Weight loss
Back in 2010, I found myself unhappy, overweight, and frustrated with life. I had a problem with alcohol and cannabis that I just couldn’t seem to control. I decided that taking the course to become a Certified Personal Trainer would help me learn about health and fitness, give me hope for a career that I could be passionate about, solve my own weight problem, and get away from alcohol and cannabis. I moved from Rochester, NY to Charlotte and reinvented myself as a fitness guy, not a guy that drinks alcohol or smokes weed, but someone that is passionate about health and fitness. About 18 months later I had reduced 60 pounds and passed my CPT course. I began training clients part-time from 5:30 am to 7:00 am, working at my desk job 8:00 am to 5:00 pm then back to the gym to train clients 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. I did this for a couple of years until I decided to do go full time into training and I started Determined Results Fitness in 2015 and have been enjoying a career in leading my clients towards better health. Your body is the only one you will ever get so my thought is we should take really good care of it. Especially now when we need strong immune systems to fight viruses.
Strength
I believe that leg strength is very important for all aspects of fitness. Weight loss, sports, and functional movement all benefit from strengthening your legs. In these videos, I am lifting a few hundred pounds, but I do not lift heavy like that all the time. I good leg strength goal would be to be able to squat and deadlift the weight of your lean mass. For example, if you weight 200 lbs and are 25% body fat your lean mass is 75% of 200 lbs = 150 lbs.
Endurance
Endurance comes naturally to humans as that is how we are built. Our bodies are built to walk about 10 to 13 miles per day and go for days without food and still able to survive. Under 70% max heart rate our bodies use fat for fuel for activities like walking. We can use our stored fat very efficiently which makes it difficult to get rid of when we have too much. In our modern lifestyle, we tend to overeat and under exercise which leads to overweight.
In the photo below my wife and I hiked to the top of Mount Corcovado in Rio De Janeiro back in 2016. It took an hour and a half hiking up steep and dangerous terrain. Every step was like stepping up 4 stairs so I thought about doing steps ups for 90 minutes, it was very difficult but rewarding. Everyone else took the trolley, but we signed our lives away on waiver and went for the hike, lol. It was 90 degrees, humid and I ate a giant omlet immediately before, I urge you not to eat eggs or meat in general before a hike. I was cramping the whole way up and the wife was making fun of me because I ate my omelet and half of hers.
Sports
I played football and baseball in high school and Football in College for one year as a fullback. Now I play tennis and golf. Below is me, number 26, when I played for Alfred University in 2004. I was 230 lbs then and very strong, but now I am stronger and weighing less than 200 lbs. Back then I ate like 3 hamburgers and 2 pieces of grilled chicken at dinner because I had this thing about the more protein the better, stuck in my head. I am much smarter now, we do not need to overeat protein and meat, we can get plenty of good protein from plants and small amounts of meat. I would tell my younger self, “Stop eating so much.”
