Yesterday I did a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) workout at Universal MMA in downtown Vancouver. Actually, I did two BJJ workouts: one during the lunch hour and one in the evening. The workout during the lunch hour was one of the most intense workouts I’ve ever done. Not just one of the most intense BJJ workouts, but one of the most intense workouts in general, including all of the other forms of exercise I do.

Despite the lunch hour BJJ workout being incredibly intense, at one point during the workout I recall saying to Dave (owner of Universal MMA) that “I didn’t know it was possible to have this much fun while working out.” I wasn’t kidding around. It was a serious comment. I had a blast during one of the most intense workouts I’ve ever done. Sure it was grueling and difficult, but it was way more fun than just going to the gym and lifting weights or running on the treadmill.

The easiest way to get fit and stay fit is to find an activity that you enjoy that also doubles as a fantastic workout. If you can find an activity where you’re doing one of the most intense workouts of your life, and saying “I didn’t know it was possible to have this much fun while working out”, you will truly have found yourself a workout program that will produce lasting results.

If you’re in Vancouver and are interested in learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from one of the top instructors in Canada (Shane Rice, BJJ black belt under Rickson Gracie), I highly recommend you check out Universal MMA.

The inept trainers than manage the health club in my apartment complex have posters all over the building advertising their services. There motto is “Trainer Smarter, Not Harder”. It’s a very stupid motto and I don’t recommend anyone follows it. Exercise intensity is one of the most important components to getting results from your workout program. Along with being consistent with your exercise program, and progressing from workout to workout, intensity is one of the most important aspect to getting results from your exercise efforts. If you’re not trying very hard when you’re exercising, you’re not likely going to be seeing any noticeable results from your workouts.

Train smarter? Of course. But also train harder — preferably a lot harder.

Great blog post by Jeremy Schoemaker about the dark side of gyms and health clubs.

It turns out most gyms, especially nationwide chains, have target numbers to oversell by a minimum of 1,000% and one of the gyms I talked to said they thought they were current oversold at about 2800%.

That means that even though that gym only can have room for 100 people at any given time, they have sold memberships to 2800 people. Talking to a few friends in the industry across the country they said its not unheard of for a gym to sell 50x more memberships then they could accommodate people. wow…

Now some of this makes sense because different people can only go at certain times. Some people work out before work… some during the day… some after work etc…

But the sad fact is a gym makes money by counting on you to be lazy and not go.