Summer in Toronto is officially upon us. I don't know about you, but things have been absolutely crazy for me already. I have weddings upon weddings to attend (I have 2 down already!), it seems like there always something to go to, places to be, people to meet up with, bbq's galore, and oh yea....for most of us, we still have jobs to go to.
Usually, the first thing to get pushed to the side is our health. Or, if you are currently exercising, your just not getting the same results you used to, you've hit a wall.
I know it's summer time, and we all get busy. I don't care how busy you are, everyone should be able to exercise at least 3 times per week. If you can't, it's only because you're making excuses for yourself. NO MORE EXCUSES! You cannot neglect your exercises and nutrition. If you're pressed for time, try this workout. It only takes about 30 minutes, it's effective, you can do it at home, and you don't even need any equipment:
Warm-up:
Jumping Jacks (1 min)
Knee High Run on the spot (1 min)
Cross Country Skiiers (1 min)
Workout - Do each exercise for 20s on, 10s off, as many repetitions as you can. Repeat until you've reached 4 mins. - Rest for 1 min, and move on to the next station. - If you don't have weights, you can use a backpack filled with books for added resistance - If you don't know a certain exercise, you can find it on YouTube
Station 1 1a) Push-ups 1b) Squats
Station 2 2a) Bent-over Row (Use backpack for resistance. Hold the shoulder straps, and pull up towards your body) 2b) Alternating Lunges
Station 3 3a) Step-ups (on stairs/chair) 3b) Dips (on stairs /chair)
Station 4 4a) Mountain Climbers 4b) Scissor Kicks
Station 5 5a) Burpees 5b) Crunches
Station 6 6a) Front Plank 6b) Side Plank
Try it, it's a killer workout. But I know it's summer, and you'd rather be outside, so take the workout outside! That's the great thing with this workout, you can do it anywhere;)
First off, Happy Belated Father’s day to my dad, your dad, your dad’s dad, and to rest of the dads!
Yesterday my family celebrated Father’s Day by having a bbq! It was a beautiful day, everyone was in a great mood, but I couldn’t help but sit back that look at the reality of it all. Most dads today are in some of the worst shape of their lives! I don’t want to be a downer, but if you can’t see it yourself, then you’re either completely oblivious, or just refuse to face this reality.
I didn’t even have to pull up any scientific evidence to support this. All I had to do was look around, and what I saw was a lot of men with “big bellys.” The sad truth is that more and more are suffering from a very scary condition called Metabolic Syndrome.
Please read below for an excellent description of Metabolic Syndrome from www.MedicineNet.com:
What is metabolic syndrome?
An association between certain metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease has been known since the 1940s. In the 1980s this association became more clearly defined and the term metabolic syndrome (also known as syndrome X or the dysmetabolic syndrome) was coined to designate a cluster of metabolic risk factors that come together in a single individual. In more current times, the term metabolic syndrome is found throughout medical literature and in the lay press as well. There are slight differences in the criteria of diagnosis - depending on which authority is quoted. Regardless, the concept of a clustering of risks factors leading to cardiovascular disease is well accepted.
The main features of metabolic syndrome include insulin resistance, hypertension (high blood pressure), cholesterol abnormalities, and an increased risk for clotting. Patients are most often overweight or obese.
Insulin resistance refers to the diminished ability of cells to respond to the action of insulin in promoting the transport of the sugar glucose, from blood into muscles and other tissues. Because of the central role that insulin resistance plays in the metabolic syndrome, a separate article is devoted to insulin resistance.
How is metabolic syndrome defined?
The definition of metabolic syndrome depends on which group of experts is doing the defining. Based on the guidelines from the 2001 National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III), any three of the following traits in the same individual meet the criteria for the metabolic syndrome:
1. Abdominal obesity: a waist circumference over 102 cm (40 in) in men and over 88 cm (35 inches) in women.
2. Serum triglycerides 150 mg/dl or above.
3. HDL cholesterol 40mg/dl or lower in men and 50mg/dl or lower in women.
4. Blood pressure of 130/85 or more.
5. Fasting blood glucose of 110 mg/dl or above. (Some groups say 100mg/dl)
The World Health Organization (WHO) has slightly different criteria for the metabolic syndrome:
1. High insulin levels, an elevated fasting blood glucose or an elevated post meal glucose alone with at least 2 of the following criteria:
2. Abdominal obesity as defined by a waist to hip ratio of greater than 0.9, a body mass index of at least 30 kg/m2 or a waist measurement over 37 inches.
3. Cholesterol panel showing a triglyceride level of at least 150 mg/dl or an HDL cholesterol lower than 35 mg/dl.
4. Blood pressure of 140/90 or above (or on treatment for high blood pressure).
And though Metabolic Syndrome affects more women than men, there is certainly no shortage of men 40 years and older who have that “deadly beer gut” that literally makes them a ticking time bomb for a slew of serious medical conditions.
But there is good news amongst this frightening reality: The most common cause of metabolic disorder is of course a vicious combination of a lack of exercise and poor diet.
See below for the top 7 fitness tips to help save our father’s lives:
1) Lay off the beer
It’s no wonder why our dads have more of a keg for a gut than a six-pack. See below for the best way I know of explaining how detrimental alcohol can be on your body composition:
How Alcohol Makes You Fat
-Alcohol first passes through the esophagus as it travels to your stomach.
-From there, 20% of the alcohol is absorbed immediately by your bloodstream.
-The remaining alcohol travels to your intestines and is absorbed from there.
-The alcohol in your bloodstream then travels directly to your liver. It is here that the body breaks the alcohol down, something that is absolutely essential since alcohol is toxic to the body.
-Alcohol brakes down into acetate and acetaldehyde which IMMEDIATELY signals to your body to stop burning fat. Even worse, another waste product of alcohol, acetyl CoA, actually starts to make more body fat.
What Does this Mean?
-Your body can only effectively process 0.5 to 1 ounce of alcohol per hour
-How much damage? A 12-ounce beer contains about 0.6 ounces of alcohol. If you consumed 5 of these, your body would be inhibited from fat burning for up to 6 hours. This is aside from the fact that your body will actually be storing fat during these 6 hours! The more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from burning fat in addition to a greater fat build up from excess acetyl CoA. As you can see, one day of binge drinking can set you back days if not a full week when it comes to fat loss!
-What’s the worst-case scenario? Mixing alcohol with sugary beverages promotes even further fat gain due to the resulting insulin surge that triggers fat storage (e.g. regular beer or cocktails mixed with regular soda and/or fruit juice)
The Bottom Line
If you want to be lean, you must minimize ALCOHOL consumption!
If you must drink:
a) Choose wine or hard liquor and “light” beer b) Limit alcohol consumption to 1-2 days per week with a 1-2 drink per day max
References:
Campbell and Volek, “TNT Diet: Targeted Nutrition Tactics”
2) Quit being such wuss and work your lower body
Most dads just want to do the typical meathead workout that emphasizes the upper body only. If you are going for the “tooth-pick-for-legs” look where you are built up top with chicken legs for wheels, then keep doing what you’re doing.
However, it is important to note that strong, muscular legs are the key to torching your gut. After all, the majority of your body’s muscle mass, and thus metabolism, is contained within your lower body. Not working your legs is like going to a gun fight without a gun, and here’s why:
a) Training your whole body (legs included) not only helps you burn more calories each workout, it also maximally depletes your body’s glycogen stores (the sugar in your muscles) to allow for more total body fat burning
b) The more lean muscle mass you have in your lower body the more calories your body will be burning 24-7-365 outside of your workouts
c) Whenever you work your legs you generate the largest increases in natural anabolic hormone levels which translates into more total body muscle and less ugly, unwanted body fat
So if you want better abs, you better start using those legs! This can be easily accomplished with 3 total body workouts per week that train your upper body, lower body, and core within the same workout.
3) Do something besides bench presses and curls
Look, I get why guys don’t want to train their legs. Unless you are wearing a speedo, no one is going to see them! So there is simply not as much motivation to put the time and effort into your lower body as there is for your upper body which is always on full display at the beach or poolside.
However, if you are trying to develop a really nice upper body, you need to start venturing outside the realm of bench presses and curls. Don’t forget, you do have muscles on the backside of your body too!
In fact, your lats (the wings that extend from your arm pit to the bottom of your rib cage) are the biggest muscles in your upper body and when developed they really help promote that V-shaped torso that both makes your waist look smaller and your wife happy ;)
Start doing at least the same amount of pulling as pushing (if not more) unless you want to end up like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Lastly, only do isolation movements like bicep curls if you have extra time after your main workout. Compound movements like rows and pull-ups work your biceps just as hard and since they allow for the use of heavier loads, they also provide a better growth stimulus to maximize results in minimal time.
4) Don’t eat like those idiots from NutriSystem (Yes, I said Idiots!)
Here’s my take on how NutriSystem was created:
“I’ve got an idea for an incredible product and marketing campaign:
Let’s gather a group of genetically gifted former professional athletes that have put on some pounds since ending their playing days. We’ll have them all get their asses kicked by top personal trainers while following a restricted calorie diet so we lean them out real nicely.
But then we lie to the overweight male coach potato consumer and tell them that they got these results from eating the same food they are currently eating- you know, pizza, lasagna, sweets, etc. Except we’ll make the meals the size of a dime so they can still technically eat what they want and lose weight at the same time.
To make it even better, we’ll pre-package all of their meals for them to buy from us so these lazy bastards don’t have to do anything besides nuke it up and eat it!
We’ll make millions!”
Well, that’s exactly what has happened - thousands of sports-loving, ESPN-watching dads have been swindled to buy into this gimmick that you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight without exercise- because Dan Marino did it!
Listen, if you honestly think you can keep eating the same foods that got you that gut in the first place, then I’m not sure how much more I can help you. And yes, there is portion control within the system, but to me it’s a like a big terd versus a small terd… IT’S STILL A TERD!
5) Accept the fact that you probably need some professional fitness advice
This is one of my superstar clients. His body fat is less 12%. He’s a busy CEO of a company and father of 3 in his 50’s. I’ve known him for a long time, and back in the day, he actually was in great shape. Well, he looked like he was in great shape. He had the classic meathead mentality where he only worked out his “mirror muscles”, while neglecting the rest. He looked good, but, he was not in great shape. He had one of the weakest backs I’ve ever seen.
I interviewed him one time and asked him what his best advice was for people that are in the same position today as he was before he transformed himself and this is what he said:
“What you don’t know will hurt you, but what you think you know will KILL you!”
Ok Dads, quit being so stubborn and macho. It doesn’t make you any less of a man to hire a personal trainer or join a boot camp because your wife and her lady friends do it. In reality, your wife (and women in general) are simply smarter than you because they effectively outsource their fitness needs to an expert whereby you try to re-invent the wheel on your own with little to no results.
If you want to lose your gut, follow the lead of the ladies ;)
6) Make the time for a 5-minute warm-up
You simply can’t afford to NOT warm-up. It’s like pushing the pedal to the medal in the dead of winter in your frozen car- things just don’t work right and you’re not going anywhere.
It only takes about 3-5 minutes to lengthen your muscles and lubricate your joints to best prevent injury and ready your body for a more effective workout, so don’t skip the warm-up!
Below is a great 5-minute body weight warm-up we use in our boot camps:
Alternate between 50 s of work and 10 seconds of rest for each exercise in the following warm-up circuit:
7) The “no pain-no gain” attitude will leave you a bitter, crippled, and grumpy old man
The “no pain, no gain” methodology is quite possible the most abused practice in fitness. Pain is a good thing as long as it’s the right type of pain as outlined below:
When exercise BURNS YOUR MUSCLES that’s a good pain - this means you are pushing past your comfort zone to inspire change, working with intensity to torch calories and build muscle, and burning sugar so your body can burn fat for hours and hours after your workout.
When exercise HURTS YOUR JOINTS that’s a bad pain - it means you are quickly wearing down the structural integrity of your joints and will soon be unable to do anything without pain or stiffness. This is most often caused by a combination of using too heavy of loads, poor exercise form and technique, strength imbalances, and lack of mobility and/or flexibility - more reason to heed Tip #5 and seek professional help!
I have worked with too many dads who have beaten their bodies down and nothing’s more depressing than a dad who can’t play with his kids or participate in recreational activities with his buddies. Do yourself and your family a favor and stop being such a meathead when it comes to exercise. Exercise doesn’t have to hurt to get results and nobody wants another grumpy AND injured old man ;)
Bye Bye Baby Fat Boot Camp's Mom of the Month goes to Annie W.
Annie is a mother of two, and has had trouble in the past losing the fat gained during her pregnancy. If you are mom and are skeptical about joining the best boot camp for moms, all you have to do is ask Annie, and she can tell how it really works!
Annie takes part at one of my corporate boot camps, and out of all the participants I've had so far, she received the best results. Don't just take my word for it, let her numbers speak for themselves:
Lost over 16 lbs and 9% of body fat
Decreased almost 7 inches around her entire body
Decreased 5 inches off her waist
Decreased 4 inches off her hips
CONGRATULATIONS ANNIE! Enjoy your gift certificate and buy something that fits you!!! (Because none of Annie's old clothes fit her anymore!)
I’m back! Sorry for being so M.I.A. for the last few weeks. I took off to New York and New Jersey to attend a conference with some of the most successful fitness experts in the world! It was an amazing experience, and I will share some of those experiences with you all throughout the next few weeks.
Today I have a special treat for you, especially for my female readers and the women in my boot camps. At the conference, I met a lot of amazing individuals, including a lot of other fitness experts that I personally look up to and admire.
I had the opportunity to meet Holly Rigsby, who is an expert in fat loss for women, specifically with mothers. In her area of expertise, she is one of the most trusted and knowledgeable fitness professionals in the world, no exaggeration. If you have doubts, all you have to do is visit her website: www.fityummymummy.com
For those of you that don’t know, I run fat loss boot camps for mothers (www.byebyebabyfat.ca), so you can imagine how elated I was when Holly granted me an interview. We discussed various topics such as resistance training for women, spot-reduction, and interval v.s. steady-state cardiovascular training.
So for anyone out there that believes that women will get “bulky” using weights, that cardio is the best way to burn fat, or that doing 100 crunches a day will help you get 6-pack abs, guess again!
To all women: pay close attention to what Holly Rigsby has to say. Also, keep in mind, Holly Rigsby is a mother herself. So she knows first hand how difficult it is for mothers to lose fat. All you have to do is look at Holly, and you can tell that she is in fantastic shape. Believe you me, Holly Rigsby is the real deal.
INVEST IN FITNESS is proud to announce the winners of our Fat Loss Transformation Contest held at State Farm Insurance Head Office. This contest was based on a 6-week fat loss boot camp, and was proudly sponsored by Fame International Salon and Spa in Aurora.
And now on to our winners:
GILLIAN SMITH - Winner of a "Touch of Paradise" (valued at $95) - Gillian lost 1.5% and 4 lbs of body fat. She also lost a total of 6.5 inches around her entire body, including 2 inches of her waist and hips!!! Congratulations Gillian!
STAN RIGLER - The GRAND PRIZE winner of an "Afternoon Delight" (valued at $175). - Stan did an incredible job at losing 3% of body fat, which was the most out of all the participants. He also lost over 4 lbs, 4.5 inches off his entire body, which included 2 inches of his waist. If you look below at his before and after pics, you can really notice the difference. Congratulations Stan!
I would also like to congratulate all of my boot campers at State Farm. You all did an amazing job and received incredible results! You definitely are in much better shape now. But it does not end here, I expect all of you to take what you've learned from me and apply them on a daily basis!
For more information on Fame International Salon and Spa, visit: www.famesalonspa.com
My name is Ray Ortiz, owner and manger of Invest In Fitness. I am a certified Fitness and Wellness Specialist, with a degree in Kinesiology and Health Sciences. I have been an expert in the fitness industry for almost 10 years, and have helped hundreds of clients reach their personal fitness goals.
I love helping people reach their goals. I love my client's faces when they reach their goals. IT'S PRICELESS and makes it all worth the time and energy.
As a fitness specialist, I'm sometimes brutally honest, BUT always realistic! I have to tell it as it is. I don't sugar coat anything when it comes to your health. My client's goals are my goals...PERIOD! p.s. I LOVE MY JOB!!!
