Fitness Tips: 2023

Fitness Tips: 2023

My History in/with Fitness, specifically WEIGHT-TRAINING…

From the time I was 13 till I was about 25; pretty much everyone that knew me or knew of my reputation in the SWFL area would praise me for my weightliting efforts. Not just the look but the numbers I could throw up for a small statured person. I was never even challenged in powerlifting till I went to State in my high school run and I still fared better than most being in the Top 5 twice out of 3 years in the state of FL. When I got older drinking, chasing girls, working with bands, film school, computer systems/networking school, took up a lot of my time; but when I finally got back into fitness I was going the bodybuilding route, due to the amount of weight I put on over the years. I didn’t know much about bodybuilding or using weight training to lose weight being into powerlifting most of my life. I was partying heavily and on ever OTC (Over the Counter) supplement I could find.

I was taking a heavy stim preworkout and drinking with it sometimes. Between all that my body decided to go into a diabetic state that just progressively got worse. I couldn't manage it. I still cannot manage it. The reason why I think the supplement had more to do with this than the lifestyle is because that is the great common denominator. I was always living this life. When I started adding these stimulant preworkouts is when I started to have problems and my dumbass just kept doubling down, like CNN on a given broadcast lol.

Eventually, my lifestyle was too much for my diabetic state and my body crashed several times over an 8 year span. Now I have even more problems. When you look at pics from those earlier years of my diabetic state you can see what my body was actually doing. It was literally eating my insides out from the inside out. Almost like a parasite would operate. First it went for all my fat reserves, then it started working on my physical strength, then it literally started to eat away my muscle mass. I was 188lbs in early 2012, by mid-2012 I was down to 150 lbs and even got down to 138 a year or so later. Sure I was working out, I wasn't dieting all that much but had choose better quality of foods. 2013-2014 my body leveled off a little because I eased up on the drinking; but that only lasted a year before I went back to hitting the bottle hard along with whatever female was around at the time to keep me, um, “occupied.” I was still taking heavy stim preworkouts. I was hospitalized in 2017 for an infection on my right middle finger. They wanted to chop it off, I wasn’t having any of that, nope... Then Covid happened. I got Covid halfway through the pandemic and it aggravated my diabetes to such a level that my body went into ketoshock and I had almost died. I have had serious and complex issues ever since.

So, yeah, if you look at pics of me from 2014, I am ripped, six pack, shredded but my strength was way down and getting worse. Now since I quit drinking, the drinking was making my condition worse, I was able to get my weight back up to around 157-162 on a given day. So, not ripped anymore but still pack a good punch. I am somewhere between fit dad bod and a natural bulldog look. I am happy with that. If I had a car and a better money situation I would be at a controlled environment like a gym. Right now I am training in my @home Garage Gym Life with what I have to work with, which is a decent setup for home gym. With the weather down here it is hard for me to really get after it. I cannot handle the heat very well anymore and the garage is not insulated. It gets hot in there even when it’s only in the 70s-80s. It will feel like 100+ in there. I have had to condense my training efforts significantly.

Some of you have ask for some general tips. So here are some…

TIPS:

Some of this might sound basic as fuck but it’s important:

1) Consistency – A steady balance of: Diet, Rest, Training and Repeat. All of these are equally difficult but Repeat is the hardest. You do not have to train every day. Actually you shouldn’t train every day but you should train 4-5 days a week and hit at least every body part once or twice pending on your schedule.

2) Eat a well-balanced diet. If you want your body to grow you have to feed it. Protein based foods. You can never fail with meats and veggies people. No matter what all the articles, YouTube channels, professionals say about diet. You have to eat protein based meals. You cannot replace food with shakes. Shakes are not a meal replacement but are meal enhancements. You drink a shake with your meal if the meal doesn’t have the protein you need to sustain both muscle repair and muscle growth. You can/should have a protein shake or a BCAA drink after your workout. There is no magic number here. You need 60 grams of protein for breakfast alone to sustain muscular growth. You will have to look up what your bodyweight/height, all that stuff, and find a number that works for you per meal that triggers the body to respond to this stimulus.

3) You need to rest your body. Your body grows/loses weight during rest/sleep. Do not short change yourself in that arena if your plan is to grow more. Your brain and body both need rest, so sleep… Even losing weight, the body needs to rest to repair what work you did to it.

4) This goes back to consistency… Repeat… If you do all this you must make it habitual. If you are constantly breaking your routine of diet, rest, exercise and skip the repeat button your results will show this.

5) Do not over train. Over training is a real thing but what “they” do not tell you is what that actually means. Over training simply means your diet/rest are not matching your effort in the gym. You might go in the gym and bust ass for 3 hour workouts and that is fine but you have to do both rest and eat at that same intensity or your body will not build upon itself as you expect it will.

6) If your body feels flat, tired and your results are becoming hindered, most likely that is because your body isn’t getting enough nutrients and rest to match the breakdown of your body in the gym. Be mindful. This is the one single reason people quit their fitness journey. The science is real, however, it is not a one size fits all and trainers/coaches will treat you like it is, it isn’t, everyone is different. Everyone’s body is different and what triggers their own stimulus is different. It is a trainer’s/coach’s job to sell you on the premise that you cannot achieve your fitness goals without their help/guidance. That is only partially true. You can absolutely get in shape without paying the obscene amounts of money that trainers/coaches charge people. Especially in group training establishments. However, not all coaches/trainers are like this and you personally may need that extra help. Just know that this is doable on your own if you are willing to put in the time, energy, research, diet, rest, exercise, attention, acceptance, repeat onto yourself. It is more than just projecting this on yourself. You must actually DO IT… No level of belief will do this for you. You must comply and do the work or nothing that is wanted will be achieved.

7) Look up split routines. Look up HITT training. Look up Hypertrophy or the process of how muscles are broken down and built back up. Look up the differences for training for power, endurance and growth. All 3 are different but share common attributes. They are also not all mutually exclusive.

8) Supplements… Be careful with these. If you are gonna use supplementation do your research. Most supplements and/or companies are not regulated by the FDA. They have labels, sure, but what is on the label is not literally monitored by the FDA. You may buy protein and realize the protein has a bunch of fillers in there to make it taste better, but may be a substance that your digestive tract cannot process. I would also stay away from Stimulant based preworkouts. They make you feel great, but what they do not tell you, in a lot of cases, they are using one of like 30 different chemicals that are considered and/or in the meth family tree. You are not ingesting literal meth, but it will pop you as a positive drug test for meth. This is because your standard drug test for meth covers ALL of the whole family of meth-based-chemicals. Not all of them are illegal but they are still considered “meth.” You have to get a comprehensive drug test done so they can see the exact chemical make-up of what is in your urine/bloodstream. It costs more so they do not usually do that. Also if you are taking drug tests regularly you should bring in all the supplements you are taking and let the lab people see it for themselves. I almost got into trouble with probation when I was on probation because I got popped for meth and had to bring in the supplement I was taking that had that meth-family-chemical in it. That is how I know this lol. You can use protein freely for the most part. Plant based is better on the gut than others. There are all sorts of things you can take that are good. You can use a non-stim preworkout or just get Beta-Alanine which is the reason why most people take preworkout to begin with. Just do your research and do not trust that the supplement companies have your best interests in mind. They don’t. They just want you to buy their stuff. If that stuff hurts you or causes sickness or worse they will not help you or even show they care. ALL supplement companies should not be trusted with your health, but you can use supplementation to help garner a better diet and workout recovery. Just do your homework and research on the chemical make-up of the substance you are putting into your body. You should be mindful and doing this anyway…

9) If you want better workout tips follow some of these channels and/or mine on YouTube. I can recommend a few. My channel mostly just shows some creative workouts you can do but I do not cover a lot of the things I have mentioned here. That is why I put this together for you all. You can always message me with your questions. I am not taking clients because to be honest I cannot give you what you really need and that is time, attention; plus I cannot literally monitor what you do on a given day.

Me – https://www.youtube.com/@mineofilms

ATHLEAN-X™

https://www.youtube.com/@athleanx

BodyBuilding.com

https://www.youtube.com/bodybuildingcom

BroScienceLife

https://www.youtube.com/@BroScienceLife

FitnessBlender

https://www.youtube.com/@fitnessblender

Tiger Fitness

https://www.youtube.com/@TigerFitness

Mike O'Hearn