Welcome to the BFit4Life Newsletter
Hiya All,
Last month I spoke to you about the imminent opening of the BFit4Life Performance Centre. I am delighted to announce that on 1st June 2009 I opened the doors of my new centre to greet my first clients. In this month’s newsletter I share with you my continuing story on the journey to the opening of the BFit4Life Centre.
As many of you know this ambition of mine has been some years in the pipeline and I have experienced many set-backs and frustrations in my attempts to open the centre. Six months ago, in memory of Hernando Cortez I “burned the boats” and left the comfort and security of a well established gym that I had used to train my clients, in order to force myself to focus on my goal. This step certainly pressurised me into action. As Bob Proctor says, “A sense of urgency creates action.” Sometimes it is necessary to step out of your comfort zone to obtain the results you want. I tell my clients that they, too, may have to push themselves beyond what they are used to if they are to achieve their fat loss or body transformation goals.
The last six months have proved extremely challenging as I have tried to maintain and build my client base whilst setting up the new performance centre. During this period I have learned many valuable lessons which I share with you in this month’s newsletter.
The Education of a Strength Coach - Part II
Damien continues his journey on the road to the successful opening of the BFit4Life Performance Centre. Success is a journey and not a destination so the education will continue and a new journey shall begin...
Last Time…
In Part 1 of this series, I talked to you about my entry into the world of fitness. I stated that my aim was to be a top strength coach, who helped people improve their health and performance. In my quest to achieve this goal I took the conventional route, learning through courses based in Dublin and through staff training in gyms. This proved a fruitless way to learn, and at that time Ireland’s lack of success on an International stage with athletes and sporting performance suggested that I would have to spread my net wider if I was to obtain the information and knowledge to help people achieve their athletic potential. The Internet opened up many different methods of training. The buzz words in health and fitness at that time were “core training” and “functional training” and my journey into training continued.
Find a Mentor with Credibility
Philosopher Jim Rohn, says that the person you will be in 5 years time is influenced by the people you meet, the books you read and the mentors you have. Throughout my journey I have had the opportunity to train and learn with different international mentors and leaders in the field of strength training, functional medicine and cardiology. There has never been a course or internship that I didn't learn something new but there have been courses where I have questioned the coach’s credibility based on his results or lack thereof. These courses were not a mistake but as Thomas Edison says, “I didn't fail, I simply learned a hundred ways that didn’t work.” A quick search of the internet reveals many self-professed coaches peddling false information on how to obtain results with athletes. Very often, such successes are not backed up with testimonials from the very same athletes. In my experience athletes, who are impressed with the results they have obtained, have no hesitation in endorsing the coach who helped them achieve these results. Many such internet gurus talk a good game but training success is achieved through actions not words. Theory is one thing, but it has to be tested and proven in practice. Such internet gurus can be compared with the guy watching porn all day claiming to be great at sex.
Learn and Progress
My first internship overseas was with Paul Chek in the UK. I find that the CHEK philosophy of corrective exercise is beneficial for rehabilitation, nutrition and lifestyle coaching but I believe methods of “core training” and “functional 
training” will fail to yield a transformation in your body-shape. Training has to be intense to give your body a reason to change. If you stop one to two repetitions before muscular failure as Paul Chek advocates, you will never abide by the principle of overload. When you challenge your body by lifting weights that are sufficiently heavy so that it is difficult to complete the set repetition range, the muscle must adapt by receiving a new stimulus, get thicker and stronger and hence burn more calories to maintain and then you lose weight. No-one will ever get strong on a Swiss Ball, but the Swiss Ball, like the kettle-bell in which I received training from Russian Secret Services Spetnaz trainer Pavel Tsatouline in Minnesota, is a tool that offers variations to the body to stop it adapting to the same stimulus. Bruce Lee said it best when he said “no one way is the way. Beg, borrow, steal what is useful and reject what is not.”
I became frustrated with the rate of progress in fat loss using “core” and “functional training”. But success leaves clues and so I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona in the USA to intern with Charles Poliquin. Charles has trained Olympic medallists in 18 different sports in addition to a host of American NFL football players and NHL hockey players. He is known for getting results. Time spent with Charles has taught me that training is a science and depending on the goal of the client, the training age or injury profile, you can tailor the individual training program to get a result. His training methods are principle based with manipulation of the variables of training such as repetitions, sets, tempo or speed of an exercise, rest periods, exercise selection and exercise order.
Adopt the Best
Lean and strong athletes are generally the fastest, most powerful and most successful athletes. In his bid to get his athletes lean Charles Poliquin has developed a system called Bio-Signature that helps identify the areas where people store fat and offers cutting edge solutions for eliminating such fat stores. At BFit4Life we measure your body-fat percentage which gives us the % of muscle to fat on your body. Based on your body-fat % and where you store your fat, we are able to customise the training, nutrition and supplementation protocol according to your needs. Charles’ methods have been the difference between 1st and 4th at the Olympics and it has definitely worked in transforming our clients’ body shapes. It is hard work. It takes discipline and determination, but it is through such challenges that we grow in our bodies and in our minds.
As the journey progressed, I realised that in order to help a client achieve their goals the first step was to help the client clarify not only their goals but also their values. What we value we will strive to achieve. I also realised that if I was to help my clients achieve their goals I would have to be at the top of my game in training, nutrition, supplementation, treatment, rehabilitation and coaching. This meant expanding my understanding and education even further. In this endeavour I have been fortunate enough to stand on the shoulders of giants who are at the cutting edge in their professional fields. It has been a journey that has clocked up many air miles and many hours of my time but one that has given me a huge insight into my profession. Armed with all this new found knowledge I was eager to put it all into practice but I found that I was constrained by working in a large chain gym which did not share my ideals or values. Charles Givens said in his book “Superself” that when you are in someone else’s ball-park you must play by their rules until you get your own ball park. Since then it has been my ambition to move away from the oceans of treadmills, plasma TV screens, and posing and to create my own ball park.
Manifesting the Vision
In January 09, I burned my bridges with the large chain where I worked for nearly a decade to put me under more pressure to finish the dream of designing and building my own fitness facility. Designing my own facility where I could put my own ideas into practice became my ambition. To this end I set up BFit4Life Performance Centre Ltd. I approached setting up this facility like any other challenge I have undertaken. I set goals, made a public pledge to increase accountability and designed a long term plan which included short term goals to keep me focused and ensure that I eventually achieved my goal. In fact I advise my clients to adopt just such an approach when starting out on a fat-loss or body transformation program. The setting up of this facility has not been easy. Last year I looked at four potential premises only to see them fail to come to fruition. That proved frustrating but I kept faith and remained focused on my goal. In your quest to lose weight or transform your body shape you too will be faced with challenges and set-backs but it is important that you stay focused on your goal and ultimately you will surmount such challenges and achieve what you set out to do.
Through hard work and endeavour I eventually opened my new facility on 1 June 2009. However, although I say “I” it could not have been done without the help and support of the BFit4Life team and indeed many of my current clients who pitched up to lend their help and support when needed. To all of you who have helped out along the way I thank you. Indeed the team work shown over the last few months from BFit4Life staff and clients alike is testimony to the ethos we are trying to create at the BFit4Life Performance Centre. We are striving to create a group of like-minded individuals who come together to work hard and support each other in achieving their goals.
The Path for you!
Life is about challenges and having the necessary support around you when you meet these challenges. At BFit4Life we are intent on being there to help people make changes in their lifestyles so that they can enjoy longer and healthier lives. If you wish to make these changes you will need to surround yourself with ambitious hard-working 
people who want to achieve success. Many of our clients have learned that they need to apply the very same characteristics and traits in their pursuit of their fitness goals as they have done in carving out successful careers in business. At BFit4Life we have high standards in health and nutrition and so when a client trains in our gym they raise their standards and performance to align with the group. It is often said that you are the average of the five people that you interact with and so when you are training in an environment where everyone else raises their standards, you will reach a new level in yours. So what is your training environment like? Do people talk about exercise or do they work hard with intensity, showing grit, sweat and determination so that you know they will achieve their goals?
That is what the ethos of BFit4Life is all about. Like-minded people meet together and leave their limitations at the door to raise their standards of fitness through the challenge and support of the coaches at BFit4Life. Former Mr. Universe Winner, Milos Sarcev, said it best when he said “Accept no Limitations as a limitation.” At BFit4Life we invite you to train in the company of people who challenge and compete against each other so that not only do they reach their goals but very often they exceed them. If you are up to the challenge we look forward to welcoming you through the doors of BFit4Life Performance Centre but remember “Anything but excuses, nothing but results”