If this is happening with you, then there is something that can be improved upon – because the general formula is correct. I have heard this complaint more times than I can count (that’s often why people who are now my clients have come to me). By asking questions, I can usually trace it down to a few things that are being overlooked that will make a huge difference in your results. Let’s focus on one aspect here that can affect your training. We’ll get to more possibilities in future articles.

Nutrition is KEY here, because if you’re not providing the proper fuel, your body cannot respond as it should — you wouldn’t fuel up a Formula 1 race car by pulling into a gas station and fillin’ her up with regular would you?  That’s not to imply that you must make more expensive choices . . .  just better-thought-out ones. Here are several examples I have encountered that will drastically effect your desired results . . .

1.) Not getting enough protein in your diet. Normally, in this country, that’s not a problem. However, some people who are trying to lose weight go about it by simply eliminating foods — and many times, the food or foods that they need to ensure proper nutrition, get eliminated. When this happens, their body cannot properly recover from workouts, they feel exhausted, they get hungry more often, etc. Sometimes, it is because they have made bad food combinations and never get enough COMPLETE proteins to make the grade. By asking questions and making the right choices, this can be overcome.

2.) Not eating enough. Your body will react to conserve and become very efficient with calories when you restrict them too severely. I have INCREASED a client’s daily caloric intake by 500 calories, and watched as her weight dropped by one and a half pounds every week for months afterward.

3.) Not eating frequently enough. I have had people come to me who had eliminated a meal from their diet in an effort to lose weight. One man was eating 2 meals each day. In these 2 meals he WAS eating, one had ZERO protein in it, and the other one was enough food to feed 3 people. Even though this 2nd meal had ENOUGH protein in it, he could not use it all BECAUSE YOUR BODY CAN ONLY PROCESS ABOUT 25 – 30 GRAMS OF PROTEIN AT A TIME. The excess protein was being converted to fat or expensive waste products!  This goes back to the 1st problem I mentioned of insufficient protein. Once the problem was diagnosed and corrected, his energy level shot through the roof and he was unstoppable in my gym. Another problem with infrequent meals is the length of time between feedings. It causes your body to begin “starvation mode” which slows down your metabolism and conserves calories. It will begin to store everything it can as fat. Frequent SMALL meals will work much better.

4.) Skipping breakfast. People who eat breakfast tend to eat less throughout the day, have improved moods and energy levels and see better progress as a result. Need I say more?

This list is not all-inclusive of nutritional errors that are commonly discovered in my discussions with people who come to me for training, but it serves to show you that — if you aren’t getting the proper results, there is usually a reason. I plan to discuss potential training mistakes in future articles. Maybe you saw something in this article that you’re doing, or maybe the next article will reveal your particular problem. Maybe you haven’t started training yet. Save yourself some  time for training and contact me now to see how I can help get you the body you’re after. I would love to help you! Call 443 752-9928 and ask for Dave.

With Christmas fast approaching and the New Year’s resolutions which usually follow, now is the time to give the gift that will provide a payoff for the rest of the recipient’s life! It could be for someone else, or it could be for you, but deciding to do something about the way you look, feel and function is a fantastic gift idea for anyone.

When you help someone who wants to make the improvements, but won’t take that first step, you are letting them know that you care about them and want them to be as healthy and fit as possible while looking and feeling better each week. If the gift is for you, you will be making a decision that benefits your loved ones as well. My clients tell me that their spouses or boyfriend/girlfriends are reaping many benefits from their training. They are really starting to look great, they feel better, their energy is vastly improved along with their stamina and endurance. Fat levels are reduced while strength and muscle is improved. Cholesterol (bad and good) ratios are improved, blood pressure improves and mood is much improved as well.

All of this is accomplished in a clean, friendly and fun environment. You’ll train your butt off — literally! However, even though it will be difficult at times and require your best effort, the rewards far exceed what you put into it. People often wait until the last part of the year to make the New Year’s resolution to get in shape. Gyms are always overflowing the first couple weeks of January . . . before returning to normal levels. When you make the decision now, you are committing to staying with it and reaping the benefits. Look great on the beach this summer and feel better very soon by getting started now!

Call Dave at 443 752-9928 or contact me on this website via the contact page. I’ll get you in shape the right way – safely.

When you do a resistance exercise, do you simply try to move the resistance from point A to point B . . . or do you focus the effort into the muscle(s) targeted? If you’re not focusing the effort into specific muscles, you’re missing a lot. Allow me to explain how to begin doing this.

In order to illustrate this, I’ll pick an exercise that is commonly performed and show you how to get more out of it. Lat pulldowns are routinely done in gyms across the U.S.  The vast majority of people I have watched are simply trying to pull the bar down to “somewhere around chin level” and then allow the weight to quickly pull their arms back overhead. The effort isn’t focused on any muscle or muscle group and the arms often end up becoming the prime movers for this movement. Your biceps are much smaller than your lats and they will give out first ending the set. This means your back won’t receive the work you had planned for it. Most “gym goers” don’t realize this, don’t care as long as it’s getting done, and haven’t noticed that their back looks virtually the same as it did when they began training. YOU CAN DO BETTER.

I often begin by incorporating an isolation exercise for the lats prior to the pulldowns to temporarily render them fatigued enough that the arms will not be a limiting factor. Secondly, I instruct my clients to concentrate intentionally on pulling the shoulders back and down when pulling the bar down and reverse that on the way up. I also tell them to attempt to drive their elbows into their sides during the movement. My clients have heard me say, “pull your shoulder blades together” and, ” drive your elbows into your sides” many, many times. It probably can become annoying – especially when you thought you were done 3 reps ago! I also instruct them to “think of your arms as hooks” — not the movers of the weight, just the attachment TO the weight. Finally, I usually will touch the tips of the middle 3 fingers of my hands on their working lats during the exercise. This is known as “cueing” and is done to help  clients focus directly on the muscles they are supposed to be using as the primer movers for this exercise.

When I practice these procedures during pulldowns, the effort is usually felt in the lats and the results begin to manifest themselves soon after. When I decided to write this article, deciding on which exercise to illustrate was like picking an ice cream flavor at Baskin-Robbins — there are so many to choose from. Many exercises lend themselves to this practice, but most people don’t know about it and, of those, very few ever use it and reap the benefits. My clients do and you can be one of those who learn the safest and most effective techniques around by contacting me. I stand ready to help!

You can make your exercise sessions more effective for your BODY by using your BRAIN. The benefit will be mutual since exercising your body causes enriched blood flow to take place over your entire body which benefits the brain as well. Dr. Daniel Amen has written an entire book about this and is a top proponent of exercise (combined with proper nutrition) to make your brain healthier.

When you begin performing an exercise you have never done before, your brain and nervous system have to create new synapses (connections between your brain and muscle) so that the movement can take place. The brain has to be able to send the signals for the muscle to move in the correct fashion via the synapse. This structure gets stronger and more efficient with use. That’s the reason that athletes at the top of their games still practice frequently – often daily.  Many times I have watched people struggle mightily on their first repetition of a new exercise making me wonder if the weight was excessive. I have learned to wait and watch though because many times the reps get easier as the set progresses and the synapse strengthens.

The problem is making sure you’re doing the movement correctly. BAD habits are reinforced with repetition just like doing things properly. This is where consulting a trainer is especially useful. Not just any trainer, of course! I am a stickler for doing exercises in the safest and most effective way and the mind/muscle connection is an important tool that will help you as you continue down the road to better health, fitness and appearance.

Knowing how to focus the exercise into the targeted muscles is of great importance as well. We’ll discuss that in future articles. As always, contact me via phone or through this website to get started moving in the right direction.

The evidence is overwhelming – when you exercise correctly, you age slower and your brain functions better. Study after study confirms this.

When you exercise your body, your heart pumps blood at a faster rate. Nutrients are pulled from their stores to meet the new demands. This blood flows to ALL areas of your body – including, of course, your brain. This enriched blood coursing through you allows your brain to extract everything it needs to support it’s functions. The increased blood flow make this process work much faster and more effectively. Your brain gets the benefits even though you trained your arms!

In addition to having a smarter brain, you can age more gracefully and build or retain the muscle that served you so well during your younger years. Exercising properly under the right training procedures can help you achieve these objectives. At the end of this article, I have included links to two recent articles which verify what many of us in the fitness field already knew. These articles are short and will help you to see how the professionals in the field of medicine are now promoting fitness as a tremendous tool in preventive medicine. (please also note that Dr. Amen recommends training with “a personal trainer who is skilled in working with people in your age group.”) Ahem – That’d be me!

Take a look at the articles and then give me a call. Sitting and simply thinking about it won’t get it done. You must actually take action. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

http://70.32.73.82/blog/5128/pumping-iron-to-stay-young/

http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20110720/exercise-sharpens-older-minds?ecd=wnl_fit_072911

www.harfordfitness.com

I knew in advance what my wife’s reaction would be before I told her I intended to write an article on portion control. She’s watched me eat for over 30 years and she knows how I love to eat . . . until I’m full!

That’s NOT a good way to lose weight.

Eating until you’re full can easily result in stomach stretching. This happens because your brain doesn’t get the message that you’re full until about 20 minutes or so after you reach capacity. By then, you’ve probably eaten more — unless you stopped when you were getting “comfortably full.”  When you eat all you can “stuff in” and stretch your stomach repeatedly in a short period of time, it will retain the new, larger size and will now take more to satisfy you. This cycle can become repetitive and result in a significant weight gain and a larger abdomen — something most people try to avoid . . . unless you’re going into sumo wrestling!

There are a number of things you can do to help this become easier. Eating 6 SMALLER meals throughout the day instead of 3 larger ones will help you to maintain normal blood sugar levels and will stave off the hunger pangs which often lead to over eating. That process will be made easier yet if you prepackage your meals in advance WHEN YOU’RE FULL and carry them with you in ziplock bags. Here’s a link to an article I wrote about how to do this.  (read staying consistent)  http://www.harfordfitness.com/category/nutrition/page/2/

Another trick you can try is this. About 20 – 30 minutes before your evening meal, take a fiber supplement (or an apple) and a large glass of water. By the time you sit down to eat, the fiber will be absorbing the water and beginning to fill your stomach. You will get the feeling of fullness you like sooner and you will gain the  advantage of additional fiber which many Americans tend to shortchange in their diets. This should only be used once per day and the evening meal is the time most people overeat — that is why I suggest this timing. Water and fiber are your friends — USE THEM!

Make sure you’re getting right amount of sleep. Most people will tend to gain more weight on less than 7 hours or more than 9 hours of sleep. The lack of sleep will cause your body to produce too much of the hormone grehlin – an appetite stimulant. It will also cause it to slow production of leptin – the hormone that sends the “stop eating” signal to your brain. Make sure you stay in the right range.

Eat slowly and savor every bite you eat. By doing this, you will thoroughly enjoy your food give your brain more time to get the message that you are full. (Some people have found that they eat less when they visualized eating it before  actual ingestion). Exercise your self control a bit by stopping when you’re beginning to get comfortable – or before, if you’re able. In 20 minutes or so, you will probably feel full. If you continue this practice of stopping before hitting the tipping point, your stomach will shrink somewhat –in about 2 weeks. You can then continue this and your stomach will shrink as long as you don’t restretch it — then you’ll have to start over again. A visual trick that works is using a smaller plate. It takes less food to fill a small plate and that full plate will help your brain to think it’s getting plenty because it will appear that way to you.

Portion control works . . . you just have to practice it. Keeping you meals small and frequent will help keep you satisfied and your metabolism will speed up a bit since it won’t feel like it has to store calories until the next meal. Keep to total at your predetermined number, continue to get the exercise you need and you’ll be on your way to your ideal weight.

Contact Dave for additional info at http://www.harfordfitness.com/contact/  or call at 443 752-9928.