Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Take Action Now!

Stop planning, stop analyzing, stop waiting for the perfect time, and start doing whatever you have been thinking about, planning, or waiting for.

I just finished listening to Ryan Lee's January edition of The Millionaire Workout Insider. This month he had Tim Kerber on with him. Tim made a very good point that too many people wait around planning and analyzing everything before they start and never actually get started. He called this "paralysis by analysis". Some people analyze stuff so much that they actually paralyze their efforts to ever get started. Are you like this? Or do you know people like this? I'm sure you do and have before. I have. I've learned though that things are much easier to just jump in and get started (Take Action) and figure out the rest as you go. You'll be surprised at how much more successful your efforts will become.

If you have been waiting to start a project, exercise program, book, new career, anything. Start now! If you wait any longer you will just be wasting time.

Have a Great Day!

Josh

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

What Are The Best Exercises For 6-Pack Abs?

Not Crunches. Not even any traditional ab exercises.

So what are they? They are any exercise that requires:
1. A high output of energy to perform.
2. Require you to stand.
3. Require your abdominals to brace and support your body.

These exercises are your squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, bent-over rows, pull-ups, push-ups, and standing shoulder presses. There are others, but these are the biggies. These exercises require your abdominals to function the way they are designed to. Which, is to brace, support, and assist other muscles in a particular movement. These exercises along with some High Intensity Interval Training or Anaerobic Cardio are all you need to develop a chiseled 6-Pack!

So stop with the endless crunches and head over to the rack for some real ab work.

Josh

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Q & A: How Much Should I Exercise?

Q: How often should I exercise and for how long to receive the most benefits and get into the best shape possible?

A: Well, it all depends on what you are training for and trying to accomplish. If you are looking to get into better shape, lose excess fat, and increase your muscle mass. You should focus on multi-joint exercises that work muscles in the following 6 movement patterns: Horizontal Push, Horizontal Pull, Vertical Push, Vertical Pull, Squat and Deadlift variations, and Rotational movements. These exercises will give you the most bang for your buck and allow you to get in and out of the gym faster. Which, is my next point. You should only be spending around 45 minutes in the gym. That's it. Anymore and will begin to over work your body. Which, is counterproductive for what you are trying to achieve. Along with that, you should only be working out 3-4 days per week. Again, more than this and your body will not have enough time to recover.

As far as type of exercise goes. I always prefer weight training over cardio training. In fact, it is very possible to achieve high fat loss and a fit body without doing any cardio training. To get around cardio training I incorporate Anaerobic Cardio Circuits at the end of workouts or longer circuits that are a complete workout consisting of only Anaerobic Cardio Circuits. But, if you still feel that you need to do some type of traditional cardio training do it as the 4th workout. And allow for 3 days of weight training.


Have a Great Workout!

Josh

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Are You A Horse Or a Bear?

How do you eat throughout the day that is?

Do you eat like a horse and graze with small meals every couple hours? Or do you eat like a bear and try to stuff yourself full once or twice a day?

Well lets take a look at the two:

The Horse - he grazes all day long providing his body with a steady flow of nutrients. This pattern of eating allows him to eat many calories of healthy food and build a lean muscular figure.

The Bear - he eats all summer long stuffing himself once or twice a day with as much food as he can get. Resulting in him getting fat to survive the long winter in hibernation when he will not being eating for a couple of months. His metabolism slows and he burns less calories which helps him to stay a live.

How does this relate to you? If you were to eat every 2-3 hours all day long you would probably consume around 2500-3500 calories. I know what you are thinking that's too many, "I'll never lose weight eating that much". However, that assumption is not true. Most people do not eat enough each day. This is one of the biggest reasons people struggle with weight loss. If you consume less than 2000 calories your body responds to that by slowing your metabolism and storing everything you eat as fat (The Bear). The reason for this is a basic survival strategy. Years ago during times of famine when food was scarce you body needed to store everything in order to keep you alive. Today however, with food being plentiful we do not need this survival strategy, but our bodies don't know that. Which, is why we need to make it realize that we have enough to eat. And this is achieved by eating more and eating frequently.

Hopefully you are already like the horse. Eating every 2-3 hours, keeping your metabolism running high, and burning more calories all day. Eating this way will help you build a lean muscular body and provide you with the needed energy to workout at your best.

Eat Like A Horse!

Josh

Monday, January 21, 2008

Schedule Time To Exercise

I hear all the time how people don't have time to exercise. None of us have the time. But, those of us who do exercise make time. We schedule it into our day and schedule other things around it.

I personally schedule exercise into my day. This way I am sure to always get it in. If I wouldn't do this it would be easy to do something else or schedule another client. But if I did that what kind of role model would I be? So I get my workouts in.

I will admit that if you are new to exercise it can be hard to fit in exercise at first. This is only more reason why you must schedule it. Then after sometime it just becomes a habit.

You don't have to schedule hours on end everyday to exercise. Just 45 minutes 3-4x per week is all you need.

Have a Great Day!

Josh

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Push Yourself A Little Harder

I am on a break between clients and let me tell you between last night and this morning they all pushed themselves pretty hard.

It is these little things that make the difference in your training. If you are not willing to work as hard as possible and give it everything you have. You are not going to get to were you want to be.

You have to be willing to sweat, in some cases dripping.

You have to be willing to sometimes push to the point of almost vomiting. Although this is not the goal of any workout. It happens.

You have to be willing to get that extra rep when your body is telling you it can't and you have no energy left.

This is what separates those who see amazing results and get into great shape and those who only see average results and are only in average shape.

Don't be average. Be your best!

Josh

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Why You Need More Calories

Let me tell you how important it is to eat enough calories everyday. Yesterday during my workout I hit a wall. Why? Because I had not eaten near enough calories that day and the day before. I need around 3300 calories per day and I was nowhere near that.

How do you know how many calories you need to eat everyday? There are many ways to determine this. A simple equation I got from Rachel Cosgrove, a personal trainer in LA, suggests to multiply your body weight by 13 0r 15. Then take both of those numbers and add or subtract 15% from each depending on whether your goal is weight gain or weight loss.

Did you figure that out? I bet your are nowhere near that amount? Especially if you are trying to lose weight.

So why do you need to consume more calories? Well, if you do not have enough energy in your body your body will burn muscle tissue for energy. Resulting in less total muscle mass and a slower metabolism. Not good. However, if there is enough energy in your body you will not burn muscle tissue and keep your metabolism running high. The higher your metabolism is the more calories you will burn with everything you do all day. The other important reason to eat adequate calories is to provide your body with the nutrients and energy to repair itself after a workout. If you are not getting in enough calories you will soon feel drained and not be able to complete your high intensity workouts. Again not good.

This is why almost all diets that restrict calories come up short in providing you with the results you want. You cannot workout intensely and hard, if your calories are super restricted. For most anything less than 2000 calories per day on a training day is too little. Yes, if you excessively restrict your calories you will lose weight, but at the expense of decreasing muscle tissue and slowing down your metabolism.

So eat more, workout harder, and get your metabolism burning higher.

Until Next Time,

Josh

Monday, January 7, 2008

Q & A: Lower Back and Abdominal Weakness

Q: My lower back muscles are very weak. What exercises can I do to strengthen them?

A: I see this a lot in people. In general most of the population has weak lower back muscles along with weak abdominal muscles. The reason for these muscle weaknesses is a result of sitting too much and poor posture. Along with lack of physical activity. Most people sit all day at a desk, computer, or something similar. While they are sitting there their posture is usually horrendous. Their shoulders are rounded and hunched over. This posture can lead to numerous other issues, besides weak back muscles and abdominals. In order, to correct this you first must start by making a conscious effort to sit up straight and practice perfect posture with everything you do. After that you need to spend a little time each day at the gym targeting these muscles. I like to perform 4 exercises for 105 reps total, that specifically target the abdominals and lower back. I perform these exercises at the end of my workout. I include exercises that require flexing, twisting, and bending of the torso. A sample of this is:

Sit Ups 1 x 25
Wood Chops 1 x 15 each side
Leg Lifts 1 x 25
Hyperextensions 1 x 25

These four exercises target the abdominals in the three movements I mentioned. They will help to improve your abdominal strength.

Try them out and tell me how they work out for you.

Train Smart, Train Effectively

Josh

Friday, January 4, 2008

Q & A: You Can't Spot Reduce

Q: I want to get rid of this excess fat around my midsection. Should I be doing more abdominal work with exercises like sit-ups, crunches, and twists?

A: No. It is impossible to spot reduce. You burn fat off from your entire body. Unfortunately for most people the fat in your abdomen is the last place you will lose it and usually the first place to gain it. In order to reduce your abdominal fat you need to first make sure that you are working out intensely 3-5 days per week. If you are already doing this the next step is to exclusively use multi-joint exercises like squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and lunges. These exercises will burn many more calories than isolation exercises. Resulting in more fat calories burned. The next area to look at is your nutrition. If you are not eating properly you are not going to lose abdominal fat. You must be eating a healthy well balanced diet and create a calorie deficit. However, most people who create a calorie deficit create too big of a deficit. You only need to decrease your daily calories by 200-500 calories. If you decrease more than this your body is going to fight your efforts to lose fat. This is because when you decrease your calories to much you slow your metabolism, your body does not have the energy requirements needed so it will turn to muscle tissue for energy, which again decreases metabolism, and your body begins to store everything you eat rather than burn it.

One last point: You ask about doing more abdominal exercises. The problem with this is that by doing the abdominal only exercises you are going to build up those muscles, but not being doing anything to burn off the fat covering them. This will ultimately result in increasing your midsection. Yes, you do need to do some abdominal work, but not as much as most people do.


Until Next Time Keep Training Hard,

Josh

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Q & A: The Difference Between Single-Joint and Multi-Joint Exercises

Q: I have been doing some reading about lifting and keep hearing that multi-joint exercises are better to use than single-joint exercises. What is the difference and why?

A: A Multi-Joint Exercise is any exercise the involves action over two or more joints. (e.g. squats, rows, deadlifts, pull-ups, standing presses, push-ups, and lunges). These exercises require more energy to perform than single-joint exercises due to more muscle recuitment and involvement. Which is why they are preferred over single-joint exercises for building strength, decreasing fat, and building lean muscle tissue.

A Single-Joint Exercise is any exercise that only requires movement at one joint. These are typically isolation exercises (e.g. bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, side raises, leg extension, and leg curls). These exercises do not require as much energy to perform and have less muscles involved in the movement than compared to a multi-joint exercise. Which is why they are not preferred for building strength, decreasing fat loss, and building lean muscle tissue. However, there are a few instances when single-joint exercises are useful. This would be when you are rehabing an injured muscle or area of the body, when the body is too broken down to handle the stress of multi-joint exercises, or when bodybuilders are trying to get that extra cut needed in a muscle.

Overall multi-joint exercises are preferred over single-joint exercises and should make up the majority of your workout.

If you have any other fitness related questions email me at prochperformancetraining@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog.

Until Next Time,

Josh Proch