One thing Personal Trainers rarely take into account is life. How often have I heard or witnessed the classical totalitarian PT telling clients about to go on vacation, "I need you to find a gym while you're gone. I need you avoid bad foods. I need you to stay perfect while vacationing - I don't want you to undo all the hard work I've put into you!" My favorite tale of lunacy was when a PT insisted that if a particular client "was really committed" they would pack cans of tuna on a trip to Paris. The Hitlerian PT thought he'd hit upon an idea that was pure genius: if before going out to lunch or dinner with friends and family the client would gobble down delicious can of cold tuna the client "Wouldn't be tempted by the all that rich food."
To make a bad story worse, the poor intimidated client actually followed this lunatic advice. While friends and family were having Parisian culinary experiences of a lifetime the poor client refused to indulge, tortured by the smells and aromas of the world's finest food, stoically refusing to eat anything other than salad. How pathetic. If PT Hitler had half a lick of sense he could have suggested to his browbeaten client eat a wonderful piece of grilled fish along with some fabulous sautéed fiber vegetables. How about some magnificent shellfish or perhaps a perfectly prepared steroid-free steak - or a delicious portion of grilled free-range chicken? Needless to say within a year the beleaguered client and El Supremo parted ways: after 12 months of haranguing and harassment, after zero gains for $100 per hour, the client fled.
Beck had finished his third week of training using my Purposefully Primitive approach. He had to drive to Detroit for a wedding: something like eighteen hours each direction. He contacted me ahead of time half expecting I would chide him about what he should and shouldn't do while away. Much to his surprise I told him to enjoy himself and not worry about training or eating or perfection. We are humans, not robots, I related, and the physical renovation process is a process not an event. When we realize that fitness is a long journey and an extended process we can allow for the little detours and potholes life throws at us. Perfection is fleeting and reality is ever present.
So relax and have fun and dance with the bride and have a few cocktails and eat drink and be merry...we'll jump back into the fitness fray with both feet upon your return. Interestingly Beck had, in three weeks time, developed an addiction to our little 30 minute stripped-down weight routine and the early morning outdoor nature power-walks. He craved a lifting session, he wanted to train, and found a gym nearby while he was in Detroit. "I really felt like training so I found a local gym and hit it. You really put out when you show up at a strange location."
At the wedding he had a great time and despite seven beers and five glasses of wine spread over nine hours, despite eating different and varied foods not on "the diet," despite a 1,200 mile round trip, despite "hard partying" and 22 hours in a car, upon his return home he weighed 222.2 pounds. His lowest weight over the past three weeks was 221.8 so he was amazed. How'd that happen? How come he didn't balloon up ten pounds during his four day trip?
After three weeks of 'clean' eating, when he consumed 'dirty' food his body rejected it. The now strange nutrients ran through his digestive track faster than a NASCAR driver running a lap at Daytona. If he were to stay eating the bad stuff the body would "remember" how to process all those nutrients. I address this metabolic phenomenon in an essay entitled, Holiday Hedonism on page 421 of The Purposeful Primitive. Rested, ready and raring to go, Beck is ready to shift into a "power phase." The first four weeks were a "conditioning phase" that is now over. He will be dropping the reps and up the training poundage while extending the length of the cardio sessions. Stay tuned.
To make a bad story worse, the poor intimidated client actually followed this lunatic advice. While friends and family were having Parisian culinary experiences of a lifetime the poor client refused to indulge, tortured by the smells and aromas of the world's finest food, stoically refusing to eat anything other than salad. How pathetic. If PT Hitler had half a lick of sense he could have suggested to his browbeaten client eat a wonderful piece of grilled fish along with some fabulous sautéed fiber vegetables. How about some magnificent shellfish or perhaps a perfectly prepared steroid-free steak - or a delicious portion of grilled free-range chicken? Needless to say within a year the beleaguered client and El Supremo parted ways: after 12 months of haranguing and harassment, after zero gains for $100 per hour, the client fled.
Beck had finished his third week of training using my Purposefully Primitive approach. He had to drive to Detroit for a wedding: something like eighteen hours each direction. He contacted me ahead of time half expecting I would chide him about what he should and shouldn't do while away. Much to his surprise I told him to enjoy himself and not worry about training or eating or perfection. We are humans, not robots, I related, and the physical renovation process is a process not an event. When we realize that fitness is a long journey and an extended process we can allow for the little detours and potholes life throws at us. Perfection is fleeting and reality is ever present.
So relax and have fun and dance with the bride and have a few cocktails and eat drink and be merry...we'll jump back into the fitness fray with both feet upon your return. Interestingly Beck had, in three weeks time, developed an addiction to our little 30 minute stripped-down weight routine and the early morning outdoor nature power-walks. He craved a lifting session, he wanted to train, and found a gym nearby while he was in Detroit. "I really felt like training so I found a local gym and hit it. You really put out when you show up at a strange location."
At the wedding he had a great time and despite seven beers and five glasses of wine spread over nine hours, despite eating different and varied foods not on "the diet," despite a 1,200 mile round trip, despite "hard partying" and 22 hours in a car, upon his return home he weighed 222.2 pounds. His lowest weight over the past three weeks was 221.8 so he was amazed. How'd that happen? How come he didn't balloon up ten pounds during his four day trip?
After three weeks of 'clean' eating, when he consumed 'dirty' food his body rejected it. The now strange nutrients ran through his digestive track faster than a NASCAR driver running a lap at Daytona. If he were to stay eating the bad stuff the body would "remember" how to process all those nutrients. I address this metabolic phenomenon in an essay entitled, Holiday Hedonism on page 421 of The Purposeful Primitive. Rested, ready and raring to go, Beck is ready to shift into a "power phase." The first four weeks were a "conditioning phase" that is now over. He will be dropping the reps and up the training poundage while extending the length of the cardio sessions. Stay tuned.
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