Turn Game Day into Gains Day

by Robert Fure on February 1, 2013

SuperbowlFoodSuper Bowl Sunday rapidly approaches and with comes all the trappings of a real holiday: large gatherings and large tables overflowing with a wide variety of snacks. With pigskin on the brain and pizza, wings, chips, dip, and beer on the table, most everyone lets go a bit and enjoys the smorgasbord before them.

Some fitness minded people might try to tell you to avoid this football feast while others might try to change what you eat – hey man, celery is just as good as chips, shredded chicken roll-ups are better than pizza, and water is better than beer. I am not that kind of person.

Many of those partaking may decide that they’ll “work it off” the next day, with an extra half-mile on their jog, a few more minutes on the treadmill, or a couple more reps on the bench press. While that’s a good headspace to be in, trying to ‘burn off’ extra calories a day later is about as far from effective as it gets. After that much time has passed, your body has done whatever it was going to do with those calories. They’re long forgotten, used for basic metabolic functions and stored as fat.

A lot of people don’t seem to grasp just how hard and long (heh) you have to work to burn a meager amount of calories. If you really push yourself, you’ll be lucky to burn 600 calories in a full hour no matter what exercise you’ve chosen. Unless you’re climbing a ladder with 50lbs on your back or jump roping non-stop for a full hour, you’re not going to burn a ton of calories. You’re also likely not going to keep up a desirable pace over the full hour. In all likelihood you’re going to burn around 300-500 calories in a normal exercise session, so if you decide to “do a little extra” you’re probably looking at 500-700.

And that’s being generous. Probably too generous if you’re thinking “Hey that’s not too bad!” Because it is bad, compared to what you’re going to eat. I don’t think anyone on Earth has ever eaten one serving of chips, so you’ll like grab a few handfuls and snack down on 300 calories of chips. Two slices of pizza later and you’ve added another 500 calories, if not more. Two light beers? Another 250 calories. Throw in some general snacking on meats, cheeses, crackers and you’ll likely gulp another 300, if not far more. Buffalo wings? Six of them? Delicious. Up to 300 calories. 1,650 calories in game day snacking.

If you’re lucky, you count that as dinner and don’t eat again later (depending on time zone, the game can be over as early as 7pm). But if you eat reasonably during the day, knowing you might snack out later in the day, you’re probably still going to total out north of 2,650 calories. Many people will eat 3,000+ calories on game day. Subtract your BMR needs and, since I’m being generous, your “little extra” workout and you’re still in a surplus of probably 500 calories if not more.

But let’s be honest – on one hand, who cares? It’s one day. On the other – you’re going to eat more. It’s okay. The Super Bowl is a holiday. We eat, we drink, we be merry. So what do we do about it?

For any holiday, or any event, that is going to see you consume a lot of calories, especially refined carbohydrates, it’s important to make that day work for us rather than against us. As I alluded, working out the next day doesn’t really matter. Your body doesn’t really care that you’re working out a bit harder 24 hours and three meals later. Your Super Bowl calories are long gone – or more specifically, long stored, to your belly.

So if we’re going to eat these calories no matter what (and I am not explicitly endorsing gorging yourself, but if you use the Super Bowl as a cheat meal, don’t use it as a mini-eating competition, and take it easier on the alcohol, it’s okay to junk out a little) we might as well use them for something, right?

There are two very simple things you can do to turn Game Day, or any large meal, to your advantage. First - fast. This isn’t for everyone and it’s not essential, but I’m a semi-follower of intermittent fasting, which means I often skip breakfast and lunch and only eat between the hours of 4pm and midnight, since I’m a late night guy. The benefits of this, which I’ll explore in more detail in a separate article, are basically that when you do eat your body is in a more highly insulin resistant state which helps prevent fat gain, and it easily helps you control your calories. You can still eat a full days calories in that 8 hours, so if you didn’t eat all day and you show up at the Super Bowl party and eat 2,200 calories of junk, you are still in a better place than if you ate 1,000 calories (total) of breakfast and lunch and then ate 1,800 calories of junk; 2,200cal vs 2,800.

Second, and more importantly, work out heavy before your big meal, not after. After a heavy workout, your body is craving calories and it needs them to begin the repair process.Your muscles want protein, carbs will help ferry that protein to the muscle, and your body wants fat to replace lost energy. The perfect time to eat a big, carb filled meal (I still recommend limiting carbs in general, but if you’re going to eat them, after working out is a good time), is when your body needs those calories. Your body doesn’t need shit the next day when you’re going for your run.

Speaking of – you’re almost never going to run off enough calories to merit eating a big ass meal. Even guys who run five and six miles in a day will still end up in caloric surplus. All they’re doing is expending energy with minimal damage and growth requirements to the muscle. If you do some heavy resistance training, not only are you expending calories, you’re elevating your metabolism, AND most importantly, forcing the muscle to grow and to grow it needs calories.

So if you’re going to let go and eat a bit more than usual this Sunday, earn it, and use it. Train big and heavy. You want to create a big demand in your body for those calories. You want to make the muscles need it. You want to give those calories a place to go, rather than your belly.

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Fit Female: Ella Anne Kociuba!

by Robert Fure on September 5, 2012

Despite what is seemingly popular opinion, the Iron Game isn’t just for men. I, for one, have always appreciated the fit female form – one that isn’t described as soft or curvy, the latter of which is somewhat ironic since a fit woman has more curves if you think about it. An out of shape person pretty much has one curve, constituting a circle. A fit female, on the other, far more attractive hand, has curves in the biceps, deltoids, quads, and glutes. What am I trying to say here? Fit is beautiful.

There are plenty of people out there who, for whatever reason, aren’t on board with the idea of a strong, physically fit woman – this isn’t for them. No, this spotlight is for women who have cast off the chains of “normal” to live the life they want to live, one of sweat, one of iron, one of hard work. A Fit Female is a strong female, one who crafts the body of their own desire. This game isn’t for men or women, it’s for people who’ve decided to live their own life, shape their own body, and put themselves to the test daily. Iron doesn’t discriminate – it takes the same strength to lift it no matter who you are. Here at Fit and Furious, I don’t discriminate either, in fact, I celebrate it.

It’s always seemed to me that there were two camps in the fitness world and each viewed the other completely differently: male and female. On the Y-Chromosome side, it was always focused on gigantic men, 275lbs on stage, and pictures of women were relegated to ass shots and advertisements. The fairer sex, conversely, was treated to nothing but ladies in yoga poses or curling light weight. I’m here to say, can’t we all just get along?

Male and female are welcomed at Fit and Furious, together and as equals. There isn’t much difference between the sexes when it comes to training – women shouldn’t be balancing on bosu balls and ignoring the deadlift nor should they be relegated to advertisements in men-centric publications. So here we are with Fit Females, an interview and motivational series that focuses on women in the fitness industry and searches for the best tips, advice, and information for both men and women.

In this installment of Fit Female, we have the wonderful and inspirational Ella Anne Kociuba, a young woman who burst onto the endurance race scene and lapped the competition. It’s rare to stumble across a major talent at such an early stage in their development, but after you’ve finished reading the interview below, I think you’ll see the fire burning inside Miss Kociuba. She was kick-ass enough to provide a ton of detail, so do yourself a favor and dig in- there’s some seriously good shit in here. Inspirational stuff that reveals a drive similar to that which propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger to great heights. You think I’m exaggerating? There’s only one way to find out: read on!

Could you tell us a little about yourself and achievements?

Well for starters, my names Ella Anne Kociuba and I’m a wonderful nineteen years young. I grew up in a big, athletic family that I absolutely adore. I have been a tomboy since the day I touched the dirt and some might say I’m a little different but that’s quite alright with me. My first love in life was horses and I began to race them in Endurance Riding (25-100 mile races across national parks, I compete in 25 and 50 mile rides) when I was five years old. Unfortunately, I had a bad fall when I was only twelve which lead to a major back surgery a year later, so I missed out on a lot of sports in middle school and even my freshman year in high school. As soon as I was released, I ran cross country and track my junior and senior year of high school and ended up making it to regionals. I have since then completed many endurance rides and placed top ten, getting best condition in one race. I won the first Spartan Race I ever ran (Dec. 2011), won my heat in my first Tough Mudder (Oct. 2011), came out as first women in the Metro Dash Austin (Feb. 2012), did my first figure show in April 2012, got second place in the Spartan Sprint (May 2012) and I have competed in the grueling 48+ hour adventure race, The Death Race (www.youmaydie.com, to learn more). Needless to say it wasn’t until after high school did I fully grow into the real me and thrive into the athlete I always dreamed about being.

What started your interest in fitness?

As I mentioned earlier, my family is a rather athletic group. My two oldest brothers are my idols, I don’t know if they ever realized how much I wanted to be like them growing up. Even at a young age, I was extremely active. I started racing horses at a young age and I even played soccer, basketball, volleyball, and ran track as well as cross country. Competing was everything to me and as soon as the doctors told me I couldn’t do it anymore after my surgery, I craved it even more.

You had a fairly serious back injury, what was your activity level like before that, how did the injury occur, and what was the recovery process?

I was only twelve years old at the time of my accident, so my athletic career was bare minimal. I had only competed in Endurance riding and community league sports. My struggle is one that I cannot define in a few words and even the pain I received is something I cannot describe appropriately.

I was training for an upcoming endurance race with my horse Socks and I was out in the woods behind my house. I gave her the reins to run home and she gladly accepted the opportunity. Within a matter of seconds, Socks’s stride came to a screeching halt. My body was flown forward onto her neck as she reared back pitching me to the ground. I do not remember what happened next, I can hardly remember how I got home that night, but what I do remember is… the pain I felt. From that day on I was never the same, my body couldn’t handle anything anymore. My mother had to pick me up out of the bath tub, I skipped school because I couldn’t get out of bed, I went days without sleeping, and the pain would get so chronic I found myself puking. The initial fall off my horse broke the L4 and the L5 [vertebrae], which only then led to the discovery of my spine never being attached to my sacrum since birth, along with having spondylolisthesis (a condition in which a vertebra in the lower part of the spine slips out of the proper position onto the bone below it). It took about two years and five different doctors to find out what was wrong with me, when finally one just concluded we go in for experimental surgery. When the doctor opened me up he came to find out that my body had built a block of bone to heal it’s self and hide the breaks along with the birth defect. The doctors told me I would most likely never play sports again and I cannot afford a fall off a horse ever. I now have four metal rods and four screws drilled in my lower back. I’m extremely happy to say that I still ride horses and that I now am an elite obstacle racer. Although, my surgery was back in 2007, still to this day I struggle a bit but I believe it is my struggle that has gotten me here.

How did you get started in The Spartan Race?

After I graduated high school, I simply was just tired of dreaming about being something big. So I went after it, despite it’s distance. I did my own training and entered into several 5k’s before my first half marathon (Rock n’ Roll Marathon San Antonio, Nov. 2011), I ended up running beyond my expectations. So after that race, I stopped putting expectations on myself and sure enough, I found myself becoming successful in everything I entered into. I literally began running 5k’s back to back, when one day I stumbled upon an ad in a magazine with the words: ‘marathon’s are boring, do a Tough Mudder’… I couldn’t have agreed more with the statement, I found myself bored of running miles after miles. I entered into the race and won it. Quickly after the Tough Mudder I did some research that lead me to the Spartan Races. Ran my first Spartan back in December of 2011, I had no idea it was the championship race that day and the winner of that race walked away with $10,000 and sure enough, in a different heat, I beat their time by a whole nine minutes. I was pretty angry/pumped after finding that out, I had no idea of the potential I possessed. And since that race, I have been hooked on Spartan races.

It requires overall strength and endurance, something I lacked for years and here I am now, an elite at it. It proved to me that you can do anything if you give it your everything.

You’ve competed on stage in figure – is this an avenue you’re going to continue down in the future? What’s your ultimate fitness goal?

Oh joy, when I look at those pictures, I can’t help but giggle. I had no idea what I was doing up there, I was extremely out of my climate but I enjoyed it. Doing a figure show sparked my interest way back, however, I never put my mind into it until after high school. I am in complete awe with the athletes who participate in these shows, it takes a lot of dedication, sacrifice, and a lot of tilapia… Haha. But no on a serious note, it was just something I wanted to see if I could do… I think about doing another show here and there but I like to race more. As for my ultimate fitness goal, I want to be the face of obstacle racing, I want to make covers of magazines, I want to be a top athlete and travel everywhere competing, but what I really want is to help inspire others who were once like me achieve things they never thought possible.

Congratulations on becoming a Spokesmodel for Flag Nor Fail – How did your relationship with the company start?

Thank you! I’m actually a Flag Nor Fail athlete as well and I cannot stress to you how happy I am with this opportunity and blessed to be with such amazing people like Rob and Dana Linn Bailey. I remember the first time I spoke to Rob, it was about a year ago and he had stumbled across one of my photos online with me wearing one of their shirts, I literally was so excited to get a message from him that I squealed like a little school girl. I really don’t know how I got to be so lucky, but from then on we sort of just followed each other online and before I knew it, I was offered a sponsorship and to become part of the Flag Nor Fail crew.

How has an interest in fitness improved your life?

Since my major back surgery I have constantly struggled with my back, some days I can hardly get moving but now my good days are out numbering the bad ones and it makes me smile real huge. Along with being and feeling healthier, I also have a lot more confidence, happiness, and energy.

What, if any, negativity have you faced being a woman in fantastic shape? It seems as though many still have this idea that women should be soft and weak.

My journey to where I am now was a bit of a lonesome one but I never once hesitated to pursue it; besides it was what I had been dreaming about since I was a little one. When I first started out, I had some friends who did not understand why I loved to do what it is that I do and that for me that was extremely troubling to deal with. Of course there’s the occasional ‘man’ comment thrown out there or the ‘too muscular’, but that kind of stuff just makes me laugh, I never intend to impress those who do not desire me or understand my goals. It’s just nonsense, I’m happy with my body, my life, and my choices. As should you be.

What is your current training routine for strength? What type of cardio do you do?

I can be very sporadic in the gym, doing intense circuits or you may find me laboring down some heavy weights like a typical bodybuilder. I really change up my strength training to help shock my body and avoid plateaus, cause those really do suck. For my cardio, I have been running a lot of hills lately and doing a lot of burpees periodically throughout my runs. I will throw in speed work about twice a week, anything from 4-5 x 1 mile repeats to 800 meter sprints and so on. For me, it’s quality over quantity, I stopped trying to hit a weekly mileage goal, I found out that I was just running myself into the ground, literally. You see, I have this weird case of getting hurt a lot, it could be that my pain tolerance is rather high or that I never want to quit, but whatever my curse is, I have to be very smart with my training and listen to my body closely.

What type of diet do you currently follow?

Why, I love food and I eat plenty of it. I’m really not on a special diet and as matter of fact my diet is extremely boring, but it’s the only way I stay on point and I really don’t mind it that much. I eat about six to five meals a day and roughly about 200 grams of protein, 135 grams of complex carbs, and 20 grams of good fats. Since I’m a big runner, I don’t do any dramatic carb cycling or carb depletion. I stay steady with my eating and make sure to keep it clean with lean sources of protein, complex carbs, and good fats. About 83.45% of the time, I get my protein from chicken… I absolutely love chicken and yams. I’m also crazy in love with peanut butter too, so I use a lot of PB2 in my oatmeal to cure my cravings.

What do you think about women who are afraid of the weight room and think resistance training leads to a bulked up look?

I think that’s just silly talk. Go educate yourself some about getting toned, ripped, lean, fit or whatever you want to declare yourself as and see what it says about resistance training. I also think ‘getting too bulky’ is an opinion that many will use as an excuse. We all have different goals in life, but if you think walking on a treadmill will get you a six pack and lean arms, you my dearest friend, are terribly mistaken.

What mistakes do most women make in the gym?

Eh, well I see a lot of women doing the same exercises weekly with the same weight. As if they are simply going through the motions. I think the most common mistake is letting your ego get in the way or simply just not using the proper form. Learn your lifts so you can make the right gains and eventually go up in weight.

What advice would you give to a woman just getting started in training?

Treat it like a job because sure enough at some point in time it’s going to feel like one. It’s going to demand you to make time for it, it’s going to take time away from you, it’s going to beat you down and you’re not always going to want to do it. I never miss a training session, no matter what and I think that’s how I got to be so successful so fast. I treated my training as if my life depend on it.

What is your favorite exercise to do? What exercise do you think more woman need to be doing?

Dead-lifts are rather gnarly and they work just about everything. Not to mention, you look pretty beastly pulling weight like that, just saying. I would recommend to do more squats, dead-lifts, bench, and hang cleans. Get your big lifts mastered, leave the little curls for another time.

How do you stay motivated to put in all the work you do?

Honestly, I don’t know what it is that makes me want to work so hard, something deep within me just makes me push day in and day out. It’s an itch in the back of my throat that I will never clear, but to tell the truth, I don’t want to. If I ever find myself hesitating about my training, I sometimes think about what it was like watching my friends play sports while I sat on the bench, or seeing my siblings excel in athletics while I sat in my back brace, or I’ll just remind myself that my competition out there is working harder than I am today and that is not acceptable. Also what motivates me is that my back injury took a major toll on my mind because I was so close to having my dream stripped of me and now here it is, right in front of me, so why would I waste a day when I am given a second chance?

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve ever received?

For the longest time I struggled with my diet, I could never seem to stick to it. I often found myself buried deep into a creamy Jiff’s peanut butter tub with ice cream and cookies. It tasted magical but ruined my hard work instantly. A good friend of mine would always tell me, “Ella you worked too hard in the gym to waste it at the dinner table.” And as silly as that may sound, it stuck with me. Every craving I got, I thought about how hard that last set was, how fast that mile I ran and in matter of seconds all that work would be gone for just a simple five second pleasure to the stomach.

Are there any supplements you’re currently using or recommend?

Very basic stuff but I make sure to take them daily.

  • BCCA’s
  • Glutamine
  • Green Tea Extract
  • CLA’s
  • Omega-3’s
  • Enzymes
  • Women’s Multi-Vitamin
  • Whey Protein

Is there anything you’re working on now? A contest, race, or otherwise? Where can our readers stay informed?

I’m extremely focused on my racing currently, it’s all I can think about. The championship race for the Spartan Race series is held in Vermont this year on September 22nd, I’m looking forward to going out to those mountains and giving my absolute best. I have a few more races lined up.

You can follow my facebook, twitter, instagram, and tumblr! I try to update them often.

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Motivational Monday: Hard Work is the Key to Success

by Robert Fure on August 13, 2012

Plain and simple, you don’t get ahead by cutting corners. Very few things will just fall into your lap. Whatever you want in life, you can only realistically hope to achieve it through hard work. Don’t rely on luck – make your own.

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When Running Gets You Nowhere (Or When Weights Weigh You Down)

by Robert Fure on August 8, 2012

Probably the most useless bit of fitness advice you can get when starting out is from that somewhat out of shape, never been in the gym know-it-all who says “All you gotta do is run a few times a week.”  You know the one, the same one who says you just have to “eat better.” While, true, eating better is what we need to do, it’s not exactly good advice without defining what better means or is, and I digress. That’s not what this is about.

Exercising today is a gigantic business and millions of people take part in it – some of them love it while other’s despise it and only do it because “they’re supposed to.” It wasn’t always like this. Exercise used to be almost exclusively a hobby. Playing sports, lifting weights, going for hikes – that was all recreational. These days, it’s a prescription from our doctors and our government. The idea of exercise as medicine (which I agree with) is pretty new, which can explain it’s shortcomings.

Often when told to “exercise” people take up running, jogging, or walking around the neighborhood. A lot of people hate this, because running sucks. To me. I don’t enjoy it, so I don’t really like to do it. Many feel the same way. If you don’t, that’s excellent. I will never tell someone not to do something they enjoy, as long as it’s not taking a shit on my car or jerking off in front of my dog. There are probably a few other ones too, but basically if you enjoy something, have fun.

However, if your primary reason for running or jogging is fat loss, bad news, brother, you’re going about it all wrong. This isn’t a ground breaking study on my part, though plenty of studies exist that say, while running can help you lose weight, plenty of other things are better at. No, I think the most damning evidence against running for weight loss comes from looking at people who run to lose weight.

There is a certain level of obesity or fatness that will respond to almost any physical stimulation. If you have more than thirty pounds to lose, you can start losing that by walking around the neighborhood, jumping up and down, or taking the stairs to work. You could just stand more during the day. So yes, of course, running is effective at kickstarting massive amounts of weight loss, but so are sit-ups, dancing, and handball.

When it comes down to less fat on the body, running doesn’t seem to cut it and the proof is in the pudding collecting around the gut. You can take someone like Will Ferrell, who despite being an avid runner (he’s been featured on Runner’s World), has always had a consistent layer of flab on his stomach. No, not that weird line which is a result of a treatment for a medical condition, but the dude is soft. Your average runner is pretty soft too. Even cover models for popular magazines who specialize in running appear soft. You do not have to have lower body fat levels to be good at running long distances.

I’m sure you know several people who are amazing runners but who, to judge them by their looks, don’t appear to be in that good of shape. There are people I know who run every single day and are still, let’s just say, over heavy. Why is this? Is it really just a product of running not being good for fat loss?

Not really. The real secret to weight loss is always, always, always in the kitchen. Your diet is what’s paramount to losing fat. Running a mile, depending on your weight and pace, will burn around 115 calories. That’s like half of a candy bar or a single oreo or a can of tuna. So a pretty enthusiastic runner will burn around 575 calories if they run five miles, again, depending on pace. That’s a soda and a sandwich. That’s an enthusiastic runner, too. Most people are probably content in the one to three mile range, which is obviously doing even less.

This is all really just a long, round about way of saying that just running alone is not going to get you to the body you desire. If you’re a runner with a good diet, you can be pretty lithe and in shape, but you’ll lack muscles elsewhere.

So you should be weight training, right?

Again, not exactly.

It seems that if you can only do one, weight training is superior to cardiovascular activity for fat loss. First, lifting weights at the appropriate intensity is demanding, so in an hour of hard work you can burn at least the same number of calories as running. Further, weight lifting elevates your metabolism longer, so you continue to burn more calories after stopping. Weight training will also add more muscle to your frame and muscle requires calories to exist. So, provided your diet is good (huh, that again?) and you don’t overcompensate and eat more, you will lose more fat with a proper weight training regimen.

So that’s the golden ticket then? Of  course not. We must be fair here. While there are plenty of in shape runners, there are plenty of overweight runners. While there are plenty of in shape lifters, there are plenty of overfat lifters. I’m not even  talking about power lifters, who use fat as a cushion for their lifts (but most are still, generally, overfat). Just like you know the chubby jogger, you probably know the fat strong guy.

Maybe he goes to your gym and bench presses 315 two or three times, but he weighs three-fifty. There are guys in my gym that come in and put up impressive numbers on their lifts but they don’t have impressive physiques. Maybe they don’t care about that. Maybe they just want to be strong the way some runners just want to be fast, or have high endurance. Not sure. But if you’re lifting to get healthier, you need to get thinner too. Their problem? Again, diet.

It may seem as if by this point I’m just shitting all over everything people do. Running isn’t good? Weight lifting isn’t good? It’s just diet?

Well, no, not really.

People  get too locked into one thing, often at the expense of others. If you enjoy either of these activities, continue to do them. But first and foremost, in terms of weight loss, you must get your diet correct.

What if your diet is pretty good but you’re still stuck? Well, here is the golden ticket.

Do less of what you’re doing and more of what you’re not. If you’re an avid weight lifter, add some sort of intensive cardiovascular activity to your regimen. This will help with fat loss, endurance, and more importantly, your overall cardiovascular health. Likewise, if you’re running five or six times a week, switch a few days over to resistance training. There is room enough in your life for both.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the secret to a balanced physical existence is balanced training. Diet will get you your abs, cardio will strengthen your heart and lungs, and resistance training will build muscle. When all are combined, you’ll build the balanced body you’re after.

This was a long diatribe and I may have come down hard on runners, but I think they need to hear it most. People finish a marathon and hold it up as proof of being fit, when all it really means is they can run a long distance in a period of time. Runners, more often than weight lifters, will get stuck in a rut, just running and running and running and never improving their bodies. So this is a wake up call to them, primarily. But a close second is a shot in the arm to weight lifters – switch it up. I can bench press a shit ton of weight, but my running and overall endurance is not where I want it to be, so I’m implementing more cardio into my training.

So shake up the system. Do what you’re not doing to get results you’re not getting.

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Motivational Monday: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Return to Acting

by Robert Fure on August 6, 2012

There is perhaps no more an inspirational tale than that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, an immigrant who came from a modest life and muscled his way to the top of the bodybuilding world, the Hollywood blockbuster, and eventually even politics.

With his big return to acting this year, and extending into 2013, prepare for more Arnold than ever before. There’s a great cover story with him in the August issue of Men’s Fitness where he provides an entertaining and insightful read. I’ve said it many times: no matter what you think of him, you have to admit he’s intelligent and well spoken, no matter how thick his accent is.

This particular quote came from Arnold as he described The Expendables 2 and lamented somewhat at the loss of the traditional 80s action hero, the guys like Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, and Jean Claude Van Damme. I’m right there with ya, Arnold.

When looking for motivation, you never have to look further than a solid 80s action film.

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Fit Female: Natalie Jill!

by Robert Fure on August 1, 2012

It’s always seemed to me that there were two camps in the fitness world and each viewed the other completely differently: male and female. On the Y-Chromosome side, it was always focused on gigantic men, 275lbs on stage, and pictures of women were relegated to ass shots and advertisements. The fairer sex, conversely, was treated to nothing but ladies in yoga poses or curling light weight. I’m here to say, can’t we all just get along?

Male and female are welcomed at Fit and Furious, together and as equals. There isn’t much difference between the sexes when it comes to training – women shouldn’t be balancing on bosu balls and ignoring the deadlift nor should they be relegated to advertisements in men-centric publications. So here we are with Fit Females, an interview and motivational series that focuses on women in the fitness industry and searches for the best tips, advice, and information for both men and women.

What started your interest in fitness?

Jane Fonda! I loved her style. It was so long ago but I remember being a teenager and working out to her aerobics videos in my house.

What’s your favorite exercise and what exercise do you think all women should do?

ABS! A lean tight tummy makes everything look better. I am a huge fan of crunches… I typically do upwards of 200 per workout.

What do you think about women who are afraid of the weight room or think that resistance training leads to a bulked up look?

It is SO hard to “bulk up” It is so funny when a female says they don’t want to lift because they are afraid of “getting big”- It takes so much work to BUILD muscle. It is almost impossible to “bulk up” just by lifting weights.

What advice would you give to a woman just getting started in training?

Find a friend or a trainer to help motivate you and work with you! Learn how to do it the right way so you don’t get injured and so you progress quicker.

What is your training like?

Very intense! I get in an out of the gym pretty quick BUT it is intense, focussed and sweaty! I typically do circuit type of training. My heart rate stays elevated, I move from equipment to equipment, I do plyos [plyometrics] or jump rope in between and they are tough :)

What kind of diet do you follow?
I eat very clean and natural. I do not eat processed foods. My rule is if it comes from the ground, the sea, an animal, or a plant it is fine. Fruits, veggies, fish, chicken, nuts, and healthy oils are staples in my diet. I eat very few grains and avoid gluten all together (I am a celiac.)

Editor’s Note: Celiac Disease is a condition in which the lining of the intestines are inflamed by gluten, a component of wheat and other grains. The inflammation prevents the intestines from properly absorbing nutrients, which can lead to malnutrition and other problems. While celiac disease can not be cured, it can effectively be eliminated by avoiding gluten and adopting a diet that excludes wheat.

Best nutrition or fitness tips you’ve received or learned on your own?

To incorporate healthy fats into my diet. Changed my appetite, cravings and results almost immediately.

What motivates you?

I have a ton of passion and I get bored easily. I am constantly motivated to accomplish new goals. The sense of accomplishment , the way it feels to tackle goals and nail them motivates me.

What’s your favorite part of the healthy lifestyle? Your least favorite part?

I honestly don’t have an “unfavorite part”- to me, it is a lifestyle. I can’t imagine being or living any other way. I love the energy I have, the strength I have and I love that I feel younger than my age (40).

Walk us through your a day in the life of Natalie Jill.

I am non stop- typically I start my day with returning e-mails and managing my website and social media sites. I am big into “customer service” so I make answering clients and fans questions a priority. After that, it is usually getting my 4 year old ready for school , spending time with her and then back to work: Answering e-mails, shooting videos, working with nutrition clients, sometimes a modeling assignment! My workouts usually take place mid afternoon when it is quiter in the gym… Then, back to school to get my daughter and quality time with her.

What mistakes do women make in the gym specifically? And guys?

Not working out with enough intensity and sweat!

Are there any supplements you use?

Whey protein and Egg protein are must haves. I do Whey pre and post workout. I do Muscle Nog egg protein as a last meal [each] day . I also do glutamine and aminos after workout and Prosport Nutritions OCTANE pre workout.

What are the first three steps to a fit lifestlye?

  1. DIET- nutrition is 85% of things: Eat natural unprocessed foods and eat several times a day.
  2. MOVE More! Start walking if you are new, and pick it up 10 notches if you are already working out.
  3. Don’t take short cuts- do the work.

Is there anything you’re working on now or coming up in the immediate future?

Lot’s of great things in the hopper. Stay tuned!
For more on Natalie, you can visit her on the web at NatalieJillFitness.com or follower her on Twitter, @NatalieJillFit

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Motivational Monday: You Only Disappoint Yourself

by Robert Fure on July 30, 2012

With a title like that, this sounds more like it will be a downer of a post, and it kind of us. Failure is not one hundred percent a bad thing. It is a learning experience. Like we heard in Batman Begins, we fall to get back up again. There are a hundred different phrases and sayings that all stress the value of getting back up after you fall. Continuing forward after you fail.

Make no mistake, getting fit, whether your goal is to gain muscle, lose fat, or both, is a hard (but worthwhile) endeavor. It’s also a very personal one. Most people who embark on this journey, do so alone. Sure, you’ll find friends, work-out partners, and like minded individuals, but the vast majority of the time, you’ll leave them at the gym, the restaurant, or the office. Unless you’re living with them, married to them, dating them, or joined at the hip with them, at some point you’re on your own. No one is there to hold your hand, stroke your hair, and steam your broccoli. This is about you. And sometimes, you’ll fail.

It doesn’t take a lot of time to change your body. Depending on your starting point, the average person can totally remake themselves in four months. That’s not all that much time, when you think about it. You’ve probably either spent your entire life too small or spent half of it getting too fat. The very idea that you can totally change that in just four months is amazing. You might not reach your goal completely, but you could look to add 15-20 pounds of muscle or shed 30-90lbs of fat. Again, depends where you start.

Today as I stood in the gym, staring at my reflection, I felt depressed. I was disappointed in myself. I’ve been working out for years. I’ve accomplished many great things. At over 225lbs I did 21 pull-ups in a row. I once did 75 push-ups in a row. I bench pressed 365lbs without a spotter. I’ve had my three lifts (squat, deadlift, and bench) total over 1,000lbs and completed all three of those lifts on the same day, in the same hour. These are not record setting things by any stretch, but they are not common. They are moments to be proud of.

Yet, looking at my reflection I only noticed what I hadn’t done. The body I hadn’t fully crafted. I’ve got the size I want, and the strength. It’s always, always been the conditioning that I lacked. The conditioning that I should have attained by now. The conditioning I failed to attain.

My goals are not everyone’s goals. Plenty of people have as much as said they’d be happy to be where I’m at. But I’m not. The fact that I’m not is disappointing.

But I have no one to blame but myself. I’m the one who failed. I’m the one who disappointed myself, time and again. I don’t blame McDonald’s for having low prices on tasty food. I don’t blame the grocery store for being open 24 hours and selling ice cream, Doritos, and candy. I don’t blame anything other than myself for my own inability to meet my goals. It’s a disappointing feeling.

So what’s the point – where does that leave me? You? Us? What is to be done?

Get back up on that horse. Refocus. Define your goals. Figure out what you’ve done right and what you’ve done wrong. Find the areas that need improvement. I will share with you mine.

  • Improve conditioning. I’m fatter than I want to be.
  • Improve cardiovascular performance by increasing cardiovascular training. I don’t do cardio for the weight loss effects (more on that in an upcoming article),but I think a hallmark of fitness is being able to run, climb, jog, and walk without being winded. I can be better in my cardiovascular performance.
  • Control my diet. I’m somewhat of a glutton. An over-eater. If something is in my apartment, I want to eat it. I want to eat all of it. the way for me to conquer this is to make sure I’m not bringing temptation into the house. It’s okay to have a cheat meal. It’s okay to eat ice cream somedays. But if you want ice cream on Saturday night and you buy a half-gallon, it’s still going to be there Sunday. And Monday. But not Tuesday, because by Tuesday, you’ve eaten it all. Instead of one meal, or one evening, of bad dieting, you’ve torpedoed three. I will improve my diet.
  • Improve fat loss by altering my training. Lately I’ve been mostly content to go for heavy lifts. My strength is up, but to improve my overall conditioning I want to move away from high weight and low reps to a more traditional bodybuilding routine, the tried and true 3×10 scheme, which I covered in The Basics Part Three. This, coupled with increased kettlebell days and hiking days, should accelerate my fat loss.

Those are my trouble areas. I’m sure you have some too. I’m sure you’ve tried and failed before. We all do. But join me now in not giving up. In never quitting. Sure, we may have felt the sting of failure. The bitter taste of disappointment, but victory is still within reach. It’s never too late to change, to adapt.

So let’s fight on towards that goal. You can do it. I can do it. While we only ever disappoint ourselves with our failures, the reverse is fairly true as well. Our victories are our own. No one carries us over the finish line. No one lifts those extra reps. Only we can satisfy ourselves.

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Important Update

by Robert Fure on July 30, 2012

This is kind of an important update, but hopefully one that will require virtually no action on your part and one that will go unnoticed. If you’ll look at the url for the site, it’s changed!

I always wanted the simpler fitandfurious.com domain and after months of waiting, was able to snap it up, and then after months of waiting for it to unlock, was able to transfer it, and after weeks of procrastinating and moving stuff around, was able to shift the site over to it.

The old url will be active, but forwarding all traffic to the new domain. Everything should work and run as smoothly as ever. The only thing that may be required on your part is if you were so kind as to bookmark or favorite the website. You’ll want to update anything of that nature sometime in the next year, or else one day you won’t end up here!

Thanks for visiting, reading, and commenting. I know updates have been sparse. Fitness is a part of my life, but not my life, and my job that pays me actual money demands a lot of time. I will try to update the site at least once or twice a week. I’ve got some stuff pending for this week and the next and a lot of great content planned. Thanks again for your patience and remember to update your bookmarks.

Welcome to Fit and Furious!

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Why You’ve Never Done the Military Press

by Robert Fure on June 27, 2012

It seems everything in this world is getting easier – a subject I’ll one day devote a lengthy article to – whether it’s car doors that open automatically, grocery stores that deliver, or exercises that just aren’t what they used to be.

The Military Press is an exercise that a lot of people think they’ve done, but actually haven’t. The true execution of the move has been seemingly lost over time. Indeed, the very term has somewhat faded, being more correctly replaced by “overhead press” in many instances. Still, you’ll find people calling the overhead press a military press or, even more incorrectly, doing what they’ll call a “seated military press.” A seated military press makes about as much sense as paying to see a Tyler Perry movie, considering the very essence of the lift is that you’re standing.

Defining the military press – what is it? Well, obviously, it’s similar to an overhead press. A weight, generally a barbell, is pressed over head, using strict form. There’s the rub on this one – form is ultimately the defining factor of the military press. For starters, it isn’t done sitting down. A true military press is done standing up. Further still, it’s not an overhead press with your legs spread wide and there is no squatting motion to propel the weight up. No, it gets its name from the idea of standing at military attention.

To perform a true military press, you do it standing erect, with a straight back, and your heels either together, or very, very close to each other- at, or extremely close to, military attention. You then, in a controlled motion, using only the upper body (mostly the deltoids, which are your shoulder muscles), press the weight overhead. Don’t put any English on it and don’t cheat it. You won’t be able to start with a ton of weight and when maintaining very strict from, you’ll probably never achieve a ton of weight – because it’s a damn hard lift. For those of you who have maybe never done a standing military press before, hopefully you could figure it out for yourself, but you need to be in a power rack or any other gym rack that lets you set the bar around chest/shoulder high. Step to the bar, grab it with a wider than shoulder width grip, de-rack it, step back, and with no other body motion, press it overhead. Bring it back down to your upper chest and repeat.

Is there room for the other variations of this lift? Of course. Variety is the spice of life and mixing it up in the gym is always a good idea – but as training methods are shifting back towards the old school values of big weights, big benches, squats, and deadlifts, go retro correct on the military press and do it the right way – standing at attention.

You can do the seated overhead press all you want – just call it the seated overhead press. Likewise for a standing overhead press. If your feet are wide apart or you use any momentum from your lower body to raise the bar, go ahead and call it an overhead press.

Regardless, if you want to build up a good set of shoulders, you’ve got to press overhead. If you want to truly isolate the shoulders, you need to take the lower body out of the equation by either sitting (remember: seated overhead or shoulder press) or by standing completely at attention and doing the traditional military press. I always go for the latter, as you’re putting the bulk of the work on your shoulders, but also improving your core, stabilizer muscles, and balance by pushing a heavy weight over your head while standing up. This will also help you out when you decide to jump into the world of overhead squats.

Be fit, be furious.

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It’s All On Your Shoulders

by Robert Fure on June 27, 2012

I’ve mentioned it many times before, but here is one more reminder accompanied by one of my favorite images – you’re in control of your own fitness destiny. I first found this image just randomly on the internet. Searching for the source brings me to a Japanese manga entitled Vinland Saga, a story about Vikings penned by Makoto Yukimura.

I think it’s a bad ass saying. Whether or not you’re into religion or whatever, you have to respect the idea of depending solely on yourself. So much in life really comes down to you doing what is necessary for you. Whether I’m harping on parents for overfeeding their kids or blasting you for sitting on your ass eating donuts instead of going to the gym, those are things that personal responsibility, personal strength, can overcome and correct.

If you don’t believe in yourself, what else is there? Pretty much everyone knows that getting into great physical shape is hard – you’re going to have to find a well of strength to do it. You need to believe you’re strong enough to accomplish the goal you’re setting for yourself.

Take a page from this badass viking and believe in your own strength. I don’t recommend parlaying that newfound belief into raping and pillaging, but bench pressing and chinning – hell yeah.

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