Few people address the concept of a De-load and why it is important. When we exercise hard, it isn't just our muscles that get taxed; our central nervous system also takes a hit. Our CNS is much slower to recover, so it is important that every 12-16 weeks or so, we reduce the overall volume of training so that our body can better recover. This also helps prevent feeling burnt out, as many will also experience.

This week and next week will be full body training weeks to help accommodate for the busy time. Then rest assured, we will hit it like a hammer again in January onward.

If you have the ability to train 5 days and want to, I would suggest that on your 5th training day that you add some volume to any lagging muscles or weak points.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I read private messages from folks that tell me they are frustrated and that they want to quit. Let me ask you this, will quitting position your life to be better? Or are you saying this because it is difficult and you are losing site of the whole picture because you are too focused on the immediate emotion of what you want now?

Resilience is a huge aspect of humanity that I would argue our current society really struggles with. We quit our jobs, our relationships and our health way too easily now days. If it's too hard, we cave in and give up. This should not be so.

When it comes to relationships, the strongest ones are born out of struggle and enduring those struggles. I understand if there is cheating, abuse or significant crimes being done that those are valid reasons for separation. I personally feel that unless it is a serious circumstance, that we should dig in, endure and do everything we can to work through it. It isn't easy, but it I can promise you the grass is not greener on the other side.

I've seen this with my own friends. They feel unsatisfied with their relationship, end it because they found someone that fulfilled them more. But that relationship ended quickly too. Why? Because the new relationship had holes missing,too. One person may fulfill with certain things and another would fulfill other aspects. There never will be a totally perfect relationship, there will always be compromise and a need for understanding, compassion and resilience. You are going to argue. Forgive and move on. Don't hold grudges, don't give the silent treatment. Be open, tell the truth and try to be understanding.

With our fitness- Never give up on anything that empowers or promotes you to be better. The only things we should be quitting are bad habits and bad intentions. Quit those. Never quit on anything that betters you as a person.

Hitting macros can be hard. Life will always present uncontrollable circumstances from vacations, weddings, emergency hospital visits and more. Proceed with caution and when you are able to get back after it, be resilient and get back after it. Workouts will be similar where we'll have unplanned rest days. When and where you can get those in, we need to make sure we do.

With our fitness we are either progressing or regressing, there never is a true maintenance period as our bodies are always either increasing muscle, losing muscle, increasing fat or decreasing it. The changes may be so marginal that we don't recognize the subtleties, but they are there.

When the sharks of life are swirling, is it really in your best interest to quit?

In conclusion... Life will knock us down. Choose enthusiasm and to be resilient. Get back up and smile as you carry on with your duty. 

If you are reversing or trying to gain muscle, progressive overload should be a part of your system. This deals with strategically increasing resistance by dealing with volume. There are many ways to go about increasing volume, you could just add more sets. However, we're going to focus on just the weight used and how to manipulate sets and reps to bring up strength.

Assuming you want to bring up the weight you use for squats. Lets say you are able to do 12 reps with 150 pounds, but you want to move to 185 pounds. I would suggest that you put the 185 pounds on and do as many reps as you can. If that is 6 reps, that is fine. Just do 1 set with the 185 pounds. Once that set is done, drop back down to your normal 150 pounds and continue with the 12 rep scheme.

How your sets would look.

Warmup set with 95 pounds, 12-15 reps. This is to bring blood flow to the joint to help prevent injury.

Working set with 150 pounds 12 reps

2nd working set with 185 pounds for 6 reps

3rd working set 150 pounds for 12 reps

4th working set 150 pounds for 12 reps.

The next time you do squats. Follow the same pattern but on that 185 weight marker, try for 7-8-9 reps. Then drop back down to the 150. Once you are able to accomplish 12 reps with 185 pounds. Make that 3rd working set stay at 185 pounds and try for 8-10 reps. If you can only do 6 reps on that 2nd set with 185, that is fine. Progress those reps up. Once you are able to do 2 sets of 185 for 12 reps, keep it at 185 for the 2nd-4th working sets.

This can be done with any movement. Chest presses, shoulder presses, rowing, dead lifts.

If you are dieting to lose fat. I wouldn't really encourage progressive overload principles. I would encourage that you keep your sets and reps consistent, still try to improve strength, but realize the primary goal while dieting is to retain as much strength as possible while knowing that some strength and especially endurance with that same weight for reps will be reduced. Do your best to minimize any reductions.

If you have any questions about progressive overload, please feel free to ask!

First off, if you don't respect yourself, nothing else matters. Without self respect it is impossible to be your best. This will determine how you handle yourself in every situation, foremost to mention how other people are going to be interacting with you. We all want to be treated with respect, but can you command respect from others? I would suggest that you can. We can take a belligerent man or woman and if you are dignified, calm and orderly, they will tone down and match you. People mirror the person they interact with, and you can control that tempo and atmosphere, and can therefor command whatever you want. This won't happen in every situation, but you'll find that more often than not, you can.

If we struggle with self respect and self worth, the wolves will capitalize. They will manipulate you and eat you alive. You'll wonder how you keep letting these people into your life and the truth is, you allow them. They are on the hunt and look for weakness in self image to exploit it to their advantage. You project this. 

When I look around social media, I must admit-- I'm a little concerned, and by a little I mean super concerned. We've forgotten what it means to have self respect, self esteem and dignity. We live in a world where people smile at their phones in bathrooms more than they do at other people. Instagram is the worst offender of this. I don't know if people realize but we can look at social platforms and research people and learn so much about them. With my business model, I've been quietly watching many people behind the scenes to see if they gel with what I want to represent and build. So many people have amazing potential but I am passing them up because of the content they post. 

Seeking constant reassurance about yourself, your body, your choice in purchases; this is not going to lead to you being happy. Don't lose sight of the fact that you are somebody, not because others tell you that you are, but because you believe and know that you are. You love yourself, you believe in yourself and you know that you bring value. We need to learn to be fulfilled because of the person that we are, not because of the reinforcement that you are getting from other people. As soon as you give other people the control over your value, you are done.

This is one of the big dangers that we as society are facing now, and it's not going to get any better. We need to not rely on others to make ourselves feel whole and to feel good. Our self esteem should be because we are a good person, not because of what other people say or how many "likes" we get on a post.

I feel like our society has become very loud and I've personally dubbed it the Cotten Candy generation. Bright colors, everything is presented as perfect, sugary sweet and super puffed up. You bite into it and there is zero substance, it literally disappears in an instant. You apply any pressure and it collapses on itself. It's nothing but a sticky hot mess.

Don't be cotton candy

There is something to be said about quiet dignity. We can carry ourselves with confidence, command attention and not even have to say a word. There is a palpable feeling when you walk into a room, a presence. We've all come across this in our lives. Certain people can simply walk into a room and all eyes are on them. Nothing is said, but awe nonetheless.

Know your worth. Take yourselves very seriously. You have to have a vision of you, who you want to be and chase that bigger vision of yourself. Even though you may be way off of that mark currently, hold yourself to that future standard. Start to learn to behave and think like you would as your best you. 

This is something^^^. Gain a sense of self pride, not to be confused with arrogance or narcissism. We all have limitless potential and when you can see that and believe that you have the ability to make a major difference, to bend and shift this fabric our entire world sits on, great things can come about. Know your worth, project your worth. 

As we talked about in prior posts, perspective is going to be a driving factor. It's funny how human nature will kick in and we yell to try and drive our point home. Yet, none of us really respond well to being yelled at. So why do we continue to do it?

Human nature resorts to aggression when we struggle to express ourselves. We choose to be upset when we struggle to get our point across. We are upset that the other person can't understand, and internally we are upset with ourselves because we lack the ability to convey the perspective that we want. 

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood has a brilliant song that teaches youth how to manage emotions. The song states, "When you're feeling mad and you want to roar, just take a deep breath-- and count to four. One. Two. Three. Four." It's amazing how much that actually helps. Once you are calm, seek to use your words to communicate your point. 

Kaydee and I have been trying this and it has been brilliant for us. When one of us raises our voice, the other will ask, "Why are you choosing to be upset?" It's a great reminder that it is a choice to be upset. This typically causes a brief moment of greater frustration because we were caught, but that quickly fades and then we can better manage emotions. We've found our communication has been much better when we call each other out. Remember, He/She that loses their temper first, loses. If you are able to remain calm and rational, then you can work through and overcome just about anything.

 

There is wisdom in prudence. Hear your friend, spouse, partner out all of the way through. It's tempting to want to jump in and throw your $0.02 in, but using patience in the end will provide you with better wisdom. 

If you are starting the conversation out, ask "May I have 5 minutes of your time?" The person typically will agree. If they cut you off, remind them "Still my 5 minutes." and proceed. 

Healthy relationships across the board come from wise communication. We are given 2 ears to hear and just 1 mouth to speak. Listen to your friend, co-worker, spouse, partner-- try to understand their perspective. Gather all of your thoughts and talking points and strive to reason with each other calmly. If you need to take a walk, tell them, "I'm really fired up right now and I need to gather my thoughts. I'll return when I'm calm and we can figure this out then." Use the time to gather thoughts so that you can more rationally express yourself. Create bullet points on a list if you need to. 

If someone is coming at you with frustration, don't try to match their emotion. People mirror their surroundings, and if you can stay poised, the other person will typically calm themselves. 

The next time you feel yourself getting out of control, realize that it is a choice. Be wise, ask yourself why you are getting upset and look to reason. Take control and calm yourself. He/She that loses there temper first, loses. 

**The last questions of "do you even lift" or "do you even look like you lift" were only to stimulate thought, not for you to actually answer in comments. 

Just because the workouts are listed all 5 days in a row doesn't mean you have to do them all 5 days in a row. I just put it that way so that those individuals that do workout 5 days in a row have all of the workouts up. I do encourage a rest day on Wednesdays or Thursdays and I personally always take Sundays off. 

You can workout any days you choose, just strive to get all of the days in per week, personal schedule permitting. 

We can apply this to every avenue of life. The Bailey's (Dana and Rob) have a saying on a supplement that I absolutely love, "Enter with purpose." If we can think and apply this saying to our careers, imagine how productive we could become? If we apply this to our relationships, our children's lives, our frienships; imagine how fulfilling they could be? If you apply this to our nutrition and training, imagine the progress you could make? 

I can easily recognize in my own life where I have been complacent or where I take advantage of the ease of things. An easy example is in the home! My wife brilliantly takes care of me; she is unwavering in her resolve and sets a fantastic example for me with work ethic, one that inspires me and makes me want to be a better husband and Father. 

I would urge you to think about your actions-- identify where improvements can be made and engage with purpose to improve it. Make those actions habits and amazing things will follow.

Where can you personally improve in your own life? Yes, I want you to answer. It can be in the home, with a struggling friendship, at work, nutrition, workouts, anything.

I am resolving to assist Kaydee more with the typical "Female" roles that she does every day. I'm going to clean the kitchen more and make a habit of taking care of the dishes regularly. 

 Welcome to the Alchemy Project: Improving the Human Condition!

1. I understand that the site is pretty raw right now and that you will likely have some questions. Please be patient with me as I am learning this site and it's functions, too. Please feel free to comment below with any questions and I will do what I can to address them.

2. We'll be utilizing the Calendar tab (see below the main image) to access the workouts. Those will start to appear Monday, July 4th. If you are joining after that date, you will only have access to the workouts from the date you join, not any workouts previous to your joining date. 

3. Nutrition files are setup for fat loss, reverse diet and muscle gain. I've also provided the Recommended Foods List to pull from for ideas. Over time these will be updated and refined. We'll also be adding recipes in time.

4. I would encourage all of you to come here daily, check the blog as well as the workouts. Participate in the comments on the blog posts and lets work together to create our best selves!

I'm excited to be hosting this and doing this with you. We'll be doing a hybrid of this site and FB for the immediate future. In time groups will be added, profiles and private messaging. Again, be patient with me while all of this is being developed and worked through. 

If you have any questions, please comment below. Thank you!

~James