Monday, March 31, 2014

How do I get "ABS"?

That is the number one thing I hear from clients when they come to me.  "I want to get rid of the fat in my mid-section."  To address this question I first have to address a couple different myths about FAT.  First myth is that you need to burn fat first to gain the muscle* Fat and muscle are two separate components to the human body.  If you lose all your fat you will look like a stick.  Just by losing fat from doing cardio for 60 minutes a day, will gain you LITTLE muscle.  You don't need to lose the fat first to start putting on muscle.  It's actually quite the opposite.  You need to gain muscle to help speed up your metabolism to lose the fat.  Losing just fat alone will actually slow down your metabolism, and you will end up gaining back the fat, which is what you worked so hard to lose in the first place.  So please if you are trying to lose weight, don't just do cardio to burn the fat first, that couldn't be more wrong.  Second myth is that you can transform your fat into muscle.  This isn’t transformers.  That would be really nice if you could do that but it is not true.  Gaining muscle comes from increasing your muscle cells not by transforming fat.

Back to ABS ABS ABS.  Your body doesn't simply take fat away from the area where there is the most fat.  It takes away fat throughout your entire body.  So in order to get those dream ABS and lose the middle section it is going to take A LOT of hard work.  This hard work consist of years of dieting with healthy high nutrient dense foods, and lots of exercise both lifting and cardio.  It is going to take time to get your total body fat percentage down in order to start seeing abs.  Ideally a male will see ABS around 8-12 percent body fat or lower, and a female from 12-18 percent or lower.  So next time you want to know how you get ABS and a "trainer" makes you do a thousand silly abdominal exercises PLEASE stop!  This is a waste of time.  Unless your body fat percentage is low you are not going to see anything.  You might even have the strongest abs on the planet, but if you eat like crap it doesn't matter how many sit-ups you do a day.  TO RECAP: the best way to get ABS is to eat healthy, lift weights, do high-intensity cardio (sprints) and low-intensity cardio (walking) and if you want to throw some ab exercises after your workout it won’t hurt.  All of the above will lower your total body fat percentage.  Make sure to measure you body fat percentage and see if it is decreasing every month by half to 1 percent.  This is a slow process so be patients and the only real way to see results is by HARD WORK.  
Photo taken by: http://www.definitivephysique.co.uk/2012/03/04/the-abs-solution-ii/

Friday, March 7, 2014

My Favorite Smoothie

If you don't make smoothies already you should!  It is a quick way to get your nutrients and it taste delicious as well.  For me I have to have at least one smoothie a day.  There are millions of different variations you can try but this article is going to feature my favorite.

My blender of choice the NINJA!


First one cup of frozen berries from costco. Full of anti-oxidants! Make sure to get Organic.  



Second one tablespoon of natural peanut butter for your healthy fats.

Third 8-10 ounces of water depends on how thick you want it! 

Fourth one level scoop or two of matrix protein powder! All natural 24 grams of protein per scoop!  If you are lactose intolerant try Nectar protein it is made with pure isolates.  

This is what the finish product looks like...This is not the best picture..It looks and taste much much better in real life!  And if you don't want a nice smoothie mustache use a couple straws ;).
Let me know what you think!