Here are two great items I came across this week.

Self Limiting Exercise – Alwyn Cosgrove; speaks on barefoot running.

Bret Contreras Speaks on ACL

 If you’re utlizing the internet for information to learn and expand your knowledge to better serve yourself and your clients, these are the kind of things you should be looking for…..as a start.

The Diet Failure

Well, not total failure. More like, several mishaps. All is clear though, we are on track again. I decided for the first time since my stint with Rhabdo two years ago to purchase and try  some supplementation. I chose three from the Biotest Company. Flameout (EPA,DHA,CLA), Alpha Male (Testy baby), and ZMA (If you don’t what this is you have been living in a cave). Also, since my winter depression is fast approaching, for the first time ever I will be adding a vitamin D supplement.

So, what will happen I think now is I will create a log tabbed page to chronicle my lifts and diet. Should be much cleaner, so I can leave this page for pissing and moaning like today or much more insightful posts.

Cali’s Corner and The Dan

As I come across that great video from Bret above, I also discover some possible ACL issues with my girlfriend. I believe I will create a log tab for her so I can chronicle what I am doing with her. It’s time the little lady takes advantage of having a Personal Trainer for a boyfriend more often. I’m looking forward to working on this project. The Dan is a rather dapper gentlemen I work with and will also be creating a log tab for our work together aswell.

Blah blah blah Billy….STFU.

Ciao, goodnight!!!!

On with the show.

Brought Cali breakfast in bed, chocolate chip gluten free pancakes. I managed to cook them and have none!

8am : 3 egg omelette with 1 piece of american cheese

11:30 : 3 mini cans of Tuna with mayo/onion

Spent three hours in Shop Rite

4pm – Two small pieces of Aged Sharp Cheddar Cheese

6pm – Two Lobster Tails and 4 claws/arms; Probably about 25 pieces of asaparagus with a cup of green tea

730pm – Passed out

9pm – Woke up, watched Board Walk Empire, Bored to Death, and Eastbound and Down….then passed out.

One thing I have to pull into this is that evening steady state cardio. However, I find it a bit boring and contemplating doing the follow circuit for 20 minutes instead of doing 45 minutes of walking.

TRX Squat and row

TRX Lunge and Chest Flye

TRX Lateral Lunge and Cross-behind Lunge – Left Leg/Right Leg

TRX Trunk Rotations

3 round; 1 min sets; 30 second rest periods

Later this afternoon, I’ll put down todays plan after I’m done changing lives at NYSC.

Shredded In Six(weeks that is)

Plan is to follow this diet for the next 6 weeks and see where I end up. I will take photos sometime this week to see the progress I make in the 6 week time frame. I currently do not take any supplements or drink any form of protein shakes. I suffered from rhabdomyolysis over a year ago now, and my nephrologist pleaded with me to stop all supplement usage. However, it’s also been over a year since all my organs have been in probably the best shape they have been in during the past 10 years. I am going to chronicle my diet and workouts on here daily (hopefully). I am going to alter some of the variables of his diet program though. I will be choosing to cook with olive oil instead of butter, because I just can’t wrap my head around cooking with butter. I also may eat an additional meal on the low carb days. The fact of the matter is I wake up every morning at 4am and I don’t get enough sleep. A few days out of my week now are turning into 10-12 Personal Training session days. (NOT complaining…I need the $$$) So, these days I’m going to need the extra calories to keep me “Changing lives and transforming bodies!”  With my schedule being as chaotic as it’s been getting the timing right will be a challenge and also I am going to have to go pick up the supplements. I don’t plan on taking everything he’s taking supplement wise, but I figure I will being adding one or two new ones weekly.

This is how today went :

Meal 1 – 5am : Omellete – 3 whole eggs, 3 egg whites, 2 pieces of American Cheese; 3 pieces of Canadian Bacon; 2 tbsp Peanut Butter; Coffee with half/half

Workout (Listed Below)

Meal 2 – 8 am : 1 package of tuna; 2 tbsp of peanut butter

Meal 3 – 11 am : 1 package of tuna; 2 tbsp of peanut butter

12pm – Starbucks Grande Read Eye —– eeeeowwwwwwwwwww

Got my car inspected and oil changed with tire rotation…finally.

4pm – 17 oz T BONE, 5 Jumbo shrimp and a pile of asparagus.

5pm – Green Tea

5:30pm – Coffee and half/half

I happen to love coffee ice  cream. Always my choice when it’s presented to me. I take my coffee black regularly, so when I saw this gentlemen was taking down cream with his coffee, I knew it would be an opportunity to help me in this. Coffee and half/half will be like dessert…every time

7pm – Lean Burger patty with piece of American cheese

The Workout

As usual, I had many a task for today so my workout need to be put in the morning before my sessions. The weight training portion took me all of 30 minutes and almost lost my omelette.

SHOULDERS

1.SMR – Calves, Ham, IT, Quads, Lats, Shoulder girdle

2. Lying external rotation shoulder warm up with band.

3. Seated DB Shoulder Press – 45lbs x 15; 60lbs x 10; 65lbs x 10; 70lbsx 4 (I don’t know what happened here); 45lbs x 12

4. Standing DB Shoulder Press (2 extra drop sets) – 25lbs x 10; 20lbs x 10 ( performed right after 45lbs drop set above)

5. Arnold Press – seated at about 85 degrees on incline bench. 30lbs x 12 x 3 sets

6. DB Lateral Raise Drop set – 35lbsx8;30lbsx8; 25lbsx10; 20lbs x 12; 15lbs x 15

7. Front DB Raise Drop set – 30lbs x 12; 25lbs x 15; 20lbs x 20

8. Super wide grip upright row with olympic bar. Few sets of 15 for ROM purposes, right her is where I had to lay down on floor for second. I took no longer than 3o seconds between any set or exercise. Probably more like under 20 in most cases. Behrouz was killing it on my iPod.

I followed this with a touch of cardio on the Reebok Cycle Plus, which is kind of similar to an Airdyne (KIND OF). I did only 15 minutes due to the time constraints. But according to its calorie meter I burnt 450 calories in 15 minutes. Which is pretty incredible if I actually believed that was accurate, even though I did have the intensity level at it’s max.

As I’m writing this blog, I just received a Facebook message from my beautiful bride. Pretty much informing me she is going to sabotage my diet with Pumpkin Pie Blizzards from Dairy Queen. Perhaps I can fit this in on like every 4th of 5th carb day.

MUSIC PLEASE!

Another new addition to this blog I believe will be whatever I’m listing too musically. My music is who I am and defines part of who I am. So, I figure it should be included. I always use my iPod for cardio but I don’t get to use it as often on the fitness floor as I used to in the past. Fact of the matter is, I am a Personal Trainer and I train myself at my place of work. So, people want to talk to me and ask me questions. I am too afraid of losing a potential client by shutting everyone out with my ear buds and putting on my hard face.

That being said…peep this mix by Luciano. I download a lot of sets from this website Killingbeats.com

Luciano – Live at Mystery Land Festival 2010

That’s it for today at least, tomorrow is apple and pumpkin picking with wifey. Cheers!

Honestly, I’m fucking embarrassed to admit to it. It’s seriously pathetic as a “fitness professional.” It’s not professional at all. It’s also the simplest and easiest way to get into conversation with gym members and strike up decent contacts for business…………..drum roll………..

It’s CLEANING THE FUCKING FLOOR.

And I haven’t been doing it. You can rest assured though, I was certainly worried about who wasn’t doing it. But of course, I was playing my part perfectly…cleaning up my mess and acting like a total dick about it so people knew I was doing it. Offering to clean the floor for my management team but requested to be paid for floor time. When realistically, I should be doing it without complaint. It shouldn’t just be when a cute girl is doing RDLs near the power rack. Just kidding Cali

Since stepping down from the Fitness Management role back to training, I have been working on expanding my business and also trying to I work on myself a bit aswell. This really kind help bring somethings full circle about selfish and jaded I have become recently. It’s so simple too. Clean the floor, perfect opportunity to get in front of people. Also, not offering any negative commentary either….

…like “Well someone’s gotta do it”

            ”The floor trainers don’t do anything”

More negativity never helps, especially in a gym environment. It spreads like cancer. In an environment of high hormones and blood pressure levels, gym members on negativity like blood thirsty Wolverines . There’s no reason to point out what other people aren’t doing. One of my clients said to me recently…”No one thanks the whistler blower.” And it’s the truth. I mean if your manager is letting them get away with it, then their manager is letting them get away with it, and up and up. Shit rolls down hill, especially with poor organizational practices. Don’t get me wrong it’s not the people I work with (my management team) that are the problem, it’s the people who don’t give them the tools necessary to manage effectively. But that’s another topic for another day……corporate real estat….erhhh I mean corporate fitness clubs.

Actually….I will complain for a second. Corporate Fitness Clubs are hiring and sending out managers into the field with just the idea of SELL SELL SELL. Which is fine. But there are subtle nuances of things that happen and relationships that exist on the gym floor. There’s a vibe. Every hour and every crowd, the flow changes. There are a lot of emotions and things happening out there that the sales teams and managers miss. And it’s not just about referrals. Trust me….I love money, I love swiping people’s credit cards!!!!  But I love when people “get it” more. The fitness floor can be a living breeding thing…it can be a stand up comedy routine one minute and a learning environment the next. Im not trying to be philosophical here, but newcomers into this industry are coming in with cloudy vision, and it’s not their fault.

So, when people now ask you why are cleaning up or comment on someone else leaving their weights behind, be honest. They know you are trying to build a business, so tell them. Tell them you clean the gym because you respect your house and you wanted the opportunity to open a dialog with them. If you believe in what you do, then tell them about it.

Above reference to Wolverine is for Danny T.

I set his quick circuit up for me and my new best friend Dan. He has been with my company for just as long as I have, or rather survived just as long. Some pieces are taken from parts of my Primal Bootcamp series. However, this session was a little more intense under the time contraints. None the less, an excellent metabolic primer.

It went like this:

30 seconds work
30 seconds rest between sets
60 seconds rest between exercises

I would do one exercise while he was doing another and then we would switch off.

1.Superband squat and high row.
2. Double-arm Kettlebell Swing
3. Medicine Ball Slam
4. Double-arm Battling Rope Waves
5. Double-arm Kettlebell High Pull
6. Jumping Jacks with Battling Rope (reg. jack with rope ends in hands)

That’s it for today. Currently reading an awesome book called SPARK by John J. Ratey. It’s about all the new research about how exercise improves all brain functions. Great read, more info to come.

Let’s face it, most often we see people bending over to pick up children, pick up groceries…….pennies…but only heads up. It’s life, its functional training. Strengthening our posterior chain musculature will only protect us from ourselves.

The bottom position is also utilized in other common exercises like Bent Over Row and movements like Good Mornings and  the Kettlebell Swing require mastery of the hinged hip motion.

There is also a language issue here in regards to deadlifts. Reading through online forums, talking with meatheads gym rats, and even other Personal Trainers, there seems to be a disconnect. There is more than one form of deadlift. Quickly, RDL’s require a slight knee bend. If they were locked out, then it would be Stiff Leg Deadlift with a lower back strengthening focus. So, some of you may think…yea no shit, well the misinformation is out there. Take a look around your gym.

Now, it’s easy enough to say “Ok, slight bend in your knee…flat back…and bend over.” With the sedentary population we work with all that’s going to get you is flexion at spine as if they just dropped their last french fry on the floor and they only had the “5 seconds” to get it back.

I took the Kettlebell Concepts Instructor Training Course in NYC back July. We were going through the RDL and how it worked into the Swing. In attendance was one Nick Tumminello. He must have noticed another attendee was having trouble with the movement. Being the Fitness Professional he is, he took him aside and I watched him coach him into position. He simply took this gentlemen over to wall, put his back to it about a foot’s distance away and just said “Bring your butt back to the wall,” and that cleared everything up.

However, it’s not always going to be that simple. If your client is still just can’t flatten out that back, there  are a couple that may need to be addressed. One may simply be to retract the shoulder blades providing they even have that ROM. The other, and more likely, is that they have some tight hamstrings. Try doing some SMR and extra ham stretches, even some active isolation techniques to lengthen them up a bit.  Now, still they may visually to you be able to get the form, but they may tell you they are only feeling it in the low back. So, another cueing to tip is that on the way back up they should be driving their hips forward and pushing their shoulders back.

Also, make sure on the way back up they are shifting their weight back and driving up through the heels. This will aid in the proper muscle recruitment and firing pattern.

 At my gym, we are lucky enough to have the TRX A-Frame setup. Or…S-Frame as the product description labels it, nothing like creating a brand. I found using the frame itself can be an aid in achieving the correct form of RDL. At the bottom of the legs, where you bolt the frame to the floor, there is about a 16″x16″ plate. First, you place your feet on either side of that facing away from the frame with your butt towards the post. From where your feet are in regards to the angle of the frame, gives a great location for you to cue to push the butt back.

There is another way you can use the TRX, or any fixed surface, to get down to the hinged hip bottom position of an RDL, for something a Bent Over Barbell Row. Grab the handles and step back. Again, slight bend in the knees, flat or slighty arched back…push back into a lat stretch. Then, drop the handles and maintain that bent-over position.

Ciao

“Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail”

As of right this second, think of how many things a day, a week, or month that you take the time and prepare for. Do you have anything in your day you wish could come faster or just encounter things in your day you rather not deal with when they confront you in the progress of your day?

Now, my situation this morning wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to a person, but there is a deeper message. I was in a pissy mood all day yesterday, and I’m sure if I think hard enough,  I could probably think back to why whatever I was pissy about..I probably brought it on my self—status quo. For the past 5 weeks or, I have been back to training 5:30 am, 5 times per week. If I prepare the night before, I can sleep till 4:15am, and be out of the house, stomach full, by 4:45am and be on time. I have it down to a science.

However, sleep is unfortunetly the weakest part of my life training program. When my body decides it’s up, it’s up. I have a horrible habit of waking up earlier and earlier. I now am awake by 3:20am everymorning…wide awake. I can’t help my self but to start my day.

So, what does this have to do with preparation? Nothing. Other than giving me an anxiety attack in the morning trying to prepare my food for the day.

Now more to the point.

I am surprised about  the amount of Personal Trainers who don’t chart their clients or prepare a program design.Yet, I’m sure they know their exact plan for they shall shredd their lats apart and get SWOLE! Then again, I think I may be making an unfair assumption from to small of a sample. But still, every occupation has those people who prefer to do the bare minimum to what will get them the pay check they want.

Perhaps, these “Personal Trainers”, breed the client behaviors we run into occasionally. The client who has no time to foam roll or warm-up. It comes to a point where you really need to take a step back and determine if we continue to keep them as a client. I know that every time a Personal Trainer has a client that goes down with a muscle cramp or pulls a muscle, there is an “Oh shit, other people are watching” moment and they are afraid they bad. Most times, whatever it was could have been avoided by better preparation. Getting better and preparation is another one of those things you can always continue to do.

One of my parents, I believe it was my mother, used to always tell me-”No matter how good you are, or how good you think you are, there is ALWAYS someone better than you.” Now, it wasn’t meant as a knock on me, but maybe more a clue on being prepared. 

Not sure how to wrap this all up in summary. I need to take some creative writing courses. Speaking of courses, I have a shit-ton of opinions who don’t do continuing education.

Anyway.

One.

I feel your first blog should kind of set the tone for what you represent and where your going to go. Perhaps the other way to go is stream of consciousness. What am I honestly thinking about today?

My clients, and the TRX.

I work for a fitness club in Mahwah, NJ. I know alot of personal trainers in the north east see those four letters and cringe, but it is what it is, thats a whole other discussion for another day.

In an effort to drive more members into our club they have done a number of renovations (<–grossly sugar coated statement). One of the additions has been a TRX S-Frame, which is actually an “A” frame, but Fitness Anywhere is really going for that brand recognition with the Suspension Frame for Suspension Training!!

It’s becoming easier and easier to apply corrective exercise techinques to clients now in larger numbers without them even knowing its happening. Let before I comment any further, let me point out, this is far from the end all in CE protocols. However, I think its a great selling tool to scratch the surface for some clients who snear at the idea of things like foam rolling. In a perfect world, every morning our clients would roll out of bed on to a foam roll. 

Now obviously, not everyone is going to be able to deep squat due to issues like blunt trauma type things. However, I believe everyone should be able to perform an ass to floor deep squat. Mastering your bodyweight and mind muscle connection are two things I try to implement with my clients right from the get go. Far away from the Nautlis circuits. Previously–using walls, hand rails, and cable machines with full stacks to create angles or aids to bodyweight exercises to use a full range of motion. I will note though, there are quite many personal trainers that have been using gymnastics rings or some kind of makeshift straps to do ”suspension” training for sometime.  I mean lets call it what it is, Fitness Anywhere branded and is making a fortune. So, good for them. I wish I would have done it myself, can’t hate player.

Despite my previous statement, I do believe Fitness Anywhere created a better product that what we have using. They are our marketing department for this type of functional training. I feel it let’s be more creative in working on ROM issues because there is more freedom of movement with its design.  

I’d like to end here with stating that I a  fan of all modalities, I am on a never ending education path. Any trainer that isn’t, does not have their clients best interests in mind.

This was definatelty stream of consciousness.