Choose your own adventure!

.....Do you take a left and head into the fiery pit of despair, or do you take a right and battle a fierce gorilla ape bear man type creature that will cause you intense bodily harm?  Oh how I miss those books!

Life has many incredibly tough choices.  Most of which have positive and beneficial impacts on our lives while others negative or destructive.  Almost daily I'm asked for advice on a myriad of topics.  Most questions come at me formed like this

"Hey Big Will, I want to get ripped and lean while also putting on muscle"  Or " I want to put on X amount of muscle while losing weight"

Both questions are almost identical just worded differently.  I've seen many a athlete struggle with these questions and others like it. Trying to chase the ever elusive "get big and cut" oxymoron has placed people in a workout limbo. 

My advice is simple.  Choose your own adventure.  If you want to lower your body fat, gain muscle size and bone density, train for a specific sports event or whatever the case may be choose and set a goal first.  It will be much easier to produce trackable and visable  results to either bulk up first and slim down or slim down first and then bulk back up.  It's a matter of setting a goal, planing a diet and regime around it and sticking too it.  As soon as you deviate caloricly or from your training regime you will be in the same turbulent cycle you were before.  Not losing weight and not getting too much bigger just hitting a plateu.

So make up your mind ladies and gentlemen before you waste your time and money, both of which are important to you I'm sure. 

Define your goal. Plan your goal. Reach your goal.

New site coming soon... SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!!

It is so!  I should be launching.... WWW.WhatsGoodWithWill.com in a short week or so.  With any luck there you guys will be able to ask me questions, follow my workouts, see some recipes I put up and ultimately get your grubby little mitts on my "Big Will's Fight Fit" workout!!!!

I know, I know.  Just take a step back and breath.  It's a lot of exciting information to take in!  Fortunately for you fat sacks Big Will's here to keep you all in line as one big happy and healthy functional family!

Stay tuned!!!!

Be effecient. Be, be effecient YAY!!!!!

"Bro, I spent like 3 hours in the gym today".  If I had a nickel for every time I heard that at the gym I'd have at least $10...... no wait maybe $20  I don't really care how much time you spend at the gym, and neither should you.  The quality of the time spent in exercise endeavors is what's important.  As a general rule of thumb, I workout 5 times a week for no more that 1 hour at a time.  This keeps me happy, healthy and fit while still giving me plenty of time to do the things that I enjoy.  Mostly Starcraft 2.

So what am I trying to get at?  Well the real meat and potatoes is this people.... Stop doing "cardio"!  Cardiovascular conditioning by definition is the bodies ability of your heart, lungs and organs to consume, transport and utilize oxygen  The funny thing about most "cardio" type workouts is that the longer you do them, the more you get used to them.  The more you get used to them the less effective that exercise will be!  If you run 5 miles everyday and it takes you 1 hour every time your cardiovascular system will adapt to this workload.  This results in a lower heart rate during that run and thus less calories burned over the same period of time.  This is true of all endurance type sports that maintain a steady even pace (biking, running, swimming).

For those reasons I prefer the interval style workout of kickboxing and the full bore approach of crossfit style workouts.  Both workouts require your maximal effort followed by a brief rest period before doing another explosive motion.  Your recruiting more muscles in more explosive motions and in return by keeping your body in constant flux of a 85% - 90% heart rate your burning more calories over a extended period of time (during and after the exercise).  


"but wiiilllllll, I love to ride my bike and run for hours at a time!" and that's fine, kudos to you for doing something rather than nothing.  My advice to you runners and bike riders would be to change up either your intensity or duration.  Shoot for more miles in the same amount of time or the same amount of miles in a shorter amount of time.  This goes for runners as well.  

Or you could get of your bikes, put down your shoes and join a kickboxing class, either works.  I prefer the latter.

Mic check, one, two..... three?

I just returned from recording a hours worth of material for the improved version of the Will Rutten disc.  Recording in a more professional settting can be a daunting task to say the least.  3 pages of notes compiled over 6 hours coupled with 2 scoops of 1.M.R. took that recording session to a whole new level.  My level.  Which I call level two...!

I'm hoping to have the final disc, with music no less, available to purchase and download in the upcoming weeks.  This way Big Will can be with you, inside your head, motivating you and demanding excellence even if I'm not there to do it in person!

Lastly, the name "Will Rutten" is a working title.  Any ideas for a title change would be appreciated.  I'm leaning towards "Big Will's hour long, make you want to vomit, kick your ass CD challenge extravaganza extraordinaire".  Which is another working title.

9/3/2011 WOD

In the uncomfortable mid 80 degree weather the team hammered out a simple, yet effective workout today.  After 5 minutes of jump rope and 15 minutes of kick work we arrive at the meat and potatoes of the afternoon....

50 pull ups
100 push ups
150 sit ups
200 air squats
1 mile run

For time

The best time was 22:58 by CKP.  How well can you guys do?!?!?!  Give it a shot and post some results!

...It's better to kick ass than kiss it.

Have truer words ever been said?  Although I stole them from a Eminem song, it's still a good motto to live by and one of many phrases I repeat to myself amidst a grueling work out. 

You know you've been there.  Your warm up is a painfully slow and difficult process.  Those first reps of your routine seem so difficult Atlus himself couldn't complete them.  Every passing second feels like a minute and you are literally dragging your feet like a zombie.  We've all been there at some point in time.  That feeling of fatigue, that "burned out" sensation that sticks with us for days or weeks on end.  It could be a number of things.  Lack of sleep, poor diet, too much exercise, adrenal fatigue.... the list goes on. 

What about motivation?  Are you motivated enough to complete the task at hand despite how you feel, or perceive you feel at that moment?  What things do you do to prepare yourself for a long day of work followed by a intense physical workout?  Is it performance?  Is it that cute chick at the coffee stand?  Do you simply want to have a nice fanny or slim waistline?  For me, motivation comes in a few different forms.  The first, fitness is my career.  I want to look, feel and perform my best so people in the industry will respect me as a man who practices what he preaches. Secondly I don't want to get my ass kicked or my handsome baby face marred so I train with the mentality that everyone is gunning for me, for my job and my head. Health, longevity and bringing sexy back are all great motivators.  I still feel nothing motivates me more than the potential ass kicking waiting for me tomorrow if I don't do what's needed today.

So what about you?  I'm interested in hearing what you guys have for motivators, mantra's or just thoughts about how you motivate yourself in general to stay on track and keep your head in the game.  Post away!