Fat Loss – Body Transformation – Advanced Nutrition

I have a reputation of telling it how it is when it comes to changing the body and losing weight. With that reputation has come the accompanying reputation of being “very hardcore” and I’ve had clients that have told me that initially, they were afraid to contact me.

While I could probably bring in many more clients if I posted about how they could drastically change everything about their lives without following a nutritional strategy and by exercising as little as 15 minutes per day, I’d kick my own ass if I ever typed anything like that. I am well aware that we are in an immediate gratification society. I know people are always looking for the quick fix and the easy way out.

You want a real fitness secret? Do you want the holy grail of fat loss? Here it is: be ready to absolutely work your ass off. Everything you do had better be based on the premise of hard work. There is no easy way, there’s no shortcut. If that is what you’re looking for, then you may want to exit now and keep wasting your time, money and effort on $20 hour personal trainers, worthless supplements and exercise gadgets and the next modern miracle of fat loss.

Once you grasp that making a drastic change takes hard work, then you’re light years ahead of most other people who think they are serious about making the change. It’s not impossible. Hell, after a few weeks you’ll be amazed at what intensity, discipline, effort and consistency can do. That’s why I hold every one of my clients accountable and push them harder than they have ever been pushed – not just for the sake of pushing them, but to help them get better.

This blog is here to educate. You can read the training and nutritional articles all day and have a very solid grasp on what it takes to change your body, lose fat and begin looking better immediately. I put even more effort in educating my clients and really getting specific in their programs as they get closer to goals or set new ones. As the body develops new strengths, it also develops new needs, and I take pride in the ability that I know how to help clients to make adjustments to continuously make progress.

I hear it day in and day out: “I love the way I look, I love the way I feel, and while it seemed like it was torture, it also seems like time flew by.” While they’re going through it? It’s hard damn work. But for some really odd reason, they actually begin to like it (eh Michelle, Ruth?)

Again: Discipline. Effort. Consistency. Intensity. Education. Accountability.

These 6 things are crucial to changing the body, and they’re the core of my personal training programs and are what I instill in each and every client. Unfortunately, the biggest mistake people make is that they don’t have these 6 things in check. They either lack the discipline to eat what they need to eat and stay consistent. They won’t put forth the necessary effort to be prepared. They don’t push themselves with intensity to force change, or they simply don’t know what to do (it’s not about simply moving around from station to station, everything has a purpose).

Progression does not “just” happen, it must be FORCED!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

While at La Cantera the other day, I heard a lady say “Size 12 is the new size 4.”

No, it is not…

No matter what Shape Magazine or any of the numerous periodicals in the checkout line of Target or HEB may tell you, lean will always be preferred over “not lean”, and being “comfortable in your skin” is society’s way of saying it’s okay not to make taking care of your health and your body a top priority. Most everyone has been through it: watched clothes stopped fitting and either attempted to keep “squeezing into” and not accepting that it’s time to rope things back in.

The obesity rate has multiplied exponentially over the last few years, and as quickly as it has grown in the last 10 years, I expect that rate to double again in the next 4 years. It is NOT slowing down, and making it acceptable will not protect you against heart disease, diabetes, and the painful joint/bone conditions that come along with carrying excess weight.

Sadly enough, obesity isn’t just an adult or “growing old” problem. Of course, the childhood obesity epidemic is well documented, and the amounts of excess weight related injuries, juvenile diabetes and other conditions is absolutely staggering in children today. While many people look at the “video game” generation, honestly, it is just a microcosm of society as a whole. It’s happening across the board, from 3 to 73 – we are getting larger, and it has to do with less intense activity and consuming more processed, hormone filled food. The difference? Children are at the mercy of adults who are willing to make bad decisions. Parents, take care of your children in every way. Sacrifices to make sure they go to a better school and that they have things that you may not of had as a child aren’t enough: give them the gift of health.

Regardless of what has become socially accepted, do not let that influence your decision to practice what is best for you and your family’s health. While acknowledged as an epidemic, the overall cost of obesity due from a health care and lost work standpoint cannot even begin to be estimated – living longer is worthless if you aren’t living better.

Take control of your life and your body. While it has definitely become more socially acceptable to become clinically and morbidly obese, do not settle for a lower quality of life. Life is amazing thing, as long as you are able to live it and fully experience it every single day.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

While much of the articles I write and posts that I make target those that have become sedentary and are thinking about losing weight and changing their bodies, there’s another demographic that comprises many of the people that contact me about my personal training services: those who have been exercising for years and feel as if they’re spinning their wheels, not making progress.

So many people believe that drastically changing the body and/or performing at a high level is just a case of exercising more and potentially eating less. Of course, the initial response to any exercise is the body’s adaptive abilities, so initially, everyone makes some amount of progress. Unfortunately, most people fell to understand that they must change things up and give the body a new stimulus to adapt to.

Others are following a program they saw work well for someone else, and can’t figure out why they aren’t making that same type of progress. They’re ignoring the Principle of Individual Differences (we’re all different) and just keep waiting for it to work.

There are many reasons why people exercise and put forth the effort, but become frustrated or discouraged when they aren’t seeing the fruits of their labor. It’s not easy – while working out does stimulate the body and is a great stress reliever, most people are ultimately after physical improvements that seem to be very evasive for most.

As a Master Fitness Trainer with over 14 years of personal training experience, I am an expert at identifying the limiting factors of most training programs. At no point do I feel overwhelmed by any task when it comes to training a specific client. I’m not the “average Joe” that simply took a certification and started calling myself a personal fitness trainer. I’ve trained individuals from all walks of life, from stay at home mothers to numerous professional athletes, dancers, models, actresses, and every type of “hard case” you can imagine – nobody is beyond assistance!

So many of my clients come in with extensive exercise experience, but still make progress like my clients that come in with absolutely no background in fitness or training. Even better, my regular modifications to every aspect of a client’s program allow my clients to keep making progress, and to help them shatter whatever glass ceilings they’ve imposed on themselves.

Don’t put forth the effort and fall into the mindset that you’re just not able to look a certain way. The only physical limits that we have are those created in our minds. Definition, defined muscles, and looking like someone who exercises and has discipline is reachable for absolutely anyone, no matter how far away that may seem to you right now.

If you’re content with exercising and not seeing results, then I’m not the personal trainer for you. But if you want to get out what you put in, feel free to contact me to discuss your situation.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio,

I just wanted to take a few seconds to recognize a few of my amazing clients!

Sarah is 6 weeks out from her figure competition in which I do believe she will win and obtain her professional card as a figure competitor. Her work ethic is like few I’ve ever dealt with and while she is competing for the ability to obtain professional status, that is NOT her full time job: her corporate job contains her for 12-14 hours per day minimum, yet, she makes time to do what is necessary from both the nutritional and diet standpoint. She’s a perfect example of what hard work and consistency can do. While many people don’t train with the goal of competing, if someone with her schedule is able to do that, anyone can train to get to where they want to be physically.

Andy and Chade have worked with me for some time now, and they continue to make progress. I’ve bragged about these two guys for a while now with good reason: they’re business owners that put in a ton of effort in their highly successful business, yet, make the time to invest in themselves and that has turned in to more than 100 combined pounds lost and a total transformation of their bodies: from soft guts to visible, defined abs! More than 10″ off of each of their abdominal circumferences with every body part defined and conditioned – absolutely amazing progress and I’m happy every time I see them because they are perfect examples of what drastic changes are possible.

Catherine has only been training with me for a short while, but she is obsessed with making a drastic change and is willing to take whatever I dish out. She told me Tuesday was the hardest workout that she had ever done – that although she felt that I was trying to make her cry (and/or quit) that there was NO WAY she was going to “give me the satisfaction”. I recognize her desire to drastically change. Catherine, I am not trying to make you cry: I’m going to make you BETTER! I have no doubt that quitting is not an option for you.

For those that think it’s too late to change? Tell Ruth: she’s 58 years old and during our initial consultation, she basically explained that she hated everything about exercising. Now, she does lunges and abs on her day off and her clothes that she used to wear are falling off of her. She enjoys the “torture” (her word) and works harder and does more than the average 23 year old: never does a “girl push up” (Only the real things), squats, bench presses, kettle bells, plyometrics – if it can be done, she does it!

Chris came to me roughly two months ago in his final couple of months as an active duty Air Force member. While I think he initially came to me thinking he wanted a jump start on getting him fit for the rest of his life (trust me, people tend to put on weight at the end of their military careers!), I don’t think he was prepared to change as drastically as he did. His family will be here for his retirement ceremony next week and he’s extremely excited for the person they’re going to see – and I’m honored that he gives me so much credit (HE did the work). The best part? He routinely tells me how it’s just something he does now: the eating and working out are natural to him now and were easily integrated into his lifestyle.

I could go through my client list and tell a similar story about each and everyone of my clients: this personal training studio is full of the same type of success stories, and I’m extremely proud of each and everyone of my clients. I told them what was required when they came to me, and that I expected nothing but exceptional change for them.

You CAN do it – the only limitations that are holding you back are self-imposed. Do not settle!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

One of my clients told me that this was one of their favorite writings on my blog, so I’ve decided to to

I could write about some of these things until my hands fall asleep. I could take over every news network in the world and rant about fitness myths and things people are doing incorrectly when it comes to attempting to change the body, and it’d go in one ear and out the other. Few people ever make drastic changes, yet most people think they know what they need to do.

A big part of my service is that I ask for people to give me full control, at least temporarily. I mean, if you’re coming to me for drastic changes and to become leaner and more defined than you have ever been, then it’s important that I eliminate as many x-factors as possible and help you reach those goals in as little time as possible.

I write a lot about fitness. I have numerous websites, I belong to numerous communities across the internet, and I am self-admittedly addicted to social media, like to search for people asking fitness questions and offer them my advice. Fat loss and body transformation are my passions. I’m obsessed with performance nutrition, training and the human body.

But I digress… No matter how much I type, how many questions I answer or how much effort I put into spreading fitness truth, there will always be that group that thinks their body is completely different than the other 6 billion bodies on earth and that they require some outstanding, miserable approach.

Here are a few of the misconceptions about changing the body that I wish would go away forever.

Cardio is not the best weapon against fast loss.
The best weapon against fat loss is increasing the resting metabolic rate. The best way to do that is to increase lean body mass. Unfortunately, this has a negative stigma from a large demographic, as they think it will lead to “big and bulky”. That’s absolutely false. Getting big and bulky is actually quite difficult (much more so than becoming lean and defined, actually).

Cardio alone leads to a reduction in lean body mass. So many people believe that the key is to burn more calories than they consume, so they reduce the amount they eat and start tearing the cardio up. This is not an effective way to determine which weight your losing (muscle versus fat). This leads to weight loss which will simply lead to a smaller version of what you are now, not a transformed version. Making yourself smaller does not mean that you have made the fat go away…

Running is not the best cardio exercise available.
Do you know how many people believe that running is the best fat loss tool? I’ve always said the best cardio is a type of cardio that you can do intensely, consistently, and stay injury free. Running leads to more overuse injuries (IT Band, Plantar Fasciitis, ligament, lower back, and the list goes on, and on, and on) than any other activity. Most people don’t listen to their bodies well enough to realize that it’s time to scale back training and choose a less impactive form of cardio. I’m all for doing something you love. But they key to long term progress is consistency. They key to consistency is staying healthy. If you like running and haven’t suffered any pain, than great, keep it up. But if you hate it, it hurts you and you don’t want to do it, there are many other effective alternatives.

Ab workouts do not change the appearance of the mid-section.
I have this conversation way more than I like. People routinely tell me that they are just doing abs at night to stay thin. How on earth does that even make sense? You train abs for functionality – not to change the way they look. They aren’t all of a sudden going to push fat aside or bust through them. If you want to see the muscle group, you must reduce fat.

Knowing what to do is not enough.
I am willing to write about absolutely any fitness related topic that someone asks me about. I routinely have question and answer sessions, tweet “Ask me any fitness, fat loss or training question” and browse the web communities looking to help individuals. I have absolutely no problem with sharing knowledge. The information is out there (as contradicting as most of it may be). But here’s the thing: it takes a little more than knowing. It takes a little more than willpower. What do I mean?

I am a compassionate person. But if you are having trouble getting started? I’ll call a spade a spade: I’ll tell you to get off of your ass and do it. How bad do you want it?

If your problem is emotional eating? Deal with it. Just stay away from the bad stuff. If you think that food tastes better than reaching your goals, then hell, eat all you want. I can guarantee you that no food has ever tasted that good.

Like going to happy hour? Getting to a certain level of conditioning is hard and requires sacrifice. Once you get there, you can loosen the reins, but if you aren’t there? How bad do you want to be there?

There are people that will tell you what you want to hear. I’d rather just tell you the truth.

Sometimes, the truth hurts.

I’m not losing weight and don’t get it. I’m eating tons of fruit.
Many fruits spike insulin. Insulin is the hormone that yells “STORE!” That’s pretty easy to understand. I’m not debating the mineral value of fruit. You DO need the vitamins. But it’s a cost benefit thing. If cigarettes had vitamin C would you ignore the other health risks to obtain it that way?

Same thing with wine. I am aware of the antioxidants. Alcohol makes you fat. Period. I don’t care if it’s wine, vodka and water, rum and diet, whatever. It makes you fat.

A male personal trainer doesn’t understand a female’s body.
This isn’t so much an article about personal training, but I was browsing fitness sites today and I read on a female personal trainer’s website that bolded statement above. I guess if the personal trainer has a month’s experience and their education is from reading bodybuilding magazines, than she may be correct. But that individual lost a ton of credibility with me by having that information on her site, as it is bogus. I take a great deal of pride understanding the different nutritional needs of a male and a female. I have spent hundreds of hours studying the contrasting hormonal effects of nutrition and training on males and females. I’m also well-known for helping females get ready for fitness and figure competitions, magazine shoots, auditions, weddings, and other drastic transformations. With that being said, I recognize that as nonsensical marketing, and while I’m thinking that someone will fall prey to it, it’s inaccurate. I totally understand that many people are more comfortable with a trainer of one gender or another, and that’s fine. But I know some great female personal trainers that are quite capable of training men and vice versa.

High reps do not tone your muscles.
“I DON’T WANT TO GET BIG!” Go check out my videos and see Julie dead lifting (just click on the “Videos” link on the side) 70 more pounds than her bodyweight for 1-2 reps. She has lost over 25lbs as she has prepared for her wedding, and not one time has she questioned my training techniques. All rep ranges are required, from 1 to 50 to, in some cases, 100. Intensity is key. You should not be looking as if you are moving your body through air while you are lifting. It should burn, you should be sweating and breathing hard.

Muscle has two states: it grows or it goes. Hypertrophy or atrophy. There is no state of toning or hardening.

At no point should you be starving.

Most people attempt to induce starvation to lose weight. This is the biggest mistake that one can possibly make, as it slams the metabolism shut. The body is a smart machine, and it can quickly determine when it is being starved – in defense, it will begin to preserve itself. Since fat is an infinitely denser source of calories than muscle, the body will sacrifice muscle and save fat. SO, the side effects from starvation are two-fold: an immediate halt in the metabolism and a reduction of lean body mass, slowing the metabolism long term. Besides, the starving, refugee look is not desirable.

The science behind changing the body is complex, but fortunately, you don’t have to be a biochemist or an endocrinologist to transform the way you look. With that being said, you cannot ignore some very simple things. For whatever reason, most people throw logic out the window and pay attention to the same, tired old myths that simply do not lead to progress. These traps may lead to a few pounds lost in the beginning, but they do not yield long term results.

Remember: if you do the same old thing, you’ll get the same old results. When something isn’t working, it won’t mysteriously start yielding results. Patience is one thing, but being naive is another. Discipline is paramount, but it also requires education.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey everyone,

Now that the blog has well over 1000 posts, I am going to add a “Most Popular” (or most important) articles on the sidebar to help people find important information. While I enjoy writing the rant posts and ripping bogus workout routines (especially P90X :) and other things, I’m going to keep the sidebar to the nutritional information that you can use to develop your diet strategy, my main training articles, supplement guidelines and the other information that will assist readers in their body transformations and fat loss endeavors.

If you’d like to suggest a past post to be listed, let me know. If there’s a topic you’d like to see me cover, I always take suggestions into consideration.

I hope everyone’s has a great Wednesday – maybe it will cool off here in San Antonio. As summer comes to an end, there’s never been a better time to embark on your own body transformation program. It’s not easy, but the success rate of my clients is extremely high – make the next success story yours!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio and beyond,

It has been an absolutely crazy last few days for me but I wanted to get a blog in before I hit my workout with the insanity that I typically do ;). My little boy started Kindergarten yesterday, and while school is a huge rite of passage, it still was an emotional time for me. I love seeing the little boy he is transitioning from baby into, but the man he will become gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride like nothing else I have ever felt.

Referral is the main source of my business. My clients don’t hesitate to talk about what we’re doing and they’re usually asked “what on earth are you doing” and “how did you lose that weight?” I hear a lot of the same stories: “I was telling her what we do and she said that her personal trainer never pushes her or never changes the workouts up.” One of the first thing I tell my clients is that no two workouts will be the same – the body adapts and we must continuously change to force the body to keep adapting. The other thing that they hear right up front from me is that the only easy workout is the last workout. I don’t want you to dread anything: every day is a new day that is an opportunity to become better. But this isn’t for those who aren’t ready to change. People often say “I’d do anything to look a certain way” and I hold them to that.

My first job is to motivate you and to help push you to become better. Sometimes, we get a little run down, tired, or simply have a slight reduction in motivation – when this happens, it’s my job to guide clients to the spot of which they set their goals. If I have to pick them up and carry them, I embrace that.

Stop doing the same old thing. The same thing keeps getting the same results. You have to continuously take yourself to the next level to reach new heights.

The body is an amazing organism, and the mind is the engine that moves it – you are only restricted by yourself. Never hold back!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

On the Personal Trainer in San Antonio Blog, I often say that radically transforming the body and maintaining fat loss progress is one of the single hardest things one can possibly do.

But let’s put things in perspective for a second.

When you’re a bit too tired to workout, or just don’t have the energy to get another set or to find the intensity, remember that you are ABLE to be there. Right now in Chile, there are 33 miners trapped in a collapsed mind. Today, after 17 days, it was discovered that they were alive and had made it to a “safety” seam (kind of like an apartment within the mine for emergencies). They are now in the process of being rescued and barring a catastrophe, they’ll be pulled out alive.

Seventeen days in a mine with no contact with the outside world would seem like an eternity. Now, while being rescued, they are getting supplies, water and fresh air. But 17 days is the tip of the iceberg: it will take over 4 months to get them out.

Think about the big picture. A little discipline and work ethic will go a long way, but you have to make it happen. So you’re tired, work too much, and have a lot going on at home – you aren’t trapped in a mine 3000 feet underground.

Do not look for excuses, they’re way too easy to find, and excuses don’t lead to progress.

Do the work! Obtain the results!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone has had a great week. I’m writing more huge posts like the one I wrote the other day on rep ranges, so keep checking back!

This weekend will be busy for me – I have a late night of training tonight, morning clients tomorrow and on Sunday, I film my spot for the Springtime 65 show on Public Access here in San Antonio. I have a few ideas for topics but I’m open for suggestions. If there’s something you’d be interested in having me discuss, let me know and maybe I’ll use your topic on the show!

I’ve been absolutely murdering it in the gym myself over the last several weeks, and I’m taking some scheduled downtime after what was a brutal week of lifting. It’ll be tough to keep myself out, and may even go against my mind and do an extremely light day to keep the blood flowing tomorrow, although I know rest and recovery is exactly what I need as I’m about to begin a brutal microcyle of training next week to get to the next level of my program!

I hope everyone has a great weekend – as I finish my upcoming articles, I’ll post them here and link them off of Twitter and Facebook.

Remember, we are still running our Two For One Personal Training Special, so if you would like to get in shape with a friend, co-worker or family member, this is the perfect opportunity. Training goals and condition differences do not matter, as my personal trainers and I are extremely comfortable of training individuals simultaneously with contrasting goals.

Make your weekend great!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Here’s one of my more in-depth pieces that I’ve written in a very long while that I think will benefit everyone that is remotely interested in training and working out, male or female, novice to expert.

The number of repetitions performed for a specific goal is one of the most confusing topics for most novice exercisers for a few reasons. The myth that higher reps help define a muscle or sculpt a certain body part that is regularly perpetuated by uneducated personal trainers and other sources of misinformation is a large reason for this. I’ve discussed this hundreds of times here on the blog, but to reiterate, “sculpting”, “toning”, and/or “defining” are simply the product of lowering body fat levels. No movement, weight training or otherwise, spot reduces fat from a certain area, no matter how many reps you may do of the exercise. Body fat must be removed from the entire body and without surgery (liposuction), one cannot control where the fat is lost from (crunches and Ab Ripper X do not sculpt the midsection).

In this writing, I’m going to discuss some general guidelines on rep ranges, the pathways of energy (what fuel is being used during a specific rep range) and a few exceptions to help you determine what rep range you should be training in for your specific goals. Hopefully, it will help you better understand why you perform a certain range of repetitions and maybe debunk a few myths about “getting large and bulky by lifting heavy weights” and a certain rep range being used for “sculpting and toning”.

First, it’s important to understand that simply performing a certain rep range means nothing if the load that is being used is not adequate. For example, if I refer to the 10-12 rep range, I am implying that the last 1-2 reps are near or at maximum effort. Sorry, but training is a lot more than just going through the motions.

Below are a list of goals obtained from weight training. As you will see, toning or defining a muscle is not listed. The best way to lose fat? Increase the resting metabolic rate by intense weight training and increasing lean body mass. The actual increase of muscle is a very slow process, and most people have a very low capacity for muscle growth. Read: women, you will not get big and bulky.

So what is the deal? One personal trainer says anything over 8 reps is a waste of time. The next Beach Body fad (okay, that’s a joke, so P90Xers, please don’t waste the time to send me a message unless you just want to chat :D) is 100+ rep sets. Is the holy grail of training somewhere in between? Does it matter which exercises are used for specific rep ranges?

Before I move on to specific rep schemes, I want to cover two important topics that will help you further understand the body’s response to training. Over the last 15 years, I’ve written about Energy Metabolism and the Pathways of Energy numerous times, and with good reason: understanding these principles make it easier to understand how to reach specific training objectives.

But I need to preface THOSE TWO sections with one simple question.

What is ATP?

-Without getting overly technical here and boring the everliving piss out of you, ATP is simply the molecule that stores energy in a form that can be used for muscle contractions. Energy from the body revolves around using the current ATP stores and rebuilding those stores quickly for more workload. Every human movement requires ATP. Unfortunately, the muscles are limited in how much ATP they can hold. Larger muscles are stronger muscles. Why? Because they hold more ATP!

ATP Production/Pathways of Energy
ATP/CP Energy Pathway:
-This pathway is anaerobic, meaning it requires no oxygen for energy use. Think explosive movements (one all out rep, tearing a car door off or lifting it off of someone in a panic – it happens).

Glycolytic Pathway:
-This pathway is also anaerobic. Once you’ve depleted all stored ATP, the body must breakdown carbohydrates to produce more ATP (glycolytic – think, glycogen, glucose, etc). Glycogen is stored in the muscle cells and glucose is found in the blood. See the importance of carbohydrates BEFORE training?

How effective your muscles function in this pathway is determined by several factors:
-How quickly can you get rid of lactic acid (get rid of the burn, get back to work) – increased workload leads to overload of the muscles which is stimulus for change.
-How well you can tolerate lactic acid build up. I’ve had numerous novice clients that completely lock up at the first sight, while more experienced exercisers can push through it.
-How far can you push it before the pain makes you say “to hell with this”.

Oxidative Pathway:
This is the aerobic pathway. It’s tough to understand this for some, but this is the pathway which most ATP is actually produced – it just takes much longer (which is why one cannot all out sprint for 5 minutes).

Obviously, you’re doing a bit more to build lean body mass in the other two pathways, which explains why marathoners and distance athletes typically aren’t muscular (please, don’t confuse “skinny” for “lean”. There’s a big difference). But here’s something that causes a ton of confusion: this is the only pathway in which fat can be used directly for energy. This is why many people believe that they’ll get rid of fat faster by doing cardio, and during the exercise, more carbohydrates are used as intensity as increased. When carbs become depleted at high intensity cardio? The body will tap into muscle for protein (the aminos leucine, isoleucine and valine). The effect? Lost lean body mass, slowed metabolism, less definition.

Don’t be confused: even with extreme volume lower intensity cardio, fat loss is still greatly limited, and the body has a very small window before it will look to breakdown muscle mass for energy.

Energy Metabolism
Physical activities can be based into four groups based on the energy systems (below) that are used to support these activities.

1. Strength/Power
-Energy coming from immediate ATP stores. All out, one rep effort that lasts typically no more than 3 seconds.

2. Sustained Power
-Energy coming from both ATP and available Creatine Phosphate (CP) stores. Near all out effort from 0-10 seconds.

3. Anaerobic Power-Endurance
-Energy from ATP, CP, and lactic acid. 400 meter sprint, 50 rep leg press, 100 yard swim sprint, lasts 1-2 minutes.

4. Aerobic-Endurance:
-Energy from the oxidative pathway, typically any event that lasts over 2 minutes in duration.

With this being explained, is it anymore clearer as to why I refer to P90X and circuit training as cardio based programs with minimal effect on body transformation (you’re spending most of the time in the oxidative threshold, never allowing ATP/CP stores to reload).

And without further adieu – which rep ranges are appropriate for your goals?
Training Goals/Appropriate Rep Schemes
It’s important to understand how muscle fibers are recruited – the body will attempt to use the smallest fibers when it can (slow, then intermediate, then fast twitch fibers).

Goal: Strength/Power – 1-5 reps
Optimal rep range for strength and power are lower reps, usually somewhere in the 1-5 range. As the reps increase, the capability of the load to increase strength and power begins diminishing.

Heavier weight means more muscle fibers recruited and strengthened, enabling us to place a higher degree of overload in other rep ranges, leading to greater muscle development.

Exercises that greatly benefit from training in overall strength and power rep range: compound exercises such as squat, bench press, dead lift. Due to injury risk, it is not optimal to work in this rep range on most isolation and single joint exercises.

Regardless of your overall training goal(s), a foundation of strength and power will transfer well across the spectrum in all rep ranges and training objectives.

Goal: Overall Muscular Hypertrophy (growth) 6-12 reps
The moderate rep range of 6-12 reps is probably the most commonly used rep range and for good reason, as it has many of the benefits of the higher and lower rep ranges. This rep range combines the capabilities of moderately heavy weight to increase intensity, while also allowing the individual to perform a set that lasts long enough to allow the muscle to remain under tension (and cause that lactic acid burn that so many people enjoy).

Exercises that will benefit you most during the muscular hypertrophy rep range: you’re pretty safe here with compound and most isolation exercises, but consider joint structure, tendon and ligament strength and stabilizer issues before going overly heavy with some movements (and by heavy, I mean lower reps vs higher reps).

Goal: Anaerobic Strength Endurance 12-20 reps & Aerobic Strength Endurance 20+ reps

I’ve decided to combine these two goals into one, although they’re very specific. For most guys, they’re reading this thinking “Well, I really don’t have a need to do anything over 12-15 reps, right? WRONG. These rep schemes cause massive glycogen depletion. Why do you care about that? The body compensates by forcing the muscle to hold more glycogen (the main source of fuel for muscle contraction), making the muscle become more efficient. Glycogen also buffers lactic acid – meaning you can do more before the burn becomes so severe that you have to stop.

As far as exercises, you’re safe with any group. Obviously, higher rep compound exercises are a bit more difficult (think 25 rep squats) than isolation work. You can also group cardio based work into this threshold as well.

Putting This Information To Use In Developing Your Workout
Should you be training in one rep range? I think a better question is “why limit yourself”? While I prefer to warm up with lighter weight, due to fiber recruitment and the energy pathways, it makes more sense to perform your heavy work early in your workout before transitioning to single joint/higher rep work. But don’t be afraid to experiment: I often perform 20-50 rep leg presses, 25 rep squats, 20 rep bench presses and other rep schemes to keep things fresh and offer different types of stimulus. Don’t “marry” one rep range. Your specific goals are important, but injury history and risk aside, I’ve given plenty justification to train using every rep range.

Need clarification? Feel free to leave questions or comments below!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

It is human nature to attempt to walk before we crawl. Unfortunately, just walking into a gym does not make you an elite athlete. That takes years of training and perfecting principles and techniques of whatever your specialty may be.

Weight training is no different. When I work with someone, we begin at the basic level: form must be perfected. There’s NO cheating. Safety is paramount. Ironically, when I train people that have in-depth exercise histories, they often respond to my training very quickly because those “bottom 2 inches” of a given exercise, control of the weight and attention to detail on proper form recruits muscles they’ve long considered problem areas and helps them rapidly get through a self-perceived plateau.

Here are five basic things that every weight trainer should pay close attention to:

Range of Motion.
(ROM) This refers to the complete movement of a joint. To improve a joints ability to perform, every muscle spanning a specific joint must be recruited and trained appropriately, which is accomplished by performing exercises at complete ROM.

Resistance.
Simply put, the resistance is the load of a specific exercise. Resistance must be small enough to perform the full Range of Motion while keeping proper form yet heavy enough to tax the muscle for the desired amount of repetitions.

Repetitions.
Repetitions are the number of times an exercise is continuously performed during a “set”. In an upcoming post, I discuss how to determine the number of repetitions based on one’s goals, as a lot of people are confused and mislead by numbers of reps and what is achieved by performing a specific range of reps.

Rest.
Amount of rest between sets is also directly related to a specific training goal. The body has numerous pathways of energy and each pathway is utilized based the amount of rest between sets. Training is very specific, and the body will respond directly to how it is trained from a workload, repetition and rest standpoint.

Recovery.
Weirdly enough, recovery may be the most important, yet most dismissed of the five R’s. The body changes at rest during recovery. Training is simply the stimulus. There is a fine balance between training the body often enough to stimulate progress, while not taking too much time off between sessions to avoid regression.

These principles are broad, yet important to understand to take your body to the next level. The body is highly adaptive, and based on condition, what is appropriate for one person who may be trained may be entirely too much for someone who hasn’t trained. With that being said, being undertrained (not doing enough) is as common as doing too much.

Find an expert fitness trainer to help you determine what is the right balance for you!

Strong mind, strong body – be educated!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio,

Monday has come and gone after a slow, relaxing weekend. I’m having a hard time believing my son starts Kindergarten in a week, and it has really made me understand the importance of cherishing every single minute of every single day.

I have a brutal training week scheduled for myself this week. Tuesday will be an attempt at a squat personal record, Wednesday will be an attempt at a bench press personal record, and Thursday will be an all out dead lift day. Mix it in with the brutal, all out assault full body workout that I will annihilate myself with on Saturday (my day of growth style training instead of total strength training) and I will be ready for another relaxing weekend next week. The current goals are to add strength (getting ready for a push/pull – aka dead lift/bench press meet) and slowly add muscle. My days of bulking up to 265lbs to diet down to compete in a bodybuilding show are long over. I prefer to stay lean all year round and add lean body mass at a much slower rate while keeping my body fat percentage in single digits. It’s healthier and in my opinion more enjoyable. Besides, keeping a high level of discipline from a nutritional standpoint makes it easy to switch into competition mode and be ready to diet down for my next bodybuilding show.

With this being said, I’m often asked if I only train bodybuilders and female fitness competitors. While I do assist numerous people with contest prep, it is actually a very small part of what I do. In reality, 90% of my clients are training to feel better and look better – lose body fat, tone up, become more defined, while feeling better and performing better in every aspect of their lives. My training philosophies vary greatly from client to client: no two workouts are ever the same and I integrate every aspect of training that has ever been used: high intensity, circuits, all out strength, full body, body parts, cross-training, plyometrics, Olympic Style lifts, powerlifting, etc, etc, etc. I believe in breaking the mold and the key to long term success is variety and regular progress.

It’s time to down my last meal of the day and get ready for bed, as I have a full slate of clients tomorrow. Mid-August is always a very busy time of year for me, as people have a bit more flexibility with the kids going back to school, and since I also extended my Two For One Training Special, I’ll be very busy. I have an awesome staff of expert trainers that are more than capable of handling the workload, so being busy is a very good thing in this business.

Train with a purpose – don’t waste a rep nor a second!!!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

So you want to drastically change the way you look? Well, time to stop the excuses and get started. It’s a never ending progress and drastic changes do NOT happen overnight. But the first step is the hardest one, and if you’re going to walk 1000 miles, you have to take that first step. This advice may be general in nature, but if you’re wondering how to get started or what to do to change your body, lose fat and start feeling better RIGHT AWAY, this is a start.

Are you ready to take that first step? Here’s what you need to do:
-Follow these nutritional guidelines to the “T” for two weeks without deviating, skipping a meal or cheating.

-Train intensely with weights three times per week focusing mainly on compound exercises that train multiple muscle groups (bench press and variations, squats and variations, rowing variations, lunges, stiff leg dead lifts, leg press, pull ups, pull downs, dips, push ups, presses, etc). I don’t care if you train a few muscle groups or the entire body each day, but train with intensity and break out of your comfort zone. Add weights, do a crazy 50 rep set here and there – whatever. Just mix it up, do things you don’t normally do, and train with a purpose. I have numerous sample workouts here on the blog, so check out the little search button on the side.

-Intense cardio three times per week, 25-30 minutes each session. Sweat. You should not be able to read a magazine or chat. Be focused and push it.

-Shoot for between .8g – 1.2g of protein per pound of bodyweight from protein sources that I have listed in my food list.

-No refined carbs, sugars, processed or fast food for the entire two weeks

-With the exception of protein drinks (sparingly, not the centerpiece of your diet), drink nothing but water for two weeks. No soda, no juice. And absolutely, NO ALCOHOL. Spread your water consumption evenly throughout the day, but strive for an ounce per pound of bodyweight. Coffee drinkers, I can allow you a little coffee, but keep it raw – no creamer or sugar.

-Eat a source of veggies in at least 4 meals.

-The most important thing? Stop delaying – get off of your ass and put the plan in motion.

There you go, simple and sweet – this obviously will not turn you into an underwear model overnight, but within 2 days you’ll start feeling more energetic and you’ll begin flushing the body of toxins and excess waste. After two weeks, this behavior will almost be habit, and you’ll be in a position to really start making progress.

Don’t waste time wishing. No more excuses. You must make time and you must put forth the effort. It takes consistency and effort, and everyone has to start somewhere.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

“I’ll just do more cardio to make up for the enchiladas I had for lunch.”

Ever heard something like this? Better yet, ever thought this?

In theory? Sounds great. I can eat a bunch of food that I know I shouldn’t and yet negate it by banging out an extra 30 on the elliptical or treadmill. Or “I workout SO I can eat whatever the hell I want…”

Unfortunately, we ARE what we eat. Also, the body WANTS to preserve itself by storing fat, and that means at the expense of lean body mass (which keeps the metabolism running at a high level).

Burning 750 calories is a task. That means you invested a little time and effort. Sad thing? No matter how hard you work to follow the heart rate charts for fuel burned during exercise, your body is going to do everything it can to burn things you don’t want it to burn before it burns adipose tissue (fat). The body does not automatically tap into the “stuff” we want it to burn during exercise. However, if you feed the body with junk? It will gladly store it. It’s not very hard to throw down a ton of calories over a short amount of time.

Food is a huge source of enjoyment for many people. Of course, more utility is gained when we “reward” ourselves less often. Properly fueling our bodies for exercise and recovery will lead to rewards that are much greater than a simple bite of food.

If you’re going to put in the effort, do it right and reap the benefits. Obtaining a lean body is not impossible, but it does require consistency, discipline and effort.

So today at lunch or tonight at dinner, don’t think you can just undo “overdoing” it by some extra cardio. Practice moderation – build in times to allow yourself to get over cravings, but stick to your plan and be rewarded by a leaner, healthier body!

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454

Without a doubt, few exercise and fitness programs have come along in the last several years with the hype that has been generated by P90X. Since I wrote my Why P90X Sucks article, most people assume that I hate the program. I received so many hate emails and comments because of that article, and many of the messages that disagreed with my assessment of P90X regurgitated exactly what I wrote in the opening of that post, mainly: anything that gets people off of their asses isn’t a bad thing. I would guess it would be safe to operate under the assumption that most of those people didn’t take the time to read my article, saw the title and decided that they should fire off a message to me to defend P90X, even though my article, aside from the title, wasn’t an assault on the P90X lifestyle and program.

It isn’t P90X in itself that I dislike at all. It definitely isn’t the people that do P90X that I dislike. Doing absolutely ANYTHING is better than doing nothing. I don’t care HOW people workout, but life is too short to live it inactive. With that being said, I am actually objective, yet very direct in my assessment. I understand the immense popularity of P90X and most people look at my assessment as saying “he just hates it” and that’s not the case.

I’ve never said that P90X is “easy” or yields “no results”. When I speak out against it, that seems to be the retorts I get. There are simply much smarter ways to reach what so many feel is an unreachable goal.

Please understand what my chief complaint about P90X is: Tony Horton and his crew of Beach Body Coaches have perpetuated every popular myth about fitness and weight training to market their product. I am not saying P90X has NO USE nor am I saying that P90X is a scam. It does have use (albeit not as it is advertised) and I do not feel that is a scam.

And by the way, don’t fall under the hypnosis and believe that every model in that video has only exercised using the P90X system AND/OR ONLY uses P90X as their sole workout program. If you believe that, I have a very nice beach house in Arizona I’d give you one hell of a deal on.

The purpose of this post is to take the myths they are perpetuating, identify the fiction they’re using as support of their program, and evaluate the entire P90X program as a quality form of overall training based on the Laws of Training.

The Miracle of Muscle Confusion…
Hardly a miracle at all and most definitely not created nor discovered by Tony Horton or the Beach Body crew. It’s simply referring to periodization and the SAID Principle. Mixing workouts up is a no-brainer, and I can honestly say that I personally do not know anyone that knows anything about fitness that does the same workouts over and over. A note: muscles do not become “confused”. A muscle responds to a new stimulus – the reaction is known as hypertrophy (or growth). In short, progressively increase the resistance and your muscles will grow. Stimulate and strengthen weak links by using multiple movements and you will see progress with any weight training program, but the key is progressive resistance.

Ab Ripper – Sculpt the Abs of Your Dreams!!!???!!!???
Can you sculpt your abs? Does ab work remove fat from the mid-section and give you that elusive 6 pack? NO, IT DOES NOT. Ab work is done for functionality and strengthening purposes, not for aesthetic purposes. Doing more ab work does not “bring out your abs”. Simply put, the “Ab Ripper” suggests that spot removal of fat is possible by exercising a certain area, and this is not the case. You cannot “sculpt” any area by targeting it – this does not remove fat! Loss of body fat is a product of proper nutrition and training, and one cannot control WHERE their body fat is lost.

Never Plateau!!!
Mixing things up does assist in avoid running into a plateau. However, as you read below and understand the Principle of Overload below, you’ll be able to understand why a plateau is unavoidable. Continuously making fat loss progress while maintaining lean body mass to achieve a defined, toned or ripped physique (you choose your favorite term) is not easy and requires a very specific approach. As I’ve stated numerous times: any guy can get to sub 10% body fat and any female can get into her lean (yet still safe) range, but to become even more defined and to achieve that “Hollywood” or “fitness model” look (read: visible, defined abs) requires a more specified program for 99% of individuals than P90X’s general approach.

Three Phase Nutrition Program
This is what I call “throwing shit on the wall to see if it sticks”. Advanced concepts such as nutrient timing and rotational carbohydrates are completely ignored. Everyone responds differently to not only different forms of exercise, but also to different nutritional techniques. The one-size fits all approach of P90X may help you lose weight, but it does not help you find the optimal nutritional approach for your current condition, body type and other genetic factors.

Not Getting Enough From Your Gym Workouts?
I watch a lot of people go into the gym and just go through the motions. You must workout with a purpose. It’s not just about moving weights and breaking a sweat. Every exercise must have a purpose and everything you do should go toward your goals. If you aren’t getting enough out of your gym workouts, educate yourself on what you need to do and do it with some intensity. Progressive resistance is key: you must push yourself each and every single time.

You Don’t Need a Ton of Weights and Machines!!!

I agree with this part, actually. I keep my training approach very simple. But the bottom line is that you do need more than a few pairs of dumbbells, rubber bands and chin up bars. More than anything, Beach Body is playing off of the fear that most females have of lifting heavy weights. I list the videos below – this is a simple myth that I’ve busted numerous times. The “I just want to get ripped” nonsense? The best way to do that is by performing compound exercises – and a few sets of db’s at a high rep pace and short rest period is simply for muscular endurance. What am I saying? The “high reps builds definition” concept is another myth.

This Program is For Those Who Want To Get Ripped, Not Big and Bulky…
“Big and Bulky” is a product of nutrition and genetics. Actually, there are few people with huge muscles. VERY few. Lots of fat people. I’ve decimated this “cardio first for fat loss” and of course, I’ve explained that muscle has two states: it grows or it goes. It does not firm, harden, or tighten. Growth is a slow process and it isn’t going to just “pop up” overnight. Once you get outside a certain training threshold, you’re in the oxidative threshold (cardio) and that is where 90% of P90X is performed. Why is this important? Because weight training (brief duration, high intensity, progressive resistance and staying out of the cardio thresholod) is by far and away the best way to burn fat and transform the body.

Shakeology!
From a supplement standpoint, I don’t think this is a “bad” product at all. It is both sugar and gluten free, which I’m all for. I’m still totally fine with buying a high quality protein blend and self-manipulating fat and carbohydrate content (oils, oatmeal, etc).

The self-administered studies pretty much say what every supplement company does (you’ll lose weight, feel better, etc) so I’m not going to throw them to the wolves over that. I more often than not suggest a quality protein/meal replacement supplement, so I have no problem with their product as long as individuals understand that supplementation is a small part of training and that any nutritional program must center around proper food selection and timing of nutrients. No program, training nor nutrition, should be centered around supplement use, and the use of Shakeology (or any other nutritional supplement for that matter) will not make up for otherwise poor nutritional habits.

The two things to weigh in most relatively “close” nutritional supplement products are cost and taste. If you’re satisfied with those two things, then the choice is yours. At roughly $4 per serving, there are many superior products out there, but again, you can also do much worse.

How Complete is the P90X Workout?
Take a second to re-read my article on the Principles of Training. Every program I create considers and obeys these principles, as any well-rounded program should. These laws are essential for maximum progress in your fat loss and body transformation goals, male or female, novice or expert physical trainer.

Here is a quick breakdown of how well P90X obeys each of the Seven Principles of Training:

Does P90X Obey:
Principle of Individual Differences.
No. P90X is a one size fits all program. I am a big believer in every aspect of a fitness program being custom made for the user from scratch, and this is one of, if not the most important principle, and it is completely ignored by P90X.

Principle of Overcompensation.
Possible, especially initially. In P90X’s case, this goes hand in hand with the “Use/Disuse” Principle. Like other programs, this program will benefit you most in the beginning (regardless of their “Muscle Confusion” claims). The limitations of constant, forced progression are evident in P90X, and overload (discussed below) is restricted greatly when bodyweight is the most used form of resistance.

Principle of Overload.
Possible. As I wrote in the “Why P90X Sucks” article, as long as bodyweight is the limiting factor, progress is possible. After a while, all of the bodyweight exercises in the world will stop stimulating muscle growth (about the time the exercises cross into the “muscular endurance” rep scheme. I know, I know “you don’t want to get big”. Understand that muscle growth is a very slow process and is how you become defined. You must stimulate growth to maintain muscle to obtain the lean, “ripped” (or “toned”) appearance. Rubber bands and light db’s will quickly become “not quite enough” and the practicality of more equipment doesn’t appeal to most. Also, nothing stimulates overload like relatively heavy compound exercises. There’s no bodyweight/light dumbbell exercise that will substitute for classic squatting and dead lifting.

SAID Principle.
This program benefits from the initial “newbie gains” like any other program would (initially overcoming disuse) but considering it trains toward many different objectives, maximum progress is loss due to lack of specificity and regular periodization of different goals and priorities.

Use/Disuse Principle.
Possible. Use it or lose it – in this case, once you are unable to adequately stimulate a muscle group (for example, push ups yield great results early in a workout program for upper body development, but when they become much less challenging, MORE stimulation is required (traditional bench press, progressively more resistance). Considering this example, if those muscle fibers that were once stimulated by push ups are not continuously stimulated, they will atrophy.

The Specificity Principle.
No. As the program progresses, it does not become more specific. Much of this is due to the first principle being violated, as it is for the masses.

GAS Principle.
No. As a whole, different parts of the body and their required recovery times based on their training intensity and volume aren’t considered over a long period of time

Working out is not easy. It is not supposed to be. Is this program completely worthless? Absolutely NOT. Anything is better than nothing. I do, however, believe that there are many better, more effective alternatives for working out and training. A good workout is more than getting the heart pumping and sweating. You must train with a purpose and toward an objective – this is the reason why most people you see in the gym don’t even look as if they workout at all. Time is too precious not to optimize your training experience. Your training should evolve as YOUR BODY changes.

Regardless of what the masses believe, I do not think P90X is effective as a training system beyond being an intense cardio workout. I’ve mentioned many times the benefits of intense weight training as resistance versus cardio for fat loss and body transformation for both males and females. P90X plays on the fear that many women have that training intensely with weights or working hard in the gym doing something other than bouncing around will make them big and bulky, and my many instances of women lifting heavy weights (and here) have far proven that idea bogus and a myth. The results achieved are simply through consistency and overcome disuse, and breaking the monotony of just going through the motions.

Train with a purpose!

Boyd Myers
San Antonio Fat Loss and Body Transformation Expert
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454