Everyone is chasing a leaner, stronger body.

Very few  achieve this goal.

What's the issue here?

Where's the disconnect between wanting and getting?

A few of the main culprits:

Poorly designed training programs - Think: programs designed just to get you sweating and focused strictly on calories burned.

Even the most intense 30-minute workout will only burn a relatively small amount of calories. If you're ONLY training like this, you're not really effectively burning fat, OR building muscle. Workouts like these are a great way to workout for months and never actually change your body composition.

Supplements. The supplement industry is AMAZING at convincing us that there's a magic pill out there that will give us overnight results. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. (If you're anything like me, you've spent thousands on supplements before having this realization.)

Failure to take ownership. I have a slow metabolism... poor genetics... I'm tired... I shouldn't have to weigh my food in order to lose weight... I'm busy...

THIS is the biggest culprit of all.

^ Speaking from personal experience, because I was this guy for years.

In 2015, I hurt my shoulder snowboarding. This significantly altered my ability to train going forward.

Instead of accepting the reality that was my situation, and working to make the best of it, I spent the next year feeling sorry for myself, pissed off about my situation.

I literally remember multiple times hours spent daydreaming about what my life would be like if I could somehow go back in time, and NOT wreck my snowboard.

I'd be able to bench so much by now.

I'd be so jacked.

... I'd probably still have small calves.

We don't yet have a way to time-travel, or alter your poor calf genetics. All you can do in the real world is accept your situation, and work your ass off to make the most of it.

Enough of that - let's get into the six biggest keys to building your leanest, strongest body ever.

1. Find A Diet Structure That Fits Your Lifestyle

People fail at diets. A lot.

The problem here isn't you haven't found the perfect macro-ratio for your body type yet.

It's not that you need to go keto. Or vegan.

The truth is, all diets that allow you to...

Create a calorie deficit

Consume adequate protein

Consume adequate nutrients (.3g/fat per lb of body weight + meet your various micronutrient needs)

...will give you VERY similar fat loss results.

Basically, as long as you create a calorie deficit, get your protein, and eat mostly quality foods - you'll lose fat and get healthier - regardless of what diet camp you fall in to.

The problem is, people try to follow diets that they can't ADHERE to. Truly, the most important factor of your diet isn't the specific structure, but your ability to stick to it super consistently.

If you can't see yourself giving up carbs, you're going to have a bad time. You'll likely have frequent "f it" moments where you fall off the wagon - leading to no results.

For some, this means NOT tracking macros. When I first started coaching, I prescribed EVERYONE macros.

The results? Uhhh not great.

For many online clients who simply want to look better, feel better, and build better habits - I've found that macros AREN'T always the way to go.

I'm saying this with the caveat that  I do think macros are a great tool. If you want a super specific result (e.g. being ready for a photoshoot in 8 weeks), being able to get super specific with your food intake helps. Macros best allow us to do this.

That said, if you DON'T want to track your food, I get it, and I'm willing to meet you where you're at.

My go to here is typically The Handful Diet - a diet structure that simply gets you focused on eating whole foods, in appropriate portion sizes.

Seems too simple to work - but really simplicity is WHY this diet works so well.

Everyone's hands seem to scale super conveniently to  what their portion sizes should be. Plus, when you're eating this many whole foods, you're going to have a MUCH harder time overeating. So naturally, you'll lean out. And, you're probably eating more protein than before.

A few examples of clients who have absolutely crushed it following this diet structure:

My man Spencer made this INSANE transformation in 3 months following The Handful Diet:

My online client Kassidy. Check out these changes she's made since January! She accomplished all of this simply by being SUPER CONSISTENT with The Handful Diet Structure, lifting 3x/week, and walking 7-8k steps/day.

Point is, there are TONS of different ways that you can go about creating a calorie deficit.

Will dieting always be hard? YES. Which is exactly why it's even more crucial to find a diet you can adhere to.

A few other common diet structures I implement with online coaching clients:

Tracking calories only - A great place to start if you want to track calories, but are brand new to it. Simply focus on eating whole food, and hitting your daily calorie goal.

Tracking calories + protein - The typical next step up from calories only. Calories + protein are the two most important nutritional factors for your body composition. A lot of online clients with more lifestyle-focused goals never have to progress past this point. Given you have calories and protein on point, the ratio of carbs - fat you consume just doesn't make that much difference for most.

Dietary displacement - This is a great strategy for anyone super new to the fitness nutrition game. The goal here is not to eliminate unhealthy foods - but rather to add in more quality foods. Naturally, this leads to you displacing lower quality foods with higher quality ones, and typically losing fat as a result.

2. Follow A Structured Training Routine

Imagine this.

After YEARS of consideration, you quit your job and start your own business.

You have BIG GOALS for this business. You're going to make millions, buy a yacht, and hire all the homies. It's going to be Wolf Of Wall Street-esque.

Now, to acheive these big goals with your business, would you go into every day of work without a plan - just doing things at random - and then expect AMAZING results?

Absolutely not.

You would be organized as hell, with a very clear attack plan to get you from where you are now, to where you want to be.

The same concept applies to your body. Doing things at random is NEVER going to get you a specific result. Just like with your nutrition, your program doesn't have to be perfect - it just needs to be one that's well-designed for your goals, and that you can stick to for a long time.

For more on finding the optimal training program for your goals and lifestyle, check out THIS ARTICLE.

3. Quit Trying To Be Motivated

Motivation is always a very fickle thing.

If you only workout and follow your nutrition protocol when you're motivated (what most of us do currently), you're NEVER going to get the results you want.

This is one of the biggest thing I focus on talking with online clients about right away.

Let go of the belief that you need to feel "motivated" to go to the gym. Instead of wasting time trying to get motivated, do your best to shut your brain off entirely, and just go.

Two of the biggest keys to successfully bypassing motivation (which I'll detail shortly):

Getting more organized.

Leveraging other people

4. Get More Organized

Tell me if this sounds familiar...

You really want to be lean and strong... but for
some reason you never have time to eat healthy or hit the gym, despite
your best intentions?⠀

^We've all been here. I know I have.

Really for most of us it's not an issue of  "want to", it's a time-management problem.

Here's some things I hold my online coaching clients accountable to prevent "running out of time":

Schedule your week ahead of time - Only made it to the gym once this week, because things kept coming up? I promise you, next week won't be less busy. Really,
things are ALWAYS going to come up - your life isn't going to get less
hectic.

Planning specific
time blocks for your workouts, meal prep, etc. keeps you from pushing
them back until later.

This is a GAME-CHANGER for most people, and exactly why I have many of my clients send me a picture of their weekly schedule at the start of the week.

Weekly meal-prep day - No
matter how much you intend to eat healthy this week, you'll inevitably
run out of time (or willpower) to cook at some point. Having prepped
meals means you're ready for this situation, and stay on track for your
goals.

Macro-plan - If you're going into
the day just hoping to fit whatever you eat into your macros, you're
setting yourself (and your diet) up for failure. Most any time an online client isn't hitting the intake goals, it's an issue with planning. Plan your next day of
food out in MyFitnessPal the night before.

Leave your phone out of reach from your bed - Struggling
to get up in time for your early morning workouts? Set your phone alarm
ACROSS the room before you go to bed, on top of tomorrow's workout
clothes and pre-workout drink.

Now you have to get up, and will be ready
to be out the door within minutes.

5. Leverage Other People

I know this sounds messed up... but bear with me.

The worst feeling in the world is telling yourself you’re going to do something - and then failing to follow through. Letting yourself down over and over again saps your confidence like nothing else.

For most of us, fitness is a glaring example of this...⠀

“This is the week/month/year I get in shape.”⠀

...and then we do nothing.⠀

^I think we’ve all been stuck in this cycle in some area of our life. I know I have.

This is also why getting in great shape creates drastic mental shifts in people.⠀It’s
really not because you LOOK lean and strong. It’s that nothing builds
confidence like knowing that you WILL do the things you tell yourself
you will. You’re not that person that lets yourself down anymore.⠀

The key here is figuring out how to break the cycle. If you’re stuck in this cycle, don’t just hope you’ll try harder this week (you won’t) - DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.⠀

Get an accountability partner.

Put your plans to change out there on social media.

Tell all your friends, family, and people you respect about the action you'll be taking.

When we commit to something public, and are now faced with the fear of letting other people down, we're 100x more likely to finally take action.

This is exactly why having a coach is so powerful. When you tell your coach you're going to do something (and know they're holding you accountable to said action) - NOT ACTING becomes the less painful option, as opposed to continuously letting someone else down.

Think of leveraging other people as a way to FORCE yourself to act.

6. Understand That Everything Else In Life Follows Your Physical Health

May of 2014, I passed my ACSM Certified Personal Trainer Exam. Shortly after, I started working at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a personal trainer.

It's mind-blowing to me that I've been a coach for five years now. What started as "I literally don't like doing anything else but working out" has turned out to be a beautiful intersection of all my passions combined: writing, teaching, training and nutrition, psychology, and empowering others.

Being a coach/personal trainer has been nothing like I expected. And I've learned a lot from working with hundreds of people over the last five years.

A few of the biggest lessons I've learned over the last five years:

1. Quit Telling People What To Do. Build Awareness, Responsibility, And Self-Belief.

2. The More Dogmatic You Are, The Fewer People You Help.

3. "Just Try Harder" Is A Terrible Strategy.

Whenever a client wasn't getting results back in the day, the solution was typically something along the lines of:

"Uhhh... maybe you should try harder next time."

Spoiler alert: Any time you "hope to try harder next time" in any area of life... you're probably going to get the same results as this time.

Despite popular belief, issue is rarely "you don't want this bad enough". I'm pretty sure most everyone wants to feel better and look better.

The issue is typically people run out of time - no time to cook a healthy meal, no time to workout, etc.

The solution ISN'T more motivational talk - it's showing people how to get organized, so they stop running out of time. I often refer to this as shifting from reactive to proactive thinking.

Reactive is telling yourself you’ll eat healthy this week... Proactive meal prepping for the week on Sunday.

Reactive is hoping to find time to work out... Proactive is setting strict time-blocks to train in your schedule.

Reactive is going to the gym without a plan... Proactive is a goal specific plan for the month(s) ahead.

Reactive is hoping you’ll have the willpower to get out of bed 15-minutes earlier to journal and meditate... Proactive is setting an alarm across the room that’ll force you out of bed.

Seriously, one the biggest parts of my job is teaching people:⠀Stuff that you “hope” you’ll find the time or willpower to do... you probably won’t do.⠀Instead of “hoping” something will happen - plan more, get more organized, schedule it, prioritize it, and find a way to force yourself to act.

4. Educate As Much As Possible.

When I first started coaching, I was scared to teach my clients everything I knew.

"If they know all I know, they'll just leave."

This has been one of my biggest mindset shifts over the last five years.

When I realized that my goal WASN'T to create a bunch of co-dependent relationships with my clients, but rather a movement of empowered, independent badasses - I understood I needed to teach my clients as much as possible.

How I see it now is - if we work together for six months, and you're entirely capable of managing your training and nutrition on your own, I've done an amazing job as your coach.

The dope thing is - as soon as I started putting more emphasis on teaching instead of just telling people what to do, my clients got WAY better results.

This is exactly why I created a months long email course for my clients, as well as constant social media content, blogs, etc.

The more my clients know about all of this, the more tools they have to be successful.

5. It's Crazy How Flawed You Can Be, And Still Have A Major Impact On Other's Lives

One of the most amazing feelings in the world is helping someone drastically shift their life - not just physically, but mentally I've seen clients make some insane transformations.

That said - knowing that others were looking up to me used to constantly make me feel like an imposter.

"If  saw how flawed I am, that we struggle with so many of the same issues... they'd think I was a phony."

That said - when I finally quit believing I had to be perfected, and opened up to my clients about my struggles... it helped them A LOT. Me being more relatable actually seems to help them open up more, and then we're typically able to work through the issue quicker.

This is the amazing thing about coaching - you don't have to be perfect to change other's lives. You just have to care a lot.

One of the most common requests I get when building a new online client's first training program?

"Can you make my shoulders look bigger/more defined?"

This is a trend I've seen for years, all the way back to my time working as a trainer in the college Rec Center.

Everyone wants bigger, stronger shoulders. A well-developed set of shoulders is key to creating a physique that looks lean, strong, and athletic. Thing is, very few people actually accomplish a great set of shoulders.

What's the problem here?

Well, from years of helping people online AND in-person build well-developed, strong shoulders, I've learned a few things that'll help YOU build strong, round shoulders.

Shoulder Anatomy 101

The first step in understanding how to build bigger better shoulders, is understanding their basica anatomy.

The shoulder muscles or "the deltoids/delts" can be divided into three distinct muscle groups:

The Anterior Delts OR Front Delts

The Medial Delts OR Side Delts

The Posterior Delts OR Rear Delts

Building Bigger, Stronger Shoulders

1. Presses

As far as "bang-for-your-buck" movements, the number one movements you'll get the most shoulder building stimulus out of is your presses.

All your bench press variations also hit the front delts, so be sure to take that into account.

From there, overhead press/shoulder press variations are by far the best way to hit your shoulders with tons of mechanical tension.

Your goal here should be to apply progressive overload to your overhead pressing movements in the 6-10 rep range.

Since progressive overload is the goal here, you're best served to choose two "bread and butter" overhead pressing variations, and stick with those. It's easy to get way too cute with the hundreds of different shoulder press variations, but the more you practice a movements, the better you'll get at it - which means the more progressive overload you'll be able to apply.

From my experience with clients, the two most effective movements seem to be:

Dumbbell Seated Shoulder Presses

Barbell Overhead Presses

Now, while presses are great, too much pressing is very hard on your shoulders. Pressing more than twice per week is too much for most people to handle. Your shoulders very quickly start feeling beat up, so you do need to limit pressing frequency, and be smart about how you work your pressing into your week.

If I was writing a training program for YOU, I'd likely have you hitting each of these movements once per week, with a layout something like this:

Upper Body Day 1 (Monday):

BB Bench Press 4x6

T-Bar Row 4x8-10

a.) DB Seated Shoulder Press 4x8-10

b.) Lat Pull-Down 4x10-12

Upper Body Day 2 (Thursday):

BB Overhead Press 4x6

Weighted Chin-Up 4x6

a.) DB Low Incline Bench 4x10-12

b.) DB Chest Supported Row 4x8-10

Remember, your bench presses AND overhead presses use the front delts - so whenver you're overhead pressing before you're bench pressing, you're reducing the amount of weight you'll be able to bench (because youve fatigued your front delts). This makes the delts much more likely to become the limiting factor when benching instead of the chest.

Thus, for a strong chest AND shoulders, it makes sense to have one day where you bench first, one day where you overhead press first.

On Day 1, the seated shoulder press works well as a secondary movement. You're already fatigued, so the seated position is less taxing and uses less overall musculature (you'll be able to perform better here than you would a BB Overhead Press).

The standing overhead press works great for the second vertical press of the week. This more of a full body movement, and allows you to push a lot more weight. It makes most sense to go into the movement fresh at the start of the day, and focus on pushing heavy weight in slightly lower rep ranges.

Again, with your pressing work alone, you've done enough to smoke your front delts. No need to add anything more for 99% of people.

2. Training The Side And Rear Delts

So, as we've established, your front delts should already be smoked from all your presses.

That said, your side and rear delts are not, and will need to be hit with much more training volume to catch up to your front delts. This is where online clients incorporate lots of different lateral raise and back fly variations.

The approach here is almost completely the opposite of your approach for presses:

While your shoulders can only handle so many heavy presses per week before getting banged up, you can handle TONS of volume from lateral raises and the like, without hindering your recovery. So you'll take full advantage of this by training these movements with a lot of frequency.

You can train different fly variations six days per week, without seeing any detrimental effects on your training. This adds up to A TON of extra shoulder volume/gains.

Here you have a lot more freedom to mix it up with different movements. Play with different grips and raise variations, find the ones that allow you to "feel" the side and rear delts work the best. While your overhead presses were all about pushing heavy weight, these are all about building the mind-muscle connection with the side and rear delts, and really feeling the muscle work.

From my experience with clients, you WON'T build great delts until you have a strong mind-muscle connection with them. Don't worry about the weight here - focus on building a strong mind-muscle connection first. Increase weight when you can, while maintaining quality form, and a strong mind muscle connection.

These movements are also better suited to the higher rep ranges, as trying to go too heavy typically causes you to compensate with other muscles. The side and rear detls are very small muscles, and aren't strong enough to handle super heavy weights on their own.

Great Side Delt Movements:

• DB Lateral Raises
• Cable Lateral Raises
• DB Leaning Lateral Raises
• DB Around-The-World Lateral Raises
• Cable/DB/BB Upright Rows

Great Rear Delt Movements

• DB Back Fly
• Chest Supported Back Fly
• DB Thumbs Up Raise
  
• Band Pull-Apart
• Band/Cable Face Pull
• TRX Scarecrows
  

3. Putting It All Together

For a hypothetical online client who came to me with the goal of getting lean, strong, and building more well better shoulders, their training split would like start like this:

Upper/Lower split 4x/week (2 days upper, 2 days lower)

1 conditioning day per week

First, we'd simply see how there shoulders responded to a bit of extra emphasis just 2 days per week. So their upper body days would look something like...

Day 1 (Upper):

BB Bench Press 4x6

Pendlay Row 4x6

a.) DB Seated Shoulder Press 4x8-10

b.) Lat Pulldown 4x10-12

DB Leaning Lateral Raise 3x12-15/side

Chest-Supported Back Fly 3x12-15

a.) BB Drag Curl 3x10

b.) Cable Overhead Extension 3x12-15

Day 3 (Upper):

BB Overhead Press 4x6

Weighted Chin-Up 4x6-8

a.) DB Low Incline Bench 4x8-10

b.) DB Chest Supported Row 4x8-10

Cable Upright Row 3x15-20

Cable Facepull 3x15-20

a.) DB Hammer Curls 3x12-15

b.) Med Ball Push-Ups 3xAMRAP

If this is the clients first time training properly, they'll likely see great results just from this (plus getting their nutrition for muscle gain on point.)

From here, if/when shoulder gains stall, the order of operations would look like:

Add 1-2 sets to their current side and rear delt exercises OR add 1-2 more side/rear delt exercises to the end of each upper body training day.

If/when progress stalls again...

Add 1 side and 1 rear delt movement, 2-3 sets each, to the end each of the client's lower body training days. Gradually increase this to 3-4 total movements as needed.

From here the client is getting a TON of volume. I've never had to take anyone past this point to see the shoulder growth they've wanted, but if the client hypothetically needed more volume, we'd eventually ramp up to...

Add 1 side and 1 rear delt movement, 2-3 sets each, to the beginning of the clients conditioning day.

You get the idea.

And that's how you build amazing shoulders. Get strong at pressing 1-2x/week. Incorporate lots of frequency, chase the burn, and build the mind-muscle connection with your side and rear delt exercises.

Trade-Offs

Strategies

1. Choose Foods/Meals With The Fewest Ingredients

One thing that all of my online clients that get the best fat loss results have in common:

They eat a diet of 80-90% bro-foods, in very simple meals.

You know... foods you would consider "clean foods". Paleo-ish foods. Chicken, steak, fish, rice, sweet potatoes, nuts, fruits, veggies... you get the idea. Foods that grew from the earth, or had a face at one point.

An example meal would be something like:

• 8oz Sirloin Steak
• 90g White Rice
• 50g Avocado
• ~1/2 Cup Sliced Bell Peppers
  

Now, it's not that these foods or eating simply like this are better for fat loss, per se. But they're MUCH easier to measure accurately.

A less complex meal is easier to track, AND is more likely to be tracked accurately.

So going back to eating out/social events, apply the same concept.

Identify the options on your available menu with the fewest possible ingredients, and roll with one of those. The fewer ingredients your meal has, the more room for error you're removing.

Some typically solid options:

• 
  Salad with Grilled Chicken/steak/shrimp - Be sure to take into account any add-ons like dressings, eggs, nuts, etc. Dammit I love those "fiesta salad" type things... you know the ones with the colorful strips of tortilla chips and whatnot, but they usually have a ton of ingredients and are hard to estimate accurately.
• STEAK - Damn I love steak too. Your steak meal will normally be pretty customizable, with the option for a lower calorie cut (e.g. sirloin), and the option to swap your mashed potatoes or fries for seasonal veggies (yes I know this hurts, but it's a really good idea). Again, just ask be aware of any potential add-ons.
  
• Grilled Chicken Entree
• Fish Entree
  
• Pork Loin

2. Prioritize Protein

Not only is protein the hardest macro for your body to store as fat, but it's also the one that keeps you feeling full the longest.

Identify the most protein-dense food on your plate. Finish that first, along with any fruits or veggies you have available. Hint: It's probably a meat. If there's no meat on your plate, I'm sorry. Think about the decisions you've made in life that got you to this point.

A few common protein sources:

• Chicken
• Steak
• Fish
• Turkey
• Pork
• Dairy
• Wild Game
  

Straight up, protein is very filling. Plus, protein sources are typically pretty easy to guesstimate relatively accurately (e.g. a piece of grilled chicken, a cut of steak). Just be sure to account for any added sauces or oils.

By eating a bunch of protein, fruits and veggies first, you're essentially running damage control - you're pretty full on foods you'll likely be able to measure accurately... so you're much less likely to be able to eat lots of food you WON'T be able to measure as accurately (e.g. Grandma's potato salad... wow this blog is making me hungry).

3. Plan Ahead

4. Portion Sizes

If you've gotten to this point and are thinking...

Yeahhhhh... I'm probably not going to do any of that.

...then your best bet is just focusing on portion sizes. Less time-consuming than macros, and will still keep your calorie intake reasonable.

You'll be basing this of a diet structure called The Handful Diet. I use this with my online clients who DON'T want to track macros. Simple, but super effective.

You base all of your portions off of your hands. Like this:

First, identify the primary protein, fat, and carb sources available on your plate.

A Few Common Sources:

5. Estimate Ingredient-By-Ingredient

If you've read all of this and thought...

I want to do more to be SURE I'm on track.

...I got you. Here's what to do:

1. Determine every single ingredient in whatever is on your plate.
2. Estimate the portion size of each ingredient
3. Look up the nutrition info - I like THIS SITE.
4. Track each ingredient individually.

And that's how it's done. Again, the more frequently you eat out, the harder it will be to measure your intake accurately. So know your trade-offs, and what's most important to YOU.

The Training Principles

Phase One: Mobilize

Phase Two: Prime

Phase Three: Strength

Phase Four: Density

Phase Five: Metabolic Work