5 things to do to kick start your personal fitness program

The most common challenge that people I talk to face is how to incorporate fitness into their lives. They know they have to do something to get in shape but they really don’t know how. It can be quite off-putting because of the abundance of information out there. So much so that you may not know where to begin.

Our society has so many food choices that it is easy to pack on the extra pounds. Also our day to day jobs are far less physical as they where 100 years ago so we have more sedentary life styles. We know there are benefits involved when we exercise and clean up our diet, however, most of us don’t know how or where to start.

So where do we begin? Or is the question: How do we begin?

If you feel you are out of shape you should consider going to your doctor and get their approval to start exercising. Your doctor may also provide some helpful tips as well.

After you get the OK from your doctor, try these 5 things to help you get started:

1. Make the choice to start exercising and eating right: Making the decision to do something provides a form of commitment you make to yourself. Deciding that you need to change your behaviour creates new possibilities. When you say to your self “I need to get in shape”, it means something. You should be answering these questions in your mind: When can I work out? What exercises do I need to do? What foods should I be eating? Make yourself think about the commitment you just made. Only then you can let go of the past and take steps to move forward.

2. Write down what you do: You need a reference that is realistic towards your weekly activity. Write down everything you do during the week. This should include work hours, commuting hours, nights spent with your spouse, your child’s activities and anything else you can think of that you do. You should also include what you do on weekends. You should make a list for each day of the week, as some people set lofty goals like working out for 2 hours a day. This can be due to an old saying, “More is better”. However, this is not the case. Knowing your schedule will help you set realistic goals and help you find a few hours a week to start exercising. You’ll have a visual perspective on what you can and can’t do with your routine.

3. Research and get information: Most people do not have enough information before they start a work out program. So how do we get the information we need? The good news is we live in the information age. Take advantage of your favourite search engine and learn a little bit about fitness and nutrition. However, do not go overboard and lose focus. Find a source of information you like and take notes. Find the simplest and easiest workouts and nutrition tips. Don’t overload yourself with information. If you prefer you can hire a personal trainer for a few sessions to help you get started. Hiring a personal trainer is a great way to get started because you have made a commitment to meet someone to workout. Your goal is to have the trainer show you the basics on exercise and eating healthier. It may also be safer to learn how to perform the exercises (especially if you have not exercised for a while).

4. Create a simple plan and set realistic goals: Keep it simple! Following a simple plan while on a hectic schedule is much easier than following an convoluted plan. You should have a plan of which days you want to work out and a goal to change your eating habits for the next few weeks. For example, “I will work out for a half an hour for 3 days this week. I will eat a little less each meal.” Keeping it simple is a major key to success.

5. Execute your plan: Now that you have a plan, all you need to do is follow it. Sounds easy! However, this is another big step. You should look at your plan every day. You need be mentally prepared for the great day ahead of you. Having your daily schedule in hand will help you achieve your goals for the day. When you complete your workout for the day, highlight it or cross it off your list. It will show you that you accomplished something for yourself.

I hope these things help you get started on a new life of physical fitness. Life is filled with making decisions, knowing your commitments, getting information, planning and execution. Try these approaches for yourself and you will see that having your own workout and nutrition program is not as far fetched or complicated as you think. Good luck!

300 bodyweight challenge

The 300 bodyweight challenge:
Here's a quick 300 rep bodyweight circuit to start the day for you, here goes, enjoy!

Prisoner squats x20
Press ups x20
Alternate lunge x20 (x10 each leg)
Close grip press ups x20
Burpees x20
Rest 2mins
Repeat (3 rounds in total)

7 tops tips for healthier and fitter living

More and more people these days are getting sedentary instead of physical jobs. Sitting in the office chairs all day long has become the norm for many of us. The stress, busyness and rush make us forget about regular food and stuff our stomachs with convenient pre-packaged fast food and sugary drinks, which don't do anything good for our bodies.

As a result of such crazy life rhythm, we rarely find time for exercises, gyms or balanced nutrition. As a matter of fact, it's one of the reasons why there are now more that 60% of U.S citizens that are overweight. However, it is possible to change your lifestyle and lose your weight if you are willing to.

These 7 day-to-day life tips provided below will help you to drop your extra pounds, become more energetic and healthier.

1. Drink More Water
Our bodies need a lot of water. Water removes waste from our organisms and carries various nutrients into all our organs and cells. Your body also loses water by using it for various processes within the body. For this reason you have to replace it and drink water more often than you are used to. Start your day with a glass of water in the morning. Drink a glass of water before any meal. Take a bottle of water with you when you go to work. Your body needs approximately 3-5 liters of water during one day. So don't hesitate to drink plenty of water wherever and whenever you can.

2. Eat Fruits and Drink Fruit Juices
Eating fruits and juices helps you eliminate toxins from your body. Eating a variety of fruits also helps you get enough fibre, vitamins and antioxidants, which is one of the main reasons why you should eat fresh fruits and drink natural fruit juices as often as possible. Fruit juices from supermarkets are often sweetened (with a LOT of sugar!). If you want to drink juices, try to make fresh juices yourself. If you think it takes too much of the time, then look for juices with labels that say 100% fruit juice, these are much healthier for your body as they contain many more vitamins.

3. Eat Lots of Vegetables and Vegetable Salads
When it comes to losing extra pounds, vegetables are a great choice. They are natural and contain different vitamins, minerals and tons of other useful chemicals known to provide benefits for your body. Vegetables are low in fat and calories, they help control blood glucose levels, reduce blood cholesterol and reduce the risk of colon and other cancers. All these features also help control your weight effectively. If you feel that eating vegetables alone isn't great choice for you, then make some salads. Mixing vegetables together gives you even more different vitamins and health benefits. There are tons of tasty, healthy salad recipes on the internet. You can also use you imagination to make some great salads.

4. Eat Only When You Are Hungry
How many times you've been to a party where you saw lots of different and tasty looking meals, which you were offered to try. Don't just eat it because you are offered to. Eat only when you want to. Many people also like snacking. In between meals or when have nothing to do. Quit snacking. Most snacks contain a lot of fat and calories. Replace your usual snacks with vegetables or fruits. These are healthy to your body and you'll never get fatter, only thinner.

5. Carry Healthy Food with You
Many of us work busy office jobs and don't have time to eat regularly. In this case, bring your own made food with you. Instead of bringing sandwiches with meat, take vegetable salads, carrots or chicken or turkey salads. Any low fat food will do. This way, you won't have to wait for a break to fill your stomach. It's also quite important to try to eat about 5 times a day, rather than 3 or 2. Eat in smaller quantities, but more often. This helps you to increase your metabolism.

6. Work Out When You Can
Working out in a gym is not only a great way to grow some muscles, but also to drop a few pounds. Exercising helps you burn your calories instead of storing them in your body as fat. Our bodies were made to be active, so exercising slowly and easily can actually help you get more energy and make you feel much better. At the end of the week, try to lose all the stress and burn your calories in a gym or having some kind of physical activity at home. If you have time, then try to do easy exercises everyday.

7. Don't Lie Down or Sit When You Can Move
Many of us like to watch TV lying on a couch or sitting in a comfortable chair. Of course, when you come home after hard working day, you're tired, and all you can think of, is a couch and a remote in your hand. But such laziness won't help you lose weight. Contrarily, it will make you grow some more pounds. So don't lie or sit, when you can walk and move. Instead of staring at TV, go ahead and work out in your garden for example, clean your garage, fix your car, go to walk in the local park or beach. Breathe fresh air and move more often. Not only does it help to reduce stress after work, but also ups your mood and makes you more energetic.


Remember that all these tips will help you to lose weight, but only if you are determined and are ready to devote some of your time. Don't expect to slim down 4 sizes after eating 5 carrots and drinking orange juice. 

Your body, just like many things in this world, needs time. So be patient. And if you will honestly use at least some of these tips, you are going to change your lifestyle, which in the end will lead you to a thinner and healthier body.

Fat Loss Workout Q&A

Recently a few clients have been asking about the best workouts for fat loss, so I fired across a few questions to the fat loss workout guru himself, Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training.

Mark: First, can you tell us the basics about Turbulence Training?
Craig: Turbulence Training is the result of years of study in the gym and in the research labs and library. From personal experience, I’ve found the best way to lose fat and get results in the least amount of 
time is to increase your training intensity. 
With the right workout, you can get more fat loss results in less workout time. Period. That is the one and only goal of this training program. A better body in fewer workout sessions, and shorter exercise bouts. That means:

a) Shorter interval workouts instead of long slow cardio workouts.


b) More challenging strength training exercises, such as advanced 
bodyweight exercises and some traditional strength training free 
weight exercises.

 If you have two hours to spend in the gym everyday, you can feel free to stick to the same relatively ineffective and inefficient program of long cardio and light weights. But if you are like most men and women and have 45 minutes (or less) on only three days of the week to workout, then Turbulence Training will work wonders for
 you. Male or female, almost everyone I see in traditional fitness centers
could benefit from increasing the challenge in their workout. And they can also benefit from getting in and out of the gym faster.
 So that's what led me to Turbulence Training. It's simple, no B.S, 
no-fluff, just-the-basics, results-oriented training. You don’t need fancy gym machines or even an expensive gym membership. If you have a bench, a ball and some dumbbells at home, you are set. 



Mark: OK, so it’s a training program that will melt body fat fast, 
but what makes it so effective? 


Craig: 
Most people are so darn hung-up on burning a specific number of
 calories on a cardio machine, that they don't care how long they spend in the gym. 

But big deal. If you burn X calories over 30 minutes in the gym doing cardio, but don't boost your post-exercise metabolism, you’re wasting the other 23.5 hours to burn a lot more calories.

That's what happens with slow, steady workouts that never change. 
Sure you burn a few calories in the gym, but there is no "turbulence" 
on the body to increase your metabolism outside of the gym.

 Instead, by using challenging strength training, and choosing intervals over monotonous cardio, research has shown that your post
 workout metabolism is significantly greater. And an increased metabolism for an entire 24 hour period is what gives people
results.

 It's like putting money in the bank. It makes you more money even
 while you sit at home or sleep! That's the power of a more 
challenging workout.

 And Turbulence Training workouts, and other "challenging" workouts
 are always exponentially more enjoyable than staring at a TV (or
 worse a wall) when "doing your time" on a cardio machine. You can
 get this great "metabolic turbulence" in a boot camp, with 
bodyweight, at home with dumbbells, or even in a busy gym. 

Nothing is more effective than Turbulence Training if you only have 
45 minutes, three times per week to workout. 

Click here for more information on Turbulence Training workouts. 



Mark: Can you explain why resistance training and bodyweight exercises are so effective for fat loss?
Craig: 
Strength training is just one key for fat loss, it is essential to
 maximise your metabolism, and it is absolutely, positively paramount to building the best body of your dreams. 

For those that doubt, start with bodyweight training. Not only is this method of strength training effective at helping you sculpt your body, but it is also empowering to your self-confidence and
100% applicable to your daily living.

Everything from carrying groceries to "seks" will be easier if you 
are stronger in the bodyweight exercises. Your mobility and stamina will increase, so that you will be able to carry your children to
 bed easier, you will be able to do yardwork with less fatigue, and you’ll literally improve your "zest for life" simply from mastering 
your bodyweight strength.

 All of these benefits without touching a single free weight...but 
if you do go with free weights, you'll take your fitness to an even
 greater level. 

Research from the 2001 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine showed that female subjects boosted their post-exercise metabolism to a greater level when they did 8 reps per exercise, rather than 12 reps. 

So low rep, strength training is best for boosting metabolism. It will get you more results in less time because it will continue to work while you recover. Train hard & train safe!

Sincerely,


Craig Ballantyne,
CTT 
Certified Turbulence Trainer

Author, Turbulence Training



Click here to get your FREE Turbulence Training 10 minute workout:

Thanks Craig for the tips on training for fat loss. Having looked at Craig's website, read some of his material in Mens Health and looked at some of his training programs I definitely feel these plans will be the answer for the time-crunched people out there who are after a (quite) intense training regime purely focussed on fat loss. So if fat loss is your goal, this could be right up your street!