My apologies for not getting in here to update sooner – I’ve been running at a sprint through life the last few weeks (in a good way).  But, this newest hybrid comes directly from Tony Horton.  He and I are always coming up with new fun ways to challenge each other (ok, its usually him kicking MY ass, but…….)

Here is how this one is done – go through the moves as quickly as you can, and perform 20 repetitions for each movement.  The goal here is to do the workout in the shortest period of time (but make sure to keep the form clean).  Let me know what you think of it!

Most of the abs moves come from Ten Minute Trainer Abs – but you can sub in whatever you like.

LEGS AND ABS MASSACRE

1. Squats (feet shoulder width)
2. Cross Crunch
3. Hot Foot (20 hops per leg)
4. Bridge Crunch
5. Toe Roll Iso-Lunge (20 per leg)
6. Iso Bike
7. Leap Frog Squats (20 front/20 back)
8. Golden Gate
9. Double Airborne Heisman
10. Side Arm O’Crunch (20 per side)
11. Three Position Calf Raise (20 each position – toes out, toes front, toes in)
12. Hip Lift Kick (20 per side)
13. Jump Shot
14. Speed Bike (like Iso-bike, but fast)
15. Side to Side Squats (focuses on the glutes)
16. Plank O’Crunch (same side knee to same side elbow – alternate for 20 reps)
17. Swing Kicks
18. 3 Point Plank Crunch (knee to same side elbow, to forehead, to opposite elbow – 1o per leg for 20 total reps)
19. Pliate Squats (legs wide, toes pointing out)
20. Lolasana (from plank, jump feet in to chest, balance on one foot, jump back out to plank)
21. Lateral Leap Frog Squats
22. The Dawn (from forearm plank, raise and lower rib cage – tuck pelvis)
23. 80/20 Speed Squats (20 per leg)
24. Mountain Climbers (20 reps per leg)
25. Mary Katherine Lunges (20 reps per leg)
26. Superman Crunch (20 reps of superman, alternated by rolling to back for crunches)
27. Close Stance Squats (knees and feet together, squat for light touch on stool or chair)
28. Tick Tock Lift
29. River Jumps
30. Peek-a-boo (on your back, legs together and out away at 45 degrees – open and close legs for 20 reps)
31. Sumo Chair
32. Scissor Crunch
33. Squat and Kick (10 kicks per leg – 20 total squats)
34. Scissor Lift
35. Mary Katherine Lunges
36. Fifer Scissors
37. Squat switch Pickups (10 per side for 20 total reps)
38. Leg Climbers (10 per leg)
39. Lunge and Reach (10 per side)
40. Mason Twists (20 per side)

Remember, the goal is to get through the workout as quickly as possible.  Give it a try, and then share your times here – we’ll see who claims the title of Legs and Abs Massacre Master!! 

Well, in the quest to shake things up, I got to thinking about how I really wanted to blast legs and back, but I needed a change from LEGS/BACK that’s in P90X.  I had Plyo Legs from the One on One series, but I wasn’t really feeling that workout today either – so, I came up with my own little hybrid of PLYO LEGS and BACK – all rolled together in one little monster of a workout!

My friend Anson is coming over in about an hour to join me for a workout today, but he has no idea what I have in store for us!  I just created this workout, and its never been done before – so it should work wonders for making us hobble around by later today!

Give it a try yourself, and let me know what you think!

~Mark

PLYO LEGS and BACK (created 06/26/2009)

1.Squats (feet shoulder width)  -  40-60 reps
2.Hot Foot (30 seconds per leg)
3.Wide Grip Pullups – max reps
4.Toe Roll Iso-Lunge – 40-60 reps
5.Leap Frog Squats – 60 seconds forward and back
6.Chinups – max reps
7.8 card stud
8.Double Airborne Heisman – 60 seconds
9.Close Grip  Pullups – max reps
10.Three Position Calf Raise (5 reps each – toes in/center/out) – 60 seconds
11.Jump Shot (60 seconds)
12.Overhand Pullup
13.Side to Side Squats (40-60 reps)
14.Swing Kicks (60 seconds)
15.Switch Grip Pullups (max reps)
16.Pliate Squats (40-60 reps)
17.Lateral Leap Frog Squats (60 seconds)
18.Close Grip Chinups
19.80/20 Speed Squats (30 reps per leg)
20.Mary Katherine Lunges (60 seconds)
21.Wide Pullups
22.Close Stance Squat (to stool or chair – light touch) (30 reps)
23.River Jumps (30 seconds)
24.Pullups (your choice) – max reps

Insanity Intervals PLus

Guess what?  I’ve got another equipment free workout to share with all of you!  This one came to me from my good friend, Derek Heikes (PhoenixHawk on the Team Beachbody message boards).  For those of you that know Derek, you know how much of a cardio MACHINE this guy is!  He sent this over to me for my opinion, and let me tell you, Beachbody needs to make this one into a video!!

Derek combined P90X+ Intervals with some of the moves from the new Insanity Plyometric Cardio circuit.  The offspring it created was this twisted beast of calorie burning beauty!  Keep a bucket close-by, because this one is off the charts!  All you need is a stop watch, some water to sip on, and oh yeah, did I mention the bucket?!

Give this one a try and then I would LOVE some feedback – and Derek, thanks for sharing this one Brother!  Let the good times roll! 

**NOTE – This is an ADVANCED level workout!  Please modify and adjust as needed if you attempt this one!**

I ran through this workout today (05/23/09) immediately after posting it – my Max Heart Rate (MHR) was 185, and my Average Heart Rate (AHR) for the workout was 173 – that’s for a 38 minute duration.  Please be sure that add in a thorough warmup, as well as a good cool-down and stretch at the end.  With all included, you should get through this one in about 50 minutes.

~Mark

The workout is divided into 5 sets of 4 moves. You do each set,  all the way through, all 4 moves, first time at beginning intensity (running in place would be a jog.) Take a 30 second break, then do it again, the second time through at medium intensity (running is now a run). Take another 30 second break, then do that set the last time through at full out, push to your MAXIMUM intensity (running is now a sprint).

Each move in a set is done for 30 seconds, so a full set is 2 minutes long. Again you do each set all the way through (2 minutes), take a 30 second break, do the set again (another 2 minutes non stop), take your 30 second break, then the last time through is 2 minutes of break neck cardio. After you’ve done a set 3 times, move to the next set.

TAKE BREAKS WHEN YOU NEED THEM.

Set 1:

Run in place

Butt Kicks (running knees down feet up, kicking like you’re kicking yourself in the butt)

High Knees (run in place with knees high up to hip level)

Mummy Kicks (these are hard to describe.. run in place on the balls of your feet with your legs straight, so they move slightly in front of you. At the same time you have your hands straight out from your shoulders, doing scissor motions back and forth so your hands cross on top of each other, alternating one on top then the other… In the Insanity trailer on youtube that’s 3:15 seconds, it shows people doing this at the :34 second mark)

Set 2
Squat Jacks (Sumo Chair from X+. Start in Chair with hands up, jump out to wide feet and hands swing down in outward arcs to touch the floor. Immediately bounce back up to the chair position in a jumping jack type move)

Charleston kicks – From a lunge, back foot skips up to the front foot, and the front foot does a front kick, then steps back to where it started and the other foot steps back to a lunge. Second and third intensity the opposite hand from your front foot touches the floor. Do 15 seconds per leg in each set)

Side Lunge Side Kicks – just like the side kicks are done in KenpoX. Start slow, then up the speed and height for second and third intensity levels. Again 15 seconds per leg per set.

Squat Kicks – squat and alternate front kicks with each squat.  First kicks, low.  Next, medium height, Third, High Kicks

Set 3:
Speed Skaters – step/jump from side to side in a crouch like you’re skating, arms swinging with each move. Jump further and faster for higher intensity levels.

Tires or Wacky Jacks – Running in place with wide feet and high knees like tires from PlyoX, or Tires/wacky Jacks from P90 Masters or Plyo Legs.

Plank Run – in plank position, hands stay in place and legs run.

80/20 speed squats – just like from Plyo X. Second set is all jumps, third set hands touch the ground on each move. Again 15 seconds per leg.

Set 4:

Jumping Jacks

Mountain Climbers – run in place with high knees. As a knee comes up, the same hand reaches up like grabbing a high branch, and pulls down as the knee comes down, the other knee/hand going up at the same time (imagine being on a versa-climber if you’ve ever seen one).

Plyo Lunge – Mary Katherines from PlyoX. Start by going slow in the first set, second time is a slight skip, third time is non-stop plyo switching.

Carlito 3 way push ups – start standing up, then drop into a push up position (plank). Jump feet back to hands and stand back up, hands go up over your head then back down and repeat. Second intensity level you do a push up every time you hit the plank position. Third intensity you jump every time you come up.

Set 5:

Heismans – Like in PlyoX but no hold in place. Constant movement back and forth. At the third intensity level you should be going as fast as you can.

1-2-3′s – Heismans, with a double step in the middle like in Plyo X but much faster.

Side to Side – short shuttle run, 3 or 4 steps to each side and touch the ground. Run back the other way and touch the ground with the other hand.

Insanity Drills – Drop into a plank position, do 4 push ups, then 8 plank runs. Jump feet to your hands and stand up, hands up, then drop and repeat. Increase the speed for intensity in the 2nd/3rd round.

Turn off the mind chatter, and stop the excuses!

I get a lot of emails with people asking why they aren’t getting the kinds of results they want to see with their fitness programs.  They tell me how hard they workout during the programs, and they just can’t understand why they don’t have a six pack!  My very first question back to them is, “How is your diet?”.  Every time, it comes back the same, “Well, I don’t always eat that well.”  Well, there is your answer!  People, the eating equation is a HUGE part in that puzzle of of fitness!  The goal is to turn off the mind chatter, and stop making excuses for eating bad food!

Fitness really boils down to goals, and where you want to end up in life.  For me, I REALLY like being super-fit and being able to do the things that I do.  I  workout and eat clean because I feel so much better when I do.  If I eat junk, I feel sluggish, bloated, and gross.  Why would I want to make a choice that I know is going to cause me to feel lousy?  I don’t do workouts for vanity reasons (although that’s not a bad side effect), I do them because I feel so incredible when I’m fit.

I still get the same bad food cravings that everyone else does, I just CHOOSE not to indulge in them, because they move me away from where I want to be.  The longer you eat clean, the less you crave the junk food, and ultimately, you feel BETTER!  Then, the “good addiction” sets in – and you just want to constantly reach for that ever next higher level.

Everything you do in life is a choice.  You can either choose to do the things that make you better, or you can choose to do the things that make you worse.  Life is ALL about choices!

I have a strong family history of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.  You know why?  Because I have a family full of people that made the choice to not workout, not eat right, and a parfait of other bad life choices!  You can either invest in yourself now, or you can deal with the fallout when you get into your 40′s, 50′s and 60′s!  My CHOICE is to invest now, live well now, and be SURE that I’m not a miserable, hunched over, grump when I become an old man.

You are the person that decides what you are going to do.  Nothing has power over you unless you allow it to.  Not food, not relationships, not your boss – nothing and no one – just YOU!  Clearly we have to do things in life that we don’t want to do….that’s just how it is – but we have 100% control over what we decide to put into our mouths.  We have 100% control to decide to exercise.

“Do your best and forget the rest”.  Those words can be applied to EVERYTHING we do in life.  You can see the glass as half empty or half full……its all about your perspective.  Don’t be one of those people that has a defeatist mind set.  Get up every day and invest in yourself.  You’ll be better person for making that CHOICE!

No matter what the situation, I always look to the positive, and I always try to stay on track with the things that bring me closer to my goals.  Turn off the mind chatter, stop the excuses, and become the person that you want to be!

The choice is YOURS……Who do you want to be, and where do you want to go?  Decide.  Commit. and trust me, you WILL Succeed!

~Mark

Tony Horton’s 11 Laws of Fitness

The title really says it all with this one.  Tony Horton, the creator of P90X and several other top selling Beachbody workouts has been changing lives all over the world with his incredible training and insight into fitness and nutrition.  He came up with these 11 laws to help guide people toward being better, happier and healthier.   I do my best to follow these “laws” every single day, and their impact in my own life has been nothing short of profound.  Read them, absorb them, and live them – you’ll be glad that you did!

1. Variety - Variety is the spice of life and fitness. A lifetime of health and fitness is achievable when you can think outside the box. You have to mix it up all the time. Stay curious, creative, and stick with the kinds of workouts that you enjoy. A variety of exercises, workouts, and sports will allow you to avoid injuries, plateaus, and boredom.
2. Consistency -  Improvement and change occur when you do things often. Stopping and starting all the time will kill any momentum you need to succeed. You must find ways to stay in the game. Moderate forms of exercise, done consistently, provide far better results than the occasional full-body pummeling. A lifestyle that includes multiple forms of exercise five to six days a week guarantees results.
3. Intensity – YOU’RE TOUGHER THAN YOU THINK. The fear of pain or injury from working out is a mindset steeped in failure. You must learn to “Find the Line.” Do the extra rep or two, increase your range of motion, and increase resistance as you get stronger. Intensity goes hand in hand with Variety and Consistency. The combination of the three work together as a triad that creates a platform for success. The programs provide variety. Your plan will keep you consistent.
4. Purpose – Your purpose is to have a better life. Exercise and eating right help you feel better. When you feel better, you do more. When you do more, you meet other people. A healthy lifestyle gives us the energy to be better than before. We want to participate, share, communicate, and build a community—have purpose in our lives. If you had never found Beachbody, you might be right back where you were—isolated, with nothing to share, no purpose, because you weren’t doing anything with anyone.
5. Reality – Why do we want life to be different than it is? Why do we think about who we were and who we’re going to be more than who we are? We certainly talk a good game about who we are now. Why do we try to predict the future with the hope that wishful thinking is enough to change it? Life is NOT the way it was. It’s the way it is. Life is not our fantasy predictions of the future or our glory days of the past. Life is that thing that is happening to you as you read this. We fall into the trap of living in the past and future because right here is not good enough. Back then and up there are keeping you from right now.
6. Sports – Take the onus off of weight, inches, and body fat percentages and put the focus on MOVING—from dancing, rock climbing, and mountain biking to table tennis. I love that ping-pong! Think in terms of “can do” instead of “look like.” Sports are fun and help develop balance and coordination—which in turn accelerates your results. Jump, kick, run, spin, throw, skate, shoot, hit, score, compete . . . PLAY!
7. The Plan – SCHEDULE ALL WORKOUTS IN ADVANCE. This creates accountability. Plan an entire month ahead of time. Try to schedule as many workouts as possible with friends who have similar goals. WOWY was developed so that we could find an easy and effective way to stay accountable and work out together. Now we’ve got people in all over the world working out at the same time. That is cool!
8. Sleep (and stress) – Stressed out, sleep-deprived people don’t eat right and exercise regularly. Stress depletes energy, strength, and desire, while poor sleep habits affect your moods and immune function along with cognitive and motor performance. Burning the candle at both ends makes it impossible to be fit and healthy.
9. Loving It – Exercise and workouts involve commitment, determination, planning, consistency, and intensity. If you don’t like what you’re doing, there’s no way on earth you’ll succeed. Enthusiasm is a very big piece of the puzzle. Get creative and stay curious. If you enjoy doing Power 90 exclusively and it works for you, then keep doing it until it doesn’t. If you get part way through P90X and it’s not your cup of tea, then stop, and do something else. Something’s got to bring you back day after day, week after week. Love it (tolerate it) or leave it.
10. Flexibility – Flexibility is the fountain of youth. Flexible people are much less prone to injury. Yoga and stretching allow you to bring more intensity to your workouts. Flexibility is the key component to becoming less vulnerable and more durable. Aging has a funny way of making everything we do harder. Staying limber and flexible is the way to prevent that from happening.
11. Food and Supplements - You are what you eat! Food and supplements are your fuel. The right fuel supplies proper energy and recovery through balanced brain chemistry. The right supplements simply fill in gaps in your diet.

My Daily Diet

This is more of a food journal entry than it is an actual article today.  One of the biggest topics that so many people struggle with is their diet.  I mean, lets face it, when most of us average around an hour a day for our workouts, that leaves us 23 hours to be doing other things, like sleeping, working, and through it all, EATING.

In one of my prior posts, I covered the basics on eating;  what to eat, when to eat, and figuring out your nutritional requirements to keep you on track in reaching your fitness goals.  Since that article, I’ve received numerous emails from people, asking me specifically what I ate throughout the day, so I will answer that question below.  Another question I received from several people was “How do you eat in order to bulk up, but keep lean mass?”.  That question I will answer right now.

In order to bulk up, you obviously have to take in more calories than you burn.  Unless you are a bodybuilder, preparing for an event, the easiest way to accomplish this is by upping your caloric intake by as little as 300 calories per day!  Don’t feel like you have to shift the content of your food, just add to it.  Its really that simple.  Now, typically, for weight LOSS, I suggest a 500 calorie per day DEFECIT in your nutritional intake – but for adding, I suggest the slightly smaller increment of 300 calories.  This is what I have done to add bulk in the past, and going slower has taken a bit more time to add the mass, but its also kept all of the gains lean (no bloated look or feel – just solid muscle).

Ok, now I’ll go into a staple of my daily intake.  Let me start by saying that I no longer count calories, and I don’t measure the amount of food I eat, so these are going to be ballpark estimates on quantities.     Now, this is just a staple of one day, but I eat very close to the same things on a daily basis.  Breakfast, for example, is always the same for me, and ALL of the ingredients are mixed together.  When it comes to fluid intake, I drink either water (1 liter per 50 lbs of bodyweight), green tea, and occasionally (but rarely) 1 cup of coffee.

Breakfast

• Oatmeal (approx. 1.5 cups)
• Whey Protein Powder (varied brands), 2 scoops, 48 grams of protein
• Creatine Ethyl Ester powder (4 grams)
• Flax seed (2 tablespoons)

AM Snack

• Fruit (apple or banana – any fruit is fine)
• Cliff Energy Bar or Cascadian Farms organic granola bar

Lunch

• 1 lbs of vegetables (varies from day to day)
• (2) Morning Star Vegetarian burgers

PM Snack

• Protein Shake (mixed with water/ice), 2 scoops, 48 grams of protein or Greens Plus Protein Bar
• Cascadian Farms Organic Granola Bar

Dinner

• Bag (1 lbs) of Spinach
• 1 can of Albacore tuna or salmon
• 1 cup of diced tomatos
• 1 cup of Black Bean Pico De Gallo
• Salsa or Balsamic Vinegar

PM Snack

• Shakeology
• 2 scoops of Whey Protein Powder (48 grams of protein)

*NOTE*  I would like to point out that quantities above may vary slightly from day to day based on how I’m feeling.  In time, you will learn to read your body and know if you need to increase or decrease your intake slightly.  On days that I train in double sessions (for example), my food intake is almost always higher – simply because of the additional caloric burn.*

On occasion, if I’m really hungry within that 3 hour window of bed time, I’ll have one additional Protein Shake (always mixed with just water and ice).  Because I eat a Pescatarian diet (fish and veggies), and I do not consume dairy, I supplement quite a bit as well.  Without getting too specific, below is a summary of my supplements:

• P90X Multivitamins
• Flax Oil Capsules
• Thermogenic Fat Burners
• Calcium with Vitamin D
• CLA
• Ginko Biloba
• St. John’s Wort
• Alfalfa (for joints – VERY cheap alternative to Glucosamine/Chondroitin)

There you have the summary for a day of my nutritional intake.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here and I’ll get them answered for you.

Get a great workout Anywhere – with NO equipment!

I do quite a bit of traveling, and sometimes, my schedule causes me to have to go places without notice – so I don’t have my resistance bands, or my DVD’s to do my workouts.  But, I’m going to share one of my favorite types of workouts with you, so you too can enjoy getting a GREAT workout ANYWHERE with no equipment needed.

The workout is called U.C.M.L. (short for Upper/Cardio/Middle/Lower).  This is the workout that Tony Horton and I did with Usher on New Years Eve this year in Las Vegas.  The greatest thing about this workout, is its diversity!  You can sub in any upper/cardio/middle/lower movement that you want, so you can change it up and never do the same workout twice – and I promise you, if you push yourself – you’ll be blown away with how effective it is.  Go for your OWN personal best, and push the pace……..you are going to LOVE IT!!

This version is one I did when I was on my latest trip out to Massachusetts.  I met up with my friend, Chuck Oleson (another P90X fanatic), at his house, and we spent the next hour running through this monster.  I’ve done this workout with NO BREAKS in it – but you can add breaks at the half-way point, or after each sequence of 4 movements.  Decide your own targeted number of reps and time for each move – make it challenging, but make this YOUR own workout.  Adjust it to YOUR own level of fitness, and enjoy the results!  Now that you know that plan, here is the sequence! 

1. Standard Pushups (30-40 reps)
2. Jacks (100 reps)
3. Roll up V ups (30-40 reps)
4. Shoulder width Squats (40-60 reps)
5. Sphinx to plank pushups (15-25 reps)
6. Double Airborne Heisman (30 reps each direction)
7. Around the Clock (10 each direction)
8. Squat and Kick (40-50 reps)
9. Hindu Pike Pushups (15-20 reps in each position)
10. Jump Knee Tucks (40-50 reps)
11. Bicycles (40-60 reps)
12. Wide feet squat to calf raise (30-50 reps)
13. Spiderman Pushups (14-20 reps)
14. Side Speed Kicks (aka: Briggs Kicks) (40 per side)
15. Wide Leg Crunchy Frogs (30-40 reps)
16. Sumo to Chair (20-30 reps)
17. Four by Fives (5 pushups – fingers in, out, forward, and diamond) – (20-30 total reps in groups of 5 per hand position)
18. Jump Squat Switch (30-50 reps)
19. Oblique V ups (30-50 reps)
20. Toe Roll Iso Lunge (40-50 reps per leg)
21. Wide to Diamond Pushups (20-30 reps)
22. Leapfrog squats – 2 front/2 back (30-40 reps)
23. Fifer Scissors (30-50 reps
24. 8 Card Stud (from One On One Bun Shaper workout)

Be sure to do a warmup, and then a good cooldown stretch when you get done.  If you have questions on how to do any of the movements, feel free to email me at markbriggsfitness@gmail.com

Finding new ways to challenge yourself ALWAYS brings on new results!  BRING IT!

~Mark

Push to new limits by changing your Mechanism of Movement

Mechanism of Movement.  Its a term I like to use as it pertains to exercise.  What does it mean?  Well, to simplify it, look at it this way:  If your a cyclist (or a spinner), your legs are used to that specific range of motion and spinning movement.  Same goes if you are a runner, doing pushups, squats or lunges.

Our bodies are incredible machines, and they adjust very quickly to our Mechanism’s of Movement.  So, if we really want to excel at what we are doing, its essential to get out of our box of comfort, and train in a DIFFERENT mechanism.  I’m not talking about changing the tempo by adding more resistance or varying in speed.  I’m talking about creating something to challenge the muscles from slightly (or drastically) different angles.  Something that if you do often, will cause you to explode with new growth, and continue to get better.

I’m someone that does a LOT of ab work (I’ve knocked out 2000 crunches in a row), and a lot of pushups (close to 150 in one set), so I’m pretty good at them.  But, when you break away from the traditional planes of the movement, and alter the mechanism – EVERYTHING changes.  For example, I was visiting a dojo today (since I’m still away from home) for some MMA conditioning drills.  One of the exercises we did were called “Oh No’s!” (aptly named I’ll add).  You start at one end of the room, beside a wall, laying face up with your body stretched out, arms overhead (in kind of a banana position), from there, you contract your arms and legs toward each other (into a crunch), straighten back out, and then roll a complete revolution, moving you toward the opposing wall.  You contine to repeat this movement until you reach the opposing wall (which, in this section of the dojo was about 40 feet).  Once you reach the wall, you stand up and sprint back to the beginning wall, drop into a plank position, and then “hop” laterally in a plank position, repeatedly to the opposing wall (another 40 feet).  Once you reach the wall, you sprint back, and then repeat the “Oh No’s”.  For this drill, we repeated the movements for 2 full minutes – but you could just as easily designated a set number of repetitions instead.

Because the mechanism of movement was new to me, it REALLY crushed my abs and my chest, shoulders and triceps.  Just like MAGIC!  That’s the kind of stuff we all need to do to keep our progress moving forward.  Always workout with intensity, but also look for new ways to modify your Mechanism of Movement.

Back home I have a few friends that are marathon runner.  These guys can literally run for more than 3 hours, so they most certaily are in shape.  But the first time I ran a couple of them through a Plyometric workout (all different jumping movments, with varied short recovery in between them) it made them puke.  The mechanism of movement was foreign to them, and it completely shocked their bodies to be hit with different movements, different intensity, and different angles – it was like starting out at squre one for a new athlete.

The bottom line:  Apply your imagination to your workout, think outside the box, and your physical abilities will explode and grow beyond your belief!  Give it a try during your next workout – you won’t be disappointed!

All the best in life and health,

~Mark

Nutrition – The True Key to Fitness Success

Nutrition questions are the ones that I am most often asked about, and in all honesty, nutrition is the biggest key to unlocking what looking and feeling good are all about.  I would have to estimate that nutrition makes up 80% of the equation when it comes to truly looking/being fit – with the other 20% being pretty evenly divided between INTENSE exercise and proper recovery.

Proper nutrition really isn’t a big mystery either.  Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats!  For some reason, everyone wants to over complicate what to eat.  I’m a pretty simple guy when it comes to nutrition.  Heck, if not for my trusty microwave oven, I would likely have starved years ago.  I’m not a chef by any stretch of the imagination, and I honestly obtained my best results by just keeping it simple:  Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats (are you sensing a theme here?) 

In the next few paragraphs, I’m going to share with you EXACTLY how to eat to get that super-fit body that you crave.  Ok, pay attention, because here comes the important stuff.  First and foremost, develop a GOAL.  Just like your workout routine, you need to develop a goal that you want to reach.  Come up with a 30 day, 6 month, and 1 year goal.  Spend a few minutes really thinking about them, and then WRITE THEM DOWN.  Somehow, the act of putting pen to paper takes it from a thought, and transfers it into a REAL thing.  Now that you’ve done that, lets look at the next important things to follow:

• Figure out what you need to do to reach that goal.  First and foremost, you need to know how many calories you should be consuming during the course of a day (regardless of your goal being weight loss, weight gain, or maintaining your weight).  For those of you that are Beachbody Club members, make use of the tools section for caloric needs calculator (if you aren’t a Beachbody Club Member, contact your coach and ask them to plug your info into their caloric needs calculator).  This is one of the most valuable tools on the website, because you can plug in your personal information regarding height, weight, and age, as well as the Beachbody workout program you are doing.  The calculator then tells you the projected  number (of calories) you need to consume to safely lose weight, as well as telling you the needed calories to maintain your weight.
• Now that you have that number to shoot for, its time to continue your map of success by using a food journal to really dial in.  For all of the people I coach, I strongly recommend using www.fitday.com .   Its a FREE food journaling tool that allows you to enter all of your food for the day, tracks the total calories consumed, AND breaks all of those foods down by categories of protein/carbs/fats.  I typically urge people to use this tool for a solid two week period, because that way you get a really good feel for what XXXX number of calories really is (because most people tend to drastically under-eat, which is just as bad as over-eating).

Now, so far we have figured out our caloric target zone, and we have the tools to really track the intake to make sure that we’re really on track for reaching our goal.  What do I do next?  Now comes the time to put that information to use.  First, eating frequency:

• Ideally, you want to eat 6 small meals per day – spaced out by eating every 2.5 – 3 hours.  If you were able to schedule the perfect eating day, you would take your targeted caloric number (for example sake, we’ll say 2400 calories), then divide that by 6 (giving you approximately 400 calories per each meal).  Make sense so far?

Just as a general guideline, I try to avoid eating within 3 hours prior to going to bed.  This way, the last of your consumed food is pretty well digested, and less likely to be stored as fat.  On those days where I’m looking at going to bed in about 30 minutes, but I’m REALLY hungry, I’ll mix up a couple scoops of whey protein powder (with water) and drink that.  Protein tends to give you a very filling effect, and it will be pretty easily processed by your body while you are sleeping (without being stored as fat).

Next, lets talk about water consumption.  Since our bodies have such a high composition of water, its important that we drink plenty throughout the day.  The general guideline that I follow is 1 liter per 50 lbs of body weight.  Water (aside from being necessary) also helps to keep the toxins flushed out of your system.

Now its time for some tips to help you stay the course and reach your goals:

• After you’ve made your plan and committed to reaching your goal, get rid of all the junk food in your house.  Clean out the fridge, cupboards, and secret stash locations for all the garbage (come on, I know you keep a stash!).  With the bad food gone, head to the grocery store and replace the junk with clean healthy food choices (the top 2 tiers of Michi’s Ladder are full of them!  In fact, if you ate the foods contained in the top 2 tiers of Michi’s Ladder, you would consume a near perfect diet).  You can access Michi’s Ladder in the nutrition section of the Beachbody Club (again, if you aren’t a member, ask your coach to email you a copy – or better yet, become a club member – its WELL worth the money).
• Tell your friends and family what you are GOING to accomplish, and ask them to help hold you accountable.  Its amazing how much easier it is to reach a goal when you have your friends and family helping you to get there.
• Start a message board thread for your workout program and POST your daily food intake!  Somehow, when you post what you are eating for the world to see, it makes you work just a little bit harder to stay on track.  And your great example will also help you to motivate others that are going through the same thing.  Before you know it, you have an entire group of people working toward completing a goal.  People helping people – that’s what Beachbody is all about!
• Use Post-It notes.  Put them up on your fridge, your cabinet, your computer at work, the microwave, ANYWHERE that you encounter temptation – it sounds silly, but it really works!
• Lean on your coach for support.  We, as coaches, are all here to help you – so if you are struggling, we will gladly lend a hand to get you back on track – whether its giving you a needed kick in the pants (so to speak), or sharing in your success – we care about you and we are determined to help you succeed.

After a few weeks of eating clean and getting rid of the bad habits, you’ll find that you’ve adapted to your new healthy lifestyle.  The junk food that ran your life before will no longer have a hold on you, and you’ll see your cravings for it diminish more and more in time.  You deserve to be healthy, happy and fit!  Do the right things today, and they will always make for a better tomorrow!

Your friend in fitness,

~Mark

A DAY AT THE GYM

So, I wanted to share some of the observations I made while I was at the gym today.  You see, most of the time, I workout at home to my Beachbody DVD’s, but for the better part of the last month, I’ve been out in Massachusetts spending time with my Father (who has been ill).

To add a little variety to my usual routine, and to get out for some fitness related socialization, I decided to join the local gym.  Its a pretty standard gym, much like you would find in any city – free weights, machine weights, cardio equipment, and some group fitness classes.  And, let us not forget, the GYM CLICK – you know, the ones you see in there day in and day out, that do a set of bench press, then go into their little huddle with their gym buddies and talk about how much they bench for the course of the next 10 minutes before loudly grunting out ANOTHER set – and of course repeating.

Well, me being the hardcore, super-intense Tony Hortonite that I am – I walk in the door with a PLAN.  Today is a cardio day, and my goal is incinerating calories in a big way.  So, after changing into my usual workout clothes I head out and eyeball the Precor AMT100i elliptical machine.  I had never used a machine quite like this one – ellipticals, oh yes, but not like this one!  THIS machine is the Cadillac of Ellipticals – great on the fly changes to your stride length, the ability to switch from striding to a stair climbing motion, oh yes, and let us not forget…….enough resistance to make you feel like your waist deep trying to run in cement!!  Yeah, that’s the one.

So, with heart rate monitor on and running, I jump on the machine, set up my intervals program (for 60 minutes), dial in the resistance, and get BUSY!!  Now, I’m 39 (turning 40 in October), but I KNOW how to burn calories, so within 2 minutes, my HR (Heart Rate) is already hitting the upper 160′s.

Being on a machine, I have plenty of time to either A) Watch Regis and Kelly on one TV.  B) Watch ESPN Sportcenter on the next closest set.  or, C) People watch.  I bet you can guess my pick – yup, C.  I always find it somewhat entertaining to people watch (regardless of where I am).  I find people’s habits and behaviors interesting, so why not be a fly on the wall and watch them (besides, I’m WORKING HARD, so talking is out of the question…..aside from short 4-5 word grunts)

Directly beside me to the right, a woman gets one of the other two AMT100i machines.  She’s wearing her spandex pants, tank top, and Jane Fonda sweat band, all ready to get into the action – and then, she plops her PEOPLE magazine down on top of the display and so begins the barely forward movement of her legs as she meanders mindlessly through the pages of the magazine.  I look over at her as she glances my way, sweat now pouring off of me like a lawn sprinkler, as she wrinkles her face, but politely smiles as I give her the friendly “nod” with half grin.  Then, back to her magazine and slow, boring, pace of her “workout”.

A few minutes later another woman arrives and steps up onto the elliptical beside woman #1.  She’s not on the AMT100i, she’s on another Precor machine – this one doesn’t have the arm attachments (which, by the way, increase your workload by up to 30%).  She’s dressed in a similar fashion to woman #1, but her magazine du jour is Women’s Day.  So, as she steps up on the machine, locks her arms straight down on the hand-rails (relieving the load from her legs) and starts to slowly stride, she starts conversing with woman #1, and the two of them fall into a slow flat pace as they gossip about everything from pregnancy and menstrual medications to how they manage to sneak cigarettes inside the house so their husband’s don’t discover their secret habits.  Awesome!!  Why oh why did I not bring an i-pod?!  A few minutes into their conversation, woman #2 glances around woman #1, looks at me (at this point I likely look like a ripped snow man melting in the desert heat) – shoots me the polite grin, and then resumes her slow pace chatter and page flipping.

Now bored with my immediate area people watching, I focus my attention to the weight room (just beyond the cardio room).  There I see the stereo-typical muscle heads.  There are 3 of them in this flock today.  These guys are wearing their super stretchy pants (you know – the ones that we all actually thought were cool in the early 80′s!  Yeah baby, those!), and tank tops with the thin section through the back – so EVERYONE in the gym can see how huge there lats are.  Since they are, after all, at the gym to workout, I figured I would make use of the timer on my elliptical, and see just how much time they spent between doing sets.  Musclehead #1 does his set of curls, YELLING as he grinds out his 8 reps, with incredible body sway, and musclehead #2 helping him through the range of motion for the last 4 of his 8 reps!  Musclehead #3, he must have been the cheerleader, because he stood there yelling at #1, telling him how good his arms looked, reinforcing his already inflated ego about his strength.  I actually chuckled out loud by the end of the set.

Oh, and apparently, musclehead #1 was the only one designated to workout today – because he was the only one I saw lift a weight – and it was 12 full minutes from his first set to the second.  Musclehead #2 never lifted his own weights (as far as I could tell he just spotted #1).  And #3 – did an AWESOME job cheering.

What is my point to this big long rant?  I’m glad you asked.  Because this is the kind of thing that you see around gyms all over America.  People flock to the gyms, under the premis of working out, but are they really doing anything?  NO!  “I worked out for 2 hours today!” – No, no you didn’t.  You worked out for 10 minutes and talked for 1 hr and 50 minutes!

You need to put intensity into whatever it is that your doing.  Whether its on an elliptical, a Nautilus Machine, or free weights.  Push yourself with clean form, work as hard as you can, as fast as you can.  My personal measure of a good workout is this:  If I don’t feel nausea within the last 10 minutes of a workout, I didn’t work hard enough.  Conversely, if I puke, I went too far!

Your body is not going to change if you don’t push your limits.  Don’t go through the motions and kid yourself that you are doing anything productive.  Always, always, always push yourself harder (with clean form).  Make a plan, follow that plan, reach your goals, make new goals, and drive on!!  Socializing at the gym should be done with intensity.  Sharing in the love of intense exercise, and truly pushing each other to work harder than you thought you could – THAT is what gym socialization should be!    If you want to sit around and banter, go do it at Starbuck’s and leave the equipment open to those that WANT to make a positive change.

With hard work comes real rewards.  Dig deep every day, and BRING IT to the best of your ability!

Rant over 

~Mark