Super-Bodies

Lighten Up! Maximize Your Results Through Perfect Form, Not More Weight

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:12:00 +0000

With lifting, it's about how, not about how much

We've all seen it, and guys are the worst, wildly swinging huge weights, bodies swaying all over the place, swayed back, half or even quarter reps, then banging the weights down hard, causing everyone in the gym to look over to see if an accident just occurred.

Yep, we're talking about what I call ego lifters. These are the guys who boost their self esteem and try to impress others by loading up as much weight as they can lift off the ground or off the rack, and then make a ridiculous mockery of themselves and the exercise they're trying to perform.

The whole intent of recreational weight lifting is to target specific muscles or muscle groups, to isolate them, and to make them work through their full range of motion to exhaustion that results in hypertrophy, or growth. To accomplish these goals we need to maximize the stress on our target muscles, getting the most possible from every single rep, and, like it or not, form is much more important than weight volume.

The important basics

When performing any given resistance training exercise, we basically have the following two muscle groups:

1) Prime Movers
2) Stabilizers

The prime movers are the muscles or muscle groups we're targeting for development, and the stabilizers are the muscles or muscle groups that hold everything else in place while we isolate the prime movers. A good example is the standing bicep curl because it's one of the most popular lifting exercises and also one of the most abused.

Clearly, in a bicep curl the bicep is our prime mover. The only intent of this exercise is to develop the bicep, which means it must be isolated, or more simply not receive help from any other source. This is much easier said than done, because our brain and our bodies are programmed only to achieve the end result, which is getting the weight from a low point to a higher point, and by nature we typically use our bodies as a system to get this done, using several muscle groups and also leveraging to get underneath the weight. To achieve muscle isolation we must re-program our body mechanics.

So first let's make an important distinction between isolation (or "iso") moves and compound moves.

In isolation moves we primarily target a single joint movement, and we isolate the muscle or muscles that move only that joint. So from our bicep example, we may think of the bicep as a single muscle, but it's actually a group of muscles that move the elbow joint to a closed position, like the quadriceps, a group of four leg muscles on the front thigh extending the leg at the knee. This helps us understand the role of "prime movers" by thinking of single joint movement.

Alternatively, compound moves involve several joints in a single movement, with the squat as a great example, involving joint movement of the knees, ankles, and hips, calling on all of the associated muscle groups that move those joints. In both isolation and in compound moves, we seek to isolate only the muscles in these joint movements as prime movers. It's the range of these prime movers that we're seeking to maximize throughout the full movement of the joint.

The important role of stabilizers

Think back to our bicep curl example. If we're to isolate the bicep complex, everything around it must be stable. And lifters must build form from the ground up just like golfers build their swing from the ground up, so with lifting it all starts with posture, balance, and core strength. To understand the importance of the ground up approach, try doing bicep curls with your back against a wall so that your body can't sway forward or backward. Notice how much harder this is. Without swaying momentum, the bicep becomes more isolated and must work harder, creating greater load and maximizing hypertrophy. Now stand away from the wall and do the curl, note the need for an upright posture, a balanced stance, and a strong core to keep from swaying. This is all part of the stabilization process.

In stabilizing, holding a strong core is critical, and we do this by pulling in our stomach and by squeezing our glutes together. This activates the torso core stabilizer muscles and will keep your body from moving at the waist and will also keep your spine and your back straight.

Now do the curl standing sideways next to a mirror and watch you elbow. Does it move forward and backward with each rep? If so, you need to engage your shoulder muscles to stabilize and stop the arm sway. Put a small piece of tape on your shirt at the bottom-most elbow position and watch to ensure the elbow does not move from this spot. If you've eliminated body sway and elbow movement, then you have successfully isolated the bicep complex and are maximizing muscle load with each rep.

Get your full range of motion and cadence

Another major sin we see created by ego lifters is limited range of motion. They load up with so much weight that their entire kinetic chain, much less their target muscles, can't handle the weight, and they compensate by shortening the muscle's range of motion, sometimes by over half. This misses the opportunity to develop the muscle's full strength and mobility potential. Worse yet, shortened reps lead to shortened muscles, creating imbalances that effect everything from symmetrical appearance to potentially causing injuries.

Additionally, ego lifters tend to rush their cadence and focus mostly on the reps concentric, or contracting portion. This leaves out two important aspects of the rep: the isometric portion where we freeze and hold the fully contracted muscle, and the eccentric portion, where the target muscle is used as brake against gravity. All three repetition aspects best mimic real life application and, when used in resistance training, can best maximize the muscle-building potential of each rep. Besides, rushing through jerky reps using too much weight puts tremendous stress on the joints and connective tissues, and who wants to be forced out for weeks while an inflamed tendon or torn muscle heals?

Conclusion

We only have so much time in the gym and we only perform so many reps per set. Using proper form can maximize the strength and muscle-building impact of each rep. So assuming an exercise targeting a specific muscle runs 4 sets of 10 reps, lighten the weight so you can use perfect form on every rep, even when fourth-set failure comes. Avoid the urge to force the rep by breaking form and watch your muscles grow. Remember, when it comes to lifting it's how, not how much!

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load: Know the Difference

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:00:00 +0000

By Amber Alexander

Amber Alexander

Much of dieting focus recently has been placed on the glycemic index. While understanding and managing the glycemic index is important, it's equally important to go one step further and understand glycemic load. The glycemic load is a relatively new way to measure the impact of food to blood glucose levels. Simply put, glycemic index represents glucose conversion speed, while glycemic load represents the amount of glucose created.

So What's the Glycemic Index?

The glycemic index is the relative degree to which blood sugar increases after the consumption of food, that is, relative to the effect of pure sugar. High glycemic index foods can raise blood glucose levels very quickly, as well as insulin levels. In contrast, low glycemic index foods don't significantly raise blood glucose levels and insulin levels after eating. Pure glucose is given a value of 100 while other foods are given an index number representing its relative effect on blood glucose levels.

For example, sweet corn has an index number of 55 meaning it raises blood glucose levels 55 percent as much as pure glucose. Generally, foods below 55 are considered low glycemic index foods, 55-70 represents mid-glycemic index foods and over 70 are considered high glycemic foods. Previous belief was that simple sugars dramatically increased blood glucose levels while starches such as potatoes and bread were digested slowly. The results from numerous studies, however, show this is not the case. Potatoes, for example, reported an average index of 84, making it one of the higher glycemic foods available.

So highly glycemic foods drive an insulin spike, followed by an insulin crash. This yields a surge of energy when the insulin converts the carbohydrate into glucose, and then an energy crash when it's used up. But here's what's worse: the glucose that floods our system from highly glycemic carbohydrates, if not burned up, is converted to fat. The body has no other use for it.

Get the picture? Highly glycemic foods equals bad news for anyone looking to lose fat.

This is the same thing as simple carbohydrates v. complex carbohydrates; simple carbohydrates are highly glaucemic (breaking them down into glucose is a simple process), while complex carbohydrates take more time (breaking them down into glucose is a complex process). The result from complex carbohydrates, or low glycemic foods, is a steady low dose of glucose while actually using more energy (calories) for digestion.

Knowing Glycemic Load

It's important to know that, although important, the glycemic index only tells part of the story, because while it tells us how quickly a specific carbohydrate is converted to glucose, it doesn't tell us how much glucose it will contribute. That's where the glycemic load comes in.

Take watermelon, for example. Watermelon has a high glycemic index of 72, bad right? Not really, because watermelon doesn't have all that much sugar in it, so its glycemic load is a relatively low 4. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.
We get the glycemic load by taking the glycemic index x 100 x the total carbohydrate available in grams. Below is a chart showing both GI and GL ranges.

Source: mendosa.com

So when discussing the glycemic index, be sure to include reference to the glycemic load which tells the complete story on what a carbohydrate does to our blood glucose levels, and ultimately to our body fat.

For a comprehensive, printable list of GI an GL values (yes, print this and tape it to your refrigerator), click here and scroll down.

Amber is a figure competitor, fitness instructor, fitness model and a candidate for Bodybuilding.com's BodySpace spokes model, her username is Amber3478. Vote for Amber at the BodySpace spokes model contest site now!

Get The Six Pack You've Dreamed Of!

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:26:00 +0000

By Amber Alexander

"How do I get six-pack abs?" How many times have you heard this question or even asked it yourself? The answer may seem complex and shrouded in mystery because popular culture throws so many "solutions" at us. We've all seen a thousand gadgets, supplements, and "30-day" programs all promising a quick and effortless path toward the coveted "six pack".

Truth is, the formula for ab definition is simple, however actually getting ab definition is hard work.

The first step toward ab definition is to build mass in the rectus abdominus, or the main wall of stomach muscles where the six pack is found. And here's a revelation - for most people standard crunches or sit ups won't get it done.

Think about how you'd build your bicep up - full range of motion, loading up heavy targeting 8-10 reps X 4 sets with maximum effort and failure about half way through the fourth set. But think about building your bicep the way most people approach their abs - limited range of motion and minimal resistance for 3 sets of 25 reps. How much do you suppose this would grow your bicep? While you'd build bicep endurance, your ability to grow the muscle would be severely limited.

So why would you try to grow your abs this way? Primarily because this is how we've all been taught to address ab strength since sixth grade.

The key to ab growth is the same as any other muscle - heavy resistance and low reps pushed to failure. A simple way to get started is getting on any ab crunch machine and weighting the same as any target muscle - 8-10 reps X 4 sets, hitting maximum effort and failure half way through the final set. Do this and watch ab growth take off. This will grow the abdominal peaks, and the higher the peaks the deeper the valleys, it's this elevation separation that provides "six-pack" definition.

Second, memorize the saying "great abs are made in the kitchen" because it's profoundly true. You could add massive abdominal gains and deep muscle trenches, but if it's all covered with body fat then it won't matter. Think about your yard covered in snow, you see no details, only smooth surfaces because the snow has filled in all of the detail.

This means that men will need to be below about 12% body fat and women will need to be below about 15% body fat.

If you're not willing to be disciplined on your diet, don't even waste your time building abdominal muscle mass because no one will ever see it beneath the body fat.

So remember, for six-pack abs 1) do heavy resistance for low reps to failure and 2) get diet discipline to drop the body fat so your hard work shows through!

Amber is a figure competitor, fitness instructor, fitness model and a candidate for Bodybuilding.com's BodySpace spokes model, her username is Amber3478. Vote for Amber at the BodySpace spokes model contest site now!

BodySpace - Your Key for Fitness Goal Achievement!

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:31:00 +0000

Amber Alexander

By Amber Alexander

It's happened to you or to someone you know - starting into a combined fitness and weight loss program with great intentions. But after a short period the goals get lost in a sea of busy schedules, conflicting priorities, and weakening motivation.

What went wrong?

Most times it's lack of support. Studies show that people surrounded by a solid support system, be it family or friends, are much more likely to achieve success with their fitness goals. However, often times this need for support goes unsatisfied.

One solution to this is BodySpace, Bodybuilding.com's online fitness social community. Here you'll find literally hundreds of thousands of like-minded fitness individuals sharing information about their fitness journeys.

Most importantly, you'll find support.

BodySpace members create profiles about themselves, about their goals, and about their progress. Communication among the community members is excellent, with an abundance of encouragement and goodwill toward people of all ages and fitness abilities. Membership is totally free, an incredible value for anyone with a fitness goals that wants to share with others.

So go check it out! Click here to go to BodySpace now, create an account and join the community!

Amber is a figure competitor, fitness instructor, fitness model and a candidate for Bodybuilding.com's BodySpace spokes model, her username is Amber3478. Vote for Amber at the BodySpace spokes model contest site now!

Youth and Clean Eating

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:22:00 +0000

The typical American youth diet is absolutely awful, and getting serious about youth health and fitness means changing their diet – a lot. No maybes or half-ways on this one, total youth health and fitness only happens with proper diet. Young Americans can exercise all they want to, twenty times a day, but without a disciplined diet they won’t get the body composition or the level of health that’s possible for them. In fact, if choosing between exercise and diet, excluding one over the other, diet would be the right choice, hands down. While diet and exercise absolutely go hand-in-hand, diet is really most important of the two factors. And while diet is that important, it’s also hard to manage, harder than exercise for most people and especially for a busy youth population immersed in today’s youth popular culture of consumption, leading to failure on their diet and nutrition goals.

At the most basic level, America’s youth should understand two types of nutrients exist: those providing building blocks for their bodies and those providing fuel for energy that runs their bodies. This is a vast oversimplification, and understanding this concept better comes through additional readings on this subject, but this is probably the most important distinction to make in managing youth diet. And by focusing on maximizing the building blocks and minimizing the energy sources, optimized muscle growth and body fat reduction occurs.

When properly balancing the mix of building blocks and energy sources under an umbrella of total calorie requirements, a young person’s diet can be dialed in. However, it must be understood that this is not how roughly 95% of the American youth population presently eats, and this needs to change.

Great Bodies are Made in the Kitchen

A popular saying in bodybuilding and in the health and fitness genre generally is that great bodies aren’t made in the gym, they’re made in the kitchen. This is an important way of saying that the two go hand-in-hand, and in aspiring to look great and feel great, America’s youth must hold mastery over what they eat.

When you think about it, everyone - yes everyone - already has a great physique even if they don’t work out much or don’t work out at all. The problem is that wonderful, beautiful physique is buried under body fat. For an overweight youth, imagine what they’d look like if you snapped your fingers and almost all of that body fat disappeared, leaving nothing but a layer of skin over those muscles. With that mental picture, imagine in addition muscles more fully developed through resistance training. Viola! There you have it! Lock that image in your brain. But the point is young people can develop a sound muscle base, but looking and feeling their best won’t occur with that muscle base blanketed by body fat.

Also think of this: a young adult weighing, say 200 pounds, with a 30% level of body fat is carrying around about 60 pounds of fat with them. With a much lower body fat level of say 10% and some added lean muscle mass through resistance training, this same person now weighs about 165 pounds with only about 16.5 pounds of body fat. Think about it – how differently would they look? How differently would they feel? Try something, go find a 60 pound weight and a 15 pound weight, try walking for just 5 minutes holding the 60 pound weight and then do the same with the 15 pound weight. Get it? And, on top of all that, they’d be stronger too. Imagine even putting a dollar value amount on what the difference means in quality of life.

Taking Diet and Nutrition as Seriously as Workouts

If you wanted to find one single reason why young Americans don’t hit their fitness goals -especially when the goals revolve around weight and body fat reduction – it’s diet and nutrition, hands down.

So what’s the problem?

Because maintaining diet and nutrition discipline is hard, that’s the problem, and for several reasons.

First, in American culture crummy food and massive calories surround us, they hunt us down like dogs. Much of our society’s approach toward food is carried over from earlier times of scarcity and malnutrition, and we’ve come to see food as a celebration of prosperity and plentitude - values passed on to our children. Not bad things to celebrate, but we’re not very smart about it. Additionally, the manufactured food industry, in its quest for cost efficiency, has devised multiple ways to make food cheaper and to have a longer shelf life. Good and reasonable goals, but not always very congruent with sound nutrition. There’s also a little thing called the glycemic index, it’s a hidden diet killer that few people know about but is absolutely critical to a healthy diet.

Second, our bodies are programmed to scream loudly at us when they think they’re starving to death. Just like when you’ve been underwater in the swimming pool too long and your brain says “I need air… quickly!” When going into a caloric deficit needed to lose body fat the brain says the same thing, “we’re starving to death, do something!” Anyone who’s dieted seriously before knows this, it can be an overwhelmingly strong urge that interferes with concentration and the simplest of daily tasks.

So just like pushing weights and climbing the Stairmaster requires focused effort, managing diet and nutrition also takes focused effort, and anyone, young or otherwise, who wants it to all work must push through some discomfort. Sorry, no shortcuts available here. For a great looking, healthy body, diet and nutrition are equally important with working out and have to be taken just as seriously. Too many times young people start out with resolve to “get in shape” and hit the gym only to be disappointed that their body composition isn’t changing, and they become disheartened, lose motivation and they quit – and it’s because they neglected or forgot the diet end of the equation!

Know the Glycemic Index

While the entire subject of diet and nutrition takes ongoing study and practice to internalize, grasping one key element is critical: a simple concept known as the Glycemic Index, or GI. We should teach young people to walk around muttering “low GI diet, low GI diet”, and although that may seem weird, they will have taken a giant step toward truly healthy eating.

The GI, in its simplest form, describes how quickly our bodies turn a specific carbohydrate into glucose, or energy. So for example a low-GI carb breaks down slowly (broccoli, green beans, etc…) and is kind of a glucose energy drip into our blood that our bodies can use up over time. Conversely, a high-GI carb (table sugar, cake, cookies, high-fructose corn syrup, etc…) almost immediately converts to glucose and floods your system with energy. So here’s the problem: your body can only do one of two things with excess glucose – 1) burn it up as energy, or 2) store it as fat. And when you get that much glucose, unless you’re running up a mountainside, it will be converted to stored energy – BODY FAT! Get a copy of the Glycemic Index, tape it to your refrigerator or to your forehead if you have to. Know it forward and backward, make it your life, it will make more difference in your diet than anything else you can do. For more about the Glycemic Index and an index chart click here.

Youth and Clean Eating

In bodybuilding and generally in health circles you will hear the term “clean eating”. No, this isn’t referring to sanitation. It’s a very simple concept where you eliminate the crap from your diet, and you need to adopt it – right now! Clean Eating is simply eating foods in their most natural forms.

You may have heard about shopping your grocery store’s “perimeter”, and a good rule of thumb is that at least 80% of your food should come from the perimeter and no more than 20% from the interior. That’s because natural foods in their most whole state tend to be merchandised around the supermarket’s perimeter, and the processed, ingredient-laden foods tend to be stocked in the supermarket’s interior.

So clean eating is primarily three categories:

1) Carbohydrates and fiber primarily from fresh fruits and from vegetables (the low GI stuff)

2) Healthy fats primarily from walnuts and from fish oils

3) Protein from lean meats, primarily from fish and from poultry

If you’ve never experienced clean eating, I guarantee you’re missing out on one of the best and easiest ways to improve your health and to start feeling better almost immediately. Lots of good resources exist on the web, or you can subscribe to resources like Clean Eating Magazine. Don’t make excuses, just go do it.

Are You Mentally Tough?

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Okay, so really, how many of you challenge yourselves in the gym? I see this all of the time where people let fatigue get in their way, where they let their bodies control their minds.

What the heck is fatigue anyway? A rocketing locomotive that's going to vaporize us on contact? No, fatigue is nothing more than a mental perception based on sensory input into the brain.

How we interpret this input and then act on it is what sets people apart, this is the essense of mental toughness.

Simplified, the muscles say to the brain, "okay, I'm tapped, that's it, nothing left, better stop". That's the sensory input.

The brain then creates its perception of what's really happening, kind of like "okay, muscles talkin' to me, out of gas, not likin' it".

Then last, and most important, we decide how to act on the perception. Yep, here's where the toughness part comes in. "Oooh, my poor muscles, they're not happy, this isn't fun, I really don't need more reps, call it good here".

Or, we can choose to interpret our perception differently and to act differently, like "yea, burn baby, I rule the world, nothin' stops me, dig more you muscles, dig more!"

So really, what's the difference? Same weight load, same body, same reps, same sensory input to the brain. The difference is how we deal with the information fed to us, and how we deal with the information is usually a function of motivation.

Motivation is generally a function of a) believing that our goals are highly meaningful, and b) believing that we have the power to affect a positive outcome of our goals. So think about it, basically this is about the pull of your motivation overcoming the drag of your fatigue sensory input.

So be mentally tough, focus on the goals, not on the barriers!

Muscle Growth with Full Muscle Action Spectrum

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:21:00 +0000

We all want to make the most of our workouts, and several techniques can provide help packing tons of benefits into a short period of time in the gym. No single approach, however, provides as much benefit for our time invested as using the full muscle action spectrum.

Good lifting form has many dimensions, and, generally speaking, most people do a crummy job with their form. Good form, among other things, helps us get the most muscle development from every single rep. And if we're looking to make the most of our gym time, it makes sense that we'd want to get the most from each rep.

One important aspect of good form is fully utilizing the three different actions that muscles produce on every rep, known as the muscle action spectrum. The three actions are as follows:

1) Eccentric Action: lengthening of the muscle while decelerating force
2) Isometric Action: holding muscle contraction equal to the force placed on it
3) Concentric Action: shortening of the muscle while accelerating force

Let's take the standard bicep curl as an example. How many times have you seen someone quickly curl the weight up, then just drop it down to their side? What just happened? Simple, they hit the concentric action and abandoned the isometric and the eccentric actions.

So why does using the full muscle action spectrum matter? It matters because our muscles work to produce force (concentric), to stabilize (isometric) and to reduce force (concentric), and by only producing force, we rob ourselves from development of the ability to stabilize force and to slow down force.

Think of how we move in everyday life. For example, imagine reaching and taking a heavy box off of a high shelf that's above our head. First, we slide the box toward us until it's no longer supported by the self. We're now holding the full weight of the box over our heads, this is isometric strength, or muscle contraction equal to the force placed on it. Next, we slowly lower the box down to the floor, this is eccentric strength, or reducing rate of force. And last, we put the box back up on the shelf, this is concentric strength, or contracting the muscle to accelerate force.

It's critical to understand this concept of full muscle action spectrum in terms of balanced muscular development because muscles must be able to, at different times, act as accelerators, as stabilizers, and as brakes. Going back to our curl example, the upper arm (humerus) must be held stable by the shoulder to perform an effective curl, therefore our shoulder must have fully developed isometric strength to support our bicep development efforts. Lacking this isometric shoulder strength would allow the upper arm to swing under momentum from the curl action, and we would lose our ability isolate the bicep for an effective curling action. Therefore, lack of shoulder isometric strength would compromise our ability to develop bicep strength and size.

As you can imagine, this scenario is true for every exercise we do; for every muscle or muscle group we target with resistance training, we call on a complimentary muscle or group of muscles to isometrically stabilize, therefore lack of isometric strength costs us our ability to hold proper exercise form and to realize the greatest benefit from every rep.

Additionally, eccentric action, or our ability to use muscles as a decelerator or brake against force, plays an important role in muscle growth and strength development. In the gym this is referred to as a "negative rep". Simply put, during negative reps our muscles recruit fewer fibers to decelerate than to accelerate, therefore we put greater stress on those fewer muscle fibers during eccentric action, stimulating greater muscle growth and strength. More importantly, much of what muscles do functionally in real life involves slowing down a force, either a weight or the weight and momentum of our own bodies. Think for example of how the quadracep acts as an eccentrice "brake" when we jump off of a box and land on the ground.

Our muscular systems work very dynamically to accelerate force, to hold force, and to decelerate force. Simply focusing only on the concentric muscle action, or force acceleration, limits our ability to fully develop our bodies and additionally can even invite injury from creating strength imbalances within muscle groups and systems. By fully developing the muscle action spectrum of eccentric, isometric, and concentric strength we become more functional in the real world and create the potential for greater muscle size and strength gains overall for our time invested in the gym.

Learning from Bodybuilders

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:37:00 +0000

Following is an excerpt from my upcoming book on new fitness paradigms.

Bodybuilders have a bad rap. We’ve created a stereotype of them as dumb, rude, steroid-gulping knuckleheads to be avoided like the plague. The fitness industry overall doesn’t do a great job to counter this, presumably some think we all want to look like the Incredible Hulk, smashing our fists through walls and doors and crushing people’s car hoods. In truth, a bodybuilder is anyone doing resistance training to improve their physique based on their own personal goals. That’s it. They’re as likely to be your neighbor, your doctor, or the person standing next to you in the checkout line. So let’s dispense with any existing notions or mental images of bodybuilders, we in fact have much to learn from them.

Resistance training – the use of free weights and other resistance equipment – provides the single best and most important form of exercise for just about anyone. No other activity will provide the overall benefit of dramatically improved muscle size, muscle strength, tendon strength, joint strength and stability, and the additional benefit of increased bone density (stronger bones less susceptible to breaks, fractures, and osteoporosis). So who knows the most about this? Traditional bodybuilders, that’s who. These folks have been practicing resistance training for decades and have accumulated untold levels of understanding in this area. No, that doesn’t mean you will look like Arnold, you won’t, but you may be surprised by what you can look like.

And for women it’s totally critical to know that resistance training absolutely will not make you “look like that” - the most common reason why women reject the entire notion of weight lifting and resistance training. Ladies, time to drop this as your excuse to not do resistance training, you won’t look like female version of the Incredible Hulk, but you will look sleek and toned and you will enjoy your body and your life at least 100% more than you do now, I will personally guarantee that!

An unfortunate aspect of resistance training is that an incredibly small minority chooses to use illegal steroids as an artificial means to get ahead in competitive bodybuilding, and it’s just as unfortunate that these people get a majority of the sport’s publicity, it shouldn’t be that way but it is. Don’t let that taint you toward lifting in any way, shape, or form. Resistance training and proper diet provides your path toward a better life, and it’s especially important for women to understand that instead of “looking like that”, you can in fact achieve the most beautifully feminine physique of your life, even after 50!

So what do we have to learn from Bodybuilders? A lot, but the following are key takeaways of most importance to us:

1) Proper form

2) Mixing in heavy lifting

3) Muscle rest and recovery

4) Proper diet and nutrition

So let’s talk a little bit about each one.

Proper Form

Two key aspects of proper form to grab hold of: 1) muscle and muscle group targeting, and 2) injury prevention.

Lifting in its simplest form is a systematic means to target and to develop our muscles. As we touched on earlier in the book, proper muscle balance is important to our overall functionality, so we use proper form to ensure we deliberately target, hit, and develop specific muscles and muscle groups. This is important, because over many decades bodybuilders have helped us to understand what exercises, when done properly, will best develop certain muscular areas. So if we do the prescribed exercises and do them correctly, we’re assured of developing a balanced muscular system.

The whole point of lifting is to place heavy loads on our muscular systems to make them grow stronger. Bodybuilders have done a wonderful job over time in helping us understand the safest way to do this. Some exercises can place greater stress on joints and tendons (where we’ve more likely to have injuries), and almost any exercise, if done improperly, can cause injury. I’m not talking about your arm your leg falling off, I’m primarily talking about inflammation, the most common type of lifting injury, and it usually goes away in a few weeks by resting it. However, repeating poor form over and over can lead to more chronic conditions that can make lifting uncomfortable and not fun. By following proper exercise form you can greatly reduce or even eliminate the risk of these types of injuries.

Mixing in Heavy Lifting

Our bodies respond the environment they’re placed in. Bodybuilders have proven over time, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that in order to make our muscles grow we have to regularly increase the load they’re placed under. But relax; this comes in time after several months of lighter loads that prepare your muscular system for more strenuous stuff. You’ll tend to know when your body’s ready for this. And to be sure, most lifting routines call for oscillating back and forth between lighter loads with high repetitions and heavier loads with lower repetitions to provide rest and variety. But know this: ya gotta do the heavier stuff to grow and to get stronger.

So what exactly do we mean by heavy loads? Typically it means using a weight for four sets of 8-10 repetitions each set, whereby on the fourth set you can only do about 4-6 reps before the muscle just quits, known in lifting as “failure”. And it’s at this point you hit what I call the “money reps”, meaning that for each additional rep you can achieve beyond what you’ve perceived as “failure”, you will maximize muscle growth during the recovery days following the workout. Oh yea, it’s hard, but it’s worth it, and anything in life worth having requires effort. Besides, if you’ve never felt the euphoria of pushing past your perceived limits and the satisfaction of a great lifting session, you need to – this is what gets people hooked on lifting forever.

Muscle Rest and Recovery

Here’s an important concept that Bodybuilders have taught us: our muscles grow after the workout, not during the workout. I’ve known people who got all gung-ho about working out and thought the more hours they put into the gym the better off they’d be. Totally not true. Our bodies and our muscular systems do best when they have a ample amount of rest between workouts. These folks would hit the gym 6-7 days a week for two hours a day, and while I’ve got to commend them for getting after it, this is in fact counter-productive for two key reasons.

First, our muscles go through a repair and rebuilding process after a solid workout, and this can take 2-4 days to fully complete. Second, the whole idea is to come back to each workout stronger than before so we can push to higher levels than before. If we hit a muscle or muscle group before it’s had ample time to rest and repair, we can’t push as hard and will just kind of plateau. Then frustration sets in because gains become almost impossible. By letting the target muscles rest for several days, they can fully repair, rebuild, and refresh and come to the next workout charged and ready to get after it. More rest is better, remember that.

Proper Diet and Nutrition

Although we cover this more later, it’s important to acknowledge what the bodybuilding community has done in helping us understand proper diet and nutrition. If you haven’t been exposed much to the bodybuilding community this may seem a bit counter intuitive, right? The natural assumption is that, to gain muscle mass bodybuilders just eat everything in sight. This couldn’t be further from reality. Fact is, bodybuilders have for a long time been on the leading edge of understanding, developing, and practicing the very best dietary regimens of any athletic community.

It may come as a surprise, but “bodybuilding” is about half what you do in the gym and about half what you do with your diet. Bodybuilders have a saying “great bodies are made in the kitchen” and it’s absolutely true. If you want to look and feel your best, the gym alone won’t get it done, you’ve got to change your entire approach to what you put into your body, so thank bodybuilders for laying the trail and pay attention when you get to the diet and nutrition chapters!

Getting Killer Ab Definition

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:22:00 +0000

Motivation: Mind over Matter

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:56:00 +0000

When discussing maximum and peak physicality, so much of what we’re getting at is mental. Think about it,everything the body does is an execution of a mental command. You have got to remember the old axiom “make the mind control the body, don’t let the body control the mind”. This is so true with health and fitness.We all get hungry, we all get fatigued, we all sometimes just don’t want to get our butts up and out the door to go workout.

The mind has to be strong, and that comes primarily from having a strong sense of motivation.

Motivation comes from desiring a specific outcome or future state, and feeling convinced that we have the absolute power to affect that outcome. This is precisely why so many people love health and fitness, because the individual is in total control and there’s very little other people can do to screw it up for you. We can’t say that about too many things in life, it makes our fitness goals a great outlet for feeling and being in control of at least one important life dimension. However – and you probably already see the caveat coming – this also means 100% accountability. You ahve got nobody to blame but yourself if you don’t get it done.
To alter your mind state toward high motivation levels, you have got to start by loving yourself and loving your health and fitness goals. We’re giving ourselves an important gift here, and we’re also giving the world an important gift, because a healthier person just simply functions better, in mind, body, and spirit, making for a healthier society. And in particular, for those over 50 the importance of health and fitness is accelerated because it fends off so many age-related maladies that slow us down and keep us from contributing in higher ways.

It’s 99% Mental

What are we really? Yes, a blobby mix of chemicals, organs, tissues, and bones. But the entirety of our perception exists in only one location – in the brain.

What are discomforts?

What is fatigue?

What is pain?

They’re perceptions, that’s all. They’re biologically induced signals going to our brain that our brain turns into a sensation. So what is that? A screaming locomotive? A supersonic jet? An earthquake? A giant Tsunami? What exactly is the essence of our consciousness?
Think of opening and closing your eyes. With our eyes open we see and perceive everything around us. Now close your eyes, what do you perceive? Nothing. But has everything really gone away? No, only our perception has changed. We have this same ability to deal with pain and discomfort!

We have to think of discomfort as only a state of mind, a set of electronic impulses that we can deal with as we wish, to chose to not let it dictate to us.

We can use our minds as powerful tools to drive towards our goals, to block discomfort and to instead focus on goal accomplishment, like lifting heavier weights longer when our muscles say stop, or sticking to our diets when tempted to over eat or to eat the wrong foods. We must control our minds, our minds mus tn’t control us.

Goals and the Mentality of Motivation

As we’ve discussed, motivation comes primarily from a) believing the importance of our goals, and b) believing that our efforts and our actions can result in accomplishing the goal. So first of all, what does your goal mean to you? It better mean a lot, otherwise you won’t have the burning desire to stick to it. If you’ve never been a goal setter or aren’t sure, your goal should meet the SMART criteria as follows:

Your goal must be –

Specific (losing specific weight amounts, reducing body fat to a specific level, etc.)

Measurable (use pounds, body fat, smaller clothes size, increase in weight lifted, etc.)

Actionable (identify how you’ll do it, i.e. go to the gym, hire a trainer, etc.)

Realistic (you’re not going to try out for the NFL after the age of 50!)

Time defined (identify realistically how long it will take for your actions to achieve the specific goal measurement you’ve set out for yourself)

Once that’s done then it’s time to focus on the actionable from above; what you’ll actually do to make the goal happen. And here’s where it gets hard, right? Well, no it shouldn’t, that is if you’ve created something realistically achievable, something you believe in your heart that your actions can accomplish.

Discouraged by a goal that seems to big?

Then cut it down into small bites, and only focus on the very first bite. Imagine sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner and announcing to the table “eating this meal is important to me and I’m going to devour it all with a single bite”. The room would look at you like you’re crazy, and they’d be right, it can’t be done and you’d be miserable and look ridiculous trying. So what does happen? You enjoy a wonderful meal full of great foods and great company, and in about 30 minutes after hundred of bites and chewing and swallowing your plate is clean.

Fitness goals (or any goal for that matter) are no different, they must be broken down into smaller components that we can cross off as done and celebrate our success, then turn our sites to the next goal. For example, your first goal may be “strengthen my core by 50% in four weeks”. Then you take baseline readings on things like number of stability ball cobras and length of time holding a prone plank position, measure progress each week and, if you work hard, have improved by the desired 50% in four weeks. Awesome, on to the next goal!

Dealing with the (Inevitable) Mental Valleys

As with any life journey, we all get tired at some point along the way, and this is also true with fitness. Having a great workout where we make progress against goals takes effort, and sometimes pushing to the next level is hard. Likewise with dieting, especially if you like good food, because you’ll be giving up a part of something that brings pleasure while your body is telling you that you’re not getting enough to eat, a tough combination for sure.

First, it’s important to acknowledge and to just accept that emotional letdowns will occur, to be mentally prepared for them, and to not freak out when they happen. It’s natural, it’s fine, and it’ll pass. But unfortunately this where many people get tripped up and lose it. Discouragement and disillusionment sets in, maybe they fall of the wagon for a few days by missing workouts or cheating on their diets.

Like an old cowboy, when you get knocked out of the saddle you’ve got to just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and climb right back on.

In other words, valley’s, discouragement, and slip ups are fine, they’re only bumps in the road and to be expected, just get back on the program as soon as you can. Continue the journey and stay the course.

Working Through Fatigue and Injury

If you’re over 50 and either have never worked out or haven’t worked out in a long time, your body will take a while to get back into shape, and although it should be fun and rewarding, it also may take several months to get your body operating at its higher capability. Especially early in the process you’ll be more susceptible to fatigue and even to minor injuries. By fatigue, I mean that on some days your body will feel heavy and lethargic, even sore, and you just may not feel the workout vibe coming to you. And by injury, now worries, if anything happens it would be minor in nature like a chronically sore tendon or maybe a slight muscle strain. However, even a minor injury can hamper workout efforts and even require a layoff of several day or even weeks to allow for healing.

Workout fatigue happens and is nothing to worry about, in fact the best way to overcome fatigue is to go workout! Look for ways to make it fun. For example, it you’re feeling fatigued and unexcited about your workout, decide to try something new that you’ve always wanted to try but were “stuck” in your routine. Well, get “un-stuck”. Do your workout in reverse order. Drop your weights in half and double the reps. Mix body parts. Combine cardio and resistance into your workout. Do whatever you feel like doing, just keep working out and don’t let fatigue slow you down!

Injuries, however, are another story. The best way to deal with injuries is to not get them.

Avoid injuries in two ways: a) always use proper form, and b) progress slowly.

To adopt proper form, no better way than to work with a qualified personal trainer, they’ll show you the right mechanics which are probably a bit more technical than you may realize. Things like posture, balance, and joint stabilization all play key roles in avoiding injury, get a pro to show you how. If you do get a minor injury, you’ll need to rest it. In most cases, you should be able to keep working out, but you’ll need to protect the inflamed area. Again, get the help of a qualified fitness training professional to help you on this, don’t just wander in the darkness.

But above all else, don’t let these things slow you down by becoming mental barriers to your success, love your goals, commit to them mentally and enact them physically. And always use the power of your mind to overcome the limitations of your body.

For more information go to http://www.omni-fit.com/

It's the Diet Stupid!

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:25:00 +0000

Looking to lose body fat? If you're counting on relatively low-intensity cardio to get it done you may be counting wrong. While cardio provides many benefits, too many people see cardio as an end-all for body fat loss. To be sure, cardio can create an environment where body fat is burned and also can contribute to creating the all-important calorie deficit required for body fat loss. However, many people fall short of their fat-loss goals by making incorrect assumptions about using cardio, especially assumptions about a cardio-only approach.

Important to note we're talking about mainstream, or low-intensity cardio - the people who trudge away on treadmills at a slow jog for long time periods. High-intensity cardio like going all out for ten sets of 30 seconds isn't suitable for the general population due to conditioning, injury risk and that it's hard and most people just won't stick with it.

Cardio is a great thing; it pumps tons of oxygenated blood through the body, hastens delivery of nutrients to muscles and organs, develops a strong heart and strong lungs, and, at times, can give us a wonderfully euphoric shot of endorphins. Additionally, cardio requires the body to burn calories, a good thing for fat loss. But here's where some people get badly off track.
Cardio only burns so many calories. Running a mile at moderate pace burns about 125 calories. That's it folks. So a 30 minute treadmill session will burn roughly 375 calories, maybe 400 by throwing in some post-run residual effect. That in itself is fine. But the bigger problem is how some people will substitute cardio for diet discipline. A 375 calorie cardio burn can be blown just by picking the wrong salad dressing. I hear people talk all the time about getting in their cardio, but when asked how the diet is going they don't have a clue.

The key to weight loss is diet, period. Sure, show on paper the math that proves the impact of cardio, but we're talking real world here. Truth is, far too many people head out for their daily cardio thinking they've got it covered, then act puzzled and make excuses when the body fat levels don't change. Typical responses from people are "I'm watching what I eat" or "I've been pretty good on my diet", when in fact they really have no idea how many calories they've downed in the last week. It's the diet stupid!

It all starts with knowing your daily caloric needs, then ensuring that number isn't exceeded for maintenance or that a calorie deficit occurs for weight loss. Simple right? Not if you don't know the numbers, and most people in pursuit of "weight loss" don't know the numbers. That's why techniques such as diet journaling become critical, people seeking to lose wight absolutely must be able to know, recite, and manager their caloric intake.

Cardio is a great thing. I personally can't even recount the endless miles I've run or cycled in all conceivable settings around the world. Cardio can provide a pleasurable and important dimension to our physicality and to our psyche, and can definitely contribute to weight loss as part of a comprehensive plan. But never let anyone confuse cardio as a stand-alone means to weight loss, only intense diet discipline will achieve that.

Are You a Workout Animal? Take this Five-Question Quiz!

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:24:00 +0000

You were out late with friends last night. The alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m for your morning workout, you:

Pts.
1. wake up at 9:30 a.m. wondering why your alarm never went off
2. turn off the alarm, wake up at 8:00 a.m., realize you have a splitting headache and go back to bed
3. hit the snooze button at least three times, roll out of bed, and make it to the gym 40 minutes late
4. jump out of bed, slap yourself in the face, search for your workout stuff, dress and make it to the gym on time
5. wake up before your alarm goes off, jump into your gear you laid out at 2:00 a.m. and hit your workout harder then ever before

You want to finish up your back workout with lat downs but the equipment is tied up on a crowded Monday and you have to be at work, you:

Pts.
1. see this as a great opportunity to rationalize not doing that last set of your back exercises
2. stand with hands on hips staring at the back of the person's head thinking this will make them speed up
3. bag the lat downs and go to a repeat of the cable rows you already did earlier
4. tap the person on the shoulder and tactfully ask if you can work in sets with them
5. lift the person off the lat machine via a massive wedgie while whispering in their ear "I own this bitch"

It's time for your 3:00 p.m. meal when your boss calls an emergency staff meeting, you:

Pts.
1. had forgotten about the meal anyway
2. rationalize to yourself that the best way to cut body fat is to skip meals
3. figure you'll find away to get the meal in after the meeting
4. quickly throw the entire meal into a blender and pour the results into a drink cup
5. just eat the friggin meal during your meeting and tell everyone to deal with it

You wake up with the flu, today is chest and triceps day, you:

Pts.
1. pull the covers over your head and are at total peace, telling yourself this is the most legitimate excuse in the world to miss a workout
2. pull the covers over your head but feel tremendous guilt and regret for missing your workout
3. roll out of bed onto the floor and do five sets of push ups, call it good, climb back into bed and pull the covers over your head
4. get up, get your stuff on, go to the gym, realize there's no way, go back home, get in bed and pull the covers over your head
5. get up, get your stuff on, go the the gym, set a new bench press max PR while spreading the flu to everyone in the gym

You head out the door for your workout at the gym and see that your car has a flat tire, you:

Pts.
1. realize the workout is a lost cause today and start changing your tire
2. must get something in so you do 4 sets of 15 push ups and 3 sets of 20 crunches before changing your tire
3. cancel whatever you had to do after your workout, change your tire and go to the gym late
4. call a cab to take you to the gym so you don't miss a beat
5. shrug your shoulders, hop in your car, and drive to the gym on the rim, shredding your tire to pieces

Results - add up your total points, your workouts are:

5 - 7 points - secondary to you and you can live without them
8-10 points - of moderate importance to you but not at your center
11-15 points - one of the more important aspects of your life
16-20 points - critical to you life balance
21-25 points - the center of your universe, you are a workout animal!

Tips for Making Fitness Happen

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:38:00 +0000

Written by Chantayn Winner

Ladies, Let's Get Started!

In any given week, I encounter women wanting to make changes in their lives, yet are allowing various fitness struggles to hinder their vision. Particularly, I often hear how they are challenged in finding enough hours in the day, that there is simply not enough time to exercise or take care of themselves. I understand. I am a working mother with a lot on my plate as well. The most important part of exercise and eating right is to START. That is the key.

You must set up a schedule that will work for you and that it is realistic. Also, be sure your goals are achievable. We often correlate weight loss with exercise or how many trips we took to the gym in any given week. Especially for women, we believe that our fitness goals have to be all or nothing. Or that we need to be an expert on nutrition and diet in order to be successful. The truth is, the smallest steps are the most important steps to success.

Some of the ways in which you can incorporate health and fitness into your busy schedule are easier than you may think. Proper nutrition throughout, eating small meals every 3 hours, will help sustain your energy and mental alertness. For the office, bring healthy foods that you enjoy to snack on. At my desk I often have almonds and protein bars handy for when I simply can't get away. In the break room my co-workers will usually find I have tuna packed in water, hard boiled eggs, low fat cottage cheese and yogurt ready in the fridge.

Between work, family and other demands, finding time for your workout may take a little bit of planning. For some, simply making the mental commitment to set the alarm an hour earlier to workout is the best way to ensure you are getting your needs met without disrupting the daily demands of life. However, what may work for one does not necessarily work for all. Some alternate options may be to take a walk or go to the gym on your lunch hour. Or take the kids to the park after work and use the equipment there to do step-ups, jump squats, pull-ups and sprints. You could even pair up with another mother and rotate gym night so that on one night she works out while you watch the kids and the following evening she returns the favor for you. These are simply suggestions to get you thinking outside of the box. Be creative as there is no right or wrong way to achieving your goals.

No matter what you do, get started! Don't set yourself up for failure by taking on more than you can handle. I have an analogy I like to use and that is baby steps. Baby steps lead into walking which in turn leads to running. This is the same with reaching your fitness goals. And what I like to share with others the most, and what helped me tremendously after my son was born, is that it's really all about choices. I have a choice of what I put in my mouth. I have a choice to workout. Nobody can do this for me, I have to do this for myself. Remember, if you don't take care of yourself, then you won't be able to take care of those who need you as well. So start and don't look back. You can do this!

Chantayn Winner is a pro-category figure champion who makes her home in Boise, Idaho. Check out Chantayn's website at: http://www.chantayn.com/

Sexuality and Power: Learn 6 Ways Body Image Affects Us

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:06:00 +0000

Are you satisfied with your body?

Wow, that question opens a big can of worms. If you're seriously into fitness, the answer "no, I'm not satisfied" may come more easily as most in this category accept constructive criticism as healthy and necessary to goal attainment of a more perfect body.

Others, however, may feel differently and may either shy away from critical physical assessments or may simply say they accept themselves as they are. However, some recent research suggests something much deeper going on.

We judge our bodies mostly by how we think we're viewed by the opposite sex, according to several recent studies. And although several factors contribute to our body self-image, foremost is the desire for power over the opposite sex. Following are six ways body image can affect us according to one survey:

1) Size - Men perceive large physical size as powerful, while women see being smaller and more petite as better for obtaining power and influence over the opposite sex.

2) Satisfaction - Men generally are more satisfied with their appearance and see themselves as attractive to women, even when they're not in great shape, while women were generally less satisfied with their appearance and desiring to improve it to gain power over men.

3) Social Pressure - Women feel social pressure to look attractive in order to gain power more than men do as popular culture tends to focus more on glorification of the perfect female body and appearance.

4) Motivation - Women are generally more motivated to change their appearance by what men think, while men are more motivated by what they think of themselves, suggesting that men tend to already see themselves with the inherent upper hand.

5) Height - Both men and women agree that the man should be taller than the woman in a relationship, and that the reverse has a negative impact on the relationship's power structure, i.e. both the taller woman and the shorter man would have less power over the opposite sex.

6) Physical Standards - Women are generally less concerned about physicality and more concerned about femininity as a power lever over the opposite sex, while men were more concerned a strong physical appearance and overall presence.

Agree or disagree? Post your thoughts below...

Progress: More Than Just A Number

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:20:00 +0000

Written by: Kassandre Harper-Cotton

Taken from my online journal beginning March 7, 2007:
“3/07-posting the [progress] pictures publicly

5/07-seeing my legs get firmer and stronger and actually LIKING the way they look; being consistent with the workouts (5-6 times per week); with the help of this site, finding a diet plan that works for me

6/1-Ten pounds down and six inches off; twenty to go

6/11-sprinting @ 7 mph on the treadmill

6/27-back to pre-pregnancy weight of 173 lbs.

7/18-Hit the 160's!

7/28-Wore a swimsuit and felt good in it.

9/22-Hit the low 160's!

9/24-Got a personal trainer.

10/21-25 pounds off!

10/28-Wearing a size 8!”

Many articles have been written about the numbers not being used as the sole measure of our progress. Yet, we can still hinge our feelings, hopes, and dreams on whether or not that digital reading climbs just a bit too high. We can walk away feeling like a champion or feeling like our efforts were for naught. Progress can, and should be measured in many ways.

As I began taken care of my body, my changes were not only physical. They were mental, emotional, and even spiritual. Improvement in one area led to improvements in others. And I would not have been able to appreciate that if I had not made the conscious decision to ‘make it all count’. I knew there were going to be times that I faltered and made mistakes. But, I also wanted to highlight the positive choices that I was determined to make outweigh those times.

The entry above was copied from a profile that I have kept for over three years. Yes, I logged when my weight changed, but I also logged changes in how I felt about myself, and I took notes of actions that I that were associated with feeling better about myself. I remember clearly wearing a simple one-piece swimsuit to the waterpark and feeling comfortable. I did not wear a shirt, I was not tugging on my suit. I did not give my body a second thought. That, in itself, was a reward.

Here are a couple of ways to monitor your progress:

1. Scale Down

The scale is definitely a helpful tool. But it does not account for changes in one’s body composition—weight, be it muscle or fat, is just weight. And if anyone can point me to a reliable digital bodyfat scale, please let me know. According to my scale, I am at around 30%, even when preparing for a figure competition. I have used my scale to identify trends. For example, I know that I weigh about 1-1.5 pounds more in the evening than in the morning. The reading is about 3 pounds more after a moderate carbohydrate day, and 5 pounds after a high carbohydrate day. While this information does not as mean much during the off-season, it is helpful to know during certain cycles in my training. I am currently using to track my average ‘off-season’ weight and compare it to last year.
2. Picture This

I have found progress pictures to be an accurate and motivating measure of change and progress. Taking photos regularly can keep you accountable. Some tips to make your progress pictures work for you are:
-Pose in a similar fashion in each photo series. This is allows you to see, for example, if your back is getting wider or your glutes are finally rounding out like you would like.
-Wear gymwear that reveals the parts that you are trying to improve. I took my first pictures in tights and a sports bra. I did not like the photos, at all. In fact, there were difficult to look at. But the image forced me to take serious action and responsibility. It was exciting to take pictures in the same outfit and see definitive improvement.
-Crop off your head, if you are shy about showing your face or concerned about privacy.
-Find a neutral, well-lit space to shoot. A blank or plain wall makes an excellent background. You can also crop out extraneous areas so the picture just focuses on your physique.
-Use your camera’s timer feature. Set up you camera on a stable surface facing your blank or plain wall. Turn on the time and get into the position. It does take a few minutes to get the shots that you want but it is worth it. This is my kind way of saying, “Let us move away from shooting photos in the mirror.”
- Label your photos. This makes it easier to create comparison photos later. Including information such as: what show you are prepping for, dates, weight, nutritional information, weeks out, etc. can make those photos invaluable to you in the future. You can analyze, for example, when you looked your best and become better at ‘reading’ your body.
3. For All Intensive Measures

Sometimes you may think you may have hit a plateau. It could seem that way if you are just taking the scale at face value. Find out where you have gained or loss, you may be surprised at your overall a progress.

4. Performance: Bravo!

If you have been keeping a blog, log, or informal notes have you noticed that you are able to increase your weights, sets, repetitions, do longer intervals, run faster, finally finish your DVD workout series? These are all indicators of improvement that can be noted.

5. Attitude

Has your attitude about changing changed in a positive way? Or are you at least willing to train even if the bed is calling your name. Have you discovered that if plans change or you have an engagement, you figure out a strategy to train at a different time or venue? You may have found that you are becoming increasingly disciplined in other areas in your life or have a newfound or renewed since of confidence and self. Now, fitness has nestled itself into your life. It is not an extraneous activity or a chore. It is what you do.

6. The ‘Eyes’ Have It

Take a look in the mirror. Give yourself a full assessment. Try not to worry about how other’s have changed in a similar period of time. Focus on what you have accomplished and what you will accomplish.

7. Crucial Conflict

Unfortunately, the adoption of new habits can come with some conflict. When doing something as drastic as a fitness overhaul you will have your cheerleaders and there will be those who are less understanding. I remember being asked why I wanted to look like a man. And I was told that I looked ‘sickly’ and ‘skinny’. I was even told that I was ‘obsessed’. My food has been snickered at and I have been told that it smells. On some occasions I cannot deny that (I will never take mashed cauliflower to work, again.). If you are able to stick to your regiment despite opposition that is progress.

The next that you feel like ‘nothing is happening’ because of what you see on the scale, try taking inventory in a different way.

Kassandre Harper-Cotton is a freelance writer and a figure competitior. Read more about Kassandre and her transformation journey.

Learn These 5 Steps to Reach Your Full Potential

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:22:00 +0000

If you're not moving forward, you're moving backward. Complacency kills and familiarity breeds contempt. Yet for many life becomes seeking security and safety, or as Pink Floyd puts it, becoming comfortably numb. But if life is anything at all it's about reaching our highest imaginable potential, or achieving what Abraham Maslow described as self actualization in his famous paper "A Theory on Motivation".

Where do you sit in the self actualization hierarchy? Be honest, because the answer has everything to do with the satisfaction you achieve in life. To reach the highest point of Maslow's hierarchy is to achieve our greatest expectation of self.

When we talk about goal setting, we're usually describing some personal attempt to move up the needs hierarchy, and how high we aim for has mostly to do with personal motivation and the sense that our lower needs have been fulfilled.

And that's the catch.

Too many people get caught up in the lower hierarchy levels in a state of need. It's important to note that, as we move up the needs hierarchy, we progress from filling our own needs toward helping to fill the needs of others. Helping others is, in effect, the key to self actualization!

So how do we make this progression up the needs hierarchy? Below lists 5 important ways:

1) Define your highest calling

This is very personal and unique to each individual. Be your own CEO, define your personal self actualization based on what's important to you, not on what will please or impress others, including significant others. What personal gifts do you have to give away that will improve other's lives?

2) Quit wallowing in the self

That's the stuff at the bottom of the hierarchy. Abandon self pity. Love what you once thought of as discomfort. Accept that you're not supposed to be loved by everyone. Quit pretending life should be perfect. Maintain faith that ,as you grow in helping others, your basic needs will be fulfilled.

3) Gain necessary skills

As Steven Covey says, sharpen the saw. Gain the skills necessary for your self actualization. Read. Take classes. Get certifications and degrees. Speak on the subject. Write on the subject. Begin teaching others. Practice, practice, practice.

4) Set SMART goals

Set goals for your self actualization that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time sensitive. Write them down, put them on your refrigerator, live by them. Achieving these goals are literally the difference between a fulfilled life and an unfulfilled life.

5) Focus on goals, not on obstacles

Obstacles are what we see when we lose sight of the goal. Obstacles do not stop those who love their goals and their vision of self actualization. Love your goals more than you hate the obstacles by a factor of 10 and you will smash through any barrier.

We only get one shot at life. We owe it to ourselves and to those around us to be our best possible selves by overcoming our personal needs and by growing to serve others with our unique, personal talents.

Wake up Call

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:50:00 +0000

Have you ever had a life wake up call? I had mine this week.

It seems that I've had a defect since birth that has slowly been destroying my left kidney over the course of my lifetime. I've known for a while that something wasn't right as the condition worsened and began revealing itself. So when the test results came in this week I was prepared for bad news.

It turns out that I have almost no remaining function from the left kidney, and options are limited. The good news is that my right kidney appears healthy and up to carrying the full load. The better news is that I have a new, evolving perspective on life.

My situation isn't life threatening, but it hit home hard anyway. For over five decades I've taken my health and fitness seriously, but I've also taken it for granted. I'm the man of steel. Indestructible. Something like major organ failure happens to someone else, not to me. I conquer the weight room, run bike and swim great distances, scale mountains. I'm invulnerable.

Wrong, dude.

I'm lucky because I have a backup kidney, but this is a close call beyond comfort. If a kidney can fail, so can something less dispensable like a heart, a brain, a liver, a central nervous system. It's a notification that we all walk the thin edge with our health, and even our very best efforts at living right provides no guarantees, and that each new dawn with a healthy body is a gift, not a right.

While it's easy to feel dismay and self pity, and to be sure I've had some of that, I'm thinking now of those who have had it much worse than me; my high school friend that overcame testicular cancer, a college friend that overcame colon cancer, former NBA star Wayman Tisdale who lost his leg, and then his life to cancer, the inspiration I got years ago from reading Lance Armstrong's book "It's Not About the Bike".

And even more, I've thought about my Dad, who's almost 80, still goes to work every day, and has had both his large colon and his prostate removed without missing a beat. More than that, he still gets excited every day about what he's working on and seems to continue milking the most from every single day.

I have a client who two years ago at a fairly young age had a sudden brain hemorrhage that almost took her life. After 24 months and two brain surgeries she was cleared to become physically active again and has been working out with me at Omni-Fit for about two months. Her resilience and determination has been impressive, and I think now I understand why our paths crossed - she was sent to me as a helpful message about what was about to come in my own life and how to deal with it, and I'm grateful for that.

So the surgeries start for me this coming week, if all goes well I'll only have two of them, and then? In the past I may have said that I'll return to a normal life, but I realize now what a shame that would be. This humbling experience would be a waste if I didn't learn more from it, that life is a gift, that we get one shot, and that it can be over in a blink, without warning, and maybe that leading a normal life isn't acceptable anymore.

Thank God for wake up calls.

Health and Fitness Evangelism - Share the Love

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Other people – people you may care deeply about – need you to get them started on their own personal health and fitness journey. As a member of the fitness community you will have an obligation to share the love with others.

In his classic book The Tipping Point on viral networking (a great book, by the way), author Malcolm Gladwell describes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable”. Gladwell leverages the tipping point concept from physics and applies it to how ideas travel and become accepted in a society. In physics, the tipping point describes how a relatively small amount of weight added to a balanced object can cause it to suddenly and completely topple.

We need to completely topple society’s existing paradigms regarding health and fitness, and it starts with each one of us going out among our friends, our families, our neighbors, and our associates and informing them that, regardless of their past or of their current situation, few limitations exist on our ability to realize the greatest levels of health, fitness, and strength that we’ve ever known.

So where does change come from? It starts with you. Begin by providing an example through your actions. Become a fitness expert, workout hard at least four times a week, be disciplined in your diet and nutrition intake, improve your strength, improve your endurance, and improve your flexibility. Let your friends, family and loved ones see the change in you (and they will see change). Then tell them how you’re doing it, pass the knowledge along, challenge them, support them, bug the crap out them to change also.

It’s important to recognize that love is a verb, meaning love isn’t something you have or even feel, love is something you do, for yourself and for others. So the first act of love is for you, giving yourself the gift of health and fitness. An important inspiration in your own journey should be the desire to change yourself in order to help those you love. With motivation, the first element is that you must have deep passion for your goal. What deeper passion can you have than love for yourself and love for those around you?

We can’t give a greater, move valuable, more loving gift than good health and fitness. Think of all the material possessions you own in the world, what are they worth to you when compared to health, when compared to feeling the very best you can feel. So if you wanted to give a gift to the people you love and care about in this world, give them the gift of health and well being.

7 Reasons Why Workouts Fail You

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:19:00 +0000

While literally millions of people workout, very few realize true workout success. Most dabble in the gym on and off, never getting results. They quit working out, usually under a myriad of excuses along the lines of being too busy or of disappointment that "they're just not seeing results". Below are seven common reasons why workouts fail:

1) No clear goals - If you can't measure it you can't manage it. Too many people head into the gym with either no thought of what they're trying to accomplish or vague goals of "losing weight" and "toning up".

What to do: Be specific and write it down. If the goal is weight loss or body fat loss, identify how many pounds or the target weight, the time element, and what you'll do every day to make it happen. If it's muscle gain, identify things like desired bicep and chest measurements or one-rep max increases.

2) Motivation is missing - motivation has two key elements: a) possessing a goal that is deeply meaningful to you, and b) feeling mostly in control of the outcome. If motivation is missing from your workouts, examine these two factors and identify what's missing. Why do you care about your goals? Do you feel you can make them happen or do you need help?

What to do: take stock of why you started working out and make sure the cause matters to you, and especially that you're doing it for yourself and not because someone else thinks you should. Also, if you feel frustrated or even helpless about your ability to achieve the desired workout outcome, get help from a personal trainer and/or a nutritionist.

3) Fear of discomfort - let's face it, success in transforming your body requires some discomfort. This can be pushing weights until your muscles fail, upping cardio to uncharted heart rate territory, and dieting when the body tells you it must eat. Many people fail in their workouts for the simple reason that they can't overcome discomfort.

What to do: discomfort is only a state of mind. Learn to recognize discomfort as only a mental barrier to your goal. Love your goal more than you dislike the discomfort.

4) Workout uncertainty: in sports they say that a cloudy head makes for slow feet. With working out, especially in a gym, uncertainty about what exercise to do and about proper form can result in a tentative approach that lacks the intensity required for improvement and progression toward a goal.

What to do: don't go it alone, get the help of a professional trainer and then become a student of how to work out. Like anything else, the more you study it, understand it, and practice it, the better you'll become at it and the faster you'll improve. This usually results in increased enjoyment too.

5) No passion for results - high achievers in the gym get jacked up about results that can be in the form of increased muscle strength, increased muscle size, and increased muscle endurance. Those that fail in the gym usually lack a vision of their future physical states and a burning desire to realize positive change

What to do: visual imagery can be a very powerful force. Look at fitness magazines or fitness sites and find examples of what you want to look like. One great site for this is BodySpace on Bodybuilding.com. Learn what it takes to achieve the look you're after, visualize yourself looking like that and then only do things that will get you there.

6) Missing the diet equation - whatever your reason for working out, you won't get there without the proper diet and nutrition. And absolutely don't make the mistake that "cardio" will effectively substitute for diet discipline because it won't. Depending on your goal you'll need a specific calorie target and the correct mix of lean protein, low-glycemic carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

What to do: study some good books on diet and nutrition, especially related to fitness. Better yet, to get jump started hire a nutritionist or a good personal trainer that can teach you the right ways to eat and strategies for managing you diet under the stress of every day life.

7) Making workouts drudgery instead of uplifting fun - if it's not fun you won't do it. Too often people see their workouts as a kind of punishment for being out of shape, and that workouts are to be endured rather than celebrated.

What to do: Make workouts your personal time to get away from life's stresses and to work up a great endorphin release. Workout in a place you like to be in. This could be in the gym or in the garage. If you don't like your gym, shop around for one that feels like someplace you look forward to being at. View your workouts as a fun investment in yourself where you get to move closer to that future "you".

Improve Your Physique with Muscle Balance and Flexibility

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:11:00 +0000

We tend to think of our skeletal systems as what keeps us upright and erect, after all they’re the most rigid part of our bodies. But it’s our muscles, not our skeletal system that makes this happen. In fact, our skeletal system is simply the framework that our muscles attach to in order to work.

To be sure, our bone health is critically important, and an added benefit to resistance training is increased bone density, but our skeletons, and thus our bodies, are nothing without a very strong, flexible muscle base.

Yoga instructors often talk about not “settling into your joints” meaning that our muscles should carry our weight, not our joints. This is really a key concept in understanding the importance of a strong muscle base. For most of us, our joints have several decades of use on them, and if our muscle base is allowed to decline then the joints must bear more weight, stress, and wear.

Conversely, when our muscles are strong they act to “lift” our body weight off of the joints and we in fact become more fluid, graceful, and physically capable of doing whatever we want to do for many, many years – and we also then put less wear and tear on our joints.

Try it, stand up right now with your normal posture. Now act as if you have a string attached to the top of your head and someone is pulling up on it, lifting the weight off of your feet. Do you feel it? It’s awesome, you can literally feel the weight coming off of your joints and your posture aligning more straightly, it feels like the force of gravity is reduced.

Now imagine if all your muscles were twice as strong as they are now what it would feel like. Imagine how much less wear and tear you’d have on your spine and on all of your weight-bearing joints. It should make you feel like you want to get in the gym and start working.

It’s important to think of our bodies as one complete, holistic muscle system. For example, when we walk or run, think of how the leg moves us forward. It’s really not separate leg muscles acting independently, it’s a beautiful, incredibly complex combination beginning with the glutes connecting to your lower back and your upper thigh, your hamstring running down below your knee, your calve running from above your knee to the back of your foot, and your foot muscles running from your heel up to the ball of your foot.

Get up right now and walk around. Feel that you have many muscles combining as one complete system from your lower back to the ball of your foot that all work together as one. Now think of your entire body as one system. When we strengthen all parts of the system, the entire body moves better, this is key to understanding the importance of muscle strength.

And so like any system, balance and harmony is critical, and your muscle strength and flexibility must be balanced to work at its best. That’s because for every muscle we have an opposite muscle or muscle group to balance it out. A muscle can contract by shortening, or it can slow the speed of movement by elongating at a controlled rate. So if a muscle wants to contract but its opposite muscle is shorter or weaker, things can get screwed up. Other muscles may have to get involved, extra stress may be placed on the joints. When you apply that to, say, your shoulders or your lower back, it becomes very important to incorporate a) stretching and flexibility, and b) balanced strength and muscle development.

Most of the joints in our bodies are stabilized and controlled by groups of muscles, often referred to as muscle complexes. They all work together, sometimes firing together, sometimes firing in synchronized ways where they hand off stress and load in wonderfully coordinated ways. And like any system or chain, muscle complexes are only as strong as their weakest link, and very often injuries causing inflammation or outright muscle or tendon tears comes from these imbalances, where a stronger muscle overpowers a weaker or a less flexible muscle, or the stress “handoff” from a strong muscle overpowers a weaker muscle.

So the key message here is balance and flexibility – make sure your muscle development incorporates all aspects of movement range so that all parts of your body are strong, not just the showy stuff like biceps and chest, but also key areas like the rear deltoids (back shoulder) and core stabilizers, and that stretching and flexibility not only hit obvious areas like calves and hamstrings, but also includes less obvious areas like hip flexors and pectorals.

This takes practice! Do some homework here and/or do some yoga classes because an entire book could be written on this subject -I’m only trying to make you aware of its importance.

Neglect muscle balance and flexibility and you not only risk injury, more importantly you won’t get the most out of your incredibly beautiful muscular system – it’s one of life’s great gifts!

Fitness over Fifty: Three Myths Exploded

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:37:00 +0000

The famed baby boomer generation is now aged between 46 and 64, so shortly this entire post-WWII demographic bubble will be over 50. And they're in horrible physical shape.

The luxuries that the baby boomers have created for themselves are mostly their downfall; rich, plentiful calorie and fat-laden diets along with a generally sedentary lifestyle have combined to create an unhealthy populace characterized by extreme physical limitations and multiple diseases.

Diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer are three deadly conditions that can all be directly related to baby boomer's unhealthy lifestyles. These conditions will multiply as the baby boomer generation continues aging, imparting staggering health costs on our already over burdened health system.

Additionally, out-of-shape baby boomers create significant limitations on their ability to enjoy life by lacking muscle and cardiovascular strength and endurance. Their bodies can't act on their desires, and life quality goes down in a self-perpetuating spiral of inactivity and continued physical decline.

This is tragic for both individual baby boomers and for society because it doesn't have to be this way. Several myths exist about fitness over 50 contributing to a sense of resignation that, once the half-century threshold has been crossed, nothing much can be done to improve physical ability. Part of this comes from our youth-oriented popular culture, while much of it unfortunately comes from baby boomers themselves as an excuse for inaction.

Following are three of these myths about fitness over 50. Anyone in the fitness industry should take interest in this huge demographic swath and work to smash these myths, we owe it to baby boomers as part of our profession, and we owe it to society as part of our humanity.

Myth #1 - I can't add significant muscle mass. Yes, it's true that as we age and particularly above age 50 that free testosterone levels decline in both men and in women. Since free testosterone provides the key for muscle building, naturally we can't hold as much muscle mass at 50 as we did at 30. But while free testosterone declines after 50, it by no means goes away. In fact, research shows that free testosterone increases with hard, vigorous exercise, especially with resistance training.

This is where lifting heavy as part of a workout rotation becomes important. And while baby boomer's who've been sedentary for long periods need to work into this over several months, the truth is people over 50 can indeed add very significant lean muscle mass provided they're willing to work hard in the weight room.

Myth #2 - I can't lose my body fat. Ever wonder why so many baby boomers over 50 are overweight? As we age our metabolism slows and we don't need as many calories. Unfortunately, many baby boomers continue consuming the same number of calories post 50 as when they were 25.

It has nothing to do with an inability to burn and to lose fat when over 50, we just need to consume fewer calories. And not only do seniors need to drop calorie levels, they also need to eat the right things. With a lower calorie intake, we have fewer food units to get the necessary nutrients, including lean meats, low-glycemic carbohydrates, and healthy fats. This is where a transition to clean eating becomes critical.

Myth #3 - I'm going to hurt mself. While getting in shape after 50 must be built in layers depending on the individual, done right the risk of injury is minimal and not really any different that someone much younger.

This is where core strength, posture, balance, and flexibility become increasingly important. And although these factors are important for any age group, they're especially critical for those over 50. But if done as part of an ongoing fitness goal set, and if exercises are done properly with correct form, the chance for injury during exercise is low. The added benefit, or course, is that baby boomers will be significantly less injury prone in real life as a result of their work in the gym.

So don't ever let anyone say they're too old to get back into shape, look at the inspirational proof existing all around us showing just what incredible results can be acheived. Do your baby boomer friends, family, and loved ones a favor by forwarding this to them. And if you're a baby boomer yourself, quit making excuses and get with the program. Not only will all baby boomers be better off and live better lives, society as a whole will benefit too, what a gift.

Bodybuilding.com - The Fitness Industry's Best Friend

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:34:00 +0000

I recently had the privilege of being selected Bodybuilding.com Personal Trainer of the Month, which will probably go up on the site late summer or early fall. I don't take this honor lightly coming from the electronic fitness industry's mecca.

If you're into fitness but not into Bodybuilding.com you should be. People ask me fitness and nutrition related questions all of the time, and when I can't answer their questions with the level of precision I set my standards by, I go to bb.c for my research. With literally tens of thousands of published pages and thousands of videos, no other single source in the world provides more information on fitness and nutrition.

So not only can you get information, you can get great prices and incredible service on supplements, and you can also participate in the world's largest on-line fitness community, bodyspace, where you can interact, network, and build relationships with hundreds of thousands of fitness enthusiasts. Go to bodyspace and after you create your own profile be sure to check my profile.

As a thanks to my readers and followers at Omni-Fit, here's a sneak preview of the Q&A that will go up for my Bodybuilding.com Trainer of the Month profile:

Could you tell us a little about your background - personally and professionally?
I’ve been a gym rat since about age 13 but pursued a professional, corporate career for over 20 years. I hold a BA in Finance and an MBA, and have served as an adjunct professor of marketing at Boise State University. But fitness, working out, and, more recently, nutrition have always been my passion. I’ve always been the guy that people come to for advice on health and fitness. In addition to lifting, I’ve been involved in competitive running, cycling, triathlon, and duathlon for the past 15 years.
When and why did you become a trainer?
This past year I decided to make my passion a full-time pursuit. I left my position as marketing director for bodybuilding.com, got my NASM CPT, and launched Omni-Fit last fall. I purchased a training facility in February and have started a blog, www.omni-fit.blogpsot.com. I became a trainer because I love health and fitness and I love mentoring, coaching, and motivating people to achieve their goals.

What is your training style? What methods do you use?
I emphasize core strength along with posture and balance, then radiate out to incorporate functional strength of all body parts. I like to use dumbbells as opposed to machines and barbells as they’re easier on joints and best mimic real-life loads. Client workouts are based on their own past and present physicality coupled with their goals and lifestyle activities.

Do you have examples of success stories from clients using your methods?
I have multiple clients who have lost in excess of 20 pounds while increasing muscle strength, endurance, and size. I have other clients who have gained significant muscle strength and size. Additionally, I have clients who have made big improvements in their balance, posture, and functional strength. Most importantly, I have clients who have gained self confidence and self esteem and now see themselves in a more positive light.

What are the most common mistakes a client makes?
The biggest mistake is blowing off the diet, thinking that the workout, and especially cardio, is sufficient to lose weight. Unfortunately in our society people are programmed to eat badly.

The second biggest mistake is viewing training and diet as a “program” to be endured for some set time and then they’re done. I try to instill lifestyle change in all of my clients, this is not a “90-Day Fat Blaster” program, this is how you need to live from here on out for the rest of your life.

Lastly, a common client mistake is thinking they can get in shape and change their body composition in a few weeks. Popular culture aids in allowing people to believe that effortless quick fixes exist, when in fact it takes significant sustained effort over an extended time period.

What are the most common mistakes you believe a trainer makes?
I think many trainers aren’t insistent enough on proper form. When targeting muscles through resistance training, form means everything. I like the saying “it’s how, not how much”. That said, however, I also believe many trainers are hesitant to work low-rep, heavy lifting into the workout cycle, which has real benefits to the client when done right.

Beyond that, I also think some trainers don’t spend enough time understanding their client’s motivation sources and leveraging that to bring focus, intensity, and meaning into the workout.

Do you set your clients up with a full diet plan?
Absolutely, diet and nutrition play a huge part in body composition change, especially for those seeking significant body fat reduction. I set daily caloric targets to create the required deficit, provide examples of what their meals look like, and information on quality carbs with a low glycemic load. I also have my clients maintain a diet journal that I provide which helps accountability and thinking before they eat. For anyone, however, quality calories intake is critical to give their bodies the fuel and building blocks for fitness success.

How do you keep your clients motivated?
One of the biggest ways a trainer makes their client successful is by understanding the root cause of their motivation, then constantly reminding them about why what they’re doing is important to them. Clients need to love their goals for personal and intrinsic reasons, otherwise they won’t stay with the program.

Additionally, clients need to believe they can achieve at a high level, that pushing past the comfort zone is how we progress. Also related to motivation is the fun factor. I want my clients to see their time at Omni-Fit as the best part of their day so they’re excited to come in, so we keep it very upbeat and positive.

Do you train a male client differently to a female?
That depends more on the individual than on the gender, but typically females are more interested in body fat loss and males are more interested in building strength and muscle mass. These differing goals and motivation sources definitely lead to different training approaches. However, it’s most important to note that different training approaches have less to do with gender and more to do just with how all people are different.
How do you start a client on a new program? Do you do some kind of assessment?
Yes, I spend time talking with the new clients and reviewing where they have (or have not) been in their lives physically. The first couple of sessions then are about observing the client in a comprehensive workout routine and matching these observations with assumptions from the verbal review. From this, I can then fine-tune the workouts to optimize time spent in the workout. Additionally, we capture body stats, most importantly body fat composition, this is typically one of the most important metrics we manage.

Do you prefer to train male or female clients and why?
No preference at all, each individual is uniquely satisfying to work with regardless of gender.

Do you feel just as much like a psychologist as you do a personal trainer?
Not on the same level, but psychology is a big part of the job. A trainer needs to understand what motivations have brought the client in, and then play those motivations to drive the client to success. So much of this has to do with building self esteem and a sense of self mastery. To stay motivated, clients must truly feel they can have an impact on their goals, and a good trainer helps lead them down this path.

What’s next for you and for Omni-Fit?
First, I want to continue growing the client base and begin bringing on additional trainers, teaching them to handle clients “The Omni-Fit Way”, with world-class customer service.

Second, I plan to continue growing my blog following and evolve into providing fitness information products to help people improve their lives.

Lastly, I plan to continue having a blast doing what I love; helping people lead better lives through health and fitness.

Refiguring 50: 10 Ways to Stay Young

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:44:00 +0000

As a personal trainer and a life-long fitness geek, I get asked a lot about the secrets to "fitness over 50". While that answer could go on for days, here's a boiled down version of the top seven factors:

1) Think young, be young

Our thoughts become our actions. Taken another step, the vision we have of who we are leads to what we will be. Think young thoughts. Be unafraid to take chances physically. No, don't do anything stupid, but you can still challenge yourself to be on the edge physically. I recently read about an 87 year old San Antonio man who plays softball and competes in track events, and he's going for the age-group pole vault world record. Do you supposed he thinks of himself as "too old"? He proves that we can continue pushing ourselves physically well past 50, and it has to start with thinking young.

2) Get ultra-lean:

Lose the body fat. And I don't mean ridiculous stuff like "I want to lose 10 pounds", or "gee, I'd like to be around 20% body fat". No, get serious about it and get ultra-lean, 15% should be the absolute tops, but really more like 10% - 12%. Extra body fat does nothing but slow us down, restrict our movements, and hide all of that beautiful muscle that makes a great physique.

3) Diet discipline isn't an option:

You could goof-off about your diet when you were younger; you can't anymore. Our bodies need fewer calories after 50, but especially with vigorous exercise we need the right macro and micro nutrients more than ever. This means the only thing passing your lips has been scrutinized and passes the "clean eating". specifically low-fat protein from fish and from chicken, complex, low-glycemic carbohydrates from vegetables and from fruits, and healthy fats from nuts and fish oil. It also means portion-control discipline and not exceeding daily calorie targets.

4) Visualize movement perfection:

Mind over matter. We've developed significant mental focus and concentration abilities by age 50 that can be applied to exercise form. Mechanics and economy of motion can allow us to get the absolute most from workouts and physical activities. Study correct form and work with a qualified personal trainer when necessary, then visualize the proper movement and make it happen. This allows getting the most from each workout and each rep while minimizing the chance of injury.

5) Bend, don't break:

It's unfortunately true that as we age muscles and connective tissues can lose their flexibility, which can limit range of motion and potentially lead to injury. If you don't know how to stretch, learn. If you do know how to stretch, put it into use. Seriously consider taking yoga classes, the benefits list is lengthy with injury prevention at the top of that list. Many existing physical ailments regarding joints and muscles can be corrected simply by stretching and by becoming more limber

6) Lift heavy:

If you want to make gains in lean muscle mass and to generally progress, lifting heavy on a regular basis becomes a requirement. And this is just as true for women as it is for men (no ladies, you absolutely will not end up "looking like that"). We begin losing muscle mass naturally well before 50, and working heavy lifting into the rotation is the best way to restore or even to improve our lean muscle mass composition. Try 4 sets of 8 reps with a load that forces failure about halfway through the final set. Except don't settle for failure! Push your limits and achieve that extra 1-2 reps beyond what you thought was possible.

7) Mix it up:

It's been said that familiarity breeds contempt. With workouts this is true for both our minds and for our bodies. Just about anything done repetitively can get stale and mentally we get bored with it. Additionally, our bodies have a way of getting comfortable with the routine and will stop improving. Shake it up! Change exercises, change order, changes reps and sets, change your lifting v. cardio mix for a week, do bootcamp for a month. It doesn't matter much what you change, it matters a lot just that you change.

8) Train hard, rest harder:

Rest is important for anyone training or physically active, but it's imperative for the over 50 set. Our bodies don't improve while we train, our bodies improve after we train during rest. Maybe more important is that rest allows us to re-charge so we can go at the next workout harder than the last workout. Great workouts yielding the most benefit have a competitive intensity to them, rest up so you can give it all you've got. Everyone's different, but after age 50 a typical week could be 4 days on and 3 days off with the mix determined by your personal needs and schedule.

9) Use your age to your advantage:

You've lived half a century and have considerable wisdom and maturity that comes along with all of that. Apply the skills, mental maturity, and disciplines you've acquired over the years to your advantage. Set fitness goals and apply your considerable tactical life skills toward getting them accomplished. Manage your workouts schedule and your diet the same way you'd apply professional discipline to anything in your life, it's your biggest advantage v. the younger set!

10) Make it fun:

When my daughter was growing up she had a sign on her bedroom door for years that read "if it's not fun, why do it?" Good advice. We've spent enough time in our lives doing things we don't like to do, make fitness a fun hobby. Sure, work hard at it, but be playful at the same time. Workouts are your time to do with as you wish, it's your blank slate - do it your way and make it enjoyable! And what could be more enjoyable than making your mind and body healthy through physical activity and a clean diet?

Omni-Fit Interviews Chantayn Winner

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:24:00 +0000

Hey everyone, hope you're having a fantastic day! Earlier this week I had the privilege of interviewing figure competitor Chantayn Winner when she stopped by Omni-Fit to check the place out and to talk fitness, you can see the interview at the below link:

Omni-Fit Chantayn Winner Interview

Chantayn's success has led to her becoming well known in the community not only for her success on stage but also for her commitment to health and fitness. If you didn't know, figure competition isn't Chantayn's full-time pursuit, she's also a wife, a mother, and a professional, serving as Relationship Banking Officer for Bank of the Cascades in Boise. That makes Chantayn one of "us" in that she must work gym time and diet management into her already busy schedule. And Chantayn's results, including taking first place in her division two years in a row at the Northwest Naturals, prove that her approach works.

We all know how things like our workouts and our diets can get squeezed by our real priorities in life, and Chantayn is no different than the rest of us. She manages her commitment to fitness through planning, organization and by getting up early for her workouts. This is a sterling example for anyone seeking a healthier life; that it doesn't always come easily, that no quick-fix solutions exist, and that results are only achieved through hard work in the gym and through disciplined adherence to our diets.

You may or may not aspire to compete, but people like Chantayn play in important role in inspiring people to lead a healthier life through fitness, and providing and example that discipline and commitment are the keys to any successful fitness plan.

For more on Chantayn, go to her website at:

http://www.chantayn.com/

Great Day at Omni-Fit in Boise

noreply@blogger.com (John Shumate) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:35:00 +0000

Interesting how we all vary in our daily performance, as a personal trainer at Omni-Fit in Boise http://www.omni-fit.com/ I have the chance to see a lot of people regularly over a long period of time. Invariably I see the ups and downs people have, some days sharp and intense, other days maybe not so sharp.

As personal trainers, a big part of our job is to pump people up and keep them motivated. I think the best way to do this is to constantly remind people of their goals, and to focus on their goals and not on the obstacles. That's a key part of motivation, that people not only believe in the importance of their goals, but also they believe in their own ability to make the goals happen.

Life can be a grind on some days, workouts should be a break from he grind, not a contributor to the grind. People can realize an uplift from their workouts by using it as a life dimension where they feel in control of the outcome, and if their workday or family day didn't go that way, at least their workout can. As personal trainers we must always remind clients of the importance and relevance of their goals along with reminding them that during their hour-long session they are in control. Make it a great day!