Friday 18 July 2014

Fitness Training: The Extreme Home Gym

   He didn't earn the nickname 'Mad Dog' by sticking to the status quo!
Jeremy Podlog is a married father of two, a competitive amateur wrestler, a digital media entrepreneur,  and an award winning documentary film maker. All of these titles require an extensive commitment of effort and time.
   Jeremy's 25 year plus wrestling career was capped with a Canadian Championship bronze medal and an appearance in the wrestling World Cup on the Canadian National team. His tenacity and attacking style led to the Mad Dog moniker. Many a wrestling tournament announcer lauded these legendary exploits with trembling, tongue-tied reverence.

 Jeremy still has the fire in his belly to keep on wrestling. He is addicted to the sport. In his own words "The wrestling mat is my crack pipe! I gotst to have it!"  

   Jeremy's dilemma is a familiar one to many a working person.
  • His wife is a successful and busy career woman
  • His children are getting involved in sports and arts
  • His film making career is beginning to boom. He is well on his way to becoming Canada's answer to Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock.
   This mushrooming success of family and vocation has left less available time for his avocation - wrestling. However for a think-out-of-the-box type of genius like Jeremy this is not a deterrent. It is just another challenge! Rather than take valuable time to travel to the wrestling venues to practice,  he has built his own wrestling room in his garage. With some mats and some constructive ingenuity the Mad Dog is back in business - big time!
    Jeremy is also fortunate to live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, a city with no shortage of current and former internationally and nationally experienced amateur wrestlers. He is able to entice these warriors over with promises of tea, muffins and post workout grog in exchange for an hour or two of combative exercise. In this way Jeremy can work around his hectic business and family schedule.
Since Calgary can experience the full wrath of a northern prairie winter, the garage can be heated.
   Jeremy also has a home gym in his basement to supplement his wrestling with weight training.
Occasionally he is able to slip away for CrossFit sessions at a nearby club where he also provides digital media consulting services.

   Jeremy's personal wrestling studio should not be confused with an infamous 'Professional Wrestling' institute known as the 'Hart Dungeon'. The Hart family are Pro Wrestling icons who ran a school for aspiring Pro Wrestlers out out the basement of their Calgary mansion. Rumors of the family patriarch, Stu Hart, physically torturing ex-football payers turned wannabe pro wrestlers are tales of horrific local legend. The Mad Dog's garage dungeon is more about competitive fitness and fun.

   Hopefully this home studio can keep one of amateur wrestling's most charismatic and colorful characters in the game for a few more years.  
   
Don't try this at home! Then again - he did!
Mad Dog Podlog and his garage wrestling studio.
Mess with him at your peril!

Until next time,..Keep Fit

Little Bobby Strong


                                   













P.S. Check out Jeremy Podlog's CrossFit website at www.rabbitview.com/rabbitview-crossfit

Links
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net
AudienceBuilder.ca
www.fitnwell.com

Sunday 13 July 2014

Fitness Training and the Home Gym

   The home gym business is booming! There are many reasons for this:

  • People today are busy and pressed for time!  Kid's soccer, gymnastics, hockey, or music lessons can eat away at the free moments in each day. Throw in work commutes, differing spousal schedules, social commitments, household duties, and other family obligations and the first thing to get dropped could be a fitness club membership. A home gym could appear to be be the answer.
  • Fitness club memberships can be costly!  Home gyms can vary in price but once paid off there are no more monthly fees as with a club membership. 
  • There are no parking expenses or other travel issues with a home gym.
  • There are no periods of peak usage and wait times to get on certain apparatus or equipment.
  • Some people feel uncomfortable working out in a public gym. They feel that they are being compared to fitter people and being judged negatively. This may be only a figment of their imagination but it can still be a powerful perception. 
  • The home gym owner can work out when the mood strikes them. In theory there should be fewer excuses to prevent this from happening,


  Can we safely say that for a time challenged person the home gym is the answer? 
  This is not necessarily so. 
  • Many home gyms collect dust and cobwebs, become indoor clothes lines, or get stashed in a neglected corner of the garage or basement, never to be used.  I have always believed that someone who will not take the time to actually go to a gym or fitness center to work out is more likely to give up on a program with a home gym. 
  • Some home gyms will be junk that breaks easily and does not provide a full range of motion for the exercise.
  • There can be distractions at home! Kids, computers, televisions, phone calls, pets, other family members, ringing doorbells and friendly neighbors bearing six-packs of craft beer can conspire against a successful home work-out.
How can someone who is serious about exercising at home insure that they are buying a suitable product? The best way is to stick to brand names such as LifeFitness, Nautilus, Bullworker or Livestrong. (There is the former Lance Armstrong cancer foundation Livestrong but there is also the business part of Livestrong that posts fitness information and makes fitness equipment.) For free weights the best choices are Weider or York. Television infomercial gadgets or home gyms from 
Walley Mart likely won't fit the bill!
   Since many people with home gyms give up the ghost rather quickly there will be bargains on E-bay, Kijiji, Craigslist or the want ads. 

The entrepreneurial Fitness Trainer will think outside of the box! Tap into the home gym demographic. Cultivate house call Fitness Training sessions with the home gym owners.
Some of the home gym buyers just may realize that they could use some expert help to reap the full benefit of their investment.
It may require some tips from Fitness Equipment dealers to track down recent buyers. The Fitness Trainer will have to network and establish such relationships.  It could prove fruitful.
Working out of a Fitness Center is not the only career option!

Until Next Time, ......Keep Fit

Little Bobby Strong
                               
No travel time!  No crowded weight room!
No sneers from boorish muscleheads!
Maybe even a potential client!


PS: Kudos to Germany at the soccer World Cup!
I tried to stay neutral but my Mom does have German blood.
Her maiden name was Schwabe.
Little Bobby Strong could have almost become
Little Bobby Schwabe! 








Links
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net
AudienceBuilder.ca
www.fitnwell.com




Wednesday 2 July 2014

Fitness Training and Late Night Infomercials

   Sometimes I get those nights. I can't sleep. It doesn't happen if I've spent that the day being active outside. However, on those other days it can occur. I can try thumbing through a muscle magazine from my old stack in the closet. I can try reading a chapter from my college exercise physiology textbook. If I can't read I can always turn on the tube and be entertained - or be bored.
   If I click to the right channel I can find it - that special channel showing the fitness equipment infomercial. Then I have an epiphany. This is it! This is the ultimate answer to finding the perfect exercise.
   Get super fit with the Titanic Toner! You don't have to leave the couch. You just sit there and put the Titantic Toner on your lap. Then you proceed to pull on the handles and perform crunching movements for 10 minutes. Repeat every day as you watch your favorite sit-com.  Observe as the pounds melt away. Gaze in amazement as your muscles become toned cables of sinewy steel in just a few short workouts. Observe as your abs transform from rolls of quivering jelly belly to looking like a farmer's plow ran over your midsection. There is no longer any need to hoist weights or cycle around a park or run like a rat on a treadmill. Stop wasting vast amounts of your valuable time by working out.
All you need is the Titanic Toner!
   The person on T.V. demonstrating the Titanic Toner is a super ripped model or even a former Olympic champion. Wow, do you think that that's how they got their world beating physique .It couldn't have been from hours in the weight room and countless intervals of hill runs, 400 meter repeats or numerous lengths in the swimming pool. No way! It was from performing the same movement on this innovative device for 10 minutes while never leaving the couch!
   Fitness Trainers will invariably get asked about the validity of such gimmicks by their clients. People like shortcuts. If these products actually worked, our profession could become obsolete like VHS tapes and Polaroid cameras. Don't worry. Fitness Training is safe, for now. Such infomercials make claims that can be quite misleading. There are some common issues that make the promise of these super gadgets very unlikely:
  • The exercise movements are overly simple and repetitive
  • There is usually no method of adjustment for increasing overload to make the exercise more difficult
  • The equipment is often poorly constructed and easily broken
  • The exercise movements are rarely specific to any functional range of motion required for sports or normal activity  
   These infomercials are targeting a specific type of person. This is not a hard and fast rule but it is a strong belief that I have. People that will not leave home to work out are probably not going to adhere to a workout commitment. Of course, there are always exceptions. However, the ones that will stick with it at home will buy a weight set or a treadmill or they will do yoga. They do not rely on the infomercial super exerciser.
   If you haven't pounded back too many brews in front of the tube, you may have noticed the disclaimer that reads  "The results shown may also depend on diet, extra exercise and other variables."  That is the equipment maker's legal out in the likely event that the buyer does not get ripped and fit by sitting on the sofa.
   Some exercise is better than no exercise!  However in most cases ,taking a walk, or going up a few flights of stairs, or house cleaning, or gardening will produce better results than a T.V. wonder gadget.
   There is a famous story about a legendary, medicated  insomniac taking his gun and blowing out the television screen one sleepless night. Maybe Elvis Presley was watching the Titanic Toner commercial when he pulled that trigger.

Until next time,...........keep fit!

Little Bobby Strong
Just squeeze the handles of the Titanic Toner together to attain 'total fitness' with just 10 minutes a day.
Hmmm. Maybe I'm not doing it right!  


Links
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net
AudienceBuilder.ca
www.fitnwell.com