Improve your 5k time

For years, many people have taken to the streets and trails to run 5K’s, obstacle races, and marathons. Most people may do it for fun, but there are others who want to dominate their age group and can’t keep their competitive streak under control and “just have fun with it”.

For those people, I’ve listed a few ways to improve your running time that will help you beat your friends and earn bragging rights throughout this summer season.

• Improve aerobic capacity

  • The first thing you should do when trying to improve your running time is to make sure you have a good aerobic base. Run longer distances at a conversational pace (you should be able to speak in sentences) that will feel easy throughout the duration of the run. This will build a “bigger engine” and allow you to work at higher intensities without feeling as fatigued. Without an adequate aerobic base, you’ll stall out as you try to push yourself towards the ends of races and time trials.

• Improve maximum speed & power

  • If you want to run a faster time, you have to get faster. By increasing your maximum speed, you also increase what is 70% of that speed, and this allows you to run a faster 5k time. By doing speed work, you also improve running economy. This will reduce the number of “energy leaks” you have, which will improve your ability to put all of your effort into moving forward. If you’ve never done speed work before, build up gradually and with longer distances (100-200m) to start, as this is a very intense form of training and you don’t want to injure yourself doing too much too soon.

• Improve pacing

  • Running shorter intervals at your desired pace will you understand and feel how that time will be during your run. By focusing these intervals on shorter distances that gradually get longer, you will be able to build out your specific pacing and special endurance required for your race pace. Begin with 400m runs at your goal pace with plenty of rest between reps. Gradually increase the intensity by either decreasing the rest, or increasing the distance you run.

• Resistance training

  • The benefits of resistance training for middle to long distance running are many, but to keep it short and sweet, you’ll improve your leg strength and power, running economy, improve resiliency, and improve neuromuscular coordination. All of this can help improve your time trial performance by 2-4% over a few weeks of training, and if you really want to drop your times, you should absolutely be incorporating some resistance training into your training weeks. Two total body training sessions a week is a good place for most people to start with, focus on the quality of your movement first before increasing the weight or volume done.

Basic movement patterns

When designing training programs, I have a different view point compared to most online trainers, in that I come from the sports performance world so what I choose to do will not only get you in shape and looking better, but it’s going to help you move better and will translate to what you enjoy doing.

Unlike most bodybuilding type programs, I don’t focus on muscles, but instead on major movement patterns. I do this for a few reasons: 1, for training efficiency, most people don’t want to spend hours in the gym, hitting multiple muscle groups at once helps keep sessions short. 2, increase athleticism, focusing on movement patterns increases coordination, strength, and power, in positions that are used in life and sport. 3, increase resiliency, by training movement patterns, this lead to better injury prevention as the tendons and ligaments are trained as well, keeping you healthy and thriving in whatever you choose to do.

Below are the 6 major movement patterns I focus training programs around.

1. Squat - Back, front, or any other squat variation

2. Hip Hinge - Think deadlifts and RDL’s

3. Upper body push (horizontal & vertical) - Bench press, overhead press, or pushups.

4. Upper body pull (horizontal & vertical) - Pull ups or rows

5. Lunge - Forward, lateral, or reverse

6. Core Bracing - Bird dogs, planks, and lots of traditional strength exercises

Simply put, just about every thing that we do, in daily life or in sport can be broken down into one of these major movement patterns, and by focusing on these basics, you can reach a high level of fitness with consistency.

If you want to become the best version of yourself and lose fat, add muscle, and get stronger, then my online fitness coaching can help, fill out the form below to get more information!

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Is more always better?

Whether it comes to health, fitness or nutrition, you or someone you know has probably thought that if X amount is good, then more is better. While this may make sense in theory, rarely is this true.

When training for performance, whether that’s speed, strength, or power…lots of emerging research is actually showing that by leaving a few reps in the tank, or not training to failure, that you’ll actually get better results then had you pushed yourself really hard.

So if you’re out on the field sprinting, training to get faster, every rep should be of high quality, and once your times start to drop that should end your speed session. Sure, you can push through and tough it out, but why? It’s not going to make you faster, or build “mental toughness”…you’re just going to add unnecessary training volume that could be better used improving in other areas. 

More isn’t better, better is better.

Go ahead and reread that for a moment and let it sink in. If you want to improve in any area of performance, don’t focus on lifting or running more, focus on doing it better. This means not just showing up and going through the motions during gym sessions. Instead, really pay attention to the details in how you’re moving and how every rep feels. Are you hitting depth in your squats? Are you moving the weight as fast as you can during the concentric (muscle shortening) portions? Are you giving full effort in your jumps/throws/sprints?

For continual performance improvements, first you have to do the work. Then you have to do it really really well. Doing a lot of bad, or mediocre work won’t help you. I continually tell my athletes that we may not do anything fancy, but we’re going to do the ordinary extraordinarily well.

So for your next training session, focus on the quality of your training first, and if you feel your form breaking down go ahead and rack the weights. Do this consistently and see how your strength and power improve over time.

Exercise stability, how much is necessary

Unilateral training is one of the best ways to improve limb strength and correct gross asymmetries. However, some of the exercises I see performed end up looking more like a circus act instead of a way to spur real physical adaptations. What ends up happening is overthinking on the coaches part, trying to concoct some magical exercise that will fix ankle issues, shoulder pain, take back the iron throne, and cure cancer. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but really, some of these exercises just make me wonder what the actual goal of them is…

Half the time, instead of properly executing whatever they’re asked to do, they end up flailing around one leg just trying to stay upright while one arm does one thing and the other is doing something else. Or the athlete gets so close to a wall that any stability adaptations the coach was looking for has been negated because they're using so much external support to accomplish the exercise.

For me, stability isn’t so much about balance, and challenging it with different types of arm movements, but rather it’s about preventing unwanted motion through the ranges of motion that are important for the athlete. So in my eyes, one of the best ways to train stability, and in turn improve balance, isn’t by taking away support, but instead by adding strength to the athlete, and helping them feel connected to the ground by improving foot and ankle function. You see, by increasing muscle strength we are better able to control our moving limbs, as well as the stance leg which in turn increases balance. Coordination and spatial awareness obviously play a role here, but in healthy athletes these aren’t normally the limiting factors.

And just to be clear, yes there will a time when support has to be taken away to further improve stability, but this should be done progressively, and only to an extent that doesn’t force the athlete to be falling over every few seconds. When the primary demands are on trying to find balance and stay upright, you start to sacrifice any improvements you could make in strength or power, which are more important for success in my opinion.

Ultimately, it all comes down to what the goal is. If you want to improve unilateral strength, then don’t add excess fat to the basics such as single leg squatting/hinging. And if the goal is to increase stability, then you need to first find out how much is necessary, and how much do they currently have before you can select exercises that are appropriate and will lead you to the athletes goal. More often than not, they won’t need much “balance” work, but rather will need to improve the strength of the muscles used.

Should you follow a meal plan?

When it comes to nutrition coaching, the first thing I’m always asked is, “Will I get a meal plan?” and the response will almost always be no. While meal plans can be very useful for helping dedicated individuals reach their goals, for most people they’re almost impossible to follow, and a sure fire way to fail. 

So if most meal plans lead to failure why is it that most people still seem to want them? This probably comes from the fact that most people’s intro to health/fitness/nutrition is through bodybuilding, and meal plans are extremely common for these athletes to get stage ready and get to ridiculously low levels of body fat. While this approach has proven effective here, you have to keep in mind that these athletes are extremely committed and dedicate almost all of their free time to their aesthetic goals, which probably doesn’t fit in with most people’s lives. 

Another reason why meals plans aren’t the answer is that it assumes that you a) like the foods and meals listed out for you, and b) have the skills and/or kitchen tools to actually make those meals. While this may seem like a small thing, there can be a lot of anxiety in this if you’re not sure how or what to substitute because your local grocery store doesn’t have the ingredients you need. 

Meal plans also follow a basic calories in, calories out formula to determine how much you should eat to reach your desired weight…and while this is a good theoretical place to start, the actual application is much trickier as food labels aren’t always reported accurately, the body doesn’t necessarily absorb all the calories listed, and how many calories you burn is pretty difficult to determine and can be influenced by activity level, previous diet history, and all other aspects of your lifestyle.

So what do you do instead?

For the vast majority of people, the focus should be on reducing the number of processed foods that they eat, and instead opt for fresh produce, dairy, and meats. Slowing down while eating and stopping when satisfied should also be priorities, and these simple things will actually provide way more benefits than most people would think. These few steps are enough for most people to begin to see weight loss progress and improvements in their health, and it’s all done without having to pull out a food scale or do math at every meal.

If you’re interested in online fitness and nutrition coaching, then fill out the form below for a free consultation.

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Should your workouts crush you?

A common misconception among fitness enthusiasts is that if your workout doesn’t crush you, then it was a waste of time or not as good as it could’ve been. While feeling crushed every now and again is fine, to push the limits every single session definitely isn’t what you should be trying to do. 

This constant pushing will show quick results in endurance levels initially, but within just a few weeks you’ll hit a plateau, or even worse get injured. In addition to stalling out general fitness gains, if you’re trying to add muscle or increase your strength, this is a really inefficient way to do so and you’ll see very slow progress along the way. 

Instead, you should look to find ways to cycle through your hard and easy days. This can be done by alternating each workout and will provide a lot of benefits in terms of keeping you healthy and uninjured, maintain progress for a longer duration without hitting plateaus, and get you excited for your hard days and pushing yourself. 

Supplement Don’ts

I often get asked about supplements and which ones people should take. While there are good products from established companies with good manufacturing practices, the vast majority of them are nothing more than a waste of money. 

A few common supplements that I’m consistently asked about are preworkouts, fat burners, and testosterone boosters.

While these are extremely popular products throughout the general population, you’d be surprised that most of the pre-workout products are basically just filled with caffeine and don’t provide any other benefits. Couple this with the fact that I primarily work with athletic populations and this is something I don’t ever recommend. You’re better off finding an activity you look forward to doing than putting these large amounts of caffeine in your body. 

When it comes to testosterone boosters, these provide false benefits if any at all. What I mean by this is that they don’t increase testosterone, or just slightly, but instead use different pathways to just increase libido without any other benefits. So basically false advertising, but again, won’t help you build muscle faster or actually increase testosterone. 

Finally, and the worst of them all are the fat burners. These have almost no evidence of working, and just use exaggerated advertising to target people looking for a quick fix. So unlike testosterone boosters these don’t even have fake benefits, they are just a complete waste of time and money. 

So while there are good products out there’s, these are just a few that I would completely stay away from.

If you’re curious about what products or brands are safe and effective, leave a comment below!

Graham S&C T-Shirts Now Availabe!

Hey everyone, I’m excited to announce that I now have GRAHAM STRENGTH & CONDITIONING T-Shirts for sale! The shirts come in Charcoal and Heather Gray.

They are an incredibly soft 60/40 cotton polyester blend. They’re preshrunk and will keep their shape after washing so they’re great for wearing while powering through that last set of squats, or while at home meal prepping for the week ahead. 

Order yours today at while supplies last! 

Want to see other colors or products? Send me an email or leave a comment below with to let me know what else you’d like to see. 

Why You're Not Losing Weight

So you’re not losing weight and you’re not sure what exactly is going on. Well there are a multitude of reasons as to why this may be happening, but I’ll go over the most common ones I see below.

Why You’re not losing weight

• Too many calories in - This one is pretty simple, you’re still consuming too many calories and not putting yourself in a caloric deficit.  Whether you’ve decided to go Keto, low fat, vegan, or whatever, if you’re still consuming more calories than you’re expending then you will not lose weight.

• Not enough calories out - Now you may be exercising consistently, but if you’re following the calorie trackers on most cardio machines then you’re probably not getting an accurate reading. While it can ballpark how many calories you burned, it’s just that and can be off by a whole lot depending on the standard person the machine is preset to. In addition, many people take exercising as an excuse to “eat however they want” and this just leads to too many calories in and not enough out.

• Too much stress - This is one thing that many people don’t think about. While calories in and out is extremely important to weight loss, too much stress puts our body on red alert so to speak and stimulates hormones to actually hold onto fat in our bodies. 

• Endless cardio - If you’re only exercise is on the treadmill, elliptical, or exercise bike for an hour at a time a couple times a week, then this just isn’t enough. While you can eventually start losing some weight like this, it’s definitely not the most efficient or effective method for weight loss, and will take a ton of time to actually burn a significant amount of calories.

• Not Consistent - While everything above is important, this is by far the MOST important thing for weight loss. Whether you’re exercising or just starting new nutritional habits, you have to be consistent and give it time. You’re not going to lose weight overnight, or maybe even for a week or two… Your body is adjusting to this new amount of calories being consumed and burned and at first it will do what it can to remain at it’s current normal range. But after a few weeks of consistently following your plan, you should start to see some weight loss. And I’m going tell you now, it’s not going to be like on the biggest loser or what facebook ads say, you won’t lose 30 lbs in a month or even 3 months. It will probably be along the lines of 1-2 lbs per week if everything is dialed in. Anything higher than this and that could raise some red flags as that’s not healthy to do and could be a sign of muscle loss (which you don’t want).

So there you have it, these are some of the most common reasons as to why you’re not losing weight. Now are these the only reasons? Of course not, but start working on these areas and give it some time and let me know how things work out for you.

If you’re interested in online fitness and nutrition coaching, then fill out the form below for a free consultation.

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The Value of Testing

Testing is one of those topics that generally has some confusion around it, from who should be doing it, to how, or even if you should test at all. Now I’ll go through my personal thoughts and try to explain why I believe it to be important, not just for athletes but for anyone with health and fitness related goals.

When it comes to testing and measurements, one of the most important steps is to decide what exactly should be measured. Now for most people with general health or fitness goals this most likely looks like body measurements and progress pictures. For my general population clients I always suggest this tape measure because it’s easy for a single person to use without needing anyone else there, but for athletes or those with more performance related goals then determining what is most important to measure may not be the easiest thing to determine.

Based on your sport or individual goals, what these tests are will differ. This will range from sprint times, to max strength or upper body power tests, but the important thing is that the test is relevant to you and your goals. In addition, no one test should be taken alone, but instead should be used in conjunction with others to get a better view of the whole picture. This will ensure that you can understand what is actually happening when that number on the scale doesn’t move.

So why the hell would you measure? The most common responses things I hear in opposition of testing is that “they can see the athlete adding more weight, they must be stronger” or “they don’t run in a straight line during a game, why should we test it?”. And while these arguments may come from a good place and may have some logic to them, quite frankly it’s flawed thinking and isn’t in the best interest of the athletes we serve. Now yes, they may be using more weight, but this isn’t the best indicator that they’ve actually gotten stronger. We have to consider the athletes effort and motivation in each workout if this is this measurement tool. If at the very beginning of a training program it’s unlikely that an athlete will be going all out or working at near maximal efforts, so just by increasing their motivation and effort, they’ve added more weight to the bar without actually getting any stronger. The purpose of the test isn’t necessarily just to measure how strong or powerful someone is, but to assess where they’re at, and determine what the best course of action will be to get them to their goals. It’s commonly said that what gets measured gets managed, this is something I wholeheartedly believe in and I have seen the differences in programs where stats are measured and progress is usually better compared to those that don’t routinely measure stats.

Now I mentioned above that test results should be used to determine what the athlete needs to reach their goals. As a results-driven coach, I use testing results to determine how to structure the next training block. For example, say someone takes body measurement and found that they only lost two inches instead of more, this would lead me to look at the current program and see what could have done better to increase this persons fat loss, or understand that maybe they added muscle in this time frame while also losing fat which led to the lower results.

So now you’re convinced that testing is important, but when should you do it? Well, it depends. Based on what exactly you’re testing and you’re current level of fitness, the tests can be weekly in the case of weight measurements, or only come every other month if you’re looking to evaluate certain physical attributes. The most important part here is that each test is carried out in the exact same way. You should weigh yourself at the same time, or have the same warmup protocol for a strength or power test. This will ensure that the results can be correctly compared to one another and that there isn’t a large difference because one day you weighed yourself after a big meal, but the next time was first thing in the morning. This will obviously lead to “bad” data and the results really can’t be compared to each other.

If you’re interested in more info regarding testing or what specific tests I use then let me know in the comments below.