Five supplements you should be using

Supplements you should be using:

1. Acetyl L-carnitine: Supports proper brain function, fat metabolism, and boosts natural testosterone. Nice.
2. Melatonin: That bad sleep you’ve been getting lately? Take 3-6 mg of melatonin 30 mins before you want to knock-out, and sleep deeper and wake up feeling refreshed.
3. Vitamin D: Promotes longevity, facilitates fat loss, and improves physical performance. Most people are deficient in Vitamin D, so buy some D at the store and get some D in the sun.
4. Cinnamon: Cinnamon has a whole host of health benefits, but the most vital is in it’s ability to balance blood sugar levels and lower LDL cholesterol.
5. Greens Supplement: Because you’re not eating enough fruits and vegetables man. Gotta get on that.

Live and eat healthy and look good Nekkid friends.

The Optimization of Cross-Training

Let’s talk about the driving forces behind why you want to cross-train. Perhaps you have a goal to improve at a sport, or maybe you enjoy occasionally spicing up your training.

On a side note, I’m not against CrossFit. If that’s what you like then do it. But they say themselves on their website that their suggested workouts don’t specialize in any category. I don’t know about you but I don’t see improvements at any sport or in my physique by generalizing my workouts. I prefer specializing. Plus when you can envision where you want to end up, it’s much easier to get there.

Cross-Training Optimization

Cross-training optimization is truly an individual concept. But regardless of your age, stats, goals, purpose, etc. there are a few things that should always hold constant.

1. Enjoy: Select training that intrinsically motivates you. You should want to get up out of bed or off the couch to cross-train. Make it a treat.
2. Challenge: Make cross-training challenging. Try something that’ll give you a run for your money.
3. Unique: Do something unique, like kayaking, mountain biking, rowing, rock climbing, jiu-jitsu, mountaineering, etc. Be extreme but always be smart.

My personal cross-training regimen combines resistance training, rock climbing, bikram yoga, and sprints/track work. This gives me a well-rounded athletic capability because these sports/practices provide improvements in:

1. Sprints/track work: speed, strength, explosiveness, anaerobic/aerobic endurance, agility.
2. Yoga: flexibility, mobility, and core strength.
3. Resistance training: power, speed, strength.
4. Rock climbing: specialized finger and hand strength, body weight strength, explosiveness, endurance.

I try and do resistance training 2-3 times a week at 6 PM, rock climb in the mornings on the days that I lift, and sprint and do yoga 1-3 times a week. I always make sure I have two complete back to back days of rest (usually Sunday and Monday) to allow my body to recover from these intense workouts.

My buddy Dan Fry showing off his extreme finger strength

Why do all of this? Because it’s fun. I enjoy it and it challenges me. Each one of these sports carries over multiple benefits to the next. Climbing gives me great body weight strength and grip strength allowing me to deadlift more and really up the ante on my weighted pull ups and dips. Sprinting gives me explosiveness in the gym and has helped me train my CNS, providing great neural efficiency and high muscle recruitment ability. Yoga has given me flexibility and mobility which carries over into better climbing technique, better squats, better form on a lot of lifts, and more ankle/leg strength when sprinting.

In other words, the synergistic combination of these sports is pretty impressive. Not to mention I am better at a lot of sports I don’t even play. I can swim faster, jump higher, push harder, run faster, climb higher, etc.

Efficient cross-training and adequate rest build a mean machine. Cross-train and look great Nekkid friends.

How to get strong fast

5 simple steps for strength

1. Lift Heavy: 5 sets of 5 heavy reps seems to do the trick.
2. Lift Fast: In order to get strong, you have to lift powerfully. That means pulling and pushing as hard as you can.
3. Rest: Take at least one full day off between lifting sessions. I find that lifting 3 days a week- T, Th, Sa- works well.
4. Eat Well: Have wholesome meals as the staple of your diet. Limit eating crap. Don’t eat processed food.
5. Don’t do drugs: Stay away from drugs and alcohol. Enjoy a couple of glasses of red wine or few quality beers once or twice a week, but do it in moderation.

How to lift

Pick 3-5 of these exercises to do when you lift. Make sure to include either squats, deadlifts, or one-legged squats as the base of any workout and to have at least one upper body pulling and pushing exercise. These are great for building well-rounded strength.

• Deadlifts: Pull hard, heavy, and with good form. Don’t deadlift on the same day you squat.
• Squats: Sit down deep and push up hard and fast.
• Pull ups/Chins: Work your way up to doing 5 sets of 5 reps with a 45 lb. plate on your dip belt.
• Dips: Dip to parallel and push up hard and fast. Never let the tension leave your triceps and chest. Work your way up to body weight plus 90 pounds for reps. That’s strength.
• One arm standing DB shoulder press: These are magical for developing awesome shoulders and pressing power. Once you’re using a 70 lb. DB for reps you are strong.
• One arm DB snatch: Awesome pulling strength exercise. Use good form and pull as hard as you possibly can. Never use your shoulder to lock out at the end. Use your legs, back, and arm to snatch the DB all the way up to a complete lock out. The explosion required to do that with a heavy DB is what builds awesome strength. When you can snatch a 120 lb. DB you are strong.
• Hang cleans: Great for developing endurance in your forearms and building biceps/back size and strength. Try ending your workout with 95 lb. barbell hang cleans for as many reps as possible (leaving maybe 1-2 in the tank so you don’t go until failure..but close).
• Incline bench press: This is a great alternative to the flat bench because it limits the ego associated with a “heavy and shitty form” flat bench. Pick a weight that you can handle and press it hard and fast while maintaining control. Builds great vertical pressing strength.
• One-legged Squats: Do these on a box with a 25-45 lb. plate in front of you.

Ex. Workout: Deadlift 5×5, One arm DB snatch 5×5, One arm standing shoulder press 5×5, Weighted Pull-ups 5×5, Weighted Dips 5×5. Don’t screw around in the gym (talking, resting tooooo long, staring at tail) and do the lifts and you should be down in 80 minutes or less.

Lift hard, heavy, fast, and pick the right exercises and get strong and look good Nekkid friends.

The importance of hard work

Working hard, or hardly working?

Unfortunately we mostly see the latter nowadays. But why? Probably from being constantly overwhelmed. Frustration with dead-end and unenjoyable jobs, higher education, stressful family life and relationships, bills, commitments, and the list goes on…And at the end of the day, it all adds up. You’re left with that overwhelming feeling of being, well, overwhelmed. After a certain point, you instinctively start to care less, be more open-minded about failure and rationalize, and not work as hard. In short, you stop caring about everything and anything.

Alright, so now you feel a little down because I just reminded you of all your problems. I’m so sorry. Now stop complaining about how hard your life is and start doing something about it.

Start by being grateful for what you do have. Write down things in your life you are grateful for and post it on your desk, so every time you start to sink back into that intermittent depression you’ve been dealing with you can remember that you aren’t a blind paraplegic or starving in a third world country (I’m going to make the assumption that there aren’t any blind paraplegics in third world countries reading this post).

Start caring more about your quality of life. Start by caring more about yourself. Your body, your health, your education, your job, your future, and then move on to caring more about others (although caring about others should always be a priority). Trust me, you’ll feel good, and other people will notice. A little altruism and reciprocation never hurt anyone. In fact, it’s quite nice.

Start by getting organized. Make a to-do list and write down your goals. Write down a deadline for each of your goals, separating them into short and long term.

Work hard at everything you do and you will start to feel happy again. It’s a double-edged sword. You’ll feel good about working hard (because you’re one of the select few who still works hard) and you’ll feel even better about all the good things that start happening in your life from your lifestyle changes. Try it and feel good.

Food for thought

Some health and fitness food for thought…

• Do you take supplements? How many per day? Have you ever wondered how much gelatin and other “supplement casings and fillers” you consume when you take multiple pills?
• What if there was only sugar or sawdust in your supplement pills? Man that would suck….hmmm…
• What if the government was wrong about telling you what to eat? Oh wait…
• How much money do you spend on fast food each year? Probably a lot more than you think. Add it up. Only $12 a day adds up to almost $4,500 a year.
• Why does happiness usually come in a roller coaster wave? High, low, high, low. At least you appreciate the highs!
• How the hell did food become so friggin’ processed? Read the back of those labels man. Can you pronounce half of the items in that product? Neither can I. Who let it get this bad? (Government?)
• Doesn’t it suck that healthy food costs three times as much as unhealthy food? It’s expensive to feel and look good Nekkid these days.
• When was the last time you worked out purely for the enjoyment of the exercise? Hopefully every time!
• What if everything went your way every day. Do you think you’d get tired of perfection after a while? I guess that’s why it doesn’t always go your way.

A perfect day

Ahh, the time has finally come. I’ve been looking forward to writing this post for a while now. I suggest you do the same someday, too. It feels great. And although I love you guys, this post is more for me than anyone else. But read it- I hope it inspires you to come up with your own perfect day.

Idealize the perfect day in your mind, add this, subtract that, make changes. Just thinking about it drops your stress level to nil. Try and imagine a perfectly possible day, something that isn’t too far out of reach. I might have stretched it a little at the end, but hey, I’m still figuring it all out. With practice you can make this day happen more often.

Mine starts the day before. I fall asleep at 11 PM and get a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I wake up at 7 AM, without an alarm, but from the sun’s rays hitting my eyes just right. I quickly get out of bed and make a cup of Kirkland Signature Green Tea (the best for the $$), put on some light workout clothes, and head to Peter’s Canyon in my Vibram Five Fingers. Once in the canyon, I walk shirtless for a half an hour, absorbing the sun’s rays and increasing the feel good factors in my body. I have some water and get ready for my first healthy meal.

After I eat, I prepare to work. This may include reading, writing, and working on one of the various projects I have going on at the moment. I have healthy fruit and vegetable snacks to eat while I’m working, and possibly have some more green tea.

After working until noon, I take an hour lunch break and head out back to lay out in the pool while my fresh fish cooks on the grill with some grilled veggies to go along with it. After my break I prepare to work another 3-4 hours until it’s time to work out in my home gym. I have a great squat rack with rubber weights and dumbbell accompaniment so I can perform a diverse and challenging workout. My buddy Kyle Armstrong most likely joins me for this workout, because working out with a great friend who pushes you and enjoys the same things you do is more enjoyable than working out alone.

Afterwards, I make a healthy dinner from the farmer’s market. Jon Reyes and John Baguio come over to jam with me on the guitar/piano for an hour while Kyle is beat boxing and flowing, and then we decide to heat up the jacuzzi and invite some girls over. Nothing feels better than hopping into a jacuzzi with hotties then when you’re jacked and feeling great.

Once everybody has left and helped me clean up the booze and mess, a girl or two stays behind to accompany me on a near midnight venture to find our better halves (or thirds). Thankfully both of them leave right before 11 PM in which I instantly fall asleep

Screw the scale

You heard me. Screw the bathroom scale. Unless you’re an athlete that has a reason to be in a certain weight class, get off the scale. Seriously.

Get off.

Don’t let the scale make or break your day

It’s pretty close to impossible to gain or lose a considerable amount of weight in a matter of a day or two, even if you are water fasting or gorging yourself with food. And most of us aren’t doing that on a day to day basis. So if you’re on a diet to lose fat or even to gain muscle, don’t let the scale make or break your mood.

Stand on solid ground

Although I mean this figuratively, you could also take it literally. Get off the scale and stand somewhere else. If you build your home on sand, don’t expect to have a roof over your head for long. Build your home on solid ground, stone, and rock. What I mean is don’t gauge your progress by a number on the scale, but rather by the numbers in the gym. If you’re getting stronger, faster, and leaner, then who cares what the scale says.

Build your body on a solid ground foundation and look great Nekkid friends.

It’s never too late to…

…Put the fork down

If you find yourself cheating on your diet it’s never too late to stop. The only thing worse than two Twinkies is three. What it really comes down to is how bad do you want it? Not the Twinkie dumbass. I know you want that. I’m talking about that 6 pack of abs you’ve been drooling over for months. It’s never too late to put the fork down.

Put it down son.

…Have a good workout

No matter how shitty of a workout you’ve had, all it takes is one head-turning set to validate you walking through the gym doors that day. For example, today I had a shitty workout. I went in there with a plan, but wasn’t too motivated because I had an exausting day. Between girl problems, somebody hitting my parked car and running, and a few midterms to worry about before graduating in 6 weeks, I wasn’t in the exact mood for a vein-bustin’ workout. However, I ended the workout with a 325 lb. deadlift for 14 reps, which is a big PR for me. Even though I entered the gym with a bad attitude, I decided to man up and leave it with a fat smile on my face. It’s never too late to have a good workout. Even if it’s the last set.

Do the right thing and look and feel great Nekkid friends.

The Benefits of Bikram Yoga

Yoga in a sauna

If you’re looking for a challenge and enjoy yoga and/or meditation, meet Bikram Yoga. The Bikram style imposes different yoga positions that focus on core strength and spinal stretching, all at 100° Fahrenheit. I’ve never really believed in working solely on core strength. I’d rather just load up 315 pounds on a barbell and front squat it. That’s core strength for you.

But Bikram challenges everything I’ve come to know in the gym. After just one session I’ve never been more sore in my abs, shoulders, and lower back. It was a humbling experience.

As challenging as Bikram is, the combination of heat, flexibility, mobility, core strength, and spinal stretching come together for a powerful workout. You learn to focus on breathing technique, focusing attention on belly breathing and pulling air through the nose rather than the mouth.

Bikram also leaves a special place for mediation. Multiple times during the workout you return to corpse pose, called Savasana, where you’re encourage to meditate and focus on your breathing. If you think meditating is hard in itself, try letting it all go at 100° Fahrenheit. Not easy.

Most classes last 90 minutes, so plug your body weight and 1.5 hours into this Bikram Calorie Counter and see how many calories you burn. I’m 185 pounds and burn 631 calories on average during 90 minutes of Bikram. That’s a lot of calories for simply stretching. Not to mention you sweat out at least 2-3 pounds of water. It feels great.

The Bikram Yoga Poses

Just make sure to bring a lot of cold water with you to drink during the designated rest periods.

Unfortunately, as much as I love Bikram, it seems to only get hotter

Try some Bikram Yoga and look great Nekkid friends.

Walk to the beat of your own drum

Be a Leader

My name is Paul Baeyens and I am not just any man. I am The Man. And I walk to the beat of my own Drum.

I don’t follow anybody else’s workout plans or lifestyle plans. I follow my own. I do what feels good and right. That doesn’t mean I don’t listen to others advice. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Always learn from others. But I don’t follow anybody. I don’t copy anybody. I write my own story and I do it everyday.

What does this mean? It means I don’t go into the gym with a perfect plan. Or wake up every morning knowing exactly what I’m going to do or who’s bed I’m going to sleep in. It means when I lift, if I can do more, I will. Set your goals and blaze a fiery trail along the way, never looking back. That means if you want to take your deadlift from 405 to 495 pounds, wake up every morning without knowing exactly how you’re going to get there, but knowing there is nothing in the world that can stop you.

Be a Man

My confidant Kyle Armstrong believes testosterone is a state of mind. This means you’re only as much of man as you believe you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re sick, cold, hungry, poor, beaten up, or all of the above. At any point in your life you always have the power and option to man up.

Man up? Yeah buddy, man up. That means stop being a whiny boy and be a man. Make yourself feel better because you can, and get up off the floor. Nobody beats you up because you’re The Man. Take responsibility for your actions. Always be prepared. Put 10 more pounds on the bar. Or stop being a wimp and put 100 more pounds on and see what happens. Do an extra rep. Do 20 extra reps. Be smart. The Man is smart. You know what I mean?

Man up, look good Nekkid, and get all the ladies’ friends.