i had a good week last week. not to rough, not to easy. i made a lot of progress on my life last week as well. i started doing some research online about fitness and gyms. after visiting a lot of different sites, reading a lot of message boards, and figuring some stuff out i finally figured out how to start this gym thing. the first thing i have to do is get certified as a personal trainer. no one is going to listen to me unless i can say i certifiably know what i am talking about. and the cool thing is that there are quite a few organizations that certify personal trainers. after checking them all out i narrowed it down to the 2 big ones that everyone seems to talk about ace (american council on exercise) and issa (international sports science association). after getting some input from some other trainers and checking out their material, support, and other stuff i am going to go with issa for my certification. they get rave reviews from trainers, free support, a free seminar, great at home studying and testing, and the material looks really detailed and well put together. they also have pretty extensive certification in other programs like nutrition, aerobics, etc when i want to further my background of knowledge. so this is one of my new goals for the next 6 months. by jan of 2001 i want to be a certified personal trainer. after i get my certification i want to build a small client base that i can work with in the evenings, mornings, and weekends. then while i am learning from them, getting experience, etc i will work on getting my mba. this should give me the business background i need to get the company up and running. piece of cake …


on the fitness front i decided to change things up again. not only am i completely revamping my workout regiment but i am taking things to a new level as well. i have been reading a lot about different set and repetition programs that can give really good results. i have also read a lot about different cardio intensity programs that have given good results as well. so i figure i will give them a shot. basically this is my research phase of fitness, i am trying to learn as much as i can, what works for me, what doesn’t etc. i am expanding on the body for life weight training principles by breaking up the upper body into 2 different workouts. one day is going to be chest, shoulder, and tricepts and the other day is going to be bicept, back, and abdominals. i am then going to have a lower body day consisting of quads, hamstrings, and calves, and abdominals again. this is going to be done every week … i am also changing my cardio to 3 days a week, 2 days consisting of interval training very similar to the hiit used in bfl and another day of a low intensity aerobic workout. the principles are similar to hiit but the duration is a bit higher. i know this seems like a complete changeup of everything in body for life but it really isn’t that huge of a change. i am still working out all of the body parts the same, i am just going to be varying the workouts more and doing a larger variety of workouts for each body part during each session. i think this will help prevent my workouts from getting stale. i almost consider this a evolution of body for life for when you want to take it to the next level. this program is outlined in its entirety on the eas web site under their personal fitness guide.


i finally broke down and bought a gym membership. i still plan on doing a lot, if not most of my workouts at home, but i needed some variety. i wanted to be able to start using an ellipical trainer, cable machines, some leg machines, etc … and until i get enough cash to buy these for my home i need access to them now. with my new exercise program and my new drive to try new exercises i think this membership will be a huge boon. it was only $350 dollars for the entire year, plus i got 3 months free, so i am paid up for the next 15 months. i can do a majority of the upper body exercises at home but some will be done at the gym. for the lower body i will primarily do those at the gym as well since they have a squat rack and machines that i want to use. for cardio i will be doing 2 of the days at home and one at the gym. i think the membership will be good for not only my fitness but for my understanding of how a gym operates and runs. the first thing i noticed was that they don’t allow personal trainers to bring clients into the gym. this is not cool and is something that i want my gym to have.


i spent a little time condo shop looking. i drove around on sunday to see areas that had condos. i actually went to 2 open houses as well. one was to small in terms of ceilings and the other was huge, almost to big and a bit out of my price range. i am going to be attending 2 home buying seminars in the next few weeks to learn more about purchasing a place.


i think in hindsight that is the whole week …