January 27, 2010 07:09 - Requirements For a Certified Nutritionist
The requirements for becoming a nutritionist vary greatly.
Here are some general “rules of thumb” to help you understand the educational and professional requirements for certified nutritionists. (Read Article)
January 15, 2010 07:15 - Tips For Staying Motivated To Exercise
Trouble in getting motivated to exercise and maintaining that motivation has been the downfall of many a New Years resolution. Here are a few tips that will help you keep between the ditches. (Read Article)
September 30, 2009 07:49 - Working Out: Family Style
Guest Author: Stacy Lemmon One of the easiest ways to make sure that you get your work-out is by including the entire family.
With all of the scary news reports about juvenile heart attacks and high blood pressure it should be enough to get every mother up and off the couch and in full team mode.
Discuss the plan with the entire family about a week ahead of the day you are going to start this and then stick with it. There will be no excuses accepted and no one is allowed out of the exercise.
Start with something simple, like a walk around the block. Add another block each night until the walk takes 30-45 minutes to do. Start adding new exercises. Make it fun, exciting and a challenge, but make sure that everyone can do the routine comfortably.
Once you start getting the kids involved, challenge another family to a competition. Organize a neighborhood baseball game. Have games of volleyball in the backyard. Whatever you can do to get your family up and moving around, do it.
There will be days when no one really wants to exercise but you power your way through it. There will be days when you cannot wait to get out there. Once you get family members used to the exercise, it will be time to start addressing their eating habits.
Talk to them, include them in the decisions, but remember, you are the parent and it is your responsibility to make sure that they are eating good food at least part of the time. If you give them good eating and exercise habits now, they may not have bad habits later as adults. Of course, they could go to college and go hog wild, but at least you can say that you tried.
Family work-out times should build teamwork, perhaps by running relay races with each other. Again, adding a little healthy competition can motivate even the most reluctant family members, especially if there is some sibling rivalry to play on. Do whatever it takes to get them moving.
If you cannot get them to work out willingly, you may need to be a little sneaky. Take trips that will involve a lot of walking, swimming or other activities. Park as far away from the entrance of the mall, grocery store or other places, as you possibly can. Tag your child and then run away; see how long they can resist.
If you still cannot get them to move around and you have taken everything but the air that they breathe away from them, it is time to pull out the ultimate secret weapon. If the kids will not move up and off of the couch, go over to the neighbor’s house and borrow their Jack Russell terrier. Bring in the little monster and watch everyone turn into a giggling, dog wrestling, jumping around bundle of energy. When everybody is panting and worn out, grab Mr. Pooch and take him home. Repeat as often as necessary.
About the Author: Stacy Lemmon is passionate about every aspect of exercise and fitness. She feels that if you keep your workouts fresh and fun you will continue to work out. If you are looking for an intense home work out that has been used to train professional athletes she suggests trying out the Insanity Workout by Shaun T, or the Slim in 6 Workout for ladies.
September 30, 2009 07:03 - There Are No Bad Food Groups
Guest Author: Stacey LemmonWalking through the weight loss section of any bookstore is like waking through the food pyramid walk of shame.
You would think that sugar had been found guilty of every vile, heinous crime ever committed, and his little buddy fat doesn't come off looking much better.
We have been told not to eat carbohydrates of any form, but in the same diet plan encouraged to eat bacon. Bacon, people—...we have been told that not only can we, but we should eat bacon!
What kind of sane, reasonable person thinks that a diet is good that says you can have a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, but only if you hold the bread and then makes you stop to question whether or not tomatoes are on the good list or bad list? If you are curious, tomatoes were allowed, but ketchup was not because of too much sugar!
Any diet that removes an entire good group from the food pyramid is not a well thought-out plan, nor is it necessarily a healthy one. Instead of encouraging people to eat a well balanced diet with each group of the pyramid represented in a healthy manner, or suggesting that people eat more fruits and vegetables and cut back on the dangerous, saturated fats, the diet book writers will give us what sounds like the miracle, the cure-all, magic plan that we have all been waiting for.
But, here is what they forget or they want us not to know: There are no bad food groups, only bad food choices within those groups.
After carbs had their day of infamy, the diet industry moved on to the fat category. The suggestion was then made that every single fat gram be removed from our diets with the feeling that if you never ate fat, you would never get fat.
As a hypothesis, it sounds pretty logical until you find out that it does not really hold water. For one thing, no one was losing all that much weight this way and for another, there are so many sources of fat in our food, both obvious and hidden that it was almost impossible to exorcise it completely.
Science went back to the lab and crunched some more numbers and what they found was simple: There are different kinds of fat and some of them are actually good for you. The dieting industry was really knocked for a loop with that little gem. Good fats include olive oil, canola oil, nuts and nut butters. The smallest portion of the food pyramid was suddenly back in action.
There are good choices and bad choices within each part of the food pyramid. We know that we need protein to build lean muscle mass. A nice piece of broiled, skinless chicken breast is a good protein source. A bucket of fried chicken legs is not. Vegetables, usually everyone’s darlings can be ruined too if they are prepared in the wrong way or served with the wrong thing.
A recent trip to the grocery store revealed this. A cranberry and spinach salad had over 49 fat grams in it, and nearly an entire day’s worth of calories. The problems with the salad were the extras that were in it. Not only did the salad have spinach and cranberries, but it also had croutons, cheese, two boiled eggs, walnuts and yes, you guessed it, bacon!
Author Bio: Stacy Lemmon is a fitness specialist who has a desire to see people lose weight and get into the best shape of their life. Stacy suggests trying out the P90X Workout, or Insanity Workout if you are looking for a great home workout.
April 3, 2008 07:37 - 7 Nutrition Secrets For Great Abs
Here is the finale of the article on building great abs by Tom Venuto...First though, as a little gift, here is an ebook containing an interview by David Grisaffi, an in-the-trenches fat loss and abdominal training expert and author of the best-selling ebook Firm and Flatten Your Abs, of fat loss expert and best selling author Tom Venuto. These fat loss pros discuss what it really takes to uncover your abdominals, and the reasons why it takes more than hundreds of situps and crunches to succeed. Some of the facts Tom reveals will surprise you because you won’t hear them from most other experts in the weight loss and fitness industry. Why? Because they either don’t know or they have a vested interest in keeping the truth hidden from you. In this revealing discussion you'll learn top secret ab training techniques and the truth about diet scams and rip offs!
Right-click to download this PDF file here Right click the above link and select 'save link as' to download and save onto your hard drive.
That leads us to nutrition. Many people say that "abdominals are made in the kitchen, not in the gym," and there's a lot of truth to that. You can do thousands of reps of ab work every week, but if your nutrition is not in order, you can forget about getting a great set of 6-pack abs.
1. Eat about 15-20% below your calorie maintenance level. If you use a more aggressive calorie deficit of 25-30%, then do not keep calories too low for too long; increase calories to maintenance or maintenance +10-15% 1-2 days per week.
2. Spread your calories into 5-6 smaller meals instead of 2-3 big ones. Be very conscious of portion size. If you eat too much of anything (even "healthy" food), you can say goodbye to your abs. Period.
3. Eat a source of complete, high quality lean protein with each meal (egg whites, lean meat, fish, protein powder, etc)
4. Choose natural, complex carbs such as vegetables, oatmeal, yams, potatoes, beans, brown rice and whole grains. Start with aprox. 50% of your calories from natural carbs and reduce carbs slightly (esp. late in the day) if you are not losing fat.
5. Avoid refined, simple carbs that contain white flour or white sugar
6. Keep total fats low and saturated fats low. Aim for 20% of your total calories from fat (and no more than 30%). A little bit of "good fat" like flax oil, fish fat, nuts & seeds, etc is better than a no fat diet. Essential fatty acids actually assist the fat burning process.
7. Drink plenty of water - a gallon is a good ballpark to shoot for if you are physically active.
1000+ reps of daily ab work is an amazing feat of endurance, but that’s not how you get visible, 6-pack abs! If you were to do 1,000 reps of ab exercises every day, you would have outstanding development in your abdominal muscles and you would definitely have great muscular endurance. Unfortunately, if your abs are covered up with a layer of fat, you will never see them even if you do 10,000 reps a day!
You Condition and Strengthen Your Abs With Specific Ab Exercises...
But The Secret To Seeing Your Abs Is Reducing Your Body Fat!
I once saw a photo of a man who broke one of the Guiness World Records for sit ups. It was the most paradoxical thing, but this man did not have any abdominal muscle definition. He was not obese or overweight at all, mind you, but he had a small enough layer of body fat that the muscular defintion did not show through. I've never seen a better real life example which demonstrates the basic principle discussed in this article:
You get great abs from reducing your body fat, and you reduce your body fat by creating a caloric deficit through nutrition and metabolism-stimulating and calorie-burning exercise.
I've spent my entire career - through more than 18 years and 28 bodybuilding competitions - studying the science and practicing the art of body fat reduction. I speak from experience and I walk my talk as you can see from my pictures.
If you'd like to learn for yourself, what I've learned about fat burning nutrition and getting your body fat level low enough so that you can finally see a "6 pack rack" of abs, then be sure to take a look at the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program. Thousands of men and women call this their "fat loss bible." For all the details, click here:
www.BurnTheFat.com
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com
April 2, 2008 07:26 - How To Use Cardio For MAXIMUM Fat-Burning
This is the continuation of an article by Tom Venuto of Burn The Fat - Feed The Muscle fame on how to build a great set of abs....Times have changed since the Aerobics revolution of the 1970's and 1980's. For years, aerobics was the darling of the fitness world. Then scientists began to acknowledge the benefits of weight training - for everyone, not just for bodybuilders.
Recently, the pendulum has swung the other direction and we've actually started hearing fitness "experts" suggesting that cardio should be kept to a minimum or even avoided completely. That's the way things tend to go in the fitness world - they swing back and forth in trends, from one extreme to another. Lots of cardio or no cardio.
I suggest you avoid trend-hopping and pay close attention to what actually works, by people who know what they are talking about (such as bodybuilders, who are the leanest muscular athletes in the world). Doing nothing but cardio is a mistake. But cutting our cardio completely is also a mistake. The truth lies in the middle. Maximum fat burning occurs when you combine cardio training and weight training together.
Those who are genetically gifted with above average metabolisms will find that a slight drop in food intake and just a few days a week of cardio will usually do the trick. However, most people who are struggling with fat loss (sometimes referred to as "endomorph" body type) are simply NOT burning enough calories to get the results they want. The answer for them is more activity to burn more calories.
For health and weight maintenance, I would suggest 3 short cardio workouts per week, about 20-30 minutes per session. But for maximum fat loss, I recommend 4-7 days per week of cardio or other physical activity for 30-45 minutes (based on results), at a moderate pace. You can mix up the type of cardio you do, or choose the type you enjoy the most - stationary cycling, stairclimbing, elliptical machines, aerobic classes and other continuous activities are all excellent fat burners (it doesn't have to be indoors or on a cardio machine).
If time efficiency is a concern for you, you could do 2-3 of those cardio workouts as high intensity interval training and you'll achieve very good results even with briefer workouts. Even as little as 20-25 minutes per session can get great results IF your intensity level is high enough. Remember, seeing your abs is about low body fat. Low body fat is about burning calories and creating a calorie deficit. The calorie deficit is created by increasing the number of calories you burn and or decreasing the amount of calories you take in from food. Increasing intensity is one way to burn more calories in less time.
NOTE: To reach the "ripped" 3.7% body fat level you see in my photos, I do cardio 7 days a week for 30-45 minutes per session, in addition to my 4 weight training workouts per week.
Tomorrow will be the last part of this article by Tom Venuto of www.BurnTheFat.com and Tom will give you 7 Nutrition Secrets for Great Abs.
April 1, 2008 06:30 - My Championship-Winning Ab Workout Routine
Here is part 3 of Tom Venutos abdominal building article...Personally, I only do about 15 minutes of ab work two times per week, with anywhere from two to four exercises for about 10-25 reps per exercise. Forget about thousands of reps of sit ups – it’s a waste of time. The reason my abs look the way they do is not from endless repetitions, but because I get my body fat down into the single digits with a highly specialized fat-burning diet program.
Here’s a recent ab routine that I've used (for bodybuilding/ ab-development purposes). I do this routine only twice a week and I change the exercises approximately every month so my body doesn't adapt. I prefer slightly higher rep range than other muscle groups, but as you can see, it is far from doing a thousand reps a day.
A1 Hanging leg raises
3 sets, 15-20 reps
Superset to:
A2 Hanging knee ups (bent-knee leg raises)
3 sets, 15-20 reps
(no rest between supersetted exercises A1 & A2, 60 sec between supersets)
B1 Weighted swiss ball crunches (or weighted cable crunches)
3 sets, 15-20 reps
Superset to:
B2 Incline Bench Reverse crunches
3 sets, 15-20 reps
(no rest between supersetted exercises B1 & B2, 60 sec between supersets)
How To Use Cardio For MAXIMUM Fat-Burning
Times have changed since the Aerobics revolution of the 1970's and 1980's. For years, aerobics was the darling of the fitness world. Then scientists began to acknowledge the benefits of weight training - for everyone, not just for bodybuilders.
Recently, the pendulum has swung the other direction and we've actually started hearing fitness "experts" suggesting that cardio should be kept to a minimum or even avoided completely. That's the way things tend to go in the fitness world - they swing back and forth in trends, from one extreme to another. Lots of cardio or no cardio.
I suggest you avoid trend-hopping and pay close attention to what actually works, by people who know what they are talking about (such as bodybuilders, who are the leanest muscular athletes in the world). Doing nothing but cardio is a mistake. But cutting our cardio completely is also a mistake. The truth lies in the middle. Maximum fat burning occurs when you combine cardio training and weight training together.
Those who are genetically gifted with above average metabolisms will find that a slight drop in food intake and just a few days a week of cardio will usually do the trick. However, most people who are struggling with fat loss (sometimes referred to as "endomorph" body type) are simply NOT burning enough calories to get the results they want. The answer for them is more activity to burn more calories.
For health and weight maintenance, I would suggest 3 short cardio workouts per week, about 20-30 minutes per session. But for maximum fat loss, I recommend 4-7 days per week of cardio or other physical activity for 30-45 minutes (based on results), at a moderate pace. You can mix up the type of cardio you do, or choose the type you enjoy the most - stationary cycling, stairclimbing, elliptical machines, aerobic classes and other continuous activities are all excellent fat burners (it doesn't have to be indoors or on a cardio machine).
If time efficiency is a concern for you, you could do 2-3 of those cardio workouts as high intensity interval training and you'll achieve very good results even with briefer workouts. Even as little as 20-25 minutes per session can get great results IF your intensity level is high enough. Remember, seeing your abs is about low body fat. Low body fat is about burning calories and creating a calorie deficit. The calorie deficit is created by increasing the number of calories you burn and or decreasing the amount of calories you take in from food. Increasing intensity is one way to burn more calories in less time.
NOTE: To reach the "ripped" 3.7% body fat level you see in my photos, I do cardio 7 days a week for 30-45 minutes per session, in addition to my 4 weight training workouts per week.
...Tomorrow I will publish the rest of Tom's article including his 7 nutrition secrets for building great abs.
Visit Tom's website at www.BurnTheFat.com
March 31, 2008 06:37 - How Body Fat Storage Patterns Affect You
Here continues the Tom Venuto (www.BurnTheFat.com) article about building a great set of abdominal muscles...What's the point of all the physiology? Well, it turns out that in men, the lower abdominal region has a higher concentration of A2 receptors, so this gives us one possible explanation of why the lower abdominal region is often the first place the fat goes when you gain it, and the last place it comes off when you're losing it. (Incidentally, the fat in women's hips and thighs is also higher in A2 receptors). This situation is dictated by genetics and by the hormonal and enzymatic pathways we discussed.
Think of ab fat like the deep end of the swimming pool. No matter how much you protest, there is no way you can drain the deep end before the shallow end. However, don't let this discourage you. Lower ab fat WILL come off, it will simply be the last place to come off. First place on - Last place off.
This helps to explain why abdominal exercises have little impact on body fat loss. It's a huge mistake to think that hundreds or thousands of reps of ab exercises will remove lower abdominal fat, except to the degree that it burns calories and contributes to the calorie deficit. What removes the fat - all over your body - is a calorie deficit and that comes from decreasing food intake, increasing activity, or a combination of both.
What I suggested to this young man was cutting back the ab training, spending the time he was wasting on excess ab exercises for more intense, calorie-burning cardio and weight training for the rest of the body. I also suggested he do an accounting of his food intake, get his nutrition in order and decrease his calories slightly if necessary.
As it turned out, his diet was a mess, and as nutrition experts like to say, "You can’t out-train a lousy diet."
It's a monumental error to think that 1,000 reps of ab work a day will make your abs finally "pop" when your diet is a disaster and that's leading to fat storage. It’s not that ab exercises aren’t important. But all the ab exercises in the world won't help as long as you still have body fat covering the muscles. You can't "spot reduce" with abdominal exercise and YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR ABS THROUGH A LAYER OF BODY FAT!
March 28, 2008 07:46 - THE GREAT ABS MISTAKE "He Was Doing One Thousand Crunches And Sit Ups A Day... But Still NO Abs!!!
The following article was written by Tom Venuto of www.BurnTheFat.com fameIt is a long article so I have broken it into several blog entries to spread it out a bit. It is very informative and Tom says what I have been saying all along about the need to reduce body fat in order to show better muscle definition.
As you can see from his photo above, Tom knows a little about strength training and muscle building...
...After 18 years in the fitness business, “How do I get great abs” is still BY FAR the most frequently asked question I receive out of the 30,000+ emails that come into my office every month. No doubt, it's because abs are the one body part that most people are the most frustrated with. Although their questions are often phrased differently and each person’s situation seems unique, my answer to “how do I get great abs” is almost always the same… and you’re about to hear it...
"1,000 Sit-Ups And Crunches A Day and Still No Abs!"
One question I received recently REALLY got my attention because a young guy told me he was doing 1,000 crunches and sit ups a day and said he still couldn’t see his abdominals. He wrote:
“Tom: I have been working out for around a year now and I cannot get my lower abs into any type of shape. I'm starting to see my upper abs a little bit, which is great, but despite doing 900 various crunches, ab roller, and 100 sit-ups four days a week, along with my regular workout on the weights, I still have a tire around my waist. What else can I do?”
What did I tell him? Well, I gave him the same answer I’ve given thousands of people over the years, which is the only true “Secret” to great abs...
It takes training to increase strength, build endurance and DEVELOP the abdominals, but to SEE the definition in your abdominals - or any other muscle group for that matter - is almost entirely the result of low body fat levels.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but if you can't see your abs, it's not an issue of “muscle development” at all. You simply have too much body fat covering up the ab muscles. The lower abdominal area also happens to be the one place that most people - especially men - store the body fat first.
There's a Scientific Reason Why Your
Lower Ab Flab Is The Last Place To Go: Belly Fat - A Big Problem
Most people don't have their fat distributed evenly throughout their bodies. Each of us inherits a genetically determined and hormonally-influenced pattern of fat storage just as we inherit our eye or hair color. In other words, the fat seems to "stick" to certain areas more than others.
There's a scientific reason for this. Your fat cells are not just inert "storage tanks" for excess fuel. They are actually endocrine glands which send and receive signals from the rest of the body. You could say that your fat cells "talk to your body" and your body "talks to your fat cells." This occurs through a hormone and receptor system.
For body fat loss to occur, you must first get the fat cell (adipocyte) to release the fat into the bloodstream. THEN, the free fatty acids must be delivered to the working muscles where they are burned for energy.
For fat to be released, the hormone adrenaline (epinephrine) must be secreted and send a signal to your fat cells. Your fat cells receive this hormonal signal via adrenaline receptors called adrenoreceptors.
Fat cells have Beta 1 (B1) and Alpha 2 (A2) receptors. B1 receptors are the good guys. They activate hormone sensitive lipase, the enzyme that breaks down the fat and allows it to be released into the bloodstream to be burned. A2 receptors are the bad guys. They block the fat-releasing enzymes in the fat cell and encourage body fat formation.
Continued in next blog entry...
Visit Tom Venuto's website at www.BurnTheFat.com
March 24, 2008 07:15 - Strength Training Principles # 2 and #3
The most important part of any strength training program is starting it. Thinking about starting is where too many people leave off.Once you have started a program, first of all, congratulations, I'm proud of you. Remember though that after about 4 weeks your body will adapt to what you are doing by getting stronger and that to progress you must begin to vary your exercise program.
Variety is the spice of life and is essential to effective strength training.
If you don't vary your program by progressing to heavier weights and different, more challenging exercises, your strength gains and fat loss will stall.
This is the point
