Watch The Michael Phelps Challenge on YouTube.

You meet Sifu Slim halfway and he will get you through the rest of the way with a laugh and a big smile. Humor is a byproduct of the Sifu Slim method. It's all part of not taking things too seriously and being silly. Don't postpone feeling good and looking your best.

Lifelong Practice

If a lifelong practice sounds too long, how long does a lifelong non-practice sound?

The blubber-for-life plan is much harder than the Maintenance Workout Program. Fit people don’t have an easy time hiking with 40-pound backpacks. The supersized and even those of the 20-pounds-over segment have to haul the extra blubber around with them wherever they go. That’s heavy-duty work!

Get fit then get with the Maintenance Program.

If you can’t do it alone, use the DVDs to refresh your memory and provide you the stimulus. If that’s not enough, get into a group activity: join a gym or a yoga center, join a running or dance group, or sign up at a martial arts studio. Or, if you dig manual labor, get an evening job as a landscaper. Or rekindle your love life. Whatever you do, get a daily activity that keeps you active. And, to the regular consumption of bad food like donuts, just say no!

You can also connect with me via a personal or group Webinar.

The Maintenance Workout Program is not about big transformation in a short time span. It’s the real deal. It’s about living life the right way: Mens sana in corpore sano—A healthy mind in a healthy body.

It’s about forming a habit that will help you look good, feel good, and promote health and wellness over a lifetime.

Ever wonder why some people look good well beyond their youthful years? It’s not about liposuctions and breast enhancements, it’s about wellness and stress reduction. This program will clue you in on what works. And it’s not hard. As a matter of fact Sifu Slim promotes siestas and snoozing. If those are hard for you, you need this program.

Transformation

According to the fitness fit assessment mentioned on this site, more than 90% of people in the world are not fit. Are you one of the many who have let themselves go?

Sifu Slim is not a drill sergeant. He can’t force you to change your ways, all he can do is tell you what has worked for him and for others and encourage you to try it. Sifu Slim has never had to transform himself from unfit to fit. He has, however, had to rehabilitate himself from injuries which happened along the way. That is the transformation he knows. From unwell to well, from non functioning to functioning.

Excerpt from Book

You learn a lot about yourself from transformation, and from regular fitness practice.

These super athletes--Venus Williams, Mia Hamm, Joe Montana, Bruce Lee, Ben Hogan, and many others--have all had to rehabilitate themselves from serious injuries.

- Venus had tendonitis and later anemia, both of which required time off from the professional tennis circuit.

- Mia Hamm had knee and shoulder surgery at the height of her soccer career.

- Joe was adjusted by chiropractors and therapists before and after his games with the San Francisco 49ers.

- Bruce Lee broke his back lifting weights, using an exercise called "barbell good mornings," and was told he would never be able to throw a kick again. While he was mending himself he found time to write his famous treatise on his art and philosophy and then came back to be as fit as ever.

- Golfing legend Ben Hogan survived a head-on collision in the fog with a Greyhound bus and made it back to win.

They all rehabilitated themselves to regain world class levels to once again rule their respective disciplines.

A few times, Sifu Slim transformed himself from fit to super fit. And here he means fitness, not super athleticism or super skill. "No matter how fit I was, I wasn't going to step into the ring with a Cuban Olympic boxer or try to outrun a Kenyan marathoner."

So, understand that Sifu Slim is a black belt in Maintenance Fitness and Wellness, not in martial arts or com-petitive sports. I have taught Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but it's not because I am an advanced belt. I just have the passion for the practice and the ability to run new students through a good session, imparting some of what I have learned in more than 10 years of training.

So, understand that Sifu Slim is a black belt in Maintenance Fitness and Wellness, not in martial arts or competitive sports. He enjoys recreational sports.

How many ex military special forces or ex champion athletes will be fit and pain free in their later years? Many former board-breaking martial artists have joint problems. After his first comeback, Muhammad Ali required Novocain injections between each knuckle before each fight. Don’t go overboard, use common sense. Unless they rebuild you and make you Bionic, you only get one shot in your current body.

And as for popping pills and taking injections, remember that your heart and internal organs, not to mention your brain, may all be negatively impacted from chemical compounds.

What should the non-fit do to transform?

They should start with an appointment and full screening at their doctor's office. To make sure the message is made clear, maintenance workouts are not designed for major transformation.

Could Maintenance Workouts help the unfit? Of course! They could also hurt people who jump in too soon. They are designed for fit people who wish to maintain fitness.

Doing lower intensity workouts properly for an extended period may allow people to rid themselves of excess pounds and move towards desired fitness. However, asking an obese person or a frail person, with little fitness coordination, to step in and perform what I call "martial artsy calisthenics" is not prudent.Unless these individuals have natural athletic or movement ability, the exercises may be too awkward.

The Supersized

We have all read about supersized people who have said, "Enough is enough." One day they put down the bag of chips, get off the couch, grab a bottle of water, and go for a walk. They keep walking every day and start eating what is right. Do you need to read a diet book to know what is right? Okay, buy a healthy diet book or just go to the fruit and vegetable and fish and meat sections of your healthy supermarket. Stop by the whole grains and nuts section too. Much is being written on grains these days with some experts advising against them.

Sifu Slim shops at Trader Joe's and occasionally the ethnic markets and open air farmer's markets. He even admits to buying "healthy" bread, cranberries and other "healthy" items at Costco and occasionally at big supermarket chains. Daily fitness plan fit people won't want to fill up on the fake food products which contain the bad stuff that the manufacturers stuck in there to get you to like it, to preserve its shelf life, or to process it on the cheap.

On the contrary, these dedicated practitioners of fitness will naturally want the good stuff. They'll appreciate how delicious are fish, chicken, leeks, and broccoli with a little teriyaki sauce. They'll go nuts on nuts and get hooked on grains, both of which promote low acidity which helps reduce some of the causes of cancer. If the consummate exerciser still wants to indulge in junk food, they need intervention and transformational work done by a different type of therapist. Or, they can hire a rough live-in, diet enforcer grandmother who knows jiu-jitsu.

After walking for a period of time, the supersized walker and healthy eater then drops enough weight to begin a jogging program and then adds swimming to that. (They should also keep checking in with a medical and health practitioner for evaluations and consultations.) This "getting-fit person" buys new wardrobes along the way but never complains about that. When they look better, they don't worry about discarding the fancy suit or dress that fit the former, supersized self. They're happy and proud to be shedding blubber.

Now the jogger/swimmer gets down to within a small percentage from their target weight. They also mix in anaerobic exercise (i.e. resistance training like weights, machines, kettle bells, etc.) which helps increase their BMR (Basal metabolic rate or resting, non-digesting metabolism). Now for the home stretch: how do they get to the fit state? Running, rowing and cross-country skiing are among the top aerobic exercises. They are the blast furnaces for increasing muscle metabolism. Regular sessions can also transform your metabolism. You become more proficient in burning fat calories.

Once the almost fit person is able to do a series of sprints with rests or slow jogs in between, they include this "interval training" in their program.

Without OD-ing on anything, they increase the interval training and fine-tune the healthy diet, and keep up their anaerobic exercise. They can mix in a long hikes, long sessions on the rowing machine, or a few hours of dancing to burn off the final pounds. Now they look fit and are right around their target weight. Hurray! Now, they have to avoid doing what the majority of formerly obese and now-fit people do: go back to their old ways. Oh, the horror!

Is it time for a 12-Step Program for recovering unfit-aholics?

Top

A 12-Step Program

Do you need a 12-step program?

Okay, here it is. I call it the 12 Steps of Happy and Fit Living.

  1. Love yourself & spread the love by teaching others how to do the fitness plan. Do the fitness program with your partner or with someone who lives nearby.

  2. Be proud of your program, attitude, and appearance. Look in the mirror when you get out of the shower and feel good about it. Hurray for vanity.

  3. Love sleeping and love getting to bed early. Early morning workouts are Zen-like and allow you to reduce your tension and nervous energy before your busy day begins. Injury prevention has everything to do with warming up and aligning and toning your body before you put stress on it. Upon waking up at 6 a.m., few break down and get cravings for chips and dip, though, many hit the fridge at 1 a.m., either before nodding off or while visiting the kitchen on a wee-morning-hour binge. If you are fit, have your meals dialed in, and are sleeping soundly, there is no cravings snack time because you sleep right through.

  4. Do a steady, long duration aerobic exercise at least once per week. (I am not saying to only exercise aerobically once per week, but rather to do a long duration session at least once per week.) Go for long hikes (2 hours plus), even in the city. If hiking is not your thing, do some other aerobic activity for a long interval on a regular basis: dancing, skating, cycling, swimming (swimming is a tough one to do for long duration).

Doing construction work or hoeing the garden is really not aerobic exercise but these long duration activities are good for the system. Remember, aerobic exercise is long and steady with increased demands placed on your system, specifically your lungs and heart. Can you make your gardening work aerobic?

  5. Drink lots of water. There are entire chapters of books written on this for those needing more assistance. Drink before you get thirsty. Your thirst tends to mean you are already getting dehydrated.

  6. Get massages from your sweetheart or from a practitioner. This is good for the body and the mind.

  7. Fill your cupboards and fridge with good stuff and have no bad stuff available. For some of us, healthier ice cream (which is basically sugar and milk fat with some fruit) is okay to have once in a while if you’re at your target weight. But don’t always have some on hand; cycle it in for rewards.

  8. Keep loose and elastic. Do some light stretching during the day and take a Jacuzzi or hot bath regularly. Always do a few minutes of stretching before you go to sleep. Walking outside to get out of the house and stretching using a wall, a post, or a tree is what I have found works best for me.

  9. Go on fun trips. Learn about yourself on these trips (even weekend getaways) and do a daily fitness program trying some new techniques.

  10. Treat yourself responsibly and with care. Treat yourself as well as responsible dog owners treat their well-walked and properly fed dogs. Care for yourself as well as concourse car competitors treat their cars.

  11. Don’t push too hard. Transformation workouts and boot-camp style plans have their purpose. But, once they’re done, you need to find activities that keep you fit. Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard played a lot of tennis which kept him in shape without sparring which pummels the body. He would of course spar before fights. Because of tennis, Sugar Ray would show up to training camp in decent shape.

  12. Do some fitness every day! Create the habit. Daily fitness and fitness as recreation both pay big dividends. How can you clash with your confidants and friends after a good workout? You can? Well, come on, you have to admit that it’s harder. How would you like to take your annual physical and have the practitioner say, “You look wonderful”? Fitness for health purposes is not an athletic competition. You are doing it just like you brush and floss your teeth, it’s a daily practice.

Create the habit

The DVD series, Book, and articles will show you what Sifu Slim—a normal-looking (not bulging in buffedness) guy with normal life challenges—does as part of his daily habit.

His plan works! This will keep you toned; get your cardio going, help your weaker areas, like back, hips, butt, neck; help your digestion; and help get you through your busy day. You will learn to create the habit and keep the practice interesting. You will learn how to become your own Sifu (Cantonese for master, or teacher). Sifu Slim does not want to bug you with endless demands like “Get out of bed and do it.” He wants to give you The Force just like Obi-Wan Kenobe gave it to Luke Skywalker. Become an advanced belt in the maintenance workout. Staying fit is a lot easier and much more rewarding than getting fit. If you want to be fit for life, try this program.

Options: The Business Traveler’s Workout is one of many workouts Sifu Slim offers.

The Business Traveler’s Workout is not extreme, it’s steady and it flows. You can make it more intense if you thrive on that, but don’t burn out. Your goal is to be eternally fit. That means doing it forever. The base workout is not difficult so you won’t dread it. It works with normal body movements that come from martial arts, yoga, tai chi, and calisthenics. It’s not about no pain, no gain.

Show me a person who can do a painful workout for a lifetime. That would be a ridiculous practice. You show me a boxer who can do an intense boxing workout (and get pummeled in sparring) for a lifetime. That has never happened, unless the boxer kicked off at age 32. The short version, Hotel Workout 1 is a quick tune workout to keep fitness going and to help keep muscles from atrophying. It’s there when you need a quickie.

Why lift heavy weights when you’re on the road for business?

For most of us, it doesn't help. Heavy overload training creates pain and fatigue. Who would want that before a busy day in a stressful job? Again, it makes little sense unless you are a traveling professional athlete or an amateur body builder or strength athlete. If you seek buffedness, note that California State Prison inmates had weights removed from those sites in 1988. And, the staff will attest, the inmates are just as buffed as ever by using body weight exercises and by being creative, i.e., creating resistance with other objects like a friend who sits on their back or presses down on them during pushups.

The Hotel Workout is a smooth workout emphasizing the elements of good form, proper breathing, and regular sessions.

Your car and home need to be maintained. Someone vacuums and dusts your hotel room every day. So too your body needs daily care including a warm-up, stretching, and toning. Common sense and good results told Asian companies to require their employees to do Tai Chi type and calisthenics exercises exercises each morning. It pays off.

The Maintenance Workout Series is made up of varied techniques in various venues which will allow you to do some form of exercise with proper breathing every day. If you only have 15-20 minutes, you can do one of the shorter workouts which will warm you up, jump-start your day, and keep you going.

If you can spend around an hour pouring some fitness love into your mind and body, you can try one of the longer workouts. The longer workouts may help you make gains, not just maintain.

It’s all about time. Sifu Slim says, "It's about time a workout was about time."

Everyone needs time to recreate. Why not include fitness in your recreation? That’s the time-efficient way to do it. Include a Bar Workout, using fit-course bars at a local park, as part of your morning routine. Do it before you start your newspaper perusal and tea time. That way you’ll be done with your fitness practice before the agenda fills up.

If you have an early commute, get up earlier, and get the workout done.

Getting up early is a function of going to sleep early. People, when they get to be seniors, finally figure this out.