Remember the first time you first walked into the gym?  How did those first few moments feel?  It was either a wondrous and fascinating experience or else it was like walking into a torture chamber filled with a variety of complex machinery, unfamiliar people who were all in far better shape than you and kept staring at you as if you were growing a second head out of your shoulder.  Sound familiar?  This is a case of gym paranoia and it’s more common than you might think.

Overcoming Scary Gym Paranoia

If you’ve struggled with losing weight your whole life, were never very athletic or involved in sports and have never participated in any physical activity short of taking the stairs at work because the elevator went out again, then the latter scenario probably fits.

In looking around the typical gym environment, you have the “meatheads” hoisting up heavy weights in the squat rack and slamming weights down on the floor.  The “fluffy bunnies” are powering their way through a variety of cardio machines, hardly breaking a sweat and yet they still look fabulous, and then you have the regulars that walk around soaking you in with their eyeballs inherently telling you that you don’t belong.  Or at least so it seems.

The gym can be a very intimidating and frustrating experience for many individuals.  Especially those whom it would benefit the most. So how can you get past the emotional trauma associated with the average person entering into the gym for the first time?

Solutions to Gym Paranoia: Five Tips to Help you choose a gym

1. Choosing a good gym

Choose a gym membership that fits your needs is also going to be a big part of the process. Bigger commercial gyms are generally not going to be ideal for the average gym goer who has little experience or low self-esteem. Most gyms are setup so newer members get an orientation or are shuttled right into a personal training program or at least have an orientation setup; however, this often does not ease a members fears when they come in by themselves.

One should definitely seek a gym that is open and caring towards new members.  One that has an orientation process or offers at least an assessment for newer members to get them started.  You can often tell the quality of the gym simply by the front desk staff, as these are the first people to greet you as you walk in the door.  If they are smiling and learn your name you can tell this is a good gym.

2. Start with What You Know

If you’re a newbie, don’t be intimidated, as everyone has to start somewhere. Even the loudest and most aggressive gym goers had to start somewhere. So just start with what you know how to do. Almost everyone has probably seen a treadmill before and should be able to walk. This is an easy way to start any fitness program. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the gym you can probably start a walking program without serious effort and at the same time you can get to know the gym, the members and the staff at the same time.  The most important thing is to get started and get comfortable with your new environment.

They’ll be time enough to get into those uncomfortable resistance training programs later.  The most important part is to get into the habit of going to the gym and doing something.  Even if it’s tying your shoes and sauntering around the gym.

3. Get Started in a Class

Gyms that have group classes are an excellent way to break into fitness without the frustration of going at it alone. If you find one that offers a descent class that fits your schedule and your budget this can be the easiest way to get started in fitness with some social support built into the program. Trust me, some of the classes are packed with people and the regulars often have their own spots on the floor.  It’s very common to develop close ties with these people.

More people find that hard exercise is easier with a large group of people also enduring the suck than going at it by themselves.

4. Find a Buddy

It sounds like a no brainer, but if you have a friend or partner that is willing to go with you to the gym it’ll be that much easier. Social participation is a big thing in the gym environment and it’s even easier if you’re starting off at about the same fitness level.

The only downside to this is the level of commitment of your partner and scheduling times.  Ensure when you choose a partner, choose wisely as you won’t have much success if you and your partner are always at ends with scheduling or if you both have low motivation.  Best case scenario choose someone whom is slightly better than you so that they can push you to a higher level.

5. Hire A Trainer

One of the biggest recommendations to help ensure your success is to simply hire a coach who knows what they’re doing. This can avoid spending a lot of time being frustrated and alone in the gym, plus it ensures you’re going to be exercising safely.  Hiring the right coach can be frustrating at times, but within the first session with a trainer you can generally decide if this is the right coach for you. Trainers are a dime a dozen, but the biggest bonus to having a trainer is simply to help keep you motivated and accountable to someone.  Plus they can help reassure your fears of exercising.  

No matter how intimidating the gym environment can be the end state is to get you into shape and into a better quality of life. If you spend a little time and get situated in your new environment you’ll find that you’ll not only move better, feel better and enhance your overall body but you may even make some new friends in the process. Don’t be afraid of the gym, just find a good one!

Jess Howland

The Top 4 Women Strength Training Fallacies

This much I know is true: I’ve been strength training for over fifteen years now and helped hundreds of people get in great shape, the majority of those trainees being women. The majority of them can now rock out pull-ups, pull heavy weight off the floor, and squat more than most guys I know. They eat plenty of protein, healthy fats and crush the occasional pizza or dark chocolate bar without feeling like they need purge or go out for a ten-mile run afterwards.

This much is also true: They’re still feminine. They’re still lean. And their muscles aren’t super hooooge and when fully dressed, no one has ever never told them “you’re too bulky, ewww gross”.

There are many myths regarding females and strength training – too many to count. Yet despite the growing number of women out there slowly converting to lovers of iron and ditching their cardio bunny ways, there are still thousands more women who still believe that strength training is for men only, and that no proper lady would touch anything more than a pretty pink dumbbell.

It hard to blame them though, since the media promotes celebrity trainers touting their 3 lb dumbbell workouts and elliptical fat blasts lasting five hours daily for the optimal level of fat burning and development of those long, lean muscles everyone craves. I mean a set of heavy squats will make your quads explode overnight, right? Celebrities themselves rave about these special fitness methods (since they sell magazines, supplements and their brands) – and we believe them, of course.

Jennifer Aniston is very attractive after all.  She can’t be wrong!

Today, we will debunk a lot of these myths concerning strength training for women and help you perceive how strength training is more important than any amount of long distance cardio.

Fallacy #1: Heavy Weights make you look like a man.

Ah, this is the top of all strength training fallacies. And also the most obstinate one that will unfortunately never be completely eradicated.

Women are women simply because they don’t have the right amount of testosterone to help build up muscle mass effectively. In fact women have only about 5% of the biological amount of testosterone that makes us guys, well guys. Testosterone as most of you should know is the predominant male hormone that is responsible for muscle gain and fat loss. The men have about twenty times more testosterone than any woman, which enables men to get much larger muscles.

But, still there are claims stating, when I lifted heavy weights before, I got thicker and fatter! The culprit is very likely due to poor nutrition factors such as increased caloric consumption that came along with the newer high intensity exercise. The culprit isn’t that weight training made you bigger, it’s that you weren’t losing any fat. This is the “big and bulky” look that gives you a ‘coating’ of fat over the muscle that is often mistaken for muscle mass gains. This chases man women away from heavy weight training.

Can you honestly tell me, when you began lifting weights, your caloric consumption was still at a deficit or promoting fat loss?

If you can dial in your nutrition while simultaneously lifting hard in the gym, what will result is a leaner, tighter, stronger version of your former self. 

Fallacy #2: Women can’t do pull-ups.

The word “can’t” implies that all females, regardless of how hard they try, are physically incapable of performing a single pull-up. But while it’s true that women tend to have less upper body strength relative to that of males, that doesn’t mean that all is lost. So what do you do when you have a weakness? You work on it to turn that weakness into a strength.

Simply put, the solution to weak(er) upper body strength is to improve it. In the gym, upper body pulling movements will help: think of horizontal pulling motions like (barbell rows, cable rows, inverted rows) as well as pullup variations (band-assisted pullups, negatives and TRX pulls). Additionally, you will need to work on your grip strength as the forearms tend to be a weak link in a lot of pulling motions for women. Try some farmer walks with kettlebells to help increase your grip strength and workout your way up to heavy deadlifts without straps.

And yet again, your nutrition will be a focal point here to, because the lighter your are the easier pull-ups will be (for anyone) as a strength to weight ratio will only go so far. I mean come on, we’ve all seen the 105lb little Asian gymnast knocking out single arm pull-ups like they have a zero gravity suit on. Weight counts extra in bodyweight moves.

Pretty soon, you’ll be banging out not just one rep, but possibly even double-digit reps just like my adopted mom, Tracie Manning. She’s a beast and she’s over forty, although she doesn’t look it.

Fallacy #3: When you work out, fat transforms into muscle.

Hmmm, yeah not exactly.

When you exercise and resistance train your body becomes stressed and you burn calories, while performing those exercises. Depending on the type of exercises that you’re doing your muscles will respond by becoming stronger, more efficient and eventually they may even gain some size.

Body fat however doesn’t turn into muscle, it simply fuels the type of activity you do. Look at body fat like a reserve tank on your car.  If you’re using more calories than your body has to burn in the “main fuel tank” you start tapping into your reserve tank. This happens especially with resistance training that tends to increase the amount of protein turnover and repair processes within the muscles. These processes all require energy, which if you’re not overfilling your “main fuel tank” all the time you’re going to whittle away at that reserve tank and thereby lose excess body fat.

So while it may seem as though fat can turn directly into muscle when you begin training, the truth is likely more along the lines of, you’re losing bodyfat, and adding some muscle mass, which is commonly referred to toning. 

Fallacy #4: To lose fat, you need to crank up the cardio.

Actually, doing more cardio is just a way to get really good at doing cardio. Steady state cardio actually burns fewer overall calories than you might believe and studies have demonstrated that performing long duration cardio makes the body so efficient that it actually burns less overall calories than when you started.

Take this example, you’re a runner and you typically run 5 miles every other day. When you started this program it was very intense and you were sore for almost a week after you started it. In fact you may have barely made the five miles without stopping.  Again, not a smart exercise choice, but bear with me.

As you’re body adapted to running those 5 miles, it became increasingly more efficient at running, to the point where you could run it in your sleep if you wanted to.  You’ve adapted to running 5 miles and so therefore your body doesn’t have to spend the extra energy to recover. Your muscles, heart and lungs have improved and adapted to become a better 5 mile runner. So what needs to change in order to burn more calories?

Well, you could run faster. You could run longer. You could run every day. Those would help overcome your obstacle for the time being. But what happens once you’ve adapted to those modifications? Remember the body needs to be constantly stimulated with increased demands in order to improve. Cardiovascular training is similar in that the body must always be challenged in order to improve to keep on burning the same amount of calories. Just keep in mind you can only run for so long before breaking down more than you can recover from as well. This is why cardio is not the best way to burn fat.

Rather than the long, slow and steady cardio, try doing intervals or hybrid-weight lifting workouts. These workouts continually challenge the body to perform at higher and higher levels, while keeping your body adapting and burning the maximal amount of calories possible. And the best part, you can do it in half to a quarter of the time it takes to run the distance.

Long distance endurance sports are not inherently bad, it just depends on what you want. Shoot for a good mix of long distance, steady pace exercises 1-2 times a week and then fine tune the rest with 2-5 days of resistance training and 2-3 days of intervals to keep burning the most amount of fat.

Where do we go from here?

If you’ve made it this far you can definitely see that women can lift heavy weights, should a nutritious diet of protein, healthy fats and fibrous vegetables, and perform some serious exercise with great success. And, as long as they can dial in their nutrition, they can absolutely achieve a strong, lean and feminine look without beefing up.

-CPT SMASH

Do you know what a great year this is going to be and why it’s going to rock? Because you’re committed.  You’re determined, focused, motivated and above all else you have a plan to burn that body fat and keep it off. For good this time! Well that’s awesome and you know what is going to help you do that… These 3 exercises to slay fat for good are very seldom used nowadays…and for some these will make all the difference in the world.

Exercises to Slay Fat for Good

These exercises are the Push Away, Stirring the Pot and the Press to Stand. Now let’s get started shall we!

The Push Away

This one is very simple to do. You don’t even need any special equipment other than your dining room chair and table.

The setup:  You’re going to sit down with one plate of assorted vegetables, meats, maybe a few carbs if necessary and some water, coffee or tea.

The exercise:  You’re going to eat this one plate and then you’re going to push yourself right out of that chair.

The finish:  Yep, that’s right easy as pie, but not as tasty. The push away from the table is one of the best moves you can make in as far as fat loss goes. Stopping yourself from eating too much may be difficult, but it’s often those tasty desserts, extra portions and servings that you intake during the day that’s ruining your fat loss efforts.

Stir The Pot

Now this one isn’t as simple as the first exercise, but it’s just as important.

The setup:  You’re going to get a couple of key recipes that you know are totally awesome and good for you. You’ll have to go shopping to make sure you have a few of the key ingredients. They are guaranteed tasty and awesome for losing body fat.

The exercise:  Now you’re going to get busy stirring that pot. Get yourself cooking your own meals.  I know it’s a hassle and not as effective as going to McDonalds or wherever your favourite fast food restaurant is located, but it’s guaranteed to help you lose weight. If you know what’s in your food you’ll at least be sure to make sure it’s good quality and tastes great.

The finish:  Cooking for yourself is not only rewarding, but it helps burn extra calories and makes your life so much more worth living. You get to accomplish something daily for both you and your family. Not only that but you’re going to be making healthier choices simply by choosing what you’re putting in your dishes.

Press to Stand

Now as with all the others this isn’t really an exercise so to say, but it still counts for big dividends towards weight loss.

The setup:  This one is much easier than cooking and requires very little command and control. All you have to do is press the remote button to the OFF position on your television remote or laptop. Then assume a standing position and go do something else.

The exercise:  The doing something else can be pretty much anything. There are often way too much time spend lying around and flittering here and there on the interwebs. It’s time for action and you can’t burn enough calories sitting around to do you much good.

The finish:  If you’re really after some great weight loss try using this unproductive time watching television or playing another game of Candy Crush and go do some hard physical exercise. Go for a bike ride, join a gym, lift some weights, take the dog for a walk, go outside and throw a ball for the kids.  Anything in which you’re moving more often than not is going to be a big help in terms of your weight loss goals.

There you have it. Three exercises that will not only help burn fat, but will overall lead to a better quality of life and health for the whole family. If you enjoyed this little humorous segment on exercise please feel free to share this post with your friends. As your Captain in health and fitness I salute you and wish you a very successful year!

-CPT SMASH

I have never been a devotee of New Year’s resolutions, but I am finding myself making one this year. I have to lose this baby weight. And by “baby weight” – I mean “lazy weight” in my case.

Before I had Mary, I think it would be accurate to say I was a gym rat, going to weight and spin classes, running, you name it – five to six days a week. While I was pregnant with her, I continued with prenatal yoga, but we had a pregnancy scare about mid-way, and I became scared to continue working out. And the weight piled on (full disclosure: I was also known to walk off on my lunch break at work in search of cupcakes).

However, just about six months after my daughter was born, I ran the 8K Perth Kilt Run with my sister-in-law. I had a goal and a partner keeping me motivated and on task, so I kept with my training and ran the race in a good time. I was also by then just 10 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. So I’d lost about 43 pounds!

I remember thinking to myself, “that wasn’t too bad”, I’ll take a bit of a break from working out now. And that break lasted about 1.5 years! And I am now 30 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I lost all of my progress.

So this year, I am making a resolution and making it public to keep me honest. I don’t care about having a six pack, but my two year old deserves a healthy and energetic mommy – and I haven’t been too energetic in awhile!

For those of you that have managed to maintain a work out routine, how do you organize yourselves? When I was training for the race, I was starting my workouts each night at 8pm after Mary fell asleep – but that’s not very sustainable for me as I get up at 5 am for work and the later night work outs keep me wired until nearly midnight.

There is a new fitness facility being built right near my house, with a swimming pool, women’s only gyms, squash courts and a running track. My old gym rat self is coming out of the woodwork as I salivate over their website and wait for opening day. But after a long day working outside the home, I feel bad about leaving Mary to go to the gym. This particular gym has a childcare facility, but part of my problem with ditching working out is that what time I have at home, I feel should be spent with her.

I’ve tried doing work out videos with her nearby, as friends have suggested, but Mary didn’t find the situation fun. And wasn’t afraid to tell me so.

So how should I try to fulfill my goal of getting back in shape? Should I get my husband to help entertain her while I use our home equipment? Or should I shell out the money (very against my nature) for the fancy new fitness centre?

How are you all approaching Mommy’s health and fitness?

And oh yeah, I am running this year’s Perth Kilt Run…come and cheer me on June 21st!

Got a fitness resolution this year? Check out these New Year resolution fitness tips and how to make them stick.

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays have come and gone. Another year has come and gone and this year like every year before you’ve set yourself a fitness resolution.

You’re either going to resolve to lose weight, get more organized, spend less and save more, quit smoking or stay fit and healthy. Whatever these top five New Year’s Resolutions mean to you, most likely you’ve had one of them before.

Statistics never lie; however, the bad part about the statistics are that within one week of making a New Year’s Resolution about 25% will lose motivation. Out of 100 people that’s 75 people sticking to their goals.

By the second week of January, another 29% will fall of that list. Down to 53 people. Almost half the people who started out with a New Year’s Resolution will drop off in the first two weeks.

And within a month only about another 64% will come off that list. Down to 34 people.

After six months only 12 people out of 100 will have kept their New Year’s Resolution. So what’s so special about these 12 people?

Nothing Special, Sorry

There’s nothing different between these people that makes them stick to their New Year’s Resolution, except maybe their perceptions. They’re not any more special or gifted than you are.

The people that are more likely to stick with their goals have a better plan for success. And with a little help, you’ll be able to keep your New Year’s Resolution too!

The Trick to Keeping Your Resolution

So setting goals is all about making it personal. If a goal isn’t personal it doesn’t mean anything to you. You have to become emotionally attached with your goal, so regardless of whether it’s fitting into those jeans you wore when you were 22 or saving enough money for a vacation this upcoming year, you must think about what that’s going to mean to you. Is it going to be something you’re truly devoted to or is it just a whim? Scale it from 1 (I’m not overly concerned) to 10 (I want to be there right now).

Now go to the mirror right now and think about your resolution. If you scored a 7-10 on the scale of “I want this for me,” then ask yourself that big question—WHY? Alright, go ahead…go to the mirror already. If you score below a 5 then ask yourself, do you really want to even start this resolution?

Being Better

Oh good, your back. How do you feel? I know you have it in your head right now. Are you ready to commit?

If you can’t be honest with yourself, you’ll never make it in any resolution, so you might as well get it out of the way right now.

Now if you could look yourself in the face and tell yourself that you can accomplish your goals. Then it’s time to get started.

Write Down Your Resolution

Get out a pen and paper and write down your goal (resolution). Make it personal. Why do you want accomplish this goal? How does it make you feel? How will you feel when you get there? You should have already done this in the mirror.

Write all those down.

Then, after you’ve gotten those written down, write down the steps you need to take to get there.

You’ve got to define your goal in order for you to reach it. You have to plan it out. Make short term goals to get to the big goal.

No one who just says they want to lose weight or get in shape actually does. You need a plan. A plan of action and reaction. Plan for shortfalls. Plan for the unexpected. Define every little detail. Everything that could stand in your way of achieving success, whether it’s the kids, the significant other, job, working out, nutrition, whatever you think is going to be a problem.

Make these into your short term goals with solutions to those problems. How will you deal with them?

Outline a clear path from you to your goal. How are you going to get there? What about the road blocks and challenges you will face? How do you beat those challenges?

Now Make it Pretty

Now take your list of ideas, format it nicely and make a couple copies. Put one everywhere you will see it throughout the day. In a notebook, a journal, on the fridge, on your bathroom mirror. Anywhere you will see your goals EVERYDAY! I always write mine on my mirror so I see it first thing in the morning. The fridge is a good place too!

Then after you’ve started down your path on the first week of January, mark off your short term goals as you accomplish them. This keeps you actively thinking about your goal and also gives you further motivation.

Pretty soon you’ll be on the right track and knocking down short term goals on your way to your big New Year’s Resolution.

Easy Right?

Don’t become a victim to your New Year’s Resolution! Picture the outcome and how you get there. Then write it down. Make sure it’s someplace where it reminds you of your goals. Whenever you start losing track fall back on your goal sheet to remind you of your goal. Look at the emotional attachment you have for these goals and how you’ll feel when you get there. Look forward to meeting those short term goals and crossing them off as you accomplish them.

Try not to worry about the little road blocks you may have in your life. Success is far from a straight line. Just hop back on the wagon and keep focus on the prize in the distance. After all, only you can determine whether you’re going to be one of the 12 people that actually accomplishes their New Year’s resolution.

Here’s to your success!

-CPT SMASH

Good afternoon Mom’s everywhere! Now I know what you’re thinking there’s no one piece of fitness equipment that’s ever really worked for you, but I will bring your attention to one of my favorite tools to help sculpt and tone those glutes, hips and thighs with just a couple simple moves.

You also want something in your workout that’s going to give you a great cardio workout, completely dominate your core and develop that one piece of your body that you really want to be tight and looking awesome! Enter the kettlebell for your glute training.

Now if you’ve read my previous article on kettlebells you should know that I think they’re a pretty big deal. I’m not talking about the plastic coated bells in various colors and convexed shapes. I’m talking about the cold, black iron handled pieces of cannonball awesome that you can find only at select locations. These babies are the real deal and they’re the ticket to you getting the booty, errr…I mean body that you so want.

The Kettlebell Booty

The reason kettlebells are so effective as a workout tool is that they incorporate the hips and fire the glutes with nearly every exercise performed. Even overhead work with a kettlebell will require one to fire the glutes and core to help assist with the lift. We can generally assume that the glutes will be activated to some degree either as a prime mover or assistant muscle group for kettlebell exercises.

One of the basic movements the kettlebell swing is a great developer for the glutes and hips. Additionally, this exercise proves to be a powerful cardiovascular workout as well. Check out this series of swings with some of Hostyle Conditionings heavy hitters Rachel and Andrew!

As you can see the hip maneuver of swinging the kettlebell upwards stimulates the glutes quite strongly.

If you’re curious on how to learn how to do kettlebell swings you’d better check out this video with Curd and Tobin the kettlebell experts.

Sneaky Exercises that Engage the Glutes

Some other kettlebell movements that help engage the glutes as well as incorporate a lot of hip extension are the kettlebell snatch and clean and press!

Now these two exercises are often thought of as just a shoulder exercise, but in fact they are a whole body exercise that stimulates a wide range of muscles and incorporates a great deal of overall body coordination and core strength.

These exercises involved a slightly less focused glute contraction, but the hip hinge motion in the transition phase of bringing the kettlebell to the rack position (where the kettlebell is tucked safely against the upper chest, cradled by the elbow) and into the overhead portion of the lift engages not only the glutes, but the obliques as well. Making it a great addition to anyone’s program.

Check out this little exercise demo of a conditioning exercise circuit where I’ve perform not only the kettlebell clean, but swings, single arm squats and the overhead press. This short little workout is highly effective at developing the legs as well as stimulating a lot of core activation and developing those pesky upper arm musculature.

So if you’re after that next level of conditioning and are trying to get your rear in gear so to say, check out some kettlebell routines to help progress in your training goals. Kettlebells may look menacing, but in reality they’re one of the best tools one can add into their overall fitness programming for overall development. They’re very quick and easy to perform once one learns the basics and you can get a heck of a workout nearly anywhere.

So get swinging ladies those kettlebells won’t lift themselves.

If you have any other questions regarding kettlebells feel free to leave me some love below!  Like what I have to say, please share this page.  Because sharing is awesome!

-CPT SMASH