Strong work on tuning back in! This proves your commitment to your health and fitness. Your chances of success grow with every step you take in this course, so congratulate yourself and Xpect success!

Xfactor Xplanation: Muscle Soreness

By now you might be curious about the muscle soreness cycle from the X Gym style and methodology. Some people get sore from their workouts but others, not at all.

Muscle soreness isn’t “necessary” either. Many people think soreness is a good indicator as to how effective their workout was, but at the X Gym, that’s just not the case. Soreness may or may not happen and if it does, the Xperience will be on different levels, but as long as you are practicing TUT and achieving CMF, every workout will give you maximum benefits.

There are two kinds of soreness: microtear soreness and cellular chemical soreness. Microtear soreness is quite common with traditional training because of the ballistic nature of the motions and the heavy weights used. Since we use controlled motions and light resistance, you will never get microtear soreness because you will never experience microtears.

Traditional training also creates cellular chemical soreness, due to the muscle cell releasing chemicals outside of its cell walls that signal the body for repair. These chemicals can create tightness and soreness. This type of soreness can be felt through the X Gym style. This is a more beneficial type of soreness than microtears because this soreness indicates the muscle was worked but not damaged, while the microtear soreness indicates muscle cell tearing on a microscopic level, which is indeed damage.

Some people don’t get the chemical type of soreness though. They might only get the microtear soreness, so those are the people who don’t experience soreness with the X Gym style. If you are in that group, you are still getting all the benefits, but you will experience less soreness.

If you are someone who does experience soreness from the X Gym workout, then you will experience it towards the beginning of your membership, while you are still new and your muscles are getting used to the X Gym style. This soreness will decrease over time too, as your body gets used to the X Gym methodology.

You may also experience an increased level of soreness when the exercise routine and methodology changes, but in both cases, the soreness will decrease over time as your body becomes more adapted. It may never go away, but you will find more relief as time goes on. You will also get “used to” the soreness and may even find it pleasurable down the road. I know this might sound strange, but many clients do comment on how they like the feeling of the X Gym style soreness.

Nutrition Revolution Step: Start reducing grains.

If you have mastered the previous nutrition steps and are still doing them, then you are ready for this step. Otherwise, keep chipping away at those other steps and be sure to let me know if you need help!

This step, which I call, “Going against the grain” might be somewhat challenging, especially at first, because grains are as addicting as sugar and we all know how hard kicking the sugar habit can be. Just start slow, and cut out one thing at a time, like a certain type of bread or rice for instance. Then when you seem to have mastered that, cut out one more thing and so on, until you are grain free. Click below to watch the technical details on why modern wheat is so unhealthy and addicting.

Our physiology was never meant to consume and digest the modern grains we have today. 200 years ago, grains were digestible and had beneficial nutrients, but since then, we have bred all of those grains out of existence. They are literally extinct, and the ones that are left have little to no nutrition, are unhealthy, largely indigestible, and highly inflammatory. Grains will sabotage your health and weight loss goals, guaranteed. This is why this step is so important, but as I said, it can be quite challenging, so take it at your own pace.

You may have a problem with “cutting out” foods from your diet (especially favorites) but did you know there are some great swaps and substitutions for your fav foods that are as good or better? For instance:

• Trader Joe’s sells cauliflower rice that makes a great substitute for rice.
• Cauliflower also makes a great substitute for mashed potatoes and even pizza crust!
• Black bean pasta and shirataki noodles make great substitutions for conventional noodles.
• These are just a couple sample ideas, but you can find MANY more on the X Gym recipe website HardBodCafe.com!

And here’s a great video on what TO eat instead of wheat and how delicious that can be:

Brain Training Revolution:

Here’s a little brain training trick to use when you are “feeling the burn” and need to hang in there with more TUT in order to reach true CMF: Think of the color blue. Focus on different shades and types of blue in your mind (internal). Look around the room for things that are blue (external). Just think about blue!

Why? Because it gets you out of your right brain, where most of your pain centers are. Plus, blue is has a calming effect, yet puts you in an alert state at the same time, which helps you concentrate on what you are doing.

If this step didn’t help, just email PJ for more customized ideas, based on your individual challenges and goals through pj@xgym.com.

Resource Revolution:

Here is another resource for you to look into: The book! I (PJ) wrote “Cracking Your Calorie Code” back in 2008, mainly as a member manual for X Gym members, but also for their friends and family. It has great info and is available on Amazon.com.

Revolution Reminder:

This “course” is intended for X Gym members and app users in order to learn the unique Xercise methodology and health principles, but our main goal is to help as many people as possible, so if you know other people who could also be helped with this information, please feel free to forward any or all of these pages or email issues to those individuals.

The advice and guidance given at the X Gym, through emails, newsletters, blogs, and other sources are not meant to replace any advice given by your medical practitioner. All ideas, guidance, and concepts should be confirmed with your medical practitioner to be appropriate for you before implementing or adopting anything new into your lifestyle.