Attention Trainers- Fast Track to Fitness Business Success

Have passion for what you do.

Do what you love and the money will follow.

Work Hard and success will come.

Dream big, think good thoughts and life will fall in to place.

All great ideas....but all LIES.

I know that some of you reading this blog are a lot like me- love what you do, very passionate about helping people and would do it for free. No matter how passionate you are, no matter how much heart and soul you put in to each and every day....when it comes to business you HAVE to learn a system to make it work. And if you are in the fitness industry as your career long term and want to help as many people as possible, you HAVE to learn how to run a business. Business skills not only help you with your career but will help you in life.

Alwyn and I opened our gym 10 years ago and we had passion. In fact, when we first opened we decided we wouldn't focus on sales, numbers or selling anything because if we got people in shape and were good at what we do our business would be successful on it's own. Love what you do and the money will follow.....right?

Very quickly we realized....we weren't making enough to pay our bills, we were working insane hours, working VERY Hard, and there was no end in sight unless we changed a few things. We started to read every business book we could, hire business consultants and attend seminars and conferences on business and started to learn how to run a business. In addition we learned from every single mistake we made (and there were a lot of them, 55 Mistakes at least- read about them in our book and don't make the same ones)

If you learn how to run a business, you can help a lot more people and fulfill your passion even more. But you have to get your nose out of the exercise and training books and get yourself off of learning new exercises(You know enough exercises by now...) and on to how to run a business!

At this point our business does not depend on us. We have 250 people who come through our doors weekly who we are changing their lives with the systems we have in place. We have an amazing team who follow the system. Alwyn and I don't have to be there. Not only that but every month we are in the magazines with editors calling us monthly as fitness experts and Alwyn and I each have published books with major publishers and speak around the world on our passion- fitness. Not only that but recently we were quoted by IHRSA as Business Experts (this is a huge milestone for a couple of trainers:)) - check it out.

We have built a very successful fitness business that supports the life we want to live and you can learn EVERYTHING from us- every mistake, every secret, how to start and build your own fitness facility, how to become a highly sought after expert in the industry and how to reach and change as many lives as possible.

We are now teaching the exact system we use at our gym. We are teaching EVERYTHING we have learned over the ten years in business. We can save you so much time and so many mistakes.

Alwyn and I feel that at this point the way for us to help even more people is to reach out to the other trainers who are where we were ten years ago and help them to create businesses where they too can have hundreds of clients changing their lives. We want to give you what we call "Aha moments" where you have one idea that completely changes your life and your business. We have been in your shoes and we want to help you to build a successful business.

We guarantee we can fast track your business and you success in this industry!

If you are a trainer (or thinking about switching careers) who loves what you do and wants to be the best at it, Do Not Miss this opportunity! If only we had something like this when we first started out!

In two weeks we will be in Rhode Island. If you are anywhere near the area DO NOT MISS THIS. Or check out the flight deals on Virgin America- only $39 bucks from a lot of places to Boston(about an hour drive to RI)- No excuse! And you can get CEU's too! And it is a tax write off- so basically it is Free!

Start 2010 armed with the information you need to fast forward your career and

CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Click Here to Sign Up Now and we will see you in 2 weeks!

The Female Body Breakthrough Vs. Afterburn

I have had this question in my inbox more than once this past week so thought I should address it.

"What is the difference between Afterburn and The Female Body Breakthrough? Both of them have workouts to do and nutrition to follow? Which one should I get?"

The Female Body Breakthrough is the most up to date product we currently have of what we do in our gym. Afterburn when it was written was exactly what we do in our gym and it still works very well but since then we have changed the way we do our warm ups and our core exercises. We have also changed the way we do interval training with our clients. We are constantly upgrading what we do sticking to one of our core values as a company which is to "Keep Leading."

They are not the same program. I wrote The Female Body Breakthrough Program from scratch but based on the same philosophies as After burn so the similarities will be there. If you have done Afterburn and are looking for more then check out my book. Plus my book is written very specifically for women.

But they are both based on the same principles- full body programs, using bang for your buck exercises in a circuit fashion, changing the reps and exercises every 4 weeks. A program that works and has been shown to work over and over and over again.

Wouldn't you be skeptical if you picked up my book and it looked nothing like Afterburn which is what we have been saying works? The products we produce are based on real programs that were done with real people and the principles of these programs, what makes them effective is exactly the same so the actual programs are not going to be too different from each other.

What's the decision- get both! My book is less than $15.00.

Click here to buy now and take advantage of Amazon's Black Friday sales!

Strategize to Survive the Holidays!

The holidays are here and I am sure this week has you running around getting everything ready and making sure everyone else is taken care of. Stop and take a deep breathe and make sure you are taking a few moments for yourself each day.

Last week at my book launch party we had a discussion on surviving the holidays and we approached it as a strategy session. Having strategies (one of the Fit Female Credos) is key this time of year. The key take aways from this seminar-

1. Think ahead the next 7 weeks through the holidays. What splurges should you absolutely plan on? We actually as a group pulled out a calendar and figured out that we had 43 days left to get through the holidays (as of Thursday last week). At 5 meals a day, that is 215 meals which means you have 21.5 meals over the next 7 weeks that you can splurge on and still see your body change. So over the holidays one of the strategies is instead of looking at a week at a time, look at the next 2 months and think ahead. We went through the calendar and put an X on each meal we knew we needed to plan a splurge. We put two X's on Thanksgiving and an X the day before and an X the day after. Then we put 8 X's for either each night of Hannukah or to use over Christmas eve and Christmas day since for most people 5 X's on Christmas day is not unheard of and having 3 on Christmas Eve wouldn't be out of the question. We put an X on one day in December as a baking day and we put an X on every Saturday night in December. This still left us with about 3 X's to use how we choose and we decided to keep them in our back pocket for those unexpected occasions that pop up over the holidays.

Bottom Line- You can enjoy every food you love, every experience you want to have and everything about the holidays and not completely blow it. Planning ahead is the key and having a strategy. Pull out your journal or calendar and put your X's in place now and commit to sticking to splurging where there is an X and otherwise eating clean, foods that make you feel good 90% of the next 7 weeks.

If you aren't sure what your 90% should look like check out Precision Nutrition. We use their system at our gym. TODAY ONLY they are having a HUGE sale(and they never ever do sales seriously) of $99.00 for you to get the entire Precision Nutrition system including their Gourmet Recipes book plus a one year access to the website and one year in their Results Tracker Program plus FREE shipping. Take advantage of this but only TODAY!

2. Most people go into black and white thinking, on or off, good or bad....or maybe this sounds familiar, "I may as well not even try and just start in January." DO NOT DO THIS! You will be sorry when you have an extra 5-10 pounds to drop in January. Instead plan ahead by using the above strategy and come out of the holidays feeling fabulous at your New Years Eve party! Remember you want to be the Bitch this year at your New Year's Party, don't you? Be Inspiring Totally Confident and Hot!

3. Don't drop your workouts this time of year. The only reason you can have 21 splurges and still change your body is because you are consistent with your workouts and keeping your metabolism revving. Make a commitment to get to the gym at least twice a week and I would recommend getting it done early before anything else gets in the way.

Remember - It isn't what you eat between Christmas and New Years, it's what you eat between New Years and Christmas!

If you aren't getting my video coaching sessions go here to sign up for them -

Click Here to sign up now

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

What size are your Thermometer Jeans?

Thermometer Jeans are your pair of jeans that tell you whether you are Hot or not. They are a much more effective and powerful measurement than the scale. They will absolutely tell you if your body is changing. As a trainer I have my clients bring their jeans in so I can hang on to them to keep them accountable. If you want to change your body instead of having an amount of weight you want to lose, have a pair of jeans you want to get in to. I have had clients lose 2 jean sizes in 8-12 weeks consistently. Using a pair of jeans instead of the scale works!

So what size are your thermometer jeans? This is the key. Get your own size jeans that are the jeans you want to fit in to. I don't care if you are a size 12 getting in to a size 8 or if you re a size 20 getting into 16's, your thermometer jeans are your thermometer jeans and are about two sizes smaller from where you are.

Many times women put unrealistic expectations on themselves wanting to look like the celebrities we see on TV.

Ok! Magazine printed an article on celebrity jean sizes. Pretty interesting at how tiny celebs are and how unrealistic the expectations we place on ourselves to look and be the size they are. Keep in mind, the average woman's clothing size is a 12 to 14 or a Jean Size of 30 to 32. So below average would be a size 8 to 10, Jean Size of 28 to 29. But these celebs are way below average....most being a size ZERO.

Check out how tiny they are-

Jennifer Anniston

Size 0 to 2

Jean Size - 26

Jessica Alba

Size 0 to 2

Jean Size- 26

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Size 2

Jean Size - 27

Kim Kardashian

Size- 4

Jean Size- 27

Eva Longoria

Size 0

Jean Size- 24

Some that have the appearance that might be more realistic-

Brooke Shields

Size- n/a

Jeans- 29

Jennifer Lopez

Size- n/a

Jeans- 28

Mariah Carey

Size- 6 or 8

Jeans- 29

What size are your thermometer Jeans? I know that being a size 0, 2 or even a 4 is not realistic for me. My Thermometer Jeans are a Size 28 which is a size 6 or 8 and I feel great that size and know that trying to be a size ZERO will never happen and I would be miserable trying to get there! I am happy in my fit female body looking good in my thermometer Jeans, fueling my body with food and not feeling deprived!

Get your Thermometer Jeans out where you can use them as your measurement and stop looking at the scale and stop comparing yourself to celebrities and instead get to your fit female body in your thermometer jeans!

Becoming the B I T C H

Maybe you have read some of the posts about my new book,The Female Body Breakthrough: The Revolutionary Strength-Training Plan for Losing Fat and Getting the Body You Want

or saw the name of the interview I did with The FitCast: Fitness and Nutrition PodCast and thought....gosh, calling yourself a Bitch or wanting to become the Bitch seems very negative and derogatory. Maybe this has turned you off from picking up my book because you aren't interested in becoming a bitch or a chick....

Well, let me explain myself if this is the case. Anything taken out of context may seem negative or derogatory so I want to make sure you get the bigger picture so that you "get" what becoming the BITCH means and "get" the message within my book and share it with as many women as possible. I don't want you to think this is just another Skinny Chick or Skinny Bitch book- it isn't. It is based on very solid research (two pages of references) along with real world stories with before and after pictures and my own experience. But it is written in a very girlfriend to girlfriend voice to make the message very approachable and understandable to as many women as possible.

First of all, let's set up the scene- You are at a holiday party or a social gathering and maybe you are feeling less than fabulous, in fact a little frumpy. Instead of getting your slinky holiday dress out to wear you opted for the frumpy sweater because you didn't want anything that would cling to your stomach too much. Attending the party, it never fails, a woman possibly an acquaintance of yours will show up feeling fabulous wearing her sleek dress and looking amazing.

Maybe YOU have never thought this but I am sure you have had a friend say it to you.... "Did you see so and so? What a bitch showing up in her slinky dress looking amazing like that? What's her problem anyway?"

My point- When you are feeling frumpy and less than fabulous it is hard not to resent someone who looks amazing in their party dress and start to gossip about what starvation diet she must be on or how she has it so easy. Instead of resenting her and coming up with reasons why she is fabulous and you are frumpy, instead become her. Become the woman in the room that the other women are calling a "bitch." Be inspired by her.

BITCH now stands for Be Inspiring Totally Confident and Hot! So, I use the word Bitch in a very positive sense. Basically I want women who read my book to become the women the other women envy with the goal being that you inspire them to make their own breakthrough.

Get The Female Body Breakthrough: The Revolutionary Strength-Training Plan for Losing Fat and Getting the Body You Want Now and Become Inspiring Totally Confident and Hot!

Feeling Less Intimidated in the Gym

Just picked up the latest Women's Health and saw the article they have on feeling less intimidated in the gym. Jen Ator did a great job with it but I wanted to add my two cents to help women to feel less intimidated in the gym as they are picking up my book and getting ready to hit the weights. So listen up girls!

1. Have a plan. Go into the gym with your plan of attack. If you know exactly what you are going to do you can confidently walk over to the weight training area and get to work. Wear your headphones so you don't even have to acknowledge that there are intimidating men around. Go into your zone and get your workout done. Photo copy phase one of the Fit Female Workout plan if you don't want to carry the book around with you (although I am hoping that gyms across America have women walking around carrying my book with it lying open in the weight training area). If you don't have your copy of the book yet- What are you waiting for?!?!?!?!

Click Here to get it NOW!!!

2. No judgements! Know that the men in the gym will only be intrigued by a confident woman walking in to the gym and heading to the weights instead of to her usual stair master or treadmill. The men in the gym won't mind if a female starts encroaching on their area especially if she has a plan and knows what she is doing. Men will welcome us into the weight training area and soon enough we will out number them. That's how it is in our gym. Check it out-

3. Even if you are terrified and totally intimidated there is a saying- You should do something that makes you uncomfortable once a day- Get out of your comfort zone, it is good for you! And know that it won't last long and probably you'll start to enjoy yourself and feel comfortable. Know that your workout will take you less than an hour so get in, get it done and get out of there.

4. Stay focused on the fact that you are boosting your metabolism and going to have an after burn effect that will burn calories for the next 24-48 hours and don't worry about what anyone else in the gym thinks.

5. If you are still not sure about hitting the weights at your gym tonight then all you need is a bench and some dumbbells and you can get everything done in Phase One of The Female Body Breakthrough Program. Grab a bench and some dumbbells and get a corner to yourself and get it done.

Soon enough your body will be transforming before your eyes, you'll be hooked on the feeling of empowerment and confidence lifting weights gives you and the gym will be your domain.

Come on girls! Let's take over the strength training floor and stop letting those men intimidate us! There are way more benefits for us to lift weights than there are for men.

I have decided to continue offering the FREE GIFT of Video Coaching for ANYONE who bought my book so if you missed out last week you can still take advantage of Video Coaching with me.

Click Here to get Free Video Coaching with me for 3 months to get your Female Body Breakthrough Started!

That moment

The reason I do what I do is to see that moment in my client's when they realize they CAN do whatever they set out to do. That moment when they have an "Aha!" and finally figure out what works to feel the way they want to feel - confident and empowered. This weekend one of the members of my website, www.thefemalebodybreakthrough.com, did her first Powerlifting Competition. She had trained for marathons in the past never achieving her fit female body.

Watch this video and you'll get to experience her moment. You can also see that her body has transformed to be fit, toned and smaller than the picture of her below when she was running.

What she says about her moment-

"Thanks Rachel! I love that I finally have a "thing" that I can do, I enjoy doing it and am looking forward to getting better in! Not to boot that it makes me smaller while doing it! I attached a before picture of me this summer before I started in your training program. Of course it would be of me running in a race and proving that running doesn't make you smaller!"- Roxane G.

Thank you so much, Roxane, for letting me be a part of your journey and your moment! Keep it up girl! You rock and will inspire others!

The Female Body Breakthrough on Tour.....

In this day and age when a book comes out instead of a Book Tour....I went on a Blog Tour! And it was so much fun being able to share my message with so many audiences at once without even getting on a plane. I owe a big thank you to all of my hosts. Each one of them went above and beyond my expectations.

Go on my blog tour for yourself and see why you need to get my book if you haven't already. You don't even have to pack any bags or get on a plane!

StrengthCoach.com Blog

The Blog of Valerie Waters

Precision Nutrition

The Blog of Coach Dos

Turbulence Training Blog

Nick Grantham's Blog

Pat, Nick and Jim

The Blog of Thomas Plummer

Skwigg Blog

Naked Nutrition Blog

Stumptuous

My very own Husband, Alwyn Cosgrove's Blog

Athletic Body System

Slim People in Progress Blog

The Blog of Paula Owens

The Blog of Cassandra Forsythe

The Fit Cast

Fitness and Spice

If you haven't got the book yet, what are you waiting for?

A message for you about my book launch

A message for you....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUZTvuCjuZk&feature=youtube_gdata

Go to www.orderthefemalebodybreakthroughtoday.com

My book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble!!!

Check it out! My book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble! Today it was released!

**** SPECIAL BONUS

Buy The Female Body Breakthrough by going to www.orderthefemalebodybreakthroughtoday.com on November 12th and collect your FREE GIFTS! You will get a poster with The Fit Female Credo mailed to you along with Video Coaching with Rachel Cosgrove to get you started on your journey and after buying the book on the 12th Rachel will share her #1 Secret to get you started along with 5 Fitness, Nutrition and Mindset related E-books to give you even more support on your journey.

IMPORTANT- The FREE GIFTS are only available if you buy the book from Amazon on November 12th.

Week One from Flab to Abs

Week One after my Half Ironman went great. I bumped up my intensity and dropped my volume and I can already see my flab turning to abs. This past week I did 2 strength workouts (taken directly from my book) , 2 metabolic workouts (also taken directly from my book) and 1 interval session on the treadmill along with eating what I have in my book as the Base Phase Nutrition Rules which basically means eating "clean" 90% of the time. I did have 4 splurges including Mexican food one night complete with chips and Guac(my fav!) and a Corona.

This week I managed to lose 2 pounds of fat and a pound of water while starting to put some of the muscle I may have lost back on. On my way back to my Fit Female Body! Let me tell you- The programs and philosophies in my book absolutely work and I am real world proof! I know they work but it always amazes me how when I switch gears from doing high volume endurance training to strength training and metabolic workouts how quickly my body responds.

If you have been spinning your wheels or doing hours and hours of cardio - STOP! Get my book this week and switch gears and get your fit female body! You'll feel better within a week and already start to see your body transform.

**** SPECIAL BONUS
Buy The Female Body Breakthrough by going to www.orderthefemalebodybreakthroughtoday.com on Thursday, November 12th and collect your FREE GIFTS! You will get a poster with The Fit Female Credo mailed to you along with Video Coaching with Rachel Cosgrove for the first 3 months of your journey to get you started and after buying the book on the 12th Rachel will share her #1 Secret to get you started along with 5 Fitness, Nutrition and Mindset related E-books to give you even more support on your journey.

IMPORTANT- The FREE GIFTS are only available if you buy the book from Amazon on November 12th.

A few women at our gym "wasting" squat racks...

This is an average day in our gym. Women lifting and all looking good doing it! This is how all gyms should be with women feeling uninimidated, totally comfortable and transforming their bodies feeling confident and empowered.....

"Waste a Squat Rack"

A few weeks ago I did a seminar at one of Thomas Plummer's events, The Rockstar Personal Development event he put on in Chicago. I was speaking to a room full of gym owners and I spoke about what women will be looking for in a gym over the next year and how there will be a shift. I pointed out that over the last year I have been asked by magazine's such as Women's Health and Shape to provide information on how to help women to feel less intimidated in the gym. I was also offered two offers for my book on strength training for women and I recently contributed to a book that will be out next year with the Editor in Chief of Women's Health on how to Look Better Naked- all of these programs and what I get asked for have all been on a trend of women finally "getting" the benefits of lifting weights, "real" weights.

Most gyms still have a Women's Only Section of chrome dumbbells and a butt blaster or inner/outer thigh machine and do not have any area where women can lift "real" weights and not feel intimidated or uncomfortable. My suggestion to these gyms was to make a corner of their gym a "functional" weight training area where there is a rack, a pulley machine, dumbbells and a bench that women would feel comfortable using for many of these programs that are hitting newsstands and book shelves.

One of the male gym owners in the audience blurted out- "You want us to WASTE A SQUAT RACK...." I think I had fire come out of my ears and know that the look on my face probably wasn't too happy. I said, "Excuse me?" "Waste a Squat Rack on women?"

Pretty soon I had every woman in the room, whether they had ever even used a squat rack or not...passionately defending their squat rack and that WE WOMEN NEED A SQUAT RACK and It is not a waste!

Anyway, it was a pretty good exclamation point to my point that most gym owners don't give their female members what they need to change their bodies and as women are catching on that strength training is necessary for them we will be looking for gyms that give us more than chrome dumbbells and a pink butt blaster machine.

6 Weeks to Attack the Fat

One week ago yesterday I completed my 4th Half Ironman Triathlon. In addition to 4 Half Ironman's I have completed one full Ironman in 2007. My tales of my Ironman are documented in Chapter 3 of my book, The Female Body Breakthrough, which will be out next week.

If you have been following my blog or read any of my articles you know that in my research and also in THE RESEARCH, I have found that as I train for these longer distance events and add more and more volume of steady state aerobic training my body changes and not the way I want it to. I don't lose weight and I don't fit in a smaller size in fact my weight and size usually stay about the same, despite a high training volume, but my appearance is different. I lose my abs and don't have the definition I am used to seeing and overall end up feeling a bit "soft" by the time of the event. THE RESEARCH also shows this to be true that using higher intensity, lower volume is the answer for fat loss.

Although I am in great physical shape, and am able to swim a mile, bike 56 miles and run a half marathon all in one 6 hour workout, for all of the training I have been doing my body doesn't look it's best. Again, I am the same weight and size and probably look the same in clothes covered up but won't be caught training in a half top for a few weeks.

I always start training for these long distance events and for some reason think- "This time it will be different, I will really keep lifting heavy and watch what I eat and will be able to keep my abs throughout the whole training and will do a Half Ironman looking like a Figure Competitor." I know many of you have similar thoughts because I get emails all the time- "How can I train for a marathon and lose body fat crossing the finish line looking defined?" I actually did an interview on this very subject a while back- Click here to read. And in that interview I state- "My ultimate goal is to cross the finish line of a triathlon looking like a fitness competitor and be able to maintain it but I don't know if it is possible. I am still working on that one..."

But, once again as my training progressed for this Half Ironman my abs got softer and I could not keep my definition no matter how hard I tried. It is probably a hint that the majority of people who cross the finish line of an endurance event have a softer appearance, even if they are thin they usually don't look defined.

So as for my "Ultimate Goal" I have realized that it just may not be possible especially when training for Half Ironman and Ironman distance. Training for a Half Ironman and training to look like a "Fit Female" are two totally different and opposite goals. To get the look of a Fit Female, as I discuss in my book, you want you have to challenge your body and keep it from adapting with intense exercise, on the other hand to complete an endurance event your goal is for your body to adapt to the workouts so that you can complete the mileage at a steady state but adapting means you burn less and less calories.

The key for me is to periodize my year and my training so that after completing a Half Ironman, which for me was totally worth it to have the satisfaction of completing the event and being a part of contributing to the Challenged Athletes Foundation so my niece can participate in sports and be a part of what they have to offer, I have a 6 week Attack the Fat Phase.

Now it is time to switch gears and bump up my intensity and drop my volume and get the definition I am used to having back and Attack the Fat. The plan is 6 weeks of two metabolic workouts and three strength workouts along with eating healthy, NO steady state cardio. I did this same plan of attack after my last triathlon and within 6 weeks was back to the way I like to look.

This is the exact same plan that is laid out in my book, The Female Body Breakthrough, which has 16 weeks of strength and metabolic workouts. This is also the exact type of plan we recommend for the members of our gym who most of them perform 1-2 strength workouts a week and 1-2 metabolic workouts and their bodies transform to look the way they want in 6-12 weeks.

You can also be on your way to reaching your ultimate goal and the good news is that you do not need to do hours and hours of steady state aerobic training to have the body you want, in fact it could work against you. Give me 2-4 hours a week.

I'll be blogging on my progress every Monday for the next 6 weeks as my body transforms back to the defined, strong Fit Female "look" I prefer. This is the same Fit Female look I discuss in my book. Get my book next week, start following the programs and join me on your own Fit Female Transformation. I'll try to get some pics up for you.