If you're a cat lover, like I am, this little cartoon will make you laugh.
My old 24 year old cat doesn't do these sorts of things much anymore, but when she was younger...yeah.
God bless,
SP
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The Wake up Cat
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Consistency and Effort
The following is an article written by my friend and colleague, Jerry Hill:
In my career as a Strength and Conditioning Coach and Personal Fitness Trainer I’ve had the distinct pleasure of witnessing people far surpass their immediate goals and move valiantly into their long-term dream simply by the application of these two principles as defined below.
Principle #1 – Consistency
If you want to make steady, measurable progress, show up on a regular basis. That’s pretty simple, right? Woody Allen is famous for saying, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Consistency is the foundation of your development. With it you’re unstoppable; without it you’re done for. Integrate your training into your lifestyle and make it a high level priority. With your health and fitness goals consistently in the forefront of your mind it’s hard to ignore them, and your success is practically guaranteed.
Do you have your fitness goals prominently displayed in a location where you can see and review them on a consistent basis?
If not, why? Consistency brings forth success.
Principle #2 – Effort
Intensity is essential to putting forth effort. Your fitness program shouldn’t be easy. In Las Vegas they call it going “All in.” Don’t hold back, lay it all on the line, and give it all that you’ve got. The beauty of this principle is that intensity does not discriminate. No matter what your fitness level, you have the ability to bring your best. This is what I love about performance based training. You will be miraculously inspired by your effort!
Effort also means paying attention to detail while performing the movements of each exercise. Master your form, and work through a full range of motion. It takes particular effort to perfect the basics. We are all a work in progress when it comes to this!
Keep in mind that effort includes what you do outside of your workout too. You can easily destroy your hard earned physical effort by disregarding your nutrition, recovery or sleep.
Remember: No amount of hard work can overcome a crummy diet!
This is often the missing ingredient for success that many need in order to push beyond their goals.
I offer these thoughts with high expectations and anticipation for your upcoming fitness quests and the realization of your unlimited potential.
The ball is now in your court.
God bless you,
Steve
- Consistency
- Effort
In my career as a Strength and Conditioning Coach and Personal Fitness Trainer I’ve had the distinct pleasure of witnessing people far surpass their immediate goals and move valiantly into their long-term dream simply by the application of these two principles as defined below.
Principle #1 – Consistency
If you want to make steady, measurable progress, show up on a regular basis. That’s pretty simple, right? Woody Allen is famous for saying, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Consistency is the foundation of your development. With it you’re unstoppable; without it you’re done for. Integrate your training into your lifestyle and make it a high level priority. With your health and fitness goals consistently in the forefront of your mind it’s hard to ignore them, and your success is practically guaranteed.
Do you have your fitness goals prominently displayed in a location where you can see and review them on a consistent basis?
If not, why? Consistency brings forth success.
Principle #2 – Effort
Intensity is essential to putting forth effort. Your fitness program shouldn’t be easy. In Las Vegas they call it going “All in.” Don’t hold back, lay it all on the line, and give it all that you’ve got. The beauty of this principle is that intensity does not discriminate. No matter what your fitness level, you have the ability to bring your best. This is what I love about performance based training. You will be miraculously inspired by your effort!
Effort also means paying attention to detail while performing the movements of each exercise. Master your form, and work through a full range of motion. It takes particular effort to perfect the basics. We are all a work in progress when it comes to this!
Keep in mind that effort includes what you do outside of your workout too. You can easily destroy your hard earned physical effort by disregarding your nutrition, recovery or sleep.
Remember: No amount of hard work can overcome a crummy diet!
This is often the missing ingredient for success that many need in order to push beyond their goals.
I offer these thoughts with high expectations and anticipation for your upcoming fitness quests and the realization of your unlimited potential.
The ball is now in your court.
God bless you,
Steve
Monday, October 22, 2007
Bringing the Pendulum back to center.
This article is presented courtesy of Alwyn Cosgrove, probably the premier fitness professional in the world. It is from an article written first here.
Copyright© 2005 Elite Fitness Systems. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this article by including this copyright and, if reproducing it electronically, including a link to
www.Elitefts.com.
It is often said by futurists (those who study the past to predict the future) that there is an over-reaction to most new concepts in the short term, yet an under-reaction in the long term. We can all come up with countless examples of it – the high carb trend of a few years ago – which has become the zero carb trend recently. However, never has this concept been more apparent than in the strength and conditioning industry particularly in recent years (with respect to):
* Aerobics
Over-reaction
Aerobic training has to be the single most over-reacted to, and thus overemphasized training modality in the history of our field. It started with Kenneth Cooper but I don’t think even he meant aerobic training to receive the almost religious type treatment it has. The only reason aerobic work even requires extra oxygen is because of demand from the muscular system. It doesn’t matter what activity you are involved in – aerobics or weight training – it is muscular demand that determines caloric burn. So you have to begin with that in mind.
Let’s think about it logically (I know this is hard for the strength coaching field). For example, you can run a mile in ten minutes and can swim a mile in twenty minutes. After a year of swimming every day and not running – you can now swim a mile in 16 minutes. Without running – how much has your running improved? Very little.
Why? We only have ONE cardiovascular system – so why doesn’t improving your swimming (and cardio system) automatically improve your running?
Because the ONLY reason your cardio system was involved in the first place was because of demand from your muscular system. So you adapted to the SPECIFIC MUSCULAR demands of swimming which by default then involves the cardiovascular system – it’s not the other way around as most people think. The muscles don’t move because of cardiovascular demand – the cardio system is elevated because of muscular demand. We need to program the body based on the movements it’s going to perform – not based on the cardiovascular system. That’s an upside down method of programming.
I think the over-reaction to aerobics peaked around 92. I can remember watching a weightlifter being interviewed at the 92 Barcelona Games (I’m sure most lifters can relate) – when after watching the athlete perform a few sets, the interviewer asked “What type of exercise do you do for your heart?”
Under-reaction
The under-reaction to aerobic training has been fairly recent. Perhaps I’m guilty of it also. The problem was that the emphasis on aerobic training had been so entrenched that in order to bring balance to the equation; coaches such as myself had to take a diametrically opposed position in order to even have a chance of being heard. The real message was that anaerobic interval training could provide all the benefits of aerobic training and then some.
However, it has swung too far the other way. The message heard was that aerobic training is “the devil” – a fat storing injury promoting muscle catabolizing monster that has to be avoided at all costs. As a result athletes have avoided all energy system work.
My friend Jason Ferruggia answered a question recently about whether aerobic work should be performed when trying to gain weight. This is a combination of an over-reaction (that aerobic work is a massively effective weight loss tool) and an under-reaction (that going for a walk will cause you to lose incredible amounts of lean tissue).
Back to center
Aerobic training is beneficial – it’s healthy and it burns up calories. It won’t eat up muscle tissue like Hannibal Lecter after making weight, and despite it not living up to its miracle fat burning claims – any calorie burning activity can help in a weight management program, and anything that gets the heart healthier is never a bad idea. I think some form of moderate cardiovascular activity can be helpful regardless of your personal goals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks Alwyn (pronounced "Allen")
God bless,
Steve
Copyright© 2005 Elite Fitness Systems. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this article by including this copyright and, if reproducing it electronically, including a link to
www.Elitefts.com.
It is often said by futurists (those who study the past to predict the future) that there is an over-reaction to most new concepts in the short term, yet an under-reaction in the long term. We can all come up with countless examples of it – the high carb trend of a few years ago – which has become the zero carb trend recently. However, never has this concept been more apparent than in the strength and conditioning industry particularly in recent years (with respect to):
* Aerobics
Over-reaction
Aerobic training has to be the single most over-reacted to, and thus overemphasized training modality in the history of our field. It started with Kenneth Cooper but I don’t think even he meant aerobic training to receive the almost religious type treatment it has. The only reason aerobic work even requires extra oxygen is because of demand from the muscular system. It doesn’t matter what activity you are involved in – aerobics or weight training – it is muscular demand that determines caloric burn. So you have to begin with that in mind.
Let’s think about it logically (I know this is hard for the strength coaching field). For example, you can run a mile in ten minutes and can swim a mile in twenty minutes. After a year of swimming every day and not running – you can now swim a mile in 16 minutes. Without running – how much has your running improved? Very little.
Why? We only have ONE cardiovascular system – so why doesn’t improving your swimming (and cardio system) automatically improve your running?
Because the ONLY reason your cardio system was involved in the first place was because of demand from your muscular system. So you adapted to the SPECIFIC MUSCULAR demands of swimming which by default then involves the cardiovascular system – it’s not the other way around as most people think. The muscles don’t move because of cardiovascular demand – the cardio system is elevated because of muscular demand. We need to program the body based on the movements it’s going to perform – not based on the cardiovascular system. That’s an upside down method of programming.
I think the over-reaction to aerobics peaked around 92. I can remember watching a weightlifter being interviewed at the 92 Barcelona Games (I’m sure most lifters can relate) – when after watching the athlete perform a few sets, the interviewer asked “What type of exercise do you do for your heart?”
Under-reaction
The under-reaction to aerobic training has been fairly recent. Perhaps I’m guilty of it also. The problem was that the emphasis on aerobic training had been so entrenched that in order to bring balance to the equation; coaches such as myself had to take a diametrically opposed position in order to even have a chance of being heard. The real message was that anaerobic interval training could provide all the benefits of aerobic training and then some.
However, it has swung too far the other way. The message heard was that aerobic training is “the devil” – a fat storing injury promoting muscle catabolizing monster that has to be avoided at all costs. As a result athletes have avoided all energy system work.
My friend Jason Ferruggia answered a question recently about whether aerobic work should be performed when trying to gain weight. This is a combination of an over-reaction (that aerobic work is a massively effective weight loss tool) and an under-reaction (that going for a walk will cause you to lose incredible amounts of lean tissue).
Back to center
Aerobic training is beneficial – it’s healthy and it burns up calories. It won’t eat up muscle tissue like Hannibal Lecter after making weight, and despite it not living up to its miracle fat burning claims – any calorie burning activity can help in a weight management program, and anything that gets the heart healthier is never a bad idea. I think some form of moderate cardiovascular activity can be helpful regardless of your personal goals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks Alwyn (pronounced "Allen")
God bless,
Steve
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