Because you WILL fail.

Many have tried, but no one gets away with it forever,

I am talking about taking our scheduled, planned, part of your training, don't skip it or you will regret it RECOVERY WEEKS!

But Whhhhhyyyyyy? (are you actually whining?)

Our recovery weeks are what I would call Macro-Recovery. In other words we take a planned week off every training phase in order to let the body rest up from hard training and get ready for the next phase.

But did you know you can do even better than that? We have a number of athletes in the Get Fit NH family who participate in our Bioforce HRV monitoring program, which measures your systemic stress load on a daily basis, which allows us to fine-tune the recovery process on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. You can catch up on that by clicking here

Read on why properly planned and adequate recovery is important for you!

The Recovery Curve

I saw the recovery curve for the first time during my time with Australian physical preparation coach Ian King. His principles laid the foundation for the way we program, train and especially recover here at Get Fit NH. The principles that work with professional athletes apply to us too!

The following illustrates a “good” recovery curve:

The green line represents what we are all looking for – continual, never ending progress over time. We are getting stronger, faster, thinner, better looking (ok at least that’s what I wish for).

Reality Check – ain’t gonna happen. The process of changing your body is not linear, in fact what we are looking at in an optimal training environment is more of a “One step back brings me Two steps forward”.

A closer look at the chart will help explain what I mean.

The red line represents Equilibrium. This is where your body wants to stay, no matter if your goal is losing fat, gaining lean, or both. As you have no doubt found out, forcing your body to change is hard work – really hard work. When you walk into Get Fit NH, our training is designed to elicit that change. But it’s not as simple as “working out” day after day after day. In fact as I am about to illustrate, training without proper recovery is actually hurting you, not making you better.

The blue line represents the “recovery curve”. Starting at the left hand of the chart all the lines intersect. For this illustration that point is where your first training occurred – you “worked out”.

But what’s going on?

Instead of performance going up, that line is actually heading down – this is what is called Depletion. If you think about it makes sense – you have worked hard, you are fatigued, your body is depleted of nutrients – you are spent!

Don’t worry, your body will get over it, if you treat it right! This is what we call Adaptation. Your body wants to be able to handle the increased demand that was placed on it, and starts the process of getting better.

You are in charge of if and how fast that happens. A few of the factors that influence this adaptation include recovery nutrition, stress levels, sleep habits, supportive nutrition, age, and training history.

The recovery curve continues with Supercompensation. Here is how Coach King describes this process:

“It is only when recovery is allowed that we see the super-compensation effect, the unique phenomenon where the bodies physical capacity is elevated in response to training, in anticipation of another exposure to the same stimulus.” – King, I, 1999/2000, Foundations of Physical Preparation

In other words your body has gotten better in response to your training, a new Equilibrium is established and this state is when we will ideally train again. Our programming at Get Fit NH is carefully designed to give this the best chance of occurring, but as I hope you are discovering, you have a lot to do with this with how you treat your recovery!

As you can see, when things are clicking, this process when repeated over and over means you are getting better and better, the blue line is headed up – pretty cool!

The flip side to all this is what happens when the recovery process isn’t working so well.

This chart represents recovery gone “bad”:

When we continue to train in a state of “Depletion”, regardless of the reason, the adaptation to super-compensation effect doesn’t occur, and instead of getting better, we find ourselves in a downward cycle. This can happen when we train the same muscle groups too soon, when we haven’t taken the steps described above to recover optimally (sleep and nutrition for instance) regardless of time between training, when we train too hard coming off an illness, etc. The last thing we want to happen is new equilibrium to be established in a downward pattern – not good.

The long and short of it is your body absolutely needs to recover from hard training. Consistently training in a fatigued state results in injury and illness. Your body is an amazing machine designed to put up with a lot, but it was also designed to need rest.

Which leads us to:

Recovery Weeks!

Face it – you can get beat up anywhere. Our responsibility at Get Fit NH is to help you get better!

That includes recovery weeks. We have found that somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks of training is just about right to take a full week off and let your body recover.

That doesn’t mean that you spend your training time on the couch eating bon-bons, but if you insist on going down to PF and hitting the weights or running 10 miles every morning, your body will suffer in the long run, and perhaps even in the short term.

If you find yourself fighting this concept, ask yourself this – Is your unwillingness to take a week off a well reasoned decision based on what you know to be true, or is it that your attachment to training is so strong emotionally that makes it so hard? You will not lose all you have gained by taking the week off, I assure you! Again to quote Coach King, “…if you don’t (take time off)…most of you are going to lose it anyway!”

So now that we have established you are ready, willing and able to embrace recovery week, what do you do?

Glad you asked!

3 Keys To Great Recovery

1.) Physical Rest and Regeneration

– Our bodies must rest and recover to prevent over-training (or under-recovering) issues so that we can come back 100% healthy and energized for the next phase of the program

– Focus on maintaining and/or increasing flexibility and tissue health by stretching and foam rolling daily. 15-30 minutes is fantastic!

– Daily restorative walks are beneficial during this week. 30-60 minutes briskly walking (not jogging/running) will keep your body refreshed and active, without negating the purpose of this week. Don’t overdo it!

2.) Physiological and Psychological Rest and Regeneration

– We must normalize key anabolic hormones, refill muscle glycogen, increase caloric intake, and prevent any diet induced catabolism (losses of lean body mass) so that we can enjoy greater fat loss for the next phase of the program

– We have taken the road less traveled by being flexible eaters with a long-term approach to success and thus we will take a break from our aggressive fat loss nutrition plans. This is not a free for all, so stay away from your “trigger foods” (junk foods and sweets) that open the door to excessive calorie intake.

– Instead plan (key word) and enjoy 2 or 3 controlled free meals to reward yourself for all of your hard work, but do not overdo it!

– Caveat: If your nutrition habits have been less than optimal, more than likely none of this applies to you. Instead now is the time to plan and prepare to make the changes necessary to see the results you want. Spend some time with a coach and your Jumpstart Nutrition Guide if you need help.

3.) Celebrate the Fruits of Your Labor

– Take some time to reflect on how far you have come since you joined Get Fit NH in terms of improving your overall health, body composition, and performance

– Enjoy your results!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

We would just like to take the time to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your hard work and dedication to improving your health and fitness… keep Making It Happen!

Recovery Week August 29th - September 4, 2016

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Denis is one of those people that once you meet him, you build an instant friendship. Denis has trained in so many of the different training times in Epsom that many Get Fit'ers know him. In fact, he jumps into our holiday trainings and loves to battle it out in Concord for those big events. But Denis has a work ethic that is top notch. No wonder he is a 5 Year Super Star. (He didn't bribe me to say any of this either. You'll have to read his whole story as to why I say that.) 

"I’ve always tried to remain fit. When I was in the military, there was time allowed to exercise so it was easy to partner up with someone and go for a run or hit the gym. After retirement, I continued to exercise for a while but it slowly trickled away. Then what trickled back my way was slow weight gain and feeling sluggish or simply, I felt my age. I was getting close to the big “five 0” and that number woke me up. It was time to start thinking about getting back in shape as I knew it would only get harder to do so if I procrastinated. I began looking for options, looking online for what was available. I heard of a person that worked for my company that lost a considerable amount of weight by attending Boot Camp. I never really heard of boot camp so I investigated the facility that he attended which was “Getfit". I was impressed with what was offered, so I decided to jump in as I had nothing to lose but weight.

The first two weeks were overwhelming. I was somewhat able keep up with the exercises. What I found difficult was trying to figure out the board, meaning the acronyms and the exercises themselves. The timing was different everyday so for me, it was more a mental than physical exercise. I also learned I was in worse shape than I thought.

 I am approaching the 5 years at the Epsom facility. I feel better than ever. I attend 4 days a week. There are many days when I wake up at 3:50am and just do not feel like training. I drag myself in, not because I don’t want to train but, because I know that if I skip a day, then I’ll skip another and another to the point when I won’t show up any longer.

My experience at Get Fit has been positive. I feel great. I've had the opportunity to meet and work out with fun and energetic people. For me, it's my second family. I make it happen at either 5 or 615 am as I like to start my day on a positive note. Yes, its early but there are no excuses at that time. The coaches are all wonderful. Nancy is the best though, just sayin'."

Great job making it happen, Denis! Keep it up!
-Coach Nancy

This isn't a statement to everyone, but for those of you that are self-conscious about this problem, I suggest you continue reading. Not all of us are in top physical condition, myself included. I'm working on it, but I'm certainly not there. So that means that we probably have a little extra jiggle in some places or others. You know it, I know it, so let's not beat around the bush.

I went through a lot of my life with more jiggle than I'd like to admit, and it's still the case to this day. I remember trying to play soccer and hockey in uniforms that were made for someone in better shape. I remember not wanting to run full out, and trying to run with my gut sucked in because I was embarrassed and didn't want people to see that jiggle. I felt like if I feel it, then they must see it and I'm embarrassed.

I have a feeling this is something that some of you may struggle with. I see a lot of people that I know can do high knees or jumping jacks marching them out in warm-ups and I have a feeling this may be part of the reason why. I’m not calling you out, and this is not addressed to anyone specifically, just a general statement for those of you that might be feeling the same way I did. I still feel it from time to time. As much as I’d like to tell you that it doesn’t still bother me, sometimes demo-ing band attached sprints when my shirt isn’t baggy and you can tell (or at least I still feel that way), I do feel self-conscious about it . So I can imagine why that would be the case for you as well.

I tell you this to also let you know: NO ONE IS JUDGING, MAKING FUN, THINKING ANYTHING BAD, OR EVEN ACTIVELY NOTICING IT. If you are here, you are surrounded by people that fully support you and your efforts. There is not one person who is looking to judge you because of a jiggle. You are here because you want to get rid of it. Not working your absolute hardest because you are worried about some jiggle is just going to impede you from getting rid of it. So don’t think bad about yourself, don’t think people are watching, judging, or haven’t been there at some point or another themselves. Do the hardest exercise you are able to do and don't be self-conscious about any of that junk because the only person judging you is you.

Make it Happen!
-Coach Adam

On Cara Leuchtenberger, of course! I asked Cara to share her story with us, because I have seen an INCREDIBLE change in her over the past 4 months she has been training with us. It didn't take long for Cara to dive in and start getting results. When I first met Cara she was so shy and very nervous about training. Now when I look at her train you would think she has been here for years. She has totally come out of her shell and it is clear that her confidence level has improved drastically. Cara's story is awesome- keep making it happen, Cara!

What drove you to check out Get Fit NH?

I am someone who has always exercised alone. I love to swim, walk and have also done couch-to-5K training to the point where I dragged myself through a half marathon in 2009. 🙂 But in the last few years I have really floundered - saying I would start something and then feeling good for a while and then life would get in the way, and since I was only accountable to myself, I would stop. Recently, I have gained more weight, and was having back and knee pain. I am a hospice and palliative care nurse, so I see people all of the time during health crises, and decided that, at the rate I was going, I was going to be an 88 year old woman who could not walk without pain. Coming to Get Fit, where the name of the game is showing up day after day and working out with a group of people, was WAY outside of my comfort zone, but I am so grateful I made myself fill out that form on Facebook so Nancy would call me. I also had the positive feedback from my friend Jayne, who has been coming for years and gently encouraged me to try it.

What did you learn after your first 2 weeks?

I learned that I could do it! And I learned that I actually LIKED it! I was so pumped after those first two weeks. I felt welcomed (it helps that some of my kids' teachers are in the 6:15 class!), and even though I felt a bit like a deer in headlights (I had never seen a ski erg, never picked up a kettle bell and what the heck is a TRX??), everyone was helpful and nice.

Why did you choose to stay after your 2 weeks?

I was already feeling better. Even though my muscles were sore, I was sleeping better and my back pain was gone. I was also feeling better emotionally - just generally happier and more energetic. And after meeting with Meagan and seeing all of the cold, hard facts (the fat/muscle ratio! the full body scan! the weight on the scale! eek!!), I decided that it was important for me as a person, a mom, and a caregiver to make the time for myself each week, especially as I was feeling better already. The other great thing was getting involved in a challenge right away. Meagan suggested that I talk with Stacey about the S3 challenge, and it was a great way to get to know some new people and to have a concrete goal.

What results have you seen?

I am stronger than I was. I can flex my arm and see a baby muscle under my layer of subcutaneous fat. 🙂 I can to things in class today that I could not do when I started in April. I feel better emotionally and now my aches and pains are boot camp-related, rather than from weakness and under-use of my body. I have lost some weight and some inches, of course, but more exciting to me is the boost in my mood, the comments people make when they see me ("You look great! So happy!"), and being able to do things that I could not have dreamed of doing a few months ago.

Overall, I am so, so happy that I took a big step out of my comfort zone. I am so excited about Get Fit - the training, the people, the supportive coaching - and I tell everyone who asks me! I know that going forward I am going to continue to set realistic goals, as I would like to build more muscle, lose fat and be stronger. One day I WILL be able to do a real squat thrust! I am grateful to be able to imagine these goals and to actually (finally!) believe they are attainable. Yay!

I asked Cara to share here story in hopes that she can encourage YOU to make it happen, too!
-Coach Meagan

Yours truly used to be addicted to cigarettes. Back in my Marine Corps days the smoke pit is where I met a lot of my friends – it was a social thing and it soon became a daily habit. I set myself a “done date.” I always said I would quit the day I got out of the service. On May 12, 2012 I got out and haven’t touched a cigarette since. I didn’t even think twice when it came time to quit. I just did it. I was mentally prepared and ready. I still have days when I crave a cigarette unfortunately. Even though I kicked the habit 4 years ago the addiction still haunts me. There are a lot of reasons I don’t turn back, but a big one (and relevant to where I am going with this) is that I have come so far and my lungs are happier! I don’t get sick as often and I smell much better!

Addiction is addiction. Whether you are addicted to cigarettes or sugar, it’s an unhealthy daily habit that is haunting you. You KNOW that if you stop you will feel better, but you just haven’t been able to do it. Why is that? Let’s set you up with a “done date.” The next 21 Day Jumpstart is your answer! Are you going to have bad days- YES! The first few days will be extra, extra hard, but you have to push forward. Then you may have sporadic cravings, but you will be able to look at how far you have come and feel victorious!

You are not alone. We have 300 and some odd sugar addicts who train under our roof- you are not in this alone. We will fight this together. We will feel better together. We will have good days and bad days together and together we will keep moving forward. And when we relapse? We forgive and we pick ourselves up and keep pushing on. Addiction ain’t pretty, but you have come to the right place to regain control!

Are you ready to make it happen?
-Coach Meagan

You will be feeling the burn with this challenge in August!

Put your competitive hats on, it's time to get pumped! Have you ever wondered to yourself, "Which class works the hardest?" or "I'm competitive, so my class is the BEST one"? Well, here is your chance to prove it!

Beginning Monday, August 1st and running through Thursday, August 25th, each class will be its own team competing against all the other training times. Concord teams will compete against all the other Concord teams, and Epsom teams will compete against the training teams from Epsom.

Concord - we have a MyZone challenge for you, and Epsom - you've pushed a 135 lb sled, and now you'll be pulling a weighted tire! Here's how the challenge works for each location:

We know what you are thinking... "But Coach Adam, 6:15 has 30 people that use MyZone and 7:25 only has 12, how is that fair?", or "Coach Nancy, we only have 10 people in our class pulling the tire, but 6pm has 15 people".  Don't worry - we will be counting average MEPS per team member in Concord, and average laps per team member in Epsom.

The MEPSand laps for each team will be updated here during the month on these awesome scoreboard thermometers that Coach Dean created. This way you'll be able to see how your team stacks up on any given week!

The challenge is ON! Let's go teams!

For those of you who are participating in Concord's MyZone Challenge, we need you to accept an invite in order to take part. It is SUPER EASY and SUPER QUICK!! Here are the instructions:

1. Go to http://moves.MyZone.org

2. Click "Log in" in the top right corner.

3. Log into your account with the email and password you set up.

4. After logging in, you will be taken to your member page where a box will pop up. Click the green circle to accept the challenge.

5. You're ready to go!