The Best Lower Body Exercise Ever
As a fitness trainer, I get a lot of questions like “What is the best exercise for ______” fill in the blank. I get asked as if there is one exercise that “rules them all” (to borrow a phrase from Lord of the Rings). One of the most common areas of concerns is the lower body, specifically the butt and thighs. Today I’m going to share one of my personal favorite lower body exercises and all of its awesome variations. It’s called the Rear-Foot Elevated Split Squat (a.k.a. Bulgarian Split Squat). This exercise is so effective that once you master it, your thighs and knees...
read moreNo Gym Equipment…No Problem
“It amazes me that most people spend more time planning out next summer’s vacation than they do planning the rest of their lives.” Patricia Fripp, Professional Speaker This can certainly be true for many people especially when it comes to planning their exercise and nutrition during these challenging summer months. To combat this dilemma we are trying a couple of new things this summer. First, we are taking our workouts outside. The morning boot camps are actually outside at a near by park. Second, we are having the first ever EXL Fitness Skinny Jeans Lifestyle...
read moreHierarchy of Fat Loss (Factor #5)
The least effective tool in your fat loss arsenal is exercise that burns calories but does not do anything for increasing your metabolism or maintaining your lean muscle tissue. Enter traditional, steady state “cardio” including hard cardio and low intensity cardio. Both these have their benefits in the fat loss fight but should play only a small role. What is “hard cardio”? Technically it is cardio performed above your anaerobic threshold (AT). This is the point at which your body burns only blood sugar or muscle glycogen for fuel (not fat). This is typically around 75%...
read moreHierarchy of Fat Loss (Factor #3)
In the last post I introduced the 2 most important factors in fat loss…nutrition and nutrition. In fact, nutrition is so important I don’t even bother measuring or testing a client’s body fat unless they have committed to a nutrition plan (preferably Precision Nutrition or The Carb Rotation Diet). This week I’m continuing with the Fat Loss Hierarchy with #3… #3 Activities that maintain or promote lean body mass (muscle) and elevate metabolism. It goes to reason that you can burn more calories by increasing your total resting caloric expenditure i.e.: resting metabolic...
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