by Redefining Strength | FHP 020: Melody Schoenfeld of Flawless Fitness and Evil Monkey Enterprises
FLAWLESS FITNESS
Melody Schoenfeld
flawlessfitness.com
ABOUT:
Melody Schoenfeld, is a Renaissance Fitness Woman! She is CSCS, CMT, RKC2, and SFG2 certified with over 20 years of training experience in many different disciplines. In addition to an excellent success record in creating fun, individualized training programs that help people to reach their weight loss, athletic performance, and muscle gain needs, Melody also is a CAMTC Certified Massage Therapist with significant training in various modalities, including Thai, Myofascial Release, Trigger Point Therapy, Swedish, Chair, and Deep Tissue massage. Melody has four years of education in Chinese medicine and acupuncture.
She is an ex-amateur boxer, and has played on soccer and floor hockey teams. She has been dancing since the age of 3 (ballet, modern, jazz, ballroom, swing, Latin, and even a little Korean) and rollerblades. Melody is a competitive powerlifter and even dabbled in Strongman competitions!
3 KEY POINTS:
1. Remember part of your job as a trainer is to be your client’s support system!
2. Make sure to test out your methods on yourself too!
3. Have fun playing around with new tools to learn new things and be innovative!
MORE ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In this episode we talk with Melody Schoenfeld, owner of Flawless Fitness and Evil Munkey Enterprises. Melody is a true renaissance woman who tried numerous different jobs before sort of “stumbling” into fitness. On her way to owning her own studio, Melody worked at a big box gym and learned how to use a variety of tools, constantly seeking out more knowledge and certifications.
Melody’s story of trying to find her calling, building her strength and experimenting with competing in different sports and then working to build her clientele is one that most of us trainers can relate too! Melody reminds us that we got started in this industry because of our personal passion for fitness and that part of our job is to be that support for our own clients as well!
MELODY’S FAST FIVE FITNESS FACTS
Q: What’s your favorite exercise?
Weighted Pull Ups OR Bending and Tearing Things
Q: What exercise do you hate…but love at the same time?
I’ve done a ton of different diets in my life…And there are three things I feel are most important…
It’s got to get results.
It can’t make me feel deprived.
It has got to be SIMPLE.
And of course, I want it to focus on whole, natural foods.
But those 3 things are key and actually WAY harder to find in a diet than you think.
So many diet want to overcomplicate things…It’s like the people creating them think the more complicated they make dieting seem the more you’ll want to “buy” their answer.
And so many diets cut out all enjoyment from life…Aka…all of the foods you love, which not only makes you feel miserable, but also makes you feel like a hermit that can never go out with friends.
(Can I just ask why she looks freaking happy!?! NO ONE is happy about cutting out foods they love and honestly…YOU DON’T HAVE TO! It isn’t a this or that situation people! You can have both!!!)
Overcomplicated while making you miserable…That sounds about right for most diets…And worst of all…You don’t end up getting results.
OR if you do get results, you quickly lose them because you can’t maintain the unrealistic standards set by the diet for long!
And potentially you end up even worse off than where you started.
This cycle has to end. I know I was sick of personally yo-yoing and seeing my clients struggle as well.
Which led me to first find Carb Cycling and finally develop my own Macro Cycling Plan, which not only helped me reveal my abs but helped my clients lose inches and tons of weight!
First let’s take a look at Carb Cycling vs. Macro Cycling.
Many of you may know Carb Cycling or the general gist of it. You cycle your carbs and have high-carb days and low-carb days during the week. There are many ways to do this, but you often also have to time your workouts with the different days so that you have certain workouts on certain high-carb days and others on low-carb days.
While Carb Cycling can be great, it does require you to plan a bit more so you can make different meals during the week and cycle between days. I found this to be too complicated for my personal meal prep as I couldn’t prep big dishes for the week and had to make sure to buy for both types of days.
I also found that it always happened on high carb days I wanted foods with more fat, which I couldn’t have and on low-carb days, I always wanted carbs…
Always seems you want what you can’t have!
Literally the second you say, “I can’t have a cookie.” That is instantly what you want and become obsessed with EVEN if you hadn’t wanted a cookie before you told yourself that!
So for me while I think the idea of basic Carb Cycling is great, the way you usually have to implement it with programs just didn’t really fit with two of my three most important dieting beliefs…
While it gets results, it wasn’t as simple as I would have liked to be able to stick to long term and it also left me feeling deprived too often.
Don’t get me wrong…I realize it isn’t possible to get ideal results and just binge eat all of the time..BUT that doesn’t mean I always have to feel like I’m missing out.
That is why I came up with Macro Cycling.
So what is Macro Cycling?
Macro Cycling is my way of SIMPLIFYING Carb Cycling. Of making sure I’m not deprived and that I’m still getting results!
Basically it was my way of getting myself, and my clients, KILLER results while creating a LONG-TERM LIFESTYLE!
So Macro Cycling…Basically you dial in your Macros and use those Macros and calories all week. No cycling. No making different meals day to day and matching your workouts or cycling your calories up and down whether or not you worked out…
You stick with 1 Macro Breakdown for 2 weeks and then switch every 2 weeks between 3 ratio breakdowns. That means right when you start to get “bored” or even “plateau,” I switch things up so you can start eating new things.
However, on all three ratios, NOTHING IS OFF LIMITS!
You can use meals you currently love making. You can indulge in that sweet treat or crunchy, salty snack.
The point is you just dial in the ratio of each macronutrient you consume. Which means making LITTLE tweaks to what you’re currently doing.
And most importantly, it means FOCUSING ON PROTEIN!
The first Macro Breakdown I use for my Macro Cycling Plan is 40% Protein, 30% Carbs, 30% Fat. (Just to give you a reference point for how different this is from what the average American eats and mainstream thought tells them to eat, the “default” ratio in most fitness trackers is 20% Protein, 50% Carbs and 30% Fat.)
My Macro Cycling Plan is focused on the Macronutrients or the food that your body requires you to get in large amounts from your diet (Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat).
This means you can eat carbs. You can eat fat. You just need to focus on protein!
And we focus on PROTEIN because protein is made up of amino acids which are the building blocks of muscle tissue. If you want to grow stronger and look leaner, you need to get enough protein to build, repair and even MAINTAIN your muscle tissue!
Plus, protein has a higher thermogenic effect than the other Macros, meaning you actually burn more calories to process protein, making it harder to gain fat when your diet is high in protein (studies have even shown it to have a thermogenic effect 5 times greater than carbs or fat!).
Studies of thermogenesis have also shown that one of the most important roles protein plays in body weight regulation is due to the fact that it increases feelings of satiety or feeling full!
So protein is not only key to us getting results from our workouts, but also feeling fuller and having an easier time losing body fat!
That is why I like Macro Cycling. It puts the focus on PROTEIN…not on carbs. And it allows you to still eat the fats and carbs and foods you love!
(Below is the Chipotle Chicken Loaded Sweet Potato I use in my Macro Cycling Shred as one of the recipes…It usually is a favorite!)
If you love chocolate…YOU DON’T HAVE TO GIVE IT UP!
If you love bread or pasta or WHATEVER, you don’t have to give it up!
If you’re gluten-free or paleo or WHATEVER, you can still dial in your Macros using my plan and improve your results!
The point is you aren’t depriving yourself of anything you love.
And you’re making things simple by being able to prep things you already love or by being able to prep meals for the week without worrying about cooking different meals for different days!
PLUS, if you want to go out, you can easily! It is easy to find meals focused on protein. You don’t have to skip carbs. You don’t have to skip fats! Heck, you can even get some extra protein AROUND the party or meal you go out to and save your carbs and fat to really use then!
I have lots of clients that have to eat out for work or travel and they’ve gotten great results using Macro Cycling!
Heck, I’ve even done cycling with lower-carb or higher-carb if you really have a preference.
The point with Macro Cycling is it focuses on PROTEIN and helps you dial in your ratios to get faster results without deprivation!
By making little tweaks or changing up little things, you can hit your ratios and get results! And as I mentioned, with my plan, you’ll cycle through 3 different ratios, switching up every two weeks!
So you can get dialed in and make meals you love, but still get to change things up so you don’t get bored!
Don’t waste time trying to deprive yourself and make things overly complicated.
Remember, the key is getting results. And CONSISTENCY is key to getting results. So a program, like Macro Cycling, which will allow you to BE CONSISTENT because you aren’t being deprived or having to do anything crazy complicated, is key to getting results!
***ONE-TIME OFFER – Macro Hacks!***
If you want to set yourself up for success and get the lean, strong body you want, the Macro Cycling I discuss in this post will get you there! Check out this special deal on my Macro Hacks program!
Get $23 off the program when you join with this deal and get access instant access!
by Redefining Strength | FHP 019: Ian Weinberg Owner of Ian Fitness in Seattle
IAN FITNESS
Ian Weinberg
ianfitness.com
ABOUT:
Ian Weinberg is the owner of Ian Fitness, which has seven Personal Training and Boot Camp Studios in Seattle and a team of over 30 employees. He is a former professional soccer player and emerging competitor in the world of obstacle racing. Ian went from living on his parents’ couch to running a 7 figure business in 6 years. For the last 10 years he’s made it his personal mission to help people get the results they’re looking for!
3 KEY POINTS:
1. Put in the 10,000 hours to become an expert.
2. Let your avatar drive EVERYTHING, including the processes you create.
3. You can’t do everything. Pick one thing to do and do it well! Fitness is constantly evolving and it is great to learn, but remember your end goal!
MORE ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
In this episode we talk with Ian Weinberg the owner of Ian Fitness. Ian talks about taking his passion for fitness and turning it into a 7-figure business by opening 7 Bootcamp and Personal Training Studios across Seattle. Ian reminds us of the importance of identifying your ideal client and then focusing your business on that person. When he opened Ian Fitness, he wanted to be known for one thing – results – and he focused solely on that purpose with everything he did.
Ian also reminds us that we need to lead with value and put processes in place to help us succeed. While it is good to start out learning to do everything yourself, you also need to trust others and hire the right people to continue to grow. Ian talks about how he took his time to build and let the market direct his expansion instead of trying to grow too fast.
IAN’S FAST FIVE FITNESS FACTS
Q: What’s your favorite exercise?
Burpees (for himself)
Battle Ropes (for clients)
Q: What exercise do you hate…but love at the same time?
by Redefining Strength | FHP 018: 10 Online Resources To Build Your Fitness Business
REDEFINING STRENGTH
Cori and Ryan
redefiningstrength.com
THE 10 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
1. CLICK FUNNELS – Whether you want to get contact information for leads and potential clients, build an in-person clientele, sell online products, courses, e-books or even a membership, you can do it all with Click Funnels. And the best part is, they provide you with done-for-you-funnels so you have tried and tested systems to use!
No more guessing what works. No more hoping you’ll get leads. Here is everything you need.
And if you want to, you can take what’s already there and even create your own!
Click Funnels offers a 2-week free trial so click HERE to try it out completely free!
And to learn more about marketing funnels from the master himself, Russell Brunson, get his book DotComSecrets here for FREE. Both Ryan and I felt this was one of the BEST things we ever did!
2. BLUEHOST – If you want to set up your own site and plan on using WordPress, Bluehost makes it easy. From buying your domain to setting up your site, you can do everything with Bluehost. And if you want to have multiple sites with different URLs, you can do this easily under your account in Bluehost.
Plus, if you need any help getting started with this, just reach out to me at [email protected] and I’ll talk you through it!
3. DIVI – This is the theme we built RedefiningStrength.com after lots of research and a huge website crash because of too much traffic. Hoping to prevent that from ever happening again, we went in search of a new theme and found Divi. This easy drag and drop builder allows all of us who have no programming knowledge or experience build beautiful sites and pages EASILY!
Whether you want to do basic blog posts or build portfolios filled with workouts, you can do it all on Divi. And the best part is, they even provide you with pre-done template layouts and have a great private group where you can get help!
4. YOUZIGN – My new FAVORITE program as it allows me to design amazing looking Facebook images, Instagram quotes, e-book covers, Facebook Headers, YouTube Headers, website images…EVERYTHING! And it is way cheaper, and even faster, than hiring a designer. Plus, honestly I think it looks just as pro!
Plus they have tons of templates to guide you and you can easily access new ones other people are creating! I can even share MY TEMPLATES with you 🙂
5. CANON G7X CAMERA – This camera helped us produce higher quality video more easily than the “nice” camera we spent double on. It’s lightweight with a flip screen so you can easily film yourself.
Plus it does great filming in even low-light places and stabilizes even as you carry it around and film!
To get the Canon G7X and have your videos look more “pro,” click HERE.
6. OPTINMONSTER – These resources are meant to SIMPLIFY your life. And that is EXACTLY what OptinMonster does. It integrates seemlessly with both Divi and Mailchimp or Aweber. It allows you to do pop up optins, in-line optins, optins to block content so someone has to register to view…And it has templates to help you make each of them look professional.
Plus, with each optin there is a great dashboard where you can see clicks and optins to help you get better results and get more leads and clients!
Get professional looking optins that have been tested and proven to convert HERE.
7. AWEBER OR MAILCHIMP – Whether you’re looking to build a relationship with prospective clients and leads, sell a product or just stay in touch with current clients, having an email provider is key. If you have a very small list and email marketing won’t be a main point of your business, you may want to start with MailChimp because it is FREE to start.
BUT if you want to build out automated email series or plan to really grow your list, you’ll want to choose the provider with the best open rates…which currently is Aweber.
You can’t go wrong with either though and both are my top picks as they are easy to use AND they integrate well with all of the resources on this list!
8. SHOPIFY – If you want an easy to set up shop, Shopify is what you’re looking for. With pre-done themes and clean looking shop layouts, Shopify will make your site look professional so you can get started selling! Shopify is easy to integrate as well and allows you to customize the look and feel of your site.
Plus, if you aren’t a numbers person, Shopify allows you to easily track sales and growth.
9. CONTEST DOMINATION – Want to launch a SUCCESSFUL contest and get people sharing it on social media? Then Contest Domination is what you want to use! You can easily create a contest and, because of Contest Domination’s share feature, anyone who enters can easily share the contest with their friends. It will allow you to easily track who enters and even randomly picks the winner.
Whether you use it to sell a product or get an in-person client or even give away a piece of equpiment, Contest Domination makes it easy to run a successful contest and get new leads!
Run a contest with Contest Domination – Check it out HERE.
10. MINDBODY – Organization is key if you want to grow. Trying to hunt down clients to collect money for training and keep track of when it is due simply isn’t fun. And as you get more clients having the ability to automatically rebill and have a system contact clients when they need to update payment information is AMAZING!
Plus you can keep track of your schedule online and even have clients register themselves for classes using the app! You can stay in touch with clients easily and track EVERYTHING using MindBody.
And if you start a gym and have other trainers working for you, you can easily track their pay and their classes through the system too!
Everything is in one place to help you stay organized and on top of everything!
Often we feel limited when we workout at home, especially if we don’t have any exercise equipment.
We think we can’t really challenge ourselves at home.
But not only are there TONS of challenging bodyweight exercises you can do, BUT there are even some great household items you can use to add variety and extra challenge to your home workouts.
And one of those household items is a TOWEL!
Using a towel you can reduce traction and make some basic bodyweight moves even more challenging. Below are 5 of my favorites to combine into a full-body workout. (And if you don’t have hardwood or tile floors, you can even do these on carpet with paper plates or furniture movers!)
5 Towel Exercises For A Full-Body Workout
Towel Burpees – Get your blood pumping and whole body working with this core-intensive Burpee variation!
To do Towel Burpee, start standing tall with your feet close together and the towel/towels under your feet. Then squat down and bend over to place your hands on the ground. As you place your hands down on the ground, slide your feet back on the towels until you are in a plank position with your hands under your shoulders.
Then quickly slide your feet back in toward your hands and stand back up, squeezing your glutes at the top. You can reach your hands up overhead as you stand up. Quickly repeat the move, placing your hands back down on the ground as you slide back into a plank position before sliding back in and coming back up to standing.
This is a great core-intensive burpee variation that is super challenging, but also low-impact.
To make the move harder, perform a push up after you slide back and before you slide back in to stand up!
Fly Push Ups – If you want to smoke your chest, shoulders, tricep and core, you need to try the Fly Push Ups! Beginners will want to start by sliding only one hand out to the side before performing the push up OR they may want to do the variation below from their knees instead of toes.
To do the full Fly Push Up, place a towel under each hand with your hands close together under your chest and your body in a nice straight line from your head to your heels.
Keeping your body in a nice straight line, slide both hands out wide to perform a fly and lower down to the bottom of a push up. Do not shrug your shoulders as you slide your hands out. While you want to slide out wide, do not go so wide that you really shrug or tuck your chin.
Then slide your hands back together, pulling your hands back in using your chest as you come back up to the top of the push up. Feel your chest and shoulders working to pull your hands back in and together as you come to the top of the push up. Make sure your body moves as one unit and your core is braced. Do not tuck your chin or let your butt go up in the air or your hips sag.
Repeat the move, sliding both hands out as you lower back down.
Alternating Side Lunges – This is a great move to not only get your blood pumping but also really target your glutes AND your inner thighs.
To do Alternating Side Lunges, place a small towel under each foot. Start standing tall with your feet together.
Then slide one foot out to the side, bending your standing leg as you sit your butt back. You can lean forward slightly to hinge at the hips and sit your butt back, but don’t round over. Slide out as far as you can. You can also reach your opposite hand down toward the foot of your standing leg to help yourself load your glute.
Drive back up to standing and slide your leg back in. Feel the glute of the standing leg work to drive up as you pull your foot in with the inner thigh.
If this is your first time, just make sure you don’t slide out too far or you may end up in the splits!
2-Way Plank Wipers – I love both Towel Plank Jacks AND Towel Plank Wipers so I figured…Why not combine them into one movement. Therefore we now have the 2-Way Plank Wipers! Beginners can break down the move and just do one or the other or even do this move without the towels.
To do the 2-Way Plank Wipers, set up in a plank from your forearms with a towel under each foot. Keeping your core braced, slide one leg up and out to the side. While your hips may rotate a bit, you don’t want them to sag or let your butt go way up in the air.
Slide the foot out and up then slide it back into the plank position. Then slide your other foot up and out to the side. Bring that foot back in.
Then after performing a wiper to each side, perform a plank jack sliding both feet out at the same time. Once you slide both feet back together, repeat the movement, first sliding out to one side then the other!
Glute Bridge and Curl – Whether you sit all day, want to lift more, run faster or simply want a nice, strong and sexy backside, the Glute Bridge and Curl is a must-do move!
To do the Glute Bridge and Curl, you can use one larger towel or two small towels. Beginners will need two small towels so they can do a single leg variation, sliding one foot out at a time.
To do the Two-Leg Advanced variation, place a towel under each foot and start in the glute bridge position with your knees bent and upper back and arms driving down into the ground. Make sure to engage your glutes and your abs to protect your low back as you do this move.
Keeping your glutes engaged, slide your feet out away from your butt. Straighten your legs out in front of you as far as you can, letting your butt lower down toward the ground. Your glutes may touch the ground, but you shouldn’t let your hips sag or release tension. They should lower because your legs are extending.
Once you straighten your legs out fully, curl your heels back in, bringing your hips back up again into a glute bridge. Really pull your heels back in with your hamstrings by driving your heels into the towels and dragging them back in.
When you pull your heels back in, make sure you bridge up. You should perform the curl and bridge back up as one movement. It should’t be curl in then bridge up, but actually bridge up as you curl back in. Then repeat the movement. Make sure your abs are engaged. You do not want to feel your low back taking over. In the bridge, make sure you don’t arch your low back as well.
Using these 5 Towel Exercises, you can get in a great full body workout!
