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Client Stories

“I just needed that reset button to get back on track” Jackie

Jackie completed the 5 week nutrition challenge to help keep her accountable and was able to lose weight, feel stronger and have increased endurance with her workouts.

Jackie’s Nutrition Story

At the end of the nutrition challenge Jackie spoke with Coach Vanessa about her experience.

Outside of what the In-Body Scan shows are you experiencing improvements in other areas?

“One of the reasons I wanted to continue my journey in weight loss is so that I can perform better when I’m working out. I know that I do more strict pull ups. I can move faster.”

Do you feel that you can continue sustaining this after these 5 weeks?

“Yeah. I can have the foods that I enjoy without feeling guilty. Making sure it’s always portion control. For me it’s easy. I just needed that reset button to get back on track.”

On a scale of 1-10 how satisfied are you with your results and your experience with this nutrition challenge?

“A huge 10+”

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Client Stories

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat” Kerri

Kerri completed our 5 week nutrition challenge and decreased her body fat percentage and lost weight. Not only did the challenge help her physically but mentally as well. Kerri has seen improvements in her workouts, recovery and sleeping habits.

Kerri’s Story

After the challenge, Kerri sat down with Coach Vanessa to discuss how the challenge went and her personal experience throughout the 5 weeks.

As the challenge is wrapping up, how are you feeling?

I feel great, I feel that this challenge has installed some really great habits for me.  I don’t think that I would be at this place without the challenge but it’s definitely going to help me going forward.

What’s something that’s happened over the last 5 weeks that has been going better for you?

I’m sleeping much better.  I always, over the last few years, have had terrible sleeping.  I’m sleeping soundly, it’s great. I don’t wake up as much at night. I don’t feel puffy anymore.

Do you feel that what you’ve learned here over the last 5 weeks is something you will be able to continue?

Yes. There’s never anything that’s been off limit. We’ve just been able to if you feel like having this(meal/snack), make an adjustment somewhere else.  And that’s true to life. I like that we didn’t cut anything out.  It wasn’t a no carb or only eat high fat. It’s more of a life change.

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4 Areas of Excellence: CrossFit Jungle Gym

The CFJG Difference…

We started Jungle Gym Fitness in 2011 with a couple bucks and early morning training sessions in the park… our own personal stories started even more humble than that. What our gym looks like today is much different than it was then but we’ve continued everyday refining our approach down to 4 Areas of Excellence. Specifically by improving the lives of our community through training and nutrition. CFJG has and will continue to train the using the best possible methods to achieve our clients goals… we will not sacrifice our values in the pursuit of changing the world.

At CFJG we genuinely believe that making a meaningful impact in a few is more valuable, more critical and certainly more rewarding than making a minor impact on many. We’ve doubled down on this approach many times over the years and we continue today to push forward in providing a superior service by focusing in on our 4 Areas of Excellence. We’ve never felt we had “competitors” so to say because what we do is different than what any gym in a 30 mile radius of us is doing. We believe that these Areas of Excellence make our training experience superior… it doesn’t make us the right gym for everyone but it does make us the BEST gym in the world for some.

At Jungle Gym we aim to provide an ever increasing value of service to the Hamilton area by providing solutions to all of the major hurdles in accomplishing fitness goals. There may be other gyms that are better at different things but none stands next to us in more than one of our Areas of Excellence… these are the parts of our service that are uniquely CFJG and are different from our “competitors”. For some, these 4 traits of our service are 100% necessary for fitness success. Some may be less important to you or not important at all. If none of them are important to you, you’d probably prefer a service somewhere else.


CFJG 4 Areas of Excellence

1. We provide step by step guidance

2. Our Coaches provide individualized training prescriptions

3. We make training enjoyable

4. CFJG uses objective measurements to track your progress

We Provide Step by step guidance

  • If you’ve ever been overwhelmed by the thought of “what to do at the gym”. We solved it by programming every workout for you.
  • If you’ve ever been worried about not knowing how to do an exercises. We solved it by teaching you.
  • If you’ve ever thought… I don’t want to be injured from doing something incorrectly. We solved it by coaching you.
  • If you’ve ever thought… Am I doing what is most effective for my goals? We solved it by prescribing you the best program to follow.

Programs: The way our programs are put together… is a step by step progression: No Sweat Intro, First 60 Days program, Next 90 Days programs. Each stage is there to make sure you only need to focus on one thing.

Coaching progressions are designed to keep you from doing no more than one thing at a time. When we teach you to squat… hips back, practice 5 reps. After you send your hips back, sink down as low as you can, practice 5 reps and so on. Our sessions are broken into step by step progress to ensure your long term success… the greeting, the warm up, teaching new skills, the workout of the day and finally the debrief.

Step by step planning. We have quarterly Goal Setting Sessions (included with membership) in which we work with you, your budget, your schedule, your obstacles, stresses and any other contributing factors you have, to ensure YOU have the BEST POSSIBLE plan to achieve YOUR goals.

Step by step guidance is by it’s very nature what COACHING is all about and that is the essence of what we do.

We Provide Individualized Training Prescription

  • Why do you need a Goal Setting Session or a No Sweat Intro? We want to know what you want to accomplish… why? BECAUSE WITHOUT KNOWING THAT HOW COULD ANYONE POSSIBLY HELP YOU SUCCEED!? Take for example… try a free class, “jump in and see if you like it”… your weight loss goals don’t care if you “like” it. They care whether you’ve done the work you need to accomplish the goal. We hope you do like the training you have to do… but you have to do the training you need. We’ll make the program enjoyable (see below)! We listen to what you want, create realistic goals based on thousands of previous experiences, then build you a plan specific to your needs.
  • Group classes… We utilize the Level Method, which helps us take an objective measure of your fitness level and tailor EVERY group session to YOUR exact skill level. This ensures YOU are getting the most out of each group session.
  • 1-on-1 attention… in every service you’ll receive this attention, not just personal training sessions (though you get 60 mins per session of 100% dedication to you and your needs). We believe that coaching is the greatest possible value you receive with your membership. Our average class size is 6.5 athletes per class. That means 9 full minutes of coaching per athlete. Compare that with a class of 20 = 3 mins (even 3 mins is a stretch though… really managing that many people is more like herding hamsters just to finish a class on time). The coaching is happening at 3x the rate of most other facilities!
  • Specialty services: we offer specialty services to meet your individual goals. We do them in a variety of service levels to meet budget and scheduling needs. PT, skill sessions, clinics and programs.

Do you need individualized prescription? if you’ve ever felt like the program you were doing wasn’t working for you… YES. Which also makes us the top choice. If the program you’re doing is working for you… keep on it! If you’re getting the results you want, that means: you either have enough knowledge to decide which program is right for you, go through the process of elimination or be happy without ever getting results (it’s totally up to you!).

We make training enjoyable

Every gym I’ve ever been to has laid claim to fun or community. Every gym has it’s right to claim it too. We understand that not everyone will fit in with us and we’re OK with that. I can say with certainty, there are people out there who may enjoy another gym more. The difference is we know and rely on specific traits to make sure our gym is an amazing environment, consistently. If there’s an outlier we are sure to let them know and point them in the right direction. Here are the specific actions we take to make training enjoyable.

  • Creating an Environment:
    • Belonging, positive, best hour of your day. Read about our #1 value belonging… if someone can’t positively contribute to the environment, they don’t train with us, it’s pretty simple.
    • We coach in the positive, we say things like “you’re doing this well, now let’s do this” NOT “You’re doing that wrong, fix that now!”. It seems subtle but we don’t get called great coaches or get you the results you want by being jerks.
    • The best hour of your day, your consistent attendance is more important to improving your quality of life than adding 10lbs to a lift that will injure you… your coaches don’t forget that. You need to show up, you need to enjoy showing up… it’s our priority to make sure that happens.
  • We get results:
    • Part of enjoying working out is actually getting results. Our coaches track which of our clients are getting results because we measure progress and we set goals (and we make sure you accomplish them!).
    • Goal setting sessions are where coaches prescribe the best actions steps for you to take and then we remeasure the metrics that matter to you. When you hit your goals… you love training. When you love training… you hit your goals. That is a positive cycle to get into! Without measurement, results don’t exist, love for training dwindles, results actually don’t happen. What is your gym’s strategy?
  • Make friends:
    • Globo gyms… obviously, we are winners over them because everyone at Planet Fitness just plugs in the ear buds and does their own thing there. Not here.
    • Other small gyms… here’s the deal, we specifically want to make people feel comfortable with their coach first (Hello! That’s one of the many reasons we do PT to start). Then we do a ghost session… that’s where your coach takes you to your first group session, hangs out with you and introduces you to all your classmates… BECAUSE WE WANT YOU TO LOVE WHO YOU’RE TRAINING WITH! IT MAKES IT 100000X MORE FUN! Does your gym have a system to do this for you? No… they don’t.

Do you need training to be enjoyable? If yes… you’ll fit in an environment that suits YOU, that may not be with us and that’s ok. But does any other gym take specific steps to make sure you’ve had every chance? (I’ll wait while you ask… the answer is no).

We Use Objective Measurements

If you care about making fitness gains at all… I mean AT ALL, you have to start with an quality objective measurement. We have the tools to measure the specific goals you have… BF%, skeletal muscle mass, weight, girth, over 15 categories of general performance metrics (with 32 sub levels for EACH of those 15 categories), infinite # of specialized metrics… AND WE ARE GOING TO MEASURE YOUR METRICS AT GOAL SETTING SESSIONS EVERY 3 MONTHS. You’ll never be on the wrong training plan again (unless you don’t do your goal setting sessions, lie to us about your goals… but why would you ever do that?). If your goals change… we change your plan. Which means you’re never wasting time or energy doing the wrong things. All you have to do is tell us what you want to accomplish.

  • Level Method MAP (all your physical performance metrics)
  • InBody Scanner (all your biometrics)
  • Tape Measure (all your body measurements)
  • Benchmark workouts (to measure specific physical skills and conditioning (ps. a better functional comparison to conditioning than VO2 max, for you training nerds)

The Real Deal…

  • If you NEED any ONE of these Areas of Excellence. You need us to be your gym, to be successful.
  • If you WANT and/or NEED any TWO of these areas of excellence. You need us to be your gym, to be successful.
  • If you WANT any ONE or more of these areas of excellence. We are going to help you succeed more than any other gym can.
  • If you WANT a gym that can provide workouts cheaper and you don’t care about getting coached or making progress on your results. I will personally recommend you to another gym that you’ll fit in better with.
  • If you don’t need or want any of these things from your gym… stop reading and unsubscribe!
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Unlimited Gains or Plateaus and Stagnation

What is the difference between unlimited lifelong fitness gains and lifelong frustration, plateaus and stagnation? The difference is in systems, specifically starting with the feedback loop.

What is a feedback loop?

A feedback loop is the cycle in which you measure a specific data point (in fitness you can use a variety of data points), go through an event intended to improve the data point, then measure a data point again. The difference in measurement 1 and measurement 2 is the effectiveness of that program for a given individual.

Data is collected. Now what?

One of two things happen with collected data… nothing or something.

Nothing is what usually happens and causes stagnation. “I’ve been running for 30 minutes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 years but haven’t lost weight.” “What are you doing now?” “I’ve been running for 30 minutes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 years”. Data collected weight, action taken, data collected, same action repeated, result… never changed aka plateau.

Something is the right answer if you want different results… unlimited fitness gains or regression. If you are a data driven person and you have this on lock for yourself and you’ve been tracking this for yourself you have n=1… one data point to use and learn from the problem. A fitness facility that has 100 members and collects data from 100 members… that’s n=100. Our fitness facility that has had hundreds of members and collected data points on all of them for years. How much faster can you learn? Over 100x faster. We use this data to make the best possible recommendations. What does that mean for our clients? More and more fitness gains less plateaus and stagnation. Less time cost to our members, when they follow the process and the recommendations that have been given based on that data.

Your Goals Your Data.

What is your fitness goal? Here are the data points you should be collecting…

Be healthy

  • Body Fat %
  • Inches
  • Weight
  • Performance Tests

Lose weight

Get stronger

  • Skeletal Muscle Mass
  • Performance Tests

Improve Sports Performance

  • Specific Performance Tests
  • General Performance Tests
  • Skeletal Muscle Mass

Get 6 pack abs

Tone Up

  • BF%
  • Skeletal Muscle Mass
  • Inches

Do fun or challenging workouts

  • Your subjective opinion

How often should I collect data?

We collect data on day 1, day 60 then every 90 days after that, this is how we can virtually guarantee unlimited fitness gains and no plateaus and stagnation. Our data collection sessions are called… Goal Setting Sessions. Goal Setting sessions are a time to collect objective data, assess progress and adjust the plan according. Coaches then analyze: the plan that was recommended, the plan that was selected, the adherence of the selected plan, the outcome of actual actions taken, the limitations the individual notes that kept them from perfect execution… then based on those answers recommends the plan for the Next 90 Days.

Measurements

Our measurement tools

So you know your goal, you know the data you should be collecting, but you don’t have the tools to get high quality data?

Unlimited fitness gains await you…

Members: Book a Goal Setting Session

Non-member: Book a Measurements Session

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Client Stories Nutrition

“I needed to make some changes, they told me I was pre-diabetic” Mike D

Mike completed our 5 week nutrition challenge and lost 9 pounds while decreasing his body fat percentage by 2.5%. In addition to losing weight, Mike is now eating better, running faster and has more energy.

At the end of the 5 week nutrition journey, Mike sat down with Coach Vanessa to discuss the results and had the following to share:

How do you feel about your results?

“I feel great it’s you know it’s always been a struggle for me so seeing how far I’ve come in such a short amount of time is amazing.”

Is it motivation to keep making these changes moving forward?

“Absolutely. This is just the beginning. I plan on losing more weight and more body fat. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.”

“This is just the beginning.” – Mike

Ready to start your own success story? Check out our personalized nutrition coaching program.

Want to learn more about our training programs? Schedule a free intro with a Coach!

New to CrossFit? Check out CrossFit.com to learn more.

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Client Stories Nutrition

“They said, we kind of don’t recognize you” Scott

Scott completed our 5 week nutrition challenge and the results were astounding. By the end of the challenge Scott lost 20 pounds and decreased his body fat percentage significantly. Not only is he feeling better, Scott’s doctor’s have also noticed the improvements.

In addition to losing weight, Scott is now sleeping better, moving better and has more energy.

Scott met with Coach Vanessa after the challenge to discuss how he was feeling and had the following to share:

How do you feel about your results?

“I feel good. I feel great waking up everyday. I’m moving better. Life’s better.”

Can you continue to do this after the challenge?

“Yes. It’s all about the preparation. Take a couple hours on Sunday to set yourself up for success for the week. Take 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon to know you’re going to be good for the week, it’s a pretty easy investment.”

When’s the last time that you have seen changes like this?

“Probably going back to high school when I was competing competitively”

Scotts Nutrition Success Story

Interested in learning more about our nutrition program? Click here.

Want to learn more about our fitness programs? Some of the programs we offer are:

New to CrossFit? Check out CrossFit.com for more information!

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Finding the Right Fitness Program

The hardest part of getting fit? Finding the Right Fitness Program

Finding the right fitness program to achieve your goals can be a little daunting. Here we breakdown the major points that will help you select a program that fits you and your needs. In an age when time is money finding a program with a proven track record is the most important place to start. Programs that have a good track record likely have systems in place to ensure you: follow the program, recognize your progress, has a feedback loop for continual improvement, knows and identifies what metrics are important to your goals and builds the habits that will help you succeed not just in the short term but also the long run!

Find a fitness program with a proven track record

When finding the right fitness program for you, start first with narrowing the field down to programs that get the results as you want for other people. Has the program got results for somebody else? If you’re interested in in weight loss, find a program that has produced weight loss for others and has a bunch testimonials saying… “I’ve lost 15 pounds in two months”. “I lost 50 pounds over the course of a year and I’ve kept it off”. How do we do that? How does anyone do that? It’s through collecting objective data. here’s your weight on day one. here’s your weight on day 60. here’s your date on day 150. here’s your here’s your weight on day 240. here’s your weight on day 365. If you want a body composition change, it’s what’s your body fat percentage on day one, day sixty, then 150… you just keep on measuring. You’re wondering well, I want to “get stronger” well let’s take some measures. How strong are you now? How much weight can you lift off the floor? That’s called a deadlift. Alright, you lift 100 pounds today, then you lift 150 pounds a month from now. Then hey look 200 pounds and then eventually you lift 500 pounds. Guess what you got stronger. If that’s the metric that you wanted to measure your success by, then you’ve been successful. You define a good program by it’s ability to produce the result that you want to get.

Follow the program

Here’s another secret when finding the right fitness program… DO THE PROGRAM, FULLY! What program should you go do? Go do the one that has got that results for other people. Then, KEY, do ALL the steps that got those people those results. You can’t just sign up for the program and then hope it happens for you. You have to actually DO exactly what the program is. For example, we have had people come into our gym and go “Hey, I want to lose 50 pounds”… cool awesome. “Here’s what you need to do… you need to do this exercise program, and do this nutrition program.” and “Let’s make it happen!” and then there’s guidance all along the way. Here’s the steps that you need to take then you don’t take those steps. Guess what’s going to happen? You’re not going to get the same results as the person who took all the steps that they needed to take!

Seeing, acknowledging and measuring wins…

We’re here is to help guide you through the steps to success. We’ve taken others on the same path you’re at, helped them jump over hurdles so we know what progress looks like. To someone who hasn’t been on the path before a lot of times you can’t see progress or the signs of improvement because you don’t know what to look for yet. So a good coach is going to show you the success that you’re having. Then give you step by step instruction to hit the next milestone. When you get to your big goal it’s a big celebration but we get there by celebrating all those little victories along the way. Then when you get there, we look back at all the little steps that we took along the way.

Starts with success and builds upon it

When a client succeeds, we document it #whatworks. When a client fails we document it #whatdoesnotwork. What works… the system is built or improved for the next person who has the same goal. All we’re doing is going and asking the coaches. “What were the factors that made John Doe successful in losing 50 pounds?” Asking the client “What were obstacles that you were facing that we helped you overcome?”. Then emphasizing and improving those aspects within the program to create better results. I take that same exact plan and now I’m going to go back through it, I’m going to look and look and look and look and look. Here’s where we can make improvements! Here’s where we can make improvements! I think this caused the problem that John ran into. Let’s make a small adjustment and see if when Jane Doe goes through it if we can make this happen a little bit faster. Ultimately, all we want to do is know what your objective goal is. Have we helped somebody accomplish that before? Then we’re going to replicate that same plan. Then we’re refining it to make it make it faster and more effective for you. If you’re looking for a program that produces results, go check out the results! You also want to see that the facility of that program is not only producing results but trying to make them happen faster or make them better. Ask your prospective programs… how has your service improved over the last year, 5 years. Consistent improvement is very important!

Builds habits

What we want to see is that you’re making continual progress towards your goal. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether you hit your goal tomorrow or in three months. If you’re making progress towards your goal then you’re on the right track. A program must build habits if you’re going to get where you want to go AND stay there. Whether or not you’ve reached that end result exactly how you defined it in the beginning is not as important as making the steps that over the course of two years. I mean if you want to lose 50 pounds, lift 200 pounds or get ripped six-pack abs, some of those are really long term goals. If you hope to maintain the goal as the new status quo, it’s not going to be about: what you’re doing today. It’s going to be about what you do consistently over the course of a longer period of time. If you can create the habits that default you to your goals that’s when a program becomes infinitely successful.

The metrics that match your goals

If your problem is you don’t know how to define what a good workout program is, well then you’re at the right place. You should be here because we’ve already defined it. You have one of six goals, we’ve had success getting people to all of those goals. Some metrics are max weights on specific lifts, times on specific workouts, BF%, Sketetal Muscle Mass, Weight, Inches… all depending on your specific goal. Getting 6 Pack abs and toning up your legs have the same metrics and the base program isn’t that different. Start with the plan and refining from there. If the first thing you think about a program is “do I like it” “is it fun” then you’re looking for entertainment not training (which is OK, but not the same thing… ps we make training fun and get results at the same time). What is certainly not fun is never getting results. A great program is going to be more enjoyable because you get to the goals you set. I’m not saying that like you can’t have both you should hopefully have both because it’s going make an enjoyable process. How you define what you want your fitness program, needs to be guiding the program you’re signing up for. Whether you want to lose weight, add this amount of lean body mass, get stronger or being capable of carrying groceries up the stairs… you’ll need to use that as your measure and then measuring your success or failure off from that.

The Right Fitness Program for you

If you don’t have somebody guiding you along the way, you’ll need to be you need to be very scientific about so choosing the right program. Simply find a place that:

  • Has helped other people accomplish what you want to accomplish.
  • Can show you progress every step of the way.
  • Focuses on improving your habits.
  • Can demonstrated continual improvement of their processes.
  • Knows and tracks the metrics important to your goals.

Our First 60 Days and Next 90 Days programs came about through this process. Goal setting, objective measurement, determine obstacles, prescribe the service that meets and exceeds the obstacles you’re facing. The value in this process is IMMENSE! Without it you’re shooting in the dark. This is the way to do it. All the individual details about what you need that are specific to you are navigated with a coach at your side. If the hardest part of getting fit for you is finding the right fitness program. Start by booking a No Sweat Intro with one of our coaches and see if one of our programs will meet your needs. We know the data, we understand your obstacles and we’re experienced in making it happen for people just like you!

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Improve your physique at any age!

So you want to improve your physique… can you still do that at your age?

The answer is: YES!

In our experiences, all individuals (male or female, ages ranging from 5 – 89 years old) have the ability to improve your physique in some measurable way. Whether you are looking to get stronger, add lean body mass, and/or decrease body fat percentage your age is not a limiting factor.

Evidence of Chris' improved physique as seen by him holding up his old pants that are now way too big
Click on Chris’ photo to learn more about his journey with us! Chris is in his lower 50’s!

Here at CrossFit Jungle Gym we can utilize tools, such as an In-Body Scanner, to provide objective measures that allow us to develop a specific plan to assist you in reaching your goals and improving your physique. We’re not asking you to take our word for it. We will provide data to show you that you are getting Unlimited Gains and not Plateaus and Stagnation! This idea of data driven fitness is not new. It is at the root of what CrossFit, and by extension our training, is all about.

More on this idea in a CrossFit Journal article, “Understanding CrossFit”. Described is the methodology that drives CrossFit.

With coaching there’s no age limit on who can continue to improve. It’s not too late to make a big difference! We’re going to be able to help you improve your physique by adding lean body mass, getting more fit, and reaching your goals!

Read, watch and listen to over 100 Client Success Stories!

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How to Become Healthy

What does being healthy mean?

There doesn’t seem to be a concensus answer on the topic. Below is how we produce successful returns on being healthy regardless of how YOU measure your health. Though we have a singular definition of health most other care providers do not. Whether your goal is to improve your health metrics, quality of life or stay absent of disease and pain we’ve got you covered.

Health Metrics

If you define being healthy by the below health metrics we’ve got you covered. We’ve met our fair share of “cholesterol” guys. There’s been plenty of “I’ve been on BP meds for the last 15 years” gals. One thing is clear… people really like to pick one metric and roll with it. Here are the most common health metrics tracked and asked about at a Dr’s office:

Correlates measure but don’t define health

The problem is when you chase success in one of the metrics it doesn’t guarantee success in the others. Detailed in hundreds of client interactions the story goes… “I went to the doctor and they said I have high XYZ. Then they prescribed me XYZ. I’ve been taking it for 5 years now.” Have you heard the advertisements for medications? The possible side effects read at 10x speed take longer than the ad itself at normal speed! Guess what… then when your ABC levels go up… you’ll get another pill with another long side effect list. It is not a solution… it’s a bandaid. Let’s go upstream and solve the problem. Phil had high blood pressure…

If any of the health correlates listed above are more important to you than fitness, that’s fine. Fitness will still be the solution… We regularly accomplish health metric goals because we help improve our clients fitness.

Quality of life:

If you define being health by “quality of life” here’s your guide! Quality of life can loosely be defined as being able to do all the things you love about life. If you have a high quality of life, you can do all the activities you love without fear.

Is Quality of life Pass/Fail or Low Threshold

So you like to do 4 mile runs as a hobby, great! “I could run 4 miles today, life is good.” “I can’t run 4 miles today, life is bad.” Insert your favorite hobby in place of running. Are the above statements true? If so you’ve found a thing worth living for, AMAZING!

Where does running 4 miles (insert your thing!) rank in difficulty? It depends an individuals personal physical capacity. If you’re physically capable of running 8 miles and run 4… 4 miles feels easy. If you’re capable of running 2 miles, 4 miles is impossible. So you’re capable of running 4.25 miles, 4 miles is difficult, maybe less enjoyable?

What if the things worth living for are out of your physical capacity? Life sucks. If the activities you love are within your capacity? Life is good. Is your capacity slowing degrading or increasing? Without measurement… you don’t know.

Capacity and measuring your physical functions

If being healthy is about quality of life and quality of life is about being able to do the things that make life worth living and those things require having physical capacity, then you must develop phyiscal capacity to maintain quality of life. Any capacity above the minimum threshold is called buffer. If you’d like to do the things that make life worth living until you’re 90… you might need a good buffer.

What if you find out there’s other activities that would make life more enjoyable that have greater physical capacity requirements. You’ll place a limit on your ability to have a higher quality of life.

What capacities should we have?

We can create unlimited categories and sub categories to test and measure. Upper body, lower body, core, squatting, pressing, pulling etc. What is important is that we’re developing capacity at each of the 10 general physical skills. We use Level Method to distill down the categories to least amount necessary to gain the full picture of your physical capacities.

Functional movements are the movements most capable of delivering those capacities.

Absence of Disease or Pain

Do you have a disease or are you living in pain?

It’s a simple and straight forward proposition, yes or no? But as discussed above however with disease there is a continuum on which the health metric rides… when you reach the threshold you have the disease. Example Blood pressure at XX/XX you have hypertension, XX/XX pre hypertension, XX/XX normal. Normal or Good blood pressure is representative of a buffer zone before hypertension. Is medication the best path to reduce blood pressure? Have discussion with your doctor. Improvements in fitness are always a safe bet.

Is your pain a problem? or lack of knowledge?

Pain is definitely a limiter in feeling healthy. If being pain free is how you define being healthy consider that pain might not be the problem. Your lack of knowledge of body maintainence might be the issue. Is your joint pain coming from bone, muscle, tendon or ligament? With basic knowledge of how your body systems work you can conquer 98% of your pain.

Mobility helped when Ed had “shin splints” for years… then had it solved in 30 mins.

Post PT Rehab program helped Laura get back to normal after knee injury and back injury.

The case for medication…

We absolutely 100% encourage you to follow your doctor’s advice. With that said there are many things that you have control over, specifically fitness. If you’re taking care of your fitness (as defined here) then you’re doing your part. In the event that genetics, traumatic event or terrible luck are the cause of your disease… that is what pharmaceuticals are for! In our observation, many people tend to go straight to pharmaceuticals. Why? They are easier, require less life change, you submit your will to the expert doctor… all things that are hard to argue. It’s our contention that the right thing to do is usually a hard thing to do, usually… also better.

Actions to become healthy

Whether your looking to improve a health correlate, improve quality of life or reduce pain or disease, fitness is your surefire bet.

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Blog Client Stories

Kimberly’s Fitness Transformation

Watch below as Kimberly shares accounts of her fitness transformation!

Kimberly’s First 60 Days April 2018

“I think I found my forever gym”

Lost 12 inches, Down 3% Body Fat, Pants fit again.

Kimberly brought the CFJG Nutrition Challenge to her office in May 2019

“Great morale booster in the office”

“I went down an entire clothes size”

Down 5.5% body fat

October 2019

“Best shape I’ve been in since college”

“Do it sign up for the No Sweat Intro!”

Finishing up another Nutrition Challenge in March 2019

Now it’s rubbing off on her husband!

Fitness, Nutrition, Support, Guidance, Accountability. Find it here!

To witness another impressive fitness transformation click here and learn about Chris’ journey.