« March 2005 | Main | July 2005 »

April 28, 2005

A Stupid trainer in Chicago...

I have taken some of the questions I get at askrocco.com and will be answering them here to help you readers sort the stupid stuff out.

Fitness Question: I have been working with personal trainer for 7 weeks through a fitness club. I paid for 24 sessions up front, meeting 2 times a week. My trainer has cancelled on my six times, usually doing this by text messaging me an hour or two before we are to meet. He never apologizes. Also, when we do meet he text messages people on his phone during our session, and always puts me on the treadmill for the last 20 minutes, sometimes walking away and leaving me there. I pay a lot of money for these sessions, but I am not sure if this is normal. I am too nervous to confront him about it.
Erin, Chicago

Answer:Your trainer is a friggin' idiot! No, it is not normal! If you want me to confront him I will. This guy is so taking advantage of you emotionally and financially and you're not getting the results you wanted because he's never there. What a piece of shit. There are a couple of lessons to be learned here. 1) never pay for more than a weeks worth of sessions in advance. I only let my client pay for three at one time. Never should you pay for 24 sessions up front. The reason why trainers do this is to keep you hooked and you won't walk away from them if they still owe you sessions. This guy's a con-artist. If a trainer says "well that's my policy" tell him or her to go to hell. 2) Just because someone says they're a trainer doesn't really mean they are. He should never leave your side, unless his bladders going o burst all over the floor. Then again he should have taken a pee before your session. This gut is so lame. Don't be nervous, it's your money. Tell him that you don't want to train with a piece of shit like him anymore. Or better yet hand him this e-mail. Let him call me and I'll be more than happy to tell him where to go.

Posted by Rocco at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2005

Praise for Fat Kills: Special Report

I did read Fat Kills and of course it was fun to read because you just tell it like it is. I was impressed with the things that you had to say about individuality when it comes to health and fitness--especially when you referred to women and how we are all not meant to be a size 4 but that doesn't mean that we do not also have the ability to be sexy. I especially thought that it was GREAT how you said that sexy comes from within. I think that it is a very important thing to get across to women, and I think it's great coming from a person that we would least expect to hear that from, a personal trainer. I think the overall message that you send to women about muscle and how important it is to maintain and improve their health is so needed(I also read your column in Cin Weekly and you are always focusing on that)
I also liked that you talked about fat as a symptom of being out of balance. You didn't JUST talk about "stop shoving food in your mouth" although that is funny and true, but you addressed how it is robbing people of being healthy in all aspects of life.
Lastly, I want you to know that I will refer to your report often on my journey toward becoming un-fat (well...I'm not THAT fat haha) when I need an adjustment.
Thanks!
Lisa Commerford

Posted by Rocco at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2005

Sexual Dysfunction can be helped with real exercise.

I was discussing the contents of a chapter of my next book with some friends of mine just the other day and it came to me that this chapter is something that is near and dear to my heart because I really, sincerely believe that sexual dysfunction is a part of self loathing that we don't necessarily like ourselves and don't want to perform at our best or our true potential. I was laughing, because I was discussing this with two clients of mine that are women, who are very much women, and they talked to me and asked why I was beating up on the whole sexual dysfunction thing as being not masculine and whatever. They decided to talk to me about what if men have this problem because of medical reasons, or because they had a bad prostate, or something like that. I almost died laughing, because that's exactly what I'm trying to say, if someone has a medical problem like their prostate is too large then I think that it's they're own fault and they need to take responsibility for what has happened and take the necessary precautions and not blame this problem on something else and all of a sudden they want to mask this problem with some pill. It's like someone enabling an alcoholic and masking some discrepancy or putting make-up or band-aid over a freckle or something that is part of them. I really think that the women are wrong in saying that and trying to cover up. Sometimes women do try to cover up for men, or for their man, and give credence for using these products.

Posted by Rocco at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

Our bodies are great adaptive beings

Our bodies are the greatest adaptive mechanism, or machine, in the world. It's unbelievable to see how, if the body works, it becomes more efficient at doing work. It actually becomes stronger and the body becomes more adept at doing a certain skill. The more we do it the better we get at it. That's the way the body is made. Just as the body adapts to work and getting stronger, it actually adapts to becoming lazy. So the lazier we get, or the less work we do, the better at doing less work we become. We become very efficient at it, we become so great at it that we don't want to do any work. If that's the case, and you go to the other end of the spectrum, then in order to get back into shape it is the longest, hardest road that you can possibly have to take. If you haven't done much work, then you have to build yourself back up to be able to become average again, in average health, in average fitness. That's why, if this does happen - if we do become overweight, and we do become a very weak, lazy, unhealthy person, we need to have the mental toughness and the mental commitment - and not only be within ourselves - but we need to come outside ourselves and kind of guide ourselves.

So many people say "look within and grab yourself and pick yourselves up by the boot straps. Sometimes, we can't really look within without getting outside ourselves. When we look from the outside and see what we are, we usually don't like what we see and that can enable us to get the mental toughness and the inspiration to do something better and be healthier and to actually be a little more productive with our lives.

Posted by Rocco at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2005

A little scam I heard about today: Trimlife weight loss products

Today a client of mine received a package from Trimlife weight loss products. She never ordered anything from Trimlife. It said she purchased the products and there was a credit card number attached to the purchase. She called up Trimlife and told the woman on the phone that she never ordered the product and the response was condescendingly poised that she definately ordered the product online and a specific credit card was entered. When she told the idiot over the phone that it wasn't her credit card number the woman asked for her new number. Thank goodness my client was smarter than the average bear, first she didn't want the product, second, there was no way that she would give the number to someone for something she didn't want. Here's the scam.
Things will come in the mail especially supplements, there's your name on the envelope but you didn't purchase the product but it says you did with a credit card, you call up and tell them you didn't purchase this product and they ask you for you credit card number to verify you give it to them and you have just purchased this product for the next year or so for 29.95 every month. If only 1000 people get scammed this company will get $29,995.00 a month for up to two years until the Federal Trade Commision shuts them down. They pay a fine and go back into business selling another stupid weight loss product. If you get a product like this in the mail call them up ask to be taken off their list and refuse to give them a credit card number. This scam used to be used for pool & sistern chemicals.

Posted by Rocco at 10:48 AM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2005

Walk to buy your beer.

I was thinking about this the other day and just had to write it down. I was dying - on the floor dying. I was thinking how lazy of a society we have become. We have cars that take us to trains, we have buses, we have every kind of transportation that we can fathom to not make us use our bodies to propel us - anywhere. We have the capacity to not have to want to do work so much that we will wait in the driveway warming up the car for 10 minutes to drive three blocks to go to the store, beauty parlor, or anywhere - the deli to get a subway sandwhich. We would rather wait 10, minutes warming up the car, drive down, get the thing, when in fact it would take us less than 9 minutes to have walked there bought the thing and come back. So, what makes me laugh, we're always worried about time constraints and we waist time choosing the conveniences that we've been given. I was in Portland, Maine at the Miss Maine USA beauty pageant and was hanging out with some friends of mine, and I know that being a fitness guy, I shouldn't be saying this, but I wanted to go get a six pack of beer, some Amstel light or light beer. I wanted to go get the beer and asked "what do you guys need". And this girl actually got up and said, "Oh, well I'll drive you". And I said, "No, I don't need a drive to walk two blocks!" She said, "Well, it's on the other side of the mall!" I don't know if you've ever been to Portland Maine, but it's not the largest place in the world and the other side of the mall is actually one block and a half. I walked from the Sheraton down to the store where the Amstel light was, because I saw the sign. I came back and it didn't take me 6 minutes to get a six pack of beer, but she was willing to go downstairs, drive the car and drive all the way around - AROUND - the mall and then buy the beer and come back and stop at all the stop lights. I actually challenged her and said, "You know what? Why don't you do that? I'd like to see who gets back faster." I actually felt good. It was kind of brisk out, kind of cold, you had the weather - the outdoors - it was rather nice, actually. It just so happened that it was the day after thanksgiving. The craziest shopping day of the year and they wanted to drive in traffic. I just don't get it. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the insane one in all of this. I'm not really sure. I just want the American people to start being responsible for their own health. And here's the moral to the story. If you're gonna go buy beer, it's not the greatest thing in the world, walk to go get your beer. If you're gonna go get a piece of pie, go! OK? But walk to go where you have to go. And if it's 5 blocks, it's 5 blocks. Don't get in your car, sit on your butt and drive and go through the drive thru. I mean, we go through a drive thru, like Burger King or McDonalds, and we'll park the car in the parking lot. I see it happen all the time. It's unbelievable! It is truly unbelievable! And then, they make the garbage can so convenient that you can actually throw out the bag on the drive out! On your drive - way out! I'm just wondering - maybe if you're gonna go to Burger King or a fast food restaurant, maybe you could park the car and get out and walk to the counter. It's not gonna kill you! The fast food may kill you. We would rather go and eat something that could possibly kill us - and I'm not trying to dig on fast food that much, but we would rather not walk and put something in our bodies that could possibly kill us than actually do a little exercise.

Posted by Rocco at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2005

If I see on more Bowflex infomercial...

If I see one more commercial for a Bowflex, total gym, or the Fitness System, I think I'm going to explode, because, it's so funny to have to watch this. I'm a fitness enthusiast; a fitness expert and I've been dealing with fitness equipment my whole life. You see the Bally's commercials and all these people that look so great in these commercials and you want to buy because their marketing is saying to you "Oh, you can look like this. This is going to be you, if you buy this product!" I have to tell you, I have never in my life seen - I know more than 500 people that had the thighmaster. Did the Thighmaster work? Absolutely not! Did everyone have one? Absolutely! I saw so many Ab-Rollers and was given probably 10 Ab-Rollers. Did the Ab-Rollers make everybody thin that had it? Absolutely not! Actually, it was pretty hard to do! I've seen thousands of Healthriders in garage sales. If they are the greatest things in the world, why are people selling them at garage sales? I see Bowflex's, treadmills, you name it. One thing that these infomercials don't tell you is that these apparatuses and this equipment do not make you do the work. It doesn't come over to you when you're sitting on the couch; watching TV, slap you in the head and say, "Hey! Johnny! It's time to work out, and if you don't, Iâ??m gonna keep slapping' you in the back of the head until you mount me or get on me!" Sometimes you kind of wish your girlfriend would say that!

Here is the kicker. We buy these things, thinking that we're going to use them. We have all of these great intentions about using this equipment. But, what do we do? We don't put them in our bedrooms, or in our living rooms where we have to see them everyday. If you saw them everyday, you might think 'ya know, I should get on this thing while I'm watching TV.' No, We don't do that. We put them in the basement. We put all this equipment and apparatuses in the basement or the garage and when you go down there it tends to make us think of punishment or that the basement is a dungeon. We have to go down into the dungeon to work out and there is a constant negative connotation with going down into the basement or dungeon. I'm not saying donâ??t buy it, well maybe I am, but if you're compelled to buy this stuff, then go ahead and buy it! But, if you put it in the basement you might as well just start hanging your dresses and your coats on it the second that you get it because that where it's gonna be in about 6 months. So, if you're buying a treadmill, Boflex, whatever, put it somewhere where you can be reminded that you need to be using that. I know that if you put it in the basement, you will actually avoid going down to the basement because you don't want to see that thing that you've just spent $1500/$2000 wasting away and that's where we also tend to find guilt and then we feel bad and get depressed about it. It just becomes a vicious cycle. So, let's think about the next time we look that infomercial and it's only four payments of $259.95.

Posted by Rocco at 12:34 PM | Comments (4)