It’s Not Where You Train, It’s HOW You Train
How to Burn Fat, Build Muscle, and Dominate Your Workouts in ANY Space with ANY Equipment
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True or false: you need to have an awesome gym to get an awesome workout?
If you said “true”, then please hop on this bus, because I’m about to take you to school, ya heard?
I believe that you can get a great workout no matter where you are; that with the right mindset, every person can get an amazing workout even in any environment, and gym–or even without a gym.
And, without tooting my own horn too much, I know that can get a train anyone, anywhere, and give them a great workout. This goes for everyone, including some of my Big Name clients.
A good example is Gary Vaynerchuk, wine-expert turned social media expert turned angel investor and all around rock star in the tech world.
When Gary and I first discussed working together, the decision to train was made immediately, confidently, and simply. That was the easy part.
The hard part was figuring out where to train.
Initially, we thought we could train at one of the commercial chains in the area. Equinox, known for being high end—and, having clubs pretty much everywhere in the city—seemed the logical choice. Unfortunately, they have a strict policy about not allowing any guest trainers. As I am not an employee of Equinox, and they seemed immune to string pulling (GV knows the CEO, and of course my name carries some weight in most gyms in the City), we had to look elsewhere.
For my part, I suggested Peak Performance, given that it’s truly the best gym in the City, and I feel it’s a great place to train. We hit another roadblock. As it turns out, Peak was not an option because of location; despite being only a 10-minute cab ride from Gary’s apartment, when you have daily appointments advising billion dollar companies, those 10 minutes are at a premium. He needed to stay closer to home.
Fair enough.
We next looked at New York Sports Club—they turned out to be less stringent than Equinox, but wanted to take a hefty cut from what Gary pays me. Obviously, that’s not really appealing to me; the entire reason I stopped working for corporate gyms is because I don’t like the idea of doing all the work and someone else making the money.
Finally, in exasperation, I emailed Gary’s assistant, Phil, and asked, “does Gary’s building have a gym?”
His response was, “yes…but it’s pretty small and doesn’t have much equipment.”
I immediately sent back, “that’s absolutely perfect, we can train there.”
When we met up for our first session, I saw the space and smiled to myself. I could understand Phil’s trepidation.
An 8×8 square, the “gym” is more like a room. The equipment consists of two treadmills, two bikes, a Smith machine, and a rack with an incomplete set of dumbbells…all set up to make the least effective use of space possible.
Perfect.
Again: I can train anyone, anywhere, and give them an amazing workout. Seriously.
Look, I’ll be the first to admit that training clients in a place like Peak or Cressey Performance is really exciting—from being able to use fun equipment like Prowlers and battling ropes to having a great crew around you, you’re sure to have a good experience and a good workout.
That said, the unfortunate reality is that such places are few and far between—and none of them happen to be on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
But that doesn’t matter. You can be in any gym or no gym at all and have great training sessions and make amazing progress.
You see, I cut my teeth training at commercial gyms; some of them were quite small. And so, I became very proficient at designing programs that could be done in limited space.
Something else to consider about training in commercial gyms is the equipment. Oh, sure most gyms have tons of equipment. The problem is that you can’t every use any of it for more than a set—because as soon as you get up, someone jumps on.
Which means, I ALSO had to get proficient in using very limited equipment—sometimes none at all. And so, again, I say with confidence: I can train anyone, anywhere.
For people like Gary—regular folks who just want to improve their health, burn fat, and get into shape—a cool gym with lots of sweet equipment is nice…but it’s completely unnecessary.
As evidence, I submit the fact that in that 8×8 room, Gary Vaynerchuk got the best workout of his entire life this morning.
And so, despite the fact that it’s possible that upon the publication of this post, a number of gyms will offer to open themselves to us—it’s not gonna happen.
Instead, I’ll continue to schlep to the Upper East Side 2-3 times per week, train GV in his building, and watch him make strides every week.
So my point is, you don’t need the bells and whistles.
All you need is a space big enough to lay down in—because that means that space will also be big enough to do planks, lunges, dumbbell squats and overhead pressing movements.
If you want to get in kick ass shape, but you have minimal PLEASE believe me when I say that it’s not only “possible” – it’s also relatively simple.
You don’t need weights (you can train with bodyweight, as I’ve touched on several times), but if you do decide to use weight, you can use dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands. Doesn’t matter.
I know this, and so do all other great trainers.
For example, my good friend Craig Ballantyne has been preaching this for years. His programs are some of the best on the planet for helping people lose fat and increase general fitness (including building muscle), with almost little to NO equipment.
His new program, Home Workout Revolution, is a completely comprehensive approach to doing just that. In HWR, Craig has laid out 51 fat-torching, strength-building workouts that you can do literally anywhere.
As the name implies, these workouts can be done at home, but you can also do them in the gym—or, if you travel a lot like I do, right in your hotel room.
All of these workouts harness the power of density training—and as I laid out in my recent article, density-based training is one of the most effective fat-burning protocols ever invented. It allows you to do more work in less time, increasing your metabolic rate like almost nothing else.
On top of that, density training actually makes you more efficient and allows you to work harder every workout—meaning that your results will increase, NOT taper off (as with many programs).
It is this concept that makes density training (and, therefore, Home Workout Revolution so effective. It is this concept that will allow you to get a great workout anywhere, with no equipment. Because it’s not where you train—it’s HOW you train.
Craig and I know that regardless of your equipment, there’s no excuse not to get a great workout. And now, Gary knows it too.
And I want you to really understand it.
Which is why, if you’re looking for a great workout that you can do ANYWHERE with ANY (or NO) equipment (and for a crazy cheap price), you should pick up Craig’s program.
There are a few other manifestations of these concepts, but Home Workout Revolution is the best, most convenient, and most practical iteration I’ve seen. And, add to that the fact that Craig is running a sale it’s a no brainer–you can pick it up for less than 40 bucks until Friday.
For real.
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