Keep it Simple

Keep it Simple 

By: Ian Cutting

It seems that more and more so, we are approaching the whole realm of health and fitness backwards. We have spent so much time and money making them complicated, and into more of a perception than a reality. They have become topics muddied by secrets and gurus, detoxes and details, filters and photoshop, marketing, and social media. Keep it simple, and here is how.

I’m going to break a few things down into real, actionable, and simple pieces.  They may seem too simple, perhaps even frustratingly so.

Do you want to have a stronger more functional upper body?

Do a lot of push-ups. (Need some guidance? check out this handy video.)

Do you want to have stronger and more functional lower body?

Do a lot of squats. (Also need some help here? Here is another helpful video.)

Do you want to be a healthier, more durable, capable, longer-lasting, functioning, aesthetic… human being?
Do a lot of both.

Do you want to breathe better?
Walk more.  Take the stairs.  Park further away.  Go for easy and relaxing walks (with your head up, not buried in your phone).

Do you want to move better?
Move more.  Stand up and stretch.  Watch less TV, change seats or exercise during the commercials, or watch from the floor.

Do you want to feel better?
Slouch less.  Sit or stand up straighter.  Go outside.  Read a book.  Turn off whatever screen you’re looking at, and go to bed.

Do you want to look (better)?
Drink more water, and have an apple.  Put down or don’t buy the XL chips and cookie boxes, children’s cereals, processed snacks decorated by cartoon characters, and sugar-liquids of questionable contents and origin.  Say no a little more often, confidently, and a little less guiltily.  Say yes appropriately, not overwhelmingly.

Do you want to make a change, fix a problem, heal a hurt, or get better from an injury?
Take action.  Complaining is ineffective.  Telling yourself you’re broken or settling for sympathy doesn’t help you grow (and usually makes it worse).  Doing nothing rarely helps solve anything.

Do you want to make more progress?
Stop seeking or relying on the validation of others.  Fitness exists without hashtags.  Sweat and struggle a little more, stare and scroll a little less.  Double-taps are fine, but they don’t affect the work you have to do. (I’ve found a small committed fitness group can help with this.)

Do you want to be healthier?
Stop thinking that it only counts if the world sees you trying to be healthier.  Some of the healthiest people in the world don’t have online platforms.  Likes don’t really matter.  Effort all adds up.  Just live.

Keep your exercise simple, and do it more often.  Equipment is unnecessary.  It doesn’t take a perfect plan, schedule, or secret exercises.   There is no perfect plan or schedule, and the best exercises are the simplest ones done consistently.

Keep your food simple.  Counting calories, tracking macros, and different diets are fine, if you can stick to them.  However they often create more stress than is worth the changes they might cause, and raise more questions than they answer.  They can confuse the incredibly simple facts of food.  Eat more of the things you already know you should be eating, eat less of the things you already know you shouldn’t be eating as much of.  Look in the mirror regularly, check the scale occasionally, and adjust the quality and quantity of your intake accordingly over time.

Keep it simple, and repeat all of these for the long-term.  Adjust as needed, and have more patience.  The biggest problems are that you wanted all of these changes to have occurred yesterday, are disproportionately motivated by the world seeing them, and are overly concerned with the reactions of others.

How you treat your body you affects how you’ll feel today, how you’ll look in 6 months, and who you’ll be in 10 years.  It doesn’t matter where others have started or what others are doing.  Start wherever you are; that’s the only place you can, the only place that matters.  Get to it.  Keep getting to it.

We know what we have to do to be healthier.  We know, and yet insist on making it more complicated than it needs to be.  Move more, eat better, work harder, repeat.

Filter the noise.  Dilute the details.  Take action.  Be patient.

Keep it simple.

Client Profile – John Cutting: "Finding time for a fitness adventure"

(aka 2 years of Contemporary Athlete)

Before CA – Way back when

Raising kids, daily lap swimming and watching sports can take up a lot of one’s day and even make one believes finding time for anything else seem unlikely.  However, in the grand scheme of things, staying healthy should be high up on your list of daily priorities.  As a parent this became painfully evident while watching my son rehab his way through a sports-related back injury.  The upside to his journey into and out of competitive soccer was his decision to be a health and wellness major in college.

CA 101 – The early months

Based on my son’s incessant pleading and logical arguments to do something else other than swim laps, I drank his youthful Kool-Aid and entered the world of CA.  Overcoming the fear to walk into CA was step one and step two was participating in my first CA session.  Crawling, stretching, box pushing, running, twisting, jumping, squatting, inch worming, rowing, and burpees are not life threatening but they sure do make you question the logic behind completing steps one and two.  If sore muscles and creaking joints are a sign of doing good work then I must have a perfect record.  CA humbles you but it doesn’t knock you down.  Everyone shares the same fun!

John Cutting: Finding time for my real life adventure into fitness"

CA – The middle months

Some might say that drinking the Kool-Aid is easy and buying into the whole exercise regime isn’t rocket science and they might be correct.  However, most of the fitness advertising touting a perfectly sculpted body through the use of this device or doing that exercise routine fails to mention that without a personal commitment you likely won’t achieve anything beyond a growing sense of frustration.  Perceptible change isn’t achieved overnight but with continued work and CA helping me I can attest that it does happen.

 

John Cutting: Finding time for my real life adventure into fitness"

CA Today – Believe

Although a medical issue created a three month gap in my routine, not returning to CA did not enter my mind.  One problem with an exercise routine is not really knowing how long it will take before you start feeling fitter and looking better.  Hearing those encouraging words during sets of burpees or kilometers of rowing made me a believer in the CA experience.

John Cutting: Finding time for my real life adventure into fitness"

CA Tomorrow – keep doing it

If life is just another terminal disease, you can either let it slowly kill you or you can get out of your chair and do something positive for yourself.  I am about to turn 62 and my CA adventure is certainly not over.  I survived the early months, the middle months, today and I will be there tomorrow!

The # 1 easiest fitness hack!

Are you tired of having NO gains?

Working your butt off and NOT losing any weight?

Feeling the pressure of eating ONLY rice cakes and celery?

Hating your stair-mill because you aren’t getting anywhere fast?

Well, I have the easiest solution that NOBODY is talking about, and it makes me kind of annoyed. Most of my day is spent working with hard working youth athletes who have homework, and silly exams, and deadlines, and 4 practices a day. Do you know what is different about them in comparison to you? (I mean other than the 10-20-30-40 years between you?)

Nothing. Not one single thing. We all have jobs, we try to maintain our families from imminent meltdown, eat reasonably healthy, workout, maybe train for a 5k, and not crawl to deeply into a bottle of wine or bourbon once a week. The only difference is this.

 

SLEEP

 

As an adult we look at sleep as OPTIONAL

As a youth, sleep is MANDATORY (Thanks parental units 1 +2!)

Sleep is where we recover, and we clean out our brain of stress, and toxins, and all of the other things that keep us from losing weight, progressing our bodies where we want, and keeps us from being rational people with generally good intentions toward other humans. ( I mean even I get cranky on a 16 hour day on the gym floor.)

If you don’t believe me take a few minutes to watch this video put together by people with PHd’s and stuff!

When you are done watching the video. If you think there is somebody who should read this article to really help them succeed with their New Year’s goals please send it along and ask them to subscribe to our newsletter for my epic material! Or better yet the CA Youtube channel where we post a new workout and training tips weekly!

 

 

 

The 5 best reasons NOT to workout!

By Dave Bender

You know that sinking feeling you get when you think “Hey, I really should take some time and get myself healthy (again). January is right around the corner and this year. This year is gonna be different!”

Well stop, stop saying that this is the year. This is NOT the year. This year is just like last year, and the year before that. In my 10 + years in the business of getting people crazy healthy, and wicked strong I have found out the truest reason’s why you shouldn’t start working out this year.

 

 Here are the 5 best reasons NOT to workout!

 

  1. The weather is TERRIBLE today!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Funny thing about the weather is that you aren’t kidding. It’s hot, it’s cold, it’s snowing, it’s raining, there is wind and hail, and lightning, and sleet, and who knows what else. Last time I checked though you probably get up everyday and go to work in a climate controlled office, or at least a place with a roof. Equally ironic, is that almost all gyms are also inside of buildings with heat, lights, and a roof. Some have better playlists than other though, but don’t quote me on that.

 

  1. My kids have…

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Yep they do, they have all of those things and then some. Do you know what they will remember though? Mom and/or dad being there on their graduation, wedding day, first born, second born, seventh born… See where I am going? It is highly possible that your kids don’t have anything going on at 5am. You don’t even have to leave your house. You could take 30 minutes a day to take care of yourself so you are there when they will want you to be down the road. Then again… there is always sleep, right?

  1. Working out takes SO MUCH TIME!!!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Yes, I said it. You can change your long term health in roughly 3 months if you workout for 30 minutes a day, 3 to 4 days a week. That is definitely NOT worth it. I mean seriously, that is like 18 to 48 hours of working out over the course of 12 weeks. I don’t know about you but that is far too much time spent on looking and feeling better, and not on Game of Thrones.

  1. Eating ONLY Broccoli and Broiled Chicken EVERY DAY!!!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Here are the cold hard facts. You want your body to look like that last super hero movie you just saw. RIGHT? Well you have to change how you eat. Just broccoli and chicken… and bacon, cheese, beer, wine, bourbon, tacos, sushi, eggs, spinach, doughnuts, and I think even cookies… Actually you really can eat all the things you always have eaten. You just you need to make some hard choices, like 1 oreo, or the entire sleeve of oreo’s…. Hmmmmmm.

 

  1. It’s SO EXPENSIVE!!!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

You are absolutely right! It is expensive, really expensive. I mean if you actually hire a professional to help you. (which will save you time.) Like you do when you take your car to a mechanic. Or get your teeth cleaned at the best dentist in town. OR trust your fiscal future with a financial planner.

That being said you can do it on your own, for FREE. There are about 10,000 + workouts posted on Youtube that you can do at home. Or even at the $10 a month purple box fitness place. Hell, our Youtube page is full of FREE advice, and workouts. Although that leads to a different conversation, how much is your time worth? (If you are unsure you should read this article.)

Here is the kicker though, do you know what is more expensive? Diabetes, joint replacement, daily medication, and medical bills… Just something you should consider if you want to start workout or not.

 

In summary:

For those of you who want to start working out this year. DON’T. Save yourself time, money, and some peace of mind in that the owner of one of the best training facilities in the area talked you out of a sweaty, well rested, more active, sexier you.

Now where are the doughnuts?

Mind Your Movement: The Plank

Mind Your Movement: The Plank
By: Ian Cutting

The plank is an incredibly effective full body exercise. Planks force you to contract every muscle you have, creating high levels of tension. This tension helps you build body awareness and stability.
They require total body engagement, and emphasize core and hip stability. This translates into improved performance in many other exercises, such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and kettlebell swings.
Learning how to plank correctly will improve your abilities both in and out of the gym, and they are far more than a contest to see how long you can stay propped up on your elbows.

Enter the “hard-style” plank.

So planks require engagement, create tension, build stability, and increase awareness, but what does all of that training jargon even mean? More importantly, how do you planks and how can all of that help you? Well, let’s keep it simple, practical, and break them down so they can help you build yourself up.
The Setup: Make your way to the floor, with your…

 

1) Forearms on the ground, with elbow directly below shoulders.
a. Elbows bent at 90°.
b. There is a straight line from your shoulders, through your elbows, to the floor.

2) Legs extend straight out behind you, and are close together.
a. Toes are down.
b. Knees raised up off the floor.

3) Back and hips are straight, level.
a. Hips are not arrow /\ shaped, pointed up towards the ceiling.
b. Back is not U shaped, sagging down towards the floor.

 

This is the setup. Now, let’s get to all of that fun engagement and muscles and stuff we talked about earlier.
A true, hard-style plank means that every muscle is tight, preventing anything that might knock into you from pushing you around. Your body is a true plank, locked into one solid, immovable position. Here’s how it goes.

The Exercise: You’re all setup. Let’s plank.

1) Squeeze your glutes and core, with everything you’ve got.
a. “Squeeze your cheeks”. Think of your butt eating your shorts.
b. “Rock-solid abs”. Tighten, brace yourself, as if someone was about to punch you in the gut (which, you know, someone might).

 

2) Squeeze your legs, with everything you’ve got.
a. Tighten you thighs (quads and hamstrings), and lower legs (calves)
b. Straighten, squeeze.

 

3) Squeeze your back, chest, shoulders, and arms, with everything you’ve got.
a. Keep your neck and face relaxed.
b. Everything from your fingertips to your toes is now tight and on fire.
c. Breathe normally.

 

Hold this position, with your arms, shoulders, back, core, hips, and legs all tight.
And last but not least, to finish bracing and locking yourself in.

 

4) Try to “pull the floor together”.
a. Pull your elbows towards your toes.
b. Pull your toes towards your elbows.
c. Picture yourself crinkling, folding up the floor beneath you.

 

The plank creates full body tension by forcing you to contract every muscle you’ve got.
Planks alone are an effective exercise and are important to have in your training toolbox.
The principles of a plank (core engaged, glutes tight…) will also help you perform other exercises.
So from now on when are planking focus, and force your body to work. Set up in the correct alignment, squeeze everything you’ve got, and don’t forget to breathe.

If done properly, you shouldn’t be able think about anything other than not passing out, much less be able to hold a conversation.

The Road Least Traveled

“It’s easy till you own it.”

 The best advice I have ever gotten was, “Protect the CA no matter what. That community is special and that is its super power. People will come and go but you are at the heart of it. You are what brought them all here. Protect it.”

I very recently stood at the top of a hill, on tired legs, coppery taste in my mouth, and a bright blue sky in front of me. It was a crisp day out near Bennington, Vermont, the fall harvest surrounding me on all sides. As I looked out at the scenery, cool air kissing the sweat of my skin, tears were streaming down my face. Everything hurt and the sleepless nights and emotional roller coast I have recently been on had me shot to hell.

I’m happy to see September of 2015 disappear into the fucking far off distance, much like all the miles I put in just running in the countryside. Not knowing where I parked my truck or how to get back to it. I just wanted to run. So I did. Owning your own business is a glorious pursuit of suffering. I meet people and they think it’s all daisies and rainbows and freaking unicorns because I have the middle of the day “off” or I get to “set my hours” or it must be “fun, like teaching recess.” But it’s not. It’s about as far from that as you can get.

This may sound like a rant, and maybe it is, but it’s also something more. This business is personal. You spend your time playing movement specialist, strength coach, mentor, therapist, food guru, educator, relationship developer, weekend/evening janitor, cheerleader, and then at the end of it ask people to pay you for all of that.  It’s always too “expensive” and you get to carry that guilt around with you all day/week/month/year. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and you have to part ways. You lose them to the next big fad or their “friend started doing X great thing and I think… I’m gonna go do that. Thanks though!”

The days roll together, you get up when its dark, you leave when it’s dark, you program classes and sessions until you hear your alarm go off telling you to go back to the CA. You adjust for clients’ injuries or they go MIA and set your meticulously developed plan back 4 months. Your lack of “time” drives your friends away, or they give up on you, your relationships implode (or explode), and sometimes you take a flame thrower to your life (I mean who really needs clean laundry or food anyway?)

Because it’s PERSONAL and you want to HELP people, you show compassion. You discount memberships, let them float to keep clients making progress during tough times, and you dig into your own pocket to keep the lights on.  All while watching your bank account cross into the red. Then you swallow what’s left of your pride and do your best not to brutalize somebody the next time you see them with that golden glow. You know the one, the one you have after getting home from that vacation they took. That vacation you just saw being posted on Facebook. The one with the amazing sunsets at the beach, while drinking a fruity cocktail with their feet in the sand (mmmm sunsets, I’m pretty sure if I saw the sun I would catch fire at this point).

As the owner you get to hear about that great race they had this past weekend or the places that they are going to next month. Or that fat piece of cake they just shoveled into their face that fucked up their macros. You know the one from Cheesecake Factory that they are going to complain about when they didn’t lose any weight this week and how it’s your fault. The workouts apparently aren’t hard enough or the weights are too heavy, etc.

“That community is your super power and you must protect it at all costs.”

Those fucking words lead all your decisions. “No, I can’t go out to dinner. I have no money because I had to buy another medicine ball.” “No, I can’t do that wicked awesome race with you. I haven’t really slept in 4 days and I can sleep in till 6:30am tomorrow. Oh and I’m broke because I just put my last $20 in my gas tank to get me to work.” “No, I don’t want to go stand at another race like a freaking asshat and watch people pass by me like I don’t exist.”

As I stood at the top of that hill crying about all of that loss, and feeling sorry for myself for the first and last time in 3 years, I made some hard decisions about the future of the CA.  And with that, I felt the ease and warmth of unburden wash over me. I felt better, lighter. The sky looked bluer and I could see the apples on the trees from the farm below, which looked fantastically tasty. I thought “I’m going to go down there and eat one of those damned apples and sit on my ass for 5 minutes.”

With all of that said, the CA has a new CFO, and I can now get back to doing what I do best, what we here in the CA do best. Making stronger, faster, grinders. Billing, marketing, and sales are all up to somebody else. Somebody better equipped to deal with them.

“Protect the CA no matter what. That community is special and that is its super power. People will come and go but you are at the heart of it. You are what brought them all here. Protect it.”

-Dave

CA & 9 Miles East Sports Nutrition

Contemporary Athlete & 9 Miles East Sports Nutrition

If you’ve been training at CA during any point in the last year, you’ve definitely heard the name “9 Miles East” more than a few times.  All those times you walked in and saw brightly colored coolers stacked by the door, or saw someone with their head buried in the 9 Miles cooler looking to choose their dinner for the night.  Their name has become pretty popular amongst the CA community and there’s a damn good reason why.

They’re bridging that gap we all struggle to overcome – making eating healthy easy, delicious, and convenient.  Adam Costello, director of the Sports Nutrition program for 9 Miles East, was kind enough to take this opportunity to further explain the ins and outs of what their subscription has to offer.

********************************************

You’re training hard and spending a lot of time at Contemporary Athlete. Good! You should be!  Maintaining a regular training schedule is one of the best ways to stay healthy and feel great.  Keep doing what you’re doing but don’t forget about fueling your body with highly nutritious, healthy food.  This is where 9 Miles East comes in.

Train hard at CA and pick up your post-workout meal from the 9 Miles East fridge or go all in with our Sports Nutrition Subscription.  Nothing compliments your training better.  Don’t worry about trudging back and forth through supermarket isles or carving out time to cook a healthy meal when you have so many other important things vying for your attention.  Let 9 Miles East Farm help you.

We’re a 29-acre vegetable farm in Schuylerville, NY.  We grow veggies, cook them in our commercial kitchen, add high quality ingredients we can’t grow, and deliver them to busy folks in the Capital Region.  We have 15 different varieties of our GO Box meals along with a growing number of healthy soups, stews, and hot entree options. Our meals are a strategic mix of macronutrients that will help you fuel properly for a training session and recover quickly.  We want to help you achieve your athletic goals! 

You can purchase individual meals directly from the cooler in CA.  Grab your meal, swipe your credit card, and enjoy! It’s that easy.  Interested in having 9 Miles East Farm help you eat healthy throughout the week?  Sign up for the Four Week Sports Nutrition Subscription.  Each week you’ll receive a cooler delivered to CA filled with 5 meals:

1 GO Box – A bed of baby greens topped with a grain like quinoa, veggies from the farm, high protein toppings like sunflower seeds or roasted almonds, and our side dressing

2 GO Box Pros – GO Boxes with high-quality chicken                      

1 GO Basket – A to-go box stuffed with a grain, roasted veggies from the farm, and chicken.  Heat   the GO Basket up in a skillet or microwave

1 Soup or Stew – Healthy, hearty, and made with ingredients from our farm and others around the area

$45 each week, delivery included

We want to make it easy for you to enjoy healthy, local food.  You can check out our website (http://www.9mileseast.com/) for more information about the farm and what we offer.  You can sign up for the Sports Nutrition subscription on our square space (https://squareup.com/market/9-miles-east-farm-llc).  If you have any questions or ideas about how we can improve our service please don’t hesitate to call or email Adam Costello (518-810-3731 OR [email protected]).

 

Special Limited Offer

9 Miles East Farm is offering 50% off for the first week of their 6-week Contemporary Athlete Sports Nutrition Program that will be offered with the CA Ninja 101 program registration.  That’s just $22.50 for 5 meals during your first week of subscription ($4.50/meal).

Ninja 101 is a $564 value being offered for just $349.  Make sure to sign-up ASAP and get this fantastic bundle at a reduced cost.  Training designed for you, food prepared for and delivered to you.  You just have to sign-up, show up, and eat up!

 

And don’t forget!  9 Miles East is hosting us for another farm dinner on Sunday October 11th at 5pm so make sure to sign-up on front desk!  Only 20 slots are open, $20 a person.  See the farm firsthand and try some more of the amazing food they have to offer!

Tiptoeing Out of Your Comfort Zone

Be strong. That’s my fitness goal now, to gain strength through hard work. That hasn’t always been my motivation though. Sixteen year old me that was relatively sedentary, about 90lbs heavier than current me, and generally uncomfortable in her own skin couldn’t have cared less about being strong. I wanted to lose weight, be thin, and wear the cute clothes at the store that I always saw but could never fit into. The idea of fitness in general was not something I was all that interested in and so the concept of being strong didn’t really take up residence in my mind.

Fast forward ten years later and being strong is what drags my ass out of bed at 4:50 in the morning to go get a workout in. Going to the gym, any gym, used to be absolutely terrifying. When you’re a hundred pounds overweight and the embodiment of self-conscious, the idea of working out in public, particularly around super fit people, is scary as hell. I couldn’t help but compare myself to everyone else and be constantly convinced that other people in the gym would judge me.

I started working at a YMCA when I was 19 and the irony was not lost on me. Someone who desperately needed fitness working in a gym. It ultimately became a much-needed motivator. It took me over a year but in the fall of 2009 I finally decided to commit to a fitness journey. At first I worked out at home, riding a stationary bike that was literally older than I was. It worked for a while and I started to lose weight and feel a bit better about myself. After some time though, the home workouts became less effective as I was so limited. I worked at the YMCA for about two years before I actually worked out in the gym myself. I won’t bore you with the mundane details of everything I did, machines I used, group fitness classes I finally went to, etc. I was learning to expand my fitness horizons and saw more progress as a result. I was also getting more comfortable with working out around other people, which was a hugely freeing feeling.

What still eluded me was the free weight half of the gym. Lots of “meat head” types that seem wildly intimidating and I just felt I had no place over there. I even remember thinking at one point, “That’s not my goal. I don’t want to lift weights.” Now I get that thinking that was mostly out of fear and the genuine belief that I just couldn’t do it. Once in a while, a friend and I would venture over to use one piece of equipment on that half of the gym but it was a short trip.

Learning to be comfortable at CA was a whole new obstacle. There’s no place to hide (which is good but intimidating when you’re new) and it’s a whole different ballgame. It actually took me quite some time to become a regular there. I started slowly, coming to an occasional class when I could; yoga on the weekends or one of Kyla’s evening bootcamp classes. Those were still sort of in my comfort zone but taking the classes at CA was my way of tiptoeing outside of that comfort zone, which as it turns out is a really hard place to leave. However, I still found ways to hold myself back when it came to continuing my workouts outside of CA. I would find whatever corner of the gym was deserted and do my own thing there. Hiding out. Still not learning to use those “big girl weights” on the other half of the gym.

Finally one morning, at the literal ass crack of dawn, Kyla offered to be my workout buddy and show me how to properly squat and dead lift. Those formerly foreign words changed something in me and I loved every minute of it. She got me to cross that invisible barrier between me and the “big girl weights” and it was liberating. It became apparent that the fear keeping me from venturing over every other time before was unnecessary. I ended up feeling empowered and kind of like a badass for lifting and moving real weight. Not a bad feeing.

Now that just left me with finding a way to be comfortable and not intimidated by CA. My biggest hurdle was the belief that I couldn’t workout alongside elite athletes, people competing in Iron Man and running marathons. Those are far off from where I was at (and still very far off from where I am now) and I was convinced I would look and feel inadequate trying to workout in the same place that they did. I couldn’t help feeling out of place. The thing is, none of those people will ever make you feel that way. It was completely a me problem. I struggled for a few months, still trying to feel comfortable, but that whole time Jenny, Kyla, and Dave (the same people you all know and love) kept encouraging me to go back. Slowly I started to make more visits to CA. The more you go the easier it gets (to be there, the workouts are always tough as shit) and the fear starts to subside. And suddenly you realize, at 6 in the morning, before most of the world is awake, that you’re doing box pushes with a 45lb plate on it and you’re not dead. You’re working out alongside people who compete in Iron Man competitions and they’re not judging you. They’re cheering you on to finish that final push. You feel like you’re gonna barf but you don’t (seriously so close though). And in this little box behind the Halfmoon sandwich shop I finally realized I could be strong. I was strong. It’s such a hard feeling to explain, going from non-existent physical activity to actually enjoying it, craving it even. It’s a leap I never thought I would make and now I’m never letting it go.

That’s what CA has really done for me. It gave me the courage to know I’m awesome. Now I feel strong, I want to be stronger, and I have a sense of confidence in myself that I wish I could’ve assured sixteen year old me would eventually show up. I think she would be proud of current me, I know I am. And I can say that because CA and the incredible people who got me there have given that to me. Best gift ever if you ask me.

-Nicole Loustau

Ego Check: Volume and Viciousness

So I had this really science based, fact check blog planned for today about the importance of bodyweight work as THE platform for success or continued success at any level of athletic endeavor. That without it you can’t lift more, or run faster, or yadda, yadda, yadda. Then I boiled it down to Ego Check: volume and viciousness.

Then I started reading some things. You know, articles on the Internet, blogs, lists, and more bullsh*t about New Years resolutions, and Dr. OZ, and quick fix crap, so I decided to switch it up. So this is one part rant, two parts CA philosophy, and one half-part backflip into the randomized scatterings that are my brain. (Don’t worry, bodyweight Awesomeness will post next week!) [Can you say push-up?] 😉

I have a voracious (<- SAT word right there) appetite for books, and knowledge; and the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know anything about anything, and therefore I need to learn more. (It seems like Sisyphus pushing the bolder, but honestly I love it.) When you stop learning you might as well checkout. Quit your job and find something that makes you happy, and a big part of that happiness is a platform for growth.

So here is something to consider.

  • 2+2 =4, but so does
  • 3+1=4, and so does
  • 9-5=4, and well… so does
  • 64 / 16 =4 and then, well… you get the drift.

There are a lot of ways to get from point A to point B, and no matter what you call it. Or how pretty the box, bow, or gift-wrap is. It all boils down to simple concepts. So let me package 2015 Resolutions simply…

  1. Train SMART
  2. Sometimes hard
  3. Occasionally easy
  4. Stop to look around once in a while, do whatever it is because it makes you HAPPY!
  5. Learn to be a little UNCOMFORTABLE.
  6. Drink a shit ton of WATER.
  7. Eat a vegetable based diet LIFESTYLE.
  8. Training and exercise are not wars with your body, they SUSTAIN it.
  9. Be EXCEPTIONAL at the simple things, this INCLUDES
    movement.
  10. Stop judging others for what they do. If everybody is moving then guess what; you’re on the same F*cking team.
  11. Check your ego at the door. If you knew better you wouldn’t be taking direction you would be giving it. (<- Also if you believe that, then you need to read more books)

blackboard 1:6

(Just a snippet of what an evening here looks like)

Growing Pains: New Beginnings

It’s been a while since I wrote a new article. I know that, much like in academia, in a social media driven world it’s publish or die.

Sometimes you just don’t have the time to…

  • Run your ever growing business (I can’t say thank you enough, by the way!!!)
  • Run your training groups
  • Meet with people to extend your network so as to offer greater service to your clientele (Those things that will set you apart from every other “gym”)
  • Study for new certifications (Did I mention that I just started the Precision Nutrition Level 1 program?)
  • Make a new Youtube video of yourself or somebody else doing a front squat (you know, to add to the other 700,000 front squat videos on Youtube)
  • Get your own training in
  • Develop your website
  • Streamline your business
  • Work on your advertising plan (What the heck is that!?)
  • Order new equipment and maintain current equipment
  • Eat
  • Sleep
  • Do laundry
  • Make sure you answer that email you meant to respond to yesterday (10 days ago, sorry Haley! 🙁 )
  • Oh yeah, and make sure all your I’s are crossed and your T’s are dotted when moving into a larger more awesome facility (Yeah!!!! That is happening!)

CA_close

So writing a new blog fell off the back of the metaphorical truck. Chalk it up to growing pains though. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s a struggle, sometimes you just want to bang your head against the wall, but sometimes (ok, all the time) you want to high five the random person walking into Starbucks just because, well, it’s awesome out there.

That’s where tenacity comes in. If it were easy everybody would do it, right? Actually though, if it were EASY, nobody would be afraid to do it. This is true for training, for racing, and for losing weight.

Just remember that the simple things that are your habits will carry you through. Lift heavy, push your boundaries, run till your lungs hurt. It’s bumpy, and the hills are long, and the water is cold, and the weights like to stay on the ground, and the paperwork is endless. Encourage others to do the same, treasure the view, revel in the silence that creeps into your ears as uncomfortable exertion drowns out the noise, and just enjoy the ride you’re on.

Enjoy the growing pains, because if they are ever gone, then you are either dead or complacent, and that’s just boring.