Archive for July, 2011

“October 2, 1996. The day it all changed. The day I started never to take anything for granted. The day I learned to take charge of my life. It was the day I was diagnosed with cancer.”

“The day I was diagnosed with cancer was the day I started to live.”
- Lance Armstrong
Seven Time Tour De France Winner
Cancer Survivor
All-around Badass

One day. Everyone has one. The day that changed their life. For Lance Armstrong that one day was October 2nd – 10/2 – the day he was diagnosed with cancer. That day he became a patient and started becoming a survivor. For Lance, 10/2 is carpe diem day, a day to overcome adversity and reaffirm life.

Today is my day. Twenty-eight years ago today I started Taekwon-Do lessons which probably altered the course of my life. Seven years ago today I was first diagnosed with cancer – which definitely did.

When you hear those words “you have cancer” your life will never be the same again. 7/27 was when I was told.

It was the day I decided to never take anything for granted again.
It was the day that changed the direction of my life. And was the first step on a path to a new life (literally – a stem cell transplant in June 2006).

If you’re reading this – you’ve been part of the journey. Thanks for that.

–
AC

Training and Detraining Effects of the Resistance vs. Endurance Program on Body Composition, Body Size, and Physical Performance in Young Men
Lo MS, Lin LL, Yao WJ, Ma MC.
J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Jul 8

This was an interesting look at the effects of two different training programs and the results after the participants stopped training.
There were three groups -  a control group (who did nothing), a resistance training group and an endurance training group that both trained three times per week for 24 weeks. The resistance training group performed a circuit of machine exercises - seated chest press, seated lat pull down, seated shoulder press, seated biceps curl, seated triceps extension, seated leg extension, lying leg curl, seated back extension, seated abdominal curl, and standing calf raise. (WHY? Why do researchers focus on this type of training so much? Are there any GOOD “in the field” practitioners still using single joint fixed axis machines?), and the endurance group performed running (30 mins at 70-85% of max heart rate).

After the training period, both groups improved aerobic fitness and lower body strength.
Upper body strength and lean mass increases were significantly greater in the resistance group than the endurance group.

This is the cool part – both groups were then instructed to stop training for the next 24 weeks (not entirely realistic mind you)
The strength and lean mass of the resistance training group were still greater than the start point after 24 weeks of detraining. The interpretation that we can use is that some of the gains from strength training stay with you a lot longer than endurance gains.

The authors concluded:

“Therefore, resistance training is a better choice than endurance training for young men to stay fit. It is thus plausible to hypothesize that resistance training is also more beneficial than endurance training for long lasting positive muscle adaptations (strength and lean body mass) in young men. Therefore, for coaches and personal trainers who are training young men to gain and maintain strength for specific sports, even after training has stopped or to lose weight, resistance training must be incorporated into their training programs.”

As usual – my question is what results would we see if we used a full body, free-weight program that more illustrates what clients are doing today? In other words a program that didn’t have people sitting or lying down for 9/10 exercises :)
What if we combined resistance training and endurance?
Periodized and progressed?
With a good nutrition program? Targeted Supplementation? Great coaching and social support?

Actually these aren’t really my questions. I know the answers. It’s what we do at Results Fitness. We get better results with our clients than almost any study shows (because we combine so many variables). Obviously if you don’t train at all for six months, you lose some of the gains, regardless of what you did to improve, but certain protocols appear to have longer lasting results than others based on this study.

Take home message: resistance training remains the undisputed king of all exercise. Even if you don’t do it at all for six months, , you still keep some of the benefits that regular resistance training gave you.

–
AC

Rachel and I just finished a busy week. We had 36 attendees from all over the world in town for our last ever Results Fitness Mentorship. Very cool week and a good group of people for our last event of this kind.

But as I’m sure all of you know, its weeks like this that create havoc on your diet. We’re pretty good but we tend to fall into what we call “lazy cheats“. A lazy cheat is something that you eat that is not consistent with your diet plan, but isn’t quite a “cheat” meal. In other words, it’s not like you had a big piece of chocolate cake at a party, it’s more like missing a meal, and then eating a sandwich because that’s all that was available, as opposed to planning your two meals that were just protein and vegetables.

The key to avoiding this (and let’s face it, we all have crazy, busy times in our lives) is to focus on strategy. Instead of trying to figure out where to eat NOW, figure out in advance what your week or weekend is going to look like and what strategies you can put into place in advance, to help keep your health and fitness a priority.

On a similar note – this is the first ever blog post I wrote, and thought it fit in well with this topic:

We have a saying in our gym as regards dieting that we call “degrees of slippage”.

People tend to move away from their diet plan in small degrees.

They start to slip in little degrees and never notice it.

For example the original lunch calls for salmon and brown rice.
Client thinks turkey and rice is okay (which it is). So this becomes the new norm – the new reference point.

Now if that’s okay – then chicken and a sweet potato is also okay (true, especially when compared to the new reference point).

Then a lean piece of red meat and a small baked potato is okay (still only another small degree of difference right?)

Then lean ground beef, and a couple of small red potatoes or a wholewheat pita would be fine (guess so).

And if a pita is fine, a small roll must be fine, and the ground beef put into a patty will be fine.

So a hamburger is now the diet lunch of choice. And if a hamburger is fine, a Philly cheesesteak on a hoagie roll is fine etc etc.

Now, none of those changes were all that significant, particularly when the change becomes the new “reference point”. But added up we can see that our recommended lunch of salmon and brown rice has become a Philly cheesesteak !! And the client thinks that they are still ON, as none of these changes (at each stage, from each new point of “the diet”) were all that big!

Remember – little degrees of change ended up being complete 90 degree turns (and in this case, that’s a bad thing….). Make sure you aren’t making these mistakes.

–
AC

What is it that separates you from your goals? Or from being at the very top?

If you want to be a World Class personal trainer – what is it that is keeping you from accomplishing that?

Is it education?
If so – what books do you need to read?
What DVD’s do you need to watch?
Who do you need to meet or consult with ?
What audio CD’s do you need to listen to?
What seminars do you need to attend?
Is it experience? If so – who can you study under to fast track that experience?
How many clients would you need to train to get more experience? If you currently train 20 sessions per week, if you got up to 25, that would be an extra 250 sessions per year (or over twelve extra weeks of experience each year compared to now).

What about a personal goal of fat loss or muscle gain? What if you want to lose 20lbs?

What foods would you have to eat on a daily basis? What training would you have to do? How much cardiovascular work? How many sets, reps, exercises in your weight training program? Should you even have a weight training program?

Who is the best trainer in your area that you can hire? What time commitment realistic for you?

Are you just lacking the information? Are you lacking a plan? Do you know what to do and just aren’t doing it? Are you supposed to take a 6am spinning class and sleep in instead? Are you just not taking action?

I bet most of you have never even figured out these factors. Most people prefer to stay the same, yet complain about where they are, and how hard it is, and how it’s “different” for them or in their gym/town/city/state/country…

As we enter the second half of 2011 are you where you wanted to be 6 months ago? What about 6 months from now? What steps do you need to take?

If it’s a lack of information – then get that information and then take action.
If it’s a lack of action – then get off your butt and DO something.

If you can answer these questions make a list and start moving towards your goals.

–
AC

Here’s a question I was asked at a seminar a couple of years ago that I really couldn’t answer:

“What do you do when a client just doesn’t follow your coaching advice? in other words, they are cheating on their diet, and aren’t doing their additional cardio work?”

I had a hard time answering this one as quite honestly I’ve never had it happen. I put it down to us having a great reputation, and maybe being more expensive than most trainers so we have attracted a more motivated type of clientele.

But over the past few months I’ve had several emails from trainers asking the same thing. There really does seem to be people who hire a coach and don’t follow their advice.

So what if we flipped the question somehow:

“I’ve given you (the reader) my very best business and training advice. Why aren’t YOU following it?”

In effect, what is the underlying reason why anyone doesn’t take action?

Right now as a trainer you could easily be on your way to changing lives and being compensated handsomely for it, if you follow the advice I’ve given on this site.

How many people do you think have access to this information, or even worse, have purchased this information and haven’t followed it?

I’ve told you about all the people who email me and ask about “where they should start” with X program, or how to adjust Y etc. Why not follow the exact plan as it was written as closely as possible and reach your goals? Why not take action?

I’m not sure I have a solid answer. I’ve touched on it before here, with posts about over-analysis and the success mindset. I guess the reason some people don’t follow through with the plan of action that they know they should – is because of an underlying mindset that prevents them from breaking out of their current situation.

Obviously in a coaching situation, I’m able to break through those “defenses” per se and get to the root of the problem. that’s why my business coaching clients are all making huge progress. That’s why we have so many great success stories and before-and-after photos with clients. And that’s why we have so many successful business coaching members.

I shall work on providing a solution that I can share with you. But it is all going to start with belief systems. And immediately followed by taking action.

Set a goal. Believe you can achieve it. And immediately upon setting that goal – take the first steps towards it.

–
AC

I wasn’t going to train today…. but….

–
AC