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That Gym Guy

That Gym Guy is a personal training and fitness studio in Providence with a focus on post-rehab fitness, weight loss and nutrition.

http://providencepersonaltrainingandfitness.com That Gym Guy Personal Training & Fitness in Providence opened its doors January 2010 in the effort to help our neighbors get fit and live a healthy lifestyle. We specialize in weight loss, nutrition and post-rehab fitness. Our approach to fitness is to offer one-on-one personal training in a comfortable and well-appointed studio. You have our undivid

ed attention to guarantee the most efficient training possible – no lines, no reason to be self-conscious, just results! The trainers at That Gym Guy are personable and knowledgeable, and you instantly feel welcome and part of the family. We ensure your safety while exercising and provide programming guaranteed to get results. That Gym Guy is clean, modern and a place you would look forward to coming to. Stop in for a tour and a free fitness consultation – we look forward to meeting you!

09/29/2021

Why do some people always leave a mess behind?

I saw a butterfly this morning. It was mostly orange with black markings. You know the one I mean. We’ve all seen them.

It was just an instance, a fleeting moment. I was looking out the third floor window of the hospital I was stuck in and it flitted by – up, down a little flutter.

It didn’t fly across the window. It just appeared and disappeared. I wanted more but it was gone. Don’t know where it went. Don’t know where it was headed.

It left no trace behind.

It made me happy, lifted my spirits. The day was only a few hours old and I was watching the dark lift with the sky just starting to brighten.

Seeing the butterfly made me feel better. That’s all. No big revelation, no earth shattering truth revealed. It was just a flash of color, there, then gone.

I wonder why some people always leave a mess behind when they fly by?

I’ve had three roommates during my hospital stay of three nights.

Chris is a firefighter who made the decision to stop treating his aggressive cancer and die with dignity and peace.

I was on the other side of the curtain when he told his wife and three daughters. I tried to be as quiet as I could.

There was a lot of crying but mostly expressions of love and support and maybe peace, relief.

He’s not an educated guy, just the High School diploma and 30 plus years on the job. Loves his work, loves his wife and kids. No mess left behind.

Chris left for hospice Sunday.

David showed up Sunday night, naked, loud, and uncooperative. He turned the TV on full volume. The CNA was cool and stuck some headphones on him.

After his nap there was a problem with the meds. There was a gap with what he wanted and what the hospital staff was willing to provide.

He lost his mind, crashed around and made a big deal of leaving if they wouldn’t get what he wanted. Lots of drama and noise, called his dad to come and get him, tries to rip out his IV, starts bleeding all over the place.

Meanwhile the docs are trying to figure out the problem with the meds, which they do right in the middle of the drama fest. He gets his drugs sends his dad back home, plays the TV loud and makes a mess.

David signed himself out in the morning. It took the staff over an hour to clean up after him.

Around 2 pm another guy shows up straight from surgery.

It’s a big production getting him off the transport and into the bed. He’s an older guy, in pain, worried, confused and falls right asleep. He snores like a true pro.

But he’s nice to the nurses, apologetic, doesn’t want to be a bother, probably not a mess, just noisy.

Some people go through life and leave a mess behind.

They don’t care that they left a mess. They don’t care about the disruption in the flow they cause and its residual effects long after they passed through. They don’t care about the people that love them and have to clean up their mess.

They don’t understand how to be a butterfly. A butterfly never leaves a mess – ever.

I think we should clean up our mess as we go so we don’t forget how to be a butterfly.

10/08/2017

A GIFT OF TIME
I know I’m impatient. I admit it. I get annoyed if I have to stop and wait. Slow people drive me crazy. I don’t understand who put all of these cars in my way when I’m driving. I’m convinced it’s a plot to make me go berserk.

When I walk on a crowded sidewalk I’m on the alert for an opening so I can shoot ahead and pass people going too slow. I act like a running back trying to make a first down, dodging and weaving for that extra yardage.

Doctor visits are the worst. They always make you wait. They even have a waiting room. Are you kidding me!

During one of my brief moments of lucidity I tried to consider my impatience rationally. I realized that most of the time I had no control over the situation that was making me impatient. My getting annoyed didn’t move the traffic along. It didn’t get me in to see the doctor sooner and it certainly didn’t help my wife get out the door quicker. It served no useful purpose. All my impatience did was making me think and act like a lunatic.

The sequence would go like this; first I would get impatient then I would become annoyed and then I would descend into a state of utter lunacy.

Since I had no control or effect on the situation triggering my impatience perhaps I could exert some control on my mental state of impatience and all of its deleterious effects on me and my surroundings.

What a difference. I now try to get maximum satisfaction from every minute. I can’t control the delays but I can control how I use the unexpected “Gift of Time” created by the delay.

“Waiting time” is now bonus time where I can relax and meditate, plan or do something I would not otherwise have done.

I like to think of my time as always “On Time”. It’s not about accomplishing something every minute but rather relishing each minute for its gift of satisfaction and peace.

09/25/2016

RIDE THE RIVER

I like Tony. He trains with me three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He lives across the street in the grey and white house with the nice garden in front so he just has to walk over. He stopped in on a beautiful late spring morning and asked for my help.

His appointment is at 8:30am. The thing is he never comes at 8:30. Sometimes he’s early, sometimes he’s late. Once he even came on Saturday. I said “Tony it’s Saturday. We don’t work out on Saturday.”

Tony wears a fedora. He never takes it off. Even when we work out it never leaves his head. He looks pretty good in his fedora. I don’t think I could pull off wearing a fedora but on Tony it works.

Tony works out in a fedora, button down dress shirt, slacks and brown shoes. He keeps his I Phone in his shirt pocket. He asked me once if he should get workout clothes. I told him no I like his outfit.

Tony is 90 and he misses his wife Gloria. She passed away a few years ago. He mentions her from time to time. He lives with his daughter and son-in-law now. They have two children. Their daughter is a freshman in high school and she dances ballet. Tony says the food is good.

Tony’s brother, John, has a 22 foot boat with a big outboard motor and likes to fish. Tony drives the boat while John fishes. Afterwards they go out to eat. I’m glad I’m not on the water while they are out and about.

Tony’s hearing isn’t the best so I have to talk loud to him and he can’t see very well out of his right eye; wet macular degeneration. He had a “heart thing a while back where they did something”.

He mentioned he was thinking about getting another car because he doesn’t like to bother people for rides. I told him it was probably a good thing he stopped driving when he did. He is starting up with Uber.

Tony thought it was pretty cool when he realized he had been receiving a pension for more years than he had worked. I told him he earned it.

He likes to watch basketball games with his son-in-law and now that it’s football season we talk Patriots. He is pretty upset with the NFL over this whole “Brady thing”.

He loves his morning cup of coffee and thinks it would be a good idea if we moved his appointment to 11:00 because he would be more awake. I told him I didn’t think it would make any difference what time we picked since he treated it more like a suggestion than an appointment.

Tony brings his clothes to the cleaners, walks down to the CVS drugstore, on the weekends he occasionally has lunch at the Ivy Tavern or Hope Street Pizza.

He started working out with me because he wasn’t happy with his walking. He said he was a little unsteady and got tired. He was having trouble getting his body up from the bed. I told him he was 90 and if he got tired it was ok to rest for a minute.

He is steadier on his feet now and doesn’t fall out of bed anymore and we play catch with a 6 lb. medicine ball.

There is a message here somewhere. What do you think?

Ride The River by JJ Cale

“Floatin’ down that old river, boy
All my worries far behind
Floatin’ down that old river, boy
Leave old memories way behind
Yesterday is slowly fadin’
All my life I’ve been waitin’
For this time
Ride the river."

06/29/2016

"17"

IF IT IS IMPORTANT DO IT EVERY DAY

“Spenser was there at my first and now he’s here at my last. Bye.”

17 years ago to the day Tony Hawk did something no one else had ever done. He was the first to execute a “900”: Two-and-a-half mid air revolutions on a skateboard, 900 degrees of revolution.

He did this in San Francisco during the 1999 Summer X Games. He needed twelve attempts to successfully execute the trick. He had crashed hard ten times and time had expired. He kept going. They gave him the gold. Did I mention no one had ever done this before?

He was 31 years old and had been skating professionally for 17 years and then he retired from the sport.

Two days ago, June 27, 2016, 17 years later, he did the “900” again. He was 48 years old.

In the video documenting this latest attempt at the “900”, Tony describes the first time he executed it as “the apex of my competitive career.”

That is an amazing statement and gives testimony to just how challenging and difficult this particular trick is to land. He has won 9 gold medals, 3 silver and 2 bronze competing against the very best professional skateboarders the world has to offer in 7 Summer X Games. He was the National Skateboard Association World Champion 12 consecutive years.

He has had an illustrious competitive career. But executing the “900” was the Apex.

Only 13 other people have landed a “900” – ever.

I watched the video in awe at the man’s determination. He kept dropping in and crashing. The sixth attempt he landed hard, real hard, struck his head. The seventh attempt was bad. It took something out of him. He sat for awhile, very still.

The eighth attempt I knew, this is the one. His approach and preparation was different. I can only describe it as calmness, a quiet to his movements.

His years of practice, his competitive experience, his confidence and conviction all came together and he nailed it!

He spiked his gear, helmet and pads, walked over and embraced his son, Spenser, and walked out. Done.

I had to wonder; why? Why did he do it? Why was it so important to him to prove he could still do it? What did it mean?

In the video he is driving to the skateboard facility and he states “because I feel like I can.”

That can’t be the only reason, a simple test. How good am I? Do I still have it?

There has to be more. Perhaps the answer is his son Spenser standing against the wall of the facility silently watching his dad crash over and over.

He is the only spectator present. This is significant. People would have paid to be there. CBS, ESPN would have put up millions to produce it. Nope, just his son.

Perhaps the answer is inspiration and determination.

Tony Hawk has been on a skateboard every day since he was 10 years old. Every day! Even now he skates every day. No matter where he goes he has a skateboard with him.

Imagine, 38 years of practicing, honing his craft pushing the limits of what has been done. How many times did he crash and get up and push on? Creating and innovating and challenging his abilities. And then executing one of the most difficult athletic feats ever attempted on a skateboard.

That’s determination and I’m inspired.

If it is important do it every day.

06/09/2016

NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO CARES, NO WORRIES

Bruce is four years old and lives next door. He is a pretty cool little guy.

He doesn’t like to wear shoes so he takes them off.

He runs around and plays and digs holes and fills them up all day long in his bare feet. He really likes to move dirt around. We’re talking serious excavation work.

He doesn’t like to wear his shirt either. At the first opportunity he snatches it off. His mother tries to keep him clothed but it’s a losing proposition. After a while he is so dirty there is no point putting the shirt back on.

He has a happy little grin as he purposely runs from one thing to another. He almost always has multiple dig sites in operation at the same time.

His face is smudged and streaked with dirt and he smells a little like freshly turned earth that is being prepared for planting.

One of Bruce’s heroes, along with Captain America and Batman, is Muhammad Ali.

After his daily bath, a necessity, the bath water turning as black as Texas crude by the time he is done, he puts on his little bathrobe tightens the belt and runs into his bedroom shouting Ali’s famous line; “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!”

His dad related to me how he told Bruce he had some sad news; “Muhammad Ali had gone to heaven.”

Bruce got a little thoughtful and then said “Andre the Giant is in heaven too, so it’s ok he’ll be with him.”

A half hour later, Bruce goes up to his dad, very serious, and quietly asks; “Dad, aren’t Roy Orbison and Bob Marley in heaven too?” (“Ooby Dooby” is Bruce’s favorite song. Go figure.) “Yes Bruce they are.” His dad replied a little cautiously.

“That heaven must be a pretty awesome place!” Bruce announced as he spun around and zipped back to playing.

Worry is a funny thing. It’s not real. It has no substance, no mass but unchecked it can make us physically sick, mentally deranged and motivationally paralyzed.

Worry is just a fictional soap opera of disaster replayed endlessly in our head.

I like Bruce’s approach: Change the station and get back to business. How you think about things is really how things affect us. Our mindset is our reality.

I’m going barefoot more often now; it helps me keep things in perspective.

(“Pretty Woman” is my favorite Roy Orbison song.)

05/18/2016

WHY WE NEED HUGS.

I’m out of dog biscuits. This is a serious problem and I don’t even own a dog.

Every day Sugar stops by. He is a rescue dog from Tennessee. His family asked for a forty pound dog and they sent Sugar.

He is all white, half of his tail is gone and he is missing a tooth. I think things were tough in Tennessee.

Sugar is a first time dog for his family. He takes care of twin five year old girls and their nine year old sister plus mom and dad.

Sugar has been around for about a year now and we’re not sure how old he is. But he now weighs 125 pounds and likes to sleep in the sun. Life is good in Rhode Island.

The rescue people forgot to mention he is mostly Great Pyrenees. Oops!

Sugar has a very wide body, his head is enormous, he drools and shakes great gobs of dog spit everywhere and sheds enough fur to make a sweater daily.

He really likes to visit me. At night when my studio is closed and all the lights are off he still stops by. He sits down and won’t leave.

It takes his human seven or eight minutes to convince him I’m not there and to continue with his walk.

I’ve cut him down to one biscuit from his usual two. He needs to slim down a little.

I’m pretty sure it’s the biscuits, but I think Sugar likes me. He puts his head between my legs and worms his way forward until he is half in front and half behind and then he leans on me. He always leans right, onto my left leg and looks back and up at me.

I think it’s a hug. I always laugh and feel good after; so it must be a hug.

Hugs make me feel better. Sometimes when people are sad if you hug them they feel better and then it’s easier for them to talk about the thing that’s making them sad.

Children are the best huggers. Their love is all around them and when they hug you it surrounds you too.

When you hug someone you love, life pauses for just a moment as your souls connect and there is peace and that makes a difference.

05/03/2016

I Am Engulfed In Noise That Makes It Hard For Me To Hear

A friend died today. I couldn’t do anything about it. His death was inevitable. He was sick for a year. His heart couldn’t keep up. He knew he was dying soon. He just didn’t know which day.

I will miss him. I didn’t know him really well. We played baseball in the same league but on different teams.

I never met his wife or children. I didn’t know what he did for work or where he lived or his birthday.

I shared moments of time with him at the baseball field. I’m sad that there are no more moments to share.

When we were at the field together he would encourage me and praise my play. We would talk about our teams and how much we enjoyed playing.

We would connect for brief moments and communicate.

It didn’t seem like much, just casual conversation, nothing too deep. But I realize now how impactful those conversations were to me.

He always made me feel good. I think this was because he always offered and never took. He stopped and heard, not just listened.

It wasn’t the topic or the words that made the difference. It was the moment of time shared that changed my spirit.

I am engulfed in noise that makes it hard for me to hear. My friend taught me how to hear.

The noise will always be there but this moment I share is now. I can hear you now because I have stopped the conversation in my head and filled it with your words.

I will miss sharing moments with my friend.

03/21/2016

Sometimes we make things more complicated then they need to be.

I didn’t know what was going on. I was seeing spots, I felt nauseous. The pain in my head was unbelievable.

I thought “I’m having a stroke”. But I’m only 23 it can’t be a stroke. Maybe it’s a tumor. I was fine all day teaching school and even that evening coaching the wrestling team. We had lost a close match and I remember being upset and then my head exploded.

I barely made it home and onto the couch. My wife was very concerned and kept trying to figure out what was wrong, Had I hit my head, maybe fallen down?

After listening to my pitiful moaning from the couch, where I was curled up in the fetal position, incessantly complaining about the team’s performance, my wife made her diagnosis. “You have a migraine headache, you idiot.”

I didn’t even know what a migraine was never mind how bad they could make you feel. It was awful. And I had given myself one.

I admit to being a bit naïve and self-centered at the time and tended to take things personally. I was totally committed to winning and emotionally vested in outcomes. All I thought about was winning. Every loss was an emotional earthquake which got replayed one thousand times in my head.

Clearly I was a lunatic. Because when we won it was just a quick handshake, congratulations and moving on. I certainly didn’t celebrate the wins like I agonized over the losses.

Thankfully I had married an intelligent woman who made an astute comment (not the idiot remark).

She said “you can’t want it more than they do”.

My wife’s insightful comment set me on a better path. I stopped putting so much value on the outcome and started appreciating the process of getting to the outcomes.

In order to win I knew we all had to get better. Getting better at what we did became the focus instead of winning.

As we got better we won. (Simple, not complicated.)

The tendency to complicate things adds a lot of pressure and angst to our lives. The reality is we all have to be somewhere, doing something all the time.

If you are unhappy where you are and doing what you are doing the solution is simple; move on. The solution is simple, not easy. Any change requires effort and planning. A great deal of effort applied persistently. You don’t give up you just get better.

Most of us should live for 70 to 80 years, 75 is about the average. If you are 40 or older you have already played the first half and are now playing the second half. (If you are 75 or older congratulations you are in overtime.)

A good coach gathers his team together at half time and makes adjustments to the game plan to give the team a chance to win the second half.

What does your scoreboard say? If the score is tied or you are behind it’s time to make some changes to your life game plan.

If any one or all of the symptoms I list are true for you than you need a new game plan. Here are ten reasons why you should adjust your life game plan.
If you are frequently or always:

1. Tired
2. In Pain
3. Weak and getting weaker
4. Depressed
5. Fat and getting fatter
6.Angry, Irritable
7.Over Worked
8.Getting Poor Sleep
9. Sick
10. Confused, Forgetful

All of these symptoms are improvable. Any or all of these symptoms make our lives smaller and keep us from fully enjoying and experiencing our potential.

I don’t know how long I will live. I just want to be able to live all of it with few limitations or restrictions.

“In order to win we have to get better.”

The good news is “better happens over time”. We don’t have to have perfect nutrition. We just have to eat a little better more often.

We don’t have to have the perfect exercise plan. We just need a little better one than the current one.

Simple is always better than complicated. James Altucher talks about “being one percent better than yesterday”. I like that approach.

Collect a lot of little victories celebrating each one. Let them add up and propel you forward to more significant gains.

Running a marathon is a daunting task. Walking to the next telephone pole is doable. Tomorrow I’ll add one more telephone pole.

03/03/2016

HIDING IS NOT SHINING
Every Sunday morning a young family walks by my studio, Mom and Dad with a little boy and little girl in tow. I think they are on their way to breakfast, but I’m not sure.

The boy is a little bit older than his sister and very adventurous. He likes to spontaneously take off running with a mischievous grin on his face.

His dad watches him get a little bit ahead and then quickens his pace to catch up and keep him safe. After a moment the little girl decides that her big brother had a good idea and takes off running after him.

She is very tiny, just a peanut, and she runs with tiny little steps, arms outstretched for balance laughing the whole time.

Mom follows along behind ever watchful, patient, but with that look on her face; the “there they go again look”. She had everyone nice and neat, orderly marching along and then “bam”, chaos!

I like to watch them and see how long before the boy takes off running. It’s great. He always does.

I am grateful for this family that walks by and brings me a moment of joy. They enrich my life and make me better. This is a wonderful gift they offer without even being aware of it.

The little boy and girl are fearless. They decide that running is a great idea and off they go. I love that they aren’t worried about cars backing out of driveways, uneven sidewalk cracks tripping them up, falling down getting dirty or hurt. Nope, running looks like fun and they take off at full speed.

How cool is that, taking immediate action on an idea without any fear. Just go and see what happens.

The kids don’t even consider the potential negative consequences. They are completely purpose driven.

The joy of running, that gleeful moment of reckless abandon as they break free of their parent’s cocoon of safety and control, that is what is important. The feeling of freedom, the sense of I’m doing this on my own, is what drives them to cut loose.

Have you ever had the experience of being at a wedding and the band is playing a great song and you want to dance? But then you think “I’m not a great dancer”. “What will people think?”

This is fear keeping you from doing something fun and exhilarating. It seems like we run into these little roadblocks all the time.

It’s just noise in your head blocking the path you desire. If you listen to the noise it just gets louder and louder and your life gets smaller and smaller.

Hiding is not shining. What sets you apart, what makes you different is what makes you interesting.

“What will people think” is limiting thinking. Fear should not dictate our actions. Instead seek satisfaction and joy from purpose driven actions.

A purpose driven life is exciting and fulfilling. Whatever you do, do on purpose. All great accomplishments occur on purpose.

Think “I choose to do this” instead of “I have to do this. Choosing to do something frees your mind and spirit. “I have to do this” is accompanied by resentment and avoidance.

Share your gifts with the rest of us. Start running. Take off at full speed. What you want is just ahead and there is no room for worry or fear.

Sometimes you have to slow down before the turn because skinned knees hurt; but only for a little while and they don’t really stop you from running.

01/14/2014

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” John A. Shedd

I grew up on the water across the Thames River from the United States Coast Guard Academy. I remember the excitement whenever The Eagle would set sail from its mooring in New London and head out into Long Island Sound. The Eagle is the Coast Guards tall ship used to train the cadets seamanship. It was a majestic and incredible sight under full sail. We would stop whatever we were doing and run down to the rocks to watch the ship head out to sea.

Ships have a purpose. They are designed and built to make a voyage, not stay safely anchored in a harbor. Whether it is war, commerce, recreation or exploration a ship must set sail to fulfill its purpose.

I think we are very much like ships. We are also designed to undertake a long journey. We have this wondrous body with its amazing capacity to heal itself and adapt to just about any stress it encounters. But, just as a ship at rests rots; a body that isn’t moving withers and dies. Our bodies stay strong and healthy only when they are in motion. And like a ship we have this body for a purpose.

We are supposed to be on a voyage of our own choosing. Ships aren’t supposed to be safe and neither are we. Our purpose is only achieved when we have left the safety of the harbor.

Dream big, cast off the lines holding you in place, hoist the anchor and set your sails. You will soon be making headway.

01/07/2014

LAUNDRY AND IT’S EFFECT ON THE UNIVERSE

Here’s a thought:

Do you RAISE your children or HELP them grow up?

Think about that for a minute.

I happened to mention to my boot campers that today was laundry day.
A spirited discussion ensued. Who knew it was such an interesting and controversial topic.

Apparently laundry is fraught with a myriad of challenges and the potential for disaster and mayhem is right there on razor’s edge.

Socks can go missing, underwear can spontaneously change color, nylon stockings can mysteriously materialize hanging outside of the leg of the shorts you are wearing to the bar-b-que, not to mention the angst and dismay when the supply of clean undergarments has been exhausted, dryers have caught on fire, washers fill but won’t drain and then there is the whole issue of lint; where did it come from, how did it get there, what do you do with it.

A question arose regarding children and laundry. Do you let them do laundry? When do they start doing laundry? Should they do laundry based on all the inherent dangers associated with turning smelly clothes clean? After all clothes are expensive, there is only one washing machine and dryer and measuring soap is complicated.

Here’s the thing:

Laundry is one of the tests that the universe uses to see if you are ready for success and happiness.

Laundry is perpetual and relentless. It just keeps coming and never lets up. It can take over your car, bedroom, kitchen and life.

Laundry exposes weakness and lays bare functional dysfunction (you still have clothes to wear, they just smell bad).

Successful management of laundry aligns you with the universe and prepares you to accept success and happiness into your life.

So teach the little children laundry. Let them experience the challenge and wonder of smelly to clean. Help them to master the frustration of folding and filing (putting clothes away).

They will become one with the universe and more importantly not be the smelly kid at school.

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