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November 09, 2010
November 08, 2010
Help From The Edges
When you're looking for help, it helps to get advice from people at the edges they may know something you don't.
If you want to learn to swim, it would be great to get help from Michael Phelps
If you want to learn to play golf, it would be great to get help from Tiger Woods
If you want to learn to sprint it would be great to get help from Usain Bolt
At the edges are where there's action, where dreams come true.
November 04, 2010
What Is An Artist?
Art is not limited to painters, sculptors and actors.
Art is what you do when you do your best work, whatever that may be.
Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else.
As personal trainers, we're artists.
Our dumbells replace the paint brushes.
Muscle replaces the clay.
Our clients are our canvas.
What is your art?
November 02, 2010
12 Low Calorie Diet Savers
I asked 5 people that have successfully lost and maintained their weight over the last few years what foods they use that save them from eating a whole tub of ice cream.
Here is the top 10 diet savior foods they came up with:
- Mustard
- Franks red hot
- This taco spice
- Celery
- Hot coco powder with boiling water and a bit of stevia
- Stevia
- Diet pepsi (No! Aspartame)
- Calorie free jello, pudding and popsicles (No! Aspartame)
- Lemon garlic dressing
- Pickles
- Herbal teas
- Salsa
Did they miss any good ones? (Write it under the comments on my Facebook page)
November 01, 2010
People Are Awesome
People Are Awesome - Watch more Sports Share
Event This Saturday
This Saturday is a big show with 3 events and as you can tell I'm pretty involved.
What it's all about:
It's a demonstration of extremists. People that have made a commitment to hard work and a strict nutrition plan for weeks and even months to show the world that anything is possible if you want it bad enough. This show has been going on for 30 years and If you workout and want a little boost of inspiration, It's the one you probably don't want to miss.
We only have so many tickets available and my guess is that they are all gone by Friday. So if you're interested get your tickets at any Free Form Fitness or Popeye's location today.
October 29, 2010
Is It Enough?
Is what you accomplished enough?
Was losing 10lbs enough?
Was climbing one mountain enough?
Was running one marathon enough?
Was winning one show enough?
If the journey to get to your goals create long term benefits,
then why would it be enough?
Like skiing, the goal is not to do one good run and go home. The goal is to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.
October 28, 2010
Shoes With Toes
Personal trainer Shelley wears a pair of these every day and I've been meening to write a post about them for a while now.
What's the deal right?
Well, clinical studies, research and theoretical analysis all reveal that more injuries occur among the wearers of athletic shoes than among barefoot exercisers. What happens is that the body tends to stiffen up, decrease proprioceptive sensitivity and dissipate shock less effectively if you wear well cushioned shoes. The body assumes that the shoes will take the major role of stabilization and shock absorption so it decides to instinctively rely more on the shoes and less on the intrinsic protection mechanism. With these shoes you have the ability to use your toes and they are very thin in terms of cushion making your body feel barefeet.
So all in all, I give them two thumbs up for the functionality! Not sure about the look though.
October 27, 2010
Easy Weight Loss Tip
This is a simple tip that can go a long way. Infact it would also help solve the sugarbesity going on with children. Here it is: Deserve the carbs you eat. Carbs are a source of energy and let's face it, our intake far out weighs our outtake. So if you have a computer job and you're sitting down most of the day, you don't really need much or even any carbs at that point. The brain is well fueled without it by the process of gluconeogenesis. So here's a rule that you can aply to help you stay on track: BEFORE you decide to eat any carbohydrate loaded meal you need to deserve it and have exercised your muscles hard to lower your blood sugar. It's simple but it works.
October 26, 2010
Where Have You Been?
Health club attendance rates are horrible. But it's not your fault, the model is broken and is missing pieces to the puzzle. If only 25% are showing up how many are actually getting results? Accountability is one of the missing pieces to this puzzle. Here is an example of the US stats on members who attend their club 101.2 times in the course of a year:
Massachusetts 25.90%
California 21.80%
Colorado 21.20%
Virginia 20.30%
New Jersey 19.00%
Arizona 18.80%
Illinois 18.60%
Utah 18.20%
Florida 18.00%
South Carolina 18.00%
Texas 17.60%
Arkansas 17.30%
New Hampshire 17.20%
Maryland 17.10%
New York 16.90%
Wisconsin 16.90%
Kansas 16.40%
Washington 15.90%
Ohio 15.70%
Michigan 15.60%
North Carolina 15.50%
Georgia 15.20%
Connecticut 14.90%
Tennessee 14.90%
Iowa 14.80%
Indiana 14.60%
Louisiana 14.60%
Missouri 13.90%
Pennsylvania 13.60%
Kentucky 13.00%
Oregon 12.50%
Nevada 10.70%
Alabama 10.20%
Take out all the regular gym buffs that these statistics are counting and you get a whole wack load of beginners that just buy a membership and never show up. In fact it's their major profit center. The problem is there's a lot of people that really want to succeed but are just not in the right enviornment to make it happen.
October 25, 2010
2 Tips For Sculpting A Better Chest
Bench press just won't cut it. Done properly in a powerlifting style (with the elbows abducted at 45 degrees) the barbell bench press is predominantly a front delt exercise. The more you flare your elbows to the side (abduct to 90 degrees)the more it targets the chest but also the more prone your rotator cuff will be to injury. Oh the dilema.
So here's what you do:
Solution number 1: Move to dumbells. Your rotator cuffs may be categorized as a stabiliser muscle but so can the chest or many other muscles. When you use dumbells the chest also becomes a stabiliser and creates more recruitment of muscle fibers. EMG studies have shown that dumbelss activate the chest far greater than the a barbell.
Solution number 2: Pre-exaustion. Lee priest, a famous bodybuilder would always start his chest workout by pre exausting his chest on cable crossovers then move to a bench press. The idea is that you fatige a targetted muscle group with an isolation exercise and then move to a compound exercise. The link in the chain of least resistance will have the most impact.
Have a good chest workout!
October 23, 2010
October 22, 2010
How To Eat Halloween Candy and Not Get Fat
October 31 may be one of those days. Those days where it's almost impossible to cheat on your diet. If you're on a strict diet I'm sorry for tempting you, keep doing what your doing. But if you're NOT in "strict" diet mode here is a strategy for eating bad while minimizing the effects of fat gain.
You need to empty your sugar tank. Here's how it works: 3 days prior to the "distraction day" make sure to consume little to no carbohydrates in your diet for 3 days straight. Make sure to exercise hard with high repetitions (15-25) to use a lot of glycogen. Then when the day comes for you to consume carbohydrates, most of it will be stored as glycogen and you won't have to worry about it spilling over and making you fat.
Note of caution: Don't do this too often or you will still get fat.
October 21, 2010
Bullied Into Bodybuilding
Many teenagers turn to lifting weights because they don't want to be the victim of bullying. They realize that maybe if they put on muscle, bullies will leave them alone.
This is a special interview with one of my best buddies. He was one of these guys that got bullied pretty bad in school. His story will help anyone being bullied out there. So please share it.
1. Do you remember the Charles Atlast comic characters where the guy kicks sand in his face?
Yes, I remember it, kind of fits where I came from only I did not punch out the bully, lol. I wished I did on many occasions though.
2. Tell me about a specific time you were bullied as a kid?
I can say on the bus to school and back home was one of the worst moments in a day. Between 7th grade and 10th grade, I wouldn’t even take the bus home, I would walk. 20 min to get home by bus or 1 hour to walk and I preferred walking because it was getting bad. They would find whatever kind of food on the floor (apples, orange peels, banana peels) and rub it in my hair or catch me off guard and sneak up behind me and rub it in my face. Constantly bullied for being fat and half Chinese. When you’re bullied for being fat, naturally this links to bad hygiene and that I would never get a girlfriend (Seems like those insults just go together). That was the more embarrassing part for me.
I’ve been pushed into lockers, Pilled up on in the yard and snow shoved in my clothes and face, kids went to those Joke stores and bought fart bombs, crushed it and put it on my bench in the bus (In the morning), I would sit on it and then I stank all day, gum put in my hair, etc. In primary school, it was a lot of childish things but high school was getting more provocation for a fight. The times I hated the most was being bullied in front of a group of people (including those not involved) for example in the cafeteria. Another would be when they started to get at me that I would never get a girl or when they would start there bullying in front of a girl simply because I was talking to her to embarrass me. It was all mental bullying mostly.
I remember once, recess, was invited to play football in the yard, I was all exited because they invited me but in the end, they simply wanted to gang up on me and they shoved me in this pile of mud. I was in school the whole day full of mud. (That primary school). The most personal times was when they insulted my for being half Chinese. Insulting my mom more specifically. Saying I should leave Canada and join the other fatties in China and blah blah blah. Constant insults usually by a group of 5 or more. I can’t remember being bullied by 2 or 3 ppl at once, usually it was a crowd.
3. How did you feel at that point in your life?
Low, lower then dirt. Self confidence was non existent. Even to this day, I have a hard time sometimes.
4. What did you do about it?
When I finally had enough, I joined football. This was not only because I knew it would be good physically but also because I needed that hardliner coach/trainer to give me a bit of mental discipline and push me in the butt. I was committed to going to practice (this was not a “come when you want” kind of scenario), Football helped a lot with cardio and ensurance but I got more injuries then I expected so my coach told me to start hitting the gym and bring up my strength which is where I met my next coach. I trained at Fitness Warehouse in Rockland with Curd Hos who taught me about power lifting. I started training like a power lifter (never got interested in competing though). It was so impressive to see some guy’s pressing more then there own body weight, sometimes with ease. Squatting weight only seen in comics. It reminded me of the Incredible Hulk. These guys’s intimidated me more then the bullies. I started training like a power lifter and eventually, after reading so much on training, I merged to training like a bodybuilder.
I noticed when I started training in power lifting, I was gaining significant size. I was already big and chubby but this was different. I was getting shape, big shoulders, the biceps were coming out more and with the pounding I was taking in football, I was getting some confidence since no way these kids in High school can do worse. When I started in bodybuilding, my strength went down big time but my size was displayed much more. No one can see power until you lift something but everyone sees the muscles, even when you’re wearing a long sleeve shirt. Most times, ppl will not want to test and see if you strong, they’ll take your arms word for it.
I’m not saying that simply having muscles eliminated my problems with bullies but they did calm it down a bit. I was no longer just the fat kid in the hallway, I was the athlete who played football, powerlifted and had the size/muscle to prove it. Intimidation was setting in and I never even had to do anything to anyone, I just showed my hard work. Bullies are use to getting attention at other peoples expense, I was getting it on my own and I think this brought a bit of respect my way as well.
To this day, I’ll run into some ppl from high school and they all tell me how they all “respected” me growing up or something along those lines. Funny, I never got that impression.
5. What advice would you give a young guy that is being bullied right now?
Turn to other physical activities to release the frustration. This will not only help you mentally but also physically and in your health. Weather you’re a couch potato, computer geek or simply someone with a bulls eye on your head, it doesn’t matter, others will notice your hard work and will respect you more. Bullies have nothing on there side when no one else joins in. Most crowds are followers with only one real bully who feeds this crowd. Be the leader, show you can control your own path and achieve the goal and people will look up to YOU instead. People admire those who accomplish what they can never do.