No Excuses: I Can't Workout on the Road.....

Holy Crap! This is a goal to be able to accomplish. I actually was googling "functional training" images and found this gem. I really want to incorporate more functional training into my weekly workouts. 

If you aren't yet familiar with functional training, I don't want to define it here..but overall what I've learned about functional training is that for the most part it relies on bodyweight movements that mimic activity done in "real life". There is also a lot of core training in functional fitness and much of functional fitness is based on core training, doing moves that require your core to stabilize the body for movement. **Please don't take this as a definition of it, it is simply my way of describing what I've experienced through videos or trainers.**

I found this gem on YouTube as an example of some kickbutt functional training:

I'm including this functional training as a segue into more talk on NO EXCUSES. Y'all may know that I am in Park City, UT for a conference. Many people use the excuse of traveling for business as "I just don't have time to fit a workout in" - and in some cases yes, I can see that this IS valid. There are indeed times when I've traveled and your day at a convention starts at  7am and ends after cocktails and parties at 11pm. Some of you might say, "You don't have to go the party! Go to the gym and workout." Well, that isn't true in most cases. If your business relies on solid relationships, you MUST attend the parties. You stay in and workout, you lose out on time with the client. 

I'm sharing the video above because one of the things that I hear from people making excuses is that, "I travel for work all the time and I don't have time or there is no hotel gym". BLAH  BLAH BLAH.

Here is the thing. Although there are times as above where many of us can't fit in a workout in a day that goes from 7am to 11pm.....(and for those of you about to say, well get up at 4am and workout- please note that if I'm going to bed at midnight the night prior, getting up at 4am isn't gonna happen AND it is just as important to get a good night's sleep as it is to stay active.), I have found easy ways to get a KILLER workout going IN MY HOTEL ROOM. Seriously. And I've timed it with my Polar HRM so I know I can get a 500-800 calorie burn just as easy in a hotel room as in my home gym. Pay attention.

This  is an example of a fairly nice hotel gym. I know that Doubletree Hotels is starting to install kick butt gyms in all their hotels (I know this because their head of PR is my BFF ok). However, in the mean time many gyms in hotels are SUCKTASTIC. Seriously. They have 2-3 cardio machines from the late 80's and maybe if you are lucky some free weights but mostly old-school "all-in-one" machines that are lopsided and broken. Plus you'll get some Jock-Wannabe in there staring at your cleavage and/or bootie the entire working offering to "spot" you when you are on the treadmill. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about.

This is why I like to workout in my room. Plus it takes away the time excuse. Get up and everything you need is right in your room. I bring my Valslides with me whenever I travel, coupled with the kick butt Val Bands. I actually use Val Bands instead of Cathe bands when I do Butts N Guts- the Val Bands provide more resistance and don't break. Hello. 

I also have some resistance bands that are like 2 oz and fit nicely into any suitcase. So, I might not have free weights but I have a room, some great equipment that does all kind of good stuff, and no excuses.

To get your cardio going, think about all the options!! I bring 3-4 DVDs and play them on my laptop. This trip I brought a kickboxing one, sometimes I bring Cathe HIIT- and hello maybe P90x Plyo. Heck, say you forgot your DVD, go to YouTube- you'd be AMAZED how many full length workout videos you can find. I shared one of my favorite Taebo Boot camp videos - full hour length video is available free on YouTube. Go to YouTube and search ValSlides, you'll find all kinds of core, leg,  and functional moves from men and women that are using them daily. Plus once you've done some kind of HIIT or Plyo, you know that you can make up a routine in your room easy. Just go 20 or 30 seconds then rest, then 20 or 30 seconds and rest and so on. 

No Excuses. Working out in your room can be just as killer as how you workout at home. So, you miss some free weights for a few days. Man DID workout and get buff before free weights people. Go lift a rock or a dead body, it's all the same. 

hehehe

Gotta run. I will shoot some vlogs today - hopefully I can upload on this hotel high speed connection. Remember what happened last time. Took 4 hours. I'm not having that.

Have a kick butt day. 

For those of you that travel- how do you like to workout on the road?

No Excuses: "I Don't Have Money" and other BS.

Hey Kids. Today is part one of my impromptu series on "No Excuses" because frankly, I am getting to the point where I'm wanting to LAUGH when I hear the myriad excuses people offer for not getting healthy and fit. I will post on the many different lamea** reasons I hear over and over, and today I'm addressing the "Well, yea, if I was like Madonna/Demi Moore/Gwyneth Paltrow/Jennifer Garner and I had all the money in the world and a nutritionist and a personal trainer to get me out of bed every morning, I'D BE FIT TOO!!". 

My first response to these people is to first of all consider the following:

 

Hello. I could find about 200 more celebrity examples and I certainly know plenty of VERY WEALTHY individuals who also DON'T HAVE A JOB (i.e. husbands work while they, um, well, um....SIT a lot.) and are FAT. Also, please note, I am not in any way putting the pictures of Oprah or Kirstie up here to poke fun. I'm simply making a point, and both women have admitted very publicly their weight struggles. Both women have relatively unlimited funds and both have continually struggled with gaining weight.

I watched a few episodes of Kirstie's show on E (which to be honest I found rather disturbing, for myriad reasons) and I recall when she first hired a trainer. She has one of like 10 personal assistants that work for her come into her room to wake her up (apparently she needs more than an alarm clock) and she tells them, I don't want to get up, and they say, well your trainer is going to be here, and she's like, "tell him I don't feel well". 

Do you see the point? YOU HAVE TO WANT IT. And, at the end of the day, you have to DO THE WORK and you have TO EAT LESS. Sure, you can pay a crapload of $$$ to go to a private spa where you are locked in and someone watches every move you make. I'm sure if you did the Optifast thing like Oprah did and/or a spa getaway where everything was monitored, you could EASILY SURELY lose weight. And guess what, when you get back to real life?? 

It all comes back. And then some. Why? Because your mindset didn't change. You had someone diet FOR YOU. You had someone WORK YOU OUT. 

Get a clue people. Yes Madonna has personal trainers. Sure, Jennifer Garner works with a trainer. But have you noticed, these fit celebrities or people that you know IRL- they have a healthy approach to LIFE. They are active, they eat healthy, they appear to enjoy being active and healthy as opposed to being a glutton and indulging enough for 5 people.

If your body isn't as fit as you'd like, it's simple. YOU ARE EATING TOO MUCH AND NOT WORKING OUT ENOUGH.

End of story. Not having $$$ for a personal trainer or nutritionist or chef or a gym membership is a bunch of baloney. You don't need a gym- just ask:

• Craig Ballantyne, Turbulence Training
• Cathe Friedrich, www.cathe.com 
• Check out Collage Video for hundreds of workout DVDs that can be done at home with a minimally equipped home gym.
• Check out P90X or Insanity or TurboFire or anything from Chalene Johnson
• Check out Valerie Waters who trains Jen Garner but also has AMAZING kick butt workouts using 2-3 simple tools from YOUR HOME or hotel room! HELLO!!
• How about FREE? Go to YouTube and find thousands of free videos, there are full Taebo workouts that require no equipment and tons of body-weight exercises you can do. 

Check this out:

Taebo or kickboxing- no equipment. Can be done inside or outside. You just need clothes. Please.

Yoga and Pilates type workouts can be done in a studio or outside or inside. Again clothes are preferred.

There are about 2000000 different forms of crunches, sit-ups, pushups, and plank moves that can be done anywhere with no equipment. 

HELLOO. *Ahem*

Get your plank on. How about outside "equipment" like stairs?? Impromptu plyometrics and sprints is some killer cardio: no equipment or gym membership needed.

Wow look at this crazy person. She must have millions and some insider secret to know how to RUN.

Like I said- yoga has about 2 trillion poses that can be done anywhere.

Ok. I'm sorry, what other excuses about needing a ton of money to get fit can we discuss?? 

Anyone else answer this question a lot? Anyone disagree? 

Now go out there and get started on your new body. TODAY.

No Excuses.

Without a doubt, the #1 question I receive from men and women that want to get fit is, "How can I do it without any time/energy/motivation?"

I'm going to say this as emphatically as I can. THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSES FOR NOT GETTING YOUR BODY IN THE MOST OPTIMAL STATE OF FITNESS AND HEALTH. PERIOD. 

Understand this, if you are frustrated with where you are. Everything you need to lose weight and get healthy or healthier is RIGHT IN YOUR HANDS. You have all you need to get fit and that is YOUR BODY and YOUR WILL. That's it. You don't need special equipment, you don't need a gym membership, you don't need a personal trainer, you don't need a personal chef or dietitian, you don't need unlimited wealth, you don't need a babysitter, you don't need a special pill for motivation, you don't need a different job, I could go on and on.

What you need is an attitude check. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING THAT YOU SET YOUR MIND TO DO. 

Trust me when I say this, I've been in that state of frustration. I've been in a state where I thought there was nothing more I could do or fix or alter to make my results better. Guess what?? I was wrong.

If it is your career, your marriage/relationship or your body/mind, you have NO EXCUSES for not making it better if you aren't happy. Stop whining and start winning. 

Lately, I've had a lot of comments, emails or shouts on Facebook and Twitter saying, "Wow you travel all the time for work and you still workout!! How do you do it?"  Guess what? It isn't easy. It's a perpetual struggle to some degree to keep my GOALS in mind, to keep what I want to NOT BE in mind and give THOSE concepts more focus than my desire to be lazy and go to bed or hit a party or whatever......it's WORK. 

There is nothing worth having that is easy to achieve. (In my opinion.)

Decide what you want MORE. Do you want to sit around the rest of your life whining about how unfit you are, being jealous of others that ARE, that are enjoying their lives MORE, instead of getting off your duff and making some changes?? What will make you feel more proud of yourself? Working hard or being a lazy whiny bad-attitude jag??  ;-)

I'm going to start taking the excuses I hear one by one and doing a blog post on them here so I challenge any of you- give me some excuse (aside from being in a hospital situation or dead!) for not being able to get fit, or change your career, or improve a relationship or move on.....I guarantee you I can show you how to STOP SETTLING, STOP WHINING and START KICKING BUTT IN LIFE. 

Stay tuned. In the mean time, since I'm stuck in an airport and can't upload my vlog, enjoy some inspiration from Val Waugaman below. She rocks.