I like the idea of implementing moves and training techniques from various martial arts forms and various disciplines...even our unique Chile pepper Approach to Exercise incorporates that philosophy, basing our approach on Bruce Lee's idea about taking the best from the best and making it into your own training.  I definitely appreciate the efforts other experts have put into their approaches...and I like to learn.  So I always recommend the approach I use for myself: try everything.

But I am not sure if combat/MMA training is really right for everybody.  

It is not that it will not work; the techniques are productive, and the high intensity intervals are severe.  The potential for excellent calorie burning is definitely there.

My concerns are with the possible joint disruption and steep learning curve that comes from aggressive punching and grappling for people that are not familiar with the unique muscle actions involved...specifically, tendon strains, pulled muscles, knee and elbow injuries, excessive shoulder capsule injury, back loading and unloading issues, headaches, ankle rotation injuries...and that doesn't even get into the potential bruising and rupturing of some tissues due to impact or blocking.

Now I know the experts would not push someone into that kind of training, but a lot of times, the environment contributes to the problem...competitive, yelling, racing heart beats, physical contact, adrenaline fueled actions...it is pretty easy to push just a little too far when in that environment...Don't believe me?  Look at the number of people injured doing yoga...and that is supposed to be relaixng...!

next post, we will discuss some of the things you can do to prepare yourself...and some of the things to be on the lookout for that can set you back....

Unlike the old bodybuilding style workouts we all grew up with, the Crossfit idea is to focus on different workouts for each day...maximum power generation, minimal rest, and repeated cycles.  I am oversimplifying, of course, but the idea behind it is very much like military bootcamp: high proficiency, no fancy machines, hard core work ethic, and using objects that may not normally be part of your routine...tires, sledgehammers, ropes, pullup bars, sandbags, kettlebells, rocks, logs...fun stuff, and very rewarding!

The reason we recommend it for people in GOOD (emphasis on GOOD) condition is due to the steep learning curve and ballistic nature of many of the exercises...plyometric pushups, handstand pushups, multiple grip position pullups, tire flips, hammer throws...all of these involve a rapid acceleration of the object or your body and incorporate stretch positions.  That does not make them dangerous, but it can increase the risk factor significantly.  People with previous shoulder injuries or knee issues should definitely sit down with a qualified instructor and make sure they understand the limitations...power cleans, kettlebell swings and handstand pushups can shred a rotator cuff if there is any instability in the joint at all.

Our opinion:  a kick butt workout that can introduce you to a lot of cool people and introduce you to new ways to make your muscles scream for recovery time...definitely worth a shot...

Next time, we'll talk about alternatives to CrossFit...

We have seen this with salt, eggs, red meat, soy, bacon, wheat, white rice, white bread, milk, butter, fruit, beans, organic, steamed, fresh, GMO, high fructose corn syrup, regular corn syrup, corn, pasta, chocolate, cane sugar, artificial sweeteners, vitamins, mega doses, antioxidants...it can get pretty confusing.

The truth is:  we are still learning.  Everyone is.  We know some things to be straightforward and make sense: (eating natural foods, not overeating, smaller meals partitioned throughout the day, quality sleep, tea, minimal processing, more fruits and more vegetables...) but there is NO perfect diet or perfect food.  

The perfect diet would fit everybody, it would just have to be calorically corrected for each individual, and there would be no need to guess about macronutrient ratios...but we know that will not work, since protein needs, energy requirements, digestive efficiency, food allergies and sensitivities preclude one diet being right for everyone.  Plus, not everyone likes the same tastes and foods, and some foods are not available to everybody in every area.

And while the search continues for the "perfect" food, it looks like it will be up to us to continue to educate ourselves and others on how to make the best of the wonderful foods that are out there...since no "one" food can provide a proper ratio of carbs to protein to fats to meet most people's metabolic needs...and most are lacking in micronutrients as well, so that rules out "one" superfood...

So where do we go from here...?  Stay tuned...we are going to help you steer your ship on the course that works for you...!

But...

How much of it is science...and how much of it is hype?  After 20 years in the industry, thousands od studies, articles, books and magazines read, assimilated, absorbed and digested, it is time to let you in on a little industry secret....

There is really nothing new in the fitness industry.

Let that sink in for a second.  Nothing. New. In. The. Industry.  How can that be even remotely accurate?

Of course, there are new machines, new programs, new supplements, new diets, new celebrity success stories, new scientific breakthroughs...but they are all basically retelling us what we have always known to be true about exercise.  Resistance training works.  For your mind.  For your muscles.  For your heart. And for your weight management.  Period.

You will see people lining up on all sides to attack this statement, claiming they know so-and-so's program does this, this other one does that...but the same basic message exists that proves what a lot of us have been teaching all along.  You CAN get fit (in shape, stronger, faster, healthier, etc) by applying sufficient resistance to your muscles.  Plain and simple.

You can do it with your body weight.  Free weights.  Machines.  Kettlebells.  Sandbags.  Medicine balls.  Water bottles.  Backpacks.  Cats.  Dogs.  Pretty much anything that allows you to subject a muscle to a workload beyond what it normally experiences when you go through your day.  

Next post:  How and why that works.  Stay tuned.

Schools have a crisis on their hands and not a lot of easy answers to the problem.  Kids have to meet testing requirements that increasingly difficult...budgets have been slashed...supplies have been cut...resources have been minimized...and time is valuable, too valuable to waste on restructuring the system.

Houston Fitness Consultants has the answer...at least, we have an answer that makes sense AND works, right from Day One.

What is the Goal?

Better kids.  Healthy.  Active.  Focused.  Smarter.  Interested.  And, most importantly, no real costs to the school.

Interested?  A little curious how we do it and what the plan consists of?  What if we told you there is more to it than just the fitness aspect...what if we told you it was a community building program with easy fundraising and hands on programs for kids that can benefit more than just the kids...?

What if we told you this program will be rolling out at the end of the month...and that getting involved is easier than you might think....

Stay tuned...

But does that mean that you need to hire a trainer?  As always, that depends...

Trainers can provide motivation, but that is more a function of the trainer's personality than the trainers abilities.  You cannot get a certification for "motivation"...it is not an exact science and what may motivate one person today could backfire completely the next day on the same person, and may be absolutely useless on another person on ANY day.  You have a lot of options if you are just looking for  motivation...TV stars, exercise videos, magazines...people at the gym...personal success stories...you do not need a trainer to get any of these...

What a trainer CAN do, and SHOULD do, is help you to be motivated to do your best THAT day, at that time...nothing else should matter.  We have clients who come in after a stressful day of work, disoriented, stressed, anxious, angry...they still made it in, but they are in no condition to work out productively (some people can use anger as a motivator, but it is easy to overdo it under those circumstances...).  

It is our job to make sure they focus on the goal of creating a productive stimulus for change with their workout.  We cannot help change the things that created the stress.  We cannot resolve their issues with their day.  But we can align them towards being on track and productive with their exercise.  We can put things in perspective and help them get what they want out of their time with us.

Sometimes it means we have to act as therapists...understanding the needs of our clients is part of the coaching process.  Next blog post, I'll explain the "Four Phases" of Prep for a workout....and help explain how they can all still work in the client's favor.

Getting older is never easy...and it seems to get a little tougher everyday.  Between the weight of the world, the stress of a poor night's sleep, the quality of food available while we are out trying to save he world and the demands that pop up unexpectedly on our schedules, it is easy to overdo it every once in a while.

A minor strain or injury is NOT a terrible thing to have happen.  We are constantly trying to reassure our clients that the occasional tweaked shoulder or achy knee is NOT the end of the world for their health and fitness.  It is a setback, but it is also an opportunity to go forward with a better understanding of your body's limitations...and we all have them.  A lot of people like to imagine that they are beyond getting injured or straining themselves by overworking every so often...but from my experience, if you are not occasionally feeling the effects of overdoing it you may not be working out hard enough or paying enough attention to hitting your target.

We always see people at the gym doing the same old safe exercises with a weight they have done for years, talking and enjoying themselves, occasionally working up a sweat and even breathing heavy...sometimes.  But what message are they sending to their body?  That it is fine where it is? That it does not have to get any stronger?  That it does not need to learn to adapt to any additional stress or movement?  Is that really the message we want our time in the gym to generate...that we are okay where we are at, and we don't want our body to change anything?

I don't think so...and hopefully, neither do you.

Our time at the gym is a chance to challenge your body...a chance to make it push a little outside of it's normal comfort zone.  Sometimes, we only need that ONE extra rep to get the message across...sometimes two or three reps.  Sometimes, it takes an entirely different exercise or exercise sequence...but we want our muscles to think they are just NOT strong enough to meet the demands we ask of them.  Because of what we are trying to do, it is entirely possible that we could push just a little too hard every once in awhile.

It happens.  It does not mean you screwed up.  It means you may have overestimated THAT particular muscle on THAT particular day doing THAT particular exercise.  Learn from it. Remember what it felt like...and remember that your exercise is designed to help you expand that range that you experience day to day...it is designed to push you just a little closer to the edge so your body knows it can continue to learn.  Keep notes...and LISTEN to what your body is telling you...and then show it you listened by giving it the tools it needs to go PAST that point in the future.

There is no way of knowing if Whitney Houston could have found a way out of her spiral.  No way of guessing or speculating what might have worked or what she had done so far and what might have helped reignite the spark she used to light the hearts of her fans.  It will be years before all of the stories come out about what she did and what she was like...she seemed to have it all and seemed to want to throw it away for an escape from her reality.  Tragic.

We help people.  It is the career choice we made.  We have never encountered someone that could not be helped, but we deal with real world situations and real people...sometimes it seems that celebrities become something other than real and consequently cannot be helped by conventional methods.  But we do know what has helped hundreds, thousands, even millions of people feel better about themselves.

Exercise and lifestyle.  It is not a cure...it is a tool.  A tool that can help improve the body's ability to fight back against stress and illness and worry.  A tool that can help manage and improve some body image issues and confidence issues.  A tool that you can carry around with you anywhere and use at anytime.  A tool that is actually a belief that you deserve to be happy and deserve to be healthy.  It is a tool, that, in moderation, can be the best treatment and preventative step someone can take as a step towards a healthy and happy future.

Money cannot buy it.  Position cannot acquire it.  Food cannot feed it.  But stress, and the inability to fight it to your advantage, can take it away.  it can make us doubt our value, and doubt our worth.  It can rob us of our confidence and block the memories that convince us we DO deserve to feel at ease.  It can take away our reality that we are allowed to be flawed human beings in search of greater good.  It can make us resent our place and what we have done by allowing us to compare ourselves to people with completely different circumstances.

Maybe Ms Houston lost sight of that.  Maybe she put so much pressure on herself to stay famous that she lost sight of the person she had become.  It is a shame it may not have had to happen.  We can only imagine the people close to her begging her to seek out a solution.  Hopefully it can help someone else before it happens again.  RIP Ms. Whitney Houston.  You opened our ears with your voice...hopefully your actions can open someone else's eyes.

Of course not...am I the first one to tell you this is not going to be easy?  After decades of new products, infomercials, modified designs, fitness gurus, internet training programs and the like, it seems like every single problem in the fitness industry has been answered, and by now it should be easy to figure out who is the best, what is the best, and what gets the best results.

One problem with that...everyone progresses at a different rate...everyone has a little different performance curve and learning curve...everyone has slightly different motivators and slightly different goals.  The basics are all the same, but the small differences are the ones that make it hardest to tell YOU what is perfect and right for you.

BUT...

That doesn't mean that we can't help you find out a great place to start...and keep you on track so you can avoid plateaus...and introduce new exercises or more difficult or effective variations when you have progressed appropriately...or introduce you to specific training mesocycles and microcycles so you can vary the intensity based on specific goals and learned recovery behaviors...

We may not be in the bodybuilding world or competitive figure world...we are not professional athletes who live and die by our sponsors products...we are not beholden to any supplement companies...and we will be the first to tell you that a lot of the times, the old guys had it right...and a lot of the times, the new guys figured it out better.  

The big difference in all this: The Chile Pepper Approach to Wellness and Fitness.  No, you are not required to eat hot peppers to make progress (but it can help...a little)...but what WE help YOU do is match YOUR unique ability to tolerate "heat" (work) and YOUR unique recovery ability (how long it takes you to fully recover from a workout preventing burnout but re-stimulating the muscles before they get a chance to lose some progress) coupled with exercises that are designed to maximize YOUR range of motion, goals and limitations to create a balanced, thought out, optimized program.

All you have to do is....get started!

As far as the classical definition of "addictive", we cannot see that any natural foods can meet that claim.  Foods as they are found in nature are satisfying, good for you, and contain micro-nutrients that can be of great benefit.  But there is nothing in naturally occurring foods that we can see that qualifies as addictive, implying a chemical need or dependency.  If you discontinue eating natural foods, you may miss the way they make you feel energized and satiated, but your body probably will not "crave" the foods chemically if they are out of your diet for too long.

Processed foods, on the other hand, DO trigger certain "cravings".  Not necessarily chemical dependency cravings, but the type that makes people more suggestive to desiring them when they are deprived of them...using all sorts of clever tricks...nutrient combinations (lots of sugar and fat together makes it very satisfying on the tongue), additives, artificially enhanced colors, fragrances, clever marketing using music and images that stay in your mind and are easily triggered by similar images...lots of things.

The reason we say they are NOT truly addictive is that you will not suffer conventional withdrawal symptoms if you cannot have the foods.  You may be angry, you may be disappointed, but unlikely you will have severe headaches, psychological pressure, etc.  (we are not saying it is impossible, but we are saying it is unlikely).  In most cases, there are a couple simple steps to take to see if you are really addicted or simply craving something.  We will introduce one idea in today's blog, more over the next few days.

Number one.  Think back to your goal sheet.  (You DO have a goal sheet that you carry around with you, right??)  Put that image in your head, and think hard about what it is you are craving...will that craving make it harder for you to reach your goal? Is there something you can have in place of that craving that will help you move towards your goal?  Give it a try.  If you feel okay without it, make a note and remember that the next time you feel that way.  Remember, while 300 calories may not sound like much, it can add up to 30 lbs in a year...and you KNOW you don't want that!  If you really feel like you HAVE the item, try to plan it in to your meal plan for the following day...make room for it, and enjoy it as part of your plan, not an obstacle to derail your efforts.

We'll be back with more tips tomorrow.