Author: Bill

If you’ve had or are currently having trouble losing fat, it’s not your fault.

Now I’m a big believer in taking personal responsibility for where you are in life, and when it comes to fat loss, personal responsibility is a big part of the process.

No one forces you at gun point to eat calorie dense, nonnutritious foods that promote fat storage, right?

No one forces you to spend endless hours of inactivity on your butt in front of the idiot box. If you know the nightly TV schedules by heart, you know who you are.

But again, if you’re out there making an effort to really impact your health and physical fitness with a goal of losing fat, I say it’s not your fault.

You’ve been mislead.
You’ve been misinformed.
You’ve been lied to.

You’ve been told to use the wrong technology!

It’s not your fault.

Here’s what “They” told you to do if you want to lose fat.

1. Eating fat makes you fat and leads to countless health problems.
2. You need to severely restrict your calories.
3. Strength training can’t help you lose fat. It only maintains muscle.
4. Aerobic exercise is the key to fat loss.

ALL OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS ARE WRONG!

Let’s attack these one by one.

1. Eaing fat makes you fat and leads to countless health problems.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one. Rather I’ll just refer you to some articles by my buddy Adam Campbell Here and Regina Wilshire Here

Trust me…wrong technology.

2. You need to severely restrict your calories

Any time I talk to someone about fat loss they always bring up the concept of metabolism.

“I really have a slow metabolism”

“I need to speed up my metabolism”

Well, what is metabolism?

To make it simple. It’s the rate at which you burn food to support all the processes that take place in your body.

It’s that rate at which you burn food?

Well, if you severely restrict your calories that means you have less food to burn. In response to this concept, do you know what your body does?

It slows do the rate at which you burn the food that you do eat.

In other words, it SLOWS DOWN your metabolism.

Oops! Wrong technology.

3. Strength Training can’t help you lose fat. It only helps you maintain muscle

Pardon me while I chuckle. 🙂

In less than 2 minutes I can pull a large handful of scientific studies that show how specific weight training protocols increase fat loss from 20 to 38 hours AFTER you finish weight training.

That means that with a proper weight training protocol, not only can you increase strength, gain muscle, but you’ll also burn more fat throughout the next day and then some by doing nothing further.

4. Aerobic exercise is the key to fat loss.

This is one of those points that was grossly misunderstood and then got perpetuated throughout the media and the general fitness community.

Because the primary energy source for most steady-state aerobic energy system training protocols (think long distance running) came from fat stores, the belief became that exercising at a specific level of effort or heart rate level in the “fat burning zone” for an extended period of time was the best way to increase fat loss.

Sorry, wrong technology again. In a head to head comparison, steady state aerobic exercise protocols came up short in the fat loss department compared to a form of training called interval training. Interval training is based on alternating short periods of higher intensity effort (more effort that your typical long distance run) with periods of reduced effort activity or even rest.

Are you catching on yet?

Do you see why so many people have trouble losing fat?

We’ve been told to use the wrong technology.

Imagine if you combined the best technologies of proper fat loss nutrition, strength training, and interval training.

The result is what my friend Alwyn Cosgrove calls the AFTERBURN.

Later

It’s interesting that we need a holiday to remind us to be thankful for who were are and what we have.

Perhaps we should make efforts to simply be more courteous on a daily basis and be mindful to let the people that are most important to us know that they are important.

However, since this is Thanksgiving and all, I’d like to throw out a general thank you to my friends, colleagues, and family.

There are many who I thank personally, but I won’t attempt to list them here for fear of accidentally leaving someone out. I can assure you that I will let you know how much I appreciate you throughout our communications in the near future.

The exception to this rule is my wife, the lovely and talented Mrs. Hartman. I am who I am because of you. Any success that I have and will have is because of you. You give me purpose and strength that you can’t imagine. I love you, baby.

Later

“No matter how successful we are, we all need a coach to encourage us, to challenge us, to remind us to live up to our potential.”

Dr. Ken Blanchard, Author of the “One Minute Manager”

Tiger Woods has a coach. Michael Jordan had several coaches throughout his career. In fact, you’ll find that just about ever great athlete performed under the watchful eye of a great coach at some point in his or her career.

My personal level of expertise in the rehab and fitness industries is due in no small part to a series of mentors and coaches that I’ve met and worked with along the way.

Growing and developing a business is no different. The more successful my business becomes, the more I recognize the value of having a business coach. I’d go as far as to say that having a business coach is essential.

As business owners, we tend to become emotionally attached to methods, concepts, or ideas that instead of moving us forward holds us back from achieving our business goals. A coach provides objectivity that allows us to see the reality of our situation.

Questions are answered without personal bias. Details become clearer. Goals become more refined. Progress is reestablished.

On my recent trip to Los Angeles, I had a business consultation with Alwyn Cosgrove. Certainly, he is a friend, but he also happens to have created one of the most successful fitness businesses on every level including fitness training, publishing, public speaking, and information marketing.

Our consult allowed me to make effective decisions where I was once “on the fence” as to how to proceed. Where I was once working hard but less directed, I now have focus to the point where my level of production will match my level of effort.

Consultations like this will now be a regular component of my business development. They are essential.

Later

P.S. Learn how to take your business to the next level from the best in the industry for a fraction of the cost of what you’d pay for an individual consult in Fitness Riches.

My brain remains on California time. I got home Sunday afternoon and literally crashed. I now sit here tapping away at the keyboard because my brain is functioning like it’s only 8:30 pm LA time.

Here’s a wrap up of my visit to the Mecca.

Got in Wednesday and as I mentioned briefly before, I had dinner with the Cosgroves. Beer of choice: Bass Pale Ale.

Thursday night: Craig Rasmussen, Super-model from Inside-Out fame, drove down from Ventura. It’s like 3 miles away but it took him 3 hours to get to my hotel in downtown LA. Seems there was a wee bit of traffic (did I just way wee bit? That’s what you get for hanging with Alwyn for a few days).

Craig is just restarting up his fitness career in California after a stint in Indianapolis. Craig recently stopped off at Mark Rippetoe’s gym to hang out a bit and ask Mark some questions. Mark has his Oly lifters back squat with a low bar position. His reasoning is that it’s a general lift for the Oly guys because it doesn’t address the specific positioning of the clean like a front squat does. He may have something there. I will say that I disagree with his reasoning on the reason trainees knees will drop in when they squat however. See my blog later this week for why.

Friday: Wrapped up my recert for ART (Active Release Techniques). While I find this process tedious at times, I did get an opportunity to work on Dr. Leahy a few times which is always great feedback on technique…he did develop it afterall.

Got a message from Alwyn and Dos (Robert Dos Remedios, NSCA Strength Coach of the Year) that we’re meeting in Santa Monica. I’m really looking forward to this because I get to hang with the pound-for-pound world’s strongest vegan but also get to have some McEwan’s Export at Ye Olde Kingshead.

I have to take a cab about 3.65 miles (or something like that)…45 minutes later, I get to Santa Monica. I call Alywn who gives me what are apparently directions in Scottish because I walk up and down Santa Monica Boulevard based on his directions and can’t find the bar where he and Dos are waiting. Ah, if I can find Puzzle Zoo (not the bar but apparently a zoo where they keep all the puzzles in California. Must be where all the blondes go to see the puzzles in their natural habitat [my apologies to all three of you intelligent blondes] ).

I go into Puzzle Zoo and Alwyn says “turn around…do you see us.” If you haven’t been to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, there’s about 10,000 people there. How the hell will I be able to “see” a Scot and a giant Vegan? I finally get directed to a bar called Yankee Doodles where they await my arrival. BTW, there’s a big red neon sign that says Yankee Doodles…couldn’t just say we’re at Yankee Doodles…Then again I’d have missed out on the Puzzle Zoo(that was of course after I almost got hit by a car on Santa Monica Blvd).

Waitress: Destiny (her real name? )
Beer: more Bass (I think?)
Food: Chicken nachos (I must have said “but hold the chicken” at one point ‘cause I couldn’t say that I actually saw any)

Off to Ye Olde Kingshead to meet up with Chris (AKA Kuri from JP Fitness.com)

I get there and immediately ask for a McEwan’s Export. Get this…a Scottish bar that doesn’t have my favorite Scottish Beer. I’m crushed . I suffer with some English beer.

I then Catch up with Chis a wee bit (there it is again!). I can’t seem to get over the fascination of the fact that Chris’ scalp stubble and facial stubble are exactly the same length. That is a skill ladies and gentlemen. I could just be feeling the effects of the atmosphere [beer].

Hot topic…text messaging…I’ve been trying to learn to text message because Dos’ can’t seem to just call me (Since when is “Z” on the damn keyboard).

We did talk a bit of fitness in regard to lower extremity progressions and exercise complexity, but we were rudely interrupted by Tiffany (age 22) and Jessica (age 27) who were pimping the finer points of Heineken Light (I have photos, but because I use my phone for a phone and not a camera, I don’t know how to post them – and please don’t try to email me instructions because I really don’t care…however I do have a rather incriminating screen saver of some well known fitness professionals). They actually had $1.00 coupons so we tried it. It sucked.

Rule number one for branding…never dilute your brand. Ask why Miller Beer went from number one to number 5 (just a guess)? Too many Miller Beers (Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Ice, Lite Beer from Miller, etc…Remember New Coke).

It’s funny how really important things in the industry come up during conversation, but get mixed in with a bunch of BS, so my blur of a memory doesn’t seem to recall much. However, I can remember the Heineken girls’ names and ages. Hmmm?

Met Dos’ bulldog who apparently also has super powers as it recently recovered from some lethal illness. Bulldogs are cool.

I’m leaving the part out where we went back to my hotel to get my stuff and to head off to Alwyn’s house a day early…it was a wee distance, but took most of the night to get there.

A gracious thank you to the understanding Mrs. Cosgrove.

Saturday: Rachel Cosgrove gets up at 5 AM to run 13 miles in Santa Monica with 300 other endurance addicts, er, I mean athletes. (most would call this a race or a benefit for some worthy charity and get a free t-shirt or something…she seems to actually do it just because she enjoys it).

Everyone: Hey Bill how long does it take YOU go 13 miles?
Bill: about 13 minutes.
Everyone: How can you run 13 miles in 13 minutes?
Bill: I don’t run, I take a car like every other normal human being.

Had a shake and some pills that Alwyn gave me…said they were good for me.

I’m personally very excited about this morning. I get to train at Big John McCarthy’s new 20,000 square foot MMA training facility.

It’s quite an impressive place. A palace for thick-necked, sweaty guys (or gals) who dream of stepping into the octagon and bleeding profusely to the drunken cheers of rabid fans.

Get this. We did a …wait for it… a kettlebell class.

The instructor was a tiny, attractive female named Felicia Oh (http://www.feliciaoh.com/feliciaoh.com/main.html) She seems like a really cool chick. I find out later that she’s ranked number one in the world in BJJ in her class (must be the 56 pound class ‘cause she was tiny – but very muscular…great calves). I made friends to avoid having my ass handed to me by a girl. I could tell she dug me.

Best part of class…I tell Felicia that I’ve never done a kettlebell class. She doesn’t know me from mud and assumes I’m a total newbie not knowing that I’m actually a plant sent by the Anti-kettlebell Commission to infiltrate their Commie HQ. At one point I bent inappropriately to test the weight of a big metal ball with a handle on it (I found out later this was the kettlebell) and she rushes over to give me pointers on the appropriate method to lift a weight from the floor.
I had to chuckle inside.

I must say that I had fun in the class. My whole opinion of kettlebell training has changed. In fact, I’m changing my entire training strategy to training with only kettlebells. They truly are the most effective training tools and methods available.

NOT…they’re still weights with handles, but it was interesting to be trained instead of the trainer for a change.

Question: Why would a Russian Kettlebell Instructor do a Turkish Get-up? BTW, Alwyn did Scottish Get-ups. They seemed much harder.

I did make sure to get the T-shirt as they say and got one for the lovely Mrs. Hartman. She promises to wear it when we play MMA at home.

Later we spent some time with Rachel’s uncle who’s a Hollywood stunt man. For those who’ve seen Vision Quest about high school wrestling, he was the big guy that cheered Matthew Modine when he climbed the wall. He’s 48 now and looks 35. He does mostly stunt work and told me he’s riding a Weber Grill at 50 miles an hour in an upcoming movie. A Weber Grill?

Free ART treatments for everyone!

Just a side note…most endurance athletes have really lousy tissue quality throughout their legs. Rachel Cosgrove? Nope. Just a little ITB band tightness that some foam rolling will take care of. She’s must be a distant relative to Wonder Woman. She’s prepping for her first Ironman distance triathalon in Lake Placid…Kona is not too far away I’m sure.

She came back from her 13 mile run acting like it was nothing. After running 13 miles, I’d need chest compressions and mouth to mouth (visions of Pam Anderson running in slow motion to come rescue me).

Throughout the rest of the day, we talked business and actually did a wee bit of consulting for yours truly to set me up for the coming year. More on this later this week.

We then joined Alwyn’s number one trainer Cameron McGarr (you can now read his stuff in the magazines) for appetizers and more Bass Ale (What is wrong with a soft pretzel and spicy mustard?!!)

We then watch George St. Pierre knock Matt Hughes’ out…twice!! Matt Hughes after the fight, “I just watched the video replay and thought I got knocked out by a punch but it was a kick” Oops!

Beers (Kronnenberg?) with Dos, Omar (who strangely enough I met at the exact same time last year. He’s now a master marksman with the Marines and instructs on the shooting range), The Cosgoves, Cameron and Melissa, and all those fine folks in their black concert T-shirts from 1985.

My thanks to Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove for allowing me to interrupt their life for a short while, Dos you are THE MAN.

Later

P.S. Be sure to check back this week. Some good stuff coming up.

Dinner last night with Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, CA (you can also find them on the web…everywhere!)
4 or 5 beers and a hamburger on a bun (I’m a cheap date)…it’s been a while. Felt it a bit this morning.
I never fail to learn something when I get together with the Cosgrove’s. Their business systems are something that every trainer should be doing.
It was also great to see Alwyn healthy and back in training.
More on tap for this evening and then tomorrow night, the pound-for-pound World’s Strongest Vegan will join us for more beers [seems to be a theme, eh?]
Bill