Those of you that know me, know that I am a man of science and WILL NOT attach my name and reputation to just anything. They have gone through the extra effort of becoming GMP certified. GMP means Good Manufacturing Practices. Nutritional supplements are not FDA regulated. In the absence of that, a GMP certification with third party auditors ensures inspections of dietary supplement manufacturing facilities to determine whether specified performance standards on a number of measures—including quality control, cleanliness, receiving and testing of raw materials—are being met.

All of the ingredients are something I feel comfortable ingesting, myself. In fact, they don’t use artificial sweetners (aspartame) which make other supplements like workout shakes taste crappy. They use Stevia which is a non-caloric sweetner which also has a nutritional content and contains fiber. And there aren’t any strange herbs or anything. It’s very good stuff. Just good old fashioned nutrients.
Like I said, I won’t attach my name to just anything and after nearly 3 years of research, this is it!

S.P.A.R.T.A.’s Pro Grade Nutritional Supplement Line

Today is the first day of the launch. We’ve started with the basics like men’s and women’s line of multivitamins, whey protein powder, and pre and post workout drink.
BE SURE TO STAY TUNED because in the following days, I’ll be releasing a new product each day.

Tuesday - Meal Replacement with 35 grams protein and 8 grams of fiber.

Wednesday - Nutritional bars “Cravers” only 180 cals. No trans fats and comes in peanut butter, almond butter, and spirulina. Healthy dark chocolate to satisfy that chocolate craving.

Thursday – Essential Fatty Acids. Reduce your risk of early death from cardiovascular disease by 50%. It’s krill oil which is just as effective and won’t give you “fish burps”. I’m a huge supporter of essential fatty acids for everything from brain health to it’s anti-inflammatory properties.

Friday – The week will be culminating in the release of the weight loss product, METABOLISM. This link will come with one of the best articles on metabolic effects of certain nutrients I’ve ever read. This is a great natural product at the right dosage so as not to cause the side effects of other weight loss products.

This is big. If you’d like a reasonably priced supplement line that you can feel safe taking and expect good results, I’ve found it for you through my own research. I’m very skeptical and I haven’t seen anything that would make me not want to be a part of this or not want to attach my name and reputation to it.

So here’s that link again. Come in and check out what we’ve got available. Thank you.

S.P.A.R.T.A.’s Prograde Nutritional Supplement Product Line

I’ve got a great book for you to check out. It’s written by my friend, Dave Durell, of High Intensity Nation from Orlando, Fla. Most of the people I see are looking for general fitness and fat loss, specifically. Our clientele is almost always a slight majority of women. But, this one is something special mostly for the guys. Not that women should be afraid of muscle, on the contrary, that should be your focus if you want to raise metabolism and improve shape. But, men, if you’d like to pack on some lean weight, raise your metabolism, and start to develop that upper body shape you’ve been looking for, this book will tell you the way to do it. Better yet, it tells you how to do it in a safe and very effective method using high intensity training principles specifically for BUILDING MUSCLE!

Click Here!

Dave knows what he is talking about too. He’s spent quite a bit of time with the industry’s leaders in bodybuilding and strength and conditioning.

Pro bodybuilding results in little time!

Click Here!

Dave has personally spent time with and been trained by the man above, the late Mike Mentzer. Former pro bodybuilder in the early 80’s. Mike knew the secrets to getting lean and muscular without overtraining. When most bodybuilders were working out 6 hours a day and twice a day sometimes, Mike was working out twice a WEEK! He was maximally stimulating his muscles for growth and then allowing them to grow with the proper amount of rest.

Dave has also spent 10 years in all helping to build pro athletes to tip top shape as a strength and conditioning coach for pro football teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and even at South East Missouri University. He knows what it takes to get lean and muscular and it’s in this book.

You’ll also get a couple other bonuses like I did. You get the simple nutrition guide to go with it as well as 2 downloadable MP3 files for the High Intensity Muscle Building Audio Program where he literally walks you through to your success. You’ll also get access to his High Intensity Training Video Vault. The first video is the secret to bigger biceps. Now, I know my anatomy being a Master Trainer, but Dave showed me something in this video that even I didn’t think of. It’s a simple technique, but extremely effective if you want to maximize your bicep’s muscular development. What guy doesn’t want to do that? I wish I had seen that video 10 years ago. I’ve never seen anybody else recommend this technique. There’s also an excellent technique if you’re having trouble making progress with dumbbells. Sometimes a 5 pound jump is too much, well what do you do? Dave shows you a simple technique that can make an intermediate step in this process without interrupting your muscle building progress.

Again, I can’t say enough about this book and all the extras, information, and tools that come with it. I fully endorse his methods and would jump at the chance to grab this book. And just like us, he has a GUARANTEE. If you’re not happy with it, there’s a 100% money back guarantee.

Click Here! to get your copy of this must have book if you’d like to start building that lean muscular frame or if you’re a trainer looking for a great technique to get your clients exceptional results.

My favorite is the cerebral palsy guy who suddenly got really lean and muscular while at the same time increasing the size of his head by 3!

View the FAKE before and after pictures here.

The Skyndex is probably the best body fat caliper on the market. This is the one with 2 formulas programmed into it. It has the Jackson-Pollock formula which is good and reasonably accurate for everyday use and the Durnin formula if you ever plan to need it for research or a clinical setting. Or if you just want to be a little more accurate. It’s easy to use. You set the dial to a number that corresponds to a range of the subject’s age. Then take 3 or 4 sites to measure, entering each one as you go by pressing the thumb button. When you are done, it automatically goes through the formula for you and give you the body fat percentage on the digital display. It’s the best one I’ve used to date. Everybody claims hydrostatic weighing is the gold standard, but you have to measure tidal volume. If you don’t, it’s not any more accurate than calipers. Plus, hydrostatic weighing requires extra time, a wet area, etc. It’s a hassle. Why not just get reasonably close to the same results in a much more practical product? Comes with its’ own case and power supply.

This is the Lange skinfold caliper. It’s a little more cost effective option, but is not digital. It is very compact and comes in a small case that you could easily store in your gym bag or something. This is the second best body fat caliper I have ever used. It takes a little more time because it isn’t digital, but it is VERY well constructed and will last you a long time. It comes with a calibration block to ensure accuracy. It’s accurate down to within 1 millimeter.

Garmin make some awesome stuff. This is the Forerunner. It’s a GPS with a heart rate monitor and stop watch mounted on the wrist. It’s pretty cool and you can use it to compete with previous workouts for yourself or use it in the gym to time client’s sets and/or workouts.

The PT/Pro Bench is great. For you in home trainers, it’s an excellent portable option for a professional adjustable bench. It’s got a carrying handle and strap for you to easily maneuver from location to location. It’s pretty versatile for just about any type of training you want to do. At 23 pounds, it’s heavy duty too so you don’t have to worry about it falling apart on you.

The Bowflex SelecTech Dumbbells. These could also be portable if you want to lug them around. It’ll replace a whole rack of them. Between the PT/Pro Bench and these, you could really put together a good program for someone. They are fully adjustable and should satisfy the needs of most clients going from 5-52.5 lbs. each. This link even has many of the routines and exercises you can do listed right out for you.

Bodylastics are a great complement to the bench and the SelecTech dumbbells. Very lightweight and versatile with door anchor and ankle straps. You can load up multiple bands at a time with the carabiner clip totalling 127 pounds per side.

The TRX is hot right now and it was specifically invented to use where equipment is lacking. That’s one of the hardest things to address is pulling exercises for the upper back (latissimus) when there is little equipment around. Not everyone can do a pull up. That’s one of the benefits of the TRX is that you can use your body weight (or only a fraction of it) in a way that will allow you to address those previously neglected areas. This one is a cool military green color. It’s VERY well made and should last you a very long time.

This is the online training system that we use. It can allow you to get at previously unreachable markets and disperse your fitness knowledge to people over distance. We private label our site through their enterprise account and our own domain name so it looks like the clients are signing up right through us. All you need is a paypal account. Like I said, this is good for people at distance or a good downsell to someone that cannot afford your services one on one. It has a library of fitness routines, a workout wizard, and nutrition tracking. You can set your own pricing and customize the users experience as much as you want.

If you have your own location, a good scale is a must. A physician’s balance beam model is the way to go as you can calibrate it easier and they are more reliable. You can also measure height with this model.

Myotape is a great tool to use in place of a regular measuring tape. You can measure up to sixty inches and the push button tape retraction makes it a little easier than fumbling with a cumbersome normal tape measure.

Robic is one of the best companies out there for timers. Here they have a clipboard with a ruler/straight edge down the side as well as a stopwatch/calculator combo. You’re covering all of your bases with this one as you can time client activities and calculate anthropometric measurements as clients come in during the day.

This is Sportline’s digital tally counter. I don’t know about you, but the traditional way of counting reps gets in the way of instructing the client mid set. With this tool, you can click off the reps as the client completes them while you continuously instruct them. Then you can look at the total countable reps you clicked off to record after the set is complete. It frees your mind to focus more on what you should be…instructing the client, not counting to 10. You can obtain a lot of data while fully instructing a client. You can time the whole workout, time each set with the clipboard, and track whole reps with the tally counter. All of those numbers should give you a really good idea of what kind of progress your clients are making.

Another testing device is the flex tester sit and reach. Probably the most used test to determine flexibility improvements. Obtain readings in metric or standard. It is well made and accurate with the height of the box at the subject’s hands.

Here is another portable option if you’d like to have clients do a chin up or pull up. This bar has multiple different hand grips and won’t cause damage to the door frame. It can also be used as an anchor point for a band or other suspension device like the TRX.

So there you have it. 14 awesome tools you can implement in your personal training business if you don’t already have them.

I just so happen to be a Master Trainer, but for me being in fitness is about owning a successful business. My second favorite subject is economics. Free market (Austrian) economics. A lot of people have strange feelings about money and maybe even guilty if they acquire a significant amount of it. They may feel or appear greedy some other negative sounding adjective. But, in reality, it’s greed that drives us to achieve and produce for the society. It’s not a bad thing. I was lucky enough to go to one of the best economic schools in the country, George Mason University. My professor always used to say “In order to serve our own greed, we must first serve others’ need.” In other words, you have to provide a service or supply a product in order to get paid for it. There is nothing inherently evil or bad about money or wanting more of it. To me, money is just representative of how well I’ve done achieving the goals I’ve set for myself. And to allow me the freedom and lifestyle that I would like. That’s it, nothing more. Of course, to be a good member of a free market society, you have to have a strong charitable streak too.

OK, that’s how I feel about money and I hope you don’t have any of those negative feelings about it and about pursuing more of it. But, entrepreneurship in general is about the challenge for me. It’s hard, damn hard. But, it’s the journey and the process that keeps me guessing, always learning, and continually driven to do more. I played pretty high level ice hockey when I was a kid and I wanted to play pro just like every other young kid in just about any sport. And even though my Dad (I love him dearly) is a raging Liberal and been an employee who complains about his job his whole life, he recognized the benefits of being the boss or your own boss. He said something simple, but profound to me one time. He said “Why play when you can own the team?” At the time, I was playing for love of the game, but totally understood what he was getting at. Especially after you get a lot of injuries, even as a kid and think that it would be hard to do that for a career. That was when I was about 12 or so and I guess I’ve known really since then that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and have my own business.

I’m really in business to set it up, make it run like a well oiled machine, and create something working I can sell to someone else, and get out. Then move onto another goal. I may never leave this industry, but I may have several different businesses within it while trying to achieve different things.

So, I want to hear what it is for you. Why did you get into it? When did you know you wanted to do it? What keeps you in it? And where do you want to go?

Be sure to leave a comment if you would below. Thanks for reading!

Now, a much better strategy is to control how many calories go in in the first place. It doesn’t take a lot either. Even just a modest reduction can result in significant fat loss over time. It’s got to be lower than what you need to maintain your weight though, not just lower than what you normally eat. If you need 2000 calories, eating around 1500 will cause you to lose about one pound per week. Let’s say that you use S.P.A.R.T.A. Training and put on a few pounds of lean tissue and can now your metabolism is 500 calories higher a day. You’re consuming 1500, but now your body needs 2500. Where does the extra 1000 calories it needs come from? Your gut, hips, thighs, butt, etc. This is a good example of how you can lose fat on a comprehensive program even without large amounts of “cardio”. In fact, endurance exercise has been shown to reduce lean tissue lowering a person’s metabolism. That’s the opposite of what we want to do. You will also need to know what your unique metabolism is. This is where a metabolic test can come in handy. And for tracking your calories going forward, use our free tool here. I hope you enjoyed the video.

Be sure to sign up here.

Wanted to share this video with you today to show you 2 things.

1. The awesome snow storm we got in VA that’s at 2 feet and counting. Supposed to go until tomorrow morning.

And..

2. Our 28 Day Rapid Fat Loss Program coming up starting Jan. 2nd. Listen for the details below.

Go to 28 Day Rapid Fat Loss Program to sign up.

If you’re not local on the East coast in VA and can’t get in on this killer program, you can get the same routiness and advice through our online training solution. Perfect for people at distance and a fraction of the cost too. Only $19. Go here to sign up.

Benefit One: Avoid Muscle Loss
Adults who don’t strength train lose between 5-7 pounds of muscle every decade. Although endurance exercise improves our cardiovascular fitness, it does not prevent the loss of muscle tissue. Only strength exercise maintains our muscle mass and strength throughout our mid-life and senior years.

Benefit Two: Avoid Metabolic Rate Reduction
Because muscle is very active tissue, muscle loss is accompanied by a reduction in our resting metabolism. Information from Tufts University indicates that the average adult experiences a 2-5 percent reduction in metabolic rate during every decade of life. Because regular strength exercise prevents muscle loss, it also prevents the accompanying decrease in resting metabolic rate.

Benefit Three: Increase Muscle Mass
Because most adults do not perform strength exercise, they need to first replace the muscle tissue that has been lost through inactivity. Fortunately, research from the South Shore YMCA shows that a standard strength-training program can increase muscle mass by about three pounds over an eight-week training period. This is the typical training response for men and women who do 25 minutes of strength exercise two or three days per week, and represents an excellent return on a time-efficient investment.

Benefit Four: Increase Metabolic Rate
Research from Tufts University and the University of Maryland reveals that adding three pounds of muscle increases our resting metabolic rate by seven percent, and our daily calorie requirements by 15 percent. At rest, a pound of muscle requires about 35 calories per day for tissue maintenance. During exercise, muscle energy utilization increases dramatically. Adults who replace muscle through sensible strength exercise use more calories all day long, thereby reducing the likelihood of fat accumulation.

Benefit Five: Reduce Body Fat
Campbell and his co-workers at Tufts found that strength exercise produced four pounds of fat loss after three months of training, even though the subjects were eating 15 percent more calories per day. That is, a basic strength-training program resulted in 3 pounds more lean weight, 4 pounds less fat weight and 370 more calories per day food intake.

Benefit Six: Increase Bone Mineral Density
The effects of progressive resistance exercise are similar for muscle tissue and bone tissue. The same training stimulus that increases muscle proteins also increases bone proteins and mineral content. A University of Maryland study demonstrated significant increases in the bone mineral density of the femur bone (upper leg) after four months of strength exercise.

Benefit Seven: Improve Glucose Metabolism
The University of Maryland research center has also reported a 23 percent increase in glucose utilization after four months of strength training. Because poor glucose metabolism is associated with adult onset diabetes, improved glucose metabolism is an important benefit of regular strength exercise.

Benefit Eight: Increase Gastrointestinal Transit Speed
Another study at the University of Maryland showed a 56 percent increase in gastrointestinal transit speed after three months of strength training. This is a significant finding due to the fact that delayed gastrointestinal transit time is related to a higher risk of colon cancer.

Benefit Nine: Reduce Resting Blood Pressure
Strength training alone has been shown to significantly reduce resting blood pressure. Our YMCA studies have revealed that strength plus aerobic exercise is highly effective for improving blood pressure readings. After two months of combined exercise (Nautilus and treadmill walking), the program participants dropped their systolic blood pressure by 4 mm Hg. and their diastolic blood pressure by 3 mm Hg.

Benefit Ten: Improve Blood Lipid Levels
Although the effects of strength training on blood lipid levels needs further research, at least two studies from excellent universities have revealed improved blood lipid profiles after several weeks of strength exercise. It is important to note that improvements in blood lipid levels are similar for both endurance and strength exercise.

Benefit Eleven: Reduce Low Back Pain
Several years of research on strength training and back pain conducted at the University of Florida Medical School has shown that strong low-back muscles are less likely to be injured low-back muscles. A recent study by at the University of Florida found that low-back patients had significantly less back pain after 10 weeks of specific (full-range) strength exercise for the lumbar spine muscles. Because 80 percent of all Americans experience low back problems, it is advisable for all adults to properly strengthen their low back muscles.

Benefit Twelve: Reduce Arthritic Pain
According to a recent edition of the Tufts University Diet and Nutrition Letter, sensible strength training eases the pain of osteo and rheumatoid arthritis. This is good news, because most men and women who suffer from arthritic pain need strength exercise to develop stronger muscles, bones and connective tissue to improve joint function.

Benefit Thirteen: Reduce Depression
A Harvard University study found that seriously depressed seniors responded most favorably to a basic program of strength exercise. After 10 weeks of strength training, 87 percent of the program participants no longer met the criteria for clinical depression, even though they received no other treatment. Apparently, increasing muscle strength and physical functionality is highly effective for improving emotional states in previously depressed senior men and women.

Summary of Strength Training Benefits
There are 13 physiological reasons why older adults should perform regular strength exercise. On a more basic level, it is important to realize that proper strength training may help us look better, feel better and function better. Understand that our skeletal muscles serve as the engine, chassis and shock absorbers of our bodies. Consequently, strength training is an effective means for increasing our physical capacity, improving our athletic performance, reducing our injury risk, enhancing our personal appearance and improving our self-confidence.

Used with permission from Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D. the Fitness Research Director at the South Shore YMCA and author of 15 fitness books, including Strength Training Past 50 and Strength Training for Seniors.

Take a look at what some other people are saying about S.P.A.R.T.A. Training here. And sign up for a program today to get your FREE consultation!

And…

Ever heard the phrase “it’s funny because it’s true?” It is, but don’t let it be true for you! Hope you enjoyed those. I’ll talk to you soon.