Yesterday, I overheard an entire conversation between a trainer and a client about how breakfast was “absolutely and unequivocally” the most important meal of the day.

A note to personal trainers: it’s time to step out of the stone ages.

First and foremost, the most important meal is one of two meals: the last one you had, or the next one you will have. Calling one more important than others makes it sound as if some meals are ok whether you have them or miss them.

Truth: the same amount of planning and thought needs to go into every meal that goes into breakfast. I know, you don’t have time to eat right or be consistent. If that’s your case, go away, and please stop cramming the gyms right now because you aren’t going to make a change anyway.

Every meal has a purpose (fuel for future activity, recovery from past activity, simply curb overwhelming hunger, keeping stable hormones, etc). If you plan accordingly and choose nutrients that go hand in hand with the time of day you are consuming the meal, you’ll be eating in a more efficient way that will help you reach your goals in a more timely manner.

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 you other Fitness Fanatics elsewhere!

Had quite a few questions to tend to from the holidays, so I thought I’d do them here!

Hey Boyd,

I am a local high school senior and have committed to play Division 1 football next fall at a prestigious university. Do you work with high school athletes?

Absolutely. I work with athletes of all ages amateur and professional. The transition from high school football (even Texas high school football) to college football is drastic. It is imperative to go into conditioning program a step ahead of the competition. Quite simply, I help athletes become faster, stronger and more cardio conditioned. We focus on regular power moves to develop base strength (bench press, dead lift and squat) as well as explosive movements that transfer into the sport of choice (plyometrics, Olympic movements, etc).

Not only do I focus on the training, but on the nutrition as well to get the most out of your training and to fuel your training and recovery – unfortunately, nutrition is the weakest link in most amateur athletes repetoire. I develop an optimal nutrition and supplement regiment for every athlete.

Ok Boyd, I have tried it all – lots of cardio, less eating, etc. I thought I was doing it right until I read one of your articles from a few months back about becoming skinny fat and how doing what I am doing is only going to make me a smaller version of myself. Not so much a question but a “Dammit I should’ve listened to your advice”!

It’s never too late! Starving and excess cardio may help you look better dressed, but gaining lean body mass and proper training help you look better naked!

Boyd: Which is better? Low reps (3-6) or higher reps (12+)?

Better in what way? Kind of a general question but let me try to help you: no matter your goals, there are reasons to use absolutely every rep range. I honestly use as few as one rep (on a regular basis) and as many as 100 reps in some exercises.

It’s like having a tool box and trying to figure out which is better: a screwdriver or a hammer. You have them both, so why not use them?

Any tips for coming off of a spell with the flu?

More than tips, I have sympathy, because for more than a week, I was battling the nasty flu as well. First and foremost, get yourself some pro-biotics and replenish the good bacteria in your system (especially if you were on antibiotics). My choice is Endo-mune. Second, take a week to “get back into the groove. Your body is still probably recovering, so the worst thing you can do is decimate yourself and make your body relapse into sickness. Increase antioxidant intake (permanently). A great way to not have to recover from sickness is to not get sick. Rest more. Yeah, sounds simple, but most of us aren’t even close on the amount of rest we need. Sleep deprivation has hormonal effects on fat storage and opens us up for a multitude of sicknesses. Sleep more, get sick less, period.

I have a very long email that I am responding to about fat loss/muscle gain, and I will be posting my answer here when it is ready – I think most people will benefit from it, so check back later on.

Make today great!

Boyd Myers
Master Fitness Trainer – San Antonio
Owner, Personal Fitness Revolution
San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio

There’s a very common acronym used: KISS (Keep It Simple, Sweetie). Ok, sweetie is often replaced by STUPID, but I want to stay positive here.

This weekend I was having a conversation with someone about body transformation and they made a comment that when they want to change their body, they simply eat less and do more.

Sure, that may help with temporary weight loss, and that is the way that most dieticians and doctors see things, but the truth of the matter is that most people take a stab at this, make little to no changes, and then give up.

It isn’t quite that simple – if it were, wouldn’t everyone with an ounce of motivation look phenomenal?

Anyone with a pulse can lose weight with little or no effort. However, weight loss means absolutely nothing in reference to changing the body. Losing BODY FAT is what matters, and adding a little bit of lean body mass is important to actually improve one’s aesthetics.

Unfortunately, to lose body fat and to gain lean body mass simultaneously is easier said than done – there is a very delicate balance that few people thoroughly understand. Sure, you can go beat the hell out of yourself in the gym, bouncing around like a crack addict and work up a sweat and try to eat as little (healthy) food as possible. You’ll burn muscle, induce the starvation reflex, and crash and burn after a few weeks due to over-training (and under recovering). Or you can do tons of cardio to negate bad eating, lift heavy for a couple hours of day, and try to gain muscle. You’ll overtrain quickly (besides: there’s a lot more to losing fat than doing cardio).

You have to have the proper ratios of each of these factors:
Training Intensity
Training Duration
Timing of Training
Micro & Macronutrient Consumption
Nutritional Timing
Recovery (and Recovery, and Recovery)
Cardio Intensity (and Duration)

Are you training too much or too little? Intense enough or overdoing it? Are you eating the right things in the right amount at the right times? Are you recovering enough between training sessions or are you waiting too long to train in a certain way again? Are you doing too much cardio? The wrong time of cardio? Inappropriately mixing in cardio and weights and completely negating your progress?

These are all questions that must be considered, and unfortunately the answers vary significantly between individuals based on several different factors.

I know, the information for most people is overwhelming and yes: doing anything is better than doing nothing. But investing the energy to understand each of these factors and how much is required for a) your current condition and b) your goals will result in an infinitely more productive training cycle, and get you the most progress for your investment of time and energy.

Boyd Myers
Master Fitness Trainer – San Antonio
Owner, Personal Fitness Revolution
San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
210.391.1454

Hey San Antonio,

As promised, here’s another quick rundown on Branched Chain Amino Acids. I’ve written about BCAA’s more over the last 10 years than anything else, so I’m simply going to take a little bit from my other writings, add some other information and combine it together here. I’m writing this quickly and these are all my own thoughts, so once I read over it a time or two, I may make some simple adjustments (spelling/grammar errors, etc). Enjoy!

This isn’t information just for people to gain muscle – for fat loss, it is essential to maintain lean body mass to keep an increased metabolic rate. This is one of the more technical writings I will write here on the blog, because I like to keep it simple for the fitness beginner and people just looking to make a change, but this information is too important not to thoroughly understand.

Quick rundown: Essential amino acids are the ones your body cannot make on it’s own and must be obtained from diet. These are the important ones and these are the absolute key to body transformation. Three of the most important are leucine, iso-leucine and valine (the branched chained amino acids, or BCAAs). Why are they so important? Simple – the key to body transformation (even before fat loss) is preserving the muscle we already have. Muscle = Higher Metabolic Rate. Higher metabolic rate = leaner you, because you’re burning more calories in everything you do. Ok, so how do the BCAAs have to do with this? When you exercise, your body will try to use these three aminos for energy, thus, breaking down muscle to obtain these. More importantly, the body CANNOT SYNTHESIZE PROTEIN WITHOUT EVERY AMINO ACID PRESENT!!! This is why it is important to consume whole proteins (and why protein from sources such as peanuts and bread aren’t very good sources because they are deficient in many essential aminos).

Many quality protein powders are enriched with extra BCAAs, but I prefer to take it a step further: muscle (for women and men, and this is for everyone that is serious about looking lean, toned, trim, or whatever you may call it) is extremely precious. So, I choose to supplement with additional amino acids. To add, the BCAAs are binded to other aminos in powders. In formulas like Xtend, they are free formed and are more readily absorbed into the bloodstream.

Amount depends on your size (of course), but timing is crucial. Consumption should be at times when muscle is vulnerable to metabolization: I drink them before and during cardio and also during and after weight training.

For optimum muscle growth, cellular growth, metabolism, and recovery to occur, the proper proportions of amino acids need to be eaten. However, eating amino acid sources, such as meat and eggs, does not ensure that the amino acids they supply will be available for muscle growth and formation of other proteins. For example, suppose you have a gross intake of 100 grams of protein with all the essential amino acids present in equal amounts. Now consider how these amino acids are used in the body. To start, a considerable amount of leucine will be used for energy in exercising muscle. This means that there may be only a small amount of leucine available for growth and repair. When leucine finally runs out, this will affect protein formation because leucine is an essential amino acid. That means your body cannot make it. In actuality, perhaps only 15 grams of the original 100 grams of protein will be available for growth and repair. This is one reason why athletes need more protein, not just to compensate for growth and recovery demands from exercise, but to compensate for the loss of essential amino acids like leucine when they are used for energy.

There’s so much more than just protein grams – you MUST be getting the right aminos!

Branched Chained Amino Acids - the first used for energy, and typically the most limited supply in the body (these are the ones that your body WILL breakdown muscle to get if it runs out of glucose for energy):

Leucine
Iso-Leucine
Valine

Essential Amino Acids – these are the ones that your body cannot create on it’s own (the BCAAs are included)
Isoleucine
Arginine
Lysine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Threonine
Trytophan
Valine
Histidine
Tyrosine
Pyrrolysine

Nonessential Amino Acids – the aminos that your body can synthesize and don’t necessarily need to be obtained in the diet.
Alanine
Aspartate
Cysteine
Glutamate
Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
Asparagine

Conditionally Essential Amino Acids – in some cases, the body cannot produce enough of some amino acids, to they are considered essential (meaning they must be obtained from the diet).
Arginine
Histidine
Tyrosine
Cysteine
Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
Asparagine

If every amino acid is present, the body is in a state in which it can synthesize protein, also called a “positive nitrogen balance”. If every amino is not present, then the body is in “negative nitrogen balance”.

Nitrogen balance is binary – there’s no “almost” or “partly” synthesizing. Before new muscle tissue can be built, the body must be in positive nitrogen balance!

Exercise basically “eats up” the BCAAs, so it is obvious that there is a need for increased BCAA intake for the physically active to not only gain muscle, but to also preserve it. Specifically replacing (or overcompensating loss of BCAAs) is best accomplished by supplementing with a product such as Scivation’s Xtend (the blue raspberry is AMAZING).

One can also conclude that it makes sense to focus not only on total protein intake, but also obtaining a complete amino acid profile, specifically focusing on the essential and conditionally essential amino acids. This is most easily done by supplementation with a quality protein blend (note that I did not say WHEY protein – search for a blend) and eating a variety of different protein sources (chicken breast, fish, lean cuts of red meat, turkey, etc).

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,

One of the common questions I get is about cheat meals, and exactly how many per week are “allowed”?

The bottom line is that there are no exact rules that pertain to cheat meals. However, obviously reducing the amount of cheats is key in getting to where you want to be. Having an occassional treat or reward is one thing, but allowing it to throw you off course is what needs to be avoided. I find that the more I allow myself to have, the more I want, so I prefer to remain very restricted when fat loss is my main goal.

The truth is that most people, even when trying to eat healthy, “cheat” more than they realize. Understand, a fat loss nutritional strategy designed to get you to a goal is a bit different that a “lifestyle” – at some point, more drastic measures need to be taken to reach a certain point. Once that point is reached, then the maintenance phase begins and the restrictions can be lessened. Ask yourself: Have you ever gone a straight week without any cheat meals? 2 weeks? A month? Rest assured, if you go a straight month following one of my nutritional strategies to a “T”, you will look and feel a lot better than you do today.

While moderation is always key, discipline is an asset you must rely on when looking to change the body. If you find that you are constantly thinking about how you need to cheat on your nutrition, evaluate your goals and what you are doing and remember, every step you take in the direction of your goals is a step away from where you do not want to be.

Never give up what you want for what you want RIGHT NOW – it is not easy; if it were, everyone would look amazing.

Conquer all!

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! Hope you had a great weekend. Of course, if you are in San Antonio, you have been dealing with this intense heat – please make sure to account for that while focusing on hydration.

I have had several interesting questions asked lately, so it is time for a little Q&A session.

Hey Boyd: What do you think of Vibram’s Five Finger shoes for weightlifting?

You must know me, because they are the only shoes that I have one for the last 2 years (I mean, I try to avoid wearing regular shoes at all costs). I LOVE being barefooted, and as a power lifter, not having to exert force into a shoe padding is a great asset when it comes to lifting heavy. I actually used to lift barefoot, but most gyms frown on that. Now, there are several minimalist shoes to choose from, and I find all of them very comfortable, even if they look ridiculous.

Hi Boyd: What are your thoughts on using pot and how it affects training? (Seriously received this one haha)

Just to be clear, you do know that marijuana is illegal, right? Now that the moral/ethical dilema has been covered, I would assume that it would have an effect on VO2 capacity (and more than likely, training motivation). And nothing that induces “munchies” can be great for fat loss (I love all of my readers :)

Boyd: Which do you prefer: low fat or low carb diets?

I do not prefer either. There are cases for each, but the best approach is consistency and timing of nutrients based on need.

As humans, we natually look for the quick fix – however, extreme depletion or removal of a specific nutrient is not that fix. Of course, there are times for lower levels and amounts (relatively speaking, based on what you already eat) but eliminating either fat or carbs from the diet is an excellent way to lead to many more long term issues.

Hey Boyd: I have read you since way back in the day at MW, BB4U and several other message boards and you are a man ahead of the game! I remember you suggesting D3, CoQ10 and many other nutrients years before they became mainstream. Right now, what is the one that you would recommend that people need and are severely overlooking?

Thank you for the message – I am glad that you have found some of my recommendations useful. I am sure that you know my affinity for BCAAs and fish oils. Over the last 5 years, I have been a huge advocate of Sesamin – and the more time that passes, the more I believe in it. Benefits? Kidney and liver support, antioxidants, nutrient parititioning (it improves fat loss and muscle gain), recover, etc. I am not a supplement feind, but Sesamin has a use for absolutely everyone.

Boyd: If I were wanting to learn more about gaining strength, what authors do you recommend? When are you going to write a book on bench pressing? I have seen some of your vids: that is INSANE for anyone, and you are built like a real athlete, not a blocky bench presser!!!

Thanks (I am giggling at that). I hear that comment everyday (about not being built like a traditional powerlifter). Bench pressing is so much technique and focusing on individual areas to support an entire movement. I am a stickler for form and learning HOW to bench has a great deal with how much you can move.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the premier strength training coaches, and one of my mentors is Charles Poliquin. Google his name and read some of his Q&A from years past. He knows his stuff, speaks at a basic level, and has trained an entourage of Olympic WR holders.

A bench press book… Hmmmmm, I think about it everytime I bench or see other people benching. I seriously may put a nice eBook together on building the perfect bench press. I believe it doesn’t take a genetic freak to become at least a double your bodyweight bencher.

It is competition time – I have a lot of people asking for my assistance in competitions coming up. IF you are looking to compete in the Fall and are thinking about using my services, let me know as I do have a hard limit on the number of competitors I train at a given time. It is time consuming, and I limit myself on the number of competitors I train to give each competitor the attention they need.

PUSH YOURSELF FURTHER!!!

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,

So I did it – a full week of being a vegan. Yes, I planned on 10 days, but for a few reasons, I decided to cut it short.

I actually logged it and saved the drafts and will be putting them out there for the world to see over the next few days. Not a whole lot: at first, I was miserable from the drastic change and the intense hunger, but once I got into the swing, it wasn’t that bad.

The main reason for the switch is that I am getting close to picking up the heavy training again and I need the fuel for recovery. I was supplementing with 150g of bcaa, but was still getting insanely (irregularly) sore after the lightest of workouts. I really focused on a wide variety of foods to make sure I covered the full spectrum of aminos, but my demands are quite high.

Anyway, I do feel that it helped me discover veggies I will eat – in the past, I avoided them like the plague.

I hesitated to release my blog as I was doing it because I didn’t want to spend time thinking about it – just wanted to eat and be done with it and not have to answer a ton of questions.

I have an incredible week ahead and I feel great – better than I have in a very long time!

Take on the world and make it beg for mercy!!!

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 today I embark on a fitness/health challenge that I have never tried before. It is far fetched, crazy, and completely unlike me, BUT it will be a huge challenge and I am jacked: I am a 235lb powerlifter that is going to take a stab at going Vegan for 10 days. Completely Vegan – no animal at all.

Why? Just want to see if I can – I openly hate veggies and that is something I want to overcome, so why not go extreme? It is the way I do everything else! It will be a challenge, mainly because I eat over 7000 calories on a given day but I realize much of it will be psychological.

I will blog all about it right here, including a much more in-depth analysis on why I am doing it and how I do it.

Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!

Wanted to answer a write in question from a reader. I run into these issues quite a bit.

Hey Boyd:

I follow you on a couple of the online forums that you participate in and I’ve always liked your direct approach. I read something that you wrote last year where you discussed that you eat more than 6000 calories each day. You’re obviously very lean and I’m thinking that you have written that you weigh between 225-235lbs. How on earth are you consuming that many calories and not putting on more weight? That is more than 20 calories per pound of body weight! Most of the so-called web experts advocate less than 12 calories per pound for maintenance and 15 calories to begin weight gain. How do you completely defy that? Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the message. Metabolism is one of those things that is completely specific to the person and to a great deal, their activity. Of course, I stand quite a bit as a trainer. I obviously expel quite a bit of calories, as many of my weight training workouts go over the 2 hour threshold (another thing that drives the internet fitness scientists crazy). But the biggest part of why I can eat so much is because I DO eat so much: the more you feed your body, the more your body will burn at rest.

For those of you that haven’t known me since I was in my teens and early twenties, I am not your typical 230-240lber. Actually, my joints are fairly small, and I’m carrying a LOT more muscle than I’m probably genetically disposed to do. In fact, 6000 calories is the absolute LEAST I eat in a day. If I drop to 6000, I’m dropping weight at a very fast pace. In most cases, I eat anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 calories.

What makes me different from most trainers is that I understand individual differences. In many ways, we are all very similar, but the key is that we are all completely different! Of my current client list, I can think of one or maybe two clients (and both are young males) that can eat the pounds per calorie that I do.

Here is the kicker though: while I have clients that start off at a low caloric need, I am always monitoring to see when they can start consuming more. The popular science is to keep reducing calories to lose fat and that is actually contrary to what needs to be done: as the person becomes leaner, their metabolism increases allowing them to consume more calories. The amount of calories has very little to do with their body weight versus how lean they are. And to continue to keep eating the same amount? Now hold on now: the second your body changes, it’s time to alter amount. I look over a lot of what people are doing to burn fat and 99% of the time they are inducing the starvation reflex and killing any chance they have of fat burning.

Honestly, the “baseline caloric intakes” are usually very flawed. My primary concerns are food selection and timing. Once I get the person eating exactly what they should when they should, the “how much” part is very easy to solve.

Actually, it’s time for me to eat now! :)

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’m going to give many of the readers of this blog credit: you do your homework! Over the last year, I’ve probably been asked more than 20 times about some of my old Hormone Peaking Programs, where we cycle and combine different types of training and nutrition days (high rep, low carb, fasting, splurging, power days, interval days, etc). Basically, each day is designed to manipulate the body’s natural ability to produce the hormones we need to maximize body change.

While I haven’t written one of these 21 or 28 day programs in quite a while, I do use many of these philosophies in most of my writings, but not condensed to a short period.

Well, today a reader asked if I’d be interested in offering the “Ultimate Jumpstart” to body transformation – a 3-4 week program to help people get started AND see massive results. While I’m very adamant that there’s nothing that you can do that is going to DRASTICALLY change the body in such a short period, maybe there are several of you that are almost there and they want to peak by July OR maybe several just want to take that first step, and seeing real results for the first time would actually help you get that start you want.

Whatever the reason, I’m with you! My mind has changed over the years as I have progressed in my knowledge of training and nutrition. Of course, everyone is different and there’s no one-size fits all program, but I’ll give you guys some broad guidelines and let’s see if we can have a little fun with it. Hell, it’ll keep me in practice for writing to the masses.

So give me a day or so to write it up and I’ll focus on getting it posted before the weekend. I don’t want to just slop something together – I’d live to give it as much thought and be able to explain exactly why we’re doing what.

Stay tuned – ladies and gentlemen, let’s look our best this summer!

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