- Q Vegas Magazine “Resolution Results” January 2009, Feature Article
Millions of Americans each New Year say almost the same thing: “I am going to start working out five days a week, watching what I eat, cut back on my drinking, quit smoking, and run a marathon, maybe even backwards, oh… and lose weight!” Then unfortunately by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around it seems that over half those motivated, determined, unstoppable “resolution season” gym members give up on their goals and retreat back to their sofas where they will comfortably remain until the clock strikes midnight on December 31 and the year rolls over to January... one more time.

But this year is going to be different. I am going to be here to assist you with turning your champagne-induced New Year’s health and fitness resolutions into a reality with the tried and true recommendations that follow.
The most critical step in ensuring that you are a success this year is to have the proper resolutions themselves. They are basically goals that you’re setting for yourself, and that means they need to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic, and Time-bound. Let’s start by using the “favorite” resolution of all as an example of how to use the SMART principle. First, avoid making a vague resolution such as “This year I am going to lose some weight.” As an alternative make it specific--how many pounds do you want to lose or what weight you would like to get down to? Make it measurable and deliverable (as long as you don’t have a phobia of scales). Having a goal that you internally agreed upon with yourself is extremely important because if you set a resolution based on what someone else thinks you should do your heart’s not going to be in it and your chances of success plummet as a result of it.

Second, when it comes to being realistic, base the goal on your own abilities. If you’re a 200-pound man with a full time job, don’t expect to lose those extra ten pounds in a week that your favorite contestant on The Biggest Loser did. The reality show that you live in day-to-day should realistically be the one where you lose one to two pounds a week (if you want to keep the sexy muscle you have and make the results last).
Our final requirement dictates that there needs to be a time frame on your goal so that you don’t procrastinate until the winter frost has thawed when you finally get your holiday-stuffed belly to the gym to start working on your resolution. Time is of the essence; mark a date on the calendar, and stick to it! So now we have properly made our resolutions and set ourselves up for a successful start to the New Year.

The best way to begin working towards your resolution is to establish some smaller goals or action steps to follow on a daily or weekly basis. Say for example you want to lose 25 pounds for your spring cruise on March 15. If you’re not already exercising on a regular basis you’d want to set a goal of working out three times per week for forty-five minutes at the gym. After two weeks on that schedule, increase the amount of exercise to either four times per week at forty-five minutes, or stay at three workouts but increase each session to an hour and a half. We want this to be as painless and achievable as possible, so set a plan to workout at the time of day when it’s easiest for you, whether it be morning or night. Look at it as an appointment with yourself just as you make an appointment for lunch. But don’t try to do it in the morning if you fight with your alarm clock every day just to get to work on time or in the evening if you need two cups of coffee just to make it through the last hour of the workday.
Once you get your time established, set a realistic goal with your eating habits by taking baby steps to work up to being a lean, mean, health food-eating machine. The first step might be to cut out soda (diet or regular) and desserts from your diet if those are a vice for you (I know, “Not my soda. I can’t live without my diet soda.” Yes you can!) or to cut back on the amount of alcohol you consume by at least half (especially now that the holiday parties are over). Then the next week, try cutting down on the amount of meals you eat out at restaurants and start eating fresh food that you’ve cooked yourself at home. I know, cooking at home is a novel idea, too. But really, the knobs do work on your stove and oven. More vegetables and fruit can be added into your diet the third week in place of bread, pasta, and other high calorie, gut-busting carbs. These “mini goals” can be used for any resolution, not just health- and fitness-related ones.

The next way to ensure resolution success is with positive reinforcement. So if you’ve made it to the gym three times for the week reward yourself with a treat, maybe a little dessert (not the entire cheesecake, just a small piece perhaps) on Saturday or get a relaxing massage Sunday afternoon to rest your hard working body. Each week try something different to keep you motivated along the way since some resolutions can take a while before you accomplish them and experience the fruits of all of your labor. Now, if you’re a bad one and aren’t following the action plan we’ve set up you have to punish yourself (just a little) for failing to follow the plan. You don’t have to dawn a scarlet “A” on your chest or anything that drastic, but maybe work out an extra thirty minutes if you got lost and found yourself at Taco Bell for lunch one day or restrict yourself from one hour of television if you didn’t make it to the gym after work (don’t worry, your reality TV shows will all still be there the next night). Regardless of your goals, make sure you’re rewarding yourself on a consistent basis for following your plan and not always doling out the punishment for bad behavior (unless you’re into that).

One final method for staying committed to accomplishing your resolutions is to hold yourself to the highest level of accountability possible. How do you do this, Dustin? Very easily: tell people. Let your friends, family, and co-workers know that you’re going to lose those three pant sizes, give up your fast food fetish, or finally quit smoking. Let others know that you’re going to accomplish it so that the pressure to perform will be that much higher this year. After all, there’s nothing more motivating than bragging to your friends and co-workers that you were successful this year even though they weren’t. Well, I guess there is one thing that’s more motivating than bragging rights, and that’s public embarrassment. Don’t let yourself join all the others who fall short of their objectives and have to give it another shot next year. Want a little more motivation? Hire a personal trainer, coach, psychologist, hypnotist, or nutritionist for some very valuable assistance. Whatever your goals may be, there are many qualified professionals available to help you design the best plan possible for reaching your finish line successfully. Not only will you have to answer to them every day, week, or month, but you’ll also have to invest a little money now as well. You paid a lot to get out of shape…It will cost you a little to get into shape too. It’s a fair trade. So cut out the bad foods, sodas, lattes, candy bars and fast foods, and invest in your health and waistline. These days no one wants to throw away their precious cash, so the only way to ensure your return on investment is to do what your hired help tells you to and ultimately achieve the results you were working towards.
So there you have it, all of the best techniques that professionals such as myself employ when helping our clients to achieve their resolutions when each New Year passes. Now that you have them, feel free to utilize them. You now have no excuse for falling short of your personal finish line. But just in case you fear that you won’t make it this year, I’m here to help you put the right program together and achieve your goals this year. Let’s get across your finish line and celebrate together!

- 944 Magazine Online “Ask A Trainer”
December 2008 - http://www.944.com/articles/ask-a-trainer-advice-on-hangovers-holiday-parties-and-hors-doeuvres/

- Las Vegas Athletic Club Magazine –
- ‘Ask the Trainer” Fall 2007 issue
1. I started lifting on my 40th birthday, so I'm not a beginner, but if I want to maintain my strength and size - I'm 42 yrs. old 5'10" & 190 lbs. - how many sets and reps should I be doing?

Answer: That’s an excellent question that many people don’t take the time to address but really should in order to maximize their results. The first issue at hand is selecting the proper repetition range that you should be working in. When determining the number of repetitions to use it is primarily dependant upon three factors (1) The exercise that you are performing (2) The muscle group being trained and (3) The speed of the repetitions being performed. Exercises that require a large amount of muscle groups and coordination (Olympic/ explosive lifts such as the snatch, cling and jerk, power cleans, etc.) are most beneficial when keeping the reps at five or less. Keep in mind that 55% to 60% of these sets performed by olympic lifters consist of only two reps 1. For your sake it would probably be best to avoid these lifts except for special circumstances. The muscle groups determine reps because some are primarily fast twitch, others are primarily slow, and the rest are mixed. The fiber type also varies from person to person but there some generalities that can be made about the muscle groups regardless of the person. The postural muscles (inner core muscles, calves, quadriceps, and shoulders) generally possess a larger majority of slow twitch fibers, the flight or fight muscles (rectus abdominus, hamstrings, triceps) possess more fast twitch fibers and the others (chest, back, biceps) are primarily mixed 2. With that being said assuming each rep takes 5 seconds ( 3 seconds to lower the weight and 2 seconds to lift the weight), which is an ideal tempo for most exercises in order to induce both muscle growth and strength gain, the best rep range for strength and muscle growth is 5 to 12 reps per set. For faster twitch individuals it is best to work at the lower end of the range and endurance oriented, slow twitch individuals will most likely see better results working at the higher end of the range. But just make sure to take into consideration which muscles are being trained as well. Now the good news is that the amount of reps is usually the more difficult factor to determine, the sets are simply rep dependant. The simple rule of thumb is that the less reps you are doing the more sets you need in order to promote muscle growth and the higher the reps the lower the amount of sets are necessary. For 5 to 6 reps one should perform 4 to 5 work sets per exercise and for 11 to 12 reps 2 to 3 work sets are best. When taking all that into consideration also remember the optimal amount of work sets per workout is 24 to 30 sets total and it shouldn’t take any longer than 45 to 55 minutes for your workout to be completed after the warm-up is done 3. After that you’re just wasting your time and effort unless you’re heading to the cardio/ stretching area or the juice bar!

1. Zatsiorsky, Vladimir M. Science and Practice of Strength Training. Human Kinetics.
p. 96-97 (1995).
2. Bompa, Tudor O. Phd. Serious Strength Training, Second Ed. Human Kinetics.
p. 6-7 (2003).
3. Poliquin, Charles. Modern Trends in Strength Training. Poliquin Publishing. P.24-25
(2001).

2. Rebecca, 34, 5'6" & 186 lbs. I'm getting married this summer (Aug. 18th) and I want to look GREAT (135 lbs. would be perfect). I can workout 5 times a week. What do I need to do?

Answer: Congratulations Rebecca, this is a wonderful occasion and one that should provide you with plenty of motivation to accomplish your goal. The most beneficial step you could take would be to hire a well-qualified trainer to assist you with your journey. If that’s not possible then we’ll do our best here. There are three main components that are needed in order to accomplish your goal. The first being a well-balanced, low calorie nutrition plan that is centered around eating small snacks four to six times throughout the day. The snacks should always include a lean protein source(chicken or turkey breast, fish, lean red meats, egg whites, fat free or low fat cottage cheese, and protein shakes) and some fibrous carbohydrates (low carb bread, all bran, oatmeal, high fiber granola, citrus fruits, and berries) with your morning and after workout snack and healthy fats (fish oil, walnuts, pecans, almonds, flax oil) with your evening snacks. You should also try to eat four to six servings of vegetables as well to help with keeping you full and satisfied. Just remember that in order to lose weight you must be taking in less calories than your body is burning on a daily basis 1. The second component is a solid resistance training program used to build muscle and therefore boost your metabolism. Circuit training (performing three to five exercises consecutively in a series, working each of the major muscle groups of the body with minimal rest between sets) will give you the most efficient and effective workout possible. You’d want to perform about two circuits per session with your workout lasting around forty-five to fifty minutes once the warm-up is completed 2. The final component, which should be used only to compliment your diet and resistance training efforts, is your cardiovascular training. When doing cardiovascular training the most effective type is interval training. This simply means you’ll alternate between high intensity periods with your heart rate reaching about eighty to ninety percent of your maximum and sustaining that intensity for about sixty seconds or so. Then back the intensity down to about fifty percent of the high intensity level for two and a half to three minutes in order to let your body recover before going back to the high intensity level. Start this pattern after a five minute warm-up and sustain it for twenty minutes or so before a five minute cool down and you’ll be done. If your body starts to adapt to this it’s time to change the amount of time you’re cardio per week, the type of cardio you’re doing, or the intensity you’re working at. When you put these three components together properly the synergistic effect should have you well on your way to looking your very best come August 18th!

1. Hatfield, Frederick C. Phd. Fitness, The Complete Guide. International Sports
Sciences Assoc. p. 9.7-9.21 (2001).
2. Poliquin, Charles. The Poliquin Principles. Dayton Publications and Writers Group.
p. 21 (1997).

- “Ask The Trainer” Fall 2006 Issue
1. I want to slim down my legs. They are naturally muscular, but to large for the rest of my body. What do I need to do?
Answer: It's great that you have a clear-cut goal in mind, but the problem is that we can't "spot reduce" fat on our bodies. This simply means that everyone's body burns fat from different areas preferentially regardless of the resistance and cardiovascular exercises one does. Unfortunately for women, their bodies store more fat in the lower extremities and this is usually the last place the fat will also be lost from. So how do you lower your body fat as quickly as possible in order to start slimming down those legs? By putting your body into a caloric deficit utilizing proper diet and exercise. To accomplish this caloric deficit you have to burn more calories than your body takes in on a daily basis. Diet is of paramount importance and you must consume less calories than your body burns by eating primarily lean sources of protein, fiber-rich complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. The best exercise programs for rapid fat loss use high intensity interval training for cardiovascular exercise and multi-joint, compound exercises performed in a circuit fashion with short rest periods for resistance training. These are the most efficient and effective ways to boost your metabolism and therefore accelerate your fat loss efforts. And yes, you still need to do resistance exercises for your legs along with the rest of your body in order to burn the fat as fast as possible and build a well-balanced body.

Grabarczyk, Marzena and Boguslaw Pawlowski. Center of Body Mass and the Evolution of the Female Body Shape. American Journal of Human Biology 15:144 -150 (2003).

2. I love working out, but I just found out that I'm pregnant. My doctor said I
could still work out, but what do you recommend?
Answer: Your doctor was correct in his recommendation for you to continue to exercise throughout your pregnancy. You can follow your regular pre-pregnancy routine as long as you keep a few important guidelines in mind.
- Listen to your body and don’t push yourself to breathlessness or total exhaustion as this is a sign that your baby and body isn’t getting all of the oxygen it needs.
- Take in plenty of fluids and avoid exercising in extremely hot weather so that your body stays properly hydrated.
- Avoid contact sports (this should be common sense!) and avoid running or cycling on rocky or unstable surfaces since your joints become more lax during pregnancy and more susceptible to injury.
- Focus on exercises that emphasize strengthening your abdominal area since it needs to be stronger to support the weight of the baby and avoid overhead lifts and other exercises that put extra strain on your back. It is already under extra stress due to the extra weight of the baby and at increased risk of injury, so be careful with it.
- In your second and third trimesters avoid exercising lying on your back since this decreases blood flow to your womb.

So there are a few pointers to keep you doing what you love throughout your pregnancy, but always remember to listen to your body as it is better to be safe than sorry.

1. Planning Your Pregnancy and Birth Third Ed. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Ch. 5.

2. American Academy of Family Physicians, http://familydoctor.org/

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