Ultimate Home Gym for 2010

It’s been 4 years now since cancelling my gym membership at Gold’s Gym in Redondo Beach…and I’ve never been in better shape!

I went to the gym year after year to keep fit and get stronger for playing beach volleyball competitively…I was even a sponsored athlete with Gold’s Gym for 8 years (Santa Barbara and Venice locations). I actually have no beef with gym’s or gym-goers but I found that hitting the gym 3-5 times per week was too disruptive to my life and therefore decided to make a change and get in my workouts at home.

The departure from working out at the gym had the following up sides:

• saved money on membership fees
• saved money on parking fees (yes, parking costs money in California!)
• saved money on gas to and from the gym
• saved time spent getting to and from the gym
• less exposure to sweat and germs left on equipment
• no more frustration that the equipment I want to use is taken
• no “prime time” hours and high-traffic hours to contend with
• no more seasonal surges in membership to clog the facility with newbies and short-timers
• no more annoying cell phone talkers yappin away while doing cardio simultaneously

Now that life’s distractions have been trimmed down by letting my membership expire it was time to find a worthy replacement for the thousands of pounds or training equipment I was accustomed to having access to (when not in use or out of order). Ironically enough, the solution for me was a piece of equipment that weighed less than two pounds and looked like a three-legged seatbelt – the TRX Suspension Trainer, a bodyweight-based fitness tool that uses your bodyweight and gravity as resistance to provide whole-body workout capability that’s functional in nature, core-intensive and made easy or extremely difficult depending on the user’s ability, desire and fitness goals.

Granted, Suspension Training took me 2-3 workouts in order to really get the hang of it but now that I’m a proficient TRX user, my workout options are endless…and I have no reason to ever spend money and join a gym again!

My investment in TRX cost $150 and the product has held up for over three years, even with regular use (3-5 times per week…and my wife uses it too). That’s a great return on investment when compared to 3-years worth of gym membership fees!

Check out my website, www.VirtualWorkoutPartner.com which is dedicated to helping people stay fit despite living a busy lifestyle. I hope TRX becomes your fitness solution and saviour from undesirable costs, hassel and lost time as well. Please comment and let me know how your life has improved with TRX added to your arsenal of fitness tools.

Here is a great 10-exercise workout routine I do all the time, usually with my wife…we just alternate and there are no plates to replace or re-rack, no pins or seats to adjust either. Enjoy!

Home-Based Fitness for the Busy Person

It’s been 6 years since I cancelled my gym membership…and I’ve never been in better shape!

I went to the gym year after year to keep fit and do workouts that improved my ability to play beach volleyball and other sports I enjoy…I was even a sponsored athlete with Gold’s Gym for 8 years (Santa Barbara and Venice locations). While I have no beef with gym’s or gym-goers, I found that hitting the gym 3-5 times per week was incredibly disruptive to my life and therefore decided to make a change.

The departure from working out at the gym had the following up sides:

• saved money on membership fees
• saved money on parking fees (yes, parking costs money in California!)
• saved money on gas to and from the gym
• saved time spent getting to and from the gym
• less exposure to sweat and germs left on equipment
• no more frustration that the equipment I want to use is taken
• no “prime time” hours and high-traffic hours to contend with
• no more seasonal surges in membership to clog the facility with newbies and short-timers
• no more annoying cell phone talkers yapping away while doing cardio simultaneously

Now that life’s distractions have been trimmed down by letting my membership expire it was time to find a worthy replacement for the thousands of pounds or training equipment I was accustomed to having access to (when not in use or out of order). Ironically enough, the solution for me was a piece of equipment that weighed less than two pounds and looked like a three-legged seat belt – the TRX Suspension Trainer, a bodyweight-based fitness tool that uses your bodyweight and gravity as resistance to provide whole-body workout capability that’s functional in nature, core-intensive and made easy or extremely difficult depending on the user’s ability, desire and fitness goals.

Granted, Suspension Training took me 2-3 workouts in order to really get the hang of it but now that I’m a proficient TRX user, my workout options are endless…and I have no reason to ever spend money and join a gym again!

My investment in TRX cost $150 and the product has held up for over three years, even with regular use (3-5 times per week…and my wife uses it too). That’s a great return on investment when compared to 3-years worth of gym membership fees!

Check out my website, www.VirtualWorkoutPartner.com which is dedicated to helping people stay fit despite living a busy lifestyle. I hope TRX becomes your fitness solution and savior from undesirable costs, hassle and lost time as well. Please comment and let me know how your life has improved with TRX added to your arsenal of fitness tools.

Beach Volleyball, a Sport of Sacrifice and Success

A couple of years ago I was given the opportunity to write a feature article for Max Sports & Fitness Magazine. The topic was beach volleyball and the subjects were Sean Scott and Rachel Wacholder, two top AVP pros who were training hard in hopes to represent the USA in the Olympics. They didn’t reach their goal unfortunately but if you read this article, titled “Success and Sacrifice,” it will give you a sense of what it takes to play on the AVP Tour. Just click on the “Max Sports & Fitness” link on the resources page of my website – VirtualWorkoutPartner.com. Writing this article was a great opportunity to highlight two amazing beach volleyball athletes and express just how intense it is out there on the beach. I hope you enjoy it…let me know what you think!

I enjoyed the writing process so much that I wanted to write this “comeback” Blog to chronicle my efforts towards earning a main draw berth in an AVP tournament this summer – at age 38. Playing in the main draw is something I’ve done 14 times before and my best finish was 17th place, which I did 5 times with 3 different partners. All of those main draw appearances were when the court size was 30′ x 60’…quite a bit larger than today’s court (since 2002) which is 26′ 3″ x 52′ 6″. So, to achieve my goal would be a nice personal victory as I’d be able to say that I played in an AVP tournament as a professional on both the big court and the short court – pretty cool stuff!

I’ve always loved living the beach volleyball lifestyle – it’s casual, fun loving (yet fierce) and energized with colorful personalities worth watching on and off the court. This gig ain’t easy though! Training alone can be exhausting, rigorous and downright painful at times…but stepping on the sand and competing as a professional in front of hundreds or even thousands of spectators in a high-touch environment is exhilarating enough to make it all worth while…and it’s that feeling that I’m after again!

I admire how tenacious beach volleyball players are because often times their investment in the sport doesn’t come with an eye-popping ROI to show for it. For example – players have no guaranteed income, pay for all their expenses (insurance, flights, hotel, training, etc.) and only earn money based on how they place in the tournament, which isn’t much especially when compared to other professional sports.  Sure the top players fare pretty well on the pay scale but if you’re not one of the usual suspects playing on Sunday chances are you’ve got at least one or two side jobs to make ends meet. As for myself, I used to work as a night auditor at a hotel, sold Cutco Cutlery, worked as a bar back and did odd jobs to earn enough money to cover rent, stay afloat and support my addiction to beach volleyball – and it was all worth it!

In addition to earning money on the side, I worked hard to secure various sponsors by developing win-win relationships with companies to promote their products, services or brand. For example Gold’s Gym sponsored me with free membership, personal training, gear/apparel and nutritional supplements in exchange for promoting their club at every opportunity (i.e. mentions in news articles), bringing in/recruiting new members and of course acting as a live-action personal billboard for their brand. I had similar arrangements with companies like Big Dog Sportswear, Blender’s in the Grass (like Jamba Juice) and Chuck’s Steakhouse to name a handful. Having all of this support greatly helped me to continue competing on the AVP for several years and I’m very grateful and appreciative of those relationships that were formed.

This year, I’m being supported by Fitness Anywhere. Please support my supporters…and do yourself a favor by getting a TRX from Fitness Anywhere – it’s truly the best fitness product I’ve ever used!