So, I’m walking in the South Loop, down Roosevelt (that’s Rooos-evelt not Rose-evelt, if you’re from Chicago) and I see this so called ‘boxing instructor’ teaching two clients. So I sit and watch for a few min, trying to see if this guy is any good…since I’m always looking to hire good instructors. I watch him yell out instructions; trying to be intimidating yet motivating. His clients seem to enjoy it…he has them working hard. Jab Jab Jab Hook! You can see it in their eyes, they feel tough! You can tell they feel like they could go step in the ring immediately after the session!

Sounds pretty good right? Clients are happy, sweating, working hard. To the untrained eye, yes. But what they, and most people, don’t realize is they are being scammed. Lied to. Fooled.

Anyone with any real fighting or training experience can tell how phony this is. Within the five minutes I sat there I notice some major issues. There’s no footwork, no control, no body behind any of the punches. The form that this so called ‘boxing instructor’ is teaching is absolutely horrendous!

And there it is. Everyday there are trainers all over the city claiming to teach boxing and kickboxing and whatnot. And so many of them have no idea to what they are doing. Sure, they make it look good, but the problem is they are teaching it wrong. They are instilling this false sense of confidence in people! If you reach out and say “I wanna learn to box” wouldn’t you want to learn how to actually box?! Not some fake & flashy impostor? 

God forbid, if you ever got into a situation where you had to defend yourself, or even if you decide “hey I spent 6 months training with this guy, I’m gonna step into the ring now” and you have to learn the hard way what you were taught doesn’t work and won’t help you, and you get seriously injured!

Now, I know some of you will say “But David, I just want to do it to get in shape”. Well, proper techniques will actually target and strengthen your core 100’s of times more than the phony type. And, it’s usually the same price. So, why spend the exact time and money on something that isn’t as good?

People, you must be aware of phony trainers and instructors!

Here’s a few tips to help you determine if it’s real or not:

• The instructor takes the time to actually teach you form. He/she doesn’t just tell you to put on the gloves and start punching. Learning proper form takes time and discipline. Proper form will also help prevent injuries!
• They should not have you move onto something more challenging or complex  without mastering the step before. You DO NOT advance until you can keep proper form.
• You should feel tight and in control when attacking, not flailing all over the place. Your guard should be high and elbows tight.
• Your punches should come from your body, your core; not from only the strength in your arms. An example of this would be the cue of “putting out the cigarette butt” where pivoting on your foot will cause your hip to thrust forward, thus putting your body behind the attack.
• Just because they work for LA Boxing or another gym doesn’t mean anything. I have seen a ton of ‘trainers’ who look the part (all tatted up wearing Affliction gear), who clearly do not know what they are doing.

Boxing and other martial arts are very technical and take years to master. Do not let anyone fool you otherwise. You need to put in a ton of effort and studying. If you’re gonna do something, do it right. 

Very cool! Make sure you don’t workout or do any heavy activity during it. The key is to not activate the digestive system, so do not eat anything. Also, try to sip the juice instead of chugging it (I’ll take an hour to finish a glass of juice). That will help you get through any hunger you get (which is usually more mental the physical). 

Well, I’m halfway through day 1 - Not too bad. Definitely want to eat, but I’ve been slowly sipping on my juice (taking up to an hour to drink it) and that seems to help. No working out on this juice cleanse, so I’ve been working on some side projects instead. Not feeling tired or crabby or groggy….yet :)  I have peed a ton though.

Tomorrow, we start a two day juice cleanse. It will be difficult, but oh so worth it. It will shock our system by getting rid of toxins and garbage, while giving us a super boost of vitamins and minerals. Ultimately leaving us feeling amazing!

jarrettstevens:

Welcome to the Fourth Annual Crystal Light National Aerobic Finals.

You’re in for a real treat.

Please pay attention to:

1) The worlds LONGEST opening song / introduction. Anyone who’s ever done aerobics is mentioned

2) The fact that it’s the FOURTH annual (rule of thumb - don’t say “anual” until you can at least put the word “fifth” or preferably “tenth” in front of it)

3) The live studio audience

4) Alan Thicke’s opening monologue…at an Aerobics….Festival….Competition

5) Alan Thicke’s jacket, made from the finest fabrics 1980’s couches had to offer

6) The fact that the opening song is probably still playing somewhere…anywhere…where the dream of aerobics is still alive.

It’s sad that our industry has so little integrity….all these lose weight fast schemes, false and/or immoral advertising, bad/uneducated trainers/coaches and what not. The fact is, good health takes work, real work! There are no shortcuts, no magic pills or drinks. And on top of that, what’s the point of having a great physique if you’re in pain and injured all the time? It’s up to the few of us to live our lives and run our businesses honestly and clean. There is no B.S. with us, whether in training with us or just chatting. We are DhFIT - Your Fitness is Our Business.

Many of you know how I love to research and try things out myself before I recommend any of them to you all….well, now it’s your turn to be the guinea pigs with me!

I have decided, after doing a ton of research, to take what I think are the best qualities from some of the top nutrition programs out there, add my own input from my 12+ year career, and design my own program.

I know that this program will not only help you lose a ton of fat, but will help you stay lean and speed up your metabolism. What I want to figure out is, how quick & easy is this program compared to the other ones out there. Instead of having a ‘cheat day’, would allowing a few ‘cheat meals’ throughout the week work better? Instead of not allowing fruit at all, would allowing 2 servings a day make that much of an impact? How about allowing the ever healthy quinoa and oatmeal? There are clearly a ton of positive qualities in those foods….would fat still come off just as fast, if not faster than the other programs? These, among others, are the questions that I want to find out….and I want YOU to find them out with me!

Now, this isn’t just a nutrition program - this program will require you to do a minimal amount of exercises throughout the week. If you exercise more than what is spelled out in the program, by all means, continue to do those; just add these new ones to your current program. *If you are injured or limited, contact me and I’ll help you out individually.

The Rules

• Must have at least 20g of protein per meal
• Maximum of 2 servings of fruit per day
• No white carbs (pasta, rice, bread, etc) - Acceptable carbs: veggies, quinoa, couscous, oatmeal, legumes
• No potatoes or other starchy vegetables
• No corn - this includes popcorn
• No processed sugars
• No dairy
• No soy
• 3 cheat meals per week
• 2 glasses of red wine per day allowed - No beer or other alcoholic beverages allowed (if you decide to have a beer or other alcoholic beverage it will be counted as a ‘cheat meal’, so you better make it count!)

Tips

• Cook with coconut oil, Olive oil, macadamia nut oil, grapeseed oil
• Keep hard boiled eggs readily at hand (to help keep protein levels high)
• Women - shoot for 75-100g of protein per day, Men - shoot for 125-175g per day
• Snack on a handful of nuts or veggies
• Plan out your meals and cheat meals, so you can prepare your body, schedule, and workouts
• Drink a TON of water - try to shoot for 4-6oz every hour, and drink at least 8-16oz immediately upon waking
• Add the ‘PAGG’ supplements - PAGG stands for Policosanol, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Green Tea Extract & allicin Garlic. These pills are a ‘safe guard’ against gaining more fat during the cheat meals. They are not a miracle drug that will melt off fat, but it will help you from gaining more fat when you eat the garbage from the cheat meals - Take the ‘AGG’ with each meal and the ‘P’ with dinner or before bed

Quick Fat Burning Workout - The idea behind this is to get the heart rate up high with periods of rest

• Pair up an upper body & a lower body exercise - preferably body weight exercises
• Ex. Pushups & Squats -These are two easy exercises that can be performed anywhere, including outside the restaurant or even in a bathroom stall (wall pushups) - If your heart rate doesn’t get up very high you can make these exercises more difficult, such as turning the squats into squat jumps
• Do upper body exercise for 20-40 sec, then immediately lower body exercise for 20-40 sec, then rest for 20-40 sec. For the ‘Before cheat meal workout’ repeat 6-12 times - For the ‘after cheat meal workout’ repeat only 2-4 times

Heavy Lifting Workout - The goal is to hit, or come close to muscle failure

• Use a weight heavy enough that will make you (safely) reach, or come close to reaching muscle failure by the last rep - Ex. if your goal is to reach 10 reps, you should have a weight heavy enough that it becomes extremely difficult to perform reps 8,9,10. You should not be able to perform an 11th rep….if you can, you must increase the weight.
• It is extremely important to do this slow! - anywhere from a 5:5 ratio to a 10:10 ratio - (5:5 means 5 seconds concentric & 5 seconds eccentric) *So on a lat pulldown the concentric phase is the ‘pulling down’ phase and eccentric is the ‘up’ phase. Get it?
• Perform only one ‘set’ of each exercise
• Perform 6-10 exercises, making sure to hit the entire body
• Stick with machines if you are not an advanced lifter or do not have supervision from a trained professional
• *If you do not have access to weights then you should perform the ‘Quick Fat Burning Workout’ designed for before the cheat meal, ie 6-12 sets

I would like to invite you all to not only try this program with me, but to join our community. We will have an email chain going around where you can communicate with other participants, share recipes, and talk about results. If you would like to join please email me at David@dhFIT.com

Picked up this quick workout from a colleague of mine…check it out!

Intervals are by far the fastest and easiest way to melt that spare tire you may have picked up over the winter. The research has proven it.

8 SETS
40 seconds single leg squats (can use TRX Suspension to support)
40 seconds pushups
40 seconds rest
Repeat 

Add this 16 min workout 2-3 times per week to your current program and watch the fat melt off!

-dh 

theoriginaljes:

So, I was itemizing my bills this week and I added up the donations I’ve made so far, only 3 months in and I’m humbled by my friends. It’s a nice “problem” to have!
This morning an email chain humbled me to learn just how … I don’t know the appropriate words, not cool? doesn’t cover it, the lives of her Autistic students are currently living through. My friend was interviewed and observed this week to become a Golden Apple teacher. To me, she’s already a rockstar/winner. She’s going to Uganda in July to help children. Yeah, I plan to join her there next year, God willing. She amazes me. Daily.

I have friends creating charities, not to throw parties and get wasted via “A good name,” but to ACTUALLY make a difference in the world, globally & locally.

We’ve been working really hard to set up a pancake breakfast this Saturday. We want to raise money and awareness about Autism. Please stop by and join us!!

theoriginaljes:

So, I’m two weeks in and I’m rather pleased with my results.
I’m down 6-7 lbs. (weighed in with clothes on, never sure how to subtract for that stuff)
So from week one measurements, I am down:
Bust: 1”
Belly: 2.25”
Hips: 1”
Thighs: 3/4”

That’s 5.25” !!! In two short weeks. I have my…