Category: fitness

We got a question about what makes a workout advanced. I’ll tell you, it’s very hard to write workouts plans for the public because most people just don’t understand them. You have to write workout plans to give people something to aim at, not something they can do immediately. i wrote a workout plan for a website and they complained that men couldn’t do 50 pullups total. What they meant was their lazy readers couldn’t do 50 pullups. Any man who actually trains rather than simply reads articles is capable of working up to 50 pullups. And that’s the goal, to work UP to something, not pander to people by giving them something pathetic that will get them no progress.
Many “advanced workouts” are just longer than beginner or advanced workouts because that’s easier for the author to write. For advanced, you simply do twice as much as the beginner level, and you get twice as bored. In Kettlebell Quest, I avoided that by having the exercises progress from easier to harder so that the workout time doesn’t just get longer. To me, that’s a sign of an advanced workout. You should be able to do harder exercises as you get better. But i have to tell you, a lot of people don’t like that and think it’s arrogant or too elite. A lot of people want to be pandered to and told they are elite when they clearly are not. And advanced level has to be earned.

By Dave Chesser
Face it, jogging is boring. I see people at the track do it all the time. Same pace, same speed, same distance…..zzzzzz. I’m asleep already. If jogging excites you then go for it. But jogging is not how I would choose to spend my time. Most of the people I have trained don’t have lots of time to exercise so they need the most calories they can burn and the most movement they can get in a short amount of time. So I came up with ways to get them that.

I suggest running instead of jogging. How is running different from jogging? Go jog for about :30. Does that feel nice and comfortable? It does, doesn’t it? Well don’t do that!! Running gets you out of your comfort zone. Running is about making an effort and getting somewhere. Running is for predators, jogging is for prey.

For this program, you need to be able to tell the difference between running and jogging so if jogging leaves you out of breath, then this isn’t for you. You should be able to kick up the pace a bit and be able to hold that for :10-:20 in order to do this program.

Here’s how it works: you will exercise for 20-30:00 but we will pick 20:00 to show you how it’s done. You will run for an interval of :10-:20 and then walk for the rest of the minute (:40-:50) and repeat that without stopping until you reach 20:00. So walk to the track or wherever you plan to run and do this:
interval 1 – jog
interval 2 – jog
interval 3 – jog
interval 4 – 6 run faster
interval 7 – 20 run fast

The first three intervals are a warmup so jog them and stretch you legs. Intervals 4-6 are where you start ramping up the effort. On interval 7 – 20, you want to run these. You should be uncomfortable by the end of the interval. If I choose to do :20 intervals, my effort should be enough that I want to quit by the time I reach :17 but I keep running for another :03. If you reach the end of :20 and think it was easy, then it was and on the next interval, you should run faster. Remember, the clock continuously runs on this workout. At the top of the minute, start running!

Using this interval method, you can do a lot of real running instead of jogging and burn crazy calories in the process. Interval training like this is a much better way to train your conditioning if you’re lifting weights since intervals rarely interfere with strength training. They are similar so you could think of intervals almost like doing sets of weight in the gym.
So add this to your training program if you’re looking for a little more fat loss or conditioning on top of what you’re already doing.

By Dave Chesser
I’m not an English teacher but today I want to teach you some American slang. In America, we love our barbeque, especially in the South where I’m from. And everyone who knows barbeque will tell you the secret is a really great sauce. Now tastes will vary. Some people like it more sweet, some like sweet and spicy, and a lot of people like different types of hotness in their sauce. But whatever the flavor, a thick and strong sauce is always preferred.
So with that background, I want to introduce to you the American slang phrase “he brings the weak sauce.” Trust me, you will get lots of chances to use this phrase in discussing weight training.
If a good barbeque sauce is thick and rich then anything that weakens the sauce is not desirable. It’s considered weak. So if someone says about another guy “he brings the weak sauce” then the meaning is no matter what the group does, this one guy always tries to reduce the effort. He doesn’t contribute to the group and make it stronger, his presence weakens it. If as a group you want to race to the top of a hill, he will say it’s too high and his legs hurt. If you want to see who can do 100 pushups the fastest, he will complain that’s too hard. This type of person says “wo mei you liqi” and “wo hao lei” a lot. Yuck, just hearing that makes me want to take a shower to wash the weakness off me.
If you discuss strength training or other hard types of training with anyone in the general population, you will run into this immediately. “Why do you work so hard?” “Don’t you know that will hurt you?” “Why don’t you come to my yoga class, instead?” They “bring the weak sauce.”
I expect this from the general population, but hearing it from so-called trainers really makes me sick. Where’s the hard effort? Where’s the pushing to get a personal record? I want someone to scream at me and tell me I can do another rep. I want to see people trying so hard that their face is red. I want to hear grunting and see people straining to get to the next level.
But what do I see instead? Foam rolling instead of exercise, poorly done TRX half rows instead of pullups, toy kettlebells that my 7 year-old daughter wouldn’t use, and quarter squats being taught by “weight training experts.”
Basically, I see a lot of people that “bring the weak sauce” even within the fitness industry.
So you have two choices, you can “bring the weak sauce” or you can man up and make an effort by killing it in the gym. If you choose the latter, you will join us in making ourselves and our community stronger. And boy do we need it!

We need to stop thinking of doing cardio and instead think of moving and conditioning. Cardio tends to mean doing cardio machines at the gym and that’s a terribly boring way to work out. There are so many more options available to you today so why should you get stuck on a stupid machine?
But if you have to do some form of machine “cardio” and find it boring, here’s a way to make it go easier. Everyone needs a warmup, right? So choose a piece of cardio equipment that works the whole body, like the rower. The rower is the best piece of cardio equipment in a mainstream gym, by far. Look for a future article on that. So use the rower for your warmup by going for 20:00. Start out easy for 3-4:00 and then pick up the pace until you’re going pretty good at around the 10:00 mark. For the next 10:00, get a good pace and keep it up. At around 20:00, you’re done for now so get off the machine and go do your workout.
After you finish, go back to the rower for 10:00. This time, you will do intervals as a finisher. You’re really warm at the point so go hard right from the beginning. I suggest :30 as hard as possible and :30 of rest for 10:00. So you will row hard for the interval and then row slowly to recover. When you’re done with that, you should be done, period. Time to hit the showers.
What you’ve done here is 30:00 total time of “cardio” but you’ve used the time wisely, making it much less boring. The intervals at the end are a finisher that allows you to burn a lot of calories and this will get you much better results than just doing boring long, slow, distance (LSD) cardio, which is not very good for fat loss.

This is a great story from one of our favorite clients. She has done well and shows what hard work and correct attitude can get you! Thanks to her and our other folks that work so hard!
We arrived to Taiwan the first week of August. I was trying to get back in shape, especially now that I’m in my earlier 40’s. I was never too fat, however after eating more than I should and most importantly not exercising enough, yoga was I did when I did something and a bit of cardio,during 2012 my weight went from 60Kg to 80Kg faster than I noticed. My height is 5feet 7inches. I really began to try to do something in 2013, when I was in VA, USA. I was able to come down in weight by going once or twice a week to a Kettlebell classes. I learned there about that type of workout. I really enjoyed it but I knew it wasn’t enough for my body. When I arrived to Taiwan in August 2013, my weight was 64Kg, but to my surprise the belly fat was still there.

I knew I needed to challenge my body more and include more protein in my diet. The first month was hard because we were getting used to our new home. In September I began my quest for the prefect gym to really help me achieve my goal of getting stronger and perhaps, I thought I may get rid of my belly fat. I was lucky enough to know about Formosa Fitness, I enrolled first in the Strength Training Class. I felt challenged and felt in love with the free weights. But I knew I needed something more, so I decided to take one-on-one sessions, so I could have plan developed to reach my goals faster.

In October, I started my private sessions twice a week with Lou. I decided to forget about the scale and just measure my progress with pictures. I’m so glad I did it.When my strength began to increase, my body shape was changing as well before my eyes,but more important I began to felt empower, healthier and with more energy. We kept the Kettlebells, but incorporated the big lifts deadlift, benchpress, squat and other exercises.

I even had an accident, at the end of November, that put me out of the gym for 6 weeks. When I came back Lou, helped my hand recover sooner by using weights.

In July I decided to take a picture and compare what happened to my body before and after Formosa Fitness, I think it’s very obvious that my belly fat is going away, my strength has increased a lot, my blood test came perfect, my body shape is improving a lot and I even though I’m lifting decent amount of weights,I don’t look like Hulk. You will also be surprised to learn that my weight now is 67Kg now, however I look slimmer. Scales can lie!My recommendation to all women is to not be afraid of weighlifting, embrace it,become stronger and then your body shape will become better. One of the best parts,is that I didn’t do a diet just increase my protein and follow Lou custom made program. If you’re serious about improving your health an body shape, do yourself a favor and join Formosa Fitness,you will not be dissapointed. It has everything you need and a very supportive environment. I’m convinced Formosa Fitness is the best gym in Taiwan.