Chris LaLanne may not have accumulated all the records or awards as his iconic grand-uncle Jack (yet), but give him time.  Assuming he inherited a few good genes through the family tree (combined w/his personal interest in all-things-fitness), I’m sure we’ll be hearing about Chris for many years to come.

In addition to his own fit-biz interests, he’s been tasked to manage the community/blog section of uncle Jack’s website.

Hope ya’ enjoy this li’l journey into the life and mind of Chris LaLanne…

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

PERSONAL LIFE
“The past few years have been life changing for me.  My marriage (7/7/7) to Maribel Gonzalez has encouraged me to be more productive and responsible than ever.”

MODERN CULTURE
“I am passionate about helping people help themselves; therefore, I give you the tools to make changes.  If you are successful, I am successful.  This is what keeps me going.

“Our society is sending the wrong messages.  Today, we must outsmart the media’s focus on processed foods.  We all need education and guidance.”

FITNESS
“LALANNE FITNESS (powered by CrossFit) is an exciting community of people that is growing fast.  We are very excited about the future!

“Our website is a fantastic window into our “School of Elite Fitness”.  CrossFit is the fastest growing fitness movement on the planet.

“At LALANNE FITNESS, we teach beginner to advanced level CrossFit classes.  Every functional movement we perform is scalable for the individual, ensuring success for the entire group.  The workouts are short, high intensity bursts of energy, often 20 minutes or less.

“It changes every day, making it fun and stimulating, keeping you engaged.   You will leave our gym feeling better about yourself than when you arrived. Community first, then RESULTS makes for success!”

ROLE MODEL
“The most inspirational man I know is Jack LaLanne.  He is an American hero who has truly made a difference in the world.  I am honored to continue the gospel of fitness and nutrition.”

I am interested in providing my husband a gift certificate for private lessons with you.  He is an active 30-something who works out at least 3 times a week if not more; however he is not losing weight like he wants.

He is a strong individual who uses exercise not only to keep in shape but also for health reasons (high blood pressure).  Can you give me a call or email me to let me know what type of packages you offer for private lessons and what the price would be as well as your availability?

My husband has a hectic schedule (but don’t we all).

Best regards,

Gail

Phone: 302-XXX-XXXX
Email: XXXXXXX@verizon.net

***** ***** *****

Gail,

Thanks for your email.

Unfortunately, I’m no longer able to accept one-on-one clients in Delaware (mainly because I moved to Michigan and the 700 mile commute is a killer!) but I may still be able to help you…

First, I highly recommend AGAINST buying personal training sessions for another person.  You know the saying about ‘leading a horse to water’…

While I could possibly recommend a trainer in your area, if your husband isn’t 100% on board with the idea, there’s a good chance he’d just go through the motions and fizzle out unchanged.  I obviously don’t know him, but I’ve seen this happen time and time again - In fact, I won’t allow anyone but the actual client/member pay for my services.  If we’re expecting serious change, I need them to be PERSONALLY invested in the entire process.

Plus there’s more to it than simply scheduling “lessons” or “training sessions” - the likelihood of his exercise technique being the limiting factor is very slim.  And if your husband is already training regularly, there’s a good chance he already understands the nuts & bolts of a “proper workout”.

Most trainers will only be able to give him slight variations of whatever he’s already doing (something I’m sure he can easily do on his own if he so much as picks up a reputable fitness magazine) - but variety alone doesn’t guarantee results.  The “trick” is having a logical training system - a personalized interpretation of progression - of 2 basic concepts:

1) Eat right

and

2) exercise

Eat right can be easily addressed through Dr. John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition program - it’s the same plan I use w/my private coaching clients and I recommend it to everyone, and it makes a great gift for about $100.  It’s a complete system of audio/video/written/web-based material.  Can’t really say enough good things about it - check it out.

The exercise part of the equation doesn’t have to be overly complicated (though a lot of trainers would like to make it seem like it is).  If his training program needs a complete overhaul, my friends Alwyn Cosgrove & Lou Schuler wrote the best book on the market: The New Rules of Lifting (available at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Borders, etc)

[If you have any interest in updating your OWN training program, they also wrote The New Rules of Lifting for Women (along with Cassandra Forsythe).  Can't beat these books for about $20]

If after all of that, your husband decides he needs professional guidance to make sense of it all, I’d be happy to schedule a time to chat w/him for 10-15 mins and see if it’d make sense invite him into one of my distance-coaching programs - more affordable than my private coaching and PERFECT for those w/’hectic schedules’.

-JS-

P.S. Another idea, if he doesn’t already receive it is to get him a subscription to Men’s Fitness magazine.  I admit I’m a bit biased because I do a lot of work w/MF, but it really is one of the best fitness mags out there.

P.P.S. If you’re still stuck on the idea of ‘personal training sessions’, let me know and I’d be happy to send you my checklist of questions to ask before hiring a trainer.

P.P.P.S. If you REALLY want to blow him away with a gift idea, I have a house for sale in Wilmington - buy it and I’ll even throw in a set of PowerBlock adjustable dumbbells!

One of the obstacles preventing powerlifting from ever becoming an Olympic sport is the way some federations promote allow the abuse use of assitive supportive gear such as knee wraps, squat suits & bench shirts.

Lifters typically argue their safety/protective qualities while opponents are against the additional, near superhuman weight that such specialized gear allows one to lift over their “raw” poundages.  (I once saw a shirt press 350lbs while nobody was wearing it)

I’ve trained and competed with and without supportive gear, so I’m not here to debate whether the use of it is good, bad or ugly, but I do believe that if PL is ever to be taken seriously by outsiders (and for their respective “world records” to have any meaning), the powers-that-be need to agree on a single standard of supportive/protective gear which will be allowed in competition.

If it’s up to me, triple-ply kevlar supersuits will become a thing of the past.  I’m casting my vote for the latest technology from Honda (just don’t expect to see me driving one of their toy cars anytime soon)…

Okay, so maybe it looks like the bottom half of CP30, but before you criticize it on style alone, you need to watch the video of this machine in action.

I can’t wait for ‘em to release the top half so maybe I can finally have a respectable bench.

Only in England:Pudgiest pets compete in slimming contest

Only in America:Man drops 140lbs in 11 months to join Marines

Deliverance of bad news for this West Virgina town?

Heavy kids need not fear health-conscious vampires

Pregnant and eating for two?  Better think twice (especially if you’re a lab-rat)

This ‘review’ has it’s humble beginnings as my response to a person who asked me about the Acai Berry Diet, yet the take-home message can be applied to any ‘fad’ diet. -JS-

Sure, the acai berry has nutritional benefits (so do most other fruits, veggies, lean protein sources, etc), but a diet based around a single food source wreaks of gimmick. Fad diets typically rely on some combination of caloric restriction and exercise (they need to in order to be “effective”)

But If it’s your first time following a calorie restrictive diet, yes, you’ll lose ‘weight’ (not necessarily body fat) - probably fairly easy, too.

The problem is that the more you cycle between restrictive and “regular” eating patterns, the harder it gets to lose anything meaningful as you continue the yo-yo cycle. And every time you go back to ‘regular’ eating, you’ll gain even MORE weight than you lost.

This is why I use (and HIGHLY recommend) Dr. John Berard’s Precision Nutrition with my private coaching clients. It doesn’t rely on simple calorie restriction as a short-term ‘trick’. Instead, it provides all the tools one needs to develop and modify (depending on personal goals) healthy lifestyle habits (notice the similarities to my ‘5 hour’ approach with “This Workout…” It’s all about the HABITS!)

There are times and places where restrictive diets can be deemed necessary (for profit or as part of a bigger health picture). For example, one of my former clients is an actor (codename: VisionQuest) and he gave me the challenge of helping him lose as much weight as possible in ~6weeks for a role as a meth addict.  Whether the weight loss was bodyfat or lean, healthy muscle wasn’t important.  He simply needed to look like a junkie

We did some insane things I would NEVER do with a ‘regular’ person, but his career is his life, and he fully understood the long term effects of extreme dieting/yo-yo cycles and the volume and intensity of workouts we needed to apply, so we went to work…

“VQ” came into this particular project extremely lean and he successfully dropped 18lbs in that short time. Hated every minute of it, but couldn’t have been happier with the results. (A real-life former addict served as a consultant to the film and said that the typical meth addict drops closer to FORTY pounds when they get hooked.) “VQ” was perfectly happy w/his little 18lbs and was even happier to eat again when the shoot was complete.

Medically, it’s sometimes necessary to lose ‘as much weight as possible’ before surgery (to minimize the work load on an already weak heart, for example).

Sure it would be great if cardiac patients had time/energy/motivation to lose weight “the right way”, but apparently the medical profession views extreme dieting as the lesser of 2 evils.  Even if I wanted to dispute their viewpoint, it wouldn’t really matter as I’m not in a position where I can override medically prescribed diets.  If you’re considering such an extreme diet, make sure it’s medically necessary first.

If you have a major lifetime event coming up (wedding, reunion, etc) where you needed to look as good as you possibly could, there are certainly shortcuts, but don’t expect to keep it off when the event is over and life returns to relative normalcy.

’tis a shame the diet industry won’t say any of this to consumers.

Name: MOLLT L.
Email: CROPDUSTER1xxx@xxxxxx.xxxx

JOE, EAVERY [sic] MORNING I WATCH YOUR SHOW AND I AM TIRIED [sic] OF HEARNIG [sic] YOU NOT ALOWING [sic] YOUR GUEST TO TALK OR FINISH SPEAKING.

BUT MY MAIN COMPLAINT IS YOU CRYING EVERY MORNING. FIRST ABOUT THE ELECTION NOW ABOUT OUR NEWELY [sic] ELECTED PRESIDENT.

SUCK IT UP AND STOP COMPLAINING.  SORRY THE NEWELY [sic] ELECTED PRESIDENT DIDEN;T [sic] REACH ACROSS THE ISLE AND PICK YOUR SORRY ASS.

A DEVOTED FAN

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

While I certainly appreciate you taking the time to email me and calling me a “sorry ass” (not to mention your liberal use of CAPITAL LETTERS), perhaps it would do you some good to revisit my contact page.

This time, pay v-e-r-y c-l-o-s-e a-t-t-e-n-t-i-o-n to the BOLD red print.

Thanks.

-Joe-

Keeping the political-theme alive until this election cycle finally ends later this evening (or a month from now if hanging chads make a comeback), I thought I’d tackle the issue of Roe v Wade. (I mean, why not?  I’m a fitness geek - that should be enough to qualify me)

First things first: Correct the spelling to ROW v Wade.

Now that we have that out of the way, both rowing and wading (progressing to deep water running) can be excellent forms of exercise.

Case closed.

So which political issue would you like me to take on next?

…produces best results when supported by affirmative nutrition.

(just a fancy way of saying ‘eat right & exercise’).

Now turn off your computer and go vote, will ya’?

Thanks for coming out.  Try the veal and don’t forget to tip your waitress.

Vote.

Your biceps can wait.

Although you might want to carry a PN compliant meal (or 2) in a cooler just in case there’s a long line at the polls.