Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance

In the new Vigor Life podcast episode that drops tomorrow, I talk with about everything nutrition when it comes to getting lean and muscular (as well as how to not make it negatively affect performance if you’re an athlete.

This episode is packed with 💎

In this clip Jon talks about the principle of getting lean first before putting on muscle and why he believes that’s so important.

1. Priming the “food processing machine.”

Getting super lean acts as a reset button for your metabolism.

When your body fat is lower:

✔️ Insulin sensitivity skyrockets: Your body becomes highly efficient at shuttling carbohydrates and nutrients directly into the muscle cells for recovery and growth, rather than storing them as fat.

✔️ Higher rate of gastric emptying: Your digestive system is primed to handle and process the massive amounts of food required in a heavy building phase.

2. Extending your growth runway.

If you start a bulking phase when you already have a higher body fat percentage, you have very little “runway” before you simply look and feel too heavy, forcing you to cut early. By getting lean first, you give yourself a long, sustainable timeline to eat in a caloric surplus and pack on actual muscle tissue while remaining relatively lean throughout the process

3. Building the necessary appetite.

To build substantial amounts of muscle, especially at an elite or advanced level, you have to consume a high volume of food. Jon says executing a strict diet on the front end naturally sparks and builds the intense appetite required to consistently down a massive surplus of calories later on.

4. Taking inspiration from elite bodybuilders.

Jon highlights top-tier bodybuilders as proof of this concept. Beyond any performance-enhancing drugs, he attributes their ability to pack on “stupid amounts of muscle” to the fact that they get shredded multiple times a year. This constant cycling forces their bodies to become hyper-efficient at processing and utilizing nutrients whenever they flip the switch back to a caloric surplus.

Tune into the episode on iTunes or Spotify tomorrow.

No Progress In Behavior Change Without Understanding The Bio psychosocial Model (& Motivational Interviewing)

I had an incredible podcast with on the hidden bottlenecks in clients nutrition, how to improve gut health, peptides, and how to actually help people overcome what they “know” they should do.

Everyone faces ambivalence when it comes to changing behaviors.

Ambivalence is the state of having mixed, conflicting, or contradictory feelings about something or someone at the exact same time. It’s that classic “tug-of-war” in your head where you are simultaneously pulled in two opposite directions.

“I want to avoid bloating, but I also wanna be social and calm down after a long week with some glasses of wine.” 🍷

To be clear, ambivalence isn’t the same as being indifferent or bored. Indifference means you don’t care at all. Ambivalence means you care a lot—just in conflicting ways.

Helping someone to make a change requires a lot more than just telling them what’s the right thing to do. It requires real coaching, asking, listening, motivational interviewing skills.

We dive into this with all the other topics on this weeks Vigor Life Podcast which you can find on iTunes, and Spotify 🎙️

99 Metabolic Exercises with Little To No Equipment

You may have 99 problems but from now on, finding a fun, challenging metabolic exercise will NOT be one of them.

I created this video 10 years ago, to give you a ton of variety for metabolic workouts at home or outside with just your bodyweight or some simple tools that are very affordable.

I’d make these types of videos for our fam so they’d have resources for short training session on the road or hotels that aren’t well equipped.

Pick and choose an interval or density scheme, have a time and go at it (all of these can be great in less than 30 or even 20 mins or less).

I’ll share more of these on here that are on YouTube and you can save them and use them (I apologize for the suspect music 😂).

Shoulder Mobility Flow You Can Do Anywhere

This is one I still go to because it’s so simple to plug in throughout the day and I can do it up against a post.

I go through the full 2-minute sequence in this video and the shoulders feel so much better after.

Save this one and try it out and see how you feel after.

Great Tool For Building Strength & Muscle (As Well As Coaching Tool 🧰)

The micro add on plates are underrated when it comes to improving your lifts!

Many times for someone starting on their strength journey, jumping 5 lbs with DB’s can be a huge jump (for example, goin from 15-20 lbs DB Bench Press is a 33% jump in weight), so using 1.25 lb progressions can be a great way to build slow and smooth from week to week and month to month.

It’s also a great tool as you get stronger. For example, I was doing sets of 10 with 2 x 105 lbs on a slight incline. Jumping to 110 lbs is a big jump at that rep range and would drop my reps quite a bit (when you get close to your maxes, a 5lb jump may put you in a whole different rep bracket). By adding 1.25 lbs or 2.5 lbs, I’m progressing it, keeping it challenging but can still keep it in my rep ranges.

I talk often about the “Goldilocks zone” which means just the right amount of challenge. The micro plates are perfect for creating just the right amount of challenge.

Great tool for the home gym, coaching gym (for coaches), and small so you can put it in your gym bag if you got to the big box gym.

P.S. This is not sponsored, it’s just a tool I love to use at

Normalize Being Athletic at 40+ Years Old

The best way to have athleticism at 40 is to never lose it, by training all the abilities throughout the decades.

If you have lost it, the great thing is you can build it back up far beyond what most people believe is possible.

I’m not here to tell you what level of athleticism and performance you should want, that’s up to you, but what I’ve found is that most people start believing their best days are behind them, when the truth is, with proper programming, lifestyle, coaching, they can achieve performance better than in their 20’s.

I turned 45 this week and while my performance isn’t as peak as when I played pro basketball, it’s isn’t far from there either (and some things I’ve PR’d on this year that are better than when I was 25!).

Sprint, jump (in all different ways), throw, do athletic things, lift light weights fast, lift heavy weights fast, be explosive.

And if you’re just getting started, it’s ok, start slow, get some guidance, regress movements and have a longer runway. Don’t rush it, be smart. But also don’t give up and throw your hands up thinking it’s “too late.”

Never peak.

Glute Building Exercise You Haven’t Tried

This one is from coach and is great as an assistance exercise in a program and a true 🍑 burner.

Keep that foot at a 45-degree angle and get into the stretch and then drive out and open up the hips and externally rotate.

12-15 reps on this one is a great rep range with smooth tempo.

Save this and try it as I bet you’ll keep it in your glute building toolbox 🧰

Hip Series Sequence For Your Warm Up

I think you’ll see that did not know I was filming her based on her face a couple seconds in 😂

I really liked this hip activation series after soft tissue work and mobility, where you go from:

✔️ Single Leg RDL
✔️ Hip Airplane
✔️ Hip CARs
✔️ Hip/Knee Flexion

Add the foam roller as a constraint to keep you honest and hit this for 6-8 reps per side and it will also cook your 🍑