By now, if you know me personally or are a follower of the blog, you know that I am not a fan of traditional New Years Resolutions. I think if you are making one the way most people do, you are setting yourself up for disappointment and I would bet that you don't last 3 weeks. What do you think will happen on January 1st to magically spur you on towards your goals? If you want something badly enough, set your goal, make a game plan and persist until you achieve it. January 1st is no easier than December 29 to start making strides towards your goal. With that bit out of the way, I know you are going to give yourself a New Years Resolution, or two, or three. With that in mind, let's tackle how I think you should set these up.
Although I think this approach will work for any resolution you make, let's talk fitness or health or weight loss, what ever you want to call it. First pick ONE thing. Please don't say, "This year, I am going to get serious about losing weight, or I am going to lose weight, or exercise more or a host of other broad, useless goals. Take a sheet of paper and hand write out your goal. If you are heavy, then losing an amount of weight is a fine goal. If you are overweight, let's say " I will lose 10 pounds in January, 10 pounds in February, and 10 pounds in March." Boom! 30 pounds lighter by April. If you need to lose weight then steal that one from me. However, I don't think everyone needs to lose weight, most people want to look better naked which is a combination of losing bodyfat and building lean muscle. The number on the scale may not change or it may increase (same for you girls). This one is a tougher one to measure since it is fairly subjective. How about taking out a piece of paper and writing down, " I will perform 15 workouts using weights in January. I will perform 15 conditioning workouts in January." Repeat this for February and March. If you were to do this, you will definitely achieve your goals. Simple, but not easy. Write it on a piece of paper and hang it on the fridge in plain sight. Let's look at this even further and break it into steps:
1. Hand write goal, hang it on fridge. Goal must be very specific and carry a deadline, no open ended commitments. Feel free to steal the 15 and 15 one. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
2. Tell everyone about it. Post it on facebook, ask close friends and family to hold you accountable and be your support team. Its tougher to let others down than yourself.
3. You need to go to CVS, or better yet steal one from the supply closet at work, but get yourself a notebook dedicated to your goal. Now everyday write down what you did to get you closer to your goal. With a marker or red pen, at the end of every day, put a large Win or Loss for how you would rate your performance for that day (nutrition and workout for the day).
4. Keep in mind, not everyone goes undefeated. Let's shoot for 12 wins and 3 losses or better through 15 days. Let's also keep tally of weight workouts and cardio/conditioning workouts for the month. See if you can get to 15 and 15. If you get to 12 and 11, and normally you would do 6 and 6 for a month, we are on our way.
5. Let's take it month by month and day by day versus Lose 50 pounds in 2010. Let's lose 4.166 pounds per month instead and tackle it that way.
Now, if you need more specific help fire me an email at tom@sullivantrainingsystems.com. If you want a plan, that will cost you a couple of bucks. If you have a simple question, that will be free of charge.
PS. Think about joining a 3 day per week class to help you hit your goals. While I think I offer a great program, not everyone can get to Weymouth during the week, so email me if you want to train with me once a week.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Mighty Ducks
So last night I am scrolling through On-Demand pretty late at night bored and come across the original Mighty Ducks. Haven't seen the original in like 8 years so I hunkered down and watched it while finishing a chicken parm sub from Capone's in Weymouth. Tough to stay lean with a midnight chicken parm, I know. Here are some things to think about:
1. Hans' F#cking skate shop is the size of TD Banknorth Garden. I always thought it was like the basement of some shitty rink. Also, why is he sharpening skates at 1 oclock in the morning when Bombay comes to visit. Definitely a cover up for having women locked in the basement well and dressing up in sexy lingerie.
2. On the roster of the Mighty Ducks is the youngest Pete from Nickelodeon's hit show "the adventures of Pete and Pete". The main character from "Heavyweights" with Ben Stiller as Tony Perkins is a defenseman on the squad. I believe his name was Jerry in HWs.
3. Every kid on the team sucks. I used to be mesmerized at how nasty the Hawks were. Guess what, except for Adam Banks, they suck too.
4. Why didn't I ever question Gordon Bombay's hockey career? Best Pee Wee hockey player in the country, scored 198 points. Misses a penalty shot at the end of regulation in a state championship game and quits hockey. By the end of the movie, Bombay, now probably 35, gets a tryout with a minor league team. So a guy who hasn't skated since he was 10 has a shot to play professional hockey. This is the exact same thing as me trying out for NFL Europe. I once blocked 4 punts in a game against Hingham in Pop Warner (mostly because I was 45 pounds heavier than the poor bastard blocking me), so I guess that qualifies me for professional football.
5. I always remembered Charlie's mom being hotter. Definitely an upgrade in D2 with Coach Michelle McKay (Duluth, Minnesota) who was also their teacher.
6. How about the "flying V play"? I mean, really? I would have taken 25 steps and ran the lead duck in the V and put an end to that play pretty damn quick.
7. I still watched the whole thing and was on the edge of my seat when Charlie Conway went for his own version of the miserable "Triple Deke".
1. Hans' F#cking skate shop is the size of TD Banknorth Garden. I always thought it was like the basement of some shitty rink. Also, why is he sharpening skates at 1 oclock in the morning when Bombay comes to visit. Definitely a cover up for having women locked in the basement well and dressing up in sexy lingerie.
2. On the roster of the Mighty Ducks is the youngest Pete from Nickelodeon's hit show "the adventures of Pete and Pete". The main character from "Heavyweights" with Ben Stiller as Tony Perkins is a defenseman on the squad. I believe his name was Jerry in HWs.
3. Every kid on the team sucks. I used to be mesmerized at how nasty the Hawks were. Guess what, except for Adam Banks, they suck too.
4. Why didn't I ever question Gordon Bombay's hockey career? Best Pee Wee hockey player in the country, scored 198 points. Misses a penalty shot at the end of regulation in a state championship game and quits hockey. By the end of the movie, Bombay, now probably 35, gets a tryout with a minor league team. So a guy who hasn't skated since he was 10 has a shot to play professional hockey. This is the exact same thing as me trying out for NFL Europe. I once blocked 4 punts in a game against Hingham in Pop Warner (mostly because I was 45 pounds heavier than the poor bastard blocking me), so I guess that qualifies me for professional football.
5. I always remembered Charlie's mom being hotter. Definitely an upgrade in D2 with Coach Michelle McKay (Duluth, Minnesota) who was also their teacher.
6. How about the "flying V play"? I mean, really? I would have taken 25 steps and ran the lead duck in the V and put an end to that play pretty damn quick.
7. I still watched the whole thing and was on the edge of my seat when Charlie Conway went for his own version of the miserable "Triple Deke".
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
New Years Resolution Help.
Just a heads up: I am getting a good amount of people asking for help in designing workout plans. I think a lot of this comes with the time of year. I would be happy to help you develop a plan for fat loss to help you with your goals. For a 12 week program I charge $179 dollars. Yes, you need to dedicate 12 weeks to notice visible changes in your body. If interested, shoot me an email at tom@sullivantrainingsystems.com.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Happy Friday.
1. When I worked at EMC, Brian Boyson used to send out a mass email that said "Here's to another Van Damme Friday, which featured a clip of JCVD dancing around like a fruit cake. If anyone has access to that please send it over. tom@sullivantrainingsystems.com
2. One of my favorite workouts right now is a squat variation, a chin up variation, and a pushup variation with a rep scheme of 10,9,8, 7...1. 10 squats, 10 chinups, 10 pushups, then 9, 9, 9, 8, 8, 8, and so on with minimal rest. I like front squat, chin up, feet elevated pushup after a good warmup.
3. Jersey Shore. I cannot help but be mesmerized by this show. I want to hate the guys and girls on the show but I am just too entertained. I feel like it is staged, do people really act like that? I want to plan a trip to the Jersey Shore for next summer. Like going to the zoo.
4. I read an article on T-nation today that was one of the simplest/best I have read. It was about must have food and supplement choices. From this, make a shopping list of beef, eggs, broccoli, walnuts, blueberries, chicken, tuna, and greek yogurt. Load up on this stuff, keep the bad stuff out of your house all together. It is impossible to get fat on this stuff. For supplements, I think the average gym goer needs a good protein supplement, a fish oil supplement, and some green tea.
5. My workout music selection has been really weird lately. I guess you can only take so much AC/DC, Rage against the machine, etc. I have been listening to live Pearl Jam, Lynard Skynard, and Bruce Springsteen right now and its been a nice change. Pearl Jam's present tense feel good in particular.
6. Weird one here: One of my go-to business books is the E-Myth by Michael Gerber. There is a section that talks about your primary aim. Here is how he describes it (paraphrased): At your own wake, your friends and family are standing around. From the four corners of the room comes a tape recording of your voice. You are addressing your guests. You are telling them the story of your life. How would you like that story to go? What would you like to be able to say about your life? If you were to write that script, how would you do it? Once you create the script, all you need to do is make it come true.
For me, this is a really strange and thought provoking topic that I struggle with. I guess I just wanted you all to feel as uncomfortable as I do.
Have the best weekend of your life,
Tom
2. One of my favorite workouts right now is a squat variation, a chin up variation, and a pushup variation with a rep scheme of 10,9,8, 7...1. 10 squats, 10 chinups, 10 pushups, then 9, 9, 9, 8, 8, 8, and so on with minimal rest. I like front squat, chin up, feet elevated pushup after a good warmup.
3. Jersey Shore. I cannot help but be mesmerized by this show. I want to hate the guys and girls on the show but I am just too entertained. I feel like it is staged, do people really act like that? I want to plan a trip to the Jersey Shore for next summer. Like going to the zoo.
4. I read an article on T-nation today that was one of the simplest/best I have read. It was about must have food and supplement choices. From this, make a shopping list of beef, eggs, broccoli, walnuts, blueberries, chicken, tuna, and greek yogurt. Load up on this stuff, keep the bad stuff out of your house all together. It is impossible to get fat on this stuff. For supplements, I think the average gym goer needs a good protein supplement, a fish oil supplement, and some green tea.
5. My workout music selection has been really weird lately. I guess you can only take so much AC/DC, Rage against the machine, etc. I have been listening to live Pearl Jam, Lynard Skynard, and Bruce Springsteen right now and its been a nice change. Pearl Jam's present tense feel good in particular.
6. Weird one here: One of my go-to business books is the E-Myth by Michael Gerber. There is a section that talks about your primary aim. Here is how he describes it (paraphrased): At your own wake, your friends and family are standing around. From the four corners of the room comes a tape recording of your voice. You are addressing your guests. You are telling them the story of your life. How would you like that story to go? What would you like to be able to say about your life? If you were to write that script, how would you do it? Once you create the script, all you need to do is make it come true.
For me, this is a really strange and thought provoking topic that I struggle with. I guess I just wanted you all to feel as uncomfortable as I do.
Have the best weekend of your life,
Tom
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
How to be the best at any endeavor.
I just got off the phone with my coaching mentor, Jamie Rice. Coach Rice is the head hockey coach at Babson College whom I played for, for my final two years. This winter I took the assistant coaching position at North Quincy High School for boys varsity hockey. I have high hopes of having a positive impact on these kids. I think when I originally approached this gig, I was going about it all wrong. After speaking with coach, the outlook that he presented is so much smarter that I feel like a DB based on my previous thoughts. I really think this has tremendous carryover to life as well.
One of the points coach brought up really opened my eyes. He said to think about the way I train beginners. You don't take a beginner and have him load up a bunch of plates and go for a deep back squat or a heavy clean. We do things like mastering a set of 25 pushups, 3 x 8 in the pull up, and 3 x 8 perfect technique in the overhead squat. From there we move on to getting very strong in basic movement patterns. That makes perfect sense to me. I wish I had thought about hockey that way. My high school guys need to be VERY good at really basic stuff. Things like handling a puck with speed, playing from the middle of the ice out, passing and receiving pucks, and defending. If we can be the best in the league at these things, who the f#ck cares if we know how to play a left wing lock or a trap. No one in our league will be better at handling pucks, skating, passing, and defending. That will give us a great chance of winning every night. Relating it back to training, I am confident that if my high school players can do a heavy split squat (foot elevated), climb a 25 rope with no leg use, deadlift 1.5 bodyweight, and win foot races, that will put them in a position to be the best player on their team. That's really it. The athletes who can do these tasks are always the strongest, fastest guys or girls on the ice. Let's see if I can swing this analogy to my life.
There are probably 4-5 things that I should focus on that would have the largest impact on my bottom line, my health, my relationships, and my financial health. Right now I will try to figure these out. Stay tuned for my next post as I try to get into more life detail on this. In the meantime if you are reading this with the intention of getting lean or strong or whatever. My advice to you would be to pick 4-5 things and be better than everyone else at them. A quick list might be.
1. Lift weights with high intensity (in other words make it hard on yourself) 4 times per week.
2. Do some type of fast paced cardio or bodyweight circuit 2 times per week.
3. Cut all starch out of your final meal of the day.
4. Limit Booze intake to 2 nights per week.
If you get REALLY friggin good at these 4 things, you might find in 4 weeks that you have really improved your physique, your confidence, your outlook on life.
For a salesperson maybe its:
1. Make 25 calls per day to new prospects.
2. Visit 3 of your best customers daily in person just to say hello and listen to their concerns.
3. Align yourself with one new organization or team or strategic partnership per month.
4. Find a way to get new proposals and quotes out there even earlier than promised.
Not a sales expert, but use your imagination. I bet if you were better than everyone in your field at those 4 things, you would rank in the top 5 in sales.
Just some thoughts. Let me know what you think.
TSull
tom@sullivantrainingsystems.com
One of the points coach brought up really opened my eyes. He said to think about the way I train beginners. You don't take a beginner and have him load up a bunch of plates and go for a deep back squat or a heavy clean. We do things like mastering a set of 25 pushups, 3 x 8 in the pull up, and 3 x 8 perfect technique in the overhead squat. From there we move on to getting very strong in basic movement patterns. That makes perfect sense to me. I wish I had thought about hockey that way. My high school guys need to be VERY good at really basic stuff. Things like handling a puck with speed, playing from the middle of the ice out, passing and receiving pucks, and defending. If we can be the best in the league at these things, who the f#ck cares if we know how to play a left wing lock or a trap. No one in our league will be better at handling pucks, skating, passing, and defending. That will give us a great chance of winning every night. Relating it back to training, I am confident that if my high school players can do a heavy split squat (foot elevated), climb a 25 rope with no leg use, deadlift 1.5 bodyweight, and win foot races, that will put them in a position to be the best player on their team. That's really it. The athletes who can do these tasks are always the strongest, fastest guys or girls on the ice. Let's see if I can swing this analogy to my life.
There are probably 4-5 things that I should focus on that would have the largest impact on my bottom line, my health, my relationships, and my financial health. Right now I will try to figure these out. Stay tuned for my next post as I try to get into more life detail on this. In the meantime if you are reading this with the intention of getting lean or strong or whatever. My advice to you would be to pick 4-5 things and be better than everyone else at them. A quick list might be.
1. Lift weights with high intensity (in other words make it hard on yourself) 4 times per week.
2. Do some type of fast paced cardio or bodyweight circuit 2 times per week.
3. Cut all starch out of your final meal of the day.
4. Limit Booze intake to 2 nights per week.
If you get REALLY friggin good at these 4 things, you might find in 4 weeks that you have really improved your physique, your confidence, your outlook on life.
For a salesperson maybe its:
1. Make 25 calls per day to new prospects.
2. Visit 3 of your best customers daily in person just to say hello and listen to their concerns.
3. Align yourself with one new organization or team or strategic partnership per month.
4. Find a way to get new proposals and quotes out there even earlier than promised.
Not a sales expert, but use your imagination. I bet if you were better than everyone in your field at those 4 things, you would rank in the top 5 in sales.
Just some thoughts. Let me know what you think.
TSull
tom@sullivantrainingsystems.com
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Athlete Success: Pistol Pete Cronin
Peter Cronin is a freshman goaltender at BC High over on Morrissey Blvd. Pete spent the entire summer and fall training with us over at STS. When we first got Pistol in the gym, he was just like every other typical beginner: lacking basic levels of strength, conditioning, movement quality, and unsure of his physical boundaries. Fast forward to last week's Massachusetts High School Hockey tryouts:
Hi Tom, it's Peter Cronin just letting you know that I made the BC High Varsity squad. I just wanted to let you know how much your program helped me and pushed me to be my very best. There is a very good chance that this wouldn't have happened without you. I look forward to continuing in the future and spreading the word about your gym.
I also received this email from his Dad:
Hi Tom:I echo Peter's comments. He's clearly stronger and recovers much more quickly than he did just a few months ago. Each of the four consecutive nights of tryouts was 2+ hours and he was stronger at the last tryout than he was at the first. The important thing is that he notices the difference and that appears to help his confidence.
Quite an accomplishment Pete! Congratulations!
Hi Tom, it's Peter Cronin just letting you know that I made the BC High Varsity squad. I just wanted to let you know how much your program helped me and pushed me to be my very best. There is a very good chance that this wouldn't have happened without you. I look forward to continuing in the future and spreading the word about your gym.
I also received this email from his Dad:
Hi Tom:I echo Peter's comments. He's clearly stronger and recovers much more quickly than he did just a few months ago. Each of the four consecutive nights of tryouts was 2+ hours and he was stronger at the last tryout than he was at the first. The important thing is that he notices the difference and that appears to help his confidence.
Quite an accomplishment Pete! Congratulations!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Winter 2009 at Sullivan Training Systems
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Below is today's post which is a mind dump on some things I am thinking about. It is one of those posts that I always ask myself after writing, "why am I telling people this?" I think the reason I write posts like this is it helps me lay everything out in front of me, highlights issues, holds me accountable because people know I can be an idiot, and also highlights some issues in owning your own business.
Winter is usually a pretty stressful time of year for me. As a new business owner I have done a piss poor job in managing the business in the best way possible. Basically what has happened in the almost 2 years that I have been in business is as follows:
Summer: absolute gongshow, plenty of athletes, 10-12 hours per week of training with the Mass Satellite Program, lots of general fitness clients, people getting great results, play golf 3 times a week, party two nights a week, do a couple of trips to cape cod and the islands, life is good. Except that the appropriate thing for me to do would be stuff a lot of the cash into the mattress to provide a cushion as business slows down or save for some new equipment, or save money for necessities like rent, food, a new vehicle (mine is just about ready to power down), you know the usual stuff.
Fall: Business slows down but I hang on to a lot of my hockey guys as they get ready for their winter season. I didn't do a good enough job of retaining general fitness clients for fall, but my staff has gone back to school so expenses are less since I am running a one man show. I am paying my bills but can no longer afford to golf or party a couple of nights per week.
Winter: Since I have been running the place by myself, I have been operating as a trainer who happens to own a facility. I need to retool my mindset and try to look at it as a business owner who trains people. For more clarification, when I have staff in the summer, my role is to design all of the workouts, plan the sessions, attract clients, keep clients, answer the phone, and train a couple of groups per day. In the Fall, I do everything including running every session in addition to the other jobs. However, I find that the business development stuff suffers as I focus on developing great training programs and running successful sessions. So now I have spent less time on getting new clients which means all of the hockey guys who have gone back to playing will only be here once per week, which means monthly dues will be a lot less. Now I have to try to scramble for clients, make late payments on bills, let the books go to hell, and have a nervous breakdown. Real chicken with the head cut off type of act.
My saving grace this winter will be some of the teams that have chosen to train with us in season as well as my duties as Assistant Hockey Coach at North Quincy High School.
Spring will pick back up with my hockey players, new fitness clients, and always a couple of other positive surprises.
Winter is usually a pretty stressful time of year for me. As a new business owner I have done a piss poor job in managing the business in the best way possible. Basically what has happened in the almost 2 years that I have been in business is as follows:
Summer: absolute gongshow, plenty of athletes, 10-12 hours per week of training with the Mass Satellite Program, lots of general fitness clients, people getting great results, play golf 3 times a week, party two nights a week, do a couple of trips to cape cod and the islands, life is good. Except that the appropriate thing for me to do would be stuff a lot of the cash into the mattress to provide a cushion as business slows down or save for some new equipment, or save money for necessities like rent, food, a new vehicle (mine is just about ready to power down), you know the usual stuff.
Fall: Business slows down but I hang on to a lot of my hockey guys as they get ready for their winter season. I didn't do a good enough job of retaining general fitness clients for fall, but my staff has gone back to school so expenses are less since I am running a one man show. I am paying my bills but can no longer afford to golf or party a couple of nights per week.
Winter: Since I have been running the place by myself, I have been operating as a trainer who happens to own a facility. I need to retool my mindset and try to look at it as a business owner who trains people. For more clarification, when I have staff in the summer, my role is to design all of the workouts, plan the sessions, attract clients, keep clients, answer the phone, and train a couple of groups per day. In the Fall, I do everything including running every session in addition to the other jobs. However, I find that the business development stuff suffers as I focus on developing great training programs and running successful sessions. So now I have spent less time on getting new clients which means all of the hockey guys who have gone back to playing will only be here once per week, which means monthly dues will be a lot less. Now I have to try to scramble for clients, make late payments on bills, let the books go to hell, and have a nervous breakdown. Real chicken with the head cut off type of act.
My saving grace this winter will be some of the teams that have chosen to train with us in season as well as my duties as Assistant Hockey Coach at North Quincy High School.
Spring will pick back up with my hockey players, new fitness clients, and always a couple of other positive surprises.
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