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The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the entire world in how day to day activities are conducted. The impact extends to many who are on a health and fitness journey. In this new environment, many are quarantined and/or have less options with limited gym hours. The restrictions at the health facilities have led to more fitness enthusiasts coming up with creative ways to maintain their fitness levels in the comfort of their homes. There are many exercises and equipment that can be considered when deciding exercises to add to your workouts. The following three exercises are some of my favorites as they are convenient and/or inexpensive and most importantly, effective in getting results:

Pushup. This exercise was introduced to many of us in elementary school but it continues to be a great upper body workout during adulthood. This is a favorite of many as young kids. It’s one of the first introduction measure of strength. The cost? Free. The only equipment you need is your body, and it can be performed almost anywhere including at home while quarantined. When done properly, it targets the chests, triceps, shoulders and even engages the core. Only three sets of 12-15 reps needed to increase your muscle endurance and help you stay lean. No excuse for not getting a good upper body workout during a pandemic.

Jump Roping. Another favorite exercise that can be done without access to a gym is jump roping. Cost? Less than ten bucks. This is another exercise that can be performed without leaving your driveway. While it may not be best to jump up and down in the living room of your house/apartment, this can be done on a sidewalk or in the garage. Jump roping is also introduced during the adolescent years of most and in adulthood, it continues as an effective exercise. With only 15 minutes of your time on a daily basis, jump roping can contribute greatly to your overall cardiovascular fitness as it can become a very intense aerobic exercise. Those who are aiming to lose weight via a caloric deficit can use this exercise in addition to their diet to ensure weight loss.

Squats. The third favorite to include during your quarantined stage is the squat. Why this exercise? This movement is one of the most functional exercise you can do in that it translates well in improving typical movements throughout the day. How often do you squat daily? How often you’re picking up an item off the ground or sitting down on a chair or even getting up off the floor of your living room. Adding this movement/exercise will increase the capacity in performing all those moves we all take for granted on a day to day basis. You squat low enough, it not only targets the quads, there’s the added benefits of engaging the hamstrings and glutes and ultimately helping tightening those areas.

There you have it! Not even a pandemic can prevent you from working out. No gym? No fancy equipment? No problem. The comfort of our homes can serve as the location to come up with creative ways to maintain fitness levels. If no creativity, we can always go way back to memory lane and bring back the exercises from our adolescent years. Stay tune for the next post as I will help design a great aerobic workout to assist with weight loss…during a pandemic…in the comfort of your home.

Gaining weight is becoming a new normal that most expect throughout the course of their lives. Two-thirds of the U.S are considered overweight For many, they see the signs: clothes not fitting, daily movements becoming sluggish, and a vicious scale displaying a forever increasing number over the course weeks, years, and decades. Here’s a secret. You can reverse some if not all of the weight gain by understanding some of the reasons it happens. To fix an issue, you must identify the primary root cause. The biggest reason many gain weight? Consuming more than what the body needs.

Calorie control is about balancing what goes in and out. You consume calories and your body burns calories. If what goes in is more than what goes out, you will gain weight. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. If it balances, you will maintain weight. Simple math, right? While there are other factors, it is the primary component of weight management. There are many diets that boast to be the most effective at quickly shedding the pounds. There is the low-carb diet, the high-protein diet, and even the high-fat diet. There is some effectiveness in those diets especially in the short-term. The recommended diet is a calorie-controlled, well-balanced diet. Why? The body’s preferred source of energy is carbohydrate so the low-carb diet in the long run would not be beneficial and it does cause some sluggishness for some . A high-fat diet causes health issues to the heart. Additionally, fat has twice as many calories than carbohydrates per gram. You run the risk of gaining weight. The primary focus in a weight loss journey should be directed toward the cause of weight gain over the weeks, years, and decades of many people’s lives. That is excessing consumption of calories.

Dieting. Is it the worst health related term during a weight loss journey? Does it bring images of drinking plain, no-calorie water and eating celery sticks all day long? What if I told you that it is possible to lose weight and still eat? No…you really can eat and lose weight. This is not a myth among dieters. In the following, I will share some dieting tips to help reach weight loss goals while also having opportunities to eat real food.

Eat More. Yes. Eat more food. By more food, I am referring to more fruits, more vegetables, more baked and more boiled. Most in the U.S. are overweight primarily due to high-caloric diet. This poor habit consists of processed food with little to no nutritional value. The idea of eating more would focus on the foods that are concentrated with nutrients but have far less calories. For example, an apple can have anywhere from 50-70 calories depending on size and type of apple. However, a delicious slice of chocolate cake can have anywhere from 200-600 calories. One apple has far fewer calories than one chocolate cake, more nutrients to fuel the body and more importantly, can help in your effort to lose weight. If the focus is on healthier options which includes fruits, vegetables, wheat bread, wheat pasta, brown rice and many more, most of us would be able to eat without feeling like we are starving ourselves during our weight loss journey.

Exercise. It is so cliche as we have all heard some variation of the more you move, the more you will lose. You want to continue to eat? Let’s apply this concept. How about joining the gym and sign up for aerobic classes where you can easily burn 300-500 calories each visit. Don’t enjoy the gym? How about going to a park and riding a bicycle to help get the heart pumping and breaking a sweat for an hour. Select an exercise/routine that will work for you. How will the working out allow you to continue to eat? For some who are overweight, their daily caloric intake barely exceeds what they naturally burn. These individuals will not have to make a change to their diet as the calories burned through the workout would be sufficient to help lose weight over the long run.

Scheduled Eating. How will scheduling meals help with weight loss? Most of us live busy lives and don’t have a lot of time to commit to counting all the calories we eat. We also may not have the time to go to a gym for some exercise. What if your dieting strategy could be as simple as the time and frequency you’re eating? Schedule the time which you eat your meals. Why? Eating breakfast will kickstart your metabolism. After sleeping for eight hours, our metabolism is slowed. Having breakfast is the jump it needs to get started again. Another reason for scheduling your meals is that our eyes oftentimes get bigger than our stomachs after going too long without eating. This results in ordering too much food. This also will not help in the effort to lose weight. The scheduled eating will help eliminate those bad habits while helping you reach your dieting goal.

Eating and losing weight should not feel like they fit like water and oil. If fully understood, they can work well for all who want to lose a few inches. Some don’t enjoy the traditional route of fasting or dramatically depleting caloric intake. For those who prefer using food without the aggressive restrictions, one of these previous three strategies can help you not only get back on track to meet your weight loss goal, but also provide healthy options to sustain a healthy and ideal weight while still enjoying foods.

For majority of my 39 years of living, fitness has been a part of my life. When I hear friends or associates discuss how they can’t understand the reason for joining a gym or can’t understand what value joining the gym brings, it confounds me. I am more committed now more than ever to share with friends, family or whoever will listen to me the benefits that joining a gym can bring to their lives. This has led me to recommending three reasons (pick one) why signing up for gym will help (even if it’s temporarily) you reach your health & fitness goals.

Reason #1: Increased motivation toward health and fitness. You ever seen someone sign up for a membership at a gym and then all of sudden come up with all these fitness (and sometimes unrealistic) goals? There’s the lose-thirty-pounds-in-thirty-days goal. There’s the six-pack-in-a-few-months goal. The best one? The looking-just-like-a-celebrity goal. This increase in enthusiasm is brought on by the fact it is something new that can possibly result in something great. While this excitement doesn’t last for many, and many more quit within the first month, it is the possibility that you could actually transform your body and your health with a first step of joining a gym.

Reason #2: “Misery loves company”. We have all heard this phrase before. For many, it simply means some variation of “it is much easier to suffer when you’re suffering with others”. For gym goers, this applies. You are more likely to work out at the gym and suffer through the workouts surrounded by many strangers than you are to workout in the convenience of your home. If your hopes is to finally “take this workout thing” seriously, let this be a reason to join the gym.

Reason #3: You are paying for a service. Another reason why joining a gym can help you reach your fitness goal is due to having to pay for a service. This will not work for all. For those who are economically conscious, signing up for a gym is an incentive to actually use the facility since the alternative would mean a waste of money every single month. For those of you who hate losing money, go ahead and sign up. You might start working out.

There you have it! You can always find value in anything, right? Even in something like joining a gym. A long as you care for it, you’ll easily identify the benefits. If you can’t identify the benefits in joining the gym, you can always lean on friends (HangwithG) to help provide some motivation.

So you have signed up for a gym membership for the first time in your life.  You couldn’t wait til January like the rest of the world.  You want significant improvement in your fitness and health. What are the next steps? Here are three tips/recommendations I would advise all who are new to working out to improve on the typical experience of many gym newbies.

Sign up for the complimentary (or discounted) personal training session! When you first sign up for a gym membership, typically, it comes with a complimentary personal training session and sometimes with an initial discounted package that would also include training sessions.  This is something you should take advantage of! Will the personal trainer attempt to get you to sign up for more sessions? Yes.  However, as a new gym goer, it is extremely important to experience a workout with the guidance of a health professional. Why? This complimentary session typically includes a tour, questionnaire to help determine risk, fitness assessment, measurements, weigh-ins, and most importantly, you go through a workout while being guided on how to perform the exercises correctly.  Yes, more than likely, you will be exhausted and yes you will probably forget all the tips on correctly performing the exercises and number of reps and the length of the rests and number of sets and which muscles to work out but…you would have experienced what it is like to have a health professional guide you while also having a better understand of the value of a good workout.

Trick Convince a friend to join a gym with you. Why bring a friend along this journey?  Because the saying “misery loves company” applies here as well. If you’re not going to sign up for a trainer, it is much easier to suffer through the trials of performing exercises backwards, sideways and all types of wrong ways when a friend goes alone for the ride.  What is critical is to bring a friend with similar goals.  Through watching other gym goers, utube videos, and weeks (may months or years) of practice, you will improve in the art of working out.

Set goals and follow through. There is a reason you joined the gym.  Yes, you have met one goal of actually becoming a gym member.  However, once the initial excitement has waned, there needs to be a reason to continue to keep coming back.  So create realistic goals like losing 5lbs in a month or attending three aerobic classes per week or something small like a mile walk on the treadmill five days a week.  What to do after accomplishing those goals?  How about creating and achieving new and more challenging goals.

As a new gym member, it can be intimidating not knowing where to start in journey to a healthier you.  All the information related to health and fitness can be confusing.  However, sticking to a few tips/recommendations such as taking advantage of a complimentary workout session, identifying a workout partner and setting goals will help you off on a good start…until you adopt other tips and recommendations that will work well for you.

Why hire a personal trainer? Most who need or want help losing weight or reach a fitness goal would love the guidance of a health & fitness professional. There are many important factors for committing to such an investment. While I will not be listing every positive reason, I will provide my current top three on the next few posts beginning with today’s. The number one reason I think a personal trainer should be hired? How about the cliche ” to help you reach your health & fitness goal”.

Let me explain. Can you reach your goals using a gym or dieting on your own? Yes, you can. Can you use utube or fitness videos to guide you to your goal? Of course, most can accomplish goals with such resources. However, the expertise provided by a trainer can help you reach your goal more quickly. The health & fitness professional is the GPS that will get you to your destination using the hwy and tolls. Without that guidance, you can still get to where you’re going. You just might come across more red lights and construction during your ride there.

In my last post, I mentioned the challenges of staying away from delicious foods that are high in calories. Typically, these are the most delicious foods in life. Additionally, we also know that high calories are associated with weight gain. When most of us gain some pounds, we know what has occurred. This is a puzzle many of us know how to solve. However there are barriers. While some are able to consistently refrain from indulging in the greatness provided by food, some of us are not as disciplined. We may start strong and ready to be great and ready to take over the world and then we plummet head first into the pool of poor eating decisions. Over the years, I have used plenty of tips to help me not “overdo it” with my many cravings. It has not only helped me maintained an ideal weight over the years, but also helped me in reaching other fitness-related goals. One of my favorite tips? One that is very effective and also sustainable for most people? How about continuing to eat those high-calorie dishes.

This doesn’t make sense, right? How will eating foods that are high in calories help you maintain a healthy weight or even lose weight? Let me elaborate. There are many of us who can get on a diet plan and be disciplined for one week, two weeks, three or even four weeks. However, for many of us, continuing beyond a few weeks or a month is a challenge. The tip of continuing to eat foods that are high in calories should only be applied on a schedule. For example, if your previous diet included you eating poorly seven days a week, try creating a schedule to have two, three or even four healthy, lower-calorie days. This will result in a decrease in caloric intake when compared to your previous diet. This tip/plan is easier to sustain as you are still eating many of the foods you like but not quite as often. We all have to start somewhere, right? How about beginning with a plan that will last beyond a month.

Losing weight is a challenge. It is hard. I have had former clients who have helped me better understand this. Most know that healthy, clean eating and exercise will lead to a healthier, ideal weight. However, there is this thing that makes it very challenging year after year. It never fails. You would begin a new diet plan. You start off strong. One month. Two months, and then it rears its ugly head again. That damn thing better known as delicious food.

Is it impossible to overcome? No. But it is an everyday challenge to select healthier options when you’re surrounded by high-calorie foods everywhere you go. Not only are such food convenient, oftentimes they are cheaper than healthier alternatives. They also appeal to the palates a little more as they are typically sweetened and/or seasoned. Why have baked chicken when you can have one that has been fried, well-seasoned, and dripping delicious juices. How about choosing between a bowl of boiled carrots or a slice of warm carrot cake with icing on top? Which sounds appetizing? You sometimes hear friends and/or fitness enthusiasts utter “healthy food is delicious!” or “healthy food taste much better than regular food”. Such statements might be interpreted as LIES. How does one overcome this and not pay the price with your weight? Stay tune for the next post for some of the tips that have helped me over the years.

I once had a client I trained for several months. Let’s call him George. After a few months of training George, I noticed the workouts weren’t resulting in him reaching his initial goal of losing weight. As his personal trainer, I knew weight loss wasn’t the only factor when determining success of a workout plan. For two months, I hadn’t noticed significant measurable progress. At the end of the 2nd month, I decided to schedule a session where we would discuss effectiveness of plan and future direction. During the session, I had suggested to George that another trainer would probably work better as he and I hadn’t been successful. He responded and said that he mentioned weight loss as a goal initially due to thinking it would please me as a personal trainer. George also mentioned his diet was poor daily, he worked a lot of hours at his job, and dealing with his wife at home was like working additional overtime. Lastly, he mentioned his “real goal” was to ensure he maintained his current weight and not continue to gain weight as he had been the past several years. While it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, it was refreshing to get honest feedback on his eating habits and other factors contributing to the lack of progress. More importantly, it opened my eyes as a trainer in understanding not everyone wants to lose weight or has the time to commit to an improved fitness plan. Some may simply want to maintain current weight or current fitness level.

Let’s lose 5lbs in a month. Forget aiming to lose the more than 50lbs for the year. This is especially important for those who have a hard time committing beyond the first few weeks or first month. Why the 5lbs? Why one month? 50lbs is a bigger accomplishment for those who want to lose weight. The reason to go for the smaller goal? It’s an easier win and can help set you up for future bigger wins.

For those of you who have stayed strong and consistent with the New Year resolution to lose weight, have you noticed a big dropoff at the gym from the first couple weeks to now? Are you also close to quitting? Hopefully your answer is “no”. For many, it is a “yes”. Why is this? For some, it is a challenge to suddenly and consistently stop the poor eating habits or to start and maintain an exercise program. If making it past the first week of your working out is a struggle, don’t worry. You are not the only one. Many are overweight due to some poor eating choices and/or little to no exercise. Let’s try setting another more realistic goal. Just one month. Aim for 5lbs. Or try to exercise consistently for an entire month. Three days per week. Four days per week. Only one month. If you can last a month, if you can be consistent for 4 weeks, if you can be a little uncomfortable for about 30 days, you might be able to last two months. Each month is quite an accomplishment that can help lead to your 12-month goal.