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
JB has been working with The Spot Athletics for the past year and has made some great strides. He has put 3.5'' on his approach height and keeps getting more athletic. These are the kinds of things that are possible with a good athlete and good training.
So I have to rant today about one of the most illogical things that I hear. In the same breath a mom will tell me that she really needs to workout so that she can lose weight. Yet the next sentence out of the same person is that they don't want their daughter to workout because she will gain weight. So tell me Ms. Illogical, does working out make you lose or gain weight cause it can't do both. Well the answer is simple, women(this is especially true for young girls/boys) do not have the necessary hormones to create a large amount of muscle mass. The huge women bodybuilders that people see in magazines eat/sleep and breathe diet and training. Yet they still can't gain the kind of muscle that they have unless they artificially add testosterone to their bodies. So I guess if the mom in the above example was injecting her daughter with testosterone then yes she would gain weight from working out. Otherwise the daughter will just end up being leaner, stronger, more explosive and athletic, all of which being very positive no matter what the sport. The other issue is that bodybuilders train in a way that is purposefully inducing hypertrophy or muscle gain. The goal of their training is to put on muscle, and that's how they eat and train. We train athletes to be faster, more explosive and more athletic. This means that they must be stronger for their body weight in order for them to run faster or jump higher. Putting on excessive muscle would be counter productive and thus is why that type of training is not used for athletes. I have been weight training for 20 years and have dedicated my life to the sport. I eat, sleep and breathe training and have done so for many years. On top of that I have gifted genetics to put on size for my sport. All of this being said it kills me when a person says that they don't want to lift weights or let their child lift weights because they don't want to get big like me. That's like me saying I don't want my son to shoot a basketball becuase I don't want him to be as good as LeBron at basketball. So the moral to my rant is please stop throwing out illogical statements and ask the experts here at The Spot Athletics if you really are confused because these crazy statements about weight training have to stop.
Congrats to personal training client Sandy Schluep, for placing 4th in her age group at the Rotary Honors Veterans 5k. Sandy came to The Spot at 54 years old, after multiple injuries and being told she would never run again and was determined to turn that disclaimer around -- proof that when you are determined and committed, you can reach your goals at any age. Way to go Sandy!
The Spot Athletics is proud of one of our athlete's Vitor Oliveira who fought in his first MMA fight in the US. Vitor is here from Brazil teaching Jiu Jitsu for Ronin Training Center. Not only did he win his fight but did so in under 2 minutes. Vitor's workouts are very intense and he has gained a lot of strength preparing for this fight so the way he dominated is not surprising. Congratulations Vitor!
Vinicius Tavares Marinho won gold at the No Gi Pan Am games this past weekend. Vinicius is part of GFTeam(Grappling Fight Team), one of the best Jiu Jitsu teams in the world. Vinicius lives in Brazil but has been training at The Spot Atheltics for his strength and conditioning while in the US. He made great strides in both strength and conditioning in his time here and will be missed as he is heading back to Brazil this week. We will post up an interview with him about his training at The Spot soon. Our motto is "Sweat Hard, See Results" and Vini sweated a whole lot while he was here and at the Pan Am games he saw the results. Good luck to Vini as he heads back to Brazil and keep training hard.