You might think I’m crazy, but there’s a very important reason why I’m doing this. I am running with Team World Vision and dedicating my race to helping provide clean water to communities in Africa. I’m kind of nervous about the 26.2 miles, but I know that training with this purpose in mind will keep me going.

One out of six people in the world lack access to clean water. One out of six!

Will you make a donation on my behalf to help change that fact? You can visit my webpage to make a tax-deductible donation:

http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/General?px=1206059&pg=personal&fr_id=1670

I’ll be sending out some updates along the way, and will certainly appreciate your support!

Thanks,

Eric Maust

PS: Go to http://www.teamworldvision.org to get a better idea of what Team World Vision is about! It’s not too late for you to join me on the team!

I did the math using nutrition and calorie tools available at the Panera  Bread website and the typical lunch of soup, 1/2 sandwich and a side is 700-1,000 calories. If you add in a pop and dessert, then we’re talking about 700 calories more for a grand total of 1,400-1,700 calories. Part of my fitness training program is helping clients determine an appropriate amount of calories to consume based on their metabolism and activity level. (See this article for more info on energy expenditure.) Honestly, this lunch at Panera Bread would be anywhere from 75-100% of most client’s daily calorie budget. In other words, they may have reached their maximum calorie intake at just one meal!

Additionally, many of Panera Bread lunch patrons are office workers. This means that the majority of their day is spent sitting. Once again, I am not criticizing office workers. We need office workers! My beautiful wife is an office worker!  However, the fact is, an office worker doesn’t burn many calories throughout the day. Back to the math: If the office worker eats a 500 calorie breakfast (easy to do at McDonald’s or Starbucks), a 1000 calorie lunch and a 1,500 calorie dinner (easy to do at a casual dining restaurant like Applebees), they will eat a total of at least 3,000 calories. This total does not include any snacks or beverages consumed mindlessly throughout the day and evening.  The total at the end of the day could easily exceed 3,500-4,000 calories!

Comparatively, the typical female office worker only burns about 1,500-1,600 calories a day without exercise. The typical male office worker burns about 2,100-2,200 calories a day without exercise. So, without a consistent exercise plan, the typical office worker will consume almost 2x the amount of calories that they burn each day! Uh-oh. Not good.  Any excess calories consumed and not burned are converted to fat. A pound of body fat is 3,500 calories. A person could easily gain 2-3 lbs per week based on these examples. That means 8-12 lbs per month and a frightening 96-144 lbs per year!

How is this combated? The answer is simple but not easy. Consume less calories and burn more! This is simple because it’s just basic math. It’s not easy because it takes effort. But, it can be done!

So, back to the title of this blog: Try Something Different for Lunch! There are many options to put a stop to weight gain and actually start chipping away at the excess weight. Below is a list of practical steps to take that will make a real difference!

• Pack a lunch. The typical packed lunch will be about half the calories of a restaurant lunch. This will knock 500-700 calories off your lunch. At the end of the week this could add up to losing 1 lb of fat!
• Use your lunch time to take a walk. Eat your lunch at your desk before or after the walk. The walk (30-60 minutes) will probably burn 150-300 calories. Now your daily deficit could reach up to 1,000 calories! This will equal losing 2 lbs of fat!
• Go to the gym during lunch. Eat a piece of fruit before the workout for fuel and have a protein shake after to fill you up and recover. A gym session (30-60 minutes) will burn 300-600 calories and the food will total about 300-400 calories. This scenario could create up to a 1,500 calorie difference resulting in losing 3 lbs per week!
• A non-exercise option could look like this. Eat a snack at 10:00 AM, fast lunch and eat a snack again a 2:00 or 3:00 PM. Spend the time you normally eat lunch engaging in a personal improvement activity. My activity of choice during fasting is Bible study and prayer. The possibilities are endless, but just don’t use the time to mindlessly surf the Internet or update Facebook! Like the first example, you will probably knock 500-700 calories off your typical intake by doing this.

Hopefully, this gets you thinking about how you typically do things. As the saying goes, you can’t do the same thing and expect different results. Now is the time to act. Today, not tomorrow. Plan some changes, stick with it and see what happens!

I am sure we all have either heard things like this uttered or we have uttered them ourselves hundreds if not thousands of times in our lifetime.  While this could apply to myriad topics, I am, of course, talking about starting an exercise program.  As a trainer, I have heard this more times than I can count.  Whether it is nutrition or exercise we have an extremely difficult time getting started with a program.  And honestly, starting is the easy part.  The real difficulty is sticking with it.  I read something once that 99% of resolutions are broke within one week.  I believe it.

Back to getting started.  THERE WILL NEVER BE THE BEST TIME TO GET STARTED. This is my firm conviction.  There will always be work.  There will always be kids.  There will always be vacations.  There will always be holidays.  There will always be times of low energy.  There will always be the busyness of life.

The best time to start is NOW.  That is how anything in life gets accomplished.  Having knowledge about something or sentiment towards something won’t cut it.  Complaining to friends won’t cut it. Waiting for your schedule to magically open up will never happen. You have to make it happen.  Somebody else can’t do it for you.  And honestly, as a trainer, I have limitations as to how much of an impact I can make.  I can coach somebody through all the aspects and stages of nutrition and exercise, but the client actually needs to do the work. What we do with our time when nobody is watching defines who we are and what our values are. It’s like looking at a person’s checking account. That will speak volumes about what they think is valuable or worth investing in.

Maybe that is part of the problem with lack of motivation in starting and sticking with an exercise program.  What I mean is the society we live in, especially as Americans, is just saturated with ways to spend our money and time.  We have been conditioned into being obsessed with entertainment and personal comfort.  It’s human nature anyway, but everything in the world is shouting for our money and attention. Whether it is food, cars clothes, houses, iPod’s, TV’s, vacations or sports, we just can’t get enough pleasure.

You might ask, “What does my spending and entertainment habits have to do with starting an exercise program?”  Well, I think it makes a big difference.  I am just breaking the surface, but here are a few insights:

First, its the issue of time.  Indulging in entertainment and personal comfort takes time. Time away from exercise or any type of personal improvement.

Second, it can have a more immediate gratification.  It usually takes months for a nutrition and exercise program to make an impact.  It only takes a few minutes to run to Best Buy and purchase the latest entertainment device.

Third, it dulls us.  When our life is so full of “candy” we aren’t hungry for “dinner.”  If we fill our life with “good” things, then we have no appetite for the “best.”

Fourth, it numbs us.  Typically, there is pain associated with not having the fitness level we think we should.  So, instead of letting that pain be a motivator, we cover it up by giving ourselves over to other types of pleasure.  If we can feel good eating ice cream or driving a new sports car, then we don’t notice the pain of being unfit.  I don’t think this is a conscience decision, it just happens.

Fifth, it’s easier.  It appeals to the lowest common denominator that is in each of us. The idea of vacations, movies or going out to eat is to get a break from life.  We give ourselves permission to disengage physically, mentally and emotionally.  The problem is when this becomes more of a lifestyle rather than a treat, we get addicted to it.  Then, anything that doesn’t give our pleasure center a fix will get shoved by the wayside. Being disciplined with nutrition and exercise is hard and it hurts.

So, what is the answer to this dilemma?  I don’t think it is more knowledge.  We live in the age of information.  We have access to more research and information on any topic than any other time in history. Yet, as a population, us Americans are the least fit we have ever been.

The answer is as the famous Nike slogan goes, “Just do it!”  There is no magic solution. The lack of time won’t go away.  The need for discipline won’t go away.  The issue of discomfort won’t go away. Remember, there will be no best hour, day, week, month or season.  As I already said the best time is NOW.  There is a huge difference between hearing and learning about something and actually doing it.  In the Bible, James 1:23-24 says it perfectly when referring to spiritual truths (Which, by the way, I think is much more important than physical training.  But, of course, this is a fitness blog.)  ”For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”

You don’t have to do it perfectly to do it.  Just get started and you will get better over time.  A toddler doesn’t stop trying to walk just because he can’t do it well at the beginning.  For example, one missed workout or bad weekend of eating won’t ruin your program.  Just pick yourself back up and get going again.  The results will come from the sum total of the efforts over months.  A few days or even a week won’t make or break anything.  The best results will come from being steady, consistent and diligent.

The idea of attitude when it comes to embarking on an exercise and nutrition program is one aspect of Rock City Fitness 3-fold approach to training.  I more thoroughly developed this concept in a previous post The Rock City Fitness Approach: Attitude.

Believe me, I don’t live this out perfectly.  But, it keeps coming to the forefront of my mind. Hopefully this gets us thinking a little and helps jump start some positive changes. The best things in life are always difficult to obtain.  My hope is that the tenacity, discipline and perseverance needed to improve our fitness becomes part of all the spheres of our life. These areas could include restoring a marriage, paying off debt, finishing college or adopting a child.  My passion is that we don’t back down from the “mountainous” challenges of our lives. That we would go for the hard things because the upside and reward will make it all worth it. That we would not shirk away from those defining moments and miss the chance to leave an amazing legacy!

Shop now for great nutrition and exercise products!

Would you believe that your function could be improved in just 10 minutes a day? Sound too good to be true?

By performing self-myofacial release techniques on a simple piece of foam, you can improve body composition, flexibility, function, performance and reduce injuries.  Simply stated, use your own body weight to roll on the round foam roll, massaging away restrictions to normal soft-tissue extensibility.  Furthermore, you can perform this program in the convenience of your own home.

What is self-myofacial release?

Self-myofacial release (SMR) massage can be defined as an interactive soft tissue release technique that requires feedback from the client to determine the correct position, amount of pressure and duration of the stretch.  The main purpose for use includes:

• Joint stiffness
• Muscle tightness
• Identified tenderness (indicating poor circulation)

You can also use this technique for a warm-up before exercise and a cool-down after exercise:

• Exercise preparation
• Exercise recovery

Click here for a printable version and to read the entire article!

Click on the image below to shop for foam rollers at Perform Better!

Coaching Keys

• Keep ankles, knees and hips in alignment.
• Palms up, shoulders down and back.
• Perform movement by contracting glutes, pushing hips up off floor and driving heels down into ball.
• Core is further engaged by drawing stomach in.
• Range of motion ends when ankles, knees, hips and shoulders are in a straight line.
• Pause at top of movement, lower slowly until brushing ground.
• Push back up without coming to a complete rest.

First, in the 8 months that I have worked with Eric, my weight has dropped from 227 pounds down to 195. I’ve gone from a 40″ waist to a 34″. I have strengthened my core, upper body, lower body and increased my balance and flexibility. What a victory!

Additionally (and of even more importance), I recently was in a 50 mph head on collision. Fortunately for me, my only injury was a shattered “tibia plateau” (the ball joint on my shin bone). Because of my lower weight and elevated fitness level, recovery time has been shortened by 33%.  Furthermore, my ability to get around on crutches during the recovery process is undoubtedly tons easier than it would have been.

Not to sound dramatic, but, Rock City Fitness has indeed given me a better life!

Many thanks!

Eric worked with her and made her stronger which surprised her therapists at her re-evaluation. In therapy they have to show functional gains to get the therapy covered by insurance. Insurance companies don’t see slow gains in strength as functional. However, she cannot lift her arm if the strength is not there. My daughter returned to school in the fall and had to take a break from Eric. Her therapists at school worked with her for months but then started to say the same things as her old therapists. During her break she worked with Eric every day. When she returned to school and was re-evaluated she made significant gains which were the reason why her therapists kept her and she was still covered by insurance.

My daughter is now home for the summer and is continuing with Eric. Over the course of their time together they have worked on balance, core muscles, and overall strength. Her arm has been the slowest to recover, so this has been a concentration in the training sessions. Eric has done a great job in using creativity to work around Andrea’s limitations and strengthen her arm.

When Eric started working with my daughter she was not able to drive. He came to our house with no extra charge. This simple fact made it so much easier for us because we would not be able to constantly drive her. We already had to drive her to therapy and adding another commitment would not be possible.

Eric has made a huge difference in my daughter’s balance, endurance, and strength. I don’t think she would have been strong enough to return to school if it wasn’t for Eric. He had never worked with stroke patients, but was eager to learn and try something new.  I would recommend Eric for anyone needing help no matter what problem they have.  Eric makes an effort to be versatile and is eager to learn new things.

Improve your sports performance or just get a great cardio workout.  You can train at your own level, but if these workouts aren’t for you, then pass this info to a friend or family member!

What: 45 minutes of challenging speed, agility and quickness training.  Perform drills utilizing jump ropes, speed ladders, hurdles, cones and more!

Where: Rochester Municipal Park, Downtown Rochester

When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 to 10:15 AM, July 12th to August 4th.

Visit the performance page for more info on Rock City Fitness performance training services.

2. You will lose body fat.
Studies performed by Wayne Westcott, PhD, from the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts, found that the average woman who strength trains two to three times a week for two months will gain nearly two pounds of muscle and will lose 3.5 pounds of fat. As your lean muscle increases so does your resting metabolism and you burn more calories all day long. Generally speaking, for each pound of muscle you gain, you burn 35 to 50 more calories each day. That can really add up.

3. You will gain strength without bulk.
Researchers also found that unlike men, women typically don’t gain size from strength training, because compared to men, women have 10 to 30 times less of the hormones that cause muscle hypertrophy. You will, however, develop muscle tone and definition. This is a bonus.

4. You will decrease your risk of osteoporosis.
Research has found that weight training can increase spinal bone mineral density (and enhance bone modeling) by 13 percent in six months. This, coupled with an adequate amount of dietary calcium, can be a women’s best defense against osteoporosis.

5. You will improve your athletic performance.
Over and over research concludes that strength training improves athletic ability in all but the very elite athletes. Golfers can significantly increase their driving power. Cyclists are able to continue for longer periods of time with less fatigue. Skiers improve technique and reduce injury. Whatever sport you play, strength training has been shown to improve overall performance as well as decrease the risk of injury.

6. You will reduce your risk of injury, back pain and arthritis.
Strength training not only builds stronger muscles, but also builds stronger connective tissues and increases joint stability. This acts as reinforcement for the joints and helps prevent injury. A recent 12-year study showed that strengthening the low-back muscles had an 80 percent success rate in eliminating or alleviating low-back pain. Other studies have indicated that weight training can ease the pain of osteoarthritis and strengthen joints.

7. You will reduce your risk of heart disease.
According to Dr. Barry A. Franklin, of William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, weight training can improve cardiovascular health in several ways, including lowering LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol and lowering blood pressure. When cardiovascular exercise is added, these benefits are maximized.

8. You will reduce your risk of diabetes.
In addition, Dr. Franklin noted that weight training may improve the way the body processes sugar, which may reduce the risk of diabetes. Adult-onset diabetes is a growing problem for women and men. Research indicates that weight training can increase glucose utilization in the body by 23 percent in four months.

9. It is never too late to benefit.
Women in their 70s and 80s have built up significant strength through weight training and studies show that strength improvements are possible at any age. Note, however, that a strength training professional should always supervise older participants.

10. You will improve your attitude and fight depression.
A Harvard study found that 10 weeks of strength training reduced clinical depression symptoms more successfully than standard counseling did. Women who strength train commonly report feeling more confident and capable as a result of their program, all important factors in fighting depression.

Click here for a printable version

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