Whether you are new to KDR or a long-time member, here’s some wisdom from Ben.

Here are some random training tips that will help you be more successful at KDR…and some of them even apply to life in general!

1. Generally speaking, when you move away from the earth – you are trying to accelerate. When you are moving towards the earth – you are trying to decelerate. So – think away = fast and towards = slow. This will help you get a few more reps.

2. When pressing or pushing a tool (BB, DB, KB, etc.) think about punching that weight towards the ceiling – this will help you get a few more reps.

3. Consistency is the father of results and nutrition is the mother. When consistency and nutrition bump uglies you birth fantastic results. Training is the Nanny that helps raise those results into beautiful butts, outrageous arms and powerful backs.

4. Pick two to three exercises per work out and really try and go after those exercises. Up the weight and try and beat what you did last time.

5. Understand the principle of progression – we don’t make this up. The way your body responds to any physical stress is to remodel itself so that the next time it undergoes that physical stress, it will be better prepared. That’s why walking the same two mile loop 7 days in a row gets easier the longer you do it. Lifting weights is the same thing – you can’t just stick at the same weight and expect to get different results.

6. Challenge yourself! People generally don’t step outside their comfort zones at any point in their day to day life. But, that’s where the pot of gold is. Do something you didn’t think you could do. Chances are you were wrong the whole time.

7. Educate yourself about what you’re passionate about. Weight loss? What was the last weight loss book you read? Muscle building? Same question. As coaches our job is to educate you and direct you, but as your understanding of the quest improves, so does our ability to coach and educate. It’s like dealing with a child that progresses through school.

8. Speaking of school – what’s the most recent concept you learned about and what is the most recent physical activity you undertook that was a new movement? Our bodies are just vessels for our brains. In fact, most of the brain is concerned with directing the bodies movements. New movements = exercise for the brain = healthier and younger brain. This goes true for learning new concepts, but being active and doing new physical things trumps learning new concepts.

9. You want a tight and great looking ass? Squeeze your glutes at the top of every rep as hard as you can.

10. Show up for your work out early. This is YOU time. If your work out starts at 5, and you roll in at 4:55, and it takes you 5 minutes to put your stuff away, change and get set. You are going into your training session frazzled, rushed and generally in a mood that’s not really great to learn in. That’s not taking time for you. Generally speaking, plan on a work out lasting 70 minutes. That includes getting to the work out 15 minutes early and staying 5 minutes after the work out is done.

11. Piggybacking off of the above thought – if you can’t take 70 minutes out of your day, 3-4 days per week to invest time solely in YOU. Then chances are you probably can’t prep or plan your meals, think about nutrition in any way beyond “I’m hungry, where’s the food?” and will generally find that getting results is way harder then it needs to be.

12. Piggy-piggy backing – 2 hours. That’s the amount of time it should take you on the weekend to prep your foods for the week. Don’t prep everything, just prep for 2 hours. What ever you get done, that’s what you get done.

13. Kind of sort of piggy backing – your drive time is NOT included in your work out time. Let’s be honest here – the time you spend in your car is usually the only time that YOU are in control of your surroundings/environment. Not your boss, your kids or your spouse. You can listen to YOUR music or podcasts. You can talk to who YOU want to talk to. When you get into your car, YOU are in control of everything that happens inside those metal doors. Enjoy it. I LOVE getting in the car, it’s when I learn the most.

14. Don’t fear carbs. And if you do, eat them only around your work out. Then you will be ok.

15. Calories are king, protein is queen. Hit those two and the rest will fall into place.

16. Every day, wake up and drink 30 ozs of water before you do anything else. 30 oz too much? Start somewhere and work your way up. This will help your body and your results IMMENSELY!

17. D, pro-biotic, gender specific multi, fish oil, magnesium…every day. Those are by far the best supplements you can take for general health and wellness.

18. No…you don’t get enough D. Stop saying you do. You live in New England. We only have 3-4 nice months out of the year to be outside. Don’t believe me? Go get it tested, it only costs about $75. But our D supplements only cost $20. So….ya know….go spend an extra $55, or just trust us.

19. Trust us. Changing peoples lives and bringing out their potential is what we do, and we have been doing it in the Upper Vally since 2005. Weight too heavy? Can’t do another rep? Don’t like “X,Y,Z” veggie? Too much protein? Those are all obstacles you throw in the way to prevent you from working outside your comfort zone and ultimately delay the results you want to get.

20. Our goal is never to hurt you – that’s bad for business. We will do everything we can to ensure your safety. You can’t get better if your injured.

21. “I can’t” is one of the worse two words you can use in the gym. Not only are you automatically pissing us off because your saying “I don’t trust you”, but you are ultimately saying “I can’t get the results I want to get because I don’t want to push my self to work hard.” If you can’t do another rep – how can you stop eating ice cream at night (if that’s what needs to happen to see results?)

22. It’s just a vegetable. Eat it. Cooking school taught me that you can change the texture, color, flavor, consistency and appearance of anything. Coach Lisa is a great person to talk to about this one.

23. No…we don’t recommend a high protein diet, or a low carb diet, or a high fat diet. It’s just that your diet is so far from where it needs to be that you will eat HIGHER protein, LOWER carb and HIGHER fat then your used too to get where you want to go.

24. Know who you are working with. At the very least go to www.kdrfitness.com and read our bios. I, Ben, have a degree in Ex. Sci., have studied massage as well as physical therapy and a whole bunch of other things. Don’t tell me that you can’t do something because the muscle under your patella is “bad”. There is no muscle under your patella and that makes you sound like an idiot. That’s like going into the mechanic and the mechanic saying – “This is what’s wrong” and you saying “That’s not what’s wrong, this is. Another mechanic told me so.” Maybe they were right, or maybe they were wrong. But if your car is still broken…chances are they were wrong.

25. And just so I can put “25 Random Tips” at the top, here’s the last one – 2 work outs per week, two in bodies every month. That’s the minimum you need to do to see results. That’s a total of approximately 560 minutes or about 9.5 hours per MONTH that you need to invest in your self to see results.

YOU ARE WORTH IT!