Your Fitness Goals and The Missing Link for Your Motivation

5 Best Tips For Your Workout

I just received an email today from Frank – and in this email Frank wanted to know why he doesn’t have the power he needs to push heavy weights in his chest workout. It’s an interesting question, and I want to share it with you, because my answer will show you how to plan your workouts to get the most out of them!

This is a copy of Frank email (with his permission).

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Hi Martin,

First of all I would like to say thank you for all the good information you provide with your tips and your newsletter. I loved your tips and try to make all of them my new way of life.

I don’t know if you can answer to my question. When I train my chest, it’s very hard for me to be able to push heavy for my workout.  I’m pretty good with the rest of the body parts.

My split routine is like this:

Monday: Back/Core

Tuesday: Legs

Wednesday: Shoulders/Core

Thursday: Biceps

Friday: Triceps/Core

Saturday: Chest

Sunday: OFF

Do you think this is a good split for my routine?

I usually do 5 set of 3 exercises for each body part?

Each set is around 12-15 reps and I keep the same program for 12 weeks.

Thank you

Frank

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I can see right away that a few things are not right with Frank’s routine.

First, let’s talk about how Frank split his workouts to work different body parts. It depends on what you want to accomplish, but for nearly everyone, heavy strength workouts out 6 days a week is too much. I might do this when I’m training for a bodybuilding tournament, but otherwise I do my strength training 4 days a week and I stay in amazing shape all year round. Read the rest of this entry »

21 Rewards From the Express Fat Loss System

The number one reason that most people are out-of-shape is that they don’t exercise enough.

I’ve often wished that I could give each and every one of you a personalized pep talk to get you up off the couch and into the gym, day after day. So here’s my pep talk in bullet form – 21 rewards that you will gain from regular exercise.

Photo: Getty

Do yourself a favor and print this list and post it where you’ll see it every day. When you need motivation or encouragement simply read over this list and feel your motivation soar.

1. You’ll reset your body: Exercise has been described as a giant reset button. A good workout will block appetite swings, improve your mood and even help you sleep.
2. Your clothes will fit better: Consistent exercise will tone and tighten your body, causing your clothes to not only fit better but to also look nicer. Also exercise ensures that soon you’ll be trading your clothes in for smaller sizes.
3. You’ll be less stressed: You have enough stress in your life – it’s time for a break. A good workout invigorates your muscles, leaving you relaxed and less stressed.
4. You’ll have more energy: WebMD tallied research studies and concluded that 90% of them prove exercise increases energy levels in sedentary patients. Next time you feel fatigued, fight it will the most powerful tool available: exercise.
5. You’ll be stronger: Exercise improves muscle strength and endurance, two things that you use throughout each day. When you exercise consistently you’ll be pleasantly surprised when difficult tasks begin to seem easy.
6. You’ll be less likely to binge: Exercise has a powerful anti-binge effect on the body. This is due in part by an increase in sensitivity to leptin, a protein hormone, which has an appetite-taming effect.
7. You’ll burn calories: You know that excess body fat is made up of stored and unused calories. Fight back by burning loads of calories with fat-blasting workouts.
8. You’ll be more confident: Who doesn’t wish they walked and talked with more confidence? A consistent exercise program will do just that. As your body becomes more fit, watch as your confidence sky-rockets.
9. You’ll have fun: Believe it or not, exercise can be extremely enjoyable. Remember how fun it was to run around as a child? Tap into your inner child as you find a mode of exercise that gets you excited.
10. You’ll reduce your blood pressure: Exercise has been proven more effective than medication in reducing blood pressure to normal levels. A single workout has been shown to reduce blood pressure for the day and regular exercise reduces overall blood pressure in the long run.
11. You’ll lose the jiggles: Regular exercise tightens flabby arms, legs and waistlines. So wave goodbye to the jiggles with a solid exercise program.
12. You’ll increase insulin sensitivity: Researchers at Laval University in Quebec discovered that exercise improved insulin sensitivity dramatically. Peak after-meal insulin levels dropped by more than 20 percent after as little as 3 weeks of consistent exercise.
13. You’ll sleep better: Do you toss and turn for hours before falling asleep? Exercise is a powerful sleep aid. Your tired muscles encourage your body to quickly fall asleep so they can get their overnight repair work done.
14. You’ll lower your risk of heart disease: Regular exercise strengthens your heart and makes it more resilient against disease. A sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor for heart disease, so rest assured that consistent exercise is your ally against disease.
15. You’ll feel great: Vigorous exercise releases natural endorphins (happy hormones) into your blood stream that dissolve pain and anxiety. You’ve probably heard of ‘runner’s high’, this can be achieved by any great workout.
16. You’ll lower your risk of diabetes: Studies show that exercising as little as half an hour each day can dramatically reduce your risk of diabetes. If you are at risk of diabetes, or already have diabetes, regular exercise is the most effective treatment for reversing the disease.
17. You’ll meet cool people: You could benefit from a group of new, energetic friends, right? Gyms, bootcamps, workout centers and even the jogging trail are all great places to connect with fun new friends.
18. You’ll improve your BMI: You know that maintaining a healthy BMI is key in disease prevention. Exercise is the best way to keep your BMI under control.
19. You’ll increase your endurance: Do you ever get out of breath when walking up stairs or through the mall? Regular exercise builds your endurance for everyday activities.
20. Your doctor will be impressed: How many times has your doctor given you the lecture about losing weight and exercising more? Exercise regularly and get your MD off your back!
21. You’ll look amazing: Are you happy with the shape and size of your body? Regular exercise works wonders on your physique. Within a few weeks you’ll see shape and tone in all the right places.

What are you waiting for? Lace up your shoes and get moving!

Good Bye Food Temptation For Quick Weight Loss

You start each morning with the promise to be “good” today.

You’ll refuse the baked goods at the office. You’ll speed past that fast food place at lunch. You’ll turn a blind eye to the vending machine in the mid-afternoon. And you’ll pass on the ice cream after dinner.

But… you hadn’t counted on the fact that a box of your favorite donuts would be sitting in the break room. Or that co-workers would invite you to join them for fast food place at lunch. Or that Girl Scouts would come through the office after school with boxes of thin mints. Or that your special someone would come home with a pint of Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.

And as you get into bed each night you tell yourself that tomorrow will be different.

Tomorrow you will conquer temptation.

But tomorrow comes with its own set of special circumstances and temptation gets the best of you once again.

Why Does Temptation Always Win?
Read the rest of this entry »

7 Reasons Why You Need to Exercise This Summer

Summer has arrived and along with it the dreaded bathing suit season.

Whether you can’t wait to bare it all on the beach, or if you’re still working toward a weight loss goal, exercise is the key to looking and feeling great in summer months.

But why else should you exercise? Here are the top 7 reasons to exercise this summer:

Reason #1: To Melt Fat Away

The most coveted side effect of exercise is, of course, fat burn. The combination of a challenging exercise routine and a balanced meal plan is the best known way to lose fat. Here’s what losing fat feels like:

• Your pants become loose
• People around you begin to say that you look great
• A glance at yourself in the mirror makes you smile
• Your energy levels soar
• You feel amazing

Reason #2: To Alleviate Pain

Regular exercise is a great way to alleviate chronic muscle and joint pain. Persistent back pain can be lessened by strengthening your core, and you’ll protect yourself against injury. It amazes people when the chronic pain that they’ve lived with for years begins to fade after starting a regular exercise program.

Reason #3: To Increase Lean Tissue

More muscle is good for many reasons. You see, muscle requires many more calories each day than fatty tissue. In fact, one pound of muscle burns 30-50 calories each day at rest – compared to a measly 9 calories per pound of fat.

When you exercise your body composition will change to contain more lean tissue, thus resulting in extra calories burned while you sleep. What could be better than that?

Reason #4: To Stay Young

Tim D. Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College in London, led a study on the effects of exercise on aging. The results were astounding. They found that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells (called telomeres), which means a slowing of the aging process.

“These data suggest that the act of exercising may actually protect the body against the aging process,” said Spector.

Here’s the study in a nutshell:

• Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter.

• Once a telomere gets too short, that cell can no longer divide.

• Aging occurs as more and more cells reach the end of their telomeres and die. This results in weakened muscles, skin wrinkles, loss of eyesight and hearing, organ failure and slowed metal functioning.

• The study analyzed the telomeres from the white bloods cells of twins over a 10-year period. Telomere length was used as a marker for the rate of biological aging.

• It was found that the length of telomeres was directly related to that twin’s activity level. “There was a gradient,” Spector said. “As the amount of exercise increased, the telomere length increased.”

• People who did 100 minutes of weekly exercise had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 5-6 years younger than those who did 16 minutes of exercise each week.

• People who did 3 hours of vigorous exercise each week had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 9 years younger.

Reason #5: To Prevent or Control Type 2 Diabetes

Regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. This is something that people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk for type 2 diabete, gain substantial benefits from.

Exercise improves the body’s use of insulin, and the related weight loss improves insulin sensitivity. Of course patients with type 2 diabetes need to get guidelines from their doctor before starting an exercise program.

Reason #6: To Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels

Exercise has shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels for these two reasons:

• Weak Heart Muscles pump little blood with lots of effort. By exercising you strengthen your heart muscles and train them to pump more blood with less effort. The stronger your heart is the less pressure will be exerted on your arteries.

• Exercise Increases HDL levels in some people – this means a decrease in your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors such as weight, diabetes and high blood pressure all show improvement with regular exercise.

Reason #7: To Feel Great

The first thing that clients tell me after starting an exercise program is how much better they feel.

Most didn’t even realize how bad they felt. It is easy to get used to feeling sluggish, achy and unmotivated.

Exercise boosts your energy levels and makes you feel amazing.

The quickest, easiest way to guarantee that you’ll meet your fitness and weight loss goals is to work one-on-one with a qualified fitness professional. You’ll be held accountable with your workouts and you’ll be instructed properly and shown techniques and strategies that will expedite your results.

What are you waiting for? Lace up your shoes and get moving!

Your (Fitness) Dreams

Today I want to talk about something little bit different than nutrition, fitness or workouts, although it can apply juts as well to those areas.

I want to talk about your DREAMS. The dreams you have for fitness, in your personal life, or for your career. Never let anyone destroy your dreams. Your dreams are your ultimate goals. You have to do everything you can to achieve them.  On your road to achieving your dreams, you will always meet some nasty people who try to discourage you. Those people are real losers.

You don’t need those people around you, and if you feel those people bring you further instead of closer of your dreams, let them go.

Every time you come closer to your dreams, some people will try everything they can to stop you. Why they do this?  Like I said, they are losers. They don’t have the motivation to work for their own dreams, so they cannot achieve what they dream of in their life and they get jealous. Especially when you start to get some great results, you have to be very solid to maintain the right focus to reach it. That can make some people very jealous.

Have you ever seen a bucket full of crabs?  They pinch and pull as they struggle to climb over one another to reach the top of the bucket – to freedom.

Ask any fisherman and they’ll tell you that a bucket full of crabs doesn’t need a lid – they simply won’t escape.

Why? Well, it’s not impossible for a crab to climb to the top, and really if they worked together it would be quite easy. But crabs don’t work together…

Instinctively crabs pull each other down-literally.

When one crab breaks away from the pack, reaching its pinchers toward the top of the bucket, the others promptly grab onto the escapee’s leg, pulling him back down. That crab is then pushed to the bottom of the pile and his dream of freedom is crushed.

People have a way of acting just like a bucket of crabs. Have you ever decided on a personal goal only to have someone in your life talk you out of it?

Do you have crabs in your life? A crab is…

* The person who discourages you from going to the gym
* The person who scoffs when you mention your weight loss goals
* The person who snickers when you choose salad over pizza

The crab mentality says “If I can’t have it, then neither can you.” When you decide to do something different, to reach for a goal and to improve yourself, the crabs in your life will do their best to hold you back.

Keep Crabs at Bay: When crabs come snapping, remember the following:

1. Ignore them: When someone in your life begins to pull you down with discouraging words, remember that you don’t have to listen. Don’t let them get into your head. Mentally tune them out or politely remove yourself from the situation. Who are they to tell you what you can or can’t achieve?
2. Understand them: Ouch! Insults and put-downs hurt, especially when they come from people that we care about. So what is the deal? Why do your friends, co-workers and even your spouse turn into crabs when you decide to improve your life? Do they really hope that you don’t succeed? The truth is that crabs are thinking about themselves-not about you. They see you attempting to better yourself and to change your life. Whether they realize it or not, this scares them. If you better yourself will you still like them? Or will you leave them behind?
3. You hold the power: Even the most persuasive crab doesn’t hold a candle to your iron will. When you are ready to change, and you’ve made up your mind without an inkling of doubt, then 90% of the work is done. Your mind is the most powerful tool at your disposal-don’t let a wimpy crab rob it from you.

Are you ready to make a positive change in your life? Don’t wait any longer. The Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss will give you the tools you need.

And don’t let a single crab talk you out of it!