I started to reflect a little on this past week and my thoughts went to some of my new clients. I always find myself saying the same thing to the new ones who have never worked out or haven't worked out in a while. I tell them that they may feel a little soreness the next day, but that second day is going to be much worse. Depending on what you've worked out you may not be able to lift a brush to brush your hair, or you may even have to go to the bathroom and be scared to sit down because you don't know how you're going to get back up. Haha! I can't tell you the number of times that I've been toilet dialed (when a client calls you from the toilet) by a client saying that I better get over there right now to get them up. Some people have walked away after one session because the pain of just moving a little more was too much for them to handle. I then began to ponder about life and how I've heard people on TV say how great life is. To be honest with you it started to make me sick. I think about my recent struggles with life and I don't see it. I have people around me all the time that have struggles with life just like I do. If life is so great how in the hell can it cause you so much pain. In my opinion life is pain. I mean think about it. In order for you to even walk around on this planet you caused someone (your mother during birth) a great amount of pain at some point. Life is so painful at times it makes you just want to check out and just give up! You just get so tired of it all, nothing ever goes right, and every time something good comes along to make you smile, it get destroyed, therefore causing more pain. Sound familiar to anyone?
Fitness to me is one of the best things ever. I love it! Anytime someone asks me about it I can go on and on talking about how great it is. I know I make some people sick sometimes talking about how great it is. I realized that I was worse than some of those people on TV I saw talking about life. Then I had an epiphany. Fitness and Life are so similar. Fitness can cause so much pain that I can understand why some people give up in the beginning stages. I mean seriously, it can be so painful that you would end up having to take a painkiller or get a massage to try to heal yourself. Why would anyone want to cause themselves pain if they can help it? My answer is because of the reward you receive at the end. The more pain that gets inflicted on you now, the better your body will look in the end. You have to put your time in to see the results you want. Then it dawned on me that the people I was seeing on TV had put their time in with life. I'm sure they have been in broken relationships, suffered a death of a pet or family member, loss of a job, have come down with some sort of illness, etc... But instead of giving up on life they just kept doing what they could to get by. I am sure the pain they felt throughout their life was intense but look at them now. If you probably asked them if the pain was worth it they would probably say absolutely! Just like if you asked someone who just won a fitness show if all the pain of working out was worth it they would definitely say yes!
My point is this; in order to receive something great in life and in fitness some pain has to be endured. Just know within yourself that the reason you are feeling such pain, whether in life or in fitness, is because there is something great that is waiting for you on the other side of it all. At the end of it all maybe someone will ask you if the pain was worth it and I can almost guarantee you will respond YES! "The pain is only temporary." Until next time people!
Monday, February 18, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
BEAST MODE
I had a rough night last night. I hardly got any sleep because I had so much going on in my head. I'm sure we have all had nights like that. I still managed to get up early and run 3 miles with my first client this morning. It felt great! I relieved a little bit of the tension I was feeling and it relaxed me a little. All was fine and well until I decided to take a little rest. Once I did the tension started to come back in slowly. I then rememebered one of my personal quotes I made last year. "Use your emotions as a catalyst for change in your life.. regardless of if they are good or bad let them fuel your success in whatever it is you want to accomplish." I then proceeded to let all the emotions I was feeling take over. I decided that the best way to deal with all the emotions is to turn them into something positive by working out. I got in the gym, put my headphones in and started to go hard in there. I didn't look at anyone hardly I was just going from exercise to exercise with moderate weight. I wasn't stopping and talking to everyone in the gym. I was focused and I made every rep count. I was leaving all those emotions right there in the gym. I tell people all the time that steel has healing power. It will pull all of the negativity right out of you. As I was leaving this older gentleman stopped me and asked if I was ok. He said I looked like an animal stalking prey today in here. I told him that I was just in beast mode. He said he had never heard of that before and I explained to him my interpretation of what beast mode is.
First, we have the Cheetah. That's when you see people working out hard non stop. You may see someone on the treadmill running or going from exercise to exercise non-stop. Most of my clients who are trying to lose weight can attest to this type of workout. I call it my F.I.S.T. training method. It stands for Focused Intervral Strength Training. But you can tell when someone has been doing it because when the workout is over they are exhausted and their clothes look like they took a shower with their clothes on.
Second, we have the Lion (which is what I was today). The lion is easy to spot. They are usually walking around with their headphones in not looking and smiling at people and holding long conversations over a machine. They train hard and very precise and they stalk the room looking for their next exercise/lifting station just waitng to attack it when the time is right.
Last but not least is the Silver Back Gorilla. These people find the heaviest of heavy weight and muscle it up. You may hear them yell, grunt, or scream but you'll know they are putting forth a maximum amount of power. Don't be surprised if you hear some heavy weights hit the floor. They are not doing it for show, they are just in beast mode. One good example of someone training in this particular mode is one of the most decorated Mr. Olympias there is. I'm talking about THE Ronnie Coleman. What this man does in a gym when it comes to strength and power is just unbelievable.
Regardless of how you train, train hard and make sure you make your time in there count! I don't care which beast it is, always try to train in BEAST MODE. You'll get the most out of your workout.
Here's a youtube video to Ronnie "THE KING" Coleman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSMaI63H9hc
First, we have the Cheetah. That's when you see people working out hard non stop. You may see someone on the treadmill running or going from exercise to exercise non-stop. Most of my clients who are trying to lose weight can attest to this type of workout. I call it my F.I.S.T. training method. It stands for Focused Intervral Strength Training. But you can tell when someone has been doing it because when the workout is over they are exhausted and their clothes look like they took a shower with their clothes on.
Second, we have the Lion (which is what I was today). The lion is easy to spot. They are usually walking around with their headphones in not looking and smiling at people and holding long conversations over a machine. They train hard and very precise and they stalk the room looking for their next exercise/lifting station just waitng to attack it when the time is right.
Last but not least is the Silver Back Gorilla. These people find the heaviest of heavy weight and muscle it up. You may hear them yell, grunt, or scream but you'll know they are putting forth a maximum amount of power. Don't be surprised if you hear some heavy weights hit the floor. They are not doing it for show, they are just in beast mode. One good example of someone training in this particular mode is one of the most decorated Mr. Olympias there is. I'm talking about THE Ronnie Coleman. What this man does in a gym when it comes to strength and power is just unbelievable.
Regardless of how you train, train hard and make sure you make your time in there count! I don't care which beast it is, always try to train in BEAST MODE. You'll get the most out of your workout.
Here's a youtube video to Ronnie "THE KING" Coleman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSMaI63H9hc
Monday, January 21, 2013
Blurry Vision Or Something More??
Ok! Time to come clean. How many of us ate too much over the Christmas holiday? I'll be the first to say that I did. I had the best intentions of eating pretty good, but my family likes to cook and I like to eat. That's a bad combination just waiting to happen. :-) After making it through the New Year, I looked at my body in a mirror one morning and I could see that I needed to make some changes. I had lost a lot of the definition in my body and just didn't feel good about the way I looked. I told someone close to me that I wanted to drop about 30 pounds. They looked at me like I was crazy. They asked where I wanted to lose it from and told me I was already looking pretty fit. At this point I realized that one of us wasn't seeing something correctly. At that moment I realized that maybe it could be me. I deal with clients all the time that complain about the way they look but they look pretty damn nice by our societies standards. Here are a few examples of what I mean. Just recently I was talking with one of my clients and she was talking about how bad she had been over the Christmas holiday and how she needed to look good and as soon as she got it out of her mouth one of her neighbors looked at her with her mouth wide open and said "Wow, you look so skinny!" She looked at me confused and asked if the lady was talking about me. Another example is one client who swears her butt is a big as a house, but in reality this lady could finish in the top 5 in a fitness show easily. Or, one client who swears she is so obese, but realized after visiting with old high school friends that she is the same size she was in high school and she looked great back then. Just as people see themselves as being overweight it works in the same way with people actually being overweight and seeing themselves as being petite. Have you ever seen someone wear something (male or female) that you know they should not have walked out of the house wearing that was fitting way too tight? I know I have!
I had the opportunity to pick the brain of a psychiatric professional and we discussed these issues and we came to the conclusion that these may be some small traits of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. In layman's terms it means an individual with a skewed perception of their body image. The extreme cases of BDD are those who develop anorexia nervosa or like Michael Jackson and his multiple plastic surgeries.
I asked the psychiatric professional how does one end up with these symptoms and how can one combat these symptoms. She explained that there is usually a direct correlation with one's self-esteem in general. Causes of low self esteem often stem back to childhood and adolescence and how one was parented or if one was bullied. Working on self esteem or subsequent body dysmorphia symptoms is not an easy or swift process. It may involve taking a look at people in your life and assessing if they lift you up or keep you down. It may involve enlisting the help of a therapist to assist you in changing the way you think about yourself. But mostly it's engaging in a reality check with yourself that may require assistance from someone who loves you and whom you trust.
After writing about this subject and learning more about this, it really made me take a long hard look at the way I see myself. I realized that I never really gave myself any credit for what I have accomplished with my body thus far. Coming from a background of being extremely overweight to being fit is a massive change. Sometimes, I still look in the mirror and still see that overweight guy. I guess I am still a work in progress like most of us are. If you find that you can relate to this try some of the strategies mentioned in this. Until next time people!
I had the opportunity to pick the brain of a psychiatric professional and we discussed these issues and we came to the conclusion that these may be some small traits of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. In layman's terms it means an individual with a skewed perception of their body image. The extreme cases of BDD are those who develop anorexia nervosa or like Michael Jackson and his multiple plastic surgeries.
I asked the psychiatric professional how does one end up with these symptoms and how can one combat these symptoms. She explained that there is usually a direct correlation with one's self-esteem in general. Causes of low self esteem often stem back to childhood and adolescence and how one was parented or if one was bullied. Working on self esteem or subsequent body dysmorphia symptoms is not an easy or swift process. It may involve taking a look at people in your life and assessing if they lift you up or keep you down. It may involve enlisting the help of a therapist to assist you in changing the way you think about yourself. But mostly it's engaging in a reality check with yourself that may require assistance from someone who loves you and whom you trust.
After writing about this subject and learning more about this, it really made me take a long hard look at the way I see myself. I realized that I never really gave myself any credit for what I have accomplished with my body thus far. Coming from a background of being extremely overweight to being fit is a massive change. Sometimes, I still look in the mirror and still see that overweight guy. I guess I am still a work in progress like most of us are. If you find that you can relate to this try some of the strategies mentioned in this. Until next time people!
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