The Actionaut

July 8, 2011

Lies, Deception and Workout Devices

Filed under: exercise.,Fitness,Nutrition,Training — Tags: , , — Philippe Til @ 10:39 AM

So, while I am developing an online fitness program which I cannot discuss in details, and am developing a piece of equipment which fills a blank in most people’s training, I am careful about putting my stamp on products that represent my sense of integrity, knowledge, education and training beliefs. At the same time, it’s brought an awareness of what others’ awareness in fitness is, that being of the general public and the marketers of products.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF AN INFOMERCIAL
When you see a product such as the AB ROCKET TWISTER, you hear testimonials of folks who have lost X inches in record time, or simply state ” I rock and I twist, now I have abs”. And you see a bunch of attractive models in amazing shape, as well as a “celebrity trainer” host, doing drills on the tool (implications of the word tool extend beyond the device itself). Another one is called Steel Abs, not released yet, and since I am not bound by any confidentiality agreement, simply have observed the behind-the-scenes while training, I can reveal what I have witnessed. What you are not seeing is the fact that:
1) Large groups of people work out intensely 6 days a week (large groups to manage drop out rates and maximize testimonial and results potential).
2) Folks taking part receive all their meals provided 6 days a week (unsure of the 7th) with only 1200 calories.
3) The use of any promoted device amounts to maybe 2 minutes out of the intense hour of working out.

THE DEVICE ITSELF
It’s flimsy, cheap, poorly designed but brilliantly marketed to minimize production cost and maximize profit. Geared at the buyer looking for the quick fix and then quitting after realizing it actually takes work and the device in question provides a teeny tiny percentage of the work to be done, not counting the nutritional aspect.
I even spoke with the trainer in charge of one of the groups who would never use it with his clients, agrees that it doesn’t even target the advertised body parts if you don’t have an existing knowledge base to properly recruit muscles. If anything, it promotes tightness in areas already tight from real life, like sitting at your desk with bad posture (no need to go into further detail). It’s so cheap, a really overweight person would fall off and/or break it! Good guy, good trainer, but he’s getting paid, therefore trying to find an angle so he can justify selling out.

THE COMPANY
Launch DRTV is the group. I am giving them exposure right now and good for them. That don’t mean I endorse them. Quite the contrary. But they are experts at selling you fitness stuff. They have an impressive roster of products you are familiar with. And they will continue getting rich of of people looking for an easy way out who are willing to drop a few dollars, hundreds of thousands of times. I snuck in a few snapshots from my phone while training a client.

UNAUTHORIZED PICTURES
Check out the device called Steel Abs. Couldn’t you do that with a bench or chair or even on the floor? Notice also the other moves (squats, pushups, lunges…) which really make up the majority of the “weight loss routine”, not the toy itself!

THE ALTERNATIVE
Everything is already out there. if you need a good program, learn how to use your body, its range of motion. Develop your mobility, technique, form, and anything you do will yield effective results, so long as you know there is no lazy, easy answer or magic tool that will “do it for you”. Better yet, if you need the guidance and accountability, stay tuned for the project I am involved with which will only require that you use what you already have at your disposal and get creative with it. If MacGyver could rig a machine with bubble gum, an elastic and some bleach, you can also use a jug of water, a broomstick, a chair or even your kid as a training weight!

CONCLUSION
Wanna lose weight? Read my previous blog authored by guest writer Jay Chavez. Book a session with me for training or with him for nutrition. There are simple ways out, not easy ways out!

June 29, 2011

No Holds Barred Weight Loss Answers

Filed under: food journal,Motivation,Nutrition,plan — Philippe Til @ 11:29 AM

This week’s blog post is courtesy of a good friend of mine. Not about boxing or fighting, unless you’ve been grappling issues of weight loss and still wonder why it ain’t coming off. This blog doesn’t come with its own set of ice, advil or nurse. Read at your own risk.

Greetings, Actionauts! Thanks to the regular purveyor of wisdom on this blog, our friend Philippe, I have been given the opportunity to take a turn at the helm. Let’s hope I keep it off the rocks!

My name is Jay Chavez, and I have enjoyed working as a personal trainer for over twelve years. Prior to that I worked full-time for a naturopathic doctor for two years, and continue to work with him to further the health and well being of my clientele as well as increase my understanding of the human condition. In all of that time, in both the clinical and gym settings, there have been a number of frequently asked questions that just keep popping up. I would like to address a few of them here in the hopes that I can help bring a little clarity to the confusion.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO LOSE FAT?
How much time do I have to answer the question? I usually get asked this one at barbeques, birthday parties, and while standing in line at the bank when people recognize me from the gym. My trademark, two-minute-conversation response?:
“Show your body more respect than you have been. Treat it like your most valued possession, and it will become just that. Stop shortcutting, nickel-and-diming and disrespecting your absolutely best friend. Stop spending all of your money on the latest styles and gadgets and invest it in the quality of everything that goes into your mouth from now until you think you are lean enough, healthier than you ever thought possible, and poop roses.” I will then get the inevitable raised eyebrow or chuckle, and then the, “No, really, what should I do?” Somewhere, not so far away, an organic farmer is gently weeping…
I have had clients drop body-fat so quickly that their friends and family became concerned about their health. “Are you sure you’re OK? You’ve lost a lot of weight recently.” When those same friends and family members find out that their loved one is in fact quite healthy and has simply been working with a trainer, I usually get a barrage of telephone calls inquiring as to how they can work with me to get on a similar program. When I explain that the key to the fat-loss involves eating nothing but high-quality foods like grass-fed beef, free-range organic eggs and fruits and vegetables that are raised without any trace of pesticides and/or herbicides, the number of interested parties drops to near zero. “I couldn’t do that because (fill in cliché/really lame excuse here), but is there some way we could compromise so that I can still eat what I want and lose the same amount weight as (admirably disciplined client/friend/family member), just maybe not as quickly?” I then politely inform them that of the many lifestyle issues that cause people to become over-weight/over-fat, whether it is due to an excess of junk food calories, work related stress, shortage of essential nutrients, etc., etc., they all can benefit tremendously from the life-renewing forces that this “health-food” diet contains.
Your body is capable of miracles (like, for example, the amount of fat-loss most people are looking for in the two weeks before their best-friend’s wedding), but only when it is being fuelled to operate at full capacity.

IF I WORK OUT HARD ENOUGH, CAN I EAT WHAT I WANT?
This one, while asked quite often on it’s own, is almost always rearing it’s head in the discussion over the previous question. There has to be an easier way! I know twenty-something-Susie-or-Johnny-treadmill-neighbor doesn’t eat like that, and they look fantastic! Alas, I usually have to remind them they are not the Susie-or-Johnny of right-now, they are the Susie-or-Johnny of the future, when years of neglect and abuse have finally taken a visible toll (I will expand on that at another opportunity; I only have so much space!). All of the wonderfully slimming hormones your body produces during puberty eventually run dry, and you are left accountable for the quality and quantity of each and every calorie that crosses your lips. “But wait!” cry the math majors. “If burning more calories than I consume causes weight-loss, then that means I just need to work out hard enough to burn the right number of calories to continue to eat what I want and stay lean!” The look on their faces as they come to share this “discovery” with me is quite priceless. You’d think they just stumbled across something along the lines of cost-effective renewable energy, or free Internet porn…
I have a good friend who, for the purposes of protecting those that should know better, we’ll call “Betty”. Betty too had come to this incredible realization long ago while in the process of studying to become a professional personal trainer. She did the so-called “calorie-math”, and in order for her be able to consume all of the pizza, beer and ice cream that the average person “enjoys” while still maintaining a figure that regularly made grown men fall off moving equipment, she needed to work out for three hours a day. Every day. Now I know that part sounds incredible, but it is no-where near as crazy as the fact that she actually did it for nearly ten years! I met her at the beginning of what were to become the last two years, at which point I was informed of her self-described “win-win” program. I then had the audacity to question where exactly the “winning” aspect was in any routine that left the participant lean but with poor skin and hair (her long-running concerns for which she had also expressed to me) and no time whatsoever for a personal life. It turned out she was always too busy working out to be going out. Being Betty wasn’t easy, after all, nor therefore would any attempt be to woo her. This sad fact was what brought the staggering run of intensive exercise to its uncelebrated end. She conceded that I was right and we designed a meal plan that helped her to maintain her physique and improved her health. Much to her delight, three years after that new beginning, she still looks as fantastic as ever, while now only spending four or five hours a week exercising.
So what is my answer to the question? Can you work out hard enough to eat what you want, and still look the way you want? I guess that depends on you first answering my qualifier-question of whether or not you value participating in everything else going on in the world outside of the gym.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD I BE WORKING OUT?
Before I can answer that, I (or any competent trainer, for that matter) would first have to understand your current “stress budget.” Your “stress budget” is the total amount of stress that you are taking in from your chosen lifestyle. That means we figure out how demanding your career/job/indentured servitude, your personal life, your diet (that word again!), and your recreational activities are on your adrenal glands. That’s right, those two walnut-sized organs do more than just sit on top of your kidneys like cute little bowler hats. They manufacture and secrete a myriad of hormones that help us adapt/cope with all of the aforementioned “stressors” in a manner that – ideally – helps us maintain our health and vitality. However, they are small, and can only handle so much stress for so long before they begin to fall short of their ability to keep us bouncing back up for yet another round of our chosen foolishness (yes, I know what some of you do with your free time away from our sessions…). When that happens, not only will your quality of life take a serious downturn, but your health will be placed in jeopardy as well. Stay within your stress budget and you will avoid a lot of problems!
If your adrenals only have a few minor issues to contend with, such as the occasional three-hour oil change, then you can be said to have a very low stress budget. That means you have plenty of adaptive energy in reserve, and could theoretically use it to participate in an exercise regimen that calls for working out four to six days a week at a high level of intensity. If, on the other hand, your adrenal system has to cope with a lifestyle perfectly suited for its own prime-time reality-TV program, well, I’ll just say that your best bet is to start out real-slow. To start with, try working out one to two days a week at a moderate intensity.

Jay can be reached for scheduling nutritional consultations at urhealthfitness@yahoo.com, and seen in many non-fitness related establishments around the Los Angeles area.

June 21, 2011

My Weight Loss Journey

Filed under: dietary,Fitness,Nutrition — Tags: , , , , — Philippe Til @ 2:11 PM

Those of you who know me personally may wonder WTF is the talking about? I’m not that thick to begin with.

Well, first off, I was bulking up on purpose in the beginning of the year. Put on about 14lb from my homeostatic 180lb to 194lb in less than 2 months while only adding on 4lb of fat in the process. Not, it wasn’t water weight,m because I was eating a bunch of carbs and I was eating and lifting to grow! I had started the process on January 10, 2011.
March 10, 2011, I got injured at work by doing something stupid (there are no accidents, only bad judgment, for this kind of stuff), i.e. lifted 2 125lb dumbbells that were wedged between the rack and the mirror at Gold’s Gym, where I no longer work, because some douchebag decided to not dispose of his weights properly. Pulled a muscle around T1, which then escalated to tension in the cervical spine.

SO, WHY THE NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT?
First off, not being able to lift heavy for a while, my caloric burn/resting metabolic rate would drop tremendously and I would only pack fat eating the way I was. Second, I am a trainer, I can’t look like shit. I don’t have to look amazing so long as I can perform and stay lean. Third, I started working for an exercise video project and I needed to do something safe, for myself but mostly the users, with moves I can sign off on proudly without delivering “yet another weight loss video”. For that, I’d need to lose weight myself (camera adds weight) and since it is getting more difficult (age) to lose fat, I needed something that I know would work for many people. I wanted to look shredded, like I never had before.

THE PROCESS
I decided to of course not take the journey alone and combine my knowledge and have it checked by another trainer friend of mine who specializes more in nutrition now, Jay Chavez. I’ll have him post a guest blog and you can contact him for your food needs. Good man.
So, the process was to water load, which in my case was to drink 1.5 gallons of water per day, to flush it out of my system. Concurrently, Jay suggested I take Bone Up, by Jarrows, to avoid depleting too much of my minerals,like calcium, potassium and magnesium. I also was taking green tea extract (decaf), garlic extract, alpha lipoic acid (antioxidant helping in recovery) and policosanol before bed. And, since at that point I’d recovered from my injury, I started to push a little harder doing the workouts I designed for others, I also was working on a personal goal of mine by following Kenneth Jay’s Perfecting The Press routine, which revolves solely around the kettlebell military press. With the hard work and all, baby cause sleep deprivation, workout design and testing, plus work, I was feeling pretty beat up. So, to help, I found an herbal product that allegedly promotes HGH production, called Vital HGH. Placebo? Dunno, but I feel like it helped me recover better and continue to push.

THE FINAL TOUCH
2 days prior to filming, I had to stop all liquid intake (besides just enough to take my supplements and what lies naturally in veggies) to start pulling water away from the skin and get that shrink-wrapped look. I took a water pill, OTC, called H20 Lean, by MRM. Didn’t feel like it was doing the job, so Jay suggested I take a hot bath and keep warm clothes on to keep the sweating process active, to evacuate even more water through the pores. I did that and did an amazing stretching session that also promoted my sweating process. Overnight, I lost an extra 5lb!

THE NUMBERS
I started March 10, 2011 at about 193-194lb. May 1, 185-187lb. On June 2, I was around 182lb. June 4, 180lb, June 5, 175lb! I really count my May 1 date, as it was closest to my homeostatic weight (the weight gained before wasn’t going to last as I hadn’t carried it on my body long enough).

THE DIET
Since I eat TNT/Paleo “light”/Wildfitness style anyway, not much changed other than my timing. I wasn’t eating for growth anymore. Carbs close to nothing, but if I needed any for fuel and to spare my muscles from breaking down too much, I’d eat low glycemic carbs, at least 2-3 hours pre-workout, nothing for at least an hour post, and never at night. The rest was lean protein, fresh organic veggies (little to no fruit) and water. Someone eating more carbs to begin with may get faster results, but will take more time to psychologically adjust, whereas for me, it was no big deal.

2 WEEKS LATER
Went back to my 183lb range, +/- 3lb. Eating with more flexibility and “entitlement” (wine, beer, ice cream on occasion, as well as bread here and there a couple of times per week), water consumption back to normal. Performance in training still good (progressing as a matter of fact) and no noticeable loss of leanness, rather slight mass gain. It’s as if my body adapted and is still burning fat like crazy! It’s not that warm for June, and I feel like it’s way warmer than it is! Resting metabolic rate through the roof!

June 2, 2011

Adonis or Narcissus?

Filed under: Fitness,Motivation — Tags: , , , , , , — Philippe Til @ 3:37 PM

There are a few different clans in the training/fitness world. Can’t equate it to a “caste system”, but closely resembles the feuding families in HBO’s Game of Thrones in the sense that there is feuding. I want to discuss 2 sides only today, and discard the corporate, just “recently certified enough to be hired” trainer who gleans knowledge from supplement company owned muscle fitness rags.

THE TRUE PERFORMERS
Folks who can deadlift a dump truck, bench press a methuselah tree, squat a Himalayan mountain. These guys have power, strength, guts and glory. The last part, alas, may only matter in their own circles. Don’t get me wrong, I have tremendous respect for them. I have a few friends, including some females, who can put seemingly strong-looking men to shame with the grace and elegance of their movements and the load they carry. The folks in that group tend to go so much into performance that their achievements extend past the levels of mere mortals and becomes almost cultish and obsessive. They even look down on people looking to get or already having the “Hollywood Physique” (genetics, good luck, vanity). To them, it ain’t cool to look good. If you’re fat but lift like the manliest of men, you’re alright. Who cares about the dedication, the discipline and the work it took you to get there? Mortals have no appreciation. Should they?

THE LOOKERS
Super dialed-in eating habits. Superior genetics (sorry, some of us don’t have them, but that doesn’t mean we cannot max out our individual potential). Movie star looks. Super shredded, ripped, cut, chiseled body that looks like it can twist a 2″ Oly bar with the snap of a finger.
Zero functional muscular balance. Disproportion of upper body vs lower body limbs. Walks like a recently raped duck when gets off stage, or starts to move in any direction. Or suffers injuries because of the imbalances. Abides by the Adonis Index of 1.6 shoulder to waist ratio. Lots of targeting and isolation work.

WHAT’S MY POINT?
There is none. I’m just curious if the people who go for looks only and are victim of what shrinks call the Adonis Complex, and if the folks whose lives revolve around how much they can bench or deadlift, brutally exposed in Chris Bell’s Bigger Faster Stronger, instead of building a life, become all victims of a form on narcissism? I try to not promote either, just good health, good posture, improved vitals, improvement of self and personal records without being obsessive over it. Are all trainers doing their work (the passionate, educated ones) out of some childhood issue or traumatic event (I was super skinny, yet super athletic, but with nothing to show for it, and I had to kick ass at martial arts to shut up the bigger, stronger folks, and I suffered massive back injuries in the late 90′s which ignited the trainer light in me)?

What’s cooler? To look good or to perform well? Is your choice validated by your own current state of body? What motivates you? Me, I just want to see how much I can mold my body, or improve my performance. Both are important, but not as important as being healthy, fit and being able to do what you’re supposed to do while knowing you need to get better. Staying the same is getting worse.

May 23, 2011

Who would you rather fight?

Filed under: Motivation — Philippe Til @ 2:03 PM

Random train of thought enters brain.
Trigger unknown and forgotten. Might be a Facebook comment thread about an Oblique Strategy. Might be my protective paternal instinct crossing the street with a stroller making sure there are no idiots doing California stops at the nearest intersection.

The question I pose today is: “who would you rather fight? Someone who’s got nothing to lose, or everything to lose?”

NOTHING TO LOSE
So, your opponent’s got nothing to lose. Beaten down by society, life, job, family loss. Down in the dumps with nowhere to look but up. Nothing can hurt that person anymore. Physical pain don’t matter no more. This is an opponent who will take you down even if it means down with you, not just putting you down. That’s a dangerous opponent, the caged, wounded animal going into a berserk’s rage. Like the Captain in “300″ after his son got beheaded.

EVERYTHING TO LOSE
That’s the opponent with a family, responsibilities, duty to a team/platoon/troop/battalion. There is little reward in fighting you, so it’s not worth the risk. Faced with the inevitable, that opponent visualizes the worst case scenario, develops the awareness necessary to minimize the risks to self and therefore all responsibilities. That opponent knows there can only be one outcome, that in which you lose. Once the fight begins, that is where it is going.

THE WAY OF THE NINJA
We hold 2 salutes. One with an open hand over a closed fist, one with a closed hand, covering the knuckles of the closed fist. The latter means “I have duties, therefore cannot do battle with you”, the former “I have no obligations to which YOU may be obligated to in the event of my maiming or death”. Back in the days of old, you hurt someone, you take on their duties. Few hold such honor in their actions these days.

So, who would you rather fight?

May 9, 2011

Sometimes, people just wanna work out…

Filed under: coaching,exercise.,Fitness,Life Coaching and Skills,plan,Training,training program — Philippe Til @ 2:47 PM

We don’t always know what’s best for everyone.

WHEN IGNORANCE IS BLISS:
A great pitfall for a trainer is to confuse what clients want and what clients need. When you’re just fresh off your cert’, ACE, NASM, ACSM, AFAA or any other nationally recognized brand, and your level of experience is low (in terms of paid client hours worked), it takes little more to a training session than just direct traffic from big body parts to smaller ones, tell folks “do your cardio”, all following a basic bodybuilding routine, whether the clients wants to gain mass, lose fat or “tone up”. I mean really, it’s all a variation of the same song and dance.

If you’re in it for the long haul, you start to become more knowledgeable, curious, educated and will invest a lot of time and money, which you recoup with greater results and client retention. And then, it happens…

WHEN IGNORANCE HURTS:
The aforementioned type of trainer, blissfully following a routine from a fitness mag, certified with just the basics and the knowledge of their own body and Myosplash or CreabombX super supps they ingest, will likely not correct your form, “stack fitness on top of dysfunction” (Gray Cook) and make you feel “hurter”, which in the language of the neophyte means “wow, this really works!”. To me, that one millimeter of imbalance is what makes the tower crumble later down the line. More often than not, I end up being the one to correct some other person’s work. I know tattoo artists don’t finish someone else’s tattoo, but I need to eat and if I can make your life better by moving better, I will.

WHEN KNOWLEDGE HELPS:
The trainer who invests into more education, training, research etc, will shine by comparison. It should be apparent at the first session already, with a good assessment of movement, abilities, form etc, as well as a progress map outlined for the client to follow. That type of trainer will justify your investment in the long haul.

WHEN KNOWLEDGE HINDERS:
Sometimes, trainers who know a lot become almost too rigid in their approach, by going into what Pavel calls “Paralysis by analysis”, wherein too much knowledge stops one from doing work and always be correcting. In other areas, this is a form of perfectionism which also leads to procrastination and lack of progress, like rewriting the first sentence of your Pulitzer prize winning article, thus never completing it.

WHEN TO STOP:
Sometimes, the client just wants to work out. So, sometimes, you let them. Yeah, you make sure there’s nothing wrong in the execution, allow the muscles to feel the pump, let them enjoy their process. You’re still getting them fitter and better, even if it strays from your adamantium-clad program design. The same goes for music. Sometimes, you need to sit down and listen to a piece, dissect it, appreciate its nuances and theme variations. Sometimes, you just need muzac in the background. Doesn’t make you a bad person. Makes you flexible and human.

May 2, 2011

Hot Air: Vacuums Suck!

Filed under: exercise.,training program — Tags: , — Philippe Til @ 1:52 PM

This is a new one!

I was taking a leisurely jog last night to clear my mind when I started to think of program design and a couple of training books I was studying. I think it’s always good to know what your competition or your peers are doing. Whether your professional path is similar or different, growth is growth and education always makes things better.
How is this related to the title of the blog post? Well, my dear Actionauts, I’m about to blow some hot air and tell you about another truth in fitness that too few trainers consider into their program design. And it deals with vacuums!

VACUUM TRAINING:
In my early years in training, before I was certified, I was just doing stuff I picked up in martial arts classes, in terms of conditioning (calisthenics, stretching etc…) and other things I picked up in magazines (don’t give me crap, if you’re a trainer, you probably did it too at some point. Admit it and move on, because you got better, I hope!). In those days, I was not a trainer per se, but would have friends do stuff with me and they liked the way I taught.
When I transitioned into training as a career choice and got certified, I felt prey to the trapped, in-the-box methodologies that IFPA, ACE or NASM would proselytize. Results were always there, and I was diligent, by the book in my approach for various goals. I didn’t like feeling limited in what I should teach when I had more “strings on my bow”, as they say in French, or more tools in the shed. So I combined instinct, common sense and the scientific research that organizations like NASM promote.
Where’s the problem? Simple: the programs taught and prescribed as is for hypertrophy (size), strength, power etc would change so quickly the body would barely have a chance to adapt and then bam! You change a few too many variables. Another thing that was fundamentally wrong is that the programs are designed and instructed as a result of University studies and research where subjects are placed in the ideal conditions to perform the program and generate results. In other words, they were put in a vacuum. And you do not live in one!

WHERE’S THE BEEF?
My beef with such programs is that unless you place everyone in the same vacuum, you will not deliver the results such programs promise. As trainers, we need to make a clear understanding to our clients that unless you have the perfect schedule of sleep, naps, timed nutrition, stress-free environment (from annoyances like traffic, bills, paycuts, layoffs, your neighbor’s lawnmower when your baby’s taking a nap, your stained shirt on your way to a meeting, marital bickering etc…), you have too many variables to factor into your progress, are at least, the rate at which you will progress.

VACUUMS DO WORK (FOR SOME PEOPLE):
Truth is, if you are lucky enough to find that client who can do everything you want them to do, you will get the results at the rate promised. I have one such client whose online business allowed him the freedom to train, eat and sleep when instructed and he saw his body weight jump from 179lb to 206 with minimal fat gains, in about 10 weeks. I see celebrities and their “celebrity trainers” create indirect pressure on “commoners” when they themselves put on massive amounts of rippling muscle in short time (ahem, if you think they take something, they probably do, but then they may not since they do not have your daily worries). If you had all day and a few months, plus a fat paycheck and the possibility to make millions from the incidental stardom you’d get, to just work out and get the body necessary for the role, you probably would get there too.

CONCLUSION:
Everything you do allows you to get fitter and better if properly designed. Don’t believe the workouts you see in magazines as they do not reflect more than 5% of the actual work that’s done. But please understand that no one lives in a vacuum and unless you isolate and eliminate each and every variable out of your life until you find out what doesn’t work, you have to keep playing till you find out what’s best for you. I mentioned that in a previous blog, where knowledge and artistry meet. You can paint by numbers, but you’re not Picasso. I’m no Picasso either, but I’m putting in the time.

April 21, 2011

The Truth About (me and) Training

Filed under: Life Coaching and Skills,strength,Training — Tags: , , , — Philippe Til @ 4:28 PM

I have a confession to make.

VALUE
If I could train for free, I would. It’s been a calling, a lifestyle, a passion that has not extinguished the fire because I’ve been so thirsty for knowledge, I constantly find new things, new ways which often end up being old ways and even older tools, going back to birth or ancestry. Because it never feels like work, I have a hard time putting a price on years of practice and research, over 12,000 hours of training hundreds of clients (conservative figures), input and validation I received from some of the world’s best coaches in their respective fields. I just look at the market, what’s out there and price it about right, not enough to make me rich, enough to pay the bills and keep people coming back, happy to get the results they seek.

“BACK” STORY
It’s been 10 years since I was laying in traction, with multiple disc herniations and nerve damage. Years of hard martial arts practices, hard landings from throws, triangulation chokes, neck cranks, car accidents and lifting with sub-par form led me to that period of rehab which took 2 years for me to be considered “normal” (which was nowhere near where I am now, in terms of abilities, strength development and freedom of movement). I was working in TV production, live events, pre-taped, working in many countries on many subjects. I was training people on the side, for fun mostly, until a close friend of mine helped me get a job as a trainer. That’s when I started to educate myself more.

EVOLUTION (GYM MEMBER TO TRAINER TO COACH)
My hobby became a profession. Part time, then full time. Working for the man, then working for myself. Getting certified and thinking inside the box to questioning and working outside the box. Seeking what works in real life vs what’s in a vacuum of non-reality. Listening to the body vs following a cookie cutter approach. Wildfitness opened my mind, RKC improved my skills, martial arts, my first passion, reminded me of how it was there all this time, and why it’s been there for centuries before me. The birth of my son and his first year of development validated it all.

HAVE NO LIMITATIONS AS LIMITATIONS (BRUCE LEE)
I am not the fastest, strongest, biggest, leanest, most knowledgeable, most flexible coach and athlete. Hardly sounding like overachieving qualities, you may wonder… But that’s exactly it, where the “Oblique Strategy” is! First of all, you can’t be all of the above, certainly not at once. “There will always be someone else better than you” said a beloved martial arts instructor to me once. I first perceived it as an insult, only realizing once I matured that this was a call for self-improvement and constant drive to instill others with the same focus and determination.

What’s your story? I’d really like to hear it.

April 12, 2011

Abandon Desire

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — Philippe Til @ 7:45 AM

I opened up my Oblique Strategy application today, and the randomly assigned strategy was “Abandon Desire”.

I love the sideways thinking this forces into strategizing your goals. Like Christopher Walken’s preferred acting choices, one must almost go 180 degrees from the obvious goal and dig deeper.

What does abandoning desire mean? It means you may have to focus on the needs vs wants, on the necessity versus the vanity. You get the point: make it relevant!

The desire to lose weight may be obscured by vanity instead of health needs. The anxiety of losing weight and getting smaller sometimes detracts one from losing additional weight if one never was thinner. Wanting to write that book may be distracting if one wants to add too many great ideas into it. Designing your new revolutionary widget has to have a purpose to be useful on the market rather than aiming to develop it for profit only (I’m thinking Shake Weight for instance…)

How do you see abandoning desire to move forward?

March 31, 2011

The Artistry Of Training

Filed under: coaching,Life Coaching and Skills,theory,Training — Tags: , , , — Philippe Til @ 3:42 PM

Everyone of my blood relatives is an artist of sorts and makes a living at it. My father is a musician, my mother paints, as does my grandmother, my younger brother does graphic work and music and my youngest brother directs music videos and is a visual effects director on movies and such. I used to joke around that the only arts I practice are “martial”. While that may be true, not until I starting reading LINCHPIN by Seth Godin did I realize I was a little off on that comment :)

LINCHPIN VS COG
Having been recently unceremoniously terminated from a corporate training facility who shall not remain nameless, Gold’s Gym Venice, for the unscrupulous bullshit reason of violation of their terms of employment, where a part-timer like myself is apparently not allowed to make a living in their chosen profession with private “non-Mecca” clients, I realized this was a really good thing (the getting fired thing).
Corporations are built to amass a fortune at the expense of others. If it can be standardized, put in a manual, outsourced, exploited and replaced easily, it will be the way. Gold’s in Venice has a slew of independent trainers that were grandfathered in when the Mecca went corporate, and only a dozen staff trainers. The staff trainers have a huge cut taken out of their pay, which makes them all unhappy and eager to train outside or leave. Such is the business model for corporations: high turnover so you don’t need to give raises or incentives, milk people for as much as possible and get rid of people like me who actually have a business mind and realize they don’t need to be there. With such a model, there is little difference between a mediocre and a great trainer. The great trainer only yields a slightly bigger profit, but if they’re anything like myself, voicing your opinion and knowing what’s out there, outside of the gym, it creates conflict. A mediocre employee by comparison will abide like a beaten dog and if no longer useful, will get terminated.
In my case, if they’d let me march by the beat of my drum, they could have continued to profit. But I would then be dying inside and the flame that fuels my passion for my work would soon extinguish.

TRAINING AS AN ART
Pavel Tsatsouline uses the expression “paralysis by analysis”, whereby people who rely solely on their academic knowledge, test-tube vacuum mentality miss the big “human” picture and become cogs in a mechanism themselves. While I recognize the importance of education, knowledge and experience, the artistry involved in creating and developing a program that’s suitable for the client’s needs and wants is intrinsic to a good trainer. There are many ways to skin a cat. There are many ways to burn fat, put on muscle, sim down, improve time for a race. Not everything is cookie-cutter. Not every disease is treated the same by a doctor. A good doctor recognizes and acknowledges many factors and variables. There is an art to that. Same with the software engineer who will design an interface that’s pleasant and gets the job done. When you become an artist, as Seth Godin often mentions (and I paraphrase), you become indispensable, unique. Sure, a client can find another trainer, but it will not be a trainer like you. Go to Equinox and you can switch trainers any time because they force clients and trainers into a set design. Put it in a manual, abide and comply and voilà. Do yourself a favor: if that’s what you want, save some cash and buy a fitness magazine instead.

I am going to end this blog with a “status update” I posted on Facebook recently, because it sums up what I am talking about:
A great trainer doesn’t just spew knowledge and science and rehash it. It takes a certain artistry to put together, cue and build that is not taught academically. It’s a balance of knowledge, education and unquenchable thirst for self-improvement that relays the passion coaches have for what they do. It IS art.

In the meantime, get the book I am referring to here. Easy read, great motivation. I’ll keep you posted of what it inspired me to do, redoubling my fire to expand my passion into other areas and share my knowledge and philosophy!

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