Jan 12
24
Stop Lifting, Eating and Breathing
This is a random blog post by Grant Lofthouse
I was at friend’s house the other day who invited a few people over. Some I’ve never met before. During the barbeque some people started to come out of their shells a bit and conversations were starting left right and centre.
I met this new guy. Let’s call him Jimmy for the sake of this article.
Jimmy asked me my favourite question in the world…
So what do you do?
I pause. Hoping that he can’t see me if I don’t move.
But Jimmy keeps continuing to stare at me with a ‘well I’m waiting’ kinda look.
I take a big deep breath and mumble “I’m a trainer.”
“What?” Jimmy replies.
“I’m a trainer and run my own private training facility.”
(The reason why I don’t like telling people I’m a trainer is because I get bombarded by the same questions over and over again… ‘how do I lose this? what do you think of that? Can you write me a program for free? Eat the whole egg?’. And even when I do give them advice they don’t take it on board. Most of the time I just lie and tell them I’m a pornstar and I call my self ‘Buck Naked’ to keep my sanity.)
“Oh really? I train too. I train down at such and such with Bobby B. He owns the gym and was ranked 97 in Australia’s So You Think You Can Bodybuild competition.”
“Awesome” I reply and also try to get off the topic.
2011 was a big year for me. I achieved some goals that I thought were unreachable such as moving to my new facility and also becoming a training adviser for a fitness magazine.
I can also admit that I didn’t achieve some things such as launching my first product to you guys.
The weird thing for me last year is that although I achieved so many things, I didn’t really have the drive. I wanted to do stuff but I didn’t really go after it. My attitude was if it happened, it happened. And if it didn’t, it didn’t and I would just accept it.
That turning point
At some stage in your life you have a turning point and you just think, man the fuck up and get to work.
For me that turning point was December the 1st last year at Eminem’s concert. It was my first concert that I had ever been to and it was a true eye opener.
I was just totally blown away from how 60,000 people would attend from all over Melbourne just to see one guy.
From little kids to adults were all there just to see one dude do his thing. Everyone knew his songs and most people were rapping along with him word for word. Unbelievable!
I dunno why but that kinda stuff sends chills down my back to think that he was just a normal average guy who brushed off critics and haters and hustled everyday to get after his dream.
Jan 12
14
Why Skipping Is Better Than Running
This is a training blog post by Grant Lofthouse
Skipping is one of the best things you can do if you want to get ripped without cardio, improve fitness, or just overall athleticism. Period.
And compared to running, running doesn’t even come to close. And that statement is not being biased because of cardio haters… Well maybe just a little.
Why running sucks
Due to sedentary lifestyles; sitting in a chair, on the couch and in the car for most of the day. The average person has terrible posture.
If this person decides that one of their goals for this year is to exercise and get into shape. Usually their first option is to start running.
Now I’m all up for people exercising and getting into shape. But I would rather them do it the most safest way.
Jumping straight into a running program is usually going to cause a few problems and here’s why…
Jan 12
12
New Rules For Goal Setting
This is a mindset blog post by Grant Lofthouse
I thought this would be a great article to start off the new year considering new goals and new year resolutions start to get thrown around.
How you look at goal setting is up to you. I used to think of it as some corny shit that only goody goody toe shoes did. But until you actually achieve a pretty massive goal that you thought was unreachable you start to believe in it.
For me that turning point was last year when I moved into my new training facility. I didn’t think it would have ever happened or I would have the balls to do it. But I did.
The feeling from reaching a big badass goal is indescribable and if you have done the same, you know what I’m talking about.
Anyways I have now changed the way I set goals and achieve them, and I’m going to show you how this applies to your fitness and fat loss goals.
Dec 11
9
Why Do YOU Hate Cardio?
This blog has just ticked over its one year anniversary and a goal of mine has always been to get in touch with regular readers and fellow cardio haters once it reached a decent audience.
Now that cardio haters gets on average a few hundred hits a day and with my email list almost reaching the one thousand mark, I thought there’s no time like the present to find out a little bit more about YOU.
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’re well aware that I am an open book and I’m not afraid to talk to you about serious, funny and embarrassing moments involving myself.
You’ve probably also heard the story about why I had to give away cardio. (If you haven’t you can check out this post HERE).
Now I’m not asking you give away in-depth, personal stories similar to what I do…
But I do want to know why you hate cardio.
You may have a simply answer or a really in-depth, crazy story.
All you gotta do is leave a comment below.
This is a guest post by Kate Bown
Monday morning arrives and I awake with a smile. Yep Monday and smiling. And this is normal for my Monday! Why? Because I realise it’s a CHG day. A Cardio Haters Gym day that is.
I’m one of the 6:30pm groupies and I have been training for about 4 months now.
I’m going to run you through a typical session from when I walk in till I leave at the gym.
We (about 13 of us) normally roll up about 6:20pm to get in some foam rolling, stretching and chatting in before we start our group warm up. This time is good to catch up with what others have been doing outside the gym, be it exercise related or not, since our last session.
When it’s time Grant will get us started on the dynamic warm up and have us perform some interestingly named stretches, some of which always cause a smile within the group. Every muscle /muscle group is covered for what exercises we will be doing that night.
Once we are sufficiently warmed up we move on to our first exercise.
Tonight this was the barbell shoulder press. Everyone has their own weight that they are up to based on their one rep max – me – I’m still just using the bar.
Most do five sets of five (with two lower weighted and numbered warm up sets), but this is my kryptonite and I’m just managing to push out five sets of three. But this excites me, finally did this without struggling.
The other day I was asked on my facebook fan page from a reader if you need to do cardio to lose fat?
I thought this would be a great post considering the niche of my blog.
Also… I wanted to warn you that I’m in a pretty sweet mood as I write this post. Most of the time when I blog it’s usually in the morning when I’m grumpy.
But today I’ve got some time to write it in the afternoon, so you’re probably going to see my normal personality in this article.
I warn you, it could get nasty.
Also, for the sake of this article…
When I mention cardio I mean running.
And when I mention conditioning I mean anything else that elevates the heart rate except running.
Anyways… do we need to do cardio to lose fat?
No.
But do we need to do conditioning to lose fat?
Yes.
Now before all you cardio haters start emailing me and calling me a trader, thinking I’ve gone over to the dark side. Just hang on two secs and let me explain…
This is a interview blog post
D: Hey its Darren here from www.p4manceelite.com and today we have a special guest, all the way from Australia. He is one badass trainer who owns a little gym, blogs, lives and breathes health and fitness and loves Seinfeld… Welcome Grant Lofthouse.
G: Hahaha thanks for the intro, and for being on this call.
D: No probs dude I’ve looking forward to it all week. Now Grant. why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?
G: Ok well I’m a trainer based out of Australia and own a little gym in Melbourne. And I’m also the creator of CardioHaters.com which is the only site on the net that delivers alternative training methods for fitness enthusiasts who hate cardio.
Most of the stuff I write about is based on the things I have done in the trenches as well as on countless average joes at my private training facility.
D: Nice nice, now I noticed you mentioned in the trenches. So for those who don’t know, what do you mean by that?
G: Well look these days there is so much conflicting studies on why this and that is good and bad. Shit, even I sometimes don’t even know what to believe anymore.
So most of my blog posts are based upon what we do here in the gym with real people with jobs and a life. Don’t get me wrong… I stay up to date with the latest discoveries. But what I will actually do is try it on my clients and if it works I’ll stick with it, but if it doesn’t Ill can it.
D: Totally makes sense, do you think these days people get too involved with the science side on not so much getting out there and doing it.
Oct 11
21
Training Update – 20/10/11
As most of you are already aware… I’ve had chronic knee problems since surgery back in 2007.
Actually, my knee wasn’t that bad after surgery, it was actually a year later when I was training and then the next morning I woke up and it was the size of a balloon. No idea what happened.
Last year (2010) was the worst it has been, mainly because I continued to play footy on it. After every Saturday game it would take me all week to prepare and recover just to get up for the following week.
I had scope on it September last year to give it a clean-up from all the damage I did… but it didn’t really do much.
Because all the dramas I’ve had with it, I was just way too frustrated to play footy this year and decided to have the year off to give the knee a break which will hopefully allow me to play on in the future.
For once I hit the nail on the head and the decision has so far paid off.
Because off all the dramas with the knee, I have been very hesitant to go hard with my leg training.
With that being said, I got back into box squats last night and for the first time in about 2 years and hit a nice weight pain free.
I worked up to one top end set of 100 x 5. That’s nothing to be impressed with at all, but I was very happy with the number considering the circumstances…
Oct 11
11
Top 5 Supplements That Work
This is a supplements blog post by Grant Lofthouse
I was actually going to write this post for my clients in our private, memebers only area. But for some reason it ended up on my blog. I have no idea how that happened.
Anyways…
I thought I would take the time and show you in this blog post the most current, up-to-date supplements that I recommend to stripping body fat and improving health and performance.
I’ve tried most supplements on the market and I won’t lie… most of them are absolute bull shit – pumped with cheap artificial crap that does more harm than good.
Since I’m a huge fan of keeping things simple, I will continue the trade in the supplement field as well.
Here’s my list of the top 5 supplements that’ll do the trick…
1.) Protein powder – Benefits include…
- Helps avoid muscle loss.
- Keeps you fuller for longer, thus the prefect soultion for a calorie restricted diet.
- Has a thermic effect (burns calories during digestion). Although I think think the thermic effect is very overrated. It’s still a positive.
- You simply don’t get fat from protein.
Since protein powder in under large demand these days. Most companies take shortcuts and get their protein from sick cows pumped up on drugs. And for that reason there are only 2 that I recommend…
Start burning fat and building muscle (without cardio) for free now!
