Ok gang – time for a slight rant. Well, actually, that’s not true. Time for a complete, raving, gonna-punch-someone-in-the-ballsack, time-for-everybody-to-pull-their-head-outta-their-ass rant.

Are some people REALLY this stupid? Are people REALLY inclined to believe almost anything they’re told? Are people REALLY that afraid of work? Are people REALLY so desperate for a magic pill that they’d believe some of the dumb shit that’s spouted in the fitness industry these days?

*takes deep breath*

Lemme backtrack a little.

My good buddy and fellow GI Nutrition blogger Andy Hepler talk training – a lot. Well, not long ago, we were discussing a particular training protocol, and its effectiveness. It’s a great program, and we knew it worked, but we were trying to kinda dissect it – you know, on a “nuts & bolts” level. Why did it work like it did?

During our discussion, I was reminded of an article that kinda addressed some of the points we were talking about, so I went looking for it. It didn’t take long to find, as it had been published on a very big fitness site – one that primarily deals in Kettlebell (KB) training, workouts, and products.

While on the site, I had a look around, as I hadn’t been on the site in literally *a lot* of months…maybe even a year or more.

Whoa. We’ve all seen shit that’s “jumped the shark”, but NONE of it holds a candle to this site.

I could tell you about some of the stuff I saw in the forums, but you wouldn’t believe it. Seriously. I barely believed it and I was reading it with my own two eyes.

The best one was when somebody asked why a particular set/rep scheme advocated by the resident grand pooh-bah KB guru worked so well, and the first two responses were “because the resident grand pooh-bah KB guru says it does”. I shit you not.

*face palm*

Better than that, though, was some of the shit these guys were claiming as to why KBs are such awesome training tools.

One thing the folks behind this site are *notorious* for is finding anybody that has any remote success in *anything* at life, and if any single part of their training includes KBs, these guys go around flaunting and parading it as if KBs were the sole reason the person had any success in any endeavor – be it sport/fitness-related or not.

So-and-so plays pro baseball and uses KBs in his workout? KBs are the reason why he’s in the Major Leagues! So-and-so is a successful corporate executive and uses KBs in his workout? KBs are the reason why he’s a millionaire! So-and-so just underwent a massive body transformation, losing 100 lbs, and uses KBs in his workout? KBs are the sole reason why he’s now in shape!

What a bunch of crap.

There was a video on the site that had some 30-second clip from a major TV morning show, talking to some actress from one of those gay Twilight movies and that she used KBs. Look how great KBs are!!!

Really? *shakes head*

I mean, it was so bad, that there was literally video – and I couldn’t make this up if I tried – that talked about how this KBs made this woman a better opera singer.

Uh….WHAT? Kettlebells…made you…a better…OPERA SINGER?

Does anybody really buy into this bullshit?

You know what, I bet virtually every single great defensive lineman and linebacker that’s played in the NFL in the past 25 years drank water and Gatorade. Well *I* drink water and Gatorade! So, using this site’s logic, I must be poised for greatness in the NFL. I’m a huge Bears fan, so somebody tell Lovie Smith I’ll be in Chicago next week, ready to play. And while we’re at it, somebody have DeFranco call Brian Cushing and tell him how lucky he is that I decided not to go to Houston and rob him of his starting spot.

LOL.

I mean c’mon…am I the ONLY ONE who sees how stupid all this is?

Listen people – KBs are a TOOL. Nothing more. Nothing less. They’re not magical – I don’t give a damn what any ‘guru’ tries to tell you. You can use ANY tool to achieve greatness. Utilize the tool effectively. Use a proven and smart program. Be consistent. Get your recovery methods in check. Keep nutrition on point.

Rinse and repeat.

None of it is magic – it’s just hard fucking work. Now go do the damn work.

There are tons of ways to get good cardio fitness.

Some like to do interval training. Some like to do traditional roadwork (i.e. – long-distance running). Other still like to do circuit workouts – a favorite of mine.

But one of the most demanding and effective types of cardio workouts is hill sprints.

How do you do hill sprints? Pretty simple, really (notice I didn’t say “easy”):

Step 1 – find a hill
Step 2 – go to the bottom of said hill
Step 3 – sprint to the top
Step 4 – walk to the bottom
Step 5 – repeat Steps 3-4 a bunch of times

Do this 3-4x/week, and you’re golden as far as conditioning goes.

Now don’t go asking a bunch of stupid questions, trying to make this more complicated, either – because it’s just not necessary. Is your hill steep? Great – you’ll build a ton of leg strength. Is your hill more flat? Run faster. Is your hill on grass? No problem – buy an el cheapo pair of cleats. Is your hill short? Run more of them.

There is no “right” or “wrong” way to do this, as “right” just means you did it, and did it hard. “Wrong” means you pussed out and either didn’t do the work, or half-assed it. Pretty simple, really.

Do know, though, that there is one major benefit to doing hill sprints…but it’s not a physical one. It takes some real balls to so hill sprints, day-in and day-out. Why? Because they’re hard as hell, that’s why. Hills suck, plain and simple. Anybody that says they enjoy running hill sprints either is pussing out when he does them, is lying to you, or is a true type of physical training sicko (my kinda guy – LOL …or any combination of the above.

However, if you can man-up enough mentally to do your hill sprints on a regular basis, you’ll find that a lot of normal, everyday things that used to bother you, just don’t matter anymore. In fact, the more I do hill sprints, the more I think they’re just as good for the spirit and soul as they are the body. But I digress…

Now go find a hill, and get to work.

If you really want to increase your performance, you’d take a dose of Ideal Pump before your sprints, but give yourself a good 30 minutes between your dose of Ideal Pump and your sprints…as good as GI’s supps are, they won’t do you a damn bit of good if you barf them all up.

After your sprints are over, be sure to mix a dose of Ideal Recovery into your water…you’ll be shocked how much better you feel, and how much faster.

(Oh, and be sure to use the promo code “WIGGY” when you get your supps…you’ll save 10%!)

Wow.

Is it *really* June already? Holy cow. Do you realize that in just a few short weeks, that 2010 will literally be HALF OVER? Crazy.

Ok – quick gut check.

Some six months ago, if you’re like most other peeps, you made some sorta “New Years Resolutions”. And, again, if you’re like most peeps, some of those resolutions were probably physical in nature.

Maybe it was to lose XX lbs. Or to get stronger. Or to put some size on your arms. Or maybe it had to do w/your sport – to win a championship, to set PRs, to accomplish a certain goal, or to have your best-ever season.

So…where are you? Have you accomplished any of this stuff yet? Are you at least on your way?

Or, are you like the VAST MAJORITY of people out there…and just pussed out after a few weeks (if that long) of half-assed effort?

Listen – the fitness industry is full of shit. There, I said it. You can count the good people in this business one both hands…and even then on not that many fingers. Everybody in this damn game is out there trying to tell you how you can do this and achieve that…all in 20 mins, 3x/week. Or with no dieting. Or just a pill. Or w/o breaking a sweat.

What a load of bullshit.

If you wanna ever accomplish anything – or at least, anything *worth* accomplishing – it’s gonna take you some damn effort. Believe that.

Lately I’ve been telling people on my own newsletter list and in my website’s blog that my cardio workouts were pretty much dummy-proof. The way I designed them, you literally can’t not get results. What are they like? Well, I like to say describe them as what P90X would be if it had balls. Or like a testimonial I once got said (and I guess this is a nicer way of putting it), “If the ‘Working Class Cardio Workout’ was easy, they’d call it P90X”.

My point is this – when I decided I wanted to put together these cardio workouts, I wanted this thing to be completely idiot-proof. I’d had too many programs in the past that needed to be performed a certain way to achieve results. For example (and I talked about this in a newsletter/blog post recently, too), take power training.

Now, studies show that to generate maximal power output, you gotta train in the 45%-65% range of your 1RM. Cool, right?

Well, that’s only cool *if* you move the damn bar as fast as you fucking can! The reason that range is so light is so that you *can* move that bar fast – that’s how you generate more power than if you were using heavier weights. Right?

But what if you *don’t* move the bar fast? Say you move just at a normal rate of speed? Well guess what? You just shot yourself in the foot – BIG TIME. B/c now not only are you not training fast (like you’re supposed to be), but you’re also training way too light. Way to go – you just screwed yourself twice.

I’d gotten too many people (it wasn’t *that* many in reality, but any at all is too many for me) who’d fucked up past training programs I put out in some sorta similar fashion. So I decided that I was gonna design a set of programs that was gonna kick your ass and work like a mofo…even if you totally pussed out and used a pair of pink plastic-coated dumbbells for your training.

In other words, all you had to do was show up and do the damn work. Now, if you did it “right”…well…then you’re just gonna kick that much more ass.

And guess what? The peeps that are doing the cardio workouts – and doing them ‘right’ – ARE kicking ass. Surprising, huh? LOL.

But then there are the scant few who just gotta fuck w/stuff.

It’s funny in a way. I design a program that you don’t have to do “right”, think about, or anything else. It uses an absolute minimum of equipment (only a pair of DBs and a med ball are needed). Just show up and do the work as written. Even if you half-ass it and “go through the motions”.

So what do some people do? Well, since it’d work even it was half-assed…since all the guesswork was taken out of it for them…since all they had to do was to do the work…they just don’t do the work. They cut the workouts in half, or sub out harder exercises for easier exercises, or whatever.

*face palm*

I had a guy some months back email me. He had done the first week of the program, and it kicked his ass every which way from Sunday. He was seriously out of shape, and had to cut the workouts short, as it was just too much for him to do – he was gonna have to build his way up to completing the workouts, as he just wasn’t capable of doing them as written right now.

That’s fine. Hey – if that’s what you gotta do, then go for it. Start slow, build your way up, and do what you can. It’ll take you longer, but you can still get there.

But then he emails me again…and wonders if there’s a way to make the basic bodyweight GPP circuits used as a warmup harder, as they were “too easy”.

Uh….huh?

First, the workouts are so damn hard that doing only a portion of the damn thing leaves you in a crumpled heap, but yet you wanna make the WARMUP harder?

Ok man…whatever you say.

Sounds to me like the dude just wanted to do the easier part of the workout and not do the *real* work, if you ask me.

I’d be willing to bet that if I talked to the guy now, he’s not in any better shape, months later, than when he was then. And he was a guy who when he first emailed me, was talking about all these New Years Resolutions he was gonna achieve.

Too bad he didn’t have the balls to pull it off when it came time to do the work, b/c he sure as hell had the tools. (And not just my cardio workouts, either – I’d convinced him to be smart and invest in some Ideal Pump, Ideal Recovery, & Ideal Whey.)

Do you have the balls to do the work?

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

If the emails and such I’ve received from my last blog post, “It’s All About Accoutability”, are any indication, I musta struck a chord w/some of you – esp those of you that, like me, are tired of people giving bullshit excuses as to why they can’t get anything done, do their workouts, or actually accomplish any goals.

Well, this time, I’m gonna rant one more time, but I’ve got one particular pet peeve excuse I gotta go after, and that’s the whole “I don’t have time” whine-fest I hear outta so many people.

If there’s anything that pisses me off, it’s the whole “I don’t have time to work out” bit.  DAMN, that crap pisses me off.

EVERYBODY has time to train.  I do.  He does.  She does.  They do.  YOU do.  You just have to want to bad enough.

“But Wiggy, I *really* don’t have time!  I have to (insert excuse here).”  Oh shut the hell up.  You have the time to train, just like everybody else does – you just don’t want to bad enough.

See, here’s a little secret I’m gonna let you in on…and this one just might floor you.  In fact, it’s probably gonna surprise the absolute hell outta you.  But, I’m gonna tell you anyway, so hold on, b/c this one is big.

There are 24 hours in a day.  Only a finite period of time.  Each and every day has 24 hours.  Not sometimes 23 hours.  Not 25 hours every now and then.  Always 24 hours.  But here’s the thing you really need to know – *my* days always have 24 hours.  *His* days always have 24 hours.  ”Her* days always have 24 hours.  *YOUR* days always have 24 hours.

In case you’re missing the grand-fucking-conclusion here, it’s this – EVERYBODY has the same 24 hours in each and every day.  Well, if there are a crap-ton of people out there who are finding time to train each and every day, then if you’re not, then it’s nobody’s fault but your own.  B/c everybody else is finding a way to get it done.  If they can find a way to get it done, then you can find a way to get it done.

The question is, do you want to bad enough?

See, the thing is, I don’t care if you’re talking about training, studying, finishing up that project around the house, spending time w/important people in your life, or whatever…if something is important enough to you, you find a way to get the damn job done.

If you’re not getting it done, then, well, it’s just not that damn important to you.

Now, I know, I know – everybody has different schedules, and everybody has different responsibilities.  I’m not stupid.  I get that.

But if training (or anything else, for that matter) is important enough to you, you still find a way to get it done.

You just might have to be a bit more creative or whatever.  I know a guy who’s working two jobs, has a wife, and three kids might not have all the extra time to devote to training like a young, single dude who is financially secure.  I get that.

But, if training is important enough to you, you’ll still find a way to get it done.

And here’s something else boys and girls – training damn well *should* be important enough to you.  If you’re an athlete, or depend on your body to make you’re living (say you’re military/law enforcement, or have a physical, manual labor job of some sort), then that should be a given.  But even if not, your body is  your health.  If your body goes to shit, guess what – your health goes to shit.  Your vitality goes to shit.  Your self-confidence goes to shit.  A lot of other pretty damn important areas go to shit.

Hell, if you’re that guy I mentioned above working two jobs and a family just trying to make ends meat (esp in today’s goofed economy), if you get laid up due to some sorta ailment b/c your way out of shape, just how much good are you to your family then?  Huh?

Yeah.  Exactly.

Listen, I know what it’s like to be fucking busy.  I raise two kids on my own, as well as run my business, write for GI and a few other websites, and a bunch of other stuff.  In the past, I’ve done govt contract work in Iraq, where I was working 84+ hours/week, every single week for months on end.  In the past, I’ve raised a family, worked full-time, and gone to grad school at night.

I know busy.

And you know what – I’ve *always* found a way to get my workouts in.  Always.

Does that mean you don’t have to sometimes just figure out a way to get the damn job done?  No.  You very well might not have the time for the 20-minute drive to the gym, an hour workout, shower, then 20-minute drive back.  All told, that’s 2 hours out of your day.  I get that.

But that doesn’t mean you still can’t figure something out.  My “Working Class Cardio Workout”, for example, needs only a couple DBs and a med ball to do every single workout, and the workouts can be done inside of 20-45 mins.  And you can do the damn workouts in your living room if you wanted to.  You trying to tell me that you couldn’t knock out a WCC Workout when you get home from work and be done before it’s time to sit down to dinner w/the family?  Or get up a little early, crank out your workout, shower, slam an Ideal Whey and an Ideal Recovery, and be ready to get on w/the rest of your day?

Yeah – you could.  Hell, years ago, I used to carry a couple DBs in my car w/me, and drive to the local park on my lunch breaks, change clothes in the damn car, and get 20-30 mins workouts in.  This would damn near be a perfect way to get workouts from the “Working Class Cardio Workout” in.

Whatever it is, you can fucking find a way to do it.  You just gotta want to bad enough.

Lemme ask you this – how much time do you spend each day just fucking off?  Wasting time?  Watching TV?  Messing around on the internet?

How much of your day is lost, and is used to literally accomplish nothing?

If you have an answer to that – meaning *any* part of your day is wasted – then don’t give me this bullshit “I don’t have time” routine.  B/c it sucks.  And if you’re using that line, then as far as I’m concerned, you suck to.

B/c I’ll repeat myself one last time – and this doesn’t just apply to training, it applies to *anything* that’s really important to you – everybody has the same 24 hours in a day.  If something is important enough to you, you’ll find a way to get the damn job done.

You know, I’m not that old (as of writing this – April ‘10 – I’m only 33), but I feel like I am.

It’s not b/c I feel old physically.  I’m still strong, in good shape, in good condition, and can outwork most folks I know.  Hell, just cranked out 100 burpees (w/pushup, no jump for max speed) as a part of a conditioning workout a bit ago.  Did ‘em all in under 7 mins.  Not lightning speed, but I was huffing and puffing pretty good!

(Just goes to show that you don’t have to do “cardio” to have good cardio! )

The reason I feel “old” is b/c I’m getting more and more intolerant of bullshit.

I like to feel like I’m a pretty laid back guy, and I really try to be.  In many ways, I am.  But I find that the older I get, my tolerance for stupidity, laziness, and people’s bullshit in general just seems to really piss me off.

Now, I’m not talking about people who are “disadvantaged” or only capable of so much.  I have no problem whatsoever with that.  We all have limitations.  Hell, I know that no matter how much I’d want it, I’d never be a competitive sprinter.  I just wasn’t built that way.  At the same time, I could never be a poet.  I just don’t think like that.

However, on the flip side, I am good at (and have the natural build for) lifting heavy shit.  I’ve also been able to develop a helluva work capacity.  And while I’ll never be a poet, I’ve always been good at math, and other such subjects.  And when it comes to writing, I’ve even been able to develop a writing style that many people seem to like, and better yet, get a lot of out of.  I have this knack for putting complicated shit into simple terms that people just “get”.

But I digress…

What pisses me off is people wanting something for nothing.  People that aren’t willing to put the damn work in.  People that wanna bitch and moan and cry and complain and point fingers at every conceivable person and thing as to the reason why they haven’t achieved (insert goal, accomplishment, or whatever here).

Well, lemme ask you this – for all the time you spend coming up excuses as to why you’re not getting anything done, just how much work have you put into actually accomplishing anything?

Yeah…that’s right…I’m asking you to hold yourself accountable.  You’re not getting anything done?  Well what in the fuck are you doing to change it?

When I originally got into weight training a lot of years ago, one of the things I liked about it (and this was largely due to the influence my dad had on me and my training) was that it was completely objective and singular.  There are no teammates to steal your thunder for the work you did, or to bring you down when you busted your ass.  At the same time, there’s nobody’s coattails to ride so you can just “dog it”.

Lifting is also not subjective.  There are no opinions.  There are no cliques.  There are no popularity contests.  Get under the bar.  Either you can lift the damn thing or you can’t.  Either you’ve put the work in, or you haven’t.

Same goes for building muscle.  There is something to be said for you self-confidence when you walk into a room, and know that you’ve got the biggest arms in the room.  And it’s even better when you know you’re the strongest guy there, and can outwork anybody who decides to talk shit.

But guess what princess?  If you haven’t put the damn work in, you can’t do any of that.  You can’t lift the weight.  You can’t have the big arms.  You can’t have the self-confidence.  And know what else?  You don’t fucking deserve it.

So start holding yourself accountable.  Get off your ass and do the work.  Know that if you wanna accomplish something worthwhile, it’s gonna take effort on your part, and nobody else can hold you down.

Once you get that part taken care of, the rest will happen naturally.