Archive for September, 2007

30
Sep

Funny Reebok Commercial

27
Sep

EOW: Thrusters

The Thruster is a great total-body movement. It works on strength and power within the upper and lower extremities. It’s a good way to work both the arms and legs in one movement. And because it’s an intense exercise, it really gets the heart racing. I enjoy this exercise so much (and believe in its usefulness) that I frequently incorporate it within my group ex. classes and personal training sessions.
So here’s how you do it:


Grab a barbell and load it up with an appropriate amount of weight for your skill level. Then hold it up slightly above shoulder-level. Spread your legs so that they are shoulder-width apart and tighten up your midsection. Next you want to squat down. Remember to maintain your center of gravity over your heels and to keep your shoulders back.


You then want to push hard through the heels and stand up. Once your body is fully erected, push the barbell straight up like you would in a normal shoulder press. Lower the bar and repeat.

I like to keep this exercise intense when I do it with my clients, so I instruct them to make the push up an explosive movement. That way they train their bodies to generate more power. This is a great exercise for anyone looking to develop greater total body strength and/or improve their vertical jump.

23
Sep

CNN talks about celebrity trainers

While browsing CNN’s website, I ran across an article within their health section about the personal trainers of celebrities. Actually, the article is not so much about them, but rather how celebrities train to stay in good shape. The author makes the following point and reinforces it throughout the entire article: celebrities have to work just as hard as everyone else to stay fit. What I found most interesting about the article was a section towards the bottom in which five different celebrity trainers talk about their training methods:

Valerie Waters
Training philosophy: “Get in, get out, get a life.” Waters’ workouts last less than an hour, incorporating circuit training with weights and a “kitchen purge” to clear out bad food which she replaces with healthy options.
Best tip: “Don’t be afraid of weights. They’re the quickest way to change your body”

Gunnar Peterson
Training philosophy: Peterson creates different workouts for different clients every day. He has clients eat protein early in the day, making breakfast the largest meal and dinner the smallest.
Best tip: “Get on a regular routine. Exercise should be a cornerstone of your life, like brushing your teeth. It’s not even an option to blow it off.”

Ashley Borden
Training philosophy: As one of Karl List’s master trainers, Borden focuses on mio-fascial release, or deep tissue stretching; biomechanics with resistance and balance exercises; cardio, proper water intake and diet. She suggests drinking 100 ounces or water a day and gives her clients cardio homework, which they track using a heart rate monitor.
Best tip: Take care of the arches in your feet. “When your arches collapse, your knees rotate inward, and your hips rotate outward giving you a saddlebag appearance. It then pulls your sternum down, it pulls your neck forward, and everything collapses.” She suggests orthotics and mio-fascial release to combat chronic pain and posture problems.

Michael George
Training philosophy: George varies his workouts to keep clients engaged. He borrows from Eastern and Western philosophies, using martial arts, yoga, Pilates and meditation in conjunction with strength training. He saves time by using multiple muscle groups in each exercise, like a squat with a bicep curl. He also incorporates pliometrics and core boards.
Best tip: Don’t wait too long to integrate a healthy diet and consistent exercise into your days. “I’ve seen a lot of people come to me when it’s a little bit too late,” he said, “I’ve had [clients] pass away due to illnesses, cancer, heart disease, whatever it may be. The time is now. If you don’t put your health first you’re never really going to truly be happy.”

Bob Greene
Training philosophy: Greene tries to look at the entire individual and get clients to visualize how doing all the exercises he suggests will improve their lives. He says the physical benefits are almost meaningless if they don’t translate to “you having a better life overall … especially those areas not related to fitness.”
Best tip: “First thing is, know what you want,” Greene said. He said a lot of people want to work out because it’s “in” or they know they should be doing it, but don’t have a specific goal. “Know the reason you are making these changes in your habits, what is it you really want to achieve.” He also said most people need to do both weight training and cardio.

If you pay attention, you can see that there is a trend among all of the training styles. They all are centered around balanced and intense totalbody workouts. As I have mentioned in other posts, that is the best way to get and stay into shape. Workouts should stimulate the body aerobically and anaerobically. The goal is to burn fat while building lean muscle. For that reason, the exercise of the week that I choose to upload on this blog are ones that are challenging and force your body to use its muscles in a variety of different ways.

So now that you have an idea of how the celebrities train, change your workouts habits if you want to obtain similar results.

20
Sep

John Basedow Does Not Care About You

We’ve been seeing him on tv for years. You know his name. You know his horrible hairdo. And you know his cheesy theme song. His name is John Basedow and his claim to fame is a set of workout tapes called Fitness Made Simple.

Basedow claims that his workouts are revolutionary and are a great way to get into shape. The problem? He won’t divulge what this workout regimen is without the consumer paying for the videos. And let me tell you, these videos are pricey. Each one is around $30, with a $12 fee for shipping and handling. That’s $42 for a video that might not even be good. Sounds like a rip-off to me. Probably because it is. Basedow’s entire website is formatted to look like an informercial and does not appear sincere. My biggest problem with it is that he does not take the time and effort to discuss his workout theory or anything to do with fitness. He cares about the money more than he cares about giving people good advice. Now, why should someone pay $42 for a video when they could get the same information online for FREE at places such as this one?

Basedow is so conceited (just look at the picture on the left) that it’s both pathetic and hilarious. Instead of trying to connect with people, he is always flexing and trying to impress his audience with his physique. He has launched a Myspace Page as well as a video log. And again, instead of using these mediums to educate the public about fitness, he is using them to feed his ego. If you don’t believe me, just go check them out for yourselves. There is one video entry on which he stars in a low-budget flick where he pretends that he’s James Bond. It makes no sense.

It seems to me that Basedow is more interested in making loot and establishing himself as “fitness celebrity” then genuinely caring about his clients’ well-being. I don’t know about you, but in my eyes he’s pathetic and needs to stop what he is doing because he is an embarassment both for our industry and personal trainers everywhere.

What do you guys think?

19
Sep

Funny Post

I just read a hilarious post about the stepmill on my client, Amy’s blog. Read it here.

Do any of you ever have days like that?

17
Sep

EOW: Power Move

Plyometrics are a great way to improve your power and speed. It’s also a great way to burn fat. That’s why for this week I have chosen to include a Plyometric move. I call it “power move” and its a combination of two upper and lowerbody movements, box jumps and pushups. Make sure that you are well rested before doing this exercise, because it will wear you out. So this is what you do:


First thing first, you want to set up a box in front of you. Choose an appropriate height for your skill level. Next, you want to stand a couple of feet away from the box and squat down. Keep your weight over your heels and tighten up your mid-section.


Now you want to jump as fast as possible onto the top of the box. Remember to push off from the heels. Land softly and stand up straight.


From there jump forward onto the ground and position yourself on all fours.


Proceed to do a quick pushup. Make sure to go all the way down.

Once you complete the maneuver, turn around and do it again. You want to do between 8-12 repetitions of it. Try it out and see how it feels. And don’t forget to bring a towel.

12
Sep

EOW: Single Leg Squats

As I have mentioned in previous segments of Exercise of the Week, the squat is a great exercise for developing the legs. This week I have chosen a variation of the squat, that being the single leg squat. This exercise is great for building strength and stability in the legs and the core. If you have bad balance and/or hand eye coordination, this is the exercise for you. So this is what you do:


First thing first, stand nice and tall. Tighten up your midsection and raise one leg off the ground.

Then you want to squat down nice and slow, while maintaining good posture, and move your arm accross your body to touch the ground. If you are squating on your left leg use your left arm to touch the ground in front of the right leg. Mirror that for the other leg. So if you are squatting on your right leg, then use your right arm to touch the ground in front of your left leg.

Here is another view of the exercise. Make sure that you are not simply bending over, but actually squatting down for the movement. And remember, keep your core tight for the entire duration of the exercise.

Go give it a try and watch as your balance and hand-eye coordination significantly improves!

10
Sep

Another LSAT Question

Taken from the December 1999 LSAT:

In a recent study, a group of subjects had their normal daily caloric intake increased by 25 percent. This increase was entirely in the form of alcohol. Another group of similar subjects had alcohol replace nonalcoholic sources of 25 percent of their normal daily caloric intake. All subjects gained body fat over the course of the study, and the amount of body fat gained was the same for both groups.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

(A) Alcohol is metabolized more quickly by the body than are other foods or drinks.
(B) In the general population, alcohol is the primary cause of gains in body fat.
(C) An increased amount of body fat does not necessarily imply a weight gain.
(D) Body fat gain is not dependent solely on the number of calories one consumes.
(E) The proportion of calories from alcohol in a diet is more significant for body fat gain than are the total calories from alcohol.

So what do you think? Here’s a tip, there’s only so much of a particular nutrient that the body can process, the excess it stores as fat.

By the way, alcohol has 7 calories per gram, while protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram. So don’t drink too much alcohol.

09
Sep

FCOM: Jessica Biel

Jessica Biel is pretty fit. She’s fit because she trains hard and smart. Her workouts have the following characteristics:
1) They are circuit-based.
2) They are focused on full-body movements.
3) They incorporated power and plyometrics.
4) They involved interval cardio training.
5) They are intense.

These five characterists are integral to any workout aimed at improving your physique faster with better results. Jessica has a great body because of this type of workout. It tones up the body, while increasing the metabolism to blast unwanted fat.

If you care to learn more about a typical workout that Jessica goes through or the diet that she follows, then check out this article.

09
Sep

Why Too Much Aerobic Training is Bad

I recently ran accross the following article on slowtwitch.com. It is called “Training is No Guarantee of Health”. The article discusses in detail why doing a lot of aerobic training is bad for the body. Basically, too much aerobic training will decrease the immune system and increase the aging process.

These findings support two already-known concepts: 1) overtraining defeats the purpose of exercise and 2) strength training is the best way to keep the body in shape. Too much cardio training tears the body down, whereas resistance training keeps it strong and vibrant.

Prior to reading the article I had already known about the dangers of cardio training. However, I did not know just how bad marathon training is for the body. I have a marathon coming up next month, but after reading this article I will definitely re-think whether I want to run marathons on a regular basis in the future. There is a bright side to this though…I look pretty young for my age, so if I keep running excessively I will start to look older and that way I won’t constantly be carded when I am buying alcohol :).


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