Monday, January 5th. Gym and health club owners, as well as personal trainers across the country were salivating at the prospect of thousands of New Year resolutionists coming through their doors with the hopes of getting in shape...again. But these professionals know that about 25% of those new members will forego their dreams after just 1 week, and that nearly half will jump off the bandwagon before the end of the month. In fact, only about 9% of people making a resolution will actually see their goal through to completion.
Then we would work on gaining range of motion with specific stretches and 2-3 corrective exercises. Truth be told, I felt tempted to keep the defibrillator nearby--his soft tissue work and warm-up left him completely out of breath and sweating profusely.
Mike shuffled through the door of Success Health & Fitness feeling and looking pretty lethargic, even though it was 8:45 in the morning. At 57 years old, Mike stands around 6 feet tall and at the time weighed about 220 pounds. Mike said this was one of his lower-weight days; he often fluctuated between 219 and 225 pounds. We talked for slightly more than an hour, finding out about his previous eating and exercise habits, injuries he's sustained, his sleep patterns, and his present energy levels. Now completely retired from 20+ years in the military, as well as being a business owner and working a couple other jobs, his freedom from the working world came with a price--his mostly sedentary lifestyle had left him with a significant loss of energy, and a noticeable gain in body fat.
After our Discovery session, Mike seemed somewhat motivated to get started, but it was obvious he was quite convinced--wondering if this program would be something he could stick with. He had joined other big-box gyms before, and found that the "turn them and burn them" mentality of just increasing membership numbers did nothing for helping people reach their goals. It's understandable why people are hesitant to keep trying when they've been duped so many times before.
We scheduled Mike for his Fitness Strategy Session three days later. We took circumference measurements, and calculated his body fat percentage at nearly 29% (that's almost 64 pounds of fat he was carrying). His Functional Movement Screen score of 10 (out of a possible 21) placed him at a moderate to high risk for future injuries. He had pain in both knees when attempting to squat (he couldn't go beyond 1/3 of the way down), and pressing his torso up from the floor resulted in back pain he rated at a 5/10 with just a slight movement. He was unable to complete the lunge pattern due to "extreme tightness behind the knee." In my 3 years assessing clients' movement capabilities, I can only recall 1 individual with a lower score and more physical limitations.
Mike came up with 3 primary goals to achieve:
- Lose 20 pounds by summer and increase his amount of lean muscle
- Improve his heart health and reduce his risk of a possible cardiac episode
- Learn how to eat better (he hated the taste of healthy foods such as dark green vegetables)
Mike's first two weeks here rarely saw him outside of the Soft Tissue Room. Our first objective was to decrease his fascial density and tension using foam rollers and tennis balls.
But Mike persisted. He made it through the first week. Adios to those first 25% of the resolutionists! And he persevered through week 2. The soft tissue therapy was getting a little easier. Week three we started with some body weight exercises on the TRX suspension trainer. By the end of the month, Mike started seeing some improvements in strength and movement quality.
Within six weeks, significant changes were taking place. Even though Mike hadn't even started focusing on his nutrition plan yet, his body weight was now consistently below 215. Instead of waking up 3-4 times every night, he was getting 8 hours of solid, restful sleep nightly. And upon waking up, he literally jumped out of bed ready to get the day started. This in contrast to previously laying there for 30-60 minutes trying to find the oomph to get up. And his soft tissue work? Body parts that were previously registering 7s and 9s on the pain scale, were now 1s and 2s! He was now moving pain-free!
Three months after starting his personalized workout programs, Mike began to implement the nutrition plan designed for him. He had been making some small changes in his food quality and quantity along the way, recording everything he ate on a free website app. Occasionally Mike would get the urge to lower the calorie amounts in an attempt to drop the weight faster. But after showing him how the body perceives too few calories as possible starvation, and that it would result in higher fat storage, he'd slowly increase his food quantity back to his 2,200 - 2,400 a day range. Lo and behold, the number on the scale started moving south again.
As of today, Mike's weight is around 205 pounds, and still trending downward at about 1 - 1.5 pounds weekly, despite occasionally eating as many as 2,800+ (healthy) calories a day. As importantly as the fat loss, Mike has also:
- Lowered his blood pressure from an average of 130/82 to 117/74 (bye-bye BP meds!!)...
- Reduced his monthly food bill from about $1,000 to less than $500 (for a family of 3). And by the way, Mike eats several servings of dark green and other colored veggies daily...
- Increased his work capacity (strength) in the weighted squat by 525%...
- Enhanced his endurance by 25% as noted in his Escalating Density Challenges...
- Improved his Functional Movement Screen score to 13, with absolutely NO pain in ANY movement...
- Bettered his post-workout recovery time (breathing and heart rate returning to pre-workout figures) from about 90 minutes to fewer than 10...
- Boosted his daily energy levels to where he is active from shortly after sunrise until dark.
Mike has never missed a workout. He's followed his plan almost to the letter, and he is reaping the rewards. Mike is a shining example of how anyone, regardless of age or physical condition, can radically transform his lifestyle and his life. Congratulations to being among the elite 9%!!!
