Warm Ups, Core, and Passion

I was talking with a buddy of mine last week about training and how it fits into life. We are both former college athletes -he did track and field, I swam.

For most people, once we get done with sports, that's it. We might work out for a few years after we get done competing, but that model of constantly trying to put more weight on the bar, run more miles, and doing all of this with more responsibilities and less time leads to getting burnt out.

Just putting more weight on the bar or run more miles will run into limitations. I'm all for challenging yourself with heavy weights, but simply trying to move more weight will lead to injury. We sit all day. We have bad posture and tight muscles. We have to move, and unfortunately we don't move, or if we do, it tends to be one sided.

There are several key things that play into staying active and keeping it interesting and productive.

One: It has to be time efficient. My M/W/F boot camp classes take 45 minutes, and my own workouts take 20 to 45 minutes.

Two: To be efficient it has to address multiple needs. Each exercise has to cover multiple bases of strength, core, flexibility and fat loss.

Three: It has to be engaging and interesting. I love mixing it up with movements like kettlebell windmills, get ups, and swings. Just doing the same workout over and over is a good way to get bored and predisposed to injury.

Four: It has to connect to the rest of your life. I won't lie. It's nice to look good, but that will only take you so far. It's also nice to be able to stay active and be more resistant to injury. It's nice to be free from excessive aches and pains. It's nice to have a level of fitness that keeps your options open and keeps you off the sidelines.

And for me as an instructor, that last point is something I'm passionate about. Age is a number. There are plenty of examples of people who have either stayed fit and active when others will have long since quit, or gotten fit again later in life. It doesn't have to take over your life and it doesn't have to take hours a day.

It can be done, and unfortunately, most people sell themselves short. Don't do that.

Here are a couple of warm up and core series to get you started.

Part one:
Plank to Down Dog 1 x 10
T-Stabilization 1 x 5/5
Standing Quad Stretch 1 x 5/5
Arabesque/Angry Dog 1 x 5/5
Sumo Squat to Stand 1 x 5
Perform this round twice.

Part Two:
Plank to Push Up (AKA Super Plank) 1 x 10-20
One Leg Bridge 1 x 10-20 per side
Side Plank + Rotate (wt. optional) 1 x 10-20 per side
Bird Dog 1 x 10-20 per side
Perform this round twice.

Stay Strong,
Charlie

By defining yourself by what you are not, you will define yourself as nothing

I've been getting more serious about pursuing several goals, and this week gave me a great lesson in contrasts.

It reminded me of the importance of starting with the end in mind and to make sure that any success I achieve is something that I would actually want. I'm looking forward to stepping up, but I never want to have to put on a fake personality as a job requirement.

Even now in writing this I'm feeling the tension to not go all in as a one-dimensional fitness guy, or annoyingly cheerful, or any other common expectation that goes with my line of work.

And that's the problem isn't it?

We have stereotypes for people if they excel in any area.

And who wants to be a one-dimensional stereotype?

Who wants to be successful at the risk of becoming a "vacuous, shallow yuppie"? Who wants to become really fit at the risk of becoming a "stupid jock", or "vain and self-centered"? Who wants to be an artist at the risk of being "flighty, broke, and perpetually unhappy"?

By defining yourself by what you are not, you will define yourself as nothing.

The common choice is to avoid being too much of any one thing. Or else we let (at least I have) popular stereotypes drive the way we live. Or, realizing that some sort of action is required, it's common to accent or diminish key aspects of ourselves in order to fit the mold better and improve our odds of success.

Your money or your life.

I don't know about you, but I think that sucks.

I'm in the midst of this, so I don't have any great "I've-figured-this-out-and-aren't-I-super-cool" advise for you. I'm just going to try to connect with and read up about people who are successful in multiple disciplines and defy common stereotypes.

The only encouragement I can offer you is to start taking action and not letting these stereotypes define you. Get fit. Start pursing excellence. Get outside yourself. Commit.

-Charlie

Five Moves To A Faster 5K

I live in Hyde Park and I love that so many people are out running, walking, and off of the couch. As a trainer I also see where most people’s workouts could use some improvement. Most people default to aerobic training to keep fit, but as any runner will tell you, every year it gets harder to run fast and it gets more challenging to keep the extra weight off.

Here are five movements to help you get strong, flexible, raise your metabolism, and reduce your odds of injury. Do this in a circuit, going from one exercise to the next with minimal rest. Perform 10 to 20 repetitions (total or per side) then go to the next one. Do this circuit three to five times and try to get in three workouts a week. I’d do it before running if time is limited.

Note: when strength training, most people disengage or turn their muscles “off” to lower, and lurch to bring themselves back up. Instead, tighten your core, lock in good posture, and move slowly enough to be controlled, but fast enough to keep it interesting.

Split Squats: Like a lunge, but your feet stay in place, front foot flat, on your toes on your back foot. Stay tall and simply lower and raise using your legs. Don’t go forward and back like a fencer. You should feel a big quad and hip stretch on the back leg.

Push Ups: If you can’t do regular, then elevate your hands on a bench. Tighten your legs, abs, butt, and look out ahead of you. Use a mirror (off to the side) to make sure your not just bobbing your head up and down. Elevate your feet for more challenge.

Single Leg Romanian Dead Lifts: Hold onto a chair or wall with one hand, the other arm out for balance. Keep a clean line from your ear to your foot as you raise your outside leg and bring yourself parallel to the floor (standing on one foot). You should feel this all along the back of your body.

Body Weight Rows or Pull Ups (advanced) Find a low bar at the playground, grab a hold, walk your feet forward and start rowing. Keep your shoulders wide and look up as you row to reinforce good posture habits. The more parallel to the ground you get, the more difficult this is.

Side Plank With Rotation: Turn on your side and prop up on your forearm and the edges of your feet. Top hand goes behind your head. Work that extension and don’t “sink” into it! Turn and bring your forehead to the crook of your elbow. Come back to start position. Hold a weight for more of a challenge.

For more information on classes done in this format go to http://513fit.com/

Use a forgotten coaching tool from Vince Lombardi to Get Fitter, Happier, and More Successful

Sometimes a title can kill a great book, or at least make it seem dated.

Psycho-Cybernetics is one of them.

It sounds like something from the 1960's version of Star Trek, or The Six Million Dollar Man, but it's not.

It's actually a book and an approach to retraining how you think about yourself, take action, and make positive changes in your life. It was the mental training tool of choice of athletes, executives, top performers, and great coaches like Vince Lombardi.

The difference between Psycho-Cybernetics and the usual crop of self-help books is the decided lack of Stuart Smalley self-help language or emphasis on going to the roots of problems, looking for insights and getting way too introspective.

I don't know about you, but I'm not into that. I want tools to help me move forward and affect changes ASAP.

Or, to quote Jesse Ventura, "I ain't got time to bleed".

The premise is simple. We all have a concept of ourselves and our actions, choices, etc. are consistent with that concept. Trying to force some exterior change (IE I will work out and swear off Cheetos today, despite a 20 year history) is pretty much doomed to failure without changing that central self concept. Even if you succeed, all the force of your subconscious will bring you back to where you started because that's what it's gotten used to.


Anything truly central -getting fit, pursuing better relationships, pursuing career goals -these all touch on core values and beliefs we have about ourselves, that self-concept, and often these unspoken beliefs conflict with our stated, and deeply felt desires for success and happiness


I can tell you firsthand, it's a challenge to retrain my thinking, but it's worth it.

Getting practical tools for retraining the mind is a game changer. It's like anything. If you can't "see" the shot and practice it mentally first, then chances are, you aren't going to make it.

Having some tools and structure for mental practice and essential if you want to start changing your actions, "seeing and making the shot" more often than not.

Several people who I look up to personally and professionally have a few authors that they quote a lot. So, to me it makes sense to look them up, especially since I want to create a career and a life more like theirs and less like my default mode.

Craig Ballantyne led me to Dan Kennedy who led me to Psycho-Cybernetics, which was written back in 1960 by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. It was revolutionary for the time, and I suspect, based on some of the people reading it, that it will come back into the spotlight once more.

Again, it's just a big fifty-cent title for a book on how to mentally rehearse for what you do want and avoid what you don't (or at least handle what you don't want in a way that's constructive -we do live in an imperfect world)

I've really enjoyed it thus far. I've just read it once and am going back through and taking notes. I'm excited to make some of the exercises more a part of my routine. This is one of those books that feels like it marks a sea-change in my life, and I'm pretty stoked.

It's not very touchy-feely, and instead focuses on providing usable tools. Plus I get to tell people that if it was good enough for Vince Lombardi, it's good enough for me.

If you're looking to change your actions and want something to show for your efforts, then I'd highly recommend doing something to change you core beliefs. There's more than enough information out there about how to get fit, get better relationships, get a better career, etc. If you don't believe you're worth it, then these are pretty much irrelevant.

So change your core beliefs.

You rock!

Charlie


Charlie Levine
http://513fit.com/

effective warm ups

It's time to ditch that same routine you've been doing since 1980 and get an effective warm up. I promise I won't make you look stupid. And it beats waiting until you get injured and have to do PT. Then you would end up doing some really silly looking exercises.

Seriously, this is a very short, greatest hits version of what the pros are doing and what I do on my own and with my clients. These have both aesthetic and functional benefits so you get an Epic Win on both counts.

Real change happens when you train movement patterns, move well, and work hard. Start by approaching your warm up as a skill and something to be done well.


Achieving goals like fat loss, gaining muscle, or improving athleticism doesn't happen by accident, and unfortunately most people don't train with much of a plan. Start your workouts by practicing good movement habits and addressing common weaknesses that come from sitting too much.

It'll rock your world.

Total Body and Core Training (Parts 1 & 2)

I've posted two super sets that work every muscle of the body and involve a lot of core stabilization. In simple English, that means you'll burn fat more quickly, and because you're using all the muscles around your waist and along your spine to stabilize, you'll get some great ab work.

Part One Notes:
Keep a straight line from your ears to either your feet or knees on Super Plank. Be sure to minimize the hip movement. You want to stabilize and avoid doing The Funky Chicken.

Part Two Notes:
Bring your pressing arm up so that it's even to your ear. If your arm goes forward then it puts a lot of stress on the rotator cuff.


Part One:
Overhead Squats 15 - 20 reps
Super Plank :30 - 1:00
Repeat 3 to 4 times

Part Two:
DB Uneven Squat + Press 10 -15 reps per side
Cross Body Mt. Climbers :30 - 1:00
Repeat 3 to 4 times

June 2010 Workout

Hey guys,

Technology has been giving me fits lately, so I've reactivated my blogger account. If someone out there knows something about iWeb, then I'd be glad to learn how to use it more effectively. Until then, I'll be posting to this blog.

Here's the June 2010 Workout that I promised last Saturday.

Perform the first round three times through, taking no more than 30 seconds rest between exercises. After you go through that three times, take an extra minute or so, and move onto the second group of exercises. Do that three times through as well.

When doing single sided exercises, just switch from right to left and wait until you've completed both sides before resting.



Round One:
Single Leg Romanian Deadlift (1L RDL) x 10-15 per side
Push Up Plus x 10 - 20 (if you can do 20, then move to a more challenging variation)
DB Front Squats x 15 - 25

Round Two:
Side Plank w/ rotation (holding 1 DB) x 10 - 15 per side
Split Squats x 10 - 15 per side
DB One Arm Rows (three points of support) x 10 - 15 per side



If this is too easy, then go for heavier weights, more challenging variations, and take less rest between exercises. This isn't "Spa Pilates". You should break a sweat and your heart rate should be flying. If not, then ramp it up!


Have fun with this one and let me know how it goes.

Charlie

Summer Shape Up (Starting the 1st week in May)

Hey Guys,

Summer will be here before you know it. Make this year different by setting your fitness goals, attaching them to a deadline, and getting after them!

I'm excited to announce that I'm going to be running an 8 week boot camp class starting the first week of May! This is something I'm really passionate about. Over the years I've had the chance to learn from some of the best people in the fitness industry and have wanted to share what I've learned with my friends for a long time.

Because this is a group class, I'm able to make this more affordable to more people.

The plan is simple. One night a week, we meet at 6:30 PM at Eden Park and workout as a group for 45 to 50 minutes. We'll work hard, we'll get results, and we'll have fun in the process.

In terms of scheduling I need to know what works for the majority of you. If there's enough demand I can add another class to the schedule. So drop me a comment or a Facebook message and let me know if you want Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night.

In addition to the classes you'll also get:

workouts to do on your own to help you burn fat, tone up, and get in the best shape of your life

basic dietary guidelines to help you jumpstart your metabolism and not go around feeling hungry

workouts to train your core and avoid injury

ideas to help you get the most out of your cardio workouts

I'm looking forward to seeing you guys in the park in a couple of weeks!

Charlie

Rock Star (part 1 -learning to play covers)

Hey guys,

This is as much me talking to myself as it is coaching and inspiration.

The title of this post is learning to play covers. Everyone starts with covers whatever the goal/discipline/medium. No one starts off drawing strictly from imagination and some secret muse within themselves. We start off imitating others, and in the case of music, it's learning covers. (In addition to scales and other exercises that instill solid basics.) There's a lot less angst in sitting down to learn a song/practice scales/copy a picture, whatever, as a new artist/musician/etc. than to try to just pull something out of your hat that is some perfect expression of your innermost self. It doesn't happen and the pressure pretty much kills any chances of doing well.


Starting my own business, and putting all my goals out on the table is proving to be one of the most educational things I've ever gone through. There's no boss to blame, there's no one looking over my shoulder or hindering me, it's just me with a blank canvas and figuring it out as I go.


And that's where many people (myself included) come up short. We do it all ourselves. We reinvent the wheel (often poorly) we try to psyche ourselves up, and we do it all in and of ourselves.

No wonder so many people quit and settle in for a long run of quiet desperation.

I've officially had to quit doing that, and saying so in a public forum makes it that much more official.

Most people can't do much as one person against the world. Anyone acting alone in their own strength and on their own wits is a closed system. Closed systems tend to devolve, run out of energy, and trend towards disorder and entropy.

I'd challenge you to start at the core level, whatever you're background to connect with something bigger than yourself. For me, Crossroads church has been the place that has helped me to connect with friends, it's challenged me, and has provided some great opportunities to get outside of myself and grow. It's been a place that has helped me let go of a lot of half-thought limiting beliefs about God and about myself.

That's at a core level. I've still got a lot to learn, and I will post on this as this series evolves.

On practical level, when you've dealing with nuts and bolts issues specific to whatever task or goal you're trying to achieve, it's way more effective to learn from experts and imitate greatness. For me with work, that can be experts who are respected within a specific community of trainers and who have a proven track record. It's simplifies things. Learn their systems, use them for training my clients, and make adjustments as necessary.

This is a world different than starting from scratch. Now I've got a big picture of what I'm going to do with my clients for the next 16 weeks. Anyone can show up week in, week out, without really knowing why they're doing what they're doing, and never making any real progress.

I used to think this was cheating when I did this with my group classes and personal training sessions, but not in the Pilates studio. In Pilates, you learn the system, you learn the progressions, the various series, and where they all fit together, and for the most part each workout was the same for 75 percent of the exercises. The other 25 percent would address the person's specific needs. This lends consistency, the clients really learn what they're doing, and it saves your career as a teacher because you aren't spending all your energy at work improvising one workout after another and going home with nothing left for yourself.

I don't know about you, but I'm all for not having to improvise every hour of work, every important task, and feeling like I'm performing live and without a net. It's too much angst for too little payoff.


I hope you are up for this as well.

So in short...

Connect with something bigger than yourself. Get fresh energy. Get challenged. Be about more than just you. Learn from people smarter than you. Quit reinventing the wheel and put some systems in place. That could be as simple as using a calendar, balancing your checkbook, and keeping things organized. Don't despise small beginnings. Don't knock covers and practicing the basics. They'll take you far.

Today's Cardio Strength Class

We had a little bit of a late start this morning. Last night was Charlie McGinnis' birthday and everyone stayed a little late at the dojo last night.

I've been on a little bit of a kick lately, doing 10 station workouts. Rachel Cosgrove designed a program for the actors in Spartacus: Blood and Sand (It's kind of like 300 -the actors are extremely fit). Their program is a circuit of 10 exercises performed for 1:00, with :15 between them.

We're working our way up. Our first round was :30 on / :15 off, second was :40 on / :20 off, and back to :30 / :15 for the third.

Here is our workout from this morning:

Dynamic Stretching 5 minutes

1. DB Squat + Overhead Press
2. KB Swings
3. Cleans (1KB, 2 Hands)
4. DB Chest Fly*
5. Push Ups
6. Crab Walks (forward and backward)
7. Duck Under (like your ducking under a low door and stepping sideways)
8. DB Bent Over Row
9. DB Straight Leg Sit Ups (holding the weights up towards the ceiling)
10. Boxer Shuffles/Split Jumps (advanced)

*Many people do push ups as a shrug/head banger type movement. Flys serve as a way to activate the muscles of the chest and shoulders before going into push ups.

Keep moving forward,
Charlie

Class Schedule and Location

Monday
6:30 -7:15AM Express Fitness Training
8:00 -8:45AM Pilates Fusion

Thursday
9:00 -9:45AM Express Fitness Training


Wednesday
6:30 -7:15AM Express Fitness Training

Thursday
9:00 -9:45AM Express Fitness Training

Friday
6:30 -7:15AM Express Fitness Training

Express Fitness Training:
A typical class starts with 5 to 10 minutes of power yoga or other dynamic warm up. Then we do circuits of strength, core, and agility exercises. I have two Marines (retired) who tell me it’s one of the hardest workouts they’ve ever done. Each circuit takes anywhere from 4 to 7 minutes, with a minute of rest between rounds.

You’ll move fast enough to work hard, but not so fast that you’re just lurching your way through your workout. You’ll get a great workout and still have plenty of energy to get through your day.


Pilates Fusion:
A mix of Pilates, yoga, and strength. Fill in the gaps left by traditional workout routines. No reformer, no funny breathing, no excuses.

Location:
Aikido of Cincinnati
4727 Red Bank Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45227
513 561-7202

Click here for a map

Try your first week for free! Email me at: charlielevine7@gmail.com and let me know to expect you.

Cost:
One Class $15
Ten class pass $110
One Month Unlimited $120
Three Months Unlimited $300