Why is stretching important?

I Love this question....

This is a not so discussed topic with many training programs
out there and It's time to hit it here and now.

From the occupations some of us have, to the sports we enjoy participating in,
the body gets it's share of repeated movements. And due to the increased frequency of using those particular muscles, our bodies develop "grooves" or movement patterns that become familiar and easy for us to repeat because their familiar.

Think about any asymmetrical, "one side of the body " sport or occupation
like the 100lb.cashier at the local super market pulling the big bottles of Tide,bleach or diet Coke all day, everyday through the scanner. Maybe 5-10 times before"price check ,isle 4" is screamed through the check stand microphone!


This repeated pattern strengthensand can shortens one side of the body sometimes causing alignment issues due to "pulling" on one side of a joint,then it may cause pain.

With pain comes fear and from some medical professionals point of view, the
answer is pills or surgery. Both are possible solutions, but do not solve the root cause of the problem. Yes, it can be challenges at birth...but a lot of times it's just tight muscles that need to be stretched.

Lots of cardio...running,spin,swimming...any repetitive motion that causes stress to the body will need a balanced stretch program to assist in keeping us moving in the right direction, if you don't have a program in place...see your friendly trainer first, then maybe a doctor after that if things don't get corrected.

Big Hugs,

Mr. Fat Loss

--------------
--------------


21.Always have lofty explicit goals and visualize them intensely. Assume the attitude that if you don't reach your goals, you will literally die! This type of gun-to-your-head forced focus... survival pressure mindset, no matter how briefly used, stimulates your mind, forces you to use your time effectively... and illuminates new ways of getting things done.

22.The value of any service you have to offer diminishes rapidly once it's provided. Protect your compensation before performing.

23.Incalculable effort and hardship over countless generations evolved into the life, values and happiness we take for granted today. Every day should be a celebration of existence. You are a masterpiece of life and should feel and appreciate this all the way down to your bones. Aspire to create, achieve and build onto the great value momentum taking place all around you.

24.Enthusiasm covers many deficiencies - and will make others want to associate with you.

25.Working for someone else gives you little chance to make a fortune. By
owning your own business, you only have to be good to become wealthy.

26.Religiously nourish your body with proper nutrition, exercise, recreation, sleep and relaxation techniques.

27.The choice to exert integrated effort or to default to camouflaged laziness is the key choice that determines your character, competence and future. That critical choice must be made continually - throughout life. The most meaningful thing to live for is reaching your full potential.

28.Keep an active mind, and continue to grow intellectually. You either grow or regress. Nothing stands still.

29.Most accomplishment (and problem avoidance) is built on clear persuasive communication. That includes knowing each other's definitions, careful listening, thinking before talking, focused questioning and observing your feedback. Become a communications expert.

30.Power comes from stripping away appearances and seeing things as they really are. Socialism appeals to psychological and intellectual weaklings. Identify and replace all external authorities with internal strength and competence. Take full control of, and responsibility for,your conscious mind and every aspect of your life. Being incompetent or dependent in any part of your life or business opens you up to
sloppiness, manipulation and irrationality.

31.If there is not a conscious struggle to be honest in difficult situations, you are probably being dishonest. Characters aren't really tested until things
aren't going well or until the stakes are high.

Achieving Your Dreams

Hey all,

While a lot of folks jet out of the house, frantic and sometimes skipping breakfast(not M2 clients :)),the thought of positive messages are usually over run with negative crap on TV or the radio. I choose to do something different and much more fulfilling.....for some, like daily passages in the bible, a good positive story or quote with a message can get the day off right. From Anthony Robbins master, Jim Rohn.

------------
------------

While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What's the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little?


Despite all of the factors that affect our lives - like the kind of parents we have, the schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in - none has as much potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream.


Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you. Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you, they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path. To unleash this power, though, your dreams must be well defined. A fuzzy future has little pulling power. Well-defined dreams are not fuzzy. Wishes are fuzzy. To really achieve your dreams, to really have your future plans pull you forward, your dreams must be vivid.


If you've ever hiked a fourteen thousand-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, one thought has surely come to mind "How did the settlers of this country do it?" How did they get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Carrying one day's supply of food and water is hard enough. Can you imagine hauling all of your worldly goods with you... mile after mile, day after day, month after month? These people had big dreams. They had ambition. They didn't focus on the hardship of getting up the mountain.

In their minds, they were already on the other side – their bodies just hadn't gotten them there yet! Despite all of their pains and struggles, all of the births and deaths along the way, those who made it to the other side had a single vision: to reach the land of continuous sunshine and extraordinary wealth. To start over where anything and everything was possible. Their dreams were stronger than the obstacles in their way.

You've got to be a dreamer. You've got to envision the future. You've got to see California while you're climbing fourteen thousand-foot peaks. You've got to see the finish line while you're running the race. You've got to hear the cheers when you're in the middle of a monster project. And you've got to be willing to put yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable and until you realize your dreams.

To Your Success,

Jim Rohn

-------------
-------------

Ten more ism's

11. Never enter into nor invest in a business without a solid, well-researched and well thought-out written plan. Execute the plan with passion and precision. Plan and manage your life the same way.

12. Success comes quickly to those whom develop great powers of intense sustained concentration. The first rule is to get involved by asking focused questions.

13. Protect your downside. The upside will take care of itself. Cut your losses short - and let your profits run. This takes tremendous discipline.

14. The primary purpose of business is to create and keep customers. Marketing and innovation produce results. All other business functions are costs. Prospecting and increasing the average value and frequency of sales are the bedrock of marketing and business.

15. If it's not proprietary, it won't work. Pay only on performance. Proprietary interest is one of the most powerful forces ever known. Whatever you reinforce or reward, you get more of.

16. Competence starts with guaranteeing your work.

17. Life operates in reverse action to entropy. Therefore the universe is hostile to life. Progress is a continued effort to swim against the stream.

18. Find out what works, and then do more of it. Focus first on doing the right things, and then on doing things right by mastering details. A few basic moves produce most results and income.

19. Use leverage with ideas (the ability to generalize is the key to intellectual leverage), work, money, time and people. To maximize profits, replicate yourself. Earning potentials become geometric rather than linear.

20. Rationalizations are generally convenient evasions of reality and are used as excuses for dishonest behavior, mistakes and/or laziness.


Big Hugs,

Mr. Fat Loss

PS See you training in class, at the gym or in the park...."What ever it takes!"

I've had some crazy headaches!

Hey Mr. Fat Loss,

I was wondering if migraine-type headaches are normal. The last 3 days I've had some crazy headaches (I'm thinking from sugar/caffeine with drawl)........and even though I take Advil, nothing happens. My girlfriend said she also gets slight headaches, but not as bad as mine.I looked up other things on line and I've been eating extra bananas, raisins and grapes to get my potassium fill--cause i read somewhere it helps with headaches.Just wanted to know if this was normal, and what I should do.

Thanx, --ollie

-------------
-------------

Great question Oliver....this is something that happens from time to time when a new client discovers that coffee or particularly the caffeine combined with sugar, sweeteners, flavoring and creamers are removed. The body gets so accustomed to the routine of the stimulants in the body that it gets basically pissed that you took them out and it punishes you with the disabling headaches!

I'm not the biggest advocate of telling all my client's to cut out all types of vices at one time....but the big one at first is the sugars that are added to coffee and caffeinated drinks. There's some extra calories and challenges with insulin levels going crazy that can make it much more difficult to lose body fat.

So the suggested course of action is to first cut back gradually on sugar from drinks and coffee slowly. If you have 3 cups or "Red Bull" type drinks (or soda), cut back to 2 1/2, the 2, 1 1/2 over a period of 2-4 weeks. The body will adjust slower instead of the cold turkey approach and you'll enjoy less intense, mind bending, jump off a bridge and kill yourself headaches.

Big hugs...

Mr.Fat Loss


P.S. A few thoughts from a great book ..............

KEKICH'S CREDO


1. People will do almost anything to stay in their comfort zones. If you want to accomplish anything, get out of your comfort zone. Strive to increase order and discipline in your life. Discipline usually means doing the opposite of what you feel like doing. The easy roads to discipline are 1) setting deadlines, 2) discovering and doing what you do best and what's important and enjoyable to you and 3) focusing on habits by replacing your bad habits and thought patterns, one-by-one, over time, with good habits and thought patterns.


2. Cherish time, your most valuable resource. You can never make up the time you lose. It's the most important value for any productive happy individual and is the only limitation to all accomplishment. To waste time is to waste your life. The most important choices you'll ever make are how you use your time.


3. Think carefully before making any offers, commitments or promises, no matter how seemingly trivial. These are all contracts and must be honored. These also include self-resolutions.


4. Real regrets only come from not doing your best. All else is out of your control. You're measured by results only. Trade excuses and "trying" for results, and expect half-hearted results from half-hearted efforts. Do more than is expected of you. Life's easy when you live it the hard way... and hard if you try to live it the easy way.


5. Always show gratitude when earned, monetarily when possible.


6. Produce for wealth creation and accumulation. Invest profits for wealth preservation and growth. Produce more than you consume and save a minimum of 20% of all earnings. Pay yourself first.


7. You're successful when you like who and what you are. Success includes achievement… while choosing and directing your own activities. It means enjoying intimate relationships and loving what you do in life.


8. Learn from the giants.


9. A little caution avoids great regrets. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Keep fully insured physically and materially and keep hedged emotionally. Insurance is not for sale when you need it.


10. Learn the other side's needs, offer as little information as possible, never underestimate your opposition, and never show weakness when negotiating.

11-21 soon.....

How Often Should I Workout?

Hey all!

This question came in today and I thought i'd include a comment from a colleage of mine Craig B. from Canada. He's run his own successful program for awhile and has a workout that rivals my "Naked Commando" program.

The commando or bootcamp style has been around for years.....aka "gym class" or for my military , police and fire department personel, a regular day's training style. When I was ship board preparing for the NAVY S.E.A.L program this ,sometimes due to sea state (rough water), was safer than weight training.

Anyway, check his thoughts out.......see you in class or maybe the Long Beach Fat Loss Challenge.

------------------
------------------


By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS


People often email me asking how many days per week should they workout. For the average person wanting to lose weight and focus on fat loss, the answer is simple. They will get fantastic results by training hard only three days per week. Now for the average person, that should be manageable.


And yes, all three of those workouts should be done in less than an hour. Research shows that 20-30 minutes of interval training is more effective than 40 minutes of slow cardio for weight loss. Combine the intervals with 20-30 minutes of strength training. Do that 3 days per week, and pow, you'll lose fat fast. (With good nutrition too, of course!)


On off days, I encourage people to be as active as possible, but without making extra effort to go to the gym. Walking to do your errands for an hour is great, if you have the time. Just do some form of health-promoting exercise (which can mean a half hour walk, yoga, or aerobic training if you desire). The duration and intensity of these off-day workouts depends on your fitness level, your recovery capacity, and your nutrition plan.


For many people, New Year's resolutions mean a return to high-volume cardio programs. But I urge restraint, caution, and conservatism. Trying to re-do your old running programs after some time off is a recipe for disaster.


If you plan on resuming a former running program, please start conservatively, especially if you are running on hard surfaces. Start easy. Build up in volume. Monitor your energy levels, strength levels, and mood. Be conservative, train consistent, and superior results will be yours.
And what about for beginners? How often should they workout?


Well, if you are the utmost of beginners, and haven't done any formal exercise in a long, long time, then simply do 3-6 bouts of 5 minutes of walking each day. Every day. Progress with your walking by increasing the time you walk and decreasing the number of "bouts" per day. For example, in week 3 of your exercise program, do 3 bouts of 10 minutes per day. And by week 6, you should be able to walk for 30 minutes straight. That is a place to get started.


At the same time, combine your walking program with a professionally designed bodyweight 3-day strength program that you can do at home (heck, most beginner exercises are even done lying on the floor!). After 6 weeks, you can increase the intensity of your workout, as outlined by your personal trainer. Eventually, you can progress into a more intense 3-day per week program.


About the Author
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines and all over the Internet, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit
click here

But I thought Spin was good to lose weight?

This is a special subject that just came today during one of my training sessions, Thank you Angela K. :)

As I start most sessions, we discuss how the week has been with cardio, eating, stretching...blah,blah.

Most of the time a lot has been done by the subject to improve the trouble areas with their fitness program and typically the continued re-education process gets to "tweak" a bit more some areas of the program for continued change in the direction of the goal.

So this is the question of the day.....is indoor cardio good to do?

Answer, yes and no.

If your a newbie (never trained before and read the fitness magazines and/or has a newbie trainer assigned to you in the "big-box" health club) it can be a good start, if you like gyms and crowds. It'll help you with general conditioning and when weather is foul outside. You can stay warm and cozy while listen to the T.V. or view all the gym crazies do their thing!

On the negative tip....machined based cardio, whether it be stair climber, spin, treadmill, etc., you don't get the advantage of the ground reaction forces that the body has to adapt to while you train. The balance and coordination required places more demand on not only the heart and lungs, but the muscular system as well.

Machines take that away because their usually bolted to the floor and allow you to do most workouts without much need to focus on the uneven terrain, traffic, the crazy looking dog coming at you!

Isn't lack of focus what got us in the physical condition were working so hard now to change?


In this fast paced world, for your time and money, the activity that gets you to your goal the fastest is the most sought after....right?

Why drive across the U.S. when flying is faster.

Get to your goal fast so you can enjoy the time saved with friends and family.

As always, when in doubt get qualified help....more importantly, find out what that means you should know as well!

I'm out........Have a healthy Day!

Mr. Fat Loss

PS. another person just signed up for "The Challenge"....check it out!

I just wanna lose fat from right here...

Just a quick note today about how a person loses fat from the body.

No, you cannot lose fat just from one part of the body.

Each of us is unique with how our body decides where to tap fat reserves once we begin to "burn" or metabolize the fat.

For example, when my contestants begin to lose fat it starts with the upper body/front of the body first....then goes to waist, then the back and then lower body.

And another person may lose it in the legs and hips, then upper body and back.


Why? It's just our body’s make up and the level of intensity we use plus consistency with our eating, strength training and cardio program.

Problem usually is that we just don't continue long enough to see the results in our "trouble" spots.

Or maybe we sneak little things in here and there and nickel n' dime our success, stretching the time it takes to see change further!

Until next time...Stop the madness!

M2 (aka Mr. Fat loss)

Jan 07'- Long Beach Fat Loss Challenge Feb 15-May 15

Welcome to the first Long Beach Fat Loss Challenge Update Blog!

We have 13 of 40 contestants as of today! This is going to be a great event and the first of 3 scheduled for 07.

Remember!.....you have chance to win $10,000.00 dollars cash in your pocket! 4 other winners also with total prizes valued at over $13,600.00 dollars. Get in on this and lose fat, be a winner.

Check in here for updates thru the week about changes with the contest and the upcoming move for the M2 Studio.