About Coach Mike

Mike Alves is an award winning and highly sought after strength & conditioning expert in the areas of weight loss, body transformations, corrective exercise and performance enhancement. He received his B.S. in Athletic Training from the Prestigious Springfield College, aka the Harvard of Sports Sciences, his ATC from the World Renowned National Athletic Trainers Association, his CSCS from the National Strength & Conditioning Association, the global leader in bridging science with practical application and is Licensed by the state of Massachusetts as a Certified Athletic Trainer. Coach Mike has been written up in the Boston Globe, the Newton Tab, he's been featured on NECN, he's been named a Top Trainer by Boston Common Magazine and been invited to be listed on bostonsbestpersonaltrainers.com, and he's been a repeat #1 Trainer in Boston by Boston Sports Clubs and a #6 Trainer by Town Sports International. Coach Mike lives an active lifestyle, is a relationships 1st person and changes lives through his relationships 1st business. Currently he works out of Newton, MA running the #1 Body Transformation Group Personal Training Program in Massachusetts, Change Your Body Boot Camps and offers private training to a highly selective clientele. His strengths are making training fun and giving the love of training & hard work to those he comes in contact with and helping out of shape and overweight individuals get into their best shape. He has coached middle school, high school, college, amatuer, Olympic & professional athletes in the sports of baseball, soccer, football, basketball, mma, triathlons, endurance running and cycling as well as busy professionals, stay at home moms, retired adults all desiring to feel, move and look better.

Eat Fiber, Live Longer

I’m currently reading Dr. Walter Willet’s, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy classic and am amazed at all the nuggets he shares. I’m a performance guy, who loves to train hard and lives an active lifestyle, but reading this book has awakened me to many things, specifically eating to prevent disease. (ha, what a novel, yet simple concept)

I train my clients from the inside out, from the core so to speak, and I eat and talk about eating healthful foods. My usual point of view on nutrition is geared towards performance or cosmetic reasons, but this book takes it to another level. Disease prevention.

I’m from huge families and we’ve experienced our share of death and disease over the years while living an American lifestyle. To know how my family eats and lives and then to be a health professional and read this book is, uh…life changing. Most everyone knows that eating certain foods in excess are going to make you fat (or maybe they really don’t know), but imagine knowing that eating certain foods was going to kill you (as in ashes to ashes, dust to dust), require you to stick your body with needles everyday, require you to take pills so you could go #2 more easily and regularly, give you the opportunity to rave about your triple bypass surgery instead of your triple double in basketball or let you shave your head bald so you can drink nauseating chemical cocktails while feeling green without envy. Sounds exciting, right? Where do you sign up? NOT.

So, I just read about fiber and thought I’d share 4 great things fiber can do for you.

  1. Fiber regulates blood sugar by slowing digestion (helps control hunger & weight gain).
  2. High Fiber foods help prevent diabetes (no needle sticking).
  3. Fiber reduces your risk of heart disease by about 30% (no Armani Pace Makers or Louis Vitton Stents).
  4. Fiber prevents constipation and diverticular disease. (Screw the laxatives).

So basically, eat a bowl of rolled or steel cut oatmeal each day to lose weight, have high energy without the lulls, which stablizes your blood sugar so you don’t go into food coma, so you don’t get hungry again, overeat and become fat which leads to more problems, so you don’t become insulin sensitive, which would lead to a fun life of sticking yourself with needles because you have type 2 diabetes (not), so you reduce your cholesterol level which keeps your heart pumping strong for fun active living (think sports, adventures and “adult” activities) and maybe best of all because you take this for granted the most, you’ll have quick, painless and regular bathroom trips instead of taking pills or going to the hospital because you “gotta go” and you can’t.

Yours living the active life,

Your health & fitness expert,

Your ace,

Your coach,

Mike Alves

Newton Personal Trainer

Newton Fitness Boot Camp

p.s. registration closes July 3rd @ noon, for the next boot camp.

p.p.s. Get in shape this summer, not next.

p.p.p.s. sign up for Change YOUR Body Boot Camps now

Relaxation

You ever feel like your day is totally packed, you have no time to breathe or think or god forbid eat, drink or exercise?


Really!?!? What’s that like, I’ve never experienced that? Joke, I’m just kidding.

Today one of my clients was off. I decided after watching her struggle through her outdoor conditioning, that I would cut out 5 minutes and use it for something special.

I asked if she had a picnic table in her back yard. “Yes”, was her reply. I say, “O.K., we’re going to finish in the back with some stretching. Does that sound cool?” “Yes” was her reply”

I lead her through 5 minutes of body weight stretching and then I ask her to lie on her back on her picnic table with her knees bent & feet on the bench.


I tell her, “O.K., here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to lie on your back, with your eyes closed and we’re going to spend 5 minutes relaxing. 1 minute on each of the 5 senses. Ready?”

“Yes!,” she said.

Minute 1: Hear

“O.K. Eyes closed. I want you to listen. Listen to all the sounds around you. Listen to the birds, listen to the air, your breathing, my voice, the traffic off in a distance. Separate each sound and listen to all the different sounds.”


Minute 2: Smell

“Now smell the air. Can you smell the grass, the flowers, the trees? Can you smell yourself, your hair, your clothes, your scent? Can you smell your breath? Take a big breath.”


Minute 3: Touch

“Now feel your body. Feel your feet. Feel your sneakers, the foam insulation, the treads, the wooden bench. Feel the picnic table. Feel your shirt, your shorts. Feel hair, just hanging. Feel your knees, your butt, and your shoulders. Feel the air as you breathe. Take a big breath. Feel the limitless air you can consume.”


Minute 4: Taste

“Taste your mouth. Imagine how water tastes when you’re thirsty. Imagine today’s workout, when you asked for a water break. How did the water taste. The coldness, frost on the glass. The ice. Was it refreshing? Taste how clear & pure it was. How satisfying. Now imagine your favorite food. How does it taste. How does it taste as you roll it around in your mouth. What does it taste like? Is it hot, cold, hard, soft, squishy or crunchy? Is it sweet or salty?”

Minute 5: See

“Now visualize something beautiful. Imagine your favorite place. Is it the beach, is it home. Is it a country or a resort? Are you with people, your husband, your daughter, and your friends? Are you by yourself? What’s the weather like? Is it warm or cool? What are you doing? What are you wearing? Are you laughing? Why is this beautiful? Why is this a favorite place?”

“O.K., now wake up. How do you feel?”

Silence and a foggy smile. “C’mon, let’s go back inside”, I say”

“Where did you learn that?” she softly says, while still awakening.

“In a relaxation class in college, different books, conferences, here & there.”

“That was great!” she says.

“Thank you! I figured you were a little beat up today and could use something special. So, I subtracted 5 minutes from something important (conditioning) to give you 5 minutes, to reboot & recover. Was it good?”

“Yes, it was great!” was her reply.

I said, “Sometimes your day is so packed, you’re tired and you need energy, but coffee isn’t doing the trick. You decide, f’ it, I need to reboot and take 5 minutes for myself. You can nap or do relaxing meditation like you did today. I often use this trick. I’ll sleep in my car, at my desk, in a park, on the sofa, or I’ll go for a walk, lie on a foam roller, anything. Just 5 minutes to slow things down, clear my head & reboot my system. It’s amazing how 5 minutes can feel so long and powerful. It doesn’t recover you completely, but it sure makes you feel better or more able to conquer what lies ahead. Do you agree?”

“Yes!” she replied still groggy.

5 Minutes. Because you’re worth it!

Yours in living the active life,

Mike Alves

Newton Personal Trainer and Newton Fitness Boot Camps

Disgusting?!!!


I once worked in a grocery store and had 2 different managers. One was Dave, who always had what customers needed in stock and resulted in a loaded back room full of semi-perishable inventory.

The second manager, Tony, almost always had what customers needed in stock, but had a back room that was nearly empty except for weekly specials and some other popular items.

What did I learn? It’s not good to have stock going bad sitting on shelves and it’s far better to keep only very common items in stock and order less common items as needed.

How does this relate to health & fitness?

Today I ran sprints, ate a starchy carb breakfast. Trained a couple of clients and caught for a client (he punched & kicked, I caught). Then had a Krav Maga class. 2 Hours of total exercise, soaking wet hair, shirt, everything. I was hungry and low on energy.

Came home & realized this is bleed the cabinets, fridge and freezer week (like my manager Tony would do) from items that have been sitting for a while.

So…what do you do when you have low body fat, weight loss is not the issue & weight maintenance is and you need instant energy otherwise you’re going to bonk?

You make a shake. Liquid calories, simple carbs and protein = instant energy.

So I poured in 2 cups of water, 2 cups of frozen berries , 1 frozen banana, 2 tablespoons of wheat germ and needed only to add the protein. Uh…hmmm…er….shoot, I’m out. No egg whites, no protein powder, what to do? Well, to keep it simple I could go with legumes, nuts or canned protein. Well I’ve got enough carbs from the fruit & wheat germ so I don’t need legumes; I don’t want the fat from the nuts b/c I want quick digestion, not slow, so the winner is canned protein. Well…all I have left is about a dozen cans of tuna. TUNA?!!! Yup, tuna. Gross is what I thought too, but all I really cared about was keeping my energy up and recovering. In went the ingredients, I Hit #7 (blend), and well-la!Off with the cover and down the hatch.

Guess how it tasted? Yup. Gross!

What are the lessons learned?

  • Keep it simple.
  • If muscle building, weight maintenance, weight gain or performance are your goals, have a protein / carb shake within 30 minutes of your workout.
  • Sometimes it’s good to purge the cabinets of items that might go bad and to start fresh.
  • Sometimes you find yourself in a jam and need to remember the basics. For a post workout shake, its easy digestion, no fat, simple carbs & protein. To some degree the sources matter, but if it’s a liquid, not so much.

Your personal coach,

Mike Alves

p.s. turkey sausage, olive oil, cauliflower, broccoli, brown rice, black beans, fish oil capsule and two 16 oz glasses of ice water was my post workout meal.

Newton Boot Camps

Personal Trainer Newton

Performance Training Newton

Move More + Different Directions = Feel Better

Here is a great summary (reprinted with permission) of a recent conference I attended with my colleague Keith.

Please read below.

Providence 3 Day Perform Better Summit Notes

May 17, 2009 by Keith Colby

Last weekend was the annual 3 day perform better summit in Providence, RI. I have been going to this great event since the start back in 2005? In my opinion it’s the best educational event in the industry. You will never see so many top names in the industry at one event. People like Dr. Stuart McGill (the worlds top authority on lower back pain), Michael Boyle, Alywn Cosgrove, Todd Wright, Gray Cook, Chuck Wolf, Fraser Quelch (inventor of the TRX suspension system , Mark Verstegen (owner of athletes performance), Eric Cressey and so many more…

…Here is a list of my top take home points from the weekend in no particular order:

1. I really enjoy learning and trying to improve our program to be able to continue to help more people like you in the most efficient, safest, best way possible.

2. Providence is a fun city with great food ( Check out local 121 and Bacaror)

3. It’s a lot of fun being around like minded people that have a passion for helping others.

4. Movement should be unconscious.

5. Why do a lot of people stop moving when they exercise? They spend all day sitting and then go sit on a bike or exercise machine?

6. All of the body is connected and works as 1 integrated coordinated unit – The foot bone is connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone connects to the shin bone, the shin bone connects to the knee bone, the knee bone connects to the thigh bone, the thigh bone connects to the hip bone, the hip bone connects to the back bone and on and on and on…

7. When the foot hits the ground everything changes? Everything may look great on a table, but what happens to your body when the foot hits the ground?

8. Stretch the fascial connections of the body vs individual muscle groups(opposite hip and lat, opposite hip and shoulder, lateral line, front line and back line). For a great resource buy and read Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers.

9. Most traditional treatment modalities work in the short term because they implement rest for the tissues.

10. Most traditional treatment modalities don’t work in the long term because they don’t uncover underlying inefficiencies/casues. The site of the pain is rarely the source of the problem.

10. If you correct the inefficiencies or casues you’ll also correct the pathology.

11. 30 years ago we had to learn 1 new skill per year, now it’s 1 new skill per day, tomorrow it may be 1 new skill per hour.

12. 94% of executives have less energy at home than they have at work.

13. work + rest = success.

14. In training, too much time is spent on training to increase muscle mass (which slows motion/movement) rather than training effective mass.

15. Some exercise have become universal but not becasue they are great exercises (bench press)

16. The scapula is a mini core to the humerus.

17. Posture effects movement, movement effects posture.

18. Inefficient posture can result in inefficient movement, which produces an energy leak.

19. Our hands and feet give our brains/bodies the most feedback.

20. If the foot was not important it would just be 1 big as_ bone.

21. The pecs have a huge fascial connection with the abdominals.

22. A lot of food companies are like cigarette companies, they sell you stuff that is not good for you.

23. You can do anything you want to if you learn the right strategies and take action on those strategies.

24. If your serious about your health get and read the book Ultra Prevention http://www.amazon.com/Ultraprevention-6-Week-Plan-That-Healthy/dp/0743227115. It’s a book written by two doctors at canyon ranch talking about the failings of our traditional medical system.

25. The only thing that’s worse than not going to a seminar in the last 6 months is thinking that (that) doesn’t matter.

Keith Colby

If any of the above is confusing let me dumb it down. Move more, in different directions, feel better. Move more, eat better & eat less =’s live longer, feel better, look better.

Yours living the active life,

Mike

mikealves.com

Planar Training

>


Anyone ever trained body parts before?

For example:


Body Part Programming


Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Chest

Legs

Back

Shoulders

Arms

Or

Chest & Tri’s

Legs & Shoulders

Back & Bi’s

Or

Chest & Bi’s

Legs & Back

Shoulders & Tri’s

Legs & Abs

Or

Chest & Back

Legs & Sho

Bi’s & Tri’s


I used to, when I first started training as a personal trainer because that’s what everyone else did and I figured that’s what I was supposed to do. Then realized I knew better and started modifying my workout so my clients and I could train like athletes yet earn the aesthetic results of a body builder. Or another way to say it is to train movements, not body parts.



This modified type of training now looked like this:



Movement Programming



Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Total Body:

Knee Push

(legs / DB Front Squats)

+

Horizontal Pull (back / Seated Row)

+

Horizontal Push (chest / Push Ups)

+

Lateral Flexion (obliques / Side Plank)

Total Body:

Hip Pull

(legs / Dead Lifts)

+

Vertical Push (shoulders / Overhead Press)

+

Vertical Pull (back / Chin Ups)

+

Hip-Trunk Pull (lower abs / Hip Lifts)

Total Body:

1-Knee Push (legs / Lunge)

+

Horizontal Pull (back / DB Row)

+

Vertical Pull / Push

(biceps & shoulders / DB Curl to Press)

+

Sho-Trunk Rotation (obliques & abs, Seated DB Trunk Rotation)

Or

Upper Body

Lower Body

Upper Body

Lower Body

Vertical Pull (Chin Ups, back)

+

Horizontal Push

(Incline Bench Press, chest)

+

Horizontal Pull (Face Pulls, upper back)

+

Diagonal Extension (Cable Raise, abs & obliques)

Knee Push (Front Squats, legs)

+

1-Hip Pull (Single Leg Dead Lift, legs)

+

1-Knee Push

(Lateral Lunge, legs)

+

Lateral Flexion (Side Plank, obliques)

Vertical Push (Barbell Overhead Press, shoulders)

+

Horizontal Pull (Seated Row, back)

+

Vertical Push

(DB Lateral Raise, shoulders)

+

Diagonal Flexion

(Cable Chop, abs & obliques)

Hip Pull

(Dead Lift, legs)

+

1-Knee Push (Side Step Up, legs)

+

Hip Pull

(Good Mornings, legs & sho-trunk pull)

+

Hip-Trunk Pull (SB Tuck, abs)


Notice how the first table consisted of body parts only and the second table consisted of movements, an example exercise and then the body part. Now some of this may look familiar and some of it may not, just bear with me as you should understand better when the third chart comes up.


Well now, I just came across this article by Fraser Quelch of Fitness Anywhere, the makers of the TRX Suspension Trainer. It was very stimulating and I had to read it twice to fully grasp it. Heck, I’m writing about it now to help reinforce what I learned.


He talked about training not only movement patters like the table in the middle, but also planes of movements (sagittal, frontal and transverse or in laymen’s terms forward & backward, side-side & rotational movements). This really made a lot of sense to me and I was definitely incorporating this ideology with my core training, my performance athletes and the majority of my programming, but I didn’t think I needed to use it with all of my clients across the board.



Why?


It’s not like they’re going to use these motor patterns and there are other more immediate concerns to be addressed like correcting muscle imbalances, rehabbing an injury and changing body composition.


Well, Coach Quelch talked about the human body being made for locomotion (movement) and muscles contributing to that movement. Not train the muscles and then hope they can help you move. It’s train the movements and still get great looking muscles. If you train the muscles, you get crappy movements like stereo-typical body builders running on hot sand. See the video below.




See what I mean. AND when you train movements, you’re less likely to get injured because you create better balance and coordination, kinesthetic awareness and functional strength. You also look more athletic (because you are) and have better stamina.




Another reason it rang home to me is I’m a novice snowboarder.


I’ve been practing for the last 3 years and am better, but still find myself on the green and blue trails. Why? Because I’m practicing my turns, getting comfortable riding heel side and toe side with both my left leg leading and my right leg leading. I also want to be able to do 360 degree turns because sometimes it happens and on the diamond and double diamond trails you have less wiggle room for error and need to be prepared.


So…, even though I can get down the mountain without falling if I just ride normal, I practice new motor patterns or train new motor engrams as Quelch alludes to, and sometimes I do great and sometimes I fall on my butt. I love it though, because I get better every time and soon I’ll be that snowboarder flying down the mountain with incredible control.


Back to planar training.


Here’s what a new program might look like for a fat loss, weight loss or pre-season sports performance client after reading Coach Quelch’s article.



Planar Programming


Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Total Body

Sagittal Hip Push

(DB Front squat, legs)

+

Transverse Shoulder Pull:

TRX or Jungle Strap Inverted Row, back)

+

Sagittal Shoulder Push (Feet Elevated Close Grip Push Up, chest)
+

Frontal Trunk Pull

(Side Plank w/ Rotation, obliques)

Total Body

1-Transverse Hip Push

(Side Step Ups, legs)

+

Frontal Shoulder Pull

(Pull Ups, back)

+

1-Frontal Hip Push

(DB Lateral Lunge, legs)

+

Sagittal Trunk Pull

(Stability Ball Rollouts, abs)

Total Body:

Sagittal Hip Pull

(Dead Lift, legs)

+

Frontal Shoulder Push (DB Overhead Press, shoulders)

+

Transverse Shoulder Pull

(Cable Face Pulls, upper back)

+

Transverse Trunk Pull

(transverse, MB Wood Chop, obliques/abs)

Or

Upper Body

Lower Body

Upper Body

Lower Body

Sagittal Shoulder Pull (Chin Ups, back)

+

Transverse Shoulder Push

(Incline Bench Press, chest)

+

Transverse Shoulder Pull (Cable Face Pulls, upper back)

+

Transverse Trunk Push (Cable Raise, abs & obliques)

Sagittal Hip Push (Front Squats / legs)

+

Transverse 1-Hip Pull (Single Leg Dead Lift , legs)

+

Frontal 1-Knee Push

(Lateral Lunge, legs)

+

Frontal Trunk Pull

(Side Plank, obliques)

Frontal Shoulder Push (Barbell Overhead Press, shoulders)

+

Sagittal Shoulder Pull (Neutral Grip Seated Row, back)

+

Frontal Shoulder Push

(DB Lateral Raise / shoulders)

+

Transverse Trunk Pull

(Cable Chop, abs & obliques

+

Sagittal Hip Pull

(Dead Lift, legs)

+

Transverse 1-Hip Push (Side Step Up / legs)

)

+

Frontal 1-Hip Push

(Lateral Band Walk, legs)

+

Sagittal Trunk Pull (SB Tuck, abs)


Notice I tell you the plane of movement, the body region, the type of movement, an exercise and the body part. Call it the evolution of training back to square one.



Now what does this all mean. It means programming & training will be more fun. Bodies will move better, posture and muscles will be balanced and people will still look great aesthetically.


To read Fraser’s article or purchase his TRX click here.


Yours living the active life,



Mike Alves


www.mikealves.com