Based on my last blog entry, you know that no matter what your New Year’s fitness resolution(s) are, it all boils down to…increasing your lean body mass and decreasing fat pounds.  You also gathered from my last blog entry that to accomplish this feat…one must use a three pronged attack paying attention equally to resistance training, cardio training and nutrition. But to digress, your first action step is to get your body fat tested to know where you are starting from. Basically, breaking down your scale weight into lean body mass pounds and fat pounds. I would only recommend hydrostatic weighing in a fitness lab or using quality skinfold calipers and a quality tester. DO NOT use BMI!

Now your goal is to bypass stupidity and start on your three pronged attack.

1) Resistance training- resistance training is the one activity that directly leads to lean body mass increase. Most people understand that, but to further explain the how, remember that every cell has a powerhouse called the mitochondria and mitochondria are directly tied to your metabolism. When you strength train, you add more lean body mass, thus adding more cells and more mitochondria. The more mitochondria you have the better off you will be burning calories at rest.

2) Cardio training- Cardio training is your calorie burning, fat oxidation activity. It does nothing for your metabolism like possessing high lean body mass. So your goal is to use cardio workouts specifically for calories out in the old Calories in vs. Calories out equation. Look at frequency, intensity and duration to keep your body guessing and also to keep you interested. Explore true Interval Training if you would like to speed up the process. This advanced type of cardio training actually stimulates your mitochondria to use oxygen more efficiently and burns more body fat stores as energy.

3) Nutrition – nutrition plays a much bigger role in accomplishing fitness results than most people think. In terms of getting measurable fitness results, use clean-eating as your basis of nutrition. Think of quality foods, natural foods, organic foods but ingest them as fuel for your workouts. Keep the size of the meal smaller than normal, but add more meals – up to 6 per day eating every 2.5 to 3 hours and always have some lean protein with each meal. Then plan a cheat night or even cheat day to throw your body off and then go back on the clean eating again. Concentrate on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, beans, nuts and seeds, and organic dairy choices as your core foods

Resistance training frequency – 2-4 times per week / Cardio training frequency – 3-5 times per week / Nutrition meals – 5-6 per day 200-500 kcals above your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

For further explanation of this blog content, contact Duane Seybold at duane@flexfittraining.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.