Optimum Fitness Network

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Most men and women start resistance training and aerobic training because they want to change the way they look.  They want to build muscle to change the shape of their body.  They want to lose fat to reveal a tighter, harder physique.  Normally, they want to do both to get the most physical changes for their efforts.  So they go out and look for muscle building and fat loss workout programs.

And that’s their first mistake!

Bodybuilding programs combined with long, slow aerobic exercise has failed time and again to produce the strong, lean, athletic bodies most men and women are after.  Don’t believe me?  Just walk into any commercial gym and see how many people there have successfully reached their physique goals.  I guarantee you it won’t be much, because they are using the bodybuilding and aerobic exercise duo.

To get a better understanding of what I mean, let’s reverse engineer your workout program.  By that I mean, let’s look at the result you want first, and then figure out how to get it.  This approach promises to be revealing.

Now, in order to make this process as simple as possible I’m going to use some generalizations.  When I ask most people what they want to end up looking like as a result of their workout program, very few say bodybuilder or marathoner.  And when I say very few, I mean almost NONE.

The fact is, most people want to look like some form of athlete.  They want a strong, muscular, lean, athletic body.  They want the kind of muscle and low body fat that exemplifies a high performance physique.

So, why are they training like a bodybuilder and marathoner?  Good question!

I propose your train like an athlete to get the good looking body of an athlete.  Sounds like a simple solution, but I can’t tell you how hard it is to get “regular” people to adopt athletic training.  They would much rather focus their efforts on things they can see, like building muscle and reducing fat.  And this ultimately leads to failure in reaching their physique goals.

Have you ever heard the expression, “A watched pot never boils.”  If you’ve ever been in hurry and tried to cook pasta you know what I mean.  If you stand over the pot waiting for the water to boil, it seems like it never boils.  However, when you are busy doing other things, the next thing you know, the water is boiling.

The same thing happens when you are trying to transform your body.  If you focus on the things you can see (building muscle and fat loss) it seems like you are not making any progress.  However, if you concentrate on something else (performance), the next thing you know the physical changes you wanted are staring back at you from the mirror.

So, here’s what you need to do to finally reach your fitness, fat loss and physique goals: train like an athlete.  And by that I mean, train for performance.  Train to get stronger, more powerful, faster, more flexible, more agile and coordinated… and the next thing you know, you’ll have the body you want.  Athletic training is not just for athletes.  It is for every man and women who what the physical attributes of an attractive athlete.  (And in my experience, this is most of us!)

So, stop watching the pot by training like a bodybuilder and marathoner.  Divert your attention to performance based training and focus on improving your athletic performance.  You body will naturally make the physical changes you can see in order to improve performance.  This means, building strong muscles and burning performance robbing fat.  And that, my friends, is how you finally get the body you’ve always wanted.

Don’t you want the strong, lean body of a champion athlete?

Coach Eddie Lomax believes we are all athletes and should train like athletes.  His Athletic Body Workout targets general fitness, fat loss and strength and muscle building for an athletic body you can be proud of.

The key to success with ANY form of physical training is PROGRESSION.  If you are not progressing, you are not improving. 

And if you’re not improving, you’re wasting your valuable training time.  Progressive training (whether it be with outside resistance like dumbbells or barbells, or with your own bodyweight) is what translates into real world physical improvements you can USE, and physique improvements you can SEE. 

So, it should go without saying that in order to get the most from your bodyweight training, you must progressively become better.  For your exercise sessions to be successful, (producing the ability and physical changes you desire), you must be making progress. 

If you are not increasing the challenge of your training on a regular basis, you are doing little more than manual labor, and you will never reach your goals. Sounds simple, but here’s the biggest problem… 

Bodyweight training is different than progression in other types of training because the weight of resistance is fixed!  Your bodyweight does not change.  So, how do you continue to progress when the weight you are using as resistance remains the same, or actually becomes less due to fat loss? 

In other forms of resistance training, there are multiple ways to progress, for example… increasing the weight you use for the exercise.  You can use heavier dumbbells.  Or you can add more weight to the bar. But these options don’t exist for bodyweight training.  And unfortunately, instead of searching for a reasonable solution to this problem, most people ONLY progress by increasing the amount of repetitions performed. 

And this is ONE way to progress. However, this SINGULAR progression approach often leads to boredom, or worse, overuse injuries.  In either case, the bodyweight training only goes so far.   So, what’s the solution? In simple terms, look to progress on multiple levels.  Be creative, and there are many ways to progress even when the weight of the resistance stays the same.  Here are a few of my favorites: 

-      Split the exercises up into Basic, Intermediate and Advanced levels.  Progress by increasing the difficulty of the exercises in the program. 

-      Increase the amount of repetitions performed PER SESSION.  Don’t go for high reps per set, but increase the amount of overall reps by doing more set, circuits, rounds, etc.  In this way, you can increase the volume of your workout effectively and safely. 

-      Reduce rest periods between exercises, sets, circuits, rounds, etc.  This places greater stress on both the muscles and cardiorespiratory systems by increasing the density of the workout. 

-      Here is the most important one.  Do a combination of all three.  Simultaneously uses more difficult exercises, do more overall reps and reduce the rest periods.  Talk about a progression method that forces your body to become stronger, leaner and more fit. 

Here is the one thing you should notice.  All the above progression methods do not involve increasing the amount of resistance.  And I think these methods should be used with weighted resistance programs as well. 

As you can clearly see, bodyweight training is not limited because of the inability to add weight to the exercises.  There are many ways to progress that does not involve only adding weight. 

Multiple progression methods should be used in bodyweight exercise as well as other forms of training. 

Are you using these progression methods effectively in your training? 

Coach Eddie Lomax builds strong, lean, athletic bodies by using multiple progression methods in Workout Without Weights.  Bodyweight calisthenics are an integral part of his Athletic Body Workout.

There is ONE central idea I want to get across to everyone about bodyweight exercise in this article.  If you “get it” you’ll be empowered with a highly effective, versatile and accessible form of exercise.  You’ll literally be able to improve yourself through proper physical training anytime, anywhere.  Your reward will be a harder and stronger body, the ability to perform many tasks well and improve your performance in sport, work and life.

You’ll watch your body transform into the lean, muscular, athletic body you were always meant to have!

If you DON’T “get it”, you’ll be neglecting an important physical training method that may just keep you from reaching your physical potential.  At the very least, your bodyweight training won’t ever amount to much. 

The ONE thing that matters in bodyweight exercise is… 

Bodyweight Training Is A Highly Effective Form Of Exercise That Can Greatly Improve Your Chances Of Reaching Your Physical Potential… And Should Be Treated As Such! 

Maybe this truth is self evident, or maybe not… so I’ll give you a little background. 

There are those in the physical training world who believe bodyweight training to be of little value.  Bodyweight exercise is not given the respect it deserves and is neglected as a serious form of exercise.  Therefore, the use of machines, weights and other forms of resistance are preferred to using the weight of your own body. 

On the other hand, there are others in the physical training world who believe bodyweight only exercise to be the ONLY valuable form of exercise.  Bodyweight training is held on a pedestal and seen as the superior training method.  Some would go so far as to say the use of added resistance should be avoided. 

And the two sides are at war!  And like any war, there are causalities. 

- The value of bodyweight training has been compromised…
- The misuse of bodyweight training is running rampant…
- And the neglect of bodyweight training is commonplace. 

But don’t be distracted by this controversy!  In the midst of all the bickering, people have forgotten this truth… 

Bodyweight Training Is A Highly Effective Form Of Exercise That Can Greatly Improve Your Chances Of Reaching Your Physical Potential…  And Should Be Treated As Such! 

Proper bodyweight calisthenics are NOT something you do ONLY when there is no other equipment around.  They are NOT something you dabble in ONLY while you are on vacation and far from your gym.  Bodyweight exercise is NOT something you use ONLY to warm up for other types of exercise. Proper bodyweight training IS a serious form of exercise, that when performed and applied correctly, produces SERIOUS RESULTS! 

The truth is… 

Bodyweight Training Should Be An Integral PART Of A Well Designed Physical Fitness Training Program… Used Alone And In Conjunction With Other Forms Of Exercise! 

When bodyweight training is given the attention it deserves (neither neglecting or overusing it)… amazing things start to happen! 

- You start to function better, you feel great and your body takes on a more athletic shape. 

- Your muscles get stronger and more resistant to stress… allowing you to do more longer. 

- Your heart and lungs become better conditioned… provided the energy to fuel your newfound strength. 

- And as a result of increased muscle and raised activity level… the fat covering your perfect body starts to disappear. 

If you want to be successful in your bodyweight training you MUST approach it as you would any other form of exercise… with seriousness, proper instruction, a comprehensive plan and a way of measuring progress.  Success is not achieved by half-hearted efforts! 

Those that use bodyweight exercise as a standalone workout program to prepare for other forms of exercise, and incorporated bodyweight training into their resistance training programs have a better chance of reaching their true athletic potential.  And the improvements in performance lead to physical changes your can SEE, FEEL and USE to build your best body. 

So, are you using bodyweight exercise with the respect and seriousness it deserves? Coach Eddie Lomax uses bodyweight calisthenics alone (Workout Without Weights) as well as with barbells and dumbbells (Athletic Body Workout) to build strong, lean, athletic bodies.

The “out of shape” want to “get in shape”, so they look for workout programs to maximize muscular size and aerobic capacity.  Just look at most popular workout programs and you’ll see variations of the same thing. 

Resistance training to build muscle and aerobic training to burn fat and improve aerobic endurance. But they are wrong!  (Sorry to be so blunt, but it must be said.) The strong, lean, athletic body most people strive for is NOT the product of maximizing muscular growth and aerobic capacity. 

Big bulky muscles and the ability to exercise at a low intensity for long periods of time is not the key to the athletically attractive body most men and women desire.  It never has been, and never will be. 

If you want the strong, lean, muscular body that looks, feels and performs great, you must commit yourself to strength, conditioning and fitness “Optimization”.   

The simple fact is, to achieve your strength, conditioning and fitness optimization goals you must commit to pursuit of performance improvement, not muscular size and aerobic capacity maximization. Committing yourself to strength, conditioning and fitness optimization develops performance improvements which forces the body to make physical changes to increase performance. 

These physical changes include building muscle, burning fat and improving heart and lung power.  Ultimately, training for performance improvement leads to the physical changes most people want. 

So, what’s the difference between maximization and optimization? 

There are a lot of physical abilities involved in being fit.  For example: strength, power, speed, flexibility, balance, coordination, agility, accuracy, endurance and toughness.  When you seek to optimize your fitness, you take all these physical abilities into account. 

When you try to maximize only one physical ability, the other physical abilities are neglected.  This often means you maximize one ability at the expense of all the others. It actually gets worse when you try to maximize a result of training, like muscular size or leanness. 

Imagine only focusing on muscle size, without any regard for how much fat you have on your body.  Or, imagine only being concerned with fat loss, at the expense of athletic muscle.  In either case, the desired body is not the result of seeking to maximize only one physical result. 

On the other hand, an athletic physical is the RESULT of training all the physical abilities needed for a high level of fitness.  Your training is a compromise, and your athletic physique is the result of this compromise. 

Don’t get sidetracked from optimizing your fitness, performance and physique! 

The truth is, the vast majority of the fitness industry is dedicated to muscle size and aerobic “maximization”.  The programs found in most commercial gyms or “fitness” publications are designed to make your muscles larger and increase aerobic endurance (as if those two traits alone were the keys to fitness excellence). 

Unfortunately for the practitioners of these types of programs, big muscles have very little to do with performance and aerobic endurance is only one of many elements needed for fitness excellence. So, if you share my goal of a strong, lean, athletic physique train like an athlete for strength, conditioning and fitness optimization. 

Forget about maximum muscle growth and aerobic endurance, and train to optimize your athletic performance.  The result is a body that looks great, performs well under a wide variety of circumstances and is better suited to get the most out of life. 

This is what you want from your training, right? 

Coach Eddie Lomax, founder of the Optimum Fitness Network, believes we are all athletes and should train like athletes.  His Athletic Body Workout targets general fitness, fat loss and strength and muscle building for an athletic physique you can be proud of.

The majority of weight training programs being performing in commercial gyms, garages and basements across the world are based on bodybuilding. 

What a shame, because weight training like an athlete is better for achieving most people’s goals.  Plus, athletic weight training is quicker, so you can get out of the gym faster. 

In this article, I’ll explore why you should be weight training like an athlete. You’re out of shape.  You’re lumpy in places that shouldn’t be lumpy.  And muscle tone?  Your arms don’t even fill out your shirt’s sleeves and your legs are scrawny.  You look like an apple with four toothpicks stuck in it.  You decide to do something about it (good idea!). So, you do some searching to find the “best” weight training program, or give yourself over to the trainer at the local gym. 

In either case, the result is usually the same.  You start doing a weight training program based on bodybuilding practices.  You isolate muscle groups and use sets, reps and rest periods designed specifically for muscle growth. 

Then you follow this up with some “cardio”, normally some sort of steady-state aerobic activity. Does any of this sound familiar? But the truth is, you’re not a bodybuilder.  And quite frankly, you don’t even want to look like a bodybuilder.  So here’s s stupid question: Why are you training like one? There are three things I believe men and women want when they start a weight training program.  They want to get fit, lose fat and build muscle (not necessarily in that order).  The RESULT they are looking for is a strong, muscular, lean, athletic body.  And they don’t just want to look great either.  They want to feel great and posses the athletic ability to meet the challenges of sport, work and life with excellence. 

So you see, the goals of the average exerciser mirrors the goals of athletes, not bodybuilders.  So here’s a crazy idea.

Why not start training like an athlete? 

Bodybuilding training has one goal and one goal only; muscle growth.  Health and performance are of no consequence.  But athletic weight training is performance based.  It is designed to improve your performance in all the physical abilities of fitness.  (Here are some of them… strength, cardiorespiratory endurance, power, speed, flexibility, coordination, balance, agility, accuracy and toughness.) 

And when your weight training is designed to improve performance a strange thing happens.  You feel better and you look better! So weight training like an athlete is more accurate at helping you achieve your goals. 

You are more like an athlete than a bodybuilder, and should train accordingly.  And when I say you are more like an athlete, I mean everyone.  I don’t care if you are participating in a sport or just running to catch a bus or chasing the kids around the living room. 

What you do during the day requires athleticism, and improving your physical abilities enables you to live a better, fuller life. Here is another reason I like athletic weight training better than bodybuilding.  It is faster. 

You see, bodybuilding is based on volume.  It is a high volume of exercises targeted to a specific muscle that makes it grow.  But athletic weight training targets fitness, fat loss and strength as well as muscle growth. 

Therefore you are not required to spend long hours at the gym in order to see improvements like bodybuilders are.  Plus, athletes have other training to do, so they can’t spend all their time and energy in the gym. I don’t know about you, but less time in the gym and more results to help me live a better life sounds pretty great.  Right? If you are unhappy with how you look, feel and perform and are determined to do something about it, I applaud you. 

But don’t sabotage your efforts by choosing a weight training program that doesn’t match your goals or requires a huge investment of time to be successful. 

In my opinion, weight training like an athlete is the best and fastest option for reaching your goals and finally seeing, feeling and benefiting from all your hard work in the gym.  Wouldn’t you agree? 

Coach Eddie Lomax, founder of the Optimum Fitness Network, believes we are all athletes and should train like athletes.  His Athletic Body Workout targets general fitness, fat loss and strength and muscle building for an athletic body you can be proud of.

I’m just going to come out and say it. 

Stop bodybuilding and start athletic weight training.  If you are not a bodybuilder, or aspire to be one, then don’t train like one.  Bodybuilding training is great for bodybuilding, but it is not the answer for a high level of fitness or an attractive, athletic body.  There, I said it. 

Just so we’re clear, here is what I mean when I say bodybuilding.  Bodybuilding uses sets, reps and loads with only one goal in mind, building muscle.  The exercise selection strives to isolate muscles and treats the body as a collection of specific muscles.  Often, split routines are used where the body is split into different parts and trained in groups, like back and bi, chest and tri, etc. 

Sound familiar?   

The “success” of a bodybuilding program is based on appearance, not performance.  The size and shape of the muscles are the goal, the only goal.  (Of course, fat loss plays a role, but is done only so you can SEE the muscles better, and not for health or performance reasons.)  Quite frankly, health and performance are of no consequence, and in my opinion are often sacrificed in the quest for bigger muscles. 

So, why do so many exercisers who aren’t bodybuilders end up doing bodybuilding routines? 

One of the driving forces to exercise is to look better.  You look in the mirror and notice you are out of shape.

Literally, your shape is out of whack.  You’re covered in fat in places you shouldn’t be, and lacking in muscle where it should be.  Changing your appearance is the main goal.  Since the only goal of bodybuilding is changing appearance by building large muscles and eliminating fat covering them, it is easy to see how people make the transition to bodybuilding training. But, more often than not, bodybuilding does not fit with the overall goals of the exerciser. 

How many times have I heard, “I want to put on some muscle, but I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder!”  Too many to count.   

In my opinion, most exercisers want the strong, lean, athletic body of an athlete.  They want a body with strong, hard muscles and void of fat.  But they also want to feel and perform better. 

They want their weight training to improve health and enable them to meet the challenges of sport, work and life with excellence.  So, they want to be more like an athlete than a bodybuilder.  

Athletic weight training is better for most exercisers goals than bodybuilding training.  It treats you as an athlete, not a bodybuilder.  This change in weight training helps you perform better and feel better, and results in the muscular, lean, athletic body most exercisers want. So ask yourself. 

Do you want to look like an athlete or a bodybuilder?  If you answer “bodybuilder”, then you already know what to do.  (Most of the information on weight training is based on bodybuilding practices).  If you answer “athlete”, you’re going to have to look a little harder.  But finally reaching your fitness, fat loss and physique goals make it worth the effort! 

Coach Eddie Lomax, founder of the Optimum Fitness Network, believes we are all athletes and should train like athletes.  His Athletic Body Workout targets general fitness, fat loss and strength and muscle building for an athletic body you can be proud of.

Most men I know want a strong, lean, athletic body. You know the body I mean. The body that looks strong and powerful and is void of performance robbing fat.But, unfortunately, most men fail to meet their goals! Here’s a theory of why failure keeps happening to millions of men… They are not using a workout program to meet their goals! Most men are using some version of a bodybuilding resistance training routine followed by long, slow cardio. BIG MISTAKE! This is not the magic formula for an athletic body.

What’s worse, they perform workouts, instead of participating in a training program. Let me explain… Workout routines lose their effectiveness over time. Sometimes this happens in as little as 4 weeks. After that, no major improvements happen, no matter how long you continue to do the workout. One workout done over and again is not the way to keep the improvements coming in terms of fitness, fat loss and muscle building. You must organise different workouts into a TRAINING PROGRAM with you major goal (the athletic body) in mind.

So, the first thing you must do is find the right training program for your goals. But, here is the problem… Most workout programs target EITHER fitness, fat loss or muscle building. While I believe you cannot 100% isolate a goal in a workout program, you can definitely create workouts to target specific goals. What I mean to say is, doing a workout program targeting fitness will also help you lose fat and put on muscle. A fat loss workout will also help improve fitness and build muscle. Likewise, a muscle building workout can also help you burn fat and get fitter. I believe most men must seek fitness, fat loss AND muscle building in order to create the athletic body they want. Just focusing on one area will not produce the results you want.Here is the good news…

I’ve just created a workout program specifically designed to create the athletic body.
It is obviously called the Athletic Body Workout. The Athletic Body Workout combines a General Fitness Workout, a Fat Loss Workout and a Strength & Size Workout into a comprehensive, step-by-step PLAN for achieving the athletic body. You rotate between each of the workouts, which keeps you on a steady path with only one destination… the strong, lean, athletic body you’ve always wanted! Click Here To For The Fitness, Fat Loss and Muscle Building PLAN