Are you considered obese?

women are considered obese when they have a body fat of 32%, and men when their body fat is at 25%. Obesity puts you at an increased risk for disease through low grade inflammation.⠀
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Exercise may help fight obesity by tipping the energy balance in an individuals favor as well as reducing circulating cytokines associated with development of atherosclerosis, diabetes, and inflammation. Exercise also reduces the accumulation of visceral fat storage, which is the primary cause of adipokine dysfunction.⠀

Learn more about the best online fitness program which includes comprehensive programs focused on shifting towards healthier eating habits, staying fit, and building a better booty. You’ll also find a variety of fitness apparel to help get you that extra motivation to take your goals to another level. Contact me today to learn more about the best fitness programs available to get your body in gear.

A Major Problem with the Fitness Industry

Let’s talk about looks in the fitness industry. Are they important, of course! You should look like you practice what you preach. Does this mean you have to have 3% body fat…uhm no! If you are a woman and your body fat drops below 10% you are stepping into VERY dangerous waters. Does this mean you HAVE to have a six pack, I sure as hell do not and I know I look like I workout and know more about fitness than 99% of the people who do have six packs because well six packs are greatly affected by your genetics, my genetics favor a flat stomach, NOT sculpted abs 365 days a year.⠀
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Looks can be deceiving. Someone can look the part but not act the part or study the part. When looking for a potential coach, someone you ultimately are trusting the ONE body you have been given you need to take looks as one piece to the puzzle and look at the lifestyle they live. Is their diet 90% fast food? Do they get waisted every other day? Do they know the names of the muscle they flex (trust me i’ve heard some crazy shit…like thats not your whole quad dude, that “tear drop” is part of your quads but really is the vastus medialis). Where do they get their knowledge from? From the bros? or from the scientists who research exercise physiology to make OUR lives as fitness professionals easier? The guys who find out the information that goes in textbooks or the guys that just believe whatever a label promotes?⠀
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Be careful who you trust with your body! You only get one, so don’t screw it up!⠀
Learn more about the best online fitness program which includes comprehensive programs focused on shifting towards healthier eating habits, staying fit, and building a better booty. You’ll also find a variety of fitness apparel to help get you that extra motivation to take your goals to another level. Contact me today to learn more about the best fitness programs available to get your body in gear.

8 Reasons You Should Never Stop Working Out

As much as it my come to shock people.  Fitness is more than a small waist, shredded abs, the perfect glutes, etc.  It is also about improving quality of life.  It may also come to a shock that we are all going to grow old some day, and there’s a big difference between being in a wheel chair and being able to walk when you’re 80.

Here are 8 reasons beyond vanity that I hope inspire you all to never stop!

1. Increase your life span with improved cardio
2. Reduce your risk of developing or worsening diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, and diabetes
3. Lower Blood Pressure and Reduce Stress-Lowers risk of heart attack
4. Better functioning nervous system
5. Stronger bones and muscle-decrease risk of developing or of worsening osteoporosis
6. Improved activity of daily living-get in and out of bed easier, carry your groceries, reduce risk of falling
7. Improved metabolism
8. Improved Flexibility

Learn more about the best online fitness program which includes comprehensive programs focused on shifting towards healthier eating habits, staying fit, and building a better booty. You’ll also find a variety of fitness apparel to help get you that extra motivation to take your goals to another level. Contact me today to learn more about the best fitness programs available to get your body in gear.

5 Top Apps To Help You Get Fit

1. My Fitness Pal:  It hands down my favorite way to track food.  While the major con is it does not teach people about ho important macronutrients is in making up total calorie intake for the day it does a pretty great job at estimating total calorie needs as well as macronutrient and micronutrient needs depending on the persons goal.  The food library is also the most complete I have seen, you can even go out to eat and enter a popular restaurants menu and it will pop up!  Do NOT use it to input calories burned….it gives you 10x what you actually burned…Also, For those who wish to get more specific about nutrient timing you can get the premium app and set nutrient needs for each meal.  With premium you can also set up specific macros.
2. My Wod:  While I no longer crossfit I do still use this app to track my weight lifting records and as a timer.  You can set it up for a tabata, standard, coundown, or interval timer so it makes life easier by providing a timely beep.
3. Fooducate:  While this app can double as a food diary it is not as complete as my fitness pal.  Where this app is amazing is that you can scan any barcode at the grocery store or look up the food and it will give the food a rating from A+ to F and tell you why that food got that rating.  It is a great tool in teaching people what to look and look out for at the grocery store.
4. Daily Water-Drink Tracker:  For those that struggle to remember to drink water and stay hydrated this app helps you track your water and will send you reminders to drink water if you are slacking for the day.
5. Map My Run:  Every blue moon you may find me out on a run.  This app tracks distance, time, pace, and routes for your running or walking bouts.

Learn more about the best online fitness program which includes comprehensive programs focused on shifting towards healthier eating habits, staying fit, and building a better booty. You’ll also find a variety of fitness apparel to help get you that extra motivation to take your goals to another level. Contact me today to learn more about the best fitness programs available to get your body in gear.

Why should you want strong abs?

Abs, most people want them, most people struggle to get them.  While your overall appearance to you abs is 80% genetics and diet and 20% exercise you should still place an importance on strengthening your abdominal muscles.  PLUS, ab exercises combined with a healthy diet will improve their appearence.

Strong abs allows for:

• Better Posture
• Prevents lower back pain
• Better Breathing
• Slimmer Waist Line

Don’t know where to begin?  That’s why I created a beginner, intermediate, and advanced ab program each 12 weeks long that can be done at home or at the gym at the end of your workouts!

• 12 Week Ab Program Benefits:
  • Body weight exercises that progress into resistance and stability ball exercises
  • 3 Days a week
  • No more than 5-8 minutes!
  • Should be added to your existing routine or better yet, done in conjunction with my other fitness guides.

Learn more about the best online fitness program which includes comprehensive programs focused on shifting towards healthier eating habits, staying fit, and building a better booty. You’ll also find a variety of fitness apparel to help get you that extra motivation to take your goals to another level. Contact me today to learn more about the best fitness programs available to get your body in gear.

Abs and Fitness

These days if you don’t have abs, you’re not considered “fit.” thanks to the incredibly superficial fitness personas of social media.  Since when did that even become a fitness requirement?  Hate to burst your bubble, but ones likelihood of having a 6 pack has more to do with your genetics and your diet than it has to do, with the kind of workouts you’re doing.  This is why you see some people who exercise zero minutes a week, yet they have a 6 pack, while there are others who are eating clean, working out 6 days a week and all they can accomplish is a flat stomach (like me!).  Or there are others who do workout, but have the world’s worst diet, and there 6 pack never goes away.  It is what it is!

If you’re like me, don’t be frustrated.  I don’t have a six pack, but i’m in better shape and stronger than a lot of my friends that do have 6 packs! Abs don’t and should not equate to fitness.  I’m not saying, don’t workout your abs, you need strong abdominal muscles for posture, for proper squats, for deadlifts, and so much more.

Fitness should be about overall health, about loving yourself, about preventing diseases when you’re older (yes, certain exercise, done properly can help prevent disease!) Don’t stress or kill yourself at the gym for unnecessary endless hours because you don’t have abs.  Have fun with your workouts, have fun with your clean eating, and stop believing the people who make you feel like you aren’t fit because you don’t have a perfect 6 pack.

Learn more about the best online fitness program which includes comprehensive programs focused on shifting towards healthier eating habits, staying fit, and building a better booty. You’ll also find a variety of fitness apparel to help get you that extra motivation to take your goals to another level. Contact me today to learn more about the best fitness programs available to get your body in gear.

Resistance Band Training

Resistance bands are one of the oldest exercising tools used in both fitness and rehab that recently have also been gaining more and more popularity.

Similarly to their free weight counterparts (i.e. Dumbbells & Barbells) resistance bands provide some degree of resistance, they allow for free range of motion, and variable movement speed. Also like free weights, they provide progressive resistance (meaning resistance can be added).

Unlike free weights, resistance bands do not rely on gravity to provide resistance, they provide continuous tension, and it also become more difficult to cheat the exercises with resistance bands as momentum can to always be used to your advantage.  Another great benefit to using resistance bands is that they provide linear variable resistance meaning that as the range of motion on the bands increases, so does the level of resistance.

Aside from the aforementioned resistance bands are great because they are

1. Cost Effective
2. provide great total body workouts
3. Travel Friendly
4. Easy Storage
5. Provide variable training
6. No training partners needed (i.e. spotters)
7. Can be combined with other equipment during the workout (i.e. Dumbbells and barbells for added resistance.

My favorite resistance bands on the market right now are the ones sold by bforebands because their bands are incredibly variable.  you can interchange the bands to be attached to any anchors, the doors, ankle wraps, and regular handles.  They also have lateral bands which are great for resistance leg and glute exercises!

to get 10% off all your bforcebands orders you my bforcebands coupon code “LETLERFIT” at checkout!

Cellulite: What is it?

Cellulite, many of us know about it, many of us see it on ourselves or other people, many of us try to get rid of while some succeed and some fail.  Cellulite does not discriminate, teens and adults alike are susceptible to having it.  Skinny individuals sometimes may even have more than what our horribly plastic society considers “fat” individuals.The bottom line…it’s NOT cute! so what exactly is it? Why does it form? How can we prevent it? Can we get rid of it?

cel·lu·lite

ˈselyəˌlīt/

noun

1. persistent subcutaneous fat causing dimpling of the skin, especially on women’s hips and thighs. Not in technical use.

Medical Terminology: adiposis edematosa, dermopanniculosis deformans, status protrusus cutis, and gynoid lipodystrophy

Street Terminology: cottage cheese skin and orange peel syndrome

Before I giving the down low on cellulite, I want to say something to the men: you TOO can fall victim to cellulite! It’s not just women (although we are more prone to getting it because put simply our bodies try to hold on to fat more than the male anatomy)!  Cellulite can also form anywhere! Even though it is found mostly on the thighs and hips, it can form in the arms, stomach, back.  Basically anywhere that can get “fat.”

Cellulite  can be caused by the following:

1. Hormones
2. Genetics: Before moving on to the next cause I wanted to state that genetics may predispose you to the tendency of developing cellulite, BUT it does NOT mean you WILL get and it’s not something that can be prevented or go away.
3. Diet: over eating processed carbs, fats, salt, without enough fiber and water can cause a person to develop cellulite
4. Lifestyle: Those who smoke, the sedentary, and those who sit in one place for a long time (desk jobs) may be more likely to develop cellulite
5. Clothing: Wearing panties so tight that they restrict blood flow may actually contribute to cellulite development

Treatment:  There are probably a million and one cosmetic treatments on the market that cost a pretty penny.  So far from the case studies I have personally looked into, NONE of them have been scientifically proven to actually work.  There are also topical scrubs (i.e. sugar scrubs, coffee scrubs, rubbing amino acids, etc) and although those are much less expensive, once again from what I have looked into, they are not backed by science.  Anti cellulite creams? same thing! currently no medical research has been found to back up those claims.  Below is a small excerpt from Scientific American about what the aforementioned actually does:

“Most all creams will only address the fat. So the Nivea [Good-Bye Cellulite Gel-Cream] and others with L-Carnitine transports fats into the [cells’] mitochondria to be used as energy. Caffeine creams will help by blocking the making of fats by the alpha receptors. Some creams have aminophylline, (a compound in some respiratory drugs) which, like caffeine, works by blocking the alpha receptors. In most creams, you find some way of targeting only the fat cells [and not addressing the connective tissue or circulation aspects of cellulite]. ”

So what does work? Exercise, water, proper diet.  The goal is to decrease the size of your  own individual fat cells.

 

Setting Realistic Goals

This topic was suggested to me by one of my clients. Totally wishing I would have thought to cover my opinions on his topic sooner, as I think setting realistic goals is key in anyone’s fitness journey.

Far too often I get emails from followers saying they want to drop 50-100 pounds ASAP.  Wanting to lose 50-100 pounds is a great long term goal.  Where I like to start is short term weekly goes.   For example, why does someone need to lose that much weight? What habits did they create that made them gain so much excess weight? I am a huge follower of the baby steps principle.  I absolutely HATE when “fitness and health professionals” put people on ridiculously restrictive diets.  Sure they might restrict themselves for ,maybe a week but then it all hits the fans.  Binging is what we want to AVOID as we should be trying to promote a lifestyle change.  The other day I got an email from someone who was confused because they bought a nutrition program from someone and all it included was a “No No” list.

Fit of all, almond milk and coconut milk aren’t even considered dairy!!!  Avocado is GOOD for you.  Nuts are GOOD for you.  I could rant on and on about this No No list.  How is this person even in business?! This is just not how you help someone establish a healthy lifestyle.  Start with them, help them remove sodas, processed juices from their diet first by replacing it with water, then tackle the fried and switch it with grilled or bakes for example.  But baby steps!  Not that don’t eat this, don’t eat that nonsense. On a sidetone, PLEASE don’t send me an email saying that you bought someone else’s program, but want my free advice.  Not happening.  But anyways…

Set daily goals:

-Today I will have veggies at every meal.

-Today I will have my smoothie without added sugar

-Today I will have more water than usual

and those are just a few

Set Weekly Goals:

-This week I will lose .5-1 pound.

-This week I will only have 1 bag of chips

-This week I will only have whole grain carbs

-This week I will not eat fried foods

-This week I will go from exercising zero times a week to 1-2 times a week.

Get the picture? Baby steps lead to achieving Monthly Goals:

-This month I will lose 5-10 Pounds (everyones body is different and loses weight at different paces, the goal is to focus on healthy habits)

-This month I went from eating 30 bad meals, to 15 bad meals

-This month I hit my exercise goals

Which helps you meet your annual fitness goals.

If there is one take home phrase I would love for “baby steps” to stick with you.  Don;y focus on bad decisions, focus on all of the good decisions.

 

Fasted Cardio

Fasted cardio is any kind of cardiovascular exercise done in a fasted state (an empty stomach).  Fasted cardio has been around for an incredibly long time as a fat loss tool that has just recently started to get popular once again.  Athletes love adding fasted cardio to their workout regime whenever they are trying to cut fat and lean out because the right kind and right amount (i’ll get to specifics in bit) of fasted cardio help you not only lose body fat, but do so while also maintaining your current muscles.  Keep in mind that fasted cardio is an enhancer to an already clean diet and one should also not expect to make “gains” in the period of time that fasted cardio is being implemented to someones regimen.

A study published by the “British Journal of Nutrition” discovered that subjects who fasted during morning cardio burned up to 20% more fat throughout the day.  It is proved to be efficient because when you sleep, your body fasts over night and conserves the carbohydrate stores allowing for your body to convert fat to fuel while doing your fasted cardio workout.  At night your body also breaks down amino acids into glucose opening up a second type of fuel source.

Food as well all know gets broken down to usable molecules that get released into your blood stream.  Of those molecules, insulin, serves as the mover of other molecules into your cells.  Once insulin is absorbed because the digestion process has been completed, insulin levels drop and your body enters into the fasted state telling your body to use fat as fuel.  Insulin also prevents the breakdown of fatty acids.  So basically, the higher the insulin levels, the less usage of fat for energy.  In the image you can see the period where insulin either promotes or impairs fat loss.  As can be seen, the period in which we are sleeping is where the most fat loss occurs.  Imagine waking up an immediately doing 30 minute of cardio to enhance that period of fat loss?

Personally, whenever I do choose to do fasted cardio it is no more or no less than 30 minute of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).  Why only 30 minutes?  Because your body is in a fasted state, more than 30 minutes usually leads to your body using your muscles as an alternative energy source.  Because I want to lose fat and maintain my muscle mass, I do 30 minutes.  Why do I choose HIIT?  HIIT workouts have been proven to set you up for more fat burn throughout the day.  Compared to slow and steady cardio like what gets done on the elliptical or treadmills, HIIT cardio burns double the amount of fat in the same amount of time.  In essence, you get more bang for your buck.  Next week I plan on going more in depth about HIIT workouts.

On another note, my Skull print Columbian workout shorts are on a flash 25% off sale until Saturday, May 9th, 11:59pm EST. Use code “SKULL25” at checkout!