Lose the fat around the…

If you live in the Atlanta area and are looking to lose fat and inches around the midsection, belly, hips, thighs, or any other body pat I can help.

Through bodyweight exercises, weight lifting , and some hard work I can help you get the body you want and have imagined.

Send you contact info to weightworkout@yahoo.ca to get the help you deserve.

Atlanta Personal Training For Fat Loss of the THIGHS, HIPS, and STOMACH

Nutrition tip of the Week

Mood Eating

Most people eat based on their mood and/or some subjective feelings of hunger. They don't eat based on what their bodies need. Think of it this way: you're about to take a long drive on a stretch of highway with no gas station. Do you fail to stop for gas before you hit the road because you're 'not in the mood?' Of course not. Think of eating in the same way. Eating fuels your metabolic engine. So it's time to start feeling like eating so that you can stop feeling like you're scrawny. by Dr. John Berardi

SEE ALSO: This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition - our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want -- guaranteed.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

How To Train To WIDEN The Hips

Wider Hips

By Nick Nilsson

To most people, the goal is the opposite...slim the hips. But if you've searched
in vain for information on how to really INCREASE hip size, you've come to
the right place! I'll tell you exactly what kind of
training you need to do to achieve this.

Wider hips...it may not be the most common goal of women who train but, I can promise you, there are a LOT of women out there who would LOVE to build wider hips without putting on a lot of fat!

I'll tell you right now, it's not going to be easy but it definitely CAN be done!

But first...want to know the reason why it's so tough to increase hip width without gaining a lot of fat in the area? It all comes down to your bones.

You see, hip width (not counting fat deposits in the area) is primarily determined by your pelvis size. If you've got genetically narrow hip bones (you can thank your parents for that!), it's going to be much tougher to achieve the wider hips you're looking for.

It's the very same situation with the shoulders - if you want wider shoulders, you're limited by bone structure. You then have to focus on building the lateral delts (the side heads of the shoulder muscles) to give the appearance of wider shoulders.

But the only hitch with the hips is that there really isn't a whole lot of muscle mass available to build onto the outside of your pelvis! In that respect, it's actually EASIER to build wider shoulders with weight training than it is to build wider hips.

The main muscles that operate in the hip area (for our purposes) are the three glute muscles...the gluteus maximus (the main butt muscle), gluteus medius and gluteus minimus.

The primary function of the gluteus maximus is to bring the leg backwards (a.k.a. hip extension). It's a big, powerful muscle because this function is our primary method of moving forward! Every time you push backwards to take a step, that's the gluteus maximus at work.

But the smaller gluteus medius and minimus muscles are what we'll need to focus on to try and increase hip width. These two muscles are what's known as abductors.

Abduction is the biomechanical term for moving a limb AWAY from the midline of the body. In this case, it's moving the thigh away from the center of the body. If you're familiar with adduction (where you bring the legs in towards each other and squeeze the thighs together), it's the opposite movement.

So to widen the hips through training, we need to focus some intense work on the gluteus medius and minimus muscles. And when I say intense work, I'm NOT talking about those light pumping movements where you try and "go for the burn!"

For our purposes, those are not only a waste of time but completely counterproductive. Light weight exercises won't build hips and will interfere with the muscle-building stimulus we're going for that WILL actually build the hips. So toss "The Firm" videos back into the pile if you want to build wider hips. Those won't cut it.

If you want results, it's time to break out the dumbbells and barbells and dig into some REAL weight training!

NOTE: the exercises I'm about explain are probably not familiar
to you. Be VERY sure to click on the link at the bottom and
watch the videos on how to perform these exercises properly.
They will help you a LOT!

The absolute BEST exercise for increasing hip width is NOT an isolation abduction exercise. You may have seen abduction machines in the gym where you sit on a chair and force your legs outwards against resistance. I'm sure you've seen them...they always seem to place those machines directly across from the cardio equipment or opposite the gym entrance!

The best exercise is called the Side Lunge and it can be done with a barbell OR dumbells. But I'm not going to have you do the NORMAL side lunge...that exercise forces you to use lighter weights so you don't strain your knees. This version allows for more resistance and, therefore, more potential muscle growth and hip width!

So how do you do the Side Lunge? Well, the "normal" technique has you starting in a standing position. Then you step one foot directly out to the side (sometimes at angle forwards rather than directly to the side) and lower your body down into a lunge. You come down, bending your knee, then you push all the way back up to the standing position.

The problem with this technique is the lateral stress that gets placed on the knee when you step down to the side. The knees aren't designed to take a lot of sideways pressure - they're all about going forward and back (like a hinge). There's some room to maneuver but sideways movement against momentum can be tough on the knees - just ask any running back in football!

So instead of stepping out to the side on each rep then pushing all the way back up, we're going to do it differently. You'll take that first step out to the side and plant your foot about 2 feet out. And you're going to keep it there!

If you stepped out to the right, bend your right knee and come down into a lunge position. Your left leg will be completely straight and act as a pivot. Come down until your thigh is parallel to the ground then, using hip power, push yourself back up, straightening your right leg but WITHOUT popping all the way back to a standing position where your feet are together.

Remember, we're keeping our feet in the SAME position for the whole exercise.

When you come to the top, you're now going to lunge down to the OTHER side. Come down until your leg knee is bent 90 degrees then push back back up. Again, you're NOT popping up to a total standing position - just straightening your legs. This not only spares your knees, it allows you to keep tension on the muscles better AND use heavier resistance!

You can do this exercise with a barbell or 2 dumbells. When using a barbell, just hold it across your shoulders and be careful with your balance. If you do this exercise with a barbell, it's best to use a rack so you don't have to press the weight overhead and set it down on your shoulders. Just note, you'll be doing this exercise OUTSIDE the rack (there isn't

The dumbell version will be the easiest setup. All you need to do is pick up the dumbells! When you perform the exercise, hand position is important. If you're lunging down to the right, the right-hand dumbell should be on the outside of your right hip. The left-hand dumbell should be held in front of your body down between your legs. This is the best position for balance and resistance.

Then you just reverse it when you go down to the other side - left dumbell on the outside of your left hip and right dumbbell down in between your legs.

The first time you do this exercise, use a light to moderate weight so you get an idea of how the exercise is performed. Once you feel comfortable with it, THEN starting boosting the weight.

  • Ideally, you want to use a weight where you can ONLY get 8 to 10 reps on each side. You have to challenge the muscles to see results! Sets of 15 to 20 reps won't build the hips.
  • Do 3 sets of this exercise with 60 to 90 seconds rest in between sets. THEN you go onto the abduction-isolation style of exercise.
  • For this one, we're NOT going to be using any machines. This is a dumbell exercise all the way. It's easy to set up, though!
  • All you need is a single dumbbell - again, start with a light to moderate-weight dumbell to get an idea of how to do the exercise before you move up in weight.
  • In standing position, hold the dumbbell in your left hand and hold onto something solid with your right. The left dumbell should be resting on the side of your upper thigh.
  • Now just explode up with your left leg directly out to the side as high as possible and hold it there for a second or two! You should feel a strong squeeze in your outer hip area.
  • With this exercise, use a POWERFUL movement and don't be afraid to start building up to heavier weights. This isn't a "squeezy-toney" type of exercise. We're going for an explosive push up and out to the side.

When you've done 6 to 8 reps on the left left, switch over to the right leg and do the same thing. Rest 60 seconds after you've done both legs then repeat for 2 more sets (3 sets total). Remember, once you're familiar with the exercise, start piling on the weight so that you can ONLY get those 6 to 8 reps. If you can get more reps, increase the weight next time.

Now we're going to add in the final segment of the wider-hip workout...sideways treadmill walking.

This is a unique way to use the treadmill that gives you two main effects. The first is increasing blood supply to the outer hips (which is important to help support muscle growth). The second is putting a stretch on the outer hip muscles with each step you take.

  • Be sure to watch the video on this one so you know how to do it before you step on the treadmill sideways!
  • First, set the treadmill on a bit of incline - this will give you greater resistance, better stretch and faster results. About 3 to 5% grade is good.
  • Set the treadmill to a slow speeed - 2 to 3 mph is a good starting point. Stand on the side panel of the treadmill (right beside the tread), facing left. Grip the side rail in front of you and the front rail to your right. This will stabilize you in 2 planes and allow you to get yourself off the treads if you stumble.
  • With this exercise, you are basically going to be walking sideways with leg cross-overs while on the treadmill.
  • When facing left, step on FIRST with your right foot, then immediately cross over it with your left foot to get started. Watch your feet and stay on the middle of the tread.
  • Our goal is to use this technique to get a great stretch. To do this, exagerrate the length of your step and keep a VERY slow speed on the treadmill (e.g. 2 mph). With this long step, you'll get a STRONG outer thigh and glute stretch with every rep (on the higher leg) and a good muscle-pumping workout on the lower leg.
  • Go for about a minute facing that way then step off, take a short rest, e.g. 30 seconds, then do a minute facing the other direction. Repeat this for 5 to 10 minutes.


The Overall Program
Here is what the total hip-widening program is going to look like:

  • 3 sets Side Lunges - 8 to 10 reps on each leg going back and forth between legs
  • 3 sets Side Dumbbell Abductions - 6 to 8 explosive reps on each leg
  • 5 to 10 minutes of Sideways Treadmill Walking - 1 minute intervals in each direction

This program can be done 3 times a week to really focus strongly on building up the outer hips.

View the pictures and video of these exercises and techniques in action

And if you're interested in even MORE information on building the hips and glutes, be sure to check out my book "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!"

Physically widening the hips is really only part of the equation. The other part? Making the waist smaller. This gives you the illusion of wider hips right off the bat!

Achieving the smaller waist will primarily be a matter of fat loss and abdominal exercises targeted towards tightening the waist.

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Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 16 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available. He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.


Atlanta area personal trainer
jason@inthegym.info

Monday, October 29, 2007

Atlanta Sports Performance Training

Looking For Sport Specific Trainers in Atlanta?

Looking to improve your game? If so I can help. I am a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, CSCS in Atlanta who works with the non-athlete as well as athletes of all levels.

There are many things away from your sport that can be done to help you become a better athlete. The first step is to building a better athlete involves to identifying then and correcting the biomechanical and physiological weaknesses that hamper performance. Daily life along with practice and competition take a toll on the body causing imbalances and irregular movement patterns. These need to be addressed to keep you healthy and make you a better athlete.

Visit Sport Performance Training in Atlanta for more information.

After an athletes imbalances have been addressed it is possible to help them improve their flexibility, stability, strength, power, speed, and agility.

Whether your game is golf, tennis, football, track, or basketball, you perform better when your body is conditioned and properly aligned. Everyone will perform and feel better with a personalized sport specific program, contact me today and feel better tomorrow.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Equipment for a good Home Gym - Part 4

Home Gym Equipment - Adjustable Dumbbells

Now that you have the dumbbells, a barbell, plenty of weight, and an adjustable bench now it is time for one more piece of equipment.

A power rack is the next essential piece of equipment. With a power rack you will have even more exercises available to plus it offers safety. Along with the added safety comes the opportunity to push yourself adding more weight and extra reps to each workout. Without a power rack there are many exercises that can pin you under the bar, and without anyone around to help out that can be a messy situation. Now that yo have a power rack you have a margin of safety that allows you to push yourself.


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Equipment for a good Home Gym - Part 3

Home Gym Equipment - What you Need

After you have picked up the equipment mentioned in part 1 and part 2 you are ready to get your second piece of equipment. An adjustable bench makes an ideal second addition to the home gym. It will be well worth the investment to get a sturdy fully adjustable bench that is easily allows adjustments for incline, flat and decline settings.

After the dumbbells and a bench comes the heavy weight. A 300lbs barbell set is a good next step. Most sporting goods stores sell decent barbell sets, there are even a few stores that sell used sets so you do not have to pay allot. Make sure you look locally first because shipping will be about the same as the barbell set. Shipping is priced by the pound so at 300lbs you can expect to have a pretty steep bill.

I suggest that you get a quality Olympic 7 foot long bar. There are two reasons for this. Firstly it will last longer and will not bend as the other cheaper bars will. They can often bend if dropped or doing deadlifts with 200lbs. Another reason to get a good Olympic bar is because they are so much smother, if you start to cleans this lift will be that much easier to do.

Once you've got the basic barbell set, you can very easily get more weight plates as you need them.

Now that you have this, the equipment from part 1 and 2 the amount of exercises available to you will provide you with fresh and effective exercises for months to come.






Sunday, October 14, 2007

Equipment for a good Home Gym - Part 2

Home Gym Equipment - Adjustable Dumbbells

You have decided that a commercial gym is not for you, nor is an in home personal trainer. To get a good workout at home will require a few pieces of quality equipment, but what exactly do you need? There are many products on the market that claim full body transformations but are they necessary or worth it, do they even work? To save you the hassle of sorting through marketing gimmicks take a look at todays must have piece of equipment for a home gym.

After you have picked up the equipment mentioned in part 1 you are ready to get your second piece of equipment. An adjustable bench makes an ideal second addition to the home gym. It will be well worth the investment to get a sturdy fully adjustable bench that is easily allows adjustments for incline, flat and decline settings.

Make sure the bench yo select for your home gym is strong, and durable. This does not mean it has to be uncomfortable. Spend some time looking for a bench that fits all these requirements.

Adding a bench to your home gym will allow you to do even more exercises.

With a bench and the equipment from part 1 the amount of exercises available to you will provide you with fresh and effective exercises for months to come.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Essential Home Gym Equipment - Part 1

Essential Home Gym Equipment #1 - Adjustable Dumbbells

Want to workout at home but not sure what you will need for an effective home gym? Take a look at this article and future post to help clarify what equipment is necessary for a productive home gym.

If I could only have one single type of equipment in my home gym, it would be a good set of adjustable-weight dumbbells. The variety of exercises for every single body part with just a simple pair of dumbbells is endless.

Getting adjustable dumbbells means you can very easily change the weight you're working with while still not using up a whole lot of space in your home gym. If you have pre-made dumbbells, you have to set aside space (or get a good dumbbell rack) for rows of individual dumbbells.

If you've GOT the space (and the money!), pre-made dumbbells are certainly more convenient to use. But if you're tight on room, lining up your dumbbells may not be an option. And, of course, the pre-made dumbbells are going to be a lot more expensive to get a decent range of weight for.

When it comes to adjustable dumbbells, you've got several options. By far, the most convenient are the Powerblock style of dumbbells (Bowflex and Nautilus also have products like this).

With this style, all you have to do is basically flip a switch to set your weight on the dumbbell. The whole thing is interlocking - they fit into the space of just two dumbbells and give you a good range of weights to work with.

The other main options are the "make it yourself" free weight dumbbells. With these, you've basically got weight plates and posts. With a good selection of weight plates, you can make a great range of weights.

This style of dumbbell will be a good deal cheaper than the Powerblock style but, on the downside, it does take more time to put the dumbbells together and the weight posts sticking out can be a bit awkward. But overall, for the money, this style is still a very good investment, especially if you're looking to make some heavy dumbbells. Heavy Powerblock dumbbells can be quite expensive (they have expansion sets that go up to 130 lbs) but even then, are still a substantial savings over the equivalent amount of pre-made dumbbells.

Atlanta area personal trainer that comes to you.
Live in the Atlanta area and looking for a trainer to help setup a home gym?
Contact me Here.
 jason@inthegym.info


Thursday, October 4, 2007

High-intensity training Fat Loss

Find out why high-intensity training may be
your best bet for trimming your waistline.

But how can this possibly be? Everywhere you look, it's always said that long-duration, low-intensity training is best for fat loss. All high-intensity work does is burn carbohydrates, right?

Wrong.

After reading this article, I guarantee you'll develop a new respect for high-intensity cardio training for fat loss.

Low-intensity exercise is defined as working at a heart rate of about 60% to 65% of your maximum heart rate (which is equal to 220 - your age = maximum heart rate, thus if you are 20 years old, 220 - 20 = 200 max HR). High-intensity exercise is defined as working at about 75 to 85% or more of your maximum heart rate.

Using the previous example for maximum heart rate (max HR=200), working at 60% of your max HR would be 120 beats per minute and 80% of that would be 160 beats per minute.

There are several reasons low-intensity exercise is normally recommended for fat loss.

1. It's easy - In many cases people who are trying to lose fat don't always feel energetic enough to do hard training due to the caloric deficit (a.k.a. diet) that they are on. In these cases, just sticking to an exercise program can be hard enough, never mind making the exercise itself challenging.

2. It's low risk - A personal trainer generally can't go wrong by recommending low-intensity exercise to clients. Even the most out of shape person can usually do low-intensity cardio training safely. While this is certainly appropriate advice for novice trainers, it does not necessarily apply to the more experienced trainer when it comes to effective training.

3. It burns a higher percentage of calories from fat - this is very true: exercising at a lower intensity does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat than high-intensity exercise. But, as I will explain, this does not necessarily mean you're going to burn more fat.

Let's crunch some numbers to show you exactly what I mean when I say high-intensity exercise burns more fat.

Low-intensity training burns about 50% fat for energy while high-intensity training burns about 40% fat for energy. This is not a huge difference.

Say, for example, walking for 20 minutes burns 100 calories. Then 50% of 100 calories is 50 fat-calories burned.

Now say 10 minutes of interval training at a high intensity burns 160 calories. Well, 40% of 160 calories is 64 fat-calories burned.

By doing the high-intensity work, you've just burned 14 more fat calories in half the time. Starting to sound good? There's more...

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Low-intensity exercise only burns calories while you are actually exercising. That means the moment you stop exercising, your caloric expenditure goes back down to nearly baseline levels. Within minutes, you're not burning many more calories than if you hadn't done anything at all.

High-intensity exercise, on the other hand, continues to boost your metabolism long after you're done (often up to 24 hours after, depending on the length and intensity of the training session). This means you're continuing to burn many more calories all day long!

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Low-intensity exercise does nothing to build or support muscle mass. Maintaining muscle mass is critical to an effective fat-loss strategy as muscle burns fat just sitting there. Want to keep your metabolism working to burn fat? Do whatever you can to build or keep your muscle tissue.

High-intensity exercise has the potential to increase muscle mass. Compare the body of a top sprinter to a top marathon runner. The sprinter carries far more muscle mass. You won't get big bulky muscles from high intensity training but you will get shapely and more defined muscles!

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How To Do It

Now that you've seen how effective high intensity training can be for fat loss, how is it done?

The absolute easiest way to start this type of training is to get on a cardio machine at the gym and select the interval training program. As you'll see, you'll start off with a fairly light warm-up cycle, then quickly jump up to a high intensity level for a short burst. You will then drop back down to a low level for a period of time, then back up to a high level again, repeated several times and finishing with an appropriate cool-down period.

The repetition of these intervals is the nuts and bolts of high intensity interval training. You can also do it manually by adjusting your intensity level up and down over short periods of time.

For example, do 30 seconds at high power then 30 seconds at low power. Repeat. It's very simple and very effective.

Another excellent method for doing high-intensity training is called aerobic interval training. It is essentially the same concept as the previously explained interval training but the work intervals are longer with the intensity level somewhat lower. A good example would be running at a pace that you can only keep up for about 5 minutes then walking for 2 minutes then running 5 more minutes, walking 2 minutes, etc.

High-intensity training can be applied to any form of cardiovascular exercise. Anything from walking/sprinting to swimming to bike riding will work perfectly. I would recommend doing his type of training 2 to 3 times per week for best results. As always, be sure to consult with your physician before starting any exercise program.

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Remember, what you get out of exercise is directly proportional to what you put in. Work at high-intensity training for awhile and see just how much better your fat-loss efforts go.
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Article by: Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 16 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of". He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

Atlanta area personal trainer that comes to you.
A Personal Trainer who can help with weight loss?
Contact me Here.