Q: Hey Mark, I don’t like lifting weights because I don’t want to look bulky. What sort of exercise should I do? A: Rolls eyes and then starts… I hear this statement a lot. Often a pointing finger accompanies it, directed at the portraits hung from my studio walls. Nose scrunched in disgust, they tell me ‘I just want to tone up, not get bulky.’ They use the word ‘bulky’ like it is some sort of insult. It’s like ‘bulky’…
Archives for April 2014
The Personality of Success
As a personal trainer you meet some interesting personalities. None is more interesting than the personality of success, and the personality of failure. Lets start with the personality of failure. They are always late for sessions. They don’t understand the investment they have made both in time and money in personal training. They think this will just be another ‘thing’ that I once did, a conversation starter at dinner perhaps. If you ask them, they will tell you how serious they…
How to Stop Emotional Eating
Q: Hey Mark, I am an emotional eater. How do I snap out of it? A: It was Warren Buffet that said, ‘don’t expect to manage money unless you can mange your emotions’. I believe the same is true for food, health and fitness. In other words, you need to become a master of your emotions. Others may refer to it as being a master of your internal world. A mentor of mine would often say, when your inner world…
What is the Perfect Diet?
What if I could tell you The Perfect Diet? With literally thousands of diet books, programs and plans, surely someone must know it. Intrigued? Well listen closely; I know how you can be in shape all year round. You can live in optimal health, with a slender and fit body, and I promise you will never, ever go hungry. I have you almost eating out of my hand! What if I told you The Perfect Diet doesn’t exist? Don’t be…
How to Lose Weight Fast
Q: Hey Mark, I am desperate to lose weight. How do I make it happen fast? A: It’s not a nice thing to witness, someone desperately wishing a part of his or her body away. Yet I experience this a lot, in fact most days. Most often it’s with competitors one or two months after they step off the stage. Savaged from a brutal comp prep, drastic weight gain has left both their health and psych in a bad way….
How to Stop Worrying and Achieve Success
Q: Hey Mark, I am a perfectionist by nature. I feel if I eat one bad thing my whole day is ruined. Do you have any tips? A: You might think the answer to this question would be simply, share the tips, “the end”. But, because it is the Enterprise blog and I am Mark Ottobre, bare with me while I dig a little deeper. Have you ever visited the Enterprise Fitness Studio? When you walk in, you will find…
Mark Ottobre and Janet Kane: What it takes to be a Champion Figure Competitor
At 43, Janet Kane is one of Australia’s most successful female bodybuilding competitors. Her coach Mark Ottobre, is fifteen years her junior. Mark and Janet share a drive to achieve what has not been achieved and the parallels that can be drawn between them are uncanny. Some might call them driven, obsessed or ruthlessly dedicated, but the bottom line is where others see impossible, Mark and Janet see possible. Here, Mark and Janet give insight into a unique coaching relationship…
What am I suppose to eat for breakfast?
Breakfast use to be referred to as ‘breaking the fast’ in early nutrition books. There are many different levels I can answer this question. In considering ANY nutrition advice, one must first consider the context in which it is said. This is something that most people get confused with. The same piece of advice can be totally wrong depending upon the person it is being said to. For example, eating meat in the morning can be a great piece of…
