15 Minute Workout

Patience Is A Virtue

“Man, this is hard.” – Everyone who has ever tried to change their body.

Our bodies fight with us. It’s that simple. Our bodies don’t care at all that we want to lose weight, or gain weight, or get stronger or faster. It’s a lot easier for our body to stay right where it is. It likes it there. For this reason we have to resort to tricking our body in order to get it to change.  

If we want to get stronger we have to lift really heavy weights to trick our bodies into thinking that we have to do that on a regular basis to survive. If we want to lose weight we have to use more energy than we take in, forcing our body to burn part of itself for fuel. 

Remember, our bodies don't want to do this. That's an important thing to realize. Our bodies have a survival mechanism in place that tells it that change takes effort and it's better to save that effort for getting through those long winters when we don't know when we'll be able to kill a Woolly Mammoth for dinner.

Dinner before Safeway was invented

The point I'm trying to make is that whatever we want our bodies to do takes time and effort. Too often people are in it for the quick fix and think that they'll be able to undo years of bad decisions in a month. It doesn't work that way. 

Generally speaking, when losing weight you should be shooting for 2 pounds a week. That's it. It doesn't get you to the top of The Biggest Loser, but it does get you almost 20 pounds in two months. I'll bet you know people who haven't lost 20 pounds in years! 

I've experienced this myself as a competitive powerlifter. I recently went through a period where my own training felt  like it was in a bit of a rut. I was starting to feel as if I needed to switch around what I was doing. I was getting impatient.

Well I stuck with it, and over the last month I've hit two very big numbers, including one that has been a major goal of mine since I started lifting! My patience was rewarded and I learned something from it.

Too often, people are in it for the quick fix. In today's society we want everything five minutes ago, but when it comes to changing our body it just doesn't work that way. Things happen slowly for a reason and in the long run we actually want that to be the case.

For instance, if we lose too much weight at once most of that weight will be either water or muscle. The other thing is that if the body gets a shock like that (and losing a lot of weight quickly is a huge shock to our body) it will fight like heck to get back to where it was before. That's why people have such a hard time keeping weight off after it's lost.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the words of Marge Simpson, "Slow and steady wins the race".

Have patience and be consistent and what you want will come to you and, more importantly, it has a better chance of sticking around.

Let me know what you think.

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach
510-754-7113
MitchRFitness.com
MitchRFitness@gmail.com
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Great Job, Folks!

I write a lot about how to improve your workouts and the things I see in the gym that could be improved upon. Today I want to take a different tact. I want to talk about the good things I've been seeing and how some of these things can help everyone do what they are trying to do.

1. Goals. Last week I started a Transformation contest amongst my clients. Overnight, the intensity and focus during their workouts have increased. Why? Goals! When people are focused in on something specific they want, they are much more determined to take the steps that get them there. I see it in myself as well. When I have something definitive I'm working towards, my workouts are much more intense and I get a lot more out of them.

2. Working hard. It's been said that the worst workout plan performed with intensity will yield better results than the best plan performed with no intensity. I have seen so many people lately, just really working hard at what they are doing. Whether it's a heavy set of squats, doing two-and-a-half hour workouts to get ready for a physique competition, or someone finally deciding to take control of their health later in life and doing every exercise the best they can, it is really inspiring to me to see the changes that exercise makes in people. It's why I do what I do and why I love it so much.

3. Deadlifts. Almost all of my clients deadlift. This doesn't necessarily mean lifting a barbell with a lot of weight off the floor. Sometimes it means lifting a single 10 dumbell off a step. I truly believe that deadlifts are the most functional of all exercises. After all, who doesn't need to lift something off the floor from time to time? Having said that, the amount of times I've seen someone in a regular gym deadlift can probably be counted on one hand. Imagine my surprise, and delight, when I saw not one, but two, people deadlifting in the gym last weekend! Huzzah to those folks!!! Now everyone else, get on the deadlifting train!

Fun for all ages!

If Arnold loved deadlifting, you should too!

These are just a few things I've seen lately that I really love and that inspire me to keep doing what I do.  I'd love to hear about the things that you see that inspire you. Just drop me a line and let me know.
Have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach
510-754-7113
MitchRFitness.com
MitchRFitness@gmail.com
Discover Your Strength!

Figuring out nutrition labels and weighing food

I know that's a pretty dry title for a blog post, but that's what this is about, so here we are.

A few people have been asking me about measuring food nutrients, carbs, fats and protein. So I decided to write a quick post about what you want to look for on nutrition labels.

First, though, you need to get a food scale. The one pictured below is the one I have. It measures in both grams and ounces and they carry them at Target. Click here for the link. As of this morning they had them in stock at all of the Targets in the area.

Next, let's talk about food labels. Below is an example of the nutritional label for black eyed peas.

OK, let's break it down. One serving size is 200 calories, 1 gram of fat, 36 grams of carbohydrates with 11 of those grams being fiber, and 13 grams of protein.

One of the things people neglect to look at the serving size. It is very common that companies will alter the serving size on their labels to make their food look healthier than it actually is. In the case of this product, the serving size is 172 grams. Here's how you would figure out the nutritonal breakdown of the amount you'd like to eat.

First, take your handy food scale and set it to measure in grams. Now put the amount you'd like to eat on the scale. Let's say it weighs 90 grams. How do you figure out how many carbs are in that 90 grams? OK, let's do some math.

Divide 90 (amount on the scale) by 172 (full serving size). You get .52. That means that 90 grams is 52% of 172 grams. There are 36 grams of carbs per serving so multiply 36 x .52 and you get 18.72. That's how many grams of carbs are in the 90 grams. Don't forget to figure in the fiber, as well. 11 grams x .52 = 5.72. 18.72 - 5.72 = 13. So the serving size you have contains 13 grams of carbs.

All in all, it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. If you are doing the Carb Nite diet, it's very important that you have a good knowledge of how to break down the macro-nutrients of what you're eating. At the beginning it'll take some work, but as you go along it will become second nature.

Once again on that diet here are the basic rules:

1. Stay under 25 grams of carbs daily.

2. Eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily.

3. Eat about 1 gram of fat per pound of bodyweight daily.

Please get familiar with labels. They are your friend.

Have a great day and please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach

510-754-7113

MitchRFitness@gmail.com

MitchRFitness.com

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The Full Body Effects of Foam Rolling

Hello, everyone! My goal for today is to make everyone feel better. I like a challenge, though, so all I’m going to use is a foam tube. How am I going to do that? I’ll tell you about how wonderful you’ll feel after using one of these things! I didn’t say I wouldn’t need your help a little.

First, lets talk about what this thing is. It’s called a foam roller and it’s exactly how I described it: a tube made of foam. What do you do with it? Well, that’s where the fun begins! To put it simply, you lay on it and roll. (To see the full sequence I’ll be talking about check out the video posted below.)

If you’ve never used one of these things this may sound strange, but give me a moment and let me tell you what this does. First, though, a quick anatomy lesson. As I’m sure you know, our top layer of tissue is skin and under that, we have muscle. In between is something called fascia. Fascia is a layer of connective tissue that surrounds our muscles and literally runs from the top of our head to the soles of our feet. When everything is working well, our skin, fascia and muscles slide easily against each other, but during the course of life we develop restrictions and knots that prevent that from happening. These are the spots that are sensitive to the touch and feel so good when someone massages them out for us.

That’s essentially what foam rolling does: massages those spots out. As this happens we begin to feel better, move better, and gain flexibility! Sounds great, huh? Of course there is a slight catch. The first few times you do this it might feel a bit uncomfortable. Maybe very uncomfortable. Trust me, though, it will get better. If you do this for even a week, you will notice a pretty big difference and in a few weeks the difference will be huge.

I show all my clients a basic sequence that covers the whole body and takes about 5-7 minutes. Check out the video to see it.




Rollers usually run about $25 and to buy one online, just go here. They come in a few different styles. The white ones are the softest and the black ones are more solid. Initially, the white ones are probably fine, but they do tend to wear out quicker.

If you'd like to know more about these kinds of techniques using a foam roller and other tools you can come to a seminar I'm doing on September 22nd. You can go here for more information and here to sign up.  You can also call or email me with any questions about the seminar or anything else.

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach
510-754-7113
MitchRFitness@gmail.com
MitchRFitness.com
Discover Your Strength!

Knee Pain: A Very Basic User's Guide

I was struggling to find a topic for my latest article when my old friend and singer of the unbelievable band Marrow, Erin Fortes, suggested talking about knee pain and how to prevent it. Her suggestion specifically was to discuss weakness in some specific muscle groups and the tendancy of women to develop knee injuries because of that. I've decided to open it up a little, though, and talk about the things that I see in people all the time that can lead to knee pain and the things that you can do to prevent and improve it.

1. Get your backside stronger and moving better! The most common thing I see in relation to knee pain is simply that people simply aren't strong enough through their backside (hips, glutes and hamstrings) and don't move well through their hips. 

All over our body we have opposing muscle groups on our front and back side. Chest and back. Biceps and triceps, etc. Each muscle group pulls in a certain direction and, in a perfect world, the opposing side has about the same strength. This keeps our bodies balanced. In the case of our knees, we have our quadriceps (the muscles on the front of our upper legs) vs. our hamstrings (the muscles on the back of our upper legs). In today's world many people have much stronger quadriceps then hamstrings and this creates a pull on the knee joint causing pain.

On top of that, most of us sit in front of our computers all day, which causes some major tightness through the hips. This creates problems with our movement that can also cause knee pain. How do you know if this applies to you? Here's a quick test to give you an idea. Stand about a foot and half in front of a wall facing away from it with your feet in a nuetral stance. Now try to push your hips back and touch your butt to the wall. Go do it. I'll wait.

OK. One question: Did your knees bend? If they did, your hip movement is probably not very good. That's OK, though. Almost noone does it right the first time. If you had problems with it, get a little closer to the wall and work on it. And make sure you push back. No falling into the wall!

2. Women and knees. Yes, it's true. Women have knees. It's also true that knee injuries are a nearly epidemic problem for female athletes of all ages. There are a few reasons for this. The one that gets talked about most of the time is something called the "Q angle". What this refers to is the angle of your thigh bone in relation to your kneecap. Since women tend to have wider hips, they also have a wider "Q angle" which can put additional strain on the knees. Go here to find an easy way to measure your Q Angle. When you compound that with the issues that many women have with resistance training you can see the issue.

How can women combat that? Three words: proper resistance training. Please take note of the word "proper".

Do exercises that focus on good movement through the hips and that use a large number of muscles. If you are sitting and/or using machines, you are more than likely not working on proper movement patterns.

Squats and deadlifts are two tremendous exercises and squats shouldn't hurt your knees no matter what you've heard. If they do, it probably means you aren't sitting back or opening your hips enough.

Also, if you or your daughter are playing sports, doing some basic work on landing mechanics can be a very good idea.

Please know that I'm not an orthopedist and there can be many more causes of knee pain other then what I've covered here. If what I've suggested doesn't feel right to you go see a good sports medicine doctor.

Please let me know if you have any questions about what I've talked about or anything else. Have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach

510-754-7113

MitchRFitness.com

MitchRFitness@gmail.com

Discover Your Strength!

Avoiding The Most Common Gym Mistakes

Hi! What I'd like to talk about today are the two biggest mistakes I usually see at the gym. In fact, I consider it a bit of mission of mine to talk about these things and to help people overcome two of the most old-fashioned and disproving habits that many people still believe and follow.

1. Steady state cardio for fat loss. (If you don't know what this means, it's when you go at one steady pace for a long period of time. Like 30 minutes on the treadmill, for example.) OK. Let me get this out the way. There are some health benefits to doing a limited amount of steady state cardio, it's just that fat loss is not one of them.
Let me say that another way just to be clear:

If you are trying to lose weight, steady state cardio is an ineffective long term method.

Why? Let's break it down logically. Let's say you've never walked on the treadmill before. The first time you do, you go for 30 minutes which would burn approximately 150 calories if you are an average sized person walking at about 3 mph. (Yes, walking for that long only burns about that much and this is just an estimation.) Once you do this a few times your body starts to get better at it. In other words, it gets easier. Now your body body burns fewer calories for the same activity. Keep doing it and your body will continue to burn fewer and fewer calories. You see, you have to realize that your body doesn't care that you want to lose weight. It just knows that you're performing this activity on a regular basis and so it thinks it's got to adapt and get better at it. Using less and less energy to walk on the treadmill is how it improves.

What's even worse than that, however, is that as your body adapts to this activity, your metabolism away from the treadmill will also slow down. This makes it harder and harder to lose weight and, over time, can lead to injury and any number of metabolic conditions. What's the solution? There are two, one of which I'll talk about in a second and the other being interval training.

What is interval training? It's a method of training where you alternate very high intensity levels with very low intensity levels. Like a 20 second full-out sprint followed by 40 seconds of rest. Do about 5-6 of those and you'll see the difference. By the way, if you do six 20 second-sprints and you want to do more, then you probably didn't go hard enough.

2. Women must lift weights. Let me be clear about this one, too. It's the weights you usually lift are lighter then your backpack or purse, then that is not lifting weights. If you are trying to lose weight you must do something that increases your metabolism. Building lean body does that, lifting two or three-pound dumbbells doesn't.

Now, I know that you don't want to get bulky, but here's the thing. The hormone that is most responsible for building muscle is testosterone. The average woman produces about 10 percent of the testosterone of the average man. It's why you're looking forward to Twilight 4 and we're looking forward to The Expendables 2. Basically, it means that women, generally speaking, don't have the ability to gain an overabundance of muscle. So what you should do in the weight room? You should do multi-joint movements using big muscle groups. Like squats, deadlifts, push-ups, pull-downs or pull-ups. Do three to four sets of about eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise. This would be the groundwork for a very nice resistance training program.

I'm sorry if I've busted your bubble a little today, but the thing I most hate to see is people wasting their time or worse, actually making it harder on themselves to reach their goals. All this leads to is people believing that they can't do it and that exercise doesn't work. That saddens me, but I know that with this new information, many more people out there can reach their goals.

Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions about what we've talked about today. Have a great day!

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach
510-754-7113
MitchRFitness.com
MitchRFitness@gmail.com
Discover Your Strength!