I’ve been trading a number of emails with my good friend James as of late.  James and I met when I was a teenager back in a high school weight training class.  James was a couple years older than me, as well as bigger and stronger than I am.  But there was one thing that we had in common – while everybody else was in the class to slack off and get an easy ‘A’ (varsity football players, I’m looking at you here), James and I used to kick ass and get shit done.  There were usually just two guys in the class that ever got stronger – that was James and I.

Fast forward damn near 20 years (holy shit, has it really been that long?  Jeez, I’m getting old!), and James and I have since reconnected via Facebook.  Thank you Al Gore for creating the interwebz.

Not much has changed – we’re both still working out, we’re both still kicking ass, we’re both still out to get better, and he’s still bigger and stronger than I am.  Jerk.  lol!

Anyway, we reconnected a number of months back, and since he’s always on the lookout for kickass new workouts, he was one of the first ones to pick up WCC 2 – FTW when it came out.  Smart man.  He’s since completed WCC2 with outstanding success, loving every minute of it.

(If you’re on my newsletter list, you might remember me telling y’all about his progress along the way a couple times.)

Well, it’s time to start something new, so both he and his girlfriend have just started MMA Blast 2.

Over the past week or so, we’ve traded a number of emails about the program – how to implement it, tweaks that should be made for his girlfriend, how to approach lower body training with a nasty knee injury he had a number of years back, etc.  Well, it wasn’t long before the conversation drifted more away from training, and more into philosophy.

Yeah…I know.  From workouts into philosophy?  How the fuck did THAT happen?

It’s simple, really – because as we’ve both gotten older, we’ve both realized that we both kick ass in the gym for the same reasons.  And it’s not for the workouts.

See, I could give a shit about being a gym rat, meat-head, muscle bunny, or whatever other funky name you wanna call somebody who’s like revolves around the gym.  Instead, I take almost a sports-based approach to my workouts.

Yeah, I like to train – and believe everybody should train – like an athlete.  (Don’t worry – getting some vanity work in there so you ‘look good nekkid’ is totally cool by me…and something you should do, IMO.)  But it’s more than that, though.  See, for an athlete, going to the gym isn’t the goal.  Getting strong isn’t the goal.  Having good cardio isn’t the goal.  A ripped set of abs isn’t the goal.

The goal is to be a better fucking athlete.  Duh.

I’m gonna let you in on a little secret – while some athletes really dig working out, most could really give two shits about their bench press 1RM or how high of a box they can jump on.  Yeah, they might like to swing their dicks around in the gym while they’re there, and they prolly wanna look good for the opposite sex when they’re out of the gym (after all, Sports Illustrated isn’t putting fatties on the cover), but when push comes to shove, all that really matters is how they perform on the field, court, diamond, mat, etc.

Because let’s be honest – if I told a running back that I could show him how to increase his squat, but it wouldn’t get him any more yards next season, think he’d really give a damn?  Or if I told the volleyball player how I could show her how to get stronger and turn that strength into explosive power, but it wouldn’t help her jump any higher at the net, would she show up to the gym and bust her ass three days/week?

Nope.  Not a chance in hell.  Workouts are there to augment and make them better at their sport.

Well, I take the same basic approach.  Now, I’m not a competitive athlete, so I’m not training for a sport.  Rather, my sport is life.  I want my workouts to augment my life as a whole.

I want to look better (being nekkid is optional – lol).

I want to feel good.

I want to be healthy and injury free.

I want to have plenty of energy.

I want to be able to do whatever activity I want, whenever I want.

I want to have that feeling of ‘badassery’ every time I walk out the door, because I know I can do shit in the gym you can’t.  (And I have the muscle to prove it.)

In short, my workouts are there to augment my life.  My life isn’t there to augment my workouts.

I didn’t always used to be that way.  When I was younger, I was ALL ABOUT the gym and working out.  All I wanted to do was train, train, and train some more.  I used to totally dig it when my biceps were so pumped I couldn’t lift my post-workout protein shake.  Or when my chest was so sore I could barely put my coat on.  And walking for two after a hard squat workout?  HA!  As if…

But the older I get, the more I say FUCK THAT.  Who the hell wants to bust their ass in the gym if they look like a gimpy dipshit out of it?  What if that hot chick you’ve had your eye on asked you to go on a hike with her?  You gonna tell her you would, but you’re too sore from heavy squats?

What if you have kids?  I can imagine my little girl asking me to do something with her, but having to say, “Sorry kiddo – daddy would, but he’s seriously overtrained right now.”

Fucking seriously?

I guess I was too young to know any better back when I thought like this, but damn if I ever would think this way now!

That’s the kinda conversation James and I were having.  He’s a dad, too.  Plus he works nights.  And he and his girlfriend like to go do cool shit out in nature.  (They still live in Central Oregon where I grew up – stuff like biking, running nature trails, snow shoeing, etc is all common and fun activity for them.)

Yeah, he still wants to be big and strong and look good and all that.  But what good does any of it do if he’s too tired to work all night or go out snow shoeing to take advantage of the latest Oregon snowstorm?

NONE.

And that’s my point – when you’re doing your workouts, you want to maximize your performance in the gym.  That’s no question.  There’s no point being in there if you’re just gonna pussyfoot around and not ever get any better.

But if your whole point in life is to get better at being in the gym, no matter how it affects the rest of your life, then you need some perspective.

As James put in his last email – “I quit overthinking shit, just find a good weight, lift that shit w/power and enjoy life.”

Fucking A.

If you want a workout that’s going to seriously augment your own life, I highly recommend:

==>MMA Blast 2

==>WCC 2 – FTW

==>Body Armor

Have a kickass weekend.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins

And that trend is to throw the baby out with the bath water.  (As the old saying goes.)

Lemme explain.  In fact, I’ll use an example.

There’s a guy I see doing a bit of writing in the strength & conditioning community – especially with regards to athletes – now.  This dude is a younger guy – probably mid-20s or so.  His main claim to (or is that ’15 Minutes Of’?) fame has been some of the weight room accomplishments he’s been able to achieve.  As an athlete, he trained under a pretty big name and ultra-successful strength and sports performance coach.

The guy himself was an athlete, eventually playing sports at a semi-pro level.  But pro athletics never really worked out for him (hey – not everybody was destined to play ball on TV…no slight there), so he’s turned his eye to training and preparing athletes.

Like anybody that take what they do seriously, he got a formal education in physical training, and has not only busted his own ass training, but has obviously done a lot of reading and interacted with other pro trainers in the industry, trying to glean anything he could in the effort to make himself more knowledgeable.

Ok, so right about now, I’m sure you’re asking – “Wiggy – dude…what’s wrong with all this?  Why are you busting the guy’s balls?  Sounds like he’s going about it the right way.”

And you’d be right – I think it’s totally cool the way he’s immersed himself in the culture and with information for the sake of being the best he can be.  But he didn’t take long to jump the shark with the whole deal.

As of late (recent weeks/months), this dude has done a bunch of writing about guys he’s communicating with and studying under.  He’s obviously impressed with these guys, and feels everybody in the game (especially those looking to break into the S&C racket) should read, study, and hang on every word these guys write or say.  But now is when you’ll really start to scratch your head…

See, this guy’s newfound gurus train in a manner that’s pretty much the total opposite of everything he’s done, or how he was originally trained as an athlete.  And that’s cool – as the saying goes, there’s ‘more than one way to skin a cat’.  This is especially true in S&C.  If you wanted to get stronger, I could give you 6 different programs that would all be totally different, but still all work.

Besides, this guy’s original coach and his new idols really train athletes in TOTALLY different surroundings, with different circumstances, and in totally different timeframes.  So it stands to reason that their programming/methodology would look radically different.  No big deal there.

The thing that boggles MY mind, though, is that this guy seems to be ready to totally abandon and dismiss virtually everything his original coach ever taught him.  I mean, he doesn’t come out and say it in so many words, but the implication is there – his old coach is dead wrong, and the way he does things isn’t the way they should be done.

But…wait…back when you were a competitive athlete…and got the notoriety on the intrawebz for the stuff you were able to accomplish in the weight room…didn’t you develop those abilities because of how your old coach trained you?  Yet now, you’re saying it’s the wrong way to train?

*is completely confused*

THAT is the trend I’m seeing that I just don’t get.  With the internet (and especially the proliferation of social media in recent years), information is READILY available.  And that’s great – we live in a day and age that you can educate yourself with damn near limitless amounts of information.  And we should all be striving to consistently be learning new things – in all areas of our life.

But just because you learn something new DOES NOT mean that everything else you ever learned or did is all of a sudden somehow invalid or useless!  The point of educating yourself shouldn’t be to go from being one kinda groupie to the next – it should be getting new information, keeping what works for what you’re doing, and discarding the rest.

Not discarding everything and starting over.

I’ve been studying and training for…jeez…around 20 years now.  In that time, I’ve read about, done, experimented with, and seen damn near everything – pyramid training, HIT, bodybuilding, whole-body workouts, split-bodypart routines, sandbags, kettlebells, conjugate periodization, linear periodization, bands, long slow distance roadwork, HIIT, complex training, 5×5, 5/3/1, Crossfit, high-rep bodyweight training, MFD roadwork, hill sprints, odd object training, DB only workouts, density training, Singles & Doubles, grease the groove, medicine ball training, isometrics…I could go on for a while.

And there’s never been ANYTHING that as I went along, said “This sucks, I’m never doing it again.  It was stupid and now I’m onto something different.”  Well…maybe Crossfit.  But that’s a whole other argument.

My point is, when you learn something new, don’t go forgetting or dismissing everything else you’ve ever done just because you think you’ve now found ‘all you need to know’.  Because in the S&C game, as I said, there are a lot of different ways to accomplish the same goals.  Nobody is totally ‘right’.

But at the same time, nobody is totally ‘wrong’, either.

Have a kickass weekend.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

On Tuesday, I went up to Thomasville, NC to visit my buddy Andy Hepler of Hepler Strength & Conditioning (http://www.heplerstrength.com, http://davidsoncountypersonaltrainer.com).  We hung out for the day talking training, business, and a variety of other things.

At one point in the day, we ended up at a gym/sports performance facility owned by a buddy of his.  When we first got there, the Crossfit coach (not Andy’s buddy) was there, and we were introduced.  He kinda tried to give me the typical Crossfit spiel.  I countered with a simple argument – “Crossfit has a complete and total lack of programming”.

Things just went downhill from there.  LOL.  I think the guy was a tad butt-hurt by the time I was done talking to him.  Oh well.

Soon after, Andy’s buddy showed up and we all shot the shit for a little bit.  This was my first time meeting him and he was cool as hell.  He’s a former collegiate linebacker and sorta like most of us – what I call a ‘career meathead’.

Andy’s buddy also owns another business that buys and sells training equipment (almost anything you can think of) wholesale.  We went over to his warehouse just to look around…I felt like a kid in a candy store.

While looking around, I came across a Football Bar.

Now, if you don’t know what a Football Bar is, it’s a a bar that has several sets of handles.  The handles aren’t perpendicular to the bar itself, neither are they parallel to each other.  Rather, they’re at an angle.  Football Bars are great because they allow you to put your hands at a position that is easy on the wrists and the shoulders.

(There’s a pic of a Football Bar right there.^^)

I’d never seen a Football Bar in person, so you *know* I had to try it out.  I slapped a 45 on each side and banged out a few Clean & Presses.  Then a few Rows.  Then a few Cleans.  Then a few more Cleans & Presses.

As Joey Styles might say….Oh.  My.  GAAWWWWDDDD!!!!!

I was freakin’ hooked on this bar.

I loved just how it changed the movement pattern for Cleans – put a lot more upper back into it, and allows you to snap your hips with a lot more force.  It really takes technique out of the movement.  Presses were AWESOME.  The positioning of the handles puts your wrists at ease, and even better, it forces your elbows to be pointed in front of you throughout the entire Range of Motion – which is *much* more healthy for the shoulder than having them pointed at your sides while pressing.

I could go on for a while – suffice it to say, I really liked this bar.

A few hours later, Andy and I had left, gotten lunch, and were on our way to pick up his daughter from school.  We were talking marketing, and how to target specific markets, how to attract customers, whether hyped-up sales copy was ‘cool’, and other such topics of badassery.

At one point, I made the simple comment that “You know, I’m just a simple guy…”

Andy immediately retorts – fairly loudly, I might add – “I know you are – I had to listen to you talk about that damn Football Bar for 45 FUCKING MINUTES!!!”

Luckily for me, Andy is patient and never gave me the proper STFU I probably needed.  LOL.

LMAO – what can I say?  I was really impressed with the Football Bar.  In fact, I told Andy I could probably develop any program for any goal and never need more than a Football Bar, a Trap Bar, plates, a station for doing chins and dips, and a T-Handle you could load to do swings with about 10 square feet of space.  Wanna get fancy?  Add some adjustable DB handles and weight plates and maybe an adjustable bench.  Wanna really get sophisticated?  Add a Prowler.

Tell me – is there anything you couldn’t do with just that stuff?  Nope.

In fact, speaking personally, I’ve probably done 99.9% of my own personal workouts with nothing more than adjustable DBs, a medicine ball, a pair of KBs, bodyweight calisthenics, roardwork, and hill sprints for nearly 3 years.

What’s my point?

My point is this – too many people in the fitness industry are trying to over-complicate things and make them out to be more than they really are.  You don’t have to be unnecessarily complicated.  All you need to do are use basic principles and work your ass off.

Yeah…doesn’t sound real sexy, does it?  Too bad – because that’s what works.

Take my own programs – do they work because of some sort of crazy formulas or complicated algorithms or insanely tweaked exercise progression?  No way.  They work because they apply basic principles in a certain way to achieve certain results.

For example, take the Championship Edition 2.0 MMA Workout.  That takes principles of building strength and aerobic capacity, then concentrates on converting that strength to power, then adds in anaerobic conditioning, then uses a smart blend of the two (power and anaerobic conditioning) to simulate the conditioning needs of a professional MMA fight.  Nothing overly complicated or ultra-complex exercises.  Hell, you don’t even need fancy equipment – you can do the whole thing in your high school weight room.

But it works, because it’s simple.

(You can see more about the Champ Edition 2.0 MMA Workout here.)

Take Working Class Cardio.  Many of y’all know the drill here – have great cardio without ever doing cardio.  Utilize compound movements with explosive athletic exercises using relatively heavy weight, with moderate to high volume.  Circuit the exercises together to give localized areas of your body rest, while the heart and lungs work like mofos the entire time.

Use DBs, a medicine ball, and bodyweight calisthenics only to make the workouts easy to perform in any location you want, as well as do many of the movements one limb at a time, which makes you do more work overall (making your heart and lungs work more) while giving your lower body more work and conditioning.

Again – simple concepts applied with a lot of intensity.

(You can see more about Working Class Cardio here.)

Or maybe think about Body Armor.  The key to Body Armor is one simple set and rep scheme used with 4 main compound movements.  You work at a weight heavy enough to develop strength, but not so heavy you can’t move fast.  You move fast enough to develop power, but it’s not so light you won’t get stronger.  And you have just enough volume to trigger muscle building, but not so much you can’t concentrate on strength or power.  Upper body assistance is centered around strength work and getting bigger.  Lower body assistance is centered around power and conditioning.

(You can see more about Body Armor here.)

Is there anything here that’s overly complicated?

These programs all work because they’re simple.  I *routinely* get emails from people telling me that they are surprised there’s not more ‘to’ some of my programs, but when they actually do them, they can’t believe how effective they are.  They love feeling like they’ve worked their ass off, but not to the point of injury or burnout.  They love feeling like they’re hitting a new PR each time they train.

And this is all because the workouts are…well…simple.

Not easy…simple.

And that’s exactly why they’re so damn effective.

Is your training effective?  If not, maybe you should simplify.

Have a kickass weekend.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

Sure you have.  We all have.  But have you actually experienced it?

I have.  And when you do…if you’re smart…it changes your life.  My first one did mine.  And I’ve actually had it happen a time or two since then.

I call it my “WTF Catharsis”.

Dictionary.com defines catharsis as “the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions”.  Or in other words, it’s when you finally just let shit go.  Personally, I’ve always found it to happen most often when I’ve come to a realization of some sort.  You know – say you’re stuck trying to find the solution to a problem, and when you’re engaged in some other type of activity, a solution just ‘hits’ you, and when it does, all the pent-up frustration just goes totally away?

Or it could be the other way around – you could be otherwise engaged, and as a result, lose all the pent-up frustration, totally clearing your mind, thoughts, and emotions.  And when you do, the solution becomes readily apparent.

That’s how I see a catharsis.

And…well…we all know what WTF means.  ;-)

My own WTF Catharsis happened back in April of this year.  I was actually on a mini-break – the kids and I had hopped down to the Myrtle Beach area for the weekend.  (If you know me, you know this is literally my most favorite place in the world.)

It was a Saturday night…pretty late.  The place we were staying (the same place we almost always stay) is right on the beach.  I was sitting on the balcony, sipping on a beer.  The kids were inside doing something – I don’t remember what.  I had my favorite Myrtle Beach classic rock radio station playing in the background.  As I sit there, I traded texts with a few friends of mine.  Nothing overly important.

I actually got to talking business with one friend of mine, and we were just tossing a couple ideas back and forth.  As we did, we started a sort of stream of consciousness that led me to a certain idea that I thought I could implement into my business.  There was a part of this strategy that was dependent on some marketing info I had, so I came in off the balcony and hopped on my laptop to go through some of my courses and information.

As I did, one thing led to another to another to another to another.  I looked up various courses I had, ebooks I’d downloaded, notes I’d taken, then emails I’d traded with various people.

And then I came upon an email I’d actually written myself…some 4 months earlier.  And I was shocked at what I saw.

As I sat there and read that email, I read where I had basically outlined the same exact idea I was having then…only I’d done it 4 months earlier.  And when I say ‘the same’, I mean down to a ‘T’.

But here was the crazy thing – I didn’t remember having this idea before!  How could I have had this same line of thinking months beforehand, and not remember it?

But more importantly….WHY HAD I NOT DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT??

I sat there in a sort of stunned daze…totally baffled.  The whole thing was totally surreal.  I mean, this coulda been a scene out of a science-fiction movie or something.  Here I am, having what I think is an original, cool, and kickass idea…only to find out I myself had already been down that thought path months before.

Weird.

I grabbed my beer and went back out to sit on the balcony.  Very somber.  Very quiet.  I was just kinda trying to understand what had happened.

As I thought back, I remembered writing that email.  I remembered all that was going on in my life at the time.  I even remember what led me to come to those conclusions.  (The same ones I was coming to now.)  The thing I couldn’t figure out, was why it seemed so new now and why I still hadn’t acted on those conclusions yet.

I started to think about everything that was going on in my life since then – business, training, the kids…lots of stuff.  It all played in my mind like a sort of montage of the past few months.

Then…it hit me.

The reason why I hadn’t done anything about these exact same conclusions yet…was I just simply let other things get in the way.  I never got off my ass and made it happen.  I never decided, “Hey – dammit – this is getting done.  I don’t give a shit what else is going on, this take priority.”

I had let myself get distracted with, what was in hindsight, a lot of small, unimportant, petty bullshit.  In this one area, I had failed to keep my eye on the prize.

And when I looked at what it was I had let myself get distracted with…what I had let myself focus on instead of something I should have been focusing on…all I could say to myself was, “WTF WIGGY!?!”

Hence, the “WTF Catharsis”.

Lemme ask you this – are you:

• as strong as you wanna be?
• as muscular as you should be?
• dropped the bodyfat you should have?
• dedicated as you should be?
• working as hard as you should?
• doing the cardio you know you need to do?
• implementing prehab and rehab to be healthy like you should be?

(This list could go on for a while…)

If the answer to any of them is ‘no’…then maybe it’s time for your own ‘WTF Catharsis’.  Maybe it’s time for you to take a hard look in the mirror, and admit to yourself you’re not where you want to be…where you know you should be.

And then maybe you need to admit to yourself what you’re letting yourself get distracted by…and is it really that important?  (HINT – the answer is ‘probably not’.)  If you’re anything other than the physical badass you know you can be…maybe it’s time you took a step back, and figured out why.

Then when you’re done with that, maybe it’s time you had yourself a ‘WTF Catharsis’ in every area of your life…

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

We didn’t do much – just kinda hung around and unwound.  The kids were in the pool all the time.  My boy and I went cruising once.  Oh, and we did go rent Jet Skis.  Holy cow, that’s more fun any one person should be allowed to have.

But there was one thing that I *did* make a conscious effort to do while I was there:

Keep getting workouts in.

See, I knew we were gonna be there for a week, and I knew we were gonna be having some good, big family meals, going out to eat, and that kinda thing.  While I wanted to have fun, I also didn’t wanna totally drop out off the earth as far as workouts go, nor did I wanna spend a week going backwards.

The question was how was I going to get my workouts in, and what was I going to do?

I knew I could get some swimming in since I was gonna be in the pool so much with the kids.  But since I was gonna be in the pool so much with the kids, I knew I wasn’t gonna be doing a whole lot of actual swimming.  (However, ‘Extreme Marco Polo’ was a helluva workout.  It’s kinda like Marco Polo meets Dodge Ball.  BEST.  GAME.  EVER!)

I knew the area we were staying in had a little gym at the clubhouse (where all the tennis courts and such were), but many times those things aren’t that great, so I didn’t wanna rely on that.  (Good thing, the weight room kinda left something to be desired…it did have a C2 rower though.  Love those things.)

So, I just planned ahead and brought my kettlebells.  And since I wasn’t sure exactly how many workouts I was gonna do, I just decided to pick a program that if I only did a few workouts from it, it’d still work well.

The “4-Week Minimalistic Blast” was the perfect fit.

We stayed at a pretty big house – 3 stories.  In the very front, there was a sort of concrete-tiled slab under the porch that led up to the main entrance.

PERFECT for my workouts.

On Monday, I did Day 1 of the Minimalistic Blast.  I went and used the C2 rower on Tuesday, took Wednesday off, then hit Days 2 and 3 on Thursday and Friday.

The awesome thing about this workout was literally, all I needed was a couple kettlebells.  (For those of you that didn’t know, the “4-Week Minimalistic Blast” has 4 different templates – you can do workouts using:

• Barbells
• Dumbbells
• Kettlebells
• Sandbags

This was perfect for me.  I didn’t have to worry about not having a place to train.  I didn’t have skip my workouts.  And it was super-easy to just toss a couple KBs in the back of the vehicle and go on.

(Of course, some of the fam did think I was a little crazy – “Dude, you’re working out?  We’re on VACATION!”)

But that’s what’s so awesome about the “4-Week Minimalistic Blast”.  You can literally do it almost anywhere, using almost anything.  Each workout is only 3 exercises, and is a total, full-body workout.  You’re getting strength work *AND* intense conditioning, not to mention you’re rotating it all each workout (what you did for strength work before, you’re doing for conditioning now, and vice versa).

If you’re super-hardcore, you can add a simple – but not easy – fourth exercise to the mix as your ‘finisher’.  I did this…and it smoked me.

My workouts were short (none of them took total over 45 mins if I remember correctly), and I did them in the morning before it got too hot out.  That way, I had my work done for the day and I could concentrate the rest of the day on having fun.

But the important part was that I still found a way to get the workouts in and still keep getting better – even when I was focusing on having fun.

Listen – the “4-Week Minimalistic Blast” just let me get massively kick-ass workouts in while I was on VACATION at the beach.  And with the four different templates, you can do those workouts pretty much anywhere you want.  Each is only 3 exercises (4 if you do the ‘finisher’).  And unlike other programs that are just ‘thrown together’ to make them ‘really hard’, these workouts have a logical order and progression to them.  It’s not haphazard by any means.

So that’s why I chose to do them while out, and will finish out the 4-weeks on the program.

My buddy Matt Bonafede (I’ve talked about him and his brother Aaron before) sent me an email not long ago after he and his brother Aaron had finally dove into the “4-Week Minimalistic Blast”:

“So Aaron and I just finished the first week of the Minimalistic Blast, that is one hard workout. The conditioning section has to be one of the worst things we have done in a long while. We both used 115 and it is pretty much non stop for the whole 20 min. Gotta love testing yourself.”

Since I had such an awesome time with the workouts while on vacation, I have decided to put the “4-Week Minimalistic Blast” back on sale for this week, and this week only.  You can get it now, but only until Friday night at midnight.  After that…well…bye bye for a while.

Remember, you get the 4 different templates names above, printable workout logs, a video FAQ, and other cool stuff as well.  You can even mix and match the programs, there are additional extra days you can add in that I show you how to use…I mean, this is really one kickass set of workouts.

You really should go get yours while you can.

=>CLICK HERE NOW to get the “4-Week Minimalistic Blast”

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

Like many other career meatheads, while I’m interested mainly in developing programs that target performance (getting stronger, faster, have better conditioning), I certainly have a base in bodybuilding-style training, and still hold many who do it in high regard – esp guys from years back.

Everybody knows Arnold, Franco, and Louie, but and the physical culture guys like to talk about Saxon, Inch, and Sandow, but there are many others that I was a fan of, even if they were before my time.  Guys like Sergio Oliva, Chris Dickerson, Frank Zane, Freddy Ortiz, Marvin Eder, Ed Corney, Robby Robinson, and more.

And while Joe Weider might have dubbed himself the “trainer of champions”, that rightful owner of that title should be the legendary Vince Gironda.  Very few guys brought about changes in the physique world like Gironda did.  If you don’t know much about Vince, you owe it to yourself to read up on him.

Anyway, Vince was known creating crazy versions of exercises and wild programs in order to illicit particular responses in ones physique.  One of the crazy things that Gironda came up with were his 8×8 workouts.

Now, there have been a few different versions of these types of programs over the years.  Gironda himself used 8×8 and 6×6, and you’ve likely seen the 10×10 programs of German Volume Training.  The way Gironda applied them was actually a bit different.

Vince would have his bodybuilders doing 8 sets of 8 with a moderate weight in a very smooth motion.  They would never go to full extension/lockout, nor would they really ever hold a contraction – the goal was constant movement.  However, that wasn’t the hardest part.

Gironda reduced rest periods to an absolute minimum – as low as 20 seconds between sets.

See, Vince knew that bodybuilders did cardio to lower bodyfat levels as much as possible before a contest.  However, he knew that too much cardio (along with the strict dieting that came with contest preparation) could also lead to muscle loss.  So, he combined a protocol that meant maximum time under tension and super-low rest periods.

The result was his bodybuilders showing up to shows in fantastic condition – usually with the lowest bodyfat of anybody on stage.  And all with doing minimal cardio.

What does this have to do with me and Working Class Cardio?

Well, quite a while back, I was looking for a program that would be quick, efficient, and accomplish a variety of goals at the same time.  I knew that something like Vince Gironda’s 8×8 could do the job.  So, I started experimenting with it.

Firstly, I changed the types of exercises being used, as I was more worried about performance.  So while Gironda used exercises that targeted aesthetics as the main goal, I picked exercises that were more athletic in nature (clean & presses, DB snatches, swings, jumps, etc).  And the first time I did a workout…HOLY COW…

…it kicked my ass.

I knew I could make this work.  But the problem I had was that while the conditioning element was off the charts, in order to maintain form and keep rest periods short, I was radically dropping the weights…to the point that I knew strength and power (explosiveness) would suffer long-term.

Then it hit me.

I was doing 4 exercises per workout, each one in an 8×8 format.  (They wouldn’t all necessarily be 8×8…maybe 8×6, or 6×6, or 7×7 – I experimented a bit.)  So I thought:

“What if instead of doing all my sets of an exercise in a row, then going onto the next exercise, I would rotate through all four exercises, circuit-style?  So, I could do a set of exercise 1, rest 20 seconds, a set of exercise 2, rest 20 seconds, a set of exercise 3, rest 20 seconds…”

You get the idea.

This would let me still do this style of workout, but let individual muscles rest locally, while other ones worked.  That way, I could still keep weights heavy instead of having to drop them too much, *and* keep rest periods short for conditioning.

I tried it my very next workout and knew I was onto something.

Fast forward quite a while and a bit of testing and tweaking later, and Working Class Cardio was born.

And in case you’re wondering if Working Class Cardio is the ‘real deal’, then go READ HERE to find out about how Eric lost 61+ pounds, READ HERE to see how Aaron lost over 30 pounds (and see his pics), and READ HERE to see how Don dropped 45 pounds and 8 inches off his waist.

As Fonzie might say….Whoa.

Listen, do yourself a favor, and pick up a copy of the workout that is whipping people into shape left and right…you’ll be shocked how quickly you get into shape.

=>GET WORKING CLASS CARDIO NOW

Oh – and did I mention, you don’t even need to go to a gym to do this program?  Do it in your living room if you want.

How can you lose?

Have a kickass weekend.

=>CLICK HERE TO BE COOLER THAN FONZIE…AND IN BETTER SHAPE

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, after an entirely too long hiatus, I re-introduced night runs back into my workouts.  I’ve always loved night runs – be it roadwork (which is what has comprised most of my night runs over the years) or hill sprints.  I’ve caught a lot of crap about it and how ‘dangerous’ it is running at night.  I’ve had buddies, family, ex-girlfriends (they were the worst) all tell me how crazy I am for running at night.

Personally, I totally dig it.  In fact, I think it’s much safer than running during the day.  I like music when I run (more on that in a minute), so if I run during the day, I have to be on a constant lookout for cars and such.  Your head has to be on a swivel at all times.

At night, though, all you have to do is watch out for headlights.  You see them way up ahead and you see them coming behind you.  When you see them, you GTFO the way.  The car passes, and there you go.  And if you run in low-traffic neighborhoods or areas like I do, there isn’t that much to deal with.  I can plug into my .mp3 player and get lost in my running.

In fact, I think I’ve put more miles on Creed’s ‘Torn’ than I did the last pair of front tires I put on my Mustang…lol.

Oh, my precious .mp3 player.  If you know me, you know how big of a part of my life music is.  I listen to anything and everything, and music is playing at almost all times in my vicinity.  You could tell me that I could never watch TV again, and it might suck, but would be no big deal.  Tell me I couldn’t ever listen to music again, and my world would crash.

So you can imagine the heartache and pain I felt when my .mp3 player died 3 days ago.  Dead.  Done.  Not Working.  Kaput.  Gone and never to return.

It was tough – I’ve had that thing for going on 5-6 years.  It’s been to Iraq with me several times, on several road trips, the motivation behind countless workouts and more.  We had a good run together.

(For those that are in the local North Carolina area, I will be holding a small memorial service this weekend as I bury my beloved .mp3 in the backyard.)

Couple that with my external hard-drive dying 2 weeks ago, and I have effectively lost almost all my music.  I have not been a pleasant man to deal with lately.  Luckily for me, there is yahoo radio, youtube, and my favorite classic rock station out of Myrtle Beach streams online.

But back to night runs…

Some of you that are long-time readers and friends of mine will remember that a number of years ago, I wrote an article for MMA Weekly called “Poor Guys Run”.  The article wasn’t about wealth, social status, how much money you had in your pocket, or what equipment you had available to you.  Rather, it was about an attitude – a frame of mind.

If you’ve never read the original “Poor Guys Run”, you can read it by CLICKING HERE.

Little did I know that same frame of mind would come back as a sort of aura of hard work tonight.

I set out for tonight’s night run, given the recent demise of my .mp3 player and lack of music, in silence.  As I my feet pounded the pavement, all there was to really hear was my own heavy breathing, the sounds of cars up and down a near highway, birds squawking their night-time noises in the trees, and the neighborhood dogs barking.

(Evidently, they don’t like it when Wiggy runs at night, either.  ;-))

As I run through my neighborhood, I make it around the first gentle sloping curve – just a few houses down from mine.  There are 5 kids (3 boys, 2 girls) in the driveway.  They all look to be in their early 20s as I trot on by.  They’re piling into a convertible – I didn’t pay attention to what it was.  Something old – like a late ’80s or early ’90s Chrysler LeBaron or something.

Obviously, tonight is ‘party night’.

I truck on past, not paying them much attention.  As I do, they all get kinda quiet.  Just as I pass them, they resume their laughing and joking.  As I trot out of earshot, I hear one of the guys say “Why is that asshole running?  Doesn’t he know it’s dollar night at…” and mentions a local bar.

I shrug it off and keep on going.

About a half a mile or so later, I hit an intersection and hang a left.  As I do, I hear and old lady on her front porch.  I make a quick glance off to the left as I didn’t know anybody was there – it was dark under the cover of no real streetlights in the area, nor porch-lights on.  All I see is the glowing ember out of the corner of my eye as she takes a drag on her cigarette.

“Doesn’t he know it’s too HOT out here tonight to be doing that running mess?”

I hear somebody with her, full of just as much attitude – “MMMMM HMMMM!”

When did this turn into “Talk shit about Wiggy” night?  No matter – I keep running.

After about another 1.5 miles or so, I’m getting somewhat close to my house.  Our neighborhood is really just a giant loop that stretches roughly 2.2 miles or so.  Add in several off-shooting cul de sacs, crossroads, and re-tracing the way you came, and you have a pretty fair amount of running you can do.

I’m approaching an intersection that’s roughly a quarter mile from my house – a corner with a stop sign and a big streetlight.  And in the distance, what do I see?  It’s the kids in their convertible, stalled in the middle of the road.  Evidently, that LeBaron had other ideas about going out tonight.

It being fairly quiet, and them being fairly loud and obnoxious, I can hear them all arguing from quite a distance off.  The girls are pissed because the car has gone out on them and ruined their evening, saying something about “you’d better get this car going” or something like that.

As I get closer, I can see that the 3 guys (they probably weigh an average of 140 lbs each) are trying to push the car out of the intersection, and given that the direction they’re going is slightly uphill, they’re having no luck.  I actually start to laugh to myself as I run up behind them, seeing these three guys having trouble pushing this car out of the road, their girlfriends (or whatever they were) watching them and talking shit the whole time.

Now, I should have just run past them, but I’ve had car trouble and been lucky enough to had people to stop to help me, so I figure it was my turn to ‘give back’.

As I run up behind them, the three dudes all turn to look at me (one is at the driver’s door, manning the steering wheel, the other two behind the car), only to look away as I run up to the car as they push…the car not moving.

I put both hands on the trunk, dig in with both feet, and start pushing.  The car not only starts moving, but starts going so quickly toward the side of the road that the guy at the steering wheel had to jump in and hit the brakes so the car wouldn’t go down into a ditch.

As he does, everybody is quiet (especially the girls) and sort of looks stunned.

I peel away, and get back to my run.  As I do, I turn, trotting backward, and yell to them:

“THAT IS WHY I RUN!!”

Have a kickass weekend.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

Along those same lines, I’ve gotten into a few email conversations with people about how I design my programs, and them wondering why I don’t used more advanced tactics in my workouts.  About the most complicated I get is with supersetting exercises, and/or complex training.  I even use percentages in the original Body Armor.  But outside of that, there’s not much that’s overly advanced.  You won’t see my programs with bands, chains, mind-numbing percentage charts, complicated rest-break scenarios, or anything else like that.

Now, that’s not to say that this stuff doesn’t work – because when done correctly, it most assuredly does.

That’s also not to say that my programs are easy or for the non-trained noob.  While they work well for the inexperienced, my programs, while simple (not easy – learn the difference between the two), are the kind that work for trainees of almost any capability, as the harder you work at them, the better results you get.

Take the set/rep/percentage scheme I mentioned that was part of the original Body Armor.  If you can bench 200 lbs, you’re going to get very good benefit out of it.  If you can bench 350, you’re going to get the same kinda benefit – only more of it.

Same goes with something like Working Class Cardio.  Just getting through the workouts using moderate weight and taking short mini-rests between exercises, it’s one thing.  But if you’re doing the workouts with say 80+ lbs dumbbells and barely resting 60 secs between circuits (no mini-rests at all during), then your increased input into the program is gonna result in seriously increased output (gains).

See how that works?

BUT, that ends up begging that one main question be asked – why is more complicated stuff never used?

(This is the point that I have to channel my inner Jack Nicholson…)

The truth of the matter is…that…YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!

Here’s what most people don’t wanna admit to themselves – they are not in remotely good enough shape to take on any kinda ‘advanced’ training protocol, let alone make that protocol effective.

Going back to Tabata for a minute…

If you go back to my blog post and read the info on the original Tabata study, you’ll note that it was conducted on fairly high-level, experience, well-trained athletes.  In other words, these peeps were in really good shape from the get-go.  The whole reason why Tabata’s intervals worked so well for them was because they *were* in such good shape already.  They had the capacity to be able to work their asses off, and put sufficient work and effort into the protocol in the first place.

If you’re not in good shape from the beginning, you won’t be able to illicit the same kinda results, simply because you’re not capable of putting the right kind of work in.

Remember the Tabata stats – the study’s participants were working at 170% of their current VO2 max.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to even do something like that?  Fact of the matter is that most regular folks aren’t in the physical condition to perform at that level, nor do they have the mental toughness to push themselves to that level.

And most regular folks just aren’t at that level.  Sorry.

Let’s use an analogy.

As many of you know, I’m a car guy.  I’m also into motorcycles (though not as much).  The sport bikes you can buy off the showroom floor just astound me – dollar for dollar, the kind of performance you can buy stock on a many sport bikes is just crazy.  These bikes have INSANE capabilities – IF they’re ridden by somebody that knows what the hell they’re doing.

I guarantee you that most people riding sport bikes on the street today will never fully realize the true potential of the bikes they ride.  Why?  Because they’re not good enough at riding.  In fact, it’s my contention that most people who ride have bikes that are too big and have too much power for their current abilities.  They don’t respect what the bike has to offer, and instead of putting in the time to be a better and more skilled rider, they simply just go out and buy a better bike.  When the reality is that in anything but a very long straight line, a skilled rider on a 750 will run off and leave most guys on their 1000s.

The same goes with workouts.

It’s not that these advanced methods don’t work – they’ve proven that they do time and time again.  However, most of the people that do them have no reason to be, as they should be spending their time and effort on programs that were based more on basic principles (like mine are), and taking those to the fullest.

Don’t look to try out something more difficult and ‘advanced’, when you have maximized what you’re doing yet.

Have a kickass weekend.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

This one is gonna be ugly, because I’m seeing this more and more. And the more and more I see it, the more and more it pisses me the hell off. So I’m not gonna hold anything back.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In a nutshell, it goes like this:

I am completely fucking tired of these dipshit trainers whose only purpose in life is to see how hard of a workout they can pull out their ass (since they evidently know fuck all about actual exercise progression or workout programming). And their de facto ‘go to’ method is to take anything and everything they do and throw it into the Tabata protocol.

In case you’re not familiar with the Tabata protocol, you can google it for more detailed info, but the cliff notes version goes like this:

Tabata was a Japanese researcher. In tests involving speed skaters, he experimented with different interval training protocols to improve his test subjects’ VO2 max. Using mechanically braked cycle ergometers (i.e. – exercise bikes), he found that having them do 8 rounds of 20 seconds work followed by 10 seconds of rest (for a total of just 4 minutes) for 6 weeks resulted in a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity and a 14% increase in VO2 max. Additionally, the test subjects also experienced moderate increases in aerobic capacity as well. It’s worth mentioning that these were all highly trained athletes, so it’s not like Tabata was just training a bunch of out of shape noobs.

Now, you’ve probably heard much of this before. After all, the Tabata research has been the major basis for interval training becoming popularized in recent years.

My problem is not with Tabata intervals whatsoever. The results speak for themselves and Tabata’s 8 x 20/10 protocol has proven itself plenty of times to be very effective.

My problem is with these fuckwad trainers who have absolutely bastardized the protocol and use it in ways and on exercises it was never intended.

First of all, there’s nothing magic about 8 rounds of 20 seconds work + 10 seconds of rest. It’s just a set of intervals. Just because you start doing your conditioning according to this time frame, that doesn’t mean you’re gonna turn into some sorta cardio machine. So if you think you can take the cardio you’re doing now, and just start doing it in 8 x 20/10, you’re just wrong.

See, there is something that most trainers neglect to tell you when they talk about the Tabata protocol – the speed skaters in Tabata’s original study were working at 170% of their VO2 max. That means that when they did their intervals, they were going at absolutely INSANE intensity. When I say insane, I mean nuts. When I say nuts, I mean balls to the wall. When I say balls to the wall, I mean there was virtually no fucking possible way they could work any harder.

Tell me – when was the last time you saw somebody doing Tabata intervals as if their life fucking depended on it? Yeah – hardly ever. Trainers put people on the Tabata protocol, but don’t make them do it with the appropriate intensity. So you know what fucking happens?

You’ve got some poor schmuck who doesn’t know any better, out there working at a mediocre, half-ass, “I think I’m working hard” pace for 4 fucking minutes. And he wonders why he’s not getting any better.

Here’s something else most people don’t realize – Tabata’s speed skaters were NOT just doing the 8 x 20/10. They had warmup and cool down periods that extended the entire length of the conditioning session to as long as 30 minutes.

Funny, save for my buddy Liam “Taku” Bauer, I’ve never seen ANYBODY ever design an interval training program that has these elements in place. Most fuckwad trainers just tell you to dive right into the Tabata Intervals.

Oops.

But let’s dive into what I really fucking can’t stand – and that’s these trainers who think that Tabata Intervals are a good and effective way to do almost any and every exercise under the sun in the name of conditioning.

What a load of bullshit.

Almost every single day, I seem some asshole posting a workout they’ve done (or worse yet, made others do) that has you doing pushups, squats, burpees, or other such exercises in the 8 x 20/10 format.

This is absolutely retarded.

Aside from what is ‘supposed’ to work, what the local fitness ‘guru’ says, and everything else, let’s use a little bit of common logic for a couple minutes….

To do Tabata Intervals and get the true benefit from them, you’ve got to be able to work at just a crazed intensity, right? Remember, the original test subjects were working at 170% VO2 max – that’s pretty damn intense.

Well, when you start applying it to bodyweight movements, you take cardiovascular conditioning out of the equation as that isn’t what fails. See, you want to be working at such a pace, that you literally force the heart and lungs to adapt. But you just can’t do this with most bodyweight movements.

Why not? Because muscular endurance becomes a limiting factor long before cardiovascular conditioning does.

Go do a set of Tabata squats. You start out, and you’re doing them at absolute break-neck pace, getting yourself breathing as hard as bodyweight squats can get your breathing (whether or not that’s ‘hard enough’ remains to be seen, but that’s another issue). Answer me this – your fastest pace was that first round. How long can you maintain that pace throughout all 8 rounds? Likely not very long. You might make it through the first 2-3…maybe even 4. After that, your performance is gonna start dropping off, and dropping off fast.

The problem, though, isn’t that your performance drops off because your wind is the limiting factor. It’s because your quads are burning like a motherfucker, lactic acid is building up, and your strength-endurance and muscular-endurance can’t keep up.

So guess what – you just took a protocol designed for maximum anaerobic and VO2 development, and turned it into a muscular endurance program. Which means you’re no longer getting the true and total conditioning benefits of Tabata intervals. But it’s cool, because you’re now getting the strength-endurance and muscular-endurance benefits, right?

Uhhh….no.

The problem is that you end up hindering yourself overall because you kill yourself in the beginning. Remember, you start out your first round balls to the wall. Then your performance drops off the next round. The round after that, it drops off a little more. Then by the time you’re half-way through, it’s likely dropped off quite a bit due to the fatigue factor and lactic acid buildup.

Now, what if you simply paced yourself and instead of going balls to the wall in the first couple rounds, you pulled back a bit. More than likely, you’d be able to find a pace that you’d be able to reach and sustain much longer, giving you an overall higher number of reps performed when you total up all 8 rounds, even though none of the 8 have a number as high as the balls to the wall round. This is because the 8 rounds as a whole are more dense.

But if you do that, then you’re bastardizing the cardiovascular conditioning benefits of Tabata’s Intervals even MORE. If you want a strength-endurance or muscular-endurance program, why not do a density training workout or something that’s specifically designed for such work instead of doing a cardio-based workout that’s no longer completely targeting cardio?

See how you’re kinda just half-assing both there?

Moving on.

What really irks me about half these morons prescribing Tabata Intervals to a bunch of different exercises is half the exercises they apply them to. They might have good intentions, but their application TOTALLY just jumps the shark.

For example, doing Tabatas on burpees, squat thrusts, DB/KB snatches, or DB/KB swings is not only not a good idea, it’s just plain stupid.

Why?

Because these are all exercises with a range of motion (ROM) that’s just WAY too long. I don’t give a shit if you’re the best KB guy in the fucking world, there’s only so fast that you’ll ever be able to do a KB snatch. That means that there’s only ever so many reps you’ll ever be able to get in 20 seconds. It’s not like sprinting or using an exercise bike or similar other methods of exercise in which an additional rep (or step or crank revolution on a bike or whatever) will only take a split second, and you can always strive to get more and go harder. No matter how you slice it, there will only ever be so many snatches you can do in 20 seconds. And to do one more is gonna take so long that once you hit that ceiling, you’ll never be able to do more.

Burpees are even worse. Look at the long ROM and all the movement that goes into completing just one rep.

Now remember the original study, and the skaters working at 170% of max VO2. Do you think you’ll ever be able to do Burpees fast enough to illicit that kind of response.

Nope.

You would honestly be MUCH better off (in terms of cardiovascular conditioning and endurance benefits) by just setting a target number of reps and working your ass off to constantly reduce the amount of time it takes you to do that total number of reps.

The last time I did 125 burpees for time, I did it in around 7 minutes or so if memory serves me correctly. And when I got done, I was huffing and puffing like crazy. I was spent for nearly an hour after that. My pace was very consistent – I’d do 10-12, then rest just a few seconds (10-20). Then another 10-12. I kept up that pattern until I’d done 125. And I was able to keep that pace the entire time. The crazy thing was that it wasn’t until around minute number 5 that I *really* started getting fatigued. Sure, the first few rounds kicked my ass, but it was once I got to 75-80 burpees done that quickly that I felt like I was in the “holy shit, I gotta make my body fucking adapt to the brutality” mode.

Yet, had I done burpees in Tabata format, I’d have *never* reached that point, simply because there’s only so many burpees I’d have been able to do inside of 20 seconds, and after 4 minutes, I’d have been done.

Then there was the time I saw somebody prescribe Tabata Pullups. If you think that is in any way, shape, or form a good idea, then you probably still fucking believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, too.

Here’s the deal people – the 8 x 20/10 protocol works LIKE A FUCKING BOSS. Tabata proved it. But guess what – chances are you’re not as smart as Tabata is, so don’t think you can take the shit he did really awesome at and somehow make it better. All you’re gonna do is muck it up and get half-assed results across the board.

Do it the right way, to achieve the goals it was originally designed for, or just leave it the fuck alone.

Have a kickass weekend.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts

It basically means that you’re pretty good (or pretty damn good, even) at a whole lot of different things. But, because you’ve spent a bunch of time working on all these different things, you’ve never spent enough time at any one thing in particular to get great at it.

And that’s just the way it is. Best case scenario is that you can either be pretty good at a lot or elite at a little. Can’t do both, though.

You’re just not gonna find anybody that can be elite at a lot. Just doesn’t happen.

Your workouts are the same way. You can either be in very good overall shape (strength, power, speed, cardio, physique, etc) or elite at one thing (like a highly competitive powerlifter, Olympic lifter, or bodybuilder might be). Can’t do both.

Now, if you know my style of workouts, I like to go the route at being pretty good at a lot. I’d rather do workouts that have you getting stronger, moving faster, having better cardio, and more – all at the same time. You’ll never (necessarily) be the ‘best’ at any one of those things, but you’ll be better than most.

(Not to mention you’ll be better than the elites at everything else – you’ll be faster than the powerlifter, stronger than the distance runner…you know the drill.)

BUT, what do you do if you’re seriously lacking in a given area?

See, if you’re starting out at the same level across the board, that’s cool – you can bring up all these qualities at the same time. But what if you’re not? THEN what do you do?

I mean, what if you’re already real fast, but not overly strong and your endurance sucks? Or if you have a pretty physique, but you can’t back it up in the gym? Or if you’re strong and explosive, but have pretty much no work capacity?

How do you balance everything out?

Well, that’s when you gotta do a workout that focuses on whatever it is you need to work on – target your weakness, bring it up, then move on from there.

Now, I know what you’re worried about – how do you do that, and *not* lose out on the gains you’ve busted your ass for so long to make, right? I mean, you’ve spent years getting strong as an ox – you don’t wanna lose it all in 4 months by trying to improve your cardio and conditioning.

That’s where program maintenance comes in. If you do a program that’s designed properly, you can focus on just a few main goals, and have that be the vast majority of the results you get. However, you can add in *just enough* maintenance work so as not to lose too much (if any) of all gains you’ve worked so hard for.

Remember back when I sent you the free sample of Body Armor – The 2nd Chapter? (It’s here if you missed it.)

The first phase was doing a bunch of hardcore complexes. This was to get you in shape, build cardio, and improve your conditioning and work capacity. But, as long as you used heavy enough weights in the complexes, you wouldn’t really lose out on strength.

Then in the 2nd phase, we switched it around and focused on getting stronger (setting new PRs every workout) and getting bigger, putting on extra muscle mass. Well, you didn’t wanna lose out on all that conditioning you just busted your ass for, did you? No…which is why there were short conditioning elements built into Phase 2 – just enough to maintain.

Of course, then when you hit Phase 3…well, that’s when you go balls to the wall on everything, and bring it *all* up.

So you spent the first phase focusing on one set of goals, maintaining everything else. Then, you spent the next phase focusing on a different set of goals, maintaining everything else. Then, on phase 3, that’s when you kick it into high gear across the board, and bring it ALL up.

See how you do that?

And, of course, the totally badass thing about Body Armor – The 2nd Chapter is that each phase is pretty self contained. If you were to have to repeat a phase to bring those qualities up further before moving on, then it would be not only easy and doable, but completely recommended.

If you need to do some focusing in your workouts, and really elevate your *entire* game to a whole new level, then click on the link or button below, and go give Body Armor – The 2nd Chapter a shot.

You won’t regret it.

=>CLICK HERE NOW to get more info on Body Armor – The 2nd Chapter

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workout | MMA Workout | MMA Workouts