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Do What You Can Do

November 3, 2021
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Do you have any nagging holding you back? A chronically sprained ankle, shoulder pain, back pain, knee pain, etc.? Have these injuries set back your training, activity, and quality of life? If you are lucky enough to not have any health or orthopedic issues now, then enjoy every second of it because sooner or later all of us will suffer from an injury and/or illness. This isn’t being pessimistic. It’s being real. It happens to the best of us, and it will happen again no matter what precautions you take. This doesn’t mean not take precautions. As I said above, it’s just being real. The fortunate thing is that there is a way to not let injury or sickness totally derail your training, fat loss, health, etc. Read on to find out how.

Recently I aggravated a back issue that I have. Bulging disks in my L-3-L5. If you have ever had your “back, go out” then you can relate to how painful and debilitating it can be. I was down for the count for a week and still suffering pain and limited mobility over a week later. I have done a lot of things to my body over the years. Some of it happened from accidents and others happened from doing stupid shit. Either way, it happened and now as a 48-year-old man with a lot of miles on him my body reminds me daily. The important thing to do first is address the injury and get it taken care of by seeing a doctor, chiropractor, therapist, energy worker, self-care etc. (for more information on self-care stay tuned for my next blog post, Self-maintenance). The next thing is to realize that although you cannot do exactly what you were doing before the injury there is always something that you can do. 

Working as a personal trainer and strength coach for 30 years I have seen and heard it all. One of the things I see most is when someone suffers an injury, they just completely quit their training. For example, they have a shoulder injury, and they totally stop training. How about training your core, back, or legs? Maybe they have a knee injury, and they stop training. How about your whole upper body? You get the idea. The answer is do what you CAN do. 

Below are some great ideas to help you continue training when you are injured or sick.

  1. Train the rest of your body that is healthy around your injury.
  2. Train a weak or lagging body part that you have been neglecting and wouldn’t have made the time to train otherwise. This is a perfect time to bring it up to par.
  3. Cross-train. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, bike. If you can’t bike, use a bike ergometer. Swimming can also be a great alternative especially for lower body injuries. Try to find an activity that doesn’t aggravate the injured area and focus in that for the time being.
  4. Modify or find an alternative exercise that you can do. Using different hand and foot positions can oftentimes help alleviate pain and take pressure off the injured area. Different exercise can also be better than others. For eg.  low step-ups instead of lunges if you have a knee issue. Split squats or step ups holding dumbbells if you have a back injury. You can also try using a partial range of motion that doesn’t cause pain or isometrics.
  5. Do less but do it more often. You can decrease the load you are using and use a lighter weight but perform the workout more often. The same goes for distance. If you normally run 5 miles 3 times per week Try running one or two miles 5x a week if it doesn’t hurt.
  6. Go lighter and use tempo. By performing reps at a slower tempo with a lighter weight you are taking pressure off of the joint or injured muscles, but the slower tempo allows you to create more tension in the muscle being worked giving it a greater stimulus.
  7. Use machines. Machines can be more stable. They are also great if you have a hand or wrist injury and cannot support a barbell, dumbbell, etc.
  8. Do some yoga. Most people, especially weightlifters or people that sit all day for work can use the extra mobility work.

There you have it. Although there are even more ways to train around injuries it is important to be cautious and ideally be supervised by a professional trainer, doctor or therapist to assure that you don’t make the injury worse. Furthermore, once the injury is almost fully healed it is important to make sure that you do the proper rehabilitation and post rehabilitation therapy to make sure the injured area is properly strengthened and balanced so that you decrease the risk of reinjuring it.

Lastly, and possibly the most important thing is to realize that there is always something you can do. It may not be exactly what you want to do now but by continuing to train you can avoid falling into a rut, depression, and regression losing all your previous progress. So, pick yourself up, seek the advice a professional, keep a positive mindset and just do what you can do.

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Choose Your Identity

March 24, 2021
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Decisions, decisions. Everyday there are numerous important choices that we must make. Such as, what am I going to have for breakfast? Should I wear a button down or a polo? Should I wear deodorant or go au natural? Just kidding, I wear deodorant and just kidding, those are not important choices. One really important choice however, is am I going to take care of myself and be healthy, fit and feel great or am I going to let myself deteriorate, get out of shape, sick and fat?

Choose your identity?

Having trained hundreds of clients for over 25 years, one of the most important common denominators of my most successful clients comes down to this one simple question. Who am I?

The most successful clients choose working out, eating healthier and exercising as a lifestyle. This lifestyle is part of who they are. It is as important to them as brushing their teeth and applying deodorant! Not sure what my fascination with deodorant is today but let us continue, shall we?

People that are not successful being in shape, healthy, lean still have not decided. From time to time they may decide to join a gym, start an exercise program or a new diet. The problem with this approach is that they have not chosen to make that a part of who they are. They have one foot in and one foot out.  Sure, they decided to act which is great, and I applaud them for that first step. Unfortunately, once things get hard or life gets in the way they go right back to square one. Why? Because they did not take on the new identity of who they wanted to become. A fitter, healthier, better version of themselves.

There are many reasons we humans do this. Most of the time it is fear. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of change etc. A great piece of advice I heard from Jaimie Foxx on  a Tim Ferris Podcast is “What’s on the other side of fear?” the answer is “nothing.” And he’s absolutely right. There is nothing on the other side of fear.

Many of us worry about what might happen, about the worst case scenarios and what can go wrong but rarely do they ever happen that way. And even if they do, it would still be a really good experience, a life lesson for you to learn and grow from.

What are your goals? Take a moment and write them down in detail. Then ask yourself is this who I want to become. If the answer is yes, then you must make this part of your being. It must be who you are. If you want to be fit, look, and feel your best then you must do the actions necessary to be that way. It must be a priority. No negotiations. Plan your meals, shop for your food, prep your meals, schedule your training sessions, take your supplements. Show up each day. I am not going to lie. It will be hard in the beginning. The trick is to stick with it. Day in and day out and in no time at all it will become a habit. A beautiful healthy habit. Just like brushing your teeth and putting deodorant on.

To your health.

Kevin

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Old School Water Jug Workouts

March 14, 2021
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Some of my favorite workouts are the most basic and true to life. Big basic movements using everyday heavy objects doing everyday things. This was the inspiration for this post and I hope it inspires you. 

My family has some property upstate in the Catskill Mountains. We use the house year-round but over the winter we have to shut off the water and drain all the pipes, so they don’t freeze and break. This means that when we go up to the house during the winter months, we must bring large jugs of water to wash up, flush the toilet, brush our teeth, etc. Although carrying 4+ 7-gallon containers of water 2 at a time back and forth or 40 yards down the driveway through snow sometimes can be rough, it is also a killer workout. The primal part of me loves this and hopefully, you will too.

 

For this workout you will need two 5- or 7-gallon water jugs, I like the Reliance brand Aquatainers. They are sturdy and have comfortable handles. You can also get the Jerry can version which is a little narrower making it a bit easier to deadlift and carry them. This also makes it a bit more difficult to do push-ups on the handles. A third option if you are looking for something lighter and a bit smaller you can get the 4-gallon containers. These work better for shorter and/or smaller frame individuals. 

The 7-gallon containers weigh 2 pounds each empty. Full they are 60 pounds apiece. The cool thing is that you can adjust the weight by adjusting how much you fill them. Another added benefit is that when they are not full the water movers around a lot more. This makes lifting and carrying them more challenging and can provide a different and perhaps harder stimulus to your muscles.

Below is the weight of water in relation to gallons.

1 gallon of water weighs 8.33 lbs.

2 gallons of water weigh 16.66 lbs.

3 gallons of water weigh 24.99 lbs.

4 gallons of water weigh 33.32 lbs.

5 gallons of water weigh 41.64 lbs.

6 gallons of water weigh 49.97 lbs.

7 gallons of water weigh 58.3 lbs.

Add the weight of the container you are using, and you will have the weight of each container for your workout.

Below are two awesome total body workouts that take less than 30 minutes using water containers. 

Before you begin working out be sure to do a dynamic warm-up to get your body ready for the workout and to help prevent injuries.

Workout 1:

10 Deadlifts.

25–40-yard farmers carry.

10 push-ups using the container handles.

Rest 60-90 seconds and repeat.

Perform 3-7 rounds depending on you your goals and fitness level.

Workout 2:

10 Bent over Rows.

10 Triceps Dips or Push-ups using container handles.

Farmers Carry the containers up and down a set of stairs 1-2 times OR do 8-10 step-ups for each leg.

Rest 60-90 seconds and repeat.

Perform 3-7 rounds depending on you your goals and fitness level.

So now you have two “fun” and challenging workouts that you can do outside with minimal equipment. Use your imagination for other exercises! You can also do a higher number of reps or additional sets as you get more advanced. One last added bonus is these containers are great to have for extra fresh water during emergencies.

Give this workout a go and let me know what you think.

To your health,

Kevin

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What Gets Measured Gets Improved

March 12, 2021
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“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Although this quote from Bill Drucker originally relates to business, it can be applied to all areas of life. Especially, fat loss and body transformation.

For most people, the only way they measure their weight loss progress in using a scale.  Although a scale is a useful tool it does not always show a complete picture of what is going on. For instance, oftentimes when someone trains for weight loss they typically add some muscle (if they are training correctly) and lose fat. The scale, however, only shows a broad picture. If you gain 2 lbs. of muscle=GOOD and loss 2 lbs. of fat also GOOD, it will not show on the scale. It would look like nothing is happening and this can lead to frustration. However, you just made some great progress.

The second problem with only relying on a scale and focusing solely on weight, you may very well be losing weight each week. The issue is you do not know if you are losing muscle or fat. If you are losing muscle, you are setting yourself up for a rebound of fat gain and eminent setbacks.

So how do I do measurements you ask?

Let’s first discuss what needs to happen for measurements to be accurate.

  1. They should be done by the same person. There is typically a slight discrepancy between each person performing certain measurements. To avoid this, have the same person perform the measurements each time
  2. Use the same equipment/device each time. Different scales can vary by over 5 pounds. Different body fat measurement techniques are also only compatible with the same technique and are not accurate across different techniques. E.G. calipers will be different to dexa scan, and underwater weighing and electrical impedance and bod pod etc. so use the same method each time to compare for more accurate results.
  3. They should be done at the same time of day and time of the month. Weighing yourself at different times of the day can vary depending on many factors. To keep things consistent, it is best to weigh yourself on the same day each week at the same time wearing or not wearing the same clothes. Time of the month is important especially for women whose weight can fluctuate due to their menstrual cycles.
  4. They must be Performed using standard guidelines and procedures. It is important to perform the testing the exact same way each time to keep measurements accurate. If anyone variable changes the outcome can be drastically different.

The most accurate way to keep track of your, weight loss/body composition results is to have a competent and experienced professional measure you. Unfortunately, this can be difficult to do consistently.  To simplify things what I have all my online clients use are the following 3 pieces of equipment. Although the body fat measurement may not be as accurate as more traditional methods, if it is done by the same person, (you) you will easily be able to keep track of progress from your initial starting measurement and that is all that matters. These pieces of equipment are super easy to use, affordable, and make taking measurements much more accurate.

Accumeasure Body Fat Caliper


This is an easy-to-use caliper that only requires taking one measurement at the waistline. It comes with easy-to-follow instructions. Simply pinch the area on your waist as described in the directions and gently squeeze the calipers until it clicks. Then look at the measurement and compare it to the chart(included) with you are age and it will give you a body fat percentage. Quick and easy! Although this will not be the most accurate method, it will easily allow you to take a baseline measurement to compare future measurements and that is the most important thing.

MyoTape Body Measure Tape

I like this tape measure because you simply wrap it loosely around the body part to be measured and then attach the end into the base to hold it in place. (Using a regular tape measure to measure yourself can be a big pain in the ass.) Then simply press the button and slowly let the tape wind until it is against your skin. Just be sure to keep the tape as level as possible and the body part as relaxed as possible. Follow the directions for the best results.

RENPHO Body Fat Scale

This scale comes with bioelectrical impedance for body fat, but this method has some of the greatest margins of error. I recommend using the scale part but use the Accu measure for more consistent measurement of body fat. This scale also links to your phone and smart apps to make it easy to keep accurate records.

When to measure.

Measure your weight every Monday morning at the same time. This also helps keep you accountable for the weekend debauchery.

Measure body fat every 2-4 weeks

Measure circumference measurements every 2-4 weeks.

By measuring these 3 areas you will get a better picture if you are gaining muscle and losing fat, losing muscle, not progressing, etc. The circumference measurements will also allow you to see exactly where on your body you are losing your fat from. This can be important down the road if you have trouble losing fat in certain areas. This can possibly associate with hormonal issues.

So, there it is. If you are serious about your fat loss and body composition changes then I recommend purchasing these inexpensive tools and begin keeping measurements and track them on your mobile device, computer, or notebook. This can be motivational when it doesn’t look like you are making changes on the scale and it is also a great way to figure out sooner rather than later if something is not working for you so that you can make the appropriate changes and save valuable time and frustration.

To your health

Kevin


References:


https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/body-fat-analyzers/faq-20057944

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e008922

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/abdominal-obesity/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9403318/

https://www.acefitness.org/education-and-resources/lifestyle/tools-calculators/percent-body-fat-calculator/

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Building an Awesome, Effective, and Inexpensive Home Gym Part 1

March 8, 2021
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Since the spread of Covid-19 our world and especially the workout world has been turned upside down. With gyms closing or only operating at limited capacity, and the fear of going back to a gym many have chosen to go the home gym route. This movement has led to the advent of cool but expensive home gym systems such as, Peloton, The Mirror, Tonal, etc. and a shortage of a lot of the basic home gym equipment such as dumbbell, kettlebells, barbells, benches and racks etc. These home gym systems are cool and do offer a lot of benefits and a large decked out home gym is awesome but many people do not have the space or the budget to have these systems or a big home gym. This leads us to an important question?

What equipment should I buy to create a functional, effective, space saving and portable home gym?

If you are wondering the same thing then this post has you covered.

In this post I put together a list of 5 pieces of equipment that can create a formidable home gym. This equipment will offer you endless variety, allow you to advance as you get stronger, gives you portability and it takes up very little space.

Here it goes.

  1. 1-2 Kettle Bells. For females I recommend a 15# and a 20# or 25#. For men I recommend a 20# and 30-35#. These weight options allow you to start at a lighter weight as a beginner and progress to a heavier weight as you get more advanced. It also allows you to have a lighter kettle bell for unilateral or single arm/leg movements and a heavier kettlebell for double arm/leg movements. Kettlebells are one of the most versatile pieces of equipment that offer endless challenge, variety, can be used for both strength and conditioning and can easily fit under your bed or in a closet. Price varies by weight and whoever is price gouging right now and can range from $36 for 15# to $70 for a 30#. The link I have here has them in stock.
  2. Exercise Band Set with handles, ankle straps and a door anchor. Bands are the most versatile, portable, and light weight exercise equipment there is. They take up almost zero space and are great for assisting or increasing the challenge of bodyweight exercises (think chin ups). Lastly bands are great to assist stretching. The set I have linked here also comes with ankle attachments, handles and a door mount. Price $30
  3. Swiss Ball or Physio Ball. A swiss ball is another excellent piece of equipment that offers a ton of variety, can be used to lay on as a bench and can also be used for stretching. It also makes a great seat to improve posture if you sit for work all day. Try switching back and forth between your desk chair and a swiss ball throughout the day. The price is cheap as well around $20-25
  4. TRX or similar suspension system with door anchor. Suspension trainers are another super effective, space saving and light weight piece of equipment. They offer limitless variety and are great for both beginners and advanced trainees alike. Price around $100-$129.
  5. Sliders. Exercise sliders are a great inexpensive piece of equipment that offers a ton of training variety and challenge. The ones I have linked to here are two sided so you can use them on carpet and hardwood floors. They also come in two sizes. I recommend getting the larger size either way as it is more comfortable and easier to stay on them during certain exercises. Price $11

There you have it. You can have an AWESOME home gym with endless challenge and variety for around $250-300. This equipment should last you a long time as well. If you are on a budget then I would recommend one kettlebell and the band set and swiss ball if you can swing it. (Pun intended) You can always get the suspension trainer and a heavier kettlebell later as you progress. The good news is most of this equipment is available now or comes into stock quickly. 

This is a simple solution to help keep your health, fitness, and fat loss on track.

Yours in health

Kevin

*If you would like personalized professionally designed programs or to join our fun and challenging virtual boot camp classes please check out the rest of my site for more information.*

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A Healthy and Delicious Breakfast Alternative

March 2, 2021
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If you are  avoiding gluten and the usual processed breakfast crap and looking for a delicious breakfast alternative to eggs, bacon, sausage etc. here is a quick easy recipe I through together one morning with what I had in the house. It is loaded with protein, healthy fats, vegetables and healthy gluten free carbohydrates. 

Ingredients:

Wild Caught Smoked Salmon. (I used the one from Costco)

1 Avocado

Fresh Organic Salsa. (I used the one from Stop and Shop but anyone you like will work)

Ezekiel Bread

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Instructions:

1) Cut and take the seed out of the Avocado. Using a knife carefully put slices long ways down the inside of the avocado and then sideways. Using a spoon, scoop out the inside of the avocado and put into a bowl. 

2) Put 1-2 Slices of Ezekiel Bread into the toaster.

3) Take 1-2 tablespoons of the organic salsa and mix into the avocado until desired texture. Add, salt and pepper taste. 

4) Once the toast is ready, place desired amount of the salsa and avocado onto the toast.

5) Place the desired amount of Salmon on top of the salsa and avocado. (1-2 of the serving size listed on the package depending on your size and nutritional and body composition goals.

6) Enjoy!

 

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If You Want To Hurt Yourself Working Out, Then Do This.

March 1, 2021
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Over my 20 years of training almost every population of people, there are a few disturbing trends that I see. One of the most pressing trends is failure of people to properly warm-up before they workout. Not warming-up is a sure-fire way to get injured and derail your progress, motivation, and results. So if you want to get hurt and have a less effective workout don’t warm-up.

Point blank, before working out or doing any sport or physically demanding activity you need to warm-up. There is always at least one client that arrives late and misses the warm-up and proceeds to just jump into the workout. Have you ever seen a professional football, baseball, soccer, hockey etc. player before a game? How long are they warming up for? At least 20-minutes. They warm-up to prepare their bodies for the ensuing sport/exercise, to prevent injuries and to improve performance. These are highly tuned, professionals in peak shape and condition warming up. Do you think the average person who sits all day for their job and is not highly active for 95% of the week and not in peak shape and condition can forgo warming up? Hell to the nah!

Now the good news is that you don’t have to spend 15+ minutes warming-up. For most people, a short 5-10-minute dynamic warm-up will suffice.

Important to note, I said dynamic warm-up.  A dynamic warm–up is “moving while you stretch” or stretching through a joint’s full range of motion and preparing muscles for more intense exercise to come. It is not beneficial and can also be detrimental to do static stretching just before vigorous physical activity. Static stretching involves stretches that you hold in place for a period of time, without movement. This allows your muscles to relax into stretch. You do not want to relax into stretch before a workout.  Save static stretching for the cool down and/or off days to work on your flexibility.

The video below shows the dynamic warm-up I have used with hundreds of clients with a ton of success. Before you begin elevate your body temperature and heart rate by doing 2-3 minutes of a light jog, bike, jumping rope, jumping jacks etc. Then begin the dynamic warm-up.

Give it a go just before you start your workouts and lower your risk for injures, improve your performance, flexibility, mobility, and balance.

One thing to note is that even though there are limited studies to prove or disprove any of the benefits of warming-up. Through 20-years of “in the trenches” experience with hundreds of clients of all age groups, I can vouch for the effectiveness of doing a proper warm-up and cool down and the long term benefits they provide.

To your health.

Kevin

Quick and Effective Dynamic Warm-up

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Get Out of Your Own Way

February 15, 2021
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My First Post "Get Out of Your Own Way"

We have lift off. Welcome to my new vlog/blog/website. My name is Kevin. I am formerly the owner and head honcho of K-Strength Sports Training. I say formerly because a lot of shit went down in 2020 and so did my business. So here I am starting anew.

“Every day is a chance for a new beginning.”

Truth be told, as much as I love all the clients I work or have worked with, and my gym, I was starting to get burned out trying to run a gym and manage all that it entails. Long hours on the floor. Not much time with the family. No vacations. Not enough time to do more of the parts of my job  that I love and wanted to spend more time doing.

As brutal as it was having to pull the plug on my business. My creation. Over 10 years of hard work, sweat, laughter and tears. Having to say goodbye to seeing so many amazing people who have become like a second family, a part of me is relieved. Not because of parting with them. But because of  connecting with myself.

Like many people we get so caught up with the day to day and everyone else we often lose touch with ourselves. When we do this, an important part inside of us is slowly dying because we are cheating on someone we love. Ourselves.

Interestingly, as soon as I closed and mourned a bit. I was excited to get going doing what I “didn’t have time for” before. I started laying out a plan and setting things up and then proceeded to do everything and anything not to start. Sure, I did a lot of work setting things up, but the most important parts were always pushed back. It is like the one important phone call that you do not want to make but you know you have to. You procrastinate by creating other things that make you feel like you are being productive such as, organizing your desktop. clearing out you’re inbox, washing dishes, etc. You do everything you can except the things you need to be doing. I kept doing this and pushing it off until finally I would say I will just do it tomorrow. Then the next day and on and on.

For such a long time I bitched and moaned that I did not have time. Now when I have time and no excuse, I sabotage myself. I bring this up because as I stepped back and looked at my situation an important question came to my mind.

Was not having time, or having too many other things to do before the reason I was  unable to do what I really wanted? Or was it just me all along?

I am now sure that it was always just me.

What is it that you want to do? What are you passionate about? What do you do to sabotage yourself? What excuses do you make?

Think about it and when you find your answer stop making excuses, create a plan and just do IT.

This is my “IT”. This is my new beginning.

To your health,

Kevin

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YOU HAVE 90 SECONDS!

April 23, 2019
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Welcome to my Vlog/Blog You have 90 seconds. What this really means is that I have 90 seconds to grab and hold your attention while giving you some of the most useful, easy to implement and informative information about all things health, fitness, and…

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