Steps to Take Your Fitness to the Next Level

  So you've spent the first couple weeks at the gym on the treadmill to get acclimated and then moved on to some machines and bodyweight exercise and started to see a change in your body.  You feel good and are pretty happy about the way things are going and then boom!!, you stop experiencing that changes that once came easy to you.  You're not losing anymore weight, you're not getting any stronger, and you don't even break a sweat from your workout anymore. 

You may be due for a workout routine change, but really there is something else you need to change to really step up your game.

In one word, it's ATTITUDE.

 You've now reached the point where simply just doing something isn't cutting it anymore.  You need to start working harder, and that takes a serious attitude change.  You need a different approach, and here is some helpful tips on how to change, adapt, and develop your new workout attitude.

     1.  Goal setting

  Now that you've made working out part of your routine, you need to set an attainable goal in a fixed time period.  It's easy to loaf around the gym when your have no clear cut reason to be there.  Working out to lose weight and be healthy is too broad of a goal to actually work hard towards.  However, there is a sense of urgency when you know you're trying to lose 10lbs of body fat in 8 weeks.  This goal is most certainly attainable, if you make yourself accountable and remind yourself of this goal before every workout, and every meal. 

 To make yourself even more accountable, tell your friends and love ones of the goal you've set for yourself.  Even if you forget to remind yourself, the constant reminders from the ones close to you should motivate you even further.

      2.  Buy-in completely

  If you are baking a cake, and you add maybe a half cup more of sugar or flour than you were supposed to; does the cake still end up tasting good?  Most likely not because baking is a science.  All the ingredients serve a specific purpose, and if you try and eyeball measurements, or skip ingredients, you end up with expensive dog food.

  If you are lucky enough to be following a program that was made for you by a trainer, or if your following a routine from a fitness magazine, follow it to a T!  Chances are you sought out this information because you did not know how to do it yourself, so why change it?  Also, do not flip flop through different routines.  Stick to the same routine for about 6-8 weeks unless noted otherwise.  Otherwise your just wasting the potential of every routine that you do.

  3. Change Your Environment!

  This is a big one.  Since your going to have to work harder to obtain your goals, you have to get focused the second you get into the gym; actually probably before you even get their.  Nothing else can matter for that hour or so that your working out.  If your doing heavy squats, you have no time to worry about what's on TV, how many emails you received, or what's for dinner (you should already know that anyway).  Find out how to get focused and stay there.

  For me, getting focused has a lot to do with who I'm working out with and the overall gym environment .  If my workout partner is more interested in the babes on the treadmills, or singing along to the RENT soundtrack playing on his/her Ipod, then we are not going to get to far. 

Find someone that will push you to perform better each time you workout with one another.  You will hold each other accountable and push each other beyond your limits in the process.

  If your gym is more interested in monthly pizza parties and doesn't give you the tools or resources to improve, then it's time to take your money elsewhere. 

A good gym gives individual assessments, gives you attainable goals, and helps you work towards that goal with workout information and different options like group exercise classes to keep you motivated.

  So my question to you all is what keeps you motivated?  How do you get focused and push through plateaus in your training?  Drop your comments in the box below. 

What to Eat to Get Your Summer Body (And Keep it)

  I without a doubt get more questions about nutrition, or what to eat to lose weight, more than I ever get about exercise or strength training.  It seems as though this topic confuses people the most, when in fact it is probably the easiest to understand.  When I google the word "diet", I get back about 570 million results, about 60 million more results than when I google the word "exercise."  It's no wonder people are confused about nutrition; there's just too much information to read through.

Fad diets, magical weight loss elixers, exotic fruits and shakes that strip away belly fat, it's all really just a distraction.  In this post, I will cut through all the informational fat, and tell you exactly what you need to do to really lose weight and keep it off.

First off, losing wieght really only involves one key concept; calories in vs. calories out.  If you want to lose weight, you must consume less calories than you burn.  That's it.  If you think you're an exception to this rule, please trust me when I say that you are not.  I'm not trying to be mean, I just really want you all to understand this.  And all this talk about eating more throughout your day to "keep your metabolism going" to lose weight is not particularly true either.  If you want to lose weight, find out how many calories your burning in a day, eat less than that and you will lose weight for that day.

Once we understand that we need to eat a little bit less, there are certain foods we should be eating so that we can speed the process up.  The first is that we need to consume more protein. 

Good choices of protein include chicken, lean choices of beef, tofu, fish, yogurt, protein powder or any other source you can think of.  An increase of protein in your diet will help support your muscle tissue, speed up your metabolism, and make you feel full!  If you can manage to have some sort of protein with every meal, you'll be on the right track.

Next thing we need to do is decrease the amount of carbohydrates we're eating. Consuming sugar and processed grains will promote an environment for fat storage and fat gain in your body.  So we need to gradually cut out the white bread, pizza, pastries, cereals, and alcohol to solve this problem. 

The key word here is gradually.  It will be very hard to be successful if you try and make a dramatic changes to your diet.  Focus on changing one thing at a time, like making sure you have an egg or protein shake for breakfast every morning instead of a bagel and cream cheese, and keep the rest of your diet the same.  Once you've mastered breakfast, you can move on to changing something else.

Lastly, to ensure that your getting the proper nutrients, you have to increase the amount of veggies and healthy fats in your diet.  Veggies will ensure that your getting the proper amount of vitamins, minerals, and fiber in your diet, and healthy fat sources like olive oil, avacado, fish oil, and nuts will help to speed up your metabolism.  Try to replace a carb with a veggie for every meal to make it easier for you.  Instead of a baked potato with your steak, replace it with some broccoli or summer squash instead.

That's it.  For your fat loss goals that is all the information you will need to be successful.  In my next post, I'll give you some actual meal ideas to help you meet all of these requirments.  Drop any questions you may have in the comments box, and I'll be sure to answer them!

Go Barefoot to Kick Off Summer Right!

  The past two weeks here in the Delmarva area have been nothing but hot and humid with little to no cloud cover.  I could complain about it, but this is what I looked forward too when just 5 months ago my car was covered in ice and snow.  So I welcome the images of sand, beach, pools, BBQ's, and cool drinks with little umbrella's in them.

  And with the change in weather comes a change in footwear.  Very rarely will you see me wearing anything but flip flops from June straight through September.  When making the switch, there's always a week to two week period when my feet have to get used to the fact that there's not as much cushion when walking around anymore.  I have to develop my "Summer Soles" as I call them.

  Surely most of you have heard of or read the book, Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall and his experience with an ancient tribe that is able to run incredible distances with no injuries while running barefoot or with thin-soled sandals.  Chris hypothesizes that wearing cushioned running shoes may be a big contributor to running injury, and since then we have seen a surge in marketing from companies like Nike and Reebok for shoes that mimic barefoot running.

  But why is it good to run, (or do anything for that matter) barefoot?  Well there's a couple of things.  But the biggest one, as Harry Clay explains in THIS T-Nation article, is proprioception.  For most of us, our feet are the only point of contact with the different surfaces we walk on, so to develop good movement patterns our feet should have a good sense of where they are in space.  Wearing cushioned cross trainer's creates a disconnection between your foot and floor, and over time we lose strength in the ligaments and muscles in our feet because of it.  Walking, running or lifting barefoot allows your feet to really grip the surface you're on, creating better overall balance and strength.

  All that being said, I wouldn't just dump all my sneakers in a trash can, set them on fire and go run a marathon barefoot.  You have to take it in stages.  Yes the ancient tribe that McDougall describes runs over 100 miles at a time with no shoes and experiences zero injuries; but I'm also fairly confident that the members of those tribes rarely spend 8 hours a day at a desk and enjoy a Big Mac at least once a week.

  In my opinion the best way to start going barefoot is at the gym.  Now, most gyms won't let you workout barefoot, but if you pick up some thinly soled shoes such as Chuck Taylor's, Vibram's or Reebok's ReelFlex, it should be the next best thing.  You will notice a huge difference in doing exercises such as squats, dead lift, and lunges barefoot.  Your foot will be able to grip the floor better, and you can really develop the musculature of your posterior chain better by pushing your heals directly into the ground on these exercises, instead of pushing through a cushioned heal lift that your sneakers provide.

  You will most likely experience some soreness, just as you would when starting any new exercise program.  However, if you are willing and physically able, try lifting barefoot at your gym.  It's a more controlled environment than running outside, and I think you will really enjoy the added benefits it can give you.

Exercises for Runners

  With the Delaware Marathon coming up this weekend here in Wilmington, I thought it would only be appropriate to dedicate a post strictly for you endurance athlete's.  And to be quite honest, this post will also help out you everyday gym goers who think running or the stair climber is a good way to work out your legs. 

  Just because you're moving your legs does not necessarily mean your giving them a good workout.  And it definitely doesn't mean that your necessarily building muscle either.  In my experience, endurance athletes have the absolute worst quad and hamstring strength; and don't even get me started on their glute and core strength.  I mean some people I see running look so weak it causes me pain to watch them run.

  You've probably seen it yourself.  Hunched over posture, hips bobbing up and down, and mile after mile of slamming heels into the ground.  Yes you may be able to run 26 miles, but you don't look healthy or strong to me. 

  It's not your fault, you've just been misinformed.  Lifting weights will not make you so bulky that it would impair your running capabilities, nor will it decrease your cardiovascular fitness you've worked so hard to build up.  In reality, strengthening your glutes, quads, hamstring, and core will actually improve your running quality and prevent injury.  Don't believe me?  Check out THIS study, and while your at it, check THIS ONE out too.

  To start, we'll put together a short routine that you can perform up to 3 times a week to being to strengthen those hips, legs and core.  You should perform these exercises right after the other, at 12 reps per exercise.  When you've completed all of them, rest and repeat for an additional 3 sets.  The exercises are:

                     1. Forward Lunge (each leg) 4x12
 
                     2.  1 Leg RDL  (each leg)    4x12

                     3. Step Ups on Bench (each leg) 4x12

                     4. Bridge     4x12

                     5.  Plank  4x 30sec holds

   Give these exercises a try and I promise you sill start to feel a heck of a lot stronger while you run.  And if you happen to be by the Wilmington Riverfront this Saturday, Plexus Fitness will have a booth setup where this weekends marathoner's will be checking in; and we will be giving out information on gym membership and personal training, as well as auctioning off a brand new Ipod Shuffle! 

Hope to see you all this weekend!

What Keeps You Healthy?

    Last week, I became sick for the 1st time in over a year, and man it was a doosey.  Fever, cough , congestion, upset stomach, and a throat so sore I seriously considered drinking my green tea through a funnel.  But since the only funnel I found was the one I use for putting oil in my car, I passed on that idea and instead fought through my sickness in my dark cave of a bedroom until I could start to talk again without sounding like Al Pacino.

    Since it's so rare that I do get sick, I started to think about things I do in my everyday life (or at least things I do somewhat consistently) that help keep me healthy.  Now, I am by no means a health care professional, nor am I telling anyone that you must do everything that I am about to list to have any hope of being healthy.  Really, I just thought it would be an interesting discussion so please just take it for what it's worth to you.

   1. Sleep

    I use to overlook this and think that I can easily get by with 5 or so hours of sleep per night.  One may be able to live with minimal sleep, but I feel it's just not a healthy way to treat your body.  I usually average about anywhere between 6-8 hours of actual sleep per night.  I also treat my bedroom as a restful place.  There are no phones, computers, xbox, or TV allowed in my bedroom.  I feel that some people think that lying down, watching TV for 2 hours before bed is sleeping or resting, but it's not.  Try to shut off all electronics an hour before you plan to go sleep, have a cup of tea and read a book until you feel like going to bed.  If what you're reading is not work related, I almost guarantee you will have the most restful sleep you've had in a long time.

   2. Regular Exercise

   This one seems kind of self explanatory if you are a regular reader of my blog.  It's no secret that regular exercise will help fight and prevent obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and I could go on and on.  Interestingly enough, THIS STUDY saw that people who did NOT participated in regular exercise also had a much LOWER perceived quality of life.  Think about it.

   3. Multivitamin

  By taking a quality multivitamin, I'm able to get all the nutrient's and vitamin's I would normally not get from my diet alone.  Admittedly, I will forget to take my multivitamin 3 out of the 7 days of the week, but I think it's better to have than have not.  There are also certain times of year when we may be lacking in certain vitamin's.  Vitamin D we normally synthesize ourselves through the sun's rays, but in winter we get so little sunlight that our body is definitely lacking it.  This is where I can see taking a muti helps out the most.

   4.  I Cook My Own Food

   I'd say that I cook all of my meals for 5 days out of the week.  With that I try my best to get a good variety of lean meat, fruits,and vegetables.  I like to cook for myself because that way I know exactly what I'm eating.  You may think that eating out is easier but if you take the time to plan out your meals, you will be surprised at how easy it can be. 

  5.  I Don't Smoke

  Seriously, why are you doing this?  STOP IT!

  6.  I Always Have Anti-Bacterial Lotion With Me At All Times And I Open All Doors With A Handkerchief.

  Well that's a joke, but have you ever seen people who do this?  I don't have enough time in my day to worry about the chances I will contract Bird Flu .


  For now, those are the big things I can think of that I do to keep myself in fighting shape.  But I would like to know what you think keep YOU healthy!  Please post your opinions and if we get at least 10 comments down, I"ll post the 5 exercises you need to be doing to get your body beach ready!  So you'd better hurry because memorial day is just around the corner.

The Best Thing You're NOT Doing For Your Body

   For the most part, everyone knows that they should warm up before starting an exercise routine.  Maybe you already knew that but you just don't do it; maybe you just hop on the treadmill for 5 minutes and then go ahead and hit the heavy squats; or maybe you didn't know you were even supposed to warm up, in which case you can just fake like you did since you already read this far into the blog post.

   To me, warming up means that I'm priming my muscles to perform at their maximum potential.  Why would I want them to perform at any other level?  With that being said, if you jumped out of your seat right now and jogged in place for about 3-5 minutes, do you think you would be able lift heavy weights or play a pick up game of basketball at your body's maximum potential?

  Really?  You who has been sitting with terrible posture for the past 45 mins (at least). 

  Although performing a well thought out dynamic warm-up is probably the best way to warm up (and probably a good topic for a future post), you can do something much simpler (and shorter) in order to get your body primed and ready to work!

  Enter the foam roll.

  It doesn't look like much but spending 5 minutes or so with the foam roll can drastically improve your workouts and help you get the most from your muscles.  Think about how you probably feel right now hunched over your keyboard.   Your lower back and upper backprobably feel tight.  With that your hip is tight and probably feels like it's got a little knot in it.  How do we "iron out" these issuse fast and effectively?  It's called self myofascial release.

  Think deep tissue massage.  We are going to use the foam roll and roll over these tight, knotted up areas so our bodies can move effectively.  You see, not only do our muscles need to be flexible, or have enough length, to move well but the quality of our muscle tissue also has to be good.  How much better can you move your head around after someone gives you a nice neck/shoulder rub to work out the knots?  We're looking for the same results with other larger areas of our bodies.

  So for me, I always like to start a workout by foam rolling my lower body and lower to mid back.  Once I find a tender area, I make 5 long, sweeping rolls and then move to the next area.  You can see me go through my progression here. 

  Like all exercise's, using this method will feel better the more you do it.  So make foam rolling a consistant part of your warm up routine and start getting more from your body.  If you really love it, which I know you will, you can pick up one of these bad boy's for about $10 bucks and your local sporting goods store.

A Case for Legs, Part 3!

  It's finally here!  The much anticipated 3rd installment of " A Case for Legs" series is finally here for your viewing pleasure.  Visit our Youtube page for a video playlist of different squat and deadlift variations that you can add to your training program today! 
Along with each video is a written explaination on how to correctly perform each movement.   For a deadlift variation, see video's labeled pull through's, dumbell swing, single leg romanian deadlift, and barbell deadlift.  For squat variations, see video's labled sit to stand, forward lunge, ball squat, jump squats, and front barbell squat.

Also, take some time to view all our video's, as we have much more updated content that may or may not be of interest to you.

Let me know what you think of each exercise, or if you have some exercises you would like to share. 

Have fun!