Cardio on the Same Day As Strength Training?

"Personal trainers worldwide are giving terrible advice," explains Val Fiott, Client Services Director for Perfect Personal Training and Certification Committee Member for the American Council on Exercise.  "They're commonly telling clients to avoid cardiovascular conditioning on their strength training days and vice versa, and this isn't just bad advice - it's harmful to their wellness programs."

Cardiovascular conditioning, according to the American College of Sports Medicine, is recommended five days per week, for at least 20 minutes at a time at moderate to high intensities for those with minimal risk factors.  Muscular training is recommended at least twice per week, incorporating all major muscles.

"Given these guidelines, a person needs exercise at least seven times per week to be as healthy, statistically, as he or she can be.," Val elaborated. "Weight loss and body toning often require even more training days, especially if nutrition can't always be ideal. So, there is clearly a big need for many people to fit in cardiovascular work on the same days as strength training."

But is it safe?

"Absolutely.  As long as each workout begins with an appropriate, gradual warmup and ends with a proper cool-down followed by flexibility conditioning, there is absolutely nothing dangerous or counterproductive about training your cardiosystem on the same days as your muscles.  The real danger lies in failing to reach the appropriate amount of cardio and strength work each work.  In fact, you'll get your metabolic engine burning even brighter as a result of combining cardio and strength into the same days as time allows.  Just be sure to stay hydrated according to industry guidelines, consume appropriate proteins, carbs and fats about every three hours, and to be well-rested."

Not yet a PPT client?  Get the BEST decisions for your exercise programming, nutrition and lifestyle from the nation's top health science leaders.  Request your free consultation at http://perfectpersonaltraining.com/signup.php

Why Your Last Diet Didn't Work!

 

Weight loss programs are not created equal!

 

 

Losing bodyweight is, essentially, a fairly simple thing to do.  Just cutting calories and moving more will usually reduce weight as the body uses fat, and often muscle tissue, for fuel.

 

What makes for a top weight loss program, however, is more than simple and temporary weight loss.  It should spike metabolic change, reduce fat stores without muscle tissue loss, and provide nourishment for the body to reduce inflammation and make blood sugar levels more ideal.  By feeding the body with what it truly needs, energy is higher, exercise capacities are greater, and long-term health is improved rather than reduced (as is the case with many commercial weight loss plans).  Safety and long-term efficiency should be as paramount as the quick reward!

 

"PPT's meal planning goes beyond the norm," explains Patrick Liddle, Perfect Personal Trainer and PPT nutritionist.  "Our meal plans are personalized based on each client's unique needs and lifestyle. That's what makes them so helpful and lasting."

 

But what's wrong with most diet plans?  "The problem with the everyday commercialized diet is that it doesn't prepare the body to keep the bodyfat off once it's gone, " explains Client Services Director, nutritionist and health coach Val Fiott.  "Without steps to improve metabolism and preserve muscle tissue, the excess weight is likely going to return.  The right exercise program combined with the right meal planning strategy won't let that happen."

 

"There is usually a lot of focus on making healthy food selections," continues Liddle.  "That's great for lifespan but eating healthy won't always bring the weight down - you have to choose the right amounts of what you're having."

 

So how do PPT's meal plans differ from the major commercial groups?

 

"Our fat loss services are very ambitious," explains Fiott.  "We're not just aiming for low-carb options and quick fat loss, but we're setting up the body to operate more optimally.  We're normalizing blood sugars, feeding the muscles, reducing inflammatory responses and even showing our clients how to have quick, convenient meals while in the middle of a busy day.  Most even report feeling 'full' after one of these low-calorie meals.  Best of all, meal planning is provided complimentary to our regular exercise clients!"

 

For more information on Perfect Personal Training's weight loss programs, exercise or meal planning services, or to purchase a gift certificate for the holidays, call (877)698-3648 or visit us at http://perfectpersonaltraining.com. 

 

Enter code HOLIDAY this week when you purchase your 40-session Commitment Package of home personal training and save $301 off of our regular rate.  Private, Training for Two or Group Fitness Programs are available!

 

Enter code PERFECT to save 15% on your new gift certificate for a new client!

 

 

In 2015 and always,

We look forward to your new successes!

 

PPT Client Sees Amazing Wellness Successes

 

Rikki Schwartz

Although Rikki Schwartz of Waterford, Michigan has created a very successful career as a chemical engineer, her health was not always as prosperous. “I was exhausted all the time; I rarely had any surplus energy, and thereby resisted most varieties of social activities,” Rikki explains. “I couldn’t climb a flight of stairs without being winded.” Rikki was growing increasingly exasperated with her inability to keep up with friends and family—even attending a simple art fair was exhausting.
With her upcoming 46th birthday, Rikki knew that she had to make lifestyle changes. “I realized that the distance to 50 was shorter than the distance from 40,” she says. “I concurrently realized that I likely would not make it past 60 if I didn’t do something as soon as possible, or if I did make it past 60, my quality of life would be dismal.” Admitting her diminished well-being was just the first step. The exercise component, which she knew had to be a part of her journey to better health, was a different obstacle entirely. Rikki not only associated exercise with discontentment, but also with fear. The thought of working out was daunting. As Rikki explains: “Exercise had always meant two things to me: pain and humiliation.” Much of her insecurity stemmed from grade school, where she had struggled to keep up with her peers. Avoiding fitness altogether just seemed easier, though it led to a multitude of issues for Rikki as she approached middle age.

Although she knew that she had to overcome her trepidation, the thought of joining a health club wasn’t even remotely appealing. Beyond the challenge of finding motivation to leave her home to exercise, Rikki just couldn’t face the deep-rooted public humiliation that she associated with gyms. Contacting Perfect Personal Training, whose wellness professionals would come right to her home for each session, seemed like a much better fit, especially with her busy career. She loved the thought of a “gym” knocking on her door and asking her for less than an hour of her time, which for Rikki was far more motivating than packing a duffle bag full of spandex and leaving her house.

Working with Perfect Personal Trainers Val Fiott and Jordan Gruppen in the comfort of her own home, Rikki never imagined that she would trade shame for a decreased body fat percentage and new-found confidence.  But, that wasn’t before Val helped Rikki to realize something even more important: she was asthmatic. “I did not even suspect the condition until Val Fiott encouraged me to seek medical attention about three months after I began working out with him, once he believed that I was experiencing what he believed to be asthmatic symptoms during my workouts,” Rikki says. The discovery explained some unanswered questions for her, including why she had avoided most physical activities for much of her life. “That may have been addressed medically when I was younger, had I known that asthma was, in fact, largely responsible for my lack of aerobic capacity,” she says.

Asthmatic or not, Rikki wasn’t about to let anything inhibit her at this point in her life. Her continued work with Perfect Personal Training produced incredible results. Rikki hadn't realized, until her initial work with Val Fiott, how truly at risk her health was. Although she had always considered herself to be of “average” weight, she learned, through Perfect Personal Training’s in-home consultation and fitness assessment, that her body fat percentage was nearly 45 percent. “I was thereby morbidly obese,” she explains. “That was obviously disturbing.” But these numbers didn’t perturb her for too long.  Rikki still holds on to an email she received from a coworker after she began working with PPT.  In the email, her coworker remarked how fabulous Rikki looked. “I do not know what you are doing but it looks good on you,” the uplifting email read. Rikki was very happy: “It was the first time I had ever felt empowered to take credit for a physical transformation of any kind because it was the first time I’d ever put any real effort into it,” she exclaims. “As such, it wasn’t just a matter of being proud of my appearance, but moreover proud of the effort that I had invested into it.”

Since beginning with Perfect Personal Training, the now 50-year-old Rikki Schwartz has decreased her body fat percentage by nearly 10 percent, has tremendously improved daily nutrition habits, and feels much more energetic and confident. “Considering I was, prior to PPT, a dyed-in-the-wool carb addict, and ate very, VERY little lean protein, the nutritional transformation has been miraculous,” she emphasizes. “Val’s encouragement of my food journaling, along with educating me regarding my recommended limits, really helped to set me on the right nutritional path.” Her dialogue with food has completely changed, particularly her former infatuation with fast food, which Rikki said she used as a “quick high” in her old life. “Now, I think of food as a tool: ‘How will this improve my life, today and in the days to come?’ [There’s] no comparison.”

Aside from her dramatically-improved physical appearance and overall health, Rikki is clearly in love with the way she now feels. “I am prouder of my appearance, my ability to keep up with my peers, and in general, my ability to honestly say that working out is a routine, prioritized, conscious, and dedicated focus of my life,” she says. “Nobody who knew me before 2008 would ever have believed that those words could/would come out of my mouth.” Rikki attributes her success to Perfect Personal Training’s accessibility and commitment to her success.  Rikki stresses that had she even considered a gym, the added commute would double her daily exercise commitment, making a steadfast fitness routine nearly impossible for her.  Convenience, attention, and encouragement were just a few of the adjectives she used to describe the reason for her nearly five-year investment with Perfect Personal Training. “My experience with PPT has been one of structure, security and safety,” she says. “I have stuck with PPT because they deliver exactly what they promise – personalized workouts that are paced for success, in the privacy of my own home.”

 

********

Perfect Personal Training, LLC
(877)698-3648
http://perfectpersonaltraining.com

Top 5 Ways to Make Thanksgiving Healthier

#5.  Take just ten minutes Thanksgiving morning to perform moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise.  Just ten minutes will likely burn approximately 100 calories, and will help your metabolism over the next few hours as well.  (If you can, get the family to go for a brisk walk after dinner also.)

#4.  Use fat-free chicken broth to baste the turkey.  This, alone, will save quite a few unhealthy calories without negatively affecting the taste.

#3.  Drinks lots of water that day!  This will help you to curb hunger and fill up faster.  Aim for, in ounces of water, at least your weight in pounds divided by two.

#2.  Prioritize the healthier, lower-fat options such as white turkey meat, plain vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes, and non-fat gravy.

And the number one way to make your Thanksgiving healthier is to simply eat slowly and avoid the high-fat or high-sugar foods. 

Most Americans gain one pound of bodyfat throughout the holidays that they never burn off.  End your meal when you are "satisfied", not "full".

For more health & wellness information, please visit http://perfectpersonaltraining.com or call (877)698-3648.  Gift certificates are easily available in any quantity!

Top 5 Things You Need to Reach Your New Year's Resolution

Happy 2011, Readers!

As a new year begins, so does the most common resolution:  "Eat healthier, and lose weight in the new year."  Don't let yourself become another statistic who tried and failed.  Below are the top five things you need to know to make sure you reach the success that you're setting out to achieve!

#5.  The fifth most important thing that you need to know involves flexibility training and its role in fat burning.  While not all flexibility methods are exactly alike, flexibility exercise usually involves "holding a stretch" for a given length of time (20-60 seconds is recommended by the ACSM for most populations, whereas yoga, Pilates, and some other disciplines encourage different durations).  Unlike moderate-to-high intensity cardiovascular or resistive exercise, flexibility conditioning tends to burn a relatively low number of calories per minute, even if you're sweating or "feeling the burn" to a great degree.  For the most part, you can't expect to lose much body fat from a standard flexibility regimen.  Keep that in mind when you're planning your exercise, meal plans, and total caloric consumption/expenditure, to avoid misleading yourself or setting yourself up for disappointment.

#4.  The fourth most important fact to keep in mind is that selecting an appropriate frequency and duration for your exercises is paramount.  We've all seen the "5-Minute Secret" books and strategies, that promise you the world if you just devote five minutes per day to exercise.  What we haven't seen is an example of any of these mythological systems actually working properly for people.  Science shows us that 20-60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at moderate to high intensities is recommended for most of us, five days per week or more.  And, strength training should be performed at least twice per week for every major muscle group.  To burn more body fat and keep it off, do your best to free up enough time in your schedule to allow this.  "Some" is always better than nothing, but following these recommendations is the key to long-lasting fat-loss success and longer life.

#3.  Now, let's discuss a key ingredient: intensity!  People everywhere are performing cardiovascular and strength work at inappropriate intensities -- some too high and some too little.  The truth is that most muscles will not improve much without at least 60% of their maximum tolerated resistance.  This generally means that two, three, or even five pound dumbbells won't usually do the trick once you've been exercising for more than a few months.  (Consult with your Perfect Personal Trainer for more specifics regarding your own muscles and heart conditioning.)  And, to remain free of cardiovascular disease, we need more than a light walk; we need to challenge our aerobic systems and progress safely over time.

#2.  Is there a limit to the amount of "healthy food" that you should be eating?  Absolutely!  Regardless of a food's (or a drink's) health benefits, the term "a calorie is a calorie is a calorie" still applies.  Eating healthy foods is of tremendous importance, but the amount of those foods is what really makes the difference when you're on the road to fitness success.  Too many calories is too many calories, plain and simple.  Your Perfect Personal Trainer will help you to determine some safe and effective parameters in line with ACSM and AHA guidelines.

#1.  The number one thing you need to know as you embark on your quest for a healthier, leaner body?  Body Composition.  "Weight" is the measuring stick of yesterday, and "body composition" (also referred to as "fat percentage") is the gold standard for knowing the truth about your body and your risk for cardiovascular disease.  Here is the proof:
What if, after 5 weeks on your new exercise regimen, you lose 10 pounds of fat but gain 7 pounds of muscle, 1 pound of bone, and carry an extra 2 pounds of water in your body?  Your body weight would be the exact same as it was, right?  But, yet, you'd have made some excellent changes to your physique that would go unnoticeable when you look at a standard scale.  For this reason, we strongly recommend a body composition assessment by an in-home Perfect Personal Trainer.  This is truly the best way to evaluate your condition and how you progress.  Best of all, it's a good indicator of your risk for health problems such as heart disease or stroke.

Thank you all for your accomplishments and support in 2010!!  We've shed more pounds and improved more lives this year than ever before, as we've continued to expand throughout the country.  We look forward to serving you, your families, and your businesses even more in 2011 and beyond.  As always, we encourage your questions in the comment box below, or by calling 877-698-DO-IT (3648).  Our top exercise scientists and physiologists are always here to help!

We wish you all the safe, happy, and healthy New Year that you deserve!

"What is the BEST way to do cardio?"

We get this question often: Which method of cardiovascular training is most superior for effective body fat reduction?
Is it jogging?

The elliptical?

Swimming?

The Answer: It's not the type of training that will make a difference... It is how it's performed!

Cardiovascular Defined
First, let us get straight what cardiovascular training really is: It is rhythmic, repetitive, and involves large muscles of the body moving through a big range of motion. This rules out repeated sets of bicep curls or heel raises for cardio exercise, but includes exercises that involve big, broad movements such as the elliptical or crossramp machines, walking, jogging, running, cycling, stair climbing, kicking, jumping jacks, stepping, or major movements of the arms and shoulders, such as rowing or boxing.

Desired Intensity
For those in good health without history of coronary intervention, heart or lung disease, stroke, poor circulation, or similar issues, it is generally best to train the cardiovascular system with a heart rate at 55-80% of its estimated maximum. This means that if your estimated maximal heart rate is 200 beats per minute, then you should probably find your most effective fat loss results at a training heart rate of 110-160 beats per minute. To safely estimate your maximum heart rate, please consult a Perfect Personal Trainer. This value will change over time, and should be re-estimated regularly so you are not undertraining or overtraining your aerobic system.

Which Form Is For You?
Choose cardiovascular exercises that you will find enjoyable, and feel free to go from one to another if you find yourself getting bored or having difficulty keeping your heart rate in the range described above. Also avoid cardiovascular exercises that rely on any of your joints that have caused you trouble. For example, if you have experienced hip or knee or ankle trouble, then you might be safer performing cardiovascular training that uses the upper body as opposed to the lower body. (It is generally best to consult a physician, however, if you have experienced any prolonged joint discomfort at all.)

Duration & Frequency
Now that we have defined what cardiovascular training is and an appropriate intensity, let's discuss the desired duration and frequency. After roughly twenty minutes, your body is more likely to start burning a higher percentage of fat than it did in the first twenty minutes. This percentage is scientifically shown to increase even more significantly as you draw closer to an hour of steady cardiovascular training. And, how often should this be performed? For general health, studies show that just two days per week can be somewhat beneficial, but that five days per week are more ideal for a longer life, reduced incidence of disease, and sustained fat loss.

Other Considerations
Weight-bearing cardiovascular training, such as jogging, can be either therapeutic or damaging to joints that are already unhealthy or strained. Consult a Perfect Personal Trainer to assess your medical history and risk factors. If you are currently sedentary, then you should always consult a physician and a qualified fitness professional before beginning an exercise regimen of any kind.