HIIT

So if you guys follow the fitness world at all you have probably heard of HIIT, or High Intesity Interval Training. For those of you who havn't heard of it, i'm going to break it down for you. HIIT is great for shredding fat, and for those who are limited on time. The basics of HIIT are basically sprint, walk, repeat. the most basic regimen is a 2:1 work to rest ratio. This, however, can only be sustained for a short period of time if you are truly sprinting, say like 4 minutes. This option is great to throw at the end of a workout as a "finisher." For cardio days, jogging or otherwise, a 1:1 ratio or a 1:2 ratio can make a workout more challenging, and puts you more in the 30 min range. (The reason I mention putting 2:1 at the end of the workout is that the ACSM recommends exercise be divided into a min of 10 minutes, so the 2:1 ratio may not count as a workout on its own). Adding any sprints to an endurance session can break up the time and boost your heart rate. In any event, HIIT is a good option for those looking to burn fat, but may not have time for an endurance session, or are not looking to stress the aerobic (endurance) metabolic system. Some suggest that HIIT burns more fat in half the time of a traditional endurance run as when during a steady-state cardio session, the body starts relying in fat 30 minutes into the session. I am skeptical about this as an endurance run is more likely to burn overall calories. Whichever is the case, HIIT is very popular, because it is a great workout that will yield results and can be done in a time crunch. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Good Luck!

J

Are you eating enough?

Are you eating enough to reach your weight loss goals? Thats right, I said are you eating enough? If you're not, your body could be storing more fat and losing muscle! this may result in a smaller number on the scale, but your body will be flabby and shapeless. To figure out how many calories you need, take you're weight and add a zero. This number is roughly the amount of calories you burn just by existing. If you exercise or are active at all you need to add between 200 and 500 hundred calories to this number. Here's the kicker though, active females should not eat less than 1400 calories and males, 1800 calories. Personally i have my female clients eat no less than 1500 and my male clients 2000 for weight loss in general, but your weight and activity level influence this number. The trick to losing weight here is to make sure your getting a minimum of 4 hours or exercise between 65% and 75% of you max heart rate a week. If you can try and get five days at 1 hr each day, 1 day of 30 min at a light intesity (i.e. a moderate pace walk), and 1 day of complete rest you'll reach your goals even faster. Remember though, not all calories are equal. Eat whole natural foods that are as un-processed as possible for maximum nutritional value.

J

Path to Success

Had an extended conversation with my boss yesterday. It's incredable how passionate he is about what he does and the good he does in peoples lives through fitness. It got me thinking about my goals, both financialy and physically, as a personal trainer. What I have come to learn about fitness is that it says a lot about your life as a whole. When I am dedicated to my fitness goals, I am better at my job, but beyond that, I am better about spending time with the LORD, better at loving my fiance, I am more productive during the day. See, being passionate about fitness isn't just about wanting to look good, those people only occasionally meet there goals. Being passionate about fitness is about living well, and that translates to all areas of your life. The people that get that, that being healthy is a lifestyle that is about being healthy in all areas of your life, those are the people that meet there goals the fastest. In the end, it was never about x amount of lbs or inches, in the end its about your life and if you want to live well, or struggle by.

J

The Bounty of Nature

Why is pre-packaged and overly processed food bad for us? shouldn't we praise the wonders of 20th century food technology? NO! prepackaged and pre-processed food means pre-digested food. Why is that bad you might ask? These foods are making us fat. They do this because foods that are processed are often done so to make them cook faster for convenience. the problem with this is that it often strips foods of vitamins, minerals and fiber. This is significant because our bodies burn more calories to digest fiber laden foods. Thus, when a food is processed, even though it may be similar in caloric value to an un-processed counterpart, we net intake more calories from it. So to put it in simple terms, if we eat 2200 calories of processed food, we might net gain 2000 calories from it whereas if we ate un-processed food, we would intake less because we would burn more calories digesting it. So lets be more efficient in what we eat and get back to nature. Try and eat foods that are as close to nature as possible (i.e. brown rice, fresh fruit and veggies)

Hopefully this helps your weight loss and healthy lifestyle goals

J

Quick tip

Morning Meal.

Chocolate protein shake, blended with ice water and raspberries, and two pieces whole wheat toast. The raspberries provide vitamins and tons of fiber, and the toast gives you sustained energy with slowish-digesting carbohydrate. Also the shake tastes like friggin dessert!

Get a full home gym for free!! (aka your body as a gym)

Actually, GOD already created one for you. It is you! ok so hopefully you aren't here looking for a free home gym (but if you are you might as well stay right?), but its true, body weight exercises can do great things for your body, and the nice thing about it is you always have it with you. There are several body weight exercises that you have probably heard of, i.e. squats, pushup, and the like, but today I want to give you some new stuff that you can change things up with. First we have the burpee, or squat thrust, this exercise work your core and legs. For added difficulty, throw in a pushup to engage you chest as well. The nice thing about this exercise is that has a nice cardio aspect to it as well.
Next we are going to do some back work. Now body weight stuff for you back is hard to do with out equipment, but any sort of sturdy desk or overhang will allow you to do reverse pushups, or hanging rows.
Shoulders can be worked by putting your feet on a bed or chair and then bringing your torso vertical. this allows you to do vertical pushups.
These are just a few things that can be done in an office, hotel room, or home with little to no equipment. My disclaimer with this workout is that it is by no means a full body workout, just some interesting stuff to throw into your BW routine, or a regular workout.

*make sure that desk is really sturdy!

J

A word on your diet

Eat a well balanced diet. Eat fruits and lots of veggies. Get enough protein (.8 grams per KILOGRAM of body weight). Severly limit sugar. Don't be afraid of fat. This is the very basics of the diet plan I give my client. After reading it, you've probably realised that you've been hearing this for years in school. Guess what, the government got this one right. The 1 thing I usually add is that you should eat as close to nature as possible. Eat real food that hasn't been processed or enriched in any way. You'll feel better and your body will burn calories more effectively resulting more weight loss and better results! Fad diets will do just that, cause a passing fad in your weight loss goals. I only recommend 3 supplements to my clients, Fish oil (to help fight inflammation and cardiovascular disease), a multi-vitamine (nobody's diet is perfect, and this helps fill in the gaps) and for athletes or vegetarians, whey protein (helps fill in amino acid defciencies, easy, for athletes who are picky eaters or need additional protein). It's that simple guys, eat good foods every two-three hours. Most of you know what is good and bad, just do it. If you have questions on your diet, come see me at Infinity Fitness and we can work with your diet and fitness level to help you reach your goals.

J

Monday's workout

Ok, so enough rants, today I'm going to give you the goods. This is a 30 min workout that should raise your heart rate and challenge both your anaerobic system Creatine phosphate system and your fast glycolysis systems.

KB Swing 2x15
Staggered pushup 2x15
Lat Raises 2x15
Weighted Situps 2x15

400 yard run

Reverse Lunge 2x15
Bent Rows 2x15
Burppee 2x15
Russian Twists 2x20

400 yard run

This workoutcan be challenging, so start the first set with easy weights and move to heavier ones when you feel comfortable. Most of these exercises can be found on the internet, or consult your trainer. Have a great Monday!

Ahhh Sunday

Ahh Sunday, the proverbial day of rest. It the traditional day not to work out. And that's fine, you worked hard all week and today you won't. Feel Free. Don't go crazy with that so called "cheat meal" you've been looking forward to, and you won't do any harm. For me Sunday is one of my favorite times to workout. Normally you have lots of time so your not rushed. This allows you to try a few new exercises, or even a whole routine. I say take advantage of Sunday while you can. Monday, now that's a day to take off. Monday is a day for naps! Anyway, I don't have much today. If I had to leave you with a tip for today it would be not to be a coach potato. the weather in Ohio is clear and warm for the first time in months. get out and play with your dog, take a leisurely stroll, or even run. Doesn't have to be hard, just get up and get moving.

J

Alcohol

So on day two I wanted to cover my biggest pet peeve with weight loss clients. The story is always the same. They come in, tell all about how serious they are about wanting to lose weight and be healthy until I ask the one question. "Well, how much alcohol do you drink?" The responses are always the same, one drink a night, two drinks a night. some people make it seem less bad by telling, "Oh, no more than 15-20 a week.." 15-2- a week! that's close to if not more than 1500-2000 calories a week in alcohol alone. You've essentially just added an entire day to you calorie intake. So for all reading this, I am going to say what most other diet books won't. Alcohol is not a nutrient. You do not need alcohol. If you are trying to lose weight, don't drink it. period. I am sick of reading articles on the internet that will tell would be dieters not to have any sugar, none at all, but limit yourself to 3 drinks a week or something. Or how many times have you seen the phrase, "If you must drink..." and than its followed by a list of healthy drinks. No one must drink, except alcoholics, and if that is the case with you the alcoholism needs to be taken care of first, then we will deal with the weight issue.
Now don't get me wrong, am I saying never have another drink? No, I am saying while losing weightdon't. Once your in the maintenance phase, have 1-2 a week. However, If your serious about fitness (as well as the LORD) than 1-2 drinks a week is a fine goal. Sure can you splurge every now and again and be ok, yes. However, I'll say it again. If you are trying to lose weight, just don't drink alcohol.
One of the worst things to happen to this country's diet in recent memory, is that we were told that red wine/alcohol were good for your heart. What they didn't tell you is that the 20 lbs in fat you'd rack up from drinking all the time would be worse for your heart in the long run.
That's my rant for the day. Stop drinking, lose weight, get fit and happy, have a toast! Do not repeat.

Happy Saturday!

Opening Day! (for my blog)

Ok so I am new to blogging and as such, this is my first day and first blog. I'll start with a little bit about myself. I am a 23 year old personal trainer living in Columbus, Ohio. My goals for this blog are to share my knowledge of training and track my adventures in learning the trade and becoming (hopefully) a better and more successful trainer. Its easy to be optimistic about this as it's currently 430am. I'm sure my mood will change as I gain more clients and get less sleep. For now though I am excited and Ambitious.
So now for the training stuff. I am a no non-sense kind of trainer. I am not going to get on here and recommend  all kinds of "muscle-exploding!" supplements. Frankly, I don't want my muscles to "explode." Thant sounds painful. I do want my clients to be successful in becoming fit, healthy, and happy. The two main aspects of this are nutrition, and exercise. Today we are starting off with nutrition. If you want to see results, a diet high in complex carbs, and lean protein is just the ticket. Some of my clients find it hard to get all the protein they need in a day. One way to add protein to your diet is some good ol' natural peanut butter. Now my clients all ask me what is the best natural peanut butter brand? My reply as a recently graduated college student is that (spoiler alert) the best ones use only peanuts, so buy a bag and throw them in the food processor for a few minutes. tastes great, and depending on how cheap you can get the peanuts is very cost effective.
So as it is now 5am I have to go get ready to train, but I hope you have enjoyed this blog and I look forward to writing much more in the future!

I feel like I should have a tag line here, but I can only think of meat-head slogans like "Live Hard, Train Hard," What does that even mean "Live Hard?"