Alex is Happy

The new issue of ACSM Journal of Heal and Fitness is here.

New Equipment

The 5 foot barbell just came in. This bar is 2 feet shorter than a regular bar, and only weighs 30lbs. The shorter length is great for walking lunges. Also, introducing new members to barbell lifts will be much easier with this tool.

Perfection is Inaction

“I’ll start on Monday.” This phrase is overused by people wanting to make a change. But the idea behind it is important;

              This action is not important enough to me to do now. I will wait until the perfect situation arrives.

Everyone at some point has decided to make a change. Few make a permanent change. It is tough to break habits and build new ones. The grandiose goals that require many steps and short-term deprivation or at least discomfort to achieve, are made easily and frequently. These types of goals lead to a culture of failure.

Of course it is made with the best of intentions. And the temporary feeling of empowerment is wonderful. But it is just temporary.

I am going to lose 100lbs!

I have heard this many times. And I have seen people do it, with and without help. Simply one could start walking and stop eating junk, depending on how hard they worked it might take about a year. Here is the entire program:

Step 1 – Get Up!

Step 2 – Walk out your front door.

Step 3 – Walk past a fast food restaurant.

(keyword, PAST, don’t stop at it, you don’t eat at these anymore)

Step 4 – There is no step 4. Just do this every day.

It is this simple. So why isn’t everyone that wants to be thinner achieving that goal? Let’s let the Underpants Gnomes explain:

 

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1.       Magic Pill

2.       No Reasonable Plan of Action

3.       Grandiose Goal

Don’t take this as give up and don’t try, but a huge goal without a plan is exactly that;

NOT TRYING

You make the goal. You feel good. You never take a real action. Or maybe you take the first step, but with no plan on what the next step or breaking it into smaller achievable goals failure is assured for all but the most dedicated.

Culture of Failure

How many times can a person make a grandiose goal and honestly believe that this time it will be different?

It will be different if I have the perfect….

At some point in this process the expectation on failure corrupts the individual. Yes they still try, because they have to try something, the goal gets bigger and more unrealistic to get the same empowered feeling as before. Deep down the goal setter knows it’s not going to happen.

Enough of the Depressing Stuff

Stop with the specific objectives,

I am going to lose 100lbs.

Change it to,

I am going to be healthier.

The difference is that the second is actionable and can be applied repeatibly throught the day.
Setbacks happen. With the first goal every setback makes the goal seem impossibly larger. However, a setback with the second is more easily contained. It isn’t an all or nothing goal. It is process orientated, so what matters is that the general trend is towards being healthier.

Repeat It to Believe It

This will help internalize it, so when it comes time to make a choice the healthy one becomes the front runner. If you walk into the grocery store with the mindset of “I am going to be healthier” wouldn’t it be easier to stick to the shopping list? Sure the initial days of “I am going to lose 100lbs” is going to be rock solid… until the dam breaks. Then the negative emotions of another failure turn on the self-destructive autopilot.

Plan for Success

Perfection is impossible, and waiting for the perfect moment or setup garuntees that nothing will every happen. Focus on improvement. Getting better is always possible with purposful effort. Make continual small improvements, they are the steps along the path. Those improvements or steps can be planned. When done correctly each one can help build positive momentum that is crucial for success.

Burn More Fat While Working Out

Add one or more of these to increase the intesity of your training, burning more energy and speeding up your results.

1.      Pair exercises together. Instead of doing one exercise, then moving to the next, use the rest breaks of the first lift to do a second exercise for an unrelated body part. Getting more work done in less time will burn more energy.

2.      Add more resistance. If the weight that is being used for a given exercise is not increasing over time, it will not provide the same stimulus that it once did. Only when the exercise is tough enough to force the body to adapt will the exercise burn the maximum amount of calories.

3.      Reduce rest breaks. If rest breaks have always been two minutes between sets, cut 30 seconds. Not only does this make the workout harder, more total work can be done in the same amount of time.

4.     Lift before cardio. Getting tired from conditioning will negatively affect the performance of lifting. The bigger lifts that produce a bigger effect on the body often require good technique to be done safely. When tired not only will less weight be used, it is less likely to be done correctly.

5.   Move Faster. Add sprinting, jumping, or throwing. These exercises use the biggest muscle fibers. Because of their size, these fibers can burn a tremendous amount of energy. These fast movements should be done after a good warm-up, but before any lifting for maximum effect.

 

Facility Upgrade

Before

After

With the new strip of black carpet and the transition between turf and carpet being properly done, the gym looks sharp. We want to thank Gordon at Di's Floor Center for a job well done.

Open House This Saturday

Tomorrow, January 19th from noon to 3 pm Cascade Peak Performance will be hosting an open house for the Emerald Execuative Association. Come check out what we can do to help you reach your health and fitness goals.

New Camera

 

As always, Murph is working hard.

 

Fathead the Movie

Here is a simple and funny movie on nutrition:
http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/196879

Blog Reboot

We just rebooted the blog. We had been using tumblr, but now have switched to blogger. Hopefully it syncs better with our webpage.