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By Nikki Jarrett Changing the way you train will have a profound effect on your ability to reach your goals faster. Intent is defined as intention or purpose, resolved or determined to do (something), showing earnest or eager attention. This could be your missing link in your training. Training with intent is not always synonymous with training for a goal, e.i. to lose weight, be stronger, etc. But training with intent, as in, going into each training session with the intention and determination to do what needs to be done, know that each rep is one step closer to your goal. It’s the intent that when you step up to the bar you’re lifting that bar with purpose and not just picking it up because that’s what you should do. You should lift with purpose every session, every set, every rep. The opposite of intent is going through the motions. Have you ever been driving home from work on your usual route and some how you are home? That’s what I’m talking about, it’s describe as auto-pilot. You are not actually IN the moment. This is can be seen as a good thing some of the time, but ultimately you are losing out on so much more when it comes to your training and the results you want. Lifting with intent gives you added bonuses, not just correlated with results, but on a psychological level as well. By being in the moment of training, sprinting, or even setting up your lifts, you are: 1) not thinking about everything, 2) increasing your attention span, 3) practicing staying focus - look back to #2, and 4) learning to be in the moment of things, more importantly in life. In this social media filled world we often forget what “being in the moment” is about. We are so quick to pull out our phones to share moments, but ultimately missing out on the experience of those moments. But that’s for another post…anyways… Let’s get back to lifting with intent. We will use sprinting as an example. There are a lot of people in this world what call themselves runners but there is a wide range of “runners.” It comes down to intent. What is your intent when you go our for that morning jog? Is it to clear your mind, work on your pace, to get in a bit of exercise before your day starts? If your purpose for running becomes performance focus, then your intent has to change. You cannot go out for a morning jog and expect to get the positive results you are working for e.i. faster pace, longer distances with a good pacing. You must run with intent, focus, purpose, determine to do or complete said goal. Mike Boyle (side note: Mike Boyle is one of the foremost experts in the fields of Strength and Conditioning, Functional Training and general fitness. to learn more about him clink the link: http://www.bodybyboyle.com/staff ) started to implement timed sprints in his programming. He gave his athletes 10 seconds to complete a given distance, challenging them to run faster. They can complete the distance, if they actually put forth the effort and run with intent or purpose. He created a situation where the athlete had to run with intent giving them a challenge to complete. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?? All his athletes increased their speed, not only for the sprint drill, but in their specific sport as well. AND!!! They also increased their power output. This not only carried over to their speed/sprint drills but their overall sports performance as an athlete. The take away, training with intent will produce better results faster. If you just go through the motions, just doing what you have to do but not intentionally focusing, will fail to produce the results you want. Finding the purpose that each rep counts towards your overall goal can be the missing link in your training. TRAIN WITH INTENT.

So Good They Can’t Ignore You - Why Skills Trumps Passion in the Quest for Work You Love By Cal Newport Wow! This book gets 5/5 Stars. I got back to my roots with this book and I couldn’t be more happy to hear all the things in this book. “Stop worrying about what you feel like doing and instead start creating something meaningful and give it to the world. Cal really delivers with this one.” - Seth Godin, author of Linchpin I couldn’t agree more with Godin about this book! “Follow you passion” is bad career advice. Find out what you should do instead… In So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalist, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport debunks the long-held belief that “following your passion” is the key to satisfaction. Drawing from these real-life examples and cutting edge science, he details the alternative strategies that work much better for developing a compelling career. This book is great for anyone confused on the answer - what to do with their life? I bet most of you have ask someone this very question seeking out guidance thats deeper than “ Do what you love,” “follow what you’re passionate about, and the money will follow.” I know I have been there before and on so many other occasions too, high school to college to starting a career. And while I didn’t have this book in college when I was switching my major ( which I don’t advise after your 4th year in) to Sport Studies to study Strength and Conditioning Coaching, I had this innate feeling wanting to be the best coach I can be. My goal was to do whatever it took to hone in my skills and deliver the best product.. I was literally doing what Newport discovered in this book. You could argue I followed my passion of fitness to switching my major and so on until now. But, really I didn’t. I did at first wanting to become a dancer but that was no longer logical or realist for me. So, fitness was logical transition from a dancer. I had develop a skill set through dance that helped me learn exercise movements well and being a dance instructor moving into fitness instruction was fitting. Obviously, there has been a lot of steps in between, which is referred to as ‘career capital’ by Newport. This book has started that fire again. Confirmed I was on the right path to begin with and cemented the idea that I am seeking out to be the best I can be. I feel refocus and ready to create a rare and valuable skill to bring to the world. You will like this book because it’s easy to read and has great stories of examples that clearly paint the picture of what you need to do in order to love what you do - even when you don’t follow your passion. Also, if you like or know who Steve Martin is, his point of view is enlightening and made me want to watch Father of the Bride LOL! I give this book a 5/5 Stars! Get this book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/B009CMO8JQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3KML6QV2TKMAU&dchild=1&keywords=so+good+they+cant+ignore+you&qid=1587507467&sprefix=you+good+they+%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1 Again, I am NOT affiliated with the selling of the book. This is my personal review to help you spend you time and money wisely. Thank you for reading my review, please share your thoughts below. I would love to heard your feedback!

Why I gave it a 3 out of 5 Star Review... INGITE THE FIRE - The Secrets to Building a Successful Personal Training Career By Jonathan Goodman Jonathan Goodman is the creator of the largest collaborative blog for personal trainers, the Personal Trainer Development Center (the PTDC) and the founder of the Online Trainer Academy. He’s the author of 7 books Ignite the Fire, Viralnomics, and the seminal textbook on the online personal training. Jon has been featured in Men’s Health, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and many more. Originally from Toronto, Jon seeds his winters traveling the world with his wife and baby boy. Now, I am not affiliate with Jon or his books/blog. This is just a personal review of the book because I feel it is helpful to know if a book is worth reading or not. I love to read and continue my education but I also don’t like to waste my time either. I value my time spent and I’m sure you do too! This book will show you how to: Find your dream personal training job Sell any client Build beginner workouts Market yourself Deal with difficult clients types Make passive income Grow yourself, your career, and your bank account With a revised, expanded, and upgrades edition, Ignite the Fire is the practical approach to personal training already relied on by thousands of trainers worldwide. It provides a clear road map to building your career from the bottom up so you can build clientele, your reputation, and income. Although, I did find it helpful and wish I read this sooner in my early days of becoming a personal trainer, there were some not so “secret” secrets. What I did like about the book is how he interviewed people in the industry (e.i. Mike Boyle, Molly Galbraith, Kate Horney, Nick Tumminello, and more) to tell their story, and share their 3 tips to being a successful personal trainer. I find hearing stories of other in the biz have struggled and found their success through those struggles helps me to know I’m not alone and everyone struggles in this industry. There is a lot of good insight for an up and coming trainer should do to build a career. I would highly recommend this book to a new trainer or someone who is thinking of becoming a trainer but doesn’t know how yet. Even though I have been a personal trainer for 6 years and in the fitness industry for 12 years, it was a refresher to what I had forgotten. I, also, found things in the book that I was already doing, like blocking my seclude and building a system for my clients. This was relieving to read it from Jon, as it confirms I am doing something right. We need to hear that some days because there are time you feel like you’re failing when actually you’re not. What I did not like about the book was it didn’t tell me anything new but I chalk that up to the years I have been a personal trainer and I have been following him for a few years too on Instagram. If you have been in the game for awhile, his section of the 10 clients you will encounter was comical and spot on! I found myself actually LOLing reading this section thinking about my clients who are described and how I had handled those situations. If you’re a new personal trainer I will tell you, you WILL encounter every single one of those clients. If you’re a veteran in this game, you will enjoy this section and his nicknames for them too! Overall, Ignite the Fire is a good book to have on hand to refer to when you’re struggling to reignite the fire (see what I did there? lol) but I will highly recommend it to up and coming personal trainers. I give it a 3 out a 5 Star Review. Here is where you can find the book: https://store.theptdc.com/product/ignite/ Or Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ignite-Fire-Building-Successful-Personal Again, I am NOT affiliated with the selling of the book. This is my personal review to help you spend you time and money wisely. Thank you for reading my review, please share your thoughts below. I would love to heard your feedback!

By Nikki Jarrett If you are a regular gym-goer like myself and many others reading this, you might think that progress is measured by - more weight on the bar, your scale is moving closer to an “ideal” weight, or you became the biggest badass in your gym (yay!), but those are not always the best indicators for progress. Everyone that goes to the gym, goes for many reasons, e.i. weight-loss, bulking (bruh), and therapy, etc, all are which are valid reasons. But that doesn’t mean weight-loss and bulking are the sole measures of progress of your program, especially if neither one of those is your goal. Even if they are your goals, we often hit a point in our journey where nothing is changing (so we think) and looking for progress in other ways can keep you pushing forward. The best indicators of progress have little to do with your weight or the weight on the bar. You should look for progress in other aspects of your life, and hopefully the healthy lifestyle your building. If you’re new to the gym lifestyle then this will be a good read for you and if you’re a veteran to the gym life, reviewing key indicators of progress can help you manage your program and help you find the missing link to push pass a plateau. I will cover each of these individually but I won’t keep you waiting. The 5 best indicators of progress are: 1.Closer to your goal (duh!) 2.Moods and stress level are managed well or are in-check 3. You are getting adequate quality sleep 4. Ability to get back on track with gym/nutrition routine after a meal or a vacation 5. Ability to perform well in the gym Closer to Your Goal Whatever your goal - Are you closer to it? You goal doesn’t have to have a number attached to it, like a weight for the scale to on the bar. Your goal can be simply to feel better and to be able to move better by increasing flexibly/mobility, increase daily /quality movement, or decrease pain. If you’re finding you are moving closer to these goals, then your are making progress! Keep going, don’t give up and be patient! Moods and Stress Level are Managed Well or in Check This may not be the most obvious measure of progress but it is an important aspect to your health and well being (maybe even for your partner’s too)! If you’re experiencing mood swings, irritability, disinterested in training, or even low energy, this could be signs you’re doing too much (e.i. increase in stressors) and not keeping a good balance between gym, nutrition, sleep, and your social life. Try focusing on recovery, and limiting or decrease your time in the gym or intensity of your sessions, until your body starts to feel 'better' and your energy is back to normal. You are Getting Adequate Quality Sleep Most of us know that sleep is vital to your health. If your sleep quality has decreased there could be a number of reasons, but if you cannot find a solution it could require a discussion with your doctor. If you know the solution to your lack of quality sleep (e.i. stay up too late binging on Netflix), change up your routine and practice time manage skills to insure you can get to bed at a reasonable time. Sometimes your sleep is disrupted during the night, find the reason for the disruptions and try to eliminate the number of disruptions throughout the night. Increase in quality of sleep is a good indicator of good time management, decrease stress level, will increase your gym performance and can help you reach your goals faster. Ability to Get Back on Track This is a tough one! Life will happen and you will find a time where you “fall off the wagon,” and that's OK. Having the ability to redirect your focus back to your goal will help you reach that goal faster. This can be more of a mental struggle, you may find changing your mindset and setting smaller goals will help get back on track more quickly. If you find yourself overwhelmed with your goal, breaking it down to smaller S.M.A.R.T. goals. This process can help you get back on track, ultimately moving you closer to your goal! Increase Performance in the Gym This one is obvious, of course you will be closer to your goals if you can increase your performance in the gym. It won't always be the case. Having the right program, managing your stress, quality nutrition, and enjoying the process will aid in your performance. Maintaining quality performance in the gym will bring you closer to your goals. By being able to continually work hard and smart, is a great indicator of progress. If you’re finding you lack energy, or can’t maintain a performance level required to make strides towards your goal there are keys areas you need to take a look at, e.i. nutrition or sleep. If these areas are lacking, then it's possible your program isn’t a good fit. Your performance in the gym is good feedback on other areas that may need improvement, use this information and it will bring you closer to your goals. Just know that there are definitely more bad days, then good days always check in with how you are doing. Now what? Keep track of these indicators, they will tell you a lot of information about yourself and your progress. You will be able to uncover the areas that need improvement and areas that are working well for you. Don’t forget that life will get busy, but if you maintain your focus, keep track of your progress with these 5 indicators, and keep moving towards your goal, you will get there! Not all progress can be measured by the weight on the bar or even the number on the scale. Using the most information as you can will help you stay focus and motivated to achieve your goal and so much more. As Coach Dan John would say, "Keep going, and never give up." #nevergiveup#goals#keeptrack#keepgoing#fitness#motivation

“Strength is gained in the range you train” - Charles Poliquin The best way to showcase this is to take a look at the older population, ages 70 and up. You will see some men and women who are in great shape. They are doing things that seem impossible for their age. On the other hand, you also see the same age men and women who have difficulty walking with good posture, who are shuffling their feet and moving very slow. How does this happen? As we age and life gets busier, we tend to put off exercise because it is no longer a priority compared to work, family, sleep, and kids. But as the old saying goes, “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” One of the first things to decrease as we age is our mobility to reach overhead or across our bodies (putting on a seatbelt). Why?? Because we tend to not do those movements as often as you think and then almost rarely as we get older. Let’s take this a step further: If you are not training in the full ranges of movement (your mobility), you are creating what is called a “weak link.” Lets take the squat for an example. We spend a lot of our time in chairs that are not low enough to use our full range of movement, nor do we have to go very far to get up because of the height. Compare your squat to that of a toddler, ass to grass and back up again with ease. Now you try it. Did you fall over? Did you make it about half way down then grunted your way back up with some support? Now lay on the floor on your back and bring your knees to your chest. That was easy, wasn’t it? It is similar mobility to your squat range of motion, but you could not do it with your body weight (load). This means you have the range of motion to be able to do a full squat, but you don’t have the strength in that range of motion to be able to load the movement (body weight). If you do not use your full range of motion during your training, you will create issues for your future self and your future self will not thank you for it. Take care of your body, maintain a training schedule throughout your life, and work on the mobility you have today so your future self will have the ability to be one of those awesome older people in the gym!

A number of people have losing weight as a goal and may not be seeing the results. If this is you, then give this a read. Sleep may not seem a likely factor to effect weight-loss / FAT-loss, but it can make a significant difference. Lack of sleep is linked to weight-gain, increased stress, and increased hunger. But why?? Because sleep helps regulate important hormones controlling your appetite and stress: cortisol, insulin, leptin, and gherlin, it's important to make sleep a priority when trying to lose FAT. Understanding how each of these plays a role in your weight-loos / FAT -loss goals, can help you reach your goals faster. Under stress, cortisol provides the body with glucose (energy) by tapping into protein stores via gluconeogenesis in the liver. This energy can help an individual fight or flee a stressor. But our stressors are work, relationship, and life related rather than surviving. Elevated cortisol over the long term consistently produces glucose, leading to increased blood sugar levels through insulin resistance, which results in weight gain. The role of cortisol “directly influence appetite and cravings by binding to hypothalamus receptors in the brain. Cortisol also indirectly influences appetite by modulating other hormones and stress responsive factors known to stimulate appetite.” (Epel E, Lapidus R, McEwen B, Brownell K. Stress may add bit to appetite in women: A laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2001;26(1):37-49.) This is why we crave the high sugar/processes foods when we are stressed. (e.i. 'the time of the month' and how your craving increase for these foods.) Insulin, also, plays a role when quality sleep is limited. Insulin's job is to help the body use glucose for energy. Lack of quality sleep will decrease the hormone leptin (your appetite suppressor), which increases insulin resistance. In insulin resistance, cells fail to use the hormone efficiently, resulting in high blood sugar. This links back to the first paragraph. The hormone leptin is a 16-kDa protein. It is secreted by adipocytes and dominantly has major role in the body weight regulation by maintaining a balance between food intake and expenditure of energy. Leptin helps suppress your appetite. But, if leptin decreases, insulin increases, and ensue the 'Hanger' begins causing an increase in food intake. Increase in food intake = weight gain. Ghrelin is another hormone that increases appetite, aka the “hunger hormone. Ghrelin levels determines how quickly hunger comes back after we eat. Ghrelin levels increase dramatically before you eat (this is you feeling hungry, grrrrrr), then decrease for about three hours after the meal. And, so the cycle repeats. When we lack quality sleep gherlin levels increase making us feel hungry, so we can provide energy to our bodies, when we actually just need some zzz’s. Rob Allen Fitness created a great visual for this (thank you!): Basically, through lack of sleep our hormones become imbalance and our body’s response is to keep us alive/surviving. In “normal” circumstances, if you were sleep deprived, it’s because you were trying to survive in the wild. But, we are no longer in the wild. We live in a world that is fast pace, has the “not enough time in the day” mentally, and easy access to processed sugary foods. Majority of us are sleep deprived with readily available sugary food, this combination is partly why we are where we are today - obese. The Take Away: If you feel like you are not making progress with your weight-loss / FAT-loss goal, try going to bed 1 hour earlier. Increasing your quality sleep could help you reduce your body weight without much change to what you are currently doing. Consistently getting in quality sleep over the next full year could lead to a total loss of 10-14 pounds, some research suggests. Now, good quality sleep paired with consistent quality nutrition and a great training program can only accelerate your results! Start tonight! Get some ZZZ’s! If you need advice on how to increase your quality sleep, please reach out and ask! nikkijarrett73@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

“I think there are two keys to success. One is to show up. The other is to keep going. Most people don’t keep going.” - Dan John I believe consistency is key. Some days are hard to show up but that is only half the battle. But it's the greatest start to the battle. If you don’t keep going and waging on, then you are sure to fail. How do you not fail? By keep going… Yes, life is hard. Yes, life gets in the way. Yes, you get in your own way. But that doesn’t mean you quit. It means you find a way to keep going. Keep trying. Change your methods. Be flexible. KEEP GOING. You are human, there is no way around it (and if you have found a way around it then you must teach us your ways, wise one). Mistakes will happen but it's important to find a way to recover from those mistakes, learn from them and to grow. Show up, do the work. Keep showing up, keep doing the work, and you WILL succeed! Consistency is key.

Every person knows that water is good for you. Whenever you want to start a healthy lifestyle change, one of the first ways to start is to drink more water. BUT WHYYYY? Well, because it is good for you! Duh! Water even has an emoji! 💦 But really, why is it sooooooo good? There are so many benefits of water, that it was hard to fit them all in.💦 We are made up of 70% water. Every cell in our body needs water. Once you start drinking more water you realize how dehydrated you really are. Your joints, skin, heart, bodily functions, and so much more will thank you for the water. Start today! Drink that water! And stay hydrated!💦😃

"Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication" Mike Krzyzewski “There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable.” -Mike Krzyzewski Communication is vital for any relationship. Open communication between YOU the athlete and the coach is imperative to reaching your goals. To give you the best program, environment and coaching, we need you to help us by communicating because coaches can’t read your mind. In order for you to receive the best coaching, you must communicate with us about what is going on with you and that means everything! As a coach and I ask “how are you, today?” I mean it. ITs rare these days for others to mean it, but I actually want to know how the heck you are!Is your job stressing you out today? HAs your significant other been unsupportive? Are you excited about your up coming vacation? Whatever it is, please tell me or your coach. This information is vital for us toggle you the best. We understand life brings stress and can bring havoc. With our knowledge and experience, we can offer you tools to help you navigate stressful or even positive situations that are challenging your goals, nutrition, and training. We know you have goals, and your goals are our goals. We a want to build you the best plan based on your goals, but if you don’t communicate what those goals are or the challenges you're facing, then we don’t know how to best serve you as the guide to your goals. Injuries and illness can happen at anytime. Depending on what you are experiencing, we are able to modify your program while still making progress towards your goals. BUT None of this can happen unless you COMMUNICATE with us! We need you to help us, help you. We are on your team, and we want you to succeed! Keep your coach in the loop of the happenings in your life and you will truly see the benefits from it and reach your goals faster!

Has this every been you?? You step up to the bar, wrap your hands around the kneeling and duck under to set your back to the bar. You stand up with the weight on your back and your first thought is “Oh, Shit! This is heavy.” You spiral down from there, telling yourself you can’t do it and rack the bar. You just got mind F***ed. How do you prevent it and how do you work through it once you start that downward spiral? Well, the simple answer is (wo)man up and do it. It’s not that simple though. I’m here to tell you life sucks and the weight is going to be heavy, these are the facts. But you have a choice; try and fail or try again and succeed. Great things come out of squatting; it’s going to teach about life. 200 pounds will always be 200 pounds. It’s what you do while under those 200 pounds that will either make you better or make you quit. DON’T QUIT! It’s ok to have a moment. Gather yourself. Dig deep. Put some loud music on. Come back to it and try again. But how do I prevent this from happening and get through it? That’s a great question. A few steps I take to help me are: 1) Visualize the movement. In other words, make a plan. Lay it all out there, the set up, the un-rack, feeling the weight on your shoulders, inhaling, bracing the core, lowering into the squat, pushing through the floor, squeezing the glutes, maintaining the tension, and finally racking the weight. This is the plan. It may be necessary to take a step back. Take a few breaths, or walk around the room to get away from whatever it is, we call it “negative energy.” But come back and stick to the plan. 2) Say, “I CAN.” The moment you let doubt creep in and tell yourself you can’t, is the moment you already failed. If you have someone to talk to you, ask them if you’re just being crazy or is the weight really that heavy. An outside source can give you an unbiased opinion and can help you see pass the obstacle you are focusing on. 3) Nike said it best, “Just Do It.” Once you have that plan, you see it and you know you can, then just do it. You must take action in order for you to grow. The worst thing that can happen is you failing. But that does not mean you’re done. It means you have another shot to get it right. Repeat steps 1-3 until you conquer your goal. At the end of the day we are human and we will fail. We will get into our heads and it’s going interfere with our goals, that’s ok. What’s not ok, is quitting, just take a deep breath, step up, handle that weight, and conquer it! #mindovermatter #selfimprovement #motivation #justdoit