There’s a million diets out there and according to this Today Tonight article they’re making us weight loss people $720 millions year!  Considering Australia gets fatter and fatter every year, that’s a lot of of companies out there over promising and under delivering.  So stick to the “common sense” diet, it’s the only way to lose weight long term and still love life!   That’s what our Personal Training Gold Coast is all about!

For a quick run down, check out Personal Trainers on Wikipedia. However if you really want to know how Personal Training Gold Coast can help you, book a free consultation on our website

If you sit for long hours in front of your computer or at a desk, it is important to take care of your back.

80% of people will have some form of back pain sometime in their life.
More often than not it’s completely avoidable, so here’s a few simple ways you can avoid the pain: Adopting the right posture when you sit is crucial for your back. You should be sitting with your spine straight and not in a slouching manner. Use an ergonomic chair or  even a pillow to give you added support. Sitting in one position for long hours can be daunting for your back, so take a few breaks by walking around or doing stretching exercises. Wear the right footwear which helps to distribute your weight evenly without putting pressure on any particular part of your body. Ladies if you must wear heels, make sure you keep your feet happy and comfortable. The wrong footwear can give you bad back pain!

Above all else the number one way to look after your back is to exercise. Before or after work, get out and move your body enough to  make up for eight hours at a desk. And remember, when it comes to your health:

If you don’t use it you will lose it!

So if you’re not using it, isn’t it time you took a look at getting a Gold Coast Personal Trainer?

Personal Training Gold Coast

If you thought hitting Kickboxing pads was a huge workout, give it a go when your Gold Coast Personal Trainer gets to hit back – In a fun and safe way of course! Muay Thai Kickboxing is one of the toughest sports in the world.  And you can learn the real deal from some of our Gold Coast Personal Trainers. Visit our other site at www.kickboxing.net.au to find out more!

So what’s her secret? This A Current Affair article reveals the secret.  And guess what? There is no secret. Just hard work in the Gym, a good diet, a great Personal Trainer and over decade of hard work!  View our Personal Training testimonials to check out the arms on one of of Gold Coast Personal Training clients who started with us in 1999, she’s 10 years older than Michelle Obama, doesn’t have a full time chef and her arms are just as good!

If your busy work schedule has kept you away from your favourite movies or TV shows, well here’s a smart way to get entertained and fit at the same time. Keep a small television set in your gym room and hop on to the treadmill or exercise bike every time your favourite show comes on. Or record your favourite shows and watch them later when you work out. Either way, you will be so absorbed that you won’t realise you are in the midst of a sweaty workout. Before you know it, you will be through an hour of exercise. This works great especially if you find that keeping separate time aside just for exercising and for entertainment is tough. Plus you won’t be munching away on your bag of chips either!

A weight loss program that has been planned just for you by a personal trainer is the best sure-fire way to lose weight. There’s heaps of Gold Coast Personal Trainers out there, so what should you look for in a personal trainer? First your Personal Trainer should have the necessary qualifications to back him up and should also have done a course in fitness for at least one year. Ensure that the trainer also has ample experience with handling other clients and has a successful track record. A good trainer will not only handle clients in a professional and friendly manner but also make sure that he has a good relationship with them built on trust and understanding.  Moreover, he has the ability to make clients comfortable and gives them due priority too.

Walking your dog has so many benefits for you. Dogs love to go for walks, and can actually help you lose weight just like a Personal Trainer. Dogs can be very persistent especially if you take them out for walks at a certain time. Even if you aren’t in the mood on a rainy day, chances are that your lovable pet just won’t take no for an answer. Your pet is also likely to sprint now and then and the faster they run, the more calories you are likely to burn as well. Great for boosting up overall fitness! Best of all walking your dog doesn’t cost a thing, and it’s a great social activity if you like meeting new people or catching up with old friends with their dogs. Or take your dog to the leash free beach at the spit, just north of Surfers Paradise So, the next time your four legged buddy pesters you for a walk, put on those jogging shoes and have a great workout.

Are nuts good or bad for you and your weight loss? Nuts are usually not recommended for most people because of their high calorie and fat content. However the monounsaturated fats found in nuts are good for your heart and general health. They are great sources of fiber, vitamins, iron and other minerals. If you love to munch on nuts now and then, make sure that you choose walnuts and almonds over other varieties. Walnuts are high in omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins and magnesium whereas almonds are loaded with nutrients and are comparatively lower in fat content as well. Garnish your salad with a few nuts, enjoy a nut based dip or simply have a handful of nuts with raisins as a snack. That way, you give your body a lot of nutrients without feeling guilty afterwards about the calories.

If you are a woman in your early forties, with no time for yourself, it is important to understand how strength training can help you. A routine workout focused on cardio may help burn the calories but for a better toned body and increased stamina, it is advisable to include a few strength training exercises as well. The term simply refers to any exercise that requires your muscles to work harder than usual. Performing such exercises for 30 minutes a few days a week, will give you great results. It helps build better endurance and increases the strength of your muscles too which means that you put lesser effort into your daily tasks. As you age, strength training keeps you fit by promoting blood circulation, better coordination and bone strength. So get ready to live up your better years!

Nutrition for Weight Loss, eating 5-6 small meals a day:

Nutrition plays a huge role in weight loss and weight management.  Ideally, 70% of the emphasis should be placed on nutrition and 30% on exercise in order to achieve results.   If you exercise really hard for an hour a day, that still leaves 23 hours in which you can eat back all the calories you’ve just burned.  It is so easy to do, so keeping on track of you nutrition is a very important part of your weight loss battle.   The good news is that there are lots of little ways in which you can improve you eating habits.   Eating 5-6 small meals a day rather than 2-3 larger ones is a great way to start.  Think of your stomach just like any other muscle in your body.  When it is working, you are burning energy and calories.  So, by breaking up your daily intake into smaller more frequent meals, you are consuming the same number of calories but you stomach is working harder to digest that food translating into weight loss for you!

Food Diary

Are you a grazer, a binge eater?  Do you find yourself forgetting to eat?  Having a hard time losing weight even with all the exercise you are doing?  A food diary is a great tool to help keep you or get you back on track.  Try writing down everything you eat for the next three days and you’ll be surprised by what you find.  Be honest and as accurate as possible, recording the amount, timing, your mood and where you are while you’re eating.  For example: Breakfast-6 am, ½ grapefruit with ½ tsp sugar, 1 cup cereal with ¼ cup low fat milk, 1 coffee with 2 sugars and 2 tbsp full cream milk – sleepy and hungry.  It doesn’t have to be pretty and the easier it is to do the more likely you are to follow through.  Write it on a scrap of paper or whatever you have available.   It is a great tool to help keep you accountable and point out the hidden calories that you didn’t even realize you were eating.  Tally up all the sugars and extra you’ve been eating at the end of the week and you may have found the reason for that stubborn weight gain.  So, to get back on track today, start keeping a food diary.

Quick and Easy Lifestyle Changes

Exercising in ½ hour or 1 hour blocks of time is great but it isn’t always feasible.  We all know how busy life can be and getting to the gym a few times a week may be all you can really fit in.  The good news is that there are lots of little things you can do on a daily basis that will increase your activity level and burn extra calories throughout the day.  Try incorporating a few of the following into your daily routine:  take the stairs rather than the elevator, park at the far end of the parking lot at work of the shops, get off the train one stop earlier and walk the last few blocks to work.

When is the best time to workout?

Really, the ideal time of day to workout varies from individual to individual. Pick a time that best suits your schedule.  If you work late and like to sleep in, trying to stick to an early morning exercise schedule is going to be hard.  Alternatively, if your days are full, an afternoon workout may be the last thing that you want to do after a busy day.  In this case, getting your workout in before you start your day gets rid of all those afternoon excuses.   Most of us have a hard time fitting exercise into our busy days, so weather you schedule it for the morning, afternoon, or evening, I’d just focus on putting the time in when you can.          

Stretching is the most overlooked aspect of fitness programs but it’s a problem that’s easily corrected. All it takes is five minutes at the end of your training session and you’ll start to reap the rewards. Stretching helps to improve flexibility, speeds up recovery, helps to improve circulation and aids in stress relief. It can also help to decrease lower back pain as a key culprit is tight hamstrings! Although stretching is built into your personal training sessions here at the studio, don’t forget to include some stretches after your strength and cardio session at home. Some key points to remember: hold your stretches for anywhere from 10-60 seconds, make sure you’re in a pain free range, don’t bounce at the end of the movement and remember to breath. Happy Stretching!

The person who gets the best results is the person going twice as hard for half as long because this reduced time commitment is realistic!  If you have already identified a lack of time as one of the number one reasons why you don’t lose weight, training for quality, not quantity is a massive step closer to success.  And for those of you who say, while I have time, but not the motivation to train to 100%, which is easier to get motivated a psyched up for; a one hour plus workout or a 30 minute workout?

So who gets the best results? As far as calories burned and muscles built goes it’s probably comparable. Half the time and double the intensity is pretty much the same as double the time and half the intensity. It’s kind of like saying which burns the most petrol? Driving from Gold Coast to Brisbane at 50km/hr or 100km/hr? It’s about the same and any difference is so small it’s irrelevant, so you will do whichever gets you there fastest because why waste time going slow. It’s the same for losing weight.

Compare this to the following man or woman who goes to the Gym with only 30 minutes to workout (plus 5 minutes warm up and cool down time). Every set of weights he does is to 100% (bearing in mind safety) and a full body compound exercises, so no time is wasted doing one thing at a time. Within seconds of completing the set he jumps to the next machine and repeats the process and so on. On the treadmill he runs so hard he can’t talk and only slow it down when he can’t physically keep up. He leaves completely fatigued about 30minutes after starting while the other procrastinating bloke will spend almost another hour there.

Tell your friends, family, work mates and of course Personal Trainer about your exercise program. Tell them they can all act like your Personal Trainer and keep on your back if you skip a workout. If you have someone to answer to, you’re a more likely to get it done. You are too emotionally attached to your goals, so it’s a great to have someone look at the situation and say “why aren’t you going to the Gym today”? 99% of the time you won’t come up with a good answer and thanks to a friend questioning you will hit the Gym.

100 minutes a week is 0.99% of your week so you can find time to make this your number one priority. Have you ever not gone to work because you were too busy or you just couldn’t be bothered? Of course not! You wouldn’t get paid if you didn’t go to work. The same goes for exercise; you won’t get fit and lose weight if you don’t exercise. You can’t afford to not get paid so you show up every day on time. A 38 hour work week accounts for 23% of your week, so if you can find time to show up to work, you can find another 0.99% of your week to achieve your goals and be fit and healthy.

So if you’ve been good you’ve written down your goal and made time for exercise in your busy life since my last blog. Now lock it in as a set appointment. Aside from an emergency, you will be there no matter what. Your friends and family know that this is your sacred time to work on your goals. If it is your number one priority you will make it to 99% of your Personal Training sessions or whatever exercise you choose. If it is your number two or three priority after work and kids you will consistently cancel. So for your 100 minutes a week or whatever number you come up with, you and your goals come first.

The other way to do it is to structure it more and give yourself set days and set times to exercise.  The good thing about this it makes sure you spread your exercise over the week and not leave it till Sunday and then run out of time. The bad thing about it is it doesn’t leave you with much flexibility and in inflexible program can be many peoples down fall.  It’s a personal thing as to which way you use so it’s up to you; the end result is the same: you must commit to a long term and realistic amount of exercise each and every week.

There’s a couple of ways to do it.  My favorite for clients is to base it on 100 minutes a week.  I like to use this as it’s a enough time to get real results, but not an unrealistic time commitment for most people, if you believe you can realistically do 200 minutes great, go for it! So your 100 minutes could be one 30 minute Personal Training or Kickboxing session and whatever else adds up to the remaining 70 minutes a week, as long as you get it in who cares when or where you do it! So the remaining 70 minutes could be seven ten minute runs with the dog before work, or it could be a 70 minute power walk on the beach on the weekend.  If you get 100 minutes done great, if you get more done even better!