I just don't get it.

I will admit, I am quite a happy fellow. But there are things out there that frustrate me and make me shake my head in disgust.

It started this morning at 6:15 when I woke up with my daughter. I turned on the television while we ate some breakfast, and of course, the early morning infomercials are running. I catch the middle of an episode (I wont tell you what the name of the product was) that had to do with "Electronic Muscle Stimulation" for your abdominals. For anyone who hasn't seen these machines before, it is a belt. .. FILLED with electricity.. that people CHOOSE to wear around their waists. Now, I have worn one of these belts before, my friend's dad had owned one, and in my early high school years decided to put it on and turn it up to the highest setting. I felt like a giant man had grabbed my core and squeezed it as hard as he could for three seconds. I couldn't breathe or even scream. It was truly uncomfortable.
People are BUYING these things to wear all day to, "stimulate abdominal contractions" and "get the belly they have always wanted!" And my favorite line, that I couldn't get out of my head all day was, "and you don't have to do ANYTHING AT ALL!"


Is this what we have come to? A culture of lazy, lazy human beings who would rather wear a belt that zaps their insides, then come to the gym and lose some weight? I've got news for you people out there.. These will not help you lose weight.. Sure, they will contract your abdominals, but seriously, it saddens to to think that someone out there could be so misinformed to believe that this power belt is the answer to their flabby prayers..

Even while I write this post, I shake my head. If you show me one person who has gotten the "6 pack of their dreams!" from this machine, I will purchase one and wear it on my face for an entire day. Hopefully it will get rid of my chubby cheeks.....

We are just like you..

As of late, I have been feeling. . I wouldn't call it un-motivated, but just not quite into my workouts as much. I get this way once a year or so, I'll ome to the gym, ready to go, then halfway through my workout, I will just stop. And this has nothing to do with lack of energy, I just stop.
Sometimes I feel like I need a trainer. I see my clients reaching all of their goals (which is awesome) and I wonder if I just need someone screaming at me and making sure I do all of sets..
I am going to start coming to the gym with someone else I think. I've had workout partners in the past, but they just haven't had the same goals, or motivation that I have had.
Hmmm. ..

Sort of on the same note, we have started the ACF annual "Train a Trainer" charity auction, and the bids are already coming in. No big surprise, but Sheila has the highest so far at $150. hehe.
Unfortunatley, I wasn't here to take part last year, but I did see a few of the videos.. wow. You clients can be a little bit cruel.
So once the bidding is over, I guess I will find out if it's just a kick in the butt I need to go on with my own training. . . I am kind of excited.. Is that weird? I guess weird is sort of a pre-requisite to working here...

Frustrated...

Ok, so today is venting time. My vent today is about "personal trainers.." I wont mention any gym names, but I think you guys know which ones.
The story starts with my mother, who is a very sedentary woman, who needs a lot of mobility work, and a lot of stretching. Typical office worker, tight anterior, weak posterior. So she decides to get a gym membership. .. wicked, that's a good start. Then she decides she needs a personal trainer. NICE! Now she wont be one of the many that is overwhelmed by the whole "gym" scene.
WRONG. Terrible idea. The first workout consists of a "circuit" .. so 8 machines, mostly isolation machines, and a LOT of pain for my mother who has, at most, opened a car door for exercise in the last few years. She couldn't move for about a week, then the pain slowly subsided.
Needless to say, being in the profession I was in.. I was angry. Very angry. So I called another gym, talked to the HEAD TRAINER to which I explained my mothers predicament. He was happy to brag up his assistant trainer (who I think is awesome so far) and told me to send my mom in.
SO, in she went. Tonight was the first time I talked to her since her initial consultation in which the assistant trainer said all of the right things in my opinion. Knew where she needed help, and knew what not to do. But, unfortunately my mother prefers, like most women, to be trained by another woman. So this assistant trainer even said about his OWN gym, that there weren't many trainers he would refer her to, but he knew of one that would be good. Now. .. my mother is doing the SAME circuit that she did at the last gym.. . but now they are adding in some isolation oblique exercises.. I am fuming.
My mom tried to calm me down, but this "trainer" is just reinforcing strength in her bad postural position. And to make things, worse, she is the most sore in her chest. .. one of the areas she should be STRETCHING, not strengthening.. Needless to say, she thinks I am overreacting because in another 6 weeks, she is done with the training, and they let her free in the gym to do what she wants. So really, all she paid a LOT of money for, was for some IDIOT to ask her about her day and direct her to each circuit machine.

So I told her to pretend that she referred me to a doctor. And that doctor decided to stab me very hard in the chest every time I came in. My mom would be angry right? If I called her, and was like, "Mom, my chest kind if hurts, I'm going to see this doctor, and he stabs me everytime I come in." She would get very angry. But wait, what if I told her that in only 6 weeks, he was going to just give me a knife and let me loose on my own to stab myself in the chest. Any better? What if I paid him an absurd amount of money to do it? No? Hmmm...

This is my job. I see "trainers" like this all the time. I am going to call Chris, who seems very smart, he wants to leave the whole big gym scene in a few months and start his own private thing, kind of like ACF. But I told my mom she has to get rid of this trained monkey and actually get a trainer who doesn't just see her as a number on a sheet.

Gyms like this make me SOOO happy to be working at a place like All Canadian Fitness with Ernie and our other trainers.



. ... I feel a little better now.. . .

Healthy chocolate, Underwear workouts and HUGE strength gains!

Ok, let me get started by saying this is probably going to be a long post.. I first have some venting to do. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS HEALTHY CHOCOLATE. I don't care what you hear, I don't care what you read. If you think chocolate can be healthy, you can't be helped. Sure it has anti-oxidants, sure it has some essential fatty acids... it also has an insane amount of sugar and fat per BITE. .
So please, if you see people selling healthy chocolates, for the love of god.. just come to the gym.

SECOND! I love my gym, do you know why? What would you do if you forgot your shorts at home.. you would probably turn around and leave right? Nope, just have a good old boxer workout. I was hesitant at first, but after the statment, "What? They look like biking shorts.." How can I argue that.

FINALLY! This is nuts. Michael Stevenson. I just started training him 16 days ago. He was on a very intense 14 day strength and growth program. I wouldn't recommend this program for everyone .. I haven't even tackled it yet. But after these results, I will be soon. I'm just going to post them.

Feb. 26/09 - Mar. 8/09

-Starting Bench Press - 4 reps - 145 lbs.
Final Bench - 3 reps - 175 lbs.
-Starting Squat - 4 reps - 175 lbs.
Final Squat - 6 reps - 225 lbs.
-Starting Deadlifts - 4 reps - 155 lbs.
Final Deadlifts - 3 reps - 185 lbs.
-Starting Lat Pulldown - 4 reps - 135 lbs.
Final Lat Pulldown - 6 reps - 170 lbs.
-Starting Bent Over Row - 4 reps - 130 lbs.
FinalBent Over Row - 1 rep - 155 lbs.
-Starting Military Press - 4 reps - 85 lbs.
Final Military Press - 5 reps - 110 lbs.

NOW! Even with minor grip problems, the bent over rows went up that much.. and he didn't even deadlift the last week due to a bit of low back pain.. LOOK at these numbers!

Fine, I'll do the addition.

Bench is up 30 lbs.
Squat is up 50 lbs.
Deadlift is up 30 lbs. - with no deadlifting the last week!
Lat Pulldown is up 35 lbs.
Bent Over Row is up 25 lbs. - with grip issues!
Military Press is up 25 lbs.

That's a total of 195 lbs in 2 weeks.. Think about that. And it's not like he was unconditioned before we started this, he still went to the gym 3 times a week on his own. This is where dedication can get you people, CHOCOLATE IS NOT THE ANSWER!

Michael 2 weeks ago ------------------------------------ Michael now

Stupid flesh joints..

So, the gym was awesome. There were quite a few guys out there who knew some things about stuff, and taught me to do some things that I never knew that I loved. Like front flips. Not that I am a front flip expert, but give me a mat, and I can pull a few out. But the negative is that I pulled something, or sprained something in my wrist. It makes work a bit harder, since I have little to no mobility at the moment, but hopefully it will be better in a few days.
Other than this, my body fat percentage is down to 9.8 and my mile is stuck at 6:04... Soon..

I have more than a few clients I am excited about at the moment and can hopefully get some updates up here soon about them...

KETTLEBELLS

Ok, so I could just set up a bed in the back room at the gym and live there now. We have kettlebells! I am very excited about our new equipment and am going to be implementing them shortly into many of my workouts, and some of my clients as well. I am a big advocate of kettlebell training, not solely kettlebells, but they definitely have their place in my heart. Now all we need is a sled and some astroturf outside and this will be my heaven... Am I weird?

Mile time - 6:07 . .. want to break 6 minutes.. But oh so vomity after sprinting 10mph for 6 minutes.

Also, I am heading to a gym in Burlington on Sunday to probably hurt myself doing some things I probably shouldn't be doing on trampolines and in foam pits. Must get back into Parkour, I've got the bug. Backflip by the end of the summer? Palm Spin? Time will tell..

Can you live in a toybox?

So, it's Monday - Family day! As I sit here and think about work, clients, and accomplishments, I think about what an awesome job I have. It's only been three months, but the difference I see in client attitudes, body composition and overall goals is amazing. It's incredible to see what people can do. I'm not taking any of the credit either.
I consider my job like a section specialist at Home Depot. . or somewhere like that. Say I worked in the lumber section and a man comes to me and says, "My wife has been on me to build my family an amazing house, I have no idea where to start, or what to buy, and I really need your help." Well, I could give him all the wood he would need and explain to him perfectly how to build that house. I could even draw out some plans based on how his wife (because we know she is in charge) wants the house to look. But if he took all of that wood home, threw my plans away and built a toybox, I think he would be a single guy, living in a toybox.. My point is that I can preach and preach about good nutrition, homework and resistance training, but if they don't execute it, it's not going to work. I can take credit for knowing ways to fix their problems, but ultimately it is in the hands of the client to push themselves to achieve their goals.
I only see them for 2, maybe 3 hours a week, and as much as I would like to follow them around and slap them every time they pick up a chocolate bar, or yell at them when they don't want to finish that last set at home, I just can't be in that many places at once. .. yet. .. (Hopefully, Bryan cloning will be available to the general public soon.)

Anyway, good job to my exceptional clients. . you know who you are. . and KEEP IT UP!