into your blood stream .

Dangerous Duo

Two major contributors to our health woes are pretty clear: flour and sugar.  There is no point in arguing the difference between high fructose corn syrup and sucrose, commonly known as table sugar. “They’re equally bad; they’re both poison in high doses,” says Robert Lustig, MD, a University of California, San Francisco pediatric neuroendocrinologist and the author of Fat Chance says. “Sugar both drives fat storage and makes the brain think it’s hungry, setting up a vicious cycle.”

Lustig believes that calorie for calorie, sugar causes more insulin resistance in the liver than other foods. Consuming sugar elevates blood glucose levels then the pancreas has to release more insulin to satisfy the liver’s needs. The researcher predicts that heart disease and other health problems will continue to grow in the future as long as the continued shift towards eating more refined flour and sugar-laden foods continues.

What To Do

The solution is simple; eat less refined carbohydrates, eat more whole-food sources of carbohydrates. “A vast number of diseases and lifestyle issues can be reversed with the elimination of refined carbohydrates,” Shemek says. “Conversely, whole foods enable us to tap into our true genetic potential.” As an athlete, isn’t this what it’s all about, unlocking one hundred percent of your potential?

            If your workout objective is maximizing your athletic potential, you want to be sure that you’re getting all the nutrition your body requires. Optimal nutrition purely through whole-food sources sounds great however in practice, it is just not realistic. Not only do our busy schedules limit time for food preparation, as an athlete you require additional nutrition above and beyond what can be derived from a whole-foods only nutrition plan. Even if you had the time to prepare all your meals entirely from whole foods it’s not possible to get adequate quantities of certain micronutrients like creatine, glutamine and BCAAs to name a few.

Do you ever have a need for simple carbohydrates? Yes you certainly do, as an immediately accessible energy source before and during workouts as well as replenishing your muscle cells post working out. Supplement form carbohydrates boost performance if timed correctly. Max Muscle products like Max ACM and Carbo Max provide the fuel you need to optimize your training as well as other valuable nutrients that feed your muscles during the stress of exercise. Want to know when and what to eat including what supplements will elevate your training to the next level? Stop by your local Max Muscle store and speak with a certified nutrition coach. They can personalize a plan that’s right for you.

Professional trainer and Max Muscle Walnut Creek, CA franchisee Ken Tali, says, “You need a strong foundation to build a house. So if you’re going to train at one hundred percent, you need to recover to build that strong foundation. I personally use and recommend to all my clients, essential vitamins and minerals, glutamine, fish oil, BCAAs and protein supplementation. No matter what the sport, MMA, BJJ, cross fit, body building, triathlon or running, supplementing with high quality Max Muscle products is an essential part of anybody’s nutrition plan.”

           

If you haven’t already, get off the refined carbohydrate junk food roller coaster. Instead, build your nutrition plan with whole-food energy sources and high quality Max Muscle supplements.

Refined Sugar vs. Quality Supplements

            White sugar and refined flour go through a refining process that strips the grain of its fiber and nutritional value.  By contrast, Max Muscle adds whole-food based bioavailable nutrients to their high quality energy, recovery and meal replacement supplements. Instead of eating refined carbohydrate-laden junk foods and snacks, fuel your body with the following Max Muscle supplements. It’s the serious athlete’s intelligent choice.

Energy Drinks vs. Emerge

"Emerge is our premier weight-loss and/or pre-workout energizer,” reports Matt Cooper, a Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach at Max Muscle Marin.  “For any of my clients who are overspending on caffeinated beverages, Emerge provides a cost-effective solution with natural ingredients that avoids the acidity and potentially-harmful ingredients of energy drinks, not to mention loads of added sugar.”

Dollar Menu Fast Food vs. Max Lean/Max Gourmet

"Processed meat, buns, cheese and vegetables? The price may seem right, but for ingredients that do no good for your body (unless you want to gain fat), even $1 is too expensive!” says Cooper.  “Instead of stopping at the drive-thru, why not use a Max Muscle meal replacement? Whole foods are great but not always practical or available.  As a nutritious meal substitute or even in between meals, why not use a lean, clean meal replacement? High protein, vitamin-fortified, inspected for quality and purity with nutrients that resemble a whole meal more closely than pure protein shakes."

Canned Vegetables vs. Green Synergy

"Obviously, eating fresh greens is optimal,” says Cooper, but, unfortunately this is not always an option.  Instead of reverting to canned or “snack-pack” vegetables when on the go, or at work, reach for a scoop of Max Green Synergy for a natural boost of fruits and greens containing a multitude of antioxidants.

JD Griffin

NPC Men’s Physique Competitor

It’s a Lifestyle, not a Diet

By JD Griffin

            Have you ever thought about what is implied when someone says, “I’m on a diet” or you say, “I’m going on a diet”? These commonly used phrases as well as the term diet itself implies something temporary and out of the ordinary. Diet implies a short-term deviation in “normal” behavior, something you’ll do for some fixed amount of time and then return to your normal behavior.

            This flawed logic is in part why most “diets” are doomed to failure. We’ve all seen or heard of if not experience ourselves of going on the latest fad diet, lose some weight and then regain it all soon after ending the diet. There are of course other factors that lead to failure, notably impractical and unsustainable plans. Some “diets” are based on such extreme food sources they are not practical or they are just simply not a healthy way to live. The Atkins’s Diet is a great example of this. It emphasizes too much animal fat and not enough vitamins and minerals. Followers are able to shed significant weight but soon realize it’s not a healthy way to live.

            Let’s adopt a different mindset and drop the word diet from our vocabulary all together. Instead we’ll start using the terms nutrition plan, eating plan or simply fuel. Our nutrition plan is not a temporary deviation from our normal eating behavior but instead is a lifestyle choice. If you choose a health and fitness lifestyle then it only follows that you also choose a healthy nutrition plan. Our plan is sustainable, practical and healthy. A good nutrition plan is something you adopt, make your own and stick with for life.  It shouldn’t be complicated either; the simpler it is the easier it is to follow.

Any good nutrition plan should be based on some very basic underlying principals. First, eat whole foods. Your fuel should predominately consist of lean proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and whole grains. Best to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, most items in the interior come in a box or a can. The cold sections where the fresh produce, meats, fish etc. are displayed tend to be on the perimeter.

Second, do not eat processed carbohydrates and manufactured fats, period. In fact, eat nothing processed; if you don’t recognize an ingredient on the label then you shouldn’t be eating it. If your goal is weight loss then cutting out all processed foods is 80% of the battle. White sugar and white flour are the biggest culprits; you have to give them up completely.

Last is portion control, if you’re trying to lose weight then you have to consume fewer calories than you burn. Calorie counting sounds like an arduous task, pain in the butt, and it used to be. But with free websites and smart phone aps it’s gotten really easy. My favorite and an easy to use online calorie counter is myfitnesspal.com

            In short, you no longer “do diets”, instead you live a certain lifestyle. The next time someone sees you eating a grilled chicken breast with a salad or you order the baked salmon with asparagus and you’re asked; “are you on a diet?” Your answer should be; no, I’m not on a diet, this is how I choose to live.