The Missing Links for Weight Loss, Fat Loss, and Body Change

2009 UPDATE!!!

Before you read this blog, there are two things you need to know:

1) Open enrollment has begun for the Virtual Boot Camp: Total Body Makeover!   Get 28 days of perfect nutrition and exercise (complete with a grocery list, access to videos, and more!) for only $100 (NOTE: This is the very package I charge thousands for...the only thing you are missing is my physical presence!).  Enrollment ends on January 10th, so click to http://keepyourbetterhalf.com/virtualbootcamp.html now!

2) If you would like the free report "The 27 Factors Affecting Fat Loss and Weight Loss", send me an email and I'll get the report to you!

Now, back to the blog...

Boot camps are all over the place.  Pick a gym, find an instructor, and get ready to sweat next to seven other strangers.  When push comes to shove (or push-up comes to crunch), exercise is about 10% of your day.  The other 90% takes place outside the gym.

A good boot camp will take care of maybe 10% of your day.  What is missing in the 90% not covered by your boot camp?  Your pre-workout fat-burning supplement.  Your perfect post-workout shake.  The breakfast you need to eat.  A mid-morning snack with the right amount AND TYPES of carbs/proteins.  The on-target lunch, perfect mid-afternoon snack, and nutritionally appropriate dinner. 

The missing links in your boot camp are the 90% of your day that your boot camp doesn't help you build.  What would happen if your boot camp were designed with your nutrition in mind?

Boot Camp Designed Differently

What would happen if your nutrition was as on-target as your workouts?  More fat loss more quickly. Less soreness and body aching.  More visible progress your friends and co-workers would notice.  Less wondering "am I doing the right thing?"  All in all, you'd have one heck of a boot camp on your hands!  More importantly, you would have a body change experience everyone around you would be talking about!  Many people put too much stock in their workout boot camp and not enough stock in the nutrition and life habits that make or break their day and their boot camp progress.

Enter the Body Change Boot Camp!  With the Body Change Boot Camp (the BCBC), clients get a nutritional boot camp in addition to the exercise boot camp.  Want to know what to have for lunch at the corporate luncheon?  We'll help.  Need to know what type of chocolate will be best for that midnight craving?  We're on it.

With the BCBC we challenge you with great workouts and walk with you through your day to make sure you get the nutrition you need at just the moment you need it.  Need a protein shake in the afternoon?  We are already on the way to the office.  Need dinner made and delivered to you?  Done! 

Suddenly, the 90% of your day that doesn't involve exercise just got a lot better! 

Where to Find the Body Change Boot Camp?

The BCBC takes place in Minneapolis, MN.  We can travel to your door if need be.  And not just in the Twin Cities.  We can travel to San Diego, Delray Beach, FL, Australia, or wherever your body change needs to take place.  Visit www.keepyourbetterhalf.com for details!

About the Author: Personal Trainer Adam Erwin

Adam Erwin is a personal trainer (with a nutrition background) who travels the world working with people who want to experience fat loss and weight loss in record-time. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN and loves to train with people whose health does not match their lifestyle. Adam works closely in the Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Excelsior, Minnetonka, and Edina communities.  Visit www.keepyourbetterhalf.com to learn more about his work.

How to Get Your Body To Burn Fat, Gain Muscle, and Lose Weight Again

I met with a new client last week who was looking to get "unstuck" in his current workout routine.  Ron (not his real name, and not that it really matters because there are lots of guys named Ron out there) is a pillar of consistency.  He goes to the gym every day and will do cardio, abs, and then another muscle group (shoulders, back, chest, etc.) for his workout.  Ron could probably do his routine in his sleep and says he is bored in the gym now.  If he is bored with his workouts, his body is bored as well.

Here are a few tricks to help fix boring workouts, get your body working harder, and pushing you into new levels of fat loss, muscle gain, adn weight loss.

Fix My Boring Workout Tip #1: Exercise in the Elements

My training clients have a love/hate relationship with my outdoor workouts.  They love to be outdoors and hate how much harder it can be to exercise in the elements.  Jogging on a treadmill in the air conditioning is nothing compared to an interval workout in a grass field.  Lifting weights in the gym is a far cry from doing a kettlebell workout on a sand volleyball court.  The outdoors can put increased workload demands on your body, which can give your workout an entirely different feel.  If you wan to fix your boring workout, take it outside.  You will put yourself in position to burn more calories and stimulate your muscles in a different way.

Fix My Boring Workout Tip #2: Hold It!

Want to kill your biceps in 60 seconds or less?  Take a full-length bar (a 45 lb. used for bench, squats, etc.), sit at a preacher curl station, and hold the bar in curl position with one hand for one minute.  The elbow of the arm at work should be positioned at a 90-degree angle.  Good luck!

Any sort of hold (bicep curl hold, push-up hold, bench press hold, leg extension hold, etc.) is a shock to the muscle group(s) at work.  The trick is to hold position with a major joint (elbow, knee, or shoulder) at a 90-degree angle to force the muscle to perform an unusual amount of work.  Doing a set of holds will recruit every type of muscle fiber in the muscle being used...a truly unique way to work a muscle group.  If you perform a hold set (or two) for your major muscle groups, you will find this to be a great fix for your boring workout.

Fix My Boring Workout Tip #3: Incorporate Uneven Loads

Have you ever been in the middle of a dumbbell exercise and realized that you had accidentally grabbed two differents (a 25 lb. and a 35 lb. instead of two 35 lbs.)?  Your muscles notice the variable load as you launch into the set.  Your body works harder to compensate for the imbalance of weight.  An uneven load feels very different.

Instead of accidentally grabbing two dumbbells of different weight, why not grab them on purpose?  Make it a 10-20 lb difference if possible.  As you perform your exercises with uneven loads, make sure to alternate the weights back and forth so each muscle group (bicep, chest, etc.) has relatively equal time with each weight.    Incorporating uneven loads will help to fix your boring workout.

To learn more about getting your body where you want it to be more quickly than you thought possible, contact Adam Erwin to talk about where you are today, where you want to be, and how he can help you.

Adam Erwin is a personal trainer who travels the world working with people who want to experience fat loss and weight loss in record-time. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN and loves to train with people whose health does not match their lifestyle. Visit www.keepyourbetterhalf.com to learn more about his work.

Fat Loss Must Be Fed

One of the greatest sources of confusion for my weight loss and fat loss clients is how to conceptualize fat loss. Many of my clients say, "I don't want to gain muscle, I just want to burn fat." That's like saying, "I don't want to make money, I just want to pay off debt." Good luck with that.

The reality is that gaining muscle and losing fat are two sides of the same coin. Most of the time our body is either burning fat to supply energy or burning muscle to supply energy. And breaking down muscle (also called being in the "catabolic state") is the energy source of choice for our body.

Here is the cool thing about our body: we cannot grow muscle and burn muscle at the same time. Another way to say this is, "If we are growing muscle we are forcing our body to burn fat." Ah ha! As long as we concentrate on muscle growth, our body will be forced to respond with fat loss (except in extreme cases of low body fat %, rare diabetes cases, etc.).

Here are three sure-fire ways to grow more muscle....I mean burn more fat...by concentrating on gaining muscle.

Burning Fat and Gaining Muscle Tip #1: Sprinkle Protein Throughout Your Day

Protein intake and digestion triggers a muscle tissue repair process in our body. The quicker the absortion of protein (whey protein is fastest, for example), the quicker muscles are fed and repaired. By consuming protein throughout the day (a whey protein shake here, a serving of cottage cheese there, a few handfuls of almonds now, a casein protein shake later), we constantly feed our muscles, which keeps them from being broken down for energy, which increases the body's fat burning mechanism to supply energy.

Burning Fat and Gaining Muscle Tip #2: Focus Workouts to Optimize Muscle Gain

Most "fat loss" workouts are long (40 minutes on treadmill, yikes!) with a weight-training focus on high repititions (you're killing me, Smalls!). There are several factors to implement for optimizing muscle gain (and hence fat loss). First, read my previous blog titled How to Burn Fat: 3 Key Ideas to Fat-Based Weight Loss and apply fat loss tip#1 regarding the 10 sec/15 sec cardio interval (and hard-core interval cardio, as it turns out, majorly helps on the hormone side of fat loss/muscle gain...stick with me ladies and gentlemen...I'll get you where you want to go!). Second, stick mostly to 10 rep / 3 sets when weight training...and have the 10 be heavy. Third, fit your workouts into 40 minutes to optimize growth hormone (natural GH made by your body, that is). If you apply these three ideas to your workouts, you wil set yourself up for more muscle gain and a lot more fat loss!

Burning Fat and Gaining Muscle Tip #3: Do Anything and Everything to Fight Off Stress

When our minds are stressed our bodies are stressed. The more effectively you can handle stress, the more effectivley you will handle the fat-causing, stress-induced hormone called cortisol. I can't dive deeply into all of these stress fighting strategies right now, but here are some important ones: deep breathing at a 1:3:2 ratio (inhale for 5 seconds, hold for 15, exhale for 10...any 1:3:2 ratio), laughing as much as possible, getting a workout in during a stressful day, consuming a B-vitamin complex (time-released, preferably), get 8 quality hours of sleep, eat slowly, and be in control of your time (don't run late!).

If losing fat is your goal, make sure to focus on ways to gain muscle. If you focus on gaining muscle, I can guarantee your body will respond by burning fat.

Adam Erwin is a personal trainer who travels the world working with people who want to change their body now! Adam follows good weather, which means he is currently training clients in Minnesota…anywhere within a 10 mile radius of Wayzata, MN. When fall and winter arrive, Adam will be headed toward Florida, Arizona, Australia, Malaysia, and other warm climates. Visit www.keepyourbetterhalf.com to learn more about his work and how he can help you lose fat, keep muscle, and keep your better half.