Doug Jackson’s Fitness Blog

A lot of our clients are traveling right now so I wanted to share with you a way to avoid the deconditioning that happens with missed workouts.

Strategic Overtraining

If you’ll be gone for one week (more or less) and realistically think that you won’t get any quality workouts during that time, I’d encourage you to consider the use of strategic overtraining to avoid deconditioning.

Here’s how it works:

Figure out how many of the regular high quality workouts you are going to miss. And then I want you to add that number of workouts into your training program spread between the two weeks prior to your vacation.

For example, let’s say that you normally strength train three days per week.

If you do what most people do, here’s what happens when you go on vacation:

2 weeks prior to vacation: 3 complete workouts
Week prior to vacation: 3 complete workouts
Week of vacation: 0 workouts

Usually that’s not going to take you into the right direction.

Here’s what you can do:

2 weeks prior to vacation: 4 complete workouts
Week prior to vacation: 5 complete workouts
Week of vacation: 0 workouts

In the second model, you’ve made up your three “lost workouts” before you’ve ever left. And instead of deconditioning during your time off, you will likely go into “supercompensation” and come back more fit than before.

Get it Done!!

I hired our trainer Tom Bowler to train me a few days ago.

It’s not too often that you hear of a trainer hiring another trainer to train them.

But many of the best do.

When I was completing my Masters Degree and wanted to continue getting stronger with less total time in the gym, I hired well-known Las Vegas-based strength coach Charles Staley to design my programs.

One of my favorite questions if I talk with a massage therapist or a chiropractor is how often they actually utilize the same service they provide.

I would think that a massage therapist (who we would assume believes in the value of massage), would also get massages themselves. If they didn’t, it would be a little bit of a credibility gap.

Now as I find myself becoming more and more like the clients we serve (in terms of growing demands and responsibilities) I have an even deeper understanding of the value of the personal fitness solutions we provide.

Tom took me through my first workout on Monday. He gave me that “extra push” that I knew I needed. We shot a quick video of how I looked after ourworkout, check it out:

Yesterday morning, I had stopped by a convenience store along side state road 84 as I was driving to our South Florida personal training studio.

I had been up since 4:00 AM working on some stuff and decided to stop by the store to pick up some coffee since I was starting to feel tired from waking up earlier than normal.

As I was parking, I saw some people loitering near the store entrance. It didn’t look like the safest crowd but it didn’t stop me from getting out of the car to grab the coffee.

As I walked up to the group (needed to get past them to enter the store), one of the guys (about my age) decided to target me for some verbal harassment. He was clearly drunk (there was a bar near the convenience store).

Luckily for him and myself as well, I was feeling pretty chilled out so I ignored his provocation, and I went in the store and got my coffee, ignored some more verbal provocations, got into my Jeep and left.

But it got me thinking…

We were two guys about the same age (I might have had a year or two on him), but at 5:45 AM yesterday, although we were in the same physical location, we were in very different spots.

I’m married, wouldn’t mind having kids soon, and although I’ve had some ups and downs, I still believe in the beauty of America and the American dream. Hopefully I’m making a positive difference in the lives of those I know on a day to day basis. And that’s why I got up at 4:000 AM.

The other guy had clearly been up all night, was drunk, and causing problems for those around him.

I actually feel sorry for him. I wonder what made him get to that place.

My point in writing this is not to talk about how I’m better, but to encourage everyone to fight the good fight. To not give up. To keep moving forward. And when you to falter, when you get knocked down, you get back up again.

Detiorating your brain with excessive amounts of alcohol (or any other drug) certainly isn’t the way to do it. If you are having a hard time coping, here’s three ideas of things you can do to help you get through any tough times you are facing:

1) Exercise - it gives you an uplift and helps you think more clearly in times of stress.

2) Connect with family and friends- researchers find that the happiest people have the strongest ties to family and friends.

3) Don’t ignore your spiritual side - most people I know feel much more fulfilled when they have filled the spiritual holes that are in their lives. Your faith is like a rock that can allow you to get through things you couldn’t get through otherwise.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. I invite you to leave your own remarks for others by commenting on this blog.

If you haven’t done so yet, I invite you to download our Ultimate Exercise Guide for free. If you already have it, I invite you to send friends and families to the following website so they can get their own copy:

www.UltimateExerciseGuide.com

Best,

Doug Jackson, M.Ed.,CSCS
www.PersonalFitnessAdvantage.com

Last week I wrote about how to get and stay motivated.

I discussed the importance of an inspiring mission and setting realistic deadlines.

There is a third key aspect in staying motivated and reaching your goals.

Social Support.

Having the right social support can’t be overrated.

Here’s just some of the social support that I have right now:

-My wife Emily

-My administrative assistant

-Leading fitness industry consultants

-Clients who are being patient in waiting for my new facility to open and being reasonable about putting up with temporary fixes (some have even paid for months of training in advance to help the cashflow of the business and show their belief in my mission).

-And many others

Each of these social support pillars helps keep me going when things are tough.

Let me give you a curret and drastic example.

After training my clients for the last two weeks in parks, in their homes, and at my community’s clubhouse, clients were getting good workouts, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with the situation. And I decided that waiting another 4-8 weeks to get the new facility open wasn’t an option.

So Emily and I decided to take a drastic measure: We are temporarily turning our apartment into a mini-fitness studio.

Two nights ago, we moved bookshelves and other furniture from the living room and put it in the bedroom.

Today, I’ll be putting our dining room table, chairs, and living room couches in storage.

I’ll be picking up strength training equipment from Boca Raton and Cooper City (got about $7,500 in equipment for $2,000) and setting it up in our home/ temporary studio.

When I first thought of the idea, I actually felt bad. Married for just four months and I’m doing this. I was sure that Emily would be thrilled. Yeah right. I sort of felt like I was failing as a husband.

But you know what? I told her about it and she said “let’s do it.” And we got to work.

Although I’m sure she’s stressed about the situation, she’s been 100% supportive. And in an already tough time period where having Emily really upset with me might have been a breaking point for me, her support and love has been a solid foundation that has given me the confidence to keep moving forward.

So, three things:

1) Realize that you can’t get very far alone. Find your mission and enlist support.

2) If you aren’t getting the support you need, maybe you just need to really ask for it.

3) Make sure to thank those who are supporting your goals.

Dedicated to your health, fitness, and human potential,

Doug Jackson, M.Ed.,CSCS

My alarm went off at 4:00 AM today, but I didn’t really need the
alarm. In fact, I had woken up about 3:40 or so with pretty-good
energy and hopped out of bed at 3:58.

Why? Well, I’ve got a mission. And I’ve got a deadline.

This mission? To help as many people as possible enjoy the vast
benefits of fitness (same mission that I’ve had for years).

Deadline? Well, the mission has merged with the well-being of my
wife and I after I got booted out of the fitness facility that I
independantly contracted out of last week (they had found out that
I wanted to open my own place).

A powerful mission along with my motivation to put food on the
table seemed to get the job done in lighting a very hot fire under
my butt.

What I’ve found in the last six days is an amazing ability to cut
through the crap and make choices in a few moments that I had been
dilly-dallying with for months and months.

Having a clear goal (matched with my personal mission and beliefs)
and a deadline seems to be the perfect ignition for lighting that
fire under my butt.

And I think that same combination can work for you.

So what’s your mission? And how can you apply a deadline to it? Share your
thoughts by posting to this blog.

Later this week, I’ll share the second half of the equation that
will allow that fire to keep burning, whether in me, or you, or
anybody.