The Stand-up Desk Part 2

Adam Campbell, super-guy at Men's Health Magazine, has taken my advice an shifted to using a stand-up desk (SUD). I must say that it sure is pretty.

You can check it out here: http://thefitnessinsider.menshealth.com/

Perhaps Adam's co-workers are on to something and these SUD's should come with an optional urinal attachment to raise productivity even further, eh? (don't forget the small rack with anti-bacterial wipes!)

Of course, the female workers may get a tad jealous because most likely there'd only be a "mens" version.

The female version would cost WAY to much to produce with all the fuzzy seat covers, potpourri and candle holders, matching decorative privacy curtains, towels you don't actually get to use and such.

Later

Pat Rigsby and Fitness Riches

My friend Pat Rigsby has just started his new blog. www.patrigsby.blogspot.com. Pat is a master of the fitness business having developed some powerful strategies that trainers can use to grow their own businesses.

His latest venture Fitness Riches brings together fitness marketing wizard Eric Ruth and trainers like Alwyn Cosgrove, Craig Ballantyne, Stephen Holt, and even myself talking about how to niche your business. This manual explains how each of us use different strategies to build our businesses.

In the words of Craig Ballantyne, Alwyn's section alone is worth the price of the manual and I agree.

This isn't a book on the theories of marketing and building a fitness business, but rather it's the real-life things we're doing. The stuff that's proven itself to work the best.

If you're building your personal training business, you need this resource.

Later.

Intention Deficit Disorder (IDD)

No it’s not a misspelling.

Your Intention Deficit is equal to the difference between what you intended to do and what you actually did.

Your IDD is really a measure of the quality of your life, and there’s no pill (Tom Cruise can now breath a sigh of relief) that can control the symptoms.

Think about it. How great would your life be had you only followed through on everything that you intended to do up to this point?

You’d have the successful career that you love.
You’d have a great marriage.
You’d live in the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood.
You’d have healthy, well-adjusted kids.
Your lawn would be the perfect shade of green.
You wouldn’t know what night Desperate Housewives is on.

While this concept applies to any aspect of your life, it’s never more apparent than in your fitness programming…especially the eating component.

“I really wanted to stick to my eating plan, but those cookies just looked so good.”

“I planned on going to the gym, but I had to run some errands and got side-tracked.”

The larger the IDD, the more you seem to struggle with your fitness programming and the more frustrated you become.

The way I figure it, if you keep your IDD at 10%, you will have an amazing life.

Do the same with your eating and exercise plan, and you’ll find that reaching your fitness goals will be a piece of cake (the cake obviously falls into that 10%).

Side Note…It’s pizza night. The one night where I don’t fall off the wagon, but rather take a full-out dive from the horse-driven cart of my fitness program to enjoy the insanity that can only be provided by my favorite food. My wife enjoys a piece or two of the large ‘Za (it’s cut in very small bite size squares) while I gorge myself like Takeru Kobayashi (http://www.ifoce.com/eaters.php?action=detail&sn=22) trying to fit in one more piece as the clock winds down to win another Nathan’s belt.

I don’t bring this up to show you that I’m human (that’s debatable). I bring this up to tell you about my pizza delivery guy. It’s always the same guy. Spiked up hair, black eye-liner, black nail polish, spikes coming out of his lower lip and eyebrow, multiple tattoos, and black pants that are 8 sizes too big and cover his motorcycle boots (he drives a Ford Festiva).

Normally, I wouldn’t give this guy the time of day, but he does bring me my pizza for crying out loud.

But I have to say, that he always gets an extra large tip from me.

Why?

He calls me sir. He’s exceptionally careful with my food. He asks how I’m doing…SIR. Then he wishes me a good night and says thank you.

I have no doubt he will become a great success just as soon as he realizes that he doesn’t need to look like The Joker with a hangover to get attention.

Last one…I caught up with an old classmate of mine this week. She mentioned that her boys were now 10 and 6-years-old. She says, “They’re at the age where they think burping and farting is the most hilarious thing.” I chuckled and thought, “At what point were we supposed to grow out of THAT?”

Later.

Got Books?

You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.

Charles "Tremendous" Jones

I'm a better student now than I have ever been. Back in my early college day, when my hair was long, My TV stand was another TV that was broken, and the closest thing to strength training literature we had was Muscle & Fitness, I hated to read. Maybe it's because I was forced to read.

Don't get me wrong, I was an A-student (note to young'uns...go to class and actually pay attention). Just didn't like to read.

Now that I'm an information junkie, there isn't enough time in the day to read enough. I hate fiction (that includes the newspaper...what a waste of time. If anything important ever happens, don't worry, someone will try to tell you all about it). I'd rank it right up there with soap operas (anyone know if Hope's baby is Bo's or that other guys?). The exception would be the occasional Spider-Man or Batman comic just to stay in the loop (I kinda like Spidey's new suit).

These days it's business-related and training/rehab stuff. Getting a new shipment in tomorrow. I can hear my wife/CFO now, "You got more books (she always says that)? Aren't you smart enough already (smile)?" She understands.

So I guess my question to you is, what did you read today that will make you better...at anything?

Side note...I tried to read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People on multiple occasions but kept falling asleep (seriously). So I just bought the unabridged anniversary edition of the audio book to listen to in the car. Don't worry. No one was hurt in the accident because I woke up just in time.

Pink Floyd is the most overrated band of all time.

Later

Get Off Your Ass

Since I'm new to the whole Blog thing. I was trying to think of what is actually Blog-worthy.

Well, here's something I'm telling everyone I know AND their sister.

Get off your ass. Not in the exercise sense although it's never a bad idea. Rather, I'm referring to changing to a stand-up desk.

In the publish or perish world of fitness information and shameless self-promotion, I find myself spending countless hours pecking away at my fairly new laptop keyboard or the ol' standby desktop computer. Well, my posture had gone to hell and my hips were feeling about two decades older than my 70-year-old shoulder.

Rather than blow $400 on a keyboard tray that adjusts to a standing position (and because if I don't use my laptop, my wife may try to take it away from me), I found an adjustable table that is the perfect height.

After a couple weeks of accomodation, I have to say it was a great idea.

There were some initial adjustments like a mild pressure in the lower back which resolved quickly with some improved abdominal recruitment (bonus #1) , but otherwise the typical discomfort in the upper back that made me feel Quasimoto-ish after about an hour at the fancy typewriter machine is now gone.

I can also do a few simple exercises like muscle activation for the glutes and some low load passive stretches to some shortened muscles like the TFL and gluteus medius as well as some ankle mobility work (bonus #2).

I also get to spend more quality time with my wife and CFO (uh, for the record they are the same person) as we are now able to ignore one another while working in our spacious home office simultaneously (although I frequently catch her checking out my ass - bonus #3).

Alright, enough time wasted and here's my wrap up. Be a stand-up guy, stand-up and be counted, stand by your man, stand for something...you get the point.

Later.

Congratuations Dos!!!

I got a text message (first I start blogging and now I get a text message...which by the way I have no idea how to return a text message) today saying that my friend Robert Dos Remedios, strength and conditioning coach for College of the Canyons, was named NSCA Collegiate Strength Coach of the Year.

If you don't know who Dos is, you will very soon. He's got more real world experience in training athletes than most will ever have.

It's about time he gets the recognition he deserves.

Oh, and for the record, I will never grasp the concept of text messaging. I'm going to take the time to type out a message on a phone keyboard rather than make a call that'll achieve the same thing in 10 seconds?

Later.

So apparently this is how life works.

You get educated, find a job or start a business, marry the perfect gal, and then you Blog. The internet continues to be a source of joy and frustration for me. Because lord knows, that everyone has something important to say at least once in their life. Hopefully, that'll happen here at least once in a while.

My good friend and super editor/writer who works for Men's Health Magazine, Adam Campbell, kinda talked me into this whole thing. If you'd like to send any hate mail in response for my thoughts taking up too much space on the WWW, please comment at Adam's blog (you knew this was comin' didn't ya?) at http://thefitnessinsider.menshealth.com/

Actually, Adam has recently started on a quest to break the 5 Minute Mile. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Roger Bannister actually broke the 4 minute mile mark in 1954. He seems rather motivated and far be it for me to crush somebody's groove.

In all honesty, I support Adam fully in his quest. I think as humans, the day we no longer challenge ourselves, we begin to die. It doesn't need to be a physical challenge like Adam's. It can be something as simple as being a better mate, continuing to educate yourself, or sticking to a healthier eating plan.

Speaking of Men's Health, you can find my latest article on page 122 of the August 2006 issue.

Anyway, before we get too deep here, I'm trying to figure out what one does with a blog. I figure since it's got my name on it, I can do as I please. I'm sure I'll make announcements of what's going on in my world, answer questions, do a lot of name dropping, and answer more questions. Just don't expect it to have a great deal of organization. Not my strong point.

While I'm thinking about it

Here's something that's coming down the pike...

Mike Robertson, well-known from t-nation.com, elitefts.com, and his own home on the web, www.robertsontrainingsystems.com, and I are in the editing stages of a new DVD called, Inside-Out (O/I): The Ultimate Upper Body Warm-up. This is going to be a must have for any athlete that does any strength training, throwing, or swinging of a club or tennis racket. I don't want to say too much yet, but I'll be sure to give you whole run down in the not too distant future.

More Later...