X Gym

09/22/2026

From Costco: jalapeño cheddar brats, 100% grass-fed beef, 12g real protein. SO GOOD!
Bars are handy but that protein is ultra-processed and not fully absorbable.
This is a fully-absorbable protein stick. Delicious, more filling, and about half the cost per usable protein gram.

09/19/2026

You can still build muscle after 50. Anabolic resistance is real. A hard ceiling is not.

Older muscle needs a bigger protein signal: 35+ grams of whey with ~3 grams of leucine about an hour before you train. Timing before the workout matters more than after.

Traditional long warm-ups are mostly wasted time. Local muscle temperature and nervous-system priming matter more. In an X Gym workout, the first half of each exercise does that job.

Tendons also change with age. Lighter weight + continuous time under tension + mindful movement protects them and strengthens the whole tendon, not just strips of it.

At X Gym this is mostly built in and still takes 21 minutes. The one thing to add is protein (and enough water — muscle is 75% water). Daily target: about 1g protein per pound of lean mass.
Read the full piece:

Read our Overcoming Anabolic Resistance After 50 article on our blog page for personalized workouts and guidance. Achieve your fitness goals with professional personal training in West Seattle.

09/18/2026

If I can do this at 60, so can YOU! 🌀I call this the Fibonacci Pushup — a spiral-motion pushup that hits your pecs, shoulders, triceps, and core all at once. It's extremely hard. It takes total control. If I can do this, so can you! Try just 1 slow rep and tell me how it felt in the comments 👇 And follow for science-backed calisthenics and real results after 60.

09/18/2026

The best workout for your bloodwork is not the one you think.
A new network meta-analysis ranked exercise types by metabolic marker.
Low-volume HIIT (X Gym style) ranked #1 for:
• Total cholesterol
• Triglycerides
• Diastolic BP
Full breakdown of what actually wins for BMI, LDL, glucose, HDL, and fat loss:
https://xgym.com/matching-your-workout-to-your-metabolic-goals/

09/16/2026

I coach people that if they "touch" their max heart rate at least 2X/week, it will be truly life-changing. I usually hit it 5X/week. Here's one Xample from a Xardio class I did recently at X Gym (160 BPM is my MHR):

09/14/2026

Your facial expression can make a workout better or worse — even if you have to fake it.

Look at the four faces:

1. A pleasant grin helps you last longer, whether that’s more minutes of cardio or a stronger contraction.
2. A sad expression does the opposite.
3. An angry face can help with max effort in strength training, but it also etches in wrinkles.
4. A pain grimace makes you weaker and also ages your face.

If you want the best training effect with the least wear on your face, stay with #1 — even when you have to fake it - because your subconscious doesn't know the difference!

09/10/2026

They told me a VO2 max jump this big was physiologically impossible in three months.

When I retested and saw my score leap from 47 to 63, I called my former college exercise physiology professor. He didn't believe me either. He told me to bring the data straight to his office.

He looked at the numbers, scratched his head, and said, "This should have taken at least two years of extreme endurance training."

Standard exercise science says cardiorespiratory capacity grows at a slow crawl, especially when you are already fit. Crushing standard adaptation timelines usually requires elite genetics or hours of daily steady-state grinding.

Instead, it came down to targeting specific energy systems with exact stimulus protocols, forcing cellular adaptation in a fraction of the traditional time.

I wrote down the exact science, protocol details, and data behind how this happened:

Read our How I Went From a VO2 of 47 to 63 in 3 Months article on our blog page for personalized workouts and guidance. Achieve your fitness goals with professional personal training in West Seattle.

09/06/2026

Traditional strength training equates performance with lifting heavy loads through dynamic sets and repetitions, introducing severe structural hazards to connective tissue. Jerky, ballistic movements cause unpredictable force spikes that isolate stress on narrow strips of tendon fibers, frequently leading to tears and ruptures.

By eliminating momentum and utilizing 2 to 3 minutes of continuous Time Under Tension (TUT), you allow the fluid inside the viscoelastic tendon matrix to shift and express evenly. This uniform mechanical strain triggers mechanotransduction across the entire structural cross-section of the tendon, resulting in matrix-wide collagen synthesis.

Using light weights and slow, mindful control for a single set taken to Complete Muscle Fatigue is biologically superior for connective tissue resilience.

Read the full technical breakdown on how our methodology maximizes functional strength while maintaining complete biomechanical safety:

09/05/2026

My 7 Zone Training System improves on the standard 5 zone system from 1992. Zone 6-7 is where Xponential results happen (if you can handle it). 5 zones completely miss out on this magic. Here's why:

Read our The Magic of Zone 7 Training article on our blog page for personalized workouts and guidance. Achieve your fitness goals with professional personal training in West Seattle.

09/03/2026

Our methods are just as good for the brain as they are for the body, thanks to our mindful movements. This makes our training a form of meditation, and provides all the benefits that are associated with that. See the post to geek out on the details: