2 Tips for Looking Hot for the Holidays (borrowed from Sherri McMillan)

Looking good!

Normally, I don’t like to blog and quote too much of someone else’s blog.  Seems lazy.  But I absolutely love this one and thought is was more appropriate than the my new article on motivation and fear.  That will come out soon.  Today, you get to hear from a phenomenal trainer and motivator, Sherri McMillan.  Here she goes:

“Looking and feeling your best is a potent combination of exercise and healthy eating. It always has to include both! So here is your next exercise and nutrition tip to get you Looking Hot for the Holidays.

Nutrition Tip: Part of the problem leading to our epidemic rates of obesity and overweightness is people eating past the point of fullness. This will always lead to energy storage and increased body fat levels! So learning to stop eating when you’re full is a big step in the right direction. Use the following hunger scale to help guide you.

The Hunger Scale – Learn to use this scale to rate your hunger and fullness

0 – Ravenous, Primal Hunger. I’m so hungry I could die!
1 – Extremely Hungry, dizzy, shaky, faint
2 – Very hungry, irritable, finding it hard to concentrate
3 – Stomach growling
4 – Hungry but not ravenous
5 – Totally comfortable
6 – Feeling like I ate too much
7 – Stomach is stretched/uncomfortable
8 – Very Full/Stuffed
9 – Very Full and Bloated/Overstuffed
10 – So Full it Hurts, Feels like I’m going to explode, Feel sick to my stomach

LEVELS 0-2: Signifies ravenous hunger. This is when you are most likely to overeat. Avoid this stage!

LEVELS 3-4: These are the best times to eat. Your body is saying that it needs food.

LEVELS 5-10: Starting to eat at these levels indicates emotional, not physical hunger.

Eating until you reach level 6 and higher may indicate that you’ve lost touch with your physical hunger.

Exercise Tip: Incorporate Interval Training into your Workouts. Here’s why.

The benefits of higher intensity exercise are as follows:

*Expends more calories per minute

*More efficient – burns more calories in less time

*Most effective method for improving fitness conditioning

*Most effective method for raising anaerobic threshold. Your anaerobic threshold is the stage of exercise where you feel very tired and feel the need to either stop or slow down. You may feel dizzy or nauseous if you stay at this level too long. By incorporating higher intensity activity into your exercise workouts, you raise your anaerobic threshold. This means that you can exercise at a higher intensity before you start to experience those uncomfortable sensations.

*Most effective method for inducing training adaptations. Incorporating this type of training into your program will enable your body to handle the higher intensities more easily. You will find that intensities that used to leave you breathless and fatigued, no longer challenge you anymore. Soon, you will be able to expend more calories per minute compared to when you first started exercise. When people first initiate an exercise program, a comfortable calorie burning level is approximately 5cal/min. Elite athletes can expend more than 20cal/min and sustain it for over 2 hours! As a result, it takes them a lot less time to burn one pound of fat.

*Most effective method for increasing fat mobilization. This means that as you get fitter, you actually get better at burning fat. Inside of your fat cells, you have enzymes called hormone sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase. Hormone sensitive lipase, the “good guys”, are responsible for releasing fat from a fall cell to be used for energy. Lipoprotein lipase, the “bad guys”, are responsible for the uptake of fat from the blood stream into fat cells to be stored. Lipoprotein lipase functions to develop our unwanted bulges. If you have lived a sedentary lifestyle and have eaten a poor diet all your life, you will have a lot of the “bad guys” and they will be very good at their job. You will have fewer “good guys” and they will not be so competent with their responsibilities. The goal is to get more good guys doing their job. But changing the internal chemistry inside of your fat cells may take years. So in the beginning you may not be experiencing results as quickly as you want because you body is actually working against you. But with consistency in your training program, your body will soon start to work for you. Soon you will have increased your ability to mobilize and use fat as a fuel. Training in a high intensity zone will make you fit quick and enable you to enjoy this wonderful training benefit. Soon you will be burning more fat during and after exercise. You will become a fat burning machine!

*Experience a higher EPOC (excess post oxygen consumption). Have you ever wondered why you continue to breathe heavy and sweat after your workout is done? Why doesn’t your breathing and body temperature go back to normal immediately? After exercise you consume a greater amount of oxygen to assist your body in recovering from the stress of the workout and the demands it placed on your body. It is important to know that EPOC uses fat as its fuel. At higher intensities, your EPOC is greater translating into a greater caloric and fat expenditure post activity. Although the effects of EPOC are small, if you expended an additional 100 calories post exercise as a result of a high intensity exercise session, within 100 workouts (5 months), you would have burned an extra 10,000 calories or 3 pounds of fat!

*Intervals are the best way to add intensity to a workout by adding brief, high-energy outputs followed by active recovery phases which will avoid fatigue and injury.

Yours in health and fitness,

Sherri McMillan”

In case I don’t get my next post up in time, Merry Christmas.

Ben Jackson

January Never Comes.

I had an interesting conversation with one of my most dynamic, devoted trainers, Michelle, had an amazing quote yesterday and I absolutely love it. “Hi Everyone, Have any of you ever said, ‘Oh, I’ll just start in January’? For some, January never comes and each year a little more weight is put on.”

What if January never comes?

An interesting question.  One thats worse, what if January comes and you do nothing.  Every year we commit to New Years resolutions, swearing that this year we’ll stop eating so much, work out more, be a better person, etc.  But how long does that last?  A few weeks, maybe a month?  This year, wouldn’t it be interesting if we celebrate consistency?  Making a daily resolution to stay ‘on track’, to find people to support your decision and become who you want to be, not just for resolution season, but for life.

This year, when January comes, make the ultimate New Years Resolution.  Commit.  If you need a little help, check out our New Year’s Resolution.  Are you finally Ready for a New Direction?

for more on the New Years Resolution, email me directly here: ben@newdirectionfitness.com or register at the front desk

New Years Resolution Solution

Fitting in Fitness-Because mom said so!

We Can Do It -Supermoms!

I’ve often heard people tell me that they would love to find a way to ‘fit fitness into their lives’, but they just don’t have time.  Moms especially.  You know she’s busy.  She’s got to juggle cooking, cleaning, shopping, driving kids around, managing the budget, fixing the house, not to mention working eight or more hours to keep up!  Talk about swamped.  Mom has every excuse to skip out on workouts.  She can just keep up with the kids and burn calories…right?

Wrong.  According to Mary Beth Wendt, a phenomenal client and mother of three, fitness is a choice that must be managed: “Honestly, I think exercise helps me manage my kids, my job, my house etc…It is a positive outlet for me. It alleviates stress, gives me energy and makes me feel good. There are days I have to miss my training at New Direction, or miss kickboxing at the gym-but in those instances I get my workout from Michelle and do a modified version it at home, pop in a DVD and do P90X, or a kettle bell workout, or something. I don’t always get to do what I want to do but I sure try!”

Hmmm.  A wonderful endorsement, but what does the lady who is closest to me say about it?  She’ll be the first to make sure you know that she is not a fitness fanatic in any way, shape, or form, but has learned to adopt the habit: “Regular training was definitely the tough part from the beginning. It was pretty easy for me to just say ‘I don’t have the time to workout!’  But, eventually, after the second baby, as my body started rebelling against itself I decided I had to fit it in.  Thanks to my awesome husband I was able to sneak away from the kids a couple times a week to get some personal training time in.  And more recently, I was able to switch from evening training to an early morning workout so that I don’t miss out on anything really — ok, except maybe an hour of sleep, she concluded with a smile.

When I asked MaryBeth more about how she continues to make the commitment when so many things get in her way, she emphasized changing priorities: “I remove the obstacles. If something is important enough to you in life you make it happen-exercise is necessary for stress reduction and sanity in my life. It is the main reward I give myself. Sometimes work gets in the way and I can’t avoid that-well during work hours -my job is a priority. I use my ‘lunch’ time to exercise. I schedule meetings that I have control over around my ‘lunch’ time, I schedule lunch meetings on days I am not at New Direction. I worked out before I had kids, while pregnant, and today. My kids don’t always like to go to the gym, but they like me much better after I workout.

Check out the guns. Nice work ladies.

My wife added:”I stick with it because not only do I like the way I feel physically after a great workout, but I also like the way that I feel more empowered as a woman.  I never played sports growing up so I never considered myself very ‘strong’ but every time my coach says “Great job – Great form – you’re getting stronger!”  it makes me feel very empowered.  It’s also rewarding mentally because my coach doubles as a fantastic sounding board!”  (Kari, my wife, trains with Marci, who doubles as her therapist )

Her further advice to other moms about making the same commitment: “I would say you owe to yourself. You will be a better Mom, wife and friend if you are doing something for yourself! It is so easy to get wrapped up in doing everything for the husband (I used to have one) and the family and making yourself come last. Over the course of time, you can easily begin to feel like ‘what about me?’ It is just like helping at school, going to a doctor appointment, taking a class, or bringing your child to practice. You just fit it in as a priority. It is never to late to make the commitment.  You will boost your self-esteem, feel healthy and alive and it that energy will spill over into everyone in your life. I find that I have been leading by example for so long. I have gotten so many co-workers and family members interested and motivated to develop some type of exercise regimen. It makse you feel good that you are helping someone lengthen  their life!”

My now-die-hard-training lady advises moms: “That even though it’s difficult at first to get into the groove of it (especially if you have very young children and you are worried about leaving them often or for too long) that it’s one hundred percent worth it…both for you as a wife and for your kids, because you’ll be in a much better mood and frame of mind if you get the time away doing something that’s good for you!  I’ve heard it said by many important people in my life and it’s so, so true:  ’You won’t be able to help anybody if you don’t help yourself first!’

Here’s the deal-we are all busy.  In case you haven’t noticed, our world moves really fast.  Particularly in the Bay area.  We have instant food, drive thrus and texting, life is running a thousand miles an hour. We have instant LIFE.  Make it fast, make easy.  If its not, we’re not doing it.  Right?  Busy moms are even busier than regular people.  But even busy moms need to make fitness a part of the routine.  The habit takes time, but it becomes a part of the schedule, don’t let life take making fitting in fitness impossible for you! Mom said so.

“I just blew out my knee”

I had an entertaining conversation the other day with one of my long-time trainers and good friends, Justin Coffeen.  He and I have worked together for the last 3 years and every time we talk I get a new idea.  After we discussed the inflammation response of the lower body, including looks at the human body response to injury in the soft tissues, I decided to address an issue we run across all the time.   We talked about compensations, the way the body adjusts to specific injuries like ankle injuries, shin splints (a personal favorite), and ‘blown knees.’  I’ll touch on the anterior compartment of the lower leg some other time,  (shin splints).  For this discussion, we’ll take a brief look at the structure of the knee, how it works, why you get pain, and how your body responds as a compensatory reflex.

You may suffer from one of these issues, a friend, a relative, trust me, someone you know has knee problems.  As a forewarning, this article dives deep into specifics, more than my normal anecdotes, so don’t fear, I won’t do this all the time, just occasionally.  I’m going to go off on an anatomy and physiology lesson in a second, but a basic understanding of the use of the knee will help understanding exercise presciption, why you hurt, and how to prevent or rehabilitate properly.  I would recommend that ALL knee joint injuries be viewed with an understanding that it is usually a result of microtrauma (lots

Uneven tire wear

of use) injuries that are in conjunction with hip, spine and ankle compensations.  If your knee hurts on a regular basis, have a trained professional look at the surrounding joints to identify the true issues.  The most common cause of these types of knee injuries is hip mobility problems.  Your hips are likely an issue.  Your feet and ankles are probably also involved.  Think of knee injuries like a balding tire on a car.  I once did 2 years time in a tire shop, you would be surprised at how many people would replace tires instead of fixing the chassis and then replacing tires.  They always had to come back…Anyway, If a tire gets bald on one side only, fix the chassis, then change the tires.  If your tire pops (nail, something in the road), fix the tire, but still look at how a new tire affects the other tires and in-turn, the chassis.  I’ve met a lot of ‘carve-happy’ doctors who want to ‘clean out’ a joint without identifying its root cause.  Okay, off the soap box and back into the classroom…

Knee Joint

First, lets look at the specific design of the knee, its operations manual, if you will.  The knee is comprised of 4 bones, the femur (your thigh), the tibia or lower segment, the patella (that nobby thing on the top), and the fibula, which rotates around and under the tibia and is technically not an articulating surface in the knee joint, but for purposes of understanding its support role, I’ll include it.   The joint structure itself is designed specifically to handle compression forces, shear forces and stabilize the knee in order to allow the surrounding joints, hip and ankle to operate effectively.  The knee itself only moves (outside of injury) mostly through extension and flexion with very minimal rotation.  The four ligaments (I’ll add the patella as a fifth) are incredibly positioned within the joint structure for internal and external stability while allowing maximal torque angles.  Two ligaments on the inside (between the femoral epicondyles and tibial condyles), holding the knee together vertically, laterally, and horizontally.  The outer ligaments hold the lateral and medial sides of the joint together, preventing lateral flexion and rotation.

Here’s the way knee pain works (now that we’ve gone too far into the anatomy, let’s go over its physiology).  Most acute knee injuries are due to outside forces striking the knee from the outside, think of football and someone rolling over a players leg.  Think of stepping off a curb, watching your ankle ‘roll’, while your knee compensates and as the hip externally rotates, it goes bow-legged.

Recommendations for knee injuries and knee injury prevention:

1. Have a postural assessment done.  I recommend the Functional Movement Screen as an initial test.  Secondary tests like goniometer tests are great as a secondary test.

FMS Hamstring Assessment

2. Identify pain (if any).  What part of the knee hurts?  When?  Does it hurt when you stand and ‘lock out’ your knee?  Specific activities that cause pain?  See a doctor if pain persists.  Always.

3. Look at your shoes.  No, the bottom of them.  Wear patterns are a key indicator on knee joint stress (also hips and ankles).  Outer wear on your shoe indicates external rotation of the hip, thus ACL, medial meniscus and LCL stress.

4. Improve hip flexibility through soft tissue repair.  Hip external rotators, abductors are notorious culprits, so use foam rolling, PNF stretching, stretch at your desk, and be receptive to techniques that focus on soft tissue

Bullets for knee structure and propensity to injury:

ACL(anterior cruciate ligament)- This guy attaches to the anterior, meaning front, of the tibial area.  It doesn’t like extreme internal rotation with lower leg flexion or hyperextension!!  It normally operates by holding the knee directly together but has to go around the lateral condyle of the femur, so it is very sensitive to internal rotation injuries!!  Think blunt force to the outside of the knee.

MCL(medial collateral ligament or tibial collateral)- this guy runs vertically on the inside of your knee.  If you knock your knees together, you’re hitting them.  Stop doing that.

PCL(posterior cruciate ligament)-since I didn’t mention what cruciate meant, it means cross.  The PCL is stronger than the ACL (thus fewer injuries and not as glamorous), and is locate behind the ACL in an X pattern behind the femoral-tibial articulation.  These guys are like shoelaces behind the knee, working together to keep the knee both held down vertically and horizontally at the same time.  It really is quite amazing the way these ligaments are built!!

LCL(lateral collateral ligament or fibular collateral)- This one is why I incorporate the fibula in the discussion.  The LCL attaches to the fibula, instead of the tibia and makes this joint even more complex.  The word collateral in this context doesn’t mean money or leverage like in the movies, it means parallel and coordinating, in particular, with the MCL.

Patella-This ligament/tendon hybrid helps hold the quadriceps to the patella and the anterior surface of the tibia for extension.  The ligament itself only really holds the patella to the tibia, but since it moves in conjunction with the patellar tendon, I think it would be a mistake to not include it.  In order to injure this guy, you need exteme rapid or hyperflexion of the knee (rare).

Meniscus- when uneven wear occurs in the knee due to improper posture, blunt force causes extreme uneven pressure within the knee, usually due the knee being bent and twisted (ouch, and usually goes along with an ACL and MCL tear)

Pain in the knees, particularly over time, is normally a response to a joint that is compensating for a hip or ankle issue.  Just because pain is located in the knee, doesn’t mean that it is caused by the knee itself.  If you have knee pain, stiffness, soreness or just plain immobility, have a Fitness Coach review your posture, run an assessment and look at how to correct it.  And please, don’t blow out your knee….

Sources:

1. Marieb, Elaine Nicpon.  Human anatomy and physiology/ 5th edition. p. cm. 2001

2. Neiman, David C. Exercise testing and prescription: a health related approach/ 5th edition. p. cm. 2003.

3. FunctionalMovement.com. 2009. “The system for a simple and quantifiable method of evaluating basic movement abilities” publication 2006. http://www.functionalmovement.com/SITE/publications/downloads/FMSPB.pdf.

4. The Functional Movement Screen.  FMS Manual.  Gray Cook.  2005.

5. Image: Knee ligaments.  Mayoclinic.com.  2009. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medical/IM02487

What if your Best was the Worst?

Corinne at SF Bodybuilding

Ben at SF Bodybuilding

I’ll be honest, I hate losing.  I hate everything about it.  I hate the way I second-guess myself and my preparation, how I swear I’ll do better next time, yadda yadda yadda.  Well, this time, I’m quite proud of my accomplishment.  I was last place in the recent San Francisco Bodybuilding competition held at Chabot college in Hayward.  That’s right, last place.  I was worse than 14 other competitors in my class.  I didn’t look as good, didn’t have the perfect physique, flat out not as good as everyone else.  And I’m proud of it.  I may have finished last, but I finished just the same.  I trained hard for 32 weeks, dieted, cut carbs and water, did everything I was supposed to do…except win.  I honestly could not have given any more effort in my training, any more time to my meal preparation or done anything more.  Therefore, I am a happy loser.

Robert at SF Bodybuilding

I lost more than 55 pounds this time around, going from 230 in March down to 172.5 at weigh ins on Saturday morning.  I, along with Corinne and Robert, did the best I could do on stage, I enjoyed the process and achieved my goal.  Corinne and Robert both looked absolutely fabulous and should be extremely proud of themselves.

Robert took second in the novice and Corinne took fourth in the figure competitor tall class.  Both performances were incredible.  The entire night was sensational, including guest poser Phil Heath,

Phil Heath

having Flex Wheeler give out trophies and getting to hang out with Ed Corney in the foyer.  It was truly a bodybuilders dream.

Whatever your goal, even if you don’t reap the full reward, remember that the process is the goal.  Fitness is a series of challenges and you best matters, even if it makes you the worst.

Final weeks of preparation

Robert-last year's SF Bodybuilding

Ben in March 2009

As many of you know, I dabble in natural bodybuilding, occasionally going through extreme dieting and crazy exercise plans to meet my goals.  This year, San Francisco Bodybuilding Championships are in my sights.  I train hard, diet hard, and push myself to extremes I never thought possible.  During the final weeks of my preparation, I will be cutting carbs like no ones business and cheating only once a week to keep my sanity.  The art of the cheat is another discussion for another day, but for now, lets just say it is the happiest 90 minutes of my week.  Scheduled this Sunday, I’m gonna love it.

If you’ve never been introduced to what preparation for a show means, here’s the rundown.  4 weeks out, we’ll begin the final blocks of training that involve slow, steady-state cardio, crazy circuit-style intervals and workouts that total volume is more important than the weight amounts.  Survival.  If you can make it through the workday totally functional and coherent, I see it as a victory.  I’m tired, angry, and everything hurts.  As bodyfat drops, so does my tolerance for other people.  Yikes, team, I’m sorry if I’ve already jumped down your throat.  Its the carbs.  Or lack thereof.

Our final week of this process includes a lot of posing, mastering routines, and managing water, sodium and carbing up the day before the show.  Its all crazy.  All of it.  We’d love to have you join Robert, Corinne and I for a live version of the end product, October 10th at Chabot college.  Check with Jazmyne at the front desk for tickets.

Go Crazy-Get Great Results!

Crazy about fat loss

As long as I’ve been in the world of fitness, a few basic questions are always asked: How fast can I lose 30 pounds?  I have an injury, should I still workout?  I’m afraid of heavy weights, can we just do cardio?  Today, I’ll answer one of my favorites, what should I eat in order to lose bodyfat?…

Here’s the deal.  This article is honest.  It may offend the more systematic nutritional planner, it may violate a doctor’s code of healthy eating, but its true.  Eating right is tough.  I love to eat.  I love every kind of food.  I’m a sucker for pizza, meatloaf, casserole (I love you mom), and a Thai curry chicken.  When I’m off my diet, I’m a permanent resident at Taco Bell.  ”Welcome back, Mr. Jackson, care for the right side of the menu again?”says my favorite high school taco artist. “I don’t mind if I do.” I squeal gleefully as I fill up my 5 gallon Diet Pepsi.  Never mind that its 3 am and I should be ashamed of myself, but lets face it, if I show up during the day, someone I know my see.  No, today, we talk about how to lose these habits and learn the value of change.  Food is a choice.  I make it, you make it, even fitness models make it.

First, nutritional change requires emotion.  I’ve consulted with hundreds of people over the years and one thing is common in those who get results, desperation.  If you aren’t pissed off, frustrated or just plain half-nuts about losing bodyfat, you won’t.  It’ll take up residence around your midsection, thighs and upper arms like a fat kid at a bakery shop…or Taco Bell.  Pure, unrestricted emotion.  ”Take a look in the mirror and tell me what you see?”  Now slowly examine the area between your neck and your knees.  How does it make you feel?… What would it feel like to jump out of the shower and be able to say “Whoa, I look good, I mean really good.”  Examine your inner content with a body that represents hard work, discipline and how you want to live your life.  This is important, you have to go crazy for a while.  The best nutrition plan is the one you can stick to and believe in.  Consult with your Personal Fitness Coach for the best route for you. Then, go nuts.

Second, great results come by disciplining your mind and learning.  Write down your food log, check it for what is working, what isn’t working, what you’d like to try next.  Learn the process. Learn the setbacks.  Learn who you must become to sculpt that body you want.  Food journals, exercise programs, diaries.  Read articles, magazines, newletters, this blog.  :)

Finally, people who lose fat understand their own value in the world.  If you are a tax on your family because you can’t keep up with your kids, if you can’t produce at the office, if you can’t go into a sales meeting with confidence, you are being unfair to others.  This one is tough for those of you who truly care about others needs above yourself.  But, here’s the truth.  If you are raking in medical bills, wallowing in self-pity, or just plain old ‘existing’ and producing, loving, caring, playing the game, you are hurting other people.  This is not selfish.  This is reality.  Use people you love as motivation.  ”I’m doing this for my kids,” ”My employees are counting on me,” “I owe it to my husband to take care of myself” are all valid motivations.  Mind you, within reason.

Abs

Fat loss isn’t easy or else everyone would have a six pack.  Fat loss is hard.  Really hard.  Taking care of yourself takes discipline, planning and emotion.  Find your way to get nuts about it.  Losing your mind may actually aid in losing your fat.

Fitness Architect – Building Quality Exercise Programs -Part 2

Program Design.  A term that we hold very near and dear to our hearts at New Direction, but an idea that often gets thrown by the wayside for more systematic approaches to fitness.  The idea that there is any ‘best way’ to train people is not only ludicrous, but ignorant with todays shifts in style, point of view and change bodystyles.  This article is the second in a series designed to identify the uniqueness of these programs and all of the thought involved in perfecting them.  We pride ourselves on being the most effective, efficient and productive trainers that we can possibly be, and here are more insights into how personalities jump into program design.

I spent this past week back home in McFarland, WI, a suburb of greater Madison.  The weather has been fantastic, I got to see my brothers and sisters, extended family and have the opportunity to focus on training all who will listen.  I’ve gotten my brain picked by many, answered a few, and thought long and hard about what people are really interested in when they ask me about their particular fitness challenge.  Todays focus will be my baby brother, Bobby.  Bobby recently returned from Iraq after serving for 14 months and has returned with a new approach to life that involves consistent fitness and understanding the human body.  A man after my own heart.  His approach to fitness and more importantly, his personality style will be dissected in the following:  a High I.  Extremely social, he loves to hang out with anyone and everyone and his programs that he has recently built reflect it.  He feeds off of other people in the gym, namely competing with his older brother.  His program were great to see, but he wanted to chase new ideas versus sticking with the basics.  Core fundamentals aren’t as fun as doing things like planche holds, incline chest press with cable flyes, and TRX training.  Yeah, I brought mine on vacation and attached it to the family swingset.  Gotta love mobile fitness equipment!!

Anyway, here are the simple solutions to understanding how the High I or socially motivated individual work, based on the work of Dr. Bonnstetter:

Let them talk.  Number 1. They love to do it, so let them.

Ask for ideas and opinions.  “How do you think we should train today?”

Keep it moving.  They have ADD.  They’ve already moved on so bring them back in.  Don’t let them dream too much!

Provide testimonials that they can believe.  They don’t care for the statistics.  “I have a client just like you who lost 15 pounds doing what we are about to do…”

Bobby, thanks for training with me, you are a powerful motivator, confidant and friend.  Keep rocking it in Chicago, I’m proud that you’ve become a personal trainer, too.

Fitness Architect – Building Quality Exercise Programs -Part 1

Human Body Blueprint

I was asked recently by someone who was interviewing us, “what makes New Direction Fitness different from ALL the other studios in the area?” and my immediate inner promoter jumped in, “well, we specialize in fat loss, metabolic improvements, postural correction, physique enhancement, blah blah blah.”  As I began to analyze the question, which I have considered many times, I can’t think of just one thing.  We’re good at preparation, teamwork, and normally very efficient with our program designs.  Normally.  After discussing with my Master Fitness Coaching staff, we have come to the conclusion that much of what we do revolves around our program designs, including exercise selection, order of exercise, rest periods, tempo, and energy system manipulation.  The countless hours studying nutrition and bettering our own toolboxes of tricks, from pressing on toward the organic, free range, toxic-free sanctuary of impecable fuel consumption.  From the backbones of training to the specific word choices we use in our training sessions, many of the small things people don’t even notice, our training is truly comprehensive.  My own interjections always reverts back to the principles of motivation and understanding the human mind first.  How do people get motivated?  Do goals and actions clash?  How does their environment play into our exercise design?  Work stress, occupational environment, home life, how people’s history with fitness sets them up for success or failure and how that manifests in program design…

Today’s topic is one of my personal favorites, understanding D.I.S.C. language and how people communicate.  It tells us a ton about how you operate.  It doesn’t tell your life story, just how we can more appropriately motivate you, and more importantly, how we can help YOU motivate YOU.  Are you socially pressured, or introverted?  Do you like achievement or would you prefer perfection before moving forward?  How does your mind work?  Our exercise plans often change and shift to accomodate your behavioral style.  Let me use the language of Bill J. Bonnstetter, the CEO of TTI institute, an absolute master of Behavioral analysis, to ask a few questions about you.  In the end, our business is all about you.  The client.  Our uniqueness is irrelevant if we are unable to help you change your behavior and succeed.  So, here we go:

Do you have an inherent need to direct others?  Love the thrill of victory, absolutely obsessed with winning?  Your conversation will have a tendency to be very direct and sometimes offensive?  If this sounds like you, you may fall into the category of a high D.  You are dominant.  You love to be in charge, so we let you.  Our language in a session looks more like a menu for you to choose, although we will always get our way, you just don’t know it.  If our goal is to increase lower body strength, we’ll let you pick, “would you prefer to deadlift using the olympic bar, the trap bar or would you prefer free weights?”  In all honesty, it may not matter to us, we just know what the skeleton of our plan has to be.  You have to do it.  Its your world, we’re just living in it.  Our high dominance clients are normally very successful people who don’t have time to read this email, since there is nothing in it for them.  They may have deleted this in their inbox, since they didn’t write it.  I know I do. By the way, I’m a high D personality, too.  I don’t fault you.  Here’s your bullet points:

-You are in control

-You have the ability to get results fast, sometimes too fast

-You like to focus on whats in it for you

-You like challenges “I bet you can’t do this.” motivates the crap out of you.

-You want other people to know how amazing you are.  ”Mirror Ben is hot”

Managing your “D”

-make sure they follow the rules, they don’t like them

- confront them on their errors, they like it.  Kind of sick.

- Show them where success leads.  They need to know where we are going so they can go faster. Faster than you.  And me. And anyone else in the history of the world.

- don’t say stupid things.  This rule goes for all motivational styles, but you’ll lose the already short attention span of the “D”  Hey, look something shinny.  ”I’ll bet I can stare at it longer than you.”

Our following notes on behavior will include the other 3 motivational styles and the specific needs they have.  We’ll focus on nutrition, strength training, cardiovascular conditioning and flexibility in the following weeks.  Next up: the high I.  The eternally social.

Wreck a belt!…and lose Fat!!

You’ve got a favorite belt, right?  You know the one you’ve had since high school that you wear with your favorite pants when you need a little bit of extra luck.  The one you tell yourself you can’t live without, goes with everything and is just so…perfect?  Okay, well now is the time to put that bad boy to use.  Here’s how:

My new belt notch!!

Take some white out, maybe some scotch tape and put a marker two notches down from that worn out spot you have gotten so comfortable with as ‘your size’.  That groove that the buckle so smoothly glides into when you put it through your Levi’s 501 button flys that you bought when bell bottoms were still cool.  Yeah, um, cool in the 70′s and retro 5 years ago, might be time for an upgrade.  Just not those super tight jeans that hug the hips as tightly as they hug the ankles.  If you have these, you’ll know.  They require Crisco to get past your knees and you get to do the “I’m-skinny-enough-to-fit-into-these dance.  We all do it.  The jeans become our quest instead of our clothing.  ”I’m gonna go all day without taking a breath, but I’m going to take shallow breaths in style.”  Just wear sweats and call it a day.  Get in to see a fitness professional well versed in the skinny jeans dance.  We know it well.

Anyway, back to the belt.  This part matters.  If you are looking at this blog and haven’t got your belt in front of you, now is the time to go get it.  Seriously.  ”That’s a good idea” isn’t good enough.  Take action.  Good.  That belt position is no longer you.  You are the new marked spot.  This is who you now get to be.  Thinner, with a new belt-motivator.  You’ll be seeing this guy a lot, so make the mark nice a pretty.  Maybe a smiley face.  Maybe buy a new belt ahead of time that only has holes at smaller settings than the one you’ve got.  If you are a shop-aholic, maybe reorganize your wardrobe so that only your smaller dress sizes are in plain view.  Trust me, it’s motivating.  I’ve got my fat pants, too.  They taunt me.  ”You’ll always struggle with weight, Ben,” “You’ll never be lean.” I’ve stopped listening.  Permanently.  It is possible.  You can do this.  New Year’s Resolutions are all year.  If you need help, feel free to contact me or anyone at New Direction, even if you just need a push in the right direction.