If we were to ask another how would they define success in life, their definition would likely be reflective of their priorities. I love this question in part of meaningful conversation and with getting to know someone as it gets down to matters of the heart. I don't mean that in a judgmental way, and that's not the point of the question. It merely opens the window for others to get a glimpse of what things matter most to us.

If we define success through status, our answer may have some connection with accomplishing a certain degree of higher education, or perhaps achieving a particular level with our work / career.

If we define success through money, our answer will have some connection to wealth and finance.

If we define success through fame or popularity, our answer will have some connection to how well known we are by others in the public.

I could go on, but you get the point. 

The purpose of this post is not to tell you what your answer should be with how you define...

In my twenty plus years as a fitness professional I’ve watched literally hundreds of clients set out to accomplish a body transformation. Some were successful, others not so much. But in the majority of cases there came a point in their program, usually within the first 30 days, where you could predict with pretty good probability whether their goals would be met. Now, you may think it would be because of work ethic in the gym, discipline with staying strict with their diet, motivation, etc. While these are all certainly helpful, it wasn’t the common denominator with success.  

One of my mentors, legendary strength coach Dan John, has a saying that I believe sums up the common denominator with success in a body transformation. It goes like this…

“Little and often done over the long-haul.”

He should know as he’s been gaining wisdom and honing his craft in gyms for as long as I’ve been on this planet. It’s been my experience that...

In today’s post I want to encourage all of you who are parents struggling to raise your children in a time when their “influencers” are less likely to be teachers and coaches and more likely to be people they follow on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. The unfortunate and sad reality is not everyone who is an influencer is influencing in a positive way.

To put in bluntly, when it comes to subjects like morality, discipline, delayed-gratification, selfless acts of service, healthy eating, and physical training, the good role models are few and far between.

No surprises here, as the money is the flushest where promoting the antithesis of a lot of these words is the message. If it seems like an uphill battle, it is, but I’ll boldly declare to you today that it’s NOT one to be surrendered and certainly NOT one where you’re left powerless.

In fact, I’m going to build on the statement I made in the headline of this post and straight out tell you...

In today's post I want to talk to you a little about the truth regarding discomfort. Now if we're going to be totally honest with ourselves, it should be pretty clear that it's human nature to seek comfort over discomfort. A bit of that is beneficial I reckon as it's healthier to take refuge in comfort under a roof and out of the weather, than say outside without shelter from the elements and marauders.

However, when taken to the extreme, as is true with most anything, what was good at the right dose ends of being destructive with excess. One could make a reasonable argument that the relative ease with finding comfort and lack of significant hardships in Western society since the ending of the second World War has led to an overall weakening of the individuals in those societies.

What's that old adage?

Tough times make strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, weak men create tough times.....and the cycle repeats. 

There's little debate about where...

Today let's talk about perspective. Defined as a "particular attitude toward something," a point of view per say, we all have a perspective on things like exercise or circumstances in our lives. Good or bad, positive or negative, it will be up to us to establish the perspective we have with it.

I often look to work with my personal training clients when there's a need to establish a positive association with working out. This is an often-overlooked aspect with helping someone to develop a new habit. I don't care what the "it" is, if you dread it and only associate this thing with pain, discomfort, and negative feelings, you're not likely to persevere and reap the benefits you could from it.

If the words "working out" to you conjures up visions of puddles of sweat, pain, nausea, and feeling like you're going to collapse, you need a different perspective not to mention probably a different means of fitness training.

Look, exercise and working out shouldn't make you feel like you're...

You know a lot of people automatically assume because I'm a fitness trainer that it's easy for me to stay on track with healthy eating and exercise habits.

The reality of it is though, I struggle at times just like everyone else does. There was a particular time I remember several years back now when the stress of trying to run three personal training studios in three different cities started taking a significant toll on my mental, emotional, and physical health.

I was putting in over 60 hours a week running back and forth between Mt. Pleasant, Bluffton and Myrtle Beach on a regular basis. When you're stressed out and not setting priority-based boundaries on your time it's easy to get out of balance...and that's exactly what happened to me!

It was like a domino effect. First, I started losing sleep from the stress which just made me sluggish all day. Next, since I was tired most the time, I didn't have energy to workout. And since I wasn't working out, I was feeling lousy, to put it...

Let me paint you a picture of a scenario I’ve seen countless times over the past twenty years as a personal trainer. A new client comes into the gym ready to take action with losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle. They’re highly motivated and eager to start their diet plan and workouts. During the first few weeks the excitement only builds as they begin to feel better and have more energy.

But then out of the blue, completely without any real warning signs, they fall off the wagon and backslide into old habits! If you’ve ever started a diet or workout program and experienced this happening to you, I can assure you that you’re certainly not alone.

Self-sabotage is more common than you may think when going about making significant lifestyle changes. The important thing to understand is that its “change” and change can make people do some funny things. Often times, it’s things they don’t really want to do and don’t...

Over the years I’ve had a lot of individuals express to me how they’d really like to have a personal trainer, but believed it was just simply too expensive. Now this is totally understandable seeing how hiring a personal trainer is certainly more of an investment than just joining a gym. However, the notion of personal training having to be expensive isn’t necessarily always true. Especially with the strategy that I’m about to share with you.

Comparing cost between hiring a personal trainer and a gym membership is an apples to oranges comparison anyways as there’s not much similarity between the two other than the individual having the intent to exercise with either option.

It’s no secret that hiring a personal trainer increases commitment with exercise if for no other reason than the financial investment paid up front for it.

Nothing works better to provide accountability like having hard-earned money committed in advance for appointments to meet...

Are there really any true bona-fide secrets to shedding unwanted body fat, getting fit, and improving your health? There will be those who disagree, but after twenty plus years in the personal fitness training industry, I believe the answer is unequivocally no. Now this isn’t to say that we don’t uncover and learn new things on an on-going basis with exercise and nutrition science, but I will go out on a limb and say that you shouldn’t expect a pill anytime soon that will get you in exceptional shape or health without any effort.

Still, it seems that it’s part of human nature to desire the shortcut, the quick and easy way, the path less demanding. The first step towards success is recognizing that pull and not trying to deny it. You see it’s not like you’re going discover one day that you find if more pleasurable wearing yourself out with a workout than putting your feet up and taking it easy. It’s more like, you’ll associate the...