Trainer's Blog

Give ya a hint: it involves lifting weights

If you have ever stepped foot in a gym you’ve seen someone doing biceps curls. Or bench pressing. A little known fact: Monday is officially Bench Press Day, and in fact, the week should go; Benchpressday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. All this to say; most people have a misconception regarding what effective weight-lifting is. Well, I’d like to tell you what the most effective and efficient use of your time in the gym is, and try to deter you from being another bench press and curl enthusiast, or, if you’re a woman, a leg press and leg curl enthusiast. Don’t get me wrong, any activity inside or outside of a gym is good, but I want to show you what is BEST.

Now, I know why you do nothing but bench press and curl, or why you do leg extensions and leg curls. You do them because you want to have a big muscular upper body or nice toned legs, respectively, and you believe that those movements are the best way to achieve those ends. The truth is that the best way to improve your upper body is by doing the big movements such as Bent-over Rows and Pull-downs for the back and biceps, and Bench Pressing (yes, bench pressing...) and Military Pressing for the shoulders, chest, and triceps, and the best way to improve the legs is also with the big movements, such as any variation of the squat or deadlift and single-leg movements like lunges. These movements allow you to handle the heaviest weight possible for those...

First Pearl: Don't Be Afraid To Ask Questions!

5 Pieces of Fitness Wisdom For You:

1)      If you own a dog, you should walk it. Cesar Millan recommends you walk your dog at least an hour and a half a day to satisfy their natural instinct of migration, and it calms them down too, so no more expensive dog obedience training! It will be a great bonding experience for you and your pet, and you’ll lose weight in the process! If you split you’re walking into two separate sessions a day, say, 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the evening, it’ll be more effective for fat loss than if you had walked an hour and a half in one session. Chrisitian Thibaudeau, a very well-respected Olypmic weightlifter and highly sought-after personal trainer for professional athletes, said it this way, "Dividing one's volume into two session will ALWAYS be more effective than doing the same work in one session. This is true both for growth(muscle gain) and fat loss. Specifically when it comes to fat loss. Two sessions have been shown to increase caloric expenditure moreso than doing the exact same volume in one session."

2)      People who jog are what weightlifters call “The Walking Wounded”. You wanna know why? Just look at a jogger, usually they’ll have knee braces on, or if they don’t, they look as if they’re about to fall forward at any moment as they jog down the street breathless...

The type of gym you join is important. If you join a room filled with morons and useless “weight training machines”, you’ve not joined a gym, you’ve joined a money pit that’s gonna cost you not only in gym membership and hidden fees but in the potential savings (hospital visits, health insurance, etc.) you can get from improving your health not to mention the potential improvements in life quality that come from bettering your fitness and performance (fat loss, strength, balance, coordination, etc.).

Think you’re gym is a solid candidate for the "Best gym in the area" award? The following is how you can tell whether the fitness facility you’re considering joining or currently a member of is a great place to lift weight and achieve your goals or a fitness, performance, motivation and money black hole:

Power cages

If there isn’t one or more power cages, leave immediately. No reason to stay anymore. The owners and/or trainers of this gym have never lifted an ounce of serious weight in their lives. The culture there is likely either bodybuilder (all drugs, zero technique) and/or all-machines-cause-nobody-knows-what-they're-doing oriented and will be of no use to you for any reason. BTW, Smith machines are NOT power cages. They are in fact the opposite of power cages. Next point.

Olympic barbells

Free weight training with olympic barbells is, in our humble yet professional and highly experienced opinion, the ...

An Argument for Weight Lifting

Cardio is difficult, but weightlifting is impossible. That’s what many believe, and yet every year lots of people purchase gym memberships and then never go to the gym. Something in the back of these people’s minds must be telling them that there’s something to this whole weightlifting thing. That or they want to be able to watch a 46” TV while pedaling on a recumbent bike that has a computer screen on it with web access.

The truth is, of all athletes, weight lifters are the lazy ones. They do as little as possible to get the job done, and it’s less than you might think. If they don’t feel like running, they don’t run. You don’t really have that choice in sports like football or soccer. Weightlifters often don’t even do any cardio if their diet is okay. As for a weightlifter’s weekly exercise regimen, it’s laughable compared to what pretty much any other kind of athlete does. In football you train every day, sometimes two or three times a day. Triathletes train everyday too, running, bike riding, swimming, as long and as hard as they can, and wearing their iPod for as much of it as possible because they’re so insanely bored by it all.

Weightlifters don’t need iPods. They don’t get bored. Their workouts are short, intense, fun and constantly changing because of the highly adaptive nature of the body. There are so many different ways to lift that, if you...

Sleep is the best meditation - Dali Lama
Are you lazy? Do you abhor physical activity? Do you despise diets and calorie counting? Do you think pizza delivery isn’t enough? Would you, if you could, have the pizza guy come in, set the pie next to the couch and feed it to you? Well my friend, you’re in luck.

Science has found a weight management technique that is SO easy, you don’t even need to be conscious to pull it off. Matter of fact, you have to be unconscious. That’s right, I'm talking about sleep. Research has shown that getting enough Zs will not only cause you to be less hungry throughout your day but will decrease your desire for harmful simple carbs and sugars by up to 40%! This in turn will help you control your weight and keep you bright eyed and bushy tailed to boot!

This effect is accomplished via the regulation of the hormones leptin and ghrelin. Leptin sends signals to the brain telling it you are full while ghrelin stimulates appetite. Dr Michael Breus tells WebMD, “"When you don't get enough sleep, it drives leptin levels down, which means you don't feel as satisfied after you eat. Lack of sleep also causes ghrelin levels to rise, which means your appetite is stimulated, so you want more food."

In another study, it was found that sleeping 8.5 hours per night (in comparison to 5.5) led to the loss of TWICE as much fat and the maintenance of TWICE as much muscle! By the end of this study, the...