What is it?: A 6-week progressive training program geared towards improving overall athleticism. Each session lasts for an hour and a half with both indoor and outdoor components. The 6 week cycle is split up into three phases. Each phase lasts for two weeks and is designed to build off the previous phase with increasing amounts of difficulty. Medicine ball throws, hurdle jumps, sprints, and general weight training tactics will all be employed to increase the speed, agility, and strength of the participants.
Where is it?: The outdoor half of the session is located at Nunziato Field in Somerville (Corner of Putnam and Summer Street), while the indoor session is located at The Training Room (691a Somerville Ave.)
Who is teaching it?: TR Trainers Jason Pak and Lauren Perreault will be teaching one half of each session (either the indoor or outdoor component). Expect a high level of attention as the athlete:instructor ratio never exceeds 6:1!
When is it?: Once a week. Saturdays 11:30am – 1:00pm beginning May 14th.
Doug was one of my first clients at the Training Room. He started taking classes in August, 2009 and after a round of classes he decided to try personal training as well. When I first met with Doug one on one my impression was that he was a skinny, shy guy who just wanted to gain some strength and put on a little muscle. Little did I know, Doug really wanted to conquer the whole world of fitness, and somewhere under that quiet exterior he had the drive and determination that could actually get him there. Now, almost a year later, when Doug walks into the doors of the Training Room it is like seeing a new person, both in physical stature and emotional confidence.
When I first put Doug through a fitness assessment, he was 6’3 1/2, weighed in at 170lb and was around 10% body fat. He was fairly inflexible especially through the hip flexors and hamstrings. His upper and lower body mobility was also limited. He could perform only a couple body weight pushups before his form began to suffer and his core strength was almost non-existent. He also had very little body awareness and had a difficult time getting his body into proper positioning for a lift and activating the correct muscles during a lift.
Doug "Before"
If you met Doug now, you would be shocked by these figures. Today, Doug still stands at 6’3 1/2, but he weighs in at just under 200lb and about 12% body fat. This means that Doug has put on about 30lb of pure muscle. He has also made incredible improvements in his upper and lower body mobility and flexibility. His strength has sky rocketed to heights I didn’t even expect when we first began to train. To gain that amount of weight, hardly add on any body fat, and improve mobility, flexibility and strength takes incredible dedication in both training and diet.
Doug "After"
Since Doug wanted to gain muscle while keeping his body fat percentage low, he had to eat a high calorie, nutrient dense diet. This means the foods he ate had to be high in healthy nutrients and high in calories per gram of food so that he could eat more without feeling completely stuffed all the time. Here is a sample entry from Doug’s daily food log:
Breakfast:
2-3 cups of Kashi Go Lean Crunch
1-2 pieces of whole wheat toast or 1 cup of whole wheat oatmeal
(optional, usually depends on time)
Water
Post-morning workout:
Protein shake
Gatorade
Throughout the day:
Water
5-7 pieces of fruit (usually bananas or apples)
Water, Water, Water, Water, More water (I usually drink over a gallon a day)
Lunch:
Cold cut whole wheat sandwich (usually ham) w/ a little mustard or
whole wheat pasta w/ tomato sauce
Protein bar (optional, depends on daily routine)
Dinner:
Whole wheat pasta w/ tomato sauce or rice w/ salmon & broccoli or
chicken burrito bowl (depends on amount of time I have, if any, to
prepare a meal)
Post-evening workout:
Protein shake or Gatorade (depends on nature of the workout)
1-2 cups of whole wheat oatmeal
Now, with this type of high calorie diet, Doug really had to hit the weights hard in order to keep the body fat off and the muscles growing. Here are a few videos of Doug during one of his recent training sessions. Keep in mind that less than a year ago, Doug could do 2 body weight pushups, no chin ups, about a 20 second plank with good form, and only unloaded, body weight squats.
Decline Bosu Ball Pushups with a 10lb plate on his back.
Chin ups with a 15lb dumbbell between his legs
Weighted bar ab roll-outs
TRX Inverted Rows with 10lb plate
230lb Front Squat
Doug is a serious example of someone who wants to do it all. When he first showed up at the training room he had a hard time expressing exactly how he wanted to do it all, and so his three primary goals were pretty broad and overarching. They were:
To get back in the saddle of leading a healthy lifestyle
To feel more comfortable and less intimidated by exercise
To push himself
Over the course of his first year at the Training Room, Doug has accomplished these broad goals is some very specific and awe-inspiring ways. In October while on a trip to Thailand, he went on an impromptu 90km (about 57 mile) bike ride up a mountain outside Chiang Mai. In February he completed his first half-marathon. Currently he is within striking distance of running a 6 minute mile. He understands how to engage specific muscles while strength training which has led to incredible gains in the amount of weight he can lift (as seen in the videos above!) His diligence in his warm-up routine has led to increased mobility and flexibility which have in turn led to more gains in the amount of weight he can lift with perfect form. And these are just his physical accomplishments so far! Mentally, Doug has come a long way and only he can really explain the changes that he has experienced. In Doug’s own words:
“I’ve reached a point where my confidence is through the roof. To be perfectly frank, I’ve wrestled with nervousness and depression throughout my life. Fear of failure kept me going in school but it also made me afraid to deal with other people, to make claims where I had even the slightest doubt I could fulfill them, or to take chances. Combined with some other changes in my personal life, I feel the best that I may have ever felt in my life and hopefully it shines through when I interact with others!”
None of these changes happened over night. If there’s ever a complaint I have about Doug, it’s that he refuses to REST! Doug’s current workout regimen goes a little bit like this:
Monday – 6am bootcamp
Tuesday – 7am personal training session; 6:30pm kettlebell class
Wednesday – 6am bootcamp
Thursday – 6:15am cycling class; 7pm personal training session
Friday – 6am bootcamp
Saturday – day off (only because I make him!)
Sunday – strength training workout on his own at the local Boston Sports Club
On top of all of this, he also goes on bike rides and runs in his spare time.
Today Doug’s goals have become much more concrete. I think this is a great testament to the confidence he has gained through this journey. His ability to set very specific goals now displays his new found belief in himself and in his ability to accomplish anything he puts his mind to. Doug’s current goals are:
To complete a solo bike ride from Boston to Provincetown in June of this year. (completed: June 18)
To run his first full marathon in October of this year.
To improve his swimming abilities and complete an Olympic distance triathlon.
To get involved in the local randonneuring (time-limited long distance bike rides) community.
To continue weightlifting gains.
World domination by Thursday.
Okay, so #6 might not be attainable, but all the others are goals that I have full confidence he will accomplish. Doug has worked so hard and his efforts have really shined through. He has grown into himself physically and emotionally and I really look forward to continuing his journey toward world (of fitness) domination!
[Andy wanted to collaborate on this post. His comments are in Bold]
Andy trained with me somewhat infrequently for a couple of months until he proposed to his now fiancee and decided to really buckle down and get aggressive with his training. Putting his trust in me, he made some major changes and sacrifices to both his diet and physical activity levels in order to not only improve his general health but also to ensure his wedding pictures didn’t portray him as he put it: “a tub of lard”.
The very first thing I needed Andy to do was to keep a detailed food log to see what kind of improvements we needed to make with his eating habits. I can’t stress enough that it is impossible to out-train a bad diet. Using a free iPhone app called “Lose It” he was able to get a pretty accurate representation of the amount of calories he was taking in as well as the protein/carbohydrate/fat macro-nutrient breakdown of each meal. Rather than nitpick and poke holes at every little “mistake”, I chose a couple of guidelines to correct some of the major flaws in his diet – mainly, eating a higher quality breakfast and cutting down on the amount of alcohol. What many don’t realize is that “a drink or two every night” adds up and can sabotage the efforts of an otherwise sound diet.
Drinks Add Up!
Most people on New Year’s resolutions or just general fat loss kicks try to do too many things at once and end up getting overwhelmed and are doomed right from the start. Real, long-lasting results will occur through lifestyle changes and that doesn’t happen overnight. Andy also began eating smaller amounts & eating more frequently, upping the fruit & vegetable intake and cutting back on sugar, particularly added sugar (“sugar is the devil”).
Step two was to figure out his training schedule. Realistically, Andy had about 3 days to work out during the week. He supplemented training with me once a week with a 50/50 class at the Training Room as well as a regular gym session on his own, which included a weight lifting and high intensity cardio interval regimen. The first half of our sessions were solely for building strength and gaining mobility while the second portion was completely metabolic and meant to burn as many calories as possible.
What many fail to realize is that the more lean muscle mass you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate (RMR) will be. Your RMR comprises approximately 70% of your total caloric expenditure per day (the rest is made up of physical activity and the energy it takes to break down food), which means the amount of muscle mass you have is crucial for any fat loss endeavors. Unfortunately, your body doesn’t deem it quite as necessary because it’s so metabolically “expensive”. For that reason, any time your body encounters a period of lower caloric intake (a diet), lean muscle mass is often the first thing to go. The only way to “bypass” this is to strength train with weights challenging enough to provide the proper stimulus that tells your body that it needs to hold on to the muscle mass.
Drop the pink dumbells and challenge yourself!
With less than a year of serious weight training under his belt, Andy puts up some serious numbers. Andy’s mantra: “More weight, Jason, more weight” was interestingly inaudible throughout this entire session:
400lb Trap Bar Deadlift:
Tough, but he made it. Notice the two little 2.5 pound weights sticking out at the top because there wasn’t any space left on the bar.
300lb Squat:
Could’ve gone lower, but depth is understandable considering the max effort trap bar deadlift right before.
We decided to load his pushups with one of our trainers, Lauren:
Two (and a half) reps with about 120 pounds on his back – not too shabby for a guy who could barely do any a year ago.
An example of one of our Kettlebell “Complexes” with 2-20kg KBs:
Front Squats, Alternating Push Presses, Romanian Deadlifts, Alternating Rows, and Swings
Andy before at 272lbs and 31.1% Body Fat
Completely transforming your physique requires a tremendous amount of hard work and discipline. All too often, people create excuses for themselves. Work, life, stress, kids, etc. all “get in the way”. With his optimism and enthusiasm, Andy was able overcome these excuses and set aside the time to make healthy lifestyle choices. That’s why it’s important to set yourself up for success. Surround yourself with people that support you, keep healthy food choices at the office, and train hard at the gym so that with the right self-motivation you can achieve your goals like Andy did.
Andy at 223lbs and 21.6% Body Fat
It’s still May, so one more final push until Andy’s July 31st wedding date! Stay Tuned!
Train Hard,
Jason
Andy’s Comments:
A year ago I figured that the weight I had put on after some personal issues the last few years was there to stay with my 40th birthday now some years behind me! Jason’s right that the galvanizing event was my upcoming wedding to Kate, and armed with that deadline I challenged Jason to help me get into shape. A year and 65 lost pounds later, I can’t say enough good things about how much Jason has helped me.
Jason gave me nutritional advice and regularly checked in via Txt to see how I was doing. As he said above it helped tremendously to just focus on a few key things. Probably “sugar is the devil” was the key learning for me, as focusing on that alone led me quickly to be in or around my daily calorie target without focusing on calorie counts, fat intake, etc. Of course, My fiancée Kate gets major credit for cooking healthy meals and giving me healthy snacks for the work day (generally, almonds and fruit). Plus, no doubt, the knowledge that Jason would be checking food logs was undoubtedly a motivating factor on those evenings when a beer would have felt good after a stressful workday!
Jason was always well-prepared for workouts with the exercise schedule written up in advance; and workouts were always varied and challenging. As someone who had never really lifted weights before I quickly found that I enjoyed that challenge and was amazed to see the weight levels being increased as the body weight came down. The daily stretching routine that Jason prepared has been helpful to me also, particularly early on as I had a long way to go flexibility-wise.
I also tremendously enjoyed the Training Room exercise classes, after the first-time nerves that perhaps I’d be out of gas after the first 15 minutes! The combination of cycling and body weight or circuit exercises keeps things interesting and for me I push myself much harder than if I was in the gym on my own with the headphones on.
To sum up, the Training Room are lucky to have Jason on the team. I couldn’t have achieved the progress I made in the last year without his counsel, guidance & support. [Jason: It was a team effort with Heidi, Maren, and Lauren - best instructors ever! And even more importantly - Andy's drive and dedication!]
