A new way to measure muscle – MIT News Office.
I sent an email to Joel today. It is my hope that he will get back to me soon, and that potentially, I might have a much more effective means of measuring your muscle gains very soon…
-John
Slowing Aging by Fighting Muscle Wasting Disease.
Found this today during my Friday afternoon reading session…
-John
Cross-Training by Lifting Weights – NYTimes.com.
Just another one of the many benefits of strength training…
-John
The Benefits of Weight Training for Kids – NYTimes.com.
I’ve posted and discussed this article before, but ran across it again tonight and though I would put it back on the top of the list 
-John
A few of you have asked recently, and because I’ve recently updated the format of my blog, the old link was not working, so here it is…
If you’re interested in ordering a copy of my new book, “Weight Loss, the Job No One is Training You For” you can do that right now by clicking here.
The book should be out very soon, and supplies are limited, so I encourage you to reserve your copy now.
-John
That’s what I’m starting to call it. The story of your aging process and the hopelessness that can often work it’s way into the fabric of your decades.
It really is the untold story. A story so common that I often find it very difficult to believe that no one else really seems to be talking about it. Yesterday, I encountered another good example of the story I’m referring to, and I thought I would take a few minutes this morning to share it with you…
“I call it the flat butt, fat gut syndrome.” She said to me as we discussed her interest in the Nomad Kickstart program. I think this is a good way to put it. For women in their 50s and 60s, the job of trying to maintain your once lean and fit physique can start to feel somewhat hopeless…as it currently does for this women.
“Can I really feel like I can do something about this?” She asked earnestly. “Of course.” Came my quick reply, along with the usual question about whether or not she had watched at least a few of the videos on my web site. There are some really good stories there. I encourage you to watch a few of them too. Stories of women just like you.
The problem we’re discussing here is experienced by men too, but for this post, my focus is on women, because it’s harder for them. Mainly as a result of menopause, which speeds up your bone and muscle loss over the years the way warm water does, when poured over an ice cube.
I’ve discussed elsewhere on this blog about what happens to your bone and muscle over the years. That you begin losing it at about a rate of 1% per year sometime in your 30s. And that when a women goes through menopause, this rate accelerates and often leads to dramatic and unwanted changes in your physicality.
What it looks like in real life is the story I heard yesterday on the telephone.
A women in her late 50s, who in spite of her valiant efforts through cardiovascular exercise and focus on good nutrition, can’t seem to keep her “fat butt” from flattening, and her “fat gut” from expanding. More and more work with diminishing returns until the hopelessness sets in, and you go looking for a solution, or worse, you give up.
The story of your viable options when you finally go looking is for another time. The story today is that there truly is hope. You can absolutely do something about this problem if you’re willing to put the work in, open your mind to new ideas, and allow the science and magic of your body’s willingness to respond take you on one of the most fantastic journies you could possibly imagine. The journey back. Back to the physical bohemian you know once existed inside you. Back to a place where the work is actually worth it, and the reward is far more fulfilling than you could have possibly expected.
This women had one other legitimate concern…
“You’re not going to get me in to this Kickstart Program and then try and make me commit for a full year or something are you?”
“No.” I said emphatically. I used to do that, because you really do need to commit for a full year to this journey back. But I don’t ask people to do that any more. Instead, I offer the Nomad Kickstart Program as a starting point to your road back. Should you decide you want to continue that journey with me, and I am available, sure, I would love to help you get there. Mostly though, I want to help you understand that there truly is hope. There really is a place where this doesn’t seem like an impossibility. The only problem is that the story is not being told. The answers have been hidden from view. And through the Nomad Kickstart Program, I can not just help you get started, but help you understand what it really takes to make this job a successful full-time career.
I know, I know…I should try and be a little more politically correct. I shouldn’t be so brash. I might offend someone…
That’s just not me, though, especially when it comes to the fitness business, where EVERY day there is more to add to the list of ridiculous ideas about how to keep you motivated. Most of them crafted by those with little or no experience in the field. Soldiers like me, grinding away in the trenches of your goals and what it takes to achieve them.
My book is coming out very soon. In fact, you can order an advance copy right right here. In it, I spend a great deal of time on this subject, and talk extensively about what I’ve seen over the years, and about what it truly takes to stick with your program and get results. That’s why when I get the kind of email I received this morning, I get a little fired up…
Email I received:
“Dear John,
I came across your web site earlier today and was wondering if you could provide some feedback on our new software and idea. It’s a tool designed to help gym members stay on track with their goals.
The way it works is you submit say $30 into an account with us, and as you make progress, you make the money back over time. If you don’t reach the goal, that money can be used toward personal trainers at the gym.”
Dude, seriously? As I so often used to say when I was younger and could still feel most of the California blood running through my veins. This is a stupid idea.
Here’s why…
In all my years of doing this work, one vital axiom holds true:
You’re either ready to do the work of committing to yourself and your goals or your not. Your readiness moves from the general sense – “Are you ready to start?” and then moves on to the more specific actions necessary to attack the work of achieving your goals.
Your readiness to change will then span a continuum from totally ready, to not ready at all for each aspect of the work. For example, you might be ready to hit your exercise program hard 5 days per week, but you might not be nearly as willing to give up your fish-fries on Friday nights.
When people are ready, they take action. Hopefully, they’re able to find a qualified coach who has the right tools, and is a good fit for their personality, and for what they are trying to accomplish. Or, if they decide not to hire a coach (something I really don’t recommend) to at least help guide them, hopefully they are able to locate and digest the information and resources that will help them achieve their goals.
One thing is for sure. The majority of people going to gyms and trying to get results are not getting them. Not because they don’t have access to coaches, tools, and support. Because they don’t take action and follow-through.
This follow-through comes from within. Not from some silly little tools that takes your money.
Want to encourage people with money? Tell them you’re taking away their health insurance benefits unless they get to work.
Even then, you still wouldn’t get a majority to do the work, because it takes commitment, intention, and true and lasting willingness to nurture yourself. Until that nurturing comes from within, all the money in the world won’t save you…
There are times when I’m just plain tired of being a fitness professional. Not because I don’t love helping people achieve their health, fitness and life goals, but becuase I loath being associated with the industry as a whole. My experience online today is a perfect example. But first, a quick story…
Snow is falling hard at the moment. And that means one important thing for me this morning. I’ll be a little lonely until it tapers off, because clients won’t show for their appointments. My first one did, arriving ahead of me for her 6:30 AM time slot. I wasn’t late. She was early. Early on a week following the death of her father, the sale of her condo, and all of the other responsibilities related to her impending move across town. In spite of all of it, she was here. And in spite of all of it, she turned in her logs, and kept the work of achieving her health and fitness goals moving right along.
The roads on the way to the studio downtown this morning were a bit slippery. We beat the snow plows and their salt spreaders to work, and though the traffic is light at 6:15 in the morning, the trip took longer than usual, as I worked carefully not to make acquaintance with the guard rails along the route to my new office in downtown Madison, WI.
Looking back on that short trip now, I can see that it provides a good metaphor for the story above. The journey is not always free and clear of obstacles, it is often somewhat slippery, and wet with with the the moisture that which life’s storms often bring. And yet, here she was, beating me to the studio. Sleepy, and obviously tired from her week away attending to her father’s death, but here. Present with the process of achieving her health and fitness goals. I couldn’t help but gain a good bit of inspiration from this. And I also couldn’t help referring to her story as today’s post made it’s way into my muse.
For this is the untold story of what it takes to be successful in anything, including the pursuit of your health and fitness goals. The untold story of the work that grinds along behind the scene of your life until one day you appear just a little leaner, and feeling like you have at least triple the energy you had before. Your life begins to turn in a direction that you had long forgotten existed, and now there is no stopping you, because there is no way on earth you’re going back to that deep, dark cavernous place that held you captive for so many years of your life. The wet cave walls and their earthy smell, blocking out the light and holding you down one earthy drip at a time.
Unfortunately, this story almost never surfaces. It is dwarfed by the great white ‘After Photo.’ A gleaming image of someone thin, lean, and happy again. Glowing in the light of the photographer’s work. Right next to it is the before photo. The one from the cave, dark and disturbing. An image often faded, warped, and in the worst possible shape. Smudged and beat down from years under all those drippings. All those damn drippings.
Those images, and all images like it now dwarf the landscape of your life. On billboards, TV advertisements, newspapers, magazines, and especially online where you can lose yourself for hours. Drowning in the sea of emotions that begins to surface, you look for ways to dry yourself from those damn drippings. All those damn drippings…
Images that make me feel a little sick to be a fitness professional. Images I’ve used myself at times in my own attempts to lure you to my ladder. The one I offer in to help you pull yourself out of that cave. Sometimes it feels like it’s the only way to find you, the confused soul looking for answers. Though deep down I know that’s not true. Because what’s true are the stories behind those images. Stories I share with you here on this blog, on my web sites, and anywhere else I can find the time and energy to do so. Because what I find is that when I begin to share the stories, everything changes, and you begin to see yourself in the story. And once you do that, you’ve taken the first and important step of learning how to play your own role in your own story.
So as you begin this journey, be careful. There exists a sea of uncertainty and misinformation begging for your attention. If only for a moment, because that’s all they need to capture your emotions, steel your money, and leave you rotting in that cave.
I think the images and the statements I’ve referred to here in this story speak for themselves so I’ll leave a smattering of them here, and will look forward to your comments…
-John
—————–
“In Your Face Fitness”
-The title of a fitness column in the LA Times Newspaper
The two Google Adwords that appeared at the top of the page of a couple of the articles I read in preparation for this post:
“1 Trick of a Tiny Belly:”
“Cut down a bit of your belly every day using this 1 wierd tip.”
-This add actually takes you to the following link which is an article touting the unbelievably too good to be true benefits of The Acai Berry. With a picture of a nationally know news anchor, and claims like, “Acai has been found to increase metabolism, boosting weight loss by more than 800%.” how could you possible go wrong. -John
Of course, don’t forget this one…
“I couldn’t be any happier with the results. I Lost 27 lbs in 4 Weeks, No Special Diet, No Intense Exercise”
-I think that claim speaks for itself, and remember, even if the scale weight did change to that degree, this rate of weight loss is dangerous, causes muscle-wasting, and is only for those intent on thwarting evolution. -John
“52 year-old Mom Looks 27″
“Mom publishes free facelift secret that has angered doctors”
-No comment needed here…
And here are a few of the images…
If bloggers are trying it, than it must be good...
Most women fear getting bulky from the most important form of exercise we need - strength training. Images like these (ridiculous as it is) certainly feed tath erroneous fear
This guy and his ads have been around a long time. Certainly intriguing. REady to click-thorugh? PS All the work I do here at Nomad's uses science, whole-foods nutrition, and exercise too
As many of you know by now, I’ve recently moved my fitness studio to downtown Madison, WI. And as part of this process, I’ve done much more than physically move my stuff. I’ve created an entirely new focus for my business as a personal training and research center.
That second designation is important for many reasons. Most of which, because as far as I can tell, the fitness industry has gotten it wrong.
No, I’m not trying to bash my competition, or tell you that every other option you have other than mine is not worthy of your time or money. I’m trying to tell you that there is way more to the story of your health and fitness than is typically laid out in the average gym, fitness center, or personal training studio.
For the most part, what’s missing is a general lack of expertise and focus in ALL the right areas. And in conjunction with that, a general lack of analysis of the data and outcomes that are so important to track and analyze as you make your way toward your health and fitness goals.
I realize that might sound somewhat vague to you. So let me put it this way…
When was the last time your gym, fitness center, or personal trainer sat down with you to review your level of adherence to various interventions as it relates to your change in outcomes?
And if you’re not a gym member or don’t work with a trainer, what are you doing personally to ensure that these vital assessments are taking place regularly?
The problem is, that void of this kind of analysis, it is impossible for you as the fitness enthusiast to know whether or not you are making progress, and if so, how much. In turn, it is also impossible for you to progress your program in a way that produces continued results.
Sure you might be losing weight, but are you aware of how that weight loss relates to your body composition? And if so, how that relates to your level of adherence to the various interventions of cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and nutrition? Because if you did, you could make that program your on even more powerful over time.
It’s OK.
Over the next two months, NBC 15 news anchor Leigh Mills will come and train with me at my new downtown location, and we will closely document her program, the process, and her progress so that we can report it directly to you.
We will do this for a variety of different reasons…
First of all, admittedly, and for many years now, Leigh has been practicing and preaching fitness, but she has made one of the biggest mistakes you can make. She has avoided strength training. Sure, she’s done the ‘cardio-pump’ type stuff that you often find as part of an aerobics class, but that’s just not the same. And that’s just the kind of mistake that can leave you feeling like weight loss doesn’t work.
In fact, Leigh will tell you now, that she’s beginning to feel the effects of that lack of strength training in her ability to remain the lean, mean fighting machine that she is. And I will show you clearly that this is where the problem starts – early in your 30s when it’s very hard to tell what’s happening to your physiology, unless you are watching it as closely as I do with my clients.
Over the next two months, I will perform a 1-person case-study with Leigh as the subject. I will take her through some of the simple, high-intensity strength training techniques that we’ve been talking about on our segments recently, and that I implement with my clients on a regular basis.
We will document for you, not just her change in body weight and composition, but how different this type of program really is, and what it can do for you, why it works so well, and why it will help you so significantly in your pursuit of peak health and fitness.
I guarantee you that this journey will inspire you, motivate you, and force you to look at your pursuit of your health and fitness goals in a new, much more accurate and positive way.
Most importantly, however, I want to show you how to do this health, fitness, and weight loss thing the right way. I want to show you what happens when you truly understand how your adherence relates to a change in your body’s physiology and in your outcomes. Because once you have that understanding, the myth and mystery that weight loss can become, will no longer seam like that impossible dream.
I hope you’ll enjoy this work, as much as I know Leigh I will, even though she’s a little scared.
-John