All too often we make the mistake of only seeing distance running as a physical endeavor.

The problem with that is we do not address the other aspect that comes with plodding down the trails, roads, or tracks.  What do we do with our mind while we run?  Do we think about our day, our life, our fears, our aches, and pains?  Or do we blast the latest pop track or motivational speech on our devices?

I am writing this article to the newbies to distance running, or any steady-state long-duration exercise (biking, swimming laps, walking, etc).

Experienced runners know how to deal with their minds while they run.  They have enough practice and have been through the drill enough times to know what to expect.  But for someone who has not yet run a 5k, 10k, or even a mile, it can be intimidating and scary to think about how hard it is going to be.

We as humans tend to extrapolate things in our minds.  We think “gee it was hard walking up those 10 stairs, I’m winded, imagine how hard it would be to walk up 20 stairs, it must be twice as hard.”  We think “wow, I ran one lap around the track and it was awful, I can’t possibly imagine running 4 laps!”  I understand that thinking, I once was that way myself.  But I will show you the science to help combat that thinking and to get you on your way to covering more distance than you ever thought possible.

We as humans are VERY good at being aerobic endurance athletes.

This has come about from thousands of years of evolving as hunter-gathers and a necessity to cover long distances.  The original hunting strategy was to “chase” a deer over long distances until it was simply too tired to run away.  The deer would bolt in a very powerful and fast way, but eventually, it has to stop and regenerate energy.  Humans can just keep moving at a constant and steady pace.

Eventually, the steady constant pace is enough to close the gap on the quicker deer since it needs an extended amount of time to recover.  This hunting tactic is still used to this day in remote areas of Africa that are still hunter-gather societies.  Below is a video that goes into detail the evolution of endurance exercise in humans, in case your curious.

The average human has a greater amount of slow-twitch (oxidative) muscle fibers than fast-twitch (anaerobic) muscle fibers.

These slow-twitch fibers are much easier to train and develop compared to fast-twitch fibers as well.  In addition to muscle fibers, we have a lot of machinery in our bodies to help transport oxygen, bind oxygen, and use oxygen to create ATP (energy) for our muscles to use during activity.

To put it simply, we are very good at covering long distances at a steady, constant pace (sounds a lot like distance running).

My advice: Resist the idea to extrapolate how hard a long-distance run will be.

So when starting on your next big distance run, instead of being nervous about how much harder it will be than your previous run, take a moment to think about this graph.  What this is showing us is that the initial start to a run or any activity is the hardest.  Our body ramps up oxygen consumption, and we think “wow I’m already tired, there is no way I can last the whole distance.”

But in reality, once we reach our steady-state (around 2 minutes of activity) and we find our pace, we can maintain that for a very long time.

As you build more experience and your conditioning levels improve, you can maintain a faster pace for steady-state.   Use this science to fill your mind during those long runs and always remember, “work smarter, not harder.”

Don’t forget to check out Run Albion to sign up for the “Run the Rock” race.  It is only 3 weeks until race day!  (Friday April 30th, 6:30 PM start time)

Smart Strength clients receive a discount!  This is a great community event that helps enhance the message of health & wellness for all!  Cant wait to see you there!

Your Trainer,

Alex

SS Times

 

March was an incredible month here at SS.  Your support and commitments have been absolutely amazing.  I appreciate you!

We have seen steady growth and have had extraordinarily little turnover in clientele.  Like the weather in spring, we just keep getting better and better.

To all of you that have provided referrals and positive feedback to others, I am grateful.  I very much appreciate you taking some of your valuable time to help spread the word about SS.  Very cool!

Smart Strength is a unique company.  The products we create are sweat, laughs, exhaustion and joy.  We deal in personal records and pounds lost.

But above all, the people and the experiences make the company.

Thank you for choosing to spend your time with us.

Thank you for trusting Smart Strength with your health and wellness.

We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you into the future!

To recap the month

-We set personal records with 166 total sessions for the month!  (57 more sessions than Feb.!!)

-We averaged 37 sessions per week during the month of February, another PR! (Increase of 10 hrs/wk!)

-We added 6 new members!

-Window decals done and look sweet!

-Many of you have experienced the Peloton and have expressed positive feedback.  I will continue to look for ways to incorporate the bike into your program.  If you would like to try a longer ride, just let me know and we can make it happen!

Moving Forward

-We are working on getting some SS swag (t shirts) for our amazing clients.  Stay posted for that.  If we receive positive feedback, we will look to expand this.

-As the weather consistently warms up, we will look to incorporate some outdoor exercise… walking lunges down Superior St anyone???

-Smart Strength clients receive a discount towards our awesome Run Albion series.  The first race is Friday, April 30^th.  I would love to have a group of SS clients participate in the race.  It is a great course, highlighting some beautiful portions of Albion and always a good time!  Click the link to visit their website.

-The gym will be closed Sat. April 17^th.  Your instructor will be participating in continuing education that day…. Always working smarter, not harder, for you!

-Smart Strength will be implementing summer availability hours in the coming months. No changes this month, however.

As always, if anyone has any suggestions or feedback please shoot me an email or let me know during our next session.

Looking forward to helping you have the best spring ever!

Happy Good Friday and have a great Easter weekend!

Work Smarter, not harder

Your Trainer,

Alex

 

Getting “real” with yourself

Let us be honest, getting real with yourself is hard.

Shoot, its downright miserable sometimes, and that is exactly why we avoid it.  But if we can’t be honest with ourselves, how can we expect to ever change?

There are a million areas in which you can chose to be honest or dishonest with yourself, but for the sake of this blog, we are focusing on fitness and diet.

Fitness

Most clients have no problem pushing themselves hard during a training session.  Once they walk through the door and hit the warmup routine, they know its game time.

But what are you doing the other 23 hours of your day?  What are you doing the other 5 days of the week?

Are you constantly moving for work?  Are you chasing kids from point A to point B?  Are you taking a walk around the neighborhood or downtown?  Or are you sedentary?

Are you stretching and foam rolling on your days off?  Are you icing!?  Proper recovery is essential for growth and gains.

Strength takes years to build and requires constant maintenance.  Atrophy begins in as little as 48 hours of inactivity… not fair but that is the reality.

Diet

What you put into your body matters.  All of it.  Snacks, liquids, meals, etc.

Only you can decide what your ideal body image is, and only you can make that happen through how you choose to fuel your body.

Only you can decide how much of your diet are you willing to change.  How much you are going to alter your food and drink lifestyle to achieve your goals?

Realize it is damn hard to earn and maintain a “fit” body image, and the diet component needs to be on point, day in and day out.

Be honest with yourself, are you doing that?

Action item

Get yourself a journal and start writing your inner most thoughts in it.  This is a difficult habit to create, realize that and do not beat yourself up if you happen to miss a day or two.  The point is to get used to being “real” with yourself, in a safe environment.  Practice writing out what really happened that day or weekend.  Do it often, daily would be best!  There is no right or wrong, just flow.  They are your thoughts, your opinions, do not write what you think others would like to hear… Be ruthlessly honest!

After you have taken the courageous step of committing your thoughts to paper, read it over.  This combination of journaling and reflection creates association and memories in your brain.

Stick with it, it will get easier as time goes by.  Also, it will start to manifest itself in your daily life.  You will realize some of your weaknesses in real time and catch yourself.  You will start to think about the future, and what it will feel like to have to account for your actions in your journal later.

Getting real with yourself on paper will soon lead to getting real with yourself in real life!

If you work at it, learning how to be totally honest with yourself is an extremely powerful skill.  If you know exactly who you are, you can walk through life with the ultimate confidence.

If you know exactly how hard you have worked… when you truly earn something, no one can take that away from you!

 

P.S.  If you enjoyed this article, forward it on to anyone you know who could benefit from the message.

 

P.P.S.  If you are interested in starting a journal, but do not yet have one, I have just the one for you!  Mention this to me next session to receive your free “Wealth Management Journal.”

If you are not yet a member and would like to claim your free journal, click here

 

Your trainer,

Alex

Strength > Posture > Running form > Energy expenditure = Performance.

There it is.  Everything you need to know about becoming a better runner and setting a PR on April 30^th! If only life were that simple. And running was that easy.

So, let’s unpack a few things and explain all the hard work that goes behind those simple arrows in our equation.  This is where the magic lies.

Strength training has mad value. Yes, even to aerobic endurance athletes like runners and cyclists.

Better strength comes from being able to use the right muscles for certain exercises. That’s why one of the most important qualities of strength training is the improved ability to isolate and fully engage certain muscles and muscle groupings.  For instance, being able to anteriorly or posteriorly tilt our pelvis and the accompanying muscles.  To actively pivot and maintain this position can make all the difference in which muscles are doing the work, and consequently which muscles are fatiguing during our prolonged exercise activity. It’s one of the most important exercises we do at Smart Strength:

https://smartstrengthprogram.com/anterior-and-posterior-tilt-the-most-important-exercise-we-do-at-smart-strength/

Bad posture equals a bad running form.

Our posture is the framework for which our running form is created.  I have rarely seen someone who demonstrates poor posture and body control but can whip up an amazing running form when they hit the starting line.

Strength training is an effective tool at slowly changing someone’s posture.  With increased strength and body awareness, people then have the tools to self-correct and practice better posture daily.

Increased strength and better posture allow a person to train/ run with a “stronger” form.  I advocate that there is no “perfect” running posture, but there are qualities that are heavily associated with better running performance, less fatigue, and are much more resilient to injury.

I think most of us would acknowledge that a bad running form will have negative effects on our overall running performance.  But I do not think many realize just how much impact form has on performance.  Consider the double negative effect of a sloppy or loose running form — it detracts energy, oxygen, and blood flow away from essential muscles and instead diverts these resources to muscles that counteract our desired movement.  Ouch!

Not to mention how repetitive, constant stress on structures and tissues that are not anatomically designed for that will often lead to an injury… a catastrophic blow to your running performance. In a nutshell: Bad running form>decreased performance>increased risk of injury.

 

Run Smarter, not harder

Your trainer,

Alex

SS Times

February has come and gone… For those of you that love February, perhaps its your birth month, or you enjoy showing your valentine how much you love them… God bless your heart.

For the rest of us, lets rejoice!  That cold, dreary month is out of here!  Bring on Spring and Sun!

 

To recap the month-

-We set personal records with 109 total sessions for the month!

-We averaged 27.5 sessions per week during the month of February, another PR!

-We added 4 new members!

-Window decals should be up by the end of this week, along with some beautiful weather!

-Peloton is getting the final touch up/ caged pedals to make your riding experience better!

 

Looking forward to March.  We are already off to an incredible start, on pace to smash our PR for sessions in a week!

As the weather improves, we will look for ways to incorporate some outdoor exercises into our programming.  Perhaps some tire flips down M-99, playing dodge the semi would work for conditioning?… JK

As always, if anyone has any suggestions or feedback please shoot me an email or let me know during our next session.

Looking forward to helping you have the best spring ever!

 

Work Smarter, not harder

Your Trainer,

Alex

Health and wellness are a priority at Caster Concepts, Inc (CCI). The industrial caster manufacturer has recently affirmed that commitment by launching a pilot employee wellness initiative through its philanthropic arm Caster Cares.

To bring the program to life, CCI has partnered with Smart Strength & Conditioning (SS&C) to assess, design, and implement small group training sessions for its employees.

The wellness program has been running for over two months now, and the progress is noticeable.

“Working out has become a habit. It’s now part of my weekly routine,” exclaims Jewell Heath, Inside Sales Manager at Caster Concepts. “The success I have had in the short three months is incredible. I have seen noticeable gains both mentally and physically.”

Justin Powell, CCI’s ERP specialist, remarks that “This has been the first year I’ve been able to shovel snow without hurting my back, and I don’t find myself slowing down as quickly as I used to. I also don’t miss my second chin!”

The program began in December 2020 with seven employees volunteering to “raise their hand in the name of health and wellness.” As the program heads into late February, more than 160 training sessions are in the books. Employees have committed to training twice per week and have done a remarkable job of being accountable and consistent. What’s even more impressive is that the retention rate is approximately 92%.

The health and wellness program has also gained momentum with employees’ family members and spouses. Stories of how the training have positively benefited employees are being shared with others, creating excitement and curiosity.

Throughout the pilot study, employees routinely reported feeling better energy levels, more confidence, and increased mental performance. When they were asked if they saw value in the wellness program, the overwhelming majority responded, “YES!” Most went on to say that they would highly recommend the training to friends and family.”

“You only get one body, and you only get to go around once,” notes Smart Strength owner and trainer Alex Harris. “What could be more valuable than your health and wellbeing?”

 

 

 

And here we are… February.  The weather is cold and unrelenting.  The Super bowl has come and gone.  January and the promise of a new year has long faded from memory…You are knee deep in the GRIND!

Let me stop you right there

My role as a coach is to not only challenge you, but to de-mystify what it takes to be successful in the world of fitness as well as the big game they call life.

One of the most important skills I have discovered is the discipline of goal setting.

But goals are worthless if you do not review them…

Time stamping and reviewing your goals is what brings them to life and makes them accomplishable.  The steady review of our goals is the most neglected step in the discipline of goal setting.

This is not an easy habit to develop, so let me share with you my strategy for goal setting and review.  I hope you can adapt a similar process and work to make it stick.

1. The process for creating my 2021 goals began in November of 2020. This is when I take my first stab at what I want to accomplish, need to accomplish and what I strive to accomplish.  I throw it all down in a rough draft and then step away for a few weeks.
2. Mid December I come back to my pile of goals, then break them down into categories: Personal, Smart Strength/ business, Personal financial. Organizing my list makes it easier for me to organize my thoughts on each goal.  After you have created your categories and placed each goal in the correct bin, take a break.
3. I take my categories and work through each goal, making them SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound). Now that a goal is in its proper category and is SMART, I know what my time frame is for each goal, and I can start to plot out a way to accomplish each goal, either in my head or in my planner.
4. I imagine many people have attempted or even perfected steps 1-3…. But here is the most important step, the one that binds it all together and completes the feedback loop. Review!!  I make a note in my planner at the end of each month to sit down and go through my goals list, for each category and score my progress.  By keeping my goals and progress fresh in my mind, I find that I am inclined to work daily to accomplish my goals, even if I did not purposely set out to do so.

5. It is important to remember that your goals you set just 6 weeks ago are only worth something if you continue to work for them. Goals are living documents that need to be updated, and even revised periodically.  You can set your review timeframes as you see fit, but keep in mind it needs to be often enough to evaluate progress, and make corrections if you have fallen behind.

Goals Process

1^st edition/ 2021 goals —>  Organize/categorize —> SMART goals  <———>   Review/ Update

 

This process is more important than ever.  February is when most people will abandon their goals for the rest of the year.  This is a sensitive and critical point in your journey to success and creating a habit.  Carve out some time and make your goals review a priority!

You will not regret the time you spend on yourself and reviewing goals.

Something magical happens when we develop strong goals, bind them to paper, print them off and stick them on our wall, and then schedule time at the end of each month to re assess and evaluate our process towards accomplishing our goals….

They just might come true!  

If you are interested in more topics like this, please visit www.smartstrengthprogram.com

Check out the blog or schedule your free assessment today...spoiler alert, we spend a lot of time talking about your goals!!

 

Your Trainer,

Alex

 

“We are what we repeatedly do…Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit”…  – Aristotle

So many of us have seen this quote on walls in the classroom, in the boardroom, sometimes even in the bathroom… but do we ever actually take it to heart?

Do we ever actually commit to an excellent act, and rep it out so many times it become a habit?

If you have mastered this concept, more power to you, stop reading and go enjoy your wonderful life, you have made it.

If you have not been able to turn your acts and attempts at fitness into a habit of excellence, then read on… Smart Strength can help.

 

At Smart Strength we make 3 commitments to you!

1. Consistency
2. Crush your goals, and have fun doing it
3. Competency & Independence

 

When you begin your journey with Smart Strength you are directly investing in your health and your future.

We will do everything possible to turn your one-off acts of fitness into a sustained habit of excellence through our 3 commitments to you.

If you or someone near and dear to your heart needs help with these areas, please clink on the link below and schedule your free assessment today.

www.smartstrengthprogram.com

Let me help you make the habit of fitness stick…  Its too important not too!

Work Smarter, not harder

Your Trainer,

Alex

“A successful life is not created through flash & pop, but rather through the ability to get knocked down and get back up again.  Every Damn time! “

-Smart Strength

 

I first heard work smarter, not harder back in middle school at a basketball camp.  The context was teaching us how to play great team defense.

For you sports junkies, this makes sense.  The best defensive teams are great communicators. They know the angles.  They know when they can sag off.  They know where their help is.  They know when they have to get up in someone’s face and they know exactly when they can be lazy.

This makes it appear as if everyone is everywhere, there is nowhere to go, everyone is covered, despite the offenses every effort, there are no gaps to exploit… How is it possible to play such amazing defense and never fatigue, never have a breakdown, never have a lapse in coverage?  The best defensive teams work Smarter, not harder….

To put it simply, they know when they have to work and they know when they can borrow some time and get some rest.  That is the true magic in team defense, not always spinning your wheels and going 100 mph, but working in short, high intensity bursts exactly when needed.

Over the years I have adopted a training philosophy that really tries to work Smarter for clients, not harder.

The point is, we at Smart Strength want you to be a part of our great team defense against inactivity and poor health.  We want to be in constant communication with you, letting you know where your help side is.  We want to push you at times, and yes we even want you to enjoy the fruits of your fitness labor and take some time to gloat to your friends and family about how strong you now are! 

The whole idea is to learn the ratio, the balance of the brain vs. the brawn and make fitness a lifelong commitment.

No one can go 100 mph all the time.  The burn out factor is very real in fitness and we know this.  We find that consistency and healthy habits always outperform the binge and short-term efforts that so many people think is fitness.  We want to see you for a lifetime, not just a few weeks before spring break.  We want you to learn and live the motto: “work Smarter, not harder.”

Grinding yourself down is not always the right answer.  Sometimes continuing to push and struggle is not the right call.  Sometimes, a calculated approach is more valuable than just a herculean, never say die effort…

This is hard for me to admit or write.  I have been an athlete, and I am a coach. Preaching that effort is not the answer seems unthinkable.  But truth is, sometimes all the effort in the world is not enough.  Sometimes effort can even be harmful if effort is applied in the wrong direction.

Effort alone is not the answer…

coordinated effort is the key…

coordinated effort is at its heart, Smart Strength….

Your Trainer,

Alex

 

Here are 4 golden nuggets I will share with you.  These are the 4 things you can do to actually have a fighting chance at making 2021’s fitness goals a reality.

–Find a great coach- Would you try and build your home with no professional instruction or guidance.  How about learn a new language?  Cook a 5 star meal?  Learning how to exercise and train properly is no different.  It is not an inherent skill we are born with.  Find someone who has spent their life learning how to do these things, and someone who can effectively coach you on how to do them!  It will speed up the learning curve dramatically, produce better results, and help keep you moving forward while minimizing your risk of injury and setback.

Another thing a great coach will implement is a systemic approach to accomplish your goals.  Our bodies are designed in a certain way.  We consume, burn and store energy in a certain way, and respond to different levels of stimulus and repair our cells in certain ways.  These systems are very well researched and are guiding principles for proper programming and progression in the exercise world.  This is a valuable skill set.  This is only one example of the why having a great coach is so important to making a New Years resolution a lasting change.  Leverage the skill set of a great coach to give yourself the best chance at success!

–Commit- Getting in shape means different things to different people, but I think we all agree that it is hard, no matter what your goals are.  Realize that it will take a firm commitment if you are to indeed reach your goals.  Strategies to improve your level of commitment include: writing down your goals and displaying  where you will view them often (daily, hourly is even better).  Tying your commitment to a financial incentive (this is heavily dependent on the type of person you are/ how much you value money).  Tying your commitment to a health related outcome (being able to participate in the family hike, having no reservations about the summer beach trip, or pushing back father time are all admirable goals).

–Communicate- 2 points on this.  Communicate with your personal circle & communicate with your fitness pro.

*communication with your personal circle is huge.  This is your spouse, kids, parents, friends, co workers, pretty much anyone you see on a daily basis.  These people will either make or break your fitness experience.  Even the most dedicated clients only see their coaches for a few hours a week, but the people in your personal circle influence your behavior on a daily basis!  Communicating with them your goals and reasons for change are very important.  You will need to get these people on board in a major way if you want to give yourself the best chance at making those New Years resolutions stick!

If you and your spouse are not on the same page about New Years resolutions, that’s ok, but please communicate with each other what is acceptable and what isn’t.  Your fitness and diet goals shouldn’t be undermined by your spouse, and trust me, I have seen this happen many times (not pretty!)

Example: If weight loss and health are goals, please get on the same page about when and how often pizza is on the menu!

*communication with your fitness pro.  Before you begin your fitness journey, any good fitness pro should ask what your goals are.  This starts a dialogue that should continue throughout your time spent together…  It should be revisited and amended occasionally.  These types of conversations are great tools to use to remind us of why we started this in the first place.  They are often very recharging and refocusing conversations and can be the difference between a client that fizzles out, or the rare client that reaches their goals, and makes the New Years resolution stick!

 

–Proper mindset- The most important workouts will be the ones that come in late January and February, the dog days of winter.  This is when shiny glamorous new years resolution motivation runs out and all that is left is just plain old hard work, and usually involves some pretty cold, nasty and dark brooding weather.  This is when your commitment will truly be tested.  This is where about 90% of people fail.  This is the make or break season. 

We can combat this with the right mindset, knowing what challenges will be waiting for us as we dive deeper into the winter abyss.  We need to give ourselves the best chance by creating support networks, having a coach and/ or friends hold us accountable, and prominently display our goals and why we are doing this!

Fitness, weight loss, strength gain, whatever your goals may be, they are admirable and worth working for.  It is a truly amazing feeling when you are confident in your own skin, and there is nothing physically holding you back from living the best life you possibly can… the life you dream about. 

The journey is long and the road is full of obstacles, but with these 4 nuggets of insider information, you will have the best chance at making your New Years Resolutions stick!

Work Smarter ,not harder

Your Trainer,

Alex