Speed…Highly Touted, Rarely Understood

Beginning on July 11th, Get Fit NH’s Athlete Academy will be hosting a Speed Academy for 6 weeks running through the end of the summer at 12pm every Monday.

Speed is an athletic trait that is always highly recruited and highly touted as one of the most important parts of athletics.  However, building speed is all about certain principles that can not be accomplished simply by picking up heavy weights.

Speed, if harnessed incorrectly, can lead to more injury and harm than good.

At our Speed Academy, not only will you get faster, but also learn how to build speed to give you real results, without the risk of injury further down the road.

For any questions about our Speed Academy please contact Coach Adam at Adam@getfitnh.com!

The Speed Academy can be attended for $149 for the 6-week program, or as an add on for current Athlete Academy athletes for only $49!!

For additional information and to sign up please follow the link below:

Get Fit NH Athlete Academy

Its going to be a fantastic 6 weeks. YOU WILL GET FASTER! THAT’S MY GUARANTEE!!

-Coach Adam

New To Fitness? Great Advice from People Who Have Been There

Gymtimidation.

• New place.
• New people.
• I don't know what to do.
• I am too out of shape to exercise.
• It's going to hurt too much.
• What if I can't keep up?

We get it. It is NOT easy to get started into a new training program. That first step of walking into the gym is a huge one.

We asked our clients what their best tip is for someone who is new to fitness. Check out their answers, they are wicked smaht!  🙂

"Welcome! we are all here to help. Start at your own pace ." - Lori

"This is your journey, the only one you have to be better than is you." - Sonia

"Just take it one exercise and a few seconds at a time. Don't look ahead." - Cara

"Don't compare yourself to what others do. You are just starting!" - Jennifer

"You can do anything for 30 seconds. Rest. Repeat." - Kim

"Never Give Up" - Doreen

Cristina gets fancy and quotes Goethe - "Everything is hard before it is easy."

"You have to start somewhere" - Kelly

"Rome wasn't built in a day" - Stacy

"Don't Quit...no matter what!" - Gail

"Train consistently" - Dennis

"Just keep going" - Stephanie

"Stick with it. The soreness gets better!" - Kristine

"I started at 60. If I can do it you can do it." - Tom

You CAN Do It. We are ready to help every step of the way.

P.S. - You Can Get Started Here

Which 74 Do You Want to Be?

The other day I came across this picture on Facebook. This image is so powerful and it speaks 1,000 words with just one quick glance.

Why do we train?

Being a healthy weight is important, being strong has undeniable benefits, and looking and feeling good make us happier. Those are all great reasons to train. When we’re healthier, we’re happier and there is no doubt this world needs happier people! But when we reach our strength goals, weight goals, bodyfat goals, body image goals, etc- what keeps us going?

How about that picture? When I am 74 I want to look like the woman on the left. I want to put my grandchildren to shame one day with my deadlifts. I want to do pull ups in my seventies. In every single success session, I say, “Training is forever.” There is no end date for training. The day I stop training is the day I die and that should be your mindset. Don’t settle for less or else you will be the woman (or man!) on the right looking out the window thinking about what you could have done.

Raise your hand if you want to age more gracefully than that woman on the right. Raise your hand if you want to walk on your own two feet with no assistance from a cane, walker, or wheel chair for as long as possible. In most cases, the choice is yours. Make every second count. Train hard, eat well, recover and don’t skip days and weeks at a time!

Make it happen,
Coach Meagan

Who Has the Spotlight Today?

The spotlights are pouring in! Today I am proud to put the spotlight on Kara Hinck. Can I just say what a pleasure it has been to meet this woman? Her story is so cool. This was the first year that we accepted “outsiders” into the Get Fit NH family for our annual Sizzling Summer Slimdown Contest and let me tell you I am SO thankful we did, because that is why we got to meet Kara. She works so hard every day, never misses training and was incredibly successful on S3. It made my month when she shared that she would continue training with us after S3. This is what Kara had to say about her experience so far:

Kara has the yellow shirt and headband!

“My name is Kara Hinck and I am one of the people who signed up for the S3 program and training as a non-member. I had been thinking about going to Get Fit NH for quite a while now as many of my colleagues at Bow Memorial School are members and speak very highly of you all. I had even been following/stalking (I guess? ha ha) you on Facebook, trying to get up the nerve to join or at least do the two week trial. In fact, that’s how I heard about S3 and your willingness to open it up to non-members and was considering it even before I spoke to Muriel Hall about it. I had just had a health screening through work and my numbers were pretty lousy; the nurse made me feel like I wouldn’t even survive until June and suggested I call my doctor. Suddenly, there you were with S3! I figured I had to do something and the idea of medication/more  medication was not appealing. Therefore, you won.

So, here we are almost six weeks later. I’m down at least 14 lbs since I started and I feel so much better! I was probably a week into the program when I started to think/worry/obsess about what it would be like when it all ended. I love Meagan and Adam and have found them to be very helpful, knowledgeable, encouraging and kind people. I have not missed a class since I began and even attended the Memorial Day class which I also enjoyed. This is the first thing that I’ve done on a consistent basis, for myself, that is good for me since I had my kids. My oldest is turning 9 on Saturday! I guess it’s about time, huh?”

I am glad your time was now, Kara! I am SO proud of Kara. She has only been training 6 weeks and she has made THAT much progress. Just goes to show how much focus, hardwork, and consistency create fabulous results. Keep up the great work, Kara. I am PSYCHED to have you on board moving forward and I know the rest of your Get Fit Family and your fellow Bow Memorial School teachers are proud of you too!

Be like Kara and make it happen today!
Coach Meagan

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Give Up Already!

I saw this list the other day and I thought it was so relevant to experiencing success both inside and outside of the gym. Just for overall health, really. Here is the list and then of course I had to add my 2 cents on each of them – it’s the coach in me :). Here are 5 things you need to give up to experience true joy!

•    Complaining
We all do it. I think it is unrealistic to say I am going to stop complaining, but I think it is realistic to be more aware of it. There is a quote on the wall that says you have it better than 99.9% of the world. That is so true. While it is easy to complain about an injury, complain about how results are too slow, complain about time…. those things are petty. Embrace those things you can control and celebrate all the great things in life. Coach Dean does Grateful Tuesdays. Write down 5 things you are grateful for each week and put your energy into that rather than the other way around.

•    Blaming others
You could blame genetics or your upbringing or an injury or whatever for your current situation OR you could take responsibility, take control, and make a change today.

•    Negative self-talk
No, you don’t suck. You are not stupid. You are not fat. You are not weak. You are not a wimp. If you call yourself something long enough you will start to believe that it who you are and that is not okay. YOU are a winner and you need to talk yourself up today. Ready, set, GO!

•    Dwelling on the past
The past does not define your future. You know this, so let it go and move forward. Your sugar addiction does not control your results- YOU control your results.

•    Resistance to change
You know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Are you insane?

Just give those things up already! I bet it makes a significant difference in your results and in your life. You CAN do it!

Here to help you make it happen,
Coach Meagan

The 2016 Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown Winner are…

Kellen and Carolyn Sawyer!!! They deserve a GIANT congratulations as they took the winning spot by 23 points! Together they lost almost 50 pounds and almost 17 inches between their waist and hips- wowza! It was so special to see such a dedicated couple take home all $4500. Hard work pays off in more ways than just cash- something tells me they’ll need some of that cash to go buys some new summer clothes. Congratulations guys! From the bottom of my heart I am truly so proud of both of you. I got the chills as I was announcing working my way up to the number one spot and Carolyn, your face almost made me cry! You guys rock! Be proud of yourselves, because the rest of the Get Fit NH family is SO proud of you!

Here are all of the stats from this year’s S3 transformation contest

168 participants/84 teams
1,309.6 pounds GONE – That is the size of a polar bear!
263.96 inches off the waist- That is taller than a giraffe!
159.08 inches off the hips- That is taller than an African Elephant!

Here are the top 10 teams and their points- congrats to all of the rockstars who completed S3! Keep building those habits!

10.) Team Argyle: Mae Lynn and Charlie Arlinghaus
9.) Small but Mighty: Elizabeth Moulton and Audrey Langevin
8.) The Best Set: Doreen Mathison and Gretchen Wolfe
7.) Powder Puff Girls: Lisa Baron and Lauren Oulette
6.) Lucy and Ethel: Carolyn Amrol and Tracey Paquette
5.) DT: Dawn Cillo and Terri George
4.) K2 Crushing the S3: Kim Piper and Kim Therrian
3.) 5:30 Friends: Marie Carmen and Julie Nassif
2.) 6:45 Friends: Michelle Graziano and Amanda Currier
1.) In it to Win it! Kellen and Carolyn Sawyer

We are getting down to the last hours to sign up for S3 2.0! Let’s make it happen!
Coach Meagan

Shining the Spotlight on Shannon!

Shining the Spotlight on Shannon is not hard. She has made her way into the hearts of so many at all the different training times in Epsom. If you’ve trained with her once, you know her. Her smile is contagious and her work ethic is supreme. She has that “Make It Happen” attitude. She has had struggles; the kind that many would let derail them totally. Shannon just kept on smiling and trekking on. Shannon is getting married soon. Her soon-to-be husband is serving our country in the military. Shannon will be moving to be with him. I am going to miss her more than she realizes. She has not only inspired those she trains with,  she has also inspired her coach. Thank you, Shannon!

“Throughout my whole life, I’ve always suffered with weight and the ability to eat healthy. One day, I decided to take charge of my life, however, not in the healthiest of ways. I chose to not eat, seeing that was the reason of my weight problems/esteem issues. In my twisted mind, I thought I was doing an amazing job along with losing about 55 pounds in about four months. I should’ve been happy, but I was striving to always lose more or wasn’t happy how different areas of my body looked. As life got in the way, and as most people told me, you’ll gain it all back and I did. That brought on new discouragement. In the next few years, I battled with eating habits and becoming obsessed with everything I did/didn’t eat and doing 2-3 hour work outs at the gym. It would get so bad, no one wanted to eat around me due to my criticizing every ounce of food that I’d ingest and couldn’t keep up with my crazy gym obsession. I was going down a scary path and didn’t know how to pull myself out of this turmoil.

That’s when my now-fiancé came into play. He pulled me out of this vicious cycle I’ve put myself through for years and put me back on focus, to the point, I weighed almost 200 pounds. I started falling into the same patterns. This time though, I wanted to change, this is when I decided to speak with my doctor, and to my surprise  I’d been suffering from depression and anxiety. It explained all the negativity about weight, my micromanaging  myself, and my food intake. After some hard work, I started to feel like myself and found that I enjoyed working out. However, I wasn’t looking to spend 3 hours at the gym, where you see girls wearing makeup and doing their hair BEFORE working out. I sat down determined to find a different way to get myself healthy and back into shape. That’s when I found Get Fit NH. 

As I filled out the forms, I was half excited and half anxious, as probably any new comer feels. I walked into my first class scared out of my mind. Everyone was so welcoming and I felt like I actually got support from others along with my coach (Thank you Nancy). I can tell you the first two weeks, I couldn’t wait to go home and call my fiancé, who was on deployment, about how amazing this place truly is. I was sore everyday, and shy, at first (I know some of you have a hard time believing that now). I was a sponge, absorbing everything insight, including how to eat properly. I also found out that a lot of my own workouts were either done incorrectly, or harming myself.

I now proudly announce I’ve been with Get Fit NH for two and half years. I was taught how to get proper nutrition and how to safely work out without causing more harm to myself. I don’t get proud of myself very often, however, I am proud of myself for pushing through the mental and physical struggles and eventually overcoming them. Even when I fell on my knee while at home at the beginning of this year, I didn’t let my injury keep me from the gym. I hobbled my way through the gym with crutches and refused to let people help me as I dragged weights on the floor, until Nancy gave me the stare down. I may struggle with a little weight gain here or there, however I proudly can say, that I am okay with it. As a kid, my father always said to me, “Can’t means won’t”, and I never truly understood that meaning until I’m staring at the pull up bar, or starting a 5K.

I can’t thank all the coaches enough, ones in Concord and in Epsom for helping me to push myself and especially Nancy, who has always held me accountable on showing up and making sure I push myself each work out. Also, thank you to all my fellow boot campers. You all are true inspirations and I have been so blessed and honored to have met all of you. I sadly won’t be able to get my three-year shirt, because I will be moving in the middle of August to finally be with my husband after five years of a long distance relationship. Leaving Get Fit NH will be very difficult but I will definitely take the lessons that I’ve learned at Get Fit NH and keep applying them to my life. Thank you Get Fit NH for all you’ve done for me, you will never understand how much it truly means to me.”

Good luck, Shannon, and congratulations to you and Mike!

-Coach Nancy

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Take A Week Off From Training? Are You Nuts?

Give Yourself a Bigger Margin For Error

How many of you out there are perfect? **One or two people jokingly raise their hand**.

How many of you slip up from time to time? How many of you may not think about how you bend over to tie your shoe or pick up that piece of paper every time? No one who answered honestly can say they do everything correctly every time. No one expects perfection. We don’t, and you shouldn’t. The idea is to give yourself the biggest margin for error possible.

Now, are we telling you it’s okay to pick things up incorrectly compromising your back or knees? Of course not. Are we telling you it’s okay to have the ice cream, cake, and bread? No. However, you need to realize that no one is perfect. We realize that, and we don’t expect perfection from you. Giving yourself the biggest margin for error simply means doing everything you can so that those couple times that you do slip up, it doesn’t cause a huge negative outcome. I’m going to give two practical examples, one from a nutrition side, and one from a functional movement side.

First, the nutrition side. We talk about 90/10, right? Eating correctly 90% of the time and 10% being things you normally shouldn’t be eating. Just as a practical example, think about eating 21 meals a week (3 meals a day). That means that two to three of those meals (about 10%) may include things that you normally wouldn’t eat. The idea is that if you eat correctly the majority of the time, those small little slip ups won’t really cause a problem. Again, you’re setting yourself up for a greater margin of error. If you eat fantastic for a week, then you go to a barbeque somewhere and eat a couple things you shouldn’t have, it’s okay because you gave yourself a large margin of error by eating so well the rest of the week. That one meal isn’t going to haunt you too much. Let’s say in that same week, you had 2 or 3 slip-ups already and you get to that barbeque on Sunday… your margin for error is much, much smaller because you already had those slip ups earlier in the week. Essentially, the food that you eat at the barbeque in the second scenario is more likely to cause you to gain fat because it is combined with the other 2 or 3 slip-ups.

Now to the functional movement side of it. Do you have tightness in different places? Back, hips, shoulders? Some of you are saying “check, check, check”. Is overall flexibility a problem for some also? Yes. How does that feed into our everyday life? If you have tightness in certain muscle groups, it only takes that one time when you bend at the waist to pick something up and boom, there goes your back. Or in training it only takes doing that swing wrong one time out of a thousand and boom, back pain. The more flexible and mobile those muscles and joints are, the more margin for error you have to move incorrectly and not have it result in major injury. How can you get that bigger margin for error and significantly decrease the possibility of injury? Get here on time, and take the warmups and the cool downs seriously. I see way too many people are just going through the motions on the warmups or blowing parts of them off entirely. You don’t want to get hurt and spend your time and money dealing with back issues, right? That’s where the warm ups and cool downs come into play. They help you maintain flexibility and mobility to give yourself the biggest margin for error for that one time you don’t do something correctly.

Give yourself the biggest margin for error possible. Eat well as much as you can so those couple slip ups every once in a while don’t hurt you. Take the warm-ups and cool downs seriously and don’t blow them off. The rest will come easy breezy.

Make it Happen!
-Coach Adam

Spotlight Shines on 2 Athlete Academy Stars

Ladies and gentleman- for the first time ever, I come to you with a spotlight from my Athlete Academy. Two weeks ago Athlete Academy finished up another successful session. However, the following week held something else that made it even better.

After the end of Athlete Academy, Concord High won the state meet for track and field! Two of my athletes, Jacob Nichol (pictured to the right) and Sam Orzechowski, both were a part of that team. They were two of my hardest working students and they both made a consistent effort to be here (8am on a Saturday for highschoolers is not exactly easy, I’ve been there…) as well as lift heavy and push themselves every time.  I am extremely proud of the both of them and look forward to continuing to work with them over the summer! Great job Jacob and Sam! See you in a couple weeks!

-Coach Adam