Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Two Fitness Articles

We read a lot looking for new ideas and to keep up to date on the latest fitness info. This week we found two articles that we'd like to share with you. Hope you enjoy. Click the links below to read.

http://www.menshealth.com/health/pain-free-life

http://www.menshealth.com/weight-loss/reprogram-your-metabolism

Defined Fitness
We Change Lives!
www.definedfitnesswexford.com

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Monday, March 19, 2012

And the winner is...

Saturday wrapped up our 1st Annual "New Year, New You" Body Transformation Contest. We had 21 participants who all did great and made awesome changes to their bodies. Congratulations to everyone who participated you all worked really hard these past six weeks.

This year's 2012 "New Year, New You" winning team is...
"THE WINNERS!!" (Sharon Donnelly, Laura Gonzalez, Eric Grieb) with a 12.81% loss in pounds of body fat.

2nd Place - "Show Me The Money" - 12.23%
3rd Place - "Shed Your Money Maker" - 9.48%
4th Place - "Three's Company" - 9.34%
5th Place - "Skinny Minis"- 9.1%
6th Place - "Desperado's" - 8.58%

www.DefinedFitnessWexford.com
"We Change Lives!"

Thursday, March 15, 2012

What Should I Eat To Lose Weight?

What should I eat to lose weight? 


We get asked this or a variation of this question almost everyday. However, that question is too broad and general. What are you currently eating? What do foods do you like? What foods can you not do without? How does your schedule fit and affect your eating habits? 


These are all questions that first need looked at. Yes, we could give you a nutrition plan that has all healthy foods and meals layed out for you, but if you don't like them or they don't fit right for you it's not going to work. Sure you may follow it for a few days, maybe even a week or so, but soon you will be back to your old ways. This is the biggest problem with crash and fad diet programs.


Rather we like to make small changes that fit you over a course time. This approach always has the most success. Yes a crash diet may drop some quick pounds, but what happens when you stop?


So here are three tips for eating right all the time:
1. Always include a protein
2. Always include a fruit or vegetable
3. Avoid processed foods as much as possible


So the next time you are thinking about starting a new diet or some look for some other quick fix. Ask yourself, "Am I doing the above three things all the when I eat?" Chances are no.


www.DefinedFitnessWexford.com
"We Change Lives!"


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St. Baldrick's "Shaving the Way to Conquer Kids' Cancer!"  On March 31st, 2012 at Baden Volunteer Fire Department one of our members Kevin Blanarik is having his head shaved in support of the St. Baldrick's Foundation to raise money for kids' with cancer. Donations can be made at www.StBaldricks.org by searching his name and making a donation or by making a donation at the gym. We hope that everyone supports this great cause and help Kevin reach his goal of $1000 raised for the St. Baldrick's Foundation.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Crunches, Sit Ups Exercises of the Past

The other day during one of our Group Personal Training Sessions a member asked, "Why don't we ever do any crunches or sit ups?" This is actually a very common question and many new members are surprised to find that our workouts do not contain any crunches ever.

So here is why.

1. Crunches and Sit Ups are not the most effective way to get a six-pack or flat stomach. The idea of isolating an area to lose the fat there is false. To lose fat, whether abdominal or somewhere else, we need to clean up the nutrition.

2. Research has shown that exercises that focus on stabilizing the core (e.g. planks) result in greater muscle stimulation than crunches and sit ups.

3. The musculature of the core is designed to support the spine and provide that support through anti-flexion and anti-rotation. It is not designed to flex as in a crunch or sit up and very few of our everyday activities require us to flex through the core. Additionally, most people spend the majority of their day sitting and have rounded shoulders and poor posture. Crunches and Sit Ups just reinforce bad posture that leads to many other issues, whereas exercises like planks work on correcting the posture.

4. Leading back researcher Dr. Stuart McGill has found through his research that crunches and sit ups create 3350 newtons of stress on the lower back and that anything over 3300 is dangerous.

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

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St. Baldrick's "Shaving the Way to Conquer Kids' Cancer!"  On March 31st, 2012 at Baden Volunteer Fire Department one of our members Kevin Blanarik is having his head shaved in support of the St. Baldrick's Foundation to raise money for kids' with cancer. Donations can be made at www.StBaldricks.org by searching his name and making a donation or by making a donation at the gym. We hope that everyone supports this great cause and help Kevin reach his goal of $1000 raised for the St. Baldrick's Foundation.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Track Your Progress

"You can't out train a bad diet." You've heard this said before, but eating healthy is not always easy, especially when everything you currently are eating is wrong.

So rather than make a complete overhaul overnight, which never works, pick one thing that you could do differently that you aren't currently doing that will move you closer to your goal.

Once you determine what that one thing is, ask yourself how confident on a level of 1-10 you are that you can do it. If it's less than a 9 simplify it. No matter how small, it will have a positive impact on your success. After all a bunch of small successes will add up to one huge success.

Now there is one more step. You need to track it. The easiest way to track it is to get a calendar and for each day that you do what you said you where going to do write a big X on that day. The goal is to create a long chain of X's. Once you complete a chain of 7-10 X's you are ready to move on to focusing on something else to improve. If you break the chain, start over. And once you complete a chain you must keep that habit as well.


Bring a BUDDY Month!! We are excited to announce that we are extending our hours (5:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., starting March 13th) and adding more Group Personal Training & Small Group Personal Training Sessions in a new format. And we want to you and your friends to experience all the exciting and new additions we will be offering. More details to come.