Confidence: You Need It

Confidence is the biggest key to your happiness, success and advancement. You must believe in yourself in order for others to believe in you. More specifically your confidence level must match up with the status or successes that you wish to attain. Muhammid Ali perhaps said it best "I am the Greatest. I said that even before I knew I was." While Ali knew he was a work in progress, he developed within himself the confidence to acheive his goals, and despite critics; ultimately proved that he was one of the greatest boxers and athletes of all time. Therefore, confidence is something that is earned. You must challenge yourself every single day to grow in your desired area in order to obtain the confidence level you need to be successful on your path.

The truth is, most people are not extremely successful like Ali, and this is simply because of lack of fine tuning and efforts given to hard work and skill development. Confidence needs to be earned through hard work and sacrifice for professional and personal development. Confidence is not easily obtained, but is possible for all. Confidence is neither essoterical or unobtainable by the average person. With enough hard work against any odds, you will succeed. For some, success comes more quickly; while others must work for years and years to acheive their dream.

Often times; especially in my profession, I hear confidence spoken about in a negative connotation and classifed as egotistical, "all that", or ridiculous. While I do personally believe that being humble is a great quality to have in addition to being confident, there is absolutely nothing wrong with confidence in and of itself. Rather then view confidence as egotistical or prideful, I encourage confidence to be viewed as pride in one's abilities to outperform, out-think, outwork, and rise above competition because hard work pays off. Anyone in the business world knows that competition is a good thing! So stop getting down on yourself when you face competion, and realize that your missing element may in fact be your confidence. You will need confidence to get to the next level. Develop it!

My job as a motivator and personal trainer is to help people get to their next level, by changing their lives through delivering physical results, and provide tools to help them change their way of thinking so that their mind and body can work in sync with each other. Every good trainer will agree that physical conditioning is directly related to emotional control and pyschological conditioning as well. The more your train, the more you show up, the stronger you will become. We all succeed and fail in tough situations, but the more adversity we face we have better chance to grow. Look at any well known athlete and research their adversity. The difference between the great and the average person, is that the average person gives up on their dream when it gets too hard. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being average, but contentment? Who truly wants pure contentment? Will Smith put it like this, "Contentment is the easiest traveled road to mediocrity".

This blog, is really geared for you who strive for next level, and wish to be above mediocre. Think about it - Do you want to be above mediocre? If so, how do you fine tune your skills?

"You help put their lives back on track and give them the ability to do anything they want because they feel good.Confidence is amazing and working out and being healthy is the perfect way to do that." - (An undisclosed friend of mine the United States Military)

Balance: Teeter Totter

A huge concern for most of us is acheiving a balance in both our professional and personal lives. I have found from my own personal experience and that of my friends, family and clientele that acheiving a balance is rarely a focus, but lack of balance become the focus instead..... Read that again: Acheiving a balance is rarely a focus, but lack of balance becomes the focus instead.

So what is balance? How do we acheive it? Well, all answers become very deep and complex, but with everything in life from fitness, nutrition, work and relationships balance becomes essential. Whatever we focus on tends to throw us off of balance; whether positive or negative. Think about it... Have you ever focused on eating "well balanced meals" and instead of realizing how well you're doing at creating a lifestyle change and automatic habit, you focus on your lack of exercise or even lack of social time eating out with friends instead? We are all guilty.

I believe that it's important for us to realize the life is not perfect, and the majority of us will always be seeking balance. In fact, most of us who aspire to acheive great things will often be out of balance when it comes time to seize opportunity and perfect our game; whatever that may be. The majority of people (in my experience) who claim to have a perfect balance, very rarely acheive great things, and admit to contentment of their current position. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with this for them, not all of us like to be content. We strive for greatness or just simply something more!

It's also important to remember the balance is defined differently by each individual based on their moral or religious obligations, weight on specific relationships and those circumstances and also their overall lifestyle choices. Despite all variables, we all have one thing in common - We hope to acheive a balance.

With that said here are a few tips that I have learned in my journey of striving for a balance right for my lifestyle:

• Prioritize your schedule - Make time for things you enjoy or not just your "have tos"
• Transition Your Lifestyle into One that You will Enjoy Daily. - Whether it be your career choice or just playing with your kids everyday after work.
• Educate Yourself  - Create confidence in yourself as an asset to your employer and those who look up to you.
• Let Loose Everyone Once in Awhile - This doesn't mean you have to get completely crazy in a traditional sense with alcohol or drugs, but allow yourself to have fun and just live!
• Take Risks - Allow yourself to be out of control sometimes! This will help you develop as a person, grow, become stronger, and maybe even open up better opportunities.
• Love - Love hard. Appreciate those in your circle and family who support you. Make time for them, and place them as a top priority.
• Work Hard - If you work hard while you are working, you will be able to reap the benefits to the greatest degree and stress and worry less on your time off.
• Get a Coach or Mentor - Someone who can identify your strengths and weaknesses, and help you manage your busy schedule. This person (or people) can also help you remember what's important from an unbias point of view.
• Take A Trip at Least Once a Year - Allow yourself a mental escape from the "have tos" of life. Allow yourself to be unavailable to those outside of your intimate circle every now and again.
• Devote Time to Relaxation, Meditation, Spirituality, and Reflection - Spend time, and make it a priority to count your blessings, adjust your game plan, connect with your soul, and reflect on your direction. This will help guide you toward future decisions and allow you to be properly prepared.
• Do Not Neglect Your Health - Even if you get money, do not neglect your health. No amount of money can make you competely happy or buy you health. You have one body, and you must nurture it. This is your outward relection of your internal being the people will follow, and be inspired by.

“My point is, life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The pina and the colada.”

Workout Recovery: Tips on How To Recover

Today I want to give you some tips on properly recovering from your workout by request!

Drink lots of water

• Perhaps one of the most overlooked nutrients is water. Remember your body is composed on maily water, and its important for metabolism, tissue repair, and flushing of toxins.

Eat Properly

• One cannot expect optimal performance or recovery from training without proper nutrition. Ensure you are taking in enough calories for your BMR and activity levels. Without this, you will not see the muscular gains. This includes proper supplementation based on performance desires, needs and recovery times.

Cooldown

• This is very important (just as important as a warmup!) By slowly lowering your heart rate & respiration you also allows your muscles time to start recovering and repairing before your next workout. Cooldown also helps your body release toxins (such as lactic acid), and allows your mind and body time to process the intensity of your workout.

Stretch

• This is imporant to cool down the muslces, promote flexibility and proper range of motion to return, decrease muscle pain / stiffness, allows levels of adrenaline in the blood to be reduced, may help decrease DOMS,  and also helps release toxins from the muscles.

Rest

• This is a no brainer, but often not built in to a training program. Your body must rest and repair to function at optimal levels for performance. Rest time is different for every person, and each persons body may need to rest for various lengths of time. Rest is essential.

Active Recovery

•  Continue doing something! Sometimes it is not necessary to rest completely. There have been some studies done that conclude that active recovery can help promote toxin waste extretion, and help improve muscular recovery. It's also important to note that while resting a sore area of the body, you can work on a completely different muscle group. Bottom line - stay as active as possible! Don't overstrain your muscles but keep your body in motion and engaged daily.

 

Get a Massage

• Not only does a massage help reduce stress levels, but also releases the fascia (connective tissue) & muscles to release knots, tension and toxins. Massage can help promote overall wellness benefits, and increase recovery time for intense workouts. Just remember to hydrate!

Self Myofascial Release (Foam Roller)

• The foam roller offers many benefits of massage, but is used at the gym or in your own home. Foam rolling can help reduce injury, stress levels, chronic pain, help reduce muscular pain associated with DOMS among other things. Foam rolling is used by physical therapists, personal trainers and athletes alike. Everyone can benefit from foam rolling!

Ice Bath

• Many athletes use ice baths to help soothe their muscles, often by alternating hot and cold therapies, and some studies have even showed increased sports performance and recovery times using this method.  The idea behind an ice bath is that is constricts the blood flow to the body by pulling blood away from the core, and once heat is applied (or removing the body from an ice bath), blood flow will return to the "injured" area; thereby supplying fresh oxygenated blood for recovery. Even if you're not an athelete, you can enjoy the benefits of ice bath which include: repairing of muscle tissue, less muscular pain and stiffness, can help induce sleep, and prevents injury. There are many different studies that indicate different benefits, and while some are inconclusive one thing is sure. You`ll feel better! This form of therapy is also holistic and inexpensive.

Don't Overtrain - Listen to Your Body

• The best way to recover properly without have to take days, weeks or in some cases months off is to avoid overtraining. Some symptoms of overtraining include: headaches, sudden decreased performance, feelings of lethargy, pain in muscles and joints, insomnia, increased injuries, changes in appetite, loss of passion. While overtraining is more common in athletes, it can affect anyone. Please educate yourself, listen to your body and be your own advocate! Stay disciplined, but train smarter! Not just harder... You need a well structured program to help avoid this problem and injuries. Consult a fitness professional if you are unsure of how to do this.

 

You have only one body....

Not Just Fitness: It's Fun!

I have the pleasure of training clients 1 on 1, training clientele in groups, and also coaching bootcamp 2 times per week, and soon to be Les Mills BodyPump instructor. The City of Reno Park & Recreation Center has graciously allowed me, along with other instructors to teach FREE community classes at Reno's Downtown City Plaza. This is a huge deal because it is one of the first contracts of it's kind between a private and public entity that offers community classes at ABSOLUTELY NO CHARGE!

As you can imagine, I have been keeping extremely busy & having so much fun! For me, my passion is fitness & overall well being. It's important to find things to make fitness fun;especially once it becomes part of a daily routine. I find the biggest challenge for my clients is staying interested and having fun, so I always try to incorporate elements of fun in to all of the hard workouts. Over time, the hard work itself becomes fun!

So what should you do to help make your fitness fun? I have a few tips for you.

Switch it up!

This can include everything from your training style, to your workout partner, your environment, the time of day you train, your goals, etc.

Join some kind of fitness group

Whether it be 1 on 1 with a Personal Trainer, in a group setting like a fitness class or bootcamp, a hiking club, or just a softball league, you can stay active, motivated & have fun all at the same time!

Incorporate different styles of training into your daily routine

If you always train the same way, your body will become extremely efficient at the movements you perform (neuromuscular memory). This is not good if you're looking for greater gains, or a higher calorie burn. It's also not mentally good to do the same things over and over again because your mind will go on to autopilot. To overcome this, try adding in various exercise techniques / styles to keep your metabolism revved & your mind working!

Become connected with people who also train on a regular basis

It is so important to surround yourself with like-minded people in everyday life, and that includes in your fitness life too. Not only will others help keep you accountable and motivated, but surrounding yourself with another person (people) can help bring excitement to your routine.

Find a new physical hobby / sport

Bored out of your mind in the gym no matter what you do? Find a city league or church league sport to participate in. Most of these events take place in the evenings when you'd otherwise be watching tv. This will help you have fun, be social, and also be active! If you have a desk job, this is especially important for you!

Create some kind of a club within your workout partners or sports teammates

Hectic schedule? That's okay. Maybe what you need isn't a cheerleading team at the gym, you push yourself hard and have no problem with motivation. Your only problem may be the fun factor. If this is you, try creating a book club, or hiking group, or bunco or any other type of social event within your fitness community where you can exchange thoughts, ideas, and likes completely seperate from the gym and fitness life. This can help create a more positve environment within the gym, and also a good balance outside of working out.

Challenge yourself to try new things

Whatever you do, don't let yourself be a boring creature of habit who is stuck in a box. There are so many things that you can try in any season! Really hate Zumba? Go try to anyways! Sign up for the Tough Mudder, a local 5/10K, a relay run or triathalon.

Find a new passion & apprecaition for your body and training style. Think outside of the box.

 

 

"Fitness needs to be perceived as fun and games or we subconsciously avoid it"

- Alan Thicke

You can find more information on Reno's FREE classes at:
City of Reno


You can also find my trainer information & my story at:
Channéll Holmgren - Trainer Biography
Who I Am & What Drives Me

Falling Back + Coming Back > Falling Down + Staying Down

For those of you who know my favorite inspirational speaker / author / life coach / motivator Eric Thomas AKA ET the Hip Hop Preacher he says "A setback is a setup for a comeback".

This could not resignate more in my professional & personal life! All of us face obstacles, most of which we overcome, but we all have those instances in which we hit a wall and if we can break through in a timely manner (our expected timing), we tend to regress. I know because recently I found myself in this exact situation like everyone else, I am human. I hit a wall with my physical transformation, and instead of breaking through I regressed. Yep, I said it... I failed at a goal!

However! I realized the opportunity that was given to me during my physical regression. There is ALWAYS opportunity to learn & create a better plan during failures. If you want to be great, you cannot be afraid of failure!

During the last 6 weeks, I was not as focused on my physical goals as I was getting myself emotionally & mentally "together". I decided to educate myself, study, travel and nurture relationships I found myself neglecting as well. In other words, while I was physically resting I nurtured the other aspects of my life I had been neglecting. While it seemed so easy to get lazy during that time (physically), I realized that I could not seem to break through the wall because of my imbalance. I went so hard physically that I did not give enough attention to my knowledge growth, spiritual growth, or relational growth.

While we all have times of imbalance during sacrificing to acheive a goal, I encourage each and everyone of you reading this to be sure that while you are physically working you allow yourself to be 100% physically & mentally focused. Don't just go through the motions. Secondly, while you are physically resting make sure you nurture and feed your intellectual self. See, laziness is too common, but there is nothing wrong with rest & rejuvination when needed.

To avoid laziness here are a few tips:

• Create a Goals Calendar - Mark your goals & deadlines for each goal. This will help keep your timeframe in focus & allow for better time management / motivation.
• While resting your physical self, feed your intellectual self. - Read, study, self-educate, focus on schooling, become a professional in your are of expertise.
• Use a planner - This will help with your time management. You can easily identify gaps of time that you can utilize more efficiently.
• Keep yourself engaged - Do not just fall in to going through the motions. Be invested in your pursuit and focus on the process, not just the goal (end-result)
• Make daily routines fun! - Work in activities that you enjoy every single day.
• Spend alone time everyday - This will help you focus and reflect on yourself. Are you where you want to be? Are you heading in the direction you want to go?

Most importantly, find a way to balance all of your responsibilities; not just one central focus. Greatness happens by doing great things consistently.

Lastly, remember that every single setback is an opportunity to learn, grow and make a COMEBACK!

Be consistent!