Hi Friend!

Gorgeous day to you (again)! Not bad for a Boston winter.

How are you feeling? If you've been training, what's record week been like? If you haven't been training does your body miss it yet?

Woo. I sure love record weeks. It's really fun to watch how far you've come, how well you move and how you make training hard look so easy.

One of my clients was visiting her doctor and he called her athletic and she smirked inside because she doesn't see herself as an athlete even though I tell her she is and that she trains like one. Sound familiar?

Cardio Minutes - Week 3

We did 23 min / workout this week for all classes. We'll get 23minutes next week too!

Upcoming Schedule

3/15-3/19 - last week of Q1, phase 3. Record Week #2

3/17 & 3/18 - No Classes (personal days)

3/20 Saturday Stretch Rescheduled to 3/27

3/22-4/17 - Q2, Phase 4

3/22-4/2 - Guest Weeks

3/27 - 7:30-9am, Saturday Stretch

4/18-4/25, Empowerment Week (no classes)

Alves Family Update

We're listing for sale, the Alves Compound East in Dorchester (the nickname for our home) next week as we're building a house in Devens. Pre-pandemic this wasn't anywhere on the radar. We had just finished siding our house last March and had no plans of going anywhere. Then a cute house in Devens, popped up on Vanessa's, Zillow notification's feed, (the weekend we were going to see my dad for the first time since he got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer), and I decided it'd be a fun day date to go and look at this house that was featured in "This Old House". Well, as you can see it was a stunning home and we wanted it, but someone else had already put an offer on it and we weren't anywhere near ready to put an offer in. So as we drove to my parents, Vanessa looked up Emerson Green, the neighborhood where it's located, the builders, Concord River Walk, Harvard Public Schools (1,2,3) and we started to fall in love as it matched a lot of what we value.

Fast forward through a lot of drama, anchor dragging, indecision and difficult emotions from me, we decided to sell, which makes the painting, the bathroom renovations and distractions more understandable.

It's not Newton, Coolidge Corner or Cambridge, 3 places we, like many others would have loved to move too, but it'll be really special for all of us and will create a great environment for our next chapter.

Newton

That's my baby. I've been building relationships from scratch there since October of 2000 and have no plans of going anywhere else (though I also had no plans of leaving Boston-ever, so it's a fair consideration if you thought it).

You know I love what I do and feel lucky to get to do it everyday with you as I tell you and everyone else it all the time. I plan to invest the time gained from Vivi being in school full time and our home life being settled to putting my heart into my work, which makes me so happy. I've already mentioned I'm working on my rebrand, and it's coming along.

Grammy

I asked Vanessa's mom to come live with us. Every time she visits, she fits us and we fit her like perfect puzzle pieces. The pandemic was really hard for her in Pittsburgh because she was isolated from her world with her kids & family spread out everywhere and her living alone. So we'll have a red haired grammy as part of our future chapters and stories and a very happy little family.

My Dad

I talked with my mom this week and they've got the decorating buzz going on. They've decluttered their entire first floor, and are painting all the dark wood trim white and all the walls other colors and changing out their furniture and pictures. My dad's doing the painting and the lifting and he did it during chemo week, so that's great.

His CA-19, blood cancer number dropped again. It started at ~2800 -> ~1700 -> to ~500 -> to ~300 -> to ~ 200. He had lost ~60 lbs and now he's back up ~20, so he's able to eat again and keep his weight on. His 3rd CT Scan picture had showed a little shrinking of his tumor and no spreading. His 4th CT scan is next week. Fingers crossed. He got neuropathy bad, and for someone with very fine dexterity (he's a NICU nurse who always gets the toughest cases because he can get an IV into the tiniest little babies and because he's awesome), so losing his finger sensations and later his toes was extra bad. They took him off the chemo med, that contributes to neuropathy, so fingers crossed it reverses quickly without a cost or too much cost to his momentum.

You

We have teaching weeks, so I can teach you how to safely own movements so you don't have to think so much and can just do. Many other popular programs just have you do first and try to course correct as best they can on technique. The worst one's try to fit everyone to the same exercise or worse try to fit everyone to highly skilled exercises they should never be doing.

We do the opposite.

And it means you have to be patient learning things you may already know or already are proficient in and truly buy in to the unloading / lower stress weeks that teaching weeks are.

Well, this past week and next week are not that. They're the best part of the quarter. The last 2 weeks of the last phase of the quarter. You spent 3 months learning the movements and routines that culminate now. These are some of the most fun weeks in training because you don't have to think, you can just do and you can really push yourself to greater lengths and reap the rewards that come with it.

Peaking

These are peaking weeks and I hope for you that you'll grow a great love for peaking weeks and create your own systems for kicking butt and dominating peaking in training and peaking in all other areas of your life. The getting can be so good, so get lots of the great stuff.

Remember that in order to do your best you have to show up ready. You can tell if your most ready if you hit your 4 for 4's. That's why I ask you, so you have to think about it the day before, to peak yourself and prime yourself for your workouts. Everything is better when you work out. Rest before and after. Go to bed early, sleep in when possible and take naps. Drink a lot of water. You'll know you're drinking enough if you're peeing clear and all the time and it's almost annoying until you realize you're winning. Eat greens at every meal. They make you feel good and flush bloating. Eat as much as you need and as often as you need until you're no longer hungry. When you're not hungry. Stop. Even if the plate still has food on it. If you eat when you're not hungry, you risk food coma, decreased performance and weight gain. You don't need that. You want to kick butt and record PR's.

You also need to do recovery workouts like the Saturday Stretch, walking / light cardio, massage, hydrotherapy (baths, hot / cold showers / tubs, swimming), forest bathing (hiking in the forest) and having fun.

Recordings

Here are the phase 3 recordings. They're good. Do it and you'll be glad you did. Do it at your regular training time and maybe even choose a time, you were at and you'll hear me coach you, which could be fun. Just do it!

Member Update

• Lisa de Lima says hi! She really misses you all and training. At home doesn't work for you, so she'll see us all again in the future.

• Melissa Mullen posted on facebook that MGH closed the Covid ICU for the 2nd and hopefully last time.

• Diane Gomez got her plate and screws out of her ankle. The doctor said she's a fast healer and she should be back to boot camp in 2 weeks.

• Michaela Millot suffered an acute injury while dancing. She'd been managing an aging spine through consistent exercise and strengthening and had an unlucky day. Wednesday she had surgery to remove part of the disk to alleviate the pain and decreased function she was experiencing. She misses everyone a lot as you're a big part of her day (and your peers and I miss you Michaela). She says hi and she hopes to be back in the next 2 months.

That's all for now.

Rest up and get ready for a great week.

Grateful to be your coach,

Mike