‎“I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”"- Muhammad Ali

Today is Ali’s 70th birthday! A tip of the hat to the Greatest, a man whose athletic achievements are so famous that they need no mention on this page. He has been called by many the most famous person on the planet. If that ain’t the truth, it certainly is close.

In an attempt to celebrate the man, I searched for a quote to post on the Fitness Guru Facebook page and I came up with the one above. The man has had many, many famous quotes, but this one hi me hard this morning, I think, perhaps, because we are still in the midst of the Resolution Revolution.

Here’s the thing about working out: it just isn’t pleasant. Not in the traditional sense. Sure, there is the endorphin high (and my friend Chris writes about the biochemical effects of exercise brilliantly in his book, The Athlete’s Way). But for the little investment that you make working out on a regular basis, you will feel better. The effects of exercise on every aspect of your life are tremendous: more energy, less pain, even psychological benefits like…..what’s that word?…….joy!

So maybe you won’t be calling yourself Champion for the rest of your life (but you should). The quality of life will be improved greatly simply by exercising. So as we get deeper and deeper into the Resolution, and all your friends who started out the year with the very best of intentions start to drop by the wayside, remember the words of the Greatest. Have a workout or two where you don’t care about calories or burn or sweat. Do it just to get the blood flowing. Your body will thank you, your mind will thank you. And, most importantly, it will keep you solidly on track this year, making it the healthiest year of your life.

Rock on!!

Okay. Here we are. 2012.

What’s your Resolution?

I’m not going to bore you with the statistics on Resolutions and how many people drop their health and fitness Resolutions before the end of January. There really is no need: you all have friends who you have watched make and break those promises. You may have made the promises to yourself, only to decide in the first few weeks of the year that life was better without being burdened with all those chains.

But the start of the New Year is a brilliant time to turn over a new leaf. Here’s the catch: the leaf is delicate and if you turn it over with a big iron fist, it’s going to tear (oooooh imagery!). Most of us will come out of the gate way too fast and burn up just as quickly. We try to change everything we are eating, we try to workout far beyond our personal capacity, and the reward at the end of the day is exhaustion and a sense of defeat.

So enter Zen. We all know Zen. It’s that thing where you sit and stare at a stream.

Well, yes, but a little bit more. Zen is a school of Buddhism and the word itself is a derivation of the Sanskrit word for “meditation”. Part of the Zen practice is a voyage of introspection, discovering the nature of oneself. It is a slow and patient journey, one that leads the practitioner to enlightenment. Here’s the catch: there is no time line for enlightenment. If you wanted to enroll in a 12-week course in Zen meditation because the teacher promised enlightenment at the end of 12 weeks, I’d say stay away. That’s not the nature of the beast.

So how does that relate to your Resolution? We tend to attack our Resolutions like a hungry animal. We are driven by some sense that we are lacking something, some quality (think “thin”) and assume that if we take all our energy and throw it in some direction, we will attain that missing element. It’s firing a shot gun at a target while blindfolded. Some people who are patient enough will keep firing the shotgun and eventually hit something. But most of us lose our patience.

I had an interesting talk with a young woman the other night. She had just had a baby eight weeks ago and she and her husband decided to sign up for personal training sessions at their local gym in order to get in top shape for parenthood. Her husband wanted to take off a few pounds around his middle (let’s call it his sympathy belly) and put on some upper body muscle. She wanted to 1) recover from the physical exhaustion of pregnancy and childbirth and 2)prepare for her first half marathon she is going to run in May. Excellent goals for both of them. The trainer had them doing exactly the same workouts, which consisted of heaving around lots of weight.

What?

Yup. So she is tired and sore and ready to throw in the towel, while her husband, somewhat less frustrated, is hoping that he will get the results that he is paying a great deal of money to have.

This is a situation where the trainer is blindfolded and firing a shotgun at the clients, hoping that his particular pattern of training will help them achieve their goals.

Ain’t going to happen.

Back to Zen. The first step is patience. It doesn’t take any sort of thought or plan to get out of shape. We can do that very easily. But to get yourself in shape takes a great deal of thought and knowledge, both of the science itself and of your own body. You don’t have to enroll in any sort of graduate program, but you do have to become more introspective. Most people will say that they eat healthy, but when pressed, have no idea how many calories they consume daily; rarely get their recommended intake of fruits and vegetables; miss out on all the joys of fiber; and tend to snack as though the snacks don’t count. Workouts are an all-or-nothing affair that leave them depleted and drawn to all the wrong foods when they sit at the table.

So the three steps to the successful Resolution:

1. Journals. Keep track of what you eat by writing it down. Yes, there are apps you can use to track your food, but most of us will never open the app as often as we open our mouths. Go the old fashioned way and write it down in a notebook with a pen. Then seek the advice of a nutritionist who can help you sort out the patterns you have created and give you a little guidance as to how to change course. Don’t get involved in someone who wants you to visit every week for the next 400 weeks. That isn’t necessary. What you need are some simple steps to get you on the right track. It’s all about a little education.

2. Spend some money on a skilled trainer. And buyer beware. You know that uneasy feeling you get when someone is trying to sell you a car and it just doesn’t seem right? Do you buy the car? Well, just because someone has pumped up biceps and a wash board stomach doesn’t mean that they are a quality trainer who can help you with your personal situation. Ask question, take a trial session. And if it doesn’t feel right, speak up or move on. Otherwise, you’ll end up deflated and depressed like my new mom friend.

3. Patience. I can’t stress this enough. It took you a while to get out of shape. It’s going to take a while to get into shape. Don’t expect huge changes in a few short weeks. In fact, if you have huge changes in a short period of time, you are far more likely to snap back like a rubber band and find yourself in exactly the same position next January. Create a three month fitness schedule for yourself. Try to vary the workouts across the board: take a class, throw a frisbee…..it’s not just logging mindless hours on a treadmill. Place the workouts at times when you know there is little chance you will have to reschedule. But set it up for yourself in advance, so you see the path that you are going to follow. This is going to make it far less likely you will consider each workout an all or nothing event.

And if you have questions, hit me with them, sooner rather than later. Nothing worse than fitness frustration. michael@fitnessgurunyc.com

Rock on!!

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” ~Oprah Winfrey

So here we are in the last week of January. Time to look back on the last three weeks. How’s the Resolution going? Like many people, you may find that your decision to completely revamp your exercise and nutrition lifestyle is already a thing of the past and you are busy preparing your Resolution for 2012. Roughly 80% of people making those promises on January 1st are already out of the game by the first week of February. Why are the numbers so high? There are a few reasons:

• the bar was set too high– losing 20 pounds in 4 weeks is difficult to impossible, regardless of what the tabloid magazines tell you
• you’ve fired yourself out of cannon and right into a brick wall, trying to go from a life of leisure to one of intense sportsmanship without really giving the body a chance to adapt
• You may have started the whole adventure without any real strategy for how you were going to succeed– kind of like deciding to start a 1000 mile journey in your car without getting directions or bringing a map (for you kids, maps are what we used before Google Earth and GPS’s)

And, of course, it could be any combination of the three, with the added obstacles that I may not have thought of: boredom, frustration, lack of the proper attire…..

If you still have that craving, think about this: I think its the difference between the desire and the decision. We all have the desire to be in shape, look great, eat right, and do all those things that we promised ourselves at 11:59 pm on December 31st. Why not? It sounds so good when you talk about. All the athletes, actors and models look really happy and healthy because they must be doing it, right? But that is simply the desire, the wish for things to be different.

In order to effect change, the desire has to become a decision. I want my refrigerator to be filled with food. That’s the desire. But unless I make the decision to go to the store, the refrigerator is going to stay empty. If change is something you really, truly want, then you must make the shift from desire to decision. A decision involves a certain amount of determination. Rather than simply wanting to be at Point B, you are going to take the steps necessary to take you from Point A to Point B. Now, of course we would like to travel that road as quickly and as effortlessly as possible. But the fact is that sometimes obstacles get in the way. With exercise, you may have a day or two when you are short on time; you may be tired or injured; you may feel that you don’t have the economic freedom to follow the road. When you have a desire, all those issues become distractions that keep you from your goal. When you’ve made a decision, all those issues are excuses that must be dealt with, plowed through, or simply ignored. When you have made a decision, your eye is always on the prize and you will keep moving forward, hell or high water. If you are headed down the highway and your exit is closed, you find another way to get to your destination, right? You don’t simply stop on the side of the highway and start something else (well, you might. If this is you, please send me a note).

So take a step back and ask yourself: was the Resolution a desire or a decision? If it was a desire and it didn’t work out, there’s nothing wrong with that. You can always start again. The important thing is not giving yourself guilt or grief that you failed. You actually never started. If the Resolution was a decision, then you will keep marching forward, patiently and efficiently, because you know you will get to your destination. You’ll occasionally “fall off the wagon” (god, I hate that phrase), but you pick yourself up, dust yourself, and get back on.

And if you aren’t sure how to turn the desire into a decision? Well, that’s where I come in. Shoot me a comment, let me know what’s holding you back, and let’s get going. There’s no time like right  now!

Rock on!!

I know, I know……I keep harassing you about this New Year’s Resolution thang. “It’s the middle of December!! Why is raining on the holiday parade!?!”

Because like a condemned prisoner choosing the menu for a final meal, most of us plow into the holiday season with such abandon, eating and drinking and eating (repeat), because we KNOW the inevitable Resolution is just around the corner. January 1st we are going to get it together and– LOOK OUT, WORLD– we are going to kick some ass!!

Okay, try this on.

One simple way of increasing your fitness level is by simply getting a little more active throughout the day. Your quest does not simply have to take place by logging hours on the elliptical machine. If you simply increase the number of steps that you take throughout the day, the end result is that you will boost your metabolism.

Like everything else I suggest to you, I think it is best not to leave this to chance– chance is what got us into this problem to begin with. The best way to make sure your more active is to track just how active you are. And the best way to do that? A pedometer.

Studies have shown that by taking 12,000 steps through the course of your day, you will be far more able to maintain your weight and fitness goals. More than 12,000 steps, and you actually start to make improvements. And, flip side, fewer than 12,000 and you are behind the eight-ball. And I will bet that, if fitness and weight loss are at the top of your Resolution list, you are probably taking far fewer than 12,000 steps. Why should you? You have a computer, you have a cell phone. In reality, you probably don’t have to go anywhere through the course of the day to accomplish everything you need to do.

So make the small investment now– buy a pedometer and track your steps. See just how active you are through the course of the day. Keep a log from day to day so you can see just how much more you’ll have to move to help the Resolution cause.

AND– they make great stocking stuffers!!

Here’s a great little pedometer that is so sensitive you can carry it in your pocket or bag, the Omron HJ-112 Digital Pocket Pedometer! Get yourself one now and take the first step toward conquering that Resolution this year!

Rock on!!

It’s December 1st. That’s one full month until the New Year. 31 days of partying and celebrating and kicking up a storm. Then, you know what happens?……..The New Year’s Resolution…….all those promises that you make to yourself. All those dollars flowing right into the fitness industry. All those blog entries that I re-publish about being patient and pacing yourself and blah blah blah.

Why January 1st?!? Really?!? Why?!? Why do we want to start a year with the anxiety of raising the bar higher RIGHT AFTER a month of eating and drinking and eating some more?

The New Year dates back to the Roman calendar that started the year in January and finished it in December (December at that point was the 10th month– one of the little jewels I took with me from 9th grade Latin class). The Romans put this calendar into effect in 700 BC– that’s a lot of years and, oy! countless resolutions. But many other cultures celebrate the New Year according to different calendars, calendars that do not begin on January 1st.

That is why I have decided that the Fitness Guru New Year will be celebrated TODAY, DECEMBER 1st!! Raise your glass on high!!

So, as it is the New Year, now is the time for resolution. Make your plan, set your schedule, focus on your goals and start to make progress NOW!! If you have the goal in mind, standing next to the dessert table at the office party is going to seem far less appetizing. You will be able to personalize your goals and make headway without the sense that you are either keeping up or, worse, falling behind everyone else who is making a resolution.

And the economics of it?…….

Did you know that most gyms are far more willing to cut a deal with you at the end of the year, so they can meet their goals of membership? You can go in and hunt for discounts– waived initiation fees, extra months added on– and most gyms won’t blink. PLUS when you actually go to the gym, the place will be empty because EVERYONE ELSE IS OUT PARTYING AND WAITING FOR JANUARY 1ST!! And January 2nd, trust me, it will be nowhere near as easy to find an empty elliptical machine during the post-work rush hour.

So come! Celebrate the New New Year with me! Let’s take December by the horns and wrassle it to the ground! Kick some ass and take some names and everyone will be telling you how great you look at all those parties on December 31st!

Rock on!!

Is it just me, or does it seem like this past December was a resounding kick to the stomach and we are only now starting to stumble up? The Flu? Possibly. The economy? Could be. Maybe it is just me but everyone seems a little tweaked, and not just in the Oh-my-God-Oh-thank-God-Apocalypse-Deliverance-Good-Cop-Bad-Cop reactions to the Massachusetts election. In the small sphere of the studio, things are off: Rippy Cutty boy shows up looking like a deer in the headlights instead of the noble morning warrior; the Boot Camp seems to have overdosed on Xanax; and with nerves frayed, many seem to be edging for a fight of one kind or another, even if they are not quite sure of the topic.

Did we all quit sugar and caffeine at the same time? Was that the group resolution and I just missed the memo?

No, it’s more than that. Folks are freaked. No one is quite sure where we’re headed, there is very little faith in “the system”, and many want to simply stay huddled up in the cave until the storm passes. Perfectly understandable, I say. Understandable, sure, but impossible to do. We have to get up, get out, go to work, the whole nine yards.

And I see all of this anxiety and stress wear away at all these people. And what’s the first thing to go out the window? Health and well-being. You’re not quitting the sugar and caffeine. You’re OD’ing on them. You are tanked and you are reaching for that muffin or that extra cup of coffee (or three). At the brand new DUMBO candy store, Tootsie Rolls are flying off the shelves. Anything for that little burst of energy.

But that just creates a vicious cycle that brings us further and further down. More sugar, more caffeine, more stress at work, less sleep, less peace, more tired, more sugar……..you get the idea.

So how on earth are you going to break this cycle?!? I know, I know!……it’s out of your control, it’s tough at work, you can’t get it all done, there’s too much stuff, too little time, aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!……………

Wrong.

Here are three simple ideas, not the be-all-end-all, but certainly a good start:

1. Start to cut back on the amount of sugar and caffeine you consume. It’s tough but it’s an addiction like any drug, and this drug is bringing you down, baby. If you want the coffee and sugar, have it but then back off after lunch. You’ll probably have to take a nap on your desk, but that’s better than getting a poor night’s sleep.

2. Schedule one 5-minute period at one point in the day when you can simply breathe and relax. Five minutes is all it will take to allow your system to reload. And once you calm yourself down, it’s like a second wind. You’ll find you have more focus and energy and can accomplish more than you could a few minutes before. Not sure about this one? Try this 5-minute Relaxation podcast. Or just set a timer, close your eyes and breathe.

3. Be present. So much going on, so many responsibilities. It is very easy to get perpetually distracted. Have you been in a conversation with someone recently and noticed that you have no idea what they said for the last few minutes? Take some time for yourself and practice being present. Be aware of where you are and that that is all that is important for the moment. Nothing is going to change, nothing is going to destruct. Just enjoy that moment and be present for yourself. You will find that, as an exercise, it is very refreshing. And, as a practice, it will give you a brand new source of energy and power. And couldn’t we all use a little bit of that?

If all else fails, take a moment and watch the video:

The Fitness Guru

www.fitnessgurunyc.com

YEA! HAPPY NEW YEAR!! WHOOO-HOOOOOO!!……YES!!!…… FIRST DAY!! NEW YEAR!!…. NEW DECADE!!!………YEA!!!!…… HAPPY….. NEW….. year……whoooo……hooo…. yes….. ya……. hmmm…..

With any luck, you are waking up this morning (or this afternoon) without a hangover. Food. Food will be on the list of things to do. And some stores and some restaurants may be open. But it is a holiday, so you can’t be sure. By Sunday, you’ll be a little discombobulated because it’s the second long weekend in a row and now all your internal clocks are way off. Monday: gather ’round the water cooler with all the NYE war stories and comments about “amateur night” (note: as my friend, Tom, was the only person I know who went to bed at 11:30 last night, he is, by default, the only “professional”). Within two weeks, you will have stopped screwing up every time you have to write the date on something. In four weeks, any reference to the New Year or New Decade will have gone the way of Tiger Woods jokes. And within six weeks, 80-95% of you will have given up on your New Year’s Resolution.

That’s right. By Valentine’s Day, the National Hallmark  Day of Chocolate and Cards, only a few Resolutionaries will be left standing. The reasons are simple: we create goals for ourselves without creating an effective strategy for attaining those goals. Sure, it seems like everyone has a strategy to help you, but, for the most part, that strategy is “Happy New Year……now let’s change”. The desire to change isn’t a strategy. It has to be met with a thorough play-by-play so that you understand the ups and the downs of the process.

So here are the five things to keep in mind to help you succeed this year and every year with your resolution. Now, I am the Fitness Guru, so I am going to help specifically with fitness and health related goals. But this ideas can work just as effectively with all your resolutions, personal or professional.

1. Take smaller bites. Yes, your grandmother was right. You take too big a bite and you’re going to choke. You have 40 pounds to lose? Start with the first 10. What the hell– start with 5. If you focus solely on the 40, and the weight doesn’t come off fast enough, that will lead to frustration, dissolutionment, and closing the door on yet another year’s resolution. That leads us to……
2. Patience. My god, if I had a dime for every person who walked through my door and thought that they were going to get it done in two weeks, I would be retired to an island in the Pacific by now. You have to understand that your train has been traveling with a great deal of momentum in one direction. In order to slow  down and change direction, you will have to patiently redirect your path. And the more momentum you have in a particular direction, the more focus and time you will need to redirect yourself.
3. Do not change direction too quickly. Ok, follow me on this one: your driving a Ferrari at 110 miles per hour down the highway. You want to make a hard, 90-degree left turn. My suggestion: slow down or your going to crash. You haven’t exercised in 10 years? Why on Earth are you going to go to the gym for two hours at a stretch, 6 days a week starting the day after the heaviest eating/drinking period of the entire year. Start slow and methodically. Go to the gym for half an hour, stretch, do a little cardio, maybe try a class. See how your body feels, how it reacts to the stimuli. If you feel good, up the ante. If you are sore and tired, keep it easy for the first week or two as you ease into it. You have time (see suggestion #2).



4. Don’t spend a fortune. Health clubs love this time of year. They see the panic in your eyes and they thrive on it. They will get you to sign up for 18 months of direct withdrawal from your checking account, knowing full well that by Valentine’s Day you will have forgotten you had a membership. Buy a month’s membership. They’ll sell it to you (they just want your money, after all). Make sure the gym is for you, that it is effective and you enjoy it. Then make the big purchase in February. Same goes for meal plans, exercise equipment, shoes, clothes, gizmos, late night infomercial products– the whole enchilada. The industry loves January because everyone throws their money at problems. Don’t be one of those people. But……
5. If you do spend money, spend it and spend it wisely. Spending money on your health and well-being is the wisest investment you can make. But, like financial investing, you want to be sure you are putting your money into an investment that will reap dividends. I am a trainer and I believe that an educated trainer is the Resolutionary’s best friend. Exercise is a science, not a crap shoot. I have yet to meet someone who couldn’t achieve their goals with the proper information and persistence. The problem is that the information is usually faulty. So Buyer Beware! Go about finding a New Year’s trainer the same way you would shop the rest of the year: get referrals from friends, interview the trainers, ask questions, find out specifically what they would do to help you, not simply someone who walks through the door to be “trained”. And keep in mind that most quality trainers have full schedules. You will need a little flexibility to find time in their schedules. If a health club is quick to offer you their “top trainer” who happens to be free five days a week during peak hours, take a good, long look at that person, their education, their work experience and their success rate.

This isn’t the end. This is the beginning. I wish there were only five things to keep in mind. This would be so simple if that were the case. But if it were that simple, the success rate would be higher than 10%. And it isn’t.

So buckle up and stay tuned. Let’s make this the best year ever! Whoooo-Hooooo!! Happy New Year!! Yea!!!!

It’s the calm before the storm. Do you feel it? That quiet expanse between Christmas and New Year’s. Friday? Very exciting! All sorts of new things happening with the Guru to celebrate the New Year– wonderful things that are going to help get all of us in the best shapes of our lives!

In the meantime, go out and have a very happy and healthy New Year. Take a few minutes to reflect on all the good things that happened for you in the past 365 days. And contemplate where you want to be 365 days from now.

This is not a New Year’s video. I love Cirque de Soleil and thought I would share one of my favorite pieces of theirs. Of course, it’s tough to capture the experience on video but it is amazing nonetheless.

Thank you all for being part of the Guru community for the past year. It has been a fantastic time and we are all looking forward to 2010!

We are closing in on the last of the holidays for this season……New Year’s!! Then comes the time of The Resolution! Have you thought about yours?

No dates present

It’s almost 2010, and for a lot of people that means New Year’s Resolution! And, though we try and be high-minded about it (“this year I will strive for Green Living and world peace…..though not necessarily in that order…”), most of our Resolution tend to focus on changing our health, well-being and fitness. Consequently, the gym industry makes a killing in January. And most of us end up frustrated that we have been unable to achieve the goals we set for ourselves.

So we have a plan– The First Annual Fitness Guru Makeover.

We will take one lucky person (though, who knows, maybe others) and we will help them hit the ground running in 2010– personal training, Pilates, yoga, fitness classes, weight training, nutrition– anything and everything that will help this lucky person achieve the goals that he or she sets for him/herself– all for FREE! The catch (there has to be a catch, right?): the whole process is going to be captured on film and video so that all the members of the Guru community can take part in the transformation, learn from it and become inspired by it. This way, we will all be working toward making 2010 the most successful Resolution year ever!! EVER!!!!

Still interested? Here’s what you need to do: first, read over the Rules and Regulations; next, write 150 words on why you feel you should be the winner of the Makeover. Try to be specific but not too long-winded, because, honestly, in an age of Twitter, do any of us have the ability to focus for more than 150 words? Finally, email your entry to makeover@fitnessgurunyc.com. That’s all ya have to do!

The deadline is December 30 at midnight and the winner will be announced on January 5th, 2010.

You may only enter for yourself and you may only enter once, so if you have a friend or loved one whom you think might like this, pass along the info and get them to write a little something.

Spread the word!

And Happy Holidays!!!