We train hard, we work out with intensity and every day is a different challenge. No excuses- Grab some water and a towel and get going!
No other workout combines the benefits of cardiovascular and strength training so effectively, and no other gym in RI has 5 SFG Certified trainers on staff! Challenge yourself today!
One of the most comprehensive and effective workouts in the world! Change up your routine and take your fitness to a whole new level!
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.
You need a change, you need a better approach, let us find one that works for you. We are trainers and we believe in what we do.
Monday will be our usual holiday schedule- we will have a combined CrossFit/KettleBell class beginning at 9AM and a KB Bootcamp class at 9:30AM. 5:30PM and 6:30PM classes will remain on the schedule until 4PM on Sunday. If there are 4 or more people signed up by then the classes will be held, if not they will be cancelled. There is no 7:30PM class. Enjoy the holiday weekend (in spite of the weather)!
We will once again be hosting a CPR class on Monday June 10th at 7:30PM (there will NOT be a 7:30PM KB class that night). We have limited space available so please let me know ASAP if you plan to attend. If we do not sell it out it will be made open to the public so be sure to let me know sooner rather than later. Cost for gym members is $35.00
Sorry for the delay in getting this next posting out, it gets busy around here sometimes! Today I want to outline some very basic but essential components to healthy living and healthy fat loss. Let’s start with a list:
Take a long, critical look at the list above. How many of those 7 things do you do day in/ day out week after week? No one is going to be perfect, and of course we’re all busy. Maybe you can’t get to the gym 5 times a week, but do you get in as often as you can? Do you squeeze in a workout here and there at home or when traveling (take advantage of our traveling workouts posted on our WOD page)? Are you really committed to finding the time and getting it done, or is it too easy to say you’re busy and put it off? Apply that to each item on that list and be very honest with yourself. Are you doing your best? Or are you doing just enough to satisfy your conscience? Increase your activity level and intake of whole, nutritious foods and decrease your overall calorie intake and 85% of you will see positive results. If you eat too many calories, the calorie is not to blame- not matter how delicious it is!
So what does it mean to be “fat adapted?” Well, look at what being a sugar burner means and fat adapted is pretty much the opposite. To keep it brief, if you can go 3+ hours without getting hungry/cranky or craving carbs that’s a good sign. Fat adapted people are better able to oxidize dietary fat for energy leaving much less to be stored as adipose tissue which allows them to have evenly regulated energy throughout the day without spikes of energy followed by nap-inducing fatigue. Also the ability to exercise without “carb-loading” or some substitute- can you workout effectively in a fasted state? That is a very good sign! Fat burner’s also have the ability to burn glucose when it is available giving them a greater degree of “metabolic flexibility” (the sugar burner cannot burn both ways)! Unfortunately there is no “Fat Adapted Home Test Kit” from CVS, but if you take a close, honest look at your eating habits, your energy levels and the effectiveness of “dieting” on your long term goals, it should be fairly obvious.
So, how does the sugar burner become a fat burner? First and foremost- eat more fat! (See, I told you this nutrition stuff was confusing…) Believe it or not, when you eat fat, your body becomes more efficient at processing and utilizing fat. Go figure. I hope it goes without saying that while ramping up our fat intake we should look to eat fats that are as nutrient dense as possible (grass fed animals, olive oil, egg yolks etc.). This is a time to look away from ultra lean proteins, have some fattier cuts of meat or reach for those chicken thighs. Next up- reducing your carb intake. Raise your hand if you’ve heard this one before. I don’t want to get too much into specifics, but lets say 50-150 grams of carbs a day based or your size and how active you are. I’m just going to mention the term “nutritionally replete”. If you don’t eat a balanced diet you will be nutritionally deficient in many important areas. I’ll expand on nutritional deficiencies in a later post. The final step is exercise. High intensity exercise is going to make it harder for your body to make that shift. This would be a great time to focus on some of that heavy weight strength training I’m always trying to force on you!
Next post- how to put some of this boring. scienc-y stuff to use!
Well I’m certainly pleased with the number of people who READ my last blog post on nutrition, now if only everyone had UNDERSTOOD it… That’s actually not true at all, but what is true is that it created a lot of questions for people about the nature of dietary nutrition and the conflicting information that people get from different sources. So, like so many of my conversations, I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent….
One of the most confusing issues for people when it comes to nutrition is that so many facts seem to contradict each other. What adds to this confusion is that often times they are both right (I’m not being very helpful so far am I?). On the one hand we are told to eat 6-8 small meals a day and if we go long stretches of time without food we will depress our metabolism, compromise our muscle tissue and store excess fat when we eventually do eat- not to mention that we get SO hungry after all that time that we usually over eat when the time comes. Sounds familiar right? Next though we read on the evil internet that some people are skipping meals, not eating breakfast, exercising on an empty stomach- and all the while getting great results. There are several programs (Body for Life, Intermittent Fasting) that promote these methods and claim tremendous success. How can they both be right??? The simple answer is that people are different and what works for one may not work as well (or at all) for another. Let’s take “people are different” a step further though and see where that leads…
Let’s look at 2 types of “different people”- fat adapted people and sugar burners. Sugar burner would describe the majority of clients in our gym. What that means simply is that their bodies cannot effectively access stored fat for energy. Their skeletal muscle is not able to oxidize fat so it ceases to be a viable energy source. They are still able to burn glucose for energy but that is used up pretty quickly and would have to be replenished constantly (like every few minutes)! A sugar burner’s adipose tissue (fat!) will even release fatty acids a few hours after eating because it “thinks” the body will oxidize it even though it no longer can. Now when a sugar burner goes a few hours or longer without food they get hungry- REALLY hungry, and that typically leads to over eating and convenience eating. A further issue for the sugar burner is an inability to access dietary fat for energy which leaves far too much behind for storage. The sugar burner will also burn through their glycogen stores very quickly during exercise that typically would be powered by fat lessening their ability to maintain intensity and burn active fat calories.
Ok, this got a little long and a little “science-y”. What does all this actually mean for you “Sugar Burners” out there? Your bodies are really lousy at burning fat and really great at storing it. If you don’t eat frequently enough it makes it worse and makes you over eat. When you do get to the gym to do something about it, you can’t go long enough or hard enough to make the kinds of gains you want. Wow, that sounds bad when you lay it out like that. Fortunately the next post will be out on Tuesday and will talk about how cool it is to be “fat adapted” and what you need to do to get there…
A few weeks ago I talked about my plan to implement a nutrition program that is more comprehensive and structured for the gym. Since then I have had a LOT of questions about when and how it will begin. The truth is it will probably be September before we will be ready for a full launch of what I have planned, but that doesn’t mean we have to wait that long to get started! This will begin a series of blog posts focused on nutrition and hopefully we can make some progress and create some discussion along the way…
First off let’s all agree that the topic of nutrition is a murky one. For every study you find on the internet that says “X”, someone can find 2 more that say “Y”. I will always do my best to let you know when I am sharing my opinion, an accepted fact or an incontrovertible truth. Please remember that my goal is for you to get the best long term results possible, not to deny you the foods you like, or to chastise you when you indulge. I didn’t make the rules, I’m just here to help clarify them.
Ok, on to “The Beginning!” For some this is something you’ve heard me say 100 times, for those hearing it for the first time this is a make or break statement- You have the health, body and fitness that you have CHOSEN to have. Stop for a second and read that last sentence again (take your time, I’ll wait…). YOUR choices have brought you to a point of varying degrees of unhealth, poor fitness and a body you are unhappy with. You may not always understand the consequences of your nutritional and exercise choices, but that doesn’t lessen the effect of those choices one bit. The number of people who sit at my desk tell me how unhappy they are with their health/body/fitness and then inform me how well they eat is shocking to me. If you are one of those people- snap out of it! You are wrong and you are in denial and until you get a grip you will never be successful! If you are overweight and unhealthy you don’t eat well. Period. No rationalizations, no excuses, no denials- YOU DON’T EAT WELL! Now there are a lot of ways to not eat well and you might be doing what you think is right- but you’re not. I’m not trying to belabor this point but until you admit that you are not eating properly you will continue to look for results in all the wrong places, and continue to be disappointed. Maybe you under eat, maybe you over eat, maybe you eat more sugar than you think, maybe you eat so inconsistently that your body is constantly in self preservation mode. Whatever it is, it is real and it is your #1 limiting factor in your quest for better health. We’ll talk more about limiting factors soon, but for right now understand that for most people the biggest obstacle is their own mind. It can also be your single greatest asset, but that is up to you.
The take away from this post should be that there is no quick fix/magic pill for weight loss and health. If you continue to search for it you will continue to be disappointed and you will continue to waste the one commodity that is truly irreplaceable- time. Once that’s gone it’s gone forever. You didn’t get where you are in 3 months and you won’t get it all back in 3 months. It’s a long process, but it’s a process you can control. No pills, no berries from the Amazon jungle, no “fat codes or triggers”. Be consistent and be patient. Use your mind to find solutions to the obstacles of eating well, not to perpetuate your lack of success. Being successful is a mind set, whether in business, relationships or health. You must believe that eating well is easy. If you continue to look at it as difficult it will be far too simple to rationalize away your lapses. Back in my college days I worked on a model for behavior change called the Transtheoretical Model (sounds impressive, right?) which is now the only accepted behavioral model in the health field. Essentially you need to assess people to see where they are mentally with regard to changing their behavior before you can implement the appropriate strategies to elicit change. The first stage is “Precontemplation”, that stage basically means you don’t see a problem and have no need to change. Stage 2 is “Contemplation”, that is when you know there is a problem but have not begun the process of change. “Preparation” and “Action” are when you have begun the process of change and this is where most people get stuck. Without knowing why and how you have gotten to the point you’re at, it is very difficult to change those behaviors long term. Look closely and critically at your choices, accept real responsibility for them and then we can work on changing the underlying reasons for them.
Ok, so much for the lack of warm and fuzzy, I know you guys love that side of me! This can be a difficult transition for people, but once you get there, it really will make the process SO much easier. Don’t get defensive- get positive. Use your mind as a tool for success. In a few days we’ll start talking about what to do now that we’ve identified our biggest limiting factor (and I promise that will be MUCH warmer and fuzzier!).
Congratulations are in order for everyone that went through the StrongFirst Certification last week. While most of us have one aspect or another of the certification to finish up, Cayla passed every challenge and is currently the ONLY SFG or RKC certified woman in the state of RI. It was a great weekend and I’m sure everyone will be hearing a lot more about it as we implement more and more of the StrongFirst principles of training at the gym. I was extremely proud of the way everyone from Alpha Fitness represented themselves and the gym through the grueling 3 days. It was obvious how much work they put in and how well prepared they were. I’ve heard numerous stories over the years of people needing a week or two off after the certification to recuperate, we all worked out on Tuesday. I’m not sure that says something smart about us, but it does say something! Congratulations again to everyone, and there is already a rumor floating around that Cayla and Lisa are prepping for the level 2 certification in September! Once all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed over the next couple of weeks, we will have more certified SFG trainers at Alpha Fitness than there are combined SFG’s and RKC’s in the entire state. There is only one level 2 trainer in RI and within a few months we may have 2 at our gym alone. You have access to some outstanding training at Alpha Fitness and an extremely dedicated staff that truly want to help in any way they can. I hope you realize how rare that is and how fortunate you are. I know I do.
The 6AM class has been cancelled due to illness. As of now all other classes will be as scheduled. Please email if you have any questions. Sorry!
A few quick notes for this week:
Spring is here- enjoy the week!
So the early morning weather looks pretty bad for Tuesday and the worst is supposed to hit between 4 and 6 AM. As of now the 6AM class is cancelled, if the weather changes we will put it back on but I hate to leave it hanging until 5AM when it looks this certain. It is supposed to turn to rain and wash away relatively early so as of now all other classes and private sessions will be as scheduled but please check back or email if you have any questions. Sorry 6AM-ers!
