10,000 and 8963

8963

Most of you have probably heard the number 10,000 related to a lot of things. Malcolm Gladwell postulated in his book Outliers that you needed to practice something for 10,000 hours to become a master in that field. This number has been widely disputed, but I think many would agree that at any task you attempt, practice helps make you better. 

Another place you might have heard the number is in regards to walking. Many know that the American Heart Association recommends 10,000 steps per day to remain in good cardiovascular health. What many people probably don't realize is just how much walking this actually is! As reported by the American College of Sports Medicine, the average step length is about 2.6 feet.

That means that you need to walk just under 5 miles per day to hit the 10,000 step goal.

In order to start tracking this simply I started using an iPhone app called "Moves". You can find it here: https://www.moves-app.com/


Now I consider myself a healthy person. I am not overweight, and I exercise 5-7 days per week for at least 30 minutes. I also take many other steps to improve my health. As I have blogged about recently I decided to start using a standing desk at work. I am regularly chasing a 3 year old around and playing with him. I also make it a point at work to walk around as much as possible. Recently I started making an effort to take a lap around our building once every other hour or so when possible. Our "building" is not small as you can see here. See those tiny cars? Yeah I walk around the whole thing a couple times a day.

Now let's get back to that huge number at the top of the post. 8963. After using the Moves app for almost a month that was my BEST day. Yes my best. The caveat being of course that it is not tracking my steps when I am doing Beachbody workouts. But still, as active as I m I did not once hit the 10,000 step goal. It was a real wake up call for me. My average day is closer to the 4000-5000 range and many health professionals recognize <5000 as a danger point. Again the caveat is that I also add at least 30 minutes of strenuous exercise to my total each day.

The bottom line is that many of use don't even realize how healthy or unhealthy our daily activities may be. It sure was a wake up call to me to see these numbers so far. Now it's time to up my game!

One simple step to a healthier life

A lot of the people I hear from in my coaching gig talk about how they want to get healthier and change their lifestyle to fit. Most people that do this though think this is going to be a very difficult journey, but in reality there are many simple lifestyle changes you can make to help.

Most of you already know some of them. Park far from the building, take the stairs, etc, etc. Some require more energy like working out, getting physical activity every day, getting good sleep, or eating healthy 80% of the time. This post is to give you one simple change you can make that will make a huge difference in your march to be more healthy. Look at this:

What is that you ask? That is my new standing desk. For many in the US our jobs contribute greatly to our sedentary lifestyle. The evolution of work in the US has meant almost exclusively more people sitting for 8+ hours a day. This sedentary lifestyle is horrendous for our health. The lack of motion is one of the worst things for the human body beyond the necessary sleep each night.

I originally had my monitor on an adjustable standing desk piece like the keyboard is, but decided to add the shelf instead to get my second monitor back in play.

Most large companies have ergonomic assessments and there are many versions of these types of stands. I got mine at Uncaged Ergonomics and they are pretty cheap (the version I got was $140 but they have even cheaper ones) so most companies will pay for them.

Make simple changes in your life to get healthier.

The "core" of being a coach

People have a lot of ideas about what a Team Beachbody coach is and a lot of them are wrong. People think I am a personal trainer, a nutrition expert, or a perfect physical fitness nut sometimes. This is wrong though. I am just a regular person, with regular problems, regular hectic schedules, and lots of love for progress. The core concept of being a coach is that you do your best, you get better every day, and you help others do the same.

I am crazy about fitness. I actually do love working out, but that does not mean I find it easy or simple. I find it difficult and even excruciatingly painful at times. For more than 8 years I have suffered from back problems. Mostly just muscle spasms but they can often be difficult. For about 4 years now I have suffered from neck issues. Over the years I have torn my hamstring, ruptured my quadriceps tendon, and strained my achilles tendon. I have a short right leg which often means I am completely out of alignment with my spine. I regularly visit a chiropractor to correct this and do my best to keep my core strong as best I can.

In the meantime I push play just about every day. Sometimes I go hard, as hard as I can because I am feeling good. Sometimes I modify slightly or skip certain exercises because I am worried they will hurt one of my injuries. Sometimes I go light and back way off because my body is just telling me to. The point is that I show up, and that's half the battle.

I have had several people say to me when discussing a program they want to do: "Well I want something less extreme than that P90X3 stuff you and some of your buddies do." Well guess what? Yes it's extreme, but here's a secret, sometimes I struggle through it too! (sshhhhh don't tell anyone). Just to prove it here is a video of me struggling my way through X3 Ab Ripper yesterday. Watch the pain in my face! I knew I needed to get back to core though because my back was acting up.

That's it folks, no secrets, no superhuman strength. Just a guy trying to get in better shape and fight the old age and beating his body has taken in the last 38 years. One of my favorite quotes says:

"Whether you think you can or you can't, you are right"

I challenge you to join one of my groups or my team and find out if you are right!

I challenge you to be balanced - the leg edition

When it comes to bulking up with muscle you often see guys (and girls) at the gym bench pressing, preacher curling, doing dips, and military pressing. Certainly these exercises help define the upper body but many people neglect one of the most powerful ways to build muscle, burn fat, and rev up your metabolism, working the lower body!

Being someone with a thin build and working on the mass cycle of P90X3 I decided to focus on strengthening my legs a lot this round.

Here I am doing some dumbbell squats in the Eccentric Lower workout. Even though I used a fairly heavy weight for me, 90 total lbs, I focused heavily on my form. I try to get as low as I can in the squat while keeping my back as straight as possible. This is a key part of doing a squat because it lengthens the muscles to the max which is a key to strengthen them. I also keep my feet parallel and I engage my core the entire time.

Next up is cross reach. I love this move because it has it all. You are using arms, legs, and core all in one move.

This is such a key move for athletes. I do struggle a bit with this one because I don't have strong legs, so I am doing my best to improve here. Just that little 7.5 pound weight is enough to make this one excruciating for me! This one take a little more focus than the squat. Again engaging the core is important, and also focusing your vision and breathing helps the balance.

If you want to build muscle you have to work all the large muscle groups in the body. The bigger the muscle the more important it is to work it! Now get in there are start building!

Living outside your comfort zone

Back in 2011 my wife and I started our first Beachbody program, P90X. Ever since then I have enjoyed challenging myself in many ways. Over the years I have taken on more responsibility at my job, always pushing myself and challenging myself to show I can do more.

In the meantime I have continued to enjoy Beachbody workouts. I did Insanity, which certainly lives up to it's name. I remember the first workout, where I was practically collapsed on the floor....after the warm up! Needless to say the program lives up to it's name!

Just last year I decided it was time to really challenge myself and I became a Team Beachbody Independent Coach! It was a fascinating time as I met new people and learned a lot about how the business works. 

Then I started making more changes in my life. I started eating healthier, like really healthy (ok, my vice is still coffee with Vanilla Creamer). Whole foods, lots of water, 5-6 meals per day. I kept at the workouts with Tony Horton's new smash P90X3, which has definitely been my favorite to date. 

I am leading challenge groups now, lots of them. My biggest one to date has been P90X3, where my dedicated customers are losing weight and feeling great. Some example results:

From Dale:

 I ended up losing 10 but without a doubt my jeans and shorts loosened up quite a bit. One of my dress pants are now too loose to wear. So I really don't know how much muscle 
"weight" I have gained but I did see results. Physically I feel 10X better than before I started. I feel like I have so much more energy during the day and I am less fatigued after work.

From David:

prove to myself that I could do it, and maybe look better in the end. I lost about 10 lbs. i feel like I look better...that's the most obvious change

From Jacqui:

My original goal was to lose 10lbs. I lost somewhere between 12-15! I can totally fit into some prebaby clothes! YAY! I think I look better, I've gotten loads of compliments from friends and family. I'm much stronger in my arms too, I could barely do 3 push-ups in my first fit test, now I can easily do 15!  I am definitely going to be wearing a bikini at the beach this summer!!! So happy about that!

These folks decided, committed, and succeeded. They did so by living outside their comfort zone. All three of them plan to continue with their changed lifestyle, and plan to keep working hard. I know they will see great results!

This leads me to my last point. Not only did I decide to start living more outside my comfort zone when it comes to health and fitness, but I also decided it was time to do that in my career. I don't just mean by becoming a Team Beachbody Coach either. At my day job I applied for a new role, branching out from the bench science I have been doing for 14 years and into a secondment role in a group that supports clinical development. It's a completely different way of thinking about science and sometimes it terrifies me. The thing I know though is that if I can overcome my fitness obstacles with hard work and focus, I can do the same with any professional obstacles. The first time I did PilatesX I thought it was crazy, but I focused on it and am getting better. That's how you live when you start testing your limits and challenging yourself. Live outside your comfort zone. Test your limits. It will change your life.

Change everyone around you

This was probably my favorite post from my P90X3 challenge group that just wrapped up our first 90 days. My customer went in hoping to make changes in himself and he ended up having an affect on his kids too!

Commit to changing your life and it can change everyone around you. Contact me to change your life today!

P90X3 has done it again - Join the fitness revolution with me!

Tony Horton has been hands down the best trainer at Team Beachbody in my opinion and he absolutely killed it with his latest P90X3 program. I have gained nine pounds of muscle in the first 90 days and it's only 30 minutes 6-7 days a week!

Thats nine pounds of muscle in less than 2% of my week!

The workouts are diverse and fun. Ranging from simple resistance workouts like The Challenge (all push ups and pull ups), to Yoga, to pilates, to CVX (cardio with weight!), to martial arts, this program has something for everyone to like.

Here is a preview of some plyo line push ups from AgilityX to show you how awesome it is!

The exciting part is that I am doing another 90 days and will be keeping my challenge group open that time and active! So if you want results like this:

Hit this link and then get in my challenge group!

http://fitnesstreecoaching.automaticceo.com/marketing/go5