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.

Thanks for visiting our blog.

Our Method of Attack

First of all, Mike came with some physical limitations. Because of his weight, nearly every exercise hurt his back. His knees would not allow proper movement for most of the techniques used to train. His cardio was basically limited to 30 seconds worth of -whatever- so we had a little struggle between what he was willing to do, and what he was capable of doing. And to top that off, we were dealing with a gentleman who could barely walk across the room without being winded and I was worried about hurting his health, agitating his back, even in the name of getting in shape.

But the desire was there, so we worked with what he was able to do. For the first month, we trained four days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 9 to 9:20 a.m. Not exactly a huge calorie-burning session, but he needed something to jump start his program. This is what the typical session consisted of:

• about 3 to 5 rounds (30 second rounds) of punching a focus mitt
• at least 3 sets of punches (10 reps per set, per hand)--straight punches (the chambered "karate" punch), back fist, jab, cross
• walking across the floor while punching (we started with 3 trips back and forth, and worked our way up to 10 trips)
• 3 sets of "machine gun punching"--rapid punching for 30 seconds with no pauses, and 60 second breaks in between

Sorry folks, that was it. Really a simple workout, which would help anyone that was inactive, but as long as he did it, he got results. As the weeks progressed, Mike got stronger, his wind capacity increased, and he worked his way up to 7 to 8 sets of 30-second breaks. Our workouts got to 45 minute workouts (where it is now), and there are only a few breaks. On top of that, we have added:

• squats and calf extensions to build leg strength
• standing leg lifts to build hip strength
• footwork drills for boxing (yes, he's doing bag work now)
• side-to-side shuffling (10 reps back and forth across the width of my studio)
• KICKS (yes, KICKS)--about 3 sets of 10 snap kicks and side kicks per leg
• moving target practice with punches
• jumping jacks. he started out with 2 or 3 sets of 5, and now we're up to a minimum of 5 sets of 15
• basic eskrima (Filipino weapons fighting)

Our next step--after he has had about 3 months of kicking--is to teach him stances and prepare him for the Southern Kung Fu style called JOW GA (more on that later, but if you must know now, check out www.jowga.org ). You see, losing weight is only a small part of Mike's goals, he has a serious desire to study the martial arts. And boy, oh boy, just you wait and see what he'll be doing a year from now!

Sooner or later we'll add video clips via YOUTUBE. Pics coming soon!

Welcome to Jaguar's Journey

This is the story of Mike Jaguar, one of my clients. Since the journey is his--not mine--I'm not going to post anything about me; not even to tell you my name. What I will tell you is this: Mike is a 40-something man with a mission, to lose weight. He has tried everything under the sun to accomplish his goals, and so far nothing's worked. He is disciplined, determined, and has pain tolerance like you wouldn't believe. There have been trainers with no patience, little desire to see him succeed and just collect a paycheck, or just no empathy at all.

And this is where I come in. I am not a personal trainer; I am a former martial arts competitor who has had my own weight-loss story. Mike trains like one of my fighters, and he's making progress. Keep reading, and check back with us periodically to see how he's doing.

Oh, by the way, when he first arrived, Mike stood 5'6", and weighed around 359 lbs. That was two months ago, and he is now 327....