The Nate Green Experience

You Ask, Nate Answers

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Photo by Richelle DeVoe

This is a collection of my emails I've received and answered, posted here for your reading and learning pleasure.

Hey Nate. I've been reading your blog a while now. Not only is it entertaining, it's incredibly inspiring. I'm currently a university student studying for a business and management degree and just completed first year of my three year course with good grades.

Anyhow, I am considering the future and what I should do once I'm finished. Do you have any ideas?

Thanks for the note, man.

It seems like you're an ambitious guy who's on the right track; good for you. You said you're going after a business and management degree and want to own your own business. Are you in the fitness industry? If not, what industry are you looking to break in to?

The best advice I can give to you is to sit down with a pencil and paper and write down a one-page journal entry about what you really want from your life. (I know this sounds pretty involved, but it's fun, inspiring, and concrete.)

What kind of people do you want to be around?

How do you want to help people?

How do you want to be seen?

What kinds of things would you like to do?

What activities, people, social situations, feelings, etc. are important to you?

After that, do the same thing but for your "ultimate business."

What kind of money do you want to make?

How much money do you really need?

How many hours do you want to work?

Do you want to be the owner and oversee everything or do you want to be in the trenches working with customers?

Answer these questions first, and it'll be much easier to make decisions.

Besides, the best way to get started and make a name for yourself in any industry is pretty straight-forward:

1. Read as much as you can

2. Practice what you preach

3. Reach out to others who are in the position you want to be in

4. Travel to seminars and workshops.

5. Stay hungry, be humble, and pay it forward.

Nate, I've been following your blog and enjoy the stuff you write about. Your stuff on T-Nation is great, too. I just wanted to ask you for some quick advice on getting into writing training articles. I'm an Exercise Kinesiology major and would like to share some info. How should I start?

The best advice I got was from Lou Schuler:

There are essentially two types of people that write for fitness mags:

1.Experts who write articles. (Think Alwyn Cosgrove, John Berardi, etc.)

2.Journalists who are very knowledgeable but also take advice from the experts and quote them in their articles (Think Lou Schuler, TC, and me.)

From there, it's a matter of figuring out what kind of audience you want to connect with and matching your skills/tone to that publication. First, figure out what kind of guy you are. Secondly, start writing. Sure, it sounds simple. But most people never get past those first two stages.

Hey Nate. I was curious - is there any particular reason why you choose to do lower body before upper body days in Built for Show? I like the idea regardless, something so simple seems to revamp my whole program.

Besides that, I am extremely impressed with your photos, you've got a physique that I definitely shoot to be more like.

Thanks for the note.

More people need to focus on their lower body and put it first. You'll also notice that no matter what the day (upper body or lower body) the exercises are sequenced in the same fashion - weakest to strongest or "most neglected" to "most worked."

Of course, depending on the program and even the week, the rotation will change.

Nate, I have a 'get to know you question' that I don't think you have answered before. If you have, I apologize for asking something you have already answered.

What was your hardest bodypart to build up and what did you do to get it to the point you were satisfied? Did you talk to people for tips or just go and try different things until something worked? How long did it eventually take?

My calves have always been a bitch, but have really started to improve once I started doing a few things:

1. High-rep sets (upwards of 15-30 reps per set) of seated and standing calf raises with heavy weight.

2. Jump rope. Most guys "skip" rope, which is great for conditioning and something I incorporate, but actually jumping off of both feet has done wonders for my calf development and even my vertical jump.

I do one minute on, one minute off and repeat for 5 rounds. I add one round every week.

Other than that, my chest has always kind of lagged behind, too. I'm very triceps dominant. So I've been including more flys and pre-exhaust methods to hit my chest harder.

Stay tuned for more questions and answers. Also, feel free to post your own questions below and I'll see if I can get to them in the next round!

• Date 02/09/2009
• comments 6
• Category lifestyle, fitness, and q and a

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