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While having a gym membership is not necessary to get in the best shape of your life, it certainly helps. It's akin to woodworking or any other craft – having the right tools for the job makes doing the work easier, faster, and better.

I've assembled some 24 Hour Fitness coupons and promotions that you may want to consider.

If you've been here before, you know that I don't use a lot of supplements. Frankly, most of them are wastes of hard-earned money. However, there are some supplements that are worthwhile – they simply work.

Supplements are costly, though. So every little bit helps – here are some coupon codes for Bodybuilding.com:

When I was a kid, my favorite movie was Conan the Barbarian, starring bodybuilding legend, Arnold Schwarzenegger (multiple Mr Olympia winner, movie star, and now Governor of California).

I loved how he didn't take crap from anyone and if you got in his way, he ceremoniously lopped off your head! The movie was kind of crappy (looking back on it now), but the physical superiority displayed by Conan left quite an impression on me.

I remember reading Muscle & Fitness during those days; they ran a story on how Arnold trained for the movie (I kept those magazines – I'll have to dig it up). It was quite amazing. Just learning how to use that big-ass sword must have been grueling!

Now, Arnold was in great shape, having won the Mr O for his last time in 1980. However, he obviously trained for the part, learning how to wield that giant sword, battle, and otherwise beat the tar out of his enemies.

Back in Conan's day, there weren't any weights to lift; those warriors trained hard, but they trained in a primitive way, using whatever implements and heavy stuff they had laying around. If you want to build a body like Conan, you ought to train the same way.

Lean Hybrid Muscle is a system I ran across that was put together by 2 strength athletes who wanted to build muscle and lose body fat at the same time.

Why do I mention this? Their system is very similar to how Conan, the vikings, and other warriors must have trained back in their day. In fact, modern strongmen often compete in events that mimic ancient strength exhibitions. Mike Westerdal, of Critical Bench fame, and Elliot Hulse, a modern-day strongman, are giving away a free copy of their "The Warrior Physique" where they show you specific training exercises that accomplish both muscle growth and fat loss.

You can get your copy of The Warrior Physique right here.

I love this program! It's full of unconventional exercises that are sure to build the body you want in record time. Get it now while it's still free.

Building muscle is cool, but if you can't see them, then maybe they're not really there! Sure, your strength is a sure sign of muscle growth, but still, don't we all want that six-pack? In order to get a six-pack, you need to lean down enough so that the muscles in your abdomen show through.

For that, you need to lose body fat. But how? Here are my Top Ten tips for losing body fat. Note that I didn't say, "for losing weight." Anybody can lose weight. Die, for example. Hang out in the sauna. Fast. Practice binging and purging. All these things will help you lose weight. But they're not necessarily good for losing fat.

Here goes:

1. Don't go on a drastic diet. Doing so will only cause you to abandon the fat-loss ship and binge on crap that shouldn't be in your house.
2. Don't buy junk food. Anything that you shouldn't eat should not be in your house. Not even for "desperate times." You have to have to work for your guilty pleasures – if it's only a 10 foot walk away, it's too easy. But if it's across town, then you have to think about it. And that's good.
3. Vary your diet – don't eat the same thing every day. This serves two purposes – first, when food bores you, you eat more of it, and two, varying the things you eat every day will help you to vary your caloric intake each day. Your body acclimates to a given caloric intake and if you drop your intake by 500 calories each day, you should lose a pound of body fat per week (if you did no exercise at all). However, interestingly, your body will soon adjust to that drop and you'll stop losing weight!
4. Exercise. Incorporate both aerobic and anaerobic activities. Aerobic means "with oxygen" which indicates that you should be doing exercise that uses a lot of oxygen, like running, cycling, and intense hiking. Anaerobic means "without oxygen" (which is not technically correct, since we have to breathe when we work out with weights – weight training is the best form of anaerobic activity. Do both.
5. Cut out the crap first. Doing so, you could easily drop 500 calories from your daily diet. Cut out the Starbucks, the doughnuts, the candy. Empty calories make you fat and will kill you.
6. Jump rope. Ever see a fat boxer who jumped rope? Nope. You haven't. Fat boxers don't jump rope. They eat small puppies.
7. Never sit when you can stand or walk when you can run. The idea is to ramp up your metabolism and one very good way is to keep moving.
8. Ironically, you need to eat fat to lose fat. Otherwise, your body begins to hoard fat and use protein and carbs for fuel rather than body fat. Not what you want. Salmon, beef, and eggs are good sources of fat. And don't separate the egg white from the yolk. Nature knows that protein and fat go together. One without the other is pointless.
9. Diet pills can help in the short-run, but they become less effective over time. I'd suggest that you refrain from using them. Remember that it took you months if not years to gain that unwanted body fat. It won't vanish in a few weeks.
10. Weigh yourself once a week. Don't bother doing it every day. Your weight will fluctuate day-by-day, even if you're on a downward trend; it is this downward trend that we want to follow, not the daily ups and downs. 2 pounds a week is still a great goal.

Lean Hybrid Muscle is a body transformation system that boosts your metabolism and sends your body to an anabolic state so that you can simultaneously lose stubborn body fat and build massive amounts of muscle. I encourage you to check it out.

I got an email from a reader recently and wanted to share with you the general recommendations I have for simultaneously building muscle and losing body fat.

Rules of thumb for gaining muscle and losing fat simultaneously are:

• High protein
• Low carb
• Moderate to high fat (kind of comes with the high-protein territory, so to speak)
• Plenty of milk, eggs, beef, poultry, fish, nuts, protein powder (for between-meal snacks)
• 3 days a week weight training
• 3 days a week high-intensity cardio, coupled with 3-4 days of moderate-intensity cardio

How much protein? I'd shoot for an average of 1 gram per pound of body weight. This may sound high, but it's really not that hard to consume, if you're taking in 3 regular meals and 3 snacks a day. Even easier if you break it into 8 meals.

I'm a big proponent of cycling diet, supplementation, and training. By this, I mean that you should eat big 3 days in a row, then take off a day (same with training). Cut out all the supplementation (except for the joint supplements and daily vitamin/mineral) on this "off day" to give your body a chance to rest a little. I have had good success actually juice fasting on this "4th day" where I only ingest juice and water. It really sets the body up to load up on carbs the following day.

Your muscles will really swell the next day.

As for dieting "clean" – I do believe in cheating. On your diet! Meaning, once a week, eat nearly whatever you want in any portion you want.

All other days, eat virtually whatever you want, but in smaller portions than you may like. You'll get the flavors you need but you won't be taking in excess calories.

If you're interested, I've got some meal plans posted up on the User Forum – http://ow.ly/189YQ

You'll need about 3300 calories to maintain your weight (this is a rough estimate – there are a lot of factors that play into this) – if you want to gain weight, add 500 calories; if you want to lose weight, subtract 500 cals.

You may be in a situation where you want to maintain your weight, but just redistribute body fat weight to muscle weight…modify accordingly.