Here are some of the questions I get asked frequently. When I am at the gym, my answers are specific to the individual's needs. After assessing their goals, observing their body type and posing a few questions to them, I then have enough information to help them. Since individual needs, goals and fitness levels vary, answers vary. I hope these answers can serve as a general guide. When possible, I try to explain my rationale for different people and objectives.

Why am I not losing weight, I only eat two meals a day?
Many people are under the impression that if they eat fewer meals per day or eat very little food, they should loose weight. This is not the case. In order to help your metabolism speed up and burn more calories you have to eat more often. At least five meals a day is recommended. Read my "What I eat" section to understand why eating more regular sensible meals help you stay lean, keeps your energy level and keeps your fat-burning power up.

What is the best type cardio?
This depends on many factors such as, goals and fitness level. What may be right for you may not be for others. As a rule of thumb, if you are trying to loose weight, any one type of cardio more than 4 days a week can cause overuse injuries. Cross training with other types of cardio to avoid orthopedic problems is recommended. Always keep in mind your limitations. For heavier people; the treadmill may be too hard on their joints; therefore lower impact activities such as walking, biking, or elliptical are more practical. For most other health individuals, the treadmill is always a great fat burner and my favorite when I am trying to lean out.

Should I lift Heavy?
If you are trying to get bigger, for most people the rep range should be 8–12 reps. Your muscles should be going to failure more often than not. Meaning, if you are able to perform a thirteenth rep, it's not heavy enough. You need to increase the weight so you reach failure on or before the 12 th rep. That being said, there will be times when you would want to or need to lift lighter. Lifting lighter allows more reps to be preformed which can stimulate growth in the slow twitch muscle fibers. The changes can also illicit growth because of the different stimuli from your normal heavy lifting.

What is the best exercise for_____________ (Fill in the blank)?
There is never ‘one' best exercise for any body part. It depends on many factors such as goals, experience, physical limitations, etc. Even if you manage to find an exercise that works best for you, and it is a continuous part of your routine, your body will adapt to it and it will no longer be the best exercise for you. You will then need a new one. Therefore, the best exercise is always changing. This is what keeps the body from reaching a plateau and commands adaptations by growth. Always change things up, still remembering that large compound exercises are always a great builder for all around muscle mass.

Should I be doing my cardio on an empty stomach?
As a rule of thumb, having some food in your stomach is always a good choice. You have probably heard the myth that says you burn a greater percentage of calories from fat on an empty stomach, this is because your glycogen stores are depleted, and therefore most of the calories burned will come from fat. It is true that more calories will come from fat, however, don't let the percentage fool you! You will burn more TOTAL overall calories having food as fuel in you even though the percentage coming from fat is lower. Eat a little something and add some protein before you do cardio

My chest (or any other body part) isn't getting bigger and I work it out everyday, how come? Your muscles grow when you are eating and resting, not when you are lifting. The muscles seem bigger in the gym, but that is because of the blood pump in the muscle, not because they grew during that workout. You tore the muscles down in the gym with the hopes that with rest and food, they will grow back bigger in the following days. When you hit that muscle again the next day while it was trying to recuperate and grow back even bigger, you went ahead and tore it down again. Let them rest, heal and grow. In this case, less is more. See my “splits” section to make sure that each body part is getting enough rest.

I'm not getting bigger, what's wrong?
This has got to be my favorite question. I think that it is because the answer is quiet systematic in my approach. We know that getting any kind of physical change is 80% nutrition, so logically the first thing I would look at is your nutrition. I can not over emphasize the relationship between your food intake and your body's ability to change, for good or for bad (See “what I eat” section). The second thing that I would look at is how you are splitting up your workouts. If your spilt is not the correct one for you, then two things may remain true. You are either overtraining or under-training. Either one will not enable muscle hypertrophy (growth). Make sure your splits are correct and you are following them properly. If your nutrition and splits are fine, then next thing I would look at are your workouts. The workouts should be challenging enough to elicit adaptations in your body. You should be going to failure often, utilizing the techniques of drop sets, negatives, rest pause, and also having a spotter push you further than you can go yourself with forced reps. If all of the above: nutrition splits and workouts are on the money, then you will grow, period. This is the systematic approach that I take. As a side note, if you are over the age of 40, we could also take it one step further and take a look at your blood work to see if all your hormones are at their optimal levels (see “blood work” section).

How do I get a six pack, should I be doing crunches more often?
A six pack is achieved almost solely from nutrition, not crunches. Crunches and any other abdominal exercise will build up your abdominal muscles; however, without the proper nutrition to loose the belly fat that is hiding the muscles you will not see them. I often think of the surfers at the beach, always sporting their six packs, knowing that they have never spent a day in their lives in the gym or doing crunches. The difference once again is that their lean bodies allow their abs to be seen. So, with the exception of strengthening your core, crunches will probably just make you look even bigger by pushing out your belly further unless you lean out first. Working your abs a couple times a week should be fine if you concentrate on losing the fat that's hiding them.

Can you recommend a protein powder and where to get it?
I get this question a lot. I think we need to break it down or make it a little less ambiguous. One would be the type of protein, for instance, whey, soy, egg, etc., and the other would be the brand. As far as the type of protein powders I recommend, it would be Whey or Casine. Whey is a great fast absorbing all around best choice. It's a must to have. If you want to go one step further, you can also use protein made from casine for nighttime (it is slower to absorb so it last a little longer in your blood stream while you sleep). But whey is the all around best choice. As far as brand, there are several good ones out there. Optimum Nutrition makes a good one called Gold Standard and I also like Cytosport's Whey Protein. I purchase all of my supplements from online for the fact that the local vitamin / supplement store is usually a rip off in price because of their high overhead. A few good online sites are www.massnutrition.com, www.supplementwarehouse.com  and  www.dpsnutrition.net   Make sure when you compare pricing between them, you also consider the shipping charges because they can vary greatly.