motivation

Can't Afford a Personal Trainer? Here Are 5 Things You Need to do to Get In Shape

Can't Afford a Personal Trainer? Here Are 5 Things You Need to do to Get In Shape

Personal training is great. If you have a good trainer you get all the benefits of education, safety and external accountability all wrapped up into one neat and tidy service to make staying consistent with working out virtually guaranteed.

But, sometimes it’s just not in the cards for you. 

Maybe you can’t afford it or maybe you just don’t know any good personal trainers. Whatever the reasons, if that’s the case for you there are still many things you can do to reach your goals!

Here’s a quick list of 5 things you need to do to get in shape if you can’t afford to hire a personal trainer.

How To Make Your New Year's Resolution ACTUALLY Stick

How To Make Your New Year's Resolution ACTUALLY Stick

Hey Derek here and it's almost New Year's!

That time of year where some of us get super motivated to turn over a new leaf while the rest of us complain about the inevitable lack of commitment of the January resolutioners.

As much as I personally don’t like stereotypical New Year’s resolutions - those which tend to fill the gyms in January only to be abandoned less than a month later - I do think that New Years’ offers a great opportunity for a “fresh start” that we can take advantage of if we do it right.

CHEST DAY Motivation Workout | Vlogmas Day 7

Music is my biggest motivator when it comes to summoning energy in having a really good workout.
Enjoy this motivational CHEST DAY workout video that motivated MYSELF as I edited it - ha ha!

Song: All I Need - Vanze, Balco, Fransis Derelle feat. Brenton Mattheus

The Obstacle is The Way: My Favourite Quotes

The Obstacle is The Way: My Favourite Quotes

I just shared the audio version of The Obstacle is The Way by Ryan Holiday with a couple of friends tonight, so I thought I would post a few of my favourite quotes here.

In my opinion this book is a must read for proper mindset.

In any circumstance your mindset (whether you choose good or bad) has the power to build you up to conquer your circumstance or break you down and destroy you.

It's like the story I recently heard re-told in the movie Tomorrowland...

ASF2015: DLB's Prejudging, meeting DLB & Arnold...& my pull-up challenge FAIL

ASF2015: DLB's Prejudging, meeting DLB & Arnold...& my pull-up challenge FAIL

SUMMARY of our weekend away in Columbus, Ohio for the 2015 Arnold Sports Festival!
Got to see Dana Linn Bailey at prejudging ...briefly :(...then met Rob & Dana later on!
I got to shake Arnold's hand !!!!!!!!!!!! :O
I failed at a pull-up challenge...
I randomly did cardio...
ALL IN A DAY's TIME! :)

How To Make My Low-carb Wrap & Legs Volume Day (+ bonus interlude dance :P )

How To Make My Low-carb Wrap & Legs Volume Day (+ bonus interlude dance :P )

Didn't you know that in-between-set dancing increases your gains by 98%?? :P 

Preferentially, what allows me to adhere easily to my nutrition plan (especially when in a caloric deficit if the goal is fat-loss), is delaying my breakfast until closer to lunch (Intermittent Fasting). Along with eating lighter in the first part of the day, I usually save my carbs until early evening (mostly post-workout).

Pull Day

Pull Day

HERE IS MY PULL-DAY OVERVIEW: 

Pull-ups (strict and modified with rings), bent-over barbell rows, face-pulls and inverted rows with the rings & dog curls :P (if you watched to the very end of the video).

I usually do 3-5 sets around the 10-12 rep range - I love doing voluminous back sessions!

Are You Doing What it Takes to Stay Motivated?: 5 Mistakes That Are Killing Your Motivation for Fat Loss

We’ve all had some goal that we’ve set repeatedly and just can’t seem to stick to. We start out as motivated as we’ve ever been, but before we know it we’ve fallen back into old habits and just can’t seem to work up the energy to keep going. 

What happened? Where did that seemingly endless motivation go? What can we do to avoid this loss of motivation?

In this post we will share 5 mistakes that we’ve come across in our own life that may be preventing you from reaching your fat loss goals.

Leg Day with Ray!

Leg Day with Ray!

Still getting used to this whole VLOG thing... Derek designed this workout specifically in a way to make my glutes sore. It. Was. Killer.

From Derek:

The split Rach is doing right now is designed specifically for glute and lower body growth and has Rach doing 3-4 workouts per week targeting the glutes and lower body and 2 workouts for upper body. The workout split is based mainly off of information I've gathered from Bret Contreras' blog (here) as well as a few podcasts he's been on. If you're looking for glute growth, Bret Contreras is the man to follow!