Saturday, March 21, 2009

Lots of stuff going on....

1. The shoulder is still healing. I separated it bowling about 4 weeks ago, and it still hurts. I can do most movements and bowl, but I am still compromised somewhat. I have progressed to doing TGUs and armsbars with a 60lb dumbbell (my gym does not allow me to bring in KBs). My main conditioning has been squats, KB swings and DDR (more on that later :) ). Since I can't snatch, my training has been more mullet like. I actually had the words "leg day" and "superset" come out of my mouth this week.

2. Bowling: I recently has a string about about 10-12 weeks where I broke 600, but did not get anything higher than a 660. And it was not just a lack of carry. I have sets like 140-240-230 and 257-203-171....that is just stupidity. Well, from bad to worse. In my league I went 550/597, then bowled 9 games in city's w/o a game over 200. At least I broke that slump (sort of) on Wednesday. 203(w/a pocket 7-10)-267-186(I started the game 8/ 7- X 61, so I will take it).

3. Personal training business: Still adding gym clients (about 20) but still need some evening kettlebell clients. I am thinking of just setting up a workshop (come one/come in) in my backyard and see what happens). I figured that if I can teach 70+ people how to squat, I can teach some 20-35 year olds how to swing a bell.

4. How gyms work. I guarantee that most gyms at least 80% of the people never come to the gym. Here is how I came to this conclusion. My gym has the personal trainers provide free assessments and workouts to new members. The trainers get a few clients this way, but more importantly the member gets an idea of what to do in the gym rather than have the "one chopstick at a Chinese buffet syndrome." I wish I could put a flow chart in my blog, but I will do my best here.

There are typically three types of people who come to the gym:
* People who are sincerely interested and motivated to getting in shape. This is pretty rare, not quite "6 fingers" rare, but rare enough. This group makes of the majority of the people you see in the gym, but a minority of the gyms billing sheet.
* People who want to get in shape, but are not willing to work for it. These manifest itself into two subgroups:

- People who go to the gym a lot, but talk to a lot of people and do the same routine that you could to with two soups cans, two number 5 cans, and actually going outside and walking down the street. These are typically the "activity vs. productivity" people.

- People who get a gym membership, tell all their friends about their gym, read everything about fitness on the internet, then don't go after two weeks. These are the people that think they know everything. Also, after they get their workout they think they can do it on their own. This lasts for about 1 to 2 weeks and they stop coming. They are like "you mean I am not skinny yet after 4 hours of working out." Give me a break, four hours is not a fitness program. Criminy, you can barely play a round of golf in 4 hours. These are the people that Boris Bachmann (seriously strong dude and a very smart man) calls the "two week gurus".

- The third group is a really pathetic group. If you have a choice, make sure that you stay away from them, they will suck you in. This is the group of poeple that so much don't have their shit together that they can't even take ONE HOUR out of their week to devote to their bodies. What this group of people don't realize is that your success in your fitness endeavors is only dependent on the amount of work you put into your fitness endeavor. Here are some of the things that it does not depend on:
* The excuses you have for not working out (I am tired, I had to clean the house, I am sick, I have sand in my crotch, I don't have time, I am so stressed out.)
* How much research you do on the internet about fitness
* Your sense of gym fashion
* How much you spend on supplements
I have seen people sign up for a gym membership and never go. I have even seen people sign up for personal training, but say they are "too busy" to use their sessions (Give me a break, these people are not exactly saving the whales).

4) Weight loss - even though I have a bum shoulder, my weight is at 190 (which put total weight loss at about 16 lbs). Most of this is just playing Dance Dance Revolution and doing swings. I also do core work with most of my clients, so that helps.

5) BS in the gym:
* I had some fat guy in the gym come up to me and say "you can't eat a bagel, it has carbs." To which I replied, "No, I am going to squat and I need complex carbs to fuel my workout. You don't, however, need carbs to run your mouth."
* While doing box squats I has someone tell me that I am going to hurt myself. I sure that is because they can't get to parallel.
* I had someone ask me they don't start of workout with 10 minutes of cardio. I asked him if his heart was beating -- there is your cardio smart guy.
*

Monday, March 9, 2009

Haven't posted in a while....

I have been really busy and have added a bunch of clients to both my gym and private personal training businesses.

The bad: I separated my shoulder about 2 weeks ago. It felt a little weak doing some light bench presses, but the actual separation occurred while bowling the same night. Oh well, kettlebell work will be limited to swings and light get ups to start. I am still able to bowl, even though I have lost some velocity. Motions that I have problems with: shoulder abduction, flexion, and lateral rotation.

The good: As I said before, I am adding new clients every day. I am getting a lot better at selling myself and I have increased my credibility on the gym floor. Too bad I can't use kettlebells in my gym. Before hurting my shoulder I was able to do TGUs with an 80lb dumbell.

Mullets:
I was doing box squats with 245lb the other day (light weight, but not too light), and a really muscular looking guy said "it hurts me just watching you." The way he said it was like "there is no way I can do that." The some mullet doing one-eighth pullups (that is a pullup going from arms at 90 to arms at about 60) with neoprene wraps on his elbows and Zubaz pants was explaining to me that:
* He had a NASM certification (which is not a bad certification)
* That Franco Columbu used to outlift Arnold
* That you don't have to go to parallel to maximize hypertrophy
* That I was going to injure my back

I retorted with the bodybuilding:
* I really don't care about bodybuilding. The only time you see it on TV is when it is on ESPN Classic and they are making fun of it.
* I am an athlete, and if I trained for hypertrophy at the expense of strength I would get slower.
* Box Squats have help my speed in the past.
* Incomplete range of motion training will lead to more injury that squatting on a box.

The was the same 90's reject that wrapped his kneed to do leg presses with 7 plates.