Twitter Chat with Nia Shanks – June 4 at 2:30 PM PST (5:30 EST)

You really can’t go wrong with Nia Shanks’s approach to training and nutrition. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or an absolute beginner, her programs are simple, flexible, and effective.

If you’re not familiar with Nia’s work and the “Lift Like a Girl” revolution, you’re in luck. Not only is she our current Featured Coach, but she’s also joining us for a Twitter chat on Tuesday, June 4! Don’t miss this opportunity to ask Nia all your questions about training and nutrition. She’ll also be giving away a copy of her e-book, Sane and Simple Nutrition, to one participant.

If you’re not familiar with Nia’s work, here are our reviews of three of her programs:

• Lift Like a Girl
• Beautiful Badass
• Sane and Simple Nutrition

You can also follow along with Nia’s programming and read more of what she has to say about her training philosophy here.

We asked Nia a few questions about her athletic journey, her approach to training, and the e-book she’ll be giving away to one lucky chat participant. Here’s what she had to say:

Q: Tell us a bit about your own athletic journey.

A: I started strength training when I was about 15 years old, and I’ve been going ever since. Strength training is my job and seeing what my body is capable of doing and increasing my strength is my passion. I also love hiking, skiboarding, and doing anything else outdoors.

Q: In your opinion, why is strength training important for women in particular?

A: Strength training is excellent because it allows women to build the body they really want – leaner, stronger, and healthier. However, strength training is also a great tool for increasing self-confidence. Most people don’t discuss this awesome perk, but I’ve seen it happen with every female client. Strength training allows women to focus on what their body can DO and not just how it LOOKS. Finally, it allows women to become better versions, stronger versions, of themselves.

Q: What is unique about your own approach to strength training and staying strong and healthy?

A: I put a huge emphasis on keeping things – in regards to strength training and nutrition – as sane and simple as possible. Building a better body is a process that should enhance your life and not dominate it. For example, if you’re constantly stressed out from your nutrition and workout regimen, then something needs to change. Bottom line, I encourage people to strip everything down to the basics because they work and can be sustained long-term. When all else fails, KISS (Keep It Sane and Simple).

Q: Tell us a bit about “Sane and Simple Nutrition.”

Sane and Simple Nutrition is the ultimate anti-diet guide that gives people the power to ditch diets and break free from OCD eating habits for good. In the end, they regain their sanity and discover how easy it is to eat to build a stronger, leaner, and healthier body.

Thanks Nia! Got questions of your own? Join us for a Twitter chat!

Here’s how to get in on the conversation:

1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday, June 4 at 2:30 PM PST (5:30 EST)
2. Follow the hashtag #RealKnowledge
3. Ask away! The floor will be open for questions for one hour until 3:30 PST. Be sure to end your question with the hashtag #RealKnowledge to lock into the chat.
4. Stay tuned after the chat to find out if you won a copy of Sane and Simple Nutrition!

Note: Twitter is great, but it can be overwhelming. If you want to declutter your Twitter feed and just hear the conversation, you can log in at TweetChat.com to follow the chat. Once you’ve logged in to the website, just type the hashtag #realknowledge into the search box at the top (it’s kind of hard to see) and you’ll be directed to a chat room.

Be sure to stay tuned for future Twitter chats with coaches from every discipline! If you missed last month’s chat with Pat Flynn, you can read some highlights here.

New to Twitter or have questions?

The post Join Us For a Twitter Chat and Giveaway With Nia Shanks! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

If you’re looking for a quick way to build muscle and shed a few pounds, look no further than Pat Flynn’s metabolic conditioning kettlebell programs. We featured Pat and his kettlebell complex workouts earlier in 2013. Now we’re thrilled to announce that he will be joining us for a Twitter chat on Tuesday, April 30.

If you missed Pat’s articles and programming, be sure to check them out here. Here’s a little sample of what Pat’s fast, furious, and brutal kettlebell complexes look like:

As a sneak peek, Pat answered some questions for us about how he got started with kettlebells, what’s so great about kettlebells anyway, and the program he’s giving away to one chat participant.

Q: Tell us how you got into kettlebells.

A: Not many people ask me how I stumbled into kettlebells, which stinks, because it’s a fairly interesting tale – not humongously interesting, but fairly. It only becomes humongously interesting if I stretch it out just a little bit, but then I run the risk of it snapping back at me – and I wait impatiently, but enthusiastically, to tell it to whatever soul is willing to lend an ear. Sometimes I don’t even wait for the them to ask, or even give them a chance to, I’ll just start all on my own, just like that lawnmower did in Maximum Overdrive right before it started butchering people, except I don’t butcher people, I just talk to them, although a great many I talk to might say they’d rather been butchered.

The reason why the tale of how I came about the kettlebell is so endearing is not because it trebled the size of my biceps – which previously resembled two teensy little bird eggs – or because it augmented my traps to look like I had grown a pair of boobs on my neck, or because it whittled my waistline or cleared up my acne, or even because it alleviated my ADD and corked my tendency to write run-on sentences. No, while all of that MAY be true, depending on who you ask, what really makes the tale so charming is in fact that I rarely mention any of that at all!

So here’s how it happened: I was just starting college, and was hanging out with Som(!) – who, if you want to know, is an Indian ninja, and that’s legitimate – who just so happened to be working out with kettlebells(!!) and then he said I should work out with kettlebells too(!!!) and so I did(!!!!) and then I had to go and do some, like, really crazy amount of snatches to get certified by a Russian (that really wasn’t any fun at all, so I’m not going to put any !’s after that). I think I was the youngest to ever do it, at the time. But I could be wrong.

Q: Nice! Indian ninjas and Russian kettlebell gurus make for a great story. So what’s so great about the kettlebell anyways, and what makes your style unique?

A: I have been presented the opportunity to be ostentatious, and this will now allow me to serve out my primary function as a human being: to think very hard on myself until I am utterly exhausted of the subject matter or pass on to Bliss Eternal, whichever comes first. Either way, you should get comfortable.

The kettlebell is a marvelous device, for what it is; which is to say a hunk of iron with a handle on it. It’s simple, brutal, and superb. But a tool, kettlebell or otherwise, is only effective to the extent that it is utilized effectively. A hammer serves little good purpose when it is held upside down.

I’ve taken a somewhat backwards approach to kettlebell training. Where kettlebells have most commonly been employed as an instrument for strength training, I rely on them largely for metabolic endeavors: to augment capacity, improve metabolic efficiency, and chop fat, of course. This is not to say that I don’t do any strength work with kettlebells – it is doubtless that I do – I just believe the kettlebell lends itself uniquely to metabolic conditioning, specifically through kettlebell complex training, which is sort of what I’ve become known for, I guess.

Some would call me fat loss guy, whatever that means. But really, I consider myself a health coach guy. I’m not a strongman, per se, but I am a strong man, I move without inhibition, and I look really good with my shirt off, if I may be so immodest. I guess that’s what I teach people to do. Yes, that’s it precisely.

Q: Excellent! Everyone wants to look good topless, right? Could you tell us a bit about your program, “The Birth of a Hero?”

A: The Birth of a Hero is my manifesto, my 5th Symphony, if you will. On second thought, that was perhaps a bit too strong. Let’s say my 2nd symphony.

I published the original version, entitled The Power of Complexes, a few years back, which was admittedly more of a duodecimo pamphlet than it was a book. But the response, to my delight, was immensely favorable and so it merited an expounded edition. That’s how The Birth of a Hero came about.

If you haven’t already figured it out, this is a strength and conditioning program based around kettlebell complexes – the damnedest ever seen, from what I’ve heard. Kettlebell complexes, for those of you might not know, are a series of kettlebell exercises performed successively and uninterruptedly, thus permitting you to train multiple muscle groups and energy systems simultaneously. Because you do not smoke any one muscle group too much at one time, but maintain a high level of stress on the system as a whole (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc), there is a colossal metabolic impact and caloric afterburn. It’s damn effective, especially for fat loss. Not to mention wonderfully time efficient.

I am currently working on the next edition, which will be more of an encyclopedia than anything else. But that’s a few months away, if not maybe even a few more. I am also writing a “For Dummies” book with Dr. Kellyann Petrucci (author of Living Paleo for Dummies), tentatively entitled Paleo Fitness for Dummies. I wish I could give a few copies of that away, but it’s not done yet.

For those of you who aren’t so lucky to win a copy, I also run a full-time blog, ChroniclesOfStrength.com, which I think many of you may enjoy. And I publish the Chronicles of Strength Inner Circle newsletter, where I share my best (and sometimes zaniest) ideas on strength training, metabolic conditioning, nutrition, and anything else you could ever possibly need to reach your fitness and health goals.

Needless to say, all of this writing makes my very, very tiredasljlyda;lsdjkd…

Thanks Pat! Got questions of your own? Join us for a live Twitter chat!

Here’s how to get in on the conversation:

1. Log into Twitter on Tuesday, April 30 at 1:00 PM PST (4:00 EST)
2. Follow the hashtag #RealKnowledge
3. Ask away! The floor will be open for questions until 2:00 PST. Be sure to end your question with the hashtag #RealKnowledge to lock into the chat.
4. Stay tuned after the chat to find out if you won a copy of Pat’s kettlebell complex program, The Birth of a Hero!

Note: Twitter is great, but it can be an overwhelming place. If you want to declutter your Twitter feed and just hear the conversation, you can log in at TweetChat.com to follow the chat. Once you’ve logged in to the website, just type the hashtag #realknowledge into the search box at the top (it’s kind of hard to see) and you’ll be directed to a chat room.

Be sure to stay tuned for future Twitter chats with coaches from every discipline!

The post Join Us For a Twitter Chat and Giveaway With Pat Flynn! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Run Like a Mother provides some excellent tips for moms who need help balancing family and running. It’s a great book for moms who want to start running or who ran before they had kids and have had a hard time getting back into the habit.

Train Like a Mother provides training plans for moms who want to take the next step and participate in an event. There are plans for different levels, making this an ideal book for all moms who want to train for a race, regardless of their level.

Today two lucky winners are going to win a free copy of each book. Readers left comments on the book reviews to be entered into a random drawing, and we’ve selected the winners. Drumroll please:

The winner of Run Like a Mother is…

Catey Benninson Ball!

The winner of Train Like a Mother is…

Andrea Long!

Congratulations, ladies, and thanks to everyone who entered! Learn more about the authors and books at Another Mother Runner. And keep an eye out for our next giveaway – we’ll be handing out free ithlete ECG Receivers!

The post Announcing the Winners of our “Mother Runner” Giveaway! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

YogaToes, made by YogaPro, are designed to help your feet recover from the unnatural states they endure for most of the day – squished inside your shoes! Or maybe those feet are just tired from all the training and working out. Either way, YogaToes are great therapy for tired, sore feet.

Now you can win a pair for yourself!

All you have to do is this:

1. Follow YogaToes on Facebook
2. Follow Breaking Muscle on Facebook
3. Leave a comment on this article letting us know you did steps 1 and 2!

This contest lasts for only 48 hours!

That means – you have until 12pm (Pacific) on Monday to do steps 1-3.

The winner will be announced on Facebook and Twitter and will receive their very own pair of YogaToes!

Not sure what YogaToes are and why you need them? READ OUR REVIEW.

The post Win a Pair of YogaToes! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.