Exercise of the Week: Swiss Ball Plank Roll Out w/Feet Elevated

Damage Control

Let's say you've been working out and eating pretty well on a consistent basis. Maybe you've been doing so because you have that one week of vacation coming up and you want to feel and look your best on your vacation. You want to feel good about yourself on the beach or hanging by the pool. Or maybe you're training for an event that's going to take place a few weeks after your vacation and you're afraid this vacation is going to set you back big time. That week of vacation could be the first week of the summer. Putting on five or so pounds during the first week of summer I do not think ever made anyone feel good.

So that week of vacation rolls around and what are you to do? You can try to keep things under control by eating somewhat right and getting some type of exercise in. Or you can just say, "Where's the food....and the beer?" Then you go ahead and consume nothing but beers, pina colada's and fried foods with the only exercise coming from dragging your beach chair through the sand.

So what are you going to do? Some people will say that there is no way to keep up with your at home routine while on vacation. There are too many temptations and who wants to exercise on vacation anyway? That's fine. But how are you going to feel about yourself when you come back from vacation and hop on that scale for the first time? Or you can be the other type of person who knows they may not keep up with their existing routine, but they can do some damage control while they are away. And it really isn't that hard if you do a few of the following things:

1. Pack some protein. It really isn't that hard to travel with some protein. Meal replacement powders will hardly take up any space in your luggage. And last time I checked it isn't illegal to cross the border with some protein powder. When you're away and feeling hungry or in danger of skipping a meal it's easy to mix up a shake in a blender bottle or use the actual blender for something other than alcholic beverages.



2. Don't skip breakfast. You're on vacation. You probably have plenty of time over the course of the day unless you're traveling with the ultimate tourist who does have you scheduled for everything. You have time for breakfast. You probably get up whenever you want. You might even be able to eat what ever you want. Find a protein source and a fruit or vegetable source and you're good to go. Just like at home breakfast sets the tone for your eating habits the rest of the day.



3. Do something you normally wouldn't do. You don't have to follow the same exercise routine that you're doing at home in order for it to count as exercise. You could do a body weight circuit. You could go mountain biking. You could go for a long hike. Just from a mental standpoint it's going to be a bit refreshing. Get out of your comfort zone a bit and do something. All exercise doesn't have to be sets and reps.



4. Pack for exercise. You do not need a ton of equipment to get a quality workout in. As I just mentioned you may not even need any if you just want to do some body weight training. If you would like to spice up that body weight training a few things that are easy enough to pack are: Valslides, Superbands , a jump rope and even a TRX. That stuff could pack in any bag or suitcase. Or if you're traveling by car you could even bring along a kettlebell or medicine ball. I'm guessing you could probably get a better workout in with that stuff than you could with some of the outdated equipment you will find at a lot of hotel gyms.



5. Be Menu Smart. I hear people blaming eating out frequently for all their weight loss troubles. And the tendency to eat out is probably going to be greater when on vacation. Sorry, I don't buy that excuse. Most menu's have something fairly decent you can eat. You usually have a bunch of options. You don't have to go with the creamy salad dressings, fried appetizers or piles of mashed potatoes that come with your meals. Ask for some extra veggies instead of the fries. Can't get the veggies? Then just pass on the fries. And I think most menus do not consist entirely of pizza and fried foods. Look for something grilled or broiled and some greens. It's not the menu that's usually the problem. It's your decision making that's the problem.

I know. You're hating me right now. I'm coming off as the fun police. I'm not saying you can't have fun on vacation. Just saying that if you're worried about packing on that "vacation five" that you can do something about it.

Exercise of the Week: Single Leg Squat w/Contralateral Load

Here's a way to load the single leg squat once you've been successful with the bodyweight version. Place a kettlebell or a dumbbell in the arm opposite the working leg. Some would go to a weighted vest after the bodyweight version, but let's assume you do not have access to a weight vest. Or if you want to get a little nuts you can use a weight vest and this contralateral load.

Exercise of the Week: Overhead Walking Lunge w/Hip Lift

This exercise of the week is a nice exercise to use as part of your dynamic flexibility training or warm up. It's an exercise that I took from Eric Cressey's Show and Go program. In addition to addressing hip mobility, particularly through the hip flexor and hamstring areas, it's a good exercise to help open up your shoulders. One key point is that when the hands go up overhead, really press the palm of one hand and the back of the other hand into each other. Doing so will produce a nice isometric contraction in your scapular stabilizers.

Exercise of the Week: Standing Rope Pulldown

Nutrition Tip of the Week: Be Prepared

So you know what to eat. You know how much to eat. You know when to eat. All this knowing is actually the easy part. Actually doing what you know is the hard part and it becomes even harder if you are not prepared. Dr. John Berardi says, "Sometimes good nutrition is not about the food as much as it is about making sure the food is available when it's time to eat". You can not expect to carry out good nutrition by just winging it. You have to have good foods available. You have to know what your next meal or snack is going to be. Even better you should know what your next 3-4 meals or snacks are going to be.

If you are looking for some magical preparation strategies there really is none. Good preparation strategies consist of habits such as: having a grocery list, cooking up some meals on Sunday for the upcoming week, getting up a bit earlier to make sure you're prepared for the upcoming day or maybe having some supplemental protein at your disposal.

Being prepared will help you develop consistency. Developing consistency will help you be successful.

Exercise of the Week: Prowler Chest Press

Just another use for the Prowler in addition to pushes and drags. This is an exercise that can be used on an active recovery day, as a high rep finisher at the end of a workout or part of a medley of exercises.

Nutrition Tip of the Week: Some Worthwhile Supplements

Before considering any supplement, take a look at your overall nutrition. If you are guilty of such things as skipping breakfast, not ingesting protein at each feeding or routinely passing on fruits and vegetables, supplementation may not be the answer to your nutrition issues. Aim to improve your nutrition before you search out for supplements. With that being said, people who are pretty good with their nutrition and are active on a regular basis may be lacking essential macro- and micro-nutrients. Or maybe they want to accelerate their fat loss, enhance recovery or bolster their overall health. In these cases you may want to consider one or more of the following supplements:

• Fish Oil: can help with cardiovascular health, joint health, cognitive function and fat loss.
• Protein Supplement: can help bring up your overall protein intake, which should be around 1g/lb of body weight for an active individual. Will also help speed up recovery.
• Multivitamin: can help bring up micro-nutrient deficiencies for optimal overall health.
• Greens Supplement: provides antioxidant support especially when regular fruit and vegetable intake is not optimal.
• Green Tea Extract: provides anti-oxidants along with the benefit of stimulating your metabolism.

To pick up one or more of these supplements check out Prograde.com.

Exercise of the Week: Staggered Push Up Walks w/Val Slides

Here's another hand walking variation that I finished off a workout with the other day.

Exercise of the Week: Val Slide Alligator Walks

I saw this Exercise of the Week done by strength coach Jason Ferruggia and just saw it recently performed by strength coach Tony Gentilcore. It's a great core stability exercise, a great shoulder stability exercise and a great exercise to finish off your workout with. A couple of different ways to use it as part of your program:

1. You can go for a set distance forward as one set.


2. You can go for a set distance forward and back, trying to make a couple trips.


3. You can go for time in one direction or both directions


4. You can go for reps. Take 3-4 steps forward with each hand and then reverse direction for 3-4 steps. Continue back and forth.

If you don't have a pair of Valslides around, no big deal. Just place your feet on anything that would slide along the floor.

Nutrition Tip of the Week: Eat Every 2-4 Hours

Accelerated Fitness Transformation Challenge

The challenge has been issued.

Accelerated Fitness will be starting it's first transformation challenge on March 14. Yes, it is a contest and there will be prizes awarded. But it's not just about a contest. It's not about what Charlie Sheen would call "Winning". It's about the challenge that you are about to impose on yourself. Can you dial in your nutrition and training for twelve weeks? Can you find the time to get that extra workout in over the course of the week? Do you have the willpower to say, "No, bread please".? It's time to stop telling yourself "I can't" or "I don't want to". It's time for some accountability.

Transformation Challenge Guidelines

•The challenge is open to everyone. You do not need to be a client of Accelerated Fitness in order to participate. If you know someone who might be interested please pass this information along. Long distance contetstants are welcome to join.
•There is no cost to participate. Maybe the cost of some mental anguish from time to time.
•The contest will run from March 14 to June 12. Please get me your before pictures by March 14. Yes, before and after pictures are involved. If you need help with your before and after pictures we can do them here at the facility. Also, if you would like to do body composition measurements we can take those at the facility also. Body composition measurements are not a requirement, but nice to have.
•There will be one judge, yours truly. First and second place prizes will be based on who has made the biggest change with their before and after pics. Oh yeah, there is a short essay required before the end of the challenge about what you have learned about yourself over the course of the 12 weeks. Get your pencils ready.
•One other requirement. Let's have some fun with this thing. If you're going to complain or be miserable for twelve weeks, I reserve the right to boot your *ss out.

If you have any questions please send an email to rich@acceleratedfts.com or call (781)538-6664.

Exercise of the Week: Feet Elevated Swiss Ball Push Up

Doing the Little Things

If we just did some these little things maybe we would move better, get stronger or have an easier time losing weight.

• Eat breakfast. I've read some stuff lately that suggests eating breakfast does not help with weight loss. And the numbers in these studies that the authors provide prove their point. That's all well and fine. But from what I see, people who eat breakfast tend to be leaner. I'm not going to provide you with any research, because I do not have any that proves my point. I just know what I see from the people I train, the friends I have and the people I talk to. Those who eat breakfast are leaner.


• Stretch. I love it when people debate about when to stretch, how long to stretch for and what type of stretching to do, when the fact is most people are not doing any type of stretching. Take 10-15 minutes out of your day to stretch if you want to move or feel better.


• Stop using the same side. What side do you carry your gym bag on? What arm do you use to walk the dog? What side is the mouse on? Probably the same side all the time. And it's probably the same side of your neck or the same shoulder that is hurting all of the time. Switch it up. Is this the root of your neck and shoulder issues? Probably not. But it sure isn't helping


• Get out of those heels. This is a classic. I'll listen to women complain about back or knee pain. I'll look down at their feet and they're wearing 2-3 inch heels that they barely could squeeze their feet into. So, I suggest it may be time to get out of those joint wreckers. "But I like to wear heels" is usually what I get back. Look good or feel good? Your choice ladies. Oh yeah, getting out of heels also means trashing your Nike Shox.


• Sleep. If you want to feel well or train well, you have to sleep. Seven or eight hours of a sleep a night is what you should be getting in. And the sooner before midnight, the better. Every hour before midnight is equal to about two hours after midnight. And who needs late night TV anyway? Conan? Not funny. Leno? Not funny. Letterman? Funny from time to time, but not funny enough to keep me up late.


• Eat some fruits and vegetables. Preferably more vegetables than fruits. But I know a lot of people are not even getting in at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, so just eat one or the other whenever you can. I've never known anyone to be less healthy or get fat from eating too many fruits and vegetables, excluding chocolate covered strawberries.


• Drink some water. Is there anything water is not good for? Probably not. I've even read that those who suffer from back pain could benefit from drinking more water. Could you drink too much water? Probably not, unless you have a long car ride planned. When drinking water becomes bad for you, let me know.


• Stand Up. The biggest culprit of shoulder, neck and low back injuries? Sitting. Over the last twenty years or so we have some how ingrained sitting as a new movement pattern. We sit down at breakfast.... if we're eating breakfast. We sit in our cars or cramped train on the way to work. We go sit down behind a computer or desk for a couple hours. We go to lunch and sit down. We go back to our desk and sit down again. We get back in the car or cramped train again and do what? Sit down. Should I keep going? It's no wonder people are moving worse than ever. Take the time to get up from your desk, go for a walk for lunch or do whatever you can to get tall and get extended.


• Get stronger. This tends to be what I always get back to when it comes to training or when talking to someone about starting up a new program. Your first priority should be to get stronger. Too many people are too weak. Too many people get hurt too often because they are too weak. Are you more likely to get hurt because you do not have enough cardio? Or are you more likely to get hurt because you have the strength of an eight year old girl? Or worse, can that eight year old girl can do more and better push ups than you?


• Stop Drinking. You want to get leaner? Those beers are not helping. Hey, if you're happy with the shape you are in, keep doing do what you're doing. Drink all the Bud's and Guiness you want. But if you have your mind set on a desired body fat percentage those empty calories and workout wrecking hangovers from a few too many wobbly pops have got to go. It's called a beer belly for a reason.

Basic Fat Loss Programming: Part Two

So in Part One, we went over your pre-workout foam rolling and stretching. From here we are going to progress into your dynamic flexibility and joint mobility warm up. This part of the workout has probably been the biggest change to most training programs over the last ten years. I remember just throwing a client on a treadmill or elliptical for 10-15 minutes thinking that was an effective warm up. It was nice to get the blood flowing and increase the core body temperature, but that's about it. Then the corrective exercise craze started and dynamic warm ups become popularized. In addition to increasing blood flow and core body temperature a dynamic warm up will provide more central nervous system stimulation and heightened mental awareness for the upcoming workout. You basically become more tuned into what is about to follow.

A dynamic warm up can be different for each individual and this is where corrective exercises can be placed. For instance someone that is suffering from chronic knee pain may want to emphasize some hip extension, hip abduction and mobilization of the hip flexor area. Or someone that is dealing with some shoulder pain may want to work on some thoracic extension, thoracic rotation and scapular retraction exercises. I would usually suggest performong 6-8 exercises as part of your dynamic warm up.

The video below samples a pretty basic dynamic flexibility/joint mobility warm up that coud be used for the typical individual: lack of hip mobility, stiff through the thoracic spine, maybe dealing with some low back issues and has a tough time squatting correctly. The exercises are:

1. Side Lying Thoracic Rotation


2. Cradle Walk


3. Heel Pull Back


4. Overhead Walking Lunge


5. Split Stance Broomstick Shoulder Mobilization


6. Squat to Stand

Perform about 8-10 reps of each exercise. It may take you a couple minutes longer initially, but once you get used to the exercises and transitioning of one exercise to the next the dynamic warm up should take you no longer than 8-10 minutes.

Now these are just exercises I would suggest using for the warm up portion of the fat loss program I am about to lay out for you. If you already have a dynamic warm up that works for you, great. If you want some other suggestions of exercises to include as part of your warm up there are plenty of great products out on the market today such as Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman's Assess & Correct or Mike Boyles Joint by Joint Warm-up and Training DVD.

All parts of your warm up are covered, time to move onto the part you are probably waiting for. Time for the fat to be burned.

Exercise of the Week: Single Arm TRX Row w/Rotation

Basic Fat Loss Programming: Part One

I would bet that for the general population at least 80% of you work out with fat loss being the number priority, especially this time of year. In other words you want to get "ripped" or "tone up". I would also bet that 80% of you are going about it the wrong way: worrying too much about how many calories you are burning, spending way too much time doing steady state aerobic work and using a set/rep scheme that is doing very little to elicit fat loss.

There are many theories about what a fat loss program should look like. There are also many advanced methods. Methods that may be beyond the scope of the general population and the scope of this post. What I want to do here is lay out a pretty simple template for you...the general population. Something that is not going to confuse the hell out of you, yet something that is going to be effective. Something that is not not going to require a ton of time, may be 60-75 minutes max with each workout. Something that is going to get you looking like The Situation, not like Snookie. So, let's move onto the programming.

I'm basically going to lay out a template for you with some suggestions for each part of the template. The template is going to consist of two workouts that can be used over the course of the week. You will alternate through each workout over the course of each week. For instance if you are going to perform two workouts per week, you will perform each workout over the course of the week. If you're going to perform three workouts per week, one week you will perform Workout A twice and Workout B once. The next week you will do Workout B twice and Workout A once. Got it?

Each workout will be divided up into four parts:

1. Foam Rolling & Static Stretching
2. Dynamic Flexibility/Joint Mobility
3. Strength work
4. Interval training or conditioning work

Today, let's cover Part One: Foam Rolling and Static Stretching.

I know the question you are asking right now is, "What the hell does foam rolling and stretching have to do with fat loss? Am I going to roll the fat off my body?". Nice idea, but "no" is the answer. It has to do more with training over the long haul. For any fat loss training program to be effective it must be performed frequently. You can not train frequently, especially with any intensity, if you are going to keep getting hurt. So foam rolling and stretching are going to lessen your chances of injury and and increase your chances of training frequently.

If you do not have access to a foam roller, go get one.


If your gym doesn't have a foam roller, go join another gym or ask them to spend the $18 to get one. Once you have your foam roller you're going to execute about eight patterns, spending about 20-30 seconds with each pattern. The areas I suggest working on are:

1. Quads
2. Hip Flexors
3. IT Band
4. Glutes/Piriformis
5. Adductors
6. Lats
7. Rhomboids
8. Calves
9. Thoracic Extensors

This should take you no more than 5-10 minutes. Foam rolling is going to set you up for your static stretching. The idea behind foam rolling or any other type of self myofacial work is to reduce the density of the muscles and facia, in turn making them more pliable when it comes time to stretch.

After you are done foam rolling you are going to perform your static stretches. Why are you stretching now? One, as I just mentioned your muscles are going to be a bit more pliable after working on the foam roller. Two, it just has to do more with what people tend to do. Put stretching early on in the workout and people are probably going to do it. Put stretching in at the end of the workout and people are probably going to head to the car early without getting in any stretching at all.

With the static stretching you want to address areas that are overly tight. For a good amount of people this will be the hip flexors, hip external rotators and the upper trap area. If there are some other areas that might be issues for you, you may want to address those. Below is a video of some stretches I will use prior to a workout.

Your foam rolling is out of the way. Your static stretching is out of the way. About 15 minutes has passed. Time to get moving. In Part Two, I will cover your dynamic flexibility/joint mobility warm up.