Cut your stress to build muscle and get lean

If you want to build muscle and get lean then you need your hormones to be balanced. One of the ways to do this is to cut down on your stress. Cortisol is a hormone that is released in the body when we have stress. Cortisol steals your testosterone away from your body and lower levels of testosterone make it harder to build muscle and lose fat. So, a very simple little thing you can do to help improve your body is to find some time to relax. Try to set aside 15 minutes every day to do something relaxing and get away from the stressful things in life.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Sleep is Vital for Fat Loss

If you are trying to get leaner then it is essential that you get good sleep. One of the main hormones responsible for fat loss is growth hormone and your largest surge of growth hormone happens when you sleep deeply. If you do not get deep sleep then you are less likely to have properly levels of growth hormone and without proper levels of growth hormone it is very hard to burn body fat.

Workout of the Day
Interval Cardio Routine

Dumbbells

Dumbbells are one of the best pieces of equipment you can use to enhance your fitness. If you compare a dumbbell to a machine or even a barbell, dumbbells are always more demanding. Dumbbells require much more stabilization and demand more of the muscular and nervous systems. Another reason why we use dumbbells for the majority of our exercises is that dumbbells when used properly have the ability to fix range of motion issues and discrepancies in strength between the right and left sides. Dumbbells allow you to move the weight through a greater range of motion than the barbell and if you are weaker on one side then you will find out. When people first start a weight training routine they should always start with dumbbells and then move onto the barbell as your body becomes more balanced.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Plastics

In our world today we are surrounded by toxins. Plastics are at the top of the list when it comes to toxins. Plastics are a toxin that creates problems in the body. Too much exposure to plastics can slow down your thyroid, increase your estrogens and cause problems with fat storage. It is almost impossible to totally get rid of all plastics but you should make an effort to minimize your exposure to them. One thing to keep in mind is that you should not store meat in plastics. Consider the fact that toxins are stored in your fat cells. If you store meat in plastics then the fat in the meats will absorb the toxins in the plastic. Thus, the meat you are eating will contain plastics. Also, you should avoid microwaving plastics. One of the reasons why it is so important to eat a quality diet and take good vitamin sources is because our bodies need nutrients in order to detoxify things like plastics. When you are lacking nutrients in can become very hard to detoxify and lose fat.

Workout of the Day
2 min db thruster,burpee, jumprope, rowing machine
2 min rest between exercises

Download

This week we will be downloading all of the workouts. In order to download we will simply perform fewer sets in every workout this week. The goal of this is to come back next week and be stronger. During this we will still try and lift heavier weights for more reps but we will just do less sets in order to let the body refresh slightly. Next week we should have new bests from everyone.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Perfect Technique

When you are lifting weights you should always use perfect technique. If you cannot do an exercise properly then the load is either too heavy or it is poor exercise selection for your body at the current time. Many times what I see is people trying to force out a couple of extra reps with horrible technique. I am all for pushing yourself hard, but always with perfect technique. When your technique or your range of motion in an exercise begin to fade it is time to end that set. If you train into the point where your technique suffers then you are no longer training the same exercise and you are training faulty movement patterns which can lead to injury and problems increasing the amount of weight that you can lift.

Workout of the Day
5 db swings
10 pushups
15 air squats
20 minutes for max rounds

Why Skinny People Can Eat Poorly

This weeked I took a look at Terrel Owens new fitness book. For those of you who are not familiar with Terrel he is the controversial wide receiever for the Dallas Cowboys. T.O is obviously very fit( probably under 5% body fat). The diet that he lays out in his book was very interesting to me. During the football season he eats very clean and does not cheat, but during the off season he eats candy 2 or 3 times per day. So why is it that some people can eat junk all day long and stay lean while some people cheat a little and gain fat? Part of the answer to this question has to do with genetics and the other part has to do with how lean you are. T.O is incredibly lean which means that he has optimal levels of hormones in his body. When your hormones are well balanced you can cheat more often and get away with it because your body is still able to use foods high in sugar for fuel. However, if you are not lean then it usually means that your hormones are out of balance. Since your hormones are out of balance, when you cheat you will gain fat because your body cannot utilize the sugar in the same way. So the basic rule here is the leaner you are the more you can cheat, and when you have more body fat you can cheat less. So if you want to cheat get lean first and then cheat.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Are You Balanced

In Charles Poliquin's programs exercise selection is based on what he calls structural balance. Structural balance means how proportionate your muscles are. For example, in your upper body you want to make sure that your pressing and pulling muscles are proportionate to each other. Remember that you are only as strong as your weakest link, so if you improve your weak link then all of your lifts will improve. Some common weak links that we see in many people are the external rotators of the shoulder, the lower traps, the lower back, the hamstrings, and an area of the thigh. For many people when these areas are addressed their posture, pain, movements, and strength all improve.

Workout of the Day
1min sumo squats
1 min db swing
1 min rest
repeat for 3 rounds
1 min burpee
1 min mountain climber
1 min rest
repeat for 3 rounds
1 min jumprope
1 min lunge jump
repeat for 3 rounds

What to do if you are tired

So what do you do when you are supposed to workout but you are not feeling your best? Many people would either not workout or they would go to the gym and workout with light weights. If you are tired the best thing to do is perform your normal workout in which you try to increase the amount of weight and reps that you use. The factor in you workout that you should change is the volume. When you are tired you should keep the same intensity but perform less sets. So if you workout calls for 3 sets of lunges you should only do 1-2 sets, but make sure you are still trying to increase your weights and reps in those sets.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Diabetes

This weekend I was in Barnes and Noble looking through some books in the Health and Medical sections. I am always surprised by the number of books on diabetes. There are so many books on a disease that is not that hard to figure out. For some reason the medical world feels that it is better to let diabetics eat what they want and then medicate them, rather than teaching them how to eat properly. Tricia and I came across a press release this weekend that was put out by the American Diabetic Association. The press release stated that the ADA is acknowledging that a low carb diet works for the treatment of diabetes. It is scary that our government institutions are just now realizing this. Nutrition can be such a confusing subject because their is so much conflicting information out there.

Workout of the Day
1 min db thruster, sdhp, burpee, rowing machine
rest for 1 minute and repeat for 4 rounds

Recovery

What is the best thing you can do to speed up your recovery? Post workout nutrition is the best way to speed up your recovery so that you are ready for your next workout. What you should have post workout depends on how lean you are. Most people today consume some sort of protein/carb drink when they finish their workout, but if you are trying to get leaner this may not be the ideal drink for you. If you are trying to get leaner you should be having a drink that contains whey protein and glutamine. If you are not consuming some sort of post workout nutrition immediately after your workout you may not be getting the most from your workouts. If you are interested in finding out what you should be having post workout feel free to ask me during class.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Workout of the Day
1 min work/1 min rest
db thruster, db swing, one legged burpee, inchworm
4 rounds

Eating on the Run

Yesterday, I was driving through town when a lady pulled up next to me eating a hamburger. It got me thinking about how most people eat their meals. Today most people eat many of their meals either in their car, in front of their computer, or in front of the TV. How many people actually sit down and eat their food at the table without any distractions? For many people, they have to eat either in their car or in front of the computer because they are in a hurry. If this is you then I would suggest that you try and make time to enjoy your meals. It will cut down on your stress levels and let you enjoy your food more. Getting away from the TV and computer while you eat will also help you cut down on your portions because you will not be distracted.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Workout of the Day
45 seconds of work/45 seconds of rest
burpees, rowing machine, jumprope, mountain climbers
5 rounds

Alcohol

One of the most popular topics that comes up when I talk to people about nutrition is alcohol. Everyone wants to know if they can drink alcohol. First of all there is a difference between having a drink or two with dinner and getting drunk. It has been shown that 1-2 drinks/day can be very healthy, but after that the benefits go away. Consider that if you get drunk it takes several days for your testosterone levels to return to normal. If you are going to drink consider switching all of your drinks to wine. Wine can actually be beneficial to fat loss and has a positive effect on testosterone and cortisol.

Workout of the Day
Body Composition Routine

Portions vs Servings

There will be no 1pm class on Friday Oct 3

At the last seminar I went to there were people from various different countries. On the first day of the seminar I went to lunch with a guy from Singapore and another from Australia. When the food came out the guy from Singapore was in shock over the size of the portions at the restaurant. He said that the portions in Singapore were much smaller. In the U.S. our serving sizes are way too big. Studies have shown that people who are overweight tend to eat much larger portions especially of the wrong foods. There have been some studies done on portion sizes and even when obese subjects were given smaller plates they created bigger portions by stacking their food higher on their plates.

Workout of the Day
Row 500m then perform 4 rounds of 7 med ball cleans and 15 burpees

Cravings

What are food cravings? Food cravings are your bodies way of telling you that you are missing something. A craving basically means that you are deficient in a nutrient. For example, if a man craves chocolate then he is deficient in magnesium. Your body doesn't have any way to diferentiate between the various nutrients so it just sends hunger signals with cravings for certain foods. The reason why many diets fail is that many people cut their calories very low. If the person is already low in nutrients then cutting their calories lower will only lower the levels of nutrients in their body. Having low levels of nutrients in your body will make it hard to stick to your diet because you are going to get cravings. Having low levels of nutrients in you body also makes it hard to lose fat because your body cannot regulate hormones or detoxify without proper levels of nutrients.

Workout of the Day
1 min ring row, pushpress, squat jumps
3 rounds with 1 min between rounds

1 min pushups, db swings, hollow rocks
3 rounds with 1 min between rounds