Posted by on November 10, 2009 under personal training | 
Today is the United States Marine Corps 234th Birthday. In honor of this occasion, I just did a little post at my fitness blog on how every man and woman is tested for physical fitness in the Marine Corps. The standardized method of testing is performed to check a Marine’s upper body strength, core strength and physical endurance. Its suprisingly simple too! It’s awesome to see how the basics can be a great workout. Feel free to check it out.
Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test
PS…if you want to test yourself, I give you the scores and how to calculate it as well.
If you are getting ready to go into the Marine Corps, feel free to let me know and I can give you some ideas on how to get ready to be one of The Few, The Proud…The Marines!
Posted by on September 25, 2009 under personal training |
How to find the Perfect Long Beach Personal Trainer for YOU
So, I put this video together to help people looking for a personal trainer in Long Beach. Realizing that alot of people are “looking” but sometimes afraid to contact a trainer because quite frankly, they might not know what to say. When I sit with people, often I do most of the talking. I basically get to hear their goals, some of their history, discuss their background but rarely am I “stumped” by a question. I ALWAYS ask for questions, I even request that before meeting with me for a consultation that a person sits down and writes down any and all questions. Still not many questions.
So hence, the video. I put together all the topics that should be discussed, all the questions that should be asked. I basically made this video as if I personally were out shopping for a trainer. I held nothing back either. I put all the uncomfortable questions in there, the ones that some trainers might not want to be asked!
In the video you’ll learn:
- Goal setting so you know what you want BEFORE you talk to a trainer. (part of avoiding getting “sold”)
- How to pre-screen a trainer to make sure they are worth sitting down and talking to.
- I give you THREE mandatory items that trainer must have to safely work with you…if not you need to RUN AWAY!
- SIX qualifying questions to test that trainer…and maybe make them squirm a little.
- How to spot a “sales pitch” (yes they are out there!)
- How to get the best prices for personal training in Long Beach.
- and more…
I held nothing back because I want you to make the best decision and find the right trainer for you.
Here is the truth
Let me be completely honest, I’d love for you to work with me. I’m also realistic that not everyone WILL work with me. Having been a personal trainer in Long Beach and Lakewood for over nine years, I’ve learned that not every trainer…is a good fit for every client. Since I have seen alot of “less qualified” trainers out there more and more the least I can do is make sure you are armed with the right tools to find the right trainer for YOU.
So here is what you need to do next:
- Check out the video. You can check it out HERE
- Print out the free Personal Trainer Interview Checklist I give you.
- Start looking online and make notes on your “checklist”
- Set appointments with the trainer that meets all the criteria
- GET GOING towards your FITNESS GOALS!
As always, if you have any questions about personal training in Long Beach, Lakewood or any surrounding areas…feel free to contact me anytime.
Posted by on March 7, 2009 under diet info |
When it comes to getting in shape we call come with our own challenges. For many Americans, food intake is our biggest challenge. Everything comes in “value” sized quantities and it has distorted our portion sizes tremendously. In many cases, single meals are the equivalent of an entire day’s food intake. AN ENTIRE DAY!
Let’s Get Real!
Thats right, its time to take a good hard look at your food intake. Don’t think its an issue? I’ve heard it before: “Oh I eat healthy! I don’t eat this or that or this…” You know what that is? Its a way of tricking yourself into feeling good but not putting in the real work to see if you are eating to lose or eating to gain. Even the “healthiest” of diets can make you gain weight. (don’t get me started on “but its a healthy fat”) Regardless of whether you cut out this, only eat that, don’t eat the other…you can still gain weight if you don’t have portion control!
We tend to underestimate what we eat and overestimate what we do…
What does this mean? It means we lowball our calories, thinking we eat less than what it truly adds up to. It also means we overestimate our exercise, thinking it burns more calories than it really does. For this discussion, lets focus on food intake. We don’t take into account ounces of meat, ounces of oil, cups of rice, pasta, cereal, condiments, add-ons, juices and sodas, alcohol, chips, popcorn, candy etc.. All are distorted, overlooked or just plain forgotten in the daily add up of calories. Though you may be glossing over it, the reality is in the inches gained or tight clothes that happen over time.
POINT TAKEN! (What can I do?)
Give youreself a reality check. Here is the plan. Write down everything you eat, including quantities, for 3 days (preferably Thursday, Friday, Saturday) and add up the calories of all the foods for each day. You can use any number of online calorie guides to help you or if you are more serious you can go to www.fitday.com and open a free account and enter foods there. It will add up the calories for you.
If you do this, you are on track to getting a solid headlock on portion sizes…and taking the first steps to being able to change your body AT WILL.
Stay tuned to Part 2 of Tackling Portion Control!
Be well!
Posted by on January 20, 2009 under personal training |
With today being the inauguration of Barack Obama, our first African American President, I can’t help to think about change. Change for our beliefs, change for our Country, and change for the world. Its alot to think about! I’m sure it is overwhelming for the new man we call president, but remember…he is still an individual person.
Much is riding on his shoulders, but the key thing to remember is he is not a super-man. He gets out of bed every morning and puts one foot on the ground then the other. He brushes his teeth, he feels aches and pains, he has a family. He only has 24 hours in the day, just like you and me. What makes him different? How can a person who was once an elementary school kid riding a bike, or an adolescent dealing with teenager issues, or a college student trying to keep up with his studies, how can this person go to become the President of the United States?
The only way to accomplish anything in this world is through guidance and action!
You see, you only acheive what you can believe. Thats quite a flashy statement but think about it in more simpler terms. If you know about something, you then can see the possibility. If you can see the possibility, you can learn or be guided towards it. So the first thing he had to do was believe it was possible, then he learned, was educated, met people who encouraged him, helped him and ultimately believed he could be the 44th President of the United States. What kept him going all this time? Action.
It takes a first step to build any type of momentum.
Once you build momentum you have to keep it going.
If you want something, you have to act on it, once begin acting on it, you build momentum. Once you build momentum you learn more, experience more, maybe stumble a bit, but continue to see that the goal is a possibility. You become excited by progress and since you are constantly acting, you are consistently seeing improvement.
Why do I bring this up?
Well of course it relates to your fitness!
Begin to act!
Once you start taking steps, small steps, you will see progress. If that means committing to walking 3x a week, do it! If that means cutting the portions on your plate or eliminating that late night snack, do it. If that means setting up a workout routine, do it. You’ll begin to see and feel improvements in your life. Its not impossible, remember the great people in the world that accomplish so much? They have just as many hours in the day as you do!
Just like President Obama will not go it alone, he will have a team of experts to help guide him to make the best choices with only his success and out Country’s success in mind. You don’t have to go it alone either. You can have mentors, sources of information, coaches etc. People who can guide you, teach you and give you the INTERNAL motivation to believe that ANY GOAL can be acheived!
If you need someone in your corner to help you reach your fitness goals, feel free to let me know. I have only your success in mind! As a Long Beach Personal Trainer, I am ready to help you in any way it takes to get your momentum up to Presidential Proportions!
Remember, everyone is created equal! Wel all have 24 hours in a day, brush our teeth, have deadlines, time constraints and responsibilities. We all have limitless potential as well! It just takes believing you can do it. You can have the same drive and determination that it took to take a man to the Presidency, if you get the information and guidance to help you believe in your goal and then take action!
Happy Inauguration Day 2009!
Posted by on December 15, 2008 under personal training, weight loss |
2009 is here!
Its time to start thinking about what you WILL accomplish this year. The best way to get started is to write down what you want to achieve. Its one thing to have it in your head, but when you write it down…you make it real! Start making a list of all the things you want to get to work on in January 2009.
Do you have some Fitness Resolutions?
- Do you want to:
- Lose weight?
- Gain Muscle?
- Build endurance and stamina?
- Increase your flexibility, balance, coordination
I want to hear them! Start with the end result and we’ll map out a plan to get there!
Also get ready for a few surprises in 2009 from your favorite Long Beach Personal Trainer! I have some great specials coming as well as some added bonuses to help you reach your goals quickly and have a ton of fun along the way!
If you’d like to talk about your fitness resolutions and map out how to reach them, feel free to set up a FREE consultation anytime! Click here to get started!
Posted by on December 9, 2008 under fitness gyms, personal training, weight training |
The next part of this series of finding your new fitness gym in Long Beach deals with the nuts and bolts of things. The equipment and services to help you achieve your fitness goals!
Equipment! More or Less?
Cable Machines, Freeweights and stability balls
A well stocked gym with good equipment can help you keep on track. Truth be told, most people with basic gym experience feel better about having more equipment. Here is why: equipment is labeled as to what it does and seems relatively fool proof to use. If you have minimal knowledge and haven’t worked with a personal trainer, you will at least feel semi confident about hopping on a piece of equipment that lets you set the weight and go to town.
A solid “freeweight” section is important too. Free weights are dumbbells and barbells, kettlebells etc. The benefit to using them is that you require more of your body, its stabilizers and your core…and that translates into more calories burned and more work done at the end of the day. Don’t avoid this section if you are serious about getting to your fitness goal fast.
Some extras that are nice
Medicine balls, resistance bands, stability balls, balance boards and other apparatus are great extras for your workout and if you want to keep things fresh, a well stocked gym with these goodies will do the trick for you. Having different TYPES of resistance can shake up your routine immensely. So using a balance of machines, freeweights, bodyweight and other types of resistance will challenge your body constantly and keep you improving.
Cardio equipment: keeping the heart healthy and helping you melt fat!
Whether you are looking for a big chain type gym or a small exclusive studio, make sure they have ample cardio equipment. These can help you get your heart healthy and burn extra calories. Some staple equipment to have are treadmills and either upright or recumbent bikes. Newer pieces of equipment such as eliptical trainers and stair steppers are great and can give you a great workout that is low impact (vs. running).
Personal Training Services
I add this in shamelessly but truly feel that if you are new to working out, you owe it to yourself to learn how to do things the right way. Machines seem self explanatory but you would be surprised how many times people ask me if they are using correct form. When training a client i ALWAYS teach them the correct form with free weightsfirst, then show how it can carry over to machines later. Some trainers do this backwards, which can actually be a disservice to their clients. Showing how to use equipment is not being a personal trainer, thats tech support and a tour guide combined. Learning how an exercise is done correctly is way more important than learning what height to put the seat on a machine. I teach a trainee how to work out in ANY gym with the correct form so that whatever the equipment available they can have a great workout. More on selecting the best personal trainer in Long Beach for you in another article.
If you are looking for a gym to work out in and are new to exercise, make sure your gym is well stocked with equipment, has good personal trainers to help you get a strong start. You’ll progress faster, feel more confident about going to the gym and reach your goals faster.
Posted by on December 3, 2008 under fitness gyms |
Confused about Finding the Right Gym in Long Beach?
Choosing the place you work out can have a huge effect on your fitness program. Your success can actually be helped or hindered based on where you work out. I know this is a big statement but having been a personal trainer in Long Beach for quite some time, I have had a chance to see a lot of people come and go in gyms and also hear the reasons for why people quit their fitness programs.
Many factors determine how excited and driven you will be towards reaching your goal and a lot of it starts with the environment you work out in. Selecting the right gym for YOU is just as important as any other “piece of the pie” in your fitness routine. So without further ado, I’ll explain:
Location, Location, Location
Having had clients come to me for personal training, I have found that convenience of location is very important. If you are not so excited about getting back in the gym, have a tendency to go home and just “relax” completely; this will ring true.
Find a gym that is “on the way home” (or on the way to work)
If you make it convenient to stop and do your workout on the way home, you will avoid having to “talk yourself into” heading back out from home after a long day. Make your gym stop a part of your commute and then when you finally go home you can unwind completely and have accomplished your work day and your workout! Win-Win!
The easier you make it to get to the gym, the less you’ll have a chance to talk yourself out of the trip.
Find a gym you are comfortable in
There are alot of different “environments” gyms can have. There are very sterile, quiet, exclusive gyms and there are very loud aggressive and everything in between. When checking out a new gym, be sure to get a feel for the environment and see if you would feel comfortable in that setting. If you are new to a gym and maybe a little intimidated then you would want to check out places that may be a little more calm for you. If you have worked out for a while and are looking to “amp” it up, then a more focused, aggressive crowd may be for you.
You may like small gyms, big gyms, private exclusive studios or sports specific facilities (yoga, martial arts or sports themed). The great part about Long Beach is that you can find gyms to suit ANY style of exercise or training. I’ll cover the types of gyms in “Finding the Right Gym Around Long Beach Pt. 2.”
Stay tuned!
Posted by on February 3, 2008 under diet, exercise, fat loss, muscle gain, weight loss, weight training |
Did you know that each lb of muscle you gain allows you to intake 25-50 calories more per day? (and thats just if you were lying still!) 3-5 lbs of muscle gain equals 150-250 calories more that you can eat each day to maintain your weight! Keep in mind that these figures are based on a resting metabolism…not an active one. So that means more calories burned.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Adding muscle burns more calories!
What does this all mean?
Bottom line: adding muscle lets you eat more and maintain your weight.
Now how about losing bodyfat?
Remember the example of 1lb of muscle burning 25-50 calories at rest a day. How much does fat burn? 6 calories….thats it.
One final point: the 1lb of muscle at rest can be active and burn alot more than 25-50 extra calories correct? Remember that stored bodyfat can’t become active.
Which do you want more of?
Posted by on January 7, 2008 under calorie burning, exercise, weight loss |
The average weight for American men was 191 pounds in 2002 and 164 pounds for women, about 25 pounds heavier than in 1960.
Americans are burning nearly 1 billion more gallons of gasoline each year than they did in 1960 because of their expanding waistlines. (Yahoo)
The obesity rate among U.S. adults doubled from 1987 to 2003, from about 15 percent to more than 30 percent.
Something to think about to increase at least some gas mileage. Granted this is fitness related but there are other ways to save gas. Other ideas are to clean out the trunk of the car, go easy on the pedal and keep your car in the highest gear possible. Also getting your tires filled with Nitrogen has been shown to increase gas mileage and also minimize air leakage. Many tire stores now with the purchase of tires will offer free lifetime Nitrogen fill ups for your tires. More information on that here.
Oh and the very best way to save gas….Human Movement!! Walk, run, bike, skateboard, wheelbarrow race, skip, hop, rollerblade, etc! Combining exercise with having to get somewhere forces you to get it done, keeps your pace brisk and saves you time…and gas.
January is here! Lets get moving!
Posted by on January 2, 2008 under calorie, diet, exercise, fitness, metabolism, weight loss |
Proper Food Intake and Exercise! The MAGIC Pill!
Well the New Year is here and I’m waiting for the Diet Pill onslaught, the late night infomercial for .025 second Ab Machines, and the latest “Eat only______ and lose 10lbs the first day” Diets to hit the market. Its bound to happen and as a Personal Trainer, its just a part of life that we have to counter every false claim, misconception and wrong statement that these so called products purport.
So…I’m doing a little pre-emptive strike! I’m going to explain, in a nutshell, the basics of fitness for a specific goal. If I can save just one person from falling prey to these snake oil salesman, then I’ll have done some good.
Mantra: “Abs are made in the kitchen.”
Remember this statement.
I’m going to explain the concept of weightloss in terms all of
us can understand. MONEY!
Your body has a bank account. It has money coming in and money going out, these are called calories. Our paychecks/deposits are calories thatwe eat. Our spending is activities we do. Movement causes us to spend more “money.”
So lets say we have daily bills of $2000. Each day our “boss”(you) pays us $2000 and through the day with work, moving around and body functions we pay our bills of $2000, exactly. This is called a balanced system. No surplus no deficit. We’ll call this “Maintenance” for simplicity. We maintain without over or under spending.
Next example, lets say we are now making a little bit more per day. We got a raise…aka…we eat more. We are still spending our $2000. So now we have the ability to SAVE some of our hard earned intake. So we put our intake away in “savings.” Can you guess what “savings” is? We’ll just say that we have what is called a “surplus” and continue on…it will all make sense soon.
Final example. Times are tough. We aren’t taking home as much as we used to, but our “bills” or expenses remain the same. Remember our take home “pay” is the food we eat, our “bills” are our activities. So we are only taking home $1500 a day and still spending $2000. Now we have what is called a “deficit” and what do we do when in a deficit? Borrow!!! So we tap into
“savings” to pay our remaining $500 we owe.
Your body is very much like your bank account. If you take home too much you save it…in the form of body fat. If you spend the same amount as you take in you stay the same. No loss, no gain. If you take a pay cut (eat less) and spend the same (maintain activity) then you spend savings aka lose body fat.
So we’ve covered why correct food intake is critical right? What about exercise?
Here is the beauty of getting your ducks in a row with food first: everything else you do only enhances your results!
Exercise is the “spending” your body does. If your food intake is only $1500 a day and you spend $2200 a day, you now have to borrow $700 from “savings!” Exercise maintains or increases the muscle you have and can actually cause you to “spend more” daily. By spending more I am referring to raising your metabolism! Muscle has a way of doing that.
Consistency=RESULTS!
Imagine having to tap into savings every day drawing out $500 a day. Over the course of the week you would have withdrawn $3500, right? Here is where it comes together.
1lb of fat=3500 calories. 7 days of being at a daily calorie deficit of 500 calories=3500 calories. That’s 1lb of body fat lost for reducing your food intake 500 calories. That’s before “spending” more has occurred. Lets say you exercise 5 days a week and burn an average of 300 calories…that’s another 1500 calories on top of the 3500. So that’s a body fat loss of over1.5lbs a week!
So now we understand and see the relationship between proper food intake and proper exercise and how they work hand in hand to help you achieve fat loss safely and correctly. I hope that helps. Remember the Bank Account Example when someone tells you “lose weight and change nothing” and you’ll see right through the hype.
They say you should learn something new each day. (you know…”they”) Hopefully this will save you from falling for the hype, marketing bull and overinflated claims and put you in a realistic mindset about weight loss. It really is a math game.
Happy New Years!
Today is the United States Marine Corps 234th Birthday. In honor of this occasion, I just did a little post at my fitness blog on how every man and woman is tested for physical fitness in the Marine Corps. The standardized method of testing is performed to check a Marine’s upper body strength, core strength and physical endurance. Its suprisingly simple too! It’s awesome to see how the basics can be a great workout. Feel free to check it out.
