Summer is in full swing and though we love gym workouts of course, we can’t
help but want to bring the My Gym Trainer concepts outdoors to get a great,
heart-pumping, fat-blasting workout in The Great Outdoors. Something about
being outside brings back the invigorated feeling of youth and reenergizes us for
the day.

So, we are excited to be bringing you our very own outdoor book, called “My
Trainer Fitness for Outdoors!” It is a “6-pack” of workouts that are designed to be done outside, anywhere!

Six complete workouts, each containing both cardio and weight-training for only
$15 (including shipping & tax). They will be ready for purchase on our website
www.MyTrainerFitness.com within a week! Great, fun workouts that get you
measurable results! Here is a taste of what you can expect:

Complete a 5-minute warm-up consisting of jogging or quick walking, light
lunges, squats, side steps, high knees and skips. Be sure to get nice and warm
before beginning the circuits. Here is your sample 30-minute outdoor workout!

Circuit #1: 15 minutes – Upper Body & Cardio
Perform the following exercises in a circuit, completing as many rounds as
possible in 15 minutes. Rest as needed.

Circuit #2: 15 minutes – Lower Body & Cardio
Perform the following exercises in a circuit, completing as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes. Rest as needed.

Coconut oil, flour and milk are all high in saturated fat. Which would normally be a dietary no-no, BUT unlike all other saturated fats, the ones contained in coconut are medium-chained (as opposed to long-chained), and are biochemically dissimilar and thus are metabolized completely different. Luckily, the metabolism of coconut does NOT lead to fat storage as other saturated fats can, but will actually help burn fat, especially in the midsection.

In July 2009, a study published in the journal Lipids showed that supplementing
with coconut oil, as opposed to soybean oil, led to a significant loss of fat in the
midsection for women ages 20-40 years old. Both groups lost weight, as they
were all told to follow a low-calorie diet, however, the coconut oil group lost
significant amounts of fat from their middles, while the other group did not.
How to use: Virgin coconut oil can be used for baking, and is especially great for
cooking at high heats, since it remains stable, while others like olive or canola do
not. Use it in place of others oils to sautée up veggies, grease a cookie sheet
or cook meats on the range. Coconut flour is similarly helpful in fat loss efforts,
and contains a remarkable 5 grams of fiber in only 2 tbsp! Incorporate into baked
goods by substituting half of the called-for flour with coconut flour. At My Gym
Trainer we did something similar while experimenting in the kitchen last week,
and voila!

Here is our own healthy, fat-loss Coconut Cake recipe for you!
A great dessert2-3x/week!

Healthy Coconut Cake
Ingredients:
12 egg whites
8 egg yolks
1 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/4 cup butter (melted)
1 cup water
3/4 cup erythritol (like Zero, get at Whole Foods)
1/4 cup liquid maltitol (like Joseph’s, get at Whole Foods)
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp baking powder
Preheat over 350 F, grease a 9×13 pan
Makes 12 servings

• In a medium bowl, beat 12 egg whites (use electric mixer) until it is thick/
foamy and leaves small, soft peaks, set aside

• In a large bowl, beat 8 egg yolks until smooth, then add coconut flour,
melted coconut oil and melted butter, salt, water, erythritol, maltitol, vanilla
and coconut extracts and mix all with a spoon

• Slowly add foamed egg whites (break up into 3-4 separate additions), and
mix with spoon

• Once all whites are mixed in, pour batter into greased up pan

• Bake 40 minutes, or until fork comes out clean in the middle

• Let cool completely and then cut into 12 servings, and serve
Refrigerate any leftovers, enjoy!

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 piece (makes 12 servings)
Calories: 200
Fat: 13g (10g sat)
Carb: 10g (6.5g fiber)
Protein: 8g

Photo © John Lund

1) Regular weight training is a must. Leanness in the legs comes about as a result of several factors: strengthening the underlying muscles, burning the layer of fat on top of the muscles and then finally, tightening the skin and shedding water. Weight training not only helps tone the underlying muscles, but signals the release of certain key fat-burning hormones like testosterone and the anti-aging human growth hormone, the latter of which also helps to tighten and firm skin. Best movements are lunges, squats, step-ups and leg presses.

2) Do interval cardio for overall fat loss. Doing short, but intense cardio intervals (push hard for 1 min, followed by a 1 min rest) helps speed up the metabolism for hours after the workout is over. We love hill sprints and stair climbing to hit those key troublesome areas for women, particularly the glute-hamstring tie-in where many women store fat.

3) Increase fruit and veggie intake. Most vegetables are natural diuretics, which can help shed water under the skin, leaving legs (and arms and tummies!) looking leaner with more definition. Also, fruits and vegetables help produce a more alkaline environment in the body, which helps create a more favorable condition for fat burning.

4) Drink lots of H2O! Though it seems counterintuitive, the more water you drink, the more water you will shed, creating more of that coveted “defined” look. Staying hydrated with at least 3 liters of plain water per day helps speed the metabolism, and keeps you feeling fuller and more satiated for longer.

5) Skip the dairy and sodium. Dairy is an insulin-producing food, a hormone that directly impacts the kidney to increase water retention. Sodium will drastically increase water retention also, though through a slightly different mechanism. So try to limit cheeses, milk, cream and of course ice cream (!) as much as possible if the goal is to lean out the legs and bring out more definition. Finally, check the sodium content on any processed food labels and aim for less than 200 mg per serving.

Click here to listen to My Gym Trainer’s Jill Coleman discussing fitness and nutrition with Michael Ray Dresser!

Dresser After Dark
Michael Ray Dresser’s Radio Show, Dresser After Dark, has evolved over the years and today features authors and experts from all over the country and worldwide who offer solutions to the listening audience on all types of lifestyle matters as well as business and financial areas of interest. He is well known for getting to the heart of the issue at hand with his thought-provoking talk.

At My Gym Trainer, we are all about getting results quickly and effectively: short, easy-to-follow workouts that deliver. Each of the three My Gym Trainer books (Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced) contains 8 leg workouts (2 per week). A minimum of twice-per-week lower body workouts will yield best results, and also offer plenty of variety. Here is an example of a leg circuit that will generate great results in only 20 minutes. It contains our 5 Must-Do Moves for Leaner Legs in 1 month!

In all of the My Gym Trainer books, we use circuit-training exercise like this exclusively because it is great for both cardiovascular fitness and strength training, not to mentions burns ton of calories in a short period of time. It is a way of exercising that maximizes fat-burning by keeping the heart rate and breathing up throughout the workout, and generates an after-burn so the metabolism stays elevated for hours after the workout is over. Instead of doing 1 set of an exercise and then sitting and waiting to do the next set of the same exercise, circuits are designed so that you move from one exercise to the next with little rest in between. For more workouts like this, grab a copy of My Gym Trainer at www.MyTrainerFitness.com or www.amazon.com!

Directions:
• Do the following leg circuit 2x/week for 1 month (3x/week for best results), allowing at least 48 hours’ rest in between each leg workout.
• To complete the circuit, perform the allotted number of reps for the first exercise, then immediately move to the second exercise and perform the allotted number of reps for it. Go on to complete the 3rd exercise, then the 4th and then the 5th.
• Once you complete one full cycle of all 5 exercises, begin again at the top, continuing to cycle through the movements until you complete 20 minutes. o Each time you do the workout, record how many “rounds” you complete in the allocated 20 minutes. On your next time through, try to beat your previous measure. Good luck!!

No Equipment Needed!

Stadium Smarts:

Summer is a great time to escape the gym and head outdoors for a great workout.  To shake things up or bust through a plateau, head to a local outdoor stadium with lots of steps, perhaps at a local high school for a great stair climbing circuit.  Here are some tips for how to get the most out of your My Gym Trainer stadium workouts:

1. Intensity trumps duration: Because running stadiums is so intense, the workouts contained here are shorter, but will generate a bigger metabolic boost than long, slower workouts. By nature, running stairs is an innate interval-training workout.  Intervals alternate high-intensity bouts (runningup the stairs) with low-intensity recovery periods (walking back down the stairs).  This varying of high and low intensities several times within the workout pushes us to breach our anaerobic threshold; the point at which we are breathless and our muscles are burning.  Hitting this point (but notstaying there) in a workout increases the intensity and after-burn effect of the session, so that you continue burning greater fat and calories after the workout is over.

1. Shape and sweat: Stair climbing is one of the best cardiovascular activities for muscular endurance and shaping.  Especially long strides up the stairs (two steps at a time) mimic the movement of a lunge, first stretching the glutes, quads and hamstrings, and then contracting all 3 muscles together in one big muscular effort to reach for the next step.  If done right, this movement creates a muscular burn in the glutes, quads and hamstrings that cannot be generated in other cardio activities like jogging.

1. Up your metabolism with weights: We know cardiovascular exercise is great for our heart and helps shed pounds, but without weight training, we will see little definition or “cuts” in our newly trimmed physique.  These circuits created integrate cardio along with weight-training exercises to hit all the major muscle groups, while increasing the metabolic effect of the workout.  If you want to target a troublesome lower half, incorporate this leg circuit up to 3x/week.  Need a little tone in the arms?  Try this upper body circuit 2-3x/week.  Complete both circuits on days that you want a total body blitz, resting a couple minutes between upper and lower body circuits.

The workouts are to be done circuit-style, which means that you move from one exercise to the next with little rest.  Continue cycling through all the movements within the circuit until the 15 minutes is up.

Want more?  To increase your intensity, bring some dumbbells with you to the stadium! Place them at the top of Aisle #1 before you begin, and hold them during your squats, squat jumps and squat thrusts for added burn in the legs.  During your upper body circuit, use them at the top of the aisle to do rows and shoulder presses.

Be sure to perform a proper warm-up for at least 5 minutes, incorporating jogging, a few light run-throughs on the stairs and some dynamic stretches like high knees, side-to-side lunges and spinal twists.

Cardio & Lower Body Workout – You will need 2 adjacent aisles for this workout

Perform this circuit, rotating through as many times as possible in 15 minutes

Begin at bottom of Aisle #1, and sprint up steps, 2-at-a-time

Perform 10 squats at the top

Perform 10 squat jumps at the top

Perform 10 squat thrusts at the top

Perform walking lunges across the top until you reach Aisle #2

Walk down Aisle #2 – recovery time

Run back to the starting spot at the bottom of Aisle #1 and repeat circuit

Cardio & Upper Body Workout – You will need 1 aisle for this workout

Perform the circuit, rotating through as many times as possible in 15 minutes

Begin at the bottom of Aisle #1

Perform 10 incline push-ups with hands on the 5^th step and feet on the ground level

Perform 10 dips with hands on the 1^st step, feet on the ground level, knees bent

Perform 10 moving planks, bringing the hands from the bottom of the steps up to the 1^st step and back down while in push-up position

Sprint up the steps, 2-at-a-time

Walk back down the aisle, recovering

Sprint up the steps, 2-at-a-time

Walk back down the aisle and repeat circuit

Once your workout is completed, perform a 5-minute cool-down, focusing on bringing the heart rate back down and incorporating static stretches for the hamstrings, quads, glutes, shoulders, cheat and back.