Fitness and Nutrition

What are my top 10 most important tips for better health & fitness?

1.  Flexibility, Mobility, Thoracic Spine Mobility, and Strength Training are first foremost in my opinion.  (Notice I did not mention food and calories since most of us are living in either Europe or North America where nutrition is not a problem, but a choice in what we choose to stuff our bellies with.  We are already bombarded with nutrition articles and everyone is looking at calories, rather than the quality of foods & strength training to get leaner and stronger, not just losing weight, which a lot of time is muscle weight too, not just fat.  And well, that's the problem.  If you lose muscle, you are losing the main engine that helps you burn the fat.  If you keep losing muscle, you'll end up with a higher percentage of total fat weight, as you keep losing muscle weight.  Not to mention women run a high risk of developing osteoporosis with more traditional cardio training.  

2.  Correct Cardiovascular Training is important, but best done with "Hardstyle" Kettlebell Training, not high impact traditional cardio as with running that may hurt your joints.  Training properly with Kettlebells swings are excellent for core training, for the back muscles, gluteus muscles, etc.   Women should start working with 12-16 kg Kettlebells, while men can tart at 16 kg and up.  Nothing too fancy, just "hardstyle" Kettlebells Swings are enough.  

3.  Stay far away from unfermented soy products, which are more toxic than we are lead to believe.  

4.  Stay away from toxic cigarette smoke, and second hand smoke.  

5.  Stay away from processed simple Sugars as they cause inflammation and immune system breakdown.

6.  Drink more pure water.  We can't seem to get enough.

7.  Sleep and rest more.  We seem to be running on low batteries much too often.  Meditation may also be an option for some.

8.  I believe in consuming more healthy fats through the day than what we have been told.  It's not the fat that is making us fat, but the simple sugars and processed junk foods, like pastas and breads, although many think that if the bread is whole grain it must be healthy, but that is still bread.  And if bread comes from grains, it will make you gain unwanted weight.  If you don't eat so much bread, than you won't gain so much weight.

9.  Do NOT mix Strength training and Powerlifting as crossSh*t style workouts -"trying to re-invent the wheel", as I like to call it.  Such all out crazy "workouts", which are great form "working yourself out" , taxing your immune system, exhausting yourself to the max, possibly hurting yourself, especially if you were already in good shape to begin with.  Such training are great for shows like The Biggest Loser, for the Army, or for the lazy who need to lose weight fast.  Now,  I enjoy a nice steak, maybe a glass of wine, and some ice-cream from time to time, but I certainly don't mix all my food ingredients in a blender to mix!  That's the way I like to explain it.  
For Strength Training, you can develop real power with strength and speed when practiced correctly.  Never will you see an olympic athlete in either powerlifting or olympic lifting running around silly to elevate his/her heart rate before he/she attempts another heavy lift.  Raising one's heart rate before attempting Olympic or Power Lifting movements are not only counterproductive, but dangerous.  Here's one of my coaches and mentors explaining better:  

Note:  I practiced MMA fighting professional and trained with the best in California, in Canada, in Japan, and in Brazil when competing at the Medials.  MMA fighting in many ways is similar to the cross-whatever training sport, but let me tell you that both "sports" are extreme, dangerous, and for the young.  You will not see 50-60 yrs old doing professional fighting, and I see only 20+ yrs old in crossfit training competitors.  But you will see 50-60 yrs old in Bodybuilding or Martial Arts Masters.  Where the body can get seriously hurt, the mature must take a more "mature" approach to fitness.

10.  Losing fat for the average individual should not be so complicated, unless you have a serious medical condition, or hormone imbalance.  Is it easy?  To some yes, when they are dedicated to train well and "Consistently".  Consistency and quality training are the keys.  Here's what you need to do:  Increase the quality of your food and train more with "correctly done" compound movements -which is the #1 tool for weight loss is weight training, yes that's right it's weight training, not more cardio, and decrease the junk foods in your diet.  More quality protein and fibrous carbs, like leafy greens and vegetables -THAT'S IT!  If you are weight training correctly and strength training correctly, you WILL naturally create a caloric deficit and/or glycogen depletion.  And what you ingest will either be healthy or you are stuck calculating each calorie, rather than focusing on nutrition first, then calories as a whole.

I will elaborate on these points in the near future.

​Sasha and I will be making YouTube videos on how we train to show you.  We haven't started yet.  Today I am still touching up the website, and was my first mini blog EVER.  


If you have any questions, feel free to email me anytime or comment.