The Best Tip for Sustainable Fat Loss

When it comes to the fitness industry, there are a lot of opinions out there about the best way to lose fat.

Unfortunately, most of those opinions tend to hover over well-intentioned people like money-hungry vultures eager to snatch a quick buck out of your back pocket at a moment’s notice.

What do I mean?

Most fitness propaganda will lead you to believe that fat loss is best achieved through one of these four methods:

1. Fat Loss Supplements

2. Specific Training Programs

3. Specific Workout Equipment

4. A Strategic Manipulation of Energy Balance

The problem?

Three out of four of those options are driven directly by money.

And in my experience, money tends to distort any notion of pure altruism.

Because as much as the people in the fitness industry want you to lose fat, build muscle, and live a healthier life, they also want you to buy their fat loss supplements, training programs, and workout equipment.

Fortunately, most of us are aware of this.

As much as any good dentist wants his patients to come into his office with vibrantly healthy gums and teeth, he also probably wouldn’t mind if you needed a few cavities filled, a wisdom tooth pulled, and a lifetime prescription of name brand mouthwash.

Business is business and we all have to make a living somehow.

The question is…

What’s the truth?

Are fat loss supplements, high-profile training programs, and specific workout equipment truly really necessary for sustainable fat loss?

Or is there a simpler, more affordable way?

As you may have guessed by now, the goal of this article is to provide you with an alternative approach to losing body fat sustainably that skips over the fat-burning teas, Movie Star Body training plans, and waist trainers.

I just have one simple tip.

Are you ready for it? 

Keep your “cardio” as fun and varied as possible.

In the past, I was awkwardly prideful about how little “cardio” I could do while still burning up fat. 

And this comes from a long history of bodybuilders being "against cardio at all costs." I'm exaggerating a little bit, but if you know you know. 

The idea is that anything you demand of your body that isn't stimulating for muscle growth while in a caloric deficit puts you at risk for muscle loss, which is why bodybuilders don't really do anything but walk while cutting fat. 

And it works like a charm if you have the time.

Plus, people like to be able to show off their lean physiques on Instagram with cheeky captions like, “Guess how much cardio I did to get this physique? None.”

And that’s great.

Eating like a bird is always an option for getting exotically lean if that’s your cup of tea.

But I'm going to be real with you, I think that's unrealistic and unsustainable for most people.

I think most people would be better off resistance training 3-5 times per week while sprinkling in as much "fun cardio" as possible.

Here are some examples:

• playing basketball before work with friends 

• playing soccer with your college buddies after work 

• hiking a new trail with your significant other

• take a long bike ride

• dropping into an OrangeTheory class

• hitting up a community yoga class

• trying out CrossFit for a few months 

• walking on the treadmill while binging your favorite new TV show

The key is to think about which ways you enjoy moving your body most and then implement them creatively into your lifestyle.

My own application of this concept is that I do CrossFit classes 5-6 times per week.

Why?

1. I love it, which makes it sustainable for me.

2. CrossFit burns a ton of calories and incorporates resistance training.

3. I don’t do it because I’ve been falsely promised it’s going to lead to automatic fat loss outcomes.

4. I do it in context of an entire lifestyle pattern that supports my fitness goals.

The result?

A great physique in context of a well-designed and implemented dietary pattern.

So ask yourself…

“What do I actually enjoy doing for exercise?”

And then do that as often as your lifestyle allows.

Why is fun “cardio” effective?

Keeping your “cardio” fun is effective for sustainable fat loss simply because movement burns calories.

Remember, fat loss is almost always a basic equation of calories in versus calories out.

If you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight.

Therefore, adding a few more fitness-based activities to your weekly routine while keeping your caloric consumption the same tips this equation in favor of weight loss.

I also think fat loss becomes much less mentally demanding when you keep things fun. So it’s not that you’re burning more calories simply because you’re having fun - it’s that you’re not thinking of your exercise as some obligatorily hellish experience that “must be done.”

Keeping things fun creates positive associations around exercise instead of negative associations, which can be helpful for people who may have a strained relationship with working out.

Bonus Things to Consider

• You still have to make sure that you’re not out-eating your exercise.

  • No one here is suggesting that playing sand volleyball once a week with friends will give you the license to eat in excess while slowly transforming into a Greek statue.

  • The point is that if you were to add more exercise into your life while keeping all other lifestyle variables constant, you would likely lose fat over time.

• Resistance training is still king for obtaining a muscle-bound physique.

  • Going on a weekly hike and playing an extra game of basketball on Wednesdays isn’t going to make your glutes look like two newly discovered planets that rival the size of Jupiter.

  • You’ll want to be training effectively with weights several times per week to ensure muscle growth.

  • My recommendation in this article is to sprinkle in additional movement-based activity once you already have your resistance training regimen in place.

    • Also, my critique of high-dollar resistance training programs in the introduction is a critique of their unqualified promises to help people lose fat without consideration of other lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, and activity. It’s not a critique of resistance training programs overall. Training programs absolutely necessary for obtaining the lean, hard-body physique many people desire.

• It’s not all about calories.

  • What I mean here is that fat loss is best achieved through a combination of eating an appropriate number of calories, eating enough protein, resistance training, and implementing “cardio” as needed.

  • The point of this article is not to oversimplify the entire process. The point is to single out one particularly helpful tip for losing fat sustainably.

• Living a more active lifestyle will be much easier if you surround yourself with like-minded people.

  • In other words, you might have to get plugged into a new community!

  • Fortunately, there are lots of options like rock-climbing gyms, cycling clubs, CrossFit gyms, OrangeTheory gyms, yoga studios, and many others.

Summary

• You don’t need to spend your money on fat loss supplements, overpriced training programs, and fancy workout equipment to lose fat sustainably.

• My best fat loss tip is to keep your “cardio” fun so you can burn calories in an enjoyable manner.

  • If you were to think of your fat loss effort as a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles of effective, enjoyable, and adherable, you’d want your approach to be in that innermost circle.

• It creates positive associations around a lean body rather than negative ones. 

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I sincerely hope you found this article helpful or illuminating in some way!

If you feel like it brought you value, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be missing that “fun factor” when it comes to finding an exercise routine that works sustainably for them.

Later, friends.

-Andrew

How to Fix Your Squishiness

Let’s talk about the squishy fix.

As silly as it may sound, nearly everyone I talk to about training or dieting is interested in mitigating their squishiness in favor of a harder-looking physique.

Some people call this the "skinny-fat dilemma," but to me it's more of a squishiness dilemma.

So what do you do if you're squishy and you don't like it?

Firstly, I think it's important to understand how we all get squishy in the first place because not everyone is in the same squishiness boat.

How do we get squishy in the first place?

Scenario 1: you were lean but let go.

Probably the most common route to squishy is what I would call the person who grew up thin or lean by nature and then let go at some point in life.

Some of you are probably nodding your heads and thinking, "Yep. That's me." You never really had to think about food as a young person because "your metabolism was awesome!" And now it's apparently less awesome because you're squishy?

Or maybe your food and exercise habits changed a bit along the way as well.

A lot of these people were athletes in high school or college and then lost their way in their twenties.

scenario 2: the long-time chubster

But there are also people who have never known life without their squishiness. This would be anyone who feels like they grew up as a "fat kid" or thinks of themselves as genetically cursed.

You've never really felt confident at the pool or on the beach. You've never loved your picture being taken and you've probably always been insecure about a t-shirt that's just a little too tight. Maybe you were even made fun of for your weight when you were younger.

For those who know me well, you know that I actually fall into this camp.

Scenario 3: The Freestyle Friday Protein-Deficient Cardio Crowd

This third camp is probably the one that gives me the most grief because it represents a group of people who are trying really hard in all of the wrong ways.

And usually, pervasive ignorance is a common denominator among these people.

I know that sounds terrible, but I plan to defend what I mean by that as gently as possible. I call this group the Freestyle Friday Protein-Deficient Cardio Crowd.

Let me break that one down for you.

• Freestyle Friday is a term my high school basketball coach used to talk about anything that wasn't designed for a specific goal in mind. In short, it's something random and it implies little to no consideration of the future. With these people, I find that there's usually no method to their madness. They just "do" a bunch of stuff, and it's never systematic enough to warrant any meaningful or predictable returns.

• Protein-Deficient is pretty self-explanatory. Even though I've shifted my focus away from ultra-high-protein diets in recent years, you still have to consume an adequate amount of protein for any semi-serious physique endeavor.

  • If you want a deeper dive on calculating your own protein needs, check out this article I personally wrote on the topic.

  • You can also check this article out for practical tips on how to eat more protein if you don't know where to start.

• Cardio Crowd simply refers to the fact that these people generally spend way more time doing cardio than they do getting stronger and lifting weights.

When these three forces combine, you're bound to find some degree of squishiness. You might be fit in the cardio sense! But you might be squishy too.

For a surprising example, check out this photo of David Beckham I found the other day.

I'm not saying the guy looks "bad," but it's definitely a softer look for an elite soccer player in a photoshoot setting.

In my experience, most people want to be both more muscular and leaner than his physique in this particular photo.

Why Most People Don’t Love Their Squishiness

This is simple. Squishiness usually implies the combination of two unappealing factors: little to no muscle mass and unwanted fat.

This is a problem because most people would rather be the opposite of at least one but ideally both of those factors!

In other words, having little no muscle while carrying extra body fat is kind of the worst case scenario for most people.

You'd probably prefer having the combination of muscle and fat or the combination of no muscle and no fat than being all around squishy.

For example, powerlifters can sometimes be a decent example of what it means to have plenty of muscle but also plenty of fat, but, as you can see here, this lifter has a ton of muscle and a very healthy and aesthetic amount of body fat.

On the other hand, long distance runners tend to be a decent example of what it means to have little to no muscle or fat.

It's kind of like preferring to have your favorite team be 1-1 instead of 0-2 going into the third week of the football season.

Why would you want anything other than everything?

So in short, people don't love their squishiness because it's a double-opposite of what most people want.

Although each of those camps would benefit from slightly different strategies, the baseline principles are going to be the same.

5 Steps to Fixing Squishy

Be warned, these fixes are not sexy, and you won’t see any mention of lemon juice solutions.

Step 1: set a specific goal.

Firstly, you need to decide if you're going to lose fat first or build muscle first.

You can always try for a nice, slow, and steady recomp, but I think most people would be smart to pick one road or the other and get going.

This decision is important because it dictates how many calories you will be consuming as you start your new program.

Step 2: REMEMBER THAT calories matter most.

Once you have a clear direction and a specific goal, you've got to take extreme ownership of your caloric intake.

Remember that there are only ever three ways to eat:

• In a caloric deficit for a primary goal of fat loss

• In a caloric surplus for a primary goal of muscle gain

• At maintenance calories for a body recomposition effort

In any of these cases, I personally believe a modest approach will work best for most people.

In other words, I would recommend against any aggressive caloric deficit or caloric surplus, and I will tell you why.

Keep in mind that squishy or “skinny fat” people are typically visually softer and less muscular than they need to be for a hard-body look, which means…

• Eating in an aggressive deficit is going to severely limit the muscle you can gain.

• Eating in an aggressive surplus is going to cause excess weight gain and create an ever softer appearance.

As you can see, those are both unwanted outcomes.

So for some general advice, I think a 0-10% deficit or surplus depending on your goal is a very conservative place to start.

This means if your maintenance calories are 2,000 per day, you’d switch to an 1,800-calorie or 2,200-calorie diet depending on the goal (if you were to use the 10% figure).

STEp 3: make sure your protein intake is adequate.

You've got to get your protein in check.

Since so many people struggle to optimize their protein, I’m willing to throw out a few general recommendations.

I really think most females would benefit from targeting a minimum of 80g of protein per day while most males would benefit from targeting a minimum of 120g per day.

Obviously, you can eat much more than that if you personally feel you need to. That choice is yours. I'm just one guy yelling in a noisy room.

For a much more nuanced discussion on this, click here.

STEP 4: prioritize resistance training and progressive overload.

Train consistently with weights while minimizing unnecessary cardio.

You're just never going to develop succulent, balloon-like muscles that look impressive in your best outfits if you never train with weights.

I also realize it may sound a bit counterintuitive to minimize cardio, but you have to remember that building muscle is much more difficult than losing fat.

For that reason alone, I try to encourage people to commit to longer phases of muscle gain knowing in the back of their mind that cutting the fat later is always an option.

So if you're on the fence about training for muscle gain or dieting for fat loss, I might encourage you to train for muscle gain.

Some might argue it’s the less satisfying short-term move, but I firmly believe it’s the more gratifying long-term move.

You’re also going to want to make sure that your program is designed to allow for progressive overload, which means you’ll gradually be increasing the load, reps, or sets performed over time.

If you’re new to the idea of progressive overload, click here.

Step 5: diet in phases.

Diet phasically. I don't have the space to get into that here, but it's worth saying.

If you're squishy, you're probably not going to be able to do a single dieting phase and wake up lean and muscle-puffy someday.

In other words, you might start with an 6-week body recomposition effort at maintenance calories while optimizing your training quality and then deload for a week before jumping into a small surplus to start burning away some of the unwanted fat that’s preventing you from looking trimmer.

It might even take multiple phases of manipulating your strategy, which is where I personally think having a body recomposition coach can be extremely helpful.

Special Considerations

If you used to be lean but you've let go, there's a good chance you can "get your old self back" simply by getting back to old habits.

It's also most likely that you can go straight to cutting body fat since you might have some lingering muscle from your leaner days as a high school athlete or something similar.

If that’s you, it would certainly be my recommendation to start eating in a small deficit of around 10%.

For anyone who feels like they're bigger by nature, you might have to make a more dramatic shift than our leaner friends. But in my opinion, it's better to face the facts and get to work than it is to mope over the unfairness of genetic predispositions.

And I'm allowed to say that since I grew up "husky."

If your metabolism seems to be in a decent place, you're probably best to start chipping away at body fat and then building muscle once you get to a leaner base. Also, don't expect it to be easy. You might have to be more meticulous with your diet than the naturally thin girl at your office you secretly despise.

For these people, I would also recommend a small deficit of around 10%.

For the FFPDCC, you're in a bit of a pickle but it's not void of all hope. It's a hopeful pickle.

But you probably need to decide if you care more about being a cardio monster or a Greek statue. They just really don't go hand in hand in any optimal sense.

If you're more about cardio, then a lower-protein life makes good sense. You're not actually trying to build muscle and that's fine!

But if you're sick of squishy more than anything, get on a structured weight training program, bump your protein intake, and snooze the cardio for a few months to give yourself a chance to build some lean tissue.

For these people, I would actually recommend maintenance eating or a small surplus of around 10%.

And that's that!

Just some thoughts on being squishy and how to rewrite your story if you're in pursuit of leaner and more muscular body composition.

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Thanks for reading! I genuinely hope you were able to take something meaningful away from this article.

If you feel like it brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member - especially someone who might be tired of having their love handles melt over the sides of their favorite jeans.

Later, guys.

-Andrew

Is the StairMaster the Best Way to Lose Weight?

If there is one thing that is non-negotiably true about the fitness industry, it’s this:

Everyone wants to know the fastest and most effective way to lose fat and get that hard body look.

And, to be fair, that makes good sense considering most of us have never been busier. 

Who has the time to be farting around with their fat loss goals on nonsensically decelerated time frames when we could be spending time with our families, pursuing our up-and-coming side hustle, or even catching up on the most recent Netflix documentary that everyone is buzzing about?

I sure don’t, and I doubt you do either. 

But, you clicked on this article because you’re wondering if the StairMaster is the holy grail of fat loss from which we can all sip in shredded six-pack spendor, so let’s quit wasting time with introductory banter and get into the meat and potatoes of whether or not the dreaded stairs can help you carve out the statue-esque physique of your dreams. 

Now, rather than directly answering the question of whether or not you should do the StairMaster to lose weight, I’m going to pitch you four reasons you could be on the StairMaster and how they could impact your body recomposition goal.

The Only 4 Reasons You Should Ever Be on the StairMaster

1. You're Using It to Burn Calories for Fat Loss

Make no mistake about it, walking on the StairMaster can burn you a ton of calories in a short amount of time, which makes it an excellent choice for busy people who just don't have a ton of time to spend on their fat loss goals. 

And, this takes the number one slot on my list because it's by far the best and most logical reason - in my opinion - to be putting yourself through such torture.

So when I see people on the stairs, I assume it's time to get shredded, which means you have a focused fat loss goal that’s being done in tandem with a focused fat loss diet. 

Or, for people who really know what they're doing, getting on the stairs a few times per week can be a great way to stay lean while keeping your calories higher. 

I respect that 100%, and generally I assume that's what people are doing when I see "fit" people on the stairs. 

For a bit of practical application, I want to reiterate that I would always recommend using the StairMaster in combination with a calorically-controlled diet.

For example, if you’re a 110-pound female with a ferocious hankering for a Chipotle burrito who has to drop calories beneath 1200 to continue chipping away at the fat loss you want, you might consider assisting your deficit through the StairMaster 2-3 times per week for 15-45 minutes per session depending on the intensity.

Although I personally would always opt for more flat walking or incline treadmill work due to its minimal impact on overall recovery, the StairMaster is certainly a more time efficient way of burning a few extra calories than either of those options.

Keep in mind, however, that there literally isn’t a single person on the planet who needs the StairMaster to lose body fat and achieve the look they want.

It’s simply one tool of many that can be used strategically in context of your overall plan! Always remember that. 

2. You Might Be Training for a Hiking Trip, But I Doubt It

This isn't going to be very many people, but I have known a few people who were training for a hiking trip and used the stairs to prepare themselves for the hills. 

Let's be honest though, that's not going to be many people, and I would estimate that less than 1% of people on the stairs in the cardio section are training for a big hike.

At the same time, this is technically a legitimate reason to be on the StairMaster, so I thought it was worth including even though hiking protocols typically have nothing to do with a focused body recomposition effort. 

3. You Want to Improve Your Cardiovascular Fitness

Although this seems like a nutty reason to me since so many other things could achieve a very similar result, you could use the StairMaster for general heart health.

But you could also walk or jog or row or even do weight lifting circuits to keep your heart health on point, so I personally think the stairs are an unnecessarily brutal choice if you're just a noble soul looking to stay healthy.

That being said, good for you if this is your perspective on health! There is zero judgement coming from me. I see you and I celebrate you.

In fact, I have a medal of honor and nobility sitting on my desk for you at IVRY headquarters. Feel free to pick that up anytime between the hours of 9-5PM Monday through Friday.

But again, this has nothing to do with a focused body recomposition effort, and you could easily have a healthy heart while rocking a dad bod. 

The StairMaster is not an automatic one-way ticket to Shredzville or Peach Town.

4. You Enjoy It! 

Preference is always a fine reason to do something in the gym as long as you're doing it safely.

If you like the StairMaster, cheers! 

But stay away from me because I don't personally trust you.

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Okay, so those were the four main reasons I think you should ever really be on the StairMaster outside from silly reasons like you’re looking for a reason to talk to the cute girl who happens to be on the StairMaster next to you.

But I’m not going to leave it there.

Now, it’s time to expose three simple reasons you really shouldn’t be using the StairMaster.

3 Reasons Not To Be Using the StairMaster?

1. You Think It's Going to Plump Up Your Peach

Using the StairMaster is not how you get a big, muscular butt. 

I fear that a lot of people slaving away on the stairs are doing so because they saw some fit Instagram model doing it and they're envious of her rump.

Don't do that. 

Big butts are built mostly through heavy compound movements like deadlifting, squatting, lunging, and hinging for hypertrophy when paired with a high-protein diet that can actually build the muscle you want.

So let me say this one last time, if you see a chick on the StairMaster with a bum you’d be eager to sport yourself, remember that she did not build it on the stairs - even if she’s kicking her legs back with every step like a bad YouTube ad. 

Big butts are either the product of genetics or heavy resistance training.

If anything, the StairMaster might even be working against your glute gains! 

Why? Because muscle growth seems to occur when your glutes are trained within a few reps of muscular failure with a load that allows for 6-20 reps per set in most cases.  

So answer me this.

Do you want a bigger butt?

Or do you want an “endurance butt?”

The last time I checked, walking on the stairs is technically like doing thousands and thousands of supoptimal reps that never push your glutes to within a few reps of failure.

Do you see my point? 

The classic illustration of this idea in the fitness industry is the comparison of physiques between sprinters or “explosive athletes” and longer distance athletes.

To be fair, they always exaggerate the juiciness of the sprinters while making the long distance runners look like they’re on their deathbeds, but in general I think the point is well-supported.

FATIGUE BUILD-UP and the interference effect

And, one final point I want to make while we’re here is this…

Being on the StairMaster will create an immense amount of fatigue build-up in your legs. Some even call this the interference effect.

Think about it.

If getting a bigger butt is about training with loads that allow you get within a few reps of failure in the 6-20 rep range, but your legs are too tired from your time on the StairMaster to create the stimulus you need from your weight training, your butt is not going to grow optimally.

Can you see how you’d really be shooting yourself in the foot? Or should I say the butt? 

So the take-home point is this: If plumping up your peach is your main goal, train your glutes with heavy weights for 10-20 hard sets per week in the 6-20 rep range, tailor your calories and protein according to your goal, and stay away from the StairMaster.

2. You Think It's Going to Give You That Hard, Lean Look

Although riding the stairs can absolutely burn body fat like crazy when paired with a calorie-controlled diet, it's not going to give you that "hot" look all by itself unless you already have plenty of muscle hiding underneath your chub. 

And even then you might be risking a bit of muscle loss without a high-protein diet.

For example, if you're a former athlete and you used to have a lean look, you might be able to get away with hammering away on the stairs to reveal your lean tissue because, in some sense, you already put in the work years ago.

But if you're in that "skinny fat" category - or maybe if you're just overweight in general without much muscle mass underneath - slaving away on the stairs is just going to deflate you.

If your chubby self was a succulent grape, you’re now on the fast track to looking like your pointer finger after being in the hot tub for two hours.  

You'll lose weight! That's for sure. But you won't look the way you want to look. 

You’ll just have traded one unimpressive look for another - the only difference being a few pounds on the scale, which I doubt will capture the attention of your friends and family.

Think about it through the lens of my “family summer weekend at the lake” analogy.

MY Family Summer Weekend at the Lake Analogy

I am a Missouri person, which means one big aspect of Missouri culture in the summer is that people tend to hangout at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Nice lake homes on the water, fancy boats, fun drinks, good vibes, and…

Swimsuits - the infamously feared summer garment that reminds us all of how much we’ve let go.

And the fact that everyone is in their swimsuits means that you probably don’t want to feel wildly insecure in your own skin. 

I actually had a client tell me once that one of his bigger motivations in pursuing body recomposition is that he didn’t want to be the “fat friend” in photos from a friends vacation he’d be taking in a few months. 

Oof!

But, for the sake of setting up our analogy, let’s assume that next year you are going to show up to the lake after having undergone some type of weight loss or body recomposition effort.

I present to you two scenarios that could apply to men or women.

Lake Scenario 1 - You Lost Weight But That’s About It

You show up and no one really says anything. 

You’re in your swimsuit on the boat enjoying everyone’s company for maybe 40 minutes before you get caught up in a 15-minute conversation with your brother-in-law you haven’t seen a while when he says, “Am I making things up or did you lose some weight?”

Tickled that someone finally noticed your 30-pound weight loss, you proudly say, “I did actually! I’ve lost 30 pounds,” to which he responds, “Thirty pounds? Really? Huh. Well good for you, man. I wouldn’t have guessed it to be 30, but that’s great.”

Ouch! 

And to be honest with you, I think that’s what happens a lot when people diet for a weight loss goal through slaving away on the StairMaster (or any other type of cardio machine) without paying homage to resistance training and a high-protein diet along the way.

You lost weight, but no one really cares because you don’t really look that different and you certainly don’t have that hard-body look that tends to turn heads.

You'll be softer but mainly just smaller and equally squishy unless you really took your fat loss to the extremes.

And even then you'd probably just be a super tiny person with little to no muscle mass and a metabolism fit for a toddler.

Lake Scenario 2 - You Got Lean and Jacked

You show up and everyone says, “Dude, what in the world did you do?! You look sick!” 

I’m not saying you all of sudden transformed into Chris Evans, but you’ve definitely got broader shoulders, a shelfed chest, and some abs.

And, depending on how short your swim pants are, you might even be showing off a bit of quad pizzazz like our handsome Internet model Peter over here to the left.

You see that quad vein? Good job, Pete.

Or for the ladies, imagine hearing, “Girl, you look amazing! Please tell me exactly what you did so I can start tomorrow! But seriously, what did you do...”

Those are the kind of reactions that happen organically when you show up with less flabby underarms, stronger and more shapely glutes and legs, and a flatter tummy than you’ve had in a long time.

Just imagine how invigorating of a feeling that would be.

Speaking from experience as a body recomposition coach, those are the comments that continue to light the motivation fire for people more than anything else.

I could be wrong, but my guess is that 10 out of 10 people would choose this second scenario over the first every single time.

And for anyone scoffing right now because they’re unimpressed with the focus on vanity, keep in mind that having a strong, muscular body is a very functional way to live.

So what in the flying fork does that all have to do with not looking to the StairMaster to get you that hard, lean look? 

It’s a reminder that the coveted hard body look is a product of weight training, protein, and caloric control - not impulsive amounts of cardio.

And if you really want to remodel your physique over the long-term, cardio will actually probably play a somewhat minimal role in that process relative to those more important points of emphasis. 

3. You Are Super Duper Overweight

One last reason I think some people should avoid using the StairMaster is if you are significantly overweight or obese. 

The reason for that is simply because you likely don’t need to do something that intense.

In other words, just getting your diet in check is enough to get most obese people losing slabs of weight with very little required exercise.

I don’t say this to be judgemental in the slightest, but it seems like obesity is often times the result of having done almost everything “wrong” in terms of diet and exercise for an extended period of time, which means making a few critical changes - especially in the realms of calorie control - is enough to get the scale moving in the right direction.

I think I felt the need to bring this up because I frequently will see some very overweight people using the StairMaster at my gym, and it always makes me wonder if they know that it’s probably unnecessary. 

Secondly, I think being on the StairMaster when you’re very overweight puts you at increased risk of burnout because it’s semi-unsustainable. 

Imagine being overweight, putting in a ton of work on the stairs without tweaking your diet, not losing any meaningful amount of weight in the first two weeks, and giving up.

I think that’s probably a very real thing and the greatest source of frustration for a lot of people looking to lose weight.

“Screw it! If I’m not going to lose any weight, I’m done.”

If you’re very overweight, I would encourage you to look to more sustainable forms of increased caloric expenditure like:

• Walking outside with friends

• Incline treadmill walking at a very doable pace

• Spin class

• Other group classes with a community element like CrossFit

If you’d like an in-depth take on how to leverage walking for fat loss, read my article here.

Let's Wrap It Up

That was a long one, so let’s recap.

Being on the stairs stinks. 

Your heart rate goes soaring through the roof, you sweat like you're in a sauna, and your hip flexors cramp up into little tennis balls.

So if you're going to put yourself through that, do so for reasons that you've determined make sense for your long-term goal. 

Trying to lose body fat? Stairs could work! But walking also works, might me more sustainable, and sucks a lot less if you have the time.

Trying to gain muscle optimally? I'd recommend staying off the stairs and sticking with a moderate level of steps mainly for health. 

Walking up stairs won't make you jacked or help you really turn heads at your next pool party or family event at the lake. 

And for the love of all things moderately decent, don’t hop on the StairMaster in an attempt to grow your butt, ladies. 

“What about you, Andrew? Do you do the StairMaster?”

Personally, I have strategically used the stairs in the past to accelerate my fat loss, but I did so in a limited fashion with design and purpose. I encourage you to do the same! 

In fact, here is my transformation from 2019 when I lost 18 pounds. I used the stairs for the last two weeks of my diet. I was around 200 on the left and about 182 on the right.

And just for some comparative photos, I got on the stairs zero times when I underwent this transformation you see below in 2020.

I walked, lifted weights 5-6 times per week, ate plenty of protein, and kept my calories in check.

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Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew

Why Doing At-Home "Workouts from Hell" Might Not Be the Best Move for Your Physique

As far as entertainment goes, I’m a big YouTube fitness guy, and one of the things I’ve noticed lately on both YouTube and Instagram is that a lot of fitness influencers are pushing these “at-home workouts from hell.” And here’s the thing: they look really good in the thumbnails and the clickbait headlines are yummy. But, I’m not so sure this is the best way of going about things if what you care most about is your physique, and I’m here to tell you why.

First, I want to be clear about what I mean when I (and these influencers) say workouts “from hell.” The general theme of all these workouts can be summed up a in a few bullet points:

• Usually lots of reps (50 or more in most cases)

• Lighter loads

• Minimal focus on technique

• Minimal focus on the mind-muscle connection (MMC)

• Maximal focus on intensity and effort

• Minimal rest times or long circuits of exercises strung together

Let’s get into it then.

Q: Why are these workouts probably not the best idea for people looking to improve their body composition?

1. Being needlessly hardcore isn’t the mechanism that drives improved body composition.

This immediately requires us to zoom out a bit. What does it even mean to improve your body composition? Well, let’s cut to the chase. As far as I’m concerned, most people want to lose body fat (not just weight) and build muscle to the extent that they look good naked and feel confident at the pool. I have yet to hear a client say, “I actually really just like fitness for fitness. I really don’t care that much about losing body fat or gaining a bit of muscle.” If that were true of you, you’d probably already be fairly committed to your fitness hobby of choice: jogging, boxing, swimming, CrossFit, etc. So from now on, let’s assume that your goal is primarily motivated by looking better and feeling more confident.

Unfortunately, well-intentioned people get this wrong all the time, and I can say this confidently because I did it for years. So, hear me when I say this: Neither losing body fat nor gaining muscle are achieved through being aimlessly hardcore. It’s not the “hardcore-ness” of your workout that communicates to your body, “Okay, start looking better.”

If you want to achieve that leaner, more muscular look, you really need to figure out how you can train to maximize muscle gain (or retention) while being in a caloric deficit. Simply put, these "workouts from hell” probably aren’t optimal for physique outcomes because they don’t load your muscles optimally for growth - and growth is what creates that look most of us are after.

Training intelligently is what drives body composition results - not being “hardcore” just for the sake of it.

2. Muscles have been shown to grow best when loaded near failure in the 5-30 rep ranges - not 100 or more like some of these trending at-home workouts prescribe.

Yesterday on Instagram I saw someone challenge their social media audience to do 200 air squats per day for an entire week. Again, there’s nothing wrong with doing air squats if you like them for general exercise or find them therapeutic. My intent is also not to say this person is “stupid" or “wrong" because they aren’t! Getting people off their butts and moving during a time like this is amazing and absolutely beneficial in it’s own way, I just don’t want our audience thinking that doing 200 air squats a day is a good way to develop stronger, muscular, and more aesthetically pleasing legs (for both men and women). It’s not. Getting “up and moving around” versus training to grow some respectable muscle are two very different things.

If you want to grow, the science consistently shows that growth happens when loading your muscles to the extent that you can perform between 5-30 reps as you approach muscle failure. For example, if you’re doing a dumbbell squat at home and you’re able to do 40 reps with 25 pounds, you’d probably be better off increasing the weight until those achievable reps fall below 30.

To zoom in even more, most of that work should probably be done in the 8-15 rep range. This means instead of doing 1400 air squats across the span of a week, you could just pick one or two days and perform 3-5 sets of a weighted squat in that 8-15 rep range. 

It’s up to you, but the latter is much more likely to actually get you growing muscle and looking better naked while that first option is more of a fitness or endurance goal.

Choose what’s best for you, but be educated in that decision.

3. Despite the higher calorie burn, these workouts don’t account for sustainability or future progression, which frequently leads to burnout.

With their high rep counts and short, circuit-based rest times, these "workouts from hell” are really just training your endurance systems and maybe bumping your calorie burn for the day. And although burning extra calories through high intensity activity can absolutely be a piece of the fat loss puzzle, it can also be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Yes, I am actually making the point that burning a few extra calories might not be worth it in the grander scheme of things.

Think of it this way, if you burn an extra 500 calories doing a series of burpees, air squats, pushups, crunches, mountain climbers, and whatever else, do you really want to get in the habit of having your body rely on that sort of induced calorie burn to maintain your current rate of progress? You might - and I certainly don’t want to discount the fact that those people exist, I just personally don’t know too many people who genuinely enjoy that sort of training. Most people workout a certain way as a means to an end because they’ve been convinced it’s the best way to go about things. But, is it? In this case - probably not.

These workouts also probably aren’t sustainable. If you’re not already in phenomenal shape, doing something like 100 burpees followed by 100 pushups followed by 100 pullups followed by 100 crunches is going to absolutely dominate you. You will be sore for days - maybe even more than a week! So if you do that on Monday, what are you going to do on Tuesday? Well, I know exactly what you’ll be doing. You’ll be curled up in the fetal position with enough delayed onset muscle soreness to cripple an army.

And to that same point, these workouts don’t account for the future. Even if you could do that workout and live to see the light of next Monday, what happens then? Do you do it again? For the same amount of sets and reps? And again the following Monday? How do you progress? It’s a dead-end road.

For optimal muscle development, I’ve learned that you really need to be periodizing your approach, which means learning when to take it easy, when to ramp it up, and when to go hard in the paint.

Take this example of a leg day you could do instead of those 200 air squats per day.

• DB Goblet Squats for 3 sets of 8-15

• Bodyweight Bulgarian Split Squats for 2 sets of 10-20

• DB Romanian Deadlifts for 2 sets of 8-15

• Weighted Crunches for 2 sets to semi-failure

Most people could do that on Monday, feel a bit of soreness on Tuesday, and be fully recovered to train their legs again by Thursday. By next Monday, you could repeat that entire workout while adding a small bit of weight, adding a rep here or there, improving your technique, or even adding a set. That’s called progression. Progression provides overload, and overload produces results when your diet matches the goal.

So, here is the point in black and white…

“If your goal is to look better naked, consider training with heavier loads, eating plenty of protein within an overall caloric deficit, setting a step goal, and prioritizing your sleep and recovery.”

Hopefully that makes sense in simple enough terms.

Q: Are there any good reasons to be doing these workouts? Or are they just a bad idea in general?

It doesn’t have to be a non-negotiably bad idea.

Good reasons for doing these sort of workouts could be that you enjoy them or just prefer getting a bigger caloric burn in a short amount of time. Those are great reasons to do them, I just personally don’t relate to them because:

1. I don’t like high intensity training with lighter loads.

2. I prefer to achieve my calorie deficit primarily through diet and walking.

Another reason could be that you just really enjoy a good challenge for the sake of fitness. If that’s you, go for it!

But if that’s not you, take a step back, evaluate your long-term goal, and train/eat/sleep according to what the science says - not fitness mythology.

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Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.

If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!

And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.

Cheers, everyone!

-Andrew