Introduction

Welcome to musclgeek’s Newsletter, a newsletter about Nutrition and Fitness.

Hello! My name is Chris Kausel.

I'm a certified personal trainer and health coach based out of Orange County, CA. My educational background is a BS from MIT for undergraduate studies, a CPT from NFPT, and I’m a recent graduate of the CSULA DPD program in Nutrition and Dietetics.

I grew up an avid fan of health science, particularly anything to do with the perceived relationships between our lifestyles and our health.

At MIT, I made an unexpected detour, ending up working as a web developer driven by a passion for human factors science. If you squint a bit, you might be able to see the parallels between human factors and being a health coach. Both are essentially a means to apply science and technology with the explicit aim of making normal, every day people happier and more well-adjusted. Both are based on an understanding of the human body as a natural organism governed by natural patterns and living in the natural world and seek to adapt our inventions and lifestyles in whatever way can best support the natural organism.

Ultimately, the love of health and physiology itself —how we affect it— pulled me back in. This was especially strong after I sought to improve my own health. At age 36 I was facing a health crisis; one I blame on so many years being a stressed-out desk jockey. I was unfit, overweight, weak, and saddled with panic attacks and aches and pains. I had an enlarged liver. Fasting blood sugar was getting high…

I urgently had to find my true, natural self and get back on track.

Today, at 52, I’m in the best shape of my life.

Along the way, I also came to realize my love for helping and teaching others. Maybe it should have been obvious? I come from a long line of teachers; seems to be a family tradition. Whatever the reason: for me, nothing compares to being able to help another person attain something positive for them.

What will I write about?

Primarily I will be sharing insights and discussions related to the practices of fitness, lifestyle, and diet, with a bit of a focus on topics centered around resistance training and nutrition. One particular aim will be to cut through the BS so prevalent. Even “common knowledge” is often tainted. At times, we’ll need a hacksaw, but more often, just a scalpel, to fix it all.

I’ll also be answering reader questions. That is my love. So if you have any questions, please shoot me an email, ask@musclgeek.com (please put “Ask the coach” as your subject).

Other topics I’ll cover will surely wander toward the more philosophical in the form of critiques of “The Systemic” — the society and customs we inherited and continue to propagate. This maelstrom we are all a part of is simultaneously the source of near-miraculous inventions, pharmaceuticals, and knowledge — as well as the root cause of virtually all disease and ill health, particularly mental health.

And, as a true geek, I’ll more than likely sooner or later go off the health tangent to talk some tech, if so inspired.

About musclgeek

Musclgeek™ (Training Systems, LLC) is the trade name for my services company. As the founder of musclgeek, my mission is to make practical and effective strategies for optimal health and fitness accessible.

By “accessible”, I mean I aim to share the various truths (and reasonable conjectures) science offers us for everything covered by fitness, body recomposition, health, and nutrition… and to do so in a way that people without strong science or fitness backgrounds can digest.

It also means I will weed through the enormous piles of utter BS people are sharing or publishing when it comes to exercise and nutrition. We gotta clear the air. Consider that even the big name publishers are succumbing to a rabid desire to grab eyeballs using sensational headlines and grandiose proclamations. Shoddy and contradictory studies? They don’t care. Tomorrow a new study will provide a new headline.

(Come, tf, on!)

Anyway. There could be times where diverging from “accessible” is necessary to lay out the right information. Even then, my hope is to decode the gobbledegook into practical and digestible takeaways. Regardless, I will always clear out the BS and be clear about what is flat-out opinion, reasoned opinion, relatively settled concepts, and flat-out facts.

—

Coach Chris

Key takeaways:

1. Subscribe or bookmark this blog to get regular updates on health and fitness data you can use — without the BS.
2. Come back any time to ask whatever questions you have — and read the answers to others’ questions.