Thank You

An Inspiring Father and Son Relationship

I wish I could claim ownership for all motivational tips I present, but often times, I simply redirect or re-present quality information. But that is true of every industry and every profession.

With that said, I received this post in a newsletter I belong to from my fitness buddy Dax Moy.

He's an amazing individual, not just a fitness professional. He too is excellent at distributing quality info to people who otherwise may have never seen, read or heard inspirational and motivational items and moments.

This particular email struck a chord with me as I'm sure it will do so with you.

It's the inspiring recap of Dick Hoyt and his son Rick and their spectacular strive to overcome the greatest of illness and stand atop the pinnacle of human effort!

What they accomplish with their limitations should show you that YOU CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU SEE FIT or POSSIBLE.

Seriously.

Do yourself a favor and watch the clip below.



Till next time,

Rob Belley

Robert Belley Fitness
Pembroke, Massachusetts

GREAT SANTA SPEEDO RUN!!

For those of you looking to give to a charity this winter I have a fun one for ya.

Not that I'm trying to take you away from the support a family, toys for children or food for those less fortunate organizations. I'm all for them.

But this one is a fun way to still give to a great cause while having a blast and workout in the process!! This event sposonsors the Women's Lunch Place. Where homeless and less fortunate women can go for shelter and food in times of need.

If you want to see fun: check this out:

That looks fun!!

This event is taking place this Saturday, December 15th, 2007 in South Boston!!

And here's a great idea in case you need a little poking or motivation:

I call it the Speedo Treking Santa Office Extravaganza!!!!

You should all submit one member from the office by some kind of challenging game or pass the time office event.

Who ever finishes last or in the bottom 3 has to participate in the Santa Speedo Run!

All the proceeds of the office challenge could go to the charity bundle associated with the speedo treking office santa : )

Very cool idea?

Plan for it next year too!!

Makes for good stories around the office cooler...or at the christmas party...and especially when looking for a raise and the fact that you stuck yourself out there for the team..literally.

Take care and happy holidays!!

Rob Belley

PS- I know a Speedo may not be for everyone, and I know you wouldn't want to see me in one, but it'll help a great deal of less foruntate women this winter during the cold and harsh wintery conditions. Especially with storm alerts approaching.

So what's a speedo?

12 Days of Fitness is Yours FREE!!

Guess what?

It's that time of year again!

What I mean is it's the time of year for the wonderful 12 Days of Fitness put on by my buddies Dax Moy and Pat Rigsby. Over 250 fitness professionals, including myself, have been contributing workouts, diets, meal plans, programs, audios and informational reports for all our beloved subsrcibers and clients for absolutelty free.

You see the 12 days begin today Monday, December 10th and runs through the 22nd. But if I were you I wouldn't hesitate. I'd pop over there today to begin going through all the cool gifts.
AND THERE'S A LOT OF EM' FOR THE TAKING.

Dax and Pat have done another superb job this year. And I'm just ecstatic to be apart of the 12 Days.

I personally have contributed some FAST workouts for those of us in a hustle this holiday season. Believe you me, I know how hard it is to find time to get in a good workout right now. So I'm positive my gift alone will help you 3fold for the next 4 weeks.

But again, I'm just one of a handpicked group of 250 health and fitness experts from all around the world to participate in the largest gift-giving program ever.

So as I said before, you're going to download great info from some of my elite colleagues too!

And these gifts are even divied up into categories for you:
Diet
Fatloss
Strength Training
Back Pain
New Mom's Fitness
and so much more...

The only thing you'll need to do is pop on over and register your name and email address at:

www.12daysoffitness.com

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!


Robert Belley operates the Readers Choice award winning service Robert Belléy Fitness in Pembroke on RT 53.

Information can be reached via the internet at www.RBFit.com or email at Rob@RBFit.com


Maximum Fitness magazine, Advisory Board Member
Men's Fitness magazine, Consultant/Advisor
CNC Publisher, Weekly Columnist


Robert Belley Fitness Personal Training Studios
345 Washington St. Unit 5, Pembroke, Massachusetts 02359

The Inspiration of Randy Pausch

In life it's difficult to find truly motivating individuals who exemplify true optimistic character cuddled with realism. This man portrays just that. Please do yourself a favor and watch this video...

Dynamic Stretching Part 1

~ as article appears in CNC Publications ~

For years athletes from a variety of sports have suffered strenuous muscle cramps, debilitating injuries and annoying inflexibility. It’s never a matter of “IF” you’ll suffer from the above mentioned in your athletic career but the reality of “WHEN” it’ll happen. No mater how amazing your current warm-ups are at some point you’ll either over-train, under-train or just not be hydrated enough to sustain the amount of demand required for complete mobility and flexibility for a given movement or exercise.

The human body is amazing in that it tries to constantly prevent injury. It will only allow a muscle group to develop so long as it doesn’t place the opposing muscles in the length-tension relationship in harms way. Sure it’s not a perfect system, and we do still incur injury, but for the most part we’re fortunate in that we are instilled with this internal protective mechanism.

So how can you help your body in the fight against tight and bounded muscles? Easy, begin a stretching program focused around your personal goals as a youth athlete. Author’s note: you don’t have to be a youth athlete to benefit from this information. Whether you’re an adult, fitness or non-fitness enthusiast or alive and breathing this information will greatly enhance your life!

People tend to forget that even if they’re not currently including fitness in their lifestyle they still benefit tremendously from stretching. The body still gets tight, still suffers injury and still needs to be adequately hydrated whether or not participating in sport and recreation. And unless you’re competing in regular sport, sport beverages really aren’t necessary; water is perfect.

Now the following stretches are something we in the “industry” refer to as ‘dynamic’ stretching. It yields all the amazing benefits of traditional ‘static’ stretching only it better prepares you for sport and training ahead! I’m going to walk you through a quick dynamic stretching sequence for your ankles and hamstrings. Next installment we’ll focus on the calves, quads and hips.

Beginning with the ankles, we’re going to open up the ankle complex with this exercise. With your feet two-to-three inches apart, toes pointed forward, knees slightly bent, hands placed just above knees, perform a circular motion with the path of your knees while leaving both feet firmly in contact with the floor. Do not let your heels or toes come off the ground. Perform seven circles to the left then seven circles to the right.

The next exercise will help loosing up those hamstrings. Standing upright, lift your right leg about an inch or so off the ground by balancing onto your left leg. Begin, swinging your right leg from front to back in a straight path while making sure your toes constantly point in a forward movement. Try not to reach too far back but really accentuate the swing upward. Do not let the knees bend of either leg. You should feel a really good stretch from the back of your thigh to the lower portion of your glute and outside of your hip. Repeat with the left leg.

Right now you have two new exercises to learn and add to your current routine. If you have any questions about either exercise or would like pictures that illustrate these movements feel free to send me an email. Happy training!

Vote for Robert Belley Fitness!!

First, I would like to thank you all for your continued support of Robert Belley Fitness. It means dearly to us and we wouldn't have achieved our success without YOU.

Second, would you do us a huge, HUGE favor and VOTE FOR US over at South Shore Living magazine's website, http://www.ssliving.com/ in the 2008 Best of the South Shore (B.O.S.S.)!!

The great thing is you don't have to vote for every category or line.

Just the ONE line where we would be nominated Simply log onto http://www.ssliving.com/ by clicking there or HERE, then look to the left hand side of the screen and you'll see an image for the 2008 BOSS Awards. Click on it and you'll be redirected to the survey ballot.

On page 5 of the survey, titled "FITNESS", go to question 66 "Fitness Center/Gym".

In the blank space provided type in, or copy and paste from here: Robert Belley Fitness.

It would be so appreciated and we would certainly be grateful for YOUR VOTE : )

Also, if you could forward this to friends and family whom could also do us the favor that would be fantastic. This is a truthful voting process. Only one vote per computer can be made and that's the way we like it.

EVERY SINGLE VOTE COUNTS.

So here it is again.

Step 1: Go over to http://www.ssliving.com/
Step 2: Click on the image on the left hand side of the page titled "2008 South Shore Living BOSS Awards"
Step 3: Click "Next" till you get to page 5 "FITNESS"
Step 4: Go down to question #66, "Health Club/Gym"
Step 5: Type "Robert Belley Fitness" in the space to the right of question 66
Step 6: Click "DONE" when you have finished entering our company name.

Thank you again so much for helping us out, after all our business continues to grow by way of referrals from our clients, friends and family. Thank you for recommending us.

Sincerely,

Rob Belley

212 degrees - The Extra Degree

If you haven't seen this yet it follows in the vein of 'The Secret' as an inspirational and motivational movie.

It truly is amazing how much more can be achieved with the slightest added effort.



Give it a watch.

Then hit the gym or break for the street to begin your daily fitness training.

Today, I have a date with training at the Pembroke facility.

I can't wait!

~Rob Belley

Robert Belley on ThisNext.com

Hey y'all,

I've recently been profiled by the next great web resource tool ThisNext.com

It was an honor to be asked for my favorite daily fitness product recommendations. What I posted happens to be the very products I and my clientele use on a daily basis in our training sessions...and a couple of surprises throughout the week!!

So check out my profile at http://www.thisnext.com/by/RobBelley/profile/

Shopcast powered by
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Get this for your blog or website

To alli or not alli?

~ as article appears in CNC Publications ~

Move over Slim Fast and Weight Watcher’s, there’s a (supposed) new wonder pill in town and it’s being hyped by Wal-Mart’s and grocery stores nationwide. It’s called “alli” and it’s been dubbed as the only over-the-counter FDA approved weight loss supplement on the market.


Is it all hype though? Can it really help shed pounds of unsightly body fat? Will you need to sport Depends soil-absorbent undergarments over your Hanes? If you don’t understand the last sentence I advise you to take great care reading forward. This pill may not be for you. But after reading this article it’s my greatest ambition that you’ll be able to make a contentious decision before dropping your paycheck on this publicity monster. So let’s get into the dirt.


First off, alli may be remembered best as its predecessor, “orlistat”. In its simplest form, orlistat prevented the digestion and absorption of fat in foods. So if you ate something terribly wrong you can be happy to know that most of the fat in said meal will just end up passing right through your system…and then onto your pants in an oily discharge. Smile!


This phenomenon happens by way of the pill blocking lipase-the enzyme in the intestine that separates fat in food so that it can be absorbed into the body-and preventing fat absorption. It’s suggested twenty-five percent of the fat in a meal is blocked. Unfortunately, that twenty-five percent is excreted in the stool and furthermore in the disturbing result mentioned in prior.


But although orlistat is know for this tremendous amount of fat blockage let it be known that alli is a lower dose formulation of orlistat. So its effects are comparable to orlistat’s outrageous power. And if you’re wondering, orlistat is still only available by prescription.


To meet the requirements for orlistat’s prescription you must be an obese individual with a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or greater. In general, a five foot eight individual would have to weigh an unfit 200 pounds or greater. Or imagine being five foot 2 inches and weighing a pudgy 165 pounds. So it’s not for the fitness enthusiast or self-contentious individual looking to drop ten pounds or less.


In fact studies have only shown the average weight loss achieved with 100% compliance to orlistat for six months to one year to be twelve to thirteen pounds. Is it still worth the runs to you?


I’d rather save the money spent on new drawers and use it to enjoy some delicious foods at the restaurants of my choice while spending an hour or two a week training and watching what I eat. Plus not only do you have to swallow pills but you have to time them with your meal about an hour prior to each feeding. If not it’s a waste.


So, besides the mess, which I can not stress enough, here’s the kicker that’s associated with fat absorption in your diet; you lose needed vitamins. Sure, it may not seem like such a big deal, but vitamins are categorized as either water soluble and fat soluble in nature. These fat-soluble vitamins bind to fat (vitamins A, D, E and K). When orlistat is taken, these vitamins are not absorbed and are eliminated in the stool in increased amounts along with the fat. This leaves dieters having with no choice but to take a multivitamin at least a few hours prior to first use each morning to ensure that daily nutritional needs are met.


Now, to get back to my main rebuttal with orlistat compounds-as alli is-you have to be willing to deal with messy discharges…from your hiney! Side effects are as listed: oily spotting on underwear, flatulence, urgent bowel movements, fatty or oily stools, increased number of bowel movements, abdominal pain or discomfort, and inability to control stool (incontinence). Side effects occur within three months of starting this product and in about fifty percent of patients, the side effects resolved within one to four weeks, but the effects in some patients lasted six months or longer.


A helpful hint given by the manufacturers to reduce nasty occurrences is to consume meals with no more than thirty percent of fat because it is the unabsorbed fat that causes most of the symptoms. Alli causes fewer side effects because it contains half the dose of prescription–strength orlistat though. But are you willing to take a few days off from work to sit at home in case you have an irritable bowel accident?


So, do you take a pill nearly guaranteeing an embarrassing public moment in the hopes that it may help you drop a half pound this week? The manufacturer is clearly warning potential users of leakage and disastrous stains left on underwear and pants alike.


Or do you take care of weight gain the good ole’ fashion way by being active and putting down the damn swiss rolls and hamburger? I’d hope you’d choose to take it easy on your pants and just go for a light jog for goodness sake.


My final decision: alli and orlistat both lose. Sorry, but I just can’t justify how this is anymore than a clever and expensive advertising and marketing campaign to rob millions of desperate and lazy people of their hard earned money. Any individual uneducated enough to take this ridiculous pill will not experience a greater weight loss than traditional, well-earned fat loss success.


So save your money-Depends will never be the fashion-and get off the couch and into the expansive and beautiful terrains of our beloved New England to jog along gorgeous shoreline’s, hike through green and plush state forestry and swim and wade in our refreshing ponds and bays. You’ll thank me for it later.

Have Shoes, will Walk Boston

I had the pleasure this weekend of tour guiding a date around my city of Boston. The great thing is we did it totally by walking the city, rather than one of those trolley or Duck tours.

Thank goodness we're both fit people. All in all our 4 hour walk came to a total of 12.3 miles!

We started in Chinatown, hit Copley Square to check out the Trinity Church and John Hancock building, walked up Dartmouth street to the Charles River, followed that to Boston University, through Kenmore Square to Fenway Park (GO RED SOX !!), back through Kenmore to Boston Symphony Hall, past Northeastern University to the Museum of Fine Arts, back up through the Fens to grab Newbury Street (grabbed some ice cream too), strolled through Boston Common, jumped on the Freedom Trail, hit-up Faneuil Hall, and returned to Chinatown where we began.

Don't get me wrong, our calves are still burning. In fact, we went to a Wedding the next night and still tore some rug. And the next day we went to the beach.

But the take home message is this: A car isn't the only thing to get you from 'A' to 'B' or all the way to 'Z'! Walking can be a tremendous exercise if you get far enough and keep a good pace.

Think of it this way. We we're walking a total of 4 hours tops. We maintained a 3mph speed. At that rate you could finish a marathon in 8.5 hours! Realistically we could have walked and jogged the distance in about 5-6 hours...hey anything's possible ; )

So just remember, next time you've got some time to kill, or boredom sets in, go for a long walk. I'm sure you have some great hiking trails nearby or even a beautiful city such as Boston to take in the final days of the warm weather.

So don't be a slouch! Fitness is right before you...literally. You'll feel tremendous when you've accomplished your walk!

~B

helpful hint...wear walking shoes...not sandals, not indoor shoes, not heels or anything with an exaggerated lift in the heel

Great Tips for Baseball Diamond Training

I woke up early this morning to take pix for an upcoming Maximum Fitness article I'm writing. Luckily I was able to access the lower baseball field behind my studio for some great outdoor training photos. As I was going through the movement selections something occurred to me. 'I don't train my clientele enough using a baseball diamond.'

With it you can create some amazing cardio routines with the baselines, and even create a cool exercise sequence that would be based upon length rather than time or repetitions.

For example, you could have a client athletic shuffle from home to first, turn around and sprint from first to second, tuck jump from second to third, and athletic shuffle leading with the opposite leg home. You could have them perform this once, twice or even three times in a row for a killer interval/strength/agility routine.

Just some ideas for y'all to work with.

~ B

Decent Workout

Today's workout consisted of some basics, circuited together.

I was really hoping to try out my new plyo-boxes tonight, but weary legs from the Sunday's squat session prevented me from doing so : (

So tonight was an upper body day. After my dynamic warm-up, I moved into some inverted rows, pulling to the collar bone to really hit the rhomboids.

Next I moved into some neutral grip, chain, chin-ups. Rested 10 seconds and performed a set of wide grip pull-ups.

Third, I performed kneeling cable crunches, really focusing on my breathing and contractions.

Fourth, I kept the rope around and performed some triceps press-downs.

That was pretty much it.

I repeated this circuit 4 times and kept the reps in the 12-15 range. Still feeling out my shoulder from the pre-summer injury on tour.

~ B

Robert Belley, BSC, CPT, YCS
www.PurelyPhysique.com
www.RockStarPhysique.com

Double Session Fever

~ As article appears in CNC publications ~

School sports are back! And unlike most New England August’s there’s a bit of a chill in the air. Football, soccer and field hockey squads are beginning their practices this week and double sessions are falling into order for most schools. But are you seriously prepared for the season ahead? Are you conditioned for your position? Can you handle the pressure of a successful varsity season or will you crumble in exhaustion because you decided to skimp on off-season and preseason training?

Have no fear. Even if you slacked all summer guzzling Big Gulps and Coolatta’s by the beach you can still make an impact on the roster. Heck if you train smart enough you may even steal a starting position!

Ahead you’ll find a basic training program, a two week quick-fix if you will, to getting in shape. You may even appear as if you’ve been fulfilling your coaches every summer preparation dream! Don’t worry though, we know you’re still kids and enjoying your summer is a must.
Now the above sports are without fail dependant upon two factors: your ability to handle endurance and your ability to resist injury. Sure strength, power, speed, quickness, flexibility, mobility, agility all count. But let’s be honest. If you get hurt your season is over. If you can’t handle being in the game due to fatigue and poor endurance you’re out too. So we need to maximize your speed and conditioning through intervals and you need to execute specific exercises to maintain a strong athletic stance. We’ll begin with conditioning.

For your conditioning we’re keeping it simple. Each day after practice-if applicable-begin by warming up with some basic dynamic stretches. Commonly choose the ones you are already familiar with. Second, start with a light jog about a couple laps around the track or field. Third we’ll move into sprints.

Begin with quick 10-20 yard sprints from your sports preferred athletic stance. After each sprint, take your time walking back to the starting line. If there’s one thing I must stress during this session is hydration and maintaining proper breathing. You shouldn’t be winded after 20 yards. Develop your breath control with every stride. Hands stay open, legs and arms move front to back, not side to side or swaying, and you’re pushing behind your body not straight down into the ground for propulsion.

After 5 sprints, have a sip of water and hit the track/field for some distance running; nothing crazy. We’re gonna set the time for this at 5 minutes maximum. Begin by jogging a half a lap, then pick-up the pace into a near sprint for the next 5 yards. Return to your starting pace and continue swapping the two speeds till your time is up. This isn’t rocket science and it’s not back-breaking. This is a simple and effective tool to get back in the swing of things.

For day one, begin with a warm-up perform 5 sprints and transition into a 5 minute jog/sprint interval. For each day after, add 2 sprints and 1 minute to the jog/sprint interval: simple stuff. By the end of two weeks you should be near 15 sprints and 15 minute intervals.

Now for your strength we have four cool exercises for you performed in supersets-two exercises back to back with little to no rest between. The first is a basic farmer’s walk. This will develop a strong grip for your stick sports and for maneuvering opponents. It’ll also add needed stability in the legs and work the entire the upper back and traps. Simply grab a weight plate or dumbbell in each hand and walk with the weights for 100 feet.



The second exercise will be performed immediately following the walk. You’ll get down the ground and lye on your back. Place your heels as close to your butt as possible with your arms by your sides. From here, simply straighten one leg, and push through the ground using the foot closest to your glutes till your hips lift as high as possible from the earth. Hold this top position for one second, return to within one inch above the ground and repeat for 11 more repetitions/lifts. Once finished with all the repetitions on one side switch legs. This exercise will build up your hamstrings and glutes protecting you from ACL injuries and giving your unilateral movements stability and your sprint power. Repeat this farmer’s walk/hip lift for 3 total sets.

The next superset is going to be a basic push-up combined with jump squats. First perform your push-ups, pushing until failure. Then stand up and perform ten deep high jumping squats all in succession. Try to land and jump from the same place each time. You may drift forward or backward an inch or two between landings but do your best to maintain positioning. Repeat this for three sets and you’re done.

This is a simple and effective two-week warm-up to get you ready for the onslaught of games to come. Also, this program can be maintained throughout the season. Lessen the sessions from five to six days to two to three. And don’t forget to stay hydrated, stay limber and focus on the
tasks at hand. Good luck scholastic-athletes. We’ll be rooting for ya.

Overweight Beaches

Today was a scorcher in my tiny south shore town of Massachusetts. So I decided to hit the beach and weigh my odds against the cooler waters of our north Atlantic bays. To my surprise, the beach was packed...at 2 in the afternoon even!

I'm really not the surprised I guess-we do have the fair in town, and it is the last weekend before the kids head back to school! What did surprise me is this, the number of overweight people engulfing this space.

Let me be serious for a minute here. People have one of two options 1) be fat 2) be lean. Sure there's grey area but either you're a fatty or a skinny. Now this is what really bothers me.

With all of the available options for weight loss at a beach-like swimming, jogging, volleyball, toss, Frisbee-why are people flooding here just to sit on their asses? They sit upright in their chairs, snacking on potato chips, book in hand -- oblivious to the beautifully rolling and crashing waves -- just getting fatter by the moment.

They wonder why they hyper-ventilate carrying their arm chair and food tote to their neat little sandy spot. I know I'm the converted, and surely enough I'm preaching to the converted, but what'll it take to get these people to show a little self-interest in their health? A heart attack? Clogged arteries? A divorce?

I witnessed one woman grief her husband because his eyes fancied a slimmer woman in her mid-30's. Maybe if the woman worked on her fitness she could develop a body that her husband would stare at rather than having to goggle another.

I can not validate that, but the woman caught my attention too. She was in fantastic shape. She even had two kids and out-of-shape husband hanging by her hips. But I enjoy seeing people who add a little oomph to their being. She's a positive role model in her children's lives.

Surely I'm on a soapbox. And believe me I'm not asking us to cast off the fat people to some deserted island. I was just disturbed today with number of overweight, out-of-shape adults - and kids but that's another blog - that were blanketing the beach.

C'mon. With all of the readily available options to turn a life around staring us right in the face? LITERALLY, staring us right in face. I try not to take anything for granted. Especially the short summer months when there's so much to be had at our beaches and natural splendor.

~ B

Hello Blogger!

Hey everyone,

Rob here with some great news...I'm blogging now!

This is Robert Belley's (my) official blog!!

Each day I'm going to decipher, reiterate, theorize or simply be on this site. It should be a fun endeavor and one I'm very excited about! I have a lot on my mind concerning fitness, health and nutrition. Plus I have some things I just want to get off my chest.

For all of my supportive clients and avid followers....Thank you for everything.

~ B

p.s. - don't forget to check out my official company sites http://www.rbfit.com/ and http://www.rockstarphysique.com/

p.p.s. - plus my official myspace sites www.Myspace.com/PurelyPhysique.com and www.Myspace.com/RockStarPhysique