training for women

ARE YOU INVITING TEMPTATION?

Tags: family fitness, healthy living, Nutrition, personal trainer, training for women, women's workouts, workout book

The Simplest Way to Avoid Daily Food Stress and Expensive High Calorie Shopping:

What happens when we go grocery shopping without a list?  Do we tend to buy more or less than we might actually need?  Sure, we may forget a few things, but more likely we often end up spending extra time and money as we roam the aisles trying to recall what we need.  I other words, we’re roaming the aisles WIDE OPEN to temptation…inviting it even!

You’ll be amazed at how this simple strategy is so effective.  When we take just a few minutes to plan our food for the day, we’ve removed an entire area often vulnerable to mental argument and debate and internal fighting over what we know we should have versus what’s simple, easy, available or more tempting.

Sunday’s are great days for planning the week’s menus and shopping list.  BUT, if planning a week ahead seems like too much, then start a day or two at a time.  Sunday evening, plan for Monday.  It’s best when you can go ahead and do some prep work ahead of time so that you arrive into Monday, often the most stressful day of the week, ahead of the game.  Then as you’re going through your day, when it comes to meals and food, that’s already handled.  This means that you are far less likely to spend/waste any time fighting off the inevitable temptations that come up, at work or school, at home, and at the store.  Then it becomes not a matter of “what do I want?” It becomes “this is what I’m having.”  That is powerful!  If you doubt that simple tactic can be so powerful, then just give it a try.

Tell us how it works for you.  We value your perspective.

Working Out Increases Intelligence

Tags: better workouts, burning fat, children's fitness, family fitness, fitness trainer, healthy living, jill coleman, my gym trainer, personal trainer, training for women, weight training, women's workouts, workout book

From Brawn to Brain Power, How Exercise Makes Us Smarter
Our bodies evolved in motion.  Our hunter-gatherer ancestors, as they’ve come to be called, did not sit at desks or in caves all day.  They had to move to eat–or be eaten.  It was in this natural environment of motion that the human brain literally evolved.

Ask any runner or fitness fiend and most will tell you that their best ideas come while they’re working out and it’s not their imagination…or maybe it is…their creative imagination that is!  Exercise literally increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, refreshes our brain cells and stimulates new synaptic exchanges that are a vital part of the creative, thinking mind.

The other time the brain does this the most?  In sleep!  So the message here is to remember these two basic things:  exercise and adequate rest are not optional, they are essential, and can even make you smarter.

So, next time you need more mental juice or feel “brain dead” as the saying goes, try some simple exercise to get your blood flowing, such as a brisk walk, a few rounds of climbing stairs, squat jumps or some good ole jumping jacks, and you’ll be amazed at how very effective a couple of active minutes can be.  Power naps work for some people and can be just the thing, but often the nap is as much about getting horizontal to shift the blood flow as much as the actual need for a nap.  For those who have a hard time fitting exercise into their schedule, try three minutes of a vigorous–but safe–activity instead.  The results should be energizing!

A great and enjoyable resource for learning more about how the brain functions, written in language that had my teenage daughter chuckling more than once as she studied it, is Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina.  It’s a favorite in our household and if you buy it from my daughter’s blog, (she’s a budding teen entrepreneur), she will send your book with her FREE study guide, great for teens, college students and as a teacher resource.

Order Brain Rules from:
www.DevaniAnjali.com (includes a FREE student/teacher study guide)
Or, your usual favorite book source, and for more information and fun videos by author John Medina:  www.BrainRules.com

The Week Magazine

Tags: burning fat, fitness trainer, fitness training, personal trainer, training for women

My Trainer Fitness is featured in The Week Magazine as a great way to step up your workout!

The Week Magazine, Nov. 26, 2010

Fitness-on-the-go for Holiday Travel

Tags: my gym trainer, my trainer fitness, personal trainer, training for women, travel workouts

It’s a wonderful time of year, holidays are upon us and for many of us that means travel.  Whether by plane or car you may find yourself sitting for prolonged periods of time, eager to be active once you reach your destination! A few helpful tips from My Trainer Fitness will prepare you for your workouts on the go and enable you to make healthy nutritional choices.

Equip yourself!
If you are visiting family, a gym may not be an option. That’s ok! You can take your My Gym Trainer books or any of the My Trainer Fitness 6-Packs. Bring a pair of dumbbells or it may be likely that your family or friends have a pair kicking around in their garage or basement J  One product we recommend is Aquabells; water inflatable dumbbells that compress for travel! www.aquabells.com.  Just don’t forget to pack workout shoes and clothing and you’re set! Fitness on the go can be easy and portable workouts are the solution!

Improvise!
So you’re prepared but discover a lack of equipment at the local gym or hotel?  No problem!  You can do similar exercises for the same body part! Flip to another week of workouts or think of an exercise you have done in past. If an exercise calls for a barbell, use dumbbells. If you don’t have access to an exercise ball you can likely use a mat.  And if you don’t have access to the gym then head outside!  Change your cardio from machine based to walking or running intervals. Make it fun to figure out alternate options and you’ll feel stronger and smarter afterward!  J

Recruit!
Sharing your fitness knowledge and passion is a great way to give back! Involve your friends and family in your workout! Show them how fun and easy fitness on the go can be!  And don’t forget the kids! My Trainer Fitness for Kids are fun fitness games and drills for kids perfect to get everyone involved in the fitness revolution! Fitness  and workouts for kids is essential with an obesity epidemic upon us!

It may seem to be a “no brainer” that we should be active while traveling and even—especially—during holidays, but it can be easy to get off track during these times.  So with just a little planning and commitment to be active each day, even if it’s just a brisk walk around the block, helps keep us healthy and balanced.  You will be glad you did because it’s never easy…always worth it!™

SELF Magazine, September 2010

Tags: Circuit Training, get in shape, healthy living, lose weight, personal trainer, SELF Magazine, six pack, training for women

See us on page 72!

Family Circle Online Edition, featuring… us!

Tags: fitness training, get in shape, healthy living, lose weight, my gym trainer, my trainer fitness, new workout, personal trainer, six pack, training for women, women's workouts

25-Minute Best-Body Workout!

My Gym Trainer Favorite Leg Circuit: 20 Minutes to Leaner Legs in 1 Month

Tags: building muscle, burning fat, Circuit Training, fitness training, leg training, training for women

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!!

Best Exercises for Women’s Trouble Spots

Tags: burning fat, fitness training, get in shape, lose weight, training for women, weight training

Part 1:  Hips, Thighs, Glutes
My Gym Trainer specializes in designing great workouts to target the whole body for lean tissue building and fat burning.  Though, we do always get asked, “What are the best exercises for getting lean legs or for the back of the arms or for the midsection?”  For many women, these are some of the hardest areas to tone up because genetically and hormonally, our body wants to store fat there.  In addition to lowering overall body fat via full-body weight training, intense cardiovascular exercise and proper fat-loss nutrition, there are specific exercises that target these areas better than others.

Saddlebags.  Thunder Thighs.  Junk in the Trunk.
Many women see a couple extra pounds immediately in their thighs, hips and glutes.  They can feel the difference when they try to zip up their jeans.  So how do we get beautifully sculpted legs and glutes, while burning the fat on top?  From an evolutionary perspective, the fat that sticks to thighs and glutes is fat that the body wants to be there.  For childbearing purposes and because estrogen receptor densities are highly active in this area, women’s bodies hold onto fat in these places stubbornly.  Thus, you can imagine just how hard it is going to be to break through this evolutionary barrier to reduce fat and sculpt the underlying muscles there.

Train Heavy and Induce Failure. If you are new to weight training, be sure to practice your form specifically on squats and lunges for a few weeks with light weights.  Once you perfect your form, begin adding weight.  If you want to convince the body to give up these fat stores and coax the muscles out of hibernation, challenge legs and glutes from several angles with challenging weight and with various exercises.  To optimize the hormonal imbalance in the hips and thighs, induce testosterone and growth hormone release by training to the point of failure throughout each workout (both of these hormones have incredible fat burning potential in women—yes, natural release of testosterone in women is a good thing!).   Here are some great exercises to incorporate:

1) Heavy lunge: Within a few weeks of incorporating heavy lunges into a leg routine, inches will start coming off and definition appearing.  There exists a common notion among women that lifting heavy weights will make you “bulk up” or just grow the glutes outward.  Unfortunately what many don’t know is that as long as attention is paid to fat-burning, inches will be lost and sculpted muscle will appear.  For example, take someone who performs a lot of cardiovascular activity and never weight trains.  This person is probably slim, but with zero definition or curves.  Try fat-burning cardio mixed with intense weight-training to failure and you have the recipe for overall lean limbs.

2) Stiff-legged Deadlifts:  These exercises isolate the hamstrings (back of the leg) and target the area below the glutes called the “glute-hamstring tie-in.” If attempting deadlifts for the first time, be sure to check out the photos contained in your My Gym Trainer books.  This movement is technical, but if executed correctly, it is one of the most effective exercises to shape the entire back of the leg.  Just be sure to keep your back straight while you hinge at the hips and engage your abs, which helps to protect from injury.

3) Plyometric movements can be a miracle on the path to coaxing your leg muscles out of hiding.  Plyometric movements are jumping movements and they are vital in breaching the intensity threshold needed to lean out the legs.  Many people shy away from these exercises because they are scared of injury or they have bad knees.  If you do have bad knees, these exercises are probably not for you.  However, with a clean bill of knee health, begin incorporating these movements into your leg routine and watch the muscles appear.  Some examples that you can also find in your My Gym Trainer books include:

• Squat Jumps
• Switch Jumps (jumping junges)
• Squat Thrusts
• Bench Jumps