Goals.
What do they mean?
What do they mean to you?
Why do you want to reach them?
Why do I keep asking annoying questions?
When it comes down to it my job is about one thing. Telling people how to reach their goals. Someone comes to me and says they'd like to lose 30lbs. Someone else wants to get rid of the pain in their shoulder. Someone else wants to increase their mobility so they can play with their grandchildren. Someone else wants to add 30lbs to their squat.
I talk with the client, look at the appropriate things and come up with a plan. Here's where it gets difficult. Once it's written, my impact is a bit limited.
The most common example is someone who wants to lose weight. We'll talk about how it's probably a good idea to limit the pasta and bread dinners, but it's not up to me anymore. I can't follow someone home.
This is why thinking about those goals you say you want is important. Do you really want to lose 30lbs? Why? How badly do you want it? It's not fun to lose 30 lbs. It's going to take several months and will require some changes and sacrifice. What's going to get you through the times when you want pizza, bread or pasta? It can't be just the 30lbs. It has to be something deeper.
You want to be healthy for your family. You want to have more energy to play with your kids. You want a boyfriend/girlfriend. Figure it out. It's up to you. There's no wrong answer and the more you know about why you want to hit a goal the better the chance you have of hitting it.
Oh by the way, this also leads to a greater understanding of yourself and that should ALWAYS be a goal every single day. I'm getting deep now.
Here is what I think about, though. I know some very smart, wonderful people. People who have worked very hard for years at their job and their family. People who always knew that they should start taking their health seriously as they watched their weight, age and physical discomfort increase.
People who always wanted to lose that 30lbs (which over time turned to 40lbs, 50lbs, 60lbs) but never really thought deeply about why they should. People who, as they get closer to retirement are realizing very sadly that they would give anything to go back and take some time for themselves because they're not really able to do much anymore.
They're getting to a point in their lives where they should be able to enjoy the fruits of how they've spent their life and now they realize that it's not going to happen like they thought it would. They can't take that trip because they can't walk very well. They can't be on an airplane very long because it's too hard to manage their medication. They can't do much of anything right now because they're getting ready for knee replacement surgeries.
This is heartbreaking to me. Think about what you really want. Not just right now, but years from now. Is all that bread really worth diabetes? Is watching your show really worth never exploring your full potential? Is a little introspection, as difficult as it might be, really so hard as to throw away so much time and the one body we are given?
We only have one chance. In our minds eye we all see ourselves doing what we want to do 20 years from now. We don't imagine ourselves having to use a walker or recover from some surgery. We see ourselves on a beach in Hawaii.
Well, I'm here to say that if you want that, don't wait until it's too late. Now is the time. You can improve at any age. There are many studies that show this and I have clients that can tell you about their improvements as well. I guarantee that if you look within yourself and think about these things you WILL be happy about it and you WILL be a better person because of it.
Let me know what you think.
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach
Mitch Rothbardt Fitness at 2861 Grove Way Castro Valley's Premier Fitness Facility
I Help People Discover Their Strength
510-754-7113
www.MitchRFitness.com
MitchRFitness@gmail.com
http://www.Facebook.com/MitchRothbardtFitness
http://fast-metabolism.com Boost Your Metabolism With My Free Report
Monday, September 30, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
What I'd Like The World To Know
We were in bootcamp last week and the old Diana Ross song "I'm Coming Out" came on the radio. If you're not familiar with the lyrics, the chorus goes like this:
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show
My client (March 2013 client of the month) Christina McFadden jokingly asked me what I wanted the world know. Well, I thought that would be a good idea for an article, so here goes!
1. It's fun and important to challenge yourself. Doing this is where self-confidence and true satisfaction comes from. It won't happen on it's own.
2. You need to squat. No necessarily with a bar on your back but it's an extremely important movement pattern for many reasons.
3. Get your head on straight! More than anything else, your attitude will determine your results. Go into things with a positive mindset, and you'll be amazed at what happens!
4. The pushup is a phenomenal core and shoulder mobility exercise. In many ways these qualities are tested more than pure strength when this exercise is performed properly. Are you performing it properly? Two questions: Are you elbows flaring straight out as you lower yourself down? Are your hips sagging as you lower yourself down? If the answer is yes to either of these you're not performing it correctly. (Watch for an article covering this very soon.)
5. You can, and should, always be thinking "tall position" when exercising. That goes for whatever excercise you're performing and whatever position you're in. You can be in a "tall position" when standing, kneeling, bending over, at the bottom of a squat, lying down or any other position you can think of.
6. Being in a tall position doesn't mean your head is thrown back like a Pez dispenser. It's means your legs are straight, your glutes are turned on, your core is turned on, your chest is up, your shoulders are down and back and you're looking straight ahead. Make any adjustments you need to account for positions other than standing.
7. Any goal you have won't be reached and/or maintained unless you're working on getting physically stronger in some way.
8. Any goal you have won't be reached and/or maintained unless you're working on proper movement patterns.
9. Any goal you have won't be reached and/or maintained without a positive mental attitude. (I know this kind of a repeat of number 3 but it's that important.)
10. The scale is a liar and is frequently a VERY poor indicator of actual progress, particularly if you're actually following numbers 7, 8 and 9.
11. If you have a goal involving body compostion (fat loss or muscle gain) you MUST MAKE APPROPRIATE CHANGES TO YOUR DIET OR YOU WILL NOT REACH YOUR GOALS. Did I say that loud enough?
12. Steady state cardio for weight loss is almost always a waste of time at best, and actually counterproductive at worst.
Well, there's 12 things I'd like the world to know. Let me know what you'd like to tell the world.
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach
Mitch Rothbardt Fitness at 2861 Grove Way Castro Valley's Premier Fitness Facility
I Help People Discover Their Strength
510-754-7113
www.MitchRFitness.com
MitchRFitness@gmail.com
http://www.Facebook.com/MitchRothbardtFitness
http://fast-metabolism.com Boost Your Metabolism With My Free Report
I'm coming out
I want the world to know
Got to let it show
My client (March 2013 client of the month) Christina McFadden jokingly asked me what I wanted the world know. Well, I thought that would be a good idea for an article, so here goes!
1. It's fun and important to challenge yourself. Doing this is where self-confidence and true satisfaction comes from. It won't happen on it's own.
2. You need to squat. No necessarily with a bar on your back but it's an extremely important movement pattern for many reasons.
3. Get your head on straight! More than anything else, your attitude will determine your results. Go into things with a positive mindset, and you'll be amazed at what happens!
4. The pushup is a phenomenal core and shoulder mobility exercise. In many ways these qualities are tested more than pure strength when this exercise is performed properly. Are you performing it properly? Two questions: Are you elbows flaring straight out as you lower yourself down? Are your hips sagging as you lower yourself down? If the answer is yes to either of these you're not performing it correctly. (Watch for an article covering this very soon.)
 |
| Proper bottom pushup position |
5. You can, and should, always be thinking "tall position" when exercising. That goes for whatever excercise you're performing and whatever position you're in. You can be in a "tall position" when standing, kneeling, bending over, at the bottom of a squat, lying down or any other position you can think of.
6. Being in a tall position doesn't mean your head is thrown back like a Pez dispenser. It's means your legs are straight, your glutes are turned on, your core is turned on, your chest is up, your shoulders are down and back and you're looking straight ahead. Make any adjustments you need to account for positions other than standing.
 |
| Not a tall position |
 |
| Good Posture and a "Tall" position |
7. Any goal you have won't be reached and/or maintained unless you're working on getting physically stronger in some way.
8. Any goal you have won't be reached and/or maintained unless you're working on proper movement patterns.
9. Any goal you have won't be reached and/or maintained without a positive mental attitude. (I know this kind of a repeat of number 3 but it's that important.)
10. The scale is a liar and is frequently a VERY poor indicator of actual progress, particularly if you're actually following numbers 7, 8 and 9.
11. If you have a goal involving body compostion (fat loss or muscle gain) you MUST MAKE APPROPRIATE CHANGES TO YOUR DIET OR YOU WILL NOT REACH YOUR GOALS. Did I say that loud enough?
12. Steady state cardio for weight loss is almost always a waste of time at best, and actually counterproductive at worst.
Well, there's 12 things I'd like the world to know. Let me know what you'd like to tell the world.
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach
Mitch Rothbardt Fitness at 2861 Grove Way Castro Valley's Premier Fitness Facility
I Help People Discover Their Strength
510-754-7113
www.MitchRFitness.com
MitchRFitness@gmail.com
http://www.Facebook.com/MitchRothbardtFitness
http://fast-metabolism.com Boost Your Metabolism With My Free Report
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