Back From The North

Spending Christmas up in Sudbury this year was great. I hadn't been up there for over 4 years for Christmas and was able to see some relatives that I haven't seen in a long time.

Most of the day was spent recovering from last night's festivities, re hydrating and getting to the gym to re-energize so I could do it all again.
Nothing too crazy mind you just a lot of late nights, fixing motors, watching hockey and telling stories til the wee hours of the morning.

Taking a rest from work and training once in a while is very beneficial to your overall long term objectives. I always take around 3 full weeks off from training each year one of them being around Christmas. I'll still get out to break a sweat but give my muscles a rest from the heavy lifting. If done properly it is in these rest weeks where you can build the most muscle tissue.

One of the studio clients went away over the holidays and drank sweet drinks on the beach all day and didn't lift a finger. We had planned for this by giving him a solid 4 weeks of heavy lifting up to this week off and thereby induced a great week of hypertrophy (muscle growth) while he was eating and resting.

His test results came in today and he was up 1.5 pounds of fat and up 3.5 pounds of muscle! Not bad for a week on the beach.

Merry Christmas

With so many Christmas parties this time of year it is difficult to stay on a diet so why bother staying on a 'diet' just eat better and make good choices.

If you are going to drink wine, alternate with a glass of water.

If you are going to have deserts, fill up on the vegetables and protein first.
By the time you go to dive in to the dessert table you are full and will only sample a few things, which is fine.

No time to get a run in with all the extra shopping, wrapping and parties?
Why not walk really fast when you are shopping to get your cardio in, pack a protein bar or buy one when you are out and stay away from the food court.
Pay the tables at the mall to wrap your gifts and help a local charity in the process. If you're like me the wrapping will look ten times better too.
Too many parties? It's ok to say 'No, I'm sorry I am busy."

Enter the holiday season with a positive mindset, don't give in to the season by welcoming the extra 10 pounds and you'll enter the new year at the same weight as you were at the start of the season tackling this beast called December.

Stop Trying To Find An Easy Solution

Here is an exerpt from an emial I just received from a person who will remain nameless.

"Is the consultation free? Who is the consultation held with? What is included in this consultation?

I apologize but I need to enquire as I've spent a fortune in the past few years on many different types of weight management programs.

Just to name a few Herbal Magic, The Zone, Atkins, Vegan Diet, Dexatrim, Slim fast, Informercials, LA weight loss (their pathetic service and scam lasted one month, I'm still trying to get my full refund and that was back in April 2008.

Lastly I tried Dr. Bernstein's in September 2008 which was out of this world expensive and my Dr. ordered me off the diet because my Cholesterol & Billirubin became high.

I got busier then ever but also packed on weight faster then ever, I do have an underactive thyroid condition & can gain weight fast, with no exercise, a fair amount of stress I managed to pack on 35 pounds.

What can I do?"


To me this is such a typical problem today and I see it all the time with a very simple answer.

Do you know what it is?

New Vitality Supplement Name Search

We are excited to be able to offer for your convenience a new Omega 3 supplement available online and in the studio.

But before we can bring it in we wanted to see if we could get some of you to help pick the name.

If you wouldn't mind taking a quick one multiple choice question survey please click the link below and help choose the name of our first supplement.

Click Here to take survey

Make it happen, Make it fun, Make it about the here and now

You already know why you should exercise and eat smart. But if the whys aren’t enough to move you to action, then here are 3 tips on how to do it.

Make it happen.
There are lots of excuses not to exercise. Fortunately, there are even more solutions. Train early before-work or express classes for lunch hour. Or just go for a walk and burn calories in the park or mall. Whatever obstacles you face, somebody’s overcome bigger ones. You can make it work.

Make it fun.
Workout with an MP3 player (or even your dusty old Walkman) and get inspired by your favorite tunes. Or take a group class and feel the energy of the crowd, and maybe even make some new friends. Or join a sports team and work up a sweat chasing the ball around. Exercise is good for you, but it doesn’t have to be a chore; the best exercise is the one you’ll look forward to so try adn remember what you did as a kid that was called "play".

Make it about the here and now.
Goals – specific, short-term, realistic and written down – keep you on track over the long haul. But a positive attitude is even more important; it keeps you on track day to day, workout to workout. It’s the difference between feeling like you’re suffering for some far-off gain and enjoying what you’re doing right now.

Let’s say you want to lose 10 pounds in 3 months; that’s a good, clear goal. But if you show up to the studio thinking “I’m losing 10 pounds today,” you might feel you’ve come up short when you leave looking pretty much the same as when you arrived.

Instead, focus on staying positive. Think “I’m enjoying this workout” or “I like the new people I’m meeting” or “I love getting off the couch and being challenged” or “I can feel myself getting stronger.” Stay in-the-moment, and you will meet your goals; you’ll just enjoy the journey more.

The Stanford Marshmallow Study

Stanford University psychology researcher Michael Mischel demonstrated how important self-discipline (the ability to delay immediate gratifiction in exchange for long term goal achievement) is to lifelong success? In a longitudinal study which began in the 1960s, he offered hungry 4-year-olds a marshmallow, but told them that if they could wait for the experimenter to return after running an errand, they could have two marshmallows.

Those who could wait the fifteen or twenty minutes for the experimenter to return would be demonstrating the ability to delay gratification and control impulse.
About one-third of of the children grabbed the single marshmallow right away while some waited a little longer, and about one-third were able to wait 15 or 20 minutes for the researcher to return.

Years later when the children graduated from high school, the differences between the two groups were dramatic: the resisters were more positive, self-motivating, persistent in the face of difficulties, and able to delay gratification in pursuit of their goals. They had the habits of successful people which resulted in more successful marriages, higher incomes, greater career satisfaction, better health, and more fulfilling lives than most of the population.

Those having grabbed the marshmallow were more troubled, stubborn and indecisive, mistrustful, less self-confident, and still could not put off gratification. They had trouble subordinating immediate impulses to achieve long-range goals. When it was time to study for the big test, they tended to get distracted into doing activities that brought instant gratifciation This impulse followed them throughout their lives and resulted in unsucessful marriages, low job satisfaction and income, bad health, and frustrating lives.

The morale is...

Dump the beer down the sink, toss the cookies, throw out the bag of chips, pass by the pop in the store, whatever.

The key to having the body and life that you want comes in these moments of decision and having the power to say 'no'.

And The Winners Are...

The most steps accumulated in November by a client based solely on steps walked without self reported values goes to Theresa Jefferson and Kevin Orr.
Congratulations goes out to them and the $25 grand prize.
I hope they spend it well.
By the way I prefer cabernet sauvignon.
Happy Holidays and keep walking.
Last one to a million steps is a rotten egg.

Train With Maximum Intensity Less Than 5 Minutes A Week And Skyrocket Your Results!

When you first start working out it is hard to get mentally prepared for the battle that should be occurring between you and yourself. That's right I said you actually fight yourself in every workout to get the most out of every set.

You will always hear a voice telling you to stop near the end of your set and hopefully you will hear another voice too. In the beginning let that voice be mine telling you to do 2 more reps no matter what and soon that voice will become your own and become stronger than the one that wants to stop just as your muscles are about to respond.

The margin of time that determines muscle building success or failure in every workout is a fraction of time. Actually, your entire margin of success in every workout can ultimately be reduced to just a short time span of about 90 seconds. How you choose to handle a short 90 second time period during your workouts will translate to either poor, mediocre or significant muscle building and fat burning results.

Although each entire workout will last for about an hour, only 90 seconds of that actual time will determine what kind of gains you achieve.
You might not know exactly what I am talking about so let me explain...
When you pick up a weight to start a set is it very tough at the beginning?
No, of course not. Not if you are planning on lifting it to failure around 12 reps for instance.

The first 10 reps or so you probably don't even feel. You are only preparing your muscles and mind to give forth maximum intensity during those last few critical reps.
This is where most people fail and I see it time and time again. People put down the weight and end there set well before they really had to. I'll often walk up to clients and ask them if I paid them $20 right now could they do 2 more?

More often that not they can pump out another 5 or more!

I don't actually pay them because they lesson I teach them is worth more than a thousand dollars. At least that's what I tell them to get out of coughing up $20.

You see, every individual set that you perform in the gym is ultimately being performed for the benefits that will be achieved on the last 1-2 reps. Muscles respond to stress, and the only truly stressful reps that actually trigger your body's muscle building mechanisms are those at the end of each set when the body is on the brink of muscular failure.

If a given set consists of 12 reps, then reps 1-10 are only performed in order to get to reps 11 and 12. Reps 1-10 will do very little in terms of stimulating muscular growth, but are necessary to perform in order to overload the muscles on reps 5 and 6.

In other words, it is only the very last 1-2 reps that will ultimately yield a muscle building response from the body. The longer you can push yourself to battle the weights during this small time frame at the end of each set, the greater results you will achieve.

Any of you who have read my articles know that I'm a big advocate of training to muscular failure. There is simply no better way to trigger your body's adaptive responses than to train until your muscles cannot move the weight another inch.
The closer and closer that you can come to muscular failure, the more dramatically your body will respond. This time frame is literally measured in single seconds. If you drop the weights 5-6 seconds earlier than you really have to, you'll be significantly sacrificing your muscle growth.

So, where did the 90-second time frame come from?

Well, if we assume that you perform 12 total all out sets per workout and have a margin of 7-8 seconds between success/failure per set, this gives you 90 seconds of total time per workout to either battle through with full effort or to surrender and settle for mediocre results.

It really is true; your bodybuilding success is literally measured by the short, precise moments at the very end of each set and the amount of effort you are willing to exert during this time.

If you can force yourself to train to all out muscular failure, you'll achieve the best results possible. If you drop the weight 3 seconds before muscular failure, your growth, definition and fat loss will be compromised. If you drop the weight 8 seconds before muscular failure, your growth, definition and fat loss will be compromised even further.

If we multiply our 90-second figure by my recommended number of 3 workouts per week, this means that your bodybuilding success in the gym will literally be measured by how you choose to handle a window of opportunity of less than 5 short minutes per week. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said in the movie "Pumping Iron",
"...It is in this moment where your muscle burn as if they were on fire that you must push through. If you can pass through this ring of fire, a champion will emerge on the other side!"

You must train hard and with full effort at all times. When the weight feels like an immoveable object and your muscles ache and burn with discomfort and pain, you must push through this brief moment in time and continue until true muscular failure is reached.

When this time comes during the end of your set be ready for it. Know that it is coming and it happens to everyone. But now for you it will be different. You will hear that voice inside screaming to give up and then I want you to listen to that new, stronger voice that says come on...2 more, no matter what.
It is in this brief moment of time that all the magic happens.

If you stop short, even a second short, your gains will be compromised.
Keep this in mind at all times during every workout and you'll experience better results than ever before.