Recently The Republican and MassLive featured an article on our most recent Glow in the Dark Boot Camp and highlighted what Train for Life is all about.
Happiness is a Habit
Every morning you wake up and deal with different relationships. I wake up and say good morning to my husband, cuddle with my dog, call my mom, check countless emails, and work with members… And this is all before 8:00AM. In your pursuit to enjoy life, you need to create a variety of healthy relationships. Open, honest, well-balanced relationships.
When a relationship stops being open and honest, it often times damages existing ones. It’s a chain reaction. They’re fragile, and when broken, can take a long time to repair. It’s important to remember this when dealing with nutrition, and the rocky relationship that most people have with it. It needs to be slowly transformed.
Teaching your clients to create a healthy relationship with food is one of the most important jobs as a coach, and can also be one of the most challenging. Anyone can give out a Paleo cookbook with every rule and pantry list known to man. Anyone can say cut carbs, and raise protein. But, can anyone get their members to understand the why behind what they are doing? Do they understand the reward outside of the six-pack or are they still chasing record low body fat percentage?
It’s our job to show the importance of high-energy levels, peaceful nights sleep, and beautiful skin. It’s our job to share in the pure joy felt when once tight jeans now button with ease. Breaking years of bad nutrition habits is a huge challenge, and we need to remember that. Everybody wants what they can’t have. Setting them up for success is more important than immediate results. In my experience, immediate results are often temporary. I would much rather long-term success for my members, and long-term success doesn’t happen without habit change.
I lost 60 pounds before getting into the fitness industry. Truth is, it’s what made me want in. I remember what it felt like, thinking you’re alone, feeling helpless, and unsure if I would ever be satisfied with my body. I get it, and it sucks. Now I get to be on the other side. I have the opportunity to take what I learned throughout my journey, and share it with others. It’s our job to instill motivation outside of the workouts, and to impact the decisions made by our members the other 166 hours in the week.
It takes a great coach to understand that you are trying to repair years of damage. It takes a great coach to be empathetic and real. So next time you look at a food journal be real. Be open. Be honest. Put yourself in their shoes. When they know you care, and they know you’re proud of their progress, they will want to continue to better the most important relationship of all... The one with themselves.
- Jordan McConaha
Gearing Up for the Diaper Bag - How the DVRT System Helps Us Keep Moms Fit
There’s definitely something in the water at our facility, and my wife better not drink it. Currently, seven expectant mothers are training here with us. Yes, you read that correctly, these clients are pregnant and continuing with strength training, metabolic conditioning and even core work! In the past, doctors’ orders were cautious at best and completely restrictive at worst: “Don’t lift anything over 25 lbs,” was commonly heard. As times are changing and we continue to learn more, the benefits of exercise during pregnancy continue to become more prominent. Want your child to be smarter than the average bear? My suggestion, continue lifting weights! Check out this study...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/11/11/exercise-during-pregnancy-can-boost-your-babys-brain/
One of the great things about the DVRT system is that in order to provide progressive overload, you don’t have to focus solely on load. You can continue to progress the load during pregnancy, but there are various ways to challenge your expectant mothers to improve their fitness and more importantly, assist them through a healthy pregnancy. According to longstanding evidence published in the Journal of Perinatal Education from as far back as 2000, evidence shows that women who continue to exercise during pregnancy experience a myriad of benefits including possible easing of labor with fewer complications of delivery and faster postnatal recovery, prevention and treatment of problems associated with gestational diabetes and hypertension and preeclampsia, decreased musculoskeletal complaints, such as back pain, etc. in addition to the psychological benefits. New evidence is coming to light on the benefits of strength training. It’s important to remember that exercise guidelines during pregnancy, such as those set up by ACOG (the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology) form a basis from which to start and plan. If you are fit, you can continue. If you aren’t you can begin.
Now that you know the evidence is on your side, and other women are still training, how do we go about it during the next nine months?*
Our Train for Life ladies will help show you some of the most effective Ultimate Sandbag (USB) exercises that we discuss in this post, that will keep you healthy and strong for the next nine months and beyond!
*Disclaimer: Before you continue, be sure you have your physician’s permission before beginning any exercise program, or any change in health status, such as pregnancy. All of the women we’ve worked with through pregnancy were training with us prior and have a solid foundation, including experience with the Ultimate Sandbag. Complications can arise and your doctor may contraindicate exercise. It’s also important to listen to your body throughout the entire process.
One of the most important aspects of fitness to focus on during pregnancy is stability. Relaxin, a hormone produced during pregnancy in ten times its normal concentration, compromises stability. Its function is to relax the joints in the pelvis so the baby has room to pass through the birth canal. Unfortunately, relaxin also causes abnormal motion in other joints of the body causing inflammation and pain. (Preventing back Bain During Pregnancy Spiro Antoniades, MD Discovery Fit and Health Online.)
A properly designed strength training program will be balanced to include all major movements including the hinge, squat, push, pull and core exercises. During pregnancy, emphasis will be placed on strengthening the posterior chain, overall core strength and hip mobility in order to help reduce back pain and other common aches associated during this time.
From the ground up, there are four main patterns using the USB that benefit expecting fit moms: Bridging, Tall Kneeling and Half Kneeling Stance, Unilateral Lower Body Exercises and Carries.
Bridging (and its different variations) is vital to increase strength in the posterior chain and helps combat the natural change in pelvic alignment that pregnancy causes. (Few complain about the added cosmetic benefit.) Here’s a great bridging variation using the USB: Mitch Hauschildt taught the master instructors this progression this past September. Lying prone, arms overhead, hold the USB and lift it a few inches from the ground to engage the core. This teaches proper pelvic tilt and maintains correct rib positioning. Additionally this benefits individuals who experience lower back pain during bridge variations.
The Tall Kneeling and Half Kneeling Stance both effectively address core stability without placing the individual in the prone position. As pregnancy advances, exercises that place additional stress on the anterior core should be avoided for the following reason: as the fetus grows and presses into the abdominal wall, separation can occur known, which is known as diastasis recti. After the first trimester, these variations provide solutions to those that place your expecting mom prone, or belly down. Incorporate the Tall Kneeling and Half Kneeling exercises with your USB to include Press Outs, Arc Presses and more. These will not only offer challenges in more planes of movement, they’re also great substitutions for Plank variations. One of our favorite Tall Kneeling exercises is the Tall Kneeling Around the World. This challenges all planes with the extra benefit of improving anterior hip flexibility. Using a core bag, cue the user to ‘get tall’ and contract the glutes to maintain good posture throughout the movement.
Unilateral lower body exercises are the framework of training during pregnancy because they place demands on stability and require less load as compared to bilateral movements. During pregnancy, these offer increases in strength and stability safely while offering a challenging program. Split squats, lunges, single leg deadlift, etc. are great choices and simply changing the holding position in any of these can substantially increase the challenge. Additionally, using the front hold and shoulder positions also allows for additional core training.
Lastly, Carries are an integral core and total body exercise- (my previous blog post explains in depth why we enthusiastically make them such a large part of our programs). Using different variations of this exercise including the Farmer’s, Overhead, and Front Hold Rotational, etc. can be effective functional choices throughout pregnancy because they can be progressed throughout utilizing different positions. (Check out the video shared here for a few variations to try out.) However, we recommend avoiding the “bear hug” position to avoid applying pressure directly to the abdomen.
These 9 months are some of the most physically demanding months of a woman’s life. By allowing them the opportunity to continue with a well-designed, specific training program specific to their needs, they will gain both strength and stability, which will assist them on the road to a healthy pregnancy. You can be an integral part of their continued health and well-being. Encourage them to be strong, move well and enjoy the process!
New Year, New Beginnings
As we move forward into the New Year, our mission is to provide each and every member with an experience that enables them to truly take on every challenge that life throws at us. We are constantly striving to add value to your commitment to the TFL community. As much as we can push our bodies to achieve our personal fitness goals, we also want to push our minds to better understand how a holistic approach to health and wellness can support those short and long term goals. Whether it is injury or a lapse in consistency, there are always going to be hazards that threaten to derail all the hard work that we’ve put in during our time at TFL. But this is a long road with many milestones along it. That road does not end after losing the first 10 pounds or trimming 3 minutes off our 10K time or doing our first unassisted chin-up. Those are simply the first of, hopefully many milestones, that each one of us will pass by on this journey. Make no mistake: THIS IS A LIFELONG JOURNEY! You have control over how that road will look and it can also be as smooth or as rough as we make it, it is up to you.
To help with this journey, we are reinventing our OFFICIAL TRAIN FOR LIFE BLOG. This blog will provide inspiration, motivation, and most importantly, information. We will include posts from our coaches, recommended articles from other strength coaches in our network, nutritional resources, and more. We live in an age where tremendous amounts of information can be reached with the push of a button. But that also should come with a disclaimer that not ALL information is GOOD information. As with most things, there are different schools of thought and varying opinions, especially when it comes to our health. We encourage you to read the blog, comment on it, post suggestions on topics you may be interested in. We also encourage you to look for further resources on a subject that you may want to know more about. So many times, the coaches hear “Why are we doing this?” Rest assured, there is a reason and we will do our best to answer as many of those “Whys” as we can. If we want to continue to get better and keep that “life” road as smooth as possible, then KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! We want to share that power with you!
Be Well
- Joe Willis
Walk the Plank Sally
Challenges are just what we need sometimes! For those of us who are no longer training for a sport or our next upcoming fight, challenge workouts can be a great way to spice up your routine and keep you striving for more. In the past, we’ve seen workouts like the 500, Spartacus and more. Right now, ‘Bring Sally Up’ by Moby can be heard in gyms everywhere...
Check out the rest here - Ultimate Sandbag Training - Walk the Plank
Check us out on Mass Appeal!
In Case You Missed It..
We want to thank all of you who attended for coming to our recent Holiday Party! We had a great turnout and it was really great to see everyone outside of the gym. There are no words to express how much we appreciate each of you who continue to help us build Train for Life into an amazing community. We've watched this place grow and many of you change for the better. We also want to thank those of you who participated in our recent survey and answered our questions on how we did in 2012! We read through all of your responses and wanted to let you know what to expect in 2013 as well as give you some better understanding of some of the how's and why's of what we do at Train for Life. This is a lot to read through so I will be posting on our blog page as well so you can reference it in the future as well. 1. What did you LIKE in 2012? - We had a great turnout for the Charity Boot Camps that we held in 2012 and plan to bring you many more. With your help, we were able to support some great causes including the American Lung Association, Raise of Hope and Behcets and Arthritis. We plan to continue bringing you more of these throughout 2013 and if you have any suggestions on organizations that are close you, please let us know.
- Tough Mudder, Rugged Maniac, Holyoke St Patrick's Day Road Race and More… We love getting you guys moving outside of the gym. We brought many of you to tackle your first 5K or mud run this past year and plan to continue on with these in 2013. We have the St. Patrick's Day Road Race and Tough Mudder coming up very soon. If you'd like to join us, we'd love to help you prepare and challenge yourself.
- Our Family style Atmosphere is one of the biggest things that separates us at Train for Life. You guys mean a lot to us and create the comfortable atmosphere that has allowed so many of you to achieve goals and meet a ton of positive people. They say, "You are the sum of those around you.." and we have a LOT of great people here. So thank you for being so positive and as we grow we intend to ensure this remains a big part of Train for Life.
- The Quality and Variety of Our Workouts at Train for Life is something we pride ourselves on. We want to remind you that we are constantly learning and educating ourselves on the most up to date information and techniques in the industry. We already have 3 certifications lined up for this year and plan to continue to build on what we in our workouts. As we learn new and better ways to teach you, you will get better! Form is something that is extremely important to us, we want all of you to know to perform an exercise and feel comfortable doing it. Specific exercises should not be causing you pain, burning in a specific muscle, sure; your heart pounding after doing 30 seconds on the ropes, sure! However, if your knee always bothers you while doing a Split Squat or Lunge, that's not an appropriate exercise for you. In 2013, we plan to continue to better our programming to help correct some of the issues you may/may not be experiencing. It's common for pain or an injury to occur in any workout regimen, but we can't let it go without notice. We need to know about it in order to help you or to refer you to someone in our network that can!
- Challenges and Testing are a great way to keep everyone motivated! Our most recent challenge saw the top 3 individuals lose a combined total of over 20 inches! We will continue to bring you more of these throughout the year so you will constantly be motivated. During the first 5-6 months of 2012, we were testing things like push ups and planks during recovery week as a means to help you gauge your progress. We plan to add more ways for us to track your progress and for you to see your improvements. We always want you strive for small goals, each workout, each week, each month as those small goals get you to your BIG goals!
2. What you did NOT LIKE in 2012? - More HELP and less cancelled classes is a big priority of ours in 2013. We plan to bring on at least one more person to help Jordan and I by summer, and most likely two by the end of the year. We want to be sure as we open our doors to an employee(s) we still provide you with the best possible program and experience. With that said, you may see interns come and go as we find the right fit for Train for Life. We want you to know that no matter who is here helping us, we believe in them and that they are just as capable as we are. We needed to be away in 2012 at times in order to better our education and build our experience here. While we were away this past weekend, Chris Watton and Jim Scripture did an amazing job filling in and keeping everyone moving on Saturday!
- Lack of showers and places to change - This is something we considered when we selected our location and while it is possible for us to add a 'locker room' and showers this is a large investment which we cannot justify without a large increase in price for something that not that a very small percentage has asked for. However, we will be finishing the men's bathroom with a bench and clean area to change. We will also be adding one in the women's room to make changing easier for everyone!
- Cleanliness of mats, foam rollers, etc. - We are constantly cleaning at Train for Life so after you leave we spend plenty of time daily keeping your equipment sanitized. We have also taken action to add equipment wipes and Purel hand sanitizers in both rooms. We ask that you aid in keeping items you use clean by whipping them down after each class.
- There has been some mention of large class sizes being a concern. We want to ensure you that this has been part of our vision all along and we understand that some of you who have been with us for a long time can remember when 10 people was a lot. We hope that you will continue to grow with us and know that the classes will be capped at 30 people in our Boot Camps and 10 people in our Small Group sessions and that we have adequate room and equipment for that many. We are working with a software company called MindBody to set up an online system where you can check in for each class so that we know how many people will be expected per class and if and when we need to add classes. If you have issues with learning exercises, questions about your own training or nutrition, please speak with us. We have no idea if you don't talk to us directly. We continue to put thought into our programming to ensure plenty of room for exercises and will be adding more equipment when needed to keep the quality top notch!
- More variety of classes - Our program centers around our Boot Camp and Small Group sessions. Many of you have mentioned a variety of classes such as an abs only classes, kettle bells, yoga, etc. We are constantly working to provide you with as much variety in our program while sticking to our roots of quality programming based on the scientific backing of metabolic strength training, full body strength training and more. With that in mind, we will be adding a new time for our Strongman classes, Tuesday nights at 7:15 pm and we will be looking for a yoga instructor in the near future. You won't see an abs only class as some of you mentioned for the sole reason that it does not align with our philosophies. We want to remind you that abs are MADE IN THE KITCHEN, NOT IN THE GYM! We strongly believe in our principles of core stability training and incorporate a ton of core work into our boot camp workouts. Anything that we will bring to you in the future we will strongly stand behind in the science that backs it! It is our mission to always provide you with the best the fitness and strength and conditioning industry has to offer.
- Parking - The parking lot tends to get very full requiring you to park at the far ends of the building. We want to remind the walk is good for you and you are coming to the gym! On a serious note, our landlord plans to add additional lighting on the building and if you feel unsafe walking in the dark, we would be glad to walk with you.
3. What's coming in 2013!? - Individual Goal Setting, Challenges, and Check Ins - We will continue to bring you more and more ways to keep you on task and getting the results you are working so hard for. In February, you will see the return of another 7 Week Challenge. We will be scheduling workshops on topics including Chi Running, Nutrition and Food Prep, and Mindset for Success. We will be working be checking in with to see that you've set some great goals for yourself for 2013, so put your thinking caps on!
- We promise to continue working on building Train for Life in the place that you can call the BEST PART OF YOUR DAY! We are constantly working to better ourselves and Train for Life and we always look for suggestions so going forward if your questions or concerns weren't answered here, TALK TO US! We don't bite. Talk to us about ways to better the environment and community here as well as how you can conquer each and every goal you have!
Check out this article from BYO Family!
A big thank you to BYO Family for featuring Train for Life in this month's edition of their online magazine. Check out the great write up they gave us!
CHICOPEE – Vanessa Begolli of Belchertown knows that if she doesn’t show up to work out at her gym, Train For Life in Chicopee, she’s going to hear about it.
“Train For Life is very different than regular gyms due to the fact that you create a network of friends, which almost becomes your family,” says Begolli. “You are expected to be there, and if you aren’t, then someone will find out what’s going on to put you back on track.”
This connection is critical for the 39-year-old mother of two. A five-year breast cancer survivor, she says she looks half her age because of it... Click below to read the rest from Janice Beetle of BYO Family.
http://www.byofamily.com/life/healthy-family/train-life/
Holiday Hours
We will be running a modified schedule the week between Christmas and New Years. Saturday, December 22nd - Normal Hours, No Changes Sunday, December 23rd - CLOSED Monday, December 24th - We will hold one large class at 8 AM, please sign up at the front desk. If this fills or issues come up, we will potentially schedule a second time. Tuesday, December 25th - CLOSED Wednesday, December 26th - OPEN Gym from 2-7PM Thursday, December 27th - OPEN Gym from 2-7PM Friday, December 28th - OPEN Gym from 2-7PM Saturday, December 29th - Normal Schedule, 7 AM, 8:30 AM and 10 AM Sunday, December 30th - CLOSED Monday, December 31st - CLOSED Tuesday, January 1st aka Jordan's Birthday! - CLOSED Wednesday, January 2nd - We will reopen back on our normal weekday schedule!
*Open Gym: A generic interval timer will be running for the whole time, and workouts will be posted on the boards. This is set up for your own convenience to get some good workouts in between the holidays. Come as a group with your TFL friends or come alone, either way... GET ONE IN, TWO OR THREE EVEN!!
Thanksgiving Schedule at TFL
Hey everyone, Thanksgiving is only a week away and our All I Want for Christmas Challenge is 2 weeks deep! How well are you eating these past 2 weeks? Have you been to every workout that you've planned for yourself? If you're falling short of your goals, be sure to stay strong through the holiday and refocus yourself to stay on task. This is the hardest time of the year so you need to set small goals and stay strong to them. I will continue to repeat that statement over the 7 weeks. If you set one goal each week over the 7 weeks, you will have created 7 NEW, HEALTHY habits for yourself! You WILL BE BETTER for having done this! This is only 7 weeks of your life! You can buckle down and make a big change NOW! Remember, indulge in your favorites on Thursday but don't overeat! A cheat meal is okay, but there is no reason to stuff yourself like you've never had turkey and stuffing before!
Next week we will be working out on Thanksgiving morning to help you stay on task. Here is our schedule below for Thursday and Friday next week.
Thursday, November 22, 2012 Boot Camp - 8 AM (Class is limited to 72 people, so sign up TODAY!)
Friday, November 23, 2012 Closed till 4 PM - NO Morning classes or Small Group sessions. Small Group clients contact us to reschedule for a different day or time next week. ALL Classes and Small Group sessions Friday Evening will go on as scheduled.