REDONDO BEACH BOOT CAMP

Try to focus on making it through the holidays sticking to this simple program. It will consist of 5 exercise tips and 5 nutrition tips. Since we will all be eating and celebrating with family and friends, we will need to counter that with some simple stratedgies. Many people will just roll-over and surrender taking little to no positive action. One of the national trends is that of many gain 5-10 pounds over the holidays. The may loose 3-8 pounds over the year but many Americans will get 2 pounds heavier each year due to failing to be wise over the holidays.

Holiday Exercise Tips
1. Do cardio(walk, run, or bike) 5 times a week for 30-60 min.

2. Do some form of resistance training( kettlebells, TRX, dumbbell circiut training).

3. Work your core 5 days a week for 5-10 min.

4. Do some form of flexibility training 3 times a week. No mindless stretching(what we may have learned in high school).

5.Practice diaphram breathing while weight lifting and use good form and posture.

Holiday Nutrition Tips
1. No skipping meals. Eat at least 3 balanced meals. Many people find that eating small meals 5-6, keeps you from being too hungry causing them to cheat and over-eat or make poor food choices. Eat at least every 5 hours.

2. Drink lots of water. No less than eight glasses.

3. Eat protein at each meal. Protein will help you loose fat.

4. Have 5 to 7 serving of fruit or vegetables a day.

5. Carry an apple and a bag of nuts(almonds or pistachios) for a perfect balanced snack so you don’t skip a meal if you have to work through lunch.

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What should you do during your workout? First you need to know what your goal is. I am going to pick 2 of the most common goals, fat loss and general fitness. A good exercise session should be no longer than 1 hour or you may be effecting your body’s hormones and preventing optimal fat loss. I really believe this because I watch many fat people who never seem to change their apperenece and they usually work out slow for 2 hours. Worrying about how many calories the machine says that a person burns is a big mistake. Also if you burn 2000 calories in 2 hours on the treadmill you will put that back on when you eat unless you know how to count calories and space out your meals throughout the day.

So for fat loss, I will make one general tip for how long to workout, 1 hour no more! Your workout should be effecient moving from exercise to exercise always keeping the heart rate up but don’t to hardand be unsafe. Here is your time:
10 min warm up
20 min core and weights
20 min cardio(I will expain the difference between cardio and aerobics in the future)
10 min cool down
This is a very balanced and effective method. Don’t go around the gym and talk you will not lose body fat that way. Nobody wants to lose weight we want to look better so forget about diet and weight loss which never worked.
Focus on quality not quantity. This method works best 5 days a week.

So for general fitness some things are the same but you may need more weight training and less cardio than someone who needs to lose weight.
10 min warm up
20-30 min weights and core
10-20 min cardio
10 min
I firmly believe cardio as we know it is way over rated. If I were wrong everyone who walks or goes to the gym would be in great shape. Everyone can strengthen the heart and lose body fat through weight training. With general fitness the most important things are being strong enough to live a long injury free life.

Joint health is very important because it will produce strong lower backs, stable knees, mobile hips(most people have tight hips and use their lower backs instead of their hips), shoulders that do not click and pop, and necks that are pain free.

Many of the killer extreme workouts that are popular produce short term gains with long term pains and tightness. So your hour should be enjoyable. Learn routines that develope a strong, firm, body, that will not get injured playing with the kids or cleaning up around the house.

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Many people are not sure how many days they should workout a week. It is different for every person and each person requires his own program.

I will address a few basics:

1. Workout 5 days a week for optimal fat loss.

2. Many sedentary people (couch potatoes) will need to begin with only 2 days. For many sedentary
people two days a week is recommended.) Consistency and commitment are the most important
for many. Add a day each month.

3. Start with weight lifting and walking.

4. Exercise needs to have these components: weight training, core training, flexibility training,
and cardiovascular training.

5. Have a doctor clear you before you start.

6. Get away from training muscle groups. Train movement patterns–pushing, pulling, lifting, squatting, lunging and planking for the back.

For many people nothing will happen no matter how hard or how often they exercise unless they make a constant effort to change their eating habits. Also, when you work out, you tear your body down so you need at least some good food to recover or “heal” from your workouts.

Here are some questions to ask yourself.

1. Do you eat breakfast?

2. Do you have a serving of good quality protein in the morning?

3. Do you eat too much starchy carbs–white rice, white breads, muffins (which are nutrient deficient),
potatoes, corn and corn products, crackers, and pasta? (Remember fat-free is not calorie-free!)

4.Do you eat food high in trans fats? For example, chips, crackers, baked goods, cakes, cookies, French
fries and all the other fried foods.

5. Do you drink more than one glass of alcohol a day?

6. Do you have 5 to 7 serving of fruits and vegetables a day?

7. Do you drink your calories–soft drinks, diet soda, fruit juices (even the “healthy” ones),
and milk. Drink more water instead or even green tea with little or no sweetener. Many people claim
it to be a “fat burner.”

8. Do you have 3 balanced meals a day? Eat protein at each meal, more vegetables than fruit, and little to
no starchy carbs.

9. Do you read labels?

10. Do you think about whether your meals are healthy or do you just eat what tastes good or eat
because you are bored, lonely, depressed or hungry?

Very few people can change everything at once. Make a commitment and keep applying the right tools for both exercise and nutrition. If you find it hard to make progress, take one step at a time. Just don’t fool yourself by half-stepping everything.

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Understanding and practicing the basics are the keys to success in achieving any fitness goal. The most common fitness goal is to loose weight. Losing weight without some form of exercise will not achieve health, nor will exercise without a nutritional plan work. Focusing on one of the two necessary components to a good fitness plan won’t bring the desired results . If you are having trouble committing to both nutrition and exercise, you will need to take a step back and reassess how important your goal is to you.

Many people need to exercise and to eat better, but they don’t want to. They make the mistake of waiting to want to exercise, which is a big mistake. You must take action regardless of how you feel.

The two challenges with nutrition are that people are creatures of habit and they are uninformed. Here are some examples: eating with family and friends, having a Strarbuck’s breakfast, eating out at lunch, not knowing what is healthy food, starting a weight-loss program instead of shopping healthy, buying unhealthy foods that are marketed as healthy, not knowing the components of a healthy meal and eating healthy portions.

One more point about being uninformed, many people still use the word diet. Diet means “I am going to cut calories for a while, loose weight, learn nothing about eating healthy and then regain my weight.” Fat loss is about combining healthier eating habits and exercising, a life style change with permanent fat loss.

Here are 5 exercise tips:

1. Don’t run to get in shape. You must be in shape. When you are out of shape, your muscles are not strong enough to stabilize your joints. Six times your body weight of force is going through your body with each stride. Get strong first.
2. Meet with a professional to get an assessment and then get a personalized fitness program so you know what specific exercises your body needs.
3. You should workout 2 to 3 times a week For many people 2 times is enough in the beginning. Think long term.
4. Have a complete exercise program, cardiovascular training, flexibility training, strength training (weight training), and core training.
5.Consider training with kettlebells because you can get your cardio, flexibility, core, and strength training done in less than 25 minutes. Most gym and machine-based programs isolate specific muscles. That is not how you move daily in life. When you walk or run, your body works in systems or movement chains not chest, back, butt, legs, biceps, and triceps.

Here are 5 tips on nutrition:

1.Eat more protein at each meal. Most important is breakfast. Many people skip breakfast or have coffee, sugar and starchy carbs; instead, try 2 eggs or cottage cheese and some fruit (an apple).
2. Drink at least 8 glasses of water or 3 bottles of water daily.
3. Eat 3 meals at least. Many a people who maintain low body-fat percentages advocate 5-6 small meals.
4 Every meal must include a good serving of protein, a variety of vegetables, fruit–limit your bread, pasta, rice and potatoes consumption, especially if you are trying to loose weight.
5. Include more healthy fat which will help you loose weight. Eat fat to lose fat may sound crazy, but examples of good fats are salmon oil, omega 3 fish oils, flaxseed oil, avacados, and olive oil.

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If you are looking for a great fat-loss program, how about starting out with kettlebells training.

People like kettlebell training because they

* find it easy to stay motivated. There’s no tendency to quit.
* are able to focus on form, and improvement can be seen in every workout.
* find it is simple and efficient. Workouts consist of 2 to 3 exercises and can be completed within
25 minutes.
* find it works for groups, which provide an exciting social environment.
* are able to combine cardio, weight, and flexibility training in one workout.
* find most kettlebell exercises are compound exercises in which you work your upper body and lower
body at the same time.

Since kettlebell training requires proper technique, it is important to learn from an experienced, certified instructor.

For more information, sign up for my email newsletter and learn more about kettlebells for fatloss in my upcoming article where I will go into more detail.

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I used that tittle just to catch people’s attention

I have never been an advocate of high protein diets because of my experience as a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness but have recently had extremly good results following differnent higher protein/ more vegetables and fruit nutrition plans.

Back in the dark ages at 24 Hour Fatness, we used the Apex program which was a high carb, low fat, low calorie diet based off of weighing, measuring, and counting calories. We were all educated by the company on the evils of low carb diets. We were also supposed to sell our clients on supplements of which I had mixed feelings. I weighed and measured my food one time and it was so tedious that I never did it again but I did follow the basic principles. I ate 3 to 6 meals a day, took multi-vitamins, amino acids, meal replacement drinks and bars, creatine, lots of water, 60% carbs, 20-30% protein and 10-20% fat. My results, I weighed 187-189 lbs with a body fat percentage of 12-13%. My goal was to look big and strong in order to set an example as a trainer. I had some good results and some not so good. I think that the clients really had a hard time with the inconvenience of the calorie counting. I could say from my perception, most people failed miserably on that plan. Too be fair about the supplements, the idea was that most people will cheat and fail so at least help them by getting them on a multi-vitamin and have a nutrition bar handy so they could grab that instead of a snickers bar.

Back in Jan 2008, I tried eating more protein shifting to a more higher protein diet with lots of organic vegetables, fruit and no supplements except for fish oil. I based this off of Paul Chek’s book and lectures. I dropped 8 lbs and felt more energetic. My body fat was 11-12%.

Here is my current ideas for weight loss based on a lot of books, research, client success and listening to fitness professionals who are smarter than me.
1.Nutrition like exercise is personal, so I can’t nor am I qualified to prescribe a personalized meal plan.
2. I can share basic principles to help people develop their own ideal meal plan.
3. If you want to loose weight the fastest, safest way, cut out sugar (fresh fruit is OK), starchy carbs (all wheat products, rice, pasta, potatoes, and corn products), and lastly no milk (cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese is ok).
4. You must eat protein at each meal. At least 3 meals and your carbs will come from lots of fruit and vegetables.
5. You must learn about sources of healthy fats to have in your diet to help you feel full or you will loose your mind, get too hungry and grab cookies, ice cream, In and Out Burger, Taco Hell, McDonalds and Dominos Pizza. You get the idea. I know from personal experience.
6. No soda or fruit drinks. Water, tea (green tea is great), coffee but no sugar or cream.
7. Try for 2 weeks but no cheating. If you fail get back up and start another 2 weeks.
This is for weight loss not the rest of your life.

I am only suggesting this because I have done this twice. One time before a Jiu-Jitsu tournament when I lost 6 pounds in less than a week. I am also suggesting it because when people see results faster they really begin to believe in exercise and nutrition. Is it right who knows but I know it is better than eating fast food or munching out of boxes and bags of high calorie low nutrient goodies.

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Since 2003 I have been personal training. My experience proves that nutrition is hard for everyone. First off, Everyone is bombarded with an information overload so even if they have good intentions, it can be hard to find the right individual path.

One method I if find very useful is applying the superfoods concept. I will keep this very simple: I will refer to superfoods as tasty, low calorie, nutrient dense foods. With the superfood concept, it is important to eat the same superfoods on a regular basis, similar to taking a multi-vitamin. Results will come by practice. It doesn’t require anyone to make much of a change in what they eat at first. All that’s needed is a commitment to try: try, fail, try again.

Before I go, I will give examples of some great superfoods to experiment with. Add these foods more often throughout the week: blueberries, spinach, free-range chicken, wild salmon (frozen and canned to save money), broccoli, and free-range eggs.

Many people do not respond well to fad diets so with superfoods everyone can create their own diet that fits into their lifestyle.

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One great way to make your workouts more enjoyable is to add some outdoor training to your routine.  The beach is an excellent location to workout with kettlebells.

The first and most obvious reason is that you don’t need a mat and therefore don’t need to worry about dropping the kettlebell. This allows you to try various kettlebell exercises that would be risky in doors.  The second reason is that workout out barefoot in the sand strengthens the feet.

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The new Redondo Beach Boot Camp Blog is now listed in the Technorati.com Blog search engine.

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Welcome to the new Redondo Beach Boot Camp Blog which we just launched.

This is an additional website feature that we decided to add to our site in order to better communicate and interact with you, our Boot Camp members and potential members. We plan on making Posts each week with the primary Blog content objective of educating, inspiring and motivating readers to workout more intelligently, efficiently and consistently to get in the best shape of their lives. We’ll also Post any relevant Boot Camp announcements.

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