The Basics...2012 Style-Part II

As I mentioned in part I, a mountain of studies have been written in recent years to support burst training as a superior form of cardiovascular training but it has yet to become the mainstream form of cardiovascular exercise.  Why? One reason is that old habits die hard-very hard.

Speaking of hard…burst training is tough! Ah, but it’s so much shorter and that has one very important benefit:

 

The number one reason why people say they don’t exercise is that they don’t have time.  Burst training puts an end to that excuse. The recommended five to eight bursts will take about twenty minutes to complete and everyone can find twenty minutes especially if they don’t have to be consecutive minutes-and they don’t.  Another reason this hasn’t caught on as quickly as it should have is because of the large, commercial or big box gyms.  The typical big box Gym is

The Basics…2012 Style-Part I

Marty Marsh, marketing expert  and a personal acquaintance, recently told a story in a blog post that caught my eye.  It was about a marketing concept that had to do with finding your perfect client.  Its message, at first, seemed unrelated to those of us who have a serious interest in health and fitness.  But since it was about Vince Lombardi, I read on.

   

I’ve always been drawn to stories about Vince Lombardi because for one, he was one of sport’s greatest coaches and an incredible role model and inspiration for me but also because he was a personal hero of my father’s so my interest in him has always been twofold. The article was about the importance of “the basics,” and it is pretty incredible.  Here is how Marty’s story went:

...Vince Lombardi, the great and legendary football coach for the Green Bay Packers would

Chocolate Forever

I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day. I think it’s a made-up commercial holiday that only serves to line the pockets of Hallmark, Whitman Chocolates and the florists of America (Bah! Valen-bug!)  But it will always hold a place in my heart.  When we were kids, my mother would buy us each a card and a little mini box of chocolate and place it on our place at the kitchen table Valentine’s morning.  It was so nice to be remembered like that, really nice.

I would imagine there isn’t a person alive that doesn’t have some sort of happy memory associated with chocolate. “…Come with me and you'll be, in a world of pure imagination…” Willy Wonka sang.  But as we got older, chocolate was demonized wasn’t it?  But it needn’t be. 

Have You Been Screened?

Many health and wellness professionals have an alphabet soup of letters or “designations” after their name.  These letters appear on business cards and published articles and represent credentials and qualifications that the professional deems important enough to tell the world about.  Never mind that most people have no idea what any of these credentials mean but it looks impressive, doesn’t it?  Now those of us in the industry…we know what they mean-which implies that we’re out to impress each other rather than the people we’re supposed to be serving.  But in an industry as competitive as ours, we must do something to set ourselves apart from others that do what we do.

But that is not the reason why I have the initials, FMS after my name.  FMS stands for Functional Movement Screen (certified) and it is a part of my practice that I am proud to promote (hence the initials.)

We’re All Narcissists Now

I was once at a mentorship for advanced level training when one of the coaches I had just paid a pile of cash to, told me that your success at getting a client to achieve their goals was 85% (yes! 85%) mental.  If that were true I thought, then, what am I doing here?  Why am I here at all?  Isn’t it really a psychiatrist that would help my client the most?  While the “mental” component of training comprises several things such as  good attitude, behavior, discipline and self-awareness (things that clients do need in order to be successful), what we can do as fitness and lifestyle experts is to guide people to use their training as a new way of looking at behavior and lifestyle that will impact their health forever.  So yes, that’s why many health coaches like myself spend so much time harping on “mindset…” it’s because of that 85%.  Sounds great doesn’t it?

But what if we’ve created a monster?  In our zest for giving people the tools with which to give themselves the gift of optimal health, we may be creating legions of the self-obsessed.