Back Sculpting And Strengthening Exercises Beaufort Personal Trainer
My Friend Bari Lieberman over at SELF Magazine asks me to contribute to their blog post every so often. It is something that I love and I am honored to do. The last time I did a post for SELF Magazine it was focused on exercises that can help eliminate back pain or provide back pain relief. This is something we have been studying for years and have created a program called Back Pain Relief4Life that is specific for eliminating back pain with amazing results.
The videos below were created for SELF Magazine to be put in a blog post on sculpting the back. You can see the post here
They used the first 3 videos in the blog post and the 4th one was left out so I added it here as a bonus.
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.
Describe and Explain the EPOC. “EPOC stands for the Excess Postexercise Oxygen Consumption. This is the recovery period after cardiovascular exercise where there is elevated oxygen consumption. It can be described as the amount of oxygen consumed during recovery in excess of that which would have ordinarily been consumed at rest. Some factors that contribute to EPOC include the replenishment of CP and ATP, the conversion of lactate to pyruvate, and the resynthesis of glycogen. In addition, during this recovery period the increased oxygen demand is needed to help the body in adjusting the increased body temperature, heart rate and ventilation to a resting level, as well as the reoxygenation of hemoglobin (in the blood).“ from http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Exercise%20Phys/deficitepoc.html
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.
Dr. Smalheiser speaks about the effects of personal training as it pertains to heart health plus much more.
We have combined all these components into one personal training session:
Strength
Balance and Stability
Cardio
Flexibility and Mobility
Endurance
Each Beaufort personal training session might emphasize one component more than the other but it always includes one or the other.
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.
There are so many stretches to choose from when it comes to an after-workout cool down. We use this type of stretching at EarthFIT right after our group personal training sessions. They really are the best and most powerful stretches that you can do with relative ease for maximal effect. It also targets the muscle groups that tend to be tighter on most. So these stretches will benefit the general population.
A few things to remember with stretching:
Do static stretching (holding the stretch for longer than 12 seconds)only after you have warmed up. Stretching on cold muscles has no effect; some research has shown that it can have a negative effect, causing relaxation of the muscle, which is the last thing you want to do before a work out.
Do dynamic stretching (an example would be butt kicks while jogging) as part of your warm up. Or you can actually use some light kettle bell movements as a great warm up.
Stretching should be slightly uncomfortable
The info below is meant for static stretching after a work out like our group personal training sessions.
Stretching is just like working out to get the benefit it has to be done a few times a week with reps and sets to see progressive results
Hey, what’s going on, this is Ian Hart here, and today I am going to go over with you the top 10 stretches. Actually, there are a few more, but I’m going to go through each one and try to describe how to do it as you watch the video, and explain what the benefit is of each stretch.
1) So the first one is a hip flexor stretch and it’s going to be right foot forwardor back (is this left foot back?) and you can do it vice versa, the knees on the ground. You’re keeping your abs tight and you’re pushing your hips forward. And don’t arch your back too much, and you want to feel a stretch in your hips. So you’re pushing your hips forward to feel the hip flexors. Then a more advanced approach is to reach back and to grab your foot. And this will also stretch the specific muscle that crosses the hips and the knee, as well as your quads and your hip flexors. So this is a very, really beneficial stretch and it actually is one of the only stretches that can get certain muscles in your legs. Then from here, when you pull back, you want to just feel a good stretch. The stretch should be slightly uncomfortable, and that goes for all of the stretches that you see here. And this is similar to what we do after our training sessions at EarthFIT. So that’s stretch number one; the kneeling hip flexor stretch.
2) What I want you to do is grab a belt or a rope. And you’re going to keep your knees completely locked; you’re pulling one leg back, straight, and doing a hamstring stretch. You want to hold each stretch too, for about 20 seconds. I’m showing you a faster version in the video, so just keep that in mind.
3) And then you’re going to drop your leg to the right. Don’t let it hit the ground, still keeping your knee locked and stretching the inner thigh. From there, you hold that a minimum of 10 seconds, but 20 seconds is best;
4) Cross to the other side. And this will help with your hip again, another hip stretcher, but this is going to be the outside and it stretches your IT band, it goes across the hip and down the side of your leg. So from your hip to your knee you might feel it. This stretch will get sometimes down below the knee.
So this is stretch number two, three and four. So you have hamstring, inner thigh, which is adductors, and the abductors which is outer thigh.
5) The next one we have is a glute stretch. Cross your left leg over your right knee, pull your knee into your chest, and just feel your gluteus maximus in your butt stretching.
6) Then we have what we call the Chrysalis stretch. It’s like the butterfly’s formation, but you’re pulling your forehead towards your toes and you’re looking for a stretch in your lower back. A lot of people who have tight adductors, or tight inner thigh muscles, will feel a stretch there. If you do feel a stretch in your inner thigh, go ahead and push your feet forward, grab your toes again, and then pull yourself forward. Again, you want to hold for a minimum of 15 seconds roughly.
7) The Sit and Reach stretch. What I want you to do is keep your knees completely locked and your ankles as close together as possible (so legs together from thighs to feet). And then you’re going to reach for your toes, again keeping your knees completely locked – very important. You’re going to feel a stretch in your hamstrings, possibly in your calves. But eventually, if not now, in the future, we want you to feel your lower back stretching. Another important detail is you’re dropping your head towards your knees so you feel your whole spine lengthen. Don’t bounce. So literally, if you do this properly, you can feel it all the way from your feet to the top of your head. But we want to focus on the back as well, and just hold that for 20 seconds.
8) From there, we’re going to do the Child’s Pose. You’re kneeling, sitting back on your heels. You’re going to: (a) crawl as far forward as you can first; (b) crawl to the right and gently push your body to the left; and (c) then go to the other side. This one, you’re feeling a lat stretch along the side of your body. And you might feel all the way down to your hip.
9) Stretch number nine is going to be a quad stretch again – Standing Quad Stretch. Balance on one foot – if you need to, go ahead and hold on to something. Pull back, keeping your abs tight again and hold.
10) Finally, we have an Arm stretch. If you need to, make sure that you’re grabbing the strap that we used in stretches 2, 3 and 4 as tight as possible. And then open up your chest: take a deep breath in, so you really feel a good stretch into your breath, and you feel it down your arms as well.
Bonus stretch: a neck stretch to the side. Make sure you’re standing up nice and straight. And after that you can do a nice neck rotation to both sides just to loosen up all the muscles around the neck.
So, there you have it. This is Ian Hart at the EarthFIT Training Blog, and we’re in Beaufort (SC). We’re personal trainers in Beaufort. So if you have any comments or questions on the stretches, these are some stretches that I find the most beneficial right after training. They are great for a cool down. And then it helps with the recovery of the whole training process. So there you have it. This is Ian Hart at beaufortpersonaltraining.com, and earthfittraining.com. Go ahead and leave a comment and I will happily answer you. Thanks, bye!
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.
There is one challenge that I can assure you will melt fat off your hips, thighs and waist and build lean metabolism boosting muscle. That challenge is 1/4 of a mile of walking lunges. Do you think you have what it takes?
In hopes of inspiring you I interviewed Trisha who won our Walking Lunge-A-Thon last Saturday directly after an intense 45 minute training session at EarthFIT.
So you can understand the extent of what she did I am going to give you last Saturdays workout below (feel free to use this at home if you have the equipment and knowledge to execute it). This is the workout Trisha did right before she did 10 minutes of non stop walking lunges. See what drives Trisha in the video below.
Back and forth between 2 exercises o 60s each exercise o 3 times each set
o Rest (60-90s)
1. Squat => Press
2. Sprints
3. Forward & reverse lunge dumbbell in each hand (switch halfway through)
4. Spiderman Pushups on medicine balls (getting legs to 90 degrees – knees to elbows)
5. Walking lunges passing kettlebells through legs (same leg each time-switch halfway) 6. Rows on squat rack bar alternating legs each time
7. Kettle bell swings (heavy) 8. Underhand grip Heavy Lat pull-down in a squat position
THEN SHE DID 10 MINUTES OF WALKING LUNGES!!!
WARNING:Even if you are in good shape, you will be very sore
It’s Ian Hart here the video above will hopefully be inspiring to you because Tricia Gamble has been training here at Earthfit for a little over two years and did an amazing feat. First off, she’s completely transformed her body, but she’s probably in the best shape of anyone that trains at Earthfit and she has been dedicated and committed to getting to that level.
This past weekend what we did was a lunge-a-thon. A lunge-a-thon was a quarter mile of just straight lunging, nonstop. For anybody that is thinking, oh, that should be pretty easy. Before you even think about it, go out and try it, and then come back and leave a comment. In your mind, you probably think it’d be a lot easier than it is. Not only did Tricia do the lunge-a-thon, she did it after a 45 minute intensive training at Earthfit, so she did the training session, full training session, and then did about 10 minutes straight of lunging after that. It took about 10 minutes to do the quarter mile. Maybe a little less, maybe a little bit more. We actually didn’t time it exactly. It was more based on who won. Tricia did lunges to 90 degrees, perfect lunges, all the way through nonstop. She just didn’t stop once. This inspired me so I did a little video and hoped it would inspire you just to see that she came to Earthfit and was not in the greatest shape. She had been working out on her own, but we brought her to a level where she can just demolish mostly any athlete. I mean, I did the walking lunges myself, and I couldn’t catch up to her, and you can see that I have long legs as I show in the video, and they just gave up on me. I wasn’t able to catch up. She beat me probably by about 30, 40 lunges or so. So, I’m going to challenge you, if you have not done the walking lunges. I want you to just do as many lunges as you can, and then measure how long you did that for. If you can do a quarter mile, great. Some people just won’t be able to walk the next day if they do do a quarter mile of lunges, so just try to push yourself, do body weight training and see how many lunges you can do before you start to feel a deep burn, and then give yourself a break and then this can prepare you for doing something like a quarter mile of lunges. But I tell you, just two days after the lunge-a-thon, and my legs are still burning, and they’re still sore, along with everybody that did the lunge-a-thon. So if you’re looking for something to really blast your legs and give you an amazing workout, I also felt cardiovascular during this, then go ahead and try a quarter mile of walking lunges. So, this is Ian Hart. If you have any comments or questions, go ahead and leave it below. Thanks.
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.
“Hey, what’s going on, it’s Ian Hart. Today I’m going to take you through 10 body weight exercises that you can do pretty much anywhere. You can usually find someway to do these things just using the surrounding area. And these are some of my favorite exercises, some of them are pretty advanced too. But once you strengthen your body enough you can do them to a certain degree. We do them a lot of times in our personal training sessions. So we do them in training at EarthFIT in Beaufort SC.
1) The first two exercises are very similar so I am putting it under one exercise. It’s a pull-up — a regular pull-up — and that’s with your arms facing forward about shoulder width apart. You can change up the grip on how you want to do this going wide, close or neutral. Then I go into #2 a chin-up, which is your palms facing towards you. So if you see how I changed my grip and then I do a chin-up. A pull-up and a chin-up are some of my favorite exercises and they are one of the most demanding. It is a true test of upper body strength and there is a direct relationship between the amount of pull ups and vertical jump.
2) The second exercise is probably one of the toughest exercises that you can do, even tougher that a pull up. It’s called a muscle-up. And a muscle-up is when you grab onto the bar and you pull yourself all the way up over the bar. As you can see, I’m actually cheating a little bit because I’m using my feet. I’m not sure I would be able to use that bar to pull myself up completely. So there you go, that’s number two. And this one is very challenging. If you’re interested in doing that, you probably want to get some personal training on that movement. There’s a specific way to do it and a specific way to place your hands. And the bar that I’m using there is not conducive to doing a muscle-up.
3) Exercise number 3 is a rope row. So I’m rowing with the rope but I’m actually doing a more advanced movement where I’m pulling myself and catching the rope at the same time. So this is a more power and explosive movement involved in the row. A regular rope row would be a regression. And then I also do a downward movement where I let go and grab on, and that’s a little bit more advanced as well. As I go down, the row becomes harder. As I incline, the row becomes slightly easier because I am having to carry less of my body weight.
4) The next exercise we have here is the rope climb. And I didn’t have enough space to do a higher rope climb, we didn’t have attachments in the ceiling, so I just attached it to the bar. You only get to see a small portion of it, but you want to use your feet as you climb up. My legs are a little too long, I was almost hitting the ground if I extended them all the way out. So I’m using just by upper body here, which can be a great upper body exercise, but the rope climb you want to use your feet to assist you in that movement. So that’s exercise number four.
5) Exercise number five is a push up and I show 3 variations. The first one I’m doing is a bomber push up, where I’m going down in a forward motion. This is going to utilize different muscles than with a regular push-up. Then I go into a regular push up which can be made more difficult by raising the feet and decreasing stability. Then the famous Spiderman pushup. And if you train at Earthfit, you probably have done this one. This is one of the most dynamic push ups you can do when it comes to push ups. So you’re crawling with your own rhythm, your right arm and right leg move forward at the same time and stay close to the ground.
6) Exercsie # 6 is called the Bear crawl. And this is one of my favorite exercises. This actually brings me back to my pop warner football days where they had us do this as an exercise up and down hills and on flat fields in the middle of the summer and race each other. But basically you are on all fours, and you are just crawling around on the floor, and then you can speed up and spin around as you see like I did. And you will be extremely surprised at how much this uses the total body. It uses your core, your legs, your arms, everything. It’s a really good exercise, just make sure you are keeping your back straight and you are not hunching over too much. So there you go, that’s the bear crawl. Give that one a shot just for a few seconds and let me know how that one goes by leaving a comment in the blog here.
7) The next one I’m doing is a pistol squat. And that’s a one legged — this is advanced obviously, — but it’s a very good exercise for body weight training, strength, balance and stability. So it’s one leg and going all the way down to the ground with the other leg straight out.
8) So the next exercise here we got a vertical pushup or if you want to call it a body weight shoulder press. Before you attempt this move you must be able to lift your body weight by doing a regular shoulder press.
That’s the top 10 body weight exercises that I chose. I know I only did 8, but there are some variations in the mix. I think they are most beneficial and that you can see a lot of results from, because it uses a lot of resistance and they are advanced bodyweight movements. I’m sure everybody knows the general body weight movements which would be:
body-weight squats,
body-weight pushups,
body-weight regular row — you can do that on a bar,
pull-ups, regular pullups like I showed in the beginning,
and then you have walking lunges which are body weight
but as your body adapts to those movements, you need to advance the exercises so you don’t plateau and this is a way of advancing your body weight training by doing specific exercise. So these are simple bodyweight techniques more advanced movements for those body weight trainings and if you have any comments, go ahead and leave that info below, I’d love to hear it and have a great day. Bye.”
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.
Hey. What’s going on? It’s Ian Hart, and today, I’m going to go over the top 10 kettle bell exercises that I chose because I like them 🙂 If you have a kettle bell and you are competent with it then you can practice most of these with out a personal trainer of coach. There are few that I would refrain from until you do it with a personal trainer. There’s actually one kettle bell exercise that’s brand new, I just created it a little over a month ago. When I came up with the exercise I thought, this is a great movement with a ton of benefit, surely someone has though of it before me. I scoured the internet and it turns out that I am the first one to debut it on youtube, if I am wrong please let me know. I created it the Earthfit Lab, located in Habersham SC. If you train at EarthFIT then you probably be very familiar with this exercise 🙂
1)The first kettle bell exercises that I’m going to go through are the kettle bell swing variations. If you look at the first video that we have here, you’ll see me start by doing a double arm swing. So both hands are on the kettle bell, and I’m popping the hips keeping my back straight and letting my core and lower body do most of the work. Then I go to a one-arm swing, which is a progression of the double arm swing. And then switching arms is another progression. And then you can actually release the kettle bell in the air and grab it. Another progression is the kettle bell flips. So if you see, I’m flipping it around, and that’s for experienced kettle bell training and you shouldn’t do that unless you have worked with a personal trainer or taken a class. Especially if you can’t do the previous swings. And make sure you know what you’re doing. It can be a little bit dangerous, so have some practice before you go into that.
The next set of exercises that I’m going to show you are
the kettle bell clean,
the high pull,
the high row,
and the kettle bell snatch.
Those are the next four exercises in the second video. The first is a recti-linear is a straight clean. So I’m showing you a simple movement where you’re coming straight up from the ground, and then you catch it right about chest level. It is actually a little complicated at first and take some repetitions to get it down pat. The high pull – that’s with one arm it can be done with 2 arms which I also display with such grace :). And then I go into the high row, where you see a sort of swing motion, and almost row the kettle bell back. So that’s with the one arm as well. The next one I’m going to show you is the kettle bell snatch, which is rectilinear, meaning, I’m going straight up into a snatch. And then I show a curvilinear swing; we’re actually swinging it, and then throwing it up into a snatch position. Now those 4 exercises are progressions in the order-shown. You should master one before you move on to the next.
The next set of exercises that I show are a clean to a press. So it’s a combination of two exercises, where I clean it, and then I press. So this is throwing two exercises together which is great to maximize caloric burn and get the heart rate pumping. From there, I go into what I call a power bomb. I’m actually not even sure what this is called in kettle bell terminology. But I have two certifications, and I’ve been doing it for a little over five years now, and I am not sure they ever went over this kettle bell exercise during the certification process. I am not sure where I picked it up from or I would give that personal trainer credit. So then I go into Turkish get-ups. Turkish get-ups are great for core work. I’m showing one variation of this. There’s actually a couple of ways you can do this. And so you’re raising your body up off the ground, keeping your arm locked, your arm close to your head, and then repeat. So that’s great for core. And the last things that I go into is kettle bell lateral swing. This one takes a lot of core integrity and a little bit of skill to make sure that your shoulder isn’t compromise and the kettle bell doesn’t slam on your wrist.
Then, the drum role please… the walking lunge kettle bell swing that was created by myself here in the Habersham EarthFIT location. This exercise takes some serious momentum and flow to make it work but once you get this exercise down it is amazing for stability/balance as well as power and strength focusing on one leg and core.
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.
With more and more people starting to look after their health and fitness, one thing that they’re starting to do is take note of what their eating each day and how the various foods that they consume influence how their body functions and reacts.
It’s incredibly important that you pay attention to the foods that you put into your diet because not only will these influence your body weight, but your health as well. One issue that is starting to be discussed more and more as people notice the symptoms associated with it is gluten intolerance.
While there are those who cannot tolerate gluten at all, having an ailment known as Celiac’s Disease, other people simply just don’t feel their best when eating gluten-rich foods.
Let’s take a closer look at what gluten intolerance is so that you can see whether this might be something that’s impacting you.
What Is Gluten Intolerance?
Gluten is a particular type of protein that’s found in wheat and all wheat related foods that many of us people struggle to digest properly. When it’s not fully broken down by the body, that’s when it starts to cause discomfort in the body. And those of us who have health and fitness goals know that having bodily discomfort doesn’t bode well for achieving those goals.
What Are The Symptoms Associated With Gluten Intolerance?
Some of the most common signs that present themselves if your body is struggling to break down gluten include:
Abdominal distention (bloating or swelling of the intestine)
Abdominal pain and cramping
Diarrhea and/or constipation
Depression, irritability, and anxiety
Fatigue
Joint pain
Lactose intolerance
Teeth and gum problems
Vomiting
It’s important to note that the signs and symptoms do tend to vary from individual to individual so you don’t necessarily have to have them all present in order for a problem to be at play. If you even notice just a few of the symptoms presenting themselves, it may be time to get checked out by a physician to see whether this could be causing issues in your body.
What Do I Do?
So what do you do if you think you are suffering from gluten intolerance? The first step is to cut out all gluten rich foods from your diet. This includes all wheat and related products such as corn and corn-based foods, pastas, breads, cereals, beer, peanuts and peanut butter, even lactose.
Also make sure that you’re reading ingredient labels on all foods that you consume as many will contain wheat even though you wouldn’t ever think it. Some sauces, condiments, as well as meats will contain gluten, so you’ll want to stay away from these. Soy sauce is one example. Also stick with grass-fed meats instead of grain-fed.
Instead, focus your carbohydrate intake around fresh fruits and vegetables, quinoa, and potatoes, all of which are safe for those with gluten intolerance to eat.
So if you are always suffering from stomach problems and gas or bloating, you may want to consider whether this could be an option for your Beaufort health and fitness. If it is, it would be a good idea to take steps to control and manage it so that you can look and feel your best.
One of the biggest mistakes that far too many people are making on their diet program is neglecting to
consider a diet break. You’re seeing good success and as such, the last thing that you want to consider is
stopping.
Or, perhaps you aren’t seeing success – it’s quite the opposite. Try as you might, that weight is just not
coming off. You’re frustrated and wondering if you’ll ever be able to attain that dream body that you
were going for.
Whatever the case may be, often the biggest ways to resolve any dietary problem is to actually take a
break. Constant dieting is going to place stress on the body so whether you’re seeing the effects of it
already in the form of a plateau or you’re moving along great but are on the verge of suffering from the
plateau, a diet break is a must.
Let’s have a look at three signs that indicate that it’s time you took a diet break so that you know
precisely what you should be on the look-out for.
1)You Have Non-Stop Hunger
The very first sign to watch for that would indicate that you need to be taking a diet break is if you have
non-stop hunger. When you’ve been on a reduced calorie diet for far too long, the body is going to start
sending out signals that it’s time for you to begin eating more food once again.
This is its way of trying to prevent starvation. Hunger increases dramatically and it’s going to take all the
effort in the world on your part not to eat.
When hunger seems almost too much to bare, that’s a good signal that it might just be time to give in
and take that diet break.
2) Your Energy Level Has Plummeted
The second signal that a diet break is in order is if your energy level has hit a turn for the worse. This is
another defense mechanism that the body has to prevent starvation from occurring. When you’re in
an extremely stressed state due to ongoing dieting attempts, your body will try and make sure you’re as
sedentary as possible as it just doesn’t have energy to spare.
By making you want to do nothing other than lie on the couch and relax, it accomplishes its objective
nicely. Your daily calorie expenditure goes down and the rate of weight loss will decline.
3) You Aren’t Losing Weight
Finally, the last signal that it’s time for a diet break is if you aren’t losing weight. If you seem to be doing
everything right and you are sure that you’re tracking your calories accurately (not sneaking a glass or bottle of wine every night), this is very likely what’s going on.
Your metabolism has slowed down due to that reduced calorie intake and now you’re burning fewer
calories than ever.
With this slowed metabolic rate, fat loss also slows, moving you further away from reaching your goal.
So there you have the main signs that it may just be time to take a break from your diet plan.
Periodically raising your calories up again for a week or so can do just the trick to get you back seeing
the fat loss you’re after and feeling much better as you go about your diet plan.
One question that often presents itself to many dieters who are trying to shed the excess weight that has accumulated over time is whether or not alcohol can be included in their diet plan.
Alcohol is something that most adults do like to indulge in from time to time – some more often than others.
So what’s the real deal about alcohol and your progress? Is this something that you can make room for in your diet or is it something that you need to give the boot?
Alcohol And Calories
The very first thing that you need to take note of is how many calories are found in alcohol. Alcohol itself contains seven calories per gram, whereas both proteins and carbs contain just four. Fat comes in at the highest calorie value per gram at nine, which places alcohol right in the middle.
But what’s often worse is what the alcohol is mixed with. If you’re drinking your alcohol with high calorie or fat mixers such as cream, sodas, or sugary mixers you could easily end up with a drink that packs in well over 300 calories per serving.
If you take in three or four of these over the course of the night, it’s really going to add up.
Alcohol And Fat Metabolism
The second important thing that you need to note is the impact that alcohol consumption will have on your fat metabolism. The minute that you put alcohol into your body, all fat burning is going to come to a halt.
Your body views alcohol as a toxin and as such, as soon as it comes in, it’s going to do everything it can to rid itself of this alcohol. No further fat will be burned off until it’s out of your system.
Only then will you start burning up body fat again. So if you consume quite a bit of alcohol one night, you can expect to see your rate of fat loss drop off for a more significant period of time.
Alcohol And Your Recovery
Finally, the last important thing to note about alcohol consumption is the impact it will have on your recovery rates.
In addition to putting the breaks on all fat burning taking place in the body, the second thing that alcohol is going to put the breaks on is protein synthesis.
This means that no further lean muscle tissue will be built up as long as that alcohol is in the body.
Again, you can imagine what this is going to do to your workout goals.
So as you can see, if you want to be truly successful with your fat loss and workout program, it’s best if you can forgo alcohol for the time being. One drink every now and then may not hurt all that much, but if you’re taking in any more than this, it will definitely hinder the progress that you see.
YES! Contact me today to schedule a FREE no obligation consultation and trial workout.