Heat Seeking Missile and Fat Loss
HEAT SEEKING MISSILE AND FAT LOSS
Luckily, I got to snap this pick while waiting at a traffic light. What the F? It is a pitiful state when people get so damn fat and out of shape that they need to roll around town in an electric scooter. I do not feel bad for them and they are a burden to the health care system. I will be writing a follow up article on this entire article, but for those that say: maybe they don’t know what to eat. To that I say, listen to your body! If you feel like sh** two hours after you ate, something is wrong and your body is telling you something. I don’t want to hear thyroid and faulty metabolism, etc. AND, think about this, have you ever eaten anything by accident? My friend on the scooter put years and years of work into that physique. But with that said, I do have people in pretty bad shape that do seek me out to help and for them, I give them an ovation. Change is hard but riding around in a scooter because you are too fat/lazy/can’t move right, should be a clear sign that your body has had enough abuse.
Too fat to move
I am often astounded at the lack of effort you will see from an ordinary man. Many, many people are just happy to be average and ‘not stick out’. Let me ask you a question….did God or whatever you believe in not provide you with more than enough opportunity to do great things with? I pride Newell Strength on being a place where clients and athletes can be propelled on to do greater things in their life. If you don’t think kicking a workout’s ass and owning it have anything to do with the rest of your life, you are making a big mistake.
You need to take time every year, month, day, to be awesome. This means that you have to attack something with all your passion and become superior at it. That is one of the main reasons I always loved competing, because of the supreme focus it gave me and knowing I was doing something that 99% of people would be too soft to do.
As you may or may not know, right now I am in the process of getting my body fat down under 10%, nothing super compared to 5% but it’s a tangible goal and a place for me to start. I am not doing this for health reasons so much as I am for the simple idea of being awesome, doing something hard to get focused and to remind myself of what my athletes and clients are feeling. I do not mind being hungry or any of the side effects of dieting as I embrace them and when I feel them I put them back in their place.
When you are trying to achieve something out of the ordinary, you must expect balance to go out the window along with it. Don’t worry, you can regain your balanced life once you hit your goals, whatever they may be. This should add to your sense of urgency to reach your goals even faster. People have been asking me this week what I have been doing, since they can notice the change in my face and arms as I get leaner and I don’t really have a good answer for them. I simply envision myself as a heat-seeking missile and go after it. There are no options, no choices, I simply do!
Last weekend we went over to a birthday party for my niece but since it wasn’t cheat night for me, guess what? You got it, I didn’t have pizza or cake, although I would have loved to and I brought a bag of chicken to throw on the grill. You see, too many people have too many ‘wants’. You either want to be lean and lose fat or you don’t. If you want to have your cake a couple of times per week, then there is your answer. And no, don’t take it personally, it is what it is. When you make up your mind to do something you don’t also create an option B because it will only distract you.
As you may have seen in one of my other articles, I have an alter ego, some combination of Danny Trejo, Marshall Mathers and the Terminator and no I am not kidding. You have one too, even if you try to ignore it. Why is it important? Because you will be having conversations with yourself constantly when you are trying to do something hard that is going to push you outside your comfort zone. The alter ego(s) must be there to take a stand and not give in to your quibbling.
To be a heat seeking missile, you cannot let other people get in your way and more importantly you must get out of your own way. This goes for the athletes I train at Newell Strength that may have no concern for fat loss but who desire to be the best. Are you going to wake up early to practice? Are you going to take time to prepare your meals? Are you going to be that kid that leaves the party to go life (I was). If you aren’t, then there is your answer. Being awesome looks good and sounds good on paper but your actions will speak louder than your words.
Why Goals are Important
My Goal Book
Every year, about this time, late August, I set my goals for the next year. It has become a tradition for me and something I greatly look forward to. In fact, I can honestly say that the past 2 years I was able to accomplish every single one of my goals that I wrote done, from my personal life, to my business.
There is a distinct difference between saying a goal out loud or in your head and writing it down. I can’t explain the science behind it, but I know there is a very emotional connection to writing things down. I am very wary of people that say things but never commit to them on paper.
If you are anything like me, you will take some time this weekend to go pick up an empty notebook and start writing down your goals for the year. And you will rewrite them ever single day. Its not hard, remember what I said yesterday, but many people will not take the time to do it. Two years ago, before moving into the official Newell Strength facility, I listened to:
Again, if you are anything like me, pick it up, read it, or do like I did and listen to it and maximize your travel time.
It’s goal time people and when you look back in a year, I don’t want you to be sitting in the same situation. You make your life, no one else….
The Fight of My Life
Completely Ruptured Patella Tendon
I love to write, so I figured this post could be at least good therapy for me. It is not meant to be a sob story, so excuse me if it comes across like that. I have been open and honest with my audience from the beginning and I don’t intend to stop now….
Here is the beginning of the story, an event that will no doubt change my life forever in some form or another. It started on Thursday night of last week, April 12th, 2012.
I was and still am getting over pneumonia, but I was cleared by the doc to resume activity that I felt capable of doing, which for me, is usually 100 MPH. I had a great week of workouts and played in my first basketball game in 2 weeks on Tuesday night and my conditioning was actually pretty good for taking 2 weeks off.
Wednesday I crushed a lower body workout and all seemed fine. Thursday morning I rode the bike to loosen my legs up and then proceeded to teach all day and work the gym into the evening hours. I rushed over to my game at 8:30 and loosened up on the sidelines. I was playing well throughout the first half, felt pretty good. Early into the second half, I was chasing down a player from the other team (actually a student of mine’s father, Tyrone, ironic, lol) on a fast break. It was just the two of us and we were about under his basket. It felt like his heel kicked back and up into my one and I remember thinking, “That’s odd” and then I remember falling and wondering what was happening. As soon as I hit the ground, I felt ‘it’. I took a quick glance down, noticing that my knee was now pretty much on the side of my leg. I was screaming and banging the floor, yelling for 911. I knew it was bad because many of the other players had to cover their eyes and walk away. Tyrone and Bryan from my team were great in helping me to stay calm, making sure I was comfortable with towels draped on me.
The police arrived first, followed by the ambulance. My buddy Stretch called Devon and I tried to stay calm talking to her, telling her not to worry or come up because they would just take me to the hospital and then pop it back in. Apparently I was disillusioned and Stretch had called her back minutes later telling her to get up to the hospital with my parents because it was far more serious.
The EMTs had to splint my legs together. They had to try and roll me over to my good side for the ride to the hospital but they didn’t get very far because of the pain. So, I had to do it myself. I counted to three and rolled over, not too fun, lol.
The EMT decided to take me to Morristown because of the Trauma center there. When I arrived, they took me into the main trauma room. 3 of my friends, including Stretch and Bryan came with us and came back to keep me company. The doctors came in a few minutes later after the nurses administered the morphine. At this point, he told my friends they were going to want to leave the room because he had to straighten the leg back out. It felt a hell of a lot better after the knee cap slid back into alignment with the rest of my leg. Next up was the X-rays, which confirmed a completely torn patella tendon of my left leg. The doctors gave me an initial recovery time of 6 months, at which time I started to cry, not for the pain, but from the shear overwhelming weight of the moment.
Devon and my parents drove me home and it was quite an ordeal to get in the house. I was/am in a complete leg brace and have crutches. I woke up twice that night in excruciating pain, even after 2 doses of morphine at the hospital and a steady dose of oxycodone. It was back to the surgeon in Morristown at 8AM the next morning, which confirmed the diagnosis and I was informed that my leg will be immobilized for 6 weeks following the surgery and told that it would be a long road back. A torn patella tendon is just about the worst knee injury you can have and it fairly rare. It is comparable to the ‘triad’, when a person tears the ACL, MCL and PCL at the same time. For most, it brings instant terror, as it did to me.
I woke up early Saturday morning at 4 AM, Devon woke up shortly after. I woke up in tears, scared of the road ahead of me. I had put the 3 Stooges on TV to try and calm down and try to hide my tears from Devon. I was scared about never being able to squat again, never being able to sprint again, jump again, play ball again and so on. Devon helped to calm me down. I had to get some rest because I had my Fat Loss seminar in a few hours, which I decided to still put on. My good friend, Steve Fenton came over the next morning to help load up for the seminar and help assist me into the back of the truck. He also gave me a poem that he wrote about my journey ahead. That too brought me to tears.
This is the inside of my knee currently
The seminar went great but I was mentally and emotionally drained at night. I read the Jim Hoskinson Story on EliteFTS and reached out to Louie Simmons, whom I will speak with this week. Jim recovered from double patella tendon tears and went on to squat 1100 pounds and Louie tore the same leg as me.
I had one more break down this morning while watching a motivational video, but this time it wasn’t because of self-pity, it was because I am finally faced with a challenge that will allow me to use everything I have ever taught myself physically, mentally and spiritually. I have never faced a challenge like this all my life. Bodybuilding and sport has prepared me well for this battle. I am going to beat the odds and I plan on walking again in 2 months. I will use this to inspire others. I will train my mind to be even stronger. I will jump again, I will squat again, I will play ball again, I will compete again.
Interestingly, I got the tattoo below earlier in the week, it means Fear Nothing, damn right, bring it on! There is a bright side to it, I just had to find it. Stay tuned.
Fear Nothing
Definiteness of Purpose
I find that too many people go through life with no purpose, no goals and no direction. Maybe these people never had mentors to model a life of striving or maybe they have a guilty conscience, doesn’t really matter the cause. You will never achieve much in life if you aren’t definite in purpose towards something. I know very few people that are actively and actually working towards their dreams. This is not a knock on anyone, but reality.
Devon asked me the other night what makes me uncomfortable and I thought for a minute and told her, “I make it a point to do at least one uncomfortable thing every single day.” And this has been true for as long as I can remember, whether thats doing work on the computer, making phone calls I’d rather not, waking up early, wearing my under armour tights out to eat (I do this from time to time just to really get uncomfortable). I read at a charity event last week and there is nothing more in the world that makes me more uncomfortable than reading in front of a group of people off a book or script. But I did it because I knew that somewhere down the road, to get to where I am going, I am going to have to continue pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone further and further out.
I have a definite purpose every single day when I wake up: To be the best strength coach in the world and be the best husband I can be. Balance is always going to be an issue for me, I have lofty goals. But there is rarely a wasted minute in my day. I would challenge you to follow me around for a day and see if you can find any ‘wasted’ minutes. Think about training in the gym without a goal. It suddenly becomes meaningless and the thought of “Why am I even doing this?” will enter your mind. Once you develop a time line and goal list, the training will get exciting again. You can learn more about life in the gym than you can in any class room.
I have a purpose and I am going after that purpose with a sense of urgency. I know that my dreams won’t wait for me. I have a gap right now that I can either hit or let pass by. Life will continue either way, but I know which one I am shooting for. As humans, when we don’t have purpose, we die. Harsh, but true. Define your purpose
How Bad Do You Really Want It?
Strength Psychology
I know some people out there wish I’d just shut the hell up and talk about nothing but training and nutrition, but then I wouldn’t be being true to myself. I know that many of you are more interested in mindset and you have already made the connection between working out in a 100 degree gym, beating the workout and how this forges you ‘steel mindset’. I often times think that I could very easily be happy with a career as a psycho-therapist.
I have always loved pyschology and truth be told, I have learned much more about it from my time in the gym, under the bar and as a strength coach. Newell Strength is really just my playground, my lab for life. There is a lot more teaching going on there than just how to squat or bench and there is a lot more learning there going on for me personally than just what works in an exercise program.
I get people hiring me from all different back grounds and they all want success. Most of them are type A personalities, most are warriors. But then you have people that I have worked with in the past that hire me and then object to everything I try to coach them up on. They have an excuse at every turn, every corner, why they can’t eat such and such. Those types of relationships don’t last very long for me.
I would love to go home like most teachers and sit on the couch while eating a bowl of ice cream, but that doesn’t jive with my dream. I would love to eat pizza tonight, however that is not a choice. It is not self-torture, it a choice I have eliminated to take the mental battle out of the equation. I want to be healthy, I want to be lean. I have done so in the past many times, but not like I am doing now. This is perament. It is a part of my being, my perspectives have changed after turning 30 this past summer. I would have loved to sleep in a little later this morning, alarm clock blaring at 4:30 AM, but I want success more than a little extra sleep. I had my conditioning scheduled before training the morning crew at 5:30 AM before going in for a full day of teaching and then back to the gym.
I would love to sit back and watch stupid youtube videos on my lunch break, but instead I am writing this. I know what my dreams are and I know what type of effort it will take to reach them. A lot of people tell me how badly they want to succeed, but their actions don’t line up with what they tell me. They want to sleep in all the time, have ultra-success, they want to eat whatever. Most people are unwilling to be uncomfortable, to step outside their comfort zone.
I love what Eric Thomas, aka the Hip Hop Preacher says when he says, “Most of you are crying to quit. Don’t cry to quit, cry to keep going! You alread suffering, get a reward for it! Most of you like sleep more than you want to be successful. Until you are willing to give up sleep to reach your dreams, you won’t ever have the success you want.” I am not saying not to sleep, but you are going to have to sacrifice a lot to get done to where you know you want to be in your heart.
How many athletes have you seen that say they want a D! scholarship, yet they will cut every corner they can? They will opt to stay up late playing PS3. I didn’t have the physical skills, but during the summer you could find me lifting weights or shooting hoops at midnight. I had a dream and I can say I put every single thing in my soul into it. When I see these qualities in others, I will go to the end of the world to help them.
I had the best weekend ever with Devon last weekend because I switched a few things around, I got all my work done before teh weekend hit. I want to re-live that every single weekend, I want to succeed at that and I will! I don’t care if I have to get up at 3 AM the next 2 days to get all the work done, I owe it to her and myself.
Stop saying you want success or to be successful, act and live successfully every single minute of every single day. 1%…..
Everybody wants to be great…
As I write this at the end of the Michigan State drumming of Michigan (In case you didn’t know I am a huge Spartans fan!) and shortly before the Super Bowl, I was reflecting on greatness. You will see it in today’s Superbowl i.e.-Tom Brady, a man that wasn’t supposed to get drafted let alone become a superstar. But nobody told Brady…
I get emails and questions all the time about how to ‘do your own’ thing and open a successful gym like I have when I was told it couldn’t be done or how I am ‘lucky’. The thing is, you have to realize that nearly everyone you meet or know wants to be great, but just like the 1% rule in all things, 99% will never move past the start line.
I have some athletes that bust their ass every single time they are in the gym. I have Alpha Males that destroy their workouts and bring a ferocity to the workout that you won’t see in ‘globe gym’. Not surprisingly, they also bring this same focus to their nutrition, business, family and school work.
I have ‘competitor’ gyms opening up all around me, some of them ‘globo’ style and some of them ‘copycats’. They aren’t competitors at all. I could give them my exact blueprints for business and workouts and I still wouldn’t be worried. Because….I know that they all want to be great, but they won’t put the work in that I do or have the drive that I do.
If you want to achieve great things, you need to put your heart and soul into ‘it’ every single day. I constantly invest and spend on my education and mentoring when others tell me its a waste. Keep telling me that, I’ll keep advancing. People that want to be great in one thing usually have that alpha mentality where they want to be great in all things.
Look how many things Schwarzenegger became great at. ‘Dumb jock’ didn’t hold him back at all. Maybe this mindset goes back to my serious bodybuilding days, maybe its inborn. Maybe I am trying to make up for never making it in ‘basketball’, maybe not. Come to think of it, I spent hour upon hour during hot summer days shooting 500 jumpers per day, paying my neighbor to rebound for me.
How badly do you want to be great? Is it just lip service? Do you really want to be great at whatever it is you do? I won’t rest until I am great which will never fully be realized. This week I challenge you to dare to be great!
Update on the State of My Health Journey
I will take the night off and ‘enjoy’ and join everyone else in this Super Bowl Holiday tonight. I am down to an even 234, body fat is down another percent and I feel great! Tomorrow starts the regime with my own Coach, John Meadows. I am psyched to get started with him and pack on some more muscle while stripping some serious body fat.
Stay tuned….
Also, if you are interested, I will be holding a ‘closed door’ seminar this April all about fat-loss. Much of this cannot be found in any text-book or from any other expert. I am down to 12 spots left…
Prism
Your focus must be sharp
I was making a video for the Newell Strength Success Principles today and one of the main topics that I kept thinking about all day was the principle of clarity and having fewer goals. I have always had the clarity thing down naturally, but the fewer goals idea is new for me.
I have always told people that when I competed, I would get a euphoric feeling. Many ‘experts’ told me that this wasn’t physically possible because I was literally starving my body. And maybe physically it isn’t possible, but I knew why I would get that feeling.
When your mind and spirit have clarity about what it is that you want and you go after it with everything you’ve got and you put every ounce of focus into it, there can be no stopping you. The thing is, this occurrence rarely happens in everyday life. With so many different responsibilities, we rarely get to focus on something so intently.
The reason I am calling this article Prism is for visual effect. If you think of your focus as a laser beam, the fewer items you focus on, the stronger the beam will be. The more you spread those goals and focuses out, the less powerfully you can focus on each goal.
When you set out to make your goals for the year of 2012, write fewer BIG goals down. Focus on those goals with all that you have for a year, making progress each day. Your success in this year will be greater than every previous year combined!
5-6-7
Why why why
I often find myself talking my ‘family’ at Newell Strength about their goals or why we are or are not following a path down to a certain goal. When members join the gym, it is really all about ultimately feeling better. Yes, some of them may want to get ripped, get jacked up muscles, make varsity, regain the testosterone profile of their youth, earn a scholarship or so on. These are all surface reasons. It is very important with any goal to always ask the question “why?”. When you keep asking that question and get down to answers 5-6-7, those are the real and true reasons you are after your goals. It usually has to do with happiness, peace or something along a deeper level. No one just wants to get ripped to be ripped or dunk a basketball just to dunk or win a bodybuilding show.
I made this mistake when I first started competing in bodybuilding and the hollow feeling that was left the day after the first show was one of pure misery and depression. I was only 22 years old at the time and it was a hard lesson. When I work together with a new member on really becoming clear with why we are doing something, the process becomes one of enjoyment and purpose and one that they can stick with. If they fail to find the deeper reason behind their quest, then they will fail to reach the destination.
PURPOSEFUL SPEED
I am getting back to my old self and style of writing. I used to really emphasize mind and spirit just as much as the physical in my writings. In fact, I may even dig some of the really old articles up for the new book. Anyway, I am getting back to that.
PURPOSE- As human beings one of the deepest needs is to have purpose and to be a part of something bigger than themselves. It is so deep that I have literally seen a lack of purpose break grown men down to nothing more than human shells. I had a sit down with one of my members at Newell Strength today and I was very proud of him to coming to me for some guidance. It is never easy to go to another person and say, “I’m lost.” We devised a plan for him to start with some daily purpose and build off of that. There is a reason that energy shoots through the roof when you have a deadline approaching and your soul is into the journey. We now have a goal board at the gym and I am happy to say that we have some of the 10 year olds goals up there as well as many of the grown men. The goals are part physical but you would be suprised to see some deep emotional goals on the board. These men are putting it out there because they understand the concept of “Tell the world what you are going to do.” Think about this tonight.
Speed!
SPEED- I had a visitor of the gym in to observe some of our methods today and he asked what the purpose of some warm up was and what we do for speed. With that, I told him that I would post a few key points of speed tonight.
1-Whenever we are getting ready for speed work, we must precede it with an intense CNS activator. This might be jumps, mb slams, something explosive in nature.
2-We always review form and mechanics on speed and we teach the men the same way that we teach the athletes.
3-The first movement must be out, not up. This is critical to our athletes that are going to showcases in which potential scholarships are on the line.
4-Your eyes should be focused on the spot on the ground where your first step is going to land.
5-Your first step should be the biggest.
6-The more explosively you move your arms, the more explosively your legs will move. Don’t believe me, do some deduction math and try sprinting with your hands in your pockets.
Dream big-Kyle
KEEP IT ROLLING!!!
LET’S GET A FEW THINGS STRAIGHT HERE:
- It’s late and I am still working my tail off. My girl Devon had a nice dinner waiting for me when I got with the gym at 915 tonight. It would have been very easy for me to eat and go to sleep, but then the warrior mentality kicked in. I just bought a new place with Devon and it is my dream to one day have all the time freedom that I want and for her to stop working. I WILL make this happen, you heard it hear first.
- You must take fast and furious action if you want to succeed at life. You must also take responsibility for EVERYTHING in your life if you want to be at the top with the winners, not at the bottom with the whiners.
- Accomplish one thing every day towards your goals. If you get more done, great, but one thing per day will pay huge dividends.
- I now have a goal board at my gym for the guys to put their goals up for everyone to see. This does a few things: It makes them committ to something and it helps them use other people’s will power. Life is about making committments and following through. I thought it only appropriate that I post my goals right here first to the world of Newell Strength:
- I will be the number one strength coach in New Jersey in 3 years and the top strength coach in America in 10 years.
- I will have 5 pro athletes training with me within 2 years.
- I will be forced to expand the gym because I will have more than 50 serious athletes training with me.
- I will keep my bodyfat percentage at 10% or below and officially post my 1,400 pound lift total (although I was right here before I blew out two discs)
- Enough of my goals. I know some people are haters and don’t want to see me succeed, but they will be left at the wayside while I ride by. I only want to be surrounded by winners and highly motivated people. I will be bringing you guys more of the real KYLE on my youtube channel, the Kyle that most of you don’t know. Some of you only know me as a strength coach but the real Kyle is the reason that I am the strength coach that I am.
I know this was a bit unusual of a post, but I want to start bringing authentic Kyle into the picture. Sometimes it may offend you, but that’s okay. I am not here to please you. I am here to win at the game of life. I am proud to announce that I am also joining a very high level mastermind group with some of the top fitness and strength people in the country. It is not a cost, it is an investment. See you at the top!
