How to sleep better. 33 Sleep Aids for better sleep by Dr. Mercola

Have you ever had trouble sleeping?  Sleep can help and hurt you in many ways.  Instead of reinventing the wheel on what a lack of sleep does for your health, performance and body composition and how to get more and better sleep, here is a great article from Dr. Mercola, of mercola.com, The World’s #1 Natural Health Website.

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Want a Good Night’s Sleep? Then Never Do These Things Before Bed

Posted By Dr. Mercola | October 02 2010 | 873,263 views

By Dr. Mercola

slepping in bed Continue reading

80-20 Principle Applied to Training Environments

Change Your Body Boot Camps, Newton’s 1st Body Transformation Boot Camp that guarantees results for busy people, has released its 2012 Training Calendar. Click here to view.

Hello and good day to you!

One of the great things about your local Newton Boot Camp is the training environment. You see, the reason CYBBC has so many clients with success stories is because it has developed a system for yielding results and one of those systems is it’s training environment.

Have you ever heard of the 80 / 20 Principle. The 80 / 20 Principle, made famous by the Italian Economist, Vilfredo Pareto, and paraphrased here from Tim Ferris’ book, The 4-Hour Workweek, showed that 20% of Pareto’s Peapods yielded 80% of his peas or that 20% of the population yielded 80% of the wealth. The unique thing about this Principle is it can be applied to many contexts including training environments.

Here are some examples showing how training environment can lead to improved health, body transformations & performance.

• membership based gyms:

80% of members who do show up, don’t train on a plan, 20% do train on a plan.

• gym based, group exercise classes:

80% of group exercise classes are NOT programs, just workouts of the day. 20% are programs.

• general vs. custom programming


 

80% of programs are general and do not address imbalances or injury history, are not flexible, are not periodized or progressive and do not guarantee results. 20% of programs are customized to address imbalances & injuries, are flexible, periodized, progressive and guarantee results.

• gym equipment based workouts vs. do anywhere workouts



80% of programs are built around equipment found at a gym. 20% of programs are designed to be done anywhere you find yourself, with most any equipment available or even none at all.

• personal training studios



80% of PT Studios train 1 person at a time leaving the support & motivation soleley up to the coach. 20% of PT Studios train semi-privately using the collective support & motivation of the group to motivate the individual.

• membership boot camps



80% of boot camps accept anyone who can afford training to join. 20% of boot camps accept only the right people they want to train.

• short term results vs. long term sustainable results



80% of premium programs base their results on quick fixes (think “jumpstart” diet programs) to yield immediate results without consideration of the long term health, body composition and performance costs related to these sabotaging habits. 20% of premium programs yield both short & long term results by teaching sustainable habits to overcome the highs & lows of life.

• Good vs. Great



80% of coaches just want a paycheck and a place to go each day. 20% of coaches want to be the best they can be, the best in their area and the best in their niche.

• Fun



80% of training environments are low energy, no fun, filled with complaining people leaning on equipment, walking around aimlessly, watching tv or reading where people don’t really want to be. 20% of training environments will be high energy, exciting, motivating & fun places you want to be.

The Lucky 20%



Basically 20% of the people who set 2012 Health, Body Composition and Performance related goals will yield 80% of the results. These people are most likely to train in a high energy & fun environment where everyone is on a flexible and customized, long term sustainable, results-oriented, do anywhere program, that is not dependent on gym based equipment, which uses the motivation of a highly selective group of motivated people who are ready & committed to train, who are not complainers or whiners and are led by a coach who will accept nothing but the best for his/her clients, his/her program and his/herself.

The Unlucky 80%



The other 80% of people who set 2012 Health, Body Composition and Peformance related goals will yield 20% of the results if any. These people will go through the motions when they show up because they don’t have a plan, their accountability isn’t strong enough, they’ll most likely get hurt trying to train too hard in a workout that is not progressive or from having low energy from following a “jumpstart” nutrition plan. They’ll watch too much tv instead of watching the sweat slalom off their nose. They’ll lose momentum becaues their program is not fun, it’s not flexible, it’s dependent on gym based equipment and they’ll grow tired of being surrounded by negative nelly’s and coaches who don’t care.

In closing, Change Your Body Boot Camps has a system for delivering sustainable results in a safe manner and part of that system is its training environment. Phase 1 begins, Sunday, January 1 at 8am with Measurements & Orientation. The 1st day of training begins, Monday, January 2. You can learn more about our 2 convenient locations and flexible training times by visiting our website, bootcampboston.com.

Happy New Year!

Yours changing lives,

Mike Alves

Newton Personal Trainer
Newton Boot Camp

p.s. here’s the link for the schedule.
p.p.s. here’s the link to try us out.

2012 Change Your Body Boot Camps Calendar

Below is your 2012 Change Your Body Boot Camp Calendar. We begin, Sunday, Jan 1 with measurements & testing, bright & early at 8am. Yup, we’re getting a jump start on the resolution season and what better way to sandbag your “before” measurements & photos than by recording the day after New Year’s Eve.

 

1st Day of Training is Monday, January 2 with a normal schedule: 6am, 9am and 6:30pm.

 

Hoo-Rah!

 

Yours changing lives,

 

Mike Alves

Who do you recommend?

Happy hump day to you!

Often times I get asked who I recommend for this and that and since I’ve been in the Newton / Boston area for almost 12 years I’ve begun to learn who’s great and who’s not for different things.  The most common question I get is, “who do you recommend for a sore forearm” or “can you recommend a massage therapist”, to which my answer is Chris Larson of Joint Ventures Kenmore Square, Boston, MA.  
 
The reason I like Chris is because he is great with a Chinese technique called, Gua Sha, in which he uses a tool, to break up soft tissue restrictions in tough spots like Tennis Elbow.  He’s also strong enough to provide deep tissue massage, which many times you need if you’ve been training hard or have stubborn knots in your shoulders, back or quads.  I also like the fact that he personal trains people, has a great library of books and videos at his office, he’s fit, he goes to similar conferences that I do and that he trains in an awesome environment, which is Joint Ventures. 

Joint Ventures is a great physical therapy place because they see their patients 1-on-1 vs seeing multiple patients at once.  I went there when I did some knee rehab and loved the high energy location, the free parking (they have 3 spots), the owners (Dan & Dave) are very cool which helps create a cool & fun working / rehab environment and on their 2nd floor training area, they have 2 top notch strength & conditioning coaches (Keith & Ally) who write great programs and use cutting edge equipment.  Not only do I get my issue addressed when I visit Chris, but I have a fun and energizing experience when I go.

Power Block U90
Power Block U90
Power Block U33
Power Block U33
T
TRX Pro Suspension Trainer

Another question I get asked a lot is where do you get your equipment.  For this I have 2 answers.  Locally I go to Gym Source-Newton on Needham Street because they have great prices, great equipment and they have Norm.  Norm is perennially #1 General Manager for all Gym Sources everywhere and has helped make his Gym Source the #1 Gym Source store everywhere.  Because he & the store are #1, they get to test things other stores don’t and they get equipment and have special leverage or “pull” that other GM’s and stores don’t have.   This is where I bought both of my Power Block sets and one of my TRX’s.


Equipment Bundle
Change Your Body Boot Camps Equipment Bundle
Perform Better, 3-Day Functional Training Summit

Perform Better is another place I recommend for equipment.  If you can love stores or businesses other than CYBBC, this is one place I heart.  They have the best equipment and for most everything, the best prices especially for rollers, superbands and mats.  Perform Better is located in Providence so regular shipping almost always arrives next day to the Newton area and has transitioned from just a track & field company to a functional training equipment company and now to an education company, which hosts arguably the best functional training conferences in the world.  You won’t find a better price on rollers or superbands than you will at Perform Better.

Now that I shared 4 of my favorite and most common recommendations I was wondering if you could share yours.  Please click here to share your recommendations for different businesses and categories if your in the Newton/Boston area.

Thank you for reading today.

Your coach,

Mike Alves

p.s.  I believe Chris and Gym Source both offer a discount to my customers, so let them know Mike Alves from Change Your Body Boot Camps referred you and Perform Better created the special bundle package in the picture above so if you don’t already have your gear or need to upgrade get the bundle.

p.p.s.  click here to share your recommendations if your in the Newton/Boston area.

p.p.p.s.  feel free to comment if you have something to share.

Fighting the Freshman 15 / Getting Real World Ready

60 lbs in 6-months
Way back in the early 2000’s I was honored to get to train a forward thinking high school graduate that was looking to get in his best shape for college.  This young man who is now a strong adult, desired to lose weight, get strong and get lean, which I assume would only compliment his great personality as he moved forward.   His result was 60 lbs of weight loss in 6-months.  I’d like to take some of the credit for his success, but I can’t because we both know he was super motivated to change and his nutrition was dialed in.  Plus I know that my programming then vs. my programming now was far inferior, so it really was a super motivated person, training 4x/wk/1hr each with me on strength and then doing additional cardio on his own.  He made the time for both training and in the kitchen and had an outstanding first semester and college experience.  If you’re reading this, way to go AC!
30 lbs Gained in 24 weeks
Also back in the early 2000’s I was honored to get to train another super motivated high school kid, we’ll call him J. Flavor, who was tired of being skinny and wanted to get strong, put on muscle and increase his body weight.  After his first, 12 week program he had put on 20 lbs and after his second 12 week program he put on at least another 10 lbs.  Again, it was this young man’s desire to change and get better that earned him results.  He could of have done it with anyone, but I was the lucky coach he chose.
Peak for Sports Seasons
Also back in the 2000’s I had the honor of co-starting a high school strength & conditioning program called Pride Sports Performance (Pride is the Team Name for Springfield College, my alma mater) and volunteering at Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning, where I had the opportunity to train super motivated high school and college athletes that either wanted to peak for their upcoming high school / college season, to get noticed by college recruiters / pro scouts or to prepare to play at the next level.  I can’t again take credit for any of their successes, I was just lucky to work with them, but each of these kids went on to have improved seasons.
Body Changes = Increased Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
And there were numerous handfuls of other awesome, smart and motivated high school and college kids who I’ve had the pleasure of working with privately over my last 12 years as a coach, who hired me not only for body changes, but for what those changes could do for their self-esteem and confidence.  How they would feel more secure in meeting new people while living away from home for the first time or entering the “real world” and becoming fully independent.  How they would walk taller and not second guess themselves when speaking or taking action, which allowed the life skills instilled by their parents, the education they’ve worked hard to accumulate and their own personal life experiences to shine through without hesitation.  
1st Impressions
If you’ve graduated from high school and had the new / scary / exciting experience of being a college freshman as a dependent / independent or if you’ve graduated college and had the new / scary / exciting experience of entering the real world as an independent (or maybe still co-dependent), you know that there are some big butterflies and that you wanted to make a great impression.  
From 147 – 185 in 1 Semester
When I graduated from high school, I weighed 147 lbs. and was a ½” shy of 6 feet.  I was SKINNY!  I knew that when I got to college, I wanted to be more attractive to the female co-eds and if I put on some muscle and weight so I wasn’t skinny anymore, I’d have the confidence and self-esteem to go with my already outgoing personality (my blog, I can boast).  What happened?  I trained every day from Monday – Friday following the good ole body building / body part routines that were sadly too common then, with next to no cardio and an occasional weekend day of shooting hoops.  I made time to get to breakfast at 7am before my 8am classes (what college kids make time to get up these days), always went to lunch and dinner in Cheney Hall (the cafeteria) and stocked my dorm fridge and cubbies with food (thanks mom & dad) so I would never have to worry about being hungry, plus I was a partier then so I had my share of pizza and beer.  Result:  I went home for winter break and weighed 185 lbs.  That’s 38 lbs of mostly muscle with some fat gained in 1 semester.  I had to get a bunch of new clothes because I outgrew a lot of things.  My waist went from 30” to a 34/35” waist and my shirts went from M-L to L-XL.  It was cool.  Academically I was kicking butt, socially I knew everyone’s names even if people didn’t remember mine (I’m great with names) and I was definitely more attractive to and confident with the females on campus.  Life was great.
Lost & Found:  Self Confidence / Body Weight
When I finished my internship (I graduated college upon completion) with the Boston Red Sox’s minor league affiliates the Sarasota / Fort Meyers Red Sox, I had lost a bunch of weight and with it some confidence.  This time I arrived to Spring Training weighing 195 lbs and when I returned up north 6-months later, I was under 180 lbs and my primary responsibility was to be the Strength & Conditioning Coach for my teams, so it’s not like I didn’t have access.  My clothes were hanging, I was tired and I wasn’t happy and I had to prepare for my boards, my National Athletic Training Association Certification.  After I passed my exams (first try), it was time to get my confidence back and my weight back, by getting in the gym and training.  This time I was at Umass Amherst as an assistant strength & conditioning coach working with their Division 1 athletes / teams.  This was awesome, I got right back into shape fast and only had to lift weight 4x/wk now to make fast gains.  I was ready for the real world and good karma had followed me once again when I had the confidence and high self-esteem to believe in myself and let my talents and work ethic shine through.
Special Offer for 2011 Grads ONLY
Circling back to the present, I now want to provide an opportunity for motivated, 2011 high school and college graduates (New Customers Only), who are looking to change their bodies, get in their best shapes and increase their self-esteem and self-confidence so their natural talents can shine through without hesitation or second guessing.  From now until midnight on Memorial Monday, I’ll be offering the following Grad Bootcamp Packages for the summer: 
Grad (3-Month) Summer Bootcamp Package (June 19 – September 3)- $97/month (Typically $246/month)

Grad (1-Month) Bootcamp Package (Month Start Date of Choice:  June 19, July 17 or Aug 14)- $137 (Typically $268/month)

Fighting the Freshman 15 / Getting Real World Ready
If you know a motivated 2011, high school or college graduate, who would like to be proactive and fight the freshman 15 and/or would like to enter the real world with peaking self-confidence, please refer them to me or contact me through my website, bootcampboston.com/contact or mikealves.com/contact.html.
Yours changing lives,
Mike Alves
p.s.  this is a huge deal for those looking to make a change now!
p.p.s.  2011 grads only
p.p.p.s.  last day to order is Midnight, Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2011.
p.p.p.p.s.  order now at:  bootcampboston.com/contact