Energize your Life! Get motivated to take charge of your energy and your life.

It’s all about energy. The reason we encourage people to improve their fitness and nutritional habits is because we believe doing so provides the foundation needed for Peak Performance.

The more fit and healthy you are the more energy you have available to engage in work and enjoy being active during your off hours. Quite simply, more energy contributes significantly to a better quality of life.

An energetic person has the intensity, the persistence and the prolonged stamina to accomplish long-term goals. This kind of energy involves an observable determination that is always present -- a constant striving to accomplish whatever it is the person is trying to achieve. It stems from a single strong belief in what the person is attempting to accomplish and a passionate commitment to do it.

To get more energy you have to produce it. If you find yourself complaining that you don’t seem to have enough energy to do your job properly, to work-out or to spend quality time having fun with your friends and family then it’s time to do something about it. You’re just putting gas on the fire if you plop yourself on the couch when you get home from work.

Your body loves to do nothing. Then it doesn’t have to work so hard. That means you don’t burn as many calories. That means you have a hard time losing weight. That means you gain body fat. That means loss of lean muscle and that means NO ENERGY.

You need to force your body out of your comfort zone. Yes, if you’re particularly low in energy it is critical for you to get off your duff and get moving. Yes, there is the initial stage of effort even to just go for a 5, 10 or 20 minute walk.

But it get easier, you must know that. Even after a few workouts, you’ll easily notice an increase in your energy levels.

Strength training makes you stronger, so you can do more tasks without undue muscle fatigue. Aerobic exercises condition your heart and lungs delivery nutrient rich blood to working muscles and organs and don’t forget sound nutrition. The right balance of nutrients, at the right times, in the right amounts gives you the fuel to function at your absolute best every day.

But high energy won’t be handed to you on a silver platter. You need to go and make it happen!

Energy is a required element for a Successful Life

I believe your attitude and frame of mind can be greatly impacted by your level of energy. Remember everything you do is contagious. If you are discouraged, pessimistic, or lacking in energy, people will feel it. Conversely, when you are upbeat, energetic, and optimistic, people also feel it. It will have an effect on your family, friends and fellow employee and help you generate the life outcomes you hope to create.

Those seeking Peak Performance don’t leave their energy level to chance. They are intentional about creating it.

Tips To Have More Positive Energy

Simplify your life. The first step in achieving more positive energy in your life is to simplify your life. Many of us are charging so hard after so many things that we tend to get negative when those things don't happen immediately. Slow down, take a look at the next experience that you want to manifest and how can you get there. Then, look to simplify your life. Get rid of the clutter, the mental things and the physical things that you're holding onto. Release the things that are holding you back. I know this can be challenging but in order to have more positive energy in your life you need to create that space. 

You can make a choice. Understand it is your choice to either be positive or negative. It is not what other people do to you; you are allowing them to make you feel a certain way. Only you can make that decision. If other people are pushing your buttons, you are allowing them to be pushed. Make the decision to be positive today, and start in this moment.

Have a self-improvement plan.  It is critical that you have a self-improvement plan. What are you working on currently that will take you to the next level? The key is to make sure you're growing and moving forward.  I would suggest that you have a few things that you're working on for pleasure or for wealth attainment that are going to help you move forward.

Learn to say no. It is important to be able to say no. This can be extremely challenging when you're at work or you’re building a business. There's nothing that will hold you back than having too many projects going on at any one time and then taking on something new when somebody asks you. Manage your project’s improvement and overall productivity by making sure you don't have too many things going on at any one time. This will keep you more positive and give you more energy. It is okay to say no.

Stay present. In order to stay positive you cannot live in the past or the future. Many people are stuck in a mindset where they are thinking about what is going to happen in the future, or they can't move past the past. The power is in this present moment. Be mindful and stay focused.

Get proper nutrition and exercise. In order to have positive energy you have to exercise and get the proper nutrition. It’s important to take time to make sure every meal is a spiritual and healthy meal. Remember using energy creates energy, that means when you move and exercise you start to feel more energy. Starting today, make sure you're on the plan to eat right and exercise.

Take physical and mental breaks. You can't run 100% all the time. You need to make sure you're taking breaks physically and mentally.

It’s important to remember you can change your life by changing your attitude - decide to be energetic. This is huge. Unless you are ill, you can be more energetic by simply acting more energetic. I am always surprised at how my emotions follow my body. If I walk faster, sit on the edge of my seat, and smile, I will eventually feel more energetic.

Your energy level will have a big impact on those people in your life who are important to you whether it’s your fellow employees, friends or family. The good news is that you can be more energetic and set a positive example by becoming more aware and intentional about developing it.

Decide today to take charge of your health and your attitude and begin living a life of energy. Become an energetic, impatient optimist and help change the world.

Energy Index – How much energy do you have available for Peak Performance?

An exciting new way of interpreting Fitness Test Results

At Peak Performance we are always on the lookout for cutting edge ideas that help you take charge of and improve your life.

We believe the foundation of a healthy lifestyle begins with an effective fitness program and always recommend starting out on your fitness journey with a fitness assessment that determines your starting point and measures the success of your fitness and nutritional programs.

However the fitness test result numbers produced by most assessments are sometimes difficult to interpret and it’s often a challenge to understand how they relate to your overall health.

That’s why we were intrigued by a new algorithm for fitness test results developed by Laturi Corporation a Finnish Company that specializes in Fitness Assessments for the corporate wellness market.

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Their approach is to provide a quick, accurate and informative fitness assessment that provides individual employees with their personal Energy Index - an estimate of the amount of hours of peak performance energy they have in their energy bank for the day.

Energy Index indicates the amount of time during which you can experience your peak energy output.

The Energy Test provides information about your health and your body’s potential performance. The overall test is comprised of easy to perform subtests that include a fitness assessment, a wellness questionnaire and biometric data. These subtests reliably estimate different health risks and provide meaningful results for people of all fitness levels.

The maximum Energy Index result is 16 hours. Of this, about eight hours is spent at work, and the remaining eight hours remains for free time. If your Energy Index Fitness Test results indicates an Energy Index of between 4 and 6 hours you will have trouble providing peak performance during your eight hours of work and most certainly have little energy left over for your free time.

My Energy Index – 12 Hours 5 Minutes of energy available for Peak Performance

For information on the Energy Index test for you or your company feel free to shoot me an email and I will send you some information. (johnsaville21@gmail.com)

It's a New Year - Commit to Quit Wasting Time and Get in Shape!

It’s amazing to me how many people waste time at the gym.

There’s a Rolling Stones song about having time on your side. And there are a lot of people who treat working out as though they have all the time in the world.

If you’re independently wealthy and can afford to take your time while working out because you don’t need to go to an actual job, great, but most of us are busy people. In fact, I’ve read several surveys about reasons for not working out, and No. 1 on the list always seems to be “lack of time.”

There is merit in being efficient in the gym. First off, it gives you time for other, non-gym stuff in life, and most importantly breeds greater mental intensity. You know that when you’re on a tight schedule, you need to kick some ass, so you do.

Personally, I am never in the gym for more than 60 minutes max and that includes having a shower. It’s interesting to observe people who practically live in the gym, spend several hours “working out” and yet they never seem to improve.

I get that social support is great for fitness motivation, but if you’re constantly chatting, it really distracts you from the task at hand: working out. What’s more, it’s important to time your rest breaks between sets appropriately: short breaks for endurance lifting (+12 reps), medium length breaks for hypertrophy (6-12 reps) and longer breaks for strength focused work (<6 reps). If you’re gabbing away all the time, you may end up taking longer breaks than necessary and doing less overall work in the gym.

For me, today was a leg day – Heavy Squats and hack lifts, thigh extensions, leg curls, calf raises and squat jumps followed with couple of sets of 50 kettlebell swings - very intense and done within 40 minutes. My routine is to get in, work with super intensity and get out.  I stay focused and limit any conversation to before and after the workout.

It’s a New Year so the gym was full of people starting their resolutions hoping to regain their health and fitness. As often happens I was asked by someone how I got in shape, that they’d been working out for a year and hadn’t really improved.  I told him that it was 80% diet and 20% working out and most of your working out should be hitting the iron, but the working out had to be intense and that you needed to push yourself. I told him to embrace the pain, pain isn’t your enemy; it is your call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and then spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I told him there is no quicker way to changing your body than to build muscle and that it was quite simple really:

• Pick up something heavy. Put it down. Do it again.

• Don’t quit when it gets hard. That’s when it starts to get good. Keep going.

• Sweating is good for you. As a friend of my mine once said “if you ain't sweating’ you’re just bullshitting’.” 
•  Have fun with it. You don’t need to do the exact same routine and exact same exercises day after day. You just need to give each exercise your all.
• Use free weights - If you can’t bench or squat your body-weight you don’t have any business playing around on machines. After you develop some strength is when you will get benefit from machines, not before.
•  It’s all in the mind. That’s where the battle is won or lost. 

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Here’s why you should commit to making weight training the cornerstone of you fitness program:

Weight Training will make you feel strong and fit – There is a reason this is number 1, it is the most important aspect. A feeling of strength and power will give you confidence you possibly never had. We have all heard the saying a strong body is a strong mind and it is absolutely true. Strength IS confidence.

Weight Training will help to burn more fat – There is a prevailing myth that the only way to burn fat is to do cardio. Nonsense, building solid muscle mass with an adequate diet is the absolute best way to get rid of those love handles. Muscle mass raises your metabolism. Muscle mass burns fat. Build more muscle to burn more fat. If you don’t have muscle mass to begin with cardio may help you lose weight but you will not get the toned look. At best you will look skinny-fat if all you do is cardio. That’s good enough for some, but it’s not good enough for you.

Weight Training will increase your energy – It’s an invigorating feeling getting under a bar and lifting what you never thought you could lift. That energy stays with you. There is no better high than after an intense workout; no chemical substance can match the feeling of calm after a great workout. Enough of the routines, driving to work, needing cup after cup of coffee, only to be exhausted by the time you get home, enough energy to eat pizza and watch tv all night long. Turn off the TV, put down the pizza, and pick up some weights. You will thank yourself later.

Weight Training will teach you discipline and hard work – You must remember, nothing good ever came from something easy. It takes hard work, pain, and sacrifice.

Weight Training will make you healthier – After several months of weight training you will notice you get less colds, flus, and other sicknesses. That is because regular exercise improves sleep patterns.

Better sleep + regular training = stronger immune system.

Your body has become stronger from the inside out. Weight Training will also help bone strength and density, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, depression and a host of other illnesses.

Weight Training will improve poor posture – In the age of the computer, many of us sit for long periods hunched over. This is horrible for our posture. Most people have weak backs, weak abdominals and walk with a hunch. Strengthen your body, especially your back and your abs, and walk upright with a purpose, a drive. Don’t walk hunched over like you’re ready to die at any moment. Life is for the living. Hit the weights.

Weight Training will help you look good naked – A strong body signals the opposite sex that you are healthy and that is sexy.

Weight Training is FUN – After you get through the initial phase of forcing yourself to get to the gym you may realize you actually enjoy being there. There is nothing better than pushing through plateaus and lifting weights heavier than you have ever dreamed. Breaking past your previous limitations is a thrill. It gets to be damned fun.

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There’s a confidence gained in the gym that people who never train cannot understand. When someone first starts out and can barely bench 45 lbs and ups that to 225 lbs with steady, solid training the feeling of accomplishment is immense, when someone starts out deadlifting 95 lbs and ups that to 405 lbs that’s a huge boost to the ego. That’s something you can be proud of. Even if no one else in the world understands where you came from it doesn’t matter, you have accomplished what you once thought impossible and no one can take that away from you.

Discipline comes along for the ride. If you never had any before, you will after you start training. Weight training requires you eat right. You won’t even want to eat junk food anymore, your body will crave the good foods and you’ll want to eat those good foods. Heavy weight training requires you get good sleep, and you will. Weight training requires you get up off the couch and go to the gym and accomplish something. If you can manage that you will see what all the hype was about.

The real benefits of weight training have nothing to do with reducing body fat or a having a nice build. The real benefits have everything to do with relieving stress, getting out aggression, building confidence, giving you a positive mental attitude, giving you pride and developing discipline, all things which are foundational to Peak Performance and will help ensure a successful year in all aspects of your life.