Some other Cardio Options!

People who hire a personal trainer always need goals, if they don’t their results will be limited. You always need something to shoot for. Many clients have a goal of losing body fat and transforming their bodies. If that's your goal, then you know interval or cardio training are a must, and it doesn't have to be boring.......

Whenever a client comes to me with the goal of losing fat, they always ask, "How long do I have to ride the bike or run for?" Well, thing is, it doesn’t take a tremendous amount of time on the bike or treadmill to get results. Some folks still can’t get over this and some “Cardio Queens” will never change their ways. Traditional cardio has its’ place, but it’s not the best option for fat loss.

Here’s the thing: people still think they must be a slave to a treadmill, elliptical or bike in order to lose fat, get a better body, and get healthy. It's just not the case. In fact, there are other training methods that could get you results faster and in less time.

First of all, if you hate doing something (such as spending endless time on a machine), what makes you think you're going to be consistent? If you're not consistent, you won't get long lasting results. It's as simple as that. Plus, who has the time to spend hours per week on a machine?

Instead of spending time on a machine, I suggest other, more effective, alternatives.

1) Bodyweight circuits . Pick a few exercises and perform them back-to-back with no or minimal rest time. For example: squats, pushups, jumping jacks, lunges, and planks. You could perform several repetitions (about 10-15) of each exercise and perform the circuit for 10-15 minutes. The other benefit to this over a treadmill: you'll build muscle. Muscle increases your metabolism, which allows you to burn more calories. Get creative here: pick any bodyweight movements you can think of. Also, feel free to perform each exercise, rest 1-2 minutes, and repeat the circuit for about 5-6 total rounds.

2) Dumbbell intervals . Pick an exercise: dumbbell squat & press* for example. Perform 10 repetitions of this exercise, rest 60 seconds, and repeat for about 5-6 more rounds. You could pick many other exercises too, and mix and match. For example: you could do a few rounds of squat & press, and then perform a few rounds of Burpees**. For a progression, you should either increase the number of rounds you perform and/or decrease your rest periods.
Other great combo’s: KB Swings & Pushups Jumping Jacks & Skaters –the list is endless.

*Dumbbell squat & press: stand with the dumbbells at your shoulders. Perform a squat, and as you are standing up, simultaneously press the dumbbells overhead. Lower the dumbbells back to your shoulders, and immediately perform another squat.

**Burpee: stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Squat down and put your hands outside your feet on the floor. Kick your feet back so you are in the top of a pushup position. From here, jump your feet back up to your hands, and then stand up. You could also use dumbbells for extra resistance. You would just hold them in your hands the entire time. Make sure they don't roll away from you.

So next time you’re thinking about doing 45min on the treadmill –think again, maybe I’ll try something new, you might be surprised…….

Here’s LeeAnne, using a few pieces of in-expensive equipment and putting a cardio circuit together. The Bosu exercise is an example of the Burpee with progression.

Summer Fun here in Westford!

Here's one of the circuits we did today---great weather, low humidity! Perfect. Great Job Campers!!!

each station 1 min --some stations 30/30
1. Sumo Squat
2. Valslide Mountain Climber/VS Bodysaw
3. Bosu BW Squat
4. Jumping Press/ Row
5. Superband Run Out /Hill repeats
6. RDL
7. Side Plank
8. Suicide w/Wide-drops

Finisher with group  --- 45s 30s lunge / JJ/   Pendulum/ Skaters

Summer is here!!!!

One more week of school for the kids. Guess what? Summer is here. Are you ready to show off your new bathing suit? If not, then you may have started too late. Don’t be upset and just throw in the towel and say “maybe next year” make the best of it THIS SUMMER. Yes, summer is officially a week away, but it’s NOT impossible to lose weight this time of year.

Here’s the deal. There’s so much activity we can do outside. No excuse for missing some sort of exercise.  Choose activities you enjoy. You'll be more motivated to stick with your workouts when you like what you're doing. If you’re interested in a class, try our Outdoor Bootcamp!

Summer means Cookouts, we love cooking outside. Just because you cook outside every night, doesn’t mean chips, booze and sweets every night. You can still enjoy healthy food, even on the grill!!

How about:

Turkey Burger, Lean Beef, veggies and more veggies, Salad, fruit, yams, sweet potato, and many more and plenty of WATER. These foods are not only filling, they taste great and yes are healthy and help you lose weight. Whoever said you had to have a bun with your burger—is it necessary every time?

Watch out for these:

1.        

1. White Stuff. Foods that are “white” contain simple sugars, are usually processed (man-made), and easily lead to extra poundage. These foods and beverages include regular (non-whole grain wheat) pasta, rice and bread, soda, juice, candy and dessert in general, cane sugar or creamer, chips and pretzels…you get the idea. Choose whole grain wheat over white starches whenever possible, avoid sodas and juices, and eat dessert sparingly in moderation.
 
 
2. Trans and Saturated Fats. These fats are found in full-fat meats like beef, chicken and pork, condiments like mayonnaise and salad dressing, full-fat dairy products like butter, sour cream, cheese, milk and yogurt, and vegetable oil. Cutting out these types of fats is essential to avoiding heart disease and maintaining a fit shape. Think lean cuts of meat like sirloin or filet, buy fat free chicken and take the skin off before eating, or cut the fat off of pork. With the exception of butter, fat free dairy products are not only a better alternative, they’re essential to your health as well. Choose fat free milk and yogurt as staples in your daily diet, and you’ll notice how much better you feel.
 
3. Alcohol. I can’t tell you how many clients have trouble losing weight because they just can’t cut down on the booze. The sad truth is you can work out every single day, diet all day long, run every day and you’ll still have a muffin top and a gut if you binge drink (more than three servings of alcohol) regularly. I know it’s tempting to sit on your deck at night and grab a bottle of wine. Save that for the weekend! Remember alcohol has 7 calories per serving. All of them are empty, meaning they provide absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever. And all of those calories get stored in fat cells. That’s why it’s so easy to gain weight from drinking. Limit your drinks to maximum two a week and notice how your body shrinks.
 
4. Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt ---yes I would eat Coffee Frozen yogurt every night if I could. It’s so easy to over-eat this frozen pleasure. This one gets me! The only way I can successfully drop weight during the summer is cutting back to once a week…..we shall see…… 
 
5. Sodium in excess. Put the salt shaker away! By cutting out the sodium you can initially expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds, depending on your body size. But once you reintroduce the sodium, some or all of the water weight will return.

Ways to Reduce Your Sodium Intake:

• Relax!  Stress causes you to crave salty, fat-laden foods.
• Read food labels for sodium content.  Sodium can hide in processed foods in the form of monosodium glutamate, baking powder, baking soda, disodium phosphate, sodium alginate, sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite.
• Eat fresh, unprocessed foods.
• Put away the salt shaker or fill it with a salt-free seasoning.
• Use sodium-rich condiments sparingly.
• Leave out the salt in your cooking and use fresh herbs or chicken broth.
• Keep a steady flow of fluids in and out of the body to keep your metabolism moving.
• Stay away from fast foods!
• So-called diet foods touted as “healthy” may actually be very high in sodium.

So you may be saying, “It’s Summer, Forget about it!” But just imagine how great you will feel once you slim down and when you are on the beach; your bathing suit fits perfectly; you're walking down the beach with a smile on your face, being proud of yourself that you lost unwanted weight.

More importantly – feeling good about yourself…


And looking great as well!

Have a great Summer!!!!!

Guest Spot on Health and Fitness Goals by LeeAnne Hebert

Do you feel like you just have too much weight to lose? Does it feel like an impossible task? Do you  feel like it will just take too long? That there is not enough time before summer so why bother?? Does the thought of all the work and effort needed make you feel defeated before you even begin?  If so, perhaps it’s time to change how you are looking at things… Are you game??

Do you remember the movie What about Bob? Bill Murray played Bob, who had such phobias the only way he could do anything was by taking baby steps. This is the same approach you can take with your health and fitness…

"Bob, you can do this, take Baby Steps"

Basically we need to break your fitness goals into more manageable pieces, ones that feel more achievable, and take them one small step at a time -Baby Steps- this is where setting realistic goals and planning come in. Again, a major step to setting weight loss goals is to follow the standard of goal setting. The goal needs to be specific, realistic and most of all attainable.  If you want to lose 50lbs before summer, I’m sorry - but chances are at this point you are not going to be able to lose it all … However, you can easily lose 10 to 20lbs at 1-2 lbs a week. So instead of throwing your hands up and saying why bother, let’s put a plan in place to reach that mini goal… but first I want you to take an honest look at your nutrition and exercise because they do go hand in hand. Unfortunately, you can’t out train a bad diet, and anything worth having is going to take some work. Part of that work is to stand in your reality… Once you do that you will be able to make changes and move forward.

• Step one: Create a menu for the week. I want you to plan your meals for each day – breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks.
• Step two: Use that plan to write your shopping list for the week so that you have everything you need on hand (click here for more tips)
• Step three: Figure out how to move…  If you have to start with walking 3x’s a week, then that is where you start – but try to walk fast enough to get your heart rate up:)
• Step 4: Plan your workouts and be specific… I will walk each M-W-F at lunch for 45 minutes.

Now that you know what days you are working out and what your meals will be each day, I want you to write out very specific daily plans and put them in your pantry, on your refrigerator, in your day-timer – wherever you will see them. Here is an example:

• Monday:
  • Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, and 1 piece of toast
  • AM snack: Yogurt with fruit
  • Lunch: Ham and cheese on a wheat roll up with an apple
  • 12:30 – 1:15 45 minute power walk
  • PM snack: 1 oz or almonds with a box of raisins
  • Dinner: 4 oz of Chicken, 1/3 cup of brown rice and 1 cup of green beans

Do this for each day of the week… The key is to only focus on one day at a time – don’t worry about how long it’s going to take, just consistently follow your plan each day and before you know it you WILL reach your goal… Below is one of my favorite quotes and it is so true because if I didn’t “start”, I would still be at 147 lbs and unhappy with myself and my body…

Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that time to the best possible use. ~Earl Nightingale

We're back!! Come join us in Westford.

Come join us this Wednesday!
Spring session resumes ---2 classes WED/FRI 7am -7:45 & 9:15am -10:00

FREE Bootcamp workout -Friday!

Come join us this Friday 4/22 9:15am!

 Free Bootcamp workout Outdoors in Westford.

Group Fitness.

Another study --Intervals (soccer) best for fat loss!!

Just in time for the Boston Marathon! Just kidding you guys are amazing:) Good Luck!

Check out this study that Alwyn Cosgrove forwarded to me:

Recreational soccer is an effective health-promoting activity for untrained men
Krustrup et al.
British Journal of Sports Medicine 2009;43:825-831

36 healthy untrained men were randomized into a soccer group, a running group and a control group. Training was performed for 1 hour two or three times per week for 12 weeks; at an average heart rate of 82% of HRmax for both training groups (so it was fairly intense) During the 12 week program, the soccer group improved maximal oxygen uptake (a measure of aerobic fitness) 62% more than the running group. The soccer group also lost an average of 50% more fat than the running group (6lbs vs 4lbs)

The soccer group had an increase in lean body mass of 3.75lbs, an increase in lower extremity bone mass, a greater decrease in LDL-cholesterol and an increase in fat oxidation during running at 9.5 km/h. The running group saw none of these changes.

The number of capillaries per muscle fiber was also almost 50% higher in the soccer training group than in running. Both groups reduced blood pressure equally.

The researchers concluded that participation in recreational soccer training, has significant beneficial effects on health profile and physical capacity and in some aspects it is superior to frequent moderate-intensity running.

What does this research show us?

Why aren’t more Americans playing soccer? We keep trying, but soccer never really caught on here. But seriously, a talented soccer player is always lean, you don’t see too many over-weight soccer players, the out of shape players switch to playing baseball:)

Now think about the movement of soccer for a moment. I always thought soccer and basketball were a great form of exercise, (unless you dog it of course). Soccer is a form of Interval Training (although the work and recovery periods are randomized). Meaning even without the ball, you’re stopping and starting and you’re moving faster and slower, it’s never steady-state. That rest and recovery at different speeds is what Intervals are all about.

The other added benefit is that it’s also multi-directional, multi-movement (jumping, heading, running, sprinting, kicking, tackling, with contact) and multi-planar. This is how a healthy body should function, even when you train, think this type of movement.

Basically this study shows that open interval training, using multiple movements and directions against an opponent is superior for conditioning, muscle building and fat loss when compared to the same intensity of running. Think Intervals for these goals!

How do I get rid of this?

Don't do this............

Compared to just going for a Long Run:

·         Distance running will NOT get rid of your soft belly.

·         Distance running will NOT get rid of your muffin top.

·         Distance running will NOT get rid of your cellulite.

·         Distance running will NOT build muscle.

·         Distance running will NOT give you that lean physique you’re looking for.

Yes, there are benefits and you’re not wasting your time. Distance running is Heart Healthy and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from doing ANY form of exercise. But do it for the right reasons. It’s great for clearing your head. You will burn calories while you do it (not as much as Intervals).Some of you may even trim your thighs and calves and some of you just LOVE it –for those folks, keep at it!

Who loves Distance running the most? Physical Therapists, it’s great for their practice, because I’ve never met a long-distance runner who’s not been injured. I’m just saying be careful, running is an advanced sport, 5k or 10k races are great –train properly!

If your goal is fat loss and changing your body this study proves once again that Intervals are superior to steady-state cardio. It’s not just my opinion, its hard facts and all this research just solidifies this training method. A combination of a sound resistance training program (think squats, presses, chins) and Interval training is your best plan for reaching fat-loss goals.

Now I’m not saying that everyone should go out and buy a soccer ball or join leagues (you can if you want, wouldn’t be a bad idea). But establish your goals and see what your body can handle. Don’t just jump into it!

They Interval Train

They do endless Steady-state cardio -Long Duration

Please feel free to read my entry on interval training here. LeeAnne Gives a demo!

Keep training!!