Fat Mom Blogging Secrets

I grew up in the late ’70s and ’80s, have been an athlete my entire life, and have loved football for as far back as I can remember. So one of my favorite training stories from the mainstream media as a kid was the hill that legendary running back Walter Payton used to condition himself in the off-season . Look anywhere on the internet and you can find stories of Payton’s out-of-this-world conditioning, how he would bring athletes from all sports to train with him, and how they would all ultimately tap out from exhaustion . He’s one of the NFL’s most prolific runners, arguably one of the greatest of all time, and the hill was his secret. I’ve been coaching for almost twenty years now, and I am obsessed with hill running. I have Payton to thank for this, and since speed is the ultimate goal in all of my programs, hills (or stairs for those of you who don’t have a suitable hill close by) are an absolute must in any speed or conditioning program . I’ve spent the bulk of my career split...

Programming is an art form; there’s no doubt about it. A person who demonstrates sharp instincts, flexibility , and creativity in a finely-tuned program is a talented coach/trainer. Many of us coaches get bogged down in systems and software. Plugging exercise A here and exercise B in there can perhaps add convenience, but the art form gets lost. The methods that worked like a charm 10 years ago are relics by today’s standards. Teaching methods and coaches are evolving, as are the cookie-cutter software programs . In many respects, the convenience of these programs is worth its weight in gold. But are we losing some of the magic when we do it this way? Photo courtesy of Chris Holder My Coaching History I can’t speak for all coaches because I don’t know what they are up against. My story is a bit of an unusual one for a college strength coach . I paid my coaching dues in a unique way. I started at Eastern Kentucky University as an intern in the spring semester of 2000. Six weeks i...

I had a 40-year career as a high school teacher. During my eight final years I served as the coordinator for the Performing Arts Magnet at Van Nuys High School. During that time my co-coordinator, Chris Hale, and I undertook a renovation of the high school auditorium and instituted a program that taught students how to set up sound and lighting for rock performances – a roadie academy if you will. The funding for that program came in the form of a state grant that provided 90% of the funds if a donor from private industry would come up with the other 10%. Somehow we managed to talk the Frank Zappa family trust into providing the 10%, and we were off to the races. As it turns out they were also willing to provide the instructor, Marque Coy, who had been Frank’s top roadie for two decades.  I got to know Marque very well during the years we worked together. It turned out he had been on 27 world tours with a number of top names, including Robert Palmer and Nickleback. He had grown up...

As a new coach, leading a group fitness class can be an overwhelming experience. First there is the material to know, then there are the people with all their needs, questions, and personalities, and then you have space and equipment to manage. Amidst the requirement of being able to teach a movement, respond to inquiries, adjust for injuries, and keep everyone moving safely and having fun, sometimes the true core of coaching is lost. Observing new coaches, what I most see lacking is intention. Recently while taking class from a novice coach, I asked her what her intention was in teaching a particular movement. Her reply was, that was the programming, so that was what she was teaching. Here’s what I think of that – you are not a coach if you are just showing up and following a list on a piece of paper. You are not a coach if you merely mime movements for me, press start on a stopwatch, or write my weights down in a manila folder. There should never be a point at which during your c...

I’ve been studying diet and fat loss for over twenty years . I’ve experimented with “fat burner” supplements like the ECA stack . I’ve also tried everything from low fat to low carb to intermittent fasting with varying levels of success. Here’s one thing I’ve noticed: all successful diets have three things in common, each starting with the letter “C.” I hope this short post will help you cut through some of the hype about losing fat. What I’m about to share isn’t new —it’s just my simple way of expressing some basic things about diet and fat loss . 1. Calories Yes, you guessed it—all successful diets are based upon a negative calorie balance. You must use more calories than you consume in order to lose fat . Everything else is secondary. A few years ago, a nutrition professor at Kansas State University decided to try to lose weight on a “ Twinkie diet .” Two-thirds of his caloric intake came from junk food (snack cakes, etc.), but he made sure to eat about 1,800 calories a day (ab...

This is my new gym. I recommend the dark roast coffee and the cheese danish: This is my new gym. I recommend the dark roast coffee and the cheese danish: Well, I was HOPING this was my new gym considering that the mobile app GymPact allows you to tag any building as a gym. From there on out, whenever you “check in” to the gym with your mobile phone and stay in that geo-monitored location for more than thirty minutes, you get paid. That’s right, you get paid to “workout.” Unfortunately (or fortunately), GymPact didn’t fall for my ruse of making my local diner my gym. Just like I had imagined in my habit building article : Wouldn’t it be cool if a gym paid YOU to workout. We would all be super-sculpted athletes and gyms would be bankrupt. Alas, we aren’t and they aren’t. Alright. So the thought experiment is a reality. Why aren’t we hearing more about this phenomenal startup that recently teamed up with my favorite running app, Runkeeper ? Lets take a look at why the app works, an...

Ordering apparel for your gym should be fun. Cool gear should be a way to bring the community together and put some extra money in your pocket . But time and again, I see gym owners give up on the process or avoid it because of the stress and confusion involved. I see this because I run a custom apparel business myself. I’ve seen the mistakes most people are prone to making. So, here are my recommended strategies to avoid the headaches and just get down to what matters – bringing your community together . Too Many Options and Styles Did you know that people actually buy less when they have more options? If you’re curious about why choice is demotivating to clients and consumers, check out the Columbia Jam Study . Basically, the study focused on a jam-tasting booth set up inside a popular grocery chain. On different weekends, they tested the following: On one Saturday, the booth would have 24 different jams to choose from. On the following Saturday, the booth would have only six...