Just do the opposite.

Earl Nightingale once said “To be successful, watch what the majority of people do, then do the exact opposite.” So how do you apply this philosophy?

Diet/Nutrition: Most people go on fad diets that villanize certain groups of food and impose rules and restrictions that are unsustainable for very long. What should you do? Simply eat whole foods and create a 10-30% calorie deficit for fat loss and ignore the rest.

General Exercise: For fat loss most people do cardio, followed by cardio, followed by cardio, followed by some more cardio for 6-7 days a week. What should you do? Perform both cardio and strength training 3-4 times per week.

Cardio: Most people use specialized equipment to help “maximize” calorie burn like the elliptical, arc trainer, etc... with their only focus being on the number of calories burned. What should you do? Go run/ride on old fashioned pavement or trails with goals for both speed and distance, reach your goals then set new goals.

Strength Training: Most people use machines to exercise specific muscles in isolation and will not work the same muscle more than twice a week for fear of overtraining and will make little progress in actual strength gains. What should you do? Use free weights and compound muscle movements to exercise your entire body in 3-5 exercises 3-4 times per week and progress in strength gains no less than monthly.

Out of all of this the most important thing to take away are the things I didn’t say. I didn’t say anything about calorie zigzagging, muscle confusion, “changing-it-up”, starvation mode, “keep your body guessing”, etc… If you do these four things and ignore the opinions and advice of the majority, chances are you will be more successful than the majority.

Why is this true? Because these four simple things would make for a pretty crappy magazine subscription, book, website, supplement, etc…