First, a little science. Protein is one of the three macronutrients, along with fats and carbohydrates, that comprise the foods we eat. A gram of protein is about 4 net calories, and is most often associated with meats, dairy products like yogurt and cheese and, to a lesser extent, nuts, legumes...
Coach Stevo's Sunrise is canceled tomorrow, December
So I'm on vacation in NYC and staying with my sister-in-law, who has a very nice gym in her apartment building. It has more cardio machines and floor space than my gym in SF. It also has more people that do not know what they are doing. I watched a trainer put a 95lb man through 6 different tricep...
"Hey Coach Stevo, can women get too bulky lifting big weights?" Can they? Yes. Will they? Very unlikely. Quite frankly, I spend most of my day trying to convince women to either eat a little more or significantly less and that is not a recipe for muscle gain, no matter how many heavy things you...
So, I did it. 10,000 swings in 23 days. What's that look like? I averaged 435 swings per day, but that's not an insightful statistic. On some days I did none, and on my last two days I swung the bell 2,500 times. The fact is, swings are simple. And once you learn a few tricks, it's pretty easy to...
My wife pointed out to me today that every women's magazine in the world has Thanksgiving diet tips this week. Since I like to think of myself as well versed in the zeitgeist of fitness (everyone's swinging bells now, right?), I thought I would cut through the fat and give you some real Turkey Day...
Today I woke up and decided to do 1,000 hard-style kettlebell swings in an hour. 1,000 days ago, on February 14th, 2008, I woke up and decided to run a mile. What a difference 1,000 days makes. There are many reasons that we can decide to change something in our lives. We can make ourselves do...
There's something that 3,300 kettlebell swings in a week will teach you like nothing else: It's all in the hips. What's "all?" Everything. Anything. Whenever you move, whenever you stand or sit still, you are using your hips. There are (at least) 17 different muscles that act on the...
So you've been thinking you wanna change your body. You wanna drop some fat or gain some hotness. Maybe you just want to get Coach Stevo's autograph (he's dreamy!). Well on the first Wednesday of every month, you'll get your chance... for free! This Wednesday at 6:30am in South Park) will...
Last night I decided to do something stupid. I decided to do 10,000 hard-style kettlebell swings in the month of November. Ok, so stupid might be debatable, but I think we can all agree it is hard and entirely arbitrary. And while the goal is lofty and foolish, my reasons for doing it are are...
Posterior What? Look in the mirror and what do you see? Pretty face, nice chest, good abs. You're a sexy mofo! But wait a minute... your back always hurts, you couldn't pick up a sack of flour off the floor, and your 40yd time would be measured in minutes. What? Why?! Because you got no bootie,...
The Cook Hip Lift Most people have trouble with glute activation. Glutes are pretty much the most important muscle in the body for functional movement (and hotness), so training those butt muscles to fire is an extremely important part of any training routine. Cook Hip Lifts, which I stole from...
Eat Less. Move
"Hey Coach Stevo, what's with people running in those ridiculous shoes with the toes?" Ok, so there's a guy named Christopher McDougall who wrote a book in 2009 called Born to Run. In this book McDougall finds a bunch of native Mexicans called the Tarahumara who like to run a lot. Some of them even...
Never Say Never or Always. This is a philosophical point, but one that I feel is important for creating the body that you want over the long haul. I was having a conversation with a young guy who wants to become a personal trainer. He is going to work at a big corporate gym where (ostensibly) they...
I watch people train all day. They lift, they jog, they stretch, and sometimes they come back again. Most do not, but those that do usually see results. But then there are those that I see every day and seem to be treading water. They bang away at the equipment in desperation and frustration,...
I tell people all the time that, "this stuff ain't rocket science." By "stuff," I mean taking care of your body, and by "ain't rocket science," I am totally lying. Quite frankly, working out and being in the best shape you can be to move through this world shares a lot in common with rocket...
Things have been kinda quiet on coachstevo.com, but that's not because I've gotten lazy. For the past few weeks, I have been attacking the next stage in my fitness education: nutrition. When I lost all this weight in 2008, I learned a lot about how to avoid sugar and eat proper portion sizes, and...
One of the main problems that people complain about (and that trainers project onto clients as a problem) is "core strength." I have seen these buzz words in magazines and on gym membership ads for years and it has begun to bother me. Not that publishers and gyms are using it as a hook, but the...
It's running season again, and while I don't recommend running for all (or even most) of my clients, I simply cannot live without it. The fascinating thing about running to me is testing the limits of my own fatigue. But this leads to a question: What is fatigue? What is the mechanism that allows...