Tom's Fitness Blog

BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK SIX

2012-02-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

This marks the halfway point in the twelve week program. We started out with thirty two, and have lost two people to attrition. One never really showed up, and the other just moved away from the area.

Last week, 27 of the remaining 30 weighed in, and this week 24 made the weigh-in. Over the course of the program, half the group drops out for one reason or another, so we’re doing pretty well at this point.

You might recall that last time in Biggest Loser “14”, we had a much higher dropout rate than usual, so it’s good to see that was probably just a fluke. In fact, it’s looking like we might finish with well more than half the group!

Of the 15 groups we’ve done, I recall that groups five through eight seemed to set most of the weight loss records. The most pounds lost for a guy was 60 lbs, and we’ve had a couple people hit it. Since then, no one has been able to get close. The most lost for a gal was 43 lbs, and it’s been a long time since anyone has gotten close to that either.

Typically, we’ll see one or two people get to around 40 lbs or so, with a couple more in the 30’s. Usually, the bulk of the weight loss is around 15-20 lbs for most people. Remember, a pound a week is good, two pounds a week is great, and three or more pounds a week is fantastic—and hard to keep up.

The results you see on TV, while outstanding, aren’t anywhere close to typical. They live on a ranch, don’t have jobs, or kids to raise and transport in multiple directions. They also work out 6-8 hours a day. My goal is to get these people moving twice a day—for at least 20 minutes early, and then 45 minutes to an hour later in the day.

One thing that has really impressed me is the extent to which some people from the group have taken the Monday night workouts and set them up again on Wednesdays and sometimes even on Fridays too. They’re tough workouts once a week, much less repeating them. It will be interesting to see if they repeat this week’s workout!

(1) Burpees, (2) Pull-ups, (3) Leg/Knee Raises, (4) Kettle Bell Swings, (5) Body Squats, (6) Mountain Climbers. 25 seconds at each station and 5 seconds to move to the next station. Each round lasted three minutes with a 30 second rest break between rounds. Ten rounds total!

This week’s winner was Jodi Thierl, who lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. Second place went to Mandi Stuck, who lost 1.8% and 2.2 lbs. Amy Church, Kit Kirby, and Debbie Eveland tied for third, all losing 1.4%, and 1.8 lbs, 2.8 lbs, and 1.8 lbs respectively. Laken Pennington and Greg Stuck tied for fourth, losing 1.2%, and 1.8 lbs and 2.2 lbs respectively.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK FIVE

2012-02-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

This week we set up another “Super Station” circuit in the mat room for the Biggest Losers. The goal was to not only give them a tough workout, but also teach them some more new exercises that they can then do on their own during the week.

As usual we had to divide them into several groups to accommodate everyone. Group One started with a straight bar with plates on it and a new movement: squats w/overhead press (thrusters). After a minute of thrusters, they then rotated to a minute of kettlebell swings, and then repeated both exercises.

Group Two started with pull-ups and burpees, two times through, for a minute each. Group Three started with tractor tire flips, rope flips, a rower, and a Schwinn Air Dyne. They did each exercise for a minute, while a fourth group used the treadmills and ellipticals in the cardio room.

After rotating through all the exercises, everyone moved on to the next area, and what a workout it was! By the end, they were sweaty, gassed, and had learned some new things to through into their regular workouts.

We also talked about making changes long-term. Lots of people get to the end of a program and lose some weight, but then for some reason, go back to their old ways. They start surrendering to poor food choices, and sometimes even quit moving altogether. It’s such a shame, after all that hard work.

Hopefully, it will be something they’ll be thinking about as they work through the rest of this twelve week program. To truly succeed, they’ll need to find a way to make the changes part of a new life style!

This week’s winner was Greg Stuck, who lost 2.3% of his body weight and 4.4 lbs. Leslie Shanks was second, losing 1.8% and 3.0 lbs, and Amy Church placed third, losing 1.3% and 1.6 lbs. Brad Adams, Dale Rasmussen and Karen Brown tied for fourth place, all losing 1.1% and 2.5 lbs, 2.8 lbs and 2.8 lbs respectively.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK FOUR

2012-02-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

This week marked the end of the first month of training for the Biggest Losers. Four weeks ago, they took starting measurements of their Right & Left Arm, Chest, Stomach, Hips, Right & Left Thigh, and Right & Left Calf.

People burn fat differently, so this would help us see if they’d lost fat anywhere. After the weigh-in this week, they took measurements again so they could compare with the earlier readings from a month ago.

While most people didn’t have time to do all the math, one person was able to quickly calculate that they’d lost over 10 inches in just the four weeks! I should be able to give you more information about that next week when everybody reports back in.

I’m also going to encourage them to take another set of pictures from the front and side profiles like they did when they began Biggest Loser “15.” Sometimes it’s hard to tell your body is changing, especially if it’s not showing up on the scale. But actually measuring inches lost, and seeing a smaller you in a picture, can help keep you motivated over the long haul.

This is especially important as we start moving into the time when many people find it hard to keep going. So this group has passed two major milestones. The first was simply finishing Week One.

With all the discomfort as your body adjusts to a new workout routine, sometimes people just can’t deal with it. And with all the hassles that come trying to fit workouts into their daily schedule, it’s no surprise that many people just give up.

If we can get them through the first month, though, their odds of success go up dramatically. They’ve adapted to the scheduling issues, and their bodies are much stronger, so the workouts and recovery won’t be quite so hard for them.

This was pretty evident during the workout, which was their toughest yet. One of them said “we never push ourselves as hard as you push us.” That said, this time they all did much more work than they were able to do just four short weeks ago. Here’s what they did:

Wall Ball, Dumbbell Curls, Walking Pushups, Pull-ups, Leg Raises, Pullovers on a Ball, and Running the lines (wind sprints). 1 min rounds, 4 complete circuits (28 minutes total). Give it a try sometime.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK THREE

2012-01-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

It’s always good to change things up—it keeps the body guessing and makes your workouts interesting. To that end, I gave the group their first Kickboxing workout.

The class starts with some basic movement skills and what I like to call the duck-duck drill. This is where one person swings their hand (slowly) toward their partner’s head, who ducks under it with their hands up. Then the other hand comes at them, forcing them to duck that too.

After that, they learned how to Jab & Cross, using open palms as targets. Along the way, we worked on getting their punching hands tight, and their stances less squared off so they could move better and be smaller targets.

Then they learned how to defend against knee strikes and finally the cover-cover drill, where they don’t have time to duck or move—just place their palms on the front of their forehead and use their arms to cover their face and head.

Once they had the basics, we let them start hitting targets, and that’s when it really gets fun. It also turns into quite a bit of exercise. They did all the drills again with targets, alternating back and forth, along with front kicks to the body, round kicks to the leg, and even jump front kicks!

The group also learned how to sink-tuck-slap so they could fall backward without landing on and hurting their hands and wrists. Then they learned how to sprawl forward so they wouldn’t get hurt that way. Then we added those skills to the training drills. By now, it’s so intense that even a one minute round gets everyone huffing and puffing.

The last part of the class was perhaps the most fun, and certainly the most tasking. Now they applied everything they learned to large kicking pads and heavy bags.

Previously, they’d been working on getting comfortable with combinations, and aiming at a target. Now, the goal is to put as much power as possible in the techniques so they’d have a chance at stopping somebody if they had to.

We did 30 second rounds, alternating between partners on the bag. It sounds pretty easy, but believe me, 30 seconds of full-bore action and hitting as hard as you can is a real gasser!

In the end, they worked out for 40 minutes, and probably burned 60 minutes worth of calories—it can be that intense! Some of the group even stayed after for the next class, which just happened to be—more kickboxing!

This week we had a tie for first place between Amy Church and Jennifer Abernathy, both losing 2.1% of their body weight and 2.8 lbs and 4.0 lbs respectively. Jaymi Warner and laken Pennington tied for second, losing 1.9% and 3.2 lbs and 3.0 lbs respectively. Leslie Shanks was third, losing 1.8% and 3.2 lbs.

This week we had a tie for first place between Amy Church and Jennifer Abernathy, both losing 2.1% of their body weight and 2.8 lbs and 4.0 lbs respectively. Jaymi Warner and laken Pennington tied for second, losing 1.9% and 3.2 lbs and 3.0 lbs respectively. Leslie Shanks was third, losing 1.8% and 3.2 lbs.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK TWO

2012-01-19T15:10:00.001-08:00

I ran a contest to see who could log the most workout hours. Of course the idea was to try and get them moving more. More moving means more calories burned, which means more pounds lost in the end (and their ends).

I can’t really be sure it actually resulted in more exercise time because of the 29 people who weighed in this week (out of the original 32), only 6 turned in their workout times! But, those 6 people accounted for a whopping 66 ¼ hours. I wonder what the real number is.

Dale Rasmussen logged 6 ¼ hrs, Angie Adams logged 7 hrs, and Shirley Fiscus had 8 hrs. Jodi Theirl had 10 ¾ hrs working out while Kara Englum logged 13 ½ hrs. Michelle Clark had an amazing 20 ¾ hrs, winning a 60 minute massage from Soleil Body Salon! She earned it.

Michelle was last season’s Biggest Loser, and it’s clear she’s using everything she learned this time around, too. A full-time teacher with kids, she’s proof that you can find time to do this if you really want to.

For the workout, we combined resistance training with cardio. Half the group did several minutes at increasing intensity on the cardio equipment (treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, stepper), while the other half worked out on two Maxicam weight machines in the circuit. Then both groups switched places. Here’s what this type of workout looks like:

1. Jog ¼ mile on the Treadmill

2. Chest Press Machine & Seated Row Machine back-to-back without any rest. Repeat.

3. Do 3 minutes on the Recumbent Bike

4. Pec Fly Machine & Lat Pulldown Machine, repeat

5. Do 3 minutes on the Elliptical

6. Shoulder Press Machine & Rear Delt Machine, repeat

7. Do 3 minutes on the Schwinn Airdyne

8. Tricep Press Machine & Bicep Curl Machine, repeat

9. Do 3 minutes on the Stair-Stepper

10. Leg Press Machine & Seated Calves, repeat

11. Jog ¼ mile on the Treadmill

12. Leg Curl Machine & Leg Extension Machine, repeat

13. Do 3 minutes on the Recumbent Bike

14. Ab Machine & Lower Back Machine, repeat

15. Do 3 minutes on the Elliptical

This week’s winner was Sandra Soberg, who lost 2.9% of her body weight and 3.6 lbs. Second place went to Michelle Clark, losing 2.2% and 3.0 lbs. There was a four way tie for third place between Beverly Weger, Kara Englum, Sande Sherer, and Stacey Reed, all losing 1.8% of their body weight and 3.4 lbs, 2.8 lbs, 3.0 lbs, and 4.4 lbs respectively.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK ONE

2012-01-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it through Week One of Biggest Loser “15.” It was actually an outstanding first week. Of all the different groups we’ve had, I think this one might have lost the most weight. There were a couple other interesting dynamics happening too.

Of the 32 people who started, 30 made the weigh-in, and all but three lost weight. 27 people lost at least a pound or more, which is good. 18 people lost two pounds or more, which is great, and 10 people lost three pounds or more, which is awesome.

Instead of gradually adding things, and slowly ramping up, this time I’m hammering them from the get-go. That means they’re learning all the cool stuff right away.

It was great watching many of them get together during the week and doing high-intensity, high-level workouts with things they learned just last week. Some of the veteran Biggest Losers took charge, and pulled the new ones right in with them.

I can’t say for sure that accounted for all the great results, but I’ll bet it helped! I think it also contributed to their enthusiasm, and the group dynamic was really working for them.

For their second group workout, we jumped right in with more free weight exercises and a couple new things like pull-ups, and leg-raises. In some cases, we modified the movements to accommodate varying levels of strength. Everyone did two rounds of the following six exercises that hit their entire body:

1. Dumbbell (DB) Press on Ball

2. DB Front Squats (weights held on shoulders)

3. Leg/Knee Raises (Round 1), Pull-ups (Round 2)

4. DB Single Arm Rows

5. DB Straight Leg (slightly bent) Dead Lifts

6. Planks

Down the road, they’ll want to work up to 4-5 sets of everything. They’ll also work on using progressively heavier dumbbells as they get stronger. Next week, I’m going to introduce them to a bunch of different exercises on the stability ball, and also some new exercises with curl bars and straight bars!

For Week One, we had a three-way tie for 1st place, with Laken Pennington, Amy Church, and Jodi Theirl all losing 3.0% of their body weight, and 5.4 lbs, 4.0 lbs, and 4.2 lbs respectively!

Greg Stuck, Karen Brown, Brad Adams, Jennifer Bowers, Stacey Reed, Dale Rasmussen, Nicole Clodfelter, and Angie Adams all tied for 2nd place, losing 2.0% of their body weight! Greg lost 4.6 lbs, Karen lost 5.8 lbs, Brad lost 4.4 lbs, Jennifer lost 4.8 lbs, Stacey lost 4.2 lbs, Dale lost 3.8 lbs, Nicole lost 4.2 lbs, and Angie lost 2.2 lbs!

With such a dynamic group, we’re going to have to take the percentage of weight loss out to another digit next week. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- FIRST WORKOUT!

2012-01-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

We had our first workout last Monday night with the new group in Biggest Loser “15.” It’s hard to believe we’ve done this 15 times! So this time, after the initial weigh-in and measurements, I decided to do something a little different.

Instead of the regular fitness tests: pushups, sit-ups, and body squats for 60 seconds, and 1 mile walk/run, I thought I’d throw them to the wolves by giving them a Level IV workout like we do at the end of the program. That way when they do it again after 12 weeks, they’d have a real idea of how much their fitness has improved.

I took the idea from the TV show, where they show them working out at the end, a lot lighter and feeling strong. Then they go back and show them doing the same thing at the beginning, where they’re all just dying. Here’s what we did:

Wall Ball (Squatting and then throwing a medicine ball up overhead on the wall)
Standing Dumbbell (DB) Curls
AB Routine #1, 2, 3 (Crunches, Crunches with legs up, Sit-ups crossing L & R)
Box Jumps
Ball Twists (Side-to-side, over-under)
Kettle Bell (KB) Swings
Plank Routine (Mountain Climbers, Regular Plank, Side-to-side reaches

They performed each movement as many times as possible for most of a minute and moved to the next station before the minute was up. They did all 7 exercises a total of 3 rounds, a 21 minute workout.

The Biggest Loser veterans were used to working out at this intensity. The new ones had it a little rougher so some of them had to modify things a little bit by going slower, stopping sooner, and using lighter weights.

Before they finish the 12 weeks, I’m going to throw this workout at them again. They’re going to be very surprised at how much easier it will be then.

They’ll be lighter and lots stronger, plus their endurance will be through the roof! This means they’ll be able to push much harder through the workout, and believe me, it will show.

They got a calorie log to start tracking their calories. The goal is to figure out how much they’re eating, and their assignment is to turn one log in next week. We also talked about resources like www.calorieking.com , www.myfooddiary.com , and www.myfitnesspal.com that they can use online or with their smart phone.

It’s not too late, if you’d like to take part in Biggest Loser “15.” We’ll be meeting each Monday night at 6pm for 12 weeks. After the weigh-in, they’ll be doing high energy group workouts like the one you just saw. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

KEEP MOVING!

2011-12-28T15:42:00.000-08:00

I noticed something during our Christmas shopping this year. People seemed to fall into two groups. One was pretty healthy, but there were quite a few who were overweight.

I didn’t see many people in the middle. And the older they got, the more extreme the differences. It seemed like there were those who were moving well, and those who weren’t. Is it just me, or our there more people in motorized carts these days?

“Use it or lose it” is just as applicable as it ever was. As we stop moving, our muscles atrophy (get smaller), our bones weaken, and we accumulate excess fat. Even if our weight hasn’t changed, our body composition has. And if our weight has gone up, our body fat has really gone up!

I’ve got a toddler, and he’s a machine. He’s up and down, all around, moving constantly. Picking things up, throwing them down. He does hundreds of body squats. One of these days I’m going to put a pedometer on him just to see how far he goes!

But I’ve noticed that at a certain age, kids start slowing down. They’ll start spending more time watching TV and playing video games. Every minute they spend sitting on the couch, is a minute they’re not moving anymore.

Kids involved in sports have the opportunity to stay in shape, but the ones that don’t participate will slow down even more. And it’s tough to catch up, because even gym classes aren’t offered every day at many schools these days.

That’s why I’m a big believer in having kids in something, whether it’s team sports, or an individual sport like gymnastics or Taekwondo. We’ve got to keep them moving.

It applies to adults too. Young adults that were active in high school or college sports often stop playing altogether once they enter the real world and start jobs and families. And most of our jobs don’t involve enough real activity to keep us healthy.

It takes a concerted effort to get in shape and stay there. But it’s not impossible. Plenty of people have made the commitment to stay moving. I’ve even got 60, 70 and 80 year olds I’ll see in the gym exercising every day. They want to keep moving.

Of course, the other part of the problem is the changes we’ve made to our diet. There was a time when eating fast foods were the exception. Now they’re often the rule. Junk foods have become staples in our pantries.

Unfortunately, they’re filled with empty calories that don’t provide the same nutritional value. At least if you’re active, you’ll probably burn them off. But if consumed by someone who isn’t very active, junk foods are usually excess calories, which are stored as fat.

It comes down to this. You can get moving, or get fat. You can eat right, or get fat. That sounds harsh, but in the end, if you’re not moving, and you’re not eating right, it’s going to go to your end!

The good news is that for most people, even if you’re overweight, you can turn it around. I’ve seen plenty of people lose 30, 40, 50, 60, and even 100 lbs. I personally lost 35 lbs last year and it’s changed my life. I want to keep moving.

So do you want to get moving, and learn how to start eating better? You might try our community-wide Biggest Loser “15” which starts Monday, January 2^nd. If you have questions, feel free to contact Tom through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

RESOLUTIONS ANYONE?

2011-12-23T16:02:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? We’re about to reach the end of another year. When I was younger, each year went on forever and I couldn’t wait to be older. These days, I wonder where the years go!

But like most people, at least once a year, I like to spend a little time looking back to see what I’ve accomplished. Sometimes it’s a pretty short list!

We can get so caught up in the process of doing stuff, that a little reflection can help you gain perspective. When you look back, you can remember what goals were attained, identify mistakes that were made, and make some course corrections if necessary.

Maybe you lost some weight but then put some of it back on. You need to recognize you did a good job losing the weight. What you learned then will help you out this next year.

But what went wrong that let you put the weight back on? If you can figure that out, you can take steps to ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen again. Maybe you just quit working out. Perhaps you fell off your diet.

Maybe you’ve just been thinking about trying to get your weight under control but it hasn’t happened yet. You might even have started a couple of times, but just got off track.

The good news is that 2012 can be a new year in lots of ways. If you need to lose weight and get yourself healthy, here’s what you need to do to start getting prepared.

Develop an action plan designed to help get you started. Find out about gym memberships. Talk to friends that lost weight. Ask them what they’ve been doing.

Take a look at some websites like www.calorieking.com or www.myfooddiary.com . Look at phone apps for your smart phone that will help you stay on top of things.

Start telling yourself that this time you’re going to do it. It’s not a resolution that can fail. It’s a fact. You’re going to do it. This is going to be your year. Tell a friend what your plan is. If someone else knows, you just became accountable. Write it down, too. Goals written down are much more likely to be achieved.

Have someone take a picture of you in your knickers, front and side views. Put it on your bathroom mirror. Weigh in. Do your body fat. Take some measurements. Then set some reasonable goals about what you’d like to see happen.

Most people can lose 1-1 ½ pounds a week if they start exercising daily and watching what they eat. With a little more effort, you can take that up to 2-3 pounds a week.

This can be your year. The year you get it together and get thinner. I’m telling you, you won’t believe how good it’s going to feel, and how good you’ll feel about yourself. You just have to take my word for it.

I lost 35 lbs in 2011, over 7 months, and have maintained it over the last few months. Now, everything feels different. It’s so much easier to move and run, and grapple, and do all the other things I like to do. My goal is to keep it off in 2012 while building some more muscle.

So what’s your goal? You better get cracking, because the New Year’s almost here! If you have any questions about exercise, weight loss, or Biggest Loser “15” which starts Monday, January 2nd, contact Tom through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK TWELVE (FINAL RESULTS)

2011-12-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

Another Biggest Loser finally came to an end. While 25 people started, only five people made it to the final workout, with six weighing in—a completion rate of just 24%. That’s about half of what it usually is (typically it’s around 50%).

Part of it was the holidays, shopping, and a few people had injuries or illness. But I always wonder why many of the others simply couldn’t make it. Dropping out is all too common a problem these days, especially with exercise programs and weight loss.

People can know they need to change, even want to change, but it’s often hard finding the will to change. It’s tough coming up with that thing deep inside where quitting is not an option, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes.

12 weeks seems like such a long time when you’re in it, but when you look back, it’s over pretty fast. Compared to a year, it’s pretty short. Compared to a life, it’s not even a blip on the screen. But if you can finish, it’s often produces lasting change. So how do you stick it out? Five women finished the program, so what made them different? I asked them how they did it:

“The knowledge of the scale helped a lot—seeing those extra parameters like water percentage and metabolic age kept me motivated.”
“Having someone to workout with every time—we scheduled it. It made us more accountable.”
“I became moody if I didn’t go.”
“I learned that when I weighed in, it was a new week—even if I messed up, ate too much, or didn’t workout, it was a new week and a new start.”
“Writing down the calories.”
“Being honest—realizing that I was fatter than I thought.”
“I wasn’t going to go into another New Years and have to make another resolution.”

One guy also finished, but had to work and missed the final. I’d spoken with him in the gym, and he was always motivated. At that point he was focusing on building muscle.

Four of the five women only missed one of the 13 sessions; the other had perfect attendance. That alone goes a long way to explain their success. So I asked them what difficulties they’d faced along the way:

“Scheduling my workouts.”
“My guilty feelings—taking away from family and work.”
“Laziness.”
“Being motivated.”
“Being honest.”

Finally, I asked them what they’d want to tell someone who might be struggling:

“Do something.”
“Get started.”
“Everybody has time.”
“Quit making excuses.”
“I wish I’d done this earlier.”

Our overall Biggest Loser was Michelle Clark, who lost 15.8% of her body weight, and 26.2 lbs. Vince Porter was second, losing 13.5% and 33.6 lbs. Kara Englum finished third, losing 9.9% and 16.8 lbs. Sande Sherer placed fourth, losing 9.0% and 17.0 lbs. Darcy Midgley was fifth, losing 8.1% and 19.6 lbs, and Shirley Fiscus was sixth, losing 7.4% and 16.0 lbs.

If you have any questions about exercise or weight loss, or would like to weigh in on whether we should do another Biggest Loser “15” after the New Year, feel free to contact Tom through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK ELEVEN "LEVEL IV WORKOUTS (CONTINUED)"

2011-12-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

We’ve been talking about raising the level of your workouts by doing high intensity interval training (HIIT). Two weeks ago, I introduced the group to another great set of exercises they could do with just a 30 lb bar and two 5 lb plates (40 lbs total). The guys started with a 45 lb bar and two 10 lb plates (65 lbs total).

The first exercise was 10 deadlifts. Without stopping, they then performed 10 reps of upright rows. Then they did 10 front squats, holding the bar on their chest. Finally, they did 10 front shoulder presses or push-presses (using their legs a bit if necessary).

After the 40 reps, they put the bar down and did 20 sit-ups which gave them a bit of a break. They did 5 rounds of the deadlifts, upright rows, squats and shoulder presses, and sit-ups.

This week, since it was the last real workout with the group, I wanted to make sure they got one more chance to see how to turn it up! I decided to challenge them by adding a couple new things (pull-ups and handstand pushups), to a long list of other exercises they’ve done.

Instead of doing several exercises interval style for 4-5 rounds, this time they did a bunch of different exercises for 25 reps each. They couldn’t move on to the next station until they’d completed all the reps at the current station.

Each movement uses Pushing muscles (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps), Pulling muscles (Back, Biceps, Forearms), Lower Body (Hips & Thighs), Core (Abdominals & Obliques), or sometimes a combination of muscle groups. Feel free to contact me at www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness if you have any questions.

Ran ¼ mile
25 Handstand Pushups
25 Pull-ups
25 Body Squats
25 Sit-ups
25 Dumbbell Lateral Raises
25 Kettle Bell Swings
25 Knee-Raises
25 Pushups
25 Dumbbell Curls
25 Box Jumps
25 Mountain Climbers
25 Pilate Crunches
Ran ¼ mile

This week’s Biggest Loser was Vince Porter, who lost 1.0% of his body weight and 2.2 lbs. Michelle Clark placed 2^nd, losing almost 1.0% and a pound. Third place was a tie between Kara Englum, Shirley Fiscus, and Jennifer Bell who all lost about 0.5% and a pound.

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK TEN "LEVEL III & IV WORKOUTS"

2011-12-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

Last week we talked about High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cardio workouts. This week I’d like to tell you about a couple other types of interval training workouts.

Whether it’s with Biggest Loser groups, or folks in the gym, I like to teach four levels of workouts. They range from basic to difficult in a progression that keeps the body changing.

Level 1 workouts use the machines; Level 2 workouts use basic free weight exercises with dumbbells and exercise balls. Level 3 workouts start combining the high intensity interval training (HIIT) with strength training.

Level 4 workouts are the toughest, using both free weights and body weight movements and sometimes, cardio, in a circuit that keeps the heart rate up while still giving you a great muscular strength and endurance workout. They are real calorie blasters!

After showing the Biggest Losers how to do HIIT on the cardio equipment, the next step was teaching them a Level 3 workout where they start to combine the HIIT workouts with their strength training workouts. They did this one a couple weeks ago.

They ran ¼ mile on the treadmill, then went in the workout room and did 25 pushups, 25 body squats, and 25 sit-ups. They did this four times (4x) for a total of one mile running, and 100 pushups, 100 body squats, and 100 sit-ups.

When the weather’s nice and it isn’t dark outside, that’s a good one to do at the football field. That way they can run their ¼ miles around the track, and the pushups, squats and sit-ups on the grass. It was just as intense in the gym, though.

The Level 4 workout they learned was pretty tough, too. Each person started at a different station and did 50 seconds of one exercise, and then had 10 seconds to switch stations.

1. Wall Ball—tossing a soft 10 lb medicine ball on the wall, catching it, and squatting; works the lower body (hips & thighs), and your pushing muscles (chest, shoulders, triceps).

2. Kettle Bell (KB) swings—works the lower body, pulling muscles (upper back & biceps), and pushing muscles (shoulders).

3. BOSU Pushups—on a BOSU trainer; works pushing muscles and your core.

4. Box Jumps—on a 12-24” step; works the lower body muscles.

5. Single Arm (SA) Dumbbell (DB) Curls—works the pulling muscles.

6. AB Routine #1-4—crunches, crunches with legs in the air, sit-ups crossing to each side, and leg lifts; works your upper and lower abdominals and your obliques.

They did each exercise until they’d completed one circuit. Then they repeated the whole thing until they had gone around a total of four times, in just 24 minutes.

Give it a try. If you’re not sure how to do some of the movements, get with someone who does. Feel free to contact me with questions at www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness .

This week’s Biggest Loser was Michelle Clark, who lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. Nikki Johnson was second, losing 1.3% and 3.0 lbs, and Darcy Midgley placed third, losing 1.2% and 2.6 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK EIGHT "ADD SOME INTENSITY"

2011-11-22T16:41:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago, I gave the Biggest Losers a killer cardio workout based on high intensity interval training (HIIT). A friend of mine calls this type of workout the “Death Run!”

You’ll often see HIIT programs show up in fitness magazines. While they might change the progressions and work and rest intervals, or even use different workout platforms, they’re all pretty much the same thing.

You can do them on treadmills, ellipticals, or a bike, but say you’re on the treadmill and you’ve never done any running. After a 5-minute warm-up walking at 3.0 mph, turn the speed up to 4.0 mph. This is about the slowest possible speed that you can still be running (anything slower and you’d just be walking fast).

Whatever it takes, keep jogging at 4.0 mph for exactly 1 minute. If you’ve been seriously overweight, or just haven’t ever been a runner, even that slow pace might get difficult. Force yourself to hang in there for a minute.

At the end of the minute, back off the speed and take it down to 3.0 mph and walk for a minute. By the end of the minute you’ll be ready to go again. This time, take it up to 4.5 mph and jog for a minute, and then walk a minute at 3.0 mph.

Now run at 5.0 mph for a minute and then walk a minute at 3.0 mph. Next do a minute at 5.5 mph and another minute walking. Then do a minute at 6.0 mph, a minute walking, and then a minute at 6.5 mph, followed by another rest interval. If you think you can do it, try a minute at 7.0 mph with a minute rest, and then a minute at 7.5 mph and a minute rest.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it the full minute at the higher speeds. Do what you can, and then jump off (feet to the sides on the rails) while holding on to the handles. Then just walk a little extra. Later, you’ll be able to finish the full minute.

Do five minutes of cool-down at the end. That will be 5 minutes for warming up, 16 minutes of work/rest intervals (6-8 minutes running, 8 minutes walking), and 5 minutes cooling down. That’s only about 25 minutes, so I don’t want to hear you don’t have time to work out.

As you get better, you can always add a couple faster intervals to make your HIIT last longer. Or, you can do 90 seconds or even two minutes of running. If you’re already a runner, try faster speed intervals and back down to a comfortable jogging pace for your rest intervals!

These workouts will give you a longer after-burn, which means you’ll burn more calories, which will help you lose the weight faster. You can follow the same program on an elliptical, bike, rower, by simply increasing the work levels, while keeping your rpm (speed) the same. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !

This week’s Biggest Loser was Vince Porter, who lost 2.1% of his body weight and 4.8 lbs. Michelle Clark placed second, losing 1.8% and 2.6 lbs. Sande Sherer was third, losing 1.7% and 3.0 lbs, and Kara Englum finished fourth, losing 1.5% and 2.4 lbs. Michelle and Sande also represented the Biggest Losers in the Marshall 5K Turkey Trot!

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK EIGHT "GOOD EATIN' "

2011-11-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

This week I’d like to share some meal ideas with you. Remember, I’m not a nutritionist, just a fitness guy, but these are ideas I’ve seen work with other people. They’re also meals I ate on the way to losing 35 lbs over the last 6 months (I still eat them every day).

All are common foods you can get at your regular grocery. Adjust your total calories to your specific needs. Remember, women should never go below 1,200 calories/day and men should never go below 1,800. I’ve found, though, that people are happier when they come in around 1,500-1,650 calories/day (women) or 2,000-2,400 calories/day (men).

Feel free to substitute to take advantage of other wholesome foods in the same categories. Complex carbs found in healthy starches (ST) give you long-lasting energy. Protein builds muscle and bone. Fruits (F) give lots of quick energy while vegetables (V) have lots of fiber, and both have lots of vitamins & minerals! Add 2-3 healthy snacks between meals.

BREAKFAST

One serving of Honey Nut Cheerios (ST), ½ cup of 2% milk (P), ½ cup of frozen blueberries (F)
One whole grain waffle with a little butter and syrup (ST), one small low fat yogurt (P), and ½ a banana (F)
One serving of oatmeal, ½ cup of 2% milk, ½ a banana.

LUNCH

½ Pastrami & Cheese on rye (P, ST), or ½ Turkey & Cheese on whole grain (P, ST), or ½ Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich on wheat bread (P, ST) and a Fruit Cup (F)

SUPPER

One serving of meatloaf (P), ½ baked sweet potato (ST), and fresh cut green beans (V)
One fried chicken leg or wing and a thigh or rib (P), a serving of mashed potatoes and gravy (ST), and cole slaw (V)
A 6” chicken sub (P) on whole grain bread (ST), loaded with veggies (V)

SNACKS

Low fat Yogurt or Cottage Cheese (P) with fresh fruit (F)
Fruit Cup (F) & Granola (ST)
Apple slices (F) with Peanut Butter (P)
Peanut Butter Crackers (P & ST)
Protein Shake (P & Carbs)

This week’s Biggest Loser was Vince Porter, who lost 1.6% of his body weight and 3.6 lbs. Vince has lost 24 lbs in the last 8 weeks! Nikki Johnson, Darcy Midgley and Shirley Fiscus all tied for second place, losing a little less than 1.0% of their body weight and 1.4 lbs, 1.4 lbs, and 1.2 lbs respectively. Feel free to contact me at Tom’s Fitness on Facebook!

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK SEVEN

2011-11-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

When people ask for help figuring out their diets, I like to pass along the same information that we give our Biggest Losers. So unless you have a specific medical issue you’re dealing with such as diabetes, this might work for you, but sure and follow your doctor’s advice.

If you recall from last week, I believe the best diet is “no diet!” I think the best results over the long haul always come from eating a normal healthy diet that you can maintain for life. The first thing is to get off the pop and junk, and drink more water.

The next thing is to work on having a balanced meal that has servings of Protein, Complex Carbs (Starches), and Fruits & Greens. If you do this, you’ll feel better right away, and your body will start working better, especially when you’re working out. Here’s why.

Protein is used by the body to build and preserve muscle and bone. While your body can use protein for fuel, it’s not very efficient. Glucogenesis (creating carbs from protein) is very inefficient and produces extra byproducts that your kidneys then have to deal with.

Sources of protein include lean cuts of beef and pork, chicken and turkey, dairy products like low fat milk, yogurt and cottage cheese, fish, nuts (including peanut butter), and some beans. Sometimes it’s useful to supplement with a protein shake, especially when you’re very active.

Your best choices for long-lasting energy are complex carbohydrates called starches. It takes longer for your body to break them down than simple sugars, but it’s much more efficient than trying to use protein for fuel. Starches give you the time you need to complete your workout or get to the next meal.

Complex carbs include whole grain breads and cereals, whole grain pastas, long grain wild rice, oats, potatoes and sweet potatoes, corn and some beans. Our problem is that we tend to eat too many complex carbs and processed, refined foods.

The trick is to eat just one reasonably sized complex carb with each meal. Then you’ll get the long-lasting fuel you need. Go whole grain—it takes longer to breakdown, and you’ll get more nutrition too!

The last category is fruits and greens (vegetables). Self-explanatory, fruits and vegetables are probably the least consumed foods these days. That’s a shame, because they’ll give you some excellent benefits.

Fruits provide quick energy—the kind that gets you going in just minutes. They also have lots of vitamins and minerals and some fiber. Vegetables give you lots of vitamins and minerals too, that will make you feel and perform better. Because they’re packed with fiber, they also contain fewer calories which help fill you fill up.

A complete mixed salad with lettuce, spinach greens, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, green onions, green peppers, and low fat dressing tops out at just 100 calories. Most other single servings of vegetables will only run you around 50 calories. That’s a great deal!

If you’re eating this way, the fats pretty much take care of themselves, too. All you really need to add is an Omega 3, 6 & 9 supplement to be sure you’re getting the good fats you need. Next week I’ll give you some sample meals to look at.

This week’s Biggest Loser was Michelle Clark, who lost 2.4% of her body weight and 3.6 lbs. Sande Sherer was second, losing 2.0% and 3.6 lbs. Kara Englum placed third, losing 1.6% and 2.6 lbs, and Nikki Johnson finished fourth, losing 1.0% and 2.4 lbs.

If you have any questions about fitness or working out, please feel free to contact me at Tom’s Fitness on Facebook!

WOMEN OFTEN UNDERESTIMATE WHAT THEY CAN DO!

2011-11-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

After working with both men and women over the years, I’ve noticed that women are usually pretty different from men. It’s true.

While men tend to overestimate their capabilities (“no, I don’t need to read the map,” “I can lift it,” etc…), women often underestimate what they can do. Men just take off, confident they can handle, solve, or fix anything. Women tend to want to talk about it first—then they’ll do some research—then they’ll talk about it some more.

Men starting a workout program will often overdo it and get really sore, and ultimately quit. But many women starting a workout program will underdo it, get little or no results, and then quit too!

For both groups, the trick is to help them get a better start. With guys, I often try to slow them down a bit and help them avoid overtraining and injuries.

But women often need an extra push to help them “speed” things up. Just a couple days ago, I worked with a woman who’d been walking four miles a day but not losing as much weight as she’d like.

After a warm-up, I asked her if she’d ever gone uphill before. She told me she had “a little bit, on 1% and 2%.” I cranked the grade all the way up to 10% and had her walk ¼ mile. Now that was a hill!

She handled it well, so I asked her if she’d ever done any running or jogging. She said no, but she’d been wanting to. After a little while to recover, I increased the speed to 4.0 mph (about the slowest speed you can go, and still be running).

I kept her running for 100 yards (the length of a football field), and it took a little more than a minute.
She got to the end and said “Wow, I didn’t know I could do that!”

I told her she hadn’t seen anything yet, and after walking another 100 yards, had her do it again, but at 4.2 mph. After another walk break, she did another interval at 4.5 mph, and then one at 5.0 and 5.5 mph!

She’d been disciplined enough to walk four miles a day, but never tried to run—not even a little bit. When we got done, I told her that now she knew she could do it, she should start working in some big hills, and walking/running intervals.

We’ve had lots of women work up to running a 5K (3.1 mi), half marathons (13.1 mi) and a couple even did a full marathon (26.2 mi). Several of our “Wood Street Warriors” recently took on not one, but two “Century” bike rides (100 mi)!

You never know what you can do unless you try, so go ahead and talk about it, do some research, but then, jump right in—I’ll just bet you can do it!

If you have any questions about working out, feel free to contact me on Facebook at “Tom’s Fitness.”

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK SIX

2011-11-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

This week let’s talk about the diet we’ve recommended to our Biggest Losers. I’ve always been a big believer that the best diet is… no diet! Now I know there are some very well known diets and meal plans out there and you can lose weight on them.

I’ve come to believe, though, that most diets really work because they impose discipline on the eater, typically by restricting certain “bad” foods and encouraging “good” foods. In many (if not most) cases, diets almost always end up being too hard to maintain over the long haul.

A much better approach is to learn how to eat correctly. I call it “eating right.” For most of us, its also comes down to learning how to manage your portions.

Women usually need to learn how to start eating breakfast and midmorning snacks. This means they need to learn how to eat more. This is a real paradigm shift for most ladies who’ve typically beaten themselves up about food, and are now scared of every single calorie.

Guys typically need to learn how to eat less, by learning some portion control. For guys, this also means they need to quit eating all the junk they shove in their mouths.

It also helps to slow down a little bit. When I was losing my 32 lbs, I realized that a lot of times, I’d eat past the point of being full—just to be eating. Later, it got easier to eat less, and now I find myself filling full sooner, on smaller portions!

This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the foods you like. You should be able to enjoy them—once in awhile. We’ve been given a palate for a reason. Foods are for fuel and enjoyment.

A good plan is to have a cheat meal or even a cheat day once in awhile. Another is to pick your times. If you know you’re going to have something higher in calories you can plan for it by pulling back earlier, perhaps missing a snack. You can also plan in extra activities to burn it off.

Remember, food is fuel. If you’re eating in the right amounts and covering your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which I talked about a few weeks ago, you’ll just burn what you eat. It won’t be stored as fat.

With all your new activity, you’ll also be coming up a little short during the day so your body will go to fat stores for fuel. This is called a calorie deficit and the basis for weight loss.

If you don’t lose a lot of pounds right away don’t worry too much—people often see changes in their clothing first. Last week, two ladies told me that while they both only lost four pounds in the first five weeks, they’d each lost 10 inches around their midsection and hips!

So here’s the Meal Plan: eating right means eating a balanced diet that contains a serving of Protein, Starch, and Fruits or Greens (vegetables). If your plate looks like this, you’re probably doing fine.
Next week, we’ll talk about food choices from each category, how your body uses them, and how this can help you feel and perform better!

This week’s Biggest Loser was Jennifer Bell, who lost 1.8 percent of her body weight and 3.6 lbs! Michelle Clark was second, losing 1.7% and 2.6 lbs. She also won the workout challenge this week, logging 16 hours, 10 min total workout time! Vince Porter placed third, losing 1.6% and 3.8 lbs.

If you have any questions about fitness or working out, please feel free to contact me at Tom’s Fitness on Facebook!

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK FIVE

2011-10-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

This week the group got their second free weight workout. After a month of using the machines to build a base of muscular strength and endurance, we taught them their first workout with dumbbells (DB) and an exercise ball.

We try and shift people over to free weights whenever possible. Machines are great for stabilizing the body and targeting specific muscles, but doing exercises with dumbbells and barbells, forces you to use more accessory and stabilizers muscles to control the movement and maintain your posture.

Using more muscle means you’re burning more calories which will help with weight loss. It also means you’re more fully developing the body. There are hundreds of different exercises that exercise the body as a whole, or that zero in on specific muscle groups.

Start with a pair of dumbbells that you can easily hold in each hand. It keeps you from lifting too much weight too soon. If it seems too heavy, it probably is.

Have someone that knows what they’re doing show you the movements, and then try them with a fairly light pair of dumbbells. If you don’t have access to anyone, get a magazine or go online. There are lots of resources out there.

When you do the exercise, shoot for 10-15 repetitions. If you can’t do 10 reps, it’s too heavy. If it was easy to do it 15 times, then the weight is too light and you need to use try the next heavier dumbbell.

Do the movements slowly, making sure you are in complete control of the weights. Keep your posture correct by tightening your core. Make sure you don’t hold your breath. If possible, watch yourself in the mirror to keep an eye on things.

Start with a whole body program three days a week, (M, W, F). Later, if you want to split things up, there are lots of ways to do that. For best results, do opposing body part exercises back-to-back with no break in between. That will keep you burning more calories!

Here are the two full body programs they learned. They did the first one last week, and will be doing the second one this week. They’re both similar, working the same body parts, but using different exercises to do it.

Workout #1: Chest Press on Ball, Squats (3x); Single Arm Row, Deadlifts (3x); Lateral Raises, DB Curls, Overhead Tricep Press (3x); Assorted Ab Crunches on Ball.

Workout #2: Pec Fly’s on Ball, Walking Lunges (3x); DB Pullovers on Ball, Deadlifts (3x); Arnold Press, Double Curl, Tricep Kickbacks; more assorted Ab Crunches on Ball, planks.

Our Week Five winner was Sande Sherer, who lost 2.6% of her body weight and 4.8 lbs. Kara Englum and Shirley Fiscus tied for second place, both losing 1.9% and 3.2 lbs and 3.8 lbs respectively. Kelli Stidham placed third, losing 1.7% and 4.4 lbs.

If you have any questions about fitness or working out, please feel free to contact me at Tom’s Fitness on Facebook!

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK FOUR

2011-10-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

This week I want to talk about the final parameter we measure each week: Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). A lot of people confuse this with BMI (body mass index) but it’s quite different.

While Body Mass Index is a fairly common measure that can help you know if you’re overweight, Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is a much more specific measure of how many calories your body needs to maintain it’s current state. Put simply, your BMR is how many calories you need to live. I like to call it “hitting your minimum.”

The value of knowing your BMR is pretty high, especially for women. Typically, 9 out of 10 women aren’t eating enough, although most of them believe that they are. We’ve seen this time and time again in Biggest Loser.

I know I keep harping on this, but it keeps coming up. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and just about the entire medical profession says that women shouldn’t ever go below 1,200 calories.

As a practical matter, most women’s BMR will come out higher than that. In this latest group, most of the women had a BMR between 1,300 & 1,400 calories. That means that they need to consume 1,300-1,400 calories each day to maintain, without regard to exercise.

It’s pretty simple. Eat that many calories, add some exercise, and you’ll start losing weight. While there are some other factors that play in, it pretty much comes down to math. Do more exercise, burn more calories, and you’ll lose more weight.

This is why I like to call that 2^nd daily workout the secret weapon. It makes a huge difference in weight loss—even if it’s just walking a mile or two.

We used to have to do a calculation to determine BMR for people. Now it’s easy to measure, just by stepping on the scale. This means there’s no excuse not to hit your minimum, since it’s so easy to figure it out!

If you don’t, you’re really fighting yourself. Your metabolism will stay artificially low, you won’t operate at peak efficiency, and you won’t recover from exercise as well either. This can lead to feeling run down, and even illness or injury.

While guys tend to be over-eaters, I’ll occasionally run across one who isn’t, so here’s the guideline for men: never go below 1,800 calories. Holding to 2,000 calories is pretty strict, and 2,200-2,400 calories a day is usually pretty comfortable.

Our Week Four winner was Alexa Stidham, who lost 1.6% of her body weight and 2.6 lbs. Shawn Bowers and Steve Jones tied for second, losing 1.2% of their body weight and 4.0 lbs and 3.2 lbs respectively. Nicole Clodfelter and Karen Wolfe tied for third place, both losing 1.0% of their body weight, 2.6 lbs and 1.6 lbs.

Next week we’ll look at how we’re using free weight exercises to change things up with the group. Don’t forget, if you have any questions about fitness or working out, please feel free to contact me at Tom’s Fitness on Facebook.

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK THREE

2011-10-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

This week our Biggest Losers did a kickboxing workout. After partnering up, I taught them a kickboxing movement. Then they practiced the combination for a two minute round while their partner held the targets. They switched roles every two minutes.

30 minutes later, one partner hit the heavy bag while the other did pushups for a minute before switching. The next time they did a different combination on the bag while their partner did body squats before switching. Finally, they did a third combination while their partner did sit-ups.

Last week I wrote about weight, body fat%, muscle mass and bone mass. This week we’re going to look at Body Water%, Physique Rating, Metabolic Age, and Visceral Fat.

Body Water% should range from 45-60% in women. In men, it should range from 50-65%. We all hear we should be drinking more water, but now we have a tool to measure it. Many of the contestants were under-hydrated, so now we can help them stay on top of it better.

If you had a significant weight loss during the week, but Body Water% shows up below normal, you can be sure that some of your weight loss was probably water. That means you’ll probably just put it back on when you become rehydrated.

Physique Rating is measured on a scale between 1 and 9. For the person who is obese, you’ll receive a rating from 1 to 3 based on your percent fat and muscle mass. This is risky category, because your chance for heart disease and diabetes goes way up.

For the average person, a rating between 4 and 6 shows improvement, and for the “under-fat” (if there is such a thing), a rating between 7 and 9 tells you if you need to put on some muscle. For the participants, their goal is to try and improve their physique rating number during the twelve weeks.

Metabolic Age shows up as a range between age 12 and 50. This is like the “inner age” measure they use on the Biggest Loser TV show. Most of the participants showed up as 50 (or older), although few of them were actually 50.

If you’re 30 years old but have a metabolic age of 50, then you’re carrying the body of a 50 year old. That’s an extra 20 years, which wouldn’t bode well for your future. But if you’re 30, but have a metabolic age of 20, then it’s like you’re carrying the body of someone 10 years younger! The participants should see a marked drop in their metabolic age during the program.

Visceral Fat measures how much fat you’re carrying around your vital organs, which markedly increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. A visceral fat rating from 1-12 would be healthy, while a rating of 13-59 is unhealthy. This should also drop during the 12 weeks.

Our Week Three winner was Stacy Luth, who lost 2.6% of her body weight and 4.4 lbs. Michelle Clark placed second, losing 2.0% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. Sande Sherer and Vince Porter tied for third, both losing 1.6% of their body weight and 3.0 lbs and 3.8 lbs respectively.

Next week we’ll look at how to use the last parameter (BMR) to ensure you’re not just eating right, but eating the right amount of food. Don’t forget, if you have any questions about fitness or working out, please feel free to contact me at Tom’s Fitness on Facebook.

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK TWO

2011-10-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

Even though it’s getting colder outside, we turned up the heat on the participants again this week. The goal is to get them doing more work, with more intensity each week. I call it learning how to exercise smart. This week, they did 2 minute cardio intervals followed by 2 minutes of weight training on the machines, back and forth!

The more exercise they can do, the more calories they’ll be burning. And the more calories they can burn, the more impact it will have on their body. But just losing weight doesn’t always mean you’re losing the right kind of weight.

That’s why we look at the following physical parameters when they weigh each week: Weight, Body Fat %, Body Water %, Muscle Mass, Physique Rating, BMR, Metabolic Age, Bone Mass, and Visceral Fat.

The first one is obvious: Weight. This should drop at least a pound each week. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week which is achievable and sustainable.

It’s fine to lose more weight than that, as long as it’s fat loss. Many of our contestants will lose more than that. On TV they lose incredible amounts of weight, but you have to remember a few things. They live on a ranch. Losing weight is their job—and their only job. They don’t have to take care of kids or run errands. So even though it’s “reality TV”, it’s not real life.

After doing this for quite awhile, I’ve come to believe that losing a pound a week is good; two pounds a week is great; and three or more pounds a week is fantastic. In the end, it comes down to how much work you’re willing to do.

The second parameter, and perhaps the more important one, is Body Fat %. This is the amount of fat we have, compared to our total weight. We carry a lot more fat around than we think. Believe me, I know.

If a man weighs 167.6 lbs with 9.3% body fat, roughly 15.6 lbs is fat. That means about 144.4 lbs is lean Muscle Mass, with about 7.6 lbs in Bone Mass. Healthy bone mass in guys ranges from 5.9 to 8.1 lbs based on your size. For women, it ranges from 4.3 lbs to 6.5 lbs.

Now if that same guy weighed in at 194.4 lbs, with 17.0% body fat, that means 33 lbs of his weight would be fat (more than double), with 153.8 lbs as lean muscle, and the same 7.6 lbs of bone mass.

It’s good to have a little more muscle mass but twice the fat, it’s just not worth it. Like I said, I know. Even though I was in pretty good shape and carried it reasonably well, that heavier, twice-as-fat guy was me five months ago! My new goal now is to keep the weight and fat down and add perhaps 5 lbs of muscle mass.

People with 30% or 40% fat have greatly increased risk of heart disease and type II diabetes. As they become inactive, they start losing muscle mass. When they consume more calories than they burn, they store it as fat, so their fat weight increases. That’s why it’s so important to keep moving!

Our Week Two winner was Stacy Reed, who lost 3.0% of her body weight and 8.8 lbs. Michelle Clark placed second, losing 2.0% and 3.2 lbs. Jennifer Bell was third, losing 1.9% and 3.8 lbs. Fourth place went to Kara Englum who lost 1.7% and 2.8 lbs. Jennifer Bowers and Shirley Fiscus tied for fifth, losing 1.6% of their body weight. Jennifer lost 4.2 lbs and Shirley lost 3.4 lbs.

Next week I’ll cover the other physical parameters we look at: Body Water %, Physique Rating, Metabolic Age, and Visceral Fat. Don’t forget, if you have any questions about fitness or working out, please feel free to contact me at Tom’s Fitness on Facebook.

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- WEEK ONE

2011-09-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to participate in the Paris YMCA/Shawna Morrison Memorial 5K Walk/Run (3.1 mi) this past weekend. It’s always great seeing so many people from the community getting together for this event.

People have different reasons for participating. Some do it for the exercise. Some do it for the competition, whether it’s with others or just themselves as they try for a personal best. Many of us do it in memory of Shawna. I also think that many do it just to have a good time.

There were a couple things that stood out to me this year. The first was seeing the younger kids running. Three miles is quite a long way when you’re smaller like that.

Several obviously had a gift for running, but one girl in particular really impressed me. She didn’t have the typical “runners” body, but I happened to watch her finish, and she was really pushing herself. If these kids can find a way to keep this up, they’ll have a life of health and fitness ahead of them!

That’s why our Biggest Losers always have to do their own 5K before the end of their 12 weeks. They should get to where they’re doing several 5K’s a week, but it’s always different when you do it in a race environment. The one they’ll be doing is in Marshall, IL on Saturday, November 19^th. I hope you’ll join us!

This week, after a ½ mile walk/run to get warmed up, the group had their first workout. The goal was to throw an assortment of things at them and keep them moving for 20 minutes.

Here’s what they did: pushups, body squats, sit-ups, jumping jacks, running in place, burpees, baby walks, crab walks, jumping squats, jumps across the room, walking lunges, jumping lunges, an assortment of crunches, crunches on the ball, knee-ins on the ball, pushups on the ball, and sumo wrestling with a partner and a ball! The 20 minutes passes pretty quickly when you do all those things.

Our Week One winner was Shirley Fiscus, who lost 6.8 lbs and 3.2% of her body weight. Karen Wolfe, Karen Brown and Nicole Clodfelter were tied for second, losing 2.6% of their body weight. That translated into 4.4 lbs for Karen Wolfe, 6.8 lbs for Karen Brown, and an amazing 7.0 lbs for Nicole. Sande Sherer and Vince Porter were tied for third, losing 2.5% of their body weight, and 4.8 lbs and 6.2 lbs respectively.

Next week we’ll have the results from Week Two, plus I want to tell you about those new fitness parameters we’re using for the participants. Don’t forget, if you have any questions about fitness or working out, please feel free to contact me at “Tom’s Fitness” on Facebook.

BIGGEST LOSER "14" -- FIRST NIGHT!

2011-09-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

After quite a layoff, we finally got another group going last Monday night. It’s always an exciting time for me, but I could tell that some of them were a little nervous.

That initial weigh-in causes so much apprehension, but it’s such a powerful tool for the participants. You can “want-to”, know you “need-to”, but when you see that number pop up on the scale, it gives you a pretty good “have-to.”

This is where your initial motivation comes from. It almost makes you sick to think of it, but when you realize how much you weigh compared to what you should weigh, it gets your attention. And when you see how much of your body weight is fat, it really starts to sink in.

Many people haven’t weighed in for a long time, but avoiding the issue doesn’t help you deal with it. Once you know you have a problem, and have made a decision to start doing something, that’s when change can occur. This holds true for a lot of problems, including being obese or just overweight. That’s where we were Monday night.

About half of the 25 had already done Biggest Loser at least once, and a few had done it several times. The most consistent thing I heard was that they’d put a lot of the weight back on. To a person, they all said that they’d just quit working out and watching what they ate.

I told them not to worry about it, because that was the past and this was their chance to get a new start. One advantage they’ll have is that they pretty much know what to do and how to do it. They just need structure and accountability. We’re going to give them plenty of that!

We took a beginning measure for weight, body fat%, body water%, muscle mass, physique rating, their basal metabolic rate (BMR), metabolic age, bone mass, and visceral fat (around their internal organs). We’re going to track all those variables each week and it’ll give us an even better idea of how their body is changing. Next week I’ll cover them in detail for you.

They also took tape measurements of their arm, chest, stomach, butt, and thigh. I also encouraged them to take a couple of pictures wearing shorts and sports bra (gals). Sometimes it’s hard to see the changes when you’re losing weight, and a couple front and side view pictures every month will help keep you motivated.

After the preliminary measures and an introduction, it was time for the physical testing. Everyone did a 1-minute pushup test, a 1-minute sit-up test, a 1-minute body squat test, and then finished with a 1-mile walk/run as fast as they could. At the end of the 12 weeks, we’ll do them again, and they’ll be astonished how much they’ll have improved.

Their goal this week was to fill out and return a daily calorie log next Monday night, and to get their workouts going. They’re supposed to hit the weight circuit three days (M, W, F), and do a cardio workout on the alternating days (T, TH, SA).

They were also given a new secret weapon—a second workout each day! As simple as just getting out and walking a mile first thing in the morning, this second workout will really make a difference in their calorie burning.

Next week we’ll have the results from Week One. It’s not too late for you to participate either, but you’ve got to let me know right away! Feel free to contact me on Facebook at Tom’s Fitness.

My Weight Loss Story

2011-09-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve written “Bodies-in-Balance. Last spring, I took some time off to recharge because I kind of felt like I’d been running out of things to say. I also wanted the time to take care of a couple of other things, one of which was quite a surprise.

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time helping others lose weight and get in shape, and I’ve always been pretty active myself. Somehow, I took my eye off the ball personally.

I’d been kidding myself that I was “bulking up.” My clothing covered it pretty well, and I was still pretty active, but when the shirt came off, my abs had come up missing and I was getting those “handles” on the sides. Kathy tells me she knew that, but she didn’t want to embarrass me. Great.

The final straw came when preparing for the Illini Half-Marathon last spring. It was just harder running those longer distances. In fact, I was surprised at how much harder it had gotten. I went back and checked my records from a couple years ago, and it turns out that I was carrying an extra 25 lbs of fat. No wonder it was harder!

After the race, I decided to do something about it. I was supposed to be the “fitness guy” with all the answers, so this should be easy, right? It wasn’t—at least at the start. I decided right away to get some extra workouts going (I call these “bonus” workouts).

For me, my “bonus” workout was the exercise bike at night for an hour, watching the news shows I’d recorded, or a morning walk for 2 or even 3 miles. Sometimes I did both. I also turned it up in the gym with more intensity, more variety, and longer workouts.

On the weekend, I’d ride the bike for 2 hours, or go and do a 3-4 mi run followed by an hour on the bike. Sometimes I even got in a third workout, if I had a chance. That fat just doesn’t come off by itself—you’ve got to burn it off!

The other big thing I changed was watching my portions, and getting off the cookies and chips. It was amazing how much I’d been overeating. I started eating sandwiches on 1 piece of bread, instead of two. I also started eating more rye bread.

I cut down to a low fat yogurt, and cut my ice tea consumption way back too. Occasionally, I’d have a treat like a donut, or chips, but basically, I watched it pretty closely for 3 months.

Little by little, it started coming off—at first, just a half pound a week. Then it went to two pounds, three pounds, and a couple times, even four pounds a week.

Before the race, my weight was 194.4 lbs and 17.0% fat. By the end of July, I was down to 174.2 lbs and 12.0%. At last look, I was 169.2 lbs and 9.9% fat. Man, I feel better. It’s so much easier to move and I found my abs too.

Going through this experience myself made me realize we needed to bring back the Biggest Loser program so we can help others get back on track, too. As a result, “Biggest Loser 14” starts Monday, September 19th. We’ll meet from 6-7 pm for 12 weeks (13 sessions).

This is the first time for Monday nights. Hopefully, it will give people a chance to get their week off to a great start. Participants don’t have to be members, but they probably should have a fitness membership somewhere, or at the least, access to equipment at home.

Feel free to email me with questions at tomdolanfitness@gmail.com . I’m looking forward to getting back in the saddle with “Biggest Loser 14” and with the article too!

A LOT OF HEART--PART 2

2011-02-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

Last week I told you about Dad’s adventure that ended with him getting a pacemaker. This week I’d like to talk about the rehab involved. As a healthy, fit 87 year old, the pacemaker basically solved the problem.

Even as they wheeled him back to his room, his heart was beating a steady, unchanging 60 beats per minute. Even though that might be pretty low for most folks, I can’t remember the time his heart rate was that high.

Pacemaker recipients have to be pretty careful of their arm for awhile. Since they put it on the left side, Dad had to wear a sling to keep his left arm immobilized for 48 hours.

The reason is there are little leads running from the pacemaker to his heart, and they want to be sure that the leads have time to become fully attached. If he should lift his arms over his head, or forcefully contract his chest muscles, the leads could be pulled out which would cause quite a problem.

Since he needs the pacemaker to generate a decent heart rate, it could cause the same problem he had before (extremely low heart rate) that resulted in him blacking out when his heart stopped. Obviously, he’d have to be rushed back into surgery if that happened.

Those were compelling enough reasons to cause Dad to agree to take it easy for awhile. He can’t lift weights for 6 weeks to be on the safe side. He was allowed to start walking right away, but it was about 3 days before he really did any walking of substance.

Since Dad needed 24 hour care, he checked into a nursing home for a week or so to be sure he’d have help around. The first few days he needed help getting his shirts on, which was kind of tricky. By the end of the week, though, he was doing it on his own.

He also didn’t need any support while getting up and moving around, although he still needed some help getting cleaned up. The area around the pacemaker can’t get wet for awhile, so right now, sponge baths are in order.

At 7 days, he was feeling pretty good, but was complaining about a little dizziness when he got up out of bed, or out of a chair. They pulled him off his high blood pressure medication, thinking that now he didn’t need it. They were probably right, because the problem seemed to go away.

He’ll have his first visit with his cardiologist since being discharged from the hospital, later this week, and probably move back home after that. At that point, we’ll check on him from time to time, but all indications are that this heart will allow him to return to a pretty normal lifestyle. He’s amazed.

He told us when he was a teenager, he’d gotten burned and spent time in the hospital. “It was $15/day and no way could they do what they did.” He figures they saved his life and now, he gets to “keep on ticking.”

A LOT OF HEART

2011-02-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

I was planning on writing this article over the weekend like I usually do, but something came up. Actually it went down. We got the call from the E.R. nurse at Paris Community Hospital Friday night around 11:00 pm. They said that Dad had passed out and hit the floor at Wal-Mart and now he was out at the E.R.

He’d hit his head, which produced a healthy bump that required 2 staples, so they were doing a CAT scan to make sure there wasn’t any internal bleeding. The real worry though, was the fact that he blacked out, which caused the fall.

Now Dad’s heart rate is exceptionally low, especially for an 87 year old. But that night, it hit a new low. I watched the monitor hover around 45-46 beats per minute, and once it dipped as low as 43 bpm! They kept him overnight for observation and after further testing, transferred him over to Union Hospital in Terre Haute so he could be seen by a cardiologist.

This wasn’t the first time he’d fallen. About three months ago, he fell out of his kitchen chair, cracking three ribs and bruising the side of his head. After getting checked out at the doctor, since everything was O.K., everyone concluded that he’d just fallen asleep.

This had actually happened before, about 14 months ago (without the broken ribs and black eye). Dad takes naps in the chair with his feet up, and everyone figured he’d just fallen out of the chair.

So when it happened again, after making sure he was O.K., we tried to address the problem by having him keep his feet down. We also got a different kitchen chair that had sides for the arms, thinking it would be more secure.

Then in church about 6 weeks ago, he kind of slumped and listed sideways in the pews. Since he’d often take little naps, it didn’t seem that unusual. A nurse was behind us, and he was alert right away so we all concluded that again, he’d simply fallen asleep.

Looking back, we should have taken him in to be checked out then. He’d been treated for lower leg swelling 2 years ago, and his cardiologist put him on a water pill to help reduce the swelling. At the time, they noticed that his resting heart rate was really low and said that if it got any lower, it could be dangerous, and he’d have to be treated for it.

Somehow, all of us missed it—even the health care professionals. But this time, everyone realized that it had gotten serious.

Once he got over to Union, he had several more episodes that night. When his heart stopped again for 6 seconds (and he passed out), they were watching. Then it happened again for 11 seconds.

The final time it happened that night, he was out for 19 seconds without a heart beat. Of course they were monitoring everything and ready to step in if he needed help, but the evidence was conclusive—he needed a pacemaker.

The next morning, he was scheduled to be third in line for surgery, but after those episodes, the cardiologist moved him to the front of the line. In just over an hour and a half, he was out of surgery with a strong heartbeat locked in at 60 bpm!

Dad was a little tired, but feeling pretty good, and in amazing spirits. His doctor said that this should fix the problem. He had a strong heart—it just needed a little help initiating the cycle.

We were grateful for all the great help he had out at Wal-Mart with Edgar County Special Service Ambulance, at Paris Community Hospital and then over at Union Hospital. We were also thankful to God for looking out for him.

For six weeks, he’ll have to be pretty careful moving the arm, so the tiny electric leads have time to become permanently attached to his heart. But in a week, he’ll be able to start walking and riding the exercise bicycle again.

Dad was pretty disappointed when he found out he had to put his weight training on hold for six weeks. We figure we’re going to have to strap him down for the duration. He’s got a lot of heart!

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU--PART 5 (LASTING CHANGE)

2011-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

Since Monday was the January 31st, I thought perhaps we could squeeze one more article out of this series before we can’t call it a new year anymore. Technically, we were still in January so it works for me.

Anyway, we’ve talked about how to start the year off right by setting goals, finding things that work for you, and doing things you like. All of these things will help you get what you really want: lasting results.

This is probably even more important than the initial changes themselves. Here’s why. I’ll bet you’ve heard of the yo-yo syndrome. This is where people take the weight off, and then put it right back on.

Going back in forth with your weight is extremely common. Most of us have probably experienced it ourselves. I see it all the time here at the center, and even have to deal with it myself.

What happens is that we get focused so strongly to achieve the goal, that once we get there, we relax just a little bit and maybe even celebrate it. We’ve arrived. It doesn’t even take a big let-down, just a little lowering of our vigilance, and before we know it, we’re sitting there in a cloud of dust, wondering what happened.

Somehow, we tend to think that it won’t happen to us. But it does, and it will. It’s even biblical. There’s a verse I used to quote to friends when they’d say they had it all together. “They that think they stand, beware, lest they fall.”

I wasn’t trying to be a wise guy or high and mighty—I just knew what the verse said, and thought it made sense—for them. That was all well and good until I looked around and found myself in my own cloud of dust, just 7 days from divorce.

What happened is that I’d gotten a little bit too cocky. I guess I thought that it wouldn’t happen to me. But it did. So now I quote the verse to myself.

Once you’ve fallen, you have a decision to make. You can surrender or get back up and start walking again. Sometimes getting knocked around a little bit actually makes you wiser.

Perhaps you can identify why you fell. What things contributed to your fall? What were you thinking? Why did you make those decisions?

Once you’ve figured it out, you can start to put your life back together. You can also use this information to help you keep from doing the same things again that got you there.

For people trying to take off those same 10-20 pounds again, it’s both hard and easy. It’s hard because you have to start over, but it’s easy because you know what to do.

Actually, it applies to people trying to take off the same 50 pounds, or even 100 lbs. I’ve seen people put that much back on again.

What we have to do is maintain our discipline and our vigilance. We need to do the things we know we’re supposed to do—and not do the things we know we’re not supposed to do.

Have reasons why it’s important to you. Stay watchful, especially when you know what your weaknesses were that led to your fall. Christian marriage counselors say we need to build a hedge around things to protect them.

If it’s a marriage you need to protect, you need to build a hedge around yourself to protect you from doing something stupid. Don’t let people in that shouldn’t be there. Don’t have conversations that lead to emotional attachments with somebody else. It’s a slippery slope, and a quick fall.

If it’s your diet that’s at risk, maybe you need to build a hedge around your mouth—or your pantry. Don’t bring things home you know you shouldn’t eat. Don’t stop at places where it’s easy to mess up. Once you’ve started down that path it’s easy to keep indulging. Take smaller portions. Have other, more healthy choices available.

Some people have told me it’s laziness that keeps them from getting the exercise they need. Maybe they need to build a hedge around their time or schedule. Or arrange workouts with others to help keep them interested. Or get stuff they can do at home if it makes it more convenient.

You see, it’s not just reaching the goal and arriving, it’s staying there that really matters. It’s where we are next year that counts, the year after—and the year after that. That’s lasting change.

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU--PART 4 (DO WHAT YOU LIKE)

2011-01-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

Not everybody loves working out. It’s tough for me to understand, because it’s fun for me—maybe even more than fun. I guess it stems from me not being able to workout as a kid.

Back then, my asthma was so bad, just about anything at all triggered attacks. They didn’t have much in the way of medicine back then, so the doctors were very cautious. Basically, I couldn’t do anything.

A couple years ago, I had a chance to go back to Angola and do a concert at the same church I grew up in. Afterward, they had a little get-together and I had a chance to meet many of the people that came to the event.

Amazingly, I met my old 3rd grade teacher, kindergarten teacher, and of all things—my grade school P.E. teacher! Here it was, 40 years later, and they were telling stories about me.

It really touched me when my P.E. teacher told me she’d really felt badly for me. The principal had called her in and told her not to let me participate, because the doctors said that if I’d had an attack, it could have been really bad, even fatal.

As it was, I had attacks all the time and just had to tough it out. Back then they didn’t have rescue breathers (inhalers). So I spent grade school P.E. sitting on the sidelines. The other kids thought I had a good deal, but they didn’t realize that I’d of given anything to get in there.

My parents steered me toward music lessons, and I filled up my time that way, but even into high school, I always wished I could be more physical. Once I got to college, I started working out and training in martial arts.

Asthma treatment also improved, but I still had quite a few hospital stays in my early 20’s. Still, I was getting in shape, and ended up getting my master’s degree in exercise physiology.

About seven years ago, they finally came up with medicines that prevented attacks and I didn’t need to carry inhalers anymore. So I love working out. It’s not hard for me to get to the gym. Even if I didn’t have a gym, I’d go find one.

But when I run into people that are here, but really don’t want to be, I feel for them. It can be hard work, working out—especially if you need to lose a significant amount of weight. My best advice is to try and find things that they like to do.

For example, I was just talking with a woman who didn’t like the cardio so much, but really liked doing the machines. She said, “I could do those every day.” So I suggested that perhaps she try splitting up the routines.

Typically, people will do the whole circuit three times a week. You need at least 48 hours to repair your muscles after your workouts. More intense workouts can even require as much as a week before the muscles are fully recovered.

But what she could do is do a little bit of cardio, and then split the machines up into Upper Body movements and Lower Body movements, doing those on alternating days. That way she’d have time to recover in between.

Or, she could split it up three ways: Pushing movements (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps), Pulling movements (Back, Biceps), and Lower Body movements. Then, she could do them on alternating days with a day off after two cycles through.

If you don’t like the weights so much but don’t mind the cardio (walking, jogging, elliptical, bikes, etc…), focus more on the cardio machines. Just make sure you hit a few upper body exercises to keep your arms and shoulders toned.

Some people like classes like Zumba, Step, or Kickboxing. That’s great. Whatever you like, you’ll be more likely to do it—and keep doing it. It’s the doing it that takes the weight off, but it’s the keep doing it that keeps the weight off.

Me, I’m pretty grateful and thank God everyday. I love working out and have a job that lets me do it. In fact, I’ve got to run—it’s time for my workout. I mean, I really have to run—on the treadmill. There’s one open now. See you next week.

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU--PART 3 (WHAT REALLY WORKS?)

2011-01-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

Have you seen those ads with those new devices that you hold and shake, that are supposed to take the place of all those machines and exercises that you’d do in the gym. Do they work? Well, it depends. Let’s take a look at it.

Of course the model demonstrating the device in the ad is absolutely ripped, and having a great time using it. But do you think they got that way with that particular device? Most likely it was lots of hard work doing all the traditional things in the gym.

But there is actually some science behind those things. When we started sending people into space, they discovered that they came back with smaller, weaker muscles.

Subsequent research revealed it was prolonged exposure to zero gravity that caused the problem. In space, they didn’t have to work as much to maintain posture, or move around, so, their muscles started getting weaker.

When the astronauts got back to earth, they were subject to gravity again, but they had to work to build their muscles back up again. Basically, it’s the same old thing: “Use it or lose it.”

They started experimenting with ways to let the astronauts exercise in space. One thing they did was create machines that actually shook the astronauts. The vigorous shaking forced the muscles to respond to counter the movements, and so they received exercise.

This concept has worked its way into commercial gym equipment research with a vibrating platform that you stand on while doing exercises like squats. The tiny vibrations make the body unstable during the movement which initiates more muscle work to help stabilize the body. That equipment is pretty pricey and places that have it are pretty rare.

So now we can order those devices on T.V. that you hold and shake. They’re much smaller, and much less expensive, but the science behind it is similar. Basically, you’re contracting the muscles on again, and off again, a whole bunch of times to resist and reverse the movements.

So yes, the muscles are getting loaded up, and that means they’re getting exercise. But are you getting as much exercise as you would with traditional equipment and exercises? Let’s go back to the people demonstrating. Did they get that way using that thing? Probably not.

What’s at the core of this latest gimmick is the idea: “You can get results easier if you’ll just buy this product!” This is the reoccurring theme of all of these ads. If you’ll just buy this one thing, you’ll look just like this, without all that nasty hard work.

As a trainer who’s tried just about everything that’s out there, I’ve learned that almost anything will work if you work hard enough, and do it with some consistency. But nothing works as fast as most people want it to. And it’s always inconvenient and messy.

If you’re not sweating and breathing hard, it’s probably not going to be enough to get you what you want. But if it makes you sweat, breath hard, and you feel like you just got a great workout, you’re probably on your way.

If you want real results this year, here’s an idea. Make a commitment to stick. Be consistent in your efforts. Don’t make excuses—make yourself accountable. And just get started. That’s the ticket. That’s what works.

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU--PART 2 (S.M.A.R.T. GOALS)

2011-01-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

Last week’s column was about taking a look at how things went in 2010 and setting some new fitness goals for this year. This week I want to take a closer look at those new goals.

Hopefully, you had a chance to write a few things down. Remember, things that get written down are much more likely to get done. You can further increase your chances of success by having what we call S.M.A.R.T. goals.

S. is for Specific. These are goals where you know exactly what you want to do. For example, you want to lose 50 lbs. That’s pretty specific. Write it down.

M. is for Motivating. This means you’ll be excited or happy when you achieve them. How would you feel if you lost 50 lbs? You’d be looking pretty good, right? That’s pretty motivating. You can also be motivated by how you’ll continue to feel if you don’t do something about it.

A. is for Achievable. An achievable goal is one that you can actually accomplish. If you want to lose 50 lbs in one month, it’s probably not very realistic for you. Losing 1-2 lbs a week is probably more achievable. According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), weight loss of 1-2 lbs a week is both achievable and safe.

R. is for Relevant. The goal has to really mean something or be important to you. If it’s not very important, you’re not likely to keep working toward it. If it’s crucial to you, you’ll do whatever it takes to get it done. Ask yourself why you want to lose the 50 lbs. What will it mean to you? Why now?

T. is for Trackable. This is pretty important, because you need to track and measure your progress as you work toward achieving your goal. Getting on the scale once a week is just about right. More than that will drive you crazy with all the little ups and downs that occur. Weighing once a week will show you the trend—and that’s what’s important. It will let you know if you’re right on track, or if your train has jumped the track.

Once you have your S.M.A.R.T. goals, the main thing is to get moving. We can be more specific about how to exercise, but you just need to get moving. The other thing is to start watching what you eat. Knock out the junk. Write down your calories for awhile until you’re sure you’re eating right.

There are several good websites out there that will help you do that. A friend of mine just told me about a new phone application that will even let you track your calories on your smart phone! Go to www.myfitnesspal.com and give it a look. Or go to www.myfitnessdiary.com or www.calorieking.com .

So go set some S.M.A.R.T. goals already. Good luck getting started and I’ll see you in the gym!

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU!

2011-01-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe, but another whole year has come and gone. It’s time to take stock of how things went for you in 2010 and start planning for 2011.

Even though the focus of this article is usually health and fitness, the same process can apply with other areas, like personal relationships, personal finance, or your work & business. Just follow the same steps.

So let’s talk about your health and fitness. You’ve got to assess the situation. How did you do this past year? How did you feel? What has your doctor said about your health? How are your clothes fitting? The first step to fixing something is to see that something needs to be fixed.

If things went great, and you’re right on track, great! Give yourself a pat on the back. And keep on doing it. If they went the wrong direction, that’s O.K. You can’t change the past—you can only change yourself and try to do better next time.

Once you realize you need to do something about it, it’s time to set some goals for yourself? It’s much more likely you’ll get something done if you write it down, tell people about it, and review your progress from time to time.

That’s why it’s useful to have a “to do list” or goal sheet. It’s a master list of things that are important enough for you to put lots of effort into it. It doesn’t have to be fancy, and not too detailed. Some people carry it in their phone or day planners. Others put it on their refrigerator or the mirror in the bathroom.

Once you have the goals, how are you going to accomplish them? You need a plan of attack. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. If someone’s doing something that’s working, figure out what they’re doing, and do it too.

If you want to be successful at something, it helps to hang around with successful people. Hopefully, some of that success will rub off on you! If nothing else, you’ll be inspired!

After you have a plan, you’ve got to just get started. That’s often the hardest thing to do. It’s easy to keep putting it off. Things will always come up to interfere with your plans.

Getting started might mean calling about information at the YMCA, Curves, or here at Tom’s. It could mean making an appointment to check things out. It’s hard to sign up for something if you can’t even get your butt in the door.

Go with a friend to one of those classes they keep talking about. Or look in the paper for a used treadmill to put in your new fitness room! Or go online and order an exercise ball, some dumbbells and a workout DVD. Start out with trying to walk a mile every day. Then adding some weight machines two or three times a week.

Probably the most important thing is to schedule your training times. Don’t leave it up to chance because things will always come up to frustrate you. Pick a time and stick to it. If you can develop a regular routine, you’ll be much more likely to succeed.

Take some measurements of your arm, chest, waist, hips and thigh. Get your current weight and body fat. You might even take a picture in something skimpy. Put that on your bathroom mirror—it might give you lots of motivation. In 12 weeks do it again. I’ll bet you’ll be pretty excited. Good luck, and have a great New Year and a New You!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- FINAL RESULTS

2010-12-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

This week marks the end of our thirteenth Biggest Loser. While it was certainly the smallest group we’ve worked with for quite some time, it was probably one of the most motivated.

Just about half the participants finished, which was normal. The ones who did, however, all came through quite a bit of adversity along the way. What you do when life intrudes makes all the difference, and I’m proud of them all for finding a way to stick with it.

The overall winner for Biggest Loser “13” was Nicole Shaughnessy, who lost a total of 8.2% of her body weight and 13.8 lbs. But that’s not quite the whole story.

At the start of the twelve weeks, we took measurements of everyone’s Chest, Right Arm, Waist, Hips, and Right Thigh. At the end, we took measurements again. In just twelve weeks, Nicole lost a total of 16.5 inches overall!

And she wasn’t the only one. Shay Jones, our 5th place finisher, lost a total of 17.25 inches overall! This goes to show you that weight loss isn’t the only way to look at things.

Nicole Clodfelter was second overall, losing 7.8% and 17.4 lbs. This brings Nicole up to an amazing total weight loss of 136.5 lbs! She says she’s not done yet, but she’s getting close!

Shawn Bowers was third, losing 6.6% and 20.4 lbs. Karen Brown was fourth, losing 6.1% and 13.6 lbs. Shay was fifth, losing 5.0% and 8.0 lbs. Jennifer Bell placed sixth, losing 4.8% and 9.6 lbs, and Nikki Johnson was seventh, losing 3.0% and 6.6 lbs.

Even though this was the end of the twelve weeks, it shouldn’t be an end at all. Now that they know what to do and how to do it, they should set a new goal and keep on going.

At this point, their results are pretty predictable. As long as they do what they were doing, there is no reason they can’t do it again, and then again, until they reach their ideal weight.

Once again, congratulations to everyone. If you’ve been thinking about getting started, maybe you need to start your own twelve week program. There’s never been a better time. Just think about it: “New Year—New You.” Good luck!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- LEVEL IV WORKOUTS--PART 2

2010-12-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

This week the group did another Level IV workout. For a workout to qualify for Level IV status, it has to have several things going for it.

It should use enough different exercises that taken together will work the entire body: Upper Body—pushing; Upper Body—pulling; Lower Body; and Core. There should be at least one compound movement (uses several different body parts). It also needs to be completed non-stop, without any breaks.

This time the workout consisted of just three exercises: Running, Kettle Bell Swings, and Sit-ups. Running hit the lower body and the Sit-ups hit the core. Interestingly, the Kettle Bell Swings actually hit all three areas: Pushing, Pulling, and Lower Body, as well as the core, since it connects everything together.

Here’s how it worked. They started by jogging a quarter mile. Then they did 25 Kettle Bell Swings followed by 25 Sit-ups. That was round one. The goal was to do six rounds as fast as possible. By the end, they will have completed a mile and a half, 150 Kettle Bell Swings, and 150 Sit-ups.

• Run ¼ mile
• 25 Kettle Bell Swings
• 25 Sit-ups
(Repeat 6x)

Although this workout used only three things, sometimes we’ll have as many as 7 or 8 different exercises. It’s important to move from one exercise to the other without any breaks. Depending on how many exercises and rounds, the workouts will last between 20 and 25 minutes.

By the time you’ve finished your Level IV workout, you’ll have hit your entire body for some serious muscle training. Since it was non-stop, you’ll also have gotten a cardio workout too. Give it a try!

This week’s winner was Nicole Clodfelter (again), who lost 1.1% of her body weight and 2.2 lbs. One week to go!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- LEVEL IV WORKOUTS

2010-12-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

This week we introduced the group to Level IV workouts. You might recall that the basic machine strength training circuit was Level I. Replacing the movements with dumbbells and exercise balls was Level II. Last week we combined cardio intervals (ran ¼ mile) with body weight exercises (pushups, body squats, sit-ups for Level III.

What makes Level IV workouts unique and difficult is the type of exercises you do, with little or no break between them. For their workout, we used five different exercises:

(1) Wall Ball—this was a new movement for them, holding a soft medicine ball on their shoulder, executing a body squat, and then tossing the ball up overhead against the wall before catching it on the opposite shoulder and then doing another body squat.

(2) Dumbbell Curls—this was a familiar traditional weight lifting exercise, curling a dumbbell in each arm, alternating right then left.

(3) Kettle Bell Swings—another new movement for them, holding a kettle bell by the hand in both hands, swinging it down between their legs, and using their hips, arms and shoulders to swing it back up overhead. Make sure you have a tight grip so you don’t hit yourself in the head!

(4) Bench Jumps—another new movement, standing on one side of a weight bench, gripping it with both hands with most of your weight on your arms, jump from one side to the other, swinging both feet together as one.

(5) Abs Routine #1 to #4—this was familiar to them from previous workouts. Crunches with knees bent; crunches with legs straight up; crunches to each side; and leg flippers.

Here’s how it worked. Each person performed one exercise for 50 seconds. During a 10 second rest period, they moved to the next station and then did the next exercise for 50 seconds. At the end of five minutes they had rotated through all five exercises and completed one round. They did this four times for a total of four rounds and 20 minutes.

It sounds easy, but because Wall Ball, Kettle Ball swings, and Bench Jumps are compound movements using several different muscle groups at a time, it quickly gets intense. Since they did everything without any breaks—just the 10 seconds to move over and get ready—it became a cardio workout too!

Give it a try sometime, but make sure you’ve eaten something before hand. This type of workout will make you light headed and nauseous if you try to do it on an empty stomach—it’s too tough!

This week’s Biggest Loser was Nicole Shaughnessy, who lost 1.1% of her body weight and 1.8 lbs. Second place went to Nicole Clodfelter, who lost 0.7% of her body weight and 1.5 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- LEVEL III WORKOUTS

2010-11-30T16:26:00.000-08:00

As I’ve said in the past, the key to avoiding weight loss plateaus is changing things up. They’ve been at it for two months, and in most cases are seeing their weight level off. This means we need to shake things up yet again.

Once they’ve had high intensity interval training, it’s time to start combining it with their resistance training. For these Level III workouts, we’re combining cardio intervals with exercises that use their own body weight, like pushups, body squats, sit-ups, and pull-ups.

After walking for a short while to warm up, they started jogging ¼ mile on the treadmill—in the warmer months, we actually take them out to the football field and have them run a lap there. After that, they did 25 pushups, 25 body squats, and 25 sit-ups. Then they took off for another ¼ mile lap. Here’s what it looks like:

• Run ¼ mile
• 25 pushups
• 25 body squats
• 25 sit-ups
(Do a total of 4 times)

The goal is to do the ¼ miles as fast as possible. For some people this is a walk/run. For others, it’s a faster jog. Once you’re in better shape, it’s more like a sprint. Once you get around, you knock off the pushups, body squats and sit-ups as quickly as possible without stopping.

By the time you get done, you’ll have jogged a mile and completed 100 pushups, 100 body squats, and 100 sit-ups. It’s a full body workout that doesn’t take very long to complete, but if you’re pushing hard, you’ll be pretty gassed when you finish.

A good goal would be to try in finish in less than 30 minutes. Once a month, try the workout again and see if you can improve on your time.

This week’s winner was Nikki Johnson, who lost about half a pound. Next week, we’ll talk about the even more intense Level IV workouts. In the meantime, why don’t you give this one a try? Good luck!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- 5 K CHALLENGE

2010-11-24T10:04:00.000-08:00

This week instead of the regular workout, the Biggest Losers met in Marshall for the annual Turkey Trot 5 K (3.1 miles) race. They’ve known about the challenge since the first week, and have been working to step up their distance, especially in the last few weeks.

Just about anyone can walk a mile, even three miles, but when you start jogging, it becomes quite a bit more difficult. Much more energy is required once you break into a jog, and your respiration and heart rate go up dramatically to meet the increased oxygen demands. That’s why we teach people how to build up to it by run/walking intervals.

What I like about the organized races, is that it puts you around other like-minded people. In fact, you’ll often find inspiration there. There’s something special about lining up with a bunch of other people all about to do something like this.

Don’t worry about how fast you’re going to be either. If you’ve never done an event like this, the accomplishment is starting and finishing the event—that’s what makes you a winner. Once you have one under your belt, you can then work on trying to improve your time at the next one.

Not everyone in the group was able to make the event. If they couldn’t, they were supposed to make it up on their own. Karen did her 3.1 miles on Friday night (44:30). Here are the others and their Turkey Trot times: Shelly (27:12), Nicole C. (33:13), Nicole S. (39:14), Mary (43:01), Shay (43:13), Nikki (43:28), and Jennifer (45:47). Great job everybody!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING

2010-11-15T07:35:00.000-08:00

This week we taught the participants how to do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for their cardio workouts. This type of training is exactly how it sounds. After a 5 or 10 minute warm-up, you simply alternate higher intensity cardio intervals with lower intensity rest intervals.

There are many different ways to package your HIIT training. When working with someone new, I try to match the level of intensity to their individual fitness level. The first two examples are from actual Biggest Loser participants.

Relatively New Runner—one participant named Jennifer hadn’t had a lot of experience running, and the fastest she’d ever gone on the treadmill prior to the workout was 4.2 mph. After walking a quarter mile (400 meters), I had her start jogging at 4.0 mph for half a lap (200 meters). When she got halfway around the track on the display, I had her walk the other half lap at 3.0 mph to rest and recover.

Then she bumped up the speed to 4.2 mph (her previous fastest pace) for another half a lap on the display. Once she got halfway around again, she went back to walking for the rest of the lap. At the end of that quarter mile, she cranked it up to 4.4 mph for half a lap, followed by another half-lap of walking.

She was able to do another half lap at 4.6 mph, walked half a lap, and then another interval at 4.8 mph, followed by another half a lap of walking. Finally, she ground out a half lap at 5.0 mph, well faster than she’d ever gone prior to the workout. She said it was pretty tough, but she finished the workout. At the end, she did a quarter mile walk as a cool down.

Runner with Moderate Experience—another participant you’ve been reading about for several months was Nicole, who’s been running for the last few Biggest Losers, and has completed several 5 K (3.1 mile) races, running most of the way, with some walking every mile. Just the other day, she completed 3 miles consecutive running without having to walk at all!

Since she had more experience, we divided the workout differently. Instead of half a lap running and half a lap walking, we had her walk a quarter of the way around the display (100 meters), and jog three quarters (300 meters). Since she said she was comfortable running at 5.5 mph, we had her start at 5.0 mph.

Once she made it around the whole lap, she got to walk a quarter of the way around again before turning it up to 5.5 mph. After another walk break, she did the next ¾ lap at 6.0 mph, and then another at 6.5 mph, 7.0 mph, 7.5 mph, and then a final one at 8.0 mph—well faster than she ever thought she could go.

Again, the trick is doing harder intervals than you think you can do, followed by short breaks to let you catch your breath, get a drink, and wipe off the sweat! You’ll burn more calories in a shorter period of time, and stimulate all kinds of changes in your body.

These types of workouts have a much longer after-burn, which means you’ll burn more calories during the hours after the workout while your body is working to recover. It will also make your regular workouts easier.

I’ll even combine HIIT training with short runs and resistance training to make some very intense workouts. In the boot camp class held before the Biggest Loser workout, here’s the HIIT training that they did:

1. Run ¼ mile
2. 25 pull-ups
3. Run ¼ mile
4. 50 pushups
5. Run ¼ mile
6. 25 dumbbell curls (each arm)
7. Run ¼ mile
8. 25 kettle bell swings
9. Run ¼ mile
10. 25 floor-wipers (both sides)
11. Run ¼ mile

This week’s Biggest Loser was Jennifer Bell (from the first example above) who lost about 1.0% of her body weight and 1.6 lbs. With this type of HIIT training to add to her workout arsenal, I’m sure she’s going to continue to have success!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- THE DREADED SLUMP

2010-11-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

This week marks the halfway point of the twelve week program. By now, the participants have pretty much figured out how to manage their eating. They’ve also got their exercise routines down and are usually able to get their workouts in every day.

Even so, it’s right about this time that many people experience a slump in their weight loss. Where they might have lost a couple pounds a week, now they’ve only lost a half a pound or so.

This plateau in weight loss is a mystery to everyone, including trainers. A very few people never experience them, but most people do. There are a lot of reasons why it could be happening, but it’s tough to really know for sure. Here are a few things to look for.

1. Loss of focus—sometimes you just get tired and start taking things for granted. When you let your guard down, it’s easy to take your eye off the prize. You’ve got to work to get it back. Perhaps you need to start writing down your calories again.

2. Lack of effort—this one makes people mad, but usually I can tell when people just start taking it easy. They start getting comfortable and coasting in their workouts, doing the same things, and quit pushing. You’ve got to get it done.

3. Lack of consistency—this is all about what you do when life starts intruding. There are all kinds of reasons to miss a workout, but only one reason will get you there—because you have to. There’s always a way if you want it bad enough. Doing 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 body squats at home will get the job done.

4. Not eating enough—this one sounds stupid, but it really gets a lot of people, especially women. As you get busy, if you start missing meals again (especially breakfast), it can backfire on you. You’ve got to make sure you hit your minimum number of calories every day.

5. Your body needing a change—this is similar to number two (lack of effort), but not because you weren’t trying. It’s just that as things get easier for you, you can do the same amount of work without burning as much energy, so you’ll burn fewer calories. You’ve got to keep turning it up. Take a different class. Try a different workout.

That’s why I taught them a different free-weight routine this week, and next week, we’ll do a high intensity interval workout. It’s important to keep changing it up. That keeps the body working hard and burning lots of calories.

It’s also good for your mind. That helps you keep focused on the goal and keep pushing too. It lets you get excited about your workouts, and that will keep you consistent.

In the end, it comes down to showing up, pushing hard when you get here, and changing it up enough to keep the intensity there. When you’re home, watch what you eat, but make sure you’re eating enough.

Finally, remember that one weigh-in really doesn’t matter—it’s the trend over time. Often, people will get discouraged when they gain a little bit, only to find two days later, they take it right back off. By the end of the week, things are back on track, so keep plugging!

This week’s winner was Nicole Clodfelter, who’s had a pretty good track record since she keeps pushing. She lost 1.4% of her body weight and 3.0 pounds. That brings her six week total up to 11.0 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- KICKBOXING

2010-11-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

This week we introduced the Biggest Losers to a kickboxing class. Since I have a martial arts background, I like to make the kickboxing class very practical—they get to hit stuff like targets and the heavy bags.

Since they’re hitting things, the pads add resistance to the training. This is good for two reasons. First, it makes the workout more intense. It also is pretty realistic. If you ever have to defend yourself, it’s helpful if you’ve actually practiced hitting things!

Kickboxing can also be an amazing cardio workout. It uses the entire body, especially the core, as you bob and weave to avoid punches. Typically, I have partners hold pads that you hit and then block as they pop you back. It teaches you how to cover up and move to avoid being hit.

I like to work on things in “rounds” like in a match. One person might do “Jab, Cross, Cover, Cover” for two minutes while the other one holds the pads. Then they’ll switch roles for another two minutes. This way you get enough time to figure out how to get the skill going, but it’s also a nice little cardio interval.

Then, we’ll add something to the combination like, “Jab, Cross, Cover, Cover, Knee, Knee.” Two more minutes of that and then we’ll switch again. The next combination might be “Jab, Cross, Low Kick, Low Kick” and then “Jab, Cross, Kick, Knees.”

Once they’re pretty good at doing the combinations on the hand pads, I like to have the partner start moving a little bit before and after. This forces the kickboxer to adjust forward or backward which makes it more difficult. It’s also a little more real-world, as physical encounters never happen in a static environment.

People move and you have to adjust. Once they get some experience at moving in and out, I’ll have them start working on slipping to the side a little bit. Again, that raises the level of difficulty. It also raises the level of the workout intensity anytime you add movement.

At some point, we’ll turn to the heavy bag and let them work on their combinations there. While partner drills with pads make for learning how to react and move, the bag provides much more resistance. When you can snap off some combinations on the heavy bag, and get it to move, that means you can deliver some power to your target.

You’ve got to make sure you keep your wrists tight and straight when working on the heavy bag because it’s easy to lose focus. If you hit the bag hard with a bent wrist, you’ll have a sprained, bent wrist.

You’ve also got to wear boxing gloves to protect your knuckles. The gloves add some weight, too, which means more resistance. That means you’ll get more out of the workout.

Near the end of the class, I like to do 30 second intervals where they have to just go crazy with everything they’ve learned. It’s non-stop, full throttle, until I yell time. Sounds easy, but as soon as you ramp up the intensity, it becomes amazingly exhausting—just like a real fight would be.

When I was in the police academy, we learned that in a physical encounter, it’s typical to burn through 90% of your energy in the first minute. Part of that’s due to an adrenaline dump that comes when you’re in danger.

If you’re not in shape, and can’t manage your energy, you can quickly find yourself with little left to defend yourself. That’s why I like to do these short, fast intervals in class.

After three or four of those, people start slowing down big-time, even if they’re in pretty good shape. That’s when I like to throw in a 60 second interval to really blast them. If they can keep going guns blazing for 60 seconds, you’ll probably do pretty well in the real thing.

Normally, the classes last 45 minutes, and if we do it right, you’re ready to leave at the end. As you get better, your combinations get sharper and you can hit harder. You get better at moving, and as you move more, you’ll get an even better workout.

It’s not uncommon to have people burn over 500 calories in a class. Once, a few years ago, I had a gal lose 49 pounds in a year, and the only thing she did differently was take kickboxing twice a week.

This week’s Biggest Loser was Karen Brown who lost 1.6% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. Karen’s lost 11.0 lbs in just 5 weeks. While she will tell you she wishes it were more, she’s very happy about all the inches she’s lost!

Second place went to Nicole Shaughnessy who lost about 1.0% of her body weight and 1.4 lbs. Shay Jones came in third, losing 1.2 lbs, and Nikki Johnson was fourth, losing 1.6 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

2010-10-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

This week the group took their weight training to the next level. They’ve been doing Level I training with the machines for a month so it was time to turn it up. Level II training with dumbbells presents a different challenge.

While the machines provide a nice safe, guided motion with a leverage assist, dumbbells (DB) require you to control the entire movement. This means more stabilizer muscles are called on which makes it more work. That means you’ll get a better workout and burn more calories.

Machines also have pads to lean on or press against. Level II training with dumbbells requires you to use your core to keep your posture correct. Once again, this means you’ll be using more muscles to complete the same movements.

Our goal was to replace each of the machines with a similar movement with dumbbells. We also taught them how to string several exercises together in what are called supersets. It also allows you to rest one muscle group while you’re working another. I call it “active rest.”

We also used a stability ball (exercise ball) for many of the exercises which hit their core even more. Finally, we threw in some mini cardio bursts between rounds to help keep their heart rate up.

Here’s what their first Level II dumbbell workout looked like in case you want to try it yourself:

1. DB Chest Press on Ball
2. Body Squat (holding exercise ball overhead)
(repeat 3x, back-to-back, 10-12 repetitions)
3. Jog around the room 5 times

4. DB Dead-lifts
5. Single Arm Rows
(repeat 3x, back-to-back, 10-12 reps)
6. Run the lines in the room (wind sprints)

7. DB Lateral Shoulder Raises
8. Standing DB Single Arm Curls
9. Standing Triceps Overhead Press
(repeat 3x, back-to-back, 10-12 reps)
10. Jog around the room 5 times

11. Series of different Abdominal Crunches with Exercise Ball
12. Run the lines in the room (wind sprints)

Shelly Roark was our Biggest Loser this week, losing 2.0% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs. Mary Pfister came in second, losing 1.8% and 3.5 lbs. Lisa Eskew was third, losing 1.3% and 2.4 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- LEARN HOW TO BURN

2010-10-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

In Week One the goal was to get the group moving. They also focused on learning how much they were eating, by tracking their calories each day. In Week Two they focused on looking at the quality of what they were eating, and how to put together balanced meals.

This week our goal was to help them learn how to burn, by turning up the intensity of their exercise. In the first Friday night workout, they did 5 sets of 10 pushups, sit-ups and body squats, for a total of 50 each, followed by walk/running one mile.

Last week in the second workout, they did 4 sets of 15 pushups, sit-ups and body squats, for a total of 60 each. They also learned how to do walking lunges, and several different exercises for their abs on the stability ball.

This week we raised the intensity by having them walk/run to the water tower park. Once everyone got there, we did all the usual things plus some new exercises: burpees, windmills, mountain climbers, leg-lifts, and even a sprint across the park and back. Once they finished, they jogged back to the center.

So instead of just a mile after the workout, they ended up doing about a mile and a half. The intensity of the workout was higher because they ran before all the exercises, and then ran again afterward. All the new exercises helped too.

So how do you use this information to increase the intensity of your own workouts? The first thing is to start doing some cardio at the beginning. Ten minutes is a good start. Then, after you use the strength circuit, do another ten minutes of cardio at the end.

This works whether you’re using machines or free weights. Adding a run always increases the intensity. That’s why jogging and calisthenics have always been the backbone of physical training in police academies as well as the military.

Now if you’ve never done any running, that’s O.K. After a couple minutes walking to warm up, try a very slow jog for just a minute. You don’t need to go fast. Pick a pace that’s just fast enough that you’re not walking anymore.

Even then, it might be hard to get a whole minute in. That’s O.K. too. Do what you can. Then walk two minutes. Then try another minute jogging and another two minutes walking to recover. Try to do it several times.

The next time, try to do five or six intervals, then seven, and so on. At some point, you’ll realize you don’t need the entire two minutes of walking to recover. Start jogging again a little sooner. You’ll get to where you can do a minute on and a minute off.

Before you know it, you’ll be able to go longer than a minute. Then it will switch. Try jogging two minutes with only a one minute walk break. Then go three minutes and so on. It won’t take long and you’ll really be building up your time.

So that’s how to sandwich your workouts with cardio. Next week I’ll tell you how they built cardio intervals into their workouts! See you then.

This week’s Biggest Loser was a two-way tie between Janet Tyler and Nicole Shaughnessy, who lost 1.1% of their body weight. Janet lost 2.0 lbs and Nicole lost 1.8 lbs. Nicole Clodfelter and Shawn Bowers tied for second, losing 1.0% of their body weight. Nicole C. lost 2.2 lbs while Shawn lost 3.0 lbs. Next week we’ll introduce the group to free weights, so I’ll see you then!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- WEEK ONE (BALANCED MEALS)

2010-10-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

This week the Biggest Losers looked at how to eat meals that are in balance. If you recall from last week, each type of food has a preferred use in the body.

Proteins are best for building muscle and bone; starches (complex carbs) are best for long lasting energy and some vitamins; and fruits and greens provide quick energy, lots of vitamins and minerals, and also some fiber.

While there are lots of different diets out there, our Biggest Losers have pretty good results by just eating plain old balanced meals—in the right amounts. Here are some healthy, balanced meal ideas we used to get them started. Each has a serving of Protein, Starch, and Fruits or Greens.

A woman shooting for 1,650 calories a day needs three 400 calorie meals and three 150 calorie snacks as shown in the examples below. Guys need larger meals and have to adjust up as needed. Mix and match foods to come up with slightly different meals.

Sample 400 Calorie Breakfasts:
• ½ to ¾ cup whole grain Cereal, 8 oz Skim or Soy Milk, and a Medium Banana.
• 1 piece of quality whole grain Bread with a little butter and honey, a small low fat Yogurt, and some fresh Fruit.
• 2 eggs, 1 piece of whole wheat Toast with butter, ½ cup fresh fruit.
• 1 serving of Oatmeal, 8 oz Skim or Soy Milk, and some fresh fruit.

Sample 400 Calorie Lunches:
• 1 cup whole wheat Spaghetti & Meatballs and ½ cup Green Beans.
• 6” Chicken Teriyaki Sub loaded with veggies on Honey Oat bread.
• Grilled Chicken and Spinach Salad with fat free dressing.
• ½ broiled Chicken Breast, ½ cup frozen Bean Medley, 1 piece ww Bread with butter.

Sample 400 Calorie Suppers:
• 3 oz baked Chicken, ½ cup Baked Beans, Mixed Salad with fat free dressing.
• 3 oz Meatloaf, ½ baked Sweet Potato, ½ cup fresh Green Beans.
• 1 cup grilled Chicken and whole wheat Pasta, Mixed Salad with fat free dressing.
• 3 oz fresh or frozen Fish, ½ cup long grain wild Rice, frozen garden Bean Medley
• 3 oz smoked Pork Chop, ½ baked Potato w. a little butter, Mixed Salad with fat free dressing.

Sample 150 Calorie Snacks:
• Small low fat Yogurt and ½ cup Red Seedless Grapes, or Banana or other fruit.
• Meal Replacement Shakes
• ½ small box of Raisins and ¼ cup of Cashew Pieces.
• ½ cup low fat Cottage Cheese and ½ cup Fruit.
• Several pieces of real (not processed) Cheese & several whole wheat Crackers .
• Protein Bar
• ½ cup fat free Frozen Yogurt and ½ cup fresh Strawberries.
• Yellow Delicious Apple and 1 tbsp Peanut Butter.

Once you have your routine down, you won’t need to keep track of the calories so much anymore. Then it will be more about just controlling your portions. In fact, that’s really what you’re learning to do when you start eating this way, so you might give it a try.

This week’s Biggest Loser was Jennifer Bell who lost 1.7% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. Lisa Eskew was second, losing 2.8% and 2.4 lbs. Mary Pfister placed third, losing 1.4% and 2.8 lbs. Shay Jones was fourth, losing 1.1% and 1.8 lbs, and Nicole Clodfelter came in fifth, losing 1.0% and 2.0 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- WEEK ONE (HOW TO EAT RIGHT)

2010-10-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Biggest Losers completed their first week and had their first workout on Friday night. During the workout, we talked about how important it was for them to hit their minimum (calories) each day.

For women, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of 1,200 calories. For men it’s 1,800 calories. Anything less than that will work against you. But if you can hit your minimum, you’ll feel better and start to lose weight.

Once you hit your minimum, you can actually shoot for eating a little more to cover your activity during the day. Most women can eat between 1,500-1,650 calories and feel fine while losing weight. Most guys can lose weight around 2,200-2,400 calories. Once you get your quantity under control, the next step is to look at the quality of what you’re eating.

Remember, food is fuel. Sure, it can give us pleasure, but the bottom line is food is fuel. When you get empty, you need to fuel up. But there’s another issue.

If you put the wrong kind of fuel in a car, it won’t run well, or not at all. What you want is high octane foods that help your body work better. Every meal should have three main components: Protein, Starch & Fruits & Greens.

Protein—for building Muscle & Bone:

Meats, Chicken, Turkey, Fish, Low Fat Dairy products like Milk, Yogurt & Cottage Cheese, Nuts, Peanut Butter, some Beans, and Meal Replacement Shakes.

Most people don’t get nearly enough protein in their diet. It’s not fuel, though. Your body doesn’t like to burn protein for fuel as it’s inefficient, and can cause medical side effects.

You should probably eat more Fish, then Chicken & Turkey, less Beef (lean cuts only), and even less Pork. Low Fat Dairy is fine. If you’re lactose intolerant, choose a Soy based dairy product.

Starch—for long lasting Fuel (Energy):
Quality Whole Grains like Cereals & Breads, Oats, Whole Wheat Pasta, Long Grain Wild Rice, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Corn, Sugar Snap Peas, Beans.

Starches are your bodies preferred fuel for energy. Also known as complex carbohydrates, starches take a long time for your body to break down, so you get long lasting energy.

Most people eat too much starch (carbs), especially the bad kinds like white breads, refined flours, and junk foods. Some diets tell you not to eat carbs at all (even the good stuff!). That’s goofy. Just don’t eat too many.

Fruits & Greens—for Vitamins & Minerals, Quick Energy, and Fiber:
Most people don’t eat nearly enough Fruits & Greens and some don’t eat any at all. Fruits & Greens have tons of vitamins & minerals, along with the enzymes needed to use them. They're high in fiber and low in calories. If you’ll start eating more Fruits & Greens, you’ll start feeling better, almost immediately. Go for Fruits early in the day for quick energy, and have lots of Greens at your later meals.

Fats
Take a high quality supplement that has a blend of Omega-3 (fish oil) and also Omega-6 and Omega-9 in it. It will help you fight infections, think more clearly, support your metabolism, and make you feel better. Eat more fish and nuts too. Avoid vegetable oils and foods cooked in them. They’ll make you fat. Go with olive oil for cooking.

Avoid Trans Fats. If you see a label that says Trans Fats .5 or more, don’t buy it. Only buy it if it says Trans Fats 0. This type of fat is extremely dangerous. Your body can’t process them, so it coats them with cholesterol and stores them in your arteries. Experts believe they’re the main reason for the increase in heart disease in men and women at younger ages.

Choose low fat dairy products for milk, cottage cheese and yogurt. There’s no difference in the amount of protein, only fat. Go 2%, or even lower if you can. Choose low fat salad dressings, too. This will take you from 140 calories for 2 tbsp down to 50, 45, or sometimes 25 calories!

Try to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), found in pop, ice creams, and many other foods. Unlike fructose (sugars found in fruits), sucrose (simple sugars), or even corn syrup (all of which your body CAN burn for fuel), HFCS can’t be burned for fuel, so your body stores it as fat.

Another problem is that HFCS doesn’t trigger the release of leptin which tells you that you’re full. Many experts believe HFCS is the main reason behind the epidemic of obesity in our kids.

Water
If you want to feel better, drink more water. It helps flush and cleanse the body, and also is critical to things moving in and out of the cells at a molecular level.

When you’re dehydrated, your body doesn’t work as well. Until you’ve been fully hydrated you’ll never really know how good you can feel. Coffee and pop don’t count as water. Quit the pop. Only water counts as water. Drink it.

The government recommends adults have at least 64 oz (a little more than 3 20 oz bottles) of water each day. Even that’s not enough, especially if you’re exercising. Active women may need up to 4 bottles (up to 80 oz) and active men could need 5 or 6 (100-120 oz).

Week One Results
Next week I’ll give you some sample meal and snack ideas. This week’s Biggest Loser was Janet Tyler, who lost 3.1% of her body weight and 5.8 lbs. Shawn Bowers was second, losing 2.3% and 7.2 lbs. Nicole Shaughnessy was third, losing 1.8% and 3.0 lbs. Nicole Clodfelter placed fourth, losing 1.6% and 3.6 lbs, and Mary Pfister was fifth, losing 1.4% and 2.8 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- INITIAL WEIGH-IN

2010-09-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

This week the new group showed up for their first initial weigh-in prior to the start of Week One. Facing the scale for the first time is always a little uncomfortable for most people. It’s important though, because they need to know what they’re facing.

We also measured their body fat, which might be more important than the actual weigh-in. It’s much better to be 15-20% fat than 25-30%. For example, it would be much better to be 150 lbs and 20% fat (30 lbs of fat) than 150 lbs and 30% fat (45 lbs).

I’ve seen quite a few people start the program between 30-40% fat, and once in awhile, I’ll see someone at 50% fat or higher. The highest body fat percentage I’ve ever seen was someone that came in at 60% fat. Over the course of a year, they lost 100 lbs and were still fairly big.

The participant’s body fat ranged from a low of 34.7% to 45.5%. Think of it—almost half your weight in fat. According to experts, a woman with body fat over 33% is considered “over-fat” and over 39% is considered to be obese. For guys, anyone over 20% is “over-fat” and over 28% is obese.

When you lose fat, it gets a lot easier to move around. In some cases, it gets easier to breath. Think of all the extra circulation you need with all that extra fat. Plus your heart has to work harder to pump the blood around, too. In the morbidly obese, the extra fat is actually packed around the lungs, pressing in, making it even harder to breath.

As you get stronger and put on muscle, it actually makes it easier to lose more fat. Not only can you work harder and burn more calories, but muscle requires more energy to live, so it will have an effect on your metabolism.

We also had them measure themselves, at the chest, arm, waist, hips and thigh. This way they’ll have another objective measurement to compare with as they progress through the 12 weeks. Sometimes you don’t see any weight loss, but you’ll see a difference in inches. That’s why I’ll always ask them if their clothing is fitting any looser.

Once we got all that out of the way, we did four fitness tests: 1 minute body squats, 1 minute pushups, 1 minute sit-ups, and the 1 mile walk/run. The goal was to do as many body squats, pushups and sit-ups as possible in a minute, and then cover the mile as fast as they could.

It’s always a wakeup call for them, especially when they’re exhausted at the end of each test. For some, it’s the most exercise they’ve done in years. They’ll actually felt like they did a workout, but I assured them it wasn’t—just some fitness tests.

The real workouts start next week. We’ll do the three tests again at the end of the 12 weeks and they’ll be amazed at how much they’ll have improved.

I gave them a little informational booklet that outlines the exercise strategy (see the last couple articles), and our approach to eating smart. They also got a daily calorie log so they can start recording how much they eat everyday.

Research shows that people who write it down lose more weight than people who don’t. It also shows that eating smaller meals more often, increases your metabolism and gives you more energy to get through your day.

A good quality Breakfast gets things started. I didn’t make this up—breakfast is the most important meal of the day! As you finish burning what you ate for breakfast, you fuel up by having a Healthy Snack
.
Awhile later, it’s time for Lunch, then another Healthy Snack in the afternoon. Finally it’s time for Supper. If you want one, feel free to have another Healthy Snack in the evening. There’s nothing wrong with using that snack for a healthy dessert.

If your meals and snacks total up to your calorie Target, and you’re active, you’ll lose weight. If they exceed your Target, you’ll stay the same. Make sure you’re over your minimum, though.

If you miss meals to the point where you go under your minimum, your body will think you’re starving and lower your metabolism again, making it hard if not impossible to burn fat.

Eating this way keeps you from overeating, and levels out your insulin, too, keeping you feeling just right all day. Some experts call it grazing. Next week, we’ll look more closely at what foods to eat and why.

We also talked about the importance of setting a goal. Regardless what you see on television, a pound a week is good, two pounds a week is great, and three or more is fantastic. So if you want to lose 24 lbs, you know you need to average two pounds a week. If you can meet a bunch of little goals, they’ll all add up into one big goal.

Finally, I asked Nicole Clodfelter to speak a little bit about what it takes. You may remember her from past Biggest Loser articles. This is her third Biggest Loser, and she started her journey a little less than a year ago. Since last December, she’s lost 120 lbs, so she’s well qualified to talk about sticking with it.

In most groups, half will quit somewhere along the way. I’m hoping that the “Friends & Family” concept of having a training buddy will help us counter that statistic. Knowing someone else is planning on being there should make it harder to ditch their workouts, so it should help them with accountability.

Another thing that should help them stay accountable is the weekly weigh-ins. Since they know they’re going to be facing the scale every Friday, hopefully, it will help them make better decisions throughout the week.

It’s not too late to join this group but you’ll need to let me know before the first workout Friday night. The cost is just $50 and you don’t need to be a member to participate, but you probably need to have a membership somewhere so you can get all your workouts in. Stay tuned for the results from Week One next time!

BIGGEST LOSER "13" -- EXPECTATIONS

2010-09-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

With Biggest Loser “13” starting this Friday, Sept. 24th, it’s always a good idea to kind of run down what it takes to start and finish a 12 week program like that. Obviously, the participants have to be tired of things the way they are, and want to lose a serious amount of weight.

While we have had people participate that only wanted to lose 5-10 lbs, it’s pretty rare. Usually, people want to lose around 20-25 lbs. Often, they want to lose even more than that. It’s not uncommon to have people needing to lose 50 lbs, and several people have had goals of 100 lbs or more.

At the end of the 12 weeks, we always talk about what their original goal was, and compare it to what they actually lost. In the end, only a very few actually achieve their stated goal, but quite a few end up within 5 lbs of the goal. That’s pretty good.

It really comes down to how hard people are willing to work, how dedicated they are to making the changes, and how committed they are to seeing it through. It’s hard work taking weight off, especially if you’re trying to do it quickly.

Most people can comfortably lose 1-2 lbs a week without too much trouble, if they’re doing all the right things: exercising every day, and watching what they eat. To lose more than that requires even more discipline, and for most people, two workouts a day. That’s what we ask participants to shoot for.

The first workout is pretty simple. You just get out and walk a mile every morning. Most people can do this in 20 minutes or less. It gets the metabolism moving and sets you up well for the day. Then later in the afternoon or evening, you do the “real” workout.

In this second workout of the day, we have them alternate between doing cardio one day and weights on the other day. For example, using the weight machines on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, and hitting the cardio machines on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. Sunday can be a rest day, or a light walk day.

People that add the extra workout tend to lose more weight than those that don’t. Sometimes participants will just do extra in the gym because they can only squeeze in the one workout each day. While that will work, there seems to be a benefit to doing two different activities at each end of the day.

Like I talked about in the last article, the physical workouts start off pretty easy, but increase in intensity each week. The goal is to keep pushing the limits. Our bodies adapt pretty quickly to harder workloads, so it’s important to keep changing it up to keep those pounds coming off.

By the end of the first month, the Biggest Losers will move off the weight machines and start using dumbbells and exercise balls. They’ll feel a difference right away. Machines guide you and provide leverage and stabilization. With dumbbells, you provide all the stabilization yourself.

They’ll notice more accessory muscles kicking in, along with their core muscles. It’s an enormous difference. If they could lift a total of 50 lbs on the chest press machine, that doesn’t mean they could successfully do the same exercise with two 25 lb dumbbells. In fact, I’d probably start them off with 10 or 12 lb dumbbells. It’s that different!

Again, the goal is to keep increasing the demands on the body so it continues to try to adapt. Remember, if you can already do it, your body has no reason to change. So, we want to keep trying things that are difficult. Then your body will work to make it easier.

This has two benefits. First, that difficult work will burn more calories, meaning you’ll lose more weight. To lose a pound of fat you’ll have to burn 3,500 calories. If you want to lose a pound in a week, that means you need to burn 500 extra calories a day. It’s as simple as that. If you want to lose more, you’ve got to do more.

If your goal is to lose two pounds a week, than you’ll have to burn 7,000 calories. That means you’ll have to up your activity level by 1,000 calories a day.

There’s a reason those people on the Biggest Loser television show lose that much weight—they work out 6-8 hours a day! Most of us don’t have that kind of time, or even desire. But we’re not competing for a $250,000 prize either—there’s NO prize.

The second benefit you’ll get if you continue to change it up and try newer difficult things, is that you’ll get stronger. That means that you’ll be able to push harder in your workouts. You’ll build some muscle.

That will increase your metabolism so you can burn more calories just standing around. It will also let you burn more calories during exercise because you’ll simply be able to do more work in the same amount of time.

By the third month, our Biggest Losers will be doing compound exercises and some pretty serious circuit training workouts with the free weights. They’ll also have trained for a 5 K run/walk, and worked to improve their 1 mile time.

By the end of the twelve weeks, they’ll be amazed at how much stronger they are, and how much more stamina they have. Most women will be down a few dress sizes, and their clothing will be quite a bit looser. The guys will typically lose inches around the waist, and put on quite a bit of muscle in their upper body.

That’s the physical side of things. Next week, I’ll tell you a little about what they’re going to be looking at on the food side of things. If you want to participate, you need to get signed up before we start at 6:30 on Friday the 24th.

The cost is $50.00 and don’t forget that this time we’re doing “Friends and Family” so bring a close friend or family member to sign up with you. The goal is that if you start together, you just might stick it out together! You don’t need to be a member, but you should probably have a fitness membership somewhere so you can get all your workouts in. See you then!

ANNOUNCING BIGGEST LOSER "13"

2010-09-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

In just two weeks, we’ll be starting our thirteenth Biggest Loser after a three month hiatus. I’ve been taking calls all summer long from people wondering when we’re going to get the next group going. The initial weigh-in and fitness testing will be on Friday, September 24th from 6:30-7:30.

This time we’re doing “Friends & Family.” To get involved, you have to have either a family member that does it with you, or a good friend. Typically, half the participants in any exercise program drop out for a host of different reasons. We’re hoping to counter that this time around with “Friends & Family.”

Now you don’t have to participate in a program like Biggest Losers to lose weight, because plenty of people have done it on their own. But what it does do, is take you on a 12 week journey that teaches you a lot about yourself and your capabilities.

Participants start off with basic walking and simple machines. Each week they get a different physical challenge in the Friday night workout. They also learn more exercises that get more demanding as the weeks go by.

After a few weeks, most are able to add some jogging to the walking. If necessary, they’ll substitute the elliptical or the exercise bicycle. In any case, they learn how to keep turning up the intensity, which burns more calories, and keeps taking those pounds off.

After a month of using different machines (Level I), they learn how to use free weights (dumbbells) and the exercise ball (Level II) in month two. Then they progress to compound movements with free weights (Level III) in month three. The final workout in week eleven is an introductory to our demanding circuit workouts (Level IV).

By the end of the 12 weeks, they’re ready for our regular boot camp classes if they want to try them. They’ll have also completed at least one 5 K race (3.1 miles) for time, and several interval training workouts.

Another area that gets hit pretty hard is how to eat right. Diets typically fail, so what people need is to learn how to eat correctly. They’ll learn how the different foods are used in the body, and why we get fat.

Most women will learn they actually need to eat more than their eating. Guys will typically need to back off their portion sizes. Everyone usually needs to start making better choices.

One of the other benefits is how the weekly workouts and weigh-ins help people stay accountable. Something powerful happens when you get a bunch of people together, all working toward the same goal and all doing the same thing.

We’ve have people lose as much as 60 lbs in 12 weeks, but 30-40 lbs is more likely, if they do everything they’re supposed to. The vast majority of people lose 20-25 lbs, which is fine. We say that a pound a week is good. That’s twelve pounds by the end of the program. Two pounds a week is great (24 lbs), and three or more pounds is fantastic (36 lbs).

But this isn’t the TV show where people live on a ranch and don’t have to go to work or look after their kids. These people have real lives, real jobs, and have to find a way to get it done. And they’re not competing for a big prize. In fact, they’re not competing for a prize at all—except maybe getting their body back.

Biggest Loser “13” is open to anyone and you don’t have to be a member to participate. Half the people typically belong to the Y, Curves, or another facility. You probably need to be a member of a gym somewhere, though, because you’re going to need to get your workouts in.

The cost for Biggest Loser “13” is $50 per person which lets you participate in the weekly weigh-ins and workouts. You can sign up anytime, but you need to sign up before Friday the 24th. Come early to get weighed in so we can start promptly at 6:30 pm. This could be your time to get your body back—plenty of other people have, so you can too.

THE "BIG DIG"

2010-08-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

About 10 days ago I was mowing when I looked up to see a massive tractor on tracks coming down the lane pulling this enormous box scraper. It was a friend of mine named Scott Plummer who was there to start putting in a pond for us.

Coincidentally, the area I was mowing was the same place where the pond was going to be, which was great because the uneven ground bumps you all over the place. Formerly a bunch of scrub brush and scab trees, we knocked it down a few years back to start the process.

The first few years we lived there, we used to walk all over it dreaming. There was a small ravine with a couple of run-offs that converged in a low place just right for a pond. It took me a couple more years but finally I’d cut down all of the scab trees, leaving the bigger hickory trees.

It was kind of ugly, all those stumps sticking up the next couple years, but things take time, and we kept thinking about how nice it was going to be when we got the pond in. Finally we had a guy come and take out and bury the stumps, giving it a cleared but rough appearance.

That’s when I started mowing. All but this ugly center part, because there was a broken field tile in there somewhere that kept it pretty wet, so the ground started eroding, little by little each year. We also got a bunch of wetlands grass that stood around eight feet tall in the summer, along with a bunch of other varieties and even a couple trees that started growing back.

The ugly part slowly started taking over, a little more each year, so I’d keep mowing around it. Every time I mowed, the bumps would knock me all over the place, and I’d tell myself, “It won’t be long, and I won’t have to mow this anymore.”

When Scott told us he’d be there sometime in August to put in the pond, we got pretty excited. Now when I mowed, it was “just a couple more times” until finally, “this is the LAST time I’ve got to mow this!”

So you can imagine how I felt seeing him come down the lane with his big scraper, even bigger excavator and bulldozer! He wanted to do it while it was dry so he could work the ground better—plus we’d stand a good chance to see the pond start to fill in once the rains come later.

It was pretty entertaining, watching him work. We sat on the front porch with iced tea as he made trip after trip with the tractor pulling the scraper. He’d fill it up with clay from where the pond was going to be, and take it to the edge of the property where he was building the dam.

I mean it was hundreds of trips. After an hour or so, you could tell he’d built the dam up a little bit, but there was still a long way to go. But little by little, trip by trip, he kept scraping dirt from the bottom of the pond and moving it to the dam.

One afternoon he showed me how he used the laser to locate the edge of the pond, all the way around. It also showed him how high the dam had to be to hold the water. It was hard to get perspective until you actually went out and stood there.

Scott had to excavate a few more trees in a few places to make it all work, and shape the rest of the property so it would help drain into the pond. He used his excavator to haul the wood over to my wood cutting area and saved some of the stumps for the fish to use for nesting.

After about three days of moving dirt and clay and packing it down, we had about a two acre pond. The dam was now big enough to keep the water back, but with contours on each end to release water if it got too high.

Scott also found and released the water flow from the field tile coming in there, and viola, we had water. It’s still flowing 24 hours later, so I can’t wait until it rains and really gets going!

The water will be about fifteen to eighteen feet deep by the dam, with the rest of it gently tapered, especially up closer to the house, by the swimming area. It’s a very gentle grade down so you can just wade out there, with no big drop-offs. I mean this guy thought of everything.

He was telling me about grass carp, one of the species of fish we need to put in next year after it fills up. Apparently, you get about three of those guys, hybrids that are neutered (how do you neuter a fish?), and they’ll grow to around 2-3 feet and eat the algae and help keep the pond clean.

We learned about putting in some bluegill, bass and catfish, along with a bunch of little feeder fish, so they don’t eat each other. Then, once the bluegill get old enough to have their own babies, the bass will start eating them, and the pond will find it’s own balance.

One of the hickory trees we saved has a big branch that’s just perfect for a rope swing at the deep end of the pond. I was also thinking back to YMCA summer camp years ago where I’d swim out to a diving platform anchored out in the lake. Hmm.

As I sat out there on the swing each afternoon watching Scott work, it reminded me of a couple things about my job. First of all, when we needed help, we got an expert (maybe even an artist) with that excavator and scraper.

I would never try to tackle our “big dig” myself. I don’t have the tools or the knowledge. And people don’t need to try and figure out how to take all that weight off on their own. With a little help and the right equipment, it’s pretty easy (except for the hard work part).

It also occurred to me that just like Scott moving that dirt, taking the weight off is kind of like him taking another pass with that box scraper. That dirt’s not going to move unless he moves it. Likewise, you’ve got to show up and get your workout in. Get enough of them in and you’ll start scraping away at it.

In some cases, people want to tone up and put on some muscle. To me, it was like when Plummer was building the dam. It took some time before we could start to see it growing. After a while, though, it started taking shape, and finally, it became pretty robust.

And he kept working at it until it was exactly the way he wanted it. That’s how it is in the gym. You keep showing up, and keep chiseling away, until you’ve reshaped your body the way you want it.

I think back to how that ugly eroded part of the property had started taking over, each year getting more and more out of control. It’s the same thing with our weight. Take a break from working out, quit watching what you eat, and the next thing you know, you look down and discover you’re fat!

But now, with some expert help from Scott and his life-size Tonka toys, we’ve taken an eyesore and irritation, and turned it into something we’ll be able to use and enjoy for many years. It’s kind of like getting your body back. It takes some time, and it takes some work, but it’s definitely going to be worth it!

"MAINTENANCE REQUIRED"

2010-08-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

While I left home to come up and write this, Kathy stayed behind so she could continue scrubbing and spraying off the front porch. Over the past few months we’d been pretty busy dealing with other things, so it had gotten a little neglected.

Meanwhile, the spiders were weaving their webs and rolling their prey up in those little sticky balls. That green grime was starting to appear on the rails and decking, and there was quite a bit of dirt that had gotten blown in on the siding and up on the ceiling.

Now we’re usually pretty good about maintaining things. Just yesterday, we were putting some more paint on the walls in the center, and I’ve been busy doing trim at home to finally finish up a remodel job I started last year.

But sometimes, you get distracted. There’s always a lot to do, and in this case, the porches got left in the lurch. We actually started on the back porch last weekend after installing the last of 8 replacement outdoor lights on the back deck. Once again, it was spider balls everywhere.

So yesterday, Kathy finished it up, and this morning, I found her out front with her brush and soap bucket. She said she knew how much we used to like sitting out there and just had to clean it up. We’d gone through some tough times earlier in the year, and lots of things were just left undone.

Over the past four or five months, we’ve been working pretty hard to go back and fix things, and we’ve been knocking them out, one by one. When you’ve got a pretty long list, that’s the only way you can do it. Pick something and just jump in. When you finish it up, pick something else from the list and move on to the next one.

I remember when we first bought the property. It was just a mess of undeveloped trees and scrub brush. I guess I went a little crazy with the chainsaw and before we knew it, we had a couple acres of trees cut helter-skelter in every direction. It was like someone had just dumped a big box of giant tinker-toys.

It was pretty overwhelming. I cut up the trees and she dragged the brush to the burn pile. Lots of it. For days. Every weekend, that’s what we did. I cut, she dragged. She dragged, and I cut. Even in the winter. If I thought about how much there was to do, I’d get depressed.

The only way to handle it was to pick out an area to work on, and say “today, that’s how much I want to get done.” Then, we just hit it. At the end of the day, if we cleared that section, we felt pretty good.

Over the course of the fall and winter, we actually got it all cleared out and they were able to come in and remove the stumps and all of a sudden, we had a nice space for the house. Looking back, it doesn’t seem that bad.

Have you ever felt that way? When you’re in the soup it seems impossible to swim but later you realize you made it through O.K. I wish we had pictures of that mess of trees all piled up. We need to remember how we made it through the tough times, and who helped us through, too.

When we’re facing another big challenge, we’ll be able to say, “We’ve done tough things before, we can do this, too.” I think that’s why God told the Israelites to tell the stories to their children and their children’s children. He said to write it on their hearts. We need to remember.

You can’t let things get too bad before dealing with them. Ignoring little pains early can let bad things grow and fester that left unchecked, can be life threatening. Some forms of cancer are very treatable if you catch them early. But a lifetime of too much bad cholesterol can clog your arteries to the point where only bypass surgery will save you.

It’s the same way with relationships. If you quit talking, sooner or later, someone’s going to start walking. I’ve learned the hard way that burying old bones doesn’t keep them from coming back up. Sooner or later you’ve got to deal with them.

This year we’ve been so distracted that even the garden didn’t produce like it should have. We’ve focused so much time on us, making sure we were going out for walks, talking, and just spending time together, that the weeds took over the tomato plants.

Usually it’s a bumper crop with more tomatoes than we could ever hope to eat, can, or give away. Because of the lack of maintenance, the weeds stole the energy needed for our vegetables to thrive. But it’s better to have weeds in the garden than weeds in our hearts. Next year, things will be different.

I just spoke with someone in the gym. He said they’d been away for two weeks doing different things and now it’s almost like starting over. I told him that we really need to learn how to keep active when we’re traveling.

It’s not too hard if you plan for it. There are daily passes at gym memberships. Most YMCA’s let you attend free if you’re a member elsewhere. If nothing else, I’ll do pushups, sit-ups and body squats in the hotel. If they don’t have a workout room, there’s always walking or jogging outdoors.

But that won’t work if you’re not maintaining things already. It takes regular effort to keep things alive and even more work if you want things to thrive. And if you’ve neglected things for quite awhile, it can seem overwhelming.

But you can turn things around. Unhealthy hearts can become stronger. Gardens can grow again. Sometimes surgery is required, but hopefully you catch it in time. You’ve just got to dig in and get started.

Don’t let things get too out of control. Trust me on this. It’s much easier to nip things in the bud early. A little talk now can prevent heartache later. A little maintenance now can keep things running smoothly. A little exercise now will actually keep you running.

As for me, right now, I’m heading home to enjoy sitting on that nice clean front porch! Then, I’ll probably get on that baseboard trim. There’s work to be done!

NICOLE

2010-08-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

This week one of our regulars named Nicole has been struggling with a shoulder/arm injury. She’s not sure quite how it happened. At first they thought it was a torn tricep. Now they’re leaning toward a slightly herniated disc in the cervical spine, which could put pressure on the nerves that feed the biceps and triceps.

She’s handling it pretty well, though. While it’s driving her nuts that she can’t participate in kickboxing, running or weight lifting, she’s determined to keep training by riding the bicycle for another week until her arm gets better.

Now it might sound like I’m talking about some elite athlete that does triathlons, but actually, I’m talking about a fairly regular gal that started exercising about 8 months ago. She’s had remarkable success since then, losing over 100 lbs to date.

I say fairly regular, because she’s just like the rest of us, but actually, she’s pretty extraordinary. Not only did she make it into the top 50% of people that didn’t quit after starting an exercise routine, she made it into the top 25% of people that never miss a workout.

She started a month before one of our Biggest Loser groups, to get a jump on things, and then did two Biggest Loser sessions in a row. Since then, she’s been doing cardio on her own, Kickboxing class on Mondays (a really barn burning workout), and coming into our Level 4 group workouts several times a week.

But with this injury to her shoulder/bicep area, she said she’s got to pull back to just the bicycle for awhile. “This is really putting a kink in my workouts!!!” I really like her attitude, though. She told me, “Oh well, guess this is one of those bumps in the road I’ve got to overcome, and I WILL!!!”

Is there any doubt that Nicole will continue to reach her goal? Even with a week of being limited in what she could do, she still lost another 5.6 lbs! Where once it worked against her, now her body is working for her—even when she can’t do quite as much until her arm heals up.

Think of it. Losing 100 lbs. If that’s difficult, come in to the gym sometime and I’ll have you pick up 100 lbs and walk around with it for a little bit. Just walking for a couple minutes carrying two 50 lb dumbbells is beyond most people’s grasp.

I’ve got a 40 lb backpack we use for adding weights to pull-ups and dips. What can be a tough exercise anyway becomes VERY difficult with that pack on. One time I put it on and walked a mile on the treadmill, just to see how it felt. That was just 40 lbs.

The first half mile wasn’t too bad, although I could feel the weight pulling down on my shoulders and back. By the end of the mile, the weight was getting heavy, and my breathing was getting a little labored—and I’m in pretty good shape.

I’ve got friends in the military that do forced marches with 50 lb rucksacks. They’ve got my respect. Imagine doing that with 100 lbs. That’s what Nicole had to do when she first started working out. No wonder half the people quit!

If you’re overweight, think of all the extra weight your frame has to support. It’s kind of like overloading an elevator. It might not snap and crash this time, but it can’t be good either. It’s no wonder that people complain of pain in their joints and back. Or that their muscles get sore. But it’s not just carrying around the extra weight.

When you’re morbidly obese, all that extra fat is actually pressing in on your lungs and other organs, making it difficult to breathe, so you can’t get enough oxygen—literally smothering you. And if you do get a decent breath, your heart has to pump that blood and oxygen through all those miles of extra blood vessels, making it work way harder than it should have to.

Now imagine walking around that way but then being able to throw 100 lbs off. How would it feel? What would it be like to not have to carry that weight around? How would your heart be working? How would your muscles and skeleton feel?

Before, your metabolism would be running slowly, but now, due to all that exercise and more muscle mass, it’s soaring right along. That’s why even though she hasn’t been able to do as much, Nicole still lost 5.6 lbs! Now, her body is working for her.

It is, too. You should see her doing the workouts. It’s like seeing freedom at work. I know how she feels. It used to be that I couldn’t run without having a serious asthma attack. Now, with the new asthma meds, I can run like the wind. OK, like a small breeze.

Folks, there’s freedom here. Figure out what you’ve got to do, make a decision like Nicole did—to just get started. Make up your mind, and then do it. Get started. Keep doing it. When it’s tough, do what you can. Work around things. You’re going to hurt. But you’re going to hurt more, later, if you don’t do it.

I’m sure Nicole would tell you that if she can do it, you can do it. But maybe not. After all, this pretty regular person is pretty extraordinary. So what about you? What are you going to do?

BUDDY, JACK, AND THE ART OF BEING CONSISTENT

2010-08-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

I was watching one of our cats the other night. He’s the spitting image of an older cat we have called Sylvester. Since this one follows him around like a little buddy, we decided to call him Buddy.

One night last week, I noticed Buddy just lying there by the water bowl. That was a little unusual. Typically they come over, get a drink of water, and then go find something to do.

But he wasn’t moving and it looked like he was staring at the cupboard. He stayed that way for a couple hours. As it turns out, there was a mouse in there. When it finally came out another way, he found it, caught it, and…well, you know the rest of the story.

Now Buddy wasn’t that hungry because he’s always sticking his nose in the food bowl. What he had, though, was a genetic need to find and pursue prey. Those cats are all pretty loving, but if we were little, we’d be cat food.

They can’t help themselves. Put a small rabbit in front of them and they’re gonna drag it home. It’s the same thing with a bird that doesn’t get away in time, or in this case, our little house mouse.

Another cat named Jack likes to sit near the edge of the lawn by the field. He likes it at dusk, or even right after dark. We’ll go out for a walk and there he is, like clockwork. The other two cats have their own routines.

What impresses me is their commitment to the idea. They are dedicated. Buddy’s still a kitten really, and he’s usually all over the place, getting into everything. But that night he was so patient, he waited until the little guy showed his nose. Then he lowered the boom.

And Jack never misses a night. He’s a hunter and knows it. Prowling and growling. We need to be more like cats.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that half the people quit after starting working out. That’s a real shame, because if you need to lose weight, you need to increase your activity—not decrease it.

What’s interesting is that of the 50% left over, about half of them NEVER miss! Or if they do, it kills them. They are so dedicated that you can set your clock by them. They’re typically the ones who are at or near their ideal weight, or well on their way to it.

They’re like Buddy and Jack in their mousing. They’re consistent in their approach, always persistent, and they’re completely dedicated to the idea. It takes high priority in their life and is part of their regular routine.

That’s what you need if you want to turn things around. Half measures generally don’t get the job done. They just get you halfway there. It’s why they call them half measures.

If your goal is to lose weight, build muscle, stop smoking, make repairs, or anything else you’d like to do, it’s going to take a little bit more than half measures. Figure out exactly what it is you want, and then write it down, or even tell others so now you’re on the spot about it.

Then break it down into measurable smaller goals—like a weekly weigh-in. Figure out a schedule that is consistent. Every day at such and such time, this is what you’ll be doing. Don’t deviate—no exceptions, no excuses.

Finally, you’ve just got to get start. I mean really. Just get started. Many people never get past the dreaming stage. If you want to get something done, you’ve actually got to do it.

Once you’ve gotten started, take a lesson from Buddy and Jack. You’ve got to be consistent. You’ve got to be persistent. You’ve got to be dedicated. If you can learn how to make it your mission in life, I promise you’ll get it done. Now get out there and get going!

"COMPETITION"

2010-08-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

One of the healthiest things we can do for ourselves is engage in competition. It helps our country too. Competition to provide goods and services is what drives our economy. Competition can also drive our quest to get and stay in better shape.

But sometimes competition can get a bad rap. You’ve probably heard stories about some school programs that have begun to de-emphasize competition in the classroom, to level the playing field. The theory is it’s bad for kids to be told they’re “average.” It’s too much of a blow to their self-esteem.

Well, getting a “C” might affect their self-esteem, but what about the kids that are above average, or even at the top of their class? They deserve the recognition for all their hard work.

Frankly, getting a low grade or two might provide a little motivation and incentive for the kid that has the ability but needs to pick it up. If the grade itself doesn’t do it, I’ll bet the parents could find a way to light a fire under their butt.

Life is full of selection, and if you want to be selected, you need to be near the top. That shows you’re capable, and willing to work hard. One way competition can get out of hand though, is in youth sports. We’ve all heard the parent take it just a little too far on the soccer field or ball diamond. And I think sometimes kids can get a little too disappointed when it doesn’t go their way. Winning is good, but it isn’t everything.

It’s the process that matters, where kids learn how to push themselves beyond their limits, and how to focus on a task. It’s learning how to try hard, and sometimes, how to live with disappointment.

In the end, if you did your best, that’s pretty good. If it was good enough to come out on top—sweet! But if you come up a little short, what’s wrong with celebrating the effort of the other guys?

I’ve learned much more from my losses than from my wins. Sure, I had some 1st place finishes back when I was competing hot and heavy in Taekwondo and Jiu Jitsu tournaments. But I had many more 2nd and 3rd place finishes.

For one thing, if they beat me, they were pretty amazing, and I always appreciated that. It’s hard to argue with excellence. The other thing is that I always treated it like an education. What could I take home to work on that would make me stronger the next time?

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t trying to win. With a competition coming up, we’d intensify our efforts. That went a long way to keep us training, and training hard—which provided other benefits.

The one time I had a shot at 1st place in a national tournament was at Disney World some years back. I was surprised I made the finals and guess I focused a little too much on attacking and trying to win. As a result, a spinning hook kick knocked me into 2nd place and left me with a broken nose and my right cheek broken in two places.

When it happened, I just kind of sat down because I knew it was over. When the referee asked me if I could go on, I didn’t want to say I quit, so all I could think of was “I resign.” Later, I realized that I was probably in shock due to the injuries.

As a result of that match, and a couple other injuries, the national Master’s council decided to make face shields mandatory, and now thousands of kids and adults have a little extra protection. Sometimes I wonder if we’re all a little lazier about blocking now, knowing we have that shield, but I guess it’s better than a kick in the head!

I’m always encouraging people to sign up for different 5 K races, half or full marathons (depending on their capabilities), trail runs and bike rides. It’s not so they’ll win the event, because that’s usually pretty unlikely for people new to running or riding. It’s because they’ll have to train for the event, and that will keep them focused.

Then, during the race, they’ll always push a little harder, because others are pushing too. It’s also quite inspiring, when you see others that are better than you. Of course, it can also be a little demoralizing so you need to keep perspective.

I remember my second marathon. The first one was a disaster with a knee injury. The second one was only a little better and I was at about mile 25, just kind of plugging along, when I heard “How you doing honey?”

As that registered, this sweet older lady caught up to me. She must have been at least 65, possibly 70. I told her I was fine, but that it was pretty tough. She slapped me on the shoulder and said, “That’s O.K. Sweety, we can do it” and took off!

I tried my best but she pulled away from me and finished a couple minutes ahead of me. I came to find out was that she’d been running for years and does a bunch of races every season. But for a couple years, anytime I was out training, I thought of grandma.

Even when we’re competing with others, we’re really competing with ourselves. We’re trying to bring out our best performance. If we can learn how to live up to our true potential, that’s when we really become winners!

ACCOUNTABILITY

2010-07-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, one of the most important tools you have is accountability. Whether it’s a new goal you’re working on, or you're trying to fix that same old problem, the difference between success and failure is often how accountable you are.

Accountability means that you have to answer to someone. At work, this usually is a direct supervisor, but often you can have others you are accountable to as well, like a board of directors, a city board, county board, and so on.

Even elected officials are accountable—to you, at the ballot box. If they make you mad enough, you’ll give your vote to someone else. If enough people don’t like the situation, that accountability will get them voted out of office.

But the flip side is true, too. Here’s where accountability is a blessing. If enough people like what they’ve done, they’ll get re-elected.

If you’re self-employed, you’re really accountable to your customers. It means you take things seriously when people have a complaint or suggestion. And you try to be proactive when you can.

That’s one reason we’re continually trying to improve things, like putting fresh paint on a wall, moving equipment around, or even removing a wall to make a room bigger. Or getting a couple more treadmills because you’ve noticed the cardio room is getting pretty crowded at times.

Accountability is also important in relationships. When things are going great, we get accustomed to it and start taking things for granted. But then when things start going wrong, if you don’t have a system in place to talk things over, they can go downhill pretty fast.

Here’s where friends and family members need to stick their nose in. While at first it might be unwelcome, sometimes it’s necessary. And while it’s uncomfortable telling someone what you think about what they’re doing, it’s better than just watching them go down the tubes.

Later if they come to their senses, they’ll appreciate what you tried to do for them. And if they don’t make it through, at least you’ll know you did everything you could. It’s tough on everybody, because this is tough stuff, but you can survive it.

I can tell you this from personal experience. Circumstances, desire, and other factors can work together to create a “perfect storm” that leads to a moment of insanity which is the turning point. Then you have to justify things to yourself and others.

Little things become big things, up is down, black is white, wrong becomes right. Before you know it, you find yourself in an entirely different place than you ever thought possible.
Left unchecked, it’s easy to make a mess of things. It doesn’t take long for things to get out of hand, trust me on this. I lacked accountability.

But even then, redemption is possible. And accountability can play a role here too. If you’ve broken trust with someone, only complete, open accountability will demonstrate your intent to repair the breach and turn things around. If anything remains hidden, it won’t work.

Accountability here can work for you too. As you’re seen doing the right thing and making better choices every day, you can start to rebuild those bonds that were broken.

So what does this have to do with exercise? It’s got everything to do with exercise, especially if you’re overweight. Did you know that it’s possible to “have an affair” with food? If you’ve ever left a trail of cookie crumbs across the counter at two in the morning, you know what I’m talking about.

And how many times have you tried to lose the weight, only to just put it back on, perhaps greater than before? I know several people who’ve lost 100 lbs and gained it all back. One told me he just quit working out and went back to eating whatever he wanted to. He lacked discipline, but he also lacked accountability.

When I went through the academy to become a part-time police officer, I learned one of the prime functions of law enforcement was police presence. And when I was working, my mentor Ray was always telling me that the vast majority of policing was just being seen, and I found it to be true.

Think about it. If you find yourself going just a little too fast, what do most people do as soon as they even see a police car? Slow down. While many people wouldn’t even think of breaking the law, the potential for a ticket or even arrest keeps us all honest. That’s accountability.

But what would happen if we just took away all those laws, along with the people who enforce them? The strong but immoral would prey on the rest. It would become the Wild West all over again.

That’s what happens when someone lost the weight but then doesn’t have the structure and accountability anymore. Their stronger desire overcomes their weaker will, and you can see what can happen then.

This summer we’re not doing the Biggest Loser, but it occurred to me that we still can help make a difference. I can’t drag them into the gym, but I can help the ones that are coming with accountability.

That’s why we’ve started a weekly weigh-in for the summer that’s posted conspicuously. There are no prizes, no accolades. Just names, last week’s weight, and this week’s weigh-in. If people want to opt in, all they have to do is give me their weight each week.

This should prove to provide some accountability for them. Is it that other people are going to see it? Perhaps, but I don’t think that’s the main thing. Really, it’s just like making sure I talk to my wife when things are bothering me, or all of us slowing down when we see a police car.

That regular weigh-in should help to serve the same purpose—it will force them to take a hard look at how things are going. And that accountability may just help keep them on track.

Now, you don’t have to be a member to take advantage of this idea. Tell someone else what you want to accomplish, and set up a weekly check-in with them. Write down the progress you’re making—or not making. Talk it over each week and stay focused. Good luck!

1000 MILE CHALLENGE (OR MORE)

2010-07-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well, with Biggest Loser ending last week, I don’t have anyone to talk about, so I guess I’m going to have to talk about myself—at least this time. I hope something interesting will happen next week so you won’t have to put up with this too often!

Lately, I’ve been messing around with a little cross-training with a ¾ mile trail run and a 2 ½ mile bike loop. It takes me about 18:30 to do one trail run and one bike loop. So far, the most loops I’ve done in a row have been four, which took just under 75 minutes last Sunday afternoon. It was a nice workout. I was able to keep moving the whole time.

The trail loop has a bunch of small hills that gas you pretty quickly, and I do the bike loop on my mountain bike to get a little extra resistance. It’s heavier than my road bike, and has those big old tires, so it’s more of a workout, which is just fine on these short rides.

If I don’t have a lot of time, I’ll just run four laps, which is 3 miles. It’s nice because it’s softer than the road, and it has those hills to add a little fun to the run. Yesterday, I just ran and rode 2 circuits—half of what I did last wee—so it takes about half the time.

But when the heat index really gets up there, it’s tough to push myself out the door. Fortunately, I have access to a bunch of treadmills, bikes and ellipticals, so I can always get my cardio workout inside where it’s cool.

It’s not nearly as fun or interesting though. In fact, I pretty much hate running inside. The only time I don’t mind it is in the winter, when I hate running outside. Then, it’s too cold for me.

Now I know some really serious runners who have the special cold weather gear, but I’ve just never liked going out there. I’m not crazy about shoveling the sidewalk, much less trying to get out there and run a few miles.

So in the winter, you’ll see me on the treadmill. That works for me, especially on Sundays during football. Sometimes, I’ll even run the entire game. It’s interesting enough that I’ll forget about the running—kind of.

But today, it was really hot outside (I know, I’m a whiner), so I surrendered. That’s right. It was so hot, that even me, Mr. Trainer guy didn’t really feel like doing the run outside, so I jumped on the elliptical.

That was O.K. though, because it felt a little different, and used the muscles in a slightly different way, so that makes it kind of interesting. It reminded me of when we first got the center and I just about wore the ellipticals out. That was before I fell in love with running
.
So now, a little cross-training is just fine. You see, it really doesn’t matter what you do. What matters is that you just do something. It helps if you kind of like doing it. That’s never been a problem for me.

Someone asked me the other day if I just didn’t want to work out. I thought about it for a little bit and had to say “no, not really.” I can’t wait to workout. I think it’s because I was pretty sick as a kid. Back then, they didn’t have much help for serious asthmatics, so I wasn’t allowed to do anything strenuous.

The other kids would be mad that I “got” to sit on the side-lines during gym class, but all I ever wanted to do was get out there with them. Later, I got into martial arts and working out so much that I ended up getting a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology.

I still fought the asthma, though, even as an adult. I’d compete in martial arts events, like sparring and grappling, but I’d always have to hold back a little bit—and even then, I’d probably have an asthma attack. Then I’d have to use my rescue inhaler.

If that wasn’t enough, I had a breathing machine. If that wasn’t enough, I’d have to go to the hospital for a shot of adrenaline and breathing treatments which happened frequently.

I’ve probably used thousands of inhalers. But about seven years ago, they came out with new medicine that blocks the triggers that cause attacks. That was a life changer. Now, I can turn it up as much as I want, and I don’t even need to carry a rescue inhaler. I do take a small breathing machine with me when I’m traveling—just in case—but I very rarely need it.

It’s kind of ironic. Now that I can finally work out as hard as I want, since I’m getting older, my body doesn’t recover quite as well as it used to! So now I can run like the wind, but it hurts like hell later. Go figure.

After a lot of messing around with all kinds of different exercise programs, I’ve kind of realized that I’m happy if I just get to get my workout in. If it’s kind of tough, I like it. If it’s really tough, I love it, but pay for it later. So I just try to keep it kind of tough. That gives me a challenge, keeps it interesting, and helps keep me in shape.

I also get quite a kick out of working with everybody at the gym. There are lots of different people. Some need to lose a lot of weight, some just a little bit. Some want to get in better shape so they can do more things. Others are trying to improve their sports performance.

Right now I’ve got a bunch of sixth and seventh grade basketball players doing my morning workout three days a week. They’re a hoot. First of all, they’re kids, so they can do just about anything. Second, they’re really quite funny, and it’s a nice way to start the day.

What I really like is how they’re kind of like blank slates. It’s nice to know I have the chance to write things on their hearts and minds that could stay with them for a long time, perhaps all their life.

Things like “work hard and it will pay off later.” And “you can always do more than you think you can do.” These are concepts that will help them now in sport, but also help them a lot, later in life!

When I was their age, I couldn’t do what they’re doing. It would have killed me—literally. Now not only can I do it, but I’m teaching others. I’m pretty grateful, and think God must have quite a sense of humor. It’s nice to have a second chance at things.

Last year, I started tracking how many miles I ran, and this year, decided to just lump all my miles together, whether they were running, walking, on the bike, elliptical, or whatever. As long as I did them, they counted.

After the quick 30 minute workout on the elliptical today, I logged nine miles. Well, it said 18 miles, but I know that can’t be true, because these particular machines way overestimate your actual usage, in both calories and miles. So I only take credit for half-miles on it.

Still, 9 miles put me over the top at 1,001 miles for the year, which was my original goal. I was a little miffed because I really wanted to do it running. But that’s O.K. It’s been only a little over half a year and it got me thinking. What about 2,000? Or even, 2010 in 2010. Hmm…

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK 12 "FINAL RESULTS"

2010-07-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

This week marks the end of Biggest Loser “12.” It’s hard to believe we’ve done 12 of them, but here we are. With interest waning a little bit, I think we’re going to take the rest of the summer off and pick it back up in the fall.

Out of the original 28 people, just 6 made the final weigh-in. This is a much lower percentage than normal. Typically, we see about a 50-55% drop out rate for various reasons. I’m not sure why it’s higher than normal, since the workouts were exactly the same as last time.

We’ve had BL in the summer before too, so I’m not sure that’s the reason either. Perhaps it’s just a busier summer this year. While no one had an amazing run with weight loss over the 12 weeks, there were some very respectable losses. What I’m most proud of is the way the remaining participants pushed themselves.

Everyone improved in their one minute pushups, one minute sit-ups, and all but one posted improved 5 K times. In some cases, the improvements were dramatic, like Janice Johnson taking 4 minutes and Michelle Clark taking almost 3 minutes off their 5 K times. That was a reflection of all the hard work they put in over the 12 weeks.

If they can keep it up, I’m confident that they’ll continue to make progress toward their goal. Once they reach it, they can then transition into a maintenance mode. It’s much easier to maintain than it is to lose the weight, but even that will require them to be vigilant.

I’ve seen way too many people take off the weight, but then get lazy and stop working out. They also go back to eating the old way, and guess what? The weight comes back on, faster than ever, and often times, they’ll end up even heavier.

That’s no way to live. The secret is to find a balance and stay active while eating right and in moderation. You still have the same choices to make every day. Something you may not know is that when you lose weight, you burn the fat from out of the fat cell, but you still have the fat cell!

They’re still sitting there, kind of shrink-wrapped and much smaller, but they’re there, waiting for you to screw up. If you consume more calories than you burn in a given day, the excess calories will be converted to fat and stored—you guessed it—right back in those same fat cells.

This is one reason why experts get very concerned about obesity in our youth. Studies show that if they still have the weight into their teen years, they are almost certain to struggle with obesity all their life.

We need to set our kids up for success and get them moving early. If they’re already lean, great. It will keep them that way. If they’re a little overweight, getting them exercising daily could well change the pattern of their life.

Of course we need to help them make better food choices, too, primarily by helping them avoid all the junk food. And just like with adults, you can’t go wrong by focusing on more whole-grains and lots of fruits and vegetables.

This group knows what to do, and their results show it. The winner for week 12 was Cheryl Clark who lost 4.8 lbs and 2.5% of her body weight. Second place went to Michelle Clark who lost 2.2 lbs and 1.5%. Nicole Clodfelter placed third, losing 3.0 lbs and 1.2%.

The overall winner for Biggest Loser “12” was Michelle Clark, who lost 13.9% of her body weight and 23.2 lbs in the 12 weeks. Cheryl Clark placed second overall, by losing 11.6% and 24.6 lbs. Nicole Clodfelter was third overall, losing 10.1% and 27.0 lbs. Janice Johnson finished in 4th place, losing 7.7% and 18.2 lbs. Karen Brown was 5th, losing 5.9% and 13.4 lbs. Brittany Brown was 6th, losing 2.1% and 3.0 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK ELEVEN "LEVEL IV WORKOUTS"

2010-07-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

This week it was time to take things up to the next level. When people start training in Biggest Loser, they start with Level I activities. These are basic movements like walking, biking, using the elliptical machines and simple weight lifting exercises on the machines.

By month two, they’ve built some strength and endurance and are ready to advance to Level II activities like light jogging and basic free weight movements. Changing it up will keep their body guessing, and keep them losing weight.

By month three, they’re ready to start high intensity interval training with their cardio, and also start learning more advanced ways to lift weights. For details about these programs, see the previous articles for the last few weeks on the blog.

Before we finish the twelve weeks, I always like to introduce them to Level IV training, which is the most dynamic (and grueling), and perhaps, the most fun. This type of training was initially developed to help people achieve their athletic potential, which I use with young athletes all the time.

It turns out that regular folks like to train that way too. Originally, I was just doing the workouts with my son in the morning. I was doing it to get in shape for grappling tournaments. Several years ago, some people saw us and wanted to join in, so we started a morning group.

Then, some others asked if we could do it at noon. So we had two groups doing the Level IV boot camp style workouts twice a day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Finally, at the end of an earlier Biggest Loser—I think it was BL 4, some of them asked me if we could do an afternoon group, so we started a 5:30 group too. That turned into the biggest group of all, and it’s been going ever since.

I think that people like having someone push them. I think they also like a challenge. They never know what they’re going to do in the workout, because they’re different every time. It’s also nice to know that they’re not the only one suffering through the workout!

So this time, at the end of week eleven, the Biggest Loser workout was an introduction to Level IV. I had four stations set up (usually I do five or more). The objective is to work for about a minute at station one, and then move to station two, and so on.

The first exercise was Wall Ball, where you squat down while holding a 10-20 lb soft ball on your shoulders. As you push back to a standing position, you toss the ball overhead up on the wall, and then catch it before doing another squat, and so on. You do this the entire minute.

It sounds easy, but quickly gets very difficult. The reason is that you’re using your entire body, and performing several different movements at the same time. This is called a compound exercise (squat and shoulder press).

Compound exercises use more muscles so they significantly increase the oxygen demands placed on your body. This makes the strength training workout a cardio workout too. It also burns a ton of calories!

The second exercise for the group was standing alternating Bicep Curls with dumbbells. This is a single joint exercise, and was used to give them a slight break for a minute, but still keep them moving. It also hit their pulling muscles (previously they used lower body and pushing muscles).

Movement three was Kettle-Ball swings. This is a great full-body movement where you hold a kettle-ball (basically an iron ball with a handle) and squat down swinging it between your legs and then back overhead until your arms are straight. Then you let the weight swing back down and repeat the movement. It’s tough!

The final exercise was our basic Abs Routine #1-5. For the first round they did crunches with their knees bent and feet on the floor. In the second round, they did crunches with their legs up in the air. In the third round, they did crunches with one leg crossed, and the other side in round four. For the fifth round, they did leg lifts. Each exercise hits the abs in a different area, and it also gave them a little break for a minute.

So they had four minute-long exercises and five rounds, for a total of twenty minutes. It sounds easy, and even feels easy for the first round or two. But by the third and fourth round, you know you’re in for something, and in round five, you’re just trying to hold.

If you’re new to this type of training, you can modify the intensity by using lighter weights, and stopping after just 30 or 45 seconds. This will give you a longer break between exercises. After awhile, though, you won’t need the break. Don’t forget to take a little drink of water between rounds. Good luck!

This week’s winner was Cheryl Clark, who lost 1.8 lbs and has lost 19.8 lbs overall so far. Michelle Clark placed second, losing 1.9 lbs. She’s lost 21.0 lbs to date. Janice Johnson was third, losing 1.4 lbs this week, and 17.4 lbs overall so far.

Nicole Clodfelter placed fourth, losing 1.0 lb and has lost 24.0 lbs overall in the past 11 weeks. She’s also an interesting story. To date, she’s lost 98.6 lbs and is just 1.4 lbs away from her initial goal of losing 100 lbs. She’d lost 14 lbs before coming in, and has lost the other 84.6 lbs in just 7 months here at the gym.

She says her biggest challenge is sticking with it, because some days she doesn’t feel like coming in and working out. She says she needs to “just do it.” Her biggest surprise so far is being able to run. At 36, that’s pretty cool because she hasn’t been able to run since high school.

After 7 months and two Biggest Losers, Nicole says she’s ready to try it on her own. She thinks the Level IV classes will help keep her motivated. She’d like to lose 50 more pounds, and I’m sure she’ll be successful. Way to go Nicole!

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK TEN "GOING THE EXTRA MILE"

2010-07-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

This week the group did their 5 K walk/run. Most of them have already been doing at least 3 miles in their walks or runs so they were used to the distance. The difference for most of them was that this time, the goal was to do it faster than ever before.

In the past, we’ve had several different Biggest Loser groups hit it just right where there was a real 5 K race somewhere nearby. The timing was also good, because the races were near the end of the 12 weeks.

In this case, we had to do our own 5 K, which was our usual 1-mile loop three times. While a couple of the Biggest Losers had actually done a couple 5 K runs, even posting improvements to their times, this course might have been a little tougher, with several hills each mile.

It’s a good thing to do the run for time once in awhile. While it’s good to cover 3 miles on a regular basis, it’s altogether different when you push the speed and try to do it faster. Or do a different, more difficult course.

Most people can walk a 5 K (3.1 miles) in right around an hour. That’s walking at 3.0 miles an hour, which is a pretty comfortable and average pace. A good basic program would be to work up to doing a 5 K three days a week, say on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

If you’re not used to exercise, you might have to start with a mile. At a comfortable pace it will take you about 20 minutes. Of all the different people we’ve seen start at the center or in Biggest Losers, only a very few needed much more time than that.

As soon as possible, the goal is to add time and distance to your program. Work up to 2 miles, or 40 minutes. Then try to do the 2 miles faster. Then one day, just keep walking until you’ve covered 3 miles. Once you’ve done that, you can work on your speed.

What you need to understand is that if you can already do it, your body has no reason to change. Your body quickly adapts to a new workload so the same amount of work becomes easier. That means that you’ll actually start burning fewer calories while doing the same amount of work.

But if you can challenge yourself to go a little further, or a little faster, you can burn more calories in the same amount of time. That means you’ll get better results in your exercise program, especially if weight loss is your goal.

I talked to each of the Biggest Losers who did the 5 K this weekend. Their new goal is to keep working on their 5 K on a regular basis. If they do, not only will their times improve, but they’ll keep burning lots of calories and that will keep them losing weight.

This week’s Biggest Loser is Michelle Clark who lost 1.1% of her body weight and 1.6 lbs. Second place went to Janice Johnson who lost 1.0% and 2.2 lbs. Vanessa Becker placed third by losing about 1.0% and 1.0 lb.

With ten weeks in the books, we’ve got to start thinking about our next Biggest Loser. I’m trying to decide if we should take a break for the summer, or go for Biggest Loser “13.” The dropout rate this last time has been the biggest ever, so you need to tell me.

Do you want another Biggest Loser this summer? I was thinking of doing couples (which could include friends and family members). Perhaps that would give both parties incentive to stick. Or, we could take a break.

Let me know if you’re interested. If I hear from enough of you in the next week or so, we’ll go for it! If not, then we’ll pick it back up in September. Hope to hear from you.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK NINE "STICKING IT OUT"

2010-06-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

Well, the group has been through nine weeks of training—those that are left, that is. Typically, we’ll see about half drop out for one reason or another. At this point, it’s been much more extreme.

Out of the 29 Biggest Losers that started nine weeks ago, just six made this week’s weigh-in! I know a couple others are out of town, but that’s perhaps the lowest weigh-in ever.

I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on. Since we’re doing pretty much the same workouts, I have to conclude it has something to do with the timing.

The workouts are on Friday nights, and I know it’s tough to get here sometimes, especially on Friday night. But in the past, we’ve had some large groups, so that can’t be the only reason.

Perhaps it’s just the time of year. It is summer, after all, and the heat index is up there, too. I like the summer workouts because we can get outdoors, but when it gets too hot, we start staying inside and using the equipment here.

That’s what we did this week. Usually in Week Nine, I’ll take the group out to the football field and they’ll run/walk a quarter mile and then do 25 pushups, 25 body squats, and 25 sit-ups, four times.

This time, they did the quarter miles on the treadmill and went into the mat room for the pushups, body squats and sit-ups. Pretty nice with that air conditioning! Oh well, they still did the work.

They probably wouldn’t burn quite as many calories as they would have done if they were doing it all outside, but we didn’t have to worry about heat sickness this way. I used it as an opportunity to have them try to go faster than usual on the treadmill. So it all worked out in the end.

For the Biggest Losers that were there, it was a great workout. It was quick, but very effective. Most finished in under twenty minutes. But the main thing is that they’re finishing what they started.

After getting started, the hardest thing for people is learning how to stick it out. The first month is painful as your body is getting used to doing the work. The next month, you’re feeling stronger, and it doesn’t hurt as much. You’re also getting some results.

I don’t worry much about the people that make the weigh-ins at this point. I worry even less about the people that still make the workouts. By now, they’re getting strong, and they know they can push themselves much more then they used to. They’ve also made eating right and exercising smart a daily habit.

These are qualities that will serve them pretty well, especially once they’re out on their own. If there’s a common mistake I see with people working out, it’s that they tend to keep doing the same routine, without any variation at all.

It’s really good to better to change it up, and do different things. It’s good for your body and it’s good for your mind. Your body likes it because it gets stressed in different ways, and so it has to develop more. Your mind likes it because it’s something new.

Of course, if you drop out of a program, it’s going to be kind of tough to change it up and do new and different things. So maybe the most important thing lesson to learn is…DON’T QUIT! If you quit, you don’t get what you want.

One who hasn’t quit is Cheryl Clark, our Biggest Loser this week. She lost 3.1% of her body weight and 6.2 lbs. She’s had some weeks where the scale wasn’t as kind as she’d have liked, and like many women, she’s also learned she needed to be eating more.

Cheryl’s been pretty persistent though, and it’s been paying off. To date, she’s lost 18.2 lbs in nine weeks. With three weeks to go, if she keeps this up, she can be down about 25 lbs for the 12 weeks.

Second place went to Michelle Clark, who lost 1.3% and 2.0 lbs. Janice Johnson was third, losing about 1.0% and 1.8 lbs. Vanessa Becker was fourth, losing 1.0 lb.

Next week, depending on weather, we’ll do either the 5 K challenge or teach them an advanced Level IV workout. Either way, it’s going to give them another chance to step it up. See you then!

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK EIGHT "THE WOOD ST. WARRIORS"

2010-06-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

This week we had a couple of interesting workouts. On Friday afternoon, several of the Wood Street Warriors accepted my challenge to come out for a trail run. I’ve got a half mile loop through the woods and fields but this year I added a couple of twists: a really steep short hill down to the creek, and an extra stretch up around where the pond is going to be.

Their challenge was to run at least four laps around, with 10 body squats after the first lap, 15 body squats after the second, 20 after the third, and 25 after the fourth. If they really felt froggy, they could add a fifth lap and 30 body squats for a total of 100 squats and 3.75 miles. If they did a sixth lap, that would take the distance up to right around 4 ½ miles!

Trail running is quite a bit different than jogging on the road or even the treadmill. While the road is toughest on you, trail running is much easier on the feet and knees because the ground is softer and has some give to it.

It can be a little tricky though. You’ve got to really watch where you’re going so you don’t turn an ankle. Instead of long strides, you need to shorten your stride on uneven ground, and put your whole foot down deliberately.

But those adjustments also drive up the intensity of the work. Since the terrain is uneven, it takes more muscle control to keep your balance, which also works your core more. This makes it very good for your overall health and posture. In fact, my chiropractor is always telling people to go out and walk on uneven ground.

After the first lap, the gals knew they were in for something. The hills didn’t look that threatening, but because they kept coming at you, and were pretty steep, it drove up the intensity.

Once you got over the short hill, you got a short break before the next one kicked in, which made this yet another form of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). I told them the only real goal the whole time was to push up the hills. Try to really hit the hills hard.

The body squats in between laps further kicked up the intensity and combined with the hills made it quite a lower body workout. By the time they’d finished 4 laps, they’d done the equivalent of a 5 K run, plus all the hills and squats! The 5th lap was a walk/run lap, but by the time they’d walked half of it, they’d recovered enough to run the rest. Great job ladies!

Afterward, I scooted back to the center to work with the Biggest Losers and their own introduction to HIIT. Always an eye opener, HIIT training shows you that you can always do more than you think you can do.

After warming up on either the treadmill, bike or elliptical, they kicked up the intensity using Borg’s scale of Perceived Exertion. They took it up to what felt like about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is being in a coma and 10 is too hard to continue.

Working at what feels like a 5 or 6 is very low intensity, and a 7 is what feels like moderate intensity right in the middle of the cardio zone. When you get to what feels like an 8, it’s pretty serious—you don’t know how long you can keep it up.

Working at what feels like a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 is even harder. This is work that is so hard that you don’t know if you can keep going, even for a minute. Of course a 10 is so hard that you have to stop, so you don’t want to get quite that intense.

They did a minute at what felt like an 8, and then a minute where they backed off to recover. Then they kicked it up again by going faster, or raising the level on the machine. After another minute of recovery, we took it up to what felt like a 9.

Typically, they won’t really be working hard enough for it to really be a 9, so I had them do it again, only harder. This time, I could tell it really was a 9 because they were huffing and puffing and watching the clock to see when the minute was up!

After a minute to recover, they switched machines and tried the whole routine again. Finally, they switched machines again so they got to experience the whole thing on a treadmill, elliptical and recumbent bike. The idea was to show them that you can do HIIT anywhere, even out in the woods with hills like the Wood St. Warriors!

HIIT training burns many more calories than a traditional workout. Moderate exercise will burn around 5 calories a minute. If you push pretty hard, you can get that up to around 10 calories a minute.

With HIIT training, you can get as high as 15 calories a minute, but it also gives you a much longer after-burn, meaning you’ll continue to burn more calories even after the work is over. This is a great tool for them to use as they move into their third month of training. It’s often just the ticket to get you through a plateau!

This week’s Biggest Loser was Nicole Clodfelter, who lost 1.4% of her body weight and 3.6 lbs. This came after a week where she turned up her intensity quite a bit, running her second 5 K and taking nearly 5 minutes off her time!

Second place went to Michelle Clark who also ran a 5 K in just over 31 minutes. She was delighted that she was able to keep running the entire time! Michelle lost about 1.0% of her body weight and 1.4 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK SEVEN "OUTDOOR WORKOUT #2"

2010-06-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

This week we went outside again. That’s one of the benefits of doing Biggest Loser in the spring and summer. The last time we went outdoors, the group did the park-to-park run, with four stops along the way. At each station, they also did a bunch of jumping jacks, pushups, sit-ups and body squats at each stop.

This week they jogged down to the park at Main and Jasper St. Once they got to the water tower, they did three sets of burpees and sit-ups.

Here’s how you do a burpee—from a standing position, bend down and put your hands on the floor, kicking your feet out into a pushup position. Do the pushup, and then hop back to a squatting position before jumping straight up in the air with your arms stretched out overhead. That’s a burpee!

They did 10 burpees in a row, which is tough, because you’re using almost every muscle group. That puts quite an oxygen demand on the body, especially after jogging first. Once they finished the burpees, they hit the grass and did 20 sit-ups. This actually helped them catch their breath, because they were lying on their back.

Once they finished the sit-ups, they did 10 more burpees, 20 more sit-ups, and finished with a third set of 10 burpees and 20 sit-ups. By then, everyone was feeling it.

At that point, I split the group in two and had the stronger runners take a lap around the park before heading back. The others simply started back from there. The run/walk back is always much harder than people expect because of all the work they did in between.

From start to finish, the workout took less than 30 minutes, and everyone agreed that it was more intense than they were used to. My goal is to teach them that they can do almost always do more than they think they can do. It’s also to show them what they should be feeling like in their workouts during the week.

If my workout is the only one that gasses them that much, then they need to step it up during the week. The challenge is to keep raising their level of intensity each week. That will help them keep taking the weight off, especially when their body gets used to what they were doing.

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. In fact, your body might even get weaker! You need to keep changing it up. Next week, we’ll teach them how to do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to help them get more out of their cardio workouts.

If you’re already working out and doing pretty well, and want a more advanced version of the combination workouts, here’s another one for you. Run a ¼ mile, and then do 25 pushups, body squats, and sit-ups. Then repeat the whole thing three more times.

That’s one of the most talked about workouts we’ve done, and the group just might see it sometime in the next couple of weeks! Another challenge they’ll be facing is to do a 5K (3.1 mile) walk/run. Again, the goal is to keep up the intensity.

Someone who’s done a good job finding more intensity is Karen Brown who took first place this week by losing 1.6% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. You may recall that she lost 42 lbs in Biggest Loser “9” some months ago. She’s continued to work on it, and this week, she walked 9 miles three different times!

One of those times was right before we did the outdoor workout I told you about, so she actually did closer to 11 miles that day! With that kind of effort, I’m not surprised she was the Biggest Loser this week.

Second place went to Michelle Clark, who’s also been pushing hard in the gym. She lost 1.3% of her body weight and 2.0 lbs. Third place was a tie between Vanessa Becker and Janice Johnson, who both lost about 1.0% of their body weight. Vanessa lost 1.0 lbs and Janice lost 1.6 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK SIX "CHANGING IT UP AGAIN"

2010-06-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

This week the group learned the second free weight routine. As always, the goal is to continually keep changing it up. It doesn’t take long before your body adapts to a certain routine. That’s when results start falling off.

Even if your goal isn’t weight loss, it’s smart to keep things changing. If you’re a bodybuilder or trying to put on size, it’s good to do things in 3 week cycles—four at the most. Then you need to change it up somehow.

By changing the routine, it keeps your body “guessing.” It’s adapted to the workout levels, the intensity, and even the order in which you do things. By varying the exercises, or the exercise order, you can make the workout more difficult. Give it a try.

The first dumbbell (DB) routine I typically teach is a full body workout that hits every muscle group:

1. Front Squat
2. Chest Press on the Ball
3. Bent Knee Dead lifts
4. Single Arm Rows
5. Lateral Raises
6. Single Arm Bicep Curls (alternating)
7. Overhead Tricep Press
8. Abs Crunches on the Ball
9. Side Twists

The second (new) DB routine hits the same body parts, but uses different exercises. By mixing it up, it will create a whole new set of demands on the body.

1. Walking Lunge
2. Peck Fly’s on the Ball
3. Straight Leg Dead lifts
4. Pullovers on the Ball
5. Arnold Shoulder Press
6. Double Bicep Curl
7. Tricep Kickbacks
8. Ab Routine #1-5: Crunches (knees bent), Crunches (legs up), Side Crunches (L) then (R), Leg Lifts

There are several ways to do the workout. You could do it as a circuit from start to finish, and then do it again once or twice. Try not to stop for breaks until you’ve completed the circuit.

An alternative method is to put things together in pairs, called supersets. Do the Walking Lunges and Pec Fly’s back-to-back, two or three times. Then move on to the Dead lifts and Pullovers. Do them both back-to-back, and then repeat the pair again once or twice.

Take the next three exercises and put them together: Arnold Press, Bicep Curl and Tricep Kickbacks. Do all three back-to-back, two or three times. Finally, do the Ab Routine at the end. Pick a number, say 20 reps, and do each one of the five abdominal exercises 20 times.

Either way, the goal is to hit the entire body, which you will. You’ll want to keep moving without rests. If you need to take a drink, take it between pairs of exercises, or at the end of a circuit. That will keep you moving! Good luck.

By the way, don’t forget about the 5th Annual C.A.M.A. Bike Rally, on Saturday, June 5th. You can get information from www.camacoalition.org !

This week’s Biggest Loser was Michelle Clark, who lost 1.3% of her body weight and 2.0 lbs. Janice Johnson was second with 1.2% and 2.8 lbs. Dale Rasmussen placed third, losing 1.1% and 2.6 lbs. Mindi Milner, Nicole Clodfelter and Karen Brown all tied for fourth place, losing 1.0 of their body weight and 2.0, 2.6, and 2.2 lbs respectively.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK FIVE "PARK-TO-PARK CROSS TRAINING"

2010-05-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

This week we turned it up with our Park-to-Park workout. It’s a combination of jogging and calisthenics that hits the whole body. They started at the gym and ran down Wood St. to Schwartz Park and then walked around the trail. Once everyone got there, we did 10 jumping jacks, 10 body squats, 10 pushups and 10 sit-ups.

I’d been waiting a couple weeks for good weather, and we lucked out. After showers for several days, we had a break just a few hours before the workout, and the sun even came out for awhile. At the same time, it was still a little cool with a breeze, which always helps!

As soon as we were done with the calisthenics, we took out down to High St. and ran North to Sunrise Park. While they waited for any stragglers, they walked around the park like before. Once everyone arrived, we did another 10 jumping jacks, body squats, pushups and sit-ups.

Once we all got done, we jogged down High St. to the football field where we did 10 more reps of each exercise. Finally, we headed back up over the overhead bridge on Buena Vista. At that point it got really difficult, but most everyone jogged up the hill! Once they got back to Wood St., they jogged back to the center where they did a final set of each of the exercises.

All in all, they went right about 2.0 miles and did 40 jumping jacks, body squats, pushups and sit-ups. For most, it was a pretty tough workout because they were using so many different muscle groups.

Their legs and lungs were working hard during the jogging. Then they hit the Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Legs, Back and Core with the calisthenics. Then they were back running again, and so on. So it’s anaerobic and aerobic at the same time, which makes it quite the calorie burner.

Anytime you can mix things up like that, it’s good for your body. Your body develops the ability to use different energy systems, and your endurance will improve dramatically. At the same time, you’re doing something goal oriented—run to there and then do so many reps of such and such. Then do it again. It’s good for your mind, too, because it keeps you interested.

We do this all the time in my Level IV boot camp classes. Just a week ago, the Friday workout was very similar. The difference was the distance ran, the number of times they ran it, and the type of movements they did in between.

It’s pretty challenging, so you might want to work up to it. You definitely don’t want to do it on an empty stomach. You might try the BL workout first. If everything goes OK, then you can try the Level IV workout—but with fewer repetitions of each exercise. Another way to scale the workout down is by doing 2 minutes on the elliptical trainer instead of the ¼ mile run.

Make sure you know how to do the movements correctly. If you ever have any questions, you can always contact me at the center, or through the website.

1. Run ¼ mile
2. Do 25 pull-ups
3. Run ¼ mile
4. Do 25 overhead squats (w/stick)
5. Run ¼ mile
6. Do 25 pushups on an exercise ball
7. Run ¼ mile
8. Do 25 Dumb Bell Curls
9. Run ¼ mile
10. Do 25 Kettle Bell Swings
11. Run ¼ mile
12. Do 25 Pikes or Knee-Ins on the Ball
13. Run ¼ mile
14. Do 25 Sit-ups
15. Run ¼ mile

This week’s Biggest Loser was Carrieann Phegley, who lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. Cheryl Clark placed second, losing 1.9% and 3.8 lbs. Cheryl’s lost the most weight so far, by losing 12.8 lbs in five weeks.

Bridgett Trover was third for the week, losing 1.7% and 3.0 lbs. Michelle Clark, who has the overall lead so far, placed fourth by losing 1.5% and 2.4 lbs. Karen Brown was fifth, losing 1.3% of her body weight and 2.8 lbs, and Nicole Clodfelter finished in sixth place, losing about 1.0% and 2.4 lbs.

Don’t forget about the C.A.M.A. Teen Bike Rally coming up on June 5th. It’s a great chance to get some cross-training in, and not just for teens. Proceeds go to benefit the Coalition Against Methamphetamine Abuse and provide teens education about Meth and other forms of substance abuse, but anyone can do the ride! You can get information online at www.camacoalition.org .

You can choose from several routes of varying difficulty. The easiest is an 8.5 mile route which anyone can do, including my 7 year old grandson. Next is a 25 mile route which is a little tougher, but my 9 year old Cutie-Pie can do it. I’m guessing most newer riders will do this one.

Next is a 41.5 mile which a lot of us from the center are doing. It’s best if you have a road bike for this one, and some experience. Finally, the most difficult route is a 70 mile loop. This one’s for the big dogs. These characters have lots of riding experience, and riding is often their main form of exercise.

Pick one and give it a shot. Do some riding over the next couple weeks to prepare. It’ll be a great workout, and you’ll get lunch, too! See you there.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK FOUR "TIME TO CHANGE IT UP"

2010-05-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

This week we talked to the group about turning it up a notch. After a month of using the machines, it was time to learn how to use free weights. It came at a good time, too, because many of them had reached a plateau.

For some reason, this group has had some difficulty breaking through to the next level. Hopefully the free weights will help shake some things loose. They’ll burn more calories doing the exercises with dumbbells (DB) because of all the other stabilizer muscles that will come into play, particularly in their core.

The main idea is to simply take each exercise they did on machines, and replace it with dumbbells. The Chest Press machine is replaced with Chest Press on the exercise ball. The Seated Row machine is replaced with Single Arm Rows.

The Leg Press machine is replaced by doing body squats while holding dumbbells on their shoulders. The Lower Back machine and Leg machines are replaced with Bent Knee Deadlifts.

They’ll also do Lateral Raises instead of the Shoulder Press Machine, Bicep Curls with instead of the Bicep Curl Machine, and Overhead Presses instead of the Tricep Press Machine. They’ll also do several abdominal exercises on the ball, to replace the Ab Machine.

One of the keys to keeping the intensity up is to do the exercises back to back, without stopping. Here’s the first workout they’ll be doing for the next two weeks in case you’d like to try it. Make sure you get with someone who knows how to perform the movements correctly. Do each group of exercises back-to-back three times, with 10-12 repetitions each.

1. Chest Press on Ball (DB) / Body Squats (DB)
2. Single Arm Rows (DB) / Bent Knee Deadlifts (DB)
3. Lateral Raises (DB) / Bicep Curls (DB) / Overhead Press
4. Ab Crunches on Ball (regular, back bends, crossing over)

This week, my Cutie-Pie also turned it up a little bit. Her gym class is doing a 1 mile run fitness test on Tuesday, so she got together with me several times to help her prepare. I just love the fact that they’re having the kids do this, and she says they’ve been running quite a bit in gym class to get ready.

So we got on the treadmill to see where she was. I was pretty surprised, and she did a fair amount of running the first time to finish in 15:56. Now I know there are kids out there that will blow that away, but some kids are born runners and some aren’t.

I’m one of those guys that wasn’t borne to it. In fact, for many years, I couldn’t run at all, due to a pretty serious case of asthma. A few years back, they came out with some medicine that finally controlled it.

When I first started jogging a few years ago, I finished at the back of the pack consistently. After a couple years of working on it, I now finish right in the middle of the group.

That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a big deal to me. Especially when you realize that only so many people show up for the 5K’s, duathons, and half marathons that I like to run. So to be in the middle of a pretty exclusive group is pretty cool.

The second time we got together, we went out to the track at the football field. I think it’s much easier doing a mile for time out there, because you’re outside. It’s also cooler outside this time of year.

At the field, she kept a faster pace and only walked a little bit after each quarter mile. The last lap was faster, as she kicked it up to try and get there under 13:00. I was surprised at how determined she was as we ran around that last turn, and she finished in 12:53, three minutes quicker than before.

The last workout had to be inside again, due to the rain. It was also later in the day, and I could tell she wasn’t feeling it quite as much, as she held back a little in the first two quarter miles. Still, she kicked it up in the end and finished right at 14:00.

While it was a minute slower than out at the track, it was still almost two minutes faster than the last time she was on the treadmill. It was also pretty darn good for an eight year old who’s about four feet tall!

Her fitness test is Tuesday at school, so after resting Monday to recover, she should be ready to go. The things she’ll need to remember are to try and lengthen her stride to use more muscles and take the pressure off her knees. She also needs to concentrate on her breathing when it gets tough: in-two, out-two, in-two, out-two.

She’s also planning on doing the 25 mile distance in the C.A.M.A. Park-To-Park bike ride coming up the first weekend in June. She’s done the 8 mile distance already, and with a new bike, wants to go a little bit further. So she’ll do it with her daddy, while her younger brother does the 8 miler with her mom.

A bunch of us will be doing the 40 miler, and there are even some serious riders in town who’ll do the 70 mile distance—now that’s impressive! But to me, it’s just as impressive to see an 8 year old do 25 miles.

This week’s winner was Alison Raney, who lost 1.1% of her body weight and 2.0 lbs. Nicole Clodfelter and Mindi Milner tied for second, losing about 1.0%. Nicole lost 2.2 lbs, and Mindi lost 1.6 lbs. Tisha Brinkley placed fourth, losing 1.6 lbs, and Janice Johnson was fifth, also losing 1.2 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK THREE "GETTING STRONGER"

2010-05-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

This week marks the end of three weeks for our Biggest Losers, or 21 days in the program. Experts say it takes a minimum of 21 times to make something a habit, so hopefully, they’re right on track.

The goal for week one was simply to get them moving. In week two, the goal was to get them to start keeping a daily food diary so they would be able to see if they were eating enough (most women don’t) or overeating (most men do). Week three was about the types of food they were eating, and understanding how food is used in the body.

The participants have had three weeks working out on the machines to build their strength, and on cardio days, they’ve hopefully been hitting it for a minimum of 30 minutes. As their endurance allows, they were to up it to 45 minutes, or even an hour! On top of that, if their schedules allowed, they were to also get in a quick 20 minute walk each morning.

The whole purpose has been to get them eating better, in the right amounts, and start building their strength and endurance so they can do more during their workouts. At first, they were kind of fighting their own bodies, which weren’t used to working out.

Once they started building some strength, though, their bodies started working for them, which allows them to do a little bit more in the same amount of time, or even, spend more time before they get gassed.

The more work they can do, the more calories they’ll burn, so they’ll end up losing more weight, which of course was their goal all along. At first, it’s pretty tough burning enough calories, but later, as they get stronger, it will be much easier.

Most people can burn around 5 calories a minute with light to moderate exercise. That means about 300 calories an hour when you’re starting out. After a few weeks to get stronger, though, people can start doing work to the tune of around 10 calories a minute, or around 600 calories an hour.

That’s double the work, and it pays off. A pound of fat is the equivalent of 3,500 calories. That means if everything else is equal, and you just add an hour of activity to your day, at first, it would take about 11 ½ days to burn a pound of fat.

Once you start getting in shape, you can double your output, which can cut your time to lose a pound almost in half—down to around 5 or 6 days. And if you work out longer, you can lose more.

That’s why if people have a big weight loss goal, I always recommend they take an extra 20-30 minute walk regardless what else they did in their “real” workout. If they want to take the weight off quickly, that can make a big difference.

So now that they’re stronger, the goal is to change the intensity of the work along with the amount of time they can keep going. Both will drive up the calorie output, and that will drive off the pounds.

This week, their goal is to use the machines for one more week, but this time doing “supersets.” Rather than just hit the circuit from start to finish, they’ll be doing a pushing exercise like the Chest Press, and then do an opposing pulling movement like the Seated Row, back to back. Then they’ll repeat the two exercises two more times before moving on to the next two machines.

Each pair of machines are arranged in order so they can get the Pushing/Pulling thing going at each step as they work their way through the circuit. This way, they’ll never take a break, but while one muscle group is resting, the other, opposing group is working.

If the machines aren’t organized quite that way where you work out, or if you’re using equipment at home, here’s how I have the machines arranged, so you can simulate the workout. Do each pair of exercises back to back, 10-12 repetitions each, for a total of 3 sets before moving on. Next week, we’ll raise the intensity again by moving to free weights!

PUSHING -- PULLING
1. Chest Press -- Seated Row
2. Pec Deck -- Lat Pulldown
3. Shoulder Press -- Rear Delt
4. Tricep Press -- Bicep Curl
5. Leg Press -- Calf Raises
6. Leg Extension -- Leg Curl
7. Ab Crunch -- Lower Back

This week’s Biggest Loser was a two-way tie between Cheryl Clark and Carrieann Phegley, who both lost 2.1% of their body weight. Cheryl lost 4.4 lbs and Carrieann lost 3.6 lbs. Third place went to Dale Rasmussen, who lost 2.0% and 4.6 lbs.

Michelle Clark was fourth, losing 1.6% and 2.6 lbs. Alison Raney took fifth, losing 1.1% and 2.0 lbs. Sixth place went to Janice Johnson, who lost 1.0% and 2.4 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK TWO "FOOD IS FUEL (AND OTHER THINGS)"

2010-05-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

This week the group was supposed to look more closely at what they ate. After a week of keeping a daily food journal, it should be pretty easy to make sure they’re getting the right amount of food. Remember from last week, studies show that people who write down what they eat lost more weight than those who didn’t.

The journal will also tell them where they have holes in their diet. That could be from either missing meals or snacks, or from missing even part of their meals. To be well rounded, each meal should have a source of protein, starch (complex carbs), and fruits or greens.

Protein is for building muscle and bone. Without protein in your diet, you will slowly waste away. Your bones won’t be as strong as they could be either. This explains in part why our elderly become frail, with bones that are easily broken.

Studies show that people in their 80’s can increase muscle mass after just six weeks of regular exercise such as walking and basic strength training. And if our seniors would dedicate 45 minutes to an hour a day to regular exercise, and ensuring they get enough protein in their diet, they’d be amazed at how good they’d feel.

My dad will be 87 in July, and he spends at least an hour a day in the gym doing a very similar routine to what our Biggest Losers are doing in the first month of training. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, he hits the strength circuit, doing most of the machines, three times around. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, he focuses on Cardio, riding the exercise bike, and walking.

He also gets up in the morning and goes for a walk outside for 20-30 minutes. That’s right. He does two workouts a day! His weight is down to what it was back when he was in basic training in the army during World War II. I’m sure he had a bit more muscle back then, but come on, he’s 86! Sometimes I tell him he needs to focus on getting a little more protein.

Sources of protein include meats, poultry, fish, dairy products like milk, yogurt and cottage cheese, nuts, and some beans. You need to make sure you get some protein in every meal. Some people need to supplement this with a protein shake, if they’re very active.

Starches are the next category to look at. Starches are complex carbohydrates, meaning that the starch molecules are more difficult for the body to break down. This means they’ll give the body longer lasting energy, compared to simple sugars that are used right away.

Sources of starch include whole grain breads and cereals, oats, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta, corn, rice, and some beans like the navy and pinto beans. Also a good source of vitamins and minerals, and some fiber, complex carbs need to be part of every meal too.

Dad tends to stick with the basic starches like whole grain breads and cereals. The bread should feel heavy, compared to the other choices. You should also be able to smell it when you pick it up. That means you’ll have more of the good stuff in there.

The last category was fruits and greens. These need no description—a fruits a fruit, and greens are all the other vegetables out there. Most people eat very little of either, and that’s unfortunate because they’re packed with vitamins and minerals that will help your body work better, and make you feel great.

Dad really scores well here. He eats fruits for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snacks. He likes the fact that they’re very low in calories, so he can eat them without worrying about gaining weight. They have lots of fiber too, so as he says, “they fill you up.”

The other main benefit of eating fruits is quick energy. Unlike the more complex starches, fruits are simple sugars (fructose), so your body breaks it down in a hurry. If you ever feel a little run down and need a quick pick-me-up, have some fruit. You’ll feel better within minutes.

Dad eats a ton of veggies, too, mostly in a home-made soup that he puts together a couple times a week. It’s got every vegetable under the sun in there. There will be some quick energy from the vegetables, but the main benefit there is all the natural vitamins and minerals, and the fiber.

As the Biggest Losers start getting their diet squared away, each meal will start to have all three key components: protein, starch, and fruits or greens. Once they start eating that way, they’ll start feeling better, and their body will use everything they eat (assuming they’re eating the right amount). That means nothing will be stored as fat, and their bodies will be working great.

Speaking of fats, it’s not necessary to worry about them too much. All you need to do is make sure you eat leaner cuts of meats, trim the fat where possible, and choose low fat dairy products during the day. It’s also a no brainer that you need to avoid junk foods and fried foods too. This will keep you from getting too much of the bad fats.

For the good fats, you’ll be getting that low fat dairy every day, and hopefully eating some other things like fish, and nuts that are high in Omega-3. Finally, it’s best to take a good supplement that has all three of the Omegas: Omega-3, Omega-6, and Omega-9. Experts used to focus only on Omega-3, but lately, they’ve been leaning toward a balanced supplement.

Don’t forget to get plenty of water each day, too. The more active you are, the more you need, but most people aren’t even getting the minimum daily recommendation: 48 oz. Personally, I think that’s about half what an active guy needs. I’d shoot for 3-4 bottles a day if you’re an active female, and 4-5 bottles a day if you’re a guy.

This week’s winner was Mindi Milner, who lost 2.1% of her body weight and 4.2 lbs. Second place went to Carrieann Phegley, who lost 1.8% and 3.2 lbs. Venessa Becker took third, losing 1.5% and 2.0 lbs. John Kaufman was fourth, losing 1.4% and 3.0 lbs. Cheryl Clark was fifth, losing 1.3% and 2.8 lbs, and Karen Brown and Nicole Clodfelter tied for sixth place, both losing 1.1%. Karen lost 2.4 lbs while Nicole lost 2.8 lbs.

Finally, a big shout out to everyone who completed the Christie Clinic Illinois Half or Full Marathon over in Champaign this weekend! I wish I could have been there with you, but a stupid sinus infection knocked me out of the running. Sigh. Great job you guys.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" WEEK ONE "IT'S NOT WHAT YOU EAT!"

2010-04-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well the group just finished their first full week of training. The goal was to get them moving, and I think we accomplished that. After the weigh-in, we talked about how much they were eating.

It’s always a surprise to women when they learn they need to eat more. I got an email from one of the participants telling me how hard it was to hit her target—it just seemed like so much food. At the end of the week, though, she’d lost a pound. She ate more (including breakfasts) and lost weight.

She’s not alone in that. Most women aren’t eating enough. According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), women need a minimum of 1,200 calories a day just to live—without taking exercise into consideration.

Typically, the average woman will need to be up around 1,500-1,650 calories a day to lose weight, and feel good doing it. That’s important. You need to feel good too. You’d never think of driving your car to Terre Haute on an empty gas tank (not more than once), but that’s what you’re doing with your body if you’re not hitting your minimum.

Food is fuel for the body. You need it to live, for quick energy, long fuel, building muscle and bone, and to keep the body healthy. It’s just fuel. If you don’t get enough, your body won’t work right. In fact, too few calories and your body just might think its starving.

That’s the problem many women are facing. They’ve gotten scared to eat anything, thinking it’ll go right to their butt! But it won’t. If they eat the right amount of food, they’ll just feel better, and their body will take what it needs to build, and use the rest for fuel.

So the first thing was to find out how much they were eating. That was the purpose for giving them daily calorie logs that first day. After tracking it for a few days, it will become pretty clear if they’re getting their minimum or not.

Now guys tend to go the other way—we’re typically over-eaters. Put a plate in front of a guy, and not only will we clean it up, but we’ll go back for seconds, even thirds! We can eat our way right past full, straight through to gorged.

Of course, this isn’t healthy either, and explains the big guts and butts you see all over the place. What men need to learn is portion control, and the daily logs help with those, too.

If you write it down, you become more accountable. If you’re guessing, you’re usually wrong, because guessing makes you fat. But keeping a diary will keep you thin! Studies have shown that people who wrote down what they eat lose more weight than those who didn’t.

The ACSM minimum for guys is 1,800 calories, and most guys can lose a lot of weight and still be pretty comfortable if they stay around 2,400 calories a day. But if you want to lose more weight, quicker, than you can push it down closer to the minimum.

Personally, I think it’s better to be comfortable and not feeling like you are starving. That’s why I recommend that most women stick with 1,650 calories if you’re of average build. If you’re a little taller, you can eat a little more and still lose weight. Likewise, if you’re a little smaller, you can eat a little less and still feel satisfied.

The workout this week began with a 1 mile walk/run. After that, they moved to the mat room and did 5 rounds of 10 pushups, 10 body squats, and 10 sit-ups for a total of 50 of each exercise.

It’s a good example of what I call “active rest.” After doing the pushups, your upper body gets a break while you do the body squats. Then your lower body gets a break while you do the sit-ups, and so on. This way you can do more total work, and your body burns more calories because you keep moving.

Next week we’ll turn it up a notch. Meanwhile, they’re supposed to continue their daily mile each morning, and their regular routines later in the day: the weight machine circuit three days a week and cardio on the other days. We’re also going to look at how food is used in the body so they can start making better choices.

This week’s winner was Susan King, who lost 2.7% of her body weight and 6.4 lbs. I almost missed it because she weighed in Thursday night before going out of town and left me a note that I found after our Friday night workout. Good thing I found it!

Second place went to Michelle Clark, who lost 2.4% and 4.0 lbs, and Alison Raney took third by losing 2.3% and 4.5 lbs. Karen Brown and Carol Mitchell tied for fourth place, losing 2.2%. Karen lost 5.0 lbs and Carol lost 3.8. Fifth place went to Tom Dagley, who lost 2.1% and 3.8 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" -- GETTING STARTED

2010-04-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

This week marks the start of another 12 week cycle with 27 participants starting Biggest Loser “12”. To kick things off, the group started with our standard fitness test. After a timed one mile walk/run, they counted pushups in a minute, as well as sit-ups in a minute.

The tests have two purposes. First, the tests give us a benchmark to measure against when everyone does the test again at the end of the 12 weeks. Second, the fitness tests give everyone an idea of how out of shape they really are.

For many new participants, the tests feel like an actual workout, even though they’re really not. So, at least for the first day, they serve as their first workout. When they come back next Friday night for their first “real” workout, they’ll realize how easy the tests actually were.

The goal in the first week is always to get everyone moving. While some of them have already been engaged in fitness programs and even looking at their diets, many, if not most of them haven’t. So it’s not important how much they do, just that they do something every day.

To that end, I asked them all to try and start their day with a one mile walk in the morning. For most people, a 3.0 mph pace is pretty comfortable, so it will only take them 20 minutes to cover the mile. Getting moving early is a good way to crank up your metabolism so you’ll burn more calories throughout the day.

Later in the day, they’ll do their “real” workout for the day. This will consist of weight training on the machines three days a week (Mon, Wed, Fri), and cardio workouts on the treadmills, elliptical trainers, bikes, or walking/jogging outside on the other days (Tue, Thur, Sat). Once a week, they can take a day off, unless they want to go for a walk.

Weight training on the machines can be as simple as going through the circuit one time, after a 10 minute cardio warm-up that gets their blood flowing and joints warmed up. A typical circuit will take 20-30 minutes. Their goal is to set the machines on weights light enough to get 12-15 repetitions. If it’s easy, then next time they can try a slightly heavier weight.

On the cardio days, their goal is to get at least 20-30 minutes of exercise. It can be all on one piece of cardio equipment, or divided up between several things. As they get stronger and build up their endurance, they’ll want to stretch it out to 30-45 minutes, or even an hour.

Another thing they’ll want to be thinking about is what their weight loss goal is for the 12 weeks. Guys tend to lose more than gals for several reasons. They usually have more muscle, so they can push harder, burning more calories. They also have a different hormone mix which tends to influence weight loss.

A good way to set a goal is to look at what other people have done. Last time, the top seven guys lost 44.0, 36.4, 34.2, 32.4, 30.1, 29.8, and 27.6 lbs respectively. The top seven gals lost 34.2, 19.4, 18.4, 17.4, 15.0, 13.6, and 13.2 lbs respectively.

In the past, we’ve had guys lose even more, up to 56.0, 57.0, and even 60.0 lbs. The top losing woman over the past couple years has lost 42.0 lbs in 12 weeks. So you need to take a look at the averages, and set your own goal.

Almost everyone falls short of what they want to lose, but that’s O.K. Most are pretty happy with what they did lose, and now they know how to do it again to take the rest of the weight off.

The other main purpose for the first week is to give them a food diary so they can start keeping track of what they should eat. It’s not so much to get them thinking about the quality of their foods, because we’ll cover that next week. It’s to determine how much they’re eating—the quantity of food.

Most women don’t eat enough, and most men are overeaters, so this will help them see where they land. It also gets them in the habit of thinking about what they’re eating. Research shows that people who write it down lose more weight than those who don’t.

When they come back next week, they’ll bring their diaries, and they’ll learn how to figure out their minimum calories needed, and a good calorie target to shoot for each day. We’ll also start talking about the quality of foods and how to make better choices.

It’s going to be a wild 12 weeks—it always is. At least half of them will drop out before it’s over—they always do. Some will have good reasons, but many won’t. It just won’t be their time to lose the weight, I guess.

When life intrudes, and it will, you have to make choices and stick with it to get what you want. Sometimes those choices aren’t easy, but if you’re trying to do the right thing, it will usually work out in the end.

I hope that this new group of 27 Biggest Losers can learn how to make those tough choices and keep focused on the goal. That will serve them well if they can do it. Next week, we’ll have the weight loss results from Week One.

BIGGEST LOSER "12" STARTS THIS FRIDAY!

2010-04-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

This week we’re taking a break between the last Biggest Loser groups and Biggest Loser “12” which starts this Friday, April 16th at 6:30 pm. There was much more participation in the Friday night group, so we’re going to drop the Saturday morning group for the time being.

If you want to participate Friday night, you need to come in and get registered right away. The administration fee is just $50.00 to participate in the 12-week community-wide Biggest Loser program.

It’s not necessary to belong to a gym, but it’s probably a good idea. There are several in the area to choose from, including the Y, Curves, and Tom’s. Some people have gotten good results working out at home, but they had enough equipment to get the job done: treadmill, elliptical, some free weights, and an exercise ball.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that people tend to do better losing weight in groups than on their own though, even if it’s a group as small as you and a friend. I think there are several reasons why.

There’s more accountability in groups. You know everyone else is going to show up, so there’s a little more pressure on you to show up, too. It’s the same thing with the weekly weigh-in. Every one else is working hard to lose weight, so you’re more likely to do what you have to do too.

It takes a lot of motivation to workout hard enough to lose weight. But when you’re working with others, it’s a little easier to do it yourself when you see them doing it too. There’s a group dynamic that kicks in that results in everyone doing much more than they might have done on their own.

People working out in the Biggest Loser groups are also following a proven plan. It’s not necessary to re-invent the wheel here. Certain things work. Others don’t. The idea is to get people moving, and then teach them how to raise the intensity each week to keep their bodies burning fat and building muscle.

They’re also learning how to eat right. Diets usually don’t work, but learning how to eat right does. If you want to lose weight, you’ve got to master what you’re putting in your mouth every day. In the end, women usually need to eat more, and men usually need to eat smaller portions. It’s also important to eat the right things.

People in the groups are also working on building healthy habits that lead to lasting weight loss. Experts say it takes a minimum of 21 repetitions to build a habit. If you do it everyday, that would take 3 weeks.

I’ve found that it takes people about a month to start getting results that you can really see. It takes two months to really make a difference, and if you give yourself 3 months, you can transform your life.

Some people will need two 12 week cycles to get where they want to be. Others will only need one. A few might need 3 or 4 cycles before they’re at their ideal weight. That’s O.K. They’ll have learned everything they need to know, and they’ll have good habits in place, so it will be just a matter of time.

It doesn’t mean that you need to continue working in the groups after your first one. Once you’ve lost some weight, gotten stronger, and learned what to do, it’s much easier to maintain your momentum on your own if you want. Still, quite a few people choose to continue to use the groups to help keep them on track.

So, what’s your schedule like? If you’re free on Friday nights for an hour, and you want to learn how to get that body where it needs to be, once and for all, you might want to join us. The 12 weeks will pass pretty quickly, and you could just have a new you at the other end!

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- WEEK TWELVE-- "FINAL RESULTS"

2010-04-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

This week marked the end of our most recent twelve week Biggest Loser programs. Overall, I was very pleased with the results, even though the drop out rate was pretty steep, especially in the Saturday group.

We started the twelve weeks with 29 participants in the Friday night group. By week ten, we’d lost only three people, but picked up two that had switched from Fridays. In the end, 17 of 28 made the final weigh-in.

The Saturday morning group didn’t fare so well. They started with 24 people, and by the halfway point, about half the group had dropped out for one reason or another—not counting the two that moved to Fridays! In the end, only 6 of the original 24 made the final weigh-in.

So out of 53 participants total, just 23 made the final weigh-in, for a 57 percent drop out rate, which was a little higher than the usual 50%. I think on Saturdays, there were a lot more activities competing for attention, and that might help explain it. The results were pretty good though, for those who were able to stick it out.

The Biggest Loser for week twelve from the Friday night group was Scot Grimes, who lost 1.6% of his body weight and 4.0 lbs. Penny Spinner, Scott Block, and Shawn Bowers, all tied for second place, losing 1.1%. Penny lost 1.8 lbs, Scott lost 2.2 lbs, and Shawn dropped 3.0 lbs. In the Saturday morning group, the winner for week twelve was Dale Rasmussen, who lost 1.4% of his body weight, and 3.4 lbs.

The overall Biggest Loser for Friday nights was Scott Block, who lost 18.4% of his body weight and a total of 44.0 lbs in the twelve weeks. His goal was to lose 40 lbs, so he’s quite happy with the results. Here’s how the rest of the Friday night group came out.

Name % lbs
1. Scott Block 18.4 44.0
2. Donnie Bartos 13.3 27.6
3. Scot Grimes 12.5 34.2
4. Jessica Trover 11.4 18.4
5. Nicole Clodfelter 11.1 34.2
6. Shawn Bowers 10.5 32.4
7. Sheri Tyler 8.7 19.4
8. Penny Spinner 8.7 15.0
9. Brett Block 7.3 11.1
10. Judy Rush 7.1 13.6
11. Melissa White 7.1 9.8
12. Tisha Brinkley 6.1 12.2
13. Karen Brown 5.6 13.2
14. Jackie Tyler 5.1 8.7
15. Brenda Lilley 5.1 8.0
16. Leslie Rush 3.6 6.2
17. Jamie Wheeler 2.7 4.2

The overall Biggest Loser for the Saturday morning group was Scott Dosch, who lost 13.8% of his body weight and 36.4 lbs during the twelve weeks. He said his next goal is to get down to 200 lbs by June, which would be another 26 lbs in eight weeks. I’m pretty sure he’ll do it. Here’s how the rest of the group fared.

Name % lbs
1. Scott Dosch 13.8 36.4
2. Brad Adams 12.5 30.1
3. Cheri Dosch 11.3 17.4
4. Dale Rasmussen 11.1 29.8
5. Shirley Fiscus 4.0 8.0
6. Cathy Kemper 3.1 5.8

All told, the 23 finishers lost a total of 440 lbs during the twelve weeks. That works out to an average weight loss of just over 19 lbs per person. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, ideal weight loss is 1-2 lbs a week, which works out to 12-24 lbs in twelve weeks. That puts the group average right square in the middle.

As we wrapped things up, we talked about the importance of keeping the weight off. While it’s a lot easier to maintain weight than lose it, it’s even easier to put it back on, so they’ll need to be vigilant with their diet and exercise program.

Another good strategy is to set new goals, whether it’s weight loss goals, running a 5K, or just buying some new clothing. One of the participants told me over the twelve weeks, she dropped from a size 12 to a size 4. Another lost 4 inches off his waist. That’s pretty motivating.

How about you? What motivates you? The next community Biggest Loser groups are forming now, and kick off in two weeks. The Friday night group will start on April 16th, and the Saturday morning group starts on the 17th.

You’ll need to get registered in advance and the administration fee is $50. You don’t need a membership to participate, but it’s recommended that you have one somewhere, like at Curves, at the Y, or here. Some people have success working out at home if they have enough equipment.

Whatever you decide, remember that whatever happens, time is going to pass anyway. You might as well get started now, so you can enjoy it. This could be the summer you get your body back!

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- WEEK ELEVEN-- "WALL-E WORLD--OR IS THIS WHAT YOUR LIFE LOOKS LIKE?"

2010-04-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

This week I had to chance to see a PIXAR movie called WALL-E. Placed somewhere in between Toy Story, Nemo, and Cars, somehow I missed it. Turns out it was one of the largest grossing opening movies, and a big one for Pixar, but I must have been out running somewhere.

There wasn’t a lot of dialogue which was pretty surprising for a kid’s movie. Usually, it’s non-stop. In the case of WALL-E, the lead character didn’t even talk, except for one word, which is pretty normal for a robot. The one word was his love interest’s name: EVE, who happened to also be a robot.

WALL-E was left behind on planet Earth to clean up the mess after everyone else left on a luxury space liner. I’m not quite sure how they fit everyone on there, but hey, it works. The sales pitch to humans to get them to leave Earth was pretty simple: “Enjoy your time away and let us (the corporation) clean it up.”

They were also told they wouldn’t have to do anything—just basically lounge around. That must have worked, because most people left. Meanwhile, WALL-E’s doing his job crushing trash and stacking it up into skyscraper size and shaped junk piles. He also saves assorted knick knacks that interest him, including an old shoe which happens to have a green plant growing inside of it.

One day, a space ship lands and he comes across a probe (EVE) out looking for life. After some interesting exchanges where he just about gets blasted, they meet each other and develop an interest in each other. But then, she finds the shoe with the green plant growing in it.

Immediately, she goes into lock down mode and apparently summons the space ship back. WALL-E tries to take care of her, but she just stays in lock down until the ship comes back to pick her up, and WALL-E too, as a stow-away. It turns out the ship travels to the space liner where the humans are, but it’s now 700 years since they’ve left Earth.

The people have robot servants and even robot chairs that take them everywhere they need to go. They never move—even the babies. Guess what. They’re all quite fat. So morbidly obese that they basically just sit in lounge chairs.

In the Captain’s cabin they show pictures of each captain’s tenure and the pictures tell the story. The first captain was in great shape, but each subsequent captain was bigger than the one before. No real surprise, since they don’t even get up and walk around.

Well, many of you might know the ending. The captain realizes that they should have been taking care of Earth and tries to go back, but the evil automatic pilot tries to stop him. Only WALL-E and EVE’s intervention save the day, and they all go back to Earth.

In the end, the people are seen planting and watering seeds so they can grow pizza (I know), and WALL-E and EVE go off happily ever after. It looks like everyone’s going to get some exercise, because they have quite a job in front of them. I love movies that have messages like this—especially kid’s movies.

Take B-Movie, for example. In that story, a bee sues humans for “stealing their honey” in a case on behalf of all the bees. They win their case, and none of the bees have to work anymore. But once they quit working, there’s an unanticipated effect—things quit growing because of the lack of pollination. So they take dramatic action to change things so the bees can go back to work!

I wonder how many parents talk to their kids about the movies. Or how many grandparents use the themes as lessons to educate their grandkids? Or do most of us just say, “Oh, that’s nice” and just go on with our business?

WALL-E had such a strong message that I was pretty surprised because it wasn’t all that politically correct. You’re not supposed to tell people that they’re fat, but guess what? Lounge around and quit moving and you’re going to get fat—just like in the movie!

It’s the same thing with B-Movie. Everything we do has consequences, and we reap what we sow. Work is important, and we all have a job to do. These things are just as true in real life as they were in the movies.

I wish I’d have seen the movies when they first came out because I would have taken their messages into my Karate for Kids classes. We’re trying to keep them moving, and it would have given me something they could relate to. But I’ll bet the kids will remember, so I’m going to use those examples anyway, just like I’m doing here. I figure some of you have seen WALL-E with your kids, but maybe some of you haven’t.

So I’ll say it again. Lounge around and quit moving and you’re going to get fat—just like in WALL-E’s world. It’s something our Biggest Losers need to think about too. It’s a lot easier to put the pounds back on than it was to take them off.

After eleven weeks, these guys and gals know what to do and how to do it. Some of them have really figured it out and by now have had some awesome results. Most of them are still working at it, but are making pretty good progress. If they quit moving, though, they run the risk of putting it ALL back on! I’ve seen it happen more times than you might imagine.

The Friday night Biggest Loser was Scott Block, who’s definitely not been lounging around. He lost 1.7% of his body weight and 3.4 lbs this week. All told, he’s lost 41.8 lbs, and 17.5% of his body weight in just 11 weeks, and he told me he doesn’t plan on putting any of it back on!

Second place went to Nicole Clodfelter, who lost 1.0% and 2.8 lbs and was the only Biggest Loser to show up for the 5K challenge in Charleston! It was really cold, windy, and she even had to run through some really wet grass. Nicole’s lost 32.4 lbs overall.

Third place went to Jackie Tyler, who ran her 5K back in the gym and pushed herself pretty hard, too, getting a time of 31:53. She also lost about half a percent and a pound, and has lost 10.0 lbs overall.

The Saturday morning Biggest Loser was once again Melissa White, who lost 1.7% and 2.2 lbs. Dale Rasmussen also placed second again, losing 1.5% and 3.8 lbs. Melissa’s lost just about 10.0 lbs so far, and Dale’s lost 26.4 lbs total.

Don’t forget to get signed up for our next community wide Biggest Loser groups which start on either Friday, April 16th or Saturday, April 17th. The administration fee is just $50 and you don’t have to be a member to participate—although you should probably be a member somewhere. Remember, if you just lounge around and quit moving, you’re going to get fat!

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- WEEK TEN-- "CHALLENGE YOURSELF"

2010-03-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

This week let’s look at the benefits of challenging yourself. During the 12 weeks of Biggest Loser, the goal is to provide ever-increasing challenges to the group. By the end of the cycle, most of them are doing things they never thought they could do.

On the first day, during the fitness test, the 1 mile walk/run, a minute of pushups and a minute of sit-ups just about did them in. Most of them felt like that was a workout. But it wasn’t. It was just a fitness test.

Since then, they’ve done a month on machines, a month with free weights, with a bunch of cardio thrown in between. Then they did a Level III circuit workout with Wall Ball, Dumbbell cleans, Medicine Ball exercises, and Kettle Ball swings. That was an eye-opener. Last week, they did High Intensity Interval Training.

This week, the goal was to show them how to combine the interval training with the Level III workouts to make an even more fun and interesting workout. To that end, they walked/ran a quarter mile, and then did 25 pushups, 25 body squats, and 25 sit-ups—four times! That means they ran a mile, and did 100 pushups, body squats and sit-ups.

Like everything else, when they heard what they were going to do, they were a little nervous, because it sounds tough. It’s more than that. This type of workout is very deceptive. You start out thinking it’s not too bad, but by the time you get halfway through it, you realize you’re in for quite a challenge. By the third round, you wonder if you are going to be able to finish. In the last round, you’re just trying to hang on.

What makes it so difficult is that you’re caught between energy systems. It’s not completely anaerobic (without oxygen), but it’s not really aerobic either (with oxygen). The first several minutes of exercise are performed mainly by using energy stored directly in the muscles. This fuel is called glycogen, and is basically carbohydrates bound with water.

If you take off sprinting, you’ll use up glycogen until it runs out, and then you’ll feel like you’re gassed out. But if the workload isn’t too strenuous, you can keep going by using some free fatty acids already present in the blood, until your body starts using fats for fuel. It takes several minutes for this to kick in.

As time goes on, glycogen gets depleted, as do the free fatty acids in the blood. That leaves just fat for fuel, which burns in the presence of oxygen. That’s fortunate, because you’re probably breathing a little harder than normal to maintain the levels of oxygen needed to burn the fat.

If the workout gets too hard, you have to back off, because you can’t get enough oxygen in to burn enough fuel to keep it going. That’s why it’s good for people just starting out, to do walk/run intervals, rather than just try to take off running.

The other thing that made this workout difficult was the sheer amount of large muscles being used. It’s not just the running, but also the pushups hitting the upper body; the sit-ups working the core; and those body squats depleting all that glycogen from the lower body.

All that muscle requires even more oxygen to keep moving. Add it to the running demands and it becomes one tough form of high intensity interval training. If you want a challenge, and think you’re ready for it, give it a try.

It’s doing things like this and the workouts over the last couple weeks that are showing these guys and gals what they’re really made of. That’s why I want them to do the 5K walk/run in Charleston next weekend, in place of our usual workout.

Once they’ve made it through the 12 weeks, then they need to try to continue to find new challenges. Some of them will find more 5K runs and try to improve their times. Some might even try a half marathon (13.1 mi). Some will even tackle a full 26.2 mile marathon!

The main thing is to keep active and the best way to keep active is to find activities you like to do. If you can set a challenging goal a few months away, it will keep you training, and that will help keep the weight off.

It was a tough week for weigh-ins. A lot of people hit a plateau, and more than a few even gained some weight. That’s what happens when you get this many weeks into a weight loss program. It will be important for them to try and figure out what happened, and get off to a fresh start.

This week’s Biggest Loser from the Friday night group was Sheri Tyler, who lost 2.4% of her body weight and 5.0 lbs. Leslie Rush placed second, losing 2.2% and 3.6 lbs. Third place went to Scot Grimes who lost 1.1% and 2.6 lbs. Nicole Clodfelter placed fourth, losing about 1.0% and 2.4 lbs.

Scott Dosch was the Biggest Loser from the Saturday morning group, losing 1.5% of his body weight and 3.6 lbs. Jennifer Bowers placed second, losing 1.2% and 2.4 lbs. Dale Rasmussen lost 1.0% and 2.6 lbs to take third, and Cheri Dosch was fourth, losing about 1.0% and 1.0 lb.

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- WEEK NINE-- "THE POWER OF FOCUSED INTENSITY"

2010-03-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

I always like the week where we teach the groups how to do high intensity interval training (HIIT). Since they’ve been learning how to turn it up with the Level III training in the weight room, it was time to teach them how to turn it up in the cardio room.

It’s always fun to watch them do something that they were pretty sure they couldn’t do. Once they learn they can hang through the Biggest Loser workouts, they realize they could have been doing much more in their workouts all along. Then it’s just a matter of working it in to their regular routines.

Here’s how HIIT works. Whatever kind of cardio machine you have available, hop on and get going at an easy pace. We’re going to use a scale of “perceived exertion” created by a doctor named Borg. Now stay with me, resistance is futile. OK, enough of the Star Trek jokes.

The scale Dr. Borg put together was based on how you feel during the exercise. Not everyone has access to heart rate monitoring, so this is pretty useful, especially with high intensity intervals.

Scale of Perceived Exertion:
0 This is like doing nothing. (Coach Potato Zone)
1 This is almost like doing nothing.
2 This still feels pretty light. (Not much Benefit Zone)
3 This finally feels like light exercise.
4 This feels like moderate exercise—no big deal. (Low Intensity Zone)
5 This is getting a little harder but still pretty easy.
6 This is getting harder but still pretty doable. (Cardio Zone)
7 This is harder and I’m breathing harder, too.
8 This feels very hard and talking is tough. (High Intensity Zone)
9 This is extremely hard—I can’t talk!
10 This is MAXIMAL—I have to stop!!! (Have to Quit Zone)

Once you’ve warmed up for a few minutes in the Low Intensity Zone (on a scale of 1-10, what feels like about a 4 or 5), take it up to the Cardio Zone (what feels like a 6 or 7) for a minute. Then back it off to the Low Zone for a minute. Then do another minute in the Cardio Zone, and another minute of rest in the Low Zone.

Now take it up to the High Intensity Zone for a minute (what feels like an 8). Remember, it’s based on what it feels like—not actual levels or miles per hour—it’s totally subjective. What feels like an 8 to you might feel like a 6 to someone who’s been doing it longer. Don’t worry about that.

After a minute in the High Zone, back off to the Cardio Zone for a minute. Then hit it again. After another minute in the High Zone, slow it down to the Cardio or Low Zone to catch your breath.

What’s going on there is a condition called oxygen debt. During the vigorous exercise, your body was making more demands than your heart and lungs could—basically you can’t breathe in and deliver enough oxygen to cover the demands being placed on your body.

So, after the vigorous exercise stops, you’ll have increased respiration for a while. Once your breathing slows down, your oxygen demands have been met, and your heart rate will return to normal too. This is actually a mark of fitness. The quicker your heart rate and breathing return to normal, the more fit you are.

Finally, after a minute of rest, take the workload up to the top of the High Zone—to what feels like a 9 on a scale of 1-10. Remember, a 10 would mean you have to stop, so don’t go there—just get it up to a 9. Try to do the exercise for a minute. Then take it back down to the Low Zone for a minute to recover.

In my experience, most people underestimate what they are capable of, and in our group workouts, it was no different. So we did another minute at what felt like a 9, so they’d push it even closer to the limit. For it to really be a 9, you’ve got to be thinking about quitting at 30 seconds, and really wanting to jump off around 45 seconds. It takes all your will to just stay on the thing until a minute has passed, but you can do it. That’s a nine.

After a minute of rest, I had them do one more interval at what felt like a 9, because I still didn’t think they were there. This time, they were all dying—a few actually had to jump off. The rest were able to hang, but it was tough. That’s when I knew it truly was a 9.

For the ones who had to stop for a moment, there was no shame in that, because they’d actually pulled a 10. Now they know their limits. The interesting thing is that next time, there’s a very good chance they’ll be able to do it, because their bodies will adapt to the increased workload. They’ll come back with more strength and endurance, and likely be able to hang for the entire minute.

Once we finished the last interval, we rotated machines so people on the treadmill could try some intervals on the bikes, or elliptical machines and so on. All told, they did about a half an hour of exercise between the different machines. It was obvious that it was one of the toughest—for some it was the toughest—workouts they’d ever experienced.

This weeks Biggest Loser from the Friday night group was once again Scott Block, who lost 1.9% of his body weight and another 3.8 lbs. This brings him to 38.0 lbs overall, in just nine weeks! Second place was a tie between Jessica Trover and Lori Marietta, both losing 1.5%. Jess lost 2.2 lbs and Lori lost 4.2 lbs. Casie High placed fourth, losing 1.3% and 2.2 lbs, and Judy Rush finished fifth, losing 1.2% and 2.2 lbs.

In the Saturday morning group, our Biggest Loser was Jamie Wheeler who lost 1.4% and 2.2 lbs. Dale Rasmussen was second, losing about 1.0% and 2.0 lbs. Only six people made the weigh-in due to other activities and conflicts, but quite a few have also dropped. While the Friday night group is mostly intact, about half the Saturday people have fallen off along the way.

With nine weeks down, and just three to go, it’s time to start thinking about Biggest Loser and the summer groups. Once again, we’re going to do a Friday night group, and a Saturday morning group to give people some flexibility. Sign-ups start in a couple weeks, and the first meetings will be Friday, April 16th, and Saturday, April 17th.

If you’ve been looking for something to help you make a change this summer, you need to think about joining in. And just like the current groups, there will be no prizes—the only prize to win, is really the best prize of all—the chance to get your body back!

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- WEEK EIGHT -- "TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL"

2010-03-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

This week marked the end of their second month, and it was time for something different. They spent the first month working on the machines (Level I), and the second month getting comfortable using free weights, primarily dumbbells (Level II).

Now that they know their way around the weight room, it’s time to take it up a notch and find something to bring them to the next level. Typically, if someone keeps doing the same thing, their results will start to slow, sometimes even grinding to a halt—that dreaded plateau in weight loss.

At that time, the thing to do is to change it up and find things that the body isn’t used to. Remember, if you can already do it, your body has no reason to change. That’s why you can walk several miles a day and not lose weight. Your body is already used to it.

That was the reason for the Level III workout this week. Where before each exercise consisted of performing one movement and using one muscle group, Level III workouts are made up of compound exercises. These are exercises that have two or more movements at a time, and use more than one muscle group to get the job done.

I split the group up into four stations that rotated between four exercises. Each group stayed with one exercise for a minute, and then moved on to the next exercise as the group rotated. When each group got through all four exercises they’d completed one round. The total workout consisted of five rounds of the circuit, for a total of twenty minutes.

It sounds pretty easy, but it’s not. By the time the Biggest Losers made it into the third round, most everyone was huffing and puffing, and sweat was flowing freely. In the fourth round, they were looking forward to finishing. By the time they got through the last four minutes, they were ready to stop. Here’s what they did.

Station One was “Wall Ball”, where they squat holding a 10-20 lb ball, depending on their size, as they come back up from the squat, they throw the ball up above them and bounce it off the wall, catching it when it comes back down. Then they squat again, doing the entire exercise again for a minute.

Station Two was “Single Arm Cleans” with a dumbbell. From a squatting position, they hold the dumbbell in one hand, between their feet. With an explosive pulling movement, they kind of jump up a bit while jerking the weight from the ground, all the way in a straight line up their body until they are holding it straight over head. Then they put the weight back down between their feet and repeat the exercise. After doing several, they switched arms, continuing for a minute.

Station Three was the “Ball Station.” Here, they partnered up back-to back, and passed a medicine ball back and forth by twisting from side to side. In later rounds they switched the direction that they handed off the ball, even catching it over one person’s head while the other one hiked it like a football. The final round consisted of “woodchoppers” where one person holds the ball on the floor between their feet, and then lifts it overhead while twisting to the side, before bringing it back down, and then back up to the other side.

The fourth and final station was “Kettle Ball Swings.” A kettle ball is basically a steel ball with a handle sticking out, that’s large enough to hold on to. Here they held it with two hands and brought it back between their legs while squatting down. As their arms bounce off the inside of the legs, they brought their arms and the kettle ball back up by using their hips and shoulders, continuing the movement until the kettle ball was straight overhead. It was important to keep a tight grip so the kettle ball wouldn’t swing down and bonk their noodles—but everyone survived!

All four exercises required a great deal of core activity to keep their bodies straight and in position, especially when holding the weights overhead. They also required both their upper and lower bodies to be active throughout the movements, which meant the core was working as well to help them transfer energy from one area to the other.

Another benefit is that the weight training almost becomes cardio, as evidence by all the huffing and puffing in the later rounds. By the time you get 15 or 20 minutes in, you’re pretty gassed, because using all those different muscles at the same time increases your energy demands significantly. That means you need more oxygen to keep things going, and that means you’ll get a cardio workout too.

1. Wall Ball
2. Single Arm DB Cleans
3. Partner Drills with Medicine Ball (Back and forth, side to side, over and under), and Wood Choppers
4. Kettle Ball Swings

All in all, I think the workout was a real hit. Even though they were all pretty tired after just 20 minutes, there was quite a bit of laughter throughout—always a good sign that a workout’s a success. You might give it a try yourself. Make sure you get with someone who knows how to perform the movements correctly, and try them with fairly light weights until you feel pretty comfortable with them.

Next week we’ll teach them another way to boost the intensity with some high intensity interval training. They’ll also get some more information about the required 5 K walk/run over in Charleston on Saturday, March 27th.

This week’s Friday night Biggest Loser was Donnie Bartos, who lost 2.4% of his body weight and 4.4 lbs. Second place went to Karen Brown, who lost 2.1% and 4.8 lbs. Scott Block placed third, losing 2.0% and 4.2 lbs. Leslie Rush and Scot Grimes tied for fourth place, losing 1.4%. Leslie lost 2.4 lbs and Scot lost 3.4 lbs.

For the Saturday morning group, the Biggest Loser was Brad Adams, who lost 1.6% of his body weight and 3.6 lbs. Scott Dosch placed second, losing 1.4% and 3.4 lbs while Dawn Stewart was third, losing 1.2% and 2.4 lbs. Fourth place went to Cheri Dosch, who lost 1.0% and 1.4 lbs and Shirley Fiscus placed fifth, losing around 1.0% and 1.6 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- WEEK SEVEN -- "FAMILIES"

2010-03-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

The Biggest Loser from the Friday night group was a tie between Scott and Brett Block, who both lost 2.2% of their body weight. Scott lost 4.8 lbs and Brett lost 3.2 lbs. Now that’s a family who sticks together!

Scott’s a farmer who gets a lot of exercise every day taking care of the cows and all the other things that farmer’s do. But even with that daily grind, over time, he put on some weight that he wanted to take off.

Brett’s a science teacher who’d been pretty active working out while her kids were in Taekwondo. Even with working out regularly, she also had a little extra that she was hoping to make disappear.

So we have a couple of pretty active people (who are actually a couple), that wanted to lose some weight together. To all outward appearances, they didn’t look overweight—they both carried their weight well. But they weren’t satisfied.

Some people have a lot of weight to lose; for others, the journey will be much quicker. We have people that need to lose 100 lbs, and while it can be done in six months if they’re extremely dedicated and disciplined, it’s better to take a year doing it.

For others like Brett and Scott, almost the entire journey can be done in 12 weeks of focused effort. We just finished week seven, so we’re just a little more than half way through, and Scott has lost a total of 30.0 lbs. That’s a little over four pounds a week! His total weight loss percentage is 12.5% of his body weight, which is enough to put him in the lead so far.

While Brett wanted to lose a little weight, she primarily joined the group to support her husband, and do it together, as a family. While her total weight loss is only 8.2 lbs, that’s pretty impressive too, because it’s over a pound a week! Her total weight loss percentage is 5.4%.

You have to remember, that as weight loss goes, the American College of Sports Medicine says healthy weight loss is between 1-2 lbs a week. Our mantra here is “One pound is good; two pounds is great; and three or more is fantastic.”

The Blocks aren’t the only couple doing Biggest Loser together. You may recall from earlier weeks, Scott and Cheri Dosch from the Saturday morning group have also put up some great numbers.

Scott says that he’d just let himself go over the years. Active in coaching, and keeping up with his kids, he felt that this Biggest Loser was his chance to get his body back. Cheri had been active and working out, and when Scott decided to join BL 11, she joined with him to show her support.

Scott got started the week before Biggest Loser, and lost 9 lbs! Over the last seven weeks, he’s lost an additional 20.8! His percentage of weight loss (in BL 11) is 7.9%, and he’s doing and feeling great. Cheri’s lost a total of 14.0 lbs in the seven weeks, with a percentage of weight loss of 9.1%, leading the Saturday morning group that weighed in this week.

Shawn and Jennifer Bowers are another couple of Biggest Loser Veterans, with several sessions behind them. Shawn does Friday nights while Jennifer does the Saturday morning group. They’ve found a way to work around their work schedules.

Shawn’s in second place overall on Friday nights, having lost 30.3 lbs and 9.9% of his body weight! Jennifer’s lost 15.2 lbs in the seven weeks, which amounts to 7.2% of her body weight. What makes this work is their commitment to their goal, in spite of scheduling difficulties—which are many.

Another couple is Jim and Tammy Huxford from the Friday night group. Jim’s lost 12.4 lbs in seven weeks, while Tammy has lost 4.8 lbs. They’re regulars in the gym and it’s easy to spot them—they’re the couple over their doing the workouts together!

While Donnie Bartos and Jessica catch their workouts in their home gym, they’ve had some great results too: Donnie’s lost 23.0 lbs and Jess has lost 15.0 lbs. Even Donnie’s mom is involved. An avid runner, and after a lengthy illness, Penny Spinner is glad to be back in action, losing 11.8 lbs in the seven weeks.

And there are some other families training together too. Sheri Tyler has lost 16.2 lbs while her daughter Jackie’s taken off 11.0 lbs. Judy Rush has lost 13.2 lbs and her daughter Leslie has dropped 3.8 lbs.

Quite a few friends have gotten involved as well. While there are always some stars doing it solo, I think the best situation is where participants bring someone with them for support. That way they can measure their work against their partner, and regardless who wins that week, they’re both the better for it.

Like I said earlier, we had a two-way tie for first place. Scott and Brett Block both lost 2.2% of their body weight, with Scott losing 4.8 lbs and Brett losing 3.2 lbs. Third place went to Jackie Tyler, who lost 2.0 and 3.2 lbs. Scot Grimes came in fourth, losing 1.6% and 4.0 lbs. Keeping it in the family again, Sheri Tyler came in fifth, losing 1.3% and 2.8 lbs.

For the Saturday morning group, Dawn Stewart placed first, losing 3.4% and an amazing 7.0 lbs. Second place went to Melissa White, who lost 1.1% and 1.4 lbs. Dale Rasmussen was third, losing about 1.0% and 1.4 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- WEEK SIX -- FREE WEIGHT ROUTINE #2

2010-02-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

This week the groups learned their second free weight routine. If you recall, free weights have several advantages over machines:

1. Since they aren’t guided, you have to use more stabilizer muscles when lifting free weights.
2. Since there are no pads to press against for support, you have to use your core more to keep your body in the right position.
3. Finally, there is no leverage advantage with dumbbells (DB) or barbells—you have to lift the entire weight yourself.

At first glance, these may seem like a negative, giving machines the edge. In reality, these are all good things. Using more muscles, using your core, and doing all the work mean it’s a more effective workout. That means you’ll burn more calories in the same amount of time, and also get a stronger, healthier body.

During the first four weeks, both groups used the machines to get things started. It let them build some base strength, and got them used to working out. For the last two weeks, they’ve been doing the first free weight routine.

But even with free weights, your body quickly adapts to a routine, with diminishing results. That’s why it’s important to change things up. It’s a simple matter to swap out the exercises they’ve been doing with others that still hit the same body parts, but are a little different.

Free Weight Routine #2

DB Pec Flys
Walking Lunges
DB Pullovers on Ball
DB Dead-Lifts
DB Arnold Press
DB Double Bicep Curl
DB Kick-Backs
Ab Routine #1-5:
Side Twists with Ball Obliques Crunches (bent knees)
Crunches (legs up in air)
Side Crunches (L knee bent)
Side Crunches (R knee bent)
Leg Lifts

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your routine:

1. Use proper form. If you don’t know how to do the exercise, find someone who does.
2. Do the movements slowly. This can help protect you from injury, and also makes it a more intense workout. I like to teach what I call the 1-2 rule: 1 second raising the weight, and 2 seconds lowering it.
3. Remember to keep breathing. Don’t hold your breath.
4. Shoot for a total of three sets of each exercise and 10-12 repetitions each set.
5. Try to keep moving. While traditional bodybuilders will rest 30 seconds, a minute, or even up to two minutes between sets, that isn’t as productive if your goal is toning, or losing weight.

Here’s how I teach them to do routine #2. Do the Pec Flys and then go right to the Walking Lunges. Once you’ve done them both, do them both again back to back, and then again for a third time.

Now, do the Pullovers and Dead-Lifts back to back without a break, and then repeat the combo twice. After that, do the Arnold Press, Double Biceps Curl, and Tricep Kick-Backs all back to back without a break, then repeat each of those twice more times.

Finally, do Ab Routine #1-5. You can do each ab exercise say 10, 15 or 20 times, and then move on to the next one. Then, you can go back and repeat them all two more times. Or, an alternative method would be to just do as many as you could of the first one, or say 50 reps, before moving on to the next one. Good luck.

Last week the two groups also got a new goal: to walk/run a 5 K in Charleston, IL on Saturday, March 27th. I like to have each group do a 5 K sometime before the end of the twelve weeks. They’ve had six weeks of workouts already, and now just a month left to prepare. Come out and join us.

One person that impressed me this week was Karen Brown. She’s lost 50 lbs, but hasn’t been able to run lately. Finally, she took matters into her own hands (or feet), walking 7 miles on Sat and Sun and then 6 miles on Mon through Friday. That was 44 miles total and enough to put her in the top five.

This week’s Friday night Biggest Loser was Shawn Bowers who lost 2.8% of his body weight and an amazing 7.9 lbs. He attributed it to his running schedule and racquetball. Second place went to Tina Cooper who lost 2.0% and 3.6 lbs.

Karen placed third by losing 1.9% and that 4.4 lbs. Sheri Tyler took fourth with a loss of 1.5% and 2.0 lbs, and Jessica Trover was fifth with a loss of 1.3% and 2.0 lbs. Halfway through the 12 weeks, we’ve only lost one person from the Friday night group!

We’ve not fared so well in the Saturday morning group. Only half of the 24 made this week’s weigh-in. While I’m pretty sure a few have quit, I know some of the others are still active—it’s just been a matter of convenience for them. Saturdays are tough sometimes.

The Biggest Loser from that group was Shelly Harper, who lost 2.0% of her body weight and 4.0 lbs. Melissa White placed second, losing 1.2% and 1.6 lbs. Dale Rasmussen and Danielle Keys tied for third, losing 1.1% and 2.8 lbs, and Brad Adams finished fifth, losing around 1.0% and 2.1 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" -- KICKS, HOTELS & TRAVEL TIPS

2010-02-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

This Saturday our Karate Kids had a Taekwondo tournament over in Bloomington, IN so we had combined the Saturday morning BL group with the Friday night group for a kickboxing workout. It’s a fun class, very practical, and it burns a lot of calories.

Once someone takes the regular kickboxing class, they usually pick up some 12 or 16 oz boxing gloves so their hands will be more protected. Then they can hit the heavy bags, and that’s an absolute blast!

For this introductory class to our Biggest Losers, we did mostly partner drills, where the partner held the pads, while they practiced the 1-2 combination (Jab-Cross). Then we added ducking (1, 2, duck, duck), where the partner then swings the pad at their head after they punch. Finally, we added movement toward the targets to hit it, and back away, after the combination.

Then we worked on the back leg round kick to a low target in the same fashion. Finally, we put the kick together with the punches (1, 2 to the head, angle kick to the leg). This is probably the most realistic and effect combination you can do, from a self-defense perspective.

It’s always fun watching groups have fun with the timing and coordination. At first it’s awkward, moving in ways they’re not used to. Once they’ve had a chance to practice the timing, things smooth out a lot. By the end of the class, they were bobbing and weaving, and putting some pretty effective hands on target!

From a calorie standpoint, vigorous exercise burns about 10 calories a minute. So if the kickboxing class was 45 minutes, that’s about 450 calories. If it’s an hour, that’s about 600 calories.

I told you we had to reschedule the Saturday group because I was at the Taekwondo tournament with our Karate Kids. Now that’s some exercise. They all competed in forms, which are a predetermined series of movements—almost like a dance, except for the martial arts techniques. Some have said it’s a “dance of death.”

The kids (and a few adults) also competed in sparring, which is a match between two people where they’re both trying to hit or kick each other in specified target areas. They all wear a bunch of protective gear, plus they’re trying to “pull” their techniques, or just touch the other person, instead of just pounding on the other person.

The kids especially are encouraged to just lightly tap their opponent on the head with their feet, and they’re wearing foam headgear with a plastic face plate that covers the front of the face. They also wear a thick chest protector, and foam hands and feet.

The primary benefit of competition is learning. In forms, it’s all about making yourself do exactly what you want to do, without being distracted or losing focus. That’s tough to do. For kids, it’s a priceless lesson, because if they can learn to concentrate on that, other things become easier.

During sparring, the goal is to hit your opponent (who’s trying to hit you), without getting hit. It takes a good sense of distance and timing, and the ability to react instinctively—all important self defense skills. For kids especially, it’s a fun, safe environment where they can learn these skills without much risk of getting hurt.

Sometimes you do well, sometimes you don’t. The main thing is to learn something. I love it when the kids do well, but it’s when things don’t go as well, that the real lessons are learned. Things like perseverance and self-control.

At times like that, I try to get them to focus on something they did well that they’d been working on. Then, we try to pick one thing to work on that might help them do better next time.

If they can learn to overcome the disappointments, that to is training for life, because there will always be disappointments—it’s how you handle it that makes the difference. If a kid (or adult) can come back and try to improve, and then go back and take another shot at it, that’s priceless.

Finally, I thought I’d tell you a little bit about how I roll when I travel. Just because you’re on the road and away from your usual gym doesn’t mean you have to leave all the things you’ve learned behind.

After the tournament (which meant a night in the hotel Fri), I turned around and left for Nashville to work on some new songs. That meant another couple of nights in the hotel. I was lucky on the way down there because there’s a gym I like to stop and get a workout at, just about halfway.

Once I was there, though, it didn’t work out to find a local gym (the one I’d always used had closed down), and the other ones weren’t open on Sunday. It was too cold to go out for a run. So, I did the next best thing—I made up a hotel routine:

• Handstand pushups on the wall (you could do regular pushups)
• Body Squats
• Arm curls—with a hotel chair
• Sit-ups (variety)
• (5 rounds)

The workout was fast and furious, and over in about 15 minutes—I don’t have much patience with people that tell me they don’t have time to work out. Each exercise hit a different area of the body, and they all worked the core very well.

As far as eating, I followed the normal routine (except for the Oreo Blizzard on the way back home): a nice salad, some kind of chicken, some veggies, and I just ate some of the starch (potatoes, pasta, etc…). I even took some yogurt, cheese, and grapes with me so I’d have some healthy snacks.

The main thing is to just be mindful of the portions—especially with restaurants, because they give you way too much food. If you combine good sense and moderation with some workouts, it’s easy to maintain your weight, even when you’re traveling.

This week’s Biggest Loser from the Friday group was Donnie Bartos, who lost 2.4% of his body weight and 4.6 lbs. Second place went to Danielle Foley, who lost 2.1% and 3.2 lbs. Jackie Tyler placed third, losing 2.0% and 3.2 lbs. Lorie Marietta was fourth, losing 1.8% and 5.2.Casie High was fifth, losing 2.0% and 2.7.

The winner from the Saturday group was Jennifer Bowers, who lost 2.0% of her body weight and 4.0 lbs. Cheri Dosch was second, losing 1.5% and 2.2 lbs. Vicki Riggen was third, losing around 1.0% and 1.2 lbs. Brad Adams placed fourth losing 1.9 lbs, and Jamie Wheeler was fifth, losing 1.2 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" WEEK THREE "HAVE A BALL"

2010-02-01T14:35:00.000-08:00

This week we showed them how to “have a ball” in their training by using an exercise stability ball for their entire workout. Stability balls can be used for a wide variety of exercises, and are always a great addition to any exercise program.

They did three exercises, while their partner did jogged three laps around the outside of the room. Then they rotated. After everyone finished round one, they learned another three exercises while their partner jogged, and so on. Before they knew it, they’d completed four rounds, and learned 12 new exercises. I’ve included the routine here in case you’d like to try it.

Here’s what you do. To perform a crunch on the ball, you start by lying down backwards with the center of the ball around the small of your back. Be careful not to get to far back beyond the ball because you could flip backward over the ball. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen—and it happens quite quickly!

But you also have to be far enough back on the ball to use your core. If your upper back is on the ball, you won’t be working your core enough, so you have to find that perfect balance point. Since the ball will want to roll, you have to use more abdominal muscles along with your other stabilizer muscles to try and keep the ball from moving while you rise up to a sitting position. That’s why they call it a stability ball.

Once you get comfortable with regular crunches, I like to start on the pushups. This time, get on the ball face down, and roll out until your hands are on the floor in front of the ball, and your shins or feet are on the ball. Just doing that can be a challenge.

Once you’re comfortable with that, it’s time to hold that plank-like position while doing pushups. The ball will want to roll to the side, so you’ll have to tighten your core, especially your oblique muscles (sides). It takes concentration to hold that ball steady, especially when you’re doing pushups!

The next exercise is a squat while holding the ball out in front of you. It provides a good counter-balance during the squatting motion, and also requires you to keep your upper body nice and straight. This also works a lot of core and stabilizer muscles.

Once you’ve done the crunch, the pushup, and the squat with the ball, you can learn some other exercises to get you through another 2 or 3 rounds. This time, instead of just a crunch, lean backwards and try to touch the floor with your hands. Then, sit-up all the way forward, and cross over your hands to touch the opposite foot. Repeat on the other side.

This time, instead of a pushup, you’ll maintain the pushup position but try to bring your knees into your chest. You’ll basically be rolling the ball in toward you. These are pretty tough, but doable.

For the squat, this time, hold the ball directly overhead and then squat. It’s much tougher than the other way. Remember to try to always keep your upper body upright, with good posture.

For the third round, lay on the ball again, but at the same time, try lifting one foot off the ground. Then do the other foot. Once you can maintain your balance, try doing the crunch like that.

In the pushup position, instead of doing the knee-in, you’ll be trying for a pike on the ball. While keeping your legs straight, lift your hips up in the air as high as possible. These are called pikes.

For the squat movement, do sumo squats this time. While holding the ball to your chest, lift one leg up in the air and then put it down in a wide stance. Then lift the other leg up high and put it down in a wide stance, and so on.

For the fourth and final round, you perform the exercise on your back on the floor, holding the ball with your feet, between your legs. Bring the ball up by lifting your legs, and grab the ball with both hands. Touch the ball to the floor behind your head with your arms outstretched while putting your feet back down on the floor. Then bring the ball back so you can grab it with your feet again, and so on.

In the pushup position on the ball, this time you’ll combine all three movements by doing a pushup, then bringing your knees in, and finishing with a pike. Repeat. This is pretty tasking.

The last lower body exercise is to do walking lunges while holding the ball overhead. Step far enough in front of you where your knee is bent but you can still see your toes. Make sure you bend your back leg, and come off your heel so that only the ball of your back foot is touching. Then step forward again with a walking lunge with the other leg.

These 12 exercises will definitely help you develop a strong core, and you’ll be working your whole body at the same time. The goal is to start working some of these exercises into your regular routine. Give them a try.

The Biggest Loser in the Friday night group was Chris Chapman, who lost 1.9% of his body weight and 3.8 lbs. Second place went to Shawn Bowers, who lost 1.8% and 5.2 lbs. Heather Gill took 3rd place, losing 1.6% and 2.4 lbs. Jim Huxford was 4th, losing 1.5% and 3.2 lbs, and Sheri Tyler and Scott Block tied for 5th, losing 1.4% and 3.0 and 3.2 lbs respectively.

In the Saturday morning group, the Biggest Loser was Jennifer Bowers, who lost 1.7% and 3.4 lbs. Cheri Dosch scored 2nd, by losing 1.6% and 2.4 lbs. Third place was a tie between Dale Rasmussen and Joan Brown, who both lost 1.2% and 3.2 lbs and 2.0 lbs respectively. Melissa White finished 5th, losing 1.0% of her body weight and 1.4 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" WEEK TWO "HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?"

2010-01-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

Two weeks have come and gone for Biggest Losers “10” and “11” as well as most of January. Have you gotten started with your own program yet? With the Biggest Losers, our whole focus last week was simply to get everyone moving, and I think that went pretty well.

All but two of the 53 participants made the 1st weigh-in, and most everyone also made the workout. After a week of getting familiar with the machines and cardio equipment, their weekly workout was still pretty tough: 5 sets of 10 pushups, 10 body squats, and 10 sit-ups.

After finishing all 50 of those, they did three rounds of 30 seconds of grappling (trying to muscle their partner around), partner pushups, and partner sit-ups. This was definitely the most fun, and there were a lot of laughs during those rounds.

This week, we lost one, and four others missed the weigh-in. In the workout, they did 4 rounds of 15 pushups, sit-ups and squats, for a total of 60 reps. They also did walking lunges, side-stepping squats, and the monkey walk, finishing with partner sit-ups, partner squats, and the dreaded one minute plank!

They were also supposed to focus on how much they were eating. They used a calorie log to track everything they ate during the day. If they didn’t know the calories from the box or packages, they looked it up on the internet at sites like www.calorieking.com .

They were also supposed to go to www.tomdolanfitness.com and plug in their height, weight, age, gender, and body fat. Then it would calculate their minimum number of calories they needed to get through the day. It also helped them set a target number.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that women never go below 1,200 calories. But we’ve found that most women do better if they eat just a little more. If they can stay between 1,500 and 1,650 calories/day, they’ll usually feel better—and still lose the weight.

Men need to stay above 1,800 calories for their minimum, but they usually feel better if they’ll stick around 2,400 calories/day. That’s usually more than enough food to satisfy them, but just about the right amount to lose weight if they’re active.

We also talked about how to eat right. It sounds silly, but eating right is almost a lost art these days. With all the junk food, fast food, and goofy diet’s out there, it’s tough putting the right foods into our bodies.

Good Protein sources include: Fish, Poultry (chicken & turkey), Meat (beef & pork), Low-fat Dairy (Milk, Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Eggs, and Cheese), some Beans, and Nuts. Most people don’t get enough protein in their diet. Women need about 3-4 oz at every meal; men need 5-6 oz.

Good sources of Starch include Whole Grain Breads & Cereals, Pasta, Rice, Regular Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Corn, some Beans, and Oats & Oatmeal. We typically eat too much starch at our meals, and whatever we don’t burn for energy will be stored as fat. Try to limit yourself to one starch per meal. If you’re diabetic, be extra careful with these, and check with your doctor.

The last category is Fruits & Greens, and they’re naturally low in calories—even bananas top out around at only 130 calories. Greens (vegetables) are low in calories due to their high fiber content. We don’t eat nearly enough of either, which is too bad because they’re so high in vitamins and minerals and we get a great quick energy boost from the fruits!

The one category not covered already, is fats. These are easy to deal with. If you’re avoiding junk foods, and eating low fat dairy, fish, nuts, and trimming the fat off meat & poultry, all you really need to do is add an Omega-3 and Omega-6 supplement. These are easy to find. I like the Omega Complex which has Omega-3, -6 and -9 in good proportions, and it’s pretty inexpensive.

The winner this week for the Friday night group in Biggest Loser “10” was Scott Block, who lost 2.4% of his body weight and 5.6 lbs. Heather Gill was 2nd, losing 2.3% and 3.4 lbs. Donnie Bartos and Danielle Foley tied for 3rd place, losing 2.2% and 4.4 lbs, and 3.4 lbs, respectively. Sheri Tyler and Shawn Bowers tied for 5th place, losing 2.1%. Sheri lost 4.6 lbs and Shawn dropped 6.2 lbs.

The winner for the Saturday group in Biggest Loser “11” was Scott Dosch, who lost 3.3% of his body weight and 8.8 lbs. Brad Adams was 2nd, losing 2.3% and 5.5 lbs. Jennifer Bowers lost 1.5% and 3.0 lbs for 3rd place. Dawn Stewart scored 4th, losing 1.4% and 2.9 lbs, and Melissa White placed 5th, losing 1.3% and 1.8 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "10 & 11" WEEK ONE "CARRY ON"

2010-01-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

Well we’re at it again. After a couple week layoff, 28 people started Biggest Loser “10” on Friday nights, and 24 people started Biggest Loser “11” on Saturday mornings. I think having two different groups is going to prove to be interesting.

After the initial weigh-in last week, the goal this week was to get them moving. I always get excited to start with a large group, even though I know that half of them probably won’t be there at the end. Perhaps with the New Year and resolutions and all that, we’ll keep more of them.

It’s just that so many people start things that they don’t finish. I think it’s cultural. Kids these days have so many activities and it’s good to let them try different things. There’s something to be said, though, for letting them focus on something and get really good at it. And also to keep trying, until you get what you want.

If I can use myself as an example, when I was young, I had severe asthma (still do) and my parents put me in music lessons (piano, violin, and drums) because I was unable to participate in sports or P.E. classes. Back then they didn’t have the medicines that they have now.

I did classical piano from a very early age, and added some jazz and lots of pop/rock later. My parents sent me to jazz camps for piano, and even orchestra camps for violin. My life pretty much revolved around music.

Later in life, I started writing songs and going to song-writing seminars. After writing some clunkers, I started getting some good results and even got two songs in the finals up in Canada back in 2004.

That was cool because I got to go up to a college up in Alberta in the dead of winter (man was it cold), and sing both songs in front of a bunch of other wannabees like me, and some industry professionals who were there to critique us. I came in second, but less than a year later, was recording my first “real” set of songs down in Nashville, TN in a “real” studio with some top musicians and engineers. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

In 2005, we released “Leaving Egypt” and three songs went to radio for a little while. One, called “Don’t Turn Away” actually did pretty well in Canada, and I’m still getting some royalties from up there, and believe it or not, South Africa.

By the way, if you’d like to hear the three songs that went to radio, “Don’t Turn Away”, “Someday”, and “Calling”, you can get them free. They’re available for free download, along with all the other ten tracks from “Leaving Egypt” and the follow-up group of ten songs from “Canaan” on my website: www.tomdolanmusic.com .

There’s also a fitness calculator that tells you how much you need to eat, along with my blog, which is basically these weekly articles, going back several years. Feel free to check them out.

I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed when the songs didn’t stick around long enough to “chart” so we weren’t able to push them into stores. After “Leaving Egypt” I was thinking that would be the last time.

Not only was it expensive, but it was an emotional roller coaster. Even though 350 radio stations played the songs, it still felt like a failure. None of the songs charted, and after about 100 concerts for the CD, it ran its course. Since then, I’ve realized that’s pretty normal, especially for new independent artists.

But in the next two years, while I was focusing on teaching fitness and martial arts here at home, I started hearing some new music in my head. I’d see things and have to write about them, and then I’d get some melodies.

Sometimes I’d just be practicing the piano or guitar, and they’d come to me. After I had a bunch of songs, I finally had the urge to call my producer in TN and arranged to go down and let him hear the songs. He felt we had enough for a CD, so we put “Canaan” together.

I didn’t try to push any of those songs to radio because I was still trying to pay off the first mess. As a result, there weren’t many concerts either, but I’m still pretty happy with how the songs turned out. A couple of them really seemed to touch people when they heard them. Again, though, I really thought I was done with that part of my life.

As it turns out, I wasn’t. Something in me made me keep playing, if only in my office or in church on Sunday mornings. But every now and then I’d hear something—a melody, or a cool phrase would pop into my head. It’s almost like the pressure builds and then you finally just have to do something about it.

So, I started the process to track three new ones. This time, I’m going to do it differently. When they’re done, I’m going to put them up on the website free—I’m not even going to wait until I have enough for a CD. Heck, I might not even do a whole CD, but these three—they’re pretty good, and I just couldn’t wait to hear them.

The three songs are: “Carry On”, “Hiding Place”, and “It takes a Hero”, which is a great tribute to the folks of 9-1-1, and Iraq. The tracks sound great, and I’m hoping to go down and cut vocals sometime soon. Then, we’ll get them mixed, mastered, and put them up on the website.

What’s the point to all this, and how does it relate to fitness? Well, if you want to get your music out there, you’ve got to be pretty persistent, in light of all the obstacles (which are many). It’s the same thing with getting your body back. It’s hard, it takes time, there are disappointments along the way, but if you really work at it, you can get what you want.

That’s what these two new groups need to do as they begin the process in Biggest Loser “10” and “11.” They’ve gotten started. Now they need to learn how to stick with it. To make it something they get good at. It needs to become a lifestyle. If they can learn how to do that, not only will they last the twelve weeks, but their success can last a lifetime.

We had some great numbers at the end of Week One. There’s a lot of excitement, and I think the groups are highly motivated, but they need to remember that it’s the trend over time that matters. Hopefully, we’ll continue to see numbers like this next week.

The winner Friday night was Judy Rush, who lost 4.2% of her body weight and 8.0 lbs. 2nd place went to Whitney Stepp, who lost 3.8% of her body weight and an amazing 9.4 lbs. In 3rd place, was Sherry Carr, who lost 3.6% of her body weight and 8.0 lbs. Donnie Bartos took 4th place, losing 3.4% of his body weight and 7.0 lbs, and Scot Grimes finished in 5th place, losing 3.3% of his body weight and 9.0 lbs.

Saturday morning Jennifer Bowers and Dale Rasmussen tied for 1st place, losing 2.2% of their body weight. Jen lost 4.6 lbs and Dale lost 5.8 lbs. 3rd place went to Shelly Harper, who lost 2.1% of her body weight and 4.4 lbs. Cheri Dosch placed 4th, losing 1.9% of her body weight and 4.4 lbs. Kim Grimes finished 5th, losing 1.8% of her body weight and 4.2 lbs.

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU... OR WILL IT BE? PART THREE

2010-01-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

This makes the second week of the New Year. So have you gotten started? Have you put your plans in motion yet? It’s amazing how quickly time passes. If you wait much longer, January will have come and gone.

We’ve seen the usual increase in people making those New Year’s resolutions. It’s always exciting to help people get started on a new health and wellness program. My advice to them is to spend the first week just getting moving.

If they can start creating some good habits and get in all their workouts, they’ll get off to a great start. One example is our local sportswriter and coach, and Biggest Loser participant, Scott Dosch, who’s posted a loss of 9.0 lbs in his first week, and that’s before we even started!

That’s the same goal we have for the 28 people who started Biggest Loser “10” which met for the first time Friday night. Another 22 more started Biggest Loser “11” which just met Saturday morning. All 50 are embarking on a 12 week program designed to get them moving the first week.

They did their initial weigh-in, and a couple fitness tests. First they did as many pushups as they could in a minute, and then they did a minute’s worth of sit-ups. Since it’s too cold to go outside and do a group run, they have to do their one mile walk/run on their own, and report their time. We’ll compare these scores with a post-test they’ll take on the last day, twelve weeks from now.

Next week, we’ll focus on the amount of food they eat—the quantity. Surprisingly, they’ll find that most women don’t eat enough. Not so surprisingly, they’ll learn that most men are eating too much. So, we’ll have everyone check it out with a daily calorie log, and then get their daily target dialed in.

In week three, we’ll focus on the quality of food—how to eat right. Once you’re eating the right amount of food, it’s time to make sure you’re getting the right things in your body to help you have quick energy, long-lasting fuels, lots of vitamins and minerals, and enough protein to build up your muscles and bones.

In week four, we look at other things, like water consumption, and vitamin and Omega 3 & 6 supplements. We’ll also talk about how protein shakes can help you lose fat while building muscle.

During the first month, they’ll be hitting the machine weight circuit three days a week, and using the cardio machines on the other days. They’re also going to try to work in an extra one mile walk every morning to help get things started. That extra 20 minutes is often the difference between losing one and two pounds a week.

Along the way, we’ll be getting together for weekly weigh-ins and workouts where I teach them new things designed to add intensity to their training. Then, when they’re doing their own workouts, they can sprinkle some of those things in, to keep it interesting.

The weekly weigh-in helps things out, too. Accountability is an important part of achieving any goal. In fact, the first thing I always do when I’m trying to accomplish something is tell someone what I want to do. Then I tell them when I start. That way, they’ll be curious to see how it’s going, and that means they’ll keep the pressure on me to perform.

Telling people helps ensure you’ll get it done. If you know you have to weigh in at the end of the week and tell someone else (in this case, they’re telling all 50 people), you’ll take it seriously. That gives you additional incentive to do what you have to do.

These things that we’re going to be doing with the Biggest Losers can be done by anyone, including you. It’s an effective strategy that’s been proven time and time again, so why not make believe that you’re in the process too? You can follow along and compete with them even if you’re doing your own thing.

Or, you can do exactly what they do. I’ll be writing about it each week, so you’ll know what’s been going on. Just make sure you’re accountable with someone, and have a weekly weigh-in there on your own.

It’s not hard to learn how to eat right and exercise smart. It is hard to keep doing it on a daily basis, until you make some serious lifestyle changes. Once they become habits, things get a little better.

Remember, half the people will quit before the end of 12 weeks. Which half are you going to be in? Do you have the ability to put yourself first at least once a day? Do you have the discipline to keep going, even when it isn’t easy? Can you stick with it until you get what you want?

Your mental toughness is more important than how you’re doing physically. We can always get the physical thing whipped into shape. What matters more, is how you think about things. If you think you’re going to succeed you probably will. If you think you’re going to quit, you’ll probably do that.

You’ve got to make a decision that no matter what, you’re going to stick. Whatever happens, you’re moving on. You’re going to keep going until you achieve your goals. That’s what it takes.

So are you ready? 2010 can be one heck of a year for you. Just get started, and don’t quit until you get what you want. A new year can result in a new you. It’s up to you.

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU... OR WILL IT BE? PART TWO

2010-01-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

Well, 2010 is finally here. Before you look forward, it’s often a good thing to look back over the year and take a look at what’s happened. This is a time to give yourself props for things that you’ve accomplished. It’s also a time to be honest about the things that didn’t go quite so well.

Not that you’re going to beat yourself up about it—it’s just that you need to reflect a bit. Maybe you made some mistakes along the way. Perhaps there was something you meant to do, but it never quite got off the ground.

Exercise programs often fall into this category. People make a New Year’s Resolution. Maybe they even come in and join the gym, or a Biggest Loser program. But then, life intrudes, old habits are hard to break, and so on, and before you know it, they’ve fallen away.

It’s like that for lots of new things that people try. Experts say it takes 21 times to make a habit. That would be 21 workouts, or three weeks, if you’re going every day. If you were planning on going three times a week, then it would take seven weeks before it was really a habit.

That’s about right. I’ve said before that in every Biggest Loser program we do—regardless how or when we do it, just about half the people stop for one reason or another. We see the biggest fall-out right in the middle of the 12 week program—at the six or seven week mark.

It’s tough finding people with staying power. I think it’s partly because people expect big results in the shortest possible time. The television show doesn’t help with this, because the Biggest Losers on TV are losing 10, 14, even 20 pounds in a week!

But people forget that those guys and gals are living on a ranch designed to help them do one thing—lose weight. They get to work out 6-8 hours a day. They have exactly the right food around, and lots of help and coaching. No kids, no jobs, and no distractions.

Sound like your life? I didn’t think so. Back here in the real world, you’ve got to find a way to fit your workouts into a life that’s probably already pretty full, with lots of distractions. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to get to the gym for an hour, most days.

So we need a reality check when we’re watching those reality shows. Those are controlled environments with highly motivated people with few distractions, and that’s not really real.

Your life, on the other hand, is quite real, so how do you get there from here? How can you lose the weight and get in shape this year? What has to happen to make you successful?

The first thing you need to do is be realistic about your expectations. If you can give yourself a year, you can be totally transformed. I’ve not ever met anyone who couldn’t get to their ideal weight in a year, if they were totally committed to it—even right here in little Paris, IL. Give yourself the time to get it done right.

The second thing you need to do is recognize that you need some help. It can be done alone, but the odds aren’t in your favor. If you get with a buddy, or in a group that is like minded, all of a sudden it gets easier. If you can get in a program that has a track record of getting results like you want, you’ll be much better off. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

It’s like when horses pulled a stagecoach. It was always much easier to pull the wagon with a team of horses. Otherwise, they’d fatigue, and you wouldn’t get very far. But with that whole team pulling together, they could get farther, faster. Get with a team and get yourself some help.

The third thing you need to do is set a reasonable goal. If you have something to shoot for, even if you don’t quite hit it, you’ll get a lot farther than you would have otherwise. It’s funny, but people that tried to lose 50 pounds always get a little disappointed when they come in at 43 or 45 lbs. But the fact remains—they lost over 40 lbs! You’ve got to set a goal.

The next thing is just get started. I say this one a lot. It’s kind of a mantra of ours around here. There’s huge power in just getting started. You see, unless you never start, you can never get there. “A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.”

There’s a lot of momentum that kicks in, once you get started. It’s a physical law too. Remember Newton’s laws? “An object at rest will remain at rest (read couch potato) unless acted on by an outside force.” This applies to you getting started, too.

It takes the greatest amount of effort to go in and get signed up, and then show up for your first workout. There’s a lot to overcome. You have to deal with fear of the unknown, fear of failing—perhaps you’ve tried things before.

Figuring out how to fit it into your schedule is often difficult too. That’s why I believe in the 24 hour concept, so that excuse is negated. Once you can get started, you’re on your way. After that, everything gets a little easier—and even if the workouts get harder later, you’ll continue to gain momentum.

I tell people that when they get started, their bodies are really working against them. They’re not as strong, and often carrying quite a bit of extra weight, which makes everything harder.
Once they get started, their body responds to the exercise by getting stronger and gaining endurance, making their exercise easier. As they start dropping a few pounds, that helps too, because they don’t have to move quite as much weight around.

Then as their body gets even stronger, it becomes an ally in the fight, because it lets them do even more work, which helps them burn even more calories, losing even more weight. It truly becomes a cycle of success—but you’ve got to last long enough for that to happen.

That brings me to the last thing you need to keep that cycle of success going: Be Consistent in your Approach. Another way of putting it is that you’ve got to be disciplined enough to keep doing it, even when you don’t feel like it or when things go wrong. You could also say you’re making a radical lifestyle change. This is critical.

I see it all the time. People will lose the weight, and then quit doing what they were doing, and gain most of it back. You have to make eating right and exercising smart part of your daily lifestyle for results to be permanent. But if you do, they’ll be spectacular.

We’re in the final week for registration for Biggest Loser “10” and “11.” One will run on Friday nights at 6:30 pm, and Saturday mornings at 10:00 am. When we did them only on Friday nights, people would tell me “if you only did it on Saturdays”… and when we did it on Saturday mornings, people would tell me “If we could just do it on Friday nights.”

Now, it’s up to you. Pick one, and get signed up before Friday. It’s $50 to participate. This train’s heading into 2010…with or without you. It might just be your chance to find a new you, this New Year!

A NEW YEAR, A NEW YOU... OR WILL IT BE?

2009-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

What have you done with your time this past year? Have you accomplished all that you wanted? Did you do everything that you’d planned to do? How about your body? Did you get into shape, or out of shape?

Some remarkable things have happened here over the last year. Several people ran full marathons (26.2 miles) for the first time. Several more ran their first half marathon (13.1 miles). We took a group to Allerton Park for a 5.5 mile trail run through the woods.

A whole bunch of people went to several different 5 K runs (3.1 miles), and quite a few participated in the C.A.M.A. Park to Park bike rally and the Mill Creek Duathlon (2 mile run, 20 mile bike ride, 2 mile run). I also know of at least two others that did triathlons.

Lots of people started working out this last year, getting their cardio in and hitting the weights, whether it was with the machines, or with free-weights. Unfortunately, not everyone kept up with their workouts—but more on that later.

We put four more Biggest Loser programs in the books. A year ago this January, Biggest Loser “6” started with 58 people. The winner was Bill Lewis, who lost 62.0 lbs at the age of 68. Second place went to Randy Weir, 54, who lost 35 lbs. Gary Goodman, 62, lost 31.5 lbs for third place. Brian Bradley, 42, took fourth by losing 30.9 lbs at the age of 42, and John Sanchez, 41, came in fifth losing 31.4 lbs.

39 people started Biggest Loser “7” in the spring. The winner was Vince Porter, age 39, who lost 51.4 lbs. Second place went to Brittany Cline, age 24, who lost 27.2 lbs. Third place went to John Crow, 41, who lost 36.4 lbs.

Last summer, 24 people started Biggest Loser “8.” Tammi Hewitt, 42, won with 28.2 lbs. Shawn Bowers, 36, won 2nd place, losing 37.9 lbs. Vicki Riggen, 59, won 3rd place, losing 11.0 lbs.

After starting with 28 people, Biggest Loser “9” ended last week with a clean sweep by the women: Michelle Nugent, 30, won with 33.0 lbs. 2nd place went to Karen Brown, 50, who lost 42.8 lbs, becoming the highest losing lady here ever, in just 12 weeks. Nita Comstock, 53, lost 17.6 lbs, ending in 3rd place.

As you can see, they came in all shapes and sizes, and all ages too, and it wasn’t just the guys winning—the women won too. What you don’t often hear about is that really, everyone that finished, won.

My goal with Biggest Losers isn’t just helping people lose weight, although that’s what they do. My real goal is to turn couch potatoes into people that make fitness a lifestyle. They’ve learned how to work out and manage their eating and as a result, they look and feel better.

Not everyone makes it, because life intrudes. But when it does, something else suffers. Usually it’s their health, primarily because they start gaining their weight back. But it’s much easier to maintain your weight than it is to lose it in the first place.

Still, not everyone gets there. In every case, we finished with about half the people we started with. This held true, not just in the Biggest Losers, but also in the gym. It’s a real shame when someone quits because it’s really unlikely that they’ll get what they want.

What makes me sad, is when someone has finally decided they really need to do it, gotten up the courage to start, but then just can’t keep it going. They let little things like soreness, small injuries, and tight schedules keep them from going all the way.

It takes about a year to completely turn things around, but sometimes you just have to be patient. You need to be disciplined and keep working toward your goal. Plus, if you do something long enough, it will become a habit. That’s how you get what you want.

So what are you going to do this year? If you’re already in shape, how are you going to stay there? Quite a few of us are already thinking about the Illini marathon or half marathon on May 1st, or the Indy Mini, the week after.

Setting a goal like that is guaranteed to keep you training—and that keeps you thin. Now I know those goals might not be for everyone, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you set your own goals.

I have a friend who lost 100 lbs and then got lazy and gained 85 of them back. He’s been in the gym for the last two weeks and lost 10 lbs each week. He’s not doing Biggest Loser, because he already knows what to do. But he’s committed to losing the weight again, and this time, he’s determined to keep the weight off.

Another gal I’ve been helping has also just gotten started. She lost over 6.0 lbs the first week, and around 3.0 lbs the second. She’s pretty excited about what the next year has in store for her. She’s also committed to joining our next Biggest Loser group because she wants the extra help and accountability.

To make it even easier for people, we’re going to do two community wide Biggest Losers—one on Friday nights, and another on Saturday mornings. They’ll run concurrently and people will need to pick the one they weigh-in for. In a pinch, they can use the other one as an alternative, in case they have to miss.

We might even have some healthy competition between the two groups, which just might help them lose even more weight. Registration is underway, and the cost is $50 for the 12 week program. We start Friday, January 8th, or Saturday, January 9th. You don’t need to be a member to participate, but you should have a membership somewhere, or at least have enough stuff at home that you can get your workouts in.

So, whether you join Biggest Loser “10” or “11,” the gym, YMCA, Curves, or some other program, or you’re just planning to try it at home, I want to encourage you to get started doing something. Next week we’ll talk about setting goals and getting what you want. For now, I want to leave you with a couple questions.

What are you going to do this next year? Remember, the year is going to fly by, no matter what you do, so you might as well do something with it. This can be the year you get your body back! Will 2010 bring a new you?

BIGGEST LOSER "9" WEEK TWELVE "FINAL RESULTS"

2009-12-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

This week marked the 12th and final week of Biggest Loser “9.” It was a pretty small group this time, and we started with 28, while 11 made the final weigh-in. Two didn’t make it to the weigh-in that I think are still involved, so that leaves us with 13 out of the original 28, so we lost just over half the people.

On the first day, I told them the same thing I tell every group: “Before this is over, half of you are going to quit. Which group are you going to be in? The half that quits or the half that sticks it out?” No one ever starts, thinking they’re going to be a quitter, but things happen, life intrudes, and it becomes easy to slip away.

If fitness hasn’t become a habit, a daily lifestyle, then it’s easy to slip back into the old ways of doing something. That’s why it’s critical to try to stick it out for at least 12 weeks. After that, if you’re still going, you’ve probably turned the corner and made it a lifestyle change.

That’s why once you start toward a goal the most important thing you can do afterward is simply choosing to continue. Or put another way, not stopping. Every day, you make a decision to keep going. That’s what will make the difference between making just another New Year’s resolution and getting a new life.

At the start of the twelve weeks, everyone walked or ran a mile for time, did pushups for a minute, and also did sit-ups for a minute. At the final workout, we had them do all three tests again. While not everyone had the chance to take the post-test, those that did showed nice improvements in all three areas.

For the twelve and final week, our winner was Cindy Irish, who lost 1.7% of her body weight and 2.8 lbs. Jennifer Bowers came in second, losing 1.6% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. Third place was a tie between Rob Irish and Michelle Nugent who both lost 1.4% of their body weight. Rob lost 2.4 lbs and Michelle lost 1.8 lbs.

Since Rob wasn’t present at the final weigh-in, Michelle received the $15 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. At the start of the twelve weeks, State Farm provided pedometers to all the participants, and Terry Elston provided Walmart gift cards as prizes each week to all the weekly winners. Thanks Terry!

For Biggest Loser “9,” Michelle Nugent was the overall winner, losing 20.1% of her body weight and 33.0 lbs. Her original goal was to lose 35-40 lbs, and she got very close to it. Now she’s just seven lbs away from her original goal. Then she’ll need to slip into maintenance mode.

Significant weight loss means working out every day, some days twice a day. Once you’re where you want to be, it’s easier to maintain it. You just need to dial in your calories and can drop back to working out four to five days a week. If you feel you’re slipping backward, you can always adjust your calories a little, and add in a workout.

Michelle was also the only one to lose weight every week. Some weeks it was more than others, but that showed a very consistent approach. Some weeks she won, but in the weeks she didn’t, she was still up there in 3rd, 4th or 5th place. That accounts for her final result of losing 33.0 lbs.

Second place overall went to Karen Brown, who lost 15.4% of her body weight and an amazing 42.8 lbs. This gave her the distinction of being our first woman to lose more than 40 lbs in 12 weeks, and also the most weight overall. Previously, Erica Hollis had the record, losing 37.0 lbs in BL “5.” Karen has just raised the bar substantially. But she’s not done yet.

Karen is planning on continuing her routine in the next Biggest Loser and has set a new goal. That’s important. Now she knows what to do, and working with another group will help keep her motivated and accountable. I think it will also let her be an inspiration to others.

Third place overall went to Nita Comstock, who lost 11.1% of her body weight and 17.6 lbs. Nita learned that she likes running, and took 4 minutes off her 1 mile walk/run time. Fourth place overall went to Rob Irish, who lost 10.5% of his body weight and 19.4 lbs. Fifth place went to Tammi Hewitt, who won the last Biggest Loser. This time, she lost 7.4 % of her body weight and another 10.4 lbs.

Sixth place went to Renea Mullins, who lost 7.3% of her body weight and 20.4 lbs. She also took about 4 minutes off her 1 mile walk/run. Seventh place was a tie between Cindy Irish and Cathy Kemper, who both lost 5.3% of their body weight. Cindy lost 9.2 lbs and Cathy lost 10.0 lbs. Vicki Riggen ended with 6.2 lbs, and Jennifer Bowers finished with 5.8 lbs.

Our holiday strategy is pretty simple. Don’t gain any weight! If you watch what you eat and get most of your workouts in, it’s pretty easy to maintain your weight, even with all the extra temptations around. Just enjoy things in moderation. Remember, Vicki lost weight in BL “8” on a cruise ship!

Once the holidays are over, we’ll get back in the swing of things with Biggest Loser “10” and “11.” Yep, we’re going to try to run two different ones at the same time. One group will meet on Friday nights from 6:30-7:30, and the other will meet Saturday mornings from 10:00-11:00.

We might even have them compete against each other! You need to come in and reserve your space. The cost is still just $50 to participate, and you don’t have to be a member here, although you really need to be a member somewhere so you can get your workouts in. You’ve got to be working out.

Don’t miss this chance to make 2010 the year you get your body back! The year will come and go before you know it. Have a Merry Christmas and I’ll see you next week!

BIGGEST LOSER "9" WEEK ELEVEN "KICKBOXING"

2009-12-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

This week the group did a kickboxing workout. I like to throw one of those in near the end, so each group can give it a try. You recall they walked/ran a 5K a couple of weeks ago, so a kickboxing workout gave them a taste of something different yet again.

The way I run my kickboxing classes is a little different. As a martial arts instructor, I’m interested in giving them some very practical, real world skills, should they ever need to use them.

As a result, even though I’m a fitness guy, I’ve never been interested in teaching a fitness kickboxing class, where the moves look almost like dance. I figure they can do aerobics.

If we’re going to be doing some kickboxing, we’re going to be hitting things, like targets and the heavy bag. We’re going to be doing drills where they learn how to duck and slip punches, and fire back strong counters. It will be high intensity, and because of that, it will also turn out to be awesome exercise.

The first step was to teach them how to make a proper fist, and then how to hold their hands and arms up in front of them. They also learned how to cover their head with their hands and arms, when someone’s trying to hit them with pads. Done properly, it’s a pretty good shield.

After that, they learned the jab and right cross, doing partner drills on the target pads. Then they learned how to bob and weave, following the two punches. Finally, they put it all together. At that point, their coordination was challenged a bit, but after a few minutes, things smoothed out pretty well.

Then, we added the knee strike. A devastating blow (especially to a guy), it follows the jab and right cross. Done in a sequence, it’s very hard to defend. By then, the group was looking pretty sharp, and putting a lot of power into their techniques.

Finally, they went to the heavy bags and learned how to do an angle kick, based on the martial art of Muay Thai—an extremely effective form of kickboxing. Also used by law enforcement to take down resisting offenders, the kick targets the outside of the thigh, about six inches about the knee.

The targeted area is called the common peroneal, and once an assailant has been struck there, it’s very difficult to stand, much less walk or run after their intended victim. That gives the defender time to get away.

The whole combination goes as follows: Left Jab, Right Cross, Right Knee Strike (s), and finally, after reloading your leg, a Right Low Kick to the leg. Done quickly, the sequence is very reliable, and almost impossible to stop.

After just 45 minutes of practice, the group not only was looking sharp, but they were also sweating, laughing, and having fun. As an added bonus, the concepts were something they can take with them and use, if the need should ever arise.

That’s why I like teaching a straight kickboxing class at least once a week (Monday nights), and also work it in to our regular group training classes on Friday nights. Kickboxing empowers the participant. Plus the rigorous workout can burn as many as 500-750 calories an hour, depending on how hard you’re working.

Finally, the sheer fun of hitting things like handheld targets and the heavy bag, are a great release from stress and the worries of the day. Doing drills with a partner develops timing and a sense of distance, as well as coordination.

While they didn’t wear gloves in this workout, in the regular class, they’re required to get some real boxing gloves. Not only do they soften the blow, should someone get hit by mistake, instead of the targets they were holding (almost never happens), but they also protect the wearers hands and wrists from the impact on the bags.

All in all, the group really seemed to enjoy the workout. As predicted, they also had a good time hitting things—everyone does!

This week’s winner was Karen Brown, who proved that sometimes, results lag behind the workouts. A little disappointed last week, after doing a last chance 10 mile walk/run workout, this week the numbers came in big time. She lost 2.7% of her body weight, and a whopping 6.6 lbs!

That tells you that sometimes, you just need to cut yourself some slack. Do the work, and it will all work out in the end. Karen got a $15 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance for all of her hard work this and last week, including two more 7 mile walk/run sessions. Karen is now down exactly 40.0 lbs in just eleven weeks—right up there with the top gals from previous BL sessions.

Second place went to Michelle Nugent, who lost 1.9% of her body weight, and 2.6 lbs. She was also a little frustrated having to miss a few workouts, and with slight midweek gains, two weeks in a row.

Each time, though, just like with Karen, it worked out because she stayed focused and followed through the rest of the week. Michelle is now down 31.2 lbs and is quickly closing in on her goal weight.

Third place was a tie between Nita Comstock and Renea Mullins, who both lost 1.4% of their body weight. Nita lost 2.0 lbs and Renea lost 3.6 lbs. Nita’s been in the top three pretty much the whole session, and it looks like Renea has fallen in love with kickboxing!

Don’t forget about Biggest Loser “10 and 11” both of which will run concurrently—one on Friday nights, and the other on Saturday mornings, provided we get enough people. They’ll start on January 8th and 9th and we’ll help you get your New Year resolutions started off right!