The Same Thing Every Day

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

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

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. ?

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!