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Robbie Farlow

Hi, I'm Robbie Farlow.

I write about fitness and self-improvement with a dash of nerdy goodness. My goal is simple: I want to change the lives of 100,000 men and women by empowering them to take control of their lives via nutrition and exercise so that they can live in the world as the men/women, husbands/wives, or fathers/mothers they believe they can be.


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Latest From The Blog

25 Feb 2020

How to Feel Your Biceps

How to Feel Your Biceps
27 Jan 2020

You Can’t Have More Time, But You Can Do This

You Can’t Have More Time, But You Can Do This
30 Dec 2019

The Kick Ass Lessons I Learned from 36 Different Books in 2019

The Kick Ass Lessons I Learned from 36 Different Books in 2019
19 Nov 2019

How to Warm Up Before You Workout

How to Warm Up Before You Workout
02 Oct 2019

Why You’re Not Losing Weight

Why You’re Not Losing Weight
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  • Can you gain muscle WHILE losing fat? A 2016 study put this question to test. During a 4-week period, study participants lifted weights and engaged in HIIT training 6x a week. And all of them consumed ~40% fewer calories than they needed to maintain their current weight. Meaning: they were in a calorie deficit and would lose body fat. The difference was that one group consumed 1.2g of protein per kg of total weight. So a 100kg man (220 pounds) would consume 120 grams of protein every day. And the second group consumed 2.4g of protein per kg of total weight. So: the 100kg man above would have eaten 240g of protein every day. What did the study find? The results showed that even during an energy deficit, the group that ate 2.4g per kg increased their lean body mass while also seeing a larger reduction in fat mass than the group that consumed 1.2g per kg. So yes, this study shows that you CAN gain lean mass while you lose fat. Here’s a point to consider, eating 240g of protein a day is HARD. And if you chose to consume 2.4g per kg, get ready to blast everyone around you with massive smelly farts. Alright, here’s what I want you to understand: ⠀ 🍗eating more protein during a calorie deficit is what you want to do, but shoot for consuming around .82g-1g of protein per pound. ⠀ 📈focus on your daily habits of eating more protein and veggies, getting sufficient sleep, and hitting the gym 3-4 days a week. Do the work, do it consistently, and the results will follow. ⠀ 💪Gaining muscle CAN happen in a deficit, but it’s not gonna be much and never what you “imagine” it will be. Gaining muscle TAKES TIME. You can make a lot of ground in 12 weeks, especially if you've never lifted a weight in your life, but getting "jacked" takes time. Go look at Hugh Jackman from X1 and then look at him now. Shit takes time, bro. . . #fitness #fitfam #fitstagram #fitover30 #fitnesscoach #fitnessmotivation #fit #muscle #buildmuscle #buildingmuscle #muscles #flex #workoutips #musclebuidling #bodybuilding #bodybuilder #gains #gainz
  • 10 books down so far in 2020. . . #reading #books #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booklover #bookworm #readtosucceed
  • Good deadlift form positions your hips between your knees and your head. Or what I call “The Zone of Go.” Now, if your deadlift looks more like the picture to the left, then you suffer from Squatty Potty Syndrome (SPS). Squatting your deadlift places unneeded tension on your low back, and takes away your ability to generate tension through your hamstrings. Those are problems. One reason why SPS happens is due to a lack of hamstring mobility. Solution: don’t go to the bar, bring the bar to you. Instead of deadlifting from the floor, stack a couple of plates on top of one another, use gym mats (if your gym has them), or if your gym has a power rack, pull from the bottom first couple of blocks. You don’t HAVE to deadlift from the floor. Raising the bar off the ground can help you get more posterior engagement of your hammies and glutes. And you want tension in those muscles if you want to deadlift more weight. So, good deadlift form, even Romanian Deadlifts, should look more like the picture on the right and not the left. If you suffer from SPS, bring the bar towards you or regress things for a few weeks and focus on improving your hip hinge overall. If you wanna know more about that shoot me a DM and I’ll send you my article on improving your deadlift. . . #deadlift #deadlifts #deadliftsaremyfavorite #deadliftsfordays #strengthtraining #hiphinge #glutes #hamstrings #fitness #gingerswholift #weightlifting
  • Short answer, yes. One study looked at if wearing a belt helped lifters lift more. And the study found that it did. So wahoo! Everyone go get a belt and get super strong. Buuuuutttttt, let’s pause for a moment. If you have a weak ass core and use a belt, that’s the same thing as using gum to stop a leaky hole in a raft. Sure, it works for the moment. But longterm you gonna sink. Use a belt if you want. I do suggest them to clients. But don’t put a bandaid over the real problem: poor core strength and activation. Crunches have their place for sure. But I rarely program them for clients. Since many of my clients are seated all day, I have them doing pallof presses, band resisted dead bugs, or for my clients that run, I love combining bear breathing with bird dogs to really ignite their core and help them stabilize their hips more effectively. Dead Bug: key here is to suck your belly down on each rep, like the center of the earth is pulling a string from your belly button. Also make sure your hands are PUNCHING the sky on each rep as well. Bear Breathing: press into the earth like you’re pushing it away from you, and then come up slightly on your toes so that light could pass under your knees. Hold that position and breathe for 20-30 seconds. Bird Dog: when combined with bear breathing, keep pushing your hands into the Earth with the grounded arm. This will help you keep that activation from the bear breathing and not lose the connection with your core. Pallof Press: this is a far better exercise than planks. Because it takes the plank and places it in a standing position. The key here is make sure you have a soft bend in your knees, glutes squeezed, and hold the extended arm position for 1-2 second on each rep. Take this slow. You don’t need to go fast with these. A stronger anterior (front) core goes a long way in preventing low back pain and without a belt it can help you lift better. And even with the assistance of a belt a stronger core will help you lift more. . . #fitness #abwork #weightlifting #abs #coreworkout #deadbug #breathing #weightbelt #heavylifting #fitnessjourney #strengthtraining
  • Everyone can do the hard work. Working out is hard. But it’s “hard” work that most of us can do. We can run miles till our body hurts. Lift weights till it feels a hive of bees stung every inch of our legs. But that’s not the hard work. The hard work is realizing you use food as comfort after a bad day. The hard work is dealing with your emotional trauma instead of trying to drown it in wine. The hard work is telling the inner voice of your grandma or hard working parents who put dinner on your plate that you do not need to clean your plate. And you don’t need to feel bad for it. The hard work is all the stuff you’ll never see in a fitness ad because it’s not sexy. The hard work is telling your significant other that your goals are important and you’d like their support. Yes, even if that conversation scares the ever living crap out of you. The hard work is accepting that you cannot put others before yourself. The hard work is learning to say no to momentary self and saying yes to a future you. The hard part is dealing with your own expectations of what you want vs what actually happens. The hard part is discovering you were miserable for years, and then dealing with the guilt you have for why you didn’t do something sooner. The hard part is accepting responsibility, for everything—how you act, and most importantly, how you react. The hard part isn’t failure, it’s giving yourself the grace when you fall so that you don’t give up. The hard part is being kind to yourself. The hard part is breaking the cycle you’ve been in for years—the narrative you had installed before you had a choice. The hard part is believing in yourself when you’ve never believed, ever. The hard part is feeling alone and thinking no one else is struggling with what you’re fighting. The hard part doesn’t show up on the scorecard. The hard part will drain you, test you, and leave you feeling worse than before. (But it always gets better.) So yea, everyone can do the hard work. But the real hard work, that’s the stuff no one sees you doing. It’s the stuff you absolutely don’t want to do. But it’s also the only work that makes you better. . #motivationmonday #motivation
  • Getting “jacked” won’t turn out the way you think. To all the dudes working hard every day to get a little more jacked, keep going. Keep focusing on your lifts, nutrition, sleep, and taking care of yourself. But I have a hard truth to share with you. If you’re an average height male, you will likely not be “jacked” and 200 plus pounds. Firstly, you have more fat than you think. At 5’10” and 215 pounds (now) you think you’ll look jacked at 190. But when you get to 190 you’re gonna discover you still have way more fat to lose. Yes, you’ll see more muscle than you did at 215, but you’re still not gonna look like Chris Hemsworth circa 2017. Secondly, building muscle takes time. Like months. No, years. Don’t let that scare you though. Go lift. And keep lifting. But if you’re starting in your 30s or 40s and you’re trying to erase a decade or two of fat gain, you’re not gonna be Wolverine in a year. Or two. Maybe three…ok, more like five (maybe). At 180 pounds now, I’ve been working for two years to get to a steady and “lean” 185 on the scale. And I’m nowhere close. Not even by a mile. Maybe by the time I’m 40 it will happen. But honestly, I would also be fine if I maintained around 175 and was a bit leaner than I am now. Here’s my point: Muscle building isn’t about 16 or 20 week programs. For me it’s more about 16 and 20 month programs. Hell, even looking at it in years helps me realize that I have time and there’s no need to rush. (53 year old me is gonna be so jacked though.) So to all the jacked guys reading this, please let other men know that this — “getting jacked”— doesn’t happen overnight. There is no Super Soldier Serum. Dudes who are reading this, please know that being 200+ pounds and jacked is hard, and for some, not conducive to their lifestyle. Especially if you're starting this journey late in life. You can still build a great physique at 170, 180, or even 190. So to all the dudes under 6 feet tall who are working hard every day to get a little more jacked, don’t stop. Because you’re never gonna complain if you’re more jacked at 175 than you were at 230. You’re gonna look and feel great. And that’s really what matters. . #fitness #jacked
  • It’s Friday, and that means curls. There’s nothing better than leaving the gym and strutting into the weekend with three dimensional arm boners. So here’s a tri-set of #bicep exercises that will send more blood to your arms than a direct injection of Viagra. You’ll do 10-12 reps of each exercise for 3-4 sets with 60-90 seconds rest between sets. First up we have your standard dumbbell bicep curls. Keep those elbows tight to your body as you curl, and for a little extra bicep destruction, don’t complete the range of motion at the bottom; leave a little bend in your elbow. Second, we have an EZ-bar preacher curl. Key here is to focus on the eccentric portion of the control the weight on the way down; the hardest part of the lift here is the beginning. And you’ll end by doing dumbbell spider curls, or as they were once known Scott Curls (Larry Scott was one of the greatest #bodybuilders of all time). The key with spider curls is squeeze as hard as you can at the top — and make sure to keep your shoulders as still as possible. Don’t let them swing the weight up at the start. And there you go my friends. A triple set of bicep exercises that will take your arms from flaccid to tumescent quicker than you can say Cialis. . . #armday #fitness #flex #flexfriday #bicepsworkout #biceptraining #arms #bicepcurls #feelthepump #pumpitup #jacked #swole #fitstagram
  • Rent’s paid. What are you hitting in the gym today? . . #fitness #chestworkout #chestday #legday #fit #weightlifting #mensfitness #triceps #workout #rentspaid #rentsdue
  • A woman this weekend said she wanted to wait till she lost ten more pounds to start lifting. Start now! And if you don’t know what to do in the gym, here’s how you to solve that problem: Pick one back exercise, one booty exercise, and one shoulder exercise. Back - one arm dumbbell rows, lat pulldown, seated cable row, or the row machine. Booty - goblet squats, leg press machine, leg extension machine, hip thrust, or cable pull through. Shoulder exercise - single arm dumbbell overhead press, dumbbell lateral raise, or the shoulder press machine. Do 3 sets of 6-8 reps of each exercise. And as they get easier over a few weeks, add 2-4 more reps or lift heavier weight. But as this woman at the gym said today, “I wish I had started ten years ago. But I’ve lost 60 pounds and my body has completely changed BECAUSE I started lifting heavy.” . . #fitness #motivationmonday #motivation #womenwholift #liftweights #weightloss #weightlossmotivation #girlsgonestrong #strongwomen #heavyweights #lifting #liftheavy
  • Before you give a seminar on nutrition it’s imperative that you get an arm and shoulder workout done. . . . #armday #fitness #strongeru #saturday #swole #fitstagram #brosbeingbros #bros #getapump #flex
  • Loved seeing this message from one of my group coaching members. One of the biggest keys to succeeding with your #healthgoals is to surround yourself with GOOD people. . . . #fitness #health #begood #success #goodpeople #health #weightlossjourney #weightloss #weightlossmotivation
  • Here’s a conversation between one of my @strongeru clients about scale fluctuations yesterday. Everyone pay attention here: your body is moving fluids around all day, every day, and you have no control over what it wants to do. And ladies, sorry, but you get the poop end of the stick here because you have ~10 days where you “might” get pretty accurate readings. Your cycle fluctuates things a lot more than it does for men. But that hunk of plastic DOES NOT define your value. It does not tell you the healthy habits you’re building. It only shows how hard much gravity is pulling on you. Go to the moon and that number would be a lot smaller. This is why as a coach I always stress the process. It’s NEVER the results that define who you are, it’s the actions taken on that road that matter. So focus on your daily action. 💤 get good sleep 🍏 eat lots of veggies and fruits 💪 move your body for at least 20 minutes ☃️and work on chilling out more; stressing about the scale won’t move it any faster, it’s probably gonna prevent it from moving more. TL;DR: eff the scale. . . #nutrition #fitness #effthescale #weightlossjourney #weightloss #strongeru #nutritioncoach #weightlossmotivation #fatloss #fatlosshelp #weightlossmotivation

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