Total Results Blog

One thing that I have learned from coaching football over the last two years is that things rarely go exactly according to plan. When you draw up a play on a whiteboard it may look great, but when it is executed in a game (or even in practice) it seldom looks just like it was drawn up. Sure, you have a philosophy and a game plan to prepare for an opponent, but successful coaches know how to go off script and adjust as the game goes along. In a sense, the same holds true in exercise. Both the client and the instructor may have a vision in the days or moments leading up to the workout of how the things will unfold, but we all know that there are variables in life that will impact your preparation and focus. In theory we may strive for perfection, but we must understand that it will remain just beyond our grasp.

"Life is difficult." That is the first sentence of the book "The Road Less Traveled", written by M. Scott Peck. I started reading the book after hearing former Alabama football coach Nick Saban talk about it in a lecture that he gave several years ago. The author, who passed away in 2005, was a psychiatrist who wrote extensively about personal and spiritual development, and the first line of this well-known book perfectly encapsulates what we need to understand about the nature of life or undertaking any meaningful or worthwhile endeavor. Life is difficult, and it is not meant to be easy. Any significant accomplishment in your life was likely the product of effort, focus, and a drive to succeed. Dr. Peck goes on to say that, "When we extend ourselves, when we take an extra step or walk an extra mile, we do so in opposition to the inertia of laziness or the resistance of fear. Extension of ourselves or moving out against the inertia of laziness we call work. Moving out in the face of fear we call courage. Love, then, is a form of work or a form of courage." Interestingly enough, he also makes reference to exercise in the book, stating, "No matter how dedicated we are to spiritual development, we also need rest and relaxation, exercise and distraction."

If we expect to find perfection in a workout and do not achieve it, we will become discouraged. One question I often pose to new clients is, "How do you define success?" The answer to that question will help me to understand a client's mindset and how best to instruct them. I believe one should focus more on the process than the outcome of an exercise or a workout. The process is something that is more within your control, while the outcome may or may not be. Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden, who led UCLA to ten national championships in twelve years, never talked to his players about the score or about winning the game. Rather, he focused on teaching and preparing his players to be the best that they could be. He was never obsessed with winning or losing; instead, he would be happy if the team played well and would be upset if he felt they did not play as well as they were capable. The score was not important, and Wooden's mindset was process-driven, not results-driven. Wooden was way ahead of his time in terms of praising effort, when most of his colleagues suffered the highs and lows of worrying about wins and losses. Total Results exercise is really no different. Confidence is built, and achievement occurs as a result of putting in great effort and doing the right things session by session, week after week, and month after month. A workout is as much a mental experience as it is a physical undertaking. If you focus on the process, the end result will take care of itself.

How you handle adversity speaks volumes. Life will throw challenges at you that you may or may not be ready for, and how you respond to those challenges will tell the tale. Very rarely in life are we going to feel 100 percent, and you can't just show up for workouts when you feel inspired. I will share a personal anecdote about my workout on January 8th, 2025. I was physically prepared: I had slept well the previous few nights, my nutrition was good, and I had not consumed any alcohol in over a week. Mentally, I was great, except I forgot to bring my workout clothes to the office! This has only happened to me one time that I can recall in 25 years in the business. As a result, I worked out in dress slacks, a t-shirt, and wing-tip shoes; far from optimal, but I still managed to achieve something meaningful. In this case, the stage was not set for a perfect workout, but the outcome was still positive. Sometimes, you just have to grind it out.

We strive for perfection knowing that it is unattainable, but we hope to fall short of perfection and achieve excellence. Seldom will a client go up in time under load or weight on every single exercise of a given workout, but that certainly doesn't detract from the effort that they put forth. Sure, I have had conversations with clients after workouts when they tell me they felt like they were totally locked in and hit all the right notes, so to speak. More often than not, they simply buckle down and give everything they have, regardless of the outcome. That is all that anyone can ask of themselves.

Many Total Results clients can relate to the following scenario. You have just completed the first exercise of your workout, which is usually either the Seated Leg Curl or the Abduction/Adduction combination. Your hip and knee joints are sufficiently warmed up (which is largely why we perform these exercises first in the routine), and now you position yourself to start the Leg Press. When given the cue from your instructor to begin the exercise, you start to gradually apply pressure to the foot board to overcome inertia and get the movement arm into motion. However, something happens. In spite of your best effort, you find that you cannot budge the carriage of the machine. How could this be?

This has happened to me a few times over the years, and I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with you if you experience this unfortunate circumstance. No, you didn't lose muscle since your previous workout. This is not an altogether uncommon situation, and there are a few possible explanations for why it takes place. The Leg Press is the largest, most challenging, and probably most important exercise that you will ever perform, and it has the greatest overall effect on your metabolism. We perform this exercise near the beginning of the workout, simply because we want to exercise the lower body muscles when your body is relatively fresh. If your body is not properly recovered due to excessive physical activity, poor sleep, or insufficient nutrition, this can leave you at less than full strength for your workout. Consequently, you might have trouble moving out of the bottom out position.

What is another reason you can't move the Leg Press? In my experience, it is largely a mental phenomenon. I have said many times that the mental component of exercise should never be underestimated, and you need to have a sharpened intellectual focus in order to optimize your workout experience. If your mind is not in the right place, then you will not be prepared to grasp how much effort is required to overcome inertia. There can sometimes be a slight delay between when your brain sends the impulse to the muscles to fire (contract) and when movement of the movement arm actually begins. In reality, this all takes place in fractions of a second, but in your perception it feels like it takes much longer. When movement doesn't happen instantaneously it can become a self-perpetuating scenario, and once you think you can't do something, you can't do it. This is why it is important to always believe in yourself, and one of the most important aspects of my job as an instructor is to provide encouragement to the clients that I supervise. Additionally, this scenario is one reason why I will rarely tell clients in advance when I have raised their weight, as I do not want to cause them to have a mental block.

How can we work around this? In a pinch I can have the client start the exercise from the endpoint rather than the starting point by pulling the carriage all the way out and handing it off to them. If that doesn't work, we can utilize a Timed Static Contraction for that workout. More often than not, this is a one-time thing and it is not an ongoing issue. If this happens for several workouts in a row, the next option is to slightly reduce the weight. More than anything else, it helps the trainee to regain their confidence in performing the movement. I would rather a client use less weight but start the exercise from the bottom out position than start at the end point and use a higher poundage.

I believe that one of the greatest privileges of life is having a challenge to overcome. Once the challenge of life is gone, things tend to go downhill. You have a tremendous opportunity at Total Results to rise to the occasion. Doing hard mental and physical things sharpens your fortitude and your ability to overcome adversity; you get the best of both worlds in our facility. Mentally prepare in advance of your workout, and accept the fact that while it will be uncomfortable, you will come out of it better on the other side. The Leg Press is the biggest challenge that we face at Total Results, but it is not insurmountable. You can do this!

Knowledge is important, but people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. That is just one of the many important lessons that I have learned over the course of my 25 years in the exercise business. There is no greater teacher in this world than experience, and I have made more mistakes than I care to admit. I have tried my best to learn from those mistakes so that I do not repeat them, and I truly believe that if you have not failed at something, then you haven't tried. It has been an interesting and fulfilling journey, and it is one that I believe is just getting started.

When I began my career as an instructor I was fresh out of college, quite green, and knew very little about what constituted proper exercise. Fortunately, I had a couple things working in my favor: a natural curiosity and a desire to learn. This is how I came across the Super Slow Exercise Protocol, which is what the Total Results methodology is based upon. I worked in commercial gyms for several years attempting to apply this philosophy to the clients I was working with, and what I came to realize is that equipment and the studio environment matter. The exercise equipment should be made with the protocol in mind, and while you can perform the Total Results protocol with a variety of different equipment, the exercise experience is not the same if you are using machines with backward cams and poorly designed movement arms. Working with Super Slow Systems and MedX equipment changed everything. The same holds true for the exercise environment. I struggled for years in trying to get clients to focus while dealing with distractions like mirrors, crowds, music, and warm temperatures. A private and clinically-controlled environment is necessary so that the client and the instructor can completely focus on the task at hand. I developed a much greater appreciation for these aspects of the exercise experience when I went to work at Fairfax Racquet Club and Total Results, and have come to view them as non-negotiables.

After completing a few lower-level exercise certifications, I earned my first Super Slow Exercise Instructor certification in 2004. This involved six months of study and an internship at Exercise Defined in Georgetown under the tutelage of a Master Instructor, and I was an idealistic new instructor who did things exactly as Ken Hutchins did them. In fact, I can still remember the instructional scripts that I had to memorize for my practical exam. Over time, I learned to adopt my own teaching style and verbiage to best fit my personality. I am grateful that my former boss Tim Rankin gave me a lot of independence and plenty of room to make mistakes. Long and drawn out explanations, while appreciated by some clients, can often seem boring and overwhelming to others, so a balance must be struck. This has helped me to still be thorough while also more efficient when performing initial consultations.

It is important to be a good listener; this is something that we often think of as a passive activity, but it is really quite the opposite. Over the last few years I have worked to become a better listener, to simply hear what a client has to say rather than rush in with a response. Clients need to feel that their concerns are being heard, and listening is the best way to learn. There were times when I wasn't such a great listener, when I felt that what I had to say was more important. Consequently, I have lost clients over the years because of poor listening. Asking clients periodically for feedback gives them a feeling of investment, and we want them to know that they have some say in the direction of their workouts. I have learned that conducting regular check-ins and holding brief conversations now can stave off potential problems down the road. There is still a need to occasionally have some tough conversations, but if there is an environment of openness and honesty, clients are much more likely to take on a mindset of ownership and accountability.

Less is more when it comes to exercise instruction. I often tell clients that one of their goals should be to get me to shut up, because it means that they are executing better and there are fewer form discrepancies for me to correct. In turn, this allows me to conserve energy over the course of a long day. When I prepared to take my practical exam I had the tendency to overcorrect and talk too much; in fact, my Master Instructor had to tell me to stop babbling and say less. She was 100 percent right. I have learned to correct only when necessary, and that sometimes pre-emptive corrections go a long way. One of the most challenging concepts that I had to understand is that not everyone is as enthusiastic about exercise as I am. Some clients are very excited about the possibilities of what Total Results can do for them, while most trainees see this simply as a means to an end. I used to grow frustrated when I perceived that some of the people that I instructed simply didn't seem to have the same sense of urgency about exercise that I did. Over time I have come to recognize that every client has their own personality and their own values. It is my job to adapt my approach to best meet their needs, while at the same time staying true to our guiding philosophy.

I am still just as passionate about exercise as I was when my journey began over 25 years ago. If anything, the passage of time has helped me to become more appreciative and realize how fortunate I am to be able to do this for a living. There is less rigidity in my instructional mindset and I am far more adaptable than I was earlier in my career, which has probably gone a long way toward preserving my sanity. At the same time I must continue to learn and grow, and never be satisfied enough to rest on my laurels. Thank you to all the people who have helped me along the way, and thank you to all the clients that I have had the privilege to work with over the years. The best is yet to come!

Hall of Fame basketball coach Pat Riley says that life is a continuous learning process. If you don't strive to get better, you are bound to get worse. I approach exercise with a similar mindset. There is no greater teacher than experience, and while everything that I have learned over the years has come from somewhere else, some lessons have been learned the hard way. After talking with other exercise instructors over the years I have discovered that my early interest in weight training was similar to others that have gone on to work in this profession. The many mistakes that I have made over the years as far as my exercise routine is concerned have hopefully made me a little wiser, and have enabled me to pass along what I have learned.

My first exposure to weight training was in 8th grade PE class, when we did a unit on circuit training. It was nothing too in-depth, just some rudimentary explanation about a series of basic exercises on a Universal machine, but it spurred my interest enough to continue training that summer in preparation for 9th grade football. As I progressed through high school I continued to weight train year-round in the PE class that football players were expected to take. We were supervised by one of our football coaches, but there was no real scientific teaching or much in the way of structure. Even though there was very little record keeping, we managed to become stronger as a by-product of being teenagers going through puberty and having some exposure to weight training. The biggest mistake that I made during this time period was in not having a better understanding of nutrition and hydration. Looking back, I definitely did not drink enough water (this was before I knew how bad soft drinks are for you), nor did I consume enough of the quality protein that is necessary for building muscle.

My football career continued for a few years in college, as did my weight training. I was still as skinny as a rail - maybe 170 pounds - but I did have access to decent food in the dining hall. Once I stopped playing football my weight training became intermittent; some weeks I would workout and others I would not. There were weeks with no activity at all, and I definitely was not getting the full benefit of the gym membership that I was paying for. This was my big mistake at the time - not having a plan, the drive, or the understanding of the benefits I was missing out on. After I finished college I took a job as a personal trainer at Washington Sports Club.

Here I had access to a large facility and what I thought was excellent equipment (it was in short order that I learned otherwise). This was where I crafted an exercise routine straight out of the glossy pages of Muscle and Fitness magazine: four to five days a week of weight training with a split routine and different body parts on each day. Multiple sets of each movement and multiple movements for the same muscle groups. Sheer madness! There were so many mistakes during this period of my training life that it may be difficult to point them all out. I will do my best, though. For one, I am embarrassed at my inability to think critically during this period. I should have known better than to follow the examples of genetically gifted people who did not know the first thing about the way the body adapts to imposed stress. Along those lines, I had a poor understanding of the role that genetics plays in physical adaptations. I was training with way too much volume of exercise and not nearly enough intensity. The speed of movement that I used with each exercise was the standard Nautilus protocol of two seconds lifting the weight and four seconds lowering it. This was better than most of the gym rats that were around me but was still entirely too fast, and I am fortunate that I did not suffer any serious injuries. Because of the insane frequency with which I trained, I found myself getting sick with colds and flu more frequently; I was overtrained and under-recovered, thus stretching the limits of my immune system. Too much variety in exercise leads to an inability to master anything significant. As a result of all of these mistakes I wasted what could have been several productive years in my 20s by barking up the wrong tree. Fortunately, fate intervened.

I was introduced to Ken Hutchins' Super Slow Exercise Protocol by a good friend of mine, and almost immediately I knew that I had stumbled onto something big. This required some unlearning of a lot of the misguided ideas that I mistook for exercise truths. I made better physical improvements more quickly and in less time per week than I did by using conventional bodybuilding dogma. Most importantly I was not overtraining, so I rarely got sick, and because I was using a 10/10 speed there was virtually no risk for injury. Still, there were a few mistakes that I made during this period. The first was not learning about this methodology sooner! Second, it took me longer than it should have to recognize the importance that equipment design makes in terms of the exercise experience, but once I did my first workout with MedX and Super Slow Systems equipment I could not go back to using regular gym equipment. Lastly, even after I embraced a slow-speed, high-intensity exercise philosophy, it took me a while to come to grips with the mental components of exercise: focus, demeanor, and attitude. These are things that I still work on to this very day.

Just because I instruct exercise for a living doesn't mean that I haven't made mistakes along the way when it comes to my own training routine. Mistakes can perhaps be better classified as learning experiences, and I am certainly a work in progress. We grow by learning from mistakes and by working to not repeat them. Learning never stops. In my next article, I will profile some of the mistakes that I have made as an exercise instructor over the past 25 years. Thank you to all of you who have been a part of that journey..

Madison Cavanaugh is an author and researcher with over 40 years of experience as a journalist in the health and wellness genre. Most of her work is written under a pseudonym in order to protect her privacy and guard against attacks coming from the medical establishment. She has published eight books, including "The One-Minute Cure" which was first published in 2008. The second edition was released in 2021, right in the middle of the Covid hysteria.

The central focus of the book is hydrogen peroxide therapy, which has been used by 15,000 European doctors, has been in existence for 180 years, and is backed by over 91,000 studies that are currently in circulation. Hydrogen peroxide therapy has healed millions of patients suffering from a multitude of diseases, yet the American medical establishment minimizes, mocks, and even prohibits the administration of this therapy with the threat of license revocation. This is because the medical cartel (including insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors) see hydrogen peroxide therapy as something that can disrupt their gravy train, and more money can be made by treating patients rather than curing them or promoting preventative measures. As Ms. Cavanaugh states in the very first chapter, "It simply points to an ineffective medical system that is focused on illness rather than wellness, that promotes expensive (i.e., profit-driven), invasive, and potentially dangerous (or even deadly) medical procedures, drugs or treatments rather than simple, natural, inexpensive, effective treatments or therapies that have no side effects." It is also important to note that over 100,000 people die every year as a result of taking "properly prescribed" medications in hospitals.

What is hydrogen peroxide therapy and how does it work? First, it is critical that we understand the importance of oxygen in the human body. The author says that, "...oxygen comprises 62% to 71% of the body, and is the body's most abundant and essential element." Furthermore, "Ninety (90%) percent of all our biological energy comes from oxygen." We can survive for weeks without food and days without water, but we will die in just a few minutes with insufficient oxygen. This therapy involves either ingesting or inhaling a diluted amount of 35% food-grade hydrogen peroxide daily. Ms. Cavanaugh explains: "...hydrogen peroxide stimulates the movement of oxygen atoms from the bloodstream to the cells to a dramatically greater degree than is usually reached by other means. It does this by increasing oxygen and hemoglobin dissociation, thereby maximizing the delivery of oxygen from the blood to the cells. This delivery of the oxygen to the cells and tissues is essential for creating the oxygen boost necessary to maintaining a healthy environment that is inhospitable to disease (author's emphasis)." Dr. Christian Barnard, who completed the first successful heart transplant surgery in 1986, recommended hydrogen peroxide therapy to his patients in order to treat arthritis and other conditions related to aging. This therapy has been used successfully in treating COPD, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Type II diabetes.

How can you use this therapy at home? One of the best things about it is that you don't have to go to a doctor's office or a hospital in order to receive treatment. If you plan to ingest the hydrogen peroxide orally, the book provides a helpful dosage chart that you can use to reach therapeutic levels in your body, and then a maintenance dose to use thereafter. Add a few drops to distilled water as prescribed. If the taste is a problem, you can instead inhale the diluted hydrogen peroxide through a portable nebulizer. This is the favored intervention of Dr. Joseph Mercola for acute viral illnesses, and is an extremely effective treatment for Covid-19. Dr. Mercola recommends adding in a pinch of Himalayan sea salt to add electrolytes and protect against any potential lung damage. Hydrogen peroxide can also be administered intravenously, but that is probably not logistically feasible for most people to do at home.

Is hydrogen peroxide therapy too good to be true? Like many of you I have become skeptical about many things, but I pride myself on being able to keep an open mind. However, I have to admit that when I saw the words "The world's greatest healing miracle of all time" on the book cover, I was a little put off. Still, the fact that the book was recommended to me by a friend who shares with me a disdain for the medical establishment and whose opinion I trust was enough for me to read it. I found that Ms. Cavanaugh's work is thoroughly engaging and thought provoking, and I think we could be onto something. There is an extensive bibliography as well as a list of resources and providers by state. I would like to do more research before I start utilizing the therapy myself, and have purchased two other books on the subject. Naturally, I will share my findings with all of you, but for now I think "The One-Minute Cure" is definitely worth reading.

Finally, I will leave you with a quote from Ms. Cavanaugh that is sure to at least make you think critically. She says, "The irony of it all is that more people have died from preventable diseases than all the wars of the world combined as a direct result of the pharmaceutical business. These deaths were not just from the use of drugs but from the industry's suppression of information about non-drug health alternatives that could have kept people from dying (author's emphasis)."