My Highly Reflective Introspective Perspective on Health, Fitness and Happiness.

It has come to my attention that the United States population as a whole, is relatively out of shape.  For lack of a better euphemistic term, we are fat and lazy. Partly due to today’s fast food chains popping up on every corner tempting our already overcrowded schedules and busy lifestyles with convenience and low cost. From a historical standpoint, science and technology are increasingly promoting a more lethargic and sedentary lifestyle with more desk jobs being created in the information age that at any other point in time. That on top of the fact that things like Xbox and PS2 are rapidly sucking more and more of us into a fictitious dreamland of sports and activity as opposed to actually getting off our minimus and maximus and chasing our own conversion of dream to reality. Instead we find the lazy “easier” route to immediate gratification and find ourselves living vicariously through other superstar athletes who’ve already paid his/her dues through countless, painful hours of practice on top of practice. So, in the half-empty hand of pessimism we can easily blame the world we live in for our lack of health, fitness, all-around wellness and happiness. “Option B”, would be to chase, with relentless pursuit the half-full hand of optimism and embrace and view today’s most common health obstacles as hurdles of challenge, that only the determined few will overcome and surmount.

Step 1.  Prioritize.  Humans by nature are procrastinators. Knowing that, in order for us to fully commit to accomplishing a goal that we have set for ourselves, we must know where is falls our priority list.  Comparing it against our other essential components of life such as school, work, church, family, and friends, it’s easy to understand that many people like myself, have a tendency to take care of everyone else in their life before they take care of themselves. Recognizing your health and fitness as a high priority that only you can satisfy is the first mandatory step towards attaining long-term success in this area of life. If time or the lack thereof has ever been a fallback excuse used in the past, then the question(s) you must ask yourself is this “what am I willing to sacrifice, what price am I willing to pay in order to have this priority of mine realized and upheld?”

Step 2.  Assess yourself.  Figure out where you are now. From a health and fitness standpoint, we need to clearly identify where our current level of health and (PAR) physical activity readiness are at.

Then we ask ourselves,

• "Where it is that we want to get?"
• "What are the necessary steps to be taken in order to get ourselves there?"
• "What criteria must be taken into account, designing a comprehensive fitness program according to one's individual goals?"

Factors to be taken into consideration include but are not limited to; any bone, joint, or muscular dystrophies, any coronary heart risks such as high blood pressure, or high LDL cholesterol levels. Also we must take into account any dietary restrictions such as anemia, lactose intolerant, diabetic, etc. Obviously, a proper assessment and the designing of a fitness program would be ideally administered by an accredited and experienced certified fitness professional. The idea is to work smarter not harder!

Step 3.  Program Design.  Our company logo speaks volumes on the importance of all six components that must be intact before your efforts will be realized to their fullest potential. Of course, you can accomplish minimal results with minimal effort towards a minimal portion of the complete program. The fact of the matter is, throughout the years there have been many approaches towards achieving the ideal superficial appearance or optimal health.  Today there are infinite "diets" or new "miracle-pill" supplements being invented and marketed every month to the consumer they hope will subscribe to the quick-fix, painless, no work, all reward mentality.  My grandmother used to tell me that the key to good nutrition and health was simple; "eat right and exercise often." Its funny how qualitatively simple, yet unquestionably true those few words really are. Those words still hold true and remain unchanged today, fortunately with the development and progression of science in the past couple of generations we've been able to learn much more about these principles and can now extrapolate deeper into that bedrock foundation for health and apply all six components of an individuals fitness program to achieve a more synergistic result. That's right, I said "synergistic result". That's the difference that will be realized when you have all six components working in unison together toward the same common goal like a well-oiled machine. 

Step 4. Like Nike says "Just Do It!"  or like my father used to say, "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got!" If your mind is made up that a healthier and more fit lifestyle is something that is a priority that your ready to commit to, then please contact us so that we may assist you in designing a customized, fingerprint like program tailored specifically to your bodies unique specifications. The only thing we cannot provide is your commitment to yourself. If you are ready, we're waiting to welcome you to our family here at Extreme Athletes Personal Training.

Yours in Health, Fitness, and Happiness,

Tony Guerra 
Founder of Extreme Athletes Personal Training

N.E.S.T.A.	-	Certified Personal Trainer
N.E.S.T.A.	-	Advanced C.P.T.
I.F.P.A.	-	Certified Personal Trainer
N.S.C.A.	-	Certified Personal Trainer
A.C.S.M.	-	Certified Personal Trainer