Share your personal training time with some friends!
Buddy sessions or small group training has a few benefits besides cost:
1. Accountability. Your friends will hold you to account for keeping your schedule, and you’ll WANT to keep it, in order to see them! Also, when you’re out together you can help to support each other in making healthier menu choices.
2. Witnesses. It’s sometimes hard to see the progress that you’re making when it’s just your mirror and your own critical eye. Having friends there, especially those who have known you for a while, can be a huge motivator because you’ll see each others progress & keep each other motivated.
3. FUN! It’s way more fun when you can all groan together about holding the plank, or doing your cardio.
Of course, cost is a major factor for most people these days, and while a private session with Michelle is $70, small group sessions can be as low as $30 per person. And you can’t beat that with a stick.
September 21: Intro to Vinyasa Flow, moving with your breath
September 28: Standing Postures
October 5: Seated and Lying Twists
October 12: Forward Bends
October 19: Leg Balancing
October 26: Backbends
November 2: Inversions
November 9: Standing Twists
November 16: Reclining Postures
The series has already started, but you can still drop in! $15 per class, and it’s at the Core Clinic, 996 Saratoga Ave at Williams, behind Wendy’s. Contact me for more info!
You know how I’m always saying “If we had to chase our food in order to eat, we wouldn’t have these problems!”? Well check out this article on the Tarahumara - barefoot runners who literally will chase a deer until the deer tire out. Bet they don’t have an obesity epidemic!!!
http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=tarahumara&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
“Damn, I feel light today! What did your turkish dance to do me?” (Jui-Jitsu fighter, 2 days after learning the “Turkish Get Up” with kettlebells)
“That was the hardest workout I’ve ever done with you.” (3 weeks in a row, from the same guy)
“My body feels amazing. (And by that I mean totally sore) I love it!” (New client, after her first session)
“You’re my fitness guru!” (Jui-Jitsu guy)
“Working out with you has made our relationship better - we don’t make each other wrong as often.” (Wife of a couple I train together)
“I just bought a new dress, it’s a size 14, and I haven’t fit into a size 14 since I was a freshman in high school!” (Client who has lost 40ish lbs and 8 dress sizes in 5 months)
“You win!” (Really, anyone… but it was so cool when the girl who never sweats had to stop and get a towel.)
The Why, the What, and the How:
Are you getting the most out of your workout? If not, you might consider circuit training. It is, by far, the most effective fat-burning workout available. It allows you to keep the intensity high without getting fatigued, and uses your time incredibly efficiently. You get the benefits of resistance training (building muscle, strength, increasing your metabolism) while keeping your heart rate elevated like aerobic training (which is essential for burning fat).
Circuit training keeps your heart rate up by allowing you to work alternating bodyparts with very little rest in between. Because we alternate between upper & lower body without resting, you are shunting blood back and forth between muscle groups. This allows you to burn twice as many calories as traditional resistance training. The process that is responsible for this amazing phenomenon is called peripheral heart action, or PHA. ** Keeping the blood moving like this helps to prevent the buildup of lactic acid which is responsible for muscle fatigue and soreness.
Don’t be afraid to mix it up! This could be the time-saving answer you’ve been looking for.
Personal training available by appointment. Please contact me for availability.
** two great articles if you’d like more information on this method:
http://strengthtraining.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_ups_and_lows_of_fitness
http://www.mikesgym.org/articles/index.php?show=article&articleID=65
I am excited to announce that I’ll be now training some of my clients at the Core Clinic off of Saratoga and Williams! Derek Hill, the owner, has amassed an amazing collection of individuals under one roof to literally make it a one-stop-wellness-shop.
Check out their website and look for me there soon!
www.thecoreclinic.com
There is a future that is wanting to happen, a possibility that wants to be fulfilled. It’s not the only future. It’s not the only possibility. But it’s the one I’m creating and I’d like to share it with you.
I’ve been a personal trainer for 3 years. I’ve been a “girl who works out” for much longer. I’ve also been a person who tries to integrate her spirituality into her life on a daily basis, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. I have finally surrendered to the idea that I am a spiritual person, and I finally really like that about myself! I have tried many things to connect with a Higher Power, or my Higher Self, during the last couple of decades. Psychedelic drugs, Ouija boards, sweatlodges, churches, books, teachers, rituals, whatever. I’ve now decided a few things. 1: It doesn’t matter what phone I use, so long as I make the call. 2: If my intention is to connect, I’ll connect, and it is immaterial what I’m doing when I’m connecting. 3: If 1 and 2 are true, I should just do what I like!
It turns out I really like yoga. It’s a nice change of pace from my LIFE, and the type of training I’ve done in the gym for the last 14 years. It balances out my leg muscles from running. It re-aligns my shoulders. It reminds me I have a core that’s not just made up of 4 different muscle groups. And it feels like prayer.
As I’ve learned about myself, the best motivation to get me to do anything is to do it for someone else. I got up early every Sunday morning in Portland to cook breakfast for my girlfriends. I work the 12 steps harder when I am sponsoring someone. I got candidated as a Landmark Introduction Leader because I wanted to coach the next program. I turned myself inside out over & over & over again as a Landmark Staff Member, in order to be a clearing for others to fulfill their dreams with our education. I work out more than you because I can’t coach you not to sell out when I’m training you, if I haven’t done my cardio that week. I eat well & take care of my body because maybe one day I’ll decide to grow a baby in here. The somewhat-hard-to-accept truth about me is that unless there is service to other people involved (even those I haven’t met yet) I won’t get out of bed. Now, while this can be frustrating beyond belief, it also gives me a certain advantage to know it.
Inside of knowing all of that, and inside of my commitment to continue to grow and expand as a person, I’ve created this future called “Being a Yoga Teacher”. While at this point I only know a fraction of what I think that will look like, I’m wholly inspired and lit up by it.
I have loved the last few years of being a trainer, coach, confidant and keeper-of-the-measurements-of-which-we-do-not-speak. ;) And I’m so so so clear that I couldn’t have even gotten this far without YOU. Those of you who coached me about starting my own business, those of you who have trusted me enough to train with me, those of you who supported me when I was too proud to get another job and needed a couch to sleep on. Those of you who cheered me on when I competed, those of you who just told me it was cool, who referred people to me, who spoke or thought well of me, as a trainer – you may never know the contribution you’ve been and I know that who I am today I am because of your listening and holding of that space.
I’m so in love with personal training, and watching people reach goals that they were previously resigned about, watching people lose weight, get off medications, become more active and healthy and vital. I love that I get to be a part of that. Yoga teacher training is going to open up so many doors to create even more miracles and I can’t wait!
If you’re inspired by this, or want to be a part of it in a very real way, I ask that you contribute anything you can to the cost of my training. It’s more than I can come up with on my own, so I’m calling on my community. Here are the ways that you can do that:
Donate via PayPal – my email address is listed as michelle@yogamonkeys.net or 408-649-4777
Donate via Amazon Payments – michelle@bodybymichelle.net or 408-649-4777
Send via Snail Mail – 4670 Clarendon Drive, San Jose CA, 95129
Buy training sessions now! Contact me for information about pricing and scheduling.
Literally, even $20 will make a difference, so please consider it.
In any case, thank you for reading, listening, loving me, and standing for the future being fulfilled.
Oh! And if you want to follow my adventures along the way, you can check out my yoga blog at www.yogamonkeys.net/blog.
Namaste!
Oh, look! And there’s some another words….
(see also: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail122.html)
I’m quitting lifting weights. This will be genuinely shocking to those of you who know me. After much consideration and reflection during a late night conversation with a monkey, I have decided to stop cold turkey. Here’s what I mean…
I started “bodybuilding” when I was 16. I learned all the basic exercises, squat, bench press, pull-downs, rows, deadlifts, etc.
I then became totally obsessed with learning all I could about lifting weights. I learned that free weights were better than machines because you have to be evenly balanced on both sides, there’s no way to cheat. I learned that behind-the-neck anything is a bad idea. I learned that I wanted to have big cap shoulders and popping triceps like Laura Creavalle, legs like Cory Everson and a back like Dorian Yates. Okay, so not as big as Mr. Yates, but I envisioned a Christmas tree all lit up when I was doing my bent-over dumbbell rows and it helped to squeeze out those last couple reps.
Ms. Fitness was all over late-night ESPN and Monica Brant was just starting to edge up the ranks. This was before Figure as a sport was even invented. This was before I learned that I couldn’t expect to smoke cigarettes and gain quality muscle. This was during culinary school where everything I ate was cooked in a white wine-butter-garlic sauce. I didn’t know anything about nutrition. I just knew that I was good at lifting, I was strong, I kept getting stronger, and it surprised everyone.
Flash to 15 years later. I am shocked when someone manages to show me something new to do with a dumbbell. I lift weights more out of habit & fear of losing muscle mass than any desire to be a bodybuilder. I’m relatively happy with the amount of muscle that I’ve gained. Most importantly, I’m bored.
I want to take off my shoes & climb things, and do flips and handstands and be flexible and PLAY. So, as an experiment, and because you know I don’t have the word “moderation” in my vocabulary, I’m quitting barbells and dumbbells and cables. I’m going to find more creative ways to strength train.
I’m going to throw kettlebells around. Do yoga. Climb things. Invert. Run barefoot. Do pull-ups. Push-ups. Stretch. Breathe.
What you can expect if you’re training with me, is a different workout every time. I’ll still train my clients using weights, but I’m gonna mix it up quite a bit this summer.
And, guess what? That inspires me. 
Yesterday I decided that I needed to set up a little more structure in my life. This whole quitting-my-job-and-going-back-to-school-thing has been great, but there are some days I have absolutely no reason to get out of bed before noon. Now, I haven’t quite slept until noon yet, but I haven’t exactly been what one would call productive, especially in the mornings.
I made a list of things I’m committed to doing every day, and I’m going to post them here, so as to be accountable to more than just myself (and my sister, who I originally sent them to). First, a couple of points. The idea here is to create a routine that inspires me, that I only have to use the checklist for a while & then it becomes a habit. If I start beating myself up for doing it “wrong”, I’ll have lost the game, so to speak. I imagine it will take about 6 weeks. So, without further ado:
Every day I am committed to:
So far today: I woke up at 9, and made a great breakfast. I won’t be updating this every day, but I’ll keep it current. If you’re still reading, what are the things that you’re committed to doing every day?
Love,
Michelle
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.
~Leonardo da Vinci