Good morning!!

I was training my 5:00 a.m client this morning, and talking about what her & the family’s plans where for the big Turkey Day tommorrow, and as I always do, I was advising her on nutrition while she was training.

I gave her some advice that I always give my clients around the holidays, and wanted to share with you!

So, how can you make it through Thanksgiving weekend, or any “eat as much as you can” holiday?

First, move!
Workout if you can, or even if you’re traveling, try to get out and walk or do something active. One of the reasons that so many Americans do gain weight during the holiday season is that we combine overeating unhealthy foods with inactivity. Even going for a walk before and/or after the big meals burn calories that you won’t sitting on the couch! Try to make it a family event if you can, so you don’t miss time with the family! Suggest everyone go for a walk around the neighborhood, or if you have an athletic family, suggest a softball or basketball game at a local park.
If you’re like me, and have to watch football from Thursday through Sunday, go for a walk or do one of the 20 minute body-weight workouts that I’ve given before in between games or even at halftime.
Whatever you do, just don’t veg-out all weekend!

Second, and this is most important for preventing weight gain: keep eating.

What? Zay, have you lost it? Are you already on some kind of turkey high?! Hahaha!

No, I haven’t lost it. As you should know by now, the most important facet of nutrition for fat loss is meal frequency, or eating many times throughout the day. Around the big holidays, alot of people will stop eating, or not eat breakfast in preparation for the “big meal” and the snacking and desserts that follow. So if you’re eating five to six times per day, every three hours or so, don’t stop just because you know you’ll be indulging a bit for the holiday!
See, I’m not going to give you ideas about how to make your Thanksgiving dinner good for you, or give you “healthy” dessert ideas. Eat what you want to; enjoy what the holiday is all about: eating good food while spending good time with family and friends, and don’t stress about what’s on your plate like you do the rest of the year!
If you keep your meal frequency up, a couple of things will happen. One, that meal frequency will help keep your metabolism high, so when you do overeat, or just eat something “bad” for you, your fast metabolism will burn it off sooner than if you’ve been starving yourself. Of course, when you eat after starving yourself, your body stores as many of those calories as possible as fat.
Two, if you’re eating on your regular schedule leading up to the big meal, and the days full of watching football that follow, you probably won’t be able to overeat as much as you traditionally do, so you won’t even be taking in as many calories as most folks!
So, like I said, just keep eating! Keep your meal frequency as high as you usually do throughout the weekend, and you can avoid storing those unhealthy calories and gaining extra bodyfat like you usually do during the holidays!

I hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving!

Stay focused, stay fit
ZAY

Hello!

First, Happy Thanksgiving week to you & your family!

As you probably already know, there’s only one nutrition company I believe has your best interests at heart. And when I heard they were having a rather unusual sale for Thanksgiving I had to tell you about it.

You see, ProGrade Nutrition has two big reasons to be thankful this week.

1- They have completely revamped their website. It really is cool and it makes ordering SO much simpler.

2- They have just released their brand new Anti-oxidant formula-Prograde Longevity.

Oh, and the interesting part is it’s an 11% off everything sale. Here are some other details I want to make sure you know about:

- Again, you receive 11% off all Prograde products.

- It will run from Monday, November 24th until Friday, November 28th at 11:59pm EST.

- Yes, that 11% will be applicable to SmartShip orders. But it only applies to that first purchase. Not ongoing.

- The coupon code your clients will need at checkout is:

thanks

(Yes, it all needs to be in lower case.)

- In case you missed it, the website is ProGrade Nutrition

As I’ve told you before, back before I learned enough about the body and fitness to truly manipulate the appropriate variables to get a desired response, I adhered to the “old-school” training “theories” of bodybuilding, much like most exercisers still do today. Most people doing cardio and resistance training routines in health clubs today have gained their “knowledge” from bodybuilding misinformation, the same knowledge base that has been being perpetuated throughout the exercising world for almost 40 years now!!

For example, why would a woman who works sitting at a desk in front of her computer all day need to sit down and do leg extensions, trying to supposedly isolate one part of her leg and further tightening already short muscles? Because that’s what bodybuilders do, and she saw that exercise in an issue of Oxygen or some other junk publication.

Back in my “stone-age” of fitness (back when I was learning about proper fitness techniques but still thought it only applied to my female clients) I trained one body part per day, with 3-4 exercises per part, 3-4 sets per exercise, and kept the reps between 6-10. I typically took way too long of a rest between sets, but felt like I needed to in order to push the weight that I was using.
I also believed the myth that you couldn’t build muscle tissue while burning fat, so I went through my “bulking up” stages (a bodybuilding term for eating as much crap as humanly possible in a futile attempt  to gain muscle, but a great way to add lots of fat pounds!) and then I would diet and go through a “leaning up” stage, where I would do my slow, boring 45 minutes of cardio in the morning, and barely make it through an hour of weight training in the afternoons.

Then somthing happened. I started notcing the aches & pains and realizing the injuries that I had been setting myself up for after years of ignorant training. Oh, and starting a business drastically reduce my available time to devote in the gym and in the kitchen that are necessary for training through these various stages. This was an “Ah-ha” moment for me: then I understood what my clients had been saying for years about not having time to work out or eat the way I had instructed them!

So I decided to start trying different types of training, to see if they could still ellicit the muscular and cardiovascular effects of the old-school way of training.
Eureka!!!!!!

I reduced the time I was spending working out, making physical changes faster than ever before, and I was nowhere near as strict as I used to be with my eating (save for meal frequency; sorry, that one really is important!)

So, this workout is for those guys that think the exercises and workouts I’ve been posting are just for the ladies (as well as you ladies that just love using weights). Accept the fact that you can build muscle tissue while burning fat, and the fact that you can improve cardiovascular performance while doing resistance training, and test it out.
Here is a full-body circuit weight-training routine, using the same template from my previous post.
That is, to begin:
30 seconds “ON,” 30 seconds “OFF.” If you move really slowly during your sets, go ahead and start off at 40 seconds “ON,” 20 seconds “OFF” so that you get in enough reps.
Repeat the circuit four times through for a 20 minute, butt kicking, muscle building, fat blasting workout!

Weight Training Full-Body Circuit Workout

*Barbell Squat

*Incline Dumbbell Bench

*D.B. Alternating Lunge

*Barbell Bent-Over Rows

*Hanging Leg Raises or Weighted Cable Crunches

***Use 60%-70% of the weight you normally would for an 8-12 rep set of each exercise. Decrease the weight in each set if necessary.

Here’s a video of me doing one cycle of this workout!

Stay focused, stay fit!
ZAY

As a greater Jacksonville personal trainer for the last five years, a former college athlete, and a fitness enthusiast & trainer for 12 years, I know a little bit about exercise selection for specific goals.

Because of this I am constantly asked what the best exercises are to lose fat AND gain muscle fast.

I’ll keep this as simple as possible for you. Most people believe these two goals (fat loss & muscle gain) are mutually exclusive, but the TRUTH is the best exercises for fat loss are also the best exercises for muscle gain and visa versa. These exercises all have one thing in common: they provide a UNIQUE challenge to your body AND involve as many muscles in your body as possible.

Both the scientific research and the real world case studies have shown that total body workouts are superior for maximal fat loss and muscle gain. But let’s take this one step further…

Let’s dramatically accelerate results by preferentially selecting TOTAL BODY EXERCISES within each TOTAL BODY WORKOUT! For example, squats are well known for being one of the best muscle-builders with a serious a fat-shredding effect. However, the squat goes from great to UNSTOPPABLE for changing your body for the better when you make it a combination movement by adding a row or press to each squat rep. It’s obvious that you can reap more benefits this way since you have now involved your upper body into the king of lower body exercises.

It’s as simple as the Dream Body Equation below:

Performing Total Body Exercises Within Each Total Body Workout

More Muscles Involved =

More Calories Burnt + Greater Muscle-Building Stimulus =

Greater Fat Lost + Greater Muscle Gain

I must be honest in that I have a true love-hate relationship with the following movements I am about to share with you. Love because of the unparalleled fat-melting, muscle-building results they provide to help maximize my results. Hate because they break me every single workout by leaving me in tears while in a pool of my own sweat. In my clients’ & boot campers’ case, they just love to hate any of these exercises! In other words, these are not for the weak of mind, body, or soul!

Below is the official top 10 list of my favorite exercises in the world for fat loss and lean muscle gain:

TOP 10 Exercises!

Exercise#1- Power Clean + Squat to Overhead Press Combo

Exercise#2- Any Squatting Combination Exercise- Squat Thrust/Burpee Variations, Squat to Overhead Press, Squat to Row, Squat to Chest Press, Braced Core Squat, Single-Leg Squat plus Curl to Press, etc.

Exercise#3- The Swing- Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, or Sandbags

Exercise#4- Any Lunge Combination Exercise- Alternating Lunge plus Curl to Press, Alternating Lunge plus Twist, Alternating Lunge plus Chest Press, Alternating Reverse Lunge plus Row, Split Jump plus Jerk, Split Jump plus Curl etc.

Exercise#5- Any Push-Up Combination Exercise- Push-ups plus Knee-Ins, Push-up Rows, T-Push-Ups, Spiderman Push-ups, Squat Thrust Push-Ups, Four-Way Push-up Crawl, etc.

Exercise#6- The Chop- Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, Bands, or Sandbags

Exercise#7- Olympic Lifting Variations: Dumbbell or Kettlebell Cleans, Snatches, High Pulls

Exercise#8- Dumbbell or kettlebell single-leg RDL plus Row

Exercise#9- Deadlift plus Curl to Press

Exercise#10- Med Ball Snatch-Slam Combo

Here’s a great highlight reel of the above exercises so that you can add them to your own training routines for better results:
[I had to split this into 2 videos due to the length]

Top 10 Fat Burning Exercises (Part I)

Top 10 Exercises (Part II)

Well I hope you take my expert advice and jack up your training with these 10 deadly total body combination exercises! I guarantee you better results in less time by regularly employing these movements into your workouts. Of course it’s now up to you to take your workouts, and your body, to the next level!

I’ll be sharing some more great exercises for those specific trouble spot areas (e.g. legs, butt, abs, chest, arms, etc.) that are keeping you from looking better naked in the days to come

Stay focused, stay fit!
ZAY

Good morning!

Just wanted to give you another example, using the template from the previous blog post, of a 20 minute full body circuit workout that we use for our boot camps and training clients!
Enjoy!
The workout is actually posted below the video as well.

20 Minute Circuit workout #2:

To start:
30 seconds “ON” 30 seconds “OFF”
gradually progressing to
50 seconds “ON” 10 seconds “OFF.”

4 sets of 5 minutes=20 minute full body workout!

*Band Front Squats
*Band Shoulder Presses
*Band Blugarian Split Squats
*Band Stiff Leg Deadlifts
*Bicycle Crunches

Repeat 4 times

Feel free to post a comment if you have a question about the workout, or to learn about how you can register for a free 2-week trial to the new “Look Better Naked Boot Camp!”

Stay focused, stay fit
ZAY

Back in the day, the cornerstone of most resistance training workouts was performing exercises in a straight set format.
Basically, this means you perform a certain number of reps for a given exercise or you perform as many reps as possible for a given exercise and then you rest anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes, based on your training goals, before repeating this set a certain number of times based on your goals.
For more of a fat loss and lean muscle gain emphasis shorter rest periods are ideal. For more of a strength or power emphasis, longer rest periods are prescribed.

So, what’s the problem with this format? Well, though straight sets are extremely easy to comprehend for people new to fitness, they are also an extremely inefficient way to order your exercises.
In most gyms & health clubs, you’ll typically see someone perform three sets of 10 reps for let’s say the bench press. They pump out 10 reps, go to the water fountain, talk with some buddies, watch a couple of highlights on ESPN, and then gingerly walk back to the bench area to hit up their second set.
In general, most people, guys in particular, tend to take about 3-5 minutes between sets. In the case of three sets of 10 on the bench that means it would take up to 15 minutes to complete only one movement pattern (a horizontal push). That means you’d need at least in hour to perform four different exercises!

As you know from reading my posts & newsletters, I’m not a big fan of “old school” training for my clients unless they have hours & hours to spend in the gym each week and are willing to eat a perfectly clean diet all of the time. I bet you can guess how many clients I’ve trained over the years that have met that criteria: 0!!

A much more effective and time-efficient approach to ordering your exercises is utilizing the alternating set format.
Here you’ll perform one exercise, rest for a short period of time, then perform another non-competing exercise, rest for a short period of time, and so forth. Alternating sets allow you to work different areas of your body when you would otherwise be resting with the straight set format.
Plus, by working another area of your body with a non-competing exercise you allow your body to recover from the previous exercise(s). The result is improved training economy and density: more work accomplished in less time, the cornerstone of any sound fat loss program. There are several ways to perform alternating sets outlined below:

1.) Supersets: Alternate between two different non-competing exercises (e.g. upper body and lower body such as push-ups and lunges)

2.) Trisets: Alternate between three different exercises (e.g. push, pull, and lower body such as push-ups, rows, and lunges)

3.) Circuits: Alternate between four or more different exercises

Though supersets and trisets are excellent alternating set options, I believe circuit training is by the far the best option time and time again. To demonstrate why, let’s examine my favorite circuit training template using timed set intervals:

The 50-10 Five Exercise Circuit: You will alternate between 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for all five exercises in the following 5-minute circuit:

Exercise#1- Squats

Exercise#2- Dips

Exercise#3- Single-Leg Hip Extensions

Exercise#4- Pull-ups

Exercise#5- Leg Raises

Perform this circuit up to four times for a 20-minute total body fat burning workout.

Basically, in the same 15 minutes that it took to get in three sets on the bench you could have gotten in three sets of five different exercise for a staggering total of 15 work sets! Plus, the intensity on each exercise will be just as high as in the straight set format because in this five exercise circuit you will have full recovery with over four minutes before you return to any given exercise (just as you did with the straight set format described earlier).

To recap, the key to creating the optimal hormonal environment for fat loss is to perform each exercise with maximal intensity while separated by brief rest periods in order to accumulate a high volume of total body work in the shortest amount of time possible.

Circuit training provides for the best of both worlds and is thus simply unmatched for simultaneously maximizing fat loss and lean muscle gain. Use the following template that Kelly & I use with both my individual & boot camp clients for some killer, yet simple fat loss circuits:

Exercise#1- Double-Leg

Exercise#2- Push

Exercise#3- Single-Leg

Exercise#4- Pull

Exercise#5- Core

I’ll post a video of this workout circuit later this week!

I’ll be sharing some more great circuit training workouts from my boot camps in the weeks to come

Stay Focused, Stay fit,
ZAY

People ask me all the time, “Should I do cardio first, or weights first in my workout routine?”
First, you should consult a personal trainer, and learn how to work out efficiently enough to incorporate your cardio & resistance training, to elevate the workout effectiveness and reduce the amount of time you have to spend in the club.

If you choose not to do that, you should always do a light cardio warm up, no more than 10 minutes, then your resistance training first, and follow it up with your cardio routine.

Why?
Here’s what happens if you try to do cardio first. You will begin to burn the carbohydrates (your body’s primary fuel) first during your session. Eventually, or if you are doing cardio intensely enough, you will burn through your carbs and start to dip into your fat reserves for fuel, which is great if you’re only doing cardio. However, if you try to do resistance training after that, you put yourelf in a bit of a predicament.
See, your body can’t burn fat for fuel during traditional resistance training, only carbohydrates. So, if you have burnt off all of your carbs during cardio, what happens?
Your body will actually start to tear down muscle tissue and convert it into a type of carbohyrate to burn as fuel. There are a couple of problems with this however. One, you are trying to maintain muscle tissue by doing resistance training, so you are being counterproductive. Second, this other type of carboydrate is not as efficeint as actual carbs. It can be compared to pouring kerosene in your car’s gas tank: it’ll run for a while, but not very well, and very long either!

When you do your resistance training first, and you are training intensely enough, you should burn off most of your carbohydrate reserves during that resistance training. Then, when you go over to your cardio routine, which again, should be intense interval style training, you will be burning fat almost exclusively for the duration of your session.
This is the preferred method for losing fat and maintaing muscle tissue, which of course is what allows you to burn fat throughout the day.

For a quick recap, here is the correct order for your workout routine:
Warm-Up on elliptical, treadmill, etc for 5-10 minutes. A warm-up should be just that: elevate your body temperature, start sweating, etc.
Dynamic, active or self-myofascial (SMR-Foam Roll) stretching. DO NOT perform static (traditional) stretching before resistance training!
Resistance training routine
Cardio routine
Stretching & flexibility. SMR, static, active stetching

Also, your Exercise of the Week video is now posted below!!

Stay focused, stay fit!
ZAY

Here is your exercise of the week!

Incorporate this in to your core & ab routine twice per week to begin with. Perform 3-4 sets, for 15-20 seconds at a time, with a 15-20 second rest period in between.

That’s it!
Have a great week!

Stay focused, stay fit!
ZAY

Kelly and I, personal trainers at St. Augustine health club Every BODY Fitness, continue our “Exercise of The Week” video series with a great lower body/total body exercise classic, the lunge!

This exercise is hated by all of my clients, but none of them can deny how much it has improved their fat loss efforts, improved their muscle tone, and increased their fat loss efforts!

Check it out, and make sure to include it in your routine today!

Stay focused, stay fit!
ZAY

I hope you had a great weekend; I know I did!

I got to take the youngin’ to the Jacksonville Zoo for their annual Spooctacular Halloween thing. It really is amazing watching someone experience everything for the first time, getting to introduce them to new things, and just watching their reactions! I can’t wait until she can sit still long enough to get watching Florida Gator Football!!
Speaking of which, the Florida Gators made my weekend pretty good too!
But I digress……

I’ve had several people tell me recently, both personal training clients and members, about how making improvements in their basic supplementation has improved their weight loss efforts. I’ll give you two of the biggest “Ah hahs!” that I hear from people when it comes to making small changes to give big results. (Remembering I’m all about helping people learn how to lose weight quickly, safely, & realistically within their lives and the time they’ve allotted for health & fitness).

1) “I can feel a difference when I regularly take a multivitamin!”
People ask me all the time about supplements, fat loss pills, “new” supplements they’ve seen in magazines, etc. I will tell you the first thing I ask them related to supplementation: “Are you drinking enough water?” “Are you taking a daily multivitamin?” And, “are you drinking a great post-workout shake after your workouts?”
If you, or they, aren’t doing those three basic things, I tell them to get that right before I’ll advise them on any other supplements.
You will notice a difference in how quickly your body recovers from you workouts, how your daily energy levels increase, and certainly how quickly your fat loss increases, all from taking a good daily multivitamin.
When you workout and sweat (which you should always do when you workout), you lose a ton of vitamin & minerals that you have a hard time replacing just from food. In order for your body to function properly and at a high level, you need to replace those vitamins and minerals! If food is to your body like gas is to a car, then a good multivitamin is like the oil. You’ve got keep that maintained as well in order to keep your body running correctly!
Taking a good multivitamin is imperative to supporting your body, regardless of what your goal is, muscle gain, weight loss, athletic performance, etc.

2) “I didn’t realize drinking a post-workout shake could help me lose weight, but it has!”
Whe you exercise, your body is breaking down muscle tissue, which needs to be repaired quickly. Remember, we want muscle tissue, as that is what allow you to burn fat throughout the day. Waiting to eat and solid food meal after your workout simply takes too long to get the necessary carbohydrates and protein into your system to begin the repair process. By drinking a good post-workout shake, with the correct carbohydrate to protein mix (ideally 2:1 simple carbs to protein) after your workout will make a huge difference in your muslce tissue repari efforts. Subsequently, this will allow you to burn more fat throughout the day!
Drinking a good post-workout shake is one of the ESSENTIAL factors for continuing & maintaining healthy weight loss.
You can also get your sugar fix, if you need one, after you workout, because this is the time when your body needs sugar to force protein into you muscles quickly to repair the broken down muscle tissue. So if you crave gatorade, fruit, honey, even chocolate, that’s the time to throw it in your blender to mix it up with some protein!

There are alot of good multi-vitamins and post-workout protein powders & drinks out there, but there are alot of crappy yet overpriced ones as well. The best that I have found, that I and all of our staff now use are ProGrade’s VGF 25+ Multivitamin, both their Women’s & Men’s formulas, and ProGrade’s Workout Post workout protein powder.
As I said, this is the best stuff that I’ve used in my 14 years of working out, but it’s more important that you find a good multi-vitamin and a good post-workout shake somewhere and begin using them regularly, if you want to give your fat loss efforts a boost!

Stay focused, stay fit!
ZAY