Tony Horton's 11 Laws of Fitness

Hey everyone. Summit 2010 in LA was amazing! The last day, Tony Horton talked to all the coaches about his 11 Laws of Fitness. Print this out and laminate it! Stick it someplace where you see it everyday. It has helped me and I know it will help you too.

Variety: Variety is the spice of life and fitness. A lifetime of health and fitness is achievable when you can think outside the box. You have to mix it up all the time. Stay curious, creative, and stick with the kinds of workouts that you enjoy. A variety of exercises, workouts, and sports will allow you to avoid injuries, plateaus, and boredom.

Consistency: Improvement and change occur when you do things often. Stopping and starting all the time will kill any momentum you need to succeed. You must find ways to stay in the game. Moderate forms of exercise, done consistently, provide far better results than the occasional full-body pummeling. A lifestyle that includes multiple forms of exercise five to six days a week guarantees results.

Intensity: YOU'RE TOUGHER THAN YOU THINK. The fear of pain or injury from working out is a mindset steeped in failure. You must learn to "Find the Line." Do the extra rep or two, increase your range of motion, and increase resistance as you get stronger. Intensity goes hand in hand with Variety and Consistency. The combination of the three work together as a triad that creates a platform for success. The programs provide variety. Your plan will keep you consistent.

Purpose: Your purpose is to have a better life. Exercise and eating right help you feel better. When you feel better, you do more. When you do more, you meet other people. A healthy lifestyle gives us the energy to be better than before. We want to participate, share, communicate, and build a community have purpose in our lives. If you had never found Beachbody, you might be right back where you were isolated, with nothing to share, no purpose, because you weren't doing anything with anyone.

Reality: Why do we want life to be different than it is? Why do we think about who we were and who we're going to be more than who we are? We certainly talk a good game about who we are now. Why do we try to predict the future with the hope that wishful thinking is enough to change it? Life is NOT the way it was. It's the way it is. Life is not our fantasy predictions of the future or our glory days of the past. Life is that thing that is happening to you as you read this. We fall into the trap of living in the past and future because right here is not good enough. Back then and up there are keeping you from right now.

Sports: Take the focus off of weight, inches, and body fat percentages and put the focus on MOVING - from dancing, rock climbing, and mountain biking to table tennis. I love that ping-pong! Think in terms of "can do" instead of "look like." Sports are fun and help develop balance and coordination which in turn accelerates your results. Jump, kick, run, spin, throw, skate, shoot, hit, score, compete . . . PLAY!

The Plan: SCHEDULE ALL WORKOUTS IN ADVANCE. This creates accountability. Plan an entire month ahead of time. Try to schedule as many workouts as possible with friends who have similar goals. WOWY was developed so that we could find an easy and effective way to stay accountable and work out together. Now we've got people in Trumbull, CT (my hometown), doing Power 90 at the same time with people in Hollywood. That is cool!

Sleep (and stress): Stressed out, sleep-deprived people don't eat right and exercise regularly. Stress depletes energy, strength, and desire, while poor sleep habits affect your moods and immune function along with cognitive and motor performance. Burning the candle at both ends makes it impossible to be fit and healthy.

Loving It: Exercise and workouts involve commitment, determination, planning, consistency, and intensity. If you don't like what you're doing, there's no way on earth you'll succeed. Enthusiasm is a very big piece of the puzzle. Get creative and stay curious. If you enjoy doing Power 90 exclusively and it works for you, then keep doing it until it doesn't. If you get part way through P90X and it's not your cup of tea, then stop, and do something else. Something's got to bring you back day after day, week after week. Love it (tolerate it) or leave it.

Flexibility: Flexibility is the fountain of youth. Flexible people are much less prone to injury. Yoga and stretching allow you to bring more intensity to your workouts. Flexibility is the key component to becoming less vulnerable and more durable. Aging has a funny way of making everything we do harder. Staying limber and flexible is the way to prevent that from happening.

Food and Supplements: You are what you eat! Food and supplements are your fuel. The right fuel supplies proper energy and recovery through balanced brain chemistry. The right supplements simply fill in gaps in your diet.

Thanks for checking out my blog. You can also visit http://www.fit2praiseonline.com to learn more about me. You can also join my team of coaches that are helping stop the trend of obesity in America, one person at a time.

In Health,

Brad

Build A Groove with Nutrition and Exercise

Have you ever committed to working out for a time, but never got the results you wanted? If you have, you're in the 90% of all people that purchase the gym membership around the time of Thanksgiving and Christmas and quit around the third week of January. There are many reasons why people quit going to the gym; Your favorite machine is always busy, it's too far to drive, women feel self conscious of men staring at them, your friend that committed to this program with you can't go today. My excuse was "There's no time to go!". If you're a touring musician, it's a hassle to even attempt going to a gym. For most though it's finding that groove to keep you going isn't there because the results don't come fast enough.

There are 3 things to do to help you get into the best shape of your life. Two of them you've heard your whole life, diet(nutrition is a better word) and exercise. The third is getting your body away from an acidic level and back on the basic side of the PH scale. It's also called detoxification.

So lets build a groove! Think of this as a power trio. Each musician, the drummer, bassist and guitar player can all stand alone at anytime, but their effectiveness is best when they are one in the pocket of the groove together.

1. Detoxification is the drummer! He's the foundation to the whole groove. Often the drummer will click off a song to get everyone on the same tempo. This is so important and often overlooked by those that want the change to their body to come quickly. Don't bother heading to GNC to pick up one of those "detox in 24 hours" products. They often have a negative effect on your body or don't work. The proven product that is most tauted for helping detoxify your body is blue-green algae. A 30 day supply of these supplements is around $4 a day or about $120 a month.

2. Nutrition is the drummer and the bassist together in the groove. The drummer and the bassist playing together are now one and synergy is happening. The nutrition you provide needs to be the best quality possible and the right amount. If the fuel is bad then don't expect great results in your workouts. Your body uses the fuel you've provided and needs to be replenished quickly after a workout. The window to do this is about an hour after your workout. If you take in enough of the right fuel then you won't "bonk" or sputter out during your workout.

3. Exercise is the guitarist intermingling within the groove the melody, the movement, the vehicle that progresses the groove from tension to resolution.

Here's my recommendation: For detoxification and nutrition use Shakeology. http://www.shakeology.com/fit2praise
Remember how much the blue-green algae pills cost? Shakeology is your complete nutrition plus the blue-green algae is in it for the same price. A much better deal.
For the long hours of travelling on a bus in a close confined space, I recommend 10 Minute Trainer. http://www.beachbodycoach.com/fit2praise Find it all at my site addresses above.

To your health,
Fit2praise

Drummers, Bassists, Calories.....OH MY!

Some of you guys that are touring musicians keep asking me this question: "How am I supposed to adhere to such a structured nutrition plan, like P90X, while I'm on the road? My workouts are suffering because of it."

It's a fair question. It's not easy when the green room has been set up with 3 or 4 different snacks that are very salty, very sugary or both. Most of you touring guys have a rider that asks the venues what to have set up before you even get there. I'm obviously not addressing you guys since you can choose what you get.

To all the others bands that still help load and unload all of your own equipment and lights every time you play, this is for you.

1. I suggest that you find a decent heart rate monitor with a feature that shows how many calories you've burned. It's an excellent tool to help you discern great information you need to know during your work out like your zone heart rate and amount of calories burned. (Click on any of the buttons or banners on this page and it will take you to my website where you can find one.) You can find them without the chest strap too. If you are loading in and out this is the tool that is going to help you adjust the amount of food you eat and what kinds.

2. At load in/out (you decide which one) set up the heart rate monitor timer to count calories your body is burning. When you're done with setup, write that number down.

3. During sound check, sing/play/perform exactly like you would in front of your fans, with the heart rate monitor set up to count calories.

4. Double your first or last calorie reading and add the second reading to it. How many calories did you burn during these activities? Obviously, a percussionist or drummer is going to burn more than a bass player, unless maybe your name is Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, because of the nature of the instrument that is played.

5. Adjust your nutrition to add some of those lost calories back to maximize your workout. I tend to reach for the whole almonds or something with all natural peanut butter in it when I need a calorie boost and that seems to work.

6. This is my favorite way to adjust my calories. I do it with Shakeology. It is a great way to get that needed boost before a workout and it also completes your nutrition for the day. I suggest you get the chocolate and add coffee to it first thing in the morning. Here's a short video that shows you that any klutz can do it...ME!



Find out more here:

I hope this helps with nutrition while you're on the road. Cheers!

Fit2praise
http://www.beachbodycoach.com/fit2praise

3 Reasons Why Pro Musicians Should Practice Yoga!

Here's a special message on yoga from Tony Horton, creator of P90X.



Whether you blow a brass or woodwind instrument, play electric guitar for Toto or play cowbell for Blue Oyster Cult, your body, mind and spirit could benefit greatly from the regular practice of yoga. As we all know, travel is rough on the body and causes stress, especially in the lower back and lower extremities if traveling for extremely long distances. Add the mode of which transporation is being used and the pain can get a little better or a little worse. Here are three reasons to add yoga once a week to your routine.

1. Yoga shortens recovery time.
Go ahead and run your scales for F# melodic minor, or trade eights with your bass player in the saddest of all keys, D minor! But until you make sure you save 30 to 45 minutes to put Yoga into your weekly routine, you are going to discover that the wall of fatigue you see in the side view mirrors is closer than it appears.

2. Yoga promotes endurance.
Does this mean that guitar players that practice yoga regularly will be able to play extended solos in their nightly sets like Alex Lifeson or endure an amazing drum solo like Neal Peart? Yes, that is what I mean. You won't be a virtuoso like those two awesome players without some practice on your instruments...ok, maybe lots of practice on your instruments. But the ability to last longer while in the act of performing live is a definite advantage to be had. Many triathletes use yoga to boost their endurance or longevity.

3. Yoga prevents injury.
I hear stories all the time about musicians who have given up their love of playing an instrument because of injury. Joe Satriani ices his hands down for 20 minutes before hitting the stage because of past injuries when he was younger. The principle is simple. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. Tony Horton, the creator of P90X says, "Yoga is the fountain of youth." We all want to play and enjoy our instruments for as long as we can. It's hard to do what we've been called to do if we have injuries, especially if we play for a living.

There you have it. 3 reasons why professional musicians should practice yoga. Do you have questions? Maybe you need a Yoga exercise routine that is right for you. I recommend "The Fountain of Youth" in Tony Horton's One on One series, or his newest one, "Patience Hummingbird" from the same series. You can get all the information and buy those yoga workouts by logging on to this link: http://www.beachbodycoach.com/fit2praise Namaste!

Preview the "Patience Hummingbird" workout: