Why I'm THANKFUL ❤️

 ❤️The holiday always brings a WARM joy to my heart, because for years I’ve had the luxury of truly making an impact in other people’s life!

This is ultimately what saved my life. 

😓For years, I was unhappy. I felt like I didn’t matter.  I felt like I wasn’t “worth it.”

I allowed the people around me to bring me down and just soaked in the negative. It wasn’t until I opened Over-Achieve and saw God’s true calling for me that my gift 📖was helping others….

That I began to have a new vision and started feeling like I was making an IMPACT 👍🏽in everyone’s life.  Not only did this break me out of my shell, but it gave me a sense of hope.

It got me thinking that I DO have a calling, a niche, a gift that I can use to change lives.  I used this as momentum to build, grow and change thousands of lives in my community, which is what this picture represents. 

Each Thanksgiving, I would have my members write their NEXT YEAR GOALS 💯 on slips of paper and hang on our gym Christmas Tree 🎄…sure, something maybe simple and pointless to you….

But I would go home that night and read EVERY one and take it to heart. My wife remembers me analyzing them each, and some of my favorites were:

“I want to be able to bounce quarters off my booty next year😂”

“I want to have one ab visible 😂”

We all have goals we want to accomplish, and we all spend the holidays trying to scrounge up what we want to do in the New Year….

But 📣what many forget is one thing that can be the KEY 🔑to helping you reach them….

💓That person behind the scenes at home reading and planning your next move for you!

If you need help moving into the New Year on the foot you want, send me a message today! 

But most importantly, take time today to relax and spend time with loved ones and eat some AMAZING food, guilt-free!

You deserve it!

Many of us with nutrition and fitness goals struggle on Thanksgiving or other food-based holidays. We might fear overeating and attempt to restrict ourselves at our Thanksgiving meal, or perhaps aim to reduce calories in the days leading up to the holiday. Alternatively, we might take a more relaxed approach and eat whatever on Thanksgiving.⁣
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I'm not one to tell you what to do here — how you choose to approach your nutrition on Thanksgiving is entirely up to you. 
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Almost ALL of us have struggled in the last year and have been dealing with certain things that could use some happiness and upbeat acts of kindness. 
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There will come a day when we look back and wish we could spend one more holiday with a grandparent, parent, sibling, child, dog....so don't take today for granted!

A great mentor of mine had a great post this week....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Coach Mikey

3 WORST Types of Workouts to Follow

 You wouldn't believe me if I told you....



But the key to results is actually done by doing less! That's right! LESS...



You see, over the years...I myself have even fallen victim of the media cries of what is "deemed" successful and proper when training.



It took me until I became MUCH smarter with learning truly how the body and mind work, how we recover, and what we can do to maximize progress and growth....



Here are some of the HORRIBLE things media tries to get you rto think is right...

1. Meathead bodybuilding workouts

You know the ones… MEATHEAD MONDAY, FLEX FRIDAY....bicep days… the typical meathead split, where each workout involves givin’ ‘er to a single muscle group until the trembles and shakes set in.

These are the workouts you read about in magazines, but in real life, they don't work for 99% of men, as they were designed (poorly still) for fitness models and bodybuilders who are basically “professional” worker-outers.

In these workouts you will be in the gym longer than you need, resting more than you need, and wasting time getting nothing but injured and no gainz....LOL



2.  "INSERT FAVORITE CELEBRITY" workout

These are a bad idea all around. Not only do these people have gourmet chefs making them meals to cater to their lifestyle, but they also have a lifestyle that enables them to train as often as they like. For dudes like us, it's not feasible and the stress our bodies are already under would just make these type of workouts a waste of time and have us QUICKLY seeing results only to fall off by week 3.

3. Confusing AF Workout Plans

You know, the ones with %1RM, do 3 sets here, drop set to this, cluster set this, RPE that, then do a switcherooo to 1 RIR with 95%.

Why? Just why? The more confusing you make your programs, the greater chance you veer from it. Plus it's stupid and not necessary for progress! The busy man's workout needs to be precise, clear, and formulated to get maximum efficiency with little confusion or wasted time. If it takes you 20 minutes to decipher the workout, MOVE ON. 

What a joke. 



The truth is, you don’t need 90-minute workouts 6 days per week, and you don’t need to spend your time making programs looking like that from a math textbook or engineer some meticulous plan that no one can understand. 

What you need most is to get in, work hard, get out, and get on with your life.

Think: Training 3-4 days per week, for 40 minutes at a time, while focusing on ruthless, consistent execution of the basics.

These are the foundations of real-world muscle and shredding fat. 



If you are ready to finally end your vicious cycle of NEVER getting where your body wants, get ready for the LAUNCH of my new method for busy men coming next month!

It will ensure the success of seriously committed guys who are struggling to find time to train and get their bodies where they want!

Like Mitch here. He came to me in desperation, but he is not looking back. Time and stress ate up his energy and desire to train. Once he learned my system and how to prioritize his work/life balance, his workouts and strength went through the roof:

- While eating MORE

- While TRAINING LESS

- While BOOSTING energy

- While reducing stress(with two infants!)

You can even hear his thoughts here. 

If you want to get to the next level, you have to be fully aware of what your current situation is now and how it is NOT working. Once you can do that, hiring a coach will get you to a place you never imagined. 

If you want on the waitlist for my Primal Method Program next month, reply back. Once 10 spots fill I am shutting it down for another 16 weeks. 

Something MAGICAL happened on Saturday

 ❓So you think this is just another “look at Mike and his perfect love ❤️ life post huh…❓

👍Just another date night picture-perfect style, right?

❌Well, I’m about to get real with you. It’s not.

To be honest, it’s something I struggle with EVERY chance we get a day/time without kids….

😌I freakin ruin it.

You see, 5 minutes before this, my wife left me stranded on the street in the pouring rain 🌧 after I let the stress of our life travel into our first afternoon without kids in months. 

🧐Something I tend to do EVERY time because I want to try to be the perfect dad and husband. 

That’s the truth. I want to be the best, so stressing and worrying is what I do, so I brought the negative with me and let the shitty rain, long wait at the restaurant chaos of our life surface into our only day with each other.

🤦‍♂️It took her walking away from me in anger and ditching me for me to realize I had it all wrong. 

😍My wife told me one thing that stuck to me…

“Mike, I don’t care about our chaos, our stress, you working harder…I JUST WANT YOU!”

🙌🏻This was my ahaa moment, that realization that not only was I being cyclical of what I preach, but I’ve been focusing on the wrong things all this time!

❌It’s not what she wants. 

❌It’s not about the money, the perfect life, the perfect ANYTHING.

❤️It’s that she wants her husband. She wants ME. 

And through the last two years, I’ve been ripped to pieces, chewed up, spit out and eaten again…so it has been easy for me to lose sight. 

But the 💯vision is clear, God has a plan. Being overworked and stressed gets me nowhere, but being there for my wife and family is what matters!

There isn’t a second I want to take for granted, and this date night that bright clarity to me might seem relatable to you.

❓How many times have you gone with family with the intentions RIGHT but you fail to let go of your stress…

I’m a slow work in progress, in terms of being a family man…but my god I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t have Meg there to bring me back and remind me it’s not always about MORE. 

So many of us men struggle to realize that and think their families want more money and more work from you, when all they really want is a hug.

On the way home the sky then reminded me that God is in control. I may be broken, but the pieces are lining up to form something great. Some of us just have to allow it to be listened to.

Take time today to listen, allow yourself time to be free from stress and God's direction to soak in.

Happy Sunday! 

The RAW truth.....what it means to be a MAN

I've been working on a new research topic for a magazine article coming up. 

Interestingly enough, it had me sidetracked into a new blog I wanted to make a post about, simply because of how relatable it is.

For me at least, because I am NOT afraid to come out and say it....

I was a physical and emotional wreck. 

You see, as men....we are told to wear special hats....these hats have iron and grit built-in, and fear that is swallowed so far low that not even the new Halloween movie can pull out. 

Our lives are supposed to be just that....TOUGH.....we are supposed to wear masks up covering our deep issues, because...after all...we are born to be MEN and tough!

We don't talk about our emotions and our feelings. 

We don't complain about our health. 

We don't make excuses. 

We just DO!

We DO all this hiding and tend to bury our true feelings until our wives peel it out of us or cause an argument 😂.

You see, over the years....my wife watched me change. She saw my health decline. She witnessed EVERYTHING that has happened step by step. 

Opening OAF was my dream....I was 21 and ecstatic. I could be worked to death. Heck, I remember doing 4am-10pm all week.....I remember unloading HUNDREDS of pieces of equipment off trailers and assembling with a friend all by myself then going into training all day. 

I remember doing 10 sessions a day and leaving each one with a bigger smile than when I started! 

Each year, I was given advice and rules to follow from my coaches that were to help me grow and be the best I could....so I listened. 

Whether it was good advice or not, I was too young to care. I just wanted to make something of myself doing what I loved doing and changing lives. I didn't know much about business so I leaned on my coaches to help.

But each year became increasingly harder.....

Why? 

- Stress......Stress.....STRESS.....STRESS......STRESS......STRESS

I loved changing lives, training, and having energy.....but I let my business run ME and I listened to IT instead of what I NEEDED.

The end result was me doing pieces I did NOT enjoy, missing out on the feeling of making an IMPACT, and letting go of the TRUE love that I did....the TRAINING.

Over the years, my wife watched in silence as I would go into work at 4:24 am(yes it was that exact time), come home at 12 for my dog, then in from 2-5:30....shove food down while answering calls, emails and client needs.....then sticking myself in my office for 6-10pm doing work to help the gym either grow or help my members be happy and get where they want. 

My point in all this...

WE AS MEN SACRIFICE OUR LIVES FOR OUR HEALTH

We give up our health to make sure others are taken care of, just like a lot of women....and even worse....some of us just don't talk about it.

I've learned the hard way and found out how important HEALTH is to us guys. I may have looked healthy, but I was FAR from it. SEVERE gut inflammation, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, DANGEROUS testosterone levels, thyroid levels and other key hormones controlling my body and mind. 

Don't believe me....For 7 years I've been to doctors across the country in HOPES of them telling me I had something seriously wrong....because I had no idea why I kept having so much pain sending me to the hospital each month it seemed. 

THOUSANDS of dollars on doctor's visits I am so in debt now for.....when a lot of this has come to my OWN conclusion that it is NOT Crohns, it's NOT SIBO, it's not IBS, it's not a parasite or allergy....

It's STRESS

All from doing what I THOUGHT was right....and it ultimately sunk me further away from my TRUE self and my family. 

So why is it that we guys ALWAYS want to hide from the truth? Why is it that EVEN THOUGH we might be suffering inside, that we tend to hold up a wall and not talk about it? 

I am doing a new research topic on this and found the same things with men not admitting to the deep issues they might be having. 

WE ALL get one life, and it's about time you make time to live yours.....

Wasting time gets you nowhere but deeper in the hole and further away from what matters.

YOU

It might have taken me a decade to figure this out, but I have now, and I am not looking back.

So for all you dads and men out there, don't be afraid to loosen up that wall. Don't be afraid to take care of yourself. Don't be fearful of thinking you are too FAR gone or not able to reach your dream body after 40.

I'm here to tell you that 40 is the BEST age to get the body you want! 

So to wrap up this quick thought, any guy reading this, just take a second to answer this 5 question survey....

And NEVER feel afraid to reach out to me personally. I lived it, breathed it, and know what it's like to live behind a door no one understands.

You deserve to be the BEST version of yourself

Your Coach, 

Mikey 

New study shows exercise cuts your risk of dying from Covid-19 by 2.5x.

 This is something you need to know … and it’s NOT something that the news is actively covering or that you’ll hear a lot about. 

A new study of 48,440 Covid patients in California shows that the people who were consistently inactive during the 2 years before the pandemic were more likely to:

1. Be hospitalized

2. Admitted to intensive care units

3. Or, die (compared to patients who regularly met physical activity guidelines). 

IN FACT: besides age, pregnancy, and having an organ transplant, being sedentary was linked to the HIGHEST chance of being hospitalized!

The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. (You can read the study here: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2021/04/07/bjsports-2021-104080)

The researchers created three categories:

• Working out 150 minutes or more a week (the amount recommended in US guidelines)

• Getting some activity (11-149 minutes a week, or working out but not being consistent)

• Being consistently inactive (0-10 minutes a week)

Here’s what they discovered:

People who were INACTIVE (not exercising at all):

• Had 1.73 times HIGHER odds of ending up in the ICU

• Had 2.49 times HIGHER risk of dying

compared to those who met US activity guidelines.

Not only that ... but people who got SOME EXERCISE but didn’t meet guidelines consistently:

• Had 1.58 times HIGHER odds ending up in the ICU, 

• And had 1.88 times greater odds of death 

than regular exercisers.

QUESTION: So according to this study, what’s one thing you can do to put yourself in the best possible position for COVID? 

ANSWER: Exercise just 150 minutes per week. (which you can do in just 30 minutes, 5 days a week!) 

Get your friends and family on board, too … so we can ALL be healthier, together. 

If you need help getting started, please reach out to see HOW you can train with me online or in person! I am starting up a NEW 12 week program for guys who have lost their way with their health and need FINE tuned.

It will be something SUPER special!

Doing what you can to be PROACTIVE is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your loved ones. 

Daycare nightmares + My Random Training Thoughts

 How is everyone? It's been a challenging week as many of us prep for the new school year and getting all our ducks aligned....

Problem is, many of us still don't have ANY idea of where or what our kids are doing next week....from what I hear at least.

We've been forced to use the whole "daycare" method with Noah and Ellea.  While at first we had a sense of relief, it quickly turned into a bit of chaos in a matter of 5 days.

Noah came home with a cold that lead to an ear infection.....that was trip # 1 to urgent care.....

Monday Ellea came home with Hand Foot Mouth......that was trip # 2.

All while it being Meg's first week back at school and me undergoing this new health protocol to get myself back feeling better....so it just seemed to be perfect timing for all this.

But one thing I've come to find is that there NEVER is a good time. It's just what you make of it. Meg and I have learned in the last year how to deal with stress and uncertainty. It's something that we often can't control yet SO MANY of us point blame and try to deal with the problems and place blames. 

This vicious cycle can just dig your mental state further from where it needs to be. So instead of fixating on all the bad, we shifted our focus to what we have to be thankful for and how we can adapt to put our kid's health first.

Which brought me to my random thought for the day about parents and their children when it comes to specialization at a young age. Simply put, putting all your eggs in one basket.

I'm not a fan. Having your kids focused on one sport at a young age is something that offers minimal rewards long term. Now, location and school size can play a part because some offer sports in the same season, BUT regardless, giving your child the chance to experiment and find where their passion lies is perfectly fine. 

Where it becomes a problem is if parents begin forcing unrealistic expectations in multiple areas. Having them doing too much too quickly can backfire, so ultimately you want to shift their training towards what they enjoy.

Over the years as a trainer I've even had athletes come out and say that their sport is no longer fun and it's draining and a "chore." 

Now, there is a lot to blame here, but it can begin with how you introduce athletics to them at an early age. Forcing them to like basketball because you were a Divison One stud isn't the best practice.  As a kid, let them explore and get a variety of sports to challenge their proprioceptive abilities to further their neurological stimulation and strength. 

Each sport offers different magnitudes of training which can only benefit them as they develop. 

Did you play multiple sports as a kid? At what age did you find your "specialized" interest...

Agree/Disagree, I just hope you get my point and take-home message that childhood development athletically should be wanted and natural not forced and trained. 

Have a great week!

 

8 Good Supplements You Should Be Eating/Taking!

 A well-balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle that includes enough sleep should be enough to provide most people with the energy they require for their daily activities. Athletes, on the other hand, push their bodies to their limits and may require an energy boost. Here are the 8 supplements worth taking in my opinion.

1. Beta - Alanine - Beta-alanine is a non-essential beta-amino acid that combines with the amino acid l-histidine to form carnosine, a di-peptide. More carnosine content has been shown in studies to improve athletic performance by buffering lactic acid buildup.








2. Kre-Alkalyn (Creatine) - Creatine is made up of three amino acids: methionine, arginine, and glycine. Creatine is synthesized naturally in your body by the liver and kidneys, but the majority is stored in muscle tissue. It has MANY known benefits that can be helpful for strength, stamina and even recovery!

3. Pre Workout - Pre-Workout is a proprietary blended clinically dosed pre-workout formula that combines high-quality sports nutrition with antioxidant-rich superfoods. While I do not suggest pre-workouts to "get you through workouts" for making up a loss on sleep, I think it is good to have as a supplement to a healthy regimen. If you want my advice, stick to a natural based one with a label that clearly states all the ingredients. I love Legion's Pulse. You can check it out here.  Use code MJOVER.

4. Vitamin B12 - Vitamin B12 is required for the proper development and function of the brain, nerves, and red blood cells, among other things.









5. Protein - Protein is in charge of delivering essential amino acids that aid in the muscle building and rebuilding process, also known as muscle protein synthesis. I suggest looking for a quality protein with the NSF label! You can click here to get my favorite at 20% off using code MJOVER. 






6. Iron - In females experiencing tissue depletion, iron deficiency has also been shown to reduce endurance capacity, increase energy expenditure, and impair adaptation to endurance exercise.

7. Taurine - Taurine is an effective therapeutic agent for congestive heart failure, and it is approved for use in the treatment of congestive heart failure in Japan.  For training, it can reduce fatigue and help you train longer and harder. 

8. Vitamin D - Vitamin D is essential for your skin. It is necessary for bone growth, mineral metabolism, and immune health.  It can aid in hormonal support and assist in repair and recovery from your training. 

Remember, nothing beats getting a lot of your vitamins and minerals from whole food sources, but having these in addition can be a great supplement. 

Reference: Rogerson, David. “Vegan diets: practical advice for athletes and exercisers.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition vol. 14 36. 13 Sep. 2017, doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0192-9