My "Top 5 of 2011" - #3

#3 - Travel Abroad

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” by Robert Louis Stevenson

What a beautiful set of words Stevenson has strewn together right there. As a coach of movement, I especially enjoy the last part: "The great affair is to move."

How wonderful it is to live in a place that allows you the ability to go anywhere on the planet simply for the sake of movement and discovery. My parents often asked me when I was younger and had the time and means to travel on my own at the drop of a hat, "Why do you want to go to _______?" My response was always simple, "because I can." As Americans, let's all take a minute to sit back and take in a fresh breath of solid gold freedom and free choice........(inhale).......................(exhale)........Very nice....

Now it's been a few years since my passport has been stamped, and for good reason. My career has taken off in recent months and years, and with that has added responsibilities; I am engaged to the most amazing woman on the planet and have spent 2010 planning to and subsequently moving to the East Coast, and have since realized that I need to finish paying for the trips that I have thoroughly enjoyed in the last 5 years before traveling again and then hopefully start my own family.

However, 2011 is my year. I just know it. I can feel it in my bones that Lauren and I will be handing over our passports together at Norfolk International Airport and jetting off...........somewhere!

So why travel? Why is that such a huge goal for me in 2011?

2 Reasons - let's break them down together shall we?

1 - Traveling is in our bones - Americans have never settled with standing still. We are a people that are on the go, not satisfied, and always looking for the best photo to snap, most original souvenir to purchase, or to hear the most exotic spoken accent. I for one, enjoy going to faraway places to simply get LOST. Not like the tv series, but simply to lose touch with my current reality.

Call it what you want: turning off your smart phone, leaving your laptop at home, and not knowing who won the Super Bowl until a week after it's been done and dusted.  I've done this a handful of times in my life and have realized that I am most happy when I am left simply alone with my thoughts and senses. And now I plan on sharing that with my future wife.

2 - Magical Feeling - There is something simply magical about packing a small bag, hopping on a plane, and going somewhere in this vast world where no one is waiting for you at the other end of the flight, and you're not quite sure where your head is going to rest that night.

I once was in London and was ready to move on to a new location in my current journey and so I packed up and took the tube to Heathrow. I walked right up to the first check-in desk which was a British Airways, asked for the next available flight to anywhere in Europe for under $150 one-way. The young man behind the desk tapped away at his computer and informed me that I would be traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland 40 minutes from now from gate G23. I didn't know anyone there, but I just went. Through some amazing conversations with people sat around me on subsequent planes, trains, and buses over the next 5 hours, I ended up staying with the Illaffe Family for 3 nights outside of Inverness, Scotland, and getting to know their family members and what life was like in northern Scotland.

It was purely magical and I desire that feeling again greatly, and thus it has made my Top 5 list, and look forward to writing a blog about the upcoming trip sometime in the new year!

Stay tuned tomorrow for #2 on my list of "Top 5 Goals of 2011"!

Finish With Action,
Bill

My "Top 5 of 2011" - #4

#4 - Compete in my first Kettlebell Competition

Since earlier this year, I have finally found my type of competition. Let's get this straight, I love all types of exercise from weightlifting, yoga, and plyometrics, to tai chi, rock climbing, and running hills. Pretty much, if it involves getting my heart rate up and stimulates me mentally, I'm game. When it comes to "competing" though, that's another story. I haven't officially competed in anything since college, and that was 10 years ago. That's where kettlebell sport comes into play.

After 2006, when I broke my tibia, tore both lateral ligaments of my ankle, and ripped a tendon nearly in half from playing soccer, I decided that if I wanted to continue being as active as I like to be and as mobile of a coach that I enjoy being, I had to find something that was a little less risky on my body. The beautiful thing about kettlebell sport is that my success (or failure) is solely dependent upon me. Have I put the work in to be prepared for my event? Is my technique where it needs to be? Is my nutrition in line with performing at my maximum level? All of these questions can only be answered by me, and there's a satisfying feeling in knowing that.

Here are the 2 extremes that I'm talking about when it comes to protecting my body and remaining mentally stimulated throughout exercise for the remainder of my life:

 1) Soccer is fantastic, I love it. I love playing a little pick up game, and I love watching it on tv or live at a stadium. The issue with soccer is that while it's mentally and physically stimulating to me, I am putting my health, livelihood, and mobility in the hands of several other people on the field, and with my past experiences, that is something that I will always have in the back of my head. I have attempted to play aggressively a handful of times since then, and always found that I play hesitant and a great deal more friendly than usual. This doesn't bode well with soccer. I imagine it's similar to driving cautiously on a highway, meaning that those are the people that typically cause the accidents from my experience.

2) Running bores me. Although it's success and failure is similar to kettlebell sport where it's all about me and my preparation, I can't imagine anything less stimulating than running from here to there for 30 - 120 minutes at a time at a somewhat droning pace. Now, my fiancee LOVES to run, and asks me from time to time if I would like to enter a race with her. I accept these invitations simply because I love her and want to share her passion with her to support what type of exercise she has chosen to love.


Kettlebell Sport is the beautiful mixture of both. I am in control, and when it's time to train or compete, my level of focus reaches new heights each day. One of my friends in the kettlebell community said something one day not too long ago that is now etched into my mind during a tough training session:

"You must be able to get comfortable with being uncomfortable."

That statement alone challenges me physically and mentally, how about you? I always preach to my clients that our training program will get them "out of their comfort zone"; and now I have finally found the same thing for me.

Check in tomorrow for my #3 Goal for 2011, and for more information on kettlebell training, hit up the IKFF's website. A great bunch of men and women who are down to earth, friendly, and know how to get the best out of their bodies and minds.

Finish With Action,
Bill

My "Top 5 of 2011" - #5

As Ken Blackburn has recently reminded me: Goals are always a good thing to have. Something he has noted a couple years back regarding having goals goes a little something like this...

"ambiguous goals are like ambiguous driving directions; your chances of getting where you want to go are slim. State them as specifically as possible."


After reading that quote for the first time, my immediate thought was "Well, damn, I've got great sense of direction and rarely get lost at all no matter how much the GPS is off with it's instructions! I can work with this!"

So as the Holiday Season comes to a close, bringing the end to yet another fantastic year, I've decided to spend this week-in-blog counting down my "Top 5 Goals of 2011", one per day until the culmination of the #1 Goal is released on the first day of the new year!

#5 - Buying My First Home

 There's something satisfying about this goal that I can't seem to put my finger on. Maybe it's the simple feel of owning something for myself and my fiancée, a comfort of "you can't take THIS away from me", well maybe you can, but an extremely odd string of events has to take place for that to happen. I'm also feeling that there's always been some strange type of status-building sensation when you say to someone that you own your home instead of renting it, like "you've finally made it out of your 20's and you have a somewhat successful career going for you" kind of feel.

Overall though, mostly there is a cozy feeling that one gets when they purchase their own home, and for someone like me, the ability to provide a certain level of protection and satisfaction of sustaining a roof over your family's head no matter how hard the wind may blow outside. We just finished 2 days in a row of official "Snow Days" here in Virginia, and it was a nice feeling to have being inside with our fireplace warming our bodies, movies and sports on the television, and board games and card games peaking our interest and laughter. By the way, if you haven't played a solid hour or so of Catch Phrase with your family and/or friends, you're missing out on some serious fun and competition.

It was a nice feeling knowing that soon enough, I would be the owner of this very home that provided my fiancée and I so much warmth, safety, and laughter during a great period of time in the Holiday Season.

Tune in tomorrow to find out #4 in my end of the year countdown of "Top 5 Goals of 2011".....

Finish With Action,
Bill

What's The Big Rush? BREATHE!!!

Yesterday was what I call a "Work Day" in my kettlebell program. I typically have 3-4 of those per week with the other workouts being mostly mobility, tai chi, or GPP intervals. I love all types of workouts of course as any fitness enthusiast would, however, my "work days" are my favorite.

This particular work day was full of jerk sets to increase my overall work capacity, followed by single arm overhead squats to work lockout and core strength. I had 5 jerk sets of 2min followed by 1min of rest, and started off really well going at a good pace. During my 3rd set, I realized that I was burning out pretty bad for what I considered to be normal. This was definitely abnormal for me. Instead of dropping the weights and feeling frustrated, I held rack position and thought about what I was doing wrong for a few moments. I realized that it wasn't my muscles, or my grip, or my heart rate; but that it was my breath! I was out of it! Thinking purely about technique of the movement skill I was performing, I simply forgot about my anatomical breathing pattern and was basically all over the map of when to inhale and when to exhale.

I tell all of my clients and athletes that the two things to be concerned about most when exercising are technical movements and breathing patterns. Focusing on both of these will keep you at your best always.

Amazingly enough, this small detail did me in for that set, but once I made sure all the small pieces were running smooth, I was back on track and had a great work day.

Here's a quote from John Wooden speaking about teamwork and its similarity to cars:

"It's the little things that make the big things happen. The big engine is not going to work unless the little things are being done properly."

Finish With Action,
Bill

Training Equipment: What's Your Choice?

With opening a training studio in the new year, I'm faced with challenges, obstacles, decisions, and all sorts of bumps in the road. Lately, I've been making decisions on what type of training equipment (and what to leave out) I'm going to outfit my studio with.

I have a wealth of experiece with all sorts of equipment and I've found my favorites naturally, those being SandBells, kettlebells, stability balls, and dowel rods; to name a few.

Now I want to hear your voice! If you were left to exercise with just one piece of equipment, what would it be? Curious to hear your thoughts on this.......

Finish With Action,
Bill

Let's Narrow It Down

Ok, here are the names I've got emailed to me in the last week for naming the training studio....

Keep in mind that my target audience is going to be personal training for moms and dads to seniors, offering 30 min intense training that's fun and gets results. Also, I'll be offering a sub-program that specializes in youth-to-professional athletic development called "M.A.D.: Meyer Athletic Development". I'm also looking for something that just rolls of the tongue when said in abbreviated form......

Here's what we have so far:

Meyer Fitness Studio
Meyer Physical Culture
Meyer Strength Training
Meyer Family Fitness
Meyer Functional Fitness
Meyer Training Studio

Thanks again and have a great week of training! Check out my video for Hyper Wear in Galveston, TX at the TAHPERD 2010 Convention last month with Part 2 of our morning workout with 80 teachers! Miss Part 1? Well here it is!!! Part 1

Help Name My Training Studio!!

Ok gang, I'm calling on you for your brain power and creativity. Yes, yes, I know that might not be a strong suit for all of you out there, but let's come together and give it a shot!

As you probably know by now if you read my blog, I am planning on opening up my own training studio here in Virginia in the new year. I'm very excited about it and have started putting together the necessary pieces to make it successful from the start.

Here's how you come in:

1) If you enjoy my blog and hearing about fitness tips, funny stories around the weight room, and other random facts about health, music, and people in general, help me spread the good word of a professional, contemporary, and private training studio coming to the Hampton Roads area in 2011 by sharing these posts with your friends.

2) Leave comments below this post with your ideas for what I should name my studio. The only caviat is that I want to have my family name in the title: Meyer. I've got a few ideas so far but don't want to share them with you as to not create a biased thought in your head.

So let's get cracking on it! Once the name is set in stone, the business can be created and then comes the logo and slogan!! Help out with a great new project for 2011!!

Looking forward to hearing your responses!!!

Finish With Action!
Bill

My Sparrow

There are moments in life that one needs a reminder of what is truly important in life (well, to me at least): and that's being a strong, loving, respectable man that chooses to share his life with the woman of his dreams, best friend, and soul mate.

And that for me is my Sparrow, thank you for being my rock and for supporting me through it all, and just for simply being you.

Thanks for reminding me that it's not what you accomplish in this life, but who you are lucky enough to share your life with.

I love you baby,

Will-Yum!!!

ps - i love taking pictures of you when you don't know it =)

Vocal Chords

Here's one to make you smile.....

Last week, while training one of my clients, we'll call her "M", rather energetically I might add, the following story actually is:
1) True
2) NOT exaggerated
and
3) totally blowing my mind every time I re-enact it

Here's the scene:

I'm in an 8,000 sq foot training room full of a million dollars worth of cybex equipment (none that is used by either myself or my clientele), and get this, a Smith Machine. Seriously, when was the last time you saw that being used for anything but a TRX mount or someone learning how to balance on a stability ball and using the bar for a safety net? But I digress.

Inside of this room, there are 4 people. Yes, 4. Myself, my client, an elderly man on a recumbent bike, and a "not-so-elderly-but-getting-there" woman on an eliptical. It's 1:30pm and I'm having my client work on her squat pattern/mobility (coming off of partial knee replacement, soon to have the other one done yet for our work together) by having her pick up SandBells from the floor, sit down onto a box, immediately stand up from the box and toss the SB over the cable crossover unit and onto an adjacent box. In plain English, she's standing up and playing horseshoes with something heavier and softer than an actual horseshoe, and she's doing it over and over and over again.

Being my normal self, a coach, is encouraging M to do her best as she struggles to simply get off the box. I'm somewhat loud with my positive words of affirmation, something I don't realize I do and don't think is out of place for the setting we're in.

As we finish, I escort M over to the designated "Cardio Area" as if cardiovascular training is not permitted with anything but a $10,000 treadmill or some sort of new seated elliptical machine that must have cost a fortune (strangely enough, I was having a tough time convincing the manager to purchase 4 Superbands for under $100). The "not-so" woman on the elliptical nearby waves me over with an "Excuse me sir". I oblige and the following conversation ensues......

Me: Yes ma'am can I help you?

Not So: (with an awfully disturbing look on her face) Do you have to be so VOCAL?

Me: Excuse me?

Not So: (pointing back to where we played horseshoes) Over there! You were being so vocal, is that completely necessary?

Me: (keeping my calm) Oh, I'm sorry, I was simply motivating my client to do her best.

Not So: Yes, but it's extremely rude and is breaking my focus from what I'm doing and I'd like you to stop it.

Me: (looooooooong pause) Duely noted, thank you for your feedback.

Moral of the story: Not even 24 hours later, I took a friend's advice that owns his own training studio and put it into action. "Don't wait until you think you're "ready" to open your own place, opening it when you're officially "not ready yet" will only make you work harder for it". (Thanks Jude)

Alas, steps have been taken to make Meyer Athletic Development (MAD) a reality. And yes, music will be played there and loud coaching and grunting will take place on a hourly basis. Feel free to join in.


Finish With Action,
Bill

ps - if you love a little bit of house music, enjoy CVS's "Vocal Chords"

Bill in action at TAHPERD 2010

Looks like I'm headed north of the border in 2011!! CanFitPro (www.canfitpro) asked for a video application for all its presenters for Toronto 2011 so I just threw this together from my workshop in Texas 2 weeks ago! Enjoy and have a great week of training!

Barbell vs. SandBell: One Woman's Point of View

For a few years now, I've been the Director of Education with Hyper Wear, which gives me the privalege of traveling around the country speaking to strength coaches, sport coaches, and physical educators from coast to coast. During one of my power points that I go off of, I speak about the major problems faced by teachers when it comes to weight training in the secondary school system. One of these issues faced is a female's perception of weight training and what it entails.

Now, as any good presenter would do, I sporadically throw in personal stories on a subject to help tie in the audience, both entertaining them with a laugh and giving them a real-life story that they can relate to.

So with 11 years of personal training and strength coaching under my belt, I've just recently come across my single best "story" to tell when presenting on this particular subject of females and weight training.

Since moving to Norfolk, Virginia, I've been blessed with the opportunity to work at a local fitness center and meet some great new people, and one of these clients of mine, let's call her "D", gave me this absolute "presenting gem" of a statement last week (and in doing so has IMMEDIATELY gone into my power point)......

Bill: Ok D, let's work on our front squats. The first few sets I'll have you hold a SandBell at chest level with arms crossed to hold it in place, and then we'll switch it out with a barbell to hold in the same position.

D: Ok, let's give it a shot.

.....so 3 sets of 12 later, here's her comment......

Bill: Alright here's the bar again, let's get one more set...

D: Do we have to use the bar instead of the SandBell? After last week's session I was telling my husband that I feel so, hmmm what's the right word here.......Russian. Yeah that's it Bill, I feel really ya know, Russian (simultaneously saying this word with giving the typical double arm bicep flex with a grunting look on her face).

Bill: No worries D, we'll go back to the SandBell........

So in theory, the shift that seems to be happening with training females for strength development is not that they are scared of lifting "heavy" weights, it's more about what they look like and how comfortable they are.

*Editor's Note: Yes, the SandBell was actually heavier than the barbell. Food for thought.

Bill

Do You Like Apples?

So this is the official beginning of my blog site, and not completely sure what I'm getting myself into at this point with this little project. All I know are the following:

1. I like to write.
2. I like to educate.
3. I like to receive feedback.
4. I like to help do my part in changing the world with a couple of small tools on my belt that I like to call "Motivation" and "Priority".

So here I am. Now, let's discuss the age old phrase of "Knowledge is Power".....

Plain and simple, I don't believe in it. Any strength coach that knows their worth realizes that it's not that effective to read a book, article, blog, or watch a dvd, and then sit tightly on the information, afraid or embarrassed to use the knowledge in real life with your athletes/clients. It's fine to read, study, learn, and discover, however, to not use it is to hold back from the relatively few people on this big rock that we get to work with, withholding your newly gained "smarts" because they just don't feel like making the effort in their preparation.

If you have the gift, use it. If you have the smarts, explain it. If you have the desire, go for it.

Remember that part in "Good Will Hunting" where Ben Affleck explains to Matt Damon on the construction site that "he (Damon) better not be here in 10 years", directly speaking to the fact that he was way too talented to sit around and be a bricklayer.

What I'm explaining here is that "Knowledge is Power" is NOT completely accurate and truthful. It is "Applied Knowledge is Power". When you have the wherewithal, the education, the drive, and the environment, don't sit around and give you and your clients a sub-par performance. Don't be afraid to be the trainer or coach at your facility that most people look at and say "well I wonder what he's doing?".

Thoreau says to "....begin with reading, finish with action". So now you've read it, time to take action!

Bill

p.s. - I couldn't resist, here's the best scene from "Good Will Hunting".........make sure to watch it all to allow for the scene to come full circle....