3 KEYS TO SUCCESS

 

My name is Krista Scott-Dixon, better known on Stumptuous.com as “Mistress Krista”. It might sound like I’m some kind of weird dominatrix (and yes, I joke that I push people around for money), but in fact I’m just a normal woman who likes the smell of iron in the morning.

I started Stumptuous.com in the mid-1990s, back when the web was a collection of ugly gray backgrounds and Times New Roman fonts; when most people didn’t have email and we sat waiting for dial-up modems to sloooooowly download a few KB of data. My goal was to spread the gospel of women’s weight training in a way that was simple, easy to understand, and most of all… fun.

I was lousy at almost all sports.

Good at sprinting until everyone else hit puberty and I stayed short. Good at gymnastics, but in North America we didn’t do much of that. Good at cycling, but that wasn’t really a “sport”… at that time we thought cycling was for fruity Europeans who didn’t know what baseball was. (Yep, we were idiotically egocentric as a continent.)

I liked skating, but wasn’t allowed to wear hockey skates. We didn’t know what speed skating was back then either, and in the 1970s girls weren’t permitted to play hockey. I failed swimming lessons. I liked smashing people in tackle football, but wasn’t allowed (and besides, I could only manage to throw the ball, not catch it). And girls wrestling or roughhousing? No way!

So “fitness” back then was all projectile sports — hitting and throwing balls — which I was terrible at, or things that seemed boring to me. Girls did aerobics and ballet and figure skating. I was abysmal at all that, so I spent my first 16 years of life convinced that physically, I was a loser.

Until I discovered weights.

Suddenly I found my world.

Weights don’t care how old you are, how short or tall you are, whether you’ve got one hand or one eye, or no coordination. You lift them up and put them down and move them around in whatever way you can. Whatever you can lift is whatever you can lift, whether that’s a soup can or a car. Free weights are the ultimate democratic physical activity. You don’t even have to be able to walk to use them.

This is a philosophy that I now apply to all my clients, and the people that I reach through my website, Stumptuous.com as well as the year-long body transformation program that I designed, Lean Eating coaching (http://www.precisionnutrition.com/products/consultation-coaching). If you can move, you can move against resistance. Even if that’s one finger.

The most important key to success: Do what you can do with what you have.

If you don’t have barbells, lift dumbbells. If you don’t have free weights, lift a knapsack or a suitcase or a sandbag or your furniture. (I had a student client once who couldn’t afford weights, so he just lifted his furniture. You can get pretty darn strong and functional hauling a dresser around.) Walk or run outside… maybe while carrying something. One of my favourite activities is just to grab something heavy and go for a walk. I’ve taken my wheelbarrow with a sandbag in it out on errands with me. (People just assume I’m a handyperson, and nobody’s yet stolen the wheelbarrow while it’s parked outside the bank or coffee shop.)

Be creative and flexible. Look for opportunities to move against resistance. Get out of the gym and look at your world as full of chances to move your body.

The second key to success: Be consistent.

You don’t have to be perfect or even all that great. My numbers wouldn’t impress anyone. I’m neither unusually strong, nor lean, nor muscular. Again, I’m just a regular Jane. But I’m in darn good shape comparatively, just because every day I do *something*.

Sure, some days are kinda pathetic. Whether I’m not feeling the mojo, or I’m tired, or the moon is in retrogade… whatever… some days you just don’t have awesome workouts.

Who cares? You’re there. Even if it’s five minutes, that’s more than zero. If you do 5 minutes a day, that’s 35 minutes a week that you’re not sitting on the couch. Next week try 10 minutes a day. Wow, now you’ve racked up 70 minutes/week. Not too shabby. If you add 5 minutes of purposeful movement each week, pretty soon you’re up to an hour a day and that’ll seem totally normal and easy.

The third key to success: Think sustainable.

Anyone can kill themselves with Navy-SEAL-meets-suicidal-ninja workouts. Anyone can come up with a workout that’ll crush an elite athlete. So what? Can your athletes and clients (and you) walk away from that training session and come back the next day? What about next week? Next year?

I’ve had a few minor injuries but almost nothing major. (My one major injury — a disc herniation and smashing my SI joint out of alignment — came from falling on ice, not the gym.) Considering I’ve been lifting seriously for over 15 years plus training other sports such as climbing, cycling, judo/BJJ/wrestling, that’s a pretty darn good track record. How many gym rats can say the same?

My training partners in BJJ/judo are covered in so much surgical tape they look like mummies. The worst I’ve gotten are a couple of sore fingers and a few calluses from grabbing the gi. And most serious weight trainers are always nursing some overuse injury because they didn’t know when to back off, and they bought into the idea that you must always smash your limits.

Folks, how are your shoulders? Your low backs? Knees? Wrists? Do you have “bench presser’s posture” or “biceps curler’s elbow”? Do you move well and smoothly, with a full range of motion? Do you view always being sore and run-down as “just another part of training”? You need to get real.

I used to push as hard as I could, hammering at heavy weights and max lifts and killer workouts. That was a bad idea. Now, I always leave something left “in the tank” so I can live to fight another day. I want to be doing this when I’m 100, so it’s stupid to burn myself out in my 30s. If you train clients, you want them coming back. Not overtrained, sick, and injured.

And you want them to say “Gee, that was kind of easy!” Great: We’ll add a little weight next week. Now go home and recover. Enjoy your healthy adrenals, pain-free joints, high energy, and normal cortisol levels.

When I say “move every day” I don’t mean “train every day”. I mean MOVE. Mix it up. Sometimes, move against resistance. Sometimes, go for a walk. Or a climb. Or dancing. Or skiing. Or… well, there are a zillion ways to move, so try to enjoy as many as possible.

Ultimately, weight training helps us to move and function better. It’s not there to serve our ego, or to crush us. It’s there to improve us, for the long haul. Respect the weights and treat your body like a partner, not an adversary that you have to abuse into submission. And hey… remember… have fun!

Cheers Krista

Have you ever had a dream where you could fly and do anything you wanted without any fear or possibility of being hurt? Normal limitations didn’t apply, like gravity or pain. Perhaps you can remember a time when you were unstoppable and everything you did was spot on. You were at your best, you were in the ZONE!
Here are accounts of athletes describing their experience of pinnacle performance:
“ a strange calmness; it was a type of euphoria; I felt I could run all day without tiring, that I could dribble through any of their team or all of them, that I could almost pass through them physicall.” – Edson Arantes Do Nascimento (Brazilian soccer legend Pele’)

“It’s a very strange felling.  It’s as if time slows down and you see everything so clearly.  You just know that everything about your technique is spot on.  It just feels so effortless; it’s almost as if you’re floating across the track.  Every muscle, every fibre, every sinew is working in complete harmony and the end product is that you run fantastically well.”  – Mark Richardson             (1996 Winter Olympics Gold medalist)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I’m Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to football.  When I’m on the field sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing out there.  People ask me about this move or that move, but I don’t know why I did something, I just did it.  I am able to focus out the negative things around me and just zero in on what I am doing out there.  Off the field I become myself again.”  -Walter Payton  (Hall of Fame NFL running backs)

 

“At that special level all sorts of odd things happened….It was almost as if we were playing in slow motion.  During those spells I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken.  Even before the other team brought the ball in bounds, I could feel it so keenly that I’d want to shout to my teammates, “It’s coming there!” –except that I knew everything would change if I did.  My premonitions would be consistently correct, and I always felt then that I not only knew all the Celtics by heart but also all the opposing players, and they all knew me.”  – Bill Russell (NBA legend)

 

Mihaly Csikszentmikhalyi, a western psychologist and leading scientific researcher in the area of flow, a.k.a. the zone, describes the flow as completely focused motivation,  a single minded immersion that utilizes your emotions for peak performance and learning.  Csikszentmikhalyi has found 10 factors that are hallmarks of the state of flow.

1.  Clear goals where expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one’s skill set and abilities.  Challenge level and skill should be both high.  Your practice should resemble the competition as much as possible.

2.  Concentration on a limited field of attention.  Fully focused on the task at hand.  Being present in the moment.  Eliminate distractions.  Practice meditation and breathing exercises to clear your mind.

3.  A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.  Become one with your craft.

4.  A Distorted sense of time, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.  When we were kids we would play outside for hours. 

5.  Direct and immediate feedback.  Be able to assess your performance quickly and make changes immediately.

6.  Balance between ability level and challenge.

7.  A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.

8.  The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so that there is effortlessness in the action.  You must enjoy the activity.   Remember why you started playing.

9.  A lack of awareness of bodily needs.  Use the restroom before you compete, stay hydrated and fueled. 

10.  Absorption into the activity, action awareness immerging.

 

Buddhist PhD Andrew Cooper, a leading expert and researcher of the zone, describes this phenomenon as:

“profound joy, acute intuition (which at times feels like precognition), a feeling of effortlessness in the midst of intense exertion, a sense of the action taking place in slow motion, feelings of awe and perfection, increased mastery, and self-transcendence.”

The way that the athletes have described their record breaking performances sounds dream and mystical like.  They seem to be in a trance like state where they could close their eyes and play.  To induce these peak state performances of invincibility:

1. Become one with your craft.  Put in the time to perfect your skills.
2. Love what you do.  You should associate pure joy with your craft.  When you love what you do it is no longer work.
3. Practice mindfulness and meditation.  Be able to eliminate distractions at will.  The better you are at staying focused the easier it will be for you to get and stay in the zone.
4. Practice loving self talk and self awareness.  Pay attention to your thoughts.  Be able to replace and or change negative self talk quickly.  This will improve your confidence.
5. Go and grow beyond yourself.  Be part of something greater than yourself.  Practice forgetting about yourself and your ego.  Grow for the greater good.

 

Being your best will never be achieved strictly through physical training.  We must train the mind with the same intensity and purpose of improving our game.  Spiritual practices have proven successful throughout the world before scientific methods were ever employed.  By synchronizing our body and mind, we can grow on the eternal rhythm of the universe.  Living for something greater than ourselves will truly make us invincible and our spirit unstoppable!

 

 

  I wanted to dispell the myths, hype, and misinformation that we are flooded with everyday.  So I’ve decided to enlist the help from leaders in personal training, health, and fitness realm who have already changed hundreds if not thousands of lives.  I want to introduce Shane Doll who will tell us how he has been able to reach and change so many lives.

Shane Doll is a certified Charleston personal trainer, fat loss expert, speaker, and founder of Shaping Concepts Personal Training Studios. The success of his personal training studiomodel has gained nation wide recognition in the fitness industry including a cover
story in Personal Fitness Professional magazine. For more information you can
visit his website at www.shapingconcepts.com.

By Shane Doll

At Shaping Concepts Personal Training Studios in Charleston, SC. we
specialize in helping our clients see a body transformation through unique burst
training workouts and simplified nutrition strategies. The philosophy of the
company is one of using a modified Primal Blueprint or Paleo type diet of
mostly whole, natural foods, in combination with 30 minute functional strength
training and cardiovascular workouts. Our approach is one of taking everything
back to the basics and simply working on teaching our clients step-by-step
lifestyle changes.

We believe the best way to facilitate personal change is to
avoid overcomplicating things. Far too many people set out to get in shape,
lose weight, or improve their health with the idea they have to make drastic changes
all at once. Not only does this decrease the likelihood of sticking with a
program, it also leads to unrealistic expectations.

The success of our business model was built around this idea of helping clients
make one small change at a time and building upon the completion of short-term
goals. There is a systematic approach of focusing on two or three objectives at
a time instead of a complete lifestyle overhaul. For example, we may have the
client simply focus on eating a supportive nutrition breakfast before even
looking at making other changes in their diet. Everything is structured around
the idea of using small changes to in essence create building blocks of
success. 

The same philosophy of “building blocks” is used for exercise program design.

Regardless of the individual’s goals and objectives we focus first and foremost on helping clients move better. The idea is that if you avoid building a solid foundation of core stability and movement patterns, there will always be a point where the individual can no longer progress due to limitations. While health clubs and gyms have turned mostly into places where exercises are done while sitting down and you can watch TV’s on cardio
equipment, we take a completely different approach. Our fitness training facilities
more resemble old school gymnasiums with individuals doing bodyweight
calisthenics, free weights, and functional exercise.

Our Charlestonpersonal training programs are catered to middle age adults who want to change their shape but have struggled with dieting attempts and traditional health club workouts. The thirty minute burst training workouts are ideal for individuals over the age of thirty-five due to the hormonal responses produced from short-duration, high intensity
efforts of all out exertion.

 

The effectiveness of burst training workouts and supportive nutrition can best be supported by our client success stories. This is exactly how I market and promote the business. Not on hype and empty promises, but rather on the achievements of our actual clients.

While many personal training studios promote everything from
sports performance, rehab, senior fitness, and other niches, we simply look to
be the best at body transformations for middle age adults. I believe that being
specialized and not trying to cater to everyone has been one of the keys to our
success.

The best piece of advice I can give to personal trainers or
aspiring studio owners is to focus on being a coach to your clients. I don’t
refer to our team as “personal trainers” but rather as “professional fitness
coaches.” There is a big difference in my opinion. Personal trainers simply provide
workouts while a professional fitness coach takes a vested interest in helping
their clients be successful. The personal touches, going the extra mile, and
genuinely showing that you care cannot be replaced by any amount of savvy
marketing or price discounts.

When you develop strong relationships with your clients and
they know you care about them, everything else takes care of itself. As fitness
coaches, our ability to produce results for our clients is directly correlated
to the ability we have with inspiring and motivating them. Far too many
trainers focus their time on learning new exercises and turning workouts into “circus
shows” to try and impress their clients. The reality is trainers would be
better off learning behavioral modification techniques and ways to keep their
clients accountable.

One of my biggest mentors, the legendary strength coach Dan John has a quote
that pretty much sums up how to help your clients achieve success. He says we
should teach our clients that “little and often over the long haul” is the
secret to achieving their goals. While there will inevitably be set-backs, low
points, and obstacles along the way for everyone, it’s those who simply stick
with it that come out on top. I couldn’t agree with that more.

This is the philosophy I’ve used to build my business and
I’ve come to the conclusion that the more people you can help stick with it to
see results, the easier it is to find others who want to do the same. Once the
word gets out, people will come looking for you. The bottom line is if you help
enough people get what they want, you’ll get what you want. Live by this credo and
success will take of itself for you as well.

I originally wrote this article for the guys over at Diesel Crew and it was published last month on their website.  If you haven’t had a chance to check them out, then go ahead and save their address in your browser now www.dieselcrew.com    Jed and Smitty are true artists at their craft and are always posting the newest and most innovative tips in the strength and conditioning field.

Originally posted at: http://www.dieselcrew.com/increase-knee-stability

Ways to Increase Knee Stability

By Nick Outlaw CPT from www.raleighpersonaltrainer.org

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Knee injuries are some of the most common pests among athletes and anyone who is active.  The knee joint is subjected to the highest forces during physical activity because it is between the two longest levers and it is surrounded by the most powerful muscles in the body.  An athlete must be able to run, jump, and cut with the utmost efficiency while minimizing the probability of injury.

Knee stability is the ability to keep the knee in proper alignment under significant stresses and forces while your body is in motion.   Increasing knee stability will increase performance and decrease the likelihood of injuries not just to the knees, but above and below the knees.

Ankle Mobility

Surprisingly, knee stability starts with ankle mobility.  When the ankle does not have enough range of motion to complete a movement, the knee is likely to be forced out of alignment to compensate for this deficit.

The following two exercises will improve ankle mobility during dorsal flexion to minimize compensation by the knee and increase knee stability:

Wall Touch with Knees

 

Coaching Cues

Stand with your feet flat and toes almost touching the wall.  You need to be far enough away from the wall so you can bend both knees until they touch the wall while keeping your heels on the floor.  Make sure that your big toes, knees, hips and shoulders are square facing straight towards the wall and that your heels stay on the floor.  You should be able to feel the stretch in your feet, ankles and calves.  Your knees may be a bit stiff, so don’t be surprised.

After successfully touching your knees against the wall while keeping your feet flat, take a small step back (about 2 inches) and repeat.  Continue to work yourself away from the wall to the point where you can no longer keep your feet flat and heals heels down. You should eventually be able to touch the wall with correct foot positioning at the previous distance you were unable to and in the process loosen up your knees, ankles and feet.

Calf Stretch

 

Coaching Cues

Place both hands in front of you on the wall right below shoulder height and lean forward as if you were pushing the wall away from you.  Take a big step back with your left foot as you continue to push against the wall.  You want to feel a stretch in the left calf muscle.  Keep your left foot, knee and hips pointed straight ahead towards the wall.

Try to keep your left foot flat as you stretch your left ankle, calf and all the way up into your hip.  This exercise can be used as part of your dynamic warm-up or part of your post-workout stretching to decrease soreness and increase flexibility.  To utilize this exercise before a workout you want to stay in motion.  Once you feel the stretch along the back of your left leg, alternate feet by stepping forward with the left leg into a lunge position and back with the right leg to be straightened and stretched.

As a warm-up, the actual stretch should take approximately 5 seconds.  When using this stretch at the end of a workout I would recommend holding it for a minimum of 30 seconds and repeating it at least twice on both sides.

Strengthening the Glutes

Weak glute muscles lead to a lack of leg stability and also increase the probability of knee injuries.   I always tell my clients, “it is all about the glutes,” because it truly is.  Glutes are the largest muscle in the human body.  Our large glutes keep us walking upright, which and is one of the biggest anatomical differences between us and apes.  Strong glutes protect not only the knees but the lower back.   The glutes are the major player of the core and surround the body’s center of gravity.

Lateral Tube Walk

This lateral tube walking exercise will activate and strengthen the glutes.

Coaching Cues

Grab a light to medium resistance band/tubing.  Stand on the center of the resistance band holding each end in opposite hands so the band crosses in front of you.  Once the band is crossed in front of you, bring your hands up to shoulder height.  The end of the band coming from under your right left foot should be held onto by the right hand in front of the right shoulder.

 

Just as in the previous two exercises you will want to keep your big toes, knees, hips, and shoulders facing straight ahead.  Take a step to your side without leaning over with your upper body and without turning your foot out.   Take two more steps to the side, now take three steps back to the starting position in the opposite direction.  Complete 15 repetitions in each direction.  You want to make sure you are stepping out to the side with the outside of your lead hip.  This will ensure that you are feeling it and working the hip abductors and the gluteus medius and minimus (deep hip muscles along the back and sides).

There is a tendency to turn the lead foot out which will activate the wrong muscle, the Tensor Fascia Latte (TFL) and psoas (hip flexors).  Watch the video below and you will see how the athlete, Badger, turns his feet out.  Try to avoid this while doing this exercise.

 

Single Leg Glute Bridge

A single leg stability ball glute bridge works the deep stabilizer muscles of the hip, gluteus medius and minimus.  Master this exercise with both feet on the floor first before advancing to the single leg bridge.  You should be able to hold your shoulders, hips, and knees in a straight line and parallel to the floor for a minimum of 1 minute and 30 seconds before advancing to the single leg bridge:

 

Coaching Cues

Sit on an exercise/stability ball that is the correct size for your height.   One way to quickly assess this is by getting into the correct starting position for this exercise.  If your head is not level with your knees, then you need to find one that will place your head at the same height as your knees when lying down with the back of your head and shoulders supported on the ball and feet flat on the floor.  The butt/hips should be raised to the same height as your head and knees.

Finally I leave you with a fully integrated exercise that challenges not only knee stability, but total body stability, coordination, and balance.  A single leg dead lift with a wood chop is a must in anyone’s program.

Straight Leg Deadlift (SLDL) with Wood Chopper

 

Coaching Cues

Hold a 5 lb medicine ball or dumbbell with both hands.  While balancing on one foot slightly bend the balancing leg’s knee and keep the knee bent throughout the exercise.  Next bend forward from the hip as is if you were gently placing the item on the floor to the outside of the balancing leg’s foot. The opposite foot and leg will raise up behind you at the same rate the upper body is descending towards the floor, maintaining a straight line with your spine.  Stop your descent using the large muscles in the back of your balancing leg right before you’re able to set the dumbbell or ball on the ground.  Return to a standing position and twist the ball over the shoulder opposite your balancing leg.

You want to feel the large muscles in the back of the leg (glutes and hamstrings) doing the movement.  The stability foot will want to curl up, which is likely to cause fatiguing in the foot, ankle and calf before the larger muscle groups.  Focus on keeping your weight back on your heel, keeping your foot from trying to grab the floor, curling up, and using the glute to lift you up by driving through your heel.

We need a strong foundation upon which to build our strength.  Mobility and stability precede strength and should be prioritized in programming accordingly to build and maintain your foundation.  To squat,  first you must be able to squat to parallel (mobility and range of motion) without losing your balance (stability) and with correct form.  Only then can you safely lift anything beyond your own body weight.

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Nick Outlaw is a personal trainer in Raleigh, N.C.  He is nationally certified through American College of Sports Medicine as a personal trainer and has helped hundreds of clients change their lives in the 8 years he has been training.  His experience includes, but is not limited to college and pro athletes, sports specific, strength and conditioning, functional training, post rehabilitation patients, a physical therapy clinical setting, and general fitness, toning and weight loss.  Nick has a BS from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.  While attending college he competed in the Power Lifting and endurance competitions where he placed in the top three every time.  His Senior Research project was an in depth study of ideal body images in American culture.

Kettlebell Swings for 1 minute

Burpees for 1 minute

Repeat 2 times everyday

A unilateral movement such as a one leg squat is used mainly for stability.   However a one leg squat does require much coordinated strength as well, but not as much power that a “traditional” squat with both feet on the floor and 300lbs on your back would require.  Further, with the one leg series you will not have to worry about putting such a tremendous stress and strain on your spine.  If you are interested in begining to learn the safest and most effective way to start a one leg training program you can contact me for further guidance and instruction at www.raleighpersonaltrainer.org

One Leg Squat with Roll

BOSU Hop to a One Leg Squat

Let’s change the way we think about “exercise” and in the process change the way we live for a healthier and fuller life!  We tend to limit ourselves to the activities in which we enjoy and are good at.  I want to show you that there is more to working out than what is mainstream.  Keep your mind stimulated and your body will follow!

No matter if you are trying to lose weight or gain lean muscle you need all of your essential vitamins and minerals.  It is virtually impossible for most people, myself included, to get the variety and amount of food in our diets to get all of the vitamins and minerals we need to be healthy.   Further, most people forget to take their multivitamins, but won’t forget to start their day without their coffee.  Which brings me to a brilliant solution VitaCaf.  VitaCaf is a healthy creamer that has all of your daily vitamins and minerals that you need.  My good friend Kosta came up with the idea after years of advising clients to take their multivitamins, but having trouble remembering to take his everyday.

When he introduced me to his new product I was estatic because I am a big coffee enthusiast!  I tried VitaCaf this Saturday morning with my morning cup and cruised all day with clean energy.  I just felt healthier.  I don’t recommend anything I haven’t tried and don’t believe in.  If you have to have your coffee and can’t remember to take your vitamin, then VitaCaf is right for you.

Serving Size 3.261 grams

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) 75 mg 125%

Vitamin B1 (as thiamine HCl) 1.5 mg 100%

Vitamin B2 (as riboflavin) 1.7 mg 100%

Vitamin B3 (as niacinamide) 20 mg 100%

Vitamin B5 (as pantothenic acid) 10 mg 100%

Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine HCl) 2 mg 100%

Folic Acid (as folacin) 400 mcg 100%

Vitamin B12 (as methylcobalamin) 6mcg 100%

Biotin 300 mcg  100%

Calcium (Calcium carbonate and/or Citrate-Malate)10 mg 300%

Zinc (as L-methionine)15 mg 100%

Magnesium (as citrate/oxide) 125 mg  30%