The FitLife Formula Podcast

The 12-minute walk that will change your day

It's easy to dismiss meditation as just something that monks and hippies do, but as we learn more about the benefits of even the simplest meditation practices, millions of people are adding a bit of mindfulness to their everyday routines. 

We now know that on top of helping you feel more relaxed, rested, and de-stressed, meditation can actually change the structure of your brain and help you think more clearly and even connect better with others. 

On this episode of the FitLife Formula, I'll share a quick, simple 12-minute walking meditation to help you kick off or reset your day, and get you feeling more energetic, more focused, and more productive. 

Enjoy!

 

Label-ese: Translating the BS out of your food's packaging

The best way to improve your nutrition is to make a commitment to improve the QUALITY of the food you eat. In order to do that, you have to understand a bit about what the words on your food's package actually mean.

Some words are pure marketing, and other words have a strictly regulated meaning of standard and quality. How do you know the difference? 

On this episode, I'll talk about what certain words tell you about the food you're eating, what words give you no information, and how to look a bit more critically about the food you're buying. 

We'll be diving into...

• A list of 16 commonly used words that give you absolutely no real information about the food you're eating
• Why organic isn't always healthy
• The difference between grass-fed and grass-finished
• Cage-free, free-range, and pasture raised eggs
• The best place to find no-nonsense information about the food you're eating

Enjoy!

 

The Major Flaw in Goal Setting

I can pinpoint the day I decided I wanted to play Division 1 College Hockey. I was in 8th grade, sitting at a Notre Dame hockey game, and I knew I had to play hockey in college. 

At the time it seemed unlikely, but with that goal I was actually selling myself short. 

On the 21st episode of the FitLife Formula, we'll discuss the part of the SMART goal setting framework I have a real problem with these days. 

This is going to make you want to challenge the goals you've set for yourself, and maybe even change them completely (hint: after this episode, you might find yourself aiming higher)

Today's topics include 

• The biggest flaw with the SMART goals framework
• The personal experience that made me realize I had sold myself short
• Why Visioning might be a better way to create your future than setting goals
• What the hell is a B-HAG?

Enjoy today's episode! 

Mindset and Your Fitness Success with Vince Gabriele

Four years ago I was introduced to a man who, I didn't know it at the time, was placed in front of me to turn me and put me and my business on the right path.  He was and still is my guide and a big part of the reason that Advantage Strength is what it is today. 

Today on the FLF, I sit down with MY coach Vince Gabriele, founder of Gabriele Fitness in Berkeley Heights, NJ to talk about the importance of mindset when it comes to fitness. 

At Gabriele Fitness, Vince developed what he calls the Success Pyramid. Mindset is at the base of that pyramid because the way you frame your health and fitness (or anything else for that matter) determines your potential to have success. On this episode, we will talk to Vince about getting your mindset right, and other important topics like...

• the 4 things necessary for you to have success with your health and fitness
• the 2 Mindsets (one will springboard you to success, the other will derail you)
• why you MIGHT not need to exercise as much as you think
• the importance of "keystone habits"
• the only 2 recovery tools you need (hint: they are free, and you already have them)
• what world-famous author and marketer Seth Godin says about what a gym should do

Hope you enjoy this very special episode of The FitLife Formula Podcast with special guest Vince Gabriele. 

Avoiding Injury with Dr Kristopher Aalderink

Orthopedic surgeons do amazing work.

But let's be honest, if you're seeing an orthopedic surgeon, you're not in the place you want to be.  

On today's episode I'll sit down with Dr Kristopher Aalderink, an Orthopedic Surgeon at St' Joes in Ann Arbor, to talk about how you can keep yourself moving WITHOUT developing the pain or injury that comes with overuse or pushing too hard. 

Among other things, Dr Aalderink and I will discuss

• The injuries he sees the most in his OR
• Why some people tend to push too far
• The best ways to be active while avoiding injury
• When you know it's time to address an existing injury

Hope you enjoy this episode with orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Kris Aalderink.

 

The Many Factors of Weight Loss, with Tom Langton

The most important factor in your weight loss success is NOT your diet. 

Nutrition is an important factor, but there's a lot more that goes into it.  

It also has a lot to do with your sleep habits, stress levels, where you eat, when you eat, how much you move, the environment you live in, how much support you have from your family and friends, etc. etc.

With so many factors playing into weight loss, it's easy to focus on the wrong things. Often at the expense of another component of your weight loss (like when your stress rises as you try not to over eat at the office holiday party)

The answer lies, like so many other things, somewhere in the middle. A balanced approach is the key when juggling so many factors.

On this episode of the FitLife Formula, Tom Langton, CEO of Gabriele Fitness in Berkely Heights NJ shares the formula that has helped thousands of people lose weight, get healthier and live happier all while maintaining a "normal" lifestyle (if you call a 3 hrs a day on a commuter train into NYC normal). 

In the intro I said it was episode 17, just ignore me. It's really episode 18. Hope you enjoy this conversation with Tom Langton!

Experts Agree...Breathing is Important

If you are listening to this episode, that means you're breathing.  Way to go! 

Let's look a little deeper though. Your breathing patterns could be getting the job done by getting oxygen into your body, but they could also be causing you neck pain, stress, poor posture and low energy. 

On Episode 17, I dredge up an old Hockey Strength Podcast episode I did with Scott Livingston, a reconditioning expert in Montreal, Quebec. We talk about posture, how to get a good breath, and how you can use your breathing to help you relax. 

Float, Freeze, and Forget Stress with Peg Kelley

As a full time clinical counselor and operations manager at Neuro Fitness Wellness Center, Peg Kelley has seen the dramatic effect stress reduction can have on people's lives.

Today we're talking with Peg about how stress effects the body, and how we can reduce stress and live a better life.

Some of the things we'll talk about are 

• stress is stress, it all goes into the same bucket
• how stress effects fitness goals
• the benefits of floatation therapy
• why freezing your ass off in the cryo tube can actually reduce stress
• how the FitLife Formula helps you balance the stress you need and relieve the stress you don't

So grab a hot beverage, get comfy and destress with this episode. Let's podcast and chill.

Get Naked, Stay Healthy

This episode will knock your socks off.

Or at least make you think twice about wearing them all the time.

 

On episode 15 of the FitLife Formula, I share some ideas from Katy Bowman's book, Move Your DNA. 

 

There are a ton of really interesting arguments in this book, but one thing that really stuck out to me is the idea that the mechanical forces of movement and your environment not only shape your body, but also determine how your genes express themselves. 

 

When you think of it in this light, you start to think differently about your apparel and how you might be canceling out the forces that help you maintain optimal health.

 

Guys, this episode might make you rethink your tighty whiteys.

 

Ladies, I'll share how your bra might be selling you short. 

 

And all you shoe lovers out there, you might begin to think differently about your super supportive runners. 

 

Hope you enjoy Episode 15 of the FitLife Formula Podcast!

 

Get Naked, Stay Healthy. 

Rethinking Your Ab Routine

If you're still doing crunches, side bends and twists for your core exercises, you need to listen to this episode. 

On Episode 14 of the FitLife Formula, you'll find out exactly why those are the wrong choices (if you are interesting in having a healthy spine that is), and by the end you'll know what the right choices are for your ab exercises. 

In this episode, you'll discover 

• exactly why you should avoid crunches and weighted twists
• the real function of the abs
• which part of your spine should move and which part should be stable
• the reason truck drivers and lawn mowers are at the highest risk of back injury

Enjoy! And feel free to email me brian@advantagestrength.com if you have any questions about the episode.