For the last little while I’ve been holding this back, but just this week my wife Stacey and I had our 20 week ultrasound and I can’t do it anymore.  I’m just too excited!

I am now officially proud to announce that we are expecting the first new addition to our family!  Baby Girl Young’s anticipated arrival is in late November and soon-to-be Mom and Dad are eagerly (albeit somewhat nervously) awaiting her entrance into this world!

Early ultrasound results indicate the she thinks women should lift heavy and train hard.  She also thinks that breast milk is an incredible source of protein and nutrients for young infants.  She despises those who curl in the squat rack and prefers to use interval kicking instead of steady state kicking throughout the day.

A couple weeks back I was interviewed by strength coach and all around nice guy Mike Robertson. 

In the interview we talked about various things from how I got started in the fitness industry, to dealing with back pain, and curling in the squat rack (really).  We also discussed the single biggest missing element in most training programs.

Of course, I’m a little biased, but I think it was a pretty good interview.  Check out the podcast on Mike’s website HERE.

While you’re there, don’t forget to jump on Mike’s newsletter.  He’s always throwing out loads of incredible information and his is one of the select few industry newsletters that I actually read on a regular basis. 

When you’re done, feel free to drop by here again and let me know what you thought of the interview.  Comments make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

A while back I posted a three part series on the use of interval training for fat loss.  You can check them out here:  Part I, Part II, Part III.

However, I got a couple emails suggesting that it was a little difficult to transition from steady state cardio if you’re just getting into intervals.  I also got an email telling me that intervals are not for beginners.

Fortunately, I was recently speaking to Craig Ballantyne of TurbulanceTraining.com and he mentioned that he’s had great success with intervals for beginners and he was kind enough to share his ideas with me.  Although neither of us is really a huge fan of treadmills, I’ll use this as an example because it is pretty easy to understand.

Let’s say that a beginner can walk on a treadmill at a steady pace of 3.5 for twenty minutes.  You could start to implement intervals by having that person performing at a higher level than usual (3.8) followed for about one minute followed by a minute at a lower level (3.2).

By doing this you’re gradually increasing the intensity at which someone can work.  Over time you’ll be able to increase the intervals to higher and higher levels until they can go full tilt with a true interval protocol.

So if you’re just getting started you can definitely give this a go.  Also, I’d highly recommend checking out Craig’s website at TurbulanceTraining.com