#30isthenew60

[lololombard]

Best way to end a Friday, with my girls #thegoldengirls #blanchedevereaux #stpatricksday @hallmarkchannel #imanoldlady #30isthenew60

[mrmuffincups]

Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man

Staring off into the sun because I am officially too old for tumblr.

[brentgallagher]

Why I’m Shutting Down My Gym

The need to recharge is a necessity, not a luxury. 

We all understand that principle but do we actually take action on it?

A few months back, my wife began to notice our team seemed a little tired.  After speaking with everyone, we discovered a break was needed. 

Not an optional break - a mandatory break. 

So that's exactly what we're doing here at Avenu Fitness.  We're powering down from July 1-5th to reboot and refresh. 

Sometimes we need someone else to give us permission to take time for ourselves: 

So here's permission to take some time off from training. Enjoy the chance to slow down and refresh.

Thanks for being a community that knows training matters, but life goes beyond the workout.

Here’s an email I sent out to my community of clients to explain the much needed R&R.....

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Every night we plug in our phones to recharge from all the day's usage.  Sometimes we have an emergency where we have to find a charger halfway through the day. Sometimes we could go days without a recharge.

The same holds true with our lives. The need to recharge is a necessity, not a luxury.  

At times we need to pull away early in our day because we missed out on a solid nights sleep because our minds were preoccupied with some daily stress. Other times the kiddo's want to jump into bed with you somewhere around 2:00am for no apparent reason.  

Either way, we need to pull away from the daily grind to recharge our batteries so we can operate at our absolute best - we can give more of ourselves to our loved ones - we can be fully present in our daily lives vs dreaming of checking some zzz's later on that night.

We take this so seriously, we want to make sure we're leading by example.

Since January 1, we've served you and our awesome community over 17,515 times in our unique IN30 training program! (not to sure about the wording here).  

When our alarm goes off at 4:00am, we typically hit the ground running until 6:30pm.  It adds up, but I know it's self inflicted!!!!  We love what we do though.  

But at times, instead of just plugging in to recharge, you need to shut down to completely reboot.

At that's exactly what we're doing here at Avenu Fitness.  We're powering down from July 1-5th to reboot so we can come back...

redefined with our new unique look and messaging

refocused to serve you even better

refreshed to continue making living fit convenient and attainable

Basically we're giving you permission to take some time off from training. Take some time to sleep in. Take some time to go eat breakfast or sit down for dinner with the family. Heck, even go play at the park with the kids.  What ever you decide to do, enjoy the chance to slow down.

For a small period of time, forget worrying about measuring your waist or biceps. Simply focus on the quality of life you can live by unplugging for your daily routine and slowing down to enjoy the friends, family and loved ones around you.

Hope you enjoy the R&R

- Brent

[brentgallagher]

The Art of a 30 Minute Fat Loss Program

Exercise is medicine.  

Working out, though not a drug, possesses many traits of a powerful pharmaceutical drug. However, as with any prescribed drug, a safe upper dose limit always exists. 

Working out beyond a normal limit, adverse effects such as musculoskeletal trauma and cardiovascular stress, may outweigh its benefits.

Research on endurance training shows that it causes temporary structural cardiovascular changes and an increase in cardio stresses that return to normal in a week. 

However, training for months and years can cause repetitive injury and lead to patchy myocardial fibrosis – basically a thickening of the heart (aka: Not healthy). 

 In another study myocardial scarring was found in 12% of otherwise healthy marathon runners.  And coronary heart disease signs were slightly higher in the marathon group as compared to the control group after a two-year follow up.

What does this mean to you who run everyday and train for more than one endurance event a year (1/2 & full marathon, triathlons, long bike races, etc)?

Simply this: Re-define success in your training. 

Working out should be an energy builder, not an energy drainer.  Keep it short.  Keep is simple.  Most importantly, listen to your body.

We all need off days.  Even professional athletes, those who display their phenomenal conditioning, strength, power and agility for millions of dollars, have an off-season.  

Why do we as ‘average Joe’s’ think we can push our training and never slow down all year long and get better results for our non-stop efforts?

The art of effective fat loss is actually so simple that most don’t want to believe it can be true.  The art is unique to each of us.

The art is summed up best like this: 

Everyday you have a choice to be 100% honest with yourself.  

Only you honestly know if you’re eating well enough to get the results you desire.  

Only you honestly know if you put in the time playing and moving on a daily basis.  

Only you honestly know that’s it’s most likely an eating problem versus a thyroid, blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and weight loss issue.  

Only you honestly know …..

Create the lasting art of living with integrity and you’ll soon discover that you hold the keys to solving your problems.

[brentgallagher]

Imperfections of 30 Minute Training

Before 1930, golf balls were made as smooth as possible and only traveled between 150 to 175 yards.  Golfers began to notice that the used balls, particularly those with small dents, flew farther than the brand-new smooth ones.

Designers took note and started making small little hexagon-shaped dimples to increase lift and distance.  Golf balls are now designed with over 300 to 500 flaws to help drives off the tee land between 200 and 300+ yards.

Most of us try build our careers like a pre-1930s golf ball – without any imperfections, always hiding from our true potential.  

We hold back from challenging the status quo and becoming better versions of ourselves because we feel we have to be perfect 100% of the time.

Don’t allow your limitations lead you to living a life of mediocrity.  

Give yourself permission to have flaws. Don’t focus only on your weaknesses.  Stop saying “I could never get results in just 30 minutes. Besides my clients would never buy into that.” 

So you’ve spent years training clients for 60 minutes at a time. That’s just a small dimple that will help carry you farther in your career.  

By learning from each limitation of the 60 minute training model, your career as a 30 minute trainer will begin to lift you up higher than ever before. You’ll impact more lives. You’ll increase your take home pay. You’ll even increase the amount of free time you have. 

You have to fight for the career you truly deserve. You project out what you feel on the inside.  

Start taking inventory of all the great things you could accomplish and what you could be grateful for when you adopt the 30 minute model.  

Every victory in your life was achieved by overcoming some personal limitation - adopting the 30 minute model - AKA giving your clients and yourself back time in your day - is no exception.

Once you begin to understand the limitations of 60 minute training, you will realize that they are some of your greatest assets to make the switch to 30 minute training. 

You will be able to step out of your comfort zone and become better once you give yourself permission to have dimples.

[brentgallagher]

The Complete 30 Minute Workout

[brentgallagher]

Caring for your Clients Time

A simple change we can all embrace as trainers is what we CARE about when coaching clients. 

It’s only when we care about something enough, are we willing to take action.

I’d go as far to say that the majority of our clients are busy. 

From personal commitments, work deadlines, soccer practice drop off and ballet pick up, juggling dinner with tomorrows lunch, having time to connect with your family and squeeze in (hopefully) 7+ hours of sleep. 

Everyday you walk into your gym, you start writing another page in the story of your career - which soon becomes part of your life story.  

You can change parts or completely rewrite the script – redefine reality with the fact that you can actually give your clients their time back by embracing the 30 minute model. 

But first you have to care about the story your career is telling.

[brentgallagher]

Becoming a Change Agent

In 1972, Bunker Roy founded Barefoot College in the tiny village of Tilonia, India. He wanted to give lessons in reading, writing and accounting to adults and children especially the "drop-outs, cop-outs and wash-outs."

Bunker was willing to take a risk. He said “This might not work.” But he attempted to create change anyways, even in the face of uncertainty, failure and the nay-sayers.

Barefoot College’s approach has been described as "de-mystifying high technology" to rural villages to show that with the right training, "the uneducated and semi-literate can operate and manage" items like solar panels and water pumps.

The college does not give out any degrees or certificates. Students are certified by the communities they serve. Mr Roy says that you don’t need a paper on the wall to show you’re a Change Agent.

And he built the Change Agents by:

Taking one out of their environment into a situation where they are challenged. They have to step into an environment where one can find something deep within themselves in which they thought they never had. And then, they have go back to their community and show what they’ve become. 

Roy Bunker said that if you want to make a leader out of any person in any community, give them a skill that is useful in assisting change within the community itself.

The Results:

Barefoot College’s grass-roots social entrepreneurship has trained more than 3 million people for jobs in the modern world, "in buildings so rudimentary they have dirt floors and no chairs" so that poor students feel comfortable.

Applying Change Agents to Fit Pro’s:

Step out of our comfort zone of just training. Expand our roles. 

Take a risk on creating change in our communities with food, sleep and focusing on training less ( Here’s a starting point: 30 minute training).

Build leaders instead of clients: Leadership is a useful skill that can create change within ones own life, as well as in the life of other loved ones.

Don’t sweat the lack of fancy equipment or the simplicity of your facility. 

Start with becoming a Change Agent yourself first, then blaze your own unique path to creating change within your community of clients.