Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction (pg. 5) What is a plateau?…The 4 different things you can do when you reach a plateau… Why only 1 of those 4 things will break through the plateau… How this book is laid out… The 3 super-principles that the book is based on… Who this book is for Chapter 2: Fat Loss (pg. 17) Fat loss vs. weight loss: they aren’t the same thing… 2 low-tech ways to measure your body fat… The 6 different components of fat loss… Why you really have no idea how many calories you’re putting into your body, and how many calories are going out of your body… The 15 habits of good fat loss diets: better than counting calories. Implement all these habits, and you’ll have a body to die for… How you can prevent regaining fat after you lose it all… What’s more important for fat loss: resistance training or cardio?... Why the “fat burning zone” really doesn’t mean all that much… Should you do steady state cardio or interval training for fat loss?... The importance of lifestyle: neglect it, and diet and exercise are less effective… A NEAT way to burn extra calories… How to identify which component is holding you back… 6 reasons why you may not be losing weight despite doing everything right. Chapter 3: Muscle Mass (pg. 41) The difference between muscle size and perceived muscle size… The 8 components needed to increase your muscle mass… How many carbohydrates, proteins and total calories should you have to gain muscle?… Why a big muscle is not necessarily a strong muscle… The 2 different types of muscle growth… 5 time-tested methods of training that will get your muscles growing… Which factor in your training is holding back your progress?... What is a reasonable rate of muscle gain?... The importance of lifestyle: neglect it, and diet and exercise are less effective… 3 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 4: Strength (pg. 59) Get it straight: what exactly is strength?... Why improving your strength will improve your speed, endurance, flexibility and other qualities… The 12 components of strength… 5 neurological techniques that really improve your nervous system’s ability to contract your muscles… 3 methods of training that increase your strength by targeting the nervous system… The strength deficit test: do you need to grow your muscles to make progress?... 3 methods of training for morphological adaptations… How to identify your sticking point… 4 methods to eliminate your sticking point… How to identify if one muscle is holding everything back, and how to correct it… What is the stretch shortening cycle, and how you can use it to increase the amount of weight that you can lift… How to test which of the 2 components of the stretch shortening cycle is holding you back… 4 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 5: Power (pg. 99) The different between power and strength… The 8 components of power… How important is maximal strength for power?... A self-assessment to find out whether maximal strength and speed are holding you back… 3 main methods of increasing your maximal strength… What is starting strength?... 2 tests to figure out whether starting strength is holding you back… The 2 components of the stretch shortening cycle… How to identify which of these 2 components is holding you back… How to improve both components… What it means to be stiff… Why stiffness is actually necessary in some cases… A self-test to help you identify whether you are stiff enough for your sport or activity... The role of body composition in power… How much body fat do you need for your sport?... 4 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 6: Speed (pg. 129) What exactly is speed, and why sprinting is not an expression of pure speed… The 7 components of speed… The differences between reaction time, movement time and response time… The various different types of reaction time… How to improve the different types of reaction time… A self- test to assess whether movement time is holding you back… How to improve movement time… How to use the stretch shortening cycle to improve your speed… How to find out whether the stretch shortening cycle is holding you back… Is body composition holding you back?... 4 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 7: Muscular Endurance (pg. 147) What it is and what it is not… The 7 components that make up muscular endurance… The role of maximal strength in muscular endurance… How to assess whether muscular endurance is holding you back… How to figure out whether the stretch shortening cycle is holding you back… How to figure out whether the amortization phase is holding you back… How to figure out whether body composition is holding you back… Lactate tolerance: what it is, and how to figure out whether it’s a limiting factor… Capillarization and mitochondria: what they are, and how to use them to improve your muscular endurance… A special case: power endurance… 5 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 8: Aerobic Endurance (173) The 2 components of aerobic endurance… The 8 components that make up aerobic endurance… What is heart rate reserve (HRR), is it holding you back, and how do you improve it?... What is aerobic power, and why it may be the single most important predictor of aerobic performance… 3 Tests to figure out your aerobic power, and whether it is holding you back… Aerobic capacity: how it is different from aerobic power… How to find out whether your aerobic capacity is holding you back… How to improve your aerobic capacity… Lactate threshold: how it can limit your aerobic endurance, and how to improve it… why muscular endurance at the site of fatigue is important, and how you can improve it… Velocity at VO max: why just your 2 VO max is not enough… spring stiffness for aerobic endurance… 4 reasons 2 why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 9: Anaerobic Endurance (pg. 207) What is anaerobic endurance, and how its role differs between sports… The 6 components of anaerobic endurance… How muscular strength can affect your anaerobic endurance, and how to test whether it is holding you back… How to test whether you have enough muscular endurance at the site of fatigue… Why aerobic endurance can actually improve your anaerobic endurance and how to test whether it’s holding you back… The role of the stretch shortening cycle in your performance in anaerobic endurance events… Power endurance: the most critical factor in your anaerobic endurance performance… 6 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 10: Flexibility (pg. 233) What does flexibility really mean?… Why being able to do the splits says nothing about your shoulder flexibility… The four different types of flexibility… The 3 components of flexibility… The difference between mobility and flexibility… Why trigger points can decrease your flexibility… Do you have enough strength to be flexible?... 3 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Chapter 11: Coordination (pg. 248) What is coordination?... What’s the difference between general and specific coordination?... The 10 movements that form the basis for most other movements… The 8 components of coordination… How to develop incredible control over your muscles with progressive muscle relaxation… How you can learn to differentiate between different body positions and different distances… Do you really need to improve your balance?... 7 ways to improve your balance… How you can overcome a slow reaction time by developing anticipation… the 3 step process to learning new movements… the 2 reasons why you may not progress despite doing everything right Appendix 1: 8 Things You Should Know Before Hiring a Personal Trainer (pg. 263) Appendix 2: Your 4 Free Gifts (Personalized Dream Body MAP Session and Home Study Courses) – pg. 267 Appendix 3: Resources the Author Recommends (pg. 273) About the Author (pg. 277) INTRODUCTION Have you ever had an exercise program made for you, which was so tailored to your uniqueness that it fit you like a glove? When people hire myself or the personal trainers working along with me, that is exactly what they expect. And that is exactly what this book is about. You will learn how to craft a unique training program made to fit you, instead of getting a generic exercise program from the internet or a friend. Most generic exercise programs start out successfully, especially when you are a beginner. You’ll make some good progress, but inevitably, you’ll hit a plateau. Do you know what a plateau is? If you have been exercising for more than a few weeks or months, you know. If you don’t exercise at all, let me explain. A training plateau is the stage of no progress after a stage of progress. Sounds confusing? Let me give an example. Let’s say you want to lose weight. You start a diet and you start to exercise. At first, you’re losing fat at a nice steady pace of 1 pound per week. This goes on nicely for 12 weeks, and then stops. You didn’t change your diet or exercise routine, but progress just stops. That is a plateau. Although the example I gave is about fat loss, a plateau can (and will) happen in any fitness quality: strength, muscle mass gains, speed, flexibility, etc. Here is another example: you might be trying hard to increase your bench press, and in the last 6 months, you’ve managed to increase it a substantial amount. But despite not making any changes, you simply can’t make any more progress. The weight is stuck and doesn’t want to go up. Here is the frustrating thing: when reaching a plateau, one of 4 things can happen: 1. You don’t change what you are doing. Whatever you were doing before, you continue doing now, regardless of the fact that it no longer works. 2. You do more of what you were doing. For example, if your goal was fat loss, you either eat even less, or exercise even more, or both. Or if you are a bodybuilder, you increase the amount of weight or the amount of sets, or the amount of exercises, etc. 3. You change entirely what you are doing. For example, instead of doing a low carbohydrate diet, you periodically switch to higher carbohydrates. Or if you are a speed athlete, instead of focusing on plyometrics, you focus on strength training. 4. You stop what you are doing. For example, you stop dieting and return to your old habits. Or if you are an endurance athlete, you stop training, or you stop using the method that you were using to make progress. More often than not, only 1 (sometimes 2) of the above 4 will get you to continue progressing. Care to guess which one? It’s number 3. You change entirely what you are doing. Doing more of what you were doing can work sometimes, but changing entirely what you are doing will work almost always, as long as you are changing the right thing. So now that we know that when reaching a plateau, you should usually change what you are doing, what do you change, and why do you change it? This is what this entire book is about (and I also wrote a blog about it here: http://www.torontofitnessonline.com/why-is-your-exerciseprogram-not- working). If you have been in training for any length of time, and you have reached a plateau, a common piece of advice is “you should change up your routine.” If you’re lucky, that person will even tell you exactly what to change. Unfortunately, most people’s advice is not usually based on any good reason. The person did not assess why you reached a plateau. And often, that person’s advice is based on what someone else did to break through the same plateau as yours. While this is logical advice, there is one major flaw: you are a different person. You have your own unique physiology, your own unique body mechanics, your own unique personality, your own unique exercise history, your own unique goals, your own unique schedule, and many other factors. In other words, even though 2 people are training for the same goal, and they both reached a plateau, they may have reached it for entirely different reasons. If they want to progress any further towards their goal, they both have to change what they are doing, but again, they are individuals. If they both change the same variable for no real reason, one of them may make progress, and one of them may not. Or both of them may make progress. Or neither of them may make progress. But what if you could systematically test and assess precisely why a specific person reached a plateau? That would help you identify the exact variable that you should change to see the greatest progress possible. Sure, you could do it haphazardly without testing and assessing, and you may even make progress, but to make the greatest amount of progress, you absolutely have to identify the specific reason(s) why a plateau has been reached. Then, through testing, identify the exact changes that you need to make to continue progressing. That’s what this book is about. This book is laid out as follows: first, a specific goal is described. A clear definition of what that goal means, and what it does not mean is given. Then, all the components that make up that goal are identified. For example, flip to the section on aerobic endurance. You’ll notice that aerobic endurance consists of your heart rate reserve, aerobic capacity, aerobic power, lactate threshold, muscular endurance at the site of fatigue, and movement efficiency. Then, specific assessments are given to determine what specific factor is holding back your performance in that particular goal. After that, training methods to improve each factor individually are given as well as the rationale to why a particular training method improves that particular component. The emphasis throughout the book is on low-tech self-assessments that you