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Pena is a success coach known as the 50 Billion Dollar Man — a man who grew up dirt poor in East LA and went on to become worth half a billion dollars through grit and determination and has coached so many students to success that their combined net worth is now said to be 50 billion dollars (hence his moniker).

Pena’s quote really stuck with me, because it perfectly encapsulates success as a whole, including in strength and fitness endeavors — it’s not a “journey” (unless you like spinning your wheels and don’t care where you go). It’s a process.

And not just ANY process — it’s a process that has to have two things - both of which (and much more) I dive into on this podcast. 

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Pullups are, without a doubt, one of the few truly essential exercises.

Climbing, hanging, and generally pulling yourself upward is a skill that’s been passed down to us from our ancient forefathers til today.

While they needed it for different reasons (climbing to escape predators, climbing to find food, etc) for our purposes the benefits of overhead pulling are in strengthening the back, arms, grip, and abs (yes, even abs) — all of which will greatly increase your usable, real-world strength in leaps and bounds, make your shoulders resilient, and start helping you fight back against the ravages of PPP syndrome (piss-poor posture) caused by sitting all day and just generally not moving a lot.

But what if you CAN'T do a single pullup yet?

This episode will give you some insights on how to nail your first one (without one of those silly rubber band setups, too) here's a video demo: https://youtu.be/IG9qHQfoWNM 

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Crawling is one of those rare movements where more really can be better and not just more.

There are some caveats to consider, and it’s best to build up to it, but 10 minutes of crawling non-stop is a great goal for just about anybody, and can be scaled to any level of fitness.

Best of all, there are a litany of benefits that go along with it. 

What are those benefits, you ask? 

Well, I'll tell you all about 'em! Tune in and enjoy. 

Get my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge FREE here: http://www.9MinuteChallenge.com 

The way you’re squatting is not enough to strengthen your legs.

If you’re thinking “them’s fightin’ words!” just hear me out.

The way most of us squat is with our feet flat on the floor, a weight (or weights) in our hands or on our back. This is a good start (a great one, actually) and will certainly go a long way in building stronger, more powerful legs.

However!

There’s more to squatting than just front and back squats and the occasional pistol.

In order to have truly strong legs, you have to mix things up from time to time.

I give you some ideas on how to do just that in this fine episode. 

Get my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge FREE here: http://www.9MinuteChallenge.com 

One of the biggest roadblocks toward gaining serious strength and conditioning is overthinking.

It’s a stalling tactic, and is usually used by people who might really want to get fit, but are afraid of pulling the trigger.

For the record, I understand why.

There are thousands of programs, workouts, and possibilities for your strength, health, and fitness. The more options you have at your disposal, the harder it is to make a choice.

The solution?

A “Do this!” approach to your workouts — one that is so simple, so straight forward, and so easy to understand that it makes pulling the trigger a lot easier so you can stop navel-gazing and start seeing some results.

This episode will dish on that.

Get my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge FREE here: http://www.9MinuteChallenge.com 

My big M.O. in training my students is always to look to old-school, proven approaches to training before I ever even look sideways at something “cutting edge”. The reasoning is simple:

1) If it worked in such adverse conditions as those that prevailed in the 1800s (or hell, 2000+ years ago) then it will certainly work under modern easy living

2) The human body and the processes it is subject to haven’t changed significantly since then — so why re-invent the wheel?

Start from here and it'll take you far.

A good place to start in particular is with the piece of equipment I mention in this episode. Tune in and enjoy.

Aleks

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We all know by now that modern living is sedentary far beyond what it rightfully should be. So what has society’s answer to this been? Why, exercise, of course! And lots of it.

Some would say we don’t exercise enough. I would say I half agree, but we need to define some terms (but on MY terms):

Exercise (n): physical activity done in an organized, structured fashion.

This differs slightly from the textbook definition of exercise, but there’s a reason for that.

What, pray tell, IS that reason? 

I tell you all about it on this episode. Listen in and enjoy.

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Ep. 357: Al Kavadlo and Aleks talk strength, social media, veganism, and more

I'm joined on this fine episode by none other than my pal Al Kavadlo - calisthenics expert, fitness powerhouse, and all around interesting guy.

In this episode we have a freewheeling chat on social media, high school gym class, veganism vs. eating meat, and much, much more. 

(Oh, and Al has a brand-new book coming out about building your mobility through minimalist means, so you might wanna check that out, too: https://strongandfit.com/products/mobility-man-by-al-kavadlo)

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There’s been a lot of talk recently about the importance of consistency above everything in your training. And you know what? I agree with that. You need to remain consistent.

But before you can be consistent, you need THIS.

Tune in and find out WTF I'm talking about and why it's so important. 

Get my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge FREE here: http://www.9MinuteChallenge.com 

I wanna show you 3 of my favorite go-to tips to help you hit a PR in SOMETHING today.

These are universally applicable (i.e. from upper body to lower body exercises and anything in between).

If your training has been consistent and you’re not too worn down from work, kids, a nagging spouse, existential dread, or something similar, you may very well find that you’ll be able to crank out an extra rep, put up some heavier weight, or lift your old PR with greater ease!

Listen in and check it out