Meeting Challenges...Better Has No Finish Line

Over the last 15 plus years in the fitness industry I have seen lots of cool things and faced many challenges (in an ever changing industry). I always try and look for the deeper drivers to evolve my why, my juice, to measure the quality of my life.

How do you measure the quality of the person?

Asking the question "what have you done?" is different than asking "how did you get it done?"

I prefer the latter. It exudes work ethic...tenacity.

Know your place in the world.

Know your limitations to exceed them.

Tackle big tasks with humility.

Take honest stock in who you are.

Any petty regrets?

What is your next big move?

There are lots of aspects of your well being.

Enjoy the journey because better has no finish line.

And keep in mind hard work is the fuel that produces uncommon results is common people.

Nothing will work unless you do.

 

Keep in mind a focused fitness studio or fitness pro can help you pinpoint your mistakes, improve your fitness experiences, and hold you accountable...

Preparation Tips For A Strong Fitness Foundation...

Work the buddy system (burn buddy). Countless research supports avoiding the lone ranger approach with fitness. Making it social makes it fun which makes it feel more like something you want to do rather than have to do. Surround yourself with people that will hold you accountable and push you to be better.

Set goals (duh). If you can track it you can improve it. This works in harmony with the buddy system. Keep your goals action oriented as opposed to outcome focused. Actions lead to outcomes.

Establish a vision. A significant portion of improving your performance is mental. A few minutes a day just visualizing yourself succeeding can work wonders for your focus on fitness.

Use failure as a tool. Failing is succeeding in fitness often times. Cranking out that last rep or adding 30 seconds to the cardio will push you to new thresholds. Phases can be mazes at times. If your plan gets derailed due to life circumstances reset and get back on the horse. You are the warrior, never the worrier.

20 Hacks To Hold You ACCOUNTABLE To Your Fitness Plan...

1. Sign up for a competition/race

2. Put money on the line (see online betting sites like dietbet.com or Pact app)

3. Bet other things like housework or movie tickets

4. Share your success socially 

5. Make a video diary

6. Make your own rewards program for hitting your targets or join a facility/studio that offers rewards for attendance (sweat rebates)

7. Visualization (5 min a day)

8. Take photos to track progress (once a week)

9. Do it to raise money for charity

10. Complete programs (longer term) vs go to a class

11. Sleep in your workout clothes for am workout 

12. Shut down electronics during your sweat session

13. Use a fitness tracker app or site (logs exercise and food intake) that lets others see your progress

14. Vent in a journal about your feelings 

15. Sign a contract: write out workouts, seek end goals, tie rewards in 

16. Hire a trainer 

17. Find a burn buddy

18. Set some of your own simple fitness rules that you can effectively use like "I will attend 3 times a week for 30 minutes and stick to full body workouts that allow me to maximize my energy and keep me in balance"

19. Set up a simple home gym just to have ready in case you miss a class due to scheduling  

20. Buy some new workout clothes. Look good, feel good (enclothed cognition)

7 Nutrition Mistakes You Can Avoid...

No matter if you are trying to release weight, maintain your weight, or just eat healthier this year, the concept of nutrition will emerge at some point. New programs are coming out all the time and some are better than others, but too often we sabotage ourselves by the decisions we make.

This year, be aware of these seven common nutrition mistakes and steer clear of them…


1. Setting unrealistic goals. When you set goals for a nutrition program, make sure those goals are achievable. Avoid trying to do everything at once then expecting to suddenly weigh what you did in high school. An example of an attainable goal might be to eat two snacks of fresh fruit every day and three servings of vegetables between lunch and dinner.

2. Eating only one time each day. I often hear that people, in order to “save” calories, are skipping breakfast and lunch and only eating dinner. Let me tell you: This plan will save you no calories and can squelch your metabolism in the bargain. Eating three meals a day (your program may vary) is important for your general health.

3. Thinking short-term only. This is why people lose and then regain weight so quickly. A good nutrition program is meant to be long term; and should become a lifelong habit.

4. Underestimating your food portions. We are all guilty of this. Research shows that, when recalling foods consumed, most people under-report the amounts they ate. You may think that you only are having one cup of cereal — but use a measuring cup just to be sure.

5. Making your meal plan too restrictive. When starting a new meal plan, people usually err on the side of caution and eat too little—a practice that is difficult to maintain long-term because you starve your body of needed nutrients. Your plan should always include major food groups; think color, balance and variety.

6. Having a weak support system. When working on eating healthier, the more support you have the better. Develop a strong support system. Tell others around you about your goals and let them know how they can best help you.

7. Forgetting about exercise. People often ask me, “Which one is more important, nutrition or exercise?” I reply, “Do you want your airplane to have one wing or two?” Nutrition and exercise need to be done together — remember to exercise regularly (5-6 times a week for 30-60 minutes). Look into shorter, denser workouts that are fat-burning and joint friendly such as metabolic training (RHF Burn30 Bootcamp).

Foolproof Tips To Avoid Sabotage...Mistakes To Avoid To Increase Your Fitness Gains

Whether you are a seasoned fitness enthusiast or a rookie chances are you have made mistakes and sabotaged your fitness progress at times. Mistakes definitely hold you back. Not knowing what those mistakes are can keep you frustrated and put you out of the game (many people quit because of this). There are things we know, things we don't know, and thing we don't even know we don't know (this is where we can help)...some of that ends now.

I am willing to bet that most of these mistakes are the fault of traditional gyms, over-hyped exercise communities (mainly blogs and forums), and even some popular fitness programs (think DVD's and many of the fads out there). Many of these are saturated with well-intended advice (still may have some benefit) that is often rooted more in bro-science than real-world up-to-date research.

Eliminate the following mistakes from your fitness training program to maximize your gains and stay in tip-top shape:

Mistake #1: You have a routine.

The exciting and rapid gains you enjoy at the beginning of a training program will eventually taper/diminish if you keep doing the same workouts all the time. Your body can adapt to exercise stress pretty quickly and many of your gains can taper off after 4-6 weeks. Your job (and the goal of any good fitness plan) is to make sure that muscle growth (adaptation) never stops. Keep in mind an integrated approach is most often times the best approach for overall fitness.

Fixing it: Trust in tweaking.

If you are a rookie, mix things up every 4-8 weeks. If you're a savvy veteran, you will need to do so even sooner. Changes can be minor to stimulate new growth such as changing your pace or your grip, adjusting your foot positioning, or cutting rest periods (increases intensity and density) between sequences. It is also a smart idea to integrate totally new workouts or even programs into your plan.

Mistake #2: You forget to train your backside (posterior chain).

In pursuit of ROCK HARD muscle, many people focus only on those muscles they can see in the mirror; pecs, shoulders, arms, and abs (anterior chain). HUGE PROBLEM! Without balance on all sides of your body you are prone to a hunched posture, hip problems, muscle imbalances, certainly an increased risk of injury, as well as ongoing pain.

Most people are already anterior dominant. This means they more frequently use the muscles on the front of their bodies (think pushing moves in many cases). Such one-dimensional training often worsens existing postural problems and can create performance issues.

Fixing it: Train away from the mirror.

Avoid a mirror to gauge your progress. Focus on the muscles you cannot see. To balance your upper body, perform two pulling exercises (pullup, row) for every pushing exercise (shoulder press or pushup). To balance your lower body, perform two sets of hamstring-dominant exercises (deadlift or leg curl) for every set of a quad-dominant exercise (squat or lunge). Once you work your imbalances out you can switch back to a 1-1 ratio.  

Mistake #3: You fail to find your sweet spot.

You can train too hard or not hard enough. Less is often more when it comes to building lean muscle (the presence of muscle is the absence of fat). You need some real experience to know how to safely push your limits. Very few people learn to optimize their sweet spot (training stimulus). Do you think you are being effective and efficient?

Yes, you need to challenge your muscles to make them grow stronger (big doesn't always correlate to strong), but you never want to push them to the point where you inhibit their ability to repair themselves. When it comes to muscle, repair equals growth.

On the other hand, if you don't push your muscles hard enough, you fail to trigger growth at all. See the quagmire? Your goal is to find that sweet spot, to hit the intensity where you maximize results without compromising recovery. You should seek a fitness pro for help here if you want to save yourself time and much frustration. You can start by always listening to your body. 

Fixing it: Track your work.

With weights, cut it 2-3 reps short of in your last set of an exercise (if you are doing a set number of reps...again this is where a fitness pro can help). Those reps provide very little additional growth stimulus, and might actually slow muscle growth by extending the time needed for recovery. That said, you shouldn't have more than two reps left in you, as that's a sign you need to push harder

If you're doing metabolic training (intervals, complexes, supersets, or circuits), use a heart rate monitor to fine-tune effort and rest. One way to determine your theoretical max HR is by taking 220-age. You gauge your work and rest at a percentage of that number.

During work periods, build up your intensity to 75 to 90 percent of your max. During rest periods, let it fall to 65 percent of your max HR before beginning your next round...

Mistake #4: You don't dial in your nutrition (we avoid the word diet).

You cannot out-train a poor nutrition plan. Your eating habits need to be in line with your fitness goals to be able to see real progress. Eat to support your active lifestyle. Most people miss their sweet spot here too. They eat too much food or not enough and many also fail to really understand how to adjust their macronutrients (carbs, fat, protein).

Many active people eat too many simple carbs and fall short on fat and protein. A simple switch here can work wonders...

Fixing it: Compromises in the kitchen.

Simple upgrades you can start doing now...

• Limit sugar (from natural sources) to 10% of your caloric intake. On a 2000 calorie diet that is 50 grams of sugar.
• Eat at least two servings of fruit and two servings of vegetables a day.
• Make sure every meal contains a balance of protein, fat, and fiber (think color, balance and variety).
• Increasing your protein intake is particularly important.*

Neglecting these suggestions may yield poor blood sugar control, higher insulin levels, increased fat storage, and decreased fat burning... 

Keep in mind a focused fitness studio or fitness pro can help you pinpoint your mistakes and improve your fitness experiences... 

*In a study by the U.S. Military Nutrition Division, people who ate twice the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of protein-1.6 grams instead of .8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight- preserved more muscle as they lost weight than those who stuck to the RDA. If you weigh 150 pounds, your daily protein quota is 109 grams.

Action Cures Fear...The Hurt Is Worth It

We all deal with fear in our lives. As I have stated before, with change comes challenge, and ever so often fear comes with it. The real challenge though is how we direct this "fear" into something positive; something to get hungry about, something to hope about, better yet, something to work towards (with true effort).

We talked before about building belief with effort. The quick message today is about curing fear with action (they are similar). Action cures fear through exposure therapy (confronting your fears over and over again). You earn your newfound confidence through the constant reinforcement of positive, life-changing actions. Remember the goal setting process? Read more on goal setting.

The work will ALWAYS teach you just how to do it. We say ready, fire, aim. In other words, start somewhere and start today tackling your fears. Channel those fears through work and true effort. The other side awaits you.

Remember this always...

There is no short cut to being fit. Fitness can neither be achieved by wishful thinking nor outright purchase (Joseph Pilates).

When you put the true effort in...

your beliefs change,

your fear dissipates,

your confidence grows;

and so does your hope for a better tomorrow.

The hurt is worth it. Trust me.

Are you hungry for change?

You have to get hungry.

We ALL have to take the jump.

Take the jump.

Long Thoughts...Short Workouts

It will hurt. 

It takes time. 

It requires dedication. 

Willpower is a must. 

Fall down and get up. 

It requires sacrifice beyond measure.  

You will need to push your body to the max.

There will be temptations.

Make healthy decisions.

Stay the course.

Be coachable.

I promise you when you reach your goals...the hurt is worth it...

Build Belief With Effort...

Effort is something that often gets overlooked. Many people slip into the false truth of instant gratification (largely socially driven) and expect certain outcomes without TRUE effort. Nobody is immune to this, but it takes a mental reset to understand the power of EFFORT.

The kind of effort I am talking about here is the kind you bleed...

Effort builds belief in the very activities you spend your time in. Effort dictates longevity and long-term success. Put the time in with a true "why" and you will without a doubt become a stronger (and better) person.

Sure you can half-ass it in anything you do, but you CANNOT FAKE FIT. Half ass results come from half-ass efforts EVERY DAMN TIME.

The only variable here is your decision to commit to the process. 

Wherever you are COMMIT TO FIT.

No drama.

No excuses.

No victims.

Just EFFORT.

Earn it.