Wednesday, March 21, 2012

So Nice

     After a whole month of changes, the website is finally complete!  The only thing left to do is edit some videos, and get them posted, and then add the music playlists and keep things up to date and BOOM DONE!  And now that means I have plenty of time to post more blogs and hopefully post some well thought out articles.

     My workouts have been amazing the last few weeks and I have been getting outdoors as much as possible to do them outside since we have had such beautiful weather.  Not a whole lot to report on those, I am not out there setting personal records or anything especially in this low carb state lol. 

     I have to say that I am extremely proud of all of my clients the last few weeks.  Even though they say they have not been seeing huge loses on the scale, for the most part none of them have gained weight which is a great thing.  Even though the scale is producing numbers, they all seem to report that their clothes are fitting better and they like what they are seeing in the mirror which to me is MORE IMPORTANT then what any scale could possibly tell me, their are to many variables that could throw off that weigh in, eating before hand, more water, what you ate or did the day before, stress etc.  If you base all of your goals off what it says you will end up frustrated more time then not!  So keep pushing forward no matter what it tells you, and keep checking yourself out in the mirror.  There is no bigger thrill to me then seeing a new cut or seeing muscle where I did not see it popping out before.

Keep training hard, and have a good week.  I will try and check in later this week with an article, I have been working on something I think you may all be interested in.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Alot to Say


THOUGHT #1- MUSIC AND WORKOUTS
     When you hear this song, you probably do not think man I really want to work out, I really want to push hard this week, I want to destroy this set!  Well for deep reasons this song makes me want to do all of that!  The reason behind that is my friend Jonathon who passed away about 6 months ago at 30 years old.  We weren't crazy close up until this past year, but he was always the one friend who accepted and knew the reasons I pushed so hard on my dieting, pushed so hard in the gym and was one of the only people I knew who did the same to reach his goals.  I was always a small fan of Coldplay, but the day of his wake this song played before and after his wake.  The following day on the way out of the funeral this song played again, it was just one of the oddest things I have ever seen, considering I don't even know if he was a fan of the band lol.  Anyways, now this song is right there on my gym play list and anytime I need that pick me up I put it on and think of what he would be saying to me on one of our many phone calls when I was pissed about gaining weight, or not being as big as I want to be yet, he was always a voice of reason and a calming presence when it came to working out.  Miss ya big guy, and remember Dr. Jones "put the lotion on the skin or else it gets the hose" (inside joke).
     My whole point to this was to find yourself some music that reminds you of why you are in the gym, find music that makes you want to move, music that makes you angry and take it all out on that workout!  Studies have shown that music with a beats per minute rate close to what you are aiming to workout at (for example - high bpm, high intensity) actually stimulates brain function and give you added energy to get through that workout.

THOUGHT #2 - HCG DIET
     I am getting really tired of hearing about the HCG Diet, drops whatever you want to call it.  This is one of the worst things that could be on the market right now and I cannot believe that it is even allowed on shelves of any store AT ALL!  I wrote a whole review on it, and just decided to scrap it, but I am going to throw the details of it right here, and I am sure that some people who read this may run out and buy it for its miracle working weight loss system, but so be it.  I cannot stop everyone from making horrible decisions.
     The claim is to put these miracle drops underneath your tongue, and eat a very low calorie diet we are talking in the 500 calories a day range.  Let's think about this, if your only eating 500 calories a day do you really think you need drops under your tongue to make you lose weight?  For most people that's at least a 1000 calorie a day deficit from where their baseline calories should be so hell you should be losing almost a lb every 3 days, but wait it gets better!  If you add in daily activities walking etc. you could technically be at a much bigger deficit then that, and this product promises to make you lose closer to a lb a day!  One catch is you are not allowed to work out so you will lose muscle mass and strength but who cares right?  The scales still going down!  WRONG!!!!!!  As you lose that muscle mass you also reduce the amount of daily calories your body is going to burn just to support that muscle mass which in the long run is exactly what you want/need.  Lets also throw in the fact that as you get older you are going to lose more muscle mass just due to age, so why speed this process up.
     Want the secret to losing weight?  There is none if there was some magic secret we would all be in shape right?  Follow a sensible lifestyle nutrition plan (not a diet) and lift some weights, and do some cardio that's it!!!  I saved you all the technical mumbo jumbo but that is the basics of it all.

THOUGHT #3 - THE BIGGEST LOSER
While I love what the show is trying to do for people who are out of shape/overweight, I have a very big problem of what this portrays to the average person.
     I made a comment on my Facebook page last week, about how the show makes my job as a trainer harder, which led to numerous inbox messages about the subject, mostly in an angry tone about.  To which my response was, "this show makes the average person think that losing less then say 5lbs a week is unacceptable".  And a perfect example of this was last night's episode, I tend to tune out the weigh ins as I generally only watch the show to see new workout ideas etc.  Last night I watched for the sole reason of seeing what everyone weighed in at.  Last night both teams weight losses were very low except for a few and they were all very discouraged etc, but last night's episode showed what very small changes can do to someone (stress from changing a trainer, being out of your comfort zone).  In the real world even a 1lb weight loss can be a huge deal, due to all the variables that can throw you off.  What makes my job hard is that although people know they workout like crazy it's not very often that the show tells you how much working out they do, but a few seasons ago it got mentioned and they are working out roughly 8 hours a day and eating around 1800 (men) and 1500 (women) calories a day, BUT they are under medical supervision all day everyday while they are there.   I hate to say this as there are a few who have not had this happen, but quite a few of those people have gone home only to gain back a substantial amount of weight.  It does not set them up to go home and be in the best position possible, they are still not educated enough on how to go from constant supervision to zero supervision.  In the real world we do not have the luxury of working out that much, nor being under medical supervision at every moment of every day, so taking it to these extremes is something the normal person just cannot do. 
     Like I said I love the show for what it promotes, but want people to understand that shooting for crazy weight loss numbers is just not something you should hope for week after week, you are setting yourself up for failure, and sometimes failure turns into overeating, depression and weight gain.

     Those are my rants for the day, lol.  I hope some people got something out of these 3 things, and maybe make better choices along the way.

     Today is my off day, but I am going to enjoy the nice almost 60 degree day we are having here in Buffalo, in March and hit the park for a walk, and take some of my clients outside to the track for an outdoor workout which I may take part in.

     Feel free to follow along through this blog, make comments on here about it, or on Facebook and let's start talking fitness.  You never know when someone may be trying to make changes and may learn something from our discussion.

     Train hard, if you're in Buffalo enjoy the B E A UTIFUL weather, and keep pushing towards reaching your goals.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Feeling Good

     Since I have gotten myself back on track I am feeling AMAZING again!  Workouts have felt great, pumps have felt outstanding, and it just feels so great to get myself back on track.  With two hard weeks past me, I have made the decision to wake up on training days at 5am to make sure I just get the workout in before the madness starts everyday.  I am not a huge fan of early training, my strength feels down, endurance doesn't feel great but in all honesty I would rather have a weaker feeling workout going crazy hard, and making sure I just get a workout in.  Who knows, maybe in a few weeks I can go back to my own schedule.  That is it for today, I do not have much to say right now just excited to be back at it.

     I am working on some articles, product reviews etc.  If there is something you would like to see talked about please let me know!


Train Hard!