Secrets to Firing Up Your Metabolism

Aside from personal training, firing up your metabolism can help with weight loss and body fat loss. It’s visceral fat without ever feeling deprived. Turn your body into a fat-burning machine with these healthy tips:

1. Don’t Diet
This weight loss trick is not about eating less, but about eating more nutrition-dense food to keep you full all day. Keeping yourself full is important because restricting food will kill your metabolism. With empty calories, you’ll feel more hungry and your body will respond to this by slowing down your metabolic rate to hold on to existing energy storage.

2. Go Earlier Zzzz’s
According to research in Finland which studied  sets of identical twins,  the twin who slept less and was under more stress had more visceral fat.

3. Eat More Protein

The body needs protein to maintain lean muscle. According to researchers in a 2006 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, "The Underappreciated Role of Muscle in Health and Disease," the present recommended daily allowance of protein, 0.36 grams per pound of body weight, was established using obsolete data and is woefully inadequate for an individual doing resistance training. Researchers now recommend an amount between 0.8 and 1 gram per pound of body weight. Add a serving, like 3 ounces of lean meat, 2 tablespoons of nuts, or 8 ounces of low-fat yogurt, to every meal and snack. Research showed that protein can up post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35 percent.

4. Drink Cold Water
German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories daily. That’s enough to shed 5 pounds in a year. The increase may come from the work  the body makes to heat the water to body temperature.

5. Eat the Heat
Capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their mouth-searing quality, can also fire up your metabolism. Eating about 1 tablespoon of chopped red or green chilies boosts your body's production of heat and the activity of your sympathetic nervous system, according to a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology. The result of this is a temporary metabolism spike of about 23 percent. 

Easy Ab Workout You Can Do at Home

Jennifer Lopez reportedly spent $50,000 on a gym in her New York home. Now, if you’re not a celebrity, you might think, “If I had access to all that expensive gym equipment in my house, I’d be in a great shape too!” However, that’s not true. There are plenty of basements in homes nowadays that are filled with fitness equipment but are only gathering dust. The truth is, it takes very little use of equipment to get fit and achieve sculpted abs. What it really requires is time, know-how, and effort. Even with equipment, without the knowledge on how to to properly use them for muscle gain or body fat loss, discipline, and the guidance of a personal trainer, you might just be wasting your time and effort. 

Abdominal exercises require more than the average physical strength and include more risk. But instead of using expensive equipment, try simple exercises that make use of no machines so you can do them anywhere, even in your own home. Some ab exercises you can do on your living room floor  include flutter kicks, bridges and lying oblique leg raises.

Abdominal Flutter Kicks

This exercise is as simple as kicking your legs in the air, but there are more specific guidelines that dictate how to do it correctly and effectively. The starting position is done lying on your back with your arms on the floor next to you. The legs are in the air at a 45 degree angle from the body. Keep them straight, while the knee joints are not locked. Raise your head from the floor and keep it up. Squeeze your abs so your lower back is flat on the ground. Kick your legs in the air, alternating one going toward the ceiling and one toward the floor. Although your knees are bent slightly to soften the joints, do not bend them farther as you do the flutter kicks. Continue kicking your legs for the desired amount of time or reps.

Lying Oblique Leg Raises

This exercise targets the side abdominal muscles of the waist with a simple combination of a side leg lift and a mini side crunch. All the stomach muscles are engaged even though the obliques get the most attention. Begin lying on your left side with your left arm on the floor in front of you. The body needs to be in a straight line on its side with the hips and shoulders stacked. The right arm is bent with the palm placed behind the head. From this position, lift your right leg straight toward the ceiling. Raise your shoulders up and toward your right hip as you raise your leg. Touch your body back to the floor. Roll over to do everything on the other side.

Bridge

Unlike the flutter kicks and oblique leg raises, the bridge is a static exercise. The muscles of the abs hold your spine straight even though it would be easier to let your lower back sag toward the floor. Place your elbows and forearms on the floor about shoulder-width apart. Step back with your legs and come onto your toes, which are about hip-width distance apart. The head, shoulders, back and hips are parallel to the floor. The abs must be squeezed tight to maintain this bridge position. An easier variation of the bridge exercise may be done with the knees touching the floor if necessary.

New Year's Resolutions for a Healthy You

A new year has come once again, this means another imaginary clean slate that presents a perfect opportunity to create a list of fitness resolutions. Whether you’re new to committing to fitness, guilty of failing last year’s fitness goals, or just want to level up with your weight loss plans with the help of your personal trainer; look no further because this guide offers some quality, healthy, and active suggestions to start your year right.

1. Eat more fruit and vegetable portions
A simple yet highly effective New Year’s resolution that could really boost one’s day-to-day health. Eat the recommended portions of fruit and vegetables each day to keep your body energised with nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

2. Get a gym membership
If you really want to achieve weight loss, joining a gym or health club could be ideal for burning fat and improving your body shape. Get motivated and guided by a personal trainer.

3. Cut down on daily salt intake
High salt consumption can lead to a variety of health problems, this includes raised blood pressure and heart disease. You don’t really need to douse every meal you eat with piles of the salt.

4. Try a new sports activity
If you want to boost your fitness levels but feel the gym isn’t right for you, a new sports activity could provide a fun yet fit alternative. There are health clubs offering everything from pilates classes to boxing, it could be time to get sporty and enjoy a healthier future!

5. Curb your drinking habits
Heavy alcohol consumption can entail serious health consequences, with long-term implications including weight gain, depression, chronic sickness and not to mention an empty wallet. While social drinking is perfectly acceptable, it might be to time to reassess things if you frequently binge drink.

6. Spend more time with your family
An inexpensive way to boost your mental well-being is to enjoy more family-friendly activities. Play a board game, take a day trip or cook with the kids, a supportive family environment will make you appreciate the simple pleasures in life more readily.

7. Find more time for relaxation
If you really want to live a long and healthy life, make sure you don’t overdo your personal training. Trying to squeeze as much out of each day is one thing but missing your sleep just so you can spend an extra hour at the gym is just plain silly. Resting from exercise is vital to avoid illness so make sure you get enough.

Weight Loss Tips After the Holidays

Feel like you overate from too much holiday parties? Post-holiday personal training for weight loss shouldn’t be seen as a difficulty, there are simple and easy ways to help you lose those additional pounds and feel better about your body again. 

Weight Loss Tip 1: Start Your Day with a Healthy Breakfast

Starving yourself for weight loss will do you more harm than good. Eating breakfast is important to get your diet back on track. Make sure that your breakfast includes a balance of lean protein and fiber. 

Weight Loss Tip 2: Eat Melon
Watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew are high-liquid fruits that can help flush out toxins and relieve water retention and bloat. Have a cup of chopped fruit in the morning or a smoothie with vanilla yogurt and lime juice. 

Weight Loss Tip 3: Stock up on High in Potassium Foods
Foods that are high in potassium can help flatten your stomach by flushing out excess sodium in your system. Eat potassium-rich bananas, raisins, milk, and yogurt. 

Weight Loss Tip 4: Know Which Carbs to Avoid
Most people think that carbs are absolutely bad for you. The truth is, carbohydrates can help you slim down by giving you an energy boost. Avoid problematic carbs that are usually the processed kinds like white flour, refined grains, and added sugars. 

Weight Loss Tip 5: Eat Leafy Greens
Greens are essential to jump-starting any new eating plan because aside from being low in calories, they are packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The best food you can eat are dark, leafy greens. 

Weight Loss Tip 6: Drink Lots of Water
You need a lot of water to keep your body running properly and flushing out lingering toxins. Increasing your water intake will help your kidneys excrete the excess salt and water from your body quickly and decrease the bloat.

Avoiding The Christmas Bulge

Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s not the friendliest time of the year for your body. With all the tempting holiday feasts here and there, one cannot avoid putting on some weight back after a year of intense personal training for muscle gain and body fat loss with your personal trainer. To prevent unwanted weight gain over the holiday, here are some preventive measures that you can try:

Time Workouts Properly
If you know that you’re in for a heavy meal, particularly carbo-loading, set up a really hard workout session prior to that meal. Unlike your usual workout, try and work through the higher rep range with your lifts, so you will deplete more of your muscle glycogen stores. Then when you eat a carb-rich, high calorie meal, the carbs will actually work to your benefit. They will replenish your muscle glycogen levels and help you get better results from your workout. If you do this, you can actually work towards building more muscle tissue with your holiday meal.

Eat Protein Beforehand
If you know you'll be eating heavy, have a small protein snack beforehand. Some good options include a can of tuna, some scrambled egg whites and veggies, a small chicken breast, or half a cup of cottage cheese.
Protein is the macronutrient that tends to be most satisfying, blunting hunger signals. It will work to your benefit when trying to keep the amount you eat at the party under control.

Bring Your Own Dish
If you're going to a meal that's hosted by close friends or family, offer to prepare your own dish to bring to the event. Not only will this get you in their good books as you're helping them out, but it will also help put your mind at ease knowing there is at least one healthy thing you can fill your plate up with.

Watch The Drinks
It’s not only the food that can make you gain weight during the holidays, the drinks can really add up quickly. Egg Nog, the most popular traditional Christmas beverage, rakes in at 343 calories per 8 fluid ounces with 19 grams of fat and 34.4 grams of sugar. Many of the fancier cocktails can easily pack 200 or more calories per glass.

Damage Control The Day After
Do damage control immediately after things get out of line. If you overeat one day, immediately take corrective action. Do a bit more cardio the next day and cut back on your carbohydrate or fat intake the next day. Don't cut back on protein intake the next day however, as that is what is going to promote lean tissue maintenance, which virtually forms the base of your metabolic rate and helps keep the fat off the rest of the year. If you eat 500 calories over your maintenance intake one day and eat 500 calories under your maintenance intake, things will balance out over time and no weight gain will be seen.

This Christmas season don't get overly frantic about going slightly off your usual diet plan, just watch how much you eat and plan workout sessions to keep the weight off.

Apple Peels Said To Avoid Muscle Loss

They say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but did you know that apples have plenty of benefits specific to personal training for muscle gain? As we get older, our muscles get weaker and smaller. But there’s a natural compound in apple peels that could be the key to prevent muscle loss. Aside from preventing muscular atrophy, it may also reduce body fat and lower cholesterol levels.

According to University of Iowa (UI) endocrinologist and senior author of the new study recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism, Christopher Adams, M.D., Ph. D., “Muscle atrophy causes big problems. It’s also very common, it affects most people at some point in their lives, during illness or aging. But, there’s no medicine for it.” Dr. Adams adds, “ We studied muscle gene activity in people with atrophy and used that information to find chemicals that might block atrophy. One of those chemicals was especially interesting. It’s called ursolic acid and it’s particularly concentrated in apple peels.”

Dr. Adams and his colleagues tested ursolic acid in mice and found that it increase both the size and strength of their muscles. "It did this by helping two hormones that build muscle: insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) and insulin. Because ursolic acid increased muscle, it reduced muscle atrophy," he explained. "Surprisingly, it had some other beneficial effects in mice: for example, it reduced body fat, and lowered blood glucose and cholesterol."

8 Muscle Gain Foods For Vegans

 Contrary to popular belief, vegetarians who obviously don’t eat meat, thus not getting a large amount of protein, can still be successful when it comes to personal training for muscle gain. With a muscle-building workout planned for you by your personal trainer, back it up with these 8 muscle gain foods:

1. Avocados
 
Avocados are full of antioxidants and heart healthy fats, including saturated fats that help support the production of testosterone, the hormone you need to produce muscle. 

2. Almonds

Try always bring almonds when you leave the house. They taste great, and are high in fiber, protein, and minerals, making them the perfect snack for satisfying late-morning hunger.

3. Broccoli

Brocolli is nearly 40% protein and high in fiber and low in calories making it a great source of nutrition out of food that’s easy on the waistline. 

4. Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is now readily available in a low-calorie, high nutrient product that tastes great in coffee, on cereal, or by the glass. Coconut milk is higher in calcium and lower in calories than traditional milk and generally fortified with plant-based B-12.

coconut milk

9 Foods to Avoid After 9 PM

Munching on your food cravings before hitting the sack may be hard to resist, especially knowing that your personal trainer won’t find out. The good news is that it’s okay to have a late night snack before bed, just as long as you choose foods that will promote muscle gain and body fat loss. If you’re under a personal training program with a strict diet, that doesn’t mean that you have to torture yourself and starve your way until breakfast. Regardless of whether you’re dietary goal is muscle gain or weight loss, there are certain foods that should always be avoided after 9 p.m. Remember that you’re about to embark on an eight-hour fast otherwise known as sleep. That’s why if you do make a big dietary blunder, your body has no chance to compensate by burning additional calories. Repeating these mistakes habitually will ruin your fitness plan and jeopardize your health.

1. Milk

Though considered to be a relatively healthy source of protein and calcium, the problem with downing a glass of milk before bed is the lactose content that’s found in it will often keep you up due to digestive issues. Lactose is a sugar and you don’t want large amounts hitting your system before going to bed. As a replacement for milk, mix up a lactose-free protein shake. It will still have the creamy taste that you’re craving for while being even higher in protein content than milk, so you can build muscle while sleeping soundly.

2. Pasta

If you're in mass-gaining mode, consuming some carbohydrates before sleeping can help out. But there are much better choices than insulin-spiking pasta before bed. Those calories will be highly prone to settle around your waist. Pasta is one of the more calorie-dense carbohydrate sources around, you can easily consume 400 calories or more in a single pre-bed sitting. Pasta does less damage earlier in the day, before or after working out, when your body actually requires a much higher overall carbohydrate intake. That's when your body is actually primed to use those carbohydrates to fuel your activity and replenish the high energy storage in the muscle cells. If you're craving pasta before bed, eat spaghetti squash instead. It'll give the same taste and texture as pasta with just a fraction of the carbs.

10 Muscle Gain Myths

 
When it comes to muscle gain and body building, there are tons of myths that are too believable to not try. To save you from experimenting on them, here are 10 muscle gain myths that you should know:

Myth 1: You must lift everyday
You don’t have to lift everyday for muscle gain. In many cases, it will cause overtraining, which can lean to an injury.

Myth 2: Creatine is a steroid
Creatine is a naturally occurring substance, produced by their own bodies and found in meat. It is not a steroid.

Myth 3: A few bottles of beer every Friday won’t hurt
Consumption of alcohol lowers testosterone in men and causes severe dehydration. If you're serious with your personal training, it's best to just leave drinking behind. If not possible, then try to keep the drinks to a minimum and drink as much water as possible.

Myth 4: Instinctive training is the best
An instinctual approach to weight lifting will most likely cause less than optimum results. Go for a scientific approach to bodybuilding instead with your personal trainer to promote optimal gains.

Myth 5: A 'pump' is the sign of a good workout
A good pump is not necessarily indicative of an effective workout.

Myth 6: Do a thousand sit-ups a day for washboard abs
If you can't see your abdominal muscles even if you've been working on them, the problem is with your overall body fat percentage.

Myth 7: You can target an area to reduce fat
There is no way to eliminate fat from one particular part of your body. For abdominal muscles, you need to lower your overall body fat percentage. Watch your diet more vigorously and do some more cardio.

Myth 8: Certain exercises target certain parts of a muscle
The main determinant in the shape of a particular muscle is genetics. It isn't possible to develop outstanding peaks on your biceps if your genetics won't allow it.

Myth 9: My body-type isn't meant for body-building, I can't gain muscle
Regardless of your body-type it is still possible to gain muscle.

Myth 10: When you stop exercising, your muscles turn to fat.
Muscle and fat are totally different types of tissue. But lack of exercise does make the muscles shrink, reducing the body's calorie-burning rate. The lack of activity itself further reduces the number of calories you burn. Just cut back on the calories you consume.

Personal Training Workout During Cold Weather

Personal training in winter may seem like the least of your priorities, especially with the extreme cold weather. But before you set aside weight loss workout programs with your personal trainer in this lazy season, you should know that you can actually burn more calories in the winter, giving way to achieving your body fat loss and muscle gain goals. Compared to working out in summer where the heat and humidity can drag you down and tire you faster, the cold weather is invigorating. It stimulates your senses and makes you feel alive. The body has to work harder in colder weather, you endorphin production is boosted, which leads to a happier state of mind. Here are some tips when working out during cold weather:

Warm Up
Before working out, walk around or jog in place indoors for five minutes. When you head out, take 3-second breaks every few minutes for the first 10 minutes to give your body time to adjust.

Map Your Route
When planning a winter route, stable and safe footing should be your priority. For early-morning or evening workouts, scout out plowed and well lit streets and sidewalks to help you spot black ice. Look for a loop in your neighborhood that you can repeat as many times as you want. That way, if you become tired, slip on ice, or get wet, you will still be close to home and can quickly escape the elements.

Take Cover
Avoid open roads and paths near water. Tree-lined trails and city blocks with tall buildings can help protect you from biting winds and snow flurries.

Cool Down
Slow your pace for three to four minutes, then go inside to stretch to avoid getting too chilled during your cooldown. Take off extra layers and keep moving for another five to 10 minutes before showering.

Body Building Like an MMA Champ

Want to get a knockout fighter physique like your favorite MMA stars? Before you jump into a body fat loss and muscle gain program with the goal of building the upper body of an MMA champ, you need to know that those fighters that you look up to undergo an intense personal training. Competing for the MMA requires power, speed, strength, flexibility, endurance, mental toughness and a serious set of compound exercises. MMA fighters work every aspect of their fitness through functional movements and compound lifts. With the guidance of your personal trainer, get intense action workout with these MMA-tested routines:

Target Muscles: Chest, back, shoulders, arms, and abs
Workout Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Frequency: 45 minutes. Up to three times per week with at least a day of rest in between.

Complete each round as “straight sets”, finishing all three sets of each exercise before moving on. Rest as needed in-between each round and record how long it took to complete the workout.

Round One
1. Barbell Push Press 3 x 6
2. Alternating Medicine Ball Push-up 3 x 10 (each side)
3. MB Russian Twist 3 x 15 (each side)
Rest for up to two minutes

Round Two

1. Weighted Chin-ups 3 x 8
2. Dumbbell T-Push-up 3 x 5 (each side)
3. Medicine Ball Slam 3 x 15
Rest for up to two minutes

Round Three

1. Alternating Dumbbell Bench Press 3 x 10 (each side)
2. Towel Barbell Curl 3 x 10
3. Medicine Ball Woodchop 3 x 8 (each side)

Best Sources of Protein for Muscle Building

When it comes to personal training, a workout program designed for every individual always must go hand in hand with the proper diet. Without these power combo, muscle gain or weight loss will not be successfully achieved and maintained. Weight loss experts and personal trainers have long been debating over which diet works best with workout programs. However, sticking to certain diets like low carb or low fat may not  be the best because that are important macronutrients in muscle gain are protein. Aside from muscle gain, protein can help boost metabolism, slow digestion, and decrease hunger.

There are three basic things to be accomplished to build muscle. First, strength train to break down old muscle fibers and encourage your body to replace the old one with even more new muscle fibers. Second, eat enough calories to discourage your body from using your muscle fibers for energy. Last but not the least, eat enough protein to provide your body with the building blocks it needs to repair old muscle fibers ad build new muscle fibers.

The best sources of protein include:

Whey – One of the two major proteins found in the milk of humans and other mammals, such as cows. Nature selected it as one of the best proteins to help babies grow. It’s the perfect post-workout protein because whey is digested and used quickly. It has all the amino acids you need.