1. Join a gym
2. Go on a diet
3. Order P90X, Insanity, or another product from Beach    Body Inc.
4. Buy a piece of exercise equipment for your bedroom
5. Get out of a bad relationship into a better one
6. Get a better job
7. Quit smoking
8. Get out of debt
9. Learn something new
10. Get organized
11. Travel
12. Volunteer
13. Etc., etc…….

Do any of these sound familiar to last year, or the year before that? Hell, I’m sure many of us can go back even further.

I can’t help with all of them but if the piece of exercise equipment you bought last year is now a place for your dirty clothes and your copy of P90X is collecting dust on a shelf, we should talk. Gyms can be intimidating and if you don’t know how to write a program you will wind up doing what most people do: hit the start button on a piece of cardio equipment and go for about 20-40 min (because that’s what the mainstream media tells us to do) and you’ll be good. Then maybe some dumbbell curls and call it a workout. Yes, you went to the gym today but what did you do and how did you do it?

Diet! How many diet books do you have on the shelf? You start one and stick to it for a week or two and go back to the old habits. Then you try another and maybe another after that. Then all the books wind up on the shelf next to P90X!

Look at what you are trying to do; what is your GOAL? Do you have a plan, a road map to get you to that goal? Would you take a road trip without a map, GPS or the navigation app on your phone? No.

So, what is Larry the fitness dude saying here? I have a plan. Over the years I have offerd complimentary personal training sessions to hundreds, maybe thousands of people. I could have helped all of them in some way, whether it was to design a training program for them or help them make better nutritional choices. After the session the most common responses were “Personal training is expensive” and “I don’t have time”.
Well, personal training is expensive but you do get what you pay for. It’s been expensive for me to get a good education, to learn how to desgin safe and effective programs for my clients as well but it’s more than worth it!
And time? Well, I know many people who will spend 4 hours or more in a bar but they can’t find 4 hours to put into their health each week? Come on! Really, that’s just a poor choice of time management.

Personal training can be expensive for a lot of people which is one of the reasons I built my new space. I can now offer my method to small groups as well as one on one. I can efficently train 8 people in one session. Make the commitment to train 3-4 times per week and we will get everything done. You won’t need to worry about which exercise, what order, how many sets or reps. I plan it out for you.  That’s 3-4 hours a week, working out with a like-minded group, some home work and you are good. We cover your mobility, strength training, cardio (the right way!) and a cool down sequence to get your body aligned plus nutrition.

Like I said, I can’t help with everything, but by training with us, you don’t need:
1. A gym membership (it’s included in class fee)
2. A diet: I give you a 90 day nutritional guide
3. P90X-It’s great if you do it and do it correctly. I have all the tools you would need, plus much, much more
4. A piece of exercise equipment- Like I said before, I have everything you will ever need
5. Learn something new- When working in the classes, I explain exactly why we do an exercise and how to progress properly to the next level

Before you join the class, I also offer a one on one personal training session first, to see if this is something you are intrested in. Really, this is a win win for you. Book your session with me today and get ready to make 2012, your best year ever!

I hope to here from you soon.
~Larry Betz, Betz Method Personal Training
No mirrors. No TVs. Just results.
917.992.1101

Try these tips to get more exercise during the day: Take the stairs whenever you can & try 2 steps at a time or criss-cross the legs across and in front of the other as you ascend the stairs. If you drive to work, park far away from the entrance, during lunch go for a walk around the block or building. While sitting at your desk you can tap your feet. All of this can burn more calories trough out the day.

Take the Betz Method Phone Challenge: every time the phone rings at your desk, stand up, place your hands on your desk about shoulder width apart, feet about 2-3 feet away from the desk and legs spread, now do desk assisted pushups until you pick up the line or try to go for the length of the phone call (on speaker or headset). To make it more challenging place your feet further away from your desk.

To strengthen your abs while sitting at your desk, contract your mid section, exhale & hold for 6-8 seconds, repeat 4-6 times. While sitting, keep back upright, shoulders back & down, contract midsection & lift one foot of the floor, bringing the knee as high as you can, hold up for 1-2 seconds & then switch legs, do 10-12 times. Now, the best exercises to actually SEE your abs are interval sprinting and dieting.

Another office ab exercise: sitting crunches! While sitting, feet flat on the floor, knees and hips bent at 90 degrees, put your left hand behind your head & your right hand on the arm of your chair or your hip, now bring your left elbow across your body & your right knee across toward your elbow, try to touch them hold for 2 seconds and exhale, repeat 10-12 times & then switch to opposite arm and knee.

During the day at your desk, stand as much as possible, tap your feet and every hour stand up, take a wide stance, feet parallel, bend your knees a bit, tighten your glutes and bend back slightly, lock your fingers and start to lift your arms over head and bring the back of your hands to the back of your thighs. Take several deep breaths. You will help get more air into your body and BRAIN.

While sitting at your desk, keep your shoulders back and down, head up high, looking straight ahead. Keep one leg on the floor, knee bent, the other leg extended straight out, pull the toes toward your knee and lift this leg as high as you can. This will help loosen up your ham strings while working your stomach muscles. Repeat 10-12 times and then switch legs and repeat for 3-4 sets.

How about some seated calf raises? In your chair, knees & hips bent, push your toes into the ground lifting your heels and for more resistance, cross your legs. Another good variation is just to tap your toes 10-12 reps fro 3-4 sets, just by tapping your toes through the day you will burn more calories than sitting still. See how many you can do in say 30 seconds to start and then keep adding time.

Push Prayers! Sit or stand but always keep your shoulders back & down with your eyes on the horizon, put your hands in front of your chest palm to palm, now press your hands together & squeeze your chest muscles, keep the pressure and now do 10 circles to the front, 10 circles to the rear, clasp your fingers and pull. Think of using your back muscles, do 10 circles to the front & then 10 circles to the rear.

This is great for left brain-right brain connection. I do it every week with my son’s soccer team (yes I am a soccer dad just like everyone else!) Stand up, bring your hands up, elbows bent at 90 degrees. Now bring your left knee to your chest and touch your left knee with your right hand. Bring your right knee up and touch it with your left hand. These diagonal patterns help stimulate the brain.

Standing up, hands by your sides, try to bring your left heel to your butt and tap it with your right hand crossed over behind your back and switch right heel to left hand, alternate and repeat for 20 contacts.

This exercise stimulates the meridians of the face & helps you WAKE UP during a long day at the office. Open your hands, palms facing you, using your pointer, middle and ring fingers, tap gently over your eyes, above your eye brow for 10 counts, below your eyes on the side of your nose for 10 count, above your upper lip for 10 count, your chin & finally on the side of your head, go all around the sides of your head.

Here’s an advanced exercise for the back of the arms while at your desk: turn away from your desk so your rear is close to the edge, place your hands on the desk, feet on the floor. Now bend your elbows toward the desk as you also bend your knees to lower your body. Repeat this exercise until you feel like you won’t be able to get back up. Once you can do this 20 times, elevate one foot off the floor.

Golf and tennis fanatics! This is a quick and fun grip exercise. Go to the copy machine and grasp a unopened ream of paper, place the thumb on one side and all four fingers on the other side (pinch grip). Now, just squeeze for hand strength and switch. To make this more challenging, put a glossy magazine on either side, this will make the ream of paper want to slip out and you therefore have to increase your grip.

How about some Office Paper Curls! Take the unopened ream of paper and pinch grip it by placing your thumb on one side and fingers on the other, you can do this sitting or standing – place your arm straight at your side now bend your elbow toward your upper arm. Don’t go too fast, repeat for 10 to 12 reps and switch arms.

Grab a ream of paper firmly with both hands, place it overhead palms facing each other and your upper arms close to your ears, now bend your elbows letting the paper go down toward the back of your head, keep the upper arm close to your ears, now extend the elbows back to the starting position. Repeat for 10-12 reps, 3-4 sets.

Standing at your desk, place one arm on the desk, bend over slightly with slightly bent knees, in the other arm, grip a unopened ream of paper, this arm is next to your torso bent at 90 degrees. Move the ream of paper backward, straightening this arm for about 1 second and then return to starting position. Do 10-12 reps then switch arms and perform 3-4 sets.

Either sitting or standing at your desk, pinch grip the ream of paper, bend your arm in front of your body and hold the paper by your shoulder, now press the paper to the ceiling, by extending your arm, taking 1 to 2 seconds and then lower the ream taking 3-4 seconds, perform 10-12 reps then switch arms and repeat for 3-4 sets.

Another great shoulder exercise for the office to try is sitting down at your desk, grab a ream of unopened paper with both hands out in front of you and simply raise and lower the ream with both hands from knees to eyes. You can progress to one arm and then one arm to the side raising the paper from hip to shoulder.

Desk Squat Time! Stand at your desk, feet straight, eyes on the horizon. Let your hips move back as you bend your knees. Go down to a comfortable point and then stand back up, remember to take about 3-4 seconds going down and about 1-2 seconds coming back up, perform 15- 20 reps and 3-4 sets. You can place your hands on your desk for balance.

A squat variation is as follows: spread the legs, point your toes outward so you’re standing like a penguin, the descent on this is just a knee bend, go down in 3-4 seconds, but as you come back up, really think about using your inner thighs to lock out your knees. Repeat for 15-20 reps and 3-4 sets.

Check out these websites for your fresh free range food choices:
www.brokenarrowranch.com
www.blackwing.com
www.peacefulpastures.com
www.texasgrassfedbeef.com
www.scenicmesa.com
www.eatwild.com
www.buyseafooddirect.com
www.kasiloseafood.com

I have spent some time studying varies stretching techniques from AIS, PNF, Static holding, all to “loosen tight muscles” Then there is the school of thought that the “fascia is adhering to the muscles or scar tissue has built up and this needs to be taken care of. So we use a foam roller or have a body worker “release” the fascia, scar tissue, or work on “trigger points”. If this has worked for you, great, my personal and professional results have been less then satisfactory. I am not saying they don’t work, they just didn’t work for me or several of my clients.

A few years ago I took a class given by the people From Muscle Activation Technique (MAT) called Jump Start, silly name I know but that is what it is called. Basically MAT looks at muscle tightness as being secondary to muscle weakness. We where taught a series of range of motion tests and from that screening we tested for positional weakness. We also discussed that, if we tell our bodies to do a job, it will do the job, but maybe all the muscles aren’t working? So lets say 5 muscles are required to do knee flexion and only 4 are working, eventually those 4 get tiered and start to feel tight. So then what do we do, we stretch, does it help? For me it didn’t.

I sent one of my clients to Troy Stallman, of All Systems Go, Troy is a MAT specialist here in NYC. This client had tried everything and was to the point where he couldn’t sleep at night, I finally convinced him to give Troy a try. He did about 10 sessions with Troy, and then he cam in for a training session with me. I was taking him through the warm ups and I noticed such a difference in the way he was moving, all of the movements had an increased range of motion and he felt great. Strong and stable.

If all of your muscles are working, there is less chance of injury.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

• Food Education
• Sleep & Hydration
• Body Composition & Calorie Requirements
• Macro & Micro Nutrient Information
• Meal Planning & Timing
• Dealing With Difficult Eating Situations

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]