How did you start training with Max Power?

I met Mike at a school function – our kids go to the same school – and we started talking about what we do. He said, hey I do personal training, and I said, hey I ride a bicycle and want to get back into racing, so it kinda went from there. So he’s like, let me help you out.

How has it helped your racing?

It’s helped it from a standpoint that you need to train outside just pedaling a bicycle. There’s a quote going around in the cycling world – “you can’t fire a cannon from a canoe.” Mike’s worked [with me] a lot on core and stability which allows you to pedal the bike more consistently and put more down power down when you need to. It’s helped a lot with speed, explosiveness, springing from corner to corner.

What does Max Power mean to you?

After a couple years with Mike now, it means a healthy lifestyle. Realizing that life’s too hard to be soft inside. The funny thing I found out with training with Mike is your mental focus changes greatly. Stress with work, I can handle that much better. Jobs aren’t getting easier. We’re all working 50% harder for 20% less, you know, so the strength training with Mike has kept my mental game with life and work on track.

What’s your favorite part of training?

Deadlifting. Not so much like hitting a PR but just the benefits of deadlifts. It improves your posture and keeps your core strong. It’s the one activity I enjoy the most.

So why Max Power?

The big thing about training with Mike is not that I’m looking to [get on the] podium or have some monumental victory. It’s about remaining competitive with guys that are in my group. Going out on group rides, I ride with guys ten, fifteen years younger than me and they’re fast, you have to be able to keep up with them. I’m hitting the big 4-0 soon, so I don’t want to be sliding backwards down the hill. I want to keep going forward.

Sometimes during a race the pain is just so immense and you have to learn to squash it. But you realizing everyone else in the race is suffering just as much as you so don’t complain about it. Just shut up and keep going. With Max Power I really learned how to separate the body and the mind. So when you’re breathing heavy and you’re gassed, you’re still able to focus and make clear decisions.

Would you have done this when you were younger?

No. When we got into mountain bike racing in the ’90s, the mindset was you got to be lightweight, you know, pretty much looking like you got out of a prison camp. You want to be a climber, you had to have all this endurance, and touching weights meant bulking up – that you’d be carrying excess weight on a climb. We just stayed away from it. Fifteen years later races have gotten shorter. They’ve gotten more intense. Organizers don’t want to put on a 2 1/2 hour race – they’d rather do a 45-minute race so everybody’s training has kind of been tailored to short, more intensive stuff. With that you’ve got to have the core strength, some kind of explosiveness, you’ve got to have the ability to jump and go quick. And you can’t get that just by pedaling a bicycle. You have to supplement with strength training.

Mike, what improvements have you seen Will make?

I haven’t seen Will race a lot, but the one I was at, he was pretty fired up. Pretty intense. He had that look on his face – when I saw him come around a turn or come down the straightaways, he looked pretty determined to win. He performed very well against some very good people, especially for someone who does as a hobby or a little more than a hobby.

I could see that his legs are firing better. He has more definition in his muscles, which is good for someone as long and lean as he is.

For [an endurance athlete like] Will, we focus a lot on explosive strength as much as endurance.

For cross-racing, yes you have to go for 45 minutes, but during that 45 minutes there a lot of passing this person, climbing up a hill, jumping off a bike, carrying your bike up a hill. You have to be prepared to do all of that. So I train Will with a lot of 2 to 3 second movements – movements that require immediate energy as well as continuing to build endurance so he can last through the race. It’s very leg-based and core-based as opposed to arm-based.

So no bicep curls?

No, no curls.

What I see athletes accomplish here in the gym tends to tranfer to their sport. You know, mental toughness. A lot of times you’re sitting here concentrating on one lift, one rep, one heavy weight. And it’s that moment when you make the decision that it’s gonna happen [with that one heavy lift], that you gives you the ability to concentrate and make things happen on the field. It spurs you to hit that ball, to pedal faster, to jump higher, to scale that wall or barrier or whatever that much faster.

A little while ago, we sat down with Will Mahler – cyclist, businessman, and Max Power athlete – to talk cycling, training, and how life in the gym translates to life in general.

Background music is “Tick Tock Tick” by Tyler Jon Tyler.

It’s that time again – time to make resolutions that you’ll keep diligently for a month (or two) before sliding back into your bad habits.

And also time for dozens upon dozens of fitness blogs and articles about making your resolutions stick.

Are you like most people who start off strong and hit the gym and diet 110% after January 1st? Do you fizzle out after a month or two and return to your old (bad) habits?

Let me save you some time and boil it all down for you:

Max Power Rules for Keeping New Year’s Resolutions

1. Set a small goal.
2. Start slow and steady.
3. Get it done.
4. Never never never never give up.
5. Repeat.

Training Is a Process

It is a constant and never-ending process. (See #4 and #5 above.)

Let’s be real – most people don’t like change. Your body especially doesn’t like change. If you take a long break from training or any real kind of exercise, ease yourself back into it. Implement a training schedule that allows your body to adjust.

It’s okay to start slow and start small! Everyone has to start somewhere.

Training Is All About Progress

Stop thinking about how weak you are and start thinking about how much stronger you’re getting.

Stop thinking about how fat you and start thinking about how much fitter you’re becoming.

Every day is a chance to be better and to do better.

Team Max Power’s Mike DeCarlo competed today in the USAPL Star and Stripes powerlifting tournament in Clark’s Summit, PA. He finished first place at 132lbs breaking a state record Bench Press (200lbs) and set a personal record in the Deadlift (330lbs).

Congrats to Mike not only on the win and PR but also making weight!

If you saw Mike as he was training, you know he earned himself a big sushi dinner after the competition. And maybe a few dozen donuts and an ice cream cake or two. The dude was lean.

Given that it’s the holiday season, you might want to know how Mike went from a fit 145lbs (give or take) to a leaned-out 132lbs while maintaining a fairly impressive amount of strength.

How Mike DeCarlo Lost 10 Pounds in 4 Weeks

1. Define your goal. Set a timeline.

Mike started tightening up his diet four weeks ahead of the meet. This way he wasn’t overly dehydrated (and subsequently weaker) by the time he had to compete.

Four weeks was enough time to cut the weight he needed to cut and not so long that he felt like he was dieting and depriving himself forever.

Mike also set softer goals – benchmarks he wanted to reach at the end of each week. This way he could check his progress and keep motivating himself as he hit every soft goal.

2. Get daily feedback and support.

Mike weighed himself daily and then posted his weight on the whiteboard in the gym for everyone to see.

He also talked up his goals and his plan to everyone – clients, friends, coworkers. Have you met Mike? You probably heard what he was doing. If he started slacking, people held him accountable.

Because he couldn’t hide his failures, he was forced to keep trying and to reach his goal.

3. Have a set nutrition plan.

For Mike, this was 5 meals a day, with 300 calories allotted to each meal. He had to get a certain amount of protein every day and supplemented with fiber to keep things moving. As he got closer to the day of the competition, he started tapering off carbs.

Would this work for everyone? Maybe, maybe not – everyone’s nutritional needs are different and everyone’s body reacts differently to weight and fat loss. Of course, Mike is an extremely active individual with a killer gym in his house and a flexible schedule. He’s also pretty determined.

The point is, he had a plan and he stuck to it. And he lost 10lbs in 4 weeks.

There’s about 4 weeks between now and Christmas. Instead of stuffing your face at every holiday party, why don’t you get a head start on your New Year’s resolutions and try cutting 10lbs?