It happens every year. The inevitable holiday season rolls around and undoubtedly throws a wrench into your fitness....everything. You end up getting caught between the pumpkin pie and a 5 mile run. The turkey leftovers and your HIIT workout. Here are some tips to help you get thru this season
Here is your holiday strategy guide for staying fit and still eating what you want.
1.) Know what the holidays have in store for you. You will understandably be busier this time of year, the key is still sticking to your regime.
2.) Modify your workouts and implement more cardio/cardio strength training. Keep up with the lifting, you don't want to slip at all in your strength but you need to be burning the extra calories you will be taking in.
3.) Eliminate late night face stuffing. Eating two pieces of pie with whipped cream at 1130pm then passing out will stick with you. Get all your eating in earlier in the evening. Maybe a light jog afterwards.
4.) Get a workout partner, or get involved with a class based program. Its a scheduled program that you can devote time to and get in a routine. Better yet, if classes aren't your thing, higher a trainer that specializes in something new and interesting too you. Stimulate your brain as well as your body. You'll be less inclined to replace the workout days with lazy days.
5.) For me, fall and winter are the best times I can devote to getting stronger. Figure out where you want to be at strength wise by march and design your workout to get there. If you have no clue what to do, again, hire a trainer. You'll be much safer learning new exercises and packing on the muscle with the movements your trainer can teach you. Once March rolls around, check back to your goals you made now and measure yourself to then. Doing it in march will allow ample time to strip the fat youll acquire over the holidays just in time for shirtless season!
Remember, if you are going out to put size on, trust in a trainer. They can keep you safe, and give you the structure you need. There are pre-requisites involved with doing a proper Clean, Deadlift, Front Squat. A trained eye can spot any problem areas with a good prelim assessment, and correct them so that when you finally do get to your Power Cleans you wont be throwing your back out and slipping a disc.
Happy Holidays from Knockout Boxing and Fitness!
-J
Monday, December 8, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Women are weak........YEAH RIGHT!
Catchy title for this post eh? I wonder how many ladies came in here all pissed off like, "I am not weak! What does this guy know!?"
No women are most certainly not weak, however the general consensus is that women aren't overly strong either. This is also wrong. We've seen people come in with all types of limitations. From bad knees, slipped discs, hernias, week ankles all the way up to amputees, but by far the worst limitations a person can put on themselves is the notion that they cant do this or they cant do that. It's painful sometimes how people will sell themselves short. As a trainer, I'm pushing someone to be better then when they came thru my door. For women, lifting...and lifting heavy is something that can be down right terrifying and next to impossible.
"No thanks, I have my pink 5 pound weights that I curl 26 reps at a time"
....Please put the toy weights down madam and trust yourself some.
Women, not all women, but most want to look neat and toned. Not overly muscular, not rail thin, but somewhere in the middle. Lets keep the feminine figure. First off, ladies need to understand that high rep, low weight lifting is not the way to get toned. Its 100% a myth. On the flip side of things don't be trying to deadlift 600lbs...even I would not be walking away from that.
"There are two types of muscle tone ; myogenic and neurogenic. Don't get thrown off by the sciency words; the first simply refers to your muscle tone at rest. It is affected by the density of your muscles; the greater the density of your muscles, the harder and firmer you will appear. Heavy training increases your myogenic tone through the hypertrophy (growth) of the contractile proteins myosin and actin (myosin and actin are by far the most dense components of skeletal muscle).
The second aspect of a muscles' tone is neurogenic tone, or the tone that is expressed when movements or contractions occur. Again, lower rep training comes out on top as training with heavy loads will increase the sensitivity of alpha and gamma motor neurons, thus increasing neurogenic tone when conducting even the simplest of movements (i.e. walking, extending your arm to point, etc). " - Body Building.com
You don't need the 30 day squat challenge, Butt Burner workouts with so and so personal trainer you found in a bin at Wal Mart. You need compound movements like the deadlift and front/back squats. If you are a novice at lifting, and you're intimidated by the weights hands down the best way to learn is a hiring a personal trainer. You will learn the lifts, develop your technique as well as your strength and with the strength comes the confidence. Confidence that you CAN do it after-all.
So ladies, in closing. Lose the pink weights, the knee pushups and your squat challenges paper you got from a friend at work and put some time in with the Barbells and Dumbbells. Don't be afraid of putting another plate on each end, don't be afraid to progress. You CAN do it. You ARE strong.
-Keep calm, Punch Harder
Knockout Boxing and Fitness.
No women are most certainly not weak, however the general consensus is that women aren't overly strong either. This is also wrong. We've seen people come in with all types of limitations. From bad knees, slipped discs, hernias, week ankles all the way up to amputees, but by far the worst limitations a person can put on themselves is the notion that they cant do this or they cant do that. It's painful sometimes how people will sell themselves short. As a trainer, I'm pushing someone to be better then when they came thru my door. For women, lifting...and lifting heavy is something that can be down right terrifying and next to impossible.
"No thanks, I have my pink 5 pound weights that I curl 26 reps at a time"
....Please put the toy weights down madam and trust yourself some.
Women, not all women, but most want to look neat and toned. Not overly muscular, not rail thin, but somewhere in the middle. Lets keep the feminine figure. First off, ladies need to understand that high rep, low weight lifting is not the way to get toned. Its 100% a myth. On the flip side of things don't be trying to deadlift 600lbs...even I would not be walking away from that.
"There are two types of muscle tone ; myogenic and neurogenic. Don't get thrown off by the sciency words; the first simply refers to your muscle tone at rest. It is affected by the density of your muscles; the greater the density of your muscles, the harder and firmer you will appear. Heavy training increases your myogenic tone through the hypertrophy (growth) of the contractile proteins myosin and actin (myosin and actin are by far the most dense components of skeletal muscle).
The second aspect of a muscles' tone is neurogenic tone, or the tone that is expressed when movements or contractions occur. Again, lower rep training comes out on top as training with heavy loads will increase the sensitivity of alpha and gamma motor neurons, thus increasing neurogenic tone when conducting even the simplest of movements (i.e. walking, extending your arm to point, etc). " - Body Building.com
You don't need the 30 day squat challenge, Butt Burner workouts with so and so personal trainer you found in a bin at Wal Mart. You need compound movements like the deadlift and front/back squats. If you are a novice at lifting, and you're intimidated by the weights hands down the best way to learn is a hiring a personal trainer. You will learn the lifts, develop your technique as well as your strength and with the strength comes the confidence. Confidence that you CAN do it after-all.
So ladies, in closing. Lose the pink weights, the knee pushups and your squat challenges paper you got from a friend at work and put some time in with the Barbells and Dumbbells. Don't be afraid of putting another plate on each end, don't be afraid to progress. You CAN do it. You ARE strong.
-Keep calm, Punch Harder
Knockout Boxing and Fitness.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Bored? Diversify your workouts.
I think everyone can agree that at some point in our fitness endeavors, we have gotten outright bored with our routine and then we start slacking off. Three weeks of that and your abs or your ass don't look quite as good. But you cant help it you tell yourself, youre bored of what youre doing and you need a change. But to what? What is going to stimulate you mentally and physically?
Realizing you are bored or you are stagnating with your current workout is key, and you can mix up what you are doing. But you need to be smart with it. Know your goals and design a program based off of that. You can diversify your workouts and still keep the same goals. Its just a different road to the same place. What does that "different road" do for you if it takes you to the same place? It creates neurological stimulation for you that will translate, if executed through the right program, to some significant physical gains.
A simple example would be toning for women. The go to thing for women to tone up is.........RUNNING! WooooooOOOOOO. That's awesome, for about 2 months then that gets boring....but youll keep doing it because, yes you will lose some weight and tighten up. And eventually reach the plateau everyone encounters. Typically, people will add miles and miles onto their routine, putting their joints through hell even longer just to try to see more gains. Eventually you just end up running your muscle off so theres nothing left to tone. That's if you don't develop shin splints, knee/back problems from improper running technique. But I digress.
Instead, what you can do is change up how you do your cardio. Boxing/Kickboxing for example is a great alternative AND....neurologically stimulates your brain so you are generally interested and...enjoy your new workout. You can keep your running, but limit what you do with it. Don't over train. As anyone that comes to Knockout and has enrolled in our Cardio Program, they will tell you we have thousands of ways to wear you out cardio wise...none of which will throw away the muscle you need to be healthy and look your best. Variations even from workout to workout keep your body and mind stimulated and keeps our clients in great shape.
Don't be afraid to change stuff up, you'll be glad you did!
Knockout Night, July 25th @ Schaefers Canal House in Chesapeake City, MD. Jonathan will be there around 730-8pm ish.
Outty 5000 take it Easy.
Realizing you are bored or you are stagnating with your current workout is key, and you can mix up what you are doing. But you need to be smart with it. Know your goals and design a program based off of that. You can diversify your workouts and still keep the same goals. Its just a different road to the same place. What does that "different road" do for you if it takes you to the same place? It creates neurological stimulation for you that will translate, if executed through the right program, to some significant physical gains.
A simple example would be toning for women. The go to thing for women to tone up is.........RUNNING! WooooooOOOOOO. That's awesome, for about 2 months then that gets boring....but youll keep doing it because, yes you will lose some weight and tighten up. And eventually reach the plateau everyone encounters. Typically, people will add miles and miles onto their routine, putting their joints through hell even longer just to try to see more gains. Eventually you just end up running your muscle off so theres nothing left to tone. That's if you don't develop shin splints, knee/back problems from improper running technique. But I digress.
Instead, what you can do is change up how you do your cardio. Boxing/Kickboxing for example is a great alternative AND....neurologically stimulates your brain so you are generally interested and...enjoy your new workout. You can keep your running, but limit what you do with it. Don't over train. As anyone that comes to Knockout and has enrolled in our Cardio Program, they will tell you we have thousands of ways to wear you out cardio wise...none of which will throw away the muscle you need to be healthy and look your best. Variations even from workout to workout keep your body and mind stimulated and keeps our clients in great shape.
Don't be afraid to change stuff up, you'll be glad you did!
Knockout Night, July 25th @ Schaefers Canal House in Chesapeake City, MD. Jonathan will be there around 730-8pm ish.
Outty 5000 take it Easy.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Summa Time
Curious things happen at a gym throughout the year. Different things set off reactions and trends. Holidays, weather, and season changes are the biggest. I've been in the fitness industry for close to 8 years now and every year I see the same trend that happens right around this time of year....And that is gym attendance.
Right about now is when the people who enrolled in, or started working out in January and February start flaking out of their routines. You see it in every gym, albeit not as much at Knockout as say, Planet Fitness or something. Even still though, it pains me to see people lose motivation and drive right when they can really start making some significant progress with themselves. We've all heard the random fitness facts about how working out or being active increases such and such things, and for the most part I've found that most of these things hold true, but they don't happen overnight...Maybe, if you're lucky they can start manifesting in around a month (typically happens only to athletes that are active but trying a different approach) but...if you are a 1-2 times per week gym goer, these results wont appear for at least 2-4 months. Significant weight loss, significant or, rather, noticeable strength gains, etc take much longer to break into and if you started your journey in the beginning of the year, then start slacking now...you are effectively throwing away everything you've worked for over the past couple months. From experience, the 4-6 month time span since you've consistently began working out are the most crucial times for progression. Don't stop now! Now is when you should be progressing from the basics to the intermediate level movements and weights and overall difficulty. Now is when you really start seeing differences in yourself, and so will others. Whether its fitness, or fighting, you cant stop now.
#cantstopwontstop
Knockout Boxing FTW! Have a great weekend!
Right about now is when the people who enrolled in, or started working out in January and February start flaking out of their routines. You see it in every gym, albeit not as much at Knockout as say, Planet Fitness or something. Even still though, it pains me to see people lose motivation and drive right when they can really start making some significant progress with themselves. We've all heard the random fitness facts about how working out or being active increases such and such things, and for the most part I've found that most of these things hold true, but they don't happen overnight...Maybe, if you're lucky they can start manifesting in around a month (typically happens only to athletes that are active but trying a different approach) but...if you are a 1-2 times per week gym goer, these results wont appear for at least 2-4 months. Significant weight loss, significant or, rather, noticeable strength gains, etc take much longer to break into and if you started your journey in the beginning of the year, then start slacking now...you are effectively throwing away everything you've worked for over the past couple months. From experience, the 4-6 month time span since you've consistently began working out are the most crucial times for progression. Don't stop now! Now is when you should be progressing from the basics to the intermediate level movements and weights and overall difficulty. Now is when you really start seeing differences in yourself, and so will others. Whether its fitness, or fighting, you cant stop now.
#cantstopwontstop
Knockout Boxing FTW! Have a great weekend!
Friday, June 13, 2014
Gyms as a whole
Going to a gym. Its the socially acceptable thing to do for just about everyone. Its a place where personalities, backgrounds, ethnicities, and ages all clash. And can really lead to some interesting situations, both good...and unfortunately sometimes not so good.
Going to the gym, belonging to a gym...or even just working out are all things that society as a whole deems acceptable...almost expected. From Meatheads, to fighters, to weekend warriors, fitness freaks, and cross fit junkies....whatever stereotype you fall under, more then likely there is at least one example in any gym you might walk into with thoughts about joining.
Important things to think about when joining a gym. You need to have goals of what you want to achieve and expectations of the gym in question. Can this facility get to me my dream body? Will I effectively learn how to box? Are there sufficient amounts of equipment for crowded days? How much does it cost? Are contracts involved? How are the trainers? How is the atmosphere? All these things need to be taken into consideration. Some people know exactly what they want. Others might have an idea of what they want. And still others might only be there because "its the right thing to do". A lot of these questions go hand in hand with each other. For example, the cost of a gym membership and the type of experience you get. If you take a chain gym franchise that sells basic memberships for 10 bucks a month, don't be expecting to get advice from any trainers on how to shape up your ass. Don't expect anything more then just using the equipment. Now, on the complete opposite side of things, you walk into a fitness studio where all training is supervised, and results are guaranteed...don't be expecting to have a 10 dollar membership option available to you. Know your goals, know your expectations, then pick a gym accordingly. Yes, Personal training studios, Specialized Training gyms etc. are going to cost more money, but you should know that walking into it. You get what you pay for. These smaller facilities will give you a much better, much safer, and much more fulfilling fitness experience. After all, you gotta pay to play!
Here's to all the clients that I've signed up for Knockout, who knew what they wanted and found their perfect gym!
Going to the gym, belonging to a gym...or even just working out are all things that society as a whole deems acceptable...almost expected. From Meatheads, to fighters, to weekend warriors, fitness freaks, and cross fit junkies....whatever stereotype you fall under, more then likely there is at least one example in any gym you might walk into with thoughts about joining.
Important things to think about when joining a gym. You need to have goals of what you want to achieve and expectations of the gym in question. Can this facility get to me my dream body? Will I effectively learn how to box? Are there sufficient amounts of equipment for crowded days? How much does it cost? Are contracts involved? How are the trainers? How is the atmosphere? All these things need to be taken into consideration. Some people know exactly what they want. Others might have an idea of what they want. And still others might only be there because "its the right thing to do". A lot of these questions go hand in hand with each other. For example, the cost of a gym membership and the type of experience you get. If you take a chain gym franchise that sells basic memberships for 10 bucks a month, don't be expecting to get advice from any trainers on how to shape up your ass. Don't expect anything more then just using the equipment. Now, on the complete opposite side of things, you walk into a fitness studio where all training is supervised, and results are guaranteed...don't be expecting to have a 10 dollar membership option available to you. Know your goals, know your expectations, then pick a gym accordingly. Yes, Personal training studios, Specialized Training gyms etc. are going to cost more money, but you should know that walking into it. You get what you pay for. These smaller facilities will give you a much better, much safer, and much more fulfilling fitness experience. After all, you gotta pay to play!
Here's to all the clients that I've signed up for Knockout, who knew what they wanted and found their perfect gym!
Thursday, June 12, 2014
The Fitness Journey: Why we do it
The Fitness Journey
When most people set out to better themselves through fitness, they don't necessarily know what it means to be fit. To me, and the other trainers at Knockout Boxing, we believe being fit encompasses more then how fast you run a mile, how much you bench, or how ripped your abs are. Everyone starts from a different place as far as their bodies are concerned, but we all want to be "fit"...or do we?
What is fit??? What should an individual do to be fit? How about looking at it a different way. What about, "I'm going to start working out so I can feel better." Isnt that something we can all agree on?
Put it this way, take one body builder and one MMA athlete and ask them what their definition of fit is. Then take two people who don't workout, one whose way overweight and the other whose skin and bones, and ask them the same question. I bet you they are all going to answer differently. But, if you ask them if they would all like to feel better, they would answer the same.... "YES".
Whether its someone that's been sedentary for 10 years at a desk job, or a girl that isn't happy with what her ass looks like, we all work out for the same reasons. We may not know it, but we all do it to feel better. Personal Satisfaction. To feel better.
Do it to feel better.
When most people set out to better themselves through fitness, they don't necessarily know what it means to be fit. To me, and the other trainers at Knockout Boxing, we believe being fit encompasses more then how fast you run a mile, how much you bench, or how ripped your abs are. Everyone starts from a different place as far as their bodies are concerned, but we all want to be "fit"...or do we?
What is fit??? What should an individual do to be fit? How about looking at it a different way. What about, "I'm going to start working out so I can feel better." Isnt that something we can all agree on?
Put it this way, take one body builder and one MMA athlete and ask them what their definition of fit is. Then take two people who don't workout, one whose way overweight and the other whose skin and bones, and ask them the same question. I bet you they are all going to answer differently. But, if you ask them if they would all like to feel better, they would answer the same.... "YES".
Whether its someone that's been sedentary for 10 years at a desk job, or a girl that isn't happy with what her ass looks like, we all work out for the same reasons. We may not know it, but we all do it to feel better. Personal Satisfaction. To feel better.
Do it to feel better.
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