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By Sil Bona 23 Jan, 2019
Hit this quick workout today and keep moving. All you'll need is a skipping rope, and if you don't have one, you can always skip without one. I know it sounds silly but give it a try. Also for the goblet squats, you can use anything around the house like a flower bag, potato sac, etc... 

Be sure to do a quick warmup first. Check out Bona Athletics on YouTube and under the Fit in 15 playlist you'll find an at home warmup video. 

Enjoy,

Coach Sil 
By Sil Bona 20 Jan, 2019
It's so dam cold today but you can still move a bit. Don't get lazy and hit this quick fun at home workout. 
By Silviu Bona 19 Jan, 2019
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By Sil Bona 15 Jan, 2019
Sometimes we get too busy for the gym, so hit a quick workout at home but don't forget to warmup first. Here's a quick general warmup you can hit before your quick at home workout. Stay tuned for free at home workouts guys. 
By Silviu Bona 31 Dec, 2018

I often get asked for the magic pill to living a healthy life, getting strong, looking good, and losing weight. Like I’ve said in earlier posts, there simply isn’t one. But if were to give an elevator pitch to what you need to do to live a long and healthy life while feeling good in your own skin here it is.


Elevator Pitch


Improve your Body Composition, Strength, Mobility and Cardiovascular Capacity. Do so in ways that you enjoy. Love others without expecting anything in return and live in a constant state of gratefulness
.

Why Focus on these Pillars of Health?


First focus on improving your strength as getting stronger makes life that much easier. The stronger we are, the easier bodyweight movements become and daily activities are tackled with ease. Strength also builds lean muscle allowing us to maintain our weight, and walk around with less body fat.


Focusing on body composition will produce many health benefits as we all know of the dangers of high body fat percentages. This is done through a solid diet that focuses on balance macro and micronutrients as eating enough to sustain you body. Having a healthy body fat percentage will allow you to feel good, and walk around with confidence.


Mobility is often overlooked but if we have difficulty moving, our body will be in constant pain. Thus, it is crucial that we focus on developing quality tissue, and increased range of motion under control.


Improving your cardiovascular capacity ensures a healthy heart, as well as reducing the risk of lung cancer, type 2 diabetes, and other diseases.


A healthy body is often equated to a healthy mind and taking care of the 4 physical traits mentioned above will put you a step ahead of the game. However, with the amount of stimuli and stress we experience in today’s day, we need a bulletproof mindset. The major things in my opinion is loving others and living with gratefulness. If we love others we not only fulfill ourselves but also make others around us better. True love doesn’t expect anything in return, so love others without expectations. We can be treated unfairly, and bad things do happen but if we focus on simply appreciating the small things in life and being grateful for what we have, things won’t seem to bother us as much. It simply makes the small stuff insignificant, and it’s often the small stuff that plants it’s seed and tears us down.


How do you about doing all this?

The truth is, there’s no one right way. Do what makes you happy when building strength, choosing the right diet, mobilizing and improving your cardio. If you like powerlifting or olympic weightlifting, chose the method you enjoy the most. Don’t chose a diet because some expert says it’s the best one. Eat within logical parameters and enjoy food. If you’re into yoga do yoga, if you’re into a less organized approach, make mobility part of your warmup and cooldown. If you like running, run, if you don’t, try some high intensity workouts.  Depending on your body type and goals, some methods are better than others but what really matters is patience and consistency. So if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you simply won’t succeed.


If you have any questions, either general question or questions about this article, send them to bonaathletics@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to help.


Please LIKE, SHARE, AND APPLY,


Lift Heavy, Lift Often,


Silviu Bona


By Silviu Bona 29 Dec, 2018

HOW TO PACK ON MUSCLE QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY


During the holidays, while spending time with family and friends that I haven’t seen in a while, our conversations turned to people asking me training and nutrition questions. I love talking about this stuff so I really didn’t mind. The majority of the questions revolved around building strength and muscle, and I spent some time debunking bogus claims that people heard from a “gym bro” as well as “fake news” that plagues the internet.


So how do you pack on muscle quickly and effectively?  Simple answer is, you don’t. Building muscle effectively requires a variety of things that need to fall into place, and it takes time. Patience is the name of the game but most of us just don’t want to hear that. We’re obsessed with instant gratification and constantly look for the quick fix. This is why so many people fail in their fitness journey.  


When someone asks me how long will it take to lose the weight they desire and or to gain muscle, I quickly reply with this question:


"When was the last time you were happy with the way you looked?"


Most people give answers like 5, 10, 15 or more years ago.  So how can one expect to “look good” in a matter of months? When it comes to the topic of recomposition (generally losing body fat and maintaining or gaining muscle), too many are disillusioned to think that it can be done quickly.


So let’s get to the steps you need to start taking to begin your journey.


Step #1 Nutrition


To gain muscle you need to eat more calories than you expend. If you’re generally a sedentary individual, a  quick calculation you can use is multiply your bodyweight by 12, and add 500 calories. So a 200lb male would need about 3000 calories (2900 to be exact). You need to ensure you take in at least 1g / lb of bodyweight of protein.  What about carbohydrates?  You need to ensure you eat enough carbohydrates in order to ensure you have the energy for your workouts, as well as allowing you to gain weight. If your body doesn’t have enough carbohydrates, then it will simply breakdown muscle, and use it as energy.

Finally, your body needs a certain amount of fat to ensure your inflammation regulation, heart health and a solid hormonal balance that allows for the production of hormones like testosterone.


To put it all together, eat lean sources of protein, complex carbohydrates, and unsaturated fats (fats that don’t become solid at room temperature). This will give your body the fuel it needs to gain “quality weight”.


#2 Training


Contrary to what you may see on YouTube, Instagram or Fitness Magazines, you don’t need to do copious amount of sets and reps to gain muscle.  What you need to do is lift heavy. Low weight, high reps and high sets work well for those trying to gain overall muscle volume, and depending on the muscle group, they do have a place.  However, most “athletes” you seen in magazines doing this type of training are both advanced and are unnatural athletes. Training with and without the use of steroids are very different approaches. Assuming you’re natural and time is important to you, I recommend using what’s known as the BURST METHOD.


The Burst Method ensures you hit your basics, and are out of the gym in 40 min-1h, training 4-5 times a week. You can look up this method and conduct your own research, but essentially it consists of incorporating compound movements like the bench, deadlift and squat, as well as isolated movements (accessory movements), and performing anywhere between 30-40 reps, broken down in 4,6, or even 8 sets.  The rest here is also minimal 20-30 sec. between sets, ensuring that your muscle has a lot of time under tension while lifting heavy.  An example for the squat in sets and reps would be as follows; 1x5, 1x5, 1x5, 1x4, 1x4, 1x3, 1x3, 1x2. That’s a total of 31 reps over 8 sets with 25 sec. rest between each set.  If you can do more, increase your weight and try to hover around that 30 rep range for major muscle groups and 40 rep range for smaller muscles like the shoulders and arms.


This is a very simple and quick explanation and this discussion can go on forever. There are many other methods that will work as well if not better than the recommended method above but this is intended for the average person who is short on time and wants to get shit done.  If you have specific questions about combining exercises and training programs make sure you ask and I can do a more specific write up.


#3 The Other Stuff


The other stuff is extremely important with trying to either gain muscle or cut body fat: SLEEP, WATER, and STRESS.  Ensuring you get enough sleep, 7-8 hours of good sleep is enough. Drinking plenty of water is essential, it helps with many things such as muscle growth - this depends on the individual but a good starting point is 4-6 liters.  Finally, stress needs to be managed in a healthy way.  Generally if you have a good training regimen, you’re already better equipped to manage stress better than others. However, make sure to take time for yourself, live in constant gratefulness and stop sweating the small stuff...it’s bullshit anyway.


Addressing other Questions:


What supplements do I need?


You don’t NEED any supplements, that’s why they’re called supplements. If you’re not eating well, sleeping enough, drinking enough water, training, and managing stress, supplements will do next to nothing for you. If you’ve got all the above taken care of, then I would take an Omega 3 supplement that will help with inflammation.  A creatine monohydrate, since it’s a well known and extremely well researched supplement proven to increase strength, muscle growth and cardiovascular capacity. A whey isolate as a post workout shake if you’re unable to get a meal in right away after you lift, and the cherry on the cake that doesn’t do as much as people may think is an amino acid drink to sip on during your workout. I do feel a lot better during the hot summer months when I sip on an amino acid mix. Other supplements like vitamin D, B C,K etc… Minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium are also very important.  However, i would recommend getting some blood work done to understand what you may be deficient in and focus on taking only what you need. Don’t pump vitamine D or B because you hear people online say that everyone is deficient in them so you have to take a fist full of vitamins daily.


Will I gain too much muscle and look like a "Juice Head"?

If you're not a Juice Head, then you won't look like one LOL. But seriously, gaining muscle is hard and once you're happy with your physique, then proceed to cutting. I'm a big fan of useful muscle. Meaning the muscle that you build is strong as shit, and you can use it to produce power, and speed. My approach has always been building an athletic body and having people feel comfortable in their own skin. Some just want to get as big as humanly im-possible, and unless you're on some serious drugs you will not look like a Juice Head. 

Will I get fat if I try and gain muscle?


Yes and No. The slower you gain muscle, eating quality foods, like good fats, lean sources of protein and low glycemic carbohydrates,  the less fat you will gain. On the other hand, if you’re just trying to get in as many calories as you can, your weight will increase faster and that means that both muscle and fat increase.  This is attractive to some but remember that once you’re finished with the “bulking cycle”, you follow it up with a “cutting cycle” and if you have a lot of fat to lose during your cutting cycle, you’ll also lose quite a bit of the hard earned muscle with it. So a fine balance is required here. A general rule I use is, I go into a mini cut that allows me to maintain my muscle, once my abs disappear. It’s a lot like walking a fine line and keeps things interesting as you learn to eat with a purpose.


FINALLY HOW LONG SHOULD I BULK?


Unless I have some history this is a pretty impossible question to answer with any accuracy. A general rule would be stick to a bulk for 6 months.  It’s a lot more difficult than cutting in my opinion, and as mentioned you can do mini cutting cycles during the bulk while maintaining muscle. It takes time for muscle to grow so trying to bulk for 1 or 2 months isn’t going to do very much for you. In the grand scheme of things, 6 months isn’t that long. And remember if patience is king, consistency is his queen.


Put in the work, get the guidance you need and you’ll see results.


I hope you found this helpful guys. If you have any questions about this article, or any questions in general, please send them to bonaathletics@gmail.com or comment in the post.

Also LIKE, SHARE AND APPLY.


Lift Heavy, Get Strong,


Coach Sil


By Sil Bona 27 Dec, 2018
  

When people start a training regiment any good coach would start with the question, what are your goals?  The majority of the population will give an answer that sounds a little like this:


Men - I want to feel good, lose some fat, build muscle and get stronger.


Women - I want to feel good, lose weight and tone.


These answers are actually identical in nature. You see, building muscle is one of the greatest things you can do for your body. If you’d like to get lean, you need to build muscle. If you want to get “toned”, you’ll need to tone something and it’s not fat or bone but muscle. So both men and women need to focus on building muscle in order to achieve these general goals.


The reality is that both men and women believe that building muscle is easy and losing weight is hard. This can’t be further from the truth.  I often hear, I want to tone, but I don’t want to get too bulky, Building muscle however is extremely difficult. It takes time, dedication and focus on a variety of things in your life. Thing like caloric intake, macro balance, hydration, sleep, stress regulation, and specific training. You don’t just show up, lift weights and magically build a huge physique that scares people when you enter the room . Losing weight on the other hand is much simpler, don’t eat like a jerk and move.


Building lean muscle doesn’t only shape and tone your physique, it allows you to maintain your weight thus avoiding the cursed scale fluctuations that so many experience. If staying ‘lean” is your goal, you need to have a good base of muscle.  Muscle helps with the breakdown of fat and having more muscle allows you to burn more calories at rest (increased metabolism). It also takes a lot more calories to maintain muscle and therefore easier to keep body fat in check.


Since muscle takes longer to build, it takes just as long to lose, if constantly used. Let me explain. If you spend 6 months building muscle, eating well and then have a vacation where your not eating very well for a week, that one week isn’t going to have much of an impact on your body overall. You’ll feel a little bloated but you won’t lose a bunch of muscle, nor will you gain a substantial amount of fat. This is the key to maintaining a physique you are happy with as it allows for flexible eating. Eating clean most of the time and having a few meals or even days where you eat what you want will not sabotage your gains as much as some are let to believe.


Finally men and women obviously build muscle at different rates due to the difference in their hormonal responses. Generally men have more testosterone levels then women and are therefore able to get bigger.  If you’re afraid of getting “too big” don’t be, it’s next to impossible for someone who’s not actively trying to pack on a significant amount of muscle. On the contrary, most athletes who try and put on muscle have a difficult time even when they’re doing all the right things.


In my next article I’ll be discussing what one needs to do to build lean muscle effectively and safely so stay tuned.


If you have any questions regarding this write up, please email them to

bonaathletics@gmail.com

or comment in the post.


Lift Heavy, Lift Often,


Silviu Bona


By Sil Bona 21 Dec, 2018
DEADLIFT
1 RM

7min AMRAP
3 Deadlifts
3 Hang Power Cleans
3 Push Jerks
6 Deadlifts
6 Hang Power Cleans
6 Push Jerks
9 Deadlifts
9 Hang Power Cleans
9 Push Jerks
Rx – 115/80
SCALED – 75/55
By Sil Bona 19 Dec, 2018
BENCH PRESS
1 RM

Conditioning
6 Rounds of:
2/14cal
20 x 10m Shuttle Sprints

Box Brief:

Congrats to Coach Kristen on her new baby girl :)

By Sil Bona 02 Nov, 2018


Several years ago I wrote an article on the “Key to Success” and the most important thing to being successful in whatever you do, especially when talking about your gym life, is consistency. When looking at gym attendance we see that only the rare few are consistent gym goers who show up rain or shine. We at N6 are blessed to have most members reflect this badassery but we all get into slumps sometimes. Let’s face it, life can get you down, shit happens and the weather sucks sometimes. So how do we overcome that life throws at us and still manage to show up? It’s this idea of consistency that will help you prioritize and understand what real training looks like.


You see, being consistent doesn’t mean that you show up jumping off the walls and cushing workouts on a daily basis. It’s pretty great when we have days like that but training with that mentality is a sure recepie to burnout and inconsistency. One of the worst things you can do is get all excited about training, come to the gym everyday, kick ass and then stop for a week or more. You know you’ve won the battle when you show up and meet your attendance goals. That can be two times a week, or seven days a week. What matters is that you show up to what you’ve planned on accomplishing that week.


Sometimes we have real reasons not to show up like family and work commitments. However, we’ve all had days, more than we’d like to admit where we see the workout and just don’t feel like showing up. That’s straight up bullshit! Or is it?  When personal stress in our daily lives builds up, we can feel pretty beat up and our Central Nervous System just doesn’t need more crazy stress, so we stay home. This is a legitimate reason to stay home, but there’s good news. This is where your coach comes in, and a good coach combined with good communication is a winning combination.


With my personal training athletes, I always work on a red, yellow, and green light system. Regardless of what I have planned that day, we start with a conversation and get an idea of how hard they need to push. Notice I didn’t say how hard they can push. So when you come into the gym, give the coach and idea of what you’re feeling that day and be honest, because it’s super easy to shy away and say I’m fine.


Red light - I feel like shit and don’t want to be here but I showed up.


Yellow light - I’m tired, didn’t get much sleep last night and feel beat up.


Green light - I know were squatting for 5 reps but can I PR today?




If you let go of the ego, and show up no matter how you feel, communicate with your coach, you’ll still have a great workout regardless of the circumstance. You may not lift what you think you’re capable of that day, but you’ll get shit done. Repeating this process over months, will accumulate an incredible amount of fitness. So be smart and be consistent.


Coach SIl


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