Hey guys I know I am asking a lot, but it’s time for another round of voting, this time the 2012 Concord Cappies.
Last year we moved up another notch and were voted #2 Fitness Center in Concord, and I am confident we can go all the way to #1 this year, but we need your help!
Voting is open, so please head on over and vote for ALL your favorites now.
Thank-you!
As you know if you have been around me for very long I have a real love/hate relationship with running (actually it’s more hate/hate, but oh well).
I actually used to be a pretty decent runner, but running in combat boots back in the day helped screw up my hip to the point I have been advised by more than one medical professional to not run at all anymore.
And the fact of the matter is that invariably if a new client, especially women, complains of achy knees they either are currently doing some running or have been running, and one of the reasons they come to see us is to try to help them get them to stop hurting so much.
Now frankly I am not going to sit here and advocate running for everybody, because for some people it’s just not appropriate. Running puts a tremendous load on joints, particularly those with higher bodyweights and/or poor running mechanics.
But I also understand that spring is here and with that comes 5k’s, adventure races, triathlons, and some of you are even training for marathons!
And that is why I am pleased to announce that Dr. Brett Coapland will holding a running clinic at Get Fit NH next month.
If you are going to do it, let’s do it right!
Dr. Coapland’s Bio:
Seminar Outline:
Part 1: Lecture
Part 2: Hands (Feet?) On
If you want to be a better runner (and you know you do), you do not want to miss this opportunity to learn from one of the best around. You would be hard pressed to find this level of instruction anywhere, and the clinic tuition is almost insanely low, so register now.
Running 101 – From Beginner to Advanced
Place: Get Fit NH Bootcamp Concord
Date: Saturday April 21, 2012
Time: 8:00am to 12:00pm
Cost: $40.00
Thank-You for your interest – Registration Is Full!
Ok guys, the countdown is on!
It’s NOT TOO LATE to sign up for the Rock N Race.
We are a few members short of our goal of 75, and we want to raise a minimum of $3000 for the Payson Center!
Join or donate now to support these tremendous cause!
Click this link now and get it done.
The opportunity to get better?
There is no doubt in my mind that some of you reading this right now are missing that opportunity.
How?
You are not following your training program, and you are doing way too much activity this week.
Because this week not training is your training.
Talk to Anne Laforce – she is enjoying her 13th recovery week since she started training with us.
For those of you who have tried to keep up with Anne in training, you understand she is living proof of doing what it takes to get better – even the rest and recovery part.
The training programs at Get Fit NH are designed carefully, not haphazardly thrown together.
Rest and recovery are an integral part of that design, just as important as the physical part of the training itself.
So do your body a big favor this week and get some rest and recovery.
You’re gonna need it!
Deb Saks from Concord sent me this recipe. She knows I love a Mexican blend of foods. The colors are rich and taste are delightfully fresh. I can’t wait to try this one with fresh summer tomatoes!
Salad:
Salsa Dressing:
Mix all the salsa ingredients. The avocado will get cut into smaller pieces while you stir.
Line the bottom of large bowl or plate with lettuce greens. Add the chicken, avocado slices, tomatoes, cheese, and salsa dressing on top. Enjoy!
Thank you Deb for the delicious recipe. This fed my family of 5. I had some salsa dressing leftover but everything they devoured. My kids all asked for seconds.
What a great time this morning!
A really impressive display of power, endurance, teamwork and of course the art of having a really great time!
Seriously guys everyone who stepped up to the plate and competed rightly deserves to be proud of your accomplishments. It takes real guts to get on stage and lay it all out there for everyone to see. Nancy and I are really proud of you.
A special shout out to the athletes who competed in all three events:
Cristy, Liz, Frank, Mitch and Adam – you are absolute warriors!
Also wanted to note that I checked out the Concept2 World Rankings in the 1000m individual, and Adam, Brian and Liz’s times has them in the current top 10 for 2012 – In the World!
Now that rocks!
A special thanks also to Kate Fox of FoxFancyPants for providing the amazing headbands as part of the prize package – sweet!
Put together a video of the festivities, and you can check out some pics on our Facebook Page.
Keep Making It Happen!
The “Best of 2012” results are in, and we are grateful and humbled to earn your votes. I don’t know how you guys pulled it off, but it was amazing to see two of our coaches receive awards as well as have the training facilities recognized.
There is a beautiful picture of Coach Nancy in the copy edition of this weeks Hippo Press, so pick one up – You guys rock!
Get Fit NH Bootcamp: Best Gym in Concord (3rd year in a row)
Dean Carlson: Best Fitness Instructor in Concord (2 out of 3 years)
Nancy Carlson: Best of the Best Fitness Instructor (2nd year in a row)
None of this is possible without you, so thank-you again from the bottom of our hearts for being part of the Get Fit NH Family!
No, Melissa is not Mean or Green!
Melissa from the early morning Epsom crew has created this delicious shake recipe to help her recovery from training. She is truly creative when it comes to recipes in her kitchen.
She’s kept in mind that her body needs healthy fats (avocado and flax seed). Her choice of berries are the best to add high nutritional value by way of vitamins and minerals but also a very high in fiber content. Melissa amped up the protein by adding UMP vanilla to it. You just have got to try this one!
Melissa’s Mean Green
Blend and enjoy! Melissa has also tried this recipe using Mangos and peaches instead of strawberries and blueberries. I love how versatile this type of recipe can be.
It’s like a battle cry rising from the masses, growing louder and louder with every beat of the drum…
more core.
more core.
more core.
more core.
more core!!!
Ok, maybe that is slightly melodramatic, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that people want to work their “core”…more.
Just what is it that makes us “core crazy”?
Here’s a pop quiz:
Which of the following is a “core” exercise?
If you said “All of the Above” you get a gold star.
Because in reality your core is involved every time you move!
There is no doubt that a strong core (a misnomer but for arguments sake we will go with it) is vital for overall health and performance.
There is also no doubt there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the core is and what it does, never mind how to train it optimally to function at a high level.
There is a lot more going on here than just looking pretty, and there is a lot more to the core than the piece of real estate between your belly button and chest.
Goal #1 for core training at Get Fit NH?
Injury Prevention.
The inability of the core to stabilize and function properly is why so many of us have fought and/or are fighting back pain.
Dr. Stuart McGill is just one expert who talks about the importance of establishing and maintaining a neutral spine, and his work “Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance” is a go to resource in understanding the biomechanics of the spine and the effects of different types of training.
Another great resource is Mike Robertson’s excellent “Complete Core Training”.
In it Mike identifies “Four Phases of Core Training”.
Let’s look at the first three.
We spend a lot of time on foundational stability because it’s well, foundational.
Learning to properly execute planks, side planks, and birddogs for example is crucial to protecting the spine before anything else. Movements such as tall kneeling and half-kneeling “rip rows” (as we call them at Get Fit NH) also teach us to maintain neutral pelvis and spine concurrently.
Isolative stability exercises include what you have heard described as “anti-flexion” or “anti-rotation”. This is when we are preventing or resisting movement. Some of these movements would include a Valslide Rollout or 1-arm Farmers Carries.
A 1-arm Dumbbell Bench Press is an example of Integrated Stability. An offset load greatly increases the demand on the core to “lock down” to keep you from falling off the bench, for example.
All these components are critical to both how we are able to perform, both in the gym and out.
They are also critical for goal #1 – Preventing Injury.
Here is something else to think about:
Your core is comprised of muscles, and ALL muscles require recovery.
That is why we don’t hammer your core in the same way every day.
And why there is not “direct” core work every day.
Situps and crunches?
Not so much, because there are better and more effective ways to train the core and keep the back healthy.
And that six pack you have always dreamed about?
As the old saying goes “Abs are created in the kitchen”.
But that’s a story for another time.
Keep Making It Happen!
Coach Dean
One of the many aspects of Get Fit NH that sets us apart is the coaching that is available to our client.
Now you may be thinking “What do you mean ‘available’?”, as there is always at least one coach on the training floor actively coaching during our training sessions.
I say coaching is “available” because it takes two to make good coaching happen. A skilled coach, and a willing client.
One without the other and it just doesn’t happen.
Now don’t get me wrong. There are going to be times when as a coach we are going to struggle to teach a skill, and as a client where we are going to struggle to “get it”.
But that’s not what I am talking about.
What I am challenging you with is the same question I have faced and continue to face.
Am I receptive to new concepts and new ideas, or I am going to dig in my heels when I am faced with change?
To be honest the training floor is where it is easiest to coach – usually anyways. 🙂
However when you train with Get Fit NH there is a lot more to it than the 2-4 hours a week you are physically training.
***
“The Other 165” – sound familiar?
The hours you are not on the training floor are just as important as the ones that you are.
It is always a little curious to me that we get very few questions on the “hows” and “whats” of our training programs.
And while your coaches are always open and available to talk to you about why we do what we do, it seems to me that one of the reasons it infrequently comes up is because you trust our programming is going to give you the tools (you still gotta do the hard work) to get the results you want. You see that we are constantly attending coaching clinics and updating and upgrading our skills, that we are striving to get better just as we ask you to do, and we are grateful we have earned your trust in that area.
So here’s something else I am going to ask you to do.
Trust us in the rest of your training as well.
For instance next week is a recovery week. This is not a haphazard insertion of a “Dean and Nancy” vacation. We are not going anywhere. Take some extra time with the kids? Absolutely. But the rest of the time we will be “hunkered in the bunker” working on plans to help us get better as coaches so we can help our clients get better.
Are you going to follow the plan and recover properly?
***
Same thing goes for the nutrition.
Just as with exercise programming and coaching we stay on the cutting edge of nutrition and weight management research.
And there is no doubt there are certain principles of nutrition that are applicable to all of us.
We need to control energy balance and insulin response (just to name a couple) if we want to positively change our body composition.
In the real world that usually means that to lose fat we need to eat fewer calories, eat more vegetables and fruits, consume adequate protein for muscle growth/repair, and limit sugars, sweets and snacks.
Now nobody is saying that is going to be easy, because for most people it isn’t.
But wishing that these things weren’t true or don’t apply to you is not going to help you fit into those jeans.
***
I think even more valuable than any expertise, or credentials, or awards hanging on our walls is…
We have been there, and are doing that.
Coach Nancy and I have an insight that not every coach out there has, and this is not to be self-serving or braggadocio.
How many mothers of six children do you know that look like her? Honestly?
I will tell you frankly that the experience that I gained from being obese and unhealthy was absolutely not worth it. My body took a beating and in many ways has not fully recovered.
That being said I learned a tremendous amount about what it takes to lose bodyfat, both the healthy and unhealthy way. I have learned what it takes to keep it off over many years, and my passion is helping others do the same thing.
In the words of Jerry McGuire – “Help Me Help You”.
***
I was tempted to write that all this might not apply to you.
But that isn’t true either.
It applies to you and it applies to me.
Because we all have the same goal – No matter where we are right now we want to get better.
I have coaches too. Business coaches, training coaches, mentors, advisers.
And sometimes what they have to tell me is tough. I don’t want to do what they tell me. It’s too hard. It’s not comfortable. I don’t like it.
And then I have a choice.
I can be coach-able or not.
Now I am not saying that I can’t and don’t question, evaluate and use my brain.
But I did hire them for a reason.
And that’s why in the title of this post I asked the question.
“Are You Coach-able?
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