Group Fitness is Full! More on the Way!

Hello everyone.

I am just writing to say that the response has been overwhelming.

The first group is full!

The class filled in 5 days.

If you had intended to join this group it is already too late!

Couples joined, moms and daughters, brothers in law. It is quite a mix and already knowing over half these people it’s easy to see that we are going to have a lot of fun.

They are serious about their health but they always have a good time.


THE BEST PART

Due to the overwhelming response I have gotten more time and space for a second group. I have acquired the space at Studio 1 on Waverly Rd. It is two buildings past the MicMac Tavern. And no, we are not going there for supper!

I am looking to you to help me get members. People you would like to see get into better shape or who have been asking if you know of someone to help them get fit

If you know anyone who has one hour a week and is looking to get into great shape, please pass this on. They just might thank you for it. Often.

Not only that, I have a Referral Reward System. Get one person signed up and you get a free session. Two and it is two. Three and your free for the whole 3 months!!!

Really! Get three friends signed up and you are free. The four of you will get into great shape together, have fun and save 25%. Unless you don’t want to tell them! Don’t worry, I wont either!

It’s only $66 for the two months! Looking the best for Christmas or getting a huge jump on New Year’s resolutions, now is the time to start.

So if you've put it off and missed the first group here is your chance at the second.

Call me at 219-0072 or e-mail me at todd@altiusfitness.com

Thank you again for helping spread the word about this wonderful opportunity.

Have a great day!

In health,

Todd

Complete Athletic Development for Youths

Hi,

There is no risk to promoting Brian Grasso's Complete Athletic Development so early in the life of my blog. I have not seen it's equal.

Brian is a Canadian who has been transplanted south of the border. He has been flown around the world to talk about his ground breaking techniques in Athletic Development.

If you already know what I am talking about you can order the complete package here!

With testimonials like this you can see why he is so widely respected:


"I have dedicated my life to the pursuit of learning how to best develop athletic ability in young athletes. I have researched it, applied it practically and now teach it to professionals worldwide. The information offered in this collection is precisely what more Trainers and Coaches need to hear."

Dr. Kwame Brown
Neuro-Scientist & Motor Skill Development Expert

and


"After reading Training Young Athletes - The Grasso Method by Brian Grasso, there is no doubt who is leading the industry in youth coaching. I have basically taken all my books on youth training and put them in storage - The Grasso Method covers it all! I highly encourage coaches and trainers of young athletes to make this book your next purchase. You won't believe the difference it will make!"

Lee Taft
World Class Speed Coach


And here is an mp3 audio testimonial from Richie Whall,Young Athlete Coach from Cheshire, England.

Complete Athlete Development Home

You can see why I back it up as well. I've been following Brian's work for over a year now and I can say I have never been led astray. The information and his motivation is fantastic.

If you want to take your athletics to the next level, this is the program for you!




Click here to get your copy right now.

You will NOT be disappointed.

Who's looking out for you?


In health,

Todd

Complete Athlete Development Home

Knock their socks off!

What can I say. You learn something new everyday. Sometimes it is the things that you thought you already knew.

I've been reading and researching what makes a successful weight loss plan for all these years.

Guess what I "found out".

Eat less, do more.

Yup. That's it.

Careful, what I mean by eat less is to reduce carbohydrates and make your meals smaller. Oh, you know what I mean by that.

I've bee there myself. Big heaping plate for supper. It feels good when you haven't had a lot to eat all day.

But if you eat more during the day, and more often, the less likely we will gorge at the end of the day.

Makes sense doesn't it?

Something weight loss guru Alwyn Cosgrove said stuck with me. Weight loss is simple, not easy!

We know what we have to do. It's all in black and white above. But why can't we do it. That's the hard part.

You are going to have to figure out what is stopping you from succeeding. That is something no personal trainer in the world can do: go inside your head.

We can quote statistics until we are blue in the face. But if a client isn't ready to make "the change", well, nothing is going to happen.

For instance: reduce carbohydrate intake.

Seems simple enough.

How many people do it? Take a look around at our collective girth. Not many, I'd say.

Simple, not easy.

Another: 1 hour of activity a day

Any takers?

And I mean any activity. Sure some are better than others depending on what your goals are but lets get the cart out in front of the horse shall we. Start by doing anything. Enjoy your activity.

Fine tune later.

So what are you going to do today?

What are you going to do this week?

There is a hint at what will make any plan successful. Looking ahead. Seems like an oversimplification. But I encourage you to look around.

See anyone else doing it?

Now go. Get out there. Knock their socks off and surprise yourself. You are capable of so much.

In health,

Todd

Check out the Complete Athletic Development for young athletes. The best system in the world for preparing your young athletes for competition and reducing injuries.

Go HERE!

Have a wonderful day!

My mom is fitter than you!

Middle aged people are more likely to be active and enrolled in
extracurricular sports than youths are!

Really? Why is that?

Kids today are not encouraged to go outside. In fact we go to great
lengths to make sure they are not.

Video games. Drives everywhere. Computer time. No gym at school, my
personal fave.

As a result the parents of the kids I work with are often in better
shape than their kids.

Parents had complete athletic development by going outside and
pushing, pulling, jumping, climbing, skipping.

All those things go a long way to creating a very complete athletic
body that is capable of adapting and playing sports. Almost any
sport at that. And that is fun.

So if our kids are uncoordinated and winded, how much fun do you
think they are having?

The answer is NOT putting them on a treadmill, for too many reasons
to lay out here.

The answer is NOT joining a gym. Resistance is only one tiny aspect
of overall health.

That is why I train for complete athletic development. It doesn't
mean Olympic style. Just looking at the whole picture. Balance,
coordination, stamina, strength, health.

Look at all of it before we start trying to figure out what to do.

The difference in kids that I work with who get outside and play
and those who don't are staggering.

But don't just take it from me.

Check out what the experts have to say. Here is a blog I posted a
little while back.

http://mysportspeed.blogspot.com/2008/04/complete-athletic-development-for.html

It is still relevant now and I have a bad feeling that it will be
for a while.

Please read it. Check it out.

Obesity Recognition Doesn't Happen?

Parents don't recognize obesity in their own children.

Believe it.

Here is an article referencing research into this area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6451015.stm

So it has to be asked how active are our children? Are we over
protective?

It's a difficult place to be but it is necessary to look at what is
really happening.

Take a look at how much time our kids spend being active every day.

That doesn't mean playing sport. It doesn't mean winning
competitions.

Just being active.

We joke about being kicked out of the house until the street lights
came on. It shouldn't be. It might have been the best thing that
could have happened to us.

All that climbing, pushing, pulling, crawling and jumping we did as
children is extremely important. It was during some of our critical
development periods. That means we take those skills through life
and can use them in all of our activities.

That makes everything that much more fun.

That means we are more likely to do something active and stay
healthy.

So I ask again: How active are our children?

Functional v. Impressive

As a developing athlete function is more important than impressive.

Trust me, I have the ankles, unfortunately, to prove it.

At least physically. Mentally, well, we all would like to look
impressive.

I am more concerned with the ability to take what an athlete has
learned and apply it to the field of play. And young athletes need
the basics established first. The impressive will then be that much
easier, and therefore more impressive. Because you made it look easy.

I've run into this with my athletes who have been run four hours
during their practice. Impressive? Maybe.

But could they stop on a dime? No. If you want to be impressive on
the field, track, court, then you need "change of direction" speed.

What do you think the most important first component of that is?
Stopping.

Seems like a no brainer. Yet, have you been taught how to stop
properly?
Parents: How about your kids?

When stopping is coached and the athlete is able to change
directions faster than anyone else, then you have an incredible
advantage over the competition.

I recently enjoyed watching a local basketball tournament. Know
what impressed me? There was one athlete who, despite their
considerable size, was quicker than anyone else on the court, at
any size.

Now that was impressive!

But (I can hear it now) standing on a swiss ball looks impressive
in the gym.

So what?

Does it translate to the court? That should be gauge for the
training program.

Especially for developing athletes!

And that is what I want for my athletes. To have the skills to be
the best possible athlete they can be now and for the rest of their
athletic journey.

Why am I here?

I'm guessing you didn't sign up for something quite so esoteric as the title might suggest but a little background never hurts.

I come from an athletic background. I've experienced good and bad coaching.

Not just bad as in yell-at-em, but also bad through omission. Omitting the coaching (which is not yelling) or positive reinforcement. Assuming that kids "get it".

Kids want to hear good things, just like anyone else.

Young athletes are still developing physically and mentally. Yelling at them or running them "until they puke" is not going to foster an athletic lifestyle.

I'm sure that bad coaching is not what they set out to do. It's possible they think that whatever was done to them will work just fine.

Being negative works for a little while but soon performance becomes something about avoiding mistakes than taking it to the next level.

That's what hurts the most.

I've had good, bad and everything in between. But my first coach (hockey) was not at all helpful.

Here is the sum of my memories from playing hockey when I was 6 years old.

Getting yelled at for icing. I was 6. I do believe I quit hockey shortly thereafter and I haven't played a game since.

Nice.

Fortunately I moved on to basketball a few years later and had a pretty decent coach. Better yet, he was a good person. I learned to respect that and it made me want to play hard. And guess what, it was fun to.

This is a major factor in my involvement in coaching youth athletes now. Because I still see the bad. Believe it or not, some misguided coaches in my daughter's U6 soccer league won't even play our team, or the 2 other teams for that matter, because they are not "ready".

Ready? They are four, five, and six years old. They are ready to play and have fun at the drop of a hat. That's all the "ready" that any coach should be worried about at that age.

So why am I here?

I want to change the way kids are coached for the better. Take into account how mature they are, mentally and physically, and make it positive experience that will influence them and their success in life. 

It's why I joined the IYCA and became a Youth Fitness Specialist.

It's a lot of fun and working with kids who want to be there. I want them to have a good time, and learn to become healthy active successful adults.

Is that too much to ask?

Enough about me. Some more fun stuff is coming your way soon. We'll chat later. 

Have a good one.

Olympic Effort

It's about time. This is a great time to pick up the slack in your program. There is something so inspiring about the effort these people put in. Look at the 41 yr old Dara Torres. Any age people. You can make it happen.

naturally we need to temper our efforts with a wee bit of reality. We may not make the olympics but you can certainly get strong enough to impress family and scare the neighbors. Perhaps this will be the kick you need. Draw off the energy of the competitors. Even from here. I don't imagine we'll be able to make it to the Olympic venues. It's too much of a drive for me, at least.

I use the Tour de France to get my bicycle time up. The scenery and the ability to lose yourself in the race will help you perform at levels you wouldn't have expected from yourself.

So get your butt in front of the tv. Take a skipping rope, a matt, a couple weights and start moving. A little bit goes a long way. Recover your form and energy. Show the family how it's done.

And don't forget to scare the neighbors.

I'm here for you, honest!

This is somewhat ironic.

I profess to be looking out for you and yet I forgot to queue this message. I have had this written for the better part of a month and I didn't get it sent off. Nice!

So here is a little ditty about support and how it goes in both directions.
****

A point about trainers and some of the resistance they encounter.

A psychologist I have on my support team noted that people don't expect you to be 100% supportive. Most people don't get that from family.

That is interesting. Make a mental note about your environment. Do you really have a supportive environment. Physically, nutritionally and no less important, emotionally.

What do you want to be surrounded by. Visualize the results you want. Strong and lean? Start thinking that way. Food, sneakers, workout plan, and time set aside. We can't really expect to get the
results we want if none, or even a couple, of the components are in place.

Positive support? That comes from within as much as outside of us.

I've recently been hired on as a mental skills coach for a local university varsity program. These are very successful athletes. And what do they work on to get the edge? Mental skills. Positive inner dialogue. Visualization.

If you do the same you will be well on your way to achieving your goals.

* Move of the day, more of a prompt really. Squeeze glutes, quads, hamstrings and draw your belly button in (not down, see the difference?).

Do this before any power move that involves spinal support or the spine directly. You could argue that every move directly involves the spine but we'll save that discussion for another day.

PS: Happy birthday to me!

A Recent Nutrition Presentation

Rather creative title, isn't it? Now,...

I just gave a sport nutrition seminar to an elite level girls
basketball team.

I had a blast. They were motivated, interested and oddly quiet. I
think they were a little tired, what with it being the weekend and
finals week coming up.

When it was all said and done I got one of the best compliments
ever from the head coach. No mean feat.

But, when all is said and done, elite athlete nutrition and
everyday nutrition are share a number of qualities.

Eat to support your needs. Don't be shy.

Be consistent. Planning ahead will help.

Drink water. Have a bottle handy.

Lean cuts of meat or go with alternatives. Be creative.

Vegetables and fruit are vitally important. Do I have to go into
this? Didn't think so.

After that don't make excuses. For health or performance, being
picky doesn't mean you can't eat enough.

It means you get to eat more of what you like! Aww, that's rough.

So be positive, plan ahead, and reap the rewards. One day at a
time. You'll blow the socks of your goals.

I am going to have the mp3 audio of that presentation available to
you soon. I'll keep you posted.

Enjoy.

Todd

PS: If you want the information from a researcher and educator in the
field of nutrition, and not l'il old me, look up Dr. Susan M
Kleiner. She'll set you on the right path. I've been to her
presentations and have two of her books. Read a couple others from
the library, one was a cookbook. Top notch stuff.