Hi Friend,
Happy spring to you!
So Vanessa's family was in town recently and we were looking at our wedding photos when I came across our dinner menu. The interesting thing about our dinner menu was that it was 6 courses (apps, soup, salad, fish, chicken, dessert), served family style which most people don't do anymore. When I saw this I immediately remembered the conversation V and I had about how many courses to have and how I had to concede to having 6 courses vs. the standard 7, which I was used to (more on that in a moment) because I wanted the 11.11.11 wedding date, which was a Friday and not many months away, which meant not enough notice for guests, venues, etc...
Now if you didn't know, Alves is Portuguese. I'm Portuguese, and I'm 1st generation too as my pops was born in the motherland. I grew up going to old school Portuguese weddings that started with a ceremony in the morning, followed by a party all afternoon and evening, and kids of all ages were invited. Remember My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Well, that's what I grew up going to. I wanted the big, 7 course meal, followed by the late night buffet march.
Since Mikey wanted a special date so he didn't forget, and he wanted a big Portuguese wedding and it wasn't much notice we had to settle on having a small reception for immediate family (only 6 course family style meal) and later the next year we could have the big post wedding celebration with the 7 courses served family style early (cocktails & apps, soup & bread, salad, seafood, chicken, beef, dessert) followed by the buffet march (all the leftovers) served late.
7 Course Meal
What does a 7 course meal have to do with you? Nothing, it's just a good story that I'll continue if you let me because I'm on a roll and it has a point. Anyways, you know how when you eat a multiple course meal that leaves you feeling a bit ('ahem) full in the belly, well, I was inspired by my wedding & post wedding dinner menus that I decided to create a challenge workout that was "7 courses" aimed at the belly and I did it today. It wasn't the hardest CW I've ever done, but my core got real tired and I "felt it" in other exercises as the workout progressed. Sometimes I stall by "filibustering" when I get real tired during a CW, but not today b/c I had an appointment so I had to book it out of there asap which meant I had to shut up and keep training, but I couldn't shut up b/c I was getting "real full, real quick", so I just kept yapping and training and occasionally pacing around with my arms overhead like I won something, even though I didn't and Helen was probably rolling her eyes as she filmed me. So now I'm writing you and my fingers are going so fast I keep having to re-write my sentence because I'm missing words or I'm spelling words so poorly that they're unreadable.
This Is Why I Love Training
When you exercise and train regularly and make it a part of your daily routine it becomes a part of your identity. When you challenge yourself to do tough things, weird things happen like bursts of high energy even though you're slightly sleep deprived b/c you have an 8-month old, and if you're thoughtful with your planning & timing you can take advantage of this burst by using it to get stuff done (like cleaning your house after hosting guests) or being creative like I'm attempting to be while I write you. Another great thing about regular, habitual training is the increased metabolism. I can already tell my metabolism is racing which is super helpful to stay lean as I, um, as my daughter gets older. :-) Things slow down as you age. Marisa said the key to her getting to her ideal body weight while going through menopause was to move more, a lot more, like 8-10 hours / week. A menopausal mother with adult kids, who works full time, can think that's a lot of time and not worth it and then make excuses how her hormones are out of whack and she keeps gaining weight and getting more out of shape or she can find a number of really fun things she likes to do, get a coach, get a plan, get a team and then start moving. Sure it'll be hard initially just like anything else and you'll get tired & sore from moving that much, but you'll be having a lot of fun, maybe even so much fun and you'll have a chance to spike your metabolism and "reverse the aging process".
Another reason I love exercise and training is that people start to know you as the fit person, who's always happy, always doing the things that other people wish they could do. The person who always looks healthy and always comes off as confident even if they're not as confident as you think they are. People say you're "so motivating and inspiring" and things like that.
Take Carol V for instance. She had to walk her 1st mile back in 2009, when she first tested with us during her trial period. She'd had personal trainers before, but they never stuck long. She came hoping to improve her health, which she did, according to both her and her doctor, but now 6 years later, she's now the fittest person in her family (worst to first). She's the fit person all her people know, that goes running at the track to get better and faster and who got a gym membership during the Blizzard of 2015, so she could keep running on a track because she loves it. She doesn't walk anymore during our performance testing, she just runs faster and in less time. She's more confident in her life and people look up to her. She told me today there's a magnetic, attraction quality that people can sense about her because she's fit. If she was single she'd have suitors. Since she's not, she just attracts more clients for her business and does "weird things" like going to concerts by herself to meet up with friends, but sitting separately b/c she wanted to be closer and not thinking twice about it b/c she's elevated her confidence level, because she's fit, because she trains regularly & habitually. It's part of her identity now. It's who she is.
I love stories like this, don't you? I've got one more. Another client told me today that on Monday she increased the amount of weight she used during the workout. Guess what happened next? She was hungry all day long. Now, when she told me this, I was super excited for her because she was presented a golden opportunity. She disrupted her metabolism so greatly that she put herself in an anabolic (muscle building) state that her muscles were craving fuel to repair and rebuild and this happened all day Monday and all day Tuesday. 24+hours of an extremely elevated metabolism from a 1hr workout. When you're presented a golden opportunity like this, you have a chance to maintain and build muscle while decreasing body fat if you're thoughtful with what you eat & drink / don't eat & drink and when you eat & drink / don't eat & drink. Plus you get that burst of energy for getting stuff done or being creative like I talked about earlier. It's fun. You can feel it as you read.
Training Tool Box
Which brings me to the tool box. Back in 2009 & 2010 Change Your Body Boot Camps offered only Team Training, which is in place training led by an instructor, me, where everyone did the same thing at the same time. It's the high intensity interval training / Tabata training, you see all the gyms, and little niche fitness programs offering like Bobby's Boot Camp and the Jaundice Method (kidding) to name a few, but my clients were getting better, more fit, slightly bored and slightly imbalanced because there's only so many things you can do in place, before you need some new challenges to induce the metabolic changes, energy bursts and athletic evolutions I mentioned early. So what did I do? I introduced toys. First were stations, using TRX's and benches. Then dry erase boards, pull up bars and medicine balls. Now we just introduced workout cards. The jury is still out on the workout cards, but one thing everyone loved about in place team training was that it was fast and there was no wasted time during demonstrations. One thing everyone disliked about training with stations is the demonstrations because you stood around and watched even though you already knew the exercises. Problem solved with the workout card. I hedged doing this for a while because it was a boot camp, but if I wanted to keep stations and people want stations (simply because they want to do the more skillful, higher results-yielding exercises that are fun and use the cool tools), then I had to figure out the demonstrations / standing around part. So I thought about how we did it with the Red Sox, at UMass and Springfield College, at Mike Boyle's Strength & Conditioning and when I co-started my own performance training center back in Wmass and the common thing, was workout cards. Spend the time up front teaching the athletes how to train and then let them do it and manage the clock, while coaching technique, encouraging and motivating. So that's what we've done this phase. It was slow the 1st two days and the workouts ran over, but after that the pace picked up real fast, and yesterday and today the pace was just like in place team training or interval training or Tabata training classes, except it was group personal training. Everyone had their own workout card, where they recorded their own levels, weights, sets & reps and could instantly see their own progress from Day 1 to Day 4 as well as feel the progress. It's pretty exciting to read that you did twice as many sets or 4x as many sets on your 4th day as you did your 1st day. That's progress.
Mackenzie Center Closet
So we've got all of these cool tools now and maybe more in the future, but we only have so much space. The MC closet is now full and it's time to clean it out. If you've ever stored and possibly forgotten your equipment there or if you currently store your equipment at the MC, would you please come in and take your equipment home (and say hi), as anything left after Saturday will be removed and given to the ghosts of training past (trashed, donated, gifted, transformed to art...etc...)
You can pick up your stuff b/w the hours of:
6:15-7:45p, Thurs, Apr 9
8:45-10:15a, Fri, Apr 10
7-9a or 1:30-3p, Sat, Apr 11.
Current members are 100% welcome to bring their equipment back in and store it in the closet at the start of the next phase.
How about you?
Last, how's your training going? Are you working towards your best shape?
If not, how can I help you?
If yes, awesome. What's working well for you?
Cheers, happy training and remember the next time you're going to eat a multiple course meal, to burn & earn before with a multiple course workout and then burn & earn later with a lot of dancing or high intensity interval training.
Your coach,
Mike Alves
p.s. please remove your equipment from the Mackenzie Center during one of the above times if you have it stored there?
p.p.s. how's your training going?
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