What Gets You Out of Bed

In the business of fitness coaching PROGRESS is paramount to survival if you can’t definitively prove to clients that they are making progress by leaps and bounds, you’re dead.

Period.

And it can’t be skimpy progress like:

1lb per week
¼ inch here a ½ inch there
2% body fat in 12 weeks

Nope that won’t cut it

It needs to be

20lbs in 4 weeks
4% body fat in 6 weeks
4 inches off the waist in 4 weeks

And rightly so they are paying good money for those results and all things being equal a great exercise and nutrition program and an at least 90% compliance by the client; those type of results are completely achievable.

But what happens when, you’ve been exercising for 10, 20, even 30 years; then what?

When you have gotten to and kept ‘the perfect body’

When you have lifted the biggest weight possible

When you have trained for and competed in seemingly every obscure sport under the sun.

Then what?

What gets your butt out of bed, when your back is stiff, your ankles ache, and your body generally feels like someone has beaten it with a lead pipe.

Then what?

What happens when they quit complimenting you for ‘losing all that weight’, when you can’t get that ‘last 10’ stubborn pounds off; or your thighs or abs just won’t seem to ‘tone up’ not matter what you have tried.

Then what?

Let’s face it exercising for ‘health’ is plain boring no matter how you shake it.


Health is barely respectable enough to get most people to sniff their morning coffee; let alone get them to toil away day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, in an effort to be, HEALTHIER.

It just doesn’t work, most will decide it’s not worth it and quit.

Your fitness program has to be something that ‘gets you out of bed’

Do you want to know what gets me out of bed?

I call it the 1-Rep Workout.

Nope it isn’t some miracle workout that is even shorter than the ‘8 minute Abs’, ’12 minute Arms’ or the 4 minute Total Body Workout (although there is a version of this that is very good).

Nope, none of that

It is simple really, after 16 yrs of consecutive training I still haven’t gotten the ‘perfect body’ although I am working on it and I still want to get a lot stronger; and I definitely still have a lot more sport to play.

Yet I have finely honed it down to what gets me ‘out of bed’ for my daily workouts, it is the chance of ‘1 good rep’

That’s all it takes for me to consider it a productive and successful workout.

This concept really hit me as I was working through what might be considered a mediocre training day last Friday.

Long story, short I was down to the last two reps of the workout, using the heaviest weight of the day for some barbell snatches and I was able to finish with 2 very good reps.

And that folks is what gets me out of bed to train no matter how bad I feel physically or mentally.

It is the chance for 1 good rep.

What is your ‘1 good rep’?

Enjoy



Troy M Anderson



Tempe Fitness Boot Camp

How Far Would You Walk for Desert

As you know I was just home a week or so ago and as most people do they tend to 'relax' their nutritional standards to some degree.

Well I was in one of my 'relaxed' modes as I was about to walk out to my parents freezer and get myself a serving of a frozen lemon desert that my mom makes, very tasty not great for the physique though.

I had to walk out of the house to the freezer in my dad's shop to get this desert.



Funny thing is even this short distance less than 20 yds round trip made me contemplate the value of going a getting that desert.

Of course I went anyway but I found it very interesting. That even that short distance was enough to make me pause and contemplate the value of getting that desert.

How does this apply to you and your results?

Simple, if you have 'deserts' in your home, i.e. cake, ice cream, cookies, etc.... make them difficult to get to. So you actually have to think about getting it; I would bet it will dramatically reduce you likelihood of going and getting it.

Especially if you are consciously working on fat loss goals:

Doing things like:


- putting ice cream in the freezer in your garage (actually you can probably put just about any
kind of sweet in the freezer)


- Not in the freezer how about a high shelf out of sight in the pantry


- Maybe in the back of the refrigerator again out of sight.

These are just a couple tactical places you can 'stash' things to keep yourself on the straight and narrow.

While ideally you shouldn't have this stuff in your home; there will be times that it is and this is one way to manage it without sabotaging yourself.

Enjoy



Troy M Anderson



Tempe Fitness Boot Camp

Laugh Out Loud Fitness

One my clients sent me a video link the other day showing author Jen Lancaster, and her quest to get in shape.

It's just so happens that my wife also reads this author’s books; as matter of fact she was reading one the other day; and was laughing so hard she was crying; and my wife isn't one to 'laugh out loud'.

The reason that this video and her books are so funny is because her trials and tribulations probably hit pretty close to home for many people.

In a sense she is ‘real’.

The main take home point is here that everyone struggles or has a bad day from time to time; it is those that stick with it the end up 'winning in the end'

Hopefully the video will at a minimum provide you some comic relief if you need it let; and to let you know that there are a lot of others out there working hard towards their fat loss goals.

Click Here to Watch the Funny Video





Enjoy!



Troy M Anderson



Tempe Fitness Boot Camp

How Jackalopes Are Stalling Your Results

For those of you who don't know what jackalope is bear with me and I will give you a link to go see, in a second.

First let me tell you what it is, a jackalope is a mythical creature that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a deer it was obviously conceived by some poor SOB who had a bit too much cabin fever one winter.

None the less this mythical creature is alive and well in many small little western tourist trap towns like Wall Drug, SD.

On my recent mini-working vacation I ran into jackalope and decided get my picture taken on it.

Just for sheer comic relief.

The only thing I could think of while sitting on that thing was,
‘man thousands of little bunnies must have given their lives to create this beast’.

Click Here to See a 'Real Live Jackalope'

What does a 'stupid' jackalope have to do with your fitness or fat loss success?

A lot more than you think, try as I might abolish all fitness myths they still exist.

I just ran into another the other day, let’s take a look and see if I can help you from being 'afflicted by jackalopes'

Myth #1 - 'I just want to maintain my results'

Response - No such thing you are either going forward or backward, this applies to any area of life not just fitness. Sure you may be able to maintain a 'particular body weight for a period'

This type of maintenance may well be the worst kind because it means that your 'regression' is unnoticeable on a daily or weekly basis and before you know it you’ll be left saying 'I don't know where this extra 20lbs came from'

Let me use another example that maintenance is a myth. If you park you vehicle in a parking lot and instead putting it park you leave it neutral what will happen?

It will generally slowly one direction or another.

In theory if we put the vehicle in neutral/maintenance it should stay put but it doesn't.



This doesn't mean that you are always going to be trying to achieve massive weight loss or fat loss goals; there are plenty of other relevant areas to work towards making progress with fat loss or fitness.

You Could Work on Simply Things:

• Getting More Sleep



• Doing Some Restorative Exercise



• Getting a Massage



• Eating More Vegetables



• Exercising an Extra day



• Doing some Strength Training
  
  What you can't do is jump on your jackalope and 'take a break' because the only direction that the jackalope will take you is back to where you started.
  
  Enjoy!

Troy M Anderson

Tempe Fitness Boot Camp

Want to vs Have to

Over years I have learned that there isn't a whole of difference between adults and children when it comes to mine line of work.

Generally, speaking with either group when it comes to structured exercise there is a whole lot of belly aching, complaining and overall whining about it.

A couple weeks a go I had quite the opposite experience, one of my clients brought her niece and nephew into the facility with her during a couple of her sessions; and instead of letting them just sit there to fidget and wait impatiently while their aunt trained.

I had them jump in the mix, they did some things that she was doing and a whole lot more, they are kids need a huge amount and variety of activities.

They used cones, rollers, bands, their bodies, medicine balls, steps, ab rollers, stability balls, and they even used some of the small kettlebells.

Long story short they had fun exercising.

So much fun in fact that the little girl, always insisted in doing 5 to 10 extra reps.

I have honestly never had anyone beg to do more work like this little girl. I guess I was spoiled for a day or two.

There are 3 take home points to this story thought:


- If you have or around kids let them get involved early it doesn’t take a lot of effort and it could really make a big difference in their life. Positive associations early on in lives definitely carry forward.

-Keep it fun, for kids it has to be fun, you don't have to have a ton of equipment to make it varied, fun, and interesting. The more enjoyable it the more they will want to participate


- Adults we all need to take a lesson from the young girl and relish in our 'get to' exercise; instead of taking the consummate 'have to' outlook, which can easily lead to 'don't want to' and ultimately 'I can't'.

If you achieve 'I can't' status you have probably developed some sort of serious degenerative disease, unfortunate but common in this obesity epidemic we are in.

So let's all get on the 'get to' band wagon

By the way, stop over and check out the cool homemade cards they sent me.

Click here to view the cards

they are in the photo slide show towards the middle of the page.


====================================

If you are anything like me you know you need to eat broccoli on a regular basis;
but some times it just get so damn boring so there become a need to re-invent how you eat it.

This is one I came up with the other day that is pretty damn tasty.

Here you go:
1 Cup Broccoli
3 oz Smoked Pork Chop
3 oz Cooked Chicken Sausage (any flavor)
1 Small Green Apple Medium Dice

- Non-stick spray a medium size frying pan

- Add All ingredients, you are mostly heating everything up. The only items cooking are the
apple and broccoli.

- Season dash of cinnamon, black pepper, and a little salt of if desired, the smoked pork chop and
sausage should have a fair amount of salt.


- Cook until apple is tender, and broccoli has cooked to produce a bright green color.

Serve and Enjoy


Troy M Anderson

Tempe Fitness Boot Camp

Client Success of 2nd Qtr 2008

Ok it's been awhile; as I have been a bit distracted by 2 1/2 major projects, a manual & DVD, another manual/book, plus a speaking engagement.

So much so that I have been very remiss in even getting over here to get some stuff posted.

Well I finally have gotten back on track and have 3 pretty exciting things to share with you:

1. Is the announcement of our ATS client success story for the 2nd Qtr of 2008.

Yeah pretty amazing we are already 1/2 way through the year, blows my mind.

Have you accomplished everything you wanted to get done?

Have you taken a look at those New Year's Resolutions and Goals you set in January.

Take a peak and see what you have gotten done.

The 2nd Qtr success story is a long time ATS client has really put her nose to the grind stone and gotten here head in the game, during this 2nd Qtr, so much so that she has has some really awesome results.

Watch and Listen to Her Story Below:






2. The Japanese Government is cracking down on companies and their over-weight employees click on the link below to check out the 3 minute video that will give you all the details.

Japanese Fat Control



3. Lastly, I have posted the final results from the 20lbs in 30days Beta test if you haven't been following this you should at least stop over and check out what the final tally was and too see 'what's next'.

Click here to View the Final Results: 20lbs in 30 Days


Enjoy!

Troy M Anderson

Women Fitness Boot Camp Tempe AZ

I Don't Want Thunder Thighs, or a Big Ass

I saw the craziest thing the other day, and if I would have had my phone with me I might have been tempted to take a photo.


I saw a lady at the grocery store her upper body was ripped, shredded, whatever you want to call it.


She had awesome definition in her arms and shoulders, a very angular clean jaw line, in top shape, fitness competitor type shape.


You could not help but notice that this gal had put in some serious work on her physique.

Then I walked around the corner of the vegetable platform, and much to my surprise the lady had the 'bottom half' of someone who weight 2x as much as her upper body would indicate.

My first though was how sad, and frustrating it must be for this lady, to be in such great shape up top but have a bottom 1/2 severely lagging.

Sad but there is answer and it's not what you think.


I will get to the solution to this lady's problem in a moment; but first let's address the real problem.

More women than I care to count have come to me carrying the myth of the title of this blog.

‘I Don't Want Thunder Thighs, or a Big Ass’

Generally my reply to this myth is, 'Neither do I'.

I am not sure exactly where this myth started, but boy is so deeply embedded in the female mindset that I am sure that it won't be absolved anytime soon.

Unfortunately, one of the ancillary results has been that, this myth has generated a terrible untruth that many women now believe or even worse have turned into a full blown phobia.

1. They are deathly afraid of doing any type of strength training with their legs; and they are convinced that any amount of strength training will result in them having a leg circumference equal to that of professional male body builder, who is eating 10,000 calories per day, taking in 2,000-4,000 mg of steroids per week, and on specific mass building routine.

I promise strength training your legs won’t make your legs look like this


I have found that giving examples is the quickest way to help people understand things.

I will give you an example of one of my female client's recent experiences of lifting heavy in reference to thigh and hip measurement.

This particular client has been deadlifting during the last 3 weeks of her training cycle:

The numbers:

Her deadlift training numbers have increased by a little approximately 20lbs.

Going from 135lbs to around 155lbs. (this a weight that many women would find 'heavy')

During that same 3 week period she has:

Reduced her thigh circumference by 2" each thigh

And reduced her hip/butt measurement by: 1 3/4"

The Truth:

If you read or speak with any of the cutting edge physique coaches, one of their primary cornerstones of any fat loss program is going to be:

lower repetition and high load resistance training exercise.

The plain and simple reason for this is that it forces the body to keep muscle, a very good thing since muscle = metabolism.

The proper methodology would be something to similar to the below. Which is the protocol for my, Big Iron Burn (BIB) Method


Big Iron
1-2 core multi-joint movements performed with heavier weight less reps

Burn
2-4 - Supportive movement performed in a rapid succession burn circuit for multiple cycles.

Paired with Smoke Session-Interval training

This is a rough outline of the programming protocol that I use 100% of my fat loss clients.



What light weight and high repetition lifting will ultimately result in:

The alternative is low weight high repetition training which will usually result in muscle wasting, decreased metabolism, and you walking around looking like you you have a bag full of chewed bubble gum on your legs.

We never wanted to look like this right?

Because all your muscle will be gone, and you be left with fat and skin, where muscle one used to be.

So hopefully this helps you see the picture a little more clearly and will allow you to accept and embrace that strength training your lower body is actually a very good thing.

No let's get out there and do some squats, deadlifts, and heavy lunges and cure that phobia.

So you can have legs that look like this

Enjoy!!

Troy M Anderson

Tempe Outdoor Fitness Boot Camp