Spotlight Shines on 2 Athlete Academy Stars

Jacob Nichol SpotlightLadies 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

Spotlight Couples Edition

I am excited to continue the Couple’s Edition chapter of spotlights. I think it is so special when couples train at the same place. It is even more impressive when they train next to each other and at the same training time! I think it is wonderful to have training at Get Fit NH in common. This week’s Get Fit NH couple in the spotlight is Adam and Deb Rosenthal! They have been around a long time and making it happen at 5 AM! I have had the opportunity to watch them grow, challenge each other and get better. 5 AM certainly would not be the same without them. Here is what they have to say:

“Deb has been training at GFNH for seven years and Adam for six years. About eight months after Deb started we attended together a GFNH demonstration workout one weekday evening at the Red River Theatre in Concord where Coach Nancy demonstrated exercises with bands and invited me down on stage to try a few exercises… Halfway through round one of front band squats with a purple band I said to myself ” I can make it happen too.”debnadam
We like training at 5 AM Concord because we can ride in together and reduce our carbon footprint. It also encourages us to keep similar sleep and eating schedules where we hold each other accountable to our dietary intakes. We both enjoy the addition of MyZone and encourage each other to push ourselves and compete with other classmates on a daily basis. We both love to “Mep It Happen!” Deb has become a better runner lowering her 5K, 5 mile, 10K and 13.1 mile times and I have consistently lowered my times for various distances on the Concept 2 rowing and ski ergometers. We enjoy pushing each other to be the best we can be while enjoying good health as we age.”

Having accountability at home is so important. I am so proud of these two for making it happen for 6 and 7 years! What an impressive accomplishment! Thank you so much for being a part of the Get Fit Family and great job holding each other accountable during the other 165!
Keep on MEP’n
Coach Meagan

Don’t Let Your Environment Make Decisions For You

“I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.” –Frank Costello

Listening to a radio program recently I was reminded of this quote from “The Departed”. While I love this movie, it had been a long time since I had seen it last, so suffice to say I had forgotten about it some. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the movie is about two men in the Boston police force. One is an informant for the mob imbedded within the Boston police force. The other is the opposite, an undercover police officer giving information on the mob. It is a great movie but no need to go into many more specifics than that in terms of the plot.

The quote above comes from the character Frank Costello (played by Jack Nicholson). He is essentially supposed to be an homage to Whitey Bulger. Obviously when talking about individuals to model yourself after, Bulger is not someone I would suggest. However, I love the way this quote was written. It is far too easy to become a product of your environment. If you just let your environment make your decisions for you, then what would that require of you? To be constantly busy, eat junk, and not have time to improve yourself. We are constantly bombarded by things we need to get done, by quick easy nutrition-less foods that you can get on the run, and worrying about everyone but yourself.

That’s all well and good until you look in the mirror one day and say, “Woah…who is that?”. You have no energy, you are out of shape, you just feel crappy, but you know the next 12 hours are dedicated to everyone but yourself. You think, “Well, this is just the way it has to be”. Guess what? No, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Of course there are going to be practices, or meetings, or other things that you can’t change. I am not so naïve as to think my situation and your situation are identical. I fully realize that as parents and business owners and the like, your lives are more hectic and more rigid than mine. I fully realize and understand that, however, this is also the reason that it is even more dependent on YOU! You are the one that can make the change and make your environment a product of who/what you want to be. If you can’t have junk in the house without eating it, it’s as simple as DON’T BUY IT. Right there you are affecting your environment. If there is always cake in the break room and you just can’t not eat it, DON’T GO TO THE BREAK ROOM. If you are running for fast food 3 times a day, stop taking the time to do so, get your work done, and use that free time (and extra money saved on gas) to make real food.

There are a thousand other possibilities to change your environment to suit the person you want to be/need to be. Just accepting that you are “too busy” is never going to get you anywhere. You are letting yourself become a victim of your environment. Make your environment one that works for you, instead of against you.

Make it Happen!
-Coach Adam

The Spotlight is Shining on a 6:15 Star!

The 6:15 crew celebrates Stacy's birthday!

The 6:15 crew celebrates Stacy’s birthday!

I can’t imagine Get Fit NH 6:15 Epsom without Stacy. She brings life to the party each training day. Not only does she encourage her team, but she wows me as her coach. I am truly thankful Stacy has chosen to train at Get Fit NH. She’ll inspire you with her story but to truly experience all Stacy stands for, you’ll have to visit us and the 6:15 crew.

“I am not the type of person to work out or join a gym by myself so I always went with my friend Diane. We did the Planet Fitness and Anytime scene but it was boring and not challenging. Diane signed up for Get Fit. She asked me to join. Honestly, hearing the price I said no way, I continued on my Planet Fitness $10 per month and not gong because I was alone. After Diane moved I did the math and realized how wrong I was and signed for my 2-week trial.

Stacy & Tom worked together to break a slam ball

Stacy & Tom worked together to break a slam ball

My 1st day I was a nervous wreck. Will people like me? Will I look like an idiot? Am I strong enough for bootcamp? Ugh I won’t know anyone…. HUGE issues for me. I found myself with the 6:15 crew. I walked in the door and they were all smiles and I did know a few. Phew! First workout done and I didn’t die. Then a month later, I got my “I Survived” t-shirt. I was so proud of myself for making it, I put the shirt on right away.

What I learned after my first month… I remember this day like it was yesterday… We were laying on the benches doing arm presses. In my whiniest voice ever, I said “I CAN’T do it”. Nancy’s response… “Hey, read the wall!”. And that was it, I was hooked. For me I need someone to push me or I will find the first way out. I realized that day that I was stronger than I thought.

Now in my 4th year I am more attached to this gym than ever. Nancy, Dean and my 6:15 family have taught me so much about myself. We laugh, sweat, and share accomplishments together. We truly are a family where people care about each other. I love being around them daily.

stacy spotlight 1My experience here has been fantastic. I have people excited for me as they push me to lift heavier or do more squat thrusts. I have learned that I need to balance my workouts and my eating choices. Nancy has taught me so much about nutrition. I got married 2 years ago and like any bride you want to fit into your wedding dress. I jokingly asked Nancy if we could do exercises to get rid of my back fat. She looked at me and simply said, “change your eating”. That stuck with me. I changed what I was eating and I fit into my dress. Then I did my first detox and realized how food affects my skin. Another life changing result. Now after doing 3 detoxes and doing my first S3 challenge, I have created new healthy habits for my nutrition. I am down over 15 pounds, a body full of muscles and a happy, healthy lifestyle. There is nothing sexier in a person as the confidence that shines through them. Get Fit has given me that confidence.

To my Get Fit 6:15 family, past and present: I love you all. Thank you for taking that shy girl and accepting her, then changing her into the go getter I am today! I’m so glad you pushed me out of my comfort zone to where I’m signing up for road races and Muderella’s. I now strive to stay a better version of me and get the next year’s t-shirt. There is a reason Get Fit has been chosen #1 gym in NH! WOOO!

Love you Get Fit!!

Oh my, I almost forgot – they taught me to love Brussel sprouts and bear crawls. Ha ha!”

Keeping on shining, Stacy!
-Coach Nancy

Always Battling Some Kind of Bug?

Are you constantly battling some kind of bug? Maybe it’s the stomach bug or a nasty cold or flu that you just can’t seem to fight off?

That’s not cool! You shouldn’t have to live your life with a tissue box and hand sanitizer under your pillow or mapping out where the nearest restrooms are everywhere in town. Your body should be able to fight these things off, but it can’t do that if you’re not giving it what it needs. Germs are everywhere. Believe me, I know. I work in a GYM! Germs are unavoidable. I touch sweaty people (that’s how much I love you) all day long. I am around you and you are around kids and kids are around sick kids…the germ chain goes on and on and on. It’s life.

Guess how often I get sick? imagesNever. I honestly don’t know the last time I was legitimately sick with even a cold. And that is because I have built a strong immune system and continue to give my body what it needs to fight off the funk. I say all of that to encourage you to think about how often you get sick. If you are constantly not feeling well- even if it’s a constant headache or stomach ache or the sniffles- then it’s time to look at your plate. What are you putting into your body and how is that affecting your health? A lot of times we think our plate only affects how we look and we justify by saying we’ll work harder, but it goes so much deeper than that.

When you are healthier, you are automagically happier- wouldn’t you agree the world needs more happy people?

Coach Meagan

Turn Focus Periods Into Habits

focusWith S3 in full swing, I wanted to go over something that I think it is important to talk about. That thing is focus. Now, focus is something just like willpower. It has its ebbs and flows, its highs and lows. If you try to be super focused on something for long periods of time (I’m talking for more than a few months) – what ends up happening? You lose that focus and end up stumbling, correct? If you think, “I’m going to eat perfectly for the next year!”, one or two things will happen, for sure. One – you do great for 3 months, and then you fall off and are so depressed with yourself that you only made it three months that you fall off big time and drop right back to where you were. Or, two – you think, “Ehh I have a year, I’ll start next month…. oh wait maybe next month” and before you know it you have wasted 6 months without putting things in place because “well, I have a whole year to do it”.

So this is where S3 comes in to play. Its 39 days. Its a focus period, a time where you can say “I can live without my sweets for 39 days, I can live without cream and sugar in my coffee for 39 days, I can rearrange some stuff and make it to training every day for that period”. Before you know it, you have done the things you wanted to do and achieved the goals you set because you focused up and you gave yourself a realistic time frame to keep yourself engaged.

However, here is the extra part that you may not have thought about. So much of what we talk about is building habits and figuring out ways to set yourself up for success. So who’s to say after 39 days of little to no sugar or cream in your coffee, you don’t actually start to like it that way? We can pretty much all agree that a large coffee with 7 mocha flavor shots and 7 creams (which is essentially a milkshake) is better tasting than a large with 2 cream and 2 Splenda, but you have adapted to drinking your coffee without all that added sweetness already, right? You still drink it, right?

It’s the same thing with habits during a focus period. Often what we find is that when we are forced to make things happen, suddenly we start finding ways around problems we previously thought we couldn’t. After 39 days, “my work schedule absolutely will not allow me to get to training” turns into you finding all kinds of different strategies and ideas to rearrange your time so you can make it to training. Those lessons and strategies shouldn’t be forgotten. You just were pushed to find a solution, which will help you further down the road. So get focused and make it happen!

-Coach Adam

Spotlight Shines on Get Fit’s Own Snowboard Superstar

hannah kelsey spotlight

Hannah is pictured in the middle on the 1st place podium as she celebrates her accomplishment.

Spotlight time!!! This time I have chosen to spotlight Hannah Kelsey.

A little over a month ago, Hannah reached a huge achievement in snowboarding. Here are her results from the National Championships held at Copper Mountain, CO:

•    1st Place USASA Nationals Slopestyle, Women 18-24
•    2nd Place USASA Nationals Rail Jam, Women 14 & Over
•    2nd Place USASA Nationals BoarderCross, Women 18-24

Hannah has been snowboarding for 7 years overall, 6 of which have been competitively. She was on the snow about 60 days this year riding with the Waterville Valley BBTS snowboard team. She mostly enjoys and focuses on the freestyle/trick side of the spectrum.

Having one of our own family achieve something like this, on this level, is huge. I have had the pleasure of coaching Hannah in class as well as in our Athlete Academy and there are few, if any at all, that work harder than she does. She is always willing to push her training including taking on modifications and suggestions in order to make her training as effective and sport specific as possible. I am extremely proud of Hannah and her huge accomplishment. It is not something that comes easy or without hard work. Keep up the good work, Hannah!

-Coach Adam

3 Years and Still Shining

marie

The spotlight is shining on Marie Oosterman from 5 AM Concord! I asked Marie to share her story with us, because she is a fire cracker. She gets in here every single day and works her butt off. She will be one of few that braves a snow storm even all the way from Hopkinton to make it happen. Over the past three years I have had the opportunity to watch Marie grow as an individual and become significantly stronger. We both remember when I used to tell her, “hips up!” on her push ups and front planks and now she rocks out push ups like she has been doing them her entire life. Marie’s story is humble, so allow me to brag a little on her behalf. I am proud of how far Marie has come and I am thrilled that I have been her coach for the past three years. Here is what Marie has to say-

“My name is Marie from 5 AM in Concord. I joined Get Fit NH 3 years ago because I wanted to lose some weight and gain muscle. I have successfully been able to do that. I also learned to eat healthier and I have built up my confidence. I have formed some great friendships and this truly is the highlight of my day. Each training is so different. I love how I am encouraged to train hard and the encouragement from my coaches- even just a “great job, Marie” means a lot to me. I love how they care about their clients.”

It has been a pleasure to coach Marie for the past 3 years. I look forward to many more!
Thanks for making it happen, Marie!
Coach Meagan

Pick Up Something Heavy!

kettlebell-300x225.jpgA while ago I read a book called, “The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess”. This book was written by some of the finest coaches in the industry – Lou Schuler, Cassandra Forsythe, and Alwyn Cosgrove. There is a quote in the book that I think of often when I am coaching:

“Your body’s goal is to reach stasis so it can stop making adaptations to the stresses you impose on it.  Your goal is to keep imposing new stresses so your body keeps making adaptations.”

Now despite the name of the book, this quote applies to anyone looking to get strong, get lean, burn fat and build muscle. We talk about weight selection often. A lot of times you’ll hear your coaches remind you to pick up something heavy! Let me explain to you why we stress this so much.

I will start by telling you some of the things we take into consideration when writing a training program for you to get effective results:
•    Safety
•    Efficient and effective exercise selection
•    Purposeful exercise selection
•    Purposeful timing sequences
•    Mastery
•    Exercise progressions for all fitness levels

If you have been training with us for some time, then you probably know that we have specific strength days and specific metabolic day. Allow me explain what is happening in your body on those days.

Strength Days:
I won’t get too scientific on you. I just want to educate you. The more you know about what’s going on inside your body, the more educated you’ll be when selecting your heavy weights.

These days are designed to tear into your muscles fibers and allow them the opportunity to grow and get stronger upon recovery. Let me give you a personal example:
Dumbbell Bench Press- If these are programmed into my upper body day, then I am going to start by selecting 5 pounds more than what I KNOW I can lift. You see, if in my mind I already know I can press those 35 pound dumbbells, then my body definitely knows I can already do that. If I want to see a change in my body and my performance (which I do) then I need to try something more. My muscles already know I can do that. My body has adapted to that stress already. I need to create a new stress. I need to tear into those muscle fibers and allow them the opportunity to tear, recover/rebuild and grow.

Recovery:
I know you’ve heard us explain the importance of recovery- but let me explain based on the example above. Let’s say on Monday I just did my dumbbell bench press. I need to give myself at least Tuesday and Wednesday to allow those specific muscle fibers to rebuild and recover. In your training program, we are conscience about tearing into the same muscle fibers two days in a row. You may have heard us explain how your body does its best work when you’re recovering and here is why. Those exercises require more energy to perform and consume a lot more energy as your body recovers from them. Which means after you kill it on the training floor you will continue to burn calories as your body tries to recover and rebuild those muscle fibers. Which means you’re still burning on Tuesday from your training session on Monday!

BUT- if you select a weight that your body already KNOWS it can perform, then you’re not doing yourself any favors.

Quick side note for the Ladies- Believe me, picking up heavy load WILL NOT make you bulky. That is a whole other blog in itself- but just know you do not have the testosterone in your body to create such results. Leaner, faster, stronger, healthier means kill it on your strength days- pick up something heavy!

The fitness industry is always improving. You can rest assured knowing that you’ve hired professional coaches who are consistently continuing their education to keep up with the improvements. We will continue to learn how we can help YOU get the safest results- that is a guarantee.

Until then, keep making it happen!
Coach Meagan

Follow the Plan!

Follow the plan. Don’t try to outsmart it, just follow it.

So I am finishing up a specific nutrition plan for the second time. I tried it last year. No need to get super specific, but basically it’s a 28-day nutrition “challenge” for lack of a better term. It’s designed to help get you kick started or blast through a barrier.

Let me tell you the difference between last year’s attempt and this year’s attempt. First and foremost, I did the training mentioned in the plan this year. It was planned out for me, day by day, week by week and I followed it to the T this year. Last year I tried to outsmart it. Instead of doing as much lifting, I just did our two metabolic days here and did some other stuff on the side. So I didn’t follow the plan. Last year, I also decided I was going to try my own supplements. I didn’t use several of the ones suggested in the plan, and just went out and bought similar versions of some of the things mentioned. This year, I just went straight to the source and bought the kit for the challenge. Everything they suggested, and everything I needed.

So just to recap – last year I tried to outsmart it and do it differently, and this year I followed it step by step, supplement by supplement, training exercise by training exercise, even down to the amount of rest between sets.

Here were my results (granted, I still have a week left, but still…):
Last year: lost 10 lbs and lost .5% bodyfat, almost 7lbs of muscle
This year: lost 12lbs and lost 3% bodyfat, while increasing muscle mass

So again lets recap – last year I tried to outsmart the challenge and my results…not what I wanted at all. This year, I followed it to the T, and with a week still left…almost exactly what I wanted.

It just goes to show, follow the plan. For those of you that are doing S3 especially, FOLLOW THE PLAN!!!! You guys are paying for our successes and our failures, so trust the system we have laid out for you to lose that weight, don’t deter from it, and see it through to the end. Its already thought out, poured over, hours of work and variables thrown into the mix. All you have to do is follow it and you will be successful.

Make it Happen,
Coach Adam

1 6 7 8 9 10 37