Active Concept Training

When you lay down on that bench press, and push that barbell up...ask why.

When you stand in front of a mirror doing bicep curls...ask why.

When you sit in that inner/outer thigh machine...ask why.

When you do a jumping/kipping pull up...ask why.

When you jump onto a bench or step up onto anything...ask why.

When you are trying to get your hammies loose by bending forward...ask why.

When you are doing a kettlebell swing...ask why.

When you are doing a lunge...ask why.

When you are doing a hurdlers stretch...ask why.

These are some questions to ask yourself when doing your workout.  Is there a reason?  If so, why?  Or better yet, why not?  There is always a reason NOT to do an exercise as there is always a reason to do one.  There should always be a goal for the workout.  Even if it is just to move, literally.  I decided the other day I didn't feel good enough to lift anything heavy, so I worked on some mobility drills I hadn't done in a while.  Felt good!

Think about what you are doing...that's all I ask.

GO!

I have a client who was at 350, now is at 275.  How, you ask?  Concentration, dedication, and lots-o-time.

With no job, no wife, no kids, this person can concentrate fully on what the goal is.  This person can dedicate everything to accomplishing this goal.  This person has lots of time.  Period.

When I meet a prospective new client, they always ask, "how long will it take me to lose ____ pounds?"  I tell them the truth..."I don't know."  Lots of factors are involved.  Can you really dedicate MOST of your "free time" to this endeavor, and an endeavor it is.  I tell everyone it goes a lot quicker if you can quit your job and your family for 2 months.  On the biggest loser, this is how it's done.  AND, will they do what I ask them to do?  Again, this is how they do it on biggest loser, and programs like the Rice Diet Center over at Duke...they have no choice.

Which brings to mind a post I did a while back on CHOICE.  Borrowing from Dan John's idea on free will, there is only so much to go around.  Here, I wrote about my conversations with someone with very little free will.  You want to lose weight, or accomplish a goal quickly, keep your free will, or in other words, don't put yourself into positions where you have to make decisions.

How do you do that?  I don't know of many adults that can!  You grab time where you can.  Time to shop for fresh food, time to workout a little, time to play a litte...it's all there, we just have to carve it out.  We don't have to workout for an hour at time, all we need is 15 minutes, here and there, to remain healthy...a little more to be fit for what YOU want to do!  Carve out some time...let me know if ou need help!

GO!

After my last trip to Ireland, I posted about some of my thoughts as I will this time.

As always, I am amazed at the freshnes of the food there.  Meat doesn't smell like anything, seafood smells the way it should.  Bananas, apples, tomatoes, root vegetables and other food has this "Pazang!" to it that you just don't get here...unless you grow it yourself!!

Now, don't get me wrong, there are the same cereals and pasta and packaged food there as we have here.  So stay away from that and you're good.  I did have some bread, that was homemade, but only a couple of times.  So other than the Guinness, I think I was pretty good for my consumption!

I will say that i did have some chocolate when I was there...because it was GOOD!  The other thing about the packaged foods that is different, is that there are no DYES!  Red 40 is replaced with "beet extract" or yellow 5 by "orange extract."  So the hard candies and sweets that are sold are much better thanthe ones here (once you get away from the sugar!!)

The other aspect I have to give the Irish good credit for is that they are exercising more!!  I saw more cycling, running, walking, than I ever have.  I even saw an ad for a fitness place with a kettlebell in the ad!  Kudos for them!!  Maybe it was the end of the Celtic tiger, or it was just finally time, I don't know!  Fair play to them!

I hope they continue to be energized to move.  Even in my wife's hometown there were plenty of movers.  Their cyclng club even set me up with a bike for a few days, so I was obligated to ride in the 45 degrees...and rain!  So upon getting back to NC, and training for my upcoming ride, the 3 Mountain Madness, there would be no excuse to NOT get out and ride!  Thanks fellas!

Find something that gets you motivated.  The Irish have...you can too!

GO!

So...

If studies came out saying that exercise, weight training, etc. helped you live better with less illness and disease, but

it made you ugly.

Would people still do it?????????????????

Today, my wife had a stem cell transplant...which didn't work.  She went through hell and still had more to go through in the Fall of last year.

She inspires me constantly to better myself.  I can only hope that just a little of what she does for me, I have passed on to you all.

I love you, my lovely lady.

I have so many places I go to find my uplifting research in regards to health and mobility, sometimes I forget to check in on certain folks.  Frank at Exuberant Animal I haven't read in a couple months or so.  Below he has a written of a GREAT concept of how to take your health and make it your own!

"Even more fascinating, we can also say that health itself is a muscle. That is, we become healthier by actually exercising our health. We become healthier by practicing our exuberance in the world, by actively engaging with our bodies, our people, our work and our habitats. This will come as a surprise to many, of course. Modern medical culture encourages passivity; health and disease are simply things that happen to us. If we’re lucky, we remain healthy in life, but if not, the doctors will patch us up. But when we view health as a muscle, it becomes something done by us, an active practice and a doing."

Health is something DONE BY US!  We make our choices, and in the future we have our consequences, right?  In everything we do.  Viewing health as a MUSCLE, means we must exercise that muscle, make it stronger and more resilient, right?  These person, and people like him, will likely never develop hypertension or diabetes...I wondery why??

Make health your own, not someone else's IDEA of what it should be.

GO!

 Recently, an epedimic of sorts has come about.  Folks with bad backs, bad ankles, bad attitudes and tempers, bad plateaus, and a bad diagnosis.  This is for you...

"Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

You're on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.

About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,

you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any

you'll want to go down.

In that case, of course,

you'll head straight out of town.

And when things start to happen,

don't worry. Don't stew.

Just go right along.

You'll start happening too.

You'll be on your way up!

You'll be seeing great sights!

You'll join the high fliers

who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.

You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.

Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.

Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don' t

Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so

but, sadly, it's true

and Hang-ups

can happen to you.

You can get all hung up

in a prickle-ly perch.

And your gang will fly on.

You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch

with an unpleasant bump.

And the chances are, then,

that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,

you're not in for much fun.

Un-slumping yourself

is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.

Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.

A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!

Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?

How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...

or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?

Or go around back and sneak in from behind?

Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,

for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused

that you'll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

NO!

That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape

all that waiting and staying.

You'll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,

once more you'll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Except when they don't.

Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times

you'll play lonely games too.

Games you can't win

'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!

Whether you like it or not,

Alone will be something

you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance

you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.

But on you will go

though the weather be foul

On you will go

though your enemies prowl

On and on you will hike

and I know you'll hike far

and face up to your problems

whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,

as you already know.

You'll get mixed up

with many strange birds as you go.

So be sure when you step.

Step with care and great tact

and remember that Life's

a Great Balancing Act.

So...

be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray

or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,

you're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So...get on your way!"

Oh, The Places You Will Go by Dr. Suess.

Now, tackle your challenges head on.  Don't give up the fight until there is no fight left.  Remember, every day, that you are someone's best hope...

"An important distinction has to be taken to heart. Health is not fitness, and fitness is not health.

In biology and anthropology, fitness bears a very special meaning related to the survival of a species. Fitness means reproductive fitness. For a species to survive, it must gain survival skills and then pass those skills on to its offspring. The genetic basis of our human fitness remains 99.7% just the same way it was 100,000 years ago. Key to successful fitness is the same today as it was long ago in ancestral times: nutrient dense food and physical activity. Both signal our genes to sequence or produce healthy, life bestowing proteins. Inactivity creates and  sends signals to the same genes resulting in unhealthy metabolic results. In other words, fitness amounts to living in respectful compliance with our genetic make up. Your life depends on living the life you were given!"

Written by Ken O'Neill

http://transevolutionaryfitness.wordpress.com/

"Health is not fitness. Health is a medical term meaning absence of detectable disease. The key word is detectable. Early and acute degeneration is not tested for, hence not detected. Fitness prevents degeneration. Where “normal” health is a plus in medicine, it amounts to abnormal unfitness for Physical Culture  2.0. Evolutionary exercise physiologists recognize throughout our long history, our condition of fitness made us look like athletes. The pre-steroid era bodybuilders, power lifters, track and field athletes bear the look of a fit human being. The trouble with our modern standard is that what it regards as normal today is genetically abnormal and the basis of disease for humans: normal is abnormal. To gain a sense of what normal and fit meant to our ancestors, Greek art depicts their normal men and women looking like what we’d think of as fitness models and athletes today!"

Ken has added to the shift. 

Fitness is the ability to do a task.  Which task?  It's different for everyone.  Keep that in mind when you tell yourself "I want to be more fit."  Fit for what?  If you want to read what "fit" was, read this.  A book called "Manthropology"  that details what we as humans USED to be capable of!

Ken is intelligent, and always brings an interesting dynamic to the covnersation about strength and conditioning.  Read on!  More importantly though, keep moving!

GO!

These are the folks I will be training with for some years to come.  They are professional, knowledgable, courteous, and most of all have the client's best interest at heart.  The facility is clean, warm and inviting (except for the hard work you have to do!!), and safe.

http://www.functionalfitnessraleigh.com/About-Us.html

Come by to see us sometime.  I promise, you will not be disappointed.

Question--What did you take away from 2011?  What did you learn about yourself?

Take a moment to answer that.  Write it down.  Then over the course of this weekend, ask what can I do to improve one aspect of my life?  Being a parent, spouse, son, daughter, friend, employee...

Take that one aspect, and look closely to see how does your health and fitness come into play here???  If your strength, stamina, mindful conditioning, were improved, could that help your one aspect of your life you want to improve?  I would think so.  Do you want to be the one looked after, or do you want to have the strength and ability to look after others?  How do your nutritional choices, your "playtime" or workouts reflect that ability?

I know I have lots of learning to do, and always will.  I am already booked for two seminars to help my understanding of the human body, pain relief, overall health, and I can't wait to learn more to pass along to anyone who needs it!

Take some time to figure our where you are starting from, or else you will not know where you need, or want, to GO!