SMART Goals

With the holidays just around the corner and everyone wanting to set their New Years' Resolution for 2011, I was starting to think about my goals for 2011.  How often have you met goals that you set for yourself?

So, how do you set your goals?  Here is a short guide to help you along.  Set it out on a piece of paper and share it with as many of your friends as you can.  Make sure they hold you accountable for meeting your goals, even if it's just by asking how you are doing on your journey.  This will help you, I promise.  Support from family and friends is so important!

Your goals should be SMART.  By SMART, they should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time framed.  I am going to use losing 25 lbs as an example.

• Specific - I want to look good naked is great, but it is not specific.  I want to fit in size such and such jeans.  I can do this if I lose 25 lbs.  If you lose those 25 lbs, I'm sure you'll look good naked.
• Measurable - If you weigh 200 lbs and your goal is to lose 25 lbs in 6 months, it is measurable.  Just jump on the scale and you can see your results.
• Attainable - Losing 25 lbs in 6 months is more attainable than losing 25 lbs in 1 month.
• Realistic - Losing 25 lbs in 6 months or 26 weeks is very healthy and you'll more than likely keep that weight off in the long run.  Also, if you are a well built guy weighing in at 200 lbs, is losing 25 lbs realistic if you are already at 10% body fat?  Your lean mass is at 180 lbs with 10% body fat, getting to 175 would not be realistic.
• Time Frame - 6 months will allow you to have some structure.  Without this time frame, there is not an urgency to get 'er done.

I could go on and on about macro-, meso-, and micro-cycles, but just starting out with a SMART plan will help you reach your goals.  Please feel free to ask any questions or leave comments.  Good Luck!

Up the ladder (down the ladder)

I was putting together a workout for myself the other day and wanted something a little different than I have been doing and remembered my workouts I put trainers through on interviews where they would like to see me in action.

The ladder is challenging and will easily leave you out of breath by the end.  The main idea is to add an exercise to each set with increasing your rest periods.  Start off with 2 exercises that will last 20 seconds each and rest.  These exercises will mainly be bodyweight exercises and with a partner you can add med ball passes.

An example of this would look like:  (all exercises are for 20 sec, increase work time as you get better conditioned up to 30 sec)
jumping jacks - bodyweight squats with 20 sec rest
jj - bw squats - mtn climbers with 30 sec rest
jj - bw squats - mc's - russian twists w/med ball optional with 40 sec rest
jj - bw squats - mc's - rt's - lunges with 50 sec rest
jj - bw squats - mc's - rt's - lunges - plank
if you wanted to go back down the ladder, it'd be the opposite starting with:
jj - bw squats - mc's - rt's - lunges - plank set

These are just sample exercises.  You can add in any other exercises such as push ups and their many variations.  If you are close to a bar, you can add in pullups.  The options are nearly endless, let me know if you'd like some ideas.  I try to make sure there are lower body, upper body, core, and conditioning exercises sprinkled throughout.  If you aren't gassed after going through it, you weren't working to your peak effort.

Please let me know if you have any exercises to add or any comments.  Good Luck until next time.

Do you want your own PRIVATE gym?

I have been in several homes with their own personal fitness room, some have been grand while others were very boring.  I have no background in design but designing home gyms is something that I would like to get into.  If you ever want some consulting for building your own home gym, I would welcome the challenge.

In the meantime, here are some benefits of building your own workout space:

Cleanliness - - no worrying about getting sick from other members
Privacy - - allows for better focus on your workouts
Time - - no travel to and from the gym could save up to 1 hr of travel per day
Wait - - no waiting for someone to finish using a piece of equipment (unless of course another family member is working out with you)
Ambiance and Decor - - you pick the music, pictures, and colors that will help you stay motivated, fit, and invested in a healthy lifestyle
Leadership - - sets a good example for the rest of your household
Value - - increase in real estate value
Cost - - no more monthly gym fees

Please leave comments or ask questions.  Good Luck

Are Nutrition Labels really telling you the TRUTH?????

I'll be the first to admit I am not and never will be a nutritionist.  I keep things simple eating clean by shopping the edges of the grocery store and purchasing food that usually expires within a few days.  I'm not 5% body fat by any stretch of the imagination, but I am very healthy and I contribute a lot of that to my diet.

When you go through the grocery store, do you read the labels?  I'm sure that most of you do and know that the label is per serving and not the whole contents of said food.  Over the course of my studies and personal reading, I have learned that each gram of total fat generates 9 calories.  Carbohydrates and proteins generate 4 calories per gram.  This leads me to the interesting case of a can of Coke.

A 12 ounce can of Coke has 0g fat and 0g protein.  The total calories are 140 while total carbohydrates are 39g.  If 1g carbohydrate provides 4 calories, then 39g will provide 156 calories.  These 16 extra calories are 10% more than what their nutritional value says.  Coke even notes on their Understanding Nutrition Labels page that carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram.  I don't know about you, but something seems very fishy here.  Who's correct????

I've looked in my fridge and confirmed that most of the labels total out correctly.  But, the next time you are in the grocery store get out your calculator and see how true that label really is.  Truth be told, many people who drink soda are probably consuming 10% more calories than they think.

Please leave any comments or findings you come across on those pesky labels.  Until next time, good luck!

Are your workouts functional?

I was chasing my crawling son earlier today around the living room and watching as he is learning to pull himself up on the table as well as the stairs. Did I mention my cardio has increased significantly over the last few days? It got me to thinking about working out and the different muscles we all use daily.

How many sets of leg extensions or leg curls or bicep curls do you see done in the gym or do yourself? I personally have seen members take nearly an hour doing all types of these isolation exercises and wonder how much this benefits them in the long run... Note, there is nothing wrong with isolation exercises, especially if you are a bodybuilder in competitions. Sure, I isolate certain muscles for a few sets each week, but my workouts are not centered around these types of exercises. Anyone that has trained with me knows that is a big part of my philosophy as a trainer.

Sometimes I daydream and put myself in a position where I am on a cliff and my only hope to survive is to pull myself up from pending doom. Can I do it? Does my back have the energy to pull myself up and save myself? (Luckily, I can pull myself up.) Anyway, I certainly don't have the big guns but I don't need to isolate them and waste precious time in the gym doing set after set. The best "pump" I feel in my biceps is directly after a set of pull ups. That one compound movement hits the upper back and biceps, both of which are critical in saving yourself from falling off a cliff.

We all get older and things will get more difficult for us such as getting out of a chair. The first muscle to contract (that should contract) when getting up is your hamstring. What is the best exercise to simulate getting up? Squats! I have an earlier post about squatting so I won't get into my thoughts here. But, really think about it, how important are those leg curls and extensions to you later in life when you are struggling to get up from a chair or other seated position.

These are just a couple of functional movements to think about when going to the gym that hit more than one muscle and will decrease the amount of time you are in the gym.

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions about this. I look forward to your feedback. Good Luck!

Working Out On The Road

A few friends of mine frequently travel for their job and the week to week travel has a negative effect on their fitness level. They have asked me for some help and this article will hopefully help them as well as anyone else who travels a lot for their job.

I once worked for a company that had me traveling the entire country on a week to week basis which quickly led to an additional 20 pounds on my frame. Sure, the hotels all had gyms but I was not interested in working out in such a small space with equipment that was not current... think rusty and no digital components on the cardio equipment. My company took care of all my meals which usually included several alcoholic beverages (hey, I was only 22 just out of college and only had to stumble toward the elevator back to my hotel room.) Before I knew it I was not fitting in my pants anymore, so I sucked it up by eating somewhat better and used the outdated gym equipment a couple times each week. My workouts were good but very limited too, but they did the job. If I knew then what I know now, those 20 pounds could easily have been avoided.

Here is a list of exercises that can be done right in the comfort of your own hotel room if you don't want to use the facility gym. I'm not going to give descriptions on how to properly execute them, leave a comment with your contact information if you are interested. Same goes for putting together a workout with some of these exercises as they can be split up over 3-4 workouts. Selection of a few of these can lead to an invigorating full body 30-45 minute strength and cardio/core workout:

• Jumping Jacks
• Burpees
• Turkish Get ups
• Pushups, Rotational Pushups, Incline Pushups using a chair, Hindu Pushups
• Hip Circuit
• Shoulder Circuit
• Hip Adductor/Abductor
• Planks, Front and each side, walking
• High Knees in place, Jog in place
• Side Shuffles from one side of the room to the other
• Mountain Climbers, Awkward Mountain Climbers (Grab a pair of paper plates from the kitchen to put under your feet to add difficulty)
• Dips on the side of the bed or table chair
• Crab Crawls, Bear Walks
• Sit Ups, Russian Twists, V-Holds, Suitcases, Supermans, Dead Bugs, Leg Holds, Scissors, Toe Touches, Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Leg Raises over a center object
• Lunges - Fwd, Bwd, Side
• Bodyweight Squats, Squat Jumps
• Single Leg Good Mornings
• Foot Fire Drills

This partial list of exercises does not require any equipment!!!! If you want to get out of the room, I would also suggest heading to the pool for a few laps if your hotel has one. Swimming is a great strength and aerobic activity. If you have any bands that you can bring with you in your luggage, there are numerous other exercises that can be added or making the above list more challenging. There are probably more exercises that I don't have listed here, please leave some in the comments.

I hope that this helps out somebody while they are away. Not only will you keep in shape while on work travel, but you won't be so tired when you get home either. Until next time, good luck.

Are you a gym idiot? Time for a little humor...

I have been very lucky to workout in a relatively quiet gym and 90% of the time, I am by myself which is awesome compared to other gyms I have belonged to in the past.

I have seen many annoying habits and probably committed several of them myself when I first started lifting weights over 15 years ago. Feel free to leave comments below after the article of strange things you have seen in the gym.

• People not returning weight plates to the tree. Do you really expect the next person to clear away your 45 lb plates off the machine? Don't be a meathead, plus you get some forearm work putting the plates back.
• Barbell curls within the squat rack. Find another place to do these, they're squat racks for a reason.
• Inexperienced squatters. Watching someone load up the bar with over 200 lbs and only going to a 1/4 inch depth on the squat. What's the use, you're not getting anything out of the exercise that way. And then not put the weights away. Note: I was in this group for a short while until someone smartened me up on these.
• Cell phone users. Are you there to get better or shoot the shit? Other people don't want to hear about your day while they are working out.
• Dumbbells not returned to the rack. Why do people need to use mapquest to find their weights?
• Time in the gym. I used to get to the gym by 3.30 and be done by 4.45 and some people would be on the same exercise the whole time I was there.
• Showoffs. The grunters/yellers (I'm talking really loud, I grunt on the last rep or two with heavy weights with about an 8 foot voice.) who want everyone to know they are doing their 1/4 inch squats on every rep.
• Guys who stare at women exercising. There was a guy at one gym I belonged to who would stare at all the women in the gym area working out. Way to help women overcome their fear of the weight room there buddy.
• People getting to close to you while you're in the middle of an exercise. The thought of someone bumping into a dumbbell in the middle of a db bench set makes my shoulder hurt already. There's like 10k sq feet in here, you don't need to be on top of me.
• Arm Farm Residents. The guys that you see doing biceps every day they are there. Not to mention the fact they rock enough to mimic a rocker. I do bicep curls like 1x a week for 1 set. You'll get bigger arms by doing pullups/chinups and get more out of those compound exercises than isolating your bi's with those rocking chair db curls.

There is a great series on YouTube, search for Gym Rats, Don't be that Guy. There is some language here, so may not be safe for work. Here is the first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnstNnqYp2M

That's all for now, please leave some comments on what you have seen while you are in the gym. There are several more that I can think of, but these are a few of the biggest ones that I used to see on a daily occurrence.

Good Luck.

Fitness after Baby

Congratulations, you just had a baby and now you are wondering what the hell happened to your body. I hope this article will introduce you back into fitness and how it can be so beneficial for you and baby.

Most importantly, you need to get your doctor's approval before beginning any type of postnatal exercise program. If you exercised regularly throughout your pregnancy, you are already a step ahead of the curve. Start out slowly, your inner body is still in shambles (your inner abdominals were just shredded giving birth either naturally or through c-section). Kegel exercises are great to help start your pelvic floor rebuild. A brief kegel exercise description can be found here:
http://www.gossipcraze.com/_mm/_d/_ext/40838/big_Kegel%20Exercises01.gif

Doing sit ups with your newborn can be fun too. If you have your baby in a seat, start off by doing some sit ups where you are eye to eye with your baby at the top position. Again, go slow with these, there is no need to do 100s of them right away. Start out with 2 sets of 6-8 for a week or two and increase to 10-12/set after. Your body will tell you when to increase the volume. If you do these with your hands across your chest, make sure to tuck your chin into your chest as you contract your abdominals on your way up.

Aerobically, going for walks with your baby is great for both of you. Beyond more bonding time, you are both getting fresh air and you are working your legs and lungs. If you have some hills around, find them and go up them. If at any point you are getting tired, rest for a couple minutes before continuing. Pushing the carriage also works your upper body as well. When you can, start slow jogging with the carriage increasing to a full jog/run. Remember to drink plenty of water before, during, and after your walks. Make sure you are wearing a well supported sports bra, exercise after breastfeeding if you are breastfeeding. Your breasts will be lighter. Light cycling, swimming, pilates, yoga (w/baby), and lightweight resistance training with freeweights or bands are other great forms of exercise.

Other things to keep in mind while doing some aerobic work:

• Be careful with change of direction activities such as high impact aerobics or running
• Start out with 5-15 minutes of exercise gradually increasing to 30-45 minutes over time
• If you feel out of breath or are in pain, slow down or stop completely
• Stop exercising and see your doctor if vaginal flow changes to a pink or red color

Finding time to workout is hard with a new baby. All you need are a few minutes a day, 10 minutes is 10 minutes no matter how you slice it. I mentioned earlier about yoga with baby, there are videos out there for this type of exercise as well as classes offered. If you can not walk outside with your child, take them to the mall and walk around. Turning on music in the house is also a way for you to dance your heart out without anybody watching except your baby in the swing. Dancing burns calories. If your area has one, a baby boot camp is fantastic. Make sure the instructor is nationally certified and has experience with pre/post natal fitness. They should be able to provide you with references.

The key thing to remember is go slowly at first with any exercise you are performing. There is no need to come flying out of the gate.

If you are breastfeeding, congratulations on working off anywhere between 500-800 calories a day without going to the gym. There are numerous other benefits for you and baby, but this is a great one as you seek out your old body. Don't forget to eat too. Without enough nutrition, your breast milk production will decrease leading to a very unhappy baby. Consult with your doctor about nutritional guidelines especially if your baby has food allergies.

As always, please leave any comments or questions and I will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.

High Intensity Interval Training and YOU

Happy New Year everyone!

I have been lacking in the article department for December but I have a good explanation. My son was born on December 3 and he along with the holiday season has led to neglecting this here blog.

As many of you have done in the past and have done so for 2010, will be pronounced as twenty ten and not two thousand ten, resolutions set to lose weight are the most popular. I want to address something that most of the gym goers are going to attack, those dreaded cardio machines at the gym.

If you go to the gym a lot and have done so for years, have you ever noticed that the same people trying to lose weight are still looking the same as they did months or even years ago? Do you look at them and immediately think they are doing great because they can do 45 minutes of cardio day in and day out? I can guarantee that their endurance is through the roof and they probably have a blood pressure that CEO's and air traffic controllers can only dream of.

What is this high intensity interval training that you speak of Erik? Well, simply put, you are going all out, balls to the wall, for a short and set time period with a rest period of a longer duration for about 15-20 cycles. A great benefit to this type of training is that it only takes 20-25 minutes per session instead of a long, dragged out affair of steady state cardio.

Back to those members who you see on the cardio equipment forever... As hard as they are working now, they are not burning fat as efficiently as they were a year ago going at their same intensities. The body will adapt to whatever we do, we instinctively go into preservation mode and try to complete things with the easiest of efforts. So a year ago, they were burning over 450 cals over 50 minutes compared to now only burning 350 calories over that same period. (note, these numbers are not exact, just trying to paint a picture.) The heart does not need to pump as hard because of that adaptation to the same workload. This spits in the face of burning more calories when you work out longer.

Not to go all Bill Nye the Science Guy on all you reading this, but some science is required to make more sense of all of this. At low intensities or steady state cardio, your muscles are not doing too much. Energy to get through these workouts is coming from your peripheral fat stores which is great news. Hence, long steady state cardio does burn fat but at a lower rate.

Moderate to high intensity cardio training uses fat within the muscle as energy because the energy from the peripheral fat stores has been depleted. Carbs are also burned from the muscle here in this area as well. The carbs are burned because the muscle is looking to replace the depleted glycogen stores from the higher level of work effort required by the muscles. This process also fuels the fat burning stove. After your bout of h.i.i.t., your body continues to burn fat while your muscles are busy returning those glycogen levels. I don't recommend much in terms of nutrition and you should consult with a dietician or nutrionist before changing your diet, but having lower carb levels during h.i.i.t. will make your muscles burn off more intramuscular fat as energy instead of the carbs.

Is h.i.i.t. okay for you? If you are just getting back into exercise after a long layoff or you are new to training, I recommend building your aerobic levels up for 4-6 weeks with those long 30-45 minute steady state cardio sessions. This is a method of training that requires some experience and a strong mindset. It is very demanding physcially and mentally.

If it is up your alley and you want to kickstart your fat burning into high gear, this could be something to try out for 4-6 weeks. I do not recommend this as your new cardio workout forever. Long steady state cardio has its benefits for your aerobic capacity as well as your heart. You could take 3-5 weeks off from h.i.i.t. and go back to it later. It is great for you to mix things up.

There are different things you can do for h.i.i.t. But the main thing to keep in mind is that you should be out of breath after a short burst. Warm up for 5 minutes and start out with 10 seconds of all out effort with 20 seconds of rest and continue to do this for 10 minutes and then cool down for 5 minutes. This should get you to 20 cycles. As you progress over the 4-6 weeks, you can increase your 'all out' time and lower your rest time, or you can increase your total session to 25 minutes to get in more cycles. I would only do this type of training 2-3x in a week.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a note in the comment section of this post. Until next time, I hope you fulfill your 2010 resolutions.

Regards,
Erik