The Inspiration Behind Drop Two Sizes by Rachel Cosgrove
I am very excited to share with you a recent Turbulence Training Fat Loss call with Certified Turbulence Trainer, Kate Vidulich & Rachel Cosgrove, co-owner of Results Fitness. She is also the author of Drop Two Sizes and workout DVD’s.
To listen to the call click here
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Kate: Hey, everyone. This is Kate Vidulich, Certified Turbulence Trainer from TurbulenceTraining.com coming to you with this month’s Fat Loss call.
Now, I’m really excited today because on the phone I have one of my mentors and a superstar in the fitness industry, Rachel Cosgrove from Results Fitness. Of course, we’ll be talking to you about fat loss, but also her new Drop Two Sizes Program, some of the metabolic experiments they’ve been doing out at their gym, and of course, plenty of other cool stuff.
Rachel, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us and welcome to the call.
Rachel: Thank you so much for having me.
Kate: Awesome. One quick question: Is this the first time you’ve ever heard such an awesome, Aussie-New York accent?
Rachel: I love it. I love the accent. It’s Aussie-New York, huh?
Kate: Yes. It works well for me. For those who might be living under a rock and have no idea who you are, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself and your training courses?
Rachel: Sure. My philosophy has evolved over the years. It started, really, with my own journey. Coming from a family who has struggled with their weight, struggled with obesity, so over the years I’ve had my own struggles, really trying to figure out what works and what is the answer to looking and feeling the way you want to look and feel?
Over the years, I’ve had a fascination with the human body. I’m always amazed by what it can do if you put a demand on it, the changes you can make, and really how the human body works. I’ve always had a fascination with it so I decided to go to school for physiology and got my degree in physiology with an emphasis on exercise and health. I just loved that.
From there, I got into teaching aerobics and doing spinning classes, and then eventually got into personal training, where I really started to work one on one with clients and one on one with women, and really started to hone in my philosophies. I was figuring out what was working for myself and now I got to actually use it with clients in a real world situation.
Over that time I started to lift weights more and more. I started to get further and further away from aerobics, stopped teaching aerobics classes, stopped teaching spin classes, and started to really get into weight training and strength training and got really hooked on that. I started to really see my body change and really see the benefits of it and how gaining muscle, gaining strength, was really the answer to changing your body long term.
I started to use that with my clients and over the last 20 years training clients, every single person I’ve worked with, I’ve learned from. I think back to the very first client that I trained, 20 years ago. I took her around the circuit of machines that she sat on and told her what number to set the machine on.
It’s kind of funny when you ask about philosophies. It’s really been cultivated over the years of learning and going to seminars and figuring out and really experimenting and seeing what works. At this point, actually today is our thirteenth anniversary of having our gym open. We opened our gym 13 years ago.
Kate: Wow. Congratulations. That’s a success, really awesome.
Rachel: Thank you. Time flies. Since we opened the gym, that’s been really our research and development. My husband and I own the gym together and we get to really be a part of our clients’ progress and success, tracking everything, tracking their progress, tracking what works. I’m really honing what does work and always looking for a better way, always looking for what works even better. That’s really where my philosophies have come from.
Kate: Fantastic. You’ve been training clients over 20 years. I think that gives you 20 years clients for trials and to test different things on different clients, and also yourself. That’s fantastic.
Rachel: Yes, that’s the biggest learning. You learn from every client you work with. I still learn from my clients.
Kate: Like we all do. I think that’s a great way to approach this. Always learning from clients rather than just telling them what to do.
Rachel: Right, yes.
Kate: Cool. Your program, Drop Two Sizes (the DVDs) is really awesome. Can you just tell us a little bit about what inspired this new DVD and who it’s best for?
Rachel: Thank you. You got to watch the DVD?
Kate: Sure.
Rachel: Awesome. We put together the book, Drop Two Sizes. The book is based on a 12 week program that we’ve done at our gym a number of times. It’s Drop Two Jean Sizes. We’ve called it Rock Your Jeans, Drop Two Sizes. In my last book, my first book, that came out in 2009, I introduced the concept of “thermometer jeans.”
Your thermometer jeans are your jeans that tell you when you’re hot and when you’re not. They’re really what you want to start to use as your indicator to tell you whether you’re where you want to be.
I started using that as a measurement with my clients and really started to get them away from the scale and instead, you know, “Bring your jeans in to me, and we’re going to use those as your measurement.”
I ran this program for 12 weeks the first time we did it. We’ve actually got it down, now, where we can get people down two sizes in eight weeks and it really consists of weight training as the main exercise component, doing strength training workouts, along with metabolic interval style workouts, and then the nutrition component which is really just fueling your body, keeping it simple, helping your clients take baby steps.
It’s really about changing one thing at the time. Then the mindset component, which is the biggest part. All of that has been put into this book.
This book is based on that exact 12 week program that we’ve used over and over again to help our clients lose two sizes. It’s been a huge breakthrough for a lot of our clients to really, finally realize that it’s okay to build muscle. My body is getting smaller, my jeans are fitting, and it really doesn’t matter what the scale says.
From there, the book, I had the opportunity to put together the DVDs. I’m really excited to be able to coach people, through the DVDs, through the workouts.
Kate: Wonderful. I think that’s just one of the things about the thermometer jeans, getting people away from the scale. That’s been a major change over the years in our industry.
Rachel: Yes, the scale is no longer a good progress indicator. What I’ve seen with the clients that come into our gym is most of them have been on diets throughout their lifetime. Most of them have lost weight, they’ve stepped on the scale and seen it go down when they’ve done the deprivation diet. Over the years, they’ve done that over and over again.
Each time they do that, they lose muscle and eventually their metabolism really bottoms out. Then they have a hard time. They gain the weight back and it’s the whole yoyo phenomenon that we all are very familiar with. That’s something they’ve done over a lifetime and they get to a point where their body stops responding to the same diet that worked before yet they’re still focused on a number they want to hit on the scale.
Really, what’s going to work for the long term is to add strength training in to their program and use that as the priority workout, which is going to build muscle. What I’m seeing with these women who have done diets over their lifetime, they’re gaining muscle pretty quickly.
The whole idea of, “Women don’t put on muscle like men do,” well, actually, women can put on muscle.
It’s a good thing because we’re actually just getting them back to a normal level of muscle so that they actually have a normal metabolism to be able to drop two sizes. That’s part of the goal is getting that muscle back to that normal level because they’ve lost so much muscle over the years.
The scale’s not going to tell us that. You could gain a pound of muscle, drop a pound of fat, your body’s smaller but the scale says nothing’s happening and that can be really frustrating.
Kate: Absolutely. I think as a women and most of the clients who are female that I’ve trained have exactly the same problem and end up worse off in the end.
Kate: Now, with the DVDs, for people who may not have seen them just yet, what type of exercise? Is it body weight? Do people need any equipment?
Rachel: Yes, I really tried to keep it simple. I really tried to take away all the excuses and keep it simple. That way you can do it in your house, you can get started. You need a pair of dumbbells, that’s pretty much it. Get yourself a pair of dumbbells.
I say get a pair that’s the same weight as your purse and then a pair that’s a little heavier than your purse. I say that because many women think that they’re going to grab a pair of two pound, light, pink dumbbells and it’s going to change their body.
Weigh your purse and see how much you lift every day, because a lot of women are carrying purses that are at least eight to ten pounds. If your purse isn’t very heavy and you do a good job and you don’t carry a heavy purse, then you probably want to start with at least over five pounds, and grab some ten or 15 pound dumbbells as well.
Don’t be afraid to get a pair of dumbbells that are going to be a challenge, and definitely turn the DVDs on and get going. That way you can just get started. You don’t have to join a gym right away.
I do recommend eventually joining a gym. Obviously, we own a gym, so we’re big proponents of going to a gym. I think it is important to set aside that time for yourself and have a place where you have support, accountability, and you feel comfortable and really have all the equipment you need eventually. Initially, with the DVDs, you can go ahead and get started.
Like you mentioned, body weight exercises. The metabolic interval style workouts, a lot of those use body weight and are as short as 15 to 20 minutes.
Kate: Wonderful. That’s the thing, I think no one has any excuse not to try one of those workouts.
Rachel: No. Time is not an excuse. I don’t have equipment is not an excuse. I’m not a member of a gym is not an excuse.
Kate: Yes. Perfect. You’ve got it all covered.
Rachel: Right?
Kate: Absolutely.
We’ll have to end this for today, but be sure to join us tomorrow in part 2. Where we’ll discuss further about some of the breakthroughs Results Fitness found with metabolic training.
Kate Vidulich
Certified Turbulence Trainer
