Archive for January, 2010

Succeed Personal Training Fat Loss Tips

Here are my top 9 tips to burn the bodyfat up fast…

1. Warm up thoroughly - Warming up increases blood flow to muscles by about 55%, giving you better muscle contraction. You’ll sweat earlier, which helps to regulate your body temperature. It also jump starts the neuromuscular connection which initiates the release of carbohydrate and fat enzymes and hormones while reducing your perceived exertion during strength training. Just 5 minutes of walking or cycling will meet this requirement.

2. Vary your exercises - Alternate between two or more cardiovascular activities like walking and cycling or kickboxing and step aerobics, or a cardiovascular activity plus a strength exercise.This will help to optimally develop your cardiovascular fitness, maintain the element of fun in exercise, help you avoid over-training, as well as injury. Bottom line, you will expend more calories. Gone are the days to just come and sit on the bike or treadmill.

3. Variety - Use a combination of continuous,high intensity  interval, circuit and Fartlek (speed play) training. Changing techniques forces your body to adapt and become more efficient. Vary the intensity and modify impact styles every session. For example, if you have been walking the same path at the same pace every day, begin to incorporate bursts of acceleration intermittently. The underlying principle is that change is what keeps the body progressing, making improvements and burning fat.

4. Circuit Train - Perform several strengthening exercises interspersed with a short cardio segments. For example perform a leg press, lateral pull down and abdominal crunch followed by 2 minutes of cycling. Then repeat another 3 strength exercises followed by 3 minutes of running. Circuit training has a lower dropout rate, is an efficient calorie burner, increases muscular strength and decreases body fat.

5. Strength Train with Multi Joint  functional exercises - Choose exercises that work compound muscle groups - meaning more than one muscle group at a time. This will give you the most mileage per exercise. Examples include squats, lunges, and push ups. For every kg of muscle on your body you need 35 to 50 calories per day to sustain it, while every kg of fat on your body requires only a modest 2 calories per day.

6. Exercise first thing in the morning - Morning exercisers have a higher likelihood of showing up. Later in the day, the odds that you’ll skip your workout increase as interruptions arise and fatigue sets in. Morning exercise also helps regulate your hormone response, telling your body to release fat and kick start your metabolism. Not a guarantee, but a better chance to burn more bodyfat.

7. Eat a “pre training” meal prior to working out - Having a small balanced meal prior to exercise will help you burn fat. After you eat, your blood sugar rises and exercise acts like insulin to help regulate blood glucose. Eating will also give you the energy for a more intense workout - you will therefore burn more calories. Needs to be about 1 ½ hours before training.

8. Eat 5 to 6 small meals a day - Food has a thermic effect, meaning it takes energy (calories) for your body to digest the food you eat. Eating several times throughout the day increases the thermic effect, so you burn more calories. Eating more often also keeps you from feeling like you are being deprived of food and prevents hunger from setting in, which can cause you to binge eat.

9. Train with intensity - To get the full benefits of exercise, you must graduate from the “pink weights” and moderate walking. Do not be afraid to increase your resistance and challenge your muscles and cardiovascular system. In order to change, you have to push your physical limits beyond what you are accustomed to.

What are some tips that have worked well for you?

Let me know in the area below…

Scott

One of our great debates in the fitness industry still rages on:

 ’You need to do cardio to lose weight’

 If you’re sceptical that you can get results without doing cardio, then you need to read this…

 My advice (and this works with excess protein intake as well)…

 ”Just cut back on the cardio a little bit each week until you realize that doing less doesn’t actually slow your fat loss progress.”

 In fact, if you replace it with harder shorter intervals, I’ll bet you that will get more results than you would sticking to the long distance cardio. Want to see for yourself? If so, then  sign up for a month of Personal Training with one of our Personal Trainers or one of our Boot Camp programs doing short intervals only, and I guarantee your body shape will change or I will give you your money back…

 Most people don’t realize that you can’t expect to get different results by doing the same thing over and over again, but people are afraid of change. They’d rather keep on running for 45 minutes and not lose weight than try something different that pushes them out of their comfort zone a little bit for as little as 20 minutes and see the fat melt away.

 My personal opinion, people stick with cardio because it is easier mentally & physically to go for a jog or use the strider compared to doing real burn fat workouts that can change your body (such as the Succeed burn fat fast workout (due out soon), bodyweight exercises, and interval training).

 Taking the easy way out does NOT work.

 And it’s boring.

 Succeed’s NEW “burn fat fast workout” training program will be available online soon. It will be a complete training program available for purchase online that will transform your body.

I have been trialling this method of training for the past four months and have lost over 8kg of Bodyfat so far…. and I haven’t ran longer than 25 minutes in any session.

Still got a bit to go.. here is my target -

 Stay tuned!

 Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Training

Succeed Personal Training Fitness Workout of the Day!!!

OK here is your workout of the day.

Focus today is to keep going continually for 20 minutes without any rest.

It is a combination of both strength and high intensity cardiovascular.

My heart rate stayed quite low for me today which enabled me to keep moving fairly consistently.

It was the muscles that gave way and I had to rest at various times.

Here is a rundown of the session:

250m Rower (not 20 sec like Jesse says in the video)

21 x 40kg Sumo Deadlift High Pull

15 x pull up (kipping)

Complete as many sets in 20 mins

Total: 4 complete rounds + rower & SDHP complete on 5th set

My HR monitor has packed it in so couldn’t record cals, AVG HR today.

Have a go and leave your time below.

Video Demo:

 

Also for those brave enough to take Sam & I on, we have the Succeed Personal Training mix up of Boot Camp & Cross Fit Xtremetomorrow morning at Lake Tuggeranong (next to Club Lime Tuggeranong).

Location:Tugg Town Park

Time: 9am

Cost: $10

Required: plenty of water cause it will be HOT!!! and intense

I know it sounds hard but we have a full scale of weights, and like always will be modified to suit all fitness levels…

Hope to see you all there, if you DARE…

Scott

Succeed Personal Training

Hey all,

Well it has been another gruelling week of training for me. Starting from Friday afternoon with the Tuggeranong Hawks Football Pre Season training.

I took the group through a series of fitness tests that I stupidly decided to do as well (really hurt me).

Got back up Saturday to do Personal Training sessions + train myself. Run Saturday afternoon. Sunday off. Monday morning Boot Camp session, Monday night State League Netball Training and participated with the girls. Tues - run the dogs then a Personal Training session that I did, will post this one tomorrow, Boot Camp this morning.

That is my two boys, that I put through there paces a few times a week. For the first time in history I had to take them home and drop them off and I kept running. They had ran out of steam…

Anyway, here is a rundown on Saturday’s Personal Training fitness session for you:

It was a weighted 300 version:

60kg Flat Bench

24′ box squat jump

40kg Push Press

30 calories Rower

Tricep Bar Dips (no rings to use)

60kg Deadlifts

25kg O/H squats

300m run

40kg SDHP

Burpees

One complete round of 30 reps each exercise.

I liked it that much that I got one of my Personal Training Clients (in the video) to do it as well.

Time:24 mins flat (Jess did 24. 28 -  not far behind me)

Calories: 342

Avg HR: 160

Really was an awesome session, and as much as I didn’t want to train I felt good once I got started.

Do you ever feel like that?? Does anyone else have that day where you just don’t want to train, or is it just me?

Let me know what you do to get you over the line and just “DO IT”….

Leave a comment in the section below.

Scott, Succeed Personal Trainer

2010 Boot Camp Canberra season to start Mon 8th Feb 2010

If you are one of the 78% of Canberran’s that have put some Christmas cheer on during the festive season, then fear not, because here at Succeed Personal Training we have the answer for you….

Australia’s Fitness Business of the Year are launching their NEW Boot Camp Canberra program on Mon 8th Feb 2010.

When would NOW be a good time to finally make that decision to do something for yourself and get a bit fitter, leaner, more confident with yourself?

Head here to check out the flyer and details for how to join up:

http://www.succeed.com.au/

But don’t leave it too late as we are only taking a very small intake of new members this term, so HURRY to avoid missing out on getting involved in a great fun group fitness activity with Australia’s best fitness company.

The Succeed Team

Succeed Personal Training - workout of the day at Club Lime Tuggeranong

Well my body has finally packed it in and I am having a rest day from training tomorrow.

Have had a full on week of training so far, culminating with an awesome Boot Camp in Tuggeranong this morning with over 30 keen participants that got well and truly put thru their paces…

I do hope some of you are hurting, as my legs are starting to get a bit heavy?

In the meantime here is bootcampdownunder.tv workout of the day:

It is called an AMRAP and it consisted of:

5 x pull ups

10 x 40kg clean & press

15 x air squats

The session goes for 20 minutes and you try to complete as many sets as possible in that time.

My total - 7 complete sets

Again be sure to modify to suit your fitness levels. This is definitely one session that can be done any where, all you have to do if you don’t have a bar to use, get an empty keg/ sandbag/ tyre for the clean & press and I am sure there are plenty of chin up bars at a kids park or school grounds.

When you check out the You Tube please leave me a comment, let me know what you think and a rating.

Scott

Succeed Personal Training

In the business of making you fitter, leaner faster than you thought possible 

bootcampdownuner.tv workout of the day

Hey all,

I hope you are all doing great.

Here is your daily workout of the day for you to do.

This is a killer workout called 300.

Pretty simple really, pick 10 exercises and do complete 30 reps of each exercise until you are finished for the fastest time possible.

Watch the demo below for all the exercises and tips.

Demo here with one of my Personal Training clients at Club Lime Tuggeranong:

Have a go and let me know your time in the comments below.

Scott

Australian Fitness Expert

Extrme Bootcamp Canberra/Crossfit workouts are back for 2010 at Tuggeranong…

If you are up for the challenge, we are looking at restarting our Saturday morning super sessions.

 A mix of Boot Camp & Cross Fit, this is sure to get your blood pumping and the calories & kilos falling off.

Check out a small clip here:

 If you are up for it send me an email ASAP.

 If we get enough numbers, we will start this Saturday???

 Time:                     9am (this may change to earlier depends upon demand)

Location:              Tugg Town Park

Cost:                      $10

Required:            plenty of heart, towel, drink bottle

 Sam and I hope to see you there!!!

Here is the latest fitness workout of the day with Australia’s leading Personal Training Company; Succeed

Over the last few weeks I have had various Personal Training clients of mine at Club Lime Tuggeranong train with me as I continue to punish myself with the Cross Fit way.

Here is the latest session we did.

It was called ‘Pammy’ and consisted of :

15 x thrusters

20 x burpees

300m rower

20 x D/B swings

x 3 rounds for time.

Scott : 18.46 (my last effort on the 10/7/09 was 22.47) 4 minute improvement

Tanya: 19.23

Kristine: 19.43

Awesome effort from both girls. Obviously I had set up modified weights to suit the girls and you can see the weights we did on the video below.

Here is the demo of the session:

 

Be sure to leave a comment and rate the demo on youtube. Why not have a go at the session and post your time below, let me know how you go??

If you wish to train with me or any one of my fully qualified staff then don’t hesitate to contact us.

Or maybe Boot Camp Canberra is more your thing?? click here for details on our upcoming programs.

Have an awesome day.

Scotty

In the business of getting you fitter, faster in less time than you thought possible!!!

Sugar and Weight Loss

 While most of us on a weight loss mission concentrate on lowering fats, many of us fail to consider the role that refined sugar plays in our diets and in contributing to our growing waistlines.

 Large amounts of refined sugar are often hidden in many of the foods and drinks we consume every day without us even knowing it.

 This article discusses why an excessive level of refined sugar in our diet is bad and provides some tips for reducing it.

 Sugar facts

 A can of soft drink has 39gm of sugar per serve…(our average is 22gm a day). It should be around 40gm total including natural sugar from foods.

 Although many of us think of sugar as being a relatively simple concept, the fact is that sugars can be quite complicated to understand.

 From a weight loss perspective it is very handy to know a few facts about sugar, such as the various names it comes under, etc.

 Here are a couple of handy to know facts about sugar:

On food labels sugar can be listed as brown sugar, palm sugar, cane sugar, corn syrup, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose (dextrose), high-fructose, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, (table) sugar (sucrose), syrup.

All sugars contain 17 kilojoules / 4 calories per gram.

Simple sugars on their own have no nutritional value (no vitamins, minerals, etc).

Experts suggest that it is ok for sugar to constitute up to 10 per cent of our total energy intake per day.

The average Australian currently consumes more than 40 kilograms (90 pounds) of sugar per year, which is equivalent to around 22 teaspoons and equals 1840 Kilojoules / 440 calories per day.

In Australia , the consumption of soft drinks, which are sweetened with sugar, has increased by 30 per cent in 10 years.

 The effects of sugar

 As well as knowing the facts above, it’s also useful for us to know the various effects sugar has on our bodies.

 From a weight loss perspective, we know that sugar:

Can add a lot of empty calories to our diet.

Increases our blood sugar and insulin levels which can cause our bodies to begin storing and stop burning fat.

Can cause an insulin drop (following a surge) which can leave us feeling tired and hungry (usually for something else very sweet).

Needs valuable vitamins and minerals to digest which our bodies draw from existing stores reserved for other roles such as fat burning and muscle building.

May replace other foods that are high in vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients in our diet.

In addition to the above, it is believed that an excessive consumption of sugar may play a role in the formation of many diseases. Although there is still a great deal of debate surrounding these claims, sugar is said to contribute to these diseases by, among other things:

Suppressing the immune system.

Upsetting the body’s mineral balance.

Contributing to hyperactivity, anxiety and depression.

Contributing to a weakened defense against bacterial infection.

Causing kidney damage.

Increasing the risk of coronary heart disease.

Interfering with the absorption of calcium and magnesium.

Contributing to diabetes.

Contributing to osteoporosis.

Causing food allergies.

Increasing fluid retention.

But I don’t add that much sugar to my cooking or meals

 That may be very true for the vast majority of us.

 But what many of us don’t realize is that most of the sugar in our diet comes from the processed foods that we eat, not the sugar that we add to our cooking and meals.

 Reducing our Sugar Intake

 Because sugar is addictive and most of it is hidden in the foods and drinks we enjoy everyday, reducing sugar in our diets is not easy.

 Having said that, there are some things that we can all do to gradually reduce the amount of sugar we consume each day to a more healthy level and in doing so help us lose weight and improve our waistline.

 If you want to reduce the sugar in your diet, here are some things you might try:

Learn to enjoy foods that are naturally sweet, without added sugar.

For every cup of sugar indicated in a recipe only use 2/3 to 3/4 of a cup and replace omitted sugar with an equal amount of non-fat dry milk to increase the nutritional value.

Use spices and herbs such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger to enhance the flavor of foods naturally.

Make homemade sauces and toppings with less sugar.

Use dried or fresh fruit or frozen fruit juice concentrates to sweeten cereals and baked goods instead of table sugar.

Take your time shopping and read labels to reveal hidden sugar and gain information on the overall nutritional value of foods.

Buy fresh fruits or fruit packed in water instead of syrup.

Buy fewer foods high in sugar such as biscuits, chocolate, soft drinks, and baked goods.

Be careful not to replace foods high in sugar with foods high in fat and sodium.

Drink 100 percent fruit juices, water or unsweetened sparkling and mineral waters, instead of cordial and soft-drinks.

When reading “Nutrition Facts” labels remember that 7 grams of sugar is equal to around 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Avoid heavily sweetened breakfast cereals - go for ones that have 10 grams of sugar or less per serving.

Energy bars and drinks are a common source of hidden sugar - look for ones that have less than 12-15 grams of sugar per serving.

Be wary of reduced fat and fat-free products, sugars are often added to mask the loss of flavor when fat is removed cutting out fat, but not necessarily calories.

Limit sweetened beverages like milkshakes and coffee drinks, which are deceptively full of sugar and calories.

Mix fresh or dried fruit into plain yogurt, many fruity yogurts are loaded with added sugar.

Learn to appreciate the natural tartness of fruits like grapefruit, strawberries and other berries.

Choose fruit when it’s in season and it shouldn’t need any added sweetness.

If you must drink soft-drinks chose the smallest sized can or bottle you can find - soft drinks are now commonly sold in 600ml bottles, which provide at least 12-15 teaspoons of sugar.

Be mindful that fats and sugars are often found together in foods like chocolate, biscuits and cakes making them particularly bad for those of us with weight loss goals.

If we control the amount of sugar that is added to products like Weet Bix and Vita Brits, we may be able to consume less sugar than if we eat pre-prepared cereals like Coco Pops and Fruit Loops.

Be cautious with products labeled “no sugar added” - this doesn’t mean that the product doesn’t naturally contain a lot of sugar.

Remember that while all sugars contribute four calories per gram, some foods contain more concentrated sources of calories than others - for example, a teaspoon of table sugar contains 16 calories, a teaspoon of Honey contains 22 calories, while a teaspoon of orange juice or applesauce has just four calories, and also contains vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Make a habit of eating at least three good meals per day - one of the best ways to overcome cravings for sweets is to eat balanced meals at regular intervals throughout the day.

Try to avoid having dessert with a meal that is high in carbohydrates like pasta, bread, or rice.

Try to incorporate more wholemeal carbohydrates (wholemeal pasta, brown rice, etc) into your diet.

Try limiting dessert to once or twice a week.

Use sugar substitutes (stevia is the best) in recipes and hot drinks instead of sugar. I will post about artificial sweeteners soon.

When you eat foods that contain added sugars, choose foods that also contain nutrients like vitamins, minerals or fiber.

Know how much sugar is in the foods you eat by looking them up in the Nutritional Food Tables available free on this website.

 Conclusion

 While most of us on a weight loss mission concentrate on lowering fats, many of us fail to consider the role that refined sugar plays in our diets and in contributing to our growing waistlines.

 This article discussed why an excessive level of refined sugar in our diet is bad and provided some tips for reducing it in our diets.

Scott Williams

Succeed CEO