6. Never Workout Without Music! Did you ever pay attention to the soundtrack of your favorite TV show or movie? Did you every wonder why certain songs were playing at certain times? Music evokes emotion, and emotion can carry you through even the toughest of workouts. I’ve had workouts totally come apart when the battery died on my iPod Nano!

Several studies have been conducted to show the effect of music on workouts. One study showed that upbeat, hard-driving music can increase your strength and intensity, while another study revealed that music has been shown to increase pain tolerance during a workout.

Putting on a pair of headphones also helps you to block out all of the distractions that loom at the gym (as previously noted). Sometimes, just hearing the opening beat of some of the tunes on my iPod gets me revved up – especially since I workout first thing in the morning (more on this in future issues of the newsletter).

Some of my favorite tunes on my workout list include a variety of genres:

- “Eye of the Tiger” – Survivor

- “Welcome to the Jungle” – Guns ‘n Roses

- “Beautiful Day” – U2

- “Wake Up Call” – Maroon 5

- “Enter Sandman” – Metallica

- “Higher” – Creed

Make your own workout mix and get moving!

7. Never Workout Without a Heart Rate Monitor! The best way to keep yourself honest in the gym is to wear a heart rate monitor. A heart rate monitor will let you know how hard you are working, and when you need to crank up the intensity of your workout. Whether weight training or interval training, it is the best indicator of how hard you are working and help you to figure out your optimal rest intervals.

For example, during interval training, you need to create an oxygen debt – that is, your body is asking your lungs for more oxygen than it can provide. How do you know this is happening? After you stop your hard effort, your heart rate should actually increase and you begin to pant in an effort to take in more oxygen – and that is your debt situation. Having the HRM makes it much easier to determine when you’ve reached this point.

I’ll go into the optimal ranges for your heart rate activity during exercise, calculating your maximum heart rate and other relevant information. For now, get a heart rate monitor, read the manual and take it for a test drive. You don’t need one with all of the bells and whistles (unless you’re into gadgets like me) – my favorite brand is Polar, and you can get great prices by searching the Web.

8. Stop Socializing at the Gym! Every gym has one – I call him “the Mayor”. He’s the one who knows everyone and feels the need to come over and talk about just about anything. He’ll do his very uninspired set on one of the weight machines, often grunting loudly or distorting his face to get further attention, and when he finishes says “Whew!” loudly to no one in particular. The poor soul who acknowledges him will then be subjected to a 10-minute discussion on the economy, the presidential race, the stock market, or whatever strikes his fancy. He may even horse around with the personal trainers, who are now not watching their clients as they perform their sets.

You should avoid the Mayor at all costs – he will derail your fat loss efforts in an instant! In fact, you should avoid all interaction during your workout, with the exception of asking someone if they are using a particular weight or rack. If you’re following my advice above and working out to music, this is really easy to accomplish – just turn up your tunes and tune out the others.

Folks at my gym may think I’m anti-social because I don’t acknowledge anyone – heck I don’t even look at people – while I’m in the middle of my workout. Why? Because I only have a limited time to accomplish my goals for that day, and stopping even for a moment to chat takes away from the time I have. And if I don’t reach my goal for that day, I consider it a failure (more on that in future newsletters). To combat people’s perceptions, if you care about things like that, a simple smile or wave hello as you enter or leave the gym is enough to reassure them that you are not a recluse. But once you strap on your music, it’s “Go Time!”

9. Never Workout Without Consuming Protein Afterwards (and Sometimes Before)! I train first thing in the morning, so sometimes I drink a protein shake prior to heading to the gym, sometimes I don’t. There is a lot of debate over working out in a fasted state that I won’t get into here. Suffice it to say that consuming protein before your workout has been shown in research to increase muscle mass and decrease body fat, so it is a good idea to have a protein shake before a workout, especially if you’ll be working out later in the day.

You should always consume protein after a workout, preferably a protein shake made from whey protein isolate. I will go into much greater detail in subsequent newsletters about reliable brands, tasty recipes, etc. How much protein? Take your current body weight and divide by 5.5 – that is how many grams of protein should be in your post-workout shake. What about carbs? The conventional wisdom says that the number of grams of carbs in the post-workout shake should equal the number of grams of protein. BUT…what I have found through my research and practice is that post-workout shakes are more effective for fat loss if they are kept low in carbs. One of the aspects of protein consumption that will be covered later is exactly how many grams should be consumed in a day, and questions about safety concerns from ingesting large amounts of protein.

10. Stop Stretching Before Your Workout! Do you know how many people walk into the gym from the street and immediately start to stretch? Do you know how counter-productive this is?

First, there are two kinds of stretches – static and dynamic. An example of static is when you throw your leg up on a parallel bar or rack and bend at the waist until you feel a slight pull, then hold for a period of time. Static stretching before workouts is a very bad idea. Static stretching forces the muscle to relax, this making it weaker. When a muscle is weaker than its counterpart (for example if your hamstrings on the backs of your leg are weaker than your quadriceps in the front of your leg) it causes an imbalance that could lead to strains, tears and pulls.

Dynamic stretching is the way to go to get loose before your workout. We’ll cover this in greater detail in the future. For now, save your static stretching for any time other than before your workout.



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One of the greatest ways to burn fat and develop/maintain muscle is by increasing your body’s GH (or growth hormone) levels. Growth Hormone is produced by the pituitary gland and it’s levels usually peak during puberty then slowly and steadily decline with age. GH not only plays a key role in muscle development and maintenance but it also assists with fat burning.

Experts have concluded that increasing your GH levels will not only assist in bone and muscle mass development but will also help to shed fat.

For years, bodybuilders have injected synthetic GH to experience the amazing effects it has on their body composition.  Unfortunately, the synthetic version of this hormone is very expensive, hard to obtain and causes undesirable side effects.    The good news is that you can increase your GH levels naturally, and without any side effects!  All you have to do is engage in a targeted hormone stimulating training program.  You can start jacking up your own growth hormone today by applying some of these key elements to your workouts:

GH and YOU: Incorporating GH into Your Fat Loss Program

1) Exercise Intensity- In order to increase your GH levels make sure that your workouts are INTENSE! When you have reached optimal intensity levels with your workout do not exceed about 50 minutes. Keep in mind that intense training beyond the 50 minute mark it will actually cause a negative effect on the hormone response to your body.

2) Exercise volume- You’ll have to do as much quality work as you can possibly can during the 50 minute time period.  To do this effectively you must alternate sets of exercises in such a way that you train different muscles that don’t interfere with each other.  Alternating sets involves going from exercise A to exercise B with minimal rest in between.

3) Rest Periods- Keep your rest intervals as short as possible.  Your rest interval is only there to allow recovery so you can perform another quality set.  Resting any longer than that is a complete waste of time.  To maximize GH output, keep most of your rest intervals between 60-90 seconds.

4) Rep Range- Most of your sets should be around 8-12 repetitions.  This will increase lactic acid levels, which in turn activates the release of growth hormone. 

5) Sprinting- A great way to trigger the release of GH in the body is old fashioned sprinting. I recommend performing 6-30 second sprints for optimal results.

If you want to be in the shape of your life, follow these steps for a lean, mean new physique! Your workout might start out somewhat difficult for you but I assure you your additional efforts will pay you back big dividends.  Finally, you’ll be able to lose stubborn belly fat and build new lean muscle in no time! 



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Today I’d like to give you an exciting full body fat loss circuit training workout that will help you burn fat, get you fit and strong, and leave you feeling great in just 40 minutes. So if you want to burn fat, tone up, and get fit then this workout is for you.

Another great advantage of this workout is that all you need to complete it is a set of dumbbells, a stability ball, and a step. A cardio machine is advised for your fat loss interval training component.

The fat loss circuit training workout I’m about to provide you with is an example of the type of circuit training workouts that are a key component of Fitter U™ fat loss fitness program.

So here’s how it’s going to work. We’re going to take 6 fat burning exercises and set them up in a circuit training routine. For each fat burning exercise you will be completing as many repetitions as possible in a 30 second time period. After each exercise you will then rest for 30 seconds before moving on to the next one. Once you’ve completed the entire first set you can then grab a sip of water and rest for 1-2 minutes.

After your 1-2 minute rest period, you will then choose a cardio machine and perform 5 minutes of fat burning intervals. The interval training component is a great way to spike your metabolism and burn further calories in just a few minutes. For these fat loss intervals you will be working hard for 10 seconds and recovering for 50 seconds. This will be repeated 5 times for a total of 5 minutes.

For instance, if you are on the bike you would pedal as fast as possible (at a good resistance) for 10 seconds and then follow that with a nice and easy 50 second recovery. Got it? Awesome!

Both the circuit training and interval training sequences are repeated twice.

So here’s how the workout structure will look:

Warm-up

5 minutes light cardio

CIRCUIT 1 (30 sec. work, 30 sec. rest)

Standing lunges

Plank

Step-ups with biceps curls and shoulder press

Push-ups

Stability ball crunches

Ball squats (against wall) with biceps curls

Rest 1-2 minutes

INTERVAL TRAINING 1 (10 sec. hard, 50 sec. recovery)

Rest 1-2 minutes

CIRCUIT 2 (30 sec. work, 30 sec. rest)

Standing lunges

Plank

Step-ups with biceps curls and shoulder press

Push-ups

Stability ball crunches

Ball squats (against wall) with biceps curls

Rest 1-2 minutes

INTERVAL TRAINING 2 (10 sec. hard, 50 sec. recovery)

This entire fat loss circuit training workout should take you no more than 40 minutes.

Give it a shot and experience the Fitter U™ difference.

 



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After helping clients with personal training in Singapore for more than 10 years, I often have to tell stories to give them an idea of what to expect from their program. Here is one such story about fat loss.

I recently had a client called Jack (Not his real name) who wanted to start getting in shape after many years of unhealthy eating.

Part of the exercise program was to help him get stronger. The building of strength is important because it allows you to use more energy during training and this is good for burning fat.

Also, getting strong prevents muscles from breaking down as you go on a diet where calories may be low. This means that you don’t get the “rebound effect” where you quickly gain weight back after a diet due to excessive loss of lean muscle.

For the strength portion of his workouts Jack did exercises with heavy weights for his current fitness level. The exercises we used are big movements like deadlifts, squats, and chin-ups. At the end of 5 weeks for example he could lift 120kg five times in the dead lift which is a respectable amount of strength.

The next portion of the workouts was the fat burning portion of the workouts. We used simpler exercises put together in a circuit like fashion. The aim of this portion was to boost Jack’s metabolism both during AND after the workouts.

The workouts are hard work and so Jack’s metabolism is ramped up for up to 30 or more hours after the training session while his body is recovering from the workout. The result is that he burns many calories because even just 1 hour of this kind of training can result in 30 hours or more of increased calorie burning. Exercises used here include lunges, jump squats, pushups and burpees.

We never used cardio in the traditional sense such as jogging or cycling because it is boring, and it often leads to overuse injuries as well as muscle loss.

For nutrition, the first task was to help Jack’s body start to become efficient at burning fats. We did this by asking him to eat more healthy fats such as nuts and fish oils. Eating more fat teaches your body to burn fat efficiently. Meanwhile, at Jack’s level of body fat he is not suited to consume carbohydrates of any kind except green, leafy vegetables. So his nutrition plan was high in protein, high in healthy fats, very high in vegetables, and very low in processed foods and unhealthy fats.

After 2 weeks, Jack’s body became adapted to using fat as a fuel. Then we decreased the amount of food he ate, and his body started using his body fat stores for fuel. That is why he only lost 1kg in the first 2 weeks, but 4kg in the final 2.

At no point did Jack need to feel hungry because when his body started to absorb high quality foods, his body automatically tells him that is has enough food. This is different from when he eats foods with low nutrient content like noodles. The body does not know when to stop because pasta, sugar and other bad foods have close to zero nutrients so the body is still “hungry” even though he may have eaten alot.

The Final Stats? Start Weight – 115.5kg

End Weight – 110.5kg

Lean Mass Start – 76kg

Lean Mass End – 78g

5kg of weight lost, 2kg of muscle gained.

That means actual fat loss is 7kg

THIS is the key stat:)

Fat percentage drop from 33% to 28.8%

Measurements: Arms 45cm both start and finish

Waist 113cm drop to 107cm (2.5 inches)

Below are the fat measurements at the start

Chin: 14.2 mm

Cheek: 14.6 mm

Pectoris: 41 mm

Triceps: 31 mm

Subscap: 33 mm

Mid-axillary: 40.2 mm

Supra-iliac: 62 mm

Umbilicus: 64 mm

Knee: 18.8 mm

Calf: 29 mm

Quadricep: 37.2 mm

Hamstring: 56 mm

Below are the measurements At the end.

Chin: 11.6 mm

Cheek: 12.8 mm

Pectoris: 33 mm

Triceps: 26.9 mm

Subscap: 28 mm

Mid-axillary: 32 mm

Supra-iliac: 46 mm

Umbilicus: 49.8 mm

Knee: 14.6 mm

Calf: 18.8 mm

Quadricep: 27 mm

Hamstring: 48 mm

Big drops in Supra iliac (love handles), Sub scapular (upper back) and Umbilicus (abdominal) – these are key indicators for health issues. So Jack’s health improved alot.

I know that these are typical results with clients who under go personal training and who do what we ask them to do. Jack trained in the gym 3x per week and did 1-2 other days of recreational activity like basketball or leisure walks.



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