Body Fat Monitoring

The goal of any weight loss program is actually not weight loss at all – it’s BODY FAT LOSS. Your muscles, organs, bones, and all the rest are going to weigh whatever they weigh, regardless of what you do. Your goal is to get rid of body fat that you don’t want, so measuring your level of body fat needs to be part of the process.

There are several different ways to measure your body fat, but many of them tend to be impractical, inaccurate, or just plain expensive. The easiest way to measure your body fat is with a simple, inexpensive body fat monitor like the one pictured here. I have this exact model at home, and I’ve had it for more than 5 years, and it still works flawlessly.

The thing to remember about using a device like this is to use it just like you would a regular scale. Try to measure your body fat with the same circumstances each time, i.e. – same time of day, same general activity level that day as you had on the last day you used it, and – most importantly – make sure your hydration levels are also similar to the last time.

And, just like a regular scale, use your body fat monitor INFREQUENTLY, or else you will demotivate yourself if the numbers aren’t moving fast enough for your expectations. I recommend once a week at the most, if not once every two weeks.

Clothing Sizes and Comfort

This one is pretty simple. If you are wearing smaller clothes than you used to, then you’re losing weight! In addition, even if you are still wearing the same clothes, how do they fit? Are the pants that used to be really tight, now not quite so tight? Does the shirt that used to hug every curve (even the curves you didn’t WANT hugged) now fit more loosely? Are you able to get into clothes (even if they’re a little snug) that you used to not be able to fit into at all?

Each of these are examples of how you can use your wardrobe to track whether or not your weight loss program is working. One caveat, however, is to be sure that you are comparing apples to apples. A size 12 pair of jeans from one manufacturer, or even a different style from the same manufacturer, will fit you differently. Make sure that you compare clothing items in a manner that gives you accurate information.

Strength or Muscle Gain

Even if your goal isn’t to be the next world-class bodybuilder, that doesn’t change the fact that muscle burns fat, so if you have more muscle than you used to have, then you’re burning more fat!

For some people – especially women – the strength gains will initially come before you actually SEE new muscle tissue, and that’s okay. If you’re stronger than you were before, then you’re burning more fat than you were before, so just keep doing what you’re doing. The visible body fat loss will follow.

The Mirror!

The mirror can be our best friend or our worst enemy, can’t it? When it shows what we like, we love it, but the rest of the time, we don’t even like to look! The mirror, however – much like a picture – never lies. You can’t fool the mirror into showing you something that isn’t there, and likewise, the mirror WILL show you what is there when you are getting results.

Just like the body fat monitor that was mentioned earlier, to use the mirror effectively, you have to keep things the same when you are inspecting yourself for results. If you are really full or bloated, over or under-hydrated, standing in a different light, or wearing a different outfit, then the mirror isn’t going to show you a good comparison to the last time.

Also, just like with a scale, don’t use the mirror over and over again every day. Even with the best, most effective weight loss program, you aren’t going to visibly drop body fat every single day. Keep your “official” inspections down to once a week or so.

So, is your weight loss program working?

Honesty is the best policy when it comes to determining the effectiveness of your weight loss program, and 99 times out of 100, when a weight loss program isn’t working, it’s because the person isn’t properly following the guidelines of that program.

If that describes YOU – and be honest about whether or not it does – then now is a good time to make a change, don’t you think?

If you are ready to make a positive change in your health or your fitness, check out the home exercises and at home workouts in our Fitness Store. We offer FREE, on-going coaching to all of our customers who are willing to take control over their lives!

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

Don’t let these common mistakes become the EXCUSES that you use for why you aren’t getting RESULTS!

1. Large/Infrequent Meals – If you still believe that starving yourself and only eating once or twice a day is going to help you lose weight, you could not be more wrong. When you don’t eat small, frequent meals throughout the day, your metabolism slows down considerably, and your body goes into “starvation mode” – in other words, your body thinks it is not going to get nutrients very often. Then, when you do eat that “well-deserved” meal late in the day, your body stashes away as many calories from that meal as it can in preparation for the next starvation period. Those calories are stored as body fat, usually in your stomach, legs, butt, and any where else your body can find to keep it. Having large, infrequent meals is the opposite of losing body fat.
2. High Sodium Low-fat Foods – The majority of the foods that we eat get their flavor from 1 of 3 things: Fat, Sugar, or Salt (sodium). If you are shopping in the alleged “healthy section” – especially in the frozen foods area – you are probably mesmerized by the Low-Fat labels on everything. What those labels DON’T tell you, however, is that in order to make those foods taste good, they are instead stuffed with carbohydrates and/or sodium, both of which retard your body’s ability to burn body fat and show off the muscles underneath. In addition, since people equate “low fat” as being a low-calorie alternative, they tend to eat more total calories than their bodies need, and those extra calories – despite coming from a low-fat food source – still end up getting stored as body fat. You might as well just eat ice cream and at least enjoy the indulgence, because from a weight loss perspective, those low-fat foods are usually not going to actually help you lose weight.
3. Lack of Challenging Exercise – Are you one of those people who says that they exercise every day because they take a walk after dinner? Or – even worse – do you honestly think that “just 20 minutes a day 3 times a week” is going to help you lose weight? Here’s your Tip of the Day – “If you aren’t sweating and/or exerting yourself beyond your comfort level, you aren’t exercising at an intensity level that is going to get you results.” Yes, any exercise is better than no exercise, but if you want to actually lose weight – rather than just appease your guilty conscious – you need to workout hard, you need to workout frequently, and you need to challenge yourself past your previous limits EVERY time you exercise.
4. Incorrect Reaction to Injuries/Illness – How many times has a cold, a bug, or a minor injury caused you to stop working out altogether? Just because you aren’t at 100% of your normal capabilities does NOT mean that you can just give up and do nothing! Yes, take a few days if you’re sick and then get right back on track afterward. If you’re injured, take as much time as you need to heal the injured part of your body, but you still need to work the rest of your body. Just because you have an upper body injury, doesn’t mean you can’t do cardio or leg workouts. If your lower body is hurt, then do chest, shoulder, arm, ab, and back exercises. Don’t let an injury or illness completely sideline you from the game when all you really need to do is modify your approach.
5. Lifestyle Changes – Life is going to come by and smack you in the face from time to time – it happens. Divorce, drama, loss of a job, health concerns about yourself or someone you care about – these things happen. However, they are NOT an excuse to just give up – to the contrary, actually. The more life is a battle for you, the more you need to be EQUIPPED for that battle. Whether that means losing weight and skyrocketing your self-confidence, or if it means beefing up your body’s defenses by engaging in a consistent, effective exercise program, the bottom line is the same; the tougher your life is, the tougher YOU need to be to handle it. Rough times are not a time to give up – they are a time to RISE up!
6. Poor Planning – Your “best intentions” to really stick to your workout program or your nutrition plan are nothing more than self-indulgent hot air if you don’t back up those intentions with actual, consistent work towards those goals. A lack of planning on your part does not mean that your body is going to forgive you and start releasing body fat even though you forgot to bring a healthy lunch, or because you left your workout towel in the dryer at home. Plan out your day (or your week) in advance to be sure that with regard to your nutritional needs or your workout regimen, you are prepared every single day to do what you need to do to get results. At the end of the day (week, month, year, or decade), your body doesn’t care about your lack of planning. All it cares about is whether or not you did the work.

If any or all of these reasons that your body holds onto body fat are a part of YOUR lifestyle, now is the time to make a change. Don’t beat yourself up because of what you’ve done in the past – just plan and follow through on doing better in the future. At the end of the day, you are either overweight, or you’re not. And YOU are the only person who controls that.

If you are ready to make a positive change in your health or your fitness, check out the home exercises and at home workouts in our Fitness Store. We offer FREE, on-going coaching to all of our customers who are willing to take control over their lives!

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

“Skinny fat people” are people who believe that dieting alone is an effective way to lose weight, and they do, in fact, lose weight. Skinny fat people often weigh as little as 110 to 130 pounds, and they fit into clothes much smaller than the clothing sizes they wore before they starved themselves.

The problem is that the majority of the weight that they lost came from their body literally “eating itself,” and what they lost was healthy, metabolism-boosting muscle tissue – they still held on to a lot of the FAT!

Whenever you consistently don’t eat enough calories to sustain your body’s need for energy and for nutrients, your body will believe that its energy intake will always be that low, and it will go into “starvation mode”. In essence, it will hold onto body fat because body fat is a long-term energy source, and it will “defend itself” from further energy needs by destroying muscle tissue, and using that tissue for energy.

The muscles in your body are what use the majority of the calories that you ingest. They are the “furnace” that cranks up your metabolism, and for every pound of muscle tissue that you have, your body needs to feed that muscle tissue just to keep it alive. A body that is in starvation mode realizes that even though not very much energy is coming in, those muscles are still needing to be “fed”. In order to defend itself against actually starving to death, your body will start to break down those muscle tissues in order to use them for energy, and to prevent those muscles from needing to be fed in the future.

On the scale, this all looks well and good. Muscle weighs significantly more than fat does, so while you starve your body, the number on the scale drops, but your body fat isn’t going anywhere.

In addition, since you are forcing your body to literally “eat itself” in order to survive:

• Your metabolism plummets to dangerously low levels, causing you to have very low energy levels.
• Your muscle tissue is literally disappearing, so your strength also goes away, and even everyday activities can become difficult.
• Since your muscles use most of the calories that you ingest, and you have allowed your body to destroy your muscles, you are forever stuck in a vicious circle of needing to starve yourself to keep from putting the weight back on.
• The majority of the nutrients that we take in come from our foods, so a lack of consistent intake of nutrient-dense foods causes you to be susceptible to numerous illnesses, and your ability to recover from those illnesses is severely limited.
• Although the number on your scale is lower, you look unhealthy. Your skin sags from your bones, you jiggle when you walk, and even the best outfits can’t hide the fact that you are not in shape – you are a skinny fat person.

The Solution

Proper diet AND a proper exercise program are the only way to lose weight while also increasing your overall level of health.

Proper diet means:

• Eating 5 to 6 smalls meals per day
• Ingesting calories based on your lifestyle, not just on your age and your gender
• Taking in the proper ratios of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy dietary fats

Proper exercise means:

• An exercise program that is appropriate for your goals and your present level of conditioning
• Exercising intensely and consistently, while also listening to your body
• Knowing when it is time to rest or back off, rather than over-doing it and getting injured

Exercise Program Recommendations

For putting on muscle mass, radically cranking up your metabolism and your level of cardiovascular fitness, check out P90 or P90X.

For losing inches in a very healthy manner that doesn’t emphasize muscle growth as much, check out Debbie Sieber’s Slim in 6 program

If structured exercise does not appeal to you, but you want to take the weight off in a fun and healthy way, take a look at Turbo Jam or Hip Hop Abs.

Regardless of what type of program you get involved with, always remember that there are 2 components to fitness: Proper diet and Proper exercise.

If you skimp on either one, you will regret it in the long run – guaranteed.

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

People who go to night clubs or dance parties to get their groove on can certainly work up a good sweat, and burn off some calories. With a good mix of music or a DJ who really knows how to work the crowd, it can really be a lot of fun, as well as a way to get some great exercise. Unfortunately, night clubs and parties usually come with ways to retard the weight loss benefit in the form of high-calorie drinks, snacks, and other foods.

If you want to just “cut a rug” and have a blast, then by all means, at least get the exercise benefit out of it, even if you aren’t going to lose any weight. However, if you want to have the fun of dancing, and ALSO the weight loss benefit, here are some ways that dancing can crank up your weight loss efforts!

A Consistently elevated Heart Rate

One of the best ways to lose body fat is to keep your heart rate elevated for long periods of time. Notice the term “lose body fat” as opposed to the term “lose weight”. Many allegedly miraculous weight loss programs cause you to lose water weight or even healthy muscle tissue, both of which are unhealthy, short-lived, and can actually cause you to gain more weight back after the program.

Your mission when it comes to weight loss is to lose BODY FAT, not just to lose weight. Body fat goes away whenever your body has a need for energy that cannot be met by whatever calories are presently in your system. Specifically, whenever you elevate your heart rate into your Target Heart Rate zone (roughly 60%-85% of your maximum heart rate), you open the flood gates of your body’s fat burning ability.

If you have ever really gotten into a dance set, at a party or otherwise, you know that you are breathing heavier than normal, you start to sweat, and your body starts to go looking for energy. That’s the “sweet spot” whenever you are in a position to start losing weight, right there on the dance floor. However, that is provided that you don’t hit the chips and dip table or suck down a beer as soon as you get off the floor…

Increased Metabolism

In addition to just raising your heart rate so that your body goes looking for additional calories from stored body fat, dancing raises your metabolism more than a more “traditional” exercise because dancing utilizes so many different muscle groups.

It would be impossible to list the specific muscle groups that are used when dancing because it obviously depends on the type of dancing that you are doing. However, the thing to remember is that whenever you dance, you use many muscle groups all in conjunction with each other, and that “confuses” your body about where to obtain the energy for that activity. The more intense your dance routine is, and the more muscle groups you manage to incorporate, the more “confused” your body will get.

The benefit to confusing your body in this manner is that not only will you burn calories during your dance activity, but you will continue to burn calories long after you stop. The more you can crank up your metabolism during any type of exercise activity, the longer it will take your body to “normalize” afterward.

So, the next time you feel like getting a little “freaky” when you dance, go for it!

A Powerful Core

Your “core” muscles encompass many different muscles groups, including your inner and outer abdominal muscles, your side abdominal muscles, the muscles of your lower back, and also the musculature that supports your spine. Having a strong core is necessary for many reasons, not the least of which being the prevention of injury, increased mobility, and the ability to do activities that people with a weak core cannot do.

Although dancing uses many different muscle groups, it all starts in the middle, where your core muscles are. You can’t gyrate your hips, bend over backwards, dip your partner, or do any other fancy (and calorie burning) dance moves if you can’t control your core muscles.

Not only will dancing increase the strength of your core and your brain’s ability to control those core muscles, but having a strong core also sets you up to do other activities later on with an increased sense of “solidity,” for lack of a better term.

Whenever you feel like you have a strong core, it is the same idea as building a house on a solid foundation. Anything is possible whenever your central power unit is in great shape. The confidence of having a strong core will cause you to be more willing to do other physical activities later on down the road that will enhance your weight loss efforts, in addition to the calories that you burn during your dance routine.

Boost to your Self-Esteem

Right on the heels of a cranking up your confidence by building a stable core comes the related benefit of raising your level of self-esteem. Dancing in a manner that makes you feel good about yourself carries over even after you get off the floor. By getting in touch with your body and controlling it in such an intimate and precise way, you feel mentally more in touch as well.

Look at the crowd at any night club or party, and look at the people who are dancing vs. the people who are just watching. The dancers are having fun, they aren’t bored, they aren’t shy, and they are rarely all alone. Even a dancer who goes to a night club alone does not stay that way for long, as he/she gains momentum and self-esteem as their mind and body come together while dancing.

In addition to just having a dance partner at a party or a night club, however, that self-esteem tends to carry over into other areas of your life as well. When you feel confident and in touch with your body, and you put your body “out there” frequently on the dance floor, it becomes a lot more difficult to consciously pack on unnecessary “curves”.

Picture yourself getting busy on the dance floor, shakin’ your thing, and having a blast, and then try to picture yourself wolfing down a double cheeseburger, a large order of fries, and a sugar-filled soda. Those two pictures just don’t mix, do they?

If you want to take it seriously – and use it as a fun and very effective way to lose weight – then get your groove on in the privacy of your own home with exercise routines built specifically for the dancer in you: Turbo Jam and Hip Hop Abs.

Lose some weight, and learn how to be the center of attention on the dance floor all at the same time. Now that is time management!

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

However, as you start to see results from your cardiovascular training program, it is important to keep those results from hitting a plateau by frequently changing up your exercise program. Practice cross training in order to keep your body from adapting to any one type of exercise stimulus.

What is Cross Training?

In a nutshell, cross training means that in order to get the most benefit from your exercise program, you need to frequently change the way that you stimulate your muscles and cardiovascular system.

There are no specific exercises that are part of a cross training program, since it depends on the goals of the individual, as well as the training program that the individual has been utilizing thus far. For the purposes of learning how to increase your cardiovascular endurance with cross training, we will focus on various cardiovascular activities.

Cardiovascular Exercises that are part of a Cross Training Program

Cardiovascular exercise can be any activity that you use in order to get your heart rate up to the proper intensity level in order to ensure you attain whatever your goal is. A quick list could include any or all of the following:

• Running/Jogging
• Bicycling
• Swimming
• Brisk Walking
• Rollerblading
• Calisthenics (jumping jacks, running in place, etc.)
• Aerobics Classes
• Elliptical Trainer
• Stair Stepper/Climber
• Stationary Bike

How to Increase Cardiovascular Endurance

All of the activities listed above are great for cardiovascular training, and each of them can be used in one of four ways to increase your level of cardiovascular endurance:

1. Increase the amount of time spent doing the exercise
2. Increase the intensity level at which you do the exercise
3. Do a variety of different exercises
4. Practice interval training

Increasing the amount of time spent doing the exercise

The most obvious way to increase your cardiovascular endurance is to simply do an exercise for a longer period of time. If you have a favorite cardiovascular training exercise that you have been doing for a long time, chances are that your body has adapted to the energy needs that are created by that activity. You are no longer burning as many calories as you used to, even though you are exercising for the same period of time.

The “exercise effect” is the term that describes your body’s ability to adapt to exercise, and those changes are almost always positive. However, for any given activity, once your body adapts to that activity, you have to find a way to force your body to need energy in a way that it previously hasn’t, or your progress will slow down or even stop.

Increase the intensity level at which you do the exercise

Let’s say that you jog at a pace of 5 mph. It’s not blazing fast, but it is a high enough speed to burn through some serious calories, especially if you jog for 30 minutes or more. If that is the speed that your body has adapted to, you can exponentially increase the need for energy (calories) by nudging up the speed at which you run.

Adding even half a mile per hour to your running speed will cause your body to rapidly burn through the same number of calories that you had previously been using, and you will find yourself significantly more winded. If you can push through this additional energy and oxygen need and stick to the same workout duration – only at the increased speed – both your cardiovascular endurance and your rate of weight loss will increase.

Do a variety of different exercises

Another way to force your body to utilize both oxygen and caloric energy at higher than previous levels is to do exercises that are different than what your body is used to. Although doing activities that you enjoy is one of the success secrets of exercising, if you only enjoy one or two activities, then you may be limiting your potential for fast results.

Again referring to the fact that your body adapts to any activity that you do, this effect applies to both caloric energy and oxygen needs, as well as actual muscle fiber recruitment. When you need additional muscle fibers or different muscle fibers than your body is used to, you will also increase the need for both energy and oxygen.

NOTE: This does not mean that you need to change up your cardiovascular training routine every single day, but rather that you pepper in different activities on a consistent basis. Also, be sure that when you do a new activity, you keep up the proper level of intensity for whatever your goals are.

Practice interval training

Check out this link if you want a lot of details about interval training, although here is a brief description. Interval training simply means that you change up the intensity of your cardiovascular training session multiple times during the session itself.

Interval training has the effect of causing your body to become very confused about exactly how much energy (calories) will be needed at any given time, and that level of confusion also applies to the amount of oxygen that your body needs to supply for the activity.

By including interval training in your cardiovascular training regimen, you will not only increase your level of cardiovascular endurance, but interval training is also a powerful tool for cranking up your metabolism. A higher metabolism = a higher number of calories burned every single day.

By properly utilizing cross training techniques, not only will you increase your level of cardiovascular endurance, but your overall level of health and the rate at which you are able to lose weight will both increase as well!

Related Video Training:

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Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

Interval training carries with it many different benefits, allowing you to achieve the maximum amount of progress in the shortest amount of time. Below are some of the benefits associated with interval training, followed by a primer on what interval training is, as well as some sample interval training programs.

Benefits of Interval Training

• Keeps your body from adapting to your training program, meaning that your progress will never stagnate
• Cranks up your metabolism for longer periods of time than “standard” cardiovascular training
• Allows you to burn more body fat for energy as a result of confusing your body during the interval training session
• Increases your level of cardiovascular endurance as well as the overall strength of your heart and cardiovascular system
• Eliminates the boredom often associated with cardiovascular training sessions
• Increases the release of post-exercise endorphins as a result of the high-intensity nature of interval training
• Boosts your confidence as you realize that you can increase your physical abilities exponentially above previously accepted levels

What is Interval Training?

Basically, interval training is a method of exercise whereby you are constantly changing the level of intensity of the training session, which keeps your body from being able to adapt to the activity.

The human body is a highly adaptable machine, and as soon as your body adapts to any given type of training, your progress will slow down, and sometimes even stop completely. Even if you keep exercising, you will not see any further progress until you find a way to start confusing your body with a new training protocol.

The concept of interval training itself is very simple, although there are numerous ways in which you can modify your approach in order to get the most out of it.

Whenever you are engaged in any sort of cardiovascular exercise, interval training is simply the act of constantly changing your level of intensity. This is normally done by having certain periods of time when you exercise at one level of intensity, and then other periods of time when you increase that level of intensity.

That same concept can be applied to distance just as easily, however. You keep up a certain level of intensity for a given distance, then increase the level of intensity for a given distance.

What is meant by “level of intensity” during Interval Training?

Intensity is simply the level of difficulty that is represented by any given exercise activity. The methods of changing the intensity vary depending on the type of cardiovascular activity that you are engaged in, but 2 of the most popular ways to modify your level of intensity are:

• The actual speed at which are you doing the movement, usually measured in miles per hour (mph) or revolutions per minute (rpm).
• The resistance level that you are fighting against while you do the activity. This can be modified by adding an incline if you are on an exercise machine, increasing the tension if you are on an exercise bike, or just cranking up the difficulty level of whatever machine you are using.

If you are a runner, increasing your speed is the most efficient way to turn up the intensity, although running on an incline is also very effective if that is an option for you.

What are some examples of effective Interval Training?

Exercise Bike or Elliptical/Cross Training Machine

Choose a number of revolutions per minute that you are comfortable with. The number of revolutions per minute that you choose should be challenging for you, but should not push you to your absolute limits.

After a proper warm-up, begin timing yourself, keeping your rpm’s at that challenging level for 4 minutes. At the end of that 4 minutes crank up your rpm’s to a much higher level for 1 full minute.

For example, if your rpm’s were previously 70, crank them all the way up to 80, 90, or even 100. Remember, you only have to do this for 60 seconds. At the end of the 60 seconds, return back to your previous level of 70 rpm’s for another 4 minutes. Repeat that process until the end of your workout.

Remember: Whenever you go back to your original level, you should ONLY go back to that level, which was 70 rpm’s in this example. At first you will be tempted to drop below your previous level because you will be very tired. However, if you drop below your previous level, you will not get nearly as much benefit from interval training.

Running

If your normal running speed is 5 miles per hour, begin running at that speed after a proper warm-up. After 3 minutes, take off and run as hard and as fast as you can for 1 full minute. Really give it all you’ve got!

After 1 minute, return back to your normal running speed of 5 mph for 3 minutes, and then repeat. You will quickly find that it takes you all 3 of those minutes before your heart rate returns back to normal!

The net result of that level of intensity from a calorie burning standpoint is that you will spend a significantly larger amount of time with a higher heart rate than you would have if you had just run at 5 mph for the entire exercise session. All of the other benefits of interval training would of course apply as well.

Distance

Regardless of which type of cardiovascular activity that you are engaged in, you can also use distance as a way to plan your intervals.

Give yourself a certain distance that you will cover at your “normal” speed, and then choose a distance that is approximately 10% to 15% of that distance, and crank up your intensity to an extremely challenging level while you cover that smaller distance.

Once the smaller distance has been covered, return back to your previous rate of speed or other level of intensity for a prescribed distance before repeating the higher intensity interval again. Repeat that process for the entire workout.

Also, the examples given here are just guidelines. There are no hard and fast rules about how long any given interval should be, or how much distance should be covered.

The only thing that is mission critical to the success of your interval training is that the higher intensity portions of your workout are very challenging, and that you never allow yourself to drop below your normal rate of speed or intensity.

You can modify both the speed/resistance changes during any given workout, as well as the distances covered during any given exercise session. You do not need to stick with one system and never change it.

In fact, the entire idea behind interval training is to keep your body from adapting to the activity, so feel free to change it up as often as you like. However, it is absolutely imperative that whenever you do your higher intensity intervals that they are truly challenging.

Don’t cheat yourself by putting forth sub-par efforts. Interval training is literally one of the most effective exercise modalities ever created, and you can use this system to attain a maximum level of weight loss and health.

Work hard, and the results will follow!

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

For something so important, why is it that so many people refuse to try to do it? In my years as a personal trainer I can’t count how many times people said, “I can’t run”.

Translated: “I’m not willing to put forth the effort to run.”

Well, the ability to run could literally save your life someday, so I’ve put together this primer that discusses what it takes to learn how to run really fast, and I have divided it up into 3 easily digestible sections.

Angle of Attack

One of the things to consider with any exercise program is that the human body is not a static machine that only works under very precise conditions and at very precise angles.

Quite to the contrary, the human body is actually a multi-dimensional machine that needs to be trained in a multi-dimensional manner in order to perform at peak efficiency.

When it comes to running, that means changing the angle at which you put pressure on the bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles that are used while running.

The easiest way to do that is to simply run on surfaces that are not perfectly flat. Although running indoors on a treadmill has advantages such as precise measurement of the activity itself, if all you ever do is run on a treadmill, you will limit the growth of the musculature that is used while running.

Ways to increase both the angles of stress that are put on your muscles as well as to increase the use of supporting muscles and connective tissues include:

• Running up and down hills, although modifying your gate on the downhill side to avoid shin splints
• Running on different surfaces such as grass, sand, or running cross country though fields and wooded areas

Cross Training

To receive a similar benefit to changing the angle of muscle usage when running, do things other than just running, even if your primary goal is to increase your speed or capacity for running.

Your body can only handle so much pressure, especially when pressure is repeatedly put on the same bodily tissues over and over again over the long-term. Any long-distance runner can attest to the fact that knee and hip problems are an occupational hazard for any veteran runner.

One of the best ways to increase your running speed and capacity, and also to avoid injury, is to work on your cardiovascular endurance by doing activities other than running. The cardiovascular system is as much a part of being a good runner as the musculoskeletal system, so train it accordingly.

Some good ways to cross train your running muscles as well as your cardiovascular system include:

• Hiking
• Rollerblading
• Moderate to high intensity bicycle riding and indoor exercise bikes
• Stair steppers to work the calf muscles, and stair climbers to work the bigger leg muscles
• Elliptical or other revolution-based cardiovascular training machines at your local fitness facility

Interval Training

One of the most effective but often overlooked training modalities is called interval training. In a nutshell, interval training involves constantly changing the rate of intensity for any given exercise, forcing your body to learn how to adapt to constantly changing energy needs.

Interval training is normally done on a timed basis, although it can also be done both indoors and outdoors by basing your training intervals on distance or geographical objects. Indoors, you can measure distance on most exercise equipment, and outdoors you can use such things as telephone poles, trees, houses, or pretty much anything that can be seen while exercising outdoors.

Basically all you need to do is decide what amount of time or what distance you are going to run at a given level of intensity, and then once the time or distance goal has been reached, you switch to a higher or lower level of intensity. For example:

• Run for 3 minutes at your normal comfortable running speed, and then run as fast as you can for 1 full minute before dropping back to your normal speed
• If running outside, run at your normal speed for 5 lengths between telephone poles, and then run full-out for 2 lengths before slowing back down again.

The possibilities are endless, and you can change them up to keep from getting bored with the same routine, and to keep your body constantly adapting to a new training situation.

This has the effect of exercising both your muscles as well as your cardiovascular system through a greater range of use, giving you a distinct advantage when it comes time for a race, a competition that you have with yourself, or possibly even the need to run for your life!

A side benefit to interval training is that the confusion it causes with your bodily systems tends to lend itself to both a higher metabolism, as well as a very rapid loss of bodyfat.

Conclusion

Running may not be for everyone, and there are people who truly can’t run due to some sort of physical condition. However, most people can run.

If you are one of those people who has been saying for years that you can’t do it, don’t you think it’s time you started pushing your body to its limits, and seeing some amazing results from that effort?

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

There are numerous ways of helping your body to use its natural systems in order to burn through bodyfat, and a good diet and exercise program is a great place to start. However, you can turn your body into a hot, 24-hour per day fat burning engine by practicing two very simple techniques!

Use Your Legs

The lower half of your body contains a higher percentage of muscle tissue than the upper body, and since it is muscles that are the calorie-burning centers of the body, it just makes sense that the more you use your legs, the more calories you will burn.

However, the benefit to getting regular leg exercise does not stop with simple calorie burning. The muscles of the body are also directly responsible for your overall metabolic rate, which, in simple terms, means the rate at which your body uses energy.

Bodyfat is nothing more than energy that has been stored by the body for later use, so if you increase your metabolic rate, you will also increase the amount of bodyfat that your body burns each and every day, even when you are not actively exercising.

Whenever you are working out, yes, you are actively burning through calories, and that is certainly something that you should do on a daily basis. However, by frequently targeting the large muscles of your legs – the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals (butt muscles), you will cause your body to need a constant supply of energy in order to feed the large metabolic needs of those muscles.

For general weight loss, you should be doing resistance exercises for your legs at least twice a week, if not three times each week. Remember that as I covered in the third installment of the Health, Diet, and Weight Loss Checklist, resistance exercise is different than cardiovascular training. I will cover the leg-specific cardiovascular system of losing bodyfat in the section below.

For now, here is a list of 4 of the most effective resistance training exercises for your legs, each of which has numerous variations:

• Squats
• Lunges
• Deadlifts
• Step-ups

Early Morning Cardiovascular Training

Another way to burn through massive amounts of bodyfat is to do cardiovascular training early in the morning before you eat breakfast. The longer and more intensely you workout, the more bodyfat you will use.

This is due to the fact that your body is in a state of carbohydrate depletion whenever you first wake up. Most people sleep for 6 to 8 hours, and they also usually stop eating 2 to 4 hours before they go to bed. Add that up to discover that when you wake up, it will have been between 8 and 12 hours since you ingested any carbohydrates.

Since carbohydrates and bodyfat are the two primary sources of fuel that your body uses during cardiovascular training, it is simple physics that if there are no carbs available, your body will be forced to use stored bodyfat for energy during your cardiovascular training session.

Referring once again to the fact that the muscles in the legs are the largest muscles in the body, they will need the highest amount of energy in order to complete that cardiovascular activity. Since cardiovascular training itself is already a high calorie burning activity, you will rapidly deplete your body’s supply of energy (bodyfat) by doing your cardiovascular training while in a carbohydrate-depleted state.

There is one caveat to this method, however. It is possible for your body to attempt to break down muscle tissue for energy during cardiovascular training, and that is the last thing that you want! In order to eliminate that possibility, it is best to keep pre-breakfast cardiovascular training in the moderate intensity range.

You can use a heart rate measuring formula or device in order to keep your heart rate at around 75% of your maximum, or you can just listen to your body. While you are doing pre-breakfast cardio, it is not unusual to start getting hungry, which is natural and means that you are using bodyfat for energy. However, if you start to get really hungry and/or if you start to feel faint or light-headed, that means that your body is not able to break down bodyfat quickly enough to fuel your training session. If that happens, crank down your intensity level far enough to lessen those types of feelings.

Also, as is always the case when exercising, if you have any strong feelings of dizziness, being light-headed, faint, or just generally feeling ill, you should make a judgment call about stopping that exercise session completely, and possibly taking a visit to your doctor for a check up.

Conclusion

Regardless of what your personal goals are for your exercise and nutrition program, everyone should have the goal of getting to and maintaining a reasonable level of bodyfat. Even if you aren’t concerned about your physical appearance, excess bodyfat is simply unhealthy on many levels, so keeping it under control should always be a priority.

By following the two simple guidelines that were given above, you can now maximize the time and the effort that you spend exercising by engaging in methods that will give you the most benefit for every minute that you spend working out!

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

That being the case, I am constantly being exposed to people's beliefs about what is effective and what is not, especially when it comes to weight loss.

As is always the case, I lean on my experience in controlling my own weight, as well as my training and experience as a personal trainer in order to balance out the scales when it comes to deciding which methods are going to help people to actually see sustainable results.

One of the reasons why I personally got involved in an exercise program to begin with was so that I could enjoy diet transgressions without feeling guilty, but while still maintaining a high level of overall health, including a low level of bodyfat.

After all, it doesn't matter what type of diet you are on, or what type of exercise program you are using, the formula for success always has been (and always will be), Energy In vs. Energy Out. In other words, if you want to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you ingest, and if you want to gain weight you have to ingest more calories that you burn.

Given that age-old (and repeatedly proven) fact, you can then plug in that formula in order to come to the conclusion that if you exercised consistently enough and intensely enough in order to burn off enough calories, you could pretty much eat whatever you wanted to.

So, before I get into some more details of how that might work, take a moment to ask yourself: Would you be willing to exercise in the proper manner if it meant that you no longer had to be concerned about what you eat or don't eat?

Personally, I answer that question with a resounding YES! However, there are other considerations, and some of them point to this being a good idea, while others do not.

Nutritional Intake

There are basic nutritional needs that have to be met in order to survive, while at the same time, there are things that people presently ingest (sometimes in large quantities) that the human body could easily live without.

In the realm of things that we must have, your basic supply of protein, carbohydrates, and dietary fat are included in that list, as is maintaining an adequate level of vitamins, minerals, and water. 

In the camp of things that we could easily live without, substances such as processed sugars, chemicals, preservatives, and saturated fats could be dropped from the human diet completely.

The reason why this is important to this particular discussion is because the following question is raised: 

Even if you were exercising enough in order to burn off the calories from a high-calorie diet, would your body be able to also eliminate all or most of the excessive amount of non-natural substances such as those listed above?

That is a question that I will admit to not having a thorough answer for, although I will put up a fact that may shed some more light:

Most people who regularly eat very unhealthy foods do not actually eat that high of a quantity of those foods. The average person who eats at fast food restaurants or who eats a lot of processed foods in their home does so because they do not make the time to eat foods that are more healthy.

For most of those same people, that lack of time means that they only eat 3 times per day, and sometimes even less than that. Unless you have a truly HUGE stomach, which most people don't, it is only physically possible to take in "x" number of calories per day if you only eat 3 times each day.

Given that scenario, if you were to add in a truly intense exercise program – especially one that included working out at 2 different points during the day – I imagine that if the proper intensity, duration, and consistency were applied to the exercise program, that the body could filter out all or most of the harmful ingredients of even the most unhealthy foods.

Exercise Program

By this point you might be thinking that this sounds pretty good. If it were possible to eat all of the unhealthy junk that you love so much, yet offset the harmful side effects – both from a bodyweight perspective as well as a health perspective – then you might be interested in doing so.

In fact, the type of exercise program that would power your ability to eat unhealthy foods would have a host of other benefits as well, not just the burning off of excess calories.

One of the benefits of exercise that fitness junkies are well aware of, but that your average person who wants to lose weight rarely thinks about, is the amazing benefits to both your musculoskeletal system as well as your cardiovascular system. 

From a musculoskeletal standpoint, pushing and pulling on your bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles is simply a good idea on every conceivable level, not the least of which being the maintenance of normal mobility, even well into the elderly stages of life.

In addition, the body's muscles are the mechanism for powering our metabolism. The more efficient your muscles get from being exercised frequently, the higher your metabolism will be. A higher metabolism means the ability to burn through more calories both during exercise and during rest periods, as well as having a higher level of energy, which is an exercise benefit that many people list as a reason for exercising to begin with.

From a cardiovascular standpoint, frequent intense exercise means a stronger heart, significantly lessened chance of heart disease (the #1 killer in the United States), and the added side benefit of a dramatic lowering of blood pressure.

So, forgetting (just for the moment) about the potential weight loss benefits of exercising intensely, there is a very real chance that the massive health benefits might even outweigh the risks associated with a less-then stellar diet.

All of that being said, what kind of exercise program are we talking about here?

Well, in a word – difficult. Or challenging. Maybe intense would be another good word to describe it. After all, you can't expect to be able to stuff down cheesecake, bacon, potato chips, and candy without have a very strong-handed effort on the other side of the equation in order to balance out the bad nutrition.

For the workouts themselves, you can expect a minimum of 60 minutes per day, although 90 minutes would probably be more like it. You can also expect brutal exercise sessions that leave you drenched with sweat, weak, and seriously in need of shower, and possibly a nap!

In addition, if you really wanted to cover all of the bases, you would divide up that daily workout time into 2 exercise sessions. One that was done early in the morning before breakfast, and another that was done in the evening, approximately 12 hours later.

Conclusion

Now is your chance to chime in. Do you think that a program like this could work? Is it really possible to give up the diet by engaging in a consistent and intense exercise program?

Even if it is possible, do you think it is a good idea? Do you agree that the intensity and the consistency of the workout regimen might be able to eliminate or minimize the health risks associated with eating unhealthy foods on a regular basis?

Share your thoughts! Start or join in the conversation by contributing in the comments section below, or just send me a private email letting me what you think.

I am seriously considering putting together a workout program that this lifestyle would be built on, and I would love to hear your thoughts!

p.s. – In the meantime, you need to eat healthy and exercise everyday. Just thought I'd throw that out there…  

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!

Whatever happens, DON'T do it!

People talk about the many benefits of exercise, and indeed, the list seems very long, and it seems to touch pretty much every aspect of our lives. Let's examine this:

• Increases Energy: I can't imagine why anyone would want to increase their energy level. As if the world isn't already too full of caffeinated coffee and energy drink junkies, now we're being told to try to get MORE energy from exercise.

Don't do it people! Just try to make it through your long and boring lives with barely enough pep to get from point A to point B, and then drag yourself home every night and plop down on the couch for another brain-draining evening in front of the TV.

• Lowers Your Risk for Heart Disease: Heart Disease?!? Yeah right – this sounds like too many doctors weren't making enough money, so they came up with a general term that would cover everything from indigestion to breathing hard.

The fact that it kills more people in the United States than any other disease or condition combined is irrelevant. Your heart is in great shape! Keep eating potato chips, hamburgers, and fried shrimp. You'll be just fine.

• Cranks up Your Metabolism: What IS metabolism anyway? Everyone is talking about it, but I don't see it around anywhere. If it's so important to have a fast metabolism in order to burn off bodyfat, wouldn't someone have come up with a magic pill or special sauce that took care of this issue?

Stay up really late eating ice cream and washing it down with root beer. While your body turns every one of those calories into bodyfat, you can catch an infomercial that is sure to be selling "The Metabolism Master Blaster"!

• Helps You Lose Weight: Oh sure – here is another example of mass hysteria. If exercise is so good at making people lose weight, why is it that America is fatter today than it has ever been, even though there is a gym on every corner?

Seriously, being fat HAS to be healthy, or else everyone wouldn't be doing it! Go ask the owner of any fast food restaurant if they think that people are truly concerned about losing weight.

• Increases Self-Esteem: This must be why anti-depressant drugs are so rampant in our society today. Half of our teenagers are on Valium, and the other half have ADD. Marriages are breaking up left and right over emotional conflicts, and psychologists get paid big dollars to assure people that they are "OK".

Besides, overweight people must already have great self-esteem, because they are able to hide in their homes dying of bad health instead of feeling the need to go "be healthy" with the rest of the world.

So, in conclusion, I think we have demonstrated that there is a perfectly acceptable way to use logic to convince ourselves that we don't need to exercise. Let the members of the Health and Fitness industry keep selling their wares, putting together new products and facilities, and generally wasting their lives away.

The rest of us are smart and we will boycott this thing called "Exercise". As our stomachs grow larger, our backsides get bigger, and our clothes get smaller, we can take solace in the fact that we didn't get swept up by that whole "Health Craze"!

Hey – pass the chocolate cake covered in caramel and whip cream! I want a third piece of that while my french fries deep-fry for another five minutes and I catch the end of some completely unrealistic reality show!

© Aaron Potts - visit Fitness Destinations for more great information about weight loss, health, and overall fitness!
Fitness Destinations is proudly sponsored by the incredible products and services provided by Team Beachbody!