The Vlog

Your recovery is as important as training. Why? If you don’t recovery, you’ll lose performance and motivation because not only did your performance suck, but you probably are not mentally ready either. How do you know if your recovering? You’ll performance will go up and you’ll feel more motivated train. How do we insure proper recovery? Get your sleep and eat well. That really takes care of all of it as long as you have a reasonably designed program.

Von

If you have painful knees, there is a solution. For most of my clients who’ve had knee pain, foam rolling works most of the time. The reason? Many muscles are pulling on the knee and if some of them are more tight than others, it can cause pain. Stretching will help somewhat, but remember fir something like the IT Band, it is fascia and harder to stretch. Doing soft-tissue work like with a foam roller or a PVC pipe works great. If you have painful knees, give it a shot.

Von

Do you know what I don’t understand? When I go into a restaurant and I see overweight people eating desserts. Isn’t that a lot like an anorexic person not eating? We’re outraged when this happens. Think about it, being overweight increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, a variety of cancers, lowers your lifespan, hurts your joints, etc. Trust me, you do not want to be overweight. One of the best strageties I’ve found for working with overweight clients is limiting carbs. Think of all of the junk food and most all of it is carbs. Additionally, overweight people can’t handle carbs very well – it sends their blood sugar levels skyrocketing and they store a lot of the carbs as fat.

Injured? Broke your arm? Got a bum knee? We’ll you better get training – trust me there are about a zillion things you could do for yourself which are going to help you recover faster, focus on your weakspots (that you probably wouldn’t hit otherwise), and feel a hell of a lot better. Do I know what I’m talking about? I strained my MCL and kept doing it and finally had to get a brace for it. But I kept on training and I took one day off during that whole time. I felt better, recoverd faster, and felt very able. If you need help, I can help.

Von

“There can’t be a lazy bone in your body.” I won’t ever forget those words – they are my motivating words. These are the words of my business mentor who works tirelessly and is very devoted to his kids as well. This is the thing that I’ve realized in my business, if one thing isn’t working, you can usually work on another. So I’m learning to manage my motivation and my resources. Here is another thing I’ve realized: if you do something a lot, it usually get easier and you become more efficient at it.

Von

I ate a large cheat meal at one of my favorite meals last night. It was great, but if it’s one thing I remember it’s that the average 200 pound male (which is me) can’t take in more than 800 calories before everything you eat starts turning to fat. Do you know how many calories are in a restaurant meal? Trust me, you don’t want to know but a hell of a lot more than that. That’s why I cut it in half and put it in the freezer (which is my car in the Minnesota winter). Besides immediately splitting the meal in half, here is another tip – have an appetizer as soon as you sit down because after about 20 minutes into a meal, your body will let you know if you actually are full or not. But if you start scarfing down everything at first, your body won’t have enough time for you to send out those “I’m full” signals. Meanwhile, you’ll get fatter. Take care.

Von

I love training. I love it because the effects I see, how I feel later, and knowing I’m contributing to the better of my health. I am very proud to be in a profession which promotes health and well being. This is why I can be honest with my business and have integrity.

Von

New Squat Rack

I drove an hour and a half today to get my squat rack, a bench, barbell, and about 250 pounds worth of weights for my apartment. It was awesome! The guy who used it said he belonged to “Anytime Fitness” and wasn’t using it anymore. This is the equipment of my dreams. You may be wondering what I am going to do with this equipment in my home. For those of you who have been to my home, you may be wondering where in the hell this is going to go. Well, where else would I put it but in my bedroom. I measured the width of the door and everything is going to fit fine. It’s pretty cool because the barbell and the weights and has some rust on it. I’m proud to use it. This really was like my first Christmas present this year and I’ve been wanting this stuff for a long time.

Do you remember the time when you used to suck? I do – I was 160 pounds and 6 foot 2 inches tall. The physique pretty much says it all. Oddly in 6 months, I was about 205 and 6 foot 2. I was a showing some chin fat, but at least I wasn’t a beanpole. A couple of years later, I was about 205 and 10% body fat which is where I’m at today. I do know that with the perfect plan, I could have gotten there a lot faster and I believe I could have gotten there in 6 months. This is exactly what I offer to my clients now – the best body in the fastest possible time.

Von

It’s not just true just because Oprah says it, but low carb diets gives faster fat loss than higher carb diets – period. You’ll also be more satisfied because protein and fat provide more satiety than carbohydrates. You’ll be less hungry and lose more fat. But what about saturated fat, cholestrol, heart disease? New research is beginning to show that eating a low-carb diet with more fat actually raises HDL cholesterol and has a minimal effect on LDL cholesterol.

Von