We Have the Answer No One Else Has

When people are surveyed and asked “What’s the number one reason you don’t exercise?”, do you know what the most common answer is?

Time.

As in, lack of it.

Unfortunately, anyone who says or thinks that a lack of time is the reason they don’t exercise is wrong.

Dead wrong.

And that’s sad, because it isn’t a lack of time that’s causing them to throw in the towel.  Every successful TR member has some combination of job(s), commute(s), kid(s), pet(s), homes, spouses, and social lives.  Some members have ALL of them.  They’re busy as hell and yet they manage to train consistently.

So time isn’t the issue.  People who claim lack of time for not being healthy and fit have this issue:

They’re misapplying information.  Because in the 17 years I’ve been a trainer, and in the 8 years I’ve owned a training business I’ve learned this: anyone who says that time is an issue has one of two problems (and neither of them is a lack of time).

Problem # 1: It’s not that they don’t have time, it’s that they’re shitty at managing their time.  This isn’t the topic of this blog (#2 is), nor am I a life coach, so I’ll keep it brief.  But trust me:  I’ve seen A LOT of people fail for no other reason than they confused “urgent” things with “important” things and couldn’t separate the two or prioritize their schedule around the important things.

Problem #2:  It’s not a time issue, it’s a shitty programming issue.

Now THIS IS my area of expertise.  Many people spend (waste) time on exercises and workouts that take a long time to do and/or don’t drive them toward their goals anyway.  If you’re strapped for time – and if you’re anything like my clients, you are – you simply can’t afford to waste time with workouts that take a long time to complete, or that you need to do 6 times per week, or that don’t drive you toward your goals.  Any one of those things is a death sentence to your health and fitness.  

And again, sadly, most people fail for exactly that reason – they say they don’t have time, then they choose a program that takes up a lot of time.  (Shakes head, rolls eyes, turns palms up, sighs…)

For example, if you’re strapped for time, training like a body builder is a bad idea.  Questions of efficacy aside, training like a body builder takes A LOT of time.  Training your biceps means you have to train your triceps.  Training your chest means you have to train your back.  Training your hamstrings needs you need to train your quads.  Training your calves means you need to train your anterior tibialis.

You see where I’m going with this?  There are 700 and something muscles in the body – that’s going to take a LOT of time…

Traditional cardio, like jogging or biking (again, efficacy issues aside) takes a LOT of time.  The people I know who enjoy jogging, biking, etc. shock the hell out of me when they tell me how many hours per week they spend on their workouts.  I congratulate them because I don’t know too many people who have that much time.  (And even fewer who would jog even if they did…:)

Those are just two examples – I could go on and on, but the take home message: You don’t have that much time to waste.

What we do at the TR is this:  We write programs that factor in that our clients have 2-5 hours per week at best to workout.  So we block off times within the programs to address and improve flexibility, coordination, core strength, total body strength and cardiorespiratory health.  Notice when I discussed body building training and traditional cardio, I didn’t even bring up that it doesn’t address the other numerous aspects of fitness that’ll need to be addressed – such as flexibility and core strength – that’ll just take and add on more time to the already too long workouts and programs?  

That’s hardly a good plan for complete health and fitness.

You’re thinking how can you improve your flexibility, coordination, core strength, total body strength and cardiorespiratory condition in that short of a time?  Think it can’t be done?  Well, you’re partly right - it can’t be done – by a non-fitness professional.

Luckily for you, we are professionals and we’ve been doing this for a long time.  Addressing all those needs in only a few hours per week is what we do and it’s why we get busy adults to look, feel and perform their best again.

If you need help zeroing in and nailing down a time friendly program, you know where to find us.

10 Things I'd Do:

Pretty much on a daily basis people ask me what they should do to get in shape, lose weight, feel better etc.  Basically, people ask me what I would do if I were them.  How would I go about feeling, looking, and performing my best again?

And as I’ve said countless times before, the answer is “It depends”.

It depends on your goals, your circumstances (like lifestyle and schedule), the results of your physical assessment with us, and a few other factors.

But there are 10 things that I would do that would apply to just about anybody’s situation.

So if I weren’t ecstatic with how I looked, felt and performed, here’s what I would do to right the ship and get back to being the best version of myself.  In no particular order…

1. I would establish what I REALLY want.  People always come into the TR and say “I want to be fitter”, “I want to be more toned”, “I want to be stronger”.  Those are way too vague.  I would decide “I want to have more energy when I play with my kids”, or “I want to look better in my clothes”, etc.
2. I would set small a goal and build off of it.  I’ve never seen anyone set a HUGE goal like “Lose 20 pounds in 6 weeks!”, or “I want to be 10% body fat”, make it and stick to it.  Not once.  I would set a small, realistic goal – then when I achieved it, I would reevaluate before setting another.
3. I would choose one food to remove from my diet.  Going cold turkey on everything that’s bad for you is very difficult.  But I would accept that something has to give – I would choose one food item I know is unhealthy and remove it for a week.  If I didn’t miss it, great.  If I was dying without it, I’d try a different one.  But I would accept something has to give with all the crap we ingest.
4. I’d add protein and fiber to my diet.  Protein controls hunger hormones and keeps the metabolism up.  Fiber slows the rate of digestion.  These two things have an enormous impact on body fat and overall health, and almost everyone I meet initially isn’t getting enough of either.
5. I’d schedule my workouts and stick to them.  “I’m getting to the gym this week” does not work.  I’d put my workouts on my schedule and stick to them.  Nothing short of an emergency would keep me away.  (And here’s a tip – it’s almost NEVER and emergency).
6. I would do only high value workouts – only things that would have a big impact on my success.  There isn’t enough time to waste on things that aren’t driving you toward your goal.  (Yes, even if they are fun, or make you feel good.)  That’s fine for other reasons, but it won’t get me what I want.  For example, if I want to lose weight, yoga isn’t going to help. If I want to decrease joint pain, jogging won’t help.
7. I would consider the source.  99% of people who give fitness advice have never trained anyone but themselves.  (And no, working out and having people follow along is not training someone.)
8. I would ask for objective help.  It’s difficult to see the forest through the trees.  This is a cliché for a good reason.  I’m fortunate enough to have good trainers with me at the TR – I always ask for feedback on what they see/observe when I’m working out.
9. I would evaluate my situation and formulate a plan.  Many roadblocks and obstacles can be avoided if they’re spotted ahead of time.  For example, if I had 4 hours per week to workout, planning workouts that took 6 hours would be a bad idea.  If I had a bad knee, putting joggin on my program would be a bad idea.
10. I would accept responsibility.  People who blame lack of time or money for not being healthy are lying to themselves and don’t really want to be fit and healthy in the first place.  That’s fine, it doesn’t make them bad people – but if I’m going to look, feel and perform my best again I’m not going to be a victim.  I’m going to control my choices.

Again, there are aspects that are specific to you based on your goals and your circumstances.  But with very few exceptions, I would do the above if I were starting out again and wanted to look, feel, and perform my best.

Jon

The Facts About Flexibility

One of the more ironic aspects of my job is my relationship with social media.

On one hand, it’s a crucial tool that helps me connect with many people about fitness, exercise and health.

On the other hand it is the single biggest source of absurdity in the realm of fitness, exercise and health imaginable.  Seriously, some of the advice I see on social media about exercise is so nonsensical it’s almost surreal.

And although the foolhardy have no specialization – they are equal opportunity attackers of common sense - today I want to talk to you about flexibility.  It just may be my bad luck, but it seems like lately I’ve been bombarded with tips on stretching and advice on how to stay flexible.

And I’m here to tell you 99.9% of it is absolute bullshit.

Two of the more problematic issues with flexibility are that a) it’s a FAR more complex process than most people realize, and b) there are almost countless variables that go into someone’s level of effective flexibility.

So it’s impossible for me to cover such a broad topic in a blog post, but I can help with the facts to get you going in the right direction.

Facts.  No BS. No sales pitch. No outdated, dogmatic, social media garbage.

Keep these things in mind as you attempt to improve your flexibility as part of your overall fitness program:

The Facts about Flexibility:

·        Stretching Does NOT Prevent Injury

Biggest.  Myth.  Ever.  There is no evidence anywhere to suggest stretching prevents injury.  If it did, there would be no injuries because we would all just stretch and be 100% healthy.  Professional athletes would never be injured.  (Seriously – what am I missing…?) I could write a book alone on how silly this notion is…

·         Stretching May Create Injuries

There are areas of the body – the knee and lower back for example – that have very limited movement capacities.  Making them more mobile increases the chance of injury there.  Knee and low back maladies are on an almost epidemic level, due in part to excessive “looseness” there.

·         Looser, Relaxed Muscles are Not Better.

When it comes to muscle tension, “loose” isn’t better.  Muscles are always at varying lengths of tension to keep joints in their place.  But they need to have the very specific, and always changing correct amounts of tension to allow adequate movement without excessive movement that would create an injury.  Looser muscles often lead to joint hyper-extensions and dislocations.

·         Muscle Length is Controlled by the Central Nervous System

Controlling the tension described above is a very complicated process that is always occurring subconsciously in our central nervous systems.  It is a complex process and also a very dynamic one – the only way to improve it is to be in motion so the brain becomes more adept at controlling and maintaining the appropriate levels of tension described above.  (Because that’s how we use flexibility in life – we move.)  Stretching a muscle and holding it for an extended period does NOTHING to improve that process.

Am I saying “don’t stretch”? No. 

I am saying it’s probably not doing for you what you think it is, so be careful.

And apply the FACTS, not what the Instagram model doing yoga says to do.

About the author:

Jon holds a Masters’ Degree in Exercise Science and the topic of his research thesis was “The Correlation Between Static Stretching and Injury Prevention”.  He’s overseen thousands of training sessions and despite intense workouts, the next time a client pulls a hamstring, groin muscle, etc. will be the first.

"Research suggests..." Whatever...

Let me preface what I’m about to write with the following statement:

I am NOT anti-research.  Research certainly has its place. 

But…

“Practitioners drive research.  Not the other way around.”  (A great trainer said that to me once.)

“There is what you know, and there is what you can implement.”  (A different great trainer said that to me a different time. J)

And in my decade and a half in the business of getting people healthy, lean and strong, I can tell you unequivocally that both of those statements are true.

So even though I’m not “anti-research”, I do urge you to take everything that begins with “Research suggests…” with a grain of salt.

The experience of a long time, successful practitioner, is a FAR more reliable source of information than the research you will see in the news, online, etc.  This experienced practitioner is a person who has tried all of the theories, with real people under real circumstances, as opposed to people who are sequestered from their real life for the period of weeks to be studied.  (Here’s some inside information for you:  ANYONE can lose weight when they’re taken out of their environment as occurs on TV and in some research studies.  The real question should be can they lose body fat while living in their homes, going to work, having social lives, etc.)

Practitioners deal with the latter every day.  He/she can tell you if something will work in your case or not, because of the variables mentioned above and others.  He/she can tell you that the “research” may make sense on the surface, but with anything more than a cursory glance, will reveal itself as non-applicable.  Typically, the research may have left some very important, pertinent information out.

You may be wondering what got me off on this rant…J  As usual, no single thing – just a buildup of reading “Research says this…”  and “Research says that…” crap that I decided I needed to clarify things for the public.  Consider it another one of my fitness Public Service Announcements.  Although, I did see an article recently that pushed me over the edge – more on that below.

Because, as you know, I am not funded by a third party to do research.  I am funded by people like you, who know I’ve been doing this a long time, and know I know how to get results.  Incidentally, in almost all cases, the people paying for the studies have a financial interest in the outcome of the study.  Yet another reason to be mistrustful of research…

Nor am I spending my career in a lab or controlled environment.  I work with people like just like you.  People who...

• can’t just simply go away for 6 weeks to a military camp or “The Biggest Loser”.   
• live with spouses and children who may not want to eat healthy the same way they do.
• don’t want to live like a monk.  They want to have social lives with friends and family and not have to overthink their eating habits when with their friends and family. 
• can’t quit their jobs, that although provide a living, cause health problems due to the sedentary nature and stressful environment.

The Trainers at the Training Rim work with these people every day.  I’ve been doing it regularly since last century.

So when you see a research study that suggests something, take it with a grain of salt.  But if you’re serious about knowing whether or not the results can help you – ask an experienced practitioner.  (And no, your neighbor’s wife who has a niece who is a part time yoga instructor is NOT an experienced practitioner.  No, your kids JV football coach who has the keys to the school weight room, is NOT an experienced practitioner.)  An experienced practitioner can tell you if the information can help you or not – and why.

Next time, I'll link the article that preciptitated this rant...sorry, "blog".  Stay tuned...

Scary notes on Consistency

As you know, I’ve been doing this a long time.  I’ve been exercising myself since the mid to late 80’s and I’ve been observing people exercise more or less since the mid 90’s.  So I’ve always known that training inconsistently would bring inconsistent results, but recently I read a few eye openers.

Dr. Robert Lustig, generally considered a leader in the fight against body fat (to those of us who pay attention - sorry to disappoint you if you thought Jillian Michaels was a leader…J) listed some of these scientific tidbits in his most recent book:

The benefits of exercise, which are numerous obviously, are short lived and have to be frequent and sustained:

• Studies demonstrate that levels of PPAR-gamma coactivator 1-alpha (the protein in muscle cells that turns on all the metabolic raising effects of exercise) decline within 24-48 hours of cessation of exercise. 
• Insulin sensitivity returns to baseline within 15 days.  And as the TR has mentioned ad nauseum, if you can control your insulin, you can control your waistline.

I think that's WAY more drastic than most people who train inconsitetnly realize.  If you want to use exercise as a tool to fight against a large waistline and chronic disease, you’ll need to be consistent about it.  If you take the “weekend warrior” approach to fitness, you’re probably wasting your time.

Set a schedule and stick to it.  Put your workouts on your planner and get them done.

As we say at the TR, half assing your workouts will only get you half an ass J

Jon

“Man: He sacrifices his health in order to make money.  Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.”

-          The Dali Lama, when asked what surprises him the most about humanity.

This quote resonates with me because I’ve seen or heard examples of this on an almost daily basis for the better half of two decades now.

I’ll have someone tell me they can’t train with me because of their work schedule – they’re just “too busy” - on a pretty regular basis.  They’ll come to me to exercise “When work calms down…”

I’ll have a TR member tell me they need to skip a training session (or sessions) because something came up with work, or things are “real hectic at work right now” on a regular basis as well.  It’s usually followed by the obligatory, “If I don’t go to work, I can’t pay YOU!” justification – as if I’m the one who’s going to suffer if their self-abuse isn’t allowed to continue. J

And anytime I hear this logic, I think of the Dali Lama quote, and I follow my situation through to its logical conclusion:

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating:

You are going to pay for your health at some point one way or the other.

You can be proactive about it, and invest in a good training program NOW that will save you a small fortune down the road.

Or you can get caught up in your “work” and ignore your health by not paying for it – YET.  But as sure as you are reading this, if you go that route, you WILL pay for it at some point.

You’ll have to get yourself an orthopedist, a cardiologist, a physical therapist, an oncologist, etc.  It’s going to cost way more than a trainer and it’ll be much less pleasant.  Not sure how much your quality of life is worth, but it’s going to be a lot worse and a lot more costly if you go that route.

Trust me, I get it – life gets hectic.  I own and operate a small business.  I have a “to-do” list that could choke a horse.  But I will NOT allow that to get in the way of my health or quality of life.  And because I’ve been doing this for years, I have the benefit of knowing many people for a long period of time, so I can say relatively assuredly:  People who prioritize their health look, feel and perform better over long periods of time.  People who don’t make their exercise and health a priority, do not look and perform their best, but they end up paying for their health anyway (again, usually in an unpleasant manner).

And oddly enough, I’ve never had anyone disagree with me on this.  Yet they’ll ignore the message anyway and continue the self-defeating behavior.

It’s your call.

Moderation, my ass.*

“Everything in moderation”.

How many billion times have you heard that one?

I’m here to tell you folks, it’s complete B.S. to all but a very few people.

First of all, “moderation” is a relative term.  A cocktail “every now and then” to one person means every other month.  To another person it means every other trip to the kitchen.

Secondly, moderation is for people who already have what they want.  As I said that’s a VERY small group of people.

Specifically with regards to people trying to lose body fat, it’s an infinitesimal group of people.  I’ve spent a good chunk of my life working with people trying to lose body fat and almost nobody looks at their body and says “Nope.  There’s no extra fat/skin anywhere on my body thatI wouldn’t like to trim down and tighten up.”  The next person I hear say that will be the first.

So put the above together and what do you have?

Moderation is a good way to NEVER get to your fat loss goal. 

Moderation is for AFTER you get to your goal and you’re OK with “maintaining” until you decide what your next goal is.

But as I mentioned, that’s very few of us.

If I’ve learned anything in the decade plus I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned you will never lose body fat being “moderate”.

Be bad ass.  Be hard core.  Pick a fight with body fat and kick its ass.

If you got in a real fight would you say “Moderation is the key, here.”?

Hell no, you would fight HARD!

Same with body fat.  Set a goal and be 100% committed to it until you get there.

Start exercising correctly and take the crap out of your diet.  If you aren't sure what those things are, ASK.  Don't be ashamed - have you looked around lately?  Most people don't know what those things are...

It doesn’t have to be forever. 14 days, 3 weeks, 28 days - something like that.  (Why do you think most diets and weight loss contests are around those lengths of time?  Because it’s long enough you can reach a goal but short enough you can be compliant.)

And those lengths of time are really not that hard to commit to.  Unless you are SERIOUSLY weak minded and weak willed - you probably aren’t.  Unless you won the lottery of weak willed, you can go a few weeks without (insert food) and (insert drink) in your diet.

Give it a shot.  Get serious about it.  When you reach your goal, then you can reevaluate “moderation”.

*I got the idea for this blog from Dan John and Thomas Plummer, two of the most well respected people in the world of health and fitness.

This is a waste of time:

I’ve written about this before but it bears repeating:  Monitoring how many calories you burn during an individual workout is a complete waste of time.

That is akin to counting your calories at one meal but ignoring how much you eat the rest of the day.

If the goal is fat loss (it should be – I’ve never met anyone who wanted to gain body fat), then the focus shouldn’t be on the caloric expenditure of your workout.  The focus needs to be on your resting metabolic rate (RMR).  This is how many calories you burn at rest over 24 hours.

The point of an individual workout, and exercise in general is to raise your metabolism so you’re burning more calories 24/7/365.

That is a crucial point about health, fitness and fat loss that many people just don’t get.  Many people still focus on how many calories their workout expends with no concern for whether or not their exercise selection is ramping up the metabolism.

This is why (again) you can’t lose body fat by performing long duration “cardio”.  It’s not intense enough to raise your metabolism so your body stops burning calories as soon as you stop exercising. 

And unfortunately you’ll never be able to out exercise or out cardio your food intake.  Jogging two miles burns about 300 calories.  That’s a very small meal that just wiped away the caloric expenditure of your jog.

Make sure you choose exercises and workouts that raise that metabolism so you become a calories burning machine – you won’t need to count calories from individual workout.  And remember, genetics do play a role in your metabolism, but whatever yours is can be improved.  Your metabolism, to a certain extent, is a choice.

Great Tip For Back Health Part 2

If you missed part 1, don’t worry, you can read it below J

“Your back has a finite number of bends.” – Dr. Stuart McGill

I’ve heard some great advice during my years in the fitness business.  That line is in the top three, easy.

It was spoken by Dr. Stuart McGill, who is generally considered a leading researcher and practitioner in the field of low back performance and injury prevention.  Keyword: “Practitioner”.   He actually applies his research to real people to see if it holds up.

In addition to reading two of his books, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him speak in person on two occasions.  If you’ve ever trained with me or even if you’ve only followed my advice, you’ve been heavily influenced by Dr. Mcgill, as well.

And his quote above and that point in general, is a great one.

Your lower back is not supposed to bend.  It only can – very slightly – as a defense mechanism, similar to how a skyscraper bends slightly in the wind to prevent cracking.  But if you keep doing it over and over, eventually it will crack.

We all have a number of bends in us that our backs can handle.  Some of us, not many perhaps.  Maybe we’ll have back issues early in life.  

Some of us may be lucky and get tens of thousands of bends before tells us “No More.”

But make no mistake about it:  At some point, your back will bend and your body will say “No more” and it will be an unpleasant experience.  It may be when you’re 18 it may be when you’re 80.

It doesn’t really matter.  

What matters is that you realize that you didn’t hurt your back when you picked up your kid, were gardening, playing with your dog etc. – you set it up to fail with thousands of bends prior to the event and that action was the final straw.

So keep this in mind as you lean, slouch and bend over to pick things up.

Keep this in mind when you exercise.  When you squat and lunge and push up.

Does your spine bend when you do those things?

Do your best to prevent it.  There are countless ways to do this through exercise.  If you have questions about how to do so, let me know – we’re here to help.

Jon

Great Tip For Back Health, Part 1

Below is one of the best analogies I’ve ever heard about back pain and injuries.  Because oddly enough, for a topic and issue that is so widespread, people rarely seem to “get it” when it comes to the topic of back health – and more specifically, preventing problems.

You need to look at your back as a credit card being held in your hands.  When you bend it, the same thing happens to your back that happens to a credit card – not much.  It basically goes back into its original shape.

Unless you do it repeatedly.  Multiple times.  Over and over.  Day after day.  Week after week.  Year after year.

Eventually a little white stress line will appear.  Then maybe a small tear.  Then eventually, after repeated stress – it will tear significantly.  It’s the same way with both your credit card and your back.

And like bending a credit card, if you continually bend your back, you may get away with it for awhile – but eventually it will tear.  So that last time you tweaked it doing something relatively innocuous, it wasn’t that one move.  It just happened to be the culmination of thousands of bends.

This is EXTREMELY important if you exercise.  If you move incorrectly while exercising, you’re not only speeding up the injury process, but often you’re doing it with a load because you’re holding weights.  This obviously increases the risk exponentially.  So that lunge or squat that you’re doing that isn’t very good – you know the one with not too much hip movement but a lot of spinal movement? 

Real bad. 

It was that which set up your back for an injury, not the seemingly harmless playing with your kid, picking up a box, etc. that did it.  That was only the final straw.

More on part 2 next week, but for now:

View your back as a credit card:  You’ll be able to bend it a few times without incident – but keeping it up over time – especially through improper exercise – is a good way to get hurt.

Thanks to Mike Boyle for the analogy.

Have you asked this question?

Here’s another question that I get pretty often, so I figured it would be easier to explain in a blog post.

Did you ever think this, or ask yourself this before coming to the TR?

When people are considering coming into the TR but are curious about exactly what it will entail from an exercise standpoint, they often ask:

“What will I be doing?”  As in, exactly what exercises will be involved?

Imagine me with a blank stare.  I have no idea why you would ask that.  I mean…how can I possibly answer that?

This is what goes through my mind:

That’s like if you took your car in for service, and you said to the auto tech, “What are you going to do to my car?”

He would look at you with a blank stare, then pause to see if more information was coming, and then he would say (hopefully politely):  “Uh…it depends on what’s wrong with your car…?” with a quizzical look.  That’s if he were polite.  It’s more likely he would look at you like you were a dumbass.

But when I get asked that question, I’m pretty much in the same situation as that hypothetical auto tech:

I have no idea what you’ll be doing in the TR.  Not until I have an idea of what your goals are, what your exercise and injury history is, and what your movement strengths and limitations are.

Any trainer who would tell you what you will be doing without establishing those parameters first is a not very bright trainer.

At the Training Rim, EVERYONE goes through a Q&A about exercise, physical history and injury history, and a Functional Movement Screen.  Then – and only then – can I tell you what you’ll be doing.  And even after that we'll only go through the two week trial of personal training, then re-evaluate the program after those two weeks.

Otherwise, it’ll be the same as if you ask an auto tech to change your oil – when you have a flat tire. The answer won't match the problem.

We put the "personal" in personal training.  We administer the solution to YOUR problem.

I Love Exercise Science

It fascinates me on numerous levels.  Below may explain why to some degree, albeit quite randomly.

It keeps getting less and less expensive to exercise.  You can outfit your house with a pretty good gym for less than $1,000.  I charge less for personal training than I did in 2005.  Consider that.

There’s also more information available about exercise than ever before.  Books, videos, personal demonstrations and lessons can be attained quicker than the snap of a finger in some cases.

Yet orthopedic ailments continue to rise.  Obesity rates continue to rise.

Why is that? 

I’d be lying if I said I knew.  It’s definitely multi-factorial but I think it’s mostly because people believe what they want to believe.  The cognitive dissonance of learning that a personal long standing belief, even if based upon dogma, could be wrong – is just too much to handle for most of us.  We’d rather keep going down a road that doesn’t work rather than deal with it.

Of course that’s not to say any of us know what we’re talking about.  I was told once that we as humans know very little about how we move.  We’re sure that our brain sends messages to our muscles to move.  That’s really it.  I’ve found that not only is that sentiment accurate, but anyone who pretends they know more than that, is by and large, full of shit.

Which is another reason I love exercise science.  No one will ever have it figured out.

There are very smart people who are injured and/or can’t lose weight.  There are imbeciles that are ripped and healthy as horses.  This adds to the intrigue for me.

Another part of the problem, is there is no “normal”.  Everyone is different in an exponential number of ways.  That complicates matters somewhat, which creates even more interest – for me, anyway.

Exercise requires more than anything, patience and persistence.  Learning what works for you takes a lot of trial and error.  This is why hiring someone who’s done decades of trial and error on a large sample size can save you A LOT of time.

But ironically, fitness attracts the impatient.  This creates great people watching opportunities, and a great show.  Have you ever just watched people in the gym or at the park working out?  It’s like a slow motion train wreck.  You see how it’s going to end but you’re helpless to do anything for the poor bastards involved.

The cool thing is you can make decisions today that will make you a better version of you tomorrow and the day after and the day after, etc.  But people will still choose to try a one hour workout today that will somehow cathartically cleanse the decades’ worth of sloth and gluttony that preceded it.

Most people view exercise as a quick path fix to sexiness.

Smart people view it as an investment.

Every day you eat and exercise intelligently, it yields a small dividend.  Do this day after day and eventually all these small dividends add up to a pretty big return on your investment.

Exercise science gives a scary insight into human behavior.  I swear after 15 years of observing people try to get lean and healthy, I think I’m as much an expert in human behavior as I am in exercise science.

I know everyone has an opinion on how to get healthy and lean through exercise.  Almost all are biased, incomplete, uninformed or just plain idiotic.

But for an area that most of us know very little about, we sure do spend a lot of money and time in our area of ignorance.

*Thanks to Morgan Housel for the idea for this rambling piece.

Have You Noticed This?

In case you haven’t heard me mention the first 10,000 times I’ve said it, I love working out in the great outdoors.  And barring ungodly weather (over 95 degrees or under 25 degrees) I try to get out consistently.

I know many of you exercise outdoors as well.  And those of you who don’t, I know you have seen many people workout outside.  Enough probably, that you can probably relate to an observation I’ve made. 

Perhaps you’ve even made the same observation:

With almost no exceptions, people who work out outside – people you see at the track, park, jogging roadside, etc. - fall into one of two categories:

1. The minority, who move quickly and are fit and lean.

2. The overwhelming majority who move slowly and are unfit.

And here’s the important lesson for all of us to learn today, my fellow connoisseurs of all things fit and lean:

People who are lean, are lean because they move fast.  They are NOT moving fast because they are lean.

People who move slowly are unfit because they move slowly.  They are not moving slowly because they are unfit.

I cannot be clearer about the sequence of causation here:  If you move slowly, you will never become lean and fit.

Yes, I understand that moving fast is a relative term.  I know you will never be Usain Bolt.  But you can move faster than you do now.  You can push the pace a little.  You can make it so you get short of breath and have to stop to take a break.  Then you can repeat that process.

THAT is what gets your metabolism up, and THAT is what helps you get fit and lean.

Moving slowly only reinforces an already slow metabolism.  Moving slowly ensures time is being wasted at the least, joint issues from the repetitive motion at the worst.

Push the pace a little.  Get out of breath.  Keep it short and sweet, but breathtaking (literally).

That’s what the lean and fit do to get leaner and fitter.

Any questions, let me know.

Exercise Will Not Help You Lose Weight (?)

“What?” you may be asking…

Well the statement above is technically correct, depending upon a few factors.

I think I’ve read more on nutrition in the past two years than I did in the two decades before that.  Of course, most of the writings and discussions are centered toward fat loss and how to lose weight.  Invariably however, there will always be a short chapter, appendix, or side note about exercise and the role it plays in fat loss.  (Exercise suggestions written by a nutritionist…hmmm…red flag #1.)

The book I re-read most recently by Gary Taubes, “Why We Get Fat”, which was an extremely influential book in the areas of diet and nutrition, claimed that exercise will not help you lose weight.

In spite of what you may expect, I’m not going to attack him for disagreeing with my position on exercise, which I’m sure you are aware differs from his.  His opinion on exercise, like all his opinions on nutrition, are backed by facts.  And he certainly isn’t the only person to make this claim – as I said most non-fitness professionals do.  There is strong evidence that suggests that exercise won’t help you lose weight.

But…the studies and evidence that suggest that exercise doesn’t help lose weight, are based on people who exercise incorrectly.  They are studying exercisers who are doing it wrong.

That would be like me saying most people who diet don’t lose weight.  Which happens to be 100% true.  But the problem is that I’m leaving out the fact that most people “diet” incorrectly.

Ditto for exercise.  True – most people who exercise do not lose weight.  But it’s because they exercise incorrectly.  Don't blame exercise.

In almost every case they do either or both of the following:

• They do not pay attention to quality of their movement.  This leads to injury and/or joint pain, both of which either end an exercise regimen or greatly limit its effectiveness.

• They perform the wrong kind of exercise.  They continue to believe the dogmatic nonsense that long duration, steady state, low to moderate intensity exercise works.  It doesn’t.  If you don’t see that, then you aren’t watching closely enough.

Now, I’m not even going to get into the obvious – there are other reasons to exercise besides trying to lose weight.  You will look better, you will feel better, and you’ll be healthier.  Again, assuming you’re doing it correctly. 

But the bottom line is that exercise – if it’s the right type of exercise and if it’s performed correctly – will help you lose both weight and body fat.

For more on what types of exercise are right for YOU, and how to do it correctly, keep following us.

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Two Simple Ways to Fatten Up

Getting and keeping the slim, strong and sexy look is TOUGH.  Unfortunately, getting fat is pretty frigging easy.  One needs to look no further than commercial gyms and outdoor exercise areas, where the majority of the participants are overweight.  (That seems a little incongruous, no?  More on this later…)

What we have to do as people who are interested in health as well as looking great, is to avoid the two black holes of exercise and nutrition.

But if you really insist on keeping those spare tires and muffin tops, here are two suggestions:

 1. Keep performing low intensity exercise

This will ensure your metabolism never rises.  In fact it will continue to drop due to the natural aging process and due to your proclivity to always make your activity low intensity.  Your walk/jog/treadmill jaunt will burn very few calories comparatively speaking, and the calorie burning process will stop as soon as you stop.  The next time you eat – even if it’s something small and healthy – you will have put back the calories you just used, netting a break even on fat loss.  In other words you just wasted your time.  And the repetitive nature of your jaunt is also likely to be causing joint problems.  More on that later as well.

2. Keep believing grains are good for you

"Healthy Grains" is an oxymoron.  Evidence is overwhelming that sugars and grains are harmful both long term and short term.  Harmful meaning they will make you sick, both long term and short term.  I’m talking about mood swings, depression, ADD, ADHD, violent episodes short term and cancer(s), heart issues and cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s long term.  But grains and sugars will make you fat as well, and that’s what we’re here to discuss.  A really good way to get fat is to keep your insulin raised all day.  What’s the best way to do this?  Keep having grains and sugars.

For those of you looking to lose the muffin tops and spare tires, make sure you keep following us:

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Discover the Secret to Flexibility

If you’ve read my stuff before you know my feelings on stretching:  It’s probably the most misunderstood and misused aspect of fitness.  Frankly, there isn’t even a close second.  The overwhelming majority of exercisers take what is an extremely complex area of bio-mechanics and dumb it down to “If I pull on this muscle, that’s a good thing.”  Sorry, it’s a wee bit more complex than that.

A recent pulled muscle – my own quadracep – provided me with an example to prove my point:

I perform sprint intervals in my own workouts pretty often.  In fact, sprinting may be my favorite exercise in terms of return on investment.  The keyword here is “sprinting”.  100% all out sprinting.  The kind that if you do it for more than a few seconds you have to slow down or stop.  The exact opposite of what the shuffling limpers you see on the side of the road as you’re driving to work do.

Sorry, back to the point:

During one of my recent workouts, I felt a pull in my quad while sprinting.  Not quite bad enough to call it a day, but some tension and slight discomfort that made me more aware of my form and speed.  It occurred to me that this was a perfect example of what I’ve been telling people for years.

Think about it:

• I warmed up and loosened up prior to the workout.
• It was in the 8^th round of sprints, so had fully extended my legs are far as they can go hundreds of times prior to this.
• I was obviously “loose”.  My quad was working fine up to that point.

So why the pulled muscle?

Because my body could no longer control the lengthening.  “It wasn’t just stretch it and hold it”, like what everyone suggests you do.  It was rapid fire lengthening and shortening.  I.e., real life.

And therein lies the secret to flexibility, my fiends.

My body could no longer control the lengthening (as it had merely seconds prior) due to:

a) Fatigue, which caused poor mechanics

b) Poor mechanics, which caused fatigue

c) Some combination of a and b.

A very subtle change in my physiology and mechanics led to an injury.

In the fitness business, this is called an inability to maintain optimal length- tension relationships.

Incidentally, this is a concept Bruce Lee discussed decades before it became cutting edge.

This is also why any trainer who suggests that an excessively high number of reps of anything is an imbecile.  Fatigue causes injury.  Reason #742 if your coach is a Crossfit coach, fire your coach.

Parenthetically, just the night prior to my pulled muscle, Jacoby Ellsbury of the Yankees pulled a muscle running the bases.  If you think about it, that doesn’t make much sense either.  He obviously warmed up and stretched out.  It was the middle of the game so he had been on a 100% sprint more than once.  But because of choices a, b, or c above, he pulled a muscle too.

So here are the secrets to flexibility:

Pre-workout stretching, or static stretching does not prevent injury.

Functional flexibility is a matter of neuro-muscular coordination, not just lengthening a muscle.

Bruce Lee was decades ahead of his time not only in regards to the martial arts and filmmaking, but in exercise.

Crossfit coaches are dense.  Really, frigging, dense.

OK, the last two are generalized observations and far from secrets.  The first two are the take home messages for you. J

If you say this, you will fail.

As you know, I talk to people about exercise A LOT.  Many people, each in different situations and under different circumstances.

But I’ve picked up on a red flag that tells me whether or not the person with whom I’m speaking will ever get results.

Yes – there is one short phrase that if you utter it, tells me unequivocally that you will not get results from your program.

Want to know what it is?  Here it is:

“Well, it’s better than nothing.”

It's usually spoken when they tell me they are doing ____ for exercise and I roll my eyes.  “Well, it’s better than nothing, Jon!”  Wrong.

Yep.  That’s it.  When I hear "It's better than nothing" I know the person saying it WILL NEVER GET RESULTS.  They will never have the healthy, slim physique and lifestyle they want.  It tells me they are OK with the lowest common denominator and actually don't want to get better.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way:

Eating a doughnut is better than nothing – but it’s still pretty stupid.

Breathing polluted air is better than nothing – but it’s not a good idea.

(Insert waste of time exercise) is better than nothing – but it’s a waste of your time and may be injurious. 

If you want results from exercise, you need to stop doing things that are “better than nothing” and start doing things that WORK.  Like just about everything else in life, it’s about making better choices.

Want to be slim, sexy and strong?  Go to a good facility who will assess where you are, listen to your goals and design a plan for you.  A plan that won’t include things that are “better than nothing”.

As always, we're here to help.

We've Come So Far (Sort of...)

I had the pleasure of helping out with the strength and agility program for a girls’ softball team recently, and one of the conversations that came up applies to all of us interested in health and fitness.

But it occurred to me that we’ve come so far in the areas of fitness and exercise in my time in the business.  Since the turn of the century, more or less, we now know:

Statistically speaking…

• A commercial gym is probably the last place to go if you want to get in shape.
•  Low intensity exercise has very little benefit.
• If you don’t move in the manner your body is designed to, you will be injured and have to stop exercising.
• Eating fat does not make you fat or unhealthy.  Grains and sugars do.

These are all HUGE steps in the right direction.  They’re the reason so many of us are maintaining our health and fitness levels as we age – if not getting more fit and healthy.

But the one area in which we are lagging severely – and this was the topic with the softball players - is in the area of flexibility.  We are still woefully behind the curve on this one.

It’s an area of particular interest for me – “The Correlation Between Static Stretching and Injury Prevention” was the topic of my graduate thesis.  (Here’s a teaser: There is none.)

As usual, I don’t say this to impress, I say it to impress upon you that functional flexibility is WAY more complex than most people realize.  Far too complex to get into in a newsletter, for sure.

That being said, here’s a quick primer that may really simplify – and hopefully help your understanding of stretching and flexibility.

There are areas of your body that are not supposed to be flexible.  I choose to mention this because this comes up ALL THE TIME.  It’s why we have a poster at the Training Rim that says “No unauthorized stretching.”

Your knee is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FLEXIBLE.  Your knee is a hinge.  If it either rotates or hinges too far, like the hinge on a door, the hinge will come off as it would on a door.  A flexible knee is a torn ACL.

Your lower back is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FLEXIBLE.  Unlike your mid and upper back, your lower back needs to be strong and stiff.  It’s designed this way because it’s what holds us upright.  When it loosens or moves excessively is when we have low back problems.  A flexible lower back is a herniated disc.

As I said, there’s way more to it than that and way more to think about – another reason hiring a good training staff is key.  But if you keep these things in mind, you’ll be ahead of the curve in the fitness realm (as you already should be on the bullet points above).

Two GREAT Butt Exercises:

I recently had a conversation that went almost exactly the way a conversation I had about 10 years ago went.  It got me wondering where the people I had the conversation with a decade ago are now and where they are with their fitness goals.

But first, two GREAT butt exercises are single leg squats, and single leg stiff leg dead lifts, i.e. “storks”.  

I’d have trouble thinking of two exercises that give you more bang for the buck.  If you want rock hard glutes, these need to be a staple of your program.  Balance and coordination are improved, as is your conditioning if used in a circuit manner.  Every muscle in your lower body and core is engaged and will get noticeably stronger.  Because of the realistic nature of single leg training (have you ever moved in a parallel stance?  Didn’t think so…) the effects carry over to other aspects of your training program as well.

And did I mention ROCK. HARD. GLUTES…?

Here’s the problem (And this is the conversation I had recently that was the same as one a decade ago with different people):

Single leg squats and storks are challenging,  so people don’t do them.

They require motor control, proper reaction from the proprioceptive nature of the ground reaction forces, multi-planar stabilization, multi-level strength, and good control of length-tension relationships, among other things.*

So a beginning exerciser’s appropriate response should be:  “Wow – I should work on improving those things so I can do single leg squats and storks.  Then I can do workouts that make me strong, lean and fit.”

But unfortunately, that’s not the typical reaction.

The typical reaction goes something like this:

“Improving those things is challenging, and may require some diligence, persistence, patience, and hard work – plus Tony Horton says I don’t need that stuff.  So I’m going to continue to do the things I’ve been doing because they’re easy.  This will ensure I’ll never improve and my ass will continue to get softer, flatter and lower on my body.  Then years from now, I’ll ask Jon (again) what do I have to do to get in shape.”

Of course, those words aren’t used, but that’s really what people are saying when they say I can’t single leg train, so I’ll just keep doing _____ .

Yes, many things in exercise and fitness require a change of direction and some challenges.  But you can make this changes now and your future you will be reaping the benefits and rocking those jeans, or…

…you can continue to avoid changing and continue doing it the easy, safe way.  And to paraphrase Trinity in the Matrix – You already know where that road leads.

“Strengthening the strongest link does not strengthen the chain.”  TR Tenet #5 painted on the wall.

*If you don’t know what these things are, that’s not a problem.  We do and we know how to insert them into your program.

Fitness Lessons, World Cup Style

Between the U.S.’s great performance in the World Cup plus some of the craziness of the games, World Cup soccer has been everywhere you turn lately.  Being the fitness vulture I am, I decided to point out a few things about the conditioning of soccer players that can help YOU get lean and strong.  Because as was pointed out on pretty much a daily basis in the Training Rim – soccer players are in really good friggin’ shape. 

Here are some take home lessons for you:

1. Soccer players do Intervals.

Watch how soccer players run:  They alternate between 100% intensity, to resting, to relatively high intensity, back to 100%, back to rest, over and over.  In other words they do intervals – periods of very intense work followed by less intense work and rest repeated.

They DO NOT pick a low intensity and do that for an extended period.

Again, soccer players have very low body fat.  I’ll try it their way.

2. Soccer players change direction constantly.

Soccer players are constantly changing direction.  Forwards, backwards, sideways, diagonally, etc.  Constant direction changes force all joints of the body to work evenly.

They DO NOT start going forward and then keep going forward…for an indefinite period…

When joints are moved in all directions, they stay balanced and healthy.  When they go in only one direction over and over for extended periods they become dysfunctional.  (One of many reasons jogging is unhealthy).

Find me a good soccer player with bad posture, which is the tell-tale sign of joint imbalance and injury. Go ahead, bet you can’t find one.

Again – I’ll do it their way.

3. Soccer players stretch – AND STILL GET HURT.

The rash of hamstring pulls in the World Cup was almost comical in its frequency.  And every one of the players stretches prior to the matches.  So how does this happen?

BECAUSE STRETCHING DOES NOT PREVENT INJURY.  PERIOD.

Let’s be clear:  I did not say “don’t stretch.”  I said it does not prevent injury.  So if part of your workout is to yank on your knee and twist your back prior to exercise because you think it’s preventing injury, you are wrong.  Save your time.

Can these points make you an elite athlete like the World Cup players?  Probably not.

But they can get you simmer, stronger, and sexier!