.

A manifesto is bigger than fitness. It is bigger than your career. Instead, it is a written declaration of your values and intentions in life and I’d like to share mine with you and finally help you to create your own.
.

But first a little backstory…

.

A couple months ago I came across a post on the internet about creating a personal manifesto and the concept totally resonated with me.  All too often we get busy with life and it is easy to lose sight of what really matters to us.  Instead we find ourselves driven by different things on different days and we don’t have a predetermined course through life. We get lazy, complacent, and generally end up wasting our lives away with things that truly don’t matter to us. We become subject to the control of our ever-changing thoughts and feelings.  Having a clearly defined set of values gives us the ability to reflect on them and assess if we’re on track in our lives.  As a result, I set aside a couple of hours over a few days and pulled together my own personal manifesto.

.
Note:  Below is MY personal manifesto and it represents MY beliefs and values. While the specifics of these are very relevant to me personally, they may not be YOUR beliefs and values. I have shared them here to give you an example of what a manifesto looks like. I don’t intend to entertain any discussion about whether or not you agree with my beliefs and values. My hope, instead, is that taking a look at mine will inspire you to create your own.
.

My Personal Manifesto

.

I am a man of God.
.
I will spend time with him daily by reading his word, and through worship, and prayer. I will allow HIS love to flow through me to all those around me. I will act in faith and believe in his promises. I will behave at all times in a way that is pure and holy. I will make God a priority in our home. I will seek to serve others with a joyful and willing heart.
.
I am a family man.
.
I will put the needs of my family above my own.  I will lead my family in faith and finance and be strong in times of trial. I will actively love my wife unconditionally, respect her feelings, and work in partnership with her to build a lasting relationship of trust, intimacy, and happiness.
.
I will be a patient and kind father and love my daughter unconditionally. I will make time to play when I’m tired and teach her through example and instruction about faith, love, relationships, health, and effort.  I value my family and I put my phone aside when I am with them.
.

I value my health.

.
I will nourish my body only with nutrients and limit consumption of foods and beverages that jeopardize my health. I will not be a slave to any substance. I will exercise at a challenging intensity no less than two times per week and seek opportunities to be active. I will limit sedentary behavior.

.

I always do my best.

.

I will seek excellence in all that I do. My time will be spent on things that I value and I will limit time spent on things that serve as distractions.

.
I care about my planet.

.

I will consider impact to the earth in my decisions about food and products on which I spend my money. I will seek used before new. I will reduce waste, reuse items when possible, and recycle what can be recycled. I will limit accumulation of unnecessary things.

.

My life will be an example for others to follow.

.

Creating YOUR Personal Manifesto

.

Step 1 – Create a List

.

The first step in creating a manifesto is to list all of the things that you value in your life.  At this point you don’t need to spend a lot of time figuring out which are the most important, just get them all out on paper (or on the screen if you’re a computer junkie like me).  Take some time to do this.  Ask yourself what you’d like to accomplish before you die.  Think about what you’d like for your family, friends, and colleagues to say about you at your funeral.  Decide what kind of legacy you want to leave.  Make the list as big as you can.

.

Step 2 – Pick Your Top 5

.

At some point you’re going to need to cut down the list of all the things you’ve listed to the top 5 or 6 things you truly value.  I’d suggest beginning by crossing out the stuff that obviously doesn’t make your top 5 first.  That should narrow things down a bit.  From there, spend some time (even if it takes a few days) to cut away at the list until only the final few remain.

.

Step 3 – Expand on Your Values

.

Once you’ve narrowed it down to your most important points you’ll want to expand on them so they remind you each time you read them what they really mean to you.  Most importantly, make sure the points tell you what actions you should take or how you should behave to be in line with these values.  And make sure to state everything in the present.  Don’t say “I want to have integrity”.  Say “I have integrity”.

.

Step 4 – Read it Every Day

.

A personal manifesto is useless if you don’t read it often.  I have mine as a document on my computer desktop and I generally read it the first time I open my computer each day.  I also have a copy in my email so I can read in on my phone and a printed paper copy I can access easily.

.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not even close to being the person I’ve presented in my manifesto, but that is the person I want to become.  And each time I read it and there is some kind of discrepancy between who I am and what I’ve written it highlights for me the changes I need to make in my life.  Most importantly, it keeps me focused on what really matters to me and reminds me when I’ve gotten off track.  I know exactly what my values are so I know exactly where to spend my time.

.

I’ve only just begun this process and my life is already beginning to change.  I challenge you to step out and create your own personal manifesto.

.

Define and become the person you are meant to be.

.

A little while back I posted the following video on my Facebook because it got me pretty fired up and I wanted to stimulate some discussion.

.

.

Literally within the first minute fitness guru Paul Chek states that “cardiovascular exercise is one of the most dangerous things you can do”.  He then goes on to suggest that the cortisol response from cardio is going to be detrimental to your health while lifting heavy weights repeatedly is somehow not going to have a similar response (hint: cortisol also rises after resistance training).  He later concludes that your body will adjust to cardiovascular exercise and that the number of calories you can burn will ultimately go down over time and prevent you from being able to lose fat.

.

Of course, I find this interesting because I know a few endurance cyclists (and have seen data from cyclists in various labs) and it appears to me that these people are able to generate HUGE wattages on their bikes and burn through far more calories in an hour of cycling than and a novice rider.  Interestingly, I am betting these people are possibly healthier than the novice riders too, but I’m just speculating here.

.

Then…to make matters worse, Dr. Mecola goes on to post this article that appeared on Facebook with the title “New Study Shows Cardio Workout May Damage Your Heart”.  The title on the actual page is “One of the Worst Forms of Exercise There is”.  Of course, they’re actually talking about this study which ultimately shows that there are some minor right ventricular changes in athletes who have completed endurance races between 3 and 11 hours.

.

Are these really dangerous?  Maybe.  But the reality is that Mercola and his gang are using these changes (and all the stuff from other studies they citied) as surrogate markers for risk of death or cardiac issues which isn’t really a well established relationship.  In fact, part of the conclusion states (with reference to the right ventricular changes) “that the long-term clinical significance of which warrants further study.”

.

Further to that, these are people who ran for 3-11 hours straight!  I couldn’t run for 11 hours if I was being chased by Freddy Krueger.  And if I did, you could probably bet that my heart wouldn’t like it.  As with most things in physiology, there is usually some kind of inverted U pattern for improvement.  No stimulus or a very low stimulus provides very little rests.  A mid-range (optimal) stimulus provides better results.  And going too far and really pushing the envelope can result in some sort of decrease in results.  In this case, the type of training for the races might be optimal for performance, but not health.  Truth be told, I’m not sure the results really even tell us that.

.

.

What I do know is that I’ve never seen cardiovascular exercise listed as one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular death.  In fact, a new paper detailing the leading LIFETIME risk factors for cardiovascular disease listed hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and smoking as the 4 most major risk factors.  Nowhere on that list did I see “doing cardio will kill you” or “cardio will esplode your adrenalzzz”.

.

Going a little further down the rabbit hole, there has been plenty of research showing that exercise (including steady state cardio via activities as easy as walking) can improve health.  Heck, you could even do it on a treadmill…in running shoes!  (Yes…I know…blasphemy).  If you have the time I’d suggest you watch Dr. Robert Ross talk about it HERE.  He’s a great speaker with a ton of knowledge and I’d highly suggest you bookmark it if you don’t have time to watch it right now.

.

Does this mean I think steady state exercise is incredible for weight/fat loss?  Not necessarily, but there is some evidence to suggest that cardio alone can contribute to weight loss with around 200 minutes per week making a pretty meaningful difference in some studies.  But if you’re familiar with my blog you’ll know (via the link in the previous sentence) that when combined with diet I don’t think what type of exercise you choose (steady state, metabolic workouts, intervals) really makes a difference in terms of fat loss anyway.

.

I am not personally a fan of long term steady state activity, as I prefer higher paced superset type workouts in the interest of time and preserving muscle mass during fat loss (with the calorie deficit coming mostly from diet).  However, if you know someone who wants to hop on a treadmill for their 30 minutes of steady state cardio they probably aren’t going to die.  In fact, it might just improve their health.

.

Don’t let any internet fearmonger tell you otherwise!

.

PS: If you’ve found this useful or are just plain old fed up with people making up stories about the dangers of cardio, please share this post.

.

PPS: Using studies that only support your pet theories without examining the entire body of scientific evidence (as was done with the article on the dangers of cardio) is called “cherry picking”.  If you’d like to learn more about how to properly read fitness research you can check out my product HERE.

.

.

As I alluded to in my post yesterday, the past couple of years have resulted in huge perspective shifts for me.  Well…far be it for me to stop the trend of change.  As of mid-December I gave up my position in bariatric medicine and decided to take a big step and move my personal training practice to Toronto.

.

I am now part of the personal training team at Medcan which is Canada’s leading preventive healthcare clinic, with over 60 physicians, 240 staff and a 50,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility, located in the heart of Toronto’s financial district.  They offer a comprehensive health assessment, genetic testing, links with Johns Hopkins Medicine, and a whole host of other incredible services.  The personal training area is complete with turfed areas for drills, sleds for pushing, battle ropes, treatment tables, and even a Bod Pod for body composition testing.  In short, this clinic is AWESOME and I’m ready to kick it into 2012 working with one of the best teams in the country.

.

Of course, this means for me that I’ll be commuting on the train or bus back and forth for up to a few hours every day so I’ll have plenty of time to read, write content for the blog, and finally pull together one or two of the projects that have been on my mind for a while.  So if you’re in Toronto and you’re in need of training please contact me at admin@markyoungtrainingsystems.com for pricing and availability.

.

Alternatively, if you’re a fitness professional and you’re interested in buying me lunch chatting over coffee shoot me a note and perhaps we can connect.

.

.

Just over two years ago I thought I had it all figured out.  I had a degree in kinesiology, I’d been in the fitness industry for over a decade, trained clients for tens of thousands of hours, and had co-owned a training facility with my incredible wife, and I was up on almost every single fitness and nutrition happening on the planet.  I felt at that time I was ready to finally break out and publish my first articles in major online publications as well as starting to blog on a larger scale (rather than just for my clients).  So I did and this blog was the result of that decision.  I published a few articles, connected with some big names in the industry, starting writing posts, and had a rapidly growing readership.

.

Then something happened.

.

My wife and I decided to close our training facility so that we could focus a lot less on running a business and more on having a family.  I took a half time position with a Bariatric Medical Program to help treat people with obesity and continued to train some of my personal training clients out of a friend’s facility (as well as maintaining a small group of online training clients).

.

I Lost My Voice

.

The whole process of becoming a dad, learning more about obesity, getting more in touch with the research I’d been neglecting, and working with clients whose lives had been markedly impacted by their weight created a major perspective shift for me.  I kept trying to write the “same old stuff”, but it became harder and harder to talk about counting calories, carb cycling, and the detailed intricacies of physiology that improve body composition when I was coming to realize more and more that few of these things really matter for the vast majority of the population.  I love them.  They are important.  But not as important as some people would have us believe.  They are the details…and for a lot of people…the details won’t matter a lot until they take care of the bigger issues preventing them from succeeding.

.

But when I started to talk about “less sexy” concepts like behavior change, obesity, general health, and slow (rather than idiotically fast resulting in regain) weight loss my readership dropped.  And further to that, I felt like my joking and fun loving personality didn’t really come through in these posts as I was trying to force content on an industry that wasn’t really interested in what I was saying…or at least I thought they weren’t.  In the blog writing world we talk about the way we write as our “voice” and I felt like I had lost mine.

.

Getting My Voice Back

.

As a result of the perspective change I’d had and the difficulty writing content people wanted to read I slowly decreased my writing to the point where I wasn’t really putting out much at all.  I felt like it wasn’t really reaching people and it certainly wasn’t fun anymore either.  But over the last several months I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact I want to have on this world and this industry and my vision for what I’d like to become is slowly forming.  I feel a passion burning and I KNOW that whether the industry is ready for it or not, it is on me to create a change in whatever way I can for whoever might be listening.  I’ve got my voice back, I know what I’m going to say, and I am going to bring it in 2012.

.

I want to thank all of my readers for supporting me (and also making me laugh on Facebook and Twitter in the meantime).  In the coming year I hope to provide you with a steady stream of content to make you think, challenge you, and help you.  I appreciate whatever help you can give me by sharing my stuff along the way so I can reach as many people as possible.

.

Let’s get after it!

.

For a long while now I’ve talked about progressive behavior change as the primary driver for fat loss.  Frankly, I believe in this concept so strongly that I probably haven’t written a formal meal plan for a client in over 5 years.  Going beyond that, I rarely even have clients count calories as this is dependent on the client’s need and where they are at in their training or diet program.  That is not to say that I don’t cover nutrition, but I feel that written diet plans are largely ineffective.

.

Today my colleague Dr. Mike Roussell has shared a video that I feel addresses this concept very well and shows exactly how a fitness professional can go about improving nutritional compliance and results with their clients.  In fact, he provides the very content that he covered at the Peak Diet & Nutrition Summit this past summer and I think some of the concepts are absolutely fantastic.  To me, not having to write diet plans has been a major time saver AND my client results have improved more in the long term as people are able to stick to my current plans much better.

.

I should say in advance that I am not totally in agreement with the some of Mike’s thoughts on meal frequency and carb consumption, but the key points in this interview extend beyond nutrition itself and relate more to how to effectively convey that information to clients to get the best results possible.  If you are a fitness professional and you are interested in learning how to bring about the best fat loss for your clients (or yourself) then this video is totally worth seeing.

.

Fat Loss Without Diet Plans  <== Check it out!

.

Also, if you missed the video I mentioned the other day where Joe Dowdell talks about how we went about creating one of the top gyms in the United States, you can view that here too.  But please don’t forget that both videos are only available for a limited time and will then be taken down.

.

Fat Loss Without Diet Plans  <== Will be taken down soon!

.

Have a great weekend!

.

.

.

1.  The structure of high fructose corn syrup is not that much different than table sugar (sucrose).  I think that the notion that HFCS is somehow magically making people get fatter is probably overstated.  Overconsumption of either is probably a bad idea.

.

2.  Over the past couple of years soy has gotten a bad reputation.  Some believe that even being around the best friend of a relative of someone who once new a guy who ate a spoonful of soy is enough to make a man’s estrogen skyrocket and cause him to grow breasts larger than Dolly Parton.  The truth is that while large quantities of soy can possibly have some estrogenic effects, a moderate amount probably isn’t going to adversely effect most people.  Having some tofu or a soy based products every once in a while isn’t going to kill your body composition improving efforts.

.

3.  Tell me this doesn’t look like it is going to be freaking awesome!

.

.

4.  Why is keeping weight off so hard?  Your Body is Happy to Wait for Your Weight to Come Back.  Again I state, losing weight is the easy part.  Show me an expert who has a plan to KEEP it off and I’ll be impressed.

.

5.  If you’re new here and you missed it, I wrote a 5 part series on training people with obesity a while back.  If you’re interested at all in fat loss, I’d highly suggest you read this.  Be prepared for a perspective shift.  Check out part 1 HERE.

.

6.  Probably just over a year ago some random guy named Joe Dowdell added me on Twitter and then on Facebook.  Up until that point I’d never even heard of him.  Then over the next few months as we started chatting I found out the Joe was the owner of an incredible 10,000 square foot facility in New York City that had been rated as one of the top gyms in the United States by Men’s Health and the number 1 gym in Manhattan by About.com.  I also discovered that he’d co-written a book called Ultimate You and that he’d contributed to damn near every magazine from Men’s Health to Cosmo.

.

Basically, he’d spent the last several years developing one of the top gyms in North America (where he gets to train celebrities and pro athletes) and he’d finally established his business to the point where he was ready to enter the online fitness world.  Today I’m excited to share with you that he’s put together a completely free webinar called The 5 Keys to Success detailing  the process of how he has built one of the top gyms in the United States.

.

If you are a personal trainer and you want to learn what it REALLY takes to make it in the personal training industry or even just to get better results for your clients then this video is a must watch.  You can check it out HERE.

.

.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve pretty much been MIA on the blogging front lately.  I’ve managed to throw down the odd post, but ultimately I’ve been slacking off a lot for various reasons.  As I recently just celebrated another birthday (did I really just turn 35?), I figured there would be no better way to make my return to regular blogging than to do an annual birthday post as they’ve been pretty popular in the past.

.

In case you missed the previous ones where I posted largely embarrassing photos from my youth, you can check them out HERE and HERE.  Basically, in these posts I like to share bits and pieces about myself as some of the thoughts going through my head about health and fitness right now.  I might just end up saying something that gets people riled up and starts a lively discussion.  Usually happens.  Enjoy!

.

1.  In terms of fat loss, I think that a calorie is mostly just a calorie.  In other words, I feel that there are some added benefits for health to making better food choices (less Halloween candy and more vegetables), but if you want to lose fat you’re ultimately going to need to consume less calories than you’re able to burn off.  If you don’t do this it doesn’t matter what you’re eating.  You won’t lose fat.

.

2.  I’ve said before that I don’t think exercise contributes meaningfully to weight loss when a solid diet is already in place.  But that is only partially true.  Realistically, I feel that exercise CAN increase weight loss over and above diet alone (obviously more calories burned SHOULD result in greater weight loss).  The problem arises in that the amount of exercise required to make this occur is probably beyond the amount that most people are willing to do.  So high level athletes who train a ton are able to make this happen.  But I don’t think it is meaningful for average people who are training a couple times at the gym each week.

.

3.  In response to the point above, some might point to THIS STUDY (actually systematic review with meta-analysis) that shows exercise and diet together are better than diet alone.  However, at the end of one year the combined group had maintained an average weight loss of 6.7kg (14.7lbs) verus the 4.5kg (9.9lbs) lost by the diet only group.  While there certainly is a difference, most people would probably fire me if those were the only results I was able to produce over a 1 year span…especially if the all the time spent on exercise every week only resulted in an additional 5 pounds over a whole year.  To me, exercise is best left to gaining/sparing muscle mass, increasing performance measures, and improving health.  Diet alone can handle the body weight.

.

4.  Weight gain is not caused exclusively by carbs or insulin.  Taubes is full of sh*t.

.

5.  In large, long term trials no diet has ever proven vastly superior to any other diet regardless of macronutrient composition.  In less fancy terms, whether you eat low carbs, high carbs, or whatever else matters less than the fact that you actually stick to the program in the long term.

.

6.  Glycemic index may have a role in health (this is good), but I’m not sure at this point that it actually plays a role in weight/fat loss to a meaningful degree as some would have you believe.

.

7.  Organic food may be better for us.  Or not.  Personally I lean towards the first statement, but there IS evidence on the other side that should not be taken lightly.  Don’t be duped into organic foods are necessarily better and that any evidence to the contrary is some conspiracy theory.  If you can afford (and want to purchase) organic then go to it.  But if you can’t don’t stress too much about it and focus on putting in good foods.  This is probably more important as a first course of action anyway.

.

8.  Most supplements are pretty much worthless.  HERE is a good graphic to show you how your supplements stack up.  Note that even those that are above the “worth it” line may be there for reasons other than fat loss or looking good naked.

.

9.  The vast majority of people making scientific claims about the use of programs or products have no freaking clue how to read scientific research (you know…the place from which the claims actually came).  People who use the programs or are a part of certain movements even become so dogmatic about them that they fail to recognize evidence to the contrary.

.

10.  My product How to Read Fitness Research is the answer to this problem.  Oh…and every time you come to this page and you don’t purchase a copy a fairy loses her wings.  Just sayin’.

.

11.  I pretty much love this post.

.

12.  I was at a conference a while ago when the presenter asked a room full of trainers (rather off-handedly) if they remembered how glycolysis works.  Not one hand went up.  If you don’t understand the basic principles of science related to the methods you’re teaching…umm…how are you training people who rely on you to separate fact from fiction?

.

13.  A woman on my Google+ page, who is a fitness professional, posted this picture the other day.

.

.

Perhaps that “fitness professionals” as a whole shouldn’t be criticizing the people we claim that we’re supposed to help.  If you are in this profession, think before you post.

.

14.  My hair is turning almost totally grey.  Seriously.  (Okay…that was random.  Just looked in the mirror.)

.

15.  Staring a new movement…OCCUPY THE GYM.  Who’s with me?

.

16.  I think you can build a body just fine without deadlifts, squats, or the bench press.  (Oooo…that is gonna get some people fired up)

.

17.  Related to the comment above, I love all three exercises, but if  you couldn’t do any of them I still think you could get pretty buff.

.

18.  If you didn’t know already, I am a social media addict.  I’m always updating my Facebook.  And these days I’m starting to find Twitter to be almost on par with Facebook in terms of awesomeness.  I’ve discovered that your Twitter experience is largely determined by who you follow.  Google+ is a little lacking for me, but I still have it.  Maybe it will grow on me.

.

19.  My buddy Nick is hosting a strength CRUISE!!!  Seems like a pretty good idea to me.  Check it out!

.

20.  I’m out of time.  Gotta run.

.

Okay…that appears to be it for me.  Timer is going off and writing time is done.  Thanks to all of you for reading and sharing my stuff.  Much more to come now that I’m back in full force.

.

Have a fantastic week!

.

.

In a post last week I mentioned that fitness industry superhero Alwyn Cosgrove was going to be putting on a webinar called The Death of Personal Training.  Well…on Monday night that seminar took place and, as many who signed up probably already know, there were so many people trying to log in that the webinar service actually crashed!  I think there was such a rush of people trying to log in that Alwyn was single handedly responsible for the following afternoon in Virginia.

.

In case you missed out and weren’t able to see it, here is the link to the replay (no sign up needed):  The Death of Personal Training

However, the fact that there was such an influx of people trying to login for this webinar tells me that there are a heck of a lot of fitness professionals who want to improve their business.  The good news (in case you haven’t heard it yet) is that after the seminar Alwyn introduced a special offer in the form of a new program called From Counting Reps to Counting Revenue.  Frankly, I probably couldn’t do the program justice if I tried to describe it so go check it out for yourself.

.

From Counting Reps to Counting Revenue  <– Get the deets here!

.

For those who aren’t in the know, one thing that happens when you offer to help someone promote a product in the online world is that they typically send you something called “swipe copy” that you can use to help them sell the product.  In short, it is usually in the form or pre-written emails or blog posts that you can use to provide your readers content.  Quite often, this is why a lot of emails from those promoting products look pretty much the same and seem as though they aren’t very authentic.  It is because they aren’t.

.

I’ve never really liked swipe copy and don’t use it.  I prefer to write my own reviews.  In this particular case, this is especially true for 2 reasons.

.

1.  Alwyn’s Product is Legit and I want this review to be authentic!

.

Alwyn has not only been there and done that, but he’s helped others transform their businesses too.  To me, this is more important than just doing it.  He and his wife Rachel have shown repeatedly with their mentorship groups that they can produce results not just with themselves, but with others.  THIS give the program credibility in my eyes.  I’ve already seen the first week of videos and they are fantastic!

.

2.  I know what it is like to struggle.

.

A lot of other people reviewing this product have wildly successful fitness facilities.  Many of them have done it right from the beginning and have never known what it is really like to worry about making lease every month, whether they’ll be able to make their car payment, or even feed themselves.  I, on the other hand, know this.

.

When my wife and I launched our facility several years back we did it all wrong.  We didn’t have a business plan.  We funded it with a line of credit and some credit cards.  We didn’t know which numbers to track and if you’d asked me at any given time what we had made that day (or that month) I probably couldn’t have told you.

.

What I did know was that some months paying the bills was easy and there was a few extra dollars in our pockets.  When times were tough it was hard to pay the bills.  When times were tough, we’d send out the occasional flyer that never seemed to have the response rate that people talked about on the internet.  We tried running bootcamps (which were okay), but we didn’t know enough to have upsells in place to really make these profitable.

.

What we did have was passion!!!  (If you’re a fitness professional I KNOW you do too!)

.

We loved helping people and we figured that by simply becoming the best at what we did our business would thrive and we’d make tons of money.  So we leased a place, slapped a sign above the door, bought some equipment, and went to work.  And work we did.  Most weeks we worked up to 60 hours.  We’d work mornings…and nights.  We lost touch with family and friends as we worked ourselves to the bone.  And when we tried to hire staff, the process was a nightmare and we either had to fire them or they quit and swiped the clients they had from us.  Basically, we hadn’t bought ourselves a business.  We’d bought ourselves a job.  And it was a crappy job with no vacation, little pay (after expenses), and no benefits.

.

In the end, it came down to a point where my wife and I decided we wanted to have a family.  And we both knew we couldn’t do it with both of us working 60 hours per week with very little money…or at least that wasn’t the life we wanted for our family.  So we opted to close our doors, sell everything off, and walk away.  And since we didn’t have an exit strategy (as Alwyn discusses in his product) we literally lost tens of thousands of dollars and we’re still paying for that until today.

.

Now I don’t want you to take this to mean we weren’t good.

.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, we were not only good, but we were DAMN GOOD.  Darn near excellent actually!  Almost every single one of our clients lost fat, gained muscle, reduced pain, and improved their health while in our facility.  I have testimonials to prove it.  And our client retention was excellent!  But there weren’t enough new people coming through the door every day and we certainly weren’t maximizing the amounts we couldn’t been making from each client with upsells, other services, and so on.

.

In short, when it comes to running a fitness business, being good simply is NOT good enough.  You can be the best in the freaking world, but if you don’t have good business practices, you’ll end up with your doors closed.

.

Now for me, this actually ended up to be a blessing in disguise as I ended up with consulting gigs, doing work for a government funded bariatric medical program, and I’m still able to train clients out of a friend’s facility.  In fact, it wasn’t until we closed up shop and I was able to spend less time in my business that I became able to share my thoughts through my blog with the world.  And we had a beautiful daughter.

.

But not everyone is so fortunate.  And to this day I regret not having done it right from the beginning.  Had we had the systems in place we could’ve run the facility, made money, and stepped away to grow our family at the same time.

.

So let me conclude with this…

.

I consider myself to be a good person to take exercise and nutrition advice from.  I know these areas like I created them myself.  I can get results with almost any client you put in front of me.  But I am probably the worst person to take business advice from.  As a business owner you MUST know both of these areas if you are to succeed.  And since I don’t know business (although I’ve learned a TON about it after the fact) I can’t really tell you how to run a facility.

.

What I do know is that Alwyn knows fitness business.  If you currently own a fitness business you owe it to yourself to pick up his product and turn your business around so that you never have to struggle.  I say this sincerely because I’ve been there and I know how you feel.  I know some of you might balk at the price (it is $297) I can’t say enough times how much money and heartache you’ll be able to save yourself if you just get your business on the right path.  Please do yourself a favor and pick this up.

.

Counting Reps to Counting Revenue  <– Get it Here!

.

I should also note that there is a 100% guarantee on this product and if you don’t feel it is worth the money you’ve paid (I KNOW it will be), just ask and your money back and it will be returned with no questions.

.

And finally, this product is ONLY on sale until Friday September 2nd and then it will be pulled off the market.  Yep…pulled.  As in gone.

.

Counting Reps to Counting Revenue  <– Get it While You Can!

.

If you are a fitness professional, you will not regret it.

.

.

In the recent past I’ve had the incredible opportunity to communicate a few time via email with fitness industry superstar Alwyn Cosgrove.

.

*Side note:  How freakin’ awesome is that???*

.

In any case, during the process I discovered that he has a webinar coming up called The Death of Personal Training.  If you’re a fitness professional looking to establish yourself in this industry or you’ve already got your foot in the door and you’re hoping to make this your career I’d highly suggest that you listen to what Alwyn has to say.

.

The underlying component of this seminar is the concept fitness industry has completely changed and over the past few years, the best ways to market, operate and train has been changing and that most fitness professionals are NOT changing to keep up.

.

The statistics for fitness based small businesses are alarming!

.

Within the first 5 years of business 80% of small fitness businesses are out of business!  And by 8 years 16 out of 17 of them have closed their doors.  In other words, just 94% of small fitness businesses are out of business in under 10 years!!!  Many will lose a lot of money.  Some will go bankrupt.  But almost all of them will close and if you’re not prepared for what is coming in the fitness industry you could very well be one of them.

.

As the seminar title suggests, personal training as we know it is dying.

.
The good news is that Alywn Cosgrove (one of the owners of the most profitable gym per square foot in the United States) knows what it takes to build a great business and he’s ready to share the blueprint for his business so you don’t have to become one of those statistics.

.

In the Death of Personal Training webinar here’s what Alwyn is going to share with you:
.
- why it’s the scariest and greatest time in the fitness industry to open and run a gym
.

- how the fitness business model has drastically changed throughout the years and if you are not changing with it, you will be out of it soon

.

- 5 steps to not only survive but dominate your marketplace
.

- the turning point in his career that will help you take your business to the next level
.

Interested yet?  Yeah…me too.  Here are the rest of the deets.

.
Title of the webinar: The Death of Personal Training

.

Presenter of the webinar: Alwyn Cosgrove

.

Date of the webinar: Monday, August 22nd

.

Time of the webinar: 8pm Eastern

.

Alwyn assures me that this webinar is full of business building information, and could be the most important hour of your business’s life, so reserve your spot now:

.

The Death of Personal Training Webinar <– Register Here for FREE

.
Admittedly, I am not sure how many people Alwyn will be letting on the webinar, but I know a lot of people will be trying to get on (Alwyn is kinda big time you know?), so reserve your spot as soon as possible.  Oh…and if you can’t make yourself available for the webinar at 8PM on Monday don’t worry.  You’ll be able to download the webinar after that fact, but only if you register in advance.

.

The Death of Personal Training Webinar <– Register Here for FREE

.

So that’s it for today.  If you’re a fitness professional I can’t recommend this webinar strongly enough and I won’t belabor the point any longer.  I’m going to watch this webinar.  If you are a personal trainer, I’d suggest you do the same.

.

.

Today I just wanted to drop a quick note to share a few things.

.

1.  FitJerk Interview

.

Today an interview was posted that I did with a guy that calls himself FitJerk.  If you hadn’t guessed by the name, he calls himself this because he’s delightfully pleasant, politically correct, and loves to sip tea and eat crumpets.  *Note the obvious sarcasm*.  He’s actually a straight shooter and doesn’t take BS from anyone which is part of what made the interview so cool to do.  If you want to check it out you can do so HERE.  (Some language in this interview not suitable for work or those who are offended by such things).

.

2.  Thoughts on Intervals

.

I was recently asked to write a piece for the Ontario Society for Health and Fitness Bulletin (which is an evidence based publication) on my thoughts on interval training for fat loss.  Interestingly, they paired it up with another article on the same topic that presented a different viewpoint.  You can check it out HERE.  (My stuff is on page 3).

.

3.  Last call for Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body

.

Yesterday I wrote a post on why I think MIRU is going to be solid.  So today I just wanted to remind you that the sale where you can save $70 on this product will end at the end of the day TODAY.  After that, the price will go from $77 to $147!

.

Of course, if you’re still leery about shelling out the dough, I also want to remind you that there is a 60 day money back guarantee on this product so if you’re interested in checking out the product, I’d highly advise that you take advantage of the deal now before the price jumps.

.

So that’s it.  Last call.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  :)

.

Muscle Imbalances Revealed Upper Body <– Get it now before the price goes up!

.