Let’s face it!  You know this to be true.  Doing only crunches to reduce your waistline simply DOES NOT work.  So why do so many people still fall for the late night infomercial touting sexy abs by using their new and improved abdominal trainer, fat melting creme, or fat eliminating pill?  Answer: desperation, convenience… and a lack of complete understanding of how the body actually works.

Think about it… you didn’t gain the body fat you currently have in just a few short weeks.  And you definitely didn’t tell it where you wanted it to be distributed when you gained it.  The opposite is also true.  It’s not going to go away in just a few short weeks from doing crunches or using a thigh trainer, nor will the body just burn abdominal fat while leaving all the rest to be used up another time.  Your body distributes fat evenly over the body and it burns it off evenly over the entire body.  Now… you may have more body fat in one area over another, but that trouble area is not the only place you have body fat.

The key to burning large amounts of body fat is working all the major muscle groups with complex, multi joint movements in a total body resistance training routine to dramatically change and effect your metabolic rate.  Combined with a good, healthy supportive nutrition plan and high intensity interval training cardio plan, total body resistance training done in this fashion will not only help improve the overall metabolic demand of the workout, but will also help build and maintain lean muscle tissue that will result in a higher resting metabolic rate (calories burned at rest).

Complex, multiple joint exercises are exercises that work more than one muscle group in the same movement.  In the video above, Drew demonstrates a squat press using resistance tubing which works the legs, glutes, abdominals, shoulders, and triceps.  That exercise is far more effective, and efficient, than working each of those muscle groups separately.  Supersetting that exercise with the pushup jackknife exercise and alternating each of them in a circuit fashion will help you complete a workout in far less time as well.

So, get up off those machines in the gym that isolate each body part and start exercising more effectively, more efficiently and more functionally!  If you need more help with designing your total body resistance training routine, request a consultation with a certified Jackson Personal Trainer today.

Cardiovascular exercise is essential for overall health and fitness, but just doing “cardio” alone as part of a weight loss program will NOT produce the fat loss that most individuals expect. Long term, your ability to burn calories at rest by just doing cardiovascular exercise for fat loss will be greatly decreased.

As a fitness professional I have worked in various fitness centers and witnessed hundreds of people spend countless hours on a treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike week in and week out, and never see any changes in their body composition. Why? Because cardiovascular exercise doesn’t do anything to build, or even maintain, lean muscle tissue which is a metabolically active tissue. In other words, by just doing “cardio” you will have essentially trained your metabolism to become slower.

Have you ever experienced a plateau effect in your weight loss? You work diligently for about four weeks and see some okay results. But as you continue over the course of several months you see less and less progress. Inevitably frustration sets in and you end up quitting all together. The problem is not that you weren’t working often enough, rather you were not forcing the body to adapt to any new form of stimulus. Over time the body adapts and becomes more efficient at performing tasks…that’s what we call “getting in shape.” So day in day out doing the same thing produces a smaller metabolic effect because the body is more efficient at performing the work.

Now, not only are you training the body to burn fewer calories at rest due to loss of muscle, but you are also preventing the body from being challenged to it’s maximum potential. Furthermore, in order to continue to see results from steady state cardiovascular exercise you have to either run/walk/bike faster OR longer. And unfortunately, there are not enough hours in the day. I think you will agree that spending more time exercising is not exactly what you had in mind when you set out to reach your health and fitness goals.

Quite the contrary. So instead of committing several hours a day to the same old boring “cardio” routine, incorporate the following to maximize the amount of body fat you want to lose:

• Cross Training – use different kinds of stimulus for your cardiovascular conditioning days that will continue to challenge your energy system to produce maximum results.  Incorporate running/jogging, biking, swimming, playing basketball/volleyball, etc.  This will prevent your body from becoming accustomed to any one type of training stimulus
• Resisitance/Strength Training – you absolutely must perform exercises that will challenge the muscle so you can build, or maintain, lean muscle tissue.  This becomes even more important as we age and our metabolism slows down.  Remember, one pound of muscle can burn up to 50 calories per day at rest.  Whether you’re male or female it’s essential to your overall fitness and weight loss goals.  You can even do resistance training in a way that is highly beneficial to your overall cardiovascular health.
• High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – performing high intensity bursts of maximal effort exercise followed by periods of rest cycled over and over has been shown to be the most effective form of cardiovascular conditioning for weight loss, and more importantly fat loss.  You’ll get maximum calorie burn, and what’s better is that it takes half the time!

It’s not about the amount of calories you burn during a workout…far from it.  You have to focus on what effect the workout has on your overall metabolic rate for several hours after the workout.  Research shows that combining high intensity resistance training with HIIT produces a very high metabolic demand where the metabolism operates at peak levels for up to 4-6 hours after the workout and doesn’t return to resting levels for up to 36 hours.  I’ll tell ya…working hard for 30-40 minutes a few times per week and seeing incredible results sure does sound better than busting my tail everyday for 60-90 minutes to accomplish far less results.

When planning your workouts, assess your goals and determine how much time you are willing to commit to your exercise program.  If you’re like most of us, including me, than time is usually a factor so make the most of it!  If you need help determining what kind of program is right for you just click here to request your fitness and nutrition consultation with a certified Jackson personal trainer today!

To your health and continued success,

Clint Barr

Fiction!  “Dieting” will not eliminate body fat.  In fact, long term it will do just the opposite.  Let me explain…

The term “dieting” that I am referring to here is what most individuals call it when they say they are “on a diet.”  I’m referring to restrictive calorie dieting.  This is where you calculate the number of calories you are currently taking in on a daily basis and drastically reduce that amount to produce your desired weight loss goal.  You will initially lose weight implementing this strategy, but unfortunately it’s the wrong kind of body weight.

You see… the body cannot decipher between intentional calorie deprivation and starvation.  Rather than the body adapting to make up for the lower calorie intake by burning fat, it will actually slow the metabolic rate (the rate at which we use energy) and hoard any calories that are being ingested to store as fat to ensure survival.  Due to the lower caloric intake causing the body to hoard and store the calories taken in, the body needs alternative fuel sources and adapts by breaking down muscle tissue for immediate energy.

The overall effect of this is a slower metabolic rate because muscle is a metabolically active tissue.  Lean muscle tissue burns up to 50 calories per pound at rest each day.  If you were to add, and maintain, just two pounds of lean muscle in the course of a year, that would be the equivalent of ten (10) pounds of body fat in calories.  So, by restricting your diet it will effectively cause you to burn fewer calories at rest, making it harder for you to maintain a lean body weight.

Not only that, but because you are taking in less fuel for your body, you will become lethargic and lack energy.  Energy that you need to have effective metabolic enhancing workouts, and energy that you need to stay active. It’s a formula for failure, and one that many try to implement all to often.

The lower energy levels also lead to uncontrollable cravings.  The body senses that you need energy so it relays messages to the brain that you need high energy dense foods and fast absorbing foods.  Therefore, fats and sweets become foods that you crave.  This adds to the body’s natural hormone response to store these calories as fat.

So what do you do if you’re not supposed to “diet”?

Remember, the use of the word “diet” in this article refers to restrictive calorie dieting.  Diet by definition is simply the food you eat on a daily basis.  In order to lose body fat you need to combine an effective exercise regimen, including resistance training, with a supportive nutrition plan that will produce a positive change in your body composition.  But for time sake, let’s cover some simple and effective tactics you can start applying to your diet right now to see results…

1) Increase meal frequency – in simplest terms, eat more often.  Studies have shown that eating 5-6 small meals each day is the most effective method for producing a lower body fat composition.  By eating every couple of hours you are preventing your blood sugar from dropping below levels that cause you to crave high energy dense foods (refined sugars and fats).  You also prevent yourself from overeating at each of those meals because you’re not as hungry due to the fact that you ate just a few hours earlier.  So, you’ll not only eat fewer calories at each meal, but it will be much easier to avoid the foods that are primarily stored as fat rather than used for energy.

2) Drink a lot of water – dehydration can slow your body’s metabolic rate by as much as 50%, making it difficult for you to burn significant calories at rest.  Water is calorie free and can make you feel more full as well.  Make sure you are drinking water throughout the day and especially when exercising.  To know whether or not you are drinking enough water, simply monitor your urine color.  The more concentrated (dark) your urine, the more dehydrated you are.  Conversely, the more diluted (clear) your urine, the more hydrated you are.

3) Eat Your Vegetables – research shows that individuals who consume vegetables regularly each day are significantly leaner than individuals who do not consume vegetables regularly each day.  The reason is because most vegetables are low energy dense foods with a high nutrient value.  Example: 2 cups of steamed broccoli is just 87 calories.  In contrast, just one glazed donut can be as high as 350 calories.  Moreover, the donut is composed of simple, refined carbohydrates that break down quickly and don’t sustain you for very long.  Broccoli is a complex, fibrous carbohydrate that takes significantly more time, and more energy, to be broken down by the body.

You don’t have to restrict your calories and starve yourself to get the lean, tone body that you’ve always wanted.  Quite the contrary.  Eat healthier foods more often and combine that with a structured exercise regimen that includes resistance training, and your goals can be achieved.

If after reading this you are still struggling to connect all the dots, you can (and should) seek help.  Reach out to us, that’s why we’re here.  Submit your questions in the comments section below and we’ll gladly respond as soon as we possibly can.  And feel free to request a no obligation health and fitness consultation.  You can also pick up a copy of our “True Success: Nutrition for FAST Fat Loss” DVD by clicking on the banner at the top right hand corner of this page.

To your success,

Clint Barr

Can you resist and put yourself on a healthier path? You bet you can! These tricks and tips can help you navigate around temptations:

• Make your home a haven – It’s probably not feasible to put yourself out of the path of temptations all the time. You can, however, give yourself one “safe place” where sweets and other treats are not found in abundance. Get rid of the junk food in your own home by giving it away or tossing it out.
• Change cooking habits – Eating right doesn’t mean having to give up on flavor. When you opt to grill, broil, boil or bake your favorite foods instead of frying them, you can make a big difference in your eating habits. Replace heavy sauces and tons of butter with spices and healthy side dishes. Be creative on this front and you are likely to find making good food choices tastes quite good.
• Don’t skip meals – Skipping meals and even planned snacks is bad for your metabolism. It can also make you so hungry at mealtime that you’ll be more likely to select faster, less healthy choices. Eat throughout the day and your hunger level won’t get out of control.
• Order wisely – Even if you have to eat out, try to look for healthier choices on a menu. Even fast-food restaurants do offer alternatives to fried, calorie-laden foods on their menus.
• Stock up on healthy snacks – Replace those bags of chips and chocolate bars with healthier snacks. Fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat yogurt and other options can fuel your body and satisfy cravings, too.
• Cut out sugary drinks – Don’t overlook the need to stop drinking sugary sodas or juices when losing weight is the plan. Opt for lower-calorie choices and your body will thank you for it.  Water is always the best option.  Feel free to add lemons or cucumbers to make it a bit more palatable.
• Think before you eat – Before popping a doughnut or other unhealthy choice into your mouth, stop and think. It’s also a very good idea to read labels when shopping to make sure you know exactly what you are buying and putting into your body.

Making healthy food choices isn’t easy, but it can quickly become a habit. Be creative in your food choices, vary your menu plans and seek advice from your trainer and you are likely to find that eating healthy never tasted better. Changing lifestyle choices doesn’t mean giving up on flavor or going hungry.

- Blueberries have been shown to shield the brain from stress, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.   Research has also shown that diets rich in blueberries significantly improved both the learning capacity and motor skills.  They go great with a steamy, hot bowl of oatmeal too!

- Avocados contribute to healthy blood flow and decreased blood pressure, lessening the chances of developing hypertension, which can lead to a stroke.

- Deep-water fish, such as salmon, is abundant in omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are essential for healthy brain function.  Plus, research shows that individuals who consume fish are have 9% less body fat than those who don’t eat fish regularly.

- Nuts and seeds are good sources of vitamin E, an important vitamin needed by your brain to stave off declining cognitive functions. Cashews, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower and sesame seeds and almonds are all great choices.

- Whole-grain breads, brown rice, and oatmeal also contribute to a healthy brain by reducing the risk for cardiac disease.  By promoting a healthy heart and improved blood flow, the brain is sure to thrive via excellent oxygen and nutrient delivery through the bloodstream.

Complex carbohydrates also supply the brain with a steady stream of glucose that enhances brain function. It’s important to avoid simple carbohydrates often found in junk food because the glucose gives the brain a short-lived sugar high, often followed by a crash that makes you feel hungry and tired.

- Freshly brewed tea also has potent antioxidants, especially the class known as catechines, which also promotes healthy blood flow. Since black teas do contain caffeine it’s important to use it sensibly.

- Dark chocolate has powerful antioxidant properties, contains several natural stimulants, which enhance focus and concentration, and encourages the production of endorphins, which helps improve mood. Again, moderation is the key.

1. Increased Meal Frequency

Recommended 5-6 small meals a day.

Every time you eat, the food you ingest has an effect on your metabolic rate. This process is called the Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF). What this means is that your body has to expend energy to chew your food, swallow, move the food through the digestive system, etc. The amount of energy used comes nowhere close to the amount of calories that you are eating at a given meal, but it does “spike” your metabolic rate.

Why is that important?

Because your resting metabolic rate is responsible for 80% of the calories you burn on a daily basis. So anything you can do to keep that elevated will benefit you. Furthermore, the more often you eat the less you will eat for each meal, which will keep the total number of calories ingested each day at lower levels.

2. Consume Low Carbohydrate Foods

Be aware of the high starch foods that you consume. You should continue to eat non-starchy carbs in the form of green vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, spinach, bell pepper, tomatoes, etc.). Please don’t confuse these statements with the “Atkins Diet.” I am not saying that you eat just protein and fat. Carbohydrates are still important to your diet and supply you with much needed energy to maximize your efforts during a workout. You simply must discontinue consuming foods that convert to sugar rapidly in your body. The main reason for doing this is insulin.

Whenever your blood sugar is high, insulin is secreted by the pancreas to remove the sugar from the blood. It does this primarily by converting the sugar to fat and storing it in the adipose tissue. More importantly, insulin inhibits the body’s ability to use stored fat as an energy source. Thus, when you consume a high carbohydrate, starchy diet your body is storing excess sugar as fat, and preventing you from burning that stored fat. In other words, you could be exercising daily and still not seeing any results from your hard work.

3. Eat More Fish or Use a Fish Oil Supplement

Recent studies show that individuals that consumed fish oil lost significantly more body fat than those that were given a placebo. Researchers have not determined the mechanism that facilitates accelerated fat loss, but all the evidence supports the fact that it does improve the amount of fat loss in those individuals that consume fish or a fish oil supplement. It is important to note that both groups in all studies also exercised. They made sure that all subjects did the exact same amount of physical activity. Remember exercise combined with proper nutrition is still extremely important for reaching your goals.

Start implementing these three simple steps to improve your diet and you will start seeing some visible results. The ball is in your court now. Remember that exercise is equally important to your goal, and especially resistance training because it helps promote lean muscle gain and increases your metabolic rate. If you’re not currently exercising or using resistance training in your exercise routine a fitness professional can help you design a safe and effective resistance training program.

Baked citrus orange roughy and fresh green beans

Orange roughy is definitely my favorite white fish.  Great flavor and texture, with little to no “fishy” scent.  Tonight I combined my fish with some fresh baked green beans….  Mmmm!  Another easy, clean, and healthy meal.  Won’t you join me?!

To your health,

Clint Barr

Raising The Barr, Inc.
103 W. Washington Street #B4
Ridgeland, MS 39157

Whether you’ve trained with me in that past or you are currently training with me then you know that I don’t put you through a lot of stretching exercises during our workouts.  What I like to do is put you through the full range of motion of an exercise so that we can increase the mobility of a joint.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stretch!

Stretching your muscles regularly can give you many benefits and should be a part of your daily exercise routine.  Some of those benefits include:

• Improved circulation
• Better posture
• Relaxation and stress relief
• Enhanced muscular coordination
• Reduced risk of injury

There are several ways to incorporate more stretching into your physical fitness program including yoga and pilates, which will also strengthen the muscle.  At a minimum you should be stretching at least 3 days per week, and especially after a strenuous resistance training session.

Take 30 minutes every day to stretch your muscles and see how much better you feel.

Need help with a stretching routine?  Give me a call at 601-201-3823.  I would be glad to answer your questions.

Yours in health,

Clint Barr
Raising The Barr, Inc.
www.bestjacksonpersonaltrainer.com

One of my clients asked me if the new grilled chicken was healthier than the fried chicken, so I did a little research. Here’s what I found:

• The Original Recipe Breast (1) has 370 calories, 21 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 1050 mgs of sodium, 7 grams of carbohydrate, and 38 grams of protein
• The New Grilled Breast (1) has 180 calories, 4 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 440 mgs of sodium, 0 grams of carbohydrate, and 35 grams of protein.

So, as you can see KFC’s new grilled chicken is a healthier choice. But did you know that there is an even healthier choice right at KFC. And this is a very simple way of reducing calories and fat from something that might otherwise have been harmful to your goals.

• If you remove the skin from the Original Recipe Breast you will only be taking in 140 calories and 2 grams of fat, while still getting ample enough protein.

What’s my point?

Do your due diligence! Don’t take everything for face value. Marketing is supposed to make you think and act a certain way, so make sure you do your research.

Another valid point that I want to make here is that you must exercise portion control. If you were to get the two piece meal grilled, with coleslaw and a biscuit you would be taking in 680 calories. And that is not counting a soft drink if you get one, which can run anywhere between 240 and 800 calories alone. This includes the lemonades and sweet tea as well.

A better meal would be one Original Recipe Breast with the skin removed, a side of green beans, and water.  Just 205 total calories.  Plus you get the combined thermogenic effect from eating a protein and a green vegetable together. BONUS!

Now, I am not saying that we should all go on the KFC diet. Ultimately, I would rather you buy fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts and fresh green beans from the grocery and cook it yourself. This is just one example of how you can make better choices when your “choice” is limited. All it takes is a little research on your part.

Exercise more, make smart nutrition choices, and watch your body shape transform.

Yours in health,

Clint Barr
Raising The Barr, Inc.
www.bestjackonpersonaltrainer.com

One of two things will occur. Either it will disappear over the next couple months, which would be the best case scenario, or it will turn into the pandemic that all the news stations would make you believe it is already.

Could this thing get bad? Of course. So don’t misunderstand what I am about to say.

Of the 27 million people that live in the world’s most populated city, only 149 deaths have been reported as of yesterday. And there have only been 2,000 reported cases.

That’s not even 0.00001% of that cities population that have either died or been infected.

Now I know what you are thinking, because the media is using the exact same reason to fuel this ratings fire already…

…you’re thinking that because it’s Mexico they’re not equipped to handle all the cases, therefore all of them could not be reported yet.

A valid point, but let’s not go empty the shelves at the super market just yet.

Right now you should just be keeping an eye on this thing.

And in the mean time ask yourself this question?

Is your immune system up to the challenge?

Well just in case it’s not, here are a few tips that you can use right now to start bolstering your immune system and making it stronger:

1. Wash Your Hands. This is quite simply the easiest thing you could be doing to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. If you’re in a public place without the capability of washing your hands, make sure you don’t rub your eyes or nose, and keep from touching things and putting them in your mouth (i.e. Food) until you’ve had the opportunity to wash your hands.
2. Make Sure You Are Getting Plenty of Sleep. You should be getting on average about 8-9 hours of sleep per night for optimal health, but at the very least you should be getting 6-7 hours every night.
3. Start Eating Healthier. Try getting more immune boosting foods that contain Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and Beta Carotine like fresh fruits and green vegetables. You also want to be getting your daily dose of Omega-3′s from things like fish and nuts.
4. Exercise On a Daily Basis. Did you know that moderate intensity exercise in the form of resistance training can actually increase your immune system function? Combining 3 days per week of resistance training with 6 days per week of cardiovascular training can have your immune system functioning at optimal levels and almost ensure that you can fight off even the nastiest of “bugs.”

Now, although I can’t help you with the first two on this short list, I can help you with the last two with your very own nutrition plan and exercise program.

Contact me today to schedule a no obligation, complimentary nutrition and fitness assessment so we can determine the best course of action for your immune boosting plan and ultimately YOUR HEALTH!

Yours in health,

Clint Barr
Raising The Barr, Inc.
www.bestjacksonpersonaltrainer.com

P.S. Do you know whether or not your immune system is equipped to handle this impending flu outbreak? Contact me today so we can get started bolstering your immune system so you never have to wonder!