Purpose is a result, end, mean, aim, or goal of an action intentionally undertaken, or of an object being brought into use or existence, whether or not the purpose was a primary or secondary effect.

When you step foot in the gym, the field, the track… You better have a purpose and reason for being there!

I often see people who aimlessly move around the gym with no clear goal or end in sight, saying that they are simply in “maintenance” mode and don’t wish to push the limits any longer.

I respect that, but I also wonder why they even train. If you are in the gym, you are there to better yourself. There is no such thing as staying the same!!

I wanted to post this for many reasons. Over the last few months, I got so caught up with running my warehouse gym business that I let my own training sit on the shelf. I was training with NO purpose. After all, as a coach I preach this every day to my athletes and clients that you MUST shoot for something and you MUST get better every time you set foot in the gym. No excuses! If you don’t wish to get better, then you simply don’t belong and you are free to go train at Globo Gym down the street. No problem, this ain’t for everyone!

So, after a self-realization the other day that I was not committed to bettering myself 100% to the fullest, I sought out help. One of the large reasons I feel why my training has been so random is the what I have coined the “Lost-Athlete” syndrome. If you were involved in competitive athletics like I was for many years and trained your a*s off to get better for that sport (or sports), then you know how hard of a transition it can be from going from athlete to hanging it up. I had nothing to compete for any longer and I was LOST. Like I said, if you are a former athlete, you can relate with me on this. I was sick and tired of it and was not going to train aimlessly any longer. My playing days may be over, but the competitive drive never dies!!

I have always been a HUGE fan of Olympic Weightlifting and the benefits it can have for athletic performance, but never really have been instructed on how to do them properly. With personal bests of 231 lb clean and 177 lb snatch at a bodyweight of 185 lbs, my numbers are fairly decent but I knew I could do much better with good coaching and consistency; or training with a purpose!! My goals? To get as strong as possible in the Olympic Lifts (Clean and Jerk, Snatch), compete in meets, and learn the lifts and be able to instruct them as best as I can to better serve my athletes!!

So, I have invested in quality coaching and joined up with Myles Ahead Weightlifting in Ronhert Park, CA. I have begun training with Freddie Myles, a national caliber lifter, this past week and make the 1 hour (round trip) drive 3 days a week. I hope to compete this year in my first competition, so I’m very focused and driven. It feels good to train for something again! See the video below of Freddie with a 163 kg clean and jerk! That’s about 360 pounds… More than the average person can deadlift! Now that’s real strength and athleticism if you ask me!

I also believe in practicing what you preach, so as a coach I feel that being able to show my athletes that I can actually walk the walk  and not just spew some nonsense will pay off dividends in how they respond to me and how I approach their training programs.

The whole point of this post? Don’t be afraid to take risks! Have a CLEAR focus with your training. Write your goals down and be as specific as you can. You must have a laser-like focus and attack it every day. Like I’ve said before,  you’re either 1 step closer to your goal, or 1 step back.. No such thing as staying the same!

I would like to hear your thoughts on this. Have you felt like this before? Have you experienced the “Lost-Athlete” syndrome? Let’s help each other prevent this from happening! Leave your comments and thoughts below!

“How can I possibly get a good workout in when I go on vacation?”

“Will I lose my strength if I’m gone for a week?!”

These are some of the more common questions I receive, especially from athletes and regular trainees who are on the road q uite often.

If you travel enough and stay in hotels, you’ll notice that the typical “gyms” inside the hotel are pretty lame…

More than often you can find 1 or 2 treadmills, a set of dumbbells going no higher than 40 pounds, a bunch of TV’s, a couple machines, and a few other pieces of useless equipment. Sorry, just not my style to sit on a treadmill or machine.. To each his own though; if that’s what you enjoy, by all means..

But if you’re really looking to keep your muscle, strength, speed, and fitness levels high while traveling, here are a couple simple tips to help starve off boredom of regular hotel gyms, keep your workouts intense, and still allow you to enjoy your travels.

1. Invest In a Set of Resistance Bands. Not the typical surgical tubing bands you get from your local sporting goods stores, I’m talking about the heavy duty bands that actually give you some decent resistance. You can pick them up at EliteFTS.com at a pretty good price. Get a pair of each. The exercises you can perform are pretty much endless if you get creative enough – anything you can do with a cable/pulley machine you can do with bands: face pulls, band pull aparts, band good mornings, band rows, etc..
   
2. Learn to Love Unilateral Movements. Unilateral = training one limb at a time. More than likely there will be no squat/power rack at your hotel gym, so the next best option is to train 1 arm/leg at a time using dumbbells. If they aren’t heavy enough to challenge you, either up the total volume, perform timed intervals i.e. 45/15, 30/30, etc., or (even better) invest in a ketllebell. If you are driving, you could easily store this in your car and bring into the hotel gym when you want to train, or even better, go outdoors and bring a couple bands with you.
   
3. Get REALLY Good at Bodyweight Training. Bodyweight training is not done enough; pretty sad really, when most people have a rough time performing a few chin ups, bodyweight squats, or push ups without caving over. You can get an awesome training session in with a few basic bodyweight movements. Again, get creative, have fun, and enjoy the benefits of bodyweight training for strength, speed, and power.
   

BONUS: Here’s a simple travel workout you can do with minimal to no equipment:

1A.) Sprints 6-10 x 30-50 yards

2A.) Push Ups 3-4 x Max Reps

2B.) Pull Ups 3-4 x Max Reps

3A.) Swings (Use DB, KB, or homemade t-handle) 75 total reps

4A.) Band Pull Apart 4 x 25

4B.) Planks 4 x 60 seconds

As you can see, you really don’t need a whole lot of equipment to get the job done. Just the right attitude and mindset to get better!

Simple, right? I’d like to hear your comments below.. What are your favorite ways to train when you are traveling?! Remember, just because you’re on the road doesn’t mean you still can’t get a solid workout in!

See ya,

John Cortese

PS- I know that most of you by now have heard the Elliott Hulse and Mike Westerdal are about to release Lean Hybrid Muscle: Reloaded. This is GREAT news for you. Why? I have a SWEET hook-up for my blog subscribers when LHM launches next week! If you want in on this, be sure to sign up for the newsletter to hear more! I’ll have more details in the next few days, but in the meantime, be sure to “Like” this post and leave me your comments below!

1. Is there really such thing as type III muscle fiber?

A Type III muscle fiber is just a cool name for a hybrid type II muscle fiber that takes on traits of a type I fiber.

It’s nothing new. It’s just something a lot of people haven’t heard about. Early adapters of this theory included Dr. Len Schwartz who in 1995 coined the phrase “Long Strength”. Dr. Schwartz describes Long strength as “the ability to exert significant strength for an extended period of time.”

John Parrillo-the second proponent of long strength-began having his bodybuilders doing really high intensity cardio. He claimed that doing this actually altered the muscle composition. He called this form a resistance training the “100 rep extended set,” saying that it helped the body to construct more mitochondria-the muscles’ “cellular blast furnaces.” He also says that this increases muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways that provide nourishment to the muscles.

Ori Hofmekler is the third early adopter of the long strength concept. Ori developed a weight training system that he called, “Controlled Fatigue Training.” According to Ori, this type of training was specifically designed to develop these super hybrid muscles-ones that were capable of generating and sustaining strength for extended periods.

2. Why do we want a type 3 super muscle?

We know that Type 1 fibers have a higher mitochondrial density than type 2 thus they are more fuel efficient. Simply put, they burn fat for energy better than the type 2 fibers.

Type 2 fibers usually have a thicker diameter… they are bigger fibers. When they begin adopting the behavior of type 1 fibers by gradually increasing their mitochondrial density they ultimately become even BIGGER in size as well a better at burning fat for energy.

So if you want muscles that are BIGGER, STRONGER, have more ENDURANCE, and are better at FAT BURNING than you’ll want to develop these muscles.

3. How do we get them?

By combining cardio and resistance activities it causes the composition of muscles to transform from predominately type II or type IIb into Type III. By doing this, we are able to push “beyond our genetic limits,” much like the ancient Spartans, Gladiators and Vikings did.

Having more mitochondria in the muscle cells means that more nutrients can be processed, giving the muscles the ability to work considerably harder for longer periods. They’re also able to grow larger and are able to resist getting tired for longer periods.

Knowing this, we can see that the goal of cardio combined with resistance-sometimes known as hybrid cardio is to push our muscles to undergo a reconfiguration and increase the number of mitochondria in the cells.

4. Should I eat for size or fat loss during this program?

The answer to that is…it depends. Sometimes you’ll eat more calories and sometimes you’ll eat less. However nutrient timing is just one aspect of gaining muscle and burning fat.

Nutrition would be such an easy topic to practice and discuss if human beings were as simple as a mathematical equation.

You know… 10 – 3 = 7

But when it comes to the dynamic hormonal and nervous system fluctuations present in the human body… often times

10 – 3 = 478!!

With such various reactions to a broad spectrum of stimuli, the simple notion that calories in vs. calories out determines your fat loss or muscle building results, is a completely ineffective means for determining fitness results. For example, when exposed to the harsh and threatening demands of prison life, many inmates continue to build thick, lean muscles despite the lack of access to high quality foods, proteins and supplements.

This is due to the highly anabolic state that their bodies are able to maintain when in such a testosterone driven environment. Also, have you ever met a fat person that barely eats? They consume very little calories yet they are obese! This is also due to a hormonal response. It also destroys the notion that lower calories equal less body fat.

Fat loss and muscle building are the result of several lifestyle and nutrition modifications, none more important than the other. All of our daily choices have an impact on our fitness results, not simply how much food we eat.

5. Can I continue my current workout and add Resistance Cardio at the end of my workouts for 20-30 minutes?

Yes that’s a great idea. That’s a hybrid workout in itself. Continue to train with weights for strength, muscle growth and toning. Than instead of doing 30-minutes of traditional cardio on a treadmill or stationary bike add some resistance cardio to your workout to start developing the Type III muscle fiber.

To do hybrid cardio all you need to is combine aerobic and anaerobic (resistance) activities. You can do this by adding dumbbells to your cardio workout.

If you want to go jogging, try wearing a weight vest while doing it. If you want to do something low impact, pick up some kettlebells or dumbbells and walk up a flights of stairs. Interval hybrid cardio using your bodyweight is another good option.

Another idea is to set up a circuit of pull-ups, squats, box jumps and push-ups. Alternate exercises every 20-30 seconds and keep moving. Keep going for 20-minutes. I guarantee you a bodyweight circuit like this will be faster, burn more calories and keep you more entertained. You can mix things up even more by holding each position for five to ten seconds-up for pull-ups and push-ups, down for lunges and squats.

Once the bodyweight cardio exercises aren’t challenging enough you can try a few of these sample Metabolic Resistance Cardio workouts to do at the end of your normal workouts. They are all full body workouts, so feel free to rotate through them, it doesn’t matter which one you pick.

Remember your muscles will already be somewhat fatigued from the weight training session you just performed so you’ll want to use a much lighter weight when doing this kind of resistance cardio after a weight training session.

When you buy the Lean Hybrid Muscle program you get hybrid cardio templates that you can add to the end of your workouts. Like we mentioned this is great if you want to spice up your boring cardio sessions but stay with the current lifting program you’re currently doing.

To learn more about the Type III muscle fiber visit this page:

http://www.leanhybridmuscle.com/ Get my free report entitled, The Muscle Shifting Doctrine. Click to learn how you can rapidly build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight training magazine.

Gotta sweet video for you below from my friend and mentor, Elliott Hulse!

If you’ve ever wondered how you can build lean muscle and lose fat at the same time, check out the video below. Elliott goes over a week of Hybrid Muscle training and how you can set it up for yourself..

If you liked this video, please leave your comments below!! Thanks guys!

PS- Not sure if you’ve heard yet, but Elliott Hulse and Mike Westerdal are about to launch Lean Hybrid Muscle Reloaded (the new, updated version of the original Lean Hybrid Muscle product)!! I’ll keep you guys posted, but it’s going to be sick! I was even lucky enough to contribute to LHM Reloaded with something that I think EVERYONE could benefit from, so stay tuned!! I’ve got some cool sh*t for you guys coming up that I think you’ll enjoy.

Later!!

I thought you may enjoy this special free report I made up! It’s titled “Advanced Recovery Techniques for Improved Speed and Strength!”

Many serious, dedicated, and driven athletes have already downloaded their copy, it’s cool to see!

I really like talking about this subject. The faster an athlete can recover, the better he/she will perform. On the field, weight room, court/track… This is even more important for elite athletes who are much faster and stronger than a novice athlete.

If more athletes placed as much emphasis on this as their actual training, the athlete will dominate their competition because they are not in a chronic state of fatigue.

I firmly believe that’s how many of my athletes have improved at the rate they are at CTS Strength & Conditioning because of the emphasis we place on keeping the training sessions relatively short (45-60 minutes), training up anywhere from 2-4 times per week (depending on the athlete, age, where there are at in their competitive season/off-season, etc), and being very patient and consistent! While we train hard, we also place large emphasis on recovery.

If you don’t take restoration and recovery seriously, your athletic careers’ potential may not be fulfilled to the max…

Not to worry though! Just click the link below to download your copy. No e-mails needed Just my way of sayin’ thanks!

Here’s a breif overview of the topics covered…

• Foam rolling
• Tempo runs
  
• Jump rope
• Medicine ball training
  
• Bodyweight training
• Contrast Therapy (hot/cold)
  

Download your Free Copy Here! <—- Get your copy here

Here

(Be sure to right click and save if you want to reference it for future use!)

Enjoy!

PS – Once you’ve read the report, be sure to hit the “Like” button and leave a comment below. We can get some awesome discussion going about recovery techniques and get into more details.. If we reach 25 comments, I’ll do a follow up video!

Bulking up and eating like crazy, to pack on serious mass, is one of the most controversial topics in bodybuilding today…

Some people say bulking is a thing of the past… others say it’s a necessary evil for serious gains, and insanely effective way to pack on serious mass.

Honestly, I am a firm believer that you can gain muscle without having to put much fat on. Yes, there will be some fat gain but you can keep it to a minimum while you aim to put on muscle/size.

This is pretty important, especially considering athletes who wish to put on more muscle without adding unnecessary body fat that could put a damper on their speed and power..

Speaking of that topic, you can download a couple of FREE reports that talk about this very subject from Vince Del Monte and Lee Hayward.

No e-mail address needed, just simply click the links below to get ‘em!

The Death of Bulking <—- Click to Download!

The Anabolic Amplifier Effect <—- Click to Download!

Let me know what you thought in the comments section below! What do you think? Can you gain muscle without fat, or is traditional bulking the way to go?

I’ve got a great audio interview for you that I was asked to be a part of a couple months ago. Travis Self of FITT Warehouse Training Systems in Atlanta, Georgia and I spoke on the phone for nearly an hour about GPP, strength development for youth athletes, educating parents on WHY it’s so vital for young athletes to get stronger, and much more.

Check it out by clicking the link below.

John Cortese Interview with Travis Self <— Click Here to  Listen!!

Hope you enjoy,

John Cortese

Be sure to leave your comments in the comment section below. If you liked this interview, please “Like” by pressing the Facebook “Like” button!

Been away from the blog for a short while, but I’m back! It’s been a busy couple months for me getting the gym up and running. It’s been a lot of work but fun and all worth it!

Group of athletes being taken through a hip mobility warm-up circuit!

I’ve attached a couple videos below to give you a glimpse of what’s happening lately at CTS Strength & Conditioning (my warehouse gym for training athletes) in Napa, CA.

Be sure to leave me a comment in the comments section, let me know what you think!

Thanks for your support! If you liked this post, be sure to press the Facebook “Like” button below! It helps spread the word!

- John Cortese, CSCS

I’m the type of guy that can get distracted easily. Most of the time I stay focused and attack my training, business, and everything else I’m caught up in with 100% intensity. I have to admit though – lately I have “fallen off the wagon” so to speak and really have not been as consistent with my own training as I usually am. I’ve been so busy training other athletes and clients that I neglected myself. I don’t have any excuses for it, it just so happened that way. I LOVE to train, but I don’t really like marathon sessions; especially when I have to focus on other business building tasks, keeping my girlfriend happy, hanging out with friends/family, etc.

Yes, there is a LIFE outside of the gym. I appreciate and value that more than anything, so the last thing I want to do is spend countless hours training. The fact of the matter is you can still get kick-ass results in a very short amount of time training per day (think 30-45 minute sessions!)

I recently picked up a copy of Jason Ferruggia’s latest product Minimalist Training and let me tell you – this was the product I’ve been looking for!

The minute I heard about it, I was very excited. I’ve been really interested lately in a minimalistic-style of living; eliminating all that is unnecessary in your life to allow freedom and a sense of relief while letting go of things that are not needed. And that includes training, personal possessions, nutrition, etc. I strongly adhere to keeping it simple and this book does exactly that!

Who is it for?

This is a GREAT resource for trainers and coaches who want to keep things simple and still get their athletes/clients results. There are programs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters, so you’ve got all areas of the training spectrum covered! It really makes no sense trying to re-invent the wheel when you’re looking to get bigger and stronger. This manual lays it out for you in a simple and progressive way. All you have to do is execute!

This is also useful for the lifter who has “program A.D.D.” or someone who jumps from program to program hoping for a miracle in a short amount of time. Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. This will eliminate any confusion you may have about designing a program for maximal gains without over-training, a very common mistake in new lifters who think doing more is better.

From programs ranging from “70′s Strength and Mass”, “Three the Hard Way”, and “Two for the Time”, you’re sure to never run out of options to keep your progress moving forward and ensure that you’re adhering to the KISS principle while maximizing your time in the weight room and giving you some breathing room in your life to do other things.

You’ll even get options on simple yet intense conditioning methods, so no stone is left unturned!

I mean, honestly – who really wants to spend 2-3 hours in the gym multiple times per week? I don’t, and neither should you! I plan on using this as a go-to resource for my own training as well as for my own athletes and clients that wish to get bigger, stronger, and faster.

The best part of all in my opinion is that the “sciencey” stuff is really kept to a minimum; just pure, no BS content that you can apply right away. It’s virtually impossible to over-analyze and over-think your training with this product in your arsenal!

As a strong proponent of Jason Ferruggia’s training methods and an avid reader/follower of his blog, I highly recommend picking up a copy of his latest product Minimalist Training to see how you can get awesome gains in strength and muscle without becoming a slave to your training.

Grab your copy of Minimalist Training now by clicking HERE!

Enjoy!

- John Cortese, CSCS

Corteseperformance.com

The Energy Drink Scam — Do Energy Drinks Actually Help You, or Can They Actually Make You Fatter?

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist

Author – The Truth About Six Pack Abs

Today I have a little rant on energy drinks…

I receive a ton of questions about all of these new “energy” drinks that have hit the market over the last few years. They seem to be all the rage, and they promise you the world with outrageous claims of all of the super energy that you are going to have, and how you’ll become the best athlete in the world, start lifting cars over your head, and get a perfect body.

So a couple questions arise:

Are these “energy” drinks really any good for you?

Do they actually increase your e

nergy?

Do they really have some sort of magical energy formula?

Will they help you lose weight?

First of all, let’s look at what most of these energy drinks are usually made of. Most of them are simply carbonated water loaded with gut-fattening high fructose corn syrup (or other added sugars), caffeine, the amino acid taurine, and some crappy artificially-derived vitamins added for show to trick you into thinking there’s something healthy about these concoctions.

Let’s start with the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Well, here we’ve got empty calories that will go straight to your belly fat, and that are possibly even WORSE for you than plain old refined sugar (although that’s up for debate, but semantics in the big picture). Some energy drinks use other added sugars instead of HFCS, but it doesn’t really matter, because they are all gut-fattening empty calories with no nutritional benefit.

Ok, so you say that they also have low-sugar or sugar-free varieties as an alternative to the HFCS-laden energy drinks. Yes, but now you have the problem of the harmful chemicals in the artificial sweeteners which have their own set of health dangers.

Another problem with artificial sweeteners is that there are some research studies that indicate artificial sweetener use leads people to inadvertently consume more calories and gain more weight in the long run… in addition to having a negative hormonal effect in the body. I won’t go into all of the details on that topic because that would fill up an entire discussion by itself.

Just trust me that artificial sweeteners and artificial chemicals in food in general, are ALL bad news for your body! It’s never a good idea to try to “trick” your body with artificial tastes.

What about the caffeine?

Well, first of all, caffeine doesn’t in itself provide “energy”. Technically, the only substance that actually provides energy is calories (from carbs, protein, and fat).

However, caffeine can be an aid for livening or waking some people up, by means of stimulating the central nervous system.

Instead of caffeine artificially added to some carbonated “energy” drink, I’d rather get my caffeine from a natural source like green, white, or oolong teas (or my new favorite – yerba mate teas), which actually provide very powerful healthy antioxidants too!

Keep in mind though, if you’re a regular daily coffee drinker, you probably have some level of addiction to caffeine and probably wouldn’t receive too much benefit from the caffeine in an energy drink anyway.

Tip: try to drink more tea and reduce your coffee intake to only a couple days per week max to reduce your dependency on caffeine. Most teas contain much less caffeine than coffee, and some teas (such as green, white, and oolong) contain synergistic phytochemicals that work to slow the response of the caffeine that they do contain. This means you get a milder response from the caffeine in green, oolong, or white teas compared to the harsher jittery response that some people get from coffee.

Now what about that so called magical blend of taurine and B-vitamins that they load into these energy drinks?

Well, big deal…you get taurine in almost any protein source. And the vast majority of those artificially added B-vitamins are simply coming right out into the toilet in your pee. Vitamins are best obtained naturally from a REAL food source, not artificially added to some carbonated drink. Your body just doesn’t use fake sources of vitamins as readily as natural sources from real food.

So as you can see, in my opinion, I give all of these energy drinks a big time THUMBS DOWN! Don’t fall for the ridiculous marketing of all of these so-called “energy drinks”.

Instead, here’s my recipe for my own home-made energy drink:

1. Make a big iced tea mixture using green tea, white tea, and yerba mate tea. I like to add a little fruit flavor, so I’ll use 1 tea bag of a raspberry or blueberry hibiscus tea, and then use 2-3 green and/or white tea bags, and 2-3 yerba mate tea bags, and make a gallon container of iced tea. I just use a small amount of stevia to lightly sweeten the batch of tea.

2. I buy a container of organic coconut water from a health food store, or buy fresh coconuts to obtain the coconut water from the inside.

3. For my healthy energy drink, I mix a half of a glass of the white/green/yerba mate iced tea mixture and fill the rest of the glass with the coconut water.

This is actually a delicious and truly healthy energy drink instead of the chemical-laden crappy energy drinks that everybody is getting suckered into buying these days.

The green, white, and yerba mate teas contain a small dose of caffeine along with a diverse mixture of powerful antioxidants and synergistic phytochemicals. Plus, the coconut water is a rich source of electrolytes and a diversity of vitamins and minerals. Coconut water is known to provide a good instant energy source, and also contains a small dose of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), which are healthy fats that are readily used for energy and also aid your immune system.

So enjoy this natural healthy energy drink, knowing that you’re doing your body good instead of filling it with chemicals with normal store-bought energy drinks.

As usual, feel free to email this link to your friends and family or share it on your blogs, forums, or facebook pages to help your friends live healthier.

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