Training on the Road

I mentioned in the previous post that I just got back to town. I absolutely love to train when I am on vacation. Something about being relaxed and not having any time constraints makes exercise so much more enjoyable. I love to use whatever equipment (or lack thereof) that is available to prove that you don't need much to get a great workout. Here is a little gem that Andrea and I did one day:

10 Rounds of:

10 Burpees (100 total)
5 Pull-ups (50 total)

AFAP (as fast as possible)

We used the cross-bar of a soccer goal for the pull-ups. This was way harder than it looked on paper and nearly brought up my quesadilla from the night before. Good fun!

Rick Mayo

100 lbs in 6 months!

I just got back to town last night from Cooperstown NY where my son was playing in the 12 year old World Series tournament. If you have a son that plays baseball, you really should try and find a team (ages 10 or 12) that plans on playing at Cooperstown. It was an awesome experience!

While we were there, one of the moms on our team asked me if I had said hello to her dad. Now I had met her father the year before at the beach and really enjoyed talking with him so I was looking for him at this tournament. When I answered no she pointed him out to me. The reason I didn't recognize him is that he had lost over 100lbs since the last time I had seen him! I literally sat a few seats down from him and didn't even recognize who he was.

Back at our hotel I had a chance to sit down and talk to him about his weight loss journey and how he had become such a success. "It all started by making a bet with my brother. My cholesterol was high, I was on blood pressure meds, and I weighed over 315 lbs. Surprisingly, none of that mattered. My kids and my wife were constantly on me about losing weight but nothing really motivated me until I made that bet." I forgot the details of the bet but there was a little money and a lot of pride on the line at the weekly and monthly weigh-ins. Kevin's brother lost 86 lbs and he lost over 100! "The weird thing was that all of that bad stuff went away (referring to the BP, Chol and etc). Go figure", he said with a big smile.

Want to guess how they did it? I'm going to reveal their secret to you just this once and only on this blog post. Pay attention. They both began an intense exercise program and reduced their portion sizes. That's it, you say? No pills, special foods or magic exercises? Nope, just hard work and time. Kevin actually pointed out how interesting it was that everyone he knew asked how he did it and when he told them that he ate less and exercised he got the deer in the headlights look from nearly everyone. Human nature really is a funny thing.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back and I am going to work with Kevin long distance on getting off those last few lbs. Great work!


Rick Mayo

Willpower is a muscle?

According to this article by Kelly McGonigal, PhD, willpower is not a personality trait, a skill or a virtue. Instead, it operates like a muscle. And as such, it can be strengthened—but also easily exhausted .

A strength model of willpower proposes four important ideas:

Willpower is a mind-body response, not merely a mindset.
Using willpower depletes resources in the body.
Willpower is limited.
Willpower is trainable.

McGonigal explains that each and every decision we make works to exhaust our willpower reserves. Example: If you are constantly faced with healthy food choices at home, you may not have the willpower energy to resist desert at an evening party. The solution to this example is to limit your food choices at home so that you will have more willpower in the tank to make better decisions when you may not be in control of your environment.

The article offers several great suggestions on how to build and preserve your willpower muscle in all areas of your life.

Rick Mayo

What's in - What's out

There are trends in all industries. The trends in health and fitness are driven by science, social awareness and the opinions/studies of our industry leaders. Here is my list of what is in or out:

What's in:

Organic Foods
Going Green
Strictly Compound Movements
Active Resistance (slosh pipe, water ball and etc)
Natural Movements
Suspension Training
Outdoor Workouts
Kettlebells
Intermittent Fasting
Paleo Diets
Short Workouts
Sprints/Intervals
Dynamic Stretching
Foam Rollers

What's out:

Convenience Foods
Body Building Workouts
Balance Equipment
Weight Machines
3 sets of 10
Indoor Cardio
High Carb/lowfat diets
Crunches
Endurance Training (for fat loss)
Static Stretching
Single Joint Exercises
Large Health Clubs

Rick Mayo

Warm-up

We design home programs for numerous clients. While the exercises are relatively easy to remember, the warm-up is not. Below is a video of Rebecca performing our typical dynamic warm-up. This is a great warm-up for strength training or sprinting and it will increase your flexibility. If you do this type of warm-up, there is no need to perform additional static stretches at the end of your workout.



Rick Mayo