A Confession and Some Pleas

A Confession: First I have to start with this. A while back I talked about my goal to be down to 200 lbs. by the end of summer. Well summer is here and I have not reached my goal. If anything I have backtracked some in the last couple of weeks. Why? I have this theory that psychologists/therapists/counselors have some of the greatest amounts of baggage of most people. Though they can have brilliant insight into others lives and give great advice and coaching, their lives can still be completely screwed up (not in all cases of course). I think trainers can be a little like this as well. Even though we can work with and “diagnose” people and give them great tools to fix their fitness regiment – the application of those principles to us is sometimes the greatest challenge. I think it may have something to do, in both cases, with having so many strategies and so much knowledge up there (in our heads) that we have trouble self diagnosing and treating if you will. So back to my issue. I know what I did wrong. I can give excuses like my trips or my tattoo that kept me from working out for a few days or my new schedule. But that is what they are excuses.
SO what now. Well, trying to look at what I would tell someone else in my shoes. It is time to reassess my goal. I need to analyze what went wrong and how I can more effectively approach it this time. Also I need to modify my goal. SOOOOOO! My goal now is to be at 210 lbs. by Christmas. I will set the bar a little lower and if I reach it early then great. In the meantime, I need to focus my energy again on my diet as that was and is my Achilles heel. But the point is I have acknowledged that I didn't reach my goal and accepted it and now I have to strive on towards a new goal that is attainable and appropriate.

A plea: In short I would like to make a plea to anyone who has thought about group training, specifically my group training, to give it a try. I really believe it is an awesome deal and the folks that have participated and stuck with it I think really see the value. It is a really good deal and I believe that the instruction and workouts are super effective and important. I have seen several of my participants improve by leaps and bounds in just a few sessions. The class setting is sometimes the best place to learn and achieve.

A plea part II: Here is the soapbox part. I plea to anyone and everyone who uses a challenge as a reason for inaction to stop doing so. What I mean is – lately I have heard numerous people use physical limitations or perceived limitations to keep them from exercising certain areas. A common one is the legs. I have heard several people try and tell me that they have leg issues, injuries, lack of flexibility, even too good of legs – as a reason not to exercise them. Simple logic and science should tell you that inaction is not going to solve a problem. If there are flexibility issues, then not stretching is not going to help. If there is a history of injuries, then “protecting” them by avoiding is not going to help your cause. Remember people – legs are your locomotion. They move you and carry you and support you. As you get older they are all the more important. The stronger that foundation is and more limber and agile they are – the better they will serve you as you age. I don’t care how old you are or what shape they are in – they need to be challenged and taken care of. Of course – there is an appropriate strategy for doing so and if you aren’t sure what that is – then see a trainer (hint, hint). This is my example but it can be applied to any issue you hear people using as excuses not address issues.

Okay – enough for now. Thanks so much for reading!

Andy

Types of Workouts ...

Of course it has been forever since I last updated this blog so for that I apologize. I did want to write a little something inspired by my new group training that started this week. Someone told me the definition of insanity (according to Einstein I think???) is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Obviously the correlation you can make between this and working out is that if you continue to do the same workouts and/or follow the same dietary habits and expect to see different results then you are insane! Well, not really, just not thinking much about what you are doing.

So with my new group training, people have a chance to come and do something that is most likely very different from what they have been doing. IF I had to give percentages to what people do with their time in the gym I would guess that 85% of the people at MY gym spend most of their time on cardiovascular work. Of course, if you know me, I believe it should totally be flip flopped. I believe that the REASON that people do this is two fold. First, they think it is the way to burn calories and lose fat. Second, I think that people see cardio as a no brainer and weights as a complicated matter that is more trouble than it is worth.

My group training is designed for those people (that see too much complication with weights) as well as folks that see the value in weights but also in having direct instruction. With the group training model, you have the opportunity to almost go on auto pilot and get effective weight training workouts. The nice thing is that in a smaller group, I can still give individual attention to form, function, and intensity.

As far as the workouts we do. I am currently modeling the program after P90X but have obviously modified it a bit for our purposes. The fact is that it is a type of training that is very different - focused on muscular endurance, a little muscle building, and most importantly variety. This keeps your "body guessing" (sometimes called muscle confusion) and causes you to respond. Eventually the workouts will morph into other formats as I want the people who continue to come to group training to continue to be challenged and "stimulated".

Finally, a word about sets, reps, and weights. My current program has people doing timed sets that usually end up being in the 20+ rep range. Everyone I talk to concurs that those rep ranges sneak up on you and can be quite intense in the later stages. At some point we will do heavier weights (with which you could not manage those amounts of reps) and different sorts of exercises. The point of this is to cause the different muscle fibers to recruit differently and also to cause the muscles to respond differently. Thus they will always be working, changing, developing, and most importantly, working for the trainee.

If you don't know about my group training. It is at Prairie Life (Overland Park) and at this point happens 4 times a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays - 12 to 1 or 6 to 7 both days. In those two workouts we get total body workouts. Of course you can contact for more info. The first couple of sessions have been extremely successful and have had a great deal of interest.

Thanks for reading,

Andy