Tag Archive for: @LongBeachTRNR

Top Exercises to Use With HIIT

/in , ,

HIIT is high intensity interval training. By now, most of us will know what this term means and be familiar with how to go about using it. Simply put, it means that you are going to be alternating between periods of high intensity (normally at around 90-100% of your MHR) and periods of relatively low intensity and recovery (at around 70% of your MHR).

What this does, is to deplete your stores of glycogen and ATP, so that the only way your body can get the energy it needs to carry on with the low intensity training is to burn fat. You thus burn more fat both during the workouts and also continuously after the workout has finished! 

But HIIT doesn’t just have to mean running. Actually, there are a number of different exercises you can use in order to burn more fat and build more muscle and these work perfectly when combined with a HIIT workout.

Here are some great examples:

Kettlebell Swings

The kettlebell swing is an exercise that involves swinging a kettlebell up in the air and then letting it fall back down again. The momentum generated by this allows you to continuously exert yourself and ultimately, it’s a great way to provide a cardio challenge that burns fat while at the same time challenging and building up your muscles as well.

This is the perfect example of ‘concurrent training’ and will not only burn more fat but also tone and build muscle and generally help you to see amazing results.

Pull Ups

Pull ups are very well suited to HIIT, as long as you can perform enough of them with good technique. When you start to tire, you can always try to use a bit more momentum, at which point they become ‘kipping pull ups’ like those taught in CrossFit classes.

High Knees

If you can’t get outside to run, then another way to burn a lot of calories with a similar motion is to perform high knees. Stand on the spot, hold your hands up high and then run so that your knees hit your hands.

Tuck Jumps

Jump up in the air and then hug your knees in toward your chest each time you reach the apex of your jump.

Jack in the Box

Here, you squat down into a huddled position and then jump straight up in the air and kick your hands and arms out like a starfish. This not only challenges your legs to deliver a lot of explosive power but also involves your entire body in the movement!

Clapping Push Ups

HIIT works best when you involve your fast twitch muscle fiber. Fortunately, clapping push ups are a type of exercise that do exactly that thanks to their plyometric nature. These are much harder and more ballistic than regular press ups and can be used to burn through calories as a result.

Other CV

Of course running is just one example of a CV workout. Just as good is rowing, swimming, bike… Try them all and see what works best for you!

How Food Affects Your Mood

/in ,

Few things affect our state of mind, aka our mood, as profoundly as food. Women being propelled by some mysterious hormonal force to eat chocolate during PMS is one good example. There’s just something in that chocolate that makes them feel so good!

Aside from the emotional ties around food, such as associating it with celebration or entertainment, there is also the physiological side that affects our mood. We’ve all seen children throwing fits in the cereal aisles or at the checkout stand where all the sweets have been placed for impulse buying. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen such outbursts in the broccoli aisle.mood

People crave almost instinctively comfort foods which are high in carbohydrates, which the body immediately converts into sugar in the bloodstream upon consumption. Consuming processed and refined foods which contain exorbitant amounts of sugars and artificial ingredients and practically no dietary fiber renders the eater into a blood sugar nightmare.

Even cooked starches that some consider healthy such as potatoes, rice and pasta are converted into simple sugars quickly in the body. This gives an immediate burst of false energy and a short-lived sense of well being, followed by a nasty letdown and what some call ‘self induced hypoglycemia.’

In order to feel better after the letdown phase, which can make people feel exhausted, cranky and unable to focus, the body compels one to simply eat more of the substance that gave it that happy rush in the first place. Now we see how we get set up for addictions. Ever tried to be in a good mood, feel jubilant about life or get lots of work done when you are in the throes of caffeine withdrawal?

The main function of most anti-depressants on the market is to enhance the uptake of that famous ‘feel-good hormone’ serotonin. When this brain chemical is low, people crave carbohydrates and comfort foods in order to get it.

But if we learn how to nourish the brain properly, we need not suffer from nutrient or serotonin deficiencies and consequently we can avoid the addictions that keep us bound to the constant highs and lows. There is a sound and foolproof way to accomplish this.

One of the main reasons a raw vegan diet is so helpful in maintaining stable moods is due to the fact that there are no toxins, addictive substances or artificial ingredients in living foods. Moreover, raw foods are loaded with fiber to keep the intestinal tract and colon in tip top shape as well as clean.

If the colon is overloaded with waste, this waste is recirculated in the bloodstream again and again. How peaceful and blissful do you think you can feel with your body’s own waste nourishing your brain? Consumption of foods that are high in fiber and natural sugars also eliminates the wild roller coaster blood sugar swings which are notorious for ultimately depleting our serotonin supplies.

After a period of detoxification, which may sometimes be a bumpy road as our emotions are detoxified as well, the mind becomes clearer and sharper. Better health also brings an improved outlook on life and renewed hope that other improvements are possible. When we begin to look better, perhaps by dropping a few pounds or our skin clears up, we definitely begin to strike a more cheerful tone.

On a raw food diet, our brain becomes cleansed and nourished on a cellular level, our senses sharpen and we begin to see the sun come out in our life once again. Won’t you join me in eating naturally?

What Not to do if You Want to Lose Weight

/in ,

Nearly everyone you speak to wants to lose weight. This is not to say that they are necessarily obese or seriously overweight – but just that most of us are less active than we should be and possibly overindulge on the sweeter things in life.

But if so many people want to lose weight, why are so many of us still not in the shape that we would really like to be? The answer comes down to a number of very common mistakes that tend to hamper our performance. In this post, I’m going to break down a number of those mistakes and demonstrate which behaviors you should look to change in order to make your next diet successful.lose weight

Be Overly Ambitious

One of the biggest mistakes that we will often make when trying to lose weight is to be overly ambitious in terms of our diet plan and our exercise.

A common example of this might be planning to exercise 5 times a week for an hour at a time. This is a big mistake because it is unsustainable. Even if it works for the first few weeks, the reality is that it is going to eventually become too much at which point you’ll return to your old shape.

When looking at any diet plan, ask yourself whether it’s something you can realistically do forever. If not… what’s the point?

Forget Drink, Butter and Others

Another common mistake is to overlook the role that certain less obvious things have in your diet. That is to say that it is easy to remember to eat the right dinner or to avoid cake… but less obvious things like soda drinks, butter on your sandwiches and more can all also have similarly disastrous effects.

Wait

When I speak to people who want to lose weight, they will often tell me that they’re planning to use a certain diet plan or a certain exercise regime but that they’re waiting until life is less busy, until they have bought a fully-written training program from a fitness guru etc.

The point is that losing weight is really not complicated. There are some methods that are more effective than others but ultimately, as long as you are eating a little less and exercising a little more, you will begin to improve.

If you want to lose weight and you haven’t already started, then it suggests that you are putting it off or procrastinating – that you don’t have the motivation. That’s what you should focus on.

Overlook Lifestyle

What’s the best way to lose weight? Quit your job! Imagine it: you’d suddenly have much more time, much more energy and much more inclination to train and to eat correctly.

Of course most of us don’t have the luxury of being able to walk out of our offices, but what we can do is to pay more attention to the role that our work plays. Likewise, focusing on sleep, on our emotional state and on our routine is also important if you really want to make a big difference in your health.

The Best Diet and Supplement Regime to Combine With HIIT

/in ,

So you just discovered HIIT? No doubt you’re loving just how easy it is to get a fat burning, calorie melting workout in now and you’re getting a kick out of pushing yourself so hard.

But while you’re probably feeling great, you should know that fat loss and muscle gain do not happen in the gym or on the track. Rather, they happen in the kitchen. If you really want to make the very most of HIIT, the you should combine it with the right diet… hiit

The Basics – Calories In, Calories Out

The great thing about HIIT is that it is a form of MetCon – metabolic conditioning. That is to say that it doesn’t just burn calories while you’re training, it also increases your calorie burn at rest by making your cells more efficient at burning through fat stores and sugars. Thus, even when you’re resting, you’re going to lose more weight.

But you still need to try and calculate this as much as you can and to do that, you need to figure out a rough ‘AMR’ – the total number of calories you burn in a day (this stands for ‘Active Metabolic Rate’). Likewise, you should track the calories you’re taking in with an app like MyFitnessPal and what this will then allow you to do, is to make sure you are consuming fewer calories than you are burning off. If you do this, then you should lose weight – and especially with the metabolic benefits.

Carb Backloading

Some people will tell you that it is important to reduce carbs – at least the simple kind. That’s because carbs spike the blood sugar and your body responds by producing insulin, absorbing that sugar and then storing it as fat.

If you’re concerned about this, you can try something called ‘carb backloading’. Here, you simply consume carbs only immediately following a workout. This wouldn’t work with aerobic training but HIIT will deplete the glycogen stores in your muscles. Thus, the priority of your body will become refuelling those glycogen stores, meaning that you’ll be less likely to store the excess energy as fat!

This way, you can still enjoy your carbs but without the guilt!

Supplements

One supplement that makes a lot of sense in conjunction with a HIIT workout program is creatine. That’s because creatine allows you to recycle ATP in your system, which in turn means you can rely on the ATP-CP energy system just a little longer. This in turn means that you can go all out for a second or so more when performing the high intensity portion of your workouts. That’s a big difference and it will result in better results. All that and creatine has also been shown to add muscle (by increasing water retention in the muscles) and to boost IQ!

Meanwhile, you can also try other supplements that will enhance your cellular energy. Popular choices include l-carnitine, CoQ10 and omega 3.

You don’t need any supplements, but adding a little l-carnitine and creatine can only help you see results faster!

How To Stay Calm and Collected in Any Situation

/in ,

Now is the time to plan. We’re always juggling so many things – planning for the future like finding new clients, attending to current clients and the list goes on. High-stress levels can result in a tense situation which impact on our communication style. A situation which may usually cause minor irritation could become a breaking point when feeling stressed.

Here is how to stay calm and collected in any situation. 

situation

  1. Have the courage to step back

Stressful situations can become quite emotional.

  1. Gather your thoughts before responding

If you’re communicating via email, it’s easy to hit send before calming down from an angry state.

The technology was supposed to make our lives easier. Use technology as a tool to assist you in your working day. Replying to an email that causes you stress doesn’t have to be done immediately. Take control of the situation by allowing yourself some time out.

  1. Change perspective

Step into the shoes of the person that you’re having difficulty communicating with and see, hear and feel the situation through their eyes, ears and emotions.

  1. Analyse your options

Depending upon your situation, here are some questions to consider:

  • What is the most appropriate response to the situation given what you know about the other person’s communication style?

  • Do you have enough information to make an informed decision?

  • Have you heard what the other person has to say without becoming defensive or shifting into win-lose thinking?

  1. Logic instead of emotion

View at the facts and detach them from the emotional element of the situation.

To be capable of doing this, it’s essential to look after yourself so that when a difficult situation arises, you’re less likely to be affected by the emotional component.

Some strategies include:

Breathing deeply from the diaphragm

This helps to relax the muscles and allows oxygen to flow to the brain so that you can think in a more rational manner.

Regular exercise

This could be as simple as a walk that can clear the head while applying nervous energy in a productive way.

Become an objective observer

Hold back from the situation and reality it as if you were a detached observer.

  1. Master of actions versus reactions

You can control how you feel and react to any situation. You cannot control how others feel or react. So it’s important that you do what you can within, always know that your circle of influence.

By recognizing and checking your reactions, intentions and assumptions you’re able to be the master of your actions.

Weight Loss Tips That Will Work Well for Women

/in , ,

There is a lot of information out there on how to lose weight. Unfortunately, this information very often does not take into account our individual differences or our unique biology. If you are someone who has a slow metabolism, then you will burn fewer calories than someone who has a very fast one.

If you are someone who is very tall, then the amount you need to eat is different than it is for someone very short. Even more extreme though are the differences between men and women and the strategies that work best for each. If you are female and you are trying to lose weight, then here are some tips that you might not have read before…weight

Lift Weights

The biggest tip that every woman should know when it comes to weight loss, is that they should try weightlifting or another form of ‘resistance’ training.

In other words, women should drop the over-reliance on cardio exercise and start lifting weights!

Many women worry about this because they think that they are going to get ‘too bulky’ and that the resultant look will be unattractive.

In reality though, it is actually very hard to become bulky and especially for a woman. What’s more likely is that added muscle mass will simply speed up your metabolism (muscle is what we call ‘metabolically active’) and that will allow you to burn fat at a faster rate.

In fact, this is one of the main reasons that men lose weight faster than women!
At the same time, lifting weight will help women to gain the right proportions, to tone up and to increase their tone and definition in order to get rid of things like cellulite. It will even increase the production of fat burning hormones!

The fastest way to get a more attractive body as a woman is to lift weights.

Consider Other Lifestyle Factors, Medications and Conditions

Hormones play a large role in fat burning and muscle mass and the biggest drivers here include testosterone and estrogen.

So, women are at a disadvantage already when it comes to burning fat but things get more complicated still when you consider the other factors involved: things like the menstrual cycle for instance which causes hormones to fluctuate at different times of the month.

More of an issue is the role of contraceptive medication which can cause weight gain or weight loss depending on how the body reacts.

Then there are conditions like polycystic ovaries which only affect women and like hypothyroidism which is more common for women. If you find it very difficult to lose weight, consult your doctor.

And make sure that you are eating well and getting all of your nutrients in order to support your body’s metabolic function and hormone balance.

Finally, note that these hormones also impact on emotional eating – which studies confirm to be a larger issue for women versus men. Keep this in mind and try to maintain your emotional state while avoiding temptation as far as you can.

Some Exciting Training Methods You Probably Haven’t Heard of….

/in ,

There are several new training protocols out there at the moment that have captured the imagination of the web’s fitness enthusiasts. These include concepts like HIIT and tabata. Kettlebell workouts are big at the moment too.

But these are just two types of training that you can use to mix things up and see better results. And actually, there are many more exciting and alternative ways to train like this that simply haven’t made it into the mainstream. training

The great news is that the more of these you learn, the more options you’ll have for your own training and the easier it will be to meet your precise goals. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting options then…

Cardio Acceleration

Cardio acceleration is similar to HIIT in that you’re combining a form of high intensity exercise with something a little more slow-paced. In this case, you are going to combine intense CV with resistance training. In that way, your routine will be just like any other weight lifting routine but in between sets – when you would normally be resting – you will instead engage in high intensity cardio, whether that’s sprinting or tuck jumps. It’s highly effective at burning fat but it’s also brutal!

Fasted Cardio

Want to get even more bang for your cardio buck? Then try ‘fasted cardio’. This is simply cardio that you perform first thing in the morning – before you have even had breakfast. This way, you train before you have given your body any food and that means you’ll have low glycogen stores and low blood sugar. You’ll therefore be in a much more catabolic state and your body will have no choice but to use your fat for energy. Combined, these factors result in much greater fat burn!

Cardio Finishers

One way to combine cardio and weightlifting is to finish a resistance training workout with a cardio ‘finisher’. A finisher is simply and intense burst of cardio exercise tacked onto the end of your weights work. This is enough to blast a few more calories and to ensure that you’ll use up all the juice left in the tank before you head home from the gym.

Fartlek

HIIT usually means switching between different combinations of rest periods and intensive exercise. Normally, this follows a steady pattern but in fartlek training – which translated literally as ‘time play’ – you have more freedom to try different combinations. You can switch between more than two levels of exercise (sprinting, walking and jogging for example) and you can decide to mix and match them how and when you want to.

MetCon

MetCon stands for ‘metabolic conditioning’ and is essentially what you get when you combine a relatively basic form of resistance exercise with a high intensity approach. The idea is to train your metabolism as much as your muscles, which you accomplish by performing short and focused bursts of exercise in a structure manner.

7 Things You Can Do to Relax Each Day

/in ,

We face new challenges each day and in the long run these challenges contribute to high stress levels. Stress can affect our well being and reduce our productivity. If we let pressure build up we can end up harming others, making irrational decisions, and in extreme cases we vent out our stress to others.

Therefore it is vital that we find a way to reduce stress levels. There are various ways we can unwind and here are 7 Things you can do to relax.day

Do some yoga

Find a quite room and do some yoga. Yoga helps your body and mind relax. You can lookup brief yoga routines on YouTube and practice them. Yoga will help you release all the pressure that has been building up in your body and it is also beneficial for your body.

Listen to your favorite genre of music

Listening to music lets you get loose. As you get to listen to favorite musician you forget what is troubling you which in turn reduces your stress levels. A good thing about music is that you can plug in your earphones and separate yourself from the stressful environment.

Take a walk

You might opt to walk or jog into the park and enjoy what mother nature has to offer. If you leave in a noisy neighborhood find a quite place to walk. This lets you organize your thoughts and you get to view things from a clearer point of view. Find time in your busy schedule and enjoy the walk.

Play games

Computer games or physical games can do. If you love staying indoors then computer games will help you vent out the stress that has been building up in your body. You can play board games against your friends and it will hep you focus on something new other than your problems.

Hit the gym

The gym helps you relieve all the mental and muscle tension that builds up during the day. Your job could be demanding that you stay seated for a long period of time and this is bad for your health. Weight lifting will help you reduce all this tension that has been building up. You also get to socialize at the gym which is very healthy.

Watch movies

Watching movies lets you forget what has been stressing you . Take sometime off and watch a movie on Netflix or in a cinema. Movies are enjoyable to watch and we can dedicate weekends to watching movies. You can also watch documentaries if you are not a fan of movies and you will learn new things.

Travel

Visiting new places is one of the best stress relievers. You can save for a vacation and to get your mind off the things currently stressing you. On vacation you get to interact with new people and learn their diverse cultures. Traveling helps you reduce tension in your life and you can take your family with you.

Top Tips That Will Make Eating Healthily Easier

/in , ,

If you want to lose weight, then you need to start eating less and more healthily. Many of us are not the size we want to be and the primary reason for that is that we eat too much and we eat too much of the wrong things.

The problem is that it isn’t as easy to fix your diet as you might initially expect. Eating right means that you need the money to spend on fruits and vegetables (that tend to go off in no time at all) and you need the time to prepare all the food and clean up afterward.healthily

If you’re going to start eating healthier then, the smart thing to do is to think ahead and to make this as easy as possible so that you don’t get caught out by a lack of time, motivation or space. Here are some ways to do that…

Get the Right Appliances

If you want to make cooking in the kitchen easier, then there are a ton of appliances and gadgets that can help you to do just that.

A great example is a blender or a food processor. This can be used to mix fruits into a smoothie, or to mix vegetables into a soup.

Either way, this will give you a ton of highly beneficial nutrients in an easy-to-eat form factor that will only take a few minutes to prepare.

Another good example is a dishwasher. This will wash up your plates and dishes for you after you’ve eaten, meaning you’ll need to spend less time washing up after you have finished and can spend more time cooking and preparing your food as a result.

Learn the Right Recipes

Of course being able to cook quickly also comes down to having the right recipes. This is why it’s very much spending some time to learn meals that are quick and easy to prepare while still containing lots of highly beneficial nutrients and being low calorie.

Cook in Bulk

Common advice is to cook at the start of the week and then simply heat it up to eat during the week. This is a nice idea but the reality is that most of us don’t want to give up an entire Sunday to cooking.

A better solution then will often be to cook at the usual time but to prepare larger batches. This way, you’ll have spare food that you can enjoy on other evenings.

You can even freeze some for further in the future. Crucially, this process doesn’t take any longer than cooking the usual portions.

Eat Consistently

One particularly important tip is to try and eat more consistently during the day. That means eating a relatively samey breakfast and lunch. While this isn’t as exciting as eating fresh and original meals every day, you’ll still have the evening to do that.

For breakfast and lunch though, you’ll now be able to get your food faster without having to count calories or learn new recipes.

How Your Body Uses Energy As You Continue to Train

/in ,

When you first start working out, your body will go through a number of changes. These changes are designed to provide you with more energy and your ability to recruit that energy as and when you need it, is one of the biggest factors in determining how fit you are and how well you’re able to train. It’s also what controls the amount of fat you’re able to lose in any given amount of time!

Let’s see how this works and what you can do to improve it… body

The ATP-CP System

Essentially, the body finds its energy using three separate systems and it goes through these three systems in order.

When you first start exercising, you will begin using what is known as the ‘ATP-CP’ system. This stands for adenosine triphosphate creatine phosphate system. Catchy!

Adenosine triphosphate is the most fundamental form of energy known to biology. This is what glucose must be broken down into in order to be used by the body and a fair amount of it exists inside your muscles at all times. As soon as you start exercising, you utilize that ATP and this provides up to a couple of seconds of power. CP – creatine phosphate – allows us to recycle ATP and is also stored in the muscles ready to use.

The ATP-CP system is the most energy efficient and provides us with energy without making us gasp or feel unwell.

The Glycogen Lactic Acid System

The glycogen lactic acid system works by using glycogen stored in the muscles. This is the second most energy efficient source but has the unwanted side effect of producing lactate and other metabolites as a by-product. Lactate makes us feel unwell if we keep pushing ourselves and correlates with other metabolites that can make the muscle feel like it’s burning.

We can usually use this system of energy for a couple of minutes before the lactate becomes too much or the burn becomes too much. It is possible to improve your tolerance to this however, with training.

The Aerobic System

Finally, we switch to the aerobic system. This is the energy system most of us are most familiar with and it works by utilizing oxygen in the blood in order to burn fat stores for energy. This is why it makes us start breathing more heavily and increases our heart rate.

The aerobic system is the least energy efficient and it takes time for the energy to be delivered. Thus we are forced to slow down once we reach this state. However, it is also the type of energy system that we are able to sustain the longest. In fact, we can continue with this kind of exercise indefinitely or until we collapse from a complete lack of body fat!

HIIT

HIIT (high intensity interval training) is so effective because it involves switching from the first two types of energy (anaerobic energy) to the last kind. This enables you to deplete both your glycogen and your fat stores and thus does both more effectively.