Making of a Champion

“A champion is built off season”. How many of us have heard this and how many of us have lived by that saying?
What frustrates me is every year I get a few high school kids coming in 2 weeks before their season starts and they want me to get them in shape. On every occasion my response to their request is, “I’ll get you in shape for next year but this year is too late, I should have seen you last year.”


So let me just put this out there;


1) If you want to excel at sports don’t wait until the last possible moment to get yourself prepared for that sport. Your training should start a few weeks after that season is over.


2) If you really want to excel in a particular sport, only concentrate on that sport. Yes, you can be a jack of all trades, but many have not achieved greatness by doing too much.


3) Never let rejection stop you from achieving what you set out to achieve. I know of many who have been cut from teams and a few years later find themselves playing on a Division 1 team or even the pro’s.


4) Develop a hard work ethic. One that surpasses even your own ideas. Let nothing stop you from perfecting your skill.


5) Do not follow the ways of the world. The world wants us all to get along and be average. If you want to be champion, you can’t be average. Leave average to second place.


6) Never settle for where you are but always strive to do better, regardless if you win or not.


7) We all have physical setbacks. A champion doesn’t let those setbacks allow them to lose focus on their final goal… being number one.


8) Surround yourself with people (professionals) that can help you get to where you want to get to. Don’t hang out with people that aren’t focused or disciplined enough to make a difference.


9) Develop a strategy and stick to it. Let no one deter your from it including family members.


10) Make “giving up” not part of your vocabulary. But continually push through until you achieve the prize you set out for.


Well here are 10 real important things that a person must follow to achieve greatness.

Safety

I can remember the day like it was yesterday. My mom gets a phone call from her best friend and is told that her friend’s kids have the chicken pocks. All I remember next is my mom telling my sister and I to get in the car because we were going to see our friends and play with them for a while. My sister and I were excited and I remember playing with them for a few hours. The next day I remember getting up and feeling really itchy and see red marks all over my body. What the heck just happened? That’s right my sister and I got the chicken pocks.
Now why did my mother do that? Because she wanted us to develop the anti-bodies necessary to fight it off in the future. She wanted to strengthen our immune system. Well it worked very well.
Now, in this society as I know it, is we were to get that call from our friends, our first thought would be to close the shades and lock the doors and keep our kids as germ free as possible and on so many levels that hurts the kids more than helps them. The immune system of most kids today suck at best because we are too interested to protecting them than letting them grow and get strong.
I remember telling this to a new personal training client who is having problems walking. He is afraid to get on the ground because he thinks he won’t be able to get up. So what does he do? As little as possible when it comes to movement and over the last several years his health has deteriorated to a point where walking has become very difficult.
I remember when he told me that he was afraid to fall because he did not think he was going to be able to get up. I remember my next statement to him, “Then get on the ground and let’s see.” At first he looked at me with fright in his eyes but I assured him that I would be able to get him up off the ground if I had to. Then he got on the ground one knee at a time and then laid down on his stomach. Then I sat down and told him to get up. He looked at me and then looked around to see what he could grab to pull himself up and everything he touched, I pulled away from him.
“KEVIN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! DO YOU WANT ME TO GET UP!”
“Yes now get up. You don’t need anything to help you. Here do this.” I said getting on the ground next to him. After explaining to him the proper way he should get up I watched him as he shimmied himself up and after a few minutes got to a standing position. He had the biggest smile on his face and he looked at me and I said, “Now get back on the ground and do it 15 more times.”
Oh, yea, I know I am such a bad trainer. Putting my people thru such things like that. Why would you subject that man to something he said he couldn’t do? Because I know that he could do it and I needed to show him that he could do it. Now that man no longer has any problem with falling or getting on the ground.
We need to stop babying ourselves and let our bodies do what they were meant to do. We were never meant to be in a home with the shades down and kept from the germs of this world. By being introduced to those germs our bodies, we, will develop anti bodies to fight those unwanted enemies and we will become much stronger because of it.

The Right Fuel

I understand that some people may be having an issue with my statement that we cannot better our health by just the food we eat. Those that do have an issue with that statement may not understand that the food we eat is only the fuel we need to sustain our lives. Food is to the body what fuel is to a car.
I just wrote a story that I think may help us understand more about how the fuel we eat is really not the culprit in itself. However, one must realize that the issue with the food we eat is quality not quantity. Do you eat fast food every day? Three times a day? And your excuse is your too busy to cook or just can’t find the time? Well then, in a nutshell… you get for what you pay for. The nutritional value of fast food is like putting regular gas in a sports car. Oh yea it will run but it won’t perform at its best and I can guarantee you that it will not win many races.
So read on…
The most expensive Mercedes you can buy
You go into a dealership with one thing in mind, which is the most expensive car here and when can I buy it. After looking around for a few minutes a salesmen catches your eye and walks over to you. “Can I help you with something?”
As you look around you spot a car that really appeals to you…“Yes, I would like to talk to you about buying this car.” You reply
“Well, this is the best car we have here. This is the Mercedes CL65 AMG. This car has a 621-hp, 6.0 liter, bi-turbo V12 engine and can get from 0 to 60 before you put your seat belt on. This car is priced at $215,500.”
After a bit of haggling, you all agree upon a cash only price and you sign the agreements. Right before the salesmen hands you the keys he tells you that this car can only take “high test” gas to perform at its best. As he hands you the keys, you smile at him and tell him that you understood. You get into your new car and chills come over you. You say to yourself, “I am going to take care of this car. This is my baby.” And for weeks you follow what the salesmen requested.
Then one day while at the gas station you notice that the gas prices for regular gas have come down substantially. With economics on your mind you decided to put regular gas into your car. Your rationale was that it would be saving you money in the long run in a big way. For weeks every time you start the car, it seems to start well and run fine.
A few weeks later you begin to hear some pings in the engine that seemed not to be there before. To be on the safe side you take the car back to the dealership and have them look at it. After plugging the car into their computer, they see that it is an engine problem that can be fixed and because you are under warrantee they will fix it for free.
Well a day later you have your car back and things seem to be running fine again. However, some times when you step on the accelerator the car doesn’t respond as well as it did when you first bought it. You also notice that it seems to be running a little rough lately. You also begin to notice that it starts up every morning pretty rough. So you make another stop to the dealership and they once again fix all the problems. This time however you have a few words for them and to put it nicely you say, “I hope I don’t have to come back in here again.”
A few weeks later, here you go again, another problem. This time once you drop the car off at the service desk you walk into your salesmen’s office and demand that he talk to you about the lemon that he sold you.
“THIS CAR IS A LEMON! I SPEND MORE TIME IN HERE THAN AT WORK AND THERE ARE SOO MANY THINGS WRONG WITH THIS CAR THAT YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT! I SHOULD SUE YOU UNDER THE LEMON LAWS!”
The salesman excuses himself for a second and goes to the back where the service is being done on your car. A few minutes later he comes back up to his office and sits down. “I am sorry to hear that you have had all these problems with the car. This is very unusual. However can I ask you a question?”
Laughing sarcastically under your breath you say, “Sure”. What could he tell you anyway right?
Then he says, “What type of fuel have you been using for this car? Have you been using the high test as I recommended?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” you say to yourself. Then it dawns on you… you started using regular unleaded fuel a few months back and this is when all the problems started happening. Now as proud as you are and so that you think you can save your own face, you just ask him to fix the car so that you can be on your way.
At the next fuel up you remember what the salesmen said and you begin to use the correct fuel for your car and low-and-behold, even after the first full tank, the car begins to perform as if were born again.
Our bodies are priceless compared to that Mercedes, and most of the time we treat our bodies worse than soiled dirt. We consume the wrong fuels and then expect our bodies to perform at its best and all the time. We eat at wrong hours for all the wrong reasons. We push our bodies to work overtime and never give them the rest they deserve. And we don’t train our bodies well enough to take on the load that we are giving them. We come down with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, kidney and liver disease and most of the reason why is because of the fuel WE are consuming.
Imagine if we actually consumed the right fuel every day, like that Mercedes… our bodies would be able to respond to the demands we give them. What do you need to do and what do you need to change? Remember we are much more precious than that Mercedes. Think about it.

Regulating our food is not the answer

I know that I probably told a lot of people that I would never just give my opinions without some backup research about any topic I write about, so let me first start by saying that I have, for the last 11 years, worked with and listen to many people when they have talked about their health and I have now come to a point where nothing is being said any different than 11 years ago.
I have heard, “I have tried every diet in the book and at first I lose a lot of weight only to gain it back after a while.”
I have heard, “I am just big boned.”
I have heard, “I have tried that exercise thing and it just did not work for me. I just don’t have the time now.”
I have heard, “I know that if I get that ^&*$ surgery, it will do the trick and I will finally get this weight off and get healthier.”
I have heard, “I know that if I stop eating so much I will lose the weight I need to. It is my portions.”
I could go on but what would be the point. I know that everyone has used these excuses and probably think that they have made up a few new ones. But let me just put this out there… It doesn’t matter how much you try and regulate you’re eating habits, you cannot get healthy.
Here is the problem, food is a fuel. Nothing more than that, it is just a fuel. It helps sustain life and gives us the energy to get thru each day. Without it we will die. It is not the foods fault that we are the way we are today. It is our sedentary lifestyles that have gotten us here. The average person sits behind a computer screen each day for at least 4 hours. Oh, you don’t believe me? OK, the next time you go to work watch how long you sit at your desk doing paper work and using your computer. We try and think that if we just stop eating, we won’t have the issues we have today.
There is a lady at the gym that thinks that if she eats she will gain too much weight. This lady is really thin, almost to the point of anorexia. She thinks all food is bad for her. However she comes to me that other day with a concern, she has noticed that her energy levels have dropped and she gets tired very quickly. “HELLO!” I said to her. Then I asked her a question, “When was the last time you had a substantial meal?” She tells me that she had lunch and told me what she had, then I finished my question with, “and without throwing it up afterwards?” then she looked at me and shook her head and walked away.
By not eating, we are slowing our metabolism down and causing our body to store a lot of the food we eat daily. Regulating our fuel intake is not the solution to the problem. It is USING the fuel we eat regularly that is the ultimate solution.

To cleans or not to cleans, that is the question

I was speaking to a member today and she tells me that this is the beginning of the year and she wants to do a cleans. She asked me what I would use. I told her that I would probably not use anything and my reasoning is simple… I will not do anything nor will I put anything in my body that I would not consume for life. Let me explain.
The problem that we all encounter is that we look for the quick fix. In most cases, most of the products out there work, but in the long run do they really? I don’t think so. I believe that they help us lose weight initially but is it really about weight loose or is it about getting in better fitness shape?
Ask yourself a question… If you lost a lot of inches but never lost a single pound, would you really care how much you weighed? The person who is being truthful and realistic would say that they would not care if they ever lost a pound if they knew that they lost those unwanted inches. We are so consumed with our weight that we lose sight of what really is important, our inches.
I told her that in the end, she needs to change her overall diet and stay consistent with her consumption and exercise. I told her not to fall into the trap of buying a product that in the end will get her a quick fix because it may work at first, but in the end when she goes back to her original diet, she will only get heavier.
If you don’t believe me, look at our society today. Enough said.

Beginning of the year!!!!

Ok so here we are at the beginning of a new year and you probably got up and said, “This year I am going to get myself in better overall shape!” Well my question to you is, “What are you going to do different this year that you did not do last year? What will make this year different?”
This is a great time of the year for most health clubs because membership goes up and with most 12 month contracts you can’t get out of them so by the end of January most clubs can get an idea of what their revenue could look like. However, I’ll ask you again, “what are you going to do differently this year?”
The average person really hits it hard in January only to pretty much stop by March. If this exercise thing was working, then why is it that most Americans gain 1 pound a year? Why is it that diabetes and high blood pressure are at all-time highs? Will this be the year when that trend reverses? I certainly hope so.
Here is a bit of advice I would like to share with you all. If you haven’t exercised in a while, start slow and build up over time. For that first day, take only about 15 minutes out of your day and exercise. Eventually get that up to 45 minutes. But remember one thing… It took you a long time to get to where you are today, you are not going to lose it overnight.
Enjoy the new year.