Fitness Facts

Strength Training for a Better Body Transformation - Fitness Fact #21

Strength training is essential for burning fat and calories.  The more lean muscle tissue you have, the more calories and fat your body burns, period.  Many people have lost weight with calorie restrictive diets, but without building muscle through some type of strenth training, they end up losing muscle along with fat.

Strength training is also very good for your bone density.  As we grow older, our bones lose density from not being stressed enough, similar to the way our muscles atrophy from lack of use.

Strength training will give you the shape you want.  It is impossible to lose fat in certain spots simply from dieting.  People often suggest they'd like to lose, "this," as they grab or point to a certain part of their body that's larger than they prefer.  By working all of your muscles and by having your muscles grow, your fat storage will decrease and your muscles will begin to appear more defined.

To change the shape of your body, use strength training to transform your body into a calorie burning machine.  It's important to progressively increase the resistance as your muscles get stronger and to work hard enough to reach muscle failure during every workout.

How Body Transformation Fitness Programs Work - Fitness Fact #20

Body transformation fitness programs bring together all of the elements needed to acheive results.  Without the help of a fitness program that brings it all together, most people will give up and return to their previous habits before they realize the benefits of a healthier life-style.

Larger fitness centers and health clubs work well for those who are self-motivated and already have healthy nutrition habits.  Their already healthy habits will allow them to quickly improve their physical conditioning and appearance within a few short months since this group of people isn't likely to be more than a few pounds away from their ideal body weight.

Weight loss centers are also available to provide nutrition advice, meal planning, and sometimes even complete systems of pre-packaged meals to remove any possibility of error.  Some people appreciate the simplicity and convenience of these systems, but others who like to prepare food, enjoy a wider variety or like to dine in restaurants may find these systems overly restrictive.  

People who are drawn to diet centered weight loss centers tend to be looking for a solution that doesn't require exercise.  Without exercise, however, participants are far less likely to make the permanent habit changes needed for lasting results, and will miss out on the benefits of improved strength and endurance.

Ambitious and creative individuals may be tempted to replicate the all inclusive program by combining a workout program with a separate nutrition program.  In most cases, the available nutrition programs won't make appropriate accomodations for the workout load, and without the guidance of someone well versed in the additional nutrition needed to support the exercise load, dieting can backfire by increasing injury risk and creating an unhealthy calorie deficit that hinders, rather than helps, weight loss efforts.

Accountability is another important factor.  A personal trainer or a work-out partner are popular and highly successful methods of making sure a workout plan is followed.  It's harder to skip a workout appointment when someone else is expecting you.

Body transformation fitness programs bring nutrition, exercise and accountability together in one package, which has a powerful impact on each participant's liklihood of success.  Workouts are pre-planned and progress in a manner that helps each participant make steady progress toward better endurance, flexibility, strength, agility, balance and coordination.   

Top 4 Reasons Fitness Transformation Beats Dieting - Fitness Fact #17

Are you currently following the latest, greatest new diet plan?  Do you know someone who is?  Two thirds of americans are overweight, and the trend is moving even higher.  Up to 50% of women and 25% of men are dieting.  95% of successful dieters will regain all of the lost weight within five years.

Dieting doesn't work.

The good news is that fitness transformation does work.  Here are a few of the reasons why:

Feelings about food.  Diets typically restrict certain foods, sometimes entire food groups, and they teach us to feel negatively about our food intake.  Food is fuel.  Calories are crucial to our health and survival.  A good meal planning strategy is one that can be followed permanently without causing us to feel deprived or guilty.  

Weight Loss won't change the shape of your body.  It's not possible to lose fat in one targeted area of your body.  Fat is distributed on our bodies in certain genetically mandated patterns, and those patterns will remain consistent regardless of whether we're carrying an extra fifteen pounds of fat or an extra fifty pounds of fat.  If you want to improve your posture and impact the shape of your body, building lean muscle is far superior to dieting and weight loss alone.

A skinny body is not necessarily a healthy body.  Heavier people are at increased risk for heart disease and high blood pressure, but skinny doesn't automatically mean healthy.  Many people who fit easily into the 'healthy' BMI range for their height are still at risk for disease and injury due to their poor condition.  If you're lucky, dieting might help you get smaller, but it's not likely to make a significant improvement in your overall health.  Eating well and exercising are important factors in the overall wellness of every individual, regardless of their size.

Building lean muscle improves your metabolism.  A pound of muscle uses more energy than a pound of fat, even when it isn't working.  This means that a 175lb person with 15% body fat will use more calories than a 175lb person with 25% body fat whether they're watching television or running on a treadmill.

Benefits of Group Fitness Classes - Fitness Fact #16

If you want to improve your fitness level, group exercise classes are a great way to get results from your workouts.  Whether your fitness goals are gaining strength, increased endurance or complete body transformation, group fitness classes are the best option for many people.
Here are some of the benefits of group exercise:

Motivation:  A little encouragement from the instructor or fellow classmate can help you keep up your level of workout intensity.  A good group fitness class should provide a very positive atmosphere.

Competition:  Healthy competition helps most people deliver their best effort.  Challenging a workout buddy can help you both do more than you would have done on your own.

Community:  Enduring a challenging workout together is a great way to develop new friendships.

Accountability:  When you’re part of an exercise group, others will know when you miss a workout.  You’ll be less likely to skip a group strength training class when others are counting on you.

Structure:  An instructor led workout is more likely to be a well planned, complete workout.  On your own you might be tempted to skip exercises you don’t like or aren’t sure how to perform correctly.

Fun:  A good group exercise class will encourage a sense of play.  If you’re smiling and sweating at the same time your intensity will be higher and you’ll realize better results.

Exercise doesn’t have to be lonely, boring and painful.  Group fitness classes are a great way to bring fun, intensity, productivity and teamwork into your workouts.

Fitness Resolutions That Work - Fitness Fact #15

Read this message from Lance Farrell before you make your 2012 fitness resolutions:

Yesterday, I was asked to provide my five best suggestions for fitness related New Years resolutions.  Of course I offered 5 reasonable fitness ideas that would be beneficial for everyone, but I've been a little frustrated with the whole idea of New Years Resolutions since I found out how poorly they typically work out.  Studies show that most resolutions don't make it into February.  

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of people wanting to do better and improve themselves, but I hate seeing people on January 3rd all full of smiles and hope when I know the road they're on is probably a dead end.

Ultimately, the best resolution you can make is one you can stick with.  Motivation is critical to acheiving goals.  If my doctor told me I only had a few months to live unless I started eating right and exercising, I would be motivated.  If I were assured a huge bonus at work for completing a project, I would be motivated.  These two examples have two things in common.  They're specific and they have a deadline.  They're clear goals!    

Habits are like rubber bands.  They can be stretched, but tend to go back to their original size.  Unless you have specific goals and something to drive you, dabbling in fitness and nutrition is going to be a waste of time.  About 20% of people are self-motivated and can acheive fitness success on their own or with the aid of a popular nutrition book or fitness video.  If you fit into this category, you don't need to ask and you're probably already in good physical condition. Here are a few signs that you need some motivational assistance to acheive your goals:  

• There's a neglected piece of fitness equipment in your home.
• You've tried, and failed, to improve your fitness level in the past.
• You're about to recycle your past New Years resolutions.

Here are the five tips I offered yesterday: 

1. Add Strength Training to your exercise routine.
2. Eat to Fuel Your Body
3. Choose More Active activities
4. Drink Enough Water
5. Get Enough Sleep

If you have the self-discipline to consistently do these five things, you'll live a longer, healthier, happier life.  At Farrell's we call it living life at level 10. You can download this list with more detailed explanations here.  

If you could use a little motivational help, please join us for an upcoming 10 week session.  We've learned how to turn the tables on the usual success ratios.  On average, 80% of our students finish our 10 week challenge -- that's very different from other fitness programs that lose half of their participants in the first few weeks.  We'll guarantee your success too.  If you give us 10 weeks, you will be successful, or we'll refund every penny.      

Set Fitness Goals to Improve Success - Fitness Fact #14

The first step toward accomplishing any task is deciding to do it.  Improving our health and fitness is no different.  January 1, the starting line of so many fitness related New Year's resolutions, is almost here and groups of friends, families and co-workers are crafting an assortment of fitness and weight loss contests to kick off 2012.

It's important to choose the right fitness goals, both long term and short term, and weight loss itself isn't necessarily the best choice for a variety of reasons.

• When weight loss is the only goal, unhealthy methods can offer short term success in exchange for longer term setbacks.  Extremely low calorie diets are not healthy.
• Muscle weighs more than fat by volume, so your fitness forward efforts that build lean muscle can leave you feeling unsuccessful when the scale doesn't move right away.  
• Our general desire to get fit, be smaller and feel better is frequently expressed in pounds when it would be far better to measure our size in inches.

Use Positive Thinking to Reach Fitness Goals - Fitness Fact #13

The word 'diet' is unpleasant to many because it represents so many negative ideas.  Diets are filled with don't and no and avoid.  All that negativity can ruin a perfectly good get-into-better-shape effort before it starts.

Instead of the negative words and ideas that come so easily to our health and fitness inspired self-talk, try using positive words and ideas instead.  Following are some positive healthy eating and activity ideas for you to try:

• I'm going to drink a glass of water with every meal today because it will help me to satisfy my hunger more quickly and keep my body hydrated.

• I'm going to enjoy 5 servings of vegetables today because they're packed with nutritional value and full of flavor variety too.

• I'm going to kickboxing class today because it's fun and I can't think of a better way to burn 500-800 calories in less than an hour.

• I'm going to find a new recipe for <insert most commonly consumed lean protein here> and prepare it for dinner tonight.

10 Thanksgiving Turkey Meal Planning Tips - Fitness Fact #12

Your Thanksgiving Turkey may be unfairly taking the blame for holiday weight gain.  Turkey is a great low fat source of protein, iron, zinc, potassium, phosphorous and B vitamins.  Most people would benefit from eating turkey more often.

The trouble with the traditional holiday meal is primarily a problem of portion sizes.  If you're following the Farrell's nutrition plan, you're most likely to go off the rails by adding too many servings of carbs to your plate.  Remember, your total carb serving for any one meal should be the size of your fist, not a fist sized serving of every carb on the menu.

Here are 10 ways to enjoy your turkey and stay on track nutritionally too:

1. Eat a good breakfast.  It isn't helpful to skip breakfast in an effort to save your calories for later.  Your body would much prefer a consistent supply of fuel and you're far more likely to overeat if you're too hungry by the time the turkey hits the table.
2. Snack on raw veggies.  Avoid fat and calorie rich pre-meal snacks and munch on raw veg1gies instead.
3. Roast the turkey.  Deep fat frying a turkey has gained some popularity in recent years, but roasting is by far the better option if you're working toward improved health and fitness.
4. Cut out the casseroles.  Green bean casserole, scalloped corn, sweet potato pie ... These traditional casseroles add quite a bit of extra fat and carbs to what was originally a rather harmless and nutrient rich food.  Consider steamed green beans instead of the casserole, and lean more on cinnamon and pecans than butter and brown sugar when you're preparing sweet potatos or yams.
5. Drink Water.  If you drink water with your meal you'll eat less and improve your digestion.  Definitely avoid sugary juices and sodas, and consider a nice cup of hot tea instead of pie immediately after the big meal.
6. Eat several smaller meals.  There's no need to feel restricted by a single plate dinner when you know you'll be eating again in 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Store some of your left-overs in serving sized packaging for quick re-heating and you'll have all of the mashed potatoes and gravy you can stand after a few consecutive meals.
7. Limit alcohol.  If beer, wine or whiskey are a part of your celebration, be careful not to consume too much.  Alcohol of every kind has plenty of empty calories and promotes fat storage too.  Make sure you have water available to quench your thirst and you'll drink less of any alcoholic beverage. 
8. Wait for dessert.  Wait a few hours before having dessert, and when you do, count it as a carb serving and make sure you're getting some protein in to complete your meal.  A piece of pumkin pie doesn't have to be a diet disaster, but if you eat it when you're already full it won't taste as good anyway.
9. Go for a walk or toss a football.  It might be tempting to flop on the couch and watch other people toss a football around, but it will be better for your belly if you get out there and enjoy a little activity too.  Go for a walk, toss a football, or participate in some other perspiration inducing activity and you'll feel much better a few hours later than you will otherwise.
10. Make it Fun-Day.  If you just can't manage these accomodations, you can always call it a fun day and eat whatever you like.  Of course there's only ONE fun day per week in the Farrell's plan, so you'll need to follow your nutrition guidelines throughout the rest of the week.

5 Tips to Measure Body Composition Changes - Fitness Fact #11

Many people understand that body weight by itself is an incomplete measure of a person's fitness.  Exercise facilities have long offered body composition analysis by measuring with calipers and more recently with BIA (bioelectric impedence analysis) devices.

Recognizing the importance of body composition as a fitness level indicator is only the first step.  Understanding how to measure it and how to interpret and use the information is another matter.

BIA devices send a small electrical current through your body.  The current passes more slowly through fatty tissue than through lean tissue, so the device is able to estimate your body fat percentage based on the level of impedence, a few other pieces of information such as your age, height, weight and gender, and a handful of other assumptions that may or may not be accurate.  In fact, the resulting body fat percentage suggested by these devices probably shouldn't be trusted.

With correct usage, BIA devices can provide a very helpful indication of CHANGES to body composition.  Following are some hints to help you get useful information from your BIA scale: 

Enter consistent, and accurate, height, weight, age and gender information.  If you're measuring body composition before, during and after a short term fitness effort like our 10 week fitness challenge, your weight is the only entry that should change.  If you happen to celebrate a birthday during your 10 week challenge, don't tell the machine. 

Enter consistent body type information.  Some machines have different settings for different body types.  The options might be small, medium or large frame, or they might have alternate settings for athletes and non-athletes.  These settings are making assumptions about bone mass and density.  Decide which setting is most appropriate for you and use the same setting every time.  Regardless of how hard you work during your 10 week session, you can't make significant changes to your bone density.  Unscrupulous trainers have been known to manipulate these settings in an effort to make results appear better than they really are.

Test at the same time of day to assure similar hydration levels.  Everyone's level of hydration fluctuates naturally throughout the day and an intense workout will have a dramatic affect on the hydration levels of most people.  It's best to measure body fat composition at the same time of day.  It's also a good idea to use your BIA device before your workout or after a long recovery if that's not possible.  

Make sure your body temperature is consistent.  Whether you have a fever, just came in from outdoors or just finished a sweaty workout, changes in your body temperature will affect the results.  

Test in an environment with a consistent room temperature.  Variations in room temperature and humidity can also influence the results.  Testing in the same location is a good idea.

Consistency is the key.  If you always test under similar conditions, you may not get a perfectly accurate indication of your body fat percentage, but at least you'll know the changes are real changes and not the result of other variations.

Beer and Fat Loss - Fitness Fact #10

Beer's tendency to help people pack on extra pounds is widely acknowledged.  It's no accident that 'beer belly' is one of the more common terms to describe a protruding midsection and 'liquid bread' a common reference to beer.  In this case there is more than a grain of truth in popular lore.

The recent marketing of low-calorie beers  combined with news stories suggesting alcohol consumption may improve cognitive functioning and decrease the risks of heart disease, stroke and bone-loss may have you conviced that beer is shedding its bad reputation and is about to take its place next to spinach in the health foods aisle.

Before you add beer to your regular shopping list, there are three main areas of concern you should consider, especially if you're in the midst of a fitness and fat loss effort:

• Calories
• Alcohol
• Food With Beer

Liquid calories are very frequently extra calories.  Beer itself might be somewhat filling (except Miller Lite of course) but the calories we drink are typically far less hunger satisfying than the ones we eat.  Extra calories become stored calories.  Remember the simplest and most basic fat loss truth is that we must use more calories than we consume to lose fat. 

Consuming alcohol in any form is a hindrance to weight loss and risk factor to weight gain. Regardless of how many carbs or calories are in the beer, alcohol must be dealt with by the liver.  The reason alcohol hinders fat loss is that while your liver is busy with the alcohol it cannot devote as much effort to converting stored fat into energy.  Additionally, alcohol has a mild diuretic effect which can easily lead to mild dehydration, another hindrance to optimum fat loss.

Beer is not typically consumed along with healthy foods.  It tastes great with pizza, nachos and plenty of other high-fat, high calorie foods.  Add to that the frequent community-plate delivery of these foods that makes it difficult to know how much we've really eaten and it's easy to see that beer often leads to over-indulgence.

Enjoy your favorite ale or IPA on fun-day, but if fat loss is your goal it's better to abstain through the rest of the week.  Once you've reached your desired fitness level and body composition, you can minimize the negative potential of more frequent beer consumption by drinking water along with beer and choosing appropriate portions of healthier foods.