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Dramatic Fat Loss or Smoke and Mirrors?

January 6, 2010 by Joe Stankowski

I recently developed an educational program for my buddy’s gym just down the road from Grand Rapids in Holland, MI.

In a weekly presentation lasting roughly 75 minutes, I deliver a boat-load of information to help both fitness-newbies and seasoned gym-rats get the most out of the time they have available for training.  While I see the information as ‘basic’, my interpretation of “eat right and exercise” (apparently) goes way beyond what most people learned in their high-school gym class.

When I checked my inbox earlier this week and read the following email, I had to chuckle…

I went to your new member orientation at Flex Fitness, and have been following the diet as best I can and also trying to work on my stability by lifting with low intensity (3 sets of 15). So far I’ve lost 9 pounds and dropped my body fat percentage 9% in just 2 weeks.(9 lbs. is not 9% of my body weight, so I must have gained some muscle as well)

While I’m all for using testimonials in my marketing efforts to show others just how valuable a trainer/coach/educator I can be, I just couldn’t let him go around sharing his experience with everybody.  I like to think I’m pretty gosh-darned good at what I do, but imagine the unrealistic expectations people would have of me if word of my magical ability to produce 9% fat loss in just 2 weeks got out!

I mean, if I was shooting an infomercial for a crappy abdominal gadget, I suppose I’d be tempted to milk the hell out of it, but I’m just not made up that way.  (yeah, I know… sometimes I even surprise myself.)

So, for your education/entertainment, here’s my response…

Sounds like you’re off to a GREAT start!

While you probably did start to eat away at your bodyfat stores – and may even be noticing some increases in your strength, I’m going to do what I do best and give you something to consider…

This is not because I want to be the burster-of-bubbles (and certainly not to deter your from continuing to work at getting ‘lean & mean’), but what you’re most likely seeing in such a short time is the difference a change in hydration level can make.

I don’t remember if I told you about the marathoner I worked with during your orientation session…  Before a race, he measured in around 12% bodyfat.  26.2 miles later, he was in the low 40’s.  It’s not likely that he got 30% fatter while running a marathon.  Instead, he became dehydrated and it completely obliterated any degree of accuracy of our measurement tool – bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA) – might offer… The one we used was similar to the popular Tanita body comp scales, but a hand-held version.  I’m suspecting you used a similar device?

Assuming you did, essentially, you achieved what the marathoner did in reverse… hydrationally speaking, anyway.  Many people start out under-hydrated, which can give an artificially high reading when using BIA as an estimation tool.  By eating regularly, drinking plenty of good fluids and balancing things out through training for the past couple of weeks, you now have a much more accurate reading.  Make sense?

You know how water is a good conductor of electricity? Try throwing a hair dryer in a bathtub full of water and you’ll quickly find out! [note: please don't REALLY do this!]

If you throw the same (hypothetical) hair dryer in an empty tub, the electricity won’t go very far.  This is effectively how BIA estimates work.  It takes some basic variables (height, weight, age, sex) and measures the speed at which the device completes the circuit (sending a micro-current through your body) to come up with a number that is *supposed* to be within a range of +/- 2.5% accuracy when compared to others of similar height/weight/age/sex.  Problem is, when hydration can’t be controlled or accurately measured, it’s likely that you’ll see some drastic swings as H2O levels change.

Now if you used skinfold calipers on yourself, there’s also a degree of human error to be expected, so given the dramatic change in your numbers, I’d also question the accuracy of that method.

Hydrostatic testing has long been considered the “gold standard” of estimating body composition. This involves exhaling every last bit of air you can squeeze from your lungs, then being weighed while you are completely submerged under water.  That’s not a natural way to go diving, ya’ know?

If you really need 100% accuracy, you’ll have to wait until you’re dead, then have someone boil you up in a vat of water, skim off all the floaty-stuff at the surface – weigh it and then subtract it from your total starting weight.

[note to the mentally deficient and/or cannabalistic serial killers with an interest in physiology: I'm not recommending the above 'technique', I'm only trying to impress upon you the fact that 100% accurate measurements aren't really all that important outside of a research environment.]

It is for reasons like these I recommend the use of regular (bi-weekly/monthly) progress photos AND a favorite outfit/pair of jeans/etc as tools to measure MEANINGFUL progress.

Of course, if you DID actually drop 9% body fat  in just two weeks, I’d love to make you the ‘poster-child’ for my services!!!  If I can help you accomplish that from nothing more than a spoken presentation, imagine how good the results would be if I actually designed a complete training plan for you!

Let me know what the numbers say in another week or 2.  Barring any dramatic swings in your hydration level, that should give us a much better indication of your progress.

[note to the FTC: how's THAT for truth in advertising?]

Posted in Joe, Serious-talk | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Slosh Pipe Training Revisited

November 20, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

You may (or may not) remember my July 31st appearance on Grand Rapids Fox 17 where Morning Show host Sarah Brodhead took the slosh-pipe for a ride (or was it the other way around?)

This morning, the pipe returned with a vengeance – this time with its little cousin, the “slosh bell” (the 2′ left-over from a 10′ pipe when I made an 8 footer.)  We also discussed a low cost way to help your slosh pipe survive even the coldest of Michigan winters.

Enjoy (and feel free to leave comments about your own slosh-pipe training experience).

Dip and scoop, Sarah.

Dip and scoop.

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Hardcore Gym or Health Club?

November 2, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

‘Powerlifting’ and ‘Bodybuilding’ gyms can be a little (or a LOT) intimidating to the ininitiated – especially if you have no interest in becoming a competitive powerlifter or stepping onto the bodybuilding stage.

But even if squatting 800lbs or shaving your entire body, painting it orange and covering your nether regions with little more than an eyepatch don’t appeal to you, there is one VERY good reason you should consider training in a ‘hardcore’ gym over a commercialized health club…

Powerlifters and bodybuilders – although they’ll often go at it like cats & dogs (or more like Mexicans and Puerto Ricans) – are among the most supportive people you’ll ever meet.

Sure, when they compete, everyone wants to win, but ya’ know what?  The iron game is about personal achievement, and PL/BB-ers love to see everyone (even their competitors) achieve personal goals and surpass their self-imposed limitations.

I’m pretty sure this has something to do with the fact that neither PL or BB’ing is considered a ‘mainstream’ sport. Winners rarely get more than a trophy or a plaque to hang on their wall.

With the big money of more popular sports out of the picture, PL/BB-ers train to compete for little more than the personal satisfaction that comes with self-improvement.  Isn’t THAT the reason you’d want to join a gym in the first place?

Now if you go to a ‘fitness boutique’ or a franchised health club, you’ll often find just the opposite is true. Members are often more interested in the social scene than achieving any meaningful progress.

If social is what you want, stay home and play Farmville or take another survey on Facebook.  (Just please stop inviting me to play along with you!)

Mainstream gym-goers frequently engage in subtle (or even flagrant) ‘one-upmanship’ .  Ego’s flair.  Opportunities to put another member down as weaker, fatter, less successful in life are frequently used to boost one’s own self-image.

Not a very supportive environment, in my opinion.

In a hardcore gym, the only thing that really matters is how committed you are to change.

To learn.

To push yourself to new levels of physical progress.

To say you’re going to accomplish something – and then go ahead and actually DO it.

The weights are all the same & there’s no difference between treadmills.  But people in a hardcore gym are more likely to help you, to spot you in a tough exercise, to cheer you along as you work towards a personal best, to challenge you to get back in the game when you blow your diet… while you do the same for them.

Why?

Because it’s the right thing to do.

Posted in Joe, Opinions are like… | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments »

Beckwith’s Gym (Part 3)

October 29, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

[continued from yesterday]

…one, you can do the ‘country club’ model.  Take your operating expenses and simply divide that by the number of powerlifters.  I don’t know how many PL-ers are willing to pay $500 a MONTH to train here, but then again, I don’t really understand why golfers sink so much money into smacking a dimpled ball around a park.

Or two, expand your ‘menu’ to include other markets.

Obviously, I was strongly leaning toward the latter.

Out of the first 400-ish postcards I sent out, only a half dozen or so came back as undeliverable (possibly something to do with my chicken-scratch scrawl where a name and address should have gone), nearly a dozen made the plunge to the next step – going to the website and subscribing to an auto responder series.  The other 300+ are still on my list of follow-up-to-do, but I’m gonna have to adjust my marketing strategy now that the ‘free gym membership + free personal training’ offer can’t be fulfilled (not at Beckwith’s anyway).

While Beckwith’s DID connect with another gym across town and arrange for their members to ‘transfer’ their memberships over, the fact is, for those living in the more southern range of their local market (towns like Jenison, Wyoming, Grandville, Byron Center or Hudsonville), the commute would now be as much as 30 minutes each way.  “Official” backup plan or not, Strength Beyond Fitness (on Plainfield Ave) just wouldn’t meet the needs of every member affected by the sudden closure of Beckwiths.

Hence my promoting of Flex Fitness Center just down 196 in Holland (only half the drive time of Strength Beyond) as an alternate option.  As I mentioned in the video back in Part 1, my friend and Flex owner, Shawn Miller, kindly offered to take stranded Beckwith’s members under his wing and honor the remainder of their membership  – obviously with the hope they’d continue as paying members down the road – but moreso as an attempt to put a band-aid on the ‘black eye’ that is often cast when the public gets the (perceived or real) shaft from some branch of the fitness-industry-at-large.

To further expand on my video from Part 1, here’s Shawn personally extending his hand to any who may have been left without a place to pump iron…

 

[to be continued...?]

 

Posted in Joe, News, Video | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

Beckwith’s Gym (Part 2)

October 28, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

[...continued from yesterday's post]

“Money?” I laughed.  “That’s easy.  We SELL program design”

He gave me that puzzled look you get from a dog when you ask it a question.

Long story short (whew!), my plan was to sell my program design services, include a gym membership and personal training (which I would pay for out of my program design fee) and EVERYBODY wins.

I often refer to this as my “toy-in-the-cereal-box-approach” (more on that some other day).

The problem was, there are only 20 or so competitive powerlifters in the area – and all of ‘em were already training at Beckwith’s.

I realized time was limited as this ship was already sinking and I’d have my work cut out for me.  So I went for the obvious market: women.

Keep in mind, Beckwith’s build their reputation (since 1984) on powerlifting. The kind of sport many people (especially women) find intimidating.

So I purchased a list of women who fit a certain demographic and created a simple postcard to test the waters and see who might be interested in training in such an environment.  I wrote the copy, but it was meant to appear as if it was coming directly from the gym.  The postcard read something like this…

How Else Can We Say, ‘We’re Sorry’?

We understand you might find a traditional gym environment a little harsh. Maybe even a tad bit intimidating. Okay… maybe a LOT intimidating. And we realize it’s our fault. We’re guys. What do we really know about anything?

But we’ve been listening and you’ve been right all along.  We’ve been selfish jerks and we’re sorry.  Now we’re just hoping you’ll give us a chance to show you how much we want to change.

This isn’t a bouquet of flowers, but we do have a FREE Gym Membership and Personal Training offer we’d love to tell you about – if you’ll just give us a chance to start over…

All we’re asking is that you visit BeckwithsGym.com/freeoffer* to see how we’re trying to make things right.

Please check it out…  We really do want to change.

Love always,
Beckwith’s Gym

P.S. Please say you’ll meet us half way… BeckwithsGym.com/freeoffer*

[* now that the gym is closed, this page is no longer active]

Again, the gym owners thought I was nuts.  “…but this is a hardcore gym.  This kind of thing will make us look… mainstream.” (gasp!)

I challenged ‘em with the question: What is McDonalds known for? (Ironic choice, I know – considering what I do and all…)

“Hamburgers?”

Exactly.  But can’t you also walk into a McDonalds and get a chicken sandwich? Yogurt? SALAD?!  Even with those options on the menu, they’ll never be able to ’shake’ their image as a burger joint.  Same with a gym like Beckwith’s.  You’ll ALWAYS be a hardcore temple of the iron.

But as far as I can see, you have exactly TWO options…

[to be continued...]

Posted in Joe, Opinions are like… | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

What Happened to Beckwith’s Gym? – Part 1

October 27, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

Grand Rapids area fitness and powerlifting mecca is no more

Maybe it’s just the natural cycle of life, but sometimes good gyms go out of business.  It was a real shame to find out yesterday morning that the weekend rumors about Beckwith’s Gym in Grandville, Michigan were true.

As I pulled into the parking lot at 3040 28th Street SW yesterday morning to meet with one of my personal training clients, I quickly noticed the lights were off and the interior looked eerily vacant for the normally active time of 11am.

Having been around the fit-biz block a few times, I immediately realized that Beckwith’s Gym’s time has come (and mysteriously gone sometime over the weekend).

I only discovered the gym a few months earlier.  Always on the lookout for resources that I can direct clients, readers, friends and fans to, I heard talk of this dinosaur-style gym since moving to Grand Rapids a year earlier.

Yet every time I set out in search of the mythical Beckwith’s, I always wound up at their previous location (with an entrance in the back of a retired bowling alley) that always had a “closed” sign on the door.  I just assumed it was because it was such an exclusive, powerlifting-niche club, they only had a handful of dedicated members who’d meet there at specific times.  I wanted to know the secret handshake to get in – so I checked back every couple of months.

It was finally mid-summer before I thought to track ‘em down via the internet (this may come as a surprise to some of you younguns, but even though I consider myself a bit of a tech-geek, we old-timers sometimes take a bit longer to remember that google knows EVERYTHING).

I emailed one of their trainers who quickly replied that they moved about 3 miles west earlier in the year and they have typical operating hours.  Finally – all I had to do was make the 20 minute drive to Grandville and I’d see what all the talk was about.

When I walked in I was greeted by “Pops” – the 73 year old majority owner and one heck of a deadlifter, too!  We got to talking and I quickly understood that they were finding their new location (and the low-ball priced area competitors) to be forces they weren’t quite equipped to handle.

Membership at gyms like Beckwith’s are usually in the $40/month range but they found themselves competing against the franchised outfits with healthy marketing budgets and the ability to undercut the “real” gyms with membership as low as $12/month.

“Pops” knee-jerk response in order to stay competitive was to offer an annual membership for just $180 – with NO ‘initiation fee’ and no contractual obligation to renew.

So I asked him what he would offer when the franchises went down to $10/month… Or $5.

Being the lowest price option is rarely the best way to be profitable, but he needed to get people in the door to even have a chance to sell ‘em on the Beckwith’s ideal of training.

Because he was so set on competing strictly on PRICE, I suggested he take the low-ball approach to the max and give membership away for FREE.  He looked at me like I just escaped the loonie-bin.

It was at this point I explained what I do.  Not wanting him to be the only one ‘risking’ anything by giving away membership to his gym, I even offered to throw in my personal training services for free.

“But how do we make any MONEY?” he understandably asked.

[to be continued...]

 

Have you purchased a Beckwith’s Gym membership and have nowhere to train?  Be sure to watch the following short video…

Posted in Joe, News, Video | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

More From The West Michigan Bodybuilding Scene…

October 27, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

My friend Shawn Miller has a gym…make that THE gym in Holland, Michigan.  FLEX Fitness Center is known locally as the place to work out when you’re serious about change.  A couple of his gym members put their efforts on display at the 2009 NPC Western Michigan Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships this past weekend – and I was there capturing video of their evening posing routines…

Dave Kaletka

Greg Castro

…and of course, I somehow happened to record some random bikini competitors (none from FLEX that I’m aware of, but I told you yesterday some bikini comp footage was on its way):

BTW, I’ve been working on a couple ‘top secret’ projects with Shawn/FLEX – the kinds of things that are only being announced through the gym and on their Facebook Fan Page.  If you want to find out what we have up our heavily muscles sleeves, you need to become a “fan”.

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Mr. Olympia 2009 Jay Cutler

October 26, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

Something about the overwhelming scent of Pro Tan (not to mention the equally overwhelming sight of big guys in small posing trunks) usually prevents me from going out of my way to check out a bodybuilding show, but this weekend, the 2009 Western Michigan Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships rolled through town so I figr’d what the heck…

I’ll be posting some (bikini contest) vids  at my YouTube channel (you DO subscribe, don’t you?), but for now, you’ll have to settle for this footage of 2009 Mr. Olympia, Jay Cutler, guest posing just 3 weeks after reclaiming his title.  He really knows how to work the crowd – be sure to watch what he does at about the 3 minute mark…

Posted in Video | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

Who Are You? (alt. title: “I’m Baaa-aaack”)

September 30, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

Jeezh!  Time flies, huh?  It’s been awhile since my last post.  Over a month, in fact.  No, not a case of blogger’s-block or anything life threatening (other than a near fall from the wrong end of a tall ladder, but that’s another story).

I’ve just been caught up in biz, travels, etc.  I guess what they say is true: Life happens – even to the best of us.

(I don’t know if ‘they’ really ever said that… as far as I’m aware, I just made it up.)

Anyway, for the past several weeks, I thought about doing some ‘best of the cup’ posts, but that just seemed cheap and tacky.  Not to say that I’m NOT cheap and tacky, but if you want to see any of my old posts (you know you do), it’s easy enough to navigate your way around this blog.

But there is something I want to know about my regular readers…  Are you a ‘fitness enthusiast’?  Somehow tied into the fitness industry?  Or just a misguided soul who gets an inexplicable sense of enjoyment from reading my words on paper…uhm… I mean a computer monitor?

Oh, and even though I haven’t been doing a whole lotta blogging, per se, I have been active in other “social media”: adding vids to my youtube channel, facebooking, tweeting, linked in-ing and the like.

So if you’ve suffered through the last month wondering when you’d get your next Joe-fix, have no fear my little friend.  In the immortal words of ZZ Top, “I’m bad.  I’m nationwide.”  Any way you look, I’ll be there. (well except for here.  But you know what I mean…)

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US:British Fitness Equivalents

August 24, 2009 by Joe Stankowski

I often make the joke that I went into a bookstore while I lived in England and picked up a ‘best of British cooking’ book only to open the cover and find there were no pages inside. As uninspiring as the gastronomic experience of my 3 and a half years in the UK may have been, I wouldn’t trade the overall experience for the world.

While I didn’t return to the US in 2001 with anything close to the James Bond accent I was hoping to pick up (“I like my protein shakes blended, not shaken…”), I did come back with the ability to drive a stick shift with my left hand on the wrong side of the road.

Even though we all speak the same language, there were some interesting differences I learned in the gyms of England – and I trained at quite a few of ‘em.

Converting kilos to pounds wasn’t a big deal, thanks to my prior powerlifting experience, but it took me awhile to accept the fact that the all-American exercise we knew since birth as a push-up, my British clients called a press-up.

Lying Triceps Extensions… I’ve always known ‘em as “Skull-crushers”. In England, they call ‘em as nose-breakers.

Gym shoes are known as trainers and steroids are referred to as “gear”.

Even common anatomical terms were pronounced differently enough to make me say “HUH?!” more than once.

Capillaries -
USA: KAHP-ul-larrys
UK: kuh-PILL-er-ees

Skeletal system -
USA: SKELL-it-ull
UK: skuh-LEE-tull

Of course, I also came away with an appreciation for private insurance over the government mis-managed option, but at least I won’t ever have to worry about that happening here, will I?

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