The Personal Training Revolution

Hey There, It’s good to see you again and I hope you’re doing fantastic!

Just recently I asked a few clients what their top few tips where for someone who was looking to get into better shape and improve their fitness.  These clients are just a few of my of my favorites who’ve done exceptionally well.  If I were you, I’d definitely take their advice because they know what they’re talking about!

Let’s see if you can catch the reoccurring theme when you read over these tips…

So without further ado, here are my clients “Best Advice from Fat Loss and Fitness Success Stories”

Michael L.

Hmmmm – tips – besides trying to drive you crazy?  Let’s see ….

1. Consistency – for me set workout times are important.  It serves a way for me to set aside time for me – same time 5-6 days a week – this leads to success.
2. Small steps – don’t try to do too much at once – totally guilty here – in the beginning – walking for 10 minutes seems like futile effort – but that 10 minute walk will turn into  a 13 mile run with item 1 above
3. Goals – Have a goal in mind and keep to it till you reach it!  Once you reach it your goal – set it higher and try again …. working with a professional for guidance makes all the difference!

Jaime S.

Here are my fitness tips:

1. Do an exercise that you enjoy.  If you don’t enjoy it, you will not stick with it.
2. Make exercise a priority in your life.  It is easy to feel like you don’t have time to workout, but you have to make time for things that are important and there is nothing as important as your health.
3. It helps me to think of exercise as a way to make myself healthy on the inside (strong bones, healthy heart, lower cholesterol), rather than just focusing on losing weight and the external benefits.

Molly & Pam

1. Work out with a friend-(see below) My best tip is probably pretty obvious, but it’s to work out with a friend.  You motivate one another to get to the gym and push one another once you’re there. Afterwards you can congratulate or commiserate! You can tell yourself excuses, but it’s harder to tell them to a friend. It’s much more fun and motivating!
2. Vary your work-outs.  Challenge your trainer and yourself to keep it interesting, and to keep your body guessing.
3. Make your work-outs a priority. Make it a habit. Do your best to “protect” that time to maintain your routine.
4. (from Pam) It is important to take time off but when you do…. it is important to get right back on schedule – but much easier said than done after time off…relaxing, eating and drinking. Tip – the first day back is always hard but it is the first day that always gets me back to my routine. So as hard as it is…remember, just make that one step to get back to exercising in your daily routine and you will be back on track.

Eric F.

1. Start slowly, then increase intensity over time. If you are too ambitious at first, you’ll become frustrated and lose interest.
2. Your fitness must become part of your lifestyle. If your goal is to look good for one event, you’ll most likely stop working out after that event.
3. Don’t finish everything on your plate, except for the fruits and vegetables.

Julie N.

1. Get motivated- If  I see a cute dress or bikini in a magazine, I tear it out & put it on my fridge to remind myself of what I want to achieve. And don’t forget to reward yourself from time to time when you’ve reached a new goal. (shopping is the best reward because it is calorie free!)
2. Get a buddy- It is hard to skip workouts when someone else is relying on you to show up! It can be a friend, a spouse, kids or your dog- you aren’t going to want to disappoint them & its much more enjoyable.
3. Don’t give up- Anytime I start a new workout program, its difficult, I’m sore & it seems a lot easier to stay in bed, But if I stick with it for about 3 weeks, my body gets in the habit of  getting up & working hard. I’m actually disappointed when I miss a workout because I feel so rejuvenated afterwards!

Shannon F.

1. “If you bite it, write it!”- keeping a food dairy/log really helps you see pitfalls in your diet. Also we ALL under estimate our calorie intake and tracking helps keep you accountable.
2. Celebrate the small victories – every little bit in the right direction is worth reward and praise (even if it only from yourself and your trainer).
3. Believe in yourself! – Know that your body can go farther than you can imagine as long as you continue to challenge yourself. Try a new class, or bootcamp, or do that crazy burpee exercise you don’t think you can do…you can do it!
4. Buy smaller clothes! – dress the body you have now, no matter what your final goal is.  Wearing clothes that are too big for you makes you look FATTER!
5. Enjoy the journey and embrace self discovery. Improving your health and fitness will enrich all parts of your life without even trying:-)
6. Love your trainer and workout buddies! (Steve, Julie & Mike).

Jay A.

1. Stay Committed: When I feel like I want to give up I remind myself of how far I have come and what it took to get there.  Going forward is much more important than giving up and letting things go back to the way they were.
2. Stay Focused on your goal(s): I always set a goal or two for myself and work hard to stay focused on what it’s going to take to get me to the “finish line” and how good I’m going to feel and look once those goals are achieved.
3. Don’t second guess yourself: There are times when I say to myself “I can’t do this” but then I give it my all, get through it and then I’m like “that wasn’t so hard after all”.  You never know what you can do until you at least give it a try and the feeling you have afterward is amazing!

Hey, Steve here and I hope you’re having a great day.

My latest 6 week program is coming to an end and I’m happy to report about 90% of those that completed the program have seen incredible results – and in a short period of time to boot!

Today, I want to spill the beans on the biggest mistakes I made when trying to lose weight and burn fat, when I was 75 pounds overweight!  Some of these mistakes might be familiar to you and some you’ve probably never thought of.  Either way, whatever you do, don’t make the same mistakes I made!

Instead, learn from my trials and errors and take the short cut to success.  Believe me, it’s no fun spinning your wheels dieting and exercising and not seeing the results you deserve.

The Top 9 Fitness Mistakes I made While trying to Lose 75 Pounds

1. Working out alone – I’m sad to say… I used to be a “gym loner”.  I always worked out alone and at my own pace.  The problem with this is, 50% of the time I planed to workout, something would always come up, and I’d end up blowing off my training session.  I had no one to be accountable except to myself and I was the biggest buyer of my own excuses.  And when I didn’t cancel my workouts, I exercised at a Grandma’s pace (no offense to Grandmas!).  It’s not easy pushing yourself beyond your mental limitations.

It wasn’t until I recruited a motivated friend to be my workout buddy that I started to see real results.  Probably because I never canceled my training sessions and I didn’t want to disappoint my workout buddy.  We also pushed each other to work out at a super intense pace.  Plus, since we had so much fun, I always looked forward to those tough workouts.

2. Long Slow Cardio Workouts – Go in to any gym right now (except mine) and observe the people on the cardio equipment. You’ll undoubtedly witness dozens of men and women wasting their time on the treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, stairmaster and step classes.  They spend 45+ minutes on the darn machines barely breaking a sweat.  I hate long slow cardio workouts!  Probably because I spent so many years thinking that was the answer to losing my love handles!

Well I’m here to tell you, there is nothing more discouraging than spending several hours a week on the treadmill only to see your waist get bigger.  Instead of long slow cardio, do fast and short intervals.  When you do fast and short intervals, your body activates it’s “After Burn” mechanism which stimulates your metabolism to burn 200-300% more fat at rest.  And, most interval workouts only take between 10-30 minutes!  Now that’s more my speed.

3. Skipping meals – This is a guaranteed way to slow your metabolism to a halt.  I used to think by going a few days, only eating 1-2 small meals a day, that I was losing fat… WRONG!  When you skip meals and use extreme dieting techniques, you actually slow your metabolism.  And since your body thinks it’s starving – you’ll begin to break down your muscle for protein and nutrients.  Every pound of muscle burns between 35-50 calories a day – lose 5 pounds of muscle and all those extra calories get stored as fat.

4. Body Part Training – Do you ever go to the gym and focus on the body parts you’re most concerned about?  What I mean is, you want to get rid of the fat on the back of your arms so you do the triceps machine?  Body part training is inefficient and ineffective.  Plus spot-reducing any part of your body is impossible.  Instead, focus on doing combination exercises that work many bigger muscles.  This will burn 10x the calories and can also activate your ‘after burn’ mechanism.  Some examples of combination exercises are: a squat press or a walking lunge with a bicep curl.

Check out this article where I show you how to activate your fat burning mechanism and burn fat in your sleep.

5. Too Much Time in the Gym – Any more than 45 minutes in the gym is too much.  Another reason I used to blow off my workouts was because I thought I had to exercise for 2 hours at a time.  When your tired, the last thing you want to do is spin your wheels for 120 minutes!  If you workout at a high intensity, doing combination exercises and interval training, you can finish your entire routine in less than 30 minutes.

Try this 25 minute fat blasting workout to supercharge your results.

6. Low Carb Diet – Chances are, you’ve tried this one and probably lost weight at the beginning.  Low carb dieting will mislead you to believe your losing weight because of the huge amounts of water you lose when you first start.  Not all carbs are created equal and instead of going low carb, eat foods that qualify as “slow carb”.  All carbs get converted to sugar when digested and the more processed a food is, the faster it gets converted.  Slow carb foods include the following: most fruits, all vegetables, legumes, and some whole grains.  Bad carbs are: breads, white rice, potatoes, pasta, cereal, and all processed foods.  Replace as many Bad carb foods with ‘Slow Carbs”.

7. Not food logging – this for me was probably the hardest thing to do and one of the most important.  Most people will under report their total daily calories by 350-500 calories.  In a week that adds up to a pound of fat! (3500 = 1 lbs fat).  The simple act of writing down everything you eat makes you aware of your food habits and makes you less likely to cheat on your nutrition plan.  If you have a smart phone, there’s dozens of cool apps for food logging.  Try Lose It! or DailyBurn.com

8. Not Setting Strong and Specific Goals – If you don’t have strong enough reasons to get you off the couch and into the gym, you’ll be forever doomed to the body you have!  Before you hit the gym, take the time to develop a strong driving force.  Hint: it has to be more than, “I want to lose weight”.  That just isn’t specific or emotionally charged.

I recently wrote an article on how to develop a strong driving force and you can check it out here.

9. Not having a plan – if you don’t have an exact plan for your nutritional program—>  that compliments your workout plan—> that is designed to get you to your goals… then you you really are just exercising for the health of it, which is fine as long as that’s your goal.  But if you have exciting and specific goals like being able to look and feel sexy in a bikini for the first time in your life, this summer, then you’d better have plan if you’re serious about getting there.  If you need help developing a solid plan with proven results, request a free consultation with me here!

So there you have it.  I’ve spent the last 12 years testing and developing the most effective and cutting edge fitness programs.  Take my advice so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I made – instead take the short cut and enjoy having a fit body.  If you have any questions or comments, please add them to the comments section below or go to the contact page.

Thank you and have a great day!