Back and Shoulder Blast!

Circuit Training: Efficiency in Achieving Your Personal Best!



Rick Lynch achieved his personal best in his 40's!!!

Wow! Amazing! Did he really do that in only six months? Did he take steroids? These are some of the most frequent comments and questions I hear when people see the before and after photos of my client Rick Lynch. Now what he accomplished in six months, completely naturally I must emphasize, is not typical of the results of most in that same time period. But Rick is not typical. He is an incredibly focused and goal oriented person. He trained incredibly hard in my studio, always giving 100% in every workout. He followed an incredibly healthy eating regimen and did not deviate from the meal plan I designed for him. And to get that lean ripped look, he trained exclusively in a circuit program for the last six weeks.

For most of my personal training clients, and all involved in the Body Blast and Intensity group programs, a well designed circuit is my fitness prescription of choice. A circuit is composed of a series of individual exercises. To execute the circuit, you move quickly from one to the other without any rest. The results come quickly and can be dramatic. I'll explain why.

• First, you get a great cardiorespiratory workout. In fact, if executed properly without any rest between stations, the heart rate rises within minutes to a level that in a given duration burns the same amount of calories as jogging a 12 – minute mile! Pretty impressive, and as many of my clients have commented, potentially more exciting.
• Second, when executing a resistance training exercise with the correct weight, you achieve improvements in both muscular strength and endurance. I like to make sure that the weight or resistance is such that it leads to fatigue within 16 -20 repetitions for the muscle(s) being worked. This leads to the development of lean body mass (muscle) while achieving a wonderful 'toned' effect.

The reason I love to use circuits is that in my observations I have always seen the best overall fitness results in the quickest time possible by combining the benefits of weight or resistance training along with cardio training. Not to say that I don't still use use the more traditional sets training approach – I do. For pure strength and muscle gains, they work well. But most of the clients I train are seeking weight loss, better endurance and good muscle tone. And circuits generally get them to their goal the fastest.

I have developed many different types of circuits over the years, dating back to my days in the army training soldiers and ROTC cadets. I use anywhere from three exercises, or 'tri-sets', which you you can watch an example of in the video below, to 10 or more exercises, which I commonly use in the Body Blast program. An approach I typically use as I set up a circuit is to have two weight training events back to back with antagonistic muscle groups (back and chest, biceps and triceps), followed by a core exercise (Crunch, Planks, Hyperextensions).

I think everyone can see improvements by including circuit training periodically in their fitness routine. Rick Lynch used them to help get his ripped and lean body. Even if you just add them for a little variety, as an old TV commercial said, “It does a body good!”

Biggest Loser Progress Week 4

We just finished week four of the Biggest Loser program.  Both teams continue to lose weight collectively, but 'Bombshells and Beefcakes' saw a slight elevation in their average body fat percentage.  This slight elevation could be due to the conversely slight decrease in that teams' hydration levels recorded with the Tanita BC-1000, or even just the deviation inherent in bioimpedance measurements.

Both teams trained hard this week by increasing their 10 station circuit rotations from two during the previous weeks to three this week.  And their motivation remains high!

Competitors, I encourage you to keep up the hard work in both your team and individual fitness programs, and to stick to your healthy eating plans.  Although I know Super Bowl weekend will be tough for some of you!

Here are the updated statistics: 
 

Stats              Booty Busters                       Bombshells and Beefcakes

Composition   Males: 1, Females: 9              Males: 2, Females: 8

Average Age             47                                           48.5

                       Weight    Body Fat                   Weight     Body Fat

Start               171.72     35.14                       190.48      38.67

Week 2          169.60      35.02                      187.56      37.84

Week 3          168.06      33.95                      186.82      36.85

Week 4          166.5        33.04                      185.52      37.16

"A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline"

It's a beautiful Sunday morning here in Lexington, Kentucky...and I qualify that by saying a sunny, 45 degree day at the end of January in an already too long and cold winter is a welcomed relief!  I'm sipping on coffee as I write new monthly training programs for my personal training clients.  I'm thinking of new ways to challenge them and keep them headed in the right direction to achieving their goals.  And I glance at one of the framed quotes I keep on the wall of my training studio.

"A Goal is a Dream with a Deadline."  This simple quote by American author Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970) conveys a message which is so overlooked in our lives.  It is at the heart of the service I provide to my clients and the main ingredient for success I try to instill in each one of them.  We all have dreams of who we want to become and in the case of my clients, the body image and healthy lifestyle they want to attain.  But until we turn those dreams into realistic, achievable goals by establishing a deadline for when we'll arrive there, they remain nothing more than something intangible.

I ask every client what they want to accomplish before I prescribe their first workout.  It may be to get to a certain weight or body fat percentage.  It may be to get back into a specific clothing size.  Their desired results are varied.  It becomes my duty to help them establish a deadline for when they will get there, and to set quantifiable milestones along the way to ensure we are headed in the right direction, with the least number of obstacles, to arriving on time.

So now I return my attention to the client's program setting before me.  Am I keeping them on track?  Is this plan going to get them to that next milestone and more importantly, that current goal?  Alright then...another sip of coffee and back to work!

Biggest Loser Progress Report

I mentioned the Biggest Loser Group I'm working with in my post concerning visceral fat.  Well, they just completed their third week of a 10 week program and their progress is amazing! 

A little background on this group...there are a total of 20 competitors who are placed into two teams of ten.  They have named themselves the "Booty Busters" and "Bombshells and Beefcakes".  As you can probably tell by the names, these teams have a great sense of humor, but more importantly they are individually and collectively committed to making some serious changes to their body composition and overall health.

I conduct a one-hour fitness session twice a week with each of these teams.  Each session is a combined cardio and resistance training circuit geared to maximize burning calories and increasing muscular endurance, strength and flexibility.  In addition each team is encouraged to do some form of fitness training another three days per week, either alone or with their team.  I have also provided each member with a nutrition road map uniquely designed for each member to maximize their body fat loss while eating healthy.  Look for an upcoming post on these concepts with my "three-legged stool" approach to achieving a healthy lifestyle.

Following are the results so far, along with some other details about the teams.  For my readers, check in weekly to see their progress.  For the competitors, keep up the great work!!!

• Booty Busters.
• One male, 9 females
• Average Age: 47
• Start average team weight:  171.72 lbs; average body fat:  35.14 %
• End of week 2 average team weight:  169.6 lbs; average body fat:  35.02 %
• End of week 3 average team weight:  168.06 lbs; average body fat:  33.95 %
• Bombshells and Beefcakes.
• Two males, 8 females
• Average Age: 48.5
• Start average team weight:  190.48 lbs; average body fat:  38.67%
• End of week 2 average team weight:  187.56 lbs; average body fat:  37.84%
• End of week 3 average team weight:  186.82 lbs; average body fat:  36.85%

The New Personal Best WKYT Ad

The new WKYT ad spot for Personal Best.  It was a blast filming this short segment with the WKYT crew and our new "fitness models" - Callie, Matt and Randy.

Does Drinking Iced or Chilled Water Help with Weight Loss?

One question I'm commonly asked by clients is whether drinking iced or chilled water can aid in weight loss.  The short answer to the question is yes, but let's take a look at how this all works.

Let me begin by saying that I'm a big advocate of nutritional guidelines that suggest eight servings of eight ounces of water per day is best for most individuals.  Our bodies' metabolic and physiological processes are dependant on adequate water intake to be at their peak of efficiency.  And all the clients I've worked with who follow the guidelines for a total of 64 ounces per day do better at reducing and keeping their body fat levels lower.

Now lets look at how that cold water comes into play in weight loss.  I'll spare you the mathematics involved in determining how many extra calories are involved, but I'll summarize by saying that one eight ounce glass of iced water utilizes about 8.75 extra calories to bring it up to your body temperature.  If you are curious and want to see how this is determined, I suggest you check out this site.

If you are drinking the suggested 64 ounces per day of water, and and you choose to drink it iced, you will expend approximately 70 calories daily to bring it to core temperature.  That may not sound like a lot, but let's take a look over the long haul.  That's 350 more calories per week, or 3,500 calories in 10 weeks, or 18,200 calories per year!  I purposely mentioned 10 weeks since the 3,500 calories is equivalent to one pound of body fat.  And carrying that further, that would equate to 5.2 pounds of body fat in a year!

So, in answer to the question, I highly recommend following the nutritional guidelines for daily water intake as part of your healthy and fit lifestyle.  And consider chilling or icing it to maximize your fat-fighting efforts.