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Abdominals

ExerciseMan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:05:00 GMT

Abs, what are you going to do for your abdominals today? There are so many different things you can do for your abdominals, what is the best, what do you like the best? I usually tell people to stay away from machines and get on the floor to do their abs. Share with us what you favorite ab exercise is, or what your favorite ab routine is?

Overweight

ExerciseMan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:57:00 GMT

If you go to the store, the park, or the library you will notice an interesting thing; people need to lose weight! There are many ways to drop weight, from the things you eat to the workout you perform on a regular basis. Share your story of success with us, how did you lose weight, how long did it take, and what challenges did you face along the way?

Healthy Food

ExerciseMan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:54:00 GMT

When it comes to eating healthy, most of the population struggles to do it on a regular basis. We as a society need to control ourselves better and eat healthy, the result of this would be a healthier society. List a few of your favorite healthy recipes for others to try!

Favorite Vegetables

ExerciseMan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:52:00 GMT

Vegetables, why do people struggle to get the correct amount? Everyone needs to get vegetables in their diet, so what are some creative ways that you use to get vegetables in your diet?

Stretching

ExerciseMan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:48:00 GMT

When you are finished with your workouts, do you take time to stretch your body? Many people skip this very important step in the process to overall health. Not only does stretching improve how you feel, but it also prevents injuries, and promotes an increase in flexibility. Personally I like to use the True Stretch when I stretch or basic stretches that I used when I ran in high school and college. Share your thoughts on stretching and maybe explain a few stretches that you perform that decrease tightness in your body!

Favorite Exercise

ExerciseMan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:44:00 GMT

With all the new ways to get a good weight workout in, what do you choose to use? There are so many videos and new pieces of equipment that come out everyday. What is safe, what works, what is a scam? Personally I have loved using the TRX. Let's hear your thoughts, what new exercise sequence have you adopted that has worked for you?

Fruit

ExerciseMan — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:19:00 GMT

Fruit is a great food to eat for any meal of the day, and it is full of good sugar; fructose! So when you grab a piece of fruit, what do you usually eat? What is your favorite fruit and why?

Accountability

ExerciseMan — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:59:00 GMT

Many people make excuses for not getting their workout in during the day, or even getting one in for the week. Excuses range from work, kids, spouse, dinner, yard work, car, tires, lazy, sleepy, depressed, unmotivated, and time. Did I mention time, how about time? We all have the same amount of time each day, no one has more, no one can buy more, and no one can make more. It comes down to managing and prioritizing the things that are important in our life.

Stop for a moment and think about your kids, your spouse, the people that are close to you and love you, and think about the love for yourself. Do you love yourself?

If you do love yourself then you make it a priority and hold yourself accountable to eat right, exercise, and sleep right. If you are lacking in one of these areas then there is a reason that needs to be addressed, maybe you need to be held accountable by someone else for your actions to help you get started back on track. You need to be accountable for all your actions and decisions.

Let's talk about working out and how to hold yourself accountable. A few ways to help in this area; buy some exercise equipment, get a gym membership, get a workout partner, or hire a personal trainer. Buying your own exercise equipment is an investment in your own health. Why spend money on something you are not going to use? So when you buy something from the store you are more likely to stick with it because you have a vested interest. If you find and know that you will not touch the equipment at home, then you need to go one step further and get a gym membership. By getting out of your home and into an environment where people are working out, you are more likely to hold yourself accountable in front of others. After all, a few days missed and people notice, and they will harass you a lot! If this still does not help, then getting a workout partner is a great way to have someone else hold you accountable. The feeling of letting someone else down sometimes is enough for you to stay on track. You can have a workout partner at home or in the gym, it can be a friend, a relative, or even your spouse! The best way for accountability is to hire a personal trainer. They help you set goals, set up your workouts, keep you on track, and if you can afford them every time you go, the results will come faster and you will be more motivated and more accountable!

Think about how you are doing with accountability, and what ways do you use to keep yourself in check? Share your thoughts below.

Is your workout EASY?

ExerciseMan — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:32:00 GMT

Today I have to ask a question, and I really want you to think about the answer. When you go to the gym, do you workout your mouth more than your body?

As I ask the question I laugh to myself, because a lot of people come to the gym and talk more than they actually workout. If you are one of those that talk a lot, I challenge you to challenge your fellow chatters to something new. This also goes for anyone who goes to the gym and is really not pushing themselves.

Here are a few tips. If you are lifting weights you can try to shorten your rest period between sets, add jumping jacks between sets, do supersets, or do your last set of each exercise to failure. If you are doing cardio that day, why not try interval training. It can be running 30 second intervals, or running up a hill and jogging back down only to turn around at the bottom and do it all over again!

Today I challenge you to do something new, something hard, so how are you doing on your workouts? Do you have any cool suggestions?

Sleep

ExerciseMan — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:35:00 GMT

The question I have for you today...Are you getting enough sleep each night to perform during the day?

Sleep is a very important factor in your performance at work, at the gym, and in your sport if you are an athlete. Lack of sleep can cause hormone imbalance, fat storage, weight loss, clumsiness, irritability, fatigue, aching muscles, impaired judgement, instability, and a decrease in athletic performance. It can also increased your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

Exercise not only helps the body to sleep at night, but the body needs the sleep to recover and repair from exercise. So start today by making sleep a priority over other things in life and watch yourself catch up on things that you have fallen behind on. How are you doing with getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night?

Water Follow Up!

ExerciseMan — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:28:00 GMT

In another post I spoke about getting water in your diet instead of pop, coffee, or one of those high calorie drinks from the coffee shop. Let's dig deeper into this subject.

People who exercise are going to drink more because they sweat and need it for body temperature regulation. For people exercising, they need to consume water before, during, and after exercise. This is especially important for athletes, and more important for athletes doing sports that last longer than 20 minutes. If you are not properly hydrated your performance will decrease for every percent of hydration you lose. Make sure that you drink water during the day before your activity, and then make sure you hydrate every 10 to 20 minutes of your exercise. For activities lasting longer than an hour you may want to add a sports drink with electrolytes to help your body with the hydration process. After your activity you need to hydrate again to make sure your body recovers from the activity.

Recommendations for hydration include 10 to 20 oz of water 2 to 4 hours pre-activity,drink 6 to 8 oz of water 10 minutes prior to exercise, drink 6 oz of water every 10 minutes of activity, and remember if you are going over an hour get that sports drink to take you past this point!

Post workout hydration can be tough to do because we seem to be on the run to get to work, home, or some other thing that we busy ourselves with. The easiest way to make sure you are replacing what you lost is to weigh yourself before your exercise and then weigh yourself again when you are done. For every pound that you lose during exercise, replace it with 16 to 20oz of water/sports drink. If you did exercise for over 60 minutes then your sports drink should include carbohydrates and protein. So go out and get your drink on and start making a difference in your health with water. Let us know what you think below and tell us how you are doing with your water consumption before, during, and after your workout!

Stress

ExerciseMan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:44:00 GMT

What comes to mind when think of stress? What types of things in life cause you to stress; job, money, spouse, death, disease, sex, time, children, driving, shopping, relationships, changes in life,etc. Did you know that exercise can help you with stress in your life, did you also know that when you are stressed you release the wrong kind of hormone?

Exercise can help you with the stress in your life no matter where it is coming from. Start either at home or getting to the gym, exercising with weights, cardio, and stretching/yoga can help in major ways. Also by implementing this into your normal routine helps you and your body become healthier, and thus it is better able to deal with stress.

Weight lifting stresses the muscles which in turn stress ligaments and bones, this is a good form of stress. When the muscles are stressed they build, they in turn use sugars better in the body. This slows the high glycemic eating roller coaster. Also as a result, less sugars will be stored as fat. Less fat stored, the better you look in the mirror, the less stress you have about your self image. Get that weight routine started today.

Cardiovascular exercise is great for the heart as well as the cardiovascular system as awhole. Make sure you include this in your routine as well for the benefits of using the fat stored already in your body. Again, looking in the mirror and trying on your clothes will feel awesome when things start to change for the better,this leads to less stress. Make sure you finish your workout with stretching! This is so important for your body to stay loose and injury free, when you don't stretch and your body tightens up, you are proned to injury and proned to going back to not working out.

So how are you doing with stress?

H2O

ExerciseMan — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:43:00 GMT

The topic for discussion today is H2O. Most people do not drink enough plain water in their diet. People start their day off with a coffee, latte, cappuchino, pop, etc. For a lot of people, they think they need caffeine in the morning to get their body going. The problem is that they start to depend on this drug, and instead of having it only in the morning, they are having it all day long.

Just drink water, it is so important to have something that is pure and simple. The standard for water consumption depends on your size and your activity level, so you can vary your water intake based on your body size and activity. Reasons for drinking water include; better transportation of nutrients, better elimination, better digestion, better body temperature regulation, and lubricating the joints are just a few.

64oz of water is a good starting point for the day, and the best way to make sure you get the water is to get a water container of some sort. Your container is better for you if it is metal or glass. So weigh in and let us know how you are doing with your water consumption!

Coffee, Flatte, Cappuchargo?

ExerciseMan — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:05:00 GMT

Alright, so the title of this blog is rather different. You may be wondering what I mean, or you may have figured it out. I am going to talk about people and their coffee specialty drinks, or whatever they get at the coffee shop. I have many clients that I have battled with over the subject of coffee shops, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc.

The problem is, people will not drink good old coffee by itself, they have to dump a ton of crap in, so they can drink the funny tasting stuff. I will admit that I love the smell. This is where coffee turns into these high calorie drinks, or desserts as I call them. Hey let's run and get a frappechargo to keep us going today! Or let's grab a flatte, that sounds like something you should do in the bathroom? Instead they should be grabbing a bunch of fruit to eat on the way to work, but they claim they have no time for that, so they stop at the coffee shop and wait in line?? Ha...

I get asked a lot, 'Why am I not losing weight?'

After finding out that the person drinks one or two of these each day, I have to let them know that these drinks are loaded with calories; sugar and milk as well as other things. Do they want diabetes, if so then keep chugging away, why not try 4 a day! Don't try putting the artificial sweetener in your drink instead of sugar, you may want to look into those. Or I will just tell you that your body has a hard time breaking it down, so it stores it, and then you become a toxic sweetener ready to get cancer...

On the serious side, everyone should limit their intake on all this stuff! So what if you are tired for a bit and get a headache a few days? Get over it. If you would eat, sleep, and exercise right, you would feel awesome everyday! If you like the coffee bean, then have it de-caff with nothing else added.

So how are you doing on this? Leave your comments below.

New Years Resolutions

ExerciseMan — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:57:00 GMT

Every New Year, millions of people decide to make health goals to better their current health habits. These range from exercise, diet, massage, chiropractic, sleep, etc. I applaud people for taking to the first step towards better health, but for the most part people fall of the map quickly, how do I know? I work at a gym so I see the millions of people that first month ripping along with their new resolutions, and by March those people are back to their normal lazy ways, and the gym is back to normal, only the regulars are hanging around.

Everything gets in the way of people staying on track with their New Years Resolutions, but they are only excuses to not obtain better health. Why are they making these excuses, because they are programmed to fail, it relates to what they are thinking about all the time...failure. What you think about tends to be what happens in your life. If you think that you can't lose weight, then you know what, you will be right, and you will not lose weight. If you believe that you cannot eat right, you already ate the whole cake. This is true for everything in life...

So what can you do to stay on track this year? There are a lot of ways to stay on the right track and here are a few ideas. Get your spouse or best friend to have the same resolutions and go for it together, this will keep you both accountable to each other and increase your chance of success. When it comes to accountability, the more people the better! Reading daily motivation for exercising or eating also keeps you going in the right direction. Motivation is like food, you need it everyday to survive and stay on track. Reading books with the benefits of exercise, diet, chiropractic, massage, etc...will help you stay on track by keeping positive/motivating information in your mind. This also brings us to another point, think positive about your goal/s, when you start to think negative about it, you will more than likely fail.

Let's say your goal is to start working out, the best way to start is to start right now! The sooner you start the better chance you have for success and less time you have for excuses and negativity! Remember to get your workout partner/s on board ASAP!

Visit my homepage, www.fityouwillmakeyousucceed.com, for free workout/diet ideas or to purchase a copy of my book to help you through this whole year with weight training, cardio, diet, as well as other things!

There are many ways to keep on track, what are some ways that u stay on track with your New Years health resolutions? Share your thoughts and we can help more people stay on track this year!

Win an Autographed Copy of my Book!

ExerciseMan — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:52:00 GMT

I am starting a little contest, the person that writes the best reason for needing help with exercise, will receive a signed copy of my book on the house(US & Canadian residents only)! The reason can be any, be creative, but keep it clean. Deadline for entry is October 13th. Remember my book is all about being healthier, the end of the book has a full years worth of pre-planned workouts; cardio and weight! Videos for the workouts are on my website linked to youtube, this ensures you know exactly what you are doing! So go ahead, write your reason on the blog below and we will get this thing moving. Good luck, and yes I will be the one judging...

-Rob aka ExerciseMan

Here is a link to a review of my book!

http://is.gd/2GNJk

How much fruit did you eat today?

ExerciseMan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:39:00 GMT

Everyday it is very important to get the proper foods in your diet, how did you do today with your fruit consumption? Personally I had about 5 servings of fruit today, which according to my book, is right in the range of 4 to 6 servings a day! Yes I recommend you have 4 to 6 servings of fruit a day. Does that seem like a lot to you, well it may, but when you eat this much fruit you really do not need to eat as much crap as you normally would because you are getting the good stuff instead. Why not try this out for the next week and see what happens, make sure you are getting fresh fruit!

So tell me what you have been doing as far as your fruit consumption, what types of fruit are you eating, when are you eating, and what you are going to do to take a step towards improving your diet?

Eating on the Move

ExerciseMan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:01:00 GMT

When people travel they tend to pick not so good choices, like a fast food joint's simple sugar feast. This creates a nasty roller coaster inside the body and a terrible cycle of eating junk, not to mention the tricks it plays on the mind.

When I travel I make healthy choices if we do stop somewhere fast, a lot of these restaurants offer fruit or the salad option, so I will eat that instead of the fried food with the white bun burger. I will also stop in a store on occasion, I can find some good things to eat; like fruits, nuts, veggies, meal replacement bars, chicken, fish...

In airports across the world people are choosing poverty food that is so highly processed and ridden with simple sugars it is no wonder so many people today are obese.

So when you go on vacation, what kinds of things do you eat? What do you need help with?

Motivation

ExerciseMan — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:31:00 GMT

Motivation, how do people stay motivated to exercise? Most people are not motivated to do anything in life, which is a sad thing because they lose track of their dreams.

There are a few reasons I stay motivated; aging, sports, and looking good. So the first reason I have is aging, and when I get older I want to be in the best shape that I can possibly be in. Walking around like a cripple does not appeal to me. I am in the fitness field and the number one thing people tell me, they wished they would have started exercising when they were younger. Everyone should start when they are younger and never stop. This is what I am going to live by and stay motivated with, because I want to live my life as healthy as possible, and not dying for the last half of it! So get your ass exercising too!

My second motivation is sports. I am a guy, and guys have dreams of sports and playing in the pros. I have always wanted to be in the NBA or NFL, so I continue to keep my body in top notch shape so that I can take on anyone in either of these sports. In my mind, I am better than Brett Favre, maybe he will read this and we can go through a series of challenges and see who is better. Seriously, I stay in better shape so that I am the best person on the court, or on the field. Striving to be the best is great for staying motivated.

The third motivation I have is to just look good, we all can look good but it takes hard work with exercise. So why not look good, the hard work (exercise) makes you a better person mentally and physically, not to mention the confidence you have when you look good!

How do you stay motivated to exercise? What are your thoughts? There are many ways out there that people use to stay motivated, list your motivation and you may help someone stay on track.

For more info on Rob and his book visit his website; www.fityouwillmakeyousucceed.com

Do you need to count calories?

ExerciseMan — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:55:00 GMT

When it comes to diet, everyone seems to have the best advice. There are so many diets out there, it is hard to know what to do and who to trust. Today's topic is calorie counting, do you need to count your calories? Should you count your calories? Does it depend on what you consume? Maybe it depends on who you are? Post your thoughts on counting calories, for or against calorie counting, and let's get a great blog going!