The first ever Live and Train Aggressive Weekend went down this last Friday and Saturday and all I can say is what a time it was.

I had a blast and so did the attendees.

I know with the knowledge I shared with these boys that they’ll be going out and making some BIG things happen!

With all of the different information we went through in regards to training, nutrition, business, and life, there were 5 main “Ah Ha” points that I want to share with you.

Ah Ha #1)  Set DEADLINES and Stick To Them!

I like to say to set a 3 month GOAL and then set a 1 month DEADLINE to accomplish it.

Doing this will light a fire under your ass to get things done by crunching your time down a bit so you’ll work a little bit more urgently.

Most people just piddle paddle around when they don’t have a set deadline breathing down their neck and in turn, get little done.

When it comes to goals, it’s so important to have a set DEADLINE because if you don’t have a deadline, you will not be hard pressed to get things done.  It will be almost as if you’re just simply floating around with no end point.

When you set DEADLINES and COMMIT to sticking to them, that’s when you really “GSD” because that’s what it’s all about…  Getting Sh*t Done! 

Ah Ha #2)  Be A F*cking INSPIRATION

When it comes to a lot of coaches out there, one of the main reasons some are not a bigger success is because they lack INSPIRATION.

They have no drive, no passion, and no purpose.

If you want to be a total success whether that be with your business (if you’re a coach) or if it’s with your fitness results or personal life, you need to live with some PASSION and PURPOSE.

In order to do so you need to look deep into what it is you truly enjoy doing the most in life and do it!

When you do what inspires you most, passion and purpose will naturally flow and the people around you will feel it and become connected to it.  You’ll attract more like-minded people and in turn, help change more people’s lives.

If you’re a coach, people will naturally be attracted to you and in turn will become inspired on their own through your inspiration.  If they don’t, they’ll slowly weed themselves out which is fine as you do not want to place yourself around negative, uninspired people.

It all starts with YOU being inspired.

This is important because if you’re currently going through life without any feeling of true INSPIRATION then you’re just going through life and wasting your time while not giving off any type of positive energy.  This will repel people away from you.

Find out what it is that pumps you up the most and live most of your life surrounded in that as best you can.

Think about what inspires you most on a daily basis and always have it in your mind.

If it’s your job great.  If you’re job totally sucks the life out of you, start looking for a new job.  You have a CHOICE to do so…

Bottom Line – Live Life INSPIRED and though that, INSPIRE others to do the same!

Ah Ha #3) Bring on and create CHALLENGE.

Most people go through life content with just being normal and actually preferring never to be challenged in anything they do.

Most people want the easy road out.

With this type of mindset it’s no wonder people never achieve their goals or move ahead by leaps and bounds in life.

The TRUTH:  if you want to accomplish BIG things in life, whether this be with your fitness, strength, and performance results, business, or personal life, you need to bring on and create challenge in your life.

Much like a hard DEADLINE acts to push you ahead to take more action, Challenges will force you to get yourself better.

I personally use challenges within my own training (A La – THURSDAY THROWDOWNS and The Bodyweight Gauntlet) to push myself ahead with my fitness results.

I do the same with my athletes and clients as I know challenges will not only push them ahead, it will also create INSPIRATION which in turn will only add to create more success on into the future.

I also take on and create challenges within my business both online and off.

When there’s something that scares me or gets me out of my personal comfort zone, instead of running away from it, I challenge myself to take it head-on.

You accomplish NOTHING if you don’t try and if you fail, at least you tried.

Bottom Line – Challenge yourself daily with everything you do!  If you’re not living life out of your personal comfort zone on a daily basis, you’re not moving ahead.

Ah Ha # 4) It’s Always About The SOURCE!

After we got done crushing an Aggressive Strength Method training session at the gym, I took the guys out for lunch plus on a fully guided Lean and Mean Grocery Store Tour at my favorite spot in town to get high quality food,  Whole Foods.

While on the tour, there were many times questions came up about different products that were deemed healthy due to them being “Organic”.

This is NOT always the case.

Obviously organic cookies, pasta, and other highly processed junk will ALWAYS be junk organic or not, but what came up as questionable were different products such as:

Organic beef – Just because it’s organic does not mean it’s a good source of beef.  I for one no longer eat beef unless it’s 100% grass fed beef.   The reason is because most beef comes from sick, mistreated cows and if you eat the meat from these sick cows, you’re eating contaminated meat.  Also, just because it’s “organic meat” doesn’t make it healthy.  All that means is the cow ate an organic based diet that was still corn based instead of grass-fed.

Bottom Line on beef and other cow products, I would get them from a 100% Grass-Fed sources and no where else.  If you have to settle for regular beef, I would reconsider.

Another thing to note is to look deep into the source.  Some grass-fed sources are said to be started out on a grass-fed diet but then finished off with a corn based diet.  I would watch out for this and to be safe, just ask to see where your meat is coming from for sure.

The other sources listed below, although organic aren’t that healthy for you.  Bottom Line – Always check the source.

  • Organic Milk – milk coming from sick cows that are fed organic corn-based diets – only source of milk I would recommend is RAW milk coming from a grass-fed cow
  • Organic Cheese – same as above
  • Organic Eggs – these eggs are usually still coming from sick, drugged up chickens. Make sure you’re getting organic CAGE-FREE eggs.  These will be much higher quality.
  • Organic Orange Juice – First off, I wouldn’t drink any type of juice unless you personally made the juice yourself.  With most juices, you’ll be adding in a ton of extra sugar and getting less of the vitamins and nutrients then you would be getting if you were to just go straight to the source.  To make things simple, buy an organic orange and make your own homemade OJ.  It’s cheaper, not highly processed, and will be much healthier.
  • Organic Coconut Water – One of the major trends within the fitness scene as of late is Coconut water due to it’s high level of potassium and other nutrients, but nothing is ever what is seems.  Most of the big brands of Coconut water have been processed in some way and stripped of most of it’s natural vitamins and nutrients so to be safe, only buy Coconut water that is 100% RAW from the source and that’s Organic.  Just because it’s Organic doesn’t mean it’s RAW.  Make sure you check into this.

Ah Ha #5) The Warm Up Is Just As Important…

One of the things I put great emphasis on during the weekend was how important your warm ups are when it comes to your training.  These are ESSENTIAL!

Too many coaches and serious lifters are neglecting the use of a solid warm up and some even totally neglect warming up and skip it all together.  In turn their overall results are suffering.

Some key points when it comes to warm ups are:

==>  Have a “Go To” Warm Up that NEVER changes.  This warm up will be your main “go to” warm up that’s universal to everyone and primarily geared towards athletic performance.  I don’t care if you train athletes or moms or don’t train anyone but yourself, your warm up should be performance based meaning, you move around like an athlete.

The old “jog 5 mins” on the treadmill isn’t ever going to cut it.

A solid warm up should include a little bit of power via jumping and low level plyometrics, a good amount of mobility work, some basic bodyweight strength drills via bodyweight upper and lower body pushes and pulls, then finally blended in with a bit of cardio that can come from things like jumping rope, rowing, light running, or even sprints.

==>  Have a “ON-The-GO” Warm Up.  When you’re strapped for time, instead of using that as an excuse not to warm up, have yourself a quick 3-5 min warm up that consists of 6-10 movements that will help you get prepared for training quickly.

What I like to do for these situations is turn on the clock and hit different movements every 30 secs.  So, I may do 10 different movements 30 secs each with NO rest in between each movement.  It’s 5 mins and after I’m done I’m ready to roll.

A great example is the 5 Min Warm Up I have within my 28 Day Athletic Muscle Formula.

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While a 5 min warm up isn’t the absolute BEST option to choose to do at all times, it’s still very effective at improving mobility, conditioning, and getting the body ready for battle as it will always be better then totally skipping your warm up.

Just to let you know, The 28 Day AMF warm up alone can get you results.  Just give it a shot if you’ve never used it before.  Combining this with the FULL 28 Day AMF is even more effective…

==>  Have “SPECIFIC” Warm Ups.  The final type of warm up is geared towards advanced lifters and athletes.  These can be ever changing based around what your training session will be on that particular day.  The warm up can also last for a longer period of time since it will be more specific.

For example, if I know I’ll be squatting heavily in a session, my warm up may take a good 20-25 mins to get ready for.  In that warm up I’ll blend in a lot of what I normally do within my “Go To” warm up and then at the end of the warm up I’ll add in more specific mobility and preparatory movements that are specific to squatting.

These types of warm ups are usually geared more towards highly competitive athletes or advanced lifters as well as with clients that have a bit more time to train.

Bottom Line – NEVER skip your warm ups and have a series of warm ups that are specific to YOU and your goals. 

So there you have it!

Those were just a few of the top “AH HA” moments from the Live and Train Aggressive Weekend.  I hope that these help you out.

Go ahead and drop your thoughts and comments below about some of the biggest “AH HA” moments you’ve personally had within the last few months in regards to your training and personal life.  I’m interested in hearing about them.  Also, if you’ve got questions about these 5 “AH HA’s”, drop them below!

Live and Train Aggressive!