As I’m sure some of you may know, I headed out to Sin City this weekend for my great friend Justin Yule’s (owner of Fitness Revolution Chanhassen) wedding along with several close friends… who all happen to be in the fitness industry LOL. What can I say you are who you surround yourself with 🙂
Now what do a group of trainers do when they are let lose, well… we can save THAT conversation for another time but all of us of course sat down and talked shop in our down times when alcohol wasn’t flowing like water.
Talking to these other BAMF (ever seen pulp fiction?) trainers is always a blast because I get a chance to always learn new things, and its exciting to see the results they deliver and HOW we can deliver better and faster results. Sometimes I almost think it’s a competition on what trainer can cause the greatest change in a client.
So what all did I learn in Sin city besides alcohol is INSANELY expensive and I’ve never seen so much “paid” company in my life? A few things in particular really stick out to me:
Importance of Gut Health
I’ve always taken a probiotic because even I know that if your stomach isnt’ digesting food correctly it does not matter HOW healthy you eat, your body just won’t break down and absorb the proper nutrients that help you drop fat and keep all that sexy muscle on.
My friend Justin said it best. “The GI tract is like a second brain”
That alone reminded me of all the research that I have done on digestive issues and how they are related to neurological issues and overall physiological issues. What ever our body digest it is direct EVERYWHERE in the body and it has a major effect on how the body preforms, so it only makes sense to make sure that its not only healthy but FUNCTIONING at its optimum level.
So this of course has ramped up my inner nerd to go find more info and knowledge on proper digestive health and digestive repair. (Yay… research!!!)
I even learned a new way to help cleanse and do a fast repair of the GI system that I’m going to try out in the next several weeks. I’ll tell you more about it when I experience this myself.
Further proof that bands are really awesome!
EVERYTHING is expensive in Vegas. They will comp you alcohol all day but if you want to train in the hotel gym then its $25 a day… seriously lol.
Well, being with a group of trainers and several of us being band experts we just had our bands with us (we knew that it was going to be expensive going to the gym and brought them) and worked out by the pool or in the hotel cardio area.
Let me tell you that I had an awesome workout and picked up some new training ideas that just deliver results that dumbbells will never be able to achieve.
Plus it’s a heck of a lot easier to transport 3 or 4 bands (that range in weight from 15lbs to will over 120lbs) then carry dumbbells that heavy everywhere you wanted to workout.
Intermittent Fasting is the way to go
I don’t know how this happened but I have become somewhat of a go to guy when it comes to fasting questions and I had a ton thrown at me. Remember this concept is still in its infancy with the fitness industry.
Before I started fasting the concept of not eating seemed alien to me, “not eat meat for a day!? I’ll die!” that was my typical response for fasting. In fact my friend, we use to work together at Lifetime Fitness, brought it up that I use to eat 2lbs of shredded chicken and beef EVERYDAY. It was called my “bucket-o-meat” LOL Im serious about that.
So for those guys to see someone that was use to eating copious amounts of animal meat daily to all of a sudden preaching the benefits of intermittent fasting I have to say they had a bit of relief to see that you actually become healthier on it and maintain all of your muscle mass.
I mean come on give your body a break for breaking down all that food and give it a chance to work on itself.
Side Note: For more info on intermittent fasting check out my previous blogs
Some intermittent fasting questions answered
Make time to focus on yourself
If anyone knows me knows that I’m a work horse, I’m always working on something and won’t stop till either I become exhausted or someone makes me; just how I am.
On my way to Vegas I looked in a mirror and honestly I looked like hell, doesn’t help that I have been sick for over a week and was dieting like a mad man. I really had a chance to take a look at my previous weeks and realized that I had been going nearly a month straight without any down time to just let my body recharge.
I feel hypocritical about this because I’m always preaching to my client that they need time to just take care of themselves mentally and having some mental and physical down time does amazing things with not only how you look but how you function, train, and recover from the day.
At that point I decided to sit down and really rework my schedule and business to allow me to do the things I love and need to to continue to deliver what I call “The Awesome”. When my batteries are recharged I always come back to training with an intense vigor and passion. So I’m in the process of really taking control of my business and my personal self so that each and every week I deliver the same passionate service and continue to educate everyone what really works in this industry and what is crap.
I strongly encourage you to take time to yourself on a weekly basis, it’s too easy to let life take control of you and next thing you know your sick, missing work and feel like hell. Remember if you don’t take time to yourself to heal and recharge your body will make you.
In Health and Awesomeness,
Travis Merritt, BS, CPT, CES, RBT is the owner of Fitness Revolution in Rowlett, TX.
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