John Greaves III's Blog, page 12

Jim Redd Wheelchair Bound but Always Free

Jim Redd is a certified life coach and trainer. Despite being born with spina bifida and then suffering a herniated disc that left him wheelchair bound, Jim enjoys a full and active life. The certified personal trainer and life coach maintains a full client schedule in his home town as well as going hunting and maintaining an active life with his wife (who is an absolute sweetheart on the phone!) and their children. Quick to laugh and easy to talk to, Jim was a pleasure to interview. Check out his story and find out why he may be in a wheelchair but he’s always free!

Jim first things first: how big are your arms?

They’re about 18 ¼.

18 ¼! That’s ridiculous! Stuart McRobert wrote Brawn and I think he said that 19 inches would be what the average natural athlete could develop his arms to be and you’re just under that so that’s amazing!

People talk a lot about overtraining, but you’ve got some huge arms despite having to use them to get around. Have you modified your training to make sure your arms continue to grow?

I have. What I basically do is I train each body part once a week. So maybe a Monday or Friday, I’ll train just biceps and do four exercises, four sets and do twelve reps per each exercise. And I don’t touch my biceps again until the very next week. And the same thing with triceps and chest and so on. I’ve found that at least for me being a wheelchair; rolling all of the time like I do that gives them enough time to rest up to be able to work them again the next week.

So your training split is?

Chest on Monday—

Of course! Monday is International Chest Day! That’s a rule right? Ha ha!

Ha ha! That’s right, you’ve got to go by the rules! But my split is

Monday Chest

Tuesday Back

Wednesday Shoulders

Thursday Triceps

Friday Biceps

And then you take the weekend off?

Yes Sir. I take Saturday and Sunday off.

Do you break your back up into upper back, lower back or do you just say, it’s Back Day?

It’s back day. I just do everything for upper and lower back all in one workout.

How did you start training at home?

See, I was born with spina bifida and I used to walk on crutches. I could basically climb a mountain on my crutches if I wanted to and about six years ago I hurt my back. I was just standing around with my wife drinking a cup of coffee and we were talking; about to leave to go somewhere. I felt something in my back but since I work out every day I thought, “It’s just a twinge,” and the next thing I knew that night I was in the emergency room and to make a long story short, I had herniated a disc in my spine and it had bumped up against my spinal cord. By the time everything was said and done, I got through with all of the surgeries; I was no longer able to walk on crutches. My balance was affected by that accident so I had to go to the wheelchair. So after that working out in a gym became kind of difficult to change the weights out, get out to the bar and transfer over to the seat and back to the wheelchair. So I bought a Bowflex Revolution. And I’ve been working out on that for the past six years.

That’s one of those things that I never thought about, regarding Bowflex machines, is the applications they have for people who have physical challenges. But that does make a lot of sense, you can set it and the machine isn’t going to move around once you’ve got it anchored.

Yeah, it takes a whole lot less time. It uses plates but the weight is inside the plates. It’s called SpiraFlex® the weight really doesn’t weigh anything it’s the action on the inside that provides resistance. It’s really easy to load and for me I can load a couple of forties or whatever I need, get back on the Bowflex and get the workout I need. As far as for somebody in a chair it’s great.

You know my Bowflex malfunctioned and that’s why you haven’t seen much on social media from me. They’re giving me a new Bowflex because that one malfunctioned. I haven’t been able to work out for about three weeks. It will be next week until I get it in and get back into my routine.

I’ve always been a person that’s been like, Bah! Bowflex but I can see the advantages of it now and I’m glad they’re taking care of you.

They’ve been incredible as far as working with me and getting a technician out here to try to get it fixed and when he couldn’t, to get it replaced.

What have you added to your home gym since you started?

Well, I added an assortment of dumbbells but really that’s it. And I also use a heavy bag for my cardio. Those are really the only things along with the Bowflex that I use.

You’ve got to have a different foot print for equipment to give you room to move around it in the chair. Did you have to do any renovations to the room where you train in order to make it big enough to put equipment in there and still move around?

No Sir, I got very lucky. We live in an older house that was built in the Fifties and the rooms just happened to be much larger than they’re built today. I moved everything into my daughter’s bedroom and it turned out to be just the perfect size. I did keep the heavy bag in another room though.

So your home gym is actually in two separate rooms.

Exactly. I keep my heavy bag in my den and my exercise equipment is in my daughter’s old bedroom.

That’s actually what my wife and I would like to do when we move into our final home. Actually, we’d like to have a detached building so we’d still have the feeling of “going to the gym” just on our own property.

That would be great. That would be the perfect setting.

So let’s talk about this heavy bag situation. When you bought it had you used a heavy bag before or did you just get it and say, “I’ll figure it out as I go along?”

You’re absolutely right. I just bought it. I saw it online, someone was selling it and they lived close to me and I thought it would be great cardio for me. That it might add a little something new and I could get a little more heavy breathing out of it. It’s been wonderful! I’d never used one before the last six months and I really like it a lot.

I’m a big fan of walking for exercise because it’s something that, once you get used to doing it, it doesn’t eat into your recovery for other activities. But the problem is your body gets used to it and it seems that you’d have a similar situation with a wheelchair. You’ve been doing it for six years so you probably don’t burn enough extra calories because you’re used to it. It wouldn’t be a good way to lose weight for you.

You’re exactly right. Now after being in it for six years, I can push it forever. I mean if me and my wife go shopping; I can push this thing all day and it doesn’t exert anything. I don’t get out of breath and I don’t feel my pulse racing. So you definitely do get used to the situation that you’re in.

I mean I see wheelchair races and I just think, “Man that would be hard!” Especially with the distances that they’re going, I mean that would kill me. But I guess you build up to it.

Your body just adapts. If we go somewhere with other people they’re always like let’s take a break but because I’m constantly moving. I’m like, “Okay but I could go more.” I like to go around the block here at the house. I take the dog, it gives him some cardio and gives me some cardio but it’s just to keep from getting bored.

What’s on your wish list?

At the moment I wish I had kettlebells. I like to use them I just haven’t incorporated them into my gym but they’re something I’d like to have.

Things shut down on social media during deer season

You know when I first saw that you take long breaks from social media I was confused at first. I thought you had unfollowed me, then I saw the deer and I understood! You take deer season off right?

Yes, I don’t work out too much during deer season. They weren’t too plentiful this year so I had to hunt just about every day. Ha ha!

Is this something you’ve done your entire life or a recent hobby?

Yes, I’ve hunted since I was a little kid and that’s something that when I went into the wheelchair I didn’t want to give up. I’m trying to keep everything that I did before and just adapt to be able to do it. I didn’t want to give up anything.

I know people who take physically challenged kids out to hunt so I’ve heard of it before. Do you normally hunt on WMAs (Wildlife Management Areas) or do you all have property where you just keep your deer stand?

My family has property and so I have a specific deer stand built with a ramp so I can wheel up into it. So I just hunt on private property.

So you’ve got it set up so you can shoot from a rest?

Yeah I’ve got a real good upper body movement so as long as I can wheel into something.

This is something I’m just thinking about; some rifles kick harder than others. The recoil isn’t necessarily as bad as people might imagine but do you have to lock in the wheels of your wheelchair in order to shoot?

I do actually. Because even though my shoulders can take the recoil, it always moves my chair back. So I always lock my wheels before I shoot.

You say you don’t work out during deer season but I know that getting out to where you hunt can be challenging and coming back in with a deer isn’t easy for anyone! Do you all use a four wheeler to get it over to the cleaning station and then to be processed?

Generally I hunt with my brother and when I do hunt by myself, I just always have his number. My brother or my son and if I kill a deer by myself they’ll come help me get it into the truck so we can take it to be processed.

That’s just a good habit anyway whenever you’re going into the woods with or without firearms to let someone know where you’re going and when you plan on returning.

Jim and Angel Gonzalez co owner of CrossFit Redefined in Houston, Texas

People are always talking about functional fitness but what that means depends on what the person has to do in life. What exercises comprise functional fitness for you?

Since I’ve gotten hurt, I’ve tried to concentrate more on doing the lifts really correctly. Trying to do as heavy as I can but still trying to stay safe where my form is good where I’m not having to jerk or pull. I try to stay as strong as I can as long as I possibly can.

So you mean that you keep the repetitions low?

I try to do between 8-10 reps and go as heavy as I can. That seems to keep the strength levels up and I seem to get stronger over time rather than trying to do a lighter weight with more reps.

Are there any exercises you stay away from?

I try to stay away from behind the neck presses or anything that would really put unnatural load on my shoulders. Since I’ve gotten into the wheelchair I find that I use my shoulders a lot so I don’t do as many military presses as I might have done before. Trying to do more concentrating on my delts and all around strength in my shoulders.

For someone just getting into this situation, let’s say they recently injured themselves and are in a wheelchair. Or they’re trying to begin doing something like a wheelchair race. What would you tell them? Are there things that you normally wouldn’t think about but that might be important to know? Like one thing that comes to mind for me would be gloves.

When I first started in my wheelchair, I didn’t really think about gloves but you learn pretty quick that one thing you’ll need is a good set of gloves.

Do you have a particular brand you like or would recommend?

You know so far the cheapest pair that I’ve bought have been the best pair that I’ve owned! They’re called Athletic Works. They’re leather and have a mesh back so your hands don’t get as hot.

You train in a commercial gym is that what you do for a living?

Yes, I’m a personal trainer.

How long have you been certified?

I’ve been certified since about 2002, 2003.

You’re a pretty inspiring guy what’s the one thing that you find that surprises people about you?

I think they think that maybe when they train with me maybe I won’t be as hard on them or not do as much. Everybody who trains with me afterwards says, “Man! I didn’t know I was going to get this much out of it!” Then after a couple of months of training with me they’re like I didn’t realize that we were going to get the changes in my body that I’ve gotten.

CrossFit athlete Zach Ruhl bench pressing in the Animal Cage the day after competing

Are they in wheelchairs or do they have different ability levels?

I’ve only trained one person in a wheelchair other than myself.

You’re also a certified life coach. How did you get into that?

When I train someone I want to keep them going because a lot of times people think that they can just do it for a month and get the changes that they want. But we know that in a month you’re going to get very little change and what little change you do get is going to disappear after that. So since I’m in the situation I’m in, I know how hard it is to come out and do what you need to do to work out to keep yourself fit. I want to be able to tell somebody else that even though they may be able bodied not to give up. To keep going and have a reason to keep them from quitting. I want to be able to say, “Okay, you’ve gone this far; there’s another mountain we can climb.” So it helps me give them reasons to stay.

I saw that you liked the photo of Zack Ruhl in the Animal Cage. He’s in Texas also—

Yes, in fact there’s a gym in Houston, called Redefined you might see it on my Instagram. I went up there and met Angel Gonzalez, he owns the gym along with a man named Lance Miles, and he’s in a wheelchair. They really cater to wheelchairs and he told me that Pitbull Ruhl had come in there and worked out on occasion. In fact, Pitbull is also a trainer there now.

That’s actually a CrossFit Box right? Redefined Fitness? They’re incredible. They definitely deserve a shoutout.

They just do incredible work there. Have wheelchair friendly events on the weekends.

So we’ve got you and Pitbull Ruhl down there. He’s pulling trucks and you’ve got those arms. What’s in the water down there making all of you so ginormous?

I appreciate it. Ha ha!

Would you mind going outside and dipping a bottle into a spring and mailing it to me so I can test it and see if it has an effect?

Ha ha! I definitely appreciate it! Ha ha!

Is there anything you know now that you wish you’d known when you started working out at home?

Versus working out in the gym? Absolutely. One thing is I really like the idea of the solitude of going into my room; working out against myself without anything else around me to distract me. I’ve found that I’ve grown way more and made more improvements to my body than I ever made in twenty something years of working out in the gym! And I think it’s being by myself, the intensity is so much higher. I think the focus is much better than when you’re in a gym with a bunch of different people with distractions all around.

So to wrap up, is there anyone you’d like to thank?

My wife definitely! She’s been by my side since day one.

Does she work out with you?

She is going to start.

That’s awesome and I thank you for taking time to talk to me.

Well thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my story.

You can follow Jim on Instagram @jim_redd (just don’t expect much from him during deer season!)

 

The post Jim Redd Wheelchair Bound but Always Free appeared first on Garage Gym Life.

Bodybuilding Champion Kyle Russell Helps You Achieve Peak Fitness in Your Home

Meet Kyle Russell a mobile personal trainer in North Ayrshire, Scotland.  Kyle travels to his clients’ homes to train them giving them the benefit of his education and in the trenches experience. Kyle actually played soccer here in the States as a teenager before moving back to Scotland where he went on to win the Novice Sports Models Class in the International Natural Bodybuilding Association in 2013. He moved up a class earning 9th at the World Championships in Physique the next year and placed second at the first Layne Norton Classic in Scotland before starting to train functionally. Kyle is a graduate of the Scottish School of Sport who has trained over forty people online. He got on my radar this year shortly after he rebranded his online training business as Peak Fitness and began offering his services to local clients.

Read below to find out how he started his fitness journey, his plans to move Peak Fitness into a home gym and his experience with CrossFit during the 2017 Open.

Background

How long have you been working out, how did you start and how did you start training people in their homes?

Well, it’s quite interesting talking to yourself as Garage Gym Life. The way I got started initially working out; was I must have been 14 years old, and my uncle who was a bodybuilder at a decent level here in Scotland, he actually done all of his training in a back shed in his back garden. He still to this day has got that gym in his shed, I remember going there as a 14 year old kid and there were all of these pictures from these fitness magazines of all these bodybuilder women with competition bikinis on plastered over the shed.

There had to be at least one of Dorian Yates though right?

Probably! Ha ha, but that had to be after my mom noticed that there was a lot of girls and said he had to change it to guys because I’d started to train there. There was definitely a Ronnie. So yeah, that’s kind of how I got started. And then he started to train at a gym locally so we went there with him and then that closed down. I was training to play football (soccer) professionally and because I was quite good I was always playing with older people so they were always bigger. So I had to quickly learn to be too quick for them or I had to bulk up to take a hit. I was living at home at the time, I was only 17 so me and my dad went on Gumtree (the U.K. version of Craigslist) and we bought a bench and weights; got together and put up a pullup bar in the garage. My dad and I started training from the garage all the way up until I went to California and played football over there. That was when I really started training more seriously; did more squats, deadlifts and did more leg stuff.

Switch to Bodybuilding

When I came back from the United States, I was 18, 19; that was when I decided I was going to do bodybuilding. So I just stopped playing soccer all together and started doing bodybuilding; I trained at gyms in Glasgow. I’d done quite a lot in bodybuilding, competed in International Natural Bodybuilding Association (INBA) went over to Greece in 2013 for the world championships and came in first in the novice sports models class in the INBA which is pretty cool. Went back and decided to train for another year in the hopes to go up a class and go to Physique. The year after we went to Slovakia and I took a team of athletes and I ended up finishing 9th in the world in Physique which for my first year in Physique was okay. Came back to the U.K. and– you know Layne Norton?

Talking to Layne Norton backstage after he presented me my trophy in the first ever UKDFBA Layne Norton Classic

GGL Yeah, I actually met him one year at the Arnold Classic Expo (not that he’d remember me of course). He’s a nice guy.

KR Yeah, so he had the UKDFBA Layne Norton Classic here in Scotland so I competed in that and ended up coming in second in the U.K. in the Physique class. But after that I kind of started to train functionally.

An Eye Opener and Switching to Functional Training

It’s a story I tell all of the time but I never get tired of telling it because it was kind of eye opening. At the time I was quite big, had put on a lot of muscle. But I went to gymnastics with my wife and there was a guy there who was working on the paralletes and he was half the size of me but he went into a handstand and started doing handstand pushups and I remember thinking, “I’ve got all of this muscle but I can’t do anything with it. It’s not functional!” So for the next 8-9 months I trained completely calisthenics and done all of that from home. Quit all of my memberships to gyms, got a pullup bar and paralletes trained from home. That was 2015. From there I started to miss the weights and a pretty good gym opened up around the corner from where I lived so I joined that gym and started the heavy lifting again but I kept that functional element in it. Training flowed from a power day, a strength day and a calisthenics day. All within the same structure: a full body workout using different aspects of fitness but still working through the whole body. I hope to move house in a couple of months and then we’re going to build a facility— it won’t be massive but it will be one on one style training facility.

Like what your uncle had?

Yeah, his was made of wood, this will actually be a concrete, solid structure that hopefully will let me train myself but also train others in, one on one or small, semi-private.

Peak Fitness Past, Present and Future
For nine months I trained strictly calisthenics

That sounds pretty awesome. You’re currently building up your local client base by doing mobile personal training; going around to people’s homes along with online stuff right?

From 2014 I’ve been training people online, so if there’s someone who wants to add some muscle or get lean for summer; I train people who want to do different bodybuilding competitions as well in contest prep. But this year I decided to take my business and rebrand it as Peak Fitness; step away from the computer and train people locally. So I bought a lot of gear, stuck it in my van and I’ve been doing mobile PT and doing classes at different small studios. Taking my gear and taking classes, then going to people’s homes. All of that’s kind of building up to have my own facility attached to my home.

You’re a busy guy! If you factor in drive time, plus being at the classes you teach, you have to be at people’s homes and you have to go home and work on the programming for your online clients, review video, pictures for your online clients— that’s a full day every day!

And I still work a day job every day as well until this starts to pay the bills!

Now it makes sense why you want to have your own facility because then you could combine the classes you’re already teaching plus the personal training. Everybody could just come to you; so you’d help more people and have more time for the online part of your business.

Say I was to pick up even more clients and do it all from home. I could have clients from 5-6 and then have my 6 o’clock class, high intensity interval training (HIIT), could be from 6-7. Have another client from 7-8. There would be absolutely no travel time involved. At the moment say I’ve got to be at someone’s at four, then go to the class, I’ve got to leave for class at half five (5:30 for you Americans) to set the class up then be here before anyone comes. That’s all wasted time I’m not getting paid for whereas if I could streamline it and have my own facility, it also means I’ve got the best of gear available all at one time exactly the way I want it. I’ve got it all drawn on a piece of paper, tagged it how I want the gym to be and that’s where I can look at it every day and see that, that’s the end goal.

I want you to understand that for Peak Fitness to be successful as a brick and mortar it’s got to have a Garage Gym Life banner on the wall. All of the market research and studies show that’s a must for real success!

Have you already investigated the requirements for insurance related to having the building on your property and zoning laws?

I’ve got a friend who does drawings for architecture. Here in the U.K. what you call zoning, we call the Planning Commission so you basically have to speak to all of your neighbors to notify them you’re building a second structure and when you buy the house you’ve got to notify them that you’re going to be running a business from home as well.

Because it’s going to be one on one I assume you’re going to be the only instructor so you won’t have to hire staff or worry about insurance.

I thought about opening my own gym but my mother’s friend has her own gym and for the first few years you basically have no time. Until you really make it big you’re basically in the gym all day because the busiest times are from 6am-9am and from 4pm -10pm and you’ve got to have the gym open all through the day as well so your time is not your own. I’ve been used to being self-employed all my life; I like to be the manager of my own time so if I have a one on one facility it means I can create a calendar and block out certain slots so if I’m doing something with my family no one can book that time.

Do you do any boot camps?

The HIIT class is sort of a boot camp. That was how I marketed it at first in January, high intensity boot camp to help you get in shape, but I’ve just rebranded it because I’m doing it three times a week now ongoing.

Did you do it in the park?

We’re on the coast of Scotland so the beach parks are where people take boot camps so that’s where I started off there but it was in January so the winter in Scotland is pretty cold and it’s dark quite early so we were doing it by streetlights. It just wasn’t working; I was sitting and no one was coming up so I moved it to a studio.

Do you plan to go back to the beach in the summer?

In the summer, yeah, I think so to save myself money. I’m paying £10 which is like $13 per hour for the room I use so that’s an extra £30 a week that I could keep to myself. And when it comes to the winter time, hopefully, I’ll have my own facility so we can just move it into there. But even in the summer in Scotland, you have some really rainy days so it would be good to have the option to take it indoors.

Training Philosophy

Let’s talk about your training philosophy as far as Peak Fitness goes. I know you talked about what you like doing for yourself. Online your clients are typically doing contest prep. The people who come to your classes are in a different demographic probably. Talk about your assessment and do you have a standard way you train most people or do you try to tailor it to everyone?

So the HIIT class is all functional type training. It’s marketed as a fat burning class because HIIT is so good for burning fat. But all of the stuff that’s in it is also functional fitness, you know battle ropes and such, so you are building functional strength as well as increasing your metabolic capacity and utilizing EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) to burn more fat. But people come to the class because it’s marketed as a fat burning class. Or they’ll see a calisthenics and come because they want to learn bodyweight training but in the one on one clients, yeah, I do an actual assessment, whether it’s my online or my local clients I have a questionnaire that they fill out and pretty much any detail that I need is on that. What their goal is, their schedule— it gives me all of the parameters that I have to work with. I know a lot of trainers are cheaper than me; I don’t claim to be cheap but that’s because a lot of trainers will have like three templates for different age groups and then they’ll just kind of copy and paste your name in. I like to start every single program fresh and do a bespoke for them, really that is tailored to their goals. What I try to do is get the client to give me at least twelve weeks at each goal before they change it. Because so many trainers will post stuff like, “Get a six pack in six weeks” and it’s really misleading. Don’t get me wrong, if you put somebody on a starvation diet you could get it but as soon as they start eating normally again they’ll just put the weight back on. So if I’m going to create something that’s maintainable for someone I’m going to ask them to give me a certain amount of time to work on that goal and then if they decide after that, “Okay I want to get lean,” I say, “Okay, that’s fine, you’ve got to give me twelve weeks to get you lean now.” Especially if you want repeat customers; people that are going to come back you’ve got to make sure that you’re providing something that’s maintainable. And something that’s going to work long-term rather than something that’s a quick fix.

In helping clients identify goals do you ever pick out someone from a magazine who’s got a similar body type to them; but has a realistic level of fitness to help them or would that just depress them?

My mom is a bit of a fitness fanatic and she’ll come to my class and she’ll say to me, “Kyle, I don’t know if that was a good idea posting that picture of yourself topless because it’s a bit intimidating,” which is something I’ve never came across before. Because as far as social media and online clients, you post a picture of yourself topless after a workout that’s going to get the most likes! I found that local people tend to react better to quotes and pictures of food that tends to motivate them because they’re not very self-motivated. They need someone to push them; they need a class environment where there’s other women who are like them that they can kind of compete with. I try to tell them focus on progress. Even a little progress is progress; try and compete with yourself, focus on how much you can do now versus when you started and that seems to work better for them.

When you go to someone’s home do you train them by themselves or can they bring a buddy?

I think semi-private is the way to go, it reduces the cost of one on one but it’s a much more individual approach than a class training where you have ten to fifteen people in a class and you’re struggling to see each person individually in the class. If I’m doing an hour at a home for one person and they bring a friend, I let them split it which brings the cost down. I’m quite happy to do that. It also acts as a little bit of motivation. I’ve noticed that if I’ve been training someone for a couple of weeks and they want to bring a friend along; suddenly they’ll step up their game because they want to show their friend the improvements they’ve been making.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with your fellow Scotsman, the strength coach, Alwyn Cosgrove, but I remember he mentioned that he likes semi-privates when he was on an older episode of the Fitcast podcast.

Actually I’ve not, the Scottish fitness community isn’t big so I generally know or know of others but I don’t think I’ve seen his stuff, definitely someone to check out though.

I’ll link to him as well. He’s a pretty good person to follow and read.

What are some keys that you give people to maximize the fact that they can optimize their workout area to fit their needs?

Use what you’ve got.

A lot of people have a little room in their house. It’s not always big but a lot of women have a treadmill or something, they might have a couple of kettlebells. I tell them here’s something you can do with what you have. That’s the main thing. If you just have literally nothing at all but you want to go in the living room, move the coffee table aside to do some bodyweight stuff that’s fine. Use what you’ve got.

I know that there’s some element of your in home training that’s bodyweight. You mentioned battle ropes but do you also take along kettlebells, barbells etc.?

I’ve got kettlebells, slam balls, sandbags, sliders for bodyweight training, TRX suspension training equipment. We’re looking to get a set of Power Blocks so we have a dumbbell set that’s adjustable. When I’m buying something for the van, it’s got to be something that I can get multi use out of; I’ve got a big bag of different resistance bands. It’s a lot lighter than carrying about different sets of dumbbells!

Do you have a weighted vest?

I’m getting a weighted vest. I’m doing a charity event, my mother in law just managed to survive breast cancer and there’s a local charity, North Ayrshire Cancer Care they’re really small but they have volunteers, that took her for eight weeks of her treatment; they drove her for two hours every day up to the hospital in Glasgow out of their own time. I was really impressed by that so I decided to do charity events to benefit them. One of the things I decided to do is the Three Peaks Challenge to climb the three highest mountains in England, Wales and Scotland in twenty four hours. You’ve got to drive, climb one, drive to the next and climb that so it’s quite a long distance between each but what I’ve decided to do to make it even harder is to do it while wearing a weight vest. I’ve been in contact with a company called Raptor Weight Vests. They’re a UK company and they’ve decided to sponsor me so they’re providing me with a weight vest.

Hmm. I know you invited me to come to Scotland and work out with you but I’m not coming that day you climb three mountains okay? I’ll be sick that day! We can go look at Dinnie Stones or something but I’m not in for that ha ha!

Competing

So as far as your own competitive career, is it on the back burner or is that something you do to drum up business?

I decided to try the CrossFit Open this year

Well, I’ve always been someone who’s been against CrossFit just because from the coaching side of things I’ve always been heavily focused on form. So I’ve always been against coupling anything that’s sort of metabolically taxing or creates any aerobic fatigue with any kind of complex lift. If you look at any sport as soon as you bring fatigue into it, form and technique is always going to suffer. So if you start doing snatches and clean and jerks when you’re already fatigued then your form is going to suffer and there’s an increased risk of injury. But I watched a Netflix documentary on CrossFit and I looked at some of the top level athletes and even when they’re at complete fatigue their form and technique is so 100 percent spot on and I was impressed by that. I’m still not completely in agreement with it for someone who walks in off the street and doesn’t have any sort of training background; if they’re going to just jump into a WOD and start to race the clock without any technique, I think there’s definitely danger there. But I’ve been training at a CrossFit box for the past three months also because the only thing I can’t coach is Olympic lifting; it’s something I’ve never done. So I decided to do the CrossFit Open and record it for my YouTube channel just trying to show someone who comes from a very strict bodybuilding background how they do in the CrossFit Open.

I watched and enjoyed those videos and I’m linking the playlist for it here. But briefly can you talk about what your impressions of it are now that the Open is over and you’ve had time to process the experience?

Well I am going to be doing a whole video discussing my thoughts on the whole experience, the programming of it all and my thoughts of CrossFit coming out the other side but in short it made me realise, someone would look at me and say how fit I am but fitness for what? When you look at the speed and efficiency of the athletes who are at the top level of CrossFit;  their ability to be so well rounded it’s admiral. I definitely have a different view of it than I had going in. The feeling of the pump when your training for hypertrophy is amazing and so addictive and in my opinion a lot more fun, for me the CrossFit workouts are all generally horrible whilst you’re doing them but there’s still a different type of addictiveness you get from them that makes you want to go back and do it all again and I see why it’s so popular.  You’re either first, second or third or you’re not. And also you can train for a specific event and get better, improve your capacity. My absolute ultimate goal would be to create something in the future that would be generally accepted by most coaches as the ultimate test of fitness.

Oh wow! Then you’d have to decide how you’re going to measure fitness. Because as you said, ,the first question is fit to do what? A strongman is fit to do one thing and a marathoner is fit to do another.

It’s funny, when I was in school at the Scottish School of Sport, one of my lecturers had that as one of the questions, “What is fitness?” and they always responded with, “Fitness for what?”

Well man, it sounds like you’ve got a good plan for the future and you’ve got a really good mix now with going to people’s homes and doing classes. I think that by going to people’s homes you’re filling in the missing piece of the puzzle by providing them the information that they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Last question, how do you want people to get in touch with you? Say someone’s not in Scotland, they’re in Australia but want online training.

I actually have a lot of clients in New Zealand and Australia. Generally you can email me at peakfitness@zoho.com or private message me on Instagram or Facebook and we can set something up there. I’ll send you an initial assessment and we’ll set up a Facetime or Skype to chat then once a month we’ll do a Facetime check in.

note: Kyle and I went off on a long tangent about the idea of what fitness means that had to be cut for this interview. If there’s interest in the discussion we might do a short audio of it in the future.

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The post Bodybuilding Champion Kyle Russell Helps You Achieve Peak Fitness in Your Home appeared first on Garage Gym Life.

Peak Fitness with Kyle Russell

Meet Kyle Russell a mobile personal trainer in North Ayrshire, Scotland.  Kyle travels to his clients’ homes to train them giving them the benefit of his education and in the trenches experience. Kyle actually played soccer here in the States as a teenager before moving back to Scotland where he went on to win the Novice Sports Models Class in the International Natural Bodybuilding Association in 2013. He moved up a class earning 9th at the World Championships in Physique the next year and placed second at the first Layne Norton Classic in Scotland before starting to train functionally. Kyle is a graduate of the Scottish School of Sport who has trained over forty people online. He got on my radar this year shortly after he rebranded his online training business as Peak Fitness and began offering his services to local clients.

Read below to find out how he started his fitness journey, his plans to move Peak Fitness into a home gym and his experience with CrossFit during the 2017 Open.

Background

How long have you been working out, how did you start and how did you start training people in their homes?

Well, it’s quite interesting talking to yourself as Garage Gym Life. The way I got started initially working out; was I must have been 14 years old, and my uncle who was a bodybuilder at a decent level here in Scotland, he actually done all of his training in a back shed in his back garden. He still to this day has got that gym in his shed, I remember going there as a 14 year old kid and there were all of these pictures from these fitness magazines of all these bodybuilder women with competition bikinis on plastered over the shed.

There had to be at least one of Dorian Yates though right?

Probably! Ha ha, but that had to be after my mom noticed that there was a lot of girls and said he had to change it to guys because I’d started to train there. There was definitely a Ronnie. So yeah, that’s kind of how I got started. And then he started to train at a gym locally so we went there with him and then that closed down. I was training to play football (soccer) professionally and because I was quite good I was always playing with older people so they were always bigger. So I had to quickly learn to be too quick for them or I had to bulk up to take a hit. I was living at home at the time, I was only 17 so me and my dad went on Gumtree (the U.K. version of Craigslist) and we bought a bench and weights; got together and put up a pullup bar in the garage. My dad and I started training from the garage all the way up until I went to California and played football over there. That was when I really started training more seriously; did more squats, deadlifts and did more leg stuff.

Switch to Bodybuilding

When I came back from the United States, I was 18, 19; that was when I decided I was going to do bodybuilding. So I just stopped playing soccer all together and started doing bodybuilding; I trained at gyms in Glasgow. I’d done quite a lot in bodybuilding, competed in International Natural Bodybuilding Association (INBA) went over to Greece in 2013 for the world championships and came in first in the novice sports models class in the INBA which is pretty cool. Went back and decided to train for another year in the hopes to go up a class and go to Physique. The year after we went to Slovakia and I took a team of athletes and I ended up finishing 9th in the world in Physique which for my first year in Physique was okay. Came back to the U.K. and– you know Layne Norton?

Talking to Layne Norton backstage after he presented me my trophy in the first ever UKDFBA Layne Norton Classic

GGL Yeah, I actually met him one year at the Arnold Classic Expo (not that he’d remember me of course). He’s a nice guy.

KR Yeah, so he had the UKDFBA Layne Norton Classic here in Scotland so I competed in that and ended up coming in second in the U.K. in the Physique class. But after that I kind of started to train functionally.

An Eye Opener and Switching to Functional Training

It’s a story I tell all of the time but I never get tired of telling it because it was kind of eye opening. At the time I was quite big, had put on a lot of muscle. But I went to gymnastics with my wife and there was a guy there who was working on the paralletes and he was half the size of me but he went into a handstand and started doing handstand pushups and I remember thinking, “I’ve got all of this muscle but I can’t do anything with it. It’s not functional!” So for the next 8-9 months I trained completely calisthenics and done all of that from home. Quit all of my memberships to gyms, got a pullup bar and paralletes trained from home. That was 2015. From there I started to miss the weights and a pretty good gym opened up around the corner from where I lived so I joined that gym and started the heavy lifting again but I kept that functional element in it. Training flowed from a power day, a strength day and a calisthenics day. All within the same structure: a full body workout using different aspects of fitness but still working through the whole body. I hope to move house in a couple of months and then we’re going to build a facility— it won’t be massive but it will be one on one style training facility.

Like what your uncle had?

Yeah, his was made of wood, this will actually be a concrete, solid structure that hopefully will let me train myself but also train others in, one on one or small, semi-private.

Peak Fitness Past, Present and Future
For nine months I trained strictly calisthenics

That sounds pretty awesome. You’re currently building up your local client base by doing mobile personal training; going around to people’s homes along with online stuff right?

From 2014 I’ve been training people online, so if there’s someone who wants to add some muscle or get lean for summer; I train people who want to do different bodybuilding competitions as well in contest prep. But this year I decided to take my business and rebrand it as Peak Fitness; step away from the computer and train people locally. So I bought a lot of gear, stuck it in my van and I’ve been doing mobile PT and doing classes at different small studios. Taking my gear and taking classes, then going to people’s homes. All of that’s kind of building up to have my own facility attached to my home.

You’re a busy guy! If you factor in drive time, plus being at the classes you teach, you have to be at people’s homes and you have to go home and work on the programming for your online clients, review video, pictures for your online clients— that’s a full day every day!

And I still work a day job every day as well until this starts to pay the bills!

Now it makes sense why you want to have your own facility because then you could combine the classes you’re already teaching plus the personal training. Everybody could just come to you; so you’d help more people and have more time for the online part of your business.

Say I was to pick up even more clients and do it all from home. I could have clients from 5-6 and then have my 6 o’clock class, high intensity interval training (HIIT), could be from 6-7. Have another client from 7-8. There would be absolutely no travel time involved. At the moment say I’ve got to be at someone’s at four, then go to the class, I’ve got to leave for class at half five (5:30 for you Americans) to set the class up then be here before anyone comes. That’s all wasted time I’m not getting paid for whereas if I could streamline it and have my own facility, it also means I’ve got the best of gear available all at one time exactly the way I want it. I’ve got it all drawn on a piece of paper, tagged it how I want the gym to be and that’s where I can look at it every day and see that, that’s the end goal.

I want you to understand that for Peak Fitness to be successful as a brick and mortar it’s got to have a Garage Gym Life banner on the wall. All of the market research and studies show that’s a must for real success!

Have you already investigated the requirements for insurance related to having the building on your property and zoning laws?

I’ve got a friend who does drawings for architecture. Here in the U.K. what you call zoning, we call the Planning Commission so you basically have to speak to all of your neighbors to notify them you’re building a second structure and when you buy the house you’ve got to notify them that you’re going to be running a business from home as well.

Because it’s going to be one on one I assume you’re going to be the only instructor so you won’t have to hire staff or worry about insurance.

I thought about opening my own gym but my mother’s friend has her own gym and for the first few years you basically have no time. Until you really make it big you’re basically in the gym all day because the busiest times are from 6am-9am and from 4pm -10pm and you’ve got to have the gym open all through the day as well so your time is not your own. I’ve been used to being self-employed all my life; I like to be the manager of my own time so if I have a one on one facility it means I can create a calendar and block out certain slots so if I’m doing something with my family no one can book that time.

Do you do any boot camps?

The HIIT class is sort of a boot camp. That was how I marketed it at first in January, high intensity boot camp to help you get in shape, but I’ve just rebranded it because I’m doing it three times a week now ongoing.

Did you do it in the park?

We’re on the coast of Scotland so the beach parks are where people take boot camps so that’s where I started off there but it was in January so the winter in Scotland is pretty cold and it’s dark quite early so we were doing it by streetlights. It just wasn’t working; I was sitting and no one was coming up so I moved it to a studio.

Do you plan to go back to the beach in the summer?

In the summer, yeah, I think so to save myself money. I’m paying £10 which is like $13 per hour for the room I use so that’s an extra £30 a week that I could keep to myself. And when it comes to the winter time, hopefully, I’ll have my own facility so we can just move it into there. But even in the summer in Scotland, you have some really rainy days so it would be good to have the option to take it indoors.

Training Philosophy

Let’s talk about your training philosophy as far as Peak Fitness goes. I know you talked about what you like doing for yourself. Online your clients are typically doing contest prep. The people who come to your classes are in a different demographic probably. Talk about your assessment and do you have a standard way you train most people or do you try to tailor it to everyone?

So the HIIT class is all functional type training. It’s marketed as a fat burning class because HIIT is so good for burning fat. But all of the stuff that’s in it is also functional fitness, you know battle ropes and such, so you are building functional strength as well as increasing your metabolic capacity and utilizing EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption) to burn more fat. But people come to the class because it’s marketed as a fat burning class. Or they’ll see a calisthenics and come because they want to learn bodyweight training but in the one on one clients, yeah, I do an actual assessment, whether it’s my online or my local clients I have a questionnaire that they fill out and pretty much any detail that I need is on that. What their goal is, their schedule— it gives me all of the parameters that I have to work with. I know a lot of trainers are cheaper than me; I don’t claim to be cheap but that’s because a lot of trainers will have like three templates for different age groups and then they’ll just kind of copy and paste your name in. I like to start every single program fresh and do a bespoke for them, really that is tailored to their goals. What I try to do is get the client to give me at least twelve weeks at each goal before they change it. Because so many trainers will post stuff like, “Get a six pack in six weeks” and it’s really misleading. Don’t get me wrong, if you put somebody on a starvation diet you could get it but as soon as they start eating normally again they’ll just put the weight back on. So if I’m going to create something that’s maintainable for someone I’m going to ask them to give me a certain amount of time to work on that goal and then if they decide after that, “Okay I want to get lean,” I say, “Okay, that’s fine, you’ve got to give me twelve weeks to get you lean now.” Especially if you want repeat customers; people that are going to come back you’ve got to make sure that you’re providing something that’s maintainable. And something that’s going to work long-term rather than something that’s a quick fix.

In helping clients identify goals do you ever pick out someone from a magazine who’s got a similar body type to them; but has a realistic level of fitness to help them or would that just depress them?

My mom is a bit of a fitness fanatic and she’ll come to my class and she’ll say to me, “Kyle, I don’t know if that was a good idea posting that picture of yourself topless because it’s a bit intimidating,” which is something I’ve never came across before. Because as far as social media and online clients, you post a picture of yourself topless after a workout that’s going to get the most likes! I found that local people tend to react better to quotes and pictures of food that tends to motivate them because they’re not very self-motivated. They need someone to push them; they need a class environment where there’s other women who are like them that they can kind of compete with. I try to tell them focus on progress. Even a little progress is progress; try and compete with yourself, focus on how much you can do now versus when you started and that seems to work better for them.

When you go to someone’s home do you train them by themselves or can they bring a buddy?

I think semi-private is the way to go, it reduces the cost of one on one but it’s a much more individual approach than a class training where you have ten to fifteen people in a class and you’re struggling to see each person individually in the class. If I’m doing an hour at a home for one person and they bring a friend, I let them split it which brings the cost down. I’m quite happy to do that. It also acts as a little bit of motivation. I’ve noticed that if I’ve been training someone for a couple of weeks and they want to bring a friend along; suddenly they’ll step up their game because they want to show their friend the improvements they’ve been making.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with your fellow Scotsman, the strength coach, Alwyn Cosgrove, but I remember he mentioned that he likes semi-privates when he was on an older episode of the Fitcast podcast.

Actually I’ve not, the Scottish fitness community isn’t big so I generally know or know of others but I don’t think I’ve seen his stuff, definitely someone to check out though.

I’ll link to him as well. He’s a pretty good person to follow and read.

What are some keys that you give people to maximize the fact that they can optimize their workout area to fit their needs?

Use what you’ve got.

A lot of people have a little room in their house. It’s not always big but a lot of women have a treadmill or something, they might have a couple of kettlebells. I tell them here’s something you can do with what you have. That’s the main thing. If you just have literally nothing at all but you want to go in the living room, move the coffee table aside to do some bodyweight stuff that’s fine. Use what you’ve got.

I know that there’s some element of your in home training that’s bodyweight. You mentioned battle ropes but do you also take along kettlebells, barbells etc.?

I’ve got kettlebells, slam balls, sandbags, sliders for bodyweight training, TRX suspension training equipment. We’re looking to get a set of Power Blocks so we have a dumbbell set that’s adjustable. When I’m buying something for the van, it’s got to be something that I can get multi use out of; I’ve got a big bag of different resistance bands. It’s a lot lighter than carrying about different sets of dumbbells!

Do you have a weighted vest?

I’m getting a weighted vest. I’m doing a charity event, my mother in law just managed to survive breast cancer and there’s a local charity, North Ayrshire Cancer Care they’re really small but they have volunteers, that took her for eight weeks of her treatment; they drove her for two hours every day up to the hospital in Glasgow out of their own time. I was really impressed by that so I decided to do charity events to benefit them. One of the things I decided to do is the Three Peaks Challenge to climb the three highest mountains in England, Wales and Scotland in twenty four hours. You’ve got to drive, climb one, drive to the next and climb that so it’s quite a long distance between each but what I’ve decided to do to make it even harder is to do it while wearing a weight vest. I’ve been in contact with a company called Raptor Weight Vests. They’re a UK company and they’ve decided to sponsor me so they’re providing me with a weight vest.

Hmm. I know you invited me to come to Scotland and work out with you but I’m not coming that day you climb three mountains okay? I’ll be sick that day! We can go look at Dinnie Stones or something but I’m not in for that ha ha!

Competing

So as far as your own competitive career, is it on the back burner or is that something you do to drum up business?

I decided to try the CrossFit Open this year

Well, I’ve always been someone who’s been against CrossFit just because from the coaching side of things I’ve always been heavily focused on form. So I’ve always been against coupling anything that’s sort of metabolically taxing or creates any aerobic fatigue with any kind of complex lift. If you look at any sport as soon as you bring fatigue into it, form and technique is always going to suffer. So if you start doing snatches and clean and jerks when you’re already fatigued then your form is going to suffer and there’s an increased risk of injury. But I watched a Netflix documentary on CrossFit and I looked at some of the top level athletes and even when they’re at complete fatigue their form and technique is so 100 percent spot on and I was impressed by that. I’m still not completely in agreement with it for someone who walks in off the street and doesn’t have any sort of training background; if they’re going to just jump into a WOD and start to race the clock without any technique, I think there’s definitely danger there. But I’ve been training at a CrossFit box for the past three months also because the only thing I can’t coach is Olympic lifting; it’s something I’ve never done. So I decided to do the CrossFit Open and record it for my YouTube channel just trying to show someone who comes from a very strict bodybuilding background how they do in the CrossFit Open.

I watched and enjoyed those videos and I’m linking the playlist for it here. But briefly can you talk about what your impressions of it are now that the Open is over and you’ve had time to process the experience?

Well I am going to be doing a whole video discussing my thoughts on the whole experience, the programming of it all and my thoughts of CrossFit coming out the other side but in short it made me realise, someone would look at me and say how fit I am but fitness for what? When you look at the speed and efficiency of the athletes who are at the top level of CrossFit;  their ability to be so well rounded it’s admiral. I definitely have a different view of it than I had going in. The feeling of the pump when your training for hypertrophy is amazing and so addictive and in my opinion a lot more fun, for me the CrossFit workouts are all generally horrible whilst you’re doing them but there’s still a different type of addictiveness you get from them that makes you want to go back and do it all again and I see why it’s so popular.  You’re either first, second or third or you’re not. And also you can train for a specific event and get better, improve your capacity. My absolute ultimate goal would be to create something in the future that would be generally accepted by most coaches as the ultimate test of fitness.

Oh wow! Then you’d have to decide how you’re going to measure fitness. Because as you said, ,the first question is fit to do what? A strongman is fit to do one thing and a marathoner is fit to do another.

It’s funny, when I was in school at the Scottish School of Sport, one of my lecturers had that as one of the questions, “What is fitness?” and they always responded with, “Fitness for what?”

Well man, it sounds like you’ve got a good plan for the future and you’ve got a really good mix now with going to people’s homes and doing classes. I think that by going to people’s homes you’re filling in the missing piece of the puzzle by providing them the information that they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Last question, how do you want people to get in touch with you? Say someone’s not in Scotland, they’re in Australia but want online training.

I actually have a lot of clients in New Zealand and Australia. Generally you can email me at peakfitness@zoho.com or private message me on Instagram or Facebook and we can set something up there. I’ll send you an initial assessment and we’ll set up a Facetime or Skype to chat then once a month we’ll do a Facetime check in.

note: Kyle and I went off on a long tangent about the idea of what fitness means that had to be cut for this interview. If there’s interest in the discussion we might do a short audio of it in the future.

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The post Peak Fitness with Kyle Russell appeared first on Garage Gym Life.

DIY Cable Crossover (and it’s adjustable too!) by Ed Olesh

Why a DIY Cable Crossover?

Cost is key for most of use home gym athletes.  Most of us scour the Internet looking for good deals on the equipment we are accustomed to using at our old commercial gyms.  let’s face it, other than squat racks, benches, and plates you have to be lucky to find anything else for a good price on the internet.  Not to say this can’t be accomplished, I myself recently got an Olympic weight leg press and hack squat machine for a fraction of the cost, but it is rare to find stuff of this caliber on craigslist or similar websites.  One piece of equipment that I have yet to see for a reasonable price is a cable crossover machine.  So, I decided I was going to go out on a limb and make a DIY cable crossover.  After looking on YouTube to see if any others have made a DIY cable crossover I noticed that if they had cable crossovers, they were simple and non-adjustable.  The ones that I am describing in this article are adjustable which is extremely useful.

Related Post: Searching Craigslist Like A Pro

I decided that I would build a DIY cable crossover as an addition onto my squat rack.  This serves two purposes, one was to save space, and the other was so I could use the adjustable hooks that hold the barbell as the attachment that would allow the cable to move up and down to different locations.  All the Items that I used for this build were purchased at Lowes for under 150$.

Materials Needed

The first this you will need is a metal L-bar which it what you will bolt to the squat rack.  Next you will need two I-bolts, the kind that have threads on one end and a circle on the other.  These will be where one set of pulleys attach, you will need 4 pulleys all together.  Located in the same area as the pulleys, you will need to get 4 carabiners (6 if you need carabiners for the fly attachment themselves).  With the pulleys and carabiners make sure you get ones rated for enough weight.  They will also carry coated braided cable, which you should get at least 20 feet of, where the chains are located.  While you are there get two pieces of chain about two foot or so in length. The chain does not have to be too big, just big enough for a bolt to slide through the links.  Also in this area, you will need the attachment to put a loop in the ends of the cables, get four and make sure they are the right size for your cable.  Next go to pluming, there you will see metal piping and attachments.  Here you will need two ~6-inch-long pipe and two floor phalanges.  Get 1 ½ inch pipes if you have Olympic plates.  Other things you may have at home or need to pick up are 3/8 bolts (4) nuts (6) washers (6) and drill bit that can go through metal (be careful some that say metal are only rated for aluminum).

The Build
Step 1

First start by attaching the L-bar to the squat rack or apparatus you wish to use.  This is done by measuring out the distance between the two mid-points in the section that the L-bar will be attached to.  Mark the two points on the center of the L bar and drill out the holes.

Step 2

Then mark the holes you drilled by placing the L-bar on the squat rack and tracing the holes with a marker.  I would suggest drilling the top hole out without the L-bar on, and then to make sure everything lines up drill the bottom hole out with the L-bar clamped down.  Go ahead on bolt the bar down with two of the bolts washers and nuts.  Next drill out the holes for the I bolts, and attach them with washers and nuts.   These I bolts will be used to hold one set of pulleys by a carabiner.  These holes need to be directly above where you want the weights to be pulled off the floor from.  If you have a vice it makes drilling the holes in the metal pipe a little easier.

Step 3

Drill a hole all the way through the pipe about an inch from the edge, so that one of the bolts can go through.  This is going to be how the pipe attaches to the cable.  Once you have done this to both pipes go ahead and attach the floor phalanges to the pipe.at this point you are going to want to measure out how much cable you want to cut.  Measure from the hole you made in the pipe, with enough to make the loop, to the setting about half way down.  When you use this at the higher settings you may have to step away from the rack but it’s the way this is set up.  Go ahead and cut the cable and put the loop on the side that attaches to the pipe.

Step 4

BEFORE attaching the other loop to the other side, run the cable through ALL PULLEYS, two per side.  At this point one pulley should be attached to the I bolts on the L-bar and one should be free floating on the cable.  Attach a carabiner to the free-floating pulley.  This is going to be where the cable system attaches to the moveable holder of the squat rack.  It doesn’t matter what you use to loop the cable system to this area if you can get it on and off easily and not break under the weight you will be using.   Then go ahead and make the other loop on the opposite side where the cable attachment such as fly grips or cable EZ curl attachment will clip on to.  You will notice that if you try to but the cables all the way down to the floor, the weight holder comes off the ground.  This is what the chain you bought was for.  Go ahead and measure and cut the chain with bolt cutters to the right length.

Wrapping Up

Congratulations! At this point you should have a working DIY cable crossover that is adjustable and sturdy.  This system, if you got the materials to support the weight, will be able to hold any amount of weight you would want to use.  Your friends will be jealous and talk about how awesome it is that you have this in your gym.  Hopefully this piece of equipment will be useful for you on your fitness journey and always #garagegymlife.

Follow Ed’s training on Instagram @powerlifting_and_fish.

The post DIY Cable Crossover (and it’s adjustable too!) by Ed Olesh appeared first on Garage Gym Life.

Swimming with a Shark: The Story of PRX Performance

 

The Audacity of PRx Performance

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban said in a 2014 Inc magazine article, “Many bold companies don’t set out to be audacious. They see a better way to do something and work to make it happen—” Maybe that’s how PRx Performance founders Erik Hopperstad and Brian Brasch, went from an idea born next from a bonfire and a few beers to a Shark Tank appearance and a lucrative partnership with Cuban’s most Wonderful co star, Kevin O’Leary. I had the chance recently to pick PRX Performance CEO Brian Brasch’s brain for an eye-opening thirty minutes. Read what he told me below.

Thanks for taking time to share a little of the PRx Performance story. You guys have a Crossfit background. Did you all immediately start training at home or was it at a local box?

I didn’t really feel like I had the knowledge of how to train at home until I started going to CrossFit. So yeah, my partner and I started CrossFitting in 2010; that’s where I’d say a lot of those ideas were born.

Yeah, I saw that you and Erik were at a friend’s competition and you watched a collar come off and that’s how you got the idea for the PRx Performance Talon right?

Yeah exactly, she was just really upset; she’s really just ultra-competitive and the fact that the equipment failed and that ruined months of training for her— I was in the automotive business at the time in manufacturing so when you see something break and it defeats months of someone’s work, you know that there’s a market.

Here’s the other interesting thing about that. We all see things like that and everybody’s like, “Man! There should be a__” . Like the  Racks came from the need to keep your cars indoors in the North Dakota winters.  I know that you’ve got experience in business startup, but how did you know that this concept for PRx Performance was one that would be a winner?

First: you need passion for something. Just seeing an opportunity isn’t enough. You’ve got to love the industry, which at the time we were just huge CrossFit fans. Two: you need to be able to commit time after your existing job to doing something. And time is just a huge piece of it. And then too, what you need to do is – and this is something I’ve learned even after the fact – is just go out and talk to people. Like, just ‘cause one person needs something and you need it doesn’t mean everybody needs it. So just really dive in. What we’re talking about here is execution. People have amazing ideas all the time but you’ve got to take those first steps, and once you kind of qualify that there’s a need and ‘I think I know how to make this or I’ll figure out how to make it’, then let’s give it a shot. After that it comes down to resources. Capital, etc and there’s a million ways to go down that rabbit hole but that’s what you need to get started is that validation point.

You’ve got to have a passion for your industry and know your market – Brian Brasch

I said that you’re a serial entrepreneur.  Is this the first business that you’ve been involved in within the fitness space?

In the fitness space? Yes.

I watched your video and it said that the manufacturing business has been creating metal products for one hundred years, so is that a business that you were already involved in or did you buy it? How did you create that connection?

I bought in. In my previous background, I was with Microsoft and I just wanted to buy my own business, so I bought into a manufacturing business that had been around for ninety years at the time. When I came in, I added laser cutters and robotic welding, and that’s when I saw this need for this barbell collar.  I then had a friend who I was working out with and she goes, “Hey I’m going to start a gym. Would you build me a rig?”

That was Jessica Grondahl right?

Yeah, that was Jess. And at the time it was taking one of the only suppliers nationwide six months to deliver product and I built a rig from scratch in eight weeks and delivered it to her. So luckily, I had the resources and all of a sudden, I’m in the rig business.

Okay so basically certain things came together: you were doing CrossFit, you bought into this fabrication company, and I’m assuming she kind of knew because CrossFit’s a tightknit community so she knew, this guy has a connection with a fabricator, maybe he can help me out.

Yeah, exactly.

First Things First

What were some best practices that you knew because you’d done this before, that you all needed to do from the get go for PRx Performance to have a chance to break into the crowded workout equipment space?

There’s two things and I’m going to give you the simple one first.

Talk to two hundred people. Would you buy this? How much would you pay for it? Do it whether they’re in that market demographic or not, and that’s going to help you fine tune the product, fine tune the price, as well as help you fine tune the message— but two hundred people is kind of a rule when you’re going to take something new to market. I mean, that’s essentially what crowdfunding is. It’s just validating the product and the need for the product. I hope before somebody starts doing their crowdfunding campaign that they’ve already talked to two hundred people, and those two hundred people said yes, so you get two hundred sales the first day. Not that everybody’s going to say yes.
Download a business canvas. People hear business plan, and I’ve done business plans that are forty-fifty pages, but you don’t need to be that intense. If you just start with a one-page business canvas: you talk about the customer, the problem, the alternatives, the solutions, the benefits, the advantages, what you’re bringing to the table, what kind of messaging you’re going to use, the distribution and then run through the financials; both startup and ongoing cost. You can run through that pretty quickly. Put it all down, have your little elevator pitch ready and that’s just a great place to start.

This originally started off with just you and one partner right? How did you all meet?

My wife was the maid of honor in his wedding. So, a lot of time spent around campfires and beers. And every New Year’s we’d talk about how were going to get in shape. In 2009, I was like, “Hey Man, you’ve got to try CrossFit! And next thing you know, it was just game on. Fast forward to 2013, we’re sitting in front of the fire, drinking beers and saying, “You know what? We can do better than these other guys! Let’s start building stuff. Let’s start a company— what names are available?” And it just went from there.

I’m starting to see a North Dakota fire and beer theme here.

Ha ha! Clearly in July, it was not in January!

The reason I brought that up is trust is a huge thing. You’ve got this idea and you’ve finally gotten the courage to say, “You know this might change my family’s life! Now you’ve got to trust somebody enough to tell them. Because what’s everybody afraid of? Someone’s going to steal their idea. It sounds to me like you built a relationship over the course of years before you said, “Yeah, this is the guy I’m going to partner with on this business idea.”

Absolutely! And it’s not even really about the ideas. You know, people have an idea, but there’s not much value in an idea.

We wanted to create something you can literally leave in your will to your kids, to the grandkids – Brian Brasch

There’s value in doing the research, creating the patent, making the samples, and testing the market. Ideas aren’t really worth anything. I’m sure that there’s amazing fitness equipment out there that never went past the idea stage and there’s some bad fitness equipment products, but somebody marketed it properly and took it to market and now it’s worth a ton of money.

Yeah and now you’re the consumer at home mad like, “I wish they hadn’t been so brave then they wouldn’t have tricked me and I wouldn’t be saddled with this piece of garbage!” Ha ha!

The Courage to Try

So let’s talk about this. CrossFit has changed the world. Not just the fitness landscape but the business landscape; creating opportunities that just weren’t there before. I mean even ten years ago no one would dream that long socks with pizza and donuts on them would be a hot ticket item for men and women.  But because CrossFit is such big business now are you all afraid that the market is saturated with companies throwing products at affiliates and CrossFitters? Is it getting crowded out there for small business? What would you say to somebody who looks at these big companies and wonders how they’ll compete with them?

Absolutely. I think that’s kind of a two part question. One regarding the patents, and the other one is really the path to market. And, is it becoming overcrowded? Absolutely! But that doesn’t mean people can’t become successful and win if they execute better than the other guy. So if you have the idea that’s different, or if you can do it better, I’d encourage people to go for it because the market is so huge. What I would also encourage other people is look for new markets that are emerging and growing. I don’t think anybody expected CrossFit to get this big but you could see it ramping. Not was there not a great supplier; there was only one working through and learning as they grew, but the equipment needs changed. And as people were performing different exercises like putting bars over their heads and dropping it ten times, all of a sudden nothing on the market would fill those needs.  So, it might even be a new CrossFit movement that comes out in the next six months that creates its own little submarket. So just looking for those opportunities is, in my eyes, what’s important. Because if you’re an inventor it’s always easier to have something new and different than to have a “me too” product and compete with thinner margins.

When you said that, and I hadn’t thought about it until just now, there’s a value in going small. Because people respect it when you’re like the mom and pop or a veteran owned business. So you have a small company that might just be one fabricator working in his shop but people will patronize him simply because they know, “He doesn’t have a million orders to fill. He’s just got me.” Hopefully he’s got more than just you but you feel like if there’s a problem, you can call this guy and he’ll fix it. Everyone who has a homegym is a gym owner but they don’t have the same need; for me I just need a power rack that I can pass on to my grandkids.

It’s funny you say that because I was going to bring that up next. Anybody who’s tried both the other products out there, we are leagues, bounds and leaps ahead of everyone from the functionality to the look and feel and ease of installation.  That’s just who we are. We wanted to create something you can literally leave in your will to your kids, to the grandkids. And you know with American made, we overbuild it. We’re definitely limiting our market, but you know people who have a garage, they want something that’s going to last.

People get nervous about patents. PRx Performance now competes with two companies offering products similar to your racks.  Well, if you’re fighting a bigger kid down the street, you’d get your big brother and a patent is the government being big brother to help you out right?

In full disclosure too, all a patent is, is the right to sue. At one time we had seven companies copying us. We went through the normal steps, two companies backed off right away. But after you send Cease and Desist, triple damages start to accrue and we are getting our strategy together. I mean this is our dream! We’re not going to let everybody get away with it! So it’s going to be a long process, but thank goodness we have a partner who’s going to help us. It’s not a cheap thing to protect what’s yours.

an idea born around a bonfire led to a Shark Tank appearance and partnership with investor Kevin O’Leary

And now he’s invested in the idea because he wants to back his money.

So to wrap up, we’ve focused on the United States because that’s where PRx Performance is based, but I was talking to a guy who’s in Australia about two weeks ago and you know it’s a continent. And they have such a huge problem there because especially in some of the smaller areas, they don’t have manufacturers there to make equipment for them. And shipping to Australia is murderous.

Well, there are two reasons that it’s that way in Australia. One: it’s such a huge country. Two: the shipping rates are about triple what they are in the United States. I mean, our packages, people are surprised when it shows up on their doorsteps. Just our rack is 180lbs. If you try to ship one of those in Australia—I mean it’s about $150 just to ship one in the U.S. for starters. So, in Australia, another $500, not to mention the cost to get it over there. Between that and just not having all the resources there, they have their own problems and opportunities too, it’s just a different market.

So it seems to me that the environment is ripe if you’re in Australia to ship within the continent.

We’re actually in talks with someone in Australia now.

Wow, that’s huge! But do you have any words of encouragement or advice for someone in that situation; where it’s not an overcrowded market that’s the problem but the intimidation of there not being anything really that you can look at as a blueprint? I mean, I’ve never been there but for example powerlifting is huge there so if I’m in Perth, or Corinda and I’m a blacksmith; I know that if I start making that stuff, maybe I can’t afford to ship outside of Corinda but I can help out my own town. After all, if there’s nothing there, that means no competition.

That is good from one perspective, but when we started building rigs— you’d think it’d be easy. I mean, you’ve got bars, you’ve got holes but we went through so much R&D and didn’t finalize our final rev until about two years. So even if they get their hands on a different one, it’s not quite as clear and straight forward as it would seem. Not to mention once you’ve gotten it perfected, do you know that market, do you know how to reach that market? There’s something to be said for having the passion for the industry ‘cause it’s more than just understanding the products.  It’s knowing how to get the product to market.

Okay so I lied. We’re not wrapping because I just thought of this related to the innovation hurdles for PRx Performance in the early days. I promise we’ll be done after this.

Ha ha okay.

You have a connection with a business that’s been making, fabricating metal for ninety plus years. But making a collapsible power rack is a different proposition. I can’t even imagine trying to describe it to a fabricator; like explaining a lowrider with switches to someone who’s never seen a car. How did you get that conversation going was it a matter of just drawing stuff, saying “Okay, it’s kind of like this but it’s also like this?”

Well, the first thing to remember is an acronym I’m going to describe. I didn’t just work with the engineers in that company. And this is a great resource if you don’t have a lot of money, but you need a lot of educated people is to come up with an ISO or NSO (Nonqualified Stock Option). ISO is people working for you but NSO is what I want to focus on. So it allows you to go out to industry experts and say, “Hey, I’m starting a company, this is what I’m doing, would you do this for me? Would you design this, would you market for me? Would you build a website? And in return I’ll allow you to opt in my company, they invest over a four year period but the work has to be done in the first year. We brought in about 18 experts in their own little industries together including five engineers. Some that had a fitness background and said, let’s make this perfect system. So we did that with no cash. So someday it’s worth more and more money and they trade in their options for stock, they’re going to be paid in perpetuity or sell the shares so it’s going to be a nice win for everybody who believed in our dream.  It’s kind of a cool way to get started and get everybody invested with you.

Thank you very, very much. Good luck with your business. I was so motivated; I’d seen the PRx Performance episode on Shark Tank and I felt like I won a little bit too because you guys are home gym guys. If I’m ever in North Dakota, I’ll be sure to start a fire in honor of this conversation!

John, that’s awesome. And thanks for your time as well! Have some beers with those fires, ha ha!

Brian’s Recommended Resources

 Costarters.co Creates accountability. It’s nine weeks, you meet once a week and you’re with fifteen other entrepreneurs and that’s a great environment

Patentwizard.com With a little bit of research you can file a provisional for under $1000 and that buys you a year. And you can feel free to have conversations and talk to everybody. But you’ve got a year to file a non provisional if it’s done right, that’s going to be $10-15k so now you’ve got a deadline to prove that it’s worth it.

The post Swimming with a Shark: The Story of PRX Performance appeared first on Garage Gym Life.

From the Ground Up with Kingdom of Iron

Welcome to The Kingdom of Iron

Tell me about Kingdom of Iron. How many partners do you have in the venture and what are the skill sets that they bring to the table?

Kingdom of Iron is a stand-apart company that inspires people to build their own kingdom and ignite their passion for health. The fitness industry has taken a superficial turn and it’s our responsibility to bring it back to what matters, inner strength. Health will never take a beat seat with us because our practices are deliberately designed to instill confidence and success in all our clients.

Our unique skill set ranges from traditional anatomy, physiology and nutrition knowledge to having unwavering positivity, out of this world energy levels and just being plain fun to be around. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk too! Health is our life and our enthusiasm is contagious.

You guys first dreamed of having your own gym in 10th grade.  Now you’re making that dream a reality. I know that you said that you’re doing this because you don’t want to get old and regret that you never made your dream a reality. How did you have the courage to turn dreams into reality?

The reason we got into the fitness industry is because of our intense desire to make a difference in people’s lives and to start a new conversation about health. Being employed by someone other than ourselves greatly hindered the level at which we could reach people.

So many people out there are in need of guidance and motivation and we want to be that source of courage for them, but to do that we needed to find our own courage first. As daunting as the decision to follow our dreams was, in our eyes, there really was no other option. We put our blood, sweat and tears into what we do in hopes that it will motivate others to do the same.

Have any of you owned a business or worked in a gym before?

Kingdom of Iron is our first venture into the business world. As a whole, we have considerable experience in the fitness industry varying from personal and group training to exercise equipment installation and fabrication. We also have a combination of certifications and diplomas and we don’t plan on stopping there!

What are your backgrounds? You guys are making the equipment for your gym; is this just to save money or do you all plan to continue to do that as an additional service for the public?

We are building Kingdom of Iron from the ground up and that takes a lot of time and money. Right now we are trying to save money and making our own equipment contributes greatly to that. Fabricating and welding are a passion of ours as well and one day we would like to have our own equipment brand but right now we are still testing out prototypes and refining our skills. Selling our made equipment is not a priority for our business at this point in time.

Social Networking

What inspired you guys to do a video series about the process of building a business from the ground up?

It seems that today’s society conforms to this one formula to reach happiness: University + Job + Marriage + Kids + Retirement = Happiness. There’s nothing wrong with that formula but because it is the only formula talked about people are unaware that there are so many more equations to happiness. Our “Road to the Kingdom” series is just that, another equation. By showcasing our triumphs, our stand stills and our failures, it really allows people to view our authenticity and believe that opening their own business is a reality.

I think it was huge that you guys took the time to do a business plan episode!  That episode is the most popular one in the series so far. Why do you think it’s struck a chord among your subscribers?

Creating a business plan is the most helpful and essential part of starting a business, it is your businesses blueprint. It helps to organize your thoughts, clarify your ideas and really makes the whole process seem a little more achievable, that’s why we think it did so well. Seeing the whole process from the very beginning really shows the viewers that it’s not as intimidating as it seems if you break it down into steps.

I love your authenticity by the way, you guys show bloopers like the bank trip on a Saturday and when the bench press uprights didn’t go back like they were supposed to. That’s awesome because it allows your customers to learn that they can trust you to be transparent.  Whose idea was that?

We always wanted to show bloopers even before we started filming, it was just an idea we were all set on. It really does add an aspect of genuineness to our channel and business. We don’t only work hard but we have fun in the process and like to put a smile on people’s faces.

Once Kingdom of Iron is open do you plan to continue to offer behind the scenes, how the sausages are made videos for people as a learning tool?

We absolutely plan on continuing behind the scene videos as well as new series and funny videos when we have the facility. We love to educate and inspire but also to look back on our journey! We would like become more of an entertainment channel in the near future.

Social media marketing has so many pitfalls. So many people think they just need to get on Instagram, Facebook and just by virtue of them being on there, customers will flock to them.  Then you’ve got the brands that go the spammy route of just throwing their brand information onto other people’s posts with language like check out @joesannoyingwidgets or whatever.  You guys seem to have a strategy that involves building a following before your business really exists so you’re really building buzz for your business in a way that’s not annoying. Did you guys hire a social media strategist for Kingdom of Iron or did you all just come up with this strategy among yourselves?

We decided to take the role of researching into our own hands. This way we could take the time to do it right because, just like you said, we don’t want to be that “annoying” brand that hassles consumers and has no substance. We also take every chance we can to learn new things and skills. Our amazing videographer from Truespective Videos helps us out a lot with our videos as well!

What were some unexpected pitfalls that you ran into on your journey to open your business?

We’ve been very lucky up to this point and haven’t run into any huge road blocks yet. We have a different approach to dealing with failure; we welcome it because it makes room for opportunity and growth.

Where have been the best places you’ve found to get inexpensive equipment?

We’ve checked out quite a few used equipment places and the one thing that always determines the price is quality of relationship. We make sure to nurture our relationships with these companies and if they treat us well we become repeat customers and if we treat them well we get the best deals.

Give me your top five fitness related books. I’m a fan of Zach Even Esh, Ross Enamait, James Fuller, Dan John, Steve Goggins, Stuart McRobert, Mark Bell and the original guys from Barbell Shrugged, among others. Who do you follow as far as other strength coaches and why?

The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine This book is amazing! It talks about how powerful nature’s healing abilities are and how nutrition plays a huge role in fitness.
The Frozen Shoulder. This book really has helped us to deal with our imbalances and mobility issues. It has taught us a lot about movement patterns and injuries.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Although this isn’t fitness related it is one of the best books we have EVER read. It has helped us tremendously with how we interact with clients and run our business.
Ignite The Fire This book really helped us out as new trainer’s because it gave insight into experiences of expert trainers and helped us to plan for the future.
Driven by Robert Herjavec. Again, it’s not fitness related but it gave us some much insight into the business world and gave us great ideas to implement at our facility.

We don’t follow any specific strength coaches. We keep our minds open because no one person knows absolutely everything.

Have you started looking at things like insurance, whether or not to hire staff at Kingdom of Iron, etc?

We’ve incorporated all of our expenses into our business plan and also allotted for unexpected costs. Of course, unexpected things will pop up but we are trying our best to be prepared. We’ve also taken it upon ourselves to go out into the field and interview some business owners and gym owners to learn about their experience and see things from their perspective. We are not planning on hiring staff in the near future, our current Kingdom of Iron team is more than capable of continuing and growing our success.

Have you guys explored certification for the types of customers you plan to attract?

Right now certifications are not a priority, continuing our education, yes, but not racking up certifications. We would like to go back to school in the future to become massage therapists and chiropractors so we can appeal to a larger audience and offer more services that a lot of people could use.

Who are your main business influences? Do you all have business mentors? I saw you guys talk to a couple of business owners in your videos, do you have dedicated mentors you touch base with to make sure that you all are staying on track with your goals?

We have so many influences and mentors we don’t know where to start! We have family members who have done very well in business, friends who have successfully opened businesses and one day we hope to be business influences of our own.

Let’s talk about the gym itself. Describe your fitness philosophy? What sort of will Kingdom of Iron be and what’s your target market?

Our philosophy is simple, build YOUR kingdom. Everyone has a unique set of needs and we take a holistic approach to helping them. We would like to open a facility where all walks of life are welcome and feel comfortable because our philosophy applies to every human being.

Have you identified a location yet? If not, what are you looking for as the physical home of Kingdom of Iron?

We are still looking around for a physical facility. The location is not determined yet because we are still doing our research on certain areas. We are looking for a high traffic area, where there is a gap in the market that needs to be filled and that is around 4000sqft.

So then can people sign up for memberships now or is that further down the road?

Within the next year we will have a physical facility and then we will be offering memberships to anyone! We are, however, taking online clients for personalized training programs and customized meal plans right now!

Besides your online clients do you all have clients who train in your garage gym now?

We do have clients in our garage gym and it has been increasing ever since our equipment inventory and social media following has grown. It gets pretty busy when the weather gets warmer!

So if you don’t have memberships but you do have clients training there, is Kingdom of Iron semi-private or invite only?

Our garage gym is available to the public on an appointment basis. All you have to do is shoot us an email ryanjeet.bahra@gmail.com and we can schedule a session.

How can people follow you and stay informed about the progress of the business?

Facebook: Kingdom Of Iron

Instagram: @kingdomofiron

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8o...

Email:ryanjeet.bahra@gmail.com

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Setting a Planned System in Place to Achieve Long Term Success

Setting a Planned System in Place to Achieve Long Term Success

For long term success, smart athletes stack blocks of training one after another, focusing on recovery and executing good reps. Instead of focusing on a weakness for a short time to shore it up, many people I know use an unplanned, flavor of the day method. This methodology completely fails to prioritize any specific strength/skill work and can be compared to a vehicle just spinning its wheels with little traction.

Why Should You Listen to Me?
January 4th, 2016 was the first time I had ever had a barbell on my back. I maxed out my back squat at 270, deadlift at 350, bench press at 195, and strict press at 115. I had absolutely no experience in any powerlifting moves but I knew two things following graduation from U.S. Army Ranger School:

1. I was weak and I needed to be stronger if I was going to be competitive with my peers physically.

2. I was skinny and emaciated and I wanted to look like I thought a “Ranger” should look.

By the end of that first year, I back squatted 405, deadlifted 455, bench pressed 265 and strict pressed 170. Not mind-blowing. Anyone willing to put in the work could do the same. Guess what? I achieved these results without injury and while working 10–12 hours days attending various Army schools and training events. The way I was able to keep plodding along in making consistent progress in my strength training was a combination of patience, periodization, and prioritization.

Patience aka Developing Your Body not Your Ego

Be patient! I cannot stress enough the importance of patience in developing strength! If you want to have any long term success in strength training, you need to be patient in how quickly you progress the load you’re putting on your body. This probably sounds like an obvious statement but when you’re only squatting 185 for 5×5 and your friends are repping 315 it can be severely tempting to allow your ego to get the best of you. I would encourage anyone who wants to become significantly stronger than the average population to check their ego at the door when they enter the gym. The gym is for developing your body not your ego!

But What About Gains Brah

The major issue with ego lifting is that it forces most people to go too heavy too quickly. Strength development begins at a load of 60% of your 1RM so even though 60% of 270 is only a measly 160, if your programming calls for 5×5 at 60% stick to that shit! Speaking from experience, the people that train patiently are more consistent and their slow strength progression builds over time until eventually they are stronger than the people they used to feel inferior to in the next rack.

Periodization
Strength development begins at a load of 60% of your 1RM

Crack open any textbook that covers physical development or training methodology; one of the introductory chapters will be  dedicated to one subject: periodization. It’s extremely well known in the fitness industry from strength to endurance sports, but such a tried and true, non-sexy concept it gets very little love from clickbait-ey writers. Despite the lack of provocative headlines, periodization HAS to be a part of your plan for long term success. Periodization works because the human body responds to physical load by supercompensating. The body actually prepares for a greater workload than what it just moved. This pattern continues for weeks, after which the body needs a deload week to recover from the long term fatigue. What proper periodization generally looks like is some form of Base, Build, Peak. In strength sports you might call it a Volume, Strength, Power sequence. If you are preparing for a competition, that provides a good date to plan around for the end of your training period. However, if you don’t have a planned competition to prepare for the ideal length of a full training cycle is around 16–18 weeks. I have laid out my current training plan below as an example.

NOTE: This training plan is specifically tailored to MY training goals. The timeline and rep scheme can likely be replicated with some success but the exercises are specifically tailored to my needs as an athlete.

Volume Exercises: Front Squats (Beltless, Paused if Possible),Strict Press (No Wrist Wraps), Deadlift (Beltless, Speed Pull), Push Press (Beltless, No Wrist Wraps)

WK 1: 4×10 @ 55%

WK 2: 4×10 @ 60%

WK 3: 4×8 @ 65%

WK 4: 4×7 @ 70%

WK 5: 5×5 @ 75%

WK 6: DELOAD 5×5 @ 50%

Strength Exercises: Front Squats (w/ Belt),Strict Press (wrapa), Deadlift (w/ Belt), Push Press (Beltless, w/ wraps)

WK 1: 5×5 @ 80%

WK 2: 4×4 @ 85%

WK 3: 4×3 @ 90%

WK 4: 4×2 @ 95%

WK 5: DELOAD 5×5 @ 50%

Peaking Exercises: Front Squat, Strict Press, Deadlift, Push Press, Back Squat (Max Only), Bench Press (Max Only)

WK 1: 5×2 @ 90%

WK 2: 4×2 @ 100%

WK 3: 4×1 @ 105%

WK 4: 3×1 @ 105, 106, 107%

WK 5: DELOAD 5×5 @ 50%

WK 6: Max!!!

Prioritization

In the U.S. Army we often say: if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. This means limited resources must be reconciled with massive demand. In training, we have unlimited performance demands. Everyone wants to be able to squat 800 and run a 4 minute mile. Unlike Captain America or Wolverine, the normal human body has very limited resources to repair damage caused by training. Your body can’t quickly repair itself from too much different micro traumas. This increased recovery time decreases performance in successive training sessions and the trauma resulting from training will be lessened. Since the body has less training trauma to recover from, physical adaptations occur at a glacial pace. In English that means, you trained so hard that you were too sore at the next session to train hard enough to continue to improve. Not a good formula for long term success!

Focus Grasshopper!

Focus instead on building up one area at a time. By limiting the amount of trauma and training stimuli you expose your body to you can achieve rapid improvements in concentrated areas. I utilize this principle to inform my compound movement selection when I plan out a training cycle. I select my compound movements after basic video analysis of my max effort lifts (because the goal is getting better at those lifts). Seeing a video of the lift makes it clear where the weakness in the movement lies. For example, when back squatting I shoot my hips up out of the hole which indicates I have weak quads (preach). To fix, I have incorporated front squats as one of my primary compound lifts this cycle.

Takeaway

If this seems concept seems basic and simple, it’s because it is! However, I see many of my friends and acquaintances failing to attack their weaknesses in this manner. However, if you can apply these principles to your training and follow some sort of a focus planned for a 16–18 week block you will see substantial improvement. Each year. Long term success in athletic performance has to be thought of in years if you want to achieve anything that truly puts you a few standard deviations above the average person. Good luck, trust the process.

Interested in working with Brad? Connect with him on Instagram @brad.backhand or subscribe to his YouTube channel: bbachand93

The post Setting a Planned System in Place to Achieve Long Term Success appeared first on Garage Gym Life.

The Powerful Secret to Permanent Fat Loss

Secrets of Permanent Fat Loss Revealed

What are the secrets to permanent fat loss? I always go back to three powerful things that I find are vital for my clients to understand about the journey to their goal weight: Sacrifice, self-discipline and hard work.

The Problem Isn’t Lack of Knowledge
Garage gym coach Michelle Simpson didn’t use quick fixes to become a Body For Life Champion

What do we need to know about losing weight? That is the question that is driving the multi-million dollar “Diet” industry. There are about as many weight loss programs and schemes out there as there are stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach.

Ten foods never to eat again

Twenty supplements to boost your metabolism

Thirty days to washboard abs.

Forty ways to hack your health

Forty-two- the answer to life the universe and everything. (Sorry, I digress…)

Fifty drinks that burn fat

Sixty ice water diets

Seventy beans to avoid

Eighty blah, blah, blah…

And it goes on and on and on. The reality is, we know what we need to do to lose the unwanted fat! Instead, we want the quick and easy miracle fix that won’t require sacrifice, self-discipline and good old fashion work. I get an an amazing amount of phone calls and emails asking

if I have pills, shots and or miracle shakes. In the past I would, and probably should begin again, avoid the question and ask a few questions of my own; what are their goals for weight loss? How long do you expect it to take to lose that weight? Then, I try to find out their “why”. What is it that is pushing them at this point in their life to try a new weight loss program? Most people at this point begin to realize that I am avoiding their initial question and hang up. There are very few that stay on the line through out this process.

Sacrifice aka Embrace the Suck
Sacrifice might mean working out after being up all night with the new baby like Tayler Schrader

Yes, sacrifice is hard, it means we have to give up, abandon, surrender, relinquish, etc… Well, that principle does not sit well with our instant gratification society. We want what we want and we want a lot of it now!! The item or items that each person needs to sacrifice is different. No one sacrifice will work for each person. What some consider a sacrifice to others is no big deal to give up. The good news here is that we may not need to sacrifice the item permanently or completely. For instance Ben & Jerry’s

Phish Food is a comfort for for me. It is some thing that when I began my journey I had to give up completely for several years. You see I couldn’t eat just one serving and be fine, I ate the whole pint each time I had it. If it was a particularly stressful week I may eat several pints (I would keep spoons in my glove box in case such an emergency arose).

Self Discipline

Self discipline makes truck driver Damir Sarcev take a portable grill on the road so he can eat healthier

Unfortunately, our North American does not do a very good job of instilling the concept of self-discipline. Lets be honest most of the time we just don’t want to restrain ourselves. Its just so limiting. As noted above I had to sacrifice the Phish Food because when it came to that particular comfort food I lack the self-discipline to stop at one serving. We see the negative side of self discipline and forget to look at the positive sides. You see self-discipline can also be seen as persistence, determination and full of grit. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, these men were determined, persistent, full of grit and doggedness. Don’t you want to see yourself as them? It takes the same kind of self-discipline to gain control over yourself. But, to do so we have to become uncomfortable, and everything within us wants to be comfortable.

 Hard Work, Say It Ain’t So
Hard work took Randy Olson (on right with P90X creator and home gym athlete Tony Horton) from over 300lbs to being a transformation champion and nutrition coach

Sacrifice and self-discipline can cause pain as does our third requirement, hard work! In my opinion neither sacrifice nor self-discipline are easy, they take work on our part. As mentioned above, the way our society influences our view of both sacrifice and self-discipline can make us feel that they are a drudgery, toil or slog. We must put in considerable effort and be industrious if we are going to make long term gains on our on our weight loss goals. As the saying goes, “if it were easy everyone would do it”. The reality of the effort we must put in causes many of us to give up when we do not progress as quickly as we would like. But, every ounce adds up to pounds and lead us to our desired goal. I have a friend that trusted the process even though her weekly losses were small. Her average loss per week was usually less than one-half pound. She lost 110 pounds! That my friends is significant! She lost one-half her body weight, but it took her nearly two years of slow methodical work!

Trust the Process
I want to see as many people as possible succeed on their weight loss goals! But, I want them to understand that the magical miracle pills are sacrifice, self-discipline and work. To hope otherwise is to live in a fantasy that is sure to disappoint.

Go, Exceed Your Vision!
Have a question for Randy? Find him on Instagram or his website!

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The Pursuit of Excellence with Brian Pankey

Origin of Brian Pankey #thewinteruncle

The hashtag #thewinteruncle came from a video Brian Pankey and I did Thanksgiving 2016. It’s a play

Our brotherhood is real because of the Father who created it and us.

on a scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But Brian Pankey’s story began years ago;The tale of how we came to be brothers has already been told here. He’s built his backyard gym from a dream and gone from an undersized kid  to a local celebrity in his hometown of Dayton, TN, mentor to others and an inspiration to garage athletes around the world. Now, as he’s on the verge of achieving his physique and strength goals, Pankey has to overcome multiple injuries that would sideline a normal athlete. Instead he continues to pursue excellence. Find out how he’s doing it.

The Pursuit of Excellence

You’ve been working out for a long time despite a lot of injuries. Before we get started, l ist the injuries you’ve had. You’ve had a ton of adversity, been hospitalized twice including being stabbed in a fight before I met you. What else have you had to overcome?

I did something to my neck doing behind the neck presses. Next morning I couldn’t tie my shoes. That only lasted for a couple of days. I’ve had bad ankles; my ankles got me put out of the military. When I injured my ankle; I believe it was a stress fracture. I made a mistake and got with people who had a faster time than me in the two mile run. These guys were running wind sprints! I was in heaven but my ankle wouldn’t hold up, I fell and rolled off the track so many times the drill sergeants started helping me up instead of talking about me. I’ve had knee surgery; tore the tendons from my quadriceps to the top of my kneecap and split the tendons down the side of it.

Well, both knees were bad. You had one knee repaired surgically and the other one is still bad right?

Yup. But it don’t stop nothing.

Then you were hospitalized because with all of these aches and pains you were taking aspirin so that led to you having internal bleeding?

Yeah, I had internal bleeding and bad ulcers; looked like an eagle’s claw scratched my stomach raw. I bled so much I passed out twice in front of my wife and kids. People have had it a lot worse than I have; I don’t want anyone to think I’m crying about it.

It’s not something I thought about until we were talking the other day and I asked you if some injury or other was a mobility issue and you said you didn’t know because you’re so used to being in pain. But the point is you’re in pain all of the time. Even in your Instagram videos where you’re laughing and joking you’re in pain.

I don’t really notice until later on. I guess I’m just caught up in the moment. But I guess you could say that.

What did you do to your shoulder?

The first injury was a motorcycle wreck. I rode the bike 80mph home, turned around, came out of first gear and went straight into a ditch. 2 miles per hour and hurt my shoulder ha ha! Then I dislocated my shoulder on a Smith Machine. I thought the Smith Machine would be better, you could do more weight, you could work out by yourself but the Smith Machine is locked. There’s no deviation for the natural way your shoulders and joints adjust under weight. So something’s got to give and it ain’t going to be that metal, it’s going to be your uncle! I’d dislocate it, then forget about it and go back to it and dislocate it again.

What is it that keeps you motivated to train despite all of the injuries and comments from naysayers?

I know what it feels like and looks like to be out of shape. I know how much work it took for me to get in what little bit of conditioning and shape I’m in now and I never really mind the journey. I’ve always enjoyed the journey. That goes all the way to trying supplements back when I was big into all of that and maybe they didn’t work the way I expected them to but I’ve always enjoyed the journey and I always will. That doesn’t mean I like to keep taking it over and over again. Sometimes you’d like to get somewhere and actually reach your destination instead of getting halfway there and having to fall back.

Well a few years ago you had a situation where your little girl ran and jumped in your arms and it actually caused your knee to buckle and that was sort of a wakeup call for you

My knee didn’t buckle when she jumped in my arms, it’s just my timing was off. When she hit my chest, she bounced off and I couldn’t catch her fast enough. Reflexes were just slow. You and I both have a definition of a man, outside of knowing that one must be saved and listening to the leadership of the Lord to be a good man but not being able to catch your daughter and hold your daughter if you work out is pitiful. And then she busts her head because of it and I fall backwards. That’s just low.

What do you think made your reflexes slow? Because most people would say that could happen to anybody?

I’ve got a bike so I can still do sprint intervals of a sort

That ain’t an excuse for me. Just because it can happen to anybody don’t mean that it should and it don’t mean that I have to live with it. I mean right now, having ulcers and a broke foot can happen to anybody too but I ain’t anybody. I’m me and I refuse to sit back and let it dictate— I mean there are going to have to be some adjustments, I can’t run sprints, can’t push the sled but I do have a friend that gave me a bike. So I can still do some kind of sprints.

Some people set goals down of getting bigger and stronger, I’m really guilty of it; they don’t focus on the stuff they might lose that might be important later on— flexibility, mobility, agility. It’s like an umbrella goal; because you’re working out you should get stronger, you should get faster but that ain’t the case. There are little things that you miss out on if you’re not careful.

That’s huge because when I met you, you were able to do backflips and back handsprings; now can you?

I can still do the handsprings, I haven’t tried the tuck in a long time, for fear and I haven’t tried the back handspring but I can still do round offs and front handsprings. Yeah, you let stuff go. That’s not really important, I don’t necessarily need those to live but still it’s something that you lost.

It’s like we were talking about how when we were younger we could all do a muscleup because that’s how you got over a fence if a dog was chasing you or whatever. Now, people look at muscleups and are intimidated by them. I remember doing a muscleup to get into a tree, for no other reason than I was climbing the tree.

That’s what it used to be called! Climbing!

You’ve been working out since you were 11 and you started working out because your mom was in a bad situation and you wanted to be big and strong enough to beat up the guy who was taking advantage of her but somewhere along the way, you stopped working out and your friends who did work out, started taking your girlfriends and you got tired of it so you started working out again. Talk about that, why did you stop?

I fell out of it. For a couple of years, I don’t even remember why. I don’t remember how my friends ended up with the weights they had. But I do remember that when I worked out with them, my results were so fast that they were like, “Man! If you kept doing this—“

Well your dad was always in good shape and so was your younger brother.

Speaking of quick results, you were on the football team and you never got picked because you weren’t good and at the end of that summer you went back and did better.

I came back faster, I got my forty time to like a 4.7 with better endurance and I got praised for it. I mean this was a night and day difference. And it was just normal squat, bench, deadlift workouts. Running 4/40s and stuff like that on the off days.

Finding The Courage to Compete

It took you a long time for us to convince you to compete because you didn’t think you were good enough. I noticed a switch got flipped when we went to The Animal Cage in 2012 during the Arnold Classic and you did the Bench Your Bodyweight Competition what was it that held you back for so long and how did you overcome it?

I’m sitting here thinking about that stuff at The Cage and for the life of me I cannot figure out what made me do it! I’m not a shy person but I don’t like being made fun of and I don’t like putting myself in that position. I don’t remember thinking anything; I don’t think I’ve been like that since.

Now you’re competing as a Strongman Competitor in the Master’s Division!

Sometimes man, you’ve just got to be like, “Quit tripping. I mean honestly, quit tripping. You want to do something, you know what you like so embrace it and go for it! That’s what I think happened with strongman. I still don’t consider myself strong, I’ve got a long way to go and maybe a short time to get there. But I still know that even with the ulcers and broken foot, there’s still a way and I feel like I will be letting God down by letting something like this stop me.

Tell me your best numbers:

Log Press: I’ve gotten 260 x 1 in competition

Yoke:700lbs x 80 feet

Axle Deadlift: 500lbs

Car Deadlift: Jeep Renegade 4×4 x 10xs

Trapbar Deadlift: 620lbs x 1

2inch Axle Overhead Press: 270lbs x 1

Seated Overhead Press: 315×2

You were 275lbs when you did Bench Your Bodyweight. How much do you weigh now?

Body weight fluctuates between 240 and  245. I’d like to get to 235 and then see what’s up.  I want the small waist but my waist won’t get too small because of my eating habits for one, ha ha and because I lift without a belt. But I don’t care.

Why don’t you wear a belt?

Don’t like it. I just can’t get comfortable. I’m not saying that people who wear them are crazy; protect your back. I just protect my back with muscle. Look no matter what anybody admits who’s in this lifestyle, one of your goals is at some point you want the ability to do something that nobody else around you can.

You used to train in a commercial gym. Tell me how you ended up with the gym you have now—

Well, I had three nephews in the gym I was working out at doing sprints on the basketball court. One of them ran and hit the wall; put his knee through the wall and thought he was doing something powerful. He’s a big boy, sort of special needs and all he was trying to do was impress his uncle. This was on the weekend so I sent them a picture and told the owners about it. The wife came in Monday said that other people were telling her a different story. I asked why don’t you look at your cameras? I offered to pay for it but she never gave me a price. Her husband told me not to worry about it. But every time I saw her she was asking me for money. Finally I had enough. I had two kids I trained who’s mom gave me some weights and a bench and it worked for a while but I wanted something better for them. I had five kids training out there at the time and I believe that’s when I dreamed my wooden gym.

Okay and now you’ve upgraded. 

February 3 of this year was the two year mark that I upgraded. I didn’t need an upgrade, everything still worked fine but I wanted to get some new stuff.

Your gym is now listed on Starting Strongman as an official training facility. There are only ten in the entire state of Tennessee. How did you set that up and has anybody shown up to train with you because of it?

I went on the website and signed up. It was a pretty simple thing to do, it wasn’t something that just happened as soon as you put it on there. I got an email I believe. I’ve had two guys show up, one from Chattanooga and the other from somewhere deep in Georgia. I had a guy from Kentucky, I think but he wasn’t able to show up.

Brian is one of only two garage athletes featured on garagegymlife apparel

With this gym from day one you’ve been determined to train people there but not charge them anything. Is that because no one charged you when you were growing up and learning about this?

The people I wanted to deal with are the ones that I knew can’t afford to go to any of those camps or their parents couldn’t afford to get a trainer. I don’t have credentials on the walls; you know I don’t have any first place finishes. I guess I’ve just got a heart that wants to help other people succeed.  That being said, I do value my time and I do value my name. So if I’m training you and my name is coming out of your mouth; at least do me the honor of putting in the work.

How did it go from kids to training and mentoring men?

The kids moved on. Football season, wrestling season came around and they started working out with the team. Even with the men, I’m older than everybody that trains here but I still play it as being a mentor trying to help people be better than they were yesterday.

Follow Brian on Instagram @uncleboo56!

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Tayler Made: Bouncing Back After Baby with Tayler Shrader

Tayler Shrader: Peacock to Proud Mama!

Tayler Shrader says that she used to be a little bit of a peacock in the gym. Living for the compliments she got on her rapidly developing physique. Then life happened in the form of a bundle of joy that changed her priorities and caused her to appreciate the beauty and strength she has inside as well as out. Find out how she’s leveraging her new mental and emotional strength to bounce back after baby!

Tayler thanks for sharing your story with us. To begin, how long have you been training? Where did you get your start?

TS: I have been training for a little over 5 years now, starting in mid 2011 at a commercial gym in Nevada. At the time I was actually the head baker of a cafe, and my heaviest of 220lbs.

And now you train at home. Where in your house is your gym located?

TS: My home gym is located in one of our unused rooms.

Tayler, home gyms often start out bare bones. I know mine did. I started with a set of 70lb dumbbells and a wooden box to use for bench press and Bulgarians. What did you start out with?

TS: We were lucky with all of our equipment in our gym. My in-laws were moving to their new home 3 states away and decided that they didn’t want to take any of their workout stuff with them. Having just cancelled our gym memberships due to money limitations we jumped on the offer immediately.

What are some of the pieces of equipment you have in there now and what’s on your wish list?

Most of our equipment came from garage sales

TS: Right now we have an elliptical, an adjustable bench and a Smith machine/standard squat rack which conveniently turns into a bench press, and has cable work as well. Also, because we don’t have enough room for a full dumbbell weight set, we managed to snag a set of awesome interchangeable dumbbells that surprisingly reach 80lbs.

Are your dumbbells Power Block Adjustable Dumbbells? How do you like them? 

Yes, the dumbbells we have are the PowerBlocks and I love them! The weights are easy to adjust to exactly what you need with just putting them back into their holders, and adjusting the pin. Also, they have small cylindrical metal weights inside that are 2.5lbs so you can even adjust them to that extent as well.

I’ve used Bowflex SelectTech but never that style. You put your hands into the weights to use them, how does that feel on your wrists?

While you do have to put your hand “inside” the dumbbell, there are two other bars on the top of the weights that you can grab, and I find that its much easier for curls and tricep extensions that way. If the weight gets to heavy, I always resort to a good pair of straps that way I can still push myself, but not risk form or hurt my wrists in the process.

What’s on your most wanted equipment list?

TS: A NEW BENCH!!! The one we currently have is torn to shreds from a bull mastiff! It is super scary wobbly, and only inclines. We would love to have one that inclines and declines.

I found out I was pregnant when I was getting ready for my first show

You said on Instagram in one of your early posts:  I was 16 weeks out from my first show with my husband when I found out I was 6 weeks pregnant with my little girl describe how that affected you mentally to have spent so much time getting in shape and knowing that it was all about to go away? I realize that having a baby is a blessing but Tayler, did you have mixed emotions given the situation, like why not AFTER the show ?

TS: Not only was I 16 weeks out, in the middle of a lean-bulk, I had my wedding in 18 weeks. There were a lot of emotions going on when I found out, and I did not know how to handle them. I hoped it was a fluke, but I had all the symptoms and I just didn’t want to face it. I was depressed for most of pregnancy, because I was just watching my hard earned work and dedication vanish before my eyes. I was told by my doctor to not work out because I wasn’t gaining weight, but actually losing quickly because of morning sickness. By the time I was 8 months I had only gained 12lbs and was living off of yogurt and saltine crackers. I thought I would never get back to what I was before, I was almost resentful of what was happening to me. It wasn’t until after I had her that I understood what the female body was capable of and how amazing it is.

By the way, what type of show were you preparing to compete in? Fitness, Figure, Physique? 

When I first signed on with my coach at the time, I decided that I wanted to do a Bikini competition just to get my toes wet. Also, since my husband does Physique, we would roughly be in the same type of competition. However my coach was dead set and determined for my first show to be in Figure due to my body type. I’m stocky, I build bulky muscle if I’m not careful, and I build it where the Figure competitors like it, legs, back, and shoulders. So we trained like I was going into Figure, but because of the large amount of veggie’s I was eating, my coach ultimately decided I was right to do a Bikini show, and hopefully, blow them out of the water.

Tell me how your training has changed post pregnancy versus what you were doing before you decided to train for your show. I know you were restricted for a while because your body had to recover from the physical changes related to giving birth.

TS: My training has changed ten-fold since before baby girl. Before I was taking my supplement stacks, eating my 6 meals like champ, waking up at the butt-crack of dawn to get my 45 min of HIIT cardio in, and then staying up late to do my 1 1/2 hour of heavy weight training. Now, I can barely get 20 minutes of cardio while baby takes her nap, have a hard time eating meals because sometimes we don’t have everything/anything I need in our pantry, or honestly, I forget. And my weight training has now dwindled to a measly 30 minutes at the most. Belle harbored in my right hip and when I gave birth to her so she twisted my pelvis, so I had to wait for a clearance (almost 8 months of easy body weight )on that as well before I could even think of weight training again.

Do you do dedicated ab/core work or are you still restricted? I would think a lot of anti rotational training would be great for a mom because of all of the awkward twisting that you have to do.

I hate core days, not just now but ever since the beginning of my fitness days. Core workouts typically fall into my morning cardio time on days I now I’m not going to be lifting heavy such as leg and back day. Since you already use (at least you should be!) your whole core on those days from deadlifts and keeping yourself rigid to avoid lower back injury, I tend to take it easy on those days. However I firmly believe that it’s from leg and back days that you build your best core.

Babies always seem to need to be picked up exactly when you already have your arms full of other stuff. (Like I said, my wife and I have six kids!) Plus we tend to carry babies on one side or the other which can also throw off your spinal alignment. Do you do anything to counteract that?

Yes, baby girl always wants to be picked up at the most inopportune times, and since my “little one” is 40lbs already it is a chore. I typically do a lot of Sun Salutations every day, at least 4-6 rounds too keep my spine loose. Cat and Cow pose are your friends!!!

You’re coming from the background of someone who was in pretty good shape before, one Instagram post mentioned that you used to get compliments on your traps at the gym and that you were a bit of a peacock.  Is it tough to train now without all of the instant feedback from other people complimenting you?

TS: Peacocking is putting it lightly! For someone who had no self-love, I loved the instant feedback, fed off of it actually. Now I am trying to find my own self-love, and the only feedback I have coming back to me is from my husband (which is where it should have mattered the whole time). It is a breath of fresh air actually, realizing that I was so self -centered and letting it go, it has really helped me train harder. You make your body. Your own mental feedback makes your body, your thoughts and words.

  I love your post where you said you were grateful for the six stretch marks your baby gave you. Was it tough to get to the point where you could accept that your new body isn’t better or worse than what you had before; just different with different needs and challenges?

TS: It was very tough for me to accept my new body, especially since I hadn’t accepted the one I had before. Looking back at photos I saw how in shape I was and I told myself one day, “You were crazy thinking you were fat. What was your problem?” I don’t consider myself heavy or overweight even now, I just went through a one year healthy bulk.

I love that you said that pregnancy was a one year healthy bulk.  That’s such an awesome way to look at it! That causes me to ask what were some physical advantages of going through this process? I mean the mental and emotional growth is obvious from this conversation but how have you benefited physically?

Since having Belle, I know now that my upper body is a lot more stronger than I was giving it credit for. She was never a small baby, being born at 9.5lbs she was always my added weight to everything I did, so despite not actively working out, I was always working out my upper body with her. In the middle of my training I could not do a single push up without my knees, or a pull up without assistance. Now, while I still can’t do a pull up, I can do 5 full push ups, which is a huge deal for me!

Tayler, tell me the toughest part about being a Stay At Home Mom who’s trying to get back in shape.

TS: There is no one thing that is tougher than the other, all of it is tough. From balancing your time, to trying to eat, keeping up on the house work, school work, sleeping, none of it is easy. I can only imagine how tough it is for moms who work as well and I applaud you. Being on a one person income is hard, especially when you are so used to being able to spend 200 bucks at a time for all of your food twice a month, but now you have to somehow manage 250 bucks a month including diapers and baby necessities. You really have to prioritize what is important and what isn’t.

Do you ever have to battle feelings like “It’s not going to happen, the days of having abs or traps people envy aren’t coming back?”

I’m not overweight now. I just went through a one year healthy bulk

TS: Every. Day. And its not about the envy anymore, its about me being my best self, and it bothers me. I have little patience, I want it all back yesterday at 8 A.M but I have to tell myself to be patient, that the best progress comes in time. I am no where near where I was, and sometimes its hard to realize that I don’t have the quads, arms, booty, back, and waist, but that’s okay. Now, I have the ability to re-do everything that I did before, but better.

How do you keep yourself mentally strong? I mean fitness is an incremental process, you don’t see changes every day. How do you keep going day in and day out?

TS: My mental battle has always been my toughest and I’m afraid that I will never not have to fight with myself every day. I grew up in a family where if you wanted to be thin, you didn’t eat, and if you wanted to eat, you better drink your two glasses of cold water before. It led to an eating disorder of binge eating. Not every binge eater is skinny, I was overweight my whole life and having to battle my family and my own mind was tough, and still is. Now I distract myself with either playing with baby girl, reading a book, going to my motivational quotes on Pinterest. I also chew a lot of gum. A LOT of gum.

Let’s unpack another post you put on Instagram:

I have the “Monday’s,” ugh someone help me. I’m tired of tripping and instead of just getting right back up I lay there in the dirt a while longer and wait. Until. Monday. So today (literally an hour ago), “Yes your daughter is very sick, you have been up since one a.m., welcome to motherhood. Now you’re waking your happy ass up EVERY MORNING for your fasted cardio. Shut up and take your medicine.”

Like I said before I’ve spent the last year nurturing my daughter, now I need to nurture me. I can do this, we can do this, we all can do this. The mind is the biggest hurdle.

When I read this I could completely relate! I’ve had to adjust my expectations about training dramatically when I was the one watching our toddler during the day. Sometimes I felt like a hero for just getting out of bed after she’d been up all night. How do you motivate yourself to get through those times when you want to just throw in the towel?

TS: My little family helps motivate me to be my best self, by helping me stay sane even when I feel like I’m going insane, and I couldn’t thank them enough. If I don’t show up and own up how am I going to be my best self for my daughter, how am I going to be my best self for my husband, and for myself? How can you pour from an empty cup?

What’s your favorite part about training in your home?

TS: It’s 24/7/365. I don’t have an excuse of not having enough time to go or it being closed.

Being in a home gym doesn’t mean you’re on house arrest (unless you are). Do you ever visit gyms outside of the home? I know that sometimes with a young baby you need a break. Do you ever just get a day pass to one of those gyms that offer childcare and say, “Mommy needs some me time” ?

TS: No house arrest thank goodness! (Though yes, it sometimes feels like it.) Unfortunately no I don’t, we have a thin budget, and anything that really is “free money” is savings money. Mommy time is my workout times, and the occasional, if not VERY rare, bathroom time, and an alone shower.

my family keeps me motivated

  Also it seems with a baby, the chore list is never done. How do you find the strength to put laundry on pause and say, “If I don’t get my workout in; I won’t be as good a mother as I’m capable of being?”

TS: I believe that the chore list is a stigma of a stay at home parent. Because society says thats what you have to do, you HAVE TO  DO IT, its engrained.  At the beginning I believed that I needed to clean everything, everyday, and have dinner in the oven by 4:30. I NEEDED to be the good housewife, done up an everything else. I felt drained, emotionally and mentally unbalanced, irritable and an all around terror to be around. Working out was a way for me to slow down, and take it all in stride. If I didn’t vacuum that day, oh well, theres tomorrow, the dishwasher didn’t get ran, alright. My mental and emotional health was more of a priority than those things that could easily be done at another time. Trying to get your chore list done completely every day? You might as well not sleep.

My wife and I have six kids and I’ve learned to include the kids into my training, they enjoy it and they grow up seeing fitness as a normal part of life. My wife and I saw a new mother’s class in the mall where they were training with their babies in strollers next to them. Do you do any classes like that? Have you begun including your daughter in your fitness routine at home?

TS: I have thought about it, but they are so expensive and could never bring myself to spend the money to go to a class once a week. She’s a little young to be really included, she’d rather play and be a monkey, but she sees me do my morning yoga, and will watch me for a moment then scoot on off. Most of the time she is my 40lb weight for my leg days. I do plan on encouraging her to go outside with me later on, when she can walk better or ride a bike, maybe we can do mommy/kid yoga classes, its so important to me that she does.

Nutrition is a key part of getting in shape. You’re trying to get back into shape but you also were breastfeeding your baby how did you strike a balance between making sure you had enough to feed your baby and still achieve your goals?

TS: Most women struggle with breastfeeding and working out because they are concerned about losing milk, or that their milk will taste funny because of lactic acid. I was concerned as well but I found that that was not my case, in fact I had more than enough for baby girl, and the only negative I had was she had more energy and wouldn’t take her naps. Each woman is different, the only thing you can do is try and see what happens, don’t just believe what you read on the internet, no woman is the same.

Speaking of nutrition, you mentioned that you eat your big meals an hour before training legs and then load up on the veggies afterwards to keep yourself from being hungry in the middle of the night. Is this something you learned training to compete or something you’ve learned since having the baby?

TS: It’s something that I learned from training and I still find it helps a lot now. I portion out my carbs and proteins like a normal meal plan but I have certain veggies that are unlimited. Meaning that if I’m hungry after a meal, and its not time for me to “eat” yet, I can go ahead and eat a head of cauliflower or broccoli, a stalk or 5 of celery. Food is your fuel, and since I’m still breastfeeding intermittently, its fuel for my baby. I don’t want to give her weird stuff from proteins and protein bars. Unless I’m on the run of course, I’m not perfect.

What is your favorite tool for burning off the fat?

TS: Right now its lots and lots of water, steel cut oats, and fasted cardio. Before it was a thermogenic stack from Cellucor, with raspberry ketones.

You mentioned that your family keeps you motivated. How else is your family involved in your fitness journey? I saw a picture of your husband doing meal prep and I think you mentioned that he was involved in you getting ready for your first show. Describe that dynamic.

TS: When my husband and I first started dating 3 years ago, he had just begun his fitness lifestyle change, and we both leaned on each other for help. At the time I was going to school for my health wellness/ personal training certificate. He was my mental rock, and I was his nutrition and workout coach. He needed help with his food, and working out, because he is a hard gainer, meaning it takes EVERYTHING to get him to gain a pound of fat or muscle (lucky guy). I’ve helped him train for his last two shows since we couldn’t afford a coach, and his third show was going to be with me, but we both had to bag it for obvious reasons. It’s a mutual agreement that works great for both of us.

Tayler before we close this out, what advice would you give to a new mom who’s thinking about starting to work out at home? A lot of moms feel guilty about spending time getting in shape instead of thinking about their child every waking moment.

TS: You need to take care of yourself just as much as you take care of that little baby. If that means you need your workout time, take it, please. You will be happier, and your baby will be happier. Stress and a baby do not dance well, one of you, or both will be crying. Guilty. Been there. It’s a new journey for both of you, take it one day at a time and while you may not see the results right away, they are happening.

How can people follow your training or get in touch with you if they want to ask you questions?

TS: They can follow my instagram, @tayler_dane_fit or send me an email at tayler.schrader725@gmail.com . Also, I’ve been juggling a life blog in the back of my head, where I’ll be blogging about my fitness, and life in general. I’m always open for questions, I have nothing to hide, and encourage people to reach out to someone for help in whatever it is they need. It’s important to have each other’s backs.

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The post Tayler Made: Bouncing Back After Baby with Tayler Shrader appeared first on Garage Gym Life.