And He's Back!

It's been a while.

Mike had trained hard and lost a ton of weight the first time around. He put in about a year of training and we got him down to the upper 2oos. (Sorry to leave you folks hanging!) By the time he stopped training, many of his medical and physical problems went away. He was doing things he had not been able to do for much of his adult life.

And speaking of life, he ended up dropping out because of some of life's problems (his mother had gotten sick) and he gained the weight back... plus some.

But as long as he's got breath in him, it's not too late. I recently talked to Mike, and he was relaying to me that he'd gained his weight back. He tried boxing, but as I said in my first post--many people may know how to train clients, but if they lack the desire to see the client succeed, the sincerity and patience there won't be much in the way of results. Basically, he was put in front of a punching bag and received little one-on-one attention. Not to mention, he shared his trainer's attention with about 10 other people at the same time. Last week, I spoke to Mike while he sat in an emergency room. He had his worried grown son and daughter by his side; both were extremely upset at him and his failure to live his life healthy. Hate to put it so bluntly, but we often get so wrapped up in what makes us happy (or worries us) that we allow our health to fail. This puts unnecessary stress on our families, as who do you think takes up the slack when we need someone to tend to our needs, to pray for us when we are losing the battle of life, to take off of work to sit by our sides when we are receiving medical attention for problems that we caused ourselves?

Regardless, I'm glad he's back. We have to start over from scratch, as he is now in worse condition than he was when he first came to train with me 3 years ago. His back is bothering him as before, his stamina is non-existent, but his desire and enthusiasm are just as present as ever before. Let me tell you, this guy can do it. And he will. Most of all, since he'd done so in the past, he is more optimistic than others who have not. He's done it before and he'll do it again.... Better than before--it is a matter of life or death. Just watch!

So this is what we did:

• Mike will be training 3 days a week in the morning


• we had a short warm up, as we are only training for 30 minutes right now. I want to build up his strength slowly. It is important for his training to be injury-free. Not only is he heavier, but Mike is also 3 years OLDER. And the last three years have not been a healthy three years. We spent about three minutes stretching and warming up his muscles and limbs


• we reviewed his basic punches. Because of his back, he cannot do jumping jacks, floor exercises or kicks. He will have two more workout days this week, so we did not lift weights. In fact, he probably will not lift weights for a few weeks. Our priority is getting his heart pumping and getting his body used to pressure again.


• in punching, he performed about 50 punches each hand for each type of punch.


• he walked his jab up and down the gym for six trips, a total of about 50 more punches, but involving footwork.


• we did the "karate-style" punch. 50 each arm.


• the "high block". 25 each arm.


• then we walked his karate punch 4 trips, walked his high block 4 trips, and then a combination of high block/karate punch for four trips


• a combination: 1-2-3 (jab, cross, jab) 20 reps each side. we did three sets of this


• 1-2-3 combination, side step and repeat the combo. 10 each side, and we did 2 sets.

Again, I did not want him working too hard today. We want his body getting used to the training, and we want to build his strength slowly. As he gets stronger, he will be able to do more, and that is where he will start burning calories.

By the way, his homework:

1. replace one meal a day with only fresh fruit and vegetables


2. bring a scale to the school. He will weigh in each workout and we will journal his food intake, weight and his workouts (I maintain the journal)

His children are very concerned about his health. Mike is diabetic, and he has high blood pressure. He will need to be consistent, discipline, and patient. Our goal is to take off at least 100 pounds in the next 12 months.

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