Archive for fitness

Recap: The Fitness Summit 2016

An incredible weekend of learning and shenanigans has come to a close and I can’t wait until I have the energy to start processing it all (because I think I slept a combined 7 hours in 3 days -_-).

Thursday night, my friend and I flew out to Kansas City to attend The Fitness Summit. I’d never been before, but have heard great things about it. I have been craving some new learning experiences and since this meant I also got to travel to another city, this seemed like the perfect event.

Some of the presenters I was very familiar with and some were brand new. I walked away with a new perspective, tons of new information that I can apply to training my own clients, and new friends. Here are some of the recaps:

Tony Gentilcore

…went over the Deadlift. This was one of the presentations I was most looking forward to, since deadlifts are one of my favorite exercises. He not only went over technique and deciphering the type of deadlift that a client should perform based on where they are at physically, but also showed us some really awesome practical modifications to get clients to reign in their form and get their bodies to learn the proper patterns of the deadlift. I easily have 5-7 new deadlift modifications in my toolbox and I can’t wait to use them with my clients.

This article highlights most of the “hip hinge badassery” as Tony calls it.

TonyGentilcoreHipHinge copy

Source: Tony Gentilcore

Why this was so helpful: The deadlift is such a great movement because of the recruitment of so many muscle groups. Because of this, many people have a hard time following all of the cues and maintaining proper form such as pulling the hips back, engaging your glutes/hamstrings/lats, keeping your chest out, neutral spine, and the list goes on. I personally have 2-3 clients that have an extremely hard time with this and it limits our training a bit. I am 99.9% sure that with some of the exercises Tony went over, I’ll have these clients deadlifting with proper form very soon.

Nick Tumminello

…discussed single leg movements and this was a pretty interesting topic. We practiced several of the movements that he went over and while the actual movements weren’t necessarily new to me, some of the positioning was different. It was interesting to perform these single-leg movements (such as reverse lunges and step-ups) in different positions to recruit more of the glutes or to put a higher load on the actual working leg based on the rest of your body positioning. I also added some new-to-me single leg exercises that I can add to my arsenal.

This article goes over some of those movements.

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Source: Nick Tumminello

Why this was so helpful: As a trainer, the basics will always be the majority of what I’ll focus on with my clients. However, depending on the type of client (and especially the athletes), there are some single leg exercises that just do a better job at certain things. The more tools in my tool box, the better equipped I’ll be with my clients and their needs.

Bret Contreras

…talked about squats, deadlifts, and hip thrusts. While I’m pretty familiar with Bret’s style and have a slight bias considering I’ve learned a good portion of what I know from him, it was still a good refresher and I always learn something new from him. I think the biggest take away from this particular presentation was not being afraid to adapt. We’d all like to have optimal squat and deadlift form, but that isn’t always possible. We have to be able to adapt to what works best for the individual, even if it is outside of the “normal” technical recommendations. The main focus should be safety and as long as a client isn’t being injured, it’s okay to be less-than-perfect.

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Source: Bret Contreras

Why this was so helpful: I think as trainers, we get it in our heads that everything needs to be perfect at all times or else it is to be avoided. While I think striving for that perfect form is where we all should be thinking, accepting that that isn’t always plausible is also really crucial and making adjustments that will get the job done without injury is an option.

Last but not least,

Alan Aragon.

If you’re friends with me on Facebook, then you saw that he is my new #braincrush. Not only is he a brilliant guy, his delivery of information is incredibly sound. He gives real-world advice and leaves out the fluffy bullshit. I think I speak for most people at the conference when I say that he left all of us inspired and ready to take on the world. His tips and tools for pursuing your own career in the fitness business were really insightful and I think he touched on all of the “fear” aspects that many (if not all) of us have.

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Source: Alan Aragon

Why this was so helpful: I’m often crippled by fear and have often felt like the only one. Alan’s advice was to find the things you love in the industry and build your business around them. Not only that, but he provided some tools to figure out what those areas might be for people like me who aren’t 100% sure what that “dream job” looks like. Fear is present in almost every single entrepreneur’s venture at some point, but his best advice to move past that is to just DO IT ANYWAYS. You da man Alan.

(Also, he’s really freaking smart, so you should go look through his articles too.)

There were several other speakers that gave really great presentations and I think it’s safe to say that there was really something for everyone there. From the fitness enthusiast to the personal trainer to the nutritionist to the fitness business tycoon, there was plenty of good information in all realms of the fitness industry. I will definitely be back next year!

The Location

It’d be a tragedy if I also didn’t mention the amazing gym that the conference was held at, Impact Elite Gym in Kansas City. This gym had everything you could ever need/want (except a hip thruster) and had tons of space to do it. The “feel” of the gym was hardcore/oldschool and the bar at the front desk where they made protein shakes, pancakes (!!!!), and had all kinds of drinks and snacks was bar none.

As busy as we were, I obviously couldn’t leave without getting a workout in.

Here’s what I did:

-Good Mornings + Squats: 45×10, 75×10, 95×5

-Back Squats: 145x10T (got all 10 reps in 1 set)

10 min. AMRAP

-RDL’s: 145×10

-Squat Jumps: bwx10

I did 6 rounds in 9:36 and called it. It’s barely 24 hours later as I’m writing this and my glutes and hamstrings are already sore.

-Leg Press: 140×10, 180×10, 230×10, 270×10, 320×10, 320×15, 320×5

EMOM – 10 min.

-Kettle Bell Swings: 70×6

This workout kicked my ass and I ended up having to go back to the hotel to shower afterwards. Totally worth it though!

Time to go read, write, learn and GSD(get shit done)!!!

 

 

Life is a Bumpy Road

Good morning!

Hope you’re all having a great start to your day.

How I feel after my workouts.

How I feel after my workouts.

Life Stuff

I’ve always said I’d be truly honest in my posts, and today is no different.

Life is a bumpy road, that’s for sure.

In all honesty, I’ve been in quite a funk lately.

My workouts have been AMAZING

My Operation: Get Lean has been on-par

But other areas of my life have been rough.

I suppose part of it is that I’m in my late 20’s…

and from what I hear..this is what late 20’s people do.

We question life, question ourselves,

question our mission, our direction.

We.question.everything.

  • Is this where I should be living?
  • Is this the job I should be doing?
  • Am I going after my passion?
  • Am I doing enough?
  • Am I doing too much?

And at this point, I still don’t have an answer to any of that.

So I’ve been doing what I KNOW how to do.

Working hard in the gym, and sticking to my personal goals.

Workout Stuff

Okay, enough of the negatives, how about some positives!

-I hit a new PR for DB Push Press: 10 reps w/ 35lb DB’s

IMG_9995-I’ve been working hard on perfecting my deadlift form, and it’s paying off!

IMG_9996-I can see my quads through my pants

IMG_9902

what? you don’t lay on your couch flexing your quads and take photos??

Online Training

I’ve got three awesome people who embarked on a fat loss journey with me this past Monday. They are super stoked and I am too! They’re all tracking their progress, so I’ll be sure to share their results when they finish up the first stage (1 month). (If you’re interested in the next start date, go here)

Food Stuff

I’m going to document an entire day of eats tomorrow since I’ve had many people ask me about it. Stay tuned for that!

My favorite foods this week have been peaches, strawberries, shrimp, and avocado! I also still love my nighttime protein pancake with peanut butter drizzled on top. It’s definitely a great way to end the day!

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Question of the Day

  1. Have you ever felt a bit lost in life? Any tips? Haha
  2. What have you done well this week in regards to fitness?

Vacation Recap + EBook Update!

Hey people!

It’s been a solid week since I last blogged. I have been out of town and took a much-needed break from everything!

It’s been a great trip here in Kansas, and we’ll be heading back to LA in the morning. Although it hasn’t been TOO cold, I’m definitely ready to get back to the Southern California temperatures!

We got into Kansas late at night on the 23rd, and I was quickly hit with a nasty cold.  Although I pushed through it, I ended up feeling really crappy on Christmas day.

2014-12-25 15.00.54Oscar helped make me feel better, though.

By Friday, I was definitely feeling better. Not perfect, but well enough to be up and around. We spent the day around the house and visiting with Charlie’s family. The most entertaining part of this week has definitely been the dogs. Oscar got to play with an English Bulldog and a Yorkie all week. They ran around in a pack and played the WHOLE time. Oscar is not going to know what to do with himself when we leave….

Toto & Oscar. Toto has been following Oscar around since we got here. Non. Stop. 2014-12-24 14.40.32While in Kansas, we also hit the yearly Chief’s game! It was the last game of the season and they won, so it was a really good time!

Chiefs game!

Workouts for the Week

(Since I was sick and on vacation, I didn’t work out as much as usual, but was still able to get in a few good ones.)

Tuesday: Rest (travel day)

Wednesday: Rest (sick)

Thursday: Heavy Lift (thought it might help…it didn’t..but I got a good workout in)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Full Body Workout + Filmed Exercises for my new eBook! (see below)

Sunday: Rest

Monday: If i can get to the gym, I’ll do a heavy lift, but otherwise, I’ll do a living room workout from my Fit Lizzio’s Fitness To Go eBook!

So, speaking of my new eBook…

I’m releasing a FREE (for a limited time only) eBook called                    Fit Lizzio Fitness: 10 Day Sexy Slimdown just after the new year.

In this eBook:

-10 Days of Workouts

-10 Day Detailed Fat Loss Meal Plan

-Grocery Shopping List

-Full Explanation of Exercises and Workouts (including photo demonstrations)

-Tips & Tricks for Success

sexyslimdown

I’ll let you know more details about the release this week! I can’t WAIT to put this out!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, wherever you are. It’s another weird week with New Years, but hopefully we’re all geared up for a great 2015!

Question of the Day

1. Where did you travel for the holidays? If nowhere, what did you do?

5 Things I Do Everyday to Stay Healthy

Staying healthy in an unhealthy world can be really, really tough.

Are you surprised that I called the world unhealthy?

Obviously, not the whole world is unhealthy, but there sure is an abundance of it.

In the U.S. alone:

 

  • 68.5% of adults are overweight or obese; 34.9% are obese.
  • 31.8% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese; 16.9% are obese.

(Source: www.frac.org)

Personally, I think one of the toughest ways to get around this is the temptation that is literally EVERYWHERE.

I’m healthy, but I’m also human. Do you think that just because I’m a fitness professional that I don’t get tempted by all of the marketing ploys that surround me at the grocery store? Of course they do!

It’s tough, man. You head to the store with a healthy mindset of the fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean meats that you’re going to buy when BAM, there’s a bag of chips in your face and oh, how bout those cookies to your left? Don’t look to the right…it’s ICE CREAM!

I’d be lying if I said I never gave in. I do give in sometimes (which is totally fine)….but I wish it wasn’t even there! I want to make that decision WITHOUT it being shoved in my face.

In any sense, the crap food IS there and in our faces, and it’s there to stay. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, as long as you can practice moderation. I personally love ice cream, chips, and cookies and eat all of them. Just not very often.

So in a world that seems to be closing in on us with all kinds of unhealthy foods, how do we stay healthy day in and day out?

5 Things I Do EVERY DAY to Stay Healthy

1. Drink Water. I know you’re probably sick of hearing this, but seriously. If you’re going to do nothing else that day to be healthy, drink some water. Or even a lot of water.

2. Sneak in some fruit and vegetables. Even if you’re going to have a bunch of crappy foods, sneak in some fruits and vegetables beforehand. It can help you stay a bit fuller so you don’t eat as much crap and it gives you boost of antioxidants and vitamins. (Plus, they’re delicious!!)

3. Walk. I workout most days, and still try to walk places when it’s possible and I have the time. Sometimes I drive places that are definitely walkable, but if I’m having a lazier day, I always opt for some type of walk. I’ll go walk to the coffee shop, or to the Co-Op. If there’s nothing close-by, I’ll just walk around outside to get my legs moving a bit. Even if you plan on sitting around all day, find 15 minutes to just take a walk.

4. Eat a healthy breakfast. I’ve learned over the years that whatever I have for breakfast sets the tone for the day. For example, if I eat something sugary for breakfast, I feel lethargic and gross. That spirals me into just feeling meh, and most likely, my food and exercise choices for the day will follow that. If I eat a healthy breakfast, I know that my chances of a healthy day are that much greater. I can honestly say, I haven’t had an unhealthy breakfast in over a year. (Just a personal choice.) Do I think it’s bad to have an unhealthy breakfast here and there? Of course not, but I do know that I can always have an unhealthy breakfast for dinner if I still want it. (Breakfast for dinner is the BOMB anyways!) I’d rather start my day out with good foods that will likely set me up for a better day. I highly encourage you to try testing this theory out to see how it affects your choices for the rest of the day.

5. Don’t take the day too seriously. If I’m having a lazy day where I don’t exercise much and I’m eating less than stellar foods, I don’t sweat it too much. There was a time where I would internally beat myself up so badly for not eating well or not exercising. These days, I remind myself that one meal or one day of unhealthy eating isn’t going to ruin anything. As long as I consistently eat well and exercise, I’ll be on a good path.

Question of the Day

What are some things you do every day to stay healthy?