The Fitness Adviser

I actually don't believe in the term fitness expert. I don't consider myself an expert. I am a student of fitness. I consider the other bloggers, readers, people who comment, and product owners as one big mastermind. I soak up knowledge, look at and consider the newest philosophies and fine-tune my approach over time. What I recommend today is slightly different than what I would have recommended 2 years ago. Two years from now, it will be slightly different than today.

[I can easily understand how someone could be completely thrown off by all the conflicting advice online. With the Internet, this becomes even more confusing. There has never been so much information available at the click of a button.]

Almost an Unlimited Amount of Approaches Will Work

With fitness, there are so many effective approaches to achieving the same result. Take me for example…my favorite method of training is low volume heavy weight training under a calorie deficit. I also like to add in HIIT followed by a bit of steady state cardio. This allows people to get stronger while dropping body fat at the same time, which increases muscle definition at a rapid rate…without increasing muscle size. Is my method, the only one that I believe in? Not by a mile…

I Like to Think of Training Methodologies Like Martial Arts

Is Karate better than Tae Kwon Do for self defense? Well, we could argue between the two all day, but they both work extremely well when one becomes skilled in their particular discipline. Obviously a black belt in Karate will crush a beginner in Tae Kwon Do, but does that prove Karate to be superior? I don't think so. This is the same with different methods of training. A 20 year gym veteran is probably going to look more impressive than a beginner no matter what methodology either of them is using.

[Speaking of Martial Arts...I plan on taking a Krav Maga class in the near future. It is an Israeli method of close range hand-to-hand combat. It was perfected to teach people to protect themselves in some of the violent areas of Israel.]

Test Out Different Methods from Time to Time

Going forward, I am going to spend the 3 months of winter each year trying out a completely different routine. Right now I am going through Coach Steer and Coach Murdock's BBFL routine. I have never done anything like it and noticing some great benefits such as joint mobility and flexibility. Last winter I did Craig Ballantyne's Body Weight Circuits for three months. I have no idea what I will be doing next winter. Bottom line…even I don't use my own workout methodology 100% of the time!

Don't Take Your Advice from Just One Person

Let me be the first to tell you to not just use advice on my site as the place to get 100% of your fitness info. You will be much better off learning from many. I still learn weekly from a large mastermind of blogs, paid products, and people who comment on my site.

When Scientific Studies Contradict Each Other?

This is a tough one! It is another reason it helps to have a cluster of sites and friends you can talk to regarding a subject. I really like Brad Pilon, John Barban, Mark Sisson, and Lyle McDonald as a start when it comes to analyzing the findings of scientific research. I also look in the comment section of my own site and use that as a resource. Most of the time I will use this collective knowledge as a tool to find out what I consider to be the true answer.

What to Do About Information Overload?

My suggestion is to pick 1-2 "core sites" to learn from and spend 50% of your time there. Within a core site, you will find links in the articles and comment section. These are typically people contributing to the same mastermind group. You will run across dozens of sites through one large core site. Out of those sites, maybe pick 5 more that you will read on a regular basis. Anything more than 6-7 sources and you will begin to feel overwhelmed.

I Believe My Mastermind Group Is the Best Online

I will never claim to have the best blog, but I will brag all day about the collective knowledge of the fitness sites I associate myself with. I also tend to brag to to other bloggers about having the most valuable comment section. I do my best to stay on top of the current research, get things rolling, but the real value of a post is 1-2 months after it is published.

Note: I still believe my methods are hard to beat when it comes to getting the lean and hip "Hollywood" physique. I also think that it is NOT in your best interest to add a ton of muscle to your frame.

One Last Thing: I don't ever take it for granted that you are spending your valuable time reading my site. My goal is to work as hard as possible to be one of the 6-7 sites that you read on a regular basis. My plan is to get out some more detailed step-by-step posts in the near future.

Tags: Main, body weight circuits, brad pilon, craig ballantyne, fitness experts, fitness sites, john barban, lyle mcdonald, mark sisson, muscle definition, steady state cardio