February 2011 - The Training Room is taking Small Group Training to a new level.
TRX Suspension Training + Kettlebells = an ultimate workout
The Training Room strives to help clients maintain a balanced fitness routine that fits well with their personal and professional lives. By combining strength training and metabolic circuits in one 60-minute workout, your body will get more bang for your buck.
TR owners Heidi Brown and Maren Kravitz have created a 6-week progressive training program with these two versatile pieces of training equipment for a total body workout that can be easily integrated into your local gym or at-home routine.
Why spend countless hours on cardio machines in conjunction with 3 sets of 12 repetitions on every weight machine in the gym? You can be more efficient combining training styles, working harder for less time. Change it up – spend the extra time working on preparing healthy meals that will help to give you the change in physique or increase in strength that you daydream about while reading the latest fitness-crazed diet fad on the elliptical.
out with the old… in with the new!
What is TRX Suspension Training? Suspension Training bodyweight exercise develops strength, balance, flexibility and core stability simultaneously. It requires the use of the TRX Suspension Trainer, a highly portable performance training tool that leverages gravity and the user’s body weight to enable hundreds of exercises for every fitness goal.
What is Kettlebell Training? Take a cast iron cannonball, add a handle, and you get the extremely efficient fitness tool that originated in Russia. Kettlebell training has quickly become a staple of functional training in the fitness industry. Most commonly associated with a “swinging” movement, these unique tools allow you to perform a variety of total body and core strengthening exercises with just one piece of equipment. Help increase your cardiovascular endurance while building strength and burning calories!
Three separate weekly sessions will be offered:
-Tuesdays @ 6:15pm – 7:15pm
-Wednesdays @ 7:30pm – 8:30pm
- Sundays @ 11:30am – 12:30pm *6 participants per class, must attend the same day/time each week
Since the article seemed to bring up a lot of questions, I wanted to take a minute to analyze the study and explain my thoughts on the topic. Please note that I am a little “behind the times” (no pun intended) on this post, as the article was written during the holiday season, but I feel that it is a topic that should be considered all year round.
If you don’t want to take the time to read through the article in full, here is a synopsis:
A new study published in the Journal of Physiology suggested that exercising before breakfast (i.e. in a fasted state) will significantly lower your chances of gaining weight and becoming insulin resistant.
THE STUDY: In the study there were three different groups of 7-10 healthy, active young men: Group 1 would not work out and they would eat a diet composed of 50% more fat and 30% more calories overall. Group 2 would complete a rigorous workout 4 times per week. Before their workout they would eat a hefty, carbohydrate-rich breakfast and drink a carbohydrate rich sports drink during their workout. Group 3 would complete the same rigorous workout 4 times per week. They would not eat anything before their workout, and then would eat the same hefty, carbohydrate-rich breakfast after the workout was complete.
THE RESULTS: Group 1 gained weight and became insulin resistant. Group 2 gained less weight than group 1, but still gained and also became slightly insulin resistant. Group 3 gained close to no weight and did not become insulin resistant.
THE CONCLUSION: Working out before breakfast (in a fasted state) means you are less likely to gain weight and become insulin resistant.
I have a few problems with the study itself, before I get into my concerns with the actual analysis of the study. First of all, a 28-person sample size is far too small to draw such generalized conclusions. Not to mention the group was all male, and the article is written for both male and female readers. The study was also only 6 weeks long which is really not enough time to track any sort of long term effects of the methods they were using. Also, the general diet of the group members seemed very arbitrary. They increased the amount of calories that they had already been consuming by 30 percent, rather than having everybody in the group take in the same amount of calories each day. This left each member’s diet (besides the specific breakfasts) to be very ambiguous. A person eating donuts and pasta all day would see different results than a person eating grilled chicken and vegetables – whether they exercised before breakfast or after! The article said there was a 50% increase in fat, but there are very big differences between types of fats (ex. trans fats are known to be very bad for you, whereas mono- and poly-unsaturated fats are very good for you.) Not specifying which types of fats the men were consuming more of was also a mistake in my opinion.
With all that said, my main concern with the analysis of this study is that they seemed to jump to the main conclusion, that you should exercise before eating, without looking further into the real reasons that group 2 gained weight and group 3 didn’t. At first glance, after seeing the results, it seems perfectly logical to conclude that workouts on an empty stomach are more beneficial than workouts after eating. However, food choice was not taken into consideration and this is where I feel the analysis of the study went wrong.
There is a big difference between the way your body processes carbohydrates and proteins.
carbs and proteins are not created (or metabolized) equally!
In the study, groups 2 and 3 were both eating high-carbohydrate meals for breakfast. Carbohydrates are a very good source of energy, and therefore when you eat a high-carb meal and then workout, your body will use the readily-available energy from the ingested carbohydrates for fuel. This means that during your workout, you will only be burning off the carbohydrates that you just ate, and not using any stored energy (fat) to fuel the workout. Group 3 went into their workout without any carbohydrate “fuel” and therefore used stored energy during their workout. This made their workout more effective because they were burning off stored fat, rather than ingested carbohydrates. Another reason they did not gain weight from the high-carbohydrate meal after their workout is because your metabolism is in an elevated state after an intense workout. This means that the carbohydrates after a workout are metabolized more efficiently than they would be before a workout, and therefore do not get stored as fat in the body.
Now, I realize that all of this information is still suggesting that it would be best to workout before eating. However, the one BIG thing that was left out of this study was any inclusion of protein in the groups’ diets! Like I said before, not all food groups are alike. Ingested proteins (such as eggs, lean meats, Greek yogurt, etc.) are not a good source of immediate energy, and if eaten before a workout, will not likely be able to provide the fuel or energy that the body needs. Therefore, if you eat a protein source before a workout, your body will still need to go after previously stored energy (*fat*) for fuel. If you then eat carbohydrates after your workout, your metabolism will be in an elevated state and will burn those calories faster.
People have different preferences as to whether they like to eat before a workout or not because of how it makes them feel. Some people don’t like to eat beforehand because it makes them sick to their stomachs and they don’t feel that they work out as effectively. However, others feel that they need something in their stomach before embarking on an intense workout and this is just fine! In that case, it is my suggestion that you do not skip out on breakfast or work out on an empty stomach, but rather choose your food source wisely. Pick a protein-rich breakfast such as eggs or protein shakes/smoothies. Since eggs are pretty self-explanatory, here is a quick and easy smoothie recipe that I like to use for a pre-workout meal:
Strawberry Vanilla Smoothie:
YUM!
One scoop vanilla whey protein powder
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup low-fat or fat-free milk
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp ground flax seed (high in omega-3 fatty acids)
Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. It’s delicious, nutritious, and a perfect option for a pre-workout morning meal! Enjoy!
Happy New Year everybody! I hope everyone had a fun, safe and healthy holiday season!
Taking a look back at 2010 as a whole, we have seen some amazing things from our clients at the Training Room. Our whiteboard has been filled with goals set and goals met. These included losing body fat, competing in athletic events, achieving new personal records for lifting weights and more. Everyone who has stepped into the TR has made an impact on themselves and those around them by improving their health and for that they should be extremely proud.
With that said, if the Training Room was to name a “client of the year” Kelly D. would most definitely be in the running. Kelly came to me at the end of May, 2010 with a pretty lofty goal – to lose a total of 60lbs in 2010. By the time she came to the Training Room she had already lost about 20 lbs on her own by starting on a weight watcher’s diet plan. With 40 lbs to go in 7 months, I knew it would be tough, but possible with proper training and nutrition combined with Kelly’s determination to reach her goal.
I addressed Kelly’s nutritional habits first because as hard as I trained her in the gym, she would not have made the kind of progress she was looking for without also fixing her diet. I could have taken the easy way out and decreased Kelly’s caloric intake to 1000 calories a day with no carbs, no sugar, no fat, etc (with starvation being the only sacrifice.) This would have been a sure-fire way to see that Kelly lost the weight. This would have also been a sure-fire way to see that as soon as she hit her goal weight, she would gain everything right back.
One of the main reasons rapid weight loss techniques never work is because rather than making lifestyle changes, people make temporary changes in order to lose weight as quickly as they can. What ends up happening is that once the person loses the weight, they fall right back into their old habits because they didn’t actually learn how to be healthy, they just learned how to lose weight quickly- and these are NOT the same thing.
In order to make true lifestyle changes, I asked Kelly to adjust one eating habit each week. This is a much more manageable method than trying to do a complete overhaul. Kelly explained the process well, saying:
“In the beginning, instead of eliminating several “bad” things from my diet right away Lauren made a plan that included small changes in increments – first just changing my “Chai and Bagel” breakfast routine and then looking at ways to increase protein, decrease processed carbs, increase fruits, veggies and whole grains, and manage calories.”
Bagel: BAD breakfast choice
Eggs: FABULOUS breakfast choice
Even though Kelly had lost some weight on the weight watcher’s diet, she had not learned anything about her poor nutrition habits. By making habitual changes, eating well stopped feeling like work and started feeling like her normal day to day routine. Kelly’s compliance and dedication to changing her eating habits were incredible and a huge attribution to her success.
The rest of Kelly’s success came from her hard work in the gym. Though she was an athlete in high school and part of college, Kelly was admittedly very out of shape and hadn’t seen a gym in quite some time. In the 7 months she has been with us at the Training Room, she has turned into a workout machine. Kelly wasn’t afraid to lift heavy weights and work extremely hard to attain her goal. Many people – women in particular – have an aversion to lifting heavy weights in fear of “bulking up.” These misguided fears are derived from images in body building magazines of women who take steroids and/or testosterone injections. In reality, women do not typically have high enough testosterone levels to “bulk up” like that, and lifting heavy weights is the best way to speed up metabolism, burn fat, gain lean muscle mass, and look great! Kelly took my advice to focus the majority of her workouts on weight training and it paid off. Not only did the weight start falling off, but she actually had fun in the process! She added,
Another major lifestyle change is that I *gasp* enjoy working out! I like how I feel after working out and I like taking time to focus on doing something for myself. I used to think that you have to run or jog to lose weight. I had no idea how fun and effective weight training could be.
Watch Kelly in action in the videos below. These are just a couple examples of how far she has come and how much strength she has gained.
It should definitely be noted that while Kelly was going through this major transformation, she did not have the luxury of spending every waking moment focusing on her weight loss. Between working full time, going to graduate school part time, and having a social life, Kelly was extremely busy. A crazy schedule like hers often leads people to make excuses and to fall off the wagon, but I never heard ONE excuse from Kelly. She had committed to putting her health first and she never wavered on that commitment, no matter how busy life got.
When asked what has made the process of losing so much weight a little easier, Kelly answered,
Ever since I first walked in to the TR, I have felt welcome and supported. The co-owners, my trainer, other trainers and even other clients give encouragement and I truly feel like there is a team of people committed to my success.
But even with all the support in the world from the TR and her husband Ryan (who was amazingly supportive and kept an eye on Kelly for me when I couldn’t be there to see what food choices she was making!), there were still challenges along the way that tested Kelly’s willpower. When asked about her biggest challenges, she responded,
I have really changed my eating (and drinking!) habits and learned healthier ways to enjoy food – but I still have a tough time with parties, holidays and group get-togethers where the “old Kelly” would stand around the food table and shamelessly pick at the hors dourves.
But more often than not, Kelly made the right choices in and out of the gym which is how she managed to go from the “Old Kelly”:
Kelly in December, 2009
To the “New and Improved Kelly”:
The pants that Kelly was wearing in the "Old Kelly" picture!
By the time January 1, 2011 came around, Kelly had lost a total of 58lb in one year. Though 2lbs short of her goal, it is most definitely an incredible accomplishment! Kelly’s journey is not over and with a new year comes new weight loss goals. Kelly says her main motivations are,
To be healthy, feel good, look good and also to prepare my body for a healthy pregnancy sometime in the future.
So, here is to Kelly and all of you who have accomplished your goals in 2010! Congratulations and good luck on all your endeavors in 2011!
