5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Workouts

The following article was submitted by John Kiefer, a client at FT Deefield. I [Bryce Wood] just wanted to touch on some of the accomplishments that John has made since I began training with him in February 2008. John’s 26 pound weight loss may not seem all that astonishing, but his improvements in strength, overall fitness, and lean body mass have been amazing to witness. The following are a list of just a few of John’s accomplishments since joining FT:

Bench Press, starting: 85x4, now: 160x1
Shoulder Press, starting: 50x5, now: 110x5
Deadlift, starting: 95x5, now: 275x5
Back Squat, starting: 95x5, now: 235x1
Power Clean, starting: 65x4, now: 165x2
Pull-ups, starting: 0, now: 12
¼ mile run, starting: 2:30, now: 1:18


5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Workouts

I have been training with Bryce over the past 15 months. He has transformed me into better shape by teaching me how to exercise properly, eat healthier, and most importantly, work more efficiently. If you recall Bryce's "Intensity" article, both trainer and client work together as a team. Both must be prepared. As a trainer, Bryce is always ready with my programming so we can begin to work as soon as I walk through the door. But how can we as clients best prepare? If you follow these 5 tips, regardless of your fitness level, you'll be able to enhance your training sessions and achieve better results.

1. Think About Your Workout Before you Arrive
On my drive to FT, I always try to think about the potential for something amazing to happen. Today might be the day I get that new pr I have been chasing. Or today may be the day you have your fastest time running on the treadmill, or you are able to do 15 sit-ups in a row, all unbroken. Anything is possible. Take a minute to think about how you want to perform. Visualize yourself succeeding. It can make a big difference in your session.

2. Have a Positive Attitude
Regardless of your experience level, nothing can beat positive thinking. If your trainer has you attempt a new exercise, don't worry about doing it correctly on the first try. If it takes you a while to master a skill, there's no need to be discouraged. Remember, your trainer always wants you to succeed. And don't be afraid to try something new, even though it may be out of your comfort zone. The right mindset can help you advance to the next level of fitness.

3. Have Confidence in Yourself
When I first started working with Bryce, I was always hesitant to go “all out” in my workouts. I was scared that I would run out of energy and not be able to complete my workout. But in thinking about this, what was the worst thing that could happen? I knew I could finish, but it was my fear of not being able to complete my circuit that was preventing me from succeeding. I was able to overcome this fear because I came to realize that Bryce was always there to help me. No matter if I needed some encouragement or correction, he always had my best interest in mind. Having someone there to support you really helps to boost your confidence. So on your next workout, push a little harder. Run a little faster. Have confidence. You can do it. And if you get into trouble, your trainer will be there to help you.

4. Have Trust in Your Trainer
The greatest lesson I have learned was to let go of the ways I thought were best for me and to put my complete trust in Bryce. This was the most difficult yet most rewarding action I could have taken. The trainers at FT are true professionals who want to help you achieve your goals. They want you to succeed. In order to change the way you look and feel, you have to take a leap of faith. Have faith in your trainer. Take a chance and commit to your program. You'll be amazed at your results.

5. Exercise on Your Off Days
Our sessions at FT are for 60 minutes. If you are coming to FT 3 days per week, that's really only 3 hours of exercising per week. If we want to get in better shape, we need to do more. In order to keep your body working, it is important do something "active" on days when you are not at FT. Go for an intense 20-minute walk. Take 10 minutes and see how many rounds of 5 push ups/10 sit ups/15 air squats you can complete. Even do the exercises you don't like so you can get better at them. I have asked Bryce, “How do I get better at doing pull-ups?” His response, “Do pull ups!” If you are having trouble getting started, ask your trainer for a list of exercises to do at home.

Hopefully by following these tips, we can enhance our exercising and get the most from our trainings.

John Kiefer

BREAKFAST: DO YOU BREAK-FAST? OR BRAKE-FAST?

Friday morning, one of our clients brought in an article from the Tribune discussing the misconception about certain foods that many people consider being “healthy”. Lately, we are discussing this same thing quite often with many of you, especially when it comes to breakfast. Thank you John!

Breakfast should be one of the first things you do every day, and if not done properly, it can be the biggest mistake you make every day. Eating a breakfast that is high in sugar, low in protein, and low in good fats is only SLIGHTLY better than skipping it. Skipping breakfast is like trying to drive a car with no gas in the tank. Every morning your body has endured an over-night fast and it is looking for a break. Get it? “Break-fast”…

Yes, breakfast is meant to break your body’s fasting process and begin delivering fuel to your starving body. Within a few hours of waking, your body is designed to reach its peak metabolic rate, and stay there. If you do not eat early enough, or properly, you are dramatically putting the brakes on your metabolism. Yes, that’s what we meant by “brake fast”.

Missing out on a balanced breakfast stifles your metabolic rate and overall performance. Without the proper nutrients, your body finds ways to compensate to survive. One defense mechanism is to decrease your brain function and put you into a type of hibernation mode, like a bear over winter. Who wants to be a bear this summer? Exactly!

So, how do you build a proper breakfast?

Many people perceive granola bars, fruit, cereal, or fat-free yogurt as complete and healthy breakfasts. These foods offer fiber and some redeeming micronutrients to appear as healthy, but what they truly provide is only carbohydrates. Eating just an apple, just a banana, or dried fruit will provide complex carbohydrates, but without protein or fats to slow digestion and absorption, you will end up with less energy than before eating. This is due to the effect of insulin in response to the spike in blood sugar levels. Carbohydrate-heavy meals are counterproductive for optimal health and physiological function, especially breakfasts.

Good fats are pretty easy to ingest if you prepare your breakfast with cooking oils such as: canola, sunflower, and extra-virgin olive oil. Other options are to add, in SMALL amounts, almonds, cashews, macadamias, and other unroasted and unsalted nuts.

We saved the best for last. Protein is practically absent in most peoples’ breakfasts. Protein not only adds essential amino acids, but it also aids in preventing spikes in blood sugar levels after eating. We already know, from above, how undesirable that can be. Eggs in any desired form, or egg substitutes, are convenient ways to add protein. You could also make use of your left over chicken, turkey, or fish and prepared vegetables for a quick and easy frittata. You could even make it the night before and reheat it in the morning. Other protein sources would be UNSWEETENED yogurt, Greek yogurt, and cottage cheese. Eggs and meats obviously have cholesterol issues that must considered, and you should understand the impact of lactose in dairy as well. Lactose is a form of carbohydrate and will force an insulin response, but less than carbohydrate-rich foods. In cases of dairy allergies or intolerance, you could choose unsweetened soy products.

Making proper meal choices can be difficult with confusing labels and misinformation thrown about. However, we understand that food choice is not the only determining factor in improving your nutrition for optimal living. Every person must execute effective time management in order to prepare complete and nutritious meals. However, like your exercise program, we would prefer to assist you on a one-on-one basis if you are interested.

Please speak with any of your FT Personal Trainers for more information.

Please provide your comments on this and other postings. Comment links are at the bottom of every posting.

Will YOUR abs save your life?

This is just one worse-case scenario where abdominal work can save your life!

Peggy Williams, 47, fell on to a rocky outcrop after a freak gust of wind caught the fabric wing of her paraglider.

She was catapulted through the air like a "rag doll" before plummeting 20ft and landing on her stomach.  She suffered a torn liver and nearly severed her pancreas following the accident in Andalusia, Spain.  But experts said her life was saved by her high level of fitness, which meant her stomach muscles acted as a "girdle" to protect her other vital organs.

"I was on the second day of an organised paragliding holiday and was out with two friends and eight or 10 other people on a hill at Teba in Andalusia.  The take-off spot was gravelled, but it was surrounded by a very rocky area. I was just standing, watching for the right conditions to take off, when a big thermal came and lifted me up four or five metres, pulled me backwards, dropped me down and, because my wing was still inflated, dragged me back over the rocks face-down.  I kept seeing rocks going past me and smacking me. Because the wing was partially inflated, it was my body rather than my head that was in contact with the rocks.  I was dragged for what seemed like an eternity over the rocks, tearing my stomach in the process. I was only told later that it was my washboard stomach that saved my life."

Miss Williams, who has no children, said: "More than one doctor has said that being so fit is what saved my life.  I do 15 sit-ups and 30 bicycle sit-ups, or lateral crunches, every day - it's just a one-minute regime.  I also run two or three times a week, and together that keeps me fit.  The muscles acted like a girdle to protect me."

If that is what just ONE MINUTE of daily ab work can do, imagine if she were training at Fitness Together...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5303853/Woman-survived-paragling-accident-due-to-washboard-stomach.html

Stay Cool While Exercising

With the recent trend of warmer weather, your Fitness Together Personal Trainers would like to remind you of certain precautions to take when exercising outdoors during hot and humid weather.

The best ways to stay cool when exercising in the summer months is to:

1. Use caution when exercising outdoors and forgo outdoor activity when it is simply too hot to exercise safely. (Opt for exercising indoors in a climate-controlled environment instead.)
2. Acclimate to the hot weather by slowly building up the length and intensity of your outdoor workouts.
3. Work out in the coolest times of the day: early morning and late afternoon-when the sun is less intense.
4. Wear light, breathable exercise clothes.
5. Drink lots of fluid before, during and after your workouts. A good rule of thumb to determine how much fluid to drink during your workout is to gauge your "sweat rate" and try to match fluid loss with fluid intake.
6. There are calculations to determine your exact sweat rate, with the average person losing roughly 25 to 50 ounces of sweat per hour. Drinking at least 8 ounces of fluid every 15 minutes would cover you if you lose approximately 32 ounces of fluid per hour.
7. Eat a healthy plant-based diet naturally rich in the mineral potassium (bananas, potatoes, papayas and spinach are all high-potassium foods), and do not restrict sodium in the diet directly before a long exercise bout in the heat.
8. Make sure to warm up before exercising by performing a slow version of the same exercise that you will be doing during your exercise bout, and cool down by decreasing intensity until your heart rate returns to normal.
9. Remember to DRINK, DRINK, DRINK water before, during and after your workouts!

Contributed by the Fitness Together Director of Nutrition, Dr. Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN

Bryce’s Take on Intensity

Exercise intensity is an issue that comes up frequently during training sessions. Many of you ask, “should my sessions still be very challenging? Or, “can I push myself less when I exercise on my own?” I will answer your questions with a question: “Which would be the most beneficial to your fitness; walking a 20-minute mile, jogging a 15-minute mile, or running a 6-minute mile?” It should be a pretty easy answer. While all three will burn close to the same amount of calories during the activity, the effects each has on your metabolism are substantially different. Being able to complete the same amount of work in less time is going to give you more positive benefits.

Before I delve into your metabolic conditioning (metcon), I will discuss strength training intensity. In your strength training set, usually the first part of your workout, you should maintain a slow and steady pace. When you get under that heavy weight you should be focused on that weight only. Once the weight is in your hands you shouldn’t physically be able to have a conversation. The weight should instantly give you a signal that it requires all of your focus. Between sets, I encourage conversation to take place. Your body actually requires 1-3 minutes of rest between heavy lifting sets in order to restore your energy system so you can move the next weight to your maximum potential, safely.

• Most people shy away from this because they don’t want to get bulky from strength training. If you believe this to be the case, look at me. Do you think I am bulky? I have been strength training for 15 years and I believe I am a good example of what effective strength training can achieve. In order to add bulk, your caloric intake and training would need to double or triple from its current state. Strength training is going to get you stronger, but it takes many years of strength training, the proper diet, and genetics to get bulky. Which is why we also try to guide you toward a nutrition plan that, if followed properly, would not allow this to happen.

During your metcon set, your intensity needs to hit another gear. This is the part of your workout that is going to further increase your metabolism. Since this is usually only done for a brief period of time, all of your mental focus should be working safely and quickly through the set. There is nothing wrong with finishing a workout a few minutes early. This just means your level of intensity progressed beyond the time frame I gave you to complete it. That is a good thing.

Personally, my metabolic conditioning workouts usually last 3-15 minutes. If a workout that I think should take me 10 minutes only takes me 8, I’m excited. That means my power output has increased. During that time, if I’m able to say anything remotely clever or intelligent, I know that I’m slacking in my workout. So, if I finish early, I’m not seeking out something else to do for those 2 minutes. I’m usually lying on the floor in a pool of sweat.

From a scientific viewpoint intensity is directly equal to power. Power = (force x distance)/time. This is the reason you see me holding the stopwatch so often during workouts. By measuring your work over time, I can directly see how much power you produced during your workout, and also be able to track it. So, when we repeat workouts we can use it as a gauge of your fitness improvement. Through the power formula, this is directly stating that more work in less time equals more intensity!

If you have to lie on the ground for 5 minutes to recover after a metcon workout, you are pushing yourself to the appropriate level. On the other hand, if you are able to have comfortable conversation during this portion, then your intensity is nowhere near where it could be. These are the benefits we are trying to instill through heavy lifting and metcon: increasing fitness, increasing strength, increasing metabolism, decreasing body fat, building stronger bones, or increasing lung capacity.

Without the proper mental focus, your improvement of these benefits is limited. You will get some gains in all aspects of fitness, but in order to truly receive them at the highest degree, your intensity has to step up. When you are training with us during your sessions, we do enjoy the little bit of conversation too, but our first priority is to make sure you get results. We aren’t satisfied with your session unless we feel that you got the most out of it.
Remember, our business is called Fitness Together. To me, this means that client and trainer are a team and neither can succeed unless both put forth 100% effort. If you are looking to get your fitness goals to the next level, intensity is the key.

Contributed by Bryce Wood