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?

We don’t train to look pretty (although it doesn’t hurt). We don’t train just to train. We train because we compete. Because we are athletes.

This fall, we’re putting our money where our mouth is! Team Max Power is gearing up to throw down at 2 USA Power Lifting (USAPL) events this fall.

Check out our training logs as we prepare to lift heavy and lift strong.

Nov 19 – Scranton, PA

Stars and Stripes Bench and Deadlift Championships

December 3-4 – King of Prussia, PA

USAPL Northeastern USA Regional Bench Press & Powerlifting Championships

We love tennis here at Max Power. And we love training tennis players – from top-level juniors to college athletes to recreational players.

Most people probably think of tennis as a skill-based sport, like golf. You go out, you hit a bunch of balls, you (hopefully) get better. If you want to improve your game, you hire a tennis pro, right?

You wouldn’t think of strength training as an essential part of a tennis player’s toolbox. But tennis is a power sport – just like lacrosse and volleyball.

For serious tennis players – the juniors who want to play in college or beyond and the weekend warriors who travel to USTA amateur tournaments – increasing their strength can improve their game.

Things to Consider if You’re a Tennis Player

1. Protect your hips, knees and ankles

Tennis is all about rotation. That’s a lot of stress on your legs and core. We help our tennis athletes strengthen their stabilizer muscles, tendons and ligaments to protect the joints in their lower half.

2. Bring sexy back

What we’ve found is that tennis players tend to be more developed in the anterior (front) halves of their body. Posterior development is critical to creating total body balance – especially the glutes and hamstrings. Developing the posterior chain is crucial to creating total body balance in any athlete. We also focus on building the lower, mid and upper back in our tennis players.

3. Shoulder the workload

Strong legs keep you running and a strong core generates torque and power, but you can’t play tennis if you’ve got a bum shoulder. When strength training, a good deal of emphasis should be placed on protecting the shoulder muscles, specifically the 3 muscles of the rotator cuff.

4. Power up

Training compound movements like squats or even Olympic lifts can help you increase your speed for those short bursts around the court. We also work with our tennis players on footwork, agility drills for changing direction, and coordination of the upper and lower body.