And the winner is…
Emily and I, along with Sherril and Michael, had a nice time with all those
in attendance at our dinner at Sublime Restaurant on Sunday night.
At the beginning of the meal, we drew the grand prize winner for our
Holiday Fitness Challenge.
So who is the lucky winner?
Davie, FL resident Larry Rice!!!
Larry won a $1,000 credit for his training program at Personal Fitness
Advantage (PFA) in Plantation, FL.
Lucky guy!
We’re going to be launching our next challenge in the next couple weeks
and I need your input.
What are you ideas for the challenge?
Think “simple, motivating, and effective”.
What things can we do which are relatively simple, yet motivating and
effective?
Email me your opinions at doug(at)personalfitnessadvantage.com
What we can learn from the NHL Florida Panther’s training facility
Just got back to our personal training studio in Plantation after spending
the morning at the training facility for the NHL Florida Panthers.
I was helping strength coach Craig Slaunwhite with body composition
testing for their rookie training camp.
It was a unique occassion for me to spend some time with high-level
athletes which have committed so much to their sport.
It was also telling to take a look at their strength and conditioning facility.
This may or may not be a surprise to you, but their “gym” is much
different than the typical gym most folks have access to.
But it’s not what they had, but what they did NOT have, which is
important.
Other than three functional 360-degree cable crossover machines,
there were zero “selectorized” weight machines.
Here’s some of what they did have:
-a straight track (maybe 25 yards or so), to work on agility, etc.
-three squat racks (with attachments for chin-ups, etc.) – with lots of
olympic weights
-Cardio equipment for warming-up and basic cardio conditoning (bikes,
arc trainers, upper body ergometer)
-one relatively small rack of dumbbells
-one TRX suspension trainer
-foam rollers for myofascial release and general mobility work
-rack of BOSU balls
-rack of stability balls
I might have forgotten a thing or two, but that’s pretty much what they
use to train with.
The take away?
For high performance and elite fitness, you don’t need a lot of specialized
machines.
In fact, the usual rule is the more elite the athlete, the less specialized
machines they use.
The equipment emphasized in the Florida Panthers training facility are
pieces which support the development of strength,power, mobility, and
agility.
And I would argue that instead of focusing on “feeling the burn” or trying
to tone up this muscle or that, that you’ll getthe body you want more
quickly by focusing on a more athletic style of training.
And I’m happy to say that we are moving more and more to this style of
training in our private studio at Personal Fitness Advantage.
Why CrossFit is the wrong choice for most of us.
I’ve decided to share with you my thoughts on CrossFit.
For those not familiar with CrossFit, it is one of the hottest growing fitness
trends today.
And fundamentally, it appeals to me.
But when people ask me, “How does your Metabolism Acceleration
program compare with CrossFit?”, here is my answer:
“We’re like CrossFit, but more personalized and safe”.
As I mentioned, the CrossFit concept fundamentally appeals to me.
According to Wikipedia:
“CrossFit is a strength and conditioning brand that combines weight lifting,
sprinting, and gymnastics, powerlifting, kettlebell training, plyometrics,
rowing, and medicine ball training.
CrossFit contends that a healthy, fit person requires proficiency in each of
ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina,
strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and
accuracy.
It defines fitness as increased work capacity across all these domains and
says its program achieves this by provoking neurologic and hormonal
adaptations across all metabolic pathways.”
Sounds pretty cool to me.
I buy into most of that. They essentially train folks like athletes.
And CrossFit grew its reputation by serving a population that tended to be
very athletic and providing them a challenge that traditional health clubs
didn’t meet.
According to the CrossFit corporate website:
“CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many
police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations
units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and
professional athletes worldwide.”
But then business comes in.
Over the last few years, CrossFit gyms have realized that to make a lot of
money, they need to mass market their program.
According to their corporate website, “We’ve used our same routines for
elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from
televised bouts.”
That’s interesting in theory. Stupid in practice.
And of course, they are using the same routines for out of shape men and
women as they are for those cage fighters. They knew they needed to
reach the mass market of regular Joes and Janes to make a lot of money.
Compare that with what we are doing with our Metabolism Acceleration
program at PFA.
We have developed small group programs for various levels of participants:
Level 1: You’re a beginner and you will work with us privately until you
learn basic movement patterns to protect your safety. Once basic
movements have been performed successfully, you will be invited into our
Metabolism Acceleration small group program.
Level II: You’ve shown you can complete basic movements safely and you
are welcomed into a small group program that develops muscle endurance,
as well as tendon and ligament strength before beginning to lift heavier
weights and performing more complex movements.
Level III: You’re starting to get pretty fit. You’re learning quite a few
functional movements that are improving your energy, fitness, and well-
being. Your confidence is increasing and your body is changing.
Level IV: You are advanced! Advanced trainees need advanced training,
and Level IV training sessions will continue to push you to your max.
From there, we are now developing different specializations within Level IV
training to allow people with different goals to receive specific training
needed for that goal.
It may not be as sexy as CrossFit, but it’s smarter. And it’s safer and
more effective for regular folks who don’t have a high-level background in
athletics.
If you are SWAT, active duty military, or someone at a comparable level
that likes the ideas of CrossFit, give it a go. As I said at the beginning
of this article, some of their concepts really appeal to me.
But I don’t think the one size fits all approach is the best approach.
Most folks will be better off finding a fitness professional or fitness facility
which hires quality fitness pros that are willing to personalize your program
to your specific level and goals.
And as far as how our Metabolism Acceleration program compares for the
Average Joe or Jane:
We’re like CrossFit, but more personalized and safe.
Dedicated to your success,
Doug Jackson, M.Ed.,CSCS
Personal Fitness Advantage
The Extra Rep: Why Fitness Makes Us Successful
Tonight I was pushing through more in-depth material I needed to learn as I’m going through the process of opening my fitness studio.
I was tired. Watching TV would’ve been easier.
My brain hurt.
But I believe that the more I push on, the more I challenge my brain while it’s fatigued, the stronger and more effective it will grow.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe that there’s a time and a place for rest, but usually the issue is that of too much laziness, not an issue of too much work.
And most of the leading stress physiologists and neuropsychiatrists in the world believe this point.
The body was designed to be pushed.
I have a fundamental faith in that idea because of my experience with strength training.
Yesterday I had been about three-quarters of the way through my workout when I was knocking out my last set of dumbbell pullovers. I had completed my twelth repetition and could’ve of easily quit.
But I asked myself:
“Is that all you’ve got?”
“You’ve got more. Don’t quit. You’ve got at least three more.”
So I took a deep breath and focused on cranking out three more reps.
I finished them and thought:
“Well, you’re hurtin’ but you’ve still got more. Quit now and you will stay the same. Keep going. Two more reps and you will have given those muscles the challenge that they need to grow.”
So I knocked out the last two reps.
And you know what?
The muscles that were worked by the dumbbell pullover were sore today. They would’nt have been if I had stopped at twelve or fifteen. But seventeen reps was the magic number.
They say that we all have our crosses to carry. That’s life. But next time you feel like giving up, try this experiment:
Go outside and run as far as you can. And when you think you can’t go any longer, keep going. Even if your legs give out, pick yourself up and keep going.
It’s the extra reps, the last fifteen seconds when we are gasping for air, the last ten pages that we read when our brains hurt, that shows us what we are made of. And once we see what we are really capable of, life is good.
“What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.”
-Arnold Schwarzenegger
