About

Welcome to JCDFitness.com. If this is your first time on the site, I recommend getting started here first. There’s well over 150 articles here and it could be easy to get lost within the archives.

Who am I?

My name is JC Deen and I’m the owner, writer, and web designer here at JCDFitness.com. I started this site back in 2008 without any real idea of where I wanted it to go. All I knew is that I wanted to write about fitness, what I’ve learned (and continue to learn), and my personal experiences with various diets and training routines.

I currently live in Nashville, Tennessee and split my time working as a fitness writer/consultant and freelance web designer/developer.

So when I am not writing fitness articles for JCDFitness, you can find my articles in other places, such as The Alan Aragon Research Review, FitnessBlackBook.com, Bodybuilding.com, Problogger.net, WannaBeBig.com, TheChangeBlog.com, and many other outlets.

When I’m not writing articles, I’m usually playing around in Photoshop and releasing my inner-geek to make something beautiful for a web design client.

If you want an in-depth story of my life over the last few years, and want to be inspired, I suggest you read my personal story I shared at TheChangeBlog titled How Extreme Focus Can Change Your Life.

What is this site about?

JCDFitness is much more than your general fitness tips website. I learned long ago that if I ever wanted to make an impact, you must choose to be different. I had to do what others weren’t doing, or possibly even afraid of doing.

While I’ll never claim myself an expert in any single area within the health and fitness world, I do know a thing or two about building muscle, losing fat, and most importantly, making this fitness lifestyle work for the individual.

The truth is this: the majority of us are not professional athletes, nor will we ever be. All we want to do is look great naked, enjoy our lives and improve our health along the way.

In light of such an ideal, it makes no sense to overly-complicate something that can be very simple. Take note that simple is not always synonymous with the word easy. My ideas and approach are fairly simple, but not always so easy in practice – well, not at first.

The way I see it, fitness should complement our lives, not overrun it. We spend a relatively short amount of time (a few hours per week at most) working on our fitness, and much more time on things that are really important, such as our careers, relationships, families, hobbies, etc.

In saying that, you might find some of my ideas and philosophies to be a bit different than the run-of-the-mill fitness resource. And by “a bit different,” I mean “almost the opposite of what you’ve heard” a lot of the time.

My Thoughts on Training

My personal feelings are as follows. Just about every training routine (outside of the extreme cases) will ‘work’ for some time, depending on the goals. Are some routines inherently better than others? Sure.

But it all comes down to the goal at hand. For the young guy wishing to pack on as much muscle as possible, the hardcore routines he found in a magazine are hardly the best idea. This is mainly due to the fact that the trainees sporting such a routine are highly advanced and, most of the time, on high quality pharmaceuticals (if they do that routine at all; a lot of fitness magazine make use of a heavy amount of stock photos).

Therefore, since the young guy is hardly on such a level, something more abbreviated is a much better option.

The same goes for the opposite end of the spectrum. Most people tend to buy into the “more is better” mentality and it couldn’t be further from the truth – especially when it comes to fat loss training.

Training excessively can have damaging effects on your energy levels, your willpower, and can even have the exact opposite effect.

For the majority of those wishing to look great naked, keeping it simple with a strength routine coupled with a caloric deficit is a recipe for success. Add some time and dedication to the mix and you get a lean, chiseled physique.

See, that’s a very simple concept, yet not always easy to follow or buy into – especially with the way marketing alters our perception.

I also am indebted to Matt Perryman of Amped Training, Bret Contreras, and Nick Horton of The Iron Samurai for their insights on training altogether.

My Thoughts on Nutrition and Deception within the Fitness Industry

Remember that I am not a registered dietician, so before you try to pin me as one, this is my disclaimer.

While I don’t possess any formal training within the field, I’ve been a student of some of the best out there. Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, Martin Berkhan, Leigh Peele, among many others all bring a different element to the table, and I have taken pieces from all of them.

For that I am very thankful because their ideas have allowed me to become educated on what matters (and what doesn’t) and how to apply it to my personal life, as well as to my clients regimens.

Most people aren’t as fortunate, though. When first discovering health and fitness, we often turn to the internet for information. However, a majority of the information we come across is either

•  Outdated – new science has replaced the old (think of all the old bits of advice that have been promptly shot down: “Eggs are evil,” “Low fat is the key,” “Don’t eat after 6:00.”)
•  Blatant Lies – usually for some sort of financial gain or whatnot (many studies are performed by food or supplement companies with an agenda, and are about as close to “actual scientific experiments” as Taco Bell is to “authentic Mexican cuisine.”)

But let me expand just a little bit.

Something I’m very adamant about is continuing our education. If we ever stop learning, we may as well be dead. In the medical community, we’ve a plethora of awesome resources at our disposal. Thousands of studies are published every month in various scientific journals.

While there are fewer studies directly relating to fitness, there are many in the medical world pertaining to proper nutrition and its effects it has on our bodies.

From these studies, we’ve learned about the importance of a balanced diet – one containing essential fats, carbohydrates, and a generous dose of protein.

We’ve even learned about meal frequency and its effect on weight loss/gain.

There are also studies which look at the optimal rep ranges for hypertrophy and strength gain.

Some of my favorite studies to read are from the Journal of Psychology – mainly because I like to know why we make certain decisions and how those choices affect us mentally.

So ideally, if you’re a student of fitness, your research should never, ever cease. What you know to be true today could be irrelevant tomorrow because of new research taking place of the old.

Never stop learning. When you stop putting new information into your brain, your brain just stops working.

Now, let’s briefly go over my next point.

There are some outright lies within this industry.

Don’t believe me? Do a Google search for these terms: ‘Anaconda Protocol‘ or ‘I, Bodybuilder‘ and tell me what you find. You’ll first find a few products from T-Muscle and right after those, you’ll find my articles to help you understand the deception.

Now, I have no problems with making money. I understand T-Muscle has to make money to continue running. Their employees have families they need to take care of as well. I get it – I have to feed and house myself too.

My problem is with the deception. Packaging and selling a product that promises to help you pack on 50lbs of muscle in 12 weeks (exaggeration is mine but you get the point) is an outright lie. I don’t care if someone is selling steroids, those types of results are merely non-existent.

However, the offer sounds so enticing – wouldn’t it be nice to reach your genetic potential in a mere 3 months? You could be competing and winning bodybuilding shows in no time!

Since that hasn’t been happening, it’s fairly safe to say that the things they’re claiming fall into the same pile as the rest of the things you read in your Spam E-mail.

So be careful with what you’re reading and sinking your money into – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

My Work

The last thing I want to state is my work is for you. To all of you who’ve been reading and sharing my work the last few years – thank you so very much.

I’ve poured endless hours into making JCDFitness what it is today and my plans are to take it much further.

So thanks to everyone who shares my ebook, my articles, and for the generous donations that help pay for hosting and maintenance of the site.