This is one of the worst things you can do.

There is an order you should be following when you decide to get in shape.

1. Build muscle

2. Lose fat

We’ll start with building muscle

This is super counterintuitive to most people but when you first start getting in shape you should eat more.

You are burning more calories through movement and creating more stress through lifting. Your body is craving the extra calories for both energy and recovery.

Regardless of where you are at in your journey, when you decide to ramp up the intensity, you need to up your calories.

The number one thing to avoid is going too overboard. So many people take this as an excuse to eat whatever food they want and at enormous quantities. The goal is to be in a calorie surplus.

The easiest ways I’ve found to do this are by adding milk, cheese, whole eggs, rice, bread, oatmeal, and pasta.

It’s very easy to get an extra 300-500 calories per day from these foods. They hit all your macros and are either higher in fat or less satiating. Allowing you to eat more without feeling too full.

You should be doing this for months when you start training harder. Your calorie surplus may raise the number on the scale but improve your body composition. With more muscle comes more energy.

And even further, more muscle will help us with step 2.

Losing Fat

Now that we’ve spent 2-3 months in a calorie surplus, it’s time to refocus. The goal from the beginning of this journey was to get in shape. This means we wanted to be stronger, healthier, leaner, more energetic, and more confident.

Losing fat is an important part of this process.

Now that we’ve put on some muscle and increased our activity, our daily calorie burn should have been raised significantly. Muscle requires a ton of calories to maintain compared to fat. Especially when active.

This is important because we do not want to significantly cut our calories. People tend to have their normal diets be closer to a crash diet. They replace so many of their meals with salads and start to skip breakfast.

If we did this, we could go from eating 3000 calories a day to 2000. Our body would react like we are starving. It would start to burn muscle, hold onto fat, and lower our normal calorie expenditure.

A diet should be a very small adjustment.

We need to go from a 300 calorie surplus to a 200-300 calorie deficit.

The way I like to do this is to eat more potatoes, apples, greek yogurt, vegetables, and keep the whole eggs and milk.

These changes alone can be enough to lower our daily calorie intake by 500 calories.

The important thing to remember when dieting is to avoid starving yourself. You will be staying active and with high activity comes a need for calories. You don’t want to have lower energy just because you’re losing fat. And, you want to allow your body to hold onto the muscle we just spent 3 months building.

Losing fat must be gradual or else you will lose more than just fat.

Tracking

How are you supposed to know how many calories you’re burning?

Use this calculator:

https://tdeecalculator.net/

Find the number between light and moderate exercise.

Keep it simple.

How are you supposed to track the calories you consume?

I’ve said this before but just use ChatGPT. You really don’t need any apps but if you’re dying to use something, download MyFitnessPal.

Talk to ChatGPT and tell it everything you’ve eaten in the day. Include all oils, sauces, dressings, drinks. Don’t skimp on anything. When you’re done, add 10% to the final number.

Once again, simple. Weighing your food is a very helpful tool but if you don’t have a routine in place right now, this is too advanced for you.

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Final Thoughts

I think the overall theme you should be taking away from this article is when you start your fitness journey, you should be eating more. Food is important. It’s your fuel.

Enjoy the opportunity to eat and spoil yourself with good food. Food that makes you feel good.

Something I love to do is go to the supermarket directly after going to the gym. You’re never more motivated to buy high quality food than after a workout.

Once you’ve understood the feeling of having energy, you can slowly dial things back. It’s all about small adjustments over big periods of time.

If you’re not in it for the long haul, then you’re not in it at all.

-Ian

I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that it is either arms, abs, chest, or glutes. I’d be willing to bet a lot more money that you didn’t think about hamstrings, hips, calves, or any back muscles.

I like to explore the mental side of getting in shape. I’m of the opinion that, going to the gym has very little to do with the specific type of training you do and has everything to do with training in general.

In order to train, you have to want to train.

The biggest motivator is seeing progress. But, when you focus on the muscles that you think make all the difference, you don’t get the results you expect. Quickly deflating that motivation.

Doing arms everyday will make your arms stronger. Benching consistently will make your chest bigger. Doing leg extensions is good for strengthening your quads. Dedicated ab work will give you more ab muscle.

So why won’t you get your dream body from doing these things?

All the muscles on the back of your body (posterior) are being ignored. You are leaving over 50% of possible gains in muscle on the table.

When you start training, the goal is to build muscle. Anyone who’s ever said they wanted to be lean or toned or in shape, needs to understand that more muscle is one of the main drivers behind this.

Ignoring huge muscles in your body like your back, glutes, and hamstrings, will kill your ability to achieve your goals. You’ll be creating a lopsided body that doesn’t help you the way you imagined.

It’s important to make sure you have fun in the gym. When you’re happy, you keep going. Also, when you get results, you keep going.

This is not possible if we ignore half of our body.

There is fun in the growth. RDLs, squats, low back extensions, pullups, glute bridges, reverse lunges, etc. are all exercises that will help your posterior. You’ll gain strength, muscle, and balance.

A dedicated back day is great but using the exercises I’ve listed above will help you gain a connection with your posterior chain that is so often forgotten. It’s not always about isolating every muscle. You should aim for being athletic.

The most important part about this to me is injury prevention. You are not going to be scared of any movements if you can hinge with confidence. When your ability to bend to the ground and get back up with or without load is improved, your likelihood for injury plummets.

The most common spots for injury are the knees, ankles, shoulders, and low back. All of these can be strengthened through exercises that focus on the posterior chain.

Standing more upright improves your posture, confidence, and breathing.

The muscles being built up around your spine, neck, and pelvis allow for more support through common movements.

These muscles are easy to ignore. I know this because I did it for the longest time.

I focused on working out my chest, arms, and shoulders. With this, came injuries and a lacking physique.

Only once I started caring about working out my entire body, did I make the progress I wanted.

Workouts

I’m going to keep this really simple because you need less than you think for a really strong posterior.

• Romanian Deadlifts

• 45° back extension

• Pullups or lat pulldowns

• Bent over rows

• Reverse planks

• Farmers or suitcase carry

Sprinkle these 6 workouts in each week. Get really good at them.

All the muscles in the front of your body that you’ve been working on for so long will grow. Your posture will improve.

You will feel stronger and more athletic.

Final Thoughts

As we age, everything naturally starts to fall forward. Our head droops forward, our shoulders close, and our back starts to round.

Our injuries are often caused by a lack of strength or an imbalance.

Our athleticism stems from our ability to properly extend our body.

All of this comes from the posterior chain. This is not to say we shouldn’t be working out our entire bodies but instead to prove that every muscle has a place.

You might think working out the specific areas where you seek improvement is the most important thing. Often, it’s the muscles that you specifically ignore that end up causing the most trouble.

-Ian

You start going to the gym. You lift some weights. Run on the treadmill. Maybe hit the sauna.

You make yourself a dinner of chicken, rice, and broccoli.

You avoid drinking alcohol.

You feel fantastic and excited about the positive changes you’ve been making.

But then, 30 days later, the routine starts to slip.

You turn off one alarm. Go out for drinks. Can’t get up early enough the next day. You have a weekend of moving around where you go out to eat and skip your workouts.

By the time Monday rolls around, you’re way too tired to hit the gym.

The routine you spent 30 days on… gone. The habit never clicked into place. The effort and action is history.

Now, what if you had this routine in place for 60 days or 90 days? Or even a year? Would that be enough to be considered a habit? And would it have stuck through this one slip-up?

There is a research paper around the formation of habits and how long they take to stick. Across many other studies, habits were formed anywhere from 4 to 335 days! (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11641623/)

Through different habits come different timelines but what can we learn from this huge range?

The time that it takes to develop a habit is not what we should be focusing on.

If the idea of 30 days of discipline works for you, great. But, if you’d tried this before and couldn’t get the habit to stick after, I have a different method.

Who do you identify as?

I am not in the habit of working out. People always ask me how many times a week I workout and the answer isn’t so easy. Dedicated longer workouts: 1-2 times a week. But movement: every single day. It’s no habit. It is who I am.

The days when I am not in the gym, I don’t force myself to be active. I want to move. I either want to run or play a sport or do any movement I can think of like throwing a ball or shadowboxing.

I like to move.

I don’t ever slip up or fall out of routine because my slip ups are the times where I don’t move. I’ve completely flipped the thought process to the point where working out is the default.

The point I am trying to illustrate is:

You will fail to build a habit if you always think you are building a habit

Sometimes you need to gaslight yourself. Tell yourself that you aren’t happy when you don’t get in some movement. Tell yourself that you feel better when you eat the chicken, rice, and broccoli.

You telling yourself that you are someone who moves every day is likely going to result in your moving every day. The days that you move become routine. They become the standard. It’s the days of rest that start to feel different.

Your identity shapes your health

I used to say my knee pain was because I was tall. I thought tall people had knee problems and there was no way around it.

So I continued to have knee pain. For a long time. Eventually I realized, I could just... not.

Being tall, short, old, big, thin does not matter in your pursuit of health and fitness. You can define yourself however you choose. I chose strong and healthy knees and now I have them.

When you start to identify as the healthiest version of yourself, you become it. It’s so obvious what this person does that I don’t even have to say it (but I will).

You eat well. You workout. You walk. You move. You prioritize sleep. You read my articles.

You don’t do these things because you want to be in shape but you do them because you are in shape!

If you actually took the time each day to focus a bit more on being the healthiest version of yourself, how long until you’d start to look like it?

1 month? 2 months?

That’s nothing.

And you might think the timeframe is too tight but it isn’t. You could gain 2-4 pounds of muscle in this timeframe. This is more than enough to make a difference in how you look, feel, and perform.

You could feel enormous changes in your energy, sleep, focus, and strength all within 2 months.

How about longer…

When you change your identity, you change how you allocate your time.

20 minutes a day towards your health means everything and costs nothing. Over time, the 20 minutes melt into your normal day. You don’t count the amount of time you spend scrolling on your phone, watching tv, doing laundry, cooking, online shopping, etc. You just do those things.

The same can happen with your health.

This is where the definition of habits and actions disappear. You don’t act like someone who is in shape. You just are.

After a year of devoting 20 minutes a day to thinking about your health, your mindset will shift.

You are spending the time on something regardless. It might as well be the thing with an enormous return.

Final Thoughts

So that’s the call to action this week. Spend 20 minutes thinking about your health. Just thinking. If this inspires you to move, great. If it doesn’t, keep on thinking.

This is so often the mental barrier I see for people who want to get in shape. They beat themselves up by saying that’s not who they are.

There is no way you can expect to make progress in something when all you do is tell yourself that it’s not for you. That you are bad at it.

When you care, you inevitably win.

-Ian

P.S.

I am rolling out a premium subscription for my Substack. I’ll be sending out more details on it tomorrow. Get jacked physically by getting jacked mentally.

I tell someone they should be lifting heavier.

I list all the benefits. Increased bone density, increased tendon strength, increase in muscle stimulus, increase in strength, increase in mental strength, and so many more benefits.

They say they are too scared…

When they hear the word “heavy” they imagine some powerlifter hitting a 1RM deadlift and breaking their back.

Maybe I need to change the wording I use.

Heavy is a completely relative term. Heavier means more weight. Maybe I need to start saying “Add 1 pound”.

Most people in the gym don’t lift heavy enough. They shoulder press 10 pound dumbbells and tell me 20 pounds is too heavy. How about 15? Or 12.5?

Also, is it too heavy because you can’t do it or too heavy because you have to work hard?

It’s this wall we often put up again. 10 pounds is comfortable and safe. It doesn’t cause too much stress but because of that it doesn’t cause any stimulus.

We lose sight of the idea of making progress because we are scared to push ourselves.

Progress is not about doubling the weight in your hands. It’s about adding any weight at all.

When you can properly perform a movement with a certain weight, 1 pound heavier shouldn’t be scary.

Nothing changes if nothing ever changes

How can you expect to grow if the effort you’re putting in doesn’t increase? If all you do is maintain, your body and performance will stay exactly the same.

Maintenance is one area is ok. But, you shouldn’t be in full maintenance mode. You should always be working towards something.

If you want more, you need to put in more.

This can be for aesthetics, injury prevention, or performance.

You want more toned arms?

You want stronger knees or a stronger back?

You want a bigger back or chest?

All of these require more stimulus than what you are currently doing.

Actions and things to watch out for

Stop wasting exercises

You have 3 sets of 8 reps in the plan. You pick up 10 pounds. You do 8 reps and it feels easy.

You pick up 15 pounds next and do 8 more reps. Easy.

You do one more set with 15s and your done.

You’ve just wasted this entire exercise.

You need to be warming up to find a weight that suits this set and rep range.

When you pick up the 10s and realize they are too easy, you do only 4 reps and move on. The you pick up the 15s. Still too easy. 2 reps and move on.

You shouldn’t be tiring yourself out lifting weights that are too easy for too many reps.

When you finally get to the weight that is challenging, that’s when you can begin the first of your 3 sets.

Give yourself the chance to make progress.

Challenge yourself

The gym is all about stress of the body and the mind. It’s controlled but it should be stress inducing.

If something feels too comfortable, it is. You should push past this point.

Add a pound or 2. Increase the reps. Decrease the rest time. There are so many ways to increase the challenge.

This added stress is what creates the progress you’re looking for. The challenge is what makes working out fun.

Take tiny jumps

I mean tiny.

On most machines, you can jump up 5 pounds with an adjuster or added plate. Once you hit your normal weight, only jump by 5 pounds.

Jump by the smallest interval the dumbbells allow.

Go find the 2.5 pound plates at the gym.

Heavy means more. It does not mean some imaginary enormous amount of weight.

You will be shocked how often you don’t feel a difference from the small weight jumps and yet, you will get more stimulus.

These small adjustments help you find the perfect weight for each exercise.

Final Thoughts

This advice is not meant for your workouts classes. It’s not meant for your dedicated cardio sessions. It’s meant for your lifts. Which you need to be doing in order to achieve the shape, health, and fitness you’re looking for.

Don’t worry about getting hurt. The whole reason you should be going heavier is to create a more resilient body. One that allows you the freedom to move without the worry of tweaks and pulls.

An extra 5 pounds will not hurt you. You say you’re scared of hurting your back during a deadlift but would you be scared deadlifting 20 pounds? Of course not. You’d do it easily.

Go to 25. Then 30. Workout smart and you won’t get hurt.

Add some weight this week. Let me know how it feels. Excited to discuss.

-Ian

P.S.

I’ll be rolling out a c&c premium soon. I want to create a community of people who want to improve their mental and physical fitness. I’ll be sending over some more information soon. Keep an eye out.

I’m going too slow. My legs get tired but once I start moving a bit faster, my lungs can’t handle it. I inevitably start walking for a while which leads to mental exhaustion from constantly having to motivate myself.

And like normal, I don’t go for another run for 1-2 weeks. And the same feelings come up again next time.

Then it hit me.

I was being dumb for getting upset.

How could I possibly expect myself to get better at running when I put in zero consistent effort? I wanted the progress of someone who actually ran. Someone who cared about getting better.

And that wasn’t me.

I find this to be so common. People put so much pressure on themselves to be good. They expect results.

But, if you aren’t getting the results you are craving, you just don’t care enough.

And that’s FINE. Once you can admit to yourself that you either care or you don’t, you have 3 options:

1. Stop entirely

Let’s say you want to start lifting. You want to build some muscle and finally get in shape.

You walk into the gym and immediately feel intimidated. You don’t know how to use the machines. You are nervous to pickup the free weights. You aren’t sure where to start and after 50 minutes of messing around, you get bored and leave.

This IS the beginning of going to the gym.

Everyone goes through this. If you want to ease the pain in the beginning, find a gym buddy or get a coach.

Otherwise, you need to admit yourself that you are not willing to go through this phase in order to achieve the physique you want.

This is not a failure but instead should feel like a relief. Maybe you don’t care about being in shape. Check off that box. Don’t worry about it. Spend your time doing the things you want to do. The things that make it so the process can easily be detached from the results. And more importantly, enjoyed.

2. Devote time and effort to getting better

This is the fun one. You’ve found something you care enough about. You say to yourself that I want to be in the best shape of my life. I am tired of the low energy. I am tired of feeling insecure.

This is where you need to understand that there is no option for limping your way to becoming the best version of yourself. You need to act like it out of the starting gates.

If you’re someone who is in shape, you don’t take days off. You don’t kill yourself everyday but instead everyday is a chance to move.

So, if I wanted to get better at running, I wouldn’t care about pace or miles or intervals. I would run. Every single day. Some people would say that this is a one way ticket to an injury. But in this case, I would run way below my threshold.

I would take 15-20 minute jogs 4-5 times a week. The other days would be either longer at the same tempo or higher efforts. Whatever I wanted. But I would run everyday.

In the beginning stages of anything, you are not a pro. You need the reps. Going to constant failure isn’t going to help. Having fun and learning about your practice is the goal.

The consistency will create a huge jump in improvement.

This does not, will not, and should not last forever. But give it 2-4 weeks of doing something everyday. You will enjoy it because you will be good at it.

3. Accept where you’re at and have fun

This is where I am at with my running.

Skill level is not representative of your enjoyment. I am a bad runner. It’s ok. I just like to get outside sometimes and don’t want to take a bike out or drive somewhere for a hike. I get my heart rate up in other ways as well like jump rope and lifting.

Not everything needs to be serious. If you’re a terrible guitar player but you love picking it up once in a while, why should you have to stop?

There is one important thing to remember when applying this to your fitness. If you are accepting being at a low skill level, you have to avoid pushing yourself too hard.

This does not mean you need to always take it easy but when you are deadlifting 225 pounds once a week for 6 months, this does not mean you are ready or able to deadlift 315.

When I run easy once a week, I have to understand that I can’t set unrealistic goals. I don’t go for 10 mile runs and my “fast” pace is nowhere close to dedicated runners.

Admitting you don’t care enough is not accepting defeat. It’s allowing yourself to be free of expectations that do no fulfill you.

The best part about asking yourself whether or not you care enough is that it forces you to either do the work, quit, or just have fun.

There is work and there is play. You get to have both. You just need to direct your attention to the places that matter.

Final Thoughts

I like working out. The results don’t really change my feelings towards the process. It is both my work and my play.

Running is my play when the weather is nice. I’d prefer to have a catch with a friend or play some tennis but that isn’t always available. So instead, I have fun exploring where I live and spending time outside.

Whenever I find myself getting frustrated with my performance these days, I like to step back and give myself a break. I may want to be good but if I don’t act like it, it won’t happen.

I pick one of the 3 options I detailed above and move forward.

This has helped me make way more progress in the things I care about. At the same time, the things I don’t care about either stay fun or cease to take up any brainpower.

So when you want to get in shape, find the thing you care about. If lifting weights isn’t it, I’m sure you can find an alternative.

If you have, let me know what it is.

The next set, I even started by cutting the range of motion a bit for the first 5 or so reps and then did the next 5 reps with a fully extended range of motion.

I’ve done workouts like this in the past and people have asked me “why are you doing it that way?”.

I don’t have a scientific answer. It’s not based in training styles. It’s not about maximum stimulus.

It just feels good.

This is a training style I love implementing. I hate programs that are stiff. I know a lot of people need them but they are not my style. I don’t want to be told what weight to use. I don’t want sets and reps. I don’t want a specific count associated with the eccentric, pause, and concentric.

I want to enjoy my workouts while pushing myself.

Along with questions about how a set is done, I get a lot of questions about form and setup.

Which pullup grip is best?

Where should I put my hands on the bar when benching?

Should I rotate my arm when I do curls?

Do I squat to parallel or ass to grass?

I can answer all of these for you in one go. However/Wherever/Whichever you want.

Can I tell you that wide grip pullups will hit your lats more and chinups will hit your biceps more? Of course. But does it really make that much of a difference? And even if it did, are you a bodybuilder who cares about it?

You’re going to be getting stimulus to your back and your biceps. It’s a pullup.

Same with squats. I say ass to grass. I like the full stretch. It activates the glutes a bit more. Stretches out the hips. But I just want you to squat in general. I want you to have strong legs so you don’t grow old and decrepit.

So if getting into a full squat is too much, just squat how you like.

People can get upset about this. There’s this hunt for perfection. The form police are always out critiquing.

People who aren’t even going to the gym will tell you how to lift. I used to be like this.

Eventually I realized that other people’s workouts have no impact on me. I saw people judge my workouts even though they weren’t achieving what they wanted while I was.

I told people I was going to squat everyday and they all thought I was an idiot. I only did full body workouts and people said it’s not as optimal for recovery.

I made more progress doing those two things than I ever did following the standards that other people have set.

Instead, I set my own standards.

1. I want it to look good

2. I want it to feel good

When I see someone doing a partial squat, I don’t like how it looks. When I see someone doing a sumo deadlift, I don’t like how it looks. These exercises could be far better in terms of stimulus. I really don’t care.

I like the look of a deep high bar squat. I like the look of a conventional deadlift.

For pullups, I don’t like the crossfit style pullups. I don’t think they look good. I like to keep mine slow and reach for full range of motion. The grip doesn’t mean anything to me in the way of looks.

But, I like how a neutral grip feels. I don’t mind a wide grip and I find the chinup can be a bit uncomfortable.

For curls, very similarly, I like a hammer curl. It feels the most comfortable for me.

So when I go to the gym, I do high bar squats, conventional deadlifts, neutral grip pullups, and hammer curls.

I don’t like to worry too much about the specifics of a program.

BUT, I am not a professional. I don’t need all the maintenance. I don’t need the perfection.

What I need, is the thing that keeps me motivated. The thing that keeps me feeling energized while also providing enough stress for the growth I want.

Next time you try to run a program, have a plan for what workouts you’re going to do. But instead of thinking so much about sets and reps, think about how you feel.

Think about if you were watching yourself workout. Would you approve of the form and the intensity?

If you’re hitting the gym, 45-60 minutes of hard work. If you’re getting a shorter workout at home, 25-30 minutes of hard work. If you’re taking a class, follow the instructor and work hard.

Know the exercises you’re going to do with a rough estimate of sets and reps. Adjust where you feel like it.

Be your own judge.

This judgement is powerful because in the gym, you have the ability to perform like the pros.

So when you lift, you can perform like a weightlifter, crossfit athlete, a bodybuilder, a calisthenic athlete, a powerlifter, an olympic athlete, that fit YouTuber, etc.

Not only will you appreciate your workout more but you’ll perform better because of it.

Final Thoughts

People place so much importance on looks and yet are ashamed to admit that this is a driving factor in their motivation to change. You should be lifting to look good. Not just in the result but as part of the process too.

When you see someone working out and you’re impressed, that person is almost always in great shape doing a workout with great form. (Nobody looks at a quarter squat and thinks “this looks so cool”)

Copy what’s cool.

And then when you get into the exercise, feel it out. Explore what parts you like and don’t like. Find your preferred range of motion. Find your tempo. Find the sweet spot that keeps you coming back.

When you do all this, you are without a doubt going to achieve the results you’re looking for. You’ll also have a better time getting there.

-Ian

I help people change their mindset around the gym. Click here if you have trouble staying consistent.

You start to notice some muscle in your arms and shoulders. You feel the strength gains and energy increase.

You see some fat tightening up around your body and even disappearing in some spots.

But the belly fat sticks around.

The number on the scale has been going down and you like the way you look but those last 5-10 pounds of stubborn fat keep hanging around.

Why?

Where you store fat on your body is mostly genetic but belly fat is commonly the last to go when losing weight. This is the fat that is stored in the body in case of emergency. Your body clings on to it. It’s scared to get rid of it in case you no longer have access to any food. That likely won’t be a problem for any of us for now.

Not only does your body hold onto belly fat but it also adds fat in the abdomen due to stress. This can lead to further binge eating and a slowing of the metabolism.

Lowering your total body fat percentage is the goal when trying to get lean. To get those extra couple of pounds in the belly, you need to put in more effort. The 4 areas below are helpful in both managing stress and building healthy habits that can remove belly fat forever.

Compound Lifts

Doing a dedicated ab workout is great. It should be included in your workouts but it will not burn your belly fat directly and it does not build a significant amount of muscle.

Performing compound lifts like squats, presses, rows, or deadlifts will involve your entire core while recruiting almost every other muscle in the body. These workouts build more muscle and burn more calories.

I highly recommend doing something like a goblet squat with pauses at the bottom. Try it and you’ll see why I recommend them.

Any and all workouts will benefit you. When you can do a compound lift that allows you to build muscle across your entire body, you can much more easily sustain a calorie deficit. The workouts themselves require more energy and the added muscle will burn more calories at rest.

Walk

You need to be taking walks if you want to lose weight. It’s the ultimate tool. Stop worrying about steps. Steps are not dedicated time with an elevated heart rate. They are mostly your normal actions over the course of the day.

Two 30 minute walks a day. “But Ian, I don’t have time for that”. You’re reading the article about losing belly fat but you won’t take the time to do it. Start taking yourself seriously and take one walk in the morning and one at night. If you weigh 150 pounds or more, you are burning a minimum of 340 extra calories a day.

With the added muscle from the compound lifts, it could be more.

Reduce stress, burn some extra calories, enjoy time outside.

Stop buying the problem foods

It happens to me every time. I buy a pack of ready made cookies that you can throw in the toaster oven for exactly 12 minutes. It comes with 12 cookies in the pack. I make 4 the first night. 4 the second night. And 4 the third night.

I need to stop buying the cookies.

And so do you.

Diet is much easier than people think. It starts in the home. Stop buying the stuff you can overeat. The baked goods and chips are the worst for me. I can eat entire bags of chips and a 4 pack of scones from whole foods in an hour.

You need to figure out what it is that you can’t control yourself around and stop. Replace it with something else. Sweets are fine. I buy sour candy and ice cream now. I just don’t have the issue with eating a little bit of those things.

Those binges you go on are costing you badly. Your belly is never going away when you’re on your 5th cookie of the night.

When you go food shopping, stay on the outside of the store. Binge eating eggs and fruit does not make anyone fat. Walk right by the Entenmann’s section and know that you’ll be back with a flat stomach at some point.

Stop drinking

For some people this means nothing and for others it’s everything. Stop drinking alcohol. Just for a little. If you really want to lose your belly, cut out alcohol for 1-3 months until it’s gone.

Here’s the good news, once you’ve gotten lean, you can drink. It’s so much easier to stay lean than it is to get lean.

Don’t worry about drinking beer vs. drinking tequila sodas. Just cut it out.

For those already thinking about their one glass of wine they have, you’re already failing. You are telling yourself that the alcohol is more important than how you look and feel.

That one glass of wine isn’t doing anything but show yourself that you can commit to getting into the shape you want and just cut out drinking for a little. You will be better for it.

Follow these steps for 60 days. You don’t need to count calories. You don’t need to obsess over food. You don’t need some special new lemon water juice fast.

1. Compound lifts 2x a week

2. Walk 2x a day

3. Avoid the problem foods

4. Stop drinking

60 days. Once you’re done, you’ll realize you’ve made a change for life. Everything you want to achieve in your health will be easier because you’ve proven you can do it.

Final Thoughts

Losing the last couple of pounds of fat are the hardest. Once you do it, it’s so much easier to keep the weight off.

The only thing you need to think about when trying to lose weight is calorie deficit. Don’t maximize the deficit and destroy your metabolism but keep it steady.

The important thing to use to your advantage is that muscle creates a higher energy expenditure. Build muscle, increase activity, and avoid the binges.

Being lean is important for your health. If you have extra fat in your belly, you likely have visceral fat surrounding your organs which is the real problem. So if looks is the factor to get you to live a healthier life, use that. If your motivation is about living a longer and more energetic life, use that.

A 60 day investment today could be worth a ton for the rest of your life. Everyone I’ve seen who is able to lose belly fat feels 10x better for it.

No reason not to start today.

-Ian

I can help you lose your belly fat. It’s a mental process as much as a physical process.

Schedule a call with me if you want to talk it over.

About 4 weeks later. You’re feeling a bit better.

You want to make a change. You start doing some workouts at home or even start going to the gym. You look up all the ways you can help the injured area without stressing it out.

You focus on stretching and keeping the weight light.

A friend asks you to go for a run, play a sport, or join them for a workout class. You go. Your back/knee/shoulder/(fill in the blank area) starts acting up again.

You compensate by shortening your range of motion. You keep everything in a comfortable zone and go back to RICE.

You continue to do some workouts but with less consistency. You always find the zone where your pain point starts to hurt and you stop completely.

A year later, your problem area feels good. You’ve had some random days where it hurts and you know there are certain positions or motions you need to avoid. You do your workouts sometimes but mostly keep yourself injury free by taking it easy.

A friend asks you to go for a run, play a sport, or join them for a workout class…..

You see where I’m going.

It’s a cycle. One that I had been lost in for about 5 years. It was my knees. All tendons hurt at some point. All positions hurt at some point. I kept finding a comfortable period of time just to fall back into old habits and hurt my knee again.

It took me a long time to realize this:

An injury is an overextension of your body’s capability.

So my knees hurt because I was putting more stress on them than they could handle. So I could handle this in one of 2 ways:

1. I could decrease that stress I put on my knees (lower my activity)

2. I could increase the strength capacity of my knees to meet my needs (make knees stronger)

Option 1 sounded like a one way ticket to dying. Every small injury I experience will lead to less and less activity until I am sitting in a wheelchair waiting for death.

It’s morbid but it’s actually how I felt about it.

Option 2 was the only way for me.

With my knee injury, I wasn’t taking the time to think what I was actually doing that kept getting me hurt and what I could be doing to stop it.

The workouts I did in the gym were less about helping me adapt to my injury and more about avoiding it entirely.

So just like the cycle I described earlier, I was doing nothing to increase my capacity for stress while asking too much of my knees as soon as I felt the smallest sense of comfort.

It took be too long to realize but eventually I saw that I needed to make a change. I hit a point where I couldn’t sit in a car comfortably for more than 30 minutes. I couldn’t step on a curb without pain. There was a point where I was nervous just to bend down.

Using these steps below, I was able to completely eradicate my injury while increasing my athleticism and performance. I hope it helps you do the same.

Embracing (a little) pain

It’s not about experiencing pain but instead the goal is to find the pain. Find specifically what hurts your problem area.

Ask yourself, what position or movement bothers you?

Then test it out. My knees would hurt during squats where I focused on pushing my knees further forward over my toes. Instead of avoiding this movement like I normally would, I found the point where I felt pain and met it.

For my workouts, my goal was to go right up to that point. I would toe the line.

The goal was to feel a bit of pain. Not injury pain. I wanted to stress out the muscle and tendons that needed help. I wanted blood to flow to the problem area.

I focused on a pain level around a 4/10. The goal is to turn your 4/10 pain today into a 1/10 pain next week.

Take your time

You’re not a pro athlete. You’re not taking drugs or peptides that help with injuries. Take a second to realize that devoting one year of time to rid yourself of injury is a worthy investment.

DO NOT RUSH

A lot of problem areas are due to tendonitis or strains. Tendons and ligaments can be strengthened just like muscle. It just takes a little longer.

I have done this far too many times and can tell you that the setback is worse than the injury in the first place. You had gotten your hopes up and now you’re right back where you started.

So, when you hit that 2 month period into this process and you’re starting to feel good, don’t go crazy. Tame your expectations. Continue progressing slowly.

And most importantly, don’t stop strengthening the problem area.

I devoted years to my knees before I could finally say I was in a good place. I still make sure to give them the time and attention they need because I now realize how amazing it is to live a life with no concern of injury. I don’t want to go back.

Blood flow and dense muscle

Your blood is carrying everything your body needs to recover. Inflammation is a response signal. Your body senses the injury and forces blood there to help. You should take a hint and focus on driving blood to your problem area at the beginning of every workout.

I felt better during my workouts. Never worse. Get warm. Push blood to the area with a light and slow movement.

They way you do this is by activating the muscles around the afflicted area through light and focused movement. Mini squats for knees. Bird dogs for low back. 90/90s for hips.

Next.

Think dense muscle. Not big muscle.

Stop doing a million lateral raises to fix your shoulders. One heavy and slow shoulder press will do much more.

Drastically lower the volume, raise the weight, and slow down the tempo.

This style of training will create dense muscle as well as stronger tendons and ligaments. Stop training like a bodybuilder when the goal is to help an injury.

Stretch and strengthen

My wife is a physical therapist. With so many injuries that people ask her about, her number 1 answer is “stretch and strengthen”.

Funny enough, I see a whole lot of stretching and very little strengthening.

It’s important to do both.

A flexible and weak body is a bag of bones. You aren’t trying to touch your toes. You’re overcoming an injury that was likely caused by pushing it past your limits in the first place.

Get strong and mobile.

Story Time

I wrote this article and then 3 days later went to the gym for the first time in 6 months. I had been working out but not lifting like I had normally been.

I love to lift so I was a bit too excited and did not follow my own advice. I rushed back into weights that I haven’t done in a bit. I didn’t get blood flow to my problem areas of my knees, low back, and shoulders before diving into the workouts.

I pushed myself a bit too hard and ended up pulling my back. Which I have done in the past and have been able to work through using the methods above. But, it sucked.

This is why it’s called a ‘nagging’ injury. It never fully goes away.

The reason I bring this up is because I am sitting here about 3 days later almost fully recovered. Something that used to stick around for weeks is feeling almost completely better in a matter of days. The work that I have put in in the past is not for nothing and the work I will continue to put in in the future will surely help me avoid this going forward.

The ultimate goal is to be injury free. But snags happen. It’s about being able to move forward without getting discouraged. Stick to the plan.

Final Thoughts

Injuries suck. They ruin momentum and destroy confidence. Getting your body strong before ever having to experience an injury is just as important as overcoming one.

When I train, I think about problem areas. Not just what I’ve experienced but what I see and hear from other people. I don’t ignore the importance of strong legs, strong hips, a strong low back, and a flexible, strong body.

During my training, the idea is to raise my capacity. Meaning, I don’t play it safe. I push myself. I don’t baby certain parts of my body. I add stress so that I handle anything that comes my way.

Next time you go to the gym, don’t train like you’re walking on eggshells. Train with the excitement that you are building a body to perform. Not necessarily perform the most stressful athletic feats there are. But perform the way you want to.

Your legs should be strong so you can walk up stairs and hills without a second thought. Your low back should be able to handle bending down and picking up items without stressing about your positioning and posture. You should be able to raise your arms above your head and get up from a chair without pain. These are not reserved for the ultra fit. They are what will make you above average in all aspects.

I’m curious to know for anyone who’s overcome injuries, did you do something similar or did you have a different method?

-Ian

But I know this isn’t the case for most people. I see so many people who want to start a gym routine. They want to get in shape. They know there is so much to be gained from it and yet they still fall short.

They prefer to spend each day with minimal movement. It’s not that they don’t want to move but that they work all day and when they come home, they’d rather spend their free time relaxing than working out.

It’s really a fair point.

But how can we get out of this habit? How can we align our actions with our goals?

If you’re reading this article still, I’d imagine you want to get in better shape. You want to take care of your body but you don’t care to do any sort of dedicated workout. You don’t find it fun. You have tried but you’ve made the decision: it’s not for me.

After working with people who have been able to change up their habits, I’ve seen some really successful methods.

Do the fun thing

You don’t find lifting fun? Don’t do it!

Don’t do the most optimized thing. Don’t do the thing everyone else is doing. Don’t do the thing that you THINK will work best.

Do the fun thing. Do the workout you actually like. It doesn’t matter how short or how effective.

You need to think of the beginning as building a habit. Not building your body. Do whatever it is you can actually enjoy and do it often.

Whether it’s the bench press, curls, incline walking while calling a friend, playing a sport, etc. Find your fun.

A 2 minute workout is better than nothing

Don’t discourage yourself with the idea that a good workout needs time. If you did a max set of pushups, you did a workout. If you jumped up and down for 2 minutes, you did a workout.

Just do it. Right now. You’re reading this and you don’t have the habit you want? Stand up and move around.

2 minutes a day of working out stacks up. And it will make a huge difference compared to 0 minutes of working out.

Build barriers to exit not entry

Just like we just went over with time. Don’t put walls up. There is no reason that you need 1 hour at an actual gym to get workout in.

Stop preventing yourself from starting.

Instead, put something up to prevent your exit.

Drive to the gym. Drive to the track. Park your car far away in the parking lot. Schedule a workout with someone. Sign up for a class. Sign up for a more expensive gym.

All of these tricks work. You don’t want to disappoint people. You don’t want to waste money. Once you’re at the gym, you might as well do something.

Lock yourself in. Not out.

Eat more not less

When starting the habit of working out, I see that people often want to build muscle and lose fat. They do this by working out hard and eating nothing.

Stop that!

You won’t have any energy. You won’t recover properly. You’re minimizing the growth with this.

Eat more of the good stuff. Eat more eggs and fruit and vegetables and meat and fish and cheese. Give yourself the fuel it needs. You’d have a hard time gaining fat if you focused on eating more whole foods. Especially because the muscle you’re building will help in the fat burning process.

Pain is not the goal

That feeling of not being able to get out of bed in the morning the day after a hard workout is not good. Why would you want that?

There is no need to workout to the point of maximum soreness. No need to chase maximum pain.

We are trying to build momentum here. Consistency. One workout will do nothing. It’s the hundreds of workouts that we are worried about.

The goal of the workout is to feel energized. Not miserable. When you workout, push yourself but don’t go beyond what you can handle. Don’t superset your curls with more curls leading you to struggle to hold your morning coffee.

Lower your expectations (a little)

There’s this guy on YouTube who has worked out everyday for something like 250 days now. Only 20 minute workouts each day. He looks like a completely different person. But the progress wasn’t obvious for a while.

You can’t expect 1 month of going to the gym to do that much. You can’t even expect 3 months of going to do that much. But give yourself a year. One year of commitment is enough to make a serious change.

You’re gonna do a lot of bullshit over this next year. Stuff that you won’t remember. Stuff that will literally mean nothing to you when you think back on it.

In that time, you can completely transform how you look and feel. Just give it the time it needs.

Don’t be afraid to admit it’s for vanity

I hate this whole thing that people are scared to admit that the only reason they want to get in shape is because they want to look good. It’s not everyone’s reason. But it’s a damn popular one.

Go look good!

I say it in so many articles. Look good. Feel good. Play good.

It’s not a joke. Confidence is real. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing something that is good for you and in the process making yourself look better.

When you finally admit this to yourself, you can stop putting off the habit you’ve been dying to start.

Final Thoughts

I meant it when I said that this question is something I think about everyday. As soon as I started training people, I realized that the mental aspect of working out is by far the most important part. Getting a fitness routine is more about building a habit than it is about form, periodization, rest times, sets, reps, and exercise selection.

This stuff does matter but it is secondary if you can’t step foot in the gym on a consistent basis.

If you’re struggling to build this habit, follow the list of steps above. As someone who hasn’t struggled to build this habit, I still follow this list of steps.

I don’t always have the time or energy to go to the gym and have the perfect 1 hour workout. But a 2 minute where I can have some fun and feel more energetic than when I started is a tool that I use often.

-Ian

I help people who have trouble getting the habit of working out to stick. We focus on the mental side first to develop a strong habit. After that, we dive into the specifics. Once we’ve already built a routine we can enjoy and get excited about.

Book a call with me here to start.

This is someone who has been in the gym for decades. He believed that too many carbs is the reason he was overweight.

A calorie surplus is what causes weight gain. Cutting carbs out will likely lead to weight loss but at a big cost.

Here’s what I normally see:

Somebody who wants to lose weight and they start “limiting carbs”.

Meals turn into meat and salad. No bread. No rice. No fruit. Vegetables are mostly lettuce.

Usually along with this comes some sort of fasting in the mornings.

After doing this for a while, a little bit of weight starts to come off.

Less calories coming in. Makes sense.

You’ve now trained yourself that low carbs means fat loss when all you’ve done is limited your calories.

The big issue: your primary fuel source is carbs.

The thing that would provide your body with the most amount of energy is being restricted.

You’re tired. Lethargic. Worse performance in the gym. Less motivation to even go to the gym. More brain fog. And on top of that, constant hunger.

You try to fill this with more lettuce. More and more food that provide as little nutrition as possible just so you can feel full without eating calories.

I thought this was the best method for weight loss.

For a 6 month period, I focused on eating protein. Keeping calories as low as I could. If it wasn’t protein, I’d question if I should be eating it.

The big thing I restricted was rice, pasta, and bread.

I took all the carbs out that I normally would overeat but I didn’t keep any carbs in.

I was cooked. Frying myself. No energy for my body or brain to use.

I had to change something.

The new way to lose weight

I read something online about eating fruit in the mornings. Eating only fruit in the mornings.

So I tried it. I woke up and got started. I bought a bunch of fruit from the store so that I always had available for me when I got out of bed.

I had coffee. I had water. I would add a bit of salt in where I could. But I just ate fruit.

It felt kinda dumb to be honest.

It was a lot of sugar and did end up being kind of a lot of calories by the time I got to lunch.

But something happened. I felt more energetic. I felt more focused. I felt less thirsty and less hungry. I felt good.

The craziest thing was that I was losing weight. But not just on the scale. It felt like it was only fat that was coming off.

I kept my strength. Kept my muscle. Performance in the gym was good. So I kept going.

For lunch, I would normally eat eggs or a yogurt bowl with frozen berries and honey. I would even have a snack later which would be some oatmeal or a pb&j.

Not sure if you’re paying attention but this is a ton of carbs!

Dinner was regular. Ate exactly what I would normally eat. Some meat, rice/potato, and veggie.

What the hell was happening?

Fruit has sugar yes. But it’s got fiber too. The fiber helps slow down the release of all the glucose allowing you to have energy while avoiding a big crash.

Fruit keeps you full. With all that fiber and liquid, your stomach gets filled up. Your satiety hormones react well to fruit.

You eat fruit = You less hungry

Apples, watermelon, and oranges are all particularly good at this part.

Fiber, vitamins, and sugar. I was flying. Getting more vitamins, helping my gut, and providing my body with the energy it needed.

I was eating what felt like much more food and losing weight.

In reality, I was still in a calorie deficit. What was likely happening was that the volume of food I was eating was much more.

The meals that I would have would naturally be smaller because I wasn’t as hungry but I didn’t have a problem still hitting my protein goals.

With the added fruit, I felt like I was so much more energetic. Movement wasn’t something I had to be motivated to do. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to move. I wanted to work intensely. It all felt smooth.

Instead of limiting my carbs, I embraced the idea of increasing my carbs but focusing on getting them through fruits and vegetables. I didn’t think about limiting rice, bread, and pasta but I couldn’t eat as much of those things. I wasn’t as hungry for them.

So, now about 4 months into this, I feel changed. Not just like I lost weight. But like I’ve made a complete switch in how I see food.

I am leaner than I have ever been. Since August of 2025 I’ve lost about 18 pounds. The crazy part is that people ask me if I’ve gotten bigger!

This change is something I plan on keeping for the foreseeable future. There are days where I break it and I don’t worry about it in the slightest. This diet is not restrictive. It’s not even a diet.

I just eat more fruit. The idea is to eat more. I create the feeling of abundance instead of restriction in how I eat.

Final Thoughts

Fruit in the mornings. I was eating 2 apples, 2 bananas, 5 dates, and 2 clementines for a while. Apples have been terrible these days so I’ve moved to cantaloupe and honeydew. Dates are a common staple for me and I even like throwing in a glass of orange juice.

It feels fun. I feel like a kid doing something he shouldn’t be doing. But I am getting all of the results I want.

I think this kind of eating is perfect because it solves two different problems for two different types of people.

The people who tend to under eat: Low energy. No motivation to workout. Trying to lose weight purely through restriction.

The people who over eat: Bloating. Lethargy. Binge eating. Losing weight and dieting is too miserable.

Eating exclusively fruit in the mornings solves both of these problems.

Even if you were skeptical, just add more fruit into the diet. Start by bringing 2 apples to work everyday and make sure to eat both. Keep some dried fruit (with no added sugar) by your desk.

Start to slowly incorporate it in and watch as your energy goes up, hunger goes up, and weight goes down.

I’m new to this way of eating but I am loving it. It feels like exactly what I’ve been missing for a long time. A way of eating that creates a sense of abundance. All food is a treat and it all can fuel me in the way I choose.

Try it out. Let me know.

-Ian

Schedule a call with me for coaching. I help people get physically and mentally in shape.

Insert the below prompt:

You are a certified personal trainer and nutritionist. You specialize in building muscle and burning fat. I am X feet tall and weigh X pounds. I can devote 2-3 days a week in the gym. Please write me a 12 week fitness program and diet plan to help me reach my goals and that I can use for years. Ask me any questions that would help you in creating these.

There you go. If you thought having a proper workout program and diet plan was the game changer you were looking for, here it is.

You didn’t need a coach to write one for you.

I literally sell programs. I promise you, they are not what’s stopping you from getting in shape.

So what is?

There’s this friction. This wall that is naturally put up by people that stop them from succeeding in establishing the habit.

I’ve found there are 4 reasons that cause this friction.

1. Your identity

You still see yourself as someone who is out of shape. Someone who doesn’t belong in the gym.

Every time you try to go to the gym, you have to fight yourself. It feels like you are doing something unnatural.

By the time you actually get into your workout, you’re tired. The mental preparation and anxiety to get into the gym has gassed you out.

You need to identify as someone who is in shape. Identify as a person who works out.

This person does not groan at the thought of working out. They get excited. They don’t worry if they get 10 minutes or 60 minutes.

They don’t stress too much about how good their workout is. Because they know another one is coming.

Until you start to identify as someone who cares about their health, you’ll never do what it takes. Because when every single day is a battle against your nature, nature will win.

Change how you see yourself and your actions will follow.

2. Your obsession with results

You think that one day of doing something new should produce immediate results.

You say you’ve tried going to the gym before but is going for one week or going very inconsistently for a couple of months really trying?

You have to realize that the benefits take time. Anything worth having takes time.

If you can’t accept this, go back to the things that spike your dopamine immediately. The gym is not for you.

You need to remove results from your mind.

The reason is: you will not achieve the results you want unless you embrace the work that it takes to get there.

You will not get a big house or nice cars without hard work in your pursuit of making money.

And you definitely won’t achieve any sort of physique without putting in the work.

Dreams are cool and fun. But when I dream to play the piano and never practice a day in my life, that dream is dead. And I’m the one killing it.

So when you set your eyes on some insane result, you are always failing.

People don’t like to fail. Speaking of…

3. Your fear of failure

You still see failure as negative. You haven’t been a beginner in something in a while and don’t like the feeling of being bad.

The feeling of being the lowest on the totem pole can suck. Especially in the gym where you might see some people who’ve been going for decades.

Start to embrace failure. Failure should be seen as a good thing. If you never fail, you will never learn.

I absolutely hated failing. I hated being bad at things. And for some things, I still hate this.

But for anything that I think could be worth it, I’ve learned to enjoy failure.

In my writing, I know it could use work. I know there are people out there so much more successful than me.

I’ve reframed to find it inspiring. See the people at the top and understand all the growth that is in front of you.

In the gym, embrace the failure. Try every machine. Feel uncomfortable. Lift too much or too little.

Ask the strong people what they’re doing. I promise, they’d love it.

4. You’re uncomfortable with boredom

“The gym’s too boring”.

I hear it all the time. Maybe you need some boredom in your life.

Your brain is drowning in all the stimulation you’re giving it.

Eating and watching tv while also scrolling your phone.

Having 25 tabs open on your computer, messaging someone in the background, and checking your phone.

Trying to sleep but making sure to tuck yourself in by blasting yourself in the face with your phone.

Go get a little bored. You’ll be fine.

Set the timer for 45 minutes in the gym. The only things you can do are either work out or sit there.

If the sitting there is too boring, maybe lifting weights could be fun.

And if the lifting is boring, great. Sit there.

It’s really ok to let yourself take a little break from constantly being stimulated. If you get jacked in the process, amazing.

People need much less help with form, reps, sets, weights, and workouts. They need way more help on the mental side.

The most important thing you can be is interested.

Interested in getting better.

The people who have great squat form worked at it. Because they liked it.

When you start going to the gym, you need to try and have fun. The person who’s having fun will always succeed. When you are dreading working out, you’re climbing a mental mountain before you step foot in the gym. Already drained of the energy you needed for your workout.

Focus on the 4 areas I wrote about. Go get the workout program and diet plan from ChatGPT. It’s free.

Once that’s done, go. Workout. In the gym. At home. Outside. It really doesn’t matter.

Focus on having fun and don’t even worry about recovery or diet until you have a proper habit in place.

If you can’t do that, hire a coach. Ask them questions. Hear about their history. Spending money often helps to take something seriously.

If you don’t want to do that, sorry. Looks like you won’t be getting in shape.

Final Thoughts

Take control. Put yourself in a position to succeed. Stop putting up walls.

I think when you see that you’re the only thing standing in your way, you either give it up or get better.

Both are great. Being in shape doesn’t matter to everyone and that’s fine. I have found it to be insanely powerful for me and that’s why I want to spread the positive effects.

I am curious. What do you think has been standing in the way of you getting a proper health and fitness routine in place?

I want to learn why people may want to do something so badly but can’t get out of their own way. I think it’s my life’s work to help people get through this.

-Ian

Click here to schedule a coaching call. I help people get physically and mentally jacked.

In this article, I want to go through what creatine is, the positives, and how it works. I want to share my experience with it and why I think everyone can benefit from it. If you’re already interested in taking it and just want to find out how to take it, skip down a bit.

Let’s go.

Creatine is a very popular supplement that you’ll find most people who go to the gym take. But, it has been gaining traction across the general population as well. New studies have been showing that basically everyone over the age of 18 who isn’t pregnant can benefit from creatine.

To understand how creatine really works, I want to go back to some biology from high school.

The classic biology fact that I often hear referenced is that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

The main reason it has this nickname is because it is responsible for turning nutrients in our food into ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is the cells main form of energy currency. ATP is the reason we are able to contract our muscles (among other processes).

So simply put, more ATP means more energy available for our muscles.

This is where creatine comes in. Creatine helps speed up the process of regenerating ATP once it has been spent.

The process of spending ATP involves releasing energy dropping a phosphate and leaving ADP (adenosine diphosphate) as the byproduct. Creatine in the body shows up as phosphocreatine. This phosphocreatine has a phosphate that can be leant to the ADP rapidly regenerating ATP in the cells.

You can see how powerful this can be. Our muscles, our metabolic precesses, and anything that requires energy uses ATP. This can be playing a game of chess or running a marathon.

Simply put, creatine help with energy production in the body.

This is why people say there are benefits of creatine that extend far beyond the gym. Your brain, heart, lungs, etc. all use up energy.

All the ways more energy helps us

If creatine increases the flow of ATP, it isn’t enough to ask ChatGPT the benefits of creatine. Instead we should ask it the benefits of increased ATP.

So I asked.

1. Increased muscle

2. Decreased fatigue during workouts

3. Improved body composition

4. Increased focus, memory, and cognitive sharpness

5. Decreased mental fatigue

6. Improved blood flow

7. Increased waste removal

8. Increased cellular repair

Seems pretty good to me.

To me, there are second order benefits as well.

Will increased muscle and decreased fatigue comes better performance in the gym. Leading to more confidence and a healthier body.

Improved body composition reduces all markers for the top killers in America.

Increased focus and sharpness leads to more attention and intention. You not only take on more challenging tasks but rise to the occasion.

I won’t sit here and tell you that taking creatine is going to turn you into Bradley Cooper from limitless. BUT, it can definitely help.

Something I equate creatine to is caffeine. Benefits with minimal drawbacks.

So,

How could it be a bad thing to take something that helps all the functions in the body that need energy?

The commonly talked about side effects that I’ve seen are kidney function, hair loss, GI issues, and weight gain.

Kidneys

Creatine has been proven to not put any sort of strain on your kidneys. When getting a blood test, you may see elevated creatinine levels. I did. Creatinine is a marker of kidney function but this is not related to creatine. It is likely caused by higher protein consumption and more muscle mass.

I had high creatinine levels and my doctor told me this was “disturbing”. I went to a nephrologist and he explained to me that this was perfectly normal and instead to rely on a metric called cystatin c. Younger people with higher muscle mass naturally have higher creatinine levels.

If you have kidney problems, ask your doctor.

Hair loss

There was one study back in 2009 saying creatine could lead to hair loss. This has since been disproven.

GI Issues

This only happens if you take too high of a dose because creatine will pull more water into your digestive tract.

Skip any sort of loading phase and take a consistent amount. You won’t need to worry about this.

Weight gain

When taking creatine, your muscles retain more water and you can experience an initial weight gain of a couple of pounds.

You shouldn’t worry about this since your body will eventually get used to the new supplement. Don’t worry about a loading phase and make sure to up your water intake. The number on the scale will eventually go up due to muscle mass increase but this will only improve body composition.

How I take it

I’ve been taking creatine almost everyday for the last 4 years. I used to be very calculated with how I took it and I cared about the timing.

I’ve realized none of that matters.

I drink hot coffee everyday. Creatine dissolves well in hot liquids. I put creatine in my coffee everyday.

I order my creatine in a powder form because in the pills, you have to take about 4-6 per day and I find that too annoying.

I take anywhere from 5-8 grams a day and I drink it in the morning.

I take creatine monohydrate (as you should) from Nutricost. This is exactly what I order - Creatine

I did not do any sort of loading phase.

My experience with it

Honestly, I love it.

I just stopped taking creatine for about 2-3 weeks recently and I felt a difference in performance during my workouts. Not enormous but I felt it. A couple less reps. A little bit more fatigue.

I don’t love relying on supplements but when I feel like something is providing me benefits with minimal or no drawbacks, I stick with it.

I personally don’t feel the cognition or sleep recovery benefits.

So, for me, the reason I take creatine is for improved body composition, better performance in the gym, and improved muscle growth.

How you should start

Buy a big tub and take 5 grams everyday until it runs out.

Don’t think too hard about it. It’s cheap, widely studied, and easy to take. You could be a non-responder but it’s highly unlikely you see any negative side effects.

The most important thing I would suggest is to focus on any changes you might be feeling.

How is your performance in the gym/sport/activity? How do you feel in terms of mental sharpness and memory? How is your body changing?

When you focus on these things, you’ll like devote more time and energy to them. Even if the creatine is doing nothing, the placebo effect will be strong.

For the first 4-6 weeks, you will be increasing the creatine saturation in your body. Before this amount of time, you may not be seeing all of the results. It’s important to take your time.

Don’t load it. Don’t worry about taking 10 or 15 or 20 grams. Online it says you should dose by your weight. Don’t worry about it. I don’t.

Final Thoughts

Start the coffee & creatine diet now. The worse thing that happens is you care more about your health.

As I said earlier, creatine is not magic. We’re talking a small percentage of improvement. A small percentage that I like to take advantage of.

It’s not a requirement for everyone and everyone feels the affects differently. It has been a big help for me in terms of getting in shape and performing in the gym. Will I be taking it forever? I guess we’ll see.

Get a little stronger. Look a little nicer. Perform better. Think faster. All for a $40 container that lasts months. Even if it only did one of those things, it would be worth it.

Try it out. Let me know how you feel.

-Ian

P.S.

Sign up for coaching here.

Most people I’ve worked with expect a lot. They expect more in less time than is reasonable.

I can already hear so many people saying “This is dumb. Why shouldn’t I have high expectations for myself?”. If you do not already have a very solid gym, nutrition, and activity routine in place, you cannot expect a perfect physique.

The idea of expecting less is not about getting less. It’s about avoiding discouragement. If you expected to be a star basketball player in the NBA but you play once a month in an open gym, you probably will feel like a failure.

Same with your health and fitness. Set your expectations lower and go achieve them. Don’t worry about losing 50 pounds. Just lose 5. You’ve already shown yourself you can win.

Once people see themselves reach a goal, they don’t give up as often. If you see that after weeks of hard work, you aren’t close to what you imagined, you’d give up.

If you are starting a workout program as a beginner, you might see online that you will start to see results between 6 and 12 weeks. So, there is no need to worry about seeing any results before that time.

Meaning, the goal is not to see results, it is to develop the habit over your first 12 weeks.

Once we have the habit, everything becomes so much easier. The compound interest of working out builds up quickly.

If we start on this flowchart at “More Muscle”, we’ll see that “Better results” comes much later in the process. The results we achieve should make us feel good instead of underwhelmed.

The goal of getting in shape is to build momentum and avoid breaking the loop.

What should you expect?

When you’re on a big hike, the people who struggle the most are the ones who think about getting all the way up to the top. The people who have the most fun are the ones who enjoy the scenery.

When you’re getting in shape, expect to work hard. Expect to sweat. Expect to feel the results instead of seeing them.

The body of your dreams will come. Nobody over the age of 25 looks how you want to without putting in the work.

The expectation needs to be rooted in the habit. Not the result.

Final Thoughts

It’s a very simple idea. If you want less, you can get everything you want. It may sound dumb but it’s a powerful mentality that can be used to build strong habits.

I’ve had very high expectations for myself before. More often than not, I don’t reach my goal and lose some motivation in the process. I’ve started to notice that when I take things slow and think in 1% increments, I end up making way more progress. While enjoying the process more as well.

Say to yourself that all you want is to go to the gym and you’ll achieve it. Say you want to add 5 pounds to a lift. Say you want to lose 1 pound. It can all be yours.

Do you think your high expectations have been hurting your progress?

-Ian

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P.S.

I help people take control of their health. Book a call with me if you’re interested in working 1-on-1.

Click if you aren't going to the gym

I immediately started squatting about 5 times a week. Every time I went to the gym. If I was doing a devoted chest day, I would start with squats. The basic strategy was to work up to a rep or two for a heavy weight every day and then move on. I was basically using it as a warmup for the rest of my lift.

As I kept going, I was getting more and more comfortable squatting (as you could imagine). It felt like every time I walked into the gym, I had a spot waiting for me and I had so much confidence in my lift. This spilled over into all of my other lifts as well.

My goal was strength. In the span of about 8 months, I went from failing a 255 squat to successfully squatting 365. This doesn’t even include the equally large jumps I had in other lifts.

This style of lifting got me thinking: why is this so uncommon? Why don’t people focus on a lift and become a master of it. In the fitness community, the idea of lifting until failure and then prioritizing recovery are commonplace. The thing people don’t realize is that this school of thought is all about muscle growth.

What if my focus is to get good at lifting and in the process get bigger and stronger?

A complaint I hear in the gym a lot is that it’s too boring. For me, when I want a cure to my boredom I pick something I know I can make progress in. When you don’t lift with intensity, you don’t make progress. When you don’t make progress, you get bored and don’t lift with intensity. This vicious cycle leads to either quitting or making 0 progress towards your goal which in turn creates apathy.

Instead, why not focus on a big lift? Why not deadlift everyday in the gym? Why can’t you make a ton of progress towards one lift that hits so many muscle groups creating a strength that bleeds into the rest of your lifts? Why shouldn’t you gain confidence from improved performance in one lift of your choice?

The gym should be about having fun AND making progress. If you joined a league for a certain sport but every other week you were forced to play a new sport, you might have fun sometimes but there could be nights where you are miserable the entire night because you have no interest in playing pickleball.

What exercise should you pick?

I know I recommended a big lift but I think you can actually pick any exercise you want. If you went to the gym and did bicep curls every single time you went, you’d get better at them, you’d get more muscular arms, you’d see great progress, and you’d build up tons of confidence.

You would get the most benefits out of picking something that involves more of your body but the goal with this style of training is to make progress and ignite a feeling of intense excitement and energy when in the gym. Getting good at any exercise will accomplish this.

So, the exercise you should pick is the one you like the most or where you want to make the most progress. Pick one that you have fun doing and not because it’s easy but because it’s where you want to focus your time and energy.

How to use this new style?

Let’s say you did pick the bicep curl. Every time you plan to workout, regardless of the number of times a week, you will do a bicep curl each time. The important thing to understand is that you will not be able to do 4 sets of 8 reps at the heaviest weight possible of curls every single day. Maybe over time you can work up to higher intensity over time but not in the beginning. You are not training to failure when doing the exercise you choose. You are instead working on the technical aspect of it to improve how you do perform when the weight does get heavy.

Walk into the gym and warmup with some curls. Something light to get the blood flowing. Very few reps and slowly work your way up in weight until you’re at something challenging. Something you could only do for 8 clean reps if you were feeling fresh. Do only 5 reps. Enough to challenge yourself but not enough to create a ton of fatigue. Move on to the rest of the workout.

This top set of 5 reps should feel hard. If it didn’t, you should keep moving up in weight. It’s important to feel like you are making progress even though you might not be maximizing muscle stimulus.

That is what you will do most days.

Then, one day a week, you will do a full curl workout. This is where you can do your 4 set of 8 reps. You can use the weight you had been using over the course of the week but you’d likely need to stay lighter than that due to the extra volume.

This is the whole protocol. The rest of the split is up to you. I personally recommend pairing this style with either a full body split or a push pull legs split. You get to choose which day you decide to have your hard exercise day.

Final Thoughts

I chose squats for my workout. I wasn’t making any progress in my squats, having terrible knee pain, and feeling like a washed up athlete. I have fine tuned my squat to a point that I never thought I could. I feel unbelievably comfortable under the bar and have progressed further than I ever thought I could.

With this style, I hit all my goals. I gained strength everywhere. I solved my knee pain. I felt more athletic. I gained muscle and lost fat. I overall felt better than I ever had in my life.

This style also taught me that going to the gym doesn’t have to be so stiff and disciplined. I am not a professional and my goals do not align with the recommendations you’d find online. Athletes don’t pick and choose what isolated muscle group they are working on the day. They do exactly what they want to do day in and day out developing a technical understanding of their bodies as it relates to their sports. Why shouldn’t we do the same?

Try this style out. Give it 30 days. Let me know what you think.

-Ian

P.S.

One more day of The 30-Day Reset being $27. When squatting everyday in the gym, I was able to get leaner than ever while keeping my strength high. I used the principles behind this program to do so.

Get it here

I think it’s commonly thought that all people need to do in order to get in shape is to go to the gym, lift some weights, do some cardio, maybe take a class or two, and they will get the body of their dreams. I’ve seen people be consistent with something like this for years and never achieve what it was they set out to in the beginning of their fitness journey.

This is because of the failure to do one thing: track progress.

There is something that people in the gym refer to as “noob gains”. This is when you first start going to the gym and your body reacts quickly and intensely. You make insane progress in your first couple of months. This effect often occurs regardless of how someone trains. You can get away with poor technique, bad programming, improper set and rep schemes, and a bad diet.

This sets up a lot of people for failure. It creates this sense of security that as long as you go to the gym you will continue to see results. This is not the case and once these noob gains wear off, you won’t see results if you don’t train with intention. I’m here to help you make sure the results you want are what you achieve.

Where are we going?

Tracking progress starts with a simple question of “where am I going?”. What’s the result that we plan to achieve by spending our time in the gym?

When we know or remind ourselves where we want to go, progress becomes very simple.

I want to be leaner - Are you gaining muscle or losing fat?

I want to be stronger - Are weights going up?

I want bigger muscles - Is your bodyweight going up?

I want to be healthier - Do you feel healthier? Are you more energetic?

I want to be faster - Are you testing your speed? Is the time going down?

I want to solve my injury or pain - Are you testing the injured area? Can you do more than when you started?

I want to lose weight - Are you losing weight?

When we lose sight of why we initially started going to the gym, we lose any sense of what we should be doing in the gym.

If you answer no to the follow up question, you are not keeping this end result in mind and you are not tracking your progress.

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How to track progress

Tracking progress is very simple. When it comes to getting in shape, we essentially have 3 inputs: working out, activity, and nutrition. Once we have our general goal set, we adjust these inputs and see how this affects our progress towards our goal.

Let’s use losing weight as an example. Losing weight is all about calories in/calories out.

Working out burns calories and the more muscle we have on our bodies, the more calories we burn at rest. So for the workout portion of this equation, we want to increase muscle through resistance training and burn calories through steady state cardio or HIIT workouts.

For activity, this is very simple. Walk more. Every 30 minute walk you take can be an extra 100-200 calories burned. 2 30 minute walks a day and you could be adding an extra .5-.75 pounds of weight loss per week.

The nutrition aspect is our calories in. We want to determine how many calories we are burning in a day so we can establish a good number of calories to consume while still staying in a deficit. Once we have this number, eat whole, nutritious foods to fill up the number of calories.

Now that we have our inputs set, we want to test this and see if we are making progress towards our desired outcome. Keep these inputs exactly the same for two weeks, weigh yourself every day at the same time, and look at the trend after two weeks is up.

Did you lose weight? If yes, keep going. If no, did you really stick to those inputs perfectly? Did you maybe set the calories burned too high? Did you not include oils and sauces in your calories consumed?

Ask the questions that need to be asked, adjust, and then go for another two weeks. Just because you may have not lost weight in those 2 weeks does not mean you can’t and also does not mean you didn’t get any benefit out of it.

Tracking progress is just like investing in the stock market. It’s constantly fluctuating but all you need to care about is if the line is going up and to the right.

Keep your goal in mind

I used to go through so many trends of workouts in the gym. I’d switch programs every week and have zero consistency with my nutrition. One day I’d eat like I wanted to gain 20 pounds and the other I’d be trying a 24 hour fast.

It’s important to remind yourself every once in a while why you are working out. On those days where you might not be as motivated, the reminder can either provide energy or help you realize that the workout you’re doing may no longer suit your goals.

I constantly went through phases in the gym of not knowing what I wanted which impacted my workouts. Once I defined my goal, the reminder was all I needed to get me excited each and every workout.

You don’t work for the plan. The plan works for you.

There’s sometimes this badge of honor associated with making yourself uncomfortable or putting yourself through pain to achieve something you want. It really does not have to be that way.

Just because your goal might be muscle growth does not mean you need to be killing yourself in the gym every session. Waking up sore everyday struggling to get out of bed in the name of getting bigger is not for me.

The plan you put in place needs to be enjoyable. I promise you: you can achieve your goals and also enjoy the process along the way.

Final Thoughts

“If you’re not growing, you’re dying”

-Tony Robbins but a lot of other people too

Going through the motions for your health is not an option. You should be striving to be better year after year. Getting to the gym and building one of the most beneficial habits there is should provide huge gains in your life across the board. If it isn’t, it’s your job to look back and see why.

Don’t wait for years to pass you by. Evaluate what you’re doing now and ask yourself if you really think you’ve grown. Operating at max capacity isn’t for everyone but getting better and pushing yourself absolutely is.

Track your progress. See your stats go up like a video game character. Otherwise, you won’t reach any goal you set for yourself.

-Ian

This is intention. A commitment of action towards a specific goal.

So often I can find myself going through the motions. Doing something because it’s just “what I do”. There isn’t inherently a problem with this but if you’re like me, you do a lot of things in life to get better. I don’t like wasting time and if I am doing something it’s for a reason.

I see this with a lot of people as well. Doing things without taking a second to think about why. If we just focus on your health and fitness, why would you want to do one workout over another? What are the results your looking for and are your actions part of the plan that will achieve that result?

Acting with intention is the only way to live. Without this drive and focus, you will drift. You won’t make any progress in any area because you never recalibrate. You never give yourself and your goals the attention they deserve.

If you’re relaxing or scrolling on your phone, that’s ok. But, if you tend to scroll on your phone during your time in the gym, ask yourself “does this help me achieve the results I’m looking for?”.

I wrote a long article on this a while back that I’d recommend you take a look at. This topic is crucial for making the progress your looking for in life.

My Monday Motivation for you this week is to be intentional. Give yourself just a bit of time to think about what you’re doing and if this action is part of “going through the motions” or if it is something that can move the needle on your journey for progress.

Let me know how you act with intention.

-Ian

I am here to tell you that this workout split is not for you.

Is your priority putting on muscle size? Do you workout with so much intensity that you need at least 5 days to recover? Do you love working out your legs as much as you love working out your arms?

If you answered no to all of these questions, you do not need to be working out singular muscle groups every time you’re at the gym. When you plan on doing a 5 day “bro” split, you are training like a bodybuilder without the intensity, without the proper recovery, and without the proper motivation. You are never going to see the progress you want if you don’t set yourself up for success before you step foot in the gym.

What split should you choose?

Everyone needs to be running some sort of split or program. The way to determine this is to first understand why you want to workout on the first place.

The top 4 reasons people tend to go to the gym are:

1. To look good

2. To be healthy for a long time

3. To be more athletic

4. Mental benefits

This is obviously an oversimplification of the goals someone may have when getting into working out but you should stick with a simple idea when picking out which split you want to do. Going through each of these reasons, I will give you some options on which splits work best in more detail.

1. To look good

This is usually the number one reason people want to start working out. Even if they think it isn’t, it is. So we should stop acting like it’s so wrong to want to look good sometimes.

In order to look good, we need to both build muscle and lose fat. I’ve written an article on this before that goes over how this 2 step formula is all you need to be lean.

Since losing fat is done on the pavement and in the kitchen, the amount of muscle you have will be determined by what you do in the gym.

My number one recommendation for this will be a Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) split. This split allows you to focus on a tighter set of muscle groups each workout which will provide the most stimulus and then provide you with 3-4 days of recovery. This is what is required to build muscle and will in the end create the looks and physique you are looking to achieve. With this split, as long as you are going to the gym at least 3 times per week, you will get a proper amount of stimulus each week and for any day over 3 days, you can just cycle through the loop of a push day, a pull day, and a leg day.

My second recommendation would be the bro split. You thought I’d be a hater the entire article. Well you were wrong. The bro split is amazing at one thing: building muscle. You focus on isolating each muscle group, providing a maximum stimulus, and then recovering for a long period of time. With this comes large gains in muscle. When we talk about looks, a great physique is built on the back of muscle. For all the negative things I could say about the bro split, it is fantastic at building muscle and should be reserved for those who plan on going to the gym 5 days a week.

2. To be healthy for a long time

Longevity is having a big moment. People no longer accept living to an old age but instead want to live a healthy and active life for as long as they can. I think most people would take living to 80 years old with great energy instead of living to 100 years old and your last 20 years are spent in a wheelchair or bed.

Achieving this is about preventing the natural loss of muscle (sarcopenia) and the natural loss of bone density (osteopenia) as we age.

Upon hitting age 30, we will start to naturally lose 3-8% of our muscle mass per decade. This accelerates after age 60. At age 35, a similar affect occurs in terms of our bone density. In women, the affect on bone density is about 25% higher and increases in menopause. Among 80+ year old people, falling is one of the leading causes of death. Bones are broken more easily and balance is frequently lost due to weakness in the legs and core.

Training with this idea in mind is not reserved for people who are already older. We all should want to create a muscular body with strong bones by creating a very strong set of legs and strong midsection.

My number one and only recommendation for this goal is going to be a full body split. When it comes to creating total body strength and bone density, nothing compares to focusing on lifts that challenge your entire body at once. The movement pattern of a squat or deadlift will be much more important to understand and be strong in as we age as compared to a leg extension or leg curl. A full body split allows for 2-3 days in the gym prioritizing lifts that challenge our entire bodies. Because of this, weights can be heavier building density in the bones. We don’t isolate our muscle groups but instead teach different parts of our body to work in tandem. The full body split is a no brainer for anyone looking to build a long lasting healthy body.

3. To be more athletic

Do you want to jump high, run fast, be strong, and dominate every physical opportunity? Yea, same. When you determine whether or not you want to be the type of athlete who plays rugby or tennis, your workouts in the gym don’t need to change much. Only the amount of food you eat does.

Athletic is strong. Your endurance may play a part but we aren’t discussing that in this article.

When you want to jump high, you need strong quads, strong feet and ankles, strong arms, and a strong core. This is not going to be gained through isolation movements like a leg extension or a lateral raise. This will be gained through squats, standing shoulder press, kettlebell swings, and hip thrusts.

My recommendation here is to use both a PPL and a full body split over the course of the year. Normally for those who want to be more athletic, they have a time where they want to build muscle and they have a time where they want to build coordination and explosiveness. PPL will provide the focus on muscle growth while keeping the movements athletic. Full body will develop the connection between the mind and the body (proprioception).

Running each split for 6 months each is a great way to mix it up in the pursuit of getting better in your athletic discipline. This is my personal favorite.

4. The mental benefits

If you don’t know by now, lifting weights has huge benefits for your brain. Lifting has been proven to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression while enhancing your mood. Lifting weights and improving your physique massively impacts your self esteem as well. Look good, feel good, play good.

Something that I personally feel is the increased blood flow keeps my mind energetic but focused. In the gym, when you are pushing yourself, your brain needs to both focus and push itself. It’s something that greatly helps your mind outside of the gym.

The split you need for this is the one you will stick with. I always suggest that people start with full body because it can be done 2-3 days a week and there is no skipping muscle groups.

The mental benefits come from going to the gym consistently and working out with intentionality. Having a purpose and energy when working out is all I can ever ask for.

Lifting weights can provide more benefits than you can imagine. I feel so passionately about it that I have devoted way too much time of my life to this discipline.

Regardless of what you choose to do in your life, adding some muscle and losing some fat can only add to it. It doesn’t require too much time but instead requires a little bit of care. Care and effort are all you need to have success in the gym but in life as well.

Final Thoughts

Your split is important. You should know what you’re going to do in the gym before you go. You should be excited about the workouts.

Having a plan in place keeps you accountable. When you have no idea what you’re doing, you default to the easy and comfortable.

The notion of doing single muscle groups every time in the gym is built upon a foundation of bodybuilding. We have grown so far away from this to understand that being large is no longer the most common goal from going to the gym. Being healthy, fit, athletic, and confident is the new goal.

Challenge the old ideologies and use what makes you excited about becoming the best version of yourself.

-Ian

It’s funny because I still constantly hear “Ian, I know I know you said to take action but it isn’t that simple. I need to do (insert some random action here) first. I did some research and I’m trying to find the time”.

If this sounds familiar to you, listen up.

Your dreams will not fall into your lap. And in your dreams, the success does not come through luck. It comes through hard work. Stop hurting yourself and your own progress by being too scared. Failure isn’t even real. Quitting is the only thing to be ashamed of.

The only way to ever achieve anything you want is to take the first step. Make it embarrassingly easy. Take it today and take another one tomorrow.

Wanna go to the gym? Put your sneakers on. Wanna start a business? Think of something you can sell. Try to sell it. Wanna learn a new language? Watch a show or movie in that language. Say the words out loud. Wanna make beautiful art? Go look at beautiful art. Copy it.

Stop trying to be the best on your first day. You’re going to be terrible. Get over it. Taking these small steps everyday for 5 years will turn you into something well beyond what you pictured in your dreams.

Your Monday motivation is to take one step in the right direction. Tell me what your goal is. I will hold you accountable because I want to see everyone around me succeed to the highest of their abilities.

-Ian

I’d believe that almost everyone who just read that is thinking about how they want to have some muscle and have little fat. This is such a simple definition but sometimes it’s important to step back and think about how achieving your dream physique is a two step process.

1. Build muscle

2. Lose fat

Amount of muscle and amount of fat are directly correlated to your dream physique. Most of the people I see who begin their fitness journey, focus most of their efforts on one of these forgetting about the other.

Some people feel fat and a common first reaction is to start running and eating less. They may lose a bunch of weight but being skinny is not the same as being lean.

Others will be feeling weak or small and start going to the gym and eating a lot more. The ones who keep this up for too long end up having enough fat covering up the muscle they worked hard in the gym to build.

Being in great shape, having a high level of fitness, being metabolically healthy, and looking good will be at its peak when muscle is high and fat is low.

Building Muscle

I have to say this every time but YOU WILL NOT GET TOO BIG. Happy we got that out of the way.

Building muscle is very simple. Train with resistance. Workout within a rep range of 1-30 reps. Do 2-5 sets per workout. Workout 3 times a week. Progressively overload.

On top of this, eat a bit more protein. No need to go crazy but aim for 80-100 grams.

If you stick to this, you are guaranteed to build some muscle.

Losing Fat

Losing fat is also simple. Eat in a slight calorie deficit. People think you won’t build muscle by being in a deficit but if you haven’t had a proper workout plan before, you CAN build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Use a TDEE calculator, estimate the daily amount of calories you burn. Subtract 300 from that number and you have your caloric intake per day.

When you stick with this deficit, you can plan to lose about a pound every 10 days. This is a perfect pace to lose weight while maintaining energy and proper nutrition to gain muscle.

Being lean is not only about looks. It allows you to be at your physical peak. You’ll be stronger, faster, and more energetic. You’ll likely be healthier, sleep better, and be more motivated to perform outside of the gym and kitchen.

Final Thoughts

I want to keep this article short because the idea of getting lean is simple. You know exactly the two inputs needed to achieve what you want. When you execute on these inputs for a long period of time, there is no chance you do not succeed.

You deserve to give yourself 90 days of time devoting yourself to some exercise and clean eating. Seeing how you can adjust your life by touching two inputs, you’ll realize how other big changes in your life can be determined by 1 or 2 inputs.

3 hours a week of workouts, some walks, eat a little less food, and you will be leaner than you ever thought you could be.

-Ian

It is commonly said that every failure is a lesson in disguise. I have always liked this idea but I still don’t like to fail. It’s not fun to lose. I don’t like being rejected and hearing the word “no”.

I am realizing that I was staring all these opportunities for failure in the face but I wasn’t realizing that they could help me achieve the failure that was halting my progress.

I wanted to be comfortable asking for raises and promotions, trying to start new businesses, taking action in my life, and selling myself and my products. These are all scary things because very often with them comes judgement and “no”s. My key to this achieving this comfort with the uncomfortable was micro-failures.

Micro-failures are things that you attempt in your daily life knowing that if you don’t succeed, your day won’t change. The fun part about these is that if you do, your day may be vastly improved. Ask your partner to make you a grilled cheese. Try and draw a bowl of fruit. Try to write a poem. Walk to a place you always drive to.

Failing these things can get you comfortable with hearing the word “no” and see that failure isn’t as devastating as you once imagined.

My Monday motivation for you this week is to start failing. Ask for things you know that people don’t want to give you because seeing these small failures build and build until you aren’t afraid to take real leaps. You won’t be afraid to go after what you deserve and you will be prepared to ask the right questions or try the right things.

Get the micro-failures going and let me know how it goes.

-Ian

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