Best Fitness Tag Ever - GetFitOver40 Edition

I got tagged the other day and so I am obligated to make a video answering some questions. This is all done in good fun and you may learn a few new things about me...  as is the tradition I am also tagging some people who now have to make a video answering the same questions...

Who Tagged me:

• Alvs mondares
• Dr Plankenstein's Fitness Training

Here are the questions I answer in this YouTube Video:

1. You are stuck on an Island and can only do two exercises, what are they?
2. Explain your workout style in only three words.
3. What is the worst injury you have every gotten?
4. Rate yourself 1-10.
5. What is the weirdest thing you do in the gym?
6. Pick only one, high pitched voice or never lift again.
7. If you where on death row, what would your last meal be?
8. What would you give-up lifting for?

Here is a list of the YouTubers I am tagging Back: 

• Brian Nielson
• MattDoesFitness 
• Mark Macqueen
• NS Bodybuilding
• Janis Finkelman 

Healthy Bastards Dietary Supplements - Green Coffee - Joint Formula - Testosterone Booster

I recently received some Dietary Supplements from a company called Healthy Bastards, they reached out to me and offered some samples to try out and review and I thought to myself... with a name like Healthy Bastards, I have to try their stuff out :)

It took a while to get my samples since Healthy Bastards tried sending my samples to Canada from the US a couple of times but each time our Canada Customs felt they needed to intervene for the safety of our national security and reject these Dietary Supplements at the border.

So we went with plan B which was having the products sent to a US receiving address I have setup just across the border and funny enough, driving my samples across is OK but mailing them risks some threat to our way of Canadian life as we know it.

So long story short, I got my Healthy Bastards product now and it's time to try them out. Here are the sample I chose:

• Green Coffee
• Joint Formula
• Testosterone Booster

My wife and I are going to share the Green Coffee and Joint Formula which will last us about 2 weeks and give us a chance to see how they work. For obvious reasons I will be trying out the Testosterone Booster but will be waiting about 2 weeks before I start taking it since I am in the middle of a weight cut and I'm also going to be away for a bit and probably not able to train much.

So stay posted for my reviews and feedback for my test samples of Healthy Bastards Dietary Supplements: Green Coffee - Joint Formula - Testosterone Booster:

Kinivo BTH240 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones Review

When I'm doing a workout on my own, I just have to have some tunes to keep me motivated and energized! Sometimes if I don't feel like working out I will throw my headphones on and start listening to one of my workout mixes and usually that gets me in the mood for a workout.

So I would say music is an important component to working out for many people, myself included. A while back I reviewed my Motorola S10-HD Headphones, recently I acquired a new pair of Bluetooth Stereo Headphones compliments of Kinivo. The pair I show you today are the Kinivo BTH240 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones.

Lets get started with what you get in the box... You get the Kinivo BTH240 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones of course, along with a nice velvet carrying pouch that the Kinivo BTH240 fold up compactly into, a micro USB cable for charging and the user manual.

Right off the bat I was very pleased with the compact size of the Kinivo BTH240's, I thought they where going to be a lot larger but found them to be compact and lightweight, yet heavy duty enough to take some mild workout abuse. I charged my new Kinivo BTH240 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones for the suggested 2 hours and then proceeded to give them a trial run during my evening at home workout. Of course I had to do the usual Bluetooth pairing to my iPhone 5s and once that was out of the way I was good to go. I was very pleased with the overall sound quality, lots of bass, smooth high end and a nice present midrange. Turning up the volume produced more than adequate volume which is rare in many headphone these days and even at very high volume levels I didn't notice any distortion.

I gave the Kinivo BTH240 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones my range test by doing my usual walk around of my home, while keeping my iPhone stationary in the gym. I was able to travel at least 40 feet away and even made it downstairs into my kitchen with only a couple very short cut-outs.

Since these headphone are pretty new to me I can not say how durable they will be long term but from the looks of their design and overall build quality, I am not too concerned. And the fact that they are only around $30 means replacing them if they get lost, sat on, worn out, or stollen, not too much of a setback. Heck at that price, why not pickup two pair and have one on standby...

Here are some of the specifications for those of you who like the techie stuff:

Product Description

The Kinivo BTH240 is a redesign of our top selling BTH220 Bluetooth headphones. New features include Micro USB charging as well as increased battery life coupled with the same amazing audio performance, noise suppression and echo cancellation that customers have come to love!

New and Improved Design: The BTH240 has a new look and features from Kinivo BTH220 Headphones.
- Sleek New Design: Smooth black frame with silver lining and compact button layout.
- Micro-USB Charging port: Use a compact micro-USB charging cable to fully recharge the headset.
- Increased Battery Life: Up to 10 hours of music and talk time.
- Reduced LED Brightness: Modified LED design for more comfortable experience.

Key Features:
- Portability: Lightweight (73g), foldable design provides maximum portability & convenient storage.
- Rechargeable: Integrated rechargeable battery provides up to 10 hours of uninterrupted talk/ music time or 200 hours in the standby mode.
- Hands-Free calling: BTH240 has a built-in noise canceling Microphone. Music will automatically pause when you receive an incoming call.

Device Compatibility:
- iPhone 5, 4S, 4, 3GS.
- All iPads, iPod Touch, Android phones and tablets.
- All other Bluetooth (A2DP) capable devices.
- PS3 (Supports only chat audio).

What's in the Box:
- Kinivo BTH240 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone.
- User Manual.
- Micro USB Charging Cable.
- Carrying Pouch.

Warranty:
Kinivo BTH240 Headphone is covered by 1 year limited hardware warranty.

What's up with all the Fake Natties?

This video is going to be rather different than most I make for you guys but I wanted to address a rather sensitive topic that seems to be a bit too common on YouTube when it comes to anyone who has that muscular lean look. Most often it has to do with body builder types that are not super big or too small, the ones that fall into that middle size grey area, and often times get accused of taking sports enhancing drugs like steroids.

I'm not trying to say that there are not people out there like this that claim to be "Natty" or "Natural" and in fact are actually taking steroids, but to simply accuse someone who has built up their physique while keeping their body fat percentage low is really not fair! The reality is that very few people have the drive and will power to achieve a physique that takes long hours in the gym, sticking to a very strict diet and giving up many daily treats others are not willing to give up in order to achieve what most people can not.

Speaking from my own experience, I work very hard to stay lean and toned, and for me it has become a way of life. Even when I was 6 foot 1 inch tall and 175 pounds I was at times accused of taking steroids because I was apparently too shredded and vascular to be natural! Now that I'm around 195 pounds and getting to a similar lean body mass, the accusations will only get worse. How else could I gain muscle and stay lean, right? It couldn't be the 6 days a week of training with most days consisting of two workouts per day? Or perhaps the constant mental and physical effort to lift heavy and push myself harder and harder each workout? What about the daily monitoring of exactly how many calories I burn and how many quality calories I need to eat to gain muscle without the fat and Lord knows most of the food everyone else eats is simply not on my menu.

Anyways, enough ranting for now. I simply wanted to point out that it is really easy to point fingers at people because you feel they have done something that you can not achieve. Unless you have walked in their shoes and seen exactly what they have had to do to get to where they are, then it is simply unfair to assume it must be steroids. If that person has taken a shortcut along the way then they have to live with that reality.

Watch my YouTube video where I talk about this subject in detail:

How Many Reps & Sets Do I Need to Do - Back to the Basics

Another Back to the Basics Video for you! Many people starting out or even who have been lifting weights for a while question how many sets, how many reps in each set and also how much weight they should be using...

It' really hard to tell you exactly how much weight to use because everyone has different levels of strength and endurance but you will find out quickly by figuring out how much weight you need to use to hit each target amount of reps in your sets. Too heavy and you will not get enough reps, too light and you will do too many reps. You will need to play around a bit but over time you will figure it out.

In this How Many Reps & Sets Do I Need to Do  video, I focus mostly on using a 4 set system with incremental loading of weight and a lowering of the reps with each set. Usually my starting set I will try to hit around 15-20 reps, my second set will be around 10-15 reps, my third set will be around 8-10 reps and my forth ending set I will shoot for 6-8 reps with a drop set to end this last heavy rep set. (A drop set is when I keep lowering the weight and pump out another 3-5 more reps to really tire out the muscles).

I also talk a bit about the pros and cons of lifting really heavy weights with less reps versus lighter weights with more reps and how this relates to body builders and power lifter types in general.

The bottom line is this - you directly get back what you put into your workouts. So more importantly than how many sets, how many reps, how long you workout, how much noise you make... If you give 100% and use all your intensity in your workouts, you will get very productive workouts and will start seeing results. Don't fall victim to making your workouts a routine that becomes easy and unchallenging. Always push yourself to do better, either try and hit more reps than before using the same weight or more weight than before with the same amount of reps.

I hope you find this information useful and if you do, please share my YouTube Videos and Website with others who may also enjoy them :)