Get Strong!: Body By Jake's Guide to Building Confidence, Muscles, and a Great Future for Teenage Guys - Softcover

Steinfeld, Jake

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743224779 ISBN 13: 9780743224772

Publisher: Fireside, 2002

Synopsis

One of America's leading fitness gurus presents a unique handbook that combines straightforward advice on nutrition and fitness, guidelines for coping with the diverse problems of adolescence, and easy-to-manage fitness exercises and routines to help teenage boys develop a positive self-image and a healthful lifestyle. Original. 100,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Jake Steinfeld is best known as the man behind Body by Jake. He created the industry of Personal Fitness Training and built Body by Jake into a house-hold icon, symbolic of strength, motivation, and ideal physical stature. Jake created the world's first 24-hour fitness television network and also starred in his own sitcom, Big Brother Jake. He is the founder of the nonprofit Don't Quit! Foundation and of Major League Lacrosse.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One: Listen Up to Muscle Up

Every client I've ever trained -- from big-name directors and actors to lesserknown ones -- was ready to work hard to achieve a great body, even if the body itself wasn't convinced yet. That's why they hired me. Many of them weren't prepared for their minds to strain as much as their muscles did -- strain, then expand! By the end of our first training session together, not only had their muscles been through their best workout ever, so had their minds.

Chapter 1 is your first training session, and you won't even touch a weight. You will experience the same exhilarating mental sensations that my clients did and, like them, come back for more! I'm not going to be the drill sergeant type who berates you and gets in your ear on every opportunity, even if I could jump out of this book and train alongside you. Instead, I'll be the guy to push you when the time is right and pull back the reins when it's not. My aim is to pump you up -- physically and mentally -- not to put you down.

First, I want you to spill your guts -- your dreams and fears, successes and failures -- before you spill them on the training floor. You probably have many questions about how to better your body, your mind, and your future; I have the answers.

So, are you ready to listen? Are you ready for the rapadoo? Before I ever shared this motivational lingo with my clients and now with you, I used it on myself. At fourteen, I was fat, I stuttered, and -- though it's hard to imagine! -- my confidence was on a permanent vacation.

Life as a teenager is tough enough without looking and sounding as I did. However, by the end of that year, and especially by the end of high school, I looked and sounded like the guy I had always wanted to be. At the same time, I set myself in motion toward bigger goals.

How'd I do it? The same way you're going to do it: Look no further than inside your own head. Look to your dreams.

Put Your Dreams to Work

To many, a "dreamer" is a guy lost in the clouds, and to be called one is almost an insult. To me, however, it's a great compliment! I've proudly worn that tag since I was young, just as I've always imagined bigger and greater things than what surrounded me.

Whenever I mowed my parents' lawn -- a job I was not in love with -- I had to focus my mind someplace else; otherwise, boredom would reign, and my attitude wouldn't be too hot, either. I decided to let my imagination run wild. I was no longer just another kid mowing a lawn in Baldwin, Long Island, but the starting center fielder at Shea Stadium. If I mowed around that corner in good time, I'd shag that fly ball before it went through the gap, or I'd take third on a hit-and-run. The Mets fans would be going nuts: "Go, Jake! Go, Jake! Mow! Mow! Mowwww!"

My fans were also there for me every time I cleaned my room, made a protein shake in the morning, or went for an after-school run. Whenever my energy flagged, I'd hear a roar go through the crowd, urging me on. It's amazing what happens when you tap into your imagination: you start to tap into your potential as well. I not only got my jobs done in better time and in better fashion, I also felt more connected to my future.

One day in that future I would give something back to those fans who supported me. My company worked with the National Football League to create its answer to baseball's seventh-inning stretch, called the "NFL fitness break," between the third and fourth quarters. At the Kansas City Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium, I led eighty thousand football fans to the world's first NFL fitness break. Even with the home team down 17 points and it pouring rain, the fans joined in and roared so loudly that I wanted to strap on the pads myself! You wouldn't believe -- but you will soon -- the places your imagination can take you to in reality.

Are you ready to really go places? Your dreams can take you there if you let them. So if you're not a dreamer by now, it's time to become one -- just don't stay in those clouds! I want you to keep those dreams lofty, but I also want you to come down to Earth and make them work for you every day. That's what I ask of my clients when they train with me, and that's what I want from, and for, you.

Muscle Maker: No Limits

Do you think you can't develop washboard abs? Bulging biceps? Or fast legs? Nonsense! If you don't have these yet, it's because you haven't yet put your dreams to work! If you plug your ideas of what you want to become into my workout, you will achieve your dream shape.

Even some professional athletes haven't tested their limits, so do you think you've tested yours? Remember Dennis Rodman? At only 6 feet, 6 inches -- small for a power forward -- this wild-haired guy was the most extraordinary rebounder the NBA had ever seen, not simply because of his natural athletic ability, but because he took fitness to another level. After each game, in which he often played forty-plus minutes and would grab a dozen or often more boards, guess what he did for an encore? (No, I'm not talking about his penchant for late-night partying -- that was for later.) He would jump right on an exercise bike and go full bore for thirty minutes. No wonder he never got tired!

Understand this: I'm not urging you to push it to Dennis's level (or to dye your head neon orange!). Instead, I want to use his example to show you what the human body is capable of if given the chance. Even if you start small, you can raise your intensity level and output a little bit each time you work out, as long as you stay consistent -- and persistent.

Later in my workout you'll discover how to demand more from your body and how to get phenomenal results, all in a relatively short amount of time. For instance, we'll go way beyond the "Do one set of curls, then rest for a minute" approach. Your muscles aren't ready to rest yet! Your view of training will never be the same again.

Power Tool -- Use with Caution

Your imagination is a powerful tool. Use it to propel you in the right direction, as it can be used in a wrong way as well -- for example, thinking of all the reasons why you can't do something. Maybe you're nervous about a big game coming up and imagine a tragic blunder that could cost your team the game; or you paint a picture in your mind of the girl of your dreams laughing in your face when you finally muster up the courage to ask her out.

Always see your dreams in a positive light -- and leave the nightmares for your unconscious in the middle of the night! Replace those pathetic images with winning ones, and when those situations arise, a much better scenario will play itself out. Remember, losers think of all the ways they can fail, while winners dream of all the routes to success. Losers look back on their failures as proof that they can't cut it, while winners look forward to all the things they can accomplish.

Do you think Steven Spielberg was tempted to hang it all up after a box-office bomb? Or that John Elway considered retiring after playing poorly in the Super Bowl? Forget it! Temporarily disappointed, they regrouped quickly and used these experiences to energize themselves even more in their quest for success. Then, after accomplishing their goals, they didn't stop there. They went about duplicating their successes -- Wiels has had a string of hits, while Elway led his Denver Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl victories.

What's their secret? It's simple: They both knew how to use their imagination by learning from failure while building on their successes.

Whether you recognize it or not, memories and past experiences make a huge impact on how you approach every day and every hurdle. Whether any given part of your past is positive or negative, it's bound to continue in exactly the same way until

Edition details

• Publisher: Fireside
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743224779
• ISBN 13: 9780743224772
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154