RAINE MAGAZINE Volume 16 | Innovate

BEAUTY | FITNESS 101
TOO BUSY FOR YOUR DREAM BODY?
By Fitness Guru Maik Wiedenbach
“I do not have the time to workout.” is something I hear over and over from prospective clients or acquaintances - and it is true. Implementing a
daily or even three times weekly fitness regiment into a week filled with business lunches, late office nights, kids soccer games and the like can
seem daunting to say the least. If you don’t have the financial means of a Hollywood star to employ a personal trainer, chef and stretching expert
to work in the confines of your home, it can be difficult to stick to a program.
So, what is to be done? Here are a couple of things that I have learned over the years that might be helpful.
• Schedule your workouts: make them visible for yourself and
others in your calendar. You must treat workouts as me-time
and defend that time slot vigorously. In the end, you will be
more productive and happier after you worked out, so your
environment does benefit from your egoism.
• Do not join the cheapest or fanciest, but the closest gym. No
matter how great the equipment is, it is not worth a 40-minute
train ride. After all, the best gym is the one you go to, so make
sure it is either close to home or work.
• Find a training partner and set up an appointment. If there is
someone waiting for you at the gym, you’ll be less likely to
simply stand that person up. That can also be a personal
trainer with a strict cancellation policy.
• Switch it up. The beauty of not being a professional athlete is
that we do not have to excel in one particular sport but can
choose from many options to train across. Monday swimming,
Tuesday boxing, Wednesday salsa anyone?
• Time your workouts. Write up your workout, set your phone or
watch to 40 minutes, and go. Try to get as many sets in good
form as you can during that time frame. The short breaks
will give you a nice pump and release endorphins quickly. In
addition, a 40 minutes pump workout will seem much more
achievable than a monster 10x10 squat session; so you are
more likely to do it.
• Schedule a photo shoot. In my experience, setting up (and paying
for) a photo shoot is one of the greatest tools to get results.
In my experience, once someone commits and mentions the
shoots to his/her friends, they (the trainee) will be much more
likely to be accountable and follow through on the program.
• Combine exercise and family life. That can be as simple as giving
your kids piggyback rides (uphill if you are really adventurous)
or taking a family hike on the weekends. This way you will
also get your kids interested in a healthy life style without
making it seem like a chore.
• Get educated about fitness: the more you know about the body in
general and yours in particular, the better results you will get.
This will result in greater motivation going forward.
• Have pre-planned cooking days. Lets face it: we eat whatever
is there, especially when we are hungry / stressed / tired or
all of the above. If your fridge only contains Haagen Dazs
and yogurt, well there goes your meal plan. Since it is simply
impossible to cook everyday (at least for me, if you can, more
power to you) I recommend to set aside 2 three hour blocks
during the week where you prepare the majority of your meals.
A slow cooker can be a Godsend, simply throw in meats and
vegetables for a stew, get some rice at the Chinese take out
place and you have a solid base for 10 meals. Note: a wellequipped
spice racked is critical to avoid boredom!
• Relax: you are not helping anyone including yourself, if you sit in
the corner, munching on organic kale chips while judging
everyone else. Any reasonable diet should have room for a
cheat meal; you are human after all!
If you manage to follow some of these pointers, you should be well on
your way to your dream body!
Photo by Dorothy Shi
About Maik:
Maik (pronounced Mike) Wiedenbach is a fitness coach and physique architect based in
New York City and East Hampton. He is an NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine)
certified personal trainer and AFPA (American Fitness Professionals Association), certified
nutrition and wellness consultant and weight management consultant.
A two-time World Cup and Olympic trial swimmer in his native Germany, Maik founded his
company Adler Training in 2006 and quickly became one of the most sought after trainers
in Manhattan. As a medalist athlete and scholar, he uniquely combines professional
dedication, empathy, and intellectual rigor in keeping up with the latest fitness and health
study findings in medical journals.
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