Are you just spinning your tires?

What happens when you push on your cars gas and brake peddles at the same time? Your tires begin to spin but you don't move. Push the gas harder and your tires just spin more. Do this long enough and you eventually end up with bald worn out tires.

The same thing happens to your body with exercise. If you just keep pushing on the gas, but never release the brakes you end up worn out and not making any progress.

So what are the brakes on your body? It could any of the following or a combination of these; too much exercise, poor or limited muscular range of motion, lack of proper recovery, poor nutrition, high stress levels, and sleep deprivation.

Unfortunately, if you're not seeing the results you want your natural instinct is to workout more intensely, more often, and focus more (if not obsess) over everything you eat and every little detail. However, this is seldom ever the real problem. What we find is that when someone is spinning their tires we just need to get back to the basics.

The basics we are referring to are:

• 4 workouts per week (2 strength, 2 metabolic)
• protein at each meal
• fruit or vegetable at each meal
• limit starches to only breakfast and two hour after completing your workout
• recovery shake immediately following your workout
• and, STOP trying to push harder and count every calorie and every nutrient that is going into your body.

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

Tip of the Day

Did you know that not eating enough protein each day can cause you to gain weight? According to researchers from Australia, they found that people who ate only 10% of their calories from protein took in 1,000 calories more over a 4-day period than people who ate 15% of their calories from protein.


So how do you know if you are eating enough protein each day? It's simple really, all you have to do is make sure that you are eating 1 gram of protein for each pound of your desired body weight.


www.definedfitnesswexford.com


====
Announcement!!
We will be closed Thursday, February 16th from 12 p.m. until 7 p.m. and closed all day Friday, February 17th. We will reopen again on Saturday, February 18th. We are presenting at IDEA Fitness's Personal Trainer Institute and will be away those days. Sorry for any inconvenience.

WPXI Channel 11 News at Defined Fitness

Did you see us on the news?

Here is the news segment from Wednesday night on WPXI Channel 11. Watch it here: http://www.wpxi.com/videos/news/video-how-to-stay-fit-on-a-budget/vFxWK/

====
Last night we kicked off our annual "New Year, New You" Contest. Contestants will be competing on teams of 3 over the next 6 weeks to lose as much body fat as possible and win the grand prize, CASH!! We currently have 19 people competing on seven teams with a total pot of $950!

We are still registering contestants through February 11th, and with each new contestant the pot will increase $50.

So here's how you get in on the action.
- Call Defined Fitness at 724-934-2000 before February 11th and reserve your spot on a team.
- Member's can join for a $50 entry fee and non-members can join for either our Basic Package or our Customized Package.

Basic Package $97 includes:

• Two group personal training sessions per week
• One educational and informational article relating to health & fitness via email
• Entry fee
• Group emails from your personal motivation coach, Tammy Zubasic
• And a fitness coach available to answer your questions during the entire competition

Customized Package $299 includes:

• All the benefits of the Basic Package, PLUS
• An individualized program designed specifically for you by our expert fitness program writing department
• One semi-private coaching session with one of our fitness coaches each week for six weeks
• Unlimited group coaching sessions for the full six weeks
• Complete Gym Access during regular operating hours

Call TODAY 724-934-2000 to reserve your spot.

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

Kick Up the Intensity to Flatten Your Belly

A new study came out on an exercise program called Sprint 8 that has found that high-intensity exercise results in greater fat loss and in less time than traditional exercise. Sprint 8 was originated by a group of Mississippi doctors from Brookhaven hospital and designed to target a natural release of growth hormone, which is correlated with lean muscle tissue and lower body fat percentages. The subjects in the study had an average age of 46 and spent 20 minutes 3 times per week completing high-intensity intervals of 30 seconds all out effort, followed by 90 seconds of slow walking, repeated 8 times. The catch was that if after completing the 8 rounds you felt like you could do more you did not work hard enough.

Here are the results:
- subjects saw an average of 31% drop in body fat
- subjects saw 2x greater drops in body fat and gains in lean muscle tissue than subjects who receive growth hormone injections, which run at about "$1,000 per month in anti-aging centers." According to Sprint 8 creator Phil Campbell, "another benefit for women is research showing that growth hormone thickens skin by 7.1%. The skin thickening benefit means that wrinkles are filled in and this gives a more youthful appearance."

So what this means for you...

Kick up your exercise intensity and quit spending hours on the treadmill.


=======
WANT TO WIN $750??

• Starting February 1st we will be kicking off our "New Year, New You" Challenge where you can compete on teams of 3. 
• The teams that loses the highest percentage of pounds of body fat wins the $750. 
• To compete you need to register at Defined Fitness and pay your registration fee.
• You must weigh-in by February 11th.
• Final weigh-in must be by March 17th.
• Winning team announced March 20th.
• Not a member? You can still compete on a team.
• Don't have a team? We can put you on a team.
• Choose Your Transformation Package:

1. Defined Fitness Members - If you're already a Defined Fitness member (or if you become one before the contest) your entry fee to participate is only $50.00. In addition to all your member benefits, you'll also receive the following as part of your package: Group emails from your personal motivation coach, Tammy Zubasic; A chance to be on the winning team and win $750.
2. Non-Member Basic - Your team can consist entirely of non-members if you like. Non-members pay only $97 to enter the challenge and receive all the benefits included in the Member Package, plus: Two (2) group personal training sessions per week; One (1) educational and informational article relating to health and fitness via email; A fitness coach will be available to answer your questions during the entire competition.
3. Non-Member Customized - This package is a GREAT VALUE! If you're a non-member and SERIOUS about losing lots of fat, this package is for you. Entry fee is only $299 per team members. At this level you'll receive all the benefits of both the Member and Non-Member Basic levels, plus: An individualized program designed specifically for you by our expert fitness program writing department; One (1) semi-private coaching session with one of our fitness coaches each week for six weeks; Unlimited group coaching sessions for the full six weeks; Complete Gym Access during regular operating hours.

Call Today to reserve YOUR spot 724-934-2000!

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

New Year, New You: Lose Weight and Win $750 in 2012!

New Year, New You: Lose Weight and Win $750 in 2012!

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

Yesterday I was chatting with a gym member. She just joined the gym a few weeks ago.

Problems she faces:

She's tried just about every weight-loss program on earth and can't seem to sustain results for longer than a few months.


Her husband said to her when she joined DEFINED FITNESS, "I think you should just save the money that this is going to cost. You'll just do it for a few months and then start looking for another way to lose weight that will cost us more money." 


Her time is limited. Between the family and her job, she has little time for herself. 


Because she doesn't feel like she looks good, her self confidence is low and it's affecting her in every aspect of her life.

Does any of this sound familiar?

We know what a struggle it can be to get the fit body that you really want but just can't seem to find the discipline to get there. It's frustrating to start a program, see some immediate results and then start "cheating a little" and suddenly all your efforts to shed that excess weight turn into another disappointment and humiliation over not being able to stick with it. 

That's why we started the New Year, New You Contest two years ago. We know that if you can get motivated to stick with a weight-loss program for at least 6 weeks, and if you have support of professionals helping you every step of the way, you're MUCH more likely to continue with your weight loss efforts well beyond that initial 6 weeks. We want to help you get back into those skinny jeans and remove the disappointment and humiliation forever!

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

What is YOUR plan for losing that unwanted FAT and feeling more FIT in 2012? Do you know exactly what you're gonna do?

We're ramping up for the 2012 New Year, New You Contest which gives you all the tools you'll need to finally win your battle of the bulge and banish that muffin top forever!

We're taking applications now. Watch the pounds melt away in 2012:

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

Happy New Year from the entire Defined Fitness Team

Call today to reserve your spot 724-934-2000!

Defined Fitness, 11885 Perry Highway, Suite B, Wexford, PA, 15090

One Small Habit For Fat Loss Success!

Everyday we get ask questions about nutrition; should I eat this?, how many calories should I eat?, what about carbs?, what about protein?, etc. But, really none of this matters until we first know exactly what you're currently eating. Without this information it is impossible for us to make any suggestions on what needs to be changed. Therefore, the first step to fat loss nutrition is to begin journalling everyday everything that you eat. This also keeps you accountable and aware of what you are eating. Many people think that just because they think they are eating well that they don't need to journal, but many times when they begin to journal we find it's one small change that needs made to get better results. Also, many people find that just by journalling they get better results, without even being given any advice and in many cases they find that they already know what the are doing wrong because they are now tracking it. If you track it you can fix it, if you don't you can't!

On another note, this past week we were featured in Shape. Click here to read the entire article.

We have also, made two changes this past week.
#1 - We have added four new class times. Monday and Friday at 8:15 a.m. and Tuesday and Thursday at 5:15 p.m.
#2 - Due to being busier (which we have very happy about) it has recommended to us by our business coach to split up responsibilities. So Josh will be handling all they training responsibilities (although Tammy may be making a guest appearance from time-to-time :) and Tammy will be handling the business and front desk responsibilities. This is to allow us to focus more and get more done faster, rather than mixing responsibilities.

Defined Fitness
...Changing the way Fitness is Done!

www.definedfitnesswexford.com

Get Better Results with Active Recovery

One aspect of fitness that tends to get forgotten is Active Recovery. This is the stuff that helps your body to recover fully, get you the most out of your workouts, and keep your body feeling great. Everyones natural instinct is to push harder with their exercise and workouts, but results are actually driven by the quality of your recovery.

So what is Active Recovery? It's foam rolling, stretching, and even some movement prep exercise that we use in our dynamic warm up. We incorporate this into all the workouts we do here at Defined Fitness, whether it's foam rolling at the start or end of a workout, a stretch in between sets, or getting warmed up with the dynamic warm up. But during your workout is not the only time to take advantage of this. Your off days are the best time and where the biggest benefits are found.

An Active Recovery day would start with self-myofascial release (SMR) through the use of a foam roller and possibly some deeper massage stick and tennis ball work on any points of muscle tension. Foam rolling helps to release knots in the muscles and break up scar tissue and adhesions in the muscles from past injuries/trauma (this should take about 8-10 minutes).

Pick up a foam roller here!

After we've foam rolled the entire body it's time to move onto some stretching.  The goal here is to   stretch the entire body with about 8-10 different stretches that are held for at least 30 seconds each. The previous SMR work that we've done has loosen the muscles up so that we can better stretch and get those tight muscles to loosen up. (again, about 8-10 minutes here).

And finally we would finish up with the movement prep exercise. This is were we are looking to use some low intensity exercises to active the muscles that we just stretched to help the stretches to stick. We typically like to use glute bridges, walking knee hugs, toe touches, hops, and even bodyweight squats, lunges, and TRX rows and push ups. (8-10 minutes here)

As you can see this is a very low intensity workout and will take only 24-30 minutes to complete.

Shoot for 4 days per week of strength training and metabolic training, but leave the remaining for 3 days for light Active Recovery work.

Happy New Year!!

Defined Fitness
Changing The Way Fitness Is Done!
www.definedfitnesswexford.com

====
Thanks for all of your help? Because of our members we were able to give one family an awesome Christmas. We teamed up with Grieb Chiropractic Clinic and between their patients and our members the support was amazing. Additionally, Mattress Discounters came through and donated a bed for the family as well.