This Is Who I Am!

A new declaration from a new client, Kirsten:

"I am a toned, athletic, slim, happy person on the outside because this is who I am on the inside. This is what I believe and this is how I believe the world perceives me. This is who I am."

Sacrifices

I have a client who suffers from a certain condition. Because of her disease she needs to avoid caffeine and dairy which is hard for a girl who loves coffee with milk and cheese. She whined and complained and we talked about it a lot. I didn't tell her but because of how hard of a time she was having, I gave up caffeine and dairy as well. I felt so bad, how can I tell her to avoid something if I wasn't doing the same thing?

It's not easy to be healthy. You have to make sacrifices. But whenever you sacrifice, inherently you are gaining something. You are gaining your health back.

End Of May Results

End of May was full of great results for some, and a learning experience for a lot of new clients.

Some highlights:

Art lost 3lbs and 10% body fat.
Gavril lost 3lbs
Glenn lost 3 more pounds.
Ashley lost 2.4 more pounds
Simon lost 3.2
Kevin lost 5 (BRINGING HIS TOTAL TO 43LBS!)
Amanda lost 5lbs and 5% body fat.
Michelle lost 1lb
Whitney lost 3.6lbs
Angela lost 1lb
Laraine lost 3lbs and 3.4% body fat.
Anita lost 11.2lbs!!!


This month we ended up weighing in after a long weekend and holiday, Memorial Day. How much does a long weekend affect you when you are taking it easy on your diet?

Glenn had lost 6lbs on Friday, right before the weekend. On the following Tuesday he had gained 3 of those pounds back. Michelle had lost 5lbs on Thursday before Memorial. After Memorial she had gained 3 of those pounds back. Dana was down 3 more pounds on Friday, almost at her personal goal! By Tuesday she had gained 4lbs, so she was up a WHOLE pound.

Everyone had it rough this month, with people coming back from Hawaii, actually several people, Napa, and endless BBQs. Listen, it's never easy. It's tough. I know, I get it. Almost every one of my clients had much higher projected numbers the week before Memorial. They didn't think 3 days could make much of a difference. That's why I weighed them in after the long weekend. It's a hard lesson. I didn't have to share it with the internet but I did, it's a learning experience everyone can learn from. One bad weekend can ruin a months worth of work. Is it worth it? Actually let me answer that for you. NO!

To the clients who were able to overcome the weekend and get one step closer to the goal, it is even more admirable. There is nothing glamorous about how we get to our goals here at All Out Effort. We peck away at it. Kevin never had a crazy month where he lost 10lbs. He just pecked away at it every month, and never had one month where he gained any of his weight back. He still has a way to go, but when he said to me, "so probably for the next 20lbs, I have to go harder than the first 40 huh?" I nodded my head.

He already set his expectations, I didn't have to say anything to him. He gets it done and does it quietly. Believe it or not it's harder to lose weight slowly than quickly? What do I mean? A lot of people lose weight really quickly in the first 2 months. Maybe they are down 30lbs! After a year, they are back up plus 10 more pounds. Let's say we have another person who took a whole year to lose 40. So the person who lost it quickly after a year is up 10, the person who lost it slowly is down 40 and still going, little by little every month. It's not a race. In a race it's impossible to go backwards. In weight loss you can so it's not an accurate comparison. Weight loss is like any strategy game, its okay to gain territory inch by inch, the most important part is not to lose any ground that you've gained. That is the key to strategy and believe me there is strategy to weight loss.

Why Did You Start Your Sport?

My martial arts coach Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles who also happens to be a 4 time world champion in the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu made a great point to his athletes today. He talked about how athletes after an event will pig out and eat poorly, maybe drink, party, or any other series of unhealthy activities. And then he asked, why did you start the martial arts? I thought it was to become a winner, a better person, a stronger person, a healthier person? So why aren't you living your life like that? You dieted and got as healthy as possible, as soon as the event why would you start eating poorly now? Because you think you can? That's not how a champion thinks.

Same could be said for any athlete, runners, tennis players, basketball players, etc. Or maybe your friend who is an avid runner, trains and does marathons, yet eats poorly all the other times. Why did they get into their sport? Wasn't it to become healthy and active and do something else in their life other than being sedentary? Does this describe you? Weekend warrior, weekday health nut?

Not many of us can call ourselves a world champion, especially something as competitive as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I guess it's why many of us will never be a champion or a winner, because we only live healthy part time, or for an event. We aren't living healthy, we just try to live healthy enough. The thing I always hear from my people, "well you should see how my friends eat?"

I don't care how your friends eat. They aren't my clients.

Self Defense Clinic

The Sunday Self Defense Clinic was a huge success. Thanks for all the AOE clients and guests for coming out and sharing your Sunday with us. Everyone loves free!

Updating Files.

Been updating client files all week and going over progress with Coach Cindy. And will probably continue updating all weekend with their improvements and where they are and new stats. Looking over my notes from day one, they have grown so much in this time. Can't imagine them any other way now.

All The Ways We Hurt Our Back

Couldn't sleep last night. Coach Cindy and I were discussing a client who's back seemed to be regressing and we couldn't figure out why. I got up and looked up all the ways to try and improve her back. I was diving back into all my corrective exercise training, yoga tricks, FMS stuff, everything. And then I was getting ahead of myself. We are dealing with humans here who can communicate and sometimes we get so caught up in improving our clients and using our training, we forget that the client can talk. So I texted her and asked why one of our best athlete's back looks so weak lately?

She said she thinks she needs a new mattress. She's been meaning to get a new one... I asked if its old and squishy and sunken down in the middle. She said yes... If she notices problems with her back and thinks she needs a new bed, and her coaches notice something is up, I think it's time for a new bed. It's crazy how we would have tried all these therapies if we didn't just ask her what was going on. Sometimes solutions are simple. So if you've been meaning to get a new bed because it's hurting your back, go get one!

We can try to resolve any issue as much as we can, but if we don't remove the thing that's causing the issue in the first place, we become like everyone else, we treat the symptom. There's so many things out there for trainers to get certified in to deal with mobility issues and limitations and chronic pain. We forget that our best ally is common sense, curiosity, and dedication.

A lot of times its things like bad posture throughout the day, sitting at a desk, your shoes, the way you walk, holding your wallet in your back pocket, your purse, driving too much or how you have adjusted your seat (slightly leaning the seat back alleviates a lot of pressure), or your activities like golf, tennis, basketball, or even yoga. I know people think yoga is good for your back, and it can be. But a lot of it was never intended for people who had sedentary lives. You have to regress yoga back as much as you can, back injuries in yoga are quite common.

Fix your bad habits, then fix your back. And always be mindful of what you are doing before you play guessing games to what's going on with your back. Especially when you exercise, people think, oh the workout hurt my back. More often than not, back problems are a chronic issue, meaning it built up over time so it's something you did all the time and continue to do outside of training.

Even Former Clients Cannot Escape

Since I am friends with a majority of my clients on Facebook, even the former clients, I tend to check on them a lot. I saw a bit too many unhealthy food habits one former client was posting and had to send her a message to remind her of her original goals. Former shmormer. Once a client, always a client. Even if you no longer train with us, we are still ever vigilant! And maybe a bit obsessive as well...

Is More Exposure Better?

I always get contacted by random TV shows. This time a show on Bravo. I always turn them down. I hope one day though there will come an opportunity that will be uplifting and positive and not all sensational.

Approximately The Same Age

This picture might scare you. It's not that the person on the left is that sickly for her age. It's that the person on the right is very healthy for her age. Whenever I see people in their late 60s, to 70s, and 80s, who are no longer physically capable, I hear someone say, well that's normal for their age. Or they are just old...

It reminds me of my dad who's almost 90. Being diagnosed with cancer more than a year ago, he still seems in better health than most people 30 years younger.

Sometimes What We Call A Fast Metabolism

Is really IBS.

The Sum Of Training

Your training is more than the sum of one workout. Its the emails, the texts, the social media, the talks, the encouragements, the reminders, the accountability, listening to you whine, holding you up when you cry, answering all your questions, holding you accountable, always being there. The time spent not just on the lifts but time spent on mobility, correct form, and balance.

It may take 5-10 minutes to make people feel like vomiting. It could take up to half an hour to correct form or get people to memorize certain stretches or drills. But it's an investment that will pay off exponentially down the line.

There are people who have been working out all their lives but can't touch their toes, control their eating, control their emotions, or pull their own body weight.

Teaching Kids About Obesity

It starts with children.

The Riddle Of French Eating

This is an interesting topic. People who have been to France often wonder how the French (or actually all of Europe for that matter) can eat the way they do and for the most part stay so much leaner than Americans.

I didn't want to say lean overall because France has its problems with obesity as well. I think also as tourists, you spend more time in the nicer more affluent areas and the affluent areas of every country is skinnier than the rest.

With that said, the riddle lies in the fact that a lot of people, if they ate the same foods as their counterparts do in France, they would gain weight. Actually a lot of Americans eat very similarly to the French but gain weight doing this. There are several diet books about how to eat like a French person. Even when the French come to the US, they eat the same and begin to gain weight. So what gives?

Fortunately I have several French clients and have met a lot of French immigrants in different social circles. So I decided to ask them. So what gives? How come you can eat so much pastry and sweets and be skinnier than the Americans? I could say the same about Italians in Italy compared to Italians in the US.

They all stop to think about this then they gave some answers. There is no one thing, it's not simple black and white but they gave some of their own impressions.

1. Spend more time outside. From eating to walking to going out on dates, they spend more time outside. This is good for hormones that regulate weight, you don't eat the same way outside, and being outside means you are more active. Something New Yorkers also have over Angelenos.

2. Eat slower. I don't know if Europeans eat that much slower or Americans eat fast, but even compared to Asians, Americans eat fast. And in Europe it is normal to sit and eat for hours in a restaurant, and the server won't give you any dirty looks.

3. Quality, they have better ingredients. It's why a lot of native cultures who cook the same foods, once they start to use the cheaper American brands, they begin to gain weight. It's often why Europeans also shop more often at farmer's markets. One of my good Russian friends said, the first thing his family complained about when they came to the US was the taste of produce. One of my doctor clients who is also an online health expert said, if you ever want to see where they have the best, freshest, and most organic produce is, follow where all the old European ladies go.

4. In France they eat French food. In the US, we eat... Actually no one really knows what American food is. In Japan they eat Japanese food. In India, they eat Indian. In the US, it's a free for all. Eating the most popular and most fattening foods of all the different cultures. And of course the fast food versions of every culture. Its why people from other countries gain weight in the US. They want to try all the different foods because in their home country, they ate at home or ate their own regional foods that they were used to.

5. Because obesity isn't as common, when they notice weight gain, they are much more quick to act on it.

6. This was their main answer and most common one: Don't have so much corn, soy, hormones, and GMO in their foods. Basically Americans don't really eat food. They eat things that represent food, things that are present as food, the promise of food, whether if its bread or ground meat, but often times its mostly corn or soy.

It will be interesting to see if we learn from the Europeans or they learn from the Americans. Everyone wants convenience. Including food to be convenient. No one does convenient food better than the US. It is also our chief export.

Note: A reader pointed out that smoking is much more common in France and in Europe. If true, this could also factor in, but will of course lead to other health problems.

About the Author:

Coach Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Coach, Certified Nutritionist, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook and Pinterests.

Strength Gains

People have all kinds of notions about how to get stronger. A lot of it is based around getting bigger to get stronger. Then you are dealing with absolute strength, being as strong as possible at any size. And you can only get so big, then at some point you still have to be strong for your size. Which we call relative strength. Strength relative to your size.

I had an athlete come to me a few months ago. Coming off a serious knee and neck injury, he was very weak, but his sport demanded he was strong.

His sport was BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). In that particular sport, there are weight divisions, so there is no reason to try to get this athlete bigger. Actually that would be a bad thing. You need this athlete as strong as possible for his size. He walked around at 135.

We had to start slow. The strength training should not hinder the athlete's ability to train his sport, which is often forgotten. So he needs to get stronger without getting fatigued or sore for his later afternoon sessions. Especially if the athlete is training twice a day in his sport and once a day in strength.

So we made it really simple. We broke it down to 15 minutes of strength a day every day 7 days a week. Working out like this will never get you huge but it will set personal records in lifts. We also took 5 lifts that would be most essential to his sport, and worked on strengthening only those 5 lifts. Trying to set PR (personal record) in each lift over a 40 day span. Pavel Tsatsouline and Dan John call this Easy Strength. Building strength in an easy manner, slowly, and over time so as to not traumatize the body and also not hinder athlete's skill sets in their sport. This athlete had never lifted before so it would be a waste of time trying to have him do circus type work outs that he would not benefit from. Simple and easy.

The 5 lifts were: The press, deadlift, pull up, goblet squat, and the clean.

Doing it every day for 40 days. Took around 15 minutes a day. Easy. And it was. This is also weight that the athlete should be able to do with minimal warm up. Not his maximum or his best effort. Something he could lift at any moment. The idea was to increase his normal lifts to increase overall strength.

Day 1 numbers:

The press: 2 25lb kb (kettlebells) 3 sets of 3
Deadlift:  60lb 3x3
Pull up: 4 first set. 3 second set. 3 last set. (note this was done all the way down to deadhang, and no sway was allowed or it was considered performance failure. Tough)
KB front squat: 2 30lb kb 3 sets of 3
Clean: 45lb 3x3

Day 1 was really easy, actually the athlete thought too easy. Doing the same work out again day 2, kind of tough. Day 7, a bit of soreness because there was no off day. By day 9 we were ready to increase squats to 5 reps 2 sets.

It was hard to increase more than one lift at a time because it was too taxing for the body. We started everything with 3x3, then 5x2, then 10x1. When they could do 10 reps in 1 set, it was time to make things heavier. Never totaling more than 10 reps total.

Overtime we switched the squats to pistols and the kb press to dumbbell presses to keep up with his gains without having to stack so much weight on top of the athlete.

Towards the last 20 days, something was going up almost every day.

By day 40:

The press: 2 35lb db (dumbbell) 10x1
Deadlift:  135lbs 10x1
Pull up: 10 reps. (Pull ups are historically the hardest to increase)
Pistol: (5x2)x2 (took a while to increase range of motion to sit down all the way to the heel)
Clean: 75lbs 10x1

He could easily do more than this, but these are lifts he could now do with no warm up, anytime, easily. If he was trying to set a max, the numbers would be much higher. He would also not be able to train for a week. Also looking at where he started to where he ended, its some pretty insane increases in a short span.

Increasing strength also increases his endurance in his sport because he exerts himself less doing any of the sportive movements. Which means he can conserve more energy. Training cardio isn't the only way to increase endurance. If you have an athlete who is really weak but has strong cardio, he will still tire out and exert himself because he has to use create that much more effort to make up for his lack of strength.

Cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory strength is created in the sport. No strength training move can mimic the type of cardio an athlete needs. The strength training CAN increase overall strength and condition the athletes muscles to conserve more energy by exerting less by increase overall potential. The idea is strength and conditioning, not cardio and sport mimicry.

Do You Eat Bones?

I get some of the weirdest questions when I tell people that I try to eat like our ancestors. Like how we were evolved to eat. Especially when its from people who have never heard of this type of eating and if they haven't heard of it yet, it must not be popular. "So uhhh does that mean you only eat meat?", "Does that mean you eat only bones","Do you eat the insides of bones?","Do you only eat raw meat?", "Do you only eat meat that you kill?"

Food has become like dogma. You can't bring up food and a different way of eating without making people defensive. It's emotional. Eating like our ancestors and how we were evolved to eat, is the opposite of dogma. It's running towards science. In science you have no loyalty, you only run towards the truth. Eating this way is against everything most people are taught and believe in. But its what anthropologists, doctors, nutritionists, and even statisticians are coming to. The thing raw vegans, juicers, and paleo people have in common is that they all avoid grains and don't eat things with added sugar or corn based sugars. Even Weightwatchers to Lindora and almost every weight loss center has been turning away from calorie counting and moving towards how our body really absorbs food.

One thing this does say though, questions like the ones posed above does give you an idea of what people think our ancestors ate. Which is meat (which isn't the complete truth, they mostly ate vegetation and meat when they could get it and so most of my diet is also vegetables). One of the people asking me these questions was a vegan. Which makes me wonder, if even he thought that our ancestors ate meat and we evolved doing so, what is so natural about avoiding meat?

And to answer the question, yes I eat bone. But that's only because I am Korean and that is common in the culture.

What I Heard During Brunch

Sitting for brunch with my wife, overheard two budding actors talking about their personal trainers and what machines they put them on. This machine for their chest, that machine for their quads. I looked over at them to see if they were in wheel chairs and wondered why they train so much as if they were physically incapable? Machines serve two purposes. Because you have some physical limitation, or you are a body builder.

Laraine's Lunch

Arthur's First Attempt At Cooking

I have no comment...

AOE Dinner 2

Another client dinner. This time from Simon.

Seared ahi, cucumber salad, lemons. They are becoming fine chefs!

Anita's Journey

Anita has written a lovely review about her journey at All Out Effort. The thing about these reviews are, they aren't really reviewing me. They are talking about the person they see themselves becoming. They are really talking about themselves.

So for you YELPERS, please take a moment and leave a comment and UFC this review from one of my hardest working clients and let her know she is not in this alone. http://www.yelp.com/biz/all-out-effort-sam-y-personal-training-los-angeles#hrid:mYg1Zpk1j-aIa5RKyfUhlw

"Although I've been active (hs sports, running, kickboxing, etc), I have been overweight most of my life...and in self denial. I figured, "Hey I am exercising so I must be healthy, right?" Wrong! What woke me up was my doctor informed me I was prediabetic. If I didn't stop what I was doing, I was going to be diabetic. My grandmother passed away from complications of diabetes in her 50's so she never met any of her grandchildren. I want be able to see and actively play with my own grandchildren.

Around the same time, my uncle started to suffer from Parkinson's. While it's a neurological disorder, his lifestyle didn't help him nor does it help him now. Research has shown that diet and exercise can help slow the symptoms. My uncle is in a downward spiral as he continues to avoid exercise and to eat greasy fatty fried foods. He's thin but he constantly complains about his inability to walk upright, painful muscle spasms, insomnia, and incontinence. If you don't help yourself, no one can help you.

That was the last straw. I needed a personal trainer. I want to avoid any type of pill popping to stay alive. If I do not change, my life will be full of doctor visits, suffering, and constant worry. Who the hell wants that?

I saw Sam as a last resort to weight loss. Sam was not kidding when he says, "Wake up at 5 AM. Change lives at 6 AM." Sam has changed my life.
Sam is not the type of trainer who will scream in your face and work you out until you collapse. He is the methodical Sherpa on your climb up the Mount Everest of refined and processed foods, bad habits, and improper form. Sam heavily focuses on proper form and moving along at a comfortable pace to avoid injury. When I experience back pain, Sam is cognizant of the pain and does his best not to aggravate it during our sessions. He has taught me exercises which eased the pain and went easier on me when my back was acting up.
However, Sam is NOT a softie. When my form is bad, he corrected me. I was flustered because I was in bad form and Sam was doing his best to correct it. When I texted him the food I knew wasn't apart of the diet, I cringed because he is stern. No matter how much I want to reach through my phone and punch him in the face for telling me no corn, I can not argue with him because of his knowledge. His stern presence has kept me accountable. I started to see Sam at the beginning of April and I have lost 10 lbs in less than 2 months. I am very optimistic I will lose more.

Many people make the mistake of hiring a trainer at the globo gym or via groupon/social living. It is cheaper and maybe more convenient. What people don't realize is the quality they are missing with a quality personal trainer like Sam. Not only is he knowledgeable and constantly sharing information with everyone, he is personally invested in you as a person...and not some paycheck. I know if i texted him that I ate cheese right now, he would instantly give me hell for eating it.

If you're pussyfooting around about contacting Sam, don't hem and haw. Hemming and hawing is for the weak. Just do it."

Politics And The 1%

When people talk to me about the obesity epidemic and weight loss, from the most liberal to the most conservative, as long as they themselves are not obese, they will say things like: "It's so easy, they just need to run more. Running is free." Or, "they just need to eat less, they don't need to go on any special diet, they should just eat less and in moderation."

These same people would never agree on any issue, nothing is bipartisan. Yet somehow convenience seems to be the only thing they can agree on. If this is the typical thinking of either sides, we have problems.

Both sides will talk about the rich elite, and the wealth not spreading. WELL THE RICH ELITE ARE ALSO THE FIT ELITE. This is a problem. Fitness and health should be something anyone should be able to own, whether you are rich or poor, liberal or conservative.

Someone on Facebook asked me to elaborate. So here is what I posted:

"Weight is a loaded issue. It's not easy for people. I know because I work with people all day with their weight goals. I try to convince them of healthy eating all that I can. They go home and see the TV with all the ads. They go on the internet and see all the ads. But the most influential? They go on social media. See tons of pics of what their friends are eating, and what's their friends advice? You can still eat it, just don't eat so much. Or just go run. Bam you're all good.

Or someone tries to have an intervention with a loved one because they let their health go. But why should they listen to that person when the same person bragged about all the food they ate the last time they had a conversation? Or saw all the pictures or posts of foods that person posted? Why would they listen to this person when they see that they are eating the same and are healthy? So they convince themselves they can be overweight and healthy as long as they run. Or that being overweight doesn't also mean unhealthy. This is some of the psychology that makes it difficult.

Onto the easy suggestions. Let's say you are stressed. We all are. Your body can't tell physical stress from mental. So when you have mental stress, you feel it physically and vice vera. Now you run, you run every day for an hour. Maybe you lose weight. But a lot of people don't. Instead the body is clever and adapts, instead of making the body smaller, it just makes the heart bigger. Now you have large stroke volume for the heart (which incidentally is why so many runners die of heart attacks or strokes). Other issue, running for a long time puts a lot of physical stress on your body. Like I said your body doesn't know the difference between physical and mental. So it releases cortisol and breaksdown testosterone. Now after running you are famished, and you would now eat more than if you hadn't run at all. You are stress eating from running. And because of stress, estrogen, cortisol, you will store more of it as fat (if I go into the science of this, it will take way too long).

As far as eating less or moderation. Did you know that believe it or not in our history doctors said smoking is good to relief stress, just smoke in moderation. Ice cream a great appetite suppresent. Eat it in moderation. Moderation is not the key, eating less of something bad will not solve the issue. It just makes it less bad, doesn't make it good. We compartmentalize as human beings. We agree to be logical about everything yet we will put certain issues in a compartment where we willingly tell ourselves we will not be rational about it. Sometimes its religion. For most people it's health. So it is completely scientific to say a monkey's diet is this or that, they are only meant to eat this. They are designed to eat this way. Actually you can say that about any animal. Except of course for human beings. Because you have feelings involved. People hate when you say, we should eat this way or are designed to eat that way. They respond, everyones different. Everyone has a right way to eat based on them. Yes there are unique cases based on disease, genetics, etc. But for most of us it should be similar. But this annoys people. Their is no one right way to eat! Just eat in moderation! 

The truth is, a balance diet, moderate diet, to extreme diets are all on the same continuum. What is really important is whats the most efficient diet for a human being? What were they meant to digest? Is efficiency different from person to person or do we all have one stomach, a large and small intestine, molars to chew, vascular system, etc. There are homeless people, and all they do is eat in moderation. Its crap but very little of it, and in LA you will find a lot of obese homeless people. During the depression there were obese children, they didn't eat a lot, all they ate was cheese, bread, and soup. Yes if you don't eat enough of even crap, you will emaciate away and die. But famine isn't most of our problem."

Typical Client Lunch

This is from Rebecca. She's getting married in a few days but she's still holding tight to her new eating style. Mushrooms, cooked beef, asparagus, olive oil, and salad! Protein, natural carbs, healthy fats! No salt.

AOE Breakfast

A photo of one of our client's breakfast. Eggs. Turkey bacon. Green tea. Hold the toast.

The Busier You Get The More In Pain You Are?

I asked a friend how his business was doing. He said great. Never been busier. He also told me he was playing softball and hurt his back...

The normal logic here would be to keep working, and stop playing softball or tell yourself you are getting too old and don't have the same spring in your step and need to be careful of physical activity.

His business is mortgages, the busier he gets the more he sits at his desk making calls, answering emails, or just general hunched over looking at paper work.

I told him softball didn't hurt his back. It's all the desk work he's been doing that hurt his back. Softball just triggered it. Get up from your desk and move around, get a headset and talk while pacing!

He agreed with my assessment.

A Typical Dinner For An AOE Athlete

The typical dinner of one of our clients. I look through hundreds of pictures a day of things my clients eat. It's not easy but the results have spoken for themselves.

Weight Of The Nation

Free to view online:

http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films

Another Kettlebell Winner From AOE

Keep that wrist straight Dan!

Lifestyle Change

Talk about lifestyle change. One of our clients who is a busy CEO of a huge company, actually installed a treadmill desk! Way to put health first and being sedentary last!

Personal Training Is Only For The Rich?

Some people think only the rich can afford personal training. This is far from the truth. At AOE there are people from all walks of life and lifestyles. In fact the only times we have had problems with delinquent accounts have been with our wealthiest clients.

It becomes more about priority. How important is your health, how far have you allowed your health to lapse? How much does it cost you to be in poor health? How much does it cost your family and employer?

How much of a priority is it to fall in love with yourself?

Poor Posture

With poor posture can come up to 42lbs of forward pressure from leverage onto the back of your neck. A lot of times weight isn't the main reason people feel discomfort, it may be a posture/muscle imbalance issue. You need to get it assessed and corrected for any fitness program to work optimally.

Do You Offer Bootcamps?

We always get e-mails asking if we offer bootcamps or group classes. This is our usual response:

Because of our training model, and due to the main goal of our business to be based on quality and effectiveness, we do not offer bootcamps or classes or any group training period (we did them early on but found they weren't effective in helping people reach and keep their goals and it discouraged people with injuries).

So because of the decrease in quality, when we do group classes, we offer it to our current clients for free.

As entrepreneurs we don't make as much money doing this, but keeping it individualized gives us the most reward and results. If one day we can figure out how to offer a group class model without sacrificing quality, we will be sure to do it. Until then it's all one on one and all out effort.

Workouts Make You Hungry?

Notice how sometimes you workout and it makes you really hungry? And then do you notice how sometimes you may workout differently and you're not hungry at all? What did you do different?

Mimic the workouts that didn't make you so hungry.

Epic Pizza

AOE Filming A UFC Parody

AOE Free Sunday Training

What Is The Best Trainer

A trainer friend and I were having a discussion about training. I asked him a while back, what's the difference between a trainer who wants to get rich, a trainer who wants to help, and the best trainer? 

He said he's been thinking about that a lot and had been trying to figure it out.

The trainers who wants to get rich will do all the things that will get them rich. Market, get people in, take lots of pictures, make themselves look as good as possible because it sells. A good looking fit trainer will do exponentially better than one who doesn't look that way. It will also show in the client experience what they are about as well. Cancel sessions to pursue other opportunities, show up late, not stay up to date or be educated with science at all. Training just a tool to get money. A widget, a gimmick, and they are just a good salesman and/or spokes model for a widget. Whenever I talk to trainers like these, we end up only talking about how to get more clients and maximize money.

The trainer who wants to help, may be overly educated. Know everything about fitness and the human body. I have trainer friends who wouldn't know what periodization was from a piriformis. But I have a few, okay one trainer friend who reads every sports science book out there. But why are they not the best? They may over talk or try only to talk to the smartest person in the room, to help a lot of people, they need to get in front of a lot of people. If you spend all your time at clinics and in front of books but aren't doing your job getting people in the door, you aren't going to be the best. Whenever I get into a conversation with this type of trainer, we end up talking just science, the best way to rehabilitate a knee that has a torn LCL, the effectiveness of self myofascial release, etc.

The best is someone who does all the right things. Keeps up to date but can explain everything simply. Wants to help people and doesn't fret over money as long as the quality training experience is there. They also make sure they are accessible to people, and their information is easy to find. And ultimately that they are passionate, and if you are passionate there should be a buzz around you. We end up talking about how we can spread our message. Because we have one.


About the Author:

Coach Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Coach, Certified Nutritionist, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook and Pinterests.

50 Body Weight Exercises And Dumbbell Exercises

Source: http://greatist.com/fitness/50-bodyweight-exercises-you-can-do-anywhere-030612/

Who needs a gym when there’s the living room floor? Bodyweight exercises are a simple, effective way to improve balance, flexibility, and strength without machinery or extra equipment. From legs and shoulders to chest and abs, we’ve covered every part of the body that can get stronger with body resistance alone.

Full Body

1. Inchworm:
2. Tuck Jump
3. Bear Crawl
4. Plyometric Push-Up
5. Stair Climb with Bicep
6. Mountain Climber
7. Prone Walkout
8. Burpees
9. Plank
10. Plank-to-Push-Up

Legs

11. Wall Sit
12. Lunge
13. Clock Lunge
14. Lunge-to-Row
15. Lunge Jump
16. Curtsy Lunge
17. Squat
18. Pistol Squat
19. Squat Reach and Jump
20. Chair Squat Pose
21. Step-Up
22. Single Leg Deadlift
23. Quadruped Leg Lift
24. Calf Raise

Chest & Back

25. Standard Push-Up
26. Dolphin Push-Up
27. Donkey Kick
28. Handstand Push-Up
29. Judo Push-up
30. Reverse Fly
31. Superman
32. Contralateral Limb Raises

Shoulders & Arms

33. Triceps Dip
34. Diamond Push-Up
35. Boxer
36. Shoulder Stabilization Series (I, Y, T, W O)
37. Arm Circles

Core

38. L Seat
39. Rotational Push-Up
40. Dynamic Prone Plank
41. Flutter Kick
42. Bicycle
43. Crunch
44. Segmental Rotation
45. Shoulder Bridge
46. Single Leg Abdominal Press
47. Double Leg Abdominal Press
48. Side Plank
49. Sprinter Sit-Up
50. Russian Twist

How to Shed Those Love Handles

From one of our featured writers:

Summer is inching closer and so is the time of year when people are showing a little more skin. Like many people, you may be interested in losing those love handles. While this is one of the more challenging areas of the body to lose fat, it can be accomplished by developing healthy lifestyle habits. Here are some guidelines on how to shed those love handles:

• Diet The old adage "you are what you eat" is quite true. The quantity and quality of food that you eat is reflected in your physical appearance. Cut your calories by eating only what is necessary. Eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. Reduce your alcohol intake. Cut your sodium intake. Drink plenty of water.
• Exercise The great thing about exercise is that one can achieve noticeable improvement with even as little as 20 minutes per day. There are several exercises that are very good for helping to get rid of love handles. These include crunches, dumbbell side bends, and back exercises. Also, you can build up your upper body and create a "V" shape with your body as a whole. This helps give the illusion of a smaller midsection. It is also important to burn off calories with cardiovascular exercise.
• Guidance If you are looking for some extra guidance in your exercise regimen, you might want to consult your doctor and consider hiring a fitness trainer. You can also take it a step further with education and training in a fitness training degree program, particularly if you are very passionate about fitness.
• Healthy Mind Your mental behavior has an impact on your physical appearance. Develop a positive mindset to give you the confidence and willpower to maintain healthy lifestyle habits. The body often responds to stress by storing fat in the body. Incorporating stress reduction techniques, such as meditation, deep breathing, or yoga into your daily routine will help offset this.

A lot of people try to focus their efforts on achieving a perfectly toned midsection. This is a great goal to have, especially if this is what keep you motivated. However, just remember that overall health and wellness is much more important and effective than spot training.

Sources

WebMD (2012)
AskMen (2012)

Dangers Of Not Moving

Sedentary life may lead to more blood sugar spikes and moving more regulates blood sugar.

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/why-its-so-important-to-keep-moving/

Hoping to learn more about how inactivity affects disease risk, researchers at the University of Missouri recently persuaded a group of healthy, active young adults to stop moving around so much. Scientists have known for some time that sedentary people are at increased risk of developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. But they haven’t fully understood why, in part because studying the effects of sedentary behavior isn’t easy. People who are inactive may also be obese, eat poorly or face other lifestyle or metabolic issues that make it impossible to tease out the specific role that inactivity, on its own, plays in ill health.

So, to combat the problem, researchers lately have embraced a novel approach to studying the effects of inactivity. They’ve imposed the condition on people who otherwise would be out happily exercising and moving about, in some cases by sentencing them to bed rest.

But in the current study, which was published this month in Medicine; Science in Sports; Exercise, the scientists created a more realistic version of inactivity by having their volunteers cut the number of steps they took each day by at least half.

They wanted to determine whether this physical languor would affect the body’s ability to control blood sugar levels. “It’s increasingly clear that blood sugar spikes, especially after a meal, are bad for you,” says John P. Thyfault, an associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri, who conducted the study with his graduate student Catherine R. Mikus and others. “Spikes and swings in blood sugar after meals have been linked to the development of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.”

So the scientists fitted their volunteers with sophisticated glucose monitoring devices, which checked their blood sugar levels continuously throughout the day. They also gave the subjects pedometers and activity-measuring armbands, to track how many steps they took. Finally, they asked the volunteers to keep detailed food diaries.

Then they told them to just live normally for three days, walking and exercising as usual.

Exercise guidelines from the American Heart Association and other groups recommend that, for health purposes, people accumulate 10,000 steps or more a day, the equivalent of about five miles of walking. Few people do, however. Repeated studies of American adults have shown that a majority take fewer than 5,000 steps per day.

The Missouri volunteers were atypical in that regard. Each exercised 30 minutes or so most days and easily completed more than 10,000 daily steps during the first three days of the experiment. The average was almost 13,000 steps.

During these three days, according to data from their glucose monitors, the volunteers’ blood sugar did not spike after they ate.

But that estimable condition changed during the second portion of the experiment, when the volunteers were told to cut back on activity so that their step counts would fall below 5,000 a day for the next three days. Achieving such indolence was easy enough. The volunteers stopped exercising and, at every opportunity, took the elevator, not the stairs, or had lunch delivered, instead of strolling to a cafe. They became, essentially, typical American adults.

Their average step counts fell to barely 4,300 during the three days, and the volunteers reported that they now “exercised,” on average, about three minutes a day.

Meanwhile, they ate exactly the same meals and snacks as they had in the preceding three days, so that any changes in blood sugar levels would not be a result of eating fattier or sweeter meals than before.

And there were changes. During the three days of inactivity, volunteers’ blood sugar levels spiked significantly after meals, with the peaks increasing by about 26 percent compared with when the volunteers were exercising and moving more. What’s more, the peaks grew slightly with each successive day.

This change in blood sugar control after meals “occurred well before we could see any changes in fitness or adiposity,” or fat buildup, due to the reduced activity, Dr. Thyfault says. So the blood sugar swings would seem to be a result, directly, of the volunteers not moving much.

Which is both distressing and encouraging news. “People immediately think, ‘So what happens if I get hurt or really busy, or for some other reason just can’t work out for awhile?’” Dr. Thyfault says. “The answer seems to be that it shouldn’t be a big problem.” Studies in both humans and animals have found that blood sugar regulation quickly returns to normal once activity resumes.

The spikes during inactivity are natural, after all, even inevitable, given that unused muscles need less fuel and so draw less sugar from the blood.

The condition becomes a serious concern, Dr. Thyfault says, only when inactivity is lingering, when it becomes the body’s default condition. “We hypothesize that, over time, inactivity creates the physiological conditions that produce chronic disease,” like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, regardless of a person’s weight or diet.

To avoid that fate, he says, keep moving, even if in small doses. “When I’m really busy, I make sure to get up and walk around the office or jog in place every hour or so,” he says. Wear a pedometer if it will nudge you to move more. “You don’t have to run marathons,” he says. “But the evidence is clear that you do need to move.”

People Love To Pay For Training Like This

I know so many people who pay for stuff like this. Because they feel this is "authentic." Not realizing this is not authentic, they are just being made fun of. There are plenty of people out there who want to hire a trainer who treats them like dirt or yells at them.

Silly yuppies.

At All Out Effort, we treat adults like adults. Don't yell at us and we won't yell at you.

Dream It, Believe It

If you plan to dream, you might as well dream BIG. Whether it's a fitness goal or a life goal. Go for it with all out effort.

It's You Vs. You

Getting A Hug

Getting a hug nowadays is a really hard workout! Now if this kid isn't using All Out Effort I don't know All Out Effort means.

Free Training Sunday

Free training this Sunday - For current clients only.

I started by business by giving free training to people, purely out of altruism. And since then I've been doing it sporadically ever since. But now due to time constraints and liability, it is closed off only to my current clients.

The Zombie Diet

The newest and greatest diet on the market!

Created by Master Coach and Trainer Sam Y.

In 3 simple steps!!!

1. Get bitten by a zombie.
2. Run away before you are devoured.
3. Wait for the magic to happen.

The Benefits!!!

• Eat whatever you want and as much as you want and NOT GAIN A POUND!
• You no longer have to worry about eating too late at night!
• Superhuman cardio!
• Haven't been able to run in years because of bad knees? No problem!
• Have asthma? No problem.
• Diabetic? Pre-diabetic? Cholesterol? On statins? Blood pressure?
• The Zombie Diet can cure all known illnesses and diseases.

AND as an added bonus!!!

Never use the bathroom again!

For a limited time to new customers, get the secrets of The Zombie Diet for $49.99. Thought lost for years but finally revealed. Deep from the jungles of the Amazon. Learn the secrets of the Mayans. First 50 customers get new eye cream, get rid of those dark circles under your eyes!

(A lot of diets/workout plans make false promises like these. Remember only a zombie can eat whatever they want as much as they want and not gain weight. The rest of us in the land of the living need diligence.)

Happy Mother's Day

Because it's Mother's Day tomorrow I wanted to share a video and a story. Rebecca and Tiffany have only been training with me for a short time. It was actually Rebecca who contacted to lose a few pounds before her wedding. When she arrived for her consultation, she brought her mother Tiffany. In speaking with them and doing screens, it was easy to see that it was Tiffany who needed the training more than Rebecca did.

She had a surgery done more than 10 years ago, that led to other complications, and more surgeries. Someone who had always felt strong, now was weak. She had muscle atrophy in her legs. Back pain. And to make matters worse she was beginning to lose her vision.

So I told Rebecca I would only train her if her mother trained with her as well. That was about 2 months ago. A lot can change in a short time if you are driven. They 're both lucky to have one another. They bicker like everyone else, but nothing brings a family together like the Turkish Get Up.



They're probably my easiest clients to train. I tell them, "do this." And they say, "ummm (hessitation, hessitation, trust) okay..."

Read Rebecca's Yelp Review for her version of the experience.

Cheers,

Coach Sam Y.
Founder, All Out Effort

Heart Attack Grill Owner A Former Nutritionist

World famous Heart Attack Grill where several people have died or been sent to the emergency room while eating there. The employees there are dressed as doctors and nurses, and items there are named Triple Bypass or Quadruple Bypass Burger. And if you are over 350lbs, you eat for free. Jon Basso, the creator of The Heart Attack Grill, is a former nutritionist and used to run a Jenny Craig...

So what happened? Was it more lucrative to make people worse than to make people better? Did he feel like we were doomed anyway so cash in?

It's frightening that his fame came not from helping people find their health, his popularity came in destroying people's health and glorifying it. But he's not the problem. We are.

Walking: The Other Half Of The Story

People think walking is so beneficial because you are moving and we are meant to move. People even wear pedometers to walk more. Yes the activity of walking is great! But there's another reason why walking is great:...

Because there are plenty of Americans who walk on treadmills, do hours of cardio, work in a warehouse, who don't have the same health benefits as those countries we keep listing as countries that walk more than us.

How often do you hear, oh New Yorkers are skinnier than people in LA because they walk more. Or Europeans are skinnier because they walk more. That's part of it. The other part is, New Yorkers compared to Angelenos also spend more time outdoors! Also the same with Europeans. Yes activity, moving, walking is good. But so is being outside!

Every culture known for a long life is known for spending great amounts of time outside. New York has a lot of parks, and one gigantic one in the heart of the city. Japan has a lot of parks, and nature walks are almost religion there. Europeans walk, eat, ride bikes, meet people, all outside. It's no coincidence that in documentaries when they interview all the obese people it's in their homes. Fit people are interviewed outside.

Being outside, especially in nature lowers stress. Stress makes us want to eat more, and makes us store fat! It increases our immune system. Increases mental acuity. Lowers blood pressure. And according to several Japanese studies, it improves all levels of overall health! Just from being outside. And being outside leads to more activity anyhow.

Next time you feel stressed, maybe your body isn't telling you that you need a snack. Maybe it's telling you that you need to take a break from the activity that is stressing you out. And instead of a snack, what you really need is fresh air. Half the reason smoking is so relaxing and stress relieving is, you have to do it outside, and you have to take deep breaths. It's why people who don't smoke will sometimes go outside with their smoking friends to take a break with them. Because it feels good to be outside and relax!

Let me repeat again. GO OUTSIDE. YOU WILL LIKE IT.

Bad Trainer Rant

A guest post from Steven who lives in Orange County. He's had a personal trainer in the past so it's interesting to see the observations of personal training from someone who's been through it. You can still hear the frustration in his voice of his own past experience with his previous personal trainer:

"At the gym today, I saw a new trainer training a new guy. He was an older guy, very tall and quite a bit overweight. She was young and skinny.

They caught my attention because the guy was noticeably fatigued and rather loud in voicing his irritability. He sighed deeply whenever he was told to do another exercise. Now that didn't surprise me, because being trained is tough and for new people, it can be an emotional adjustment.

What surprised me was the trainer. Normally the trainers at the small private gym I attend are very professional and excellent. This trainer however, seemed to be in a bad mood herself. She was curt to her client, barked out her directions, and would walk away frequently after he started. When he complained about being fatigued, she didn't say much, and just kept telling him what to do.

Now I'm not a trainer, and I don't know the whole story here, but I felt uncomfortable watching them interact and I felt sympathetic to both of them, because it was clear they BOTH didn't want to be there.

Having being trained before, I understand what it's like to not want to be trained. I haven't been a trainer, but I feel like, as a client, if I am paying you to train me, I would like you to at least pretend like you want to be there. Preferably, I would want you to actually want to be there. Now I'm not advocating a trainer should be a therapist or a friend, not at all. I simply would like them to be present for each exercise, each repetition, like the client is suppose to do. Be there physically, but most importantly, be there with them on that emotional level, to provide them with the encouragement they need and quite frankly, are paying you high hourly rate, for. I would want my trainer to like this.

I feel like this relationship can't really be taught in a classroom or a book, I think it has to be shown in person, by a great trainer who understands this, who can mentor and teach trainers how to treat their clients like this, like an apprenticeship.

I believe much of All Out Effort's success can be attributed to having an owner who truly understands what it is to care for their clients."

Why Couldn't This Be Reality?

Processed Carb Nation

One of my oldest, dearest, and smartest friends and Steve and I had a discussion about processed carbs. He is a librarian by trade and now works in the gaming industry. Here is what he said:

"To abandon breads is to abandon civilization. Poor health is the price we pay to nature. For giving us cities, literature, culture, and art!"

And it is true. If the rulers couldn't find a cheap way to feed labor, how would they have ever fed the slaves to build their monuments?

How Come My Friend Can Eat Whatever They Want?

Brad asked: How come there are people like Floyd Mayweather and Michael Phelps who can eat whatever they want and still be so fit?

My response: It's the same question people ask about their friends. How come whenever I go eat with my friend, they eat a whole lot, as much as, if not more than I do and they don't gain any weight? I've had several clients ask me this. My response. What did you eat when you were alone? Sometimes the answer is, when I am bored or by myself I eat really bad. Hence they they sought out training in the first place. What does your friend eat when they are alone? You have no idea.

If you see your friend eating only when you are out eating with them, how often do you go out to eat? The amount of times ranges but usually it's too often. How many times do they go out and eat? You only know about the times when you were there. You have no idea if they go out and eat other times if at all.

So you think because when they are around you, they must eat like that all the time. What you do know is that you have no idea what they eat or how much they eat when you are not around. So how do you really know they eat all this food and not gain weight? You don't know anything about their eating habits. I don't know anything about the eating habits of my own clients and neither do they until they begin to log it. So how would you know your friends? It's just you trying to sound like a victim.

When I go out and eat, its an occasion because I don't go out and eat that often. And when people see how much I eat, they think, boy Sam you are blessed with that lucky fast metabolism. They have no idea I eat out half as much as they do, and when I am alone I never pig out. That's a huge difference. If you and your friend both pig out when you go out, but when you are alone you still pig out and they don't. What you do when you are alone is more important than what you do when you eat with your friends. And you only know what you do. Not what they do. Do you only eat chips and salsa at parties or do you also eat it when you are at home watching TV? Maybe that's the difference between you and your friend.

So to answer the question about Mayweather and Phelps, I just have no idea how much about all the crap they eat is just marketing hype and how much of it is reality. But I can say their level of muscle mass is much higher, their daily caloric burn doing nothing is much higher, their level of activity is much higher, to get as far as they have, they have been blessed with certain genetics, and as far as I know, neither of them have ever been obese so they never caused the metabolic damage associated with obesity. Meaning if I weigh 130 and my friend weighs 130 after losing 70lbs, even though our weight is the same, my friend will always have to eat less food than I do to maintain that weight. Someone who dropped to 130 is not the same internally and never will be as someone who has always stayed and prevented themselves from ever becoming 200.

So if you have ever allowed yourself to get to a size that was on the other side of the tipping point, your metabolism will never fully recover. So your friend who never allowed him or herself to get too big, will always be able to eat more than you do. Even if you weigh the same.

Now here is another thing. I have no idea what their inner workings are like. They on the outside look fit. But I have no idea if they have liver damage or fatty liver, high cholesterol, lesions or fat deposits in their heart, etc. There have been many professional athletes who later in life developed diabetes, heart disease, or most common, died of a heart attack.

What Is A Push Up

Daniel asked this question: "I always do pushups with elbows flared out (mimicking a barbell press) as opposed to elbows in (which I think its more in keeping with a "plank" form).What do you consider proper form, and why?"

My response: Elbows out shrugs the shoulders. Try it right now. Flare your elbows out and watch what happens to your shoulders. Now what happens to your shoulders when they are by your side? Shoulders are neutral right? A plank is about everything along your spine being neutral. Your cervical is not neutral with flared elbows.tral. Your cervical is not neutral with flared elbows. A push up is holding a plank, while you move your arms. A lot of people are strong enough to move a lot of weight, but can't do a lot of push ups because of this very reason. They can't hold a plank. So maybe they can do 70 push ups before failure. But they hit performance failure probably at around 1.

Kettlebell Winner

We recently had a contest to caption a hilarious fitness picture. Antoi won with her hilarious comment. For her efforts she has won a kettlebell, compliments from All Out Effort.

See her caption:

Are You Really Ready For A Baby?

There comes a time when a couple decides, hey let's make a baby. Congratulations! But are you really ready?

I'm not talking about mentally or financially or ready in your relationship. I'm coming at it from a totally different perspective. Are you ready to physically be a parent?

Let's say you haven't been physically active in years. You go to work and try to move as little as possible so you don't sweat in your nice work clothes, but of course you are sitting and stressing a ton. Then when you get home you are so exhausted from not moving but stressing, and now you want to move even less than you did at work.

But now you decide it's time for baby. So you have one. All of a sudden mommy has to carry 20-70 extra pounds depending on how much baby weight she gains. Is your body, especially your back ready? It's probably unpleasant enough physically as it is, compound weakness on top of that. How more tired or grumpy would you be compared to someone who is physically strong enough to carry that extra weight?

Now you have the baby. Let me ask this, how many times a day do you think you will pick up your baby? Do you ever wonder why so many Americans with kids have bad backs? How many mothers do you know with bad backs? I think every mother that I know of has a bad back.

Let's skip ahead. Now the baby is an infant. Maybe 25lbs. If you picked the baby up a minimum of 50 times, that's like moving 1250lbs of bricks every day. And you went from 0 activity to lifting thousands of pounds per day. No wonder you are exhausted. No wonder you have no patience left. No wonder parents throw out their backs picking up their kid. Or why grandparents throw out their back playing with the grandchildren.

In previous times, our daily level of activity was high so carrying a baby wasn't as big of a deal. Women were built for it, weaker upper body but strong hips, glutes, and thighs. And men were used to hauling heavy things anyway. Now we don't even mow our own lawns. And instead of our legs, we use our backs, for everything. The back used to have a few tasks per day. Now it has to do everything because all the other muscles in our bodies are too weak. The back will always be strong. But will we overwork it?

So in your grand scheme of having a baby, where does strength fit into the equation? Working out after a baby to lose the weight is after the fact. What about working out before the baby and investing in your health?

About the Author:

Coach Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Coach, Certified Nutritionist, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook and Pinterests.

AOE Rock Connection?

Was just asked to go on tour to train a rock band. I know nothing about music but I have heard of them if that tells you anything. Perks? My own bunk bed on a tour bus! Need to ask my songwriter client what she thinks.

All Out Effort April Client Updates

Glenn - 5lbs (5% body fat loss, 6 in. off the waist, and 20lbs total loss).

Dana - 3lbs, 1.2% body fat (7lbs total, 1 in. off the waist, hips, thighs, shoulders, and 1/2 in. off the arms, and 4% body fat loss, she is now officially LEAN!)

Prax - 4lbs, 1.2% body fat (14lbs total, 3 in. off waist, 10% body fat loss!!! He is now athletic body fat level. His other problem was strength, he went from a 5lb turkish get up to a 25lb get up).

Diana - 2% body fat (Officially in athletic body fat with visible abs).

Shaya - 4lbs (Officially lean and abs visible when she skips breakfast LOL).

Steve - 4lbs, 5.3% body fat (Breakout month. 9.4% total body fat loss).

Tiffany - 1.3% body fat (4% total and at the cusp of athletic body fat. Gained 2lbs of muscle which was one of her goals. She is a true success story because she's blind in one eye, had depression, muscle atrophy in her legs, and a partial hysterectomy that got complicated and had to be followed up with several more surgeries. But now strength is her own best cure and she has found her smile and is a 52 year old master of the burpee and box jump).

Ashley - 6lbs, 2% body fat (April was her first month).

Isaac - 6lbs, 2.4% body fat (Our professional athlete...poker is a professional sport right?).

Young - 2lbs (3 in. total off the waist and athletic body fat. One our most athletic clients).

Michelle - 7.6lbs, 3% body fat (2nd month 15.5lbs total. 9% body fat loss, 1.5 in. off the waist, 1 in. off hips, arms, shoulders, 2 in. off thighs. Her goal is to inspire. She is already doing that).

Simon - 10lbs (April was her first month. She also put a dollar in the whine jar this month).

Judy - 6lbs, 2% body fat (April was first month. One of my martial arts clients. She's great at hitting, now if we can get her to block...).

Kevin - 4lbs (Kevin is so unassuming. Never huge numbers but consistently makes progress. He has a busy schedule so sometimes  I see him three times a week. Sometimes I don't see him for a month. But he does everything I tell him to whether he's there or not that month. He's lost 37lbs so far!)

Laraine - 3lbs (One of my rehab clients. She has bulging discs in her low back. She travels a lot for work and is now finally able to load and unload the car with her own bags. Before he back would give out whenever she lifted them. Things like this is where you really appreciate progress).

Rebecca - 2lbs (Daughter of Tifanny. She's that much closer to looking great for her wedding day. She grew up with asthma which never allowed her to be athletic. She's playing catch up but there's nothing as moving as watching a mother and daughter to kettlebell swings together. Brings a tear to my eye).

Arthur - 2lbs (One of my martial arts clients. Now if he can stop accidentally hurting his training partners...).

Angela - 3lbs (28lbs total! Shall we see her pass the 30lbs mark in the month of May?).

Matt - 4lbs (11lbs totals and one of the training partners Arthur hurts).

Congratulations to everybody and all the people waiting in the wings to see their numbers for May!

Plank Challenge

Starting today and ending May 20th. Try to hold a plank every day until you can work your way up to 90 seconds. Keep your spine neutral, squeeze your butt and inner thighs. Good luck.

Inspirational Transformation

When there is hope there is everything.