C-REEL RESULTS

at Mind and Body Fitness

I was approached by a lady who was in dire straits. She had been working out for years, but really not that hard. She had been just exercising.

(In my next book, I will discuss the difference between Exercising vs. Working Out.)

Anyway, she couldn’t get her right arm over her head. She said she just woke up one morning and it was really sore. She let a few weeks pass, thinking it would get better with rest.

Most people share that same thought. Unfortunately, that’s the wrong approach for long-term well-being.

I told her, “In the future, if you hurt yourself or you’re very stiff, give it a day, but do something after that because usually the joint, ligaments, and tendons will typically tighten up. And when that occurs, the inflammation tends to mask the injury. That could lead to misdiagnosis, which in some people’s case could cost them hundreds tothousands of dollars in medical bills.”

She met with a doctor and they diagnose her problem as “Frozen Shoulder”. She would need surgery and the rehab would take 3-6 months. When she described the surgery to me it almost – ok it DID – brought me tears. The doctors told her that they just crank and crank and crank on the shoulder to loosen it.  Most times, the shoulder breaks due to the excessive “Cranking around and around”.

Well, to me that sounded just brutal. Sort of Medieval.

To try to make a long story short: I recommended light weight training (2-3 days a week), massage therapy (once a week for six weeks), and a good nutrition plan that included a fair amount of calories. The weight training is for breaking down muscle tissue to encourage the body to want to heal itself. The massage therapy is to help promote range of motion and blood flow. The blood flow carries enriched blood to the damaged area for healing. The nutrition plan provides all the nutrients necessary to create enriched blood so the body can heal faster, and with a little rest could help out tremendously. This formula can’t hurt.

We have been working out together for about 3 months. She now sees a massotherapist and has definitely improved her calorie consumption with great food selection. She has not been perfect, but good enough. After 3 months, she not only can put both arms over her head, but can also do shoulder presses with 4 lb weights.

That is AWESOME.
She’s happy, I’m thrilled, and so far so good.

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Hey! So I met this lady – she is 67 years old. At first, she scared me because she was just so freaked out about her condition.

I’m good now, thanks.

Here’s the case: she has Ortheoarthitis in both knees.

At one time, she was a big time runner – in her 40’s and 50’s, she ran almost every day. She had never done any running events, she just liked to run well. Over the past 10 years, her running decreased because her knees were getting worse. Her doctor told her – with big !!!! points – not to do squats or lunges because they would make everything worse. When we first started, this client would not let me even look at her legs, let alone touch them.

She wanted to lose weight.

That’s something I have never heard before.

And, if she lost weight, she would look better and her knees would be better off. Not necessarily. If you lose too much weight too fast, you run the risk of sacrificing a lot of strength due to muscle loss.

WITHOUT MUSCLE, WE HAVE NO STRENGTH. WITHOUT STRENGTH, WE CAN’T GET STRONGER.

I just thought I’d point that out.

(I have a feeling that it won’t be the last you hear of that)

Over the next couple months, we only did upper body with very little lower body stretching. Very little because she became so paranoid, she believed that stretching was also not good or her.

Do you guys feel bad for me yet? If not, you should…read on.

After a few more months, I could not take it anymore. So, I said, “what is the goal with your legs here??” I was getting frustrated, and they weren’t even my knees! But she was my client….so I quickly got a better attitude.

Since day 1, my client had been complaining about her knees, and we hadn’t even touched her legs yet! So, I said, “is the goal here to just wait around and just let your knees get worse?“ That’s was the only game plan I saw.

After that speech, she finally let me try some things. And that’s what we did.

After one year, her knees felt better. All I did was take it slow and strengthened her knees, quads, and hamstrings, as well as some dynamic stretching – not static. Big, big difference between the two exercise protocols! The dynamic stretching promotes more blood circulation, which is exactly what my client needed.

Well, my client is now 70! Now, the last time I checked, human beings after the age of 50 don’t get better - or can they?

She calls me one Saturday night about 11:30pm crying.

OMG.

“What’s wrong?” I replied. Part of me really didn’t want to know.

She proceeded to tell me that she had been dancing in heels for the past 4 hours without any pain! She has not danced in ten years. I was very happy for her, but more relieved!

My client lunges all the time now. She can even do 405 lb leg presses!

WOW. And she is 70!

That’s two “Role Models of Fitness” created over night….hundreds to go.

Thank god for weight training, food, and the human spirit.

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You know, people ask me everyday: Why are you so passionate about what you do? Well, that is an easy question. I stumbled on something years ago that I knew immediately could help fix the world. WEIGHT TRAINING!

I was 17 when I started weight training for the first time. And I was a skinny, skinny kid. But within months, my body started to transform, and I became stronger-  yes, but my body started taking shape like you wouldn’t believe. I had developed tone, muscles, definition, firmness – whatever you want to call it – all over my body. From this I noticed a desire for good foods, and a lot of them. I could do even more in all my recreational activities. And most importantly, I obtained a ton of confidence. I’m now 43 years old, I feel great, and I still feel just as confident as I did in my teens.

Weight training, I have learned, has a lot of benefits, especially mentally and physically. It has cured my aches and pains and help me deal with my fears in life. I have a strong desire to eat better every day and, again, I feel really good about myself and who I am because of my training. Once you truly understand what you are doing and why you are doing it….it makes easier to do and stick with month after month.

Weight Training is definitely underappreciated and misunderstood. In the next 5-10 years you will see weight training become the number one thing that adults over 40 need to do to take care of themselves. Great nutritional habits will come in a close second.

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Unfortunately, I hear the same story over and over and over again:

JH, I exercise 6-7 days a week, and I lost weight the first month, but now nothing is happening!

First, I tell people what they really don’t want to hear – if your main goal is weight loss, that’s all you will get. You get the short term weight loss like you wanted….but that’s it. You lose 10lbs, 25 lbs 50lbs. But, people always feel that this weight loss should continue if they continue to do the same thing over and over and over and over again.

Now, I see why I don’t have many friends….I just give people news they don’t want to hear.

Well, here’s some news that will help if people can just rearrange their thoughts a little.

In the next book that I am working on, I talk about the big, BIG differences between EXERCISING AND WORKING OUT.

Exercising is just mindless activity that just moves your body around to burn calories (mainly from sugar),  or to just stretch out your muscles, or for emotional enjoyment. Exercising definitely has its purpose in life, but its primary purpose is not for long term weight management. Exercising is great for short term conditioning of the heart. That’s why runners have to run so far and so often to maintain the benefits of it. Hiking, swimming, running, aerobics, dance, golfing, tennis and yoga and are great forms of exercising. And they do an excellent job complementing a good muscle toning workout and solid nutrition plan.

Again, they are GREAT complements!

But when it comes to body transformations, body sculpting, muscle toning, and firming up your muscles….you must learn how to WORK OUT YOUR MUSCLES. WORKING OUT means using progressive resistance training as your primary focus to improving your body’s shape. Working out with weights specifically attacks your muscle fibers so they can get stronger. All your active muscle fibers contain energy. Working out with weights also depletes your muscles of energy which helps burn fat at rest. When your muscles are properly used –  or worked out – correctly, they use and absorb everything in the body. Water, sugar, calories and FAT. AND GUESS WHAT….this process happens 24 hours a day!

Do me a big favor – I know a lot of you love exercising, which is great. I just want to cut down on a lot of the injuries that are occurring, especially with you Weekend warriors. But, I would also like you to look better and better as you get older, too. Do some more research, and find out how to work out with weights better and harder, then go and exercise til your little hearts are content. You will feel better, look better, and most importantly, you won’t feel so bad getting older.

Trust me.

Oh…and don’t forget to EAT MORE!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…STAY STRONG!

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