If you’ve not heard of this: Fasted Cardio is when you do cardio first thing in the morning before you put anything in your mouth. Bodybuilders will do this because they say it’ll burn more fat for energy? Is this true? The science seems reasonable. When you first wake up you have very low blood sugar: the lowest you’ll have all day probably. When you exercise with low blood sugar, the theory is that your body is *forced* to recruit fat for energy because you’ve got no sugars floating about. Your body consumes them during your sleep cycle. Makes sense, right? Personally I believe that a calorie is largely a calorie and you can burn it at any time of day, and all this may be muscle head superstition. But also: I 100% do fasted cardio 😂. I don’t care if it’s a placebo or superstition because many bodybuilders swear by it and I’ll do the crazy thing if it *might* get me 2% leaner at the end of the day. There’s no downside, and anecdotally there’s an upside. Why not squeeze out every possibility? I also just enjoy having done cardio first thing. It makes me feel accomplished and energized in a way, even before the sun rises.

I created a real for the guys I’m coaching, and I wanted to share it here as well. For many guys I trained, and myself included, there are injuries. We have to be aware of and so loading up a ton more weight to improve in the gym is not always a great idea. So how do you improve? The answer is special techniques. _____ I've seen this method called the "Long Pause" but I know it as the "Dead-Stop Technique". You might recognize it and see it called something else; everyone has their own nicknames. The reason I call it the "Dead Stop" is because the theory behind its usefulness reminds me of the mechanics of a Deadlift. The reason you call a Deadlift a Deadlift is because you are pulling the weight up from a dead stop. You shouldn't be bouncing at the termination of the movement. The reason being that bouncing is a way of using elastic momentum to cheat yourself of work. It takes much more energy to pull the weight from a dead stop and so you get more out of the Deadlift if you stop between arcs of motion. When you apply this same idea across exercises, you'll find that you get a lot more work out of a familiar motion without having to increase weight. Pause at the bottom of a motion - come to a complete stop - and then engage again for each rep. You will likely have to decrease weight to get the most out of this. For a large portion of my guys - and myself included - this kind of special technique is useful because increasing weight is sometimes not feasible: if you're over 40 you may have injuries or anxieties about possible injuries that prevent you from going Hulk mode. Special techniques are a great way of making progress with a lower risk of injury.

I wrote this for a few guys I'm training who wanted something spicier than steady state cardio. It's a pretty straightforward High Intensity Interval program on a bike, but you don't have to use a bike. I actually use the Stair Mill and just vary the intensity. Stair mill is actually crazy because I have to concentrate on not falling, but still... it can be effective if you have the bandwidth and are bored with just treadmill. Sound off below if you like the HIIT routine and if you'd like to see more stuff like this!