The Lean Berets 30X30 Challenge: Change Your Life with NO EXCUSES

I'm taking The Lean Berets 30X30 "NO EXCUSES" Challenge again for 2010. Lives have been changed with this simple yet effective way to Kick Start your New Year!

If you want a program for FREE that is simple to implement (note that I did not say easy...just simple), check into The Lean Berets 30X30 Challenge. It's pretty cool. It changed my life--for the better...and it can change yours too.

In Health--for LIFE! -Coach RJ

The Lean Berets 30X30 Challenge: Day 3

This is my 3rd day of The Lean Berets 30X30 NO EXCUSES New Year's Challenge!

Mood: 9

Workout: Joint mobility + 150 snatches with my 24kg kettlebell then some punching and kicking my heavy bag followed by some self defense work with daughter Ronnie.

Total Time: 30 minutes

Comments: Still pretty stoked about our new neighborhood plus the weather today was just awesome...about 70 degrees!!! I was getting sort of fat and lazy watching football earlier but forced my butt outside into the garage for a little throwdown. While I was there, one of my neighbors wandered over to see what I was up to then asked me about fat loss workouts. I was able to show him how to do a great interval program called the Sprint-8 that I use for a lot of my clients that want to get fit and lose weight. He's going to give it a shot for the New Year. It was a good day for fitness!

In MOVEment! Coach RJ

The Lean Berets 30X30 Challenge: Day 2

This is my 2nd day of The Lean Berets 30X30 NO EXCUSES New Year's Challenge!

Mood: 9

Workout: Joint mobility + Fun day hike with my corporate clients and family

Total Time: 2.5 hours

Comments: A few years ago, my family started marking the New Year with an easy nature hike. We got a few people back in Atlanta doing this while we were there too. Now that we are back in California, we plan to keep up this tradition. I rolled it into my corporate business for 2010. About 20 people showed up for the hike including children! The ages ranged from age 6 to age 70. Everyone had a nice time. It was very family oriented. I was thinking of one of my favorite Jack LaLanne quotes as a theme which is: "First inspire then perspire!"

Spreading the good word of fitness...and sweat! Coach RJ

The Lean Berets 30X30 Challenge: Day 1

I'm taking The Lean Berets 30X30 New Year's Challenge again. I'll be doing an exercise blog for each of the 30 days to let you know what mind games I play with myself daily to force the fitness. Each day, I'll rank my mood from 0-10. 0=Almost Dead (hopefully that will not be listed!) to 10=Awesome!

It must be noted that on many days I DO NOT want to exercise--I do it anyway. I force the fitness. After three plus straight years of exercising at least 30 minutes per day without missing one single workout, I have yet to do ONE DAY of exercise where I wished I had not exercised! On every single day of the roughly 1,100 days so far, I was glad that I exercised...even when I was in a "bad mood" before the workout. This is VERY significant fitness friends! Think of the power of this testimonial then think about American issues with clinical depression today. Massive drug overload to combat depression. I have a simple solution...MOVE! It's amazing what just a slow and simple 30 minute walk can do to boost one's mood...and it's all good!

So here it goes for 2010:

Day 1: Mood=9 I'm super happy to be in our new neighborhood in Santa Clarita, CA. My friend was visiting with his Mom. I did a Kettlebell set up with her then went for an easy jog around the neighborhood to get a few extra minutes since I don't do a whole lot of volume or real "work" during my kettlebell demonstrations.

Workout: KB set up demos then easy jog with a friend

Total Time: 40 minutes

Comments: It was a good day. I love to help people learn about fitness and health. I was able to do this today to not only start a New Year in 2010, but also to model these behaviors for those around me.

In MOVEment...and NO EXCUSES! Coach RJ

Barefoot Running & Tarahumara Runners

Photo by Marcos Escobar

My ultrarunning friend and CNN reporter Ashley Fantz in Atlanta did a nice piece with Chris McDougall the author of “Born to Run” on the problems that shoes create for our feet. Unlike many of the running stories about barefoot running and Vibram Five Fingers, this piece actually had some images of the Tarahumara tribal ultrarunners in Mexico and their custom made sandals (basically bare budget VFFs) along with their absolutely beautiful and vibrant clothing…and functional I might add.

The Tarahumara run hundreds of miles per week in the rugged canyons of central Mexico’s Copper Canyon—with NO running shoes and none of the common injuries seen in Western countries that use fancy “high tech” running shoes. The Tarahumara run faster, more efficiently, and much safer than we do in this country. The Tarahumara are definitely worth studying when looking at injury prevention!

Oh…and one of the key findings on why they can run so much without injury? They enJOY running. :o)

Enjoy—more foot fitness and less running pain!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/10/07/barefoot.runner.mcdougall.cnn (CNN Story)

http://www.caballoblanco.com/ (Coppyer Canyon Ultra Marathon Info & Links to Tarahumara)

See my other blogpost on Foot Fitness

Once again...in Foot Fitness, Coach RJ!

Kodachrome-The Last Roll

I took this shot @ Drive Invasion 2008 in Atlanta after The Legendary Shack Shakers left the stage amidst a literal storm of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and other flying objects. I was back stage on state left shooting towards the crowd. I like this shot because even though it's "digital" it reminds me of the warm glow of Kodachrome 64. I rarely use artificial strobe lights when shooting concerts.
This was taken with available light at ISO 1600, 1/60 second, F/5, on full manual setting.

I just watched a news special about Kodachrome film. There is only ONE lab in the world that still processes this kind of film...yes I said FILM! Not a digital chip but FILM!

I grew up with Kodachrome as my father Ron Sr. recorded our lives through the lens of his old Argus C3 35mm rangefinder camera. Film of choice? Kodachrome 64. Our family has thousands of slides. When I went out on my own, I continued to shoot Kodachrome for family events. I too have thousands of slides.

In December of 2010, the last lab on the planet will stop developing Kodachrome film. The end of an era Comrades. Until the invention of Kodachrome in the 1930s, the only way you could have a "color" image of yourself was to have a painting created. With Kodachrome, the common man could have a color image.

Even though my full-time gig is Corporate Wellness, I'm also a member of the Professional Photographers of America and still do quite a bit of photography especially in the music business....allow me to flashback for a moment...

The good thing about learning to shoot with film is that I still shoot like I'm shooting film. What does this mean? I have a lot sharper eye for composition, subject, light, and subject energy than many of the new photographers. With digital, you can shoot thousands of images in one setting. With film, you had to be a lot more selective, patient, and basically much more skilled at your craft. Film capacity? 36 exposures per roll. At a rock concert back in the day, I'd shoot around 4-6 rolls of film. Today with my digital Nikon, I'll shoot around 250 or so. Slightly more, but I'm still conservative and selective. I think this makes me a better photographer. It's not quantity even though if you shoot enough eventually you'll probably get some great photographs--it's more about QUALITY. It's also easier to go through a few hundred photos than a few thousand when thinking of editing and print selection.

Anyway...just some random thoughts from an old school photographer that grew up with Kodachrome 64. -RJ

Using Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for Health & Foot Pain

If you appreciate corporate processes like RCA, Six Sigma, and LEAN, you might enjoy this post by corporate speaker and process trainer Mike Micklewright. Mike had foot problems and decided to use RCA to start asking his doctor the “Whys.” After about three whys, his doctor refused to participate—so he found another doctor that would keep answering the whys until he finally got to the root cause of his foot pain…and once again…it was a lack of foot fitness! All the conventional treatments were not getting to his root cause failure.

His introduction, explores why we don’t use RCA for health issues at home. Since RCA works so well to optimize performance at work, why don’t we use it more at home? Good point Mike!

For full post, see link below.

http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-column/when-it-comes-health-care-even-whys-guy-forgets-ask-why.html

*By the way, I too have ripped out my own orthotics and fixed MY OWN foot pain by increasing the fitness of my foot which then enhanced the mobility of my ankle. All the podiatrists, orthotics, and cortisone shots never fixed the root cause failure of my foot which was weakness. Want less foot, ankle, knee, and back pain? Improve foot fitness which includes having optimal “mobility” and functional “stability”! --Coach RJ

Mike Micklewright is president of QualityQuest Inc., a Chicago-based consulting, training, and facilitation company specializing in lean, ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949, Six Sigma, and their integration. Micklewright is an ASQ-certified Six Sigma Black Belt, quality auditor, quality engineer, and quality manager. He holds a degree in general engineering from the University of Illinois and has worked in design, manufacturing, and quality engineering for the Saturn Corp. of General Motors and SeaquistPerfect Dispensing. Micklewright is a sought-after speaker and has had many articles published.