#1 Predicted Fitness Trend of 2011?

QUESTION: What is the #1 Predicted Fitness Trend of 2011?

ANSWER: A customer base searching for a more qualified and educated trainer/coach to work with.

I think that's a huge statement regarding how people are starting to take their health, it's importance, and the overall cost of it. More people are reading food labels now more than ever, TV shows like "Biggest Loser", "Heavy", "Made", etc are gaining popularity with each and every passing moment; and mix that all in with a somewhat challenging economic struggle for some Americans, and 'POOF!' you've got a customer base that is more interested in who exactly is training with them, their friends, and most importantly their children!

In this day and age of fitness, health, and overall appearance, I truly believe that most people are looking for a qualified personal trainer to get the job done. Whether it's trimming some inches of your body, improving your young athlete's speed and agility, or having the ability to finish your first 5k race without stopping; people are making sure that they aren't simply signing up with the program or company that is the most convenient.

For those of you that are searching for a program, coach, or instructor of any sort, but are having trouble how to decide on one, take a look at a list of appropriate questions to ask when meeting with a potential fitness instructor for you or a loved one.

1. Simply ask what their credentials/qualifications/educational background in fitness is. An fitness professional should have at least 1 nationally recognized certification or license on Personal Training, Biomechanics, or Exercise Sciene, along with at least 3 years of experience with training people. This is a great lead in question to begin with. You want to work with someone who didn't just check out "Top 10 Exercises for your Abs" on YouTube in the last few months.

2. Ask for a success story where the trainer has improved someone's life in a particular way(s). Simply saying "Well this one lady lost ALL this weight in a matter of no time!" just simply doesn't cut it. A quality trainer will tell you the person's name (maybe just first name), their goals and how they attained them, as well as talking about something that changed within the client such as self esteem, gained confidence, they shared their experience with their family, etc.

3. Ask for a free week of training. Yes, a week. Not just one session, consult, or walk-through. Have the trainer actually work with you and TEACH you something. I stress this so that you can see if you are going to have a good personality match with the trainer. Ask yourself, "Did I learn anything from this experience?" A good trainer will actually teach you something about your body, a foreign piece of equipment, or maybe even a skill (throwing, catching, reaching, bending, etc).

So now that I've completely exposed what to look for in a quality trainer, I hope you take the time to get to know me just a little bit. Head on over and see what training at MEYER FITNESS can do for you!

Serious Training. Seriously FUN!

Bill

Take A Little Time Out...

Today I took a little time out:

To say "thank you" face to face to a client/friend who is helping me connect the dots with my business venture..

To play with the kids next door in a small sided game of soccer....(they won 10-9)

To make sure I provide a good hearty meal for my fiancee when she walks through the door from a long day at work....

To myself for a play-based workout for 30 minutes, swinging around an oversized mace from my good friend Ryan Pitts....

To spend a little extra time showing love to my favorite pets in the world; Scip, Brutus, and Tough....

Although today was super-productive in my career; the focus was more on taking a little time out for myself and my loved ones. Upon going outside for my fun workout with the mace, after 8 minutes of swinging, the kids next door hopped off the bus and ran over to my fence with the soccer ball begging if I'd play with them. Usually I'm a bit too busy with some type of work, but today I paused before answering my usual answer, and instead came out with a "Yeah, I think that sounds fun guys!".

30 minutes later of running, kicking, cutting, and diving; sweat was pouring from my forehead and my headache from the last 2 days was gone and positive energy was flowing through my veins. After the kids squeaked out a victory (maybe aided by some accidental slow running at crucial moments by yours truly) I returned to the Monster Mace and continued to swing about for 15 more enjoyable minutes.

It was a nice day to take a little time out from the daily grind to show a little love to my lovely lady, the kiddos next door, and last but not least my overall health and mood. I'll take that over any workout you out there might have had today, I'll get back to that tomorrow. For me, it's time to shower and get the rest of dinner prepared.

What have you taken a little time out for today?

Finish With Action,
Bill

Parents: Be a Tribe Leader, Not a Friend

So it's my fiancée and I's new favorite "must-see TV" series on MTV, and it's turned out to be quite the "blog producer" for me in the topic of health, fitness, and family relationships. MTV showcases teens that are overweight and looking for a change before heading off to college, or in last night's episode, culinary school. The show is called "I Used To Be Fat" and it comes on at 10pm EST on Wednesday nights, you should check it out and see it for yourself.

The premise is MTV's version of "The Biggest Loser", only that the hour focuses on troubled teen who has had a life full of tortuous eating patterns and enabling parents that seem to not know exactly how to have a positive relationship with their children. Just like "T.B.L.", MTV throws a personal trainer into the life of the teen, in an unrealistic and unsustainable environment where training takes place almost every day of their summertime. In the previous 2 episodes, I've seen some of the biggest examples of parents caring more about being friends with their children rather than actually guiding them through their first 18 years of life. Let's focus on last night's episode: Dominic.

Google Search "Italian Family" and 75% of the images come up with this.

Dominic comes from a food-addicted Italian family that loves to eat for comfort and for reasons of bringing the family together. It seems like there wasn't a scene that the elderly grandmother (insert stereotypical Italian vision of a sergeant leading it's younger troops), was walking in the door, instantly helping to prepare some type of food while simultaneously complaining about something. At one point in the show, the grandmother exclaims "What!!?? Why do I have to change my diet now!?" You get the point.

Dominic's mother plays the buffer role. She is trying to appease her traditional mother while also trying to stick up for her "routine-breaking" son. This is where the "friendship" role is taken a little too far. The most notable moment of the show was not seeing Dom losing all of his weight, or throwing up during his first ever workout, or even learning how to stick up for himself to his family. Nope, none of those ground breaking moments did it for me as much as what I'm going to say next.

While cleaning out their pantry at the beginning of the episode, the mother's level of focus on being friends with her children instead of being a leader shone through. Out comes a box of cookies from the pantry, and after discussing that the cookies were originally bought for Dom's sister, the mother begins to cry with the task of throwing them away, saying "This is really tough for me. I know that my daughter loves the cookies, and buying them for her is my way of showing that I really care about her and that I want to make her happy."

Hmmmmmmm.....This is where I have the issue with the "friend vs parent" role. My feelings about a parent are quite simple. They should be the tribe leader. The tribe leader is responsible for maintaining the health, safety, and well-being of the tribe, making decisions that are sometimes very difficult to ensure the livelihood of the family. Back at the beginning of our country's existence, when Native Americans were roaming freely, they went where the food was. Meaning that no matter how comfortable they got in a certain area, when it was time to move due to lack of food, or because invasion from a neighboring tribe was looming in the near future, the tribe leader made the tough call of unsettling the reservation, not focusing on their initial comfort and happiness, but looking more towards their long term health and benefit of safety.

The Tribe Leader always knows what's best for his people.

In the world of "I want everything right now!" and "What I do now won't affect me 5 years from now", how can we teach the parents of today that creating an atmosphere of long term health is the more important role that they should play, rather than letting the child have whatever they want, not thinking that their actions now will probably create a landslide of negative choices in the near and far future. Here are a few ideas of how we can create a more healthy family structure:

1. Exercise together - building a relationship with your spouse, family, or just your children at a young age shows them the importance that you "the tribe leader" puts on exercise. Children are impressionable and pick up on the stuff that the parent deems important or even necessary.

2. Grocery Shopping as a Tribe - take a monthly trip to the grocery store as a family, learning how to read the labels on items, and deciding together if certain things are healthy enough to make it into the cart or not.

3. Plan Park Days - As a tribe, meet up in the kitchen on a Saturday morning, dole out responsibility to each of the family members to pack up a picnic basket. Take the basket, a frisbee, and a deck of cards or board game, head out to your local park and have a nice, active day together as a family unit.

Families that play together, stay together!

These are just a few ideas that a parent can connect with their children on, to better improve the health of the family, and the structural role of the parent as the "decision making tribe leader" and the child as the "learner that follows the positive lead of the parent". Help change your community and its outlook on family structure and health. Don't be afraid to step outside the box and hang out as a family!

Finish With Action,
Bill

Part 2 of 3 in my "Pick 3" Single Leg Stability Exercises from Hyper Wear!

Check out www.HYPERWEAR.com for the great products used in this video! 

Check back in next week for Part 3 of this month's "Pick 3" from Hyper Wear!

Finish With Action,
Bill

"I Just Want My Daughter To Be Perfect"

On a recent episode of the new MTV show "I Used To Be Fat", a young woman named Gaby was trying to lose weight during the summer before heading off to college; and while being vigorously (and unrealistically) trained each and every day on an apparently endless MTV budget of training sessions, Gaby was continually being berated with verbal criticism, both direct and indirectly, from her mom.

"Disturbing Perfection: All I see is UGLY"

The highlight (and lowlight) of this episode was the moment where Gaby's mom emotionally exclaimed that "she just wanted her (Gaby) to be perfect". After picking my jaw up from my chest, I was pretty speechless for a few minutes. However, after those moments passed, I realized the solution was pretty clear: the pressure the mother puts on her daughter to lose the weight, combined with the enabling of the mother with nutrition choices, was the key to her failure.

Now, I'm not a father just yet, but I have worked with probably over a thousand adult parents in my career so far and have learned tidbits here and there, listened to some pretty shocking stories, but most of all, I have heard more "my child can do this already" and "my child is already reading in the 90th percentile" and "my 9 year old's 40 time is the fastest on the team". Our children are capable of understanding the so-called importance we are placing on them. They simply feel the pressure (and the subsequent heartbreak) to STAY in that group as if it's their job.

We are talking about them to our peers and treating them as if they are adults trapped in a small body. I'm all for being a "proud parent" when the time comes, but I don't plan on tracking my child's progress in all aspects of development from homeroom to the hockey rink, making sure that he/she can keep up with what a "9 year old is supposed to be doing". I plan on simply keeping a watchful eye. I will watch my child develop. I will participate in their development and when I notice something that is noteworthy (no matter how big or small) they will be commended for it with a simple smile and a high five.

Simply put, I want to create an environment for my child and the children I'm able to work with through my career, where making sure they are developing at the same rate as everyone around them is not the ONLY yardstick available to them. I will let them know their strengths and weaknesses, but not hone completely in on what holds them back. Putting so much focus on something like that only shines the brightest of bright lights on it, making it even more difficult to overcome.

Earlier in my coaching career, one of my favorite phrases was: "I'm going to figure out your weaknesses, and focus in on them until they are your strengths." I still actively enjoy that phrase, however, I use it much more sparingly than I used to. I'm basically saying, "Okay Johnny (9 year old), you suck at lateral movement completely, and every time you see my face you will be reminded of that fact."

Now, I simply don't spotlight the negative message so much. Even if it's indirect. If my client says, "Well I look like a whale and people make fun of me", my response is, "I bet you can squat more than they can."

Frank Forencich of Exuberant Animal leads the gang through "physical happiness."

My new phrase that I have become very confident and comfortable with in training people goes as follows:
"I bring a 50/50 relationship to the table. For the most part, 50% of what we do together is stuff that you enjoy and brings sweat and a smile to your face, and the other 50% is going to be the stuff that you don't necessarily know you need to work on."

No one is perfect. And it seems to me that society tends to dislike people that come across perfect, so what's the rush to get to this so-called "Perfection"?

Be possibly the one person in your client's life that brings them joy, confidence, and physical interaction. What we do is 'personal' training, so be personal. Interact. Lead. Encourage. Move Together.

"Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing".  - Harriet Braiker

Finish With Action,

Bill

Adversity, Focus, Discipline

These are just a few of the words that come across my mind at this very moment. I'm lucky enough to be able to spend my life with a woman that has an equal if not greater passion for health and fitness as I do. We just finished a training session, and although with different programs and different goals, we still enjoyed sharing the same space and working to better our lives.

A month ago, after purchasing her a couple kettlebells (10lb and 15lb) I began teaching Lauren the technique of the kettlebell 2-hand swing, a skill's success, which in my mind, is determined on 3 things:


1) efficiency of body's movement
2) breathing pattern
3) confidence in your own strength

A natural athlete she is, however, she had trouble with the timing of the movement and her grip strength (due to prior injury in the thumb). This frustrated her greatly. She is used to being great at everything upon the first few tries, or in this case, swings.

Knowing that she was already strong enough to handle the 15lb (as I continued to watch her swing it waaaay high in the air over and over), I had her try to feel what "heavy" for her felt like, handing her the 16kg that I have in my arsenal. She struggled and got even more frustrated, saying that "there's no way I could EVER do that". The word "ever" had a little bit of her Sparrow 'swag' to it, thus the emphasis.

I recently signed her up to Lisa Shaffer's 10,000 Kettlebell Swings in January challenge, knowing that through her discipline and ability to overcome obstacles, she'd find nothing but success.

For the first few days now, she's knocked out each workout designed by me to get her to the goal with her 15lb kettlebell, while grooving a great pattern of swinging and tempo.

Today, she decided to take on a different challenge. After completing 7 rounds of 50 swings with the 15lb'er, she declared to me during a quick water break that she was going for the 16KG for the last set of 8. I told her to be careful and focus on technique and even break up the 50 into smaller sets.

Yo Sparrow! Great job eh!!

Needless to say, she cranked out 50 reps in a row with great technique, finished her treadmill intervals, and walked into the living room with hands thrusted high a la Rocky Balboa. 

As I finished my set, I came in and watched her knock out yet another set of 50 reps with the 16kg. 100 total. Her choice, not mine.

So proud of my baby bird today for what she's accomplished.

What have you always thought you "just couldn't do"? Whatever it may be, go give it a shot, you never know how it might turn out.

  

Finish With Action,

Bill

G.T.L.

Not that I watched the season premier of "Jersey Shore" last night, but sitting in the office here with the training staff listening to our favorite front desk girl, Mandy, giving us the 5 min rundown on what went down was mind-blowing, but really it wasn't that strange after all....

Mandy is a 22 year-old friendly, rambunctious, and talkative girl who LOVES Jersey Shore. Sometimes I even think she will somehow find her way on the show in a matter of weeks. Every time I walk into the fitness center, I hear a story of how late she stayed out, or how hard she partied with her friends, or what new club is opening up near the beach. Ahhhhh, youth......

At one point, Mandy was describing the characters to Jen, the fitness director, who apparently doesn't watch it at all, saying "You know Pauly D, he's the one with the hair (shaping his famous do' with her hands)", with Jen responding with a silent deer-in-the-headlights stare.

I then told the story of last night lounging around with my fiancée' Lauren, who struggled to know what the phrase "It's T-Shirt time" was, as it was plastered all over the Facebook pages last night. I somehow knew what it was, explained it to her, with her giving a classic response of "Well........that's pretty dumb."

Point is, our society has shifted. Its morals, its values, and who it deems as its' heroes. Well, at least some of our society.

Let's just say I have added respect for my fitness director just a tad bit more after this conversation in the office, and I love my fiancee even more than I did yesterday because of her ignorance towards "The Shore".

At least one of their clichéd phrases revolves a little bit around health and fitness: "G.T.L." = Gym.Tan.Laundry......

Finish With Action,
Bill