Unsolicited Advice

Unsolicited advice is the same as criticism. I mention this because I see people making tons of mistakes in the gym and I learned not to try and correct those mistakes (unless asked to directly).

Anyways… I’m about to share some unsolicited advice. On fitness. On life.

Mostly on fitness.

You ready?

The Most common mistakes I saw (and overlooked- no unsolicited advice) in the gym are:

• People foam roll their IT band (it’s a band, not a muscle. Rolling it destabilizes it, makes it worse).

• People stretching before their workout. This decreases neural recruitment of muscles and makes one weaker and less flexible. Logically that makes no sense. I understand why people do it. Warm up by moving. As my friend Ben would say ‘Motion is the lotion’.

• Poor form on the lat Pulldown. Your back should be straight, your chest proud. Don’t round forward as you pull the bar to your chest.

If you run loudly on the treadmill you need to shorten your stride (180+ per minute) and/or roll out your feet, calves and shins. I’ve seen 250 lb men run quieter than 90 lb women. It’s mechanics not body weight.

I’ve seen about a dozen people fall off the treadmill. Inevitably a crowd of people will run to their aid and the fallen will act like they are not even there. Every. Time. It’s hilarious. I can joke about it because I fell off the treadmill and we’re done talking about this.

This is the same reaction we Trainers get when we give unsolicited advice. People act like you’re not even there. Every. Time.

If one move can get you into pain then one move should be able to get you out; unless you’re inflamed. Then you need RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation).

The shortest poem of all time came after Muhammad Ali gave a speech at Harvard. He’s leaving the stage and someone from the audience shouts ‘give us a poem’.

Ali turns on a dime, points to himself and says ‘Me;’ Points to the crowd ‘ We’.

Great poem. Uplifting. Meaningful. Lean. No extra words. Your workouts should be like that. Meaningful (towards a goal), lean (don’t do more than you have to), and uplifting (feel better at the finish than the start).

Train with someone who looks the way you want to look, or does what you want to do. If you think they’re on steroids you’ll also have to use steroids to get that look.

Private training is expensive, but Nothing is more expensive than being unhealthy.

There’s throw away line from ‘Good Will Hunting' when Will asks if he can smoke in the therapist’s office. Pay attention and you can hear Robin Williams say, ‘ya know those things would be a lot healthier for you if you shoved them up your ass.’ Pretty sure that was both an ad lib, the truth, and the way I’ll talk about smoking when Aidan (Sonny boy) is old enough.

If you want to immediately improve your balance roll out your feet. And put them in some good shoes.

The gym can be intimidating if you don’t know what you’re doing. Rest assured that 90% of people in the gym don’t know either. The other 10% won’t/can’t tell you what you don’t know (unsolicited advice) unless you ask.

Want to try some vegetarian meals but don’t know where to start? Try cookieandkate.com (my fave food blog). Start with any of her enchiladas (my fave are the spicy sweet potato ones) and definitely make her granola. She goes a little heavy on the cheese.

My favorite quote: ‘The race doesn’t always go the swift but to those who keep on running.’

Keep on running, swimming, flowing, biking, and lifting my friends… and don’t hesitate to ask us questions.