Doesn’t it burn your biscuits when someone says that you absolutely have to do something without taking into consideration anything about the most important factor in the process: you? I know that it really gets under my skin, especially when not much outside of these few things matter in terms of looking good buck nekkid.

1. Eat at a calorie level that is in line with my goals.
2. Get enough protein to prevent significant muscle loss.
3. Train in a way that helps maintain/build muscle mass.

To quote the great American hero Morgan Freeman, aside from this, all I have to do is be black and die, and even those two are debatable!

But this is exactly how many people are being treated. Even in some instances where they’re paying someone a good amount of money to help them get into the best shape of their lives, all they’re getting in return is a bunch of nonsensical statements that are regarded as truth simply because they’ve been repeated often enough. Not only does this do the person they’re trying to help a disservice, but it gives the preacher of said gospel the impression that they know it all and thus no further investigation is needed.

This has to stop.

One of these often recycled “truths” is that of increase meal frequency. More specifically, folks are often told that they need to eat small meals every few hours, usually to the tune of 5-6 meals or more per day, in order to maximize fat loss. This rubs me the wrong way, mainly because I have personal experience with this myth that was downright debilitating.

As I pointed out in this post, back in college I used to be THE MAN at eating frequently throughout the day. If you earned a living by following me around and reporting back every time I missed one of those sacred meals, then you would be homeless because that just wasn’t how I rolled back then. I always sat in the back of the room in classroom so that I could maximize the space I needed for my friends – Mr. Tub of chicken and Mrs. Contain of broccoli.

I was getting leaner, but it came at a cost. If I wasn’t eating, I was thinking about when I had to eat next. If I wasn’t worrying about that, I was busy prepping food for the next day, or figuring out where I could store my food on campus. To put it mildly, I was living to eat and not eating to live. It was putting a cramp on my social life and I eventually hit a point where if this is what I had to do to look good, then it simply wasn’t worth the trouble anymore.

Then I went AWOL. Off the reservation. Off the grid. Rogue.

It was as if damns became the world’s rarest commodities, because I just couldn’t give one anymore. Overnight I stopped obsessing over how many meals I ate and when I ate them. The stress became too much and I had mentally prepared myself to let the pounds start packing themselves back on at the speed of light.

But then something amazing happened: I not only stayed lean, but I got leaner.

Was it divine intervention? Did I accidentally drink some of that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ooze? Or was it the fact that meal frequency wasn’t the determining factor at all? I’m sure it was a little bit of ooze, but mainly a whole lot of the latter.

I don’t want to focus on the science of things today, because while I read and understand it, I want to speak to practicality and application more than anything else, because that’s the world we live in.

1. It fails to take the individual into account

Meal frequency is a completely individual issue, but when generic, blanket statements like eating every 2-3 hours/5-6+ meals a day are given, they take the power out of the individuals hands, and, if you’ve been reading this site at all, you know that homie don’t play that! What may work for a 230lb bodybuilder trying to put on a significant amount of muscle wouldn’t be appropriate for 130lb woman looking to lose bodyfat.

I also find it backwards that the standard advice given to overweight people who have physiological and psychological issues with controlling their food take that the answer to the problem is to not to eat less, but to eat more.

2. It makes failure inevitable

By nature of the fact that it removes the individual from the equation, if success is achieved at all then it is usually only by dogged determination and an unwillingness to give up. None of these are bad qualities, but with the stress and issues that people have to deal on a daily basis, their dietary success shouldn’t and doesn’t have to require so much mental and physical suffering.

It comes as no surprise to me when I hear of people falling short of the “ideal” meal frequency and, because of it, feeling like let down and defeated, which often leads to nonconstructive dietary discretion (I.E. eating a bunch of food they wouldn’t have otherwise eaten). That mindset doesn’t really make sense, but it is a reality for some thing. It’s similar this scenario: if I can’t workout 6 days a week like my personal trainer told me to, I might as well not work out at all.

With the odds stacked against us, failure and disappointment usually aren’t too far behind, but and that’s just not how it should be.

Here is the take away point: Experiment. Find what works for YOU

If you like eating 6 meals a day and it works for you, dont you dare change a thing.

If you like eating one meal a day because it lets you cut loose like a dietary beast and it works for you, don’t you dare change a thing.

But if you’re constantly falling short in your quest to get from where you are to where you want to be because you can’t follow some predetermined route, then abandon the map – you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from it.

The diet that you can stick to in the long term is the most effective one; think of it as the bed frame and the mattress of your life. Anything beyond that is simply details; the precious looking pillow covers and 9,000 thread count comforters – nice to have, but not necessary for a good nights sleep.

What’ve been your experiences with meal frequency? How has it shaped your beliefs about eating? I’d love to hear it below in the comment section. Also, if you liked this post please use the buttons below to share it with your friends – I hear this dogma preached far too often these days, often to the detriment of the people they’re trying to help.

Photo Credit: Remy_Free

“You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.”
– Bruce Lee

You know the best part about this? As wild as his goal was, he actually did it.

Think back to a time where you failed to achieve what you set out to do and how you felt once you realized that it wasn’t going to happen. It sucked , didn’t it? Now, let’s think about why you failed. Was it a lack of knowledge? A lack of action? A lack of commitment? Maybe it was an amalgamation of them all. Regardless of what caused it, let’s talk about how you can prevent these from becoming road blocks on the way to having a beast of a year.

Problem: Lack of knowledge

Solution: Find it

In this day and age where we can acquire accurate information faster than ever before, this is no longer a valid reason. In the unlikely event that you can’t find what you’re looking for on your own, seek out people who you know have achieved what you want to do and contact them.  Most of them will be more than happy to help you step your knowledge game up, and they can also point you in the direction of other helpful resources where you can continue your education if needed.

Problem: Lack of action

Solution: Create emotional content

If you’re not acting on your goal, then it’s not important enough to you….yet. Harsh, I know. If you consistently say that you want to lose weight but spend the free time that you have doing things that don’t bring you any closer to that goal, then you’ve just proven my point.

The good thing is this: you can change it; you can make it important to you.

Find your reason why. Why do you want to become a successful writer? Is it to prove to yourself that you’re capable enough? Is it to show your college professor who laughed at your creative work that you can do this? Is it simply a means to get out of your unsupportive environment and connect with people who support you rather than drag you down? That’s what I call emotional content.

Whatever your reason is, make sure that it puts some fire under your feet, because this is what will fuel you when your energy is low and it becomes easier and easier to give up. You should wake up every morning excited to do something that brings you closer and closer towards your prime objective.

Problem: Lack of focus

Solution: Create checkpoints

Ok, so you’ve created your emotional content and you’re raring to go, but there is another barrier in the way of your success – it’s a lot to bite off at once.

Totally understandable, but we’re not going to let this stop you. Not this year.

Think of your goal resting atop of a ladder and all that you have to do is go get it. Simple, right? Yep, it is simple, but it’s not easy. It would be nice if we could just jump right up to the top of the ladder, snatch it down, and be done with the whole process, but sadly that’s not how this works.

So you have your goal. Now, sit down and write all of the possible actions, no matter how small, that you can take on a daily basis that’ll bring you closer to it – I like to think of these checkpoints as the steps on that ladder.

If you’re prone to falling off the ladder and giving up, start with easy checkpoints that you know can easily be accomplished. By starting off with these small checkpoints, you are eliminating failure and false steps during that crucial time where you’re still trying to gain traction, and by doing so you’ll gain the confidence that you need in order to continue moving forward.

I can’t stress this point enough – make progress on these checkpoints daily. By doing so, especially in the beginning, you’ll not only form and solidify the habits that you’ll need in the future, but you’ll be able to objectively track your progress towards your goal, allowing yourself to celebrate these victories along the way.

Problem: Going it alone

Solution: Find a fellowship

I love Lord of the Rings, but let’s be honest – Frodo would have died within 5 minutes of leaving The Shire if his allies weren’t there by his side to help him in his quest.

Too often we go it alone because we think that it makes us weak if we reach out for help from others, or that it will somehow dilute the victory, but this couldn’t be further from the truth, especially if going it alone has only hurt you in the past.

This website almost ceased to exist after only 4 months back in early 2010, and if it weren’t for the urgings of a close friend to keep on writing, I would have never updated it again. I knew that I couldn’t do it alone, at least not then, and they helped hold me to my mission, which I haven’t wavered from since.

Put your goal and the steps that you intend to take in order to reach it out there. Tell a close friend or family member – anyone that you know won’t let you slack, even when you want to. Do the same for them and you’ll be surprised to find that this may motivate you even more because that person is leaning on you for strength as well.

Sexification Challenge

One of my main goals for 2011 is to connect more with my readers, because you’re the reason why I do this. I get my energy from the comments and e-mails that I receive, from knowing that what I’m doing here is helping you in some way.

With that said, here is what I’m going to do. If you’ve ever left a comment on this site, I’m going to personally e-mail you this week and see how I can help you. Do you need advice on how to tackle your physique goal for this year? We can chat about how to get you going. Want to bounce some ideas that you have floating around in your head off someone? Let’s do it. Do you simply need a compassionate individual to hold you accountable to any other goals that you have? I’ll be that dude.

If you don’t want to wait and need to get the ball rolling NOW, then write down your goals + action steps and send them to me here: roger@roglawfitness.com

Even if you only have a goal with no idea how you’re going to reach it, send me an e-mail as well and we can work together to create some action steps.

The past is done with, but today, right now, we have the opportunity to disregard it completely and take steps towards creating the future that we crave with every fiber of our being. Are you going to let this year slip quietly into the night like so many others, or are you going to make it your best one ever?

“To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities.”
– Bruce Lee

Photo Credit: Negativz

Whether you know it or not, we’re all on a cliff together.

Some are standing around idly, waiting for things to happen, while others are shuffling around, moving towards…something. They’re not exactly sure what just yet, but they have this inkling in the back of their skulls that there has to be more to life than this.

The first group, the Standers? For the most part, without a major intervention, they’re hopeless.

The second group, the Watchers? That’s where most of us are, where you are (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this), but I don’t want to focus on them either. It’s this third group that I’m most obsessed with.

There is a difference between this group, the Jumpers, and everyone else. For them, that mere tickle is transformed into a drum beating inside their mind, beckoning them forward while others simply meander around.

They’re called Jumpers because they don’t just listen to the battle call; they answer it. They dive off the cliff and into the frightening unknown in search of what drives them.

But why the hell are they jumping? They don’t know what’s out there. For all they know, it could be a land filled with quicksand pits, poisonous fruits, machine gun toting fembots and Velociraptors equipped with samurai swords and dream killing missiles!

As someone who’s run the gamut from Stander to Watcher to Jumper, I can assure you that taking the leap of faith is not only worth the risk, but is absolutely necessary if you want to live the kind of life that you imagine yourself living.

I don’t claim to have all of the answers as I’m still making my way through this world myself, but I want to share some strategies that I’ve used to deal with fear along the way.

1. Tackling your fears may get you killed.

Havi Brooks over at The Fluent Self got me thinking about fear in a different way. First things first: we’re not going to tackle our fears head on from the jump. Why not? Because that’s a sure fire way to get taken out faster than General Tso’s chicken. That would be similar to starting a videogame, completing the basic tutorial and then waltzing up to the final boss ready for a showdown. Some fears are rational, but most are simply powerful illusions brought about to keep you on the defensive; reacting instead of being proactive. Therefore, the first step towards fear domination is not going after them right away, but simply acknowledging that they are there.

2. Become curious

If you want to piss fear off, treat it as a curiosity rather than something to be afraid of – it hates that. This is where the actual facing of your fears come into play. March right up to the beast’s den and look it up and down. Walk around; study it; learn all that you can about it.

When you notice that sense of dread creep up inside of your chest, ask yourself why you feel this way. Ask yourself as many questions as you can about why this situation or action scares you so much. Is it from a past experience that you or someone else had? Is it your imagination getting the best of you?

The more you familiarize yourself with this seemingly foreign emotion, the more you’ll realize that it’s actually not some malevolent emotion, but your friend. Your fear loves you. It loves you so much in fact that it’ll do everything in it’s power to keep you from being hurt or disappointed. Sadly for you, fear is the offspring of Professor Xavier and therefore has the ability to project devastatingly horrible outcomes of future events into your head in an attempt to keep you from breaking out of your comfort zone.

Don’t jump out of that plane – you’ll die!

Don’t ask that question – they’ll think you’re a fool!

Don’t pursue that idea – you will fail!

3. Ask “what if”

Now that you know your fear is coming from a place of love and not hate, you can get down to the business of letting it down gently with these two simple words: what if.

What if you don’t die when you jump out of that plane? What if it’s an even greater feeling than you thought it would be?

What if you help yourself and others when you get the answer to that question?

What if you don’t fail? What if you succeed? What will your life be like?

Fear, obviously, won’t have any logical response to these questions, and will respond by yelling even louder, but you’re prepared. Let fear know that you’re a grown man (or woman) and are capable of making decisions for yourself without it’s input.

4. Look to the Jumpers

Don’t ever take fear’s word for anything, unless you want to become one of the Standers or Watchers. Fear’s main job is to keep you paralyzed, keeping the impossible from becoming possible, so the only way forward is to challenge it’s claims. The most difficult part is that you haven’t done what you want to do just yet, so you really don’t have any tangible ground on which to base your hopes and dreams on.

The answer? Look to the Jumpers.

Chances are anything that you want to do has been done before, and if that’s the case then you’re literally surrounded by a wealth of evidence that you can use to counter fear’s persistent urgings. Take advantage of these resources! If you lived in Gotham City and wanted to become a crime fighter, it’d be silly not to look to Batman for advice. Want to become a motivational speaker? Anthony Robbins has already paved the way for you. Dream of writing a book on a subject that you’re passionate about? Chris Brogan and Julien Smith have you covered. What if you simply want to see as much of the world as you possibly can? Chris Guillebeau can show you how.

The best thing about this group of people is that, having once been in your shoes, more often than not they’ll be willing to help assuage any fears that you have as long as you’re willing to ask for their advice.

The Jumpers are here to show you what is possible. If it can happen to them, it can happen to you as well.

5. Just do it.

Nike had it right all along. With all of this lovey-dovey, touchy-feeley conversation going on, it’s easy to just acknowledge that your fears are there and not do anything to move past them. Likewise, I’ve seen several would-be Jumpers get stuck in the planning phase for far too along and accomplish nothing. Like my good friend JC says, planning is good, but doing is better.

You’ve gone on your quests, you’ve upgraded your weapons and armor, but sadly you’ve leveled up as far as you can without facing the boss and progressing forward.

You’re ready now, and the stakes are higher than ever.

When in doubt, shoot first and figure it out as you go. At worst you’ll fall short of your initial goal while at the same time proving that your fears were grossly exaggerated, using this experience to move you forward over time. At best? You’ll reclaim your life from the clutches of fear and take a huge step past your peers and towards your dreams.

30 day Sexification Challenge: What are your fears? What scares the hell out of you? More importantly, what do you plan to do/have done about it? Pick one or two fears that you’re committed to working on and leave them in the comment section or send them to me via-email if they’re more private. Let’s keep each other accountable and use the next 30 days to work towards crushing them.

Photocredit: Divemasterking2000

As you probably have figured out by now, I’m a huge fan of dietary freedom as long as it brings you closer to your goals. I’m also quick to whip out some flaming Nunchucks in order to lay the smack down on any dogmatic method or gimmick that stands in the way of said goals. In many fitness circles the Glycemic Index is viewed as the magic bullet that makes fat loss possible, but I say this viewpoint is pure is hogwash.

But first things first, what is the Glycemic Index? It was created in 1981 by Dr. David Jenkins as a way of helping people with diabetes manage their blood sugar levels, and this concept has been carried over to the fitness industry within the last decade. The idea behind this is that low GI foods digest more slowly and thus keep blood sugar levels in check, helping keep the hunger beast at bay. Subsequently, higher GI foods are thought to send your blood sugar levels through the roof, only to come crashing down faster than a 1990’s Mike Tyson knockout.

This may sound all nice and dandy, but in terms of fat loss, why does it matter? Answer: It doesn’t for several reasons.

1. Taken out of context

In the case of the Glycemic Index, you have a tool that was created to help people with an actual health issue (diabetes) control their blood sugar, that is now being marketed towards people with no actual health issues as a way to lose fat. When you take the index out of its original context and apply to another vastly different situation, it ceases to become applicable, especially when you consider that the GI of a food is determined by eating it in isolation and after an overnight fast, both of which are not reflective of how we eat on a daily basis. Throwing in the fact that you can raise or lower the GI of a food by adding other foods to the meal doesn’t help make things anymore reliable, either.

3. Not supported by scientific evidence

A 2008 study out of the University of Cambridge compared a group who consumed mainly high GI foods to one that consumed mainly low GI foods. The result? That the GI of a food had no effect on body weight whatsoever. There are several diet books on the market that point to the Glycemic Index as the engine behind their results, when in reality the only magic happening is that many of the lower GI foods also tend to be lower in calories, which helps in creating a caloric deficit, which in turn drives fat loss. As a general rule of thumb, whenever a diet plan or system focuses on one food group to show you that this is the reason why their plan is superior to all others,  it is pure hype and they’ve simply managed to come up with a way of convincing you to eat less than you need to on a consistent enough basis to see results. All these roads lead to the same place in the end.

3. It makes things more complicated than they need to be

One thing that I’ve noticed above all else when I talk to people about nutrition is this: they’re confused as all hell, and with such a plethora of conflicting diet information available on the internet and in bookstores, I don’t blame them. You can eat this food but not that food, or you can eat both foods but only at breakfast, and if you for some reason disregard this advice and eat both foods together after 12pm, your dog will be kidnapped and the money in your savings account will be converted to lima beans – and you hate lima beans! This is a huge problem because this categorization of “good and bad”  leads to more unnecessary food discrimination that is the major source of all the confusion in the first place.

Imagine this scenario. You’ve had some issues with losing fat in the past due to confusion about what to eat, but now you’ve finally figured out a way to eat that is in line with your goals and you are experiencing much success – sweet. You get to talking about your newfound awesomeness to a friend whose opinion you respect greatly, and he tells you that while you’re losing fat now, it is simply a fluke and that your results aren’t “official” because you’re eating high GI foods. Because you respect this person so much, you abandon what was clearly working for you and start following their advice, and your fat loss stalls as a result.

You see what happened there? Well intentioned but crappy advice was given, and this already confused person who thought they were doing great by eating some watermelon and beets instead of a Big Mac was told that their food choices suck because because they both don’t follow some nonsensical rule. Now they’re more confused than they were before, and instead of this tool actually helping them, they have to deal with the cognitive dissonance of having their favorite foods labeled as subpar. Trust me, I know a woman who loves beets with all her soul and I pitty the fool who tries to tell her that they are anything but heaven on Earth.

The take home point is that you don’t have to complicate your life with any of this nonsense if you’re healthy, active, and simply want to look good. Cut the jibba jabba and stick to the basics of eating mainly whole & unprocessed foods and creating a caloric deficit through diet and training and you’ll be well on your way to achieving maximum sexy.

Photo Credit: WorldIslandInfo

Are you living a life worth remembering?

Put another way, which do you remember more – what you had for lunch 2 years ago, or the inspiring speech you heard 10 years ago? The lunch was so mundane that it could have happened last week and you would remember just as much (aka nothing). But the speech, oh the speech! It moved you. It challenged you to think about things in a different way. It forced you out of your comfort zone and into action. But, most importantly, it changed you, and from that moment on you would never be the same again.

Well, that moment came to me during the film 300.

As much of a fan as I am for an unabashed man movie, this one connected to me on such an emotional level that is difficult to put into words. Thankfully I managed to power through that difficulty and distill a few lessons that will help take you from where you are to where you want to be.

1. Find Your Why

In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes sent a messenger to Sparta asking the king for earth and water as a token of their submission. If the Spartans accepted, they would become part of the empire, receiving the spoils that came along with such a distinction. If they denied, they would incur the wrath of the Persian army; their men would be killed and the women and children forced into slavery.

So, what did the good Spartan king do? He kicked that sucka down a well. Request denied!

And with that act, the gauntlet had been thrown down – the eve of war was now upon them.

But why fight, especially when the numbers are far more in favor of the enemy? They fought because they had a reason to. They weren’t fighting to protect some abstract notion such as honor, but something more tangible – the lives of their loved ones and their very way of life.

Why am I here?

This examination leads to a lot more questions than actual answers. And not just any questions, but black hole, time stealing ones the lead you down an infinite rabbit hole and serve only as a distraction from the life you’re living.

Why am I doing this?

Why do I want to do this?

These are the questions that you need to ask yourself; these are the questions that need to be answered because they lead to action, not just more reflection. If you don’t have a strong enough why, then nothing else matters. Without a rock solid reason why you’re doing something, the how you’re going to do it will either never manifest itself, or, even worse, when it does it will be so shaky and vague that you buckle and your resolve falls apart at the first sign of external pressure.

2. Cross The Point Of No Return

By sending the Persian messenger for an eternal swim, the Spartans sent a message so bold that they had no choice but to move forward. They couldn’t just go “oops, my bad” and hope that all would be forgiven. Nope. They had crossed the much dreaded point of no return, the point in which turning back is either impossible or much more difficult than continuing along the chosen path.

But this isn’t Sparta, this is your life.

By crossing that boundary, you’ve essentially gone all in and put some serious skin in the game. Are you so deep in debt that it is gobbling up all your money, time and preventing you from achieving your dreams? Then find your why, create a strategy to pay it off, and start plugging away – and keep plugging away. Eventually you will have gone so far that the pain of continuing forward will pale in comparison to that of returning to your former state of life and the state of mind that got you there. As frightening as it may be at times, this is where you want to place yourself. This is where true growth and progress begins, yet this is also the resting place of dreams; where those who choose not to continue forward abandon their aspirations and turn the other way. But this won’t be you. This can’t be you. The stakes are too high for you not to continue forward.

If not now, then when?

If not you, then who?

3. Defy Convention

With just 300 men against an army of thousands, it would have been suicidal for the Spartans to attack head on. This is exactly what the Persians were expecting, because at least that way they could easily crush this small annoyance and continue along the warpath. But the Spartans chose to ignore standard war tactics and used the landscape to their advantage by forcing the Persians into a narrow pass where their large numbers meant nothing. By defying convention, the Spartans forced the enemy to play into the game that they created.

What about us, though?

Take a look around and you’ll quickly realize that everyone more or less is doing the same thing. Because it is safe.

Because that is how it has always been done.

Because it is what others expect.

Because of rules.

These rules, whether they are written or implied, are dangerous. They confine your thoughts and they limit your actions to whatever fits within the constraints of these rules, even if the situation demands that they be tossed aside for fresh ideas.

But what if there was another way? What if, instead of simply following the crowd, following what is practical and logical, you listened to that inner voice of yours? You know, the one that still wants to test the boundaries of life and explore what is possible. You might fail, but you also might discover that the only limits imposed in life are the ones you set for yourself, and through that realization begin to shatter those preconceived notions.

And Failure? It pales in comparison to the infinite possibilities that await those who are brave enough to treat reality as their plaything and create their own blueprint.

His helmet was stifling – it narrowed his vision, and he must see far. His shield was heavy – it threw him off balance, and his target is far away. With the hurling of his spear, king Leonidas proved that even a God king could bleed and solidified his place in the books of history as a testament to when free men rebelled against tyranny. What are you doing to ensure that your legacy lives on?

Photo Credit: Pasukaru76

This industry has to be one of the few where folks are actually looking for pain. Some people think that if they aren’t writhing on the floor covered in sweat and cursing the Gods at the end of their workout that it wasn’t good enough. While I don’t necessarily agree with this sentiment, what kind of mean ‘ol Scrooge would I be if I didn’t give them what they want?

Enter The Finisher

Doesn’t that just sound like the name of some 300 pound rock solid guy fresh out of the joint ready to shank you? But I digress.

So, Rog Law, what exactly is a finisher? I thought you’d never ask! A finisher is a great way of topping off your workout with a little special treat at the end, all while bumping up the intensity and building some mental toughness during the process. If you find yourself ending your workout looking just as purty as you did when you started it, then adding a finisher from time to time is something you want to consider.

Submitted for your viewing pleasure, below you’ll find footage documenting my near death experience with a finisher as well as the reason behind my current stance on them.

Now some might watch these videos and get all hyped up, imaging how fun it must have been to do something like this. Me? Not so much. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that this finisher took at least 7.6 years off of my life as well as about 100 points away from my street cred on the internet. My point is this: match the finisher up with your current level of fitness, and make sure that you like it enough to want to do it again at some point in your life.

Here are a few ways different ways I like to approach them.

Timed Sets

This is one of my favorite methods to use with my clients. All you do here is pick 2-4 exercises and perform them in circuit style fashion, with minimal rest between each exercise, for a specific time limit (say 10min).

I enjoy these because they bring out the competative side of me. The first time you perform one of these, it’s to get the hang of it and set the benchmark. The second time though? Oh it’s on like Donkey Kong in a purple thong running a telethon because your goal is to do more work in the same amount of time than you did before. Here is an example finisher that follows these guidelines:

A1) Dumbbell or Kettlebell Swings – 5 reps per arm
A2) Medicine Ball Slams – 10 slams
A3) Pushups – 5 reps
A4) Jumping Jacks – 25 reps

Say that you managed to complete 6 rounds of every exercise in this circuit – great. Now the next time you perform this same workout, anything over 6 rounds is considered an improvement. If you want to progress, simply add more reps, more resistance, less rest time, or a combination of all of these.

Straight Sets

For this type of finisher, you go in knowing exactly how many sets of an exercise (or series of them) you are doing, so on those days where you just aren’t up to the task of pushing yourself these would serve as a good option. Here is me dropping some knowledge on you:

A)  Farmer’s Walks – 3 x 50 yards
B) Bear Crawls – 3 x 50 yards
C) Sprints – 3 x 100 yards

With this, you would perform all 3 sets of an exercise before moving on to the next one.

So, have you done any finishers lately? If so, what have you done? Share your experiences in the comments section and let’s see what kind of ideas we can come up with together.

Note: New post coming on Tuesday!

Have you been telling yourself that you’re finally going to get in shape once and for all, only to have another week, month or year pass without any significant change despite all the effort you put in?

Have you just gotten out of a rough relationship and are looking to make a transformation both inside and out?

Are you simply wanting to feel stronger and look better but are surrounded by people who aren’t supportive of your goals and only serve to drag you down?

Welp, haters are gonna hate, but that’s just too bad because your time is now. And I can help.

Today, right at the very moment that your eyeballs wiggle across these words, I am available for online training and nutrition consultations. In order to mark this special occasion, I’m giving away free 20 minute phone consultations to the first 10 people who contact me via e-mail here: roger@roglawfitness.com. Consider it my token of thanks and appreciation to you for helping make this site what it is today.

For more information on my services, check out this page here.

P.S. – Make sure to put “Sexification” in the subject line so I don’t miss out on your e-mail

Photo Credit: Jeremy Brooks

On any given day, I get to work with people from all walks of life and help them move closer to their physique, health and fitness goals. I make it a point to empower my clients towards bringing into existence the image they have of themselves in their mind. I make an honest attempt to be the best part of their day.

Then I step outside of my bubble and into the real world, and what I see scares me.

I sit in bookstores and restaurants, overhearing the languid conversations of people who’ve grown weary of the mundane trappings of their lives; the marionette 9-5 that controls them. Put another way, people just aren’t very happy. I talk to friends who often ask me why I’m so happy and up beat all the time, and more or less my answer is always the same – what reason do I have not to be?

I’m surrounded by those who I care about.

I get to make a meaningful impact in the lives of people daily.

I simply love what I do.

When I started this blog, I wanted to create a look that conveyed both my personality and the intent of my writing, and thus Committed to Sexification on a Global Scale was born.

But this isn’t about me. It’s about you and the desperate plea that I’m sending your way.

I need you to be sexy.

I’m not talking about sexy in the physical sense here either, but feel free to go that route, too. To me, Sexification is a mindset that begins with an idea and then manifests itself in action. It’s all about taking the image of yourself, what you want to do and where you want to go in life, and bringing it into reality.  It’s about fighting the urge to hide your dreams and inner brilliance to remain among the average.

As you begin to separate yourself from the masses and do what you love, something interesting happens:

Your interactions with your friends, family and random encounters are much more positive.

Your outlook on the world will improve, and you’ll notice the general malaise surrounding your life begins to dissipate.

You become bolder, taking steps towards achieving what you previously thought was impossible.

And you inspire others to do the same.

When you’re no longer doing things because you’re afraid of what people will think of you if you don’tdo them, when you’re busy working towards that which really matters to you instead of simply passing the time, you begin to feel more alive – and this benefits everyone.

Random (aka Mega Ran) is an English teacher and hip-hop artist, blending his control over language and wordplay with his passion for video games. That’s Sexification.

Torya Blanchard quit her teaching job to opene a crêperie in her hometown of Detroit, bringing her love of everything French to a city known for Coney Island hotdogs and cars. That’s Sexification.

Myron Watkins makes a living from behind the lens, honing his craft while bringing the best out of his clients. That’s Sexification.

Jessica Jackley and Matt Flannery put the power into the people’s hands, creating a place where they can loan money via the internet to help fund entrepreneurs and small businesses around the world. Their current loan repayment rate is 98.99%. That’s Sexification.

Adam Baker and his family sold their possessions, paid off $18,000 in consumer debt, and began to create the life they wanted to live, leading by example and teaching others how to do the same. That’s Sexification.

This is by no means a complete list, but I just wanted to highlight the great things happen when you come alive with purpose.

Actually, the title of this post was a bit misleading because I don’t need you to be sexy at all. You need to be sexy for yourself, and for the world as well; it will become a better place for you having been in it.

What brings you to life and gives you a sense of purpose? What is something that you’ve always wanted to do but have held off on for some reason? What is one thing, no matter how small, that you can do today to bring yourself closer to that goal? Add a comment below – I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Photo Credit: Glaciernps

Top o’ the ‘marnin’ to ya!

This post is dedicated to Cherie who sounded the battle horn and let me know she wanted to hear. Thanks again for the participation and hopefully you get a chance to take some helpful tips away from this post before you get started with your day!

I Got A Story To Tell

Back when I was in college, I had what could be considered the holy grail of on campus jobs – circulation assistant. This is just a fancy way of saying that when you wanted to check out tomes of sacred knowledge and wisdom from the library, you had to come see this guy first. Not only did this position allow me to meet some pretty cool people, but it gave me time to catch up on some pretty epic  reading, one of my favorites being You Are Going To Prison, which made sure that I never went.

Another perk was that we had a fridge in the back.

This was around the time that I started gobbling up everything that I could relating to nutrition and fitness, and one of the first dogmatic principles spoken down from the heavens is that you must eat every 2-3 hours or else you are forever banished to the land-o-fatness**. Clearly this scared me to death at this point in my life, so I suited up.  I cooked up my chicken breast. I steamed up my veggies. Forget bagging up my protein, I brought the whole damn tub! While we’re at it, why the hell should I use a shaker bottle to make them when I can annoy everyone and BRING THE ENTIRE BLENDER TO WORK?!

It hurts me to say it folks, but I was that dude.

If you saw me walking around campus during those bleak days, you would’ve thought that I was going to war with my huge bag filled to the brim with food rations, electronic gadgets and clanking bottles of ridiculousness. All for a 4 hour shift.

Right Idea, Wrong Application

I will say this about those days: I was pretty lean only because having all those meals handy kept me from walking over to the student union and snatching ice cream pops and french fries right out the mouths of hungry children and scarfing them down with reckless abandon, but I went about the process all wrong and made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be.

Tip #1 – Prepare a one or two I.S.H. meals

Preparing meals in advance can go a long way towards keeping you out of the gas station food isle lurking for inglorious foodstuff. I call these my “in case stuff happens” meals. If you know you’re going to be away from home base for a significant amount of time, it would be silly (and more expensive) to venture into the world and just leave your food choices to chance.

This is one of the most practical and easily implementable tips you’ll find, but many don’t like to do it because it takes planning in advance. Do you remember (hopefully) long ago when your parents used to ask if you had to go to the bathroom before you all left the house? Of course the answer was no, until 10 minutes later you were screaming for them to pull over before you drowned everyone in the car. It’s kinda like that, because you’ll be pissed at yourself for not taking the time to prep some meals after you find yourself eating the same crappy meals day in and day out instead of solving the issue before it became a problem.

Most work places these days have a fridge that you can store your most perishable food in, so make sure to take advantage of this. If this isn’t the case, you could also buy one of those precious lunch boxes that can hold an ice pack inside and keep your meats and such cool. I recommend going for the Sailor Moon lunch box.

Tip #2 – When in doubt, go for protein.

It’s hard to go wrong with this recommendation. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient around town and will help keep hunger at bay longer than the other macronutrients (in isolation, of course). Every Sunday I’m away from home for a good 12 hours, so I like to cook up some burgers and veggies and take them to work with me and crush them about halfway through my shift to keep myselfsatisfied for the next 6 hours or so.

Tip #3 – Shake it up

I love protein shakes like Donald Trump loves money. When I know I’m going to be on the go for awhile, they are the road dawgs of my tummy satisfaction, plus they’re pretty simple to make. Here is a good guide to go by in terms of getting the most bang for your buck:

Base liquid – Water or milk. (the less water, the thicker the shake. You can add ice too to sass it up).
Protein – Casein or Casein/Whey blend. (the more scoops, the more protein you will have and the thicker it’ll be).
Fruit – Blueberries, Strawberries, Bananas, Apples, etc. Pretty much whatever fruits fit your taste desires.
Extras – Veggies, nuts, olive oil (yeah, I’ve gone the olive oil route before – fun times).

I like to drop a good 2-3 scoops and 1lb of strawberries and blueberries. All the protein plus the carbs and fiber from the fruit help stave off hunger and sidestep the problem that most liquid nutrition runs into – it runs right through you with not much long term satiation.

Tip #4 – Fend for yourself

I like this one because once you do it and are successful, it takes all of the excuses out of not being able to eat right while on the move. Today you’re not packing a single item in your lunch box, because you’re living off the fat of the land, baby! Simply leave the house in the morning and plan to find all of your meals outside of it, doing the best that you can with the options available to you.

When you set out on this mission, your mind will automatically begin to search for options that satisfy your objectives, which are as follows:

– Contains mostly protein.
– Is minimally processed.
– Has some fiber in it.
– Grew out of the ground or something growing from the ground.
– Some dude in a lab didn’t make it.

Surely there are foods out there that meet these requirements. Cooked rotisserie chicken at the grocery store? Check. Slightly bruised banana on the counter at the gas station next to the honey buns? Check. Baked Potatoe from Wendy’s? Check.

I’m not part of the food gestapo, so I realize that some other food is gonna make its way into your mouth – and that’s completely fine. The goal here is to make the bulk of your intake fit meet the above requirements and not to sweat the small stuff. Some Cinnabon sticks won’t kill you, but I might if you don’t let me have a bite.

Heh. Just kidding.

But seriously, can I have a bite?

** – Please note the sarcasm in this sentence. You do NOT need to eat every 2-3 hours to achieve your body composition goals.

What strategies do you all use to eat well while going about your daily business? Did I leave out something that you’ve found useful and would like to share? Leave a comment in the comment section and I’ll see you there!

Photo Credit: ElDave

And here I thought nobody cared about my sexy.

This post goes out to Andrew who heeded the call in my last post and told me what he wanted to read about, so here is where I deliver on the goods. Thanks for the suggestion, and I hope you can take something away from this post.

The Diet

I’ll be honest and say that I hate dieting with a passion because it gets in the way of me being a glutton, so it is always my goal to get it over with as fast as humanly possible. On that front, I like to kick off the initial 2 weeks with a protein sparing modified fast to “get my mind right” so to speak.

In order to accomplish this, I eat about 250g protein,  1-2lbs of broccoli, fish oil and a multivitamin everyday during that time period. I keep my protein sources as lean as I can and as a result my caloric intake tends to hover between 1200 and 1300 calories per day. The only reason I’m able to stay sane with such a low level of intake is by using intermittent fasting and eating 2 relatively large and satisfying meals a day. Well, that and by watching The Chappelle Show.

After that initial 2 weeks, I have a 2 day refeed where everything else about my diet remains the same, but I take in between 500 and 600g of carbohydrate to reverse all the wonky business that tends to happen when dieting down using such an extreme deficit. After those 2 days, I eat at my new maintenance level for a week and then move into a more moderate deficit for the long haul.

The Training

As I spoke about in my training for fat loss video, I love to lift heavy when on a diet for several reasons:

1) Lifting heavy gives your body a reason to hold on to the muscle that you have because you’re demonstrating through your training that you need to keep it around.

2) I’d rather make sweet, sweet love to Janet Reno than be in the gym longer than 45 min to an hour, so by lifting as heavy as I do it forces me to cut my volume back significantly, which does wonderful things in terms of recovery from session to session.

I usually train only 2x a week during the initial 2 week break in phase, but occasionally bump it up to 3x when I’m eating a bit more, but in the end it all depends on my mood really. I believe in letting the diet take care of the majority of the fat loss while I go about with my daily living.

Here are my workouts from last week to give you an idea as to how I train:

Other than that, the only other “training” I do is walking for an hour a few times a week, and I only do that so I can burn a few more calories while catching up with my favorite podcasts that I otherwise might not have time for. Kevin Smith and the Smodcast network making walking in the nipply east coast weather a pleasantly dope experience.

The Progress

I try to keep it as simple as possible when it comes to measuring my progress. I used to be all about the body fat testing via skin calipers, but the margin of error can be pretty high depending on how good the person measuring it is, and even then it’s not all that accurate. These days I use my strength levels and pictures as measures of my success and here is why.

Since I’m not participating in any kind of weight class related sport, pictures are the simplest way to see if I’m leaning out or not. You can blame the lack of scale progress on water weight and glycogen levels all you want, but you can’t hide the sexy from the camera. Also, if my strength levels are staying where they are or improving, that is a pretty good indicator that I’m not losing any muscle. If the numbers on my main lifts drop more than 5%, I increase my training day intake by 10% and see how that helps the situation.

The Length

My goal is to end up at 180lbs and He-Man ripped by May 2011, which gives me 6 months to make it happen. This is actually going to be my longest dieting stint ever, so I’m not sure exactly how long it’ll take me. I’ll be conservative in my projections and say that after the 1st month I’ll settle in and only lose 1 lb a week, so at a starting weight of 200 lbs that puts me right on target to hit my goal in May.

So there you have it folks, my approach to taking my body from meh to mythical status. What are your current goals? How are you attacking them? Let me know in the comment section below!

Photo Credit: Popculturegeek