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Tag: weight training

How to Lose Fat With Hill Sprints

June 27, 2021
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No time to get to the gym? No problem. Just head for the hills. One of the best ways to get in shape and lose fat is to do hill sprints. Not only is this method of training super effective but it takes a very short amount of time to perform and doesn’t cost a thing. Below is a basic hill sprint workout that you can perform on any hill in your local neighborhood. So if your ready for an ass kicking, fat burning, lung bleeding good time please read onward.

Your first job it to scout out a hill in your area. The hill doesn’t have to be too steep. The steeper it is the harder it will be so find one that is just enough to really challenge you. The hill should also have about 30-40 yards of length to sprint up. Now when I say sprint up, I mean SPRINT up! This means 80-90% intensity. You should be out of breath when you get to the top. There is no lollygagging here or the program will not work.

The Warm-up:

Start with a light dynamic warm-up which should take about 8-10 minutes. Here is a sample of one of the warm-ups we use. Start with 2 minutes of jumping rope, light jogging, jumping jacks etc. Then perform the warm-up in the video below. Once you finish the warm-up below do one sprint at about 50% effort. Rest 1-2 minutes. Do another sprint at 75% effort. Rest 3-4 minutes and begin the workout. 

The Workout:

If you are new to hill sprints or haven/t done them in awhile then start with 6 sprints (if you can) and build up from there every 2 workouts.

Set 1: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 2: Immediately Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 3: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 4: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 5: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Set 6: Sprint 30-40 yards up hill as fast as possible. Then walk back down to the bottom

Curse me out then lay there and have a conversation with God as you try to catch your breath.

Important notes:

  1. It is imperative that you sprint 80-90 %maximum effort. This is not a fast jog.
  2. As soon as you reach the top immediately begin to walk back to the bottom
  3. As soon as you reach the bottom IMMEDIATELY sprint back up
  4. If you are not able to maintain this pace then take slightly longer rest intervals and/or start with less sets, 3-4 hill sprints for example. 

It is important not to worry about getting all 6 sets but that the intensity is 1000%

Once you reach 6 sets in a workout do the workout again for 6 sets 2-5 days later and then move up to 7 sets the workout after that. Continue to do the same thing until you reach 12 sets.

Once you finish your last set try to gradually cool down by walking around and doing some light static stretching until your heart rate comes down.

The total workout time should only take a maximum of about 30 minutes including warm-up, workout and cool down. Any longer and you were not doing it right.

This workout is really tough, Please be sure to consult your health care professional before starting and/or trying a new workout program. 

To summarize, if you are trying to lose fat, get in better shape or improve your running speed and endurance than hill sprints can help. Give this workout a go and let me know what you think in the comments? Until next time go kick some ass! 

Yours in health.

Kevin

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The Top 5 Exercises for Healthy Shoulders

June 1, 2021
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The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body. Like all things in life there is a give and take. The extra mobility comes at the cost of stability. This is one of the major reasons shoulder injuries are so common. This is also why it is so important to keep the smaller stabilizing muscles of the shoulder healthy and strong.

Unfortunately, most trainees overlook these small muscles in their training programs. This can lead to muscle imbalances, instability and oftentimes injuries. The following program contains 5 great  exercises to help keep your shoulders healthy and strong. They are also great to help rehabilitate shoulder injures or to use post rehab. 

Important Note:

This article is not meant to take the place of proper care by a medical professional. If you are experiencing pain or have a shoulder injury it is important to first have your shoulder evaluated my a medical professional before beginning any treatment or training program. 

The following program should be done twice per week on nonconsecutive days. E.G. Monday and Thursday. The Program can also be done on upper body days. 

  • Perform 2-3 sets of each exercise
  • Perform 10-12 repetitions for each set
  • Us a moderate tempo 3-0-1-0 (3 second eccentric/lowering, 0 seconds pause at bottom, 1 second concentric or raising and 0 seconds pause on top).
  • Rest 60 seconds between sets.
  • Then move on to the second exercise.

If you have never trained the rotator cuff muscles directly it is important to use very light weights to start. E.G.1-5 pounds. Especially if you are recovering form a shoulder injury. 

Side Lying Dumbbell External Rotations

Dumbbell External Rotations With Elbow on Knee

Dumbbell Trap 3 Raise

Band Pull Aparts

Side Lying Dumbbell Supraspinatis Raise

There you have it. Whether you are recovering from a shoulder injury, trying to prevent injury or just improve performance strengthening the rotator cuff is the key. 

Give this work out a try for 8 weeks and see how you feel?

Let me know in the comments. 

Yours in helath.

Kevin

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Healthy Snacks

April 2, 2021
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| Health and Wellness

One of the most common questions I get asked by clients is “what are some healthy options for me to snack on?” Snacks between meals can be very helpful for fat loss, gaining lean muscle and controlling hunger and cravings but not all snacks are created equal. In fact, eating poor quality snack choices and/or too large of a portion can quickly derail your fat loss and muscle gain progress.

Let’s first define poor quality and high quality snack choices.

Poor Quality Snacks:

  • Processed food-pretzels, chips, most protein bars, candy bars, processed food etc.
  • High Carbohydrate -bagels, cakes, chips and similar junk, snack bars, etc.
  • High Glycemic-candy, snack bars, bagels and bread products, cakes, cookies, etc.
  • Low Protein- All of the above or even a healthy food such as, a salad or veggies without a protein source.
  • Non-nutritious-empty calories-most all packaged and processed snack food. Many smoothie recipes. 

High Quality Snacks

  • Unprocessed-whole food such as, eggs, meat, jerky, chicken, hummus, etc.
  • Quality protein-eggs, meats, poultry, protein powder, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese.
  • Low/moderate carbohydrate- fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds
  • Low glycemic-protein, veggies, low glycemic fruit, jerky, nuts, seeds, etc.
  • Highly nutritious calories-Lean protein,  veggies, salads, nuts, seeds, jerky.

For a great list of high quality snack ideas that will help improve your health and help you achieve your goals please click on the link below for a FREE Healthy Snacks Sheet.

One last caveat, it is important to watch the portion size. Snacks are one of the easiest things to inadvertently consume too much of. This can dramatically increase your daily caloric intake and sabotage your progress. 

To your health,

Kevin

Download Your Free Healthy Snacks Sheet Here!

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Small Steps, Big Changes

March 29, 2021
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| Health and Wellness

One of the hardest things about falling off the health and fitness wagon is getting started again. Many people will be on a roll for a while and getting great results and then life kicks you in your junk and knocks you down. The truth is that this happens to even the most dedicated people from time to time. This post was written to help you get back up and get back at it. If you are having trouble getting motivated to start exercising and eating healthy, please keep reading.

It’s not if life gets in the way and derails your training and nutrition program but when. The trick is get going again. Fortunately, it is not as hard as you think. A common problem is once someone falls off for a while, they get frustrated and oftentimes depressed. Part of the reason for this is that people feel like if they are not able to do as well as they were doing before then it is not worth doing at all. The other reason is that people tend to look at the big picture of everything they have to do to get back to where they were and get intimidated and scared. The trick is to not even think about what you were doing before or all if the things you “should” or “have” to do but focus on one small action step towards your goal that you can do now. Less thinking, more doing.

Depending on how long you have been out of the training and nutrition game you may be very out of shape, feel weak, tight, aches and pains etc. The key is to keep your action step as simple as possible. Do not make it more overwhelming than it already seems to be. Do not try to go from zero to 100 in a week. Simply pick something small that you feel 100% confident that you can do.  For example, set out your gym clothes for the next day’s workout and then walk 10 minutes. Do 10 squats and 10 push-ups 2-3 times per week. If you want to start eating healthier and you have been eating ice cream every night, then starting by not eating ice cream for one night. Sure, you may be thinking “what is that little bit of exercise or dietary change going to do for me?” The answer is to build momentum and confidence. Contrary to what many believe motivation does not lead to action. Action leads to motivation. This approach works for everything in life. The key is that once you start getting some small wins you feel better. You feel accomplished you get into a flow. Then over time you begin to want to do more and more and before you know it you are back at it full swing and kicking ass.

If you have been stuck for awhile or unmotivated to exercise or eat healthy then pick something easy. Even if it is just a small step towards your goal and start by doing that step each day. Then build on it from there. Every great journey began with a first step. Make you first step small and easy and in a short time you will look back and say to yourself ‘Wow, look how far I have come?”

Yours in health,

Kevin

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Should You Use Ice to Treat Injuries?

March 17, 2021
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| Health and Wellness

R.I.C.E. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation has long been the go-to treatment for acute injuries such as sprains, strains, and contusions (Bruises). Some recent studies have shown that using ice on an injury may not work or can even delay the healing process. So, should you use ice to treat an acute injury? That depends on how you use it and when you use it. Applying ice for a long period of time immediately after an injury can actually delay the healing process. The following post is my two cents about using ice to treat injuries.

The theory behind using ice on injuries is to reduce swelling and numb/decrease the pain. This sounds like a good thing doesn’t it? In theory, yes, but some recent studies have shown that the body needs swelling and pain to trigger the body’s natural response to heal the injured area. (Tell that to the person who just severely sprained their ankle, or blew out a knee writhing in agony.) From my experience and experimentation of various techniques in the trenches  I have found the following technique to work the best for treating acute injuries. This technique can be used up to 72 hours post-injury.

I first learned the R.I.C.E. technique explained below from one of my favorite professors of all time Doug Davis at Bergen Community College 24 years ago.

To perform this technique, you will alternate periods of icing with periods of non-icing using compression and elevation. Many people simply leave ice on for an extended period. This I have found can impede the healing process and I personally do not advise that method. Instead, perform the following.

  1. Get an ACE Bandage and saturate it under cold running water. Be sure to let it get saturated. It takes a bit of time. You want to use cold water and make sure that it is wet to maximally conduct the cold through the bandage while also protecting the skin. Ice directly on the skin can cause ice burn which is not pleasant or beneficial.
  2. Using half the ACE bandage snuggly (not too tightly) wrap the bandage around the injured area. Be sure that it is just barely overlapping each time you wrap the bandage around the area, so it is not too thick. You want it snug to help slightly compress the area to control the swelling and give the injured area support.
  3. Take the ice pack (real ice works better than the cold gel packs but you can use whatever you have) and lay it on the injured area. Use the remainder of the Ace Bandage to hold the Ice pack in place. These Ice Packs are great and can also be used for heat packs. They also come with a convenient elastic strap to hold the Ice Pack in pace. If an area is too large for one ace bandage to both cover the skin and holds the ice pack in place use two bandages.
  4. If possible, elevate the injured area to decrease blood pooling in the area and to encourage proper venous and lymphatic drainage.
  5. Keep the ice on smaller areas (ankle, wrist) for 15 minutes and large deeper injured areas (thigh, hips, back) for 20 minutes.
  6. After 20-minutes remove the ice and bandage and let the area naturally warm back up to body temperature for 30 minutes for smaller body parts and 40 minutes for larger body parts. Try to keep the injured body part elevated at this time as well. This will once again help decrease blood pooling in the area and encourage proper drainage.
  7. Try to repeat this sequence a minimum of 3 times in a row if possible and as many times as you can for up to 72 hours after the injury. At which time it may be advisable to switch to contrast treatment using cold and heat. (coming in another blog post)

The theory of how this works is 4-fold.

  1. Compression (from the bandage) helps control swelling and gives the injured area support.
  2. Elevation uses gravity to naturally help the injured are reduce swelling by decreasing blood pooling into the injured area and allowing venous and lymphatic return.
  3. ICE (temperature) causes vasoconstriction which decreases internal capillary leakage (bleeding) and swelling. Ice also numbs the area to reduce pain and spasms.
  4. Letting the injured body part warm back up to body temperature encourages increased blood flow to the injured area to warm the cold tissue which in turn brings in nutrients and important immune cells such as, macrophages that help clear away damaged cells due to injury, initiating the repair process that triggers inflammation, also producing insulin-like growth factor-one, enhancing muscle tissue reconstruction

To summarize, using Ice therapy in this way with compression and elevation triggers the body’s own mechanical responses causing a pumping effect from vasoconstriction and dilation to help “pump” out inflammatory chemicals and damaged tissue and to also “pump” in nutrients, important immune and healing cells to start the repair of the injured area.

In conclusion, if you do get injured it is important to first consult the proper health care practitioner to evaluate and diagnose the injury and recommend treatment. The information mentioned above is not to take the place of proper care by a physician. However, if you do decide to incorporate the use of Ice therapy then the method mentioned above has been highly effective from my experience.

If you give it a try please let me know how it works for you.

To your health,

Kevin

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