Nutrient Pairing

This is something new we are going to start. We are going to discuss various topics regarding health and fitness. This week we are going to talk about nutrient pairing. Watch the video. Tell us what you think. If you have anything you would like to see discussed let us know!

 

Articles to read 1/27

This article was written by Leo Babauta and it talks about learning to be comfortable with discomfort. The article talks about how to master your fear with discomfort and gives you a step by step process.

Discomfort Zone: How to Master the Universe

This next article is for the females and was written by the ladies over at Girls Gone Strong. At GGS they have a saying "train because you love your body, not because you hate it." The article discusses what each of the girls at GCS love about their body then in the comment section a handful of girls discuss their favorite body parts.

Love your body 

If you have ever trained kids or worked with kids you are constantly reminded of what it is like to be a kid well at least you should be. In this article written on marks daily apple he discusses things we never should've stopped doing just because we became adults.

16 Things You Should Have Never Stopped Doing

These are my top articles for the week. If you have any suggestions leave them in the comments!

NB

Fire your trainer now!

Have you had an assessment?  If not then fire your trainer.  The only way to track progress and design a good program is to have a comprehensive assessment.  That is why all of our personal training clients receive a comprehensive assessment when they start.

A comprehensive assessment tells us what you need to work on, where your weaknesses and strengths are, what your body fat percentage is and gives us a guide for your entire program.  Our assessment for training clients isn't just the "box gym" standard of holding onto a bioelectrical impedance body fat reader and signing a waiver.  The reader that you hold onto takes zero skill and is up to 12% off of your actual body fat.

A true comprehensive assessment that will yield great results must include a functional movement screen, tests of flexibility and mobility, strength tests, conditioning test, and movement pattern analysis.  These tests require a lot of knowledge and skill to understand.  That is why most trainers don't do it, because they don't take the time to learn to do the assessments and therefore the don't know how.

The other reason that most trainers don't do an assessment is that their programs don't yield any results.  If they do a test/retest then their clients will know that their program isn't yielding any results.  We know what we do gets results and we prove it with our assessments.  Does your trainer?

Our motto is "Sweat Hard, See Results", our training makes you sweat and our assessment proves your results.  If you are tired of not seeing results or worse yet, having a trainer who doesn't even know how to track your results, then fire your trainer and come to the experts at The Spot Athletics.

 

Stress

While on my facebook and twitter accounts I read how stressed out people are and how rough life is right now for them. I don't doubt for a second that life is rough for some of you right now. We have all been there. We have all had low points in our lives. But not everyday is a bad day. You decideWe are the creators of our own stress.  Look I am aware that bad things happen but when they do YOU need to realize that the number of days we have on this earth are limited and is one bad thing worth the cost of one day of YOUR life? No matter what happens in your life it all has a purpose and will change your life in some way shape or form. Even when people consider a situation negative there is a positive within it you just need to be willing to find it. Everyday you need to work on keeping a positive outlook and try to help others do the same.

 

I was talking to a friend last night and it appeared that this person gets extremely upset when someone doesn’t like them or disagrees with them. My response was so what? Who cares what other people think? 7 billion people in this world can’t please them all. If you are sticking to what you believe in and staying true to your vision then why should it really matter what someone else says about you? Your time is so precious so don’t waste it on worrying or getting upset over one person who wants to talk bad about you. Other people can’t make you feel one way or another. We have to decide that ourselves. We decided our own reactions to any given stimulus. You have more control then you think. Nobody has that power but you. When you stress out you are doing it to yourself. If you live a life that isn’t inline with your values it will bring stress, gossip, sleepless nights, aggression and many other things. Life is life, get over it you can never and will never get rid of all the BS surrounding your life. Know your values and define them. If you are stressed you’ll never see what is around you. Most stress is because something is in violation of your values. You are accountable for fixing your own problems and if you don’t want to be part of the solution either live with it or be quite.

 

We only have weaknesses when we fail to address what we’re not good at. If you do not like what you see there’s a very simple one word solution CHANGE! Deteremine what you don’t want and determine what you do want. Write it down analyze what you wrote and put together a plan of attack. Don’t be lazy, stop making freaking excuses and stop being complacent with your boring life. Go live a little. To get where we want to be we need to become a little better everyday. Everyday keep striving to live the purpose of your life and nobody else's. YOU have to live life, do not just let life happen.  There’s a difference between living a life and letting life control you. Other people and situations do not make you happy or unhappy. You make the decision yourself. Enjoy the time here because tomorrow isn’t promised. Don’t let another day pass you by because you cannot get that day back. People always want more time, wish for more time but it appears time is the one thing people waste the most. Carpe Diem.

NB

JD Bergman conditioning at The Spot Athletics

The Spot Athletics athlete and U.S. World freestyle wrestling team member, JD Bergman finishes up his workout today with some banded running/bear crawling for conditioning.  He went 6 - 30s rounds today with 30s of rest.  Doesn't seem like a lot until you try it.

Zach Gallmann Pulling 685

Spot Athletics Strength and Conditioning Coach Zach Gallmann pulling 685 during training after fighting off the flu for a week.

 

 

 

Goal setting and consistency

So the start of the New Year is here and everyone wants to use 2013 to be in the best shape of their life.  After all, the world didn't end and we didn't fall off of the fiscal cliff.  So here we are ready to make 2013, "The best year yet".  To work towards and accomplish goals is one of the most rewarding thing in life.  The problem with most peoples goals is that they do not understand what it takes or aren't willing to put forth the effort it takes to reach them.  When setting your fitness goals make sure that you understand what kind of commitment that you must put in to reach the goals you want to reach.   If you won't commit what it takes for certain goals then you need to change your goals or you will fail.  I see this most often in people who don't work out at all and want to start.  The first thing I hear is " I'm going to work out every day."  Well I have been training f0r twenty years and I don't even work out every day.  Your body needs rest to recover and get better.  I tell people to start with a more realistic goal of 3 days/week.  If you can consistently do this then bump it up to 4 days.  People want to start at 7 when they haven't been doing 1 day per week, this is just unrealistic and is a recipe for failure.

When setting your goals remember the story of the tortoise and the hare.  Exercise and diet change are about changing lifelong habits.  It took you a lifetime to acquire that belly, it's not just going to go away after a week of training and eating well.   The Spot Athletics recommends that you set your goal at 1/2 % of body fat loss per week.  This means that you want 2% loss per month.  Although this sounds like a small change, it is a huge change after six months or a year of training.  Consistency in training and eating will win the battle of the bulge.  One hard workout or a week of eating healthy won't do anything in the larger picture.  Our society has created a "I want it now" type of attitude which has further lead to our obesity problem as people can't look great or be in great shape after one workout or in "10 minutes/day".  If you are consistent and patient the changes will come and then people around you who don't have the discipline or work ethic to do it will start to make fun of you for training daily and eating well.  I see this a lot as society has created a culture where being "in shape" makes you a weirdo or an outcast.  Well if being in shape and looking good are wrong then I don't want to join the fat out of shape masses to fit in.  I want to stay consistent with my workouts, just as I have done for the last twenty years.

In closing I want to teach you the 90% principle.  People freak out and quit when they aren't perfect on their eating or miss one workout but one bad meal or one missed workout doesn't matter if you are consistent every day/month/year.   If you can eat well 90% of the time and make 90% of your workouts, you will be in great shape and look great as well.  Don't get hung up on being perfect because that is just undo stress that is another recipe for failure, and at The Spot Athletics we  create success, not failure.

Sweat Hard, See Results

JL