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When Sydnee started with me a few months ago, I really had no idea what to expect from her. Her mom, Debra, has known me for about as long as I’ve had my business and while we have always stayed connected via social media we rarely crossed paths over the years.

So, it was a pleasant surprise when Debra reached out to me to explain the challenges Sydnee was trying to overcome.

Sydnee is 12 years old and is active in gymnastics. She is, by my account, a smaller framed young lady, very quiet and reserved until she gets to know you. In my case, she’s still somewhat quiet and reserved but that is slowly changing.

However, my definition of smaller framed and the definition given by her gymnastics coaches must vary wildly. Sydnee is outgrowing the other girls in her class. At a mere 107 pounds, Sydnee is reaching a point where her body is ready to mature but her gym mates are well behind her.

When it comes to all of the bar work required to advance at gymnastics, Sydnee has been struggling. The pull-ups, muscle-ups, and toes-to-bar exercises have all become vastly more difficult.

And when Debra reached out to me, these were the bulk of the issues they were hoping I could fix. Debra said, in no uncertain terms, that the coaches weren’t exactly nice in their criticisms either. It’s my understanding that’s it not uncommon for Sydnee’s fellow gymnasts to cry during their sessions either because their bodies cannot perform the exercises or the coaches are completely unforgiving, perhaps both.

This is where the touchy part comes to play. Debra asks me, “But she shouldn’t be dieting should she?” “No” I said, “Absolutely not. There’s nothing wrong with Sydnee’s weight.”

And as a coach, these situations infuriate me. Historically, I haven’t worked with a ton of youth athletes. I’m very cognizant of what it was like for me when I was that age and having a build and a skillset that didn’t lend itself to great performance at sports.

But to see Sydnee, someone who is obviously shy and not in control of how and when her body would grow, I sure as hell wasn’t going to give her that experience at our studio.

I said to Debra and her husband, Dan, “I’m not sure if I can help. This is a new situation for me to to work with. But I will do what I can to get Sydnee stronger and more confident in what her body is capable of. If we’re not seeing progress, the data will speak for itself and I may have to outsource her to someone else.”

So, the relationship started there. Due to Sydnee’s schedule, she would typically come in to the studio during peak times and while there weren’t other children here her age at that time, she has continued to walk in to see a room full of people with a similar goal: to get better than they were when they walked in.

As with a lot of our clients, she’s had her time in the trapbar: a piece of equipment that you have definitely seen a lot of if you follow my posts. The first day she tried it, she was able to pull her bodyweight successfully without any hesitation. That was promising.

And we’ve tried a lot of other things too. We continue to train her whole body: legs, back, chest, shoulders, core, etc. Little by little, Debra has said that some things are improving in gymnastics although it has not been at the rate that I think anyone had hoped. So, little by little, we keep doing what we can to get Sydnee stronger and more capable.

She is not disappointing.

One day, Debra and I watched as Sydnee continued to pull more and more weight in the trapbar. I kept asking her, “How does that feel?”

Sydnee, in typical quiet fashion, would just shrug her shoulders and say “Fine.”

“Want to try a bit more weight?” I’d ask.

Another shrug of the shoulders.

“Does the weight feel easy?” I’d continue.

Sydnee’s head would nod. Debra and I would look at each other as if to say “Well, if it’s easy let’s bump it up.”

And we have.

If you read my article from a few weeks ago, Ladies Of Iron, I have already tipped my hat to how things have progressed.

One measuring stick for a traplift or deadlift is to see if someone is strong enough to pull double their bodyweight. The power and focus required to do so is not easy. It takes time to get there and you generally can’t accomplish it by accident. For some, depending on their starting bodyweight, it can take a year or so just to keep pushing the needle forward.

And last week, Sydnee, who I have recently dubbed “Steel Sherman” did it. All 12 years old and 107 pounds of her pulled double bodyweight (215 lbs.)

It was incredible.

A week prior, I somewhat said in jest to Debra within earshot of Sydnee, “You know, if for any reason this whole gymnastics thing doesn’t pan out, I think Sydnee would be a great person to bring to a powerlifting competition!”

To which Debra replied “Maybe she can do both!”

I like the way she thinks.

Now that we have a handful of clients who have their sights set on competing in their first meet, Sydnee would be roughly 14 years of age when that competition would be a reality. I think she can do great things at one.

But I will say, something has definitely changed with Sydnee. She doesn’t have the same apprehension that she did when she started. I think and hope that she has found that when she’s here, she’s already won. There’s no derision just support.

And she’s obviously attracted the attention of any other client who is here because, to be frank, they’re ALL rooting for her.

I mean, how can you not? This is not the same 12 year old who first came through these doors.

But maybe I’ll let Debra’s words say it best in a text sent to me just after Sydnee hit her personal record.

So, keep your eye on her. I’m expecting you’ll see a lot more accomplishments from the youngest member of the RevFit family. Who knew that this quiet and rather shy gymnast would be such a dominant force to reckon with once she got introduced to some strength training?

“We Make Great People Greater”

Jim Hart joins me this week bringing decades of experience to the episode to discuss considerations for training men over 50 years of age. As we continue to learn more about the human body and the aging process, Jim has continued to refine his approach from exercise, to diet and supplementation with his clientele. Tune in to find out more about how he has continued to be effective with this demographic. To contact Jim directly, you can reach him at hartbody@gmail.com and you can learn more about his work at http://www.activemenover50.com To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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It was Memorial Day Weekend, 1996.

I had just stormed out of my house after an argument with my parents. The topic of which has escaped me but I would imagine it was not as dramatic as I made it out to be back then.

I had recently been put on Prozac to combat some feelings of depression I was going through at the time and it wasn’t working.

In reality, it was making me worse.

As I recall, it was raining hard that day. I got in my car, hopped on the expressway and drove.

I didn’t know exactly where I was going, I just knew that I had to get away from my family. I had reached a point where I no longer felt I had any value to anyone. It was as if all I needed to do was erase myself from whatever life I was living and just end it all.

So, I drove faster.

I was getting more and more anxious trying to figure out how in the world I could end my life in the fastest, most painless way possible. I was already in pain (or so I told myself) and I was convincing myself that my parents would be better off without a worthless son like the one they had.

Not coming up with any foolproof conclusions, I pulled into a convenience store.

Crying, rattled, and angry, I walked into a phone booth, called 911 and told them I wanted to kill myself.

I don’t know how the police handle those calls in 2018 but back in 1996, they didn’t screw around. Several police cars pulled up to the booth within minutes and it scared the hell out of me.

I asked “Why are so many of you here?”

The officer who came to me first said, “We don’t take suicide calls lightly. For all we know, you could have had a bomb strapped to you.”

Point taken.

I was escorted to a local hospital and put into a room by myself while my parents were contacted with my whereabouts.

This would be my first of four hospitalizations that year. All under the threat of, or the attempt of suicide.

I couldn’t seem to get the appropriate medical help to fix whatever the hell I felt was wrong with me. I was in and out of different therapists offices, prescribed a mountain of different medications (none of which worked) and I could no longer function at college so I dropped out in the fall of that year.

I still have this faint scar on my left wrist that sits conveniently under my watch strap from a failed attempt. I am thankful it is faint but I am also thankful it’s still there.

I need that reminder.

Over the years, I have become more open and vocal about what I went through that year and what I would continue to go through with episodes of depression for a handful of years to come.

Fortunately, I found a doctor to set the record straight on what was going on with me. It was mostly that I was undergoing some circumstantial problems that I didn’t know how to cope with. Relationships (both intimate and social) would determine my value and worth in this world so if the relationships failed, my faith in myself did as well.

I’m an only child, so if I had succeeded in taking my life, it would have removed the one thing my parents brought into this world with the exception of their love for one another.

As I write this post, I am twenty years removed from my last hospitalization (five in total.) I have not been on medication for about as many years as well.

The end of 1996 marked the beginning of my very lengthy drug addiction which would carry me all the way until 2006, so while I was not on prescription medications, I did successfully self-medicate because I still had not developed coping skills to manage my emotions.

I talk about these things openly because there is much of my past that I can’t hide behind. It is my life. It is what shaped me to be the person I am today, for better or worse.

I know that many people in this world need to be on medication to stay functional. It is my hope that they are in the right hands and on the right medications. If not, please seek further help and do not stop until you get it.

On the heels of recent suicides like Kate Spade’s and Anthony Bourdain’s, I see many of my friends post the number for the suicide hotline. I guess that’s a good thing. I never called it. I never figured they could help me.

I write about my past troubles because it’s cathartic. I also write because I don’t expect my memory to get better with age and I want these words for posterity.

While I believe that many people who have suffered through similar problems as mine would benefit by having an outlet like writing (or meditating, exercising, etc.) to uncover their own demons, I also am aware that many need to keep those demons behind doors lest they reveal something that becomes a trigger for more trauma.

It took me years to understand that my perceived value in this world would be determined by me and me alone.

Coming to that conclusion was hard. It was also necessary.

In fact, I didn’t come to that conclusion until around the time I met the woman I now call my wife.

On the heels of the dissolution from my first marriage, I had a son who I loved dearly but I mistakenly put my value of self into his hands. This was a short-lived mistake.

Around the time that I met my wife Marissa, the switch had been flipped. Never again would I put my health, my well-being and my emotional stability into someone else. That’s not disservice to her. It’s to her benefit…my boys as well. I had spent too much of my life wondering why in the hell I couldn’t find happiness and solace that was worth a damn.

It turns out, it was just like the adage implies: it starts from within.

I would love to wrap this open letter of sorts up with some tidy tips for getting out of the hole you might be in. I don’t have tips. Not on this subject.

What I can say is this: if you’re at a point in your life as I was with mine, walking into the phone booth hoping for resolve, you have to keep fighting. Your battle won’t be won by opting out of life. You’ll simply be putting more of a load on the people in your life who care about you. And yes, no matter where you are and no matter who you are, someone cares about you enough to be devastated by your loss.

What I’ve found is that many of the people who feel alone in their suffering are not alone at all, they’ve just closed themselves off in isolation, choosing to suffer alone rather than ask for help.

That I had a father who refused to accept that I was broken and kept looking for better therapists when I didn’t have the wherewithall to do it myself was huge. In 1996, I saw no fewer than 5 different therapists in two different states before we stumbled on the one who worked. And even when he did “work”, I still had more issues to sort out. It wasn’t as simple as flipping a switch and voila I was healed.

It took months for that doctor to wean me off medication, it took more months of trying to establish a base level of coping mechanisms to understand that I couldn’t use bad relationships as the impetus for suicide.

Someone once claimed I was lucky I didn’t have to be on medication anymore. I say, you’re lucky even if you’re on medication if it allows you to be the best you can be around the ones you love.

But I cannot impress this one thing enough: Change took time.

These are things my wife cannot relate to. Of the many things she and I have done with our lives prior to meeting one another: our backgrounds, our struggles, my wife cannot begin to understand how someone can be so down on themselves that they just simply can’t go on. I am grateful she doesn’t have an inkling of knowledge about that.

I have a past. It’s not pretty. I had to learn about myself through it. I HAD to have an outlet. I am fortunate that these outlets have not betrayed me.

But I also have an open door here at RevFit. If you’re struggling and you need to talk to someone who’s been through shit in their life, the door is open.

The conversation is free.

“We Make Great People Greater”

P.S. And besides, if I had left this world when I wanted to, how on earth could I have ever experienced the joy and beauty of my wife and the two incredible gifts I hold in my arms below?

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the triumphant return of three former guests, all very amazing women: Meghan Callaway (previously featured on episodes 62, 89, and 118), Dr. Sarah Duvall (previously episode 68) and Kellie Hart (previously episode 20.) They have teamed up to release a brand new project to the masses which will be coming out this week. Tune in to find out the details of their new program “Glutes, Core, Pelvic Floor” and get ready for promotional pricing for a very limited time. To learn more, you can check out the website http://www.glutescorepelvicfloor.com Also check out http://www.meghancallawayfitness.com http://www.coreexercisesolutions.com and http://www.fitthrive.com to learn more about my guests. To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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Holly Perkins is the author of the Women’s Health book “Lift To Get Lean” and is a widely celebrated trainer based in California. She joins me this week as we discuss the importance of strength training for women and diving into a better understanding of how to create the best mental foundation to make it work. While her message is focused on women in fitness there are some great takeaways for anyone looking to improve where they are currently with their own health and wellness. To access the offers Holly mentions on the episode and to learn more about her work, check out her sites http://www.womensstrengthnation.com http://www.hollyperkins.com and for the programs she referenced, visit http://www.hollyperkins.com/offer and http://www.hollyperkins.com/macros To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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As I have watched my business evolve since we opened in 2009, there have been a lot of shifts in the fitness industry. By most accounts, the industry itself could still be considered in relative infancy so it makes sense when old-fashioned and ill-informed philosophies change over time.

It wasn’t that long ago, that women were advertised to in efforts to do more aerobic work, lift light weights, and basically have no mention whatsoever of how to make them stronger…just smaller.

Perhaps I should credit avenues like CrossFit or even American Ninja Warrior for bringing to the forefront the rise of stronger, more capable, fearless women.

And it has shown, little by little, in the conversations I have with women who come through my door looking to change their current physical and mental state.

I rarely, if ever, hear a woman say “I want to be toned.”

In it’s place, I am hearing (much to my joy) “I want to be/feel strong.”

And I’ll be damned if we won’t make that happen.

It has always been inspirational to me to see my clients get stronger. For our fellas, maybe it’s a foregone conclusion that they will get stronger. But for our ladies, it’s a special kind of inspiration to see this new breed who want to achieve more than just a smaller body.

They want strength? We can train that.

Over the last several months, not necessarily by intention, I have been posting more and more pictures of our clients (male and female) doing impressive traplifts, squats and bench presses (the arguable best bang-for-your-buck exercises.)

As I have done so, I have more people talking about them. And the more they talk, the more they want to be involved.

If I just look at my landscape of female clients currently on the roster, the age range spans from 12 years of age to 79. And while my 79 year young client does not partake in those big lifts, she continues to add weight to her programs. Increment by increment, she is improving. Age means nothing.

We have one young lady who is 12, two who are 13. All three of them are uniquely strong. It is SO impressive to watch them progress.

My eldest woman (67) who is still playing with the traplift, just hit a new PR (personal record) of 220 a couple of weeks ago. I find that particularly awesome. That’s more than one and a half times her body weight.

Our twelve year old, is very close to pulling a 200lb traplift, nearly double her current bodyweight. I find that particularly awesome too.

Last week, I had scheduled clients in a compact session time without realizing the effect of what I would see. In just under one hour, we had a room full of women (ages twelve to 50s) who were all working on separate programs, all here to get stronger, feel better and just genuinely be badass. The camaraderie, vibe and support during that short amount of time was really a spectacle to behold. I was the only guy in the room training all these amazing women to be better than they were when they walked in.

I have said this before and it bears repeating, not everyone is built for or in the right condition (currently) to lift heavy. That is perfectly okay. Strength can be measured in other ways.

But I will tell you, if the body can improve and the mind will allow, a strong, unbreakable woman is like no other force known to man (sorry fellas, you know I’m right.) 🙂

So, I will leave this post with a collection of shots of our ridiculously strong women, our “Ladies Of Iron.” This is not all of our female clients, and they all deserve to have their pictures shown but this is a glimpse of one of the many reasons why what I do and who we serve is so immensely gratifying.

The strength movement is changing, the landscape is shifting, the results will be phenomenal.

“We Make Great People Greater”

 

Jon Goodman is the creator of the largest collaborative blog for personal trainers, The Personal Trainer Development Center (The PTDC) and the founder of the world’s first certification of online trainers. He’s the author of 7 books including Ignite The Fire, Viralnomics and the seminal textbook on online training. Jon has been featured in Men’s Health, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and many more. Originally from Toronto, Jon spends the winters traveling the world with his wife and baby boy. We take time to chat on this episode about his newest offering: Fitness Marketing Monthly. Access this link to order now and lock in your best rate. To learn more check out http://www.theptdc.com/get-fmm To learn more about your host, please visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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The man, the myth, the legend of Eat, Train, Progress is back with me a year after our first episode together (#70.) Patrick Umphrey is someone I have a great deal of love and respect for in the fitness community and he returns so we can talk a little bit more about Daddy Life. Many of you may remember that of the many things Patrick and I have in common, it’s that we both have sons with autism. I hope you’ll listen to this show so we can compare notes, if you will, about how fatherhood has continued to evolve since that last episode. You can learn more about Patrick through his online community “Eat, Train, Progress” on Facebook. To learn more about your host, check out http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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It would be easy to blame social media for this problem.

Like you, I find myself constantly bombarded by online personalities and marketing messages trying their best to convince me of the healthiest way to eat, the most effective fat-burning exercises and the superfood recipes that I haven’t tried which would solve all of my inflammatory internal responses that are keeping me from looking and feeling my best (*yawn*.)

But I know, as do you, that these messages existed long before social media. They were prevalent on the covers of magazines in the checkout aisle of every grocery store and people like Oprah Winfrey were the loudest cheerleaders of the “next best thing.”

And I get it.

Also like you, I have my own inherent beliefs that give me that “shiny penny syndrome.” That maybe, what I’m currently doing isn’t the best but that whatever Oprah (back then) or Facebook (in the present) offer would be exponentially better.

And the problem, is that it makes it really difficult to commit to a plan.

The people selling us these messages know that too, which is why everything promises to work fast.

So, when you think of Whole30 diets, 17-day diets, 7-day detoxes, etc. it’s all custom made for our short attention spans and relentless desires for lightning fast, instantly gratifying results.

I don’t have to tell you about their effectiveness. You already know. You’ve probably already tried them, and re-tried them, and suffered the diminishing returns of each.

And that leads into the other problem: it causes commitment issues.

That shiny penny syndrome is keeping you from staying the path for a prolonged amount of time. 14 days into your Whole 30 plan, you’re now derailed because of those exogenous ketones your Facebook friend is selling you. 6 days into your 17-day diet, you saw the messages that meat causes cancer so you need to go vegan or maybe you saw that vegetables have been over-hyped and you’re tempted to go the all-meat diet.

What I won’t do is directly slam any of those options. Options are good. Options help us find what fits FOR US.

What I will do is tell you to find a plan to stick to. It matters less that you can do it for the rest of your life. I have yet to meet a person who spent the entirety of their journey committed to Weight Watchers. At best, they started WW, followed the plan for a series of months, hit the inherent ceiling and had to recalibrate to try something else. That is okay.

What is less okay is starting Weight Watchers, trying it for two weeks, then going paleo and trying it for six days then trying keto and lasting three weeks only to look back and say “Woah, in a month and a half, I’ve bounced through three different diets and have lost and regained the same four pounds. Maybe my metabolism is damaged…”

At this point, your metabolism is the least of your concerns. It’s your commitment to the process.

I believe you need to commit to an eating plan for 2-3 months to really determine what can work. Divorce yourself from the idea that what should reasonably work can be done in 30 days or less. Sure, you can drop a few pounds in the 30 days or less (I’ve seen people drop 30lbs in that many days.) That does not mean it’s done safely, sustainably or in a way that doesn’t cause an immediate and drastic rebound.

I should also add that it’s not fair for me to just call out random diets and point a finger. Consistency has to be given to total caloric intake as well. Eating well throughout the week only to go on a food bender Saturday and Sunday is just a harmful to the process as diet hopping is.

So, let me pop the bubble now: There is no perfect diet but all diets work for certain people some of the time.

I’m reminded of my conversation with Mac Nutrition’s Martin MacDonald on my Revolutionary You podcast. Paraphrasing part of that episode, Martin reminded listeners that once you determine the estimate of your daily caloric needs, depending on your goals, you can dial in your ratios of protein/carbs/fat and at that point you have complete autonomy over your destiny. You can listen to the episode in entirety here.

And isn’t that a great thought to be reminded of?

WE have control over those results.

Of course, I’d be kidding myself if I believe that everyone needs to count calories to succeed. They don’t and many of our clients see great things happen without counting calories.

But I’ll give you a rundown of what it will take to overcome your commitment issues with your diet journey and start seeing lasting results:

1.) Get painfully candid with yourself about your food intake. Be aware of every bite that crosses your lips that has a calorie attached to it.

2.) Set a pattern of consistency with the way you eat so you can see your trends and areas of opportunity to modify. While not every day will go off without a hitch, you can string together more days if you have a system for tracking the days you were on or not.

3.) Realize that your path will have potholes and detours. Plan for them, expect them and have a workaround for when they occur (also know as “Plan B”, “In The Event Of Emergency” or “Things I Crave When It’s That Time Of The Month.”)

4.) Commit to a longer term than something which promises results in 30-days or less. No one fixed their marriage, their job or their outlook on life in less than 30 days. Your food plan will be no different.

5.) Try to have some fun along the way. Learn to experiment with different recipes, cuisines and cultures to develop a wider palette of tastes and foods.

And of course, if you’d like our help with any of these steps, you know where to find us.

“We Make Great People Greater”

I’m joined this week by bestselling author and fellow podcast host, Victoria Moran. Many know her through her site and podcast Main Street Vegan but the majority of our conversation on this episode talks about re-framing your perspective around your diet and your progress to come from a place of deeper self-care. We dive into addictive behaviors and the value of 12-step programs to help conquer eating habits that might throw you off course. Victoria has some really amazing tips that I know you’ll be able to appreciate. To learn more about her work, check out http://www.mainstreetvegan.net To learn more about your host, visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com and http://www.revfittherapy.com You can also like our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/revolutionaryou Download, subscribe, share with your friends and please take a moment to leave us an iTunes review.

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