CHARLIE MIKE: New & Improved!

Teammates, CHARLIE MIKE has moved! It is now on the perfectonline home page: check it out! And while you do, take a look at the new 21-Day Workout Challenge.

Please follow CHARLIE MIKE from its new location by clicking on the upper right hand corner of the new blog: you will see the words SUBSCRIBE IN A RSS appear in red.

See you at PerfectOnline.com Teammates! HOOYAH!

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

Congratulations to Sean Ellis!

Teammates, Navy enlisted man Sean Ellis was the winner of our Facebook Fan Page Perfect Combo contest! He won a Perfect Pullup and our new V2! Post some pictures when you get it installed. HOOYAH Sean! AMM

Here's what Sean had to say on our fan page: "Thank you so very much. A bit about myself: I am 19 years old. I am currently enlisted in the US Navy. I am in school for the nuclear power program in South Carolina. I am big into judo and jujitsu and many other martial arts. Once again thanks for the congrats."

More contests to come Teammates!

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

Catch the Olympic Spark!

Teammates, I love the Olympics – from the opening to the closing ceremonies to everything in between, but more than anything else I love to learn about the athletes and their personal stories of persistence in the face of adversity. To me, the Olympics are a celebration of individual perseverance – of childhood dreams finally realized over countless years of hard work and undying determination. One of the many wonderful elements of the Olympics is that only a handful of Olympians will ever gain fame and fortune – for most it’s the satisfaction of accomplishing a goal they refused to let go. Friday night during the opening ceremony, John Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver games stated: “…lives of great significance start with a spark.” Knowing that billions around the world were watching, he implored the next generation to find their “spark” from the athletes performing in these Winter Games so a new generation of inspired athletes can raise the Olympic bar. Furlong encouraged the Olympians to “seize their moment” and to “Never EVER Give UP.” It was an excellent speech, and the words came home to me.

An extraordinarily small number of people around the world will ever become Olympic athletes. It’s hard work and it takes work and it takes talent, persistence, luck and unusual amounts of family/friend/coaching support; I know, I tried for the 1992 summer games in rowing, and never got there. My Olympic spark started in high school when I found a sport that I could actually excel at – rowing. It was perfect for me – a seemingly simple movement while sitting down and going backwards! One particular day after completing what I thought was a tough workout (and feeling pretty damn good about myself) I boasted to my coach, Hart Perry, I wanted to row in the Olympics. I’ll never forget his response: “then train and row like an Olympian.”

That one statement was my Olympics spark. Coach Perry could have responded a thousand different ways from laughter to a ludicrous stare, but instead he took this 15 year-old boy’s comment seriously and essentially said if that’s what you want then it starts now and you better raise your game – if you want to be the best, then do what the best do. I’ll never forget how he responded to me – I wasn’t the best rower on the squad and I certainly wasn’t the healthiest (asthma and pneumonia plagued my early days of rowing) – but he gave me reason to believe in myself, and though I never made the Olympic podium, let alone the games, that single spark has since ignited multiple fires within my gut to go after my dreams, and most importantly, he gave me reason to believe in myself.

Not everyone has a Coach Perry in their life or the Olympic dream in their head but EVERYONE has the capability to dream their own Olympic-sized dreams. And once you find your “Olympic spark”, seize it with all your might and go after it like an Olympian. There’s a Coach Perry out there for you, and an Olympic medal with your name on it – you just need to keep your Olympic flame burning bright by Never EVER Giving UP!

CHARLIE MIKE – ALDEN

P.S. Thanks Coach Perry for teaching me how to believe in myself.

Statue of Ilanaaq, located on Whistler Mountain, BC, and symbol of the 2010 Winter Olympics, wikipedia: creative commons license.

Back to the Future with Pushups!

Teammates, meet Jerry A., a fellow sailor. When I read his story and saw his before and after pictures, I asked him to share his fitness journey with the CHARLIE MIKE readers. Jerry, thank you -- and I agree with your first line! AMM

"I have not always been one to like doing pushups. I did plenty of them in the Navy, especially for punishment in basic training. I was stationed at NAS North Island on the USS Constellation CV-64 '81-83, and I had shore duty at the medical clinic there '87-89. Since being out of the Navy I have mostly walked for exercise. My mother had to have a quadruple heart bypass nearly two years ago. After being released from the hospital she needed wrist and ankle weights, so I went to Walmart and bought her some. As I was looking at the weights, I noticed "Perfect Pushup" was stocked next to them.

This is my before picture. Although I walked for exercise, I knew that I needed to exercise my upper body. I caved in and bought myself "Perfect Pushup". When I started using "Perfect Pushup" I could barely do one. I am now doing 50 of each pushup -- regular, wide, and close -- but not 50 straight. I have started doing the “Power 10” and I am sore!

I bought the "Perfect Pullup" and "Abstraps." I cannot yet do one full pullup, but I can do the rest. I am now considering doing the advanced "Perfect Pushup" workouts. I have not only strengthened my upper body, I am also pleased that I bought a product engineered by a fellow Navy veteran. What's next, "Perfect Gym?"

Jerry A.
Knoxville, TN

My before Perfect Pushup pic was taken in NYC and the one in St. Maartens is the after.

Wicked Awesome 100 Rep Workout

Hey Team, Marcus Colburn, aka Mojo Frog here, your "Perfect" charge' d' affaire and I've got a killer tip that you can use to help you get wicked awesome results from your perfect products! Check out The Perfect Wicked Awesome Killer 100 Rep Workout!

I'll make it simple for you as I know how confusing all this figuring out the correct tabulations can be (at least for me as I'm just a gym rat)

Keep working your way up till you can get 100 reps of everything. Now this may be quite a chore but it's do-able.

• Keep your numbers low at first like 5-10 reps & do them on everything: pushups, dips, situps, pullups, & squats with no weight & you can even use the pullup bar at a waist level to aid you in the squats at first.

• Then keep a log on what your rep count was even if it's 4. IT'S ALL GOOD! Just work it baby...

• Stretch when you get done with each body part worked & release myofibril tissue to allow strength to increase. This will give you the rest time in between sets. You have so many combos & "perfect exercises" to choose from that it's astonishing or in my case dumbfounding!

You will not have to worry about where that workout deck of cards is or if you might have misplaced a few. All you need is your "wicked awesome perfect log note book” in order to track your progress, along with your very Own Customized Training & Nutrition Program!

"HOOYAHS"
NUFF SAID!
Remember, "THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY"

The Making of a Navy SEAL

Teammates, a couple questions I often get are, "What's SEAL training really like? Who are the SEALs recruiting these days?" Check out what NBC's Today show learned when they had unprecented access for nine months to the world of the Navy's Silent Warriors.

"From high-tech weapons and underwater demolition to hand-to-hand combat and parachuting into war zones, NBC’s Chris Jansing takes a look at the making of a Navy SEAL." Notice what phrase comes up again and again: Extreme Fitness.

Did you know a Newsweek reporter wrote about Bronze Star Lieutenant Commander Tom Rancich's SEAL Hellweek aka BUD/S? Tom is a CHARLIE MIKE blogger too! N.B. every CM SEAL blogger has written about their BUD/S week. Lastly, read Warrior Elite: Forging SEAL Class 228 by Dick Couch.

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

Work Smarter, Then Work Harder!

Or, as Lance Armstrong puts it, "Work like you stole something."

Teammates, I’m over all the efficiency experts in the world saying: “Work Smarter Not Harder”. Who’s kidding who here? Just because you’re going to “work smarter” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still work harder. Think about it! Let's assume you’ve discovered a smarter way to work (assuming you haven’t just discovered a Genie in a bottle), you have to assume others have unearthed a similar “smarter” approach; which means that you’re no further ahead then when you started “working smarter” because others are doing the same “smart work” – which means you’re right where you started UNLESS, you take your new found “smart work” technique and apply a hefty dose of good old fashioned hard work to the equation.

For those looking to really make something happen – then live by this slogan:

“Work smarter, THEN Work harder!”

There’s lots of ways to work smarter (we think we’re on to something here at Team Perfect!) but that’s only half of the equation – the other half is hard work, and lots of it! At the end of the day, the person with the prize is the one who learned to work smarter while working his or her tail off all along the way. When you learn a better way to do something, be like Lance Armstrong when he would earn the yellow jersey for the first time on each of his tour wins – he’s been quoted as saying: “I ride like I stole something”. I love that phrase, because that’s exactly what you should be thinking when you’ve discovered a better way to do something. Take that smarter approach, then work like you’ve stole something! Because sooner or later, others are coming, and the one that wins will be the one that is relentless on learning how to work smarter while working harder!

And guess what, your ability to work harder is directly correlated with the condition of your body! The strength of your brain, body and attitude – the only three things you can control – determine your ability to generate work. The better conditioned your brain, body, and attitude are, the better you’ll be at generating relentless amounts of smarter, harder work toward your goal. That’s why fitness Fires me UP so much, because it’s a key component in enabling you to work harder to accomplish your goals – i.e. it powers your ability to make a difference – to live the life you want!!

So next time you hear some self-help expert tell you that all you need to do is Work Smarter Not Harder – correct him/her immediately before they accidentally infect another poor soul with a slacker’s slogan.

Define your goal, then work it like you stole something!

CHARLIE MIKE - ALDEN

Make Your Life Count!

Teammates, over the past year the marketing team of Team Perfect has been on a quest to distill the essence of Team Perfect into a single phrase. They call it a “tag line”, I call it our mission statement reduction sauce – our mission statement reduced into 4 words or less. It’s not an easy thing to do – edit words down to the bare minimum yet still capture the key meaning of your purpose. There are lots of examples of tag lines, but few really stir the soul – a couple of effective ones that come to mind are Nike’s “Just do it” or Apple’s “Think Different” campaigns. Both capture the prospective company’s personalities – of course, at the end of the day, tag lines or mission statements or slogans or credos are just words. However, when they are backed by action such as Apple’s consistent design philosophy to “think differently” about what a piece of technology looks, feels and works like or Nike’s continual pursuit to associate their product with people that don’t talk about performing – they “Just do it” – then the words begin to take meaning…

To reduce our “mission statement” is to get to the core of why Team Perfect exists (and continues to persist!). We have seven core values at Team Perfect and our first one is:

#1. We CARE about the health of our customers” is our front sight focus. And the reason we care is that we link health with the ability to never give up, and when you’re armed with the capacity to persevere no matter what the odds are, then you have the ability to make a difference. Think about it for a second – what’s your purpose? What are you going to do with your life? Why?...What Fires you Up?...what would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? (i.e…what would you do if you knew you wouldn’t give up?!). Doing anything new or different is hard enough – but it’s exponentially harder if you’re out of shape!

So what’s my favorite phrase?

“Make your life count.”

It’s up to you – you define your life and what it’ll be. After all, at the end of day, what’s really important in life? How many objects you own or the number of zeroes in your bank account? Doubt it... I bet, if you’re really honest with yourself, you’ll come to the conclusion that I have: figuring out ways to make a positive impact on something or someone – leaving the world a little bit better than you found it while having one helluva good time. In other words: Making YOUR LIFE Count. So be like Apple and think differently about your life, because your life is uniquely yours…and once you’ve decided what it’s going to be, be like Nike and Just do it!

CHARLIE MIKE! ALDEN