Abs may be made in the kitchen, but glutes are made in the gym.  I know a thing or two about building a better booty.  See, I used to be heavy, yet today, as a 42 year old mom, I am an award-winning bikini competitor and one of those crazy people on John Cena’s new FOX competition series “American Grit,” running through the forest with a log on my shoulder.  In your face, middle age!

One of the key machines I use to work on my quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteus maximus muscles is the leg press.  “But Lisa,” you say, “I don’t have a fancy leg press machine!  I work out from home.  What can I do instead?”

4 Leg Press Alternatives

One of the wonderful things you’ll notice from watching American Grit is that you don’t need a fitness center or any special tools beyond your bodyweight to get a good sweat on.  Many of my clients are moms who exercise at home, so with that in mind I’ve developed a fitness program called the SLI Method which incorporates these no-gym required exercises I’ll describe to you below.

1. Squats. Squats are basically the same movement as a leg press, but from a standing position.  The simplest squat is to stand with your legs hip distant apart, toes pointed forward, arms in front of you for balance, and slowly push your butt back until you’re at a 90 degree angle, just like you would if you were sitting down in a chair, and then stand up and repeat.  Make sure your knee is aligned with your ankle and really push through your heels as you stand up to activate those glutes!  One thing I’ve learned through bodybuilding is that just the smallest changes to your form and you will get better muscle activation in a wider variety of areas.  So in the first set you do a standard squat, the next set spread your legs wider and point your toes out to the sides instead of in front.  This allows you to squat lower and really activate your glutes and inner thighs more.  If you’re feeling hardcore, then show your grit by carrying a sandbag over your shoulders as you do the squats.  Not only will it make the exercise more challenging but as the sand shift you will also activate your core to keep your balance.

2. Lunges. If squats are a standing version of a leg press, then lunges are essentially a single leg version of the same thing.  I love doing single leg lunges, or single leg anything, because I have muscle imbalances and this allows me to correct them.  In my particular instance, my left leg is slightly shorter than my right leg, so it does less work all day long.  (Lazy leg!)  But I put it to work when I do lunges and here’s how.  To do a lunge, start standing with your feet together, holding dumbbells at your sides, then step your weaker leg in front and lower yourself down so your knee is at a 90 degree.  Do 30 reps of going down and up on that same leg.  When you switch to the stronger leg drop the dumbbell weight or eliminate the dumbbells entirely.  Keep this varied weight practice until over time both legs reach that desired muscle symmetry.  If you don’t have muscle imbalances, then of course you will use the same weights on both sides.

3. Step Ups. If you’re ready to up your game, then step ups are right for you.  This exercise mimics walking up a ladder or from one platform to the next.  Stand behind a sturdy step box (the most commons sizes come in 12”, 24” and 36”) or a bench.  Put your right leg up on the box, with your left leg stabilizing you and then come to a standing position at the top of the box, with your stabilizing foot just barely touching the box.  All the work is being done by that right leg.  Then carefully step down and repeat 10 times on each leg.  If you are able to maintain proper form with your own bodyweight, challenge yourself by holding dumbbells or wearing a weighted vest as you do this exercise.

4. Box Jumps. Honestly, these can be a little scary, at least they were for me because I thought I’d crash into the box, fall down, or scrape up my shins (or all of the above).  But that’s mostly just a mental thing.  If you go to a local park, chances are you will see a group of kids jump on and off a giant rock fifty times in a row with no problem because no one told them it was scary.  So get that out of your head and let’s get started:  Stand behind the box, squat down, jump up onto the center of the box and then step down.  You can also use your arms to help you with momentum by reaching them up as you jump onto the box.  Start with the lowest box until you get comfortable with the movement and progress to higher boxes when you’re ready to push yourself.  This exercise combines both strength and plyometric moves, which helps to increase your power and coordination. And it makes your butt look really cute too.  Just sayin’.

Need a video demonstration or a little help putting together a complete weight loss program?  No problem!  The SLI Method combines the 3 Elements for Total Fitness – Diet, Exercise and Mental Strength Tools to push past your mental obstacles (like jumping on top of a box.)

A lot of women asked me to create an easy to follow system to help them shake the baby fat without requiring an expensive gym membership, so that’s how this program was born.  It’s kind of like running into your friend at the grocery store who lost a lot of weight and you say, “Wow!  You look great!  How’d you do it?” and then she (me, in this case) tells you EVERYTHING.

I tell you the exact foods I eat, exercises I do daily and mental strategies I used to lose 50 pounds, win bikini competitions in my 40’s, and win military training evolutions with #TeamNoah on American Grit.  It is my absolute belief that if I can get healthy, you can too, and I’m here to guide you every step of the way.  You can find me blogging at ShesLosingIt.com.

Hello again, this is Bedros Keuilian, founder of Fit Body Boot Camp. Today I want to really dive into the science behind High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and help you decide if an HIIT regimen would be right for you. As you’ll soon find out, the cool thing about HIIT is that you can use it for a wide variety of fitness outcomes. For example, members of our boot camps come in for fat loss and body toning, and HIIT is really the ideal approach for getting those results soon and getting them to stay.

I personally have a mini FBBC-style boot camp set up in my own garage, and I go in there just about every day to do the same HIIT workouts that are happening in boot camp. I’m not necessarily looking for fat loss, because I’ve been a fitness professional my whole life and I’ve got that under control. However, I know that HIIT is also a great way to build and maintain my endurance, mobility, and heart health. For me, fitness is all about being a high-performance human, so I’m interested in anything that helps me stay energetic and effective.

Recently, I’ve been working with some of the top industry experts for mature adult fitness, and you know what I’ve discovered? They’re using HIIT too! You see, they’ve identified the four key factors that adults over 55 need to maintain an active, independent, happy lifestyle. Those factors are functional mobility, power, balance, and stamina, and HIIT addresses all four of those. Plus, since HIIT incorporates such a diverse range of exercises, mature adults and their trainers can modify their regimens to account for pretty much any health condition.

The Science of HIIT

So how does HIIT work? To illustrate, let me start with an example of a typical HIIT workout you can find in one of our boot camps.

To begin with, the trainer will have everyone do some warm-up exercises like jumping jacks, arm swings, or squats while demonstrating each of the workout stations. Each station will include two intense exercises that incorporate either cardio or resistance training. Then, everyone will go through each station and alternate between the two exercises for three rounds, with 40 seconds of activity and 10 seconds of rest per exercise. Once everyone has gone through each station, the workout is done! And the whole thing only takes 30 minutes.

Now that 30-minute time limit is crucially important. You see, we actually recommend that people don’t double up on sessions, because that immediately leads to diminishing returns. Why? Because HIIT is all about changing the state of your body and turning it into a fat-burning machine, not about brute force weight loss.

Most traditional weight loss techniques are about brute force. “If I do this exercise at X intensity for Y amount of time, I should burn Z calories.” The problem with that way of thinking is that it completely ignores homeostasis, which is the human body’s natural way of resisting change and staying with what works well enough in the moment. In other words, if someone is currently out of shape, their body is going to fight to keep them out of shape because it thinks there’s less overall risk in changing that condition. So if they try to burn the fat through sheer brute force, their body may lose a few pounds at first but it will quickly plateau. Their body will accept workout mode as just a new, separate status quo and stabilize there.

HIIT is more sophisticated than that. With HIIT, you are forcing your body out of its comfort zone. With the high intensity and the dynamic range of exercises, your body (and specifically your metabolism) stop trying to stabilize and instead just make a mad dash to keep up with the workout. Then, instead of stretching out the workout and running back into another plateau, you stop the workout and go home and rest. That’s where the rubber meets the road, because even when you rest your body still keeps your metabolism way up. Obviously, that helps a ton with fat loss, but if you keep doing HIIT consistently for a few weeks or even months, you end up training your body to stay in that alert, high-performance state and not slip into basic survival mode.

Ultimately, HIIT does establish a new status quo for your body, but it’s a status quo that is really darn good at burning fat, has high endurance, encourages muscle growth, keeps your heart strong, and comes with a ton of other benefits.

Think of it like momentum: whenever an object is sitting still or moving at a set speed, you need an extra blast of force to make it accelerate to the next level. That’s exactly what HIIT does. It’s physiological acceleration. It’s more than “burning fat,” it’s creating a body that burns fat consistently!

Is HIIT Right for You?

So now that you understand the science behind HIIT, let’s see if it’s right for you.

First, you need to see if HIIT is right for your fitness goals. In my experience, the vast majority of people come to fitness looking for fat loss, body toning, or general health maintenance. For each of those, HIIT is a great way to go.

Now, if you’re looking for something more specialized, like athletic performance or body building, you probably shouldn’t start with HIIT. Among professional athletes and body builders, there’s plenty of debate about whether to include HIIT. Some see it as a good way to establish baseline health, while others see it as too generalized for competitive fitness performance. Either way, if you’re looking for performance you’re going to need more than HIIT alone can give, so start with a more specialized regimen and see if there’s room within that to fit some HIIT.

If you decide that HIIT really is appropriate to your goals, then the only real question left is how to implement it. Remember, with HIIT it’s the variety and intensity of the exercises that’s more important than the exact exercises themselves, so you can modify and swap things out to your heart’s content. Also, considering how little equipment you need, you can set up an HIIT workout almost anywhere, any time.

Of course, I do recommend seeking out professional guidance like a boot camp or a personal trainer if you want to get the most out of HIIT. A certified fitness professional can make sure your form is correct (which makes a HUGE difference) and give you the motivation and accountability to stay on course.

Now get out there, have fun, and enjoy the world’s most efficient workout!

How did you do on your 2015 New Year’s resolution to get fit? Crushed it, right? You stuck to your early morning workout routine, ran a 5K every Saturday, saw a 200% improvement in your deadlift and now have the six-pack abs to prove it? Well then you can stop reading right now and go back to doing whatever you were doing, because that’s awesome.  For everyone else, read on as we introduce you to a few easy-to-remember concepts that will help make this year’s fitness goals a bit more attainable.

Choose Something Fun and Feasible

The best kind of workout is the one that you actually do. No amount of unattended kickboxing classes, imagined Olympic powerlifting sessions, or planned but unexecuted couch to 5K programs will ever get you fit. Keep it simple, keep it fun and don’t over-extend.

Anything that requires considerable preparation or planning could make keeping a routine impossible, so stick to something that you can just get up and do yourself when it’s best for your schedule. Team sports or more complex leisure sports like skiing are fun and healthy, but they’re hard to build a routine around.  Instead, pick an activity that you can do year round, at home or at the gym.  Obviously we’re pretty big fans of cycling here at CycleCast, but other options include some of the basics like running, weight lifting, and calisthenics.

You do need to think about the fun factor too. It’s normal for a little boredom to creep into a regular routine, but choosing something like a guided cardio class that varies week to week can go a long way in keeping you engaged.  Music can also make a big difference and sometimes ensuring that your workout stays fresh is as simple as finding a way to introduce new playlists of music you love on a regular basis.

You know your body best and should choose an activity that it can handle doing regularly.  A little pain, or at least discomfort, is to be expected.  After all, you know what they say about pain and gain. But if it hurts enough to keep you from doing it again the next time, you should reduce the intensity or try something different. If you’re someone who has struggled to meet fitness goals in the past, chances are high that you’ve had difficulty maintaining a routine that involves running or other high-impact activities. Low-impact activities, like cycling, are your friend when it comes to staying away from injury and keeping your fitness plan going.

Create a Realistic Routine and Stick to it

Getting and staying fit is not about building the most intense or impressive workout plan. It’s about building exercise into your everyday life. Your workout routine should be realistic and repeatable.

Having chosen a simple but fun activity that you can do yourself, you should be able to fit it into your schedule wherever you need to.  If you can only carve out 20 minutes twice a week, start there. Literally any regular exercise is better than no exercise, so don’t be afraid to start small. Choose some times that you know work well for your life and pencil them in. Pretend that your workouts are important meetings and schedule around them.  Believe it or not, exercise can be habit forming, so keeping your schedule could become easier over time.

Set Goals and Track Your Results

Setting attainable goals and keeping tabs on your progress is essential to staying motivated.  Choose a weight, waistline, and/or body fat percentage that you think should be easy to hit.  Don’t set it too high, the idea is that you’ll pretty much have to hit it if you keep up your routine. Once you’ve hit your mark it’s easy enough to set a new one. By setting and meeting successive small targets, you can create a positive feedback loop that will help sustain your routine.

It is essential that your goals and progress towards those goals are written down. If you don’t have a clear picture of what you’re setting out to achieve, you’ll never have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve achieved it!

Before starting your fitness plan, take some baseline measurements of your weight and waistline. If you want, you can also get some inexpensive body calipers to measure your body fat. Set some body measurement goals and take further measurements at regular intervals to see how you’re coming along.  Also set some weekly workout targets, like a number of miles you’d like to run or bike, calories you’d like to burn, or average heartrate you’d like to maintain during your workouts. These goals will help you to set the pace of your routine.

The tools to help you in tracking and measuring your fitness results have never been better. Between Google Fit and Apple Health, every smartphone now comes with the ability to collect and track your fitness data. Logging your body measurements in your phone alongside your workout results can give you a full picture of your fitness journey all in one place. A bevy of fitness apps can automatically pull and push workout data to these central trackers too, allowing you to clearly see whether you’re meeting your workout targets. CycleCast, for example, can pull your heart rate data and baseline body measurements from Apple Health to provide more accurate workout results and can then push those workout results including miles biked and calories burned back to Apple Health for tracking.

If all of this tracking and measuring sounds overwhelming, don’t worry! In the end, it is just important that you set an achievable goal in writing and measure yourself against that goal. It can be as simple as taking your weight every week.

Next Steps

Need a bit of help getting started? At CycleCast, we believe that indoor cycling has a lot going for it when it comes to helping you maintain a repeatable workout routine. It’s fun and engaging, with upbeat music and motivational instructors to keep you moving and it’s low-impact and easy for beginners to get into. If you’re fortunate enough to have a schedule that lines up with a group indoor cycling class at a local gym or studio, you should check one out. If not, check out CycleCast, which offers 20, 45, and 60 minutes classes to fit your schedule. Classes are updated frequently to keep you engaged and are packed with current hit music. Don’t have a bike at home? Chances are your gym has a few stationary bikes lying around. You could also skip the gym membership and pick up an inexpensive one online for a couple hundred bucks; you might find that having a way to get a good workout at home makes all the difference in being able to fit it in.

This year, don’t let yourself start strong and fade away when it comes to your fitness resolutions.  This time you have a plan: choose a simple activity that you can do regularly, create a routine that works for your schedule, set measurable goals, and get moving!

As the temperatures continue to drop outside, winter sports begin to heat up! Activities, such as skiing and snowboarding, are very popular at all age levels and draw thousands of people to the slopes each year. Although, as health care professionals, we advocate for an active, healthy lifestyle for all, we want to ensure that everyone is active in the safest way possible as to prevent injuries.

Winter sport injuries are dominantly traumatic and can be caused by falls, collisions, ski lift accidents and/or dangerous or rough terrain. Some of the most common injuries that are seen are injuries to the knee (ACL and Meniscus tears), injuries to the shoulder (subluxations, dislocations and AC joint sprains), injuries to the head (concussions) and fractures (wrist, hand, finger and ankle). Although some accidents cannot be prevented, below are some tips to minimize your risk of injury.

ENSURE PROPER INSTRUCTION- If you are new to the world of skiing and snowboarding or haven’t hit the slopes in a while, sign up for lessons before heading out on your own. Most, if not all, ski resorts offer free lessons to new and even experienced skiers and snowboarders. Taking lessons will teach you about proper technique, how to fall safely, how to properly use the ski lifts, the “rules of the slopes” and which slopes are geared for your ability level. Let a professional instruct you correctly before you develop you own bad habits, which can place yourself, as well as those around you, in danger!

UTILIZE PROPER EQUIPMENT- Speak with a professional at a ski shop or sporting goods store when purchasing or renting ski and snowboard equipment. Although the temperature is cold outside your body temperature will slowly increase as you begin activity. Wearing several layers of light, loose-fitting, water and wind resistant clothing will help your body when adjusting to the temperature changes. Wearing appropriate protective equipment such as goggles and a helmet will aid in minimizing the extent of injury just in case an accident does happen.  Before setting sail down the mountain, check the bindings to your skis and snowboard to ensure they are adjusted and set to your height, weight and experience level. Improper set up of you bindings or faulty bindings can lead to a dangerous fall due to lack of control of your equipment. Finally, never use old or outdated equipment without checking with a professional to ensure safety first.

KNOW YOUR SURROUNDINGS- Check with your instructor or read the signage around the resort and abide by all safety rules of the slopes. Learning how to yield, stop and safely fall meanwhile keeping your eyes and ears open for potential hazards when skiing down a busy mountain can prevent numerous injuries from occurring. When choosing a slope to head down, make sure the trail is marked, free of any rocks, trees and large icy patches and that the experience level matches that of your own. Being aware of your surroundings and learning how to navigate the slopes will not only keep you safe, but will also protect those around you.

WARM UP- Beginning an activity without properly preparing the body sends thousands of people to the emergency room or their physician’s office every day. Just like we let our cars heat up on a cold, icy day our bodies need time to prepare for the stressors that we will be placing on it. Research has shown that “cold” muscles are more prone to injury. Warming up, or increasing blood flow to the body’s musculature, by completing a mixture of static and dynamic stretches and slightly elevating the heart rate by completing a short jog will greatly diminish the chances of a soft tissue injury (i.e. strains and sprains).

HYDATE AND FUEL UP-Give your body all the tools it needs to withstand a long, tiring day on the slopes. Start your day off with a well –balanced breakfast of healthy proteins and carbohydrates to provide your body with the energy it needs to remain alert throughout the day. Dehydration can occur more quickly in the cold due to the amount of respiratory fluid loss through breathing, sweat quickly evaporating in the cold air and under the multiple layers of clothing and people don’t drink water as often due to not feeling as thirsty as they may feel in the heat. Remember to hydrate before, during and after the day as well as replace the calories lost through healthy snacking throughout the day.

Skiing and snowboarding are great ways to remain active in the winter and are sports that can be enjoyed by all if done properly.  Following the tips above and consulting with a professional if you have any questions or concerns, will hopefully lead to an injury free winter sport season!

Hey there, this is Bedros Keuilian, founder of Fit Body Boot Camp. You may have seen one of our locations pop up in your neighborhood recently, and maybe you’re curious about our approach to fitness. Well, today I’m here to show you just that. That’s right, I’m going to explain the entire Fit Body Boot Camp philosophy right here (even the parts you can use at home!)

Our philosophy really comes down to three main components: using the right workout, following the right nutrition plan, and joining the right community. For each of these components, we have a unique approach that we’ve developed by applying our own fitness expertise and incorporating direct feedback from our thousands of members. I should point out here that each of these components are equally important: they support each other, and none of them would work just on its own.

Now let’s look at each of these components in-depth.

The Right Workout

On the surface, you might look at our workouts and think they are designed for convenience. Each workout is only 30 minutes long, and most of our members come in for 3-4 workouts per week. While our members certainly do find our workouts convenient, we consider convenience a happy side-effect of our real goal: finding the most efficient workout formula for lasting weight loss results.

The key word there is “efficient.” In the past, most weight loss workout formulas required huge time commitments. They were mostly developed by and for people who are already way into fitness, people who don’t mind spending hours and hours in the gym every day.

The reality is, most people don’t have that kind of time. Most people have 40-hour work weeks or more, families to feed and spend time with, and if they can even manage the time after all that they have hobbies. We knew we needed to develop a formula that would help these people burn the maximum amount of calories per minute of workout time.

That’s when we discovered a training technique with incredible promise, something called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). There’s a lot of sophisticated science that goes into HIIT, but the core idea is actually quite simple: by chopping your workout into short bursts of intense activity and using a wide variety of muscle groups, you can supercharge your body’s metabolism and burn more calories per minute than you would ever burn on a treadmill.

Through careful tweaking, field testing, and refining, we took the core idea of HIIT and put our own special twist on it: the Afterburn Effect. See, we found a way to actually increase your metabolism for up to 31 hours after you finish your workout. Again, there’s a lot of sophisticated science behind this (the technical term is Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) but the basic idea remains simple: we train our members to use the most efficient workout possible so they can burn calories even when they’re resting at home.

So what does all this look like in practice? Well, allow me to paint you a mental picture of one of our boot camp locations. The first thing you notice is that there’s not a lot of equipment in the building. Sure, there’s a set of suspension cables in one corner, battle ropes in another, and tucked in along the walls are medicine balls, dumbbells, kettlebells, and a few boxes, but that’s it. There’s no heavy, complicated gym equipment, and the center of the room is totally open. Once the workout starts, you figure out why – most of the exercises are classic moves like jumping jacks, push ups and squats.

That’s another great thing about our formula: it doesn’t require any complicated equipment or special moves. The Afterburn Effect comes from doing the right moves in the right order with the right intensity, so the moves themselves are quite simple, and we like it that way. Why make getting in shape more complicated than it needs to be?

The Right Nutrition

If there’s one piece of advice I can’t stress enough, it’s this: you cannot out-train a bad diet. That’s why our trainers at Fit Body Boot Camp do something that a lot of programs don’t bother with: they actually sit down with every boot camp member individually and help them plan out their new diet.

Now I have to admit, the world of nutrition is where I get especially annoyed with all the hype and nonsense in the world. With workouts, wasting hours of your time on a treadmill may not help you lose weight, but it at least won’t hurt you. By contrast, the world of nutrition is full of starvation diets, magic pills and mysterious juices that don’t help anyone lose weight and often cause nasty side effects.

At Fit Body Boot Camp, we believe in a simple, healthy diet that will keep you happy and energized while also keeping off the weight you’re trying to burn. That means rearranging your eating schedule to maximize your body’s metabolism and filling you up with fresh, whole foods that are packed with protein and essential vitamins.

Speaking of which, there’s another common lie about nutrition that really gets under my skin: the idea that losing weight requires that you eat less food. This is an absolute lie, and it’s one that I find almost confusing in how wrong it is.

See, the truth is, if everyone on Earth right now were to start eating their ideal diet, the grand majority of us would be eating more food than we do right now. And this is not exactly a secret – any nutritionist who knows their stuff can tell you that eating more of the right foods is far more important than eating less overall. That’s why the parts of this country that have the worst obesity rates also have the worst rates of malnutrition.

And that’s what confuses me: why is there not a huge buzz around the opportunity to eat more? Last time I checked, most people love food and wouldn’t mind having more of it. Of course, you do still need to plan when and what you eat, but if anyone ever tries to tell you that eating less equals faster weight loss, turn the other way and run. Whatever they’re trying to sell you is a scam and it will do more harm than good.

So what does the right plan look like? To start with, we encourage all our members to switch from eating three big meals per day to eating five or six slightly smaller meals per day. Again, most people end up eating more food per day after making this switch. Now, your number of meals per day may seem like sort of a trivial thing, but this is actually a crucial component of any good nutrition plan.

The problem with eating three big meals per day is that it forces your body’s metabolism to go through huge peaks and valleys throughout the day, which is an inefficient way to burn calories. Think about it: at each big meal, you’re signaling your body to spike your metabolism way up, and in the long breaks between meals you’re signaling your body to bring your metabolism way back down. Unfortunately, this means that between meals you still have a big lump of food in your stomach digesting at a painfully slow rate, leaving you feeling sluggish and causing weight gain. Then, when you finally do have your next meal your body has to scramble to get your metabolism back up to speed. See how inefficient that is?

Now, if you follow our advice and eat smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day, your body is able to keep your metabolism much more even and efficient. At each meal, your body signals your metabolism to bump up just slightly, since you aren’t consuming that much food at once. And, since your meals are closer together, your metabolism doesn’t dip down as much between meals. Once you get into the groove of it, your body quickly converts food to energy every time you eat. No more sluggish feelings, and no more weight gain – just a healthier, happier body.

Our advice for what people should eat is, once again, a simple idea backed up by a lot of science. We encourage our members to reduce if not eliminate the processed foods in their diet. We also encourage them to eat a healthy balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats (the exact ratio is different for each person). That reminds me of another myth: the idea that carbohydrates and fats are to be avoided at all costs. False. Carbohydrates and fats are natural, necessary parts of the the human diet. Always have been, always will be. The key to smart nutrition is to just keep them in proper proportion with other nutrients.

The great thing about our approach to nutrition is that it gives our members a lot of flexibility. As long as they use fresh, whole ingredients and follow the right meal plan, our members can enjoy pretty much whatever foods they want. The last thing we want is for people to see their meal plan as a chore or a burden. Look, I’m a big fan of food myself, and even as a fitness professional I would be furious if anyone ever slapped my wrist and told me I couldn’t enjoy a good steak.

In fact, we at Fit Body Boot Camp are so committed to keeping food fun (and so confident in the power of our program) that we allow our members a “cheat day” every week when they can eat whatever they want. Seriously, anything. We’ve found that our members have a much easier time staying motivated when they know they can still have their favorite foods.

The Right Community

Again, this is an area of fitness that I think is just now starting to get the attention it deserves. Too many times in the past, fitness experts and their clients have had a very rocky relationship. Clients have often seen their trainers as harsh, finger-waving authority figures who make them feel bad about themselves, and trainers have often seen their clients as unmotivated and stuck in their ways.

With Fit Body Boot Camp, I knew I wanted to build and maintain a completely different kind of culture because I knew that the right culture would give each member the right mindset and therefore the best possible results. That’s why everything we do, everything from our social media engagement to our trainer-member interactions, centers around cooperation and self-love. In fact, we think of all our members and trainers as part of one big family, and we even set up special Facebook groups where the Family can meet up and support each other.

Too often, people in the fitness world will say really nasty things about themselves and other people and say they’re just trying to “motivate.” I can tell you from experience that motivation just doesn’t work that way. There have been periods of my life where I was surrounded by negative, critical people, and periods where I was surrounded by positive, encouraging people. I can tell you for a fact that the positive people have helped me achieve more personal and professional growth than the negative ones ever did. These days, I make a very conscious effort to only hang around with positive people, and I’ve built that same philosophy into Fit Body Boot Camp.

When we hire trainers, we don’t just hire people who can train well. We hire people who can train well and who genuinely care about other people’s fitness, and we make sure they show that care every day through their actions. When one of our members starts missing boot camp, their trainer will call them personally to check up on them and do whatever it takes to get them back on track. If that means talking that member through some personal problems, our trainers will do it.

The truth is, getting fit isn’t always easy. And life can throw new challenges at us any second. That’s why to really get fit and stay fit, each of us needs a community of like-minded people to keep us accountable. Family and friends are a great place to start, but not everyone has the most supportive people in their lives. That’s why I set up Fit Body Boot Camp to be the positive, encouraging community that so many people need in their lives.

I am no statistics machine, but I would venture that 100% of adults have commented about kids being all wound up at least once. Perhaps they even used the old “bundles of energy” cliché. Yes, kids have inherently high amounts energy inside of them and often cannot sit still.

As a kid, I used to be able to ride my bike to the local park. I used to be able to run through the woods to go to a neighbor’s house to meet other friends and play. In today’s society, parents won’t let kids out of their sight, and that sight tends to be limited to the house, the “parent trap”. Parents are sometimes too busy themselves to transport their kids around, if they are even lucky enough to be home from work when the kids get off the school bus. Trying to manage kids, a home, dinner, homework, bath, reading, bedtime, and paying all the bills with a fulltime job is no small task. In order to keep up with every daily task, many times parents transform these bundles of energy into a “keep yourself occupied” kid.

So, you ask me: “How do you get kids excited about fitness”? That’s easy! Break the mold, change your everyday routine. It’s up to you, the parent! You will certainly have to sacrifice a little with household duties and compromise on other parts of life. Laundry may take one more day. A few dishes may not be put away. Just do it! Get out of the house and do…anything.

1. Everyday Adventures: Exercise can be as easy as walking somewhere. Make it a destination so that you have a goal to reach. Kids might not want to just go around the block, but they might like to walk by their favorite store and look in the window. They might like to take their dog for a walk-that dog might even pull them the whole way there, giving them extra exercise! Even the dog will be happy with the new lifestyle change. Walk along the stream, or climb a tree. Take a mountain trail, climb some rocks, get your hands and feet a little dirty. Use those muscles. The best part is that the kids don’t even know it until they say, “my legs are tired” as they are walking back to the car.

2. Play Detective: Make a scavenger hunt. Design it with competition so kids run around finding clues. In addition, you can add climbing over, crawling under, or carrying objects along the way to get to the next clue. They will be exercising and physically challenged too!

3. Jump Around: If you have the luxury of access to a trampoline or even the newer concept of an indoor trampoline park with many trampolines, kids go crazy and come out sweating from the invisible exercise.

4. Seasonal Favorites: For more seasonal exercises, there are always the obvious swimming and sleigh-riding activities that are filled with hidden exercises. Walking up and down a hill fifteen times in deep snow or a day at the pool or the beach will surely put them to bed early.

5. Try something new: Expand your horizons, both yours and the kids’. Stop at some batting cages and hit balls. Try hitting golf balls. Bowling. Even a walk through an art gallery will beat sitting behind a computer. Photography could get the explorer in both of you traveling to new places in search of new scenery. Indoor archery!

Keep your eyes open everywhere you go, every town you drive in or by. In today’s changing world, there are new things popping up everywhere. What was old is new again. New businesses that pop up in small towns offer new opportunities for adventure and breaking the mold. Modern internet opportunities make it easy to search for new activities. Most search engines now offer town specific or zip code searches. Things you had never thought of are all at your fingertips, waiting to help you climb out of the trap. What’s more is those kids might even be the inspiration to help you find a healthy lifestyle too. All activity will help get that pulse going and help prevent diabetes and heart disease. Don’t you want to watch your children grow up healthy and strong?

I always forget that there is so much (mis)information on the web, as well as popular magazines, until I start working with a new client. The biggest issue is what I call “terminology divergence”.

A new client arrives and has done some reading, they may have even started working out on their own before they meet with you. The first hurdle is to make sure you speak the same language; do you both use the same words that mean totally different things?

Here are my top three:

1.  “I want to activate/strengthen my core”

This tops the list for most trainer I know.   Books, DVDs, magazines, blogs all tell us we have to strengthen, squeeze, activate our core.   Immediately we think of abdominal region (we all want chiselled abs). In reality, the core is so much more.  In fact, I would say that the core is your entire body.

Here are some tips on what works your core and what doesn’t:

• Sucking in your tummy and holding your breath is NOT activating strengthening your core.
• Tucking your pelvis is NOT tightening your core or activating your pelvic floor.
• Deep breathing and variations in breathing turns on your core.
  See Dr. Weil Website for detail instructions.
• Planks, side planks, modified planks, chair planks,  all kind of planks work your core.
• Kettlebell swings activate your core (not to mention give you killer abs).
• Deadlifts strengthen your core.

Take time to talk to a movement specialist to find your areas of deficit and how to best create a program that fits your body and maximizes the efficiency of your movement patterns.

2.  “I want to eat clean”

When food scientists and marketers got their hands on our food supply life got very complicated. When an excited new client starts with me I get them to take photos of their food and text me so that there is no misunderstanding of what either one of us means or ingests.

• An organic gluten-free, vegan cupcake whose first ingredient is sugar is not clean eating.
• You want to have meat free Monday because you think it will be better for you and you grab some veggie hotdogs that contain syrup and highly processed protein isolates.   This is not clean eating.

You want foods that are real. Preferably they do not need packaging or an ingredient list that you need to Google and then discovered that it is a synthesized chemical structure.

An example of a great protein packed, vegetarian, clean eating, summer salad can be found HERE

A super simple steak dinner recipe can be found HERE

Playing around with new ingredients will help you discover what you like and what you don’t like.   If you don’t like arugula it doesn’t mean you cannot use a recipe that calls for a aruglar; just swap it out for something else that you do like.  Finding a local store  that has fresh produce at a very reasonable price is a great starting point.   In San Francisco Bay Area we’re spoiled for choice;  The Milk Pail in Mountain View,  Foothill Produce in Los Altos, Felipe’s Market in Sunnyvale.

3. “I have tight IT bands”

You have religiously foam rolled your IT band for weeks.   You get temporary relief and then it is quickly over.   Yes, your IT band may be tight, but what does the rest of your kinetic chain look like?

When you move, do your glutes (maximus and medius) turn “on” and “off” appropriately?

When you walk/run, which part of the foot are you landing on?  Do you land “hard” because your biomechanics are not optimized?  Is your foot and ankle complex flexible and strong?  Are you using your hip flexors properly?  What about your back?

Is it never a localized issue.  Your body is a singular unit that needs to move and be cared for accordingly.

Find a movement specialist who can assess your real life movement patterns (I use SparkMotion) to find out what is going on and then you can start looking to correct it.

I ask my clients to be open to learning, to be ready to connect with their bodies and learn about themselves.  We work as a team to find the correct mix of things that work to find holistic wellness.