Time Crunch

Q: I’ve been missing workouts because I don’t have time due to my new work schedule. Can I still get good results working out only two times a week?

A: If you’re only working out twice a week that may be enough to maintain, but if you’re still looking to improve shoot for at least three days a week. Make a serious effort to make your health and fitness a priority in your life. Do your best to get in and stay in the habit of doing all your workouts. When you get in the habit of skipping a workout here and there it becomes all too easy to let a week or two go by without working out.

Even if you can’t complete your full workout do your best to work hard for 15 minutes. This may not seem like much but it keeps you in the routine of being consistent and not skipping your workouts. Since you only have 15 minutes some days you need to make it count. Spend as much of your time working and rest as short as possible. Here’s an example of a lower body workout:

1 minute Squats
1 minute Bulgarian Split Squats right leg
1 minute Bulgarian Split Squats left leg
1 minute SL Deadlift Right Leg
1 minute SL Deadlift Left Leg

Repeat 3 times

This workout also has a cardio component because the circuit doesn’t allow for rest, so your heart rate will remain elevated giving you a 15 minute cardio workout as well. However if you need rest take it when needed, but keep it to a minimum as your goal is to do as much work as you can in a short period of time.

Choose Your Calories Wisely

No matter how hard you try you can’t out train a crappy diet. Stop rewarding yourself every time you workout by splurging on some sort of high calorie treat because you had a good workout. I hear this one all the time, “That was a good workout, now I can go out to the buffet (I live in Vegas and they’re everywhere).

Let me simplify this for you. If you burn 300 calories in your workout and you reward yourself with a large blueberry muffin that’s 465 calories that you don’t need. Now you are 165 calories in the wrong direction and you WILL gain weight! That 300 calories you burned is fine and dandy, but if you want it to mean something you better not eat that muffin or you better run for and additional 50 minutes or bike for 66 minutes because that’s how long it will take to burn off the extra calories.

That’s just with one muffin, not a whole buffet. Choose your calories wisely and remember it’s okay to reward yourself once or twice a month but if you do it after every single workout you’re going to be disappointed with the results you get.

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Cardio or Weights?

A few days ago I saw a man and a woman enter the gym together and he asked her, “Do you want to do cardio or weights today?” I didn’t even listen to the answer because two things immediately ran through my mind:

1. If you have to ask you’re probably not following any type of program

2. Do you really have to choose?

If you are following a program you should know what you’re going to do before you step foot in the gym. If you aren’t you’re probably going to waist time figuring out what to do, and I don’t know about you but as much as I enjoy working out I don’t like wasting time. My other issue is when you follow a plan you have progression, meaning it gradually gets harder so you get stronger, faster, more endurance, greater fat loss, ect. And when you don’t have a plan you have no progression because you're making it up on the fly which leads to poor results.

Even if there was not benefit to having a progression, you still don’t need to choose. Why not do both? Again, stop wasting time and do both weights and cardio to get the benefits of both in less time. Start with your weights and add cardio intervals between your sets instead of resting so you can build muscle and burn more calories in less time leading to greater fat loss.

Eat Right for Fat Loss

Are you trying to burn fat? If so, I hope your exercising and eating right. Eating right not only means eating at the right times but also the right types of foods at the right times. Food is your fuel. So to slim down and boost your energy levels you need healthy meals not junk food. Junk food contains empty calories so eliminating them from your diet, especially at night is best. It’s like putting dirt in your gas tank; it’s not going to do you any good.

Because food is your fuel, in the mornings you need to eat larger meals to provide energy throughout the day. In the evenings stick to smaller meals since you are less active.

Instead of a late night snack of ice cream and cookies or some other sugar and fat filled combo try this low calorie late night snack packed with protein and plenty of antioxidants.

4-6 oz. of orange juice
4 oz. of fat free cottage cheese
4 oz. of fat free milk
¼ cup of frozen blueberries
½ small banana (frozen)

blend into a shake and enjoy!

If you like this check out Stop Drinking Your Calories and Start Losing Weight

Top 10 mistakes people make in the gym

When I'm in the gym, I can't help but to see people making mistakes that are slowing down their progress. I'm not alone either. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) recently polled 2,500 certified fitness professionals to find out what they consider to be the top 10 mistakes made by health club members today.

Here are the surprising (and not-so-surprising) results of that study:

10. Exercising too hard: Moderate exercise is the most effective. Many people believe that they can "make up" for missed workouts.

9. Not exercising intensely enough: Picking up the pace will help members achieve changes they may not be experiencing. If their workout isn't challenging, then the lack of results can be discouraging.

8. Bad posture: People should never slouch or slump when either using machines or participating in a group exercise class. Proper posture can prevent back injuries.

7. Using momentum, rather than muscles, to lift weights: Slow, controlled movements are what builds muscle strength.

6. Lifting too much weight: If complete range of motion is not possible, then most likely the weight is too heavy. As my husband always says ... more is not necessarily better!

5. Not stretching: Stretching helps reduce injuries and increases muscle length and mobility, if done properly.

4. Skipping a cool down: Cooling down after a workout will lower the heart rate and prevent dizziness.

3. Not warming up properly: People who start their workouts full-force are likely candidates for injury and/or exhaustion. Warming up gets the blood flowing and gives muscles time to adapt.

2. Not drinking enough water: In exercise, the key is hydration, hydration, hydration! Please ensure that water is readily available in your club at all times.

1. Not consuming a nutritious "meal" within one hour of workout: The optimal time for consuming a combination of protein and carbohydrates is immediately following an intense workout session. This "window of opportunity" is imperative to the recovery of the body. A good choice is a fruit smoothie containing at least 23 grams of protein.

Check out the top 10 Nutritional Mistakes