Better late than never, so here goes…

As you may or may not know, I took a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada about two weeks ago to learn and hangout with some of the top fitness experts on the internet. Guys such as Craig Ballantyne and Vince Delmonte were in attendance.  I also got a chance to meet some other cool new friends and do an interview with Vince about living large OUTSIDE of the gym. [I'll post that below]

To make this easier on me, I am going to post a message that I sent to a good friend of mine Charles Cicciarella a message about my time in Vegas. The message described my entire trip so well that I figured I would post it here. Side note – Charles is working on a book about his incredible weight loss journey, this dude lost a ton of weight. I will be sure to post more about him and his story later as well as a link to where you can download his book, but for now… just be prepared for what this guy has to offer. His weight lost accomplishment is nothing short of amazing.

Now… for my great story about my Vegas trip

“so I land in Vegas, very excited to hangout with some of the top fitness experts and have a good relaxing weekend, right? I walk into my hotel, and just in time, life throws a curve ball at me. I only paid for my first night’s stay… I honestly wanted to go back to the airport and just go home. I was almost 100% sure I had paid for my entire stay!

Well, I had brought $450 with me to Vegas… (big dip into my savings :/) and figured I would need it in case of an emergency (just didn’t figure the emergency would be the first damn thing to happen when in Vegas.)
I spent $350 to pay for the remainder of my hotel stay, which left me with $100 for my entire trip…. Yeah, I know, $100 in Vegas… Not exactly enough cash for a dream vacation (or so I thought)
I went to my room pretty damn pissed off… but then Arnel Ricafranca (iwantsixpackabs.com) shot me a text message asking how my flight was and we had a little chat which made me feel a bit better…
The rest of the weekend was a freakin’ dream come true dude… I can’t even explain how much fun I had (not that dirty, prostitute/stripper/drunk fun where a friend ends up on the roof) I don’t know how to explain it, It was like a dream…

It was honestly like God told me “Anthony, I know you’ve got big dreams and ambitions… and I know being patient is hard, so I’m going to let you live out those dreams and ambitions for 1 weekend so you can get a little glimpse into what your future is going to be like… something to keep you goin’ and let you know that this will all pay off… a light at the end of the tunnel”

Ahh.. it was great man.

I got an interview with Vince Delmonte, check it out if you get time. It’s on his blog,youtube and also my facebook.”

That’s the end of my message to Charles… that really saved me a lot of writing!

Just to let you in on a few things I did in Vegas… I ate dinner ate some really great restaurants, I walked up and down the strip checking out all of the sites, I got some really killer workouts in at the hotel’s very fancy spa and exercise facility and I decided last minute to join the rest of the group at the night club (not really my thing) but ended up having the time of my life because we had a VIP suite in the club where Snoop Dogg and Ray J were performing!.

Oh, did I mention when I got home I still had $40 left over? Amazing, right?

Here’s the video with Vince…

Men and women are quite opposite in pretty much every aspect of life, including fitness.

What we men need to do is team up with the women and conquer muscle building and fat loss together.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

How women approach nutrition…

They eat plenty of fruits, vegetables and other not-so-manly foods like salads.

How men approach nutrition…

They eat lots of meat, protein shakes and too many supplements.

Conclusion: Men need to start following in the footsteps of the women by consuming more fruits, vegetables, salads, nuts, cottage cheese, lower fat products, etc. Women need to learn from men that it’s ok to eat meat (chicken, fish, other lean meats, etc) and that protein shakes are not forbidden just because you are a female. They aren’t going to blow you up and make you look like those women who are twice the size of your older brother flexing on the stage (those women are on drugs).

How women approach weight training…

They usually lift weights that  are way to light, doing exercises that don’t make sense and cut their workouts short.

How men approach weight training…

We suffer from the male-ego-syndrome. Men generally try to lift weights that are too damn heavy, workout too

long and think we know everything. We really sell ourselves short because we’re afraid to take and implement advice

from more experienced people.

Conclusion: Find an in-between spot. Moderate to heavy weight is perfect if you can lift with proper form and every so often, switching to a light weight routine does a good job of confusing your muscles. Also, workouts should be between 45minutes and an hour long. No longer or you’ll probably be over training (especially if you’re a dude). And we can all use the advice of trained professionals.

How women approach cardio:

They don’t bitch and moan about it. They’re generally pretty good about it. Usually 30minutes or more of slow to medium paced cardio before their weight training workout.

How men approach cardio:

With a gun to our heads… Kidding, but that’s about the only way you can get most guys on a treadmill because we DO bitch and moan about it. We usually do our cardio in the morning

or AFTER a weight training a session (if we do it at all).

Conclusion: Men need to suck it up and realize cardio is necessary for a lean physique. Women need to stop wasting time doing cardio at the wrong times, so a general rule of thumb

is do your cardio in the morning or AFTER your weight training session, NOT BEFORE. A quick warm-up on the treadmill is no problem though ladies. Also, in my experience Interval training

or Metabolic Response Training are the best forms of cardio (much better than slow, boring cardio) and the fat burning effects stick around long after you leave the gym.

I was eating a bowl of cereal the other day, instead of helping a leprechaun find all of his lucky charms the back of this box contained some useful and interesting information. It had a bunch of interesting facts that you probably don’t know about your body. I thought you would like it, check it out:

• A child has 300 bones that fuse into 206 bones by adulthood.
• Some people have an extra bone in the arch of their foot.
• One in every 20 people has an extra rib.
• You have 93,000 miles of peripheral nerves.
• Your fastest nerves send impulses at 395 feet/second at up to 300 impulses per second.
• You have more than 640 skeletal muscles. Which is the largest? You’re sitting on it.
• Your body has ~10pints of blood. About the same amount of oil in a v8 engine.
• Your body is ~54-60% water.
• Your body is only ~18% bone.
• Your heart weighs about half a pound to 3/4 of a pound.
• Your heart does the amount of work it would take to life the body one mile straight up.
• Your heart beats 100,000 times a day and 2.5 billion times in your life.
• The average head has 120,000 hairs.
• Natural blonds have an average of ~140,000 hairs.
• Natural red heads have an average of ~90,000 hairs.
• You can recognize 10,000 different smells.
• There are  four basic types of smell – fragrant, acid, rancid and burnt.
• Smell is the sense we get accustomed to most quickly.
• Most odors can hardly be perceived just 30 seconds after they are first detected.
• You can hear sound frequencies from 20 hz to 20,000 Hz.
• You can hear some lower frequencies than a bat can, but you can also hear some higher frequencies than a bird can.

I just bought a new microphone to record videos with. Still playing with the levels, but I just wanted to make a quick powerpoint presentation for you.
It’s all about Mike Geary’s program, which you can learn more about here: ImpressiveAbs.com

If find yourself making six pack ab related goals such as “I will have a six pack by this summer” then I highly recommend you check this out and here’s a little secret. If you actually follow Mike Geary’s advice. I wouldn’t be the least bit shocked if you got your abs long before summer hits… Mike Geary is the real deal, he has the #1 rated abs program on the internet. You will not be disappointed.

WARNING: 1,000 – 1,500 new people are joining Mike’s ab program EVERY DAY. Mike hasn’t said that he is putting a limit on the number of available copies, but either way, I wouldn’t take the chance of missing out on this. In fact, if I had to recommend one program for you to commit to this year… this would be it. So don’t forget to check it out now at ImpressiveAbs.com

BONUS VIDEO: I couldn’t find a picture of Ronaldo, so instead check out these little kids re-enacting The Jersey Shore.

I’m really busy working on some cool give-aways for you guys, so I don’t have time to whip up a nice long article.

However, my friend Tristan Lewis just posted an article to his blog that teaches you how to get bigger arms.

Oh… and just to get a better idea of what you guys and girls would like from me (for free, no strings attached)

could you take this quick 3 question short survey? — What Do You Want From Me?! Survey

And even though I’m a bit drowned in work. I will go ahead and add in a few tips for big arms.

Bicep and Tricep Tips:

1. Compound movements (the big exercises that don’t seem like they’re targeting your arms) are going to make your arms grow more than you can think
2. Your arms will go in relation to your bigger muscles
3. Don’t work your arms harder than you do your legs
4. If you still can’t get big arms, head over to maverickfitnesscoach.com and check out Tristan’s post about arm training

P.S — Don’t forget to take the 3 question survey — What Do you Want From Me?! Survey

So you’ve come down with a nasty cold, a case of the flu or maybe you just decided to hook up with that girl all of your friends warned you about.

The point is… you’re not feeling very good So, is working out sick a good idea?

I’m all for the macho man routine and being a tough guy when it counts, but when I’m feeling under the weather I turn into a momma’s boy. I would rather get my rest and hit the gym hard when I can actually give the weights an honest 110% Plus, the gym is a breeding ground for germs. So there’s a good chance that you will either get sicker than you already are or end up passing your germs to the next lucky guy/girl in line to use the equipment you were on.

NOTE: If you decide that working out while sick is a good idea than don’t be an asshole. Wipe down your equipment with the disinfecting spray that every gym should have readily available.

I’m pretty mental about missing a day in the gym. I think I may have picked it up from my cousin. When I was younger I would always ask him “Have you been hitting the gym?” and his smart-ass reply was always “Dude. I don’t miss” — Over the years I have developed this same train of thought. Never miss a day unless you have to and don’t take that literally. When I say “never miss a day” I don’t mean I train 365 days/year. I mean I try to never miss a schedule day at the gym, as in the days I am supposed to be in the gym according to whichever routine I’m following and always make sure to always schedule in enough rest-days. So when you do miss a day because you were too sick to train, you won’t feel so guilty.

Guidelines To Working Out While Sick:

It’s okay to workout (but also okay to take a rest day) if you…

• You have runny nose (bring tissue)
• Mild cough (cover your mouth)
• Sneezing (don’t leave snot on the barbells)
• Bothersome/Scratchy Throat

It’s not okay to workout if…

• You’re puking up everything you eat
• You have Diarrhea
• You’ve got a high fever
• You have a dry cough

Additional Guides For Working Out Sick:

1. Do “Just Enough”. Don’t go to the gym sick and expect to be lifting the same amount of weight you did the previous week. Also, if you’re sick it’s probably not a good time to max out or go heavy on the bench, dead lift or squat. Do just enough exercise to satisfy your body and mind, because let’s face it a lot of us fitness junkies can’t bear to skip a day at the gym and even if we only go for 15 minutes that’s better than not going at all, right?
2. Bring a water bottle. Nobody wants you to cough all over the drinking fountain
3. Wipe down your exercise equipment
4. Know your limits, working out while sick can be taxing. You won’t have as much energy, listen to your body and know when enough is enough

Getting in shape is no easy task, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as most people make it. Far to many people fall back on the excuse that getting in shape is expensive and requires a ton of money and a membership at a fancy gym.

Wrong! Stop making excuses lazy asses.

Today I’m going to kill all of your excuses and leave you left with no other choice but to get off your butt and get in shape.

Here are 5 of the best ways to get in shape at home. No expensive gym membership required:

1. Cardio – Cardio is necessary if you want to shed the pounds of flab that are covering up your hidden abs. Luckily for you cardio is much more fun when you’re doing it outside and not on a boring piece of cardio equipment. Some of the best forms of cardio that you can do at home include sprinting, jogging, power walking, swimming if you’ve got a pool, and my personal favorite jump roping. I found a really nice jump rope for $3.00 and it has lasted me over a year and a half.
2. Bodyweight Exercise - Building muscle doesn’t have to require tons of equipment and weights (but it helps) plenty of world class olympic gymnasts have built rock solid muscular bodies using nothing but bodyweight exercises. You can start off with the basic pull-ups and push-ups. Then you can move onto some more advanced exercises. A simple Google search for: bodyweight exercises will provide you with everything you need.
3. Abs and Calves - I don’t like to waste time in the gym, so if I’m in a hurry I know that I can always sacrifice my ab/calve portion of my workout and makeup for it with a kick-ass ab/calve session at home. There are so many different types of crunches and calve exercises that you have no excuse not to give them a good workout.
4. Gently Used Equipment – Like I said, equipment isn’t absolutely necessary… but it sure does help. You can find dirt-cheap fitness equipment in your local classified ads, on craigslist, garage sales, eBay and word of mouth. Just think about how many people out there have a set of dumbbells in their basement just wasting space and collecting dust. Most guy’s wives are yelling at them to get rid of the junk anyway. If you simply tell a handful of people that you’re looking for any gym equipment you can get your hands on I am willing to bet you could get some pretty useful stuff for free.
5. The Kitchen - Everyone home has one, right? The kitchen is your most important fitness weapon. Your kitchen can literally make or break your fitness goals. Like they say, “Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym”. Rid your entire pantry of junk food and start stocking up on healthy foods. This could quite possibly be the best thing you do for your body.

There you have it. 5 reasons to get off your butt and stop making excuses and get in shape at home.

It’s Thanksgiving in the United States, but there’s no reason everyone around the world can’t be thankful.

I just wanted to make a quick post explaining how thankful I am for those of you who have supported me, even from the beginning when no one really believed in me.

I love fitness and nothing makes me happy to learn something new and share it with you. So I just wanted to say “Thanks”.

I’ve got a long weekend off from work so I will be up late every night working on some cool gifts for you guys.

Actually… I was up until 4:30am last night working on something BIG and I’ve got a few other projects that I will be working on for the next few days and guess what? they’re all absolutely free. Just my way of saying “Thanks”.

What Are You Thankful For?

P.S — Since this is a fitness site I should probably say something about eating healthy and not gaining holiday weight right? For many people, the opportunity to spend time with friends and family only happens once or twice a year. Enjoy yourselves, just don’t overdo it.

P.S #2 — If you’re seriously concerned about holiday weight gain, I’m not the guy to talk to. Joel Marion Is. His “Cheat Your Way Thin” Program is all about losing weight over the Holidays rather than gaining weight over the holidays. The best thing is, hes offering a special discount for the next 10 hours that gives you more than 50% off. Sorry I didn’t tell you guys about this sooner, but the product is so big and there are so many people who have success with it that I wouldn’t mind paying the full price. If it sounds like a fit for you, I highly recommend you check it out:
Joel Marion’s Cheat Your Way Thin

Have a great thanks giving! I’m headed out with some friends and family. Don’t forget to tell me what you’re thankful for.

This post was inspired by the incredible muscle soreness I experienced this week after an insane back workout.

The dead lifts the trick.

Muscle soreness is a big issue for fitness beginner’s. Luckily for you, I’ve got a few tips and tricks for muscle soreness relief.

But… before we get into that, let’s take a look at what muscle soreness is, why do our muscles get sore?, is muscle soreness a good sign? and finally

how the hell to get get rid of it.

Why Do Our Muscles Get Sore?

It is commonly believed that muscle soreness is a result of built up lactic acid in your muscles. However, that is untrue! Muscle soreness is a very simple concept… when you workout, you damage muscle fibers. The damage muscle fibers become fatigued and weakened. As a result you will experience stiff and sore muscles until your body has done it’s magic and repaired the damaged muscle fibers.

Is Muscle Soreness A Good Sign?

When you get a kick ass workout in the next day you may be sore or you may not be sore. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, after a hard back workout with heavy dead lifts my entire body was aching. Was this a good sign? Not necessarily. It very well could have been a bad sign telling me that I over trained. However, I know my body and I knew it was just a result of a hard workout. I knew it wasn’t a bad sign and I didn’t injure myself. My body was extra sore simply because I had not done deadlifts in a while and my body was not used to doing them. That is when you will experience the most muscle soreness… when you do something that your body isn’t familiar with.

I know this is getting confusing… but the answer is simple; No. Muscle soreness is not an effective indicator of whether or not you got a good workout in. It’s simply your bodies way of telling you “Hey, I’m not used to that! What the hell is going on?”

I have had plenty of really great workouts where I did not feel sore the next day. And to be quite honest, I’ve had some really terrible workouts where I was sore the next day. I think the whole “If I’m sore it means I got an awesome workout in” is just a guy thing.

How To Get Rid of Muscle Soreness

1. Stretching - Post workout stretching is the simplest way to prevent next day muscle soreness and let’s be honest, most people don’t stretch nearly as much as they should. Try it out. If you’re anything like me your legs are killing the next day. Make sure to stretch your calves especially or you will be walking on your tippy toes.

2. Massage – If you’re married or in a relationship you’re in luck. You’ve got your own personal masseuses Seriously though, massages are a great way to releive sore muscles

3. Hot Showers/Baths - If you’ve never laid in a hot bath the night of a hard workout you’re missing out. Guys, baths aren’t only for women, but if you can’t get over the macho-syndrome then a hot shower will do. Better yet, do you have access to a hot tub? I wish I did.

4. Work it out – Gently work out your sore muscle and it will begin to relieve itself of any soreness. For me, calves are the worse muscle to get sore. I can barley walk… so what do I do? I walk… It gets the blood flowing and naturally stretches the sore muscle. Of course, I do it gently and start off slowly.

5. Work Out More - Remember when I said that your body is more likely to become sore when you perform unfamiliar exercises? If you familiarize your body with exercise and fitness what do you think is going to happen? In a few months you will not be half as sore as you used to be. When I first started training I remember my entire body aching when I was only working out 2-3 times each week. Now, I train 4-5x a week and soreness is not nearly as common as it used to be. To be perfectly honest, I only have to worry about muscle soreness when I train legs or when I decide to throw a curve ball at my body and do something unfamiliar or an exercise I haven’t done in a while (like the dead lifts)

That’s all I’ve got for relieving muscle soreness.

If you have got any muscle soreness relief tips or tricks I’d appreciate you letting me and all of the other readers know by leaving a comment. Thanks.

I’ve been being a bit selfish lately and posting a lot of muscle building / guy stuff. No disrespect was meant ladies!

This post a little more generic… it applies to anybody and everybody. What I’m talking about is fat burning tips and in this post I’m going to give you 14 of ‘em.

Check it out and post a comment letting me know what you think.

1. Burn more calories than you consume. – It’s the only way to effectively approach fat loss.
2. Exercise Daily – For at least 30 minutes every day you should perform some type of exercise. Everyone needs their rest days, but you should still get out of the house and at least go for a walk. Basically, don’t just sit on your ass.
3. Rest! I know it sounds contradicting, right? Well most people just don’t get enough rest. Sleep 8 solid hours and you’ll be 10 steps ahead of the competition.
4. Do cardio first thing in the morning. Your glycogen stores are at their lowest and your body will tap into fat stores for energy.
5. Train with weights and build more muscle… after all, nothing beats the hell out of fat like muscle
6. Drink plenty of water. Your body is 75% water… if you’re not taking in enough water, your body won’t be happy!
7. Do Not Starve Yourself! Ladies, this applies to you most of all. Most guys have no problem stuffing their faces… Our problem is we usually stuff it with the wrong foods. I know too many girls who think the fastest way to fat loss is through starvation. Not True! When you starve yourself your body goes starvation mode! This means your body actually preserves fat and sacrifices muscle. This is the opposite of what you are trying to do.
8. Learn how to read nutrition labels. Most people don’t know how.
9. Do not be afraid of fat… Well, healthy fats that is. Yes, there are healthy fats.
10. Eat 5 meals a day.
11. Eat in order from big to small. Breakfast should be your biggest meal and every meal after should get smaller. This is probably a shocker to some of you since most people don’t eat breakfast at all.
12. Avoid sugar, salt, desserts and anything else that you know is bad for you.
13. Download my free fitness report here: “The Better Body Formula“

There you have it. 13 quick, simple and easy to apply fat burning tips. I didn’t want to bore you with this post.

If you’re still having trouble burning fat or if you have any other fat burning tips we can add to this list let us know in the comments!