5 Minute Office Stretch Routine



Do you remember when you were in school?  Ahh the good ‘ole days of being a dependent.  😉

Do you remember when you had 5-10min b/w classes where you got up, moved around or walked to your next class?

Do you remember how it served as a wake up and refreshed you mentally?

How about now?

Do you build in these 5-10min breaks every hour just to stand up and get loose, get the blood moving and get yourself feeling good?

Here’s what I like to do.  When I know I’ll  be working at my computer / desk for a while, I set my stop watch for 15, 25, 50 or 55min to work on a task and then when it chimes I stand up.  If it’s a shorter time, like the 15 min interval, I just stand up.  If it’s the longer time, say the 55min interval I’ll refill my water glass, use the restroom, stretch or do some pull ups, push ups, a plank circuit or movement prep.  Whatever my body needs at the time or whatever goal I’m working on that day.

Mike Drinking Water Novelty

Bird Drinking Water Novelty

I proposed this idea to my clients and some of them say they can do the stand up, get the water, use the restroom and some light stretching, but most say they can’t do lower body stretching or exercises because of how they’re dressed or where they work.  I thought about this for a while and I decided 2 things:  1) I’d show you how to stretch your whole body if you were wearing a suit or skirt.  2) if your concern for your work environment is b/c other people are there, get over it.  Either you’re a leader and you do beneficial things 1st that other people are afraid to do or might even laugh, whisper and point fingers at you for, or you continue feeling so-so and wait until someone with courage, who doesn’t care what other people think, does it.  Did I ruffle your feathers?  I hope so, b/c you’re about to increase your blood flow by following this 5 minute office stretch routine.  (really it’s only 5-minutes and it’s a follow along circuit).

Without further ado…

 

5 Minute Office Stretch Routine


If you liked this video, feel free to share it, comment on it or like it.  If we receive 100 comments, I’ll make a 5 Minute Office Workout you can do in a suit.  We might need props though.  Have you seen my stapler?

 

Yours changing lives,

 

Mike Alves

 

p.s.  comment below if you liked it or did it.

p.p.s.  if I’ve helped you in anyway at any time please vote me best personal trainer (a.k.a. coach).  click here.

p.p.p.s.  if you got into your best shape, changed your body or transformed your life, please vote us best boot camp (a.k.a. program).  click here.

 

 

How do I lose 5-10 lbs?

Question: How do I lose the last 5-10 lbs?…or…How do I gain 5-10 lbs?

Answer:  It has to do with liquid calories and new research backs up what many coaches & people already knew.  Continue reading to find your answer.

Water: a non-caloric beverage

 VS.

Soda: A caloric beverage

How to gain weight?

What seems like a lifetime ago now, I used to work with professional, college & high school athletes and to help them not only keep weight on, but gain weight I’d have them drink liquid calories in addition to their meals because it was a great way to sneak in extra calories. I did the same myself when I was in a weight gain phase back in college. (I entered college at 147 lbs. and left college at 195 lbs.)

 

How to lose weight?

However if you’re looking to lose weight, you definitely want to skip the calorie drinking and replace it with water while focusing on “solid” whole foods.

Dr. Tom Halton, the author of The Weight Loss Triad, just wrote an article on this subject and cited new research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Tate, et.al., reported subjects who replaced their caloric beverages with non-caloric beverages lost 5% of their body weight over 6-months vs. the control groups who didn’t replace their caloric beverages. If you’re 185 lbs and you’re looking to lose the last 9.25 lbs, or if you’re 130 lbs looking to lose the last 6.5 lbs and you want an easy way to do it, switching your cocktails for club soda w/ lime, your beers for seltzer water, your latte for “black” coffee or green tea and your O.J. for water w/ lemon are some simple yet still pleasurable ways to be social and still enjoy hydrating & meal consumption.

In summary

Drinking caloric beverages or liquid calories is great for weight gain, but bad for for weight loss.

If you want to gain weight, drink liquid calories like smoothies, shakes, juices, alcohol, creamer, half & half, etc…

If you want to lose weight, don’t drink calories & instead drink water or its derivatives (tap, seltzer, mineral, ice, club soda, coffee, green tea …).

Yours living the active life,

Mike Alves

Tate, DF., et. Al. Replacing caloric beverages with water or diet beverages for weight loss in adults: main results of the Choose Healthy Options Consciously Everyday (CHOICE) randomized clinical trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012; 95(3): 555-63.


Aesop’s Fable: Farmer, Goose, Golden Eggs and Body Transformations


It’s the New Year, a fresh start, a clean slate and a new beginning. It’s a time to reflect, goal set and “resolve”, right? Right!

I have a question for you. Did you get sick after the year-end holidays and/or at the start of this year? I did. And that is very un-Mike Alves-like (yes I just wrote that). Why did I get sick? Because I focused on producing, on what I could do, get done, finish, achieve, etc…and didn’t keep my normal balance. I started living like everyone else and I stopped training like no one else. My immune system suffered and I paid the price.

Since I love the start of a new year for all the reason above and due to my cold, the colds of my clients and my grand writing of the 2012 Change Your Body Boot Camps Macrocycle and programs, I was reminded of Aesop’s Fable, The Goose with the Golden Egg.

The story goes like this,

One day a countryman going to the nest of his goose found there an egg all yellow and glittering. When he took it up it was as heavy as lead and he was going to throw it away, because he thought a trick had been played on him. But he took it home on second thoughts, and soon found that it was an egg of pure gold.
Every morning the same thing occurred, and he grew rich by selling his eggs. As he grew rich he grew greedy; and thinking to get at once all the gold the goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find nothing.

Moral of the Story: Greed often overreaches itself.

Well…I overreached. I attempted to squeeze out every last ounce of results I could and I didn’t take care of myself the way I normally do. Stephen R. Covey author of the NY Times best seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, would say that my P/PC balance was off and Aesop would say I was greedy. “P” stands for Production and “PC” stands for Production Capability.

In our wonderful world of bigger, faster, stronger, where many strive for the American Dream, there is a tendency to focus on Production (the Golden Eggs) and neglect Production Capability (the Goose).

If you desire to achieve or produce more and net golden eggs, you also must schedule time to take care of the achiever or producer, the goose, and focus on your production capability.

If you want to get a better job or earn more (Production / Golden Eggs) you often have to work more, acquire more skills & knowledge and/or take on more responsibility (Production Capability / Goose).

If you want to lose weight, lose fat, build muscle, run faster, get stronger, break a personal record, change your body, …stay healthy…, etc…and focus on your production or net golden eggs you have to change the way you think, eat, move, sleep, drink, train, … i.e. you’ll have to change your lifestyle and also focus on your Production Capability and thereby take care of the Goose.

In closing. Life is more exciting when you’re producing something and you can increase the rate, quality AND duration of your production if you not only give focus to your production capability, but prioritize, schedule and DO it. When you take care of the Goose, yourself, you can sustain production of Golden Eggs, your results, for a longer period of time. If you make this a habit, addressing your production capability, and adopt this balanced lifestyle, you’ll reap the rewards over your lifetime.

Imagine all of the Golden Eggs the farmer could have had over his lifetime if he took care of the goose.

Here’s your chance. Take it! I am.

Yours changing lives, including my own,

Mike Alves

p.s. Newton’s #1 Body Transformation Program, Change Your Body Boot Camps is in its 4th year of helping Busy People address their production capability.

p.p.s. If you want to try us out for FREE, apply here:

Change Your Body Boot Camps,
Newton, MA

Newton Personal Trainer
Newton Boot Camp

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.