A Beginner’s Guide to Resistance Training

Still not convinced from Fridays post to pick up a set of weights?

A recent study, done by the American Heart Association, concluded that women who lift weights twice a week are able to prevent or slow weight gain and fat deposits around their waists. Since the release of this information, women everywhere are flocking to their local gyms to pump iron.

Before you begin a strength training program it is important to understand proper lifting techniques. When strength training exercises are performed correctly the benefits are countless, however, when improper techniques are used the result is often injury and frustration. Take the following tips and really make your workout count.

Breathe: You cannot emphasize the important of proper breathing enough, when it comes to lifting weights. Most people do not pay attention to their breathing pattern, and as a result they hold their breath throughout an exercise. For the best results, exhale during the exertion phase of an exercise and inhale as you return to the starting position. For example, during a bicep curl, exhale while you curl the weight and inhale as you lower the weight back down.

Pace: A common mistake among novice weight lifters is to perform exercises with quick, jerky movements. Instead, focus on making your movements fluid and controlled. Remember, you are working your muscles throughout the entire movement when you control your pace. If you move too quickly, on the other hand, you are simply using momentum, and not muscle, to get the exercise done.

Too Many: Who says that you need to match your sets and reps to the gym rat on the bench next to you? A key to avoiding injury is to start your weight lifting career with a slow and steady increase in both sets and reps. When you learn a new exercise start by only doing one set and 8-12 reps.

Too Much: When you start lifting weights for the first time it is important that you lift weights that feel light. Lifting weights that are too heavy will lead to muscle tears and strains. Injury is the number one reason that new weight lifters throw in the towel. Avoid injury by building up the weight slowly; don’t let your ego get in the way of your overall weight lifting success.

Balance: Your body is made up of 7 major muscle groups. These include your legs, abdominals, back, chest, shoulders, biceps and triceps. Many weight lifters get caught up with one or two muscle groups, namely chest and biceps, and as a result their body lacks balance. Not only does it look funny to have only one or two muscular body parts, it also sets you up for injury. Take the time to incorporate all of your major muscle groups into your weekly workouts.

Rest: Even though you are ‘pumped up’ about your new weight lifting routine, don’t overdo it! Your body needs time off to rebuild and repair muscle tissue after every workout. Start by weight lifting no more than 3 times a week, with a day off in between each workout. As a rule of thumb, never lift weights when you are still sore from your last workout. With time you will develop a routine that gives your body the proper rest time, while still getting you the results you want.

When in doubt, hire a local fitness professional to teach you the ropes. Not only will they instill proper technique, but they will also help you target and achieve your personal goals.

Come Back Tuesday to find out how to Shrink Your Waistline, and Strengthen your Heart!

Burn Fat with Resistance Training

 Muscle Tone Burns Fat

Long term members of CardioCore probably know that in order to burn fat, resistance training is needed to strengthen your muscles and raise your metabolism.

But some of you new to fitness may still be associating resistance training with big burly “muscle men” and not something that a weight loss enthusiast needed. Times have changed, and we now understand the process that occurs when you perform exercises against resistance.

First your muscle fibers break down with microscopic tears as you push or pull against resistance. Then your muscles feel sore for a few days as your body mends and rebuilds the tears. During the rebuilding process your muscle fibers grow in thicker and stronger—hence the term "ripped" or “hard body”. If you neglected your muscles and stick only with cardio, then your metabolism will waste away along with your firm lean tissue.


Want firm legs, arms and abs?
Well, this is exactly how you get them. Through resistance training. Resistance training is anything that gives resistance against your muscles. The most traditional resistance training is dumbbells or barbells, but it can take on many other forms as well. Cable machines and pulley systems give great resistance, as do elastic bands and kettlebells. Using your own body weight is another way to give your muscles resistance.


“But I don’t want to look muscular and bulky.”
I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten this reaction from women when I encourage them to lift weights! The critical thing here is that in order to be fit and toned you MUST lift weights! No, don’t give me that horrified look! Resistance training can literally change your entire body, let alone your self- confidence and self-esteem, but most importantly, resistance training could possibly be the best thing that you will ever do to keep your body looking better than ever. Trust me ladies you would have to lift some seriously heavy weights and ingest testosterone to make you look bulky or manly.

Resistance Training Improves Your Metabolism: Resistance training is the one thing that we do that elevates our metabolism for hours after a workout.

Cardiovascular workouts are effective and necessary, but, after an hour of running, your metabolism is only elevated for less than an hour before going back down to normal.

Resistance training will literally raise your metabolism permanently. 

This happens because weight lifting is actually a process of breaking down muscle tissue and re-building it back stronger, firmer and more tone.

This process takes time and energy (AKA calories). Once you have added muscle tone to a given area on your body it now takes even more energy to maintain this muscle.

Why is resistance training such a metabolism booster?

When you weight train you break down muscle fibers, which takes energy to rebuild, when these muscle fibers have been rebuilt they are tighter, toner, more firm and now take more energy to maintain. Hence: a higher metabolism all day long. Simple, yet so effective!

•    1 lb of muscle burns about 50 calories a day
•    1lb of fat burns 4 calories a day 

"I want to look Toned and Sculpted"
Resistance training is responsible for the beautiful sculpted and toned look that many athletes sport. As mentioned above, resistance training breaks down muscle fibers so that they can rebuild stronger. These strengthened fibers are denser than the weaker ones that they are replacing, thus resulting in a firmer, tighter feel.

Since we know that muscles consume more energy than fat, it is safe to assume that when you increase in muscle you will also decrease in fat. (This is of course assuming that your caloric intake does not increase and that your cardiovascular activities do not decrease.) Due to this decrease in fat, the shape of your muscles will start to be unveiled by the shedding of the extra fat tissue that covers them. Now that’s body sculpting!

Come Back Friday to learn more Amazing Benefits to Resistance Training

Boost Metabolism naturally

How can I raise my metabolism? 

Here’s How:

Enjoy great food and then burn fat effortlessly in your sleep! Does that sound too good to be true? Believe it or not, the following tips have been proven to help raise your metabolism, which causes your body to burn fat 24-7. These minor changes in the way in which you eat will jump start your metabolism and turn you into a calorie burning machine. Read on for simple and easy ways to feast your way to a faster metabolism.


Before you start any weight loss plan it is important to get yourself into the right mindset. Have you started weight loss programs in the past only to abandon ship a few days later? Are you skeptical that you will ever reach your fitness and weight loss goals? Wait—don’t give up hope!

This time, instead of forcing a drastic and strict diet upon yourself, try incorporating a few of the following tips into your daily life. You don’t have to lose all of the weight at once, but you do need to make at least one small step in the right direction everyday. Remember, every journey is made up of many small steps in the right direction! Keep making healthy improvements to your lifestyle and, before you know it, you will arrive at your goal.

1) More is better
Eating small meals throughout the day increases your metabolism, while eating too few meals throughout the day kills your metabolism. The first thing that you need to know about how to eat to burn fat is this fact: Eating small meals every 3-4 waking hours will increase your metabolism and reduce fat storage. This is a proven fact that bodybuilders, models, athletes and lean people everywhere abide by.


2) Get the Good Stuff
Eat complex carbohydrates instead of simple sugars. Eat Clean - Tosca Reno has a series of books that are very helpful in outlining this! 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. Also, complex carbohydrates often contain more nutrients than simple sugars.

3) First Things First
Eating Breakfast literally gets your engine started and gets your metabolism going. Eating right when you wake up is vital to breaking the fast your body goes into every night. Three to four hours after you eat your body shuts down your metabolism and acts as if it needs to store food. This is a great function to have if a famine breaks out and you don’t see food for weeks. Since this probably isn’t the case for you, it is pretty annoying when your body starts packing on the pounds. So, 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 3 – 4 hours.

4) No More Late Eats
Your body is most prone to store foods eaten right before bed directly as fat. Although comfort food seems to taste better right before bed, it is also more prone to stick with you when eaten late at night. One Step Weight Loss Tip: It has been proven that not eating three hours before bed reduces fat storage throughout the night. If you go to bed at 10 pm, finish eating for the day no later than 7pm. Once you have made this a habit, you will be ecstatic over the long- term weight loss!

5) Bottoms Up
Drink lots of water. Water is the healthiest beverage that you can drink. 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.

You will be delighted with the results! Now that you have been enlightened on the dangers of popular diets and are armed with valid education on the subject of diet and weight loss—let’s move on to the next step...Resistance Training. 

Come back Wednesday to learn how this powerful act will skyrocket your resting metabolism...which means burning fat while sitting on the couch and even while sleeping.

Nikki's Core-Crunch Ab Circuit!

Here is a great 10 MIN Abs/Core Circuit ... all you need is a bit of space and some Dumbbells

Click here to see the rest of the workout

15 Minute Holiday Workout

15 Minute Holiday Workout

Posted by Jeff Angus on

November 26, 2010

Every year we try to make commitments to fitness goal regimes around the start of the New Year. But, no surprise here, on average only about 20 percent of people stick to their new year’s fitness resolution. So this year, Chill is making it real easy for you with the help of Jeff Angus, Managing Director of the Ontario Fitness Council and President and CEO of CardioCore Fitness (cardiocorefitness.com).

Jeff has agreed to put together a simple 15-minute workout every issue of Chill that corresponds with the time of year and everything we have going on in our lives at that time.

Since holiday season equates with being strapped for cash, stressed out and having no free time, we’re starting with the basics. Basic moves using things around your house and your own brute strength is all this workout requires. And although 15 minutes may not seem like an ideal workout, this set of exercises was designed to get you the most our of those 15 minutes.

Have 30 minutes? Do it twice. 


The Workout
The Warm Up – Since this is a bodyweight workout, your warm up can be shorter than one you would use for high intensity training and sport. Just 3-5 minutes running up and down a set of stairs in the house will suffice.

The Moves

1 Prisoner Squats: Athletic stance, feet shoulder or hip width apart, knees slightly bent, shoulder blades down and back, chest out. Heels should always be in contact with the floor. Do not lock knees at top.

What it Does: Develops quads, glutes, increases testosterone, builds core endurance and postural endurance.

2 Pushups: Elbows should be slightly angled towards body not to 90°, line up middle of chest between hands.

What it Does: Develops upper body pushing strength, develops chest, shoulders, arms; efficient exercise for core strength and endurance.

3 Bodybuilder with 4 Mountain Climbers: This move combines the squats and push ups (in that order). Once you have done your squats and you’re in your push up stance, alternately drive your knees toward your chest four times. Use a powerful movement to push off the floor and land in a wide stance squat, extend hips and explode off the floor in a vertical jump.

What it Does: Develops same muscle groups as push ups and squats, adds rotational stability and hip power with mountain climbers and vertical jump.




4 Alternating Lunge or Jump Lunge: Same range and movement as squat.

What it Does: Develops the same muscles and groups as squats, but it splits the move in two for help with muscular imbalances. For increased intensity and hip power, add a slight plyometric jump in between. 


5 Progressive Bridge: Set up with elbows directly under the shoulders with 90° angle, maintain good spine position with belly button pulled in and shoulder blades retracted and depressed. Using the ankles only, slowly increase the angle at the elbow and shoulder location while walking away from the elbows. Start slow, don’t walk too far so that you feel pressure in the lower back. Slowly walk back towards elbows to decrease the angle back to 90°.

What it Does: Teaches abdominal muscles to stabilize the trunk. The rectus abdominis and erector spinae are very functional for daily life, work and sporting activities.


6 Double Floor Sweeper to Double V-Up: Lay down on your back with hands underneath you so that you can maintain a good lumbar position. Keep your pelvis at a slight posterior tilt (think of pushing your lower back towards the floor). Slowly raise your legs on an angle towards your shoulder and push or thrust your hips off the floor. Slowly return in a “sweeping" motion to the middle and do the same movement to your other shoulder. After two “sweeps" follow with two v-ups.
V-ups is the same position as floor sweeper, but with your arms raised above your head. In one motion, attempt to make a “V" with your upper and lower halves.

What it Does: This combination develops muscle tone for the whole abdominal region which is a problem area for many people; decreases waist girth (along with body fat, weak abdominal muscles contribute to waist girth); trains lower abdominal region to perform the function of spine and pelvis stabilization for dynamic leg movement; works internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis (deep “weight belt" region) and hip flexors all in one.


Put it all together.
After 3 to 5 minute warm up repeat the following sequence until you reach 15 minutes total.


1. 20 prisoner squats (part of warmup drop to 5 reps moving forward)

2. 20 pushups (part of warmup, drop to 5 reps moving forward)

3. 5 bodybuilder with 4 mountain climber combo’s

4. 5 prisoner squats/5 pushups

5. 5 Lunges or Jump Lunges
per leg

6. 5 Prisoner Squats/5 Pushups

7. 5 progressive bridge

8. 5 prisoner squats/5 pushups

9. 5 double sweeper to double v-up combos

CardioCore Fitness - NEW and Improved

	ANNOUNCEMENT! Hi Member, I wanted to send a note to my valued members and give you all a heads up on some exciting developments with CardioCore™ Fitness, formerly known as Cardio-Core Bootcamp. Do you like our new logo? There will be a Press Release going out in the near future (which will explain the name change in detail) to all members across Canada outlining these developments, but I wanted all of you to be the first to know. Firstly, I’d like to introduce you to our new site www.cardiocorefitness.com. When you register for CardioCore™ on the website you’ll be prompted to create a profile. The purpose of this profile section is to allow valued CardioCore™ members 24hr access to over 50 CardioCore™ trainers and owners across Canada. This site will be full of information, education, Q & A and discussions that will help you reach your fitness & health goals. I will personally be updating it weekly with workouts, nutrition tips and sharing great stories coming out of CardioCore™ Burnaby. I trust you will find being a part of our online community of great value to your overall CardioCore™ experience. Secondly, I’d like to introduce you to our NEW Ambassador program - our reward program for dedicated long term members. The Ambassador program keeps you training all year long. As walking, talking examples of fitness and health dedication, CardioCore™ members with more than 3 consecutive months of experience can choose this option. As a CardioCore™ Ambassador you will have the luxury of unlimited training during set monthly schedules, will save money and time spent on re-registration, and can budget payments on a monthly basis for the year. This is the best value for our experienced clients. The details of the program are as follows; 1 year membership - Unlimited workouts for the year.   Prerequisite – 3 consecutive sessions of CardioCore™ Fitness   12 equal monthly payments of $151.20 incl tax (BC) Important! Holiday Crunch Offer! We will offer 6 extra workouts over the holidays for $99 plus HST. Grab a friend and get them moving before the holidays. Why not give them a Tri-Fit Gift card for $29.99 plus HST! Details down below. Become an Ambassador before December 15th and we will include the 2010 Holiday Crunch at no extra charge! The next time you will have to worry about your membership will be December 2011. Christmas Crunch Schedule Contact your individual location for hours of operation. YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE! Give a friend or family member the gift of fitness this holiday season with a TRI-FIT GIFT CARD only $29.99 Redeemable at all CardioCore Locations across Canada! Need extra for corporate incentives purchase 5 for $134.95 + HST.   This is a good way to show your loved one's what CardioCore is all about with a 3 class sampler. We are so proud to train you and we really look forward to next year with all of you. Please feel free to call your trainer directly to discuss your fitness & health goals for 2011. In Good Health, The Cardio-Core Team!

PUMPkin Fun - A Screeeam of a Workout!

Why a pumpkin?
If you think about it, a pumpkin is like a big weighted medicine ball. While I wouldn’t recommend you try bouncing your pumpkin ... you can certainly use it like you would a medicine ball. The thing I love about using a pumpkin is you can get them in all different shapes, sizes, and weights.

When you’re using a medicine ball it’s perfectly round, easy to grip, and has even weight distribution. A pumpkin on the other hand can provide much more of a challenge to your core and abdominal muscles because of the irregular shapes and sizes.


Pumpkin Mountain Climbers
Place both hands on the pumpkin in a push-up position and raise your hips so you have a flat back. Keep your abdominal muscles tight and try to maintain as straight as possible as you bring one leg in towards your chest at a time. Squeeze your abs as you bring the leg in. 10-15 reps per side.

Pumpkin V-sit Twist
Lay on the ground in an upright position with your feet crossed and slightly leaning back. Take the pumpkin with both hands and rotate it side to side. Raise your feet off the ground for more of a challenge on the core. Keep your abs tight throughout the movement. 10-15 reps per side.

Pumpkin Wood Chop
Start by holding your pumpkin straight out in front of your chest and go down into a squat position. As you go down into the squat bring the pumpkin with you and lower it between your legs. Come out of the squat position bringing the pumpkin with you and extending it overhead with your arms straight. Repeat. Keep a flat back and your arms straight through the movement. 10-15 reps.

Pumpkin Diagonal Chop
Start by holding your pumpkin with straight arms but off to one side. Squat down bringing the pumpkin with you, chopping with it in a diagonal arch pattern. Try to keep the pumpkin away from your body and your arms straight as this is what really works the core. Holding the pumpkin close to your body or with “alligator arms” won’t make the exercise very effective.

Pumpkin Squat Thrust
Start with the pumpkin at chest height holding it with both hands. Go down into a squat position and drive back to the starting position while pushing the pumpkin over your head. Return to chest height and repeat. 10 -15 reps

Pumpkin Burpees
With the pumpkin on the floor in front of you,
 squat down to the floor, grab the pumpkin and extend your legs out and back with a jump to assume a push-up 
position. Perform a push-up with your hands on the pumpkin and then reverse 
the movement to stand back up. Repeat for 10-15 reps.

Pumpkin Lunge with Front Raise
Start by holding the pumpkin with both hands to one side at hip level. Step forward into a lunge position and in the process raise the pumpkin overhead with straight arms. Bring the pumpkin up to a point right above your head and then as you come out of the lunge and back to the starting position, chop the pumpkin back to your side. Alternate legs. 10-15 reps per side.

Pumpkin Lateral Reaches
Start by holding the pumpkin with both hands at chest height. Take a big lateral step to one side and lower the pumpkin down over your foot. Push off the lead foot and return to the starting position with the pumpkin at chest height. 10-15 reps per side.

Pumpkin Push-Up’s
This is one of my favorite pumpkin exercises as it really challenges the core and abdominals, not to mention your chest, arms, and shoulders. Now, there are several different variations of ways you can do a pumpkin push-up.

I’ll review the three most common:

Both hands on pumpkin: start with both hands on the pumpkin and get yourself in a push-up position. Lower yourself down towards the pumpkin and then return to the starting position. If this is too difficult, you can go to your knees instead of a plank position for your push-up’s.

One hand on the pumpkin, one hand on the ground: complete your push-up’s this way for a real challenge to your core, but also your shoulder stabilization. Try rolling the pumpkin back and forth between hands for an even greater challenge.

Feet on pumpkin: place both feet on the pumpkin and complete your push-up’s.

Do More in Less Amount of Time

Exercise Efficiently - More Done In Less Time:

Everyone wants more for less. It's human nature. By learning how to exercise in the most efficient way possible, one of two things are true:

1. You get more results in the same amount of time.
2. You get to exercise for less time and get the same results.

Both seem like rather appealing options, right?
It used to be that exercising for increased efficiency meant regulating your heart rate to be in the 'fat-burning zone' of 40-60% max heart rate, or in the 'cardiovascular zone' of 60-85% max heart rate. Now, we know better.
We know that increased efficiency means improving the demand on all 3 energy systems:

1. ATP-PC - 0 to 2 second energy system
2. Anaerobic - 2 to 60 second energy system
3. Aerobic - 60 seconds and beyond energy system

By depleting and replenishing all three energy systems, we are maximizing caloric expenditure, muscular strength, as well as muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Effectively, we are not multiplying our results by three, but we are exponentially allowing ourselves to burn up to 9x more calories with this approach.

Turkey Burn

Don't have a lot of time to hit the gym? What if I told you in 30 minutes you can burns 450 calories in  — including warm up and cool down. That would take upwards of 55 minutes on a treadmill — and would be boring as hell.

This workout is metabolically demanding, you’ll actually burn calories for up to 36 hours after you’re DONE your workout. So even when you fall asleep on the couch after your Turkey dinner, you’re STILL burning more calories than you normally would.

That’s because your body is working it’s way back to “normal” following the demanding session. During those 30 intense minutes, you aren’t JUST burning calories. You’re using up muscle fuel, ripping muscle tissue, and pressing your hormones into action.

All that metabolic activity is what forces your body to rebuild afterward — burning more calories in the process. Oh, and it also makes you a bit like a Million Bucks! You come back for your next workout a little faster and a little stronger than you were before! Cool, huh?

Try this workout:


DYNAMIC WARM UP - 5 minutes
• Jumping jacks
• Flings
• Seal (cross over) jump jacks
• Side shuffle
• Prisoner squats
• Leg swings- front, back, side to side hamstring)
• Walking lunges
• High knees
• Bum kicks
• Tuck jumps
• Skipping

Perform 30 seconds work at the highest intensity you can! 

Relax - You get 30 seconds of rest in between :-D 

You will do 4 rounds of each super set.

Superset #1

1A: 1 leg Push Ups (30 seconds) *see modifications below
REST 30 seconds
1B: Body Weight Jump Squat (30 seconds) *see modifications below
REST 30 seconds


Repeat this superset 4 times!

Superset #2


2A: Front Alternating Lunge with a Shoulder Press (30 seconds)
REST 30 seconds
2B: Pull Ups (30 seconds) *see modifications below
REST 30 seconds


Repeat this superset 4 times!

Your done! 

Congratulations - enjoy your Thanksgiving with your loved ones! 

*Modifications*

1 leg push ups --> Push ups on knees or both toes on ground

Jump Squat --> Standard body weight squat lower down so thighs are parallel with group - no jump!

Pull Ups --> use a resistance band wrapped around pull up bar and around your leg to help with ascent or if at the gym use an assisted pull up machine (you kneel on a platform that helps take the load of lifting your whole body weight) even even that machine is not available nor a pull up bar you can try the Lat Pull Down machine too!

WEEK OFF - At Home Workout - Body-Weight Pyramid

Reverse Body-Weight Pyramid

Dynamic Warm-up - 5-10 minutes

5mins - Work continuously until the time is up.

5x Push-ups

5x Burpees

5x Squats

5x V-ups
Repeat until time is up




Active Rest Phase:
5 Minutes Skipping

4mins - Work continuously until the time is up.
5x Push-ups
5x Burpees
5x Squats
5x V-ups
Repeat until time is up

Active Rest Phase:
4 Minutes Skipping

 
3mins - Work continuously until the time is up.
5x Push-ups
5x Burpees
5x Squats
5x V-ups
Repeat until time is up

Active Rest Phase:
3 Minutes Skipping

2mins -Work continuously until the time is up.
5x Push-ups
5x Burpees
5x Squats
5x V-ups
Repeat until time is up

Active Rest Phase:
2 Minutes Skipping

1min - Work continuously until the time is up.
5x Push-ups
5x Burpees
5x Squats
5x V-ups
Repeat until time is up


Cool down and Stretch

Kettlebell Fat Burning Workout

Kettlebell Fat Burning Workout

 

  Courtesy of Lauren Brooks

  First warm up with Joint Mobility

  Circuit 1 Set you timer for  30 seconds on and 30 seconds of rest

 

     Push Ups

     Squat with 1 Kettlebell

    2 Handed Swings

    Clean and Press Right

    Clean and Press Left

    2 Handed Swings

     

Repeat for 3 Sets

 

Circuit 2 Set you timer for 45 seconds on and 45 seconds of rest

 

 

    TRX Back Row or One Arm Row Left and Right

    Hand 2 Hand Swings

    Back Lunge Right Leg

    Back Lunge Left Leg

    Burpees

    Plank Hold

 

Repeat for 2-3 sets

Have you Plateaued?

Have I Plateaued?

Ask yourself these questions:

• The scale isn’t moving
• Clothes aren’t getting bigger
• You’re hungry all the time
• Exercises aren’t as difficult
• You’re doing the same things, but not getting any results

What’s most frustrating about these signs is the fact that it might seem like you’re doing everything right.  You’re eating what you’re supposed to be eating, working out when you plan to, and even cutting back further than you have to on your chosen diet plan.  What’s going on?

  Why Have I Plateaued?

Thankfully you can generally blame Mother Nature for your metabolic frustrations.  What happens is that as your body changes, it starts to get ‘used’ to the new weight and wants to settle there.  Your body has given you as many results as possible using the current menu and fitness program you’re on.

The reason why your body does this is to avoid starvation.  It senses that it’s not getting as much food as it used to and so it tries to hold onto what you’re giving it.  Or it’s getting used to the exercises that you’re doing, so it’s not responding in the same way.  Basically, your body is leveling out – hence, the term plateau.

What can I do?

But now that you know what a plateau is and what the signs of it can be, you can start to tailor your weight loss routine to prevent or stop a plateau.  What you need to do is change up what you’ve already been doing so that your body has to respond.  This can include several things:

• Increase your calorie intake slightly. Yes you read that right! Too few calories can actually make you gain weight. Make sure your eating the recommended amount for your age and weight. On days you strength train have a few extra calories (no more than 200-300) that come from nutrient rich food (veggies/fruit and protein)
• Increase the intensity of your exercise plan with interval training (READ below)
• Try adding more protein to your diet
• Drink more water

These simple steps can sometimes recharge your body and put it back into fat-burning, weight-losing mode.  A weight loss plateau is something that every dieter will see at one point or another, so don’t feel like you’re not heading in the right direction.  Often, a plateau is that sign that you’re doing a good job already, but that you need to tweak something.

 Forget Long Boring Cardio - Switch To Short Burst Intervals

The shorter, more-intense your session, the more you will burn more overall calories and preserve muscle, which will not only boost your metabolism but help you created that tight and lean look as you reach your ideal body.

True Intervals are simply brief, high intensity periods of exercise (where you work out as intensely as you can for your fitness level) alternated with active recovery periods, where you slow down just long enough to catch your breath.



For Example:

60 Seconds of Jumping Jacks
60 seconds of Marching
Repeat 6-8 times for a total of 10-15 minutes.

The goal – and the effectiveness – is to challenge yourself so that at the end of 10-15 minutes – you have had one heck of a workout! If you could easily go another 10-15 min, then you have not worked hard enough. Go back and increase the effort and intensity.

When you “do” intervals – you dramatically cut the amount of time it takes to workout and see results twice as fast.






What do you Need to DO Intervals?

No special equipment necessary – in fact, the more you USE your Body – the more effective your Fat Loss results!

Body weight intervals are more effective for you are using all the major muscles in your body. They are also great for when you are short on time or cannot leave the house and sure help if you are in need a quick burst of energy.

Studies -as well as countless testimonials of Cardio Queens – prove high intensity cardio workouts “Intervals” can provide all of the following fitness benefits:

* dramatically boost metabolism – both during AND after exercise

* faster rate of body fat-to-energy conversion

* preserves lean muscle (muscle is your metabolism – you do not what to lose this!)

* significant increase in aerobic capacity (Max VO2) = increased endurance and stamina


Please Note:

Working Out Effectively Will Only Take You So Far

Once you are challenging your body, increasing your lean muscle and boosting your metabolism you will lose fat when you are in a caloric deficit…..and the only way we find ourselves NOT in a caloric deficit is when we are taking in more calories that we are burning.

(i.e. What and How Much are you eating?)

If you are willing to make an effort to try something different but are hesitant…I really want you to think about the hours you spend each week exercising. Is this all the effort getting you results or getting nowhere.

By switching to a more effective workout style, imagine how you could take the time that was spent “exercising” on things that do give you a positive return, ways to better spend your time to enhance your life.

20 Minute Cardio Challenge

Imagine you are a Child again, with Boundless Energy, and approach this Challenge with Enthusiasm!

Burpees no one likes these, for good reason, they are tough but my god will you see a difference in your bum, legs and thighs if you keep this up: from standing, crouch down, place palms on floor, jump legs back into full push-up position (add a push up if you wish), then jump legs back to crouch pose and stand up (or jump up). Repeat again.

When Marching swing your arms and lift your knees up high this is your Active-Rest between intervals.

Before Starting: Grab a stopwatch (I like my Gymboss timer) or an egg timer that will alert you when the time has passed, a bottle of water and a towel (for all the sweat that will be dripping off you!)


* March in place for 3 minutes (360 steps)
* 60 Jumping Jacks
* March 1 minute (120 steps)
* 60 Jumping Jacks
* March 1 minute
* 30 Burpees
* March 1 minute
* 30 Burpees
* March 1 minute
* 30 Burpees
* March 1 minute
* 30 Burpees
* March 1 minute
* 60 Jumping Jacks
* March 1 minute
* 60 Jumping Jacks
* March in place 2 minutes to cool down

Remember the Marching phase is your active-recovery to allow your heart rate to even out and muscles relax, thus allowing you to put all your intensity into your next round of Jumping Jacks and Burpees.

This is a challenge for those of you who have been regularly working out for a few months. 
If you are beginner or have any joint issues please consult with your doctor prior to performing these exercises!

Exercise of the day: Kettlebell Swing!

A Kettlebell Swing is highly efficient, working the abs and strengthen the core muscles as they provide a stable platform for other muscles to pull from PLUS they work the posterior chain muscles such as the hamstrings, glutes, core and back.

A kettlebell swing is a perfect choice of exercise for tabata training. This very short but intense style of training is ideal for kettlebell swings as they hit a lot of muscle at one time and get the heart rate soaring. Although Tabata training only involves work periods of 20 seconds with 10seconds of rest it is very brutal but very effective.

Swings are a fantastic conditioner and body fat burner. More and more studies are concluding that greater body fat burning occurs when training is performed at higher intensity levels rather than long slow endurance type training.

 

FORM IS CRUTIAL!

Here is a good how-to video:

 Good Luck!

Summer Beach Workout

Summer is always a great season when it comes to training; the lighter mornings and longer days make it an ideal time to get in a few extra workouts - and with the added pressure of looking good on the beach - that can only be a good thing.

However these extra workouts don’t have to be laborious jogs around the park every morning. Instead, try and spice up your workouts with some of these outdoor workout ideas.

 

 

 

Bodyweight Circuits

Go and find yourself a quiet spot in your garden/local park and test yourself with some bodyweight exercise circuits. Choose 5-8 exercises such as:

• Push Ups
• Burpees
• Ab Crunches
• Squats
• Lunges
• Squat Jumps
• Planks
• Squat Thrusts
• Step ups

Do 3-5 circuits using 15 reps on each exercise, start off with 90secs rest in between circuits and no rest in between exercises.

Each week try to increase the number of exercises or decrease the amount of resting time between circuits.

Sprints

Rather than just going for the same old jog in the morning, try doing sprint intervals. The high intensity of the sprints will allow for a better workout in much less time.

Find yourself a track or just a stretch of flat grass and sprint for 3-6 sets of 60-100m, depending on your fitness levels. Not only will the sprints be an excellent fat burning workout but also they’re great for toning the gluteus and legs.

Take the Weights Outside

Buy yourself a small barbell weight set or a couple of kettle bells and take your weight training workouts outside. Or for people on a budget, just get yourself some sandbags/old beer kegs/logs and do your usual strength training session with them.

Hill Running

Nothing gets the lungs and legs burning like a hill running session. Quite simply, find yourself a moderately steep hill and start running up it. If it's quite a short hill then use the sprint interval set up mentioned earlier and do 3-6 sets of runs with 40secs rest in between. The steepness of the hill will not only get your heart racing but also get your legs and gluteus burning too, not too mention loosening up any tightness in your hips.

Get Yourself Down to the Beach

The beach can be an excellent place to get a decent work out. By incorporating both the water and the sand you can get a varied and challenging conditioning session.

Using the interval training set up, try swimming for 50m then jogging for 200m and alternate the intensity from a hard swim – light jog, light swim – sprint, for 10-20mins depending on your fitness level.

For the group training session, playing Frisbee/ball games in the water will always get the heart racing and muscles working, plus, it will cause the body to exaggerate normal movements, increasing your mobility in commonly tight areas such as the hips and ankles.

Fat Burning Tips- An Interview with Chad Waterbury

Fat Burning Tips- An Interview with Chad Waterbury

CW: The first mistake is performing long duration cardio at a low intensity. Nothing wastes muscle tissue faster than jogging for an hour. When muscles are forced to continuously contract for 45 minutes or an hour, that energy has to come from somewhere. The body is very stubborn and doesn’t want to use fat for energy because it’s much easier to break down muscle tissue instead. This is why marathon runners are skinny and weak.

Second, when people try to lose fat they drop too many calories, too fast. Your anabolic hormones are fed by certain, key nutrients. When people go on a low-calorie diet they end up giving their muscles fewer nutrients for support and recovery. This quickly puts the body in a very catabolic state.
The third biggest mistake guys tend to make is choosing the wrong exercises and workouts to lose fat. Most people end up lifting light weights for a ton of reps. This is the exact opposite of what they should be doing because they’re not recruiting the muscle fibers they’re trying to keep: the biggest, strongest ones.

Think about it. When people try to burn fat they instinctively do the three worst things possible to maintain muscle. I’ve seen guys lose 10 pounds of muscle in a matter of weeks when they combine low-intensity cardio, high rep weight training, and a low calorie diet. This is a travesty.


JF: What are your top three fat burning tips? Actually, let’s start with three for training and then we’ll go into three for nutrition. 

CW: The first step is to make your cardio training short and intense. Tabata’s research taught us that high intensity cardio is the way to go because you’ll boost your anaerobic and aerobic power at the same time, and you’ll stimulate your metabolism to burn calories long after you leave the gym. Low-intensity cardio only burns calories while you’re doing it. High intensity cardio stimulates your metabolism to keep burning calories long after you stop.

Next, for every other workout it’s important to lift weights that are heavy enough to recruit your biggest, strongest muscle fibers. A 6-10 rep maximum is enough to get the job done when you accelerate the lift. There are two reasons why this is important. First, you’ll keep the muscle you have because you’re recruiting all of your muscle fibers. As I’ve mentioned in my books and articles, when you recruit the largest muscle fibers you’re also recruiting all of the other muscle fibers because of the size principle. As the saying goes: if you don’t use it, you lose it. Second, when heavy weights are performed in a full-body circuit with short rest periods, it drastically increases the metabolic cost of a workout. That’s essential for burning fat. But you can’t do much heavy training while cutting fat, so that’s why the next step is so important.

Third, you must perform cardio and cardio strength exercises at top speed. There are no typical cardio exercises in my world. Instead of jogging on a treadmill I have my clients perform a circuit of, say, split jacks, jumping jacks, and burpees for multiple rounds as fast as possible. Then I have them do exercise pairings that don’t require a lot of weight, but still recruit all your muscle fibers when performed at top speed. I call this “cardio strength” training. A good example is the kettlebell swing and push-up pairing. Start with 13 swings, then immediately drop to the floor and do 13 push-ups. Jump back to your feet and do 12 swings followed by 12 push-ups. Then do 11 swings and 11 push-ups. Continue with this sequence until you reach one rep of each exercise.

To read more, click here

What is a Fitness Plateau? How can break through it?

Plateaus of Weight Loss- Adaptive Thermogenesis  

Research done by Mike Roussell PhD 

Plateaus can be frustrating and detrimental to your fat loss if not dealt with swiftly and properly. Another way to look at weight loss plateaus is that they are actually your body settling in at a new body weight set point.

The set point theory is basically the idea that your body likes to be at a certain body weight and it will work to keep you there. Chances are you have experienced this in your own life. I’m talking about situations where you will gain or lose weight but inevitably after a couple weeks or months of trying to change you end up around the same body weight.

In order to break these body weight set points, it is important to understand the forces that you are working against (know thy enemy, right?). I’m talking about adaptive thermogenesis.

Adaptive thermogenesis is the seemingly automatic reduction in energy expenditure that occurs when you diet. Many think that this is the driving force behind people’s body weight set point.
This is important so I want to make sure I’m explaining it clear enough so here’s an oversimplified example.

You are currently eating 2000 kcal per day. Your body is currently burning 2000 kcal per day. You decided that you need to lose weight so you cut 500 kcal from your diet. So in theory your body should now have to dig up another 500 kcal from body fat to fuel the calorie difference???

EXCEPT ->>
It doesn’t work that way. Studies show that your body adjusts its energy output so that it can now function on only 1500 kcal per day. This is adaptive thermogenesis. It has been demonstrated that adaptive thermogenesis occurs with both severe and modest calorie cutting.

What is the driving force behind this? Here are some candidates:

• Changes in body weight
• Changes in Leptin
• Changes in Insulin
• Changes in Thyroid Hormones
• Depletion of Fat Stores

 Fortunately you can beat all of these, prevent adaptive thermogenesis, and keep the weight loss coming.

The answer?

Metabolic Training combined with diet.

We know from research and anecdotal evidence that not all exercise prescriptions work. What does work is intense metabolic resistance training...think HIIT and Tabata!

If you are currently stuck at a weight loss plateau, you need to break your body’s set point. To do this it is necessary to undergo a rigorous change in diet and training so that you can in essence shock your system.

Here’s what to do next. Once you break though your sticking weight, maintenance is very important. Get 5-15lbs below your old body weight set point and maintain that weight. Many people lose their fire and drive after they have lost the weight but you need to stay focused so that you can reset your body’s set point.

Maintain your new weight for 4 weeks (this is ideal) before you start losing weight again. This step wise approach will help reset your system to your new body weight and help fight its urge to return to the old set point. The key is keeping your body weight long enough so that your body ‘thinks’ that is the new normal.

Stay Focused and Invest in the Long Term - you'll get there!