Saturday, August 29, 2009

Big Arm Friday!!

Hey Everyone,
Just a quick little post of my Friday workout, just in case you all wanted to try it. This routine is a little more old school, a break from my typical integrated movement workouts, focusing on isolated arm training. But I am a big believer in mixing things up, and using all the tools in your tool bag! So, enjoy!

MTS of The Week.... "Big Arm Friday"

A1 Barbell bicep curls 3 sets 10-12
A2 DB overhead press tricep extension 3 X 12-15

B1 Cable rope curls (hammer grip style)3 X 10
B2 Dips 3 X failure

C1 DB alternating curls 3 x 10
C2 Supine single arm tricep extensions (skull crushers)3 x 10

Keep Moving
Scott

Monday, August 24, 2009

The one that plans.....Wins!!

One of the most common questions asked of me is this, "can you show me some exercises that will blast my abs and give me that six pack"..... How many times have you asked that question or thought about asking that question yourself? And, my answer is always the same.. "I will be happy to crush your abs, and show you how to crush your own abs!........ but it is not really gonna matter if you continue to shovel that crap into your mouth, you will have strong abs, but never see them!

I think it is very conservative to say that 80% of your success in an exercise program will be determined by how you eat. Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain mass, or just maintain your current weight, I can promise you that achieving your desired result will be very difficult if not very improbable if you are not eating well. And when I say "well", that can mean many things. Eating to much, not eating enough, eating high fat foods, eating to many white starchy, processed foods, fried, covered in sauces and gravy, you name it, there are many ways to eat improperly.

The cool thing with nutrition is that it is really not to difficult.... as a matter of fact when I talk to people about nutrition I find out that they already know what they should be doing, what to eat, what not eat, etc. The hard part is actually doing it!!

People often give us a hard time at the gym when they see the personal trainers coming to work. Most of us are carrying 2-3 bags over our shoulders. We will have our brief case, our workout bag, and then usually a big lunch box or mini cooler full of food.

Planning your day is really the key to having a successful exercise plan. We live in a society of convenience. It is to easy to grab a snack out of a machine or run down to a fast food joint, and fill our bodies with toxic foods high in fat, sodium, and void of good nutrients that our bodies need to function efficiently.

Now, I don't always agree with bodybuilders in terms of training the body, but one thing you cannot deny is their discipline when it comes to nutrition. Bodybuilders literally take there food with them everywhere because they know that to achieve the desired body that they need to compete competitively they need to eat right and often, all the the time.

That same dedication and discipline needs to be applied to the "normal" everyday person as well. Here is where you will need to sit down and devise your own strategy that will work best for you. But, what I would recommend is sitting down Sunday afternoon and plan your meals and snacks for the week. Some of the meals can be pre-cooked on Sunday, stored in Tupperware, and then ready to pull out of the fridge and put into your lunch box.

Taking your lunch will not only save you some money in this tight economy, it will also insure that you have the proper meals and snack available to you so you will not have to resort to making a quick trip to a convenience store or fast food joint!

The take home message here is nutrition and getting in shape is an easy formula, but it is very very hard work!! I work in a gym environment where a lot of us are in very good shape and we work very hard to be that way. I hear people comment all the time that they want to look a certain way, but very few people want to hear that you have to bust your ass to get in great shape and then maintain that. You can look all day for that magic pill but you will never find it!! Nothing replaces discipline and hard work!!

Plan your week, execute your plan, be consistent ,disciplined, and work very hard and you will be successful!

Keep Moving
Scott

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Quick Tip

Hey Everyone,
Just a quick tip excerpt from the weight loss program(New You)that I am working on:

"Research shows that one of the most powerful ways to successfully change your eating habits is to keep a daily journal. By recording your food intake and exercise, you keep yourself accountable, and also gives you space to write down how your body feels after eating specific foods."

Keep Moving,
Scott

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Do You Eat Naked?

Hey Everyone,
Today I wanted to share with you an article from one of my favorite newsletters that I subscribe to. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
Keep Moving,
Scott



"Do You Eat Naked?"

By Todd Durkin, MA, CSCS, NCTMB, Founder of Fitness Quest 10


If I were the average Joe walking down the street, I probably wouldn't care so much about the eating habits of other people. However, as a personal trainer, dedicated and passionate about helping people transform their lives and bodies, I've built my professional life on health, fitness and human performance. This means that the cornerstone of all my work is a balance between proper nutrition and exercise - for me and my family, for my clients and for my team. So, forgive me, but I do care. I care a lot! Here's what got me thinking about your nutrition habits (more than I normally do).
The July/August issue of Fast Company (great magazine) includes an article on Darden Restaurants, owner of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc. Darden generated $6.7 billion in revenue last year by feeding 400 million meals in 1,770 restaurants. This is a giant restaurant company! You might be interested to know that even Red Lobster, home of popcorn shrimp and cheese biscuits, has decided to "revitalize" its brand to include what they call "stealth health." In other words, they are adding all new wood-fired grilling plus fresh fish menus reprinted twice daily.
I read this article and had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I said, "I'll believe it when I see it." On the other hand, I said, "That's it people - it's time to wake up and smell the coffee!" Come on folks, do the restaurants have to stop serving up a diet of salt, fat and sugar for us to make better nutritional choices?
The moment of truth has arrived. It's time to 'fess up to the big question. DO YOU EAT NAKED? I do as often as I can. Sorry to disappoint, but when I say, "naked," I mean food that is naked - not buried, covered up or disguised. Food that is fresh and nutritious and... well, naked!
My goal with this month's feature article is to persuade you to examine your eating habits, to say NO! to fast food, soda, processed foods, artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup and to say YES! to a lifestyle of healthy, nutritious and fabulous food. To do this, I'm not going to lecture you about the evil of fried and processed foods. I'm not going to scare you with details of nutrition labels that read like chemistry experiments (and food that probably tastes like one too). I'm not going to quote research about the effects bad food choices can have on your health. No, I've got a better idea.
I'm going to win you over from the dark side by reminding you of what you're missing. I'm not telling. I'm selling... and the timing is great. Who doesn't love summer eating? Go to your local farmer's market or roadside stand and check out the August bounty: tomatoes, corn, zucchini, peaches, cherries, apricots, blueberries, strawberries, figs... and the list goes on. As a guy from the Garden State, I gotta ask, "How can it get any better than Jersey tomatoes and sweet summer corn?"
Being from a large family with eight kids, meal-times were chaotic, and typically, the only things in abundance were kids, noise and food that would fill us up. But summer would eventually arrive, and with it came some of my favorite food and some GREAT FOOD MEMORIES from my childhood. The memory of driving with my dad in his blue Bonneville and pulling into the Red Top Farm Market on Route 70 (it's still there!) will be forever etched in my memory. Dad and I would gather as much as we could carry (and afford) and head home with our bounty. Later, if we were lucky, mom would make fresh strawberry pies...
When I was at The College of William & Mary, a group of us went on retreat to Haiti with Fr. Charlie Kelley, the head of campus ministry at the college. This experience was a powerful one for me for many reasons, but one particularly vivid memory is of the local women with baskets overflowing with exotic fruit they carried on their heads for the five-mile trip back to their homes. They fed their children from these baskets for a week. Years later, Melanie and I spent our honeymoon in Costa Rica. I couldn't possibly count the number of mangoes I ate on that trip. I couldn't get enough then, and I feel the same way now when we visit Hawaii. Tell me there's a breakfast buffet at our hotel, and I'm there for the mangoes and pineapples!
Today, Melanie and I are raising our family with less red meat and white starches than I may have eaten as a kid, and fresh produce is front and center in our meals at home. Just like you, we want to be role models for healthful eating and nutritious food choices so that our kids grow up to be healthy and strong. Nowadays, our naked foods-of-choice might be blueberries and strawberries piled high on morning oatmeal, fruit smoothies we make in our Jack Lalanne Power Juicer, a handful of fresh spinach and other veggies in an egg white omelet or sliced avocados on nearly anything! We eat a lot of fresh fish prepared simply in the oven or on the grill and our frig is always stocked with a big variety of fruits and veggies.
Chris Mohr, a registered dietitian and nutrition expert I have introduced to many of you through this newsletter and my tele-seminars, gives us an easy rule of thumb to use for selecting foods - "the less legs the better!" Brett Klika, our Director of Athletics here at FQ10, recently wrote about the dangers of "Franken-foods" - referring to the chemistry experiments many popular food items are. CLICK HERE to read Part I and CLICK HERE to read Part II of Brett's article. Paula Owens, author of The Power of 4, tells us to eat whole, unprocessed foods preferably organic. Sean Croxton, a nutritionist I have collaborated with on several projects, adamantly abhors all processed foods. I could go on and on. The advice is straightforward and the message is simple. The idea of naked food is just a way to keep us mindful that when we take the best of natural ingredients and cover them with sauce, bury them in layers of fat, salt, sugar and chemicals or process them to death and put them in a bag or a box - we've ruined them. Think about it.
Enjoy the month of August, for all its bounty and joys. Just around the corner are September and October, and I know what that means... acorn squash (almost as good as mangoes), apples, pumpkins... don't get me started! Eat naked. It's a reward in itself.


Peace and love,

Todd Durkin


Todd Durkin, MA, CSCS, is a personal trainer and massage therapist who motivates, educates, and inspires people world-wide. He is the owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, CA, where his wonderful team focuses on personal training, massage therapy, Pilates, yoga, sports performance training, and nutrition to help transform people's bodies, minds, and spirits. Todd trains dozens of NFL & MLB baseball athletes and provides motivational talks and programs to companies and conferences world-wide. Additionally, Todd is the Head of the Under Armour Performance Training Council. He has appeared in 60 Minutes, on ESPN, the NFL Network, and been featured in Sports Illustrated, Business Week, Prevention, ESPN the Magazine, Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Men's Journal, Stack Magazine, Self, Shape, Fitness, and the NY Times and Washington Post. Todd is the author of 27 DVD's on strength & conditioning, functional fitness, massage/bodywork, and business/personal growth. You can sign up for his FREE award-winning Ezine newsletter, the "TD TIMES", at www.FitnessQuest10.com or www.ToddDurkin.com.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

MTS of the Week 8/4/2009

The Anniversary Workout!
Well today is my 8 year wedding anniversary. So I thought I would give you all a gift. This is a full body routine emphasizing the pulling movements. It is gaurenteed to to kick your butt!! enjoy

1. Kettle Bell Snatch (3 sets of 10 each arm)
2. Kettle Bell plank row (3 sets of 8 reps each arm)
3. Free Motion (or any cable machine)squat -> row (3 X 12 reps)
4. Free Motion Alternating arm pulldown (3 X 12 reps)
5. Cable diagonal wood chop ( 3 X 12 reps)

Have fun and Keep Moving
Scott

"Life Is Motion"

"Life Is Motion"
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