agile fitness

You're Missing the Point

2010-11-22T17:37:00.000-08:00

'Fitness' is an eye-rolling business sometimes. When people find out I'm in fitness, they perceive me as being a goodie two-shoes when in fact I just love the athleticism of working out. Exercise for me, really, has nothing to do with getting healthy or looking good - those are just awesome side benefits. I just love running and lifting and I love doing that with other people.

If you set out to start exercising to 'get healthy' - I think your missing the point and I think your setting yourself up to fail. Enjoy the pursuit in and of itself.

Living

2010-08-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight my seven year old daughter asked me, "Daddy, what is death?" I said to her, "Mia, it would be like if you went to sleep at night and never woke up."

"Forever?" she asks. "Yes, as far as anyone knows, yes." And I'm kind of unsettled in my response because you want to give your kids really good answers when they ask things and this one is a question I just don't know the answer to. I mean, you wait a good 5 years for them to start talking to you like a person so when the "why this, why that" comes out of their mouths, you want to give good answers. Instead I felt like a 7 year-old.

Thankfully her attention turned elsewhere, but my aging thoughts lingered.

When my daughter talks this way, I get scared. I'm young, but getting older. I want to live a long, healthy life so I can enjoy her for a long, long time. Feeling of vulnerability.

My emotional reaction to this fear day-in and day-out is consistently the same...

I run. I lift. I breathe hard. I sweat. I feel that burning muscular pain. I workout.

For me that workout is a reminder that I am alive and an expression of how I choose to go through life. That workout, in its pure essence, is the second purest expression of living that I know.

SEE

2010-05-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

SEE is an acronym I use to describe 3 interrelated necessities in life. Sleep, Exercise and Eat. Might seem just a cute little neat acronym but I've learned to live my life by it.

You see, when I was younger, I was this really good athlete that could get by on just the 'exercise' part. I could be up late, eat what I wanted and still perform at a pretty high level. I was 22.

Now I'm 38. I've always had bad sleeping habits, especially when my 2 kids were very young. My immune system suffered big-time. When your sleep is off, sugar and caffeine become a lifeline of energy. And so the cycle goes...

It got to a point with me where I knew I needed to fundamentally change SLEEP. I trained myself to shut-down earlier - before 10:30. My mental acuity climbed appreciably. My diet improved mostly because I had the energy to care. I stopped getting sick (kids being older helped too) and the quality of my workouts improved dramatically. None of this happened overnight, but over a period of 9 months, I was able to look back and say, "wow - i am in a different place."

At 38, I feel close to that 22. As long as I keep that sleep in check.

So folks, you can pump yourself up to get on a workout regimen all you want. If you're not getting a consistent quality 8 hours of sleep, you won't last more than 3 weeks on that workout program. Unfortunately, that's reality. We're human.

Take a look at your life. Are you treating yourself well? Are you getting the sleep you need and the food your body needs? If not, why not? You might have to dig a little deeper to understand that 'why not' - and I'm not speaking from an almighty pillar. I'm speaking from having been there myself.

Afraid of Success

2009-02-25T10:12:00.000-08:00

"Something is wrong Jim, I'm looking at your power numbers and I've gotta tell ya, these are pro numbers. I'm glad that you finished in the top 5 but look, you can win - you should be winning. I don't know what you're doing up there, but you're not closing the deal. I know you are capable because I'm seeing the numbers. You don't need to be faster, you need to learn how to win."

Ouch. Here I was all excited that I 'placed' in a big race and my coach, whom I never met but have worked with over the phone and online for about 6 months gave me the real deal.

In split-second pulses at the finish of a race, I was making decisions about how I thought of myself and what I was comfortable with. I was not comfortable winning.

Craig Griffin, my coach, insisted that I win. And he showed me that I was good enough and deserving. Over the next 2 years, every time the finish line got closer, I amped up my mental focus to places I've never been. I would say to myself, I'm here! I'm here! I friggin deserve this. And then, every move was intense, split-second-made and fierce.

I was taking it. I was fighting. Not physically. Mentally. Once I gave myself permission to feel I deserved to win, it felt like I was not just trying to win that race that day, but making up for every race, and every situation in life, that I did not win.

Those moments crystallized in my brain. As I think back to those races over the next 2 years, I remember shutting down extraneous factors and hyper-focusing on where my position was, what gear I was in, where my competitors were and what I needed to do to win. All of it was happening at high race speeds with dozens and sometimes hundreds of bikes cornering deeply into sharp turns before the final straight-away.

So what right? Speedy Jim - whoohoo. Autograph anyone?

But here's the thing: those experiences, and my coach's ability to share his insight with me - in a way that I could handle - changed my life. I was 31 years old at the time. I didn't go on to be a great cyclist. I went on to be a husband, daddy and successful entrepreneur.

I never grew up understanding how to win - it wasn't in the family archives, and that fact made it inherently uncomfortable to succeed. No road map. It was easier - familiar actually - to 'struggle' and be a survivor.

I don't want to survive anymore. I want to live, and live large.

Where I Can Find Me & You Can Find You

2008-10-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

I slip on my white italian sidi cycling shoes. They fit perfectly. Tight without being tight. I clip into my bike, I am no longer me and my bike is no longer it. Every effort applied results in one forward movement. Rise from the saddle, cat-like and pounce with speed. I feel comfortable here. Climb mountains, cross desert.

I can relax.

Heart rate climbs, breathing accelerates, and here I am comfortable. This is the place where I can be me. Not a rush, that's a feeling of experiencing something new. This is not new. This is familiar and comfortable.

It's a frequency where I can communicate on all levels. I can reach you here. I can reach me here. I can see brightly. And I can feel everything and be afraid of nothing. Not invincibility. Comfort with my humanity.

God, whoever or whatever that may be, provided me with a heart and I primed it to pump powerfully, and slowly. I did that. My legs - agile sticks as a child are now powerful workhorses that have taken me tens of thousands of miles.

On the road or in the boat, I've met people that I will never forget but that I will never see again. That is living and at its best.

Ever look square into the eyes of an athlete who is at speed, sweating and physically hurting? Its a pure moment of someone being as alive as can be. Challenge that person's spirit by surging ahead of them. I've been here many times, some won, many lost.

Outside My Comfort Zone

2008-09-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Rivanna Reservoir, University of Virginia, October 1st, 1992

Rowing duels are rare. Usually crews will compete in fleets of 6-8 boats at a time. But once a year, my crew would take on UVA's crew and this year it would be on their course. It was a quiet reservoir. No spectators; no shore to have them. It was early fall, the leaves were only beginning to change.

When the gun sounded, we pried into our first ten strokes. The UVA crew was rowing higher than us and they immediately gained a 2 seat lead within those first ten strokes. Joe was our stroke, the newest member of our team, one we have not yet really gotten to know.

Had I known Joe would raise the stroke rating to a 48 and demand that we stay there, I probably would have unlocked my oar and dove into the reservoir because I did not think that pace was sustainable. But, having no choice if we were to stay with the big and powerful UVA crew, Joe kept us high.

I remember cursing Joe halfway through the race, accusing him of inexperience for rowing this high - we never settled! We have to settle you ass! We're going to blow up!

UVA hung with us but I could here there coxswain growing more frantic and demanding toward her crew. They were beginning to falter, which gave us new life, and we began to surge.

"Okay Joe, lock us down. Let's settle. Let's bring this down."

He never did. He kept it high and I, along with my crew, felt like our lungs were going to explode. I had already emptied my tank, or so I thought.

Funny how your body has reserve of which you are not aware. Survival reserve.

2000 meters later, we finished in the lead with an open water advantage and broke UVA's course record. Once we recovered in the boat, UVA floated over to us so we could lock oars, shake hands and claim their jerseys. My UVA counterpart was 6'4" with no lank about him. I could not believe I out-rowed this guy.

I took his sweaty jersey that he surrendered in sportsmanlike fashion and thanked him for the race. On the dock, I thanked Joe with a slight grin and smirk on my face.

Who was this guy that handled me like a horse and demanded I go faster than I was accustomed?

Every now and then, we should all surrender control to what we think we know and let someone else guide us. The outcome could take you to a good place.

36

2008-08-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

A relatively young age, but one of massive transition. The middle of the decade of leaving your youth and entering the 'time' you vaguely knew was coming.

I've always been this hyper-focused athlete and now I feel confused. I still have this itch everyday to start racing again, or jumping, even though I know my peak is past. Could I get back there? Well, sure, I think so. But for how long and under what cost? And wouldn't that be a selfish path given the two little munchkins I have running around?

It's their time. Two little ripe kiddies with energy that requires no premeditated thought to unleash. They just...go. Me? I have to have a conversation with myself first before I fire up my engines.

So what's the motivation now if not to win? To look good? That's more about diet for me, and I've never been too good about 'working out' without that competitive element anyway.

I'm itching so badly to open up a studio. One that I, myself, would workout in. I'd invite all of my friends and colleagues to join me for workouts. I NEED to share my experience and knowledge with other people. I want to teach those that REALLY want to amp it up and get fit. It's so hard to do online - no human touch.

I think that's it. I'll be that awesome 40 something year old Dad that's in terrific shape, goes cycling with his buddies on the weekends and occasionally does a Triathlon. Maybe my kids will come by to 'find Dad' and breathe in what I do. Maybe other Dads will walk in and want to get in shape - really want to get in shape. I would love that.

No feeling is greater than the feeling of watching a person's life change as they find their fit selves. Good to know I have those opportunities in front of me, in the not-so-distant future.

Don't Exercise To Be Healthy

2008-07-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'd be lying if I told you that I exercise to stay healthy. I am just lucky that that was a side benefit. I think a lot of people that meet me feel like they need to put on a healthy front when they're around me. Look - the reality is that, for some reason, I chose to go running at 10:00 on a Friday night when I was a teenager. I had energy and frustration to release. It was an itch to move, so I scratched it. I wasn't consciously choosing to 'be healthy.' Please - does any teenager do that?

I never stopped scratching that itch. There is something special about existing in that 'place' when running, rowing, riding or swimming. It's as close to God as I ever felt. And the feeling afterward, the next day and so on? Awesome. Legs feel strong, abs are tight and you can... breathe...deeply. And that is what kept me running. It was the feeling of having physical mastery in the world I lived in and mental clarity to think my way through it.

So let me say it here - exercise to find that place, to soul-search, to learn more about yourself and negotiate your way through life. Move your body, and use it in every way you can. When it breaks - get it fixed. Don't use your bodies' breaking down as an excuse to get old. Get it fixed.

The other side of this is the reality that we are aging; our bodies will slow down and to fight that is denying the reality of your humanity. Don't fight aging; age gracefully.

Technology. Pharmaceuticals. Processed foods. Progress? I'm not so sure. It's a human condition, especially among Americans, to believe that we are advanced compared to our ancestors. But I look around and I see primitive conditions. I see a culture that lived its glory years. Sedentary people. Very overweight people. People buried underneath their excess. That saddens me, because I would love to meet the people hidden underneath years of neglect. The world needs those people.

Let's get back to basics. Don't eat egg-whites - eat the darn yoke. Skip the energy bar and break a loaf of bread. Bottom-up a tall glass of lemonade, spill it down your chest. Run your hands through your hair and open your eyes to the sky. Go run, or jog or walk. Can't? Knees hurt? Get them fixed. Back hurt? Why? Which part? Which muscle? Get it fixed. Do it to look good and healthy? Sure - that'll happen. But other things will happen. Things that are more powerful and effectual than you can know right now.

The Last 500 Meters

2008-06-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

May, 1994, Dad Vails Regatta, Philadelphia

The lane official, laying belly-down on the floating wet dock, held tightly with both hands to the stern of our racing shell. Eight heavyweight men, one coxswain. We try to stay relaxed, oar blade set in water, ready to pull with all our might. Relax. 2000 meters down the Schuylkill River. Six lanes, six boats. Final Event and biggest collegiate race of our lives. Relax.

A storm-whipped cross current can wreck a smooth start; the bows of each boat struggle to keep from pointing to port side. "Bow hit it!" The coxswain yells at Scott, our bowman. "Keep hitting it Scott - keep us straight." The belly-down deckman's forearms are burning from trying to hold still a 50-foot long shell filled with 8 heavyweights pitching into the cross current.

Loudspeakers boom and echo, "Gentlemen, welcome to the final of the Dad Vails Regatta." Then urgently, the coxswains crisply shout out commands to their crews. The spectators are all at the finish line, 1500 meters down the course. I can hear them, but only as a distant white noise hum. It makes the hairs on my forearms stand and sends a cool tingle down my back.

Our instructions from Chuck, our coach, are to pull only by the command of our coxswain, Robin, and not the gun of the race official, who is located on the side of the river. "The sound of the gun shot has to travel to your ears and your pull will be delayed - Robin will watch the trigger finger - go on her command."

I sit, oar blade buried, ready to explode into my first stroke in concert with my 7 teammates. All I see are the broad muscles of Web's back in front of me; he's drawn at the catch, fingers and shoulders relaxed - but ready to explode.

"Cha!" Robin yells, and then the gunshot.

Every stroke has to be clean and all of our blades have to enter the water together. Each of us has to row as hard as we possibly can and we all must be perfectly in tune with one another. No mental lapses. Don't follow Web, the rower in front of me. BE with Web. Move with him. Explosively.

Coming into the last 500 meters of that race has stayed with me these past 14 years, and those last 500 meters are one of three experiences for me that form the spiritual foundation from which I started Agile. The other two I've written about in the past, and they are buried within the archives of this blog, but subconsciously fresh in my mind everyday.

Something released from us coming into the grandstands amidst the roar of that crowd. Our tension disappeared and the boat went faster. I am not sure where this pixie dust came from, but I picked it up just as a dog would pick up a sudden scent. One by one, this sprinkle of magic trickled through us. We were all in great pain; our chests were heaving, our leg muscles were on fire and we were fried. But we found each other through that pain. Our strokes became rhythmic and the boat seemed to lift out of the water and move with litespeed to the finish line.

The pixie dust was the spirit of our friendship built on 4 years of rowing and racing and our realization that a great time was coming to pass - in about 500 meters.

Scott

2008-06-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

April 1997. Palo Alto California.

Scotty - Do you remember ascending to Skyline Ridge, high above Silicone Valley and then descending at speeds nearly 50 miles per hour all the way to the Pacific Ocean? 6 Days later we were 11,000 feet high in Lake Tahoe skiing the best powder either of us having experienced to this day.

How about when we first met back in college 1991? 4 years of intense Rowing amongst what would be the best friends of our lives; friends that we are unusually close today, 17 years later.

17 years.

Remember when you first took me out on your Catamaran? We had the Cat peaked on one pontoon; I was trapezed way out. The wind suddenly died and I plunged under water then catapulted back onto the deck. You were steering the boat, keeping it from capsizing and laughing like a little kid. We bonded over the fact that only us two would giggle over what others would perceive as an absolute Mayday moment.

Another time that same summer we got caught way out on the Sound with no wind. Stranded for hours and we could have cared less. We had a dozen Coronas, 2 limes and a knife.

1995 summer at G's. That was the best summer of my life. How many open Jeep rides did we make out there?

Surfing in Costa Rica.

What about the Mountainous ride through St. Helena in Napa Valley?

Dad Vails Regatta in 1994. We never rowed better or more in sync with one another. How about the course record we set at UVA? I think we rowed at a 50 the whole way.

Remember Melbourne, Florida? Rowing through the canals. 3 practices a day?

Remember that Golf Trip we took with your Dad in Ocean City? I had a bike race that Sunday and destroyed the field in the finishing sprint. It was special not because I won, but because you witnessed it. I was only that good because your Dad taught me how to take my training seriously.

I'm having a flush of fine memories on the eve of your wedding to the best woman you have ever known (and I've been around to witness every one). I'm reminiscent.

There was a simplicity to our lives back then that made for these fine memories. I'm wanting to find that sense of endless relaxation again. We caught each other's vibes and stayed in tune.

What I do know, is that our best days are in front if us. Lisa and Jen are more alike than I could have imagined. They both don't take any B.S. from us and they know how to put us in our place; they are strong women.

I am happy for you; I am excited at what prospects the future holds for our families. I am thrilled that you and Lisa are taking such a monumental step. I am hopeful that we can not only have more of our past experiences, but that our families can share in them.

Finding My Way So You Can Find Yours

2008-05-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

How does one run a company called agile if he is, in fact, not very agile? That was the mental hurdle I was dealing with for the last few months, and part of the reason of why I haven’t written in so long.

But I did do something about it. I had an advanced knee surgery. One that would not simply repair my knee, but rather, make it more than it was originally. I am still laid up and rehabbing my knee, so it remains to be seen how ‘special’ is this bionic knee.

I feel liberated all the same. I feel like my workout efforts now have that sky’s-the-limit mojo.

As I’m laid up in my knee brace, I’ve been working on the things I’ve never been too good at, such as sugar abstinence, sleep and my relationships with the ones I love. I’m trying to find inner peace without having to rely on my physical self. If I can learn to calibrate myself without having to rely on exercise, then I think I will have reached a new place when I do once again have my physical self back.

I’ve been reading a ton lately. I’ve always read a lot, but it’s funny how one takes in information at different ages over his life. At 36 years old, I am by no means old, but I have felt a strong feeling that life choices have narrowed and you start to become who you are and will be. This is unquestionably a result of 2 things: 1) my children; it is breathtaking to watch their energy and restorative power; to witness their growth and 2) aging; my peak is in many ways past. But mentally, I feel extraordinarily more powerful; I find myself thirsty for learning about the world and other people’s experiences. But at the same time, I feel an increased urgency to become who I am so that the world and the ones I love can bear witness.

Fitness, sigh. Folks – that is one piece of the puzzle. I very much want to teach you how to gain control of that piece but that has soooo little to do with the nuances of exercise (i.e. how to do this exercise or that) and so much more to do with your psyche. You need to learn about some things emotionally, not intellectually. Fitness is one of those things. That’s why I don’t use this blog to write how-to articles on fitness. My telling you the proper technique of an exercise doesn’t address the emotional triggers of why you eat so much or can’t get off your butt and go running.

I used to be a trainer. Do you know why I was fit and you weren’t? It’s not because I was superior in finding balance. What is balanced about working in a gym? How could you not be fit when you actually get paid to exercise? So what did I have over you and my clients? I sensed at a young age my coordination and physical strength; I was able to define myself through these innate abilities. I then set out to teach others how they could find their best physical self, and how finding this person leads to spiritual peace.

Why am I writing all of this? Because I see this as a partnership. I want to relate to you by showing my humanity and struggles so that you see how like you I actually am. I don’t want to educate you on fitness in a top-down approach. It’s dishonest and ultimately, not helpful. I think that peeling back my thought-process might help you do the same. I’m hoping that you can find nuggets of insight here so that you can apply it towards yourself.

Stop and think about what you are feeling. Use exercise as a way to flush out those feelings. You are very strong; stronger than you know. Do not use me to try and help make you stronger. I can’t do that. You have to do that. You don’t actually have to get stronger; you simply have to unlock your strength.

Mora

2008-02-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

Spring Break, 1997

I will never forget Mora. I sensed we had much in common but I wondered if she would accept me on her back. When I got up on the saddle, she reared high. I stood up with her, ran my fingers through the coarse hairs of her mane and kept my chest pressed to her neck as she reared up on her hind legs. I whispered in her ear, "easy babe, easy." I squeezed her back between my legs to let her know that I was comfortable and that I understood and shared her need to run.

Jen and I were among eight couples who were waiting for the horses to be saddled for what would be a 2 hour horseback ride from the high hills on the island of Aruba, down and along the sandy beach. The ranchers were asking our experience level and I was hesitant to say 'none' because I feel like such an answer doesn't account for my natural athletic ability. So I always say "none, but..."

Everyone except Jen was now saddled up and atop their horses. Jen was the most experienced rider and deemed the only one capable of riding Mora. Mora was brought out, feisty and rearing up on her hind legs. Kicking and bucking. I wouldn't have known that is was such a scary thing if not for the nervous look and mannerisms of the ranchers. "She's okay," they said. "She just needs to be up front."

And so once Jen was saddled up, Mora rudely nudged her way through the tight crowd of 15 horses to be in front. I was jealous. Jen clearly was going to have an adventure while I'd be at the back of the line with Mr. Goat the Horse.

I needed to be on Mora. I never rode a horse before but I just felt like I needed to ride Mora. Jen was willing to switch and the ranchers nervously conceded because I assured them I could handle her.

We descended the rocky trail, single file. Mora and I were contained by the ranchers ahead. The salty scent of the ocean was growing stronger. The beach was near and we could bolt ahead. I would pay no heed to the ranchers caution. I wanted to run with Mora and Mora wanted to run.

Cha! I let out the reigns and snapped my right knee into her side. For a split second, I was stunned by Mora's power as she bolted onto the beach. I could not believe the power she unleashed. We sprinted hard and fast away from our group. I wanted the ranchers to know that Mora didn't kidnap me so I reigned her in, spun around and ran straight back towards our group. We came to a stop and Mora kicked up again. Daringly. High above the other couples and their horses.

As I stood on my stirrups and Mora stood on her hind legs, I nodded to the ranchers that it was okay. I pushed Mora's neck forward, tugged on the left reign to turn her and cha! - sprinted away form our group and onto the light surf.

The sound of the ocean air running past my ears and Mora's rhythmic gallop on the wet sand is my fondest memory of early spring. This memory pulls me through the long days of winter and prods me to stay in shape for the new memories I get to create this spring.

Start with Just Three Exercises

2008-02-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

I started going to the gym again recently after laying off for a few weeks. I decided I wanted to just keep it super simple because physical therapy on my knee was eating up my daily workout time. So which 3 exercises did I choose? Pull ups, Dips and Overhead Squats. That's it. 15 minutes and I could claim I did a full body workout!

Now those 3 exercises wouldn't be the right starter exercises for most people so please don't hang from a monkey bar yet.

But which three exercises should you do? I bet most of you would think 'abs.'

Nope - you'd be wrong there. I promise you that no one gets in shape by laying on their back.

It varies with every person and depends primarily on flexibility, experience and body awareness so I can't write a one-size-fits-all solution.

But think in that mindset if you don't know where to get started: start with 3 exercises. After 3-4 consistent weeks, you can add 2 more exercises. That's really all it takes to start looking and feeling good.

If you need help picking three exercises, visit my free exercise library at Agile Fitness. There are hundreds of exercises there that I've spent 3 years making.

I Was the Skyjumper

2008-01-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

Can I tell you what it is like to sprint at the fastest speed, plant a 15-foot long pole into the ground, and launch yourself straight up into the sky?

It is the most relaxing place I've ever been. The moment where you stop going higher and begin to come back down to earth - freeze that moment. Peace and comfort. Me being me. Pole Vaulting. Jumping. Skyjumping. That's what we called it.

But one day, it all ended abruptly. I didn't have enough speed as I ran down the runway. I jumped anyway, got about two-thirds of the way up, then came back down way off-center. I landed on an uneven surface, my knee twisted to the sound of a gun shot, and I screamed.

I never jumped again.

It was okay I guess. I found rowing after that and that led me to the same spiritual place, albeit, through a totally different movement.

You see, I have an itch. I've learned that I am not so comfortable idling. There seems to be a spiritual state that opens up for me when my heart rate is around 155 and my body is moving rhythmically. This is where I feel at peace with myself. And if a fellow athlete is alongside me, well, that is where a powerful connection develops. Rowing was beautiful because it was eight of us in the boat, all moving together, feeling each other's rhythms. When eight heavyweight rowers red-line their heart rates together and can still stay relaxed and bonded... Well, that is a special special place for me.

I am missing that place right now and I'm wrecked over it. I hurt my knee again and badly. Not one stride I take is without pain.

I walked by 3 gentlemen playing squash today. They danced with each other perfectly on the court. Synchrony to their motions yet they are trying to beat each other. How is that?

I'm the lion in a cage now. I wanted to play too but I can hardly walk! I didn't want to play to beat anyone, I wanted to play so that I can move alongside my opponent. It's the dance that I'm after. It's the bond. It's the most honest moment I know in life. Two people head-to-head competing, giving their everything. But it's not to beat each other. Its to connect.

My heart wanted to leap out of my body and find another one.

Tidal Wave

2007-12-11T07:25:00.001-08:00

I woke up this morning terrified. I had one of those doomsday dreams again - 2nd night in a row. The dream felt so real. Real enough that you wake up with the remnants of those feelings intact. In my dream, a huge tidal wave was approaching. My wife and I were running to try and reach our kids, Mia and Max. In that dreamlike sort of way, we were desperately trying to outrun the wave, but it was all slow motion running. I needed to run faster but couldn't. I looked at Jen and told her I loved her and that I love Mia and Max. None of us were going to make it, but I wanted to squeeze Mia and Max and shield them from this wave. Let the tidal wave hit my back. It is okay that I go, but leave them. Please. Please leave them.

You wake up from a dream like that and it is hard to shift into the everyday mode.

So today I feel my humanity; I feel how precious life is. I am scared that I am not living life to the fullest so I say to myself - what can I do TODAY to amp things up? To make myself standout. To be heard. To be remembered for when that wave does break my back.

Somehow this mood always leads me to the gym or out for a run. The act of exerting myself seems to be that expression of 'I'm alive.' It is that place where I can go to make my back more broad to handle that wave.

You had better do the same if you really want to live a full life. In the beginning, exercise is that cold wave - a jolt that will bolt you out of sleep. Move your body, get your heart rate up. Wake up. Life is today.

The Hot Dog Story

2007-11-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

July 1993, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boathouse Row.

The sun had set. I was alone on the upper deck of my boathouse, Pennsylvania Athletic Club Rowing Association, famously known as Penn-AC. The Schuylkill River was calm and lazily falling over a small damn. Remember the museum steps that Rocky climbed in the movie? That museum, with the lit cityscape above, formed the backdrop to one of the most memorable moments of my life. But on this night I was sad; I was saying goodbye to what was the opportunity of a lifetime and one of the best experiences of my life.

Six weeks earlier, I had arrived, along with 3 dozen of the best rowers in the country. I had only been rowing for 10 months but somehow was invited to Penn-AC, the premier rowing camp in the country, for 3 months of world class training and racing under the direction of US Olympic Coach Ted Nash. I will never forget walking into the boathouse on that first day and being introduced to Mr. Nash. He shook my hand and said to me, "I was watching you row upstairs - you know what I like about you? You're the shortest guy here but you bury your hands in the cage anyway and get the same length as these other guys. You're a good athlete - you're one of Chuck's boys right?"

For the record, I am 6'1" so hardly short. But rowers are an unusual breed of broad-backed giants. I was able to compensate because I have inhumanly large quads, the powerhouse muscle needed to row hard and fast.

Chuck was my rowing coach at the University of Delaware. He was and still is one of the best known and well respected rowing coaches in the country. All he had to do was say to Ted, "I'm sending one of my athletes to you this summer." I showed up hardly a good rower but my athleticism made up for what I lacked in experience.

I was gonna have to prove myself everyday at this camp or I would be sent home. I remember sitting in the #4 seat of an 8 man crew and Ted hollered into his megaphone, "#4 - make your catches faster in the next 5 strokes or you're out of the boat." Funny how you learn quickly when you're given that kind of ultimatum.

Practices were 3 times per day. I had planned on getting a job to support myself but I simply didn't have the time or energy to work. I took a waiter job at a local restaurant but quit on Day 2. I was here to row, not wait tables. But cash - I needed cash. I was losing weight very quickly because I wasn't eating enough. I ate to survive. I bought a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly. I'd eat that for breakfast, lunch and dinner until it was gone and then I'd buy it all again. I picked up side jobs moving furniture, painting fences - anything I could squeeze in between practices.

I was becoming desperate for food. On one afternoon practice, I hit rock-bottom - I waited until my crew mates were ready to launch from the dock. I excused myself, ran back into the boathouse, bound up the stairs and raided the small clubhouse refrigerator. Nothing in there. I opened up the small freezer compartment and buried under lots of frost were 2 frozen hot dogs. Fine. I scarfed them down my throat as I ran back down the stairs, onto the dock and into the boat.

I lasted 6 weeks. My crew was headed to the national championships in Topeka, Kansas (I guess they have water there) and I was told to stay behind and catch up on sleep. In other words, I wasn't cutting it.

So while my teammates were competing at nationals, I had the boathouse entirely to myself; I sat on the upper deck of the boathouse and wrote a small note thanking my coaches for the opportunity. I hung out there alone all weekend and reminisced. I packed up my gear and rode my bike back to my hometown which was about 60 miles away.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things differently - I should have asked people for money on the street. I could have put on my crew jacket and told my story. Why didn't I put up a sign on the street and row on a stationary rower on the street telling people why I need money or food!

I gave up, packed my bags and went home. I could have found food. But what I would not have found is the maturity to realize that I did belong there and that I could figure this out.

I'm okay saying that I have this regret. I won't be that person that's lying on their death bed that says, "I have no regrets." I would much rather say, "I've had regrets, but I made things right in the end."

I am making things right. My memory is bittersweet; it was not my time. But my time is now.

So What Now?

2007-10-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

Confession: I always exercised as a means to get faster for sports, not just to be a gym-rat type. In high school, I played soccer and ran track. In college, I pole vaulted and rowed. After college, I continued to row on the national circuit and then did the same as a cyclist.

Then my wife and I had kids.

Now that in itself could be considered a sport. One needs to be pretty agile to chase around a 4 year old and an 18 month old. These little creatures do nothing but go. Their energy humbles me.

Anyway, lifting and staying in shape was all about one thing: winning. But why should I exercise now? To race? Nah, I'm starting to feel funny competing at 35. I always raced with the idea that I could qualify for nationals or go to the world championships. I can still do that at 35, but I'd have to give up my business to do it. Not worth it! I'm having too much fun getting you in shape!

So now you and I are in the same boat. We have to keep moving. We have to exercise to stay healthy.

That's what it's about then. Staying healthy. If you had told me that 10 years ago I would have said, "No, the point of training is to get faster so I can WIN.

WINNING has to mean different things to me now. I have to win the game of life. I have to be a good father. I have to treat my body well. Drink lots of water. Sleep. Exercise.

What does winning mean to you? Can exercise help? It is a cure for many things. Try it.

Crisp and Bright October Night

2007-10-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

Me, my best friend, Rob, and his professional road racing girlfriend, Katie, were out on an easy spin one weekend day on the backroads of Pennsylvania and Maryland. The riding in that area is among the best I've ever done. Rolling hills and open country. We were on our road bikes now, just opening up our legs for a mountain bike ride that night.

I'd never ridden single track in the dark so I had no idea what to expect. It seemed Rob and Katie shared inside scoop when I asked them about it - they told me to just show up.

Rendezvous was an open field on the north side of town at nine o'clock. Per Katie's instructions, my mountain bike was rigged with a headlamp on my helmet and another one on my handlebars. We unloaded our bikes and layered on the clothing under a high full moon. We checked each other's head lamps and rode off.

Crisp and bright October night.

We rode along the high point across the field toward a dark patch of forest. As we disappeared into the woods, blackness closed in around us; the moonlight above did not penetrate the canopy of trees above and I quickly lost my sense of direction. "Stay on Rob's wheel" - that was the plan I whispered to myself. Rob and I could normally hang with Katie - on our road bikes. On single track? Katie had a finesse that Rob and I lacked. She could dance through the forest at a pace we couldn't. She knew exactly how much speed she could take into each turn. A few minutes into the ride and all we could see of Katie was a spot of light somewhere up ahead dancing through the woods.

Now Rob started opening up distance on me. I couldn't keep up because I was in sensory overload trying to cope with the darkness. The narrow line of sight and winding trail dwindled my reaction time. It was almost impossible to anticipate the turns, so I had to slow down. Katie was now out of sight.

I tried to stay fluid. "Keep your eyes on the trail. See the trail move to the left or right or...down. Dip with it. Keep your body under the bike. Ignore the bright glassy eyes of the animals around you."

Ignore those eyes. I was a little freaked out here. On one hand you know that you're okay - it's not like I'm in Africa and those are the eyes of a lion. On the other hand, when was the last time you were riding through the woods at night - in their home? What happens then? When was the last time one of these animals had this strange earth crunching bike thing running down on them? How would they react? The more I thought about this, the more scared I got.

I suppose Rob and Katie would wait for me at the trail's end. Otherwise I think I would have been out there until sunrise. When the trail finally did break they were there. I cleared the fog from my clear lenses to see them grinning at me. "Oh my god, that was incredible" was all I could say. We knew each other well. They knew I would feel that way, so it was a simple nod of approval.

Katie led onto the next trail set.

Many Ways To Get In Shape

2007-09-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

The way to lose weight and get back in shape is to simply start moving your body again. It really is that simple. I'm asked all the time what exercises will help get rid of flab here and there. My answer mirrors the simplicity of the question - do the exercise you like - but do it consistently.

Pilates, weight lifting, Yoga, core, cardio...

What do they all mean? What in the heck should you be doing?

Again - all of them or whichever keeps you engaged. Start with whichever activity that you want to learn, or makes sense to you. The key word there is 'start.'

Now if you've been going at a good clip for a few weeks, then it's time to start mixing it up. The mistake people make at this stage is that they keep doing the same thing because it's all they know. This is where the skinny girl on the treadmill needs to start lifting weights and the big-armed, big-gut guy needs to get on the treadmill.

Now, if you're a competitive athlete, you actually don't want to mix it up too much. You need to specialize in your sport and know when to mix in activity that will help you stay physically balanced and injury-free. A good example is the competitive cyclist - these guys and girls could really benefit from Pilates.

Keep it simple in the beginning. Just start moving again. One day at a time. Look up after about 4 weeks and then say, "okay, what now."

Look At Yourself Naked

2007-09-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

Splash cold water on your face, then run that cold water through your hair. Look into the mirror, but deeply. Hold the eyes of the person in that mirror, and look deeper still.

Take a step back from the mirror, and take another look.

Grab onto those feelings and process them right there.

Your Mind and Your Body. Which is stronger for you? How could one be stronger than the other? Wouldn't they support one another? If your mind is so strong, then what thought-process went into leaving your body behind?

Growing up, I took my energy and angst and became physically powerful. My heart beats half as often as the average person's because it is almost twice the size. I wasn't born that way. I made that happen. My heart grew by my effort.

It's taken me a long time to feel as strong mentally as I've always been physically. But I have balanced-out and feel that, if anything, the pendulum is swinging the other way.

And that's good news for you, because now I am in a position to help you.

Racing in Sonoma

2007-08-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

Race Day.

Two east coast families, the Pepe's and the Flatley's were standing on the side of the Russian River at 6:30am in Sonoma, California, celebrating the engagement of Chris Pepe and Kim Flatley!

How is that life can take such dramatic turns? One year before, Chris was diagnosed with cancer. How did he feel then upon hearing that news? What lonely moments did he have? I can only imagine how some of those moments must have been.

But now, Chris, along with Kim, were surrounded by the closest family and friends to celebrate their new life together. Perfect.

I'll give a race report another day. What I want to say here is that sports and exercise in and of itself can be a lonely affair. Especially training for an Ironman or a Marathon. There are miles and miles of hard effort with no one around to witness the work you're doing.

But Sonoma was special. I didn't know what we were celebrating! One minute it was Chris' recovery, the next it was Kim and Chris' engagement and the next it was our race! There were so many toasts to be made for so many different reasons that an observer could only say, "well, they certainly have a lot to celebrate."

And that's why I won't forget Sonoma. Here are some of the moments I will remember for the rest of my life:

1. Watching Jen and 150 other swimmers wade into the Russian River and disappear into the misty marine fog.

2. My father-in-law, Vito, helping me put my bike together the day before the race.

3. Riding to the race course on my bike to see how my legs felt. Oh boy - my legs felt goooood.

4. The beginning of my race, when I past over 100 riders in the first 30 minutes fighting to catch up to the leaders. I was flying!

5. Calling my 4 year-old daughter, Mia, from the race course after I finished my 112 miles. It was so sweet to hear her voice.

6. Having dinner Sunday night at that fancy restaurant that overlooked the San Francisco Bay. Beautiful. A great night.

7. Having our wonder wonderful friend Kristen Conners not only show up, but sign up to be a race volunteer! It was like Jen, Kim and I had our own personal assistant in the transition zones! Kristen - how is it that we see each other like once a year - The last time was during a blizzard in the West Village of New York and this time in the transition zone of an Ironman race at 6am in Sonoma California?! Adventure.

8. Meeting Bob and Mary. Bob - I'm serious about the Vancouver to San Diego ride. I've got my bike in one hand and this Moby Dick novel I've been meaning to read in the other. I'm ready.

9. Laying on the blanket after my race. My mother-in-law, Sue had a pile of food for me. A rare moment of guilt-free eat-as-much-as-you-can-of-anything-you-want.

10. Meeting Kim in the transition zone after my ride. She high-fived me, called me a rock star and then sprung out of the gate like a gazelle to run her marathon.

Gearing Up!

2007-07-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

I could hear Max and Mia on the other side of the bathroom door impatiently waiting for me to come out and play with them, as that's our normal after-work routine. But wanting to make sure all of my newly acquired time trial gear fit right, I was in the bathroom, putting on my racing shorts, helmet, etc. I had my funky cycling shoes on, sunglasses - everything. I even shaved my legs. Yeah! On one hand I look cool! On the other, just plain weird. Well, let's see what the kids think. Mia is 4 and Max is 1 - they'll be the judges.

I shut off the bathroom light and slowly opened the door. I clumsily walked out of the darkness in my cycling shoes and stood towering over the both of them.

Max - he was staring up at me with blank eyes. Mia started giggling.

I knelt down and in my best Darth Vader voice I said to Max, "Maaax - I am your faaatherrr."

Nothing. Blank stare. The drip of drool that was hanging from his lower lip now extended as a long strand down to the floor.

Mia then said to me, "Daddy, stop being silly."

"Nooooo Miaaaa, I am not Daddy. I am a superhero on a quest to conquer the world."

Max finally blinks and utters, "...Daddy."

This is not working I can see. They're mistaking me for some earthly being when I am in fact a superhero.

I got Mommy a wetsuit. Insane looking one. This thing looked exactly like the female version of a batman suit. Jen prances out of the bedroom feeling just as I do - a superhero!

Mia giggles at Mommy now and starts jumping up and down. Max is lost. He's at an age where he's just figuring things out. You do this to him, and it totally alters his understanding of things.

But now I'm looking at Mommy. You know, it's a simple little mental switch in my head that I can flip - flip switch down and Mommy looks like an elite female triathlete - cool! Fast! Flip switch up - hmmm - kind of looks like one of those sexy bondage things. Didn't know I liked that. Hmmm. Mommy don't look silly, Mommy look good.

Haha.

So, I think we're just about ready. We're geared up, most of the training is done. Jen and I spent the last week tapering. We'll do 2 more weeks of intensity and then taper just a teany bit before race day.

Update on our super fast runner Kimmers coming soon!

Look Past This Moment

2007-07-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

On one hand it is good to stop and live in the moment. But what if that moment is a bad place to be? What if you mistakenly rationalize taking one too many breaks for 'living in the moment?'

What if I were to tell you that you can live in the moment subconsciously and still plow ahead practically?

What I'm getting at is this: Real success and real progress is made by putting your head down and getting done the work that needs to be done. People that want real success are not fickle. They do not often trade their focused efforts for passing pleasures. When it is time to relax, this person knows how to do so without feeling anxiety of time wasted. They revel in their relaxation by knowing it is well earned.

My best moments are felt after I've plowed through a mountain of work, whether that work was 60 miles of riding or 2 years of building the thousands of pages of my website. It's funny how on one level the work is grueling and monotonous, but when you look back, you remember it as 'those were good times.'

Coming Together for Chris

2007-06-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

Chris is alive.

Chris, take a deep sigh of relief. You're at the other end now buddy. You are alive and as healthy as can be. You've got a beautiful girl, the best family I've ever known, and a group of friends I've secretly been making my own.

The training Kim, Jen and I are doing is supposed to be a sacrificial symbol of the struggles you endured to beat cancer. But how can I say that the training we're doing is a sacrifice? Kim's running and I know it exhilarates her. It seems that she is being who she is - a competitor. Someone that goes after something she wants. She has a marathon to run. Her first ever. So what did she say to me yesterday? "I'm not worried about finishing it, I'm worried about not going fast enough for us to win."

Jennifer? It is 9pm as I write this. Jen is swimming a couple of miles right now. Is it a sacrifice? No. She's living, she's breathing. She's in her element and giving the same uuumph that she gives on her desk everyday. I have never seen her so focused and happy. And I've never been so proud of her as I am today.

Me? I haven't ridden my bike in 4 years before this event. My last race was against some pretty fast pros and Olympians before I happily disappeared into babyland. But I missed 'the race.' You got me back on my bike again. It's like I've been sleep-deprived dormant for 4 years. I feel awake now. I feel alive.

Thank you Chris. It is around you that a large group of family and friends will travel across the country to celebrate your life and each other.

Cheer us on everyone. Make that cheer loud. Make that cheer echo for a lifetime.

Rowing Hard

2007-06-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

I worked 2 jobs when I was a college student at the University of Delaware. Weekdays I worked at the campus fitness center and weekends I worked double shifts waiting tables at the Ground Round. This on top of a full course load and Crew practice 6 times per week. I was busy!

One night I was closing up the fitness center and thought I'd get a 5000 meter row in on the erg before I left. It was a spur of the moment thing; my coach said he wanted to see us pulling 5000's in addition to the practices. So I shut down most of the lights, put the stereo on, sat on the machine and starting pulling.

About 200 meters into it I realized that I felt unusually strong. Why not go for a PR (personal record) at the distance? I notched up my pace faster than I normally would at that distance because I had wasted 200 meters pulling lightly.

I wish I could find the words to describe the pain that comes over your body during rowing. Rowing is not like other sports. It's a full body effort on every stroke. Your legs, back, shoulders and arms are working in concert and hard on every pull. Your lungs cannot feed oxygen to such a large group of muscles fast enough, so, with every passing stroke lactic acid accumulates. And it begins to burn. Getting that burning feeling in one muscle when you're lifting weights is one thing, but throughout your entire body? That is something else.

I was aiming to break the 17 minute barrier for 5,000 meters. If I could do it, it would have been only the 2nd time anyone would have done it in UD Crew history.

One thing I have learned through training is how to surrender to pain. You know it will hurt, so you just accept it and deal with it along the way. Not by slowing down, but by actually rowing through it.

It was at the 2200 meter mark that the pain started to dominate my thoughts. It's a feeling of despair - "How can I keep up this pace for 2800 meters? There's no way." I took a hair off the pace - 1 click down and that's it. Just a gesture really. A mental negotiation with my body as in "alright, I'll give you 1 second off my 500 meter pace if you just get me to 3800 meters."

Somewhere along the way my body started tingling, and with the lights dimmed, I was having trouble focusing. My mouth was open as if I were a snake dislocating my jaw to feed. It was my lungs' way of saying, "I need more air so you need to make your airway bigger."

I couldn't hear anymore either. I'm not sure how or why this happens. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe you just go so within yourself that you can't focus on the external world. I heard my breathing, not from my mouth, but from the vibration of my chest expanding and collapsing as fast as possible.

Usually rowers turn it up a few notches with 500 meters to go. It's called a 'power 10.' I started my power 10 at 900 meters because I wanted to get to that 500 meter mark as fast as possible. I knew that if I could keep my pace to that point I was in the clear from blowing up.

Maybe there was pain and my memory is choosing to not remember it. I'm not really sure. I think its more that I reached a certain fitness level and my body learned and adapted to persist in a highly toxic anaerobic state.

I remember being wide-eyed as I crossed the 4500 meter mark, did the quick math, and realized that I was in fact going to break 17 minutes. When something is that close to happening, you simply cannot let it go - right? You have to get it. You have to fight for it.

Remember I said that. When you are competing for something - and I'm not just talking about sports - go and get what's yours. But therein lies a big secret - you need to feel that it is yours for taking.

Time: 16:46

Doing Abs Exercises: A Waste of Time.

2007-06-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

I'm passionate about exercise. But as an athlete, I've always been frustrated by the way the fitness industry worked. Great Abs in 8 minutes a day? It won't happen. That Suzanne Summers thigh-blast thing? A complete waste of your money.

Think of it this way. You're a little overweight, so you lay on your back and lift your torso up a few inches off the floor over and over. Is this going to help you lose your gut? The answer is no.

If you want to lose weight around your stomach, you need to be doing exercises that have you on your feet. You need to be moving around, just as you do in everyday life. Even more important than full body weight bearing exercise - you need to improve your eating habits.

I started Agile Fitness 3 years ago. It represents 80 hour weeks and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is a solution. I don't advertise 'the quick and easy weight loss solution.' Why? Because there isn't one. If that's what you want, then Agile Fitness is not for you.

I applied how I used to train in Track & Field, Rowing, Soccer, Weight Lifting and Cycling to Agile's exercise programs. Every program uses what's called a periodization technique. A fancy way of saying that each week gets progressively harder and then tapers off so that your body can regenerate. Every program is 4 weeks long. The 1st week is 'Begin,' the 2nd week is 'Build,' 3rd week 'Peak,' and 4th week 'Taper'

Going through this Begin, Build, Peak, Taper process yields life-changing results if you stick with it and give it time. The matrix of exercise programs is inter-related. This means that when you finish one program, we recommend the next one. In time and with consistency, you're moving through a goal-oriented path. Along this path, you're body will change. But more powerful, your mind will change. You will become mentally stronger. Your immune system will become stronger. Your flexibility and agility will improve.

It was so important to me to create a life-changing process, not a quick fix, let-me-take-your-money fad. I know it will take time for my business to root and grow. And I certainly see that I need to do a better job of explaining the benefits and power of our exercise programs. And this is one of those efforts.

I hope you take the time to read through my site and learn more about what I do. It's easy to forget that there are real people behind the sites you see on the internet. Well, I am real, I am alive and I want to help you.

If You Had To Pick Just One Exercise

2007-06-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

I spend most of my days in 1 position: hunched over my desk staring into the computer. Ironically, my exercise activity of choice, cycling, has me in the same position, hunched over my road bike. For years, I've had the same knot in my neck, some days worse than others, but always there. I call them 'trap knots' - its a knot of muscle tissue in a muscle called your Levator Scapulae.

Jennifer, my wife, has the same problem, but much worse than I do. She is also hunched over her computer and is a swimmer. The muscles in her chest, shoulders and traps are very strong, but very tight.

Only recently, and in all my years as a fitness professional, have I discovered a solution, with the help of my orthopedic doctor, that has me completely pain free. I've passed it onto my wife and she is starting to feel better too.

I now call the exercise Medicine Squats. I used to call them Overhead Squats, but that name connotes power-lifting to me and that's not what this is at all. Look for the exercise in Agile's Exercise Library under the Medicine Ball category.

My doctor helped me piece this together. I complained to her of my trap knots and said, "that's my Levator Scapulae right?"

She replied, "Well yes, but it's a larger problem than that muscle. You're entire thoracic spine is tight because you're always forward-positioned - you need to stretch out your thoracic spine."

Her eyes lit up when I asked her if an overhead squat with a medicine ball would be a good exercise to stretch out that region. She agreed whole-heartedly. Squatting stretches your lower back when done correctly. So placing your arms overhead, especially with a closer grip on a medicine ball, puts your Lats in a stretched position which extends the lower back stretch up your spine and all through your thoracic region.

I've been having different people try this exercise since then (i.e. my mother-in-law!) - and most of them cannot do this exercise well at all.

Now my wife and I do the exercise every day - not necessarily as part of an exercise routine, more apart of the brushing-your-teeth routine. Think: "after I take my vitamin C, I'm going to do my 2 sets of 15 Medicine Squats."

Now please realize that you probably are not going to be able to achieve the form shown in the drawing for some time. Instead, concentrate on only going 1/4 of the way down with your legs; focus more on keeping your arms straight overhead and close to your ears. When you squat, you're arms will want to either bend or tilt forward. This is because your back is tight! Only go down to the point where your arms can still stay straight up overhead.

With your lower body, keep your toes pointed straight ahead and feet spread shoulder-width apart. If you spread your legs wide and outward - sumo style - then you release your lower back from getting a stretch, which eases the stretch on your thoracic spine and negates the whole point of the exercise.

I hope you try it. Remember - Brush your teeth, take your multi-vitamin and do your medicine squats. :-)

A Workout Here and There Counts

2007-05-22T11:42:00.001-07:00

In my experience, most people want a clean slate when it comes to starting an exercise program. There's the thought, "as soon as I get through this week I'll get back in the gym - on Monday."

This won't work. Your life is filled up - there's a lot to do. Next week there will be a lot to do too. The better approach is to let your workout be imperfect. Walk in the gym and start moving. Without worrying whether you should do this machine first or that machine at all - just get on one of them, because we've gotta keep you moving until things smooth out for you and you can devote more thought into a planned routine.

When you do start that exercise program routine, you need to know that it is okay to miss a day here and there and not feel that all is lost. Here's a good guide for what to do if you do fall off track:

> If you miss less than 3 days in a row, then just move on to your next workout.

> If you miss more than 3 days, then go back to the beginning of that week, repeat that week before moving on.

> If you miss more than 10 days, then start your exercise program over.

Mia And The Moon

2007-04-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

In a colorful sunshine dress, ponytail pulled tight, I watched my daughter bound down a moonlit grassy fairway yelling, 'c'mon Daddy let's go.' A crescent moon was directly over us. It illuminated the fairway so we could see our strides. The hills and bunkers of the golf course appeared as dark mounds to the left and right. The moon marked a silvery path on the ocean that was also to the right of us.

What a moment.

Mia was a few strides in front of me. She surprised me by taking off down the fairway, so I was only now catching up. She heard me coming. I could tell by her giggle. She giggles when I'm chasing her. As she ran, she kept stealing glances back to see me. She scares me when she does that because she's running without watching where she's going. But since we're on a grassy fairway, she'll land softly - or disappear into a sandy bunker. So I think its safe. Sure enough, her toe catches a nob of grass and she tumbles forward, falls to the ground and rolls on her back. Giggling.

I plop down next to her faking a fall myself, adding to her rolling crescendo of giggles.

What a moment - we're staring up at the crescent moon. Its brightness created a silvery lining on the topside of the clouds. The clouds were moving fast, the same speed as the breeze coming off of the ocean. Mia says to me, 'Look at the clouds Daddy!'

I was acutely aware of this moment as it was happening. The significance of it and the memory it would create was not lost on me as it was unfolding. For once, I was living in the moment.

I'm fortunate to have that moment. I'm fortunate to have been able to keep up with her and move with the ease that she moves. She has a spring in her stride that is gone from mine. I am still fast and agile, but it is a 'trained fast and agile.' Mia's speed and agility is effortless, untrained and inconsequential.

There are many points to this small story, but the one relevant to this blog and my service to you is this: keep moving. Don't go dormant. Exercise not to look great, exercise so that you can move through your life more effortlessly, whether that's hopping a puddle on the sidewalk, or running after your giggling daughter on vacation.

The Downside of Motivational Blah Blah

2007-04-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

The guilt factor. When I reach out to others about if there is anything I can do to help them with exercise, I feel that they feel guilty. As if I might be saying, "are you doing what you are supposed to?!"

Please know this:

I understand the ups and downs in life. I understand time is scarce. I understand the feeling of exercise feeling like a chore.

I understand that you may just not want to go. Period.

Personal Trainers burn out fast because they feel compelled to motivate their clients upfront. What happens when the trainer pushes a client, fills them with emotionally charged motivational blah blah? The client buys into it. But the moment the client fails to live up to trainers expectations, the client feels they not only failed themselves, but they've failed the trainer. For those of us that are not serious athletes, this is not good. It is counter-productive.

At first, you'll love the trainers kick-in-the-butt. But it is almost always short-lived, because everyday life events will naturally derail 'the plan'. Its not sustainable to be perfect. Who wants to feel the guilt of not being perfect? I certainly wouldn't.

The motivation to train/exercise must come from within you. My role is to be there for you when you feel the time is right.

The key for you is to learn different ways of making healthy lifestyle decisions (exercise) more often. Not permanently or all the time. Just more often.

When we're aligned and jiving - welcome! How can I help?

Supartz Injection #1 - Ouch!

2007-04-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

I have a secret. I own a fitness company, but my body is in many ways a total wreck.

I am 34 years old, but my knees are much older. You wouldn't know it by seeing my legs, but as my physical therapist said after she read my MRI reports, "They're not so pretty on the inside." Grade 4 Osteoarthritis (read: severe) over the femoral condyles of my right knee.

October 1989 - I severely strained my Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) while playing soccer - apparently very difficult to do without tearing your ACL. In 1991, I finished off my right knee in a Pole Vaulting accident. I tore my ACL, medial collateral (MCL), and medial meniscus. An injury called the 'Terrible Triad'. Indeed it was terrible. That ranks as the most pain I have ever experienced in my life. When I landed from 15 feet high, my right knee buckled inward and snapped loudly. I was competing in a collegiate indoor invitational track meet. The entire University of Delaware Field House stopped when they heard that snap and heard me scream, or so my parents tell me.

I had reconstructive surgery a month later and in the 15 years that followed, I all but forgot my knee was more artificial than organic. I had a 3-4 inch stainless steel screw drilled through my femur to anchor my new ACL tendon, which was made with my iliotibial band tendon and stranded with graphite. This tendon was, and still is, stapled on the other side of my knee to my tibia.

I never pole vaulted again, but I did go on to compete at top levels in two sports, rowing and cycling - non-weight bearing sports that only strengthened the muscles acting on and around my knee joint. I had turned my strongest weakness into an outright strength above all others. My nickname in college (kind of ridiculous) was 'quads.' (At first it was cool to have the nickname, until I realized the girls I was dating didn't actually know my real name).

I stopped racing bikes 3 years ago when we had our first child. I turned to Squash for my competitive outlet, and that is when I was reminded that I actually was not superhuman. At some point in that 3 year span I tore my lateral meniscus.

So I schedule a surgery last April to have a tune-up. Makes sense after 15 years, right? Bring the machine in and get the wheels changed.

Didn't work. It's been a year now since that surgery. A year of being in a world of pain. I own a company called 'agile' and funny thing is that I've become the least agile I've ever been! 3 blocks of walking and I'm limping. Playing with my 3.5 year old daughter? I get creative. 3 year olds like that so it works for now.

Today was Synvisc Injection #1 of 5. A highly viscous lubrication (she put some on my finger - it's like really thick KY Jelly that never goes away). This stuff should lubricate my joint and ease my pain for a couple more years until I need total reconstructive knee surgery. The reason to wait to have this surgery is because it is currently more of a Frankenstein procedure than a Bionic Man procedure.

I'll hold out for the Bionic Man option. So that's what I'm after - I want my superhero identity back. The guy that could leap a ten foot wall in a split second, run a mile in 5 minutes (okay, 5:20) and never let a ball drop on the squash court.

Or, just give me my agility back so I can play with my children Mia and Max. That is far and away enough for me.

Fall Out of Your Routine?

2007-04-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

Do things have to be perfect for you? Maybe you feel you need to mentally prep yourself for the challenge of getting back into an exercise routine?

I was like that with homework as a teenager. My room had to be clean first. Somehow cleaning my room translated in a clear mind to concentrate.

Or procrastinate.

There's no right time to start exercising again. Tomorrow morning is as good as any. And you don't need to formulate a big plan. Just show up. Start doing your favorite lifts. Or, pick up on the last program you started.

The most successful people are the ones that show up everyday and get their job done the best they can on that day. They notch each day under their belt. No one day is a herculean effort. It's weeks, months and years of effort.

Focus on establishing the routine again. Don't be a hero about it and go really hard; you'll get sick that way, especially this time of year. Ease into it.

Think of how good you will feel later this summer when you can move your body as if you were ten years younger. Think of how good and vibrant you can look. Think of how healthy you can be.

The Same Thing Every Day

2007-03-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Two friends asked me the other day, "What should my heart rate be when I'm running? Like 70% - right?" I didn't know how to answer because I didn't know how to give them the really short answer they were looking for. You know - that short and completely misleading answer that's displayed on the treadmills that says "optimal training zone."

Here's my short answer: If you do the same thing at the same intensity every time you go to the gym, you're body will get very used to this and you're fitness level will plateau very quickly - and then begin to recede. You need to mix it up. Vary your speeds and intensities.

Here's a longer answer: One day go long and slow, another do 'tempos', another do speed intervals, and another, do short hill efforts - I call them grinders. Each of these workout types calls for its own heart rate intensity ranges. How much of each and when? It depends on the time of year, what your goals are and what your current fitness level is.

Isn't it enough that you are 'just getting it in everyday?'

If you are new to exercise - yes - this is enough. Congratulations on getting started.

If you've been at it for a while or on-and-off, and get frustrated by your lack of results, then no, it is not enough. You need to get more sophisticated about your workout just as you would get more sophisticated about other areas of your life.

People resort to what is comfortable and known. Step outside of what you know and what you're used to. You're body needs surprise. It needs change.

This Crunch is Sponsored by Starbucks

2007-02-19T19:11:00.000-08:00

There are entirely too many guys and too many gals doing too many things wrong in the gym. What's more troublesome is that there is never anyone around to point out these mistakes. I could spend all of my workout time telling this person to raise the seat on the chest press and that person to walk without holding the rails on the treadmill. I could tell that guy to sit up when he's on the cable row - instruct him that he needs to squeeze his shoulder blades together when pulling in.

I could point out to the guys that they are chatting way too much and taking 2-3 minute rest periods between sets (way too long).

I actually watched an older man get on the abdominal machine and do crunches holding a cup of Starbucks coffee in 1 hand!

How about the guy that comes in the gym and lays right down on the bench press. He's usually wearing long pants to hide his skinny legs.

How about the really skinny girl going a mile a minute on the elliptical machine. She needs to lift weights, not do cardio.

I watched a guy doing laps in the pool take 1 breath every 10-12 strokes. When he did come up for air, he stopped swimming.

The girls are doing Pilates and yoga when they should be lifting weights to improve their bone density. The guys are curling and pressing when they should be stretching, doing more cardio and trying yoga.

Fitness clubs don't care. They provide the equipment. If you actually want assistance, that means signing up for personal training at $70+ per hour.

So much for the average Joe.

The gym: Everyone looks self conscious, no one seems to know what they're doing and the ones that do can't peel their eyes from the mirror.

I can't wait to to open up agile's first fitness center. The experience is going to be different.

Hiking Big Sur with My Valentine

2007-02-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

April 12th, 2000. Jen and I took our first long trip together by driving the coast from Napa Valley to San Diego over 10 days. On our way south, we stayed at a small spa resort tucked away on the side of a small mountain that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. We were still getting to know one another at the time. We were both very good athletes but in very different ways. Jen was the stop and go court-type of athlete and I was more of an endurance athlete. One morning I proposed we hike up the mountain at Big Sur. She looked at me with a slight sense of dread. She likes to spike volleyballs, not walk for miles on end.

So I had an idea from something I had heard a few years before. I tore my white t-shirt into a buddy rag. I wrapped one end around her wrist and the other end around mine. The deal was that neither one of us could let go of this rope. We were bound by it and would climb and descend Big Sur together. 5 miles up and 5 miles down.

There were moments going up where Jen was being stubborn and the t-shirt seemed to choke my wrist. But when we got to the top, the view was unbelievable. To the right we could see a full panorama of the Pacific Ocean and to the left was miles and miles of rolling California mountainous woodlands.

Surprisingly, the trek down was harder than going up because the steady downward pounding really tweaks the quads. But we did it and we stayed together. Our homemade buddy rope bonded us and we came away from our little adventure feeling closer to one another.

Grab your spouse and take him or her for a walk. Do it together with an old t-shirt tethered to your wrists. Enjoy each others company and get physical together!

Can You S.E.E. ?

2007-02-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sleep. Eat. Exercise.

These are the 3 main factors in the mix of you living a healthier lifestyle.

Which comes first?

If you're not getting enough sleep, the motivation and energy to exercise will naturally be low. But, if you exercise a few times, you'll hit the sack and pass out more easily, and thus get a sound night's sleep.

If you're exercising, you're body will naturally crave healthier foods that offer sustainable energy instead of fast-fix sugar. But its hard to exercise when you just ate or you still have food in your stomach - and that seems to be the case just too often for many people.

If you're eating well, or on a strict diet, it's really hard to double-down and get the exercise in, because you're sluggish from being in a negative caloric balance. Of course, if you can grin and bear it, you'll lose a ton of weight this way - but this is extremely hard, and sometimes dangerous, to sustain.

So which comes first?

The answer is: start in the middle.

Here are some options:

1) Get a string of good sleeps, then start an exercise program.

2) Force the issue with a couple of workouts - then you're sure to sleep well.

3) Workout before lunch and pass on the burger afterwards; opt for a salad with chicken. Better yet, workout on your lunch break and eat an energy bar for lunch.

The point is that sleeping, exercising and eating are inter-related. If one gets out of balance, it throws the other 2 off balance. My imbalance always starts with not getting enough sleep. I start compensating with sugar and caffeine. Workouts then suffer if they happen at all. So should I get more sleep tonight and then workout this weekend? Or should I go to the gym so I'm snoring by 10:30 tonight?

It doesn't matter. But I will do one of them. And then again the next day - and the next - until I'm back in balance. Until I can see again.

Immunity

2007-01-31T19:40:00.000-08:00

I can't stress enough the benefits of cardiovascular exercise.

If you pursue cardiovascular fitness, then what you are doing is literally building more capillaries and extending the reach of existing capillaries. This means that more nutrients and oxygen can be delivered more diffusely to all parts of your body because you actually create more highway to deliver those nutrients. It also means that you will improve your lung power and your heart's stroke volume.

Above all other preventative measures, this is the most powerful and effective - and life changing.

So cardio to lose weight? Well, yes - that will happen if you stay on course. But this is an example of a goal that people put forth and have no idea of the powerful effects that can take root if they could just see past the beginning - those first couple of months.

Imagine these effects: lungs that are twice as powerful - lungs that can gulp oxygen. A heart that beats 20 times less per minute but delivers more blood through your body with each beat. Everyday tasks that were once difficult now require little thought and have no consequence - climbing stairs, running with your daughter in the backyard, hopping a puddle on the street.

It makes me think back to when I started Agile - it was so important to me to create something that delivered these goals. I wanted to build something that explicitly didn't promise 'great abs in just 8 minutes a day.' That statement suggests that exercise is unbearable. That's not true - the act of exercise really is a pure example of living in the moment.

Life is not always meant to be pleasant, but it is meant to be lived. And that means conquering the comfortable and not-so comfortable.

Forrest Gump It

2007-01-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

Remember those scenes from the movie Forrest Gump where Forrest just starts jogging and doesn't stop?

Sometimes I will see someone that is really out of shape and the thought to myself is, "The best thing that person can do right now is walk and not stop until their weight is gone." It's my own feeling that we really don't have an infinite amount of time and that there is no time like the present. Sometimes we need to stop and think for a second, "Am I where I want to be - is this what I want out of life?" If the answer is no, then what are you waiting for?

Read about this guy's Forrest Gump moment in this excerpt from 'The Perfect Human" By Joshua Davis from "Wired" Magazine.

"DEAN KARNAZES WAS SLOBBERING DRUNK. IT WAS HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY, and he'd started with beer and moved on to tequila shots at a bar near his home in San Francisco. Now, after midnight, an attractive young woman – not his wife – was hitting on him. This was not the life he'd imagined for himself. He was a corporate hack desperately running the rat race. The company had just bought him a new Lexus. He wanted to vomit. Karnazes resisted the urge and, instead, slipped out the bar's back door and walked the few blocks to his house. On the back porch, he found an old pair of sneakers. He stripped down to his T-shirt and underwear, laced up the shoes, and started running. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

He sobered up in Daly City, about 15 miles south. It was nearly four in the morning. The air was cool, slightly damp from the fog, and Karnazes was in a residential neighborhood, burping tequila, with no pants on. He felt ridiculous, but it brought a smile to his face. He hadn't had this much fun in a long time. So he decided to keep running.

When the sun came up, Karnazes was trotting south along Route 1, heading toward Santa Cruz. He had covered 30 miles. In the process, he'd had a blinding realization: There were untapped reservoirs within him. It was like a religious conversion. He had been born again as a long-distance runner. More than anything else now, he wanted to find out how far he could go. But at that exact moment, what he really needed to do was stop. He called his wife from a pay phone, and an hour later she found him in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven. He passed out in the car on the way home."

Continue reading here: wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/ultraman

When I Was 10

2007-01-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

"Dad, I wanna look like Arnold Schwarzenegger."

At 10 years old, I saw Arnold as nothing less than a real life superhero. And that is what I wanted to be. The truth is, I still want to be a superhero. But I think I accomplished this based on the wide-eyed gaze I am getting lately from my 1 year old son.

It is the same feeling I have toward my father, the one that got me out of bed at 5:30am to jog around the block and then meet him in the basement to lift weights. Only a superhero can get a 10 year old out of bed at that hour to run and squat. And that is what my father was to me.

Within 2 minutes of him nudging me awake, I was running down the block half asleep. Did one lap around (about a 1/4 mile), walked into the basement and started with Squats. We did all of the classic lifts - Military Press, Bench Press, Bentover Row, Squats, Heel Raises, Arm Curls, and Tricep Extensions. Everything with the bar.

To this day, that is the way that I train. I have an undergraduate degree in exercise physiology, a masters in business, numerous high-level fitness certifications and elite-level athletic experience in 2 sports. Plenty of coaches along the way.

But where did I learn what I know? From my Dad at 10 years old.

I'm not sure where my Dad picked up what he knew. It was not just the exercises, but the progression system he used. Reps of 8, then 10 and 12. When I could do 3 sets of 12, we increased the weight and started back at 3 sets of 8. Simple and effective.

My Dad was a tough spotter. On Heel Raises for example, I had to stay elevated on my toes with the weight on my back until he tapped my shoulder to go down. I never let him down. I stayed on my toes no matter how much it burned.

Well Dad, I'm still on my toes.

You taught me that. And I love you for it. I love you for delivering newspapers at 4:00am every morning so that you could afford to send me to college. I love you for the times you'd make me dinner while I was studying and then bring that big plate of food into my room.

I know that I am who I am because of who you are and how you raised me. I am very proud of that. You were a very good spotter.

My Time In The Desert

2007-01-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

February 7th, 2002 - I was 4 hours into a 6 hour training ride, about 65 miles southwest of Tucson, Arizona and close to the Mexican border. I was approaching the small town of Tombstone, my turnaround point.

I had spent those last 4 hours riding straight into a stiff headwind. My face was caked with salt and I was a mental mushball. Something about the wind whistling in your ears for 4 hours straight drains the life force out of you. The steady climb to Tombstone and relentless headwind slowed me down to an average of 12 mph. An uninspiring speed.

But all of this was about to change. I ascended to Tombstone, found an outpost to replenish my water, hopped back on the bike and began my return to my temporary home of Tucson.

And this was where I found a moment that has and always will stay with me. I've written about this moment one other time. That feeling where all distractions leave and your world becomes singular and purposeful.

Suddenly I had a tailwind and slight descent back into the valley of Tucson. A surge of adrenaline won me over because I had past the most difficult leg of my ride.

Spend enough time on a bike, and like anything you develop skill. I was feeling fast and wanted to take high advantage of my speed, so I clasped both hands behind my back and kept my head low to reduce my profile.

Perfect feeling. Steady 34 miles per hour riding that felt like flying through the desert. I gazed at the rhythm of my legs. 34 miles per hour and 120 rpms. My legs were pumping quickly up and down, like huge pistons powering an engine. Four weeks now in the southwestern desert and my legs were chiseled, my skin tan and seemingly translucent that you could see all of the muscle fibers in my quads and calves and the blood vessels feeding them. From feeling wasted and drained, I now felt powerful and perfect. I felt rewarded for the thousands of miles I had written those past few weeks.

All a sense of peace and fulfillment in that moment. That's what I felt. Everything was so silent. I remember that time sort of stretched out when I looked down and watched the work my legs were doing. High speed, high heart rate, deserted and clear landscape, hard work and powerful legs. Purpose and peace. Pureform.

It was a state of mind that forms the foundation from which agile was built. I want others to find their own personal moments by moving and using their bodies to find inner peace and purpose.

That moment for me was a small nugget of time that was buried under piles of hard work. To feel that way for just a moment - it meant more to me than all of the 1-2-3 finishes I had later that year. I won and placed in those races not because I was a special athlete, it was because of the hard work at 12 mph climbing against the wind to Tombstone 4 months before. Each and every mile, seemingly inconsequential, amounts to something powerful.

Question why you have to go to the gym today, but do it anyway. The rewards are surprising and powerful if you let yourself do the grunt work that needs to be done. Don't question the outcome, because from where I am sitting, you cannot yet know it.

New Year's Resolution: Row in Your Underwear

2006-12-29T21:57:00.000-08:00

Do you really think that you will stick with the resolution you put forth these next few days? Will you once and for all get fit?

Fitness is tough. You have to live it in order to really get fit for good. What I mean is, you need to embrace it as part of a lifestyle and not see it so much as a chore. It's a habit-forming activity. The first few days can feel like an against-the-grain grind. But after a few weeks, it's something you won't want to give up.

But something will derail you anyway. You'll get sick, or loose too much sleep. Something might put you into a funk - a break-up, crappy weather - whatever.

This is where the 65% rule comes in. In a year's time, you only need to have worked out 65% of the time - that's 237 days out of the year - if you want to see good results. That leaves 128 days for all of the things that will go wrong. And plenty will go wrong.

A skilled person will know how to squeeze in the workouts when conditions are less than ideal. Inconveniences won't derail this person. Forgot your workout shoes? Then row instead of run (you don't need shoes to row). Forgot your workout clothes? Then get on the rowing machine in your black socks and underwear and get the job done! (Disclaimer - I admittedly did this in my office a few weeks ago - I have no shame). Point is – get the workouts in – make it the first thought when you get up in the morning. Say to yourself, “When am I working out today?”

Remember that it is the times that are less than perfect that defines those that get results and those that don't. Get it done. Get it done 65% of the time.

Happy New Year.

Being Young and Flying High

2006-11-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

I don't usually tell people that I was a pole vaulter in high school and college because when I do, I get the sense that they associate me with being a daredevil type dude.

Think of your youth. Can you recall those simpler times? When I do, I think of vaulting. Sprinting down the runway and then launching myself 14 feet into the sky. It was an incredible feeling.

I bet you can relate - even if it wasn't through such an exotic feat. Self expression is all it was. I was an introverted kid, but not when it came to physical things. That was my comfort zone.

Now its my children's turn to express themselves. Dance, art, music, sports. Whatever their pursuits are will be fine with me. All that's required is passion, purpose and freedom to be who they are and who they want to be.

Marianne Williamson says what I'm trying to say, but a thousand times better, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

Feeling Alive

2006-11-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

That's what exercising is all about. You go into with notions of getting fit; that is the goal and that should be the goal.

What's taken for granted though is the in-the-moment feeling that comes about during exercise. Next time you're exercising, take a mental check when your heart rate is around 125 to 140. Hover there for a while and think about how it feels. Sure it might be a little uncomfortable physically. But how do you feel mentally?

Is there a clarity of thought?

Do things seem more crisp to you? I bet they do.

Now do this: get more fit. Just a little bit more - like 3-4 weeks worth. Do another mental check.

That's what it's about. The aesthetics matter, but you'll see that they become secondary.

What we all really want is to feel good, from the inside out.

Why Does Everyone Feel They Have to Run a Marathon?

2006-11-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

Marathon weekend in New York City. The event seems to be much more of a parade than an athletic event. Obviously I encourage people to be more active - but I sense a lot of the slower participants are doing it to prove something and that I don't get. Marathon running is not for everyone - it takes a certain body type. So why do people that clearly have physical limitations run them? If you want a monumental challenge, why does it have to be a marathon if you are missing a limb? There are other non-physical ways to excel. I admire the motive and human spirit, but I think it is a misguided use of such a strong spirit.

I'm writing this so that you don't feel pressure that running a marathon is some sort of 'right of passage.' Keep it simple. Get your 20-60 minutes of exercise in 4-5 times per week. Then get on with your life. You don't need to construct such a monumental marathon event to feel a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Daddy Fat

2006-10-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Daddy Fat is the 10-15 pounds of fat weight that is wrapped around your torso like a loose and floppy belt. It's a sad condition that sets in from an unbelievable amount of sleep deprivation right after Mommy gives birth. You can't workout on 3-5 hours of sleep, so what happens is that you're tired and you need to stay awake.

So you eat a bowl of cereal.

That bowl of cereal is still with you. It's on your belly and stubbornly attached to your ass. Fruity Pebbles on your ass and Coco Puffs on your belly. It sounds like a sex fantasy but its not. It's your reality. You went ahead and got fat.

Crossroads my friend. Make a decision now before it is truly too late. Stop the bleeding.

Go to sleep. Wake up. Workout. Then deal with your life. Don't try to workout after you deal with your life. You'll get fat that way.

Frigid Mornings

2006-10-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

I blew out my knee my freshman year of college in my 2nd Track & Field meet of the season. I was a pole vaulter. It was a devastating injury for me because I loved jumping and at 18 years old, its tough to swallow the fact that you can't do something anymore. I could have gotten back to jumping, but I was never able to overcome the psychological barrier of leaving the ground after that.

But, something very wonderful came out of it. One year later, I had discovered rowing. I joined the university crew team and quickly earned my seat in the varsity boat. The coxswain coached us novice rowers how to row on the erg (indoor rowing machine). I asked what time the best guy on the team could pull on this machine. I made it a point to beat that score. To be honest, I never beat that score. The guy who had it was one of the country's top rowers. He was a 6'5" monster. But I did establish the 2nd fastest times on the team within 2 weeks. The next summer, that monster and I had the privilege of rowing at Penn AC's national camp under the direction of Ted Nash, US Olympic coach.

But that's not the story actually. The story was how I got to practice when I started out on my college team. I didn't have a car and lived off of campus. Didn't know any teammates to bum a ride off of them. So I rode my bike to and from the boathouse each morning, 10 miles each way.

It was soooo cold - February mornings at 5am. The darkness made it feel even colder. I'm cold thinking about it. I remember covering my hands in saran wrap before I put my gloves on hoping that would cut the chill (didn't work). I remember hiding behind a building one time just to take a break from the wind chill. I was a little nuts. My teammates thought so! But they respected me. It brought the work ethic of the team up, and we got fast together. How could they complain that our water workouts were hard when I rode 10 miles beforehand and would ride 10 miles home? 20 months later, we rowed to 3rd place in the Dad Vails Regatta, the country's most prestigious sprints race.

It's not a story that I think will inspire you because there was some nuttiness to the whole thing. My telling it is more of an effort of showing you how committed I am to what I do. A few people have recently asked me if this startup is worth all of the hard work. And the answer is yes, because none of it is work to me. It is what I am, so it comes naturally, which makes the work incidental.

Sea Change

2006-09-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

Enough time goes by in life that a sea change occurs. I can feel that sea change acutely now. I look back on my life; I don’t feel I am in any way in the same place. I ran along the lake in Chicago tonight. Chicago. I used to run late at night when I was a kid growing up. But it wasn’t Chicago, it wasn’t cancer, it wasn’t kids or marriage or money, houses, jobs, startups. It was me and my dreams. My dreams are real now.

All of us are alive you know. The pains that we feel are a cold reminder that we are Alive. That is a good thing.

Go run. Push. Feel the discomfort and remember it. Your heart was beating fast. Remember that. Do it again. Do it to feel alive.

A Fast Run on a Friday Night

2006-09-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago, when I was 14 years old, I went for a run with my friends Mike and Dan. It was an early October Friday night. It was a special night, because it was one of only a few events that have happened to me that forms the spiritual foundation that agile was built upon.

Me, Mike and Dan. We met on the corner of our block. We started jogging side-by-side. It was slow, but by the 1/2 mile mark, we were running at a steady but fast pace. Mike was moody, I could tell because he would keep jumping out in front of us, as if he didn't want to be bothered. I'd take a tight position right behind and slightly to the left or right, depending on the turn coming up. I'd position myself in a way that he could see and feel me right there, just to piss him off. Dan was steady right behind us, never really fighting for a lead or asserting his presence. But he was there. He was always there.

Mike and I took turns jumping. The pace was ridiculous. All 3 of us were on our high school cross country team; we ran fast all the time. But tonight there was an edge to that speed. We were moving faster than we usually do. We were 2 miles into what would be a 5 mile run. But there was no thought of pace. There was thought only of each moment, each turn and each jump. And with each turn and jump, the pace escalated.

About 3 1/2 miles into the run, we started turning home. Dan began to fade. It was probably the last time he ever would fade against us; he went on to be the top runner in our state 3 years later. Any other night, we would have moderated our pace to stay together, but as I said, Mike was in a mood, so Dan would be left behind.

Mike and I kept notching up the pace. It was a simple and totally primal game of one-upmanship. It hurt for a while, but then it didn't hurt anymore. It seemed as if the pain was a temporary state that we simply ran past. And it was that state that I will never forget. A state where you come within yourself. Outside forces disappear and feel abstract. You feel and hear your breadth and nothing more.

Except Mike's elbows in my ribs. We kept jockeying for position. It seemed that our speed was so fast that the only way to keep up was to take every inside corner. If not the inside, then so close to each other that our natural strides collided with one another.

With about 10 blocks to go, I was running as fast as I could without jumping into a flat-out sprint. Mike was doing the same. Desperation did creep in now because I wondered, with so many blocks to go, how could we keep this up? But the blocks seemed to only take a few strides to notch. It seemed we could do this. It didn't matter what I thought, we were doing it.

We turned down the last block, our block, and shifted to sprint.

Hands on knees, drop of sweat on edge of chin, Mike looked up at me walking toward him. He was smiling. But I was smiling. He beat me. We were wide-eyed over never having run that fast. More bitter-sweet for me, but sweet all the same.

Toning is a Bad Word

2006-09-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

If you mention that you want to tone your body to a trainer or other fitness professional, he or she is likely to do a mental cringe. You see, from a physiological point of view, there is no such thing as 'toning' your muscles. Muscles can only get bigger (called Hypertrophy) or smaller (Atrophy).

So why then did I put Tone as one of the main goals on the Agile home page? Because I need to find a way to relate to you. I know what you're looking for, and I know how to give you that, but it may not be words that you'll readily embrace (i.e. words like hypertrophy, lean body mass, vascular muscle tissue). I want to speak to you in terms that you will understand, and then teach you about your body as we get to know one another.

The initial effect from weight training is a perceived tightening, or firming, of the muscles. So when people say they want to tone their body, they're looking for this firming effect plus some fat reduction in certain parts of their body. But, the idea of making your muscles grow longer or shorter is really not possible. You cannot manipulate the length of your muscles - you can make the more flexible and vascular, but not physically longer.

You can still achieve a lean look. You can get this look by reducing your body fat weight and increasing your muscle mass. This is where some people, mainly women, get afraid - it's that word 'mass' - they don’t want to get bulky. Well, okay, I won’t make you ‘bulky’ but we’re still going to lift weights and increase your muscle mass. You would have to lift weights 6 times per week with high volume and intensity cycles to get so muscular that you look bulky. If you appear bulky because your muscles are growing a little bit but they’re layered under fat weight. Well, that’s a diet issue.

Now what about those whose muscles grow fast, they've lost their excess fat weight and they actually think they're too bulky? Don't worry, even hear we can lean out your muscles by increasing your cardiovascular exercise volume. But this is very hard to do because it requires a lot of cardio conditioning and a strict diet.

I can show you how to reduce the fat that is over your muscles and I can show you how to increase the size of your muscles. I can show you how to strengthen your heart muscle and increase your cardiovascular efficiency by growing more capillaries. I can help you increase your coordination and balance. I can tweak each of these benefits to a certain degree so that your body has a certain look and feel.

If you want to call that toning, that’s okay, it’s just a word.

Doing It The Wrong Way

2006-09-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here are the 10 most common mistakes I see in a gym - and I see these mistakes almost every time!

1. Walking on Treadmill while holding on with hands. This is cheating. If you need to hold on, then the speed is too high and or the incline is too steep.

2. Resting between sets: I see way too many guys reading a magazine or chatting with their buddies in between sets. Here's the deal: if more than a minute goes by between sets, you're either a Division 1 football player in the Strength Phase of your sport specific strength training program that demands a 2:30 rest period, or your a 'Joe' wasting time in the gym.

3. Overweight men & women lying on their back doing abs. If you are overweight, you need to be doing exercises that are getting - and keeping - your heart rate up. That means staying on your feet (weight-bearing exercises). 100 crunches a day will firm up your abs, which will always remain buried under 25 extra pounds of fat. I promise you that crunches do nothing to eliminate the fat weight on your gut.

4. Skinny girls doing Pilates. Not the best use of your exercise time. Lifting weights is more effective and can teach the same virtues as those of Pilates. A popular benefit cited by Pilates enthusiasts, 'lengthening' muscles, is a misnomer. You cannot make a muscle longer. Muscles attach to bone via tendons and ligaments. Unless your bones grow longer, your muscles cannot get longer. Now you can and will get more flexible, but a flexible Serena Williams is still a very muscular women.

5. Guys wearing pants in the gym. Quick giveaway that their legs are totally undeveloped because they chose to concentrate on upper body beach muscle. Result: very tight back because they stopped squatting down and bending over 5 years ago.

6. Recumbent bike TV Watchers. This bike has a good purpose: light riding for heavier people on their easy days. But what it ends up being instead is an ideal position for watching the TV on an exercise bike.

7. Poor exercise sequencing: chest and biceps are a bad combination. Your biceps act as a 'secondary mover' when pulling. Do biceps after back. Do triceps after chest.

8. Muscle targeting: guys are targeting 2 muscle groups + abs in one workout and doing this twice per week. Your better off doing 1 or 2 exercises per muscle group 3 times per week. You'll get bigger and more fit!

9. Elliptical machine: okay, I'm warming up to this machine. It’s a legit choice for those whose bodies simply can't handle the higher impact treadmill. But geez, get more into it! Bring your strides per minute up and really use those arms. Don't hold onto the arm rest handles.

10. The Smith machine: it’s tragic that this machine has found its way into most gyms. It allows your muscles to 'shut off' from having to think about what they're doing. No balance or coordination is needed, so men are able to really load up on the weight to boost their ego. Guys: who the heck cares how much weight you can lift?! Find another ego satisfier.

The Difference Between Trainers and Coaches

2006-09-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Good personal trainers are awesome at exercise sequencing; they are very good at putting together fresh, challenging workouts.

Good coaches are awesome at designing exercise programs. Less emphasis is placed on exercise variety and more emphasis is placed on program goals.

The trainer has to keep the client happy and coming back; the coach dictates what his or her athletes are going to do if they want to play on the team.

The trainers approach is more fun, but the coaches’ approach is more effective.

The challenge for us at Agile is of course to do both: make goal-oriented exercise programs that are innovative, fresh and fun.

The challenge for me is walking the fine line between my roles as coach and trainer. On the one hand, I have to be a hard-ass, demand more and keep you on track. On the other hand, I have to be sensitive to the demands on your time and cheer you to do the best you can.

What's the balance between those two? I’m still not exactly sure.

Get in Shape This Fall!

2006-09-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that today is September 1st! I love that we have a new season upon us. It’s a chance for renewal. Sure we've got plenty of days of warm weather left but the daily pace and tempo is going to be different after this long weekend. Time to get back into the work routine. And time to get back into the workout routine!

I just counted that we have about 12 weeks between now and Thanksgiving. That's the perfect chunk of time to plan an exercise program. And think what a perfect scenario to have 3 solid months of exercise training under your belt before the Holidays and New Year's.

All Agile exercise programs are one month long. That means you can start one now, then a new and slight harder one in October, and then a newer and even harder one in November. Each exercise program is calibrated to have you 'Peak' in the 3rd week of that month. Then on the 4th week (Taper Week) the workload gets easier. 3 months of that and you will be in the best shape of your life!

If anyone is browsing through the programs on agilefitness.com, and you’re unsure of where to get started, then email me at jim@agilefitness.com and let me know. Email this information and I'll tell you what program you should choose:

1) Exercise and Health History (or Sports History)
2) Age, Height, Weight
3) Activity likes and dislikes (i.e. "I hate the stairclimber")
4) Where you will workout (i.e. Home or Gym)
5) Anything else you think I should know

I’m so passionate about this stuff. Please let me know how I can help you!

New Features! Adobe Printouts, Endurance Audio Podcasts and New Yoga Sequences

2006-08-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

Dropping a note to let everyone know that we have some new and exciting features being added to your programs over the next 6 weeks!

Adobe Printouts - all of your workouts will be available on a one pager showing the exercise illustrations and a short description.

Audio Podcasts for Endurance Workouts - We start recording all of the endurance workouts live! A couple of endurance athletes and myself will exercise through and record every one of our endurance workouts (currently over 300 of them). We'll cue you on when to go harder, slower, easier and faster! All mixed to a cool beat. Don't worry - it'll be done in a way that we're not constantly in your ear breathing heavily and telling you what to do.

New Yoga Sequences - Mariko Bhakti Hirakawa is coming on board to really make our Yoga Programs special! This will transform our Yoga from, 'yes, we have that too' to the most authentic and original Yoga programming available. Mariko has over 15 years experience and will be spending half of her time with Agile in India! If you'd like to get a preview of Mariko, visit her website at http://yogawithmariko.com/.

New Dashboard and Workout Page - We're making it more intuitive. Workout page should be up and running this week and Dashboard page next week.

Stay Tuned!

Implementation

2006-08-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

Most people like the idea of training but few people have the patience to see this idea through to reality. My squash coach, Sean Gibbons, and I thought about this between drills today. I suppose, and Sean agrees, that this dilemma is true with most things in life. Many people start off on a project, or new job, with good intentions and great energy. In fact, I have learned only in the last 5 years that I needed to learn how to apply my athletic discipline to other areas of my life. Now, I have much more balance and success in other things besides sport.

Does this sound familiar? In what areas of life have you excelled? My bet is that a big part of your success in that realm is because of your persistance and ability to see things through.

So the secret to getting fit is that there is no secret. You just have to implement day-in and day-out. Stay true to the cause. Stay focused on what you set out to do, tweak it from time-to-time, but otherwise implement day-in and day-out.

I can only help you if you are committed to letting me help you.

Sari is Doin It!

2006-08-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna open up a gym that has a female-friendly weight room, possibly with pink weights. Sari, the 'case study' subject many of you asked about has been courageously walking into a testosterone-heavy gym to do her Tone Lifting program. Sensing desperation and pressure-overload in her voice on one of our phone updates, it seemed clear to me that I needed to stop by her gym to get her comfortable. We did that yesterday morning.

We went over most of the exercises in her program. It's been slow-going with the her lifting program partly because it was so new to her. The rowing too. We decided that since there is so much new-ness to this experience for her, that we're gonna scrap the rowing program until the winter and swap it out for running in this fantastic weather we've been having lately.

I think now that she has more comfort in the weight room (I showed her how to flaunt her stuff and not take crap from any muscular monkeys) she'll be good to go with the lifting. It's important for her, and important for most women, to lift weights. I said as much in my last blog but I left out a critical part. Weight lifting increases bone density, an especially important benefit for women. Pilates, Yoga or Cardio do not have the bone-densifying effect like that of weight training. Any time you place a weight-bearing load on your shoulder girdle, spine or hips, it sends important messages to your central nervous system that your skeletal system has to adapt and handle that load. At the cellular level, this means creating more osteoblasts, which increases bone density.

So, Sari's plan is lifting to increase her lean body mass and running to simply let loose and soak up nature when the endorphins are flowing (a beautiful, and downright spiritual combination).

The success story so far: Sari and I are still working together. Exercising, or really making change, is hard work. It takes a team.

Pear-shaped Women

2006-08-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

I see it all the time - women who are strong in their hips but have very little tone or strength in their shoulders and arms.

If you have extra weight in your hips and you want to burn that off, the fastest way to do so is not by cardio and not by Pilates. You should lift weights. Specifically, upper body weight training exercises.

Here's why:

When you increase your lean body mass your metabolism (base metabolic rate) increases. That means you'll be burning more calories all day long - even when not exercising. If you're lifting with your shoulders, arms, back and chest, then that muscle growth will effectively eat away the extra weight in your hips. In 3-6 month time, your pear shape will morph into that of a beautiful hourglass.

Running or elliptical training won't build lean body mass because you're using the aerobic energy system. To gain lean body mass, you need to train aenorobically (weight training). It is true that you could run aenorobically and gain lean body mass, but that means lots of sprints (think Olympic sprinters). Sprints are great, but chances are, you may not be ready for the high impact demands of sprinting.

Here's a good routine to build those upper body muscles:

1. Upper Body Ergometer for 6 minutes to waken and stabilize your shoulder capsules.

2. Romanian Deadlifts to hit all large muscles groups and prep your body for isolation-type exercises.

3 and 4. Pullup & Dip Machine for chest and back. Use wider grips and plenty of assistance from machine.

5. Seated Overhead Press for shoulders (first with bar and then with dumbbells)

6. Seated Double Arm Extensions with dumbbells for triceps (do not alternate).

7. Arm Curls for biceps (bar, then alternate with dumbbells).

I Am Not Selling Magic Pills

2006-08-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

Tucson, Arizona, 2001. I went there to train for the up and coming racing season. New York is no place to ride 3000 miles in the winter. I just finished B-school. Job market was horrible. It was a perfect opportunity to go. 8 weeks of 400-500 miles per week in the desert. Not one of those miles was my heart rate over 158 beats per minute. Yet cumulatively, those were the miles that made me wickedly fast by May of that year.

Results will come if you are persistent, one mile at a time. One workout at a time.

Common scenario is that people will start going to the gym and really get into it. High energy, they feel great and then 'the fizzle' happens. I think its great that people get into it that way. It's so awesome to see people's energy shoot through the roof. What stinks is seeing them disappear 3 weeks later.

It is good that you start off that strong, but when that dies down (within 3 weeks for most), that's when you need to recall why you started exercising. Slow down. Take the pressure off yourself that you need to go hard all the time. Go to the gym and allow yourself to have a less-than-great workout. On those days, take credit for even getting there. You accomplished more than you think.

I am not selling magic pills. If you want to get in shape then you need to do the work. I'm impressed with what you've done in 3 months, not 3 weeks. I can help you get started in 3 weeks. But I need more of your time to get those results. I need 3 months without a week missed. I need 6 months without 2 weeks missed. I need 2 years to change your life.

Exercise for many is a random pursuit. Think about your goals. What is your plan to reach those goals? Are you hopping on a cardio machine everyday? If so, what's the workout plan? What about the next one? How do you string together 2 weeks of cardio sessions? 4 weeks? 2 years?

At Agile, when you logon to your workout, you'll see something called 'Run Rate' on your dashboard. It starts at 50%. Each workout you complete makes that number go up. Each day that goes by without you doing a workout makes that number go down. This is your barometer. Results are guaranteed if you can keep that number at 65% over a 3 month period.

But here's the beauty of Run Rate. If you got off track and your Run Rate dropped to 18%, then you have a clear goal - get it to 25%.

If you're having trouble, let me know. I am always here to help.

Just Give Up

2006-07-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Don't trust yourself. If you want to really see results, then you have to leave your comfort zone, and in my experience, the surest way to do that is to put a pro in charge.

You're deviously smart. You'll figure out the most efficient and painless way to exercise. That's a good thing for all other things besides exercise.

Ever notice that some people have been gym members for a while (months or years), but they look the same? They're comfortable. Bottom-line: if you have been exercising and you are not seeing good results within 3-6 months, something is wrong.

Leave your comfort zone, give up control, but remember to still hold yourself accountable. A pro can guide you along the way, but ultimately you have to walk that path.

Eeeasy there, Tiger.

2006-07-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

Your intentions are right-on; you’re starting an exercise program! You go into it with energy and high motivation. Then you fizzle.

Does this happen to you?

My goal, and the foundation agile was built on, is to show you how to overcome this. Every program starts off relatively easy and then builds in intensity each session and each week. The 4th week is a taper week, which means we back off of the intensity so that your body can regenerate and become stronger. Then you're ready to start the process again, except at a higher level.

It takes about 2 cycles (months) for this pattern to take root. The first few weeks, you might resist the routine. It's human nature. Even elite athletes have to concentrate on getting their workouts done by reminding themselves of their ultimate goals.

I make an inner smirk sometimes when I hear people tell me their goals, because I know that, if they stay the course, they will exceed their goals and reach a state of well being that they cannot currently imagine.

How do I Reach You?

2006-07-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

Can we Build a Community?

Hi everyone!

I'm having trouble with something and I need your help.

Exercise is tough - less because of grueling workout sessions and more because of the day-in and day-out routine one needs to establish to see results.

I put everything I have into building agile as it exists today. My heart, knowledge and life experiences permeate through every single pixel of what you see.

But how do I reach you? How do I make sure you know that I care as much as I do?

Heated but healthy debate occurred today between us founding agilites on the virtues and pitfalls of creating an online community as a means to reach out to those in need of fitness help.

I want to know in what ways I can improve my service to you. I want to get you fit. I want you to have moments where you feel at peace with yourself.

Help me help you.

Download Your Exercise Program to Your iPod!

2006-06-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

Who Wants to be the First Case Study!

2006-06-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

I am inviting 1 person to begin a 6 month, all-expense paid, exercise program starting on July 5th.

The requirements are as follows:

1. Commit to 6 months of consistent exercise 3-6 times per week
2. Talk with me over email, phone and/or IM 2-3 times per week about how you feel
3. Have computer with Internet Connection
4. Have Gym Membership
5. Be in good health
6. Be willing to take a before and after photos of self to be posted on this blog (casual shots - not those cheesy bikini shots and then suck-in-the-belly shots)
7. Be comfortable with my writing blog posts about your journey. I will always speak of you in a positive light and never divulge personal information. You will get to read, edit and approve/disprove all posts I write before I publish them.
8. Be willing to write commentary on blog periodically.

This is a serious commitment, so think it thoroughly through! It will be hard - not in terms of endless grueling exercise sessions, but in terms of the day-in-day-out commitment for 6 months, and me being your coach through it. Of course, you can back out at any time.

The benefit to you: The best shape of your life!

Email me at jim@agilefitness.com if you're interested!

A New Day at Agile

2006-06-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

Agile Fitness is a business that I started a year and a half ago, but today, it feels like a new beginning.

I met a woman, Sari Goodfriend, by chance a few weeks ago. She was sitting outside my office, waiting for colleagues of hers. It took about 30 seconds for us to hit a friendly rapport and 5 minutes to realize that we could help each other professionally. I wanted a photographer to put a dash of humanity on Agile; she was exactly that person. I am so happy to have met her.

My Dear Family & Friends, Lee Jackson, Jennifer Pepe McDade, Dora Cedano, Mike Hughes, Bailey O'Neile, Julia Conduit and Bree Patron made that possible by becoming the 'faces of Agile' in what was an exciting photoshoot. I am so priviledged and rich to know each one of you. I am so happy that I am surrounded by such smart, healthy, down-to-earth people.

Good and Not-So-Good Exercises

2006-05-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

When you get older - and this means over the age of 25 - it's time to change your priorities about what's important: your ego or your health.

No one in the gym really cares how much weight you can lift. I do Arm Curls with an empty bar and I haven't gotten laughed at yet, at least not about that.

That said, the opposite is useless - not lifting enough weight. I see too many women lay down with a pair of 12 pound dumbbells to Bench Press. That's almost a total waste of time.

3 popular exercises that can do damage, should you lift too much weight:

1. Incline Bench Press
2. Behind Neck Shoulder Press
3. Upright Rows

3 exercises that should be staples to any exercise program (and you can keep it light):

1. Squats (for back and hip flexibility)
2. Cross Bench Pullovers (for shoulder flexibility)
3. Downward Dog (for hamstring & IT Band flexibility)

Ignite Your Calorie-burning Furnace: Lift Weights

2006-05-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

I see many people get caught up in how many calories they burn in a cardio session. It seems an hour’s effort hardly burns away a donut. Be discouraged, but don’t fret. I have the answer!

Muscle is always hungry, so adding lean muscle mass to your frame means calorie-munching muscle all day long. Start with a full body lifting routine of 9-12 exercises, 2-3 times per week. Stay on this routine for about 4 weeks and then switch to a split lifting routine (means alternating muscle groups each workout session) for 4-6 weeks.

Your metabolism will immediately rise and noticeable fat weight loss will occur within 2-3 weeks as long as you don’t significantly increase your caloric intake.

Cardio is an important staple to a fitness regimen, but unless you’re doing a high volume of cardiovascular training, the post-workout metabolic effect is much less than that of weight training.

Give it a try – if you have any questions, let me know! I’m happy to help.

Core Training: Know When & How to Use It

2006-05-01T19:28:00.001-07:00

Core Training is the latest rage in the fitness world, and unlike past trends, it actually works. A typical core training workout is one in which the muscles in and around your torso and hips are strengthened so that you have a 'rock solid' foundation. You'll be less susceptible to injury when carrying out everyday tasks like lifting baby from crib or playing tennis on weekends.

At Agile, we've actually taken the methods of core training a step further by widening the 'core' areas of the body to include the deeper muscle tissues acting on the major joints: ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders. A good example of this type of core training: dumbbell exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulders.

Core Training almost always involves an exercise tool that adds an element of instability to the exercise, bench pressing with dumbbells on a Swiss Ball is a good example . But some trainers take this concept too far: kneeling on a Swiss Ball and doing bicep curls - this is more of a circus act than the most efficient way to exercise. Don't get me wrong - you'll strengthen your core muscles doing this exercise - I just don't think it's the most effective use of your gym time.

For the best results, add core exercises to the beginning of your workout so that your muscles are awake and ready to engage in weight lifting and cardiovascular activity.

What Comes First: Cardio or Weights?

2006-04-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

The short answer is Weight Training. You'll burn more blood sugar which means tapping into fat reserves more quickly during cardio. It's safer too. Exhaustion from cardio can lead to sloppy lifting, which increases risk of injury.

If you're not doing high intensity with either, then it's not as important which comes first.

There are scenarios where it makes more sense to do your cardio first. If your plan is to do running intervals on the treadmill and your lifting routine for that day is all machine-based, then I recommend doing the treadmill intervals first.

Do You Do Legs?

2006-04-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Alright guys - it's gone on long enough. You actually need to 'do legs' in the gym if you want to gain muscle weight. I know what you're thinking, 'Nah - I just want the chest and back and...'

That's fine. But here's the real reason you don't train legs: it hurts. You got very inflexible over the past 10 years. That inflexibility makes it very uncomfortable to do 'high value' exercises like Squats, Deadlifts and Lunges.

Hmm - I bet when I said those exercise names you thought of those huge dudes on Strongest Man competitions - the guys with their knees wrapped and wearing shorts from Runner's World...

I promise you that if you do a Squat or Deadlift, you won't feel compelled to wear short shorts.

Jokes aside, Squatting and Deadlifting for fitness are important if you expect to be tossing your toddler around the house. They keep your back loose. It's not about putting 225 lbs on the bar and going 1/2 way down. Try an empty bar and slowly progress up to 65 lbs after 2 weeks. Trust me, you'll feel it plenty.

Problem areas the Squat and Deadlift can fix:

IT Bands - thick ligamentous bands that run the outer length of your leg, from hip to ankle. Tight IT Bands lead to tight lower back.

> Squat or Deadlift by keeping your toes pointed straight ahead. This forces your IT Bands into a longer range of motion and stretches them out over time.

Ankles/achilles - if you cannot squat without lifting your heels, your ankles/achilles are tight.

> Squat or Deadlift with an empty bar to that point where your heels want to lift. Pause here - give them time to loosen up. Aim to go a fraction lower on the next rep.

Weigh-in Twice Daily

2006-04-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

The old rule-of-thumb for weighing-in is once per week. This way you won't be discouraged by up-and-down fluctuations. But it is not often enough to reinforce the committment you made - to finally lose those extra pounds. If you are serious about losing weight, then you need to remind yourself of that committment twice a day by getting on the scale. Here's what you need to do:

1. Buy a scale and put it in or near your bathroom (always use same scale).
2. Make a weigh-in chart and post it on the wall at eye-level when on the scale. The chart should have an AM & PM column with 30 rows for each day of the next month.
3. Weigh-in completely naked (no socks) when you wake up, right after you go to the bathroom.
4. Weigh-in again before you go to bed, after you go to bathroom and again, completely naked.
5. Repeat for at least 21 days, or until you reach your target weight.

Why weigh-in so much? Because you need to be more in-tune with what's going on with your body. Inevitably, you'll weigh more at night, so compare your night weights to each other and your morning weights to each other. Eventually, you'll notice how different foods effect you and what impact exercise or an active day has on your weight. This is powerful knowledge that will help you take control.

Each step up to that scale reinforces your pledge to make change.

Great - that's how to weigh in, but how do you actually lose the weight? In order of importance, here's how:

1. Calorie-counting - don't eat anything you can't count - and count everything - even the skim milk in your coffee. After 2-3 weeks, you won't have to count anymore because you'll know precisely how many calories are in most of the foods you eat.
2. Exercise - you don't have to go hard necessarily, just get into a routine. Much more on this another time.
3. Food choice & portion size - why 3rd? Because it goes hand-in-hand with #1 If you're counting calories, then you're going to become pretty economical about your choices.