Today, there’s a plethora of advice on the web and in print concerning exercise and weight-loss. Sometimes the amount of information is overwhelming and even contradictory. This makes it difficult to start and maintain a proper exercise program. Using a personal fitness trainer is one way to engage in a structured training program that produces results.

A certified professional first considers your current level of fitness. They consult with you so they understand what you want to achieve. Individuals have different outcomes that they wish to attain in a training program.

Is your goal to lose fifteen pounds? Do you want to build up your cardio-vascular health for more stamina? Do you want to build strength to be able to enter a 10K run in your community in the future? Your personal fitness trainer will work with you to help you achieve your specific goals. Here’s 5 ways they assist you, onward to workout success:

1. They Help You Feel Comfortable with the Idea of Exercise

Let’s face it, many people fear undertaking any kind of strenuous physical activity. This is especially true in this digital age, where we often find ourselves sedentary, slaves to TVs and PCs. A personal fitness trainer educates you on the importance of an organized program.

A personal fitness trainer calms your fears by showing you their system for gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts. They don’t toss you into the fire of extreme workouts. They know that this will overwhelm you both mentally and physically. Therefore, they ease you into an enjoyable program and step-by-step you find you experience progress. This encourages you to carry on with your program.

2. They Assist You through Applying Proven Techniques Garnered From Their Experience

Hiring a proven personal fitness trainer means receiving dual benefits. First, the trainer extends to you the knowledge they gained from their personal study. A professional in this field goes through a certification process from a nationally recognized organization. This means they work to meet the strict requirements of the organization.

They meet these requirements through researching, studying and understanding the fitness discipline. Consequently, you gain the benefit of their theoretical and practical study. They impart to you the latest information, techniques and methods as concerns workouts, diet, and such.

The second benefit you receive is the knowledge that the personal fitness trainer gains from working with various people. They may have worked with someone who has the same or similar goals as you. They can share this person’s successes with you, to spur you on to success as well.

3. They Assist You by Conforming to Your Schedule

A good personal fitness trainer committed to your needs, accommodates your busy schedule. They realize that work and family responsibilities often make getting to a session at the same time each week difficult. Focusing on your success, and wanting you to maintain your program, they adapt their schedule to yours. They work with your sometimes-hectic schedule and can plan training sessions at your work, home, or a private training studio.

4. They Assist You by Ensuring You Receive Value for Your Money Each Workout

A personal fitness trainer has a job to do and they don’t waste time on inessentials. They know that each session must have a purpose. They work to ensure you attain the objective of each session. This allows you to progress steadily in your program, each session building on the one prior.

You’re paying hard-earned dollars for your fitness program. The best trainers know this and always tailor exercise routines so that your body adapts to progressively more difficult routines. Through their determination each session, you find you make headway in building strength, endurance, muscle, and lose weight as needed.

5. They Help You Achieve Multiple Fitness Goals

A qualified personal fitness trainer helps you work on different goals simultaneously. In one training session, in any given week, they may work to help you tone abdominal muscles. During that same session, they may have you build up your lungpower with some intense treadmill work. On top of that, that session may include stretching routines for greater flexibility.

A personal fitness trainer encourages open dialogue. They know that you must trust their expertise, for the relationship to produce desired results. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Your trainer is someone you will work closely with, possibly for many years.

Finding a good personal fitness trainer committed to you is certainly beneficial. You have someone knowledgeable keeping you focused on your goals. You also have a motivator, who inspires you on those days when you feel like you can’t go on. Take the time to find that “just right” trainer, and reap the many rewards that an expert in the field provides you.

The treadclimber is a versatile piece of gym equipment that has the ability to combine the benefits of the stair stepper machine and a treadmill. It is a great choice if you are looking to introduce some cardio activity to the existing strength training workout. Here are several benefits of using the treadclimber machine:

Cardiovascular

The treadclimber is a great option to increase the daily cardio activity. Even a moderately active session of 30-60 minutes per day has the potential to help lower the risk of heart disease, increase the ability to burn calories, make an improvement in good cholesterol (HDL) levels and lower the blood pressure. Overall, the cardio benefits of this machine are regarded as its major strength.

Muscle Tone

The legs perform a constant stair-stepping action while using this piece of equipment which can play a significant role in toning the muscles in the legs. The treadclimber provides a movement that is quite similar to walking up stairs or uphill. This can benefit the major muscle groups such as the hamstrings, glutes, quadriceps and calves.

Weight Loss

A consistent workout plan that makes use of the treadclimber is certain to help in your attempt to lose weight. For instance, a 25-30 minute workout at a speed of 3 miles per hour has the potential to burn about 315 calories. By losing weight at this pace it is possible to drop nearly 1 pound of body fat per 9-10 days of working out.

The treadclimber is more efficient at burning calories than the stair climber and treadmill. It is believed the treadclimber can burn up to 3-1/2 times more calories than a treadmill and nearly 35% more than using a stair climber.

Versatile use

Similar to the star climber, elliptical machine and treadmill, the treadclimber makes it possible to increase the level of intensity or difficulty. This makes it much easier to exercise at a comfortable level when first starting out, and later increase the difficulty level when the body gets used to the workout. By increasing the intensity it is possible to avoid a plateau and make sure your body gets the most out of each and every workout.

Are there any negatives

In addition to the many positives of using the treadclimber, there are also a few issues that may limit its usage for some people. For instance, it isn’t designed to be run on and therefore the pace may be too slow for some. Also, the weight limit on these machines is generally limited to about 300 pounds.

Francois Henri LaLanne’s (1914-2011) famous diet and exercise routine paved the way for him to become an American health icon. He opened the first public gym in Oakland, Ca and is best known for his TV show on fitness. But, he started out as a junk food addict as a kid until he was embarrassed by a failure to pass a routine physical exam in school. This upset and motivated him to attend health lectures that re-directed his life.

WORKOUT: LaLanne’s workout routine began with a series of stretches in bed as soon as he woke around 5am. He then went to one of his weight rooms, one had free weights and the other had weight-lifting machines. He worked the lower body one day and the upper body the next and the entire routine was changed every 30 days. After 90 minutes of weight lifting, he went to the pool for swimming and water exercises for another 30 minutes.

DIET: He ate only two meals a day. The first meal was at 11am after the workout and the second around 7pm usually at a cafe with his wife. His breakfast consisted of fruit, oatmeal, broth, and four egg whites.

His restaurant dinners began with a salad of 10 raw vegetables and four hard boiled egg whites. Fish was consumed almost every night and roasted turkey occasionally. He ate no other types of meat and did not snack between meals. His juicer became popular because Jack just couldn’t eat that many raw vegetables. He found juicing made it easier to consumer the large amount of veggies he wanted.

VITAMINS: In addition to a disciplined diet, Jack took 40 to 50 vitamins and minerals on a daily basis. It’s too long of a list to print here, but can be found on his website. However, he never relied on supplements to replace any foods, he just view it as an “insurance policy.”

ALCOHOL: Being a Frenchman himself, he believed in drinking wine because he noticed that the French tend to live longer in their wine culture. He allowed himself this pleasure apart from his discipline and was even know to get drunk at times.

He published his last book when 95 years old, Live Young Forever that influenced me to change my breakfast to oatmeal and raisins-his favorite. He passed away a little more than a year later at 96 years old from pneumonia.

CONCLUSION: There are areas of contention in his routine. It’s true that Jack placed weights ahead of aerobic exercise. In his diet, he derived most protein from egg whites and fish rather than more diverse sources. His heavy vitamin consumption may have not helped much as absorption rates were lower then. And he probably drank a bit too much at times. But, it’s his long term devotion to a healthy diet and challenging exercise that set him apart.

Allen, R. 4-8-15 Jack LaLanne Workout Retrieved from muscleprodigy.com/jack-lalanne-workout/

You’re not a fitness buff. You don’t want to spend hours in a gym, sweating the stuff. You want a workout that’s less work, more fun. Something you’ll stick with for the rest of your life.

Care to dance?

NOT YET. But the writing is already on the wall. In trend-setter countries like the United States, strenuous exercise forms like high-impact aerobics as well as other heart-pounding regimes are slowly yielding ground to softer, slower, less rigorous disciplines – like yoga, tai chi, good old walking, and – what is, essentially, rhythmic walking – the tried-and tested forms of Western social dance.

If you’re looking for a workout that has not only physical pay-offs but emotional and spin-offs as well, you might give serious consideration to dances like the Samba or the Tango – a range that runs from the Foxtrot to the Rumba, from the Jive to Paso Doble, from the Quickstep to the Viennese Waltz.

Here’s why:

It’s low-impact!

In ballroom, or in social dance, you’re not tearing your ligaments, pounding your joints or damaging your nerves – all attendant risks in high-impact aerobic dance. But you’re getting the benefits of physical conditioning all right. As you go backward, forward, spin and sway, you’re working on many things. You’re moving, you’re on your feet (weight-bearing exercise), you’re lengthening and twisting your body for dips and swirls, you’re using coordination, maintaining balance, honing flexibility. And, especially where you’re using fancy footwork, you’re developing grace.

Many teachers say dancing is just rhythmic walking and may well enable you to walk with more balance and grace.

It’s adaptable!

Dance has so many variants and variations that, depending on your inclinations and your expectations from exercise, you can choose from among: the sedate Fox-trot and the English Waltz; the sensual Argentine Tango; the perky Cha Cha Cha; and so many more. If you do want to build up to aerobic level, step up to the pulse-quickening Viennese Waltz.

In fact, dance can be such a physical challenge that Ballroom Dance now has provisional status as an Olympic Sport!

It’s for everyone… almost!

Unless you’re bed-ridden or otherwise severely disabled, you can find some dance or other that you can comfortably, even skillfully, do.

You can have glaucoma and only peripheral vision – your partial blindness dies not stop you from dancing. Some experts who has been teaching dance for over 40 years, affirms that doctors often send patients (such as accident victims or those who have suffered injuries like arm dislocations) to learn dance during their rehabilitation period. Many of these referring doctors have found out for themselves the therapeutic value of dance.

Unlike high-impact aerobic dance or jazzercise, you don’t have to be physically fit as a pre-requisite to taking up non-discotheque dancing. Provided you stay within your limitations, you can be suffering from hypertension, diabetes, even joint problems – and still dance.

For long years, arthritis patients have been told what not to do in terms of physical activity. Today, doctors are encouraging arthritic patients to take up mild to moderate activity. And some arthritic patients have discovered, on their own, that some footwork on the dance floor can be marvelous medicine for their stiffness and pains.

(However, if you’re an arthritic patient or suffer from any kind of physical disability, first get the go-ahead from your doctor. If you have a severely inflamed joint, it may be too painful to dance. Also, some chronic illness can affect organs like the heart, which means that you may have to take it easy in the beginning and gradually build up).

It’s medicine for the mind!

Just learning and practicing and successfully performing your dance steps adds immensely to self-confidence. You’ve learnt a new skill – you can do it! – and that’s a potent potion to boost anyone’s self-esteem.

Dancing also allows a lot of emotional expression. And that helps to release bottled-up feelings, to lift your spirits. Experts talk of divorcees who have come to them – again, on medical advice – to get over the depression and other negative feelings that arise in the aftermath of the martial break-up.

As far as its spirit-boosting, exhilarating effects go, dance is a no-age-barrier activity. As grandpa and grandma take to the floor, and as they experience the enjoyment, the pizazz, the sheer exhilaration that comes from dancing, they feel like re-cycled teenagers all over.

How to get started?

Word of mouth is the best way to go when you’re deciding which dance class you should join. All the same, ask whether it’s possible to observe a lesson before you join up. If it is, then one of the things you must do is to take a good look at the instructor while he/she is teaching. Is he/she a leader or a teacher? A leader will simply walk you through a routine. A teacher will reach out to his/her students and make sure they have good posture and technique.

His/her own posture should be elegant. Not stiff or stooped, because the pupil will tend to mirror the teacher.

Once you start, you’re very likely to get hooked. And as you tune in and tone up, you may even find yourself singing a new tune, the one like ‘Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?’

Is it really possible to lose weight in one week? This question may be hovering in your mind given the testimonies of many persons who have been engaged in various weight loss programs without success. Knocking off excess weight could be a challenging task when you consider the discipline that is required. You may find it difficult shedding weight because of a variety of reasons such as your body chemistry, difficulty in keeping your scheduled work out programs, the nature of your job and a lot more. The important thing to note is that you can actually start losing weight right from today. It is a battle that starts up there in your mind. Whether you win or lose depend on the approach you choose to adopt. Some tips on how to lose weight in a week and start seeing results are put together to help you succeed in your weight loss program.

Have a scale at home

This is an invaluable device you must have if you are really serious to take off excess pounds from your body. The only way to know if the program you have chosen to follow is working after one week of trial is to measure your weight with a scale. Your initial weight before the commencement of the program should be recorded. Weekly progress report should also be recorded after the program must have commenced in full swing.

Eat more vegetables

One sure way to lose weight quickly is to watch your eating habit. Taking in plenty of vegetables and reducing the amount of carbohydrate you consume will help you realize your dream of getting a slimmer body. Cutting down your carbohydrate intake makes little room for conversion of the abundance of carbohydrate into fat and keeps your calories low.

Avoid eating out

When you are watching your weight one thing you must try to avoid is eating out of the home. The simple reason is that you have total control of what you prepare at home compared to what is made available when you eat outside. Whenever it becomes unavoidable that you eat out of the home, make sure you cover the lost grounds in the next couple of days cutting down the excess calories you consumed outside the home.

Use fruits for snacks in place of junks

Make provision for your favorite fruits and use them whenever the craving for snacks arises. One way many people add up weight easily is through intermittent intake of crappy snacks. You can get this checked with the use of fruits.

Exercising

Draw up a weekly work out plan for yourself and make sure you stick to your plan. Exercise is a good way to quicken your body metabolism and burn off excess calories.

Join a wealth loss forum

No person is an island. It is always good to flock together with likeminded individuals if you wish to get a good result. You can learn quickly through the experiences of other persons like you in such groups.

Losing weight is something that has to do with your mind. It is important that you capture in your mind how to lose weight in a week is possible before even venturing out to accomplish the programs you have set for yourself. Do not despise the days of little beginning. Whatever little improvement you achieve in your first week should be seen as a motivation to do better. With such a mindset the sky can only be a starting point in your weight loss program.

When talking about fitness big arms or the glamour muscles are put in the conversation very easily. Are you pleased with the size or definition of your biceps? If not try these bicep exercises to get them looking nice.

1. EZ-Bar Bicep Curl – One of the most common curl exercises. This one lives up to it’s name. Using an ez-bar to do curls makes life easier. It makes it easier to do the exercise.

When doing these make sure to not rock the weight for momentum or allow elbows to move forward. If you can avoid these two common mistakes you will get the most out of your bicep workout.

2. Resistance Band Curl -Using resistance bands are a great way to attack any muscle group if weights are not an option for you.

Stand on resistance band with feet a little wider than should width apart to do the curls.

3. Concentration Curl – While sitting on a bench with feet on the ground. Bend over and grab a dumbbell with palms up. While doing curl your elbow should be touching the inside of your thigh. Switch arms since you will be doing curls with one arm at a time.

4. Hammer Curl – Stand shoulder width apart with dumbbells at your side with palms facing in. Curl dumbbells one at a time. When you get to the top squeeze bicep, pause briefly and return back to starting position.

5. Standing Dumbbell Curl – Similar to hammer curls with the starting position. The only difference is when you lift the weight. When lifting the weight you want to turn your wrists and the dumbbells toward your body.

6. Kettlebell Bottoms up Clean – With 1 kettlebell on your side swing it back and then curl it up. The bottom of the kettlebell should be facing towards the ceiling. Not only will this build strength in the biceps it will also build forearm strength.

7. Seated Dumbbell Curl – Same as standing dumbbell curls but you are sitting down on a bench. It is just a different option. Maybe you are feeling a little fatigued and want to sit down and work your biceps.

8. Kettlebell Towel Curl – Put a towel through the dumbbell (obviously by the name). Perform a curl. Make sure the towel end toward the kettlebell is facing the outside of your hand with your thumb facing forward. Do this one right and you will torch your biceps.

Whether its spring, summer, fall, or winter you can have your glamour muscles looking awesome if you add these bicep exercises into your workout routine.

Testosterone is the primary male characteristic hormone. Most men, particularly young men wish to optimise production of this hormone in order to boost muscular gains and/or maintain muscle mass. Additionally, older men want to optimise testosterone levels so as to enhance libido and general sexual function.

Boosting testosterone naturally can be achieved through dietary and lifestyle changes, and further enhanced via the use of certain nutritional supplements. These are outlined in the following key testosterone enhancing tips:

1. Eat organic. Organic foods are less likely to contain hormone disruptors such as pesticides, herbicides, plastic compounds and fluoride. These chemicals may either mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen in the human body and/or directly interfere with healthy testicular function. Obviously this would tend to reduce testosterone levels or reduce its proper functioning in the body.

You are also best advised to drink fluoride free water. Gravity fed water filters with fluoride attachments can filter out the fluoride from water.

2. Eat the right carbohydrates. Consumption of poor quality carbohydrate foods (e.g. white wheat flour products: breads, cakes, biscuits, chocolates etc) and/or sugar (sodas are a major dietary source of sugar) negatively affects healthy blood sugar balance, potentially reducing proper sensitivity to the blood sugar control hormone insulin. Research on obese individuals with lowered insulin sensitivity indicates an association with lowered testosterone levels, which can be raised back to normal once insulin sensitivity is improved. This can be achieved by sticking to low GI slow releasing carbohydrate foods, good examples being sweet potatoes, basmati rice, whole grain wheat/rye breads (sour dough is best) and durum wheat pasta. You should also avoid or massively reduce sugar (a common equivalent to avoid is high fructose corn syrup).

3. Take a zinc supplement. Zinc is needed for proper testosterone production. It is also needed for testosterone’s conversion to other important forms of this hormone. A zinc deficiency actually reduces the number of testosterone receptors; meaning testosterone is less able to exert its effects. Zinc has been shown to boost lowered testosterone levels back to normal or optimal levels. A good multivitamin/mineral normally has a decent level of zinc and other important nutrients that help to optimise testosterone levels. Look for zinc in the form of an amino acid chelate, citrate or gluconate. Nuts and seeds are a good food source of zinc (pumpkin seeds are great).

4. Take a magnesium supplement. The often-deficient mineral magnesium has demonstrated the ability to boost levels of total testosterone and free testosterone. Free testosterone is the unbound active form of testosterone. Magnesium can be obtained from a good quality multivitamin/mineral. The other option is a ZMA supplement, which usually contains a good combination of zinc and magnesium, specifically formulated to optimise testosterone production. Again, nuts and seeds are a great source of magnesium and many other beneficial minerals.

5. Avoid BPA plastics. BPA stands for bisphenol A, a plastic compound that seems to mimic the female hormone estrogen. Estrogen has a feminising effect in men. BPA has been linked to a lowering of testosterone and a shrinking of the testicles in rat-based studies! As far as possible avoid food and drinks in plastic containers, avoid storing foods in plastic containers and don’t wrap foods in plastic. Also be aware that till receipts are often coated in BPA, many dental sealants contain BPA and tin or steel food/drink cans are often lined with a plastic BPA containing layer. Don’t heat food in plastic containers, for example in the microwave, this is potentially more likely to leach BPA into the food. Look for BPA free plastic containers and bottles. Some sports shakers actually state that they are BPA free for example.

These tips should help fulfil your desired goal of optimal testosterone levels and boost general well-being in the process.

Dwight Howard is 6″11 and weighs 265 pounds, but he wasn’t always this powerful. Since he came into the NBA he has hit the weights hard and gotten much stronger. In fact, since his rookie year he has increased his bench press from 185 to 360. That is almost double!! So what is Dwight Howard’s workout routine? Let’s find out…

Dwight Howard has to give a lot of credit to his personal trainer, Joe Rogowski. Joe has given Dwight a workout routine that has helped him gain muscles mass and explosive power. Joe Rogowski does an excellent job at mixing up Dwight’s workout routine. One day he will lift very heavy weight to gain strength and power, the next he focuses on plyometrics routines for speed and agility. Below are a few of the key exercises that Joe has Dwight Howard perform…

Bench Press – Dwight mixes this up using the straight bar and dumbbells. Rogowski likes to have Dwight perform the pyramid routine. The pyramid he uses is 10-8-6-4-2.

Leg Press – Joe prefers to have Dwight use the leg press machine over free weight squats. Dwight has back hyperextension and Joe doesn’t want to put Dwight’s back at risk. The leg press machine is a safe exercise and it allows Dwight to go with very heavy weight.

The Perfect Push Up – One of Dwight’s favorite exercises is the push up. He performs many of his push up routines at his home. In fact, he integrates his push ups into video game sessions. For example, when he’s playing a boxing game (his favorite), Dwight does a set every time he knocks someone out. Role-playing game? Every time he dies, he pumps out as many push-ups as possible.

Dwight Howard has an impressive 39″ vertical leap. Joe Rogowski incorporates plyometric exercises and speed drills into Dwight’s workout routine as well. This keeps him flying above the rim so he can continue to throw down those impressive SUPERMAN DUNKS! A few of his favorite exercises to increase his vertical leap include box jumps, sprints and the jump rope.

If you would like more information about Dwight Howard and his vertical leap check out the links I have below:

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I got this simple, yet effective, leg power and spring development workout from a gym member who used to play college b-ball and football. His advice was to focus on the core lifts for a good 3 months to build basic strength and power, combining it with Jumping rope. His workout:

Cycle workouts 3 days a week with a day of rest in between and 2 days off after the 3rd workout. Example – Mon, Wed, Fri, weekend off, repeat on Mon…

All exercises, 3-4 sets and 5-8 reps with increase of weight in each succeeding set and use a weight that takes you to almost failure on the last set.

**Always Warmup 15-20 minutes before and use proper form! AND IF POSSIBLE FIND A SPOTTER FOR THE HEAVY SETS!

Workout 1:

Squats, Push Press, Glut-Ham Raise, Lat Pulldown, Seated Calf raise

Workout 2:

Deadlifts, Power Cleans, Bench Press, standing calf raise

FINISH OFF EVERY WORKOUT WITH A SUPERSET OF CRUNCHES AND LEG RAISES WITH 15-30 SEC BURSTS OF JUMPING ROPE

EXAMPLE: CRUNCH (20-30 REPS), LEG RAISES (15-20 REPS) THEN MOVE IMMEDIATELY TO JUMPING ROPE for a 15-30 second burst as quick as possible alternating jumps from 2 legs to one to a double rope turnover jump knees to chest. Rest 3-4 minutes and repeat. Please be careful. If you never jumped rope, start slowly until you build your coordination.

This simple workout will add power and spring to your legs which in turn will increase vertical leap and running speed in a short time. This workout will prepare you for the more intense training programs.

**Always get permission from a Parent, Guardian, Coach, Certified Health Fitness experts when embarking on any fitness program. Use at your own risk**

Stretching is a vital part of any fitness program but sadly something many people tend to turn their nose up at. People often figure since stretching does not offer direct benefits like cardio training does, it is something they can just do without.

But, is this the case? Can you make do without your stretching routine? The answer is no. Stretching will help you…

• relieve muscle soreness,
• increase your range of motion, and contribute
• to improving your overall performance

as well. Simply put, it is an absolute must.

Let us look at four points you need to think about to help make the most of your stretching routine…

1. Never Stretch Cold. The first thing you need to know is stretching cold is a “big no-no.” When you stretch cold, the muscles are tight and tense and more likely to suffer from a tear or sprain. Stretch cold, and you may do more harm than good.

A light warm-up of at least five minutes is a wise idea to help get your body prepared for stretching. Often it is ideal to do this right after your workout is completed.

If you are stretching on a non-workout day, a light warm-up beforehand can help get your body prepared.

2. Ease Into The Stretch. Next, make sure you ease into your stretch. As you go about your stretching routine, do not rush in jerking your muscle into position. Jerking the muscle will only increase your risk factor of an injury.

Go slow. Breathe as you lower yourself down and pause when it becomes uncomfortable. Take another deep breath in, pause again and then move lower into the stretch. Repeat this process until you cannot extend any longer.

3. Go For Multiple Rounds. Another tip to help you get more out of your stretching routine is to ensure you are going for multiple rounds of stretching. It is not wise to just stretch once and be done with it. Usually, on your second time, you can extend further so this is where you will make the most progress.

Try performing each stretch for two or even three repetitions for optimal success.

4. Stretch Every Day. Consider stretching every day if you can. The fact is stretching is something needing to be done on an ongoing rate if you are going to see the results you are looking for. Skip a few days here and there, and your muscles will tighten up, and you will notice you are not making progress.

If you can aim to stretch at least on five days each week, this is what will give you the best results.

There you have the facts you need to know regarding your stretching routine. Don’t overlook this critical element of your workout program.