Goals

Goals

Having been a competitive athlete and successful professional for a number of years, goal setting and goal achievement is nothing new to me. However, this year I had found myself somewhat wandering in my goals and accomplishments.
Why did this happen? Could it happen to you? How can it be prevented?

I’ll try to keep this topic on the focus of health, fitness, and athletics since that’s what K2 Fitness Solutions Inc is about.

I think we all reach a “comfort level.” A level of performance where we are very good at something but, know in the back of our mind we could be better. What’s stopping us? Perhaps it’s the lack of drive, or maybe the dread we picture knowing that as we continue to reach higher levels, each level beyond that will require MUCH more work with smaller and smaller gains; the law of diminishing return. Yet as we reach closer and closer to that level, we can have comfort in the fact that we are approaching the very best level of performance we can possibly reach.

Each year I ALWAYS have some general goals; such as “I want to be even stronger and faster this year,” or “I want to throw farther.” These are not really goals but, desires. Now laying out goals of; “I will have a Power Clean of 385 by X date,” or “my max raw squat this year will be 710,” or I will throw the 56# 40 feet by Oct.” Those are all examples of specific goals,

What makes the difference? A goal involves establishing specific, measurable and time targeted objectives. In fact there are 6 areas that must be addressed to have an effective goal.
1) It must be written.
2) It must be challenging.
3) It must be believable
4) It must be specific
5) It must be measurable
6) It must have a specific deadline.

It is also worth mentioning that, especially in the filed of athletics or strength & conditioning, we need to have focus in our goals. By this I mean that it isn’t practical to set a goal of say gaining 15 pounds of muscle in one year, while simultaneously losing 35 pounds of fat, particularly in an already well-trained individual. Or to “take my max squat from 530 to 680 in 8 months AND lower my 40 time from a 4.9 to a 4.5.
If we are setting multiple goals those goals need to be complimentary, or make one a short-term goal (6 months to 1 year) while the other is a long-term goal (2 years or more)

When we are establishing goals, make sure that the goal(s) are something important to you and your endeavourers. A goal HAS to be something meaningful to you, done for you. If not, you will not be able to maintain the required focus and your goal will fail.

Don’t allow yourself to become discouraged if your progress isn’t where you’d like it to be. Be sure to break down your goals into smaller pieces, evaluate on a regular basis and make adjustments as necessary.

K2 and MMA

Although K2 Fitness kettlebells have already been an integral part of many MMA fighters' regime, we are now entering into direct sponsership with some.

We are sponsering Lyle Sansoucie of Team DNA. He will be fighting in the NAAFS in his upcoming bout Aug 23 at The 2nd Annual Dan Bobish Classic in Cleveland, OH. Lyle is an awesome up and coming 145 lb' er, his record is 3-0 and he won his last two fight by TKO in less than 30 seconds each! Look for Lyle to be a top Pro very soon.

We are very pleased to be assisting Lyle in his pursuit of MMA glory and look forward to a long relationship with Lyle and Team DNA

Social Networking

Social networking has long been an important aspect of life, healthy relationships and business.
Recent advents in technology has brought social networking to a point where we don't even have to get out of the house nor actually "meet" anyone to "social network." Through sites like MySpace, Facebook, etc., we can "network" with people all over the world and never actually meet them.

Is this a good thing or bad thing? I think the answer to that question depends upon who we are individually and who are we trying to "social network" with and why.
If a person is too lazy or introverted to get out and actually meet people, then the "online social networking"is a bad thing. On the other hand, if someone is very outgoing and simply wants to multiply their efforts in getting to know people and business contacts, then it seems that online networking is good.

That brings me to the main point of this post. A friend of mine has created a specialized "social networking" site called: GymClik
As the name implies, it's a site for folks with a penchant for health, exercise, atheltics, nutrition, etc. It's in the early stages at the moment, Beta test to be exact. But go ahead and visit and sign up. I'm sure it will become very popular in the next few months.

http://www.gymclik.com/

Be sure to check out my profile while there, just look for user k2fitness

Greg

Workout Music

OK, so I'm behind the times a bit when it comes to workout music. I've had an MP3 player for years but, never used it when working out. It was too bulky, no good way to attatch it to my belt or arm, etc., etc. I work out in my garage gym when I'm home and have a radio there but, am forced to use commercial gyms AND their stupid music when I'm on the road.

NO MORE !!!!!

I received an IPod for Fathers' Day and man, do I LOVE IT ! About half the size of my ancient MP3 player and holds 8 gig of music. (I had to swap memory cards in my old one.)

One problem though that hasn't changed from the old player;
Do I just have REALLY big ear holes, or are almost all the earbuds crap? I had never been able to find any that would stay put.
UNTIL...... One day on a "mission" to find some decent earbuds, a gal at BestBuy recommended either the "Skull Candy - Smokin' Bud Ear Bud Headphones" or the "JVC - Marshmellow Stereo Ear Bud Headphones."
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8720057&type=product&id=1200702768236
I looked both of them over very closely. The Skull Candy ones were almost ten bucks more and had a narrower frequency response range. The JVC Marshmellow; well, great price, great frequency response range, but "just look at those fruity-tooty pastel colors.!"
Well, I am a man of functionality and since I really didn't expect them to meet my needs anyway (staying in my ears) I bought the JVCs.

I'll have to say I have been very surprised! They stay in great, they sound terrific, and no one (yet) has given me any crap about the fruity color (I got the blue ones).
And having one's own music really does make a difference in the quality of a workout.

I'd highly recommend these ear buds to anyone, and recommend to JVC.......make some in some NORMAL colors please, like black and white.

Greg

Gym Rant

Gym rant, not to be confused with gym rat.

We all have our own reasons for working out/lifting weights. And all of us have different needs.
That being said, I realize that when I'm traveling and have to go to a commercial gym, I am the odd-man-out in that I NEVER see anyone else doing Olympic lifts or modified Oly lifts.
However, being a Highland Games Athlete (thrower), Oly or modified Oly lifts are
I N D I S P E N S A B L E !

I was in a gym last week called Well-Worx in Memphis. In there they had only "IRON-GRIP" rubber coated, 12 sided Olympic weights. Now 12 sides to prevent rolling.....not a bad thing. UNLESS one is doing floor based multi rep exercises like Olympic lifts or dead-lifts.
Those stupid 12 sided plates will NEVER set down evenly. Making the bar at some goofy angle after every rep requiring a reset of the lifter's body, or the weight.

Gym owners, please take note. If you're going to buy these pieces of crap, at least have a good number of normal ROUND weights in house too!

Greg

Welcome

Hi and welome to K2 Fitness Solutions Inc blog site!

We have added this blog as part of our update and expansion of our website. We were planning a message board but, those can get unruly and WAY off topic. So instead, we decided to create a blog. We look forward to your participation not only by your reading but, foremost in your active participation through your comments and questions.

On the K2 Fitness Solutions blog you will find:

News and updates about our products and services.
Current happenings with our staff, such as competitions/events,.
Casual observations from our staff ranging from anything to do with health/fitness/sports to off topic political and social rants. (as long as it's entertaining :)
Links to relevant articles which may or may not have been written by one of us.
Last but, not least, posts from you asking us questions about our products and services or your comments. To ask a question or leave a comment simply click on the comment link at the bottom of a post.

Bear with us as we learn the ins and outs of getting this thing up and running and making the functionality suit your and our needs.

Greg