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The current situation may be a very difficult one, but that doesn't mean that we can't look for the silver lining. So while this situation has made it terribly difficult to exercise the way we use to, among many other much more serious consequences, it does present some opportunities to do things in a way that we couldn't or wouldn't allow our selves to do them under normal circumstances. With respect to training inside the gym, we often gravitate towards the activities that we like the most or the ones we are best at already. With that said, the current covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has forced us out of our comfort zone. Since we are already forced to do things differently, we might as well take advantage and attend to the types of exercise we predominantly ignore during our more regular schedule. This is a great time to evaluate what we have been training and what we can train now. Our racquet sports members for example are great at spending a lot of their exercise time in a state of play....play is crucial to a balanced lifestyle that promotes good health, not just physical but mental and emotional as well. However, many of these same members tend to neglect their strength training among other more targeted attributes that are missed during game play and which negatively affects their bone density, muscle mass, vo2max, etc,....many other important characteristics that would aid, not only in their game play, but their overall health and lifestyle. On the other hand, we have our gym members who are great at targeting a few very specific physical characteristics, but very often neglect a balanced approach that includes play. With all that said, this is a great time to mix things up and do more of what you've been neglecting. For example: 1. If you're use to lifting heavy weights for 10 reps without any particular tempo and ommitting your cardio......do more reps with small at home weights, or employ tempo training, or work on calisthenics and plyometrics, or spend some time just playing, or work on different types of aerobic training. 2. If you're a racquet player who doesn't work out very much but now find yourself unable to go out for your weekly rally with friends, maybe you can spend this time to work on some of the different types of strength and aerobic training that you've been neglecting. 3. Even if you're someone that play's and train's weekly, there's still many different types of play that will aid you in ways that your current sport doesn't, and there are many different types of training that you have neglected for the simple fact that you can't do everything all at once. So mix things up and BE FIT. BE STRONG. BE BETTER. P.S. you can still get an at home body weight trainer in about a week from amazon, CLICK HERE 
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Over the past 4 to 5 years I've been experimenting with a number of diets and health protocols in an attempt to repair my digestion. In doing so I've come to a few conclusions that I would like to share: 1. elimination is a requirement for change. 2. professional guidance is a time-money-energy saver. 3. you have to work from the inside out. 4. it takes time.....a long time. 5. good health far out weighs any of your other priorities. Now let me dive in and explain each point a little further. In my youth, like most youth, I took my health for granted, I had so much of it that I didn't know what it was like to be without it, and therefore I felt invincible. This feeling of invincibility enabled me to pursue whatever physical goals I wanted to with a level of recklessness and disregard that would later prove costly. Many years of training incorrectly, eating incorrectly, and living incorrectly, started to slowly chip away at my health.....but it was this super slow pace of health deterioration that allowed me to ignore the change, giving myself easy excuses and viewing abnormalities as everyday normalcy. Over time my health progressively got worse and I finally reached that unfortunate point that so many of us do before actually making a change. My digestion had totally deteriorated....bloating and discomfort was a regularity in my life....the days of enjoying everything and anything that comes across my plate were now gone. I decided to try health-diet after health-diet, supplement after supplement. Through this process I discovered that self treatment wasn't going to work, I simply didn't have enough skill to repair what was a deep internal dysfunction that I had developed over years of neglect and abuse. I also discovered that most diets work by eliminating something and it was this elimination of aggravating foods and supplements that actually did offer some relief, although it alone wouldn't be enough either. More time passed, I tried more things, and while I learned how to avoid aggravating my symptoms most of the time, I wasn't getting any better. Step in: professional guidance. I finally decided to accept some professional guidance (special thanks to The Migraine Professional) and it was through this guidance that I finally started to take a cohesive approach that would lead me to a slow recovery of my digestive and overall health. It was with some professional insight that I realized there were many connected and underlying issues that had to be corrected from a wholistic approach if I had any hope of actually repairing my health instead of just avoiding reactions/symptoms. We started a wholistic approach almost 1.5 years ago and I've seen some great improvements in both my energy levels and my digestion (even my skin and hair has improved) but I understand that the road is longer still, and more importantly, I accept that and stay committed to the course. Had I sought professional guidance earlier, I would have not only avoided deteriorating my health as far as I did, but I would have saved thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours, and an unmeasurable amount of energy trying to get my health back. I made the necessary changes to my lifestyle and in turn regained some of my health. With an eye on the future and better health still to come, I sit here writing and reflecting, and I can say that without a doubt, my health must come first and all those other priorities simply have to move down in order of priority. If you too, are suffering, don't know what to do, are failing with what you've tried, or feel helpless and defeated by something you think you can't fix.........reach out and seek the helping hand of a wholistic guide.....make an investment and a commitment to your wellbeing. #QUALITY OF LIFE MATTERS If you're interested in reaching out the The Migraine Professional to find out if he can help you with your health problem, or if he can refer you to someone else who can, CLICK HERE.  We're always trying to improve on things. We spend countless hours watching videos, reading articles, following others advice, etc., and now during this coronavirus epidemic we have even more idle time to fill with do those kinds of self improvement activities. The one thing, often the last thing we do if we even do it at all, is to spend the time and energy to look inwards and make sure we're in the right place to do any of those new or additional external things in the first place. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to improve on what you do until you've mastered yourself, more so I believe that you should spend more time looking inward and trying to improve on yourself from the inside than you do on looking for improvements from the outside in. Let me give you an example. You can read all the articles in the world, watch as many how-to videos as you want, and see a multitude of others examples of diets for fat loss, but if you don't have the self-mastery to follow through, you simply wont succeed to the point of mastering your diet or anything else that you're pursuing. Sure you'll have improvements and small successes and for most people that often ends up being good enough. A constant back and forth that can easily consume a lifetime, or at least part of it, until you move on to something else to consume your time. But if good enough isn't enough for you and you want to master something, to reach your potential, you'll have to invest the time and energy to look inward for necessary improvements. Here's a simple self diagnostic and self improvement activity that you can try at home during covid-19: ELIMINATION 1 1. Pick 2 fixed times per day, for the next 2 weeks, that you can look and use you phone for a maximum of 30 minutes consecutively (no splitting). This should allow 99% of people enough time to do what they actually NEED to do on their cell phone, as opposed to doing that what needs to be done by some other means. SELF-CHECK 2. If you fail at this no cost experiment, you should probably spend some time on mastering yourself and save the money you were about to spend on diet supplements, your new diet grocery list, and your 3 times per week-I'm gonna lose 30lbs for July-training sessions. ELIMINATION 2 3. Repeat step 1 until you get it done. Then try it again but by eliminating all sugar containing products (anything with more than 10% sugar content or more than 10g of sugar per meal) for 4 weeks. SELF-MASTERY LEVEL 1 ACHIEVED 4. Once you've succeeded at these 2 elimination tests, you can try your hand at a 6-12 week diet plan and then you can thank me later for all the $ savings and the ultimate improvement in self-mastery and results. UNTIL NEXT BLOG 5. BE FIT. BE STRONG. BE BETTER. P.S. bonus tip: it's always nicer to have a guide when starting a new journey, even if that journey is one that you're taking within....to that end, don't be shy to seek the guidance of a wholistic professional. This is different from just a professional. For example, if you suffer from migraines you could go to your family or walk-in doctor, who is a medical doctor and a professional, to ask for help and they will give you a medicine to address your migraine problem from the outside in OR you could go to a wholistic professional like "the migraine professional" who will look to address you as a whole and all the underlying causes of your migraines from the inside out. Migraine sufferers CLICK HERE.  Granted there are many ways and many things that you can do to minimize injuries and improve performance, but today I'm going to talk about 1 simple way that you can do both at the same time. Let's skip the long preamble and get right into it.....if you want to avoid injuries and improve your performance you should spend less time training what you're strongest in and more time training what you're weakest in. Yes, that's it! Short and sweet......simple right?.....while it sure seems like common sense, often common sense isn't common practice. We humans tend to gravitate towards activities that give us positive feedback, those activities that make us feel good most often, so we typically tend to spend more time training the things that we give us that gratification. Whether your doing more bicep curls (because your biceps grow better than your calves and you get the most compliments year round for your arms and not for those things below your knee caps) or you're doing more swinging in the batting cage instead of catching in the outfield (because everyone talks more about the the home runs you hit than the steady catch plays you make), you're probably spending more time perfecting what you're already stronger at and what gives you the most gratification right now. That's all fine and dandy until you take a few more steps down that road. Whether it's imbalances or weaknesses due to this type of over-under training, as times goes on your chances of failure and injury start to increase exponentially. This is why so many great single talent athletes can't sustain their success, and why so many others can't keep injuries away. Working on a well rounded physique or skills set not only forces you to give your too often practiced activities a break, it also reinforces the "whole" of your body and your game. You'll have a lot harder time making it to the end of the road if you've only checked one or two boxes. The road is long whether you're 8 or 48, it's just a different road, so start working on your weakest links now. If you're looking for a performance supplement recommendation, I can give you 2 depending on your desired outcome: 1. if you want to boost power and explosiveness try this supplement CLICK HERE. Take 0.15 grams per lb of body weight for 5 days followed by a 2-5 grams per day maintenance dose depending on your level of activity and weight . 2. if you want to boost high-intensity performance and lactic acid threshold, try this supplement CLICK HERE. Take 4-6 grams per day for 4 weeks, followed by 1.5-3 grams for 4 weeks. Bonus Tip, these 2 supplements are synergistic so they can be taken together. Until Next Time, Be Fit. Be Strong. Be Better. TEAM FITNESS ETC  I remember growing up in the 80's and the music on the radio being softer. Looking back at the same time, I remember how the people were a lot harder. Everyone seemed to have had a thicker skin, less complaining, less woe is me, and more willingness to grind through anything and everything. Now you might be asking yourself, 'what the hell does this have to do with fitness?'......well allow me to explain.... Today as I look around at the fitness industry, which is very much a small reflection of our society at large, I feel as though things have changed on a human level, and not necessarily for the better. I hear the music being played and so much of the lyrics and the beats and the attitudes give off a "hardness" that people hear and transpose onto themselves. Then I actually look around and reflect on what is actually going on and I see how much "softer", thin skinned, whinny, and "path of least effort" seeking we've become. I'm not saying everything is bad by any means. We've had a lot improvements on many levels, however, when it comes to our general composition, we've become softer. I see just about everyone, myself included, often looking for the machine, the pill, the program, the anything-everything-just something that will allow for less effort, less burden, less soul, less heart, less sweat. Progress has made most if not all of our jobs and daily efforts easier to some degree or another, but at the same time as a society we've moved in the opposite direction and become more whinny about the less that's left to be done. Nowadays when I see people having to wait an extra 10 seconds for anything, they react as if such a large burden has been placed on them. When you ask someone to do anything a little more laborious, they will react as if you're an alien with unrealistic expectations. When you give someone the truth of the matter, they will take the same offense as if you had just insulted them. And when you look for someone to step up and actually grind their way to acknowledgment and success, you're left wanting. So here's a little breakdown for you, when it comes to fitness: 1. Yes, you have to cut out the crappy food if you ever want to change your external appearance or your internal health. 2. No, the music, the shows, the social media, and the other entertainment, that you consume and regurgitate, does not make you something that you're not "actually living" day-in and day-out. 3. Yes, you will have to show up, sweat, strain, and travel the long road if you want to succeed. 4. No, there is no pill, machine, or other accessory that can make up for a lack of work. 5. Yes, all of the above is actual fact and No, reading or hearing otherwise won't make it true. Cheers to a little sip of hard reality! Until next time, Be Fit. Be Strong. Be Better. P.S. If you're looking for a little help with breaking some of your bad habits, here's a pretty good book that could help CLICK HERE.  |
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AND MUCH MORE.
PROUDLY CANADIAN. INDEPENDENTLY OWNED. ESTABLISHED IN 2010.
Fitness Etc Inc is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information. Personal information obtained in the course of conducting our business will not be collected, used, or disclosed, except in compliance with governing legislation, including Canada`s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and Ontario`s Personal Information Protection Act . For further information on our Privacy Policy, contact our Privacy Officer at info@fitnessetc.ca. We may revise our Privacy Policy from time to time. You are responsible for checking this Policy. If you do not agree with our Policy, you should cease use of the site immediately.
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