 Summer officially kicks off Memorial Day weekend! That’s only 8 weeks away. Are you looking for the fastest way to get rid of some belly flab? Want to look and feel great wearing your favorite tank tops all season long? If you’ve still got a way to go to get fit for your summer, then pay close attention. Here are my 5 best tips to shape up quickly… STEP ONE: Cut the Carbs - Strategically! We all get used to eating a little more during the fall and winter with holidays and parties. Now it’s time to leave behind a significant portion of those tasty carbs to help you slim down. Two points of emphasis I want to share with you; concentrate on eating natural foods for your carbohydrates and cut any carbs after 2pm each day. This means making sure you select fruits and starches for your early day meals and snacks to help fuel you, then switching to just fibrous veggies in the afternoon and evening meals. For example, you could have oatmeal with some added fruit and a lean protein for breakfast. A mid-morning snack of a protein shake and a piece of fruit. For lunch, a grilled chicken breast with sweet potato and green beans. And then for the rest of the day, your eating should consist of lean protein and veggies like spinach, broccoli, a salad with balsamic dressing, etc. STEP TWO: Focus on Total Body Exercises To get more bang for your buck when it comes to your workout routine, focusing on performing exercises that work as much of your body as possible helps you burn more calories during your workout, builds better overall strength, and helps you develop a more fit looking physique. One of my favorite exercises that fits the bill is the Dumbbell Squat, Curl and Press. When performed properly, this exercise challenges every muscle group in your body so that you get way more results from just one movement. Total body movements and workouts are what I focus on with my clients to help them get great results as part of their personal training program at Club Fit. Making this part of your workout regimen will help you get a way better workout in less time with results you will enjoy! STEP THREE: Don’t Skimp on Lean Proteins Lean proteins are the most thermogenic foods we eat. Which means foods like chicken breast, fish and lean cuts of red meat helps boost your metabolism more than carbohydrates and fats. I always ask my clients to make sure they eat a healthy portion of lean proteins with each meal or snack throughout the day. The aim here is twofold. Lean proteins help keep you satiated between feedings, and they keep your metabolism pumped up as part of the digestion process, which means you burn more calories than if you didn’t eat any protein at all. For all your meals and snacks, make sure you have some lean proteins! STEP FOUR: Cardio Six Days Per Week If your goal is to get rid of body fat, then performing fat burning cardio has to be part of your plan six days per week. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it! Cardiovascular activity is primarily meant to stimulate your heart and lungs, but it is a great calorie burning exercise as well, provided you do it the right way. One of the major lessons I teach my clients is to perform high intensity interval cardio. When your body is challenged with high intensity cardio you get more results than performing the same old steady state cardio all the time. In fact, research has proven many times that your metabolism stays red hot and boosted for up to 36 hours after a high intensity cardio workout, thus helping you burn way more calories between workouts and helping you get to your fitness goals. Steady state cardio is better than not doing cardio at all, but you still won’t get the metabolic boost like you do with high intensity cardio. High intensity interval cardio can be as simple as working hard, like running, for 30 seconds and then slowing down to a walk for 90 seconds. That would be a single interval that results in 2 minutes’ worth of time. Repeat that same 30 seconds of hard work and 90 seconds of slow walk to recover for 20 to 30 minutes and you’ll feel as though you ran the entire time! Putting in the effort to work as hard as you can in a short bout of time and then slowing down to recover will help you get in better shape aerobically and rev up your metabolic engine to burn off more body fat between workouts. STEP 5: Keep Yourself Accountable on a Weekly Basis I’ve got a couple of ways that you can help keep yourself accountable to your health and fitness goals. Both require you to be honest with yourself to stay on track or adjust if necessary. First, tell several people you know about your goals. Ask them to contact you once a week and ask, “how’s it going with _____?” If you truly care about your goals and the people you are sharing those with then you will do your best to follow through and succeed! Next, use that tight fitting pair of jeans or a snug dress shirt in your closet to gauge your week-by-week success. Once per week on the same day and at the same time, put on that pair of tight-fitting jeans or dress shirt to see if they are fitting looser. If the jeans and/or dress shirt is getting looser and looking better on you then you are heading in the right direction. Since we're talking about getting fit for summer, you could use a swimsuit or swimming trunks to help with this tip. If you’re looking sleek and trim, then your hard work is paying off! I ask my personal training clients to do this as a measure of how their past week has gone and they are always amazed at how that simple task helps keep them focused on their goals and what they need to do to continue getting results.
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 You’ve seen her hyping up boot campers in our locally famous 30 minute bootcamp. You’ve seen her around the gym training clients. This week’s blog post is all about Club Fit personal trainer Missa Miller! To get to know Missa a little better, let’s rewind the tape (do people still say that?) a decade or two. After high school, Missa settled into a sedentary life-style, which we all know can be very easy to do. They even have a name for it, the Freshman 15. Being less active led to being overweight and was followed by years of struggling with physical and mental health issues. But then one day she decided that enough was enough. She wasn’t going to self sabotoge anymore. (Missa Before and After she decided to take charge of her health and fitness)  Once she decided to focus on improving her own quality of life, the positive effects of the life-style change were undeniable. Every area of her life seemed to improve so Missa decided to become ACE Certified in Group and Personal Training with the goal of helping others achieve the same positivity in their lives. I love Missa’s story and I caught up with her in the gym to ask her a couple of questions so we can get to know her a little better. What made you decide to be an trainer? I became serious about my well-being in 2015. I was struggling with a laundry list of issues, and some of those things started to get better the more healthy I became. If they hadn't disappeared all together, they had at least become manageable. I know that almost everyone has some if not all of the same problems I was dealing with. I believe that if I could help myself feel this much better, I could try to help others find some relief as well. What is your favorite thing about training? Seeing people smile. We are carrying around stress 24/7. If I can put someone through a good workout and keep them focused on something positive for 30-60 minutes of their day and send them out with a smile, I consider that a win. Sometimes we just need to check out to reboot, so that we can handle all that life puts on our plate. I believe fitness is an excellent way to do that. Where are some of your favorite activities and or places to visit in Little Rock? The outdoor space to enjoy while being active around the city. The parks and river trails provide an opportunity to be in nature and take a time-out while still sitting right in the middle of the city.
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AuthorJake Snowden, personal trainer and owner at Club Fit, can show you how to get fit in 30 minutes or less. Visit us in the Regions Building in beautiful downtown Little Rock. Archives
November 2022
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