You go where the good stuff is!
In an ideal world, everyone would walk to their dream job, walk to their best case school, have short commutes to the awesome shopping plazas, great public transportation at your finger tips, low to no traffic and congestion, highly rated programs and extracurriculars at your finger tips and 5 star medical care easily assessable. But that's not the case in all ways for everyone. Sometimes you have to go to and find the good stuff. People do out of the norm commutes for work, school, shopping, extra curricular's and health care. Ever met a hockey or private school parent? Or someone who works in sales, travels for work or leaves before the rooster gets up and gets home after the rooster goes to sleep? How about people [...]
Show muscles and light weights!
"I don't want to look good", said no one ever! I've been thinking a lot about the research article I shared with you the other day and how to better apply it in our program. Research is often times playing catch up to what happens in the real world, yet once it's finally done, it can help crystallize your parameters or guidelines. The things that stand out to me from the article are: lifting to failure (can't lift the weight anymore) 3 sets single joint exercise lifted 2x/wk for 8 weeks readjusted (retested) 1RM after 4 weeks (8 workouts) assessed subjects rate of perceived exertion (RPE) after every workout comparable to lifting heavy weights to failure subjects ate their regular diet 1-leg did reps to failure the other leg [...]
Can you build muscle with light weights just as easily as with heavy?
Short answer: Yes! Long answer: Back when I was training for sports and my DKNY club clothes, lifting heavy weights and lifting weights to failure were common methods I would use to help achieve sports performance, maximum strength building and body composition goals. I was smart enough to know there were certain exercises it wasn't worth the risk to intentionally go to failure on even though many times I did when I failed to hit a rep or fatigued mid-rep. These were mostly the big muscle, multi-joint, compound movements like cleans, snatches, back squat, front squat, dead lifts, lunges, overhead presses and bench presses. Other times I would intentionally go to failure, especially on pull up progressions, push ups, inverted rows, 1-leg [...]
Athletes bring gear to their workouts, practices and games!
https://youtu.be/xte5xe5pvN8 Did you play sports growing up? How about activities? Did you do any physical extracurricular activities growing up? If yes, then you probably had gear and had to bring it in a bag. Football players had cleats, cups, pads, helmets, pants, jerseys, water bottles and a ball. Soccer players had balls, cleats or turf shoes, shin guards, cups, socks, shorts. Field Hockey players had sticks, balls, cleats or turf shoes and goggles. Basketball players have basketball sneakers, a basketball, hand towel for sweat and a water bottle. Ice Hockey players have a giant bag, sticks, helmets, pads, tape, pucks, cups, jerseys, pants, skates and a water bottle. Baseball & Softball players have bags, cleats, bats, balls, gloves, cups, pants, jerseys, batting gloves, hats, sun [...]
Scheduled Self-Care: Set It And Forget It!
Self-care = taking care of yourself. You know self-care is important. You may or may not be great at it all the time. If you want more from your life, you have to become more to get more. To become more, you have to do more. To do more you need to take action. To take action you need to get moving. And to get moving you need to just do it! Once you do it, you need to do it again and again. Some easy ways to do it again and again are to: do something you enjoy do something you can see progress with and get better at do it with friends and/or other people you like get support go someplace to do [...]
What are 3 Standing Wall Drills for Your Hips (and Ankles)?
If you've ever had a great workout, especially in the lower body and then sat for a long time because of work and/or travel, you've probably experienced hip stiffness. Here are 2 easy to do hip mobility drills if you find yourself both stiff in the hips and near a wall and 1 easy to do hip activation exercise for sprinting. Linear & Lateral Leg Swings 1-Leg Hip Rotations Wall Marches Try 'em and let me know what you think.
LeBron James & Tim Ferriss
3 Things High Achiever Lebron James does to stay at the top of his game, year after year.
Hang Ups: Toddlers, Feeding, Comfort and Sleep
Look for hang ups if you're having trouble moving the scale and/or recovering when it comes to food, sleep and coping. Hang Ups around food and sleep and food and comforting usually started when you were an infant.
How to do a Push Up?
How to do a proper push up? Diane, one of my superstar change makers, asked me recently if I could shoot a video of how to do a proper push up, so she could watch it and practice her technique. I said, "sure!". I handed her my phone and here's the video. Starting Position Lie down on the floor. Place hands just outside of chest. Fingers wide. Go to Knees. Sag head, then pack it (pull head back as far as possible with chin tucked into neutral neck alignment). Sink shoulders, then press body away from floor rounding shoulder blades into armpits. Turn elbows out, then, corkscrew elbows down towards your feet. Go to high plank (up on your hands and feet). Place Feet Together. Place knees [...]
The Right Voice at the Right Time!
"How you doin'?" Sometimes you need to hear the right voice at the right time to make a connection and that's what I wanted to write to you about. The Right Voice at the Right Time When people join CYBBC it's because there's something that works for them. It could be the coaching, it could be the thoughtful programming, it could be the awesome people they get to train with and/or it could be the great environments they get to train in. Or it could be combinations of those or all of them. However when someone makes the decision to reach out, sign up and commit, they were either frustrated with something, inspired by something or both and the voice and message they heard at the time was exactly what they [...]
How to carry your equipment?
I wanted to share an update about how to carry your equipment at boot camp. When the program first launched I used a rolling suitcase to carry my gear in because I had a lot of stuff besides the roller & mat and at some point, someone had a smart idea to also get a suitcase and begin carrying his/her equipment in like I did too. As members progressed from regular dumbbells to Power Blocks, more people started to adopt the rolling suitcase model. I didn't really have any reservations about it, until I started to think about your programming and how I could introduce Weighted Carries into the program. Weighted Carries: Farmers Carries, Suitcase Carries and Waiter Carries Have you ever used a wheel barrow? [...]
Work + Rest = Success
Hola Change Makers! This topic has been on my mind a lot lately so I thought I'd share so you could benefit too. If you're reading this you're either in a period of change in your life or you're about to begin a period of change in your life. Whichever it is, when you want to make change happen, you have to change and when you change you can make things happen. Another way to put it is, if you want more, you have to become more, you can't expect more and continue to do the same things. It doesn't work that way. If you want to change your body, your habits, your lifestyle you have to do more and ironically sometimes doing less, like eating less, [...]