Hype-Free Fad-Free Fitness By Pete

On my last post I gave you the 10 Biggest Workout Mistakes
we commonly see when doing a fitness analysis and consultation
with a new client.  Today we'll go into some of the details
about the first one on the list.  Let's get start...

1. No plan or structure: "Winging it"

This is probably the most common problem we see.  People
going to the gym jumping on some of the equipment, working
up a sweat and hoping it works.

Unfortunately, as they say, "if you fail to plan, you plan
to fail". Not having a specific workout plan for the day,
week, month and months ahead drastically decreases your odds
of success. Not to mention you'll eventually get bored and
frustrated by not being able to see progress.

I'm not placing blame on you. Designing an effective workout
plan is more complicated than people think.  It requires
knowledge in exercise physiology, biomechanics and the
study of methods proven by research - not new stand magazines.

With that said, let's make sure you are at least armed with
some basic knowledge that will help improve what you are
currently doing.

First, going to the gym and hopping machine to machine will
not get you the results you want. Setting aside the fact that
machine based exercise programs are faulty in the first place.
If you are a member of a gym and they have a "personal trainer"
give you a "workout program" that simply has you moving
machine to machine, you will need to evaluate the program
yourself.  Make sure these BASICS are in the program design:

1. You are performing large muscle group exercises before small.
For example, Legs, shoulders, back or chest before arms.

2. Your Core Training (abs, back, obliques, etc.) is done at
the end of your workout to prevent injury.  Reason: you use
your Core muscles in all exercises.  If you pre-fatigue these
muscles before you do other exercises you are increasing the
chances of being injured. The Core muscles support your back
and provide stability to all of your other exercises.  If
your Core is already tired it's like trying to shoot a
cannon from a canoe. 

3. Are your sets, reps, rest periods and tempo's appropriate
for your goals? For example, if you are trying to increase
your strength you should not be doing over 8 repetitions per
exercise.  You should also allow yourself enough rest between
sets for the muscle to recover. If you are trying to increase
muscle size or add muscle tone, the tempo of the exercise is also
important to create the appropriate physiological response
that creates hypertrophy (muscle growth). If you want to
lose weight you need to have repetitions, sets, rest periods
and tempo's need to be appropriate to maximize calorie expenditure,
oxidization of fat as energy and to create a post workout
metabolic boost.

There are many more basics that must be in an effective program,
but I can't cover all the basics in a blog let alone
advanced techniques, but this should give you a jump start to
know if you are on track or getting good advice.

There will be some other important program design elements that
will come up as we address the other 9 mistakes throughout this
week, so come back soon!

In good health,

Pete Piranio BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
www.FitnessTogether.net

P.S. If this has your head spinning or more confused, come in to
see us for a Introductory Session and Consultation and we'll help
you design an effective program. You use it on your own
or if want the ongoing coaching and guidance we can recommend
an individualized program for you.  You can contact us for a
free consultation here: www.FitnessTogether.net/FreeConsult.html

P.P.S.  Let's not forget another big part of the fitness success
equation -nutrition! Give your body the right nutrition to support your
workouts. Attend Milwaukee's Original Grocery Shopping Tours with
Fitness Together.  You'll learn what the food companies don't want
you to know, how you can forget about diets and learn everyday
nutritional tips from our fitness consultants. Find the closest
tour at a grocery store near you: www.FTGroceryShoppingTours.com

Yes, I said I would write about The 5 Biggest Workout Mistakes, but I just couldn't help myself. They just kept coming to me after I reflected on most of the problems we see when doing an initial fitness analysis and consultation with a new client.

Today I want to leave you with some food for thought you can chew on over the weekend with your hype-free fad-free guide for the key strategies we'll be covering next week.  You won't want to miss this information if your workouts haven't been getting the job done, you’re constantly hitting a plateau, you're bored, you're always sore from your workouts, you've never experienced an energy increase and instead you feel more tired than ever, your joints hurt, you never feel or see any progress or this work out thing is just a mystery. 

We'll solve these problems next week, but let me leave you with some hints that create these problems for most. Let's dive right into The 10 Biggest Workout Mistakes I see people making every day.  These killers are not what most people think about, when the frustration of hours of workouts in the gym produce zero results:

1. No plan or structure: "Winging it"

2. Repeating the same workouts or same circuit of machines

3. Every workout is different or falling for the newest hyped buzz word "Muscle Confusion".

4. Doing cardio before resistance training

5. No Progressions to your exercise selection

6. Using mostly machines and single joint/isolation exercises

7. No pre or post workout nutrition to get maximum benefit from each exercise minute.

8. Exercising without a specific purpose for the day, week or month.

9. Training only some of the muscles or trying to "spot reduce".

10. Working muscle groups in a random order.

There you have it. If you don't have this list right you are making exercising and achieving your fitness goals harder than it needs to be.  The good news is I've got answers.  See you next week!

In good health,

Pete Piranio BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
Brookfield 262-780-6350
Delafield 262-646-5444
Wauwatosa 414-453-9800
www.FitnessTogether.net 

P.S. If your workouts are great, but you're struggling with nutrition attend one of Fitness Together's Original Grocery Shopping Tours.  You'll learn what the food companies don't want you to know and everyday nutritional strategies from our fitness consultants. Go here: www.FTGroceryShoppingTours.com 

P.P.S. If learning all of this is just too much, confusing and frustrating you don't have to do it alone. If you want help, guidance and coaching come on in and see us:www.FitnessTogether.net/FreeConsult.html

As you read in my previous blog it has been a busy couple of months.

Even with everything going on it was hard not to see the bad

economy news every day. A slowing in the economy wasn't really

a surprise to me.  If you look at history we were bound to have

a down cycle, but the market dropping at record levels was an

eye opener.  It sure wasn't anything I expected. 

Today, I would like to suggest a short and long term investment

strategy you won't read in the Wall Street Journal or from Mad

Money's Jim Cramer, but it will pay BIG dividends.

I believe right now is an opportunity to really evaluate what's

important to you. It's very easy for us to get caught up in the

everyday rat race and not take the time for what's really

important. I can't tell you how many people I've worked with

that have been stuck in the race at the sacrifice of their own

health. Times like these can be a big wakeup.

I believe now is an opportunity to evaluate what are your best

investments for short term and long term returns.  Evaluate

where you spend your money and how this fits into your real

priorities.

One priority that can pay a long and short term return is to

invest in yourself - your health!

This might sound like a lot of motivational hype or you might

be saying, "get real Pete, you fitness geek, I live in the real

world."  Well, let me give you some hard facts and numbers to

consider. 

Let's step away from what theoretically sounds good and let me

prove to you how this is an actual REAL investment that can

give you BIG returns.

We don't often look at investing in a fitness and nutrition

as an investment, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Many large and small companies are seeing positive ROI in

investing in preventative wellness programs and improving their

bottom line by decreasing health care costs, disability cost,

less sick time and improving recruiting and retention.  They

wouldn't be making these investments if it didn't improve

the bottom line. 

Healthcare costs have increased from 8-14% for many companies

(our company personally increase 21% and we are fit pro's!). 

This is threatening companies of all sizes and more of these

costs are having to be passed on to the employee.

Need more...

From 1960 to 2002 the prevalence of overweight people increased

from 44.8% to 65.2 and during this same time the prevalence of

obesity people more than doubled from 13.3 to 30.5.

Being overweight or obese are known to create the following

health conditions, that will cost you money, quality of life

and could be the biggest threat to enjoying any investment you

socked away for retirement:

• diabetes

• coronary heart disease

• high blood cholesterol

• stroke

• hypertension

• gallbladder disease

• osteoarthritis and osteoporosis

• sleep apnea/other breathing

• some forms of cancer

The lack of exercise has also been shown to contribute to ten

serious health conditions including stroke, diabetes, cancer,

osteoporosis and mental health decline. In a groundbreaking

study of 5700 women, it was found that those who were unable

to reach 85% of their age-predicted exercise capacity had twice

the risk for serious heart disease and death.

These are not just interesting statistics. Chronic illness,

including heart disease, diabetes and obesity, accounts for 75%

of health costs, according to the American Public Health

Association.

According to the Wall Street Journal, health care costs per

capita will reach $7,500 this year, more than double the $3,470

per person in 1993. Of most concern is the fact that the rate

of inflation in this arena continues to grow at an unsustainable

annual rate of 8-14%.

Excluding the indirect costs, the U.S. spent 15.3% of the entire

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care in 2004, a figure

that is clearly expected to escalate as newer data becomes

available.

Whether you own a company, are an executive making financial

decision for your company or an employee, the costs to not

investing in preventative  health are profound.  Increases in

premium costs, deductibles and other costs are now being passed

on to the consumer - you!

Keep in mind that direct health care costs are far from being

the only expenses tied to your bottom line. Several other

factors play a notable role as well, including:

• Absenteeism from work

• Productivity and energy, what is commonly referred to as

“Presenteeism”

• Physical capacity to handle stress

• Mental capacity

• Your overall value to your company

Now that I've given you a exorbitant  amount of "logical" proof

for investing in yourself and how it is truly an economical

winner, let's finish by looking at the intangible returns:

What is it worth to enjoy a long quality life with your family? 

What is it worth to increase your energy, decrease stress, not

getting sick as often and just feel good every day?

What good are investments you can't enjoy because of poor health?

I think you know the answers to these questions. It's why you are

reading this blog.

In times like these it's nice to know you've made wise investments. 

I think what one of our clients said says it all:

“The best investment in myself I’ve ever made! Having made the

“rounds” of gyms, health clubs, and group exercise. I finally found

fitness success. 1 Client 1 Trainer 1 Goal really works!”

– Bonnie Koch, Delafield

Come back soon to learn the 5 Biggest Workout Mistakes.

In good health,

Pete Piranio BS, CSCS

Owner/Fitness Consultant

Fitness Together

www.FitnessTogether.net

Brookfield 262-780-6350

Delafield 262-646-5444

Wauwatosa 414-453-9800

Woodbury, MN 651-436-8137

P.S. - Watch the videos of some of our clients who decided to make

their health a good investment and made a dramatic improvements in

their health: www.fitnesstogether.net/real_people.html

If you have any questions or comments about this blog, our services

at Fitness Together, or anything at all having to do with health and

fitness, just call us at 262-646-3055 or post here and ask away...:)

All content provided for information purposes only. This is not intended to

treat or manage disease. Be sure to check with your doctor before engaging

in any dietary or fitness changes and/or routines.

Dear Fitness Enthusiast,

Holy cow has it been a busy couple of months!  I just finished the last
seminar of the year that was part of a seminar tour that took me through Boston,
San Diego, Connecticut and Denver three times.  Oh, and did I mention that
we just opened our newest Fitness Together location in Woodbury Minnesota
while continuing to make people skinny here in Brookfield, Wauwatosa and the Lake
Country.

Yes, some may say I am crazy, but when you’re addicted to fitness you have extra
gas in the gas tank that many don't. This doesn't mean some balls didn't get dropped
along the way.  I am only human after all. 

This blog was one of the balls.  If they only had the internet on planes I would have
been fine!

I don't like people making excuses so I'll stop there and instead make up for it
by giving you an arsenal of fitness, nutrition, weight loss and health information
in one big shot!  A big fitness jumpstart to this blog and a killer tool that will
make every future post I make more meaningful, motivational and useful. A tool that
will help you take my tips and strategies on future posts and get all the nitty
gritty details that will make implementation even easier.  After all, implementation
is what it's all about anyway.  Great advice is only advice until you put it in
action.

Ok, Ok, here it is...

To get us caught up on Hype-Free, Fad-Free Fitness and Weight Loss tips, tools and
strategies - to finish 2008 feeling good - to make 2009 our best year ever - I've
got a great gift for you:

Introducing the Hype-Free, Fad-Free Health, Fitness and Weight Loss Toolkit.  This
196 page toolkit will make up for any gap in Motivation, Nutrition, Workout, Supplement
and Fitness advice you've missed from me over the last few weeks. And it's yours Free! 

Oh yeah, I feel that guilty about not guiding you through the health and fitness maze
the last month.

Here's a little of the information packed into this toolkit:

• Tons of healthy recipes for every occasion. Your guest or family will never know
   your scrumptious meal was healthy.
  
• 10 plus illustrated, step by step workouts you can start using tomorrow.
  
• Got questions about supplements.  The answers are in the toolkit.
  
• Real world trainer tips about what works and what's hype.
  
• And much more...
  
  

Click here to get it now

Here's the only catch...

It can't go on the shelf!  You have to crack it open and get going!  And you have
to make sure you check back in on this blog often and I'll help you put that toolkit
into action.

Plus, here is what's coming...

I will be posting our Biggest Loser Contestants video updates of their progress,
daily trainer notes and meal plans.  You can join right in and transform your
body right along with them!

Until then, thank you for allowing me to guide you through the health and fitness
maze!

In good health,

Pete Piranio, BS, CSCS
Owner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
Brookfield 262.780.6350
Delafield 262.646-5444
Wauwatosa 414.453.9800
www.FitnessTogether.net

P.S.  Get your Hype-Free, Fad-Free Health, Fitness and Weight Loss Toolkit Here:
http://fitnesstogether.net/toolkit.html