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Ted is a science nerd, an accomplished martial artist, and a personal trainer with 14 years of experience. Using exercise and nutrition principles he’s learned from extensive study, he transformed from a skinny 150lb fast food eating party guy to an athletic 205lbs muscular physique.
Ted’s approach to health and fitness is a holistic one that utilizes corrective exercises to reduce aches and pains by re-establishing proper postural alignment and joint mechanics, core training to define and strengthen the midsection and buttock area, and metabolic conditioning to burn off body fat is the fastest way possible. His approach also includes nutritional and supplement counseling for maximum results.
In his 14 years of experience, Ted has trained celebrities like Ricky Martin and Robert Downey Jr to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, professional and amateur athletes, and men and women who want to look better in their bathing suits.
Favorite Success Quote
“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”― Bruce Lee
Key Points
1. If You Want to Improve Your Mind, First Improve Your Body
The quickest way to train your mind is to train your body.
There is an old saying that says “Train your body and your mind will follow”.
If you are consistently showing up to the gym, working hard, pushing through the pain, and embracing adversity as it presents itself, your identity and self image will change as you continually push the envelope on what you thought was possible.
2. You Need to Stabilize All 3 Pillars of Your Health
Most men who want to upgrade their health tend to focus on exercise.
They think that if they just get to the gym 4-5 days a week that they will automatically become a lean, mean, vitality machine.
But this is just one of the components of getting healthy.
Yes, exercise is a great start, and it is better than living a sedentary lifestyle, but it’s only a third of the puzzle.
To truly master your health you need to master your training, diet, and sleep (one of the most underrated pillars of health).
Be conscious about what you are putting into your body.
Start eating real food and eliminating processed crap.
Focus on getting great sleep, and enough of it.
Turn off the TV at night, have a bed time ritual, sleep in a cold, dark room and follow a consistent sleep schedule.
If you can get control of all three pillars of your health, you will unlock (nearly) limitless health, energy, and vitality.
But if even one of the three suffers, you are going to stunt your progress and damage your performance.
3. Combat Sports Give You a Sense of Security
As men, we are designed to conquer and protect.
But in the 21st century most men have completely forgotten this and become lazy couch potatoes who conquer little more than the next Prestige ranking in Call of Duty and only have the ability to protect their pantry full of crappy foods.
If you want to operate like an alpha man, have a true sense of security and confidence, and level up your life, then you need to fight.
And I don’t mean that you go out to bars and pick fights with every drunk ass hole you meet.
I mean that you need to consciously hone your skills and your body in the fire of combat sports.
Learn Jujitsu, Krav Maga, and boxing.
Develop the skills you need to carry yourself with confidence and ease in any situation.
Our society is soft.
And if you want to be a man who stands out from the crowd and can truly live a level 10 of 10 life, then you must harden your mind and body to withstand potential dangers.
4. Men Need a Rite of Passage
Back in the days of the hunter gatherers, there was a very clear dilineation between boys and men.
Boys would undergo strenuous rites of passage that would challenge them mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Once (or if) they successfully completed these rites of passage, they would return to the tribe as a man.
Everyone in the tribe viewed them as a man and they had the confidence in themselves that they could defend their people and overcome any obstacles that came their way.
For better or for worse, we have lost this tradition in modern society.
Boys no longer have a clear benchmark to help them pass into man hood and this problem proliferates throughout our entire society.
You need to put yourself through a rite of passage to become a true man.
No, you don’t have to go hunt wild wolves with nothing but a sharp stick and a loin cloth.
But you do need to have a clearly defined challenge that will help you take the first step into manhood and allow you to see yourself as a self reliant man.
Whether you backpack through South America for six months, compete in your first BJJ competition, or start your first business, every man needs to have his own rite of passage that clearly marks his exit from boyhood and entrance into manhood.
5. Focus on Building Strength
If you want to build an incredible body and experience high levels of health and energy, then you need to start by focusing on strength.
Instead of doing vanity exercises that isolate muscles and build a flashy (but impractical) physique, focus on getting stronger across all of the four major lifts: Dead lifts, squats, bench presses, and military presses.
When you focus on strength, not only will you protect your body against injury, but you will build a physique that is equal parts aesthetic and functional.
You will be able to lift heavy weights, have practical fitness, and you will feel freaking great!
Focus on strength first, and everything else will follow.
Influential Books
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
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