Success breeds success. What exactly, in terms of lifestyle changes, do people who have been highly successful at both losing weight and keeping it off over the long term do? That’s just what researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Colorado set out to determine when they began their on-going study called the National Weight Control Registry (www.nwcr.ws).

Currently, the registry contains over 5000 successful weight losers. To be eligible to become a member of the registry, one had to have lost over 30 pounds and keept it off for more than one year. What the study found was that there is no magic to losing weight and keeping it off. The essential equation for success is the age-old motto: eat less calories and burn more through daily exercise and you will lose weight and keep it off! (And be sure to “get back on the horse” when life’s ups and downs get in the way of you maintaining your new healthy lifestyle habits.)

Here are the 10 habits of these successful weight losers:

1. 98 percent of registry participants reported that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight (translation: you must change your eating habits in some way to lose weight—meaning eating fewer calories).

2. Most registry members reporting consuming less high-fat-dense food groups and more low-fat-dense food groups resulting in a lower daily calorie intake and greater weight loss (translation: eat lighter [lower calorie] and healthier [lower “bad” fats, less fried foods and more fruits and vegetables]).

3. 94 percent of registry participants reported increasing their physical activity (translation: daily cardio such as walking or running in addition to frequent strength training sessions).

4. 90 percent reported exercising, on average, about one hour per day (translation: get in some daily cardio such as walking or running in addition to FT strength training sessions-preferably 3 times/week).

5. 78 percent reported eating breakfast daily (translation: eat breakfast…lose weight).

6. 75 percent of registry participants reported weighing themselves at least once a week (translation: weigh yourself weekly at FT with your NT consultant—regardless of what you think the number will read).

7. 62 percent watched TV less than 10 hours/week (translation: limit the tube time unless you have a treadmill in front of the TV).

8. 42% of the sample reported that maintaining their weight loss was less difficult than losing weight (translation: once you lose the weight, be sure to keep up with your new habits—which is the hardest part).

9. Nearly all registry members stated that weight loss led to improvements in their level of energy, physical mobility, general mood, self-confidence, and physical health (translation: losing weight and attaining your health and fitness goals will make you a happier person, so stick with it!).

10. For those who did regain weight, weight regain was due, at least in part, to failure to maintain behavior changes (translation: this is not a diet that you go on and off but a lifestyle …always remember to keep at it and get support to overcome lapses and avoid a full-blown relapse. If you do relapse to old habits, make sure to return to FT for help).

Today, I’m going to give you 5 great exercises you can start doing immediately.

From time to time, it’s always a good idea to change things up with your workouts. This prevents your body from adapting and getting used to the same workout that’s done over and over. That’s why today I’d like to give you 5 exercises you can use to change things up a bit… and keep your body from guessing what you’ll do next. These exercises can be done anywhere, since they’re bodyweight exercises. Mix and match them between your normal workouts for best results.

Pushup: This old classic is effective since it involves your chest, triceps and shoulders (deltoids). Do 3 sets of 10-20 reps. If you have trouble doing a regular pushup, try a modified pushup. Do this by placing both your knees on the floor, while keeping the rest of your upper body in the pushup position. If you struggle on bench press, try pushups only for about four weeks. Then go back to benching again. You’ll be pleasantly surprised when you do!

Triceps pushups: Same as above, except bring your hands closer together. Your thumbs should be nearly touching. Now do a pushup from this starting position. This will help tone your triceps (the bottom of your arm) and help you get rid of the “jiggly” arm fat many people can’t stand.

Jump Squats: Start in a squatting position with feet, shoulder-width apart. Jump as hard as you can, at the same time extending your arms towards the ceiling. This will help you burn fat like crazy, since this exercise will have you huffin’ and puffin’, burning calories left and right.

Prisoner Squats: Start by clasping your hands behind your head, and try to keep your elbows at a 180 degree angle (push them back, towards your head.) Now, with your feet shoulder-width apart, squat down and then come back up. Repeat 20-30 times.

Plank: Get into a pushup position. Now, let your arms rest on the floor, while still holding yourself up. Hold this position for a count of 30. Repeat 5-10 times.

Well, there you have it. Five easy-to-do exercises you can do from anywhere, at anytime!

And by the way … if you’re serious about taking your health and fitness to the next level, why not take advantage of your FREE Fitness Consultation? (an $87 value) During this consult, you’ll receive detailed information on how to get fit and trim that’s tailored to YOUR body. It’s the worry and stress-free way to get fit by summertime.
There’s no obligation and it’s totally and completely free. Call or email me to get started.

He might actually sketch out some business ideas and print up business cards. He might start working out and going for runs some mornings. He might change his eating habits and even lose a few pounds. He might start a book treatment. And he might work up the nerve to say hi to the marketing babe or to start looking for rings.

Months later? He’s still doing the same dead-end job. He has stopped running regularly and is getting soft around the middle. The book treatment is still a one-pager.

And both the hot babe and the girlfriend have moved on.

The guy is a classic Starter, and unfortunately there are a lot of guys like him out there.

Starters are great at the gun, but they never finish the race.

They’re talkers, not doers.

They’re creative thinkers who couldn’t turn their thoughts into anything tangible, workable, or sellable—in other words, anything real—even if the prize was a date with Eva Mendes.

There are plenty of reasons Starters can’t finish. Often their ideas sound good but fall apart because they haven’t thought through the realities. I’ve lost track of the number of people who’ve come to me pitching a new print or Web-based magazine. But after I’ve asked about their competitors, their endemic advertisers (and why they’d advertise with them instead of their competition), their business model, and how much capital they would need before reaching profitability, they slink away with their mouths agape.

I’m not trying to be mean or to diminish their dream, but it’ hard out here. It’s hard for anyone to transform an idea into reality. And if I don’t ask the tough questions, someone else surely will.

It happens. It happens every day.

Now, some Starters are Finishers. They take their idea, assess its viability, do their research, then pursue it like Clint Eastwood pursues bad guys.

Anyone can be a Starter. You want to be a Finisher.

How? Start small. Take an achievable idea (“I’ll start working out three days a week,” or “I’ll drink 36 ounces of water a day”). Make it happen. Finish it.

Next, come up with a bigger idea (“I’m going to reduce my body fat by 5 percent,” or “develop a business plan or book proposal”). Now make it happen. Finish it.

Soon you’ll be able to go all Usain Bolt—exploding out of the blocks and powering across the tape with your Big Idea.

Be a Finisher. Strike a pose. You win.

(article taken from Men’s Fitness online)

When I hear these questions, my answer is always the same, “Diet and exercise.”

Now, sometimes people take it as I’m being a smartass, but I swear it’s the God’s honest truth. If you eat nutritiously at least 80-90% of the time, and workout at least 30-45 minutes on most days of the week, I GUARANTEE you will see results.

It is that simple, elementary as it may sound. The system works and it’s what we tell our clients everyday… PERIOD.

Now, the next question I can already see coming, “But Mike, I work out 3 days per week already, and eat decently… what more do you want from me?”

The answer remains the same, “Diet and exercise.” You say you’re eating decently, that means to me we can clean your diet up a little to jump start your results again. Furthermore, if you working out 3 days per week already and not seeing results like you want to then we need to either increase the intensity of your current workouts or add in some more days throughout the week. Still with all that, the underlying answer is “Diet and Exercise.”

And I can prove it.

I recently conducted an 8 week Body Balance Challenge in which challengers set 8 week weight loss goals and competed for a $500 grand prize. Of the challengers who completed the full 8 weeks, the average weight lost was right around 10 pounds per person with a  few challengers losing closer to 20 pounds each… not bad for 2 months huh?

How’d they do it?… well, let me first say that not all challengers even trained with our staff regularly. No, we simply customized them a nutrition program and gave them the tools to track their calories, gave them a skeleton workout template to follow, had a few group workout sessions and lectures scattered throughout the 8 weeks and helped them stay accountable to themselves and the goals they had set at the beginning!

And ya’ know what… They got it! I asked them at their follow up meetings stood out the most from the 8 weeks and the majority of their answers revolved around the fact that they weren’t eating properly and were not exercising. Now they are and now they’re on their way to better health and a better body!

So if I could leave you with one thought, it’s simply this: “Create a program around two things: Diet and Exercise.” Don’t over think it, don’t try the newest celebrity endorsed fad diet… go back to the basics. Keep it clean (diet) and keep is simple (workouts) and you’ll be surprised!

Train smart,

M.

I’m a slacker, I know, but here’s the workouts for this week… (not gonna lie they kinda kicked my @$$!!!!!!)

Tues. 7/27:

warmed up with Jump rope for 3 min, then a superset of jumping jacks x 10 w/ mountain climbers x 10 for 5 sets

Did some stretches and foam roller work…

6 sets x as many reps as possible of: 1 arm DB row, 1 arm military press, split squats, and a plank… done in circuit fashion… This was followed by 2 x 20 reps of kettlebell clean and presses

Thurs: 7/29

warmed up with Jumping Jacks x 10 superset with Mountain climbers x 10 for 5 sets followed by stretches and foam rolling..

Then 6 sets of 8-12 reps of: BB bench press, straight arm pulldowns, upright row w/ external rotations, band pull aparts and finally KB swings (the 70# beast!!)

Finished with some “gun show” work of band tricep extensions x 25 reps superset with DB Hammer Curls x 12 reps…

Hit the floor and just got up enough strength and energy to write this blog…

Stay tuned!

Michael

PS. Body Balance Challenge still has openings, but registration is closing next week with the actual competition starting August 9th… You can not only transform your body, but win $500 of my money to boot. Go to www.TulsaBodyBalance.viprespond.com to register!

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been told how lucky I am or how much of a miracle I am in the past year. People who don’t know me tell me this. Even people who know me well tell me this. I do appreciate the sentiment from people. But, is someone who gets Leukemia really lucky? Did I really survive due to a miracle? I’m going to share with you my thoughts on this and some of you will see it as being negative. I see it as telling the brutally honest truth of life.

There’s no such thing as luck. People like to think there is, but I completely disagree. Usually the lucky people are the ones who work the hardest, believe in themselves and want it the most. So, if I don’t believe in luck, you can bet I don’t believe in miracles either. I’ve had people close to me sit down and tell me I was a miracle. They even somehow thought I was capable of creating miracles. Think about it this way. If I was capable of creating miracles, don’t you think I would have avoided the whole Leukemia thing to start with?

The reality is I was just the guy who got Leukemia. I wasn’t unlucky in getting it and I wasn’t lucky to live through it. Life is unpredictable. Life seems to be about statistics. Statistically people get Leukemia and statistically people live through Leukemia. Who lives and who dies? I have no idea how that is determined. All I know is someone has to make up the good and bad part of all statistics.

I’ve always been a real believer in the power of positive belief. Notice I didn’t say positive thought. A thought is an idea in my book and nothing more. A belief is something that you know to be true. I truly believed I was going to live. Now, did my positive belief alone keep me alive? Hell no. Many doctors, nurses, friends and relatives played a huge role in my living. They too, believed I could do it.

Where does the mind part from the title come into this? Without belief you’re left with luck and miracles. Here’s an example:

I had been struggling to walk a mile for a long time once I started my rehab. I had struggled with getting to the mile barrier for about four months. Then, I started to write my book. I had to look back at what I had been through while undergoing chemotherapy. After realizing all I had been through, I decided I could walk five miles. Within three weeks of making up my mind to do it, I walked the five miles.

The mind can really limit you when you let it. I had been letting my mind limit how far I could walk. My belief wasn’t there. But, once I got it in my head, the five miles came quickly. It was simply a matter of my believing I could do it. Once my mind had accepted that I could do it, my body followed along with my goal. How does this apply to your lifting?

I’ve seen many strong lifters who mentally were scared of big weights. Their bodies had the lift in them, but their mind didn’t. Dave Tate had joked with me that the only “miracle” he had ever seen from me was my 540 pound bench. Back then I had a raw bench of 405. A carryover of that much was unheard of back in 1998 with a bench shirt. The thing I remember about the 540 is I knew I could do it. No one else thought I could do it, but they didn’t matter. I knew in my mind I could bench 540 and I went out and did it on the platform.

What’s my point? Luck and miracles won’t lift weights for you. You need to truly believe in your mind that you can do it. Once your mind accepts that you are capable of a PR lift, your body will comply. You need to have that belief. If you truly believe that your body can do something, your body will find a way to do it. You want to know what’s holding back your lifting? It’s not your program, your equipment or even bad luck. It is your mind set. Do you have it in you to truly believe you can achieve that which you statistically shouldn’t? In other words, are you mentally strong enough to be as physically strong as you want to be?

strength training (I just gotta note here that although this was a pretty decent strength training session, I’m probably going to go in a different direction moving forward on this program… but I got in a full body nonetheless)

leg press, KB swings, bench press, lat pulldown: all 3 x 15-20 reps with 20 RM.

Followed this up with 20 min. run interval work along the Riverside trails.

Good start, now gotta finish.

MW

Everyone has their list but no one’s willing to look at their list backwards. People have to get away from the dogma that it’s all free weights or all machines. They can have sex. You can do both.

By the way, when’s the last time you heard of someone tearing a pec on a bench press machine? It’s not  happening.

So let’s make a list real quick of what people would consider the negatives of machine training.

1. Your “stabilizer” muscles won’t fire. Well, what if my rotator cuff is messed up? Maybe I don’t want to stabilize. Now I can bench on a machine, I don’t need to worry about my rotator cuff, and I can still get my triceps and pecs working. The stabilization is taken care of by the machine. That’s a positive.

2. Limited range of motion. I’m calling bullcrap immediately. Take someone who weighs 300 pounds with a big gut and watch him bench press. That’s a limited range of motion. Put that sucker on a Hammer Strength bench press and he’ll get five times more range. Besides, what’s wrong with limited range of motion? Are we saying pin pulls, partial reps, lockouts, or any other partial movement with free weights are worthless, too?

3. You’re only working one muscle group. What if I want to work one muscle group? Let’s say my triceps are weak and it’s something I want to bring up. Sure, I can do it with a close-grip bench, but I don’t want to over-stimulate my CNS and do movements that will make it harder to recover. So I’m going to find something that increases my work capacity but doesn’t put a big demand on my recovery. Bingo. Triceps push-down machine.

And what if I want to bring my chest up? It’s much easier to do it with a machine fly to take my shoulders and triceps out of the picture. Shoot, now I’m using a machine to correct an imbalance. That’s crazy, right?

4. Your central nervous system doesn’t get as activated. I’m not sure how you can prove or disprove that any exercise is going to have more of an effect on the CNS than another exercise. That’s dependent on the demands placed on the body. But let’s say that a machine places less demand on the CNS. Is there not a time in training where that would become optimal? Like during a de-load? Would it be better to take a week off and not go to the gym? I say do some machines with higher reps, get some blood in the muscle, and give your CNS a break.

5. You can’t go heavy. This is the dumbest thing ever. Heavy is relative to the person lifting the weight. I love when people say they like to lift heavy stuff and then they go and bench 185. That’s heavy? To who? And have you seen people load up a leg press? That’s heavy, man.

6. It’s the lazy approach to training. The lazy approach is taking a week off or not going to the gym.

NOW, you will definitely hear me say I believe in free weights over machines, but you will never hear me say a program shouldn’t have variety in it. I agree with Dave’s assumptions and also agree with the fact that in any program, machines have there advantages. I think you should use a wide variety of different tools in any workout program: dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, balls, bands, cables, machines, ropes, tires, sledgehammers, etc.

The moral of the story- ONE THING IS NEVER THE ONLY THING! Change it up, and change it up often and you’ll see better results as well as never getting bored!

Train on people!

MW

Wed. 6/23… went for a 45 min. bike ride in the morning then worked out with training partner in evening. We did squat cleans with a jerk, barbell floor presses, barbell curls, then finished her off with some sledgehammer conditioning outside with the tire.

Things seem to be going good. I gotta run today so I’ll let you know how that goes.

MW