'Secrets of a Trainer'

Here is today's issue of 'Secrets of a Trainer'
Published by Joey Atlas - The Wizard of Fitness
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Yes, you read the subject correctly - I'm going to tell you how to get your gym membership - with out paying a penny for it. And here is why...

1) I just finished writing an article, about this topic, for one of the magazines I write for (OnFitness Magazine) you can visit them at http://www.OnFitnessMag.com

2) I just finished my own workout at one of these locations - and figured it was time to share this with you.

Every neighborhood has at least one of these places - some of them have several. But these zero cost gyms are hardly ever used to their full potential and this is why you have such a great opportunity to add a new element to your workouts or get started in the first place.

Playgrounds. Yeah you read that right. Playgrounds are one of the BEST places to get some of the most effective workouts, outside of the typical, crowded gym or health club. The possiblites are endless and you can always find one no matter where you are.

General conditioning, toning, muscle building, sports conditioning - all can be achieved on a playground - I know this because I train a good number of my own clients on some of the local playgrounds - and I do a few of my workouts on the playground.

For some of you who already exercise in a gym - this may be a little psychologically challenging - because you are used to machines and weights , etc.

I used to be that way too, until I learned better. Yeah, weights and machines are good, at certain times, but they are way overused (usually misused) and there is much more to being fit, looking great and feeling strong from the inside out than doing the same weight machine routines over and over and over.

Anyway, get outside - mix it up a bit - there is alot you can do with a few monkey bars and various levels of steps.

As always - please excuse the typos.

Be Fit!
Joey Atlas (Many of you emailed me after last week's issue asking "Where are the ordering pages for your DVDs? - Well, here they are:)
The Leg Butt Hip And Thigh Makeover
Abs of Stone - Core of Steel
Optimum Flexibility
Upper Body Fitness

The Before And After Project - Step 4

Who is this for??

I thought it would be fitting to address the question posed above in this step, Step 4.

Although this 'B & A Project' is filled to capacity - I've been getting emails from many people asking 'Is this for someone like me?'.

Some of these people have gone on to explain:

- "I've never exercised before and I really want to get fit and in great shape - Am I too new to fitness to be a part of this project - to get into your book?"

or

- "I've been into fitness my whole life, and most people would think that I am fit, and I am, but I've never really achieved the goals that I want to acheive - I still think I can be in much better shape - Is your Before/After Project for a person like me or only for people who are really out of shape?"

And I've also received inquiries that would fall somewhere in between the 2 above.

The ultimate answer is - "The Before And After Project is for anybody who wants to improve - not just the physical part of fitness, but the other dimensions as well."

So, it doesn't matter where you are starting from - the key is that you admit to yourself that there is room (and true desire) for improvement AND you acknowledge that the potential for improvement is exists - just waiting to be tapped into.

So for all who are 'in the journey' - I'm going to lay out a strategy that I've personally used in the past, along with many friends and clients - to successfully create a mindset and physical environment for guaranteed success. - and here it is...

One of the biggest 'tricks' I was taught as a teenager (going into my first competition for MR. Teenage Buffalo), by my father, (who, currently, is the busiest 60 year old Personal Trainer in Greenwich, Connecticut) was to schedule your actions - actually put them on a calendar - just like you would anything alse - that is of extreme importance to you.

As a reinforcing tool to your 'journal' - the calendar allows you to 'SEE' your plan - to see what actions will be coming up for you to fulfill. A truly helpful tip for this was to use a few colors - not just black or blue ink.

For instance - you get a monthly calendar to use only for this purpose. Using red for exercise - green for food - black with highlight yellow for oncoming 'challenges' that you will neutralize (and how you will neutralize it) - before you are in the midst of it. IE - a family gathering where food is the focus, etc.

So, I leave you with this as your action plan for the next few days (in addition to what you are doing). Set your sites on Sept. 11 (that date has a lot of meaning for us - it can be our way of paying (more) tribute to it - never forgetting it.)

Mark that date on your calendar - not as an end date for the 'B & A Project' BUT as a beginning date - the beginning of your new approach to 'YOU'. By that date you will have made huge strides in your approach to multidimensional fitness - and from then on you will continue to move forward on your fitness journey as it becomes a part of your life AND WHO YOU ARE - not just something you do...

We have about 12 weeks - 80 something days - give or take. Anyone doing this and being true to themself will make tremendous progress - it can't fail.

Keep your journals going and make those calendars - create your own version - there are several ways to do this - do what works for you. Lay out your 'action plan' all the way up to Sept 11th - on that day - you can write in "Send my 'Before And After Package' to Joey Atlas". - so the second you write this down - it becomes your reality - it is in your schedule - IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN.

Special note - write notes in your journal - such as questions - uncertainties - anything you are not sure of - just write it down - maybe create a seperate section of your journal to recored these types of entries - whatever it is - just record it. Often times - your answers come to you when you don't expect it - BUT - you have to send out that energy that you 'want to know the answer' or you want some direction.

Remember - life is all about balance - neglecting yourself creates an imabalance that not only hurts you but all of those around you.

As always please excuse the typos and feel free to send any emails you wish.

Be Fit!
Joey Atlas
Your New Trainer

The Before And After Project - Step 3

OK - from the emails I've been getting - it looks like there are going to be some great stories to be told and 'after' photos to look at.

Regarding the emails - please understand if you have not received a personal response form me - I get hundreds of emails every day - it is humanly impossible to respond to all of them - although I do try to return as many as I can during lunch, etc.

Today is Friday & you should have weighed in this morning (& taken other measurements if you wish) - the idea is to beat that number on Monday (this will help keep you focused on the weekend) - iF weight loss is your goal. But do keep in mind - for those who are not seeking to lose weight - make note of the other factors that are important to you - this should all be going into your journal.

At this point you should reflect on the past few weeks.
-What has gone well?
-What hasn't worked for you?
-Etc.

You want to focus on the things that have worked & aim to replace the things that have not.

For example - our environment has an impact on our behavior. Do you find that you eat and drink more when you are in certain locations or in the presence of certain people? If so, you either have to exhibit more control in these situations or YOU MUST REPLACE THEM.

And yes, sometimes that means looking for new friends - friends that are of the same mindset. But not always. - On occasion - your actions may be the wake up call someone close to you needs, in order for them to get their own act together. So I leave the rest of that up to you (for now).

A few emails came in with the basic question, "Joey, how can I make this easier."

A good question - and here is a better answer.

If you think (and tell yourself) something is tough or difficult - then it is.

But if you tell yourself "This is easy - its not a problem for me."

Then guess what - IT IS EASY !!

What you think - actually is. You get it?

IF you TRULY want to creat your personal 'Before And After' Success story - then every single though and action should be laser focused on (not making it happen) but LETTING it happen.

A challenge is only a challenge if you tell yourself it is. Now, I'm not saying a physical transformation can happen overnight (it can in the mind) but if your plan of action is in place and your mindset is positioned properly - it is ONLY a matter of time before you realize you are moving closer to where you want to be (and further away from where you do not want to be).

So, I leave you with this...

Know that you control your every thought & action - NOBODY ELSE.

Use this weekend to keep the good things going and to make a schedule, a plan, for next week and maybe even beyond next week.

Send your emails if you wish - I do read all of them.

Set your sites on mid Sept. as the goal date.

Please note (here is some motivational fuel for you) - one male and one female will be chosen to be on the cover of the book with the other success stories going into the book.

As always - please forgive me for the typos.

Be Fit!
Joey Atlas

The Before And After Project - Step 2

This is unbelievable - I've already started receiving emails from some of you getting great results & we only started a week or two ago !! Just keep it up the best is yet to come.

Anyone having trouble 'making things happen', just keep going - sometimes the body is 'stubborn' & you have to 'outlast' the resistance - once you get things moving, you just keep the momentum going - until later, when we just set things on 'cruise control'.

OK - so by now everyone should have taken 'before' photos - please save them in a file for this project - Try not to send anything to me until we wrap things up at the end of September. I want you to knock my socks off when I see the difference !!

You should have gotten yourself into a simple journal/tracking habit - if you haven't, start today - THIS IS IMPORTANT - putting things on paper has an effect on the mind much more powerful than just thinking about it.

In Step 1 I told you I would answer these questions:
-Why I am doing this for you.
-What does "The Blow-Torch" mean - how I got the name.
-Seeing fast progress.
So here are the answers...

1) Why Am I Doing This?
- I get a staggering amount of email (questions) every day from my customers (and 'Secrets of a Trainer' subscribers) asking for advice - most of the questions have to do with putting EVERYTHING together and making consistent progress that is permanent. I know that a coaching program is needed and even though I've done these before (on a smaller scale) I wanted to do a 'test run' to get a feel for communicating through the online methods. This 'Project' is actually what I am going to build my coaching service around.

- This past year has been amazing - thanks to you who have purchased my programs I have been able to help many more people as compared to training 10 people per day in a one on one setting - and as a 'thank you' I thought it would be fitting that I offer this first coaching program at no charge to any of my customers who need/want this kind of support and fuel for motivation.

- And, of course, we are all on a mission to turn my first book into an Amazon Bestseller with all of your inspiring, life-changing 'Before And After Stories And Photos'.

2) What Does 'The Blow-Torch' Mean?
- We all know how hot a blowtorch burns & burning hot is what we want our metabolisms to do, all the time. Using a descriptive name gives our metabolism a more concrete identity, it becomes less ambiguous. And by making it a more tangible object, we can exhibit more control over it.

- I used this term when I began to prepare for competitions (in my younger years). "Its time to ignite my blow-torch." My mindset would help me focus on 'seeing' my metabolism as something that I could control through the combination of certain thoughts and actions - this is something anyone can do.

- Once ignited, 'The Blow-Torch' can burn forever - as long as you provide it with the fuel. I will talk more aobut 'the meaning' in 'The Book'.

3) Seeing Fast Progress
- Many of you are already experiencing this. All you have to do is keep it going - you are doing all the right things - don't let anybody derail you of your efforts. If you leave your friends in the dust - so be it - they also have a choice to take care of themselves just like you are doing.


- If you are not seeing fast progress, don't worry - even a little bit of progress can snowball into very big changes - So focus on the things that are going right and keep building on those. If you have certain challenges send me an email & let me know what they are - keep in mind I cannot respond to you individually as it is humanly impossible - but I will address your emails in future 'Steps'.

For the rest of this week - keep doing what you are doing - if you want to spend more time exercising - just listen to your body - if you are not too tired or sore then go ahead and stay active !! On Friday morning WEIGH YOURSELF & record your weight AND your other measurements. THEN on Monday morning do the same exact measurments & record you results. Knowing you are going to do this will help keep you focused over the weekend.

Any opportunity to 'mess up' over the weekend is also an opportunity for you to prove to yourself how serious you are about your fitness, your health, your life (mind, body spirit).

Remember, TAKE THE ACTIONS THAT ARE IN LINE WITH GOALS YOU ARE AIMING FOR (the ones you wrote down and commited to) - DO THIS AND YOU CAN"T "MESS UP".

To close this 'Step' out - please refer to Step 1 and read the part about old photos and visualizing your transformation.

One last note - Print out each of these steps as you receive them and keep them in a binder or folder - use them to make notes on, questions, reminders, etc. - THIS WILL BE EXTREMELY HELPFUL AS THE WEEKS PROGRESS - you will want to refer back to these.

That's it for now - KEEP IT UP and stay tuned !!
Joey Atlas - The Wizard of Fitness (please excuse ANY typos)

The Before And After Project - Step 1

Ok - This thing has officially started.

I know many of you have already taken your photos. Great ! Just make sure they are from 3 angles - front, back and side. Remember, it doesn't matter how bad you think you look - becasue we are going to change that.

If you haven't taken your photos yet - Get them done ! this is extremely important to this whole process - and here is why (read carefully, this is part of what is going to create change for you!)

We exist in our own body - it is very hard to see ourselves as well as we can see (& judge) others. In order for you to really 'see' where you are starting from you must photograph yourself at your worst - which is something almost everybody does not do. Why? Becasue they don't want to see what they look like form the outside looking in.

In order for you to know what changes you want - you need to know what you want to change & therefore you have to see those things as if you were looking at someone else "WHO IS ASKING YOU FOR YOUR LOVING, HONEST OPINION AND ADVICE."

If you do both print and digital photos, great! If not, try for digital. If you must do physical - OK.

Keep some of these handy - put them in places where you will see them daily so you will constantly know what you are working on.

More importantly - You need a vision in your mind - and maybe even a physical remimder of what you want to achieve. Find some old photos of when you felt you were attractive, fit or just in a great weight range. Keep these photos around daily - so you know "where you are going".

Notice the proactive steps you are taking here to bring about desired results. You are moving away from existing in this world in a subconscious state to taking control of your life by operating in a conscious mode.

The second most important thing you need to have done by the end of this week is all of your measurements. Record all of these in a journal specifically used for this project - you can use a simple notebook, etc. (these and your photos is what you will send in at the end of September - so we can decide which stories will make it inot "The Book")

- weight
- clothing sizes
- body fat (all drug stores & department stores carry home body fat scales now)
- & anything else you want to measure with a tailor's tape measure

Also, in your journal, write about how you feel physically, mentally and spiritually. If the spritual part is hard for you to grasp right now - don't worry, just right that, because that is part of what we are going to improve during the next 3 and a half months.

On a scale of 1 - 10 rate your: (1 is none - 10 is extremely high) [5 is medium]
1- pain levels (if you have nagging aches & pains)
2- energy levels
3- fitness levels

Don't worry about grading your self - this is all relative to your self. If you feel very unfit - it doesn't matter how you do on a fitness test. We are trying to change how you feel about you.

Main things to be doing daily:
1 - some form of exercise - most of you have at leasat one of my DVD programs - you need to be putting it to use - no excuses.

2 - if you can't get a full workout in - don't worry - do half or a third - this is a million times better than doing nothing.

3 - focus on proper diet (proper eating) (not dieting - in a sense of 'not eating')- many of you have 'The Blow-Torch Diet - 7 Day Quick-Burn Version' - use it & modify it as you see needed for yourself.

4 - If you do not have it I will be offering a free E-book copy of it in the next few hours - you'll get notice by email. Click here to get it - The Blow-Torch Diet.

5 - if you can - get some extra exercise in - for example - if you did my workout and still have time or find time later in the day - go ut for a jog, a power walk or anything that gets you to break a little sweat.

Thats it for now. Print this out - make copies - start keeping these notes in a folder with your journal. Make notes for yourself, write questions for me, etc.

Stay tuned & stay focused & watch yourself change!

I may be doing a teleseminar for all participants in the next few weeks...

Coaching emails & "B & A Project" blog updates will be AT LEAST weekly.

Coming next:
-Why I am doing this for you.
-What does "The Blow-Torch" mean - how I got the name.
-Seeing fast progress.

Be Fit!
Joey Atlas - Pleas excuse any typos !!

'Secrets of a Trainer'

- Fitness Motivation E-Newsletter
Published by Joey Atlas - The Wizard of fitness
____________________________________________

This issue is short but powerful.

Three years ago I was looking for someone to build one website for me - to advertise my personal training services to my local community. I never thougth about doing it myself because I was horrible with computers in school and I barely got by with my grades in any computer class I took.

So building my own site was not even an option.

Several 'interviews' and several months go by and I still have nobody who I feel can do the job at a reasonable cost.

One morning I bump into a former client who happened to be pretty tech savvy - long story short - we ended up trading services - I trained him & he built our website for our training facility. He did an incredible job (thanks, Marc!)

Three years ago, putting together my own series of fitness DVD training packages was just a dream that I would fulfill maybe 8 or 10 years later. Not because I didn't know what to put on the DVDs - but because I was 'afraid' of the challenge, the uncertainty, the unkown, the costs involved, etc.

I also knew that to produce my own DVDS would mean I would have to spend alot of money to get the websites built for each product - becasue Marc just did not have the time to do this amount of work - and additonally I would need the ability to work on, modify or improve my websites at a moments notice.

Something hit me one day - as I was coaching a client - I was trying to get her past the same exact issues that I was going through - it was just in a different context. She had many psychological barriers preventing her from moving forward in her quest for total fitness and likewise I was allowing the same type of psychological barriers to prevent me from doing the things I wanted to do - achieve the goals I wanted to achieve.

It was a big wake up call for me.

So I sat down and started to map out - with pen and pad - the things I would need to do to accomplish my goals (one of them being to reach people all around the world with my fitness knowledge and programs - to help get people fit properly and permanently).

I had to face my fear of computers and programs and decide how I was going to conquer them. I did that by sitting down - logging on the the 'net' and doing research. Many late nights - some of them with no sleep at all - and many weekends spent indoors (when my wife and kids let me) - was the time I used to learn what I didn't know - to learn what I was afraid of.

This is quite condensed - but in short I learned how to build my own websites - I learned how to use the programs to support my website sales and everything else that goes along with my online existence (like these emails) - I never thought I could master this stuff - EVER!

And I know there are many people who are this way with their fitness levels. Uncertain, unsure, scared to try - afraid that they will fail - afraid they will find out 'they are not meant to be a fitness person'. Even people who are somewhat fit may be uncertain if they can be as fit as they really want to be - to reach their full potential.

Well, I'm here to tell you - you can do whatever you truly want to do. If I can produce 6 DVD fitness dvd training packages, build seven webites and master the technology to suppport what goes on 'behind the scenes' - all in less than 2 years...

then you can also achieve any goal you have - you just have to commit to yourself that it is something you truly want - then the obstacles become nothing - you simply blast right through them - sometimes with a little effort - but you get there.

Now sit down with pen and pad and start writing your life script - what do you want to achieve and by when do you want it to happen.

If any of its fitness related - I'll be here when you need me. If you happen to know some of it is fitness related then go take a look at this site I just finished it may be what you are 'wishing for'.
http://www.TheBeforeAndAfterProject.com

Also if you want to learn one of my favorite upper body toning and strengthening exercises ( and learn about my latest DVD training package) go to:
http://www.UpperBodyFitness.com

Don't Be Like Everybody Else...
Be Fit!
Joey Atlas