The Next Step, High Intensity Training (Turning Steal)

Do you know those exercises you hate to do? you should do more of those. 

Recently i was asked what the next step would be to see more gains. They had been seeing great results and they want to go further. This is a common question I hear quite often. As a personal trainer, my first response to someone would be to get some personal training with me of course. A personal trainer can restructure workouts and diet plans. There are a few tricks and tips i can share to help out the avid fitness buff looking to get more out of their workout.

Decrease your rest! Stop texting, facebooking, tweeting, and socializing in general. I understand that the gym is a great place to pick up girls or guy, but if a girl/guy sees you absolutely crushing a workout and focused, shoot them a smile. If all goes well they will slip you their phone number and leave it at that.

If you usually take a minute of rest between sets, take 45 seconds. If you aren't used to doing super-sets of multiple exercises, start incorporating them into your routine (back to back exercises with no rest).

Do core movements between other exercises to get your abs worked out while not spending more time in the gym. Doing this also keeps your heart rate up and you will get more out of your time in the gym.

Drop Sets are great for taking a good routine to the next level of training. Example: A set of hammer curls by itself can be a great exercise if you push yourself to keep good form and get enough reps and sets in. After you are about to fail with your set, pick up a lighter weight (5 - 10 pounds lighter) and do another set right away. and then take your rest. This can work for almost every exercise.

Diet is a big part of progress, if your trying to gain. Eating one more meal can make a big difference on how your body recovers and receives its energy. If you are trying to lose weight, tracking your calories and allocating calories per meal is an important way to make sure your not over eating on a meal to meal basis.

Hydration is something i assess with every client and anyone i give a fitness consultation too. It is just as important as whether or not they smoke or drink alcohol. Everyone can drink more water, even if its just a glass more per day.

Sleep is necessary for everyone in different ways. Getting enough sleep per night to rebuild and function is important for body builders. and maintaining a healthy sleep cycle is important for those trying to lose weight so they can get thru the day without napping and to keep a healthy metabolism.

Consistency is a defining mark of an individual looking to maximize their progress. 5 meals every day, enough water every day, working out on a regular basis and not eating the wrong foods on a weekly basis.

Once you have met most of these by yourself and you hit your next plateau is when you should consider getting a personal trainer. If you are unable to push yourself to achieve what was just laid out in this list, you should also get a personal trainer to push you to reach your goals.

Workout 7-10 (Turning Steal)

 5 Rounds of

Single Arm Flat Bench (12-15 reps on each side)

Rotating Shoulder press (12 - 15 reps)

Front plank (1 minute)

Drink some water

5 Rounds of

15 Walking Lunges (15 on each leg)

20m of max distance frog jumps

2 minute of Farmers carry (hold weight in right hand for one minute,

And then carry it for another minute in left hand)

5 minutes of continues ab work

If you can think of an ab exercise, 

do it until you cant anymore and then do the next one 

that comes to mind until the 5 minutes is up.

 - Mike

 

Drop down and give me 1000! Setting goals, and reaching them.

When faced with an insurmountable task, how do you achieve victory? This is what people face on a daily basis when they set goals that "Seem" unreachable, but with the right mindset anything is possible.

"What I’d realized was that I had a “talent” and it was called working harder."

Training hard without consistency is nothing. Genetics without training hard is nothing. It all starts with consistency. Consistently outworking everybody else, that’s the trademark of a champion.
 
Make it your mission to work harder, more consistently but also smarter than the next guy. Before you know it, your genetics will have improved.

 Anything worth reaching is going to take hard work and time, are you committed?

Workout 

Complete 5 rounds for time of:

• 50x double unders (jump rope) OR 200 single unders (jump rope) OR 200 tuck jumps
• 100m KB farmers carry (70#/53#) OR any thing heavy
• 25x burpees OR 50 pushups & Jumping Jacks & mountain climbers
• 200m run

Supplement Sunday time with Mike

Let us sit down for a moment and talk about what vitamins and minerals you take into your body. Do you get everything you need daily from your diet? probably not... this is where the multi vitamin comes into play.

In the fitness world there is a problem with over complication. Muscle movements and routines are are confusing to the general gym base because of all the opinions floating around.  Supplements are infinitely more confusing unless you have a degree in nutrition/chemistry or pharmaceuticals. Even with those degrees i can't promise that you won't be overwhelmed with great PR and misleading statistics from the companies who have spent decades telling everyone that this one pill will make them ripped/skinny/strong.

This weeks topic is the multi-vitamin. I am starting with this one because i can recommend this one to anyone and everyone. weight loss, muscle growth, muscle/join rehab and over-all fitness can all be linked to having the right amount of vitamins and minerals. Now don't get what i am saying the wrong way, a vitamin wont solve all your problems, however, it will help you go in the right direction. Here is that tiny disclaimer at the bottom of every TV ad ever, "With proper exercise and nutrition, this vitamin will be the most useful".

Is there a difference between walmart brand vitamins and more expensive ones? It all depends on the active ingredients and how they are produced. instead of breaking down how vitamins have been synthesized in a lab and how the price of the product is reflective upon its marketing. Here is a list of 100 vitamins and their overall score. But don't just go by this list, i would pick a highly rated product and then crosscheck it with another website to make sure their isn't a bias on the one website!

Next weeks supplement will be Protein!

Today is a Rest Day in the Sisu Fitness World. But that doesn't mean you cant

make some gains. Get out and do some shopping to prepare your cupboards and

your refrigerator for when those food cravings kick in! If you have junk food 

sitting around in its easy to open and premade packaging, you will find yourself

grabbing a bite (or several bites) whenever you find it convenient.

Prepare some small healthy snacks around 250-500 calories to grab when those

mid morning/afternoon/evening cravings come on. 

Here are 9 tasty options!

-Mike

Hydration, Hospital Room Realization

I am sitting in a Hospital room with my Mother who has just broken her back. However, the lady in the next room has a very bad cold she is having trouble recovering from. Two completely unlinked events but what is one of the main ways to treat both patients? Saline solution. Also known as salt water. This solution hydrates the body and allows the body to function the best it can. Anyone who comes into the ER will most likely be given an IV of this solution. 

But i feel fine, i don't need more water! Dehydration is a very serious deal. Dehydration results in a reduction of the volume of blood in your body and a thickening of the blood that puts a strain on your cardiovascular system, increasing your heart rate. It also results in an imbalance of electrolytes that control the functioning of cells, which can lead to seizures, involuntary muscle contractions and loss of consciousness. Symptoms of dehydration include dry mouth, dizziness, extreme thirst, reduced urination, sunken eyes, low blood pressure, rapid breathing and confusion.

This becomes even more serious for athletes. Exercising while dehydrated causes micro traumas to the body and can cause your brain to swell. A study published in the October 2005 issue of the "Journal of Athletic Training" showed that muscle microdamage increased in individuals exercising while dehydrated in hot, humid conditions. Swelling of the brain can also result from exercising while dehydrated. While drinking water to replace fluids, the body's cells may take in the water too quickly. The cells can swell and rupture, including those in the brain, leading to a life-threatening situation"

So when the days get hot this summer and you want to stay in shape and enjoy the outdoors, make sure to drink your water, and lots of it. 

Workout

Its time to introduce Fluffies! 

This is a favorite core workout of mine.

There is three exercises you must complete to failure to do fluffies!
Tea cup holds (perform until failure)
6 Inch feet holds (perform until failure)
Feet elevated crunches (perform until failure)
As soon as you fail, switch right into the next movement! NO REST

 

Your feet should NEVER touch the ground thru this entire workout. i promise it will hurt, but will be
well worth it in the end.

- Mike

Want To Be Heathy, But Won't Work For It

Being in good health is expected in our society.

We expect to do as we please and just avoid certain things and live our lives happily. It takes hard work and dedication in fitness and diet to almost promise a healthy life. But even then there is some things out of your control such as genetics and accidents. The things that can be controlled should be controlled daily.

Eating healthy, stay active and drinking water.

As a personal trainer i have clients from the age of 19 to 75. It is amazing to me to hear the stories of fitness and health from the 75 year old and try to apply it to the younger clients. But somethings from back in the day don't work anymore due to science proving them to be unhealthy. You have a chest cold? smoke a lucky strike!.

I wish i could help every single people that i come to, but i only have so many hours in a day. i love that i am getting booked up client wise, but i am always looking to help everyone (the reason for this blog), so please take any information and use it how you see fit. 

Workout (Body Armor) 

Body armor is a workout routine i designed for mixed martial arts and to keep your

upper body and core as strong as possible. building up muscle "Dense muscle" helps take

imparts from opponents and give you all around mid line strength.

Dumbbell shoulder press (3 sets of 6 - 8 reps)

Incline chest press (4 sets of 8 - 12 reps)

Flat flys ( 3 sets of 12 - 15 reps)

Roman chair crunches (3 sets till failure)

Russian twists (3 sets till failure)

Crunches (300 total, go until failure, take a deep breathe and go again)

Which Exercise is the Best?

Today while training i had a client ask me, "If i was asked to bench press a few months down the road, however, leading up to that day i don't have access to a bench press, would i be in trouble", great question. Lets break this down.

Flat Bench Press - moderate strength, moderate stability. As a movement it is a (no pun intended)  bench mark exercise. But could you go thru life never having access to a flat bench for bench press? Or  get everything you need out of a gym that doesn't have a bench press?

The answer is simply yes.

By breaking down the movement of the bench press and finding the strength and stability in other movement, you could become successful in achieving a decent bench press.

Smith Press - Using the smith press with a flat bench to achieve the movement of a bench press is strictly a strength movement and little to no stability. Remember that the bar is counter balanced and doesn't way 45 pounds by itself. Using this machine to train your chest for the strict movement of a bench press will have its benefits, but if faced with standard 45 pound bar that isn't restricted in its movement, you might find some issues with stability.

Machine Chest Press - The machine in the gym that you put the pin in the weight stack and continue until you can no longer lift anymore. This machine is a classic in a machine based gym. The movement isn't that natural and it won't prepare you by itself for a standard bench press.

Dumbbell Chest Presses -  You will find yourself doing this workout at some point and it will be harder that you think. You can no longer rely on a controlled weight stack or smith press. You now have to control the weight in the x,y and z axis with no assistance. But slowly but surely over the months you will find yourself putting up more and more weight. As you get stronger, without even knowing it, your shoulder stability and control of the weight becomes more and more efficient in the movement itself. But you won't get up the amount of weight you will find in a standard bench press.


Putting them all together. By using specific movements for their strongest traits, smith press for the movement, machine press for the strength, and dumbbells for its stability; you will be in good shape with enough training for any old school bench press. If you can do 70 pound dumbbell flat bench presses, you will be able to do 200 pounds or more on a flat bench.

Workout 6/21/2013

Walking lunges 20 lunges on each leg

rest 30 seconds

3 rounds

30 air squats

25 Max distance forward jumps

20 push ups

15 mountain climbers

10 burpees 

 rest 30 seconds

50 sit ups 

 

Consistancy, not quick what you think. Caveman Style.

When i say consistency is key, my clients get it confused sometimes. 

Diet and fitness: keeping up with a healthy balanced diet every meal of every day is what makes the   biggest amount of improvement in how people look and feel. I do allow cheat meals, not because people need them, but because we are all human and we like to enjoy certain things, some of which might not be the best diet choice.

       -Earn your cheat days: Before major eating holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) i like to host workouts where my clients/friends/family have a chance to earn their meal and help make up for the massive amount of calories about to be eaten.

However, consistency to me also means keeping in touch with our ancient background. If something has worked for humans for hundreds of thousands of years, don't change it. Caveman had to chase down their food, kill it, and carry it home. This is the core to my training. My diet also revolves around what was available to humans for the majority of time compared to the recent discoveries of farming and the industrialization of food production.

What is the best choice for footwear?

In a recent law suit, sketcher's shape ups have been sued for causing injury in the feet, knees and hips of wearers. The "Ground breaking" design of the semi circle arch causes stress fractures to bones and increases stress on joints and forces them to move in a way they aren't meant to move. They also have been proven to not cause anymore benefit to the body than regular walking. Source

Barefoot Running: I don't care if you have to wear those silly looking nylon shoes/socks that are banned by most military branches, these are a better option for you than any other footwear. Decreasing the padding underneath ones foot causes them to run the way the body is supposed too (lightly heal striking is okay). We are lucky and cursed to have shoes to protect our feet, but in the process we have become used to landing heavily on our heals which is not very efficient for us.

"most proponents add, because landing near the front of the foot will require less oxygen and effort and allow you to push harder at any given speed and ultimately run faster or longer."

Live like a caveman/cavewoman the best you can, from your diet and fitness to how you travel from point A to point B. 

Caveman Workout

LSD Run or Swim (Long Slow Distance, how far you can travel in 1 hours worth of time at a moderate pace). 

Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes

5 pullups (or jumping pullups)

10 pushups

15 Air Squats. 

Note*If you fail to compete a round when the minute ends, just start right into pullups for the next round. 

Bonus -  if you had to cut some of the sets short, just make up the reps you missed out on at the end. Great bonus right?? 

Personal Trainer Mike