So… what exactly is  functional fitness? Well, it’s training that

keeps you active and more mobile to prepare you for

real-life situations or things that we do everyday.  Some of those

things include climbing a flight of stairs, squatting to lift objects,

reaching for what’s on the top shelf, or just simply walking.

I know plenty of people who have a tough time doing these things.

It’s usually because they focus on training in only one area of the

gym, like only doing free weights, or cardio or machines.  All are

effective forms of training…to a certain extent.  What you want to

strive for in the gym is a balance of exercise that will keep you

strong and flexible for the rest of your life, and you can get that with

functional fitness.

To begin with, think of functional fitness as just body-weight

exercises.  You will be very surprised how tough it is just resisting

your own body weight.  Three exercises that come to mind are body

squats, pushups, and pullups.  These are very effective and good for

the beginner to functional training because they target every part of

the body.  I name these three also because of all the different ways

you can do them, thus making your workout more interesting,

challenging and fun.

At most of our O2 Fitness locations, we have a grass turf area designed

specifically for functional training.  In this area are items you’ve

probably never seen before:  kettlebells, balance boards, trampolines,

cones, jump ropes, bosu balls, stability balls, medicine balls,

plyometric boxes, stretch bands, core wheels and more.  Get creative

with your workout, and start implementing these items in your regimen.

Ask an O2 trainer or use the power of the web to see different

movements done with these items.

I stand behind this 100% because I am living proof of it.  I’m down 35

pounds, injury free, and in the best shape of my existence.  Do some

experimenting, give it a shot, and see if you don’t notice changes

that will greatly benefit you in the long run!

Group fitness classes have evolved from the basic step aerobics or cycle workout.  Group fitness classes are not only fun and exciting, but they are a great way to burn calories and change up your workout routine, which is the best way to prevent a plateau.  This week, we’ll highlight some of the benefits about one of our most popular classes, Les Mills’ BODYPUMP.

Did you know that BODYPUMP burns approximately 473 calories per class?!  But that’s not all!  Regular strength training, such as BODYPUMP, helps to build your body’s lean muscle mass.  Lean muscle mass, even at rest, requires energy to keep going, so the more you have, the more calories you are burning, even when you’re not even working out!  So basically, when you regularly take BODYPUMP classes, you are burning calories while you’re taking the class, and you’re still burning when you leave.

What about bulking up?  Many participants worry that they will “bulk up” by taking weekly BODYPUMP classes.  However, the BODYPUMP program is designed around high repetitions with slightly lower weights, for endurance training.  Endurance type training utilizes smaller muscle twitch fibers, and will decrease the overall “bulk” that you would see with heavier weight and fewer repetitions.

So, BODYPUMP not only helps to increase muscular and cardiovascular endurance, but can also improve bone density and posture.  Regular strength training helps place a load, or “good stress” on the bones, helping to stimulate the growth of new bone.  Also, BODYPUMP can help posture by strengthening opposing muscle groups and by developing core strength.

For best results, Les Mills International recommends participants take two to three BODYPUMP classes per week, with at least one rest day in between classes for muscle recovery.

Check out what times BODYPUMP and other fitness classes are offered weekly by going to www.o2fitnessclubs.com and clicking on “Classes and Programs,” to find the O2 Fitness Club nearest to you.

Have fun and we’ll see you in class!

For those of you looking to tone those abdominals, the trainers at O2

Fitness have one word for you, tranverse.

What does this mean?  Well, lets break it down (your stomach that is)…

Your stomach has 4 muscles, the tranverse abdominals (the deepest layer

of your stomach), the rectus abdominals (which sit right under your skin)

and the internal and external obliques (the abdominal muscles on your sides).

Most people work the top layer of their abs (rectus) and never work

the layer underneath(transverse)…. why? Because the only way you can

work that deep muscle tissue is by breathing deeply, stimulating your

diaphragm and exhaling pulling your belly button in and up. If you

only work the top layer of your abs and never work the deep muscle

underneath, your abdominals are only strengthened on the very top layer.

We commonly know this area as your CORE. That words gets used

frequently, but until now, were you really sure what it meant? Your

tranverse is your core, your trunk, your stabilization mechanism.

When your body moves, ideally your core tightens first to stabilize

and balance the body, when it’s weak the part of your body that moves

first tries to stabilize your body and throws off your kinetic chain.

So how do we strengthen our core? One way is to try Pilates (check out

o2fitnessclubs.com for a schedule), or if you are currently working with one

of our awesome trainers, ask them. If you are not working with a trainer,

set up an assessment with one at the front desk!

Now, you may be asking yourself how eating 5 times a day could possibly be good for you! This eating plan consists of good, healthy foods along with goods habits. You cannot eat pizza 5 times per day to be a lean and in great shape. The only thing you would be is a big blob of blubber! Foods high in carbohydrates, like pizza, drag you down, bloat you and deplete your energy. It is time for you to change your habits and start eating light and healthy.

Your first step to change your lifestyle and your eating habits is to start the day with a good healthy breakfast. Your body needs source of protein and carbohydrate at breakfast. Continue your day eating a good source of protein, carbohydrates and some fats every 3-4 hours. Do not let your body go more than 4 hours without food as your metabolism will slow down.

What we are focusing on is to raise your metabolic rate so you can burn calories all day long. Drink plenty of water before and after meals, and throughout the day to curb your appetite. You want to flush out any toxins and excess fat in your body.

Try to plan your meals with the foods you enjoy. If you do not like tuna, do not force yourself to eat it. You will never stay consistent if you are dreading what you have to eat. Eat your meals slowly while sitting down. Too many of us eat on the run, standing in the kitchen or in the car. We do not give our bodies the chance to tell our brains we are satisfied and as you know, if you are not satisfied, you might over eat.

There are going to be days that you might “fall off the band wagon.” For example, you might eat a high fat meal or over eat at dinner. If this happens, do not give up!!! Just get right back on your eating plan the next day and your body will not be affected. By throwing in the towel, that is where you get into trouble. If you make a mistake at work, you don’t just quit your job, do you? No!, you correct it and move forward. Remember, quitters never win and winners never quit.

Here are some tips to follow if body fat loss is your goal:

• have your food steamed, baked, broiled or roasted.

• eliminate any rich, thick sauces and soups such as Bearnaise, Hollands, Alfredo sauces (marinara is a better choice).

• remove skin and fat from chicken.

• eliminate butter all together.

• eat smaller portions more often and never stuff yourself.

• share your dessert! Do not eat the whole thing by yourself!

• learn to just have a taste. If it is a food you cannot resist, stay away from it all together.

• chew gum while baking, especially during the holidays.

• ask for your salad dressing on the side and dip your fork in for a taste.

• do not go out to dinner starved as this will lead you to over eat.

• drink water before your meals.

Healthy and smart eating can seem difficult while on a tight budget, however with careful meal planning, shopping, and cooking you can trim both your waistline and your food budget.  With careful meal planning, eating healthy and smart are not unattainable goals. Eating out frequently can be disastrous to your wallet, but also to your health.  Even if you spend a little more on convenience items to make your lunches, you will probably save more money in the long run. Here are a few suggestions to help you get the most of your food budget:


Monthly Budgeting and Planning:

Every month, determine how much money you have for food and divide by three or four to come up with the amount of money you can spend each week.  Plan meals and snacks for you and your family before you go shopping to ensure that you are not spending extra money on unnecessary items.


Shopping Strategies that Save you Money:

Remember to shop the perimeter of the store where you will find the basics for a well balanced, healthy diet.  The perimeter of the store is where you will find produce, meats, and dairy products.  Instead of stacking your cart full of processed, “junk” foods, fill your cart with many healthy items from the perimeter including many fruits and veggies.  Be sure not to buy too many meats, fruits, and veggies if you are not going to eat them relatively quickly or else they will go bad, which in turn is money down the drain.  Remember to check higher and lower levels of the shelves because the more expensive items are usually eye level.


Inexpensive ways to Buy Produce:

Remember to buy apples, oranges, grapefruits, potatoes, onions, etc by the bag and not individually.  Its cheaper and will take you through more of your meals.  Also, shop for produce that is in season for the best flavor and the lowest prices.


Most Economical way to Buy meats/meat substitutes:

Ready to cook meats are always more expensive.  So just buy the plain and season them yourself.  Use canned fish and chicken for sandwiches, enchiladas, casseroles, and salads.


http://www.thedietchannel.com/Meal-Planning-Healthy-Eating-on-a-Budget.htm

Every year, it seems, it’s harder to lose weight. You cut back on

portion size; you say, “No, thank you,” to dessert; you sign up for

fitness class — and yet you gain weight and your energy level goes

down. What’s going on?

Sometimes, though, something’s gotten off track, and your metabolism

isn’t working like it should, and there’s an underlying medical issue

that needs to be dealt with before the usual weight-loss measures will

have any effect. Here’s a ten-tip plan for understanding the

challenges that prevent weight loss over 40, and for learning how to

overcome them.

http://lifestyle.simplyantiaging.com/41/weight-loss-over-forty-ten-tips/

Looking to lose weight?  Have more energy?

You answer lies with a simple answer…give your body what it needs:  FOOD.

That’s right, whether your goal is to lose a few or just simply have more energy, you need to eat.

Metabolism is defined as ‘the breakdown of food and its transformation into energy’.  So, without food, your metabolism isn’t transforming or ‘burning’ anything.

Too often, I hear people talking about skipping breakfast or not eating after 6pm, or something along the lines of ‘not eating’.  While I admire the attempt to make a change of life, all this is really going to do, is slow down the body’s energy processes.  While those who attempt such measures may see a small reward for their efforts in the form of a few pounds of weight loss; the results are short-lived as this is not a long-term sensible life change. This attempt will typically only hinder you from your goal of losing weight.   Here’s why:  When you don’t eat, your body goes into a calorie-storing mode or ‘starvation mode’ to be more direct.  If you don’t eat, you are telling your body to store calories, because the body doesn’t know when it is that the next ‘feeding’ will occur.  If, on the other hand, you eat small meals frequently through the day, your body continues to remain in an elevated state of calorie burning.

Each time we consume food, the metabolism kicks into high-gear and begins the process of burning calories.  If we are eating smaller amounts and don’t overload the system with too much, the body will easily burn through these calories and continue burning calories long after the food consumed is digested.  Each time you eat, this same process occurs.

Here is one approach that many individuals have had success with:

Eat 300 calories every 3 hours.

Sounds simple, huh?  Well, it IS.  Frequent small meals keep the metabolism ON FIRE and you never go into a ‘starvation mode’ as I mentioned above.   This approach has many benefits:  Your body is always in a calorie (fat) burning state; you have more energy (no mid-afternoon drowsiness); and you always know that you can eat again in as little as 3 hours.

Try applying this frequent-feeding or ‘grazing’ concept with the following:

• Drink plenty of water – try to take in about ½ an ounce of water for every pound of body weight.  In addition to many other health benefits, this can help keep your system flushed out and metabolism running well.
• Eat balanced meals – try to eat a rough balance of protein and carbohydrates each time you eat.  An easy trick to portion size is looking at the palm of your hand.  Eat a portion of protein (serving the size of the palm of your hand) and a portion of carbs each time you eat.
• Keep the saturated fats LOW! – Not all fats are bad, so just begin to pay attention to the saturated variety listed on the labels of what you eat.
• GO GREEN – Veggies provide you the critical fiber we here so much about.  Just know that fiber is typically good for weight loss due to its cleansing properties.
• Get enough sleep – lack of sleep can lead to stress, which produces an excess amount of the hormone cortisol in the body.  Without getting too much into it, just know that this is not so good for trying to reduce body fat.

Try applying some or all of these concepts into your life and see if you don’t have some dramatic success.

If you would like more detailed information on anything mentioned above, feel free to email me @ jpeters@o2fitnessclubs.com

They say the first step to recovery is acknowledging the fact that you have a problem. Did you know that you are an emotional eater? Actually, everyone is an emotional eater in one way or another. Maybe your shaking your head right now, saying “Are you crazy!!! Only overweight people are emotional eaters.” Well, believe it or not, you are too!

The most common emotion that causes poor eating habits is depression, and it is widely known because a lot of movies will create a laugh that intensifies the character’s feelings by showing how depressed they are to indulge in stuffing their face full with sweets. By seeing that over and over on the silver screen has caused us to think we have to be depressed to have an emotional eating disorder or “bad habit.”

The truth is, an emotion is an emotion. A feeling based on certain events that cause you to react in a certain way. If depression can cause you to eat a large portion of chocolate, wouldn’t over indulging because you are happy the same thing? Actually, yes! Whether you are Sad, Angry, Bored, Happy, Fearful, Surprised, Joyful, or Disgusted, you have an opportunity to crave food for all the wrong reasons. Those are just the basics though! Double that by adding mixed emotions such as Love, Submissive, Awe, Disappointment, Remorse, Contempt, Aggression, Optimism and you will see many new doors open to what may be causing you to crave all the wrong foods.

Now, my point is not to get you all down on yourself and grab the closest candy bar, but to show you exactly how to change it. Your first task is to identify when you are craving something bad. Once you become aware of what emotions are causing these bad habits, then you can take action and control your beliefs about those cravings.

When you think of a soda, what is the first soda that comes to mind? I am more than positive that 99% of you will say either Coke or Pepsi. I had one guy once tell me he loves the “Bud E” and I just had to drop my head low, knowing that if Budweiser Energy was the first thing that came to his mind, then we have a long road ahead of us. My point is, if you can produce the marketing that Coke and Pepsi has done so successfully, then you can trigger a reaction to block bad decisions when it comes to eating bad foods. No, you don’t have to spend millions of dollars advertising in front of millions of people everyday, you just need to advertise to yourself.

Actually it is a very simple 3 step process, all you need is a pen and a notecard and follow these rules:

1) Write on the top of that notecard your awareness key, “I eat Chocolate when _____ stresses me out at work” or “I eat McDonald’s because I am in a hurry/frazzled/impatient.” Now if you have more than one thing that causes you to eat    emotionally, list ALL of them!

2) On the opposite side of the notecard, write what you really want to believe about those foods because right now you are saying, “I love chocolate, it comforts me when I am stressed out”
(i.e. “Eating Chocolate when I am stressed will only cause me to stress more after I eat it because I will gain weight.” or “If I could take two extra minutes to prepare food before I go to work instead of eating McDonald’s, I would not gain so much weight and I would not cause more stress from being in such a hurry.”)

3) Now laminate your card and put it in your pocket. Keep it in your pocket every single day. Read your card every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed. Everytime you reach in your pocket, you will feel your card and everytime you don’t have it in your pocket you will remember you forgot it just as you reach in your pocket and fear that you may have forgotten your keys. The more that card is in front of you, the more you’ll think about it, and the quicker you can change your feelings around about a bad habit you may have.

*BONUS TIP: You can use this same process to stay focused on your goals with fitness, family and work.

This question is one that is asked over and over again, especially by beginners that want to get the best and fastest results when starting their exercise routine. While there are many technical answers to this question, including one’s based on caloric intake and energy levels, my experience offers a much simpler answer…

Exercise when it is most convenient for you! If you try to conform to a dictated schedule, especially as a new exerciser, the chance of your success will be limited at best. You must fit your workout schedule into your lifestyle. Once done and you have been consistent for at least 3 months, you can then start to make alterations based on your goals and your past results and adjust your schedule accordingly. Next thing you know…you’re a ‘Gym Rat’…and there are much worse things to be!!

For further reading, check out this blog post:

http://staymoving.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-time-of-day-should-i-work-out.html

How many times have you said to yourself…”I really need to do some cardio but I hate the treadmill.  It’s so boring!”   If you have, you’re not alone.

Walking and running are still two of the best ways to keep your heart healthy.  With the advent of personalized televisions and iPod docking stations, treadmills have come a long way since the good old days of Jack LaLane.  No longer are we stuck watching the same, boring news station that the sweaty guy next to you picked….or worse yet, watching the same blank, uninteresting wall in front of us.  If you’re stuck in a rut, here are two sure fire ways to liven up your exercise routine:

1. Plan your cardio time around your TV time.  Watch Oprah while you’re cruising along at a good walking pace.  Throw some heavier beats on your iPod and sprint away.  You’ll be amazed at how fast time will go when you’re distracted with something you love.

1. Incorporate circuit training into your routine.  If you typically run/walk for 40 minutes at the same pace, change your speed and incline.  Incorporate a fitness band or ankle weights.  Variation is the KEY to motivation.

Here is a workout that ALWAYS works for me.

1. 10 Minutes walking at a brisk pace to warm the muscles.
2. 10 Minutes walking/running at your usual speed.
3. Cut your speed in half, raise the incline and sidestep for 5 Minutes
4. Drop the incline to 0 and sprint (or walk briskly) in 10 second intervals (5 seconds of rest in between each interval) Do this for 5 Minutes.
5. Repeat #3 with opposite leg lead.
6. 5 Minutes Cool down.

Try it out! Cardio time will fly by, and will no longer feel like a chore!