3 Principles For Great Abs!!

Everyone wants nice abs. Who wouldn't? So here are 3 quick tips to help you see better results.

3 Principles For Great Abs

1. Focus on core stability exercises (e.g. planks). These exercises will develop and strengthen the core much more than traditional ab work (e.g. crunches).

2. Incorporate more total body exercises. Exercises like the squat, deadlift, and standing presses will burn more calories than isolation exercises and result in less fat around your mid-section.

3. Eat healthy and avoid processed foods. Nutrition is about 80% of the fat loss battle. Eat healthy real foods and stay away from the processed boxed foods.

Kettlebell Boot Camp Classes

We are making a small change to our group exercise classes. First, it will now be called Kettlebell Boot Camp (we didn't have a name for them before). And second, there will be more of an emphasis on kettlebell exercises. We look forward to seeing you all in class and helping you burn some fat!

Live Fit,

Josh

Post-Workout Nutrition

Do you know where you make the most gains from a workout? You may guess during your workouts, but that answer would be incorrect. You make the most gains outside of your workout. These gains are made through a combination of nutrition, sleep, and the bodies natural abilities to repair itself.

A very easy way to increase your gains is through post-workout nutrition. We recommend a protein shake immediately after finishing your workout or at least within and hour of finishing. But, you can see the same benefits from eating a chicken breast and sweet potato. Shakes just are much easier, which is why we prefer them.

The nutrients, specifically protein, from eating these foods immediately after a workout will help to your body to begin the recovery process, which results is faster improvements. The protein will help your muscle tissues to repair themselves and add more muscle to your body, which results in a higher metabolism and more calorie burning potential.

Live Fit,

Josh

New Article: The Cardio Lie - check it out here

Replacing Just One Soda A Day With Water

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but Deer Park along with some other brands of bottled water have added a small fact box on the labels of their water. This box reads:

Water Down Your Calories

A typical 12 oz. soda = 140+ calories.

Water = 0 calories. Replacing just one soda a day with water can trim 50,000+ calories a year from your diet. Be Healthy.

So of course after reading this I had to do the math. Knowing that one pound of fat contains approximately 3,000 calories, I divided 50,000 by 3,000 and got 16.67. That's how many pounds of fat you may avoid gaining over a year just by replacing one soda with a bottle of water each day.

Or, if you typically drink one soda a day you may gain 16.67 pounds of fat.

Drink 2 and gain 33.34 pounds.

Drink 3 and gain 50.01 pounds.

Do you see you see how just a couple soda's every day can add up over a year.

Of course, if you drink only water you're well ahead of the game and this is not of concern to you.

Live Fit,

Josh

New Muscle Milk Ready to Drink Flavors!!

We are now carrying two new flavors in 17 ounce ready-to-drink cartons:

Vanilla Cream & Strawberry

4:1

That's the ratio of the size of one pound of fat to one pound of muscle. We always tell our members that they may not see a loss of weight on the scale, but they will notice a difference in inches lost, the way their clothes fit, and how they look. This can be very frustrating to someone who is focused on scale weight, but what needs to be understood is that muscle is more dense than fat and weights more, but also takes up less space.

So while reading Lose Fat Forever by Derek and Don Alessi, I came across this example: One pound of muscle is 4 times smaller than one pound of fat or one pound of fat is the size of a clenched fist and one pound of muscle is the size of a silver dollar. 

Hope that helps to give you a better idea as to why scale weight is not as important as pounds of fat lost. Again if you lost 10 pounds of fat, but gained 10 pounds of muscle. You will not see any scale weight lost, but you will definitely look different because muscle is much more dense that fat.

Live Fit,

Josh

Do Less and Get a Better Result

Should I go to failure each workout? This is a question we are ask frequently? And it's a very good question. After all you want results and isn't pushing out every single last rep a great way to get fast results. It's good reasoning to think this, but the answer is no. 

If you train to failure every set, every day you are actually hurting your progress. While you need to get that extra push every once in a while, doing it every workout is a bad idea. Yes, I will admit that this strategy will result in the amount of weight you are able to lift to increase rapidly, but that is a short-term outcome over time this will not continue to be the result.

To understand why we need to look at how your body actually gets stronger and makes muscular gains. Many people believe that they get bigger and stronger during their workouts because theirs muscles look bigger in the mirror while lifting. But, this is a mirage. If you were to look at your muscle tissue under a microscope you would see that during your workout you have actually decreased your muscle tissue and created small tears in the muscle. The only reason you look and feel bigger is because of the blood that has been pumped into your muscles. So how do your muscles get bigger and stronger? Through rest, they get bigger during the time not spent working out. (This is why post-workout nutrition is so important, but that another topic for another day.) It is during this time that your muscles recover and repair themselves. They adapt to the stress and build larger muscle fibers so that the next time you workout they will not breakdown as much. A result of this recovery process you gain strength and muscle size overtime.

So how does this all relate to pushing yourself to failure every workout? Well, if you push to failure each workout your body will not be able to recover fast enough and repair the damage created from the last session. So while at first you will experience gains is strength, which by the way is neurological and not a result of the muscle tissues getting stronger, you will eventually hit a wall and begin to notice a decrease in your strength. At first this is usually dismissed at a bad day and you just push through it. Then that bad day turns into a bad week, and this is the point where it can spiral out of control. Unless you back off and allow your body to recover.

As a general rule you should train to failure more than once every four weeks. Outside of those four weeks select a weight that is challenging, hit your reps with good form and then rack the weights. It's a good thing if you feel that you could have done 1-2 more reps. If you feel this you will see greater long-term progress than if you go and bang out those extra reps or add more weight. Now, if you feel like you could 3 or more reps then the weight is too light and you need to increase.

I know this advice sounds like the opposite of what you should do if you want to get bigger and stronger, but trust me I've tried many times pushing myself to the limit every workout and it has always lead down the same road of stagnant results, injuries, and burnout.   

Live Fit,

Josh

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MUSCLE MILK PACKETS ARE HERE!!

We now have muscle milk in packets that can be mixed with water or milk. They come in three flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate, and Cookies & Cream. Try one after your next workout to help your body recovery .

Be On The Look-Out For False Claims

This time of the year it is impossible to not turn on the TV and see at least one infomercial promoting a fitness or weight loss product. Some of these may be legit, but a lot are just expensive gimmicks.

Last weekend, while up all night with the flu and unable to sleep, I must have seen about 3 hours of infomercials for these products. (There is absolutely nothing on TV between midnight and 6 am). So while laying there I just kept shaking my head at all of these products being promoted. They promised everything from achieving a fit sculpted to body in  10 minutes a day to losing 10 pounds in a week and still being able to eat whatever you want. And you can even get these products rush delivered to you for only 10 easy payments of $19.95!!

So how do you know if a fitness program or weight loss product is legit or just another rip-off. It's pretty simple actually. If it uses the words or similar words like quick, easy, works like magic, or instantly, it's a rip-off and you'll still be searching for your six pack abs even after getting the 7th minute free!

If a program is legit it will make claims such as: you can lose up to 2 pounds a week, drop a dress size in a month, it takes hard work, you must eat healthy, and results achieved through a fit lifestyle. There are no promises made with these programs. You are the determining factor as to whether or not you will see results. Yes, a well designed program will produce better results faster, but even a bad program will produce something if you follow it consistently.

Don't let sneaky TV advertising convince you into ordering the "latest and greatest" product promising to deliver you results in record time! It won't. Rather commit yourself to a regular fitness program and a fit lifestyle and overtime you will actually see the results you are looking for.

Live Fit,

Josh

Is Your New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Plan Effective?

The first week of January, fitness clubs across the country are packed with new members eager to lose weight and get into the best shape of their lives. However, come February the majority of these new faces will be no where to be found. How can this be when they were to excited and determined just one month earlier?

The answer is: They did not see the results they expected and gave up on their weight loss goals.

The Average Joe (or Jane) joins a Fitness Club in January. They only buy a membership and do not hire the help and expertise of a Fitness Coach. So Day 1 comes of their new fit lifestyle, they go straight to the gym after work ready workout. They aren't really sure what to do and the free weights look awfully intimidating, so they decide to hit the treadmill. But upon entering the cardio room they find all the treadmills full and a sign up sheet to use them. So they sign themselves up, but have wait 30 minutes! After finally getting their turn they have "exercised" (term used very loosely) for 30 minutes and burned 300 calories. They repeat this pattern over and over increasing their time every couple days until they reach an hour and 600  calories. Now they decide "Hey, if I just keep this up five days a week for the next month. I'll be slim and trim!" However, next month comes and guess what? They have lost 10 pounds, but what they see in the mirror is anything but "Slim and Trim". They are just a smaller version of the same fat person they were in January. How could this be they exercised so hard burned 3000 calories a week, but nothing gained. They still look fat. Frustrated and feeling like a failure they decide to give up and stop going to the gym.

So what happened? They burned 3000 calories per week (12,000 for the month), lost 10 pounds, but still looked and felt fat.

Answer: They did not use a plan that was effective for fat loss. Cardio will NEVER give you the body you desire. You may lose weight, but it is water and muscle weight. A loss of muscle will decrease your bodies metabolism. Thus, cardio will actually decrease your bodies metabolism and decrease the amount of calories burned each day. On top of that research has shown that regular runners who ran the same amount everyday year after year actually gained weight!  

So what is the answer to effective fat loss? Free weights and nutrition. With free weights you will add muscle to your body and more muscle means a higher metabolism. A higher metabolism will result in more calories burned everyday and more fat loss. Now, a word of caution do not expect to see any scale weight lost in the first month, but you will lose inches and clothes sizes. This is because while you are burning the fat you are also adding muscle. Thus, transforming your body!

But, just remember all of this is useless without proper and adequate nutrition.

In conclusion: Free weights and nutrition will give you that body that turns heads and you won't be able to stop looking at in the mirror at the hot new you! Cardio will never result in this.

Live Fit,

Josh