Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Quick and Effective* Muscle Building/Fat Loss Workout

What's up kids?!

I'll make it short and quick today. I'm on my way out the door to take care of a few things, but I wanted to leave you with a quick and easy workout that will get your heart rate up, accelerate your metabolism, and light a fire under your ass!

*Note- This workout itself is NOT easy. These sessions are short, brief, and intense. That's what I meant by easy. It requires little to no equipment, will take you literally 20-30 minutes, and have you burning calories all day long! You MUST push yourself on this workout to get maximum benefits. 20-30 minutes of ass kicking!!

"20 Minute Machine Workout" Perform the following circuit for 20-30 minutes. Try to get as many rounds in as you can!Take as little rest as needed between exercise. You'll need to get out to either a park or track (there should be no excuse, there are plenty of these around! Go to your local high school or neighborhood park!)



-Perform a brief 5-10 minute movement prep warm up of jogging, skipping, leg swings, arm circles, hip circles, and light jumps before beginning.

Push Ups x max reps
Sprint x 50 yards
Burpees x 10
Sprint x 50 yards
Walking Lunge x 20 (10 per leg) LONG STEPS

*If it's been a while since you've sprinted, build up to a speed that is around 80% effort (pretty fast but not BALLS OUT. I don't want you pulling a hamstring on me! ;) )
Cooldown with a light/easy 5 minute jog and some easy stretching. Enjoy!

*Thanks to Underground Strength Coach Zach Even-Esh for inspiring the format of this session. Trust me, this one is no joke! Post a comment below and let me know how it goes! This sessions requires NO equipment but your own body and a will to push yourself HARD!

See ya!

-John Cortese, YFS

Sunday, September 6, 2009

New Features at the Blog!! You don't wanna miss this!!

WOW! It's been sometime since I've updated this thing. I've had a very busy summer training athletes and clients to get in the best shape of their lives! I ran a speed camp for local athletes that wanted to get faster, quicker, and more explosive for their sports... The attendance was lower than expected but every athlete that participated improved significantly!!

Big shout outs to Alex, Cara, Julie, and Caitlin. You guys ROCKED this summer!! And of course, can't forget about the international basketball players from 1-Dream that I had the pleasure to work with for 4 weeks. What a transformation they made from day 1 to the last session!!

Q & A column?! YES!!



Anyways, just wanted to let all of you that may read this thing regularly that I'm now going to post a weekly (or monthly, depends on how many questions and response I get) Q & A column. Send me ANY question you may have about training, muscle gain, how to get stronger, faster, jump higher, lose fat, nutritional questions, etc.. Basically ANYTHING that will relate to YOU reaching your goals FASTER than you ever imagined. A couple rules though..



1.) PLEASE be specific in your question. General questions will get general answers.

2.) Please be patient. The best way to get your questions answered is to be specific, leave your name and I will do my absolute best to answer you in a timely manner. If you are rude or demanding, you can be sure that I WON'T answer. Fair enough? =) Of course!

3.) Be aware that not ALL questions will get answered; if I get a boatload of questions that are all very similar, it will for sure get posted to the blog. Just be sure to check back frequently-- trust me, it's worth it!!

4.) If you have a question, you may e-mail me at john.cortese1@gmail.com and in the subject line make sure you put the words "Q and A". Otherwise your email may not be reviewed. Also, your questions MAY be put onto the website. I will keep your first name and last initial only for privacy purposes if it gets posted to the site. This is to help address others that may have similar questions.

OK enough rambling!! Send away.. Let the learning and discussions begin! This will also help me address some common myths, questions, concerns, etc about training. TRUST ME, there are MANY out there. Don't worry though-- I'm here to dispel those once and for all!

See ya guys in a couple days.

Thanks for reading!

John Cortese, YFS
john.cortese1@gmail.com

PS- Have you checked out Prograde Nutrition ?!? This is by far one of the BEST, trustworthy, NO BULLSHIT nutritional supplement companies out there that actually cares about YOU. I highly recommend it! John Cortese "Seal of Approval"!! Would I steer you wrong?! NO WAY!