No mirrors, no music, no AC, just results.

From time to time a member of Garage Gym will ask me why don't I play music in the gym. The simple answer is that if I played music in the gym it would probably be the type of music I like and most likely given the average age of my members they would not like it. The truth of the matter is that I don't play music in the gym because I want my members to concentrate on the task at hand. In other words, the only thing I want you to concentrate on is the workout and nothing else.

People play music while they workout in an effort to distract themselves from "working out". This has always puzzled me, if you come to the gym your there for a reason and that is to workout. The fitness industry has created a carnival/night club atmosphere in their facilities in order for their clients to forget what they are really there for, to train hard and sweat.

Besides blasting the latest hip hop tunes through the speakers while hoards of human hamsters walk to nowhere on the treadmills they also turn the air conditioning way down keeping the temperature extremely cold. If you ask a staff member to lower the temperature they most likely will tell they can't (which is probably true)and besides the colder temperatures help prevent bugs and bacteria from being transmitted to the gym patrons.

Fine, that may be true but if you keep your gym well ventilated and you clean the facility on a daily basis with anti bacterial solutions you can do the same thing.
Keeping a gym cold can lead to injuries due to the fact that most gym patrons go at it alone and rarely do they warm-up before beginning to exercise. Warming up is extremely important especially in a cold environment. Even though we don't use air conditioning at our gym we always warm-up before training and on those rare south Florida cold spells the warm-ups last a bit longer than usual.

The use of mirrors in gyms came into play with the body building craze. To me mirrors serve as a distraction. Some trainers claim that mirrors are important so you can check your form. In our gym our trainers make sure that our clients form is correct no need for mirrors here. Absent from our gym is the ever present clock. Everyday everyone of us is managed by that circular object, everything has to be done by a certain time, you have to be at a certain place at a certain time.

I think that clocks add stress to our lives and since I want my clients to concentrate on one thing only while their in the gym I purposely didn't place a clock in the gym. Garage Gym is about results and we deliver. The majority of our clients experience great results and those that embrace our dietary recommendations tend to be the one's with the greatest performances and results.

Get off your ass and work!

I'm sure by now if your a member of the Garage Gym you've noticed that we rarely do any type of exercise sitting down or lying down. Most people spend their days sitting down in front of a computer, driving to and from work, etc. The effects of prolonged sitting causes major problems and weakness to the glutes(butt muscles), spinal erectors (lower back muscles), quads (the muscles on the front of your thighs) , and scapula stabilizers (the muscles that hold your shoulders up and backward).

Seated posture causes the hip flexor muscles to shorten, so will exercising seated on the bike in spinning class. Seated posture will cause the muscles of the upper back to become long and weak while the chest muscle get short and tight. If you haven't figured it out yet prolonged sitting and hunching forward whilst sitting is a major contributing factor to lower back pain.

Every time a client tells me that he or she has back problems I ask them if they had an injury. Most clients response is the same. "Yeah I hurt my back in the gym" or "I hurt my back picking up my child" etc. Rarely, do they tell me that they suffered some type of lower back/spin injury due to a traumatic accident. What does this tell you?

So, if prolonged sitting is bad for you why do they make exercise machines that have you sitting down or lying down? I believe the reason behind that is to make the exercise easier and the person more comfortable. What I never understood is if we're going to the gym to get healthier and improve our level of fitness why do we need to be comfortable? I mean heck, shouldn't exercise be challenging and hard or am I missing something?

Most of the core muscle that become weak from prolonged sitting are located in the back of your body so since they are not the flashy muscles they often get ignored by most exercise programs. At Garage Gym I make sure that these critical muscles and stabilizers are not ignored. I accomplish this by designing programs that include squatting with or without weight over seated leg presses and leg extensions which have you sitting down, dead lifting over lying leg curls, standing military press and standing up-right rows over the seated version of these movements, ring dips and good old fashioned push-ups over bench pressing, standing bent over rows and pull-ups over seated lat pull downs.

We spend a great time of our day sitting down so get up get off your ass and work hard your body will thank you for it.

5 Exercises that Live Up to the Hype

I’m certain of one thing—I’ll never be certain about anything again. Remember that we once believed the world was flat and that Nautilus machines were the future of strength training. Well I used to think the following five movements were overrated. Now I know better.

1. Dead lift
I used to think Dead lifts were just for power lifters, but I’ve come to appreciate them again and believe if performed correctly, they may have greater value than squats. Dead lifts require more effort from the musculature on the backside of your body, so they'll help you develop strength and power were you need it most. The common mistake and cause of many injuries: rounding your back. Keep your back flat and your chest up. When your back is no longer flat, the set is over.


2. Single-leg squat
I used to think everyone needed to squat. Now I know everyone needs to bend their knees and I actually think many of the single-leg variations are better for beginners. Try working on single-leg strength and squat mobility simultaneously with movements like the single-leg squat (for strength) and the sumo squat-to-hamstring stretch (for mobility).

3. One-arm row
For a while, I thought chin-ups were more important than rows, but now I think most people are way too upper trap dominant—that is, their upper trapezius muscles overpower their rhomboids. To turn on these all-important back muscles, try the one-arm dumbbell row.


4. Ab Wheel Roll outs
I always thought the ab wheel was a really stupid piece of exercise equipment that could cause injury. Now I think it's the key to core training. You can get a similar effect with a loaded barbell or Valslides, like this: Start by kneeling on the floor, with your hands on the Ab Wheel handles, barbell, or Valslides, using an overhand grip. Start with the bar close to your thighs. Keeping your abs braced and your back flat, push the bar forward. Roll forward as far as you can, then contract your abs and pull with your arms to return to the starting position.

5. Lunge
I used to think lunges were a waste of time, but I’ve come to use them as an advanced exercise. Beginners should always start with split squats and progress to the dynamic version, the lunge. The key is to establish the mobility first before you make the movement more dynamic.

Gigantor doesn't know everything about training.

Every time you step into a gym you see guys like my buddy Gigantor (pictured above) working out. You know, the bloated dude with the clown pants who spits at the mirror while he heaves ungodly amounts of weights with reckless abandonment then he sends them crashing down with a loud primeval scream that can curl milk, that guy. Anyway, the average gym goer usually stares at this mammoth of a human from afar afraid of approaching the larger than life cartoon. Occasionally, a brave soul will approach Gigantor for training advice thinking since he's full of muscle he's got to know what he doing right?

WRONG! The fact of the matter is this, just because someone has huge muscles and can produce veins from areas of the body which you never thought veins existed doesn't mean that he knows what he is doing. How can this be, the dude is huuuuge? Let me tell you something Sparky if you took a truck load of steroids and did Richard Simmons sweating to the oldies videos you'll put on muscle too. Now in defense of Gigantor these guys train hard but the methodology used to achieve such proportions is ancient technology. A body builder trains to make his muscle big and not necessarily functional.

When I was in the body building world (yes,I took steroids) I had a saying that I learned from my mentor "Big Mike" "Size is the answer". Size was more important than flexibility, agility, cardio vascular endurance and even strength! Believe it or not a lot of body builders are not that strong. If your focus is to build a physic like a shaved down low land silver back then following Gigantors advice might get you there. Just because someone "looks" fit doesn't mean that he or she is fit.

I try to change my clients focus from looking fit to truly being fit. My approach to fitness is functionality over cosmetic appearance. Everyone wants to be lean and sport a six pack I get it but you must be physically fit in all areas of fitness not just one or two and believe me you'll look better and the six pack will come but only through the proper diet and hard work. In my gym my clients get stronger, faster, improve their agility, accuracy, balance, coordination, cardio vascular endurance, speed, power, build muscle, lose fat, and enjoy better health.

Fitness has to cross over to real world applications. What good is it to sport a six pack and not be able to walk a few yards carrying grocery bags and having to stop several times to catch your breath. What good will your new lean body do for you if you can't lunge forward and grab your child before he/she falls down because you have range of motion limitations? What good does all that muscle do for you if you can't pick your child up because your rotator cuffs are injured from too much heavy weight training?

What ever limits you today will only be worse tomorrow. In my gym I see 25 year old women that can't perform a full squat, 30 year old men with no previous history of injury suffer from lower back pain. I have a client who suffered a hip injury that's a common occurrence among elderly people at age 40! Training can't be approached as a today thing, you have to look beyond today and prepare to be fit for the rest of your life. Body building and training with the likes of Gigantor (unless you want to compete in a body building competition) can lead to injuries because this method of training focuses on the big showy muscle instead of working on the smaller support muscles of the hips, torso, shoulders, and back.

They say that a build is only as strong as it's foundation. Without a strong foundation buildings will crumble to the ground at the first sign of a hurricane or earth quake. We know that too well here in Florida after hurricane Andrew demolished thousands of homes. What do you think will happen to you if you don't build a strong foundation? Body building is ancient technology with a limited life span as you can see in this picture Arnold doesn't look to good now a days.

Now compare Arnold to Mark Sisson age 55(pictured below) author of the Primal Blue Print and the highly respected blog Mark's Daily Apple. Mark stays fit by following a functional training routine and eating a high protein, high fat, low carb diet. Don't know about you guys but I'd rather look like Mark.


In closing, the moral of the story is huge muscle can and will fade away with time but functionally fit bodies will last a life time. We're only here once we should make the best out of it don't you think?

That's all I have to say about that...
see you at the gym

Hurts so good

Let's face it, from time to time we all need to take a break from training. Whether it's a family vacation, a business trip, or just to heal, infrequent breaks throughout a training year does not hurt and may help your progress in the gym. Note: I say infrequent, those breaks are earned through hard work at Garage Gym they shouldn't be used as an excuse to slack off and yes I'm talking to you. Anyway, after the break whether it's only a few days or a few weeks something happens to everyone including myself, no one is immune.

This common occurrence is what I like to call getting your butt handed to you on a silver platter. No matter how long you have been training at Garage Gym the first few days back from vacation are brutal, it's almost as bad as your first day! I often hear my clients moaning "Oh my god this sh*it is kicking my ass why did I take time off!" The answer to this question is very simple the Garage Gym method of training lacks routine. Although you may repeat a particular exercise you rarely repeat a particular combination of exercises. In other words, you never get use to the workouts!

When you attend a "regular" gym most people create a routine. Monday is chest day, Tuesday is back day, Wednesday is a rest day, Thursday is leg day, and of course Friday is arms day! Got to be pumped up for the club scene. Since you follow a routine even if you miss a few days from the gym, when you come back you go right to your routine which your body is use to and you continue no harm no foul. Unfortunantly, it doesn't work this way at Garage Gym everyday you come to the gym you work hard there is no way around it.

Garage Gym members learn to embrace pain, sweat, sorness, and the wonderful results they deliver.

Commitment

“Commitment, you either have it or you don't. Saying you have it means nothing. Commitment – Action = Zero. The uncommitted rarely make it through the door. Those who lose their commitment are asked to leave until they recover. Stress and hardship clarify commitment: those who have it relish difficulty and intensity. The committed are aware and mindful every minute of every day so they enjoy the results that such rare dedication and effort deliver.”

Mark Twight

There is only one place to lead from

When I began planning Garage Gym I didn't where to begin. One thing that I was clear about from the beginning was that I had to set an example for all my clients. I've always disliked personal trainers and if you want to piss me off call me a personal trainer. The reason why I don't like most personal trainers is that they seldom walk the talk. In other words, I've seen these guys and gals making their clients do exercises that they themselves could not or would not do. I've been in the fitness game for a very long time and this is a common occurrence.

Everyday I plan the days workout and every day I perform the same workout that my clients do. I will never ask a client to do something that I can't do, it just goes against my grain. I also require that any trainer that works in my gym do the same. If they can't follow the standard that I set, then they can't be a trainer at Garage Gym plain and simple. I personally follow and highly recommend a high protein, high fat, low carb diet. It works for me and the clients that follow the diet seem to be the one's that improve the most.

Here again I set an example for my clients. I can't recommend for someone to stay away from carbs and then I'm chowing away on carbs when no one can see me. Again, I can't do that it's not who I am. On labor day I opened the gym for 2 hours and to my surprise 34 clients showed up and went through a particularly nasty circuit. One client was watching me go through the circuit and said "Wow I thought that you doing the same thing we do was a myth". My only choice at that time was to smile and say some kind of sarcastic remark to my client which is one of my trade marks. There will always be a doubting Thomas and I offer this to any member that would like to join me for a workout.

Everyday at around 1pm I close the gym and I workout. Most of the time I'm joined by one of the guys that runs a group at the gym. Sometimes I workout alone. If any member of Garage Gym would like to workout with me your more than welcomed to do so. All you have to do is show-up at the designated time and lets get to work. Mark Twight the owner of Gym Jones and the lead trainer for the cast and stunt crew of the movie 300, told me that at their gym there's a policy. "If you wrote the workout you have to ride it".

Since I write the workouts I ride them everyday just like you and yes they kick my ass as well. Hard work, suffering, and a good dose of sweat equity can't be avoided by no body at Garage Gym including yours truly there is no other choice.

That's all I have to say about that...
see you at the gym.