On episode 2 of The Iron Life Podcast I share my 32 lessons of life, training, mindset, nutrition business and life in hopes to help you create the habits that will lead to a better life
Click below to listen.
http://theironlifepodcast.libsyn.com/the-iron-life-podcast-episode-2-32-lessons-of-life-training-nutrition-business-and-personal-growth
On Episode 1 I tell my story and why I started in the fitness industry.
I discuss the struggles I’ve faced in life that have helped me discover my purpose in hopes that you can discover yours as well.
Click below to listen.
http://theironlifepodcast.libsyn.com/episode-1
If you’ve been following me on social media for a while then you probably know that I’ve been learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pretty intensely for nearly the last year.
I’m just a white belt learning all of the basics, but little by little I can see myself improving. I’m by no means an expert, but I’m working to learn as much as I can.
What I’d like to share with you today is the valuable lessons I’ve gathered from the sport that can be valuable for you to apply to your own life, as I have began to apply to my own.
Before we get into the lessons, you should first have an understanding of what Jiu-Jitsu is so this article make a little more sense for you.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a form of grappling where two competitors try to submit one another using chokes and a variety of joint locks like arm bars, shoulder locks, knee bars etc.
It’s a martial art that relies heavily on leverage, technique, proper body position and the mind. It is also a form of problem solving and is often referred to as human chess since you’re constantly trying to stay one step ahead of your opponent.
Now that you have an idea of what Jiu-Jitsu is, let’s get into it.
Lesson #1: You cannot rely solely on your strengths. You must develop your weaknesses.
I’ve been obsessed with strength training and coaching for a long time now, so although I’m not the strongest guy in the world, I have a pretty good level of strength, power and endurance. For the most part, I’m physically stronger than most people that I roll with.
Early on I thought that I’d be able to out-muscle some of the guys I was training with and that I’d be ok. Man, what a dipshit way of thinking. In about 12 seconds I realized I was dead wrong.
People half my size were strangling me with my own limbs and nearly snapping my arm in half. I don’t want to say that my strength was useless because it certainly is an asset; however it was the only tool I had in my toolbox and it wasn’t the tool I needed. In order for me to get better I needed to learn the art and fill up my toolbox with technique and awareness of what my opponent is trying to do.
In life, many people rely solely on their strengths and never address their weaknesses. Maybe you’re very intellectually smart but have sub-par social skills or vice versa. Maybe you’re heavily involved in yoga but don’t do much strength training or the other way around. That’s when injuries and other problems occur.
There needs to be some type of balance in your life, the yin and the yang. Use your strengths to your advantage, but open up your world and expose yourself to the areas that need work so you can then evolve as a human being. I believe that when you do that you create the potential to live a very fulfilling life.
Lesson #2: You can’t always have control over everything, but you can control how you respond
One thing most of us seek is control. It’s why so many people get anxious on a plane; they’re totally out of control.
In Jiu-Jitsu, there are times when I’m getting smashed and in a bad position. It’s uncomfortable, you can’t breathe, can’t move and have the sweat from another dude dripping into your eyes and mouth…yeah, not the best place to be.
Early on I’d get extremely frustrated in these positions and would start whaling around trying to get out. All that would do is leave me even more exhausted which made the position worse.
I needed to learn how to relax and get comfortable being uncomfortable. I’m not saying that you should just give up and accept the beating, I’m saying that sometimes it’s important to accept what you don’t have full control over and strategically work your way into a better position. Or, at least work yourself into the right state of mind.
If you allow emotions to get the best of you, I assure that you’ll be in a worse position in life with energy wasted on something you had no control over. Instead, be strategic, control your thoughts, your breathing and start working yourself into a better position.
Lesson #3: Life is a game of chess, be strategic
As the old saying goes, if you fail to plan you plan to fail. Most people going through life like they’re going to live forever. No goal setting, no planning and growing old without any thought or direction as to how they want their life to play out. Maybe they think about it once in a while, but there’s no real plan to get them there.
The same goes for fitness. Usually people have very vague goals like “I want to lose some weight” and think that just showing up at the gym is going to get them the results they want.
It doesn’t work that way!
You need a coach and you need a plan!
My first few weeks in Jiu-Jitsu I never had a plan when I’d spar with someone. I’d just go, go, go and would always end up getting choked. Don’t get me wrong, I still get my ass kicked and submitted all of the time, but my game is improving because I now have enough information to apply some sort of strategy.
And because of that I’m getting better in other areas of my life.
That’s all we can do, my friend. Do your best every single day to improve in some small way.
Strive to improve at work, in your relationship, in your health, in your friendships…in all areas of your life. But if you don’t create a game plan on how you’ll improve it’s going to be very difficult to grow.
I hope that you see these lessons clearly and start to apply them to your own life immediately. There are lessons all around us. I encourage you to be more conscious and aware of them so you can take your life, fitness and career to the next level.
Thanks for reading.
365 days.
That’s how long you’ve been waiting.
Tomorrow turned into next week. Next week into next month. Next month is now next year.
It’s been going on much longer than that. Probably your entire life.
You’ve told yourself you have a goal, but how seriously did you take it?
Did you make the time? Did you prioritize? Or did you bullshit?
Did you lie to yourself?
I don’t have time.
I don’t have money.
It will be better when…
The lies piled up and you got worse.
Now you’re here.
365 days later, even worse than you were a year ago.
Your eating sucks, your sleep sucks, your job sucks, your fitness sucks, and you said you were going to change it all. But it didn’t happen.
Why not?
Is it the moon? The sun? The ocean? Your spouse? Chinese New Year? The new baby? The wedding?
No.
It’s because of YOU.
Yeah, I know, you’re busy. You can save that fuckin’ excuse. I know you have 15 minutes somewhere. And no one is busy enough to have to squeeze in a 15 minute workout, but if that’s what you say ya got well, find 15 minutes.
You want to change? You want to say “New year, new me” and all that bullshit? Then you need to be honest with yourself.
Stop fucking lying.
Take a long hard look in the mirror. That’s who’s responsible for your failures. That’s who’s responsible for all of your success. That’s who’s responsible. Period.
The president has nothing to do with your choices. Nor does your spouse. You are the reason why you succeed or why you fail.
Own up to that. That’s step one.
Step two: Have a specific goal.
If you say “I want to lose weight this year” you’ve already failed. Be as specific as possible.
“I want to lose 37 lbs. by April 1, 2019 and fit into a 32 jeans” is more like it. The more specific the better.
Write that shit down and read it every single day. If you don’t know exactly what you want then you won’t know how to achieve it.
Step three: Create a detailed plan.
When will you train? How many days per week? For how long? What does your training routine look like?
What time will you go to sleep? What time will you wake up?
What will your diet look like? When will you food shop? When will you cook? How will you deal with work, events, parties etc? Plan for these events.
You know the old cliché. “If you fail to plan you plan to fail”.
Create a plan.
Step four: Work your fucking ass off.
There are no shortcuts.
No magic diets.
No magic programs.
Unrelenting hard fucking work, commitment and discipline are what it will take. If you don’t succeed accept the fact that you are lazy, lack commitment, undisciplined or all of the above. If that pisses you off, please revert back to the mirror.
Take ownership.
This isn’t only about fitness.
The same four steps can and should be applied to every area of your life.
Relationship not going so great? See above.
Hate your job? See above,
Not happy with who you are… you get the point.
2019 can be the best year of your life. It can include incredible transformation inside and out. But just because some silly ball drops doesn’t mean everything is going to be different.
If you want a different result then YOU have to change.
Because YOU can change ANYTHING you want about yourself. You can change your life and live the life you’ve always imagined.
But it doesn’t just happen with the same old routine.
It’s time to man the fuck up.
It’s time to put on your hard hat and go to fucking work.
It’s time to become the YOU that YOU have the potential to become.
But it’s up to you and you only.
That doesn’t mean you won’t need help. I highly recommend you seek out the experts in whatever it is you want to change and have them help you get there.
But we can’t do the work for you.
Only you can do that.
And that doesn’t start on January 1st.
That starts right fucking now.
So Happy Fucking New Year.
It’s time to go to work.
If you do and stay consistent, then I promise that you will be a different creature 365 days from now.
It’s possible. But it’s up to you.
Be safe today and always. Here’s to the best year of your life.
Stop. There’s a real problem with your solution for headaches, aches and pains.
For years you’ve been told to “just take an Advil” whenever you had a headache. So for as far back as you can remember, you tossed down a few ibuprofen whenever you didn’t feel so hot.
You may even take some ibuprofen pretty regularly for minor aches and pains. But there’s a huge problem with this and you need to check this out…
Ibuprofen has been known for years to put your liver under some pretty significant stress. But lately more and more research has come out and shown even more problematic effects it can have.
For one, the FDA has placed a strong warning about the detrimental effects on cardiovascular health and how ibuprofen can increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.
What’s more, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen have been found to wreck havoc on your gut microbiome and modify gut flora (good bacteria in the gut)
Recent studies have also shown that NSAIDs can increase gut permeability. Gut permeability is referring to what’s allowed to get through the intestinal lining and get absorbed in the blood, which is important for nutrients to get absorbed. However, when gut or intestinal permeability becomes excessive this is called leaky gut, which means that the stuff that’s not supposed to leave the gut is getting sent out right into your bloodstream. This alone creates a host of other issues they goes beyond the scope of this article.
Additionally, NSAIDs have been shown to cause intestinal bleeding and ulcers.
If heart attacks, strokes, ulcers, intestinal bleeding, leaky gut, liver damage and modifications to your gut microbiome aren’t convincing enough for you to only take ibuprofen when you ABSOLUTELY need it then I’m not sure what will. But that’s all the information I need.
But what if you’re in pain? What are some alternatives that you can take that don’t have these harmful side effects? I’m glad you asked.
First off, a lot of pain (especially the minor aches) are caused by inflammation. So let’s go to the root cause of the problem and discuss how to lower inflammation, rather than popping another Advil and putting a bandage on it.
1. Stop eating inflammatory foods
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but sugar, flour and low quality oils are among the biggest culprits. Cut them out of your diet and focus on earth grown nutrients. If you already eat super clean but still face some joint pain I’d suggest taking more of a paleo approach and cut out all grains as well. But if your diet is poor start by simply cleaning it up first.
2. Supplement
Typically I’ll have people refer to their blood work to see where they need to supplement. However there are some that can go a long way when it comes to reducing inflammation.
They are:
These three supplements are incredible for reducing inflammation and are completely safe to take. In fact, there are even more benefits to taking each of them than just reducing inflammation. Just don’t get the low quality stuff, go with the brands I suggested. If you need more info on how much to take or what not, you can shoot me an email chris@tutelatraining.com and I’ll be happy to help.
3. Cold exposure
There are plenty of ways to expose yourself to cold.
I don’t care how you do it, but it’s important that you do. The only time I wouldn’t suggest exposing yourself to cold is post workout since your body is in need for the inflammation after training. I’d recommend hitting a cold tub or cryo sess on a day off or hours after training to help recovery.
4. Sleep
Simply put, without adequate sleep you’re fucked. Sleep is the cornerstone of health and longevity. Get 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night and let your body reduce inflammation on it’s own.
I want you to understand that just because something is common it doesn’t mean that it’s normal. It’s common for people to pop ibuprofen like tic-tacs but that doesn’t mean that it’s normal for your body to handle that. Start to think differently than what you’re used to.
I challenge you to think outside the box, and start to think differently than the people around you. Challenge what you’ve been told or doing your whole life. People resist change, but if you understand the harmful effects that stuff like this causes I’m hopeful that you’ll be encouraged to make a change.
Thanks for reading.
You’re probably aware that the food you eat effects the way you feel in the short term. You know that if you eat pizza and ice cream you’re going to feel bloated and lethargic shortly after.
But what you probably don’t know is that the food you eat plays a major role in your brain health, mood and the function of your immune system.
Say what? WHAT! Check this…
Your gut (the tunnel that runs from your esophagus to your anus) is made up of hundreds of trillions of bacteria.
This bacteria has many benefits. For one, it fights off the overgrowth of fungus like candida. It also supports your immune system by reinforcing the barrier of the intestinal lining and lowers the chances of the “bad” bacteria getting into your blood stream.
In addition to immune support and fighting off nasty fungal infections, your gut microbiome plays a major role in brain health.
Check this out…
Your gut is known as your “second brain” due to the fact that your intestines actually have their own nervous system consisting of about 100 million neurons which are typically associated with the brain. That said, the bacteria in your gut has direct communication with the brain. Within your intestines, there are more than 100 trillion microbes (microorganism like bacteria) which make up our gut microbiome.
Your diet, lifestyle and antibiotic use have a huge impact on the health of your gut microbiome. Science has shown that the gut microbiome will impact our behaviors, thinking, and predisposition to a variety of brain disorders. A healthy gut ratio should be about 85% good bacteria to 15% bad. When this ratio gets out of whack our gut microbiome can become dysfunctional, which has shown to be a root cause in anxiety, depression, ADHD and even play a role in personality traits.
Eating too much sugar, processed foods and frequently taking antibiotics when they’re not absolutely needed wreak havoc on your gut microbiome. Shit foods will allow for the bad bacteria to thrive and take over the bad to good bacteria ratio.
Antibiotics will destroy ALL bacteria, which can allow for fungal overgrowth AND the bad bacteria to again, eventually take over your gut. Of course there are times where we absolutely need antibiotics to survive, or to kick a nasty infection. Those are the times where we need them. However, there are many people who pop antibiotics for any little cold they come down with (and unfortunately doctors who overprescribe them). That’s where it gets bad.
Another thing that many people don’t realize is how bad ibuprofen, aspirin and naproxen pain relievers wreck your gut. These pain relievers have been found to disrupt your digestive flora and intestinal mucus. So if you’re one of those people who pop an ibuprofen for every little headache, ya gotta knock that shit off ASAP!
With all of that said, you must improve the health of your gut through the foods that you eat. The first step is cutting out all of the crap like sugar, flour and other inflammatory foods, and beverages like alcohol.
Then, you can add in a variety of fermented foods that will actually improve your gut and add more good bacteria to your army for gut health. They are, Greek yogurt, Kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha to name a few that I personally eat and drink. I also suggest supplementing daily with a quality probiotic.
The foods you eat (and don’t eat) and beverages you drink play a major role in your health and longevity. I want you to understand that good nutrition isn’t only about improving the way you look. It is necessary to improve your life.
Be very mindful of everything that you consume and be conscious of the effect it will have on the health of your gut.
Thanks for reading.
You want to lose more fat and keep it off. But you’ve struggled with this over and over again.
On today’s episode of TTS Talk, Ruben and I dive into how to get that body fat off once and for all.
CLICK HERE to check it out and be sure to comment below if you have any question.
If you found this episode helpful it would be really awesome if you could share it on Facebook for me. We could only help more people with the help of YOU.
Thanks so much.
Enjoy
On the second episode of TTS Talk Ruben and I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into helping you achieve your goals.
One of the best ways to do that is by understanding why you set that particular goal in the first place.
One of the biggest reasons why New Year’s resolutions are such bullshit is because most people don’t have a WHY behind their goal.
So CLICK HERE to find out the power of the WHY and how you can find yours as well.
Enjoy the show!
If you found this video to be helpful than do us a solid and click the share button or send it to someone close to you. Our goal is to make an impact on one million people world-wide and we can only do that with YOUR HELP!
Thanks in advance.
Welcome to the very first episode of TTS Talk!
This is your go-to YouTube series for everything health, fitness, strength, personal development and mindset. My co-host, colleague and long time friend Ruben Borges and I are prepared to dive deep in helping you transform your body and mind, and share our experiences with you in changing our own lives as well as the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who we’ve worked with throughout the years.
This isn’t just your typical training podcast. We’re going deep in helping you become strong; mentally and physically.
In Episode 1 of TTS Talk Ruben and I discuss:
And a whole lot of ball bustin!
Click HERE to watch the full episode.
If you have any questions that you’d like answered on one of our upcoming episodes be sure to drop a comment below and we will be happy to help!
If you liked this episode and found it helpful, it would truly mean the world to us if you would share it with your friends. It’s our goal to make an impact on as many people as possible and we could only do that if you spread the word!
Thanks in advance. Enjoy the show!
If you want to accomplish anything of significance in life then you’re going to need to forget about balance.
Balance is bullshit.
Although it’s what most fitness gurus talk about these days.
They say that balance is “the key” to better fitness results, lifestyle, etc.
So, they’re saying that if you want abs, eat clean 50% of the time and dog shit the other 50%.
Want to start a business? Work on it 50% of your workday and spend the other 50% on milfhunter.com. It’s about balance, right?!
If you want to be great at anything, then you gotta be fuckin’ relentless. Forget balance.
I’ll be the first to tell you that you need to enjoy your life. You need to have work and play. In fact, I’m a huge believer in that. However, the time you put into work is going to be considerably more than the time you spend with your friends. If you want to be successful that is.
If you want to lose body fat the ratio of eating clean to eating Pop-Tarts certainly should NOT be 1:1. The truth is you’ll need to eat clean (or eat real food) 90-95% of the time if you want to look and feel better. But these clowns don’t want to tell you that because it’s not what you want to hear.
I am going to tell you that because it’s the truth, and it’s what is necessary for success.
It’s important to enjoy yourself. It’s important to indulge. It’s absolutely important to spend quality time with your close friends and family. But most of the time you should be working on you, working on your business or work and eating well.
If you’re spending an equal amount of time playing X-Box with your boys as you are working on your business then I will assure you that failure is inevitable.
Fuck balance. That shit is weak.
Telling yourself that life is about balance sets you up for mediocrity. And who the fuck wants that?
Do you want to have a mediocre life? Mediocre relationship? Mediocre business?
Hell no!
You want to be great, and balance does not lead to greatness.
Greatness takes discipline, structure, focus, planning and a relentless work ethic so you can then create the time for leisure. But it’s not going to be a 50/50 split.
The same goes for training. If you want to be strong and lean then you’re not going to train only half of the year.
I’m not suggesting that you need to constantly go, go, go all the time. That will lead to burnout.
What I am suggesting is that if you really want something you’re not going to be completely balanced. Your goal, whatever that is, should take up the majority of your time. Then you can schedule cheat meals, play time… whatever.
So forget balance. Forget the gurus.
Decide on what you want, and then go fucking get it.
Thanks for reading.