Must Reads

In a Facebook Post on January 6th, I posted that one of my 2021 Personal Goals was to Read/Listen to 40+ books, 15 being self-development/business. Then I made a request for what should be my “must”…80 comments later, here is what people said, enjoy! 

Never Split The Difference x 2

Settle For More by Megyn Kelly 

Profit First x 2

Train Your Brain

Grit

Thinking Fast and Slow

Antifragile

Dare To Lead by Brene Brown

Turn The Ship Around (recommend for leaders) 

The Body Keeps Score

An Anonymous Girl  by Greer Hendricks 

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey x 2

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris 

Atomic Habits x4

Any book By Brene Brown x 2 

Where The Crawdads Sing x 2

The Great Lone
Badass Habits

Untamed by Glennon Doyle x 5

The Source by Tara Swart

Fear Is My Homeboy by Judi Holler

Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine

Ideas, Influence and Income by Tanya Hall 

12 Rules For Life by James Peterson

Little Fires Everywhere

Rising Strong by Brene Brown 

Why Won’t You Apologize by Harriet Lerner

Dare To Lead by Brene Brown

If You Only Knew by Jamie Ivey

You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero

Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequets

Quantum Success

Anything written by Jim Collins 

Multipliers  

Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts by Daniel Shapiro

The One Thing by Gary Keller

Mindset by Carol Dweck

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller x2

The Last Safe Investment by Bryan Franklin 

Chase The Lion by Mark Batterson

Persuade & Get Paid by Phil M Jones (recommended the audiobook)

Essentialism by Greg McKeown 

Compete Every Day  by Jake Thompson

Freakonomics

The Obstacle Is The Way

Series: Grant Country by Karin Slaughter 

Series: Will Trent by Karin Slaughter

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The Compound Effect

Boundaries

The body is not an Apology by Sonia Renee Taylor 

The Go Giver

Relentless by Tim Grover

Thin Like A Monk by Jay Shetty

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willnk and Leif Babin

Pound The Stone by Joshua Metcalf 

Fierce & Free by Jen Hatmaker

The Trail Provides – David Smart 

How To Think Like Leonardo DaVinci by Michael Gelb

The Obesity Code  by Dr. Jason Fung

Chase The Lion by Mark Batterson

Switch: How to make change when change is hard by Chip and Dan Heath

Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan HOliday 

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan HOliday 

Stillness is the Key by Ryan HOliday 

Be Here and How by Ram Dass

Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

Clockwork by MIke Michalowicz

The Mastery of Love by Done Miguel Ruiz

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra 

The E-Myth REvisited by Michael Gerber

Start with With by Simon Sinek

Mastery by Robert Greene 

 

 

Injuries & How To Deal

Injuries & How To Deal

 

 

Getting injured is NO fun. But sometimes it does happen…and when you least expect it or need it to. Let’s look at this in two different ways/locations. 

 

 

Injury occurs OUTSIDE of class. Let’s say you get injured outside of class and are questioning your ability to come to class/session. Maybe you tripped over something and twisted your ankle, or you tweaked your back carrying something heavy. This list could go on and on. Give me a call or shoot me an email and we can discuss the situation ASAP. We can discuss the severity of your injury and if it is beneficial for you to come to class. (Yes, sometimes rest IS the best option, however sometimes breaking your habit of coming to class might do some damage mentally.) Not only can I connect you with someone that could possibly help, but I can change programming to help accommodate your situation. I don’t want you to miss class if we can prevent it. Just know that if the pain is lingering or has a “stabbing” feel, I highly suggest that you visit a medical professional prior to coming to class. I’m also happy to work with your doctor/therapist as team you so we can help get you on the mend. 

Injury Occurs DURING class. Smart movement is the best and safest movement which is why I stress the importance of good technique over fastest time or heaviest. With that said, injuries do occur. If you feel as though you have injured yourself STOP and flag me down and we can access. It might be something simple that when you stop and move around in more of a stretching motion until it goes away, but there is always that chance it is more serious which is why I would rather be safe than sorry. I will let you know that I will fill out an injury report for my records, but I will send you a copy. If the injury is more serious (I don’t even want to think about that happening to you, I can call 911 and your emergency contact for further actions, but let’s not think about that however I have no problem in doing so. 

No matter if you injure yourself inside or outside of class, once I find out, I’m going to be a little pest checking on you until you tell me to stop or I feel like you are okay-ish and know what to do. Consider yourself warned. Carry On.  

A Peak Into Your Coach’s Life

A Peak Into Your Coach’s Life

Ever want to know what goes on behind the scenes in YOUR Coach’s life. When I’m not coaching you what I’m doing? I bet you think I just sit around and think of ways to make you sore (possibly). Or maybe you think I sit around drink pre-workout, do some squats, have a post workout protein powder…repeat (actually that is kinda close).

Here is a rough schedule:

6/6:30 am – Workout in garage
7:45 am – Post workout and get in shower (need to be out of shower at 8/8:05am)
8:40 am – leave for work 
9:00 am – arrive at work and eat breakfast with coffee #1 (black)
10/10:30 am – coffee #2
1 pm – Lunch 
1:30 pm – Let dogs out
2:15 pm – back at work 
3:30 pm – Caffeine drink
4:40 pm – Meal #3 if having it this week
5:00 pm – Leave work and head to client/athlete/victim (MTW)
7:00 pm – head home
7:30 pm – Dinner with pups & answer emails till bedtime routine starts (I’ll do this while throwing the ball for Chief)

But let me take you a little deeper into some secrets…the good, the bad and odd habits I have…in no particular order:

  • Thoughts on snooze. I love smart home items. I have Alexas in all rooms. She controls all the lamps in the house (minus the ones in my guest room) which means I have smart light bulbs in all the lamps (minus the guest room). At 5:45 am the lamp on the opposite side of the bed from where I sleep starts to come on, it starts dim and works its way up to bright by 6am. Which is when my alarms..yes that has an “s” on the end…start to go off. Alexa goes off first, then I snooze her verbally (with my eyes closed and covers still on and pus still sleeping) with the command, “Alexa snooze”, which is 9 mins and then Alexa and iphone/siri go off 9 mins later. BUT if I’m really struggling or the pups are being super cute and cuddly. I will turn Siri off (manually) and say, “Alexa, wake me up in 5 minutes”. But then I have to hustle to get ready. 
  • My morning routine. Once I finally get out of bed, I make sure the dogs can get out (doggie door), get dressed for workout in my clothes that were set out the night before, make and drink my pre-workout in the shaker that was filled with water the night before and the pre-workout that was measured the night before. I then move the car and start working out till 7:45 am. Post workout fuel, then shower and get ready for work leaving around 8:45 am. Fun fact, I brush my teeth in the shower every morning. I have my first cup of coffee and breakfast at work.  
  • Music. Going to train clients I like to listen to either my book or this awesome 90s country playlist my brother made on Spotify. Same thing for on the way home (unless I’m going to workout when I get home, but that is a different story). But when I’m working out it is a very random mix of hard rock and clean rap and some times the “major lazer”  Spotify station. 
  • Food. I food & meal prep on Sundays. Whats the difference you ask? When you food prep, you make a ton of food in batches. Meal prep is next level. Not only do I cook all my food for the week, but I actually put it in pyrex containers weighed and measured. I don’t eat out alot, but do when its time to celebrate or catch up with friends.
  • Coffee. I drink 2 cups of coffee in the morning….from a coffee mug with the Broken Spoke on the front. 
  • Breakfast is the same every morning which is ‘”healthy pancake” (also could be made waffles) that include eggs, spinach, gluten free oats and cinnamon….literally put it in the vitamix/blender and then use it like batter and make pancakes or waffles. I use to eat it on the way to work, but now I eat it at work with my coffee.  
  • Workout. I workout at 6 or 6:30 am. Which means pre-workout is taken roughly 10 mins ahead of time (spark or ON Amino Energy) and of course post workout is taken directly after basic but clean protein powder.  
  • Nightly Routine. In a perfect world, my nightly routine starts at 9 pm and I would love to bed in bed reading a fiction book on my kindle by 9 or 9:30 pm. Alexa starts dimming my lights at 9 pm and at 9:30 pm they are off.  This is always the goal but doesn’t mean it always happen like that. I do brush my teeth and wash my face as well as lay out my workout clothes for the next morning as well as my outfit for the next day before going to bed. I don’t have time or energy to think about that in the morning. I have so many other things going on. 
  • Emails. I Answer Emails at night after all is done unless the email can be answered in a quick response, but I like to answer emails respectfully if needed. 
  • Program. I program your workouts mostly on Sunday. I like to make sure they are done for the week, but I will/can/have made tweaks day of or mid workout if I think something needs to be changed or if something happens and we need to adjust. But they are always programmed with your goals, abilities and access to materials in mind. I promise it isn’t to see how bad I can sore I can make you. 

Hope you enjoyed that little bit into my life and my silly routines. I could go into greater details of some of the sillier habits but I’ll spare you. I’m an open book so if you have questions about life as a Coach/Trainer. Just let me know, I’m always happy to share!

Push It Real Good…Breaking Down The Push-Up

Push It Real Good…Breaking Down The Push-Up

Push Ups might be one of the biggest “bro movements” out there..next to bicep curls, but yet can be so beneficial when done correctly.

The push-up is an upper body movement that uses the major chest muscle, muscles pectoralis major, as the primary mover and supporting movers pectoralis minor deltoids and triceps. All these muscles assist in a horizontal adduction movement so when they are lowering you to the ground (eccentric) they can move you off the ground (concentric).

Great, but HOW do I do them?

THIS video does a great job at breaking down the form of a push-up. Notice the placement of all the limbs in regards to the body. If you are doing push ups from your knees, this doesn’t change (minus the foot placement). If you are elevating your hands. This doesn’t change. All of the points of performance stay the same.

But how do I get better at the push up? Just like anything else, you do them. 

THIS challenge page has a few too many ads, but the program is pretty good. You do an initial test and there is a program based off of how you do on that initial test. There is also pinterest for a few different 30 day challenges. If you find one you like and want my thoughts, send it my way and I’ll be happy to check it out for you.

But WHY should I do push ups? 

According to THIS article push ups:

  1. It is a compound exercise

  2. It is a cardiovascular workout

  3. It stretches your bicep

  4. Bigger back benefits

  5. They are free and versatile

  6. Stronger shoulders

  7. The production of HGH

  8. Increasing Testosterone

  9. It is a weight bearing exercise

While this is a long list and can be a little overwhelming, especially if you are new to me or push ups in general, he does make some good points. But come full circle, even if push-ups are not your favorite movement you should consider doing them more often than not.

And now you have a little glimpse into why we do them every time we train.