I've just returned from a fitness conference in Las Vegas. And while this will help us train all the people in Kelowna to lose weight, stabilize their joints and perform at their best, some of the info isn't new.

Consider for example the analogy used by Martin Rooney.

[caption id="attachment_3914" align="alignleft" width="278"] Martin Rooney with Mark Wahlberg
If you're not familiar with Martin Rooney he's a strength coach from New Jersey that worked with a lot of top MMA fighters. More recently he has relocated to North Carolina and now focusses on helping people transforming their lives with exercise.

Anyways, Martin's analogy went something like this...'Are you familiar with broccoli?'. And almost everyone you are asking this to will nod their head in agreement. Then he will ask 'Did you know broccoli is one of the healthiest foods you can eat providing vitamins, minerals and helping prevent disease?'. An again everyone you are asking this will nod along with you as this is not new information. Next he will ask 'Are you making sure everyone you know is eating broccoli?'. And typically this is where the people he is talking to stop nodding and return a blank stare.

Because although everyone knows something is good and we make sure to do it ourselves we aren't encouraging everyone else to do it as well.

And if you work in this industry this can make you feel like a failure. This can happen because the info to a better life is readily available everyone can access it. And this info is simple and easy to understand. And because this info has huge value when applied to someone's life.

So what do I mean by simple info?

Well in terms of nutrition I mean to eat protein, veggies and drink water. Water is really obvious and easy to identify. And any five year old can pick veggies out of your grocery bag and separate them from the rest of the non-veggies in your shopping. And while some people may get tripped on what constitutes a protein this can be described as * anything that had a mother (so think fish, seafood, beef, pork, chicken, turkey, wild-game etc) * dairy * beans * vegetarian forms (soy, tofu)

So we all know what quality nutrition looks like, agreed?

What about exercise?

This gets a little trickier as some people believe the way to go is solely with aerobic training (think traditional cardio). And while this is good and necessary it needs to be combined with a resistance component as well.

So the elements that would be involved here would be: * a hinge movement for the hips * a bending movement for the knees * push something away from the body (or push the body away) * pull something towards the body (or pull the body towards) * move (preferably on the ground, barefoot and may involve rolling)

A friend Dan John has a similar list but his would include loaded carries and ground work in his list. Ground work and move would be the same thing.

Again the problem here is not that people doesn't understand what these elements are. There shouldn't be anything new in these lists that surprised the majority of people.

So again we can ask ourselves the same questions as above: * do we know what training is? * do we know the benefits of exercise are? * are we encouraging everyone we matters to us to do exercise?

I won't go into the last component, sleep and recovery, because I think you get the idea.

Whether you work in this industry or not we have a responsibility to apply the basics to our lives and to those who matter to us. This is the way to living the life you want, on your terms and as completely as possible.

Chris [fb-like]