Enhance March Newsletter
March 2009 Newsletter
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In this newsletter:
- Beach Body Pre-Season
- The Call for Dumb Athletes
BEACH BODY PRE-SEASON
In Chicago, this is the time I like to call the Beach Body Countdown. Within the next three to four weeks spring break hits. Kids are on spring break for a week and this is the time where a lot of us are going out of town and heading straight to the beach. We love warm weather and we want to enjoy it as much as possible. This is the time where a lot of us start trying crazy diets and working out so we can lose ten lbs and have an incredible body. As most of us have realized, ten lbs is a lot of weight to lose in three to four weeks! Ten lbs is tough especially if we don’t have a plan to attack those ten lbs. If we are looking to drop those extra ten lbs in a few short weeks we really have to get down to business, get serious, and follow an amazing plan that attacks fat.
So how do you do this?
First and foremost you need to track what you are eating. This doesn’t mean to cut back on calories right away, decrease carbohydrate intake, or increase protein consumption.
This means simply do you know what you are putting in your body and is it beneficial to you and your lifestyle?
Are you having the right carbohydrates?
Are you eating too much protein? Remember protein also has calories and any extra calories go right to storage.
Are you getting the right fats like omega 3's and 6's?
Are you getting enough or to many vitamins and minerals from the foods you are eating?
These are all important questions that you need to know before you start cutting back on calories. A good way to find out is to track what you eat and compare it to what you should eat. Enhance Personal Training & Athletic Performance, Inc. offers an online meal planner that helps guide you through the foods you eat and if they are beneficial for you by giving you an interactive grading system on your macro and micro-nutrients.
Exercise, Exercise, Exercise is next in line
If you don’t have a solid exercise routine and a nutrition program, good luck trying to lose those extra pounds. You only have a few short weeks to get into the bathing suit of choice and have an incredible beach body, so frequency, intensity, type, and what time you workout is important and crucial.
Frequency – If you have time to watch your favorite show, you have time to workout. Make your workouts consistent and frequent. With only 3-4 weeks till spring break, frequency is important. Working out frequently will keep your metabolism high which in the long run will help you burn more calories. So do crunches, push-ups, and/or squats while your watching your favorite TV show...you kill two birds with one stone!
Intensity – Give it your all. Workout hard but workout smart. Try to keep your heart rate up the whole time and keep the body moving at all times. Don’t let the body stop and cut back on your rest periods. Remember spring break is approaching and we need to look and feel good.
Type – Type of exercise is very important, especially if we only have a few weeks to get into the best shape of our lives. Try to pick full body exercises. The more joints that are moving in a controlled manner, the more muscles are being used, which means the more calories we are burning. While picking exercises, try to pick ones that involve larger muscle groups. For example, pick exercises that involve the back and legs, they are large muscle groups that need more energy. The more energy we use the more calories we are burning. Any type of exercise is better then no exercise, but when we don’t have time on our hands pick the full body exercises that really emphasize large muscle groups.
Time – Whenever you have a spare moment...exercise. Time is crucial and we don’t have a lot of it. Take the stairs whenever you can, park in the furthest parking spot at the grocery store, squeeze your abs while your driving in the car...what I am trying to say, is that there is always time to fit in exercise. There is no rule that exercise has to be 60 minutes long. If you have 30 seconds where you can do something, well then do something. All of those little exercises done throughout the day will add up to one big one at the end. Back up those small exercises throughout the day with an hour of exercise and you can say that you workout twice. Burn those calories throughout the day will keep the fat away!
THE CALL FOR DUMB ATHLETES
Benefit or Side Effect!
Pass it on
To all my athletes,
Within the past month we have seen two world known athletes bite their lips, get teary eyed, and apologize to the world for what they have done wrong. I give them credit for standing up to their wrong doings and apologize, but I am not satisfied. What has happened has hurt a lot of fans and open up the doors to potential wrong doings in the athletic realm. My opinion is that they knew what they were doing wrong in the first place but still decided to do it…so the apology is not sincere from the heart it is sincere because they are afraid of losing everything that they have done and worked for. Both of them new it was wrong and still decided to do it.
Athletes are role models. Fans adore them and kids wish that they can be just like them when they grow up. Professional athletes get paid millions a year for what they do. The better they are, the more fans follow them, and the more money they make. Why risk it with a stupid move. Going to a party that you know that there are drugs at or injecting steroids even though you know it is illegal. What is the point, you will get caught. So why risk it.
Let me say this again, YOU WILL GET CAUGHT! Not you might, but you will. Athletes, we have had this conversation in the past, but let me refresh you. In today’s world, everybody has a cell phone. I see 8 year olds with active cell phones. 8 year olds text messaging to their friends, talking on their phones, taking pictures on their phones. My point is that EVERYBODY HAS A CELL PHONE. Athletes when you are at a party, and there is someone there that really doesn’t like you for some reason or a buddy that likes to take random pictures you are EXPOSED. Even if you were not drinking, smoking, or doing anything else that you know you shouldn’t be doing, YOU ARE EXPOSED. It takes less then a second to take a picture and less then a second to send that picture to hundreds of people. So why expose yourself. There is no reason why you should put yourself in that situation. Here is the best thing, say if you were at a party and you were not drinking and you were not smoking…lets say you were the designated driver. Your picture gets taken and your friend is holding a beer bottle or a joint and your standing there as sober as you can be. That picture can and will haunt you if the school gets a hold of it or someone that wants to expose you gets a hold of it. Even if you were not drinking or smoking you can still get in trouble. How will that look to colleges that you are trying to get an athletic or academic scholarship to.
Steroids are a lazy mans way out of a tricky situation. Steroids don’t help they just hurt. You take them and you get health side effects in the future. I have been in the fitness industry for about ten years now, I a have not yet seen anyone that will benefit from steroids. LAZY PEOPLE TAKE STEROIDS. It is true! People take steroids because they are lazy and will not put the work effort into what they enjoy doing. Baseball is one of my favorite sports and sad to say, the MLB is filled with tons of cheating lazy ball players. The funniest thing about it all is that all these MLB players that have taken steroids and that have got caught, are not all that big or strong, just lazy. Baseball is a recovery sport. You don’t have to do much but if you do you are rewarded.
If you give a MLB player a football workout mentality fused with sport specific exercises then you will have the most productive MLB ball player ever. But because you can walk
out onto the field, stand on the base, hold your position, and sit in the dug out…MLB players are and have gotten lazy. This laziness has also transferred into their workouts. Do you really think that they will put the extra effort and condition themselves to become a better athlete? Well it is showing that the only way that they will get off that bench to exercise is if they inject themselves first. MLB, I hope you fix this situation quick and put an end to all of the steroid issues within the league.
Athletes, it is to your best interest to put yourself in a situation that you will not get in trouble with. Make right decisions and continue to strive for your goals. Don’t let anything get in your way and don’t get lazy. Remember everything has an outcome, will it benefit you or will it be a side effect waiting to happen? Be Smart!
