Tag Archives: Workouts

Workouts I Use With Celebrities and High-Profile Clients

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People love to look at the magazines in the checkout line.  If they aren’t looking at a picture of a celebrity going through some life-altering train wreck, their eyes are glued to some body shot of the newest hunk or the current hottie.

I have enjoyed working with celebrities and high-profile clients from all walks of life.  I have worked with them one-on-one, where they only come to me for training.  And I have also discussed philosophies and collaborated with trainers in New York and Los Angeles to find what works best.
 
No matter what the style of teaching was, the programs all had the following things in common:

1.    They focused mostly on big movements: Pushing, pulling, squatting, and walking lunges.
2.    They used explosive, full body exercises: kettle bell swings, mountain climbers, up-downs, etc.
3.    They utilized core involvement in every movement.
4.    They involved a circuit training workout style.
5.    They included interval training cardio with sprints.
And the most important factor is the use of intensity as the main ingredient.

Intense workouts always burn the most fat.

Long gone are the days of low intensity workouts, where one spends hours in the gym and follows a meticulous diet.  The workouts of today are efficient, precise, power-oriented and fun.

Whether I am working with a mother of three, a famous actress, or a top athlete, my training is all about smarter workouts that are time-efficient and highly intense.  This means that clients see fast results.

Your workouts should be short, hard, and full body.  If you’re spending hour after hour in the gym because you use a low intensity workout, all you are doing is wasting time.

For example, think of those people you see who go over and do a set of straight bar chest presses (I hate this move by the way) then spend 8 minutes talking to the person next to them before they do the second set.  Have you ever noticed that those people never look any different, even though they have been coming to the gym for years and years?

You are smarter than that!  So get out of the gym in 35 – 45 minutes or less.  Never rest longer than 40 – 45 seconds between sets.  Better yet, don’t rest at all.  Just keep changing between core, upper and lower body.  This way, two body parts rest while the other one works.

BOTTOM LINE – Get rid of low intensity workouts and start getting rid of fat.

Everyone Needs to Build This Bag of Goodies!

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I love toys.  Don’t you?

Around this time of year I love to see small children playing with gifts they got for the holidays.  It doesn’t matter whether it was a $5 dollar gadget, something homemade or a huge electronic gaming system.  Watching people play is something that truly brings me joy.

Fitness can and should be the same way.

It should always be fun.

Sure you can make it challenging and undoubtedly you should be fatigued after a quality session.  But you should have fun along the way.

To make that happen, I have developed a list of duffel bag goodies that will guarantee you can get in a workout, anywhere, anytime, and make it fun.  If you make sure to have these few easy to find items, you will be able to make every workout enjoyable.  And most likely, you can get someone to join you to add to the fun factor.

The most important thing is to have a duffel bag.  It doesn’t need to be big or flashy.  It just needs to be something that you have at all times.  It can be in your car, your luggage, your office, or by the front door, as long as you never leave home without it.

The second most important thing to have in the duffel bag is sneakers.  It sounds stupid, but I cannot tell you the number of times I have had a client tell me they didn’t workout because they forgot their sneakers that day.  While I normally think that is a bunch of hooey, I certainly understand it is tough to go for a 15 minute walk in that $400 pair of 5 inch heel Manolo Blahniks.  Make it a high priority to get yourself a decent pair of exercise sneakers.  Try on a few pairs and see what you like.  They should fit well, support your feet and arches, as well as be cushioned for any stress and impact from walking, jogging, biking or training.

Next, you should have a change of clothes.  For some this may not seem necessary.  It is obvious that you can strap on your shoes, head out the front door of your home or office and go for a walk.  However, sometimes it is good to change clothes to mentally prepare yourself to break a sweat and really push yourself.

Another item I think is crucial is at least one exercise tube.  The sheer number of exercises for upper and lower body that you can utilize is astounding.  By simply tying the exercise tube around your waist and making sure that you stop every 2 minutes and perform a set of bicep curls, or band squats, you can dramatically increase your body’s ability to burn fat.  And isn’t that the ultimate goal?

This brings me to another under-appreciated tool: a watch.  Again, not entirely necessary, but if you get wrapped up in a conversation while doing cardio training, you may forget to add the intervals necessary to build muscle mass.  It is easy to set the watch to go off every 2 or 3 minutes and remind you to crank out a set of lunges or crunches.

A towel is a nice addition, especially if you are training when it is hot outside.

That means you should also have a water bottle handy.  Remember to drink 8 ounces of water for every 20 minutes of exercise you perform.  Drink more water if it is really hot.

Now the next few items are not mandatory.  But they can add to the fun factor of your duffel bag.

I am a big fan of music, so an MP3 player, ipod, disc an or even a radio tuner is a great addition.  Make sure to add high energy tunes to keep you motivated.

A deck of cards always brings a challenge and keeps things interesting.  There are many ways to use the deck.  A simple formula is to make each suit an exercise and then perform the number of repetitions you see on the card for each exercise.  It is fast and easy to do.

Same thing goes for a set of dice.  Choose odds and evens and make one upper body and the other lower body.  Perform the same number of reps, sprints, or intervals as the number you rolled.

As you can see, creating a workout duffel bag is an easy way to keep you motivated, remind you to get in a few minutes of exercise everyday and make the fun factor much larger.  Add items that work for you and shoot me an email with any additions that work for you.

 

Holidays Schomlidays. Get It Done!

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It is that time of year when people have a hard time getting everything into their day.

What is often the first thing to get skipped?

Workouts of course.

Let me share one way I’ve helped my clients stay on task during this season.  I am the king of group training.  I train groups of 3 to 300.  Motivating people to keep active when there is a group atmosphere is where I thrive.  SO when I see a little dip in the intensity factor, I jump on it.

A few days ago I knew that many of my clients were in the mode of holiday parties and the hustle and bustle of the season.  Now normally when they arrive at my studio, I have a circuit set up and ready to go for all of them.  I utilize stability balls, balance boards, weights, kettle bells, slides, bikes, tubes… you name it.  If it will make them sweat, lose body fat and feel good then I am on it.

Here in AZ, we have the best climate about this time of year.  So I usually send them on “the route”.  This is a short 1 mile walk that takes very little time, but it allows them to gossip and get the chattiness out of their system so when they return to the gym they are ready to go.

As I said, they normally walk in and there is a full circuit set up and they are waiting to hear the instructions on how long the stations will be and what exercises I have conjured up for them.

No such luck on this day.  There was nothing set up.

You can imagine the looks on their faces. “Bobby, are you sick?”  “What is wrong?”  Where is everything?”  “Is it time to go already?”

Bummer on all accounts for them.

You see, I was about to take every excuse out of the book for them.  And I am going to do the same for you too.  The following is the workout they did that day.  It was meant to use only body weight and it was meant to be done fast.  They could do it just once or they could do it up to four times.  Didn’t matter to me.

Short on time?  No problem, this workout takes less than 7 minutes.

Think you need to do hours and hours of cardio to get the results you seek?  If you have followed me for any length of time, you know I would rather you do some strength training than cardio any day of the week.

SO let’s get to the meat.  Below is the same workout they did.  Pick and choose what works for you and fit it in before you hit the showers, go to a holiday party, or first thing in the morning before you head to the mall.

Any way you look at it… getting a little something in is better than nothing.

Each move is done for 30-40 seconds with no rest in between.  If you do it in this order you will not need much of a warm up.  I would suggest doing a flight of stairs 2 to 3 times and then you are ready to go.
 
Squats                                                               30 seconds
Push ups                                                           30 seconds
Squats                                                               30 seconds
Up-downs                                                         30 seconds
Side Bridge right                                                30 seconds
Side Bridge left                                                  30 seconds
Split lunge                                                         30 seconds
Alternate crunches right and left                       30 seconds
Side lunge right                                                 30 seconds
Side lunge left                                                   30 seconds
Regular crunches                                              30 seconds
Mountain climbers                                            30 seconds
Power jacks                                                      30 seconds
________________________________________
Total Time:                                                    6.30 minutes
 
Stretch.

There you have it.  Have that extra glass of wine guilt-free.  Still, no cheat foods.  But you can have an extra libation if you choose.  You will be a fat burning machine for a few hours after 2-3 times through this superset.

So go to your event happy and content knowing you did something good for yourself.  That is really what it is all about anyway.

Right?  Feel good about yourself this holiday season.  Go the extra step and you will see how worth it the process is for you.

 

How The Heck Do Those Spinning Bikes Works?

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I recently got an email from a client on the other side of the Atlantic.  Did you not know I train over the net?  No worries, you will get your chance soon.
 
Anyway, she wrote me from London.  Not only do I get a kick out of the British accent, but the inflection and verbiage always translates into the emails.  I was raised in New York, so I understand slang.  But some of the words they use are hilarious.  I mean, who really uses ‘Cheeky’?

The email was regarding Spinning bikes.

Cindy (name changed so she doesn’t get cross with me when she reads this) asked if she could go do a Spinning class to add some variety to her workout.  I said sure assuming she had looked into it a little bit or at the very least glanced into the window of the room while a class was going on.

Well needless to say, Cindy didn’t have a clue what the intensity would be like nor did she realize the Spinning bikes are different than any other bike she had ever ridden before.

For those of you who don’t know, the bikes were invented to mimic conditions of actual road biking like in the Tour De France.  Therefore, instead of only having the ability to add resistance the way we all are used to doing it, by changing gears, the wheel in front of the stationary bike (flywheel) is weighted.  Which means it could weigh between 35 and 55 lbs instead of 1 or 2 lbs.  Normally, that would sound like no big deal.  But as many of you know, when you decide to stop pedaling on a bike, you normally glide or coast.  Well you can’t do that on a Spinning bike and Cindy did not realize that until well after the instructor told her to pedal as fast as she could.

After her legs felt like they were going to go flying off … then her instructor said they would start climbing a hill and that she needed to increase the resistance on her bike.  The instructor started saying things like – “Take a full turn up!  Another half turn… You should be working hard now.”  “Crank it down so you feel the road … now add big turn clockwise … climbing the hill now … add more resistance by turning it up … now it’s really steep.”
Cindy had no idea what any of those instructions meant and that is what I am here to clear up right now.
 
Spinning is a great form of cardio.  It is motivating to have an instructor guide you through a program while being surrounded by like-minded participants who are there for the same reasons.  You all want to get a good workout, lose some unwanted body fat, keep heart healthy, lighten your own personal stress load and have some fun along the way.

The resistance knob in question is the tool used to add tension to the flywheel so that you feel as if you are climbing a hill or if the knob is loose then you feel as if you are screaming along the open road and cruising.  As an instructor, I believe there should always be some sort of tension.
If you have never taken a class, I would recommend it.  But here are some things to keep in mind before you do.  Spinning bikes are used frequently throughout the day.  This means that they have wear and tear on them.  Each bike will wear differently and therefore the resistance knob may be tight on one bike and not so tight on another.

Bikes in your gyms have resistance mechanisms that can vary tremendously.  If you decide to take a class where the instructor only has you vary your resistance by turning the knob, you may have a very hard time getting through the ride with a specific benefit (strength, endurance, etc).

So WHAT?

Recently, I read of a study an instructor did at his club that tested 21 bikes to see the varying resistance for each bike.  Here is what was he found.
The first measurement was the number of turns from all the way “off” (maximum counterclockwise) up to where he could “feel the road.”  This is a bit subjective, but not very—even a beginning rider can tell the difference between free-wheeling and a wheel that offers some resistance.  The second measurement was the number of turns from “feeling the road” to “that’s it—I can barely pedal a full revolution.” using his personal limit.  How different were the bikes from each other?  The table shows the minimum and maximum number of turns among the bikes for the two measurements, and also the total number of turns from bottom to top end.

 
The differences among the bikes were mostly at the low end.  Some riders will feel the road after three turns from the bottom, while others will turn (and turn, and turn) seven full revolutions before anything happens.  So if riders start their rides at the very bottom, and the instructor just talks about taking quarter turns, half turns, and full turns, some riders will still be free-wheeling while others will already be into moderate-heavy territory.  Rider inexperience, coupled with our human tendency to take the easy path if we can while still obeying orders, will thwart the instructor’s intention to guide a ride according to traditional categories of benefit.  — Results were found by Gordon Bermant who teaches Spinning in the Virginia suburbs of Washington , D.C.
 
I want you to learn a few things from this article.
 
First, if you decide to take Spinning classes it is important for you to be very aware of how you feel and the amount of energy you are expending.  This is what you should base your workout on, not the specific instructions.
 
Second, I am a fan of Spinning and I like the idea of someone pushing you to do you best throughout your training session for 30-60 minutes.  If it can’t be me, I want it to be someone trusted like a certified group training instructor.
 
Finally, if you are going to do some training on your own outside of a class setting, remember that not all cardio machines are created equal, especially the Spinning bikes.  There is a great deal of maintenance that needs to go into a bike and you should be aware that some bikes are easier to ride than others.  If you are on a bike that takes 7 turns just to feel the tension, then you will need to take more turns to get you where you want to be when you work hard.  If you are on a bike that turns 2 turns and you feel like the road just became a hill in San Francisco, then you will need to adjust accordingly.
 
I like the idea of having variety in your workout regimen.  And utilizing a Spinning bike can be a good alternative to running on a treadmill or using the elliptical.  Cross training is important in my style of training.  Learning how to make the ride challenging when you need tough intervals and interpreting the varying resistance to rest when you are in a rest phase is an important part of those intervals.
 
So drop by a Spinning class.  If that is not your thing, take one of the many cardio routines I have sent you over the past 2 years and try one of those programs on a Spinning bike.  I think you will like the challenge.

Lead By Example and Fight Obesity!

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I don’t usually read the papers or national magazines because frankly… the news is depressing and I like to stay upbeat.  However, the annual report on obesity in the U.S. by Trust For America’s Health was released recently.  Here are the results:
 
- Not 1 state showed a decline in obesity rate.   NOT A SINGLE ONE!  Are you kidding me?
- 31 states actually had an increase in obesity rate.  AAAAGGGHHHHH!!
 
Do the facts lie?  Do people throughout the United States really want to live shorter lives?
 
Look… your health/fitness needs and goals are a personal choice, and it is your responsibility to make them a priority.  BUT, if obesity rates keep going up and waistlines keep getting wider, it’s clear that we face huge problems ahead.
 
Health care is going to be stretched as thin as a 32” belt on a 48” body.   Our mortality rate will plummet and our nursing homes will be packed more than our already overpopulated prisons.
 
YIKES! 
 
What can you do about it?
 
Don’t follow the crowd.  Be a leader and start a trend. You control what and how you eat, how you exercise, etc.  You need to lead by example.  Make smart choices on take-out menus, take the stairs, start a walking club at lunch.
 
C’mon, its fall around the U.S.  It is a great time to get outside!  So grab some of your fellow state inhabitants and get moving.  There is no better time than the present to get outside and get moving.
 
Here is my challenge:
* On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from now until Thanksgiving… pack a healthy lunch that you can eat at your desk.
* Find 3-5 people to take the challenge with you.
* Then when your lunch hour comes, put on a pair of sneakers, head down the stairs, walk for
25  -35 minutes, come back to the office and remember to take the stairs again.
* Do a 3 minute stretch at your desk while you eat your lunch.
Not so hard right?
 
You will be amazed at the energy you will gain, the inches you will lose, and the impact you can make on the people around you.
 
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to get started.
 
Will this get you a six pack of abs or a lean hard body?  
 
Probably not for a while, but it will be a start.  And once you start to see changes, you will be motivated to do more.
 
So buck the system my fellow patriot!  Tell “the Man” you’re not going to take it anymore. You’re sick and tired of your state being fat, overweight and out of shape.
 
Want to see the article I was talking about?  Click HERE.  Be afraid, very afraid.