Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Are you better than yesterday?




Do you wish today is better than yesterday? Are you hoping yesterdays greatness is even better today? You need to be striving for improvement each and every day.Like they say there is no such thing as standing still. If you are not doing anything to stay ahead of the game then your falling behind. Everything starts with your mindset and your mindset starts with you. Your success is what you want it to be. Think about your goals and what you want today and how you will better yourself than yesterday. Don't think about just getting closer to big goals, but think about doing better in your efforts to reach that goal than you did yesterday.

You cant guarantee that you will be in better shape today than you were yesterday, but you can control that you will do more today to get into better shape. Look at yourself right now and think about what you can do today to make yourself better than you were yesterday. If each day you improve then you will always be pushing forward and succeeding in your efforts. If it didn't happen for you today, then make it work tomorrow. Tonight when you go to bed stop and ask yourself " Am I better today than yesterday?"




LOSE THE WEIGHT! GET STRONGER! GET BIGGER! GET HEALTHY!

Monday, September 26, 2011

H4 Fat Burner- Fearsome foursome routine # 2









After a proper warmup-

* Make sure the weights on the upper and lower body exercises are challenging for the rep scheme written

** You can feel free to replace any exercise with another as long as it matches with the correct movement listed.

A1) Upper body pull-Prone dumbbell row on incline bench ( lie face down on incline bench and row both dumbbells at the same time with your palms facing each other trying to squeeze shoulder blades)-10 reps

A2) Lower body-Sumo squat with dumbbell-10 reps

A3) Conditioning-High knees in place-25 seconds

A4) Core- "V" up-10 reps

Repeat this for 2-4 more rounds depending on your fitness level


B1) Upper body push- Dumbbell bench press -12 reps

B2) Lower body-Rope pull through-10 reps

B3) Conditioning-Mountain climbers-20 seconds

B4) Core-Band chops low to high ( secure the band low and chop upward )-15 reps per side

Repeat this 2-4 more rounds without rest depending on your fitness level


C1) Upper body pull-Pullup with close grip-8 reps

C2) Lower body-Lateral dumbbell lunges-alternating sides for 8 reps per

C3) Conditioning- 4 dot drill ( imagine 4 dots in a square shape on the floor and with your legs together jump to each dot clockwise then counter clockwise-each for 10 each

C4) Core- Bicycle crunch 25 seconds

Repeat this 2-4 more rounds depending on your fitness level







































Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Why weekends are killing your fat loss




Friday through Sunday seems to always create such havoc to ones personal fat loss goals. You work so hard during the week not only in the gym but in the kitchen and you seem to have the train running, but then comes the weekend. What happens, major derailment, and you let yourself fall off the cliff.




It is common for me to hear all the time from my clients: "I was doing so well during the week and then the weekend came and its like everything went down hill." Lets face it most peoples weekends are filled with social gatherings, sports games, nights out at restaurants, late night eating and drinking and anything else that you can imagine. All of these things are not in the best interest in helping you eat healthy and maintain your fat loss goals.




WHAT IS GOING ON?



Lets say that during the week your totally dominating the workouts and your eating and you have put yourself in a 3,500 calorie deficit. This equates to about a 700 calorie deficit a day and will turn into one pound of fat loss a week. Now the weekend comes around. You tell yourself you are going to stay on track but you don't and you end up eating like garbage and drinking too much. So now you end up eating 500 extra calories than you should on both Saturday and Sunday which leaves your calorie deficit to only 2500 which equals not even a full pound of fat loss for the week.




STRATEGIES TO COMBAT THIS




1) Damage control- If you know the weekend will be rough than avoid complete destruction. You can do this by eating 1 slice of pizza with a salad as the filler, instead of 4-5 slices. This can keep a really bad situation from becoming really really bad.




2) Plan ahead-If you know that Saturday night you are going out for a friends birthday dinner and drinks think about what you can do before this takes place. You can eat a good amount of veggies and lean protein before heading to the dinner which will cause you to eat a smaller portion at the restaurant. If Sunday is a morning out for brunch then limit your Saturday calories so that Sunday doesn't put you to far behind.




3) Own the weekdays! Make sure you are on your game 100% during this part of the week. Having a so so week plus a bad weekend is a recipe for disaster.




4) Weekend workouts-If you can add some exercise into your weekend the more success you will have. This doesn't just have to be an actual workout but just adding more physical activity period in any way is better than nothing. Walk the stairs at the mall when shopping instead of the elevator or escalator. Walk your dogs, take a bike ride, walk or run to the store etc.




In the end remember that YOU AND ONLY YOU HAS CONTROL ON THE RESULTS YOU GET so don't complain just make it happen!












Sunday, September 18, 2011

Goblet squats



How to do it-

Grab a dumbbell or kettlebell and hold it up against your chest. If your using a dumbbell than hold it vertical on one end like your holding a goblet. If you use the kettlebell then hold the horns.

While holding the weight against your chest, squat low and have your elbows slide past the inside of your knees ( look at above picture.)

Best for?


Everyone! People with back issues will find this squat with load in front of the body easier than traditional squat. Also great instead of front squats with a barbell if those hurt your wrists.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Pyramid training




Instead of doing the same amount of reps for every set try pyramiding your reps. Pyramiding allows you to work throughout a whole range of rep ranges. Pyramid workouts are also great to amp up your intensity and help you build more muscle. Below are 3 types of pyramiding sets that you can use.




1) Descending pyramid-decrease weight, increase reps



* First warmup properly before starting your first set. You will then start off with the heaviest weight you plan to use on the first working set. You should aim for about 5-6 reps on set one. Each set after you should decrease the weight and increase the reps. On your fourth set or so you should be around 15 reps.






2) Ascending pyramid-increase weight, decrease reps

* First warmup properly before starting your first set. Start off with lighter weight and do around 15 reps on set one. Each set after drop the weight by about 10-20% and do less reps. So set two might be about 12 reps or so. By set four you will be using the heaviest weight yet and doing around 4-5 reps.




3) Triangle pyramid-combining the above two


* This routine involves more sets, and the higher volumes helps you to build more muscle. Start by doing the ascending pyramid in which you use light weight and high reps. Go all the way down to about 4-5 reps and then now try and work your way back up. Most likely you wont be able to hit the same reps so make adjustments and get as close as you can.This would look like this:





16-12-8-4-8-12-16





Monday, September 12, 2011

Monday leg blast




Its Monday and everyone on earth is benching so why not be different and do this leg workout.




A1) Glute bridge-3 sets of 15 reps ( pause and squeeze the glutes at the top of each rep)




** these are a good way to activate the glutes before the deadlifts and also act as a warmup



Rest 60 sec between sets




make sure you do 1-2 warmup light sets before starting the heavy deadlifts




B1) Barbell deadlift- 4 sets of 8 reps



Resting 90sec between sets



C1) Forward walking alternating dumbbell lunges-10 reps per leg



Rest 60 sec and then do:



Reverse walking alternating dumbbell lunges ( make sure you push off your front leg to go into the next step )-10 reps per leg



Rest 60 sec and then repeat back to the forward lunges for 1 more set, and then the reverse for one more set

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

H4 Fat burner #16-Fearsome foursome routine


Love this workout because it involves every aspect you would want in a good workout to lean down or to get into better condition. The resistance training allows you to maintain muscle mass which is key to metabolism. The core work is needed for all because of its importance to the overall body. Weak core, weak body. Finally, the conditioning exercises allow for a high calorie burn in session. I only put 3 separate circuits but you could add a 4th.


After a proper warmup-


* Make sure the weights on the upper and lower body exercises are challenging for the rep scheme written




A1) Upper body pull- Pullup-8reps

A2) Lower body-Split squat with dumbbell-8 reps per side

A3) Conditioning-Jackknives ( burpees )-10 reps

A4) Core-Resistance band chops-15 reps per side


Repeat this for 2-4 more rounds depending on your fitness level



B1) Upper body Push-Standing neutral grip dumbbell shoulder press-8 reps

B2) Lower body-Deadlift with barbell-8 reps

B3) Conditioning-Heisman hops-12 per side **

B4) Core-Reverse crunch-10 reps

**To learn how to do the Heisman hops watch my video
http://www.youtube.com/user/H4training#p/u/5/DoUyzLcAsuk

Repeat this 2-4 more rounds without rest depending on your fitness level



C1) Upper body Pull- Reverse grip cable row ( palms up )-10 reps

C2) Lower body-Lateral step up with dumbbell-8 reps per leg

C3) Conditioning-Lateral shuffle-8x ( distance between cones 20 ft ro so ) **

C4) Core-Plank hold for time ( whatever you can do with good form )
**To learn how to do the lateral shuffle watch my video

http://www.youtube.com/user/H4training#p/u/5/DoUyzLcAsuk



Repeat this 2-4 more rounds without rest depending on your fitness level




Done-

Monday, September 5, 2011

Putting the LABOR in Labor day!


Its Labor day most everyone is off so what better way to spend your day then dominating in the gym. Below is a push and pull workout that you will love. Make it happen!

A1)Incline dumbbell chest press-12 reps
( explosive reps )
SUPER SET
B1) Incline bench dumbbell one arm row-12 reps **
** stand behind the incline bench and rest your left arm on the top of the bench. Perform a row with your right arm, then switch arms.

Do this for 1 round then take 1 minute rest before moving to A2/B2

A2) Decline dumbbell chest press-8 reps ( each rep lower the weight for 4 seconds )
SUPER SET
B2) Straight bar seated row-8 reps ( each rep hold for 5 seconds )

Do this for 1 round then take 1 minute rest before moving to A3/B3

A3) Barbell 1/2 press-12 reps ( lower the bar to just above the chest and then press just 1/2 way up, lower back down to equal one rep )
SUPER SET
B3) T-bar row-12 reps

Do this for 1 round and then take 2-3 minutes rest before starting back at A1/B1

Repeat this whole sequence for 3 total rounds