With a big milestone birthday coming up tomorrow I wanted to take some time and reflect on what this past year has taught me, plus maybe throw in some funny stuff for good measure. For anyone who has read this blog on a consistent basis, you know it’s been a pretty crazy year, between getting married, putting out The Cancer Survivor’s Exercise Guide, and Muscle Imbalances Revealed: Upper Body, and also with Post Rehab Essentials in the works (HOPEFULLY will be ready to go in November, barring any unforeseen issues), teaching courses for new trainers and speaking at a few conferences, plus kicking ass and taking names in the gym on a daily basis with some pretty rocking clients. On top of that, in the past year this site has gone from having 100 page hits each day up to anywhere between 700-800 page hits per day, so a big thank you to everyone who chooses to check this site out on a daily basis to hear my ramblings and opinions on different things related to health and fitness. Enough chatter, let’s get to it.

 

30. Counting calories doesn’t work. Anyone who counts calories is already setting themselves up for failure, simply because they aren’t considering their own basal metabolic rate, which can increase or decrease caloric expenditure based on factors such as stress, sleep, type of food eaten, type of exercise performed, intensity and time of said exercise, and also whether they decided to sing and dance along to the Glee marathon the night before. Counting calories assumes a fixed metabolic rate which is typically over-estimated in people with low physical activity levels and who have higher body fat levels.

29. A better way to look at weight loss is counting foods, specifically clean and healthier foods versus unhealthy foods. If the clean foods are outnumbered by the unhealthy foods, you’re in trouble. Likewise, determining which foods cause intolerances or even just negative side effects play a huge role. The most common foods to present negative interactions are dairy milk, processed flour and sugar. Cut those out and you’ll already be ahead of the game.

28. No matter what you do, there will always be someone willing to try to knock you down a peg. This could be in the form of unrelated criticism, or in a direct “You should just give up trying this” manner. I had a client who has worked out consistently for the past three years and is struggling with food. She’s managed to lose close to 50 pounds, and has around 40 more to lose to hit her goal body fat percentage. One co-worker looked at her one day and said she needed to work on her tummy more because she looked pregnant and that with all the money she spent going to the gym and on personal training she could have had liposuction. Meanwhile she’s sitting there on her third marriage and crushing a happy meal after her cigarette break. People like that deserve their fate.

27. Chuck Norris is a big fan of politics, and is a card-carrying Republican. I don’t want to get into a political debate, but if he ever decided to run for president, HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE??!?!? He would scare the bejeebus out of any terrorists with a simply icy stare. He would sign any bills with the fist in his beard. He would round-house kick anyone who voted down his motions in the house of commons, and I could honestly say I would try to get my US citizenship simply for the chance to see “CHUCK NORRIS” on a US presidential ballot.

26. Low back pain is highly correlated with depression and weight gain. I know all three of these things first-hand. Amazingly, once my back was feeling good, my mood improved, and so did the end result of my workouts due to the fact that I could actually, you know, work out again and not wind up limping around as a result. I’ve managed to lose 20 pounds this year so far, and am at my lowest weight since university. This is one reason low back pain is such a problem, because it ties into so many other facets of life.

25. There are some truly amazing people out there who will bend over backwards to help anyone out. I’m fortunate to have met a lot of people in the past year, mostly through on-line connections and some in person, who have helped me to develop as a trainer and also who have become good friends. At this time last year, I was just casually reading Tony Gentilcore’s blog, and since then we’ve collaborated on a project, written for each other’s site, emailed about pretty useless (and even a few useful) things, and become fast friends. Same thing with Rick Kaselj, Brad Schoenfeld, Jon Goodman, Rob King and about a dozen others who have all helped teach me a lot about a wide variety of things, and hopefully I’ve been able to hold up my end of the conversations as well.

24. Being married is pretty cool. I’ve been with Lindsay for the past 7 years, living together for the past 6, and we finally got married this past August. Aside from the new hardware on both of us, the coolest thing is when I refer to her as my wife, I get a completely different look from people versus when she was a girlfriend. To top it off, I get to spend a lot of time with someone who has a sense of humor and can hold her own with me in a conversation about football. I mean, how many other wives can tell if an offensive lineman is lined up offside or the difference between a post or corner route, and knows the difference between a tight end and a wide receiver? Aside from her creepy love of Andy Fantuz and her propensity to avoid doing the dishes, she’s pretty kick-ass.

23. Cardio, when done right, produces amazing body transformation and health improvements. The downside is that very few people do cardio with any kind of thought, like they would hopefully put into a resistance training program. We assume running for distance is a great way to build up cardio and burn calories, but this is like driving at 80 km an hour (for Americans, that’s 50 miles an hour) on the highway and in 5^th gear, and expecting to burn off a tank of gas really quickly. Likewise, people think running all-out for as long as possible and then resting for a minute and repeating will do the best job. That’s like driving 80km an hour in first gear, and wondering why you burn out your engine when your knees and feet start falling apart. Just like resistance training, cardio programs have to be varied, working on different gears so you don’t become adapted to the same workout and stop seeing any appreciable gains in performance. By always doing the same “sprint til you puke” workout or “run 40 miles at a snail’s pace” workout, your body adapts and stops producing any noticeable results. Varying the energy system trained, much like varying a resistance training program focus, will help continue getting results.

22. If you ever find yourself looking to kill time, check out http://www.textsfromlastnight.com. This is my new vice.

21. I get a lot of trainers asking me how to get new clients. I always want to ask them what kind of results their current clients are getting. If they aren’t seeing any noticeable results, no one else will want to train with them. Putting crazy amounts of value into your current clients and over-delivering on service will set you apart from everyone and make you stand out. Get great at solving more problems and faster than anyone else, and you’ll never have to worry about finding more clients.

20. Most people with knee pain will also have weak hips (specifically through flexion, extension, and internal rotation) and a lack of mobility through their ankles (specifically dorsiflexion). Working on hip strength and ankle mobility will typically help a lot of knee pain magically go away.

19. We don’t train our biceps enough. Seriously. It’s great if you can pull a heavy deadlift, but what if you can’t curl the pink dumbbells without throwing out your shoulder? Plus, one of the most common weightlifting related injuries is a biceps tendon tear, which goes to show how much pressure they are under during heavy lifting. On top of that, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, will look at a big arm that’s well developed and think to themselves “damn!” Ladies love a good arm, guys will all agree that a girl with well-shaped and defined arms is incredibly sexy, and they make wearing T-shirts that much more fun.

18. I train a lot of people who bring a lot of baggage with them into the gym. Cancer patients, paraplegics, diabetics, injuries upon injuries upon injuries are all in a typical day. In each case, we find a way to work out, regardless of what else may be going on, and in every case they feel better, stronger and more in control of themselves when they leave. “Just rest” should never be an option for anyone, regardless of their training status or goals. I’m all for programmed off-days, but if you’re not feeling it on a certain day, there’s a thousand ways to get better without throwing yourself into the lion’s den.

17. No one way of training the core will work for everyone, just like no two cores will ever be alike. I would almost go as far as to say that the core is the functional equivalent of a fingerprint. Blanket core training programs will only work for about 20% of the population, show no results in 40%, result in worse performance in 20%, and potentially injure another 20%. The person has to match the program.

16. Almond milk is delicious.

15. Gluten free cookies are not.

14. Everyone needs to have a dog. I don’t care if you’re allergic, find a breed you’re not allergic to and get one. They make everything better, and you can’t help but smile when you see one who’s happy to see you.

13. Cats are pretty useless.

12. Front squats are way better than back squats as far as challenge, joint mobility requirements, spinal stabilization, and ability to get quad development. They pale to a well executed zercher squat, which is not as good as a 1-leg pistol squat, although they’re incredibly difficult to advance without losing balance. Of the variations listed, back squats can use the most weight added to the system, which is why most people gravitate towards using them in their workout programs.

11. Deadlifts are incredibly technical to do with a heavy weight. Everything from toe position to neck alignment and breathing has to be considered for one single max effort lift. The closer to a max effort lift, the more the person has to think about finite details involving their technique, and the more they will learn about themselves. If you only workout with 10-15 rep sets, you’re missing the boat.

10. The easiest way to keep an exercise “fresh” is to change the grip or the stance, which causes different muscles to fire and creates a new neural engram that requires different firing of the motor neuron to complete the task. Since adaptation is primarily neural, requiring a different firing pattern will allow you to continue to adapt, even with the same exercise.

9. Highly technical skills work in the opposite way. Free-throw shooting, field goal kicking, and other static motor patterns require repetition and perfection to see the best adaptations, which is accuracy and consistency.

8. In the vast majority of people, the ankle isn’t flexible enough, the hamstrings typically aren’t strong enough (specifically in hip extension), the hips need more rotary mobility, the spine needs more frontal plane work, the shoulders are never strong enough through scapular retraction and depression, and the neck needs more support. If you address these concerns, most of their injuries and pains will go away, and they will build frames so dieseled out that the opposite sex will throw themselves at their feet.

7. Deadliest Warrior: Vampire versus Zombie is the most amazing concept for a television show, it boggles the mind. Seriously it’s vampires kicking the shit out of zombies!!!!

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6. I used to have a data plan on my phone, but then I felt I never used it so I cancelled it. When I was out to dinner with some friends as soon as we sat down, everyone whipped out their phones and checked all their random stuff. I just looked around and thought “what’s more important than the people sitting across from you?” We need to dis-connect more.

5. I managed to read about half as many books as I wanted to this year. Looks like I’ll have to double my efforts for the remainder of the year.

4. You’ll never get anywhere in life by doing “just enough” or “just what’s being asked.” Minimum standards are not maximum capabilities.

3. No matter who you are or what you do for a living, you have to be a salesman. You have to convince someone that your product, service, or way of thinking is worth spending their money, time or energy on. The sooner everyone realises that sales isn’t a bad word the sooner they can become successful.

2. Fart jokes are and will always be hilarious.

1. A motivated person can accomplish 10 times as much as an un-motivated person. The tricky thing is that motivation is totally individual, and what works for one person won’t necessarily work for anyone else. Finding what gets people to act is more important than knowing how to coach any exercise or knowing how to develop any training program will ever be. It also produces more results, and more long-term success.

Hope you enjoyed this, and I’m hoping to bring another one just like it in 365 days. Have a great weekend!!