Are You Even Ready for a Change?

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Over the past week, I had a fitness consult with middle aged man. He was about 30 lbs overweight and his wife felt like I could help him realize that he needs to get back in shape so he can be healthy again. She really wants him to join our personal training programs.

 

I completely understand where his wife is coming from. She loves him and just want the best for him. She remembers how his energy used to be higher, he was fit and eating healthy. All of a sudden after a knee surgery, he had to stop working out. And over the years he completely lost his drive to get back into his healthy habits, even after his knee healed.

 

But, unfortunately, as much as I wanted to make things right and convince him to join our programs, there was nothing I could do to sway his opinion about getting fit again either. He simply didn’t realize he had a problem and wasn’t ready to change at that point.

 

If this had happened previous to my understanding about the ‘Stages of Change’ model, I probably would have blamed myself for not making him a believer that our programs could help him.

 

Now I know he just wasn’t ready to change and that is okay.

It is tough for us to learn that when a people we care about are not ready to change themselves, we have to lay off a bit. And putting the the pressure on is not helpful in motivating them to make a change any sooner.

 

So what can we do to help people we love when what they are doing could be detrimental to their lives?

 

The truth is, they know exactly what they to do to be healthy.  They probably know that eating well and exercising will help them get feel better again. But if they do not want to change, or do not realize that there is a problem, we have to step off a bit until they make the decision for themselves that changing is a good idea.

 

In the “Stages of Change Model” By Prochaska and DiClemente, the change process and strategies to help anyone along in making any change is defined. Knowing where you or someone you want to help are personally  in this cycle can help you to know how to coach others in a way that will help them realize that change is necessary and possible.

6 Stages of Change:

  1. Pre – Contemplation – This is the entry point to the process of change. A person is not even considering the possibility of changing and does not even see themselves as having a problem in the first place. The best thing to do in this stage for yourself and others is to not Force change upon someone (which is our natural instinct to help kicking in). We must help the person raise their awareness gently that their current behaviors may have a bad impact on their health later in life. Being too persistent in this stage can often make people shy away from the possibility of changing completely. Raising doubts in their minds and increasing perception of the risk of their current behaviors can help move them along to the second stage where change becomes a possibility.
  2. Contemplation – The best way to describe contemplation is Ambivalence. One day you want to change, the next day you don’t. Most of the time you don’t want to change because you do not believe that it is actually possible for you to do so. The more I learn about change, the more I understand that change is a skill that can be learned as long as you put in the effort to make it happen. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is more difficult. But the point is that it is always possible. The best thing we can do to help others in this stage is to strengthen the belief that they are in fact capable of making change happen. They may just need to learn the skills required to make their specific change occur.
  3. Preparation – The number 1 mistake most people make with their change efforts is not spending enough time in this stage before taking action. In the preparation stage, we have come to an understanding that change needs to occur. We make our own decision that we must do something about the problem and will either make the choice to to move into action or with inappropriate interactions with others, flip back into the contemplation stage. In this stage, we must decide the best and easiest course of action to take to start moving forward with the change process. We also must spend time in this stage preparing for situations that may swing us back the contemplation stage. (I did a great post about how to prepare to make changes that stick. You can read this here.)
  4. Action – This is where we are actually taking steps to make our change occur. If it is to get healthy, we are getting in our workouts, making healthy choices nutritionally, going to sleep 1 hour earlier, etc. The goal here is to continue to take steps necessary for the change we want to make.
  5. Maintenance – The changed behavior is now becoming habitual. Working out and eating right are now second nature and are starting to feel easy. The best thing we can do in this stage is to continue to create strategies that make it easy for us to maintain the changes we made and provide ourselves with the necessary accountability to prevent relapses of old behaviors.
  6. Relapse and Recycle or Termination – This is where we have considered our old habit corrected or we revert back to the original problem behavior. The most important thing to understand is that this is Normal and expected when we are trying to change something we have been struggling with for years and to not feel defeated or demoralized if we go back to square one. Again, this is normal, we are only human. The biggest goal here is to renew the process of remembering why we wanted to make a change in the first place, our personal reasons for making it happen and re-engaging in our new behaviors to make the change occur.

 

This Stages of Change Model has been astronomical in helping me as a coach to develop an understanding of where my clients are in each stage and the best course of action I can take that will help them make decisions that will better their lives.

Remember, that you cannot make decisions for other people. If they are not ready to change, there is not much you can do to make them change but you can raise their awareness without sounding too pushy. And the Ultimate Predictor of Success for anyone who comes to the realization that they want to change is their level of Persistence and Willingness to continue working through the stages of change will aid them to continue moving forward with their change efforts.

 

6 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight

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On my way back from Tahoe last weekend, I had a long conversation with a good friend of mine who told me his mother was extremely over weight. He was trying everything to help her lose weight from creating healthy meal plans for her to helping her with goal setting and even cooking her healthy foods on a daily basis. She was doing well for 3 months and even dropped 10 lbs, but then all her efforts went downhill and she gained the 10 lbs back.

I have heard this type of story many times and I used to think that maybe people just lacked the will to change. But I recently read a great book which addresses the subject of will power and the psychology and planning that is necessary behind your change efforts, especially when it comes to losing weight.  This book is called “Change Anything” by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan and Switzler. This book completely changed my opinions on how to make a change and I told my friend to give the strategies a try with his mom.

They argue that if you feel stuck at a specific weight, and living in a body you are not especially happy with, it is rarely because you lack the will power for things to be different. Think about that. You’ve undoubtedly felt lost and out of control in certain situations and reflected upon them by thinking that you did not have will power.  And it just isn’t true.

We are all taught from a young age that all we have to do is ‘put our mind to it’ and we can make things change that we want in life. The problem is that no one ever teaches you about how to do that. And most of the time when you are finding it hard to change an aspect of your life, it is because you are outnumbered by 6 sources of influence that you must address before changes can occur and stick…

Source 1: Love What You Hate

If you are ever to succeed at making a change you’ll have to think about creative ways to make the right diet choices enjoyable for you. For example, figure out what you love about eating healthy food and exercising regularly. Maybe it is how energized this makes you feel or how much thinner you will look over time. Focus on the positives of what you have to change and making good choices will eventually become second nature.

Source 2: Do What You Can’t

If change is taking too much will and effort,  you probably need to develop the skill to create and sustain change. Developing the skills to change actually plays a crucial role in creating and sustaining changes in your life.  Try to focus on making a deliberate effort to master the skills you personally need to make changes easy and permanent. To make changes to your diet you can practice the skill of eating smaller portions at meal time or learning the skill of chewing your food completely to eat slower so you become fuller faster.

Sources 3 and 4: Turn Accomplices into Friends **

Few people are aware of how many others are involved in undermining their efforts to make a change through enabling and encouraging bad diet choices. So, if you want to change a behavior, one of the best things you can do is have a conversation with a few ‘accomplices’ (people that surround you on a regular basis who are not helping with your change efforts) and turn them into ‘friends’ who support your efforts. For instance, talking to the person who does the cooking in your household or does the grocery shopping and asking them to purchase healthier foods for the house can increase your success rate by 40%.

Source 5: Invert the Economy

Bad habits are cheap. And you can actually bribe yourself to change! Give yourself a goal to accomplish by a certain date and if you do not, make yourself donate money to a political organization you hate and have a friend make you stick to this promise. This alone can help you make significant efforts to achieve your goals.

Source 6: Control Your Space

We’re blind to the hundreds of ways our environment controls us. Our surroundings powerfully control what we think, how we feel and act. If you want to take control of your diet, you have to identify your current habits and then take control of your surroundings.

To do this, think about the answers to the following 6 questions:

  1. Who do you eat with
  2. What do you eat
  3. When do you eat
  4. Where do you eat
  5. Why do you eat
  6. How do you eat

Planning to overcome your personal 6 Sources of Influence and working with the challenging circumstances that present themselves on a regular basis will make you a much stronger person over time and will help your diet changes actually stick! It does take more effort initially but after you’ve put the work in you will be surprised at how easy it will be to overcome these for the long term.

Never The Perfect Time

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In the time that I spent with my friends a week ago, we had a couple conversations regarding working out and getting back into a routine. The conversation I had with them has actually been coming up A LOT in the past month for me with various potential clients. So, I want to address this issue because I feel that people have the complete wrong idea about when to get started in a fitness program…

If you are someone who is waiting for the perfect time to start a fitness plan, I have news for you..

Here is the honest truth:

There will Never be a perfect time for you to start your workout routine. Full stop.

I don’t mean this to sound de-motivating, so let me explain.

Even when you think you are starting your exercise routine at the most perfect time and Nothing can get in your way, something always happens.

It is inevitable.

Here is a common scenario:
You signed up for a 3 month fitness program thinking that this time you will have no scheduling conflicts. You have bought new workout clothes, marked the classes you will attend 5 days a week on your calendar and even have your meals planned out through the next month. You are ready to lose the 20 lbs you put on this past year and know that because you have no trips planned, etc for the next 3 months, nothing can get in your way.

So you start your plan on a Monday and for the first 2 weeks, everything is going perfectly, just as planned. You are attending all of the classes you said you would, are starting to have more energy, are getting over the muscle soreness, you even dropped a couple lbs and are starting to feel like yourself again.

And then it happens: Your boss makes you stay late at work because a project does not get completed so you have to miss your Monday Workout. You are bummed because you don’t want to lose momentum but the work has to get done so you cut your losses.

Tuesday rolls around and you are not feeling so hot (probably because you stayed late at work the night before). You are now feeling sick and low on energy so you decide that maybe you should come home early and sleep which means you are missing 2 workouts this week.

Now it is Wednesday and you are feeling better but your boss throws an unexpected business trip on your calendar for the the following week and you have to be there. You are disappointed in yourself for missing Monday and Tuesday, especially now that you know you will be gone the next week. So now you are thinking “well, I already missed Monday and Tuesday and will have to miss next week. So this week and next week are shot. I guess I will get back into it the week after my work trip.” … And on and on..

I’m going to stop this story here so I can ask you a question:

Don’t you think it is better to work out once a week than no times at all?

Of course it is! Any of you would tell your friends and family the same. So why don’t we say this to ourselves?
In a perfect world, life would not get in the way of our plans to better ourselves but since it does the best thing you can do is mentally prepare for the situations and weeks where you can’t get to the gym 4 to 5 days a week by letting yourself know that it is okay. If 1 time is better than nothing, then be okay with working out 1 time!

Here are a few tips on how to give yourself a Break when starting a fitness program:

1 – Plan on being okay with getting to the gym at least 1 time a week. This way if something does come up you will not feel that all your efforts are lost. If you know you are doing everything in your power to get your workout in but you cannot make it, don’t stress yourself out about it. This will further inhibit your weight loss efforts
2 – Pre-Cook healthy food items so you can keep your diet on track if you get busy. This is a huge part of the weight loss battle.
3 – Have a short at home workout prepared ready to do in case you have to miss your class. Body weight exercises like squats, push ups, back extensions, planks can all be designed into a 10 minute circuit to help you get some type of workout in.
4 - Sleep. You will never have energy to get through your workouts safely if you are overtired, let alone get to the gym in the first place.

If you are someone who wants to get started on your 1 Time this Week, We will be having a Free Turkey Busting Workout behind AT&T park this Thursday (Thanksgiving) at 9am. All you have to do is bring a $1 minimum donation!! We hope to see you there and have a very happy Thanksgiving!

 

Why You’re Afraid

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I love networking with amazing fitness professionals and I also love being taught by the best of the best in the areas of marketing, finances, and sales. This was my experience over the past week in Orlando where I attended a great conference put on by my business coaching company.

In Orlando, one speaker in particular really caught my attention. His name was
Steve Wilkinghof. He is the author of an exceptional book that I read last August
called “Found Money.” This book has had a huge impact on my mindset and thinking about the type of business and clients I want to serve for the long hall.

In his presentation, Steve talked about the “4 Fears that Paralyze you in Business” – Fear of the past, external, internal and future. He made the claim that if you are going no where fast, you inevitably have fear in at least f 1 of these 4 areas because Everyone is Afraid of the unknown whether they realize it or not. This really got me thinking about people I talk to on a daily basis and their desire to get fit.

Every day I get calls from prospective clients who inquire about our fitness services. Some decide to join our boot camps and personal training sessions and some do not.  And I can always tell who is really ready just by learning more about them and how much they have thought through their own issues about starting  a new workout plan. Inevitably the ones who do not move forward have never addressed their fears head on and therefore remain paralyzed in their current bodies and unhappy for far too long.

So how can you stop this once and for all?

By identifying and making a plan to overcome the 4 Fears you have about starting a fitness plan.

I have listed them below along with action steps for you to take today.

So here’s what I want you to do:

1)  Read through the 4 fears and 4 solutions.
2)  Write your action steps in the comment section of our blog. I will personally respond to your comment to let you know if you are moving in the best direction to succeed or if you could change something to make your path more clear.
3) Take your plan and print it out. Put this in a place you can read and see it daily.

Here are the 4 fears and how you overcome them:

1- Fear of the Past – You have achieved your current  health and body that is yours because of actions you have taken in the past. (e.g. Maybe you are not as toned as you would like because you are working long hours and not getting your workouts in on a regular basis). The reason you may be afraid of the past is because you are not exactly sure what patterns you had maintained over the years to earn your current body. So, if you have no idea how you got there, you will have no idea how to either:
a. duplicate your past actions on a regular basis if you are happy with your body or
b. avoid certain unhealthy activities if you are not happy

Most people do not document physical fitness activities, what they ate, how much they slept, how stressed they were on a regular basis.

Solution and Action Step – If you don’t know what happened in the past you can’t document it in detail. But you can start from today! Keep a Health Journal to record what you are doing and how you are feeling on a regular basis. The best things to record are:
1) Food and beverages (write down how you felt before and after your meal)
2) Hours of sleep
3) Durration and type of exercise
4) Level of stress (scale of 1-10)

2- Fear of the Internal - If you don’t know what you want you are sure have some level of fear. If you have not written down your health and fitness goals with steps to achieve them, you have nothing to show for all the effort you put into your workouts. And if you have no goals written down and reflected upon daily, you most certainly have no clue why you are doing what you are doing and how to create a plan so you remain motivated. Without goals, you are just floating around in the wind never knowing if you are moving forward or making progress. And if you have no clue you are getting anywhere you will eventually become demotivated and find excuses as to why you can’t get fit.

Solution and Action Step – Write down these 3 things:
1) Your Goals – what you want to achieve.
2) Your Motivation – reasons you want to achieve certain goals
3) Steps you must take to achieve each goal
***Print this out and read it out loud everyday.

3-Fear of the Future - If you don’t know how to make specific changes to your body and health on your own then you are probably afraid of the future.

You can’t be the expert in every realm of your life. You have probably spent lots of money on education and countless hours in training to become an expert in your own field. You probably wouldn’t try to be an expert in the medical field if you had no background. So why should it be any different with your health and fitness which is your baseline for Everything in your life!

Solution and Action Step: Find a fitness coach you trust and join their program. Everyone needs a coach (I have one for my business and 3 for my fitness). Study after study shows how much more you can achieve at a much faster rate if you find someone to guide you. So it’s a no brainer!

Fear of the External – If you don’t know how to create a certain type of fitness result, you don’t know how to assess and re-assess your progress to make sure you are moving forward. So, if you don’t know how to manipulate your body to create the changes you want to see, you are constantly afraid you are not eating the right foods or working out properly to get the specific result you want.

Solution – Again, hire a coach. It doesn’t make sense to constantly spin your wheels and take the long way around. A coach will help you avoid injury and get what you want out of your program and remain motivated to the cause.

So in summary, to eliminate these 4 fears that could be holding you back you must:
- know what happened in the past

- know what your goals are

- know how to create a specific result

- know how to assess and re-assess your progress so you can keep moving forward

Now your mission is to start on this today by leaving a comment on our blog! I am looking forward to coaching you through this and will respond if you leave a comment….

My Secret Workout Strategy

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Every time I go to the gym and watch people work out, they seem like they are straining to work as hard as they can! Seriously! It doesn’t matter what they are doing, even if it’s a simple bicep curl, they look like they are going to fall over at any minute.

Well, I’m gonna let you in on a big tip…

There is no reason to look like you are dying during a workout! The more tense you look, the more you will remember workouts as being painful and stressful. And the more this happens, the less time you will actually want to work out until you eventually just stop. (the majority of our population starts and stops working out within a couple weeks due to injury). Do you see where I’m going with this? It is a downward spiral for you, your mindset, your body and your motivation. A person can only handle that kind of stress for so long until they just want to stop working out all together.

So here is my secret workout strategy for getting more reps in, burning more calories, and avoiding injury during your workouts:

STAY RELAXED!!!

“What????!!!” (you are asking)

I know, this concept probably goes against everything you have learned in the past about workouts. It certainly was an eye opener for me when I learned it.  I also know everything you may have read on Google certainly points to the “No pain No gain” concept. So, why am I advocating to stay relaxed in a workout if you are not in a  yoga class???

 

Because if you stay relaxed during your workouts and focus on the mechanics of the exercise at hand, you will be able to perform more reps without running out of steam. And if you are performing more reps, your body will be working harder without straining and you will be burning more calories, building more endurance, and working out efficiently.

 

Here’s 3 reasons why tensing up and putting yourself into pain is not effective:

1) Working into pain increases tension and decreases efficiency – When you are walking down the street, do you tense every muscle in your body? My guess is no. If you did, you probably wouldn’t get very far. The fact that you are relaxed allows you to walk further without wearing yourself out.

 

2) Tensing muscles during movement takes your mind away from the task at hand – Your brain cannot mult-task and can only focus on 1 thing at a time. And if you focus on all muscles you “should be” tensing, you are taking your thoughts away from the movement itself.

 

3) Tensing muscles does not increase movement efficiency -  Your muscles are slaves to everything else going on in your body.  If you are expending all your energy tightening muscle groups, you are taking energy away from the movement itself and therefore decreasing the number of reps you can perform.

 

I actually put this concept to the test while taking my kettle bell certification from KBI. I wanted to see if it was true. So I tried swinging a 55 lb kettle bell staying as relaxed as I could. Well, this bell is 1/2 my weight and I ended up swinging the bell for 1 min 15 sec.  At the end of this I just put the bell down because I wanted to, not because I was tired. Then, I tried tensing every muscle in my body and swinging the bell. Needless to say, I didn’t get very far. Maybe 30 seconds or so. I was exhausted and did not enjoy the exercise at all.

So, if you focus on the motion of the movement using proper alignment of the spine, trust that everything else with fall into place. Muscles that need to be activated will automatically become activated without you focusing on one specific muscle group.

We will be talking more about this in upcoming blog posts so get excited:-)

Give this concept a try at your next workout and leave a comment letting me know how it went for you. Also, if you want some coaching about how to do this better, sign up for our 21 Day challenge starting Monday October 31st!

All details here: http://www.SF21DayFatLoss.com

 

3 Easy Ways to Jump Start Your Workout Plan

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Workout slumps are the worst! And we all have them..

 

I say ‘we’ because if you know anything about me and how I got started in the fitness industry, you’ll know that there was a period in my life where I was completely un-fit. I was eating poorly, working at a job I hated, low on energy and confidence. Getting to the gym seemed nearly impossible to me at that time.

 

But when I finally picked myself up, got some professional help and started moving again, I got my motivation back.

 

Long story short, taking these 3 initial steps helped me snap out of my workout slump and now I am giving them to you:

 

1. Think about how good you will feel once you have the body you want and deserve. (Notice how I’m not saying to force yourself to go to the gym and do a half hearted workout)..

 

I’m saying to think about how you want your body to be. Over and over again. Imagine yourself being active and successful in marking off the goals on your fitness wish list.

 

You can program your mind to think and behave anyway you want (good or bad). The cool thing is that when you think about something enough (fitting into those work clothes in your closet Or going on that spur of the moment Vegas vacation without worrying if you’ll look good), your brain automatically programs you for success!

 

I would even take it a step further though and tell you to write down your goals. Your goals are what you want to accomplish (eg. Buttoning your favorite jeans again comfortably). And writing down WHY it is important to you to lose weight and get in shape.  Once you have your big WHY (not just a superficial Why) it should help you kick things in gear.

 

Now you are ready!

 

2. Surround yourself with like-minded, supportive, and positive friends. This stuff is hard to do on your own.  And Sometimes if feels like we are the only person experiencing certain problems and frustrations with our bodies. But chances are most people you know feel the same way you do.

Plus there are only so many hours in the day, so why not make fitness fun and social? Get yourself in with a workout group you enjoy! We like our boot campers to laugh it up and get to know one another.

When you are surrounded by like- minded folks, it helps you stay motivated and helps to know that you are all holding each other accountable.

So find an activity you love or come check out a free week of classes with us!

 

3. Last, one thing I’ve noticed is that we are all a little competitive sometimes…  Even my clients who don’t think they have a competitive edge end up being fierce when we have prizes on the line. Now, with this said, I’ve found that once you are ready to go, one of the best things you can do is join a fitness challenge and dedicate yourself to doing the best you can to win.  And luckily if you are someone who is excited to jump start your program now I have a huge Surprise for you… Just click Here!

But before you do, make sure to leave a comment or share this with your workout friends!

What is Your Ideal Weight?

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Have you ever felt like you are losing weight but you are not sure where to stop or what your ‘weight loss limit should be?’

Or you are unsure about whether you ‘should be’ at a certain weight for your height and body type?

I recently got this question from one of our most successful boot campers. Since last March, she has lost 17 inches and 25 lbs of fat, and now, she is wondering, what should my ideal weight be? How much weight do I need to lose to get there?

I have thought about this for a while now. Society makes us feel like we need to follow some magical weight loss chart or formula to determine where we “should” be.  (You have probably seen one of those general charts in the past that show what someone who is a certain height and age should weigh…)

But My answer to this is simple.

Your ideal weight should be where you feel most comfortable with yourself and most healthy and happy in your body.

It sounds vague right? But think about this for a second.

Visualize what your ideal body looks like on you and how you feel looking this way.

I will help you out:

If you are fitting into your clothes you love wearing, feeling amazing in your own skin, happy with your energy levels, feel fit and healthy, feel good naked:-) (oh you know what I mean!), have developed lean muscle mass and tone, are eating a healthy diet filled with vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats, can close any belt loop you own in a place that makes you happy, are not jiggling around anywhere that makes you uncomfortable, and have a healthy body fat percentage (talk to your doctor about this, it is different for everyone’s body type and athleticism)…

Then congratulations, you have reached a weight that is ideal for you  and your body!

Now can you see it?

Everyone is unique and different.  We all have a different body structures, heights, weights, ages, levels of athleticism, time frame for getting our workouts in. But we all have some sort of idea of how we would like to look and feel and generally speaking, this is probably your ideal weight.

I hope I’ve answered your question on the subject and would love to hear your feedback. So post a comment below today..

 

Simbel Tells Her Success Story – How she lost 20 lbs in 7 weeks and Changed her life

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Most clients I work with tell me 2 things:

1) they want to lose weight

2) they want to tone up.

It is rare that people find us who do not have at least one of these 2 goals in mind.  The difference between those who succeed in achieving these 2 goals and those who do not comes down to just how motivated and committed they really are and whether or not they take action.

Everyone can say they want to lose weight, but there is no way this can come true without taking real action to achieve this.

Our client of the Month is a perfect example of someone who took action and resolved to do anything it took for her to get back to a place where she was happy with herself again.

When I first met Simbel S, she was not the same person she is now. She was unhappy with life, but most of all with herself. She came to us 7 weeks ago, was low on energy, tight on funds but still decided to try a free week of  boot camp classes to see if she could make our program work for her.

Simbel could barely get through her first few classes! She was taking breaks most of the class, her energy was down and she was so sore! But as time went on, she got used to the workouts. Her muscles became stronger and she became more toned…

But the real magic happened once she joined our Clean and Lean Challenge.. She was extremely hesitant to join this challenge but once she did, the weight literally fell off her and her class mates were amazed!  I want her to tell you the rest and you can view her video here. If you have heard of our Clean and Lean challenge but are not sure if it would work for you, listen to her story. She has truly inspired so many people that have seen her body transform right before their eyes and we are sooo proud of her!

Watch her video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOa_2m6mfo

Because of Simbel’s and so many other success stories, we have decided to start another Clean and Lean challenge and will be doing an orientation tonight 7:15pm at My Gym (901 Minnesota Street). You are all invited to learn more about nutrition and why it is so important to kick your sugar cravings, overcome weight loss resistance and see some real progress with your bodies. We hope to see you all there tonight.

And don’t forget to watch her video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOa_2m6mfo

If you like this post and were inspired, please leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you!

 

Is Your Strength Training Making You Weaker?

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Before I get into this blog, check out our US Salsa Open video, we just took first place.

http://vimeo.com/26258992 but come back because I have some news to share with you below..

 

Traditional methods of strength training should be on their way out!

 

My clients want to become stronger to make getting through their daily routines easier. (Things like lifting groceries, kids, opening jars, opening doors, carrying heavy objects, etc all become so much easier when your body is strong). And as a personal trainer I am always trying to make my clients’ strength routines more effective and specific for their bodies and daily routines. Because of this, I decided to attend a 3 day seminar by Z Health Performance Solutions. This company is run by a man named Dr. Erik Cobb and is based on making people stronger through “specific joint based techniques to teach you how to move with pain – free control, confidence and coordination to get Fast Results.” One of the main things I learned was that if you are not training your joints you are missing the boat to developing your strength and are probably making yourself weaker in the process.

The perceptive given here was very different from traditional strength training programs which are based solely on increasing the weight of the dumb bells, bar bells, machines you work with and decreasing reps of exercises you do.  My background and experience has primarily focused on this method, but I knew there must be a better, faster and more efficient way to make this happen.

There are 3 reasons it is important to train your joints:

  1. They are the building blocks to All movement – from walking, to running, to playing sports, to lifting weights, etc.
  2. If one joint stops working every other joint in your body picks up the slack – This causes movement compensation, pain, loss of flexibility, decreased coordination, and loss of power, speed and strength.
  3. If joints fail to work properly, it is usually because they have become immobile – In most cases an immobile joint causes a weak link in your system that NO amount of traditional strength training or stretching can correct!

So how can you start incorporating joint training into your routine to get you faster results?

Here are 3 basic ways to do this:

1. Start incorporating joint isolations into the warm up of your workout routine and work from the ground up. Here is a great warm up to get you started. (this is even great to do when you wake up in the morning to get you geared up for your day and can be done in less than 5 min). You can check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BXOmEJ8bWE

  • Ankle Circles – Just moving your ankles in an outward and inward circle 3 times each way
  • Hip Circles (look like leg circles) – standing on one leg and moving the other from the front to the side and back then back, side front 3 times each direction.
  • Pelvic circles – (look like hip circles) – moving your pelvis 3 times, circling to the right and left
  • Torso circles – moving your body from your belly button to the top of your head 3 times right and left
  • Upper back circles – moving from your middle back to the top of your head in a circle 3 times each
  • Neck Figure 8s – Drawing a figure 8 with your nose (it looks funny but has worked great for relieving my neck pain. I do these if I’m at the computer for a while and when I wake up in the morning if my neck is feeling stiff.)

2. Pay attention to how your body feels each day. You will continue to get stronger at a faster pace if you are more in tune with how you are feeling. Eg, if you are not feeling as strong one day, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just continue to work at your own level and pace. There is a reason your body is tired or run down. If you push it too much and try to work as hard as you normally do, you can injure yourself and be out for weeks.

3.  Stop the exercise you are doing before you lose your form. If you continue to push through a set with incorrect form, you will put strain on your body and create less efficient movement patterns for those exercises. Use a mirror, a coach or a friend to help you determine when you are losing form.

We’d love to have you try out the warm up and some of these methods and let us know how you like them. Stay tuned for more posts on joint training and how it can make a huge difference in helping you develop strength, get out of pain and become more coordinated and energized in your daily lives.

Our 2nd YBB Challenge Results

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(All of the success stories and photos you see below are results from our Your Best Body Fitness Challenge. These are our clients with the most dramatic body changes. They did it by combining both our boot camps and our Clean and Lean Challenge. This is the exact plan we are using in our Hot Summer Shape Up starting June 13th (1Week) Click Here for Details: www.SFHOTSummerShapeUp.com..

Waking up last Friday morning, I was so thrilled to start going through all the applications that were sent from our fitness challenge competitors. And truthfully I barely slept Thursday night because I was so excited to do this. (Receiving a bunch of emails of success stories and dramatic before and after photos of our own clients is like Christmas time to a fitness professional:-)!

So, I went to my computer to see how many emails came in and couldn’t believe how many qualified applications we received. It literally took me hours to select the winners and this was only with my admin Jessie’s help – thank you Jessie!

We held our final YBB awards ceremony and boot camp class at Sports Basement in Potrero. When I got there I was finishing up a few things while our boot camp class was going on. Finally, I looked up to see which exercise the class was on and then it hit me…

I saw 8 of our clients who had made tremendous transformations in their bodies and were looking amazing. They were no longer hiding behind baggy clothes, they were working hard during class, it was so incredible to see..

Our Winners Were so thrilled to have come so far with their progress!

Here are the stories from our top 3 Winners, What they were going through before they started and their results now:

First Place: Villy W, SF, CA – Results: Lost 25 lbs, 8 inches in waist, 3 inches hips, 6.5 inches in belly!!!

Villy W BEFORE

Villy W AFTER

“8-weeks ago there was still a billion excuses in the way, never enough time, and always putting myself and my body on the bottom of a very long list of to-do’s.
I definitely noticed results even after two-weeks of going to bootcamp regularly. On the first day, I could barely do a few lunges without losing my balance, and was so winded from the cardio that I thought I was going to faint. But then My energy was improved throughout the day and overall, there were daily signs of hope that this small commitment of time 4x/week can really have a major impact in my life.

For me, it was as simple as starting with the decision to just show up for bootcamp no matter how I was feeling. Seeing the same people, and having Kristen and Arthur at the helm pushing us on a regular basis was the beginning of creating the discipline I was so hungry for.

The future is bright as I’m enjoying the revival of my fabulous outfits that fit again, making more time to cook and to eat with family and friends, and thinking about additional activities I’d like to pursue. I no longer feel guilty about taking care of me or what I eat or don’t eat.”

Kristin W., San Francisco: Lost 13 lbs, 8 ½ inches!!! Here is her Story:

Kristin BEFORE

Kristin AFTER

“When I started this challenge I felt bloated, groggy and s0 uncomfortable in my body. I would wear shirts to cover my tummy and hips. I wanted to stop feeling so self conscious.
4 weeks into this I dropped my first pant size and gained a smile size:-)
8 weeks in my eyes were brighter and my body is much leaner. I went down 2 pant seizes from a 10 to a 6. I almost cried it felt so good. I feel like I am my natural size, where I should be and I’m sticking with this program to maintain where I am now. I met my goal!!!!!!”

Garret G, San Francisco – Lost Lost 14 lbs, 7 ½ inches!! His Story:

Garret BEFORE

Garret AFTER

“Eight weeks ago I was probably at one of my lowest points in my life, without going into details, made me depressed, unmotivated, tired and overall not very happy with myself. I had been wanting to get disciplined with working out and getting my body healthy knowing that I usually feel better after I have a hard workout and a good sweat, but I felt like I could not stick with any routine long enough.

Before the cleanse I was working out very regularly, five to six times a week, with mostly boot camp classes; occasionally I would run. I was getting stronger and building my stamina as well as gaining more energy, but was not getting the tone or the sustained energy levels I wanted. I was being partially conscience of what I consumed, but was being very loose and made exceptions. I offend found myself saying, ‘I’ll enjoy this now and just go for a long run tomorrow or workout double time the following week.’ So I joined the cleanse and I went through sugar withdrawals the first three days, then my body equalized itself and I was going strong. I found myself losing 13 lbs in the first 11 days of the 30-day cleanse and I was seeing GREAT results. I had lost a lot of water weight, but I was getting lean and seeing the toned muscles I had been strengthening.

Knowing that I can do this and stick with it has helped me with everything. I now know I am capable of following through on things like I used and will apply this same mentality to other aspects in my life. Thank you for this challenge and making me a better and happier person.

Peter S, San Francisco:

Peter BEFORE

Peter After AFTER
Lucy F, San Francisco:

Lucy BEFORE

Lucy AFTER

Lauren S, San Francisco:

I think what is so powerful about this competition is that because our clients went through such vivid physical transformations – leaning out and toning up, getting healthy, – their confidence levels and how happy they were with themselves just became so much better. It shows in the way they carry themselves now and their smiles are brighter (even in the morning)! Not only that but hearing their stories of the ways they are influencing others in their lives to be better is so impressive. Because people around them see the difference in their bodies, they want to get better too. So these 8 clients are not only changing their lives, but their co-workers, friends, families lives as well. The spectrum of positive influence is so wide! If you want to join a program that uses the exact same method that they used to transform their bodies, remember to go to check out our SF Hot Summer Shape Up which starts in 1 Week!!! www.SFHotSummerShapeUp.com

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