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I have the great honor of chatting with bestselling author and the trainer of trainers, Nick Tumminello. In 2015, Nick was inducted into the Personal Trainer Hall of Fame and in 2016 he was awarded NSCA’s Personal Trainer of the Year. We cover a lot of his philosophies and approaches working with a huge range of clientele throughout his career. In addition, we talk about both of his excellent bestselling books “Strength Training For Fat Loss” and “Building Muscle And Performance.” Both books are available on Amazon.com. To find out more about Nick, please visit http://www.nicktumminello.com. To find out more about your host, please visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com Download, subscribe, share with your friends and leave us a review to let us know how we’re doing!

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“The title of this post was taken from the Morgan Delt song of the same name.”

We have a coffee table at my studio in between two lounge chairs. Over the years, I’ve tried to subscribe to fashion and fitness magazines so people could peruse them if they wanted to. Over time, I’ve decided to shift away from some of the selections. I’ve almost completely stopped subscribing to fitness magazines. I think I’ve just grown tired of the “Get Fit Quick” promises. I’m also sick of the advertisements in those magazines for nutritional supplements. Most of the ones that are advertised are garbage. You might actually get more benefit eating the dirt out of your backyard than taking some of that stuff.

Not to mention, all of those fashion magazines. Never mind the fact that you have to sift through more ads just to read an article. Should I even bring up the photoshopped bodies that people manage to compare themselves to?

Don’t even get me started on all of the crap supplements that roughly 10-20% of your friends on social media are selling either. If it includes attending a supplement party so you can be part of the cool kids, I would advise you to stay at home. This isn’t to disrespect the people who do this. We want to believe there is a shortcut and we want to believe our friends who tell us there is a shortcut (because it “works” for them.)

I understand the allure though. There’s something really enticing about extra streams of revenue and having an endless network of friends (and their friends, and their friends) to sell to. Hell, maybe I should quit my day job.

Much of what you see in fitness media, fashion magazines, and the walls of your local nutritional shop is useless. As in: it will do you no good to aspire to, subscribe to, or indulge in. Why? Because you aren’t that person being featured in that ad. You’re different. Chances are, the model in the picture doesn’t take that supplement or perform that workout in real life.

I don’t think any one person or company really tries to be dishonest. But there are staffs of marketers who know exactly which of your buttons to push to get you to buy (and buy now.)

Bags under your eyes? Take this cream!

Workouts need a kick? Take this pink pre-workout powder!

Six-pack abs? Try this 3-week ab routine!

Bat wings for arms? Do some bench dips!

Feeling sluggish? Drink more coffee (who cares that it’s 4pm!)

No thanks.

You’re smarter than this.

The “system” will mislead you. The “system” will make you think there’s something missing from your life.

There’s probably nothing missing per se.

You just might be kidding yourself about how hard you’re actually working at change or lying to yourself about how much (or how little) you actually ate today.

There is a very small chance that something needs to be checked out with your doctor. Legitimate, but small (check it out anyway.)

You might need a different set of eyes to see what could be going wrong.

At RevFit, there’s no supplement to sell. No quick-and-easy promises that can’t be fulfilled. We work hard, we have a good time, and you get to go back to living your life.

We just want to be part of the journey in helping you get there…no rush.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leigh Peele joins me this week and it is another stellar conversation! We talk about how easy it is to get lost in all of the information we see, read and are told with regard to health, fitness, nutrition and more. Leigh has a phenomenal way of sifting through the nonsense and providing practical, unfiltered advice so you can start changing your life the way you want. I absolutely cannot wait to have her back on again in the future. To find out more about Leigh, please visit http://www.leighpeele.com and to find out more about your host, please visit http://www.jasonleenaarts.com Download, subscribe, share with your friends and leave us a review to let us know what you think!

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“The title of this post was inspired by the Depeche Mode song of the same name”

A couple of months ago, my wife (Marissa) had a health issue that landed her in the emergency room. When the doctors came in to discuss the matter, it seemed as if something from a dietary standpoint caused the problem. They sent her home with a fairly strict diet that really took a lot of her foods of enjoyment out of the program.

Through one of my certifications with Precision Nutrition, I knew of a legitimate and well-researched way to implement an elimination diet. Since Marissa was already aware of some food sensitivities in her diet, I told her I would embark on the elimination plan with her.

I should note that neither of us were doing this plan with any intention of weight loss. We’re both slim as it is so weight loss was not a priority by any stretch of the imagination. However, once we delve into the specifics of the food plan, you’ll have a different insight into the results.

Without putting too much concentration on the things you’re not supposed to eat, I’ll tell you what we were able to consume on the 3-week elimination portion of the regimen.

All vegetables except tomatoes, eggplants, and white potatoes
All fruits except citrus fruits
Rice and buckwheat for grain options
Unsweetened coconut milk or unsweetened rice milk for dairy options
Turkey, lamb, wild game, and fish for meat options
Herbs and spices were good but not condiments
Water, herbal tea were good but coffee and alcohol were not
Olive oil, coconut oil and flaxseed oil for cooking/oil options

I’ll say that I was able to stick to this plan with about 80-85% adherence. Marissa really struggled with it though. Much of that came from failure to plan meals accordingly and well-enough in advance. I also opted to keep coffee in the diet. I only drink black coffee and I kept it to 2 cups daily.

In the first week, we both lost about 4lbs each. Again, not planned but that is what happened. Ultimately, you want the diet to unveil any symptomatic issues you may have with certain foods. In many ways, it can be more effective than getting tested for a food allergy because of the lower cost of testing on your own and real-time results based on how you feel.

I don’t know that I noticed anything significant while I was in the 3-week elimination phase. No major changes in sleep, energy or performance in the gym. Mostly, I got a bit tired of the lack of assortment but I believe in hindsight if I had planned better in advance what my meals would look like, it would have been easier to cope with.

It is also important to note that if you’re going for any “processed” food options, even in the vegan/vegetarian realm, there are ingredients included in those foods that would not be permitted on the elimination phase.

I’ll also add that if there is anything currently in your diet that you tend to consume with abundance, simply removing that for a period of weeks can unveil some areas of improvement for you. However, one thing that people tend to overlook when they opt to remove certain foods from their diet is this: if you have weight to lose, dropping as little as 5-10% of your starting weight can have dramatic changes on how you feel and may have nothing at all to do with foods that are included/excluded from the diet.

The phase-in process begins after the 3-week intro phase has concluded. You start by introducing a small-to-moderate amount of a missing food back into your diet. Eat that food on day 1 and then remove it for the next two days to get a gauge on how your body reacts. If all is good, then you add the next food into the mix and follow accordingly for the next several weeks. For me, there were no meat products that had any adverse effect on me. However, when I started to introduce corn products, things got a little bit muddy.

For one, corn is manufactured into so many foods in so many variations. Looking back, it would have been more intelligent for me to introduce something simple like corn on the cob and then assess the situation. What I did in reality was have corn on the cob, popcorn, cornmeal (on fish) and grits. Entirely too many corn products in the span of one day. That day I did have some GI distress but it was gone by the next day.

Since then, Marissa and I have returned to “most” of our eating the way it was before the diet. The food sensitivities she had prior to starting seem to still be very prevalent now. I’ve also noticed that certain foods that we used during the elimination phase, namely cheese alternatives, have not set well on my stomach.

As we are all special snowflakes in some regard, your experience, should you elect to try something similar to us, will be different. Please take my professional advice and plan your meals about a week in advance so there are fewer surprises and less likelihood of grabbing something that doesn’t fit the plan just so you can have a meal.

Also, if you feel this diet may have an adverse effect on any medications or pre-existing medical conditions you may have, please consult your doctor or dietitian. For more insight into the actual plan we followed, I would encourage you to read this article from Precision Nutrition found HERE.

Until then, before you have “stripped” all of those fun foods from your diet, do some research, plan accordingly, and be mindful of the changes happening in your body. It could be a very eye-opening experiment!

Roland Denzel and Galina Ivanova Denzel join me this week to discuss their upcoming book “Eat Well Move Well, Live Well” These two have been conquering the health and fitness world for the last several years and have self-published all of their books up to this point. “Eat Well…” is the first one to get a publisher behind it for greater international reach. In this episode, they share some of their wisdom gleaned from working with their respective clients as well as giving us some teasers from their book. We cover smaller steps to change, different approaches to progress and more. To learn more about Roland and Galina, please visit: www.thefitink.com and pre-order your copy today to get a free preview of some of their favorite chapters. To learn more about your host, please visitwww.jasonleenaarts.com Download, subscribe, and share with your friends. If you like what you hear, please consider leaving us a review on iTunes so we can reach a larger audience!

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“The title of this post was inspired by the Matthew Sweet song of the same name.”

My mind tends to swim in chaos. At any point in time, there are so many things that I want to read, listen to, digest, and execute on. Of course, I only can take in so much stimulus at one time and as much as I wish I could multitask effectively, I just don’t. As far as being a business owner goes, there are many avenues where I would like to take my business. Unfortunately, there is a certain fear and trepidation that I have when I am looking to embark on some new adventure with my business.

I can say that I don’t have a great fear of risk but I do fear failure. In many ways, I can swallow a little bit of pride and dive in to see what happens. But in other ways, I find myself wanting to learn more, read more, ask more questions in the hopes that I will stumble onto the “perfect” solution.

Here’s a hint: it doesn’t exist.

Recently, I had to make a decision for my business. It was a way for me to add another stream of revenue. Who doesn’t want more money, right? That should be motivation in and of itself. But there were too many questions left unanswered.

How would I advertise it?

What if no one was interested?

What if the decision flat out sucks and I have to tuck my tail between my legs, lick my wounds and admit defeat?

Then I made a change.

I paid someone to help me. There was someone I knew who had solved these problems. Someone with years of experience. The investment wasn’t high and our time together wasn’t lengthy. But making the investment forced me to act.

And, I could breathe a sigh of relief because the decision didn’t fail and this avenue continues to be productive and beneficial. Had I not reached out to an expert to help me, I don’t know how long I would have labored over this process. Indefinitely maybe.

If you find your story shares a parallel with mine and you have been laboring over the decision to do something with your health, let me give you some unsolicited advice: Pull the trigger.

Inactivity and inaction will do more to paralyze you and take you further from your goal than anything else out there.

No, you don’t have to hire me. I’d be happy to help but if there’s anything I’ve learned after years of doing this and hundreds of clients served, is that personal training is exactly that: a “personal” experience.

Some of you will be able to pick up a random fitness magazine at a newsrack, flip to a lifting program and get started.
Awesome.

Some of you need to be involved in group fitness for unity and a cultural experience.
Fantastic.

Others may have a history of injuries and need more personalized care.
Great.

But I promise you, if all you do is seek information, you will push yourself further and further away from action. That lack of action can and will cripple you.

Next thing you know, you will have wasted weeks, months, maybe years trying to find that “one thing.” In the meantime, you could have been putting in quality work getting yourself closer to where you want to be.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be progress. One small step forward as opposed to two feet in the same damn place.

It doesn’t have to start on a Monday, it can happen on a Wednesday. Your body doesn’t care when you decide to make a positive change.

Just change.

Rick Carson, Chef de Cuisine and owner of Nosh Eatery & Creative Catering, joins me this week. In this episode, Rick discusses not only his growth as a chef but how he has evolved his business in harmony with growing much of his own food. He has continued to thrive as a restaurant owner in Northeast Ohio due to his unbelievable passion for high quality food year-round. If you have an interest in sustainability and better food practices with the restaurants you support, you won’t want to miss this episode. To connect with Rick, please visit www.nosheatery.com To learn more about your host, check out www.jasonleenaarts.com Download, subscribe, share and leave us a review if you like what you hear!

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“The title of this post was inspired by the Judybats song of the same name.”

I’ve been certified as a personal trainer for nearly nine years. I’ve been involved in the fitness industry and given fitness advice to people for about seventeen years. Much of that initial advice was given well before I had much of a clue what I was telling people. Having always had a smaller frame and build, there were frequently people at a gym who would ask me what I was eating and how I was training to keep a certain physique. When I realized that I enjoyed fitness but wanted more of a foundation in having an idea what to tell people, I decided to get certified as a personal trainer.

Within weeks of getting certified, I tore my rotator cuff performing an exercise that I was very accustomed to doing, at a weight that was not uncommon for me. Mind you, I didn’t know that I did anything particularly wrong. I felt a pain and did what a lot of people do: I continued to “work through” it. That “work through” caused more damage to the already injured area and it forced me to take a break from the gym, get some physical therapy, rest, and eat more painkillers than I probably needed to.

After about six months, I was able to get back to my workouts again. Not a great way to celebrate being certified! Over the years, I’ve continued to experiment with different workouts and training philosophies in efforts to find a method that worked best to my benefit. I didn’t start lifting weights with any seriousness until my mid-20s so in some ways, I feel like I may have missed some great opportunities to do more for my body.

There really haven’t been any other major issues with injuries until I started to push myself with my traplift last year. I was aiming for 3 times my body weight. For perspective, my weight has hovered between 135-140lbs for the last several years. So, that was leading me to a 405lb personal record that I was gradually scaling up to. Once I got myself past 300lbs, every new record just felt “heavy.” It was a relative term. One day, I was shooting for a personal best of 370lbs for 3 reps. I hit the set, but it was hard. My back was pretty fired up but not really any more or less than on previous record-setting days. However, I made the mistake of bending over and rotating slightly to remove one of the plates from the bar and my back seized up. I have never felt anything like it.

About 20 minutes later, I was having trouble walking. There was a pain that started at my lower back and went into my glutes and leg. I was terrified that I had done something very wrong to myself and fear started to set in, “What if I can’t do my job??”

I have had the luxury of knowing an amazing chiropractor and sports medicine doctor in the area. He got me in immediately and confirmed what I was already feeling: “Your back is really fired up right now and we need to get it calmed down.” He also added, “I know you pulled 370lbs today. I’m not sure I want to see you pull 380lbs.” Point taken. If this was the result of my ego getting the best of me, I wasn’t confident I would be able to perform the lift ever again.

After about a week of hobbling around and babying my back, I was starting to feel normal. No herniated disc or permanent damage. But I started to think about what went wrong during the lift. Did my form go bad? Were my breathing and bracing mechanics out of sync?

So, back to the drawing board I went. I would continue to work on the things that could have gone wrong. Over time, I started to play with the lift again but at a much lower weight. I allowed myself to just get into the movement pattern, work on breathing, bracing and perfecting form. I also gravitated back to the traditional deadlift. For those who don’t know the difference, a traplift is a a deadlift variation where the weight is loaded evenly on each side of the body as opposed to being loaded in front of the body. For many people, the traplift is considered a “safer” alternative for those looking to pull considerable weight off the floor.

Here’s a shot of me at starting position for a traplift, note where the weight is distributed in relation to where my body is.

For comparison, here I am at starting position for a traditional deadlift.

A few months ago, I was pulling a deadlift at 180lbs. Mid-way through the set, my back seized and it sent me straight to the floor. This was pain far beyond what I had experienced a year prior and I was moving 50% less weight! So, back to my favorite sports med doc I went. This time, he and I had a far different conversation. Fortunately, still no disc herniation but I was in much greater pain and had so much difficulty walking or sitting for the first three days, I had trouble imagining relief.

This was the point where my doctor, an avid weight-lifter and strength enthusiast himself, said “You may need to consider that you might not be best suited for this lift.” It was another blow to the ego but I knew I had one of two options: 1) Ignore the advice, feed my ego, and risk not only another injury but compromise my ability to do my work OR 2) Find alternative ways to lift so I can still be active and productive.

I love lifting weights. I’m not a big guy and I have no visions of competing in powerlifting meets or anything of the sort. But I love feeling strong. However, I’m not getting younger either. I try to suffer few illusions of looking like anyone on the cover of a fitness magazine.

But I do need to highlight something else as well: lifting weights, exercising, being active in any way bring a risk of injury. That risk is real and the likelihood of me having a lifetime of fitness will carry it’s share of injuries along the way. My best hope is to keep my injury rate as low as possible throughout my life.

What I have noticed after years in this industry is, injuries like these, while horribly unfortunate and a complete inconvenience are not very uncommon with fitness professionals. I network with many of them around the world and at some point, we all have a horror story to share. The difference is, who decides to keep performing the problematic lift and who decides to move on to other options.

I should also mention the fact that with all three of the aforementioned injuries, I was training alone. No spotter, no one to tell me where something may have looked “off” before the lift began. Do you need a spotter or a trainer for everything you do in the gym? No. But if you’re trying to tackle some of the accomplishments I was going for, relative to where you are now, it might help to have another set of eyes on you to make sure everything is moving the right way.

Frequently, I’ll have clients come in who are dealing with one injury or another. Because many of us want to appear tough enough to handle our pains, the typical response is to “work through”that vulnerability. I would encourage you to heed my advice in being extremely cautious and conservative with that tactic.

As I have had to take stock with where I want my training to be and what tools I have at my disposal to get me there, I’ve found it is far more important to work around pain than to work through it. If I could never do another deadlift or traplift again, could I still get strong and do good things with my back-dominant workouts? 110% yes.

The biggest takeaway I want you to have from this post is to realize that working through pain is rarely ever a good idea. Leave your ego at the door and stay conscious of keeping your form appropriate for every lift, heavy or not. If you need a spotter, make sure you have one who knows what to look for when form breaks down. Contrary to the title of this article, which was inspired by a little gem of a song from a fairly unknown 90’s band, pain probably won’t make you beautiful but you can sure learn a lot about your limits if you succumb to it.

Train responsibly, make progress, and be fresh for your workouts. The results will speak for themselves.

 

 

Dr. Mary Malek joins me this week to discuss a struggle that so many people have: making change permanent. We talk about the issues and beliefs that can keep us rooted in following the same unproductive behaviors and how to solve them. Dr. Mary has so many amazing things to say from not only her background and practice as a clinical psychologist but as someone who has had to adapt to her own health issues throughout her life to establish a foundation of lasting, healthy change. This is an awesome discussion! To connect with Dr. Malek, you can find out more about her atwww.drmjmalek.com To find out more about your host, please visitwww.jasonleenaarts.com Download, subscribe, share with your friends and leave us a review to let us know how we’re doing!

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So many things get in the way of progress. Crazy work schedule, unreasonable demands on our time, conference calls that last longer than they ever should to accomplish less than you ever anticipated, etc. Time and again, I have found the biggest obstacle on our path to progress is ourselves. The self deprecation, badmouthing, sabotage and self-shaming is unfathomable. One of the best analogies I’ve heard is: Would you let someone talk to your child like that? Would you let someone treat your parent that way?

People on a journey of weight loss have the unenviable position of being both the abuser and the abused. You do the damage to yourself (emotionally and physically) and you fall victim to every punishable deed. When did you become such an asshole to yourself?

I don’t like to play the blame game. Yes, bad things happen to good people. Yes, incidents in our childhood can affect us well into adulthood. I have been there, I  do understand.

I also understand that if you’re reading this, you are a grown adult. You have big boy/big girl responsibilities. You can handle being held accountable. You carry the world on your shoulders. Life gets unbearable and quickly spirals out of control when all you really crave is control.

But I’d like you to consider a perspective. Maybe the problem isn’t the diet that you’re on. Maybe the diet is okay and if you work it consistently, you will see results. Maybe the problem isn’t the exercise program that you’re trying (or still deciding to try.) Maybe the program is completely adequate and you just need to show up and get the time in.

Maybe the problem is just you. You treat yourself like garbage and you hold yourself to standards that no one can live up to. This doesn’t mean you’re broken. You’re not. I promise. And you’re not a failure. You’re great.

No one ever got to the place they wanted to be by being an asshole to the only person who can control the change. Ourselves. Not our spouses, not our children, our bosses, our colleagues. Just you.

So, give yourself permission to fail. Permission to be less than perfect and permission to live a life that allows mistakes, detours, and a cookie.

Look yourself in the mirror and say (out loud) “I’m done being an asshole.”

You deserve better. You’ve “earned” better. It’s not about entitlement. It’s about taking your life back. The choice is yours.