New Client Welcome Packet



Special Health & Fitness Report From:

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Your Company Name

New Client Welcome Packet:

Expert Tips For Getting

Maximum Results From Your

Workouts In Minimum Time

By Your Name CFT, SPN

Fitness Director/Owner

Your Fitness Company

Your Company Name: Marketing Message/Slogan Here

(000) 000-0000 Your-

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This manual is designed to provide information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that the publisher and author and advisors are not rendering medical advice or other medical/health services.

The author, advisors and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

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Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………….…..4

Expert Tips For Ensuring You Get A Great Workout……………………………..…5

Fueling Your Body To Accomplish Your Goals……………………………….…5

The Importance of Staying Hydrated During Your Workouts…………………....5

If You Want Results Fast, Recovery Is The Key……………………………….…6

The Absolute Importance Of Resting As Hard As You Work……………………7

How To Get One Step Closer To Your Goals With Each Workout………….…...7

Resistance Training: The KEY To Reshaping Your Body…………………………..9

It’s Not Just What You Do…It’s How You Do It………………………………..9

Proper Exercise Form: Producing Results, Not Injuries………………………...10

Tempo: The Right Way To Workout……………………………………………10

How To Breathe During Exercise………………………………………………..11

Cardiovascular Training: Fat Burning The Right Way…………………………….12

Determining Your Target Heart Rate……………………………………………12

How Much Cardio Do You Really Need?……………………………………….13

A Simple Tip For Dramatically Speeding Your Fat Loss……………………….13

Flexibility Training: What You Really Need To Know……………………………..14

What Will Flexibility Training Do For You?……………………………………14

The Proper Way To Stretch……………………………………………………...14

Tips For Training At Home Or On The Road……………………………………….16

How To Get An Effective Workout When You Can’t Go To The Gym………..16

Tools Of The Home (Or Traveling) Workout Trade…………………………….16

Basic Nutrition For Accomplishing Your Goals……………………………………..18

The TRUTH About Calories And Weight Loss…………………………………18

The Importance of Protein………………………………………………..……...19

Eating The Right Kinds of Carbs………………………………………………...19

Fat: Not As Evil As You May Think………………………………………..…..20

How To Learn More About Eating Right………………………………………..21

Nutritional Supplements: Insurance For Achieving Your Goals With Less Wasted Time And Effort………………………………………………………………………...22

Do You Really Need Nutritional Supplements?…………………………………22

What Supplements Can Do For You…………………………………………….22

How To Choose The Right Supplements For Your Goals………………………23

Introduction

I’ve been a certified personal trainer since 1995 and a specialist in performance nutrition since 1997. I’m also a member of the International Sports Sciences Association, and an avid exerciser myself. During my career, I’ve helped hundreds of people accomplish their health and fitness goals, shed pounds of excess (and unwanted) body fat, gain quality muscle mass, and improve their athletic performance. (Edit for your profile)

No matter what your specific goals may be, you now hold in your hands my expert tips on accomplishing your goals at a much faster pace, without wasting your valuable time, money, and effort on trial-and-error experimenting and unproductive exercise routines and diet fads.

By following the advice laid out for you in this booklet, you will be light years ahead of where you were just a few short weeks ago. Your progress will increase. You’ll start to feel better physically and emotionally. And you’ll have much more self-confidence.

I know that health clubs can be a very intimidating place, especially if you don’t feel like you know what you’re doing. All the machines, all the free weights, and all the fit people that seem to fill up the gym can make you feel overwhelmed and self-conscience.

The information contained herein will help you to understand exactly what you should be doing to accomplish you goals, how to exercise effectively, and how to eat to make getting the body you’ve always dreamed of a very real and attainable possibility.

I started my personal training company, Your Company Name, to help people like you achieve your goals, no matter what they may be now, or what they may become in the near future, as rapidly as possible. It is my sincere desire that the information contained in this booklet will help you do just that.

Yours in good health,

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Your Name CFT, SPN

Owner/Fitness Director

Your Fitness Company

P.S. If you have any questions about anything contained in this booklet, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at any time by calling (000) 000-0000 or via e-mail at youremail@Your-. I’m always happy to help in any way I possibly can.

Expert Tips For Ensuring You Get A Great Workout

You want results and you want them now. That’s probably why you joined a health club to begin with. After all, why spend your hard earned money, and put forth all that effort if you’re not going to get results, right?

In order to get the results you’re after, your workouts must be progressive. You must force your body to do more than it’s accustomed to doing. And you must do that on a consistent basis.

Here are some expert tips for getting a great workout each and every time you come to the gym…

1. Fueling Your Body To Accomplish Your Goals

One of the most important things you can do to ensure an effective, goal-accomplishing workout is to fuel your body properly.

To do that, it’s important that you eat 1 ½ to 2 hours before you come in for your workout. This will ensure you have the fuel required to produce the energy you’ll need to make it through your exercise routine.

Just be sure to give your body enough time to properly digest your food before you begin to exercise. If you don’t, you’re likely to get stomach cramps and indigestion.

Make sure your pre-workout meal contains plenty of carbohydrates. Since they will be your main source of energy during strenuous activity, about 50-60% of the meal’s total calories should come from carbs.

The remaining 40-50% of your pre-workout meal’s calories should be equally divided between protein and fat. The fat in the meal will supply some extra energy to fuel the muscular contractions, and the protein will aid in preventing excess muscular damage.

Fueling your body before your workout is one of the most important things you can do to ensure you have the energy required to perform your exercises to the best of your ability.

2. The Importance of Staying Hydrated During Your Workouts

Once you’ve fueled your body for a super effective workout, the next thing you should focus on is staying properly hydrated. Your body is made up of over 90% water, so it stands to reason that water is of extremely high importance when it comes to accomplishing your fitness and/or weight loss goals.

Water plays several key roles during exercise. Any time you burn stored bodyfat for fuel, waste by-products are made and introduced into your blood stream. By simply drinking a bottle of water during your workout sessions, you can do a lot to flush out and remove those waste by-products.

Water is also very important for muscular contractions. Without the right water balance, your muscles can’t contract as hard as they normally could, leading to lackluster performance and a decrease in the effectiveness of your workouts.

A drop in body water volume of a mere 1% can cause a reduction in performance of over 10%. That means you’ll have to exert yourself much harder during your workouts to achieve the same results you’d get if you just drank some water!

And last, but certainly not least, water can really help you to reduce the soreness you feel after an intense bout of exercise.

Muscular contractions (like those you experience during exercise) cause the release of a chemical called hydroxyproline from the connective tissues and muscle cells. This chemical is very irritating to the nerve endings and is the direct cause of delayed onset muscle soreness (the soreness you feel the day or two after you workout). Your body will naturally bind this chemical and remove it, but drinking plenty of water, both during and after exercise, will speed up that process dramatically.

3. If You Want Results Fast, Recovery Is The Key

One of the most important tips I could possibly give you is to consume a post-workout recovery drink immediately following each of your exercise sessions. This will go a long way toward improving your results in the least possible amount of time.

As mentioned earlier, when a muscle is forced to contract harder than usual (like during exercise), the actual muscle cells get damaged to a small degree. This can lead to soreness in the day or two immediately following your workout.

Your body will remove the chemicals that are causing the soreness all on its own. Then it will work to repair the damage caused during your workouts. But your body doesn’t stop there…

In an attempt to prevent future damage and soreness, your body will not only repair the damage, it will also build your muscles back just a little bit stronger than they were before. This is what causes the actual gains in muscle size, strength, and efficiency, which ultimately lead to the results you’re after.

The best way to speed the recovery process, as well as the results you see, is to follow each workout with a post-workout recovery drink. The drink should be consumed within 60-90 minutes of completing your workout, each and every time you exercise.

Be sure your post-workout recovery drink contains about 200-400 calories, 50 or more grams of carbohydrates, and 25-50 grams of protein. This will ensure your body has enough “building blocks” to refuel your muscles and liver, as well as to repair and rebuild your muscle tissue.

And by consuming your recovery drink within the 60-90 minute window following your workout, you ensure that all the calories and nutrients go to the muscles instead of your fat tissue. This will lead to an increased metabolism, increases in strength, and overall dramatically improved results in minimal time.

4. The Absolute Importance of Resting As Hard As You Work

Sleep. It’s something we all like to do. We spend about 1/3 of our lives sleeping. But did you know its vitally important if you want to see optimal results from your workouts?…

Your muscles don’t get bigger, stronger, or more efficient while you’re working out. The workout is just a stimulus for your body to respond to. The actual increases in size, strength, and efficiency take place while you’re at rest.

If you don’t allow your body to rest, it can’t properly recover from the workouts you subject it to. That means you won’t see the results you’re after as rapidly. So, if you want results as fast as possible, make sure you get plenty of rest and at least 8-9 hours of sleep each night.

The more sleep and rest you get, the faster your body can recover from the damage caused to your muscles during exercise…

…and the faster you’ll achieve the results you’re after.

Miss a night of sleep and your workouts will suffer. And you health, fitness, and weight loss goals will be that much harder to attain.

5. How To Get One Step Closer To Your Goals With Each Workout

To achieve maximum results in minimum time you must make each workout progressively more intense than the last. Each workout should force your body to do a little more than it’s accustomed to doing. This is called the Progressive Overload Principle.

The only sure-fire way to guarantee you’re moving toward your goals each and every time you come to the gym is to keep detailed records of your workouts. Each workout should be recorded in a training log.

By keeping track of your workouts in a training log, you’ll eliminate the guesswork involved and move steadily toward accomplishing your goals. Here’s the information you should record in your training log…

• Date of your workout

• Time your workout started

• Time your workout ended

• Total time your workout lasted

• The exercises you performed during your workout

• The amount of resistance (weight) you used for each exercise

• The number of repetitions you performed for each exercise

• The number of sets you performed for each exercise

• The amount of time you spent doing cardiovascular training

• Any notes you feel are relevant, such as how you felt during your workout

Recording all these variables will allow you (or your trainer) to plan your next workout in advance and make any necessary adjustments to ensure you’re making optimal progress. These detailed records will also eliminate any guesswork about how much weight you should be using, whether you need to increase/decrease the length of your exercise sessions, or when you should change your workout entirely.

If I could only give you one single tip for speeding your progress and getting better results from your time in the gym, keeping a training log would be that tip!

A sample training log is included for you at the end of this welcome packet. Your trainer should have recorded the exercises, weights, sets, and reps (and other info) from your introductory session in that sample training log for you.

Now all you have to do is follow the same routine on your next visit. Just be sure to increase the intensity by adding more resistance, more reps, or more sets to what you did last time. That will force your body to adapt again and bring you one step closer to accomplishing your fitness goals.

If at any point you have a question about filling out your training log, what you should do to progress from your previous workout, how to modify or change your workout routine (which should be done every 3-5 weeks), or anything else at all…

…just ask your trainer for help.

We’re always more than happy to give you any help we can. After all, your success is why we’re in business to begin with. So, if you have ANY questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask us for help.

Resistance Training: The KEY To Reshaping Your Body

Resistance training is simply training your muscles against a resistance of some kind. The resistance can come from…

• Your own body weight.

• Free weights.

• Exercise machines.

• Resistance tubing.

• Medicine balls.

• Etc.

The whole purpose of resistance training is to overload your muscles by forcing them to do more work than they are normally accustomed to doing. Your body will react to this through adaptations that cause your muscles to get bigger, stronger, and more efficient.

These adaptations to resistance training are what ultimately lead to the changes you will see and experience in your body. In short, resistance training is the KEY to reshaping your body.

By forcing your body to overcome an increasingly greater and greater resistance, you’ll burn more calories (even while you sleep) and speed your metabolism, leading to less bodyfat and an overall improvement in your appearance.

If you do nothing else in the way of exercise, make it resistance training. Resistance training alone will do a lot to change the way your body looks, feels, and operates…

…much more so than aerobics classes, walking on a treadmill, using a stair machine, or any other types of exercise combined.

But just like anything else…

It’s Not Just What You Do…It’s How You Do It!

For resistance training to exert its powerful body-changing effects, you must do it correctly. Like anything else in life, if you don’t do it right, you won’t experience the exact results you’re after.

Below you’ll find some very important tips for getting the most out of resistance training. By following these simple tidbits of advice, you’ll be sure to achieve significant results without expending tons of sweat equity, or wasting hours (maybe even months) of your valuable time doing things the wrong way.

Proper Exercise Form: Producing Results, Not Injuries

Proper exercise form cannot be overstated. By performing your exercises the right way, you’ll ensure you get the results you’re after as fast as humanly possible.

Perform resistance exercises the wrong way and not only will you not achieve the desired results…

…you run a high risk of injuring yourself along the way!

If you’re ever in doubt about how to perform an exercise the right way, or how to use any piece of fitness equipment PLEASE seek out a qualified fitness professional. Don’t just try to use the machine, or perform a free weight exercise if you’re not sure exactly what you’re doing.

By doing so, you’re not only depriving yourself of an effective, result-producing workout…

…you’re flirting with disaster.

If you need any help at all, PLEASE ask your trainer. We take exercise very seriously. We’re highly trained in proper exercise form and performance, and most importantly…

We’re always happy to help you!

Tempo: The Right Way To Workout

If you’ve spent any time in the health club, you’ve no doubt seen people lifting free weights (or even using machines) by flinging the weights up and down as fast as they possibly can.

For some reason, these people think that using momentum, “body english”, and a severe jerking motion will lead to greater and faster results. While it’s true that using momentum will allow you to use heavier weights, it will NOT lead to faster results or even an improved appearance.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s not so much what you do…it’s how you do it that really counts when it comes to faster and better results. And one of the most important “how to” tips I can give you is the concept of proper exercise tempo.

Tempo simply means how fast you perform an exercise or lift a weight.

As I’ve already alluded to, going as fast as you can and using momentum is NOT the most effective way to do things. Each repetition of every exercise should be performed in a slow and controlled manner. Anything else is not only ineffective, it can lead to pulled/strained muscles, back pain, or a host of many other serious injuries.

Here’s a general rule you should follow when using exercise machines (and most free weight exercises)…

Take roughly 2 seconds to lift the weight and 4 seconds to lower the weight under strict control. This will not only ensure you get the most benefit from the exercise…

…it will go a long way toward preventing any injuries!

By lifting the weight to a count of 2 and lowering it to a count of 4, you virtually eliminate any momentum from the exercise. This also allows you to place a greater demand on the muscle group you’re training, thus producing a better adaptive response. And that’s just a fancy, technical way of saying you’ll get better results with less wasted effort, in a much shorter time frame.

And better results in less time is the name of the game.

How To Breathe During Exercise

For many people, breathing seems to be the hardest part of exercise to grasp. While proper breathing is very important, it doesn’t have to be complicated or confusing.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to breathing is DON’T hold your breath. Holding your breath can lead to elevated blood pressure during your workout routine, which can result in dizziness or even fainting.

Here’s an easy way to make sure you’re breathing correctly while you workout…

Exhale on exertion. That means breathe out while you’re lifting the weight and breathe in while you lower the weight under control. For example, if you’re performing the overhead barbell press, you should exhale as you lift the weight upwards above you and inhale as you lower it back down.

By following this simple breathing technique, you’ll not only perform each exercise more effectively, you’ll also be more comfortable while you’re working out. And that makes for a more enjoyable fitness experience, which will ultimately lead to better, faster results.

Cardiovascular Training: Fat Burning The Right Way

I’ve already mentioned that resistance training will increase the amount of calories your body burns throughout the day (even while you sleep). But what else can you do to speed the fat burning process?

Cardiovascular training (such as walking on the treadmill, using a stair machine, etc.) will greatly enhance the rate at which your body burns calories.

There are 3500 calories in a single pound of body fat. Cardiovascular training (cardio for short) performed after your resistance training will do a lot to use this stored energy for fuel.

Determining Your Target Heart Rate

To effectively burn body fat for fuel, you should keep your heart rate a 50-70% of your estimated maximum heart rate. Working at a faster pace will do more to condition your heart and lungs, but will not use fat for fuel. Work slower than 50% of your max heart rate and you won’t see much in the way of results.

Here’s a simple formula to determine your maximum heart rate, and therefore, your target heart rate for burning away your stubborn body fat…

Take the number 220 and subtract your age. This will give you your estimated maximum heart rate. Then simply multiply that number by 50% to determine the minimum number of times your heart should beat per minute to use stored body fat for fuel. Now, multiply your max heart rate by 70%. This is the maximum number of times your heart should beat per minute before you move out of the fat burning range.

For example, if you are 42 years old, your estimated max heart rate is 178 (220-42= 178).

Now multiply 178 by 50% (178 x .5=89). Your heart should beat at least 89 times per minute to start burning stored body fat for fuel. At the high end your heart should beat no more than 124 times per minute (178 x .7=124.6). Any higher than 124 beats per minute will condition your cardiovascular system, but won’t do much in the way of fat burning.

As long as you keep your heart rate between 50-70% of your estimated max heart rate, your body will be a finely tuned fat burning machine!

Remember, if you’re not accustomed to vigorous exercise, it won’t be hard at all to get into the fat burning zone. You may have to pay special attention not to go over 70% of your max heart rate until you get into a little better shape. Your trainer can always help you determine your target heart rate if you have any questions. Just ask. We’re always glad to help!

How Much Cardio Do You Really Need

It’s not uncommon to see people spend up to an hour or longer on the treadmill, stationary bike, or stair machine. But is that really necessary, or even more effective, for that matter?…

In actuality, it takes about 20 minutes to start burning body fat from cardio exercise. But luckily, cardio has a cumulative effect. That means doing 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes later in the day still adds up to 20 minutes.

And if you perform your resistance training before your cardio, that also lessens the amount of time it takes to start burning fat for fuel.

So, no you don’t have to spend an hour on the treadmill to see fat burning results. I recommend starting out at 10-15 minutes at a time and working your way up from there by adding 2 minutes to each successive cardio workout. If you can handle more, great! But for most people, it’s not necessary to do more than 30 minutes at a time.

A Simple Tip For Dramatically Speeding Your Fat Loss

In a hurry to lose that unwanted body fat? Who isn’t (ha-ha). Here’s a simple, scientifically proven way to increase the rate your body uses stored fat for fuel. This simple method will speed your body’s fat burning process not only while you exercise, but also for the entire rest of the day!

What’s this amazing trick? Simply this…

Perform your cardio exercise first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.

Your body can only burn stored body fat for energy when your blood sugar levels are low. And when you first wake up, you haven’t eaten for about 8 hours (or maybe longer), giving you the lowest levels of blood sugar of any time in the day.

Since your sugar levels are so low when you first wake up, you’ll rapidly start burning your stored body fat. That means you’ll spend less time doing cardio while still enjoying a much faster fat burning rate.

This one technique alone has been clinically proven to burn fat at up to 300% the normal rate! Not only during your cardio session, but also for the entire rest of the day!

And you can add to this tip’s effectiveness still! How? Just drink a cup of strong coffee 15-20 minutes or so before you do your morning cardio. The caffeine will further mobilize stored body fat, making it even easier to burn it away. Just make sure you don’t add any sugar or that will defeat the effect you gain from having an empty stomach.

Flexibility Training: What You Really Need To Know

Flexibility is often over-emphasized in many fitness scenarios. As long as you have a good range of motion for the activities you normally do, and have no limitations in your mobility, stretching can be kept to a minimum.

If you do have limitations in your mobility, muscle soreness from exercise, or back pain caused from tight hamstrings and hip flexors, a light stretching routine is advisable.

Below you will find a general explanation of what stretching will do for you, and also how you should stretch to get the best results. If you have any questions regarding flexibility, if you should be stretching, and how to stretch effectively, please ask your trainer for advice and assistance. We’re always happy to help.

What Will Flexibility Training Do For You?

There are 2 main reasons to perform flexibility training, or stretching, as it’s commonly referred to.

1. To increase a specific joint’s (or group of joints’) range of motion

2. To help remove hydroxyproline and other waste products caused by cell damage

For various reasons (such as improved athletic performance, or limited mobility) it becomes advisable to increase a specific joint’s range of motion.

For example, it’s very common with today’s sedentary lifestyles, for your hamstrings and hip flexors to become overly tight. This will inevitable lead to low back aches and pains. This is a very valid reason to begin a stretching routine, therefore alleviating your low back pain.

The other reason to perform flexibility training is to remove waste by-products from the muscles caused by damage from exercise. The soreness you feel following an intense workout is caused from hydroxyproline and other chemical waste products seeping from damaged muscle and connective tissue cells irritating your nerve endings.

A simple stretching routine has been proven to help flush these waste by-products from the sore areas, thereby alleviating the pain and tenderness.

The Proper Way To Stretch

There are several acceptable ways to perform flexibility training. They include:

• Static stretching

• Dynamic stretching

• And Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF Stretching)

Dynamic stretching and PNF stretching are mainly used to radically increase a joint’s range of motion for sports purposes. And since your goals probably don’t include increased athletic performance, those stretching practices may not be for you.

Static stretching is commonly used to slowly increase a joint’s range of motion and to help remove waste by-products from your muscles, reducing soreness caused from exercise. Unless you’re a competitive dancer, gymnast, or martial artist, this is probably the way to go for you.

To perform static stretching, simply stretch a muscle to the point of minor discomfort and hold it for 10-60 seconds. This has been proven to help alleviate muscle soreness and to increase your range of motion over time.

Here are some other important tips for stretching the right way…

1. Never stretch a cold muscle…warm up with light exercise first.

2. Don’t bounce during a stretch. It can lead to a pulled muscle and lots of pain.

3. Breathe deeply and slowly while holding your stretch.

4. Visualize your muscles, tendons, and ligaments lengthening as you stretch.

5. Develop enough flexibility for normal activities, plus a small reserve for emergencies like slipping on ice.

Again, if you need any advice or assistance with a proper flexibility/stretching routine, don’t hesitate to ask your trainer for guidance. We’re more than happy to help you with all your fitness goals and concerns.

Tips For Training At Home Or On The Road

A big concern for many of our clients is what to do when they don’t have time to make it to the gym, or when they’re forced to travel away from home for work (or vacations). This section will cover that concern and show you exactly…

How To Get An Effective Workout When You Can’t Go To The Gym

With today’s hectic schedules, sometimes it’s really hard (if not impossible) to make it to the gym for each and every workout. Work schedules, the kids, family obligations…they can all get in the way of your health, fitness, and weight loss goals.

So what do you do when you just can’t make it to the gym?

Many people don’t realize that you can get an incredibly effective workout in the comfort of your own home. And if you travel a lot for work, you can even get a great workout in your motel room.

The truth of the matter is, you don’t need $3000 exercise machines and tons of free weights to get an effective workout. With a little ingenuity and determination you can make progress toward your goals no matter what your time constraints, location, or available equipment.

Below is a brief discussion of several pieces of inexpensive workout equipment you can use at home, or on the road in your hotel room…

Tools Of The Home (Or Traveling) Workout Trade

Dumbbells: Simple hand held weights can provide some excellent resistance for your non-gym workout sessions. Dumbbells are a very effective tool for any kind of resistance workout because they force you to move your limbs independently, improving your balance and stabilization skills.

Besides the effective workout they provide, dumbbells are also pretty inexpensive. Prices can be as low as 40 cents per pound.

Medicine Balls: Medicine balls come in many different forms ranging from basketball-like to soft and squishy. They are excellent for training your abdominals, obliques (the sides of your waste commonly referred to as love handles), and your lower back.

Although not very common in most health clubs today, medicine balls are very effective tools for not only training your core, but your entire body in a single workout. They have such a wide range of uses that I could design an entire workout using nothing else but medicine balls. Heck, I could probably even write an entire book on their use and application toward your fitness and weight loss goals.

Resistance Tubing: These are simple, stretchy rubber tubes with handles that can replace almost any exercise machine, cable machine, or even free weights. Until recently, they were mainly used in physical therapy and post-surgery rehab clinics.

They provide resistance by stretching them. The farther you stretch them, the more resistance they provide, making them ideal for the unconditioned general population, all the way up to elite athletes.

Resistance tubing is extremely inexpensive, portable, and convenient. And since they can replace almost any piece of equipment you have access to at the gym, they provide a super effective workout without taking up very much space.

Stability Balls: A stability ball is a round rubber inflatable ball that replaces the benches that are so common in gyms today. They take up much less space than the bulky benches and also provide several key advantages that benches do not.

You can perform almost any exercise on a stability ball that you can perform on much more expensive fitness machines. And since they’re round, they force you to maintain good posture and balance. This adds to the effects of the exercises you perform on them by forcing you to keep your stomach and lower back muscle tense.

I have many of my clients use stability balls in almost every workout. Some of my clients also perform their entire workouts on stability balls due the their effectiveness at toning and firming the abdominal muscles, as well as strengthening the lower back.

Of all the home exercise equipment, I most often recommend stability balls. They are inexpensive, highly portable, take up very little space, and most of all…

…they provide a great workout and produce results fast.

Note: If you have any questions or if you’re interested in obtaining any of the home fitness equipment discussed here, please see your trainer. While all of these training tools are readily available at many sporting good stores (and even online) we can provide them to you at a much lower price.

We’d also be delighted to show you exactly how to get the most benefits from your workouts using these effective fitness tools…something most sporting good stores can’t do.

Basic Nutrition For Accomplishing Your Goals

While you know that you must exercise and eat right to accomplish your health, fitness, and weight loss goals, do you really know what it means to eat right?

Proper nutrition is very important if you want to achieve maximum results in minimum time. While this information is in no way intended to diagnose medical conditions, provide medical advice, or replace anything that your doctor has told you, it will give you a good understanding of basic nutrition.

If you’re confused about how you should be eating to accomplish your goals, this section will give you the bare-bones facts that you need to know.

The TRUTH About Calories And Weight Loss

The media and today’s popular fad diets talk a lot about counting calories. So much so that many people are confused about the truth. Calories are simply a tool to measure how much energy is contained in a given food. The more calories a food contains, the more energy it provides your body.

While calories do provide you with the energy required to perform your daily activities, they are in fact the key to losing weight and accomplishing many fitness related goals.

If you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. Consume fewer calories than you burn and you’ll lose weight. It’s just that simple.

Many marketers of diet programs will try to convince you that you must consume specific ratios of calories from protein, carbohydrates and fat in order to lose weight effectively. The simple truth of the matter is the number of calories you consume determines how much you weigh. The kinds of calories you consume determines how you’ll feel.

Sure, you can lose weight following a low carb diet. But you’ll start to feel tired, irritable, and lethargic. Instead of putting so much focus on the kinds of calories to avoid, instead focus on how many calories you need, and how many total calories you actually consume.

A pound of body fat contains about 3500 calories. If your goal is to lose some excess body fat, start by lowering the amount of calories you eat by 500 per day. Over the course of a week, you’ll have consumed 3500 calories less than you need, resulting in the loss of one pound of stubborn body fat.

Losing fat really is that simple. Burn more calories than you take in and weight loss is inevitable.

The Importance Of Protein

Your body uses protein to rebuild itself. As skin, hair, soft tissue, and blood cells die, your body uses protein to build new ones.

When you exercise, you’re causing minor damage to your muscles and connective tissue. The protein in the foods you eat is used to repair that damage, resulting in your muscles becoming stronger and more efficient.

It’s important to make sure you eat plenty of protein if you want to see rapid results from your workouts.

Here’s a list of common foods that contain good amounts of protein…

• Lean beef

• Chicken

• Dairy products

• Beans

• Pork

• Fish

• Seafood

• Tuna

• Nuts

Try to include a good source of protein in each meal. That will go a long way toward ensuring your body has all the building blocks it needs to remain healthy and to repair the damage caused by your workouts.

Eating The Right Kinds Of Carbs

Low carb diets are still very popular today despite all the problems associated with them. Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred source of fuel and energy. Contrary to what many marketers of fad diets would have you believe, carbs are very necessary for proper functioning of your body and your brain.

While it is true that severely limiting your intake of carbs will lead to pretty rapid weight loss, it’s not the right kind of weight loss. For every gram of carbohydrate your body stores, it also stores 3 grams of water.

That’s exactly why you lose weight so rapidly when you limit your carb intake. As you start to burn away your body’s carbohydrate stores, you’ll release the water that’s stored with them into your bloodstream, where it will eventually end up in the toilet.

If your goal is to lose excess weight, you should be burning stored body fat, not excreting your very important water supply.

Carbs should comprise the majority of your diet, somewhere between 50-60% of your total calories. Anything less will leave you feeling weak and tired, resulting in poor concentration, lackluster performance in your daily activities, and decreased motivation and performance in your workouts…

Not exactly conducive to healthy living (or improved fitness and weight loss), is it?

Try to avoid refined carbohydrates like…

• Table sugar

• High fructose corn syrup

• Bleached flours

• White bread

• White rice

• Soda

• Junk food

These kinds of carbs are easily processed by your body, are released into your bloodstream rapidly, and ultimately end up getting stored as body fat.

Instead, try to eat a variety of complex carbs like…

• Wheat

• Whole grain cereals

• Whole grain breads

• Brown rice

• Potatoes

• Fruits

• Vegetables

These carbs are broken down more slowly, and are released into your system over time. This will help maintain your energy levels, minimize cravings for foods you don’t need, and provide your body with a steady supply of fuel to keep you performing at your best.

Fat: Not As Evil As You May Think

Dietary fat has gotten a bad rap in the media. It’s been labeled as the main cause of weight gain and obesity in our country.

This is simply not true at all. Fat is one of the body’s major sources of fuel. It’s also an essential component in many of your body’s biological functions. Without fat in your diet you would die (or at the very least, be very unhealthy).

The trick is eating the right kinds of fats.

Saturated fats are the bad guy. They don’t provide energy well, and they can clog your arteries and lead to many diseases including heart disease and obesity. Do your best to avoid these…

• Beef fat

• Pork fat

• Coconut oil

• Palm oil

• Cottonseed oil

• Peanut oil

Unsaturated fats are necessary and can provide your brain, inner ear, eyes, and glands with numerous health benefits. Here’s a partial list of the good guys…

• Flaxseed oil

• Pumpkin seed oil

• Soybean oil

• Walnuts

• Canola oil

• Almond oil

• Virgin olive oil

How To Learn More About Eating Right

Does all this seem confusing to you? It doesn’t have to be.

If you feel you need more personalized help with your nutrition, we also offer an extensive 10-week nutritional coaching program. We’ll meet with you one-on-one to discuss how many calories you need, what kinds of foods you should be eating, and an entire host of other highly personalized and informative nutritional topics.

You’ll come away with a much better understanding of what it really takes to eat right so accomplishing your health, fitness, and weight loss goals will be that much faster and easier. Please don’t hesitate to ask your trainer for more information and a free complimentary nutritional coaching session.

Nutritional Supplements: Insurance For Achieving Your Goals With Less Wasted Time and Effort

Eating right, in combination with a proper exercise routine, is the fasted way to achieve your health, fitness, and weight loss goals. But eating right takes time, and sometimes some advanced preparation on your part.

With today’s busy lifestyles, sometimes finding time to prepare your meals in advance can be difficult (if not impossible). And since many of the foods we eat the most are highly refined and processed, they are lacking in many of the nutrients that are very important for optimal health and accomplishing your goals.

That’s where nutritional supplements can play a vital role in speeding you along toward accomplishing your goals in less time with less effort. But…

Do You Really Need Nutritional Supplements?

Well, you don’t absolutely have to take nutritional supplements to accomplish your goals, or even to be healthy. But they are a very convenient and cost effective way to insure you’re getting all the nutrition you need.

If you don’t always eat as much fruits and vegetables as you should, nutritional supplements can help you get the vitamins, minerals, and other important nutrients you may be lacking in your diet.

They can also be a very convenient way to insure you’re getting enough protein to rebuild damaged muscle tissue, get a highly nutritious meal when you don’t have time to prepare one, or even a great substitute for that fat loaded lunch at McDonalds.

What Supplements Can Do For You

The labels of many nutritional supplements make some pretty outrageous claims. And the advertisements on TV and in magazines sometimes lead you to believe that supplements will help you shed pounds of unwanted body fat seemingly overnight.

As the old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

That’s not to say that supplements have no use, or no place in helping you accomplish you health, fitness, and weight loss goals. There are some that are fantastic and will help you accomplish the goals you’ve set for yourself much faster.

For the most part though, supplements are just that…a way to supplement extra nutrients into your diet. If you’re not eating a somewhat healthy diet already, taking a random array of supplements isn’t going to work some kind of miracle on your body or your metabolism.

First and foremost, you should concentrate on eating a diet that’s full of healthy nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. Use supplements to add to that, not as a replacement for normal food.

If you always seem to skip breakfast (which really is the most important meal of the day) a good meal replacement supplement, or even a high quality protein powder will add to your total nutrition and improve the results you see from your exercise and dietary changes.

A good multi-vitamin supplement will help insure you’re getting enough vitamins and minerals, insuring your body has all the nutrients it needs to function at optimal levels.

How To Choose The Right Supplements For Your Goals

There are, of course, many different kinds and brands of supplements on the market today. They range in price, quality, and availability so it can be hard to decide which supplements you should be using.

First, don’t just randomly buy supplements based on advertising or label claim. They all have fine print on their labels that read, “These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA”. That simply means that the claims they’ve made haven’t been proven by the part of our government that regulates the sale and distribution of nutritional supplements.

Does that mean that they don’t work like the labels and advertisements claim? Yes and no. Some supplement companies are very reputable and provide the highest quality products. Some, on the other hand, are not, and provide inferior products with much less nutrients than listed on the labels.

So, above all, purchase only supplements that are made by reputable manufacturers.

Secondly, you should only use supplements that add to your overall nutrition. A high quality multi-vitamin supplement will insure you get all the vitamins and minerals you need to maintain optimal health.

Another great supplement to use is a good antioxidant. Antioxidants help fight off damage caused by free radicals, and also have been shown to help prevent some diseases including many forms of cancer. They make a great insurance policy no matter what your goals.

Meal replacement powders are another great choice, whether your goal is to lose unwanted body fat or to gain some extra muscle mass. Meal replacement powders are simply a packet of powder that mixes with water, milk, or juice to make a great tasting and highly nutrient dense shake.

Meal replacement powders are a very convenient and cost effective way to ensure you get a good breakfast (or any meal for that matter) while providing your body with all the calories, protein, and other nutrients it needs for energy and goal achievement.

They also make a great post-workout recovery drink since they supply a lot of high quality protein (to repair the damage caused by exercise) and all the carbohydrates and vitamins you need to provide energy to fuel your body.

And meal replacement powders are a great source of nutrition if you always seem to skip meals, or eat too much fast food when you’re on the go. They provide much more nutritional value to your body than a Big Mac, contain far fewer calories, and they are also much less expensive.

Overall, I highly recommend meal replacement powders to all my clients, regardless of their goals.

Another great way to get quick and easy nutrition when you’re on the go is a meal replacement bar. They are pretty much the same as meal replacement powders, except they come in a convenient and great tasting candy bar. They too contain much more nutritional value than your typical fast food meal, while saving you money at the same time.

If you have any questions about nutritional supplements, please ask your trainer for advice. We’ll be happy to give you some ideas on what supplements to use, how to use them, and which companies provide the highest quality supplements that can fit with your goals and into your budget.

And, many times, we can also special order specific supplements for you that may not be readily available at your local health food store. We can even provide you with a convenient way to get your supplements, many times at a much lower cost than you can find them anywhere else.

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