FLO FITNESS

Check out our article on the Alternative Press. http://thealternativepress.com/articles/brawlhouses-chris-flores-selected-as-coach-for-t-1

There was a man who would take his horse everyday down to the river and drink. One day he brought the horse down to the river and he wouldn't drink. The man found this odd but thought nothing of it. The next day the same thing happened, the horse didn't drink. This went on for a week and the man go worried. He couldn't figure out why the horse didn't want to drink the river water anymore. He thought either, the river water was bad or the horse was sick.   So one night he sat outside the barn and watched the horses' stall. He saw all the kids from the town coming with pails of water to feed the horse. Some were cold water, other were flavored water. He realized now why his horse didn't drink in morning, it was because he wasn't thirsty. The next morning the man woke up extra early. He had a plan on how to get the horse to drink from the river again. He jumped on the horse and made him run for miles and miles until the horse didn't want to run anymore. The...

After revisiting the topic of the “3 phases of healing”, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between the way our bodies and minds work. Take, for example, the word “trauma”. In our field, we generally associate this word with something physical, but in Psychology, it has an entirely different meaning; a meaning that pertains to the mind. Trauma is immediately preceded by what we know as the “Inflammatory Response”. I couldn’t help but liken this to dealing with mental trauma. A traumatic event takes place, and we react in an “inflammatory” manner. In both cases, there is a vascular reaction, which leads to an increase in blood flow, heart rate, blood pressure, and can lead to greater damage if not addressed in a timely matter. This will last anywhere from 0 to 6 days, and, if handled properly, will lead us into the next phase. The next phase is known as the “Fibroblastic Repair Phase”. This phase lasts anywhere from 2 days to 6 weeks and is the time in which our bodies attempt to...

Before you judge the title, please hear me out.                 Over the past 10 years I have mentored, coached, taught, and trained a ton of personal trainers, strength coaches, and athletic trainers. When I first meet anyone who is interested in this field I always ask the same question,  “Why do you want to be a trainer?”. Most times the answer I get is, “I really like to workout and people in the gym always ask me for advice, so I thought it would be a good idea.”.  In all fairness this was the same reason I got into this industry, however I quickly learned that being a personal trainer has very little to do with working out.  Here are some reasons why: 1)       Do you actually want to help others? Personal training has nothing to do with YOUR love of fitness, it has to do with you getting someone else, who normally hates exercise, to enjoy it.  You ha...

Hello All, It’s Johnny, Injury Prevention Coordinator at FLO Fitness and I’m very excited for our new Mental Training Program that we will be starting up in the fall with our athletes. As I write to you, Chris Flo is working on the last few details of our program. We hope to not only help our athletes reach their goals physically but also mentally. At FLO we strive to be the best we can be by obtaining as much information and education as we can in all different areas, whether it be in fitness, business, sport medicine, mental training, breathing and etc. In the last couple months the FLO family has concentrated a lot in mental training. In midst of our group conversations we all decided to try some of the techniques we read about with some of our athletes and the results we got were amazing. I had the pleasure of working with one our swimmers. He was preparing to compete in one of his main swimming competitions of the summer. I should add that this particular athlete is ...

Sorry for the disrespectful title of this blog, but lets be honest, it was the only way you would actually read this blog.                 I would like to touch upon the subject of summer packets for incoming college athletes.   I am getting packets in now from many different schools, some of them are really high level division 1 schools and some are low level division 3 schools.   Either way, there are a few tips that I would like to give you that I think would help in making it easier on other trainers to decode your programs. 1)       A picture is worth a thousand words.   Many of you may have specific names for exercises that you want done. Most of these are not universal names. I am guilty of re-naming exercises all the time.   When I write programs, I provide a youtube clip of myself or staff doing the exercise. It would help our athletes and their trai...

                While reading “Body Mind Mastery” by Dan Millman, I stumbled upon a formula in the book that describes perfectly the philosophy I use when training my youth athletes.   The formula is PSP: First precision, then speed, then power.   This was profound to me because it is exactly the methodology I use whenever teaching new movements or when wanting to increase performance in pre-existing movements.                 Why Precision first? As an Athletic Trainer for a high school, I see injuries all day long. I see what causes them and also get to figure out how to fix them.   I can assure you that most injuries I see in athletics come from bad movement mechanics. This is due partially to the fact that many young athletes are not taught good movement patterns at an early age.   They just do the movement f...

Fitness Poem There's more to this game than just looking the part For those who love fitness call training an art Finding someone's needs while juggling  their wants Seeking the truth of why their there by seeing thru the fronts Sacrificing personal time to increase your education Only to be passed over by some cute blonde who got a weekend certification Driving hours to conventions to increase your network And getting back to your gym to find they hired another meathead jerk Spending thousands on books to increase your knowledge To find out your new manager is some kid fresh outta college To be honest, this game ain't fair and the cream doesn't always rise to the top But that's life in a nutshell and its not a reason to stop True trainers do it for the joy of changing someone's life The funny secrets you hear when you train a husband and a wife The smiles and heartfelt thank you's when clients get results The finger pointing when they only ...

Animal Flow for Athletes                 For those who do not know what Animal Flow is I have provided this link for you to check it out before reading this article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYkafEBJ9oI                   There are an endless amount of reasons why Animal Flow is such a beneficial workout for Athletes, but for today we will list what I consider to be the top 4. 1)       Mobility/Flexibility: In may experience with working with Youth Athletes,   I have noticed that the reason so many of them get injured is because of lack of mobility in their joints.   When the joint cannot move properly the body creates compensations.   These compensations lead to injury in the long run. Doing Animal Flow, even as just a warm up, can help promote mobility in the joints and get...

     I recently picked up two new clients this week. I did not try to get these clients, they were referred to me by people who knew our program at FLO Fitness. When I told a friend of mine that we picked up two new clients, he asked me what my secret was. He wanted to know how we get people to sign up. So in this blog I will let you in on our BIG SECRET.     So here it is.......... are you ready?.................................... Develop an assessment that creates a need for the product you sell. That's it!      Our assessment shows people where they are lacking in movement. We film them with an ipad and after we are done with our assessment we review the video with the person We educate them on movement and explain to them what injuries can be caused by their lack of mobility or instability.  When we are done explaining the video and what we are looking for in it, they always ask the same question.  "How do it...

Do you suffer from “inner critic syndrome”?               I read about this syndrome in a book and it struck a chord. I have just finished hosting a Animal Flow workshop over the weekend, I have a DVD shoot planned for the next weekend, have a seminar coming up in 25 days and im   going to Costa Rica in a month for 4 days of training.   For most, this would be a full plate and you would think taking some down time here and there would be ok, but NO.   I still feel like I am not doing enough, I constantly have this inner voice telling me to keep doing more and more.   I’m sure many of you have felt the same way.             My quest for answers led me to Google “inner critic sydrome”   and a number or articles popped up. There was no specific definition for the term but most agreed it is a non-stop pattern of negative narriation. We seem...

Floods vs Rivers             While reading the book Generation iY by Tim Elmore, it made an interesting analogy that I felt I wanted to expand on. It discussed our generation at being more of a flood rather than a river.   It describes our youth at being all over the place but yet shallow. I would like to take a moment to expand on this thought from some of what I have experienced.             I have noticed this concept of being a “flood” with many people. They have all these great ideas, which I think are a good thing, yet they lack the focus to pursue any of them long enough to see any result. Let’s take business for example.   I talk to many people who want to open up training studios. They have this great idea of how it will operate and what kinds of training they will do. This to me is always exciting and I love to help. However when it comes time to ge...

3 certifications that can help take you to the Next Level as a Fitness Pro     Since I have the privilege of working with many young fitness pros, I often get asked what certification they should get once they have finished school. I will tell you my top three, this does not mean there are not other great certs out there to get. These are just the three that really changed my perspective on training and helped me take my training to a whole new level.  The 3 certifications are in no particular order. DVRT from Ultimate Sandbag by Josh Henkin      Let me start by saying this cert honestly had nothing to do with sandbags. When I first walked in I was expecting to lift Sandbags all day and found that we were using kettle bells, trx's, thera bands, and more. The cert focused on changing the variables of movement as opposed to just always increasing load. For example, you can change the tempo of an exercise to make the exercise more difficult. Have...

Hey folks, be sure to check out our podcast with Dr. Perry of www.stopchasingpain.com. Let me know what you think and if you like it please be sure to pass the information on. http://stopchasingpain.podbean.com/2014/01/29/miniband-mania-with-chris-flo/

TOP 2 Mistakes most young fitness pros make with their programming                   After 3 years of running a mentor program for fitness pros, 6 years of being an adjunct professor at a college for Athletic Training majors, 6 years of being a preceptor for 3 colleges Athletic Training programs, and 16 years in the fitness industry; I have seen my fair share of programming.   There are many mistakes that beginner fitness pros make, as they should because they are new, and with this blog I would like to talk about the top 2 that I see all the time. 1)       Planes of Motion.   I cannot stress enough how important it is the train your athletes/clients in ALL three planes of motion. When I give my college students an assignment to write a program for an athlete, I always get the same exercises ; squat, bench press, leg press, shoulder press, clean, sit ups. ...

NEW CLIENT WARNING FOR TRAINERS!!                 With the surge of new clients coming in the door because of the New Year I would like to take this time to help out some of the newer trainers. Here are a few do’s and don’ts with your new clients. 1)       Don’t kill new clients!! Often time new trainers feel they have something to prove to a new client. This is a huge mistake.   The only thing you are going to do is turn the person off and make them never want to come back you.   Do start slow and make them feel comfortable.   It’s very scary for a person to come see you for the first time. Be kind and caring. Make this an experience that they would want to have again.   2)       Don’t use huge words and make the person feel dumb. This is not the time to show off and make them feel like everything they have read is wrong....