The Spotlight is Shining Again!

This week’s spotlight is shining on Karen Juall. Karen has made major strides since joining us here at Get Fit NH. She has made a habit of coming in consistently and taking advantage of the tools available to her. Here are some of her own words about the changes that have occurred for her since joining Get Fit NH.

“My shoulder pain is practically gone! Between the expertise on specific movements and CJ, I can now work-out with almost no pain in my right shoulder! This makes me energized and confident in the GFNH coaches.

So many previous times, I joined exercise classes only to stop because of pain/injury – they pushed me too hard – I was left to myself – no one cared to help me work through it in such a way as you did. I am amazed not only with the fact that I have almost 0 pain now, but that I have achieved this miracle by still working-out!

I credit GFNH, especially Meagan, who quickly referred me to CJ who I am still not finished with. Quite an impressive TEAM, all of you!

When it came to the ladders, I went from being totally inept to being able to jump all the way through – and I did it several times!

All of you are so accepting of my limitations while continuing to help me with proper form. I’m in awe of your collective abilities.

My MyZone has given me the confidence to stress my heart and watch it come down. Remember the day when I was dizzy and had to sit down? I have come a long way in a short time. You guys are miracle workers!!”

I am extremely proud of how far Karen has come and how hard she has worked at it. Great Job Karen and keep up the good work!

-Coach Adam

Recovery Week Reminder: Shot Across The Bow

Don’t Deprive Your Body

“When a child learns to walk and falls down 50 times, he never thinks to himself: ‘Maybe this isn’t for me.’”

So what does this mean? I talked a little in my last post about motivation and that the human body wants to move and thrive. Now I wanted to talk about that from a little bit of a different angle. A child who is learning to walk will fall down so much but still keep pushing to walk. I’m sure none of us remember that moment, that time when we were learning to walk. That’s raw, ingrained determination. We are biologically dispositioned to want to move and we will not stop trying until it happens.

It is ironic to me, in many ways, that our body has so many systems in place in order to get us moving, then rolling, and then crawling. Yet as we get more educated to the world around us, we further ignore those biologically engrained lessons. What happens when we do? We gain weight and we can get depressed (whether from how we view ourselves or just because our body wants to move and we aren’t letting it). Then we can’t move well, and soon enough we are unable to do things we used to love to do, and so continues the cycle.

Just because something is difficult, or you have to work a long time towards it, or you have fallen down several times, does not mean you weren’t meant to do it. You were meant to move. You were meant to be lean and muscular. You were meant to eat protein, not cheese puffs and sugared gluten paste. So keep working hard, keep moving, and keep eating right. Give your body the things that nature designed it to have – exercise, protein and vegetables. There’s a reason that when you give the body what it was designed for, it responds the way it should, so don’t deprive it.

Make it Happen!
-Coach Adam

Supporting Your Goals

Do you live in a household where everyone is 100% supportive of your goal? No enablers, no temptation, family joining your journey toward a healthier you? If you do then God bless you, consider yourself lucky. If you are not so lucky, then here is a situation you might be able to relate to and how to overcome tempting obstacles.

You get out of training. It was a long day, you’re exhausted, you have dinner prepped, but still need to cook it. You check your phone and you have a text, “I called us in a pizza, can you pick it up on your way home?”

What do you do? Like I said, you’re tired and hungry and maybe you feel like you just earned this splurge…

#1: There is no such thing as earning food. You will never out train poor nutrition, I promise.

Sometimes we have to pick our battles. Nutrition is a battle I fight constantly with my husband, but I lose every time (doesn’t mean I will stop trying). So what did I do? I picked him up his pizza and I made my planned dinner. Was it hard? Of course. Especially when he was offering me, “just one bite.”

I know myself and you know yourself. There is no such thing as “just one bite.” It opens up the door to, “Well, I might as well…” Stay strong to your plan. PLAN your splurge. It feels good to be in control. It is HARD to be in control with the constant temptation, but victory feels a lot better than regret. If you have kids, then it is YOUR responsibility to set the example.

I ask my husband to keep his junk food in his car or at work or hidden from me. If I know it is there, then it is hard to keep telling myself no. Someday, I will get him on board with nutrition, but in the meantime I will keep fighting and continue to set the example for my son. Don’t let someone else enable you. And if you need a reality check to remind you why you should stay on track- step on the Fit3D regularly. THAT is my motivation!

Make it happen!
Coach Meagan

The Spotlight is Shining!

The spotlight is shining bright on 4:15 superstar, Vickie Carrier. If you have ever trained at 4:15 you have probably heard Vickie’s contagious laugh, clapping push ups and encouragement to those around her. She is known for keeping the boys in her corner in line and directing them to the next exercise. Vickie is a leader and an inspiration to many. She is constantly challenging her neighbors and is so determined to be the best. Vickie has accepted every challenge I have thrown at her and excelled at so much. I am so thankful that Vickie chose to check out Get Fit NH. She is a valuable part of this family and I think you will find her story pretty inspiring!

“Last year in April I was asked by a friend if I would be interested in participating in a Spartan Super race (8+ miles long). I didn’t even know what a Spartan race was or what one consisted of and so initially I was hesitant and unsure. But then if any of you know me, I’m always up for a challenge so I agreed, figuring, “what do I have loose?”

So after doing a little research, I realized I was going to have to focus more on my physical strength and endurance. I felt like I was in good shape. I was working out independently at a gym 6 days a week attending one supervised class that provided me with guidance on building up endurance, but the rest was on my own.

As the June race date got closer I started to get nervous and began searching for other training options. I had a friend mention Get fit NH to me back in February but the timing was never right, and then another friend said they use to workout there before they moved. So in May I made the call and spoke to Nancy who was very friendly, she set me up with Coach Meagan for a meeting.

Meagan tested me and we went through the initial screening process. She asked what my goals were and I told her I needed to do more weight training to prepare for a race I signed up for. I was still attending another gym so I chose the two day a week option.

Initially I was a fish out of water, I was use to working out by myself and getting results. Now there were lots of people in a room. Erin was my coach and I loved her sense of humor but down to business attitude. I loved the fact that somebody was constantly checking my form to keep me injury free so I could focus on the exercise and pushing myself harder, and for the days that I needed it they would motivate me to add more weight or do the next level of an exercise. Now instead of me pushing alone toward my goals I had a team of experts helping me out.

I performed my first race and finished in the top 50% for my age group. Not bad for the first time. Then I got this idea, wouldn’t it be great to do one race of each length, 3 total, to get a trifecta medal? But of course! The next race was scheduled for September at Killington Mountain. They say the race can be 14+ miles, well I can tell you first hand it was just shy of 19.5 miles. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know this before the race, since I already knew I needed to up my training at the gym.

I became more focused on building strength and muscle, I talked to Coach Adam and Coach Meagan and asked for pointers on how to improve grip strength and honestly looked forward to days with farmers walk, sleds pushes, pull ups and burpees. I became religious about body comp days and making sure to intact enough protein. I was on a mission to be ready for this race.

I finished the second race in 9 hours but still at the 50% of my age group. It was a long day, but it was an amazing feeling. Not only were the views spectacular but so were the people on the course. If I wasn’t training at Get Fit NH I honestly do not believe I would have achieved those same results. I was fitter, stronger, leaner, and more conditioned after six months of training just two days a week at Get Fit NH, imagine what four days a week would do?

I finished my final race in November. It was a sprint, a walk in the park after a beast, right? I injured my wrist doing burpees after jumping rope, and got tennis elbow along the way, can you believe it? All the coaches were great on my return, we modified some exercises but I continued to build strength.

Shortly after the last race I finally became a full time member at Get Fit NH. It wasn’t because I questioned if it was the right place, because by this time I knew it was exactly where I was suppose to be, I simply had to play by the old gym’s rules to get my pardon to leave.

I’ve been at Get Fit NH less than a year and the coaches here know me better than the ones at the gym I spent my last eight years at. The coaches at Get Fit NH not only know my name, they understand my personal goals, they now what motivates me to push me harder and when I’ve asked for additional exercises or drills to improve my race performance they think about it and come back with solutions. I don’t know where else you can go to get this.

With all the educational seminars, gatherings and group activities you eventually begin to feel like a family. The familiar faces now have names, and on the days we don’t have workouts I truly don’t just miss the workouts but my Get Fit NH friends and family.

Just because I’m fit doesn’t mean I’m not challenged at Get Fit NH. My weight might not change much, but my body fat and muscle mass have and continue to do so. The new 3D scan, while daunting initially is another great tool that Coach Dean has brought on board. Get Fit NH not only provides great coaches but great tools to help everyone, no matter what your exercise level is, to achieve great goals. Thank you to all the coaches and yes a shout out to my 4:15 family that make working out fun and rewarding and for that I’m thankful.

Cheers
Vickie”

So there you have it! Vickie came to us in great shape and has still managed to get great results. At her most recent body composition we found that she has dropped 5.3% bodyfat and gained 2.5 pounds of lean muscle and that is only since May! We are so proud of her and all of her hardwork and dedication!
Keep making is happen,
Coach Meagan

WARNING: Tough Love Alert

 “Motivation? Here’s your motivation, GET YOUR BUTT IN THE DOOR!”

I was thinking earlier today about a lack of motivation. As it tends to happen, my mind wondered in different directions… from remembering students saying similar things, then to where this “lack of motivation” comes from.

See, for me in high school, being someone who was out of shape, the motivation was what you can imagine for most teenage boys… girls. No need to get into it, but the point is that it was about training to try to look better. That was even the prevailing thought going into college. Only recently did I realize that I wanted to train for more performance based reasons.

Here is the motivation that I think very few of us consider when we make our decision. We think too reactively, and not proactively. That has been one of the staples of western civilization compared to eastern for some time now, especially in terms of medicine. We typically don’t go to the doctor for regular checkups, we only go when something is wrong. We only start exercising when we start feeling lethargic or overweight. We only start eating right when we can’t stand what we see when we look in the mirror every morning. We take pills to get rid of symptoms of an underlying condition we could have prevented if we had just taken control earlier in our life. We don’t start worrying about our heart until we: A) have a heart attack or a scare, or B) we lose a friend or loved one to a heart attack.

This is a little bit of tough love for you, but it’s just that, love (yeah yeah yeah, corny, I know) because I care about you all. Motivation is NOT an excuse. If being healthy and living well so you don’t have to deal with major health problems isn’t enough, then find yourself a race or an event to train for (again, proactive, not reactive, see what I did there?). The fact is – guess what – the human body was made to move. It was made to run and jump and pick things up. It wasn’t made to sit in a cubicle answering calls or typing up reports. If you are having trouble getting in the door and it’s because you don’t know “why” you are training, or you are trying to figure out why you started training, or you need a reason to resume training… well, there it is, that’s the key. Maybe you don’t want to be Mr./Mrs. Olympia, maybe you aren’t an athlete or don’t plan on running a race or anything. But you are still meant to move. You’re meant to run, jump, and climb. There is your reason for coming to training. Yes, work is tough, and yes, life is tough. It’s true, but if you are using that to deter you from coming, then where are your priorities?

So start acting proactively. Don’t wait until you have a heart attack or can’t walk up a flight of stairs to get back in here. Get in here so you CAN walk up a flight of stairs and aim to NEVER have a heart attack. Or, here’s something for you from another angle. Don’t wait until you are rejected by that person you want to be with, or until you hear that offhanded comment from someone you know. Get your butt in here, work hard and keep it from EVER HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Both of those things have happened to me several times. It’s not fun and it’s not okay, but it happens. Here’s your motivation, here is what it comes down to – you can’t control everything, but what you can control is how you eat and how often and how hard you exercise. YOU have the power to look the way you want to look and live the way you want to live, so stop saying you don’t have the motivation or you don’t have a reason for training. There is always a motivating reason you can find. Stop letting the fact that it’s cold, or you don’t feel like getting out of bed, or you had a busy day at work outweigh that motivating factor. Maybe a few times that’s the case, but on the whole, your health is the one thing in this world you can actively control. If that’s not motivation enough, then I don’t know what is.

Make it happen!
-Coach Adam

Making Time for YOU

Time is money and a lot of us don’t have enough of it! At some point or another, you have probably found yourself wishing you had more hours in the day. Maybe finding enough time to do all the things you want/need to do in 24 hours is discouraging.

Chances are you prioritize all the needs and then fill in the wants as you see fit. Here is my question: where are YOU on that list? You are important and without a healthy YOU, then needs and wants can quickly become and issue. Obviously, you probably need to work, but are you living to work or working to live? We all have our own struggles. Some of us struggle with the training piece while others struggle with the nutrition piece. The number one excuse is time. And time really is an excuse. We all get the same 24 hours per day and if something is important enough to you, then you make time and find a way.

You and I both know a woman who works well over 40 hours per week, homeschools 3 children, eats like an adult, and trains like an athlete. Who am I talking about? Coach Nancy. If you thought she twiddled her thumbs in between training hours, then you are mistaken. This woman is a prime example of someone that makes time for what is important to her and her family.

The only person who can create time to get to where you are trying to go is YOU. So on your calendar, pencil in whatever it is that you need to work on and make it happen.

Coach Meagan

Challenge Yourself

Challenge yourself – a very easy principle to think about, yet often a difficult one to accomplish. I have seen a lot of this recently: being given three options and choosing the lesser of the three. I realize often those three exercise options are based on the band system we use. However, it never happens that we have a band restriction in every station with every series of exercises. Obviously, pain can be a factor – I understand and fully appreciate that.

Getting better, stronger, and healthier involves a need to challenge yourself. If you look at a set of exercises and always choose the easiest one, even when you could realistically do all three, you will not get to where you want to be very quickly, if at all. This pattern may be a sign. If you aren’t willing to challenge yourself while exercising, then you may be less willing to challenge yourself by breaking other unhealthy habits.

Make no mistake – when it comes to being healthy, there is no halfway. If you eat super healthy but never exercise, you will have problems. In the same way, if you come to training 4 days a week and go running or spinning the other 3 days of the week, but eat junk food and get no sleep , there will be issues as well.

Improving the body’s ability to exercise, whether its strength or endurance, is based on mechanics known as “progressive overload”. Not to get into the science too deeply, but it boils down to this: you challenge yourself, your body responds to that challenge for next time. If you do 2 or 3 more squat thrusts than you did last time, your body adapts to be able to do those 2 or 3 more every time (to a certain point, of course).

Let’s say you’ve been picking up 45 pounds for squats every time for the last month. Well, you aren’t progressing, your body is staying stagnant. If you step it up to 55 pounds, its going to be more challenging the first time. But your body learns how much effort it takes to lift that weight and adjusts accordingly, either by increasing the strength of the muscle fibers or by increasing the signal strength from the brain. That can’t happen if you never pick up something heavier…if you never push it a little longer…if you always leave 2 or 3 in the tank.

You are all capable of more than you give yourselves credit for. So…challenge yourself! Don’t pick the easiest exercise just because you can, even if you can only do 2 reps of the more difficult exercise compared to 10 reps of what you would normally do. The more you work on that more challenging pattern, the more you will progress and the more you will eventually gain (or lose, depending on your goal). So don’t sell yourself short. Challenge yourself and make it happen!

Coach Adam

Bright Lights are Shining on Sonia

In July 2013, when I came to Get Fit I was at my highest weight ever, didn’t like what I saw in the mirror and I was tired of feeling sick all the time. I had to keep buying bigger clothes. And then there was the acid reflux medication I was taking for the last 10 years, I didn’t want to take it any longer, for one it was expensive and two the list of side effects was scary, miss a dose or two and I was miserable for the next 2 days. Enough was enough, I just had to do something, I couldn’t stand myself anymore.

I was so nervous walking through those doors that first time, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep up or even do half of what they wanted me to do. I never participated in group sports or activities of any kind and it had been years since I did any sort of regular exercise. I was afraid I was going to walk in and see all these ‘gym’ type people, all in perfect shape. But it wasn’t that way at all, there were people of all shapes, sizes, different fitness levels. Coach Nancy and everyone else were so nice, helpful and supportive. With Coach Nancy’s help I was able to modify the exercises so that I was able to do them. No one there knew me but they cheered me on, told me I was doing great and helped when I didn’t have a clue. And they notice when you don’t show up, keeping you accountable.

After the first week I knew I could keep doing this, it wasn’t easy but it was fun and more important I wanted to continue. I felt like I belonged there, like I was part of a family, everyone is looking out for each other and challenging each other. My clothes started getting looser; I could go up and down the 2 flights of stairs in my house and not be out of breath. I had more energy and wasn’t so tired anymore. I had to have my husband make new holes in my belt several times, and I still have it as a reminder of where I was. It wasn’t just about the exercise, they also taught me about nutrition and how important it is, most of which I knew but was not practicing or changing habits. It’s when I started taking part in the nutrition challenges that the weight really started to come off. Because I changed the way I was eating, by November of 2013 I was no longer taking the acid reflux medication and that was a huge milestone for me.
I’m in my third year now and I can’t imagine not coming to Get Fit every day at 6:15am. It’s the best part of my day, it’s only for me, my time to take care of myself and not worry about anyone or anything else, except of course which heavier weight I’m going to pick up next and when I can ring that bell again. Last year I signed up for The Rock & Race, The Color Run, Get Fit’s Strong Man/Woman competition, the Mudderella, to name a few. Things I never would have imagined I would or could do. I can’t wait for the next challenge.

My favorite part of coming to Get Fit is the coaches and the other members, they make it fun, we are a family and we all look out for each other. Coach Nancy challenges me to pick up heavier and she genuinely cares how I am progressing. I never thought I could be this athletic, I didn’t know I had it in me. I’m stronger and more confident, in and out of the gym, than I ever imagined. I’m so happy I took that chance and signed up for the FREE 2 week trial period. If I can do this anyone can!

What Comes First – Pain or Moving Poorly?

“Are you moving poorly because you’re in pain? Or are you in pain because you are moving poorly?”  –Gray Cook

I think we can all agree that we, as human beings, are creatures of habit. Well, guess what – not only does that happen on a conscious, neurological level, but it also happens on an unconscious, anatomical level as well.

What does that mean? It means that not only do you go to the same coffee place every morning, have the same routine, use the same hair products, and often do the same things on the same nights of the week, you also bend over to pick up a piece of paper the same way, you sit at your desk the same way, and you drive the same way. After a while, those movements become engrained in you the same way. You go to the same barber for 15 years and, even if the last three times you went they butchered your hair, it’s more than likely you are going back a 4th time. If you have sat at your desk in the same position for 15 years – shoulders shrugged, hunched over your keyboard – most likely you will still sit like that in years 16 and 17 as well. Our ankles get bound up, either from years of sitting, or, for many women, from years in heels. Before you know it, every time you need to get something that falls on the floor, you either bend at the waist, stretching out those lower back muscles that aren’t supposed to be stretched, or you squat down coming onto your toes putting unnecessary compression on your knees.

Then one day you decide to make a change. You hear about Get Fit NH and you sign up. We bring you in and you have your initial assessment to check those movement patterns. All too often one of two things happens:
A) You don’t take the screen seriously, you push yourself and do patterns the screen showed you shouldn’t, and before we know it, you’re in a sling or can’t walk up or down stairs. Or,
B) You have one screen and don’t take it seriously, then when the option to rescreen presents itself, you blow it off.

Well, the above paragraph shows why this screen is so important. We use the screen to see how you move so that we can assess what we need to do to make sure you are exercising safely and effectively. More often than not, many of the injuries we see are not because “I just picked up too much weight when I squatted” or “Man, my arms just aren’t strong enough”. Instead, injuries happen because there is some type of restriction in that pattern. The body has become so used to doing a movement in a certain way that it starts to rely on muscle groups it shouldn’t rely on. In many cases, your body may rely on the wrong muscles more than the muscle groups it should be using. Guess what that leads too if not corrected? It leads to pain.

So which comes first – pain or moving poorly? Well, the pain has to come from somewhere. Unless there is an outside factor such as disease or severe injury, that pain is born out of improper motor patterns. Joints don’t just spontaneously combust and start to hurt randomly one morning. So take these screens seriously. Find the time to get rescreened and listen to the results. Often the root of our problems is not the pain itself, but what causes the pain in the first place.

Make it happen!
Coach Adam