Long Island Personal Trainer joins the Polar Bears on Superbowl Sunday!

What an amazing weekend. I was able to experience 2 great events. The Superbowl and the Long Island Polar Bear plunge at Long Beach to raise funds for Make-A-Wish foundation of Metro New York.

The Superbowl was exciting because both competitors really brought their A game and battled it out. The Saints at the end were able to pull through and become the victor.

However, I want to talk more about the Polar Bear experience and after give some health advice on how temperature can enhance your workouts and results.

My buddy Keith Piro from the Glen Cove Mansion had signed up to do this Polar Bear plunge on Superbowl Sunday to assist raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro New York. I have never heard of this event, so I was intrigued and wanted to support him.

Boy was I in for a surprise. The beach was filled with thousands (I mean at least 15,000) of people all their to support one cause. It gets better. At a certain time about 5,000 people all jump into the ice cold ocean for a nice refreshing plunge.

It was great to see the faces of those who have never done it before because it gave them such a rush of excitement and achievement. I want to congratulate my buddy Keith for accomplishing something great for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro New York.

Now to complement this post, I wanted to talk about the effects warm and cold water (in the shower) have on your body to assist in enhancing your health. Here are a few benefits below. Before trying any temperature changes on your body, I want you to note to take this slowly. If you go all out and change temperatures on your body to the extreme, you will feel tortured, so take it one step at a time.

1. You receive better circulation with the changing of temperatures. When you start off with a warm shower, blood rushes to your skin and muscles. When you switch the shower water over to cold, the blood then rushes to the internal organs. Switching back and forth between these two temperatures will force the body to circulate the blood more efficiently. In the end, a better circulation means faster recovery and improved performance.
2. Healthy skin. When taking a warm shower, your pores open up which is great for cleaning. When you switch it over to cold, the pores close up which can keep out dirt and oil from infecting the skin. This process can also help with reducing swelling on the surface.
3. The mental benefits you receive. Ever wonder why you wake up with a cold shower, but get very relaxed with a warm one? Well it takes us back to the first point where cold showers will rush blood supply to our organs. Your brain will receive alot of that blood rush which will make you up. On another note you have to be mentally strong to complete this process on a daily basis. Over time, it turns into a type of meditation going through the process which will clear your head for the start of the day.

Those are just a few benefits that I felt were important to know. As I mentioned, this is not something you want to just jump into with extremes. Start out very slowly with the temperature changes. This will allow your body and mind to adapt where you can incorporate this into a consistent habit.

Did I mention that this can also assist you with fat loss? I am not talking about the increase in calorie burn in order for your body to adapt to the changes. I am referring to the recovery benefits so that your body can go through more intense workouts over time as it recovers faster from this process.

Go try it out!

Dedicated to your results,

Rahsheen Slaughter

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainer

Make these changes and you can have her results too!

I hope you had a great week so far. We are finishing up with a strong mindset here at Breakthroughs To Fitness with our thoughts already focused on what to come ahead next week.

If you haven’t read the last post (which you can get to by clicking http://breakthroughstofitness.com/blog/state-of-the-union-address-sparks-long-island-personal-trainer-to-reform/) I suggest you do so. You will notice 5 areas where you could reform in order to create the body you deserve. The reason I recommend that is because we have someone we are going to speak about shortly who has reformed in those 5 areas which landed her the client of the month position.

Tatiana has been a part of our family for about 2 years now. First she started out with our bootcamps 2 years ago and then recently came on board as a private coaching client. At the age of 26 Tatiana was committed to our bootcamp program. She was there almost every class. The missing link though was she did not address key areas in order to achieve those amazing results we seek out.

Going through the program she received results but nothing like I am going to share with you shortly. The areas where she had lacked were creating a plan for herself to follow additional cardio routines, finding time to eat more or even better quality foods do to her work schedule, and blaming her work schedule for not being able to follow a proper nutrition plan.

The moment she became a private coaching client is when things turned around. She slowly incorporated additional healthy meals into her lifestyle, followed a personalized fitness program, learned a new survival skill with Coach Frank (see picture below of Tatiana’s powerful kicks), held herself accountable to the B2F team, and followed a stretching routine.

Not that this is surprising to us, but she went from 126 pounds and 28% body fat to 108 pounds and 19.2% body fat in just a little over 12 weeks. That’s a loss of 18 pounds and 8.8% bodyfat. Such an amazing accomplishment and she is still kicking butt because she has a wedding to get ready for in the next 5 months.

She has dedicated time to her health, stayed committed to the program, is working her butt off with Coach Frank, stopped blaming her work schedule and started planning better to intake proper nutrition, and above all believed that she could make this happen.

It is such an honor to display an achievement and success story like this, because you can do it too. We have plenty of other case studies we are going to share over the next coming months so you can see this is all possible for you as well.

So you if haven’t read the last post, be sure to read it now and start making changes in the 5 areas we talk about in your life TODAY!

Dedicated to your results,

Rahsheen Slaughter

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainer

State of the Union Address Sparks Long Island Personal Trainer to Reform

It’s a great Monday morning and I am fired up from this weekend. My goal is to instill some inspiration and energy to you.

If you haven’t watched the Obama’s State of the Union address, I recommend you do so (it’s on Youtube). It doesn’t matter whether or not you like Obama as a president or disagree with some of the things going on. What matters is understanding his message of rebuilding America.

This is not a political message I am going to speak to you about. But there is one important message I took away from his State of The Union address:

“Before reform takes place in America, we need to reform ourselves and start working together again…Don’t walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close”

Here is how we can reform ourselves, not only to become healthier and live better lives, but also assisting our families and friends to become healthier. It is Breakthroughs To Fitness’ mission to educate, equip, and inspire individuals to create breakthroughs in life through fitness.

1. Stop putting blame on everyone or everything else when it comes to your health. I understand that there is so much crap out there that puts us all at a disadvantage for our health. However, we all face that crap on a daily basis and some of us overcome and succeed because they reform their mindset and create a plan to follow consistently. If you do not take/accept the responsibility for where you are today, I can promise you, you will not move forward in recapturing your health.

2. As stated above, “when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” You can’t go through life and expect success by winging it. Yes, some of us get lucky, but we do not get lucky in all areas of our life by winging it. Do you currently have a plan to achieve the goals you set forth in the New Year? If not, then those goals mean absolutely nothing and it was a waste of energy. I am a coach that is going to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

3. To advance step 2 further, if you have a plan have you been following it consistently or getting back on it immediately if you fell off? It’s one thing to tell others your dreams, goals, and desires and not act on them, but it’s far more worse when you tell these things to yourself and do not follow through. You are the most important person to yourself. If you continue to lie to yourself about what you are doing, then that shows a lack of respect for YOU. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail or succeed, what matters is you keep acting on what you said you were going to do. If you struggle to follow that plan, either scale it back (which I do not recommend) or seek guidance from a coach (I highly recommend) to assist you.

4. As Obama had stated, we have to start working together. I believe strongly that the most important thing you can do is take care of your health first. While doing that though, encourage others to join the journey with you. You will know those people around you who are serious and who are full of fluff. Seek out the serious people in your life and invite them to work together a few times a week or even a month. Accountability is the number one factor people require to succeed. Joining the gym is not accountability. Hiring a coach or joining a friend is.

5. Obama had mentioned that American’s are scaling back on spending, so why not the government? He is asking for a 3 year freeze on spending in 2011 and focusing on what they need and getting rid of what’s not working. I propose the same thing to you. Before spending your money on food, supplements, gyms, coaches, etc, examine if you truly need these things and if they will bring you closer to your goals. For example, if going to your favorite deli and buying an 800 calorie sandwich brings you further away from your health goals, get rid of it and put your money toward grocery shopping and making your own meals. We waste so much money on SHIT that destroys our bodies and yet complain that we have no money, we gained weight, or we do not feel well. Take a cooking class and learn how to prepare meals in less time. It’s a great investment.

Like I mentioned I am fired up and have so much more to say, but I will save it for Friday. Absorb what I wrote above and act on 1 step this week. I promise you, over time you will start seeing amazing results when following the advice above and in the future.

I promise to deliver value to you with every post I put up. However, I need to know what you are thinking. I value your feedback and respect every word. Comment below on what you would like to learn more about.

Dedicated to your results,

Rahsheen Slaughter

Breakthroughs To Fitness - Long Island Personal Trainer

P.S. If you are offended in anyway on what I wrote above, I do not apologize because it’s what you need to hear in order to move forward in life and create those breakthroughs with fitness. It’s time to step it up!

Long Island Personal Trainer Battles Excuse Making

Long Island Personal Trainer, Rasheen Slaughter from Breakthroughs To Fitness, states “it’s time to stop blaming everything else but yourself for not reaching your goals whether it be fat loss, strength gain, etc. If you’ve been following the Biggest Loser, you will notice one contestant claimed she was doing everything possible to lose weight, but couldn’t”

“The time when she lost 11 pounds before the next weigh in was because her butt was on the line for future challenges. She was accused of game play to work to her advantage.”

So as you can see most people will use excuses to their advantages like Melissa did in the Biggest Loser. Excuses make us feel good because it takes responsibility away from us and puts it on something else.

Breakthroughs To Fitness has seen and heard every excuse about why people can’t be better then where they are. We understand that sometimes medically there are issues that need to be addressed first. If that’s the case then get them addressed!

It’s human nature to make excuses. We all do. That’s where our coaching comes into play so that our clients and subscribers can start seeing point blank they truly are making excuses.

This is what we call the “breakthrough” moment. The moment our clients realize their excuse making is the moment people start making big changes. Moments like these create results like dropping 19 pounds and 6.3% body fat in 12 weeks, dropping 15 pounds in 12 weeks while going through the challenges of Fibromyalgia, eliminating back pain in less then 10 hours of training and flexibility work, and getting the confidence to get on stage for a female body building competition.

Those are results you can achieve when you start recognizing your excuses and start taking action.

Here’s something you can do to overcome these excuses. Write every excuse down why you can’t reach your fitness goals, why you can’t workout, why you can’t eat well, or simply why you can’t get started. Take 20 minutes of your day today. Then when they are all down, write down solutions to each excuse. Even if they do not seem realistic for you.

For example: I can’t workout because I wake up at 5am, go to work, and do not get home til 6:30pm.

Solution: Pack a healthy snack to eat when I leave work and head right to the gym. This will prevent me from getting comfortable. Also, I will cut out 1 hour of T.V. time at night so I can focus on my health.

That’s how simple it is. You may have several solutions to each excuse and pick the one that works best for you.

Want assistance? Email us an excuse why you can’t do something related to your health and we will come up with solutions for you. Email them to b2f@b2finc.com. We want to hear your challenges so we can assist you more.

As always…

Dedicated to your results,

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainer

Pushups For Charity Estimates To Raise Over $8,400 For Make-A-Wish Foundation Of Metro New York

WOW! What an experience. This weekend on January 23rd, the first (a nationwide movement)  Pushups For Charity occurred at the Glen Cove YMCA.

There were great vendors, amazing presenters, Mayor Ralph Suozzi, the Make A Wish of Metro New York volunteers, and excited pushup participants. Without the assistance of our Pushups For Charity Team (all corporate sponsors), this event would not have occurred, so we want to express a great big thanks to the YMCA, American Community Bank, Stressbusters, Whole Foods Market, Vita Med Spa, Healing Arts Massage, Gold Coast Gazette, Glen Cove Youth Bureau, Glen Cove Chamber of Commerce, North Shore Gymnastics, GolfTec, Glen Cove Mansion, Power Travel, Glen Cove Hospital, East Norwich Rotary Club, and Changing Weighs.

The best part was seeing the energy in the room when the Pushup Challenge was on. The entire crowd cheered on the Pushup Participants which drove them all to achieve higher personal records. Every single person did more pushups then they ever thought they could because of the cause behind it. So after all donations are collected we estimate to have raised over $8,400 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro New York.

The Pushups For Charity Winners (only had 90 seconds to do as many pushups as they could) are:

Little Eva did 75: Most Under 18 Pushups

Alicia Belandi did 65: Most Female Pushups

Brett Kogel did 102: Most Male Pushups

Michele Frankel did 77: Most Modified Pushups

Tony Capobianco had over 55 sponsors: Most Sponsors

Congratulations to all of our winners at the Pushups For Charity Long Island event.

We will post some videos and pictures of the event this week and next to show you the excitement.

Dedicated to your results,

Rahsheen Slaughter

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainer

Is this the reason why you can’t lose weight?

We are 17 days into January of 2010. This is the mark where a good number of people tend to start dropping off from the goals they have set. They tend to make excuses and find convenient scapegoats so they can feel better about themselves when they quit. Instead of me going into this subject, a colleague of ours posted something very similar and I thought it was best to share his story. Read what Mike Roussell had to say below.

Dedicated to your results,

Rahsheen Slaughter

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainer

The REAL Reasons Why You Can’t Lose Weight

Today I wanted to share with you a very insightful story that a friend of mine who runs a gym shared with me.

A woman came into his gym and said that she really wanted to join as she needed to lose weight for health reasons but she could not afford the monthly membership fee. My friend told the woman that he wanted to help her so he’d make her a deal…

He would give her a free 30 day membership. During those first 30 days, if she came in and exercised 15 times then he would give her the next 30 days for free, the same for the next month, and the next month. So in essence this woman could have a lifetime free membership IF she used it. The woman was so happy and very grateful to my friend for making such a generous deal with her. Do you know what happened in the following 30 days?

She showed up 6 times and never came back.

You can probably see what I’m getting at here….money wasn’t the issue. The cost of the gym membership wasn’t the ‘thing’ that was holding this woman back from losing weight. It was a convenient scapegoat.

What are your convenient scape goats?

What are the reasons you give for not losing weight and reaching your goals?

Write them down, crumble up the paper, and throw it in the recycle bin never to mention them again.

Then get down to work and lose the weight.

Pushups For Charity Long Island Advanced Pushups

I got inspired one night to just do 25 different variations of pushups that just came to mind. Boy was it a blast. Fortunately I was able to put the building blocks in place in order for my body to handle the different pushup variations.

As much fun as these pushups are to do, remember to MASTER the basics first. Practice your standard pushup day in and day out and truly master perfect form. From there you can throw some variation in to build off of.

Remember, Pushups For Charity Long Island is happening on January 23rd at the Glen Cove YMCA. We at Breakthroughs To Fitness truly would appreciate your support by coming down to the event and either doing pushups or sponsoring us to do pushups for Make A Wish Foundation Metro New York. It’s going to be an amazing time and we have a surprise presentation that we give you that momentum to kick the New Year off right. I promise I will deliver the goods if you show up to the event.

You can register at www.PushupsForCharityLI.com

Here’s the video below:

Look forward to seeing you at the event and thanks for the support in advance.

Dedicated to your results,
Rahsheen Slaughter

P.S. I forgot to mention there’s a $97 gift you receive just for registering. Believe me, you will love it. Get it by clicking here.

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainer

5 facts about pushups that will transform your body

Pushups are such an amazing tool to transforming our body, yet the most under utilized. As a society we have become so addicted to relying on machines or free weights to build up strength. That’s not to say we do not believe in those tools as part of an effective training program. It’s just that when someone says something is more effective or they make it “prettier” to do in the gym, we tend to swing in extremes and forget about the basics.

Here are 5 facts below about Pushups you may not know (if you do know them, Great! It’s time to get back to doing pushups):

1. Pushups are a full-body compound exercise. They require muscles all over your body to stabilize and muscles to create the actual movement.

2. Pushups are a free tool to invest in. All you require is your body and commitment to do them each week.

3. Anyone at any fitness level can perform them. Whether you are just starting a fitness program or are an advanced fitness enthusiast, you can use them to create amazing body transforming results.

4. Pushups (done correctly) are a great way to strengthen your shoulder joints to prevent injury. With healthy shoulders you can perform more exercises with heavier loads which means more calories burned.

5. There are hundreds of variations of pushups that you haven’t seen that will propel your results in overdrive. Look for future blog posts where we will demonstrate a ton of different pushups.

The facts above may not seem impactful as you read them. Try out pushups and use a variety of different ones in your workout routine and see the results that occur in your strength, body composition, and conditioning.

Please post your questions below on pushups or leave a comment of what you would like to learn more about on the pushup. We will be posting some cool videos in the near future.

Dedicated to your results,

Rahsheen Slaughter

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainer

P.S. Pushups For Charity Long Island is going strong. To learn more about how a pushup can put a smile on a child’s face, visit www.PushupsForCharityLI.com

Forget Resolutions, Take Action!

As many of you prepare to ring in the New Year, undoubtedly thinking, “What am I gonna make my New Year resolution this year?” We here at Breakthroughs To Fitness want to give you some ideas.

For starters, stop making resolutions and start creating results. You see resolutions only require “words” but results, they require ACTION! Don’t just say what you want anymore create a plan on how you are actually going to create the result you desire.

We know that one of the hardest things to do is actually capture the result you are looking for. More than half of you right now probably can’t even remember what your resolution was for last year because it probably only contained a few words of what you wanted without an action plan to back it up. While I hope it lasted more than the average 5 month lifespan of most New Year resolutions, chances are it probably didn’t.

Of course it’s not like we don’t have busy lives that need taking care of, but perhaps for this reason we should make one of two decisions.

We can decide that we are either gonna be more responsible for things we would like to accomplish and see through (like losing that extra 5-10 lbs from holiday gorging) and no longer take the easy road. While we understand for needs to rest, busy lives and obstacles in the way, we must prioritize what’s important in our daily lives and block out time each time to ensure those high level priorities are taken care of.

Or how about holding ourselves accountable of our actions (thats right that means no more excuses other than “I” didn’t do what I said I would do). While I’m sure we all have a list of reasonable excuses of why we can’t do something, it’s nothing but that…an excuse, an out. So like Coach Rahz and Coach Greg empasize to their clients all the time, “If you truly want to accomplish your goal than you need to make sure you have responsibility and accountability.”

You can get that responsibility and accountability by visiting Breakthroughs To Fitness of guaranteed fitness and nutrition coaching results. Forget what you didn’t accomplish in 2009 and start taking action NOW on what you will accomplish in 2k10.

Have a Healthy and Happy New Year

Breakthroughs To Fitness

Long Island Personal Training

P.S. Start the New Year off by putting a smile on a child’s face. Join the Pushups For Charity movement here on Long Island by visiting www.PushupsForCharityLI.com

Hollywood Turmoil Reflective of National Problem

A tragic ending for a star that shone brightly, Brittany Murphy’s career was cut short when news broke that the star had gone into cardiac arrest while at her home in California. While early reports have stated that Murphy’s death came from natural causes, many are looking at the star’s history which depicts her in an unhealthy and overly skinny light.

While Murphy has always been depicted as a slight and thin woman, pictures have chronicled what appears to be the stars battle with numerous weight issues.
Rumors of the star abusing diet pills, like the late Anna Nicole Smith, are reflective of a widespread national problem: movie stars are abusing their bodies and health to get skinny, why not me?

While it may not be in direct correlation to this stars death, the abuse that goes into being a highly envied Hollywood star’s body is very indicative of the lifestyle that many of our nation’s citizens want to live.

Stars are portrayed as having some of the best bodies and lifestyles of our nation, but also are reported as having some of the craziest, unhealthy and dangerous diets of all.

While we can award Hollywood with being the top producer of new diets ever, we cannot ignore the fact that stars are looking increasingly unhealthy and dangerously underweight in recent years.

The recent string of celebrity deaths coming to an all time high raises the question: Could Hollywood’s glamour be negatively affecting stars’ health?

Every time South Beach comes out with a new flavor of weight decreasing, toxin cleansing formula, the masses rush out to be the first on line to purchase the new concoction or when we hear about the latest diet tip from an A-list actress, we storm markets to obtain this new fat burning ingredient.

Recently stars we’ve wanted to look like have ribs protruding from their torso, or we can count the bones from their spine yet they continue to grace various covers of magazines.

These markers indicate an unhealthy and dangerous trend that should not be followed or idolized.
While the Hollywood crowd dives further down into the realm of unhealthy diet secrets and tips, why must we go down with the ship?

Health and fitness coach Rahsheen Slaughter reminds our readers to be wary of any diet plans or exercise regimens that try to appeal to the general public. He says you should always consult with a professional before starting any new diets or fitness regimens.

Remember that not all diets follow a healthy and nutritious plan that would be recommended by a doctor, and many fitness routines can often be too strenuous or not be appropriate for your skill level so consulting a health professional can avoid serious injuries or health risks.

Dedicated to your results,

Breakthroughs to Fitness

Long Island Personal Trainers