Knowledge is Power

Welcome back people. Yesterday when I was writing my blog about fat burning supplements, I came across some interesting information about carnitine which I shared with you. I also stumbled across some interesting facts about fish oil. Everyone knows it contains essential omega-3 fatty acids which have a lot of benefits. EHA and DHA are also found there and aid in burning body fat.The omega-3s work by transforming to prostaglandins when they enter your body, which is a hormon like substance which causes thermogenesis, which is heat production by the body as a means utalize fat for energy. So that and the carnitine information, I found extremely useful. I've probably read that information about ten times, that's probably the main reason I began using those supplements in the first place, but rereading those is going to be the reason that I take them off of the shelf and renew my diligence regarding my usage of them. So the bottom line is, whenever you hear something is the bomb, and it's the next big trend in health and fitness, do a little research, and you might agree. It'll tell you how and when to properly utilize the supplements, but also it will give you an insight as to what's going on in there when you take the red pill, so you won't be so surprised like Neo. Bad form Morpheus, bad form. Arm yourself with some form of knowledge each day and by the end of the month, you'll be more informed then most trainers that just got into the game. You could buy a fitness magazine, and read one article a day until the next issue comes out. Try it, and let me know what you think. Until then, be easy.

Feel the Burn

Hey everybody, I hope all is well in your world, or on the verge of getting there. Today I'm going to say a few things about Fat loss agents. First off, I'd like to say that fat burners to work. You should consult your phacision before trying them like any other suppliment. But, when I just have to get totally lacerated, I accept no substitute. Although, when I do have to have a substitute, or want to use something in conjunction with a fat burner, I will take a serving of caffeine. It gives your metabolism a kick start and I recently found out that it binds to fat cells and help to prevent it from being stored. Green Tea extract is another friend of mine that gets to ride shotgun, on the road to Cuttstown U.S.A. The extract works by inhibiting the enzyme responsible for breaking down norepinephrine, which is the neurotransmitter that plays a pivotal role in regulating the metabolic rate. Lastly, Carnitine. Now where I'm pretty huge on the first two, carnitine, is a close third. I might have to try it separately to try and better gauge the effectiveness of it.The science behind it states, that it aids in fat burning by transporting fat into mitochondria of cells where it is burned for fuel.It is also said to enhance testosterone's anabolic potential, turning on the muscle building machines. Now that I said all that, I may have to put carnitine a notch higher. That's pretty much it. Remember that there is no supplement for hard work, so get in the room, move the weight. Then move your body around at an elevated pace for no less then twenty minutes. Do that three to four times a week, and the results are sure to please. Alright people, lets be better.

Build Your Robot

Greetings. Welcome back. I was about to work out the other day and like most days, when I'm about to workout, which actually are most days, I was super excited. But on this day I had to run errands, actually work, and the travel time in between. I noticed after a fashion, that is was getting annoyed with the fact that I had not began my workout yet. Then I thought back to my days a the University of Arizona and remembered sneaking out of the weight room, early. Shortly after my football career was over, I started down a new path. I no longer had the predetermined workout sheet based on my previous maximum lifts. I would just go to the gym, target a body part and play around from a couple of hours. I did the lifts that I really enjoyed, the ones I was really strong at, and most importantly the ones that got the best results. It became my hobby, it no longer seemed like work. Some people forget that that's why we should be doing this, because its awesome and it makes you feel strong and confident, it might even allow you to live longer, not to impress Larry Moe and Curly sue. So again the magic happens when working out stops feeling like work, so I don't know if any of you ever put together a model anything, but it's pretty damn fun, watching something physically materialize out of little ittie bittie parts. You have all the parts, you've got the instructions if you look in any magazine, or on the Internet, and you've got the rest of your life to pimp your Robot to your standards.

Pack Mentality

Hey, welcome back. Today I'm just going to say a few things about like minded individuals. Some, maybe even most of you are used to working out by yourselves. I'm the same way. When I first started personal training full time, I was required to stay at the gym a certain number of hours a day. Like a shift, almost like a real job....Yeah, pretty weird huh. Never the less, me being the progressive guy that I was, I decided to take that opportunity to try and construct the best physique that my genetic structure could handle, and document that process so that it could be duplicated simply by following the blue prints that I was laying out. Ha! Naw, at the time I was simply playing around on my lunch break, I did however, map out my workouts prier to blastoff, just to make sure I was hitting all the areas that I wanted to tune up. That helped my learn how to build programs, now it takes seconds, and often evolves on the fly. But I would workout by myself. I recorded my sets and reps, and although it was considerable weight I was moving, I may have limited my self by not using a spotter for about fifteen months. I recently over the past six months acquired a couple of workout partners. I say acquired because, I don't know how it really happens, sort of like, we work in a couple of sets and its like what time we doing this tomorrow. Now, for me the positives out weight the negatives of having a workout partner. For some, a negative is that is, should something pop up, and the have to go at it alone, they get spoiled by leeching off of someone Else's motivation and its hard for them to manufacture there own spark. You never want to loose that. The only negative for me is pace, sometimes I hit a groove, and I can bounce from exercise to exercise and blast non stop for forty minutes. Then again that is for the smaller body parts and just when I'm doing detain stuff. The big iron, it helps physiological, to have that support when you grab the scary weight, and to stretch yourself to achieve your ultimate potential, you simply must brave the scary weight, but, pay attention this is the important part, there's no sense in getting severely jacked up doing so. One workout partner is optimum, two is the max, any more and it just slows things down way too much. Power lifting, might be a different story. You can also gain motivation from them, when people are having mindless conversations about nothing, you guy and gals can talk about your goals, you can bounce ideas off of each other, some people reminisce about when they were in the best shape of there lives, and what shape there willing to accept this go round. The most important part is when you make that commitment to a friend to embark on that journey, for that span of time it actually is a commitment, and sadly alot of people will honor a commitment they make to another person before a commitment they make to their self. who knows the physiology behind it? Use it though, partner up, pick a path and climb. When ever your dawg needs a hand reach out, or simply bark it out with him.

the Rule of Three

Welcome back, today I'm gonna saw a few things about what I like to call the rule of three. Totally just made this up, but it's based off of a concept that I've been toying with for a few years. First off, I absolute love the the gym. It's my work place, its my garage, its my Max. You know like the Max. You know from saved by tha....never mind. Its where my peeps are. But when I graduated from college, and was in the credit card retention business, I didn't think I could justify paying for a gym membership, so I slowly built my home gym. I may get into that whole thing on a later blog. Anyway it was pimp, I had a pull up/dip rack in my little studio, still ranks as the best home gym investment in the history of my world. Anyway back on track. The rule of three simply states this. If you have a piece of cardio equipment, exercise through three commercial breaks, or blast hard and cruise during the breaks. Some times if you watch three scenes on a DVD that's enough, they do have to be longer scenes. The goal is to knock out an extra twenty or thirty minutes of exercise either first thing in the morning, or before bed. I might not do it right before bed, but it would be later in the day, as a second workout of if I couldn't make the gym. The rule also applies to resistance, you can play with the idea and mix it up. Three exercises, to failure. Three sets for three exercises, round robin them so one body part recovers while the other is working. An example of one combination I'm doing on some mornings is push up crunch combo. I'll push to close to failure, which is generally around thirty five or forty flip over and knock out, about thirty crunches, I then resume my push ups, switching my hand placement in an effort to tax the muscle from a different angle, I also switch the type of crunch that I preform. I complete four sets of each. It's a great way to start the day, even if I'm super sore, it would help to get the blood flowing back into those muscles and it alleviated some of the soreness. So if you wanna burn an extra couple hundred calories remember the rule of three, you might wanna implement it a couple times a day.

Time waits for no man...not even me

Today I'm just going to ramble about the topic of time until I feel satisfied that I've utilized mine wisely. Actually its just two or five points. First off, It waits for no one, not even me. I remember a couple months ago when it was winter and we had just started the new year. Why it seemed like just yesterday the Pittsburgh Steelers became the world champs for a record setting sixth time. Ha!!! That's the cool part, there's also remember back in 89 when I was the captain of Polk High's State Champion Water Polo team. All the girls would come to the pool just for a glimpse of me in my speedo. Now that glimpse would give the girls nightmares. That type of stuff is hard to unsee! The good news is you still have time... at least most of you do. You have the rest of your life to get your robot running smoothly, and looking groovy. You don't have to be all Austin about it, but why seriously, why not put together a plan where you set aside a hour four or five days a week to ensure that you look the best you possibly can and I heard it might even be good for you, You know what some dude once said, it could help you live longer. I don't know though, dude was pulling bugs out his hair and eating them. He coulda been crazy is what I'm saying. Then again he coulda been on to something. Sorry, rambling again.
Next point, is every now and then work against the clock. I have an iphone, one of the great miracles of modern technology, one feature I like to use when I work out is the alarm clock. I used it the other day. I was pressed for time all day, and I still hadn't worked out after my last client. So I set my alarm for thirty minutes. Thirty minutes is not very long in the real world, or in the workout world, but just like the real world if your are deliberate and efficient you can get an impressive amount of work done in that time frame. The trick is to not stop moving. I ended up doing biceps, triceps's, a little bit of shoulders and I've been trying to get a little bit of calves in everyday, and I guess that counted. Also I got my cardio. If you don't think your heart is thumping from lifting weights, do twenty crunches, twenty push ups, twenty body weight squats, and twenty chair dips, non stop.
Just like the real world, you wont let your loser friends drag you down, don't do it in the room. They may not even be losers. They just might not have the same ideals and goals that you've set for yourself and for your time in the weight room. They might just consider making the trip to the gym enough to satisfy there, thirst for exercise. They try to workout by osmosis or by association. Don't get sucked into the conversation about UFC hundred plus, or by this weeks game of the century, both things you have a strong opinion about, and would love to blast about for twenty minutes, two minutes is too long. Get back to work and catch um on the flip side.

Make a Blueprint

One thing I'd like to caution people against, is working out without a plan. Its like going on a road trip without a destination. It may be a fun trip, but if you don't know where you're going, then you're chances of getting there are slim to none. Make a plan, have a blueprint of the structure your trying to construct. Look at yourself in the mirror, get used to your image. Take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. This can be athletically, or cosmetically. Athletically figure out the muscles that power the movements that your trying to gain more proficiency at, then next step is to find exercises, that strengthen, those muscles then tax them. ascetically, its about being honest with your self and addressing that weak upper chest and that cottage cheese above your hamstrings, and the handle bars of love. Gotta be brutally honest and recognize the situation for what it is, and what it is, is a desire for change. Create that mental picture, whether it be a chest like Arnold, a butt like be yonce, or simply a body like Fergi, imagine with each rep the targeted body part is being folded into the desired shape, soon that vision will become a reality.

Get a little mental

You don't have to be a high level telepath to move things and create things with your mind. As a matter of fact I strongly recommend that you start attempting to immediately. Work smarter and harder. Put your mind on each and every rep, focusing on turning on each and every muscle fiber. Before long you'll begin to activate the dorment muscle fibers and start to access the strength levels that have been within arms reach all along. That's when the magic happens. It may not be accompanied by fire lightning or even a measly spark, but once you start moving the big iron for the sets and reps that you moved the little iron, your bodies gonna start to do it's own version of an autobot getting ready to roll out. Next time, if I don't come up with something cooler to write about we'll go over the benefits of mental pictures and goal setting.