Mode Athletics does more than just run cutting-edge Vancouver boot camp programs.

We have a popular YouTube channel with over 150 videos about how to exercise at home or anywhere with minimal equipment.

Last week I started uploading some home exercise demonstration clips from a DVD (for Mode Workouts) I filmed with Victoria Plant. Here’s a sample:

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get updated when new videos are posted.

Earlier today I had the privilege of attending a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) seminar with Kron Gracie. The seminar was put on by Universal MMA in downtown Vancouver, which is the MMA gym that I train at, and part of the Rickson Gracie International Jiu-Jitsu Association.

Kron Gracie is a decorated BJJ competitor, and is also the son of the legendary Rickson Gracie. Kron runs the Rickson Gracie International Jiu-Jitsu Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Going into the seminar, I was expecting to learn various BJJ moves and techniques from Kron, and I certainly wasn’t let down in that regard. Kron is an incredible instructor with a real knack for breaking down complicated movements and techniques and explaining them in a way that a beginner like myself can understand.

But Kron’s seminar also included so much more than I was expecting.

Much of what Kron was teaching at the seminar went much deeper than just BJJ moves. Throughout the seminar he often talked about the mental aspects of becoming proficient at BJJ, and how the mental toughness developed from training BJJ (and martial arts in general) transfers into your everyday life. To paraphrase Kron, if you can learn to be calm and relaxed while someone is trying to choke you, you can also be calm and relaxed when someone cuts you off while you’re driving in your car (or whatever other stresses you’re presented in your day to day life).

It was great to hear Kron talk about how BJJ training can benefit you in so many more ways than just being able to defend yourself on the street. I’ve personally experienced many of those benefits, so it was nice to hear Kron reconfirm the things that I felt I’ve been getting from my BJJ training. Since I started training BJJ at Universal last fall, I’ve been less stressed, had higher-energy levels, less aches and pains, I’ve slept better at night, increased confidence, and perhaps most importantly I’ve been having fun and enjoying my BJJ training. It’s been great to find a new hobby that I enjoy and look forward to, and that also provides me with all of the other great benefits.

The Kron Gracie seminar was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things I’ve done in a long time, and I want to thank Kron for coming to Vancouver and putting on such a great seminar, and I want to thank Shane Rice at Universal MMA for putting on the seminar.

I received the following question today via my YouTube channel:

Hello since i live far from gym i am trying to exercise with bodyweight i saw few good videos on your channel. The problem is: I can’t find any forearm exercises. Maybe you know at least one?

My answer:

You shouldn’t need to do any forearm isolation exercises. Those are just completely pointless. Your forearms will get a way better workout from doing heavy compound exercises like chin-ups, rows, dips, etc.

Our next round of Vancouver boot camps start on Monday March 1st. Mode Boot Camp Vancouver is an outdoor fat-burning workout program that’s unlike any other boot camp or group exercise program in Vancouver. At our boot camp, you don’t have to bring any of your own equipment (we provide the equipment for you), you only need to workout 2 or 3 days per week (and you’ll see better results than at any 5-day per week boot camp in Vancouver), you’ll be among a small group of 15 people or less, you’ll never do any pointless and ineffective jogging or abdominal crunches, and our boot camp is 100% unconditionally guaranteed.

Visit our Vancouver boot camp website for more info about our outdoor boot camp program.

Earlier today I was reading a blog post about gym etiquette (the blog post was titled “What Not To Do in The Gym), and I was surprised by a comment left by a personal trainer:

Do not enter a gym without a pad and a pen. Ever. No matter what. If you are not recording your workout, you are wasting your time.

What a completely asinine comment. So according to that fool, if you’re doing a kick-butt workout, having fun, burning calories, getting fitter, and all of the other countless benefits that come from exercise, but you’re not taking notes about your workout (to track progression), then you’re wasting your time. That’s some seriously twisted logic.

I believe that exercise should be fun, and certainly doesn’t need to be treated like a boring research project where you have to have a pad and pen with you every time you exercise. You can get amazing results from your workouts without taking all of the fun out of it by tracking every excruciating detail of your exercise program. Actually, the more fun you have, the more consistent you’ll be with your workouts, the harder you’ll push yourself when you do exercise, and the better results you’ll get. So leave the pad and pen at home and just try to have fun with your workouts.

I received the following question today via email:

Do you think a male can build a significant amount of muscle just using resistance bands and suspension straps?

My answer:

Yes, males can build significant amounts of muscle using resistance bands and suspension straps. The reason is very simple. Building muscle requires that you overload your muscles with progressively more challenging amounts of resistance from workout to workout. As you increase the demand on your body by adding resistance to the exercises, your body adapts by building bigger and stronger muscles. The type of resistance you use it irrelevant. You could lift barbells and dumbbells at your local health club, or you could flip tires in a junk yard, or you could use elastic resistance in the form of resistance bands, or you could use your own bodyweight as resistance with suspension straps. Certain bodyweight exercises are difficult to add more resistance as you get stronger (pushups are a good example), but most suspension strap exercises have progressions that should be challenging enough for you to keep putting the demands on your body necessary to build muscle. And for things like pushups where you’re likely not going to be extremely challenged, you can either use pre-exhaustion (tire out the chest muscles before doing pushups), or use the resistance bands for your chest exercises.

If you’ve ever participated in my Vancouver boot camp program, you’ve no doubt heard me talk about the importance of developing a habit of regular exercise. Only after you get into a habit of exercising regularly does it become automatic.

Studies have shown that it takes at least three weeks exercising regular before it starts to become routine. So if you haven’t been exercising regularly, and you’re just beginning your new exercise program, you need to be extra diligent in your first few weeks and ensure that you don’t miss any workouts.

In the initial stages of a new workout program, it’s sometimes very difficult to drag yourself to your workouts. If you’re used to waking up at 7AM, it will be quite challenging during the first few weeks of a schedule change where you set your alarm an hour early two or three days per week so you can exercise prior to going to work. But after a few weeks, this new schedule starts to become routine, and it becomes very easy, almost automatic, to stick to your new schedule. The longer to follow the new schedule, the easier it is to stick to it.

So if you’re starting a new exercise program, and making changes to your schedule to accommodate two or three weekly workouts, try to be extra diligent in sticking to the program and being consistent during the first few weeks. After you get over the initial period of change, you’ll find that your new schedule is very simple to follow, and becomes almost automatic.

If you’re interested in beginning a new exercise program, Mode Athletics run cutting-edge outdoor boot camp workouts for clients in downtown Vancouver, BC.

As a personal trainer in Vancouver, I’m always looking around at other Vancouver personal trainers and personal training companies to see what the competition is up to.

There are a lot of great personal trainers in Vancouver, but there are also just as many horrible personal trainer in Vancouver.

For example, one trainer boasts on his website that if you train with him, you will “effortlessly transform your body”. Sounds kind of like something you’d hear on one of those informercials for a completely useless ab gadget.

If there’s one thing about burning fat that’s more important than anything else, it’s that it requires effort. A lot of effort. You have to be very consistent with your workouts (effort), improve your diet (effort), push yourself very hard when you do exercise (effort), and continue to work hard and see progression from workout to workout (effort).

There is absolutely nothing about fat-burning that’s effortless.

I don’t lie to people and tell them getting in shape is easy. It’s not easy. It requires a lot of effort. That’s why I motivate my clients better than any other trainer in Vancouver, so that my clients are able to push themselves as hard as they need to in order to see the results that they desire.

For a personal training company in Vancouver that’s not going to lie to you and tell you burning fat is easy, check out Mode Athletics. We’ll motivate you to get fit, and you’ll have a lot of fun with our intense fat-burning circuit training workouts, but nothing about it will be easy.

On my website I offer a free report on how to choose a Vancouver boot camp. The report outlines the things you should be looking for in a quality boot camp program, and how to avoid being taken to the cleaners by a shady boot camp company that’s only interested in taking your money.

If you’re considering joining a Vancouver boot camp program, I highly recommend you read my free report, but if you’re busy and don’t have time for the report, here’s a very simple tip to weed out all of the worst boot camps in Vancouver.

Exhibit A. Dinky hand-weights:

If you’re looking into joining a boot camp program that requires you to bring dinky hand-weights, then do yourself a favour and don’t bother. You’ll probably get better results if you just go for a short walk once a day. In other words, unless you’re severely deconditioned and/or have never exercised before in your life, dinky hand-weights aren’t going to do much for you.

Furthermore, it’s not a coincidence that no dinky hand-weight boot camps in Vancouver back up their program with an unconditional money-back guarantee. Light hand-weights are a terribly ineffective way to exercise, so if the dinky hand-weight boot camps offered a money-back guarantee, they’d quickly go out of business because most of their customers would be asking for their money back after they realized they didn’t get any results from exercising with 2lb. hand-weights.

For a quality boot camp in Vancouver that produces real results (i.e. no dinky hand-weights), and guarantees complete satisfaction, check out Mode Boot Camp.