How to get in great shape!

When it comes to getting in shape and staying in shape, there are many different things you can do. Some are good but most are unnecessary. Below is a list of things that you don’t need to get in great shape.

1. Weight Loss Shakes - These promote quick weight loss. While that sounds awesome, it isn’t very sustainable. The shake fills you up and makes you think you don’t need to eat a meal, but your body needs real food to function properly. Replacing entire meals with shakes can be dangerous. Most don’t contain the wide range of vitamins you need, and if you’re not also eating regular, healthy, and whole meals, you could develop vitamin deficiencies and other health problems. So, please, stick to REAL foods.
2. Crunches - They can cause neck and back pain, they don’t target the deep abdominal muscles, promote poor posture, and they’re BORING. There are many better functional core movements you should be doing.
3. Carb Cycling - Carbs aren’t the enemy. Your body needs carbs. You don’t need to be doing any fancy cycling process with them in order to see results.
4. #AlwaysBeingOnYourGrind - You should be able to enjoy exercising and eating. Don’t be too hard on yourself. We want you to enjoy your life and have fun with it, not feel like you need to grind through everything to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
5. High Volume Gymnastics/Olympic Lifting - Double the volume = double the gains, right!?!? Not the case. This is much more likely to lead to you getting injured. When doing movements for high volume, is your form absolutely perfect with each rep, even under immense fatigue? Put your effort and focus into more limited sets instead of thinking more reps equals better results.
6. Tons of Cardio - Cardio is great for heart health, but you don’t need to only do that (or tons of it). Lifting weights will get you in shape much more effectively. So get the best of both worlds by doing an equal amount of both!
7. To “Jump Start your Metabolism” - Your metabolism is your metabolism. There are no secret foods that will “jump-start” it. It will run the same no matter what. But what will help increase your metabolism is drinking more water, eating more protein, and, most importantly, building more muscle. Muscle burns more calories per hour than fat, which means that people with lean, muscular bodies need more calories to function than people with a higher percentage of body fat.
8. 30-minute warmups - All you need is 5-10 minutes. Get the body primed and ready, and then hit your workout. You shouldn’t be spending most of your ‘workout time’ warming up.
9. BCAAs - Branched-chain amino acids are abundantly found in real food. Protein-rich foods have the highest percentages of BCAAs already. The only people who might benefit from supplementing BCAAs are those who can’t get enough high-quality protein (e.g. vegans). Outside of this, BCAA supplementation on top of sufficient protein intake is useless. Save your money and spend it on better things.
10. Constant Variance - You don’t need to consistently be switching up your workout routines and trying all different kinds of programming. Stick with what you’re doing for 4-6 months before deciding to change things up.

What you do need:

1. Accountability
2. A plan
3. Action
4. Sleep
5. Protein
6. Water
7. Stress Management
8. Consistency

Stay focused and keep it simple. Be the best you can at the simple stuff. You will be happy with the results!