Head, Heart and Hands Featured Speaker Ernestine Shepherd was a guest on the Anderson Cooper Live Show this past Tuesday.

It is our pleasure to announce that we have arranged to bring Ernestine, who is a  world class health, fitness and nutrition expert to our Jamestown Bluffs Library Branch, 4153 N. US Highway 67 on Saturday, November 10th at 1:30 PM for a 90-minute presentation.

Be sure to register and grab yourself a spot for this event.   You can log onto www.getfit4christ.org for more info.

In the meantime check out the video below to see who won the push up contest.

Ernestine Shepherd Vs. Anderson Cooper Push Up Contest

This Puts the Zum in Zumba

You can approach Halloween one of two ways.

The first option is to go nuts with all of the eats and treats. The second is to indulge in moderation and offset any extra caloric consumption with a seasonal Halloween Zumba workout.

I recommend the latter... it's a lot more figure friendly! Zumba is exercise in disguise. I like to take it one step further (no pun intended) and add that Zumba is a total body workout that combines upper body, lower body, and core movements into one big bang for your buck workout.

Here is a video of a Zumba routine done by Phylliss that I guarantee will help you burn fat and build muscle in minimal time. I recommend performing this routine at least two times with little to no rest in between for every Halloween treat you eat:

Try it for yourself and have some fun.

And if you would like something a little more challenging with a lot more variety then keep an eye out for a special Zumba Halloween discount :-)

Click here for the video --> This Puts the Zum in Zumba

5 Ways to Fall Into Fitness

Fall Into Fitness

We all know that January is the time of the year that everyone starts to get in shape. But did you know that the fall season is the next popular time of the year to get fit and lose those unwanted pounds?


“September is second only to January as a time when fitness springs to the top of the to-do list, with gyms and training studios buzzing with activity and motivated new members,” says Rob Williams, a Personal Trainer in Vancouver. “At the same time, family and business commitments seem to increase and the days get shorter and darker.”

Here are my five tips for you to fall into fitness as your already busy schedule cranks up another notch.

1. Don't get caught up in the quick fix - There is no such thing as a quick fix and you're fooling yourself if you think there is. Good things come to those who wait and any health and fitness goals are going to take effort and commitment on your part.

2. Support - When you are trying to get more fit, it is very important to have family and friends supporting you along the way. This means that they need to respect your fitness and health goals and not tempt you into the wrong food choices or try and derail you from your fitness training plan. Remind them how important this is to you and you need their support and encouragement and who knows, they may end of training right along side you.

3. Use variety - The body is very adaptive. Performing the same routine over and over is not only boring, but your body will get used to the routine and quit responding. Change your exercises, the order in which you do them, the number or sets and reps, or change the weights. In one workout you may use weights, another you may use resistance bands, in another, machines. Make every workout different in some way.

4. Record and review - If you don't keep track of your workouts and improvements, how will you know if you're making progress? Whether it's fat loss, building muscle tissue, or just feeling better; keeping a log helps and motivates you to get there. When you see where you were, and where you are, you realize you're making progress!

5. Hire a Personal Trainer - It is proven that having a motivating and positive support system will help you stay with your goals long term. How many times have you started an exercise program and stopped? Remember those New Year's Resolutions? How many have you kept? Was losing weight or eating healthier part of those resolutions that are now on a shelf collecting dust? Do you have multiple pieces of exercise equipment that you bought on an infomercial late at night that you now hang your clothes on collecting dust? Get motivated and use a Personal Trainer to help support you in your life long mission to permanent weight loss and better overall body fitness and health.

Camille Simmons finds two weight loss plans that work

Camille Simmons

For some finding weight loss plans that work is like figuring out the rubic's cube blindfolded.

For Camille Simmons rapid weight loss techniques never work, but at MVP she has found two weight loss programs that work.  Here's your story.

I have two scriptures that I live by to get me through my weight loss journey. The first is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, it says “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” The second is Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I have to first start in the beginning. In 2009 in a quest to have children, I had several blood clots travel to my lungs. Had I laid down that night I may not have lived to see another day. While in the hospital every doctor that came in to see me, told me I should have gastric bypass. In my heart I knew that is not what I needed. I finally went home and was not released to go to work for five months. In that time I became bored and frustrated and that lead to me eating even more. Before I knew it I reached my all time high of 360 pounds. I felt my life was truly out of control and I didn’t quite know how to get out of it. I knew what the Word of God said, but it did not stick. I really couldn’t see it.

I had a very good friend who kept telling me about a boot camp that she found and how much she loved it. She would ask me to go and of course I just had to turn her down. You see I had a really defeated mindset. I could never imagine myself ever trying to do somebody’s exercise class let alone boot camp. Come on I was 360 pounds and oh so out of shape. I didn’t want to get out there and embarrass myself. I looked for every excuse to turn her down.

In late 2010 my friend finally convinced me to go. She said she had already paid and I had no excuse. Needless to say I went… I walked out onto the track that hot August day to meet Lyle Johnson and to begin my journey with MVP fitness. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. The first thing he told us to do was to run the track. I was stunned. All I kept thinking was “He has got to be kidding. It’s hot out here and I have not had to run in about 30 years. I’m clumsy and I’m going to fall and embarrass myself. I’m not going to make it. Guess what I didn’t make it. I think I ran about 30 steps and I was ready to turn around and head for my car. I starting walking trying not to cry out of frustration, embarrassment as l looked over and saw that everyone else was finished and I was only half way. About three fourths of the way I was finished, I could go no further. Lyle walked over to me and asked me if I needed him to drag the bench over to me so I could sit down. I did not know what to say. I just knew if I said yes he was going to yell at me and say things that I really didn’t want to hear. He did like he said and went to finish class. There was no yelling or fussing at me. I was relieved. I sat trying to figure out a way to get the energy to get back to the end of the track to get my keys and belongings. I was praying for God to give me a way to pay my friend back so I did not have to endure this. When class was over I wanted to cry so bad but my friend wouldn’t let me. I waited till I got in my car and had a big temper tantrum and cried like a baby.

I had every intention not to go back, I did not care who was mad at me. I wanted no part of boot camp. A few days later Lyle called me to see if I was ok and to encourage me to come back. Dang… how could I say NO now! I came back and by the end of summer I was not running but I was at least able to walk at least one lap around the track. Praise God, I was surely improving.

MVP Fitness has been truly a blessing. Lyle has even given me one on one classes for free to help me reach my goals, just because he cares. When we finally moved indoors Lyle introduced us to Kettlebells. Oh happy days! I fell in love with the class. I truly believe that God gave that vision to Lyle just for me. It has truly changed my mindset about going to boot camp. It has resulted in the biggest transition in my journey. I have something that I want to go to. I hate to miss a class and I get mad when it happens. I have had trials and tribulations along the way, but I will not be stopped. When things get rough I pray and give 100 percent, because that is all that has been asked of me.

Now with prayer,MVP, working at adopting a healthy eating lifestyle and a vision to be fit and healthy I am around 80 pounds down. I have made huge strides in my life because I feel better about myself and have gained more confidence. I was able to wear my wedding ring that I had not been able to wear for years. I applied for and got a new job with better pay and hours. I’m able to talk to people with more confidence. I even added Zumba in after class on Saturdays.

I have received so much encouragement from my husband, my good friend Deena Sneed who gave me the push I needed and to Lyle and his wife Phylliss that words cannot express.

My journey is not over. I have a long way to go, but I know that every day I am just that much closer. My goal is to “Get Fit For Christ” to be a light. Along the way God has given me a vision to be an example to the body of Christ, to live a healthy lifestyle and to show that He will work with you no matter where you are. So my question is what you are waiting for. “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.” Matt 19: 26. It’s time to take care of the temple of The Holy Spirit!

P.S. I am now running some of the track. I plan on being able to run the whole thing by summer’s end!

A Motivational Message from Jackie Joyner Kersee

Jackie Joyner Kersee is considered the Greatest Female Athlete of All Time.  But your journey was not an easy one.  Listen to her message and find out how she clear several of life hurdles.

Fitness and Age



Fitness and Age

 On Oct 21st I will be 51 years old. While others my age are looking for rapid weight loss techinues and taking lipotropic injections for weight loss, I'm discovering the older I get the more serious I get about maintaining my level of fitness. My personal trainer once told me “you're certainly arguably the most athletic clients I've trained to date. That includes pro athletes in their 20s!”

While it is generally true that fitness level decline with age after about age thirty-five, it
is not an absolute. Getting older does not necessitate feeling older, losing strength and vitality,or limiting physical activities. Most people know someone aged seventy or older who continues o participate in physically challenging activities like weight lifting, bicycling, golf, tennis,
or jogging. For example, 75-year old body builder Ernestine Shepherd has made news worldwide with your lifestyle. Shepherd is in better shape than most people, decades her junior. Up at 3 a.m. every morning, she spends her days running, lifting weights and working out. She also works as a certified personal trainer at her gym.

There are a variety of prevalent age-related fitness myths, and Dr. Kenneth Cooper
exposes them in his book, Faith-Based Fitness. Many people believe exercising after age forty
is dangerous, but there is no support for this myth, as long as older continuing or beginning
exercisers have regular medical checkups. In fact, evidence shows that those who fail to exercise
are at greater risk than those who exercise regularly.

The average person loses between 30 - 40 percent of his muscle mass during his lifetime,
but the reason is because most people become less active and less fit as they age. It is commonly
thought that increasing muscle mass after age sixty is impossible, but muscle can be added at any
age with strength training. Cooper teaches that strength training leads to significant increases in
muscle size and strength and in functional mobility, even among nursing home residents up to
ninety-six years old. Likewise, people who engage in regular endurance exercise can maintain a
high aerobic capacity from age forty to about age seventy. It is only in the seventies and eighties
that older athletes normally begin to experience declines in aerobic ability, but even at late ages,
those who continue to train can remain remarkably fit.

Myths may be more about laziness than age-related fears. Research shows that people as
old as one hundred can dramatically increase their strength, improve their balance, restore bone
density, moderate diabetes, and diminish joint pain in just a few weeks of weight training. The
minute a person starts sweating, whether he is twenty or ninety, he elevates his heart rate, his
arteries get more flexible, and his blood pressure is lowered, thereby lowering the risk of heart
disease and stroke. For hours after exercise, bodies are more sensitive to insulin, keeping sugar
levels in check and reducing the risk of diabetes.

Herschel Walker is a great, modern example of the myths of age’s affect on fitness.
Walker won the 1982 Heisman Trophy (presented annually to the top college football player in
America) and was a world class sprinter at the University of Georgia from 1980– 1982. He
played professional football from 1983-1997, and competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics as a
bobsledder.76 On January 30, 2010, at age forty-seven, Walker competed in his first professional

Mixed Martial Arts fight. Critics ridiculed him for entering the sport at such an advanced age,
and concerns for his health were daily topics on national sports shows. Despite all the negativity,
Walker knocked out twenty-six year old Greg Nagy in a dominating performance.

Because of his age, Walker had to endure a battery of tests to be sanctioned to fight.
Allen Fields, chief physician for the Florida Boxing Commission that also oversees MMA
sanctioning, said that not only did Walker pass the most strenuous of all medical athletic tests,
but he produced the highest cardiac stress test score of anyone ever tested by his facility. Fields
said that Walker was in “as fine a shape as Muhammad Ali or any of these people we’ve had the care of.

This guy is 47 going on 22, as far as his physical fitness goes.”78 Like all world class
athletes, Walker is an anomaly. But unlike most world class athletes, Walker has maintained his
fitness as he has aged. Mike Tyson and Bo Jackson are contemporaries of Walker, and at this
stage of their lives, they look like any other middle-aged, overweight man. Everyone has the
choice to age like Walker, or to age like Tyson and Jackson.

Head, Heart and Hands Seminar to be Held in Florissant

Head, Heart and Hands Seminar will be held in Florissant, Missouri on Saturday, November 10, 2012 at the Jamestown Bluffs Library from 1:30-3:00. The event is geared towards providing people with valuable and information on how to take good care of their health.


In general, the said seminar will address the fitness, health and nutritional issues faced by both men and women of all ages, sizes and shapes. The organizers of the seminar are confident that both couch potatoes and extreme athletes will benefit from the knowledge and information to be shared by the speakers.

The seminar will feature 75-year old body builder, Ernestine Shepherd. She is one of the oldest competitive female bodybuilders in the world, declared by the Guinness Book of World Records. Currently, Shepherd leads the exercise classes for seniors at the Union Memorial United Methodist Church in Baltimore, and works as a personal trainer. In her bodybuilding career, she has won 2 titles and run 9 marathons.

In the seminar, Shepherd is expected to discuss all the things about longevity and optimum health secrets. She is also expected to share her experiences and routine as a bodybuilder not just to inform the audience, but to inspire them as well.

Apart from Shepherd, Dwayne Bess and Lyle Johnson will also share their expertise in fitness and health. Bess is an acclaimed author of The Perpetual Hand. He has also appeared and received coverage on The Bernie Hays Show, Essence Magazine, KPLR, ABC, FOX and other media outlets that speak on topics about creating a selfless and positive life and personal protection of ladies. Bess is highly regarded as a speaker who shoots straight from the hip, so he is expected to inspire others with his speech.

On the other hand, Johnson is the CEO of St. Louis-based MVP Fitness and the author of the book entitled “Get Fit 4 Christ”. He is considered as a force in the fitness industry due to his wide background in competitive athletics coupled with his knowledge of personal fitness training. With his long years of experience in the fitness and health industry, he is expected to provide the audience with tips and information that they can use and apply on their everyday life.

For more details about the Head, Heart and Hands Seminar, visit their website at http://getfit4christlive.com/ or call them at 314-831-7505.