hassanthedon

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hey hey! welcome to MFT!! Im super glad to see you're here from outside the US :)

here;'s a beginners guide that will help you tremendously!!

Making the Life Change

“To make no time for exercise, is to make much time for sickness”

~Will Livingston

I | Diet

The first and most important step in achieving your new lifestyle is time management. Just like school, work, weddings and trips to see your favorite mother-in-law, you have to plan time for these things, unfortunately. The same principal goes for your exercise routine.

Plan your exercise each day around the same time so it becomes a natural part of your daily routine. You’ll be much less likely to skip or miss a workout; if you really do find yourself without time, you can always do an alternate workout (any exercise is better than nothing), or make it up the next day.

The next most important thing is the type and amount of food you eat, or “diet”. We don’t want you to think you’re on “diet” as the American society has termed this word, because you’re not restricting yourself from any foods, and the word doesn’t mean to lose weight. We’ve included a shopping list of the most nutritious, filling and energy-packed foods. Use it as a guideline or as the new ‘makeover’ for your kitchen cupboards. Learning to manage portions is the most important technique to successful living, and reaching your goals no matter what they are.

Nowadays, people are trying to stick to diets that promote weight loss. These diets range from the most absurd (the macaroni and cheese diet) to the somewhat believable (all fruit diet). The problem with all these diets is number one, food restriction. You are restricted from the important healthy vegetables, fruits and lean protein sources which provide us with the essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients we need to live. The biggest reason these diets may work short term is because your body is exposed to severe calorie deprivation. This is very bad. Along with severe malnutrition, your body eats away at your muscle, the most important weapon in your body, especially against fighting fat. In fact, for every extra pound of muscle you gain, you burn 50 calories a day just maintaining it. You need muscle to move, breath, talk, react and the list goes on. The other horrible effect is that as soon as you encounter a calorie surplus, your body will act accordingly and store all the rest as fat, because it thinks it will be starving again very soon, and it’s right. So now, you just starved yourself to lose 6 pounds in two weeks, half of that being fat. Now when you go back to your normal diet, (possibly eating even more now because you’re so hungry) you’ll actually be eating 100-200 calories more than your body needs, just to maintain itself, because you just lost 3 pounds of muscle! Not exactly what I would call a successful diet, not by a long shot. So what do you do?

Eat more, often! This is so important. Many research and studies have proven this, but the most important aspect is our knowledge and understanding of the human body and how it functions, specifically digestion which is how we obtain our energy from food. Forgetting what any studies show, lets go back to the basics for a minute. You’re body is constantly working, burning energy required for your movement and response to every daily task you perform. Maintaining a constant energy balance requires proper and adequate food intake. Frequent eating is much like going to the beach and putting on sunscreen; except you’re applying a “layer of energy” to fuel your body, protecting you for a few hours from the harmful effects of the sun (in this case, catabolism), until you can get back inside where you’re safer from the sun’s harmful rays (when you can eat a real meal).

Here is an example of why I suggest applying a “layer of energy”, eating smaller more frequent meals, to your body: If it takes 2 hours for your meal to digest, and that meal was about 400 calories, then over the next 2 hours, you will have about 400 calories of energy strictly from the food you just ate. This is why it is important to eat frequently, but smaller meals. This also means that in the next 2 hours if you’re body doesn’t use 400 calories, for any task from breathing to blinking to running, the excess calories will be stored as fat. This is why eating only three meals a day doesn’t work well. Your body won’t need 1,000 plus calories over even a 4 or 5 hour period, which it may take to digest that meal. The extra will be stored as fat, and to add insult to injury, you might not eat for another 4 or 5 hours, so during that time period, your body will have to look for another source of energy. Can you guess what that might be? Your body will look to the quickest source, or whatever source your specific body is adapted to. This is most often muscle. Your body may use some glycogen (stored carbohydrates), and it may use some fat, but unfortunately people who are heavier and have higher body fat percentages are much more likely to store fat, and save the fat they. Like adding coal to an steam-engine, eating 5-7 times a day helps keep the food energy spread out, available when needs and used as energy, not fat storage. Most people have busy lives, jobs and even kids, animals and second jobs. Don’t worry; it’s actually easy to battle this beast.

When I say eat 5-7 times a day, I don’t mean you have to cook 5-7 meals. I know you’re relieved, so am I. I’m very busy between training, work, college and training other clients and my friends. Plan to eat your regular 3 meals a day; we call them breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make sure these meals are a little more than average in calories, but not as high as most people are used to. I’d aim for around 400-500 calories, especially breakfast! If you weigh more than 250 lbs, I would raise the level of calories per meal by 100-200, depending on how much more. The rest of the times you eat are supposed to be snacks to keep you full, and specifically energized until you get time to eat a full meal. These snacks are also supposed to be healthy, energy packed, slowly digested. Remember, we want slower digesting snacks because we need that “layer of energy” to protect from catabolism, or using our body tissues as fuel, thus leading to severe hunger which ultimately leads to overeating, and optimal fat storage.

Smaller frequent meals also helps build and maintain muscle and balance your energy levels. The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn just by “being”. The extra calories go to maintaining your extra muscle and not converted to fat. Now what do you eat to get this “layer of energy?”

I’ve included an excellent list of snacks, as a reference, to keep you full and energized throughout the day. When looking for your own snacks that aren’t on the list, steer clear of high amounts of sugar (10g or more per serving) and fat (8g or more per serving). As always, there are exceptions: the sugar in fruit is always allowed and highly welcomed because of its high fiber and nutrient content, especially after working out and in the morning for breakfast; nuts are excellent source of healthy and nutrient dense fats. Whole grains are a great source of energy because they’re high in nutrients, fiber and naturally have an excellent protein and fat ratio. With this said, I mean real whole grains. Check the labels again, you’re looking for 100% stone ground whole wheat, or 100% whole grain as the first ingredient, or sometimes the second ingredient with water being the first. If you’re still not sure, visit the forums (www.myfittribe.com) and ask us, we’ll help you out, but make sure you remember the brand, name of the snack and the first couple ingredients.

Avoid trans fat and high fructose corn syrup at all cost. The industry is becoming more and more clever these days, and it’s actually quite disgusting. They continue to make money at our nation’s expense. If the label says “0g Trans Fat”, it can still contain trans fat! This just means that there are zero grams, but as you may know, .49 grams rounds down to 0, and they’re allowed to legally put 0g. If the label says “Partially Hydrogenated Oil”, “Fully Hydrogenated” or “Hydrogenated Oil” of any kind, it contains trans fat. This list could read “partially hydrogenated corn oil” or “hydrogenated palm kernel oil”, it does not matter which oil, or how much it is chemically hydrogenated. These types of fats are literally deadly. They are used because they are solids even at high temperatures! Think what that means if that fat is flowing through your arteries or veins! So check the labels please.

Watch what you drink. Following a healthy diet is hard to do when you have unlimited restrictions, but we don’t have any real restrictions, just smarter for you choices. Don’t think of it as what I can’t have, but rather what is going to give me the most energy, nutrients and help me build the healthiest possible body. With that said, sugar loaded drinks just aren’t a good choice. Neither is alcohol. Alcohol has loads of carbohydrates with bad side effects, and turns to fat fast! There’s a reason we call it a “beer” or “alcohol” gut. Soda, juice blends, prepackaged ice teas, chocolate milks and sugar loaded energy drinks are non-nutritious calorie loaded fat bombs. Try to limit yourself to water, low-fat (skim) milk and if you like soda, limit it to a few glasses of diet soda a day.

Be smart and healthy during the most stressful time, during the week, to keep your body energized and keep your mood levels up to help you work smarter and accomplish your fitness goals. Make sure all your meals have a close ratio of high protein, moderate healthy carbohydrates and a few grams of healthy fats. Check out the list for the best choices.

On the weekends I want to you relax a bit. Go ahead and enjoy eating out if you want, and going to a party. Just be smart. Eat slow so you don’t eat too much, and make smarter choices for the rest of the day. Preferably eat whatever you want for breakfast, with the rest of the day being healthier, protein packed meals.

II | Exercise

Always talk to your Doctor or Physician before starting any exercise routine, primarily for disclaimer reasons unfortunately. For best results, we need to know your goals and fitness levels to help assess a proper training routine, along with an injuries or problems you have, such as back pain, shoulder aches, etcetera.

Circuit training is the overall best type of training. It incorporates full body training, along with a great cardiovascular workout to help keep your heart rate up while building muscular endurance, strength, adding lean muscle mass, burning fat and developing a healthier heart. Train 3 times a week is definitely an achievable goal. On your off days, cardiovascular activities are very important to maintaining weight, losing fat and improving your heart. All of this will drastically help to reduce your susceptibility to many diseases, especially those which are heart related.

Circuit training involves one to several circuits of exercises, always performed in order before taking a rest. The higher the fitness levels, the more sets of each exercise you will be able to complete, and therefore more overall circuits. I will use the beginners core training as an example (see below for exercise list). There are 3 circuits, each containing 4 exercises. You will start off on Circuit One, with the first exercise on the list, which is the Glute Bridge. You will perform this exercise for 12 repetitions, reps for short. As soon as you are done with that exercise, immediately start the 2nd exercise which is the Balance Ball Leg Curl for 12 reps. Immediately after you finish the Balance Ball Leg Curl, start the 3rd exercise the Balance Ball Shoulder/Back Stretch for 12 reps, then the 4th and final exercise of the 1st circuit, the Body Push Up. This completes one set of the first circuit. Now you will wait 1 minutes (60 seconds) until you start the 2nd set of the first circuit, meaning you will complete the same four exercises in a row for a second time; after you complete the 2nd set of Circuit One, rest another 60 seconds before starting Circuit Two which is also 4 exercises; resting after each full circuit completed. After 2 full sets of Circuit Two, rest again 60 seconds, and start Circuit 3, also 4 exercises which will be completed for 2 full sets of each. Once your fitness level improves, you may do 3 full sets of each Circuit One, Two and Three.

Beginner Core Workout

Circuit One

Glute Bridge

Balance Ball Leg Curl

Balance Ball Back/Shoulder Stretch

Body Push up

Circuit Two

Med Ball StepUp

Overhead Press

Front Body Bridge

Static Side Bridge/Pigeon Stretch

Circuit Three

Floor Ab Crunches

Seated Leg Tucks

Seated Alternate Dumbbell Curls

Bench Triceps Dip

Learning how the Beginner Core workout program is applied throughout the week is very easy. Just follow the directions below to get a basic understanding of how we set it up and why, as well as which days you train, how often and what type.

Core Beginner Workout Program:

It's an 8 week program that consists of 12 exercises to be performed in 3 different circuits, with 2 minute break between each circuit, plus warmup activation and recovery sequences.

Time Required:

60 minutes per training day during the week

Equipment Needed:

Floor mat or towel, balance ball, step or pylometric box, med ball, exercise bench, pair of powerblocks or dumbbells, foam roller, stretching rope.

Workout Frequency: 1 Day on / 2 Days off.

Week 1 and 2:

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2 rounds of circuit 1, 2 and 3
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Reps and sets: 10-12 reps, unilateral movement 6-8
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Rest: 2 minutes between each circuit

Week 3 and 4:

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3 rounds of circuit 1, 2 and 3
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Reps and sets: 10-12 reps, unilateral movement 6-8
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Rest: 90 sec between each circuit

Weekly Non-Training Days: (In Order)

Week 1 and 2:

*

Warm up activation X 2
*

Cardio: 30 minutes (60-70% of MHR) week 1 and 2 (preferred cardio fast walking outdoors or treadmill, elliptical (optional)
*

Recovery X 2 after cardio

Week 3 and 4:

*

Warm up activation X 2

*

Cardio: 30 minutes (70-80% of MHR) preferred cardio is fast walking and jogging (members with knee problems, refrain from this activity) is optional either on the treadmill or outdoors
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Recovery X 2 after cardi

Weekends:

Bouncy recovery (outdoor activities. hiking, cycling)

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Make sure you take your time learning the movements