The Trucker Bod - The End of an Era?

We all know the cartoon like caricature of the long haul rig driver:

• Truculent, tattooed, truckers with tree trunk torsos and titantic tummies.
• Mammoth sized man mountains of meat devouring mass.
• Libidinous, licentious, lecherous leviathans with a lewd liking for lurking lot lizards.
• Road warriors of the nations highways speaking indecipherable code words over a C. B. Radio.
• Men not to be messed with whether in a greasy spoon roadside diner or a sleazy biker bar.  Remember the movie 'Duel' (1971) where travelling salesman Dennis Weaver confronts a trucker in such a greasy diner to accuse him of trying to run him off of the highway. That particular scene ended badly for poor Mr. Weaver as he was used to mop the floor with his hair.

 YOU TAKE THE WIDE LOAD
AND I'LL TAKE THE LOW ROAD
AND I'LL BE IN SCOTLAND BEFORE YOU

A BIG RIG AND A- BIG BOY

     

   The above, of course, are exaggerated stereotypes. There are are small and medium sized truck drivers. Many truckers are lean and wiry as well as strong. The aggressive driving highway hogs are not desired by trucking companies. Most pride themselves on compiling  accident free driving records. They perform a valuable and necessary job in sometimes lonely or often crowded and dangerous working conditions.
   Truckers can be legendary for offering assistance to stranded drivers or travelers in need of roadside assistance. I have been the beneficiary of such highway Good Samaritans.
   However, long hours of sitting along with the infamously unhealthy roadside cuisine can exact a toll (pun intended) on the physical well being of professional truckers. The long hours in the driver's seat can eventually cause negative postural and lower back issues. The sitting and less than optimal eating habits can lead to weight problems and even obesity. This can manifest itself in the form of diabetes or cardiovascular problems. Poor sleep habits may lead to drowsy drivers Passing the long hours by cigarette smoking can of course lead to multiple comorbidities thus piling on the possible health concerns.

 There is a new trend in this oft romanticized profession. Truckers are bringing coolers of healthy food on long hauls and taking stretching and exercise breaks. Drivers are realizing that by eating healthy and trying to exercise in their downtime  they can reap certain benefits:

• They may prolong their career. 
• The aches and pains from the prolonged sitting can be alleviated.
• Body weight can be reduced which has multiple health benefits.
• Sleep habits may improve and sleep apnea problems reduced resulting in more alert and aware drivers.

   Transportation governing authorities are starting to require professional truck drivers to pass a medical when applying for a commercial driving licence. This could be incentive for lifestyle changes. After all, no licence means no employment.
   Give these people your utmost respect. They keep our economy running. Plus if you lip lip them off in a roadside diner, not only will they mop the floor with you, they just might be fit enough to chase you down on foot!

EXERCISE BREAK
THE NEW BREED OF TRUCKER

Until Next Time                                                            

Keep Fit

Little Bobby Strong









References
Antonella Artuso Wide Load Rules the Road The Ottawa Citizen Sunday October 23, 2016
Movie Duel, 1971, Director Stephen Spielberg, Writer Richard Matheson, Starring Dennis Weaver

Links:

www.fitnwell.com

www.rabbitview.com

schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dancarle/?ppe=1

 

Carleton University is a Weight Scale Free Zone

   My old Alma Mater is up to it's tricks again! Carleton University in Canada's capital city Ottawa was at one time in history a bastion of free thinking and free speech. That is not so much the case these days.Like many Canadian institutes of higher learning, Carleton U. is becoming choked and stifled by the antithesis of critical thinking -the Beast that is political correctness!
   Don't get me wrong. University days were some of the best of my life. Carleton U. also had some outstanding features.

• There were no fraternity or sorority houses at Carleton practicing their snobbish, elite brand of exclusivity unlike many other institutes of higher learning.
• I lived at home so maybe I missed it but I never had to endure any 'frosh week" hazing rituals.
• I don't remember the campus ever being over run with far right or far left political wingnuts. The few that were around were on the fringes and were not taken seriously.
• There was no religious dissension. Religion was just an arts option.

Of course it wasn't all paradise and it may have even been a somewhat uneasy environment for some.

• The campus buildings at Carleton are all joined by tunnels which offer refuge from  winter weather when classroom commuting. The tunnel walls were full of colorful and often artistic graffiti. However, some of it was sexist, racist or homophobic. 
• In my first ever university lecture the sociology professor told a crude story about the habits of a studied colony of rhesus monkeys. I thought it was hilarious. The majority of the women in the lecture were less easily amused and walked out en massse. 
• The Carleton pub had its share of male trolls on rock band weekend, looking to prey on drunken co-eds. (I know what you're thinking.  No - I was not one of those trolls!) 

   How things have changed. The tunnel walls are blank these days. in fact I can get lost in them without the artistic guide posts. Lecturers and professors avoid humor since any jokes are bound to offend somebody. The pub is just a small lounge where rowdy behavior is discouraged and trying to chat up a potential partner of the opposite gender is verboten.
   This new normal seems to have finally arrived in the campus fitness realm. Carleton U. has a brand new state of the art fitness center. The fitness center administrators have decided that weight scales have no place in this new world order. The rationale is that there are far better methods for determining fitness, health and physical transformation.

• Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist girth and other anatomical measurements are considered superior indicators of health and bodily improvement.
• Shows such as "the Biggest Loser" have left a bad impression of overbearing trainers bullying obese people and judging them by the results of the weight scale, often to the very detriment of the health of the contestants.
• Since muscle is denser than fat,  people may be mislead by weight measurement and become discouraged.

   Somehow though I sense that there is more to this decision to ban the scale. It seems to belong to the same mindset as not keeping score for children's soccer games so as not to belittle the losers.
Are weight scales perceived as implements of 'Fat Shaming' by the feared powers behind political correctness? 
Has my Alma Mater given in to such powers and taken away someone's freedom to use a weight scale as quick non intrusive guide to progression? 
Is it to be assumed that fitness center patrons have such low self esteem that they must be protected from such possible ridicule?

   Maybe I'm just a dinosaur reacting to the changing ways of the world? I am still proud of many things about Carleton University. The men's basketball team is a perennial national championship winner and the women basketballers scored a bronze medal this year. Hockey and football are back and other sports are always in the competitive mix. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I graduated many years ago. If I went there now I just might get kicked out.

The weight scale - a cruel symbol of Fat Shaming?

Until next time

Keep Fit!

Little Bobby Strong

Links:

www.fitnwell.com

www.rabbitview.com

schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dancarle/?ppe=1

Is it a Bad Life for Fitness Trainers at Goodlife ?

   Goodlife Fitness is Canada's largest fitness center chain. It is also the 4th largest fitness chain in the world. When I used to live in Edmonton I would occasionally work out at a Goodlife Fitness center when I visited my hometown in Ottawa. It was a great place to work out. The equipment was state of the art and the facility was well kept. I would buy a visitor day pass and no staff member ever tried to hustle me to upgrade to a longer membership package.
   Things may be different now. They don't sell a visitor day pass any more, only monthly memberships or longer. As with most big box fitness chains, Goodlife is overrun with new members in January and February to the point where it is difficult to find a free work station during peak hours.
By March the crowd of newbies has dwindled back to its normal state. Many of these absentee members are still paying membership fees well into the next year. That formula keeps the mega fitness complexes ticking.
  Some Fitness Trainers will have a lucrative career at a big box fitness chain. Most will not! As is common with many corporate giants, the wealth doesn't always trickle down in abundance to the plebeian ranks of its workers. Fitness professionals may not be compensated in the way that professionals would expect. Recently there have signs of discontent within the ranks at Goodlife:

• The Ontario Ministry of Labor in Ontario found Goodlife and other Fitness Centers in contravention of the Employment Standards Act. 
• Issues in contention include wages, fairness, worker insurance and job security.
• There is a pending 60 million dollar class action lawsuit representing Fitness Trainers against Goodlife Fitness.
• Group Fitness Instructors are required to pay a company owned by Goodlife for using their music.
• Employees pay for their uniforms.
• Group Fitness Instructors are not paid for class preparation but just the actual session. 
• Fitness Trainers and Group instructors are not compensated for doing mandatory paperwork.
• New Fitness Trainers are paid minimum wage for prospecting for clients among Fitness Center members.
• This pay is then deducted from the earnings once the Trainer begins earning money from clients. 
• This also means Fitness Trainers will be hustling members to buy training packages while the members are trying to work out. This is known as 'prospecting'!
• Management insists that Fitness Trainers sign clients to only long term Fitness Training packages.
• Goodlife has their own certification for Fitness Training - Can Fit Pro. Goodlife Trainers must pay for this certificate course. 
• Goodlife Fitness Trainers in metropolitan Toronto have recently voted to unionize!
• There tends to be a revolving door of Fitness Trainers at mega fitness centers including Goodlife.
•  This high turnover rate may dissuade many better qualified Fitness Trainers from seeking employment in such places. 
• Fitness Trainers can pay up to 50% of the client fee back to the club.

 
    I am going to do something that may seem astonishing to those who read my blogs. I am going to play the Devil's Advocate and rationalize the business practice of mega clubs such as Goodlife:

• A Fitness Trainer needs an equipped place in which to train clients. The mega fitness complex provides a state of the art exercise location.
• Fitness Trainers need clients. Goodlife has a multitude of potential converts.
• If the fitness center offers point-of- sale personal training services at the time that a customer buys a club membership, new clients can be assigned to the Fitness Trainer. It is easier to re-sign such an existing client than it is to recruit a new client.
• Some mega clubs like Movati employ a Fitness Consultant whose job is to recruit clients for the Fitness Trainers.
• A rookie Fitness Trainer can hone their sales skills and training expertise in such an environment. 
• Maybe the union presence will improve the conditions and compensation.

    The bottom line is salesmanship. In such an environment, if you don't make sales you will either give up on your own or be replaced by management. That is the reason for the high turn over rate.
  There is constant pressure to sign new clients.Your technical skills as a Fitness Trainer are of lesser importance. My mother was the top Tupperware salesperson in eastern Canada for many years running. She could walk into a mega club with no fitness expertise and sign up scores of clients. Many Fitness Trainers, like me, would not have that kind of success. If a Fitness Trainer is that skilled at selling the product, it might be more lucrative for them to strike out on their own. There will be different responsibilities but potentially more reward! No one ever said it would be easy! 
                                             

A state of the art place to work out!
An arguable career choice! 

Until Next Time 

Keep Fit

Little Bobby Strong   

Links:

http://www.360online.ca/360fit-blog-goodlife-the-puppy-mill-of-gyms/
AudienceBuilder.ca

www.fitnwell.com

www.rabbitview.com
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank.net

References
Goodlife Fitness Center faces $60 M. Lawsuit over Wages thestar.com Sara Mojtehedzadeh Nov.17,2016
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/09/toronto-goodlife-trainers-vote-for-union-muscle.html
Toronto Goodlife Trainers Vote for Union Muscle  thestar.com Sara Mojtehedzadeh July 9, 2016
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/09/toronto-goodlife-trainers-vote-for-union-muscle.html

Does Canada 'Own the Podium' ?

   This is a story that I heard from a friend of a friend of a friend. A washed-up, grizzled, former club level amateur wrestler and self proclaimed Fitness Guru/Blogger was a spectator at the Canada Cup wrestling tournament. This grizzled Guru saw one of the Canadian  wrestling coaches talking to two gentlemen. Thinking the two gentlemen were also wrestling coaches, the grizzled Guru waited for a lull in the conversation. When the lull arrived, he proceeded to interject with a  lascivious  anecdote spoken in the vernacular of a wrestling locker room. After all, the grizzled Guru did not know of a wrestling coach alive that would not appreciate such a tale. The expected laughter never came. There was only an awkward, embarrassing silence.
   That night, in a heated verbal encounter at the hotel lounge, the irate wrestling coach angrily berated a gin soaked, grizzled Guru. The two gentleman with him when rudely interrupted were not wrestling coaches. They were officials from 'Own the Podium'! 
    

   Own the Podium is a federally funded program with the mandate to make Canada a medal producing machine at Olympic and world championship competitions. It was created in early 2004.  Why have such a program?

1. Canada is the only country that did not win a gold medal while hosting an Olympics.
2. This happened at not one - but 2 Olympics. The 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary were lacking Canadian gold.
3. Not only did Canada not win gold at their own Olympics, medals of any color were sparse. 
4. Vancouver was to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. National pride was at stake.

   I am old enough to remember underfunded and overwhelmed Canadian athletes falling short against the world's best. Even in hockey, our national game, the best we could manage in the Olympics were a few bronze and silver medals from the 1950's until our professionals were allowed to play. Sure there were great Canadian moments including gold medals in other sports, but their rarity made them all the more remarkable.
Own the Podium would change all of that! Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, and the Vancouver Organizing Committee gathered for a brainstorming session in 2004. A decision was made to have Sport Canada, the C.O.C. and the Canadian Paralympic Committee  pool their funding. This funding was to be used to select potential medal winners from the various national sporting organizations and direct.the resources towards them. Future forecast was predicted by:

• Past Performance
• Future potential in the view of coaches and sports coordinators
• Analytics - the analysis of statistics made famous in baseball and the movie 'Moneyball'
• Sports with potential for most medals  
• Sports with multiple events like speed skating (long and short track), skiing (alpine and freestyle), swimming and rowing plus track and field can yield more medals
• Team sports like field hockey can yield only one medal per team per gender
• Sports with weight classes such as wrestling can also be fruitful
• A weight class sports such as Olympic Weightlifting is a fringe sports in Canada whereas in Europe, the Balkans, Asia and the Mideast it is almost as popular as soccer. The potential for medals is likely low for Canadian competitors.
•  Sports associations such as Wrestling Canada had the foresight to invest heavily in the women's program and reap a future medal harvest.

   It worked! 
Canada scored multiple medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics. We earned a spectacular  13 golds, most of all countries at Vancouver 2010 and finished 3rd in the overall medal count. At Socchi 2014 the count was slightly less but still impressive. The offshoot of Own the Podium for summer sports is the Road to Excellence program which came into existence in 2008.Medal counts for Canada in world championships and the summer Olympics has climbed steadily.

Due to the success of the women, wrestling receives ample funding.
Fortunately this keeps the men's program afloat.

   At the 2016 Olympics in Rio
Canada finished 20th in the nation count with 22 medals which included 4 golds. This was Canada's best showing at a non-boycotted Olympiad.  However the optimistic hope was to have finished top 12 in the national medal count.
   Some sports were considered to have underachieved. Rowing received the most funding of all sports with 18 million dollars.
Rowing scored only a bronze medal.  Swimming and track and field met and even exceeded expectations. Wrestling (the women) and cycling delivered the goods. Trampoline, a low profile niche sport provided us with a repeat Olympic champion!

   What's not to like? More medals equals more money! More medals draws more sponsors!
Canadians can now be known for more than the toothless smiles and ZZ Top playoff beards of our hockey players. Our athletes are no longer happy to just show up and try their best! They are there to win, place or show.
   Actually there has been some criticism and some issues that create controversy.

• Sports lacking potential medal winners receive little or no funding from Own the Podium. The fear is that certain sports may fall off of the radar and not return.  
• The grassroots infrastructure still receives financial support but it has not increased substantially since 2004.
• Some critics argue that federal funding for Own the Podium goes mostly to the cream of the crop. Meanwhile overall youth sports participation is down in a losing battle with electronic toys and phone gadgets. 
•  Are we creating a sports culture where finishing out of the medals means failure?
• Late bloomers may run the risk of being left out of the program.
• Olympics and world championship teams will become smaller and more elite. Fewer athletes will experience the world championship or Olympic experience.
•  Own the Podium dictates how the money is spent. In 2010 Canadian speed skater Denny Morrison claimed that his performance suffered because he could not train with an American world and Olympic champion. 
• Own the Podium searched for potential winners who grew up elsewhere but had dual Canadian citizenship. Could this lead to a mercenary approach to winning as opposed to cultivating our own youth?
• Top heavy financing may lead to short term gain but long term pain. If grassroots money is barely increased where will the future Canadian champions come from?
• A journalist even went as far as accusing Own the Podium of limiting training times on the Luge track for non-Canadians in Vancouver 2010. According to him this resulted in the tragic death of a Georgian Luger during a practice run. It seems an extreme accusation for a very dangerous activity.  

   We can't have it both ways. We can spend most of the funding on participation rather that elite training.  Do we want to go back to the days of underfunded, outclassed athletes showing up on the world stage just happy to be there with medals being a rare but momentous event? .....      or........
Do we celebrate Own the Podium and Road to Excellence for making Canada a world athletic force for us to be proud of?
   We have an epidemic of sedentary youth and childhood obesity.
Is money better spent on programs to get young people active again?
Will watching Canadian athletes win multiple medals inspire our youth to put away the Nintendo and start moving?
   A majority of Canadians polled approve of the Own the Podium concept. It looks to be here to stay.
 
  Now what of unlikely story of the grizzled fitness Guru opening his mouth and risking the future of Canadian amateur wrestling?  Supposedly the quick thinking wrestling coach told the Own the Podium executives that this particular individual was an outcast on the fringes of the wrestling community. The coach described him as being knocked on the head many times as a club level wrestling 'Tomato Can'. This explained his embarrassing verbal faux pas. The executives bought the line. The program was saved! Yes, this story reeks more of urban myth than true incident.
Do you really believe such such a grizzled fitness Guru/Blogger could actually exist?

Until Next Time                                  

Boxing is currently on the short end of Own the Podium funding.
Boom Boom Boulanger may have to wait to get new gloves!

Keep Fit

Little Bobby Strong
Fitness Guru/Blogger


Links

AudienceBuilder.ca

www.fitnwell.com

www.rabbitview.com

References

1. The Wrong Track -Canada'a Medal Misstep  Thomas Hall The Walrus Sept. 2016
2. Canada's Lust for Glory is to Blame for this Senseless Tragedy  Martin Samuel, The Daily Mail

                                 

   
    

                                 

       


                                          

                                  

  
 

Top 10 Reasons to Avoid a Fit and Healthy Lifestyle

Preaching at the unfit can be a losing battle! 

   When I took the certification course for what is now the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, we learned about the Trans-Theoretical Model of Change. Originally designed for smoking cessation programs, this model states that behavioral change progresses in stages. The 5 stages of change are:

• Pre-Contemplation. The individual is not ready to change their lifestyle.
• Contemplation. The person is seriously considering making changes.
• Preparation. Someone is actively planning action with a set starting time.
• Action. The person is actually doing something that is a positive lifestyle change.
• Maintenance. The individual is actively engaged in the new behavior and continuing to perform it.

    According to the 2013 edition of the CSEP training manual 'Pre-contemplative clients are unlikely to react well to being told that they should exercise.'  Their reaction will be similar if someone suggests changes in diet or abstinence from unhealthy vices. Preaching at them will not work.
It will however, result in some classic excuses for maintaining their present lifestyles. 
  
For those in the Pre-contemplation Stage the logic is often irrefutable in favor of avoiding healthy changes. These are the 10 best arguments against the fit lifestyle that I have heard.

1. Cardio can cause cardiac arrest. People drop dead running for the bus - not waiting for it.
2. Walking and running is supposed to be hard on the joints.
3. An apple is healthier than a slice of pizza? Right - look where that got Adam and Eve.
4. Lifting weights makes you muscle bound. 
5. If you stop working out the muscle just turns to fat.
6. I get all the exercise that I need by playing 'World of Warcraft'.
7. My uncle smoked and drank, ate whatever he wanted, never exercised and lived to be 99 years old. 
8. There will be a cure for all these things soon.
9. I believe in a balanced diet - a beer in one hand and a doughnut in the other 
10. You have to listen to your body. Mine says stay on the couch and pass the Doritos..

(Check out the picture caption for bonus reason number 11.)

 Preaching won't cut it. Pre-contemplation individuals may make positive changes, but only
when they decide to. It is far better to listen and encourage. Putting them on the defensive won't speed up their change to the next stage. Trying to debate them will likely be an exercise in futility.

Bonus argument no. 11
"So I give up smoking to live longer.
I could get killed by a car crossing the street the next day."
There is no rebuttal to such logic !
  

 Meanwhile enjoy some of the priceless gems of logic that you will hear.                                                                                 
                                                      Until Next Time.....

Keep Fit

Little Bobby Strong








Links

AudienceBuilder.ca

www.fitnwell.com

www.rabbitview.com

             

I'm Five Foot Ten but Big Like Ben........Johnson. I'm a Fast Charles Bronson

   The Olympics are coming!  The Russians - maybe not !

   The Russian Athletics (Track and Field) team is implicated in a state sponsored doping program unheard of since the days of the East German sports machine of the 1970's and 1980's. In fact, it was possible that ALL Russian sports federations, not just Athletics, may be banned from the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is an ongoing story involving the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti Doping Agency, the International Amateur Athletic Association, the Center for Arbitration in Sport and the Russian Ministry of Sport. So far Russian Track Field athletes are out! Other Russian sports teams have been given a reprieve.

   Doping in sport is a continuing story! It is news, but it is not a new story.

• Before   Lance Armstrong finally came clean on Oprah after years of denial and litigation
• Before  the Major League Baseball steroid scandal that implicated Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds  Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemons
• Before   the  BALCO bust (Bay Area Lab Cooperative), a 'supplement' company that supplied Performance Enhancing Drugs to Barry Bonds and led to the fall of golden sprint queen Marion Jones
• Before   the 'unbelievable' performances of distance runners and swimmers of China in the 1990's.
• Before   the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall when a light was shone upon a long suspected East German state sponsored Performance Enhancing Drug regime.
• Before   all of that was the First Great Olympic Doping Scandal - The Rise and Fall of Ben Johnson!

   Ben Johnson was the first modern era Canadian superstar in a summer Olympics marquis event. Sure, we had success in the winter sports like hockey, speed skating, and skiing. Winning the 100 meters gave you the title of 'The World's fastest Man'! From 1984 to 1988 Johnson took the track and field world on a wild ride:

• Big Ben won the world Championships in the 100 meters sprint crushing the World Record
•  He put Canada on the Olympic map in a marquis event
•  He defeated American arch rival, the seemingly aloof and arrogant Carl Lewis
•  Ben Johnson had an outspoken and controversial coach Charlie Francis
• Lance Armstrong had Dr. Michele Ferrari as his go- to medical guru.  Ben had the somewhat dubious Dr. Jamie Astaphan as his physician
• Ben won the 100 meters and crushed the field and the world record again in the 1988 Olympics
• Two days later his urine sample tested positive for the steroid stanozolol
•  Medals and world records were stripped 

   Never before or since has a Canadian athlete had such a devastating fall from grace.

• At first Ben's handlers, Francis and Astaphan claimed sabotage.
• The Canadian government held a legal investigation known as the Dubin Inquiry.
• Charlie Francis came clean. He claimed that to compete without doping was to start a meter behind everyone else.
• Lance Armstrong had a similar argument once he was officially outed. "It's not cheating if everyone else is doing it!"
• Ben Johnson received a 2 year competition ban.
• He made a comeback. He was still fast but not world beating fast.
• Ben had a 2nd positive test for high testosterone levels.
• He became a Personal Fitness Trainer for Moamar Ghadafi's soccer playing son. 
• He was also a Personal Fitness Trainer for controversial Argentinian soccer great Diego Maradona.
• Six other runners from Ben's 1988 Olympic race had past or future links to performance enhancing drugs. None were sanctioned or dragged through the mud the way Ben Johnson was.   

Is there a moral to this story? Maybe it is just that if the powers that be turn a blind eye to state sanctioned doping or ignore rule breaking by those with political clout - others may try to beat the system as well. For Marian Jones, Lance Armstrong and Big Ben, they tried to beat a fixed house but failed! 
   Where does this leave us now?

1.    The Rio Olympics could be a fresh beginning for clean and fair sports. 
2.    They could  more likely be a tipping point for the jaded sports fans of the world.
3.    Even more likely still, the status quo reigns and corruption is swept under the rug as    the show goes on like nothing has happened. 

( My blog title comes from a Canadian rap singer Maestro Fresh Wes song 'Conducting Thangs'.
I'm a Country Rock man - not a rap listener but that kind of rhyming is in
Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, William Shakespeare territory. Check it out on Youtube)
                                                          

 

Big Ben (center) in selfie at my brother-in-law's
Produce Depot grocery store in Ottawa.
He still looks very  FAST !!!!

Until Next Time

Keep Fit !!!!!


                    
Little Bobby Strong                               
           












Links
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank

AudienceBuilder.ca

www.fitnwell.com

www.rabbitview.com

The Video Artist Meets the Mixed Martial Artist

   A few weeks ago someone gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. I had a chance to observe the creation of a mini documentary on a Mixed Martial Arts world champion. The offer came from a western crony, Calgary based video producer and Film Maker Jeremy Podlog. Jeremy is the proprietor of RabbitView, a video production company. My food and lodgings would be covered This was dependent on two conditions:

1. I would have to be his assistant / helper/and bag carrier during the video shooting.
2. I would also have to be Jeremy's corner man and warm-up partner / throwing dummy as he competed in Canada Cup Wrestling Tournament in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. You see, Jeremy Podlog's alter ego is as amateur wrestling legend "Mad Dog Podlog" -a one time Canadian Championships bronze medalist. He was also a former adherent of the 'Little Bobby Strong' fitness training regime.

   It sounded like a fair trade off for a few days of adventure, so I agreed.

   We both survived the tournament in one piece and lived to add it to our cocktail hour rap. 
Jeremy survived better than I did even though he actually wrestled in 3 matches.  Just helping him warm up made me realize how my on- mat conditioning has long since given up the ghost.

Video producer Jeremy Podlog discusses a scene set up with
MMA / JiuJitsu competitor and instructor Jeff Joslin.

   The next step was the nearby city of Hamilton, Ontario to shoot the first MMA video. Hamilton is a rough and tumble steel town. Fittingly, the video subject was Jeff 'the Inferno' Joslin - a 5 time world champion in Brazilian JiuJitsu. He also fought in the UFC and once lost by a narrow decision to Josh Koschek. He had to retire from the UFC due to concussion issues. However Jeff still competes in Brazilian JiuJitsu which is grappling rather than kicking, punching and striking. The risk of head injuries is much less.

   Jeff also instructs martial arts classes in the training center below where the Joslin family once lived .His father, Rick Joslin, started the training center as a Karate studio and Jeff has carried on the family tradition. Generations of Hamilton young people have been taught self defense and learned self confidence by the Joslin clan.
Jeff is part of the movement to have regulated concussion protocols for head injuries.

Observing and helping during the actual video shoot was an eye opening experience. You are mostly on your feet and moving to keep the subject of the camera shot in scope and in focus. It is surprising how much energy you expend. Jeremy even let me hold one of the cameras and track the subject. It is an art trying to keep the camera steady while in motion. Hopefully, some of my camera work will make the final cut.

 Another highlight was getting to meet Jeff's father Rick Joslin, the MMA Master himself. Rick talked about living over the karate dojo and raising kids in that interesting environment.
.  Rick Joslin was such a compelling interview that Jeremy decided to also make Rick the subject of his own separate video.

The video artist getting some action shots.

   I was only able to spend one day
observing the video shoots.
However it was a day of learning.
I hope to soon add video clips to my blogging repertoire
   The best way to be successful is to follow the example of those that are successful. Jeremy Podlog is a video artist on the way up! Stardom awaits!

....View Jeremy's website at
www.rabbitview.com .........

Until Next Time

Keep Fit !

Little Bobby Strong                                      

Links
schwabe27.uwmfatloss.hop.clickbank

AudienceBuilder.ca

www.fitnwell.com

www.rabbitview.com