What Supplements Do You Really Need?

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

People search fervently for anything that will help them build more muscle, lose more fat, and achieve their dream body. Knowing this, supplement companies are compelled to constantly come up with “new”, “more powerful” and “breakthrough” products to help people achieve their goals. There are more fat-burning, muscle building products on the market today than ever before. Do they work? Can these products help us reach our peak? The answer is both yes and no.

Through clever marketing people today are convinced that “looking good” is only one pill or powder away. They view supplements as being a magic bullet, that will get them the body of their dreams. Yes, some of these products work and can help bolster your results. But they cannot compensate for an inadequate training program and/or poor nutrition.

First Things First Regarding “Supplements”

Understand what supplements are. The word, supplement means, “addition; complement; enhance.” It does not mean “to correct; make up for; solve” yet this is the view most people have of them. They see supplements as the answer or when they are merely an aide.

No supplement, regardless of the claims made, is going to make a dramatic difference in fat-loss and muscular gains if training and nutrition is inadequate. Supplements are meant to do nothing more than “fill-in the gaps” so that the body always gets what it needs when it needs it.

Combined with a training and nutrition program that meets the specific needs of the individual, supplements can help boost exercise performance, recovery and ultimately, results. Your goal is to maximize fat-loss and muscular development and that cannot be achieved unless the two major components; training and nutrition, are first in place. Supplements will only be as effective or as useful as your training and nutrition dictates.

Until you are able to make gains simply by manipulating your training and nutrition alone, you should not be using supplements (with a few exceptions we’ll discuss shortly). Often individuals are compelled to use supplements because they need something to help compensate for their poor training and nutrition practices. If they had a proper training and nutrition program, then the supplement(s) would most likely be unnecessary.

Before I fully understood the basic components of exercise and nutrition, and learned to effectively apply them, I would try every new product that hit the market in an attempt to enhance my physique. About ninety-nine percent of the time the results were either short-lived or insignificant. Even with continued use of a product I still could not make any better progress than what I had already. After years of frustration, trying new product after new product and getting very little return on my investments I decided to drop the supplements altogether and take a harder look at my diet and training.

It was only after I got a handle on my training and nutrition that I was able to finally see how supplements really fit into the process of optimizing physique development. It became clear that supplements could assist in my progress but only if things were rolling in the right direction to begin with. If things were not going in the right direction, the supplements could do little to change this.

Getting a handle on training and nutrition first is important for another reason: when you utilize a particular product or substance you want to know for certain whether or not it actually works! You want to be able to measure its impact if any at all! But you cannot make this assessment unless you first know the effect that certain training and nutrition practices have without the addition of that supplement. Once you know this, you can better evaluate the supplements effectiveness and worth.

For example, many times people who start taking fat-burners simultaneously start exercising more frequently and consciously eat less—two things that by themselves result in greater fat-loss. So is it the pill or the training and diet that results in greater fat-loss?

Which Supplements and When

Under “normal” conditions (i.e., not attempting to peak or drop body-fat very low) many supplements are of little benefit. If you are taking in ample amounts of nutritious foods and your training demands/recovery time is properly balanced, the impact of most supplements is minuscule. There are, of course, exceptions to this which I will get to momentarily. Understand for now, supplements tend only to be of significant help under conditions where the body is most depleted yet needing to function at a high capacity, i.e. peaking. If your body-fat is not rock bottom or on its way there and you are taking in enough nutrients to maintain a positive nitrogen balance and ward off muscle catabolism and you are not scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel just to get through your exercise each day then supplements are unnecessary. The reason is 97-99% of your results will come from properly applied training and nutrition. It’s only in trying to realize that last 1-3% of your potential that supplements can help put your training and nutrition over the top.

With the wide variety and abundance of supplements available for fat-loss, muscle enhancement and exercise performance, it would be too daunting a task to discuss them all in great detail here. The following are those supplements which I personally have found to be most pertinent, useful and effective.

Food Supplements

There are some supplements whose regular utilization is not only warranted but many times necessary. One of the most important supplements you can ever take and one that should remain constant throughout the year is a quality protein powder. Because of our busy lives, it is often difficult and inconvenient to consume adequate amounts of protein throughout the day from “real” foods such as meat, chicken, turkey, or eggs unless we are well prepared or working from home.

Protein in the form of whey, casein, and non-GMO soy protein powders make it easy and convenient to get as much protein as you need throughout the day. These products mix quickly, easily and provide all the necessary amino acids for muscle repair and growth. Protein bars can also provide a sufficient supply of protein per serving, but be aware that the quality of protein is rarely as good or as complete as with the powders and some bars are loaded with sugars and trans-fats which more or less defeats their purpose as a “healthy” snack or meal replacement.

Along these same lines of useful and valuable food supplements are amino acids. Amino acids help to provide the muscles with an immediate supply of high quality aminos, improves nitrogen retention and helps prevent muscle catabolism. They are particularly useful if you are not consume a variety of proteins.

A good Multivitamin can provide you with your daily requirements of all the necessary vitamins and minerals. Let’s face it, few of us eat as many fruits and vegetables as we should (myself included) and considering the way they are cultivated and treated today with chemical additives to make them grow larger and look better their nutritional value is not what it once was. Also, with how heavily processed many of our other foods are, daily consumption of a multivitamin can ensure that your body is getting what it needs to function optimally and fight infectious disease and sickness.

I take Shaklee Men’s Vitalizer strips

Fish Oil

Fish Oil/EFA’s (essential fatty acids) are essential to getting Omega-3 & 6 fatty acids. The health benefits of Omega-3’s have been well documented for years.

The laundry list of these benefits includes:

• decreased triglyceride levels
• decreased growth rate of atherosclerotic plaque
• improved Arrhythmia (irregular heart beat)
• helps to lower LDL’s and raise HDL’s (bad and good
cholesterol respectively)
• lower blood pressure
• improved mood
• aids in fat-loss
• relief from joint pain
• improved autoimmune function
• improved brain development and memory function
• helps control Type II Diabetes
• helps relieve dry skin

Those Fish Oil/EFA supplements which are high in EPA/DHA will help you metabolize more fat and contribute immensely to your cardiovascular health. The amount of research being accumulated on the benefits of Fish Oils/EFA is becoming quite extensive; however, most of it up till now has been geared towards cardiac health and only in the last decade or so has its effects on fat-loss been more closely examined. The results of such studies have been quite impressive in that the subjects were losing fat with the implementation of exercise. Studies which have compared the effects of FO supplementation and exercise both independently, and combined conclude that the addition of Omega-3 to an exercise regimen greatly improves fat-loss and cardiovascular lipid profiles. But once again the news gets even better as those studies had the subjects performing only low intensity aerobic exercise as opposed to high intensity anaerobic exercise which we already know has greater impact on body composition and fat-loss!

All in all it is a pretty safe bet that supplementing with approximately 3-6g./day of Fish Oil/EFA will reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and help you shed unwanted body-fat.

Muscle and Performance Enhancing Supplements

I do not view this next supplement as being a must like I do the above food supplements but it has proven to be an effective muscle enhancer and more importantly, a very good recovery agent (i.e., speeds up recovery between workouts). The supplement I’m speaking of is Creatine monohydrate.

The body’s energy supply for muscular work comes from creatine phosphate (CP) and ATP. When we perform muscular work of a high intensity ATP is quickly depleted and must be replenished immediately in order to sustain further amounts of work at this capacity. The phosphate from CP is used to replenish and regenerate ATP. Consuming creating prior to training will top-off your CP stores, which in turn allows ATP to be regenerated quicker. With greater energy reserves you can sustain a heavy work load longer.

Fat Burners

Fat-burners, also known as Thermogenics, are quite easily the most popular supplements on the planet. What used to be a product that could only be purchased at the local vitamin and supplement store or online you can now find lining the shelves of supermarkets! Since the removal of ephedra from this product’s main ingredients it has certainly lost much of its punch.

What needs to be cleared up regarding fat-burners is not whether or not they work but what they actually do and how they can be used most effectively.

First, fat-burners DO NOT BURN FAT per se. These products do in fact help facilitate the use of fatty acids for energy but this does not necessarily correlate to ‘fat-loss’ unless the stage is set for it.

In order to burn fat you must first be in a caloric deficit, period. If you are not in a caloric deficit, taking a fat-burning pill will not magically put you in one without changing your diet. If you pick up any fat-burning product and read the label they all say something to the effect of: BEST USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A LOW-CALORIE DIET AND EXERCISE. Even the manufacturers realize that their product will not work unless you help it to work.

Fat-burners and thermogenic products are stimulants. Upon consumption they cause an immediate increase in your energy levels and metabolic rate. This is the direct result of caffeine and other stimulating substances being present in high dosages.

Note: Caffeine is responsible for most of the physiological effects of Fat-burners which is why it is the main ingredient in all of them. Caffeine by itself (either as coffee or in pill form) provides the same benefits of most Fat-burning pills and drinks but to a lesser degree because of smaller dosages and the absence of other substance which “amplify” its effects. This makes caffeine a viable alternative for those who cannot tolerate or do not like the stronger effects fat burners/thermogenics can have.

With this sudden rise in energy you feel compelled to start expending some of it if you were not planning on doing so already. So if you were laying on the couch when you took the product about a half-hour later you’ll want to get off the couch and start doing something because you simply can’t sit still. Plus, your metabolism is now moving at faster rate than normal thus you burn more energy per unit of time. So between an increase in energy and rate of energy expenditure you can burn a greater number of calories over the course of a day. Combine this with being in a caloric deficit and voila you start burning body-fat.

Another side-effect of stimulants is appetite suppression. Taking a fat-burner/thermogenic with or between meals can help curb hunger, resulting in you eating less which, you guessed it, means less calories in. Now efforts to burn body-fat are being assisted from both ends…less calories are being taken in and more calories are going out.

What’s important realize is that you do not need these products in order to burn fat. They can be of assistance in the process but they are not necessary. Again I personally have found these products to be most useful under extreme circumstances. Such as, being on a heavily (calorie) restricted diet yet needing to increase or sustain energy levels in order to perform workouts.

When not dieting, I’ve found taking fat-burners/thermogenics prior to my workout helps to increase my mental focus and aggressiveness while training, making for a more productive workout.

Nitric Oxide

In recent years Nitric Oxide (NO) supplements have become widely popular as a muscle and performance enhancer. NO and products like this are known as vasodilators. What these products do is increases the diameter of your blood vessels thereby increasing blood flow to the muscles and vascularity. This results in a great “pump” while training and one that lasts longer after you’re finished training. Other benefits include more rapid recovery and increased energy.

Some of these NO products contain other substances such as Arginine, which promotes the release of growth hormone, improves nitrogen retention and helps in the synthesis of creatine.

Proceed With Caution

You need to be as methodical about your use (addition) of supplements as you are your training and diet. You also need to be honest about their results or lack thereof. Just because a product is purported to do x, y, z does not mean it will deliver. Much of the “scientific studies” done on these products are nothing more than marketing tactics to make you think the “holy grail of bodybuilding supplements” has been discovered and is “now available” for your benefit.

Treat your use of supplements like a controlled experiment. Try to isolate as many factors (i.e. diet, exercise, daily activity) as possible then assess the impact adding the supplement into the mix has on your results if any. Take note of the immediate and/or long-lasting effects and whether they are significant enough to merit further use. Most importantly, do not become dependent on them. There has not yet been enough long-term research on these products for us to know for certain their long-term effects on our health…so proceed with caution.

4 Ways to Overload

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

Increase the weight, increase your reps (or time under tension) or increase both. This has been the tried and true means to progressively overload ones muscles in the pursuit of greater strength and size since Cavemen were doing squats using a thick tree branch and boulders tied to the ends. But as any advanced lifter will tell you, there comes a point where despite the 5, 10, 20+ lbs. increases in strength on a given exercise increases in lean muscle mass does not follow.

So what’s a lowly lifter who desperately wants to squeeze out every last bit of genetic potential to do?

Find new ways of creating overload! New ways to disrupt homeostasis. After all, the body is an extremely adaptive organism and if it can blunt muscle development for the reason that it increases metabolic demands then it will.

Here are four ways to break homeostasis’ strangle hold and create an overload environment to drive new muscle growth.

1. Increase Volume

I make this suggestion with hesitation. The reason why is that most people overuse this variable to the point where their progress is stalled because of an inability to recover. However for those that follow low to moderate volume training programs, doubling or even tripling the volume of one or many workouts can present new and usual demands.

2. Increase Frequency

As with volume I suggest this with a hint of hesitancy because so many are guilty of taking the “more is better” approach to exercise. Over the long-run more is not better; this we know through the study of stress physiology (you can’t argue with real science Broscience guy). However for a short-term increase in demands (1-4 weeks) there’s not a simpler way bombard the muscles than training them more frequently.

3. Change Rep/Exercise Performance

This is one method of increasing demands that doesn’t require you to shuffle around your schedule to account for more time or days in the gym, making it an extremely efficient way to up the demands. The only limits are those of creativity and the willingness to check your ego at the door. This is not about how much you can lift or the number of reps performed. This is about disrupting neural patterns.

In ‘non-Exercise Science Nerd’ terms this means breaking the usual pattern of how your reps/exercises are performed. This increases the metabolic demands of the exercise because the muscles must work harder to overcome a change in the skill. Think of how much more difficult, exhausting and disrupting to the muscles it would be (in the short term) if a baseball pitcher who typically throws overhand was told to start throwing sidearm.

4. Do it all!

Let’s face it, if you’ve been training for over a decade and have “been there done that” then your body is very well in tune with nearly everything you throw at it. Sure you still get tired, fatigued, your muscles get sore, but none of that is nothing new and certainly not enough to persuade the body to add more muscle. At this stage sometimes the best the best thing you can do is to do it all. Change things in a massive unexpected way.

Now comes the disclaimer. This is not how to train all the time…that’s just stupid. This is a planned part of an intelligently designed training program that allows for proper balance between exercise demands (stress) and recovery for long-term adherence.

The New Way to Wealth Creation (Hint: it begins with a “P”)

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

The one piece of advice that has served every business that ever chose to implement it is the “10x’s Value Rule”. To attract and retain clients or customers give them value that is ten times the cost of the service or product you are offering. It’s simple, effective, and just good business practice.

The state of our economy has made the consumers more conscious than ever about what they spend money on and they are far pickier about who they do business with. As a result businesses have needed to find ways to give more value or otherwise watch their business disintegrate. Even though we never like to see businesses fail—especially small businesses—this situation has helped eradicate a lot of bad and “middle-of-the-road” businesses from the marketplace, leaving only those that bring real value to people’s lives.

However, if you haven’t been paying close attention lately you may have missed the paradigm shift. Now that (mostly) everyone has become value driven, ten times value is what’s “expected” by the consumer. Suddenly value has lost some of its WOW factor. Which means something else has to take its place in order to draw the awareness of consumers and create a gap between the good and the great. That something else is Purpose.

I’m not talking about a mission statement on the third page of the company’s operations manual or what they mention to a new employee upon hiring them. I’m talking about something that’s bigger than the company or any one person in it. A cause that employees, team members, clients, and customers alike can rally around. Something that makes your team feel good about where they work and the work they do. It makes the customer feel as though their money is not just supporting a business and its owner, but its supporting a culture and concept that lifts people up and makes a difference. This is the new way to wealth creation.

Separating “Training” and the “Training Business”

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

I have a lot of friends in the fitness industry. (Actually I just lost one the other day but hey, some people need to alienate as many people as possible in order to help their brand stand out…I get it.) One thing I always find interesting is that sometimes my fellow fitness professionals have a hard time breaking away from their long held beliefs. They might question a few of them from time to time but rarely will it result in them making a change in how they train themselves and others.

The reason: business.

Many—me included—have built successful personal training businesses that center around a message. This message is at the core of what makes the business tick, why people keep coming back, why others seek you out, and why others run in the opposite direction. Just look at Crossfit.

In order to have people follow you and adhere to your recommendations, you need to be “all-in” and follow your own advice. A big part of the message at our studio is that it doesn’t take more than sixty to ninety minutes of exercise a week to achieve a high level of fitness. Some of my friends take this message of efficiency to another level by promoting fifteen to twenty minutes of exercise weekly.

When someone turns to me and says, “You must train every day, right?” I’m quick to point out that I rarely train more than ninety to one-hundred minutes a week, even during the bodybuilding competition season. I remain true to what I teach and to prove a point in the process. The point being—based on the way I implement exercise I can train less than the majority of fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders and still compete at the highest level.

But let’s back up for a moment. Did you notice in my response to the question I’m often asked I said “rarely”?

I do this not to be deceptive but to leave doors open to other possibilities. Sometimes you need to set the business model (and ego) aside in order to focus on the training; to experiment or explore an approach that is outside of the model. Or the other option is to hold steadfast to what you do, look like you have all the answers because you work within a very narrow system, and come up with reasons why the other methods are complete shit.

If what you uncover through experimental training works but doesn’t quite fit your business model it doesn’t mean the model is wrong and you have to abandon it or eat crow. You may consider revising it, adding on to it, or keeping it exactly as is because it works for the niche you cater to and is what they want. The worse that can happen is that you learn something which helps you to better comprehend the nuances of the art of exercise science.

Running Makes You Fat: Fact or Fiction

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

Everyone that trains with me knows my loathing for running or any type of long duration cardio. It makes me cringe when clients say, “I need to do cardio otherwise I’ll get fat” because I know how untrue this is. In fact it’s running and long duration cardio that keeps people fat, and in many cases contributes to them getting fatter. Need proof? Well I’ve got it!

This is one of those moments that, if you are like me, you’ll love what I’m about to show you. Conversely, if you are one of those who clings to their running shoes or cardio equipment because the fear of out-of-control-fatness haunts you then this is going to be one of the toughest pills you’ve ever had to swallow. And if you are the type who runs for the love it then whatever I tell you or show you won’t matter, and you’re going to keep doing what you do.

So here it is…brace yourself

In 2006 the results of a 9 year study were released in which 12,568 runners were monitored to measure the effect that their weekly mileage had on their body composition. As you might suspect, the runners who decreased their mileage over the years gained the most amount of body fat. But don’t get too excited runners and you cardio queens. Because even the runners who maintained the same mileage or increased it slightly from one year to the next also got fatter.

The only group that didn’t experience an increase in fat were those that increased their mileage to the levels of a competitive marathoner; which brings along a whole slew of other problems related to joint health. So unless you’re running enough to train for marathon should be at least be a little concerned about how much you rely on running or cardio to maintain your waist size.

A number of other studies, as well as empirical evidence from those with extensive experience competing in steady-state endurance competitions (i.e. triathlons and marathons) have pointed out that these activities train the body to become more efficient at storing fat. This is why that person who hits the treadmill every day for 30-60 minutes still looks the same as they did a year ago.

The answer

Does anyone else find it ironic that the study I cited above was published in the International Journal of Obesity? You would think that those who study obesity, fat-loss, exercise, and nutrition would be championing the movement to get people to go out and run. But the fact is no amount of exercise can account for poor nutrition or overeating (even if you eat well you can still get fat). And certain types of exercise like running and other forms of steady-state cardio are metabolism killers.

Nutrition is the solution; the proper foods in the proper amounts (i.e. caloric deficit). If you “need to do cardio to keep from getting fat” then you clearly do not have a handle on your food. Instead of spending that hour running try spending it figuring out how many calories you’ve been taking in and how much you need to prevent your waistline from expanding. If needing to give your metabolism a kick-start or keep it elevated throughout the week, and you are already weight training 2-3x a week, then implementing 10-20 minutes of sprints or intervals on the bike or elliptical are your best options.

This has been a public service announcement from your brutally honest personal trainer.

Change!

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

Change is inevitable. No matter how much you try to resist it or run from it, you can’t. Even if you hold your ground and stand still the world around you is changing. If you’re not evolving you’re regressing.

It’s a fact, with each birthday we celebrate we’re getting older. With that comes the natural depletion of the resources that keep us fit, energetic, and strong. Of course we’re able to counteract or slow this regression through exercise, nutrition, supplementation, rest, and managing our stress. However, as our bodies are changing, as those resources are dwindling, we need to change or “revise” our lifestyle choices and actions to stay ahead of the curve.

Change is not always easy but almost always necessary if the objective is growth. We all have room to grow. No matter where we are in our lives, in our work, in our health and fitness, there’s always a next level. The question is, how willing are you to go after it? Do you just talk about it or do you take action? Do you make excuses or make it happen? Do you let fear paralyze you or does your “why” help you to make the necessary changes?

Choose change.

Defining Your “Why”

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

Beth Colucci, IART Fitness Clinician

If you have ever set a goal, or at least thought about it, you’ve probably heard or read about setting SMART goals. I personally believe setting SMARTER goals is a bit more effective when the focus is on your fitness. I’ll explain what the “ER” stands for in just a moment but first for those that need a refresher let’s take a quick look at what a SMARTER goal is.

S – Specific – what exactly is it that you want to achieve?

M – Measurable – how will you measure your progress?

A – Attainable – are you being realistic about the goal you’ve set for yourself?

R – Relevant – how will reaching this goal affect your life?

T – Time Bound– when would you like to achieve your results by?

E – Energy Driven – how many calories (energy) will you eat, and how much physical energy (exercise) will you put in?

R – Results – did you achieve your goal? Why or why not? [Obviously, evaluating this step comes at the end of your time frame.]

When you set a SMARTER goal, you know where you want to go…but do you know why? I’m not talking about a simple reaction such as, “I want to look better.” I challenge you to dig deeper than that. Really ask yourself WHY you are working so hard and taking steps toward a healthier life. Are you working for a better you to…

Set an example for your children?
Feel better physically and mentally?
Extend your life to be around for your grandchildren?
Get off medication?
Give yourself more happiness and confidence?
Diminish or even erase any ailments you suffer from?

Whatever your reason, find it! Without this intrinsic motivator, it’s easy to forget why you started your health journey in the first place. Trust me when I say that I too have set goals for myself and let them fall to the wayside because they didn’t actually mean anything to me. However, any goal I have ever set that really meant something to my present and future I have been sure to attack it. Why the difference? When I know why I am pushing myself, I can continually remind myself what I want and why it’s important to me. That connection is key.

Every single person on this planet has a goal for themselves, whether emotional, physical, monetary, relationship-wise, etc. Take the time to define a SMARTER goal you have for yourself, and then take some extra time to figure out why you want to achieve that goal. This may take minutes, hours, or even days. Don’t rush the process, or you’ll only end up faking it. Once you’ve discovered what’s driving you, try writing down both your goal(s) and your “why(s)” and post it somewhere where you will see it every day. The visual will spark your intrinsic motivation over and over. Watch and see how your WHY will drive your actions, and your goals will seem all that much easier to conquer.

The Questions You Ask

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

“Don’t like the results you’re getting…ask better questions.” I first heard this when I attended Tony Robbins’ ‘Unleash the Power Within’ back in 2004 and it stuck with me till this very day, and will forever. Up until that point I never really gave much thought about the questions I asked myself, or more importantly, the questions I was not asking. It was after the event that the impact of this ‘question asking concept’ really showed it strength.

As part of my UPW entry fee I received a thirty-minute coaching session with a Tony Robbins Certified Life Coach, which literally changed my life. Thirty minutes is all it took to realize something I had dreamed of doing since I was kid; which was to write a book.

It all happened because of the questions the coach asked and the honest answers I had to give. Here they are in succession:

Coach: What is something that you’ve wanted to achieve, or have been working on, but haven’t yet accomplished?

Me: Write a book.

Coach: Why haven’t you done it already?

Me: Uh, what?

Coach: If you really wanted to write this book then why haven’t you? What have you been doing?

Me: Well I’ve written some of it. I’ve got the first two chapters just about done.

Coach: That’s good but you didn’t answer my question, why hasn’t this book been written? What do you think is hold you back?

Me: I’m busy and don’t have as much of time to work on it as I’d like.

Coach: How many hour do you sleep each night?

Me: About 7 or 8.

Coach: If you got up an hour earlier each day or went to bed an hour later that would give you 7 extra hours a week to work your book. At that rate do you would be able to finish at least a chapter a week and have the book completed in a few weeks?

Me: Definitely.

Coach: Great, but let’s face it, unless you really want to write this book you’re not going to schedule the time needed to work on it. So why do you want to write this book? What will it do for you? Howe will it change your life? What will your life look like when it’s done? How will it affect others?

I answered all of the coach’s questions; it was hard to accept that I was not the driven, achiever I thought myself to be. I wasn’t doing everything I could do, I wasn’t living up to my potential. All this time I was kidding myself. It was a humbling realization.

The coach left me with a list of resources that would help me get the book done quickly but she made it very clear that it was up to me to take action. And I did…immediately.

I wound up hiring Tony Robbins’ creative assistant, flying her out from California, putting her up in a nearby hotel for three days, and paying her to help me gather and organize the book. All with money I didn’t have.

After I completed the manuscript I moved onto the next resource my coach gave me, which was a self-publishing company that would design, format, and help distribute the book to Amazon.com, B&N, and other retailers. Once again spending money I didn’t have. (The book was picked up by Price World Publishing in 2010)

When all was said and done I had spent close to $9K to make a dream a reality and I don’t regret a single penny spent. The fact is, you can always make more money or spend less somewhere else, but you don’t get to write your first book every day.

The point of this story is not to boast about my accomplishment but demonstrate the importance of asking the right kinds of questions. Too often we ask ourselves self-limiting questions and wonder why we have so much trouble getting ahead; Why does this always happen to me? Why can’t I ever do this? Why does it have to be so hard? Isn’t there an easier way? Will this ever get better? When will it happen for me? When will I have the time? When will I have the money?

Change the questions you ask and you can change any situation. Self empowering questions move you towards your dreams, desires and the accomplishment of your goals. What are some self empowering questions? Well, asking that is a self empowering question!!! But I digress. The types of questions you need to ask are: What can I do today to improve my circumstances? What do I need to work on in order to grow as a person? Who can help me grow? Who can help me reach my goal? Who or what is taking away from time and ability to achieve? What can I do to improve the lives of others? Why is accomplishing ‘x’ so important to me? How will my life be better by accomplishing ‘x’? What do I want my life look like 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years from now?

There is no end to the list of self empowering questions we can ask ourselves and the more you ask the more you will receive.

[Poof!] My Shape…Gone in an Instant

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

You create your fitness plan, you stick to it for 3 months, and then you piss it all away in two weeks. That’s my story and I’m not ashamed of it. It’s a story that will deliver a massive dose of reality and teach you a lesson if you’re willing to sit here and read it for the next 4 minutes. As I sit here typing away on my laptop I have to laugh at how quickly I was able to reverse three months of hard work. Seriously, three months of tracking my food intake and gradually getting my body near competition form, GONE after just 2 weeks of indulgence.

The two weeks were comprised of my wedding and honeymoon so by no means do I kick myself over all the eating and drinking I did. Heck, Corrie-Beth and I spent 7 of our 10 day honeymoon in Napa Valley and Sonoma so you better believe we were drank a lot of wine! And the meals were pretty damn good too.

So what was the damage? A nine pound increase in body weight and all the definition in my abs and arms had disappeared. Granted at least 3 of the 9 lbs. is retained water which can be eliminated within a week by pushing my water intake up to around a gallon per day but unfortunately the rest of the weight (fat) will take a lot longer to get back off.

I can already hear some of you saying, “But you’re already in good shape it’s not that big of a deal”. To which I say, “It’s all relative”. I have certain expectations and standards which if not met or maintained have the same emotional impact as anyone else who looks at them self and is disgusted with how out of shape they’ve become.

I knew it would happen, I’ve been here before. In the early years of my bodybuilding career I would spend six months prepping for a show only to binge my way out of competition shape in less than a week. Over more recent years I’ve learned that if I (as well as most people) can keep from letting one day of binging or cheat meals turn into 2, 3, 4, 5 days or more then maintaining that ideal condition that I worked long and hard to achieve is easy and doesn’t require being on point all the time. But once you start rolling downhill it’s very difficult to stop and the unfortunate consequence is having to start all over.

The idea of starting over can be a little demoralizing if you don’t have the proper mindset. As I said, I would never give up all the great breakfast, lunch, dinners, wine, beer, and spirits I indulged in over the two week wedding/honeymoon period. In fact I had planned for it. All the dieting I had done over those three prior months was in anticipation of all I would do and was a way of mitigating the damage. I knew from the very beginning that at some point I was going to have to “start over”. Since it is exactly what I expected it eliminates the pain of feeling like “I blew it”.

The situation—and the emotions that accompany it—is similar to saving thousands of dollars over the course of several months or a year for a vacation you’ve always wanted to go on. When the time comes to actually pay for the vacation the money suddenly disappears from your account, or the envelope of cash you’ve been saving it in. You knew it was going to happen, and you would never give up the vacation just to hang onto the cash, but you’re still left with that slight bit of sadness that all you saved is gone in an instant. It doesn’t make the vacation any less enjoyable it’s just an unavoidable feeling…just like putting weight back on that you worked hard to lose. But the great thing is, if you’ve done it once you can do it again and if you’re committed, the next time should be much easier since you already know what to expect.

7 Lessons Learned from the Bodybuilding Stage

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Mike Lipowski

When I started my career as a personal trainer at the ripe young age of twenty-two (I really can’t believe I’ll be thirty-six this month. Look ma’ I made it! J) one of the very first actions I took was to enter myself into a natural bodybuilding contest. I had wanted to bodybuild ever since I watched Lou Ferrigno as the Incredible Hulk in the mid-eighties television series. Then of course there were the professional wrestlers in the WWF like Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior who became another source of motivation before I started “investing” what little money I earned at thirteen years old on muscle magazines. But I digress.

My reasoning for entering the contest was two-fold. First, I always wanted to look like a bodybuilder so it only made sense to do what bodybuilders do…compete. Second, and the stronger of the two reasons, was to gain experience and knowledge. I reasoned that if people were going to come to me with the expectation of achieving six-pack abs, defined muscles, or to simply get lean and muscular, then I better know and understand all that goes into the process.

After 14 years of competing it is impossible for me to place a value on the lessons I’ve learned from getting up on stage. What I have gained through those experiences cannot be learned in a book or in a classroom. The lessons can be categorized two ways; physique development and self-development. While my initial interest was regarding physique development I quickly learned that self-development works in tandem with physique development—sometime preceding it, sometimes resulting from it, and sometimes working side by side with it.

Here are my top 7 lessons learned from the bodybuilding stage:

Fat loss takes time but needs to be approached with a sense of urgency. While losing weight slowly is necessary for maintaining a healthy metabolism and ensuring that the weight you shed is fat and not muscle, don’t use this as a reason to get complacent or justify poor decisions about eating or exercise. With few exceptions the metabolism is very slow to get started, often taking 4 or more weeks just to build enough momentum result in consistent weekly fat loss. And that’s if you’re doing everything right!
Track everything. As the old adage goes, you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. While keeping a food log and keeping track of your calories, carbs, protein and fats might seem like a royal pain in the ass, it is the only way to figure out exactly how much you can or can’t eat without disrupting your fat loss efforts. Don’t try to guess…it doesn’t work.
Until you change your mind you cannot change your body. The body has a funny way of following what your subconscious believes to be true which is why I can’t stress enough the importance of developing self-belief and having a positive self-image. I have never had a competition season in which I didn’t improve upon my condition from the previous season. I attribute this to first seeing myself better than I once was the previous season and then taking actions on achieving it.
Have a strong “why”. It’s easy to stay the course and do whatever is necessary to achieve your goal when you have a clear-cut reason for doing so. Getting up in front of a bunch of strangers with less fabric covering you than what you would wear to the beach was, and continues to be, a very big reason “why” I’m so intent on not screwing up my diet or missing workouts. Just wanting to “look better” or “get a little leaner” is not incentive, it’s a wish. Attach it to something bigger that will keep you doing the not so fun stuff and now you have a why.
This s#%t is hard! Make no mistake about it, you have to work your butt off and be disciplined to make even minimal gains. Showing up is not half the battle it’s about 1/10^th of it. You need to constantly outwork yourself in order to make forward progress. Accepting this reality will help minimize frustration when you’re not achieving results at the rate you think you should.
You are always IN-season. One of the most common traits amongst top competitors is that they focus just as hard on their diet and training in the off-season as they do 3 months before stepping on stage. By living the lifestyle year round it makes getting into competition shape much easier and faster and makes the damage done by an occasional night out on the town or going out to eat almost non-existent.
Support systems are a necessity. As stated in lesson #5 this stuff is hard, but it can made much easier, and your likelihood of success is greatly increased by having one or more people working towards similar goals alongside you. Conversely nothing can thwart your efforts faster than resistance or ridicule from family members or friends. Be sure that the people surrounding you understand how important your fitness goals are to you and to respect your decisions about the way you eat and how you spend your time.

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