How you should think about your box!

To start your box is your current condition. So you can think of each wall of the box is the limit of your abilities in a particular fitness related skill.  For example, range of motion in your hips, endurance, strength, balance, reaction, stabilization, nutritional habits, mental perceptions,  etc…

All these fitness related skills determine where you are at as far as your fitness level and how far you will go or not go in the future.  Now with that said, Why would you ever want to think out of your box when your box has not even been taken care of?  Why are there so many “fitness professionals” using this statement?  Guess what, it is used to get you interested in what they want to sell or get their point to you.  And also it is a lack of them even understanding how to help the people they say they are devoting their lives to to help.  Both exercisers and fitness professionals first priority is to learn about what it takes to improve all the problems that are in the box.  And then work on expanding the box so a person’s abilities forever increases.  If this is done then ALL fitness goals will be reached, have less injuries, longer quality of life, and less chance of losing results (if you do then you will know the real reasons why).

This is the topic that Cross Fit, P90x, Insanity, shakeology, HCG diet  or other methods of fitness and nutrition, just do not understand.  If they did then they couldn’t preach what they preach.  There are a very few coaches or trainers that use these methods and modify them to make sure things are done right.  I praise them because they use the type of exercise as a part of a whole.

The Picture here are a couple of my clients that have lost 280 lbs total.  As you can see they are using a battle rope in their workout.  I love to use all types of exercises but every exercise and how it is done has a reason behind it.  So when you design a workout for a client or if you an exerciser is making up a workout, ask yourself is what I’m doing this week going to accomplish all the components related to my box?

As a result of Gronkowski’s injury in the AFC Championship Game, high ankle sprains have been a primary topic of conversation in and out of the sports world for the past two weeks.

Despite his claims of being “100 percent”, it was obvious that New England’s explosive tight end, Rob Gronkowski, was affected by the high ankle sprain he suffered in the AFC Championship Game. Gronkowski, who set the NFL single-season record for touchdowns by a tight end was targeted just three times in the Super Bowl and hauled in only two receptions for 26 yards.

So, what specifically is a high ankle sprain and how does one affectively rehabilitate this type of injury?

A high ankle sprain is an injury to the anterior-inferior tibofibular ligament and is often caused by eversion, forced dorsiflexion, forced external rotation of the foot or a combination of these motions. When you look at Gronkowski’s injury, this mechanism of injury was a combination of these motions. These injuries are much more serious than a traditional inversion ankle sprain, because the healing time can be greater than 4-8 weeks. In addition, attempting to perform functional activity is near impossible as taping and bracing the joint for protection is difficult.

Early on treatment for this injury includes immobilization and protection against dorsiflexion and eversion. Once the ligament heals, the client will begin integrated therapy utilizing biophysical modalities, manual therapy and rehabilitation. Gronkowski will require continued therapy after the Super Bowl. During this time the sports medicine staff will likely utilize similar techniques that are taught in the NASM Corrective Exercise credential course. These techniques include self-myofascial release, positional isometrics and isolated strengthening. You are also likely to find Gronkowski performing balance exercises to enhance the proprioceptive abilities of his entire lower extremity, which are always an integral part of NASM programming. As Gronkowski continues to progress much of his rehabilitation exercise will likely follow with NASM methodologies such as integrated strengthening, reactive training and enhancing speed agility and quickness.

For more information on high ankle sprains and other preventable injuries both on the field and in everyday life, look no further than the NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist

This time in history, when Nolan Richardson was head coach, engrained in me to teach that philosophy that if you really want something you must be willing to give it “40 minutes of Hell”. Not just say you want it but take action.

This is one of the main keys of me developing my clients to succeed in the long run towards their goals. There’re two type of clients, one that says they want it and one that says they want it and does something about it. Giving the attitude of “40 minutes of hell” is the start of being able to learn and apply methods to be successful in the long run. Check out some of my clients on my webpage to see the level of results they get. www.mytrainerwarren.com or www.wm-fitness.com
Nolan Richardson and the Arkansas Razorback Basketball team knew what they wanted. I ask if you know what you want to make a decision to get it done and give it “40 Minutes of Hell”.

Let me start why it could indirectly by association alone. The picture says it all. If you go to the fast food place and biggy size it because you took the regular coke out then you actually added calories to your day because the extra fries and whatever else was added was way more calories than the regular coke anyways. So it is PERCEPTIONS that actually determine success or not! This is what I talk about in my part in the Book that is coming out late April. Another example is that one might change to diet drinks, thinking they where the culprit, and not control all other calories they eat in the day which might go up immediately, go up gradually or inconsistently go up and down. If the first happens then there will be a perception that the diet drinks caused it. If they gradually increase cals then they would say the diet drinks cause plateauing. And the later will have them saying both. THIS ALL COMES DOWN TO THE LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS! If you are a trainer you must know this rule and it should be the foundation of decision making. If the fat loss client logs calorie intake accurately with no BS then 100% of the time they will succeed if they keep the deficit there. They can make themselves sick with diet drinks. Now don’t get me wrong: It is not the healthiest thing to drink to many but much more healthier than having weight related disease risk PERIOD!

Now that I tried to briefly explain that side lets talk about the positive because I like positive. Whatever it is in life the rule is if it helps you succeed in the right way(said in my southern way), if it ain’t broken then don’t fix it! As long as you use the diet drinks as you would with any drink to satisfy taste, enjoy your beverage, and so on then it can be affective. Don’t use the diet drink excuse to drink 3 extra Crown and Diet Cokes that will get you more wasted and go eat at Waffle House!

Remember know exactly what calories you eat each day. No room for guessing if you are serious. If you over eat then those are the most important days to track because that will eliminate false perceptions of how you thought you did! Make sure you hire a professional that understands these things and they don’t have methods that you see in mainstream. Most likely if they say things that you have always believed then they know no more than you or any other magazine. Focus on your goals, right amount of exercise(a whole other discussion), progressions, and calories in to out.

Ending this on a quote I saw. I wish I could remember where I saw it but success is 90% nutrition to get you there and 90% exercise to make sure you maintain it. So both are important to do so you can succeed for your life. Not how good you do in 6 months. I sometimes hurt people’s feelings because they think I should jump up and down if they say they lost 80 pounds in 5 months. It is good and happy but I personally jump up and down when I see a client or person consistently move towards their goals, learn from mistakes, be ok with messing up and moving on, learn and eliminate all those false perceptions and myths, confronting what they do wrong or right and learn how to expect what results to get from their actions. There are so much more but my programs develope these things and when they started they never had a clue that as a person they develop beyond any expectations they had.