I Hate Calorie Counting

I Declare To The World!

I have all my athletes make a statement declaring how they want to view themselves. This may be the realest declaration of all.

Abby K. Review

"I've only been studying with Sam for almost 2 months but I feel like I'm much stronger and more confident than ever before!" Read More On Yelp!

How To Tie Your Belt

From Inner BJJ



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

The Personal Training Motto

Whenever a client tells me or gives me a reason why they "can't," my most popular rebuttal is with "I don't care."

Sickness

I know many of you feel like its normal to be sick all the time. Well its not. It's a sign there is something seriously wrong with how your body is functioning. It's actually being overtaxed by a sedentary life!

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Yoga Guru

Okay sometimes people put their yoga gurus on too high of a pedestal.

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized

Genetically Modified Foods

After reading about President Obama appointing the former VP of Monsato as the senior advisor for the FDA and how some Monsato campuses have removed GMO foods from their cafeterias, the battle over GMO foods and our right to either be aware of it or ban it has become widespread. 

Some of the pro arguments:

• Cheaper food
• Food resistant to pests
• Ability to make edible pharmaceuticals

Cons:

• Unintended harm to organisms (like organisms that transfer pollen)
• Gene transfer to non-target species
• Deadly food allergies
• Unknown effects on human health.

If nothing else, we the consumer should be given a choice to be aware of what kind of products we are purchasing. One site I found that does just that is Non GMO Project. 

Something a bit more frightening, Monsato has engineered corn to withstand Round Up and more recently corn resistant to drought, but there are now weeds now immune to the powerful Round Up herbicide. Now Dow has engineered a new strain of corn that can withstand its even more powerful herbicide that should eradicate the Round Up immune weeds. It's become a vicious cycle it seems.

Because of my own views of living and eating in a way more akin to our ancestors, I avoid anything modified or processed.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

A Different Kind Of Before And After

One of my athletes Larry before his first obstacle course race and after. Epitome of eating clean but training dirty.

One Life

Will And Desire

All Out Effort Interval Training

Doing 15 seconds of all out effort. 15 seconds of rest. Moving from station to station. Dips, Bulgarian bag squats, and undulation rope slams.

Of course with the best work out music of all time! These guys train MMA and BJJ, today happens to be a strength and conditioning day for them.

THE FIVE STAGES OF (FOOD) GRIEF

http://whole9life.com/2012/01/the-five-stages-of-food-grief/

How Bad Do You Want It?

Do you want to succeed as much as you want to breathe?

Voted Best Work Out In LA

Thanks LA!

Reminders About Yoga

Yoga is very popular and growing more and more in popularity. With good reason, its a great blend of strength, flexibility, calmness, and breathing. I even teach yoga to my clients and have a background as an instructor. Now with that being said, I have also hurt myself pushing and stretching too hard during yoga.

Hot yoga is very popular and growing more and more so. The chances of overstretching and pulling muscles is even greater with that style of yoga because of the fact that, you are so warm and loose that you hard a harder time knowing where your limit is. It's easy to over stretch. My wife just recently hurt her back during hot yoga.

If you are mindful and present during yoga just like anything else, you will gain a lot of benefit. I practice yoga at least once a week and benefit immensely from it. I also don't try to compete with anyone, and if something feels wrong, I ask for modifications. Even if something doesn't feel wrong, I ease into it or stay within my normal range of motion just in case.

Hot yoga makes you feel like a wet noodle, but you aren't and when you get back home and start to stiffen up you may pay the price. So be mindful, present, and careful. Namaste.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Charlie Chaplin Gives Speech On Citizenship

83 Year Old Crossfitter

83 years old and doing a 153lb deadlift. Amazing. Crossfit has some amazing athletes.

An Inspired Speech By The Ultimate Warrior

Please Support Our Friends

Please be supportive of anyone who is trying to reach a fitness goal.

Speaking On Performance

Just had my first corporate speaking gig. I spoke about performance. It was a 4 hour talk filled with activities.

Miss California Contestant Jona Xiao Yelp Review

I was very proud to train Miss California Contestant Jona Xiao. Out of over 5,000 girls, her just being selected was a major milestone. She looked great and though she didn't win she made everyone who supported her along the way proud.

The thing that was best about working with Jona was, it was so easy! She did everything I asked, never whined, showed up, and trained like a mad woman! I thought being a beauty pageant contestant, she would be hard to work with and a bit of a diva. No way. I don't think she missed even one day of training. I told her what to do, and she just did it. If everyone trained like her, well my job would be easier, and they would get this kind of result. She was all business!

Jona has a bright future ahead of her.

Read about her experiences in her own words here:

"When I was selected as an official representative for the Miss California USA pageant (My title was Miss Melrose 2012), I furiously looked around for THE best personal trainer so I could confidently wear a bikini for the millions of viewers that would be watching.  I am so fortunate to have found Sam Y, as I achieved this goal, and so much more. 

Knowledge.  Inspiration. Unparalleled trainer of both the body and mind.  And I've worked with several personal trainers, most of whom use a one size fits all approach.  When I would inquire about kettlebells, tabatas, greasing the groove, or other exercise programs, most of the trainers I interviewed would either give me blank stares or mumble that they weren't as familiar with these fitness concepts.  Sam's immense fitness and nutrition knowledge is so expansive that it feels like he can field any array of questions pertaining to these subjects to a degree that instills so much confidence in him as a trainer and the regiment he puts you on.  He answers the WHY that gave me confidence in what I was doing. 

In a mere 7 weeks of training with Sam, not only did I transform my body, but also my level of fitness in the areas of cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength and power.  When I first started with Sam, I would feel slightly tired jogging up a flight of stairs.  About a month into our training, I did a late night jog at Griffith Park with a former marathon runner, and barely felt tired during the uphill portion of the run.  I was shocked to find out I had been jogging over a mile uphill to start out.  Sam and I hadn't even been doing any treadmill or running work at that point, but it was the eclectic power, strength, and muscular endurance exercises that helped me get from "feeble to fit" (one of Sam's goals for clients). 

I love Sam's take on building strength through MOVING weight rather than LIFTING weight, which is much better for the body, and you see incredible results.  When we first started training, I would complain that my body wasn't "feeling" certain exercises as much as other exercises.  I think we often are under the false pretense that an exercise is only effective if we are in severe physical discomfort.  Not so.  I built strength and endurance without feeling like I was about to pass out or my muscles were going to give out every second.  Makes the sessions much more enjoyable as well. 

I had never actually looked FORWARD to going to the gym or working out with a trainer prior to Sam.  Nothing ever felt stale because we did a variety of workouts, ranging from kickboxing, to kettlebells, to weighted Indian bats, floor exercises, endurance drill competitions between clients, and much much more!  He was very available via phone and email, proactively checking on my progress, both physically and mentally. 

At the very least, do the personal assessment with Sam.  His keen eye for detecting bad form and habits will provide you new information about your body and the way you use it. If certain habits aren't corrected (if you aren't aware of them, how can you begin to change them?), they could lead to very debilitating injuries in the near or distance future..." Read more.

Here's a testimonial she shot at the contest:




About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Paula Dean Has Diabetes

Paula Deen just recently came out and admitted to having Type 2 diabetes for the past 3 years. Which probably does not come as a big shock to a lot of people. I hope she gets well.

The shocking thing though is:

She has stated she will not change her diet.

She is now the spokesperson for a diabetes pill.

People (including herself) keep thinking its the high fat content of her diet, and not the high sugar and processed carb content of her diet. She recently made a dish where she used ingredients with lower calories and different fat sources. Too much fat and the wrong kinds of fat is bad but what about lower glycemic index, less sugar, and less processed?

She did however say she is going to drink less sweet tea. But it bothers me that high fat is at the forefront of this argument as opposed to high sugar.


About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Harvard Professor Barefoot Convert

The Source Of McDonald's Nuggets

http://docakilah.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/can-you-guess-what-mcdonald%E2%80%99s-food-item-this-is/

Inspirational Martial Artist

Ben has a great story. I tell his story to all my other clients who are self doubters. He was a DJ, he didn't know how to play one instrument. He taught himself how to use a computer program to make digital music and now he is a highly sought out producer for digital music on commercials.

The other special thing about Ben is that he was involved in a car accident. His left leg got smashed. They saved his foot but they had to fuse it to his ankle. Goodbye mobility. He had a life long obsession with martial arts but he was never able to train. Too fearful, and no school would take him because of his limitations.

Somehow he came to me and we started to work together in MMA. When I filmed him working the pads with his pad holder Matt, if I didn't know him, I would have no idea he had any issues.

He doesn't let stuff like a fused ankle stop him from strengthening his mind, body, or doing kick ass moves.

So I have one question. What's your excuse?



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Guest Coach

Guest Coach Cindy showing some martial artists the finer points of the Turkish Get Up.

How To Run And How Not To Run

I took a video of a client before I made any changes to his running form. His regular form of exercise has been running and his running is typical of most people. He wears sneakers and steps heavy onto his heels and kicks the ground away as he extends his knee.

Pulling up your ankle that many times to land on your heel will cause shin splints, landing on your heel is very hard impact on your body. It's like a car constantly going over bumps. It's also inefficient and a slower way to run and you will be more prone to injury.

Instead you should run as if you were running on ice. Pulling the ground away, lifting your heel up. It should look like shuffling. Actually to compare, it looks a lot like how a horse or gazelle runs. How a typical runner runs...I can't think of one animal that runs like that.

The best shoes to wear when you run are barefoot/minimalist shoes as I have linked over to the right. You can feel yourself make contact with the ground as you pull the ground away. That feel is very important in everything you do. Power comes from the feet up. They also say you illness starts from the feet up.




About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Man Earns Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt At 78

http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-0114-blackbelt-20120113,0,1768188.story

Oldest Competitive Body Builder

Henry Ford Quote

My Favorite New Work Out Shoes

On a whim I ordered some shoes from RMAX to wear at my gym. I needed something for both martial arts and fitness. I have 4 different kinds of barefoot style shoes, but none of them were a good cross trainer for fitness AND martial arts. I read the reviews, saw the endorsements, especially from a lot of BJJ guys including Steve Maxwell who is also a world renowned strength trainer as well.

I LOVE these shoes. Best shoes I've worn. It molds to your feet. Feels like your wearing nothing, but feet still feel protected. If you need shoes to spar in, unlike wrestling shoes, these won't hurt your ankle or knee because of the excess traction that sticks your foot to the mat. That's the main reason I didn't like my other shoes. On my rubber plyomats, whenever I pivoted, it hurt my knees. Not with these.

Click on the picture below to pick up a pair.

Fitness Has Been Defined!

“Every man should be able to save his own life. 

He should be able to swim far enough, run fast and long enough to save his life

 in case of emergency and necessity.  He also should be able to chin himself 

a reasonable number of times, as well as to dip a number of times, 

and he should be able to jump a reasonable height and distance.” 

- Earle E. Liederman (Endurance 1926)

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Stuff Women Say To Trainers

I've heard about 80-90% of this from actual clients.

Fotoshop

Yes this is what we've come to.

Hip Hop Granny

This 71 year old granny is moving the way you WISH you could move. Age truly is only a number.



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Martial Arts As Strength

I was fortunate enough to take a class with the legendary "Cobrinha" Rubens Charles Macial the other day. In watching him teach and move, I got a small glimpse into why he is as good as he is. It's impossible for me not to look for efficiency issues everywhere. So I am going to break down Cobrinha as an athlete and his ability to generate strength.

The Athlete

Cobrinha is not just a great BJJ player, he's also a great athlete who could have excelled at many sports. All BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is, is a series of movement patterns. No matter the physical activity or sport, all movement patterns obey the same laws of physics and biomechanics.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the importance of proper movement, energy leakage, and BJJ technique. Better aligned and straighter movements can create more force. Misaligned and rounded movements leak energy, and you can lose 50% of your strength and feel overpowered. Or with proper movement, feel that much stronger.

For you to constantly stay aligned, you also need great flexibility and body control. 99% of the BJJ players out there look like this when they bend over to pass the guard.

Us Mere Mortals

Not to throw my buddy Budo Jake under the bus here but this is how most of us do it. Look at his back, its round. Any lifter would tell you, you will not be able to get to your maximum deadlift or squat with a rounded back like that. You are leaking 30%-50% of your energy. Not only that, you are more likely to tire your back out and also cause injury to yourself. But our posture is poor anyway. We sit at a desk all day, we are rounded forward, and this is what is comfortable and what we know. If I told someone to flatten their back and bring it to a neutral position, they may not know how to send those signals to their body.

World Champion Level

As I was searching for images, almost every competitor at black belt in the worlds could maintain a neutral spine now matter how bent over they were or how squatted they were.

As bent over as Cobrinha gets to show a move, his back stayed neutral. He can generate a lot of strength for lifting or driving here, while keeping his back from getting tired and relying on his main muscle driver, his glutes.

Probably at this level of competition, if YouTube videos are any indicator, the guys who do this full-time also have access to strength coaches who can show them how to generate more power and assess them for functional movement pattern distortions.






Same Move In the Strength World

In the example shown above, it looks a lot like this technique that Pavel Tsatsouline is showing. A variation of the Zercher squat, called the Zercher dead-lift. Pavel is generating a lot of force here, enough so that they are studying how he is able to manage such strength in that awkward position.

But look at his back, how neutral he can maintain his back. Observe  his neck, he is looking at the floor, so his cervical is also more in lined with his spine. As opposed to looking off to the horizon.



Putting It All Together

Now look back at Cobrinha. He is also looking down and keeping his thoracic, cervical, and lumbar spine in alignment. An athlete of Pavel and Cobrinha's level who are already gifted, who are aligned, can generate a lot of force here. In Pavel's case he can lift a lot of weight. In Cobrinha's case he is generating a lot of pounds per squat inch pressure onto his opponent.

How We Train

It reminds me of all the terrible conditioning I see at strength camps and martial arts academies where everything is misaligned, and its hackneyed strong man moves with none of the proper technique. You end up with some decent cardio and strength, but your energy leakages also get strengthened that much more.

Strength is definitely also a skill, like BJJ, that needs to be drilled perfectly over and over and over.


About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Rise Up!

In a previous post, I wrote about being able to stand up and to gain motivation to work out. I decided to show a video of physical demonstrations of this act. One is of The Turkish Get Up while balancing a yoga block. I choice a yoga block because I wanted to show the move was about being seamless and steady, as opposed to being able to just muscle a lot of weight.

The other example I show is of a self defense stand up. I mentioned in that previous post that getting up is about being able to get up under duress, but also to be able to keep yourself safe while you get up. So the self defense version of the get up is a great example.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.