The Personal Training Guru!

Intensify Your Workout, Without Becoming Attila the Hun!

2006-04-09T20:35:00.000-05:00

In all my years in and out of gyms and fitness centers, there is ONE THING, THE ONE THING that will skyrocket the results from your workouts.

And guess what, this one thing will actually get you out of the gym almost as fast as you got in. Now unless you don’t have a real life (or you are a personal trainer) your idea of fun isn’t hanging out in a gym all day. So getting out of the gym fast is very valuable.

The ‘one thing’ is summed up in one word. . .intensity. That’s it! Now you may be asking, ‘that’s it?’ Yep, that’s it. Intensity is the key to getting more from your workout than anything else.

But you know what; sometimes it is the toughest thing to build into your workouts. You start your workout, and its going really well. Then your friend, Susan, from Sunday school comes in, sees you and then 20 minutes later you two have planned the menu for next Sunday’s church potluck (as if potlucks need menu planning). And your workout is toast.

So how do you ‘intensify’ your workout without becoming Attila the Hun? Easy, read on. . .

Set a time limit. When I work with my personal clients their workout time limit is 30 minutes. Yep, 30 minutes. . .that’s it. While in and of itself the 30 minute time limit does nothing, combined with the proper workout it is incredible. By creating a deadline, even artificially, the sense of urgency is increased.

Focus on why you’re there, not on whom else is there. Yes, your fitness center is a social environment. Yes, many of your friends are there at the same time as you. In fact, you will make new friends just because of people you meet at your fitness center. But don’t make socializing your focus. And most people don’t realize its happening. Visit with your friends before or after your workout. If someone comes to visit while you are in your routine, DO NOT STOP. Keep working out while they talk. No, it’s not rude, it’s practical. If your conversation requires some serious interaction on your part, simply ask your friend if you can call them at another time. Usually she will say yes.

Turn your cell phone off. Just like the movies, cell phones and workouts do not go together. If you know there is a call coming you must take during your workout, postpone your workout. Its good gym etiquette and your workout won’t be short circuited.

Combine exercises with complimentary ones using what is called a ‘super set’. Basically, it is working one body part for one set and then another body part immediately (no rest) after the first. For example, combine one set of dumbbell chest flyes with close grip pulldowns. In the first you work your chest, then next your work your back. By doing this you work a complimentary body part while resting the other. Result - intensity UP - workout GOOD!

Combine resistance exercises with aerobic activities. This is similar to number 4 above. For example, sometimes I have my clients do a shoulder exercise then in between sets go and do 20 calf raises. Another variation (I got this idea from the owner of my ‘home gym’, Chris Kinzler. He says he got it from his ‘noggin’. hmmm.) is to do ‘step ups’ between resistance exercises. The ‘step up’ is just that. Take a step up box and set it close to your exercise equipment. Then do alternating step ups for 30 – 60 seconds then go back to your primary exercise. Result - intensity UP - workout GOOD!

As a result of increasing intensity, you get, and keep, your heart rate up. You finish your workout in a very reasonable time. You get on with your life. But more importantly you get the results your want.

Ask Yourself the Right Questions. . .About Your Workout

2006-03-18T12:35:00.000-06:00

By J. Lance Curtis

In all the years spent as a gym owner and personal fitness trainer, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly some people abandon their exercise plans. The biggest complaints I always hear around the gym, especially between New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day is ‘I hate to do. . .,’ and you can complete the rest of the sentence.

It is usually some exercise their best friend told them about, or perhaps they read about in one of the ‘expert’ exercise magazines. This results in folks, with all the best intentions, becoming yet another ‘quitter’, quickly quitting all exercise. So the exercise program is abandoned without exploring the possibilities of other kinds of exercise that may be a better fit for their needs, goals, and personality.

You’re different! Aren’t you?

You have made up your mind to succeed in your new lifestyle. To make certain that your goal of losing 13 ½ inches before your class reunion is achieved. Or do you have ‘the swimsuit’ you can’t wait to wear to the lake or beach. Perhaps your goal, like one of my ‘real-life’ clients, is to ‘show abs’ on your anniversary trip to Hawaii. (She was successful, by the way, and did it in about 6 weeks!)

So how do you figure out if you are doing the right activity that will ensure that you will stick with it consistently? Good question. And it is one that deserves a very good answer, so here goes.

First, I am making the assumption that you have either worked with your gym’s personal training staff or at least consulted with one of them.

What? Your gym doesn’t have personal trainers on staff or at least have an independent trainer available? Find another gym! Now! Do not pass GO!

You get my point.

Invest in a gym that is investing in you by providing everything you need. Just having the ‘best’ equipment isn’t enough. You should have qualified trainers available to work with you to design a workout plan based around your unique needs and goals. Or, if you know your direction already, then a trainer can review your plan with you and teach you proper exercise technique.

Ok, I will stop the rant! Now that you have your plan in place; what if your trainer wants you to perform the ‘Precor® stationary bike 3-mile sprint’ two to four times a week as part of your cardio routine? Let’s review this particular exercise and see if this will work for you long term.

I believe in the three questions method.

First, do you look forward to this?

I am not talking about the ‘gosh, I wish I could stay on the couch with my 6-pack and get 6-pack abs’ kind of feeling. I mean, do you look forward to your work-out with anticipation? The kind of anticipation that says, ‘Will I beat my best time?’ ‘Will I take the resistance level up a notch?’ When your ‘competitive juices’ are flowing, I believe that’s a good sign you look forward to the exercise.

However, if you have the feeling of impending dread like ‘this is worse than the Apocalypse’, then perhaps this exercise is not for you.

Second, do you enjoy doing this?

Continuing with the stationary bike analogy, a few of my ‘real-life’ clients actually ‘hate’ the 3-mile sprint. The seat hurts their butt or there is some other ‘problem’. It really doesn’t matter what the problem is, if it comes down to the bike or else, the ‘or else’ wins. That defeats the purpose.

Find something that you actually enjoy. Listen to your fellow gym members and you will hear these comments at your gym, ‘I really like the elliptical’, or, ‘I actually enjoy those leg inny/outy things’. (The ‘inny/outty things’ are actually the leg adduction and abduction machines.) Keep searching for the exercise, or combination of exercises, that prompt you to make a comment like that.

Third, do you feel good afterward?

I wish I had a dollar for every time I started an exercise without the proper enthusiasm, only to feel afterward, ‘hey, I’m glad I did it, I feel great!’

Even when you do the tough exercises (like legs) you should finish with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. If fact the toughest exercise routine will give you greatest sense of achievement. You should ‘feel good’ afterward.

With these three questions answered ‘YES!’ you can easily make your exercise program a part of your daily lifestyle...and enjoy the entire process.

Plan Your Workout. . .and Workout Your Plan!

2006-03-17T10:35:00.001-06:00

By J. Lance Curtis

I see it everyday. You do too, but you may not recognize it. Someone, maybe you, walks into the gym/fitness center, pauses, looks around, pauses some more, and looks around some more. On and on it goes. This is the mark of someone who doesn’t know what their workout routine will be that day.

Shoot, they may have not decided which body parts to work. And so they look around trying to decide what exercises to do, based on which equipment is available or how sore their muscles are, or even how tired they feel.

Basically, it’s like grocery shopping on an empty stomach, without a menu plan, maybe even without a list, feeling like you are starving. When you get home you may have blown your entire grocery budget on the wrong foods, even though those foods looked good at the time of purchase.

Planning your workouts for the week ahead is the best way to increase your productivity during your gym visits. This planning time gives you a perspective on your fitness goals that just running off to your workout cannot.

Finding the best time for this planning, in an already overly busy schedule, can be challenging. However, it is definitely worth the effort. Within a few short weeks you will be able to plan an entire week of workouts in about 15 minutes. Since most people run the rat race Monday – Friday and use the weekends for play and downtime, I will assume that workouts are done Monday – Friday as well. (With an occasional Saturday if you choose to skip the Friday workouts.)

This presents Sunday as the best day for you to jot down what you plan to do for the following week. Here are a few tips to help you get the most from your planning session and thus, the most from your workouts, without having to spend hours at the gym.

Know what time demands lay ahead for the next week. If you normally hit the gym at 5:45 but Susie has gymnastics at 5:30 then you know you have to juggle the activities. If Susie is ok with you not watching practice, this may be a great time to squeeze in a workout. However, because you probably need to pick her up by 6:30 your workout time is at a premium. Know this going in and planning for it helps you accomplish your fitness goals while taking care of the family as well.

Know what body parts you are working on which days, and why. Haphazardly combining muscle groups will actually stunt your progress. For example, my personal clients perform their upper leg workouts as a standalone session. This gives total focus on one of the biggest groupings of muscles in the body. Your body can respond by dedicating all the available resources on the legs.

But also know that your chest and back can be worked effectively together. Shoulder and arms make a nice combination. By knowing this, and planning your workouts accordingly, you will skyrocket your success!

How much cardio you do and when is important. Spacing your resistance training to allow for recovery can open up days that can be devoted to cardio alone. Because you are planning for this you can enter the gym knowing what you are doing with the confidence of knowing why. This avoids ‘feeling guilty’ because you worked on one or two body parts and not all muscles. It amazes me that some people will beat themselves up for doing something positive, simply because they do not know (or plan) enough to realize the positive aspects of their activities.

Spend 15 minutes once a week and begin to unlock the dream body that is locked up inside you!

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Your Workout’s Best Friend, Always Take It With You!

2006-03-17T10:35:00.000-06:00

By J. Lance Curtis

Workout pros (bodybuilders, fitness models, athletes, etc.) have long sought after anything that will give them the edge in workouts. Like looking for the Holy Grail that takes the workout to the next level. What is available, without resorting to drugs that will give you an edge to your workouts and thus increase your results?

Some time ago it was discovered that coffee has a beneficial effect when taken on an empty stomach or with a high protein/very low carbohydrate meal or snack (like a protein shake). In the 1970’s Dr. Dave Costill studied the effects of caffeine on cyclists. The study group was able to ride, on average, 21 minutes longer post-caffeine ingestion.

What we now know is that coffee, while safe in moderate amounts, can also lead to other problems. The high acid content in coffee presents a host of potentially unwanted issues. Then there is the taste. For many people coffee involves the ‘yuck’ factor. Since the workout benefits of coffee are seen when it is drunk black that leaves little room for ‘doctoring’ the taste. And always please consider that coffee can dehydrate you, so limit your intake.

You do have options when it comes to pre-workout drinks to give you a boost. The ever popular energy drink is available to you almost everywhere. Now there are almost as many energy drinks out there as grains of sand on any Florida panhandle beach, so how do you choose the right one.

Here are a few quick tips for you to start down the road to getting the right energy drink for you.

1) Always, always, always get an energy drink without sugar. While sugar can give you a quick burst of energy, it is detrimental in other ways. If your goal is to burn as much body fat as possible then sugar in your blood stream will put a stop to that. Your insulin level spikes when a simple carbohydrate is dumped into your bloodstream. This drives your blood sugar into your cells to be used as energy. The result, sugar is burned for fuel, not fat.

2) Look for one that has a high level of B-Vitamins listed on the label. B-Vitamins are the energy vitamins. These vitamins are pre-cursors to energy producing enzymes in your body. Without enzymes, it is like having all the materials to build a house without any workers to put it all together. And B-Vitamins are necessary for many of these enzymes to develop and work.

3) Other ingredients to look for are choline, taurine, L-carnitine, GABA, and L-tyrosine. These amino acids are essential for a number of functions in your body. In addition to direct cellular energy, the amino acids contribute to nerve development and function.

4) And don’t forget the ingredient that gives coffee its boost, caffeine. Caffeine is a direct nervous system stimulant, but it does other beneficial work for you. One of these is acting as a potentiator for the other ingredients. Potentiate is a $10 word that means ‘helping everything work better together’. Many pain relievers add caffeine to the pill because, it works with the other ingredients to get rid of your headache faster. The same is true in energy drinks. It stimulates the nervous system and potentiates the other ingredients.

Now that you know what to look for; how is the best way to take an energy drink to achieve better results from your workout? Here are a couple of pointers that will benefit your workout.

1) Take your energy drink on an empty stomach. If it is the first thing in the morning, no problem, take it right after you get up. Otherwise, an empty stomach is usually defined as ‘two hours after eating, and one hour before eating’, although this is not a hard and fast rule. The reason for the ‘empty stomach’ rule is the uptake of the ingredients into the blood stream is more efficient, and, as a result it is more bio-available to get the job done quickly. With food in your stomach there is competition for absorption.

2) And drink your energy drink 20 to 30 minutes before your workout to give it time to begin working. As a rule, I like to mix up my drink at home and drink it on the way to the gym. By the time I arrive, put my gear in a cubby hole and get started I can feel it ‘kick in’.

Put this all together with the other ‘7 Keys’ and your workout results will show in no time.

Lance Curtis is a personal trainer and author of "7 Keys to Unlock The Sexy Dream Body Inside You!"
To claim your free copy go to http://ThePersonalTrainingGuru.com

Get Off Those Scales NOW! - This Means YOU!

2006-03-17T10:34:00.000-06:00

By J. Lance Curtis

Ok, I'll stop shouting. However, one of the most frustrating comments I deal with is "I'm exercising, I'm eating right, and I'm not losing weight."

Allow me to first say that our obsession with the scale borders on fanatical. At the extreme some of you jump on the scales many times a day. This is a recipe for frustration, despair, disappointment, and failure. (Can you think of any other really bad things to add here?)

The reasons are,
1) your bathroom scale weight is ONLY a reflection of the force of gravity against you, meaning, it doesn't tell you the important stuff like how much of your weight is body fat and how much is lean tissue.

2) Your weight can fluctuate WILDLY during the course of the day, depending on, among other things, your hydration level. And you ladies have a really tough time with this during your monthly cycle.

A couple of the most accurate ways to tell you are progressing toward (or maintaining) your goal weight is to have periodic pictures taken of yourself, and, also, gauge how well your clothes fit. Pictures and clothes don't lie. Period. Even looking at yourself in the mirror is subjective, but picture and clothes tell the whole story.

If you must use a bathroom scale use one that also measures your body fat %. Several of these are available on the market at affordable prices. Links to some are below. If you exercise (and you do don't you? hmmm) please look for a model with an "athlete" mode.

Personally, I use a TANITA model, but that was the best model at the time I bought mine 3 or 4 years ago. Do your own research.

My friend Jack gave me a great tip on using the scales to YOUR advantage. He and his wife, Terri, take their bathroom scales and skew the indicator to read something that is completely out of line with reality. E.g. Instead of an initial setting of zero you might choose 18.

How does this help? Well, when you look at the number. . .it's just a number and doesn't mean anything to you. Then record this number in a chart or spreadsheet and take the difference between this weigh-in and the last. Over time you can watch your "weight" trend up, down, or sideways.

Monitoring you "weight" this way removes the obsession with watching the scales. You then focus on progress. If you see the trend going up and you haven't been in the weight room building muscle, then you can arrest the fat gain before it's out of control.

On the flip side, if your "weight" is trending down and that's the direction you want to go, great! However, if you are in maintenance, or you are losing too fast, action can be taken immediately.

It is still better if you use a scale that measures body fat %, however, short of that this is a great tip. Don't overdo it on the weigh-ins however. Weighing yourself more than once a week can be counterproductive.

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"7 Keys to Unlock The Sexy Dream Body Inside of You!"