Coach Ken Wall

So....in case you didn't know, I'm a hunter and I pretty much live for this time of year. We are in the first week of PA's rifle deer season and I'm still chasing one of the few mature bucks we've seen on the property we (My Dad and I) are fortunate enough to hunt. We got some snow this morning  But by afternoon, it was melting fast as the sun came out from behind those dark cold front clouds. It gotten quite windy and combination of wet leaves and a gusty wind made for good conditions to do some sneaking (Still hunting) around in the woods.  Still hunting has always been one of my favorite ways to hunt as it seems to quiet my mind while simultaniously heighten my senses. Leaving the world of 2020 behind for a few hours is always a good thing and having only to focus where my next footstep should go so as to remain quiet while always on the look out for anything that resembles even a part of a deer keeps my somewhat A.D.D. brain in check. Today's plan was to hun...

The Karate Kid is one of my favorite movies. (Not the new one with Jackie Chan... I guess I'm showing my age here) Not because the kid from New Jersey beats the California pretty boy for the championship but because of the awesome lessons I find it. In one scene during training Daniel is berating Mr. Myogi about learning how to do the "Crane Technique. He's frustrated that all he has learned is some blocking techniques (Everyone knows "Wax on, Wax off") and is convinced that his training is going to slow and that he will never be ready for the tournament. Myogi simply replies, "First learn stand, Then learn fly. Nuture rule, not mine." Overly simplistic advice from an aging martial artist or a great life lesson that most take for granted? I'll take the latter. Every day in the gym, I state and restate the need for simplicity in training and in making changes outside the gym. As humans, we seem to want to make things complicated. We a...

There’s an old saying in sports that says, “Offense sells tickets but defense wins championships.” I know.... I sound like your grandfather watching a football game. It's pretty old school but it's totally true. Nobody enjoys watching a football game  that ends in a baseball score buuttttt  if your defense can't stop the other team, they have no chance of winning I see this in fitness all the time. The latest, greatest, coolest fitness gizmo, workout program, fad diet, or new fitness franchise in town will all sell a lot of "tickets". They’re exciting.  They’re sexy.  They scream fast results and "the thing" they've been missing all their life. It's easy to understand why people flock to these programs in droves. But do they help them win?  Will they keep you safe? Will they keep you from getting hurt? Will they make you feel better? Will they make it easy to stick with it? Or will you be so sore that the mere ...

One of the best things about being a fitness coach is the conversations you get to have with people. If you start having enough of them, you start to see some pretty consistent patterns and a few you are even forced to recognize in yourself. Whether the goal is committing to a fitness program, eating a little better, or even chasing a dream, it's staggering the number of people who will rattle off a bunch of great benefits to their life by making a change but will end the sentence with but. Then automatically, they will proceed to tell me all the reasons it isn't possible. Time, money, knowledge, etc. There's a reason for that famous motivational Speaker, Les Brown, likes to say we are wired to be negative with our thoughts on things we'd like to do. Isn't human nature kind of mean? The interesting thing is that if you ask those same people why something is possible, they, completely on their own, come up with solutions for the barriers they first mentioned...

This is not how your measure fitness Sara couldn't stand it anymore. Clothes didn't fit right and the bathroom scale gave her a number she didn't recognize. She mustered up some courage and headed down to the local gym to hire a trainer to help her lose weight. She met with the trainer, who took all kinds of measurements including weight and body composition. They set a weight loss goal for 12 weeks later. She was pumped. Sara started training 3 days per week with her trainer and she was really starting to feel better. She noticed she had more energy. She was making better food choices and was significantly stronger.  When it came time to check her measurements, she felt she was ready. Then it happened. She fell short of her weight loss goal by a few pounds. Suddenly she felt like a failure. All the feelings of accomplishment had faded and she felt like giving up. What went wrong? Was it her workouts? Was her diet not up to par? I would say neither. ...

It was early in 2014 and I wasn't feeling the best. Work stress was pretty brutal,  I had a new baby at home and my workouts were sporadic.  I was having some low back pain that was lingering way longer than the occasional stiffness that accompanied long days on my feet training people. The pain was getting worse by the day and even starting to affect my sleep. "I'm fine", I thought to myself. "I train people with low back pain all the time." I know what I need to do." Then it happened. Shortly after returning from a weekend trip for a conference, I was outside with my dog and I sneezed. I immediately was hit with blinding pain in my low back and torso. It was 10 degrees outside and I wasn't even sure I could back into the house. Even my dog looked worried. After a night of pain meds, I soldiered into work the next day. "I have clients. I'm fine", I told myself. My second client of the day, a local physical therapist took one...

She had spent the last 10 years convinced that she had too many health issues to get back in shape. It seemed like everything hurt and the everytime she tried to move, things hurt worse.  It was no way to live. Finally, her doctor convinced her to investigate working with a coach, one that was familiar with her limitations and could work around them. She reluctantly decided to give it a shot. After her first couple workouts, she felt amazing. Things didn't hurt like she expected and all she wanted to do was.......more! She finally felt like her life was improving and she couldn't get enough. She was exercising on her own....every day. Her coach told her that this was a marathon and to take it slow but he didn't understand how good she felt! 10 days later, she was exhausted and somewhat dejected. What happened?  The next week she showed up for her workout beat up and tired. She told her coach what she had been doing and he smiled. "Heart versus brain." , he...