24 Hr Fitness

Ok, I’ll stop shouting. However, one of the most frustrating comments I deal with is “I’m exercising, I’m eating right, and I’m not losing weight.”

Allow me to first say that our obsession with the scale borders on fanatical. At the extreme some of you jump on the scales many times a day. This is a recipe for frustration, despair, disappointment, and failure. (Can you think of any other really bad things to add here?)

The reasons are,

1) your bathroom scale weight is ONLY a reflection of the force of gravity against you, meaning, it doesn’t tell you the important stuff like how much of your weight is body fat and how much is lean tissue.

2) Your weight can fluctuate WILDLY during the course of the day, depending on, among other things, your hydration level. And you ladies have a really tough time with this during your monthly cycle.

A couple of the most accurate ways to tell you are progressing toward (or maintaining) your goal weight is to have periodic pictures taken of yourself, and, also, gauge how well your clothes fit. Pictures and clothes don’t lie. Period. Even looking at yourself in the mirror is subjective, but picture and clothes tell the whole story.

If you must use a bathroom scale use one that also measures your body fat %. Several of these are available on the market at affordable prices. Links to some are below. If you exercise (and you do don’t you? hmmm) please look for a model with an “athlete” mode.

Personally, I use a TANITA model, but that was the best model at the time I bought mine 3 or 4 years ago. Do your own research.

My friend Jack gave me a great tip on using the scales to YOUR advantage. He and his wife, Terri, take their bathroom scales and skew the indicator to read something that is completely out of line with reality. E.g. Instead of an initial setting of zero you might choose 18.

How does this help? Well, when you look at the number. . .it’s just a number and doesn’t mean anything to you. Then record this number in a chart or spreadsheet and take the difference between this weigh-in and the last. Over time you can watch your “weight” trend up, down, or sideways.

Monitoring you “weight” this way removes the obsession with watching the scales. You then focus on progress. If you see the trend going up and you haven’t been in the weight room building muscle, then you can arrest the fat gain before it’s out of control.

On the flip side, if your “weight” is trending down and that’s the direction you want to go, great! However, if you are in maintenance, or you are losing too fast, action can be taken immediately.

It is still better if you use a scale that measures body fat %, however, short of that this is a great tip. Don’t overdo it on the weigh-ins however. Weighing yourself more than once a week can be counterproductive.

Lance Curtis is a personal trainer and author of “7 Keys to Unlock The Sexy Dream Body Inside of You!”

To claim your free copy go to http://ThePersonalTrainingGuru.com

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With the holiday quickly approaching, I’d like to give you 7 quick tips on getting through the feasting without sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

1) Eat as much vegetables and pumpkin as possible…*before* the turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Pumpkins, onions, celery, sweet potatoes, yams, squash, green beans, and fruits such as cranberries and apples are high in fiber and tend to make you fuller faster. The presence of these foods in your gut will also decrease fat absorption from the other more fatty foods, such as the meats and cheeses, so prioritize consumption of these foods, and get them on your plate before the others.

2) Eat slow. Eating slowly allows you to feel full *before* you’ve eaten more than you actually need. By taking smaller bites, enjoying the conversation around you, and focusing on the meal as just a small spart of the celebration, you’ll be more likely to spend 20 minutes on one plate, rather than starting on thirds inside of 15 minutes (you’ll thank me when you don’t have the post-meal stomach-ache this year!).

3) Choose your pie wisely. You will literally save hundreds of calories by choosing a fiber-rich, lower sugar pumpkin pie over rich, buttery apple, or even worse, pecan pie. The pumpkin pie takes up just as much room in your stomach, which will still satisfy your appetite.

4) Take a walk. The post-meal physical activity will boost your metabolism, and keep those fatty acids circulating in the bloodstream so that they’re less likely to get deposited as fat on the waistline, butt and thighs (note: save the backyard football for *before* the meal - you don’t want to get tackled with a belly full of turkey).

5) Snack beforehand. Don’t fast all day because you know you’ll be eating a big meal later on. The last thing your body needs is to be in starvation, fat-storage mode when the feast arrives. Instead, eat a healthy, complex breakfast (like a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit), and snack throughout the day on 100-250 calorie meals, like a piece of raw fruit, a handful of nuts, or a small salad. You’ll be less likely to overeat at any big meal if you practice this habit.

6) Don’t overdo exercise. I know those Thanksgiving day exercise classes and early morning workouts feel great and make you feel less guilty, but just don’t overdo it. A 3 hour marathon of lifting, cycling, and running is only going to increase stress on your body and raise the level of fat storage hormones, just before the food goes in. Follow this rule: don’t exercise any more than you would on a typical day.

7) Have fun! For those of you on a strict diet-exercise regimen, this is one of those times of year to really enjoy yourself. Everybody needs a break once in a while, and one piece of pumpkin pie, or a tablespoon of gravy, is not going to sabotage your routine and make you fat. As a matter of fact, occasionally indulging yourself is a great way to feel mentally and physically excited about getting back into your routine. So try to follow the simple rules in this article, and at the same time, break loose and have fun!

Happy holidays everybody!

Head trainer Ben Greenfield runs the online training website Pacific Elite Fitness, and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sport Science and Exercise Physiology, as well as certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Personal Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach (NSCA-CPT & CSCS). For over 6 years, Ben has coached and trained professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes, and helped hundreds of individuals achieve their personal fitness goals. For more information on online personal training and fitness, contact Ben at elite@pacificfit.net.

www.pacificfit.net

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When it comes to exercise, routine is your enemy. Your body should constantly be forced to guess what crazy new workouts you decide to put yourself through. This practice inhibits your muscles and physiological systems from gradually adapting to the demands you place on them. While some training programs address this adaptation by completely changing the workout program’s set, rep, and exercise routine every 4-8 weeks, I’d like to explain a less common idea: changing the daily intensity. For the purposes of this article, I will be incorporating three different intensities - high, medium, and low. With a routine like this, you won’t have to worry about switching your workout mode every few weeks, as long as you constantly plug and play new exercises.

Think of your body as a car’s engine. Low intensity would involve idling at a stoplight. Your primary fuel is fat, and your actual caloric expenditure is low. There is still a good amount of blood flow to exercising muscles, but the actual cardiovascular stress and fiber tearing in the muscle is minimal. You are not breathing hard, conversation with your fellow gym-goers is fairly non-stressful, and muscles really don’t burn all that much. Such an intensity is great for a recovery workout, or for a strength/power workout with long rests between sets. You could potentially go for several hours at this intensity and still be able to do another workout the next day.

You’re cruising down the highway when in medium-intensity mode. Breathing and heart rate become a bit more rapid, you can feel a burn in the working muscles, and the primary fuel is a mixture of fat and carbohydrate. Mental focus is typically a little higher than low-intensity mode, and the workout itself is challenging, but not daunting. You can usually exercise the next day, but typically want to avoid stressign the same muscle groups.

In high-intensity mode, you are working at a 100%, all-out effort. Muscles are constantly burning, breathing and heart rate are very high, carbohydrate is the main fuel source, and caloric expenditure is through the roof (as is your post-workout metabolism). The entire body is tired after this type of workout and you generally need about 24 hours of rest of very easy work afterwards. Many times, it can be difficult to mentally force yourself to *begin* one of these kind of workouts, although once you launch into and the adrenaline kicks in, energy levels naturally rise.

The key to the sample training program outlined below that the low, medium and high intensities are stacked so that your body optimally responds and optimally recovers from each workout. So here is a sample daily-intensity based workout for a fairly frequent 6 day work-out routine.

Day 1 (i.e. Monday): high-intensity cardio intervals (shorter, i.e. 20 minutes) with high-intensity full body resistance training (longer, i.e. 45 minutes), incorporating back-to-back sets, challenging weights, difficult training scenarios, and short rest periods.

Day 2: low-intensity cardio, long and steady (i.e. 45 minutes+), with no lifting. Good day for an outdoor workout, like a hike or easy bike ride.

Day 3: high-intensity cardio intervals with medium-intensity full body lift, incorporating primarily body weight training. Great day to experiment and try new exercises and/or group exercise classes.

Day 4: low-intensity cardio, long and steady (i.e. 45 minutes+), with no lifting.

Day 5: medium-intensity cardio (shorter, i.e. 20 minutes) with low-intensity lifting (longer, i.e. 45 minutes),. For the lifting, incorporate heavier weights with longer rest periods, and focus on slow and controlled movements with perfect form and little to no ballistic activity.

Day 6: high-intensity cardio (longer, i.e. 45 minutes) with high-intensity full body resistance training (shorter, i.e. 20 minutes). Great day to try the Weekly Trainer Challenge, plus some extra cardio.

Day 7: active rest. Does not equal couch+bon-bons. Get up and move around, but just don’t stress your body too much.

There you have it. This type of exercise routine allows for sufficient recovery after the high-intensitiy periods, while still allowing for maximum caloric burning and efficient workouts. There are many different ways you could approach such a routine (in terms of exercises, specific cardio intervals, etc.). Just let me know if I can help you put a training plan together…you can e-mail me at elite@pacificfit.net.

Head trainer Ben Greenfield runs the online training website Pacific Elite Fitness, and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sport Science and Exercise Physiology, as well as certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Personal Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach (NSCA-CPT & CSCS). For over 6 years, Ben has coached and trained professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes, and helped hundreds of individuals achieve their personal fitness goals. For more information on online personal training and fitness, contact Ben at elite@pacificfit.net.
www.pacificfit.net

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