The Best Type of Exercise to Lose Weight and Stay in Shape

If you've managed to keep your resolution and you're still on the "I'll exercise more" train, good for you.  If you've been able to create a habit of exercising, you're probably wondering now how to kick it up a notch. You're now in the stage of "researching" the benefits and advantages that some types of exercise have over the one that you're doing now. You want to see if there are other ways to get to your fitness goals faster.

A lot of research in exercise science has been published over the last couple of years on the types of training modalities that might be the most effective at causing fat loss, building muscle, improving cardiovascular health, preventing injuries, increasing joint mobility and flexibility, etc.

Some will tell you that training for long endurance events like marathons, triathlons or obstacle course races is the best for overall fitness.  Some will say that you just need to take daily walks and you'll be fine.

Some studies will say that it's more efficient to use different versions of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) where you go all out for short periods of time followed by rest or active rest periods. Other studies will say that resistance training using barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, or calisthenics makes the most sense.

Many will loudly advocate that a specific combination of resistance training and high-intensity training by going to Crossfit, Orange Theory, or a similar type of box gym is the best way.

Others will say that picking up a sport, a martial art, a dance class, ultimate frisbee, pole dancing, yoga, or any other activity that "tricks you" into doing physical activity works the best.

All of these activities can be beneficial and can contribute to your overall fitness and health.  But which is really the best?

Ready for the secret?  Here goes:

The best form, modality and type of physical exercise is the one that you actually ENJOY doing.

You could have the most meticulously-written training program composed of exercise modalities backed by multiple scientific studies along with the most motivating trainer money can buy.  If you don't actually enjoy that exercise program, you will never do it consistently and you will give up after a few weeks.

Even if the exercise program is not perfect, if you enjoy the physical activity that you're doing, you are more likely to consistently do it for a very long time.  That means that in the long run, you will reap the benefits of physical activity, which includes improved general fitness, longevity and health.

If you're practicing a specific sport and you want to improve performance for a competition, then yes some training modalities will make more sense than others. There are even modalities that will get you in great shape after 12 weeks, but you won't be able to physically sustain them for the next 12 years or more.  So after those 12 weeks, you're very likely to yo-yo between being in great shape and being unhealthy or injured.

For general health and fitness, if you don't enjoy the activity in question, you won't do it.  I love practicing martial arts.  Riding my bicycle daily during the spring and summer months is fun for me.  I enjoy using heavy kettlebells and calisthenics to build physical strength.  I've very recently discovered that ballroom dancing with my spouse is a lot of fun.

For some people, all these activities sound like a nightmare.  So while they can be beneficial, they'll never do it.  Because I enjoy all of these things, I am more likely to do them for a very long time.

Will I look like a fitness model with 2% body fat on the cover of Men's Health magazine?  Possible, but not probable.  Will I keep my body healthy, strong and hopefully free from serious injuries until I'm in my 70s or 80s? Very likely.

The point is this: if you're looking for the "best" way to be in good physical condition for the rest of your life, there really isn't one.  There is such a thing as the "best one" for you.

The Myth of "Easy"

We've all probably heard our friends, colleagues and family members say things that are similar to the following:

"It's easier to skip the gym and not exercise."

"It's easier to spend and not to save money."

"It's too difficult to stay disciplined when it comes to eating healthy."

"It's easier to goof off instead of going to school and to learning a skill."

"It's difficult to get up and go to work. I'd rather sleep in and call in sick."

"It's easier to use an app to get McDonald's delivered to my door than to go grocery shopping and cooking myself a healthy meal."

"It's easier to plop on the couch next to my significant other and watch Netflix instead of taking the time to sit down and have a conversation."

In the short term, sure the examples above may seem like the "easier" options. I would make the argument that if you look at the long term, going for the "difficult" options are actually what will make your life easier in the future.

Here are a few examples:

What's easier? Regularly exercising to strengthen your body or being so weak in your old age that you're living in constant fear of falling down and not being able to get up?

What's easier? Eating a serving of vegetables at each meal, or having to go a doctor because you're so constipated that you've only pooped once in the last 3 days?

What's easier? Getting up and going to school and/or work every day or being homeless at 60 years old?

What's easier? Delaying that major purchase to put money away for your retirement or being in your 70s and not having enough money to buy both food AND medication?

What's easier?  Making the effort to have small, meaningful, daily conversations with your significant other or going through divorce proceedings?

What's easier?  Going to school and getting an education or being unable to pay your bills because you can't get a job due to your lack of credentials and training?

Sure, some of these examples are maybe a bit extreme or "strawman-ish" but you get the idea. A lot of what we're doing (or not doing) in the short term might feel like the "easier" thing to do, but if you take a long term look, what we're actually doing is choosing to make our life harder in the long term.  So the next time you hear your inner voice telling you to take the easy path, just ask yourself, if it really is easier in the long run.

How to Stay "Motivated"

Just to be clear I'm not a fan of "motivation" to help someone stick to whatever activity it is that they want to stick to.  Motivation can be OK to get you started but not really the best at getting you going when things get difficult.  Discipline and having an overall view of why you're doing something will always be better than looking at motivational quotes and videos on social media.

That said, for those who really want to stay "motivated", I would say that the best way is to constantly look for what you're not good at and finding ways to improve it.  Set an achievable goal and work on that weakness.

Let's take martial arts as an example.  If you think that you've gotten good at punches, make a goal to make your kicks better.  From that goal you can pick an aspect of kicking that you can improve.  You can try to improve your hip mobility and leg flexibility to kick higher; or maybe try to improve the speed of your kicks; or develop the reaction time to use your kicks as intercepting counter-attacks; or make the accuracy of your kicks better.

You get the idea.  The point is, be honest with yourself and find out what your weaknesses are. Then set a goal to improve on those weaknesses by breaking them up in smaller sub-goals.  Completing those smaller tasks will help you see that you're progressing and the pursuit of those "small wins" can be very helpful in keeping someone motivated.

Your New Year's Resolutions Suck and You'll Never Keep Them

It's January 1st again. So we're going to hear our friends and loved-ones make resolutions. We're going to see the social media "motivational" posts talking about their resolutions.  We've heard it all before (or read it on our friends' social media):

This year, I resolve to:

• lose weight
• be more positive
• make 'self-care' a priority
• save more money
• make more money
• cut out 'toxic' people
• eat more healthy
• drink less alcohol
• drink more water
• exercise more
• be more fit

There's nothing wrong with setting goals.  I admire and respect people who take the steps required to better themselves and their lives. The problem with resolutions is that most are not SMART.

They're not specific and extremely vague.  Success and progress are difficult to measure because most people don't give themselves the proper steps to take to get their goals.  Most resolutions makers can be so overly enthusiastic and motivated that the goals they set for themselves aren't achievable and realistic. Even if you measure your progress, you realize that you can't reach your lofty goal and you end up getting discouraged.

Of course, most people making resolutions don't give themselves a proper time frame to achieve and succeed. Meaning that because they don't give themselves deadlines, they end up simply meandering instead of achieving what they set out to do.

Aside from the quality of the resolutions, if you really thought that whatever you're resolving to do was important, you wouldn't be waiting for an arbitrary day of the year to start doing it.  You'd be working on that goal right now.  You would have made it a priority already and adjusted your habits accordingly.  You already would have been looking for ways to stay focused and disciplined to achieve your goals. You wouldn't be relying on "motivational" pictures and videos while going on social media to tell everyone that "New year, new me" will so totally happen in 2020.

White Belt Mentality

Whenever I teach a new group of white belts, the first thing I tell them is that they'll feel overwhelmed with a lot of new information coming at them.  I say that they'll make tons of mistakes and they'll probably get confused. A lot. Most importantly, I'll tell them they shouldn't worry about it.

I'll tell them that they just need to do their best to follow along, keep their eyes and ears open, and learn as much as they can every time they show up.  With constant, deliberate practice of the basics, they'll eventually make progress.

This is a mentality that we all need to have. Even when we become "experts" at any field, practicing and going back to the basics should never be "beneath you". Sometimes it's good to re-examine the basics, to try and then fail as a learning experience. Remaining humble by having a white belt mentality helps us get even better at the things that we've been doing for years and opening ourselves up to learn something new.

Common Misconceptions about Martial Arts

Be it because of Hollywood, semi-false marketing by McDojos, or whatever other reason, most people have the wrong idea of what martial arts are before they even step on a mat, ring or floor.  So to help you future martial artists (and maybe instructors), I thought I'd make a list of common misconceptions that people have about martial arts so you can have a more informed idea of what you're getting into if you decide to sign up at your local dojo.

Size and strength don't matter in a fight as long as you've trained in martial arts

One of the biggest myths perpetuated by both Hollywood and certain martial arts schools alike is that "size doesn't matter" if you've been properly trained in their style. Having more knowledge, better technique and being better trained will definitely increase your chances of winning a fight or surviving a self-defense situation against a larger and stronger attacker.

Realistically, if you have two equally-trained and equally-skilled individuals, the larger and stronger person will have an obvious advantage. If you still don't believe me, think about why both professional and Olympic combat sports have weight classes.

Gabi Garcia vs Megumi Yabushita in a Shootboxing match in 2017.

Fight ended in "No Contest" due to an illegal kick, but really, who do you think won this fight?

 

Martial arts will turn kids into "disciplined" people

With the market for most traditional martial arts schools being kids, they will usually try to sell themselves by saying that they will help your kids become more disciplined. Is that true? More or less.

Any type of structured, difficult activity has the potential to build discipline.  This applies to martial arts, but also activities like dance, learning a musical instrument, creative writing and even team sports. If the person practicing the activity ends up liking it and wants to improve their skills at that activity, then yes, they become "disciplined".  That discipline might transfer to everything else they want to succeed in.

However, while martial arts can be that starting point of a disciplined life for some people, it won't be the case for all people.

Martial arts will make kids "bully-proof"

A lot of martial arts schools will market their kids classes as a way to keep kids from being bullied.  Presumably, kids are supposed to learn how to defend themselves against physical attacks on the school yard.  Yes, that can be useful as a last resort for a kid who is getting picked on.  However, a lot of bullying is now happening on a psychological basis, especially with online bullying through social media.  A kid who's being bullied will benefit more from developing social skills that help them deal and de-escalate conflicts before the first punch is even thrown.  If the conflict turns physical because the de-escalation tactics didn't work, only then will the fighting skills come in handy.

Being in a martial arts school might help some kids who are being bullied by allowing them to make more friends with common interests, and thus allow them to develop the necessary social skills.  Yes, being able to overcome adversity in a controlled environment will help develop the self-esteem needed to stand up for themselves.  But that's not something that a kid will learn after a month or two of punching and kicking in a karate class a couple of times a week.  This is a process that can take years not only of training but of interacting with people of different walks of life.

There are "secret techniques" that are "too dangerous" for full contact competition

No, there aren't.  The myth of "secret techniques" are perpetuated by lazy and/or delusional people who want to pretend that they can knock down a gang of attackers using nothing but a wave of their hand.

There are no such things as "no-touch" knockouts and "chi-blasts" that require very little effort to stop a resisting attacker.  If there were, with the ubiquity of the Internet and video technology, we would have seen legitimate practitioners by now.  If someone, somewhere in the world of martial arts was truly able to "summon their inner chi" and shoot fireballs out of their fingers or lightning bolts out of their butt, it would already be on the Internet and they would be making millions of dollars by dominating opponents at the largest MMA promotions in the world.

Effective, but illegal technique done in competition

Sure, certain attacks like eye poking, small joint manipulation, attacking the groin and biting are illegal in rules-based competition. Yes these can be effective, devastating techniques, but there's nothing secret or mysterious about them.  They're just not allowed in competitions because we want to see a bit more of a fair contest and less fights ended by serious injuries.

Martial arts are the same as self-defense

This kind of goes back to using fighting skills against bullies.  Fighting techniques learned in a martial class might be able help if you're being physically attacked.  However, avoiding a situation that can lead to that physical attack is actually more effective as a "self defense" measure.

That means not hanging out too much in bars and night clubs.  That means learning to be more aware of your surroundings when walking to your car at night.  That means avoiding dark alleys alone in the middle of the night.  That also means handing over your wallet and/or car keys to stranger pointing a gun at you.  These are things that most martial arts schools will pay lip service to, but won't really practice.

Again, if you get stuck and you can't avoid a situation, some techniques learned can save you, but you're better off not being in that certain situation in the first place.

You need to register as a "deadly weapon" when you become a black belt

Anybody who tells you that they're registered as some kind of weapon because of their martial arts black belt rank is either a liar or delusional. This kind of person is definitely not the type of person you want to be giving martial arts instruction to you or your kids.

A simple Internet search will tell you that there are no laws in Canada, the US, the UK or in Western Europe requiring that martial arts practitioners of a certain rank be registered because they can deal out deadly force with their bare hands.  It is true that some people have the ability to kill with their superior technique (think of a Brazilian jujitsu black belt who can choke out 95% of the population), but no government registration is required.

The closest thing that I can think of are anecdotes from martial artists living in former Eastern Block and USSR countries who were asked by the government to register their martial arts ranks during the Cold War era.  That's about the extent of it but even then I haven't been able to corroborate that.

Conclusion

For people looking to sign their kids or themselves up to a martial arts school, it's important to know these common misconceptions. You're not to blame for not knowing any of these, but hopefully reading this will give you an idea of what it is you're signing up for.  Enjoy and happy training!

How to Get Good at Anything

It's a very simple formula.  Simple, but not easy.

To gain skills, be it playing a musical instrument, sports, stand-up comedy, acting, martial arts, math, languages, computer programming, public speaking, video editing, or even entrepreneurship, there is a very simple formula if you want to get better at any skill:

1) Practice a lot
2) Put in a lot of conscious effort to what you're practicing

The first point, you've heard before.  The "magic number" of 10,000 hours has been thrown around as the minimum needed to master a skill.  While it's been argued that this magic number is more or less legit, the point is, to get somewhat good at a skill, you need to have a lot of repetitions.  Without the practice, you won't get better.

What's more important though is the second point. You can "practice" something for 16 hours a day. If you are not consciously making the effort to practice whatever you're doing without trying to do it correctly, you're wasting your time. By practicing something without effort or without thinking for long periods of time, you'll just end up making yourself worse at that skill and develop bad habits. Instead, you need to go through the correct progressions, acknowledge that you made mistakes during practice and learn how to avoid them in the future.

Really you're just trying to find ways to be better than you were since the last time you practiced.



That's it.  No special shortcuts, no simple hacks.  Just put in time and conscious effort.

True Body Positivity and Self-Love

The body positivity movement as we know it right now tells us that we shouldn't let society dictate how we should feel about our physical bodies.  According to this movement, we should accept all bodies, no matter the shape, size or appearance.

It's a nice thought.  There's nothing wrong with being happy with ourselves.  And yes, we shouldn't let magazines and social media determine what our bodies should look like.

HOWEVER...

The danger is that people who could be physically and mentally healthier will use this as an excuse.  It makes it easier for people who are unhealthy and obese to say that what their body looks like doesn't matter because they should be accepted while ignoring the negative effects of their bad diet and lack of exercise.

If we really were about loving our bodies, we would do our best to keep them functioning at optimal levels.  We should love our bodies so much that we want to keep our muscles relatively strong throughout our entire lives.  If we really loved our bodies we should want to be able to keep a certain level of mobility and flexibility in our joints and tendons as we get older.  Real body positivity and self-love means trying to prevent future diseases by paying attention to what we put in it.

Truly being "body-positive" and being honest about loving our bodies means that we shouldn't accept an unhealthy, physical status quo.  While our physical bodies will never be "perfect", we should be doing everything we can to keep that body as healthy as possible until we die.

How to Quickly Lose Body Fat and Gain Muscle Mass with Minimal Effort

Because summer's coming fast, you're vain, insecure, and you want to look great when it's time to wear less clothing in public...

The warm weather is coming but you've gained all that winter weight. You want to know the secret to getting that beach body fast. What can you do to lose all that fat you've gained over the winter and look great for "bikini season"?

Absolutely nothing.

You can starve yourself all you want in the next 6 to 8 weeks. You can run for miles daily. You can lift the heaviest kettlebells and do hundreds of "kipping pull ups".

You can try. You'll fail.

Even if you were "motivated" by the upcoming warm weather, you might binge on extreme workouts and crash diets for a short period of time. You're more likely to injure yourself because you tried to push yourself when your body is completely out of shape. And yeah a crash diet can cause weight loss, but as soon as you stop you'll simply regain all the weight, if not more.

Remember, if you weren’t disciplined enough to train hard and eat well during the winter, you sure as hell won’t have the discipline in the spring. Getting your "summer body" takes years of discipline and hard work. There’s no such thing as quickly getting in shape with minimal effort.