Why I stretch

Because as much as it hurts, it feels amazing. It allows the muscles the elasticity they need to work without injury.

…. And it feels amazing

WTF Wednesday

I think only females experience this kind of bullshit. Why do guys do this?

I’m at the gym. It’s arm day. I finally get a bench and I’m working through my sets, honing in on shoulders…when this guy walks up. I thought he was just grabbing weights, so I turn sideways and place my weights down for a moment to rest. I start talking to my brother to ask how many more he has then turn back so I can get back to work.

The dude starts working out in front of me…

Are you serious kid? So my short ass leans to the side so he gets a good view of my glare and he turns to his friend…who is standing in front of the female beside me trying to do some leg work and lunges.

Really? The mirrors go the length of the wall dude and no I don’t want to watch you workout.

Finally, Rico Suave realizes we’re about to maul him so he turns and “suggests” to his equally rude counterpart that they workout “over there.”

Listen up guys, women are hitting the grind with as much dedication as you. If you don’t like it, go workout in your garage. Four benches to my left and two on my right, all occupied by men (except the other female on my right) and the prima Donna steps in front of the two females.

Luckily, they moved. Because two of the other three benches were taken by my Wolfpack. That’s right, asshole. I come with a pack. Drive your ass through!

What’s something you’ve experienced from a rude person in the gym?

Get ready for the new sh*t

I’ve had this site for a few years, and to be honest, I was so burnt out on posting every day. Life changes, people change, and I’ve been through so much.

One of the topics we chatted about before is depression vs. all around health. For me, I’ve been up and down, not only with my own mental health, but for my son who deals with a type of treatment resistant schizophrenia. It took years to get him on a medicine that helps him be “functional.” We’ve worked so hard to get to this point, nothing else seemed important for such a long time.

In the interim, I also started a home business; a small press (Stitched Smile Publications) which produces a quarterly magazine. It kept me sane while trying to deal with everything. There were days I literally woke up and wanted to do fvck all. Hey, we’re being honest right? You think all trainers wake up every day with Gladiator Mode switched to “on” but we’re human, too.

Skip ahead to Sept 28, 2021 and after two rounds of contracting COVID–despite all precautions–I suffered a STEMI heart attack with 100% blockage. I was stunned! Even though I wasn’t training anyone, I was still HEALTHY, so WTAF?

Things happen and we will never have all the answers. The truth is, if I wasn’t as healthy and aware of my body, I probably wouldn’t have survived it. But here I am…and since then, it’s lit a fire under my ass. Though I’m not training anyone anymore, I’m still here to give you over 20+ years of knowledge and my unfiltered, uncensored truth. Because that’s what I do. I’ll save the sunshine and rainbows for the trainers in the gym. They are the unsung heroes. For me and my house, we will swim in sarcasm and lift iron with the snarkiest.

I’ll post my progress to getting back to “normal” and losing the 20lbs I gained in my recovery of the event that nearly took me out. It’s been 4 months and I’m getting stronger. My goal is to rock the summer bod by June.

Who’s with me?

#SerialTrainer – What keeps you motivated?

Everyday we face getting up and accomplishing something for the day. It doesn’t matter what it is, you have to do “something” even if that “something” is relaxing. One of the hardest things I personally have to learn is to do “nothing.”

In today’s society, we’ve become a buzzing hive of workers.

Hot words like “side hustle” add to our normal, daily grind. As if we don’t have enough to do. Ambitious people will tell you to stay busy but successful people will tell you to learn how to separate and take time for yourself.

Working out is work. It’s true. I like to call it “selfish work.” It’s not about how long and how much you sweat, it’s about what it does for YOU.

The unfortunate truth is, our jobs and daily grind are mostly done from the chair, in front of the desk and computer screen. A majority of Americans are deficient in Vitamin D no matter how great their other bloodwork and test results come back. I was guilty of this, myself. I decided to change the habit … even in the crazy heat of Houston. What I found amazed me.

You do get used to the heat. Your body will adapt and conquer. It’s made to be active and doing things.

I learned to take time out and do nothing one day a week, even if was only for a few hours. Shutting off your mind is as important as getting in some physical activity. Your quality of life is based on the formula of Mind, Body, Spirit. If one of them is out of wack, the others must compensate. If you’re dealing with health issues, your mind and spirit need to take over some of the haul. If you’re dealing with health issues and addiction and an job you hate, what is left to take the brunt of the haul?

Sometimes we have to make changes in our life and it can seem overwhelming. Put them all in boxes and begin by taking out one small thing every week. For example: I’m dealing with health issues and it’s causing me to feel depressed so I’ve turned to drinking. Change the things you can change. Drinking will not help your health, and it will not ease your mind in the long term. Drinking will only make you more depressed in the total picture of your life. Get help for your addiction and have a clear mind to deal with the rest, one step at a time, day by day.

This isn’t a wizard wand and it won’t change everything. It won’t make you instantly rich, it won’t make you instantly healthier, but it will give you the tools you need to improve your life in many other ways.

What you’ll find is the negative things you turn into positive things will teach you what you’re really needing to address in your life. Do you lack discipline? Do you lack desire? Are you suffering from low self-confidence? Are you dealing with depression? You have to know what is wrong to fix it.

The idea behind all of this is, WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION?

If you cannot answer this question, my advice to you is to sit down and figure the answer, first. Once you have the answer, the rest will become clearer to you. When it does, you’ll be able to turn things around with a little bit of planning and a lot of desire to change.

So what’s your motivation? I’d love to hear your comments!

#SerialTrainer – Mindset

Let’s talk about mindset today.

The hardest part is getting up and keeping your eye on the goal. Yes, today is Monday. It follows Sunday. You have a tough week ahead. If you’re already lying there groaning at your alarm, you’ve defeated yourself before you’ve even begun.

Today is going to be a fantastic day. Get the F up and make it happen.

It’s been 10 years since I’ve done anything with Serial Trainer. Do you know why? I lost my drive. 55k views on my page, and I didn’t “feel motivated.” How? Because my mind wasn’t fit. Having your mind, body, and soul in sync is the key to being successful at anything. If you can’t find the passion in what you’re doing, is it worth doing at all?

I’m a mentor and coach to a lot of people and I kept wondering to myself, “who’s there to motivate me?” I saw this person every single day staring back at me in the mirror and I couldn’t find my own coach. The person who messaged everyone else and said, “Get up, you can do this!” wasn’t motivating herself.

You guys, there’s no excuse. You can have a coach but the motivation has to come from yourself. I can only motivate you as far as your desire will take you. If you have no desire, you’re going to be sitting at square one over and over, wondering why you are failing.

Get. The. F. Up.

You are worth it. You have to make yourself believe it.

One of the methods I use to help others with their mindset is a journal. Not your ordinary journal where you just write your thoughts down. Those are important, too, but here’s the difference with mine: You have to ask yourself hard questions, and then answer them. Not only that, but you have to write down the truth, and find your own resolution to them. You can’t just keep writing negative things without clearly defining a solution. It’s taken me ten years to figure this out. What good is a journal if you’re always lost? What good is writing down the thoughts if those thoughts are dark and condescending? All your doing is drilling the negativity into your own head.

The second part of that journal is to define how you feel with a color. Sometimes we don’t have words for how we feel. Colors are like photos. Everything you feel wrapped up in one neat shade. You can be red today (whatever red means to you) but a soft red, a deep crimson, a romantic vermillion … you have to know what your own colors are and what defines them for you.

Start today. Go to your calendar-I don’t care if it’s digital or not-give yourself your color today. When your color isn’t your best color, write down on your calendar a note how you’re going to bring that color up by the end of the day.

Now, go have a drink of water (yes, you have to drink water before your coffee) and spend some time on yourself. Get your workout in and have a badass, kick-ass day.

Comment below and let me know you’ve done and how you felt afterwards!

Rezzing the Original, Official Serial Trainer

I’m back! Everyone check in! How are you guys dealing with the Covid-nasty?

Quickie update

Training has been going great. Its very hard with the migrains and neck thing but i am not going to let it stop me. Ive also started training two people! I’m so excited because I havent been able to train anyone face to face since I switched jobs. I will post our progress periodically and maybe even talk them into letting me post pics when they hit their goal 🙂

R.F. stats: week one — 5 inches overall lost. 2 off their waist. Congrats!! You worked very hard.

T.F. stats will be available this up coming Monday on measurement day 🙂

Afraid of Commitment?

No, not really. But having done this for awhile I think I got caught up, as most of us do, in the bustle of life. And you know what? It caught up to me. Having always really been healthy and battling weight management for years when I got sick, then getting back on track, only to get sick again. This time, though it was something I never really could’ve seen coming.

Most of us are aware of dangers out there; Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc. So I always wanted to avoid that. I already have so many things that are hereditary, I didn’t want to face those things down without a battle as I got older.

Now, though, I am facing something else. Migraines. And not just regular migraines. Complex compound migraines that happen nearly every week. I mean, what the hell right? I realized that they were coming more and more frequently and I thought it was out of control. Went to my Dr. and he thought maybe sinusitis. We weren’t sure. (Maybe he thought I was a hypochondriac? lol)  So with no relief in sight I went to a headache specialist. The MRI confirmed that not only did I have these Monster Migraines which were causing vertigo, memory loss and other nasty things — I had three additional triggers that would spurn them on with a fury.

The anger I felt at the betrayal of my body was/is ridiculous. I worked out, I ate well — what more does it want??  Somewhere down the line I ended up acquiring a cyst in my nasal cavity, and c-1 through c-8 compression/herniated discs? I have NO idea how/when that happened. (Of course I’ll lie at the campfire and say I lived a rockstar life ..hey..I need some compensation!)

So here I am. Depressed (again). Immobile (again). And creeping up in my weight. I had just gotten on track with the Insanity workout and was loving it (still recommend it by the way..go kick your ass with it). Now I am staring at my clothes wondering how I let myself get to this point (again).

You see? Trainers aren’t all perfect. There are some Terminators out there, but honestly, we’re mostly human. I can no more change what happened to me then I could stop the orbit of the earth. If I didn’t have the compressions, I’d still have the cyst in my nasal cavity, the sinusitis, and the migraines.

But I’m not going down without a fight. I licked my wounds long enough. 4 weeks of them telling me “No” to anything strenuous and I’m done. I can’t do it anymore. So WITH my Dr’s approval, I’m getting my life back. I have medicine to help me deal with the migraines and I will not wither away. This is your call out. Whatever is getting you down, deal with it. No, not “deal with it” in a snotty, negative, careless way. DEAL WITH IT in an empowered, take-your-life-back way. Find out what your Dr’s plans are for you and make the most of it. Take advantage of it. Research your ailment and then dust yourself off and get back in the saddle.

I’ve got nothing but time, now. So it’s you and me (again), baby.

INSANITY Week One

Hello again, everyone!

I’m blogging so I guess this means I survived week one of INSANITY workout!

I have to tell you, it wasn’t easy by any means. This workout is as intense as it says on the infomercial. I wanted something to kick my butt back into status quo and believe me; it did. Quick, fast, and in a hurry. Since I had taken a month hiatus from working out, and my workouts were pretty mellow and easy going previous to me beginning, I’d like to share with you my experience with the first week. Many of you will be ordering this and haven’t worked out in years. That’s good and bad.

Here’s my advice: Stock up on Ibuprofen and ice packs.

I’m not by any means an athlete just because I train. If you’re not, liken this workout to the severity of Boot Camp. You will get a wake up call. The trick is this; do not stop trying every day and do not give up. It will be tempting to shut off the DVD, quietly stuff it back in its sleeve, then tuck it in a drawer so no one will know you started; but most importantly no one will know you couldn’t finish.

Tell someone. Yep. I said it. I challenge you to do it. Tell your friends and family you are doing it, and the day you started it. Hold yourself accountable. Trust me. I guarantee that if you do this it will be that much harder to give up because they will be curious as to a few things. Does it really work? Are you going to get results? Can you do it? If so, can they?

My first three days were the worst. Hands down. I’d like to take you through my second and third day, not to scare you, but to be realistic with you. Be forewarned it isn’t pretty.

Day One: Having the naivete of a doe timidly testing the new fallen snow, I opened up my DVD and placed the first disk inside. I was run over by a truck. I have no recollection of what happened after that.

Day Two: I woke up and had to do what every normal human being has to do at 7 AM. I had to use the restroom. I pop my head up, go to step out of bed and realize I’ve now turned into a newborn giraffe who has no idea where their footing is or how to balance on them. My calves have locked up and my hamstrings don’t want to fully extend. I’m now wide awake and stumbling to the bathroom before I soil myself. Note to self: Take ibuprofen.

Day Three: I thought I was past day two. Do I have Mad Cow disease? I can barely move my legs. Even after all that pain yesterday, I continued to do the workout AND STRETCH even more than required. Working out the muscles seemed to help and I felt the holocaust was over. I was wrong. Note to self: Stretch even more. Take more ibuprofen.

Day Four: I made it through the worst. I can now walk somewhat normal. If I walk slowly and don’t sit for too long and allow muscles to get stiff. Still clinging to ibuprofen bottle.

I hope that this sends a clear message to you. Be Prepared to work for the results you want. Be ready for blood, sweat and tears. But I promise you it is worth it.

I won’t add pics yet because I want to follow the regiment that was given. I will take them at the two week mark. However, I’ve lost 4lbs and my size 6 clothing is finally a little loose instead of snug. I’m VERY pleased with the visual results. I feel amazing and my glutes feel amazing 😉 I can already feel the lift and tightening! Today is going to be rough again. I begin the Cardio Power and Resistance Day.

I think I have a bedpan somewhere.

Clarification..Serial Trainer

Some people have said that there is copycat “serial trainer” out there ..

just to clarify …I’ve looked the other one up and be still your hearts, that person is not me and they have nothing to do with this site or working out for that matter. However!…we both love martial arts! So that’s a good thing..I think.

Every serial k…er..trainer..;D must have a copy cat..but they never quite live up to the original.

Happy Training!