Ahwatukee StrengthLab Personal Training 480-612-7726

Most personal trainers don’t know enough… don’t care enough… and aren’t fit enough to call themselves professional personal trainers!  Fitness professionals have an obligation to be role models of upmost standards and to know a great deal of information about health and fitness.   It’s also a requirement for fitness professionals to impart all of these assets to their clients in a professional manner… not just once, but every single time they have an appointment.  It’s really a shame… to all the fitness experts out there (who fit all of these requirements) to have their clients diluted by unprofessionals who call themselves something they indeed are not.  Furthermore, it’s a shame to have all those misguided clients waste their time and financial resources on people who call themselves personal trainers when they indeed are not.

The importance of putting intellectual assets before financial assets has always been priority number one for me.  Wisdom, informal education, relationships, ideas, values, character, spirituality, health and well-being, morals, as well as ethics are more important to me than building a financial portfolio.  Make no mistake about it… putting intellectual assets first doesn’t mean that financial assets need to suffer.  Indeed, financial assets can be highly valued, pursued and thoughtfully sought after and remain quite important in one’s life.  But, rather, the sequence of priority in which intellectual and financial assets are pursued will determine the quality of your life and the quality of those who are important to you as well.  What are your priorities?

The short answer… asphalt is 6x softer than concrete which is why runners tend to favor running on the road.  However…

I don’t recommend that the casual jogger or walker take to the road in this way – it’s certainly safer and less irritating for all involved to just use the sidewalks as they were intended while exercising.  But if you log a lot of miles and you take your jogging pretty seriously there’s a tipping point where jogging on the asphalt (running toward traffic for maximum safety of course) becomes the viable option to improve comfort and avoid any future mechanical injuries.  

Because serious runners tend to favor running on the road toward traffic it tends to rub a lot of bicyclists and drivers the wrong way.  I’ve been on both sides of the issue many times!  Here’s the easiest way to approach this particular situation… take to the sidewalks and avoid any future conflict and stay safe!  I mentioned that already?  Oh, not for you?  Prefer the asphalt… as I do?  Well, upon approach, if a driver or bicyclist doesn’t show that they’re willing to yield for you at a respectable distance… then you should give up the right-of-way immediately and return to the sidewalk until after the on-coming traffic has safely passed by.  The asphalt will still be there – waiting patiently for you – when you safely return.

http://www.dcbadventures.com/dcb/DCB/DIRTY_6.html

Look at this way… if we ask for something and we don’t get it – so what?  It wasn’t ours before asking and it’s still not ours now.  In fact, if we didn’t try asking for it, we weren’t going to get it anyway.  Therefore, rejection merely leaves us right where we started… no loss and no gain!  No better and no worse than before – no big deal.  Now, going a step further, if we ask for something and we DO get it, we’ve gained something that we didn’t have before asking and that’s a 100% gain with no loss.  The truth is we never have anything to lose by asking, but we’ll certainly gain nothing if we don’t.

Without a game plan, without knowing where it may lead, without worrying about the final result, without having all the proverbial ducks in a row… we start something big we’ve been meaning to do without having the entire blueprint before us – that’s “leaning into it”.  Most of us wait until the moment is right, the cards are stacked in our favor… or we know exactly how something is going to turn out before we start it.  Alas, those perfect scenarios never happen.  By “leaning into it” without knowing full well where it may lead us, we take the first steps necessary toward something big and important to us.  Easy enough?  Try leaning into it.

Stated simply… fitness is the capacity to do something and it’s generally physical in nature.  In essence, if you desire to increase your fitness level you desire to increase your ability to do a particular physical activity.  So, if your 5k PR (personal record) is 22 minutes on a particular course and you run the same course a year later 2 minutes faster then previously performed, there’s a good chance you’ve increased your running fitness.  Notice I mentioned “running” fitness only!  Fitness comes in many shapes and sizes… and it’s difficult to have a high level of fitness in all activities, but it’s a great goal to have!

In honor of Pat Tillman and the foundation established in his name.

Saturday, April 17th, 2010
4.2 mile Run/Walk Start 7am
Located on the ASU campus!

How large this run has become!  See you down there!

http://www.pattillmanfoundation.org/pats-run.aspx

StrengthLab was built with one very important point in mind – Freedom!  Freedom to train the right way – not the latest way.  Freedom to pursue my own personal fitness outside of the large burden a traditional facility would bring to the equation.  Freedom to build authentic relationships based on quality not quantity.  Freedom to enjoy the latest generation of fitness equipment without the burden of relying on less knowledgable staff.  In essence… freedom to enjoy my life with a proper balance and appreciation that it deserves while helping others reach their goals in a fresh and positive atmosphere.

I rarely push any make or model of running shoe because they’re just too personal in nature to the end user, so most runners should do their own research and buy what they like after some careful consideration.  However, keep in mind, that what works in the store, may not work well in actual application – it takes time and interest to get it right.  But the Brooks Cascadia (current model is Cascadia 5) are so good at what they’re intended to do that I can’t help but give them two thumbs up here.  They’re comfortable in all trail situations… stable on the jagged rocks, great in the off-road dirt, coupled with traction and a good fit – they’re simply hard to beat!  They’re even enjoyable when there’s no trail in sight.  http://www.brooksrunning.com/category/123195/Men%27s%20Shoes

Successful training is about finding the balance in your stress and recovery cycle.  Exercise is the stress and sleep is the recovery of course… but there are other stressors in life as well (such as work and family) so an individual needs to take the entire picture into consideration when buidling and following a consistent training program.  The key here is to find the correct amount of physical training, where your stress and rest cycle are in balance – week in and week out.  It’s a delicate craft for any athlete at any level of experience and it doesn’t come easily.

I absolutely don’t believe that everything happens for a reason.  Where does one get this impression?  Is it merely a coping mechanism?  For instance, if a child is hit by a car and is thus killed, one could say to the parents everything happens for a reason, but where’s the reason in it for the child himself?  Things simply happen outside of our control – in which we don’t understand – and we must deal with it.  A quick remark that “everything happens for a reason” doesn’t cut it.  Simply put, we can make the most of the situation that we’re facing or we can make it worse with negative thoughts and actions.  If something happens and it appears to be bad it’s simply an opportunity to dig deeper, grow stronger, test ourselves and learn from it.  Therefore, adversity is an opportunity that should be dealt with constructively; the alternative is destructive thinking/behavior and that is pointless to those who depend on you.  On the other hand, good fortune is an opportunity as well (but of a different stripe of course) and it holds just as many valuable lessons if we’re wise enough to see them.  In other words, good fortune is just as hard to handle in many cases as is misfortune.  There’s plenty of lottery winners who can attest to that (80% of lottery winners file bankruptcy within 5 years) and perhaps ultra-successful Tiger Woods (as well as many other athletes) may have something to share on that as well.  Wherever you find yourself and whatever the situation, there are lessons to be learned and challenges to be negotiated – so make the most of them.

Starts at Kiwanis Park in Tempe at 8AM – See you there!

http://arizonaroadracers.com/Calendar/hope-for-haiti.pdf

I’m nearing 40 years of age now… and in nearly 20 years of training others and competing in various activites mixed with all types of talent (from highschool kids to professional athletes) I’ve learned some very important lessons along the way.  One of those lessons is this… the contest is always within you!  You vs You!  You cannot simply measure yourself by what you accomplished on a particular day or in a given year of your life, but rather, by what you should have accomplished with the talent and conditions you found yourself in.  Measuring yourself by how close you got to realizing your own best you, in any given situation, is one of the best methods to self-improvement.

Once we find a direction in life and we start to pursue it, we tend to stay focused on that goal until it’s met (i.e. finding a significant other, climbing the corporate ladder, buying a new home, etc.). In fact, most of us are setup to work harder on the way up toward our goals then to know what to do once we arrive at them.  Staying focused on a long-term goal can keep us motivated and out of trouble, but the day will arrive when the goal is met – then what?  This is where success met can become a problem.  A lack of humility and wisdom for the position in which we now find ourselves in, may land us looking failure straight in the eyes again.

Why waste your time trying to control what can’t be controlled?  When you get caught up in things over which you have no control, it merely affects those things over which you do have control.  Where’s your time better spent here?  Concentrate on what you can improve and change for the better and then be wise enough to know what’s out of your control and leave it be.  Time is so very limited – don’t waste it.

I never second guess myself when things don’t work out.  Decisions have to be made using the information you had available to you at that moment.  Information that has already been shown to you… and the assumptions of what that information may lead to in the future… coupled with your life experiences and sound judgment is all you have to rely on and time is of the essence for all decisions.  So you pick a direction and you go!  Mistakes will be made, an experience will be earned and you move forward with better decision making skills in the future regardless of the outcome.

Genuine smiles and authentic praise are so powerful and inspiring, yet most of us rarely provide any to others without desiring something in return.  I find it disconcerning how often I hear people say how awful other people are when the person providing the critique never has much of anything positive to say and never smiles at anyone else unless smiled at first.  Most people are good and most people are friendly and they could use your support.  I make it a practice to operate with less suspicion, more openess and let the other person prove me wrong.

UCLA’s John Wooden said it best… “it is better to trust and be disappointed occasionally, than mistrust and be miserable all the time.”

All of us have fears… but the brave put down those fears, set aside those fears or push through those fears.  What greater challenge can be offered a human being than the opportunity to overcome their personal fears one by one as the challenges present themselves?