Archive for 'Exercise'
Summer has arrived and along with it the dreaded bathing suit season.
Whether you can’t wait to bare it all on the beach, or if you’re still working toward a weight loss goal, exercise is the key to looking and feeling great in summer months.
But why else should you exercise? Here are the top 7 reasons to exercise this summer:
Reason #1: To Melt Fat Away
The most coveted side effect of exercise is, of course, fat burn. The combination of a challenging exercise routine and a balanced meal plan is the best known way to lose fat. Here’s what losing fat feels like:
- Your pants become loose
- People around you begin to say that you look great
- A glance at yourself in the mirror makes you smile
- Your energy levels soar
- You feel amazing
Reason #2: To Alleviate Pain
Regular exercise is a great way to alleviate chronic muscle and joint pain. Persistent back pain can be lessened bystrengthening your core, and you’ll protect yourself against injury. It amazes people when the chronic pain that they’ve lived with for years begins to fade after starting a regular exercise program.
Reason #3: To Increase Lean Tissue
More muscle is good for many reasons. You see, muscle requires many more calories each day than fatty tissue. In fact, one pound of muscle burns 30-50 calories each day at rest – compared to a measly 9 calories per pound of fat.
When you exercise your body composition will change to contain more lean tissue, thus resulting in extra calories burned while you sleep. What could be better than that?
Reason #4: To Stay Young
Tim D. Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College in London, led a study on the effects of exercise on aging. The results were astounding. They found that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells (called telomeres), which means a slowing of the aging process.
“These data suggest that the act of exercising may actually protect the body against the aging process,” said Spector.
Here’s the study in a nutshell:
- Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter.
- Once a telomere gets too short, that cell can no longer divide.
- Aging occurs as more and more cells reach the end of their telomeres and die. This results in weakened muscles, skin wrinkles, loss of eyesight and hearing, organ failure and slowed metal functioning.
- The study analyzed the telomeres from the white bloods cells of twins over a 10-year period. Telomere length was used as a marker for the rate of biological aging.
- It was found that the length of telomeres was directly related to that twin’s activity level. “There was a gradient,” Spector said. “As the amount of exercise increased, the telomere length increased.”
- People who did 100 minutes of weekly exercise had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 5-6 years younger than those who did 16 minutes of exercise each week.
- People who did 3 hours of vigorous exercise each week had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 9 years younger.
Reason #5: To Prevent or Control Type 2 Diabetes
Regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. This is something that people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk for type 2 diabete, gain substantial benefits from.
Exercise improves the body’s use of insulin, and the related weight loss improves insulin sensitivity. Of course patients with type 2 diabetes need to get guidelines from their doctor before starting an exercise program.
Reason #6: To Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels
Exercise has shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels for these two reasons:
- Weak Heart Muscles pump little blood with lots of effort. By exercising you strengthen your heart muscles and train them to pump more blood with less effort. The stronger your heart is the less pressure will be exerted on your arteries.
- Exercise Increases HDL levels in some people – this means a decrease in your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors such as weight, diabetes and high blood pressure all show improvement with regular exercise.
Reason #7: To Feel Great
The first thing that clients tell me after starting an exercise program is how much better they feel.
Most didn’t even realize how bad they felt. It is easy to get used to feeling sluggish, achy and unmotivated.
Exercise boosts your energy levels and makes you feel amazing.
I know a lot of lazy people.
People who would rather spend the day planted on their couch than anywhere else.
People who choose take-out over home cooked, every night of the week.
People who would rather have a root canal than go exercise.
Sure, I know that we all have our occasional lazy day on the couch, but lately it seems that more and more people are turning laziness into a career.
What about you? Check if the following describe you:
- You are habitually inactive.
- You’d rather be a passive observer than an active participant.
- You’re a master excuse-maker.
- You find shortcuts in order to avoid the long haul.
If that’s you, don’t get down on yourself. There are many legitimate causes of laziness. Here are just a few…
- Sleep Deprivation: When you’re short on sleep it’s easy to become unmotivated, which quickly turns into laziness. Get a minimum of eight hours of sleep each night in order to maintain enough energy to get you through the day. Some experts even say that ten hours of sleep each night is what you need to function at your best.
- Caffeine Abuse: Starting your day with a jolt of java may help with your initial alertness, but the dip in energy that takes place a few hours later could be the reason that you become lazy later in the day. Avoid the rush and crash of caffeine and instead rely on your steady supply of natural energy.
- Bad Habit: At some point being lazy simply becomes a habit. If every night after work you head straight to the couch, it soon becomes automatic and not a conscious decision. Breaking the habit of laziness is actually quite easy. Simply take yourself off of autopilot and make the conscious decision to do something productive instead – like heading to the gym rather than the couch.
- Inactivity: If your job keeps you in a chair for hours at a time, and you don’t exercise when off the clock, then your body is just accustomed to inactivity. It’s time to wake up your under-used muscles and to reacquaint yourself with the joy of motion. A simple way to get back into the swing of things is to go on a 30 to 60 minute walk either before work or after you return home. Once you’ve broken yourself in with consistent walks, contact me to get started on a fitness program that will quickly get your body back into great shape.
Laziness begins when you ignore that little nagging voice in your head. You know, the one that reminds you when you should take action on something rather than sit by and let the opportunity slip away.
Is today the day that you will kick laziness to the curb?
Is today the day that you will take action toward achieving your goals?
Is today the day that you will listen to that little voice of reason?
Getting a flat midsection really boils down to two things: 1) Getting rid of the fatty layer that is covering your abdominal muscles; and 2) Tightening and toning your abdominal muscles.
The following 7 Tight Abs Tips are your Fast-Track ticket to getting a flat, attractive midsection this year.
Tight Abs Tip #1: Perform challenging strength training abdominal exercises at least three times each week. Your abs are like any other muscle in your body—they need to be consistently challenged in order to become stronger and tighter.
Tight Abs Tip #2: Stop eating junk. Processed foods, refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup do NOT belong in your diet if, especially if you want tight abs. Cutting these items from your diet will allow your body to maintain stable blood sugar levels, alleviating your body’s need to store excess sugar away in fat cells.
The fat stores created by excess sugar intake most often accumulate around your waist, covering up your abdominal muscles. Cut these items from your diet and replace them with real whole foods such as lean meats, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and fruits.
Tight Abs Tip #3: Stop doing long and slow cardio workouts. Instead, use HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) for your cardio workouts. HIIT training uses intense bursts of cardio peppered throughout your workout. This is a sure-fire way to rev up your metabolism and to get your fat stores to shrink.
Tight Abs Tip #4: Use resistance with your abdominal exercises. Crunches are great, but your body quickly becomes accustomed to the motion, rendering it less effective. Hold a medicine ball or dumbbell at your chest as you perform your crunches—this will force your abs to work harder, and will achieve better results.
Tight Abs Tip #5: Don’t be fooled. The market is flooded with ‘lose weight’ products and products that claim to flatten your stomach. Never waste your time or money on:
- So-called packaged health food that comes with weight loss claims. If it’s processed in a package with a bunch of chemical additives then it will not help you achieve flat abs.
- Abdominal exercise gimmicks as sold on late night infomercials – all you really need is your own body weight, an exercise ball and dumbbells or a medicine ball.
- So-called weight loss supplements. The magic pill for flat abs doesn’t exist, so you’d be wasting your health and money on a bogus product.
Tight Abs Tip #6: Target your lower abs. It’s easy to neglect the lower abs, but they are an important part of the equation. Incorporate the V-Up into your exercise routine:
Movement: Exhale and bring your knees and upper body close together, while contracting your abdominals. Inhale as you slowly release your legs, returning them to the starting position.
Tight Abs Tips #7: Challenge your core often. Don’t limit your abdominal exercise to the gym, incorporate core strengthening during daily life and throughout each workout. A strong core is the foundation for flat, tight abs.
There you have it! Seven tips that, when diligently applied, will help you shed the fat and tighten your abs.
But, keep in mind that your results will be seriously hindered if you do the same exercise routine over and over. Your abs need a progressive challenge in order to transform. This means new exercises, different resistance and increased challenge.
Call or email today to get started on a program that will challenge you, motivate you and transform your body.
Availability is limited — act now and achieve a slimmer you once and for all this year.
The number one question I’m asked when I tell people I’m a personal trainer is “How do I get a six pack?’’ or “How do I get rid of the fat on my abs?’’. Most people’s natural answer to that is to do a TON of crunches. However, there is a lot more to having a six pack than just doing crunches.
In order to be able to properly train the abs, you have to first learn the basic anatomy. First is the rectus abdominus. These are the muscles most known as being your “6 pack”. Their job is to bend your back forward, the same movement involved in a basic crunch. Next we have the internal and external obliques. Their job is to twist your body and bend your back to the side. Because of their angled position, they can help flatten your abs, helping shrink your waist line and love handles. The obliques are also very important in many sports because of the twisting motion involved 
(baseball swing, golf swing, etc). Lastly, we have the transverse abdominals. They are a very deep muscle that act like a weight belt or back brace to stabilize your back. It is very important that all of these muscle groups are worked in order to achieve a balanced core. Now that you know the abs are capable of performing different movements, you can train each of the muscles of the abs in order to flatten your stomach as much as possible.
Another aspect of having strong looking abs is removing the layer of fat that lies on top of the abs. Many think that the ab exercises alone will help remove that fat layer. However, you can have very strong abs without having a six pack. Take professional strongmen for example. These guys have incredibly strong abs. They have to. If they didn’t, there’s no way they’d be able to lift the weight that they lift. However, they have a layer of fat on top of the abs, so you don’t get to see how much muscle is really there. Showing off their six pack is not a priority in their sport, so they don’t lower their fat percentage like a bodybuilder would. So how do you lower your body fat percentage to show off the abs? Cardio. You must do enough cardio so that your abdominals can be seen through the layers of fat. How much cardio really depends on how much fat you currently have to lose. Some may have to do just 20 minutes a day, some may have to do a lot more than that. I wish there was a black and white answer for all to know but everyone is different.
Another way to cut fat from the midsection is proper nutrition. If you are constantly eating fast food and drinking gallons of soda, there is no way you are going to be able to see through the layers of fat on your midsection. The diet you consume must be high in protein and low in fat. This paired with the cardio work that you are doing should dramatically bring out the definition in your abs.
Now that you know what to do, go out there and try it! If you still need help on what specific exercises to do or what foods to eat, contact me and try one of my many personal training services that are custom designed for you to get in shape!
In this post I’m going to give you some of the most proven and powerful fitness success tips ever.
In fact this is information that many other personal trainers typically charge for… but, I’m more than certain that, once you discover and apply these ten fitness tips for looking and feeling ten years younger, you too will become one of my happy and satisfied clients. 
How would you like to drop three or four sizes in about eight to ten weeks? How would you like to tone and tighten your body and naturally reverse the aging process?
Would you want to look in the mirror and see a more youthful body again – maybe a better body than you have seen in a long time? And wouldn’t you like to protect yourself from disease and injury and live a longer, more vital life?
If you answered yes to these questions, just as the hundreds of individuals that I have coached, trained and advised have, then this is going to be the most important report you have read in a long time.
These 21 strategies, though simple, can prove extremely rewarding when implemented into your lifestyle, with little sacrifice on your part.
So sit back, relax, and allow me to give you the 21 facts to fitness success…
Who among us can truly say that they are as lean and toned as they ever want to be? Most people, even the fitness buffs, are in a constant fluctuation between their ideal body and a body that is not quite ideal. So how do we sway this struggle in our favor? Quite often the difference between the body that you have today and the body that you wish you had is made up of simple daily decisions – and here they are!
#1.Eating small meals every 2-3 waking hours will increase your metabolism and reduce fat storage. Make sure that these are healthy meals containing balanced amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fat.
#2.The easiest way to effortlessly lose weight is to not eat three hours before bed. It has been proven that not eating three hours before bed reduces fat storage throughout the night.
#3. A great way to burn off excess fat is to walk or jog for as little as 15-20 minutes first thing in the morning. Performing a calorie burning activity right when you wake up is more effective since your body is depleted of calories, and is forced to pull energy from fat stores. A personal trainer can help you identify your ideal target heart rate for maximum fat burn.
#4. The average Venti sized Frappuccino weighs in at 530 calories. This staggering number equals 2.5 bagels or one third of the recommended daily calories for an average woman. Beverages such as this contain high amounts of sugar should be consumed rarely since the extra calories they contain are readily stored as fat.
#5.During your workouts do exercise that incorporate compound movements rather than simple ones. This will not only help in burning more calories, but will also tone more muscle at once! A few good compound movement exercises include: squats, clean and press, dead lifts, bent over rows, and lunges.
#6. Want to effortlessly drop 30 lbs in one year? Millions of people drink an average of 2 regular soft drinks a day, which is a total of 300 calories. When you add these extra 300 calories up over a year, they result in over 30lbs of weight gain! Say no to soft drinks, and say goodbye to your unwanted pounds!
#7. Fat free foods, when eaten in excess, will still be stored as fat! Fat free cookies and crackers are made up of a whole lot of SUGAR! Yep, the secret is out! Sugar is just as fattening of a substance than fat itself, when eaten in excess.
#8. Set fitness goals for yourself, write them down and post them where you will see them everyday. Your goal may be to lose 5 pounds, to lose 5 inches off your waist. Make sure that you are very specific with your goals, vague goals will get you nowhere. A qualified personal trainer can help you set your goals and guide you to them.
#9. Pump some iron! Did you know that 1 lb of muscle burns 30-50 calories per day, while 1 lb of fat only burns about 9 calories per day? The more muscle your body contains the more calories you burn each day. Resistance training has been called the fountain of youth – and it really is!
#10. Eat a small meal and wait 20 minutes before deciding if you need more food. This will give your stomach and brain time to communicate. If you have eaten enough food, your brain will alert your body and you will find that you don’t desire anything more. If you are still hungry after this period, eat a small amount more and wait another 20 minutes.
#11. Make a habit of weighing and measuring yourself monthly and tracking your gains and losses. This will prevent gradual weight gain from creeping up when you least expect it.
#12. Drink a large glass of water before every meal. It may seem like a chore, but drinking a large glass of water before eating is a great way to partially fill you up and prevent you from overeating.
#13. When lifting weights, try slowing down the speed at which you lower the weight. Lowering weight in a controlled manner will add strength and tone to your muscles and decrease the chance of an injury.
#14. Eating right when you wake up is vital to breaking the fast your body goes into every night. 2- 3 hours after you eat your body shuts down your metabolism and acts as if it needs to store food. In order to communicate with your body that it is healthy, well fed, and not in need of extra fat storage you need to start your day off with a small meal and continue to eat small meals every 2-3 hours.
#15. Try the straight leg raise for a challenging ab workout. Lie on your back with your hands under your low back, legs straight out in front of you. With your lower back on the floor, exhale as you pull your legs straight up into the air. Inhale as you lower your legs back down to the mat. This exercise helps to strengthen and flatten your lower abs.
#16. Eat complex carbohydrates instead of simple sugars for a leaner body. Your body is in constant need of carbohydrates to be converted into glucose and used as fuel. When your body has extra glucose it will be stored as fat for later use. Complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, legumes, and vegetables, take longer to break down into glucose, and will therefore be less likely to be stored as fat than simple carbohydrates such as table sugar, or fruit sugar.
#17. Make sure that you are exercising in your “Fat Burn Zone” during cardiovascular workouts by checking to see if you can hold conversation without breathlessness. Your body needs oxygen to aide in fat burn, so make sure that you are breathing deeply.
#18. Want to spend 5 seconds a day to encourage weight loss? Drink a glass of cold water every night right before you get into bed. Your body will have to heat this water up to your body’s temperature of 98 degrees, and it will have to burn a few calories in the process! This sets your body up to burn calories as you sleep! When you make this 5 second activity a habit, you will be excited to find yourself losing weight easier than ever before.
#19. Your body needs a variety of nutrients to function at its peak and burn fat. Find new, healthy alternatives to your daily meals, and substitute them frequently. Make sure that you are eating 5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day, of different colors.
#20. Losing patience with exercise? The key to weight loss and fitness gains is to consistently give your body new challenges. Mix up your workouts every few weeks, and don’t be afraid to try something new! Hire a personal trainer who can help you add new excitement to your fitness program.
#21. Water is needed for every function of your body, including the burning of fat. Try drinking a big glass of water in the morning, before meals, while exercising, and before bed. Drink up – it’s good for you!
Take the time to incorporate these tips into your daily lifestyle, and you will be pleasantly surprised with your results!
Take a walk through any gym, and you’ll notice many mistakes. Mistakes that waste time. Mistakes that put people in danger. And mistakes that are just plain stupid. Maybe you even make a few of these mistakes yourself.
By avoiding these common blunders, you’ll put yourself on the fast track to results. Check out the following 5 fitness mistakes and the solutions you need to avoid danger and to get fit fast.
You definitely don't want to make this fitness mistake!
Mistake 1: You use the wrong weight
The goal is to challenge your muscles, not to simply go through the motions. If you are able to complete 15 repetitions easily, then the weight is too light. On the flip side, if you aren’t able to perform an exercise through its full range of motion, and find yourself cheating on form, then the weight is too heavy.
The correct weights will feel challenging by your last few repetitions, but won’t force you to sacrifice form.
Mistake 2: You do the same routine
You may have noticed that most people do the same exercises each time they visit the gym. Maybe you’ve been doing the same exercise routine as long as you can remember – if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it, right?
The truth is that exercise routines have expiration dates, and that is the date that they begin to lose their effectiveness. As a rule of thumb never use the same routine for more than 4 weeks.
Mistake 3: You don’t warm up
Most people consider warm up time to be wasted time – they’d rather jump right into the heart of the routine. What they don’t realize is that a good warm up will allow you to perform at a higher intensity, which means greater results.
The point of a warm up is to increase your muscle temperature. This increases blood flow, muscle contraction and reduces muscle resistance. Your warm up should last 5-10 minutes.
Mistake 4: You use bad form
Gyms are filled with people performing exercises with bad form. The two biggest reasons are that you aren’t concentrating on the exercise, or you’re trying to lift weight that is too heavy. Lifting with improper form almost always results in injury.
Take the time to achieve proper form, by doing so you’ll avoid injury and will reap the full benefit from each exercise.
Mistake 5: You workout alone
People who exercise alone are less challenged, less accountable and typically see fewer results. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Why rush to the gym if no one is there waiting for you? Why push yourself if no one is watching? Exercising alone is a recipe for disaster.
The best way to avoid injury and to see results is to work with a personal trainer, your trusted source on fitness. I am passionate about seeing my clients achieve results – without wasting time, energy and effort on mistakes.
