​Cutoff holiday sweater season is in full swing. It’s dark most of the time. Comfort foods abound. Instagram is overflowing with cringy ski and snowboard fail videos. And hammering a dry scoop of preworkout then jumping right into 225# bench presses isn’t quite enough to warmup now that it’s a balmy 30 degrees in the gym. Winter is upon us, the holidays are here and 2023 is right around the corner! 

This is the time of year I always recommend folks start thinking about getting back to the basics with training, revisiting core movements and taking care of lagging body parts. Every year in December I throw my clients into a GPP & Foundations phase of training to firm up that fitness foundation for bigger gainz down the line and into the new year. This includes training segments for lagging body parts, addressing imbalances, and building armor. One of my all-time crowd faves is the 8 Week Juicy Arms Protocol!

FIRST, measure your arms with tailor’s tape, make note of the date and size, and snap a quick starting pic to compare to at the end. You can buy a tape measure on amazon HERE for $4.

Perform the below before training and after training. The A1, A2, and A3 indicate a superset so you’ll do set 1 of bicep curls, then set 1 of tricep extensions, followed by set 1 of hammer curls and repeat for sets 2 and 3.

A1- 3x8e Standing Alternating Bicep Curls
A2- 3x8 Lying Tricep Extensions
A3- 3x8e Standing Alternating Hammer Curls

​A1- 3x8 Standing Hammer Curls
A2- 3x8e Standing Single Arm Tricep Extensions
A3- 3x8e Standing Single Arm Concentration Curls

​A1- 4x8e Standing Single Arm Zottman Curls
A2- 4x8 Seated Bench Dips
A3- 4x8 Seated Hammer Curls

​We’re halfway! Keep working! Remember that dream? The one where YOUR ARMS got a nod from the gods? Channel that motivation and finish the second half of the protocol, STRONG!

​Once you’ve finished this final week, snag your tape measure, take that final picture and smile!

• Remember, to keep the same movements and arrangement for the entire cycle. The only variation comes from the increase in reps over the course of the 8 weeks.
• If you want more then find a slightly heavier set of dumbbells and start the program over again!
• I perform a variation of this program every December and January (sometimes I apply it to my calf training too)! In 2017 I trained for a fitness photoshoot and sculpted a very respectable set of arms (below). The shoot went very well. 

Share this with anyone who wants (or needs) JUICY arms! If you enjoyed this, you’ll get MUCH MORE out of my EXPLORE PERFORMANCE Online program. The easiest way to get started is by shooting me a message or going through my website below. Most importantly, LET ME KNOW if you give this a try, how it works for you, and how it improves your performance!

You can easily reach me @tomanocy on Instagram. Feel free to reach out to me for any training, nutrition or coffee thoughts and be sure to tag me in any pics of your doggos! I’m a sucker for a light roast with half & half, and a good time at the dog park. Cheers!

​We all love treating ourselves to a meal out with fam and friends, or taking a well-deserved vacation chock full of treats and social media-led food excursions to try purple banana coffee pancakes with fruity pebbles sprinkles, pizza, donuts or all of the above! When you have health, fitness and performance goals and are following a nutrition and training program these are often the times things go off the rails. We go from a week of feeling good, sticking to our training sessions, and eating healthy with 2 pounds down to a wild Saturday night out, an extra 3 cookies, drunk pizza and a ride home with our pants unbuttoned. Now the scale shows 3 pounds gained...

Eating out is strongly linked to overeating and making poor food choices. Nights out on the town and vacations are TOUGH because they break our routine. And when we’re out of this routine we tend to opt for what looks good, what’s easy, or what’s convenient. BUT, worry not, because there ARE strategies out there that you can use to ensure you’re not compromising progress you've made or wasting any hard work you've put in. In this guide I’ll share some of my best practices for eating healthy at restaurants and on vacation so you can both enjoy yourself AND continue making progress towards your goals!

Let's take 5 minutes to run through these strategies that’ll help you navigate the delicious and dangerous options at your restaurant of choice next time you're out on the town or when you escape for adventure on that well-deserved getaway!

PSA: Eating out is hands-down one of mine and Jen's (my wife!) favorite things to do together so I'm not going to take that away from anyone! Fortunately, just because I might be trying to lose fat for a photoshoot OR add quality muscle tissue for a competition DOES NOT mean I can't make fun choices that won't impact my health and fitness results when Jen and I hit up her favorite gnocchi spot!

• French Fries: Swap these out for an extra portion of veggies or for potatoes that are steamed, baked or boiled.
• Fatty Meats: Try a leaner cut like sirloin or opt for poultry, or fish.
• Creamy Sauces: Look for a tomato or vegetable based sauce.
• Soda: I love sparkling water with lemon or lime. Ask if the bartender can make you a lower calorie version of a drink you want!
• Alcohol: Ask your bartender for soda water with bitters! Bitters is great for your digestion and gives us that herbal, alcohol-like flavor.
• Fried Foods: Ask for baked, boiled or steamed alternatives.

PLEASE share this today with anyone you think it could help! Most importantly, LET ME KNOW what you try, what works for you, what doesn’t, and how it’s improved your life, health, fitness and performance!

You can easily reach me @tomanocy on Instagram. Feel free to reach out to me for any training, nutrition or coffee thoughts and make sure to tag me in any pics of your doggos! I’m a sucker for a light roast with half & half, and a good time at the dog park. Cheers!

​The short answer is, it depends. Humans are complex. Our relationships with food are complex. And every complex human with complex relationships is different. I’ve worked with clients who’ve lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks and others who’ve lost 1 pound while adding 6 pounds of muscle and dropping their waist-size by 3 inches in 12 weeks. Following the program with 80% or more accuracy and commitment, my clients lose between 0.25 and 1 pound per week on average.

Nope! I have some clients who have no idea what MyFitnessPal is and others who feel genuinely better when they do count calories and/or track macros. My philosophy at its core revolves around sustainability, consistency, repeatability and most importantly building a healthy relationship with food.

80% of my clients don’t count calories. The other 20% may use it for a short period of time then shelve it and see how things feel. The goal for all my clients is to get to the point where they can eat intuitively and feel good about their nutrition without constantly counting calories, tracking macros, or using charts, tools and scales to measure every blueberry and drop of creamer.

​The easiest way to ask me a question is through our app chat feature! 

Depending on the program option you choose, you’ll be receiving scheduled support and communication from me through a mix of email, phone and/or in-person meetings. Everyone will receive support and communication through app chat, message and email, regardless of their program! ​If applicable, coaching phone calls will be conducted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To better serve you, emails will be limited to 1 per week, and you can include as many questions as you’d like, less than 3 sentences for each question in bullet form. I try to answer emails on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s!

​To echo above, humans and our relationships with food are complex. My approach is science-based and implemented through habit-tasks that we’ll organize, track and build on together. Science isn’t sexy and it doesn’t sell well, BUT it does show us what we should do to see results.

​My programs are based on reviewing credible scientific evidence and distilling it down into simple language and habit-tasks so you can benefit and get results. We’ll work closely together through this collection of nutrition and lifestyle habit-tasks and mindset skills, rather than emailing you plain black and white instructions for a traditional diet that’s designed for marketing and sales, not long lasting results.

We all have those friends who lose weight on the new fad diet (on social media). BUT we don’t see the rebound-overeating, diet-fatigue, and weight regain (NOT on social media). There’s a reason fad diets come and go (who remembers South Beach?). If the social media diet gurus did in fact have the golden solution then everyone would be lean, fit and screaming about it from rooftops. This isn’t reality.

I assure you, you’re completely normal if the traditional diet cycle has failed you. The REAL solution is to get out of that cycle and into sustainable habit-based practices that actually work.

​We’ll work together to establish habits, build mindset skills, and incorporate changes based around your nutrition, your body and your lifestyle.

​The honest answer is, it depends. I know this isn’t the sexy answer you were looking for. My coaching and programming is not a quick-fix crash diet 30-day suffer fest. I help folks make lasting changes that get them lasting results. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach with weight loss. For some the weight seems to come off more easily, others hammer away a small but consistent 0.25 pounds lost each and every week, while others must lay weeks or even months of groundwork before they see true weight loss. 

To put this differently, consider all the reps you've taken up to the point of seeking out a weight  loss solution that have included unhealthy lifestyle habits, poor nutrition choices, minimal effort to change, and so on. Take a moment to try and quantify this. Understand that in most cases, it’s going to take at least that amount of reps in a healthy direction to unravel the unhealthy ones. Again, not the sexiest answer. I can’t guarantee a timeline for you but I CAN help you get those healthy reps in. With your commitment and 1, 2, or 1,000 healthy reps a day I can guarantee you’ll make progress towards your goals and see results.

I’ve worked with grandmothers and grandfathers, 10 year old club baseball athletes and professionals in the NFL. I’ve worked with folks who weighed 300+ and others who barely broke 50.  I’ve worked with type 1 diabetics, NCAA division 1 athletes and a mom post-double knee replacement. Please scan through my testimonials here and shoot me a message or email if you want to learn more!