10 Ways to Hack Your Fitness! (Maximize Your Exercise VALUE part 2)

          We used to call ‘em fitness tips but now the latest trend is to call them fitness hacks, and I desire to be a trend follower.  I suppose there is something more to a hack:  If something is going to be a labeled a hack then it had better be some sort of game-changing, time-saving short cut.  So significant in fact that it should almost feel like you’re cheating.  Well, I can’t promise you anything quite that mind-blowing here, but I have compiled a pretty worthy list of my favorite fitness hacks, which will definitely save you time and get you results.  While those who know me, know I am an advocate of making fitness part of a holistic lifestyle, and that I am not into trendy, fad diets or one-size-fits all approaches, there is nothing wrong with optimizing or streamlining your training in order to maximize exercise value.  Training smarter and not just harder, should always be a welcome strategy.  Of course there really are no shortcuts or miracles, but there are some hacks.  Some of them so simple they should be common sense, while others hopefully are new ideas to you.  In no particular order:

1.  Train using full-body, functional movements.  Skip the isolation exercises unless you’re rehabbing an injury or bringing up a weak body part.  Isolation exercises should be left to Bodybuilders, Physique athletes, and Fitness models, who are paid to look perfect and symmetrical.  While you no doubt want to look good, your primary goals should be mobility, health, longevity and perhaps athletic performance.  Full-body, functional exercises that synergistically involve multiple muscle groups accomplish all these goals in the shortest amount of time.  Exercises like burpees, pull-ups, push-ups, squats, lunges, planks and box-jumps.  It’s amazing what a nice physique these movements will produce inherently.

      2.  Train at high intensity most of the time.  High intensity training, maximizes your exercise value, giving you the most bang for your buck, in the least amount of time.  It also triggers a lot of post-exercise, metabolism-boosting, pro-hormone affects, lasting hours afterwards.  You can increase your intensity level by: reducing your rest duration between sets, using circuit-training principles where you alternate antagonistic muscle groups, increase load, increase reps, or any combination of the aforementioned.  If you desire to reach failure levels, then you must follow with a brief resting interval, usually performed using a 1:3 working-to-resting interval ratio, also known as high intensity interval training, (HIIT).

Mental Fitness: Meditation & Mindfulness - Why you have time to practice it daily and don’t even realize it!

               Let me start by admitting that I suck at meditating.  In fact so do most of my colleagues and peers.  Ask a working father if he has time to meditate and most will simply laugh:  “Yeah right, you mean sit around and do nothing for 30 minutes? - not a chance!”  And even those of us who are willing to try often find that we are so busy, suffering from attention-deficit or obsessive-compulsion, that we find it nearly impossible to not let our ‘to-do’ list creep into our mind, that is supposed to be void of thoughts, or at least witness to our thoughts.  Or, we are so chronically sleep-deprived, we simply fall asleep 5 minutes into it.  Did I mention that even finding a quiet space to meditate in is often impossible?  But ironically, those of us who seemingly can’t find a spare second to meditate in our hectic lives are usually the ones who could benefit from it most.  Because it is proven that meditating even just 10 minutes a day can reduce anxiety, sharpen focus, help control impulsiveness, plus a myriad of physical health improvements.  This is even measurable through brain imaging & MRI scans, and simple brain wave monitoring.  Trust me, if there wasn’t tangible proof I wouldn’t be getting involved with it.  I’m not into glib gurus.  I’m into results.

               As you may know, I am a big advocate of holistic health.  Yet, like most Trainers and fitness enthusiasts I spend 90% of my effort and learning on the physical component of fitness.  Improving lean-body mass and optimizing body composition.  Building muscle, burning fat, sculpting abdominals and strengthening the core, and improving mobility and athletic performance.  These are my go-to areas where I thrive, and honestly it is what most of my clients are concerned about.  But holistic health inherently implies the whole-body, mind and spirit, so mental fitness is at least a third pillar upholding ideal health.  Ask any warrior, professional athlete, Yogi, or Special Operations soldier and they will all agree that mental fitness is more like 80% of the success formula.  They will tell you with complete certainty that training and preparing the physical body for ‘battle’ is the easy part.  Preparing the mind for challenge, risk and adversity is where the real effort is required.  And as far as Nature-versus-Nurture is concerned, it is our minds that can be nurtured, or altered and improved the most through training, as there are less genetic limitations.  The mind is where our greatest potential exists, virtually untapped by most of us.  Many of us are born with an impressive level of baseline motivation, resiliency, competitive-edge and focus capacity.  But no matter where you think you’re at with you mental game, the act of meditation will take you to the next level.  A level you didn’t even know existed.

The 'Amygdala' is the also known as the mind's 'fear-center'.  Meditating regularly can help quiet the Amydala from hi-jacking the more thoughtful Pre-Frontal Cortex.

Father's Day Fitness for us Domesticated Dads!

Being a father now-a-days is more fulfilling and rewarding, yet busier than ever.  I am not trying to sound like a masculinist, but there is sort of a double standard set upon on us present-day fathers, not only by our nurturing wives and baby-Mommas, but by society in general.  At least here in San Diego’s progressive society.  Think about what is expected of you as a husband and father, and what is put on your plate daily.  Most of us are working full time, and the minute we clock out, we immediately are taking over duties as primary parent, if not volunteering at their schools, or assisting as coaches, helping with homework, not to mention grinding through at least half the load of household chores.  ‘Stay-at-home-Mom’ – what’s that?  Many of us have a (equally busy) wife who also works at least part time, just to be able to afford to live in beautiful San Diego and provide our families the lifestyle it offers.  What’s more, no San Diego mom I know of is willing to be content just tending to the home and kids.  Mothers these days have yoga classes, extensive social groups, hobbies, and a serious list of personal goals!  We Dads pick up the domestic slack by donning every hat in the household often with zero appreciation in return because it is what is expected of us.  It’s considered our duty and even a privilege.

     Don’t misunderstand me.  There are few things as rewarding in life as spending quality time with our children, and most of us desire to be more involved and hands-on, if given a choice.  But all this means time for Dad is pushed to the bottom of the honey-do list and is often considered low priority by spouses and bosses alike.  Just finding time to go for a run, or go to the gym can not only be near impossible, but can be wrongfully perceived as selfish, or putting ourselves before our family.  Any opportunity for continued personal growth and self-mastery? – Well sorry, but that is a luxury that we left behind the moment we had to put together the crib for baby #1.  Or so it might seem.

The truth is, while you might have to pause for a decade or so at becoming an expert at mastering you, nothing makes us grow and mature more than fatherhood.  Perhaps there is no greater opportunity to love another human being, more than fatherhood.  If you are blessed with children, know that the collective experience of raising a family leaves us wiser and more evolved during life’s journey.  Leading a family and household is as great a challenge as any corporate C.E.O. will face, and what used to be the sole home-making domain of the mother is now equally shared with us fathers.  Like it or not, we have become fully domesticated.  But back to finding time to still workout…

Max with daughters Bryce Ava and Summer, Honolua Bay, Maui, October 2013.

San Diego's 4L Magazine Celebrates it's 2 Year Anniversary!

     As many of you know I am the resident fitness contributor/writer for San Diego's Four EL magazine - A men's lifestyle and fitness magazine based here in San Diego that celebrates San Diego culture.  From LOCAL brews, bands, bars, beaches, babes, ball teams, etc. - you name it and the magazine covers it.  Rich in original, organic, relevant content for sure - I can personally say I know all the writers and the staff well.  There is no fluff, filler, or recycled material.  And not too many ads either, though I can't say the editors don't want more ad space filled:)  We're all in it out of a passion for San Diego and to promote the magazine's 4 ideals:

Live, Love, Laugh and Learn.  ("For the evolved man")

     I am very proud to say that I have been on board this magazine from ground zero, when my friend Steve Kang invited me to write all about fitness and holistic health.  I was all in and still am.  So we all got together and celebrated the mag's 2 year anniversary the other night downtown, with the live music from Palace Ballroom - another local SD favorite!

with 4L co-founder and Director of Ad Sales, Steve Kang and staff writerJason Stewart at the 2 year party!

"6-Pack Abs: The International Benchmark of a Fit Physique" - Max Wettstein

Highly sought after for purely vanity reasons by many of us, but that’s okay.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting to rock a nice 6-pack at the beach.  In fact, that is what I get asked about most – “How can I get abs?” or, “How can I lose this belly fat?”  Well I am putting together a list of tips for you right here – simple concepts that most Trainers will bury in a 300 page book or DVD series and then sell it to you.  I should know, because I too have shamelessly done both of these: Written books on how to get “Amazing Abs”, and even produced a DVD on the subject (Now published free on Youtube).  This is because through the fortunate combination of genetics, lifestyle, timing, location and desire, I was able to become Men’s Health magazine’s primary abs model for a period of about 4 years from 2005 to 2009, appearing on over 10 of their magazine and book covers.  Yes, that Men’s Health magazine.  So of course after, that I instantly felt qualified to write a book and produce a DVD on the subject.

Seriously though, my genetic-fortune aside, after 15 years of being a professional fitness model I did manage to learn a few things about attaining and maintaining lean abs and a strong core, even if only through repeated trial and error of applied Bodybuilder Bro-Science.  I was my own physiological, guinea pig, and having shredded, cover-ready abs was literally my bankable brand.  While it’s true that bodybuilding and its commercial spawn of fitness modeling is highly vain, there is one fact that is undeniable:  We know how to get ripped!  In fact I would argue that no other ‘athlete’ genre knows how to get as lean as the professional fitness model.  Why?  - Because the fitness model has the luxury of training for appearance first and athletic-performance second, which I do not advocate unless you are getting paid for your looks.  Otherwise, I believe we should all train for optimum function, mobility and health, first and foremost.

Maximizing Your Exercise Value – Fitness is Now a Sport.

Q: Is it possible to get uber fit exercising only 20 minutes a day?

A: No.

However, 20 minutes a day is certainly better than nothing, and it might be just enough activity to maintain your health and improve longevity.  As a society we seem busier than ever, but we’re also getting way smarter about how to train, and weve finally realized just how darn important consistent exercise is.  In fact exercise is critical to our health, on par with nutrition and 2^nd only to sleeping well.  People who exercise consistently, live longer than those who don’t, given all else being equal.  Only your genetics play a greater role in life span.  We now know that some of that time spent exercising ideally needs to push into (relatively) higher intensity levels.  But just how intense do we need to go?  Is there an intensity or volume threshold to where there is no more benefit?  The key for all of us busy folks, is to find the sweet spot where training time intersects with intensity level, which triggers the most benefit.  I call this maximizing your exercise value.

There’s a certain niche of neo-athletes that have embraced training so much that they've declared “fitness to be its own sport”, never mind a lifestyle.  A sub-culture of every day citizens who walk among us that have discovered their inner athlete and have taken training to a whole other level.  I’m not talking about bodybuilders or triathletes here – that’s old school.  I’m talking about well-rounded fitness aficionados that desire to be total athletes by combining full-body-functional, cardio and strength exercises.  I’m talking about the present day Boot-camper, SEAL-Fitter, CrossFitter, Tough-Mudder, Spartan genre who whole-heartedly decided that just because they have families and careers, doesn't mean they can’t be uber athletes too.  They've revealed their inner-warrior and when you see them training together, feeding off each other, you get a sense there’s something special going on there, almost like a religion, or a tribe of warriors.  - Some kind of competitive, comradery dynamic, testing themselves with exciting, yet effective exercises, that arouses your curiosity.  There’s a synergistic magic happening there in part from the group dynamic.  Maybe I’m describing one of your close friends or even you.  There’s a reason why these folks are experiencing these powerful physical and mental transformations no matter what their age is, in a relatively short amount of time.  They've found out how to maximize their exercise value in a competition based, group dynamic that comes with its own band of brothers for support.  They become training addicts…and it’s not the mirror they’re addicted to.  You watch these guys and it almost feels as if they've never had so much fun being tortured.  They have even created niche competitions to help motivate them to take their training goals to the next level and they have indeed declared that fitness in and of itself, can stand alone as its own sport.

The Egg (Yolk) is BACK! - Cholesterol is Out of Diet Jail! (March is National Nutrition Month.)

March is National Nutrition Month according the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and we are celebrating with the incredible egg!  You see, the egg is back in a big way, though for many of us, it never left our list of staple, affordable sources of a complete protein, called for by many recipes.  You would think eggs would have withstood the test of time and tradition by now, but there was rather large group of scientist-panels and government agencies, that believed for a long time that the cholesterol contained in eggs is bad for us and pushed their guidelines upon our society.  But recently these very same scientists and agencies reversed their stance on the egg, and more specifically on dietary cholesterol nutrient and the role it plays in blood LDL cholesterol levels.  According to The Washington Post in February,

‘In one short paragraph, the new report from the nation’s top nutrition panel reverses decades of warnings about dietary cholesterol. Long one of the arch-villains of the American diet, cholesterol need no longer be considered a menace to the public health, the group said.  As the panel's report puts it: “Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern.”’.